------------------------Ellen G. White Writings (Devotional Books)
AG	9	1	God's Amazing Grace
BLJ	8	1	To Be Like Jesus
CC	7	1	Conflict and Courage
CTr	7	1	Christ Triumphant
FH	13	1	From the Heart
FLB	7	1	The Faith I Live By
HB	16	1	Homeward Bound
HP	7	1	In Heavenly Places
LHU	15	1	Lift Him Up
Mar	9	1	Maranatha
ML	5	1	My Life Today
OFC	15	1	Our Father Cares
OHC	7	1	Our High Calling
RC	15	1	Reflecting Christ
RRe	3	1	Radiant Religion
SD	7	1	Sons and Daughters of God
TDG	9	1	This Day With God
TMK	7	1	That I May Know Him
UL	15	1	The Upward Look
WGD	3	1	With God at Dawn
YRP	9	1	Ye Shall Receive Power

------------------------God's Amazing Grace
AG	9	1	Good News of the Kingdom, January 1
AG	10	1	For Sinners Only, January 2
AG	11	1	At God's Appointed Time, January 3
AG	12	1	The Message of the First Advent, January 4
AG	13	1	A Spiritual Kingdom, January 5
AG	14	1	Unlike Earthly Kingdoms, January 6
AG	15	1	The Ensign of Christ's Kingdom, January 7
AG	16	1	God's Kingdom in the Heart, January 8
AG	17	1	Like Mustard Seed, January 9
AG	18	1	Like Yeast, January 10
AG	19	1	Established by Christ's Death, January 11
AG	20	1	Its Principles of Government, January 12
AG	21	1	Our Top Priority, January 13
AG	22	1	Entrance Requirement, January 14
AG	23	1	By God's Grace, January 15
AG	24	1	The Royal Robe, January 16
AG	25	1	An Inheritance in Heaven, January 17
AG	26	1	The Gracious Invitation, January 18
AG	27	1	Embraces the Whole World, January 19
AG	28	1	Ambassadors of the Kingdom, January 20
AG	29	1	The Army of the Lord, January 21
AG	30	1	A Girdle of Truth, January 22
AG	31	1	A Breastplate for Safety, January 23
AG	32	1	Gospel Shoes for a Mission of Peace, January 24
AG	33	1	A Shield for Defense, January 25
AG	34	1	A Helmet for Protection, January 26
AG	35	1	A Sword for Battle, January 27
AG	36	1	The Battlefield, January 28
AG	37	1	Loyalty a Must, January 29
AG	38	1	Marching Orders, January 30
AG	39	1	The Victory, January 31
AG	40	1	Adam and Eve--Rulers in Eden, February 1
AG	41	1	The Rulership Forfeited, February 2
AG	42	1	Christ the Second Adam, February 3
AG	43	1	Israel's Invisible King, February 4
AG	44	1	Our Ruler in the Heavens, February 5
AG	45	1	God with Us, February 6
AG	46	1	The Kingdom Threatened, February 7
AG	47	1	A Kingly Procession, February 8
AG	48	1	Jerusalem's King, February 9
AG	49	1	King of Glory, February 10
AG	50	1	Ruler Over All Nations, February 11
AG	51	1	Limits to God's Forbearance, February 12
AG	52	1	Qualifying for the Kingdom, February 13
AG	53	1	Sonship, February 14
AG	54	1	Adopted Sons and Daughters, February 15
AG	55	1	The Redemption Price, February 16
AG	56	1	Abraham and His Children, February 17
AG	57	1	Citizens of Heaven, February 18
AG	58	1	The Test of Loyalty, February 19
AG	59	1	God's Claims are First, February 20
AG	60	1	Above Earthly Kingdoms, February 21
AG	61	1	Blessings Through Obedience, February 22
AG	62	1	Stewards of God's Grace, February 23
AG	63	1	Stewards of Truth, February 24
AG	64	1	Stewards of Strength, February 25
AG	65	1	Stewards of Influence, February 26
AG	66	1	Your Royal Birth, February 27
AG	67	1	A Share in Christ's Kingdom, February 28
AG	68	1	Heaven's Highest Attraction, March 1
AG	69	1	Christ is Priest Upon the Throne, March 2
AG	70	1	Encircled by a Rainbow, March 3
AG	71	1	In the Most Holy Place, March 4
AG	72	1	Guarded by Seraphim, March 5
AG	73	1	Founded on Righteousness, March 6
AG	74	1	Established in Justice and Judgment, March 7
AG	75	1	Fountain of Life and Power, March 8
AG	76	1	Center of Worship, March 9
AG	77	1	Source of Compassion and Mercy, March 10
AG	78	1	A Sympathizing High Priest, March 11
AG	79	1	Christ Shares His Father's Throne, March 12
AG	80	1	God's Law is Linked with His Throne, March 13
AG	81	1	Help in Resisting Temptation, March 14
AG	82	1	Where Sins May Be Blotted Out, March 15
AG	83	1	Where We Find Deliverance from Sin, March 16
AG	84	1	Accessible to All, March 17
AG	85	1	Christ's Name Our Password, March 18
AG	86	1	Prayers Like Fragrant Incense, March 19
AG	87	1	Press Your Case, March 20
AG	88	1	Elijah's Example, March 21
AG	89	1	When Affliction Comes, March 22
AG	90	1	Sharing Christ's Suffering, March 23
AG	91	1	Come with Reverence, March 24
AG	92	1	Come in Humility and Holy Fear, March 25
AG	93	1	A Sacred Experience, March 26
AG	94	1	A Hallowed Name, March 27
AG	95	1	Our Continual Dependence, March 28
AG	96	1	A Throne in Every Heart, March 29
AG	97	1	Undivided Occupancy, March 30
AG	98	1	Even for Ever, March 31
AG	99	1	To Draw Us to God, April 1
AG	100	1	To Change the Heart, April 2
AG	101	1	Brings Peace and Rest, April 3
AG	102	1	Exalts God's Law, April 4
AG	103	1	Gives Power to Obey, April 5
AG	104	1	Breaks the Hold of Evil, April 6
AG	105	1	Magnifies the Lord, April 7
AG	106	1	To Uproot Selfishness, April 8
AG	107	1	To Break Bad Habits, April 9
AG	108	1	Creates Hatred for Satan, April 10
AG	109	1	To Banish Unrest and Doubt, April 11
AG	110	1	To Unify the Church, April 12
AG	111	1	That We Might be Overcomers, April 13
AG	112	1	To Build Noble Characters, April 14
AG	113	1	To Strengthen and Encourage, April 15
AG	114	1	For Times of Trial, April 16
AG	115	1	To Establish the Home, April 17
AG	116	1	To Sustain the Burden Bearer, April 18
AG	117	1	For Each Day's Need, April 19
AG	118	1	To Lift the Most Sinful, April 20
AG	119	1	Gives Life to the Soul, April 21
AG	120	1	To Make Us Holy, April 22
AG	121	1	To Adorn the Christian, April 23
AG	122	1	To Bring Comfort, April 24
AG	123	1	Makes Our Foundation Sure, April 25
AG	124	1	A Preserving Power, April 26
AG	125	1	A Light to Shine, April 27
AG	126	1	Workers with God, April 28
AG	127	1	Fishers of Men, April 29
AG	128	1	A Completed Work, April 30
AG	129	1	Before Creation, May 1
AG	130	1	Everlasting, May 2
AG	131	1	In Eden, May 3
AG	132	1	Shared with Noah, May 4
AG	133	1	Renewed to Abraham, May 5
AG	134	1	Terms of the Covenant, May 6
AG	135	1	The Promises of Men, May 7
AG	136	1	Better Promises, May 8
AG	137	1	Written on the Heart, May 9
AG	138	1	The Gift of Repentance, May 10
AG	139	1	The Gift of Pardon, May 11
AG	140	1	Accepted by Faith, May 12
AG	141	1	God's Law is its Standard, May 13
AG	142	1	The Pledge of Obedience, May 14
AG	143	1	The Role of Baptism, May 15
AG	144	1	Not a Substitute for the Law, May 16
AG	145	1	Includes Love to God and Man, May 17
AG	146	1	Involves Character Building, May 18
AG	147	1	Demands Purity, May 19
AG	148	1	Encourages Christlikeness, May 20
AG	149	1	With All the Heart, May 21
AG	150	1	A Mutual Pact, May 22
AG	151	1	Blessings of the Covenant, May 23
AG	152	1	Ratified by Christ's Blood, May 24
AG	153	1	Sealed by Christ's Atonement, May 25
AG	154	1	Christ the Mediator, May 26
AG	155	1	The Blood of the Covenant, May 27
AG	156	1	The Covenant and the Sabbath, May 28
AG	157	1	God's Eternal Pledge, May 29
AG	158	1	Perpetual and Unalterable, May 30
AG	159	1	The Symbol of the Covenant, May 31
AG	160	1	Exile from Heaven's Throne, June 1
AG	161	1	Matchless Condescension, June 2
AG	162	1	Incomparable Temptations, June 3
AG	163	1	Unutterable Loneliness, June 4
AG	164	1	Unequaled Test, June 5
AG	165	1	Infinite Suffering, June 6
AG	166	1	Agonizing Prayer, June 7
AG	167	1	Whole Nights of Prayer, June 8
AG	168	1	Gethsemane's Anguish, June 9
AG	169	1	The Father's Frown, June 10
AG	170	1	Forsaken by His Father, June 11
AG	171	1	The Sins of the World, June 12
AG	172	1	What a Price, June 13
AG	173	1	The Worth of One Soul, June 14
AG	174	1	The Sacrifice of Love, June 15
AG	175	1	Heaven Itself Imperiled, June 16
AG	176	1	The Father's Immeasurable Sacrifice, June 17
AG	177	1	The Only Acceptable Ransom, June 18
AG	178	1	God's Unspeakable Gift, June 19
AG	179	1	So Costly--and Yet Free, June 20
AG	180	1	Bought Without Money, June 21
AG	181	1	Grace Enough For All, June 22
AG	182	1	Unmerited Favor, June 23
AG	183	1	Christ Our Righteousness, June 24
AG	184	1	The Bright Side of Religion, June 25
AG	185	1	"Worthy is the Lamb!" June 26
AG	186	1	Mystery of Mysteries, June 27
AG	187	1	Unsearchable Riches, June 28
AG	188	1	"Behold, What Manner of Love" June 29
AG	189	1	How Long Must Heaven Suffer? June 30
AG	190	1	From the Beginning, July 1
AG	191	1	Christ's Promise of the Spirit, July 2
AG	192	1	The Spirit's Power, July 3
AG	193	1	Pentecost, July 4
AG	194	1	The Office of the Spirit, July 5
AG	195	1	A Comforter Like Christ, July 6
AG	196	1	Christ's Representative, July 7
AG	197	1	Like Dew, Rain, and Sunshine, July 8
AG	198	1	Illuminates the Scriptures, July 9
AG	199	1	Teacher of Truth, July 10
AG	200	1	A Faithful Guide, July 11
AG	201	1	Our Personal Guide, July 12
AG	202	1	That Still, Small Voice, July 13
AG	203	1	A Refining and Sanctifying Force, July 14
AG	204	1	Molds Into the Divine Likeness, July 15
AG	205	1	Brings Refreshing, July 16
AG	206	1	Purifying, Vitalizing Power, July 17
AG	207	1	Received by Naked Faith, July 18
AG	208	1	For All Who Believe, July 19
AG	209	1	More Than Mortal Power, July 20
AG	210	1	Brings Harmony, July 21
AG	211	1	Creates Unity in Diversity, July 22
AG	212	1	Given on Condition, July 23
AG	213	1	Giving and Receiving, July 24
AG	214	1	Oil for Our Lamps, July 25
AG	215	1	The Sin God Cannot Forgive, July 26
AG	216	1	Grieved by Our Doubts, July 27
AG	217	1	For Those Who Seek, July 28
AG	218	1	Pentecostal Power, July 29
AG	219	1	Ask For It, July 30
AG	220	1	The Latter Rain, July 31
AG	221	1	A Miracle, August 1
AG	222	1	Amazing Transformations, August 2
AG	223	1	Heart Renewal, August 3
AG	224	1	It Takes Time, August 4
AG	225	1	Determination the Key, August 5
AG	226	1	Felt in the Home, August 6
AG	227	1	That the World May Know, August 7
AG	228	1	Sustaining the Spiritual Life, August 8
AG	229	1	Reveals God's Character, August 9
AG	230	1	Perfection Now? August 10
AG	231	1	Ever-Widening Influence, August 11
AG	232	1	Hearts Made Pure, August 12
AG	233	1	Changed by Beholding, August 13
AG	234	1	For the Most Hopeless, August 14
AG	235	1	Partakers of Christ's Nature, August 15
AG	236	1	Fashions the Character, August 16
AG	237	1	Revealed by Love, August 17
AG	238	1	A Life-giving Atmosphere, August 18
AG	239	1	Awaiting Our Demand, August 19
AG	240	1	Disciplines and Refines, August 20
AG	241	1	Ever Upward, August 21
AG	242	1	Grace Sufficient, August 22
AG	243	1	While Probation Lasts, August 23
AG	244	1	The Reward, August 24
AG	245	1	For the Whole Man, August 25
AG	246	1	In God's Image, August 26
AG	247	1	Representatives of Christ, August 27
AG	248	1	Every Day, Everywhere, August 28
AG	249	1	A Work of Reformation, August 29
AG	250	1	Preparing for Heaven, August 30
AG	251	1	Longing for Heaven and Home, August 31
AG	252	1	Seen and Heard, September 1
AG	253	1	Power to Obey, September 2
AG	254	1	Resists Satan, September 3
AG	255	1	Makes Us Overcomers, September 4
AG	256	1	Self-Mastery, September 5
AG	257	1	Angel Reinforcements, September 6
AG	258	1	For Disciplining the Mind, September 7
AG	259	1	Our Strength and Security, September 8
AG	260	1	All-Sufficient, September 9
AG	261	1	For Today's Need, September 10
AG	262	1	Gives Limitless Strength, September 11
AG	263	1	Produces Loving, Lovable Christians, September 12
AG	264	1	Points Out the Way, September 13
AG	265	1	For Him Who Believes, September 14
AG	266	1	Power in the Promises, September 15
AG	267	1	Not in Worldly Pomp, September 16
AG	268	1	Multiplied Blessings, September 17
AG	269	1	The Youth Need It, September 18
AG	270	1	For the Humble, September 19
AG	271	1	That We May Excel, September 20
AG	272	1	Source of Right Influence, September 21
AG	273	1	For the Race of Life, September 22
AG	274	1	"Tell of His Power" September 23
AG	275	1	Power to Shake the World, September 24
AG	276	1	The Christian's Badge, September 25
AG	277	1	Irresistible, September 26
AG	278	1	Heirs of Immortality, September 27
AG	279	1	Invincible, September 28
AG	280	1	"More than Conquerors" September 29
AG	281	1	"He is Able" September 30
AG	282	1	As Jesus Grew, October 1
AG	283	1	The Divine Order of Growth, October 2
AG	284	1	How to Grow, October 3
AG	285	1	Conditions of Christian Growth, October 4
AG	286	1	A Mysterious Power, October 5
AG	287	1	From Childhood, October 6
AG	288	1	In the Home, October 7
AG	289	1	Daily Prayer Essential, October 8
AG	290	1	Secret Prayer a Necessity, October 9
AG	291	1	A Continual Work, October 10
AG	292	1	Through Simple, Trusting Faith, October 11
AG	293	1	Abiding in Christ, October 12
AG	294	1	Physically and Spiritually, October 13
AG	295	1	Keeping the Heart, October 14
AG	296	1	First, an Empty Heart, October 15
AG	297	1	Snares to Shun, October 16
AG	298	1	In Humility, October 17
AG	299	1	In Kindness, October 18
AG	300	1	We Must Follow On, October 19
AG	301	1	Reflecting Jesus, October 20
AG	302	1	When We Fail, October 21
AG	303	1	Feasting On His Word, October 22
AG	304	1	From One Source Only, October 23
AG	305	1	Helping Others, October 24
AG	306	1	Spiritual Exercise a Must, October 25
AG	307	1	A Divine Prescription, October 26
AG	308	1	No Place for Idleness, October 27
AG	309	1	In Life's Necessary Duties, October 28
AG	310	1	Little Opportunities, October 29
AG	311	1	Why Trials? October 30
AG	312	1	"Fulness of God", October 31
AG	313	1	Wages or Gift? November 1
AG	314	1	Counting the Cost, November 2
AG	315	1	Look and Live, November 3
AG	316	1	When Satan is Powerless, November 4
AG	317	1	For the Hungry and Thirsty, November 5
AG	318	1	With All Your Heart, November 6
AG	319	1	"Not of Yourselves", November 7
AG	320	1	Peace Restored, November 8
AG	321	1	Union With Christ, November 9
AG	322	1	What is God's Glory? November 10
AG	323	1	Sanctified Perception, November 11
AG	324	1	The Sum and Substance, November 12
AG	325	1	Praise God! November 13
AG	326	1	Nothing Withheld, November 14
AG	327	1	Thought Control? November 15
AG	328	1	In Debt, November 16
AG	329	1	In the School of Christ, November 17
AG	330	1	Examination Day, November 18
AG	331	1	What About Good Works? November 19
AG	332	1	Watch! November 20
AG	333	1	Kept From Falling, November 21
AG	334	1	Established, November 22
AG	335	1	Joy in Sharing, November 23
AG	336	1	To God Be the Glory, November 24
AG	337	1	The Reaping, November 25
AG	338	1	The World is Waiting, November 26
AG	339	1	Christ is Waiting, November 27
AG	340	1	The Universe is Waiting, November 28
AG	341	1	Sons of God, November 29
AG	342	1	In Sight of the Goal, November 30
AG	343	1	God's Glory Seen in His Works, December 1
AG	344	1	Man Created for God's Glory, December 2
AG	345	1	God's Glorious Plan, December 3
AG	346	1	The Kingdom of Heaven in Miniature, December 4
AG	347	1	Still Future, December 5
AG	348	1	Why Not Now? December 6
AG	349	1	Looking Into Eternity, December 7
AG	350	1	Who are Eligible? December 8
AG	351	1	Preparing to Live With Angels, December 9
AG	352	1	Learn the Song of Triumph Now, December 10
AG	353	1	While We Wait, December 11
AG	354	1	"Homeward Bound!", December 12
AG	355	1	What a Reward! December 13
AG	356	1	Christ's Glorious Appearing, December 14
AG	357	1	Victory Over Death, December 15
AG	358	1	Joy Everlasting, December 16
AG	359	1	Home at Last! December 17
AG	360	1	Eden Restored, December 18
AG	361	1	All Suffering Ended, December 19
AG	362	1	Eden Life Renewed, December 20
AG	363	1	Everlasting Happiness, December 21
AG	364	1	With My Guardian Angel, December 22
AG	365	1	Heaven's School, December 23
AG	366	1	Christ Our Teacher Still, December 24
AG	367	1	Our Curriculum, December 25
AG	368	1	Exploring the Universe, December 26
AG	369	1	Rejoice with Jerusalem, December 27
AG	370	1	Eternal Security, December 28
AG	371	1	Full Compensation, December 29
AG	372	1	Look Up! December 30
AG	373	1	God's Justice Vindicated, December 31

------------------------Good News of the Kingdom, January 1
AG	9	1	And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Matthew 4:23.
AG	9	2	"He opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:2, 3). As something strange and new, these words fall upon the ears of the wondering multitude. Such teaching is contrary to all they have ever heard from priest or rabbi. They see in it nothing to flatter their pride or to feed their ambitious hopes. But there is about this new Teacher a power that holds them spellbound. The sweetness of divine love flows from His very presence as the fragrance from a flower....
AG	9	3	In the throng that surrounded Jesus there were some who had a sense of their spiritual poverty.... There were souls who, in the presence of His purity, felt that they were "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" (Revelation 3:17); and they longed for "the grace of God that bringeth salvation" (Titus 2:11)....
AG	9	4	Of the poor in spirit Jesus says, "Their's is the kingdom of heaven." This kingdom is not, as Christ's hearers had hoped, a temporal and earthly dominion. Christ was opening to them the spiritual kingdom of His love, His grace, His righteousness. ... His subjects are the poor in spirit, the meek, the persecuted for righteousness' sake. The kingdom of heaven is theirs. Though not yet fully accomplished, the work is begun in them which will make them "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Colossians 1:12).
AG	9	5	All who have a sense of their deep soul poverty, who feel that they have nothing good in themselves, may find righteousness and strength by looking unto Jesus.... He bids you exchange your poverty for the riches of His grace. We are not worthy of God's love, but Christ, our surety, is worthy, and is abundantly able to save all who shall come unto Him. Whatever may have been your past experience, however discouraging your present circumstances, if you will come to Jesus just as you are, weak, helpless, and despairing, our compassionate Saviour will meet you a great way off, and will throw about you His arms of love and His robe of righteousness.
------------------------For Sinners Only, January 2
AG	10	1	For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Titus 2:11.
AG	10	2	By disobeying the commands of God, man fell under the condemnation of His law. This fall called for the grace of God to appear in behalf of sinners. We should never have learned the meaning of this word "grace" had we not fallen. God loves the sinless angels, who do His service, and are obedient to all His commands; but He does not give them grace. These heavenly beings know naught of grace; they have never needed it; for they have never sinned. Grace is an attribute of God shown to undeserving human beings. We did not seek after it, but it was sent in search of us. God rejoices to bestow this grace upon every one who hungers for it. To every one He presents terms of mercy, not because we are worthy, but because we are so utterly unworthy. Our need is the qualification which gives us the assurance that we shall receive this gift.
AG	10	3	But God does not use His grace to make His law of none effect, or to take the place of His law.... God's grace and the law of His kingdom are in perfect harmony; they walk hand in hand. His grace makes it possible for us to draw nigh to Him by faith. By receiving it, and letting it work in our lives, we testify to the validity of the law; we exalt the law and make it honorable by carrying out its living principles through the power of the grace of Christ; and by rendering pure, whole-hearted obedience to God's law, we witness before the universe of heaven, and before an apostate world that is making void the law of God, to the power of redemption.
AG	10	4	Not because we first loved Him, does God love us; but "while we were yet sinners" (Romans 5:8) Christ died for us, making full and abundant provision for our redemption. Although by our disobedience we have merited God's displeasure and condemnation, He has not forsaken us; He has not left us to grapple with the power of the enemy in our own finite strength. Heavenly angels fight our battles for us; and co-operating with them, we may be victorious over the powers of evil. Trusting in Christ as our personal Saviour, we may be "more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37).
------------------------At God's Appointed Time, January 3
AG	11	1	When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, ... to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Galatians 4:4, 5.
AG	11	2	In heaven's council the hour for the coming of Christ had been determined. When the great clock of time pointed to that hour, Jesus was born in Bethlehem.... Providence had directed the movements of nations, and the tide of human impulse and influence, until the world was ripe for the coming of the Deliverer....
AG	11	3	The deception of sin had reached its height. All the agencies for depraving the souls of men had been put in operation. The Son of God, looking upon the world, beheld suffering and misery. With pity He saw how men had become victims of satanic cruelty. He looked with compassion upon those who were being corrupted, murdered, and lost.... It was demonstrated before the universe that, apart from God, humanity could not be uplifted. A new element of life and power must be imparted by Him who made the world.
AG	11	4	With intense interest the unfallen worlds had watched to see Jehovah arise, and sweep away the inhabitants of the earth.... But instead of destroying the world, God sent His Son to save it.... At the very crisis, when Satan seemed about to triumph, the Son of God came with the embassage of divine grace. Through every age, through every hour, the love of God had been exercised toward the fallen race. Notwithstanding the perversity of men, the signals of mercy had been continually exhibited. And when the fullness of the time had come, the Deity was glorified by pouring upon the world a flood of healing grace that was never to be obstructed or withdrawn till the plan of salvation should be fulfilled.
AG	11	5	Satan was exulting that he had succeeded in debasing the image of God in humanity. Then Jesus came to restore in man the image of his Maker. None but Christ can fashion anew the character that has been ruined by sin. He came to expel the demons that had controlled the will. He came to lift us up from the dust, to reshape the marred character after the pattern of His divine character, and to make it beautiful with His own glory.
------------------------The Message of the First Advent, January 4
AG	12	1	Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. Mark 1:14, 15.
AG	12	2	As Jesus traveled through Galilee, teaching and healing, multitudes flocked to Him from the cities and villages. Many came even from Judea and the adjoining provinces. Often He was obliged to hide Himself from the people. The enthusiasm ran so high that it was necessary to take precautions lest the Roman authorities should be aroused to fear an insurrection. Never before had there been such a period as this for the world. Heaven was brought down to men. Hungering and thirsting souls that had waited long for the redemption of Israel now feasted upon the grace of a merciful Saviour....
AG	12	3	The gospel message, as given by the Saviour Himself, was based on the prophecies. The "time" which He declared to be fulfilled was the period made known by the angel Gabriel to Daniel.... "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks" (Daniel 9:25), sixty-nine weeks, or four hundred and eighty-three years. The commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, as completed by the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus (see Ezra 6:14; 7:1, 9, margin), went into effect in the autumn of 457 B.C. From this time four hundred and eighty-three years extend to the autumn of A.D. 27. According to the prophecy, this period was to reach to the Messiah, the Anointed One. In A.D. 27, Jesus at His baptism received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and soon afterward began His ministry. Then the message was proclaimed, "The time is fulfilled"....
AG	12	4	The time of Christ's coming, His anointing by the Holy Spirit, His death, and the giving of the gospel to the Gentiles, were definitely pointed out.... "The Spirit of Christ which was in them" "testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow" (1 Peter 1:11).... As the message of Christ's first advent announced the kingdom of His grace, so the message of His second advent announces the kingdom of His glory.
------------------------A Spiritual Kingdom, January 5
AG	13	1	Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. John 18:36.
AG	13	2	The kingdom of God comes not with outward show. The gospel of the grace of God, with its spirit of self-abnegation, can never be in harmony with the spirit of the world. The two principles are antagonistic....
AG	13	3	But today in the religious world there are multitudes who, as they believe, are working for the establishment of the kingdom of Christ as an earthly and temporal dominion. They desire to make our Lord the ruler of the kingdoms of this world, the ruler in its courts and camps, its legislative halls, its palaces and market places. They expect Him to rule through legal enactments, enforced by human authority. Since Christ is not now here in person, they themselves will undertake to act in His stead, to execute the laws of His kingdom. The establishment of such a kingdom is what the Jews desired in the days of Christ. They would have received Jesus, had He been willing to establish a temporal dominion, to enforce what they regarded as the laws of God, and to make them the expositors of His will and the agents of His authority. But He said, "My kingdom is not of this world." He would not accept the earthly throne....
AG	13	4	Not by the decisions of courts or councils or legislative assemblies, not by the patronage of worldly great men, is the kingdom of Christ established, but by the implanting of Christ's nature in humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit.... Here is the only power that can work the uplifting of mankind. And the human agency for the accomplishment of this work is the teaching and practicing of the Word of God....
AG	13	5	Now, as in Christ's day, the work of God's kingdom lies not with those who are clamoring for recognition and support by earthly rulers and human laws, but with those who are declaring to the people in His name those spiritual truths that will work in the receivers the experience of Paul: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).
------------------------Unlike Earthly Kingdoms, January 6
AG	14	1	And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? Mark 4:30.
AG	14	2	Christ found the kingdoms of the world corrupt. After Satan was expelled from heaven, he erected his standard of rebellion on this earth, and sought by every means to win men to his standard.... His purpose was to establish a kingdom which would be governed by his own laws, and carried on with his own resources, independent of God; and so well did he succeed, that when Christ came to the world to establish a kingdom, He looked upon the governments of men, and said, "Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God?" Nothing in civil society afforded Him a comparison....
AG	14	3	In striking contrast to the wrong and oppression so universally practised were the mission and work of Christ.... He planned a government which would use no force; His subjects would know no oppression.... Not as a fierce tyrant did He come, but as the Son of man; not to conquer the nations by His iron power, but "to preach good tidings unto the meek;" "to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;" "to comfort all that mourn" (Isaiah 61:1, 2). He came as the divine Restorer, bringing to oppressed and downtrodden humanity the rich and abundant grace of Heaven, that by the power of His righteousness, man, fallen and degraded though he was, might be a partaker of divinity....
AG	14	4	Christ taught that His church is a spiritual kingdom. He Himself, "the Prince of peace," is the head of His church. In His person humanity, inhabited by divinity, was represented to the world. The great end of His mission was to be a sin-offering for the world, that by the shedding of blood an atonement might be made for the whole race of men. With a heart ever touched with the feelings of our infirmities, an ear ever open to the cry of suffering humanity, a hand ever ready to save the discouraged and despairing, Jesus, our Saviour, "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38)....
AG	14	5	And all who are members of the kingdom of Christ will represent Him in character and disposition.
------------------------The Ensign of Christ's Kingdom, January 7
AG	15	1	Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29.
AG	15	2	To Daniel was given a vision of fierce beasts, representing the powers of the earth. But the ensign of the Messiah's kingdom is a lamb. While earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendancy of physical power, Christ is to banish every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion. His kingdom was to be established to uplift and ennoble fallen humanity.
AG	15	3	To Adam, the offering of the first sacrifice was a most painful ceremony. His hand must be raised to take life, which only God could give.... As he slew the innocent victim, he trembled at the thought that his sin must shed the blood of the spotless Lamb of God. This scene gave him a deeper and more vivid sense of the greatness of his transgression, which nothing but the death of God's dear Son could expiate. And he marveled at the infinite goodness that would give such a ransom to save the guilty.
AG	15	4	The types and shadows of the sacrificial service, with the prophecies, gave the Israelites a veiled, indistinct view of the mercy and grace to be brought to the world by the revelation of Christ.... Only through Christ can man keep the moral law. By transgression of this law man brought sin into the world, and with sin came death. Christ became the propitiation for man's sin. He proffered His perfection of character in the place of man's sinfulness. He took upon Himself the curse of disobedience. The sacrifices and offerings pointed forward to the sacrifice He was to make. The slain lamb typified the Lamb that was to take away the sin of the world....
AG	15	5	The law and the gospel are in perfect harmony. Each upholds the other. In all its majesty the law confronts the conscience, causing the sinner to feel his need of Christ as the propitiation for sin. The gospel recognizes the power and immutability of the law. "I had not known sin, but by the law" (Romans 7:7), Paul declares. The sense of sin, urged home by the law, drives the sinner to the Saviour. In his need man may present the mighty arguments furnished by the cross of Calvary. He may claim the righteousness of Christ; for it is imparted to every repentant sinner.
------------------------God's Kingdom in the Heart, January 8
AG	16	1	Behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21.
AG	16	2	The government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive; on every hand were crying abuses--extortion, intolerance, and grinding cruelty. Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms. He attacked no national abuses, nor condemned the national enemies. He did not interfere with the authority or administration of those in power. He who was our example kept aloof from earthly governments. Not because He was indifferent to the woes of men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely human and external measures. To be efficient, the cure must reach men individually, and must regenerate the heart.
AG	16	3	Some of the Pharisees had come to Jesus demanding "when the kingdom of God should come" (Luke 17:20). More than three years had passed since John the Baptist gave the message that like a trumpet call had sounded through the land, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). And as yet these Pharisees saw no indication of the establishment of the kingdom....
AG	16	4	Jesus answered, "The kingdom of God cometh not with outward show [margin]: neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." The kingdom of God begins at the heart. Look not here or there for manifestations of earthly power to mark its coming.
AG	16	5	The works of Christ not only declared Him to be the Messiah, but showed in what manner His kingdom was to be established.... It comes through the gentleness of the inspiration of His word, through the inward working of His Spirit, the fellowship of the soul with Him who is its life. The greatest manifestation of its power is seen in human nature brought to the perfection of the character of Christ....
AG	16	6	When God gave His Son to our world, He endowed human beings with imperishable riches--riches compared with which the treasured wealth of men since the world began is nothingness. Christ came to the earth and stood before the children of men with the hoarded love of eternity, and this is the treasure that, through our connection with Him, we are to receive, to reveal, and to impart.
------------------------Like Mustard Seed, January 9
AG	17	1	The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, ... which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. Matthew 13:31, 32.
AG	17	2	The germ in the seed grows by the unfolding of the life-principle which God has implanted. Its development depends upon no human power. So it is with the kingdom of Christ. It is a new creation. Its principles of development are the opposite to those that rule the kingdoms of this world. Earthly governments prevail by physical force; they maintain their dominion by war; but the founder of the new kingdom is the Prince of Peace.... Christ implants a principle. By implanting truth and righteousness, He counterworks error and sin....
AG	17	3	The kingdom of Christ in its beginning seemed humble and insignificant. Compared with earthly kingdoms it appeared to be the least of all. By the rulers of this world Christ's claim to be a king was ridiculed. Yet in the mighty truths committed to His followers the kingdom of the gospel possessed a divine life. And how rapid was its growth, how widespread its influence! When Christ spoke this parable, there were only a few Galilean peasants to represent the new kingdom.... But the mustard seed was to grow and spread forth its branches throughout the world. When the earthly kingdoms whose glory then filled the hearts of men should perish, the kingdom of Christ would remain, a mighty and far-reaching power.
AG	17	4	So the work of grace in the heart is small in its beginning. A word is spoken, a ray of light is shed into the soul, an influence is exerted that is the beginning of the new life; and who can measure its results? ...
AG	17	5	In this last generation the parable of the mustard seed is to reach a signal and triumphant fulfillment. The little seed will become a tree. The last message of warning and mercy is to go to "every nation and kindred and tongue" (Revelation 14:6-14), "to take out of them a people for his name" (Acts 15:14; Revelation 18:1). And the earth shall be lightened with His glory.
------------------------Like Yeast, January 10
AG	18	1	The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Matthew 13:33.
AG	18	2	In the Saviour's parable, leaven is used to represent the kingdom of heaven. It illustrates the quickening, assimilating power of the grace of God....
AG	18	3	The grace of God must be received by the sinner before he can be fitted for the kingdom of glory. All the culture and education which the world can give will fail of making a degraded child of sin a child of heaven. The renewing energy must come from God.... As the leaven, when mingled with the meal, works from within outward, so it is by the renewing of the heart that the grace of God works to transform the life....
AG	18	4	The leaven hidden in the flour works invisibly to bring the whole mass under its leavening process; so the leaven of truth works secretly, silently, steadily, to transform the soul. The natural inclinations are softened and subdued. New thoughts, new feelings, new motives, are implanted. A new standard of character is set up--the life of Christ. The mind is changed; the faculties are roused to action in new lines.... The conscience is awakened....
AG	18	5	The heart of him who receives the grace of God overflows with love for God and for those for whom Christ died. Self is not struggling for recognition.... He is kind and thoughtful, humble in his opinion of himself, yet full of hope, always trusting in the mercy and love of God....
AG	18	6	The grace of Christ is to control the temper and the voice. Its working will be seen in politeness and tender regard shown by brother for brother, in kind, encouraging words. An angel presence is in the home. The life breathes a sweet perfume, which ascends to God as holy incense. Love is manifested in kindness, gentleness, forbearance, and long-suffering. The countenance is changed. Christ abiding in the heart shines out in the faces of those who love Him and keep His commandments.... As these changes are effected, angels break forth in rapturous song, and God and Christ rejoice over souls fashioned after the divine similitude.
------------------------Established by Christ's Death, January 11
AG	19	1	Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 1 Peter 2:24.
AG	19	2	At the very time when they [Christ's disciples] expected to see their Lord ascend the throne of David, they beheld Him seized as a malefactor, scourged, derided, and condemned, and lifted up on the cross of Calvary....
AG	19	3	The announcement which had been made by the disciples in the name of the Lord was in every particular correct, and the events to which it pointed were even then taking place. "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15), had been their message.... And the "kingdom of God" which they had declared to be at hand was established by the death of Christ. This kingdom was not, as they had been taught to believe, an earthly empire. Nor was it that future, ... everlasting kingdom, in which "all dominions shall serve and obey him" (Daniel 7:27). As used in the Bible, the expression "kingdom of God" is employed to designate both the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory....
AG	19	4	The kingdom of grace was instituted immediately after the fall of man.... Yet it was not actually established until the death of Christ. Even after entering upon His earthly mission, the Saviour ... might have drawn back from the sacrifice of Calvary. In Gethsemane the cup of woe trembled in His hand. He might even then have wiped the blood-sweat from His brow, and have left the guilty race to perish in their iniquity.... But when the Saviour yielded up His life, and with His expiring breath cried out, "It is finished," then the fulfillment of the plan of redemption was assured. The promise of salvation made to the sinful pair in Eden was ratified. The kingdom of grace, which had before existed by the promise of God, was then established.
AG	19	5	Thus the death of Christ--the very event which the disciples had looked upon as the final destruction of their hope--was that which made it forever sure.... The event that had filled them with mourning and despair was that ... in which centered the future life and eternal happiness of all God's faithful ones in all the ages.
------------------------Its Principles of Government, January 12
AG	20	1	Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Romans 7:12.
AG	20	2	The law of God, from its very nature, is unchangeable. It is a revelation of the will and the character of its Author. God is love, and His law is love. Its two great principles are love to God and love to man.... The character of God is righteousness and truth; such is the nature of His law....
AG	20	3	In the beginning, man was created in the image of God. He was in perfect harmony with the nature and the law of God; the principles of righteousness were written upon his heart. But sin alienated him from his Maker. He no longer reflected the divine image. His heart was at war with the principles of God's law.... But "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son," that man might be reconciled to God. Through the merits of Christ he can be restored to harmony with his Maker. His heart must be renewed by divine grace; he must have a new life from above. This change is the new birth....
AG	20	4	The first step in reconciliation to God is the conviction of sin.... "By the law is the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). In order to see his guilt, the sinner must test his character by God's great standard of righteousness. It is a mirror which shows the perfection of a righteous character and enables him to discern the defects of his own. The law reveals to man his sin.... It declares that death is the portion of the transgressor. The gospel of Christ alone can free him from the condemnation or the defilement of sin. He must exercise repentance toward God, whose law has been transgressed; and faith in Christ, his atoning sacrifice....
AG	20	5	In the new birth the heart is brought into harmony with God, as it is brought into accord with His law. When this mighty change has taken place in the sinner, he has passed from death unto life, from sin unto holiness, from transgression and rebellion to obedience and loyalty....
AG	20	6	The followers of Christ are to become like Him--by the grace of God to form characters in harmony with the principles of His holy law. This is Bible sanctification.
------------------------Our Top Priority, January 13
AG	21	1	Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33.
AG	21	2	The people who listened to the words of Christ were still anxiously watching for some announcement of the earthly kingdom. While Jesus was opening to them the treasures of heaven, the question uppermost in many minds was, How will a connection with Him advance our prospects in the world? Jesus shows that in making the things of the world their supreme anxiety they were like the heathen nations about them....
AG	21	3	"All these things," said Jesus, "do the nations of the world seek after" (Luke 12:30).... I have come to open to you the kingdom of love and righteousness and peace. Open your hearts to receive this kingdom, and make its service your highest interest. Though it is a spiritual kingdom, fear not that your needs for this life will be uncared for....
AG	21	4	Jesus does not release us from the necessity of effort, but He teaches that we are to make Him first and last and best in everything. We are to engage in no business, follow no pursuit, seek no pleasure, that would hinder the outworking of His righteousness in our character and life. Whatever we do is to be done heartily, as unto the Lord.
AG	21	5	Jesus, while He dwelt on earth, dignified life in all its details by keeping before men the glory of God, and by subordinating everything to the will of His Father. If we follow His example, His assurance to us is that all things needful in this life "shall be added." Poverty or wealth, sickness or health, simplicity or wisdom--all are provided for in the promise of His grace.
AG	21	6	Difficulties will be powerless to hinder him who is determined to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.... Looking to Jesus,... the believer will willingly brave contempt and derision. And help and grace sufficient for every circumstance are promised by Him whose word is truth. His everlasting arms encircle the soul that turns to Him for aid. In His care we may rest safely, saying, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee" (Psalm 56:3).
------------------------Entrance Requirement, January 14
AG	22	1	Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.
AG	22	2	In the interview with Nicodemus, Jesus unfolded the plan of salvation and His mission to the world.
AG	22	3	He came directly to the point, saying solemnly, yet kindly, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3, margin).... Raising His hand with solemn, quiet dignity, He pressed the truth home with greater assurance, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."...
AG	22	4	By nature the heart is evil.... The fountain of the heart must be purified before the streams can become pure. He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility. There is no safety for one who has merely a legal religion, a form of godliness. The Christian's life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit.... It can no more be explained than can the movements of the wind....
AG	22	5	While the wind is itself invisible, it produces effects that are seen and felt. So the work of the Spirit upon the soul will reveal itself in every act of him who has felt its saving power. When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the light of heaven.... The blessing comes when by faith the soul surrenders itself to God. Then that power which no human eye can see creates a new being in the image of God....
AG	22	6	Like Nicodemus, we must be willing to enter into life in the same way as the chief of sinners. Than Christ, "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
------------------------By God's Grace, January 15
AG	23	1	Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:24.
AG	23	2	In many of His parables, Christ uses the expression, "the kingdom of heaven," to designate the work of divine grace upon the hearts of men.... The kingdom of grace was instituted immediately after the fall of man, when a plan was devised for the redemption of the guilty race. It then existed in the purpose and by the promise of God; and through faith, men could become its subjects.
AG	23	3	The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government; He desires only the service of love.... To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known....
AG	23	4	The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of "the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal" (Romans 16:25, R.V.). It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God's throne.... God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
AG	23	5	As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour. Christ knew that He would have to suffer, yet He became man's substitute. As soon as Adam sinned, the Son of God presented Himself as surety for the human race, with just as much power to avert the doom pronounced upon the guilty as when He died upon the cross of Calvary.
AG	23	6	What love! What amazing condescension! The King of glory proposes to humble Himself to fallen humanity! He would place His feet in Adam's steps. He would take man's fallen nature, and engage to cope with the strong foe who triumphed over Adam. He would overcome Satan, and in thus doing He would open the way for the redemption from the disgrace of Adam's failure and fall, of all those who would believe on Him.
------------------------The Royal Robe, January 16
AG	24	1	And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Revelation 19:8.
AG	24	2	The parable of the wedding garment [Matthew 22:1-14] opens before us a lesson of the highest consequence.... By the wedding garment in the parable is represented the pure, spotless character which Christ's true followers will possess.... The fine linen, says the Scripture, "is the righteousness of saints." It is the righteousness of Christ, His own unblemished character, that through faith is imparted to all who receive Him as their personal Saviour.
AG	24	3	The white robe of innocence was worn by our first parents when they were placed by God in holy Eden. They lived in perfect conformity to the will of God.... A beautiful soft light, the light of God, enshrouded the holy pair.... But when sin entered, they severed their connection with God, and the light that had encircled them departed. Naked and ashamed, they tried to supply the place of the heavenly garments by sewing together fig leaves for a covering.
AG	24	4	We cannot provide a robe of righteousness for ourselves, for the prophet says, "All our righteousness are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). There is nothing in us from which we can clothe the soul so that its nakedness shall not appear. We are to receive the robe of righteousness woven in the loom of heaven, even the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness.
AG	24	5	God has made ample provision that we may stand perfect in His grace, wanting in nothing, waiting for the appearing of our Lord. Are you ready? Have you the wedding garment on? That garment will never cover deceit, impurity, corruption, or hypocrisy. The eye of God is upon you. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. We may conceal our sins from the eyes of men, but we can hide nothing from our Maker.
AG	24	6	Let the youth and the little children be taught to choose for themselves that royal robe woven in heaven's loom--the "fine linen, clean and white," which all the holy ones of earth will wear. This robe, Christ's own spotless character, is freely offered to every human being. But all who receive it will receive and wear it here.
------------------------An Inheritance in Heaven, January 17
AG	25	1	To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:4.
AG	25	2	Christ was teaching, and, as usual, others besides His disciples had gathered about Him.... But there were many who desired the grace of heaven only to serve their selfish purposes. They recognized the marvelous power of Christ in setting forth the truth in a clear light.... Would He not lend His power for their worldly benefit?
AG	25	3	"And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me" (Luke 12:13).... In the midst of the solemn instruction that Christ had given, this man had revealed his selfish disposition. He could appreciate that ability of the Lord which might work for the advancement of his own temporal affairs; but spiritual truths had taken no hold on his mind and heart.... [Jesus] was opening to him the treasures of divine love. The Holy Spirit was pleading with him to become an heir of the inheritance that is "incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away".... [But] his eyes were fixed on the earth....
AG	25	4	The Saviour's mission on earth was fast drawing to a close. Only a few months remained for Him to complete what He had come to do, in establishing the kingdom of His grace. Yet human greed would have turned Him from His work to take up the dispute over a piece of land. But Jesus was not to be diverted from His mission. His answer was, "Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?" ... Christ virtually said, It is not My work to settle controversies of this kind. He came for another purpose, to preach the gospel, and thus to arouse men to a sense of eternal realities....
AG	25	5	When He sent forth the twelve, He said, "As ye go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand..." (Matthew 10:7, 8). They were not to settle the temporal affairs of the people. Their work was to persuade men to be reconciled to God. In this work lay their power to bless humanity. The only remedy for the sins and sorrows of humanity is Christ. The gospel of His grace alone can cure the evils that curse society.... He alone, for the selfish heart of sin, gives the new heart of love.
------------------------The Gracious Invitation, January 18
AG	26	1	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28.
AG	26	2	Christ sought to teach the disciples the truth that in God's kingdom there are no territorial lines, no caste, no aristocracy; that they must go to all nations, bearing to them the message of a Saviour's love.
AG	26	3	Christ tears away the wall of partition, the self-love, the dividing prejudice of nationality, and teaches a love for all the human family.... He teaches us to look upon every needy soul as our neighbor and the world as our field. As the rays of the sun penetrate to the remotest corners of the globe, so God designs that the light of the gospel shall extend to every soul upon the earth.
AG	26	4	All over the world men and women are looking wistfully to heaven. Prayers and tears and inquiries go up from souls longing for light, for grace, for the Holy Spirit. Many are on the verge of the kingdom, waiting only to be gathered in....
AG	26	5	In the trust given to the first disciples, believers of every age have shared. Every one who has received the gospel has been given sacred truth to impart to the world. God's faithful people have always been aggressive missionaries, consecrating their resources to the honor of His name, and wisely using their talents in His service....
AG	26	6	Everyone who has received Christ is called to work for the salvation of his fellow men. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come" (Revelation 22:17). The charge to give this invitation includes the entire church. Every one who has heard the invitation is to echo the message from hill and valley, saying, "Come"....
AG	26	7	Long has God waited for the spirit of service to take possession of the whole church, so that every one shall be working for Him according to his ability. When the members of the church of God do their appointed work in the needy fields at home and abroad, in fulfillment of the gospel commission, the whole world will soon be warned and the Lord Jesus will return to this earth with power and great glory.
------------------------Embraces the Whole World, January 19
AG	27	1	Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Psalm 2:8.
AG	27	2	"The field is the world" (Matthew 13:38). We understand better what this saying comprehends than did the apostles who received the commission to preach the gospel. The whole world is a vast missionary field.
AG	27	3	The terrible condition of the world would seem to indicate that the death of Christ has been almost in vain, and that Satan has triumphed.... But we have not been deceived. Notwithstanding the apparent triumph of Satan, Christ is carrying forward His work in the heavenly sanctuary and on the earth....
AG	27	4	The solemn, sacred message of warning must be proclaimed in the most difficult fields and in the most sinful cities, in every place where the light of the great threefold gospel message has not yet dawned. Every one is to hear the last call to the marriage supper of the lamb. From town to town, from city to city, from country to country, the message of present truth is to be proclaimed, not with outward display, but in the power of the Spirit.
AG	27	5	Before man can belong to the kingdom of Christ, his character must be purified from sin and sanctified by the grace of Christ.... Christ longs to manifest His grace, and stamp His character and image upon the whole world. He was offered the kingdoms of this world by the one who revolted in heaven, to buy His homage to the principles of evil; but He came to establish a kingdom of righteousness, and He would not be bought; He would not abandon His purpose. This earth is His purchased inheritance, and He would have men free and pure and holy.... Though Satan works through human instrumentalities to hinder the purpose of Christ, there are triumphs yet to be accomplished through the blood shed for the world, that will bring glory to God and to the Lamb. His kingdom will extend, and embrace the whole world.... Christ will not be satisfied till victory is complete. But "he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." "So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun" (Isaiah 53:11; 59:19).
------------------------Ambassadors of the Kingdom, January 20
AG	28	1	Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20.
AG	28	2	Since His ascension, Christ the great Head of the church, has carried forward His work in the world by chosen ambassadors, through whom He speaks to the children of men, and ministers to their needs. The position of those who have been called of God to labor in word and doctrine for the upbuilding of His church, is one of grave responsibility. In Christ's stead they are to beseech men and women to be reconciled to God....
AG	28	3	Christ's ministers are the spiritual guardians of the people entrusted to their care. Their work has been likened to that of watchmen. In ancient times, sentinels were often stationed on the walls of cities, where, from points of vantage, they could overlook important points to be guarded, and give warning of the approach of an enemy. Upon their faithfulness depended the safety of all within....
AG	28	4	To every minister the Lord declares: "O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me" ... (Ezekiel 33:7-9). These words of the prophet declare the solemn responsibility resting upon those who are appointed as guardians of the church, stewards of the mysteries of God....
AG	28	5	It is the privilege of the watchmen on the walls of Zion to live so near to God, and to be so susceptible to the impressions of His Spirit, that He can work through them to tell sinners of their peril, and point them to the place of safety.
AG	28	6	The heart of the true minister is filled with an intense longing to save souls.... He watches for souls as one that must give an account. With his eyes fixed on the cross of Calvary, beholding the uplifted Saviour, relying on His grace, believing that He will be with him until the end, as his shield, his strength, his efficiency, he works for God. With invitations and pleadings, mingled with the assurances of God's love, he seeks to win souls to Jesus, and in heaven he is numbered among those who are "called, and chosen, and faithful" (Revelation 17:14).
------------------------The Army of the Lord, January 21
AG	29	1	Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 6:13.
AG	29	2	The strength of an army is measured largely by the efficiency of the men in the ranks. A wise general instructs his officers to train every soldier for active service. He seeks to develop the highest efficiency on the part of all. If he were to depend on his officers alone he could never expect to conduct a successful campaign. He counts on loyal and untiring service from every man in his army. The responsibility rests largely upon the men in the ranks.
AG	29	3	And so it is in the army of Prince Immanuel. Our General, who has never lost a battle, expects willing, faithful service from everyone who has enlisted under His banner. In the closing controversy now waging between the forces for good and the hosts of evil He expects all, laymen as well as ministers, to take part. All who have enlisted as His soldiers are to render faithful service as minutemen, with a keen sense of the responsibility resting upon them individually.
AG	29	4	All who enter the army are not to be generals, captains, sergeants, or even corporals. All have not the care and responsibility of leaders. There is hard work of other kinds to be done. Some must dig trenches and build fortifications; some are to stand as sentinels, some to carry messages. While there are but few officers, it requires many soldiers to form the rank and file of the army; yet its success depends upon the fidelity of every soldier. One man's cowardice or treachery may bring disaster upon the entire army.
AG	29	5	There is earnest work to be done by us individually if we would fight the good fight of faith. Eternal interests are at stake. We must put on the whole armor of righteousness, we must resist the devil, and we have the sure promise that he will be put to flight. The church is to conduct an aggressive warfare, to make conquests for Christ, to rescue souls from the power of the enemy. God and holy angels are engaged in this warfare. Let us please Him who has called us to be soldiers.
------------------------A Girdle of Truth, January 22
AG	30	1	Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. Ephesians 6:14.
AG	30	2	There is absolutely no safeguard against evil but truth. No man can stand firm for right in whose heart the truth does not abide. There is only one power that can make and keep us steadfast--the power of God, imparted to us through the grace of Christ.
AG	30	3	There are many in the church who take it for granted that they understand what they believe; but, until controversy arises, they do not know their own weakness. When separated from those of like faith and compelled to stand singly and alone to explain their belief, they will be surprised to see how confused are their ideas of what they had accepted as truth....
AG	30	4	The Lord calls upon all who believe His word to awake out of sleep. Precious light has come, appropriate for this time. It is Bible truth, showing the perils that are right upon us. This light should lead us to a diligent study of the Scriptures and a most critical examination of the positions which we hold.... Believers are not to rest in suppositions and ill-defined ideas of what constitutes truth. Their faith must be firmly founded upon the word of God so that when the testing time shall come and they are brought before councils to answer for their faith they may be able to give a reason for the hope that is in them, with meekness and fear....
AG	30	5	The erroneous teachings of popular theology have made thousands upon thousands of skeptics and infidels. There are errors and inconsistencies which many denounce as the teaching of the Bible that are really false interpretations of Scripture.... Instead of criticizing the Bible, let us seek, by precept and example, to present to the world its sacred, life-giving truths, that we may "show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9).
AG	30	6	The truth stands firmly established on the eternal Rock--a foundation that storm and tempest can never move.... Do not lower the banner of truth ... in order to unite with the solemn message for these last days anything that will tend to hide the peculiar features of our faith.
------------------------A Breastplate for Safety, January 23
AG	31	1	And having on the breastplate of righteousness. Ephesians 6:14.
AG	31	2	We must put on every piece of the armor, and then stand firm. The Lord has honored us by choosing us as His soldiers. Let us fight bravely for Him, maintaining the right in every transaction.... Put on as your breastplate that divinely protected righteousness which it is the privilege of all to wear. This will protect your spiritual life.
AG	31	3	Ample provisions have been made for all who sincerely, earnestly, and thoughtfully set about the work of perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Strength, grace, and glory have been provided through Christ, to be brought by ministering angels to the heirs of salvation. None are so low, so corrupt and vile, that they cannot find in Jesus, who died for them, strength, purity, and righteousness, if they will put away their sins, cease their course of iniquity, and turn with full purpose of heart to the living God. He is waiting to strip them of their garments, stained and polluted by sin, and to put upon them the white, bright robes of righteousness.
AG	31	4	The truly righteous, who sincerely love and fear God, wear the robe of Christ's righteousness in prosperity and adversity alike. Self-denial, self-sacrifice, benevolence, kindness, love, patience, fortitude, and Christian trust are the daily fruits borne by those who are truly connected with God. Their acts may not be published to the world, but they themselves are daily wrestling with evil, and gaining precious victories over temptation and wrong.
AG	31	5	All who have put on the robe of Christ's righteousness will stand before Him as chosen and faithful and true. Satan has no power to pluck them out of the hand of the Saviour. Not one soul who in penitence and faith has claimed His protection will Christ permit to pass under the enemy's power.
AG	31	6	Each one will have a close struggle to overcome sin in his own heart. This is at times a very painful and discouraging work; because, as we see the deformities in our character, we keep looking at them, when we should look to Jesus and put on the robe of His righteousness. Everyone who enters the pearly gates of the city of God will enter there as a conqueror, and his greatest conquest will have been the conquest of self.
------------------------Gospel Shoes for a Mission of Peace, January 24
AG	32	1	And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Ephesians 6:15.
AG	32	2	We are living in the midst of an "epidemic of crime," at which thoughtful, God-fearing men everywhere stand aghast.... Every day brings its heart-sickening record of violence and lawlessness, of indifference to human suffering, of brutal, fiendish destruction of human life. Every day testifies to the increase of insanity, murder, and suicide. Who can doubt that satanic agencies are at work among men with increasing activity to distract and corrupt the mind, and defile and destroy the body?
AG	32	3	And while the world is filled with these evils, the gospel is too often presented in so indifferent a manner as to make but little impression upon the consciences or the lives of men. Everywhere there are hearts crying out for something which they have not. They long for a power that will give them mastery over sin, a power that will deliver them from the bondage of evil, a power that will give health and life and peace.
AG	32	4	The gospel is a message of peace. Christianity is a system, which, received and obeyed, would spread peace, harmony, and happiness throughout the earth. The religion of Christ will unite in close brotherhood all who accept its teachings.
AG	32	5	The peace of Christ is born of truth. It is harmony with God. The world is at enmity with the law of God; sinners are at enmity with their Maker; and as a result they are at enmity with one another.... Men cannot manufacture peace. Human plans for the purification and uplifting of individuals or of society will fail of producing peace, because they do not reach the heart. The only power that can create or perpetuate true peace is the grace of Christ. When this is implanted in the heart, it will cast out the evil passions that cause strife and dissension.
AG	32	6	The faces of men and women who walk and work with God express the peace of heaven. They are surrounded with the atmosphere of heaven. For these souls the kingdom of God has begun.
AG	32	7	The Lord is soon coming. Talk it, pray it, believe it. Make it a part of the life.... Gird on the Christian armor, and be sure that your feet are "shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace."
------------------------A Shield for Defense, January 25
AG	33	1	Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Ephesians 6:16.
AG	33	2	Satan watches his opportunity to seize the precious graces when we are unguarded, and we shall have a severe conflict with the powers of darkness to retain them, or to regain a heavenly grace if through lack of watchfulness we lose it. But ... it is the privilege of Christians to obtain strength from God to hold every precious gift. Fervent and effectual prayer will be regarded in heaven. When the servants of Christ take the shield of faith for their defense, and the sword of the Spirit for war, there is danger in the enemy's camp.
AG	33	3	Amidst the snares to which all are exposed, they need strong and trustworthy defenses on which to rely. Many in this corrupt age have so small a supply of the grace of God, that in many instances their defense is broken down by the first assault, and fierce temptations take them captives. The shield of grace can preserve all unconquered by the temptations of the enemy, though surrounded with the most corrupting influences. By firm principle, and unwavering trust in God, their virtue and nobleness of character can shine, and, although surrounded with evil, no taint need be left upon their virtue and integrity.
AG	33	4	The work of conquering evil is to be done through faith. Those who go into the battlefield will find that they must put on the whole armor of God. The shield of faith will be their defense and will enable them to be more than conquerors. Nothing else will avail but this--faith in the Lord of hosts, and obedience to His orders. Vast armies furnished with every other facility will avail nothing in the last great conflict. Without faith, an angel host could not help. Living faith alone will make them invincible and enable them to stand in the evil day, steadfast, unmovable, holding the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end.
------------------------A Helmet for Protection, January 26
AG	34	1	And take the helmet of salvation. Ephesians 6:17.
AG	34	2	God bids us fill the mind with great thoughts, pure thoughts. He desires us to meditate upon His love and mercy, to study His wonderful work in the great plan of redemption. Then clearer and still clearer will be our perception of truth, higher, holier, our desire for purity of heart and clearness of thought. The soul dwelling in the pure atmosphere of holy thought will be transformed by communion with God through the study of the Scriptures.
AG	34	3	The mind must be educated and disciplined to love purity. A love for spiritual things should be encouraged; yea, must be encouraged, if you would grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.... Good purposes are right, but will prove of no avail unless resolutely carried out. Many will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians; but they made no earnest effort, therefore they will be weighed in the balances and found wanting. The will must be exercised in the right direction. I will be a wholehearted Christian. I will know the length and breadth, the height and depth, of perfect love. Listen to the words of Jesus: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6). Ample provisions are made by Christ to satisfy the soul that hungers and thirsts for righteousness.
AG	34	4	We should meditate upon the Scriptures, thinking soberly and candidly upon the things that pertain to our eternal salvation. The infinite mercy and love of Jesus, the sacrifice made in our behalf, call for most serious and solemn reflection. We should dwell upon the character of our dear Redeemer and Intercessor. We should seek to comprehend the meaning of the plan of salvation. We should meditate upon the mission of Him who came to save His people from their sins. By constantly contemplating heavenly themes, our faith and love will grow stronger. Our prayers will be more and more acceptable to God, because they will be more and more mixed with faith and love. They will be more intelligent and fervent. There will be more constant confidence in Jesus, and you will have a daily, living experience in the willingness and power of Christ to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.
------------------------A Sword for Battle, January 27
AG	35	1	And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:17.
AG	35	2	God has provided abundant means for successful warfare against the evil that is in the world. The Bible is the armory where we may equip for the struggle. Our loins must be girt about with truth. Our breastplate must be righteousness. The shield of faith must be in our hand, the helmet of salvation on our brow; and with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, we are to cut our way through the obstructions and entanglements of sin.
AG	35	3	The first Adam fell; the second Adam held fast to God and His Word under the most trying circumstances, and His faith in His Father's goodness, mercy, and love did not waver for one moment. "It is written" was His weapon of resistance, and it is the sword of the Spirit which every human being is to use.
AG	35	4	In these days of peril and corruption, the young are exposed to many trials and temptations. Many are sailing in a dangerous harbor. They need a pilot; but they scorn to accept the much needed help, feeling that they are competent to guide their own bark, and not realizing that it is about to strike a hidden rock that may cause them to make shipwreck of faith and happiness.... There is a disposition with many to be impetuous and headstrong. They have not heeded the wise counsel of the word of God; they have not battled with self, and obtained precious victories; and their proud, unbending will has driven them from the path of duty and obedience.
AG	35	5	There are great things expected from the sons and daughters of God. I look upon the youth of today, and my heart yearns over them. What possibilities are open before them! If they sincerely seek to learn of Christ, He will give them wisdom, as He gave wisdom to Daniel.... "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom".... "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 3:6).
AG	35	6	Let the youth try to appreciate the privilege that may be theirs, to be directed by the unerring wisdom of God. Let them take the Word of truth as the man of their counsel, and become skillful in the use of "the sword of the Spirit." Satan is a wise general; but the humble, devoted soldier of Jesus Christ may overcome him.
------------------------The Battlefield, January 28
AG	36	1	We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12.
AG	36	2	The fallen world is the battlefield for the greatest conflict the heavenly universe and earthly powers have ever witnessed. It was appointed as a theater on which would be fought out the grand struggle between good and evil, between heaven and hell. Every human being acts a part in this conflict. No one can stand on neutral ground. Men must either accept or reject the world's Redeemer. All are witnesses, either for or against Christ. Christ calls upon those who stand under His banner to engage in the conflict with Him as faithful soldiers, that they may inherit the crown of life.
AG	36	3	Battles are to be fought every day. A great warfare is going on over every soul, between the prince of darkness and the Prince of life.... As God's agents you are to yield yourselves to Him, that He may plan and direct and fight the battle for you, with your cooperation. The Prince of life is at the head of His work. He is to be with you in your daily battle with self, that you may be true to principle; that passion, when warring for the mastery, may be subdued by the grace of Christ; that you come off more than conqueror through Him that hath loved us. Jesus has been over the ground. He knows the power of every temptation. He knows just how to meet every emergency, and how to guide you through every path of danger.
AG	36	4	God will have a people zealous of good works, standing firm amid the pollutions of this degenerate age. There will be a people who hold so fast to the divine strength that they will be proof against every temptation. Evil communications in flaming handbills may seek to speak to their senses and corrupt their minds; yet they will be so united to God and angels that they will be as those who see not and hear not. They have a work to do which no one can do for them, which is to fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life....
AG	36	5	The youth may have principles so firm that the most powerful temptations of Satan will not draw them away from their allegiance.
------------------------Loyalty a Must, January 29
AG	37	1	Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 2:3.
AG	37	2	We are soldiers of Christ; and those who enlist in His army are expected to do difficult work, work which will tax their energies to the utmost. We must understand that a soldier's life is one of aggressive warfare, of perseverance and endurance. For Christ's sake we are to endure trials. We are not engaged in mimic battles.
AG	37	3	Resolve, not in your own strength, but in the strength and grace given of God, that you will consecrate to Him now, just now, every power, every ability. You will then follow Jesus because He bids you, and you will not ask where, or what reward will be given....
AG	37	4	When you die to self, when you surrender to God, to do His work, to let the light that He has given you shine forth in good works, you will not labor alone. God's grace stands forth to cooperate with every effort to enlighten the ignorant and those who do not know that the end of all things is at hand. But God will not do your work. Light may shine in abundance, but the grace given will convert your soul only as it arouses you to cooperate with divine agencies. You are called upon to put on the Christian armor and enter the Lord's service as active soldiers. Divine power is to cooperate with human effort to break the spell of worldly enchantment that the enemy has cast upon souls.
AG	37	5	The Lord has honored us by choosing us as His soldiers. Let us fight bravely for Him, maintaining the right in every transaction. Rectitude in all things is essential to the warfare of the soul. As you strive for the victory over your own inclinations, He will help you by His Holy Spirit to be circumspect in every action, that you may give no occasion for the enemy to speak evil of the truth.
AG	37	6	We are soldiers of Christ. He is the Captain of our salvation, and we are under His orders and rules. We are to wear His armor; we are to be marshaled only under His banner.... We are to keep on the whole armor of God, and work as in view of the universe of heaven.
------------------------Marching Orders, January 30
AG	38	1	Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. Exodus 14:15.
AG	38	2	The history of the children of Israel is written for the instruction and admonition of all Christians. When the Israelites were overtaken by dangers and difficulties, and their way seemed hedged up, their faith forsook them, and they murmured against the leader whom God had appointed for them.... The divine command was: "Go forward." They were not to wait until the way was made plain, and they could comprehend the entire plan of their deliverance. God's cause is onward, and He will open a path before His people....
AG	38	3	There are times when the Christian life seems beset by dangers, and duty seems hard to perform. The imagination pictures impending ruin before, and bondage or death behind. Yet the voice of God speaks clearly above all discouragements: "Go forward." We should obey this command, let the result be what it may, even though our eyes cannot penetrate the darkness and though we feel the cold waves about our feet....
AG	38	4	Those who think it impossible for them to yield to the will of God and have faith in His promises until all is made clear and plain before them, will never yield at all. Faith is not certainty of knowledge; it "is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). To obey the commandments of God is the only way to obtain His favor. "Go forward" should be the Christian's watchword.
AG	38	5	Continual progress in knowledge and virtue is God's purpose for us. His law is the echo of His own voice, giving to all the invitation, "Come up higher; be holy, holier still." Every day we may advance in perfection of Christian character.
AG	38	6	Putting our trust in God, we are to move steadily forward, doing His work with unselfishness, in humble dependence upon Him, committing to His providence ourselves and all that concerns our present and future, holding the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end, remembering that we receive the blessings of heaven, not because of our worthiness, but because of Christ's worthiness and our acceptance, through faith in Him, of God's abounding grace.
------------------------The Victory, January 31
AG	39	1	Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57.
AG	39	2	Victories are not gained by ceremonies or display, but by simple obedience to the highest General, the Lord God of heaven. He who trusts in this Leader will never know defeat.
AG	39	3	The largest share of the annoyances of life, its daily corroding cares, its heartaches, its irritation, is the result of a temper uncontrolled.... The government of self is the best government in the world. By putting on the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, ninety-nine out of a hundred of the troubles which so terribly embitter life might be saved.... The natural man must die, and the new man, Christ Jesus, take possession of the soul, so that the follower of Jesus may say in verity and truth: "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).
AG	39	4	Self is difficult to conquer. Human depravity in every form is not easily brought into subjection to the Spirit of Christ. But all should be impressed with the fact that unless this victory is gained through Christ, there is no hope for them. The victory can be gained; for nothing is impossible with God. By His assisting grace, all evil temper, all human depravity, may be overcome.... You may be overcomers if you will, in the name of Christ, take hold of the work decidedly.
AG	39	5	The temptations of Satan are greater now than ever before, for he knows that his time is short, and that very soon every case will be decided, either for life or for death. It is no time now to sink down beneath discouragement and trial; we must bear up under all our afflictions, and trust wholly in the Almighty God of Jacob.... His grace is sufficient for all our trials; and although they are greater than ever before, yet if we trust wholly in God, we can overcome every temptation and through His grace come off victorious....
AG	39	6	When temptations and trials rush in upon us, let us go to God and agonize with Him in prayer. He will not turn us away empty, but will give us grace and strength to overcome, and to break the power of the enemy.
------------------------Adam and Eve--Rulers in Eden, February 1
AG	40	1	So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over ... every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Genesis 1:27, 28.
AG	40	2	Adam was crowned king in Eden. To him was given dominion over every living thing that God had created. The Lord blessed Adam and Eve with intelligence such as He had not given to any other creature. He made Adam the rightful sovereign over all the works of His hands.
AG	40	3	Created to be "the image and glory of God," Adam and Eve had received endowments not unworthy of their high destiny.... Every faculty of mind and soul reflected the Creator's glory. Endowed with high mental and spiritual gifts, Adam and Eve were made but "little lower than the angels."
AG	40	4	Our first parents, though created innocent and holy, were not placed beyond the possibility of wrongdoing. God made them free moral agents, capable of appreciating the wisdom and benevolence of His character and the justice of His requirements, and with full liberty to yield or to withhold obedience. They were to enjoy communion with God and with holy angels; but before they could be rendered eternally secure, their loyalty must be tested. At the very beginning of man's existence a check was placed upon the desire for self-indulgence, the fatal passion that lay at the foundation of Satan's fall. The tree of knowledge, which stood near the tree of life in the midst of the garden, was to be a test of the obedience, faith, and love of our first parents... God placed man under law, as an indispensable condition of his very existence. He was a subject of the divine government, and there can be no government without law....
AG	40	5	While they remained true to God, Adam and his companion were to bear rule over the earth. Unlimited control was given them over every living thing. The lion and the lamb sported peacefully around them, or lay ... Together at their feet. The happy birds flitted about them without fear; and as their glad songs ascended to the praise of their Creator, Adam and Eve united with them in thanksgiving to the Father and the Son.
------------------------The Rulership Forfeited, February 2
AG	41	1	The most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. Daniel 4:17.
AG	41	2	Among the lower creatures Adam had stood as king ...; but when he transgressed, this dominion was forfeited. The spirit of rebellion, to which he himself had given entrance, extended throughout the animal creation. Thus not only the life of man, but the nature of the beasts, the trees of the forest, the grass of the field, the very air he breathed, all told the sad lesson of the knowledge of evil.
AG	41	3	Not only man but the earth had by sin come under the power of the wicked one.... At his creation Adam was placed in dominion over the earth. But by yielding to temptation, he was brought under the power of Satan. "Of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage" (2 Peter 2:19). When man became Satan's captive, the dominion which he held, passed to his conqueror. Thus Satan became "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4). He had usurped that dominion over the earth which had been originally given to Adam.
AG	41	4	When Satan declared to Christ, The kingdom and the glory of the world are delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it, he stated what was true only in part, and he declared it to serve his own purpose of deception. Satan's dominion was that wrested from Adam, but Adam was the vicegerent of the Creator. His was not an independent rule. The earth is God's, and He has committed all things to His Son. Adam was to reign subject to Christ. When Adam betrayed his sovereignty into Satan's hands, Christ still remained the rightful king....
AG	41	5	By the one who had revolted in heaven the kingdoms of this world were offered Christ, to buy His homage to the principles of evil; but He would not be bought....
AG	41	6	Jesus gained the victory through submission and faith in God, and by the apostle He says to us, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" ... (James 4:7, 8). We cannot save ourselves from the tempter's power; he has conquered humanity ...; but "the name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe" (Proverbs 18:10).
------------------------Christ the Second Adam, February 3
AG	42	1	For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:22.
AG	42	2	The fall of man filled all heaven with sorrow.... The Son of God, heaven's glorious Commander, was touched with pity for the fallen race. His heart was moved with infinite compassion as the woes of the lost world rose up before Him. But divine love had conceived a plan whereby man might be redeemed. The broken law of God demanded the life of the sinner. In all the universe there was but one who could, in behalf of man, satisfy its claims. Since the divine law is as sacred as God Himself, only one equal with God could make atonement for its transgression. None but Christ could redeem fallen man from the curse of the law, and bring him again into harmony with Heaven. Christ would take upon Himself the guilt and shame of sin--sin so offensive to a holy God that it must separate the Father and His Son. Christ would reach to the depths of misery to rescue the ruined race....
AG	42	3	The plan of salvation had been laid before the creation of the earth; ... yet it was a struggle, even with the King of the universe, to yield up His son to die for the guilty race.... Oh, the mystery of redemption! the love of God for a world that did not love Him! ... Through endless ages immortal minds, seeking to comprehend the mystery of that incomprehensible love, will wonder and adore.
AG	42	4	Christ is called the second Adam. In purity and holiness, connected with God and beloved by God, He began where the first Adam began....
AG	42	5	Christ was tempted by Satan in a hundredfold severer manner than was Adam, and under circumstances in every way more trying. The deceiver presented himself as an angel of light, but Christ withstood his temptations. He redeemed Adam's disgraceful fall, and saved the world.... He lived the law of God, and honored it in a world of transgression, revealing to the heavenly universe, to Satan, and to all the fallen sons and daughters of Adam that through His grace humanity can keep the law of God....
AG	42	6	Christ's victory was as complete as had been Adam's failure. So we may resist temptation, and force Satan to depart from us.
------------------------Israel's Invisible King, February 4
AG	43	1	Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments. Nehemiah 9:13.
AG	43	2	All through the pages of sacred history, where the dealings of God with His chosen people are recorded, there are burning traces of the great I AM. Never has He given to the sons of men more open manifestations of His power and glory than when He alone was acknowledged as Israel's ruler, and gave the law to His people. Here was a scepter swayed by no human hand; and the stately goings forth of Israel's invisible King were unspeakably grand and awful.
AG	43	3	In all these revelations of the divine presence, the glory of God was manifested through Christ. Not alone at the Saviour's advent, but through all the ages after the Fall and the promise of redemption, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19). Christ was the foundation and center of the sacrificial system in both the patriarchal and the Jewish age. Since the sin of our first parents, there has been no direct communication between God and man. The Father has given the world into the hands of Christ, that through His mediatorial work He may redeem man and vindicate the authority and holiness of the law of God. All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ. It was the Son of God that gave to our first parents the promise of redemption. It was He who revealed Himself to the patriarchs.... It was He who gave the law to Israel. Amid the awful glory of Sinai, Christ declared in the hearing of all the people the ten precepts of His Father's law. It was He who gave to Moses the law engraved upon the tables of stone....
AG	43	4	Jesus was the light of His people--the light of the world--before He came to earth in the form of humanity. The first gleam of light that pierced the gloom in which sin had wrapped the world, came from Christ. And from Him has come every ray of heaven's brightness that has fallen upon the inhabitants of the earth. In the plan of redemption Christ is the Alpha and the Omega--the First and the Last.
------------------------Our Ruler in the Heavens, February 5
AG	44	1	The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all. Psalm 103:19.
AG	44	2	The three Hebrews were called upon to confess Christ in the face of the burning fiery furnace. They had been commanded by the king to fall down and worship the golden image which he had set up, and threatened that if they would not, they should be cast alive into the fiery furnace, but they answered, "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up" (Daniel 3:16-18).
AG	44	3	To bow down when in prayer to God is the proper attitude to occupy.... But such an act was homage to be rendered to God alone ..., the Ruler of the universe; and these three Hebrews refused to give such honor to any idol even though composed of pure gold. In doing so, they would, to all intents and purposes, be bowing to the king of Babylon.... They suffered the penalty.... But Christ came in person and walked with them through the fire, and they received no harm.
AG	44	4	This miracle produced a striking change in the minds of the people. The great golden image, set up with such display, was forgotten. The king published a decree that anyone speaking against the God of these men should be put to death....
AG	44	5	These faithful Hebrews possessed great natural ability, they had enjoyed the highest intellectual culture, and now occupied a position of honor; but all this did not lead them to forget God. Their powers were yielded to the sanctifying influence of divine grace.... In their wonderful deliverance were displayed, before that vast assembly, the power and majesty of God. Jesus placed Himself by their side in the fiery furnace, and by the glory of His presence convinced the proud king of Babylon that it could be no other than the Son of God.... By the deliverance of His faithful servants, the Lord declares that He will take His stand with the oppressed and overthrow all earthly powers that would trample upon the authority of the God of heaven.
------------------------God with Us, February 6
AG	45	1	They shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Matthew 1:23.
AG	45	2	From the days of eternity the Lord Jesus Christ was one with the Father; He was "the image of God," the image of His greatness and majesty, "the outshining of his glory." It was to manifest this glory that He came to our world. To this sin-darkened earth He came to reveal the light of God's love--to be "God with us."...
AG	45	3	Our little world is the lesson book of the universe. God's wonderful purpose of grace, the mystery of redeeming love, is the theme into which "angels desire to look", and it will be their study throughout endless ages. Both the redeemed and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their song. It will be seen that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is the glory of self-sacrificing love. In the light from Calvary it will be seen that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven; that the love which "seeketh not her own" has its source in the heart of God....
AG	45	4	Jesus might have remained at the Father's side. He might have retained the glory of heaven, and the homage of the angels. But He chose to give back the scepter into the Father's hands, and to step down from the throne of the universe, that He might bring light to the benighted, and life to the perishing....
AG	45	5	This great purpose had been shadowed forth in types and symbols. The burning bush, in which Christ appeared to Moses, revealed God.... The all-merciful God shrouded His glory in a most humble type, that Moses could look upon it and live. So in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, God communicated with Israel, revealing to men His will, and imparting to them His grace. God's glory was subdued, and His majesty veiled, that the weak vision of finite men might behold it. So Christ was to come in "the body of our humiliation" (Philippians 3:21, R.V.), "in the likeness of men."... His glory was veiled, His greatness and majesty were hidden, that He might draw near to sorrowful, tempted men.
------------------------The Kingdom Threatened, February 7
AG	46	1	When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone. John 6:15.
AG	46	2	Seated upon the grassy plain, in the twilight of the spring evening, the people ate of the food that Christ had provided.... No human power could create from five barley loaves and two small fishes food sufficient to feed thousands of hungry people. And they said one to another, "This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world" (John 6:14).... He can conquer the nations, and give to Israel the long-sought dominion.
AG	46	3	In their enthusiasm the people are ready at once to crown Him king. They see that He makes no effort to attract attention or secure honor to Himself.... They fear that He will never urge His claim to David's throne. Consulting together, they agree to take Him by force, and proclaim Him the King of Israel.... Jesus sees what is on foot, and understands, as they cannot, what would be the result of such a movement.... Violence and insurrection would follow an effort to place Him on the throne, and the work of the spiritual kingdom would be hindered. Without delay the movement must be checked. Calling His disciples, Jesus bids them take the boat and return at once to Capernaum....
AG	46	4	Jesus now commands the multitude to disperse; and His manner is so decisive that they dare not disobey.... The kingly bearing of Jesus, and His few quiet words of command, quell the tumult, and frustrate their designs. They recognize in Him a power above all earthly authority, and without a question they submit.
AG	46	5	When left alone, Jesus "went up into a mountain apart to pray."... He prayed for power to reveal to men the divine character of His mission, that Satan might not blind their understanding and pervert their judgment.... In travail and conflict of soul He prayed for His disciples.... Their long-cherished hopes, based on a popular delusion, were to be disappointed in a most painful and humiliating manner. In the place of His exaltation to the throne of David they were to witness His crucifixion. This was to be indeed His true coronation.
------------------------A Kingly Procession, February 8
AG	47	1	Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. Zechariah 9:9.
AG	47	2	Five hundred years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Zechariah thus foretold the coming of the King to Israel.... Christ was following the Jewish custom for a royal entry.... No sooner was He seated upon the colt than a loud shout of triumph rent the air. The multitude hailed Him as Messiah, their King....They could lead the triumphal procession with no royal standards, but they cut down the spreading palm boughs, Nature's emblem of victory, and waved them aloft with loud acclamations and hosannas....
AG	47	3	Never before in His earthly life had Christ permitted such a demonstration. He clearly foresaw the result. It would bring Him to the cross. But it was His purpose thus publicly to present Himself as the Redeemer. He desired to call attention to the sacrifice that was to crown His mission....
AG	47	4	Never before had the world seen such a triumphal procession. It was not like that of the earth's famous conquerors. No train of mourning captives, as trophies of kingly valor, made a feature of that scene. But about the Saviour were the glorious trophies of His labors of love for sinful man. There were the captives whom He had rescued from Satan's power, praising God for their deliverance. The blind whom He had restored to sight were leading the way. The dumb whose tongues He had loosed shouted the loudest hosannas. The cripples whom He had healed bounded with joy.... Lazarus, whose body had seen corruption in the grave, but who now rejoiced in the strength of glorious manhood, led the beast on which the Saviour rode....
AG	47	5	That scene of triumph was of God's own appointing. It had been foretold by the prophet, and man was powerless to turn aside God's purpose.
AG	47	6	As well might the priests and rulers attempt to deprive the earth of the shining face of the sun, as to shut from the world the beams of glory from the Sun of Righteousness. In spite of all opposition, the kingdom of Christ was confessed by the people.
------------------------Jerusalem's King, February 9
AG	48	1	Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. Psalm 48:2.
AG	48	2	From the crest of Olivet, Jesus looked upon Jerusalem. Fair and peaceful was the scene spread out before Him.... The rays of the setting sun lighted up the snowy whiteness of its marble walls and gleamed from golden gate and tower and pinnacle. "The perfection of beauty" it stood, the pride of the Jewish nation. What child of Israel could gaze upon the scene without a thrill of joy and admiration! But far other thoughts occupied the mind of Jesus. "When he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it" (Luke 19:41). Amid the universal rejoicing of the triumphal entry, while palm branches waved, while glad hosannas awoke the echoes of the hills, and thousands of voices declared Him King, the world's Redeemer was overwhelmed with a sudden and mysterious sorrow. He, the Son of God, the Promised One of Israel, whose power had conquered death and called its captives from the grave, was in tears, not of ordinary grief, but of intense, irrepressible agony.
AG	48	3	His tears were not for Himself.... He wept for the doomed thousands of Jerusalem--because of the blindness and impenitence of those whom He came to bless and to save....
AG	48	4	Though rewarded with evil for good, and hatred for His love, He had steadfastly pursued His mission of mercy. Never were those repelled that sought His grace.... But Israel had turned from her best Friend and only Helper. The pleadings of His love had been despised, His counsels spurned, His warnings ridiculed....
AG	48	5	When Christ should hang upon the cross of Calvary, Israel's day as a nation favored and blessed of God would be ended.... As Christ looked upon Jerusalem, the doom of a whole city, a whole nation, was before Him--that city, that nation, which had once been the chosen of God, His peculiar treasure.
AG	48	6	The long-suffering of God toward Jerusalem only confirmed the Jews in their stubborn impenitence.... Her children had spurned the grace of Christ.
------------------------King of Glory, February 10
AG	49	1	Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Psalm 24:7, 8.
AG	49	2	Christ came to earth as God in the guise of humanity. He ascended to heaven as the King of saints. His ascension was worthy of His exalted character. He went as One mighty in battle, a conqueror, leading captivity captive. He was attended by the heavenly host, amid shouts and acclamations of praise and celestial song.
AG	49	3	The disciples not only saw the Lord ascend, but they had the testimony of the angels that He had gone to occupy His Father's throne in heaven.... The brightness of the heavenly escort, and the opening of the glorious gates of God to welcome Him, were not to be discerned by mortal eyes. Had the track of Christ to heaven been revealed to the disciples in all its inexpressible glory, they could not have endured the sight....
AG	49	4	Their senses were not to become so infatuated with the glories of heaven that they would lose sight of the character of Christ on earth, which they were to copy in themselves. They were to keep distinctly before their minds the beauty and majesty of His life, the perfect harmony of all His attributes, and the mysterious union of the divine and human in His nature.... His visible ascent from the world was in harmony with the meekness and quiet of His life.
AG	49	5	What a source of joy to the disciples, to know that they had such a Friend in heaven to plead in their behalf! Through the visible ascension of Christ all their views and contemplation of heaven are changed.... They now looked upon it as their future home, where mansions were being prepared for them by their loving Redeemer. Prayer was clothed with a new interest, since it was a communion with their Saviour....
AG	49	6	They had a gospel to preach--Christ in human form, a Man of sorrows; Christ in humiliation, taken by wicked hands and crucified; Christ resurrected, and ascended to heaven, into the presence of God, to be man's Advocate; Christ to come again with power and great glory in the clouds of heaven.
------------------------Ruler Over All Nations, February 11
AG	50	1	That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth. Psalm 83:18.
AG	50	2	In the annals of human history the growth of nations, the rise and fall of empires, appear as dependent on the will and prowess of man. The shaping of events seems, to a great degree, to be determined by his power, ambition, or caprice. But in the word of God the curtain is drawn aside, and we behold, behind, above, and through all the play and counterplay of human interests and power and passions, the agencies of the all-merciful One, silently, patiently working out the counsels of His own will....
AG	50	3	Every nation that has come upon the stage of action has been permitted to occupy its place on the earth, that it might be seen whether it would fulfill the purpose of "the Watcher and the Holy One."... While the nations rejected God's principles, and in this rejection wrought their own ruin, it was still manifest that the divine, overruling purpose was working through all their movements.
AG	50	4	This lesson is taught in a wonderful symbolic representation given to the prophet Ezekiel [chapters 1 and 10].... A number of wheels, intersecting one another, were moved by four living beings.... The wheels were so complicated in arrangement that at first sight they appeared to be in confusion; but they moved in perfect harmony. Heavenly beings, sustained and guided by the hand beneath the wings of the cherubim, were impelling these wheels; above them upon the sapphire throne, was the Eternal One; and round about the throne a rainbow, the emblem of divine mercy. As the wheellike complications were under the guidance of the hand beneath the wings of the cherubim, so the complicated play of human events is under divine control. Amidst the strife and tumult of nations, He that sitteth above the cherubim still guides the affairs of the earth.
AG	50	5	The history of nations that one after another have occupied their allotted time and place, ... speaks to us. To every nation and to every individual of today God has assigned a place in His great plan.... All are by their own choice deciding their destiny, and God is overruling all for the accomplishment of His purposes.
------------------------Limits to God's Forbearance, February 12
AG	51	1	It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law. Psalm 119:126.
AG	51	2	During a vision of the night, I stood on an eminence, from which I could see houses shaken like a reed in the wind. Buildings, great and small, were falling to the ground. Pleasure resorts, theaters, hotels, and the homes of the wealthy were shaken and shattered. Many lives were blotted out of existence, and the air was filled with the shrieks of the injured and the terrified.
AG	51	3	The destroying angels of God were at work. One touch, and buildings, so thoroughly constructed that men regarded them as secure against every danger, quickly became heaps of rubbish. There was no assurance of safety in any place.... The awfulness of the scenes that passed before me I cannot find words to describe. It seemed that the forbearance of God was exhausted and that the judgment day had come.
AG	51	4	The angel that stood at my side then instructed me that but few have any conception of the wickedness existing in our world today, and especially the wickedness in the large cities. He declared that the Lord has appointed a time when He will visit transgressors in wrath for persistent disregard of His law.... God's supreme rulership and the sacredness of His law must be revealed to those who persistently refused to render obedience to the King of kings. Those who choose to remain disloyal must be visited in mercy with judgments, in order that, if possible, they may be aroused to a realization of the sinfulness of their course.... While the divine Ruler bears long with perversity, He is not deceived and will not always keep silence. His supremacy, His authority as Ruler of the universe, must finally be acknowledged and the just claims of His law vindicated.
AG	51	5	There are limits even to the forbearance of God, and many are exceeding these boundaries. They have overrun the limits of grace, and therefore God must interfere and vindicate His own honor....
AG	51	6	When the Lord comes forth as an avenger, He will also come as a protector of all those who have preserved the faith in its purity and kept themselves unspotted from the world.
------------------------Qualifying for the Kingdom, February 13
AG	52	1	Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. Mark 10:15.
AG	52	2	Christ does not acknowledge any caste, color, or grade as necessary to become a subject of His kingdom. Admittance to His kingdom does not depend upon wealth or a superior heredity. But those who are born of the Spirit are the subjects of His kingdom. Spiritual character is that which will be recognized by Christ. His kingdom is not of this world. His subjects are those who are partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And this grace is given them of God. Christ does not find His subjects fitted for His kingdom, but He qualifies them by His divine power. Those who have been dead in trespasses and sins are quickened to spiritual life. The faculties which God has given them for holy purposes are refined, purified, and exalted, and they are led to form characters after the divine similitude....
AG	52	3	Christ draws them to Himself by an unseen power. He is the light of life, and He imbues them with His own Spirit. As they are drawn into the spiritual atmosphere, they see that they have been made the sport of Satan's temptations, and that they have been under his dominion; but they break the yoke of fleshly lusts, and refuse to be the servants of sin.... They realize that they have exchanged captains, and they take their directions from the lips of Jesus. As a servant looks to his master, and as a maid looks to her mistress, so these souls, drawn by the cords of love to Christ, constantly look unto Him who is the Author and Finisher of their faith. By beholding Jesus, by obeying His requirements, they increase in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. Thus they become changed into His image from character to character until they are distinguished from the world, and it can be written of them: "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy" (1 Peter 2:9, 10).
------------------------Sonship, February 14
AG	53	1	As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.
AG	53	2	When Adam's sin plunged the race into hopeless misery, God might have cut Himself loose from fallen beings. He might have treated them as sinners deserved to be treated. He might have commanded the angels of heaven to pour out upon our world the vials of His wrath. He might have removed this dark blot from His universe. But He did not do this. Instead of banishing them from His presence, He came still nearer to the fallen race. He gave His Son to become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, ... full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Christ by His human relationship to men drew them close to God. He clothed His divine nature with the garb of humanity, and demonstrated before the heavenly universe, before the unfallen worlds, how much God loves the children of men.
AG	53	3	The gift of God to man is beyond all computation. Nothing was withheld. God would not permit it to be said that He could have done more or revealed to humanity a greater measure of love. In the gift of Christ He gave all heaven.
AG	53	4	Divine sonship is not something that we gain of ourselves. Only to those who receive Christ as their Saviour is given the power to become sons and daughters of God. The sinner cannot, by any power of his own, rid himself of sin.... But the promise of sonship is made to all who believe on His name." Every one who comes to Jesus in faith will receive pardon.
AG	53	5	God was to be manifest in Christ, "reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19). Man had become so degraded by sin that it was impossible for him, in himself, to come into harmony with Him whose nature is purity and goodness. But Christ, after having redeemed man from the condemnation of the law, could impart divine power to unite with human effort. Thus by repentance toward God and faith in Christ the fallen children of Adam might once more become "sons of God."
AG	53	6	When a soul receives Christ, he receives power to live the life of Christ.
------------------------Adopted Sons and Daughters, February 15
AG	54	1	Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Ephesians 1:5, 6.
AG	54	2	Before the foundations of the earth were laid the covenant was made that all who were obedient, all who should through the abundant grace provided become holy in character and without blame before God by appropriating that grace, should be children of God.
AG	54	3	We owe everything to grace, free grace, sovereign grace. Grace in the covenant ordained our adoption. Grace in the Saviour effected our redemption, our regeneration, and our adoption to heirship with Christ.
AG	54	4	As we fully believe that we are His by adoption, we may have a foretaste of heaven.... We have a nearness to Him, and can hold sweet communion with Him. We obtain distinct views of His tenderness and compassion, and our hearts are broken and melted with contemplation of the love that is given to us. We feel indeed an abiding Christ in the soul. We abide in Him, and feel at home with Jesus.... We have a realizing sense of the love of God, and we rest in His love. No language can describe it, it is beyond knowledge. We are one with Christ, our life is hid with Christ in God. We have the assurance that when He who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. With strong confidence we can call God our Father.
AG	54	5	All who have been born into the heavenly family are in a special sense the brethren of our Lord. The love of Christ binds together the members of His family, and wherever that love is manifest there the divine relationship is revealed....
AG	54	6	Love to man is the earthward manifestation of the love of God. It was to implant this love, to make us children of one family, that the King of glory became one with us. And when His parting words are fulfilled, "Love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12); when we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven; for we have heaven in our hearts.
------------------------The Redemption Price, February 16
AG	55	1	Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Hebrews 9:12.
AG	55	2	Every soul is precious, because it has been purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
AG	55	3	Some speak of the Jewish age as a Christless period, without mercy or grace. To such are applicable the words of Christ to the Sadducees, "Ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God" (Mark 12:24). The period of the Jewish economy was one of wonderful manifestations of divine power....
AG	55	4	The very system of sacrifices was devised by Christ, and given to Adam as typifying a Saviour to come, who would bear the sins of the world, and die for its redemption....
AG	55	5	The blood of the Son of God was symbolized by the blood of the slain victim, and God would have clear and definite ideas preserved between the sacred and the common. Blood was sacred, inasmuch as through the shedding of the blood of the Son of God alone could there be atonement for sin. Blood was also used to cleanse the sanctuary from the sins of the people, thus typifying the blood of Christ which alone can cleanse from sin.
AG	55	6	Our Saviour declares that He brought from heaven as a donation eternal life. He was to be lifted up upon the cross of Calvary to draw all men unto Him. How then shall we treat the purchased inheritance of Christ? Tenderness, appreciation, kindness, sympathy, and love should be shown to them. Then we may work to help and bless one another. In this work we have more than human brotherhood. We have the exalted companionship of heavenly angels. They cooperate with us in the work of enlightening high and low....
AG	55	7	Christ determined in council with His Father to spare nothing, however costly, to withhold nothing however highly it might be estimated, that would rescue the poor sinner. He would give all heaven to this work of salvation, of restoring the moral image of God in man.... To be a child of God is to be one with Christ in God, and to put forth our hands in earnest, self-sacrificing love to strengthen and bless the souls that are perishing in their sins.
------------------------Abraham and His Children, February 17
AG	56	1	If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:29.
AG	56	2	Of Abraham it is written that "he was called the friend of God," "the father of all them that believe"....
AG	56	3	It was a high honor to which Abraham was called, that of being the father of the people who for centuries were the guardians and preservers of the truth of God for the world--of that people through whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed in the advent of the promised Messiah.
AG	56	4	Abraham was honored by the surrounding nations as a mighty prince and a wise and able chief. He did not shut away his influence from his neighbors. His life and character, in their marked contrast with those of the worshipers of idols, exerted a telling influence in favor of the true faith. His allegiance to God was unswerving, while his affability and benevolence inspired confidence and friendship, and his unaffected greatness commanded respect and honor.
AG	56	5	His religion was not held as a precious treasure to be jealously guarded and enjoyed solely by the possessor. True religion cannot be thus held; for such a spirit is contrary to the principles of the gospel. While Christ is dwelling in the heart, it is impossible to conceal the light of His presence, or for that light to grow dim. On the contrary, it will grow brighter and brighter as day by day the mists of selfishness and sin that envelop the soul are dispelled by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
AG	56	6	The people of God are His representatives upon the earth, and He intends that they shall be lights in the moral darkness of this world. Scattered all over the country, in the towns, cities, and villages, they are God's witnesses, the channels through which He will communicate to an unbelieving world the knowledge of His will and the wonders of His grace. It is His plan that all who are partakers of the great salvation shall be missionaries for Him. The piety of the Christian constitutes the standard by which worldlings judge the gospel. Trials patiently borne, blessings gratefully received, meekness, kindness, mercy, and love, habitually exhibited, are the lights that shine forth in the character before the world.
------------------------Citizens of Heaven, February 18
AG	57	1	Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. Ephesians 2:19.
AG	57	2	The people of God--the true Israel--though scattered throughout all nations, are on earth but sojourners, whose citizenship is in heaven.
AG	57	3	The condition of being received into the Lord's family is coming out from the world, separating from all its contaminating influences. The people of God are to have no connection with idolatry in any of its forms. They are to reach a higher standard. We are to be distinguished from the world, and then God says, "I will receive you as members of My royal family, children of the heavenly King." As believers in the truth we are to be distinct in practice from sin and sinners. Our citizenship is in heaven.
AG	57	4	We should realize more clearly the value of the promises God has made to us, and appreciate more deeply the honor He has given us. God can bestow no higher honor upon mortals than to adopt them into His family, giving them the privilege of calling Him Father. There is no degradation in becoming children of God.
AG	57	5	We are strangers and pilgrims in this world. We are to wait, watch, pray, and work. The whole mind, the whole soul, the whole heart, and the whole strength are purchased by the blood of the Son of God. We are not to feel it our duty to wear a pilgrim's dress of just such a color, just such a shape, but neat, modest apparel, that the word of inspiration teaches us we should wear. If our hearts are united with Christ's heart, we shall have a most intense desire to be clothed with His righteousness. Nothing will be put upon the person to attract attention, or to create controversy.
AG	57	6	Christianity--how many there are who do not know what it is! It is not something put on the outside. It is a life inwrought with the life of Jesus. It means that we are wearing the robe of Christ's righteousness.
AG	57	7	Citizens of heaven will make the best citizens of earth. A correct view of our duty to God leads to clear perceptions of our duty to our fellow men.
------------------------The Test of Loyalty, February 19
AG	58	1	He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. John 14:21.
AG	58	2	It is essential that every subject of the kingdom of God should be obedient to the law of Jehovah.... The fact that the law is holy, just, and good is to be testified before all nations, tongues, and peoples, to worlds unfallen, to angels, seraphim, and cherubim. The principles of the law of God were wrought out in the character of Jesus Christ, and he who cooperates with Christ, becoming a partaker of the divine nature, will develop the divine character, and become an illustration of the divine law....
AG	58	3	The more we study the attributes of the character of God as revealed in Christ, the more we see that justice has been sustained in the sacrifice that met the penalty of the law, ... in order that man might have another probation.... Those who are obedient to the law of the government of God while in this brief probation, ... will be pronounced in heaven loyal children of the Lord of Hosts....
AG	58	4	By both creation and redemption we are the Lord's property. We are absolutely His subjects, and amenable to the laws of His kingdom. Let no one foster the delusion that the Lord God of heaven and earth has no law by which to control and govern His subjects. We are dependent upon God for everything we enjoy. The food which we eat, the clothing we wear, the atmosphere we breathe, the life we enjoy from day to day, are received from God. We are under obligation to be governed by His will, to acknowledge Him as our supreme ruler....
AG	58	5	We are under a debt of gratitude to God for the revelation of His love in Christ Jesus; and as intelligent human agents, we are to reveal to the world the manner of character that will result from obedience to every specification of the law of God's government. In perfect obedience to His holy will, we are to manifest adoration, love, cheerfulness, and praise, and thus honor and glorify God. It is in this way alone that man may reveal the character of God in Christ to the world, and make manifest to men that happiness, peace, assurance, and grace come from obedience to the law of God.
------------------------God's Claims are First, February 20
AG	59	1	We ought to obey God rather than men. Acts 5:29.
AG	59	2	The message that we have to bear is not one that we need cringe to declare. Its advocates are not to seek to cover it, to conceal its origin and purpose. As those who have made solemn vows to God, and who have been commissioned as the messengers of Christ, as stewards of the mysteries of grace, we are under obligation to declare faithfully the whole counsel of God.
AG	59	3	We are not to make less prominent the special truths that have separated us from the world, and made us what we are; for they are fraught with eternal interests. God has given us light in regard to the things that are now taking place, and with pen and voice we are to proclaim the truth to the world.
AG	59	4	The Sabbath is the Lord's test, and no man, be he king, priest, or ruler, is authorized to come between God and man. Those who seek to be conscience for their fellow men, place themselves above God. Those who are under the influence of a false religion, who observe a spurious rest day, will set aside the most positive evidence in regard to the true Sabbath. They will try to compel men to obey the laws of their own creation, laws that are directly opposed to the law of God.... The law for the observance of the first day of the week is the production of an apostate Christendom.... In no case are God's people to pay it homage.
AG	59	5	The banner of truth and religious liberty held aloft by the founders of the gospel church and by God's witnesses during the centuries that have passed since then, has, in this last conflict, been committed to our hands.... We are to recognize human government as an ordinance of divine appointment, and teach obedience to it as a sacred duty, within its legitimate sphere. But when its claims conflict with the claims of God, we must obey God rather than men. God's word must be recognized as above all human legislation. A "Thus saith the Lord" is not to be set aside for a "Thus saith the church" or a "Thus saith the state." The crown of Christ is to be lifted above the diadems of earthly potentates.
------------------------Above Earthly Kingdoms, February 21
AG	60	1	Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19.
AG	60	2	The qualities which shine with greatest luster in the kingdoms of the world, have no place in Christ's spiritual kingdom. That which is highly exalted among men, and brings exaltation to its possessor, such as caste, rank, position, or wealth, is not esteemed in the spiritual kingdom. The Lord says, "Them that honour me, I will honour" (1 Samuel 2:30). In Christ's kingdom men are distinguished according to their piety....
AG	60	3	The kingdom of heaven is of a higher order than any earthly kingdom. Whether we shall have a higher position or a lower position, will not be determined by our rank, wealth, or education, but by the character of the obedience rendered to the word of God. Those who have been actuated by selfishness and human ambition, who have been striving to be greatest, who have been self-important, who have felt above confessing mistakes and errors, will have no place in the kingdom of God. Whether men will be honored as members of the royal family of God, will be determined by the manner in which they bear the test and proving of God that is brought to bear upon them in this life. Those who have not been self-denying, who have not manifested sympathy for the woes of others, who have not cultivated the precious attributes of love, who have not manifested forbearance and meekness in this life, will not be changed when Christ comes....
AG	60	4	The character which we now manifest is deciding our future destiny. The happiness of heaven will be found by conforming to the will of God, and if men become members of the royal family in heaven, it will be because heaven has begun with them on earth. They have cherished the mind of Christ, and when the call comes, "Child, come up higher," the righteous will take every grace, every precious, sanctified ability, into the courts above, and exchange earth for heaven. God knows who are the loyal and true subjects of His kingdom on earth, and those who do His will upon earth as it is done in heaven, will be made the members of the royal family above.
------------------------Blessings Through Obedience, February 22
AG	61	1	I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. Psalm 40:8.
AG	61	2	What a God is our God! He rules over His kingdom with diligence and care, and He has built a hedge--the Ten Commandments--about His subjects to preserve them from the results of transgression. In requiring obedience to the laws of His kingdom, God gives His people health and happiness, peace and joy. He teaches them that the perfection of character He requires can be attained only by becoming familiar with His Word.
AG	61	3	The true seeker, who is striving to be like Jesus in word, life, and character, will contemplate his Redeemer and, by beholding, become changed into His image, because he longs and prays for the same disposition and mind that was in Christ Jesus.... He longs after God. The history of his Redeemer, the immeasurable sacrifice that He made, becomes full of meaning to him. Christ, the Majesty of heaven, became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich; not rich merely in endowments, but rich in attainments.
AG	61	4	These are the riches that Christ earnestly longs that His followers shall possess. As the true seeker after the truth reads the Word and opens his mind to receive the Word, he longs after truth with his whole heart. The love, the pity, the tenderness, the courtesy, the Christian politeness, which will be the elements in the heavenly mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those that love Him, take possession of his soul. His purpose is steadfast. He is determined to stand on the side of righteousness. Truth has found its way into the heart, and is planted there by the Holy Spirit, who is the truth. When truth takes hold of the heart, the man gives sure evidence of this by becoming a steward of the grace of Christ.
AG	61	5	Each steward has his own special work to do for the advancement of God's kingdom.... The talents of speech, memory, influence, property, are to accumulate for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom. He will bless the right use of His gifts.
------------------------Stewards of God's Grace, February 23
AG	62	1	As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 1 Peter 4:10.
AG	62	2	The knowledge of God's grace, the truths of His Word, and temporal gifts as well--time and means, talents and influence--are all a trust from God to be employed to His glory and the salvation of men. Nothing can be more offensive to God, who is constantly bestowing His gifts upon man, than to see him selfishly grasping these gifts and making no returns to the Giver. Jesus is today in heaven preparing mansions for those who love Him; yes, more than mansions, a kingdom which is to be ours. But all who shall inherit these blessings must be partakers of the self-denial and self-sacrifice of Christ for the good of others.
AG	62	3	Never was there greater need of earnest, self-sacrificing labor in the cause of Christ than now, when the hours of probation are fast closing and the last message of mercy is to be given to the world....
AG	62	4	All that men receive of God's bounty still belongs to God. Whatever He has bestowed in the valuable and beautiful things of earth is placed in our hands to test us, to sound the depths of our love for Him and our appreciation of His favors. Whether it be the treasures of wealth or of intellect, they are to be laid, a willing offering, at the feet of Jesus....
AG	62	5	Whatever we render to God is, through His mercy and generosity, placed to our account as faithful stewards.... Angels of God, whose perceptions are unclouded by sin, recognize the endowments of heaven as bestowed with the intention that they be returned in such a way as to add to the glory of the great Giver. With the sovereignty of God is bound up the well-being of man. The glory of God is the joy and the blessing of all created beings. When we seek to promote His glory we are seeking for ourselves the highest good which it is possible for us to receive.... God calls for the consecration to His service of every faculty, of every gift, you have received from Him. He wants you to say, with David: "All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee" (1 Chronicles 29:14).
------------------------Stewards of Truth, February 24
AG	63	1	Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. Psalm 66:16.
AG	63	2	Wherever there is life, there is increase and growth; in God's kingdom there is a constant interchange--taking in, and giving out; receiving, and returning to the Lord His own. God works with every true believer, and the light and blessings received are given out again in the work which the believer does. Thus the capacity for receiving is increased. As one imparts of the heavenly gifts, he makes room for fresh currents of grace and truth to flow into the soul from the living fountain. Greater light, increased knowledge and blessing, are his. In this work, which devolves upon every church member, is the life and growth of the church. He whose life consists in ever receiving and never giving, soon loses the blessing. If truth does not flow forth from him to others, he loses his capacity to receive. We must impart the goods of heaven if we desire fresh blessings.
AG	63	3	As the knowledge of truth is imparted, it will increase. All who receive the gospel message into the heart will long to proclaim it. The heaven-born love of Christ must find expression. Those who have put on Christ will relate their experience, tracing step by step the leadings of the Holy Spirit--their hungering and thirsting for the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, the results of their searching of the Scriptures, their prayers, their soul agony, and the words of Christ to them, "Thy sins be forgiven thee."
AG	63	4	It is unnatural for any to keep these things secret, and those who are filled with the love of Christ will not do so. In proportion as the Lord has made them the depositaries of sacred truth will be their desire that others shall receive the same blessing. And as they make known the rich treasures of God's grace, more and still more of the grace of Christ will be imparted to them. They will have the heart of a little child in its simplicity and unreserved obedience. Their souls will pant after holiness and more and more of the treasures of truth and grace will be revealed to them to be given to the world.
------------------------Stewards of Strength, February 25
AG	64	1	Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Mark 12:30.
AG	64	2	To every man is committed individual gifts, termed talents. Some regard these talents as being limited to certain men who possess superior mental endowments and genius. But God has not restricted the bestowal of His talents to a favored few. To every one is committed some special endowment, for which he will be held responsible by the Lord. Time, reason, means, strength, mental powers, tenderness of heart--all are gifts from God, entrusted to be used in the great work of blessing humanity.
AG	64	3	In the capital of strength a precious talent has been entrusted to men for labor. This is of more value than any bank deposit, and should be more highly prized.... It is a blessing that cannot be purchased with gold or silver, houses or lands; and God requires it to be used wisely. No man has a right to sacrifice this talent to the corroding influence of inaction. All are as accountable for the capital of physical strength as for their capital of means....
AG	64	4	The essential lesson of contented industry in the necessary duties of life is yet to be learned by many of Christ's followers. It requires more grace, more stern discipline of character, to work for God in the capacity of mechanic, merchant, lawyer, or farmer, carrying the precepts of Christianity into the ordinary business of life, than to labor as an acknowledged missionary in the open field. It requires a strong spiritual nerve to bring religion into the workshop and the business office, sanctifying the details of everyday life, and ordering every transaction according to the standard of God's word. But this is what the Lord requires.
AG	64	5	Religion and business are not two separate things; they are one. Bible religion is to be interwoven with all we do or say. Divine and human agencies are to combine in temporal as well as in spiritual achievements.
AG	64	6	We are to love God, not only with all the heart, mind, and soul, but with all the strength. This covers the full, intelligent use of the physical powers.
------------------------Stewards of Influence, February 26
AG	65	1	Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God. Hebrews 12:12-15.
AG	65	2	These words should teach us to be very careful how we snap the thread of our faith by dwelling on our difficulties until they are large in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others, who cannot read our inner, heart life. All should remember that the conversation has a great influence for good or for ill.... Do not allow the enemy so to use your tongue.... Do not exert an influence that will break the hold of any trembling soul from God....
AG	65	3	The graces of Christ's Spirit must be cherished and revealed by the sons and daughters of God. By their humility, their penitence, their desire to be like Jesus, to be conformed to His will by practicing His lessons in their daily life, they honor Him....
AG	65	4	"Ye are God's husbandry" (1 Corinthians 3:9). As one takes pleasure in the cultivation of a garden, so God takes pleasure in His believing sons and daughters. A garden demands constant labor. The weeds must be removed; new plants must be set out; branches that are making too rapid development must be pruned back. So the Lord works for His garden, so He tends His plants. He cannot take pleasure in any development that does not reveal the graces of the character of Christ. The blood of Christ has made men and women God's precious charge. Then how careful should we be not to manifest too much freedom in pulling up the plants that God has placed in His garden! Some plants are so feeble that they have hardly any life, and for these the Lord has a special care.
AG	65	5	In all your transactions with your fellow men, never forget that you are dealing with God's property. Be kind; be pitiful; be courteous. Respect God's purchased possession. Treat one another with tenderness and courtesy. Exert every God-given faculty to become examples to others....
AG	65	6	Let Him who knows the heart and all its waywardness be able to deal with you in mercy because you have shown mercy and compassion and love.... (Hebrews 12:13).
------------------------Your Royal Birth, February 27
AG	66	1	We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. 2 Corinthians 6:1.
AG	66	2	Many who claim to be Christians are not Christians.... God takes none to heaven but those who are first made saints in this world through the grace of Christ, those in whom He can see Christ exemplified....
AG	66	3	"The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy" (James 5:11).... He looks upon His redeemed heritage with pity. He is ready to pardon their sins if they will surrender and be loyal to Him. In order to be just, and yet the justifier of the sinner, He laid the punishment of sin upon His only begotten Son.... For Christ's sake He pardons those that fear Him. He does not see in them the vileness of the sinner; He recognizes in them the likeness of His Son, in whom they believe. In this way only can God take pleasure in any of us. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12).
AG	66	4	Were it not for Christ's atoning sacrifice, there would be nothing in us in which God could delight. All the natural goodness of man is worthless in God's sight. He does not take pleasure in any man who retains his old nature, and is not so renewed in knowledge and grace that he is a new man in Christ. Our education, our talents, our means, are gifts entrusted to us by God, that He may test us. If we use them for self-glorification, God says, "I cannot delight in them; for Christ has died for them in vain"....
AG	66	5	To adorn the doctrine of Christ our Saviour, we must have the mind that was in Christ. Our likes and dislikes, our desire to be first, to favor self to the disadvantage of others, must be overcome. The peace of God must rule in our hearts. Christ must be in us a living, working principle....
AG	66	6	By your obedience to God, respect yourselves as the purchased possession of His dear Son. Seek to be uplifted in Christ. This work is as lasting as eternity.... Shall we, sons and daughters of God, forget our royal birth? Shall we not rather honor our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Shall we not show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light?
------------------------A Share in Christ's Kingdom, February 28
AG	67	1	I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Luke 22:29, 30.
AG	67	2	What a promise is this! Christ's faithful ones are to be sharers with Him in the kingdom He has received from His Father. This is a spiritual kingdom, in which those who are most active in serving their brethren are the greatest. Christ's servants, under His direction, are to administer the affairs of His kingdom. They are to eat and drink at His table, that is, be admitted to near communion with Him.
AG	67	3	Those who search for worldly distinction and glory make a sad mistake. It is the one who denies self, giving to others the preference, who will sit nearest to Christ on His throne. He who reads the heart sees the true merit possessed by His lowly, self-sacrificing disciples, and because they are worthy He places them in positions of distinction, though they do not realize their worthiness and do not seek for honor....
AG	67	4	God places no value on outward display or boasting. Many who in this life are looked upon as superior to others, will one day see that God values men according to their compassion and self-denial.... Those who follow the example of Him who went about doing good, who help and bless their fellow men, trying always to lift them up, are in God's sight infinitely higher than the selfish ones who exalt themselves.
AG	67	5	God does not accept men because of their capabilities, but because they seek His face, desiring His help. God sees not as man sees. He judges not from appearances. He searches the heart, and judges righteously....
AG	67	6	He accepts and communes with His lowly, unpretentious followers; for in them He sees the most precious material, which will stand the test of storm and tempest, heat and pressure. Our object in working for the Master should be that His name may be glorified in the conversion of sinners....
AG	67	7	Let us rejoice that the Lord does not measure the workers in His vineyard by their learning or by the educational advantages they have had. The tree is judged by its fruit. The Lord will cooperate with those who cooperate with Him.
------------------------Heaven's Highest Attraction, March 1
AG	68	1	Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16.
AG	68	2	After pointing to Christ, the compassionate intercessor who is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," the apostle says: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace...." The throne of grace represents the kingdom of grace; for the existence of a throne implies the existence of a kingdom.
AG	68	3	God's appointments and grants in our behalf are without limit. The throne of grace is itself the highest attraction because occupied by One who permits us to call Him Father. But God did not deem the principle of salvation complete while invested only with His own love. By His appointment He has placed at His altar an Advocate clothed with our nature. As our Intercessor, His office work is to introduce us to God as His sons and daughters. Christ intercedes in behalf of those who have received Him. To them He gives power, by virtue of His own merits, to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. And the Father demonstrates His infinite love for Christ, who paid our ransom with His blood, by receiving and welcoming Christ's friends as His friends. He is satisfied with the atonement made. He is glorified by the incarnation, the life, death, and mediation of His Son.
AG	68	4	No sooner does the child of God approach the mercy seat than he becomes the client of the great Advocate. At his first utterance of penitence and appeal for pardon Christ espouses his case and makes it His own, presenting the supplication before the Father as His own request.
AG	68	5	As Christ intercedes in our behalf, the Father lays open all the treasures of His grace for our appropriation, to be enjoyed and to be communicated to others. "Ask in my name," Christ says; "I do not say that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loveth you, because you have loved Me. Make use of My name. This will give your prayers efficiency, and the Father will give you the riches of His grace; wherefore, 'ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full' (John 16:24)."
------------------------Christ is Priest Upon the Throne, March 2
AG	69	1	Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Hebrews 4:14.
AG	69	2	In the temple in heaven, the dwelling place of God, His throne is established in righteousness and judgment. In the most holy place is His law, the great rule of right by which all mankind are tested. The ark that enshrines the tables of the law is covered with the mercy seat, before which Christ pleads His blood in the sinner's behalf. Thus is represented the union of justice and mercy in the plan of human redemption....
AG	69	3	As a priest, Christ is now set down with the Father in His throne. Upon the throne with the eternal, self-existent One, is He who "hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4), who "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).... "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father" (1 John 2:1). His intercession is that of a pierced and broken body, of a spotless life. The wounded hands, the pierced side, the marred feet, plead for fallen man, whose redemption was purchased at such infinite cost.
AG	69	4	The intercession of Christ in man's behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross.... Through defects in the character, Satan works to gain control of the whole mind, and he knows that if these defects are cherished, he will succeed. Therefore he is constantly seeking to deceive the followers of Christ with his fatal sophistry that it is impossible for them to overcome. But Jesus pleads in their behalf His wounded hands, His bruised body; and He declares to all who would follow Him: "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9).... Let none, then, regard their defects as incurable. God will give faith and grace to overcome them.
AG	69	5	We are now living in the great day of atonement.... All who would have their names retained in the book of life should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart.
------------------------Encircled by a Rainbow, March 3
AG	70	1	Behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne ... and there was a rainbow round about the throne. Revelation 4:2, 3.
AG	70	2	The rainbow of promise encircling the throne on high is an everlasting testimony that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). It testifies to the universe that God will never forsake His people in their struggle with evil. It is an assurance to us of strength and protection as long as the throne itself shall endure.
AG	70	3	As the bow in the cloud is formed by the union of the sunlight and the shower, so the rainbow encircling the throne represents the combined power of mercy and justice. It is not justice alone that is to be maintained; for this would eclipse the glory of the rainbow of promise above the throne; man could see only the penalty of the law. Were there no justice, no penalty, there would be no stability to the government of God.
AG	70	4	It is the mingling of judgment and mercy that makes salvation full and complete. It is the blending of the two that leads us, as we view the world's Redeemer and the law of Jehovah, to exclaim, "Thy gentleness hath made me great" (2 Samuel 22:36). We know that the gospel is a perfect and complete system, revealing the immutability of the law of God.... Mercy invites us to enter through the gates into the city of God, and justice is sacrificed to accord to every obedient soul full privileges as a member of the royal family, a child of the heavenly King.
AG	70	5	By faith let us look upon the rainbow round about the throne, the cloud of sins confessed behind it. The rainbow of promise is an assurance to every humble, contrite, believing soul, that his life is one with Christ, and that Christ is one with God. The wrath of God will not fall upon one soul that seeks refuge in Him. God Himself has declared, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." "The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant" (Exodus 12:13; Genesis 9:16).
------------------------In the Most Holy Place, March 4
AG	71	1	The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. Habakkuk 2:20.
AG	71	2	I saw a throne, and on it sat the Father and the Son. I gazed on Jesus' countenance and admired His lovely person. The Father's person I could not behold, for a cloud of glorious light covered Him. I asked Jesus if His Father had a form like Himself. He said He had, but I could not behold it, for said He, "If you should once behold the glory of His person, you would cease to exist"....
AG	71	3	I saw the Father rise from the throne, and in a flaming chariot go into the holy of holies within the veil, and sit down.... Then a cloudy chariot, with wheels like flaming fire, surrounded by angels, came to where Jesus was. He stepped into the chariot and was borne to the holiest, where the Father sat. There I beheld Jesus, a great High Priest, standing before the Father.
AG	71	4	Two lovely cherubs, one on each side of the ark, stood with their wings outstretched above it, and touching each other above the head of Jesus as He stood before the mercy seat. Their faces were turned toward each other, and they looked downward to the ark, representing all the angelic host looking with interest at the law of God. Between the cherubim was a golden censer, and as the prayers of the saints, offered in faith, came up to Jesus, and He presented them to His Father, a cloud of fragrance arose from the incense, looking like smoke of most beautiful colors. Above the place where Jesus stood, before the ark, was exceedingly bright glory that I could not look upon; it appeared like the throne of God.
AG	71	5	Our crucified Lord is pleading for us in the presence of the Father at the throne of grace. His atoning sacrifice we may plead for our pardon, our justification, and our sanctification. The lamb slain is our only hope. Our faith looks up to Him, grasps Him as the One who can save to the uttermost, and the fragrance of the all-sufficient offering is accepted of the Father.... Christ's glory is concerned in our success. He has a common interest in all humanity. He is our sympathizing Saviour.
------------------------Guarded by Seraphim, March 5
AG	72	1	I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Isaiah 6:1.
AG	72	2	When God was about to send Isaiah with a message to His people, He first permitted the prophet to look in vision into the holy of holies within the sanctuary. Suddenly the gate and the inner veil of the temple seemed to be uplifted or withdrawn, and he was permitted to gaze within, upon the holy of holies, where even the prophet's feet might not enter. There rose before him a vision of Jehovah sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, while the train of His glory filled the temple. Around the throne were seraphim, as guards about the great King, and they reflected the glory that surrounded them. As their songs of praise resounded in deep notes of adoration, the pillars of the gate trembled, as if shaken by an earthquake. With lips unpolluted by sin, these angels poured forth the praises of God. "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts," they cried: "the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isaiah 6:3).
AG	72	3	The seraphim around the throne are so filled with reverential awe as they behold the glory of God, that they do not for an instant look upon themselves with admiration. Their praise is for the Lord of hosts. As they look into the future, when the whole earth shall be filled with His glory, the triumphant song is echoed from one to another in melodious chant, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." They are fully satisfied to glorify God; abiding in His presence, beneath His smile of approbation, they wish for nothing more.
AG	72	4	The world that Satan has claimed and has ruled over with cruel tyranny, the Son of God has, by one vast achievement, encircled in His love and connected again with the throne of Jehovah. Cherubim and seraphim, and the unnumbered hosts of all the unfallen worlds, sang anthems of praise to God and the Lamb when this triumph was assured. They rejoiced that the way of salvation had been opened to the fallen race and that the earth would be redeemed from the curse of sin. How much more should those rejoice who are the objects of such amazing love! How can we ever be in doubt and uncertainty, and feel that we are orphans?
------------------------Founded on Righteousness, March 6
AG	73	1	Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Psalm 97:2, N.E.B.
AG	73	2	In all His dealings with His creatures God has maintained the principles of righteousness by revealing sin in its true character--by demonstrating that its sure result is misery and death. The unconditional pardon of sin never has been, and never will be. Such pardon would show the abandonment of the principles of righteousness, which are the very foundation of the government of God. It would fill the unfallen universe with consternation. God has faithfully pointed out the results of sin, and if these warnings were not true, how could we be sure that His promises would be fulfilled? That so-called benevolence which would set aside justice, is not benevolence, but weakness.
AG	73	3	God is the life-giver. From the beginning, all His laws were ordained to life. But sin broke in upon the order that God had established, and discord followed. So long as sin exists, suffering and death are inevitable. It is only because the Redeemer has borne the curse of sin in our behalf, that man can hope to escape, in his own person, its dire results.
AG	73	4	We are to accept of Christ as our personal Saviour, and He imputes unto us the righteousness of God in Christ.... "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10).
AG	73	5	In the love of God has been opened the most marvelous vein of precious truth, and the treasures of the grace of Christ are laid open before the church and the world.... What love is this, what marvelous, unfathomable love that would lead Christ to die for us while we were yet sinners. What a loss it is to the soul who understands the strong claims of the law, and who yet fails to understand the grace of Christ which doth much more abound.... Look at the cross of Calvary. It is a standing pledge of the boundless love, the measureless mercy of the heavenly Father.
AG	73	6	There is a God in Israel, with whom is deliverance for all that are oppressed. Righteousness is the habitation of His throne.
------------------------Established in Justice and Judgment, March 7
AG	74	1	Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Psalm 89:14.
AG	74	2	Through Jesus, God's mercy was manifested to men; but mercy does not set aside justice. The law reveals the attributes of God's character, and not a jot or tittle of it could be changed to meet man in his fallen condition. God did not change His law, but He sacrificed Himself, in Christ, for man's redemption. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19)....
AG	74	3	God's love has been expressed in His justice no less than in His mercy. Justice is the foundation of His throne, and the fruit of His love. It had been Satan's purpose to divorce mercy from truth and justice. He sought to prove that the righteousness of God's law is an enemy to peace. But Christ shows that in God's plan they are indissolubly joined together; the one cannot exist without the other. "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalm 85:10).
AG	74	4	By His life and His death, Christ proved that God's justice did not destroy His mercy, but that sin could be forgiven, and that the law is righteous, and can be perfectly obeyed. Satan's charges were refuted.
AG	74	5	The grace of Christ and the law of God are inseparable. In Jesus mercy and truth are met together.... He was the representative of God and the exemplar of humanity. He presented to the world what humanity might become when united by faith with divinity. The only-begotten Son of God took upon Him the nature of man, and established His cross between earth and heaven. Through the cross, man was drawn to God, and God to man. Justice moved from its high and awful position, and the heavenly hosts, the armies of holiness, drew near to the cross, bowing with reverence; for at the cross justice was satisfied. Through the cross the sinner was drawn from the stronghold of sin, from the confederacy of evil, and at every approach to the cross his heart relents and in penitence he cries, "It was my sins that crucified the Son of God." At the cross he leaves his sins, and through the grace of Christ his character is transformed.
------------------------Fountain of Life and Power, March 8
AG	75	1	Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Revelation 5:13.
AG	75	2	God desires His obedient children to claim His blessing and to come before Him with praise and thanksgiving. God is the Fountain of life and power.... He has done for His chosen people that which should inspire every heart with thanksgiving, and it grieves Him that so little praise is offered. He desires to have a stronger expression from His people, showing that they know they have reason for joy and gladness.
AG	75	3	The dealings of God with His people should be often repeated. How frequently were the waymarks set up by the Lord in His dealings with ancient Israel! Lest they should forget the history of the past, He commanded Moses to frame these events into song, that parents might teach them to their children.... For His people in this generation the Lord has wrought as a wonder-working God. The past history of the cause of God needs to be often brought before the people, young and old. We need often to recount God's goodness and to praise Him for His wonderful works....
AG	75	4	The church of God below is one with the church of God above. Believers on the earth and the beings in heaven who have never fallen constitute one church. Every heavenly intelligence is interested in the assemblies of the saints who on earth meet to worship God. In the inner court of heaven they listen to the testimony of the witnesses for Christ in the outer court on earth, and the praise and thanksgiving from the worshipers below is taken up in the heavenly anthem, and praise and rejoicing sound through the heavenly courts because Christ has not died in vain for the fallen sons of Adam. While angels drink from the fountainhead, the saints on earth drink of the pure streams flowing from the throne, the streams that make glad the city of our God. Oh, that we could all realize the nearness of heaven to earth! ... In every assembly of the saints below are angels of God, listening to the testimonies, songs, and prayers. Let us remember that our praises are supplemented by the choirs of the angelic host above.
------------------------Center of Worship, March 9
AG	76	1	I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving-kindness and for thy truth. Psalm 138:2.
AG	76	2	The bright and cheerful side of our religion will be represented by all who are daily consecrated to God.... While we review, not the dark chapters in our experience, but the manifestations of God's great mercy and unfailing love, we shall praise far more than complain. We shall talk of the loving faithfulness of God as the true, tender, compassionate shepherd of His flock, which He has declared that none shall pluck out of His hand. The language of the heart will not be selfish murmuring and repining. Praise, like clear-flowing streams, will come from God's truly believing ones....
AG	76	3	The temple of God is opened in heaven, and the threshold is flushed with the glory of God which is for every church that will love God and keep His commandments. We need to study, to meditate, and to pray. Then we shall have spiritual eyesight to discern the inner courts of the celestial temple. We shall catch the themes of song and thanksgiving of the heavenly choir round about the throne. When Zion shall arise and shine, her light will be most penetrating, and precious songs of praise and thanksgiving will be heard in the assemblies of the saints. Murmuring and complaining over little disappointments and difficulties will cease.... We shall see our Advocate offering up the incense of His own merits in our behalf....
AG	76	4	God teaches that we should assemble in His house to cultivate the attributes of perfect love. This will fit the dwellers of earth for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for all who love Him. There they will assemble in the sanctuary from Sabbath to Sabbath, from one new moon to another, to unite in loftiest strains of song, in praise and thanksgiving to Him who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever.
AG	76	5	Our God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, declares: "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me" (Psalm 50:23). All heaven unite in praising God. Let us learn the song of the angels now, that we may sing it when we join their shining ranks. Let us say with the psalmist: "While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being" (Psalm 146:2).
------------------------Source of Compassion and Mercy, March 10
AG	77	1	Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Psalm 45:6.
AG	77	2	Though now He has ascended to the presence of God, and shares the throne of the universe, Jesus has lost none of His compassionate nature. Today, the same tender, sympathizing heart is open to all the woes of humanity. Today the hand that was pierced is reached forth to bless more abundantly His people that are in the world....
AG	77	3	Through all our trials we have a never-failing Helper. He does not leave us alone to struggle with temptation, to battle with evil, and be finally crushed with burdens and sorrow. Though now He is hidden from mortal sight, the ear of faith can hear His voice saying, Fear not; I am with you. "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore" (Revelation 1:18).
AG	77	4	Those who put away iniquity from their hearts and stretch out their hands in earnest supplication unto God will have that help which God alone can give them. A ransom has been paid for the souls of men, that they may have an opportunity to escape from the thralldom of sin and obtain pardon, purity, and heaven.... Those who frequent the throne of grace, offering up sincere, earnest petitions for divine wisdom and power, will not fail to become active, useful servants of Christ. They may not possess great talents, but with humility of heart and firm reliance upon Jesus they may do a good work in bringing souls to Christ....
AG	77	5	Thousands have a false conception of God and His attributes.... God is a God of truth. Justice and mercy are the attributes of His throne. He is a God of love, of pity and tender compassion. Thus He is represented in His Son, our Saviour. He is a God of patience and long-suffering. If such is the being whom we adore and to whose character we are seeking to assimilate, we are worshiping the true God.
AG	77	6	If we are following Christ, His merits, imputed to us, come up before the Father as sweet odor. And the graces of our Saviour's character, implanted in our hearts, will shed around us a precious fragrance.
------------------------A Sympathizing High Priest, March 11
AG	78	1	Thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right. Psalm 9:4.
AG	78	2	We do not understand the greatness and majesty of God nor remember the immeasurable distance between the Creator and the creatures formed by His hand. He who sitteth in the heavens, swaying the scepter of the universe, does not judge according to our finite standard, nor reckon according to our computation. We are in error if we think that that which is great to us must be great to God, and that that which is small to us must be small to Him....
AG	78	3	No sin is small in the sight of God. The sins which man is disposed to look upon as small may be the very ones which God accounts as great crimes. The drunkard is despised and is told that his sin will exclude him from heaven, while pride, selfishness, and covetousness go unrebuked. But these are sins that are especially offensive to God.... We need clear discernment, that we may measure sin by the Lord's standard.
AG	78	4	Now, while probation lingers, it does not become one to pronounce sentence upon others and look to himself as a model man. Christ is our model; imitate Him, plant your feet in His steps. You may professedly believe every point of present truth, but unless you practice these truths it will avail you nothing. We are not to condemn others; this is not our work; but we should love one another and pray for one another. When we see one err from the truth, then we may weep over him as Christ wept over Jerusalem. Let us see what our heavenly Father in His word says about the erring: "If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted" (Galatians 6:1)....
AG	78	5	Jesus cares for each one as though there were not another individual on the face of the earth. As Deity He exerts mighty power in our behalf, while as our Elder Brother He feels for all our woes. The Majesty of heaven held not Himself aloof from degraded, sinful humanity. We have not a high priest who is so high, so lifted up, that He cannot notice us or sympathize with us, but one who was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
------------------------Christ Shares His Father's Throne, March 12
AG	79	1	The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Psalm 110:1.
AG	79	2	The love of the Father toward a fallen race is unfathomable, indescribable, without a parallel. This love led Him to consent to give His only begotten Son to die, that rebellious man might be brought into harmony with the government of Heaven, and be saved from the penalty of his transgression. The Son of God stepped down from His royal throne, and for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. He became "a Man of sorrows," that we might be made partakers of everlasting joy.... God permitted His beloved Son, full of grace and truth, to come from a world of indescribable glory to a world marred and blighted with sin, shadowed with the shadow of death and the curse.
AG	79	3	Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is acquainted with our trials, and sympathizes with our griefs. Every son and daughter of Adam may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners. For in every doctrine of grace, every promise of joy, every deed of love, every divine attraction presented in the Saviour's life on earth, we see "God with us" (Matthew 1:23)....
AG	79	4	By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey.... The Child of Bethlehem, the meek and lowly Saviour, is God "manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16).... "God with us" is the surety of our deliverance from sin, the assurance of our power to obey the law of heaven....
AG	79	5	In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us.... "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:" ... (Isaiah 9:6). God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven. It is the "Son of man" who shares the throne of the universe.... In Christ the family of earth and the family of heaven are bound together. Christ glorified is our brother. Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love.
------------------------God's Law is Linked with His Throne, March 13
AG	80	1	Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Psalm 119:18.
AG	80	2	God has given His holy law to man as His measure of character. By this law you may see and overcome every defect in your character. You may sever yourself from every idol, and link yourself to the throne of God by the golden chain of grace and truth.
AG	80	3	The moral law was never a type or a shadow. It existed before man's creation, and will endure as long as God's throne remains. God could not change nor alter one precept of His law in order to save man; for the law is the foundation of His government. It is unchangeable, unalterable, infinite, and eternal. In order for man to be saved, and for the honor of the law to be maintained, it was necessary for the Son of God to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us, He died for us on Calvary. His death shows the wonderful love of God for man, and the immutability of His law....
AG	80	4	The glory of Christ is revealed in the law, which is a transcript of His character, and His transforming efficacy is felt upon the soul until men become changed to His likeness. They are made partakers of the divine nature, and grow more and more like their Saviour, advancing step by step in conformity to the will of God, till they reach perfection.
AG	80	5	The law of God was not given to the Jews alone. It is of world-wide and perpetual obligation.... Its ten precepts are like a chain of ten links. If one is broken, the chain becomes worthless. Not a single precept can be revoked or changed to save the transgressor.
AG	80	6	Christ designs that heaven's order, heaven's plan of government, heaven's divine harmony, shall be represented in His church on earth. Thus in His people He is glorified. Through them the Sun of Righteousness will shine in undimmed luster to the world.... The church, endowed with the righteousness of Christ, is His depositary, in which the riches of His mercy, His grace, and His love, are to appear in full and final display. Christ looks upon His people in their purity and perfection, as the reward of His humiliation, and the supplement of His glory--Christ, the great Center, from whom radiates all glory.
------------------------Help in Resisting Temptation, March 14
AG	81	1	Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Revelation 3:10.
AG	81	2	All heaven is interested in the work going on in this world, which is to prepare men and women for the future, immortal life. It is God's plan that human agencies shall have the high honor of acting as co-workers with Jesus Christ in the salvation of souls.... They should look upon the work of God as sacred and holy, and should bring to Him, every day, offerings of joy and gratitude, in return for the power of His grace, by which they are enabled to make advancement in the divine life....
AG	81	3	It is not necessary that anyone should yield to the temptations of Satan and thus violate his conscience and grieve the Holy Spirit. Every provision has been made in the Word of God whereby all may have divine help in their endeavors to overcome.
AG	81	4	In the religious life of every soul who is finally victorious there will be scenes of terrible perplexity and trial; but his knowledge of the Scriptures will enable him to bring to mind the encouraging promises of God, which will comfort his heart and strengthen his faith in the power of the Mighty One. He reads: ... "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ..." (1 Peter 1:7). The trial of faith is more precious than gold. All should learn that this is a part of the discipline in the school of Christ, which is essential to purify and refine them from the dross of earthliness....
AG	81	5	Summon all your powers to look up, not down at your difficulties; then you will never faint by the way. You will soon see Jesus behind the cloud, reaching out His hand to help you; and all you have to do is to give Him your hand in simple faith and let Him lead you.... A great name among men is as letters traced in sand, but a spotless character will endure to all eternity. God gives you intelligence and a reasoning mind, whereby you may grasp His promises; and Jesus is ready to help you in forming a strong, symmetrical character.
------------------------Where Sins May Be Blotted Out, March 15
AG	82	1	I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Isaiah 43:25.
AG	82	2	Some seem to feel that they must be on probation, and must prove to the Lord that they are reformed, before they can claim His blessing. But they may claim the blessing of God even now. They must have His grace, the spirit of Christ, to help their infirmities, or they cannot resist evil. Jesus loves to have us come to Him just as we are, sinful, helpless, dependent. We may come with all our weakness, our folly, our sinfulness, and fall at His feet in penitence. It is His glory to encircle us in the arms of His love and to bind up our wounds, to cleanse us from all impurity.
AG	82	3	Here is where thousands fail; they do not believe that Jesus pardons them personally, individually. They do not take God at His word. It is the privilege of all who comply with the conditions to know for themselves that pardon is freely extended for every sin. Put away the suspicion that God's promises are not meant for you. They are for every repentant transgressor. Strength and grace have been provided through Christ to be brought by ministering angels to every believing soul. None are so sinful that they cannot find strength, purity, and righteousness in Jesus, who died for them. He is waiting to strip them of their garments stained and polluted with sin, and to put upon them the white robes of righteousness; He bids them live and not die....
AG	82	4	With the rich promises of the Bible before you, can you give place to doubt? Can you believe that when the poor sinner longs to return, longs to forsake his sins, the Lord sternly withholds him from coming to His feet in repentance? Away with such thoughts! Nothing can hurt your own soul more than to entertain such a conception of our heavenly Father. He hates sin, but He loves the sinner.... As you read the promises, remember they are the expression of unutterable love and pity. The great heart of Infinite Love is drawn toward the sinner with boundless compassion.... He wants to restore His moral image in man. As you draw near to Him with confession and repentance, He will draw near to you with mercy and forgiveness.
------------------------Where We Find Deliverance from Sin, March 16
AG	83	1	Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13, 14.
AG	83	2	The Prince of heaven has placed man in an exalted position. His life has been valued at the cost of Calvary's cross.... From the depths of sin's degradation, we may be exalted to become heirs with Christ, the sons of God, and kings and priests unto the Most High....
AG	83	3	When Christ bowed on the banks of Jordan, after His baptism, the heavens, were opened, and the Spirit descended in the form of a dove, like burnished gold, and encircled Him with its glory; and the voice of God from the highest heaven was heard, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). The prayer of Christ in man's behalf opened the gates of heaven, and the Father had responded, accepting the petition for the fallen race. Jesus prayed as our substitute and surety, and now the human family may find access to the Father through the merits of His well-beloved Son.... Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). The gate of heaven has been left ajar, and the radiance from the throne of God shines into the hearts of those who love Him.
AG	83	4	The word that was spoken to Jesus at the Jordan.... embraces humanity. God spoke to Jesus as our representative. With all our sins and weaknesses, we are not cast aside as worthless.... The glory that rested upon Christ is a pledge of the love of God for us. It tells us of the power of prayer--how the human voice may reach the ear of God, and our petition find acceptance in the courts of heaven. By sin, earth was cut off from heaven, and alienated from its communion; but Jesus has connected it again with the sphere of glory. His love has encircled man, and reached the highest heaven. The light which fell from the open portals upon the head of our Saviour will fall upon us as we pray for help to resist temptation. The voice which spoke to Jesus says to every believing soul, This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.... Our Redeemer has opened the way so that the most sinful, the most needy, ... may find access to the Father. All may have a home in the mansions which Jesus has gone to prepare.
------------------------Accessible to All, March 17
AG	84	1	In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Ephesians 3:12.
AG	84	2	Many who are sincerely seeking for holiness of heart and purity of life seem perplexed and discouraged.... Darkness and discouragement will sometimes come upon the soul and threaten to overwhelm us, but we should not cast away our confidence. We must keep the eye fixed on Jesus, feeling or no feeling. We should seek to faithfully perform every known duty, and then calmly rest in the promises of God.
AG	84	3	At times a deep sense of our unworthiness will send a thrill of terror through the soul, but this is no evidence that God has changed toward us, or we toward God. No effort should be made to rein the mind up to a certain intensity of emotion. We may not feel today the peace and joy which we felt yesterday; but we should by faith grasp the hand of Christ, and trust Him as fully in the darkness as in the light.
AG	84	4	Satan may whisper, "You are too great a sinner for Christ to save." While you acknowledge that you are indeed sinful and unworthy, you may meet the tempter with the cry, "By virtue of the atonement, I claim Christ as my Saviour. I trust not to my own merits, but to the precious blood of Jesus, which cleanses me. This moment I hang my helpless soul on Christ"....
AG	84	5	Be not discouraged because your heart seems hard. Every obstacle, every internal foe, only increases your need of Christ. He came to take away the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh. Look to Him for special grace to overcome your peculiar faults. When assailed by temptation, steadfastly resist the evil promptings.... Cry to the dear Saviour for help to sacrifice every idol and to put away every darling sin. Let the eye of faith see Jesus standing before the Father's throne, presenting His wounded hands as He pleads for you. Believe that strength comes to you through your precious Saviour....
AG	84	6	If we would permit our minds to dwell more upon Christ and the heavenly world, we should find a powerful stimulus and support in fighting the battles of the Lord.... Beside the loveliness of Christ, all earthly attractions will seem of little worth.
------------------------Christ's Name Our Password, March 18
AG	85	1	Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 14:13.
AG	85	2	Through Christ we may present our petitions at the throne of grace. Through Him, unworthy as we are, we may obtain all spiritual blessings.
AG	85	3	Make your requests known to your Maker. Never is one repulsed who comes to Him with a contrite heart. Not one sincere prayer is lost. Amid the anthems of the celestial choir, God hears the cries of the weakest human being. We pour out our heart's desire in our closets, we breathe a prayer as we walk by the way, and our words reach the throne of the Monarch of the universe. They may be inaudible to any human ear, but they cannot die away into silence, nor can they be lost through the activities of business that are going on. Nothing can drown the soul's desire. It rises above the din of the street, above the confusion of the multitude, to the heavenly courts. It is God to whom we are speaking, and our prayer is heard.
AG	85	4	"Ask in my name," Christ says.... Christ is the connecting link between God and man. He has promised His personal intercession. He places the whole virtue of His righteousness on the side of the suppliant. He pleads for man, and man, in need of divine help, pleads for himself in the presence of God, using the influence of the One who gave His life for the life of the world. As we acknowledge before God our appreciation of Christ's merits, fragrance is given to our intercessions. As we approach God through the virtue of the Redeemer's merits, Christ places us close by His side, encircling us with His human arm, while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the Infinite....
AG	85	5	Yes, Christ has become the medium of prayer between man and God. He has also become the medium of blessing between God and man. He has united divinity with humanity....
AG	85	6	Pray, yes, pray with unshaken faith and trust. The Angel of the covenant, even our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Mediator who secures the acceptance of the prayers of His believing ones.
------------------------Prayers Like Fragrant Incense, March 19
AG	86	1	Another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. Revelation 8:3.
AG	86	2	True prayer takes hold upon Omnipotence and gives us the victory. Upon his knees the Christian obtains strength to resist temptation.... The silent, fervent prayer of the soul will rise like holy incense to the throne of grace and will be as acceptable to God as if offered in the sanctuary. To all who thus seek Him, Christ becomes a present help in time of need. They will be strong in the day of trial.
AG	86	3	It is a wonderful favor for any man in this life to be commended of God as was Cornelius. And what was the ground of this approval?--"Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God" (Acts 10:4).
AG	86	4	Neither prayer nor almsgiving has any virtue in itself to recommend the sinner to God; the grace of Christ, through His atoning sacrifice, can alone renew the heart and make our service acceptable to God. This grace had moved upon the heart of Cornelius. The Spirit of Christ had spoken to his soul; Jesus had drawn him, and he had yielded to the drawing. His prayers and alms were not urged or extorted from him; they were not a price he was seeking to pay in order to secure heaven; but they were the fruit of love and gratitude to God.
AG	86	5	Such prayer from a sincere heart ascends as incense before the Lord; and offerings to His cause and gifts to the needy and suffering are a sacrifice well pleasing to Him....
AG	86	6	Prayer and almsgiving are closely linked together--the expression of love to God and to our fellow men. They are the outworking of the two great principles of the divine law,"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength"; and, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Mark 12:30, 31). Thus while our gifts cannot recommend us to God or earn His favor, they are an evidence that we have received the grace of Christ. They are a test of the sincerity of our profession of love.
------------------------Press Your Case, March 20
AG	87	1	I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely. Hosea 14:4.
AG	87	2	I hope that none will obtain the idea that they are earning the favor of God by confession of sins or that there is special virtue in confessing to human beings.... The Lord would have us come to Him daily with all our troubles and confessions of sin, and He can give us rest....
AG	87	3	Confess your secret sins alone before your God. Acknowledge your heart wanderings to Him who knows perfectly how to treat your case. If you have wronged your neighbor, acknowledge to him your sin and show fruit of the same by making restitution. Then claim the blessing. Come to God just as you are, and let Him heal all your infirmities. Press your case to the throne of grace; let the work be thorough. Be sincere in dealing with God and your own soul. If you come to Him with a heart truly contrite, He will give you the victory.... He will not misapprehend or misjudge you.
AG	87	4	Your fellow men cannot absolve you from sin or cleanse you from iniquity. Jesus is the only One who can give you peace. He loved you and gave Himself for you. His great heart of love is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15). What sins are too great for Him to pardon? what soul too dark and sin-oppressed for Him to save? He is gracious, not looking for merit in us, but of His own boundless goodness healing our backslidings and loving us freely, while we are yet sinners. He is "slow to anger, and of great kindness" (Nehemiah 9:17).
AG	87	5	There is a remedy for the sin-sick soul. That remedy is in Jesus. Precious Saviour! His grace is sufficient for the weakest; and the strongest must also have His grace or perish.
AG	87	6	I saw how this grace could be obtained. Go to your closet and there alone plead with God. "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). Be in earnest, be sincere. Fervent prayer availeth much. Jacob-like, wrestle in prayer. Agonize. Jesus in the garden sweat great drops of blood; you must make an effort. Do not leave your closet until you feel strong in God; then watch, and just as long as you watch and pray, you can keep these evil besetments under, and the grace of God can, and will, appear in you.
------------------------Elijah's Example, March 21
AG	88	1	Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. James 5:17, 18.
AG	88	2	When upon Mount Carmel he [Elijah] offered the prayer for rain (1 Kings 18:41-45), his faith was tested, but he persevered in making known his request unto God. Six times he prayed earnestly, and yet there was no sign that his petition was granted, but with a strong faith he urged his plea to the throne of grace. Had he given up in discouragement at the sixth time, his prayer would not have been answered, but he persevered till the answer came. We have a God whose ear is not closed to our petitions; and if we prove His Word, He will honor our faith. He wants us to have all our interests interwoven with His interests, and then He can safely bless us; for we shall not then take glory to self when the blessing is ours, but shall render all the praise to God. God does not always answer our prayers the first time we call upon Him; for should He do this, we might take it for granted that we had a right to all the blessings and favors He bestowed upon us. Instead of searching our hearts to see if any evil was entertained by us, any sin indulged, we should become careless, and fail to recognize our dependence upon Him, and our need of His help.
AG	88	3	The servant watched while Elijah prayed. Six times he returned from the watch, saying, There is nothing, no cloud, no sign of rain. But the prophet did not give up in discouragement.... As he searched his heart, he seemed to be less and less, both in his own estimation and in the sight of God.... And when he reached the point of renouncing self, while he clung to the Saviour as his only strength and righteousness, the answer came. The servant appeared, and said, "Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand."
AG	88	4	Elijah did not wait for the heavens to gather blackness. In that small cloud, he beheld by faith an abundance of rain; and he acted in harmony with his faith.... Faith such as this is needed in the world today--faith that will lay hold on the promises of God's word, and refuse to let go until Heaven hears.
------------------------When Affliction Comes, March 22
AG	89	1	When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 2 Chronicles 33:12.
AG	89	2	"In the world ye shall have tribulation" (John 16:33), says Christ; but in Me ye shall have peace. The trials to which Christians are subjected in sorrow, adversity, and reproach are the means appointed of God to separate the chaff from the wheat. Our pride, selfishness, evil passions, and love of worldly pleasure must all be overcome; therefore God sends us afflictions to test and prove us, and show us that these evils exist in our characters. We must overcome through His strength and grace, that we may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. "For our light affliction," says Paul, "which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18). Afflictions, crosses, temptations, adversity, and our varied trials are God's workmen to refine us, sanctify us, and fit us for the heavenly garner.
AG	89	3	Many of your afflictions have been visited upon you, in the wisdom of God, to bring you closer to the throne of grace. He softens and subdues His children by sorrows and trials. This world is God's workshop, where He fashions us for the courts of heaven. He uses the planing knife upon our quivering hearts until the roughness and irregularities are removed and we are fitted for our proper places in the heavenly building. Through tribulation and distress the Christian becomes purified and strengthened, and develops a character after the model that Christ has given.
AG	89	4	Let the afflictions which pain us so grievously become instructive lessons, teaching us to press forward toward the mark of the prize of our high calling in Christ. Let us be encouraged by the thought that the Lord is soon to come. Let this hope gladden our hearts.
------------------------Sharing Christ's Suffering, March 23
AG	90	1	Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:13.
AG	90	2	To have strength we must have exercise. To have strong faith, we must be placed in circumstances where our faith will be exercised.... It is through much tribulation that we are to enter the kingdom of God. Our Saviour was tried in every possible way, and yet He triumphed in God continually. It is our privilege to be strong in the strength of God under all circumstances and to glory in the cross of Christ.
AG	90	3	In this life we must meet fiery trials and make costly sacrifices, but the peace of Christ is the reward. There has been so little self-denial, so little suffering for Christ's sake, that the cross is almost entirely forgotten. We must be partakers with Christ of His sufferings if we would sit down in triumph with Him on His throne.
AG	90	4	Heaven is very near those who suffer for righteousness' sake. Christ identifies His interests with the interests of His faithful people; He suffers in the person of His saints, and whoever touches His chosen ones touches Him. The power that is near to deliver from physical harm or distress is also near to save from the greater evil, making it possible for the servant of God to maintain his integrity under all circumstances, and to triumph through divine grace.
AG	90	5	Persecution should bring joy to the disciples of Christ, for it is an evidence that they are following in the steps of their Master.
AG	90	6	While the Lord has not promised His people exemption from trials, He has promised that which is far better. He has said, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25). "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). If you are called to go through the fiery furnace for His sake, Jesus will be by your side even as He was with the faithful three in Babylon. Those who love their Redeemer will rejoice at every opportunity of sharing with Him humiliation and reproach. The love they bear their Lord makes suffering for His sake sweet.
------------------------Come with Reverence, March 24
AG	91	1	Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Hebrews 12:28.
AG	91	2	There should be an intelligent knowledge of how to come to God in reverence and godly fear with devotional love. There is a growing lack of reverence for our Maker, a growing disregard of His greatness and His majesty. But God is speaking to us in these last days. We hear His voice in the storm, in the rolling thunder. We hear of calamities He permits in the earthquakes, the breaking forth of waters, and the destructive elements sweeping all before them.
AG	91	3	In these perilous times, those who profess to be God's commandment-keeping people should guard against the tendency to lose the spirit of reverence and godly fear. The Scriptures teach men how to approach their Maker--with humility and awe, through faith in a divine Mediator. Let man come on bended knee, as a subject of grace, a suppliant at the footstool of mercy. Thus he is to testify that the whole soul, body, and spirit are in subjection to his Creator.
AG	91	4	Both in public and in private worship, it is our duty [There are instances where Ellen White stood at the desk while offering prayers of consecration during church services.] to bow upon our knees before God when we offer our petitions to Him. Jesus, our example, "kneeled down, and prayed." And of His disciples it is recorded that they, too, "kneeled down, and prayed." Stephen "kneeled." Paul declared: "I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 3:14). In confessing before God the sins of Israel, Ezra knelt. Daniel "kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God" (Daniel 6:10). And the invitation of the psalmist is: "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker" (Psalm 95:6).
AG	91	5	"What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul?" (Deuteronomy 10:12).... "The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy" (Psalm 33:18). "By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life" (Proverbs 22:4).
------------------------Come in Humility and Holy Fear, March 25
AG	92	1	God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. Psalm 89:7.
AG	92	2	Humility and reverence should characterize the deportment of all who come into the presence of God. In the name of Jesus we may come before Him with confidence, but we must not approach Him with the boldness of presumption, as though He were on a level with ourselves. There are those who address the great and all-powerful and holy God, who dwelleth in light unapproachable, as they would address an equal, or even an inferior. There are those who conduct themselves in His house as they would not presume to do in the audience-chamber of an earthly ruler. These should remember that they are in His sight whom seraphim adore, before whom angels veil their faces. God is greatly to be reverenced; all who truly realize His presence will bow in humility before Him.
AG	92	3	Some think it a mark of humility to pray to God in a common manner, as if talking with a human being. They profane His name by needlessly and irreverently mingling with their prayers the words, "God Almighty"--awful, sacred words, which should never pass the lips except in subdued tones and with a feeling of awe....
AG	92	4	It is the heartfelt prayer of faith that is heard in heaven and answered on earth. God understands the needs of humanity. He knows what we desire before we ask Him. He sees the soul's conflict with doubt and temptation. He marks the sincerity of the suppliant. He will accept the humiliation and affliction of the soul. "To this man will I look," He declares, "even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."
AG	92	5	It is our privilege to pray with confidence, the Spirit inditing our petitions. With simplicity we should state our needs to the Lord, and claim His promise....
AG	92	6	Our prayers should be full of tenderness and love. When we yearn for a deeper, broader realization of the Saviour's love, we shall cry to God for more wisdom. If ever there was a need of soul-stirring prayers and sermons, it is now. The end of all things is at hand. O that we could see as we should the necessity of seeking the Lord with all the heart! Then we should find Him. May God teach His people how to pray.
------------------------A Sacred Experience, March 26
AG	93	1	Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. Psalm 33:8.
AG	93	2	Holy angels have been displeased and disgusted with the irreverent manner in which many have used the name of God, the great Jehovah. Angels mention that sacred name with the greatest awe, ever veiling their faces when they speak the name of God; and the name of Christ is so sacred to them that they speak it with the greatest reverence.
AG	93	3	True reverence for God is inspired by a sense of His infinite greatness and a realization of His presence. With this sense of the Unseen, every heart should be deeply impressed. The hour and place of prayer are sacred, because God is there. And as reverence is manifested in attitude and demeanor, the feeling that inspires it will be deepened. "Holy and reverend is his name," the psalmist declares. Angels, when they speak that name, veil their faces. With what reverence, then, should we, who are fallen and sinful, take it upon our lips!
AG	93	4	Well would it be for young and old to study and ponder and often repeat those words of Holy Writ that show how the place marked by God's special presence should be regarded. "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet," He commanded Moses at the burning bush; "for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). Jacob, after beholding the vision of the angels, exclaimed, "The Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.... This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Genesis 28:16, 17). "The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him" (Habakkuk 2:20).
AG	93	5	"The Lord is a great God, And a great King above all gods.... O come, let us worship and bow down: Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." "It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, And into his courts with praise: Be thankful unto him, and bless his name." (Psalm 95:3-6; 100:3, 4).
------------------------A Hallowed Name, March 27
AG	94	1	Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Matthew 6:9.
AG	94	2	To hallow the name of the Lord requires that the words in which we speak of the Supreme Being be uttered with reverence. "Holy and reverend is his name" (Psalm 111:9). We are never in any manner to treat lightly the titles or appellations of the Deity. In prayer we enter the audience chamber of the Most High; and we should come before Him with holy awe. The angels veil their faces in His presence. The cherubim and the bright and holy seraphim approach His throne with solemn reverence. How much more should we, finite, sinful beings, come in a reverent manner before the Lord, our Maker!
AG	94	3	But to hallow the name of the Lord means much more than this. We may, like the Jews in Christ's day, manifest the greatest outward reverence for God, and yet profane His name continually. "The name of the Lord" is "merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, ... forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" (Exodus 34:5-7). Of the church of Christ it is written, "This is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness" (Jeremiah 33:16). This name is put upon every follower of Christ. It is the heritage of the child of God. The family are called after the Father. The prophet Jeremiah, in the time of Israel's sore distress and tribulation, prayed, "We are called by thy name; leave us not" (Jeremiah 14:9).
AG	94	4	This name is hallowed by the angels of heaven, by the inhabitants of unfallen worlds. When you pray, "Hallowed be thy name," you ask that it may be hallowed in this world, hallowed in you. God has acknowledged you before men and angels as His child; pray that you may do no dishonor to the "worthy name by which ye are called" (James 2:7). God sends you into the world as His representatives. In every act of life you are to make manifest the name of God. This petition calls upon you to possess His character. You cannot hallow His name, you cannot represent Him to the world, unless in life and character you represent the very life and character of God. This you can do only through the acceptance of the grace and righteousness of Christ.
------------------------Our Continual Dependence, March 28
AG	95	1	The Lord sitteth King for ever. The Lord will give strength unto his people. Psalm 29:10, 11.
AG	95	2	The throne of grace is to be our continual dependence.... There is strength for us in Christ. He is our Advocate before the Father. He dispatches His messengers to every part of His dominion to communicate His will to His people. He walks in the midst of His churches. He desires to sanctify, elevate, and ennoble His followers. The influence of those who truly believe in Him will be a savor of life in the world. He holds the stars in His right hand, and it is His purpose to let His light shine through these to the world. Thus He desires to prepare His people for higher service in the church above. He has given us a great work to do. Let us do it with accuracy and determination. Let us show in our lives what the truth has done for us.
AG	95	3	"Who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks" (Revelation 2:1). This Scripture shows Christ's relation to the churches. He walks in the midst of His churches throughout the length and breadth of the earth. He watches them with intense interest to see whether they are in such a condition spiritually that they can advance His kingdom. Christ is present in every assembly of the church. He is acquainted with everyone connected with His service. He knows those whose hearts He can fill with the holy oil, that they may impart it to others. Those who faithfully carry forward the work of Christ in our world, representing in word and works the character of God, fulfilling the Lord's purpose for them, are in His sight very precious. Christ takes pleasure in them as a man takes pleasure in a well-kept garden and the fragrance of the flowers he has planted.
AG	95	4	No candlestick, no church, shines of itself. From Christ emanates all its light. The church in heaven today is only the complement of the church on earth; but it is higher, grander--perfect. The same divine illumination is to continue through eternal ages. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the light thereof. No church can have light if it fails to diffuse the glory it receives from the throne of God.
------------------------A Throne in Every Heart, March 29
AG	96	1	That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Ephesians 3:17.
AG	96	2	God has bought us, and He claims a throne in each heart. Our minds and bodies must be subordinated to Him, and the natural habits and appetites must be made subservient to the higher wants of the soul. But we can place no dependence upon ourselves in this work. We cannot with safety follow our own guidance. The Holy Spirit must renew and sanctify us. In God's service there must be no halfway work.
AG	96	3	When the heart is cleansed from sin, Christ is placed on the throne that self-indulgence and love of earthly treasure once occupied. The image of Christ is seen in the expression of the countenance. The work of sanctification is carried forward in the soul. Self-righteousness is banished. There is seen the putting on of the new man, which after Christ is created in righteousness and true holiness.
AG	96	4	"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). Beholding Christ means studying His life as given in His Word. We are to dig for truth as for hidden treasure. We are to fix our eyes upon Christ. When we take Him as our personal Saviour, this gives us boldness to approach the throne of grace. By beholding we become changed, morally assimilated to the One who is perfect in character. By receiving His imputed righteousness, through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, we become like Him. The image of Christ is cherished, and it captivates the whole being.
AG	96	5	The upward progress of the soul indicates that Jesus bears rule in the heart. That heart through which He diffuses His peace and joy, and the blessed fruits of His love, becomes His temple and His throne. "Ye are my friends," says Christ, "if ye do whatsoever I command you" (John 15:14).
AG	96	6	Give to God the most precious offering that it is possible for you to make; give Him your heart.
------------------------Undivided Occupancy, March 30
AG	97	1	They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Galatians 5:24.
AG	97	2	We are commanded to crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts. How shall we do it? Shall we inflict pain on the body? No; but put to death the temptation to sin. The corrupt thought is to be expelled. Every thought is to be brought into captivity to Jesus Christ.... The love of God must reign supreme; Christ must occupy an undivided throne. Our bodies are to be regarded as His purchased possession. The members of the body are to become the instruments of righteousness.
AG	97	3	There are two kingdoms in this world, the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan. To one of these kingdoms each one of us belongs. In His wonderful prayer for His disciples, Christ said, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world" (John 17:15-18).
AG	97	4	It is not God's will that we should seclude ourselves from the world. But while in the world we should sanctify ourselves to God. We should not pattern after the world. We are to be in the world, as a corrective influence, as salt that retains its savor. Among an unholy, impure, idolatrous generation, we are to be pure and holy, showing that the grace of Christ has power to restore in man the divine likeness. We are to exert a saving influence upon the world....
AG	97	5	The world has become a lazar house of sin, a mass of corruption.... We are not to practice its ways or follow its customs. Continually we are to resist its lax principles....
AG	97	6	The blessing of grace is given to men that the heavenly universe and the fallen world may see as they could not otherwise, the perfection of Christ's character. The Great Physician came to our world to show men and women that through His grace they may so live that in the great day of God they can receive the precious testimony, "Ye are complete in him" (Colossians 2:10).
------------------------Even for Ever, March 31
AG	98	1	Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. Isaiah 9:7.
AG	98	2	In this life we can only begin to understand the wonderful theme of redemption. With our finite comprehension we may consider most earnestly the shame and the glory, the life and the death, the justice and the mercy, that meet in the cross; yet with the utmost stretch of our mental powers we fail to grasp its full significance. The length and the breadth, the depth and the height, of redeeming love are but dimly comprehended. The plan of redemption will not be fully understood, even when the ransomed see as they are seen and know as they are known; but through the eternal ages, new truth will continually unfold to the wondering and delighted mind. Though the griefs and pains and temptations of earth are ended, and the cause removed, the people of God will ever have a distinct, intelligent knowledge of what their salvation has cost.
AG	98	3	The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. In Christ glorified they will behold Christ crucified. Never will it be forgotten that He whose power created and upheld the unnumbered worlds through the vast realms of space--the Beloved of God, the Majesty of heaven, He whom cherub and shining seraph delighted to adore--humbled Himself to uplift fallen man; that He bore the guilt and shame of sin, and the hiding of His Father's face, till the woes of a lost world broke His heart, and crushed out His life on Calvary's cross. That the Maker of all worlds, the Arbiter of all destinies, should lay aside His glory and humiliate Himself from love to man will ever excite the wonder and adoration of the universe. As the nations of the saved look upon their Redeemer and behold the eternal glory of the Father shining in His countenance; as they behold His throne, which is from everlasting to everlasting, and know that His kingdom is to have no end, they break forth in rapturous song: "Worthy, worthy, is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God, by His own most precious blood!"
------------------------To Draw Us to God, April 1
AG	99	1	I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Jeremiah 31:3.
AG	99	2	The Lord of life and glory clothed His divinity with humanity to demonstrate to man that God through the gift of Christ would connect us with Him. Without a connection with God no one can possibly be happy. Fallen man is to learn that our Heavenly Father cannot be satisfied until His love embraces the repentant sinner, transformed through the merits of the spotless Lamb of God.
AG	99	3	The work of all the heavenly intelligences is to this end. Under the command of their General they are to work for the reclaiming of those who by transgression have separated themselves from their Heavenly Father. A plan has been devised whereby the wondrous grace and love of Christ shall stand revealed to the world. In the infinite price paid by the Son of God to ransom man, the love of God is revealed. This glorious plan of redemption is ample in its provisions to save the whole world. Sinful and fallen man may be made complete in Jesus through the forgiveness of sin and the imputed righteousness of Christ.
AG	99	4	In all the gracious deeds that Jesus did, He sought to impress upon men the parental, benevolent attributes of God.... Jesus would have us understand the love of the Father, and He seeks to draw us to Him by presenting His parental grace. He would have the whole field of our vision filled with the perfection of God's character.... It was only by living among men that He could reveal the mercy, compassion, and love of His heavenly Father; for it was only by actions of benevolence that He could set forth the grace of God.
AG	99	5	Christ came to manifest the love of God to the world, to draw the hearts of all men to Himself.... The first step toward salvation is to respond to the drawing of the love of Christ.... It is that men may understand the joy of forgiveness, the peace of God, that Christ draws them through the manifestation of His love. If they respond to His drawing, yielding their hearts to His grace, He will lead them on step by step, to a full knowledge of Himself, and this is life eternal.
------------------------To Change the Heart, April 2
AG	100	1	A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26.
AG	100	2	When Jesus speaks of the new heart, He means the mind, the life, the whole being. To have a change of heart is to withdraw the affections from the world, and fasten them upon Christ. To have a new heart is to have a new mind, new purposes, new motives. What is the sign of a new heart?--a changed life. There is a daily, hourly dying to selfishness and pride.
AG	100	3	The appetites and passions, clamoring for indulgence, trample reason and conscience underfoot. This is the cruel work of Satan, and he is constantly putting forth the most determined efforts to strengthen the chains by which he has bound his victims. Those who have been all their lives indulging wrong habits do not always realize the necessity of a change.... Let the conscience be aroused and much is gained. Nothing but the grace of God can convict and convert the heart; here alone can the slaves of custom obtain power to break the shackles which bind them. The self-indulgent must be led to see and feel that a great moral renovation is necessary if they would meet the claims of the divine law; the soul-temple has been defiled, and God calls upon them to arouse and strive with all their might to win back the God-given manhood which has been sacrificed through sinful indulgence.
AG	100	4	Oh, what rays of softness and beauty shone forth in the daily life of our Saviour! What sweetness flowed from His very presence! The same spirit will be revealed in His children. Those with whom Christ dwells will be surrounded with a divine atmosphere. Their white robes of purity will be fragrant with perfume from the garden of the Lord. Their faces will reflect light from His, brightening the path for stumbling and weary feet.
AG	100	5	No man who has the true ideal of what constitutes a perfect character will fail to manifest the sympathy and tenderness of Christ. The influence of grace is to soften the heart, to refine and purify the feelings, giving a heaven-born delicacy and sense of propriety.
------------------------Brings Peace and Rest, April 3
AG	101	1	The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest.... There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. Isaiah 57:20, 21.
AG	101	2	Sin has destroyed our peace. While self is unsubdued, we can find no rest. The masterful passions of the heart no human power can control. We are as helpless here as were the disciples to quiet the raging storm [Matthew 8:23-27]. But He who spoke peace to the billows of Galilee, has spoken the word of peace for every soul. However fierce the tempest, those who turn to Jesus ... will find deliverance. His grace ... quiets the strife of human passion, and in His love the heart is at rest.
AG	101	3	For every soul struggling to rise from a life of sin to a life of purity, the great element of power abides in the only "name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).... The only remedy for vice is the grace and power of Christ. The good resolutions made in one's own strength avail nothing.
AG	101	4	Every unholy passion must be kept under the control of sanctified reason through the grace abundantly bestowed of God. We are living in an atmosphere of satanic witchery. The enemy will weave a spell of licentiousness around every soul that is not barricaded by the grace of Christ. Temptations will come; but if we watch against the enemy, and maintain the balance of self-control and purity, the seducing spirits will have no influence over us. Those who do nothing to encourage temptation will have strength to withstand it when it comes; but those who keep themselves in an atmosphere of evil will have only themselves to blame if they are overcome and fall from their steadfastness....
AG	101	5	Men and women are to watch themselves; they are to be constantly on guard, allowing no word or act that would cause their good to be evil spoken of. He who professes to be a follower of Christ is to watch himself, keeping himself pure and undefiled in thought, word, and deed. His influence upon others is to be uplifting. His life is to reflect the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness.... Eternal vigilance is the price of safety.
------------------------Exalts God's Law, April 4
AG	102	1	Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart. Job 22:22.
AG	102	2	Everything in nature, from the mote in the sunbeam to the worlds on high, is under law. And upon obedience to these laws the order and harmony of the natural world depend. So there are great principles of righteousness to control the life of all intelligent beings, and upon conformity to these principles the well-being of the universe depends. Before this earth was called into being, God's law existed. Angels are governed by its principles, and in order for earth to be in harmony with heaven, man also must obey the divine statutes. To man in Eden Christ made known the precepts of the law "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). The mission of Christ on earth was not to destroy the law, but by His grace to bring man back to obedience to its precepts....
AG	102	3	His mission was to "magnify the law, and make it honourable" (Isaiah 42:21). He was to show the spiritual nature of the law, to present its far-reaching principles, and to make plain its eternal obligation.
AG	102	4	The divine beauty of the character of Christ, of whom the noblest and most gentle among men are but a faint reflection; ... Jesus, the express image of the Father's person, the effulgence of His glory; the self-denying Redeemer, throughout His pilgrimage of love on earth was a living representative of the character of the law of God. In His life it is made manifest that heaven-born love, Christlike principles, underlie the laws of eternal rectitude.
AG	102	5	The Bible is God's will expressed to man. It is the only perfect standard of character, and marks out the duty of man in every circumstance of life.
AG	102	6	We must so conduct our life work that we can go to God in confidence and open our hearts before Him, telling Him our necessities and believing that He hears and will give us grace and strength to carry out the principles of the Word of God.
------------------------Gives Power to Obey, April 5
AG	103	1	For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Romans 5:19.
AG	103	2	One honored of all heaven came to this world to stand in human nature at the head of humanity, testifying to the fallen angels and to the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds that through the divine help which has been provided, every one may walk in the path of obedience to God's commands....
AG	103	3	No one less holy than the Only Begotten of the Father, could have offered a sacrifice that would be efficacious to cleanse all--even the most sinful and degraded--who accept the Saviour as their atonement and become obedient to Heaven's law. Nothing less could have reinstated man in God's favor.
AG	103	4	Christ gave His life to make it possible for man to be restored to the image of God. It is the power of His grace that draws men together in obedience to the truth.
AG	103	5	God desires us to reach the standard of perfection made possible for us by the gift of Christ. He calls upon us to make our choice on the right side, to connect with heavenly agencies, to adopt principles that will restore in us the divine image. In His written Word and in the great book of nature He has revealed the principles of life. It is our work to obtain a knowledge of these principles, and by obedience to cooperate with Him in restoring health to the body as well as to the soul.
AG	103	6	Men need to learn that the blessings of obedience, in their fullness, can be theirs only as they receive the grace of Christ. It is His grace that gives men power to obey the laws of God. It is this that enables him to break the bondage of evil habit. This is the only power that can make him and keep him steadfast in the right path.
AG	103	7	To the heart that has become purified, all is changed.... The Spirit of God produces a new life in the soul, bringing the thoughts and desires into obedience to the will of Christ; and the inward man is renewed in the image of God. Weak and erring men and women show to the world that the redeeming power of grace can cause the faulty character to develop into symmetry and abundant fruitfulness.
------------------------Breaks the Hold of Evil, April 6
AG	104	1	Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Romans 5:20.
AG	104	2	The gifts of Jesus are ever fresh and new.... Each new gift increases the capacity of the receiver to appreciate and enjoy the blessings of the Lord. He gives grace for grace. There can be no failure of supply. If you abide in Him, the fact that you receive a rich gift today insures the reception of a richer gift tomorrow....
AG	104	3	The gift of Christ to the marriage feast was a symbol [John 2:1-11]. The water represented baptism into His death; the wine, the shedding of His blood for the sins of the world. The water to fill the jars was brought by human hands, but the word of Christ alone could impart to it life-giving virtue....
AG	104	4	The word of Christ supplied ample provision for the feast. So abundant is the provision of His grace to blot out the iniquities of men, and to renew and sustain the soul.
AG	104	5	Our condition through sin is unnatural, and the power that restores us must be supernatural, else it has no value. There is but one power that can break the hold of evil from the hearts of men, and that is the power of God in Jesus Christ. Only through the blood of the Crucified One is there cleansing from sin. His grace alone can enable us to resist and subdue the tendencies of our fallen nature.
AG	104	6	Satan is determined that men shall not see the love of God, which led Him to give His only-begotten Son to save the lost race; for it is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. Oh, how shall we succeed in setting forth before the world the deep, precious love of God? In no other way can we compass it than by exclaiming, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1)! Let us say to sinners, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29)! ...
AG	104	7	Look at the cross of Calvary. It is a standing pledge of the boundless love, the measureless mercy, of the heavenly Father.
------------------------Magnifies the Lord, April 7
AG	105	1	Let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. Psalm 40:16.
AG	105	2	As witnesses for Christ, we are to tell what we know, what we ourselves have seen and heard and felt, If we have been following Jesus step by step, we shall have something right to the point to tell concerning the way in which He has led us. We can tell how we have tested His promise, and found the promise true. We can bear witness to what we have known of the grace of Christ. This is the witness for which our Lord calls, and for want of which the world is perishing.
AG	105	3	God would have every family that He is preparing to inhabit the eternal mansions above, give glory to Him for the rich treasures of His grace. Were children, in the home life, educated and trained to be grateful to the Giver of all good things we would see an element of heavenly grace manifest in our families. Cheerfulness would be seen in the home life, and coming from such homes, the youth would bring a spirit of respect and reverence with them into the schoolroom, and into the church....
AG	105	4	Every temporal blessing would be received with gratitude, and every spiritual blessing become doubly precious because the perception of each member of the household had become sanctified by the Word of truth. The Lord Jesus is very near to those who thus appreciate His gracious gifts, tracing all their good things back to the benevolent, loving care-taking God, and recognizing Him as the great Fountain of all comfort and consolation, the inexhaustible Source of grace.
AG	105	5	The true Christian will make God first and last and best in everything. No ambitious motives will chill his love for God; steadily, perseveringly, will he cause honor to redound to his heavenly Father. It is when we are faithful in exalting the name of God that our impulses are under divine supervision, and we are enabled to develop spiritual and intellectual power.
AG	105	6	Jesus, the divine Master, ever exalted the name of His heavenly Father. He taught His disciples to pray, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name" (Matthew 6:9, A.R.V.). and they were not to forget to acknowledge, "Thine is ... the glory" (verse 13).
------------------------To Uproot Selfishness, April 8
AG	106	1	Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Luke 12:1.
AG	106	2	The hypocrisy of the Pharisees was the product of self-seeking. The glorification of themselves was the object of their lives.... Even the disciples, though outwardly they had left all for Jesus' sake, had not in heart ceased to seek great things for themselves.... As leaven, if left to complete its work, will cause corruption and decay, so does the self-seeking spirit, cherished, work the defilement and ruin of the soul. Among the followers of our Lord today, as of old, how widespread is this subtle, deceptive sin! How often our service to Christ, our communion with one another, is marred by the secret desire to exalt self! ... To His own disciples the warning words of Christ are spoken, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees".... Only the power of God can banish self-seeking and hypocrisy.
AG	106	3	When Judas joined the disciples, he was not insensible to the beauty of the character of Christ. He felt the influence of that divine power which was drawing souls to the Saviour.... The Saviour read the heart of Judas; He knew the depths of iniquity to which, unless delivered by the grace of God, Judas would sink. In connecting this man with Himself, He placed him where he might, day by day, be brought in contact with the outflowing of His own unselfish love. If he would open his heart to Christ, divine grace would banish the demon of selfishness, and even Judas might become a subject of the kingdom of God.
AG	106	4	No one was so exalted as Christ, and yet He stooped to the humblest duty.... Christ Himself set the example of humility. He would not leave this great subject in man's charge. Of so much consequence did He regard it, that He Himself, One equal with God, acted as servant to His disciples. While they were contending for the highest place, He to whom every knee shall bow, He whom the angels of glory count it honor to serve, bowed down to wash the feet of those who called Him Lord. He washed the feet of His betrayer.... His whole life was under a law of service. He served all, ministered to all. Thus He lived the law of God, and by His example showed how we are to obey it.
------------------------To Break Bad Habits, April 9
AG	107	1	If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17.
AG	107	2	Through the power of Christ, men and women have broken the chains of sinful habit. They have renounced selfishness. The profane have become reverent, the drunken sober, the profligate pure. Souls that have borne the likeness of Satan have become transformed into the image of God. This change is in itself the miracle of miracles. A change wrought by the Word, it is one of the deepest mysteries of the Word. We cannot understand it; we can only believe, as declared by the Scriptures, it is "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27)....
AG	107	3	Renouncing all that would hinder him from making progress in the upward way or that would turn the feet of another from the narrow path, the believer will reveal in his daily life mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, forbearance, and the love of Christ.
AG	107	4	The power of a higher, purer, nobler life is our great need. The world has too much of our thought, and the kingdom of heaven too little.
AG	107	5	In his efforts to reach God's ideal for him, the Christian is to despair of nothing. Moral and spiritual perfection, through the grace and power of Christ, is promised to all. Jesus is the source of power, the fountain of life.
AG	107	6	Let us make God's holy word our study, bringing its holy principles into our lives. Let us walk before God in meekness and humility, daily correcting our faults.... Peace and rest will come to you as you bring your will into subjection to the will of Christ. Then the love of Christ will rule in the heart, bringing into captivity to the Saviour the secret springs of action. The hasty, easily roused temper will be soothed and subdued by the oil of Christ's grace....
AG	107	7	In humble, grateful dependence he who has been given a new heart relies upon the help of Christ. He reveals in his life the fruit of righteousness. He once loved himself. Worldly pleasure was his delight. Now his idol is dethroned, and God reigns supreme. The sins he once loved he now hates. Firmly and resolutely he follows in the path of holiness.
------------------------Creates Hatred for Satan, April 10
AG	108	1	Give no opportunity to the devil. Ephesians 4:27, R.S.V.
AG	108	2	Satan's enmity against the human race is kindled because, through Christ, they are the objects of God's love and mercy. He desires to thwart the divine plan for man's redemption, to cast dishonor upon God, by defacing and defiling His handiwork; he would cause grief in heaven and fill the earth with woe and desolation. And he points to all his evil as the result of God's work in creating man.
AG	108	3	It is the grace that Christ implants in the soul which creates in man enmity against Satan. Without this converting grace and renewing power, man would continue the captive of Satan, a servant ever ready to do his bidding. But the new principle in the soul creates conflict where hitherto had been peace. The power which Christ imparts, enables man to resist the tyrant and usurper. Whoever is seen to abhor sin instead of loving it, whoever resists and conquers those passions that have held sway within, displays the operation of a principle wholly from above.
AG	108	4	Like a roaring lion, Satan is seeking for his prey. He tries his wiles upon every unsuspecting youth; there is safety only in Christ. It is through His grace alone that Satan can be successfully repulsed. Satan tells the young that there is time enough yet, that they may indulge in sin and vice this once and never again; but that one indulgence will poison their whole life. Do not once venture on forbidden ground. In this perilous day of evil, when allurements to vice and corruption are on every hand, let the earnest, heartfelt cry of the young be raised to heaven: "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?" And may his ears be open and his heart inclined to obey the instruction given in the answer: "By taking heed thereto according to thy word" (Psalm 119:9). The only safety for the youth in this age of pollution is to make God their trust. Without divine help they will be unable to control human passions and appetites. In Christ is the very help needed.... You can say with the apostle: "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). Again; "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection" (1 Corinthians 9:27).
------------------------To Banish Unrest and Doubt, April 11
AG	109	1	O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Matthew 14:31.
AG	109	2	Christ came to this world to show that by receiving power from on high, man can live an unsullied life. With unwearying patience and sympathetic helpfulness He met men in their necessities. By the gentle touch of grace He banished from the soul unrest and doubt, changing enmity to love, and unbelief to confidence.
AG	109	3	It is not wise to look to ourselves and study our emotions. If we do this, the enemy will present difficulties and temptations that weaken faith and destroy courage. Closely to study our emotions and give way to our feelings is to entertain doubt and entangle ourselves in perplexity. We are to look away from self to Jesus.
AG	109	4	When temptations assail you, when care, perplexity, and darkness seem to surround your soul, look to the place where you last saw the light. Rest in Christ's love and under His protecting care. When sin struggles for the mastery in the heart, when guilt oppresses the soul and burdens the conscience, when unbelief clouds the mind, remember that Christ's grace is sufficient to subdue sin and banish the darkness.
AG	109	5	He will give you grace to be patient, He will give you grace to be trustful, He will give you grace to overcome restlessness, He will warm your heart with His own sweet Spirit, He will revive your soul in its weakness.... Then stay your soul in confidence upon God. Roll all your burdens upon Him.
AG	109	6	The soul that loves God, rises above the fog of doubt; he gains a bright, broad, deep, living experience, and becomes meek and Christlike. His soul is committed to God, hid with Christ in God. He will be able to stand the test of neglect, of abuse and contempt, because his Saviour has suffered all this. He will not become fretful and discouraged when difficulties press him, because Jesus did not fail or become discouraged. Every true Christian will be strong, not in the strength and merit of his good works, but in the righteousness of Christ, which through faith is imputed unto him. It is a great thing to be meek and lowly in heart, to be pure and undefiled, as was the Prince of heaven when He walked among men.
------------------------To Unify the Church, April 12
AG	110	1	Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace. Hebrews 13:9.
AG	110	2	The Lord in His wisdom has arranged that by means of the close relationship that should be maintained by all believers, Christian shall be united to Christian and church to church. Thus the human instrumentality will be enabled to cooperate with the divine. Every agency will be subordinate to the Holy Spirit, and all the believers will be united in an organized and well-directed effort to give to the world the glad tidings of the grace of God.
AG	110	3	God deals with men as individuals, giving to everyone his work. All are to be taught of God. Through the grace of Christ every soul must work out his own righteousness, maintaining a living connection with the Father and the Son....
AG	110	4	While it is true that the Lord guides individuals, it is also true that He is leading out a people, not a few separate individuals here and there, one believing this thing, another that. Angels of God are doing the work committed to their trust. The third angel is leading out and purifying a people, and they should move with him unitedly....
AG	110	5	Some have advanced the thought that as we near the close of time, every child of God will act independently of any religious organization. But I have been instructed by the Lord that in this work there is no such thing as every man's being independent.... In order that the Lord's work may advance healthfully and solidly, His people must draw together.
AG	110	6	Each member of the church should feel under sacred obligations to guard strictly the interests of the cause of God.... Jesus has opened to everyone a way by which wisdom, grace, and power may be obtained. He is our example in all things, and nothing should divert the mind from the main object in life, which is to have Christ in the soul, melting and subduing the heart. When this is the case, every member of the church, every professor of the truth, will be Christlike in character, in words, in actions.
------------------------That We Might be Overcomers, April 13
AG	111	1	They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. Revelation 12:11.
AG	111	2	Christ has made it possible for every member of the human family to resist temptation. All who would live godly lives may overcome as Christ overcame.
AG	111	3	To make God's grace our own, we must act our part. The Lord does not propose to perform for us either the willing or the doing. His grace is given to work in us to will and to do, but never as a substitute for our effort. Our souls are to be aroused to cooperate. The Holy Spirit works in us, that we may work out our own salvation.... Fine mental qualities and a high tone of moral character are not the result of accident. God gives opportunities; success depends upon the use made of them. The openings of Providence must be quickly discerned and eagerly entered. There are many who might become mighty men, if, like Daniel, they would depend upon God for grace to be overcomers, and for strength and efficiency to do their work.
AG	111	4	It is necessary to maintain a living connection with heaven, seeking as often as did Daniel--three times a day--for divine grace to resist appetite and passion. Wrestling with appetite and passion unaided by divine power will be unsuccessful; but make Christ your stronghold, and the language of your soul will be, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). Said the apostle Paul, "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Corinthians 9:27).
AG	111	5	Let no one think he can overcome without the help of God. You must have the energy, the strength, the power, of an inner life developed within you. You will then bear fruit unto godliness, and will have an intense loathing of vice. You need to constantly strive to work away from earthliness, from cheap conversation, from everything sensual, and aim for nobility of soul and a pure and unspotted character. Your name may be kept so pure that it cannot justly be connected with anything dishonest or unrighteous, but will be respected by all the good and pure, and it may be written in the Lamb's book of life, to be immortalized among the holy angels.
------------------------To Build Noble Characters, April 14
AG	112	1	And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. John 1:16, R.S.V.
AG	112	2	God expects us to build characters in accordance with the Pattern set before us. We are to lay brick by brick, adding grace to grace, finding our weak points and correcting them in accordance with the directions given. When a crack is seen in the walls of a mansion, we know that something about the building is wrong. In our character building, cracks are often seen. Unless these defects are remedied, the house will fall when the tempest of trial beats upon it.
AG	112	3	God gives us strength, reasoning power, time, in order that we may build characters on which He can place His stamp of approval. He desires each child of His to build a noble character, by the doing of pure, noble deeds, that in the end He may present a symmetrical structure, a fair temple, honored by man and God.
AG	112	4	A noble all-round character is not inherited. It does not come to us by accident. A noble character is earned by individual effort through the merits and grace of Christ. God gives the talents, the powers of the mind; we form the character. It is formed by hard, stern battles with self. Conflict after conflict must be waged against hereditary tendencies. We shall have to criticize ourselves closely, and allow not one unfavorable trait to remain uncorrected.
AG	112	5	By the life we live through the grace of Christ the character is formed. The original loveliness begins to be restored to the soul. The attributes of the character of Christ are imparted, and the image of the Divine begins to shine forth. The faces of men and women who walk and work with God express the peace of heaven. They are surrounded with the atmosphere of heaven. For these souls the kingdom of God has begun. They have Christ's joy, the joy of being a blessing to humanity. They have the honor of being accepted for the Master's use; they are trusted to do His work in His name.
AG	112	6	As God is pure in His sphere, so man is to be pure in his. And he will be pure if Christ is formed within, the hope of glory; for he will imitate Christ's life and reflect His character.
------------------------To Strengthen and Encourage, April 15
AG	113	1	I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13.
AG	113	2	The Lord has in readiness the most precious exhibitions of His grace to strengthen and encourage the sincere, humble worker.
AG	113	3	The disciples of Christ had a deep sense of their own inefficiency, and with humiliation and prayer they joined their weakness to His strength, their ignorance to His wisdom, their unworthiness to His righteousness, their poverty to His exhaustless wealth. Thus strengthened and equipped, they hesitated not to press forward in the service of the Master.
AG	113	4	All that man has, God has given him, and he who improves his abilities to God's glory will be an instrument to do good; but we can no more live a religious life without constant prayer and the performance of religious duties than we can have physical strength without partaking of temporal food. We must daily sit down at God's table. We must receive strength from the living Vine, if we are nourished....
AG	113	5	I entreat you to move with an eye single to the glory of God. Let His power be your dependence, His grace your strength. By study of the Scriptures and earnest prayer seek to obtain clear conceptions of your duty, and then faithfully perform it. It is essential that you cultivate faithfulness in little things, and in so doing you will acquire habits of integrity in greater responsibilities.... Every event of life is great for good or for evil. The mind needs to be trained by daily tests, that it may acquire power to stand in any difficult position. In the days of trial and of peril you will need to be fortified to stand firmly for the right, independent of every opposing influence.
AG	113	6	Jesus consents to bear our burdens only when we trust Him. He is saying: "Come unto me, all ye weary and heavy laden; give Me your load; trust Me to do the work that it is impossible for the human agent to do." Let us trust Him. Worry is blind and cannot discern the future. But Jesus sees the end from the beginning, and in every difficulty He has His way prepared to bring relief. Abiding in Christ, we can do all things through Him who strengthens us.
------------------------For Times of Trial, April 16
AG	114	1	Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1:12.
AG	114	2	The powers of darkness gather about the soul and shut Jesus from our sight, and at times we can only wait in sorrow and amazement until the cloud passes over. These seasons are sometimes terrible. Hope seems to fail, and despair seizes upon us. In these dreadful hours we must learn to trust, to depend solely upon the merits of the atonement, and in all our helpless unworthiness cast ourselves upon the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour. We shall never perish while we do this--never! When light shines on our pathway, it is no great thing to be strong in the strength of grace. But to wait patiently in hope when clouds envelop us and all is dark, requires faith and submission which causes our will to be swallowed up in the will of God. We are too quickly discouraged, and earnestly cry for the trial to be removed from us, when we should plead for patience to endure and grace to overcome.
AG	114	3	Those who turn to God with heart and soul and mind will find in Him peaceful security.... He knows just what we need, just what we can bear, and He will give us grace to endure every trial and test that He brings upon us. My constant prayer is for greater nearness to God.
AG	114	4	God in His great love is seeking to develop in us the precious graces of His Spirit. He permits us to encounter obstacles, persecution, and hardships, not as a curse, but as the greatest blessing of our lives. Every temptation resisted, every trial bravely borne, gives us a new experience and advances us in the work of character building. The soul that through divine power resists temptation reveals to the world and to the heavenly universe the efficiency of the grace of Christ.
AG	114	5	Those who surrender their lives to His guidance and to His service will never be placed in a position for which He has not made provision. Whatever our situation, if we are doers of His word, we have a Guide to direct our way; whatever our perplexity, we have a sure Counselor; whatever our sorrow, bereavement, or loneliness, we have a sympathizing Friend.
------------------------To Establish the Home, April 17
AG	115	1	Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established. Proverbs 24:3.
AG	115	2	He who gave Eve to Adam as a helpmeet performed His first miracle at a marriage festival.... Thus He sanctioned marriage, recognizing it as an institution that He Himself had established. He ordained that men and women should be united in holy wedlock, to rear families whose members, crowned with honor, should be recognized as members of the family above.
AG	115	3	Like every other one of God's good gifts ..., marriage has been perverted by sin; but it is the purpose of the gospel to restore its purity and beauty....
AG	115	4	The grace of Christ, and this alone, can make this institution what God designed it should be--an agent for the blessing and uplifting of humanity. And thus the families of earth, in their unity and peace and love, may represent the family of heaven. The condition of society presents a sad comment upon Heaven's ideal of this sacred relation. Yet even for those who have found bitterness and disappointment where they had hoped for companionship and joy, the gospel of Christ offers a solace. The patience and gentleness which His Spirit can impart, will sweeten the bitter lot. The heart in which Christ dwells will be so filled, so satisfied, with His love that it will not be consumed with longing to attract sympathy and attention to itself. And through the surrender of the soul to God, His wisdom can accomplish what human wisdom fails to do. Through the revelation of His grace, hearts that were once indifferent or estranged may be united....
AG	115	5	Men and women can reach God's ideal for them if they will take Christ as their helper. What human wisdom cannot do, His grace will accomplish for those who give themselves to Him in loving trust. His providence can unite hearts in bonds that are of heavenly origin. Love will not be a mere exchange of soft and flattering words. The loom of heaven weaves with warp and woof finer, yet more firm, than can be woven by the looms of earth. The result is not a tissue fabric, but a texture that will bear wear and test and trial. Heart will be bound to heart in the golden bonds of a love that is enduring.
------------------------To Sustain the Burden Bearer, April 18
AG	116	1	Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. Psalm 55:22.
AG	116	2	In the humble round of toil, the very weakest, the most obscure, may be workers together with God and may have the comfort of His presence and sustaining grace. They are not to weary themselves with busy anxieties and needless cares. Let them work on from day to day, accomplishing faithfully the task that God's providence assigns, and He will care for them....
AG	116	3	The Lord's care is over all His creatures. He loves them all, and makes no difference, except that He has the most tender pity for those who are called to bear life's heaviest burdens.
AG	116	4	Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears, before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children.... Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe. Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. No calamity can befall the least of His children, no anxiety harass the soul, no joy cheer, no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest. "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds" (Psalm 147:3). The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon earth to share His watchcare, not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son.
AG	116	5	The Lord does not press on anyone burdens too heavy to be borne. He estimates every weight before He allows it to rest upon the hearts of those who are laborers together with Him. To every one of His workers our loving heavenly Father says: "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee" (Psalm 55:22). Let the burden bearers believe that He will carry every load, great or small.
------------------------For Each Day's Need, April 19
AG	117	1	My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19.
AG	117	2	All blessings are bestowed upon those who have a vital connection with Jesus Christ. Jesus calls them to Himself not simply to refresh us with His grace and presence for a few hours, and then to send us forth from His light to walk apart from Him in sadness and gloom. No, no. He tells us that we must abide with Him and He with us.... Trust in Him continually, and doubt not His love. He knows all our weakness and that which we need. He will give us grace sufficient for our day.
AG	117	3	Those only who are constantly receiving fresh supplies of grace, will have power proportionate to their daily need and their ability to use that power. Instead of looking forward to some future time when, through a special endowment of spiritual power, they will receive a miraculous fitting up for soul-winning, they are yielding themselves daily to God, that He may make them vessels meet for His use. Daily they are improving the opportunities for service that lie within their reach. Daily they are witnessing for the Master wherever they may be, whether in some humble sphere of labor in the home, or in a public field of usefulness.
AG	117	4	To the consecrated worker there is wonderful consolation in the knowledge that even Christ during His life on earth sought His Father daily for fresh supplies of needed grace; and from this communion with God He went forth to strengthen and bless others....
AG	117	5	Every worker who follows the example of Christ will be prepared to receive and use the power that God has promised to His church for the ripening of earth's harvest. Morning by morning, as the heralds of the gospel kneel before the Lord and renew their vows of consecration to Him, He will grant them the presence of His Spirit, with its reviving, sanctifying power. As they go forth to the day's duties, they have the assurance that the unseen agency of the Holy Spirit enables them to be "laborers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9).
------------------------To Lift the Most Sinful, April 20
AG	118	1	But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. James 4:6.
AG	118	2	Mary had been looked upon as a great sinner, but Christ knew the circumstances that had shaped her life. He might have extinguished every spark of hope in her soul, but He did not. It was He who had lifted her from despair and ruin. Seven times she had heard His rebuke of the demons that controlled her heart and mind. She had heard His strong cries to the Father in her behalf. She knew how offensive is sin to His unsullied purity, and in His strength she had overcome.
AG	118	3	When to human eyes her case appeared hopeless, Christ saw in Mary capabilities for good. He saw the better traits of her character. The plan of redemption has invested humanity with great possibilities, and in Mary these possibilities were to be realized. Through His grace she became a partaker of the divine nature. The one who had fallen, and whose mind had been a habitation of demons, was brought very near to the Saviour in fellowship and ministry. It was Mary who sat at His feet and learned of Him. It was Mary who poured upon His head the precious anointing oil, and bathed His feet with her tears. Mary stood beside the cross, and followed Him to the sepulcher. Mary was first at the tomb after His resurrection. It was Mary who first proclaimed a risen Saviour.
AG	118	4	Jesus knows the circumstances of every soul. You may say, I am sinful, very sinful. You may be; but the worse you are, the more you need Jesus. He turns no weeping, contrite one away.... He bids every trembling soul take courage. Freely will He pardon all who come to Him for forgiveness and restoration....
AG	118	5	The souls that turn to Him for refuge, Jesus lifts above the accusing and the strife of tongues. No man or evil angel can impeach these souls. Christ unites them to His own divine-human nature.
AG	118	6	To those who with steadfast perseverance strive to reveal the attributes of Christ, angels are commissioned to give enlarged views of His character and work, His power and grace and love. Thus they become partakers of His nature.
------------------------Gives Life to the Soul, April 21
AG	119	1	Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14.
AG	119	2	He who seeks to quench his thirst at the fountains of this world will drink to thirst again. Everywhere men are unsatisfied. They long for something to supply the need of the soul. Only One can meet that want. The need of the world, "the Desire of all nations," is Christ. The divine grace which He alone can impart, is as living water, purifying, refreshing, and invigorating the soul.
AG	119	3	Jesus did not convey the idea that merely one draught of the water of life would suffice the receiver. He who tastes of the love of Christ will continually long for more; but he seeks for nothing else. The riches, honors, and pleasures of the world do not attract him. The constant cry of his heart is, More of Thee. And He who reveals to the soul its necessity is waiting to satisfy its hunger and thirst. Every human resource and dependence will fail. The cisterns will be emptied, the pools become dry; but our Redeemer is an inexhaustible fountain. We may drink, and drink again, and ever find a fresh supply. He in whom Christ dwells has within himself the fountain of blessing.... From this source he may draw strength and grace sufficient for all his needs.
AG	119	4	He who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life. The receiver becomes a giver. The grace of Christ in the soul is like a spring in the desert, welling up to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life.
AG	119	5	The water that Christ referred to was the revelation of His grace in His Word.... Christ's gracious presence in His Word is ever speaking to the soul, representing Him as the well of living water to refresh the thirsting. It is our privilege to have a living, abiding Saviour. He is the source of spiritual power implanted within us, and His influence will flow forth in words and actions, refreshing all within the sphere of our influence, begetting in them desires and aspirations for strength and purity, for holiness and peace, and for that joy which brings with it no sorrow. This is the result of an indwelling Saviour.
------------------------To Make Us Holy, April 22
AG	120	1	Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy. Leviticus 19:2.
AG	120	2	Holiness is not rapture: it is an entire surrender of the will to God; it is living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God; it is doing the will of our heavenly Father; it is trusting God in trial, in darkness as well as in the light; it is walking by faith and not by sight; it is relying on God with unquestioning confidence, and resting in His love.
AG	120	3	Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them.... Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of behaviour, but they cannot change the heart; they cannot purify the springs of life. There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness.
AG	120	4	No man receives holiness as a birthright, or as a gift from any other human being. Holiness is the gift of God through Christ. Those who receive the Saviour become sons of God. They are His spiritual children, born again, renewed in righteousness and true holiness. Their minds are changed. With clearer vision they behold eternal realities. They are adopted into God's family, and they become conformed to His likeness, changed by His Spirit from glory to glory. From cherishing supreme love for self, they come to cherish supreme love for God and for Christ.... Accepting Christ as a personal Saviour, and following His example of self-denial--this is the secret of holiness.
AG	120	5	Forgetting the things that are behind, let us press forward in the heavenward way. Let us neglect no opportunity that, if improved, will make us more useful in God's service. Then like threads of gold, holiness will run through our lives, and the angels, beholding our consecration, will repeat the promise, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir" (Isaiah 13:12). All heaven rejoices when weak, faulty human beings give themselves to Jesus, to live His life.
------------------------To Adorn the Christian, April 23
AG	121	1	Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Peter 3:3, 4.
AG	121	2	God, who created everything lovely and beautiful that the eye rests upon, is a lover of the beautiful. He shows you how He estimates true beauty. The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is in His sight of great price.
AG	121	3	Of how little value are gold or pearls or costly array in comparison with the loveliness of Christ. Natural loveliness consists in symmetry, or the harmonious proportion of parts, each with the other; but spiritual loveliness consists in the harmony or likeness of our souls to Jesus. This will make its possessor more precious than fine gold, even the golden wedge of Ophir. The grace of Christ is indeed a priceless adornment. It elevates and ennobles its possessor and reflects beams of glory upon others, attracting them also to the Source of light and blessing.
AG	121	4	Our appearance in every respect should be characterized by neatness, modesty, and purity. But the Word of God gives no sanction to the making of changes in apparel merely for the sake of fashion, that we may appear like the world. Christians are not to decorate the person with costly array or expensive ornaments....
AG	121	5	All who are in earnest in seeking for the grace of Christ will heed the precious words of instruction inspired by God. Even the style of the apparel will express the truth of the gospel.
AG	121	6	It is right to love beauty and to desire it; but God desires us to love and seek first the highest beauty, that which is imperishable. No outward adorning can compare in value or loveliness with that "meek and quiet spirit," the "fine linen, white and clean" (Revelation 19:14), which all the holy ones of earth will wear. This apparel will make them beautiful and beloved here, and will hereafter be their badge of admission to the palace of the King.
------------------------To Bring Comfort, April 24
AG	122	1	Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted. 2 Corinthians 1:4.
AG	122	2	The Lord has special grace for the mourner, and its power is to melt hearts, to win souls. His love opens a channel into the wounded and bruised soul, and becomes a healing balsam to those who sorrow.
AG	122	3	Those who have borne the greatest sorrows are frequently the ones who carry the greatest comfort to others, bringing sunshine wherever they go. Such ones have been chastened and sweetened by their afflictions; they did not lose confidence in God when trouble assailed them, but clung closer to His protecting love. Such ones are living proof of the tender care of God, who makes the darkness as well as the light and chastens us for our good. Christ is the light of the world; in Him is no darkness. Precious light! Let us live in that light! Bid adieu to sadness and repining. Rejoice in the Lord always.
AG	122	4	It is your privilege to receive grace from Christ that will enable you to comfort others with the same comfort wherewith you yourselves are comforted of God.... Let each try to help the next one. Thus you may have a little heaven here below, and angels of God will work through you to make right impressions.... Seek to help wherever you can. Cultivate the best dispositions that the grace of God may rest richly upon you.
AG	122	5	Young and old may learn to look to God as the One who will heal, as One who sympathizes, who understands their necessities and who will never make a mistake.
AG	122	6	Find time to comfort some other heart, to bless with a kind, cheering word someone who is battling with temptation and maybe with affliction. In thus blessing another with cheering, hopeful words, pointing him to the Burden Bearer, you may unexpectedly find peace, happiness, and consolation yourself.
AG	122	7	A consecrated Christian life is ever shedding light and comfort and peace. It is characterized by purity, tact, simplicity, and usefulness. It is controlled by that unselfish love that sanctifies the influence. It is full of Christ, and leaves a track of light wherever its possessor may go.
------------------------Makes Our Foundation Sure, April 25
AG	123	1	Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation. Isaiah 28:16.
AG	123	2	In the Scriptures the figure of the erection of a temple is frequently used to illustrate the building of the church.... Writing of the building of this temple, Peter says, "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood" ... (1 Peter 2:4, 5)....
AG	123	3	The apostles built upon a sure foundation, even the Rock of Ages. To this foundation they brought the stones that they quarried from the world. Not without hindrance did the builders labor. Their work was made exceedingly difficult by the opposition of the enemies of Christ. They had to contend against the bigotry, prejudice, and hatred of those who were building upon a false foundation.... But in the face of imprisonment, torture, and death, faithful men carried the work forward; and the structure grew, beautiful and symmetrical....
AG	123	4	Through the ages that have passed since the days of the apostles, the building of God's temple has never ceased. We may look back through the centuries and see the living stones of which it is composed gleaming like jets of light through the darkness of error and superstition. Throughout eternity these precious jewels will shine with increasing luster....
AG	123	5	But the structure is not yet complete. We who are living in this age have a work to do, a part to act. We are to bring to the foundation material that will stand the test of fire--gold, silver, and precious stones.... The Christian who faithfully presents the word of life, leading men and women into the way of holiness and peace, is bringing to the foundation material that will endure, and in the kingdom of God he will be honored as a wise builder.
AG	123	6	Divine power will unite with our efforts, and as we cling to God with the hand of faith, Christ will impart to us His wisdom and His righteousness. Thus, by His grace, we shall be enabled to build upon the sure foundation.
------------------------A Preserving Power, April 26
AG	124	1	Ye are the salt of the earth. Matthew 5:13.
AG	124	2	By these words of Christ we gain some idea of what constitutes the value of human influence. It is to work with the influence of Christ, to lift where Christ lifts, to impart correct principles, and stay the progress of the world's corruption. It is to diffuse that grace which Christ alone can impart. It is to uplift, to sweeten, the lives and characters of others by the power of a pure example united with earnest faith and love. God's people are to exercise a reforming, preserving power in the world. They are to counterwork the destroying, corrupting influence of evil....
AG	124	3	The work of the people of God in the world is to restrain evil, to elevate, to purify, and to ennoble mankind. The principles of kindness and love and benevolence are to uproot every fiber of the selfishness that has permeated all society and corrupted the church.... If men and women will open their hearts to the heavenly influence of truth and love, these principles will flow forth again, like streams in the desert, refreshing all, and causing freshness to appear where now are barrenness and dearth. The influence of those who keep the way of the Lord will be as far-reaching as eternity. They will carry with them the cheerfulness of heavenly peace as an abiding, refreshing, enlightening power.
AG	124	4	Again, there is to be an open influence. Christ says, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven"....
AG	124	5	The light that shines from those who receive Jesus Christ is not self-originated. It is all from the Light and Life of the world.... Christ is the light, the life, the holiness, the sanctification, of all who believe, and His light is to be received and imparted in all good works. In many different ways His grace is also acting as the salt of the earth; whithersoever this salt finds its way, to homes or communities, it becomes a preserving power to save all that is good, and to destroy all that is evil. True religion is the light of the world, the salt of the earth....
AG	124	6	The fountain of grace and knowledge is ever flowing. It is inexhaustible. It is from this abundant fulness that we are supplied.
------------------------A Light to Shine, April 27
AG	125	1	Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1.
AG	125	2	Through the social relations, Christianity comes in contact with the world. Everyone who has received the divine illumination is to brighten the pathway of those who know not the Light of life.... Social power, sanctified by the grace of Christ, must be improved in winning souls to the Saviour. Let the world see that we are not selfishly absorbed in our own interests, but that we desire others to share our blessings and privileges. Let them see that our religion does not make us unsympathetic or exacting. Let all who profess to have found Christ, minister as He did for the benefit of men.
AG	125	3	We should never give to the world the false impression that Christians are a gloomy, unhappy people. If our eyes are fixed on Jesus, we shall see a compassionate Redeemer, and shall catch light from His countenance. Wherever His Spirit reigns, there peace abides. And there will be joy also, for there is a calm, holy trust in God.
AG	125	4	Christ is pleased with His followers when they show that, though human, they are partakers of the divine nature. They are not statues, but living men and women. Their hearts, refreshed by the dews of divine grace, open and expand to the Sun of Righteousness. The light that shines upon them they reflect upon others in works that are luminous with the love of Christ.
AG	125	5	The confession of faith made by saints and martyrs was recorded for the benefit of succeeding generations. Those living examples of holiness and steadfast integrity have come down to inspire courage in those who are now called to stand as witnesses for God. They received grace and truth, not for themselves alone, but that, through them, the knowledge of God might enlighten the earth. Has God given light to His servants in this generation? Then they should let it shine forth to the world.
AG	125	6	We are to be channels through which the Lord can send light and grace to the world.... The entire church, acting as one, blending in perfect union, is to be a living, active missionary agency, moved and controlled by the Holy Spirit.
------------------------Workers with God, April 28
AG	126	1	For we are labourers together with God. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
AG	126	2	God will honor and uphold every true-hearted, earnest soul who is seeking to walk before Him in the perfection of Christ's grace. He will never leave nor forsake one humble, trembling soul. Shall we believe that He will work in our hearts? that if we allow Him to do so, He will make us pure and holy, by His rich grace qualifying us to be laborers together with Him? Can we with keen, sanctified perception appreciate the strength of His promises, and appropriate them, not because we are worthy, but because by living faith we claim the righteousness of Christ?
AG	126	3	In giving light to His people anciently, God did not work exclusively through any one class. Daniel was a prince of Judah. Isaiah also was of the royal line. David was a shepherd boy, Amos a herdsman, Zechariah a captive from Babylon, Elisha a tiller of the soil. The Lord raised up as His representatives prophets and princes, the noble and the lowly, and taught them the truths to be given to the world. To every one who becomes a partaker of His grace, the Lord appoints a work for others....
AG	126	4	Let all cultivate their physical and mental powers to the utmost of their ability, that they may work for God where His providence shall call them. The same grace that came from Christ to Paul and Apollos, that distinguished them for spiritual excellencies, will today be imparted to devoted Christian missionaries. God desires His children to have intelligence and knowledge, that with unmistakable clearness and power His glory may be revealed in our world....
AG	126	5	Men deficient in school education, lowly in social position, have, through the grace of Christ, sometimes been wonderfully successful in winning souls for Him. The secret of their success was their confidence in God. They learned daily of Him who is wonderful in counsel and mighty in power.
AG	126	6	Everyone in whose heart Christ abides, everyone who will show forth His love to the world, is a worker together with God for the blessing of humanity. As he receives from the Saviour grace to impart to others, from his whole being flows forth the tide of spiritual life.
------------------------Fishers of Men, April 29
AG	127	1	And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 4:19.
AG	127	2	Divine grace in the newly converted soul is progressive. It gives an increase of grace, which is received, not to be hidden under a bushel, but to be imparted, that others may be benefited. He who is truly converted will work to save others who are in darkness.
AG	127	3	When a crisis comes in the life of any soul, and you attempt to give counsel or admonition, your words will have only the weight of influence for good that your own example and spirit have gained for you. You must be good before you can do good. You cannot exert an influence that will transform others until your own heart has been humbled and refined and made tender by the grace of Christ. When this change has been wrought in you, it will be as natural for you to live to bless others as it is for the rosebush to yield its fragrant bloom.
AG	127	4	He whose heart is filled with the grace of God and love for his perishing fellow men will find opportunity, wherever he may be placed, to speak a word in season to those who are weary. Christians are to work for their Master in meekness and lowliness, holding fast to their integrity amid the noise and bustle of life.
AG	127	5	We should strive to understand the weakness of others. We know little of the heart trials of those who have been bound in chains of darkness and who lack resolution and moral power....
AG	127	6	We become too easily discouraged over the souls who do not at once respond to our efforts. Never should we cease to labor for a soul while there is one gleam of hope. Precious souls cost our self-sacrificing Redeemer too dear a price to be lightly given up to the tempter's power.... Without a helping hand many would never recover themselves, but by patient, persistent effort they may be uplifted. Such need tender words, kind consideration, tangible help.... Christ is able to uplift the most sinful and place them where they will be acknowledged as children of God, joint heirs with Christ to the immortal inheritance. By the miracle of divine grace many may be fitted for lives of usefulness.
------------------------A Completed Work, April 30
AG	128	1	He shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. Zechariah 4:7.
AG	128	2	Human power did not establish the work of God, neither can human power destroy it. To those who carry forward His work in face of difficulty and opposition, God will give the constant guidance and guardianship of His holy angels. His work on earth will never cease. The building of His spiritual temple will be carried forward until it shall stand complete, and the headstone shall be brought forth with shoutings: "Grace, grace unto it."
AG	128	3	Christ has given to the church a sacred charge. Every member should be a channel through which God can communicate to the world the treasures of His grace, the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is nothing that the Saviour desires so much as agents who will represent to the world His Spirit and His character. There is nothing that the world needs so much as the manifestation through humanity of the Saviour's love....
AG	128	4	The church is God's agency for the proclamation of truth, empowered by Him to do a special work; and if she is loyal to Him, obedient to all His commandments, there will dwell within her the excellency of divine grace. If she will be true to her allegiance, if she will honor the Lord God of Israel, there is no power that can stand against her.
AG	128	5	Christ desires by the fullness of His power so to strengthen His people that through them the whole world shall be encircled with an atmosphere of grace. When His people shall make a whole-hearted surrender of themselves to God, this purpose will be accomplished.... Christ will abide in humanity, and humanity will abide in Christ. In all the work will appear, not the character of finite man, but the character of the infinite God....
AG	128	6	The goodly fabric of character wrought out through divine power will receive light and glory from heaven, and will stand before the world as a witness pointing to the throne of the living God. Then the work will move forward with solidity and redoubled strength.
------------------------Before Creation, May 1
AG	129	1	Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. 2 Timothy 1:9.
AG	129	2	The purpose and plan of grace existed from all eternity. Before the foundation of the world it was according to the determinate counsel of God that man should be created, endowed with power to do the divine will. But the defection of man, with all its consequences, was not hidden from the Omnipotent, and yet it did not deter Him from carrying out His eternal purpose; for the Lord would establish His throne in righteousness. God knows the end from the beginning.... Therefore redemption was not an afterthought ... but an eternal purpose to be wrought out for the blessing not only of this atom of a world but for the good of all the worlds which God has created.
AG	129	3	The creation of the worlds, the mystery of the gospel, are for one purpose, to make manifest to all created intelligences, through nature and through Christ, the glories of the divine character. By the marvelous display of His love in giving "his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," the glory of God is revealed to lost humanity and to the intelligences of other worlds.
AG	129	4	Jesus encircles the race with His human arm, while with His divine arm He lays hold upon infinity. He is the "daysman" between a holy God and our sinful humanity--one who can "lay his hand on us both" (Job 9:33).
AG	129	5	The terms of this oneness between God and man in the great covenant of redemption were arranged with Christ from all eternity. The covenant of grace was revealed to the patriarchs. The covenant made with Abraham ... was a covenant confirmed by God in Christ, the very same gospel which is preached to us.... Paul speaks of the gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ, as "the revelation of the mystery, which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith" (Romans 16:25, 26, R.V.).
------------------------Everlasting, May 2
AG	130	1	Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Isaiah 55:3.
AG	130	2	The salvation of the human race has ever been the object of the councils of heaven. The covenant of mercy was made before the foundation of the world. It has existed from all eternity, and is called the everlasting covenant. So surely as there never was a time when God was not, so surely there never was a moment when it was not the delight of the eternal mind to manifest His grace to humanity.
AG	130	3	From the opening of the great controversy it has been Satan's purpose to misrepresent God's character, and to excite rebellion against His law.... But amid the working of evil, God's purposes move steadily forward to their accomplishment; to all created intelligences He is making manifest His justice and benevolence. Through Satan's temptations the whole human race have become transgressors of God's law, but by the sacrifice of His Son a way is opened whereby they may return to God. Through the grace of Christ they may be enabled to render obedience to the Father's law. Thus in every age, from the midst of apostasy and rebellion, God gathers out a people that are true to Him--a people "in whose heart is his law."
AG	130	4	God's work is the same in all time, although there are different degrees of development and different manifestations of His power, to meet the wants of men in the different ages. Beginning with the first gospel promise, and coming down through the patriarchal and Jewish ages, and even to the present time, there has been a gradual unfolding of the purposes of God in the plan of redemption.... He who proclaimed the law from Sinai, and delivered to Moses the precepts of the ritual law, is the same that spoke the sermon on the mount.... The Teacher is the same in both dispensations. God's claims are the same. The principles of His government are the same.
AG	130	5	In the closing work of God in the earth, the standard of His law will be again exalted.... God will not break His covenant, nor alter the thing that has gone out of His lips. His word will stand fast forever as unalterable as His throne.
------------------------In Eden, May 3
AG	131	1	I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15.
AG	131	2	The covenant of grace was first made with man in Eden, when after the fall, there was given a divine promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. To all men this covenant offered pardon, and the assisting grace of God for future obedience through faith in Christ. It also promised them eternal life on condition of fidelity to God's law. Thus the patriarchs received the hope of salvation.
AG	131	3	Adam and Eve, at their creation, had a knowledge of the law of God. It was printed on their hearts, and they understood its claims upon them.
AG	131	4	The law of God existed before man was created. It was adapted to the condition of holy beings; even angels were governed by it. After the fall, the principles of righteousness were unchanged. Nothing was taken from the law; not one of its holy precepts could be improved. And as it has existed from the beginning, so will it continue to exist throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity.
AG	131	5	After the transgression of Adam the principles of the law were ... definitely arranged and expressed to meet man in his fallen condition. Christ, in counsel with His Father, instituted the system of sacrificial offerings; that death, instead of being immediately visited upon the transgressor, should be transferred to a victim which should prefigure the great and perfect offering of the Son of God.... Through the blood of this victim, man looked forward by faith to the blood of Christ which would atone for the sins of the world.
AG	131	6	The mission of Christ on earth was not to destroy the law, but by His grace to bring man back to obedience to its precepts.... By His own obedience to the law, Christ testified to its immutable character and proved that through His grace it could be perfectly obeyed by every son and daughter of Adam.
------------------------Shared with Noah, May 4
AG	132	1	And God spake unto Noah, ... saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you. Genesis 9:8, 9.
AG	132	2	Wickedness was so widespread that God said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.... But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.... Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God" (Genesis 6:7-9).
AG	132	3	Noah was to preach to the people, and also to prepare an ark as God should direct him for the saving of himself and family. He was not only to preach, but his example in building the ark was to convince all that he believed what he preached.
AG	132	4	Noah did not forget God who had so graciously preserved them, but immediately [on coming out of the ark] erected an altar and... offered burnt offerings on the altar, showing his faith in Christ the great sacrifice, and manifesting his gratitude to God for their wonderful preservation. The offering of Noah came up before God like a sweet savor. He accepted the offering, and blessed Noah and his family....
AG	132	5	And lest man should be terrified with gathering clouds, and falling rains, ... God graciously encourages the family of Noah by a promise. "And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood.... And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.... And the bow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth" (Genesis 9:11-16).
AG	132	6	With the assurance given to Noah concerning the flood, God Himself has linked one of the most precious promises of His grace; "As I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith Jehovah that hath mercy on thee" (Isaiah 54:9, 10).
------------------------Renewed to Abraham, May 5
AG	133	1	I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. Genesis 17:7.
AG	133	2	After the Flood the people once more increased on the earth, and wickedness also increased.... The Lord finally left the hardened transgressors to follow their evil ways, while He chose Abraham, of the line of Shem, and made him the keeper of His law for future generations.
AG	133	3	This same covenant [the covenant of grace] was renewed to Abraham in the promise "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 22:18). This promise pointed to Christ. So Abraham understood it, and he trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. It was this faith that was accounted to him for righteousness. The covenant with Abraham also maintained the authority of God's law. The Lord appeared unto Abraham, and said, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect" (Genesis 17:1). The testimony of God concerning His faithful servant was, "Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws" (Genesis 26:5)....
AG	133	4	Though this covenant was made with Adam and renewed to Abraham, it could not be ratified until the death of Christ. It had existed by the promise of God since the first intimation of redemption had been given; it had been accepted by faith; yet when ratified by Christ, it is called a new covenant. The law of God was the basis of this covenant, which was simply an arrangement for bringing men again into harmony with the divine will, placing them where they could obey God's law.
AG	133	5	If it were not possible for human beings under the Abrahamic covenant to keep the commandments of God, every soul of us is lost. The Abrahamic covenant is the covenant of grace. "By grace are ye saved" (Ephesians 2:8). Disobedient children? No, obedient to all His commandments.
AG	133	6	Abraham's unquestioning obedience was one of the most striking instances of faith and reliance upon God to be found in the Sacred Record.... Just such faith and confidence as Abraham had the messengers of God need today.
------------------------Terms of the Covenant, May 6
AG	134	1	If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. Exodus 19:5.
AG	134	2	In the beginning, God gave His law to mankind as a means of attaining happiness and eternal life.
AG	134	3	The ten commandments, Thou shalt, and Thou shalt not, are ten promises, assured to us if we render obedience to the law governing the universe. "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Here is the sum and substance of the law of God. The terms of salvation for every son and daughter of Adam are here outlined....
AG	134	4	That law of ten precepts of the greatest love that can be presented to man is the voice of God from heaven speaking to the soul in promise, "This do, and you will not come under the dominion and control of Satan." There is not a negative in that law, although it may appear thus. It is DO and Live.
AG	134	5	The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been--just what it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents--perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness. If eternal life were granted on any condition short of this, then the happiness of the whole universe would be imperiled. The way would be open for sin, with all its train of woe and misery, to be immortalized.
AG	134	6	Christ does not lessen the claims of the law. In unmistakable language He presents obedience to it as the condition of eternal life--the same condition that was required of Adam before his fall.... The requirement under the covenant of grace is just as broad as the requirement made in Eden--harmony with God's law, which is holy, just, and good.
AG	134	7	The standard of character presented in the Old Testament is the same that is presented in the New Testament. This standard is not one to which we cannot attain. In every command or injunction that God gives there is a promise, the most positive, underlying the command. God has made provision that we may become like unto Him, and He will accomplish this for all who do not interpose a perverse will and thus frustrate His grace.
------------------------The Promises of Men, May 7
AG	135	1	All the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. Exodus 19:8.
AG	135	2	Another compact [other than the Abrahamic covenant]--called in Scripture the "old" covenant--was formed between God and Israel at Sinai, and was then ratified by the blood of a sacrifice. The Abrahamic covenant was ratified by the blood of Christ, and it is called the "second", or "new" covenant, because the blood by which it was sealed was shed after the blood of the first covenant.
AG	135	3	Soon after the encampment at Sinai, Moses was called up into the mountain to meet with God.... Israel was now to be taken into a close and peculiar relation to the Most High--to be incorporated as a church and a nation under the government of God. The message to Moses for the people was: "... if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Exodus 19:4-6).
AG	135	4	Moses returned to the camp, and having summoned the elders of Israel, he repeated to them the divine message. Their answer was, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." Thus they entered into a solemn covenant with God, pledging themselves to accept Him as their Ruler, by which they became, in a special sense, the subjects of His authority.
AG	135	5	In their bondage the people had to a great extent lost the knowledge of God and of the principles of the Abrahamic covenant.... Living in the midst of idolatry and corruption, they had no true conception of the holiness of God, of the exceeding sinfulness of their own hearts, their utter inability, in themselves, to render obedience to God's law, and their need of a Saviour.... God brought them to Sinai; He manifested His glory; He gave them His law, with the promise of great blessings on condition of obedience.... The people did not realize ... that without Christ it was impossible for them to keep God's law.... Feeling that they were able to establish their own righteousness, they declared, "All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient" (Exodus 24:7).
------------------------Better Promises, May 8
AG	136	1	He is the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises. Hebrews 8:6.
AG	136	2	The Israelites had been specially charged not to lose sight of the commandments of God, in obedience to which they would find strength and blessing.
AG	136	3	They had witnessed the proclamation of the law in awful majesty, and had trembled with terror before the mount; and yet only a few weeks passed before they broke their covenant with God, and bowed down to worship a graven image. They could not hope for the favor of God through a covenant which they had broken; and now, seeing their sinfulness and their need of pardon, they were brought to feel their need of the Saviour revealed in the Abrahamic covenant and shadowed forth in the sacrificial offerings. Now by faith and love they were bound to God as their deliverer from the bondage of sin. Now they were prepared to appreciate the blessings of the new covenant.
AG	136	4	The terms of the "old covenant" were, Obey and live: "If a man do, he shall even live in them" (Ezekiel 20:11; Leviticus 18:5); but "cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them" (Deuteronomy 27:26). The "new covenant" was established upon "better promises"--the promise of forgiveness of sins and of the grace of God to renew the heart and bring it into harmony with the principles of God's law.
AG	136	5	The blessings of the new covenant are grounded purely on mercy in forgiving unrighteousness and sins.... All who humble their hearts, confessing their sins, will find mercy and grace and assurance. Has God, in showing mercy to the sinner, ceased to be just? Has He dishonored His holy law, and will He henceforth pass over the violation of it? God is true. He changes not. The conditions of salvation are ever the same. Life, eternal life, is for all who will obey God's law....
AG	136	6	Under the new covenant, the conditions by which eternal life may be gained are the same as under the old--perfect obedience.... In the new and better covenant, Christ has fulfilled the law for the transgressors of law, if they receive Him by faith as a personal Saviour.... In the better covenant we are cleansed from sin by the blood of Christ.
------------------------Written on the Heart, May 9
AG	137	1	After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.... I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:33, 34.
AG	137	2	The same law that was engraved upon the tables of stone, is written by the Holy Spirit upon the tables of the heart. Instead of going about to establish our own righteousness we accept the righteousness of Christ. His blood atones for our sins. His obedience is accepted for us. Then the heart renewed by the Holy Spirit will bring forth "the fruits of the Spirit." Through the grace of Christ we shall live in obedience to the law of God written upon our hearts. Having the Spirit of Christ, we shall walk even as He walked.
AG	137	3	There are two errors against which the children of God--particularly those who have just come to trust in His grace--especially need to guard. The first ... is that of looking to their own works, trusting to anything they can do, to bring themselves into harmony with God. He who is trying to become holy by his own works in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility....
AG	137	4	The opposite and no less dangerous error is, that belief in Christ releases men from keeping the law of God; that since by faith alone we become partakers of the grace of Christ, our works have nothing to do with our redemption.... If the law is written in the heart, will it not shape the life? ... Instead of releasing man from obedience, it is faith, and faith only, that makes us partakers of the grace of Christ, which enables us to render obedience....
AG	137	5	Where there is not only a belief in God's Word, but a submission of the will to Him; where the heart is yielded to Him, the affections fixed upon Him, there is faith--faith that works by love, and purifies the soul. Through this faith the heart is renewed in the image of God. And the heart that in its unrenewed state is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, now delights in its holy precepts, exclaiming with the psalmist, "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97). And the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).
------------------------The Gift of Repentance, May 10
AG	138	1	Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. Acts 5:31.
AG	138	2	Repentance is one of the first fruits of saving grace. Our great Teacher, in His lessons to erring, fallen man, presents the life-giving power of His grace, declaring that through this grace men and women may live the new life of holiness and purity. He who lives this life works out the principles of the kingdom of heaven. Taught of God, he leads others in straight paths. He will not lead the lame into paths of uncertainty. The working of the Holy Spirit in his life shows that he is a partaker of the divine nature. Every soul thus worked by the Spirit of Christ receives so abundant a supply of the rich grace that, beholding his good works, the unbelieving world acknowledges that he is controlled and sustained by divine power, and is led to glorify God....
AG	138	3	Read and study the thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel. In it we are given most precious encouragement. "I will save my flock, and they shall be no more a prey," the Lord declares. "... And I will make with them a covenant of peace...."
AG	138	4	The most striking feature of this covenant of peace is the exceeding richness of the pardoning mercy expressed to the sinner if he repents and turns from his sin. The Holy Spirit describes the gospel as salvation through the tender mercies of our God. "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness," the Lord declares of those who repent, "and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more" (Hebrews 8:12). Does God turn from justice in showing mercy to the sinner? No; God cannot dishonor His law by suffering it to be transgressed with impunity. Under the new covenant, perfect obedience is the condition of life. If the sinner repents and confesses his sins, he will find pardon. By Christ's sacrifice in his behalf, forgiveness is secured for him. Christ has satisfied the demands of the law for every repentant, believing sinner....
AG	138	5	The atonement that has been made for us by Christ is wholly and abundantly satisfactory to the Father. God can be just, and yet the justifier of those who believe.
------------------------The Gift of Pardon, May 11
AG	139	1	Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. Nehemiah 9:17.
AG	139	2	Justice demands that sin be not merely pardoned, but the death penalty must be executed. God, in the gift of His only-begotten Son, met both these requirements. By dying in man's stead, Christ exhausted the penalty and provided a pardon.
AG	139	3	God requires that we confess our sins, and humble our hearts before Him; but at the same time we should have confidence in Him as a tender Father, who will not forsake those who put their trust in Him.... God does not give us up because of our sins. We may make mistakes, and grieve His Spirit; but when we repent, and come to Him with contrite hearts, He will not turn us away. There are hindrances to be removed. Wrong feelings have been cherished, and there have been pride, self-sufficiency, impatience, and murmurings. All these separate us from God. Sins must be confessed; there must be a deeper work of grace in the heart....
AG	139	4	We must learn in the school of Christ. Nothing but His righteousness can entitle us to one of the blessings of the covenant of grace.... We look to self, as though we had power to save ourselves; but Jesus died for us because we are helpless to do this. In Him is our hope, our justification, our righteousness....
AG	139	5	Jesus is our only Saviour; and although millions who need to be healed will reject His offered mercy, not one who trusts in His merits will be left to perish....
AG	139	6	You may see that you are sinful and undone; but it is just on this account that you need a Saviour. If you have sins to confess, lose no time. These moments are golden. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled; for Jesus has promised it. Precious Saviour! His arms are open to receive us, and His great heart of love is waiting to bless us.
------------------------Accepted by Faith, May 12
AG	140	1	For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26.
AG	140	2	To talk of religion in a casual way, to pray without soul hunger and living faith, avails nothing. A nominal faith in Christ, which accepts Him merely as the Saviour of the world, can never bring healing to the soul. The faith that is unto salvation is not a mere intellectual assent to the truth. He who waits for entire knowledge before he will exercise faith cannot receive blessing from God. It is not enough to believe about Christ; we must believe in Him. The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces Him as a personal Saviour; which appropriates His merits to ourselves. Many hold faith as an opinion. Saving faith is a transaction by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. Genuine faith is life. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power.
AG	140	3	True faith is that which receives Christ as a personal Saviour. God gave His only-begotten Son, that I, by believing in Him, "should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). When I come to Christ, according to His word, I am to believe that I receive His saving grace. The life that I now live, I am to "live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).
AG	140	4	The apostle Paul clearly presents the relation between faith and the law under the new covenant. He says: "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law." "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh"--it could not justify man, because in his sinful nature he could not keep the law--"God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 5:1; 3:31; 8:3, 4).
------------------------God's Law is its Standard, May 13
AG	141	1	Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13.
AG	141	2	Before the foundations of the earth were laid, the covenant was made that all who were obedient, all who should through the abundant grace provided, become holy in character, and without blame before God, by appropriating that grace, should be children of God. This covenant, made from eternity, was given to Abraham hundreds of years before Christ came. With what interest and what intensity did Christ in humanity study the human race to see if they would avail themselves of the provision offered.
AG	141	3	In His teachings, Christ showed how far-reaching are the principles of the law spoken from Sinai. He made a living application of that law whose principles remain forever the great standard of righteousness--the standard by which all shall be judged in that great day when the judgment shall sit, and the books shall be opened. He came to fulfill all righteousness, and, as the head of humanity, to show man that he can do the same work, meeting every specification of the requirements of God. Through the measure of His grace furnished to the human agent, not one need miss heaven. Perfection of character is attainable by every one who strives for it. This is made the very foundation of the new covenant of the gospel. The law of Jehovah is the tree; the gospel is the fragrant blossoms and fruit which it bears.
AG	141	4	God's law is the transcript of His character. It embodies the principles of His kingdom. He who refuses to accept these principles is placing himself outside the channel where God's blessings flow.
AG	141	5	The glorious possibilities set before Israel could be realized only through obedience to God's commandments. The same elevation of character, the same fulness of blessing--blessing on mind and soul and body, blessing on house and field, blessing for this life and for the life to come--is possible for us only through obedience.
AG	141	6	Let us not lower the standard, but keep it lifted high, looking to Him who is the Author and the Finisher of our faith.
------------------------The Pledge of Obedience, May 14
AG	142	1	He took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. Exodus 24:7.
AG	142	2	The covenant that God made with His people at Sinai is to be our refuge and defense....This covenant is of just as much force today as it was when the Lord made it with ancient Israel....
AG	142	3	This is the pledge that God's people are to make in these last days. Their acceptance with God depends on a faithful fulfillment of the terms of their agreement with Him. God includes in His covenant all who will obey Him. To all who will do justice and judgment, keeping their hand from doing any evil, the promise is, "Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off" (Isaiah 56:5).
AG	142	4	The Father sets His love upon His elect people who live in the midst of men. These are the people whom Christ has redeemed by the price of His own blood; and because they respond to the drawing of Christ, through the sovereign mercy of God, they are elected to be saved as His obedient children. Upon them is manifested the free grace of God, the love wherewith He hath loved them. Everyone who will humble himself as a little child, who will receive and obey the Word of God with a child's simplicity will be among the elect of God.
AG	142	5	To make God's grace our own, we must act our part. The Lord does not propose to perform for us either the willing or the doing. His grace is given to work in us to will and to do, but never as a substitute for our effort.
AG	142	6	Let the human agent compare his life with the life of Christ.... Let him imitate the example of Him who lived out the law of Jehovah, who said, "I have kept my father's commandments." Those who follow Christ will be continually looking into the perfect law of liberty, and through the grace given them by Christ, will fashion the character according to the divine requirements.
------------------------The Role of Baptism, May 15
AG	143	1	We are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4.
AG	143	2	Christ made baptism the entrance to His spiritual kingdom. He made this a positive condition with which all must comply who wish to be acknowledged as under the authority of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Those who receive the ordinance of baptism thereby make a public declaration that they have renounced the world, and have become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King....
AG	143	3	Christ enjoins those who receive this ordinance to remember that they are bound by a solemn covenant to live to the Lord. They are to use for Him all their entrusted capabilities, never losing the realization that they bear God's sign of obedience to the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, that they are subjects of Christ's kingdom, partakers of the divine nature. They are to surrender all they have and are to God, employing all their gifts to God's glory.
AG	143	4	Those who are baptized in the threefold name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, at the very entrance of their Christian life declare publicly that they have accepted the invitation, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18). "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (chapter 7:1)....
AG	143	5	Let those who received the imprint of God by baptism heed these words, remembering that upon them the Lord has placed His signature, declaring them to be His sons and daughters. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, powers infinite and omniscient, receive those who truly enter into covenant relation with God. They are present at every baptism, to receive the candidates who have renounced the world and have received Christ into the soul temple. These candidates have entered into the family of God, and their names are inscribed in the Lamb's book of life.
------------------------Not a Substitute for the Law, May 16
AG	144	1	What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Romans 6:15.
AG	144	2	It is the sophistry of Satan that the death of Christ brought in grace to take the place of the law. The death of Jesus did not change or annul, or lessen in the slightest degree, the law of ten commandments. That precious grace offered to men through a Saviour's blood, establishes the law of God. Since the fall of man, God's moral government and His grace are inseparable. They go hand in hand through all dispensations.
AG	144	3	The gospel of the New Testament is not the Old Testament standard lowered to meet the sinner and save him in his sins. God requires of all His subjects obedience, entire obedience to all His commandments.
AG	144	4	Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, that He might know how to succor those who should be tempted. His life is our example. He shows by His willing obedience that man may keep the law of God and that transgression of the law, not obedience to it, brings him into bondage....
AG	144	5	Man, who has defaced the image of God in his soul by a corrupt life, cannot, by mere human effort, effect a radical change in himself. He must accept the provisions of the gospel; he must be reconciled to God through obedience to His law and faith in Jesus Christ. His life from thenceforth must be governed by a new principle.... He must face the mirror, God's law, discern the defects in his moral character, and put away his sins, washing his robe of character in the blood of the Lamb....
AG	144	6	The influence of a gospel hope will not lead the sinner to look upon the salvation of Christ as a matter of free grace, while he continues to live in transgression of the law of God. When the light of truth dawns upon his mind and he fully understands the requirements of God and realizes the extent of his transgressions, he will reform his ways, become loyal to God through the strength obtained from His Saviour, and lead a new and purer life.
AG	144	7	It is not the work of the gospel to weaken the claims of God's holy law, but to bring men up where they can keep its precepts.
------------------------Includes Love to God and Man, May 17
AG	145	1	Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.... And ... thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Matthew 22:37-39.
AG	145	2	The whole work of grace is one continual service of love, of self-denying, self-sacrificing effort. During every hour of Christ's sojourn upon the earth, the love of God was flowing from Him in irrepressible streams. All who are imbued with His Spirit will love as He loved. The very principle that actuated Christ will actuate them in all their dealing one with another.
AG	145	3	This love is the evidence of their discipleship.... When men are bound together, not by force or self-interest, but by love, they show the working of an influence that is above every human influence. Where this oneness exists, it is evidence that the image of God is being restored in humanity, that a new principle of life has been implanted. It shows that there is power in the divine nature to withstand the supernatural agencies of evil, and that the grace of God subdues the selfishness inherent in the natural heart.
AG	145	4	When self is merged in Christ, love springs forth spontaneously. The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within--when the sunshine of heaven fills the heart and is revealed in the countenance.
AG	145	5	It is not possible for the heart in which Christ abides to be destitute of love. If we love God because He first loved us, we shall love all for whom Christ died. We cannot come in touch with divinity without coming in touch with humanity; for in Him who sits upon the throne of the universe, divinity and humanity are combined. Connected with Christ, we are connected with our fellow men by the golden links of the chain of love. Then the pity and compassion of Christ will be manifest in our life.... It will be as natural for us to minister to the needy and suffering as it was for Christ to go about doing good.
AG	145	6	The law of God requires that man shall love God supremely, and his neighbor as himself. When through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, this is perfectly done, we shall be complete in Christ.
------------------------Involves Character Building, May 18
AG	146	1	Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9.
AG	146	2	Obedience to the laws of God develops in man a beautiful character that is in harmony with all that is pure and holy and undefiled. In the life of such a man the message of the gospel of Christ is made clear. Accepting the mercy of Christ and His healing from the power of sin, he is brought into right relation with God. His life, cleansed from vanity and selfishness, is filled with the love of God. His daily obedience to the law of God obtains for him a character that assures him eternal life in the kingdom of God.
AG	146	3	But Christ has given us no assurance that to attain perfection of character is an easy matter. A noble, all-round character is not inherited. It does not come to us by accident. A noble character is earned by individual effort through the merits and grace of Christ. God gives the talents, the powers of the mind; we form the character. It is formed by hard, stern battles with self. Conflict after conflict must be waged against hereditary tendencies. We shall have to criticize ourselves closely, and allow not one unfavorable trait to remain uncorrected.
AG	146	4	The truth is no truth to the one who does not reveal, by his elevated spiritual character, a power beyond that which the world can give, an influence corresponding in its sacred, peculiar character to the truth itself. He who is sanctified by the truth will exert a saving, vital influence upon all with whom he comes in contact. This is Bible religion.
AG	146	5	We need constantly a fresh revelation of Christ, a daily experience that harmonizes with His teachings. High and holy attainments are within our reach. Continual progress in knowledge and virtue is God's purpose for us. His law is the echo of His own voice, giving to all the invitation, "Come up higher. Be holy, holier still." Every day we may advance in perfection of Christian character.
------------------------Demands Purity, May 19
AG	147	1	For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. 1 Thessalonians 4:7.
AG	147	2	Life is a gift of God. Our bodies have been given us to use in God's service, and He desires that we shall care for and appreciate them. We are possessed of physical as well as mental faculties. Our impulses and passions have their seat in the body, and therefore we must do nothing that would defile this entrusted possession. Our bodies must be kept in the best possible condition physically, and under the most spiritual influences, in order that we may make the best use of our talents. Read 1 Corinthians 6:13.
AG	147	3	Our bodies belong to God. He paid the price of redemption for the body as well as the soul.... God is the great caretaker of the human machinery. In the care of our bodies we must cooperate with Him. Love for God is essential for life and health. In order to have perfect health our hearts must be filled with hope, and love, and joy.
AG	147	4	The lower passions are to be strictly guarded. The perceptive faculties are abused, terribly abused, when the passions are allowed to run riot. When the passions are indulged, the blood, instead of circulating to all parts of the body, thereby relieving the heart and clearing the mind, is called in undue amount to the internal organs. Disease comes as the result. The man cannot be healthy until the evil is seen and remedied.
AG	147	5	"He that is joined unto the Lord"--bound up with Christ in the covenant of grace--"is one spirit. Flee fornication" (1 Corinthians 6:17, 18). Do not stop for one moment to reason. Satan would rejoice to see you overthrown by temptation. Do not stop to argue the case with your weak conscience. Turn away from the first step of transgression.
AG	147	6	Would that the example of Joseph might be followed by all who claim to be wise, who feel competent in their own strength to discharge the duties of life. A wise man will not be governed and controlled by his appetites and passions, but will control and govern them. He will draw nigh to God, striving to prepare mind and body to discharge aright the duties of life.... Satan is the destroyer; Christ the restorer.
------------------------Encourages Christlikeness, May 20
AG	148	1	He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 1 John 2:6.
AG	148	2	The gospel is to be presented, not as a lifeless theory, but as a living force to change the life. God desires that the receivers of His grace shall be witnesses to its power.... He would have His servants bear testimony to the fact that through His grace men may possess Christlikeness of character, and may rejoice in the assurance of His great love. He would have us bear testimony to the fact that He cannot be satisfied until the human race are reclaimed and reinstated in their holy privileges as His sons and daughters.
AG	148	3	God's people are to be distinguished as a people who serve Him fully, wholeheartedly, taking no honor to themselves, and remembering that by a most solemn covenant they have bound themselves to serve the Lord and Him only.
AG	148	4	God requires perfection of His children. His law is a transcript of His own character, and it is the standard of all character. This infinite standard is presented to all that there may be no mistake in regard to the kind of people whom God will have to compose His kingdom. The life of Christ on earth was a perfect expression of God's law, and when those who claim to be children of God become Christlike in character, they will be obedient to God's commandments. Then the Lord can trust them to be of the number who shall compose the family of heaven. Clothed in the glorious apparel of Christ's righteousness, they have a place at the King's feast. They have a right to join the blood-washed throng.
AG	148	5	Everything must be viewed in the light of the example of Christ. He is the truth. He is the true Light that lighteth every man who cometh into the world. Listen to His words, copy His example in self-denial and self-sacrifice, and look to the merits of Christ for the glory in character which He possesses to be bestowed on you. Those who follow Christ live not to please themselves. Human standards are like feeble reeds. The Lord's standard is perfection of character.
------------------------With All the Heart, May 21
AG	149	1	This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. Deuteronomy 26:16.
AG	149	2	In God's covenant with His people in ancient times, directions were given for the faithful recognition of the gracious and marvelous works which He had done for them. God delivered His people Israel from bondage in Egypt. He brought them into their own land, and gave them goodly heritage and sure dwelling places. And He asked of them a recognition of His marvelous works. The first fruits of the earth were to be consecrated to God, and given back to Him as an offering of gratitude, an acknowledgment of His goodness to them....
AG	149	3	These directions, which the Lord has given to His people, express the principles of the law of the kingdom of God, and they are made specific, so that the minds of the people may not be left in ignorance and uncertainty. These scriptures present the never-ceasing obligation of all whom God has blessed with life and health and advantages in temporal and spiritual things. The message has not grown weak because of age. God's claims are just as binding now, just as fresh in their importance, as God's gifts are fresh and continual.
AG	149	4	Lest any should forget these important directions, Christ has repeated them with His own voice. He calls His followers to a life of consecration and self-denial. He says: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). This means what it says. Only by self-denial and self-sacrifice can we show that we are true disciples of Christ.
AG	149	5	Christ counted it essential to remind His people that obedience to the commandments of God is for their present and future good. Obedience brings a blessing, disobedience a curse. Besides, when the Lord in a special manner favors His people, He exhorts them publicly to acknowledge His goodness. In this way His name will be glorified; for such an acknowledgment is a testimony that His words are faithful and true. "Thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee" (Deuteronomy 26:11).
------------------------A Mutual Pact, May 22
AG	150	1	You have recognized the Lord this day as your God; you are to conform to his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his laws, and to obey him. The Lord has recognized you this day as his special possession, as he promised you, and to keep his commandments. Deuteronomy 26:17, 18, N.E.B.
AG	150	2	There must be no withholding on our part, of our service or our means, if we would fulfill our covenant with God.... The purpose of all God's commandments is to reveal man's duty not only to God, but to his fellow man. In this late age of the world's history, we are not, because of the selfishness of our hearts, to question or dispute the right of God to make these requirements, or we will deceive ourselves, and rob our souls of the richest blessings of the grace of God. Heart and mind and soul are to be merged in the will of God. Then the covenant, framed from the dictates of infinite wisdom, and made binding by the power and authority of the King of kings and Lord of lords, will be our pleasure.... It is enough that He has said that obedience to His statutes and laws is the life and prosperity of His people.
AG	150	3	The blessings of God's covenant are mutual.... God accepts those who will work for His name's glory, to make His name a praise in a world of apostasy and idolatry. He will be exalted by His commandment-keeping people that He may make them "high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour" (Deuteronomy 26:19).
AG	150	4	By our baptismal pledge we avouched and solemnly confessed the Lord Jehovah as our Ruler. We virtually took a solemn oath, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that henceforth our lives would be merged into the life of these three great agencies, that the life we should live in the flesh would be lived in faithful obedience to God's sacred law. We declared ourselves dead, and our life hid with Christ in God, that henceforth we should walk with Him in newness of life, as men and women having experienced the new birth. We acknowledge God's covenant with us, and pledge ourselves to seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. By our profession of faith we acknowledged the Lord as our God, and yielded ourselves to obey His commandments.
------------------------Blessings of the Covenant, May 23
AG	151	1	Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. Luke 6:38.
AG	151	2	God blesses the work of men's hands, that they may return to Him His portion. He gives them the sunshine and the rain; He causes vegetation to flourish; He gives health and ability to acquire means. Every blessing comes from His bountiful hand, and He desires men and women to show their gratitude by returning Him a portion in tithes and offerings--in thank offerings, in freewill offerings, in trespass offerings.... They are to reveal an unselfish interest in the building up of His work in all parts of the world.
AG	151	3	In the great work of warning the world, those who have the truth in the heart, and are sanctified through the truth, will act their assigned part. They will be faithful in the payment of tithes and offerings. Every church member is bound by covenant relation with God to deny himself of every extravagant outlay of means. Let not the want of economy in the home life render us unable to act our part in strengthening the work already established, and in entering new territory....
AG	151	4	I entreat my brethren and sisters throughout the world to awaken to the responsibility that rests upon them to pay a faithful tithe.... Keep a faithful account with your Creator....
AG	151	5	He who gave his only-begotten Son to die for you, has made a covenant with you. He gives you His blessings, and in return He requires you to bring Him your tithes and offerings.... God calls upon His human agents to be true to the contract He has made with them. "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse," He says, "that there may be meat in mine house" (Malachi 3:10).
AG	151	6	How great was the gift of God to man, and how like our God to make it! With a liberality that can never be exceeded He gave, that He might save the rebellious sons of men and bring them to see His purpose and discern His love. Will you, by your gifts and offerings, show that you think nothing too good for Him who "gave his only begotten Son"?
------------------------Ratified by Christ's Blood, May 24
AG	152	1	For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew forth the Lord's death till he come. 1 Corinthians 11:26.
AG	152	2	In instituting the sacramental service to take the place of the Passover, Christ left for His church a memorial of His great sacrifice for man. "This do," He said, "in remembrance of me." This was the point of transition between two economies and their two great festivals. The one was to close forever; the other, which He had just established, was to take its place, and to continue through all time as the memorial of His death....
AG	152	3	In this last act of Christ in partaking with His disciples of the bread and wine, He pledged Himself to them as their Redeemer by a new covenant, in which it was written and sealed that upon all who will receive Christ by faith will be bestowed all the blessings that heaven can supply, both in this life and in the future immortal life. This covenant deed was to be ratified by Christ's own blood, which it had been the office of the old sacrificial offerings to keep before the minds of His chosen people. Christ designed that this supper should be often commemorated in order to bring to our remembrance His sacrifice in giving His life for the remission of the sins of all who will believe on Him and receive Him.
AG	152	4	In the Saviour's death the powers of darkness seemed to prevail, and they exulted in their victory. But from the rent sepulcher of Joseph, Jesus came forth a conqueror.
AG	152	5	Jesus refused to receive the homage of His people until He had the assurance that His sacrifice was accepted by the Father. He ascended to the Heavenly courts, and from God Himself heard the assurance that His atonement for the sins of men had been ample, that through His blood all might gain eternal life. The Father ratified the covenant made with Christ, that He would receive repentant and obedient men, and would love them even as He loves His Son. Christ was to complete His work, and fulfill His pledge to "make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir" (Isaiah 13:12).
------------------------Sealed by Christ's Atonement, May 25
AG	153	1	In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Ephesians 1:7.
AG	153	2	Christ on the cross not only draws men to repentance toward God for the transgression of His law--for whom God pardons He first makes penitent--but Christ has satisfied Justice; He has proffered Himself as an atonement. His gushing blood, His broken body, satisfy the claims of the broken law, and thus He bridges the gulf which sin has made. He suffered in the flesh, that with His bruised and broken body He might cover the defenseless sinner. The victory gained at His death on Calvary broke forever the accusing power of Satan over the universe and silenced his charges that self-denial was impossible with God and therefore not essential in the human family.
AG	153	3	Christ was without sin, else His life in human flesh and His death on the cross would have been of no more value in procuring grace for the sinner than the death of any other man. While He took upon Him humanity, it was a life taken into union with Deity. He could lay down His life as priest and also victim.... He offered Himself without spot to God.
AG	153	4	The atonement of Christ sealed forever the everlasting covenant of grace. It was the fulfilling of every condition upon which God suspended the free communication of grace to the human family. Every barrier was then broken down which intercepted the freest exercise of grace, mercy, peace, and love to the most guilty of Adam's race.
AG	153	5	In the courts above, Christ is pleading for His church--pleading for those for whom He has paid the redemption price of His blood. Centuries, ages, can never lessen the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice. Neither life nor death, height nor depth, can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus; not because we hold Him so firmly, but because He holds us so fast. If our salvation depended on our own efforts, we could not be saved; but it depends on the One who is behind all the promises. Our grasp on Him may seem feeble, but His love is that of an elder brother; so long as we maintain our union with Him, no one can pluck us out of His hand.
------------------------Christ the Mediator, May 26
AG	154	1	For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Hebrews 9:24.
AG	154	2	The sin of Adam and Eve caused a fearful separation between God and man. And Christ steps in between fallen man and God, and says to man: "You may yet come to the Father; there is a plan devised through which God can be reconciled to man, and man to God; through a mediator you can approach God." And now He stands to mediate for you. He is the great High Priest who is pleading in your behalf; and you are to come and present your case to the Father through Jesus Christ. Thus you can find access to God.
AG	154	3	Christ Jesus is represented as continually standing at the altar, momentarily offering up the sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is a minister of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. The typical shadows of the Jewish tabernacle no longer possess any virtue. A daily and yearly typical atonement is no longer to be made, but the atoning sacrifice through a mediator is essential because of the constant commission of sin. Jesus is officiating in the presence of God, offering up His shed blood, as it had been a lamb slain....
AG	154	4	The religious services, the prayers, the praise, the penitent confession of sin, ascend from true believers as incense to the heavenly sanctuary: but passing through the corrupt channels of humanity, they are so defiled that unless purified by blood, they can never be of value with God.... All incense from earthly tabernacles must be moist with the cleansing drops of the blood of Christ. He holds before the Father the censer of His own merits, in which there is no taint of earthly corruption. He gathers into this censer the prayers, the praise, and the confessions of His people, and with these He puts His own spotless righteousness. Then, perfumed with the merits of Christ's propitiation, the incense comes up before God wholly and entirely acceptable....
AG	154	5	O, that all may see that everything in obedience, in penitence, in praise and thanksgiving must be placed upon the glowing fire of the righteousness of Christ.
------------------------The Blood of the Covenant, May 27
AG	155	1	Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will. Hebrews 13:20, 21.
AG	155	2	To many it has been a mystery why so many sacrificial offerings were required in the old dispensation, why so many bleeding victims were led to the altar. But the great truth that was kept before men, and imprinted upon mind and heart, was this, "Without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). In every bleeding sacrifice was typified "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
AG	155	3	Christ Himself was the originator of the Jewish system of worship, in which, by types and symbols, were shadowed forth spiritual and heavenly things. Many forgot the true significance of these offerings; and the great truth that through Christ alone there is forgiveness of sin, was lost to them. The multiplying of sacrificial offerings, the blood of bulls and goats, could not take away sin....
AG	155	4	A lesson was embodied in every sacrifice, impressed in every ceremony, solemnly preached by the priest in his holy office, and inculcated by God Himself--that through the blood of Christ alone is there forgiveness of sins.
AG	155	5	Anciently believers were saved by the same Saviour as now, but it was a God veiled. They saw God's mercy in figures.... Christ's sacrifice is the glorious fulfillment of the whole Jewish economy.... When as a sinless offering Christ bowed His head and died, when by the Almighty's unseen hand the veil of the temple was rent in twain, a new and living way was opened. All can now approach God through the merits of Christ. It is because the veil has been rent that men can draw nigh to God. They need not depend on priest or ceremonial sacrifice. Liberty is given to all to go directly to God through a personal Saviour.
AG	155	6	The whole mind, the whole soul, the whole heart, and the whole strength are purchased by the blood of the Son of God.
------------------------The Covenant and the Sabbath, May 28
AG	156	1	Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever. Exodus 31:16, 17.
AG	156	2	When the Lord delivered His people Israel from Egypt and committed to them His law, He taught them that by the observance of the Sabbath they were to be distinguished from idolaters....
AG	156	3	As the Sabbath was the sign that distinguished Israel when they came out of Egypt to enter the earthly Canaan, so it is the sign that now distinguishes God's people as they come out from the world to enter the heavenly rest. The Sabbath is a sign of a relationship existing between God and His people, a sign that they honor His law. It distinguishes between His loyal subjects and transgressors.... The Sabbath given to the world as the sign of God as the Creator is also the sign of Him as the Sanctifier. The power that created all things is the power that recreates the soul in His own likeness. To those who keep holy the Sabbath day it is the sign of sanctification. True sanctification is harmony with God, oneness with Him in character. It is received through obedience to those principles that are the transcript of His character. And the Sabbath is the sign of obedience. He who from the heart obeys the fourth commandment will obey the whole law. He is sanctified through obedience.
AG	156	4	To us as to Israel the Sabbath is given "for a perpetual covenant." To those who reverence His holy day the Sabbath is a sign that God recognizes them as His chosen people. It is a pledge that He will fulfill to them His covenant. Every soul who accepts the sign of God's government places himself under the divine, everlasting covenant. He fastens himself to the golden chain of obedience, every link of which is a promise.
AG	156	5	The fourth commandment alone of all the ten contains the seal of the great Lawgiver, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Those who obey this commandment take upon themselves His name, and all the blessings it involves are theirs.
AG	156	6	The Sabbath has lost none of its meaning. It is still a sign between God and His people, and it will be so forever.
------------------------God's Eternal Pledge, May 29
AG	157	1	He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Psalm 105:8.
AG	157	2	God stands back of every promise He has made. With your Bibles in your hands, say: "I have done as Thou hast said. I present Thy promise, 'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you' (Matthew 7:7)"....
AG	157	3	The rainbow about the throne is an assurance that God is true; that in Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. We have sinned against Him and are undeserving of His favor; yet He Himself has put into our lips that most wonderful of pleas: "Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us" (Jeremiah 14:21). He has pledged Himself to give heed to our cry when we come to Him confessing our unworthiness and sin. The honor of His throne is staked for the fulfillment of His word to us.
AG	157	4	To everyone who offers himself to the Lord for service, withholding nothing, is given power for the attainment of measureless results. The Lord God is bound by an eternal pledge to supply power and grace to everyone who is sanctified through obedience to the truth.
AG	157	5	Nehemiah pressed into the presence of the King of kings and won to his side a power that can turn hearts as rivers of waters are turned. [See Nehemiah 1 and 2.]
AG	157	6	To pray as Nehemiah prayed in his hour of need is a resource at the command of the Christian under circumstances when other forms of prayer may be impossible. Toilers in the busy walks of life, crowded and almost overwhelmed with perplexity, can send up a petition to God for divine guidance.... In times of sudden difficulty or peril the heart may send up its cry for help to One who has pledged Himself to come to the aid of His faithful, believing ones whenever they call upon Him. In every circumstance, under every condition, the soul weighed down with grief and care, or fiercely assailed by temptation, may find assurance, support, and succor in the unfailing love and power of a covenant-keeping God.
------------------------Perpetual and Unalterable, May 30
AG	158	1	Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord, in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. Jeremiah 50:5.
AG	158	2	A covenant is an agreement by which parties bind themselves and each other to the fulfillment of certain conditions. Thus the human agent enters into agreement with God to comply with the conditions specified in His Word. His conduct shows whether or not he respects these conditions.
AG	158	3	Man gains everything by obeying the covenant-keeping God. God's attributes are imparted to man, enabling him to exercise mercy and compassion. God's covenant assures us of His unchangeable character.... We must know for ourselves what His requirements and our obligations are. The terms of God's covenant are, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." These are the conditions of life. "This do," Christ said, "and thou shalt live" (Luke 10:27, 28).
AG	158	4	The law of God was written with His own finger on tables of stone, thus showing that it could never be changed or abrogated. It is to be preserved through the eternal ages, immutable as the principles of His government.... Christ gave His life to make it possible for man to be restored to the image of God. It is the power of His grace that draws men together in obedience to the truth.
AG	158	5	My brethren, bind up with the Lord God of hosts. Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.... Troublous times are before us, but if we stand together in Christian fellowship, none striving for supremacy, God will work mightily for us....
AG	158	6	He knows our every necessity. He has all power. He can bestow upon His servants the measure of efficiency that their need demands. His infinite love and compassion never weary. With the majesty of omnipotence He unites the gentleness and care of a tender shepherd. We need have no fear that He will not fulfill His promises. He is eternal truth. Never will He change the covenant that He has made with those that love Him. His promises to His church stand fast forever. He will make her an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations.
------------------------The Symbol of the Covenant, May 31
AG	159	1	And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. Genesis 9:12, 13.
AG	159	2	What compassion for erring man, to place the beautiful, variegated rainbow in the clouds, a token of the covenant of the great God with man! ... It was His design that as the children of after generations should see the bow in the cloud, ... their parents could explain to them the destruction of the old world by a flood, because the people gave themselves up to all manner of wickedness, and that the hands of the Most High had bended the bow, and placed it in the clouds, as a token that He would never bring again a flood of waters on the earth. This symbol in the clouds was to confirm the belief of all, and establish their confidence in God, for it was a token of divine mercy and goodness to man....
AG	159	3	A rainbow is represented in Heaven round about the throne, also above the head of Christ, as a symbol of God's mercy encompassing the earth. When man by his great wickedness provokes the wrath of God, Christ, man's intercessor, pleads for him, and points to the rainbow in the cloud, as evidence of God's great mercy and compassion for erring man.
AG	159	4	Angels rejoice as they gaze upon this precious token of God's love to man. The world's Redeemer looks upon it; for it was through His instrumentality that this bow was made to appear in the heavens, as a token or covenant of promise to man. God Himself looks upon the bow in the clouds, and remembers His everlasting covenant between Himself and man.... As we gaze upon the beautiful sight, we may be joyful in God, assured that He Himself is looking upon this token of His covenant, and that as He looks upon it He remembers the children of earth, to whom it was given. Their afflictions, perils, and trials are not hidden from Him. We may rejoice in hope, for the bow of God's covenant is over us. He never will forget the children of His care.
------------------------Exile from Heaven's Throne, June 1
AG	160	1	Who, being in the form of God, ... was made in the likeness of men: and ... humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:6-8.
AG	160	2	In order to fully realize the value of salvation, it is necessary to understand what it cost. In consequence of limited ideas of the sufferings of Christ, many place a low estimate upon the great work of the atonement. The glorious plan of man's salvation was brought about through the infinite love of God the Father. In this divine plan is seen the most marvelous manifestation of the love of God to the fallen race. Such love as is manifested in the gift of God's beloved Son amazed the holy angels. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). This Saviour was the brightness of His Father's glory and the express image of His person. He possessed divine majesty, perfection, and excellence. He was equal with God. "It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell" (Colossians 1:19)....
AG	160	3	Christ consented to die in the sinner's stead, that man, by a life of obedience, might escape the penalty of the law of God.
AG	160	4	Jesus was the majesty of heaven, the beloved commander of the angels, who delighted to do His pleasure. He was one with God, "in the bosom of the Father" (John 1:18), yet He thought it not a thing to be desired to be equal with God while man was lost in sin and misery. He stepped down from His throne, He left His crown and royal scepter, and clothed His divinity with humanity. He humbled Himself even to the death of the cross, that man might be exalted to a seat with Him upon His throne. In Him we have a complete offering, an infinite sacrifice, a mighty Saviour, who is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. In love He comes to reveal the Father, to reconcile man to God, to make him a new creature renewed after the image of Him who created him.
AG	160	5	Our heavenly Father made an infinite sacrifice in giving His Son to die for fallen man. The price paid for our redemption should give us exalted views of what we may become through Christ.
------------------------Matchless Condescension, June 2
AG	161	1	Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Hebrews 2:14.
AG	161	2	Satan accomplished the fall of man, and since that time it has been his work to efface in man the image of God, and to stamp upon human hearts his own image.... He intercepts every ray of light that comes from God to man, and appropriates the worship that is due to God....
AG	161	3	But the only begotten Son of God has looked upon the scene, has beheld human suffering and misery.... He looked upon the schemes by which Satan works to blot from the human soul every trace of likeness to God; how he led them into intemperance so as to destroy the moral powers which God gave to man as a most precious, priceless endowment. He saw how, through indulgence in appetite, brain power was destroyed, and the temple of God was in ruins.... The senses, the nerves, the passions, the organs of man, were worked by supernatural agencies in the indulgence of the grossest, vilest lust. The very stamp of demons was impressed upon the countenances of men, and human faces reflected the expression of the legions of evil with which they were possessed. Such was the prospect upon which the world's Redeemer looked. What a horrible spectacle for the eyes of infinite purity to behold! ...
AG	161	4	The great condescension on the part of God is a mystery beyond our fathoming. The greatness of the plan cannot be fully comprehended, nor could infinite wisdom devise a plan that would surpass it. It could be successful only by ... Christ becoming man, and suffering the wrath which sin has made because of the transgression of God's law. Through this plan the great, the dreadful God can be just, and yet be the justifier of all who believe in Jesus, and who receive Him as their personal Saviour. This is the heavenly science of redemption, of saving men from eternal ruin....
AG	161	5	God so loved the world that He gave Himself in Christ to the world to bear the penalty of man's transgression. God suffered with His Son, as the divine Being alone could suffer, in order that the world might become reconciled to Him.
------------------------Incomparable Temptations, June 3
AG	162	1	The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. John 14:30.
AG	162	2	From the moment that Christ entered the world, the whole confederacy of Satanic agencies was set at work to deceive and overthrow Him as Adam had been deceived and overthrown....
AG	162	3	When Christ was born in Bethlehem, the angels of God appeared to the shepherds, who were watching their flocks by night, and gave divine credentials of the authority of the newborn babe. Satan knew that One had come to the earth with a divine commission to dispute his authority. He heard the angel declare: "... Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord..." (Luke 2:10, 11).
AG	162	4	The heavenly heralds aroused all the wrath of the synagogue of Satan. He followed the steps of those who had charge of the infant Jesus. He heard the prophecy of Simeon in the temple courts.... "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation," ... (Luke 2:29-32). Satan was filled with frenzy as he saw that the aged Simeon recognized the divinity of Christ.
AG	162	5	The Commander of heaven was assailed by the tempter.... From the time that He was a helpless babe in Bethlehem, when the agencies of hell sought to destroy Him in His infancy through the jealousy of Herod, until He came to Calvary's cross, He was continually assailed by the evil one. In the councils of Satan it was determined that He must be overcome. No human being had come into the world and escaped the power of the deceiver. The whole forces of the confederacy of evil were set upon His track.... Satan knew that he must either conquer or himself be conquered. Success or failure involved too much for him to leave the work with any one of his agents of evil. The prince of evil himself must personally conduct the warfare....
AG	162	6	The life of Christ was a perpetual warfare against Satanic agencies. Satan rallied the whole energies of apostasy against the Son of God.
AG	162	7	On not one occasion was there a response to his manifold temptations. Not once did Christ step on Satan's ground, to give him any advantage.
------------------------Unutterable Loneliness, June 4
AG	163	1	I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me. Isaiah 63:3.
AG	163	2	Through childhood, youth, and manhood, Jesus walked alone. In His purity and His faithfulness, He trod the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Him. He carried the awful weight of responsibility for the salvation of men. He knew that unless there was a decided change in the principles and purposes of the human race, all would be lost. This was the burden of His soul, and none could appreciate the weight that rested upon Him.
AG	163	3	Throughout His life His mother and His brothers did not comprehend His mission. Even His disciples did not understand Him. He had dwelt in eternal light, as one with God, but His life on earth must be spent in solitude. As one with us, He must bear the burden of our guilt and woe. The Sinless One must feel the shame of sin. The peace lover must dwell with strife, the truth must abide with falsehood, purity with vileness. Every sin, every discord, every defiling lust that transgression had brought, was torture to His spirit.
AG	163	4	Alone He must tread the path; alone He must bear the burden. Upon Him who had laid off His glory and accepted the weakness of humanity the redemption of the world must rest. He saw and felt it all, but His purpose remained steadfast. Upon His arm depended the salvation of the fallen race, and He reached out His hand to grasp the hand of Omnipotent love.
AG	163	5	The loneliness of Christ, separated from the heavenly courts, living the life of humanity, was never understood or appreciated by the disciples as it should have been.... When Jesus was no longer with them, ... they began to see how they might have shown Him attentions that would have brought gladness to His heart....
AG	163	6	The same want is evident in our world today. But few appreciate all that Christ is to them. If they did, the great love of Mary [Matthew 26:6-13] would be expressed, the anointing would be freely bestowed.... Nothing would be thought too costly to give for Christ, no self-denial or self-sacrifice too great to be endured for His sake.
------------------------Unequaled Test, June 5
AG	164	1	For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
AG	164	2	After His baptism, the Son of God entered the dreary wilderness, there to be tempted by the devil.... For forty days He ate and drank nothing.... He realized the power of appetite upon man; and in behalf of sinful man, He bore the closest test possible upon that point. Here a victory was gained which few can appreciate. The controlling power of depraved appetite, and the grievous sin of indulging it, can only be understood by the length of the fast which our Saviour endured that He might break its power.... He came to earth to unite His divine power with our human efforts, that through the strength and moral power which He imparts, we might overcome in our own behalf.
AG	164	3	Oh! what matchless condescension for the King of glory to come down to this world to endure the pangs of hunger and the fierce temptations of a wily foe, that He might gain an infinite victory for man. Here is love without a parallel....
AG	164	4	It was not the gnawing pangs of hunger alone which made the sufferings of our Redeemer so inexpressibly severe. It was the sense of guilt which had resulted from the indulgence of appetite that had brought such terrible woe into the world, which pressed so heavily upon His divine soul....
AG	164	5	With man's nature, and the terrible weight of his sins pressing upon Him, our Redeemer withstood the power of Satan upon this great leading temptation, which imperils the souls of men. If man should overcome this temptation, he could conquer on every other point.
AG	164	6	Intemperance lies at the foundation of all the moral evils known to man. Christ began the work of redemption just where the ruin began. The fall of our first parents was caused by the indulgence of appetite. In redemption, the denial of appetite is the first work of Christ. What amazing love has Christ manifested in coming into the world to bear our sins and infirmities, and to tread the path of suffering, that He might show us by His life of spotless merit how we should walk, and overcome as He had overcome.
------------------------Infinite Suffering, June 6
AG	165	1	For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Hebrews 2:18.
AG	165	2	Would that we could comprehend the significance of the words, Christ "suffered being tempted." While He was free from the taint of sin, the refined sensibilities of His holy nature rendered contact with evil unspeakably painful to Him. Yet with human nature upon Him, He met the archapostate face to face, and single-handed withstood the foe of His throne. Not even by a thought could Christ be brought to yield to the power of temptation.
AG	165	3	What a sight was this for Heaven to look upon! Christ, who knew not the least taint of sin or defilement, took our nature in its deteriorated condition. This was humiliation greater than finite man can comprehend. God was manifest in the flesh. He humbled Himself. What a subject for thought, for deep, earnest contemplation! So infinitely great that He was the Majesty of heaven, and yet He stooped so low, without losing one atom of His dignity and glory! He stooped to poverty and to the deepest abasement among men. For our sake He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich.
AG	165	4	The world had lost the original pattern of goodness and had sunk into universal apostasy and moral corruption; and the life of Jesus was one of laborious, self-denying effort to bring man back to his first estate by imbuing him with the spirit of divine benevolence and unselfish love. While in the world, He was not of the world. It was a continual pain to Him to be brought in contact with the enmity, depravity, and impurity which Satan had brought in; but He had a work to do to bring man into harmony with the divine plan, and earth in connection with heaven, and He counted no sacrifice too great for the accomplishment of the object. He "was in all points tempted like as we are" (Hebrews 4:15). Satan stood ready to assail Him at every step, hurling at Him his fiercest temptations; yet He "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). "He ... suffered being tempted," suffered in proportion to the perfection of His holiness. But the prince of darkness found nothing in Him; not a single thought or feeling responded to temptation.
------------------------Agonizing Prayer, June 7
AG	166	1	Who in the days of his flesh ... offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death. Hebrews 5:7.
AG	166	2	While you pray, dear youth, that you may not be led into temptation, remember that your work does not end with the prayer. You must then answer your own prayer as far as possible by resisting temptation, and leave that which you cannot do for yourselves for Jesus to do for you....
AG	166	3	I would remind the youth who ornament their persons ... that, because of their sins, the Saviour's head wore the shameful crown of thorns. When you devote precious time to trimming your apparel, remember that the King of glory wore a plain, seamless coat. You who weary yourselves in decorating your persons, please bear in mind that Jesus was often weary from incessant toil and self-denial and self-sacrifice to bless the suffering and needy. He spent whole nights in prayer upon the lonely mountains, not because of His weakness and His necessities, but because He saw, He felt, the weakness of your natures to resist the temptations of the enemy upon the very points where you are now overcome. He knew that you would be indifferent in regard to your dangers and would not feel your need of prayer. It was on our account that He poured out His prayers to His Father with strong cries and tears. It was to save us from the very pride and love of vanity and pleasure which we now indulge, and which crowds out the love of Jesus, that those tears were shed....
AG	166	4	Will you, young friends, arise and shake off this dreadful indifference and stupor which has conformed you to the world? Will you heed the voice of warning which tells you that destruction lies in the path of those who are at ease in this hour of danger?
AG	166	5	Many of our youth, by their careless disregard of the warnings and reproofs given them, open the door wide for Satan to enter. With God's word for our guide and Jesus as our heavenly Teacher we need not be ignorant of His requirements or of Satan's devices.... It will be no unpleasant task to be obedient to the will of God when we yield ourselves fully to be directed by His Spirit.
------------------------Whole Nights of Prayer, June 8
AG	167	1	And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. Luke 6:12.
AG	167	2	The Majesty of heaven, while engaged in His earthly ministry, prayed much to His Father. He was frequently bowed all night in prayer.... The Mount of Olives was the favorite resort of the Son of God for His devotions. Frequently after the multitude had left Him for the retirement of the night, He rested not, though weary with the labors of the day.... While the city was hushed in silence, and the disciples had returned to their homes to obtain refreshment in sleep, Jesus slept not. His divine pleadings were ascending to His Father from the Mount of Olives that His disciples might be kept from the evil influences which they would daily encounter in the world, and that His own soul might be strengthened and braced for the duties and trials of the coming day. All night, while His followers were sleeping, was their divine Teacher praying. The dew and the frost of night fell upon His head bowed in prayer. His example is left for His followers....
AG	167	3	He chose the stillness of night, when there would be no interruption. Jesus could heal the sick and raise the dead. He was Himself a source of blessing and strength. He commanded even the tempests, and they obeyed Him. He was unsullied with corruption, a stranger to sin; yet He prayed, and that often with strong crying and tears. He prayed for His disciples and for Himself, thus identifying Himself with our needs, our weaknesses, and our failings, which are so common with humanity. He was a mighty petitioner, not possessing the passions of our human, fallen natures, but compassed with like infirmities, tempted in all points even as we are. Jesus endured agony which required help and support from His Father.
AG	167	4	Christ is our example. Are the ministers of Christ tempted and fiercely buffeted by Satan? so also was He who knew no sin. He turned to His Father in these hours of distress. He came to earth that He might provide a way whereby we could find grace and strength to help in every time of need, by following His example in frequent, earnest prayer.
------------------------Gethsemane's Anguish, June 9
AG	168	1	O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou will. Matthew 26:39.
AG	168	2	In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ suffered in man's stead, and the human nature of the Son of God staggered under the terrible horror of the guilt of sin, until from His pale and quivering lips was forced the agonizing cry, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me".... Human nature would then and there have died under the horror of the sense of sin, had not an angel from heaven strengthened Him to bear the agony.... Christ was suffering the death that was pronounced upon the transgressors of God's law.
AG	168	3	It is a fearful thing for the unrepenting sinner to fall into the hands of the living God. This is proved by the history of the destruction of the old world by a flood, by the record of the fire which fell from heaven and destroyed the inhabitants of Sodom. But never was this proved to so great an extent as in the agony of Christ, the Son of the infinite God, when he bore the wrath of God for a sinful world. It was in consequence of sin, the transgression of God's law, that the Garden of Gethsemane has become pre-eminently the place of suffering to a sinful world. No sorrow, no agony, can measure with that which was endured by the Son of God.
AG	168	4	Man has not been made a sin-bearer, and he will never know the horror of the curse of sin which the Saviour bore. No sorrow can bear any comparison with the sorrow of Him upon whom the wrath of God fell with overwhelming force. Human nature can endure but a limited amount of test and trial. The finite can only endure the finite measure, and human nature succumbs; but the nature of Christ had a greater capacity for suffering.... The agony which Christ endured, broadens, deepens, and gives a more extended conception of the character of sin, and the character of the retribution which God will bring upon those who continue in sin. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ to the repenting, believing sinner.
AG	168	5	The sword of justice was unsheathed, and the wrath of God against iniquity rested upon man's substitute, Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father.
------------------------The Father's Frown, June 10
AG	169	1	This is your hour, and the power of darkness. Luke 22:53.
AG	169	2	As the Son of God bowed in the attitude of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, the agony of His spirit forced from His pores sweat like great drops of blood. It was here that the horror of great darkness surrounded Him. The sins of the world were upon Him. He was suffering in man's stead as a transgressor of His Father's law. Here was the scene of temptation. The divine light of God was receding from His vision, and He was passing into the hands of the powers of darkness. In His soul anguish He lay prostrate on the cold earth. He was realizing His Father's frown. He had taken the cup of suffering from the lips of guilty man, and proposed to drink it Himself, and in its place give to man the cup of blessing. The wrath that would have fallen upon man was now falling upon Christ. It was here that the mysterious cup trembled in His hand.
AG	169	3	Jesus had often resorted to Gethsemane with His disciples for meditation and prayer.... Never before had the Saviour visited the spot with a heart so full of sorrow. It was not bodily suffering from which the Son of God shrank.... The sins of a lost world were upon Him and overwhelming Him. It was a sense of His Father's frown, in consequence of sin, which rent His heart with such piercing agony and forced from His brow great drops of blood....
AG	169	4	We can have but faint conceptions of the inexpressible anguish of God's dear Son in Gethsemane, as He realized His separation from His Father in consequence of bearing man's sin. He became sin for the fallen race. The sense of the withdrawal of His Father's love pressed from His anguished soul these mournful words: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death" (Matthew 26:38)....
AG	169	5	The divine Son of God was fainting, dying. The Father sent a messenger from His presence to strengthen the divine Sufferer and brace Him to tread the bloodstained path. Could mortals have viewed the amazement and the sorrow of the angelic host as they watched in silent grief the Father separating His beams of light, love, and glory from the beloved Son of His bosom, they would better understand how offensive sin is in His sight.
------------------------Forsaken by His Father, June 11
AG	170	1	My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matthew 27:46.
AG	170	2	He [Jesus] was betrayed by a kiss into the hands of His enemies, and hurried to the judgment hall of an earthly court.... The angelic host beheld with wonder and with grief Him who had been the Majesty of heaven, and who had worn the crown of glory, now wearing the crown of thorns, a bleeding victim to the rage of an infuriated mob, fired to insane madness by the wrath of Satan. Behold the patient Sufferer! Upon His head is the thorny crown. His lifeblood flows from every lacerated vein....
AG	170	3	Behold the oppressor and the oppressed! A vast multitude enclose the Saviour of the world. Mockings and jeerings are mingled with the coarse oaths of blasphemy.... Christ, the precious Son of God, was led forth, and the cross was laid upon His shoulders.... Thronged by an immense crowd of bitter enemies and unfeeling spectators, He is led away to the crucifixion.... He is nailed to the cross, and hangs suspended between the heavens and the earth.... The glorious Redeemer of a lost world was suffering the penalty of man's transgression of the Father's law. He was about to ransom His people with His own blood....
AG	170	4	Oh, was there ever suffering and sorrow like that endured by the dying Saviour! It was the sense of His Father's displeasure which made His cup so bitter. It was not bodily suffering which so quickly ended the life of Christ upon the cross. It was the crushing weight of the sins of the world, and a sense of His Father's wrath.... The fierce temptation that His own Father had forever left Him caused that piercing cry from the cross: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
AG	170	5	In His dying agony, as He yields up His precious life, He has by faith alone to trust in Him whom it has ever been His joy to obey.... Denied even bright hope and confidence in the triumph which will be His in the future, He cries with a loud voice: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). He is acquainted with the character of His Father, with His justice, His mercy, and His great love, and in submission He drops into His hands.
------------------------The Sins of the World, June 12
AG	171	1	He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5.
AG	171	2	Some have limited views of the atonement. They think that Christ suffered only a small portion of the penalty of the law of God; they suppose that, while the wrath of God was felt by His dear Son, He had, through all His painful sufferings, the evidence of His Father's love and acceptance; that the portals of the tomb before Him were illuminated with bright hope, and that He had the abiding evidence of His future glory. Here is a great mistake. Christ's keenest anguish was a sense of His Father's displeasure. His mental agony because of this was of such intensity that man can have but faint conception of it.
AG	171	3	With many the story of the condescension, humiliation, and sacrifice of our divine Lord awakens no deeper interest ... than does the history of the death of the martyrs of Jesus. Many have suffered death by slow tortures; others have suffered death by crucifixion. In what does the death of God's dear Son differ from these? ... If the sufferings of Christ consisted in physical pain alone, then His death was no more painful than that of some of the martyrs. But bodily pain was but a small part of the agony of God's dear Son. The sins of the world were upon Him, also the sense of His Father's wrath as He suffered the penalty of the law transgressed. It was these that crushed His divine soul.... The separation that sin makes between God and man was fully realized and keenly felt by the innocent, suffering Man of Calvary. He was oppressed by the powers of darkness. He had not one ray of light to brighten the future.... It was in this terrible hour of darkness, the face of His Father hidden, legions of evil angels enshrouding Him, the sins of the world upon Him, that the words were wrenched from His lips: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" ...
AG	171	4	In comparison with the enterprise of everlasting life, every other sinks into insignificance.
------------------------What a Price, June 13
AG	172	1	Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1:18, 19.
AG	172	2	"Ye know," says Peter, "that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold." Oh, had these been sufficient to purchase the salvation of man, how easily it might have been accomplished by Him who says: "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine" (Haggai 2:8). But the transgressor of God's holy law could be redeemed only by the precious blood of the Son of God.
AG	172	3	It was through infinite sacrifice and inexpressible suffering that our Redeemer placed redemption within our reach. He was in this world unhonored and unknown, that, through His wonderful condescension and humiliation, He might exalt man to receive eternal honors and immortal joys in the heavenly courts. During His thirty years of life on earth His heart was wrung with inconceivable anguish. The path from the manger to Calvary was shadowed by grief and sorrow. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, enduring such heartache as no human language can portray. He could have said in truth, "Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow" (Lamentations 1:12). Hating sin with a perfect hatred, He yet gathered to His soul the sins of the whole world. Guiltless, He bore the punishment of the guilty. Innocent, yet offering Himself as a substitute for the transgressor. The guilt of every sin pressed its weight upon the divine soul of the world's Redeemer. The evil thoughts, the evil words, the evil deeds of every son and daughter of Adam, called for retribution upon Himself; for He had become man's substitute. Though the guilt of sin was not His, His spirit was torn and bruised by the transgressions of men, and He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
AG	172	4	What a price has been paid for us! Behold the cross, and the Victim uplifted upon it. Look at those hands, pierced with the cruel nails. Look at His feet, fastened with spikes to the tree. Christ bore our sins in His own body. That suffering, that agony, is the price of your redemption.
------------------------The Worth of One Soul, June 14
AG	173	1	Know ye not that ... ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price. 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.
AG	173	2	All men have been bought with this infinite price. By pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world, by giving us in Christ all heaven, God has purchased the will, the affections, the mind, the soul, of every human being. Whether believers or unbelievers, all men are the Lord's property.
AG	173	3	We are His by creation and by redemption. Our very bodies are not our own, to treat as we please, to cripple by habits that lead to decay, making it impossible to render to God perfect service. Our lives and all our faculties belong to Him. He is caring for us every moment; He keeps the living machinery in action; if we were left to run it for one moment, we should die. We are absolutely dependent upon God.
AG	173	4	A great lesson is to be learned when we understand our relation to God, and His relation to us. The words, "Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price," should be hung in memory's hall, that we may ever recognize God's right to our talents, our property, our influence, our individual selves. We are to learn how to treat this gift of God, in mind, in soul, in body, that as Christ's purchased possession, we may do Him healthful, savory service.
AG	173	5	The wealth of earth dwindles into insignificance when compared with the worth of a single soul for whom our Lord and Master died. He who weigheth the hills in scales and the mountains in a balance regards a human soul as of infinite value.
AG	173	6	Let the youth be impressed with the thought that they are not their own. They belong to Christ. They are the purchase of His blood, the claim of His love. They live because He keeps them by His power. Their time, their strength, their capabilities are His, to be developed, to be trained, to be used for Him.
AG	173	7	Christ has bought you at a dear price, and offers you grace and glory if you will receive it.
------------------------The Sacrifice of Love, June 15
AG	174	1	And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. Ephesians 5:2.
AG	174	2	This is the oblation of a life-gift in our behalf, that we may be all that He desires us to be--representatives of Him, expressing the fragrance of His character, His own pure thoughts, His divine attributes as manifested in His sanctified human life, in order that others may behold Him in His human form, and ... be led to desire to be like Christ--pure, undefiled, wholly acceptable to God, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.
AG	174	3	How earnestly Christ prosecuted the work of our salvation! What devotion His life revealed as He sought to give value to fallen man by imputing to every repenting, believing sinner the merits of His spotless righteousness! How untiringly He worked! In the Temple and in the synagogue, in the streets of the cities, in the market place, in the workshop, by the seaside, among the hills, He preached the gospel and healed the sick. He gave all there was of Himself, that He might work out the plan of redeeming grace.
AG	174	4	Christ offered up His broken body to purchase back God's heritage, to give man another trial. "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). By His spotless life, His obedience, His death on the cross of Calvary, Christ interceded for the lost race. And now, not as a mere petitioner does the Captain of our salvation intercede for us, but as a Conqueror claiming His victory. His offering is complete, and as our Intercessor He executes His self-appointed work, holding before God the censer containing His own spotless merits and the prayers, confessions, and thanksgiving of His people. Perfumed with the fragrance of His righteousness, these ascend to God as a sweet savor. The offering is wholly acceptable, and pardon covers all transgression.
------------------------Heaven Itself Imperiled, June 16
AG	175	1	I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Isaiah 13:12.
AG	175	2	The value of a soul, who can estimate? Would you know its worth, go to Gethsemane, and there watch with Christ through those hours of anguish, when He sweat as it were great drops of blood. Look upon the Saviour uplifted on the cross. Hear that despairing cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34). Look upon the wounded head, the pierced side, the marred feet. Remember that Christ risked all. For our redemption, heaven itself was imperiled. At the foot of the cross, remembering that for one sinner Christ would have laid down His life, you may estimate the value of a soul.
AG	175	3	If you are in communion with Christ you will place His estimate upon every human being. You will feel for others the same deep love that Christ has felt for you. Then you will be able to win, not drive, to attract, not repulse, those for whom He died.... The greater their sin and the deeper their misery, the more earnest and tender will be your efforts for their recovery. You will discern the need of those who are suffering, who have been sinning against God, and who are oppressed with a burden of guilt. Your heart will go out in sympathy for them, and you will reach out to them a helping hand.
AG	175	4	Christ and Him crucified should become the theme of our thoughts and stir the deepest emotions of our souls.... It is through the cross alone that we can estimate the worth of the human soul. Such is the value of men for whom Christ died that the Father is satisfied with the infinite price which He pays for the salvation of man in yielding up His own Son to die for their redemption. What wisdom, mercy, and love in its fullness are here manifested! The worth of man is known only by going to Calvary. In the mystery of the cross of Christ we can place an estimate upon man.
AG	175	5	How glorious are the possibilities set before the fallen race! Through His Son, God has revealed the excellency to which man is capable of attaining. Through the merits of Christ man is lifted from his depraved state, purified, and made more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir.
------------------------The Father's Immeasurable Sacrifice, June 17
AG	176	1	Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10.
AG	176	2	Love is the underlying principle of God's government in heaven and earth, and it must be the foundation of the Christian's character.... And love will be revealed in sacrifice.
AG	176	3	The plan of redemption was laid in sacrifice--a sacrifice so broad and deep and high that it is immeasurable. Christ gave all for us, and those who receive Christ will be ready to sacrifice all for the sake of their Redeemer.
AG	176	4	When Adam's sin plunged the race into hopeless misery, God might have cut Himself loose from fallen beings. He might have treated them as sinners deserve to be treated. He might have commanded the angels of heaven to pour out upon our world the vials of His wrath. He might have removed this dark blot from His universe. But He did not do this. Instead of banishing them from His presence, He came still nearer to the fallen race. He gave His Son to become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh....
AG	176	5	The gift of God to man is beyond all computation. Nothing was withheld. God would not permit it to be said that He could have done more or revealed to humanity a greater measure of love. In the gift of Christ He gave all heaven.
AG	176	6	Those who have professed to love Christ, have not comprehended the relation which exists between them and God, and it is still but dimly outlined to their understanding. They but vaguely comprehend the amazing grace of God in giving His only-begotten Son for the salvation of the world.
AG	176	7	In order to secure man to Himself and ensure his eternal salvation, Christ left the royal courts of heaven and came to this earth, endured the agonies of sin and shame in man's stead, and died to make him free. In view of the infinite price paid for man's redemption, how dare any professing the name of Christ treat with indifference one of His little ones? ... How patiently, kindly, and affectionately should they deal with the purchase of the blood of Christ!
------------------------The Only Acceptable Ransom, June 18
AG	177	1	For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all. 1 Timothy 2:5, 6.
AG	177	2	Through Christ, restoration as well as reconciliation is provided for man. The gulf that was made by sin has been spanned by the cross of Calvary. A full, complete ransom has been paid by Jesus, by virtue of which the sinner is pardoned, and the justice of the law is maintained. All who believe that Christ is the atoning sacrifice may come and receive pardon for their sins; for through the merit of Christ, communication has been opened between God and man. God can accept me as His child, and I can claim Him and rejoice in Him as my loving Father. We must center our hopes of heaven upon Christ alone, because He is our substitute and surety....
AG	177	3	The best efforts that man in his own strength can make, are valueless to meet the holy and just law that he has transgressed; but through faith in Christ he may claim the righteousness of the Son of God as all-sufficient. Christ satisfied the demands of the law in His human nature. He bore the curse of the law for the sinner, made an atonement for him, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish.... Genuine faith appropriates the righteousness of Christ, and the sinner is made an overcomer with Christ; for he is made a partaker of the divine nature, and thus divinity and humanity are combined.
AG	177	4	He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility. Man cannot be saved without obedience, but his works should not be of himself; Christ should work in him to will and to do of His good pleasure.... All that man can do without Christ is polluted with selfishness and sin; but that which is wrought through faith is acceptable to God. When we seek to gain heaven through the merits of Christ, the soul makes progress. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, we may go on from strength to strength, from victory to victory; for through Christ the grace of God has worked out our complete salvation.
AG	177	5	We cannot estimate the precious ransom paid to redeem fallen man. The heart's best and holiest affections should be given in return for such wondrous love.
------------------------God's Unspeakable Gift, June 19
AG	178	1	Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. 2 Corinthians 9:15.
AG	178	2	The revelation of God's love to man centers in the cross. Its full significance tongue cannot utter; pen cannot portray; the mind of man cannot comprehend.... Christ crucified for our sins, Christ risen from the dead, Christ ascended on high, is the science of salvation that we are to learn and to teach.
AG	178	3	"Who, being in the form of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped to be on an equality with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:6-8, R.V., margin). "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God." "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25)....
AG	178	4	Here are infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice, infinite mercy--"the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God" (Romans 11:33).
AG	178	5	It is through the gift of Christ that we receive every blessing. Through that gift there comes to us day by day the unfailing flow of Jehovah's goodness. Every flower, with its delicate tints and sweet fragrance, is given for our enjoyment through that one Gift. The sun and moon were made by Him; there is not a star that beautifies the heavens which He did not make. There is not an article of food upon our tables that He has not provided for our sustenance. The superscription of Christ is upon it all. Everything is supplied to man through the one unspeakable Gift, the only-begotten Son of God. He was nailed to the cross that all these bounties might flow to God's workmanship.
AG	178	6	"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). Surely there are none that, beholding the riches of His grace, can forbear to exclaim with the apostle: "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."
------------------------So Costly--and Yet Free, June 20
AG	179	1	By the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. Romans 5:18.
AG	179	2	Money cannot buy it, intellect cannot grasp it, power cannot command it; but to all who will accept it, God's glorious grace is freely given. But men may feel their need, and, renouncing all self-dependence, accept salvation as a gift. Those who enter heaven will not scale its walls by their own righteousness, nor will its gates be opened to them for costly offerings of gold or silver, but they will gain an entrance to the many mansions of the Father's house through the merits of the cross of Christ.
AG	179	3	For sinful men, the highest consolation, the greatest cause of rejoicing, is that Heaven has given Jesus to be the sinner's Saviour.... He offered to go over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell; to meet the tempter on the field of battle, and conquer him in man's behalf. Behold Him in the wilderness of temptation. Forty days and forty nights He fasted, enduring the fiercest assaults of the powers of darkness. He trod the "winepress alone; and of the people there was none with" Him (Isaiah 63:3). It was not for Himself, but that He might break the chain that held the human race in slavery to Satan.
AG	179	4	As Christ in His humanity sought strength from His Father, that He might be enabled to endure trial and temptation, so are we to do. We are to follow the example of the sinless Son of God. Daily we need help and grace and power from the Source of all power. We are to cast our helpless souls upon the One who is ready to help us in every time of need. Too often we forget the Lord. Self gives way to impulse, and we lose the victories that we should gain.
AG	179	5	If we are overcome let us not delay to repent, and to accept the pardon that will place us on vantage ground. If we repent and believe, the cleansing power from God will be ours. His saving grace is freely offered. His pardon is given to all who will receive it.... Over every sinner that repents the angels of God rejoice with songs of joy. Not one sinner need be lost. Full and free is the gift of saving grace.
------------------------Bought Without Money, June 21
AG	180	1	I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:4.
AG	180	2	There are many who hope by their own works to merit God's favor. They do not realize their helplessness. They do not accept the grace of God as a free gift, but are trying to build themselves up in self-righteousness.
AG	180	3	The blessings of redeeming love our Saviour compared to a precious pearl [Matthew 13:45, 46]....
AG	180	4	In the parable the pearl is not represented as a gift. The merchantman bought it at the price of all that he had. Many question the meaning of this, since Christ is represented in the Scriptures as a gift. He is a gift, but only to those who give themselves soul, body, and spirit, to Him without reserve. We are to give ourselves to Christ, to live a life of willing obedience to all His requirements. All that we are, all the talents and capabilities we possess, are the Lord's, to be consecrated to His service. When we thus give ourselves wholly to Him, Christ, with all the treasures of heaven, gives Himself to us. We obtain the pearl of great price.
AG	180	5	Salvation is a free gift, and yet it is to be bought and sold. In the market of which divine mercy has the management, the precious pearl is represented as being bought without money and without price....
AG	180	6	The gospel of Christ is a blessing that all may possess. The poorest are as well able as the richest to purchase salvation; for no amount of worldly wealth can secure it. It is obtained by willing obedience, by giving ourselves to Christ as His own purchased possession....
AG	180	7	We are to seek for the pearl of great price, but not in worldly marts or in worldly ways. The price we are required to pay is not gold or silver, for this belongs to God. Abandon the idea that temporal or spiritual advantages will win for you salvation. God calls for your willing obedience.
AG	180	8	All His gifts are promised on condition of obedience. God has a heaven full of blessings for those who will cooperate with Him.
------------------------Grace Enough For All, June 22
AG	181	1	For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17.
AG	181	2	God has an abundance of grace and power awaiting our demand. But the reason we do not feel our great need of it is because we look to ourselves and not to Jesus. We do not exalt Jesus and rely wholly upon His merits.
AG	181	3	The provision made is complete, and the eternal righteousness of Christ is placed to the account of every believing soul. The costly, spotless robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has been provided for the repenting, believing sinner, and he may say: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10).
AG	181	4	Abundant grace has been provided that the believing soul may be kept free from sin; for all heaven, with its limitless resources, has been placed at our command. We are to draw from the well of salvation.... In ourselves we are sinners; but in Christ we are righteous. Having made us righteous through the imputed righteousness of Christ, God pronounces us just, and treats us as just. He looks upon us as His dear children. Christ works against the power of sin, and where sin abounded, grace much more abounds.
AG	181	5	We may make daily progress in the upward path to holiness and yet we find still greater heights to be reached; but every stretch of the spiritual muscles, every taxation of heart and brain, brings to light the abundance of the supply of grace essential for us as we advance.
AG	181	6	The more we contemplate these riches, the more we will come into possession of them, and the more we shall reveal the merits of Christ's sacrifice, the protection of His righteousness, His inexpressible love, the fullness of His wisdom, and His power to present us before the Father without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
AG	181	7	We are living in the day of preparation. We must obtain a full supply of grace from the divine storehouse. The Lord has made provision for every day's demand.
------------------------Unmerited Favor, June 23
AG	182	1	Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation. Psalm 106:4.
AG	182	2	Grace is unmerited favor, and the believer is justified without any merit of his own, without any claim to offer to God. He is justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who stands in the courts of heaven as the sinner's substitute and surety. But while he is justified because of the merit of Christ, he is not free to work unrighteousness. Faith works by love and purifies the soul. Faith buds and blossoms and bears a harvest of precious fruit. Where faith is, good works appear. The sick are visited, the poor are cared for, the fatherless and the widows are not neglected, the naked are clothed, the destitute are fed.
AG	182	3	Christ went about doing good, and when men are united with Him, they love the children of God, and meekness and truth guide their footsteps. The expression of the countenance reveals their experience, and men take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus and learned of Him. Christ and the believer become one, and His beauty of character is revealed in those who are vitally connected with the Source of power and love. Christ is the great depositary of justifying righteousness and sanctifying grace.
AG	182	4	All may come to Him and receive of His fullness. He says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).... Have you been looking unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of your faith? Have you been beholding Him who is full of truth and grace? Have you accepted the peace which Christ alone can give? If you have not, then yield to Him, and through His grace seek for a character that will be noble and elevated. Seek for a constant, resolute, cheerful spirit. Feed on Christ who is the Bread of life, and you will manifest His loveliness of character and spirit.
AG	182	5	The very best you can do will not merit the favor of God. It is Jesus' worthiness that will save you, His blood that will cleanse you.
------------------------Christ Our Righteousness, June 24
AG	183	1	Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. Romans 3:25.
AG	183	2	Christ is called "the Lord our righteousness," and through faith each one should say, "The Lord my righteousness." When faith lays hold upon this gift of God, the praise of God will be upon our lips, and we shall be able to say to others, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). We shall then be able to tell the lost concerning the plan of salvation, that while the world was lying under the curse of sin, the Lord presented terms of mercy to the fallen and hopeless sinner, and revealed the value and meaning of His grace. Grace is unmerited favor.... It was grace that sent our Saviour to seek us as wanderers and bring us back to the fold....
AG	183	3	No man can look within himself and find anything in his character that will recommend him to God, or make his acceptance sure. It is only through Jesus, whom the Father gave for the life of the world, that the sinner may find access to God. Jesus alone is our Redeemer, our Advocate and Mediator; in Him is our only hope for pardon, peace, and righteousness. It is by virtue of the blood of Christ that the sin-stricken soul can be restored to soundness....
AG	183	4	Apart from Christ we have no merit, no righteousness. Our sinfulness, our weakness, our human imperfection make it impossible that we should appear before God unless we are clothed in Christ's spotless righteousness....
AG	183	5	When you respond to the drawing of Christ, and join yourself to Him, you manifest saving faith.... Faith familiarizes the soul with the existence and presence of God, and, living with an eye single to the glory of God, more and more we discern the beauty of His character, the excellence of His grace. Our souls become strong in spiritual power; for we are breathing the atmosphere of heaven.... We are rising above the world, beholding Him who is the Chief among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely, and by beholding we are to become changed into His image.
------------------------The Bright Side of Religion, June 25
AG	184	1	I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:18.
AG	184	2	Every one who loves God is to testify of the preciousness of His grace and truth. Those who receive the light of truth are to have lesson upon lesson to educate them not to keep silent, but to speak often one to another. They are to keep in mind the Sabbath meeting, when those who love and fear God, and who think upon His name, can have opportunity to express their thoughts in speaking one to another....
AG	184	3	The Majesty of heaven identifies His interests with those of the believers, however humble may be their circumstances. And whenever they are privileged to meet together, it is appropriate that they speak often one to another, giving utterance to the gratitude and love that is a result of thinking upon the name of the Lord. Thus shall God be glorified as He hearkens and hears, and the testimony meeting will be considered the most precious of all meetings; for the words spoken are recorded in the book of remembrance....
AG	184	4	Do not gratify the enemy by dwelling upon the dark side of your experience; trust Jesus more fully for help to resist temptation. If we thought and talked more of Jesus, and less of ourselves, we should have much more of His presence. If we abide in Him, we shall be so filled with peace, faith, and courage, and shall have so victorious an experience to relate when we come to meeting, that others will be refreshed by our clear, strong testimony for God. These precious acknowledgements to the praise of the glory of His grace, when supported by a Christlike life, have an irresistible power, which works for the salvation of souls. The bright and cheerful side of religion will be represented by all who are daily consecrated to God. We should not dishonor our Lord by a mournful relation of trials that appear grievous. All trials that are received as educators will produce joy. The whole religious life will be uplifting, elevating, ennobling, fragrant with good words and works.
------------------------"Worthy is the Lamb!" June 26
AG	185	1	Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Revelation 5:12.
AG	185	2	We are not worthy of God's love, but Christ, our surety, is worthy, and is abundantly able to save all who shall come unto Him.
AG	185	3	Christ delights to take apparently hopeless material, those whom Satan has debased and through whom he has worked, and make them the subjects of His grace. He rejoices to deliver them from suffering and from the wrath that is to fall upon the disobedient.
AG	185	4	If the enemy can lead the desponding to take their eyes off from Jesus, and look to themselves, and dwell upon their own unworthiness, instead of dwelling upon the worthiness of Jesus, His love, His merits, and His great mercy, he will get away their shield of faith and gain his object; they will be exposed to his fiery temptations. The weak should therefore look to Jesus, and believe in Him; they then exercise faith.
AG	185	5	The Son of God gave all--life and love and suffering--for our redemption. And can it be that we, the unworthy objects of so great love, will withhold our hearts from Him? Every moment of our lives we have been partakers of the blessings of His grace, and for this very reason we cannot fully realize the depths of ignorance and misery from which we have been saved.
AG	185	6	Many make a serious mistake in their religious life by keeping the attention fixed upon their feelings and thus judging of their advancement or decline. Feelings are not a safe criterion. We are not to look within for evidence of our acceptance with God. We shall find there nothing but that which will discourage us. Our only hope is in "looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). There is everything in Him to inspire with hope, with faith, and with courage. He is our righteousness, our consolation and rejoicing....
AG	185	7	A sense of our weakness and unworthiness should lead us with humility of heart to plead the atoning sacrifice of Christ. As we rely upon His merits we shall find rest and peace and joy. He saves to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him.
------------------------Mystery of Mysteries, June 27
AG	186	1	Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. 1 Timothy 3:16.
AG	186	2	What a mystery of mysteries! It is difficult for the reason to grasp the majesty of Christ, the mystery of redemption. The shameful cross has been upraised, the nails have been driven through His hands and feet, and the cruel spear has pierced to His heart, and the redemption price has been paid for the human race....
AG	186	3	Redemption is an inexhaustible theme, worthy of our closest contemplation. It passes the comprehension of the deepest thought, the stretch of the most vivid imagination....
AG	186	4	Were Jesus with us today, He would say to us as He did to His disciples, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John 16:12). Jesus longed to open before the minds of His disciples deep and living truths, but their earthliness, their clouded, deficient comprehension made it impossible.... The want of spiritual growth closes the door to the rich rays of light that shine from Christ....
AG	186	5	Those who have been diligently working in the mines of God's Word, and have discovered the precious ore in the rich veins of truth, in the divine mysteries that have been hidden for ages, will exalt the Lord Jesus, the Source of all truth, by revealing in their characters the sanctifying power of what they believe. Jesus and His grace must be enshrined in the inner sanctuary of the soul. Then He will be revealed in words, in prayer, in exhortation, in the presentation of sacred truth.
AG	186	6	The mystery of the cross explains all other mysteries. In the light that streams from Calvary, the attributes of God which had filled us with fear and awe appear beautiful and attractive. Mercy, tenderness, and parental love are seen to blend with holiness, justice, and power. While we behold the majesty of His throne, high and lifted up, we see His character in His gracious manifestations, and comprehend, as never before, the significance of that endearing title, "Our Father."
------------------------Unsearchable Riches, June 28
AG	187	1	Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Ephesians 3:8.
AG	187	2	It is not because of any restriction on the part of God that the riches of His grace do not flow earthward to men. If all were willing to receive, all would become filled with His Spirit.
AG	187	3	It is the privilege of every soul to be a living channel through which God can communicate to the world the treasures of His grace, the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is nothing that Christ desires so much as agents who will represent to the world His Spirit and character. There is nothing that the world needs so much as the manifestation through humanity of the Saviour's love. All heaven is waiting for channels through which can be poured the holy oil to be a joy and blessing to human hearts.
AG	187	4	"God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, ... and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-7).
AG	187	5	Such are the words in which "Paul the aged," "a prisoner of Jesus Christ," writing from his prison house at Rome, endeavored to set before his brethren that which he found language inadequate to express in its fulness--"the unsearchable riches of Christ," the treasure of grace freely offered to the fallen sons of men.
AG	187	6	As your soul yearns after God, you will find more and still more of the unsearchable riches of His grace. As you contemplate these riches, you will come into possession of them, and will reveal the merits of the Saviour's sacrifice, the protection of His righteousness, the fulness of His wisdom, and His power to present you before the Father "without spot, and blameless" (2 Peter 3:14).
------------------------"Behold, What Manner of Love" June 29
AG	188	1	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. 1 John 3:1.
AG	188	2	It is from the Father's heart that the streams of divine compassion, manifest in Christ, flow out to the children of men.... God permitted His beloved Son, full of grace and truth, to come from a world of indescribable glory, to a world marred and blighted with sin, darkened with the shadow of death and the curse. He permitted Him to leave the bosom of His love, the adoration of the angels, to suffer shame, insult, humiliation, hatred, and death.... It was the burden of sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of its separation of the soul from God--it was this that broke the heart of the Son of God....
AG	188	3	God suffered with His Son. In the agony of Gethsemane, the death of Calvary, the heart of Infinite Love paid the price of our redemption.... Nothing less than the infinite sacrifice made by Christ in behalf of fallen man could express the Father's love to lost humanity....
AG	188	4	The price paid for our redemption, the infinite sacrifice of our heavenly Father in giving His Son to die for us, should give us exalted conceptions of what we may become through Christ. As the inspired apostle John beheld the height, the depth, the breadth of the Father's love toward the perishing race, he was filled with adoration and reverence; and, failing to find suitable language in which to express the greatness and tenderness of this love, he called upon the world to behold it.... What a value this places upon man! Through transgression, the sons of man become subjects of Satan. Through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, the sons of Adam may become the sons of God. By assuming human nature, Christ elevates humanity. Fallen men are placed where, through connection with Christ, they may indeed become worthy of the name, "sons of God."
AG	188	5	Such love is without a parallel. Children of the heavenly King! Precious promise! Theme of the most profound meditation! The matchless love of God for a world that did not love Him!
------------------------How Long Must Heaven Suffer? June 30
AG	189	1	I and my Father are one. John 10:30.
AG	189	2	God Himself was crucified with Christ; for Christ was one with the Father.
AG	189	3	Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator. All heaven suffered in Christ's agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right, every deed of cruelty, every failure of humanity to reach His ideal, brings grief to Him. When there came upon Israel the calamities that were the sure result of separation from God--subjugation by their enemies, cruelty, and death--it is said that "his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel." "In all their affliction he was afflicted: ... and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old" (Judges 10:16; Isaiah 63:9).
AG	189	4	His Spirit "maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." As the "whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together" (Romans 8:26, 22), the heart of the infinite Father is pained in sympathy. Our world is a vast lazar house, a scene of misery that we dare not allow our thoughts to dwell upon. Did we realize it as it is, the burden would be too terrible. Yet God feels it all.
AG	189	5	Not a sigh is breathed, not a pain felt, not a grief pierces the soul, but the throb vibrates to the Father's heart.
AG	189	6	He who knows the depths of the world's misery and despair, knows by what means to bring relief.... Although human beings have abused their mercies, wasted their talents, and lost the dignity of godlike manhood, the Creator is to be glorified in their redemption.
AG	189	7	In order to destroy sin and its results He gave His best Beloved, and He has put it in our power, through cooperation with Him, to bring this scene of misery to an end.
AG	189	8	With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world! How soon might the end come--the end of suffering and sorrow and sin!
------------------------From the Beginning, July 1
AG	190	1	The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21.
AG	190	2	It is the glory of the gospel that it is founded upon the principle of restoring in the fallen race the divine image by a constant manifestation of benevolence. This work began in the heavenly courts.... The Godhead was stirred with pity for the race, and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit gave themselves to the working out of the plan of redemption.
AG	190	3	Before the entrance of sin, Adam enjoyed open communion with his Maker; but since man separated himself from God by transgression, the human race has been cut off from this high privilege. By the plan of redemption, however, a way has been opened whereby the inhabitants of the earth may still have connection with heaven. God has communicated with men by His Spirit, and divine light has been imparted to the world by revelations to His chosen servants.
AG	190	4	From the beginning, God has been working by His Holy Spirit through human instrumentalities for the accomplishment of His purpose in behalf of the fallen race. This was manifest in the lives of the patriarchs. To the church in the wilderness also, in the time of Moses, God gave His "good Spirit to instruct them" (Nehemiah 9:20). And in the days of the apostles He wrought mightily for His church through the agency of the Holy Spirit. The same power that sustained the patriarchs... and that made the work of the apostolic church effective, has upheld God's faithful children in every succeeding age. It was through the power of the Holy Spirit that during the Dark Ages the Waldensian Christians helped to prepare the way for the Reformation. It was the same power that made successful the efforts of the noble men and women who pioneered the way for the establishment of modern missions....
AG	190	5	Today the heralds of the cross are... preparing the way for the second advent of Christ.... And as they continue to let their light shine, as did those who were baptized with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they receive more and still more of the Spirit's power. Thus the earth is to be lightened with the glory of God.
------------------------Christ's Promise of the Spirit, July 2
AG	191	1	I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth. John 14:16, 17.
AG	191	2	Before offering Himself as the sacrificial victim, Christ sought for the most essential and complete gift to bestow upon His followers, a gift that would bring within their reach the boundless resources of grace. "I will pray the Father," He said, "and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you" (John 14:16-18, margin).
AG	191	3	Before this the Spirit had been in the world; from the very beginning of the work of redemption He had been moving upon men's hearts. But while Christ was on earth, the disciples had desired no other helper. Not until they were deprived of His presence would they feel their need of the Spirit, and then He would come.
AG	191	4	The Holy Spirit is Christ's representative, but divested of the personality of humanity, and independent thereof. Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally. Therefore it was for their interest that He should go to the Father, and send the Spirit to be His successor on earth. No one could then have any advantage because of his location or his personal contact with Christ. By the Spirit the Saviour would be accessible to all. In this sense He would be nearer to them than if he had not ascended on high.
AG	191	5	This promise belongs to us now as surely as it belonged to the disciples.... Let every church member kneel before God, and pray earnestly for the impartation of the Spirit. Cry, "Lord, increase my faith. Make me to understand Thy word; for the entrance of Thy word giveth light. Refresh me by Thy presence. Fill my heart with Thy Spirit."
AG	191	6	At all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all afflictions, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone, the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith.
------------------------The Spirit's Power, July 3
AG	192	1	Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. Luke 24:49.
AG	192	2	Christ's visible presence was about to be withdrawn from the disciples, but a new endowment of power was to be theirs. The Holy Spirit was to be given them in its fullness, sealing them for their work.
AG	192	3	In obedience to Christ's command, they waited in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father--the outpouring of the Spirit. They did not wait in idleness. The record says that they were "continually in the temple, praising and blessing God" (Luke 24:53). They also met together to present their requests to the Father in the name of Jesus.... Higher and still higher they extended the hand of faith, with the mighty argument, "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Romans 8:34)....
AG	192	4	The disciples prayed with intense earnestness for a fitness to meet men and in their daily intercourse to speak words that would lead sinners to Christ. Putting away all differences, all desire for the supremacy, they came close together in Christian fellowship. They drew nearer and nearer to God....
AG	192	5	These days of preparation were days of deep heart searching. The disciples felt their spiritual need, and cried to the Lord for the holy unction that was to fit them for the work of soul saving. They did not ask for a blessing for themselves merely. They were weighted with the burden of the salvation of souls. They realized that the gospel was to be carried to the world, and they claimed the power that Christ had promised.
AG	192	6	During the patriarchal age the influence of the Holy Spirit had often been revealed in a marked manner, but never in its fullness. Now, in obedience to the word of the Saviour, the disciples offered their supplications for this gift, and in heaven Christ added His intercession. He claimed the gift of the Spirit, that He might pour it upon His people.
------------------------Pentecost, July 4
AG	193	1	And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. Acts 2:1, 2.
AG	193	2	The Spirit came upon the waiting, praying disciples with a fullness that reached every heart. The Infinite One revealed Himself in power to His church. It was as if for ages this influence had been held in restraint, and now Heaven rejoiced in being able to pour out upon the church the riches of the Spirit's grace. And under the influence of the Spirit, words of penitence and confession mingled with songs of praise for sins forgiven. Words of thanksgiving and of prophecy were heard. All heaven bent low to behold and to adore the wisdom of matchless, incomprehensible love. Lost in wonder, the apostles exclaimed, "Herein is love." They grasped the imparted gift. And what followed? The sword of the Spirit, newly edged with power and bathed in the lightnings of heaven, cut its way through unbelief. Thousands were converted in a day....
AG	193	3	Christ's ascension to heaven was the signal that His followers were to receive the promised blessing. For this they were to wait before they entered upon their work. When Christ passed within the heavenly gates, He was enthroned amidst the adoration of the angels. As soon as this ceremony was completed, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in rich currents, and Christ was indeed glorified, even with the glory which He had with the Father from all eternity. The Pentecostal outpouring was Heaven's communication that the Redeemer's inauguration was accomplished. According to His promise He had sent the Holy Spirit from heaven to His followers, as a token that He had, as Priest and King, received all authority in heaven and on earth, and was the Anointed One over His people.
AG	193	4	God is willing to give us a similar blessing, when we seek for it as earnestly. The Lord did not lock the reservoir of heaven after pouring His Spirit upon the early disciples. We also may receive of the fullness of His blessing. Heaven is full of the treasures of His grace, and those who come to God in faith may claim all that He has promised.
------------------------The Office of the Spirit, July 5
AG	194	1	When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. John 16:8.
AG	194	2	The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of men to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character upon His church.
AG	194	3	While we yield ourselves as instruments for the Holy Spirit's working, the grace of God works in us to deny old inclinations, to overcome powerful propensities, and to form new habits.
AG	194	4	The Spirit of God, received into the soul, quickens all its faculties. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the mind that is devoted unreservedly to God, develops harmoniously, and is strengthened to comprehend and fulfill the requirements of God. The weak, vacillating character becomes changed to one of strength and steadfastness....
AG	194	5	It is the Spirit that causes to shine into darkened minds the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness; that makes men's hearts burn within them with an awakened realization of the truths of eternity; that presents before the mind the great standard of righteousness, and convinces of sin; that inspires faith in Him who alone can save from sin; that works to transform character by withdrawing the affections of men from those things which are temporal and perishable, and fixing them upon the eternal inheritance. The Spirit recreates, refines, and sanctifies human beings, fitting them to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King.
------------------------A Comforter Like Christ, July 6
AG	195	1	Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. John 16:7.
AG	195	2	The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fullness of the Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour.
AG	195	3	With the consecrated worker for God, in whatever place he may be, the Holy Spirit abides. The words spoken to the disciples are spoken also to us. The Comforter is ours as well as theirs.
AG	195	4	There is no comforter like Christ, so tender and so true. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. His Spirit speaks to the heart. Circumstances may separate us from our friends; the broad, restless ocean may roll between us and them. Though their sincere friendship may still exist, they may be unable to demonstrate it.... But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always there, one given in Christ's place, to act in His stead. He is always at our right hand, to speak soothing, gentle words; to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer. The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the soul. This Spirit works in and through every one who receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of this Spirit reveal its fruit--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.
AG	195	5	The Holy Spirit ever abides with him who is seeking for perfection of Christian character. The Holy Spirit furnishes the pure motive, the living, active principle, that sustains striving, wrestling, believing souls in every emergency and under every temptation. The Holy Spirit sustains the believer amid the world's hatred, amid the unfriendliness of relatives, amid disappointment, amid the realization of imperfection, and amid the mistakes of life. Depending upon the matchless purity and perfection of Christ, the victory is sure to him who looks unto the Author and Finisher of our faith.... He has borne our sins, in order that through Him we might have moral excellence, and attain unto the perfection of Christian character.
------------------------Christ's Representative, July 7
AG	196	1	Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Matthew 28:20.
AG	196	2	When Christ ascended to the Father, He did not leave His followers without help. The Holy Spirit, as His representative, and the heavenly angels, as ministering spirits, are sent forth to aid those who against great odds are fighting the good fight of faith. Ever remember that Jesus is your helper. No one understands as well as He your peculiarities of character. He is watching over you, and if you are willing to be guided by Him, He will throw around you influences for good that will enable you to accomplish all His will for you.
AG	196	3	The Christian life is a warfare. But "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12). In this conflict of righteousness against unrighteousness we can be successful only by divine aid. Our finite will must be brought into submission to the will of the Infinite; the human will must be blended with the divine. This will bring the Holy Spirit to our aid....
AG	196	4	The Lord Jesus acts through the Holy Spirit; for it is His representative. Through it He infuses spiritual life into the soul, quickening its energies for good, cleansing it from moral defilement, and giving it a fitness for His kingdom. Jesus has large blessings to bestow, rich gifts to distribute among men. He is the wonderful Counselor, infinite in wisdom and strength; and if we will acknowledge the power of His Spirit, and submit to be molded by it, we shall stand complete in Him. What a thought is this! In Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him" (Colossians 2:9, 10). Never will the human heart know happiness until it is submitted to be molded by the Spirit of God. The Spirit conforms the renewed soul to the model, Jesus Christ. Through the influence of the Spirit, enmity against God is changed into faith and love, and pride into humility. The soul perceives the beauty of truth, and Christ is honored in excellence and perfection of character. As these changes are effected, angels break out in rapturous song, and God and Christ rejoice over souls fashioned after the divine similitude.
------------------------Like Dew, Rain, and Sunshine, July 8
AG	197	1	I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. Hosea 14:5.
AG	197	2	Of the almost innumerable lessons taught in the varied processes of growth, some of the most precious are conveyed in the Saviour's parable of the growing seed....
AG	197	3	The seed has in itself a germinating principle, a principle that God Himself has implanted; yet if left to itself the seed would have no power to spring up. Man has his part to act in promoting the growth of the grain; but there is a point beyond which he can accomplish nothing. He must depend upon One who has connected the sowing and the reaping by wonderful links of His own omnipotent power.
AG	197	4	There is life in the seed, there is power in the soil; but unless infinite power is exercised day and night, the seed will yield no return. The showers of rain must refresh the thirsty fields; the sun must impart warmth; electricity must be conveyed to the buried seed. The life which the Creator has implanted, He alone can call forth. Every seed grows, every plant develops, by the power of God....
AG	197	5	The germination of the seed represents the beginning of spiritual life, and the development of the plant is a figure of the development of character. There can be no life without growth.
AG	197	6	The plant must either grow or die. As its growth is silent and imperceptible, but continuous, so is the growth of character. At every stage of development our life may be perfect; yet if God's purpose for us is fulfilled, there will be constant advancement.
AG	197	7	The plant grows by receiving that which God has provided to sustain its life. So spiritual growth is attained through cooperation with divine agencies. As the plant takes root in the soil, so we are to take root in Christ. As the plant receives the sunshine, the dew, and the rain, so we are to receive the Holy Spirit. If our hearts are stayed upon Christ, He will come unto us "as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." As the Sun of righteousness, He will arise upon us "with healing in His wings." We shall "grow as the lily." We shall "revive as the corn, and grow as the vine" (Hosea 6:3; Malachi 4:2; Hosea 14:5, 7).
------------------------Illuminates the Scriptures, July 9
AG	198	1	But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:10.
AG	198	2	God has been pleased to communicate His truth to the world by human agencies, and He Himself, by His Holy Spirit, qualified men and enabled them to do this work. He guided the mind in the selection of what to speak and what to write. The treasure was intrusted to earthen vessels, yet it is, none the less, from Heaven. The testimony is conveyed through the imperfect expression of human language, yet it is the testimony of God; and the obedient, believing child of God beholds in it the glory of a divine power, full of grace and truth.
AG	198	3	In His Word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the revealer of doctrines, and the test of experience.... Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His Word, has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, the Spirit was promised by our Saviour, to open the Word to His servants, to illuminate and apply its teachings.
AG	198	4	Those who dig beneath the surface discover the hidden gems of truth. The Holy Spirit is present with the earnest searcher. Its illumination shines upon the Word, stamping the truth upon the mind with a new, fresh importance. The searcher is filled with a sense of peace and joy never before felt. The preciousness of truth is realized as never before. A new, heavenly light shines upon the Word, illuminating it as though every letter were tinged with gold. God Himself has spoken to the mind and heart, making the Word spirit and life.
AG	198	5	The Holy Spirit is implanting the grace of Christ in the heart of many a noble seeker after truth, quickening his sympathies contrary to his nature, contrary to his former education. "The light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9), is shining in his soul; and this Light, if heeded, will guide his feet to the kingdom of God.
------------------------Teacher of Truth, July 10
AG	199	1	When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. John 16:13.
AG	199	2	The Comforter is called "the Spirit of truth." His work is to define and maintain the truth. He first dwells in the heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus He becomes the Comforter. There is comfort and peace in the truth, but no real peace or comfort can be found in falsehood. It is through false theories and traditions that Satan gains his power over the mind. By directing men to false standards, he misshapes the character. Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart. Thus He exposes error, and expels it from the soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the Word of God, that Christ subdues His chosen people to Himself.
AG	199	3	God intends that even in this life the truths of His Word shall be ever unfolding to His people. There is only one way in which this knowledge can be obtained. We can attain to an understanding of God's Word only through the illumination of that Spirit by which the Word was given. "The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God;" "for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:11, 10).
AG	199	4	From God, the fountain of wisdom, proceeds all the knowledge that is of value to man, all that the intellect can grasp or retain. The fruit of the tree representing good and evil is not to be eagerly plucked because it is recommended by one who was once a bright angel in glory. He has said that if men eat thereof, they shall know good and evil; but let it alone. The true knowledge comes not from infidels or wicked men. The word of God is light and truth. The true light shines from Jesus Christ, who "lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9). From the Holy Spirit proceeds divine knowledge. He knows what humanity needs to promote peace, happiness, and restfulness here in this world, and to secure eternal rest in the kingdom of God.
AG	199	5	Never should the Bible be studied without prayer. Before opening its pages we should ask for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and it will be given.... The Spirit of truth is the only effectual teacher of divine truth.
------------------------A Faithful Guide, July 11
AG	200	1	For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death. Psalm 48:14.
AG	200	2	No truth is more clearly taught in the Bible than that God by His Holy Spirit especially directs His servants on earth in the great movements for the carrying forward of the work of salvation. Men are instruments in the hands of God, employed by Him to accomplish His purposes of grace and mercy.
AG	200	3	I am encouraged and blessed as I realize that the God of Israel is still guiding His people, and that He will continue to be with them, even to the end....
AG	200	4	If ever there was a time when we needed the special guidance of the Holy Spirit, it is now. We need a thorough consecration. It is fully time that we gave to the world a demonstration of the power of God in our own lives and in our ministry.
AG	200	5	The Lord desires to see the work of proclaiming the third angel's message carried forward with increasing efficiency. As He has worked in all ages to give victories to His people, so in this age He longs to carry to a triumphant fulfillment His purposes for His church. He bids His believing saints to advance unitedly, going from strength to greater strength, from faith to increased assurance and confidence in the truth and righteousness of His cause.
AG	200	6	We are to stand firm as a rock to the principles of the Word of God, remembering that God is with us to give us strength to meet each new experience.... We are to hold as very sacred the faith that has been substantiated by the instruction and approval of the Spirit of God from our earliest experience until the present time. We are to cherish as very precious the work that the Lord has been carrying forward through His commandment-keeping people, and which, through the power of His grace will grow stronger and more efficient as time advances. The enemy is seeking to becloud the discernment of God's people, and to weaken their efficiency, but if they will labor as the Spirit of God shall direct, He will open doors of opportunity before them.... Their experience will be one of constant growth, until the Lord shall descend from heaven with power and great glory to set His seal of final triumph upon His faithful ones.
------------------------Our Personal Guide, July 12
AG	201	1	Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21.
AG	201	2	I have no higher wish than to see our youth imbued with that spirit of pure religion which will lead them to take up the cross and follow Jesus. Go forth, young disciples of Christ, controlled by principle, clad in the robes of purity and righteousness. Your Saviour will guide you into the position best suited to your talents and where you can be most useful.
AG	201	3	"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him" (James 1:5). Such a promise is of more value than gold or silver. If with a humble heart you seek divine guidance in every trouble and perplexity, His word is pledged that a gracious answer will be given you. And His word can never fail.
AG	201	4	As we near the end of time, falsehood will be so mingled with truth, that only those who have the guidance of the Holy Spirit will be able to distinguish truth from error. We need to make every effort to keep the way of the Lord. We must in no case turn from His guidance to put our trust in man. The Lord's angels are appointed to keep strict watch over those who put their faith in the Lord, and these angels are to be our special help in every time of need. Every day we are to come to the Lord with full assurance of faith, and to look to Him for wisdom.... Those who are guided by the Word of the Lord will discern with certainty between falsehood and truth, between sin and righteousness.
AG	201	5	"Emmanuel, God with us." This means everything to us. What a broad foundation does it lay for our faith! What a hope big with immortality does it place before the believing soul! God with us in Christ Jesus to accompany us every step of the journey to heaven! The Holy Spirit with us as a Comforter, a Guide in our perplexities, to soothe our sorrows, and shield us in temptation!
AG	201	6	He who does the will of God, who walks in the path that God has marked out, cannot stumble and fall. The light of God's guiding Spirit gives him a clear perception of his duty, and leads him aright till the close of his work.
------------------------That Still, Small Voice, July 13
AG	202	1	Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Hebrews 3:7, 8.
AG	202	2	Conscience is the voice of God, heard amid the conflict of human passions; when it is resisted, the Spirit of God is grieved.
AG	202	3	Men have the power to quench the Spirit of God; the power of choosing is left with them. They are allowed freedom of action. They may be obedient through the name and grace of our Redeemer, or they may be disobedient, and realize the consequences.
AG	202	4	The Lord requires us to obey the voice of duty, when there are other voices all around us urging us to pursue an opposite course. It requires earnest attention from us to distinguish the voice which speaks from God. We must resist and conquer inclination, and obey the voice of conscience without parleying or compromise, lest its promptings cease and will and impulse control. The word of the Lord comes to us all who have not resisted His Spirit by determining not to hear and obey. This voice is heard in warnings, in counsels, in reproof. It is the Lord's message of light to His people. If we wait for louder calls or better opportunities, the light may be withdrawn, and we left in darkness....
AG	202	5	The pleadings of the Spirit, neglected today because pleasure or inclination leads in an opposite direction, may be powerless to convince, or even impress, tomorrow. To improve the opportunities of the present, with prompt and willing hearts, is the only way to grow in grace and the knowledge of the truth. We should ever cherish a sense that, individually, we are standing before the Lord of hosts; no word, no act, no thought, even, should be indulged to offend the eye of the Eternal One.... If we would feel that in every place we are the servants of the Most High, we would be more circumspect; our whole life would possess to us a meaning and a sacredness which earthly honors can never give.
AG	202	6	The thoughts of the heart, the words of the lips, and every act of the life, will make our character more worthy, if the presence of God is continually felt. Let the language of the heart be: "Lo, God is here." Then the life will be pure, the character unspotted, the soul continually uplifted to the Lord.
------------------------A Refining and Sanctifying Force, July 14
AG	203	1	I the Lord do sanctify them. Leviticus 22:9.
AG	203	2	None but He who has created man can effect a change in the human heart.... The human judgment and ideas of the most experienced are liable to be imperfect and faulty, and the frail instrument, subject to his own hereditary traits of character, has need to submit to the sanctification of the Holy Spirit every day, else self will gather the reins and want to drive.
AG	203	3	A mind trained only in worldly science fails to understand the things of God; but the same mind, converted and sanctified, will see the divine power in the word. Only the mind and heart cleansed by the sanctification of the Spirit can discern heavenly things.
AG	203	4	An earthly parent cannot give his child a sanctified character. He cannot transfer his character to his child. God alone can transform us. Christ breathed on His disciples, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John 20:22). This is the great gift of heaven. Christ imparted to them through the Spirit His own sanctification. He imbued them with His power, that they might win souls to the gospel. Henceforth Christ would live through their faculties, and speak through their words.... They must cherish His principles and be controlled by His Spirit. They were no longer to follow their own way, to speak their own words. The words they spoke were to proceed from a sanctified heart, and fall from sanctified lips.
AG	203	5	We need the softening, subduing, refining influence of the Holy Spirit, to mold our characters, and to bring every thought into captivity to Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that will enable us to overcome, that will lead us to sit at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary, and learn His meekness and lowliness of heart. We need to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit every hour of the day, lest we be ensnared by the enemy, and our souls be imperiled.
AG	203	6	The light of truth is to shine to the ends of the earth. Greater and still greater light is beaming with celestial brightness from the Redeemer's face upon His representatives, to be diffused through the darkness of a benighted world. As laborers together with Him, let us pray for the sanctification of His Spirit, that we may shine more and more brightly.
------------------------Molds Into the Divine Likeness, July 15
AG	204	1	And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. 1 John 3:24.
AG	204	2	The promise of the Holy Spirit is not limited to any age or to any race. Christ declared that the divine influence of His Spirit was to be with His followers unto the end. From the Day of Pentecost to the present time, the Comforter has been sent to all who have yielded themselves fully to the Lord and to His service. To all who have accepted Christ as a personal Saviour, the Holy Spirit has come as a counselor, sanctifier, guide, and witness. The more closely believers have walked with God, the more clearly and powerfully they have testified of their Redeemer's love and of His saving grace. The men and women who through the long centuries of persecution and trial enjoyed a large measure of the presence of the Spirit in their lives, have stood as signs and wonders in the world. Before angels and men they have revealed the transforming power of redeeming love.
AG	204	3	Those who at Pentecost were endued with power from on high, were not thereby freed from further temptation and trial. As they witnessed for truth and righteousness, they were repeatedly assailed by the enemy of all truth, who sought to rob them of their Christian experience. They were compelled to strive with all their God-given powers to reach the measure of the stature of grace, that they might reach higher and still higher toward perfection. Under the Holy Spirit's working, even the weakest, by experiencing faith in God, learned to improve their entrusted powers and to become sanctified, refined, and ennobled. As in humility they submitted to the moulding influence of the Holy Spirit, they received of the fullness of the Godhead and were fashioned in the likeness of the divine....
AG	204	4	The Holy Spirit withdraws the affections from the things of this earth and fills the soul with a desire for holiness.... If men are willing to be moulded, there will be brought about a sanctification of the whole being. The Spirit will take the things of God and stamp them on the soul.
------------------------Brings Refreshing, July 16
AG	205	1	Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 3:19.
AG	205	2	The third angel's message is swelling into a loud cry, and you must not feel at liberty to neglect the present duty, and still entertain the idea that at some future time you will be the recipients of great blessing, when without any effort on your part a wonderful revival will take place. Today you are to give yourselves to God, that He may make you vessels unto honor, and meet for His service. Today you are to give yourself to God, that you may be emptied of self, emptied of envy, jealousy, evil surmising, strife, everything that shall be dishonoring to God. Today you are to have your vessel purified that it may be ready for the heavenly dew, ready for the showers of the latter rain; for the latter rain will come, and the blessing of God will fill every soul that is purified from every defilement. It is our work today to yield our souls to Christ, that we may be fitted for the time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord--fitted for the baptism of the Holy Spirit....
AG	205	3	God has not revealed to us the time when this message will close, or when probation will have an end.... It is our duty to watch and work and wait, to labor every moment for the souls of men that are ready to perish. We are to keep walking continually in the footsteps of Jesus, working in His lines, dispensing His gifts as good stewards of the manifold grace of God....
AG	205	4	The Word of The Lord reveals the fact that the end of all things is at hand, and its testimony is most decided that it is necessary for every soul to have the truth planted in the heart so that it will control the life and sanctify the character. The Spirit of the Lord is working to take the truth of the inspired Word and stamp it upon the soul so that professed followers of Christ will have a holy, sacred joy that they will be able to impart to others.
AG	205	5	Our only safety is in being ready for the heavenly refreshing, having our lamps trimmed and burning.... Day by day we are to seek the enlightenment of the Spirit of God, that it may do its office work upon the soul and character.
------------------------Purifying, Vitalizing Power, July 17
AG	206	1	Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10.
AG	206	2	The Lord purifies the heart very much as we air a room. We do not close the doors and windows, and throw in some purifying substance; but we open the doors and throw wide the windows, and let heaven's purifying atmosphere flow in.... The windows of impulse, of feeling must be opened up toward heaven, and the dust of selfishness and earthliness must be expelled. The grace of God must sweep through the chambers of the mind, the imagination must have heavenly themes for contemplation, and every element of the nature must be purified and vitalized by the Spirit of God.
AG	206	3	He who lives the principles of Bible religion, will not be found weak in moral power. Under the ennobling influence of the Holy Spirit, the tastes and inclinations become pure and holy. Nothing takes so strong a hold upon the affections, nothing reaches so fully down to the deepest motives of action, nothing exerts so potent an influence upon the life, and gives so great firmness and stability to the character, as the religion of Christ. It leads its possessor ever upward, inspiring him with noble purposes, teaching him propriety of deportment, and imparting a becoming dignity to every action.
AG	206	4	The church is the object of God's tenderest love and care. If the members will allow Him, He will reveal His character through them. He says to them, "Ye are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14). Those who walk and talk with God practice the gentleness of Christ. In their lives, forbearance, meekness, and self-restraint are united with holy earnestness and diligence. As they advance heavenward, the sharp, rough edges of character are worn off, and godliness is seen. The Holy Spirit, full of grace and power, works upon mind and heart.
AG	206	5	The heart in which Jesus makes his abode will be quickened, purified, guided, and ruled by the Holy Spirit, and the human agent will make strenuous efforts to bring his character into harmony with God. He will avoid everything that is contrary to the revealed will and mind of God.
------------------------Received by Naked Faith, July 18
AG	207	1	The just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4.
AG	207	2	Many do not exercise that faith which it is their privilege and duty to exercise, often waiting for that feeling which faith alone can bring. Feeling is not faith; the two are distinct. Faith is ours to exercise, but joyful feeling and the blessing are God's to give. The grace of God comes to us through the channel of living faith, and that faith it is in our power to exercise.
AG	207	3	True faith lays hold of and claims the promised blessing before it is realized and felt. We must send up our petitions in faith within the second vail, and let our faith take hold of the promised blessing, and claim it as ours. We are then to believe that we receive the blessing, because our faith has hold of it, and according to the Word it is ours. "What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24). Here is faith, naked faith, to believe that we receive the blessing, even before we realize it.... But many suppose ... that they cannot have faith unless they feel the power of the Spirit. Such confound faith with the blessing that comes through faith. The very time to exercise faith is when we feel destitute of the Spirit. When thick clouds of darkness seem to hover over the mind, then is the time to let living faith pierce the darkness and scatter the clouds. True faith rests on the promises contained in the Word of God, and those only who obey that Word can claim its glorious promises.
AG	207	4	Should anyone dishonor God by imagining that He would not respond to the appeals of His children? ... The Holy Spirit, the representative of Himself, is the greatest of all gifts. All "good things" are comprised in this. The Creator Himself can give us nothing greater, nothing better. When we beseech the Lord to pity us in our distress, and to guide us by His Holy Spirit, He will never turn away our prayer.
AG	207	5	The measure of the Holy Spirit we receive will be proportioned to the measure of our desire and the faith exercised for it.... We can be assured that we shall receive the Holy Spirit if we individually try the experiment of testing God's word.
------------------------For All Who Believe, July 19
AG	208	1	God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. 2 Thessalonians 2:13.
AG	208	2	In this text the two agencies in the work of salvation are revealed--the divine influence, and the strong, living faith of those who follow Christ. It is through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth that we become laborers together with God. Christ waits for the cooperation of His church.... The blood of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the divine Word, are ours. The object of all this provision of heaven is before us--the salvation of the souls for whom Christ died; and it depends upon us to lay hold on the promises God has given, and become laborers together with Him. Divine and human agencies must cooperate in the work....
AG	208	3	Christ crucified for our sins; Christ risen from the dead; Christ ascended on high as our intercessor--this is the science of salvation that we need to learn and to teach.
AG	208	4	It is God's purpose that His people shall be a sanctified, purified, holy people, communicating light to all around them. It is His purpose that, by exemplifying the truth in their lives, they shall be a praise in the earth. The grace of Christ is sufficient to bring this about.
AG	208	5	There is no limit to the usefulness of one who, putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart and lives a life wholly consecrated to God. All who consecrate body, soul, and spirit to His service will be constantly receiving a new endowment of physical, mental, and spiritual power. The inexhaustible supplies of heaven are at their command. Christ gives them the breath of His own Spirit, the life of His own life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in mind and heart. Through the grace given us we may achieve victories that because of our own erroneous and preconceived opinions, our defects of character, our smallness of faith, have seemed impossible.
AG	208	6	To everyone who offers himself to the Lord for service, withholding nothing, is given power for the attainment of measureless results.
------------------------More Than Mortal Power, July 20
AG	209	1	When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Isaiah 59:19.
AG	209	2	God has provided divine assistance for all the emergencies to which our human resources are unequal. He gives the Holy Spirit to help in every strait, to strengthen our hope and assurance, to illuminate our minds and purify our hearts.
AG	209	3	Your part is to put your will on the side of Christ. When you yield your will to His, He immediately takes possession of you, and works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Your nature is brought under the control of His Spirit. Even your thoughts are subject to Him. If you cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire, you can control the will, and thus an entire change will be wrought in your life. When you yield up your will to Christ, your life is hid with Christ in God. It is allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You have a strength from God that holds you fast to His strength; and a new life, even the life of faith, is possible to you.
AG	209	4	You can never be successful in elevating yourself, unless your will is on the side of Christ, cooperating with the Spirit of God. Do not feel that you cannot; but say, "I can, I will." And God has pledged His Holy Spirit to help you in every decided effort.
AG	209	5	The lifework given us is that of preparation for the life eternal. If we accomplish this work as God designs we shall, every temptation may work for our advancement; for as we resist its allurements, we make progress in the divine life. In the heat of the conflict, unseen agencies will be by our side, commanded of heaven to aid us in our wrestlings; and in the crisis, strength and firmness and energy will be imparted to us, and we shall have more than mortal power....
AG	209	6	Those who would be conquerors must engage in conflict with unseen agencies.... The Holy Spirit is ever at work, seeking to purify, refine, and discipline the souls of men, in order that they may become fitted for the society of saints and angels.
------------------------Brings Harmony, July 21
AG	210	1	Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:20, 21.
AG	210	2	After the descent of the Holy Spirit the disciples went forth to proclaim a risen Saviour, their one desire the salvation of souls. They rejoiced in the sweetness of the communion with saints. They were tender, thoughtful, self-denying, willing to make any sacrifice for the truth's sake. In their daily association with one another they revealed the love that Christ had commanded them to reveal....
AG	210	3	Harmony and union existing among men of varied dispositions is the strongest witness that can be borne that God has sent His Son into the world to save sinners. It is our privilege to bear this witness. But, in order to do this, we must place ourselves under Christ's command. Our characters must be molded in harmony with His character, our wills must be surrendered to His will.
AG	210	4	We are of the same faith, members of one family, all children of the same heavenly Father, with the same blessed hope of immortality. How close and tender should be the tie that binds us together. The people of the world are watching us to see if our faith is exerting a sanctifying influence upon our hearts. They are quick to discern every defect in our lives, every inconsistency in our actions. Let us give them no occasion to reproach our faith....
AG	210	5	Little differences dwelt upon lead to actions that destroy Christian fellowship. Let us not allow the enemy thus to gain the advantage over us. Let us keep drawing nearer to God and to one another.... The heart of the Saviour is set upon His followers' fulfilling God's purpose in all its height and depth. They are to be one in Him, even though they are scattered the world over.... When Christ's prayer is fully believed, ... unity of action will be seen in our ranks. Brother will be bound to brother by the golden bonds of the love of Christ. The Spirit of God alone can bring about this oneness. He who sanctified Himself can sanctify His disciples. United with Him, they will be united with one another in the most holy faith.
------------------------Creates Unity in Diversity, July 22
AG	211	1	I ... beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3.
AG	211	2	Paul urges the Ephesians to preserve unity and love.... Divisions in the church dishonor the religion of Christ before the world and give occasion to the enemies of truth to justify their course.
AG	211	3	A union of believers with Christ will as a natural result lead to a union with one another, which bond of union is the most enduring upon earth. We are one in Christ, as Christ is one with the Father.... It is only by personal union with Christ, by communion with Him daily, hourly, that we can bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit.... Our growth in grace, our joy, our usefulness, all depend on our union with Christ and the degree of faith we exercise in Him.
AG	211	4	The word and Spirit of truth, dwelling in our hearts, will separate us from the world. The immutable principles of truth and love will bind heart to heart, and the strength of the union will be according to the measure of grace and truth enjoyed.
AG	211	5	The vine has many branches, but though all the branches are different, they do not quarrel. In diversity there is unity. All the branches obtain their nourishment from one source. This is an illustration of the unity that is to exist among Christ's followers. In their different lines of work they all have but one Head. The same Spirit, in different ways, works through them. There is harmonious action, though the gifts differ.... God calls for each one ... to do his appointed work according to the ability which has been given him.
AG	211	6	We have a character to maintain, but it is the character of Christ. Having the character of Christ, we can carry on the work of God together. The Christ in us will meet the Christ in our brethren, and the Holy Spirit will give that union of heart and action which testifies to the world that we are children of God....
AG	211	7	The world needs to see worked out before it the miracle that binds the hearts of God's people together in Christian love.
------------------------Given on Condition, July 23
AG	212	1	For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:5.
AG	212	2	Christ promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to His church, and the promise belongs as much to us as to the first disciples. But like every other promise, it is given on conditions. There are many who profess to believe and claim the Lord's promises; they talk about Christ and the Holy Spirit; yet they receive no benefit, because they do not surrender their souls to the guidance and control of divine agencies.
AG	212	3	We cannot use the Holy Spirit; the Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit, God works in His people "to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). But many will not submit to be led. They want to manage themselves. This is why they do not receive the heavenly gift. Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. The promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive.
AG	212	4	The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. Those only who are thus taught of God, those only who possess the inward working of the Spirit, and in whose life the Christ-life is manifested, can stand as true representatives of the Saviour....
AG	212	5	Christ promised that the Holy Spirit should abide with those who wrestle for victory over sin, to demonstrate the power of divine might by endowing the human agent with supernatural strength and instructing the ignorant in the mysteries of the kingdom of God....
AG	212	6	When one is fully emptied of self, when every false god is cast out of the soul, the vacuum is filled by the inflowing of the Spirit of Christ. Such a one has the faith that purifies the soul from defilement. He is conformed to the Spirit, and he minds the things of the Spirit. He has no confidence in self. Christ is all and in all.
------------------------Giving and Receiving, July 24
AG	213	1	Freely ye have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8.
AG	213	2	Jesus said, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14). As the Holy Spirit opens to you the truth you will treasure up the most precious experiences and will long to speak to others of the comforting things that have been revealed to you. When brought into association with them you will communicate some fresh thought in regard to the character or the work of Christ. You will have some fresh revelation of His pitying love to impart to those who love Him and to those who love Him not....
AG	213	3	The heart that has once tasted the love of Christ, cries out continually for a deeper draft, and as you impart you will receive in richer and more abundant measure. Every revelation of God to the soul increases the capacity to know and to love. The continual cry of the heart is, "More of Thee," and ever the Spirit's answer is, "Much more".... To Jesus, who emptied Himself for the salvation of lost humanity, the Holy Spirit was given without measure. So it will be given to every follower of Christ when the whole heart is surrendered for His indwelling. Our Lord Himself has given the command, "Be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18), and this command is also a promise of its fulfillment. It was the good pleasure of the Father that in Christ should "all the fullness dwell," and "in him ye are made full" (Colossians 1:19, R.V.; 2:10, R.V.).
AG	213	4	The more of the Spirit of God, the more of His grace, is brought into our daily experience, the less friction there will be, the more happiness we shall have, and the more we shall impart to others.
AG	213	5	Christ is the great center, the source of all strength.... The most intelligent, the most spiritually minded, can bestow only as they receive. Of themselves they can supply nothing for the needs of the soul. We can impart only that which we receive from Christ; and we can receive only as we impart to others. As we continue imparting, we continue to receive; and the more we impart, the more we shall receive. Thus we may be constantly believing, trusting, receiving, and imparting.
------------------------Oil for Our Lamps, July 25
AG	214	1	The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Matthew 25:4.
AG	214	2	The two classes of watchers [in the parable of the ten virgins] represent the two classes who profess to be waiting for their Lord. They are called virgins because they profess a pure faith. By the lamps is represented the Word of God.... The oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit....
AG	214	3	In the parable, all the ten virgins went out to meet the bridegroom. All had lamps and vessels for oil. For a time there was seen no difference between them. So with the church that lives just before Christ's second coming. All have a knowledge of the Scriptures. All have heard the message of Christ's near approach, and confidently expect His appearing. But as in the parable, so it is now. A time of waiting intervenes, faith is tried; and when the cry is heard, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him," many are unready.... They are destitute of the Holy Spirit. Without the Spirit of God a knowledge of His Word is of no avail. The theory of truth, unaccompanied by the Holy Spirit, cannot quicken the soul or sanctify the heart.... Without the enlightenment of the Spirit, men will not be able to distinguish truth from error, and they will fall under the masterful temptations of Satan....
AG	214	4	The grace of God has been freely offered to every soul.... But character is not transferable. No man can believe for another.... No man can impart to another the character which is the fruit of the Spirit's working....
AG	214	5	We cannot be ready to meet the Lord by waking when the cry is heard, "Behold, the Bridegroom!" and then gathering up our empty lamps to have them replenished.... In the parable the wise virgins had oil in their vessels with their lamps. Their light burned with undimmed flame through the night of watching.... So the followers of Christ are to shed light into the darkness of the world. Through the Holy Spirit, God's word is a light as it becomes a transforming power in the life of the receiver. By implanting in their hearts the principles of His word, the Holy Spirit develops in men the attributes of God. The light of His glory--His character--is to shine forth in His followers.
AG	214	6	Ask God to give you much of the oil of His grace.
------------------------The Sin God Cannot Forgive, July 26
AG	215	1	Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. Matthew 12:31.
AG	215	2	Whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes, the guilt is washed away in the blood of Christ; but he who rejects the work of the Holy Spirit is placing himself where repentance and faith cannot come to him. It is by the Spirit that God works upon the heart; when men willfully reject the Spirit, and declare it to be from Satan, they cut off the channel by which God can communicate with them. When the Spirit is finally rejected, there is no more that God can do for the soul....
AG	215	3	It is not God that blinds the eyes of men or hardens their hearts. He sends them light to correct their errors, and to lead them in safe paths; it is by the rejection of this light that the eyes are blinded and the heart hardened. Often the process is gradual, and almost imperceptible. Light comes to the soul through God's word, through His servants, or by the direct agency of His Spirit; but when one ray of light is disregarded, there is a partial benumbing of the spiritual perceptions, and the second revealing of light is less clearly discerned. So the darkness increases, until it is night in the soul....
AG	215	4	It is not necessary for us deliberately to choose the service of the kingdom of darkness in order to come under its dominion. We have only to neglect to ally ourselves with the kingdom of light.... The most common manifestation of the sin against the Holy Spirit is in persistently slighting Heaven's invitation to repent. Every step in the rejection of Christ is a step toward the rejection of salvation, and toward the sin against the Holy Spirit.
AG	215	5	When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart. A change is wrought which man can never accomplish for himself. It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature. The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan.
------------------------Grieved by Our Doubts, July 27
AG	216	1	And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30.
AG	216	2	When we seem to doubt God's love and distrust His promises we dishonor Him and grieve His Holy Spirit.... How can our heavenly Father regard us when we distrust His love, which has led Him to give His only-begotten Son that we might have life? The apostle writes, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things" (Romans 8:32)? And yet how many, by their actions, if not in word, are saying, "The Lord does not mean this for me. Perhaps He loves others, but He does not love me."
AG	216	3	Faith takes God at His word, not asking to understand the meaning of the trying experiences that come. But there are many who have little faith.... And the difficulties they encounter, instead of driving them to God, separate them from Him, by arousing unrest and repining. Do they well to be thus unbelieving? Jesus is their friend. All heaven is interested in their welfare, and their fear and repining grieve the Holy Spirit. Not because we see or feel that God hears us are we to believe. We are to trust His promises.... When we have asked for His blessing, we should believe that we receive it, and thank Him that we have it. Then we are to go about our duties, assured that the blessing will be sent when we need it most.
AG	216	4	It is a serious thing to grieve the Holy Spirit; and it is grieved when the human agent seeks to work himself, and refuses to enter the service of the Lord because the cross is too heavy, or the self-denial too great. The Holy Spirit seeks to abide in each soul. If it is welcomed as an honored guest, those who receive it will be made complete in Christ.
AG	216	5	Are we striving with all our power to attain to the stature of men and women in Christ? Are we seeking for His fullness, ever pressing toward the mark set before us--the perfection of His character? When the Lord's people reach this mark, they will be sealed in their foreheads. Filled with the Spirit, they will be complete in Christ, and the recording angel will declare, "It is finished."
------------------------For Those Who Seek, July 28
AG	217	1	I am the Lord your God; ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy. Leviticus 11:44.
AG	217	2	It is the glory of God to give His virtue to His children. He desires to see men and women reaching the highest standard; and when by faith they lay hold of the power of Christ, when they plead His unfailing promises, and claim them as their own, when with an importunity that will not be denied they seek for the power of the Holy Spirit, they will be made complete in Him....
AG	217	3	Before the believer is held out the wonderful possibility of being like Christ, obedient to all the principles of the law. But of himself man is utterly unable to reach this condition. The holiness that God's Word declares he must have before he can be saved is the result of the working of divine grace as he bows in submission to the discipline and restraining influences of the Spirit of truth. Man's obedience can be made perfect only by the incense of Christ's righteousness, which fills with divine fragrance every act of obedience. The part of the Christian is to persevere in overcoming every fault. Constantly he is to pray to the Saviour to heal the disorders of his sin-sick soul. He has not the wisdom or the strength to overcome; these belong to the Lord, and He bestows them on those who in humiliation and contrition seek Him for help.
AG	217	4	The Holy Spirit will be given to those who seek for its power and grace and will help our infirmities when we would have an audience with God. Heaven is open to our petitions, and we are invited to come "boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). We are to come in faith, believing that we shall obtain the very things we ask of Him.
AG	217	5	If you have a sense of need in your soul, if you hunger and thirst after righteousness, this is an evidence that Christ has wrought upon your heart, in order that He may be sought unto to do for you, through the endowment of the Holy Spirit, those things which it is impossible for you to do for yourself.
AG	217	6	If we will empty the soul of self, He will supply all our necessities.
------------------------Pentecostal Power, July 29
AG	218	1	And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Acts 4:33.
AG	218	2	What was the result of the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost? The glad tidings of a risen Saviour were carried to the uttermost parts of the inhabited world. As the disciples proclaimed the message of redeeming grace, hearts yielded to the power of this message. The Church beheld converts flocking to her from all directions. Backsliders were reconverted. Sinners united with believers in seeking the pearl of great price. Some who had been the bitterest opponents of the gospel became its champions.... Every Christian saw in his brother a revelation of divine love and benevolence. One interest prevailed; one subject of emulation swallowed up all others. The ambition of the believers was to reveal the likeness of Christ's character, and to labor for the enlargement of His kingdom.
AG	218	3	"With great power gave the apostles witness...." Under their labors were added to the church chosen men, who, receiving the word of truth, consecrated their lives to the work of giving to others the hope that filled their hearts with peace and joy. They could not be restrained or intimidated by threatenings. The Lord spoke through them, and as they went from place to place, the poor had the gospel preached to them, and miracles of divine grace were wrought. So mightily can God work when men give themselves up to the control of His Spirit.
AG	218	4	To us today, as verily as to the first disciples, the promise of the Spirit belongs. God will today endow men and women with power from above, as He endowed those who on the Day of Pentecost heard the word of salvation. At this very hour His Spirit and His grace are for all who need them and will take Him at His word....
AG	218	5	Zeal for God moved the disciples to bear witness to the truth with mighty power. Should not this zeal fire our hearts with a determination to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ and Him crucified? Is not the Spirit of God to come today, in answer to earnest, persevering prayer, and fill men with power for service?
------------------------Ask For It, July 30
AG	219	1	If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13.
AG	219	2	Our Lord is rich in grace, mighty in power; He will abundantly bestow these gifts upon all who come to Him in faith. ... We should pray as earnestly for the descent of the Holy Spirit as the disciples prayed on the day of Pentecost. If they needed it at that time, we need it more today. Moral darkness, like a funeral pall, covers the earth. All manner of false doctrines, heresies, and satanic deceptions are misleading the minds of men. Without the Spirit and power of God it will be in vain that we labor to present the truth.
AG	219	3	By the grace of Christ the apostles were made what they were. It was sincere devotion and humble, earnest prayer that brought them into close communion with Him. They sat together with Him in heavenly places. They realized the greatness of their debt to Him. By earnest, persevering prayer they obtained the endowment of the Holy Spirit, and then they went forth, weighted with the burden of saving souls.... Shall we be less earnest than were the apostles?
AG	219	4	Since this is the means by which we are to receive power, why do we not hunger and thirst for the gift of the Spirit? Why do we not talk of it, pray for it, and preach concerning it? ... For the daily baptism of the Spirit, every worker should offer his petition to God. Companies of Christian workers should gather to ask for special help for heavenly wisdom, that they may know how to plan and execute wisely.
AG	219	5	Day after day is passing into eternity, bringing us nearer to the close of probation. As never before we must pray for the Holy Spirit to be more abundantly bestowed upon us, and we must look for its sanctifying influence to come upon the workers....
AG	219	6	Those who are under the influence of the Spirit of God will not be fanatical, but calm and steadfast, free from extravagance in thought, word, or deed. Amid the confusion of delusive doctrines, the Spirit of God will be a guide and a shield to those who have not resisted the evidences of truth, silencing every other voice but that which comes from Him who is the truth.
------------------------The Latter Rain, July 31
AG	220	1	Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. Zechariah 10:1.
AG	220	2	Under the figure of the early and the latter rain, that falls in Eastern lands at seedtime and harvest, the Hebrew prophets foretold the bestowal of spiritual grace in extraordinary measure upon God's church. The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was the beginning of the early, or former rain, and glorious was the result.... But near the close of earth's harvest, a special bestowal of spiritual grace is promised to prepare the church for the coming of the Son of man. This outpouring of the Spirit is likened to the falling of the latter rain; and it is for this added power that Christians are to send their petitions to the Lord of the harvest "in the time of the latter rain."
AG	220	3	As Christ was glorified on the day of Pentecost so will He again be glorified in the closing work of the gospel, when He shall prepare a people to stand the final test, in the closing conflict of the great controversy.
AG	220	4	Many ... will be seen hurrying hither and thither, constrained by the Spirit of God to bring the light to others. The truth, the Word of God, is as a fire in their bones, filling them with a burning desire to enlighten those who sit in darkness. Many, even among the uneducated, now proclaim the words of the Lord. Children are impelled by the Spirit to go forth and declare the message from heaven. The Spirit is poured out upon all who will yield to its promptings, and ... they will declare the truth with the might of the Spirit's power.
AG	220	5	But unless the members of God's church today have a living connection with the Source of all spiritual growth, they will not be ready for the time of reaping. Unless they keep their lamps trimmed and burning, they will fail of receiving added grace in times of special need.
AG	220	6	Divine grace is needed at the beginning, divine grace at every step of advance, and divine grace alone can complete the work. There is no place for us to rest in a careless attitude.... By prayer and faith we are continually to seek more of the Spirit.
------------------------A Miracle, August 1
AG	221	1	God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost. Hebrews 2:4.
AG	221	2	Christ wrought no miracle at the demand of the Pharisees. He wrought no miracle in the wilderness in answer to Satan's insinuations. He does not impart to us power to vindicate ourselves or to satisfy the demands of unbelief and pride. But the gospel is not without a sign of its divine origin. Is it not a miracle that we can break from the bondage of Satan? Enmity against Satan is not natural to the human heart; it is implanted by the grace of God. When one who has been controlled by a stubborn, wayward will is set free, and yields himself wholeheartedly to the drawing of God's heavenly agencies, a miracle is wrought; so also when a man who has been under strong delusion comes to understand moral truth. Every time a soul is converted, and learns to love God and keep His commandments, the promise of God is fulfilled, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you" (Ezekiel 36:26). The change in human hearts, the transformation of human characters, is a miracle that reveals an ever-living Saviour, working to rescue souls. A consistent life in Christ is a great miracle. In the preaching of the Word of God, the sign that should be manifest now and always is the presence of the Holy Spirit, to make the Word a regenerating power to those that hear. This is God's witness before the world to the divine mission of His Son.
AG	221	3	Many are utterly discouraged.... They are looked upon as unable to comprehend or to receive the gospel of Christ. Yet by the miracle of divine grace they may be changed. Under the ministration of the Holy Spirit the stupidity that makes their uplifting appear so hopeless will pass away.... Vice will disappear, and ignorance will be overcome.
AG	221	4	The chain that has been let down from the throne of God is long enough to reach to the lowest depths. Christ is able to lift the most sinful out of the pit of degradation, and to place them where they will be acknowledged as children of God, heirs with Christ to an immortal inheritance.
------------------------Amazing Transformations, August 2
AG	222	1	For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 1 Corinthians 4:9.
AG	222	2	The Lord Jesus is making experiments on human hearts through the exhibition of His mercy and abundant grace. He is effecting transformations so amazing that Satan, with all his triumphant boasting, with all his confederacy of evil united against God and the laws of His government, stands viewing them as a fortress impregnable to his sophistries and delusions. They are to him an incomprehensible mystery. The angels of God, seraphim and cherubim, the powers commissioned to cooperate with human agencies, look on with astonishment and joy, that fallen men, once children of wrath, are through the training of Christ developing characters after the divine similitude, to be sons and daughters of God, to act an important part in the occupations and pleasure of heaven.
AG	222	3	To His church, Christ has given ample facilities, that He may receive a large revenue of glory from His redeemed, purchased possession. The church, being endowed with the righteousness of Christ, is His depository, in which the wealth of His mercy, His love, His grace, is to appear in full and final display. The declaration in His intercessory prayer, that the Father's love is as great toward us as toward Himself, the only-begotten Son, and that we shall be with Him where He is, forever one with Christ and the Father, is a marvel to the heavenly host, and it is their great joy. The gift of His Holy Spirit, rich, full, and abundant, is to be to His church as an encompassing wall of fire, which the powers of hell shall not prevail against. In their untainted purity and spotless perfection, Christ looks upon His people as the reward of all His suffering, His humiliation, and His love, and the supplement of His glory--Christ, the great center from which radiates all glory.
AG	222	4	All heaven is watching those agencies that are as the hand to work out the purpose of God in the earth, thus doing the will of God in heaven. Such co-operation accomplishes a work that brings honor and glory and majesty to God. Oh, if all would love as Christ has loved, that perishing men might be saved from ruin, what a change would come to our world!
------------------------Heart Renewal, August 3
AG	223	1	And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:23, 24.
AG	223	2	Christ was a faithful reprover.... To all things untrue and base His very presence was a rebuke. In the light of His purity, men saw themselves unclean, their life's aims mean and false. Yet He drew them. He who had created man, understood the value of humanity....
AG	223	3	In every human being He discerned infinite possibilities. He saw men as they might be, transfigured by His grace--in "the beauty of the Lord our God" (Psalm 90:17).
AG	223	4	All defects of character originate in the heart. Pride, vanity, evil temper, and covetousness proceed from the carnal heart unrenewed by the grace of Christ.
AG	223	5	It is by the renewing of the heart that the grace of God works to transform the life. No mere external change is sufficient to bring us into harmony with God. There are many who try to reform by correcting this bad habit or that bad habit and they hope in this way to become Christians, but they are beginning in the wrong place. Our first work is with the heart....
AG	223	6	The Scriptures are the great agency in this transformation of character. Christ prayed, "Sanctify them through thy truth: Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17). If studied and obeyed, the Word of God works in the heart, subduing every unholy attribute. The Holy Spirit comes to convict of sin, and the faith that springs up in the heart works by love to Christ, conforming us, body, soul, and spirit, to His will....
AG	223	7	Let us not spare ourselves, but carry forward in earnest the work of reform that must be done in our lives. Let us crucify self. Unholy habits will clamor for the mastery, but in the name and through the power of Jesus we may conquer. To him who daily seeks to keep his heart with all diligence, the promise is given, "Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38, 39).
------------------------It Takes Time, August 4
AG	224	1	I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. Isaiah 27:3.
AG	224	2	The mind of a man or a woman does not come down in a moment from purity and holiness to depravity, corruption, and crime. It takes time to transform the human to the divine, or to degrade those formed in the image of God to the brutal or the satanic. By beholding we become changed. Though formed in the image of his Maker, man can so educate his mind that sin which he once loathed will become pleasant to him. As he ceases to watch and pray, he ceases to guard the citadel, the heart.... Constant war against the carnal mind must be maintained; and we must be aided by the refining influence of the grace of God, which will attract the mind upward and habituate it to meditate upon pure and holy things.
AG	224	3	Character does not come by chance. It is not determined by one outburst of temper, one step in the wrong direction. It is the repetition of the act that causes it to become habit, and molds the character either for good or for evil. Right characters can be formed only by persevering, untiring effort, by improving every entrusted talent and capability to the glory of God.
AG	224	4	God expects us to build characters in accordance with the pattern set before us. We are to lay brick by brick, adding grace to grace, finding our weak points and correcting them in accordance with the directions given.
AG	224	5	God gives us strength, reasoning power, time, in order that we may build characters on which He can place His stamp of approval. He desires each child of His to build a noble character, by the doing of pure, noble deeds, that in the end he may present a symmetrical structure, a fair temple, honored by man and God....
AG	224	6	He who would grow into a beautiful building for the Lord must cultivate every power of the being. It is only by the right use of the talents that the character can be developed harmoniously. Thus we bring to the foundation that which is represented in the Word as gold, silver, precious stones--material that will stand the test of God's purifying fires.
------------------------Determination the Key, August 5
AG	225	1	For I am determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2.
AG	225	2	Many are attracted by the beauty of Christ and the glory of heaven, who yet shrink from the conditions by which alone these can become their own.... To renounce their own will, their chosen objects of affection or pursuit, requires a sacrifice at which they hesitate and falter and turn back.... They desire the good, they make some effort to obtain it; but they do not choose it; they have not a settled purpose to secure it at the cost of all things.
AG	225	3	The only hope for us if we would overcome is to unite our will to God's will, and work in cooperation with Him, hour by hour and day by day. We cannot retain self and yet enter the kingdom of God. If we ever attain unto holiness, it will be through the renunciation of self and the reception of the mind of Christ. Pride and self-sufficiency must be crucified. Are we willing to pay the price required of us? Are we willing to have our will brought into perfect conformity to the will of God? Until we are willing the transforming grace of God cannot be manifest upon us.
AG	225	4	By becoming thoroughly acquainted with ourselves, and then combining with the grace of God a firm determination on our part, we may be conquerors, and become perfect in all things, wanting in nothing.
AG	225	5	Opposing circumstances should create a firm determination to overcome them. The breaking down of one barrier will give greater ability and courage to go forward. Press with determination in the right direction, and circumstances will be your helpers, not your hindrances.
AG	225	6	True Christian character is marked by a singleness of purpose, an indomitable determination, which refuses to yield to worldly influences, which will aim at nothing short of the Bible standard.... The consecration of Christ's follower must be complete.... He must be willing to bear patiently, cheerfully, joyfully, whatever in God's providence he may be called to suffer. His final reward will be to share with Christ the throne of immortal glory.
------------------------Felt in the Home, August 6
AG	226	1	Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. Acts 16:31.
AG	226	2	Missionary work is to be done in the home. Here those who have received Christ are to show what grace has done for them. A divine influence controls the true believer in Christ, and this influence makes itself felt throughout the home and is favorable for the perfection of the characters of all in the home....
AG	226	3	The church needs all the cultivated spiritual force which can be obtained, that all, and especially the younger members of the Lord's family, may be carefully guarded. The truth lived at home makes itself felt in disinterested labor abroad. He who lives Christianity in the home will be a bright and shining light everywhere.
AG	226	4	God wants the children and youth to join the Lord's army.... They must be trained to resist temptation and to fight the good fight of faith. Direct their minds to Jesus as soon as they can comprehend your lessons in simple words, easy to be understood. Teach them self-control. Teach them to begin the work of overcoming when young, and they will receive the precious help that Jesus can and will give, connected with prayerful efforts of parents. Cheer them with encouraging words for the battles they fight in resisting temptation and coming off conquerors through grace given them of Jesus Christ.
AG	226	5	The harmony of the domestic circle is often broken by a hasty word and abusive language. How much better were it left unsaid. One smile of pleasure, one peaceful, approving word spoken in the spirit of meekness, would be a power to soothe, to comfort, and to bless.... Many excuse their hasty words and passionate tempers by saying: "I am sensitive; I have a hasty temper." This will never heal the wounds made by hasty, passionate words.... The natural man must die, and the new man, Christ Jesus, take possession of the soul.... You may show by your life what the power and grace of God can do in transforming the natural man into a spiritual man in Christ Jesus.
------------------------That the World May Know, August 7
AG	227	1	Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Isaiah 43:12.
AG	227	2	A living Christian will have a living testimony to bear. If you have been following Jesus step by step, you will have something right to the point to relate of the way He has led you. You can tell how you tested His promise, and found the promise true. You can point to the living spots in your experience, without going back for years into the past. Would that we could oftener hear the simple, earnest testimony of heart conflicts and victories....
AG	227	3	Every true Christian will have a battle to fight to practice the principles of truth as well as to assent to them.... The Captain of our salvation calls for witnesses fresh from the field of action. Those who have been fiercely assaulted by the enemies of truth and the adversary of souls, and who have conducted themselves as did Jesus in His hour of trial, will have a testimony to bear which will thrill the hearts of the hearers. They will indeed be witnesses for Jesus.
AG	227	4	We do not always realize the power of example. We are brought in contact with others. We meet persons who are erring, who do wrong in various ways; they may be disagreeable, quick, passionate, dictatorial. While dealing with these we must be patient, forbearing, kind, and gentle.... There are trials and perplexities for us all to encounter; for we are in a world of cares, anxieties, and disappointments. But these continual annoyances must be met in the spirit of Christ. Through grace we may rise superior to our surroundings, and keep our spirits calm and unruffled amid the frets and worries of everyday life. We shall thus represent Christ to the World.
AG	227	5	Christ sought to save the world, not by conformity to it, but by revealing to the world the transforming power of the grace of God to mold and fashion the human character after the likeness of the character of Christ.
AG	227	6	The grace of Christ is to work a wonderful transformation in the life and character of its receiver; and if we are truly the disciples of Christ, the world will see that divine power has done something for us; for while we are in the world, we shall not be of it.
------------------------Sustaining the Spiritual Life, August 8
AG	228	1	Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. John 6:35.
AG	228	2	God speaks to us in His Word. Here we have in clearer lines the revelation of His character, of His dealings with men, and the great work of redemption. Here is open before us the history of patriarchs and prophets and other holy men of old. They were men "subject to like passions as we are" (James 5:17). We see how they struggled through discouragements like our own, how they fell under temptation as we have done, and yet took heart again and conquered through the grace of God: and beholding, we are encouraged in our striving after righteousness. As we read of the precious experiences granted them, of the light and love and blessing it was theirs to enjoy, and of the work they wrought through the grace given them, the spirit that inspired them kindles a flame of holy emulation in our hearts and a desire to be like them in character--like them to walk with God.
AG	228	3	Jesus said of the Old Testament Scriptures--and how much more it is true of the New--"They are they which testify of me" (John 5:39).... If you would become acquainted with the Saviour, study the Holy Scriptures. Fill the whole heart with the words of God. They are the living water, quenching your burning thirst. They are the living bread from heaven.... Our bodies are built up from what we eat and drink; and as in the natural economy, so in the spiritual economy: it is what we meditate upon that will give tone and strength to our spiritual nature.
AG	228	4	Spiritual life must be sustained by communion with Christ through His Word. The mind must dwell upon it, the heart must be filled with it. The Word of God laid up in the heart and sacredly cherished and obeyed, through the power of the grace of Christ can make man right, and keep him right.
AG	228	5	When His words of instruction have been received, and have taken possession of us, Jesus is to us an abiding presence, controlling our thoughts and ideas and actions.... Jesus Christ is everything to us--the first, the last, the best in everything.
------------------------Reveals God's Character, August 9
AG	229	1	The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Exodus 34:6.
AG	229	2	All the light of the past, all the light which shines in the present and reaches forth into the future, as revealed in the Word of God, is for every soul who will receive it. The glory of this light, which is the very glory of the character of Christ, is to be manifested in the individual Christian, in the family, in the church, in the ministry of the Word, and in every institution established by God's people. All these the Lord designs shall be symbols of what can be done for the world. They are to be types of the saving power of the truths of the gospel....
AG	229	3	By beholding the goodness, the mercy, the justice, and the love of God revealed in the church, the world is to have a representation of His character....
AG	229	4	In order to manifest the character of God ... we must become personally acquainted with God. If we have fellowship with God, we are His ministers, though we may never preach to a congregation. We are workers together with God in presenting the perfection of His character in humanity.
AG	229	5	God has enjoined the duty upon His human agents to communicate the character of God, testifying to His grace, His wisdom, and His benevolence, by manifesting His refined, tender, merciful love....
AG	229	6	Our work is to restore the moral image of God in man through the abundant grace given us of God by Jesus Christ.... Oh, how much we need to know Jesus and our heavenly Father that we may represent Him in character!
AG	229	7	The soul that is transformed by the grace of Christ will admire His divine character.... The less we see to esteem in ourselves, the more we shall see to esteem in the infinite purity and loveliness of our Saviour. A view of our sinfulness drives us to Him who can pardon; and when the soul, realizing its helplessness, reaches out after Christ, He will reveal Himself in power. The more our sense of need drives us to Him and to the Word of God, the more exalted views we shall have of His character, and the more fully we shall reflect His image.
------------------------Perfection Now? August 10
AG	230	1	Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
AG	230	2	When God gave His Son to the world, He made it possible for men and women to be perfect by the use of every capability of their beings to the glory of God. In Christ He gave to them the riches of His grace, and a knowledge of His will. As they would empty themselves of self, and learn to walk in humility, leaning on God for guidance, men would be enabled to fulfill God's high purpose for them.
AG	230	3	Perfection of character is based upon that which Christ is to us. If we have constant dependence on the merits of our Saviour, and walk in His footsteps, we shall be like Him, pure and undefiled.
AG	230	4	Our Saviour does not require impossibilities of any soul. He expects nothing of His disciples that He is not willing to give them grace and strength to perform. He would not call upon them to be perfect if He had not at His command every perfection of grace to bestow on the ones upon whom He would confer so high and holy a privilege....
AG	230	5	Our work is to strive to attain in our sphere of action the perfection that Christ in His life on the earth attained in every phase of character. He is our example. In all things we are to strive to honor God in character.... We are to be wholly dependent on the power that He has promised to give us.
AG	230	6	Jesus revealed no qualities, and exercised no powers, that men may not have through faith in Him. His perfect humanity is that which all His followers may possess, if they will be in subjection to God as He was.
AG	230	7	Our Saviour is a Saviour for the perfection of the whole man. He is not the God of part of the being only. The grace of Christ works to the disciplining of the whole human fabric. He made all. He has redeemed all. He has made the mind, the strength, the body as well as the soul, partaker of the divine nature, and all is His purchased possession. He must be served with the whole mind, heart, soul, and strength. Then the Lord will be glorified in His saints in even the common, temporal things with which they are connected. "Holiness unto the Lord" will be in the inscription placed upon them.
------------------------Ever-Widening Influence, August 11
AG	231	1	In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned. Titus 2:7, 8.
AG	231	2	The life of Christ was an ever-widening, shoreless influence, an influence that bound Him to God and to the whole human family. Through Christ, God has invested man with an influence that makes it impossible for him to live to himself. Individually we are connected with our fellow men, a part of God's great whole, and we stand under mutual obligations. No man can be independent of his fellow men; for the well-being of each affects others. It is God's purpose that each shall feel himself necessary to others' welfare, and seek to promote their happiness....
AG	231	3	By the atmosphere surrounding us, every person with whom we come in contact is consciously or unconsciously affected....
AG	231	4	Our words, our acts, our dress, our deportment, even the expression of the countenance, has an influence.... If by our example we aid others in the development of good principles, we give them power to do good. In their turn they exert the same influence upon others, and they upon still others. Thus by our unconscious influence thousands may be blessed....
AG	231	5	Character is power. The silent witness of a true, unselfish, godly life carries an almost irresistible influence. By revealing in our own life the character of Christ we co-operate with Him in the work of saving souls. It is only by revealing in our life His character that we can co-operate with Him. And the wider the sphere of our influence, the more good we may do. When those who profess to serve God follow Christ's example, practicing the principles of the law in their daily life; when every act bears witness that they love God supremely and their neighbor as themselves, then will the church have power to move the world.
AG	231	6	But never should it be forgotten that influence is no less a power of evil. To lose one's own soul is a terrible thing; but to cause the loss of other souls is still more terrible.... It is only through the grace of God that we can make a right use of this endowment.
------------------------Hearts Made Pure, August 12
AG	232	1	And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 1 John 3:3.
AG	232	2	Here is a work for man to do. He must face the mirror, God's law, discern the defects in his moral character, and put away his sins, washing his robe of character in the blood of the lamb. Envy, pride, malice, deceit, strife, and crime will be cleansed from the heart that is a recipient of the love of Christ and that cherishes the hope of being made like Him when we shall see Him as He is. The religion of Christ refines and dignifies its possessor, whatever his associations or station in life may be. Men who become enlightened Christians rise above the level of their former character into greater mental and moral strength. Those fallen and degraded by sin and crime may, through the merits of the Saviour, be exalted to a position but little lower than that of the angels.
AG	232	3	But the influence of a gospel hope will not lead the sinner to look upon the salvation of Christ as a matter of free grace, while he continues to live in transgression of the law of God. When the light of truth dawns upon his mind and he fully understands the requirements of God and realizes the extent of his transgressions, he will reform his ways, become loyal to God through the strength obtained from his Saviour, and lead a new and purer life.
AG	232	4	We have a work to do to fashion the character after the divine Model. All wrong habits must be given up. The impure must become pure in heart; the selfish man must put away his selfishness; the proud man must get rid of his pride; the self-sufficient man must overcome his self-confidence, and realize that he is nothing without Christ.... We must have a living connection with God.
AG	232	5	A stubborn and rebellious heart can close its doors to all the sweet influences of the grace of God and all the joy in the Holy Ghost; but the ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. The more closely we are connected with Christ, the more will our words and actions show the subduing, transforming power of His grace.
------------------------Changed by Beholding, August 13
AG	233	1	We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
AG	233	2	The work of transformation from unholiness is a continuous one. Day by day God labors for man's sanctification, and man is to co-operate with Him, putting forth persevering efforts in the cultivation of right habits. He is to add grace to grace; and as he thus works on the plan of addition, God works for him on the plan of multiplication. Our Saviour is always ready to hear and answer the prayer of the contrite heart, and grace and peace are multiplied to His faithful ones. Gladly He grants them the blessings they need in their struggle against the evils that beset them.
AG	233	3	John and Judas are representatives of those who profess to be Christ's followers. Both these disciples had the same opportunities to study and follow the divine Pattern. Both were closely associated with Jesus and were privileged to listen to His teaching. Each possessed serious defects of character; and each had access to the divine grace that transforms character. But while one in humility was learning of Jesus, the other revealed that he was not a doer of the Word, but a hearer only. One, daily dying to self and overcoming sin, was sanctified through the truth; the other, resisting the transforming power of grace and indulging selfish desires, was brought into bondage to Satan.
AG	233	4	Such transformation of character as is seen in the life of John is ever the result of communion with Christ. There may be marked defects in the character of an individual, yet when he becomes a true disciple of Christ, the power of divine grace transforms and sanctifies him. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, he is changed from glory to glory, until he is like Him whom he adores....
AG	233	5	God can be honored by those who profess to believe in Him, only as they are conformed to His image and controlled by His Spirit. Then, as witnesses for the Saviour, they may make known what divine grace has done for them.
------------------------For the Most Hopeless, August 14
AG	234	1	Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. 1 Peter 3:8.
AG	234	2	Christ came to bring salvation within the reach of all. Upon the cross of Calvary He paid the infinite redemption price for a lost world.... His mission was to sinners, sinners of every grade, of every tongue and nation.... The most erring, the most sinful, were not passed by; His labors were especially for those who most needed the salvation He came to bring. The greater their need of reform, the deeper was His interest, the greater His sympathy, and the more earnest His labors. His great heart of love was stirred to its depths for the ones whose condition was most hopeless and who most needed His transforming grace....
AG	234	3	We should cultivate the spirit with which Christ labored to save the erring. They are as dear to Him as we are. They are equally capable of being trophies of His grace and heirs of the kingdom. But they are exposed to the snares of a wily foe, exposed to danger and defilement, and without the saving grace of Christ, to certain ruin. Did we view the matter in the right light, how would our zeal be quickened and our earnest, self-sacrificing efforts be multiplied, that we might come close to those who need our help, our prayers, our sympathy, and our love! ... If our hearts are softened and subdued by the grace of Christ, and glowing with a sense of God's goodness and love, there will be a natural outflow of love, sympathy, and tenderness to others.
AG	234	4	Come close to the great heart of pitying love, and let the current of that divine compassion flow into your heart and from you to the hearts of others. Let the tenderness and mercy that Jesus has revealed in His own precious life be an example to us of the manner in which we should treat our fellow beings, especially those who are our brethren in Christ.... Never, never become heartless, cold, unsympathetic, and censorious. Never lose an opportunity to say a word to encourage and inspire hope. We cannot tell how far-reaching may be our tender words of kindness, our Christlike efforts to lighten some burden. The erring can be restored in no other way than in the spirit of meekness, gentleness, and tender love.
------------------------Partakers of Christ's Nature, August 15
AG	235	1	Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
AG	235	2	What beauty of character shone forth in the daily life of Christ! He is to be our pattern. There is a great work to be done in fashioning the character after the divine similitude. The grace of Christ must mold the entire being, and its triumph will not be complete until the heavenly universe shall witness habitual tenderness of feeling, Christlike love, and holy deeds in the deportment of the children of God.
AG	235	3	Each person must obtain an experience for himself. No one can depend for salvation on the experience or practice of any other man. We must each become acquainted with Christ in order properly to represent Him to the world. "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:3). None of us need excuse our hasty temper, our misshapen characters, our selfishness, envy, jealousy, or any impurity of soul, body, or spirit....
AG	235	4	We must learn of Christ. We must know what He is to those He has ransomed. We must realize that through belief in Him it is our privilege to be partakers of the divine nature, and so escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. Then we are cleansed from all sin, all defects of character. We need not retain one sinful propensity....
AG	235	5	As we partake of the divine nature, hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong are cut away from the character, and we are made a living power for good. Ever learning of the divine Teacher, daily partaking of His nature, we cooperate with God in overcoming Satan's temptations. God works, and man works, that man may be one with Christ as Christ is one with God. Then we sit together with Christ in heavenly places. The mind rests with peace and assurance in Jesus.... In Him there is inexhaustible fullness....
AG	235	6	God has given us every facility, every grace. He has provided the riches of heaven's treasure, and it is our privilege to draw continually from this capital.
------------------------Fashions the Character, August 16
AG	236	1	As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy. 1 Peter 1:14, 15.
AG	236	2	The transforming power of Christ's grace molds the one who gives himself to God's service. Imbued with the Spirit of the Redeemer, he is ready to deny self, ready to take up the cross, ready to make any sacrifice for the Master. No longer can he be indifferent to the souls perishing around him. He is lifted above self-serving. He has been created anew in Christ, and self-serving has no place in his life. He realizes that every part of his being belongs to Christ, who has redeemed him from the slavery of sin; that every moment of his future has been bought with the precious lifeblood of God's only-begotten Son.
AG	236	3	Christ is our pattern, and those who follow Christ will not walk in darkness, for they will not seek their own pleasure. To glorify God will be the continual aim of their life. Christ represented the character of God to the world. The Lord Jesus so conducted His life that men were compelled to acknowledge that He had done all things well. The world's Redeemer was the light of the world, for His character was without fault. Though He was the only begotten Son of God, and the heir of all things in heaven and earth, He did not leave an example of indolence and self-indulgence....
AG	236	4	Christ never flattered any one. He never deceived or defrauded, never changed His course of straightforward uprightness to obtain favor or applause. He ever expressed the truth. The law of kindness was in His lips, and there was no guile in His mouth. Let the human agent compare his life with the life of Christ, and through the grace which Jesus imparts to those who make Him their personal Saviour, reach the standard of righteousness.... Those who follow Christ will be continually looking into the perfect law of liberty, and through the grace given them by Christ, will fashion the character according to the divine requirements.
------------------------Revealed by Love, August 17
AG	237	1	A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:34, 35.
AG	237	2	The golden chain of love, binding the hearts of the believers in unity, in bonds of fellowship and love, and in oneness with Christ and the Father, makes the connection perfect, and bears to the world a testimony of the power of Christianity that cannot be controverted....
AG	237	3	Satan understands the power of such a testimony as a witness to the world of what grace can do in transforming character.... He will work every conceivable device to break this golden chain which links heart to heart of those who believe the truth and binds them up in close connection with the Father and the Son.
AG	237	4	Those who have never experienced the tender, winning love of Christ cannot lead others to the fountain of life. His love in the heart is a constraining power, which leads men to reveal Him in the conversation, in the tender, pitiful spirit, in the uplifting of the lives of those with whom they associate....
AG	237	5	In the heart renewed by divine grace, love is the ruling principle of action. It modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, and ennobles the affections. This love, cherished in the soul, sweetens the life, and sheds a refining influence on all around.
AG	237	6	He who loves God supremely and his neighbor as himself will work with the constant realization that he is a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. Making God's will his will, he will reveal in his life the transforming power of the grace of Christ. In all the circumstances of life, he will take Christ's example as his guide.
AG	237	7	Every true, self-sacrificing worker for God is willing to spend and be spent for the sake of others.... By earnest, thoughtful efforts to help where help is needed, the true Christian shows his love for God and for his fellow beings. He may lose his life in service. But when Christ comes to gather His jewels to Himself, he will find it again.
------------------------A Life-giving Atmosphere, August 18
AG	238	1	Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. 2 Corinthians 2:14, 15.
AG	238	2	In the matchless gift of His son, God has encircled the whole world with an atmosphere of grace as real as the air which circulates around the globe. All who choose to breathe this life-giving atmosphere will live, and grow up to the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.
AG	238	3	Not all the beauty of art can bear comparison with the beauty of temper and character to be revealed in those who are Christ's representatives. It is the atmosphere of grace which surrounds the soul of the believer, the Holy Spirit working upon mind and heart, that makes him a savor of life unto life, and enables God to bless his work.
AG	238	4	Transformation of character is to be the testimony to the world of the indwelling love of Christ. The Lord expects His people to show that the redeeming power of grace can work upon the faulty character and cause it to develop in symmetry and abundant fruitfulness....
AG	238	5	When the grace of God reigns within, the soul will be surrounded with an atmosphere of faith and courage and Christlike love, an atmosphere invigorating to the spiritual life of all who inhale it.... Those who are humble in heart the Lord will use to reach souls whom the ordained ministers cannot approach. They will be moved to speak words which reveal the saving grace of Christ.
AG	238	6	And in blessing others they will themselves be blessed. God gives us the opportunity to impart grace, that He may refill us with increased grace. Hope and faith will strengthen as the agent for God works with the talents and facilities that God has provided. He will have a divine agency to work with him.
AG	238	7	A holy influence is to go forth to the world from those who are sanctified through the truth. The earth is to be encircled with an atmosphere of grace. The Holy Spirit is to work on human hearts, taking the things of God and showing them to men.
------------------------Awaiting Our Demand, August 19
AG	239	1	Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. John 16:24.
AG	239	2	Prayer is heaven's ordained means of success in the conflict with sin and the development of Christian character. The divine influences that come in answer to the prayer of faith will accomplish in the soul of the suppliant all for which he pleads. For the pardon of sin, for the Holy Spirit, for a Christlike temper, for wisdom and strength to do His work, for any gift He has promised, we may ask; and the promise is, "Ye shall receive."
AG	239	3	Jesus is our helper; in Him and through Him we must conquer.... The grace of Christ is waiting your demand upon it. He will give you grace and strength as you need it if you ask Him.... The religion of Christ will bind and restrain every unholy passion, will stimulate to energy, to self-discipline, and industry, even in the matters of homely, everyday life, leading us to learn economy, tact, and self-denial, and to endure even privation without a murmur. The Spirit of Christ in the heart will be revealed in the character, will develop noble qualities and powers. "My grace is sufficient" (2 Corinthians 12:9) says Christ.
AG	239	4	Make every effort to keep open the communion between Jesus and your own soul.... We should pray in the family circle, and above all we must not neglect secret prayer; for this is the life of the soul. It is impossible for the soul to flourish while prayer is neglected. Family or public prayer alone is not sufficient. In solitude let the soul be laid open to the inspecting eye of God. Secret prayer is to be heard only by the prayer-hearing God. No curious ear is to receive the burden of such petitions. In secret prayer the soul is free from surrounding influences, free from excitement.... By calm, simple faith, the soul holds communion with God, and gathers to itself rays of divine light to strengthen and sustain it in the conflict with Satan....
AG	239	5	Pray in your closet, and as you go about your daily labor, let your heart be often uplifted to God. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. These silent prayers rise like precious incense before the throne of grace. Satan cannot overcome him whose heart is thus stayed upon God.
------------------------Disciplines and Refines, August 20
AG	240	1	Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. Job 5:17.
AG	240	2	Trials and obstacles are the Lord's chosen methods of discipline and His appointed conditions of success.... He sees that some have powers and susceptibilities which, rightly directed, might be used in the advancement of His work. In His providence He brings these persons into different positions and varied circumstances that they may discover in their character the defects which have been concealed from their own knowledge. He gives them opportunity to correct these defects and to fit themselves for His service....
AG	240	3	The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. He does not cast worthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines. The blacksmith puts the iron and steel into the fire that he may know what manner of metal they are. The Lord allows His chosen ones to be placed in the furnace of affliction to prove what temper they are of and whether they can be fashioned for His work.
AG	240	4	It may seem that we are to study our own hearts, and square our own actions by some standard of our own; but this is not the case. This would but work deform instead of reform. The work must begin in the heart, and then the spirit, the words, the expression of the countenance, and the actions of the life, will make manifest that a change has taken place. In knowing Christ through the grace that He has shed forth abundantly, we become changed.... In humility we shall correct every fault and defect of character; because Christ is abiding in the heart, we shall be fitted up for the heavenly family above.
AG	240	5	The Christian is not to retain his sinful habits and cherish his defects of character.... Whatever may be the nature of your defects, the Spirit of the Lord will enable you to discern them, and grace will be given you whereby they may be overcome.
------------------------Ever Upward, August 21
AG	241	1	As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Colossians 2:6.
AG	241	2	This means that you are to study the life of Christ. You are to study it with as much more earnestness than you study secular lines of knowledge, as eternal interests are more important than temporal, earthly pursuits. If you appreciate the value and sacredness of eternal things, you will bring your sharpest thoughts, your best energies, to the solving of the problem that involves your eternal well-being; for every other interest sinks into nothingness in comparison with that.
AG	241	3	You have the Pattern, Christ Jesus; walk in His footsteps.
AG	241	4	"Add to your faith virtue" (2 Peter 1:5). There is no promise given to the one who is retrograding. The apostle, in his testimony, is aiming to excite the believers to advancement in grace and holiness. They already profess to be living the truth, they have a knowledge of the precious faith, they have been made partakers of the divine nature. But if they stop here they will lose the grace they have received....
AG	241	5	Truth is an active, working principle, molding heart and life so that there is a constant upward movement.... In every step of climbing, the will is obtaining a new spring of action. The moral tone is becoming more like the mind and character of Christ. The progressive Christian has grace and love which passes knowledge, for divine insight into the character of Christ takes a deep hold upon his affections. The glory of the Lord revealed above the ladder can only be appreciated by the progressive climber, who is ever attracted higher, to nobler aims which Christ reveals.
AG	241	6	The steps upward to heaven must be taken one at a time; every advance step strengthens us for the next. The transforming power of the grace of God upon the human heart is a work which but few comprehend because they are too indolent to make the necessary effort....
AG	241	7	It is beyond the power of man to conceive the high and noble attainments that are within his reach if he will combine human effort with the grace of God, who is the Source of all wisdom and power. And there is an eternal weight of glory beyond.
------------------------Grace Sufficient, August 22
AG	242	1	And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9.
AG	242	2	"When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel" (1 Samuel 15:17)? Here Samuel points out the reason for Saul's appointment to the throne of Israel. He had a humble opinion of his own capabilities, and was willing to be instructed. When the divine choice fell upon him, he was deficient in knowledge and experience, and had, with many good qualities, serious defects of character.... But if he would remain humble, seeking constantly to be guided by divine wisdom, ... he would be enabled to discharge the duties of his high position with success and honor. Under the influence of divine grace, every good quality would be gaining strength, while evil traits would as steadily lose their power.
AG	242	3	This is the work which the Lord proposes to do for all who consecrate themselves to Him.... To all who will receive instruction He will impart grace and wisdom.... He will reveal to them their defects of character, and bestow upon all who seek His aid, strength to correct their errors. Whatever may be man's besetting sin, whatever bitter or baleful passions struggle for the mastery, he may conquer, if he will watch and war against them in the name and strength of Israel's Helper. The children of God should cultivate a keen sensitiveness to sin.... It is one of Satan's most successful devices, to lead men to the commission of little sins, to blind the mind to the danger of little indulgences, little digressions from the plainly stated requirements of God. Many who would shrink with horror from some great transgression, are led to look upon sin in little matters as of trifling consequence. But these little sins eat out the life of godliness in the soul. The feet which enter upon a path diverging from the right way are tending toward the broad road that ends in death.
AG	242	4	Whatever the position in which God has placed us, whatever our responsibilities or our dangers, we should remember that He has pledged Himself to impart needed grace to the earnest seeker. Those who feel insufficient for their position and yet accept it because God bids them, relying upon His power and wisdom, will go on from strength to strength.
------------------------While Probation Lasts, August 23
AG	243	1	He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. Revelation 22:11.
AG	243	2	All the good that man enjoys comes because of the mercy of God. He is the great and bountiful Giver. His love is manifest to all in the abundant provision made for man. He has given us probationary time in which to form characters for the courts above.
AG	243	3	We believe without a doubt that Christ is soon coming. This is not a fable to us; it is a reality.... When He comes He is not to cleanse us of our sins, to remove from us the defects in our characters, or to cure us of the infirmities of our tempers and dispositions. If wrought for us at all, this work will all be accomplished before that time. When the Lord comes, those who are holy will be holy still. Those who have reserved their bodies and spirits in holiness, in sanctification and honor, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. But those who are unjust, unsanctified, and filthy will remain so forever. No work will then be done for them to remove their defects and give them holy characters. The Refiner does not then sit to pursue His refining process and remove their sins and their corruption. This is all to be done in these hours of probation. It is now that this work is to be accomplished for us.
AG	243	4	During probationary time the grace of God is offered to every soul. But if men waste their opportunities in self-pleasing, they cut themselves off from everlasting life. No after-probation will be granted them. By their own choice they have fixed an impassable gulf between them and their God.
AG	243	5	Many are deceiving themselves by thinking that the character will be transformed at the coming of Christ, but there will be no conversion of heart at His appearing. Our defects of character must here be repented of, and through the grace of Christ we must overcome them while probation shall last. This is the place for fitting up for the family above.
AG	243	6	Probation is almost ended.... Get ready! get ready! Work while the day lasts, for the night cometh when no man can work.
------------------------The Reward, August 24
AG	244	1	Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Revelation 22:12.
AG	244	2	In His divine arrangement, through His unmerited favor, the Lord has ordained that good works shall be rewarded. We are accepted through Christ's merit alone; and the acts of mercy, the deeds of charity, which we perform, are the fruits of faith; and they become a blessing to us; for men are to be rewarded according to their works. It is the fragrance of the merit of Christ that makes our good works acceptable to God, and it is grace that enables us to do the works for which He rewards us. Our works in and of themselves have no merit.... We deserve no thanks from God. We have only done what it was our duty to do, and our works could not have been performed in the strength of our own sinful natures.
AG	244	3	We need ... to bring the light and grace of Christ into all our works. We need to take hold of Christ and to retain our hold of Him until we know that the power of His transforming grace is manifested in us. We must have faith in Christ if we would reflect the divine character.... Faith in the Word of God and in the power of Christ to transform the life will enable the believer to work His works.
AG	244	4	To His servants Christ commits "His goods"--something to be put to use for Him. He gives "to every man his work".... Not more surely is the place prepared for us in the heavenly mansions than is the special place designated on earth where we are to work for God....
AG	244	5	Christ has paid us our wages, even His own blood and suffering, to secure our willing service. He came to our world to give us an example of how we should work, and what spirit we should bring into our labor. He desires us to study how we can best advance His work and glorify His name in the world.
AG	244	6	The sanctification of the soul by the working of the Holy Spirit is the implanting of Christ's nature in humanity. Gospel religion is Christ in the life--a living, active principle. It is the grace of Christ revealed in character and wrought out in good works.
------------------------For the Whole Man, August 25
AG	245	1	The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
AG	245	2	The sanctification set forth in the Scriptures embraces the entire being--spirit, soul, and body.... Christians are bidden to present their bodies, "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God" (Romans 12:1). In order to do this, all their powers must be preserved in the best possible condition. Every practice that weakens physical or mental strength unfits man for the service of his Creator.... Said Christ: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart" (Matthew 22:37). Those who do love God with all the heart will desire to give Him the best service of their life, and they will be constantly seeking to bring every power of their being into harmony with the laws that will promote their ability to do His will. They will not, by the indulgence of appetite or passion, enfeeble or defile the offering which they present to their heavenly Father.
AG	245	3	God would have us realize that He has a right to mind, soul, body, and spirit--to all that we possess. We are His by creation and by redemption. As our Creator, He claims our entire service. As our Redeemer, He has a claim of love as well as of right--of love without a parallel.... Our bodies, our souls, our lives, are His, not only because they are His free gift, but because He constantly supplies us with His benefits, and gives us strength to use our faculties....
AG	245	4	Shall we not, then, give to Christ that which He has died to redeem? If you will do this, He will quicken your conscience, renew your heart, sanctify your affections, purify your thoughts, and set all your powers at work for Him. Every motive, and every thought will be brought into captivity to Jesus Christ.
AG	245	5	Those who are sons of God will represent Christ in character. Their works will be perfumed by the infinite tenderness, compassion, love, and purity of the Son of God. And the more completely mind and body are yielded to the Holy Spirit, the greater will be the fragrance of our offering to Him.
------------------------In God's Image, August 26
AG	246	1	And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Colossians 3:10.
AG	246	2	When Adam came from the Creator's hand, he bore, in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker....
AG	246	3	Through sin the divine likeness was marred, and well-nigh obliterated. Man's physical powers were weakened, his mental capacity was lessened, his spiritual vision dimmed. He had become subject to death. Yet the race was not left without hope. By infinite love and mercy the plan of salvation had been devised, and a life of probation was granted. To restore in man the image of his Maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized--this was to be the great work of redemption.
AG	246	4	Though the moral image of God was almost obliterated by the sin of Adam, through the merits and power of Jesus it may be renewed. Man may stand with the moral image of God in his character; for Jesus will give it to him.
AG	246	5	It was a wonderful thing for God to create man, to make mind. The glory of God is to be revealed in the creation of man in God's image and in his redemption. One soul is of more value than a world.... The Lord Jesus Christ is the author of our being, and He is also the author of our redemption, and everyone who will enter the kingdom of God will develop a character that is the counterpart of the character of God.
AG	246	6	The Lord, by close and pointed truths for these last days, is cleaving out a people from the world and purifying them unto Himself. Pride and unhealthful fashions, the love of display, the love of approbation--all must be left with the world if we would be renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created us.
AG	246	7	By the transforming agency of His grace, the image of God is reproduced in the disciple; he becomes a new creature.
AG	246	8	It is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which Jesus said He would send into the world, that changes our character into the image of Christ; and when this is accomplished, we reflect, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord.
------------------------Representatives of Christ, August 27
AG	247	1	Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen. Isaiah 43:10.
AG	247	2	The life that Christ lived in this world, men and women can live through His power and under His instruction. In their conflict with Satan they may have all the help that He had....
AG	247	3	The lives of professing Christians who do not live the Christ life are a mockery to religion. Every one whose name is registered on the church roll is under obligation to represent Christ by revealing the inward adorning of a meek and quiet spirit. They are to be His witnesses, making known the advantages of walking and working as Christ has given them example. The truth for this time is to appear in its power in the lives of those who believe it, and is to be imparted to the world. Believers are to represent in their lives, its power to sanctify and ennoble.... They are to show forth the power of the grace that Christ died to give men.... They are to be men of faith, men of courage, whole-souled men, who, without questioning, trust in God and His promises....
AG	247	4	There must be no pretense in the lives of those who have so sacred and solemn a message as we have been called to bear. The world is watching Seventh-day Adventists because it knows something of their profession of faith and of their high standard, and when it sees those who do not live up to their profession, it points at them with scorn.
AG	247	5	Those who love Jesus will bring all in their lives into harmony with His will.... Through the grace of God they are enabled to keep their purity of principle unsullied. Holy angels are close beside them, and Christ is revealed in their steadfast adherence to the truth. They are Christ's minutemen, bearing, as true witnesses, a decided testimony in favor of the truth. They show that there is a spiritual power that can enable men and women not to swerve an inch from truth and justice for all the gifts that men can bestow. Such ones, wherever they may be, will be honored of heaven because they have conformed their lives to the will of God, caring not what sacrifices they are called upon to make.
------------------------Every Day, Everywhere, August 28
AG	248	1	In all thy ways acknowledge him. Proverbs 3:6.
AG	248	2	Bible religion is not a garment which can be put on and taken off at pleasure. It is an all-pervading influence, which leads us to be patient, self-denying followers of Christ, doing as He did, walking as He walked....
AG	248	3	If no one ever came under your notice who needed your sympathy, your words of compassion and pity, then you would be guiltless before God for failing to exercise these precious gifts; but every follower of Christ will find opportunity to show Christian kindness and love; and in so doing he will prove that he is a possessor of the religion of Jesus Christ.
AG	248	4	This religion teaches us to exercise patience and long-suffering when brought into places where we receive treatment that is harsh and unjust.... "Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that we should inherit a blessing" (1 Peter 3:9).... When Christ was reviled, He reviled not again.... His religion brings with it a meek and quiet spirit....
AG	248	5	There is constant need of patience, gentleness, self-denial, and self-sacrifice in the exercise of Bible religion. But if the word of God is made an abiding principle in our lives, everything with which we have to do, each word, each trivial act, will reveal that we are subject to Jesus Christ.... If the word of God is received into the heart, it will empty the soul of self-sufficiency and self-dependence. Our lives will be a power for good, because the Holy Spirit will fill our minds with the things of God....
AG	248	6	Of ourselves, we can neither obtain nor practice the religion of Christ; for our hearts are deceitful above all things; but Jesus ... has shown us how we may be cleansed from sin. "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9), He says.... Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, we shall catch the light of His countenance, reflect His image, and grow up unto the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. Our religion will be attractive, because it will possess the fragrance of the righteousness of Christ. We shall be happy; for our spiritual meat and drink will be to us righteousness and peace and joy.
------------------------A Work of Reformation, August 29
AG	249	1	Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth. Luke 3:4, 5.
AG	249	2	The work of reformation here brought to view by John, the purging of heart and mind and soul, is one that is needed by many who today profess to have the faith of Christ. Wrong practices that have been indulged in need to be put away; the crooked paths need to be made straight, and the rough places smooth. The mountains and hills of self-esteem and pride need to be brought low. There is need of bringing forth "fruits meet for repentance" (Matthew 3:8). When this work is done in the experience of God's believing people, "all flesh shall see the salvation of God" (Luke 3:6)....
AG	249	3	The fact that our names are on the church books will not secure for us an entrance into the kingdom of heaven. God asks, Have you used your opportunities for service and for the development of Christian character? Have you traded faithfully with your Lord's goods? Knowing the will of God concerning you, how have you obeyed that will? Have you sought to benefit and bless those who needed help and encouragement? ...
AG	249	4	There is no human being in the world but bears fruit of some kind, either good or evil; and Christ has made it possible for every soul to bear most precious fruit. Obedience to the requirements of God, submission to the will of Christ, will yield in the life the peaceable fruits of righteousness. The inhabitants of this world are dear to God's family.... He gave the richest gift that heaven could bestow, that men and women might return from their rebellion to His law, and accept into their hearts and lives the principles of heaven. If men would acknowledge the Gift, and accept His sacrifice, their transgressions would be pardoned, and the grace of God would be imparted to them to help them to yield in their lives the precious fruits of holiness.
AG	249	5	"Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit." We have a representation to make to the world of pure principles, holy ambitions, noble aspirations, that will distinguish us from all other people, making us a separate nation, a peculiar people.
------------------------Preparing for Heaven, August 30
AG	250	1	Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the son of man also confess before the angels of God. Luke 12:8.
AG	250	2	The thought that God can take a poor, sinful, sorrowful human being, and so transform him by grace that he may become an heir of God and joint heir with Jesus, is almost too great for our comprehension.... Christ takes upon Him the sins of the transgressor, and imputes to him His righteousness, and by His transforming grace makes him capable of associating with angels and communing with God.
AG	250	3	The refining influence of the grace of God changes the natural disposition of man. Heaven would not be desirable to the carnal-minded; their natural, unsanctified hearts would feel no attraction toward that pure and holy place, and if it were possible for them to enter, they would find there nothing congenial. The propensities that control the natural heart must be subdued by the grace of Christ before fallen man is fitted to enter heaven and enjoy the society of the pure, holy angels. When man dies to sin and is quickened to new life in Christ, divine love fills his heart; his understanding is sanctified; he drinks from an inexhaustible fountain of joy and knowledge, and the light of an eternal day shines upon his path, for with him continually is the Light of life.
AG	250	4	God desires that heaven's plan shall be carried out, and heaven's divine order and harmony prevail, in every family, in every church, in every institution. Did this love leaven society, we should see the outworking of noble principles in Christian refinement and courtesy, and in Christian charity toward the purchase of the blood of Christ. Spiritual transformation would be seen in all our families, in our institutions, in our churches. When this transformation takes place, these agencies will become instrumentalities by which God will impart heaven's light to the world and thus, through divine discipline and training, fit men and women for the society of heaven.
AG	250	5	Jesus has gone to prepare mansions for those who are preparing themselves through His love and grace, for the abodes of bliss.
------------------------Longing for Heaven and Home, August 31
AG	251	1	My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Psalm 84:2.
AG	251	2	Oh that the great interests of the world to come were appreciated! Why is it that men are so unconcerned about the salvation of the soul when it was purchased at such cost by the Son of God?
AG	251	3	The heart of man may be the abode of the Holy Spirit. The peace of Christ that passeth understanding may rest in your soul, and the transforming power of His grace may work in your life, and fit you for the courts of glory. But if brain and nerve and muscle are all employed in the service of self, you are not making God and heaven the first consideration of your life....
AG	251	4	If the eye is single, if it is directed heavenward, the light of heaven will fill the soul, and earthly things will appear insignificant and uninviting. The purpose of the heart will be changed, and the admonition of Jesus will be heeded.... Your thoughts will be fixed upon the great rewards of eternity. All your plans will be made in reference to the future, immortal life.... Bible religion will be woven into your daily life.
AG	251	5	Some who profess to have true religion sadly neglect the guide-book given by God to point the way to heaven. They may read the Bible, but merely reading God's Word, as one would read words traced by a human pen, will give only a superficial knowledge....
AG	251	6	If we do not receive the religion of Christ by feeding upon the word of God, we shall not be entitled to an entrance into the city of God. Having lived on earthly food, having educated our tastes to love worldly things, we would not be fitted for the heavenly courts; we could not appreciate the pure, heavenly current that circulates in heaven. The voices of the angels and the music of their harps would not satisfy us. The science of heaven would be as an enigma to our minds. We need to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of Christ; we need to be molded and fashioned by the transforming influence of His grace, that we may be fitted for the society of heavenly angels.
AG	251	7	In order to be at home in heaven, we must have heaven enshrined in our hearts here.
------------------------Seen and Heard, September 1
AG	252	1	And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 1 John 4:14.
AG	252	2	As a witness for Christ, John entered into no controversy, no wearisome contention. He declared what he knew, what he had seen and heard. He had been intimately associated with Christ, had listened to His teachings, had witnessed His mighty miracles. Few could see the beauties of Christ's character as John saw them. For him the darkness had passed away; on him the true light was shining. His testimony in regard to the Saviour's life and death was clear and forcible. Out of the abundance of a heart overflowing with love for the Saviour he spoke; and no power could stay his words.
AG	252	3	He could testify: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:1-3).
AG	252	4	So everyone may be able, through his own experience, to "set his seal to this, that God is true" (John 3:33, A.R.V.). He can bear witness to that which he himself has seen and heard and felt of the power of Christ. He can testify: "I needed help, and I found it in Jesus. Every want was supplied, the hunger of my soul was satisfied; the Bible is to me the revelation of Christ. I believe in Jesus because He is to me a divine Saviour. I believe the Bible because I have found it to be the voice of God to my soul."
AG	252	5	How shall we know for ourselves God's goodness and His love? The psalmist tells us--not, hear and know, read and know, or believe and know; but--"Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8). Instead of relying upon the word of another, taste for yourself. Experience is knowledge derived from experiment. Experimental religion is what is needed now. "Taste and see that the Lord is good."
------------------------Power to Obey, September 2
AG	253	1	For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13.
AG	253	2	The grace of God in Christ is the foundation of the Christian's hope, and that grace will be manifested in obedience.
AG	253	3	Christ is the sympathetic, compassionate Redeemer. In His sustaining power, men and women become strong to resist evil. As the convicted sinner looks at sin, it becomes to him exceeding sinful.... He sees that his faults must be overcome and that his appetites and passions must be subjected to God's will.... Having repented of his transgression of God's law, he strives earnestly to overcome sin. He seeks to reveal the power of Christ's grace, and he is brought into personal touch with the Saviour. Constantly he keeps Christ before him. Praying, believing, receiving the blessings he needs, he comes nearer and nearer to God's standard for him.
AG	253	4	New virtues are revealed in his character as he denies self and lifts the cross, following where Christ leads the way. He loves the Lord Jesus with his whole heart, and Christ becomes his wisdom, his righteousness, his sanctification, and his redemption....
AG	253	5	The miracle-working power of Christ's grace is revealed in the creation in man of a new heart, a higher life, a holier enthusiasm. God says: "A new heart also will I give you" (Ezekiel 36:26). Is not this, the renewal of man, the greatest miracle that can be performed? What cannot the human agent do who by faith takes hold of the divine power?
AG	253	6	Human effort avails nothing without divine power; and without human endeavor, divine effort is with many of no avail. To make God's grace our own, we must act our part. His grace is given to work in us to will and to do, but never as a substitute for our effort.... Those who walk in the path of obedience will encounter many hindrances. Strong, subtle influences may bind them to the world; but the Lord is able to render futile every agency that works for the defeat of His chosen ones; in His strength they may overcome every temptation, conquer every difficulty.
------------------------Resists Satan, September 3
AG	254	1	There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13.
AG	254	2	Will man take hold of divine power, and with determination and perseverance resist Satan, as Christ has given him example in His conflict with the foe in the wilderness of temptation? God cannot save man against his will from the power of Satan's artifices. Man must work with his human power, aided by the divine power of Christ, to resist and to conquer at any cost to himself. In short, man must overcome as Christ overcame. And then, through the victory that it is his privilege to gain by the all-powerful name of Jesus, he may become an heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ. This could not be the case if Christ alone did all the overcoming. Man must do his part; he must be victor on his own account, through the strength and grace that Christ gives him. Man must be a co-worker with Christ in the labor of overcoming.
AG	254	3	The victims of evil habit must be aroused to the necessity of making an effort for themselves. Others may put forth the most earnest endeavor to uplift them, the grace of God may be freely offered, Christ may entreat, His angels may minister; but all will be in vain unless they themselves are roused to fight the battle in their own behalf....
AG	254	4	Those who put their trust in Christ are not to be enslaved by any hereditary or cultivated habit or tendency. Instead of being held in bondage to the lower nature, they are to rule every appetite and passion. God has not left us to battle with evil in our own finite strength. Whatever may be our inherited or cultivated tendencies to wrong, we can overcome through the power that He is ready to impart.
AG	254	5	The strongest temptation cannot excuse sin. However great the pressure brought to bear upon the soul, transgression is our own act. It is not in the power of earth or hell to compel anyone to do evil. Satan attacks us at our weak points, but we need not be overcome. However severe or unexpected the assault, God has provided help for us, and in His strength we may conquer.
------------------------Makes Us Overcomers, September 4
AG	255	1	These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33.
AG	255	2	Christ did not fail, neither was He discouraged, and His followers are to manifest a faith of the same enduring nature. They are to live as He lived, and work as He worked, because they depend on Him as the great Master Worker.
AG	255	3	Courage, energy, and perseverance they must possess. Though apparent impossibilities obstruct their way, by His grace they are to go forward. Instead of deploring difficulties, they are called upon to surmount them. They are to despair of nothing, and to hope for everything. With the golden chain of His matchless love, Christ has bound them to the throne of God. It is His purpose that the highest influence in the universe, emanating from the Source of all power, shall be theirs. They are to have power to resist evil, power that neither earth, nor death, nor hell can master, power that will enable them to overcome as Christ overcame.
AG	255	4	Inspiration faithfully records the faults of good men, those who were distinguished by the favor of God; indeed, their faults are more fully presented than their virtues....
AG	255	5	Men whom God favored, and to whom He entrusted great responsibilities, were sometimes overcome by temptation and committed sin, even as we at the present day strive, waver, and frequently fall into error. Their lives, with all their faults and follies, are open before us, both for our encouragement and warning. If they had been represented as without fault, we, with our sinful nature, might despair at our own mistakes and failures. But seeing where others struggled through discouragements like our own, where they fell under temptation as we have done, and yet took heart again and conquered through the grace of God, we are encouraged in our striving after righteousness. As they, though sometimes beaten back, recovered their ground, and were blessed of God, so we too may be overcomers in the strength of Jesus.
AG	255	6	The life of Christ's disciples is to be like His, a series of uninterrupted victories, not seen to be such here, but recognized as such in the great hereafter.
------------------------Self-Mastery, September 5
AG	256	1	He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. Proverbs 16:32.
AG	256	2	The highest evidence of nobility in a Christian is self-control. He who can stand unmoved amid a storm of abuse is one of God's heroes. To rule the spirit is to keep self under discipline; to resist evil; to regulate every word and deed by God's great standard of righteousness. He who has learned to rule his spirit will rise above the slights, the rebuffs, the annoyances, to which we are daily exposed, and these will cease to cast a gloom over his spirit.
AG	256	3	It is God's purpose that the kingly power of sanctified reason, controlled by divine grace, shall bear sway in the lives of human beings. He who rules his spirit is in possession of this power.
AG	256	4	The body is a most important medium through which the mind and the soul are developed for the upbuilding of character. Hence it is that the adversary of souls directs his temptations to the enfeebling and degrading of the physical powers.... The body is to be brought into subjection to the higher powers of the being. The passions are to be controlled by the will, which is itself to be under the control of God.... Intellectual power, physical stamina, and the length of life depend upon immutable laws. Through obedience to these laws, man may stand conqueror of himself, conqueror of his own inclinations, conqueror of principalities and powers of "the rulers of the darkness of this world," and of "spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12)....
AG	256	5	The spirit that possessed Daniel, the youth of today may have; they may draw from the same source of strength, possess the same power of self-control, and reveal the same grace in their lives, even under circumstances as unfavorable. Though surrounded by temptations to self-indulgence, especially in our large cities, where every form of sensual gratification is made easy and inviting, yet by divine grace their purpose to honor God may remain firm. Through strong resolution and vigilant watchfulness they may withstand every temptation that assails the soul.
------------------------Angel Reinforcements, September 6
AG	257	1	Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Luke 10:19.
AG	257	2	Fallen man is Satan's lawful captive. The mission of Christ was to rescue him from the power of his great adversary. Man is naturally inclined to follow Satan's suggestions, and he cannot successfully resist so terrible a foe unless Christ, the mighty Conqueror, dwells in him, guiding his desires, and giving him strength. God alone can limit the power of Satan.... Satan knows better than God's people the power that they can have over him when their strength is in Christ. When they humbly entreat the mighty Conqueror for help, the weakest believer in the truth, relying firmly upon Christ, can successfully repulse Satan and all his host....
AG	257	3	Satan will call to his aid legions of his angels to oppose the advance of even one soul, and, if possible, wrest it from the hand of Christ.... But if the one in danger perseveres, and in his helplessness casts himself upon the merits of the blood of Christ, our Saviour listens to the earnest prayer of faith, and sends a reinforcement of those angels that excel in strength to deliver him. Satan cannot endure to have his powerful rival appealed to, for he fears and trembles before His strength and majesty. At the sound of fervent prayer, Satan's whole host trembles.
AG	257	4	Nothing but Christ's loving compassion, His divine grace, His almighty power, can enable us to baffle the relentless foe, and subdue the opposition of our own hearts. What is our strength? The joy of the Lord. Let the love of Christ fill our hearts, and then we shall be prepared to receive the power that He has for us....
AG	257	5	Beholding Christ for the purpose of becoming like Him, the seeker after truth sees the perfection of the principles of God's law, and he becomes dissatisfied with everything but perfection.... A battle must be fought with the attributes that Satan has been strengthening for his own use.... But he knows that with the Redeemer there is saving power that will gain for him the victory in the conflict. The Saviour will strengthen and help him as he comes pleading for grace and efficiency.
------------------------For Disciplining the Mind, September 7
AG	258	1	In thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. 1 Chronicles 29:12.
AG	258	2	The mind is so constituted that it must be occupied with either good or evil. If it takes a low level, it is generally because it is left to deal with commonplace subjects.... Man has the power to regulate and control the workings of the mind, and give direction to the current of his thoughts. But this requires greater effort than we can make in our own strength. We must stay our minds on God, if we would have right thoughts, and proper subjects for meditation.
AG	258	3	Few realize that it is a duty to exercise control over their thoughts and imaginations. It is difficult to keep the undisciplined mind fixed upon profitable subjects. But if the thoughts are not properly employed, religion cannot flourish in the soul. The mind must be preoccupied with sacred and eternal things, or it will cherish trifling and superficial thoughts. Both the intellectual and the moral powers must be disciplined, and they will strengthen and improve by exercise.
AG	258	4	To understand this matter aright, we must remember that our hearts are naturally depraved, and we are unable, of ourselves, to pursue a right course. It is only by the grace of God, combined with the most earnest efforts on our part, that we can gain the victory....
AG	258	5	The intellect, as well as the heart, must be consecrated to the service of God. He has claims upon all there is of us....
AG	258	6	Pleasure-seeking, frivolity, and mental and moral dissipation, are flooding the world with their demoralizing influence. Every Christian should labor to press back the tide of evil, and save our youth from the influences that would sweep them down to ruin. May God help us to press our way against the current!
AG	258	7	Without the power of God's grace and Spirit we cannot reach the high standard He has placed before us. There is a divine excellence of character to which we are to attain, and in striving to meet the standard of heaven, divine incentives will urge us on, the mind will become balanced, and the restlessness of the soul will be banished in repose in Christ.
------------------------Our Strength and Security, September 8
AG	259	1	Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Ephesians 6:10.
AG	259	2	Many are spiritually weak because they look at themselves instead of at Christ.... Christ is the great storehouse from which on every occasion we may draw strength and happiness. Why, then, do we withdraw our eyes from His sufficiency to look on and bemoan our weakness? Why do we forget that He is ready to help us in every time of need? We dishonor Him by talking of our inefficiency. Instead of looking at ourselves, let us constantly behold Jesus, daily becoming more and more like Him, more and more able to talk of Him, better prepared to avail ourselves of His kindness and helpfulness, and to receive the blessings offered us. As we thus live in communion with Him, we grow strong in His strength, a help and a blessing to those around us.
AG	259	3	Christ has made every provision for us to be strong. He has given us His Holy Spirit, whose office is to bring to our remembrance all the promises that Christ has made, that we may have peace and a sweet sense of forgiveness. If we will but keep our eyes fixed on the Saviour, and trust in His power, we shall be filled with a sense of security; for the righteousness of Christ will become our righteousness....
AG	259	4	When temptations assail you, as they surely will, when care and perplexity surround you, when, distressed and discouraged, you are almost ready to yield to despair, look, O look, to where with the eye of faith you last saw the light; and the darkness that encompasseth you will be dispelled by the bright shining of His glory. When sin struggles for the mastery in your soul, and burdens the conscience, when unbelief clouds the mind, go to the Saviour. His grace is sufficient to subdue sin. He will pardon us, making us joyful in God.
AG	259	5	God wants our minds to expand. He desires to put His grace upon us.... We are to be one with Christ as He is one with the Father, and the Father will love us as He loves His Son. We may have the same help that Christ had, we may have strength for every emergency; for God will be our front guard and our rearward. He will shut us in on every side.
------------------------All-Sufficient, September 9
AG	260	1	Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 2:1.
AG	260	2	The lessons contained in the words of Paul to Timothy are of the greatest importance to us today. He charges him to "be strong"--in his own wisdom?--No, but "in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." He who would be a follower of Christ is not to rely upon his own capabilities, or to feel confident in himself. Neither is he to be dwarfed in his religious efforts, to shun responsibilities, and remain inefficient in the cause of God.... If the Christian feels his weakness, his inability, by putting his trust in God, he will find the grace of Christ sufficient for every emergency.
AG	260	3	The soldier of Christ must meet many forms of temptation, and resist and overcome them. The fiercer the conflict, the greater the supply of grace to meet the need of the soul.... The true Christian will understand what it means to pass through severe conflicts and trying experiences; but he will steadily increase in the grace of Christ to meet successfully the enemy of his soul.... The darkness will press upon his soul at times; but the true light will shine, the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness will dispel the gloom; and ... through the grace of Christ he will be enabled to be a faithful witness of the things which he has heard from the inspired messenger of God.... By thus communicating truth to others, the worker for Christ obtains a clearer view of the abundant provisions made for all, of the sufficiency of the grace of Christ for every time of conflict, sorrow, and trial. Through the mysterious plan of redemption, grace has been provided, so that the imperfect work of the human agent may be accepted in the name of Jesus our Advocate.
AG	260	4	Man has little power, and can accomplish but a small work at his very best.... God is omnipotent, and at every point where we need divine help and seek for it in sincerity, it will be given. God has pledged His word that His grace will be sufficient for you in your greatest necessity, in your sorest distress. Christ will be to you a present help if you will appropriate His grace.
------------------------For Today's Need, September 10
AG	261	1	As thy days, so shall thy strength be. Deuteronomy 33:25.
AG	261	2	The promise is not that we will have strength today for a future emergency, that anticipated future trouble will be provided for beforehand, before it comes to us. We may, if we walk by faith, expect strength and provision for us as fast as our circumstances demand it. We live by faith, not by sight. The Lord's arrangement is for us to ask Him for the very things that we need. The grace of tomorrow will not be given today. Men's necessity is God's opportunity.... The grace of God is never given to be squandered, to be misapplied or perverted, or to be left to rust with disuse....
AG	261	3	While you are bearing daily responsibilities in the love and fear of God, as obedient children walking in all humility of mind, strength and wisdom from God will be given to meet every trying circumstance....
AG	261	4	We are to keep close to the Source of our strength day by day, and when the enemy comes in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard for us against the enemy. The promise of God is sure, that strength shall be proportioned to our day. We may be confident for the future only in the strength that is given for the present necessities.... Do not borrow anxiety for the future. It is today that we are in need.
AG	261	5	Many are weighed down by the anticipation of future troubles. They are constantly seeking to bring tomorrow's burdens into today. Thus a large share of all their trials are imaginary. For these, Jesus has made no provision. He promises grace only for the day. He bids us not to burden ourselves with the cares and troubles of tomorrow....
AG	261	6	The Lord requires us to perform the duties of today and to endure its trials. We are today to watch that we offend not in word or deed. We must today praise and honor God. By the exercise of living faith today we are to conquer the enemy. We must today seek God and be determined that we will not rest satisfied without His presence. We should watch and work and pray as though this were the last day that would be granted us. How intensely earnest, then, would be our life. How closely would we follow Jesus in all our words and deeds.
------------------------Gives Limitless Strength, September 11
AG	262	1	God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect. 2 Samuel 22:33.
AG	262	2	We have little idea of the strength that would be ours if we would connect with the Source of all strength. We fall into sin again and again, and think it must always be so. We cling to our infirmities as if they were something to be proud of. Christ tells us that we must set our face as a flint if we would overcome. He has borne our sins in His own body on the tree; and through the power He has given us, we may resist the world, the flesh, and the devil. Then let us not talk of our weakness and inefficiency, but of Christ and His strength. When we talk of Satan's strength, the enemy fastens his power more firmly upon us. When we talk of the power of the Mighty One, the enemy is driven back. As we draw near to God, He draws near to us.
AG	262	3	The Word of the eternal God is our guide. Through this Word we have been made wise unto salvation. This Word is ever to be in our hearts and on our lips. "It is written" is to be our anchor. Those who make God's Word their counselor realize the weakness of the human heart and the power of the grace of God to subdue every unsanctified, unholy impulse. Their hearts are ever prayerful, and they have the guardianship of holy angels. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of God lifts up for them a standard against him. There is harmony in the heart; for the precious, powerful influences of truth bear sway.
AG	262	4	We must be better acquainted with our Bibles. We might close the door to many temptations, if we would commit to memory passages of Scripture. Let us hedge up the way to Satan's temptations with "It is written." We shall meet with conflicts to test our faith and courage, but they will make us strong if we conquer through the grace Jesus is willing to give. But we must believe; we must grasp the promises without a doubt.
AG	262	5	Bid the tempted one look not to circumstances, to the weakness of self, or to the power of temptation, but to the power of God's Word. All its strength is ours.
------------------------Produces Loving, Lovable Christians, September 12
AG	263	1	Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Ephesians 6:24.
AG	263	2	Many take it for granted that they are Christians, simply because they subscribe to certain theological tenets. But they have not brought the truth into practical life. They have not believed and loved it, therefore they have not received the power and grace that come through sanctification of the truth. Men may profess faith in the truth; but if it does not make them sincere, kind, patient, forbearing, heavenly-minded, it is a curse to its possessors, and through their influence it is a curse to the world.
AG	263	3	The world needs evidences of sincere Christianity. Professed Christianity may be seen everywhere; but when the power of God's grace is seen in our churches, the members will work the works of Christ. Natural and hereditary traits of character will be transformed. The indwelling of His Spirit will enable them to reveal Christ's likeness, and in proportion to the purity of their piety will be the success of their work.
AG	263	4	Let us honor our profession of faith. Let us adorn our lives with beautiful traits of character. Harshness of speech and action is not of Christ, but of Satan. Shall we, by clinging to our imperfections and deformities, make Christ ashamed of us? His grace is promised to us. If we will receive it, it will beautify our lives.... Deformity will be exchanged for goodness, perfection. Our lives will be adorned with the graces that made Christ's life so beautiful....
AG	263	5	A true, lovable Christian is the most powerful argument that can be advanced in favor of Bible truth. Such a man is Christ's representative. His life is the most convincing evidence that can be borne to the power of divine grace.
AG	263	6	Every day of life is freighted with responsibilities which we must bear. Every day, our words and acts are making impressions upon those with whom we associate.... The true follower of Christ strengthens the good purposes of all with whom he comes in contact. Before an unbelieving, sin-loving world he reveals the power of God's grace and the perfection of His character.
------------------------Points Out the Way, September 13
AG	264	1	That the Lord thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. Jeremiah 42:3.
AG	264	2	To dwell upon the beauty, goodness, mercy, and love of Jesus is strengthening to the mental and moral powers, and while the mind is kept trained to do the works of Christ, to be obedient children, you will habitually inquire, Is this the way of the Lord? Will Jesus be pleased to have me do this? ...
AG	264	3	Many need to make a decided change in the tenor of their thoughts and actions, if they would please Jesus. We can seldom see our sins in the grievous light that God can. Many have habituated themselves to pursue a course of sin, and their hearts harden, under the influence of the power of Satan....
AG	264	4	But when in the strength and grace of God they place their minds against the temptations of Satan, their minds are made clear, their hearts and consciences by being influenced by the Spirit of God are made sensitive, and then sin appears as it is--exceedingly sinful.
AG	264	5	Every act of obedience to Christ, every act of self-denial for His sake, every trial well endured, every victory gained over temptation, is a step in the march to the glory of final victory. If we take Christ for our guide, He will lead us safely. The veriest sinner need not miss his way. Not one trembling seeker need fail of walking in pure and holy light. Though the path is so narrow, so holy that sin cannot be tolerated therein, yet access has been secured for all, and not one doubting, trembling soul need say, "God cares nought for me"....
AG	264	6	And all the way up the steep road leading to eternal life are well-springs of joy to refresh the weary. Those who walk in wisdom's ways are, even in tribulation, exceeding joyful; for He whom their soul loveth, walks, invisible, beside them. At each upward step they discern more distinctly the touch of His hand; at every step brighter gleamings of glory from the Unseen fall upon their path; and their songs of praise, reaching ever a higher note, ascend to join the songs of angels before the throne. "The path of the righteous is as the light of dawn, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18, R.V., margin).
------------------------For Him Who Believes, September 14
AG	265	1	Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace. Romans 4:16.
AG	265	2	Without the grace of Christ, the sinner is in a hopeless condition; nothing can be done for him; but through divine grace, supernatural power is imparted.... It is through the impartation of the grace of Christ that sin is discerned in its hateful nature, and finally driven from the soul temple. It is through grace that we are brought into fellowship with Christ, to be associated with Him in the work of salvation. Faith is the condition upon which God has seen fit to promise pardon to sinners; not that there is any virtue in faith whereby salvation is merited, but because faith can lay hold of the merits of Christ, the remedy provided for sin....
AG	265	3	"Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:3-5). Righteousness is obedience to the law. The law demands righteousness, and this the sinner owes to the law; but he is incapable of rendering it. The only way in which he can attain to righteousness is through faith. By faith he can bring to God the merits of Christ, and the Lord places the obedience of His Son to the sinner's account. Christ's righteousness is accepted in place of man's failure, and God receives, pardons, justifies, the repentant, believing soul, treats him as though he were righteous, and loves him as He loves His Son. This is how faith is accounted righteousness; and the pardoned soul goes on from grace to grace, from light to a greater light.
AG	265	4	The touch of faith opens to us the divine treasure house of power and wisdom; and thus, through instruments of clay, God accomplishes the wonders of His grace. This living faith is our great need today. We must know that Jesus is indeed ours; that His Spirit is purifying and refining our hearts. If the followers of Christ had genuine faith, with meekness and love, what a work they might accomplish! What fruit would be seen to the glory of God!
------------------------Power in the Promises, September 15
AG	266	1	That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:12.
AG	266	2	We must keep close to the Word of God. We need its warnings and encouragement, its threatenings and promises.
AG	266	3	The Scriptures are to be received as God's word to us, not written merely, but spoken. When the afflicted ones came to Christ, He beheld not only those who asked for help, but all who throughout the ages should come to Him in like need and with like faith. When He said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee" (Matthew 9:2) ..., He spoke to other afflicted, sin-burdened ones who should seek His help. So with all the promises of God's word. In them He is speaking to us individually, speaking as directly as if we could listen to His voice. It is in these promises that Christ communicates to us His grace and power. They are leaves from that tree which is "for the healing of the nations" (Revelation 22:2). Received, assimilated, they are to be the strength of the character, the inspiration and sustenance of the life. Nothing else can have such healing power.
AG	266	4	God loves His creatures with a love that is both tender and strong. He has established the laws of nature, but His laws are not arbitrary exactions. Every "thou shalt not," whether in physical or moral law, contains or implies a promise. If it is obeyed, blessings will attend our steps; if it is disobeyed, the result is danger and unhappiness. The laws of God are designed to bring His people closer to Himself. He will save them from the evil and lead them to the good if they will be led, but force them He never will.
AG	266	5	We are too faithless. Oh, how I wish that I could lead our people to have faith in God! They need not feel that in order to exercise faith they must be wrought up into a high state of excitement. All they have to do is to believe God's Word, just as they believe one another's word. He hath said it, and He will perform His Word. Calmly rely on His promise, because He means all that He says. Say, He has spoken to me in His Word, and He will fulfill every promise that He has made. Do not become restless. Be trustful. God's Word is true. Act as if your heavenly Father could be trusted.
------------------------Not in Worldly Pomp, September 16
AG	267	1	That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:5.
AG	267	2	Jesus was to do His work, ... not with pomp and outward display, but through speaking to the hearts of men by a life of mercy and self-sacrifice....
AG	267	3	The followers of Christ are to be the light of the world; but God does not bid them make an effort to shine. He does not approve of any self-satisfied endeavor to display superior goodness. He desires that their souls shall be imbued with the principles of heaven; then, as they come in contact with the world, they will reveal the light that is in them. Their steadfast fidelity in every act of life will be a means of illumination....
AG	267	4	Worldly display, however imposing, is of no value in God's sight. Above the seen and temporal, He values the unseen and eternal. The former is of worth only as it expresses the latter. The choicest productions of art possess no beauty that can compare with the beauty of character which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit's working in the soul....
AG	267	5	Human effort will be efficient in the work of God just according to the consecrated devotion of the worker--by revealing the power of the grace of Christ to transform the life. We are to be distinguished from the world because God has placed His seal upon us, because He manifests in us His own character of love. Our Redeemer covers us with His righteousness.
AG	267	6	In choosing men and women for His service, God does not ask whether they possess worldly wealth, learning, or eloquence. He asks, "Do they walk in such humility that I can teach them My way? Can I put My words into their lips? Will they represent Me?" God can use every person just in proportion as He can put His Spirit into the soul temple. The work that He will accept is the work that reflects His image. His followers are to bear, as their credentials to the world, the ineffaceable characteristics of His immortal principles.
AG	267	7	Jesus knew the worthlessness of earthly pomp, and He gave no attention to its display. In His dignity of soul, His elevation of character, His nobility of principle, He was far above the vain fashions of the world.
------------------------Multiplied Blessings, September 17
AG	268	1	Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. 2 Peter 1:2, 3.
AG	268	2	In the first chapter of the second epistle of Peter you will find the promise that grace and peace will be multiplied unto you, if you will "add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity" (2 Peter 1:5-7). These virtues are wonderful treasures....
AG	268	3	Shall we not strive to use to the very best of our ability the little time that is left in this life, adding grace to grace, power to power, making it manifest that we have a source of power in the heavens above? Christ says: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18). What is this power given to Him for? For us. He desires us to realize that He has returned to heaven as our Elder Brother and that the measureless power given Him has been placed at our disposal....
AG	268	4	We are to represent Christ in all that we say and do. We are to live His life. The principles by which He was guided are to shape our course of action toward those with whom we are associated. When we are securely anchored in Christ, we have a power that no human being can take from us.
AG	268	5	The unstudied, unconscious influence of a holy life is the most convincing sermon that can be given in favor of Christianity. Argument, even when unanswerable, may provoke only opposition; but a godly example has a power that it is impossible wholly to resist.
AG	268	6	Through His Son, God has revealed the excellency to which man is capable of attaining. And before the world God is developing us as living witnesses of what man may become through the grace of Christ....
AG	268	7	What an honor He confers upon us, in urging us to be holy in our sphere, as the Father is holy in His sphere. And through His power we are able to do this; for He declares, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18). This unlimited power it is your privilege and mine to claim.
------------------------The Youth Need It, September 18
AG	269	1	Thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth. Psalm 71:5.
AG	269	2	There are among us many young men and women who are not ignorant of our faith, yet whose hearts have never been touched by the power of divine grace. How can we who claim to be the servants of God pass on day after day, week after week, indifferent to their condition? If they should die in their sins, unwarned, their blood would be required at the hands of the watchmen who failed to give them warning.
AG	269	3	Why should not labor for the youth in our borders be regarded as missionary work of the highest kind? It requires the most delicate tact, the most watchful consideration, the most earnest prayer for heavenly wisdom. The youth are the objects of Satan's special attacks; but kindness, courtesy, and the sympathy which flows from a heart filled with love to Jesus, will gain their confidence, and save them from many a snare of the enemy.
AG	269	4	The youth need more than a casual notice, more than an occasional word of encouragement. They need painstaking, prayerful, careful labor.... Often those whom we pass by with indifference, because we judge them from outward appearance, have in them the best material for workers, and will repay all the efforts bestowed on them.
AG	269	5	Seventh-day Adventist parents should more fully realize their responsibilities as character builders. God places before them the privilege of strengthening His cause through the consecration and labors of their children. He desires to see gathered out from the homes of our people a large company of youth who, because of the godly influences of their homes, have surrendered their hearts to Him, and go forth to give Him the highest service of their lives. Directed and trained by the godly instruction of the home, the influence of the morning and evening worship, the consistent example of parents who love and fear God, they have learned to submit to God as their Teacher, and are prepared to render Him acceptable service as loyal sons and daughters. Such youth are prepared to represent to the world the power and grace of Christ.
------------------------For the Humble, September 19
AG	270	1	Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. 1 Peter 5:6.
AG	270	2	To be clothed with humility does not mean that we are to be dwarfs in intellect, deficient in aspiration, and cowardly in our lives, shunning burdens lest we fail to carry them successfully. Real humility fulfills God's purposes by depending upon His strength.
AG	270	3	God works by whom He will. He sometimes selects the humblest instrument to do the greatest work, for His power is revealed through the weakness of men. We have our standard, and by it we pronounce one thing great and another small; but God does not estimate according to our rule. We are not to suppose that what is great to us must be great to God, or that what is small to us must be small to Him.
AG	270	4	All boasting of merit in ourselves is out of place.... The reward is not of works, lest any man should boast; but it is all of grace....
AG	270	5	There is no religion in the enthronement of self. He who makes self-glorification his aim will find himself destitute of that grace which alone can make him efficient in Christ's service. Whenever pride and self-complacency are indulged the work is marred....
AG	270	6	The Christian who is such in his private life, in the daily surrender of self, in sincerity of purpose and purity of thought, in meekness under provocation, in faith and piety, in fidelity in that which is least, the one who in the home life represents the character of Christ--such a one may in the sight of God be more precious than even the world-renowned missionary or martyr....
AG	270	7	Not in our learning, not in our position, not in our numbers or entrusted talents, not in the will of man, is to be found the secret of success. Feeling our inefficiency we are to contemplate Christ, and through Him who is the strength of all strength, the thought of all thought, the willing and obedient will gain victory after victory.... Blessed will be the recompense of grace to those who have wrought for God in the simplicity of faith and love.
------------------------That We May Excel, September 20
AG	271	1	The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduceth them. Proverbs 12:26.
AG	271	2	The Lord expects His servants to excel others in life and character. He has placed every facility at the command of those who serve Him. The Christian is looked upon by the whole universe as one who strives for the mastery, running the race set before him, that he may obtain the prize, even an immortal crown; but if he who professes to follow Christ does not make it manifest that his motives are above those of the world in this great contest where there is everything to win and everything to lose, he will never be a victor. He is to make use of every entrusted power, that he may overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil through the power of the Holy Spirit, by grace abundantly provided....
AG	271	3	Those who would be victors should contemplate and count the cost of salvation. Strong human passions must be subdued; the independent will must be brought into captivity to Christ. The Christian is to realize that he is not his own. He will have temptations to resist, and battles to fight against his own inclinations; for the Lord will accept no half-way service. Hypocrisy is an abomination to Him. The follower of Christ must walk by faith, as seeing Him who is invisible. Christ will be his dearest treasure, his all and in all.
AG	271	4	This experience is essential to those who profess the name of Christ, for its influence pervades the conduct, and sanctifies the influence of the Christian's life in its effect upon others. The business connections and intercourse of Christians; with men of the world will be sanctified by the grace of Christ; and wherever they are, a moral atmosphere will be created, that will have power for good; for it will breathe the spirit of the Master.
AG	271	5	He who has the mind of Christ knows that his only safe course is to keep close to Jesus, following the light of life. He will not accept work, or engage himself in business, that will hinder him from reaching the perfection of Christian character.... "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" (2 Timothy 2:4).
------------------------Source of Right Influence, September 21
AG	272	1	Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Isaiah 58:8.
AG	272	2	The Lord has a special work to do for us individually. As we see the wickedness of the world brought to light in the courts of justice and published in the daily papers, let us draw near to God, and by living faith lay hold of His promises, that the grace of Christ may be manifest in us. We may have an influence, a powerful influence, in the world.... We are to have an eye single to the glory of God. We are to work with all the intelligence that God has given us, placing ourselves in the channel of light, that the grace of God can come upon us to mold and fashion us to the divine similitude. Heaven is waiting to bestow its richest blessings upon those who will consecrate themselves to do the work of God in these last days of the world's history.
AG	272	3	There is nothing in us of ourselves by which we can influence others for good. If we realize our helplessness and our need of divine power, we shall not trust to ourselves. We know not what results a day, an hour, or a moment may determine, and never should we begin the day without committing our ways to our heavenly Father. His angels are appointed to watch over us, and if we put ourselves under their guardianship, then in every time of danger they will be at our right hand. When unconsciously we are in danger of exerting a wrong influence, the angels will be by our side, prompting us to a better course, choosing our words for us, and influencing our actions. Thus our influence may be a silent, unconscious, but mighty power in drawing others to Christ and the heavenly world.
AG	272	4	Personal influence is a power. It is to work with the influence of Christ, to lift where Christ lifts, to impart correct principles, and to stay the progress of the world's corruption. It is to diffuse that grace which Christ alone can impart. It is to uplift, to sweeten the lives and characters of others by the power of a pure example united with earnest faith and love.
------------------------For the Race of Life, September 22
AG	273	1	Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:1, 2.
AG	273	2	Envy, malice, evil thinking, evilspeaking, covetousness--these are weights that the Christian must lay aside if he would run successfully the race for immortality. Every habit or practice that leads into sin and brings dishonor upon Christ, must be put away, whatever the sacrifice. The blessing of heaven cannot attend any man in violating the eternal principles of right....
AG	273	3	The competitors in the ancient games, after they had submitted to self-denial and rigid discipline, were not even then sure of the victory.... However eagerly and earnestly the runners might strive, the prize could be awarded to but one. One hand only could grasp the coveted garland. Some might put forth the utmost effort to obtain the prize, but as they reached forth the hand to secure it, another, an instant before them, might grasp the coveted treasure.
AG	273	4	Such is not the case in the Christian warfare. Not one who complies with the conditions will be disappointed at the end of the race. Not one who is earnest and persevering will fail of success. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. The weakest saint, as well as the strongest, may wear the crown of immortal glory. All may win who, through the power of divine grace, bring their lives into conformity to the will of Christ.... Every act casts its weight into the scale that determines life's victory or defeat. And the reward given to those who win will be in proportion to the energy and earnestness with which they have striven....
AG	273	5	Paul knew that his warfare against evil would not end so long as life should last. Ever he realized the need of putting a strict guard upon himself, that earthly desires might not overcome spiritual zeal. With all his power he continued to strive against natural inclinations. Ever he kept before him the ideal to be attained, and this ideal he strove to reach by willing obedience to the law of God. His words, his practices, his passions--all were brought under the control of the Spirit of God.
------------------------"Tell of His Power" September 23
AG	274	1	They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power. Psalm 145:11.
AG	274	2	If Christians would associate together, speaking to each other of the love of God, and of the precious truths of redemption, their own hearts would be refreshed, and they would refresh one another. We may be daily learning more of our heavenly Father, gaining a fresh experience of His grace; then we shall desire to speak of His love; and as we do this, our own hearts will be warmed and encouraged. If we thought and talked more of Jesus, and less of self, we should have far more of His presence.
AG	274	3	If we would but think of God as often as we have evidence of His care for us, we should keep Him ever in our thoughts, and should delight to talk of Him and to praise Him. We talk of temporal things because we have an interest in them. We talk of our friends because we love them; our joys and our sorrows are bound up with them. Yet we have infinitely greater reason to love God than to love our earthly friends; it should be the most natural thing in the world to make Him first in all our thoughts, to talk of His goodness and tell of His power.
AG	274	4	Those who study the Word of God and day by day receive instruction from Christ bear the stamp of heaven's principles. A high, holy influence goes forth from them. A helpful atmosphere surrounds their souls. The pure, holy, elevated principles that they follow enable them to bear a living testimony to the power of divine grace.
AG	274	5	Christ wants His followers to be like Him, because He desires to be correctly represented in the family circle, in the church, and in the world.... We are to accept Christ as our efficiency, our strength, that we may reveal His character to the world. This is the work resting upon us as Christians. We are to witness to the power of heavenly grace....
AG	274	6	God wants His sons and daughters to reveal before the synagogue of Satan, before the heavenly universe, before the world, the power of His grace, that men and angels may know that Christ has not died in vain. Let us show the world that we have power from on high.
------------------------Power to Shake the World, September 24
AG	275	1	By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. 2 Corinthians 6:7.
AG	275	2	The commission that Christ gave to the disciples, they fulfilled. As these messengers of the cross went forth to proclaim the gospel, there was such a revelation of the glory of God as had never before been witnessed by mortal man. By the cooperation of the divine Spirit, the apostles did a work that shook the world. To every nation was the gospel carried in a single generation.
AG	275	3	Glorious were the results that attended the ministry of the chosen apostles of Christ. At the beginning of their ministry some of them were unlearned men, but their consecration to the cause of their Master was unreserved, and under His instruction they gained a preparation for the great work committed to them. Grace and truth reigned in their hearts, inspiring their motives and controlling their actions. Their lives were hid with Christ in God, and self was lost sight of, submerged in the depths of infinite love.... Jesus Christ, the wisdom and power of God, was the theme of every discourse.... As they proclaimed the completeness of Christ, the risen Saviour, their words moved hearts, and men and women were won to the gospel. Multitudes who had reviled the Saviour's name and despised His power, now confessed themselves disciples of the Crucified.
AG	275	4	Not in their own power did the apostles accomplish their mission, but in the power of the living God.... The consciousness of the responsibility resting on them purified and enriched their experience; and the grace of heaven was revealed in the conquests they achieved for Christ. With the might of omnipotence God worked through them to make the gospel triumphant.
AG	275	5	As Christ sent forth His disciples, so today He sends forth the members of His church. The same power that the apostles had is for them. If they will make God their strength, He will work with them, and they shall not labor in vain. Let them realize that the work in which they are engaged is one upon which the Lord has placed His signet.... He bids us go forth to speak the words He gives us, feeling His holy touch upon our lips.
------------------------The Christian's Badge, September 25
AG	276	1	Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Ephesians 3:20.
AG	276	2	The Lord is waiting to manifest through His people His grace and power. But He requires that those who engage in His service shall keep their minds ever directed to Him. Every day they should have time for reading the Word of God and for prayer....
AG	276	3	Individually we are to walk and talk with God; then the sacred influence of the gospel of Christ in all its preciousness will appear in our lives.
AG	276	4	There is an eloquence far more powerful than the eloquence of words in the quiet, consistent life of a pure, true Christian. What a man is has more influence than what he says.
AG	276	5	The officers who were sent to Jesus came back with the report that never man spoke as He spoke. But the reason for this was that never man lived as He lived. Had His life been other than it was, He could not have spoken as He did. His words bore with them a convincing power, because they came from a heart pure and holy, full of love and sympathy, benevolence and truth.
AG	276	6	It is our own character and experience that determine our influence upon others. In order to convince others of the power of Christ's grace, we must know its power in our own hearts and lives. The gospel we present for the saving of souls must be the gospel by which our own souls are saved. Only through a living faith in Christ as a personal Saviour is it possible to make our influence felt in a skeptical world. If we would draw sinners out of the swift-running current, our own feet must be firmly set upon the Rock, Christ Jesus.
AG	276	7	The badge of Christianity is not an outward sign, not the wearing of a cross or a crown, but it is that which reveals the union of man with God. By the power of His grace manifested in the transformation of character the world is to be convinced that God has sent His Son as its Redeemer. No other influence that can surround the human soul has such power as the influence of an unselfish life. The strongest argument in favor of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian.
------------------------Irresistible, September 26
AG	277	1	Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Psalm 31:19.
AG	277	2	The Lord calls upon us for confession of His goodness.... Our confession of His faithfulness is Heaven's chosen agency for revealing Christ to the world. We are to acknowledge His grace as made known through the holy men of old; but that which will be most effectual is the testimony of our own experience. We are witnesses for God as we reveal in ourselves the working of a power that is divine. Every individual has a life distinct from all others, and an experience differing essentially from theirs. God desires that our praise shall ascend to Him, marked by our own individuality. These precious acknowledgements to the praise of the glory of His grace, when supported by a Christlike life, have an irresistible power that works for the salvation of souls.
AG	277	3	In order to confess Christ, we must have Him to confess. No one can truly confess Christ unless the mind and spirit of Christ are in him.... We must understand what it is to confess Christ and wherein we deny Him.... The fruits of the Spirit manifested in the life are a confession of Him. If we have forsaken all for Christ, our lives will be humble, our conversation heavenly, our conduct blameless. The powerful, purifying influence of truth in the soul, and the character of Christ exemplified in the life, are a confession of Him.
AG	277	4	Integrity, firmness, and perseverance are qualities that all should seek earnestly to cultivate; for they clothe the possessor with a power which is irresistible--a power which makes him strong to do good, strong to resist evil, strong to bear adversity.... Those who have placed themselves without reserve on the side of Christ will stand firmly by that which reason and conscience tell them is right.
AG	277	5	The life of the true believer reveals an indwelling Saviour. The follower of Jesus is Christlike in spirit and in temper. Like Christ, he is meek and humble. His faith works by love and purifies the soul. His whole life is a testimony to the power of the grace of Christ.
------------------------Heirs of Immortality, September 27
AG	278	1	Being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:7.
AG	278	2	Every earnest petition for grace and strength will be answered.... Ask God to do for you those things that you cannot do for yourselves. Tell Jesus everything. Lay open before Him the secrets of your heart; for His eye searches the inmost recesses of the soul, and He reads your thoughts as an open book. When you have asked for the things that are necessary for your soul's good, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. Accept His gifts with your whole heart; for Jesus has died that you might have the precious things of heaven as your own.
AG	278	3	The youth must not suppose that they can go on living careless and indulgent lives, seeking no preparation for the kingdom of God, and yet in time of trial be able to stand firm for the truth. They need to seek earnestly to bring into their lives the perfection that is seen in the life of the Saviour, so that when Christ shall come, they will be prepared to enter in through the gates into the city of God. God's abounding love and presence in the heart will give the power of self-control and will mold and fashion the mind and character. The grace of Christ in the life will direct the aims and purposes and capabilities into channels that will give moral and spiritual power--power which the youth will not have to leave in this world, but which they can carry with them into the future life and retain through the eternal ages.
AG	278	4	All heaven is interested in men and women whom God has valued so much as to give His beloved Son to die to redeem them. No other creature that God has made is capable of such improvement, such refinement, such nobility as man. Then when men become blunted by their own debasing passions, sunken in vice, what a specimen for God to look upon! Man cannot conceive what he may be and what he may become. Through the grace of Christ he is capable of constant mental progress. Let the light of truth shine into his mind and the love of God be shed abroad in his heart and he may, through the grace Christ has died to impart to him, be a man of power--a child of earth but an heir of immortality.
------------------------Invincible, September 28
AG	279	1	The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10:22.
AG	279	2	When in his distress, Jacob laid hold of the Angel, and made supplication with tears, the heavenly Messenger, in order to try his faith, also reminded him of his sin, and endeavored to escape from him. But Jacob would not be turned away. He had learned that God is merciful, and he cast himself upon His mercy. He pointed back to his repentance for his sin, and pleaded for deliverance. As he reviewed his life, he was driven almost to despair; but he held fast the Angel, and with earnest, agonizing cries urged his petition until he prevailed.
AG	279	3	Such will be the experience of God's people in their final struggle with the powers of evil. God will test their faith, their perseverance, their confidence in His power to deliver them. Satan will endeavor to terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless.... They will have a deep sense of their shortcomings, and as they review their lives, their hopes will sink. But remembering the greatness of God's mercy, and their own sincere repentance, they will plead His promises made through Christ to helpless, repenting sinners. Their faith will not fail because their prayers are not immediately answered. They will lay hold of the strength of God, as Jacob laid hold of the Angel, and the language of their souls will be, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me" (Genesis 32:26)....
AG	279	4	Jacob's history is an assurance that God will not cast off those who have been betrayed into sin, but who have returned unto Him with true repentance. It was by self-surrender and confiding faith that Jacob gained what he had failed to gain by conflict in his own strength. God thus taught His servant that divine power and grace alone could give him the blessing he craved. Thus it will be with those who live in the last days. As dangers surround them, and despair seizes upon the soul, they must depend solely upon the merits of the atonement. We can do nothing of ourselves. In all our helpless unworthiness we must trust in the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour. None will ever perish while they do this.
------------------------"More than Conquerors" September 29
AG	280	1	Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Romans 8:35-37.
AG	280	2	God's servants receive no honor or recognition from the world. Stephen was stoned because he preached Christ and Him crucified. Paul was imprisoned, beaten, stoned, and finally put to death, because he was a faithful messenger of God to the Gentiles. The apostle John was banished to the Isle of Patmos, "for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 1:9.). These examples of human steadfastness in the might of divine power are a witness to the world of the faithfulness of God's promises, of His abiding presence and sustaining grace.
AG	280	3	Jesus does not present to His followers the hope of attaining earthly glory and riches, of living a life free from trial. Instead He calls upon them to follow Him in the path of self-denial and reproach. He who came to redeem the world was opposed by the united forces of evil....
AG	280	4	In all ages Satan has persecuted the people of God. He has tortured them and put them to death, but in dying they became conquerors. They bore witness to the power of One mightier than Satan. Wicked men may torture and kill the body, but they cannot touch the life that is hid with Christ in God. They can incarcerate men and women in prison walls, but they cannot bind the spirit.
AG	280	5	Through trial and persecution the glory--the character--of God is revealed in His chosen ones. The believers in Christ, hated and persecuted by the world, are educated and disciplined in the school of Christ. On earth they walk in narrow paths; they are purified in the furnace of affliction. They follow Christ through sore conflicts; they endure self-denial, and experience bitter disappointments; but thus they learn the guilt and woe of sin, and they look upon it with abhorrence. Being partakers of Christ's sufferings, they can look beyond the gloom to the glory, saying, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).
------------------------"He is Able" September 30
AG	281	1	I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. 2 Timothy 1:12.
AG	281	2	The apostle [Paul] was looking into the great beyond, not with uncertainty or dread, but with joyous hope and longing expectation. As he stands at the place of martyrdom he sees not the sword of the executioner or the earth so soon to receive his blood; he looks up ... to the throne of the Eternal.
AG	281	3	This man of faith beholds the ladder of Jacob's vision, representing Christ, who has connected earth with heaven, and finite man with the infinite God. His faith is strengthened as he calls to mind how patriarchs and prophets have relied upon the One who is his support and consolation, and for whom he is giving his life. From these holy men who from century to century have borne testimony for their faith, he hears the assurance that God is true. His fellow apostles, who to preach the gospel of Christ, went forth to meet religious bigotry and heathen superstition, persecution, and contempt, who counted not their lives dear unto themselves that they might bear aloft the light of the cross amidst the dark mazes of infidelity--these he hears witnessing to Jesus as the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. From the rack, the stake, the dungeon, from dens and caves of the earth, there falls upon his ear the martyr's shout of triumph. He hears the witness of steadfast souls, who, though destitute, afflicted, tormented, yet bear fearless, solemn testimony for the faith, declaring, "I know whom I have believed"....
AG	281	4	Ransomed by the sacrifice of Christ, washed from sin in His blood, and clothed in His righteousness, Paul has the witness in himself that his soul is precious in the sight of His Redeemer. His life is hid with Christ in God, and he is persuaded that He who has conquered death is able to keep that which is committed to His trust.
AG	281	5	I am so glad that we can come to God in faith and humility, and plead with Him until our souls are brought into such close relationship with Jesus that we can lay our burdens at His feet, saying, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
------------------------As Jesus Grew, October 1
AG	282	1	And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Luke 2:40.
AG	282	2	The Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, became a babe in Bethlehem, and for a time represented the helpless infant in its mother's care. In childhood He spoke and acted as a child, honoring His parents, and carrying out their wishes in helpful ways. But from the first dawning of intelligence He was constantly growing in grace and in a knowledge of truth.
AG	282	3	Parents and teachers should aim so to cultivate the tendencies of the youth that at each stage of life they may represent the beauty appropriate to that period, unfolding naturally, as do the plants in the garden.
AG	282	4	As a child Jesus manifested a peculiar loveliness of disposition. His willing hands were ever ready to serve others. He manifested a patience that nothing could disturb, and a truthfulness that would never sacrifice integrity. In principle firm as a rock, His life revealed the grace of unselfish courtesy.
AG	282	5	With deep earnestness the mother of Jesus watched the unfolding of His powers, and beheld the impress of perfection upon His character. With delight she sought to encourage that bright, receptive mind. Through the Holy Spirit she received wisdom to co-operate with the heavenly agencies in the development of this child, who could claim only God as His Father.... From her lips and from the scrolls of the prophets, He learned of heavenly things. The very words which He Himself had spoken to Moses for Israel He was now taught at His mother's knee.... And spread out before Him was the great library of God's created works. He who had made all things studied the lessons which His own hand had written in earth and sea and sky.... Heavenly beings were His attendants, and the culture of holy thoughts and communings was His. From the first dawning of intelligence He was constantly growing in spiritual grace and knowledge of truth.
AG	282	6	Every child may gain knowledge as Jesus did. As we try to become acquainted with our heavenly Father through His Word, angels will draw near, our minds will be strengthened, our characters will be elevated and refined. We shall become more like our Saviour.
------------------------The Divine Order of Growth, October 2
AG	283	1	For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. Mark 4:28.
AG	283	2	He who gave this parable created the tiny seed, gave it its vital properties, and ordained the laws that govern its growth. And the truths which the parable teaches were made a living reality in His own life. In both His physical and His spiritual nature He followed the divine order of growth illustrated by the plant, as He wishes all youth to do.... In childhood He did the works of an obedient child.... But at each stage of His development He was perfect, with the simple, natural grace of a sinless life.
AG	283	3	The parable of the seed reveals that God is at work in nature.... There is life in the seed, there is power in the soil; but unless an infinite power is exercised day and night, the seed will yield no returns.... Every seed grows, every plant develops, by the power of God....
AG	283	4	The germination of the seed represents the beginning of spiritual life, and the development of the plant is a beautiful figure of Christian growth. As in nature, so in grace; there can be no life without growth. The plant must either grow or die. As its growth is silent and imperceptible, but continuous, so is the development of the Christian life. At every stage of development our life may be perfect; yet if God's purpose for us is fulfilled, there will be continual advancement. Sanctification is the work of a lifetime. As our opportunities multiply, our experience will enlarge, and our knowledge increase. We shall become strong to bear responsibility, and our maturity will be in proportion to our privileges.
AG	283	5	The plant grows by receiving that which God has provided to sustain its life. It sends down its roots into the earth. It drinks in the sunshine, the dew, and the rain. It receives the life-giving properties from the air. So the Christian is to grow by cooperating with the divine agencies.... As the plant takes root in the soil, so we are to take deep root in Christ. As the plant receives the sunshine, the dew, and the rain, we are to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit.... By constantly relying upon Christ as our personal Saviour, we shall grow up into Him in all things who is our head.
------------------------How to Grow, October 3
AG	284	1	But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18.
AG	284	2	It is the privilege of the young, as they grow in Jesus, to grow in spiritual grace and knowledge. We may know more and more of Jesus through an interested searching of the Scriptures, and then following the ways of truth and righteousness therein revealed. Those who are ever growing in grace will be steadfast in the faith, and moving forward.
AG	284	3	There should be an earnest desire in the heart of every youth who has purposed to be a disciple of Jesus Christ to reach the highest Christian standard, to be a worker with Christ. If he makes it his aim to be of that number who shall be presented faultless before the throne of God, he will be continually advancing. The only way to remain steadfast is to progress daily in divine life. Faith will increase if, when brought in contact with doubts and obstacles, it overcomes them. True sanctification is progressive. If you are growing in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, you will improve every privilege and opportunity to gain more knowledge of the life and character of Christ.
AG	284	4	Faith in Jesus will grow as you become better acquainted with your Redeemer by dwelling upon His spotless life and His infinite love. You cannot dishonor God more than to profess to be His disciple while you keep at a distance from Him, and are not fed and nourished by His Holy Spirit. When you are growing in grace, you will love to attend religious meetings, and you will gladly bear testimony of the love of Christ before the congregation. God, by His grace, can make the young man prudent, and He can give to the children knowledge and experience. They can grow in grace daily.
AG	284	5	As long as we continue to keep our eyes fixed upon the Author and Finisher of our faith, we shall be safe. But our affections must be placed upon things above, not on things of the earth. By faith we must rise higher and still higher in the attainment of the graces of Christ. By daily contemplating His matchless charms, we must grow more and more into His glorious image. While we thus live in communion with Heaven, Satan will lay his nets for us in vain.
------------------------Conditions of Christian Growth, October 4
AG	285	1	And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; ... being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11.
AG	285	2	Where there is life, there will be growth and fruit-bearing; but unless we grow in grace, our spirituality will be dwarfed, sickly, fruitless. It is only by growing, by bearing fruit, that we can fulfill God's purpose for us. "Herein is my Father glorified," Christ said, "that ye bear much fruit" (John 15:8). In order to bear much fruit, we must make the most of our privileges. We must use every opportunity granted us for obtaining strength.
AG	285	3	A pure, noble character, with all its grand possibilities, has been provided for every human being. But there are many who have not an earnest longing for such a character. They are not willing to part with the evil that they may have the good.... They neglect to grasp the blessings that would place them in harmony with God.... They cannot grow.
AG	285	4	One of the divine plans for growth is impartation. The Christian is to gain strength by strengthening others. "He that watereth shall be watered also himself" (Proverbs 11:25). This is not merely a promise; it is a divine law, a law by which God designs that the streams of benevolence, like the waters of the great deep, shall be kept in constant circulation, continually flowing back to their source. In the fulfilling of this law is the secret of spiritual growth....
AG	285	5	If we come to God in faith, He will receive us and give us strength to climb upward to perfection. If we watch every word and action, that we may do nothing to dishonor the One who has trusted us, if we improve every opportunity granted us, we shall grow into the full stature of men and women in Christ....
AG	285	6	Christians, is Christ revealed in us? Are we doing all in our power to gain a body that is not easily enfeebled, a mind that looks beyond self to the cause and effect of every movement, that can wrestle with hard problems and conquer them, a will that is firm to resist evil and defend the right? Are we crucifying self? Are we growing up into the full stature of men and women in Christ, preparing to endure hardness as good soldiers of the cross?
------------------------A Mysterious Power, October 5
AG	286	1	All that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. Isaiah 61:9.
AG	286	2	In the plan of redemption there are mysteries that the human mind cannot fathom, many things that human wisdom cannot explain; but nature can teach us much concerning the mystery of godliness. Every shrub, every tree bearing fruit, all vegetation, has lessons for our study. In the growth of the seed are to be read the mysteries of the kingdom of God. To the heart softened by the grace of God, the sun, the moon, the stars, the trees, the flowers of the field, utter words of counsel....
AG	286	3	God's laws for nature are obeyed by nature. Cloud and storm, sunshine and shower, dew and rain, all are under the supervision of God and yield obedience to His command. In obedience to the law of God the spire of grain bursts through the earth, "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear" (Mark 4:28). The fruit is seen in the bud, and the Lord develops it in its proper season because it does not resist His working....
AG	286	4	Can it be that man, made in the image of God, endowed with reason and speech, shall alone be unappreciative of His gifts and disobedient to His laws? ...
AG	286	5	God desires us to learn from nature the lesson of obedience.... The book of nature and the written Word shed light upon each other. Both make us better acquainted with God by teaching us of His character and of the laws through which He works.
AG	286	6	Tell your children about the miracle-working power of God. As they study the great lesson book of nature, God will impress their minds. The farmer plows his land and sows his seed, but he cannot make the seed grow. He must depend on God to do that which no human power can do. The Lord puts His vital power into the seed, causing it to spring forth into life. Under His care the germ of life breaks through the hard crust encasing it, and springs up to bear fruit.... As the children are told of the work that God does for the seed, they learn the secret of growth in grace.
------------------------From Childhood, October 6
AG	287	1	Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Mark 10:14.
AG	287	2	In the children who were brought in contact with Him, Jesus saw the men and women who should be heirs of His grace and subjects of His kingdom.... In His teaching He came down to their level. He, the Majesty of heaven, did not disdain to answer their questions and simplify His important lessons to meet their childish understanding. He planted in their minds the seeds of truth, which in after years would spring up, and bear fruit unto eternal life.
AG	287	3	It is still true that children are the most susceptible to the teachings of the gospel; their hearts are open to divine influences, and strong to retain the lessons received. The little children may be Christians, having an experience in accordance with their years. They need to be educated in spiritual things, and parents should give them every advantage, that they may form characters after the similitude of the character of Christ....
AG	287	4	The Christian worker may be Christ's agent in drawing these children to the Saviour. By wisdom and tact he may bind them to his heart, ... and through the grace of Christ may see them transformed in character, so that of them it may be said, "Of such is the kingdom of God."
AG	287	5	God wants every child of tender age to be His child, to be adopted into His family. Young though they may be, the youth may be members of the household of faith, and have a most precious experience.... They may have their hearts drawn out in confidence and love for Jesus, and live for the Saviour. Christ will make them little missionaries. The whole current of their thought may be changed, so that sin will not appear a thing to be enjoyed, but to be shunned and hated.
AG	287	6	The Saviour longs to save the young. He would rejoice to see them around His throne, clothed in the spotless robes of His righteousness. He is waiting to place upon their heads the crown of life, and to hear their happy voices join in ascribing honor and glory and majesty to God and the Lamb in the song of victory that will echo and re-echo through the courts of heaven.
------------------------In the Home, October 7
AG	288	1	Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Psalm 127:1.
AG	288	2	God designs that the families of earth shall be a symbol of the family in heaven. Christian homes, established and conducted in accordance with God's plan, are among His most effective agencies for the formation of Christian character and for the advancement of His work.
AG	288	3	The importance and the opportunities of the home life are illustrated in the life of Jesus. He who came from heaven to be our example and teacher spent thirty years as a member of the household at Nazareth.
AG	288	4	His mother was His first human teacher. From her lips, and from the scrolls of the prophets, He learned of heavenly things. He lived in a peasant's home, and faithfully and cheerfully He acted His part in bearing the household burdens. He had been the Commander of heaven, and angels had delighted to fulfill His word; now He was a willing servant, a loving, obedient son....
AG	288	5	Thus prepared, He went forth to His mission, in every moment of His contact with men exerting upon them an influence to bless, a power to transform, such as the world had never witnessed.
AG	288	6	Let your home be such that Christ can enter it as an abiding guest. Let it be such that people will take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus, and have learned of Him....
AG	288	7	Angels of heaven often visit the home in which the will of God bears sway. Under the power of divine grace, such a home becomes a place of refreshing to worn, weary pilgrims. Self is kept from asserting itself. Right habits are formed. There is a careful recognition of the rights of others. The faith that works by love and purifies the soul stands at the helm, presiding over the entire household.
AG	288	8	The measure of your Christianity is gauged by the character of your home life. The grace of Christ enables its possessors to make the home a happy place, full of peace and rest.
AG	288	9	Let the light of heavenly grace irradiate your character, that there may be sunlight in the home.
------------------------Daily Prayer Essential, October 8
AG	289	1	If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23.
AG	289	2	If we would develop a character which God can accept, we must form correct habits in our religious life. Daily prayer is as essential to growth in grace, and even to spiritual life itself, as is temporal food to physical well-being. We should accustom ourselves to often lift the thoughts to God in prayer. If the mind wanders, we must bring it back; by persevering effort, habit will finally make it easy. We cannot for one moment separate ourselves from Christ with safety. We may have His presence to attend us at every step, but only by observing the conditions which He has Himself laid down.
AG	289	3	Religion must be made the great business of life. Everything else should be held subordinate to this. All our powers of soul, body, and spirit, must be engaged in the Christian warfare. We must look to Christ for strength and grace, and we shall gain the victory as surely as Jesus died for us.
AG	289	4	At the beginning of the day, do not, dear youth, neglect to pray earnestly to Jesus that He will impart to you strength and grace to resist the temptations of the enemy in whatsoever form they may come; and if you pray earnestly, in faith and contrition of soul, the Lord will hear your prayer. But you must watch as well as pray....
AG	289	5	Children and youth may come to Jesus with their burdens and perplexities, and know that He will respect their appeals to Him, and give them the very things they need. Be earnest; be resolute. Present the promise of God, and then believe without a doubt. Do not wait to feel special emotions before you think the Lord answers. Do not mark out some particular way that the Lord must work for you before you believe you receive the things you ask of Him; but trust His word, and leave the whole matter in the hands of the Lord, with full faith that your prayer will be honored, and the answer will come at the very time and in the very way your heavenly Father sees is for your good; and then live out your prayers. Walk humbly and keep moving forward.
------------------------Secret Prayer a Necessity, October 9
AG	290	1	Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually. 1 Chronicles 16:11.
AG	290	2	When Jesus was upon the earth, He taught His disciples how to pray. He directed them to present their daily needs before God, and to cast all their care upon Him. And the assurance He gave them that their petitions should be heard, is assurance also to us.
AG	290	3	Have a place for secret prayer. Jesus had select places for communion with God, and so should we. We need often to retire to some spot, however humble, where we can be alone with God....
AG	290	4	In the secret place of prayer, where no eye but God's can see, no ear but His can hear, we may pour out our most hidden desires and longings to the Father of infinite pity, and in the hush and silence of the soul that voice which never fails to answer the cry of human need will speak to our hearts....
AG	290	5	As we make Christ our daily companion we shall feel that the powers of an unseen world are all around us; and by looking unto Jesus we shall become assimilated to His image. By beholding we become changed. The character is softened, refined, and ennobled for the heavenly kingdom. The sure result of our intercourse and fellowship with our Lord will be to increase piety, purity, and fervor. There will be a growing intelligence in prayer. We are receiving a divine education, and this is illustrated in a life of diligence and zeal.
AG	290	6	The soul that turns to God for its help, its support, its power, by daily, earnest prayer, will have noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth and duty, lofty purposes of action, and a continual hungering and thirsting after righteousness. By maintaining a connection with God, we shall be enabled to diffuse to others, through our association with them, the light, the peace, the serenity, that rule in our hearts. The strength acquired in prayer to God, united with persevering effort in training the mind in thoughtfulness and care-taking, prepares one for daily duties and keeps the spirit in peace under all circumstances.
AG	290	7	Religion must begin with emptying and purifying the heart, and must be nurtured by daily prayer.
------------------------A Continual Work, October 10
AG	291	1	For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 4:3.
AG	291	2	Sanctification is not the work of a moment, an hour, or a day. It is a continual growth in grace. We know not one day how strong will be our conflict the next. Satan lives, and is active, and every day we need to cry earnestly to God for help and strength to resist him. As long as Satan reigns we shall have self to subdue, besetments to overcome, and there is no stopping place, there is no point to which we can come and say we have fully attained....
AG	291	3	The Christian life is constantly an onward march. Jesus sits as a refiner and purifier of His people; and when His image is perfectly reflected in them, they are perfect and holy, and prepared for translation. A great work is required of the Christian. We are exhorted to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Here we see where the great labor rests. There is a constant work for the Christian.
AG	291	4	None are living Christians unless they have a daily experience in the things of God and daily practice self-denial, cheerfully bearing the cross and following Christ. Every living Christian will advance daily in the divine life. As he advances toward perfection, he experiences a conversion to God every day; and this conversion is not completed until he attains to perfection of Christian character, a full preparation for the finishing touch of immortality....
AG	291	5	Religion is not merely an emotion, a feeling. It is a principle which is interwoven with all the daily duties and transactions of life.... It is continuance in well-doing that will form characters for heaven.
AG	291	6	We must live for Christ minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day; then Christ will dwell in us, and when we meet together, His love will be in our hearts, welling up like a spring in the desert, refreshing all, and making those who are ready to perish, eager to drink of the waters of life.
------------------------Through Simple, Trusting Faith, October 11
AG	292	1	The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 1:14.
AG	292	2	It is your privilege ever to grow in grace, advancing in the knowledge and love of God, if you maintain the sweet communion with Christ it is your privilege to enjoy. In the simplicity of humble faith ask the Lord to open your understanding, that you may discern and appreciate the precious things of His Word. Thus you may grow in grace, grow in simple, trusting faith....
AG	292	3	Be sure that your spiritual life does not become poor, sickly, inefficient. There are many who have need of the words and example of a Christian. Weakness and indecision provoke the assaults of the enemy, and any one who fails to increase in spiritual growth, in a knowledge of truth and righteousness, will frequently be overcome by the enemy.
AG	292	4	Genuine faith always works by love. When you look to Calvary it is not to quiet your soul in the nonperformance of duty, not to compose yourself to sleep, but to create faith in Jesus, faith that will work, purifying the soul from the slime of selfishness. When we lay hold of Christ by faith, our work has just begun. Every man has corrupt and sinful habits that must be overcome by vigorous warfare. Every soul is required to fight the fight of faith. If one is a follower of Christ, he cannot be sharp in deal, he cannot be hardhearted, devoid of sympathy.... He cannot be overbearing, nor can he use harsh words, and censure and condemn.
AG	292	5	Let faith, like a palm tree, strike its penetrating roots beneath the things which do appear, and obtain spiritual refreshment from the living springs of God's grace and mercy. There is a well of water which springeth up into everlasting life. You must draw your life from this hidden spring. If you divest yourselves of selfishness, and strengthen your souls by constant communion with God, you may promote the happiness of all with whom you come in contact. You will notice the neglected, inform the ignorant, encourage the oppressed and desponding, and, as far as possible, relieve the suffering. And you will not only point the way to heaven, but will walk in that way yourselves.
------------------------Abiding in Christ, October 12
AG	293	1	I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5.
AG	293	2	Many have an idea that they must do some part of the work alone. They have trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sin, but now they seek by their own efforts to live aright. But every such effort must fail. Jesus says, "Without me ye can do nothing." Our growth in grace, our joy, our usefulness--all depend upon our union with Christ. It is by communion with Him, daily, hourly--by abiding in Him--that we grow in grace. He is not only the author, but the finisher of our faith. It is Christ first and last and always. He is to be with us, not only at the beginning and the end of our course, but at every step of the way. David says, "I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved" (Psalm 16:8).
AG	293	3	Do you ask, "How am I to abide in Christ?"--In the same way as you received Him at first. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him" (Colossians 2:6).... You gave yourself to God, to be His wholly, to serve and obey Him, and you took Christ as your Saviour. You could not yourself atone for your sins or change your heart, but having given yourself to God, you believed that He for Christ's sake did all this for you. By faith you became Christ's, and by faith you are to grow up in Him--by giving and taking. You are to give all--your heart, your will, your service--give yourself to Him to obey all His requirements; and you must take all--Christ, the fullness of all blessing, to abide in your heart, to be your strength, your righteousness, your everlasting helper--to give you power to obey....
AG	293	4	Your weakness is united to His strength, your ignorance to His wisdom, your frailty to His enduring might. So you are not to look to yourself, not to let the mind dwell upon self, but look to Christ. Let the mind dwell upon His love, upon the beauty, the perfection, of His character. Christ in His self-denial, Christ in His humiliation, Christ in His purity and holiness, Christ in His matchless love--this is the subject for the soul's contemplation. It is by loving Him, copying Him, depending wholly upon Him, that you are to be transformed into His likeness.
------------------------Physically and Spiritually, October 13
AG	294	1	Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3 John 2.
AG	294	2	God's purpose for His children is that they shall grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ. In order to do this, they must use aright every power of mind, soul, and body. They cannot afford to waste any mental or physical strength.
AG	294	3	The question of how to preserve the health is one of primary importance. When we study this question in the fear of God we shall learn that it is best, for both our physical and spiritual advancement, to observe simplicity in diet. Let us patiently study this question....
AG	294	4	Those who have received instruction regarding the evils of the use of flesh foods, tea and coffee, and rich and unhealthful food preparations, and who are determined to make a covenant with God by sacrifice, will not continue to indulge their appetite for food that they know to be unhealthful. God demands that the appetites be cleansed, and that self-denial be practiced in regard to those things which are not good. This is a work that will have to be done before His people can stand before Him a perfected people....
AG	294	5	God requires of His people continual advancement. We need to learn that indulged appetite is the greatest hindrance to mental improvement and soul sanctification. With all our profession of health reform, many of us eat improperly. Indulgence of appetite is the greatest cause of physical and mental debility, and lies largely at the foundation of feebleness and premature death. Let the individual who is seeking to possess purity of spirit bear in mind that in Christ there is power to control the appetite.
AG	294	6	The health of the body is to be regarded as essential for growth in grace and the acquirement of an even temper.... Erroneous eating and drinking result in erroneous thinking and acting. All are now being tested and proved. We have been baptized into Christ, and if we will act our part by separating from everything that would drag us down ... there will be given us strength to grow up into Christ, who is our living head, and we shall see the salvation of God.
------------------------Keeping the Heart, October 14
AG	295	1	Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23.
AG	295	2	Diligent heart-keeping is essential to a healthy growth in grace. The heart in its natural state is a habitation for unholy thoughts and sinful passions. When brought into subjection to Christ, it must be cleansed by the Spirit from all defilement. This cannot be done without the consent of the individual.
AG	295	3	When the soul has been cleansed, it is the duty of the Christian to keep it undefiled. Many seem to think that the religion of Christ does not call for the abandonment of daily sins, the breaking loose from habits which have held the soul in bondage. They renounce some things condemned by the conscience, but they fail to represent Christ in the daily life. They do not bring Christlikeness into the home. They do not show a thoughtful care in their choice of words. Too often, fretful, impatient words are spoken, words which stir the worst passions of the human heart. Such ones need the abiding presence of Christ in the soul. Only in His strength can they keep guard over the words and actions....
AG	295	4	Many seem to begrudge moments spent in meditation, and the searching of the Scriptures, and prayer, as though the time thus occupied was lost. I wish you could all view these things in the light God would have you for you would then make the kingdom of heaven of the first importance. To keep your heart in heaven will give vigor to all your graces, and put life into all your duties.... As exercise increases the appetite, and gives strength and healthy vigor to the body, so will devotional exercises bring an increase of grace and spiritual vigor....
AG	295	5	Let the prayer go up to God, "Create in me a clean heart" (Psalm 51:10); for a pure, cleansed soul has Christ abiding therein, and out of the abundance of the heart are the issues of life. The human will is to be yielded to Christ. Instead of passing on, closing the heart in selfishness, there is need of opening the heart to the sweet influences of the Spirit of God. Practical religion breathes its fragrance everywhere. It is a savor of life unto life.
------------------------First, an Empty Heart, October 15
AG	296	1	Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Mark 12:30, 31.
AG	296	2	On these two commandments the whole interest and duty of moral beings hang. Those who do their duty to others as they would that others should do to them are brought into a position where God can reveal Himself to them. They will be approved of Him. They are made perfect in love, and their labors and prayers will not be in vain. They are continually receiving grace and truth from the Fountainhead, and as freely transmitting to others the divine light and salvation they receive....
AG	296	3	Selfishness is abomination in the sight of God and holy angels. Because of this sin many fail to attain the good which they are capable of enjoying. They look with selfish eyes on their own things, and do not love and seek the interest of others as they do their own. They reverse God's order. Instead of doing for others what they wish others to do for them, they do for themselves what they desire others to do for them, and do to others what they are most unwilling to have returned to them.
AG	296	4	How is it possible that we may grow in grace? It is possible to us only as we empty our hearts of self, and present them to Heaven, to be molded after the divine Pattern. We may have a connection with the living channel of light; we may be refreshed with the heavenly dew, and have the showers of Heaven descend upon us. As we appropriate the blessing of God, we shall be able to receive greater measures of His grace. As we learn to endure as seeing Him who is invisible, we shall become changed into the image of Christ. The grace of Christ will not make us proud, cause us to be lifted up in self, but we shall become meek and lowly in heart.
AG	296	5	Growth in grace will not lead you to be proud, self-confident, and boastful, but will make you more conscious of your own nothingness, of your entire dependence upon the Lord.
------------------------Snares to Shun, October 16
AG	297	1	For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 1 John 2:16.
AG	297	2	Pride and the love of the world are the snares which are so great a hindrance to spirituality and a growth in grace.
AG	297	3	This world is not the Christian's heaven, but merely the workshop of God, where we are to be fitted up to unite with the sinless angels in a holy heaven. We should be constantly training the mind to noble, unselfish thoughts. This education is necessary to so bring into exercise the powers which God has given us that His name shall best be glorified upon the earth. We are accountable for all the noble qualities which God has given us, and to put these faculties to a use He never designed we should is showing base ingratitude to Him. The service of God demands all the powers of our being, and we fail of meeting the design of God unless we bring these powers to a high state of cultivation, and educate the mind to love to contemplate heavenly things, and strengthen and ennoble the energies of the soul by right actions, operating to the glory of God....
AG	297	4	Unless the mind is educated to dwell upon religious themes, it will be weak and feeble in this direction. But while dwelling upon worldly enterprises, it will be strong; for in this direction it has been cultivated, and has strengthened with exercise. The reason it is so difficult for men and women to live religious lives is because they do not exercise the mind unto godliness. It is trained to run in an opposite direction. Unless the mind is constantly exercised in obtaining spiritual knowledge and in seeking to understand the mystery of godliness, it is incapable of appreciating eternal things.... When the heart is divided, dwelling principally upon things of the world, and but little upon the things of God, there can be no special increase of spiritual strength.
AG	297	5	While worldling are all earnestness and ambition to secure earthly treasure, God's people are not conformed to the world, but show by their earnest, watching, waiting position that they are transformed; that their home is not in this world, but that they are seeking a better country, even a heavenly.
------------------------In Humility, October 17
AG	298	1	Be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. 1 Peter 5:5.
AG	298	2	The confiding love and unselfish devotion manifested in the life and character of John present lessons of untold value to the Christian church. John did not naturally possess the loveliness of character that his later experience revealed. By nature he had serious defects. He was not only proud, self-assertive, and ambitious for honor, but impetuous, and resentful under injury.... But beneath all this the divine Teacher discerned the ardent, sincere, loving heart. Jesus rebuked his self-seeking, disappointed his ambitions, tested his faith. But He revealed to him that for which his soul longed--the beauty of holiness, the transforming power of love.
AG	298	3	The lessons of Christ, setting forth meekness and humility and love as essential to growth in grace and a fitness for His work, were of the highest value to John. He treasured every lesson, and constantly sought to bring his life into harmony with the divine pattern. John had begun to discern the glory of Christ--not the worldly pomp and power for which he had been taught to hope, but "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).... John desired to become like Jesus, and under the transforming influence of the love of Christ he did become meek and lowly. Self was hid in Jesus.
AG	298	4	The Lord Jesus seeks the co-operation of those who will become unobstructed channels for the communication of His grace. The first thing to be learned ... is the lesson of self-distrust; then they are prepared to have imparted to them the character of Christ. This is not to be gained through education in the most scientific schools. It is the fruit of wisdom that is obtained from the divine Teacher alone....
AG	298	5	Men of the highest education in the arts and sciences have learned precious lessons from Christians in humble life who were designated by the world as unlearned. But these obscure disciples had obtained an education in the highest of all schools. They had sat at the feet of Him who spoke as "never man spake" (John 7:46).
------------------------In Kindness, October 18
AG	299	1	Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. Colossians 3:12.
AG	299	2	Let the law of kindness be upon your lips and the oil of grace in your heart. This will produce wonderful results. You will be tender, sympathetic, courteous. You need all these graces. The Holy Spirit must be received and brought into your character; then it will be as holy fire, giving forth incense which will rise up to God, not from lips that condemn, but as a healer of the souls of men. Your countenance will express the image of the divine.... By beholding the character of Christ you will become changed into His likeness. The grace of Christ alone can change your heart and then you will reflect the image of the Lord Jesus. God calls upon us to be like Him--pure, holy, and undefiled. We are to bear the divine image....
AG	299	3	The Lord Jesus is our only helper. Through His grace we shall learn to cultivate love, to educate ourselves to speak kindly and tenderly. Through His grace our cold, harsh manners will be transformed. The law of kindness will be upon our lips, and those who are under the precious influences of the Holy Spirit, will not feel that it is an evidence of weakness to weep with those who weep, to rejoice with them that rejoice. We are to cultivate heavenly excellences of character. We are to learn what it means to have good-will toward all men, a sincere desire to be as sunshine and not as shadow in the lives of others.
AG	299	4	Seize every opportunity to contribute to the happiness of those around you, sharing with them your affection. Words of kindness, looks of sympathy, expressions of appreciation, would to many a struggling, lonely one be as a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul....
AG	299	5	Live in the sunshine of the Saviour's love. Then your influence will bless the world. Let the Spirit of Christ control you. Let the law of kindness be ever on your lips. Forbearance and unselfishness mark the words and actions of those who are born again, to live the new life in Christ.
------------------------We Must Follow On, October 19
AG	300	1	Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning. Hosea 6:3.
AG	300	2	Christ came to teach the human family the way of salvation, and He made this way so plain that a little child can walk in it. He bids His disciples follow on to know the Lord; and as they daily follow His guidance, they learn that His going forth is prepared as the morning.
AG	300	3	You have watched the rising sun, and the gradual break of day over earth and sky. Little by little the dawn increases, till the sun appears; then the light grows constantly stronger and clearer until the full glory of noontide is reached. This is a beautiful illustration of what God desires to do for His children in perfecting their Christian experience. As we walk day by day in the light He sends us, in willing obedience to all His requirements, our experience grows and broadens until we reach the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus....
AG	300	4	Christ did not come to the earth as a king, to rule the nations. He came as a humble man, to be tempted, and to overcome temptation, to follow on, as we must, to know the Lord. In the study of His life we shall learn how much God through Him will do for His children. And we shall learn that, however great our trials may be, they cannot exceed what Christ endured that we might know the way, the truth, and the life. By a life of conformity to His example, we are to show our appreciation of His sacrifice in our behalf.
AG	300	5	As the flower turns to the sun, that the bright beams may aid in perfecting its beauty and symmetry, so should we turn to the Sun of Righteousness, that heaven's light may shine upon us, that our character may be developed into the likeness of Christ....
AG	300	6	You are just as dependent upon Christ, in order to live a holy life, as is the branch upon the parent stock for growth and fruitfulness. Apart from Him you have no life. You have no power to resist temptation or to grow in grace and holiness. Abiding in Him, you may flourish. Drawing your life from Him, you will not wither nor be fruitless. You will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.
------------------------Reflecting Jesus, October 20
AG	301	1	Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Ephesians 4:29.
AG	301	2	I have a continual longing for Christ to be formed within, the hope of glory. I long to be beautified every day with the meekness and gentleness of Christ, growing in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. I must as an individual, through the grace given me of Jesus Christ, keep my own soul in health by keeping it as a divine channel through which His grace, His love, His patience, His meekness, shall flow to the world. This is my duty and no less the duty of every church member who claims to be a son or a daughter of God.
AG	301	3	The Lord Jesus has made His church the depositary of sacred truth. He has left with her the work of carrying out His purposes and His plans to save the souls for whom He has manifested such interest, such unmeasured love. Like the sun in relation to our world, He rises amid the moral darkness--the Sun of Righteousness. He said of Himself, "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). He said to His followers, "Ye are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14).... By reflecting the image of Jesus Christ, by the beauty and holiness of their characters, by their continual self-denial and their separation from all idols, large or small, they reveal that they have learned in the school of Christ.
AG	301	4	The Scripture says of Christ that grace was poured into His lips that He might "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary" (Psalm 45:2; Isaiah 50:4). And the Lord bids us, "Let your speech be alway with grace" (Colossians 4:6) "that it may minister grace unto the hearers" (Ephesians 4:29).
AG	301	5	In seeking to correct or reform others we should be careful of our words. They will be a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.... All who would advocate the principles of truth need to receive the heavenly oil of love. Under all circumstances reproof should be spoken in love. Then our words will reform but not exasperate. Christ by His Holy Spirit will supply the force and the power. This is His work.
------------------------When We Fail, October 21
AG	302	1	Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. Micah 7:8.
AG	302	2	Nothing but divine power can regenerate the human heart and imbue souls with the love of Christ, which will ever manifest itself with love for those for whom He died. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. When a man is converted to God, a new moral taste is supplied, a new motive power is given, and he loves the things that God loves.... Love, joy, peace, and inexpressible gratitude will pervade the soul, and the language of him who is blessed will be, "Thy gentleness hath made me great" (Psalm 18:35).
AG	302	3	But those who are waiting to behold a magical change in their characters without determined effort on their part to overcome sin, will be disappointed. We have no reason to fear while looking to Jesus, no reason to doubt but that He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto Him; but we may constantly fear lest our old nature will again obtain the supremacy, that the enemy shall devise some snare whereby we shall again become his captives. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure....
AG	302	4	We are to grow daily in spiritual loveliness. We shall fail often in our efforts to copy the divine pattern. We shall often have to bow down to weep at the feet of Jesus, because of our shortcomings and mistakes; but we are not to be discouraged; we are to pray more fervently, believe more fully, and try again with more steadfastness to grow into the likeness of our Lord. As we distrust our own power, we shall trust the power of our Redeemer, and render praise to God, who is the health of our countenance, and our God....
AG	302	5	By beholding we are to become changed; and as we meditate upon the perfections of the divine Model, we shall desire to become wholly transformed, and renewed in the image of His purity. It is by faith in the Son of God that transformation takes place in the character, and the child of wrath becomes the child of God.
------------------------Feasting On His Word, October 22
AG	303	1	And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Acts 20:32.
AG	303	2	The great and essential knowledge is the knowledge of God and His Word.... There should be a daily increasing of spiritual understanding; and the Christian will grow in grace, just in proportion as he depends upon and appreciates the teaching of the Word of God, and habituates himself to meditate upon divine things.
AG	303	3	In giving us the privilege of studying His Word, the Lord has set before us a rich banquet. Many are the benefits derived from feasting on His Word, which is represented by Him as His flesh and blood, His spirit and life. By partaking of this Word our spiritual strength is increased; we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. Habits of self-control are formed and strengthened. The infirmities of childhood--fretfulness, willfulness, selfishness, hasty words, passionate acts--disappear, and in their place are developed the graces of Christian manhood and womanhood.
AG	303	4	The Lord, in His great mercy, has revealed to us in the Scriptures the rules of holy living....
AG	303	5	He has inspired holy men to record, for our benefit, instruction concerning the dangers that beset the path, and how to escape them. Those who obey His injunction to search the Scriptures will not be ignorant of these things. Amid the perils of the last days, every member of the church should understand the reasons of his hope and faith--reasons which are not difficult of comprehension. There is enough to occupy the mind, if we would grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
AG	303	6	Whenever the people of God are growing in grace, they will be constantly obtaining a clearer understanding of His Word. They will discern new light and beauty in its sacred truths. This has been true in the history of the church in all ages, and thus it will continue to the end.
------------------------From One Source Only, October 23
AG	304	1	Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. John 1:17.
AG	304	2	Your strength and growth in grace come only from one source. If when you are tempted and tried you stand bravely for the right, victory is yours. You are one step nearer to perfection of Christian character. A holy light from heaven fills the chambers of your soul, and you are surrounded by a pure, fragrant atmosphere.
AG	304	3	It is our privilege to stand with the light of heaven upon us. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. It was no easier for Enoch to live a righteous life than it is for us at the present time. The world in his time was no more favorable to growth in grace and holiness than it is now.
AG	304	4	It was by prayer and communion with God that Enoch was enabled to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. We are living in the perils of the last days, and we must receive our strength from the same source. We must walk with God. A separation from the world is required of us, for we cannot remain free from its pollution unless we follow the example of the faithful Enoch....
AG	304	5	How many there are as weak as water who might have a never-failing source of strength. Heaven is ready to impart to us, that we may be mighty in God, and attain to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. What increase of spiritual power have you gained during the last year? Who among us have gained one precious attainment after another, until envy, pride, malice, jealousy, and selfishness have been swept away, and only the graces of the Spirit remain--meekness, forbearance, gentleness, charity? God will help us if we take hold of the help He has provided.
AG	304	6	No other creature that God has made is capable of such improvement, such refinement, such nobility as man.... Man cannot conceive what he may be and what he may become. Through the grace of Christ he is capable of constant mental progress. Let the light of truth shine into his mind and the love of God be shed abroad in his heart and he may, through the grace Christ has died to impart to him, be a man of power--a child of earth but an heir of immortality.
------------------------Helping Others, October 24
AG	305	1	He that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 11:25.
AG	305	2	Christ presents to us who are athirst the water of life, that we may drink freely; when we do this we have Christ within us as a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Then our words are full of moisture. We are prepared to water others.
AG	305	3	No sooner does one come to Christ, than there is born in his heart a desire to make known to others what a precious friend he has found in Jesus; the saving and sanctifying truth cannot be shut up in his heart. If we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and are filled with the joy of His indwelling Spirit, we shall not be able to hold our peace. If we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, we shall have something to tell....
AG	305	4	And the effort to bless others will react in blessings upon ourselves. This was the purpose of God in giving us a part to act in the plan of redemption....
AG	305	5	If you will go to work as Christ designs that His disciples shall, and win souls for Him, you will feel the need of a deeper experience and a greater knowledge in divine things, and will hunger and thirst after righteousness. You will plead with God, and your faith will be strengthened, and your soul will drink deeper drafts at the well of salvation. Encountering opposition and trials will drive you to the Bible and prayer. You will grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, and will develop a rich experience.
AG	305	6	The spirit of unselfish labor for others gives depth, stability, and Christlike loveliness to the character, and brings peace and happiness to its possessor. The aspirations are elevated. There is no room for sloth or selfishness. Those who thus exercise the Christian graces will grow, and will become strong to work for God. They will have clear spiritual perceptions, a steady, growing faith, and an increased power in prayer. The Spirit of God, moving upon their spirit, calls forth the sacred harmonies of the soul, in answer to the divine touch. Those who thus devote themselves to unselfish effort for the good of others, are most surely working out their own salvation. The only way to grow in grace is ... to engage, to the extent of our ability, in helping and blessing those who need the help we can give them.
------------------------Spiritual Exercise a Must, October 25
AG	306	1	Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13.
AG	306	2	An elevated standard is presented before the youth, and God is inviting them to come into real service for Him. True-hearted young men who delight to be learners in the school of Christ, can do a great work for the Master, if they will only give heed to the command of the Captain as it sounds down along the lines to our time, "Quit you like men, be strong."
AG	306	3	Strength comes by exercise. All who put to use the ability which God has given them will have increased ability to devote to His service. Those who do nothing in the cause of God will fail to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. A man who would lie down and refuse to exercise his limbs would soon lose all power to use them. Thus the Christian who will not exercise his God-given powers not only fails to grow up into Christ, but he loses the strength which he already has; he becomes a spiritual paralytic. It is those who, with love for God and their fellow men, are striving to help others that become established, strengthened, settled, in the truth. The true Christian works for God, not from impulse, but from principle; not for a day or a month, but during the entire period of life.
AG	306	4	This world is not a parade ground, but a battlefield. All are called to endure hardness, as good soldiers. They are to be strong and quit themselves like men.... The true test of character is found in the willingness to bear burdens, to take the hard place, to do the work that needs to be done, though it bring no earthly recognition or reward.
AG	306	5	O that each one would place a proper estimate upon the capabilities that have been given him of God! Through Christ you may climb the ladder of progress, and bring every power under the control of Jesus.... In your own strength you can do nothing; but in the grace of Jesus Christ, you can employ your powers in such a way as to bring the greatest good to your own soul, and the greatest blessing to the souls of others. Lay hold of Jesus, and you will diligently work the works of Christ, and will finally receive the eternal reward.
------------------------A Divine Prescription, October 26
AG	307	1	That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:12.
AG	307	2	Many are longing to grow in grace; they pray over the matter, and are surprised that their prayers are not answered. The Master has given them a work to do whereby they shall grow. Of what value is it to pray when there is need of work? The question is, Are they seeking to save souls for whom Christ died? Spiritual growth depends upon giving to others the light that God has given to you. You are to put forth your best thoughts in active labor to do good, and only good, in your family, in your church, and in your neighborhood.
AG	307	3	In place of growing anxious with the thought that you are not growing in grace, just do every duty that presents itself, carry the burden of souls on your heart, and by every conceivable means seek to save the lost. Be kind, be courteous, be pitiful; speak in humility of the blessed hope; talk of the love of Jesus; tell of His goodness, His mercy, and His righteousness; and cease to worry as to whether or not you are growing. Plants do not grow through any conscious effort.... The plant is not in continual worriment about its growth; it just grows under the supervision of God.
AG	307	4	If we will consecrate heart and mind to the service of God, doing the work He has for us to do and walking in the footsteps of Jesus, our hearts will become sacred harps, every chord of which will send forth praise and thanksgiving to the Lamb sent by God to take away the sins of the world....
AG	307	5	The Lord Jesus is our strength and happiness, the great storehouse from which, on every occasion, men may draw strength. As we study Him, talk of Him, become more and more able to behold Him--as we avail ourselves of His grace and receive the blessings He proffers us, we have something with which to help others. Filled with gratitude, we communicate to others the blessings that have been freely given us. Thus receiving and imparting, we grow in grace.
------------------------No Place for Idleness, October 27
AG	308	1	He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. Luke 11:23.
AG	308	2	How is our light to shine forth to the world unless it be by our consistent Christian life? How is the world to know that we belong to Christ, if we do nothing for Him? ... There is no neutral ground between those who work to the utmost of their ability for Christ and those who work for the adversary of souls. Everyone who stands as an idler in the vineyard of the Lord is not merely doing nothing himself, but he is a hindrance to those who are trying to work. Satan finds employment for all who are not earnestly striving to secure their own salvation and the salvation of others.... Whenever a Christian is off his guard, this powerful adversary makes a sudden and violent attack. Unless the members of the church are active and vigilant, they will be overcome by his devices.
AG	308	3	Many who should stand firm for righteousness and truth have manifested weakness and indecision that have encouraged the assaults of Satan. Those who fail to grow in grace, not seeking to reach the highest standard in divine attainments, will be overcome....
AG	308	4	In this season of conflict and trial we need all the support and consolation we can derive from righteous principles, from fixed religious convictions, from the abiding assurance of the love of Christ, and from a rich experience in divine things. We shall attain to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus only as the result of a steady growth in grace.
AG	308	5	It is the work that we do or do not do that tells with tremendous power upon our lives and destinies. God requires us to improve every opportunity for usefulness that is offered us. Neglect to do this is perilous to our spiritual growth. We have a great work to do. Let us not pass in idleness the precious hours that God has given us in which to perfect characters for heaven. We must not be inactive or slothful in this work, for we have not a moment to spend without a purpose or object. God will help us to overcome our wrongs if we will pray and believe on Him. We can be more than conquerors through Him who has loved us.
------------------------In Life's Necessary Duties, October 28
AG	309	1	Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24.
AG	309	2	Your spiritual strength and growth in grace will be proportionate to the labor of love and good works which you do cheerfully for your Saviour, who has withheld nothing, not even His own life, that He might save you....
AG	309	3	Our good works alone will not save any of us, but we cannot be saved without good works. And after we have done all that we can do, in the name and strength of Jesus we are to say: "We are unprofitable servants" (Luke 17:10).
AG	309	4	If you have the riches of the grace of Christ in your heart, you will not keep them to yourselves while the salvation of souls depends upon a knowledge of the way of salvation that you can give. These may not come to you and tell you their heart longings, but many are hungry, unsatisfied, and Christ died that they might have the riches of His grace. What are you going to do that these souls may share the blessings that you enjoy? ...
AG	309	5	Growth in grace is shown in an increasing ability to work for God. He who learns in the school of Christ will know how to pray and how to speak for the Master. Realizing that he lacks wisdom and experience, he will place himself under the training of the Great Teacher, knowing that only thus he can obtain perfection in God's service. And daily he becomes better able to comprehend spiritual things. Every day of diligent labor finds him at its close better fitted to help others.
AG	309	6	The essential lesson of contented industry in the necessary duties of life is yet to be learned by many of Christ's followers. It requires more grace, more stern discipline of character, to work for God in the capacity of mechanic, merchant, lawyer, or farmer, carrying the precepts of Christianity into the ordinary business of life, than to labor as an acknowledged missionary in the open field. It requires a strong spiritual nerve to bring religion into the workshop and the business office, sanctifying the details of everyday life, and ordering every transaction according to the standard of God's Word. But this is what the Lord requires.
------------------------Little Opportunities, October 29
AG	310	1	Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Ecclesiastes 9:10.
AG	310	2	Nothing will so arouse a self-sacrificing zeal and broaden and strengthen the character as to engage in work for others.... None need wait until called to some distant field before beginning to help others. Doors of service are open everywhere. All around us are those who need our help. The widow, the orphan, the sick and the dying, the heartsick, the discouraged, the ignorant, and the outcast are on every hand.
AG	310	3	We should feel it our special duty to work for those living in our neighborhood. Study how you can best help those who take no interest in religious things. As you visit your friends and neighbors, show an interest in their spiritual as well as in their temporal welfare. Speak to them of Christ as a sin-pardoning Saviour. Invite your neighbors to your home, and read with them from the precious Bible and from books that explain its truths. Invite them to unite with you in song and prayer. In these little gatherings, Christ Himself will be present, as He has promised, and hearts will be touched by His grace....
AG	310	4	Many regret that they are living a narrow life. They themselves can make their life broad and influential if they will. Those who love Jesus with heart and mind and soul, and their neighbor as themselves, have a wide field in which to use their ability and influence. Let none pass by little opportunities, to look for larger work. You might do successfully the small work, but fail utterly in attempting the larger work, and fall into discouragement. It is by doing with your might what you find to do that you will develop aptitude for larger work. It is by slighting the daily opportunities, by neglecting the little things right at hand, that so many become fruitless and withered....
AG	310	5	In fields where the conditions are so objectionable and disheartening that many are unwilling to go to them, remarkable changes have been wrought by the efforts of self-sacrificing workers. Patiently and perseveringly they labored, not relying upon human power, but upon God, and His grace sustained them. The amount of good thus accomplished will never be known in this world, but blessed results will be seen in the great hereafter.
------------------------Why Trials? October 30
AG	311	1	And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Malachi 3:3.
AG	311	2	Here is the process, the refining, purifying process, to be carried on by the Lord of hosts. The work is most trying to the soul, but it is only through this process that the rubbish and defiling impurities can be removed. Our trials are all necessary to bring us close to our heavenly Father, in obedience to His will, that we may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. God has given each of us capabilities, talents to improve. We need a new and living experience in the divine life, in order to do the will of God. No amount of past experience will suffice for the present, or will strengthen us to overcome the difficulties in our path. We must have new grace and fresh strength daily in order to be victorious....
AG	311	3	Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Daniel, and many others, were all sorely tried, but not in the same way. Everyone has his individual tests and trials in the drama of life, but the very same trial seldom comes twice. Each has his own experience, peculiar in its character and circumstances, to accomplish a certain work. God has a work, a purpose, in the life of each and all of us. Every act, however small, has its place....
AG	311	4	Would that all might feel that every step they take may have a lasting and controlling influence upon their own lives and the characters of others. Oh, how much need, then, of communion with God! What need of divine grace to direct every step, and show us how to perfect Christian characters!
AG	311	5	Christians will have new scenes and new trials to pass through, where their past experience cannot be a sufficient guide. We need to learn of the divine Teacher as much now as at any period of our lives, and even more. And the more experience we gain, the nearer we draw toward the pure light of heaven, the more shall we discern in ourselves that needs reforming.... The path of the just is a progressive one, from strength to strength, from grace to grace, and from glory to glory. The divine illumination will increase more and more, corresponding with our onward movements, qualifying us to meet the responsibilities and emergencies before us.
------------------------"Fulness of God", October 31
AG	312	1	And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:19.
AG	312	2	God calls upon those who know His will to be doers of His word. Weakness, halfheartedness, and indecision provoke the assaults of Satan; and those who permit these traits to grow will be borne helplessly down by the surging waves of temptation....
AG	312	3	Every means of grace should be diligently improved that the love of God may abound in the soul more and more, "that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness" (Philippians 1:10, 11). Your Christian life must take on vigorous and stalwart forms. You can attain to the high standard set before you in the Scriptures, and you must if you would be children of God. You cannot stand still; you must either advance or retrograde. You must have spiritual knowledge, that you "may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ," that you may "be filled with all the fulness of God"....
AG	312	4	Will you have a stinted Christian growth, or will you make healthy progress in the divine life? Where there is spiritual health there is growth. The child of God grows up to the full stature of a man or woman in Christ. There is no limit to his improvement....
AG	312	5	We have great victories to gain, and a heaven to lose if we do not gain them. The carnal heart must be crucified; for its tendency is to moral corruption, and the end thereof is death. Nothing but the life-giving influences of the gospel can help the soul. Pray that the mighty energies of the Holy Spirit, with all their quickening, recuperative, and transforming power, may fall like an electric shock on the palsy-stricken soul, causing every nerve to thrill with new life, restoring the whole man from his dead, earthly, sensual state to spiritual soundness. You will thus become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust; and in your souls will be reflected the image of Him by whose stripes you are healed.
------------------------Wages or Gift? November 1
AG	313	1	The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23.
AG	313	2	Man was originally endowed with noble powers and a well-balanced mind. He was perfect in his being, and in harmony with God. His thoughts were pure, his aims holy. But through disobedience, his powers were perverted, and selfishness took the place of love. His nature became so weakened through transgression that it was impossible for him, in his own strength, to resist the power of evil. He was made captive by Satan, and would have remained so forever had not God specially interposed. It was the tempter's purpose to thwart the divine plan in man's creation, and fill the earth with woe and desolation.
AG	313	3	By nature we are alienated from God. The Holy Spirit describes our condition in such words as these: "Dead in trespasses and sins;" "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint;" "no soundness in it" (Ephesians 2:1; Isaiah 1:5, 6). We are held fast in the snare of Satan, "taken captive by him at his will" (2 Timothy 2:26). God desires to heal us, to set us free. But since this requires an entire transformation, a renewing of our whole nature, we must yield ourselves wholly to Him.
AG	313	4	The warfare against self is the greatest battle that was ever fought. The yielding of self, surrendering all to the will of God, requires a struggle; but the soul must submit to God before it can be renewed in holiness....
AG	313	5	God does not force the will of His creatures. He cannot accept an homage that is not willingly and intelligently given. A mere forced submission would prevent all real development of mind or character; it would make man a mere automaton. Such is not the purpose of the Creator. He desires that man, the crowning work of His creative power, shall reach the highest possible development. He sets before us the height of blessing to which He desires to bring us through His grace. He invites us to give ourselves to Him, that He may work His will in us. It remains for us to choose whether we will be set free from the bondage of sin, to share the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
------------------------Counting the Cost, November 2
AG	314	1	But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Philippians 3:7.
AG	314	2	Moses renounced a prospective kingdom, Paul the advantages of wealth and honor among his people, for a life of burden bearing in God's service. To many the life of these men appears one of renunciation and sacrifice. Was it really so? ...
AG	314	3	Moses was offered the palace of the Pharaohs and the monarch's throne; but the sinful pleasures that make men forget God were in those lordly courts, and he chose instead the "durable riches and righteousness" (Proverbs 8:18). Instead of linking himself with the greatness of Egypt, he chose to bind up his life with God's purpose. Instead of giving laws to Egypt, he by divine direction enacted laws for the world. He became God's instrument in giving to men those principles that are the safeguard alike of the home and of society, that are the cornerstone of the prosperity of nations--principles recognized today by the world's greatest men as the foundation of all that is best in human governments.
AG	314	4	The greatness of Egypt is in the dust. Its power and civilization have passed away. But the work of Moses can never perish. The great principles of righteousness which he lived to establish are eternal....
AG	314	5	With Christ in the wilderness wandering, with Christ on the mount of transfiguration, with Christ in the heavenly courts--his was a life on earth blessing and blessed, and in heaven honored.
AG	314	6	Paul also in his manifold labors was upheld by the sustaining power of His presence. "I can do all things," he said, "through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).... Who can measure the results to the world of Paul's lifework? Of all those beneficent influences that alleviate suffering, that comfort sorrow, that restrain evil, that uplift life from the selfish and the sensual, and glorify it with the hope of immortality, how much is due to the labors of Paul and his fellow workers, as with the gospel of the Son of God they made their unnoticed journey from Asia to the shores of Europe?
AG	314	7	What is it worth to any life to have been God's instrument in setting in motion such influences of blessing? What will it be worth in eternity to witness the results of such a lifework?
------------------------Look and Live, November 3
AG	315	1	As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:14, 15.
AG	315	2	The lifting up of the brazen serpent [Numbers 21:4-9] was to teach Israel an important lesson. They could not save themselves from the fatal effect of the poison in their wounds. God alone was able to heal them. Yet they were required to show their faith in the provision which He had made. They must look in order to live. It was their faith that was acceptable with God, and by looking upon the serpent their faith was shown. They knew that there was no virtue in the serpent itself, but it was a symbol of Christ; and the necessity of faith in His merits was thus presented to their minds. Heretofore many had brought their offerings to God, and had felt that in so doing they made ample atonement for their sins. They did not rely upon the Redeemer to come, of whom these offerings were only a type. The Lord would now teach them that their sacrifices, in themselves, had no more power or virtue than the serpent of brass, but were, like that, to lead their minds to Christ, the great sin offering....
AG	315	3	The Israelites saved their lives by looking upon the uplifted serpent. That look implied faith. They lived because they believed God's word, and trusted in the means provided for their recovery. So the sinner may look to Christ, and live. He receives pardon through faith in the atoning sacrifice. Unlike the inert and lifeless symbol, Christ has power and virtue in Himself to heal the repenting sinner.
AG	315	4	While the sinner cannot save himself, he still has something to do to secure salvation. "Him that cometh to me," says Christ, "I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). But we must come to Him; and when we repent of our sins, we must believe that He accepts and pardons us. Faith is the gift of God, but the power to exercise it is ours. Faith is the hand by which the soul takes hold upon the divine offers of grace and mercy....
AG	315	5	Jesus had pledged His word; He will save all who come unto Him. Though millions who need it to be healed will reject His offered mercy, not one who trusts in His merits will be left to perish.
------------------------When Satan is Powerless, November 4
AG	316	1	The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Psalm 34:18.
AG	316	2	Satan knows that those who ask God for pardon and grace will obtain it; therefore he presents their sins before them to discourage them. Against those who are trying to obey God, he is constantly seeking occasion for complaint. Even their best and most acceptable service he seeks to make appear corrupt. By countless devices, the most subtle and the most cruel, he endeavors to secure their condemnation.
AG	316	3	In his own strength, man cannot meet the charges of the enemy. In sin-stained garments, confessing his guilt, he stands before God. But Jesus, our Advocate, presents an effectual plea in behalf of all who by repentance and faith have committed the keeping of their souls to Him. He pleads their cause, and by the mighty arguments of Calvary, vanquishes their accuser. His perfect obedience to God's law has given Him all power in heaven and in earth, and He claims from His Father mercy and reconciliation for guilty man. To the accuser of His people He declares: "The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. These are the purchase of My blood, brands plucked from the burning." And to those who rely on Him in faith, He gives the assurance, "Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment." (Zechariah 3:4).
AG	316	4	All who have put on the robe of Christ's righteousness will stand before Him as chosen and faithful and true. Satan has no power to pluck them out of the hand of the Saviour. Not one soul who in penitence and faith has claimed His protection will Christ permit to pass under the enemy's power. His word is pledged: "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me" (Isaiah 27:5). The promise given to Joshua is given to all: "If thou wilt keep my charge, ... I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by" (Zechariah 3:7). Angels of God will walk on either side of them, even in this world, and they will stand at last among the angels that surround the throne of God.
------------------------For the Hungry and Thirsty, November 5
AG	317	1	Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6.
AG	317	2	Would that you could conceive of the rich supplies of grace and power awaiting your demand. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. We must exercise greater faith in calling upon God for all needed blessings.
AG	317	3	The strength acquired in prayer to God, united with individual effort in training the mind to thoughtfulness and caretaking, prepares the person for daily duties and keeps the spirit in peace under all circumstances, however trying. The temptations to which we are daily exposed make prayer a necessity. In order that we may be kept by the power of God through faith, the desires of the mind should be continually ascending in silent prayer for help, for light, for strength, for knowledge. But thought and prayer cannot take the place of earnest, faithful improvement of the time. Work and prayer are both required in perfecting Christian character.
AG	317	4	We must live a twofold life--a life of thought and action, of silent prayer and earnest work.... God requires us to be living epistles, known and read of all men. The soul that turns to God for its strength, its support, its power, by daily, earnest prayer, will have noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth and duty, lofty purposes of action, and a continual hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
AG	317	5	Let us realize the weakness of humanity, and see where man fails in his self-sufficiency. We shall then be filled with a desire to be just what God desires us to be--pure, noble, sanctified. We shall hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ. To be like God will be the one desire of the soul. This is the desire that filled Enoch's heart. And we read that he walked with God. He studied the character of God to a purpose. He did not mark out his own course, or set up his own will.... He strove to conform himself to the divine likeness.
AG	317	6	There is no excuse for defection or despondency, because all the promises of heavenly grace are for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. The intensity of desire represented by hungering and thirsting is a pledge that the coveted supply will be given.
------------------------With All Your Heart, November 6
AG	318	1	And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13.
AG	318	2	Many are leaning upon a supposed hope without a true foundation. The fountain is not cleansed, therefore the streams proceeding from that fountain are not pure. Cleanse the fountain, and the streams will be pure. If the heart is right, your words, your dress, your acts, will all be right. True godliness is lacking. I would not dishonor my Master so much as to admit that a careless, trifling, prayerless person is a Christian. No; a Christian has victory over his besetments, over his passions. There is a remedy for the sin-sick soul. That remedy is in Jesus. Precious Saviour! His grace is sufficient for the weakest; and the strongest must also have His grace or perish.
AG	318	3	I saw how this grace could be obtained. Go to your closet, and there alone plead with God: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). Be in earnest, be sincere. Fervent prayer availeth much. Jacoblike, wrestle in prayer. Agonize. Jesus, in the garden, sweat great drops of blood; you must make an effort. Do not leave your closet until you feel strong in God; then watch, and just as long as you watch and pray you can keep these evil besetments under, and the grace of God can and will appear in you.
AG	318	4	God forbid that I should cease to warn you. Young friends, seek the Lord with all your heart. Come with zeal, and when you sincerely feel that without the help of God you perish, when you pant after Him as the hart panteth after the water brooks, then will the Lord strengthen you speedily. Then will your peace pass all understanding. If you expect salvation, you must pray.... Beg of God to work in you a thorough reformation, that the fruits of His Spirit may dwell in you.... It is the privilege of every Christian to enjoy the deep movings of the Spirit of God. A sweet heavenly peace will pervade the mind, and you will love to meditate upon God and heaven. You will feast upon the glorious promises of His Word. But know first that you have begun the Christian course. Know that the first steps are taken in the road to everlasting life.
------------------------"Not of Yourselves", November 7
AG	319	1	For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8.
AG	319	2	The apostle desired those to whom he was writing to remember that they must reveal in their lives the glorious change wrought in them by Christ's transforming grace. They were to be lights in the world, by their purified, sanctified characters exerting an influence counter to the influence of satanic agencies. They were ever to remember the words, "Not of yourselves." They could not change their own hearts. And when by their efforts souls were led from the ranks of Satan to take their stand for Christ, they were not to claim any credit for the transformation wrought.
AG	319	3	God calls upon all who will to come and drink of the waters of life freely. The power of God is the one element of efficiency in the grand work of obtaining the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. It is in accordance with the divine plan that we follow every ray of light given of God. Man can accomplish nothing without God, and God has arranged His plans so as to accomplish nothing in the restoration of the human race without the cooperation of the human with the divine. The part man is required to sustain is immeasurably small, yet in the plan of God it is just that part that is needed to make the work a success.
AG	319	4	The great change that is seen in the life of a sinner after conversion is not brought about by any human goodness....
AG	319	5	He who is rich in mercy has imparted His grace to us. Then let praise and thanksgiving ascend to Him, because He has become our Saviour. Let His love, filling our hearts and minds, flow forth from our lives in rich currents of grace. When we were dead in trespasses and sins, He quickened us into spiritual life. He brought grace and pardon, filling the soul with new life. Thus the sinner passes from death to life. He now takes up his new duties in Christ's service. His life becomes true and strong, filled with good works. "Because I live," Christ said, "ye shall live also"....
AG	319	6	There will be no second probation. Now, while it is called today, if we will hear the voice of the Lord, and turn fully to Him, He will have mercy upon us, and abundantly pardon.
------------------------Peace Restored, November 8
AG	320	1	Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:2.
AG	320	2	Christ is "the Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6), and it is His mission to restore to earth and heaven the peace that sin has broken. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). Whoever consents to renounce sin and open his heart to the love of Christ, becomes a partaker of this heavenly peace.
AG	320	3	There is no other ground of peace than this. The grace of Christ received into the heart, subdues enmity; it allays strife and fills the soul with love. He who is at peace with God and his fellow men cannot be made miserable. Envy will not be in his heart; evil surmisings will find no room there; hatred cannot exist. The heart that is in harmony with God is a partaker of the peace of heaven and will diffuse its blessed influence on all around. The spirit of peace will rest like dew upon hearts weary and troubled with worldly strife.
AG	320	4	Christ's followers are sent to the world with the message of peace. Whoever, by the quiet, unconscious influence of a holy life, shall reveal the love of Christ; whoever, by word or deed, shall lead another to renounce sin and yield his heart to God, is a peacemaker....
AG	320	5	The spirit of peace is evidence of their connection with heaven. The sweet savor of Christ surrounds them. The fragrance of the life, the loveliness of the character, reveal to the world the fact that they are children of God. Men take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus.
AG	320	6	The grace of Christ must be woven into every phase of the character.... Daily growth into the life of Christ creates in the soul a heaven of peace; in such a life there is continual fruit bearing.... In the lives of those who are ransomed by the blood of Christ, self-sacrifice will constantly appear. Goodness and righteousness will be seen. The quiet, inward experience will make the life full of godliness, faith, meekness, patience. This is to be our daily experience. We are to form characters free from sin--characters made righteous in and by the grace of Christ.
------------------------Union With Christ, November 9
AG	321	1	But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. Romans 13:14.
AG	321	2	To effect the salvation of men, God employs various agencies. He speaks to them by His word and by His ministers, and He sends by the Holy Spirit messages of warning, reproof, and instruction. These means are designed to enlighten the understanding of the people, to reveal to them their duty and their sins, and the blessings which they may receive; to awaken in them a sense of spiritual want, that they may go to Christ and find in Him the grace they need....
AG	321	3	Every individual, by his own act, either puts Christ from him by refusing to cherish His spirit and follow His example, or he enters into a personal union with Christ by self-renunciation, faith, and obedience. We must, each for himself, choose Christ, because He has first chosen us. This union with Christ is to be formed by those who are naturally at enmity with Him. It is a relation of utter dependence, to be entered into by a proud heart. This is close work, and many who profess to be followers of Christ know nothing of it. They nominally accept the Saviour, but not as the sole ruler of their hearts....
AG	321	4	To renounce their own will, perhaps their chosen object of affection or pursuit, requires an effort, at which many hesitate and falter and turn back. Yet this battle must be fought by every heart that is truly converted. We must war against temptations without and within. We must gain the victory over self, crucify the affections and lusts; and then begins the union of the soul with Christ.... After this union is formed, it can be preserved only by continual, earnest, painstaking effort. Christ exercises His power to preserve and guard this sacred tie, and the dependent, helpless sinner must act his part with untiring energy, or Satan by his cruel, cunning power will separate him from Christ....
AG	321	5	Your birth, your reputation, your wealth, your talents, your virtues, your piety, your philanthropy,... will not form a bond of union between your soul and Christ. Your connection with the church ... will be of no avail unless you believe in Christ. It is not enough to believe about Him. You must believe in Him. You must rely wholly upon His saving grace.
------------------------What is God's Glory? November 10
AG	322	1	For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6.
AG	322	2	The glory of God is His character. While Moses was in the mount, earnestly interceding with God, he prayed, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." In answer God declared, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." The glory of God--His character--was then revealed: "The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 33:18, 19; 34:6, 7).
AG	322	3	This character was revealed in the life of Christ. That He might by His own example condemn sin in the flesh, He took upon Himself the likeness of sinful flesh. Constantly he beheld the character of God; constantly He revealed this character to the world.
AG	322	4	Christ desires His followers to reveal in their lives this same character. In His intercessory prayer for His disciples He declared: "The glory [character] which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me" (John 17:22, 23).
AG	322	5	Today it is still His purpose to sanctify and cleanse His church "... that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing" ... (Ephesians 5:26, 27). No greater gift than the character that He revealed, can Christ ask His Father to bestow upon those who believe on Him. What largeness there is in His request! What fullness of grace every follower of Christ has the privilege of receiving!... O that we might more fully appreciate the honor Christ confers upon us! By wearing His yoke and learning of Him, we become like Him in aspiration, in meekness and lowliness, in fragrance of character.
------------------------Sanctified Perception, November 11
AG	323	1	At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 17:7.
AG	323	2	The treasures of eternity have been committed to the keeping of Jesus Christ, to give to whomsoever He will; but how sad it is that so many quickly lose sight of the precious grace that is proffered unto them through faith in Him. He will impart the heavenly treasures to those who will believe in Him, look to Him, and abide in Him.... He calls upon His chosen, peculiar people who love and serve Him, to come unto Him and ask, and He will give them the bread of life, and endow them with the water of life, which shall be in them as a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.
AG	323	3	Jesus brought to our world the accumulated treasures of God, and all who believe upon Him are adopted as His heirs. He declares that great shall be the reward of them who suffer for His name's sake.
AG	323	4	This world is but a little atom in the vast domain over which God presides, and yet this little fallen world is more precious in His sight than the ninety and nine which went not astray from the fold. If we will make Him our trust, He will not leave us to become the sport of Satan's temptations. God would have every soul for whom Christ has died become a part of the vine, connected with the parent stock, drawing nourishment from it. Our dependence on God is absolute, and should keep us very humble; and because of our dependence on Him, our knowledge of Him should be greatly increased. God would have us put away every species of selfishness, and come to Him, not as the owner of ourselves, but as the Lord's purchased possession.
AG	323	5	God will honor and uphold every truehearted, earnest soul who is seeking to walk before Him in the perfection of the grace of Christ.... Can we with keen, sanctified perception appreciate the strength of the promises of God, and appropriate them to our individual selves, not because we are worthy, but because Christ is worthy, not because we are righteous, but because by living faith we claim the righteousness of Christ in our behalf?
------------------------The Sum and Substance, November 12
AG	324	1	But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. 1 Peter 5:10.
AG	324	2	When the truth is received, it will work radical changes in life and character; for religion means the abiding of Christ in the heart, and where He is, the soul goes on in spiritual activity, ever growing in grace, ever going on to perfection....
AG	324	3	It is no real evidence that you are a Christian because your emotion is stirred, your spirit stirred by truth; the question is, Are you growing up into Christ, your living head? Is the grace of Christ manifested in your life? God gives His grace to men, that they may desire more of His grace. God's grace is ever working upon the human heart, and when it is received, the evidence of its reception will appear in the life and character of its recipient.... The grace of Christ in the heart will always promote spiritual life, and spiritual advancement will be made.... We do not see the plants grow in the field, and yet we are assured that they do grow, and may we not know of our own spiritual strength and growth? ...
AG	324	4	The sum and substance of the whole matter of Christian grace and experience is contained in believing on Christ, in knowing God and His Son whom He has sent. But here is where many fail, for they lack faith in God. Instead of desiring to be brought into fellowship with Christ in His self-denial and humiliation, they are ever seeking for the supremacy of self....
AG	324	5	O, if you loved Him as He has loved you, you would not shun an experience in the dark chapters of the suffering of the Son of God! ... When we contemplate the humiliation of Christ, beholding His self-denial and self-sacrifice, we are filled with amazement at the manifestation of divine love for guilty man. When for Christ's sake we are called to pass through trials that are of a humiliating nature, if we have the mind of Christ, we shall suffer them with meekness, not resenting injury, or resisting evil. We shall manifest the spirit that dwelt in Christ....
AG	324	6	We are to bear Christ's yoke, to work as He worked for the salvation of the lost; and those who are partakers of His sufferings will also be partakers of His glory.
------------------------Praise God! November 13
AG	325	1	I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel. Isaiah 63:7.
AG	325	2	When a sense of the loving-kindness of God is constantly refreshing the soul, it will be revealed in the countenance by an expression of peace and joy. It will be manifest in the words and works. And the generous, holy Spirit of Christ, working upon the heart, will yield in the life a converting influence upon others....
AG	325	3	Have we not reason to talk of God's goodness and to tell of His power? When friends are kind to us we esteem it a privilege to thank them for their kindness. How much more should we count it a joy to return thanks to the Friend who has given us every good and perfect gift. Then let us, in every church, cultivate thanksgiving to God. Let us educate our lips to praise God in the family circle.... Let our gifts and offerings declare our gratitude for the favors we daily receive. In everything we should show forth the joy of the Lord....
AG	325	4	David declares, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live" (Psalm 116:1, 2). God's goodness in hearing and answering prayer places us under heavy obligation to express our thanksgiving for the favors bestowed upon us. We should praise God much more than we do. The blessings received in answer to prayer should be promptly acknowledged....
AG	325	5	We grieve the Spirit of Christ by our complaints and murmurings and repinings. We should not dishonor God by the mournful relation of trials that appear grievous. All trials that are received as educators will produce joy. The whole religious life will be uplifting, elevating, ennobling, fragrant with good words and works.
AG	325	6	Let the peace of God reign in your soul. Then you will have strength to bear all suffering, and you will rejoice that you have grace to endure. Praise the Lord; talk of His goodness; tell of His power. Sweeten the atmosphere that surrounds your soul.... Praise with heart and soul and voice, Him who is the health of your countenance, your Saviour, and your God.
------------------------Nothing Withheld, November 14
AG	326	1	For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11.
AG	326	2	"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things" (Romans 8:32)? Let us appreciate the great sacrifice that God has made in our behalf. There will never be a time when we shall be more welcome to the gifts of His grace than now. Christ gave His life for men, that they might know how He loved them. He does not want any to perish, but longs to see all coming to repentance. All who will surrender the will to Him may have the life that measures with the life of God.... The sword of justice fell upon Him that they might go free. He died that they might live....
AG	326	3	We are to stand firmly for the principles of the Word of God, remembering that God is with us to give us strength to meet each new experience. Let us ever maintain the principles of righteousness in our lives, that in the name of the Lord we may go forward from strength to strength.... We are to cherish as very precious the work which the Lord has been carrying forward through His commandment-keeping people, and which, through the power of His grace, will grow stronger and more efficient as time advances. The enemy is seeking to becloud the discernment of God's people, and to weaken their efficiency; but if they will labor as the Spirit of God shall direct, He will open doors of opportunity before them for the work of building the old waste places. Their experience will be one of constant growth in assurance and power until the Lord shall descend from heaven with power and great glory to set His seal of final triumph on His faithful ones.
AG	326	4	The Lord desires to see the work of the third angel's message carried forward with increasing efficiency. As He has worked in all ages to give courage and power to His people, so in this age He longs to carry to triumphant fulfillment His purposes for His church. He bids the saints advance unitedly, going from strength to greater strength, from faith to increased faith in the righteousness and truth of His cause.
------------------------Thought Control? November 15
AG	327	1	Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13.
AG	327	2	Few realize that it is a duty to exercise control over the thoughts and imaginations. It is difficult to keep the undisciplined mind fixed upon profitable subjects. But if the thoughts are not properly employed, religion cannot flourish in the soul. The mind must be preoccupied with sacred and eternal things, or it will cherish trifling and superficial thoughts. Both the intellectual and the moral powers must be disciplined, and they will strengthen and improve by exercise.
AG	327	3	In order to understand this matter aright, we must remember that our hearts are naturally depraved, and we are unable of ourselves to pursue a right course. It is only by the grace of God, combined with the most earnest effort on our part, that we can gain the victory.
AG	327	4	Every wrong tendency may be, through the grace of Christ, repressed, not in a languid, irresolute manner, but with firmness of purpose, with high resolves to make Christ the pattern. Let your love go out for those things that Jesus loved, and be withheld from those things that will give no strength to right impulses. With determined energy seek to learn, and to improve the character every day. You must have firmness of purpose to take yourself in hand and be what you know God would be pleased to have you.
AG	327	5	The intellect, as well as the heart, must be consecrated to the service of God. He has claims upon all there is of us. The follower of Christ should not indulge in any gratification, or engage in any enterprise, however innocent or laudable it may appear, which an enlightened conscience tells him would abate his ardor or lessen his spirituality. Every Christian should labor to press back the tide of evil, and save our youth from the influences that would sweep them down to ruin. May God help us to press our way against the current.
------------------------In Debt, November 16
AG	328	1	Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Matthew 6:12.
AG	328	2	A great blessing is here asked upon conditions. We ourselves state these conditions. We ask that the mercy of God toward us may be measured by the mercy which we extend to others. Christ declares that this is the rule by which the Lord will deal with us: "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:14, 15). Wonderful terms! but how little are they understood or heeded. One of the most common sins, and one that is attended with most pernicious results, is the indulgence of an unforgiving spirit. How many will cherish animosity or revenge and then bow before God and ask to be forgiven as they forgive. Surely they can have no true sense of the import of this prayer or they would not dare take it upon their lips. We are dependent upon the pardoning mercy of God every day and every hour; how then can we cherish bitterness and malice toward our fellow sinners!
AG	328	3	The fact that we are under so great obligation to Christ places us under the most sacred obligation to those whom He died to redeem. We are to manifest toward them the same sympathy, the same tender compassion and unselfish love, which Christ has manifested toward us.
AG	328	4	He who is unforgiving cuts off the very channel through which alone he can receive mercy from God. We should not think that unless those who have injured us confess the wrong we are justified in withholding from them our forgiveness. It is their part, no doubt, to humble their hearts by repentance and confession; but we are to have a spirit of compassion toward those who have trespassed against us, whether or not they confess their faults. However sorely they may have wounded us, we are not to cherish our grievances and sympathize with ourselves over our injuries; but as we hope to be pardoned for our offenses against God we are to pardon all who have done evil to us....
AG	328	5	As we come to God, this is the condition which meets us at the threshold, that, receiving mercy from Him, we yield ourselves to reveal His grace to others.
------------------------In the School of Christ, November 17
AG	329	1	I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Psalm 32:8.
AG	329	2	He who is seeking with diligence to acquire the wisdom of human schools should remember that another school also claims him as a student. Christ was the greatest teacher the world ever saw. He brought to man knowledge direct from heaven....
AG	329	3	In the school of Christ students are never graduated. Among the pupils are both old and young. Those who give heed to the instructions of the divine Teacher constantly advance in wisdom, refinement, and nobility of soul, and thus they are prepared to enter that higher school where advancement will continue throughout eternity.
AG	329	4	Infinite Wisdom sets before us the great lessons of life--lessons of duty and happiness. These are often hard to learn, but without them we can make no real progress.... It is in this world, amid its trials and temptations, that we are to gain a fitness for the society of the pure and holy. Those who become so absorbed in less important studies that they cease to learn in the school of Christ are meeting with infinite loss....
AG	329	5	In the religion of Christ there is a regenerating influence that transforms the entire being, lifting man above every debasing, groveling vice, and raising the thoughts and desires toward God and heaven.... Every faculty, every attribute, with which the Creator has endowed the children of men is to be employed for His glory; and in this employment is found its purest, holiest, happiest exercise. While religious principle is held paramount, every advance step taken in the acquirement of knowledge or in the culture of the intellect is a step toward the assimilation of the human with the Divine, the finite with the Infinite....
AG	329	6	He who is following the divine guidance has found the only true source of saving grace and real happiness, and has gained the power of imparting happiness to all around him.... Love to God purifies and ennobles every taste and desire, intensifies every affection, and brightens every worthy pleasure. It enables men to appreciate and enjoy all that is true, and good, and beautiful.
------------------------Examination Day, November 18
AG	330	1	Examine me, O Lord, and prove me. Psalm 26:2.
AG	330	2	The Lord in His providence brings men where He can test their moral powers and reveal their motives of action, that they may improve what is right in themselves and put away that which is wrong. God would have His servants become acquainted with the moral machinery of their own hearts. In order to bring this about, He often permits the fire of affliction to assail them that they may become purified....
AG	330	3	True grace is willing to be tried; if we are loath to be searched by the Lord, our condition is serious indeed. God is the refiner and purifier of souls; in the heat of the furnace the dross is separated forever from the true silver and gold of the Christian character. Jesus watches the test. He knows what is needed to purify the precious metal that it may reflect the radiance of His divine love.
AG	330	4	I entreat you to "examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves" (2 Corinthians 13:5). To maintain the warmth and purity of Christian love requires a constant supply of the grace of Christ....
AG	330	5	In this season of conflict and trial we need all the support and consolation we can derive from righteous principles, from fixed religious convictions, from the abiding assurance of the love of Christ, and from a rich experience in divine things. We shall attain to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus only as the result of a steady growth in grace.
AG	330	6	Not in freedom from trial, but in the midst of it, is Christian character developed. Exposure to rebuffs and opposition leads the follower of Christ to greater watchfulness and more earnest prayer to the mighty Helper. Severe trial endured by the grace of God develops patience, vigilance, fortitude, and a deep and abiding trust in God. It is the triumph of the Christian faith that it enables its follower to suffer and be strong; to submit, and thus to conquer; to be killed all the day long, and yet to live; to bear the cross, and thus to win the crown of glory.
------------------------What About Good Works? November 19
AG	331	1	We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10.
AG	331	2	Our acceptance with God is sure only through His beloved Son, and good works are but the result of the working of His sin-pardoning love. They are no credit to us, and we have nothing accorded to us for our good works by which we may claim a part in the salvation of our souls. Salvation is God's free gift to the believer, given to him for Christ's sake alone. The troubled soul may find peace through faith in Christ, and his peace will be in proportion to his faith and trust. He cannot present his good works as a plea for the salvation of his soul.
AG	331	3	But are good works of no real value? Is the sinner who commits sin every day with impunity, regarded of God with the same favor as the one who through faith in Christ tries to work in his integrity? The Scripture answers, "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." In His divine arrangement, through His unmerited favor, the Lord has ordained that good works shall be rewarded. We are accepted through Christ's merit alone; and the acts of mercy, the deeds of charity, which we perform, are the fruits of faith; and they become a blessing to us; for men are to be rewarded according to their works. It is the fragrance of the merit of Christ that makes our good works acceptable to God, and it is grace that enables us to do the works for which He rewards us. Our works in and of themselves have no merit. When we have done all that it is possible for us to do, we are to count ourselves as unprofitable servants. We deserve no thanks from God. We have only done what it was our duty to do, and our works could not have been performed in the strength of our own sinful natures.
AG	331	4	The Lord has bidden us to draw nigh to Him and He will draw nigh to us; and drawing nigh to Him, we receive the grace by which to do those works which will be rewarded at His hands.
AG	331	5	The labor of love springs from the work of faith.... While it is true that our busy activities will not in themselves ensure salvation, it is also true that faith which unites us to Christ will stir the soul to activity.
------------------------Watch! November 20
AG	332	1	Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Mark 14:38.
AG	332	2	Many today are asleep, as were the disciples. They are not watching and praying lest they enter into temptation.
AG	332	3	Let every soul be on the alert. The adversary is on your track. Be vigilant, watching diligently lest some carefully concealed and masterly snare shall take you unawares. Let the careless and indifferent beware lest the day of the Lord come upon them as a thief in the night....
AG	332	4	He who overcomes must watch; for, with worldly entanglements, error, and superstition, Satan strives to win Christ's followers from Him. It is not enough that we avoid glaring dangers and perilous, inconsistent moves. We are to keep close to the side of Christ, walking in the path of self-denial and sacrifice. We are in an enemy's country. He who was cast out of heaven has come down with great power. With every conceivable artifice and device he is seeking to take souls captive. Unless we are constantly on guard we shall fall an easy prey to his unnumbered deceptions.
AG	332	5	Warning, admonition, promise, all are for us, upon whom the ends of the world are come. "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober" (1 Thessalonians 5:6).... Watch against the stealthy approach of the enemy, watch against old habits and natural inclinations, lest they assert themselves; force them back, and watch. Watch the thoughts, watch the plans, lest they become self-centered. Watch over the souls whom Christ has purchased with His own blood. Watch for opportunities to do them good.
AG	332	6	If you draw close to Jesus and seek to adorn your profession by a well-ordered life and godly conversation, your feet will be kept from straying into forbidden paths. If you will only watch, continually watch unto prayer, if you will do everything as if you were in the immediate presence of God, you will be saved from yielding to temptation, and may hope to be kept pure, spotless, and undefiled till the last. If you hold the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end, your ways will be established in God; and what grace has begun, glory will crown in the kingdom of our God.
------------------------Kept From Falling, November 21
AG	333	1	Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Jude 24.
AG	333	2	In these last days, when iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold, God will have a people to glorify His name, and stand as reprovers of unrighteousness. They are to be a "peculiar people," who will be true to the law of God when the world shall seek to make void its precepts; and when the converting power of God works through His servants, the hosts of darkness will array themselves in bitter and determined opposition.... There will be a constant conflict from the time of our determination to serve the God of heaven, until we are delivered out of this present evil world. There is no release from this war....
AG	333	3	Our work is an aggressive one, and as faithful soldiers of Jesus, we must bear the blood-stained banner into the very strongholds of the enemy.... If we will consent to lay down our arms, to lower the blood-stained banner, to become the captives and servants of Satan, we may be released from the conflict and the suffering. But this peace will be gained only at the loss of Christ and heaven. We cannot accept peace on such conditions. Let it be war, war, to the end of earth's history, rather than peace through apostasy and sin.
AG	333	4	The work of apostasy begins in some secret rebellion of the heart against the requirements of God's law. Unholy desires, unlawful ambitions, are cherished and indulged, and unbelief and darkness separate the soul from God. If we do not overcome these evils they will overcome us....
AG	333	5	The indulgence of spiritual pride, of unholy desires, of evil thoughts, of anything that separates us from an intimate and sacred association with Jesus, imperils our souls.... We must "fight the good fight of faith," if we would "lay hold on eternal life" (1 Timothy 6:12). We are "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation" (1 Peter 1:5). If the thought of apostasy is grievous to you, ... then "abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good" (Romans 12:9); and believe in Him who is "able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy."
------------------------Established, November 22
AG	334	1	Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work. 2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17.
AG	334	2	The Saviour made each work of healing an occasion for implanting divine principles in the mind and soul. This was the purpose of His work. He imparted earthly blessings, that He might incline the hearts of men to receive the gospel of His grace.
AG	334	3	For three years the disciples had before them the wonderful example of Jesus. Day by day they walked and talked with Him, hearing His words of cheer to the weary and heavy-laden, and seeing the manifestations of His power in behalf of the sick and afflicted. When the time came for Him to leave them, He gave them grace and power to carry forward His work in His name. They were to shed abroad the light of His gospel of love and healing....
AG	334	4	The work which the disciples did, we also are to do. Every Christian is to be a missionary. In sympathy and compassion we are to minister to those in need of help.... The Saviour identifies Himself with every child of humanity.... His followers are not to feel themselves detached from the perishing world around them. They are a part of the great web of humanity, and heaven looks upon them as brothers to sinners as well as to saints.... By all that has given us advantage over another--be it education and refinement, nobility of character, Christian training, religious experience--we are in debt to those less favored; and, so far as lies in our power, we are to minister unto them....
AG	334	5	He who becomes a child of God should henceforth look upon himself as a link in the chain let down to save the world, one with Christ in His plan of mercy, going forth with Him to seek and save the lost.
AG	334	6	The world needs a practical demonstration of what the grace of God can do in restoring to human beings their lost kingship, giving them mastery of themselves. There is nothing that the world needs so much as a knowledge of the gospel's saving power revealed in Christlike lives.
------------------------Joy in Sharing, November 23
AG	335	1	For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy. 1 Thessalonians 2:19, 20.
AG	335	2	God could have reached His object in saving sinners without our aid; but in order for us to develop a character like Christ's, we must share in His work. In order to enter into His joy--the joy of seeing souls redeemed by His sacrifice--we must participate in His labors for their redemption.
AG	335	3	Jesus saw in every soul one to whom must be given the call to His kingdom. He reached the hearts of the people by going among them as one who desired their good. He sought them in the public streets, in private houses, on the boats, in the synagogue, by the shores of the lake, and at the marriage feast. He met them at their daily vocations, and manifested an interest in their secular affairs. He carried His instruction into the household, bringing families in their own homes under the influence of His divine presence. His strong personal sympathy helped to win hearts....
AG	335	4	It was by personal contact and association that Jesus trained His disciples. Sometimes He taught them, sitting among them on the mountainside; sometimes beside the sea, or walking with them by the way, He revealed the mysteries of the kingdom of God. He did not sermonize as men do today. Wherever hearts were open to receive the divine message, He unfolded the truths of the way of salvation. He did not command His disciples to do this or that, but said, "Follow Me." On His journeys through the country and cities He took them with Him, that they might see how He taught the people....
AG	335	5	The example of Christ in linking Himself with the interests of humanity should be followed by all who preach His word, and by all who have received the gospel of His grace.... Not alone from the pulpit are the hearts of men touched by divine truth. There is another field of labor, humbler, it may be, but fully as promising. It is found in the home of the lowly, and in the mansion of the great; at the hospitable board, and in gatherings for innocent social enjoyment.... Wherever we go we are to carry Jesus with us, and to reveal to others the preciousness of our Saviour.
------------------------To God Be the Glory, November 24
AG	336	1	But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 2 Corinthians 4:7.
AG	336	2	All the good qualities that men possess are the gift of God; their good deeds are performed by the grace of God through Christ. Since they owe all to God, the glory of whatever they are or do belongs to Him alone; they are but instruments in His hands.
AG	336	3	More than this--as all the lessons of Bible history--it is a perilous thing to praise or exalt men; for if one comes to lose sight of his entire dependence on God, and to trust to his own strength, he is sure to fall. Man is contending with foes who are stronger than he.... It is impossible for us in our own strength to maintain the conflict; and whatever diverts the mind from God, whatever leads to self-exaltation or to self-dependence, is surely preparing the way for our overthrow. The tenor of the Bible is to inculcate distrust of human power and to encourage trust in divine power.
AG	336	4	Our heavenly Father has not sent angels from heaven to preach salvation to men. He has opened to us the precious truths of His Word and implanted the truth in our hearts that we may give it to those who are in darkness. If we have indeed tasted of the precious gifts of God in His promises, we are to impart this knowledge to others....
AG	336	5	We are individually to work as though a great responsibility rested upon us. We are to manifest untiring energy and tact and zeal in this work and take the burden, feeling the peril in which our neighbors and friends are placed. We are to work as Christ worked. We are to present the truth as it is in Jesus, that the blood of souls shall not be upon our garments. At the same time we are to feel entire dependence and trust in God, for we know we cannot do anything without His grace and power to help. A Paul may plant, and an Apollos, water, but God alone can give the increase.
AG	336	6	Our duty, our safety, our happiness and usefulness, and our salvation call upon us each to use the greatest diligence to secure the grace of Christ.
------------------------The Reaping, November 25
AG	337	1	That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:7.
AG	337	2	No one can give place in his own heart and life for the stream of God's blessing to flow to others, without receiving in himself a rich reward....
AG	337	3	The grace of Christ in the soul is developing traits of character that are the opposite of selfishness--traits that will refine, ennoble, and enrich the life. Acts of kindness performed in secret will bind hearts together, and will draw them closer to the heart of Him from whom every generous impulse springs. The little attentions, the small acts of love and self-sacrifice, that flow out from the life as quietly as the fragrance from a flower--these constitute no small share of the blessings and happiness of life. And it will be found at last that the denial of self for the good and happiness of others, however humble and uncommended here, is recognized in heaven as a token of our union with Him, the King of glory, who was rich, yet for our sake became poor.
AG	337	4	The deeds of kindness may have been done in secret, but the result upon the character of the doer cannot be hidden. If we work with whole-hearted interest as a follower of Christ, the heart will be in close sympathy with God, and the Spirit of God, moving upon our spirit, will call forth the sacred harmonies of the soul in answer to the divine touch.
AG	337	5	He who gives increased talents to those who have made a wise improvement of the gifts entrusted to them is pleased to acknowledge the service of His believing people in the Beloved, through whose grace and strength they have wrought. Those who have sought for the development and perfection of Christian character by exercising their faculties in good works, will, in the world to come, reap that which they have sown. The work begun upon earth will reach its consummation in that higher and holier life to endure throughout eternity.
AG	337	6	He who is "rich unto all that call upon him," has said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you" ... (Romans 10:12; Luke 6:38).... Every sacrifice that is made in His ministry will be recompensed according to "the exceeding riches of his grace."
------------------------The World is Waiting, November 26
AG	338	1	For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 4:15.
AG	338	2	The church is God's appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. From the beginning it has been God's plan that through His church shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency. The members of the church, those whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light, are to show forth His glory. The church is the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and through the church will eventually be made manifest, even to "the principalities and powers in heavenly places" (Ephesians 3:10), the final and full display of the love of God....
AG	338	3	The church is God's fortress, His city of refuge, which He holds in a revolted world....
AG	338	4	During ages of spiritual darkness the church of God has been as a city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive generations, the pure doctrines of heaven have been unfolding within its borders. Enfeebled and defective as it may appear, the church is the one object upon which God bestows in a special sense His supreme regard. It is the theater of His grace, in which He delights to reveal His power to transform hearts.
AG	338	5	As the rays of the sun penetrate to the remotest corners of the globe, so God designs that the light of the gospel shall extend to every soul upon the earth.... At this time, when the enemy is working as never before to engross the minds of men and women, we should be laboring with increasing activity. Diligently, disinterestedly, we are to proclaim the last message of mercy in the cities--in the highways and byways. All classes are to be reached. As we labor we shall meet with different nationalities. None are to be passed by unwarned. The Lord Jesus was the gift of God to the entire world--not to the higher classes alone, and not to one nationality, to the exclusion of others. His saving grace encircles the world. Whosoever will, may drink of the water of life. A world is waiting to hear the message of present truth.
------------------------Christ is Waiting, November 27
AG	339	1	This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Matthew 24:14.
AG	339	2	The gospel of Christ is from beginning to end the gospel of saving grace. It is a distinctive and controlling idea. It will be a help to the needy, light for the eyes that are blind to the truth, and a guide to souls seeking for the true foundation. Full and everlasting salvation is within the reach of every soul. Christ is waiting and longing to speak pardon, and impart the freely offered grace. He is watching and waiting, saying as He said to the blind man at the gate of Jericho, "What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?" (Mark 10:51). I will take away thy sins; I will wash you in My blood.
AG	339	3	In all the highways of life there are souls to be saved. The blind are groping in darkness. Give them the light, and God will bless you as His laborers.
AG	339	4	We need greater earnestness in the cause of Christ. The solemn message of truth should be given with an intensity that would impress unbelievers that God is working with our efforts, that the Most High is our living source of strength.
AG	339	5	It is the privilege of every Christian, not only to look for, but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain.
AG	339	6	The time has come when through God's messengers the scroll is being unrolled to the world. The truth contained in the first, second, and third angels' messages must go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people; it must lighten the darkness of every continent, and extend to the islands of the sea. There must be no delay in this work.
AG	339	7	Our watchword is to be, Onward, ever onward! Angels of heaven will go before us to prepare the way. Our burden for the regions beyond can never be laid down till the whole earth is lighted with the glory of the Lord.
------------------------The Universe is Waiting, November 28
AG	340	1	Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. Luke 14:23.
AG	340	2	In this speck of a world the whole heavenly universe manifests the greatest interest, for Christ has paid an infinite price for the souls of its inhabitants.
AG	340	3	Everything in the universe calls upon those who know the truth to consecrate themselves unreservedly to the proclamation of the truth as it has been made known to them in the third angel's message.... The working of satanic agencies calls every Christian to stand in his lot.
AG	340	4	The work given us is a great and important one, and in it are needed wise, unselfish men, men who understand what it means to give themselves to unselfish effort to save souls. But there is no need for the service of men who are lukewarm, for such men Christ cannot use. Men and women are needed whose hearts are touched with human suffering and whose lives give evidence that they are receiving and imparting light and life and grace.
AG	340	5	The people of God are to come close to Christ in self-denial and sacrifice, their one aim being to give the message of mercy to all the world. Some will work in one way and some in another, as the Lord shall call and lead them. But they are all to strive together, seeking to make the work a perfect whole.
AG	340	6	The church will not retrograde while the members seek help from the throne of grace, that they may not fail to cooperate in the great work of saving the souls that are on the brink of ruin....
AG	340	7	The heavenly universe is waiting for consecrated channels, through which God can communicate with His people, and through them with the world. God will work through a consecrated, self-denying church, and He will reveal His Spirit in a visible and glorious manner, especially in this time, when Satan is working in a masterly manner to deceive the souls of both ministers and people....
AG	340	8	Will not the church awake to her responsibility? God is waiting to impart the Spirit of the greatest missionary the world has ever known to those who will work with self-denying, self-sacrificing consecration.
------------------------Sons of God, November 29
AG	341	1	Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2.
AG	341	2	"Beloved, now are we the sons of God." Can any human dignity equal this? What higher position can we occupy than to be called the sons of the infinite God?
AG	341	3	What a stupendous thought, what unheard-of condescension, what amazing love, that finite men may be allied to the Omnipotent! "To them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." Can any worldly honor equal this?
AG	341	4	Let us represent the Christian life as it really is; let us make the way cheerful, inviting, interesting. We can do this if we will. We may fill our own minds with vivid pictures of spiritual and eternal things, and in so doing help to make them a reality to other minds. Faith sees Jesus standing as our Mediator at the right hand of God. Faith beholds the mansions He has gone to prepare for those who love Him. Faith sees the robe and crown all prepared for the overcomer. Faith hears the songs of the redeemed, and brings eternal glories near. We must come close to Jesus in loving obedience, if we would see the King in His beauty.
AG	341	5	To have fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ is to be ennobled and elevated, and made a partaker of joys unspeakable and full of glory. Food, clothing, station, and wealth may have their value; but to have a connection with God and to be a partaker of His divine nature is of priceless value. Our lives should be hid with Christ in God; and although it "doth not yet appear what we shall be," "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear" (Colossians 3:4), "we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." The princely dignity of the Christian character will shine forth as the sun, and the beams of light from the face of Christ will be reflected upon those who have purified themselves even as He is pure. The privilege of becoming sons of God is cheaply purchased, even at the sacrifice of everything we possess, be it life itself.
------------------------In Sight of the Goal, November 30
AG	342	1	I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14.
AG	342	2	"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible...." (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Those who engaged in running the race to obtain the laurel which was considered a special honor were temperate in all things, so that their muscles, their brains, and every part of them might be in the very best condition to run.... Only one received the prize. But in the heavenly race we can all run and all receive the prize. There is no uncertainty, no risk, in the matter. We must put on the heavenly graces, and, with the eye directed upward to the crown of immortality, keep the Pattern ever before us.... The humble, self-denying life of our divine Lord we are to keep constantly in view. And then as we seek to imitate Him, keeping our eye upon the mark of the prize, we can run this race with certainty.
AG	342	3	If heathen men, who were not controlled by enlightened conscience, who had not the fear of God before them, would submit to deprivation and the discipline of training, denying themselves of every weakening indulgence merely for a wreath of perishable substance and the applause of the multitude, how much more should they who are running the Christian race in the hope of immortality and the approval of High Heaven, be willing to deny themselves unhealthy stimulants and indulgences, which degrade the morals, enfeeble the intellect, and bring the higher powers into subjection to the animal appetites and passions.... With intense interest God and heavenly angels mark the self-denial, the self-sacrifice, and the agonizing efforts of those who engage to run the Christian race....
AG	342	4	To all those who fully comply with the conditions in God's word, and have a sense of their responsibility to preserve physical vigor and activity of body, that they may have well-balanced minds and healthy morals, the race is not uncertain. They all may gain the prize, and win and wear the crown of immortal glory that fadeth not away.
------------------------God's Glory Seen in His Works, December 1
AG	343	1	Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah 6:3.
AG	343	2	As it came from the Creator's hand, not only the Garden of Eden but the whole earth was exceedingly beautiful. No taint of sin, or shadow of death, marred the fair creation. God's glory "covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise" (Habakkuk 3:3). "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). Thus was the earth a fit emblem of Him who is "abundant in goodness and truth" (Exodus 34:6); a fit study for those who were made in His image. The Garden of Eden was a representation of what God desired the whole earth to become, and it was His purpose that, as the human family increased in numbers, they should establish other homes and schools like the one He had given. Thus in course of time the whole earth might be occupied with homes and schools where the words and the works of God should be studied, and where the students should thus be fitted more and more fully to reflect, throughout endless ages, the light of the knowledge of His glory.
AG	343	3	When Adam came from the Creator's hand, he bore, in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker. "God created man in his own image" (Genesis 1:27), and it was His purpose that the longer man lived the more fully he should reveal this image--the more fully reflect the glory of the Creator. All his faculties were capable of development; their capacity and vigor were continually to increase. Vast was the scope offered for their exercise, glorious the field opened to their research. The mysteries of the visible universe--the "wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge" (Job 37:16)--invited man's study. Face-to-face, heart-to-heart communion with his Maker was his high privilege. Had he remained loyal to God, all this would have been his forever. Throughout eternal ages he would have continued to gain new treasures of knowledge, to discover fresh springs of happiness, and to obtain clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the wisdom, the power, and the love of God. More and more fully would he have fulfilled the object of his creation, more and more fully have reflected the Creator's glory.
------------------------Man Created for God's Glory, December 2
AG	344	1	Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
AG	344	2	God created man for His own glory, that after test and trial the human family might become one with the heavenly family. It was God's purpose to repopulate heaven with the human family, if they would show themselves obedient to His every word. Adam was to be tested, to see whether he would be obedient, as the loyal angels, or disobedient. If he stood the test, his instruction to his children would have been only of loyalty. His mind and thoughts would have been as the mind and thoughts of God....
AG	344	3	God made Adam after His own character, pure and upright. There were no corrupt principles in the first Adam, no corrupt propensities or tendencies to evil. Adam was as faultless as the angels before God's throne. These things are inexplainable but many things which now we cannot understand will be made plain when we shall see as we are seen, and know as we are known.
AG	344	4	It is recorded of the holy men of old that God was not ashamed to be called their God [Hebrews 11:16]. The reason assigned is that instead of coveting earthly possessions or seeking happiness in worldly plans or aspirations they placed their all upon the altar of God and made disposition of it to build up His kingdom. They lived only for God's glory and declared plainly that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth, seeking a better country, that is, an heavenly. Their conduct proclaimed their faith. God could entrust to them His truth and could leave the world to receive from them a knowledge of His will.
AG	344	5	But how are the professed people of God today maintaining the honor of His name? How could the world infer that they are a peculiar people? What evidence do they give of citizenship in heaven? ...
AG	344	6	Puritan plainness and simplicity should mark the dwellings and apparel of all who believe the solemn truths for this time. ... Our dress, our dwellings, our conversation, should testify of our consecration to God. What power would attend those who thus evinced that they had given up all for Christ.
------------------------God's Glorious Plan, December 3
AG	345	1	That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:21.
AG	345	2	The plan by which alone man's salvation could be secured, involved all heaven in its infinite sacrifice. The angels could not rejoice as Christ opened before them the plan of redemption, for they saw that man's salvation must cost their loved Commander unutterable woe. In grief and wonder they listened to His words as He told them how He must descend from heaven's purity and peace, its joy and glory and immortal life, and come in contact with the degradation of earth, to endure its sorrow, shame, and death. He was to stand between the sinner and the penalty of sin; yet few would receive Him as the Son of God. He would leave His high position as the Majesty of heaven, appear upon earth and humble Himself as a man, and by His own experience become acquainted with the sorrows, and temptations which man would have to endure. All this would be necessary in order that He might be able to succor them that should be tempted. When His mission as a teacher should be ended, He must be delivered into the hands of wicked men and be subjected to every insult and torture that Satan could inspire them to inflict. He must die the cruelest of deaths, lifted up between the heavens and the earth as a guilty sinner. He must pass long hours of agony so terrible that angels could not look upon it, but would veil their faces from the sight. He must endure anguish of soul, the hiding of His Father's face, while the guilt of transgression--the weight of the sins of the whole world--should be upon Him....
AG	345	3	He bade the angelic host to be in accord with the plan that His Father had accepted, and rejoice that, through His death, fallen man could be reconciled to God.
AG	345	4	Then joy, inexpressible joy, filled heaven. The glory and blessedness of a world redeemed, outmeasured even the anguish and sacrifice of the Prince of life. Through the celestial courts echoed the first strains of that song which was to ring out above the hills of Bethlehem--"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14).
------------------------The Kingdom of Heaven in Miniature, December 4
AG	346	1	Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. Matthew 17:1, 2.
AG	346	2	Evening is drawing on as Jesus calls to His side three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John, and leads them across the fields, and far up a rugged path, to a lonely mountainside....
AG	346	3	Stepping a little aside from them, the Man of Sorrows pours out His supplications with strong crying and tears. He prays for strength to endure the test in behalf of humanity.... And He pours out His heart longings for His disciples, that in the hour of the power of darkness their faith may not fail....
AG	346	4	Now the burden of His prayer is that they may be given a manifestation of the glory He had with the Father before the world was, that His kingdom may be revealed to human eyes, and that His disciples may be strengthened to behold it. He pleads that they may witness a manifestation of His divinity that will comfort them in the hour of His supreme agony with the knowledge that He is of a surety the Son of God and that His shameful death is a part of the plan of redemption.
AG	346	5	His prayer is heard. While He is bowed in lowliness upon the stony ground, suddenly the heavens open, the golden gates of the city of God are thrown wide, and holy radiance descends upon the mount, enshrouding the Saviour's form. Divinity from within flashes through humanity, and meets the glory coming from above. Arising from His prostrate position, Christ stands in godlike majesty. The soul agony is gone. His countenance now shines "as the sun," and His garments are "white as the light."
AG	346	6	The disciples, awaking, behold the flood of glory that illuminates the mount. In fear and amazement they gaze upon the radiant form of their Master.... Beside Him are two heavenly beings, in close converse with Him. They are Moses, who upon Sinai had talked with God; and Elijah, to whom the high privilege was given ... never to come under the power of death.... Upon the mount the future kingdom of glory was represented in miniature--Christ the King, Moses a representative of the risen saints, and Elijah of the translated ones.
------------------------Still Future, December 5
AG	347	1	Thy kingdom come. Matthew 6:10.
AG	347	2	The disciples of Christ were looking for the immediate coming of the kingdom of His glory, but in giving them this prayer Jesus taught that the kingdom was not then to be established. They were to pray for its coming as an event yet future. But this petition was also an assurance to them. While they were not to behold the coming of the kingdom in their day, the fact that Jesus made them pray for it is evidence that in God's own time it will surely come.
AG	347	3	The kingdom of God's grace is now being established, as day by day hearts that have been full of sin and rebellion yield to the sovereignty of His love. But the full establishment of the kingdom of His glory will not take place until the second coming of Christ to this world.
AG	347	4	Not until the personal advent of Christ can His people receive the kingdom. The Saviour said: "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations.... Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:31-34).... When the Son of man comes, the dead are raised incorruptible and the living are changed. By this great change they are prepared to receive the kingdom.... Man in his present state is mortal, corruptible; but the kingdom of God will be incorruptible, enduring forever. Therefore man in his present state cannot enter the kingdom of God. But when Jesus comes, He confers immortality upon His people; and then He calls them to inherit the kingdom of which they have hitherto been only heirs.
AG	347	5	If "ye are Christ's," "all things are yours" (1 Corinthians 3:23, 21). But you are as a child who is not yet placed in control of his inheritance. God does not entrust to you your precious possession, lest Satan by his wily arts should beguile you, as he did the first pair in Eden. Christ holds it for you, safe beyond the spoiler's reach.
------------------------Why Not Now? December 6
AG	348	1	For they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 31:34.
AG	348	2	Jesus said, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations" (Matthew 24:14). His kingdom will not come until the good tidings of His grace have been carried to all the earth. Hence, as we give ourselves to God, and win other souls to Him, we hasten the coming of His Kingdom. Only those who devote themselves to His service ... pray in sincerity, "Thy kingdom come"....
AG	348	3	The petition, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," is a prayer that the reign of evil on this earth may be ended, that sin may be forever destroyed, and the kingdom of righteousness be established. Then in earth as in heaven will be fulfilled "all the good pleasure of his goodness" (2 Thessalonians 1:11).
AG	348	4	Christ will not be satisfied until the victory is complete, and "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied" (Isaiah 53:11). All the nations of the earth shall hear the gospel of His grace. Not all will receive His grace; but "a seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation" (Psalm 22:30). "The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High," and the "earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." "So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun" (Daniel 7:27; Isaiah 11:9; 59:19).
AG	348	5	"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! ... Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places: ... for the Lord hath comforted his people.... The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God" (Isaiah 52:7-10).
------------------------Looking Into Eternity, December 7
AG	349	1	Look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Luke 21:28.
AG	349	2	If the church will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all allegiance with the world, there is before her the dawn of a bright and glorious day. God's promise to her will stand fast forever.... Truth, passing by those who despise and reject it, will triumph. Although at times apparently retarded, its progress has never been checked.... Endowed with divine energy, it will cut its way through the strongest barriers and triumph over every obstacle.
AG	349	3	What sustained the Son of God during His life of toil and sacrifice? He saw the results of the travail of His soul and was satisfied. Looking into eternity, He beheld the happiness of those who through His humiliation had received pardon and everlasting life. His ear caught the shout of the redeemed. He heard the ransomed ones singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.
AG	349	4	We may have a vision of the future, the blessedness of heaven. In the Bible are revealed visions of the future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, and these are dear to His church. By faith we may stand on the threshold of the eternal city, and hear the gracious welcome given to those who in this life cooperate with Christ, regarding it as an honor to suffer for His sake. As the words are spoken, "Come ye blessed of my Father," they cast their crowns at the feet of the Redeemer, exclaiming. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.... Honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever" (Matthew 25:34; Revelation 5:12, 13).
AG	349	5	There the redeemed greet those who led them to the Saviour, and all unite in praising Him who died that human beings might have the life that measures with the life of God. The conflict is over. Tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all heaven as the ransomed ones take up the joyful strain, Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again, a triumphant conqueror.
------------------------Who are Eligible? December 8
AG	350	1	The wise shall inherit glory. Proverbs 3:35.
AG	350	2	God has elected a character in harmony with His law, and anyone who shall reach the standard of His requirement will have an entrance into the kingdom of glory. Christ Himself said, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life" (John 3:36). "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). And in the Revelation He declares, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14). As regards man's final salvation, this is the only election brought to view in the Word of God.
AG	350	3	Every soul is elected who will work out his own salvation with fear and trembling. He is elected who will put on the armor, and fight the good fight of faith. He is elected who will watch unto prayer, who will search the Scriptures, and flee from temptation. He is elected who will have faith continually, and who will be obedient to every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The provisions of redemption are free to all; the results of redemption will be enjoyed by those who have complied with the conditions.
AG	350	4	Satan is ever at work endeavoring to pervert what God has spoken, to blind the mind and darken the understanding, and thus lead men into sin. This is why the Lord is so explicit, making His requirements so very plain that none need err. God is constantly seeking to draw men close under His protection, that Satan may not practice his cruel, deceptive power upon them. He has condescended to speak to them with His own voice, to write with His own hand the living oracles. And these blessed words, all instinct with life and luminous with truth, are committed to men as a perfect guide....
AG	350	5	Every chapter and every verse of the Bible is a communication from God to men.... If studied and obeyed, it would lead God's people, as the Israelites were led, by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
------------------------Preparing to Live With Angels, December 9
AG	351	1	I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1.
AG	351	2	We have no doubt ... that the doctrines we hold today are present truth, and that we are nearing the judgment. We are preparing to meet Him who, escorted by a retinue of holy angels, is to appear in the clouds of heaven to give the faithful and the just the finishing touch of immortality....
AG	351	3	We embrace the truth of God with our different faculties, and as we come under the influence of that truth, it will accomplish the work for us which is necessary to give us a moral fitness for the kingdom of glory and for the society of the heavenly angels. We are now in God's workshop. Many of us are rough stones from the quarry. But as we lay hold upon the truth of God, its influence affects us. It elevates us and removes from us every imperfection and sin, of whatever nature. Thus we are prepared to see the King in His beauty and finally to unite with the pure and heavenly angels in the kingdom of glory. It is here that this work is to be accomplished for us, here that our bodies and spirits are to be fitted for immortality.
AG	351	4	We are in a world that is opposed to righteousness and purity of character, and to a growth in grace. Wherever we look we see corruption and defilement, deformity and sin. And what is the work that we are to undertake here just previous to receiving immortality? It is to preserve our bodies holy, our spirits pure, that we may stand forth unstained amid the corruptions teeming around us in these last days.
AG	351	5	The light shines clearly, and none need be ignorant, for the great God Himself is man's instructor.... He designs that the great subject of health reform shall be agitated and the public mind deeply stirred to investigate; for it is impossible for men and women, with all their sinful, healthful-destroying, brain-enervating habits, to discern sacred truth, through which they are to be sanctified, refined, elevated, and made fit for the society of heavenly angels in the kingdom of glory.
------------------------Learn the Song of Triumph Now, December 10
AG	352	1	I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. Exodus 15:1.
AG	352	2	This song and the great deliverance which it commemorates, made an impression never to be effaced from the memory of the Hebrew people. From age to age it was echoed by the prophets and singers of Israel, testifying that Jehovah is the strength and deliverance of those who trust in Him. That song does not belong to the Jewish people alone. It points forward to the destruction of all the foes of righteousness, and the final victory of the Israel of God. The prophet of Patmos beholds the white-robed multitude that "have gotten the victory," standing on the "sea of glass mingled with fire," having "the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the lamb" (Revelation 15:2, 3).
AG	352	3	"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake" (Psalm 115:1). Such was the spirit that pervaded Israel's song of deliverance, and it is the spirit that should dwell in the hearts of all who love and fear God. In freeing our souls from the bondage of sin, God has wrought for us a deliverance greater than that of the Hebrews at the Red Sea.... The daily blessings that we receive from the hand of God, and above all else the death of Jesus to bring happiness and heaven within our reach, should be a theme for constant gratitude. What compassion, what matchless love, has God shown to us, lost sinners, in connecting us with Himself, to be to Him a peculiar treasure! ... We should praise God for the blessed hope held out before us in the great plan of redemption, we should praise Him for the heavenly inheritance and for His rich promises; praise Him that Jesus lives to intercede for us....
AG	352	4	All the inhabitants of heaven unite in praising God. Let us learn the song of the angels now, that we may sing it when we join their shining ranks. Let us say with the psalmist, "While I live, will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being" (Psalm 146:2). "Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee" (Psalm 67:5).
------------------------While We Wait, December 11
AG	353	1	Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord. Luke 12:35, 36.
AG	353	2	Now is the time to prepare for the coming of our Lord. Readiness to meet Him cannot be attained in a moment's time. Preparatory to that solemn scene there must be vigilant waiting and watching, combined with earnest work. So God's children glorify Him. Amid the busy scenes of life their voices will be heard speaking words of encouragement, faith, and hope. All they have and are is consecrated to the Master's service....
AG	353	3	Christ tells us when the day of His kingdom shall be ushered in. He does not say that all the world will be converted, but that "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matthew 24:14). By giving the gospel to the world, it is in our power to hasten the coming of the day of God. Had the church of Christ done her appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would before this have been warned, and the Lord Jesus would have come to the earth in power and great glory.
AG	353	4	Living power must attend the message of Christ's second appearing. We must not rest until we see many souls converted to the blessed hope of the Lord's return. In the days of the apostles the message that they bore wrought a real work, turning souls from idols to serve the living God. The work to be done today is just as real, and the truth is just as much truth; only we are to give the message with as much more earnestness as the coming of the Lord is nearer. The message for this time is positive, simple, and of the deepest importance. We must act like men and women who believe it. Waiting, watching, working, praying, warning the world--this is our work.
AG	353	5	I have been deeply impressed by scenes that have recently passed before me in the night season. There seemed to be a great movement--a work of revival--going forward in many places. Our people were moving into line, responding to God's call. My brethren, the Lord is speaking to us. Shall we not heed His call? Shall we not trim our lamps, and act like men who look for their Lord to come?
------------------------"Homeward Bound!", December 12
AG	354	1	Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Matthew 25:34.
AG	354	2	The coming of Christ is nearer than when we first believed. The great controversy is nearing its end. The judgments of God are in the land. They speak in solemn warning, saying: "Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 24:44)....
AG	354	3	We are living in the closing scenes of this earth's history. Prophecy is fast fulfilling. The hours of probation are fast passing. We have no time--not a moment--to lose. Let us not be found sleeping on guard. Let no one say in his heart or by his works: "My Lord delayeth his coming" (Matthew 24:48). Let the message of Christ's soon return sound forth in earnest words of warning....
AG	354	4	The Lord is soon to come, and we must be prepared to meet Him in peace. Let us be determined to do all in our power to impart light to those around us. We are not to be sad, but cheerful, and we are to keep the lord Jesus ever before us. He is soon coming, and we must be ready and waiting for His appearing. Oh, how glorious it will be to see Him and be welcomed as His redeemed ones! Long have we waited, but our hope is not to grow dim. If we can but see the King in His beauty we shall be forever blessed. I feel as if I must cry aloud: "Homeward bound!" We are nearing the time when Christ will come in power and great glory to take His ransomed ones to their eternal home....
AG	354	5	Long have we waited for our Saviour's return. But nonetheless sure is the promise. Soon we shall be in our promised home. There Jesus will lead us beside the living stream flowing from the throne of God and will explain to us the dark providences through which on this earth He brought us in order to perfect our characters. There we shall behold with undimmed vision the beauties of Eden restored. Casting at the feet of the Redeemer the crowns that He has placed on our heads, and touching our golden harps, we shall fill all heaven with praise to Him that sitteth on the throne.
------------------------What a Reward! December 13
AG	355	1	If any man's work abide ..., he shall receive a reward. 1 Corinthians 3:14.
AG	355	2	Glorious will be the reward bestowed when the faithful workers gather about the throne of God and of the Lamb. When John in his mortal state beheld the glory of God, he fell as one dead; he was not able to endure the sight. But when the children of God shall have put on immortality, they will "see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). They will stand before the throne, accepted in the Beloved. All their sins have been blotted out, all their transgressions borne away. Now they can look upon the undimmed glory of the throne of God. They have been partakers with Christ in His sufferings, they have been workers together with Him in the plan of redemption, and they are partakers with Him in the joy of seeing souls saved in the kingdom of God, there to praise God through all eternity....
AG	355	3	In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and the Son. The angels, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King and His trophies of victory.... A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts, accompanied by His redeemed ones, the witnesses that His mission of suffering and sacrifice has not been in vain....
AG	355	4	There are homes for the pilgrims of earth. There are robes for the righteous, with crowns of glory and palms of victory. All that has perplexed us in the providences of God will in the world to come be made plain. The things hard to be understood will then find explanation. The mysteries of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken promises, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall know that infinite love ordered the experiences that seemed most trying. As we realize the tender care of Him who makes all things work together for our good, we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
AG	355	5	I urge you to prepare for the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven.... Prepare for the judgment, that when Christ shall come, to be admired in all them that believe, you may be among those who will meet Him in peace.
------------------------Christ's Glorious Appearing, December 14
AG	356	1	When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. Matthew 25:31.
AG	356	2	The voice of God is heard from heaven, declaring the day and hour of Jesus' coming, and delivering the everlasting covenant to His people. Like peals of loudest thunder His words roll through the earth. The Israel of God stand listening, with their eyes fixed upward. Their countenances are lighted up with His glory....
AG	356	3	Soon there appears in the east a small black cloud, about half the size of a man's hand.... The people of God know this to be the sign of the Son of man. In solemn silence they gaze upon it as it draws nearer the earth, becoming lighter and more glorious, until it is a great white cloud, its base a glory like consuming fire, and above it the rainbow of the covenant. Jesus rides forth as a mighty conqueror.... With anthems of celestial melody the holy angels, a vast, unnumbered throng, attend Him on His way. The firmament seems filled with radiant forms--"ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" (Revelation 5:11). No human pen can portray the scene; no mortal mind is adequate to conceive its splendor....
AG	356	4	The righteous cry with trembling: "Who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:17). The angel's song is hushed, and there is a period of awful silence. Then the voice of Jesus is heard, saying: "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Corinthians 12:9). The faces of the righteous are lighted up, and joy fills every heart. And the angels strike a note higher and sing again....
AG	356	5	The King of kings descends upon the cloud, wrapped in flaming fire. The heavens are rolled together as a scroll, the earth trembles before Him, and every mountain and island is moved out of its place.... The wicked pray to be buried beneath the rocks of the mountains rather than meet the face of Him whom they have despised and rejected.... Those who would have destroyed Christ and His faithful people now witness the glory which rests upon them. In the midst of their terror they hear the voices of the saints in joyful strains exclaiming: "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us" (Isaiah 25:9).
------------------------Victory Over Death, December 15
AG	357	1	For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.
AG	357	2	The voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints.... From the prison house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory, crying: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:55)....
AG	357	3	The living righteous are changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." At the voice of God they were glorified; now they are made immortal and with the risen saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air....
AG	357	4	Before entering the City of God, the Saviour bestows upon His followers the emblems of victory and invests them with the insignia of their royal state.... Upon the heads of the overcomers, Jesus with His own right hand places the crown of glory. For each there is a crown, bearing his own "new name," and the inscription, "Holiness to the Lord." In every hand are placed the victor's palm and the shining harp. Then, as the commanding angels strike the note, every hand sweeps the harp strings with skillful touch, awaking sweet music in rich, melodious strains. Rapture unutterable thrills every heart, and each voice is raised in grateful praise....
AG	357	5	Before the ransomed throng is the Holy City. Jesus opens wide the pearly gates, and the nations that have kept the truth enter in.... Then that voice, richer than any music that ever fell on mortal ear, is heard, saying: "Your conflict is ended." "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34).
AG	357	6	Now is fulfilled the Saviour's prayer for His disciples, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am" (John 17:24). "Faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24), Christ presents to the Father the purchase of His blood.... Oh, the wonders of redeeming love! The rapture of that hour when the infinite Father, looking upon the ransomed, shall behold His image...!
------------------------Joy Everlasting, December 16
AG	358	1	The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35:10.
AG	358	2	When Christ came to this earth the first time, He came in lowliness and obscurity, and His life here was one of suffering and poverty.... At His second coming all will be changed. Not as a prisoner surrounded by a rabble will men see Him, but as heaven's King. Christ will come in His own glory, in the glory of His Father, and in the glory of the holy angels. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels, the beautiful, triumphant sons of God, possessing surpassing loveliness and glory, will escort Him on His way. In the place of a crown of thorns, He will wear a crown of glory--a crown within a crown. In the place of that old purple robe, He will be clothed in a garment of whitest white, "so as no fuller on earth can white" (Mark 9:3) it. And on His vesture and on His thigh a name will be written, "King of kings, and Lord of lords"....
AG	358	3	To His faithful followers Christ has been a daily companion, a familiar friend. They have lived in close, constant communion with God. Upon them the glory of the Lord has risen. In them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has been reflected. Now they rejoice in the undimmed rays of the brightness and glory of the King in His majesty. They are prepared for the communion of heaven; for they have heaven in their hearts.
AG	358	4	With uplifted heads, with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining upon them, with rejoicing that their redemption draweth nigh, they go forth to meet the Bridegroom....
AG	358	5	A little longer, and we shall see the King in His beauty. A little longer, and He will wipe all tears from our eyes.... Then by innumerable voices will be sung the song, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Revelation 21:3)....
AG	358	6	"Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless" (2 Peter 3:14).
------------------------Home at Last! December 17
AG	359	1	But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9.
AG	359	2	As your senses delight in the attractive loveliness of the earth, think of the world that is to come, that shall never know the blight of sin and death; where the face of nature will no more wear the shadow of the curse. Let your imagination picture the home of the saved, and remember that it will be more glorious than your brightest imagination can portray. In the varied gifts of God in nature we see but the faintest gleaming of His glory.
AG	359	3	And by and by the gates of heaven will be thrown open to admit God's children, and from the lips of the King of glory the benediction will fall on their ears like richest music--"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34). Then the redeemed will be welcomed to the home that Jesus is preparing for them.
AG	359	4	I saw Jesus lead the redeemed company to the gate of the city. He laid hold of the gate and swung it back on its glittering hinges, and bade the nations that had kept the truth enter in. Within the city there was everything to feast the eye. Rich glory they beheld everywhere. Then Jesus looked upon His redeemed saints; their countenances were radiant with glory; and as He fixed His loving eyes upon them, He said, with His rich, musical voice, "I behold the travail of My soul, and am satisfied. This rich glory is yours to enjoy eternally. Your sorrows are ended. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain"....
AG	359	5	Language is altogether too feeble to attempt a description of heaven. As the scene rises before me, I am lost in amazement. Carried away with the surpassing splendor and excellent glory, I lay down the pen, and exclaim, "Oh, what love! what wondrous love!" The most exalted language fails to describe the glory of heaven or the matchless depths of a Saviour's love.
------------------------Eden Restored, December 18
AG	360	1	To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7.
AG	360	2	The garden of Eden remained upon the earth long after man had become an outcast from its pleasant paths. The fallen race were long permitted to gaze upon the home of innocence, their entrance barred only by the watching angels. At the cherubim-guarded gate of Paradise the divine glory was revealed. Hither came Adam and his sons to worship God. Here they renewed their vows of obedience to that law the transgression of which had banished them from Eden. When the tide of iniquity overspread the world, and the wickedness of men determined their destruction by a flood of waters, the hand that had planted Eden withdrew it from the earth. But in the final restitution, when there shall be "a new heaven and a new earth" (Revelation 21:1), it is to be restored more gloriously adorned than at the beginning.
AG	360	3	Then they that have kept God's commandments shall breathe in immortal vigor beneath the tree of life; and through unending ages the inhabitants of sinless worlds shall behold, in that garden of delight, a sample of the perfect work of God's creation, untouched by the curse of sin--a sample of what the whole earth would have become, had man but fulfilled the Creator's glorious plan.
AG	360	4	Adam is reinstated in his first dominion. Transported with joy, he holds the trees that were once his delight--the very trees whose fruit he himself had gathered in the days of his innocence and joy. He sees the vines that his own hands have trained, the very flowers that he once loved to care for. His mind grasps the reality of the scene; he comprehends that this is indeed Eden restored.
AG	360	5	Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will "grow up" to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory. The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be removed, and Christ's faithful ones will appear in "the beauty of the Lord our God" (Psalm 90:17), in mind and soul and body reflecting the perfect image of their Lord. Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood.
------------------------All Suffering Ended, December 19
AG	361	1	And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4.
AG	361	2	Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of heaven. In the home of the redeemed there will be no tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity" (Isaiah 33:24). One rich tide of happiness will flow and deepen as eternity rolls on.
AG	361	3	The time has come to which holy men have looked with longing since the flaming sword barred the first pair from Eden, the time for the "redemption of the purchased possession" (Ephesians 1:14). The earth originally given to man as his kingdom, betrayed by him into the hands of Satan, and so long held by the mighty foe, has been brought back by the great plan of redemption. All that was lost by sin has been restored.... God's original purpose in the creation of the earth is fulfilled as it is made the eternal abode of the redeemed....
AG	361	4	There, "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them: and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1). "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree" (Isaiah 55:13). "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; ... and a little child shall lead them" (Isaiah 11:6). "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain" (verse 9), saith the Lord.
AG	361	5	One reminder alone remains: our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought....
AG	361	6	The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow Life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.
------------------------Eden Life Renewed, December 20
AG	362	1	They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Isaiah 65:21, 22.
AG	362	2	There will be employment in Heaven. The redeemed state is not one of idle repose.
AG	362	3	In the earth made new, the redeemed will engage in the occupations and pleasures that brought happiness to Adam and Eve in the beginning. The Eden life will be lived, the life in garden and field....
AG	362	4	There every power will be developed, every capability increased. The grandest enterprises will be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations will be reached, the highest ambitions realized. And still there will appear new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects of study to call forth the powers of body and mind and soul.
AG	362	5	"His servants shall serve him" (Revelation 22:3). The life on earth is the beginning of the life in heaven; education on earth is an initiation into the principles of heaven; the lifework here is a training for the lifework there. What we now are, in character and holy service, is the sure foreshadowing of what we shall be.
AG	362	6	"The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister" (Matthew 20:28). Christ's work below is His work above, and our reward for working with Him in this world will be the greater power and wider privilege of working with Him in the world to come. "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God" (Isaiah 43:12). This also we shall be in eternity....
AG	362	7	In our life here, earthly, sin-restricted though it is, the greatest joy and the highest education are in service. And in the future state, untrammeled by the limitations of sinful humanity, it is in service that our greatest joy and our highest education will be found--witnessing, and ever as we witness learning anew "the riches of the glory of this mystery;" "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
------------------------Everlasting Happiness, December 21
AG	363	1	Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11.
AG	363	2	During His ministry Jesus lived to a great degree an outdoor life.... Much of His teaching was given in the open air.
AG	363	3	In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called "a country" (Hebrews 11:16). There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. There the wide-spreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God's people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home.
AG	363	4	The Bible presents to our view the unsearchable riches and immortal treasures of heaven. Man's strongest impulse urges him to seek his own happiness, and the Bible recognizes this desire and shows us that all heaven will unite with man in his efforts to gain true happiness. It reveals the condition upon which the peace of Christ is given to men. It describes a home of everlasting happiness and sunshine, where no tears nor want shall ever be known.
AG	363	5	Let all that is beautiful in our earthly home remind us of the crystal river and green fields, the waving trees and living fountains, the shining city and the white-robed singers, of our heavenly home--that world of beauty which no artist can picture, mortal tongue describe....
AG	363	6	To dwell forever in this home of the blest, to bear in soul, body, and spirit, not the dark traces of sin and the curse, but the perfect likeness of our Creator, and through ceaseless ages to advance in wisdom, in knowledge, and in holiness, ever exploring new fields of thought, ever finding new wonders and new glories, ever increasing in capacity to know and to enjoy and to love, and knowing that there is still beyond us joy and love and wisdom infinite--such is the object to which the Christian's hope is pointing.
------------------------With My Guardian Angel, December 22
AG	364	1	Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 18:10.
AG	364	2	Not until the providences of God are seen in the light of eternity shall we understand what we owe to the care and interposition of His angels. Celestial beings have taken an active part in the affairs of men. They have appeared in garments that shone as the lightning; they have come as men, in the garb of wayfarers. They have accepted the hospitalities of human homes; they have acted as guides to benighted travelers....
AG	364	3	Though the rulers of this world know it not, yet often in their councils angels have been spokesmen. Human eyes have looked upon them. Human ears have listened to their appeals. In the council-hall and the court of justice, heavenly messengers have pleaded the cause of the persecuted and oppressed. They have defeated purposes and arrested evils that would have brought wrong and suffering to God's children. To the students in the heavenly school, all this will be unfolded.
AG	364	4	Every redeemed one will understand the ministry of angels in his own life. The angel who was his guardian from his earliest moment; the angel who watched his steps, and covered his head in the day of peril; the angel who was with him in the valley of the shadow of death, who marked his resting-place, who was the first to greet him in the resurrection morning--what will it be to hold converse with him, and to learn the history of divine interposition in the individual life, of heavenly cooperation in every work for humanity!
AG	364	5	With the Word of God in his hands, every human being... may have such companionship as he shall choose.... He may dwell in this world in the atmosphere of heaven, ... drawing nearer and nearer the threshold of the eternal world, until the portals shall open, and he shall enter there. He will find himself no stranger. The voices that will greet him are the voices of the holy ones, who, unseen, were on earth his companions--voices that here he learned to distinguish and to love. He who through the Word of God has lived in fellowship with heaven, will find himself at home in heaven's companionship.
------------------------Heaven's School, December 23
AG	365	1	And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. Isaiah 54:13.
AG	365	2	Heaven is a school; its field of study, the universe; its teacher, the Infinite One. A branch of this school was established in Eden; and the plan of redemption accomplished, education will again be taken up in the Eden school....
AG	365	3	Between the school established in Eden at the beginning and the school of the hereafter there lies the whole compass of this world's history--the history of human transgression and suffering, of divine sacrifice, and of victory over death and sin. Not all the conditions of the first school of Eden will be found in the school of the future life. No tree of knowledge of good and evil will afford opportunity for temptation. No tempter is there, no possibility of wrong. Every character has withstood the testing of evil, and none are longer susceptible to its power....
AG	365	4	There, when the veil that darkens our vision shall be removed, and our eyes shall behold that world of beauty of which we now catch glimpses through the microscope; when we look on the glories of the heavens, now scanned afar through the telescope; when, the blight of sin removed, the whole earth shall appear in "the beauty of the Lord our God" (Psalm 90:17), what a field will be open to our study! There the student of science may read the records of creation and discern no reminders of the law of evil. He may listen to the music of nature's voices, and detect no note of wailing or undertone of sorrow. In all created things he may trace one handwriting--in the vast universe behold "God's name writ large," and not in earth or sea or sky one sign of ill remaining.
AG	365	5	Those who have made the most of their privileges to reach the highest attainments here, will take these valuable acquisitions with them into the future life. They have sought and obtained that which is imperishable. The capability to appreciate the glories that "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard," will be proportionate to the attainments reached in the cultivation of the faculties in this life.
------------------------Christ Our Teacher Still, December 24
AG	366	1	My people shall know my name: ... they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I. Isaiah 52:6.
AG	366	2	Restored to His presence, man will again, as at the beginning, be taught of God.
AG	366	3	We have not the slightest idea of what will then be opened before us. With Christ we shall walk beside the living waters. He will unfold to us the beauty and glory of nature. He will reveal what He is to us, and what we are to Him. Truth we cannot know now, because of finite limitations, we shall know hereafter.
AG	366	4	In the world to come Christ will lead the redeemed beside the river of life and will teach them wonderful lessons of truth.... They will see that a master hand holds the world in position. They will behold the skill displayed by the great Artist in coloring the flowers of the field, and will learn of the purposes of the merciful Father, who dispenses every ray of light, and with the holy angels the redeemed will acknowledge in songs of grateful praise God's supreme love to an unthankful world.
AG	366	5	There will be open to the student, history of infinite scope and of wealth inexpressible.... The history of the inception of sin; of fatal falsehood in its crooked working; of truth that, swerving not from its own straight lines, has met and conquered error--all will be made manifest. The veil that interposes between the visible and the invisible world will be drawn aside, and wonderful things will be revealed....
AG	366	6	With unutterable delight we shall enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. We shall share the treasures gained through ages upon ages spent in contemplation of God's handiwork. And the years of eternity, as they roll, will continue to bring more glorious revelations. "Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20), will be, forever and forever, the impartation of the gifts of God.
AG	366	7	Every right principle, every truth learned in an earthly school, will advance us just that much in the heavenly school.
AG	366	8	We must get an education here that will enable us to live with God through the eternal ages. The education we begin here will be perfected in heaven. We will only just enter a higher grade.
------------------------Our Curriculum, December 25
AG	367	1	For our knowledge is imperfect...; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. 1 Corinthians 13:9, 10, R.S.V.
AG	367	2	By faith we should look to the hereafter and grasp the pledge of God of a growth of intellect, the human faculties uniting with the divine, and every power of the soul being brought into direct contact with the Source of light. We may rejoice that all that has perplexed us in the providences of God will then be made plain; things hard to be understood will find an explanation.
AG	367	3	There all who have wrought with unselfish spirit will behold the fruit of their labors. The outworking of every right principle and noble deed will be seen. Something of this we see here. But how little of the result of the world's noblest work is in this life manifest to the doer! How many toil unselfishly and unweariedly for those who pass beyond their reach and knowledge! Parents and teachers lie down in their last sleep, their lifework seeming to have been wrought in vain; they know not that their faithfulness has unsealed springs of blessing that can never cease to flow; only by faith they see the children they have trained become a benediction and an inspiration to their fellow men, and the influence repeat itself a thousandfold. Many a worker sends out into the world messages of strength and hope and courage, words that carry blessings to hearts in every land; but of the results he, toiling in loneliness and obscurity, knows little. So gifts are bestowed, burdens are borne, labor is done. Men sow the seed from which, above their graves, others reap blessed harvests. They plant trees, that others may eat the fruit. They are content here to know that they have set in motion agencies for good. In the hereafter the action and reaction of all these will be seen.
AG	367	4	Of every gift that God has bestowed, leading men to unselfish effort, a record is kept in heaven. To trace this in its wide-spreading lines, to look upon those who by our efforts have been uplifted and ennobled, to behold in their history the outworking of true principles--this will be one of the studies and rewards of the heavenly school.
------------------------Exploring the Universe, December 26
AG	368	1	Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12.
AG	368	2	"Now we see through a glass, darkly." We behold the image of God reflected, as in a mirror, in the works of nature and in His dealings with men; but then we shall see Him face to face, without a dimming veil between....
AG	368	3	The loves and sympathies which God Himself has planted in the soul shall there find truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, the sacred ties that bind together "the whole family in heaven and earth"--these help to constitute the happiness of the redeemed.
AG	368	4	There, immortal minds will contemplate with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love. There will be no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to forgetfulness of God....
AG	368	5	All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar--worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of human woe and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul.... With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation--suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. Upon all things, from the least to the greatest, the Creator's name is written, and in all are the riches of His power displayed.
AG	368	6	And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise.
------------------------Rejoice with Jerusalem, December 27
AG	369	1	And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Revelation 21:2.
AG	369	2	There is the New Jerusalem, the metropolis of the glorified new earth, "a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God." "Her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." "The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it." Saith the Lord: "I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people." "The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." (Isaiah 62:3; Revelation 21:11, 24; Isaiah 65:19; Revelation 21:3.).
AG	369	3	In the City of God "there shall be no night." None will need or desire repose. There will be no weariness in doing the will of God and offering praise to His name. We shall ever feel the freshness of the morning and shall ever be far from its close. "And they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light" (Revelation 22:5). The light of the sun will be superseded by a radiance which is not painfully dazzling, yet which immeasurably surpasses the brightness of our noontide. The glory of God and the Lamb floods the Holy City with unfading light. The redeemed walk in the sunless glory of perpetual day.
AG	369	4	In the visions of the prophet, those who have triumphed over sin and the grave are now seen happy in the presence of their Maker, talking freely with Him as man talked with God in the beginning. "Be ye glad," the Lord bids them, "and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying" (Isaiah 65:18, 19)....
AG	369	5	As the prophet beholds the redeemed dwelling in the City of God, free from sin and from all marks of the curse, in rapture he exclaims, "Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her" (Isaiah 66:10).
------------------------Eternal Security, December 28
AG	370	1	And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. Zechariah 14:9.
AG	370	2	The great plan of redemption results in fully bringing back the world into God's favor. All that was lost by sin is restored. Not only man but the earth is redeemed, to be the eternal abode of the obedient. For six thousand years, Satan has struggled to maintain possession of the earth. Now God's original purpose in its creation is accomplished. "The saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever" (Daniel 7:18).
AG	370	3	"From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised" (Psalm 113:3).... "All his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever" (Psalm 111:7, 8). The sacred statutes which Satan has hated and sought to destroy, will be honored throughout a sinless universe.
AG	370	4	Through Christ's redeeming work the government of God stands justified. The Omnipotent One is made known as the God of love. Satan's charges are refuted, and his character unveiled. Rebellion can never again arise. Sin can never again enter the universe. Through eternal ages all are secure from apostasy. By love's self-sacrifice, the inhabitants of earth and heaven are bound to their Creator in bonds of indissoluble union.
AG	370	5	The work of redemption will be complete. In the place where sin abounded, God's grace much more abounds. The earth itself, the very field that Satan claims as his, is to be not only ransomed but exalted. Our little world, under the curse of sin the one dark blot in His glorious creation, will be honored above all other worlds in the universe of God. Here, where the Son of God tabernacled in humanity; where the King of glory lived and suffered and died--here, when He shall make all things new, the tabernacle of God shall be with men, "and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Revelation 21:3). And through endless ages as the redeemed walk in the light of the Lord, they will praise Him for His unspeakable gift--Immanuel, "God with us."
------------------------Full Compensation, December 29
AG	371	1	Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Hebrews 10:35-37.
AG	371	2	The long-suffering of God is wonderful. Long does justice wait while mercy pleads with the sinner. But "righteousness and judgment are the establishment of his throne" (Psalm 97:2, margin).... The world has become bold in transgression of God's law. Because of His long forbearance, men have trampled upon His authority.... But there is a line beyond which they cannot pass. The time is near when they will have reached the prescribed limit. Even now they have almost exceeded the bounds of the long-suffering of God, the limits of His grace, the limits of His mercy. The Lord will interpose to vindicate His own honor, to deliver His people, and to repress the swellings of unrighteousness....
AG	371	3	In this time of prevailing iniquity we may know that the last great crisis is at hand. When the defiance of God's law is almost universal, when His people are oppressed and afflicted by their fellow men, the Lord will interpose....
AG	371	4	"There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book" (Daniel 12:1). From garrets, from hovels, from dungeons, from scaffolds, from mountains and deserts, from the caves of the earth and the caverns of the sea, Christ will gather His children to himself.... By human tribunals the children of God have been adjudged the vilest criminals. But the day is near when "God is judge himself" (Psalm 50:6). Then the decisions of earth shall be reversed. "The rebuke of his people shall he take away" (Isaiah 25:8). White robes will be given to every one of them....
AG	371	5	Whatever crosses they have been called to bear, whatever losses they have sustained, whatever persecution they have suffered, even to the loss of their temporal life, the children of God are amply recompensed. "They shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads" (Revelation 22:4).
------------------------Look Up! December 30
AG	372	1	Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. Isaiah 40:1, 2.
AG	372	2	In the darkest days of her long conflict with evil, the church of God has been given revelations of the eternal purpose of Jehovah. His people have been permitted to look beyond the trials of the present to the triumphs of the future, when, the warfare having been accomplished, the redeemed will enter into possession of the promised land. These visions of future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, should be dear to His church today, when the controversy of the ages is rapidly closing and the promised blessings are soon to be realized in all their fullness.
AG	372	3	To us who are standing on the very verge of their fulfillment, of what deep moment, what living interest, are these delineations of the things to come--events for which, since our first parents turned their steps from Eden, God's children have watched and waited, longed and prayed!
AG	372	4	Fellow pilgrim, we are still amid the shadows and turmoil of earthly activities; but soon our Saviour is to appear to bring deliverance and rest. Let us by faith behold the blessed hereafter as pictured by the hand of God. He who died for the sins of the world is opening wide the gates of Paradise to all who believe on Him. Soon the battle will have been fought, the victory won. Soon we shall see Him in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. And in His presence the trials and sufferings of this life will seem as nothingness. The former things "shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." "Israel shall be saved ... with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end."
AG	372	5	Look up, look up, and let your faith continually increase. Let this faith guide you along the narrow path that leads through the gates of the city into the great beyond, the wide, unbounded future of glory that is for the redeemed.
------------------------God's Justice Vindicated, December 31
AG	373	1	As I live, says the Lord, to me every knee shall bow and every tongue acknowledge God. Romans 14:11, N.E.B.
AG	373	2	For what was the great controversy permitted to continue throughout the ages? Why was it that Satan's existence was not cut short at the outset of his rebellion? It was that the universe might be convinced of God's justice in His dealing with evil; that sin might receive eternal condemnation. In the plan of redemption there are heights and depths that eternity itself can never exhaust, marvels into which the angels desire to look. The redeemed only, of all created beings, have in their own experience known the actual conflict with sin; they have wrought with Christ, and, as even the angels could not do, have entered into the fellowship of His sufferings; will they have no testimony as to the science of redemption--nothing that will be of worth to unfallen beings? ...
AG	373	3	"In his temple doth everyone speak of his glory" (Psalm 29:9), and the song which the ransomed ones will sing ... will declare the glory of God: "Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the ages. Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy" (Revelation 15:3, 4, R.V.).
AG	373	4	As if entranced, the wicked have looked upon the coronation of the Son of God. They see in His hands the tables of the divine law, the statutes which they have despised and transgressed.... Every question of truth and error in the long-standing controversy has now been made plain. The results of rebellion, the fruits of setting aside the divine statutes, have been laid open to the view of all created intelligences. The working out of Satan's rule in contrast with the government of God has been presented to the whole universe. Satan's own works have condemned him. God's wisdom, His justice, and His goodness stand fully vindicated. It is seen that all His dealings in the great controversy have been conducted with respect to the eternal good of His people and the good of all the worlds that He has created.... With all the facts of the great controversy in view, the whole universe, both loyal and rebellious, with one accord declare: "Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints" (Revelation 15:3).

------------------------To Be Like Jesus
BLJ	8	1	Jesus, Our Pattern, Depended on Prayer, January 1
BLJ	9	1	Christ's Example Gives Power to Resist Temptation, January 2
BLJ	10	1	Approaching God With Reverence, January 3
BLJ	11	1	Pray for Daily Bread, January 4
BLJ	12	1	Have a Forgiving Spirit, January 5
BLJ	13	1	Have a Heart Filled With Gratitude, January 6
BLJ	14	1	Pray in Jesus' Name, January 7
BLJ	15	1	Our Prayers Will Be Answered, January 8
BLJ	16	1	Not Only Pray, but Ask and Work! January 9
BLJ	17	1	Pray in Submission to God's Will, January 10
BLJ	18	1	To Avoid Darkness, Stay Close to God, January 11
BLJ	19	1	Pray to Reflect Christ's Unfathomable Love, January 12
BLJ	20	1	Gain Spiritual Strength Through Prayer, January 13
BLJ	21	1	Plead for Wisdom and Power, January 14
BLJ	22	1	Pray Silently, Continually, January 15
BLJ	23	1	Take Your Children to Jesus in Prayer, January 16
BLJ	24	1	A Prayer That Includes Us, January 17
BLJ	25	1	In Sincere Pursuit of Truth We Commune With God, January 18
BLJ	26	1	Prayer Closely Related to Reformation, January 19
BLJ	27	1	Prayers Enlist the Help of Angels, January 20
BLJ	28	1	By Prayer, Prepare for Convocations, January 21
BLJ	29	1	Look to Jesus in Prayer, January 22
BLJ	30	1	Prayers of a Godly Woman Answered, January 23
BLJ	31	1	What It Means to Pray in Christ's Name, January 24
BLJ	32	1	Spiritual Growth Through Prayer, January 25
BLJ	33	1	Walking With God Through Prayer, January 26
BLJ	34	1	Prayer an Effective Weapon Against Satan, January 27
BLJ	35	1	Transformed by Communion With God, January 28
BLJ	36	1	Pray Earnestly for Christian Character, January 29
BLJ	37	1	Pray in Humbleness of Heart, January 30
BLJ	38	1	Prayer Helps Guide to Truth, January 31
BLJ	40	1	Obey God, Just as Jesus Did, February 1
BLJ	41	1	Everything Lost by Disobedience, February 2
BLJ	42	1	The Promise of Redemption, February 3
BLJ	43	1	God's Word the Supreme Authority, February 4
BLJ	44	1	Jesus Showed That We Can Obey, February 5
BLJ	45	1	Obey From Principle, February 6
BLJ	46	1	Israel Pledges to Obey God's Commandments, February 7
BLJ	47	1	Christ's Perfect Obedience Can Be Ours, February 8
BLJ	48	1	Obedience Through Grace, February 9
BLJ	49	1	Christ, the Model of True Obedience, February 10
BLJ	50	1	Happiness Guarded by God's Law, February 11
BLJ	51	1	Obedience to Be Rewarded, February 12
BLJ	52	1	Commandment-keeping Families Glorify Christ, February 13
BLJ	53	1	Obedience Brings Peace and Happiness, February 14
BLJ	54	1	Joy in Loving Obedience, February 15
BLJ	55	1	Jesus Gives Power to Obey, February 16
BLJ	56	1	Abraham's Great Example of Obedience, February 17
BLJ	57	1	God's Law Important for All Time, February 18
BLJ	58	1	Disobedience Indicates Rebellion, February 19
BLJ	59	1	Obedience Results in Happiness, February 20
BLJ	60	1	Even Nature Obeys Divine Commands, February 21
BLJ	61	1	Obey God, the Supreme Authority, February 22
BLJ	62	1	Make Obedience Attractive, February 23
BLJ	63	1	God's Law Is Perfect, February 24
BLJ	64	1	Jesus, the Perfect Pattern of Obedience, February 25
BLJ	65	1	Our Obedience Enables God to Fulfill Promises, February 26
BLJ	66	1	Obedience Has Immediate and Eternal Rewards, February 27
BLJ	67	1	Genuine Sanctification Involves Obedience, February 28
BLJ	69	1	Time to Study Revelation, March 1
BLJ	70	1	Depend on Our Divine Advocate, March 2
BLJ	71	1	A Message for Our Time, March 3
BLJ	72	1	Work Faithfully, Using Time Wisely, March 4
BLJ	73	1	Submit to God's Training Process, March 5
BLJ	74	1	Improving Opportunities for Service, March 6
BLJ	75	1	Regularity and Promptness Are Religious Duties, March 7
BLJ	76	1	Every Hour Is Valuable, March 8
BLJ	77	1	Buried Talents Should Be Used, March 9
BLJ	78	1	How to "Redeem" Time, March 10
BLJ	79	1	Use Even One Talent Wisely, March 11
BLJ	80	1	Use Abilities and Means for God's Glory, March 12
BLJ	81	1	A Time for Vigilant Work, March 13
BLJ	82	1	Both Money and Active Service Needed, March 14
BLJ	83	1	Work for Low Wages Rather Than Be Idle, March 15
BLJ	84	1	Every Spiritual Gift Is Important, March 16
BLJ	85	1	Be Satisfied With Humble Work, March 17
BLJ	86	1	Every Person Has a Gift and Is Accountable, March 18
BLJ	87	1	Small Talents Have Value and Can Increase, March 19
BLJ	88	1	Work Faithfully Where You Are, March 20
BLJ	89	1	Working With Jesus to Save the Lost, March 21
BLJ	90	1	One Talent, Used Faithfully, Will Gain Other Talents, March 22
BLJ	91	1	Faithful Users of Talents Will Hear "Well Done", March 23
BLJ	92	1	Use Well the Talent of Speech, March 24
BLJ	93	1	Reveal Jesus' Love Through Speech, March 25
BLJ	94	1	Use Responsibly the Gifts of Speech and Influence, March 26
BLJ	95	1	Speak Winsomely of the Savior, March 27
BLJ	96	1	Influence--A Power for Good or Evil, March 28
BLJ	97	1	God's Grace Essential to Right Use of Influence, March 29
BLJ	98	1	Our Service Should Meet Heaven's Approval, March 30
BLJ	99	1	Using God's Gifts as He Wills, March 31
BLJ	101	1	No True Wisdom Apart From God, April 1
BLJ	102	1	The Rewards of Bible Study, April 2
BLJ	103	1	The Spirit Must Illuminate the Word, April 3
BLJ	104	1	Seek God for Wisdom, April 4
BLJ	105	1	Reach for the Highest Standard of Personhood, April 5
BLJ	106	1	Prepare Now for Immortal Life, April 6
BLJ	107	1	To Grow, Study the Word, April 7
BLJ	108	1	Learn the Truth, Then Live It, April 8
BLJ	109	1	To Find the Word Interesting, Receive the Spirit, April 9
BLJ	110	1	Treasures of Truth Are for Those Who Dig, April 10
BLJ	111	1	Ever Search for More Light, April 11
BLJ	112	1	Examine Diligently Every Belief, April 12
BLJ	113	1	Bible Study Strengthens the Intellect, April 13
BLJ	114	1	Search the Word Objectively and Personally, April 14
BLJ	115	1	Preparing for Trying Times, April 15
BLJ	116	1	Do Not Merely Read the Scriptures, but Search, April 16
BLJ	117	1	Hear Christ's Voice Through the Word, April 17
BLJ	118	1	Earnest Study Produces True Conversion, April 18
BLJ	119	1	God's Word the Standard of Judgment, April 19
BLJ	120	1	Scripture's Grand Themes Expand the Mind, April 20
BLJ	121	1	Exciting Experiences Await Bible Students, April 21
BLJ	122	1	The Holy Spirit Illuminates the Word, April 22
BLJ	123	1	Accept the Bible as the Foundation of All Faith, April 23
BLJ	124	1	Have Fellowship With Jesus Through the Word, April 24
BLJ	125	1	Enjoy the Rich Banquet Found in the Word, April 25
BLJ	126	1	True Higher Education Found in the Word of God, April 26
BLJ	127	1	To Understand God's Word Better, Be Obedient, April 27
BLJ	128	1	The Bible Reveals the Way to Christ, April 28
BLJ	129	1	Search the Scriptures, and Be Obedient, April 29
BLJ	130	1	True Learners Accept the Scriptures as God's Voice, April 30
BLJ	132	1	God's People to Keep the Sabbath, May 1
BLJ	133	1	The Sabbath Intended for All Humankind, May 2
BLJ	134	1	A Day Pointing to God's Power and Love, May 3
BLJ	135	1	Six Days for Us, Only One for God, May 4
BLJ	136	1	The Sabbath Turns Minds to the Creator, May 5
BLJ	137	1	On Day Six, Prepare for the Sabbath, May 6
BLJ	138	1	Threefold Miracle Reveals Sabbath Sacredness, May 7
BLJ	139	1	Satan's Attack Against God's Memorial, May 8
BLJ	140	1	Sabbath Truth Supported by the Word, May 9
BLJ	141	1	The Sign of God's Authority, May 10
BLJ	142	1	The Spurious Sabbath a False Signpost, May 11
BLJ	143	1	Do Good on the Sabbath, May 12
BLJ	144	1	Do Soul-saving Work on the Sabbath, May 13
BLJ	145	1	Doing Well on the Sabbath Honors the Day, May 14
BLJ	146	1	The Sabbath Designed to Bring Us Into Harmony With God, May 15
BLJ	147	1	The Sabbath a Sign of Covenant Relationship, May 16
BLJ	148	1	A Day of Healing and Joy, May 17
BLJ	149	1	A Day on Which to Show Mercy, May 18
BLJ	150	1	Set Example of Sabbath Sacredness, and Teach It, May 19
BLJ	151	1	The Commandments Are for All, May 20
BLJ	152	1	Jesus Kept the Sabbath by Doing Good, May 21
BLJ	153	1	The Sabbath Memorializes a Literal Day, May 22
BLJ	154	1	The Sabbath Reminds Us of God's Creative Power, May 23
BLJ	155	1	Believe God's Word, Not Human Reasoning, May 24
BLJ	156	1	The Sabbath Was Kept Anciently, and Is Today, May 25
BLJ	157	1	Keeping the Sabbath as a Family, May 26
BLJ	158	1	Good Works Continue on the Sabbath, May 27
BLJ	159	1	A Vision of the Sabbath Commandment, May 28
BLJ	160	1	Why Worship Is Due God, May 29
BLJ	161	1	The Sabbath Not Jewish but Christ's Holy Day, May 30
BLJ	162	1	Sabbath Rest and Joy in Eternity, May 31
BLJ	164	1	Be Like Jesus, Not Like the World, June 1
BLJ	165	1	Do Right in Business, Not Just in Church, June 2
BLJ	166	1	Be Honest With Others and With God, June 3
BLJ	167	1	Imitate Jesus and His Ethics, June 4
BLJ	168	1	Never Take Advantage of Another's Misfortune, June 5
BLJ	169	1	Character Tested by Presence of the Less Fortunate, June 6
BLJ	170	1	The Golden Rule to Govern Business Dealings, June 7
BLJ	171	1	God's Plan to Prevent Poverty, June 8
BLJ	172	1	God's Grace Needed to Polish Us, June 9
BLJ	173	1	Principles of the Gospel Must Control Us, June 10
BLJ	174	1	Our Business Standards Reveal Our Character, June 11
BLJ	175	1	Even "Small" Sins Have Big Consequences, June 12
BLJ	176	1	Build Character on Jesus, the Rock, June 13
BLJ	177	1	Public Service Demands Strict Integrity, June 14
BLJ	178	1	God's Word Approves the Judicial Oath, June 15
BLJ	179	1	Choices Being Made Between Two Sides, June 16
BLJ	180	1	Handling Money to Meet God's Approval, June 17
BLJ	181	1	To Win Souls, Forgo Personal Gain, June 18
BLJ	182	1	Set Right Priorities in Life, June 19
BLJ	183	1	Christians Must Never Depart From Integrity, June 20
BLJ	184	1	Reveal Love While Doing God's Business, June 21
BLJ	185	1	Imitate Christ, Not the World, June 22
BLJ	186	1	Be Compassionate When Poverty Is Unavoidable, June 23
BLJ	187	1	Show Divine Love by Being Merciful, June 24
BLJ	188	1	Seek Divine Wisdom in Handling Money, June 25
BLJ	189	1	Invest to Glorify God, Not Self, June 26
BLJ	190	1	Represent Christ in Every Circumstance, June 27
BLJ	191	1	In Planning, Consider the Unending Future, June 28
BLJ	192	1	Never Dishonor God by Violating Righteous Principles, June 29
BLJ	193	1	Faithful Stewards Provide for God's Work, June 30
BLJ	195	1	The New Lifestyle Through Jesus, July 1
BLJ	196	1	Jesus Requires Wholehearted Commitment, July 2
BLJ	197	1	God Has Sent Warnings, but Few Listen, July 3
BLJ	198	1	Fanaticism and Noise No Evidence of Faith, July 4
BLJ	199	1	God Not Pleased With Tasteless Disorder, July 5
BLJ	200	1	Follow Christ and Defeat the Enemy, July 6
BLJ	201	1	Decided Efforts Must Be Made Against Sin, July 7
BLJ	202	1	Seek to Be Temperate in All Things, July 8
BLJ	203	1	Training Children a Sacred Responsibility, July 9
BLJ	204	1	Work and Exercise Contribute to Health, July 10
BLJ	205	1	When Trials Come, Cling to Jesus, July 11
BLJ	206	1	For Every Difficulty, God's Grace Is Sufficient, July 12
BLJ	207	1	Husbands Are to Be Thoughtful and Cheerful, July 13
BLJ	208	1	Bible Holiness Is Our Great Need, July 14
BLJ	209	1	Be Faithful in Small, Common Tasks, July 15
BLJ	210	1	Meeting Difficulties Develops Spiritual Muscle, July 16
BLJ	211	1	Maintain Integrity, Whatever the Cost, July 17
BLJ	212	1	Motive Determines Value of Our Acts, July 18
BLJ	213	1	Stay Close to Jesus and Become Like Him, July 19
BLJ	214	1	To Find True Happiness, Obey God, July 20
BLJ	215	1	When in Trial, Review God's Great Mercy, July 21
BLJ	216	1	Receive Light, and Walk in It, July 22
BLJ	217	1	Reveal Love, Compassion, and Tenderness, July 23
BLJ	218	1	Do Not Accuse Others, but Intercede for Them, July 24
BLJ	219	1	Live Unselfishly, and Teach People to Love Jesus, July 25
BLJ	220	1	Bring the Lower Passions Into Subjection, July 26
BLJ	221	1	Seek to Reflect the Image of Jesus, July 27
BLJ	222	1	We Should Give Hope to the Fallen, July 28
BLJ	223	1	Take Time for Prayer and the Word, July 29
BLJ	224	1	Study Christ's Words, Not Human Opinions, July 30
BLJ	225	1	Be Used by the Spirit in Christ's Service, July 31
BLJ	227	1	Happiness to Be Found in Natural Surroundings, August 1
BLJ	228	1	All Nature Entrusted to Adam and Eve, August 2
BLJ	229	1	God's Wisdom and Love Revealed in Nature, August 3
BLJ	230	1	Work Given as a Source of Happiness, August 4
BLJ	231	1	The Earth Will Produce Abundantly for Diligent Workers, August 5
BLJ	232	1	Work and Study Benefit Both the Earth and the Mind, August 6
BLJ	233	1	Cooperating With God in Work Promotes Happiness, August 7
BLJ	234	1	Well-regulated Work Aids All-around Development, August 8
BLJ	235	1	The Beauty of Nature Reveals God's Character, August 9
BLJ	236	1	God's Love and Glory Seen in Nature, August 10
BLJ	237	1	God's Power Exercised Constantly in Nature, August 11
BLJ	238	1	Appreciate Earth's Natural, Quiet Beauty, August 12
BLJ	239	1	Nature Offers Messages of Hope and Comfort, August 13
BLJ	240	1	Draw Spiritual Lessons and Health Benefits From Trees, August 14
BLJ	241	1	Nature Is Guided and Upheld by the Creator, August 15
BLJ	242	1	Christ Points Us to a More Glorious World, August 16
BLJ	243	1	Many Lessons to Be Learned From Nature, August 17
BLJ	244	1	How to Learn From Nature Its Deepest Lessons, August 18
BLJ	245	1	Nature Teaches the Value of Obedience to Law, August 19
BLJ	246	1	Valuable Objects in Nature Are Pruned or Refined, August 20
BLJ	247	1	Nature Testifies of a Master Artist and Designer, August 21
BLJ	248	1	Earth's Bounties Give Evidence of God's Love, August 22
BLJ	249	1	The Natural World Speaks of the Creator, August 23
BLJ	250	1	Rich Blessings From a Sabbath for the Land, August 24
BLJ	251	1	The Poor Have Rights in God's World, August 25
BLJ	252	1	Work, for Earth's Night Is Coming, August 26
BLJ	253	1	Cultivating the Soil Is Doing God's Service, August 27
BLJ	254	1	An Exhaustless Source of Instruction and Delight, August 28
BLJ	255	1	Fallow Ground of the Human Heart Should Be Worked, August 29
BLJ	256	1	Greater Efficiency and Deeper Consecration Needed, August 30
BLJ	257	1	Keep Streams of Beneficence in Constant Circulation, August 31
BLJ	259	1	Tell Others to Love and Obey Christ, September 1
BLJ	260	1	All Have a Duty to Witness, September 2
BLJ	261	1	Carry Light and Hope Everywhere, September 3
BLJ	262	1	To Witness Successfully, First Crucify Self, September 4
BLJ	263	1	Invite People to Become Children of God, September 5
BLJ	264	1	Angels Cooperate With Soul Winners, September 6
BLJ	265	1	Guard Your Words and Be Tactful as You Witness, September 7
BLJ	266	1	Now Is the Time to Work for Christ, September 8
BLJ	267	1	Practical Christianity Important in Witnesses, September 9
BLJ	268	1	Witness Wherever Jesus Calls You, September 10
BLJ	269	1	Jesus Identifies Himself With the Needy, September 11
BLJ	270	1	The Holy Spirit Will Empower for Witnessing, September 12
BLJ	271	1	God Gives Grace to Those Who Believe His Word, September 13
BLJ	272	1	One Small Book Produced Big Results, September 14
BLJ	273	1	Personal Ministry Is Key to Winning Souls, September 15
BLJ	274	1	Make Clear the Worth of the Soul, September 16
BLJ	275	1	Music Can Attract People to God's Message, September 17
BLJ	276	1	Truth Is to Be Lived, Not Merely Spoken, September 18
BLJ	277	1	Aim High and Attempt Much for God, September 19
BLJ	278	1	Witness at Every Large Gathering in Cities, September 20
BLJ	279	1	Christ's Followers to Differ From the World, September 21
BLJ	280	1	Win Souls Through the Sabbath School, September 22
BLJ	281	1	Work to Be Done in Large Cities, September 23
BLJ	282	1	Expressions of Sympathy Open Hearts to the Gospel, September 24
BLJ	283	1	Soul Winning Creates Demand for Holy Spirit, September 25
BLJ	284	1	Consecrated Workers Could Do Great Work in Short Time, September 26
BLJ	285	1	Workers to Reveal the Spirit of Jesus, September 27
BLJ	286	1	Consecrate Self, Then Search for Perishing Souls, September 28
BLJ	287	1	Unselfish Service Gives Joy to Both Christ and Us, September 29
BLJ	288	1	Every Member to Help Spread the Gospel, September 30
BLJ	290	1	Everyone Should Know and Obey the Laws of Life, October 1
BLJ	291	1	Leaders to Practice and Teach Health Reform, October 2
BLJ	292	1	It's Time to Give Up Health-destroying Indulgences, October 3
BLJ	293	1	Share the Light on Healthful Living, October 4
BLJ	294	1	Nutritious Diet Important for Intellectual Vigor, October 5
BLJ	295	1	Higher Powers to Control Physical Nature, October 6
BLJ	296	1	Good Health Needed to Achieve Success, October 7
BLJ	297	1	Aim for Holiness, Not Merely Health, October 8
BLJ	298	1	Health Reform and Third Angel's Message Closely Allied, October 9
BLJ	299	1	Advent Message to Sanctify Body and Soul, October 10
BLJ	300	1	Conditions for Good Health Must Be Observed, October 11
BLJ	301	1	Self-development Essential to Accomplish Most Good, October 12
BLJ	302	1	Temperate Habits and Physical Exercise Produce Vigor, October 13
BLJ	303	1	Follow the Example Set by the Four Hebrews, October 14
BLJ	304	1	Control the Appetite Through Christ's Power, October 15
BLJ	305	1	Christians to Be Strictly Temperate, Governed by Principle, October 16
BLJ	306	1	Food to Be Wholesome and Palatable, October 17
BLJ	307	1	Control of Appetite to Begin in Childhood, October 18
BLJ	308	1	Stimulants Eventually Produce Evil Results, October 19
BLJ	309	1	Through Jesus Comes Health and Relief From Perplexities, October 20
BLJ	310	1	Obey Nature's Laws to Enjoy Health, October 21
BLJ	311	1	Follow Divine Counsel to Preserve Health, October 22
BLJ	312	1	Effect Follows Cause, Producing Health or Disease, October 23
BLJ	313	1	To Have a Clear Mind, Follow Temperance Principles, October 24
BLJ	314	1	Physical Work Helps to Develop Mind and Character, October 25
BLJ	315	1	Temperance in All Things Is Essential, October 26
BLJ	316	1	Our Thinking Is Affected by Our Eating, October 27
BLJ	317	1	Prepare Wholesome Diet Without Flesh Meats, October 28
BLJ	318	1	Both Physical and Mental Faculties to Be Cultivated, October 29
BLJ	319	1	Pure, Fresh Air Promotes Health of Mind and Body, October 30
BLJ	320	1	Love for God Is Essential for Perfect Health, October 31
BLJ	322	1	Though We Fall, We Can Conquer, November 1
BLJ	323	1	Move Forward in Faith and Unity, November 2
BLJ	324	1	Make Family Worship Interesting, November 3
BLJ	325	1	Daily Family Worship Yields Precious Results, November 4
BLJ	326	1	Worship Faithfully Every Morning and Evening, November 5
BLJ	327	1	Parents to Begin Reformation in the Home, November 6
BLJ	328	1	Time for Worship to Be Set Apart as Sacred, November 7
BLJ	329	1	God's People Will Be Refined by Time of Trouble, November 8
BLJ	330	1	Consecrate Your Family to God, and Look to Calvary, November 9
BLJ	331	1	The Way Opens When We Advance by Faith, November 10
BLJ	332	1	Angels in Heaven Worship With Us, November 11
BLJ	333	1	Christ's Blood and Righteousness Purify Our Worship, November 12
BLJ	334	1	Talk of Jesus, and Reflect the Joy of Being a Christian, November 13
BLJ	335	1	Jesus in the Heart Makes the Life Fragrant, November 14
BLJ	336	1	Family Worship Can Help Create Harmony, November 15
BLJ	337	1	Victory Is Assured for All Who Obey Christ's Orders, November 16
BLJ	338	1	In Every Situation Jesus Gives Fresh Blessings, November 17
BLJ	339	1	In Love and Mercy Jesus Pleads With Us and For Us, November 18
BLJ	340	1	Diffuse the Light Throughout the Dark World, November 19
BLJ	341	1	God Alone Is to Be Worshiped, November 20
BLJ	342	1	Christ's Self-sacrificing Life Is Our Lesson Book, November 21
BLJ	343	1	Memorize the Scriptures, Preparing for the Future, November 22
BLJ	344	1	We May Receive God's Unlimited Grace, to Do Good, November 23
BLJ	345	1	To Feed the Soul, Commune Constantly With Jesus, November 24
BLJ	346	1	Be Courteous, Lifting Others' Burdens, as Did Jesus, November 25
BLJ	347	1	We Are to Grow in Piety, Purity, and Love, November 26
BLJ	348	1	God's Word and Love Will Open Hearts to Jesus, November 27
BLJ	349	1	Special Endowment of Grace and Power Needed Today, November 28
BLJ	350	1	When We Thirst for Righteousness, Jesus Draws Near, November 29
BLJ	351	1	Angels Join Us as We Help Those in Need, November 30
BLJ	353	1	Jesus, the Chief Shepherd, Knows Each Sheep, December 1
BLJ	354	1	True Christians Focus on Christ, Not Self, December 2
BLJ	355	1	Truly Converted People Aim for Perfection, December 3
BLJ	356	1	Converted Sinners Live a New Life, December 4
BLJ	357	1	Repent Today, and Receive Christ's Robe of Righteousness, December 5
BLJ	358	1	Jesus Lovingly Calls, but Many Wait Too Long to Respond, December 6
BLJ	359	1	When Sinners Repent, Heaven Rejoices, December 7
BLJ	360	1	Conversion Creates New Interests and New Loves, December 8
BLJ	361	1	Repentant Souls Hate Sin and Love Righteousness, December 9
BLJ	362	1	Humanity, Allied With Divinity, Can Keep the Law, December 10
BLJ	363	1	Conscientious Persons Must Guard Against Being Deceived, December 11
BLJ	364	1	True Repentance Involves Remorse for Sin and Forsaking It, December 12
BLJ	365	1	By Grace You Can Reach Christ's Ideal, December 13
BLJ	366	1	God's People Are Polished Stones in His Spiritual Temple, December 14
BLJ	367	1	Advance the Kingdom by Leading Sinners to Repentance, December 15
BLJ	368	1	Look to Jesus, and He Will Give You Victory, December 16
BLJ	369	1	Lift Up the Standard as the Great Controversy Intensifies, December 17
BLJ	370	1	Bible Sanctification Involves Humility and Constant Growth, December 18
BLJ	371	1	Repentance to Be Followed by Change of Character, December 19
BLJ	372	1	Both Repentance and Forgiveness Are Gifts From Christ, December 20
BLJ	373	1	God Calls for Repentance and Holy Living, December 21
BLJ	374	1	God Waits to Receive All Who Repent, December 22
BLJ	375	1	Jesus' Love Draws Sinners to Repentance, December 23
BLJ	376	1	Good Works to Follow Revival, December 24
BLJ	377	1	Jesus Pays the Debt of Repentant Sinners, December 25
BLJ	378	1	God's People to Reflect His Glory, December 26
BLJ	379	1	Everyone to Work for the Lost, December 27
BLJ	380	1	Repentance Essential During Day of Atonement, December 28
BLJ	381	1	God's Law Leads to True Repentance, December 29
BLJ	382	1	Christ's Robe of Righteousness Is for the Repentant, December 30
BLJ	383	1	All Who Repent Will Be Forgiven and Accepted, December 31

------------------------Jesus, Our Pattern, Depended on Prayer, January 1
BLJ	8	1	Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear. Hebrews 5:7, NKJV.
BLJ	8	2	Evening is drawing on as Jesus calls to His side three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John, and leads them across the fields, and far up a rugged path, to a lonely mountainside....
BLJ	8	3	The light of the setting sun still lingers on the mountaintop, and gilds with its fading glory the path they are traveling. But soon the light dies out from hill as well as valley, the sun disappears behind the western horizon, and the solitary travelers are wrapped in the darkness of night....
BLJ	8	4	Presently Christ tells them that they are now to go no farther. Stepping a little aside from them, the Man of Sorrows pours out His supplications with strong crying and tears. He prays for strength to endure the test in behalf of humanity. He must Himself gain a fresh hold on Omnipotence, for only thus can He contemplate the future. And He pours out His heart longings for His disciples, that in the hour of the power of darkness their faith may not fail....
BLJ	8	5	At first the disciples unite their prayers with His in sincere devotion; but after a time they are overcome with weariness, and, even while trying to retain their interest in the scene, they fall asleep. Jesus has told them of His sufferings; He has taken them with Him that they might unite with Him in prayer; even now He is praying for them. The Savior has seen the gloom of His disciples, and has longed to lighten their grief by an assurance that their faith has not been in vain.... Now the burden of His prayer is that they may be given a manifestation of the glory He had with the Father before the world was, that His kingdom may be revealed to human eyes, and that His disciples may be strengthened to behold it. He pleads that they may witness a manifestation of His divinity that will comfort them in the hour of His supreme agony with the knowledge that He is of a surety the Son of God and that His shameful death is a part of the plan of redemption.
BLJ	8	6	His prayer is heard. While He is bowed in lowliness upon the stony ground, suddenly the heavens open, the golden gates of the City of God are thrown wide, and holy radiance descends upon the mount, enshrouding the Savior's form. Divinity from within flashes through humanity, and meets the glory coming from above. Arising from His prostrate position, Christ stands in godlike majesty. The soul agony is gone. His countenance now shines "as the sun," and His garments are "white as the light."--The Desire of Ages, 419-421.
------------------------Christ's Example Gives Power to Resist Temptation, January 2
BLJ	9	1	It came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased." Luke 3:21, 22, NKJV.
BLJ	9	2	Christ's professed followers may be strong in the Lord if they avail themselves of the provisions made for them through the merits of Jesus. God has not closed the heavens against the humble prayers of repenting, humble, believing souls. The humble, simple, earnest, persevering prayer of the faithful one will now penetrate heaven, as surely as did the prayer of Christ [when He was baptized]. Heaven opened to His prayer, and this shows us that we may be reconciled to God, and that communication is established between God and us through the righteousness of our Lord and Savior. Christ took upon Him humanity, and yet He was in close, intimate relationship with God. He linked humanity with His divine nature, making it possible for us also to become partakers of the divine nature, and thus escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.
BLJ	9	3	Christ is our example in all things. In response to His prayer to His Father, heaven was opened, and the Spirit descended like a dove and abode upon Him. The Holy Spirit of God is to communicate with men and women and to abide in the hearts of the obedient and faithful. Light and strength will come to those who earnestly seek it in order that they may have wisdom to resist Satan, and to overcome in times of temptation. We are to overcome even as Christ overcame.
BLJ	9	4	Jesus opened His public mission with fervent prayer, and His example makes manifest the fact that prayer is necessary in order to lead a successful Christian life. He was constantly in communion with His Father, and His life presents to us a perfect pattern which we are to imitate....
BLJ	9	5	We are dependent upon God for success in living the Christian life, and Christ's example opens before us the path by which we may come to a never-failing source of strength, from which we may draw grace and power to resist the enemy and to come off victorious.--The Signs of the Times, July 24, 1893.
------------------------Approaching God With Reverence, January 3
BLJ	10	1	He said to them, "When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come." Luke 11:2, NKJV.
BLJ	10	2	To hallow the name of the Lord requires that the words in which we speak of the Supreme Being be uttered with reverence. "Holy and reverend is his name" (Psalm 111:9). We are never in any manner to treat lightly the titles or appellations of the Deity. In prayer we enter the audience chamber of the Most High; and we should come before Him with holy awe. The angels veil their faces in His presence. The cherubim and the bright and holy seraphim approach His throne with solemn reverence. How much more should we, finite, sinful beings, come in a reverent manner before the Lord, our Maker!
BLJ	10	3	But to hallow the name of the Lord means much more than this. We may, like the Jews in Christ's day, manifest the greatest outward reverence for God, and yet profane His name continually. "The name of the Lord" is "merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth ... forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" (Exodus 34:5-7). Of the church of Christ it is written, "This is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness" (Jeremiah 33:16). This name is put upon every follower of Christ. It is the heritage of the child of God. The family are called after the Father. The prophet Jeremiah, in the time of Israel's sore distress and tribulation, prayed, "We are called by thy name; leave us not" (Jeremiah 14:9).
BLJ	10	4	This name is hallowed by the angels of heaven, by the inhabitants of unfallen worlds. When you pray, "Hallowed be thy name," you ask that it may be hallowed in this world, hallowed in you. God has acknowledged you before men and angels as His child; pray that you may do no dishonor to the "worthy name by the which ye are called" (James 2:7). God sends you into the world as His representative. In every act of life you are to make manifest the name of God. This petition calls upon you to possess His character. You cannot hallow His name, you cannot represent Him to the world, unless in life and character you represent the very life and character of God. This you can do only through the acceptance of the grace and righteousness of Christ.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 106, 107.
------------------------Pray for Daily Bread, January 4
BLJ	11	1	Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:11, NKJV.
BLJ	11	2	Like [a] child, you shall receive day by day what is required for the day's need. Every day you are to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Be not dismayed if you have not sufficient for tomorrow. You have the assurance of His promise, "So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." David says, "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread" (Psalm 37:3, 25)....
BLJ	11	3	He who lightened the cares and anxieties of His widowed mother and helped her to provide for the household at Nazareth sympathizes with every mother in her struggle to provide her children food. He who had compassion on the multitude because they "fainted, and were scattered abroad" (Matthew 9:36) still has compassion on the suffering poor. His hand is stretched out toward them in blessing; and in the very prayer which He gave His disciples, He teaches us to remember the poor....
BLJ	11	4	The prayer for daily bread includes not only food to sustain the body, but that spiritual bread which will nourish the soul unto life everlasting. Jesus bids us, "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life" (John 6:27). He says, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever" (Verse 51). Our Savior is the Bread of Life, and it is by beholding His love, by receiving it into the soul, that we feed upon the bread which came down from heaven.
BLJ	11	5	We receive Christ through His Word, and the Holy Spirit is given to open the Word of God to our understanding and bring home its truths to our hearts. We are to pray day by day that as we read His Word, God will send His Spirit to reveal to us the truth that will strengthen our souls for the day's need.
BLJ	11	6	In teaching us to ask every day for what we need--both temporal and spiritual blessings--God has a purpose to accomplish for our good. He would have us realize our dependence upon His constant care, for He is seeking to draw us into communion with Himself. In this communion with Christ, through prayer and the study of the great and precious truths of His Word, we shall as hungry souls be fed; as those that thirst, we shall be refreshed at the fountain of life.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 111-113.
------------------------Have a Forgiving Spirit, January 5
BLJ	12	1	If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14, 15, NRSV.
BLJ	12	2	Our savior taught His disciples to pray: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." A great blessing is here asked upon conditions. We ourselves state these conditions. We ask that the mercy of God toward us may be measured by the mercy which we extend to others. Christ declares that this is the rule by which the Lord will deal with us. "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Wonderful terms! but how little are they understood or heeded.
BLJ	12	3	One of the most common sins, and one that is attended with most pernicious results, is the indulgence of an unforgiving spirit. How many will cherish animosity or revenge and then bow before God and ask to be forgiven as they forgive. Surely they can have no true sense of the import of this prayer or they would not dare to take it upon their lips. We are dependent upon the pardoning mercy of God every day and every hour; how then can we cherish bitterness and malice toward our fellow sinners! If, in all their daily relations, Christians would carry out the principles of this prayer, what a blessed change would be wrought in the church and in the world! This would be the most convincing testimony that could be given to the reality of Bible religion....
BLJ	12	4	We are admonished by the apostle: "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another." Paul would have us distinguish between the pure, unselfish love which is prompted by the spirit of Christ, and the unmeaning, deceitful pretense with which the world abounds. This base counterfeit has misled many souls. It would blot out the distinction between right and wrong, by agreeing with the transgressors instead of faithfully showing them their errors. Such a course never springs from real friendship. The spirit by which it is prompted dwells only in the carnal heart.
BLJ	12	5	While Christians will be ever kind, compassionate, and forgiving, they can feel no harmony with sin. They will abhor evil and cling to that which is good, at the sacrifice of association or friendship with the ungodly. The spirit of Christ will lead us to hate sin, while we are willing to make any sacrifice to save the sinner.--Testimonies for the Church 5:170, 171.
------------------------Have a Heart Filled With Gratitude, January 6
BLJ	13	1	Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying: "I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him; my father's God, and I will exalt Him." Exodus 15:1, 2, NKJV.
BLJ	13	2	Like the voice of the great deep, rose from the vast hosts of Israel that sublime ascription. It was taken up by the women of Israel, Miriam, the sister of Moses, leading the way, as they went forth with timbrel and dance. Far over desert and sea rang the joyous refrain, and the mountains reechoed the words of their praise....
BLJ	13	3	This song and the great deliverance which it commemorates made an impression never to be effaced from the memory of the Hebrew people. From age to age it was echoed by the prophets and singers of Israel, testifying that Jehovah is the strength and deliverance of those who trust in Him. That song does not belong to the Jewish people alone. It points forward to the destruction of all the foes of righteousness and the final victory of the Israel of God. The prophet of Patmos beholds the white-robed multitude that have "gotten the victory," standing on the "sea of glass mingled with fire," having "the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb" (Revelation 15:2, 3)....
BLJ	13	4	Such was the spirit that pervaded Israel's song of deliverance, and it is the spirit that should dwell in the hearts of all who love and fear God. In freeing our souls from the bondage of sin, God has wrought for us a deliverance greater than that of the Hebrews at the Red Sea. Like the Hebrew host, we should praise the Lord with heart and soul and voice for His "wonderful works to the children of men." Those who dwell upon God's great mercies, and are not unmindful of His lesser gifts, will put on the girdle of gladness and make melody in their hearts to the Lord. The daily blessings that we receive from the hand of God, and above all else the death of Jesus to bring happiness and heaven within our reach, should be a theme for constant gratitude. What compassion, what matchless love, has God shown to us, lost sinners, in connecting us with Himself, to be to Him a peculiar treasure!--Patriarchs and Prophets, 288, 289.
------------------------Pray in Jesus' Name, January 7
BLJ	14	1	My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1, NKJV.
BLJ	14	2	We have an advocate at the throne of God, which is encircled by the bow of promise, and we are invited to present our petitions in the name of Christ before the Father. Jesus says: Ask what ye will in My name, and it shall be done unto you. In presenting My name, you bear witness that you belong to Me, that you are My sons and daughters, and the Father will treat you as His own, and love you as He loveth Me.
BLJ	14	3	Your faith in Me will lead you to exercise close, filial affection toward Me and the Father. I am the golden chain by which your heart and soul are bound in love and obedience to My Father. Express to My Father the fact that My name is dear to you, that you respect and love Me, and you may ask what you will. He will pardon your transgressions, and adopt you into His royal family--make you a child of God, a joint heir with His only-begotten Son.
BLJ	14	4	Through faith in My name He will impart to you the sanctification and holiness which will fit you for His work in a world of sin, and qualify you for an immortal inheritance in His kingdom. The Father has thrown open, not only all heaven, but all His heart, to those who manifest faith in the sacrifice of Christ, and who through faith in the love of God return unto their loyalty. Those who believe in Christ as the sin-bearer, the propitiation for their sins, the intercessor in their behalf, may through the riches of the grace of God lay claim to the treasures of heaven....
BLJ	14	5	The prayer of the contrite heart unlocks the treasure-house of supplies, and lays hold of omnipotent power. This kind of prayer enables the suppliant to understand what it means to lay hold of the strength of God, and to make peace with Him. This kind of prayer causes us to have an influence over those with whom we associate.... It is our privilege and duty to bring the efficacy of the name of Christ into our petitions, and use the very arguments that Christ has used in our behalf. Our prayers will then be in complete harmony with the will of God.--The Signs of the Times, June 18, 1896.
------------------------Our Prayers Will Be Answered, January 8
BLJ	15	1	For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, and you will pay your vows. Job 22:26, 27, NKJV.
BLJ	15	2	In his prayer for His disciples Christ said: "I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." In His prayer Christ includes all those who shall hear the words of life and salvation through the messengers whom He sends....
BLJ	15	3	Can we by faith comprehend the fact that we are beloved by the Father even as the Son is beloved? Could we indeed lay hold of this and act up to it, we would indeed have the grace of Christ, the golden oil of heaven, poured into our poor, thirsty, parched souls. Our light would no longer be fitful and flickering, but would shine brightly amid the moral darkness that like a funeral pall is enveloping the world. We should by faith hear the prevailing intercession that Christ continually presents in our behalf, as He says: "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." ...
BLJ	15	4	Our Redeemer encourages us to present continual supplications. He makes to us most decided promises that we shall not plead in vain. He says: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."
BLJ	15	5	He then presents the picture of a child asking bread of its father, and shows how much more willing God is to grant our requests than parents are to grant their child's petition....
BLJ	15	6	Our precious Savior is ours today. In Him our hopes of eternal life are centered. He is the One who presents our petitions to the Father, and communicates to us the blessing for which we asked.--The Signs of the Times, June 18, 1896.
------------------------Not Only Pray, but Ask and Work! January 9
BLJ	16	1	Then the king said to me, "What do you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, ... I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may rebuild it." Nehemiah 2:4, 5, NKJV.
BLJ	16	2	While Nehemiah implored the help of God, he did not fold his own hands, feeling that he had no more care or responsibility in the bringing about of his purpose to restore Jerusalem. With admirable prudence and forethought he proceeded to make all the arrangements necessary to ensure the success of the enterprise....
BLJ	16	3	The example of this holy man should be a lesson to all the people of God, that they are not only to pray in faith, but to work with diligence and fidelity. How many difficulties we encounter, how often we hinder the working of Providence in our behalf, because prudence, forethought, and painstaking are regarded as having little to do with religion! This is a grave mistake. It is our duty to cultivate and to exercise every power that will render us more efficient workers for God. Careful consideration and well-matured plans are as essential to the success of sacred enterprises today as in the time of Nehemiah....
BLJ	16	4	Men and women of prayer should be men and women of action. Those who are ready and willing will find ways and means of working. Nehemiah did not depend upon uncertainties. The means which he lacked he solicited from those who were able to bestow.
BLJ	16	5	The Lord still moves upon the hearts of kings and rulers in behalf of His people. Those who are laboring for Him are to avail themselves of the help that He prompts men and women to give for the advancement of His cause. The agents through whom these gifts come may open ways by which the light of truth shall be given to many benighted lands. These people may have no sympathy with God's work, no faith in Christ, no acquaintance with His Word; but their gifts are not on this account to be refused.
BLJ	16	6	The Lord has placed His goods in the hands of unbelievers as well as believers; all may return to Him His own for the doing of the work that must be done for a fallen world. As long as we are in this world, as long as the Spirit of God strives with human hearts, so long are we to receive favors as well as to impart them.--The Southern Watchman, March 15, 1904.
------------------------Pray in Submission to God's Will, January 10
BLJ	17	1	Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21:36, NKJV.
BLJ	17	2	Pray often to your heavenly Father. The oftener you engage in prayer, the closer your soul will be drawn into a sacred nearness to God. The Holy Spirit will make intercession for the sincere petitioner with groanings which cannot be uttered, and the heart will be softened and subdued by the love of God. The clouds and shadows which Satan casts about the soul will be dispelled by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and the chambers of mind and heart will be illuminated by the light of Heaven.
BLJ	17	3	But be not discouraged if your prayers do not seem to obtain an immediate answer. The Lord sees that prayer is often mixed with earthliness. People pray for that which will gratify their selfish desires, and the Lord does not fulfill their requests in the way which they expect. He takes them through tests and trials, He brings them through humiliations, until they see more clearly what their necessities are. He does not give to His children those things which will gratify a debased appetite, and which will prove an injury to human agents, and make them a dishonor to God. He does not give men and women that which will gratify their ambition, and work simply for self-exaltation. When we come to God, we must be submissive and contrite of heart, subordinating everything to His sacred will.
BLJ	17	4	In the garden of Gethsemane, Christ prayed to His Father, saying, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." The cup which He prayed should be removed from Him, that looked so bitter to His soul, was the cup of separation from God in consequence of the sin of the world. He who was perfectly innocent and unblamable became as one guilty before God, in order that the guilty might be pardoned and stand as innocent before God. When He was assured that the world could be saved in no other way than through the sacrifice of Himself, He said, "Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt." The spirit of submission that Christ manifested in offering up His prayer before God is the spirit that is acceptable to God. Let the soul feel its need, its helplessness, its nothingness, let all its energies be called forth in an earnest desire for help, and help will come.--The Review and Herald, November 19, 1895.
------------------------To Avoid Darkness, Stay Close to God, January 11
BLJ	18	1	Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Ephesians 6:18, NKJV.
BLJ	18	2	Some are not naturally devotional, and therefore should encourage and cultivate a habit of close examination of their own lives and motives, and should especially cherish a love for religious exercises and for secret prayer. They are often heard talking of doubts and unbelief, and dwelling upon the wonderful struggles they have had with infidel feelings. They dwell upon discouraging influences as so affecting their faith, hope, and courage in the truth and in the ultimate success of the work and cause in which they are engaged, as to make it a special virtue to be found on the side of the doubting.
BLJ	18	3	At times they seem to really enjoy hovering about the infidel's position and strengthening their unbelief with every circumstance they can gather as an excuse for their darkness. To such we would say: You would better come down at once and leave the walls of Zion until you become converted....
BLJ	18	4	But what is the reason of these doubts, this darkness and unbelief? I answer: These men and women are not right with God. They are not dealing honestly and truly with their own souls. They have neglected to cultivate personal piety. They have not separated themselves from all selfishness and from sin and sinners. They have failed to study the self-denying, self-sacrificing life of our Lord and have failed to imitate His example of purity, devotion, and self-sacrifice.
BLJ	18	5	The sin which easily besets has been strengthened by indulgence. By their own negligence and sin they have separated themselves from the company of the divine Teacher....
BLJ	18	6	We are engaged in an exalted, sacred work. Those who profess to be called to teach the truth to those who sit in darkness should not be bodies of unbelief and darkness themselves. They should live near to God, where they can be all light in the Lord. The reason why they are not so is that they are not obeying the Word of God themselves; therefore doubts and discouragements are expressed, when only words of faith and holy cheer should be heard.Testimonies for the Church 2:513-516.
------------------------Pray to Reflect Christ's Unfathomable Love, January 12
BLJ	19	1	He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32, NKJV.
BLJ	19	2	Who can measure the love Christ felt for a lost world as He hung upon the cross, suffering for the sins of the guilty? This love was immeasurable, infinite.
BLJ	19	3	Christ has shown that His love was stronger than death. He was accomplishing humanity's salvation; and although He had the most fearful conflict with the powers of darkness, yet, amid it all, His love grew stronger and stronger.... The price was paid to purchase the redemption of men and women, when, in the last soul struggle, the blessed words were uttered which seemed to resound through creation: "It is finished." ...
BLJ	19	4	The length, the breadth, the height, the depth, of such amazing love we cannot fathom. The contemplation of the matchless depths of a Savior's love should fill the mind, touch and melt the soul, refine and elevate the affections, and completely transform the whole character....
BLJ	19	5	Some have limited views of the atonement. They think that Christ suffered only a small portion of the penalty of the law of God; they suppose that, while the wrath of God was felt by His dear Son, He had, through all His painful sufferings, the evidence of His Father's love and acceptance; that the portals of the tomb before Him were illuminated with bright hope, and that He had the abiding evidence of His future glory. Here is a great mistake. Christ's keenest anguish was a sense of His Father's displeasure. His mental agony because of this was of such intensity that many can have but faint conception of it....
BLJ	19	6	Here is love that no language can express. It passes knowledge. Great is the mystery of godliness. Our souls should be enlivened, elevated, and enraptured with the theme of the love of the Father and the Son to humanity. The followers of Christ should here learn to reflect in some degree that mysterious love preparatory to joining all the redeemed in ascribing "blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, ... unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."--Testimonies for the Church 2:212-215.
------------------------Gain Spiritual Strength Through Prayer, January 13
BLJ	20	1	Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. Mark 1:35, NKJV.
BLJ	20	2	Because the life of Jesus was a life of constant trust, sustained by continual communion, His service for heaven was without failure or faltering. Daily beset by temptation, constantly opposed by the leaders of the people, Christ knew that He must strengthen His humanity by prayer. In order to be a blessing to people, He must commune with God, from Him obtaining energy, perseverance, steadfastness.
BLJ	20	3	The Savior loved the solitude of the mountain in which to hold communion with His Father. Through the day He labored earnestly to save men, women, and children from destruction. He healed the sick, comforted the mourning, called the dead to life, and brought hope and cheer to the despairing. After His work for the day was finished, He went forth, evening after evening, away from the confusion of the city, and bowed in prayer to His Father. Frequently He continued His petitions through the entire night; but He came from these seasons of communion invigorated and refreshed, braced for duty and for trial.
BLJ	20	4	Are the ministers of Christ tempted and fiercely buffeted by Satan? So also was He who knew no sin. In the hour of distress He turned to His Father. Himself a source of blessing and strength, He could heal the sick and raise the dead; He could command the tempest, and it would obey Him; yet He prayed, often with strong crying and tears. He prayed for His disciples and for Himself, thus identifying Himself with human beings. He was a mighty petitioner. As the Prince of life, He had power with God, and prevailed....
BLJ	20	5	Those who teach and preach the most effectively are those who wait humbly upon God, and watch hungrily for His guidance and His grace. Watch, pray, work--this is the Christian's watchword. The life of a true Christian is a life of constant prayer. He knows that the light and strength of one day is not sufficient for the trials and conflicts of the next. Satan is continually changing his temptations. Every day we shall be placed in different circumstances; and in the untried scenes that await us we shall be surrounded by fresh dangers, and constantly assailed by new and unexpected temptations. It is only through the strength and grace gained from heaven that we can hope to meet the temptations and perform the duties before us.--Gospel Workers, 255-258.
------------------------Plead for Wisdom and Power, January 14
BLJ	21	1	As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Psalm 42:1, 2, NKJV.
BLJ	21	2	Those who at Pentecost were endued with power from on high were not thereby freed from further temptation and trial. As they witnessed for truth and righteousness they were repeatedly assailed by the enemy of all truth, who sought to rob them of their Christian experience. They were compelled to strive with all their God-given powers to reach the measure of the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. Daily they prayed for fresh supplies of grace, that they might reach higher and still higher toward perfection.
BLJ	21	3	Under the Holy Spirit's working even the weakest, by exercising faith in God, learned to improve their entrusted powers and to become sanctified, refined, and ennobled. As in humility they submitted to the molding influence of the Holy Spirit, they received of the fullness of the Godhead and were fashioned in the likeness of the divine.
BLJ	21	4	The lapse of time has wrought no change in Christ's parting promise to send the Holy Spirit as His representative. It is not because of any restriction on the part of God that the riches of His grace do not flow earthward to humanity. If the fulfillment of the promise is not seen as it might be, it is because the promise is not appreciated as it should be. If all were willing, all would be filled with the Spirit. Wherever the need of the Holy Spirit is a matter little thought of, there is seen spiritual drought, spiritual darkness, spiritual declension and death. Whenever minor matters occupy the attention, the divine power which is necessary for the growth and prosperity of the church, and which would bring all other blessings in its train, is lacking, though offered in infinite plenitude....
BLJ	21	5	Companies of Christian workers should gather to ask for special help, for heavenly wisdom, that they may know how to plan and execute wisely. Especially should they pray that God will baptize His chosen ambassadors in mission fields with a rich measure of His Spirit. The presence of the Spirit with God's workers will give the proclamation of truth a power that not all the honor or glory of the world could give.--The Acts of the Apostles, 49-51.
------------------------Pray Silently, Continually, January 15
BLJ	22	1	Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore! 1 Chronicles 16:10, 11, NKJV.
BLJ	22	2	Prayer is not understood as it should be. Our prayers are not to inform God of something He does not know. The Lord is acquainted with the secrets of every soul. Our prayers need not be long and loud. God reads the hidden thoughts. We may pray in secret, and He who sees in secret will hear, and will reward us openly.
BLJ	22	3	The prayers that are offered to God to tell Him of all our wretchedness, when we do not feel wretched at all, are the prayers of hypocrisy. It is the contrite prayer that the Lord regards. "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."
BLJ	22	4	Prayer is not intended to work any change in God; it brings us into harmony with God. It does not take the place of duty. Prayer offered ever so often and ever so earnestly will never be accepted by God in the place of our tithe. Prayer will not pay our debts to God....
BLJ	22	5	The strength acquired in prayer to God will prepare us for our daily duties. The temptations to which we are daily exposed make prayer a necessity. In order that we may be kept by the power of God through faith, the desires of the mind should be continually ascending in silent prayer.
BLJ	22	6	When we are surrounded by influences calculated to lead us away from God, our petitions for help and strength must be unwearied. Unless this is so, we shall never be successful in breaking down pride and overcoming the power of temptation to sinful indulgences which keep us from the Savior. The light of truth, sanctifying the life, will discover to the receiver the sinful passions of the heart which are striving for the mastery, and which make it necessary ... to stretch every nerve and exert all the powers to resist Satan that he or she may conquer through the merits of Christ.--Messages to Young People, 247, 248.
------------------------Take Your Children to Jesus in Prayer, January 16
BLJ	23	1	Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. Matthew 19:13, NKJV.
BLJ	23	2	In the days of Christ mothers brought their children to Him, that He might lay His hands upon them in blessing. By this act they showed their faith in Jesus and the intense anxiety of their hearts for the present and future welfare of the little ones committed to their care. But the disciples could not see the need of interrupting the Master just for the sake of noticing the children, and as they were sending these mothers away Jesus rebuked the disciples and commanded the crowd to make way for these faithful mothers with their little children. Said He, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
BLJ	23	3	As the mothers passed along the dusty road and drew near the Savior, He saw the unbidden tear and the quivering lip, as they offered a silent prayer in behalf of the children. He heard the words of rebuke from the disciples, and promptly countermanded the order. His great heart of love was open to receive the children. One after another, He took them in His arms and blessed them, while one little child lay fast asleep, reclining against His bosom. Jesus spoke words of encouragement to the mothers in reference to their work, and oh, what a relief was thus brought to their minds! With what joy they dwelt upon the goodness and mercy of Jesus, as they looked back to that memorable occasion! His gracious words had removed the burden from their hearts and inspired them with fresh hope and courage. All sense of weariness was gone.
BLJ	23	4	This is an encouraging lesson to mothers for all time. After they have done the best they can do for the good of their children, they may bring them to Jesus. Even the babes in their mothers' arms are precious in His sight. And as the mother's heart yearns for the help she knows she cannot give, the grace she cannot bestow, and she casts herself and children into the merciful arms of Christ, He will receive and bless them, He will give peace, hope, and happiness to mother and children.--Good Health, January 1880.
------------------------A Prayer That Includes Us, January 17
BLJ	24	1	Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." And they divided His garments and cast lots. Luke 23:34, NKJV.
BLJ	24	2	A great multitude followed the Savior to Calvary, many mocking and deriding; but some were weeping and recounting His praise. Those whom He had healed of various infirmities, and those whom He had raised from the dead, declared His marvelous works with earnest voice, and demanded to know what Jesus had done that He should be treated as a malefactor....
BLJ	24	3	Jesus made no murmur of complaint; His face remained pale and serene, but great drops of sweat stood upon His brow. There was no pitying hand to wipe the death-dew from His face, nor words of sympathy and unchanging fidelity to stay His human heart. He was treading the winepress all alone; and of all the people there was none with Him. While the soldiers were doing their fearful work, and He was enduring the most acute agony, Jesus prayed for His enemies--"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
BLJ	24	4	His mind was borne from His own suffering to the crime of His persecutors, and the terrible but just retribution that would be theirs. He pitied them in their ignorance and guilt. No curses were called down upon the soldiers who were handling Him so roughly, no vengeance was invoked upon the priests and rulers who were the cause of all His suffering, and were then gloating over the accomplishment of their purpose, but only a plea for their forgiveness--"for they know not what they do."
BLJ	24	5	Had they known that they were putting to exquisite torture One who had come to save the sinful race from eternal ruin, they would have been seized with horror and remorse. But their ignorance did not remove their guilt; for it was their privilege to know and accept Jesus as their Savior. They rejected all evidence, and not only sinned against Heaven in crucifying the King of Glory, but against the commonest feelings of humanity in putting to a torturous death an innocent man. Jesus was earning the right to become the Advocate for humanity in the Father's presence. That prayer of Christ for His enemies embraced the world, taking in every sinner who should live, until the end of time.--The Spirit of Prophecy 3:152-154.
------------------------In Sincere Pursuit of Truth We Commune With God, January 18
BLJ	25	1	The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Ephesians 1:18, NKJV.
BLJ	25	2	In a knowledge of God all true knowledge and real development have their source. Wherever we turn, in the physical, the mental, or the spiritual realm; in whatever we behold, apart from the blight of sin, this knowledge is revealed. Whatever line of investigation we pursue, with a sincere purpose to arrive at truth, we are brought in touch with the unseen, mighty Intelligence that is working in and through all. The mind of humanity is brought into communion with the mind of God, the finite with the Infinite. The effect of such communion on body and mind and soul is beyond estimate.
BLJ	25	3	In this communion is found the highest education. It is God's own method of development. "Acquaint now thyself with him" (Job 22:21) is His message to humankind. The method outlined in these words was the method followed in the education of the father of our race. When in the glory of sinless manhood Adam stood in holy Eden, it was thus that God instructed him....
BLJ	25	4	When Adam came from the Creator's hand, he bore, in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker. "God created man in his own image" (Genesis 1:27), and it was His purpose that the longer human beings lived the more fully they should reveal this image--the more fully reflect the glory of the Creator. All the faculties were capable of development; their capacity and vigor were continually to increase. Vast was the scope offered for their exercise, glorious the field opened to their research.... Face-to-face, heart-to-heart communion with his Maker was his high privilege. Had he remained loyal to God, all this would have been his forever....
BLJ	25	5	But by disobedience this was forfeited. Through sin the divine likeness was marred, and well-nigh obliterated. Man's physical powers were weakened, his mental capacity was lessened, his spiritual vision dimmed. He had become subject to death. Yet the race was not left without hope. By infinite love and mercy the plan of salvation had been devised, and a life of probation was granted. To restore in the human family the image of their Maker, to bring them back to the perfection in which they were created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in their creation might be realized--this was to be the work of redemption. This is the object of education, the great object of life.--Education, 14-16.
------------------------Prayer Closely Related to Reformation, January 19
BLJ	26	1	If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14, NKJV.
BLJ	26	2	In the prophetic prayer offered at the dedication of the Temple whose services Hezekiah and his associates were now restoring, Solomon had prayed, "When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house: then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel" (1 Kings 8:33, 34).
BLJ	26	3	The seal of divine approval had been placed upon this prayer; for at its close fire had come down from heaven to consume the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord had filled the Temple. (See 2 Chronicles 7:1.) And by night the Lord had appeared to Solomon to tell him that his prayer had been heard, and that mercy would be shown those who should worship there....
BLJ	26	4	For many years the Passover had not been observed as a national festival. The division of the kingdom after the close of Solomon's reign had made this seem impracticable. But the terrible judgments befalling the ten tribes were awakening in the hearts of some a desire for better things; and the stirring messages of the prophets were having their effect.... The impenitent turned lightly aside; nevertheless some, eager to seek God for a clearer knowledge of His will, "humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem" (2 Chronicles 30:10, 11).--Prophets and Kings, 335-337.
BLJ	26	5	For stricken Israel there was but one remedy--a turning away from the sins that had brought upon them the chastening hand of the Almighty, and a turning to the Lord with full purpose of heart. To them had been given the assurance, "If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:13, 14). It was to bring to pass this blessed result that God continued to withhold from them the dew and the rain until a decided reformation should take place.--Prophets and Kings, 128.
------------------------Prayers Enlist the Help of Angels, January 20
BLJ	27	1	For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. Galatians 6:8, NKJV.
BLJ	27	2	Young men and women, you are accountable to God for the light that He has given you. This light and these warnings, if not heeded, will rise up in the judgment against you. Your dangers have been plainly stated; you have been cautioned and guarded on every side, hedged in with warnings. In the house of God you have listened to the most solemn, heart-searching truths presented by the servants of God in demonstration of the Spirit. What weight do these solemn appeals have upon your hearts? What influence do they have upon your characters? You will be held responsible for every one of these appeals and warnings. They will rise up in the judgment to condemn those who pursue a life of vanity, levity, and pride....
BLJ	27	3	After this light has been given, after your dangers have been plainly presented before you, the responsibility becomes yours. The manner in which you treat the light that God gives you will turn the scale for happiness or woe. You are shaping your destinies for yourselves. You all have an influence for good or for evil on the minds and characters of others. And just the influence which you exert is written in the book of records in heaven. An angel is attending you and taking record of your words and actions. When you rise in the morning, do you feel your helplessness and your need of strength from God? And do you humbly, heartily make known your wants to your heavenly Father? If so, angels mark your prayers, and if these prayers have not gone forth out of feigned lips, when you are in danger of unconsciously doing wrong and exerting an influence which will lead others to do wrong, your guardian angel will be by your side, prompting you to a better course, choosing your words for you, and influencing your actions....
BLJ	27	4	Immortal glory and eternal life is the reward that our Redeemer offers to those who will be obedient to Him. He has made it possible for them to perfect Christian character through His name and to overcome on their own account as He overcame in their behalf. He has given them an example in His own life, showing them how they may overcome. "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."--Testimonies for the Church 3:363-365.
------------------------By Prayer, Prepare for Convocations, January 21
BLJ	28	1	Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.... Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. James 4:8-10, NKJV.
BLJ	28	2	Here is a work for families to engage in before coming up to our holy convocations. Let the preparation for eating and dressing be a secondary matter, but let deep heart-searching commence at home. Pray three times a day, and, like Jacob, be importunate. At home is the place to find Jesus; then take Him with you to the meeting, and how precious will be the hours you spend there. But how can you expect to feel the presence of the Lord and see His power displayed when the individual work of preparation for that time is neglected?
BLJ	28	3	For your soul's sake, for Christ's sake, and for the sake of others, work at home. Pray as you are not accustomed to pray. Let the heart break before God. Set your house in order. Prepare your children for the occasion. Teach them that it is not of so much consequence that they appear with fine clothes as that they appear before God with clean hands and pure hearts. Remove every obstacle that may have been in their way--all differences that may have existed among themselves or between you and them. By so doing you will invite the Lord's presence into your homes, and holy angels will attend you as you go up to the meeting, and their light and presence will press back the darkness of evil angels....
BLJ	28	4	Oh, how much is lost by neglecting this important work! You may be pleased with the preaching, you may become animated and revived, but the converting, reforming power of God will not be felt in the heart, and the work will not be so deep, thorough, and lasting as it should be. Let pride be crucified and the soul be clad with the priceless robe of Christ's righteousness, and what a meeting will you enjoy. It will be to your soul even as the gate of heaven.
BLJ	28	5	The same work of humiliation and heart-searching should also go on in the church, so that all differences and alienations among the members may be laid aside before appearing before the Lord.... Set about this work in earnest ...; for if you come up to the meeting with your doubts, your murmurings, your disputings, you bring evil angels into the camp and carry darkness wherever you go.--Testimonies for the Church 5:164, 165.
------------------------Look to Jesus in Prayer, January 22
BLJ	29	1	And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. John 3:14, NKJV.
BLJ	29	2	Throughout the camp of Israel there were the suffering and the dying who had been wounded by the deadly sting of the serpent. But Jesus Christ spoke from the pillar of cloud, and gave directions whereby the people might be healed. The promise was made that whosoever looked upon the brazen serpent should live; and to those who looked the promise was verified. But if anyone said: "What good will it do to look? I shall certainly die under the serpent's deadly sting"; if they continued to talk of their deadly wound, and declared that their case was hopeless, and would not perform the simple act of obedience, they would die. But everyone who looked lived....
BLJ	29	3	Our attention is now called to the Great Physician. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Just as long as we look at our sins, and talk of and deplore our wretched condition, our wounds and putrefying sores will remain. It is when we take our eyes from ourselves, and fasten them upon the uplifted Savior, that our souls find hope and peace. The Lord speaks to us through His Word, bidding us "look and live." "He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."
BLJ	29	4	There is every reason why we should be encouraged to hope for the salvation of our souls. In Jesus Christ every provision for our salvation has been made. No matter what may have been our sins and shortcomings, there is a fountain open in the house of David for all sin and uncleanness. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." This is the word of the Lord. Shall we accept it? Shall we believe on Him?--The Signs of the Times, April 2, 1894.
------------------------Prayers of a Godly Woman Answered, January 23
BLJ	30	1	For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him. 1 Samuel 1:27, NKJV.
BLJ	30	2	Elkanah, a Levite of Mount Ephraim, was a man of wealth and influence, and one who loved and feared the Lord. His wife, Hannah, was a woman of fervent piety. Gentle and unassuming, her character was marked with deep earnestness and a lofty faith.
BLJ	30	3	The blessing so earnestly sought by every Hebrew was denied this godly pair; their home was not gladdened by the voice of childhood; and the desire to perpetuate his name led the husband--as it had led many others--to contract a second marriage. But this step, prompted by a lack of faith in God, did not bring happiness. Sons and daughters were added to the household; but the joy and beauty of God's sacred institution had been marred and the peace of the family was broken. Peninnah, the new wife, was jealous and narrow-minded, and she bore herself with pride and insolence. To Hannah, hope seemed crushed and life a weary burden; yet she met the trial with uncomplaining meekness....
BLJ	30	4	The burden which she could share with no earthly friend she cast upon God. Earnestly she pleaded that He would take away her reproach and grant her the precious gift of a son to nurture and train for Him. And she made a solemn vow that if her request were granted, she would dedicate her child to God, even from its birth....
BLJ	30	5	Hannah's prayer was granted; she received the gift for which she had so earnestly entreated. As she looked upon the child, she called him Samuel--"asked of God." As soon as the little one was old enough to be separated from his mother, she fulfilled her vow.... From Shiloh, Hannah quietly returned to her home at Ramah, leaving the child Samuel to be trained for service in the house of God, under the instruction of the high priest. From the earliest dawn of intellect she had taught her son to love and reverence God and to regard himself as the Lord's. By every familiar object surrounding him she had sought to lead his thoughts up to the Creator. When separated from her child, the faithful mother's solicitude did not cease. Every day he was the subject of her prayers.... She did not ask for her son worldly greatness, but she earnestly pleaded that he might attain that greatness which Heaven values--that he might honor God and bless his fellow human beings.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 569-572.
------------------------What It Means to Pray in Christ's Name, January 24
BLJ	31	1	And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. John 14:13, 14, NKJV.
BLJ	31	2	The Lord is disappointed when His people place a low estimate upon themselves. He desires His chosen heritage to value themselves according to the price He has placed upon them. God wanted them, else He would not have sent His Son on such an expensive errand to redeem them. He has a use for them, and He is well pleased when they make the very highest demands upon Him, that they may glorify His name. They may expect large things if they have faith in His promises.
BLJ	31	3	But to pray in Christ's name means much. It means that we are to accept His character, manifest His spirit, and work His works. The Savior's promise is given on condition. "If ye love me," He says, "keep my commandments." He saves men and women, not in sin, but from sin; and those who love Him will show their love by obedience.
BLJ	31	4	All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart-work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us....
BLJ	31	5	We cannot depend for counsel upon humanity. The Lord will teach us our duty just as willingly as He will teach somebody else. If we come to Him in faith, He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Our hearts will often burn within us as One draws nigh to commune with us as He did with Enoch. Those who decide to do nothing in any line that will displease God will know, after presenting their case before Him, just what course to pursue. And they will receive not only wisdom, but strength. Power for obedience, for service, will be imparted to them, as Christ has promised.--The Review and Herald, July 14, 1910.
------------------------Spiritual Growth Through Prayer, January 25
BLJ	32	1	Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7:7, 8, NKJV.
BLJ	32	2	Ministers [and all] who would labor effectively for the salvation of souls must be both Bible students and men and women of prayer. It is a sin for those who attempt to teach the Word to others to be themselves neglectful of its study. All who feel the worth of souls will flee to the stronghold of truth, where they may be furnished with wisdom, knowledge, strength, and divine power to work the works of God. They should not rest without the holy unction from on high. Too much is at stake for them to dare to be careless in regard to their spiritual advancement....
BLJ	32	3	Ministers of Christ [and others] whom God has made the depositaries of His law, you have an unpopular truth. You must bear this truth to the world. Warnings must be given ... to prepare for the great day of God. You must reach those whose hearts are calloused by sin and love of the world. Continual and fervent prayer, and earnestness in well-doing, will bring you into communion with God; your mind and heart will imbibe a sense of eternal things, and the heavenly unction, which springs from connection with God, will be poured upon you. It will render your testimony powerful to convict and convert. Your light will not be uncertain, but your path will be luminous with heavenly brightness. God is all-powerful, and Heaven is full of light. You have only to use the means God has placed in your power to obtain the divine blessing.
BLJ	32	4	Be instant in prayer. You are a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. You occupy a fearfully responsible position. I entreat you to redeem the time. Come very near to God in supplication, and you will be like a tree planted by the river of waters, whose leaf is always green, and whose fruit appears in due season.... Only go to God, and take Him at His word, and let your works be sustained by living faith in His promises. God does not require from you eloquent prayers and logical reasoning; but only a humble, contrite heart, ready and willing to learn of Him.--The Review and Herald, August 8, 1878.
------------------------Walking With God Through Prayer, January 26
BLJ	33	1	Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.... And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. Genesis 5:22-24, NKJV.
BLJ	33	2	While engaged in our daily work, we should lift the soul to heaven in prayer. These silent petitions rise like incense before the throne of grace; and the enemy is baffled. The Christian whose heart is thus stayed upon God cannot be overcome. No evil arts can destroy his or her peace. All the promises of God's Word, all the power of divine grace, all the resources of Jehovah, are pledged to secure his or her deliverance. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. And God was with him, a present help in every time of need.
BLJ	33	3	Prayer is the breath of the soul. It is the secret of spiritual power. No other means of grace can be substituted and the health of the soul be preserved. Prayer brings the heart into immediate contact with the Wellspring of life, and strengthens the sinew and muscle of the religious experience. Neglect the exercise of prayer, or engage in prayer spasmodically, now and then, as seems convenient, and you lose your hold on God. The spiritual faculties lose their vitality, the religious experience lacks health and vigor....
BLJ	33	4	It is a wonderful thing that we can pray effectually, that unworthy, erring mortals possess the power of offering their requests to God. What higher power can human beings desire than this--to be linked with the infinite God? Feeble, sinful human beings have the privilege of speaking to their Maker. We may utter words that reach the throne of the Monarch of the universe. We may speak with Jesus as we walk by the way, and He says, I am at thy right hand.
BLJ	33	5	We may commune with God in our hearts; we may walk in companionship with Christ. When engaged in our daily labor, we may breathe out our heart's desire, inaudible to any human ear; but that word cannot die away into silence, nor can it be lost. Nothing can drown the soul's desire. It rises above the din of the street, above the noise of machinery. It is God to whom we are speaking, and our prayer is heard.--Messages to Young People, 249, 250
------------------------Prayer an Effective Weapon Against Satan, January 27
BLJ	34	1	Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:7, 8, NKJV.
BLJ	34	2	Satan is constantly at work, but few have any idea of his activity and subtlety. The people of God must be prepared to withstand the wily foe. It is this resistance that Satan dreads. He knows better than we do the limit of his power and how easily he can be overcome if we resist and face him.
BLJ	34	3	Through divine strength the weakest saint is more than a match for him and all his angels, and if brought to the test [the weakest saint] would be able to prove ... superior power. Therefore Satan's step is noiseless, his movements stealthy, and his batteries masked. He does not venture to show himself openly, lest he arouse the Christian's dormant energies and send him or her to God in prayer.
BLJ	34	4	The enemy is preparing for his last campaign against the church. He has so concealed himself from view that many can hardly believe that he exists, much less can they be convinced of his amazing activity and power.... Boasting of their independence they will, under his specious, bewitching influence, obey the worst impulses of the human heart and yet believe that God is leading them. Could their eyes be opened to distinguish their captain, they would see that they are not serving God, but the enemy of all righteousness. They would see that their boasted independence is one of the heaviest fetters Satan can rivet on unbalanced minds.
BLJ	34	5	Human beings are Satan's captives and are naturally inclined to follow his suggestions and do his bidding. They have in themselves no power to oppose effectual resistance to evil. It is only as Christ abides in them by living faith, influencing their desires and strengthening them with strength from above, that they may venture to face so terrible a foe. Every other means of defense is utterly vain. It is only through Christ that Satan's power is limited. This is a momentous truth that all should understand. Satan is busy every moment, going to and fro, walking up and down in the earth, seeking whom he may devour. But the earnest prayer of faith will baffle his strongest efforts. Then take "the shield of faith," brethren and sisters, "wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."--Testimonies for the Church 5:293, 294.
------------------------Transformed by Communion With God, January 28
BLJ	35	1	But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18, NKJV.
BLJ	35	2	During that long time spent in communion with God, the face of Moses had reflected the glory of the divine Presence; unknown to himself his face shone with a dazzling light when he descended from the mountain. Such a light illumined the countenance of Stephen when brought before his judges; "and all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15).
BLJ	35	3	Aaron as well as the people shrank away from Moses, and "they were afraid to come nigh him." Seeing their confusion and terror, but ignorant of the cause, he urged them to come near. He held out to them the pledge of God's reconciliation, and assured them of His restored favor. They perceived in his voice nothing but love and entreaty, and at last one ventured to approach him. Too awed to speak, he silently pointed to the countenance of Moses, and then toward heaven. The great leader understood his meaning. In their conscious guilt, feeling themselves still under the divine displeasure, they could not endure the heavenly light, which, had they been obedient to God, would have filled them with joy....
BLJ	35	4	By this brightness God designed to impress upon Israel the sacred, exalted character of His law, and the glory of the gospel revealed through Christ. While Moses was in the mount, God presented to him, not only the tables of the law, but also the plan of salvation. He saw that the sacrifice of Christ was prefigured by all the types and symbols of the Jewish age; and it was the heavenly light streaming from Calvary, no less than the glory of the law of God, that shed such a radiance upon the face of Moses. That divine illumination symbolized the glory of the dispensation of which Moses was the visible mediator, a representative of the one true Intercessor.
BLJ	35	5	The glory reflected in the countenance of Moses illustrates the blessings to be received by God's commandment-keeping people through the mediation of Christ. It testifies that the closer our communion with God, and the clearer our knowledge of His requirements, the more fully shall we be conformed to the divine image, and the more readily do we become partakers of the divine nature.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 329, 330.
------------------------Pray Earnestly for Christian Character, January 29
BLJ	36	1	Until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. Ephesians 4:13, NRSV.
BLJ	36	2	We can never see our Lord in peace, unless our souls are spotless. We must bear the perfect image of Christ. Every thought must be brought into subjection to the will of Christ. As expressed by the great apostle, we must come into "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." We shall never attain to this condition without earnest effort. We must strive daily against outward evil and inward sin if we would reach the perfection of Christian character.
BLJ	36	3	Those who engage in this work will see so much to correct in themselves, and will devote so much time to prayer and to comparing their characters with God's great standard, the divine law, that they will have no time to comment and gossip over the faults or dissect the characters of others. A sense of our own imperfections should lead us to humility and earnest solicitude lest we fail of everlasting life. The words of inspiration should come home to every soul: "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"
BLJ	36	4	If the professed people of God would divest themselves of their self-complacency and their false ideas of what constitutes a Christian, many who now think they are in the path to heaven would find themselves in the way of perdition. Many proud-hearted professors [of religion] would tremble like an aspen leaf in the tempest could their eyes be opened to see what spiritual life really is. Would that those now reposing in false security could be aroused to see the contradiction between their profession of faith and their everyday demeanor.
BLJ	36	5	To be living Christians, we must have a vital connection with Christ.... When the affections are sanctified, our obligations to God are made primary, everything else secondary. To have a steady and ever-growing love for God, and a clear perception of His character and attributes, we must keep the eye of faith fixed constantly on Him. Christ is the life of the soul. We must be in Him and He in us, else we are sapless branches.--The Review and Herald, May 30, 1882.
------------------------Pray in Humbleness of Heart, January 30
BLJ	37	1	Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Romans 8:26, NKJV.
BLJ	37	2	Prayer is acceptable to God only when offered in humility and contrition and in the name of Christ. He who hears and answers prayer knows those who pray in humbleness of heart. The true Christians ask for nothing except in the name of Christ, and they expect nothing except through His mediation. They desire that Christ shall have the glory of presenting their prayers to the Father, and they are willing to receive the blessing from God through Christ.
BLJ	37	3	The Spirit of God has much to do with acceptable prayer. He softens the heart; He enlightens the mind, enabling it to discern its own wants; He quickens our desires, causing us to hunger and thirst after righteousness; He intercedes in behalf of the sincere suppliant....
BLJ	37	4	Human beings must draw nigh to God, realizing that they must have the help that God alone can give. It is the glory of God to be known as the hearer of prayer because the human suppliant believes that He will hear and answer....
BLJ	37	5	The prayer of faith is the key that unlocks the treasury of heaven. As we commit our souls to God, let us remember that He holds Himself responsible to hear and answer our supplications. He invites us to come to Him, and He bestows on us His best and choicest gifts--gifts that will supply our great need. He loves to help us. Let us trust in His wisdom and His power. Oh, what faith we should have! Oh, what peace and comfort we should enjoy! Open your heart to the Spirit of God. Then the Lord will work through you and bless your labors.--Manuscript Releases 8:195, 196.
BLJ	37	6	Shall we not humble ourselves before God in behalf of those who apparently have little spiritual life? Shall we not have appointed seasons of prayer for them? Shall we not pray every day for those who seem to be dead in trespasses and sins? As we plead with God to break the hearts of stone, our own hearts will become more sensitive. We shall be quicker to see our own sin.--Manuscript Releases 8:197.
------------------------Prayer Helps Guide to Truth, January 31
BLJ	38	1	If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. John 7:17, NKJV.
BLJ	38	2	Before Jesus went forth to His final conflict with the powers of darkness, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and prayed for His disciples....
BLJ	38	3	The burden of Jesus' request was that those who believed on Him might be kept from the evil of the world, and sanctified through the truth. He does not leave us to vague surmising as to what the truth is, but adds, "Thy word is truth." The Word of God is the means by which our sanctification is to be accomplished.
BLJ	38	4	It is of the greatest importance, then, that we acquaint ourselves with the sacred instruction of the Bible. It is as necessary for us to understand the words of life as it was for the early disciples to be informed concerning the plan of salvation. We shall be inexcusable if, through our own negligence, we are ignorant of the claims of God's Word. God has given us His Word, the revelation of His will, and has promised the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, to guide them into all truth; and every soul who honestly desires to do the will of God shall know of the doctrine....
BLJ	38	5	Since the time when the Son of God breasted the haughty prejudices and unbelief of humankind, there has been no change in the attitude of the world toward the religion of Jesus. The servants of Christ must meet the same spirit of opposition and reproach, and must go "without the camp, bearing his reproach." ...
BLJ	38	6	His [Jesus'] teaching was plain, clear, and comprehensive. The practical truths He uttered had a convincing power, and arrested the attention of the people. Multitudes lingered at His side, marveling at His wisdom. His manner corresponded with the great truths He proclaimed. There was no apology, no hesitancy, not the shadow of a doubt or uncertainty that it might be other than He declared. He spoke of the earthly and the heavenly, of the human and the divine, with positive authority; and the people "were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power." ...
BLJ	38	7	It is a matter of the highest importance and interest to us that we understand what the truth is, and our petitions should go forth with the intense earnestness that we may be guided into all truth.--The Review and Herald, February 7, 1888.
------------------------Obey God, Just as Jesus Did, February 1
BLJ	40	1	This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:3, NKJV.
BLJ	40	2	The only-begotten Son of the infinite God has, by His words and in His practical example, left us a plain pattern which we are to copy. By His words He has educated us to obey God, and by His own practice He has showed us how we can obey God. This is the very work He wants every person to do, to obey God intelligently, and by precept and example teach others what they must do in order to be obedient children of God.
BLJ	40	3	Jesus has helped the whole world to an intelligent knowledge of His divine mission and work. He came to represent the character of the Father to our world; and as we study the life, the words, and works of Christ, we are helped in every way in the education of obedience to God; and as we copy the example He has given us, we are living epistles known and read of all men. We are the living human agencies to represent to the world the character of Christ. Not only did Christ show us how we may become obedient children, but He showed us in His own life and character just how to do those things which are right and acceptable with God, so there is no reason why we should not do those things which are pleasing in His sight.
BLJ	40	4	We are ever to be thankful that Jesus has proved to us by actual life that we can keep the commandments of God, contradicting Satan's falsehood that we cannot keep them. The great Teacher came to our world to stand at the head of humanity, to thus elevate and sanctify humanity by His holy obedience to all the requirements of God, showing it is possible to obey all the commandments of God. He has demonstrated that a lifelong obedience is possible. Thus He gives people to the world, as the Father gave the Son, to exemplify in their life the life of Christ.
BLJ	40	5	Christ redeemed Adam's disgraceful failure and fall, and was conqueror, thus testifying to all the unfallen worlds and to fallen humanity that through the divine power granted to Him of heaven human beings can keep the commandments of God. Jesus, the Son of God, humbled Himself for us, endured temptation for us, overcame in our behalf, to show us how we may overcome; by the closest ties He bound up His interest with humanity, and gave positive assurance that we shall not be tempted above that we are able; for with the temptation He will make a way of escape.--The Signs of the Times, April 17, 1893.
------------------------Everything Lost by Disobedience, February 2
BLJ	41	1	For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:5, NKJV.
BLJ	41	2	When Eve saw "that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat." It was grateful to the taste, and, as she ate, she seemed to feel a vivifying power, and imagined herself entering upon a higher state of existence. Having herself transgressed, she became a tempter to her husband, "and he did eat" (Genesis 3:6).
BLJ	41	3	"Your eyes shall be opened," the enemy had said; "ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5). Their eyes were indeed opened; but how sad the opening! The knowledge of evil, the curse of sin, was all that the transgressors gained. There was nothing poisonous in the fruit itself, and the sin was not merely in yielding to appetite. It was distrust of God's goodness, disbelief of His word, and rejection of His authority that made our first parents transgressors, and that brought into the world a knowledge of evil. It was this that opened the door to every species of falsehood and error.
BLJ	41	4	Man and woman lost all because they chose to listen to the deceiver rather than to Him who is Truth, who alone has understanding. By the mingling of evil with good, their minds had become confused, their mental and spiritual powers benumbed. No longer could they appreciate the good that God had so freely bestowed.
BLJ	41	5	Adam and Eve had chosen the knowledge of evil, and if they ever regained the position they had lost they must regain it under the unfavorable conditions they had brought upon themselves. No longer were they to dwell in Eden, for in its perfection it could not teach them the lessons which it was now essential for them to learn. In unutterable sadness they bade farewell to their beautiful surroundings and went forth to dwell upon the earth, where rested the curse of sin....
BLJ	41	6	Although the earth was blighted with the curse, nature was still to be humanity's lesson book. It could not now represent goodness only; for evil was everywhere present, marring earth and sea and air with its defiling touch. Where once was written only the character of God, the knowledge of good, was now written also the character of Satan, the knowledge of evil. From nature, which now revealed the knowledge of good and evil, humankind was continually to receive warning as to the results of sin.--Education, 25, 26.
------------------------The Promise of Redemption, February 3
BLJ	42	1	I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. Genesis 3:15, NKJV.
BLJ	42	2	In drooping flower and falling leaf Adam and his companion witnessed the first signs of decay. Vividly was brought to their minds the stern fact that every living thing must die. Even the air, upon which their life depended, bore the seeds of death.
BLJ	42	3	Continually they were reminded also of their lost dominion. Among the lower creatures Adam had stood as king, and so long as he remained loyal to God, all nature acknowledged his rule; but when he transgressed, this dominion was forfeited. The spirit of rebellion, to which he himself had given entrance, extended throughout the animal creation. Thus not only the life of humans, but the nature of the beasts, the trees of the forest, the grass of the field, the very air they breathed, all told the sad lesson of the knowledge of evil.
BLJ	42	4	But mortals were not abandoned to the results of the evil they had chosen. In the sentence pronounced upon Satan was given an intimation of redemption. "I will put enmity between thee and the woman," God said, "and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15). This sentence, spoken in the hearing of our first parents, was to them a promise. Before they heard of the thorn and the thistle, of the toil and sorrow that must be their portion, or of the dust to which they must return, they listened to words that could not fail of giving them hope. All that had been lost by yielding to Satan could be regained through Christ.
BLJ	42	5	This intimation also nature repeats to us. Though marred by sin, it speaks not only of creation but of redemption. Though the earth bears testimony to the curse in the evident signs of decay, it is still rich and beautiful in the tokens of life-giving power. The trees cast off their leaves, only to be robed with fresher verdure; the flowers die, to spring forth in new beauty; and in every manifestation of creative power is held out the assurance that we may be created anew in "righteousness and holiness of truth" (Ephesians 4:24, margin). Thus the very objects and operations of nature that bring so vividly to mind our great loss become to us the messengers of hope.
BLJ	42	6	As far as evil extends, the voice of our Father is heard, bidding His children see in its results the nature of sin, warning them to forsake the evil, and inviting them to receive the good.--Education, 26, 27.
------------------------God's Word the Supreme Authority, February 4
BLJ	43	1	Then Samuel said: "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." 1 Samuel 15:22, NKJV.
BLJ	43	2	The word of the Lord is to be obeyed without question; it is to be the supreme authority in our life. Saul departed from the express commandment of the Lord, and sought to quiet the compunctions of conscience by persuading himself that the Lord would accept his sacrifice and overlook his disobedience. When Samuel, the prophet, came to meet him, Saul acted as though he regarded himself as a righteous man, and exclaimed, "Blessed be thou of the Lord; I have performed the commandment of the Lord."
BLJ	43	3	But the unmistakable tokens of his disobedience were so manifest that his assertion of obedience was of little weight. "And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God." "And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king." ...
BLJ	43	4	The Word of God is to be of supreme authority. The Lord says, "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." God could not change one tittle of His law without ceasing to be supreme. People cannot bend the law of God to suit their ideas, and, failing to bring it into harmony with themselves, they break its commands and violate its precepts. All too late the world will learn that they cannot judge the Word of God, but that the Word of God will judge them. Would that everyone would consider how foolish and how wicked it is to contend with God! Would that they would cease to oppose their will against the will of the Infinite! Those who oppose God will yet learn that in so doing they have forsaken the only path that leads to holiness, happiness, and heaven.--The Signs of the Times, January 9, 1896.
------------------------Jesus Showed That We Can Obey, February 5
BLJ	44	1	Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. 1 John 3:24, NKJV.
BLJ	44	2	"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him" (John 14:21).
BLJ	44	3	"He that hath my commandments" means a person that hath light upon what constitutes the commandments of God, and will not disobey His commandments, although it might seem an advantage to do so....If it were not possible for us to keep the commandments of God, we should all be lost. But under the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant of grace, every provision for salvation has been made. "By grace ye are saved." "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." ...
BLJ	44	4	There are but two classes in our world, the obedient and the disobedient, the holy and the unholy. When our transgressions were laid upon Jesus, He was numbered among the unholy on the sinner's account. He became our substitute, our surety, before the Father and all the heavenly angels. By imputing the sins of the world to Jesus, He became the sinner in our stead, and the curse due to our sins came upon Him. It becomes us to contemplate Christ's life of humiliation and His agonizing death; for He was treated as the sinner deserves to be treated. He came to our world, clothing His divinity with humanity, to bear the test and proving of God. By His example of perfect obedience in His human nature, He teaches us that we may be obedient.
BLJ	44	5	And the apostle writes, "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." It is here plainly revealed that all who believe in Jesus Christ become partakers of the divine nature. Let divinity and humanity cooperate, and fallen human beings may be more than conquerors through Christ Jesus.--The Signs of the Times, April 24, 1893.
------------------------Obey From Principle, February 6
BLJ	45	1	Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. 2 Peter 1:10, NRSV.
BLJ	45	2	Eternal life is worth your all, and Jesus has said, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). He who does nothing, but waits to be compelled by some supernatural agency, will wait on in lethargy and darkness. God has given His Word. God speaks in unmistakable language to your soul. Is not the word of His mouth sufficient to show you your duty, and to urge its fulfillment?
BLJ	45	3	Those who humbly and prayerfully search the Scriptures, to know and to do God's will, will not be in doubt of their obligations to God. For "if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine" (John 7:17). If you would know the mystery of godliness, you must follow the plain word of truth--feeling or no feeling, emotion or no emotion. Obedience must be rendered from a sense of principle, and the right must be pursued under all circumstances. This is the character that is elected of God unto salvation.
BLJ	45	4	The test of a genuine Christian is given in the Word of God. Says Jesus, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.... If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me" (Verses 21-24).
BLJ	45	5	Here are the conditions upon which every soul will be elected to eternal life. Your obedience to God's commandments will prove your right to an inheritance with the saints in light. God has elected a certain excellence of character; and everyone who, through the grace of Christ, shall reach the standard of His requirement will have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of glory.--Christian Education, 117, 118.
------------------------Israel Pledges to Obey God's Commandments, February 7
BLJ	46	1	Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, "All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient." Exodus 24:7, NKJV.
BLJ	46	2	Preparation was now made for the ratification of the covenant, according to God's directions. [Exodus 24:4-8 quoted.]
BLJ	46	3	Here the people received the conditions of the covenant. They made a solemn covenant with God, typifying the covenant made between God and every believer in Jesus Christ. The conditions were plainly laid before the people. They were not left to misunderstand them. When they were requested to decide whether they would agree to all the conditions given, they unanimously consented to obey every obligation. They had already consented to obey God's commandments. The principles of the law were now particularized, that they might know how much was involved in covenanting to obey the law; and they accepted the specifically defined particulars of the law.
BLJ	46	4	If the Israelites had obeyed God's requirements, they would have been practical Christians. They would have been happy; for they would have been keeping God's ways, and not following the inclinations of their own natural hearts. Moses did not leave them to misconstrue the words of the Lord or to misapply His requirements. He wrote all the words of the Lord in a book, that they might be referred to afterward. In the mount he had written them as Christ Himself dictated them.
BLJ	46	5	Bravely did the Israelites speak the words promising obedience to the Lord, after hearing His covenant read in the audience of the people. They said, "All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient" (Exodus 24:7). Then the people were set apart and sealed to God. A sacrifice was offered to the Lord. A portion of the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled upon the altar. This signified that the people had consecrated themselves--body, mind, and soul--to God. A portion was sprinkled upon the people. This signified that through the sprinkled blood of Christ, God graciously accepted them as His special treasure. Thus the Israelites entered into a solemn covenant with God.--Manuscript Releases 1:114, 115.
------------------------Christ's Perfect Obedience Can Be Ours, February 8
BLJ	47	1	For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19, NKJV.
BLJ	47	2	[Scripture tells] the story so important for every human being to know. On the one hand is presented the disobedience of Adam, with its consequences; on the other, the obedience of Christ. The Garden of Eden was disgraced by Adam's disobedience; but as by that one transgression many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One, many are made righteous.
BLJ	47	3	The world has been honored with the presence of one Man who was wholly and entirely obedient--One who not only believed and taught the claims of God's law, but who lived the law. His whole life was a representation of its holy principles. His obedience was manifested in the awful agony He endured in the Garden of Gethsemane; and through His suffering He has brought pardon to the disobedient.
BLJ	47	4	When Christ gave to His disciples the conditions of salvation, He said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Self-denial and crosses lie directly in the path of every soul who will follow Jesus. Our advance heavenward will be opposed at every step; for Satan will come in many ways to mislead, to deceive, and to clothe sin with the appearance of good....
BLJ	47	5	I would urge you ... carefully to consider the self-denial and self-sacrifice that Christ has endured in your behalf, that you, if you choose, may have that happiness and peace in this life which He alone can give, and an eternity of bliss by and by. Then will you not become missionaries for Christ? Are you not willing to deny self for His sake? to consider how you can do Him service who has done such service for you in redeeming your soul from the power of sin and Satan? When upon earth, Christ said of Himself, "I am among you as he that serveth." He did not strive to obtain the highest place; for He was meek and lowly in heart. He invites you to learn of Him, to wear His yoke--the yoke of obedience to every precept of Jehovah.--Youth's Instructor, April 1, 1897.
------------------------Obedience Through Grace, February 9
BLJ	48	1	For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8, NKJV.
BLJ	48	2	God desires us to reach the standard of perfection made possible for us by the gift of Christ. He calls upon us to make our choice on the right side, to connect with heavenly agencies, to adopt principles that will restore in us the divine image. In His written Word and in the great book of nature He has revealed the principles of life. It is our work to obtain a knowledge of these principles, and by obedience to cooperate with Him in restoring health to the body as well as to the soul.
BLJ	48	3	Human beings need to learn that the blessings of obedience, in their fullness, can be theirs only as they receive the grace of Christ. It is His grace that gives men and women power to obey the laws of God. It is this that enables them to break the bondage of evil habit. This is the only power that can make them and keep them steadfast in the right path....
BLJ	48	4	When the gospel is received in its purity and power, it is a cure for the maladies that originated in sin. The Sun of Righteousness arises, "with healing in his wings" (Malachi 4:2). Not all that this world bestows can heal a broken heart, or impart peace of mind, or remove care, or banish disease. Fame, genius, talent--all are powerless to gladden the sorrowful heart or to restore the wasted life. The life of God in the soul is humanity's only hope.
BLJ	48	5	The love which Christ diffuses through the whole being is a vitalizing power. Every vital part--the brain, the heart, the nerves--it touches with healing.... It implants in the soul joy that nothing earthly can destroy--joy in the Holy Spirit--health-giving, life-giving joy....
BLJ	48	6	Although for ages sin has been strengthening its hold on the human race, although through falsehood and artifice Satan has cast the black shadow of his interpretation upon the Word of God, and has caused men and women to doubt His goodness; yet the Father's mercy and love have not ceased to flow earthward in rich currents. If human beings would open the windows of the soul heavenward, in appreciation of the divine gifts, a flood of healing virtue would pour in.--The Ministry of Healing, 114-116.
------------------------Christ, the Model of True Obedience, February 10
BLJ	49	1	Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? Romans 6:16, NKJV.
BLJ	49	2	Adam did not stop to calculate the result of his disobedience....With the aftersight we are privileged to have, we can see what it means to disobey God's commandments. Adam yielded to temptation, and as we have the matter of sin and its consequences laid so distinctly before us, we can read from cause to effect and see the greatness of the act is not that which constitutes sin; but the disobedience of God's expressed will, which is a virtual denial of God, refusing the laws of His government.
BLJ	49	3	The happiness of men and women is in their obedience to the laws of God. In their obedience to God's law they are surrounded as with a hedge and kept from the evil. They cannot be happy and depart from God's specified requirements, and set up a standard of their own, which they decide they can safely follow. Then there would be a variety of standards to suit the different minds, and the government [would be] taken out of the Lord's hands and human beings [would] grasp the reins of government. The law of self is erected, the will of humankind is made supreme, and when the high and holy will of God is presented to be obeyed, respected, and honored the human will wants its own way to do its own promptings, and there is a controversy between the human agent and the divine.
BLJ	49	4	The fall of our first parents broke the golden chain of implicit obedience of the human will to the divine. Obedience has no longer been deemed an absolute necessity. The human agents follow their own imaginations, which the Lord said of the inhabitants of the old world were evil and that continually. The Lord Jesus declares, "I have kept my Father's commandments." How? As a man. Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. To the accusations of the Jews He stood forth in His pure, virtuous, holy character and challenged them, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" ...
BLJ	49	5	The only-begotten Son of the infinite God has, by His words, His practical example, left us a plain pattern which we are to copy. By His words He has educated us to obey God, and by His own practice He has showed us how we can obey God.--Manuscript Releases 6:337-339.
------------------------Happiness Guarded by God's Law, February 11
BLJ	50	1	For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh. Romans 8:3, NKJV.
BLJ	50	2	The happiness of human beings must always be guarded by the law of God. In obedience only can they find true happiness. The law is the hedge which God has placed about His vineyard. By it those who obey are protected from evil. In transgression Adam became a law to himself. By disobedience he was brought under bondage. Thus a discordant element, born of selfishness, entered human beings. Their will and God's will no longer harmonized. Adam had united with the disloyal forces, and self-will took the field.
BLJ	50	3	By Christ the true standard is presented. He made it possible for humankind to be once more united with God. He came to take the sentence of death for the transgressor. Not one precept of the law could be altered to meet men and women in their fallen condition; therefore Christ gave His life in their behalf, to suffer in their stead the penalty of disobedience. This was the only way in which humanity could be saved, the only way in which it could be demonstrated that it is possible for them to keep the law. Christ came to this earth and stood where Adam stood, overcoming where Adam failed to overcome. He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption....
BLJ	50	4	Before the foundation of the world, Christ pledged His word that He would give His life as a ransom if men and women turned from their allegiance to God. He revealed His love by humbling Himself, stooping from heaven to work among fallen, disorderly, lawless human beings. Of themselves they could not possibly cope with the enemy. Christ offers Himself and all He has, His glory, His character, to the service of those who return to their loyalty and keep the law of God. This is their only hope. Christ says definitely, I came not to destroy the law. It is a transcript of God's character, and I came to carry out its every specification. I came to vindicate it by living it in human nature, giving an example of perfect obedience.--The Signs of the Times, June 13, 1900.
------------------------Obedience to Be Rewarded, February 12
BLJ	51	1	Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Colossians 3:20, NKJV.
BLJ	51	2	Children who dishonor and disobey their parents, and disregard their advice and instructions, can have no part in the earth made new. The purified new earth will be no place for the rebellious, the disobedient, the ungrateful, son or daughter. Unless such learn obedience and submission here, they will never learn it; the peace of the ransomed will not be marred by disobedient, unruly, unsubmissive children. No commandment breaker can inherit the kingdom of heaven....
BLJ	51	3	The young are required in whatsoever they do, in word or deed, to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. I saw that but few of the youth understand what it is to be Christians, to be Christlike. They will have to learn the truths of God's Word before they can conform their lives to the pattern. There is not one young person in twenty who has experienced in his or her life that separation from the world which the Lord requires of all who would become members of His family, children of the heavenly King. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
BLJ	51	4	What a promise is here made upon condition of obedience! Do you have to cut loose from friends and relatives in deciding to obey the elevated truths of God's Word? Take courage, God has made provision for you, His arms are open to receive you. Come out from among them and be separate, and touch not the unclean, and He will receive you. He promises to be a Father unto you. Oh, what a relationship is this! higher and holier than any earthly tie. If you make the sacrifice, if you have to forsake father, mother, sisters, brothers, wife, and children for Christ's sake, you will not be friendless. God adopts you into His family; you become members of the royal household, sons and daughters of the King who rules in the heaven of heavens. Can you desire a more exalted position than is here promised? Is not this enough?--Testimonies for the Church 1:497-510.
------------------------Commandment-keeping Families Glorify Christ, February 13
BLJ	52	1	Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray. Proverbs 22:6, NRSV.
BLJ	52	2	Children must be taught that they are a part of the home firm. They are fed, and clothed, and loved, and cared for; and they must respond to these many mercies by bringing all the happiness possible into the family of which they are members. Thus they become children of God, missionaries in the home circle.
BLJ	52	3	If parents neglect the education of their children, they deprive them of that which is necessary for the development of a symmetrical, all-sided character, which will be of the greatest blessing to them all through their life. If children are allowed to have their own way, they receive the idea that they must be waited upon, cared for, indulged, and amused. They think that their wishes and their will must be gratified. Educated in this way, they carry through all their religious experience the deficiencies of their home training.
BLJ	52	4	God would have our families symbols of the family in heaven. Let parents and children bear this in mind every day, relating themselves to one another as members of the family of God. Then their lives will be of such a character as to give to the world an object lesson of what families who love God and keep His commandments may be. Christ will be glorified; His peace and grace and love will pervade the family circle like a precious perfume. A beautiful offering, in the lives of children of Christian missionaries, will be made to God. This will make the heart of Jesus glad, and will be regarded by Him as the most precious offering He can receive.
BLJ	52	5	May the Lord Jesus Christ be an object of worship in every family. If parents give their children the proper education, they themselves will be made happy by seeing the fruit of their careful training in the Christlike character of their children. They are doing God the highest service by presenting to the world well-ordered, well-disciplined families, who not only fear the Lord, but honor and glorify Him by their influence upon other families; and they will receive their reward.--The Review and Herald, November 17, 1896.
------------------------Obedience Brings Peace and Happiness, February 14
BLJ	53	1	And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:8, NKJV.
BLJ	53	2	Before us is held out the wonderful possibility of being like Christ--obedient to all the principles of the law of God. But of ourselves we are utterly powerless to attain to this condition. All that is good in human beings comes to them through Christ. The holiness that God's Word declares we must have before we can be saved is the result of the working of divine grace as we bow in submission to the discipline and restraining influence of the Spirit of truth.
BLJ	53	3	Humanity's obedience can be made perfect only by the incense of Christ's righteousness, which fills with divine fragrance every act of true obedience. The part of the Christian is to persevere in overcoming every fault. Constantly he or she is to pray to the Savior to heal the disorders of their diseased souls. They have not the wisdom and strength without which mortals cannot overcome. These belong to the Lord, and He bestows them on those who in humiliation and contrition seek Him for help....
BLJ	53	4	The reason that many who once knew and loved the Savior are now in darkness, wandering far from Him, is because in self-confidence and self-sufficiency they have followed their own inclinations. They walked not in the way of the Lord--the only way of peace and happiness. By disobedience they cut themselves off from receiving His blessings, when by obedience they might have gone forward in His strength.
BLJ	53	5	The abundant evidence given by God that He desires the salvation of all will be the condemnation of those who refuse the gift of heaven. At the last great day, when all will be rewarded or punished according to their obedience or disobedience, the cross of Calvary will appear plainly before those standing before the Judge of all the earth to receive sentence for eternity. They are made capable of comprehending something of the love that God has expressed for fallen human beings. They see how greatly He has been dishonored by those who have continued in transgression, choosing sides with Satan, and showing contempt for the law of Jehovah. They see that obedience to this law would have brought them life and health, prosperity and eternal good.--The Review and Herald, March 15, 1906.
------------------------Joy in Loving Obedience, February 15
BLJ	54	1	You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.... You became filled with violence within, and you sinned. Ezekiel 28:15, 16, NKJV.
BLJ	54	2	So long as all created beings acknowledged the allegiance of love, there was perfect harmony throughout the universe of God. It was the joy of the heavenly host to fulfill the purpose of their Creator. They delighted in reflecting His glory and showing forth His praise. And while love to God was supreme, love for one another was confiding and unselfish. There was no note of discord to mar the celestial harmonies. But a change came over this happy state.
BLJ	54	3	There was one who perverted the freedom that God had granted to His creatures. Sin originated with him who, next to Christ, had been most honored of God and was highest in power and glory among the inhabitants of heaven. Lucifer, "son of the morning," was first of the covering cherubs, holy and undefiled. He stood in the presence of the great Creator, and the ceaseless beams of glory enshrouding the eternal God rested upon him....
BLJ	54	4	Little by little Lucifer came to indulge the desire for self-exaltation....Though all his glory was from God, this mighty angel came to regard it as pertaining to himself. Not content with his position, though honored above the heavenly host, he ventured to covet homage due alone to the Creator. Instead of seeking to make God supreme in the affections and allegiance of all created beings, it was his endeavor to secure their service and loyalty to himself. And coveting the glory with which the infinite Father had invested His Son, this prince of angels aspired to power that was the prerogative of Christ alone.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 35.
BLJ	54	5	The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all intelligent beings depends upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. God desires from all His creatures the service of love--service that springs from an appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced obedience; and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 34
------------------------Jesus Gives Power to Obey, February 16
BLJ	55	1	For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:15, 16, NKJV.
BLJ	55	2	Satan represents God's law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts. The fall of our first parents, with all the woe that has resulted, he charges upon the Creator, leading men and women to look upon God as the author of sin, and suffering, and death. Jesus was to unveil this deception. As one of us He was to give an example of obedience. For this He took upon Himself our nature, and passed through our experiences. "In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren" (Hebrews 2:17).
BLJ	55	3	If we had to bear anything which Jesus did not endure, then upon this point Satan would represent the power of God as insufficient for us. Therefore Jesus was "in all points tempted like as we are" (Hebrews 4:15). He endured every trial to which we are subject. And He exercised in His own behalf no power that is not freely offered to us. As man, He met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him from God. He says, "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:8).
BLJ	55	4	As He went about doing good, and healing all who were afflicted by Satan, He made plain to human beings the character of God's law and the nature of His service. His life testifies that it is possible for us also to obey the law of God.
BLJ	55	5	By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey. .. .
BLJ	55	6	Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. "With his stripes we are healed."--The Desire of Ages, 24, 25.
------------------------Abraham's Great Example of Obedience, February 17
BLJ	56	1	In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice. Genesis 22:18, NKJV.
BLJ	56	2	On Mount Moriah, God again renewed His covenant, confirming with a solemn oath the blessing to Abraham and to his seed through all coming generations: "By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore." ...
BLJ	56	3	Abraham's great act of faith stands like a pillar of light, illuminating the pathway of God's servants in all succeeding ages. Abraham did not seek to excuse himself from doing the will of God. During that three days' journey he had sufficient time to reason, and to doubt God, if he was disposed to doubt.... Abraham was human; his passions and attachments were like ours; but he did not stop to question how the promise could be fulfilled if Isaac should be slain. He did not stay to reason with his aching heart. He knew that God is just and righteous in all His requirements, and he obeyed the command to the very letter....
BLJ	56	4	It was to impress Abraham's mind with the reality of the gospel, as well as to test his faith, that God commanded him to slay his son. The agony which he endured during the dark days of that fearful trial was permitted that he might understand from his own experience something of the greatness of the sacrifice made by the infinite God for humanity's redemption. No other test could have caused Abraham such torture of soul as did the offering of his son.... What stronger proof can be given of the infinite compassion and love of God? "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).--Patriarchs and Prophets, 153, 154.
------------------------God's Law Important for All Time, February 18
BLJ	57	1	Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Exodus 19:5, 6, NKJV.
BLJ	57	2	This covenant [Exodus 19:1-6] is a revelation of God's goodness. The people had not sought for it. They were not reaching out their hands after God; but He Himself graciously extended His almighty arm, inviting them to link their arm with His, that He might be their defense. He voluntarily chose as His heritage a nation that had just come from Egyptian slavery, a people who must be educated and trained at every step. What an expression of omnipotent goodness and love! ...
BLJ	57	3	Over and over again, the Lord permitted His people to be brought into strait places, that in their deliverance, He might reveal His mercy and His goodness. If they now chose to disbelieve Him, they must doubt the evidence of their own eyes. They had had unmistakable proof that He was a living God, "merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth" (Exodus 34:6). He had honored Israel in the sight of all the heavenly intelligences. He brought them unto Himself--into covenant relation and communion with Him.
BLJ	57	4	The children of Israel had been three months on their journey from Egypt, and were now camped before Mount Sinai, where in awful grandeur, the Lord spoke His law. He did not manifest Himself in grand buildings made with human hands, the structures of human device. He revealed His glory in a high mountain, a temple of His own creation. The top of Mount Sinai rose above all others, in a range of mountains in the barren desert. This mountain God chose as the place where He would make Himself known to His people.
BLJ	57	5	He appeared to them in awful grandeur, and spoke in audible voice. He there revealed Himself to His people, as He never has at any other time, thereby showing the importance of the law for all ages. God is particular today that we keep His commandments.--Manuscript Releases 1:105, 106.
------------------------Disobedience Indicates Rebellion, February 19
BLJ	58	1	Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19, NRSV.
BLJ	58	2	Any person who willfully breaks one commandment does not, in spirit and truth, keep any of them. "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10).
BLJ	58	3	It is not the greatness of the act of disobedience that constitutes sin, but the fact of variance from God's expressed will in the least particular; for this shows that there is yet communion between the soul and sin. The heart is divided in its service. There is a virtual denial of God, a rebellion against the laws of His government.
BLJ	58	4	Were men and women free to depart from the Lord's requirements and to set up a standard of duty for themselves, there would be a variety of standards to suit different minds and the government would be taken out of the Lord's hands. The will of human beings would be made supreme, and the high and holy will of God--His purpose of love toward His creatures--would be dishonored, disrespected.
BLJ	58	5	Whenever created beings choose their own way, they place themselves in controversy with God. They will have no place in the kingdom of heaven, for they are at war with the very principles of heaven. In disregarding the will of God, they are placing themselves on the side of Satan, the enemy of God and humanity. Not by one word, not by many words, but by every word that God has spoken, shall we live. We cannot disregard one word, however trifling it may seem to us, and be safe. There is not a commandment of the law that is not for the good and happiness of men and women, both in this life and in the life to come. In obedience to God's law, His children are surrounded as with a hedge and kept from the evil. Those who break down this divinely erected barrier at one point have destroyed its power to protect them; for they have opened a way by which the enemy can enter to waste and ruin.
BLJ	58	6	By venturing to disregard the will of God upon one point, our first parents opened the floodgates of woe upon the world. And every individual who follows their example will reap a similar result. The love of God underlies every precept of His law, and those who depart from the commandment are working their own unhappiness and ruin.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 51, 52.
------------------------Obedience Results in Happiness, February 20
BLJ	59	1	Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked ...; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. Psalm 1:1, 2, NRSV.
BLJ	59	2	It is essential that every subject of the kingdom of God should be obedient to the law of Jehovah, in order that His infinite glory may have a perfect establishment. The professed followers of Christ are tested in this life to see whether or not they will be obedient to God. Obedience will result in happiness, and will insure the reward of eternal life.
BLJ	59	3	Failure on the part of Adam on one point resulted in terrible consequences, and sin has grown to such vast proportions that it cannot be measured. But in the midst of rebellion and apostasy, in the midst of those who were disloyal, impenitent, and obstinate, God looks down upon those who love Him and keep His commandments, and says, "I love them that love me," and will cause them to inherit substance. "I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me."
BLJ	59	4	Christ lived in accordance with the principles of God's moral government, and fulfilled the specifications of the law of God. He represented the beneficence of the law in His human life. The fact that the law is holy, just, and good is to be testified before all nations, tongues, and peoples, to worlds unfallen, to angels, seraphim, and cherubim. The principles of the law of God were wrought out in the character of Jesus Christ, and he who cooperates with Christ, becoming a partaker of the divine nature, will develop the divine character, and become an illustration of the divine law. Christ in the heart will bring the whole person, soul, body, and spirit, into captivity to the obedience of righteousness. Christ's true followers will be in conformity to the mind and will and character of God, and the far-reaching principles of the law will be demonstrated in humanity....
BLJ	59	5	Satan had declared that God knew nothing of self-denial, of mercy and love, but that He was stern, exacting, and unforgiving. Satan never tested the forgiving love of God; for he never exercised genuine repentance. His representations of God were incorrect; he was a false witness, an accuser of Christ, and an accuser of all those who throw off the satanic yoke, and come back to render willing allegiance to the God of heaven.--The Review and Herald, March 9, 1897.
------------------------Even Nature Obeys Divine Commands, February 21
BLJ	60	1	And the men marveled, saying, "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" Matthew 8:27, NKJV.
BLJ	60	2	The savior was wearied from His long and arduous labors, and being now for a time relieved from the claims of the multitude, He stretched Himself upon the hard plank of the fishermen's boat and fell asleep. Soon after, the weather, which had been calm and pleasant, changed. The clouds gathered darkly over the sky, and a furious storm, such as frequently visited those parts, burst upon the sea. The sun had set, and the blackness of night settled down upon the water. The angry waves dashed against the ship, threatening every moment to engulf it. First tossed upon the crest of a mountain billow, and then as suddenly plunged into the trough of the sea, the ship was the plaything of the storm.... The strong and courageous fishermen ... knew not what to do in so terrible a gale.... The waves break over them, and each one threatens them with destruction....
BLJ	60	3	"Master, carest thou not that we perish?" ... This despairing cry arouses Jesus from His refreshing sleep.... In His divine majesty He stands in the humble vessel of the fishermen, amid the raging of the tempest, the waves breaking over the bows, and the vivid lightning playing about His calm and fearless countenance. He lifts His hand, so often employed in deeds of mercy, and says to the angry sea, "Peace, be still." The storm ceases, the heaving billows sink to rest. The clouds roll away, and the stars shine forth; the boat sits motionless upon a quiet sea. Then, turning to His disciples, Jesus rebukes them, saying, "Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?"
BLJ	60	4	A sudden hush crept over the disciples. Not a word was spoken; even impulsive Peter did not attempt to express the reverential awe that filled his heart. The boats that had set out to accompany Jesus had been in the same peril with that of the disciples. Fear and finally despair had seized their occupants; but the command of Jesus brought quiet where but a moment before all was tumult. All fear was allayed, for the danger was over. The fury of the storm had driven the boats into close proximity, and all on board beheld the miracle of Jesus. In the hush that followed the stilling of the tempest, they whispered among themselves, "What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" Never was this impressive scene forgotten by those who witnessed it.--The Spirit of Prophecy 2:307-309.
------------------------Obey God, the Supreme Authority, February 22
BLJ	61	1	Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, "We ought to obey God rather than men." Acts 5:29, NKJV.
BLJ	61	2	The principle for which the disciples stood so fearlessly when, in answer to the command not to speak any more in the name of Jesus, they declared, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye," is the same that the adherents of the gospel struggled to maintain in the days of the Reformation. When in 1529 the German princes assembled at the Diet of Spires, there was presented the emperor's decree restricting religious liberty, and prohibiting all further dissemination of the reformed doctrines. It seemed that the hope of the world was about to be crushed out. Would the princes accept the decree? Should the light of the gospel be shut out from the multitudes still in darkness? Mighty issues for the world were at stake. Those who had accepted the reformed faith met together, and their unanimous decision was, "Let us reject this decree. In matters of conscience the majority has no power" (Merle d'Aubigné, History of the Reformation, book 13, chap. 5).
BLJ	61	3	This principle we in our day are firmly to maintain. The banner of truth and religious liberty held aloft by the founders of the gospel church and by God's witnesses during the centuries that have passed since then, has, in this last conflict, been committed to our hands. The responsibility for this great gift rests with those whom God has blessed with a knowledge of His Word. We are to receive this Word as supreme authority. We are to recognize human government as an ordinance of divine appointment, and teach obedience to it as a sacred duty, within its legitimate sphere. But when its claims conflict with the claims of God, we must obey God rather than human beings. God's Word must be recognized as above all human legislation. A "Thus saith the Lord" is not to be set aside for a "Thus saith the church" or a "Thus saith the state." The crown of Christ is to be lifted above the diadems of earthly potentates....
BLJ	61	4	We are not to say or do anything that would unnecessarily close up our way. We are to go forward in Christ's name, advocating the truths committed to us. If we are forbidden by others to do this work, then we may say, as did the apostles, ... "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20).--The Acts of the Apostles, 68, 69.
------------------------Make Obedience Attractive, February 23
BLJ	62	1	Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today. Deuteronomy 11:26-28, NKJV.
BLJ	62	2	Men and women are not to presume to put aside God's great moral standard and erect a standard according to their own finite judgment. It is because they are measuring themselves among themselves and living according to their own standard that iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes cold. Contempt is shown to the law of God, and because of this many presume to transgress, and even those who have had the light of truth are wavering in their allegiance to the law of God. Will the current of evil that is setting so strongly toward perdition sweep them away? Or will they, with courage and fidelity, stem the tide and maintain loyalty to God amid the prevailing evil? ...
BLJ	62	3	Those who profess to serve God are to do the work of relieving the oppressed. They are to bear the fruit of the good tree. Those who are truly Christ's will not bring oppression in the home or in the church. Parents who are following the Lord will diligently teach their children the statutes and commandments of God; but they will not do it in such a way that the service of God will become repulsive to their children. Where parents love God with all their hearts, the truth as it is in Jesus will be practiced and taught in the home....
BLJ	62	4	We are closely to examine ourselves.... We should plead with God for spiritual eyesight, that we may discern our mistakes and understand our defection of character. If we have been critical and condemnatory, full of faultfinding, talking doubt and darkness, we have a work of repentance and reformation to do. We are to walk in the light, speaking words that will bring peace and happiness. Jesus is to abide in the soul. And where He is, instead of gloom, murmuring, and repining, there will be fragrance of character.--The Review and Herald, June 12, 1894.
------------------------God's Law Is Perfect, February 24
BLJ	63	1	The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Psalm 19:7, 8, NKJV.
BLJ	63	2	The very same Jesus, who, veiled in the cloudy pillar, led the Hebrew hosts, is our leader. He who gave wise and righteous and good laws to Israel has spoken to us as verily as to them. Our prosperity and happiness depend upon our unwavering obedience to the law of God. Finite wisdom could not improve one precept of that holy law. Not one of those ten precepts can be broken without disloyalty to the God of heaven. To keep every jot and tittle of the law is essential for our own happiness, and for the happiness of all connected with us. "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them." Yet finite creatures will present to the people this holy, just, and good law as a yoke of bondage--a yoke which they cannot bear! It is the transgressor that can see no beauty in the law of God.
BLJ	63	3	The whole world will be judged by this law. It reaches even to the intents and purposes of the heart, and demands purity in the most secret thoughts, desires, and dispositions. It requires us to love God supremely, and our neighbor as ourselves. Without the exercise of this love, the highest profession of faith is mere hypocrisy. God claims, from every soul of the human family, perfect obedience to His law. "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."
BLJ	63	4	The least deviation from that law, by neglect, or willful transgression, is sin, and every sin exposes the sinner to the wrath of God. The unrenewed heart will hate the restrictions of the law of God, and will strive to throw off its holy claims. Our eternal welfare depends upon a proper understanding of the law of God, a deep conviction of its holy character, and a ready obedience to its requirements. Men and women must be convicted of sin before they will feel their need of Christ.... Those who trample under their feet the law of God have rejected the only means to define to the transgressor what sin is. They are doing the work of the great deceiver.--The Signs of the Times, March 3, 1881.
------------------------Jesus, the Perfect Pattern of Obedience, February 25
BLJ	64	1	Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. Luke 2:51, NKJV.
BLJ	64	2	When Christ was twelve years old, He went with His parents to Jerusalem to attend the feast of the Passover, and on their return He was lost in the multitude. After Joseph and Mary had searched for Him for three days, they found Him in the court of the Temple, "sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." He asked His questions with a grace that charmed these learned men. He was a perfect pattern for all youth. Ever He manifested deference and respect for age. The religion of Jesus will never lead any child to be rude and uncourteous.
BLJ	64	3	When Joseph and Mary found Jesus, they were amazed, "and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me?" Pointing heavenward, He continued, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" As He spoke these words, divinity flashed through humanity. The light and glory of heaven illuminated His countenance....
BLJ	64	4	Christ did not enter upon His public ministry for eighteen years after this, but He was constantly ministering to others, improving every opportunity offered Him. Even in His childhood He spoke words of comfort and tenderness to young and old. His mother could not but mark His words, His spirit, His willing obedience to all her requirements.
BLJ	64	5	It is not correct to say, as many writers have said, that Christ was like all children. He was not like all children. Many children are misguided and mismanaged.... Jesus was instructed in accordance with the sacred character of His mission. His inclination to right was a constant gratification to His parents. The questions He asked them led them to study most earnestly the great elements of truth. His soul-stirring words about nature and the God of nature opened and enlightened their minds.--Youth's Instructor, September 8, 1898.
------------------------Our Obedience Enables God to Fulfill Promises, February 26
BLJ	65	1	Today you have proclaimed the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice. Deuteronomy 26:17, NKJV.
BLJ	65	2	Let us be loyal and true to every precept of the law of God. The Lord declares that if we will obey the principles of His law, these principles will be our life...
BLJ	65	3	The precepts of God's law were not the production of any human mind, nor were they enacted by Moses. They were framed by the One infinite in wisdom, even Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and by Him were proclaimed from Sinai amidst scenes of awful grandeur. On obedience to these precepts depended Israel's prosperity.
BLJ	65	4	"Thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul." God did not give His commandments to us for us to obey when we pleased, and to disregard at our pleasure. They are the laws of His kingdom, and are to be obeyed by His subjects. If His people would obey His law with the whole heart, decided witness would be borne to the world that those whom He has avouched to be His people, His peculiar treasure, do indeed honor Him in all they do. Loyalty to God, unquestioning obedience to His law, would make His people a wonder in the world, because He would be able to fulfill His rich and abundant promises to them, and make them a praise in the earth. They would be a holy people unto Him.
BLJ	65	5	"Now therefore," God declares, "if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." How wonderful the largeness of God's promises! And they are given to all who will hearken to His Word, believing His declarations, and obeying His commands. Obedience to His law is the condition of future and eternal happiness.--The Southern Watchman, February 16, 1904.
------------------------Obedience Has Immediate and Eternal Rewards, February 27
BLJ	66	1	Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Deuteronomy 11:18, NKJV.
BLJ	66	2	These words [Deuteronomy 11:13-28 and 7:6-11] should be as distinctly stamped upon every soul as though written with a pen of iron. Obedience brings its reward, disobedience its retribution.
BLJ	66	3	God has given His people positive instruction, and has laid upon them positive restrictions, that they may obtain a perfect experience in His service, and be qualified to stand before the heavenly universe and before the fallen world as overcomers. They are to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Those who fall short of making the preparation essential will be numbered with the unthankful and the unholy.
BLJ	66	4	The Lord brings His people by ways they know not, that He may test and prove them. This world is our place of proving. Here we decide our eternal destiny. God humbles His people that His will may be wrought out through them. Thus He dealt with the children of Israel as He led them through the wilderness. He told them what their fate would have been had He not laid a restraining hand upon that which would have hurt them....
BLJ	66	5	God blesses the work of human hands that they may return to Him His portion. They are to devote their means to His service, that His vineyard may not remain a barren waste. They are to study what the Lord would do were He in their place. They are to take all difficult matters to Him in prayer. They are to reveal an unselfish interest in the building up of His work in all parts of the world....
BLJ	66	6	Let us remember that we are laborers together with God. We are not wise enough to work by ourselves. God has made us His stewards, to prove us and to try us, even as He proved and tried ancient Israel. He will not have His army composed of undisciplined, unsanctified, erratic soldiers, who would misrepresent His order and purity.--The Review and Herald, October 8, 1901.
------------------------Genuine Sanctification Involves Obedience, February 28
BLJ	67	1	For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. Romans 16:19, NKJV.
BLJ	67	2	Adam and Eve dared to transgress the Lord's requirements, and the terrible result of their sin should be a warning to us not to follow their example of disobedience. Christ prayed for His disciples in these words: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17). There is no genuine sanctification except through obedience to the truth. Those who love God with all the heart will love all His commandments also. The sanctified heart is in harmony with the precepts of God's law; for they are holy, just, and good.
BLJ	67	3	God's character has not changed. He is the same jealous God today as when He gave His law upon Sinai and wrote it with His own finger on the tables of stone. Those who trample upon God's holy law may say, "I am sanctified"; but to be indeed sanctified, and to claim sanctification, are two different things.
BLJ	67	4	The New Testament has not changed the law of God. The sacredness of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is as firmly established as the throne of Jehovah. John writes: "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth [transgresseth the law] hath not seen him, neither known him" (1 John 3:4-6).
BLJ	67	5	We are authorized to hold in the same estimation as did the beloved disciple those who claim to abide in Christ, to be sanctified, while living in transgression of God's law. He met with just such a class as we have to meet. He said, "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning" (Verses 7, 8). Here the apostle speaks in plain terms, as he deemed the subject demanded.
BLJ	67	6	The epistles of John breathe a spirit of love. But when he comes in contact with that class who break the law of God and yet claim that they are living without sin, he does not hesitate to warn them of their fearful deception. [First John 1:6-10 quoted.]--The Sanctified Life, 67-69.
------------------------Time to Study Revelation, March 1
BLJ	69	1	Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near. Revelation 1:3, NRSV.
BLJ	69	2	As we near the close of this world's history, the prophecies relating to the last days especially demand our study. The last book of the New Testament is full of truth that we need to understand. Satan has blinded the minds of many, so that they have been glad of any excuse for not making the Revelation their study....
BLJ	69	3	There should be a closer and more diligent study of this book [Revelation], a more earnest presentation of the truths it contains, truths which concern all who are living in these last days. All who are preparing to meet their Lord should make this book the subject of earnest study and prayer. It is just what its name signifies--a revelation of the most important events that are to take place in the last days of this earth's history. John, because of his faithful trust in the Word of God and the testimony of Christ, was banished to the Isle of Patmos. But his banishment did not separate him from Christ. The Lord visited His faithful servant in his banishment, and gave him instruction regarding what was to come upon the world.
BLJ	69	4	This instruction is of the greatest importance to us; for we are living in the last days of this earth's history. Soon we shall enter upon the fulfillment of the events which Christ showed John were to take place. As the messengers of the Lord present these solemn truths, they must realize that they are handling subjects of eternal interest, and they should seek for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that they may speak, not their own words, but the words given them by God....
BLJ	69	5	The perils of the last days are upon us, and in our work we are to warn the people of the danger they are in. Let not the solemn scenes that prophecy has revealed are soon to take place be left untouched. We are God's messengers, and we have no time to lose. Those who would be coworkers with our Lord Jesus Christ will show a deep interest in the truths found in this book. With pen and voice they will strive to make plain the wonderful things that Christ came from heaven to reveal.--The Signs of the Times, July 4, 1906.
------------------------Depend on Our Divine Advocate, March 2
BLJ	70	1	Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. Revelation 12:12, NKJV.
BLJ	70	2	Those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will feel the ire of the dragon and his hosts. Satan numbers the world as his subjects; he has gained control of the apostate churches. But here is a little company that are resisting his supremacy. If he could blot them from the earth, his triumph would be complete. As he influenced the heathen nations to destroy Israel, so in the near future he will stir up the wicked powers of earth to destroy the people of God. All will be required to render obedience to human edicts in violation of the divine law. Those who will be true to God and to duty will be menaced, denounced, and proscribed. They will be betrayed "both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends."
BLJ	70	3	Their only hope is in the mercy of God; their only defense will be prayer. As Joshua was pleading before the Angel, so the remnant church, with brokenness of heart and earnest faith, will plead for pardon and deliverance through Jesus their Advocate. They are fully conscious of the sinfulness of their lives, they see their weakness and unworthiness; and as they look upon themselves, they are ready to despair.
BLJ	70	4	The tempter stands by to accuse them, as he stood by to resist Joshua. He points to their filthy garments, their defective characters. He presents their weakness and folly, their sins of ingratitude, their unlikeness to Christ, which has dishonored their Redeemer. He endeavors to affright the soul with the thought that their case is hopeless, that the stain of their defilement will never be washed away. He hopes so to destroy their faith that they will yield to his temptations, turn from their allegiance to God, and receive the mark of the beast....
BLJ	70	5	While the followers of Christ have sinned, they have not given themselves to the control of evil. They have put away their sins, and have sought the Lord in humility and contrition, and the divine Advocate pleads in their behalf. He who has been most abused by their ingratitude, who knows their sin, and also their repentance, declares, "The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. I gave My life for these souls. They are graven upon the palms of My hands."--The Review and Herald, January 9, 1908.
------------------------A Message for Our Time, March 3
BLJ	71	1	For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. Hebrews 3:14, NKJV.
BLJ	71	2	"And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer" (Revelation 10:5, 6). This message announces the end of the prophetic periods. The disappointment of those who expected to see our Lord in 1844 was indeed bitter to those who had so ardently looked for His appearing. It was in the Lord's order that this disappointment should come, and that hearts should be revealed.
BLJ	71	3	Not one cloud has fallen upon the church that God has not prepared for; not one opposing force has risen to counterwork the work of God but He has foreseen.... All His purposes will be fulfilled and established. His law is linked with His throne, and satanic agencies combined with human agencies cannot destroy it. Truth is inspired and guarded by God; it will live, and will succeed, although it may appear at times to be overshadowed.
BLJ	71	4	The gospel of Christ is the law exemplified in character. The deceptions practiced against it, every device for vindicating falsehood, every error forged by satanic agencies, will eventually be eternally broken, and the triumph of truth will be like the appearing of the sun at noonday. The Sun of Righteousness shall shine forth with healing in His wings, and the whole earth shall be filled with His glory....
BLJ	71	5	Old controversies will be revived, and new theories will be continually arising. But God's people, who in their belief and fulfillment of prophecy have acted a part in the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels' messages, know where they stand. They have an experience that is more precious than fine gold. They are to stand firm as a rock, holding the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end.--Selected Messages 2:108, 109.
------------------------Work Faithfully, Using Time Wisely, March 4
BLJ	72	1	I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. John 9:4, NKJV.
BLJ	72	2	Christ has given to all human beings their work, and we are to acknowledge the wisdom of the plan He has made for us by a hearty cooperation with Him. It is in a life of service only that true happiness is found. Those who live useless, selfish lives are miserable. They are dissatisfied with themselves and with everyone else.
BLJ	72	3	True, unselfish, consecrated workers gladly use their highest gifts in the lowliest service. They realize that true service means to see and to perform the duties that God points out.
BLJ	72	4	There are many who are not satisfied with the work that God has given them. They are not satisfied to serve Him pleasantly in the place that He has marked out for them, or to do uncomplainingly the work that He has placed in their hands.
BLJ	72	5	It is right for us to be dissatisfied with the way in which we perform duty, but we are not to be dissatisfied with the duty itself [simply] because we would rather do something else. In His providence God places before human beings service that will be as medicine to their diseased minds. Thus He seeks to lead them to put aside the selfish preferences which, if cherished, would disqualify them for the work He has for them. If they accept and perform this service, their minds will be cured. But if they refuse it, they will be left at strife with themselves and with others.
BLJ	72	6	The Lord disciplines His workers, so that they will be prepared to fill the places appointed them. He desires to mold their minds in accordance with His will. For this purpose He brings to them test and trial. Some He places where relaxed discipline and overindulgence will not become their snare, where they are taught to appreciate the value of time, and to make the best and wisest use of it.--Manuscript Releases 8:422, 423.
------------------------Submit to God's Training Process, March 5
BLJ	73	1	Beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness ...; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:17, 18, NKJV.
BLJ	73	2	There are some who desire to be a ruling power, and who need the sanctification of submission. God brings about a change in their lives, and perhaps places before them duties that they would not choose. If they are willing to be guided by Him, He will give them grace and strength to perform the objectionable duties in a spirit of submission and helpfulness. They are being qualified to fill places where their disciplined abilities will make them of the greatest service.
BLJ	73	3	God trains some by bringing to them disappointment and apparent failure. It is His purpose that they shall learn to master difficulty. He inspires them with a determination to make every apparent failure prove a success.
BLJ	73	4	Often men and women pray and weep because of the perplexities and obstacles that confront them. But if they will hold the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end, He will make their way clear. Success will come to them as they struggle against apparently insurmountable difficulties; and with success will come the greatest joy.
BLJ	73	5	Many are ignorant of how to work for God, not because they need to be ignorant, but because they are not willing to submit to His training process. Moab is spoken of as a failure because, the Word declares, he "hath been at ease from his youth, ... and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, ... therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed" (Jeremiah 48:11)....
BLJ	73	6	The Christian is to be prepared for the doing of a work that reveals kindness, forbearance, longsuffering, gentleness, patience. The cultivation of these precious gifts is to come into the discipline-life of Christians, that when called to service by the Master, they may be ready to exercise the energies of heart and mind in helping and blessing those who are ready to die [those who need salvation].--Manuscript Releases 8:423, 424.
------------------------Improving Opportunities for Service, March 6
BLJ	74	1	Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. James 4:14, NKJV.
BLJ	74	2	There is no religion in the enthronement of self. God asks us to be true to Him, to trade upon the talents He has given us, that we may gain others. His will must be made our will in all things. Any departure from this standard degrades our moral nature. It may result in lifting us up, in enriching us, and in seating us beside princes; but in the eyes of God we are unclean and unholy. We have sold our birthright for selfish interest and gain, and in the books of heaven it is written of us, Weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and found wanting.
BLJ	74	3	But if we regard our talents as the Lord's gifts, and use them in His service by showing compassion and love toward our fellow beings, we are channels through which God's blessings flow to the world; and at the last great day we shall be greeted with the words "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
BLJ	74	4	Time, laden with precious, golden opportunities for serving the Lord, is fast passing into eternity.... Are you improving these opportunities as they pass? You cannot afford to slight them; for you must stand before the judgment seat of God, to answer for the deeds done in the body. Do your words cheer and encourage those who come to you for help and comfort? Does your influence strengthen those with whom you associate? Are your possessions faithfully given to the Lord?
BLJ	74	5	Consecrate yourself today to the Lord's service.... Cast your care upon the Lord, and on no account allow the things of the world to separate you from Him. Consecrate all you have and are to Him. This is but "your reasonable service." Do not delay; for there is peril in a moment's delay. A few more years at the longest will be yours to work for the Master, and then the voice which you cannot refuse to answer will be heard, saying, "Give an account of thy stewardship."--The Signs of the Times, January 21, 1897.
------------------------Regularity and Promptness Are Religious Duties, March 7
BLJ	75	1	To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. Colossians 1:29, NKJV.
BLJ	75	2	God has entrusted His sacred work to human beings, and He asks that they shall do it carefully.... They press too many things into their life, postpone until tomorrow that which demands their attention today, and much time is lost in painfully picking up the lost stitches. Men and women can reach a higher degree of usefulness than to carry with them through life an unsettled state of mind. They can improve the defective traits of their character contracted in their younger years. Like Paul, they can labor to reach a much higher degree of perfection.
BLJ	75	3	The work of God must not be done by fits and starts. It will not be placed on vantage ground by following a sudden impulse. On the contrary, it is positively necessary to follow the good work patiently, day by day, progressing in our ways and methods. One should get up at a regular hour. If during the day the work is neglected, and the following night is spent in making up for lost time, the morrow and following day will show, as a result, a wearied brain and a general fatigue which constitute positive violations of the law of life and health.
BLJ	75	4	There should be regular hours for rising, for family worship, for meals, and for work. And it is a religious duty ... to maintain this by precept ... by a firm example. Many squander the most precious hours of the morning hoping that they can terminate the work thus neglected during the hours which should be devoted to sleep. Godliness, health, success, everything suffers from this lack of true religious system....
BLJ	75	5	Some workers need to give up the slow methods of work which prevail, and to learn to be prompt. Promptness is necessary, as well as diligence. If we wish to accomplish the work according to the will of God, it must be done in an expeditious manner, but not without thought and care.--Manuscript Releases 8:326, 327.
------------------------Every Hour Is Valuable, March 8
BLJ	76	1	How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? Proverbs 6:9,NKJV. Go to the ant.... Consider her ways and be wise. Verse 6, NKJV.
BLJ	76	2	God has no use for lazy men or women in His cause; He wants thoughtful, kind, affectionate, earnest workers. Active exertion will do our preachers good. Indolence is proof of depravity. Every faculty of the mind, every bone in the body, every muscle of the limbs, shows that God designed our faculties to be used, not to remain inactive.... Those who will unnecessarily take the hours of daylight for sleep have no sense of the value of precious, golden moments....
BLJ	76	3	Persons who have not acquired habits of close industry and economy of time should have set rules to prompt them to regularity and dispatch. George Washington [the first United States president] was enabled to perform a great amount of business because he was thorough in preserving order and regularity. Every paper had its date and its place, and no time was lost in looking up what had been mislaid.
BLJ	76	4	Men and women of God must be diligent in study, earnest in the acquirement of knowledge, never wasting an hour. Through persevering exertion they may rise to almost any degree of eminence as Christians, as people of power and influence. But many will never attain superior rank in the pulpit or in business, because of their unfixedness of purpose, and the laxness of habits contracted in their youth. Careless inattention is seen in everything they undertake. A sudden impulse now and then is not sufficient to accomplish a reformation in these ease-loving, indolent ones; this is a work which requires patient continuance in well-doing. Persons of business can be truly successful only by having regular hours for rising, for prayer, for meals, and for retiring. If order and regularity are essential in worldly business, how much more so in the work of God!
BLJ	76	5	The bright morning hours are wasted by many in bed. These precious hours, once lost, are gone never to return; they are lost for time and for eternity. Only one hour lost each day, and what a waste of time in the course of a year! Let slumberers think of this, and pause to consider how they will give an account to God for lost opportunities.--Gospel Workers, 277, 278.
------------------------Buried Talents Should Be Used, March 9
BLJ	77	1	Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Colossians 4:5, 6, NKJV.
BLJ	77	2	Seek conversion of body, soul, and spirit. Unfold your napkin, and begin to trade with your Lord's goods. In so doing, you will gain other talents. Every soul entrusted with talents is to use them to benefit others. Who in the great day of final reckoning will say, "I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine"? To such the Lord will say, "Thou wicked and slothful servant ...: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury."
BLJ	77	3	The Lord is still calling those who are apparently blind to their deficiencies, the self-complacent ones, who plan and devise how they can best serve themselves. God help the spiritually blind to see that there is a world to be saved. The truth is to be made manifest to those who know it not, and this work calls for the self-denying grace of Christ.
BLJ	77	4	Thousands who are now of no use in God's cause should be digging up their buried talents, and putting them out to the exchangers. Those who think that they will surely reach heaven while they follow their own ways and imaginations might better break the seal, and reexamine their title to the treasures of heaven. The men and women who feel at ease in Zion might better become anxious about themselves, and inquire: What am I doing in the Lord's vineyard? Why am I not yoked up with Christ, a laborer together with God? Why am I not learning in Christ's school His meekness and lowliness of heart? Why have I no burdens to bear in the service of Christ? Why am I not a decided Christian, employing all my powers in laboring for the salvation of the souls who are perishing around me? Saith not the Word, "We are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building"? Shall I not with God's help build a character for time and eternity, and promote godliness in myself and in others through the sanctification of the truth?--The Review and Herald, August 21, 1900.
------------------------How to "Redeem" Time, March 10
BLJ	78	1	See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15, 16, NKJV.
BLJ	78	2	The value of time is beyond computation. Christ regarded every moment as precious, and it is thus that we should regard it. Life is too short to be trifled away. We have but a few days of probation in which to prepare for eternity. We have no time to waste, no time to devote to selfish pleasure, no time for the indulgence of sin. It is now that we are to form characters for the future, immortal life. It is now that we are to prepare for the searching judgment.
BLJ	78	3	The human family have scarcely begun to live when they begin to die, and the world's incessant labor ends in nothingness unless a true knowledge in regard to eternal life is gained. The people who appreciate time as their working day will fit themselves for a mansion and for a life that is immortal. It is well that they were born.
BLJ	78	4	We are admonished to redeem the time. But time squandered can never be recovered. We cannot call back even one moment. The only way in which we can redeem our time is by making the most of that which remains, by being coworkers with God in His great plan of redemption. In those who do this, a transformation of character takes place. They become sons and daughters of God, members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. They are fitted to be companions of the angels.
BLJ	78	5	Now is our time to labor for the salvation of others. There are some who think that if they give money to the cause of Christ, this is all they are required to do; the precious time in which they might do personal service for Him passes unimproved. But it is the privilege and duty of all who have health and strength to render to God active service. All are to labor in winning souls to Christ. Donations of money cannot take the place of this....
BLJ	78	6	The opportunity that is now ours to speak to some needy soul the word of life may never offer again. God may say to that one, "This night thy soul shall be required of thee," and through our neglect he or she may not be ready (Luke 12:20). In the great judgment day, how shall we render our account to God?--Christ's Object Lessons, 342, 343.
------------------------Use Even One Talent Wisely, March 11
BLJ	79	1	“I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours." But his Lord answered and said to him, "You wicked and lazy servant.... You ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest." Matthew 25:25-27, NKJV.
BLJ	79	2	None should mourn that they have not larger talents. When they use to the glory of God the talents He has given them, they will improve. It is no time now to bemoan our position in life, and excuse our neglect to improve our abilities because we have not another's ability and position, saying, Oh, if I had his or her gift and ability, I might invest a large capital for my Master. If such persons use their one talent wisely and well, that is all the Master requires of them.
BLJ	79	3	Look into our churches. There are only a few real workers in them. The majority are irresponsible men and women. They feel no burden for souls. They manifest no hungering and thirsting for righteousness. They never lift when the work goes hard. These are the ones who have but one talent, and hide that one in a napkin, and bury it in the world; that is, they use all the influence they have in their temporal matters. In seeking the things of this life, they lose the future, eternal life, the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. What can be said and done to arouse this class of church members to feel their accountability to God? Must the mass of professed Christian commandment keepers hear the fearful words "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth"?
BLJ	79	4	Every man and woman and child should be a worker for God. Where there is now one who feels the burden of souls there should be one hundred. What can we do to arouse the people to improve what influence and means they already have to the glory of the Master? Let those who have one talent use that well, and in so doing they will find it doubled. God will accept "according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not."--The Review and Herald, March 14, 1878.
------------------------Use Abilities and Means for God's Glory, March 12
BLJ	80	1	To all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. Matthew 25:29, NRSV.
BLJ	80	2	There always has been, and there always will be, diversity of gifts. It is not the great gifts alone that God requires and accepts, but He calls for the smaller talents, and will accept them if men and women will use them to His glory. Have we not become servants of the Master by His grace? It is not, then, our own property that is entrusted to us, but the Lord's talents. The capital is His, and we are responsible for its use or its abuse.
BLJ	80	3	I hope efforts will be made in every church to arouse those who are doing nothing. May God make these realize that He will require of them the one talent with improvement; and if they neglect to gain other talents besides the one, they will meet with the loss of that one talent and their own souls also. We hope to see a change in our churches.
BLJ	80	4	The Householder is preparing to return and call His stewards to account for the talents He has entrusted to them. God pity the do-nothings then! Those who hear the welcome plaudit "Well done, good and faithful servant" will have well done in the improvement of their abilities and means to the glory of God. Who will come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty?
BLJ	80	5	Satan is active, persevering, a faithful general in his work, leading on his armies. He has his faithful sentinels everywhere. What are the servants of Jesus Christ doing? Have they the armor on? Are they vigilant and faithful to meet and resist the strong forces of the enemy? Or are they asleep, expecting another to do their work? ...
BLJ	80	6	Let all awake; for the time is at hand when it will be said, "He which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Just now is the time to seek purity and holiness of character, and obtain white robes, that we may be prepared for a seat at the marriage supper of the Lamb.--The Review and Herald, March 14, 1878.
------------------------A Time for Vigilant Work, March 13
BLJ	81	1	And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Romans 13:11, NKJV.
BLJ	81	2	There is another class who meet with loss because they are indolent, and spend their powers in pleasing themselves, in using their tongues, and letting their muscles rust with inaction. They waste their opportunities by inaction, and do not glorify God. They might do much if they would put their time and physical strength to use by acquiring means with which to place their children in favorable positions to acquire knowledge; but they would rather let them grow up in ignorance than to exercise their own God-given ability to do something whereby their children might be blessed with a good education. Such men and women are being weighed in the balances of the heavenly sanctuary and found wanting.
BLJ	81	3	There is something for everyone to do in this world of ours. The Lord is coming, and our waiting is to be not a time of idle expectation, but of vigilant work. We are not to spend our time wholly in prayerful meditation, neither are we to drive and hurry and work as if this were required in order that we should gain heaven, while neglecting to devote time to the cultivation of personal piety. There must be a combination of meditation and diligent work. As God has expressed it in His Word, we are to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." Worldly activities are not to crowd out the service of the Lord. The soul needs the riches of the grace of God, and the body needs physical exercise, in order to accomplish the work that must be done for the promulgation of the gospel of Christ.
BLJ	81	4	Those who cultivate a spirit of idleness commit sin against God every day; for they do not put to use the power God has given them with which to bless themselves, and to be a blessing to their families. Parents should teach their children that the Lord means them to be diligent workers, not idlers in His vineyard. They must make a diligent use of their time, if they are to be useful working agents, acting their part in the vineyard of the Lord. They are to be faithful stewards, improving every entrusted gift of power that has been bestowed upon them.--The Home Missionary, October 1894.
------------------------Both Money and Active Service Needed, March 14
BLJ	82	1	Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering. Exodus 25:2, NKJV.
BLJ	82	2	I have heard men and women who have been engaged in the work in the publishing houses and sanitarium complain of having to work over hours. If they cannot stop work after eight hours' labor, they become dissatisfied. But these very ones, when they enter business for their own private benefit, will work on fully ten hours as they do in America and often extend their labor to twelve hours. They make no complaint, because it is in their own personal interest. It makes every difference whether the time is to be employed to their own special advantage or for the service of God or their neighbor....
BLJ	82	3	Willing service in saving the means that is so limited is more satisfactory than hoarding means. With the right motive in view, such time would be reckoned as devoted to the service of God. This definite work for God in building, in planting, in reaping harvest, or any line of work, will cost considerable thought and labor. But it pays. God will multiply the resources; He will help in producing the means.
BLJ	82	4	Many are already working in this line, and have always done so. The devotion of time to God in any line of work is a most important consideration. Some can use the pen to write a letter to some far-off friend. By consecrated personal labor we may in many ways do personal service for God.
BLJ	82	5	Some think that if they give a portion of their money to the cause of God, this is all they are required to do, and the precious time given them of God, in which they could do hours of personal service for Him, passes by unimproved. It is the privilege and duty of all who have health and strength to render to God active service. The giving of donations in money cannot take the place of this. Those who have no money can substitute personal labor, and even money can be made in various ways in this work.
BLJ	82	6	Everyone may be a laborer together with God. The hours which have been usually spent in recreation that has not rested or refreshed either body or soul may be spent in seeking to help some poor soul who is in need of help, in visiting the poor, the sick, and the suffering. Our time is God's, and as Christians, we must use it to the glory of God.--Manuscript Releases 6:79, 80.
------------------------Work for Low Wages Rather Than Be Idle, March 15
BLJ	83	1	But he answered one of them and said, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you." Matthew 20:13, 14, NKJV.
BLJ	83	2	God has graciously entrusted us with twenty-four hours in each day and night. This is a precious treasure by which much good can be accomplished. How are we using God's golden opportunities? We must, as Christians, set the Lord always before us, if we would not lose precious hours in uselessness, and have nothing to show for our time.
BLJ	83	3	Time is money. If people refuse to work because they cannot obtain the highest wages, they are pronounced idlers. Far better would it be for them to work, even if they receive much less than they suppose their labors are worth.
BLJ	83	4	Time is a talent committed to our trust that may be shamefully misused. Every child of God, man, woman, youth or child, should consider and appreciate the value of the moments of time. If they do this, they will keep themselves employed, even if they do not receive as high wages as they have been able to command. They should show their appreciation of diligence, and work, receiving what wages they can get. The idea of a poor person with a family refusing to work for moderate wages, because it is not showing, as he or she supposes, sufficient dignity for their trade, is folly that is not to be encouraged.
BLJ	83	5	How little thought has been bestowed upon this subject. How much greater prosperity might have attended the missionary enterprises if this talent of time had been thoughtfully considered and faithfully used. We are each one answerable to God for the time that has been wantonly thrown away, and for the use of which we must give an account to God. This is a stewardship that has been but little appreciated; many think it not sin to waste hours and days in doing nothing to benefit themselves or to bless others.--Manuscript Releases 6:80, 81.
------------------------Every Spiritual Gift Is Important, March 16
BLJ	84	1	There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 1 Corinthians 12:4, 5.
BLJ	84	2	Study this scripture carefully. God has not given to everyone the same line of work. It is His plan that there shall be unity in diversity. When His plan is studied and followed, there will be far less friction in the working of the cause.
BLJ	84	3	"There are many members in the body, and all the members have not the same office, but each one is essential to the perfection of the work." "The body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body?"
BLJ	84	4	"Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues."
BLJ	84	5	The Lord desires His church to respect every gift that He has bestowed on the different members. Let us beware of allowing our minds to become fixed on ourselves, thinking that other people cannot be serving the Lord unless they are working on the same lines as those on which we are working.
BLJ	84	6	Never is a worker to say, "I do not want to work with such a one, because he does not see things as I do. I wish to work with someone who will agree with all I say, and follow out all my ideas." The one the worker thus refuses to connect with may have truths to present that have not yet been presented. Because of the worker's refusal to accept the help provided by the Lord, the work is made one-sided.--Pacific Union Recorder, December 29, 1904.
------------------------Be Satisfied With Humble Work, March 17
BLJ	85	1	Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Romans 12:6, NKJV.
BLJ	85	2	Both women and men may accomplish a good work for God, if they will first learn the precious, all-important lesson of meekness in the school of Christ. They will be able to benefit humanity by presenting to them the all-sufficiency of Jesus. When all the members of the church realize their own individual responsibility, when they humbly take up the work which presents itself before them, the work will go on to success. God has given to all human beings their work according to their several abilities.
BLJ	85	3	It will not be an easy task to work for the Master in this age. But how much perplexity might be saved, if workers continually relied upon God, and duly considered the directions that God has given. He says, "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness" (Romans 12:6-8).
BLJ	85	4	This is a subject that demands close, critical study. Many mistakes are made because people do not heed this instruction. Many who are entrusted with some humble line of work to do for the Master soon become dissatisfied, and think that they should be teachers and leaders. They want to leave their humble ministering, which is just as important in its place as the larger responsibilities. Those who are set to do visiting soon come to think that anyone can do that work, that anyone can speak words of sympathy and encouragement, and lead others in a humble, quiet way to a correct understanding of the Scriptures. But it is a work that demands much grace, much patience, and an ever-increasing stock of wisdom.--Manuscript Releases 11:278, 279.
------------------------Every Person Has a Gift and Is Accountable, March 18
BLJ	86	1	Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. Ecclesiastes 9:10, NKJV.
BLJ	86	2	The parable of the talents should be a matter of the most careful and prayerful study; for it has a personal and individual application to every man, woman, and child possessed of the powers of reason. Your obligation and responsibility are in proportion to the talents God has bestowed upon you. There is not a follower of Christ but has some peculiar gift for the use of which he or she is accountable to God.
BLJ	86	3	Many have excused themselves from rendering their gift to the service of Christ, because others were possessed of superior endowments and advantages. The opinion has prevailed that only those who are especially talented are required to sanctify their abilities to the service of God. It has come to be understood that talents are given only to a certain favored class, to the exclusion of others who, of course, are not called upon to share in the toils or rewards.
BLJ	86	4	But it is not so represented in the parable. When the master of the house called his servants, he gave to every man his work. The whole family of God are included in the responsibility of using their Lord's goods. Every individual, from the lowliest and most obscure to the greatest and most exalted, is a moral agent endowed with abilities for which they are accountable to God. To a greater or less degree, all are placed in charge of the talents of their Lord. The spiritual, mental, and physical ability, the influence, station, possessions, affections, sympathies, all are precious talents to be used in the cause of the Master for the salvation of souls for whom Christ died....
BLJ	86	5	God requires everyone to be a worker in His vineyard. You are to take up the work that has been placed in your charge, and to do it faithfully. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest."--The Review and Herald, May 1, 1888.
------------------------Small Talents Have Value and Can Increase, March 19
BLJ	87	1	The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. Ecclesiastes 12:11, NKJV
BLJ	87	2	Let business men or women do business in a way that will glorify their Master because of their fidelity. Let them carry their religion into everything that is done and reveal to others the Spirit of Christ. Let the mechanic be a diligent and faithful representative of Him who toiled in the lowly walks of life in the cities of Judea. Let everyone who names the name of Christ so work, that others by seeing their good works may be led to glorify their Creator and Redeemer. "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord." Let the upbuilding of the kingdom of Christ be your constant thought, and let every effort be directed toward this one end.
BLJ	87	3	Those who have been blessed with superior talents should not depreciate the value of the services of those who are less gifted than themselves. The smallest trust is a trust from God. The one talent, through diligent use with the blessing of God, will be doubled, and the two used in the service of Christ will be increased to four; and thus the humblest instrument may grow in power and usefulness. The earnest purpose, the self-denying efforts, are all seen, appreciated, and accepted by the God of heaven. "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones." God alone can estimate the worth of their service, and see the far-reaching influence of those who work for the glory of their Maker.
BLJ	87	4	We are to make the very best use of our opportunities, and to study to show ourselves approved unto God. God will accept our best efforts; but let no one imagine He will be pleased with ignorance and inability when, with proper improvement of privileges bestowed, a better service might be supplied. We are not to despise the day of small things; but by a diligent care and perseverance, we are to make the small opportunities and talents minister to our advancement in divine life, and hasten us on to a more intelligent and better service.--The Review and Herald, May 1, 1888.
------------------------Work Faithfully Where You Are, March 20
BLJ	88	1	So then, each of us will be accountable to God. Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another. Romans 14:12, 13, NRSV.
BLJ	88	2	When we have done all that we can do, we are to count ourselves unprofitable servants. There is no room for pride in our efforts; for we are dependent every moment upon the grace of God, and we have nothing that we did not receive. Says Jesus, "Without me ye can do nothing."
BLJ	88	3	We are responsible only for the talents which God has bestowed upon us. The Lord does not reprove the servants who have doubled their talents, who have done according to their ability. Those who thus prove their fidelity can be commended and rewarded; but those who loiter in the vineyard, those who do nothing, or do negligently the work of the Lord, make manifest their real interest in the work to which they have been called, by their works.... The talent given to them for the glory of God and the salvation of souls has been unappreciated and abused. The good it might have done is left unaccomplished, and the Lord cannot receive His own with usury.
BLJ	88	4	Let none mourn that they have not larger talents to use for the Master. While you are dissatisfied and complaining, you are losing precious time and wasting valuable opportunities. Thank God for the ability you have, and pray that you may be enabled to meet the responsibilities that have been placed upon you. If you desire greater usefulness, go to work and acquire what you mourn for. Go to work with steady patience, and do your very best, irrespective of what others are doing. "Every one of us shall give account of himself to God." Let not your thought or your words be "O that I had a larger work! O that I were in this or that position!"
BLJ	88	5	Do your duty where you are. Make the best investments possible with your entrusted gift in the very place where your work will count the most before God. Put away all murmuring and strife. Labor not for the supremacy. Be not envious of the talents of others; for that will not increase your ability to do a good or a great work. Use your gift in meekness, in humility, in trusting faith, and wait till the day of reckoning, and you will have no cause for grief or shame.--The Review and Herald, May 1, 1888.
------------------------Working With Jesus to Save the Lost, March 21
BLJ	89	1	Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. Revelation 22:12, NKJV.
BLJ	89	2	The Lord Jesus will scrutinize every talent, and expect interest in proportion to the amount of capital entrusted. By His own humiliation and agony, Christ has paid the purchase money for our salvation, and He has a right to our services. The very name of servant implies the doing of work, the bearing of responsibility. All our capabilities, all our opportunities, have been entrusted to us for wise improvement, that Christ may receive His own with usury.
BLJ	89	3	The heavenly Master ascended on high, and led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men and women--divine treasures of truth to be presented to all the world. What use are we individually making of these gifts, the talents in our hands? Are we like the unwise and unfaithful servant, burying these talents in the world, where they will bring no returns to God? It behooves all with careful fidelity to improve the talents entrusted to them; for talents will increase as they are used for the good of humanity and the glory of God.
BLJ	89	4	Every soul should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We are not to use up all the strength of brain, bone, and muscle in worldly business interests; for if we do, we imperil our spiritual interests, and we shall lose an eternity of bliss. The whole unfallen universe is interested in the great work which Jesus came to our world to accomplish, even the salvation of our souls. And shall not mortals on earth cooperate with our Redeemer, who has ascended into heaven to make intercession for us? Shall we show no special zeal, no devoted interest, in the work that was devised in heaven to be carried forward in the world for the good of men and women? Shall we who have been bought with the precious blood of Christ refuse to do the work left in our hands--refuse to cooperate with the heavenly agencies in the work of saving the fallen? Shall we not go even to the ends of the earth to let the light of truth given to us of heaven shine forth to our fellow human beings?--The Review and Herald, January 24, 1893.
------------------------One Talent, Used Faithfully, Will Gain Other Talents, March 22
BLJ	90	1	The kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Matthew 25:14, 15, NKJV.
BLJ	90	2	Let not the work that needs to be done wait for the ordination of ministers. If there are not ministers to take up the work, let men and women of intelligence, with no thought of how they can accumulate the most property, establish themselves in these cities and towns, and lift up the standard of the cross, using the knowledge they have gained in winning souls to the truth.
BLJ	90	3	The knowledge of the truth is altogether too precious to be hoarded up, and bound about, and hid in the earth. Even the one talent entrusted by the Master is to be faithfully employed to gain other talents also. Where are the men and women who have been refreshed with rich streams of blessing from the throne of God? Let them ask themselves what they have done to communicate this light to those who have not had like advantages. How will those who have neglected to use their talents stand in the judgment, when every motive will be brought under scrutiny? The heavenly Master has committed to every one of His servants talents. "And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability."
BLJ	90	4	God has not given talents to merely a chosen few, but to everyone He has committed some peculiar gift to be used in His service. Many to whom the Lord has given precious talents have refused to employ them for the advancement of the kingdom of God; nevertheless, they are under obligation to God for their use of His gifts. Everyone, whether serving God or pleasing self, is a possessor of some trust, whose proper use will bring glory to God and whose perverted use will rob the Giver. That possessors of talents do not acknowledge God's claims upon them does not make their guilt the less. If they choose to stand under the black banner of the prince of darkness through this life, they will stand unconfessed by Christ in the day of final accounts.--The Signs of the Times, January 23, 1893.
------------------------Faithful Users of Talents Will Hear "Well Done", March 23
BLJ	91	1	The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. Matthew 25:16, 17, NRSV.
BLJ	91	2	"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The ransom money has been paid for every son and daughter of Adam, and [the fact] that those who have been ransomed by the precious blood of Christ refuse allegiance to Him will not shield them from the retribution that will come upon them in the last day. They will have to answer for their neglect to use their entrusted talents for the Master. They will have to answer for their reproaches against their Maker and Redeemer, and for their robbery of God in withholding their talents from His service, and burying their Lord's goods in the earth.
BLJ	91	3	The human family is composed of responsible moral agents, and from the highest and most gifted to the lowest and most obscure, all are invested with the goods of heaven. Time is an entrusted gift of God, and is to be diligently employed in the service of Christ. Influence is a gift of God, and is to be exerted for the forwarding of the highest, noblest purposes. Christ died on Calvary's cross that all our influence might be used to lift Him up before a perishing world. Those who behold the Majesty of heaven dying on the cross for their transgressions will value their influence only as it draws men and women to Christ, and they will use it for this purpose only. Intellect is an entrusted talent. Sympathy and affection are talents to be sacredly guarded and improved, that we may render service to Him whose purchased possession we are.
BLJ	91	4	All that we are or can be belongs to God. Education, discipline, and skill in every line should be used for Him.... Whether the amount entrusted is large or small, the Lord requires that His householders do their best. It is not the amount entrusted or the improvement made that brings to men and women the approbation of heaven, but it is the faithfulness, the loyalty to God, the loving service rendered, that brings the divine benediction "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." This reward of joy does not wait until our entrance into the City of God, but the faithful servant has a foretaste of it even in this life.--The Signs of the Times, January 23, 1893.
------------------------Use Well the Talent of Speech, March 24
BLJ	92	1	You are fairer than the sons of men; grace is poured upon Your lips; therefore God has blessed You forever. Psalm 45:2, NKJV.
BLJ	92	2	By diligent effort all may acquire the power to read intelligibly, and to speak in a full, clear, round tone, in a distinct and impressive manner. By doing this we may greatly increase our efficiency as workers for Christ.
BLJ	92	3	Every Christian is called to make known to others the unsearchable riches of Christ; therefore all should seek for perfection in speech. They should present the Word of God in a way that will commend it to the hearers. God does not design that His human channels shall be uncouth. It is not His will that human beings shall belittle or degrade the heavenly current that flows through them to the world.
BLJ	92	4	We should look to Jesus, the perfect pattern; we should pray for the aid of the Holy Spirit, and in His strength we should seek to train every organ for perfect work.
BLJ	92	5	Especially is this true of those who are called to public service. Ministers and teachers should all bear in mind that they are giving to the people a message that involves eternal interests. The truth spoken will judge them in the great day of final reckoning. And with some souls the manner of the one delivering the message will determine its reception or rejection. Then let the Word be so spoken that it will appeal to the understanding and impress the heart. Slowly, distinctly, and solemnly should it be spoken, yet with all the earnestness which its importance demands.
BLJ	92	6	The right culture and use of the power of speech has to do with every line of Christian work; it enters into the home life, and into all our relations with one another. We should accustom ourselves to speak in pleasant tones, to use pure and correct language, and words that are kind and courteous. Sweet, kind words are as dew and gentle showers to the soul. The Scripture says of Christ that grace was poured into His lips that He might "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary" (Isaiah 50:4).--Christ's Object Lessons, 335, 336.
------------------------Reveal Jesus' Love Through Speech, March 25
BLJ	93	1	The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. Isaiah 50:4, NKJV.
BLJ	93	2	All around us are afflicted souls. Here and there, everywhere, we may find them. Let us search out these suffering ones and speak a word in season to comfort their hearts. Let us ever be channels through which shall flow the refreshing waters of compassion.
BLJ	93	3	In all our associations it should be remembered that in the experience of others there are chapters sealed from mortal sight. On the pages of memory are sad histories that are sacredly guarded from curious eyes. There stand registered long, hard battles with trying circumstances, perhaps troubles in the home life, that day by day weaken courage, confidence, and faith. Those who are fighting the battle of life at great odds may be strengthened and encouraged by little attentions that cost only a loving effort. To such the strong, helpful grasp of the hand by a true friend is worth more than gold or silver. Words of kindness are as welcome as the smile of angels.
BLJ	93	4	There are multitudes struggling with poverty, compelled to labor hard for small wages, and able to secure but the barest necessities of life. Toil and deprivation, with no hope of better things, make their burden very heavy. When pain and sickness are added, the burden is almost insupportable. Careworn and oppressed, they know not where to turn for relief. Sympathize with them in their trials, their heartaches, and disappointments. This will open the way for you to help them. Speak to them of God's promises, pray with and for them, inspire them with hope. .. .
BLJ	93	5	Be coworkers with Him. While distrust and alienation are pervading the world, Christ's disciples are to reveal the spirit that reigns in heaven. Speak as He would speak, act as He would act. Constantly reveal the sweetness of His character. Reveal that wealth of love which underlies all His teachings and all His dealings with humanity. The humblest workers, in cooperation with Christ, may touch chords whose vibrations shall ring to the ends of the earth and make melody throughout eternal ages.--The Ministry of Healing, 158, 159.
------------------------Use Responsibly the Gifts of Speech and Influence, March 26
BLJ	94	1	Meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. Colossians 4:3, 4, NKJV.
BLJ	94	2	God has not given talents capriciously. He who knows all things, who is acquainted with each one, has given to every person his or her work. Those to whom He has entrusted much are not to boast, for what they possess is not their own; it is lent them on trial; and the greater the endowment, the greater the returns required. Day by day God is testing men and women, to see whether they will acknowledge Him as the giver of all that they have. He watches to see whether they will prove themselves worthy of eternal riches. The use they make of their precious endowments decides their destiny for eternity.
BLJ	94	3	Of all the gifts that God has bestowed upon His children, none is capable of being a greater blessing than the gift of speech. With the tongue we convince and persuade; with it we offer prayer and praise to God; and with it we tell others of the Redeemer's love. God would have us consecrate this gift to His service, speaking only such words as will help those around us. And if Christ rules in our hearts, our words will reveal the purity, beauty, and fragrance of a character molded and fashioned by Him. But if we are under the guidance of the enemy of all good, our words will echo his sentiments. Watch well your words. Consecrate your gift of speech to the Lord's service; for He will one day require it at your hands.
BLJ	94	4	Every one of us exerts an influence on those with whom we come in contact. This influence we have from God, and we are responsible for the way it is used. God designs that it shall tell on the side of right; but it rests with each one of us to decide whether our influence shall be pure and elevating, or whether it shall act as a poisonous malaria. Those who are partakers of the divine nature exert an influence that is Christlike. Holy angels attend them on their way, and all with whom they come in contact are helped and blessed. But those who do not receive Christ as their personal Savior cannot influence others for good.... Such lose all hope of eternal life themselves, and by their example lead others astray. Guard well your influence; it is "your reasonable service" to place it on the Lord's side.--The Signs of the Times, January 21, 1897.
------------------------Speak Winsomely of the Savior, March 27
BLJ	95	1	Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Ephesians 4:29, NKJV.
BLJ	95	2	As followers of Christ we should make our words such as to be a help and an encouragement to one another in the Christian life. Far more than we do, we need to speak of the precious chapters in our experience. We should speak of the mercy and loving-kindness of God, of the matchless depths of the Savior's love. Our words should be words of praise and thanksgiving. If the mind and heart are full of the love of God, this will be revealed in the conversation.
BLJ	95	3	It will not be a difficult matter to impart that which enters into our spiritual life. Great thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, unselfish purposes, yearnings for piety and holiness, will bear fruit in words that reveal the character of the heart treasure. When Christ is thus revealed in our speech, it will have power in winning souls to Him.
BLJ	95	4	We should speak of Christ to those who know Him not. We should do as Christ did. Wherever He was, in the synagogue, by the wayside, in the boat thrust out a little from the land, at the Pharisee's feast or the table of the publican, He spoke to men and women of the things pertaining to the higher life. The things of nature, the events of daily life, were bound up by Him with the words of truth. The hearts of His hearers were drawn to Him; for He had healed their sick, had comforted their sorrowing ones, and had taken their children in His arms and blessed them. When He opened His lips to speak, their attention was riveted upon Him, and every word was to some soul a savor of life unto life.
BLJ	95	5	So it should be with us. Wherever we are, we should watch for opportunities of speaking to others of the Savior. If we follow Christ's example in doing good, hearts will open to us as they did to Him. Not abruptly, but with tact born of divine love, we can tell them of Him who is the "chiefest among ten thousand" and the One "altogether lovely" (Song of Solomon 5:10, 16). This is the very highest work in which we can employ the talent of speech. It was given to us that we might present Christ as the sin-pardoning Savior.--Christ's Object Lessons, 338, 339.
------------------------Influence--A Power for Good or Evil, March 28
BLJ	96	1	Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.... Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:30-32, NKJV.
BLJ	96	2	The life of Christ was an ever-widening, shoreless influence, an influence that bound Him to God and to the whole human family. Through Christ, God has invested men and women with an influence that makes it impossible for them to live for themselves. Individually we are connected with other human beings, a part of God's great whole, and we stand under mutual obligations. No one can be independent of their fellow beings; for the well-being of each affects others. It is God's purpose that each person shall feel necessary to others' welfare, and seek to promote their happiness.
BLJ	96	3	Every soul is surrounded by an atmosphere of its own--an atmosphere, it may be, charged with the life-giving power of faith, courage, and hope, and sweet with the fragrance of love. Or it may be heavy and chill with the gloom of discontent and selfishness, or poisonous with the deadly taint of cherished sin. By the atmosphere surrounding us, every person with whom we come in contact is consciously or unconsciously affected.
BLJ	96	4	This is a responsibility from which we cannot free ourselves. Our words, our acts, our dress, our deportment, even the expression of the countenance, has an influence. Upon the impression thus made there hang results for good or evil which no one can measure. Every impulse thus imparted is seed sown which will produce its harvest. It is a link in the long chain of human events, extending we know not whither.
BLJ	96	5	If by our example we aid others in the development of good principles, we give them power to do good. In their turn they exert the same influence upon others, and they upon still others. Thus by our unconscious influence thousands may be blessed.
BLJ	96	6	Throw a pebble into the lake, and a wave is formed, and another and another; and as they increase, the circle widens, until it reaches the very shore. So with our influence. Beyond our knowledge or control it tells upon others in blessing or in cursing.--Christ's Object Lessons, 339, 340.
------------------------God's Grace Essential to Right Use of Influence, March 29
BLJ	97	1	Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. Luke 16:10, NRSV.
BLJ	97	2	Character is power. The silent witness of a true, unselfish, godly life carries an almost irresistible influence. By revealing in our own life the character of Christ we cooperate with Him in the work of saving souls. It is only by revealing in our life His character that we can cooperate with Him. And the wider the sphere of our influence, the more good we may do. When those who profess to serve God follow Christ's example, practicing the principles of the law in their daily life; when every act bears witness that they love God supremely and their neighbor as themselves, then will the church have power to move the world.
BLJ	97	3	But never should it be forgotten that influence is no less a power for evil. To lose one's own soul is a terrible thing; but to cause the loss of other souls is still more terrible. That our influence should be a savor of death unto death is a fearful thought; yet this is possible. Many who profess to gather with Christ are scattering from Him. This is why the church is so weak. Many indulge freely in criticism and accusing. By giving expression to suspicion, jealousy, and discontent, they yield themselves as instruments to Satan. Before they realize what they are doing, the adversary has through them accomplished his purpose. The impression of evil has been made, the shadow has been cast, the arrows of Satan have found their mark. Distrust, unbelief, and downright infidelity have fastened upon those who otherwise might have accepted Christ.
BLJ	97	4	Meanwhile the workers for Satan look complacently upon those whom they have driven to skepticism, and who are now hardened against reproof and entreaty. They flatter themselves that in comparison with these souls they are virtuous and righteous. They do not realize that these sad wrecks of character are the work of their own unbridled tongues and rebellious hearts. It is through their influence that these tempted ones have fallen.
BLJ	97	5	So frivolity, selfish indulgence, and careless indifference on the part of professed Christians are turning away many souls from the path of life. Many there are who will fear to meet at the bar of God the results of their influence. It is only through the grace of God that we can make a right use of this endowment.--Christ's Object Lessons, 340, 341.
------------------------Our Service Should Meet Heaven's Approval, March 30
BLJ	98	1	If you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Luke 16:12, 13, NRSV.
BLJ	98	2	There are many who profess to be Christians who are not united with Christ. Their daily life, their spirit, testifies that Christ is not formed within, the hope of glory. They cannot be depended upon, they cannot be trusted. They are anxious to reduce their service to the minimum of effort, and at the same time exact the highest of wages. The name "servant" applies to every person; for we are all servants, and it will be well for us to see what mold we are taking on. Is it the mold of unfaithfulness, or of fidelity?
BLJ	98	3	Is it the disposition generally among servants to do as much as possible? Is it not rather the prevalent fashion to slide through the work as quickly, as easily, as possible, and obtain the wages at as little cost to themselves as they can? The object is not to be as thorough as possible, but to get the remuneration. Those who profess to be the servants of Christ should not forget the injunction of the apostle Paul, "Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ."
BLJ	98	4	Those who enter the work as "eye-servants" will find that their work cannot bear the inspection of mortals or of angels. The thing essential for successful work is a knowledge of Christ; for this knowledge will give sound principles of right, [and] impart a noble, unselfish spirit, like that of our Savior whom we profess to serve. Faithfulness, economy, care-taking, thoroughness, should characterize all our work, wherever we may be, whether in the kitchen, in the workshop, in the office of publication, in the sanitarium, in the college, or wherever we are stationed in the vineyard of the Lord. "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."--The Review and Herald, September 22, 1891.
------------------------Using God's Gifts as He Wills, March 31
BLJ	99	1	Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2, NKJV.
BLJ	99	2	Many, instead of consecrating their means to God's service, look upon their money as their own, and say that they have a right to use it as they please. Like the inhabitants of the Noachian world, they use God's gifts in their own service. Even some who profess to know and love the Lord do this. God has revealed His will to them. He has called upon them to surrender all that they have to Him; but the love of the world has perverted their will, and hardened their hearts. They refuse to obey Him to whom they owe all that they have. Regardless of His call, they clasp their treasures in their arms, forgetting that the Giver has any claim upon them. Thus the blessings given by God are turned into a curse, because a wrong use is made of them.
BLJ	99	3	Christ understood the danger of the love of money; for He said, "How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!" ... Today He calls upon us to give close attention to our eternal interests. He would have us subordinate every earthly interest to His service. "For what shall it profit a man," He asks, "if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
BLJ	99	4	God's right to our service is measured by the infinite sacrifice He has made for our salvation. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." For our sake Christ lived a life of sorrow and privation. He was pure and holy, yet on Him was laid the iniquity of us all.... With a touch of His hand He healed the sick; yet He suffered grievous bodily pain. He cast out demons with a word, and delivered those bound by Satan's temptations; yet temptations such as have never beset anyone assailed Him. He raised the dead by His power; yet He suffered the agony of a most terrible death.
BLJ	99	5	All this Christ suffered for us. What are we giving Him in return? He, the Majesty of heaven, submitted patiently to scorn and insult.... Should we look upon any sacrifice as too great? Should we hesitate to render to God our reasonable service?--The Signs of the Times, January 21, 1897.
------------------------No True Wisdom Apart From God, April 1
BLJ	101	1	Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding. Proverbs 3:13, NRSV.
BLJ	101	2	True wisdom is a treasure as lasting as eternity. Many of the world's so-called wise men and women are wise only in their own estimation. Content with the acquisition of worldly wisdom, they never enter the garden of God, to become acquainted with the treasures of knowledge contained in His holy Word. Supposing themselves to be wise, they are ignorant concerning the wisdom which all must have who gain eternal life. They cherish a contempt for the Book of God, which, if studied and obeyed, would make them truly wise.
BLJ	101	3	The Bible is to them an impenetrable mystery. The grand, deep truths of the Old and New Testaments are obscure to them, because spiritual things are not spiritually discerned. They need to learn that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that without this wisdom, their learning is of little worth.
BLJ	101	4	Those who are striving for an education in the sciences, but who have not learned the lesson that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, are working helplessly and hopelessly, questioning the reality of everything. They may acquire an education in the sciences, but unless they gain a knowledge of the Bible and a knowledge of God, they are without true wisdom. Unlearned persons, if they know God and Jesus Christ, have a more enduring wisdom than have the most learned who despise the instruction of God.--The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 3, p. 1156.
BLJ	101	5	True wisdom is infinitely above the comprehension of the worldly wise. The hidden wisdom, which is Christ formed within, the hope of glory, is a wisdom high as heaven. The deep principles of godliness are sublime and eternal. A Christian experience alone can help us to understand this problem, and obtain the treasures of knowledge which have been hidden in the counsels of God, but are now made known to all who have a vital connection with Christ.--The Review and Herald, July 18, 1899.
------------------------The Rewards of Bible Study, April 2
BLJ	102	1	If, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 2 Peter 2:20, NKJV.
BLJ	102	2	Great light was given to the Reformers, but many of them received the sophistry of error through misinterpretation of the Scriptures. These errors have come down through the centuries, but although they be hoary with age, yet they have not behind them a "Thus saith the Lord." For the Lord has said, I will not "alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." In His great mercy the Lord has permitted still greater light to shine in these last days. To us He has sent His message, revealing His law and showing us what is truth.
BLJ	102	3	In Christ is the fountain of all knowledge. In Him our hopes of eternal life are centered. He is the greatest teacher the world has ever known, and if we desire to enlarge the minds of the children and youth, and win them, if possible, to a love of the Bible, we should fasten their minds upon the plain and simple truth, digging out that which has been buried beneath the rubbish of tradition, and letting the jewels shine forth. Encourage them to search into these subjects, and the effort put forth will be an invaluable discipline.
BLJ	102	4	The unfolding of God, as represented in Jesus Christ, furnishes a theme that is grand to contemplate, and that will, if studied, sharpen the mind, and elevate and ennoble the faculties. As the human agents learn these lessons in the school of Christ, trying to become as Christ was, meek and lowly of heart, they will learn the most useful of all lessons--that intellect is supreme only as it is sanctified by a living connection with God....
BLJ	102	5	The greatest wisdom, and most essential, is the knowledge of God. Self sinks into insignificance as it contemplates God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. The Bible must be made the foundation for all study. Individually we must learn from this lesson book, which God has given us, the condition of the salvation of our souls; for it is the only book that tells us what we must do in order to be saved. Not only this, but from it strength may be received for the intellect.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 450, 451.
------------------------The Spirit Must Illuminate the Word, April 3
BLJ	103	1	We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 1 Corinthians 2:12, NKJV.
BLJ	103	2	God intends that, even in this life, truth shall be ever unfolding to His people. There is only one way in which this knowledge can be obtained. We can attain to an understanding of God's Word only through the illumination of that Spirit by which the Word was given. "The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God"; "for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." And the Savior's promise to His followers was: "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.... For he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you."
BLJ	103	3	God desires human beings to exercise their reasoning powers; and the study of the Bible will strengthen and elevate the mind as no other study can do. It is the best mental as well as spiritual exercise for the mind. Yet we are to beware of deifying reason, which is subject to the weakness and infirmity of humanity. If we would not have the Scriptures clouded to our understanding, so that the plainest truths shall not be comprehended, we must have the simplicity and faith of a little child, ready to learn, and beseeching the aid of the Holy Spirit. A sense of the power and wisdom of God, and of our inability to comprehend His greatness, should inspire us with humility, and we should open His Word, as we would enter His presence, with holy awe. When we come to the Bible, reason must acknowledge an authority superior to itself, and heart and intellect must bow to the great I AM.
BLJ	103	4	We shall advance in true spiritual knowledge only as we realize our own littleness and our entire dependence upon God; but all who come to the Bible with a teachable and prayerful spirit, to study its utterances as the Word of God, will receive divine enlightenment. There are many things apparently difficult or obscure which God will make plain and simple to those who thus seek an understanding of them....
BLJ	103	5	There are mines of truth yet to be discovered by the earnest seeker. Christ represented the truth as treasure hid in a field. It does not lie right upon the surface; we must dig for it. But our success in finding it does not depend so much on our intellectual ability as on our humility of heart and the faith which will lay hold upon divine aid.--Testimonies for the Church 5:703, 704.
------------------------Seek God for Wisdom, April 4
BLJ	104	1	From where then does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? Job 28:20, NKJV.
BLJ	104	2	You will have to wrestle with difficulties, carry burdens, give advice, plan and execute, constantly looking to God for help. Pray and labor, labor and pray; as pupils in the school of Christ, learn of Jesus.
BLJ	104	3	The Lord has given us the promise "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him" (James 1:5). It is in the order of God that those who bear responsibilities should often meet together to counsel with one another, and to pray earnestly for that wisdom which He alone can impart. Talk less; much precious time is lost in talk that brings no light. Let church leaders unite in fasting and prayer for the wisdom that God has promised to supply liberally. Make known your troubles to God. Tell Him, as did Moses, "I cannot lead this people unless Thy presence shall go with me." And then ask still more; pray with Moses, "Shew me thy glory" (Exodus 33:18). What is this glory? The character of God. This is what He proclaimed to Moses.
BLJ	104	4	Let the soul in living faith fasten upon God. Let the tongue speak His praise. When you associate together, let the mind be reverently turned to the contemplation of eternal realities. Thus you will be helping one another to be spiritually minded. When your will is in harmony with the divine will, you will be in harmony with one another; you will have Christ by your side as a counselor.
BLJ	104	5	Enoch walked with God. So may every laborer for Christ. You may say with the psalmist, "I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved" (Psalm 16:8). While you feel that you have no sufficiency of yourself, your sufficiency will be in Jesus. If you expect all your counsel and wisdom to come from other people, mortal and finite like yourselves, you will receive only human help. If you go to God for help and wisdom, He will never disappoint your faith.--Gospel Workers, 417, 418.
------------------------Reach for the Highest Standard of Personhood, April 5
BLJ	105	1	Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth. Jeremiah 9:23, NRSV.
BLJ	105	2	God is the source of all wisdom. He is infinitely wise and just and good. [Apart from Christ,] the wisest people that ever lived cannot comprehend Him. They may profess to be wise; they may glory in their attainments; but mere intellectual knowledge, aside from the great truths that center in Christ, is as nothingness....
BLJ	105	3	If men and women could see for a moment beyond the [range of] finite vision, if they could catch a glimpse of the Eternal, every mouth would be stopped in its boasting. People living in this little atom of a world are finite; God has unnumbered worlds that are obedient to His laws and are conducted with reference to His glory. When human beings have gone as far in scientific research as their limited powers will permit, there is still an infinity beyond what they can apprehend.
BLJ	105	4	Before humans can be truly wise, they must realize their dependence upon God, and be filled with His wisdom. God is the source of intellectual as well as spiritual power. The greatest people who have reached what the world regards as wonderful heights in science are not to be compared with the beloved John or the great apostle Paul. It is when intellectual and moral power are combined that the greatest standard of personhood is reached. Those who do this, God will accept as workers together with Him in the training of minds.
BLJ	105	5	To know oneself is a great knowledge. The teachers who rightly estimate themselves will let God mold and discipline their minds. And they will acknowledge the source of their power. For "what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" (1 Corinthians 4:7). Self-knowledge leads to humility and to trust in God, but it does not take the place of efforts for self-improvement. Those who realize their own deficiencies will spare no pains to reach the highest possible standard of physical, mental, and moral excellence.--Special Testimonies On Education, 49, 50.
------------------------Prepare Now for Immortal Life, April 6
BLJ	106	1	That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Ephesians 1:17, 18, NKJV.
BLJ	106	2	The best way to prevent the growth of evil is to preoccupy the soil. The greatest care and watchfulness is needed in cultivating the mind and sowing therein the precious seeds of Bible truth. The Lord, in His great mercy, has revealed to us in the Scriptures the rules of holy living. He tells us the sins to shun; He explains to us the plan of salvation, and points out the way to heaven. He has inspired holy men to record, for our benefit, instruction concerning the dangers that beset our path, and how to escape them. Those who obey His injunction to search the Scriptures will not be ignorant of these things. Amid the perils of the last days, members of the church should understand the reasons of their hope and faith--reasons which are not difficult of comprehension. There is enough to occupy the mind, if we would grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ....
BLJ	106	3	If the Bible were studied as it should be, we would become strong in intellect. The subjects treated upon in the Word of God, the dignified simplicity of its utterance, the noble themes which it presents to the mind, develop faculties in us which cannot otherwise be developed....
BLJ	106	4	God would have us avail ourselves of every means of cultivating and strengthening our intellectual powers. We were created for a higher, nobler existence than the life that now is. This time is one of preparation for the future, immortal life. Where can be found grander themes for contemplation, a more interesting subject for thought, than the sublime truths unfolded in the Bible? These truths will do a mighty work for us, if we will but follow what they teach....
BLJ	106	5	If the Bible were read more, if its truths were better understood, we should be a far more enlightened and intelligent people. Energy is imparted to the soul by searching its pages. Angels from the world of light stand by the side of the earnest seeker after truth, to impress and illuminate the mind. All who are dark of understanding may find light through an acquaintance with the Scriptures.--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 125, 126.
------------------------To Grow, Study the Word, April 7
BLJ	107	1	All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16, 17, NRSV.
BLJ	107	2	The teacher of the truth should advance in knowledge, growing in grace and in Christian experience, cultivating habits and practices which will do honor to God and to His Word. He or she should show others how to make a practical application of the Word. Every advance we make in sanctified ability, in varied studies, will help us to understand the Word of God; and the study of the Scriptures helps us in the study of the other branches essential in education.
BLJ	107	3	After the first acquaintance with the Bible, the interest of earnest seekers grows rapidly. The discipline gained by a regular study of the Word of God enables them to see a freshness and beauty in truth that they never before discerned. Reference to texts, when speaking, becomes natural and easy to a Bible student.
BLJ	107	4	Above everything else, it is essential for the teachers of the Word of God to seek most earnestly to possess themselves of the internal evidence of the Scriptures. Those who would be blessed with this evidence must search the Scriptures for themselves. As they learn the lessons given by Christ, and compare scripture with scripture, to see whether they themselves bear its credentials, they will obtain a knowledge of God's Word, and the truth will write itself on their souls.
BLJ	107	5	The truth is the truth. It is not to be wrapped up in beautiful adornings, that the outside appearance may be admired. The teacher is to make the truth clear and forcible to the understanding and to the conscience. The Word is a two-edged sword that cuts both ways. It does not tread as with soft, slippered feet.
BLJ	107	6	There are many cases where people who have defended Christianity against skeptics have afterward lost their own souls in the mazes of skepticism. They caught the malaria, and died spiritually. They had strong arguments for the truth, and much outside evidence, but they did not have an abiding faith in Christ. Oh, there are thousands upon thousands of professed Christians who never study the Bible! Study the sacred Word prayerfully, for your own soul's benefit. When you hear the word of living preachers, if they have a living connection with God, you will find that the Spirit and the word agree.--The Review and Herald, April 20, 1897.
------------------------Learn the Truth, Then Live It, April 8
BLJ	108	1	Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You. Psalm 119:11, NKJV.
BLJ	108	2	Study the word, which God in His wisdom and love and goodness has made so plain and simple. The sixth chapter of John tells us what is meant by a study of the Word. The principles revealed in the Scriptures are to be brought home to the soul. We are to eat the Word of God; that is, we are not to depart from its precepts. We are to bring its truths into our daily lives, grasping the mysteries of godliness.
BLJ	108	3	Pray to God. Commune with Him. Prove the very mind of God, as those who are striving for eternal life, and who must have a knowledge of His will. You can reveal the truth only as you know it in Christ. You are to receive and assimilate His words; they are to become part of yourselves. This is what is meant by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. You are to live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God; that is, what God has revealed. Not all has been revealed; we could not bear such a revelation. But God has revealed all that is necessary for our salvation. We are not to leave His Word for the suppositions of human beings.
BLJ	108	4	Obtain an experimental knowledge of God by wearing the yoke of Christ. He gives wisdom to the meek and lowly, enabling them to judge of what is truth, bringing to light the why and wherefore, pointing out the result of certain actions. The Holy Spirit teaches the students of the Scriptures to judge all things by the standard of righteousness and truth and justice. The divine revelation supplies them with the knowledge that they need....
BLJ	108	5	Make the Bible the man of your counsel. Your acquaintance with it will grow rapidly if you keep your mind free from the rubbish of the world. The more the Bible is studied, the deeper will be your knowledge of God. The truths of His Word will be written in your soul, making an ineffaceable impression....
BLJ	108	6	Not only will the students themselves be benefited by a study of the Word of God. Their study is life and salvation to all with whom they associate. They will feel a sacred responsibility to impart the knowledge that they receive. Their lives will reveal the help and strength that they receive from communion with the Word.... Of such ones the Lord Jesus can indeed say, "Ye are laborers together with God."--Counsels on Health, 370-372.
------------------------To Find the Word Interesting, Receive the Spirit, April 9
BLJ	109	1	Let my cry come before You, O Lord; give me understanding according to Your word. Psalm 119:169, NKJV.
BLJ	109	2	The Bible has been placed in the background, while the sayings of great men and women, so-called, have been taken in its stead. May the Lord forgive us the slight we have put upon His Word. Though inestimable treasures are in the Bible, and it is like a mine full of precious ore, it is not valued, it is not searched, and its riches are not discovered.
BLJ	109	3	Mercy and truth and love are valuable beyond our power to calculate; we cannot have too great a supply of these treasures, and it is in the Word of God [that] we find out how we may become possessors of these heavenly riches, and yet why is it that the Word of God is uninteresting to many professed Christians? Is it because the Word of God is not spirit and is not life? Has Jesus put upon us an uninteresting task, when He commands us to "search the scriptures"? Jesus says, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." But spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and the reason of your lack of interest is that you lack the Spirit of God.
BLJ	109	4	When the heart is brought into harmony with the Word, a new life will spring up within you, a new light will shine upon every line of the Word, and it will become the voice of God to your soul. In this way you will take celestial observations, and know whither you are going, and be able to make the most of your privileges today.
BLJ	109	5	We should ask the Lord to open our understanding, that we may comprehend divine truth. If we humble our hearts before God, empty them of vanity and pride and selfishness, through the grace abundantly bestowed upon us; if we sincerely desire and unwaveringly believe, the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness will shine into our minds, and illuminate our darkened understanding. Jesus is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He is the light of the world, and He bids us come unto Him and learn of Him.... He had come to seek and to save that which was lost, and He could not permit Himself to be turned from His one object. He allowed nothing to divert Him. This work He has given into our hands. Shall we do it?--The Review and Herald, November 24, 1891.
------------------------Treasures of Truth Are for Those Who Dig, April 10
BLJ	110	1	If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:4, 5, NKJV.
BLJ	110	2	Let none think that there is no more knowledge for them to gain. The depth of human intellect may be measured; the works of human authors may be mastered; but the highest, deepest, broadest flight of the imagination cannot find out God. There is infinity beyond all that we can comprehend. We have seen only the glimmering of divine glory and of the infinitude of knowledge and wisdom; we have, as it were, been working on the surface of the mine, when rich, golden ore is beneath the surface, to reward the one who will dig for it. The shaft must be sunk deeper and yet deeper in the mine, and the result will be glorious treasure. Through a correct faith, divine knowledge will become human knowledge.
BLJ	110	3	No one can search the Scriptures in the spirit of Christ without being rewarded. When men and women are willing to be instructed as a little child, when they submit wholly to Christ, they will find the truth in His Word. If people would be obedient, they would understand the plan of God's government. The heavenly world would open its treasures of grace and glory for exploration. Human beings would be altogether different from what they are now; for by exploring the mines of truth, they would be ennobled. The mystery of redemption, the incarnation of Christ, His atoning sacrifice, would not be, as they are now, vague in our minds. They would be, not only better understood, but altogether more highly appreciated....
BLJ	110	4	The value of this treasure is above gold or silver. The riches of earth's mines cannot compare with it. "The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies."--The Signs of the Times, September 12, 1906.
------------------------Ever Search for More Light, April 11
BLJ	111	1	I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven. Ecclesiastes 1:13, NKJV.
BLJ	111	2	Whatever may be humanity's intellectual advancement, let no one for a moment think that there is no need of thorough and continuous searching of the Scriptures for greater light. As a people we are called individually to be students of prophecy. We must watch with earnestness that we may discern any ray of light which God shall present to us. We are to catch the first gleamings of truth; and through prayerful study clearer light may be obtained, which can be brought before others.
BLJ	111	3	When God's people are at ease and satisfied with their present enlightenment, we may be sure that He will not favor them. It is His will that they should be ever moving forward to receive the increased and ever-increasing light which is shining for them. The present attitude of the church is not pleasing to God. There has come in a self-confidence that has led them to feel no necessity for more truth and greater light. We are living at a time when Satan is at work on the right hand and on the left, before and behind us; and yet as a people we are asleep. God wills that a voice shall be heard arousing His people to action.
BLJ	111	4	Instead of opening the soul to receive rays of light from heaven, some have been working in an opposite direction. Both through the press and from the pulpit have been presented views in regard to the inspiration of the Bible which have not the sanction of the Spirit or the Word of God. Certain it is that no human being or set of human beings should undertake to advance theories upon a subject of so great importance, without a plain "Thus saith the Lord" to sustain them.
BLJ	111	5	And when people, compassed with human infirmities, affected in a greater or less degree by surrounding influences, and having hereditary and cultivated tendencies which are far from making them wise or heavenly-minded, undertake to arraign the Word of God, and to pass judgment upon what is divine and what is human, they are working without the counsel of God. The Lord will not prosper such a work. The effect will be disastrous, both upon the one engaged in it and upon those who accept it as a work from God.--Testimonies for the Church 5:708, 709.
------------------------Examine Diligently Every Belief, April 12
BLJ	112	1	I applied my heart to know, to search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things, to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. Ecclesiastes 7:25, NKJV.
BLJ	112	2	I have been shown that many who profess to have a knowledge of present truth know not what they believe. They do not understand the evidences of their faith. They have no just appreciation of the work for the present time. When the time of trial shall come, there are people now preaching to others who will find, upon examining the positions they hold, that there are many things for which they can give no satisfactory reason. Until thus tested they knew not their great ignorance.
BLJ	112	3	And there are many in the church who take it for granted that they understand what they believe; but, until controversy arises, they do not know their own weakness. When separated from those of like faith and compelled to stand singly and alone to explain their belief, they will be surprised to see how confused are their ideas of what they had accepted as truth. Certain it is that there has been among us a departure from the living God and a turning to mortals, putting human in place of divine wisdom.
BLJ	112	4	God will arouse His people; if other means fail, heresies will come in among them, which will sift them, separating the chaff from the wheat. The Lord calls upon all who believe His Word to awake out of sleep. Precious light has come, appropriate for this time. It is Bible truth, showing the perils that are right upon us. This light should lead us to a diligent study of the Scriptures and a most critical examination of the positions which we hold. God would have all the bearings and positions of truth thoroughly and perseveringly searched, with prayer and fasting. Believers are not to rest in suppositions and ill-defined ideas of what constitutes truth. Their faith must be firmly founded upon the Word of God so that when the testing time shall come and they are brought before councils to answer for their faith they may be able to give a reason for the hope that is in them, with meekness and fear....
BLJ	112	5	With those who have educated themselves as debaters there is great danger that they will not handle the Word of God with fairness. In meeting an opponent it should be our earnest effort to present subjects in such a manner as to awaken conviction in their mind, instead of seeking merely to give confidence to the believer.--Testimonies for the Church 5:707, 708.
------------------------Bible Study Strengthens the Intellect, April 13
BLJ	113	1	Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He reprove you, and you be found a liar. Proverbs 30:5, 6, NKJV.
BLJ	113	2	The burden now is to convince souls of the truth. This can best be done by personal efforts, by bringing the truth into their houses, praying with them, and opening to them the Scriptures.
BLJ	113	3	Those who do this work should be just as careful not to become stereotyped in their plans of labor as should the minister who labors in the desk. They should be constantly learning. They should have a conscientious zeal to obtain the highest qualifications, to become able in the Scriptures....They should cultivate habits of careful study and mental activity, giving themselves to prayer and to a diligent study of the Scriptures. Many are guilty of shortcomings on this point. The claims of God upon them are not small. But they are content with the limited understanding they have of the Scriptures, and do not seek to improve both mind and manners.
BLJ	113	4	Every argument in prophetic history, every practical lesson given by Christ, should be carefully studied that they may be wanting in nothing. The mind gains strength, breadth, and acuteness by activity. It must be made to work, or it will grow weak. It must be trained to think, to think habitually, or it will in a great measure lose its power to think. Let the mind wrestle with the difficult problems in the Word of God, and the intellect will be thoroughly awakened to bring forth, not inferior discourses, but those that will be fresh and edifying; and these will be presented in the fervor of an active mind.
BLJ	113	5	The servants of Christ must meet the highest standard. They are educators, and they should be thoroughly versed in the Scriptures.... The study of the Bible taxes the mind of the worker, strengthens the memory, and sharpens the intellect more than the study of all the subjects which philosophy embraces. The Bible contains the only truth that purifies the soul, and is the best book for intellectual culture. The dignified simplicity with which it handles important doctrines is just what every youth and every worker for Christ needs to teach him or her how to present the mysteries of salvation to those who are in darkness.--The Review and Herald, December 8, 1885.
------------------------Search the Word Objectively and Personally, April 14
BLJ	114	1	Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day. Psalm 25:5, NKJV.
BLJ	114	2	It is dangerous for us to make flesh our arm. We should lean upon the arm of infinite power. God has been revealing this to us for years. We must have living faith in our hearts, and reach out for larger knowledge and more advanced light.
BLJ	114	3	Do not trust to the wisdom of any person, or to the investigations of any person. Go to the Scriptures for yourselves, search the inspired Word with humble hearts, lay aside your preconceived opinions; for you will obtain no benefit unless you come as children to the Word of God. You should say, "If God has anything for me, I want it. If God has given evidence from His Word to this or that person that a certain thing is truth, He will give it to me. I can find that evidence if I search the Scriptures with constant prayer, and I can know that I do know what is truth."
BLJ	114	4	You need not preach the truth as the product of another person's mind; you must make it your own. When the woman of Samaria was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, she hastened to tell her neighbors and townsmen. She said, "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.... And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did....And many more believed because of his own word: and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ."
BLJ	114	5	We must sink the shaft deep in the mine of truth. You may question matters with yourselves and with one another, if you only do it in the right spirit; but too often self is large, and as soon as investigation begins, an unchristian spirit is manifested. This is just what Satan delights in, but we should come with a humble heart to know for ourselves what is truth. The time is coming when we shall be separated and scattered, and each one of us will have to stand without the privilege of communion with those of like precious faith; and how can you stand unless God is by your side, and you know that He is leading and guiding you? Whenever we come to investigate Bible truth, the Master of assemblies is with us. The Lord does not leave the ship one moment to be steered by ignorant pilots. We may receive our orders from the Captain of our salvation.--The Review and Herald, March 25, 1890.
------------------------Preparing for Trying Times, April 15
BLJ	115	1	That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, ... but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ. Ephesians 4:14, 15, NKJV.
BLJ	115	2	The Lord calls upon all His people to improve the ability He has given them. The mental powers should be developed to the utmost; they should be strengthened and ennobled by dwelling upon spiritual truths. If the mind is allowed to run almost entirely upon trifling things and the common business of everyday life, it will, in accordance with one of its unvarying laws, become weak and frivolous, and deficient in spiritual power.
BLJ	115	3	Times that will try our souls are just before us, and those who are weak in the faith will not stand the test of those days of peril. The great truths of revelation are to be carefully studied, for we shall all want an intelligent knowledge of the Word of God. By Bible study and daily communion with Jesus we shall gain clear, well-defined views of individual responsibility and strength to stand in the day of trial and temptation. He whose life is united to Christ by hidden links will be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
BLJ	115	4	More thought should be given to the things of God, and less to temporal matters. The world-loving professors, if they will exercise their minds in that direction, may become as familiar with the Word of God as they now are with worldly business. "Search the scriptures," said Christ; "for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me."
BLJ	115	5	The Christian is required to be diligent in searching the Scriptures, to read over and over again the truths of God's Word. Willful ignorance on this subject endangers the Christian life and character. It blinds the understanding and corrupts the noblest powers. It is this that brings confusion into our lives. Our people need to understand the oracles of God; they need to have a systematic knowledge of the principles of revealed truth, which will fit them for what is coming upon the earth and prevent them from being carried about by every wind of doctrine.--Testimonies for the Church 5:272, 273.
------------------------Do Not Merely Read the Scriptures, but Search, April 16
BLJ	116	1	You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. John 5:39, NKJV.
BLJ	116	2	We are thankful that we have a sure word of prophecy, so that none of us need be deceived. We know that there are heresies and fables in our world at the present time, and we want to know what is truth. It becomes us to search carefully for ourselves that we may gain this knowledge. We cannot do this with a mere reading of the Scriptures, but we must compare scripture with scripture.
BLJ	116	3	We must search the Scriptures for ourselves, so that we shall not be led astray; and while many may be led astray because there are all kinds of doctrines in our world, there is one truth. Many may come to you and tell you that they have the truth, but it is your privilege to search the Scriptures for yourself. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." We must be acquainted with the Scriptures ourselves, that we may understand the true reason of the hope that is within us.
BLJ	116	4	The apostle tells us that we are to give to everyone that asks us a reason of the hope that is within us, with meekness and fear. "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple." It is not enough to merely read, but the Word of God must enter into our hearts and our understanding, in order that we may be established in the blessed truth. If we should neglect to search the Scriptures for ourselves, that we may know what is truth, then if we are led astray we are accountable for it. We must search the Scriptures carefully, so that we will know every condition that the Lord has given us; and if we have minds of limited capacity, by diligently searching the Word of God we may become mighty in the Scriptures, and may explain them to others.
BLJ	116	5	Every church that shall be raised up ... should be educated in regard to this truth. "The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few." The teachers that shall present the truth cannot stand by you to see that you do not embrace the errors that are flooding our land; but if you are established in the Scriptures, you will feel the responsibility and will search the Scriptures for yourselves, so that you may be a help to others.--The Review and Herald, April 3, 1888.
------------------------Hear Christ's Voice Through the Word, April 17
BLJ	117	1	Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." Matthew 22:29, NKJV.
BLJ	117	2	The voice of God is speaking to us through His Word, and there are many voices that we will hear; but Christ has said we should beware of them who will say, Here is Christ or there is Christ. Then how shall we know that they have not the truth, unless we bring everything to the Scriptures? Christ has warned us to beware of false prophets who will come to us in His name, saying that they are Christ.
BLJ	117	3	Now, if you should take the position that it is not important for you to understand the Scriptures for yourselves, you will be in danger of being led away with these doctrines. Christ has said that there will be a company who in the day of retributive judgment will say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" But Christ will say, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
BLJ	117	4	Now, we want to understand what sin is; that it is the transgression of God's law. This is the only definition given in the Scriptures. Therefore we see that those who claim to be led of God, and go right away from Him and His law, do not search the Scriptures. But the Lord will lead His people; for He says that His sheep will follow if they hear His voice, but a stranger will they not follow. Then it becomes us to thoroughly understand the Scriptures. And we will not have to inquire whether others have the truth; for it will be seen in their characters.
BLJ	117	5	The time is coming when Satan will work miracles right in your sight, claiming that he is Christ; and if your feet are not firmly established upon the truth of God, then you will be led away from your foundation. The only safety for you is to search for the truth as for hid treasures. Dig for the truth as you would for treasures in the earth, and present the Word of God, the Bible, before your heavenly Father, and say, Enlighten me; teach me what is truth. And when His Holy Spirit shall come into your hearts, to impress the truth into your souls, you will not let it go easily.--The Review and Herald, April 3, 1888.
------------------------Earnest Study Produces True Conversion, April 18
BLJ	118	1	Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. Ezra 7:10, NKJV.
BLJ	118	2	Born of the sons of Aaron, Ezra, in addition to his priestly training, had acquired a familiarity with the writings of the magicians, the astrologers, and the so-called wise men of the Medo-Persian realm. But he was not satisfied with his spiritual condition. He longed to be in full harmony with God: he longed for wisdom to carry out God's will. And so he "prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it."
BLJ	118	3	This led him to apply himself diligently to a study of the history of God's people, as given in the writings of Old Testament prophets and kings. He was impressed by the Spirit of God to search the historical and poetical books of the Bible, to learn why the Lord had permitted Jerusalem to be destroyed, and His people to be carried captive into a heathen land.
BLJ	118	4	Ezra gave special study to the experiences of God's chosen people, from the time the promise was made to Abraham, to the deliverance from Egyptian bondage and the exodus. He studied the instruction given them at the foot of Mount Sinai, and throughout the long period of the wilderness-wandering. As he learned more and still more concerning God's dealings with His children, and began to realize how sacred was the law given at Sinai, Ezra's heart was stirred as never before. He experienced a new and thorough conversion, and determined to master the records of Old Testament history, that he might use this knowledge, not for selfish purposes, but to bring blessing and light to his people. Some of the prophecies were about to be fulfilled; he would search diligently for the light that had been obscured.
BLJ	118	5	Ezra took pains with his studies. He endeavored to gain a heart-preparation for the work he believed was appointed him. He sought God earnestly, that he might be a workman of whom his Lord would not be ashamed. He searched out the words that had been written concerning the duties of God's denominated people; and he found the solemn pledge made by the Israelites, that they would obey the words of the Lord; and the pledge that God, in return, had made, promising them His blessing as a reward of obedience.--The Review and Herald, January 30, 1908.
------------------------God's Word the Standard of Judgment, April 19
BLJ	119	1	God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil. Ecclesiastes 12:14, NKJV.
BLJ	119	2	The Bible is an unerring guide for the human race in every phase of life. In it the conditions of eternal life are plainly stated. The distinction between right and wrong is clearly defined, and sin is shown in its most revolting character, clothed with the robes of death. If this guide is studied and obeyed, it is to us as the pillar of cloud, which led the children of Israel through the wilderness; but if it is ignored and disobeyed, it will witness against us in the day of judgment. God will judge all by His Word; according as they have fulfilled or disregarded its requirements, they will stand or fall....
BLJ	119	3	"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you," said Christ, "do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." These words are of the highest importance, and should be our rule of life. But do we carry out this divine principle? Do we, when brought into contact with our fellow beings, deal with them just as we would desire them to deal with us in similar circumstances?
BLJ	119	4	God tests men and women by their daily life. But many who make high professions of service to Him cannot bear this test. In their eagerness for gain they use false weights and deceitful balances. The Bible is not made their rule of life, and therefore they do not see the necessity of strict integrity and faithfulness. Anxious to amass wealth, they allow scheming dishonesty to come into their work. The world watches their conduct, and is not slow to measure their Christian worth by their business dealings....
BLJ	119	5	The Bible always tells the same story. With it sin is always sin, whether committed by the possessor of millions or by the beggar in the streets. Better a life of deepest poverty crowned with God's blessings, than all the world's treasure without it. We may be very rich; but unless we have the consciousness that God honors us, we are poor indeed.--The Signs of the Times, December 24, 1896.
------------------------Scripture's Grand Themes Expand the Mind, April 20
BLJ	120	1	He shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book.... And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes. Deuteronomy 17:18, 19, NKJV.
BLJ	120	2	Light reading fascinates the mind, and makes the reading of God's Word uninteresting. The Bible requires thought and prayerful research. It is not enough to skim over the surface. While some passages are too plain to be misunderstood, others demand careful and patient study. Like the precious metal concealed in the hills and mountains, its gems of truth are to be searched out, and stored in the mind for future use.
BLJ	120	3	And when you search the Scriptures with an earnest desire to learn the truth, God will breathe His Spirit into your heart, and impress your mind with the light of His Word. The Bible is its own interpreter, one passage explaining another. By comparing scriptures referring to the same subject, you will see harmony and beauty of which you have never dreamed. There is no other book whose perusal strengthens and enlarges, elevates and ennobles, the mind as does the perusal of this Book of books.
BLJ	120	4	The injunction of the Word of God is "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." God and the human being are to cooperate. All are to work out that which God works in. Students of the Word of God are to use the knowledge they have gained. They are to improve the opportunities that are thrown in their way. With a settled conviction of duty, they are to use their knowledge and influence in any channel, to the end that they may gain more by their use....
BLJ	120	5	Study the life of Christ in this respect. Follow Him from the manger to Calvary, and act as He acted. The great principles which He maintained, you are to maintain. Your standard is to be the character of Him who was pure, holy, and undefiled.--Youth's Instructor, June 30, 1898.
------------------------Exciting Experiences Await Bible Students, April 21
BLJ	121	1	And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Luke 24:45, NKJV.
BLJ	121	2	Open the Bible to our youth, draw their attention to its hidden treasures, teach them to search for its jewels of truth, and they will gain a strength of intellect such as the study of all that philosophy embraces could not impart. The grand subjects upon which the Bible treats, the dignified simplicity of its inspired utterances, the elevated themes which it presents to the mind, the light, sharp and clear, from the throne of God, enlightening the understanding, will develop the powers of the mind to an extent that can scarcely be comprehended, and never fully explained.
BLJ	121	3	The Bible presents a boundless field for the imagination, as much higher and more ennobling in character than the superficial creations of the unsanctified intellect as the heavens are higher than the earth. The inspired history of our race is placed in the hands of every individual. All may now begin their research. They may become acquainted with our first parents as they stood in Eden, in holy innocency, enjoying communion with God and sinless angels. They may trace the introduction of sin, and its results upon the race, and follow, step by step, down the track of sacred history, as it records the disobedience and impenitence of the human race and the just retribution for sin.
BLJ	121	4	The readers may hold converse with patriarchs and prophets; they may move through the most inspiring scenes; they may behold Christ, who was Monarch in heaven, equal with God, coming down to humanity, and working out the plan of redemption, breaking off from mortals the chains wherewith Satan had bound them, and making it possible for them to regain their godlike humanity. Christ taking upon Himself humanity, and preserving the level of a man for thirty years, and then making His soul an offering for sin, that the human family might not be left to perish, is a subject for the deepest thought and the most concentrated study....
BLJ	121	5	People may have enjoyed the training of the schools, and may have made themselves acquainted with the great writers on theology, yet truth will open to the mind, and impress it with new and striking power, as the Word of God is searched and pondered with an earnest, prayerful desire to understand it.--The Review and Herald, January 11, 1881.
------------------------The Holy Spirit Illuminates the Word, April 22
BLJ	122	1	These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Acts 17:11, NKJV.
BLJ	122	2	"Search the scriptures," Christ declared, "for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." Those who dig beneath the surface discover the hidden gems of truth. The Holy Spirit is present with the earnest searcher. Its illumination shines upon the Word, stamping the truth upon the mind with a new, fresh importance. The searcher is filled with a sense of peace and joy never before felt. The preciousness of truth is realized as never before. A new, heavenly light shines upon the Word, illuminating it as though every letter were tinged with gold. God Himself has spoken to the mind and heart, making the Word spirit and life.
BLJ	122	3	True searchers of the Word lift their hearts to God, imploring the aid of the Spirit. And they soon discover that which carries them above all the fictitious statements of the would-be teacher, whose weak, tottering theories are not sustained by the Word of the living God. These theories were invented by those who had not learned the first great lesson, that God's Spirit and life are in His Word. If they had received in the heart the eternal element contained in the Word of God, they would see how tame and expressionless are all efforts to get something new to create a sensation. They need to learn the very first principles of the Word of God; they would then have the Word of life for the people, who will soon distinguish the chaff from the wheat, for Jesus left His promise with His disciples....
BLJ	122	4	"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27). These words are not half comprehended by individuals, by families, or by church members, to whom and through whom, as His family, God would represent pure, unadulterated truth, which, if received and properly digested, brings eternal life.--Manuscript Releases 21:131, 132.
------------------------Accept the Bible as the Foundation of All Faith, April 23
BLJ	123	1	Whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4, NKJV.
BLJ	123	2	The teachers of Israel were not sowing the seed of the Word of God. Christ's work as a teacher of truth was in marked contrast to that of the rabbis of His time. They dwelt upon traditions, upon human theories and speculations. Often that which mortals had taught and written about the Word, they put in place of the Word itself. Their teaching had no power to quicken the soul.
BLJ	123	3	The subject of Christ's teaching and preaching was the Word of God. He met questioners with a plain "It is written." "What saith the Scriptures?" "How readest thou?" At every opportunity, when an interest was awakened by either friend or foe, He sowed the seed of the Word. He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Himself the living Word, points to the Scriptures, saying, "They are they which testify of me" (John 5:39). And "beginning at Moses and all the prophets," He opened to His disciples "in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27).
BLJ	123	4	Christ's servants are to do the same work. In our day, as of old, the vital truths of God's Word are set aside for human theories and speculations. Many professed ministers of the gospel do not accept the whole Bible as the inspired Word. One wise person rejects one portion; another questions another part. They set up their judgment as superior to the Word; and the Scripture which they do teach rests upon their own authority. Its divine authenticity is destroyed. Thus the seeds of infidelity are sown broadcast; for the people become confused and know not what to believe. There are many beliefs that the mind has no right to entertain.
BLJ	123	5	In the days of Christ the rabbis put a forced, mystical construction upon many portions of Scripture. Because the plain teaching of God's Word condemned their practices, they tried to destroy its force. The same thing is done today. The Word of God is made to appear mysterious and obscure in order to excuse transgression of His law. Christ rebuked these practices in His day. He taught that the Word of God was to be understood by all. He pointed to the Scriptures as of unquestionable authority, and we should do the same. The Bible is to be presented as the word of the infinite God, as the end of all controversy and the foundation of all faith.--Christ's Object Lessons, 38-40.
------------------------Have Fellowship With Jesus Through the Word, April 24
BLJ	124	1	Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:1, 2, NKJV.
BLJ	124	2	No man, woman, or youth can attain to Christian perfection and neglect the study of the Word of God. By carefully and closely searching His Word we shall obey the injunction of Christ, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." This search enables the student to closely observe the divine Model, for they testify of Christ. The Pattern must be inspected often and closely in order to imitate it.
BLJ	124	3	As human beings become acquainted with the history of the Redeemer, they discover in themselves defects of character; their unlikeness to Christ is so great that they see they cannot be followers without a very great change in their lives. Still they study, with a desire to be like their great Exemplar; they catch the looks, the spirit, of their beloved Master; by beholding they become changed. "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." It is not in looking away from Him, and in losing sight of Him, that we imitate the life of Jesus; but in dwelling upon and talking of Him, and seeking to refine the taste and elevate the character; seeking to approach through earnest, persevering effort, through faith and love, the perfect Pattern.
BLJ	124	4	The attention being fixed upon Christ, His image, pure and spotless, becomes enshrined in the heart as "the chief among ten thousand and the one altogether lovely." Even unconsciously we imitate that with which we are familiar. By having a knowledge of Christ, His words, His habits, His lessons of instruction, and by borrowing the virtues of the character which we have so closely studied, we become imbued with the spirit of the Master which we have so much admired....
BLJ	124	5	The Word of God, spoken to the heart, has an animating power, and those who will frame any excuse for neglecting to become acquainted with it will neglect the claims of God in many respects. The character will be deformed, the words and acts a reproach to the truth.--The Review and Herald, November 28, 1878.
------------------------Enjoy the Rich Banquet Found in the Word, April 25
BLJ	125	1	The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. 1 John 2:27, NKJV.
BLJ	125	2	Let us believe the Word. He who thus eats the bread of heaven is nourished every day, and will know what these words mean, "Need not that any man teach you" (1 John 2:27). We have lessons pure from the lips of Him who owns us, who has bought us with the price of His own blood.
BLJ	125	3	The precious Word of God is a solid foundation upon which to build. When people come to you with their supposed suppositions, tell them that the Great Teacher has left you His Word, which is of incalculable value, that He has sent a Comforter in His own name, even the Holy Ghost. "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
BLJ	125	4	Here is presented before us a rich banquet, of which all who believe in Christ as a personal Savior may eat. He is the tree of life to all who continue to feed on Him.
BLJ	125	5	I am instructed to ask those who profess to receive Christ as their personal Savior, Why do you pass by the words of the Great Teacher, and send your letters to human beings for words of comfort? Why do you rely upon human help when you have the large, full, grand promises, "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.... This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever"? They may die, yet the life of Christ in them is eternal, and they will be raised up at the last day. "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." ...
BLJ	125	6	I am instructed by the Word of God that His promises are for me and for every child of God. The banquet is spread before us; we are invited to eat the Word of God, which will strengthen spiritual muscle and sinew.--Manuscript Releases 21:132, 133.
------------------------True Higher Education Found in the Word of God, April 26
BLJ	126	1	Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Proverbs 4:5, NKJV.
BLJ	126	2	There is no time now to fill the mind with false ideas of what is called higher education. There can be no higher education than that which comes from the Author of truth. The Word of God is to be our study. We are to educate our children in the truths found therein. It is an inexhaustible treasure; but men and women fail to find this treasure because they do not search until it is within their possession. In this Word is found wisdom, unquestionable and inexhaustible wisdom, that did not originate in the finite mind, but in the infinite mind.
BLJ	126	3	When men and women are willing to be instructed as little children, when they submit wholly to God, they will find in the Scriptures the science of education. When teachers and students enter Christ's school, to learn from Him, they will talk intelligently of higher education, because they will understand that it is that knowledge which enables people to understand the essence of science.
BLJ	126	4	Those who would seek successfully for the hidden treasure must rise to higher pursuits than the things of this world. Their affections and all their capabilities must be consecrated to this search. Men and women of piety and talent catch views of eternal realities, but often they fail to understand, because the things that are seen eclipse the glory of the unseen. By many human wisdom is thought to be higher than the wisdom of the divine Teacher, and God's lesson book is looked upon as old-fashioned, so much so indeed as to be thought tame and stale. But by those who have been vivified by the Holy Spirit it is not so regarded. They see the priceless treasure, and would sell all to buy the field that contains it....
BLJ	126	5	Those who make the Word of God their study, who dig for the treasures of truth, will appreciate the weighty principles taught, and will digest them. As a result, they will be imbued with the Spirit of Christ; and by beholding, they will become changed into His likeness. They will teach like disciples who have been sitting at the feet of Jesus, who have accustomed themselves to learn of Him, that they might know Him whom to know aright is life eternal.--The Review and Herald, July 3, 1900.
------------------------To Understand God's Word Better, Be Obedient, April 27
BLJ	127	1	The mind of one who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly. Proverbs 15:14, NRSV.
BLJ	127	2	No one can search the Old and New Testaments in the Spirit of Christ without being rewarded. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden," the Savior says, "and I will give you rest. Take my yoke [of obedience] upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The Great Teacher's invitation is before you. Will you willingly respond to it? You cannot draw near, placing yourself as a learner at the feet of Christ, without having your mind enlightened, and your heart quickened with a pure, holy admiration. You will then say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."
BLJ	127	3	Disobedience has closed the door to a vast amount of knowledge that might have been gained from the Word of God. Understanding means obedience to God's commandments. Had men and women been obedient, they would have understood the plan of God's government. The heavenly world would have opened its chambers of grace and glory for exploration. Human beings would have been altogether different from what they are now, in form, in speech, in song; for by exploring the mines of truth, they would have been ennobled. The mystery of redemption, the incarnation of Christ, His atoning sacrifice, would not be, as they are now, vague in our minds. They would have been not only better understood, but altogether more highly appreciated.
BLJ	127	4	In eternity we shall learn that which, if we had received the enlightenment that it was possible for us to obtain here, would have opened our understanding. The themes of redemption will employ the hearts and minds and tongues of the redeemed through the everlasting ages. They will understand the truths that Christ longed to open to His disciples, but which they did not have faith to grasp. Forever and forever, new views of the perfection and glory of Christ will appear.--The Review and Herald, July 3, 1900.
------------------------The Bible Reveals the Way to Christ, April 28
BLJ	128	1	Love one another fervently with a pure heart, ... because "all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever." 1 Peter 1:22-25, NKJV.
BLJ	128	2	The blessed Bible gives us a knowledge of the great plan of salvation, and shows us how every individual may have eternal life. Who is the author of the Book? Jesus Christ. He is the True Witness, and He says to His own, "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." The Bible is to show us the way to Christ, and in Christ eternal life is revealed. Jesus said to the Jews and to those who pressed about Him in great multitudes, "Search the scriptures." The Jews had the Word in the Old Testament, but they had so mingled it with human opinions, that its truths were mystified, and the will of God to human beings was covered up. The religious teachers of the people are following their example in this age.
BLJ	128	3	Though the Jews had the Scriptures which testified of Christ, they were not able to discern Christ in the Scriptures; and although we have the Old and the New Testament, people today wrest the Scriptures to evade their truths; and in their interpretations of the Scriptures, they teach, as did the Pharisees, the maxims and traditions of humanity for the commandments of God. In Christ's day the religious leaders had so long presented human ideas before the people, that the teaching of Christ was in every way opposed to their theories and practice.
BLJ	128	4	His sermon on the mount virtually contradicted the doctrines of the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees. They had so misrepresented God that He was looked upon as a stern judge, incapable of compassion, mercy, and love. They presented to the people endless maxims and traditions as proceeding from God, when they had no "Thus saith the Lord" for their authority. Though they professed to know and to worship the true and living God, they wholly misrepresented Him; and the character of God, as represented by His Son, was as an original subject, a new gift to the world. Christ made every effort so to sweep away the misrepresentations of Satan, that the confidence of people in the love of God might be restored.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 308, 309.
------------------------Search the Scriptures, and Be Obedient, April 29
BLJ	129	1	Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. John 7:17, NRSV.
BLJ	129	2	Those who humbly and prayerfully search the Scriptures, to know and to do God's will, will not be in doubt of their obligations to God. For "if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." If you would know the mystery of godliness, you must follow the plain word of truth--feeling or no feeling, emotion or no emotion. Obedience must be rendered from a sense of principle, and the right must be pursued under all circumstances. This is the character that is elected of God unto salvation.
BLJ	129	3	The test of a genuine Christian is given in the Word of God. Says Jesus, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." ... Here are the conditions upon which every soul will be elected to eternal life. Your obedience to God's commandments will prove your right to an inheritance with the saints in light. God has elected a certain excellence of character; and everyone who, through the grace of Christ, shall reach the standard of His requirement will have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of glory. All who would reach this standard of character will have to employ the means that God has provided to this end.
BLJ	129	4	If you would inherit the rest that remaineth for the children of God, you must become a colaborer with God. You are elected to wear the yoke of Christ--to bear His burden, to lift His cross. You are to be diligent "to make your calling and election sure."
BLJ	129	5	Search the Scriptures, and you will see that not a son or a daughter of Adam is elected to be saved in disobedience to God's law. The world makes void the law of God; but Christians are chosen to sanctification through obedience to the truth. They are elected to bear the cross, if they would wear the crown.
BLJ	129	6	The Bible is the only rule of faith and doctrine.... Only Bible truth and Bible religion will stand the test of the judgment. We are not to pervert the Word of God to suit our convenience and worldly interest, but to honestly inquire, "What wilt thou have me to do?"--The Review and Herald, July 17, 1888.
------------------------True Learners Accept the Scriptures as God's Voice, April 30
BLJ	130	1	If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:31, 32, NKJV.
BLJ	130	2	The young men and women who make the Bible their guide need not mistake the path of duty and of safety. That Book will teach them to preserve their integrity of character, to be truthful, to practice no deception. It will teach them that they must never transgress God's law in order to accomplish a desired object, even though to obey involves a sacrifice. It will teach them that the blessing of heaven will not rest upon them if they depart from the path of right doing; that although some may appear to prosper in disobedience, they will surely reap the fruit of their sowing.
BLJ	130	3	Those only who read the Scriptures as the voice of God speaking to them are true learners. They tremble at the voice of God, for to them it is a living reality. They open their understanding to divine instruction and pray for grace, that they may obtain a preparation for service. As the heavenly torch is placed in their hands, the seekers for truth see their own frailty, their infirmity, the hopelessness of looking to themselves for righteousness. They see that there is in them nothing that can recommend them to God. They pray for the Holy Spirit, the representative of Christ, to be their constant guide, to lead them into all truth. They repeat the promise "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things" (John 14:26)....
BLJ	130	4	Diligent Bible students will constantly increase in knowledge and discernment. Their intellect will grasp elevated subjects and lay hold of the truth of eternal realities. Their motives of action will be right. They will use their talents of influence to help others to understand more perfectly their God-given responsibilities. Their hearts will be a wellspring of joy as they see success attend their efforts to impart to others the blessings they have received.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 449-451.
------------------------God's People to Keep the Sabbath, May 1
BLJ	132	1	And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Genesis 2:2, NKJV.
BLJ	132	2	God sanctified and blessed the day in which He had rested from all His wondrous work. And this Sabbath, sanctified of God, was to be kept for a perpetual covenant. It was a memorial that was to stand from age to age, till the close of earth's history.
BLJ	132	3	God brought the Hebrews out of their Egyptian bondage, and commanded them to observe His Sabbath, and keep the law given in Eden. Every week He worked a miracle to establish in their minds the fact that in the beginning of the world He had instituted the Sabbath....
BLJ	132	4	In the third month they came to the desert of Sinai, and there the law was spoken from the mount in awful grandeur. During their stay in Egypt, Israel had so long heard and seen idolatry practiced that to a large degree they had lost their knowledge of God and of His law, and their sense of the importance and sacredness of the Sabbath; the law was given a second time to call these things to their remembrance. In God's statutes was defined practical religion for all mankind. Before Israel was placed the true standard of righteousness.
BLJ	132	5	"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep." Some, who have been anxious to make of none effect the law of God, have quoted this word "sabbaths," interpreting it to mean the annual sabbaths of the Jews. But they do not connect this positive requirement with that which follows: "For it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed."--The Review and Herald, August 30, 1898.
------------------------The Sabbath Intended for All Humankind, May 2
BLJ	133	1	You made known to them Your holy Sabbath, and commanded them precepts, statutes and laws, by the hand of Moses Your servant. Nehemiah 9:14, NKJV.
BLJ	133	2	There are those who hold that the Sabbath was given only for the Jews; but God has never said this. He committed the Sabbath to His people Israel as a sacred trust; but the very fact that the desert of Sinai, and not Palestine, was the place selected by Him in which to proclaim His law reveals that He intended it for all humankind. The law of ten commandments is as old as Creation. Therefore the Sabbath institution has no special relation to the Jews, any more than to all other created beings. God has made the observance of the Sabbath obligatory upon all men and women.
BLJ	133	3	"The sabbath," it is plainly stated, "was made for man." Let everyone, therefore, who is in danger of being deceived on this point give heed to the Word of God rather than the assertions of human beings.
BLJ	133	4	In Eden, God said to Adam concerning the tree of knowledge, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Adam listened to the voice of Satan speaking through his wife; he believed another voice than that which spoke the law in Eden.
BLJ	133	5	Every human being has been placed on trial, as were Adam and Eve in Eden. As the tree of knowledge was placed in the midst of the garden of Eden, so the Sabbath command is placed in the midst of the Decalogue. In regard to the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the restriction was made, "Ye shall not eat of it, ... lest ye die." Of the Sabbath, God said, Ye shall not defile it, but keep it holy. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." As the tree of knowledge was the test of Adam's obedience, so the fourth command is the test that God has given to prove the loyalty of all His people. The experience of Adam is to be a warning to us so long as time shall last. It warns us not to receive any assurance from the mouth of mortals or of angels that will detract one jot or tittle from the sacred law of Jehovah.--The Review and Herald, August 30, 1898.
------------------------A Day Pointing to God's Power and Love, May 3
BLJ	134	1	Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Genesis 2:3, NKJV.
BLJ	134	2	God looked with satisfaction upon the work of His hands. All was perfect, worthy of its divine Author, and He rested, not as one weary, but as well pleased with the fruits of His wisdom and goodness and the manifestations of His glory.
BLJ	134	3	After resting upon the seventh day, God sanctified it, or set it apart, as a day of rest for humankind. Following the example of the Creator, dwellers on earth were to rest upon this sacred day, that as they should look upon the heavens and the earth, they might reflect upon God's great work of creation; and that as they should behold the evidences of God's wisdom and goodness, their hearts might be filled with love and reverence for their Maker.
BLJ	134	4	In Eden, God set up the memorial of His work of creation, in placing His blessing upon the seventh day. The Sabbath was committed to Adam, the father and representative of the whole human family. Its observance was to be an act of grateful acknowledgment, on the part of all who should dwell upon the earth, that God was their Creator and their rightful Sovereign; that they were the work of His hands and the subjects of His authority. Thus the institution was wholly commemorative, and given to the entire human race. There was nothing in it shadowy or of restricted application to any people....
BLJ	134	5	God designs that the Sabbath shall direct the minds of all people to the contemplation of His created works. Nature speaks to their senses, declaring that there is a living God, the Creator, the Supreme Ruler of all. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge" (Psalm 19:1, 2). The beauty that clothes the earth is a token of God's love. We may behold it in the everlasting hills, in the lofty trees, in the opening buds and the delicate flowers. All speak to us of God. The Sabbath, ever pointing to Him who made them all, bids men and women open the great book of nature and trace therein the wisdom, the power, and the love of the Creator.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 47, 48.
------------------------Six Days for Us, Only One for God, May 4
BLJ	135	1	Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.... Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Exodus 20:8-11, NKJV.
BLJ	135	2	At the very beginning of the fourth precept, God said, "Remember," knowing that men and women, in the multitude of their cares and perplexities, would be tempted to excuse themselves from meeting the full requirements of the law or, in the press of worldly business, would forget its sacred importance. "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work," the usual business of life, for worldly profit or pleasure. These words are very explicit; there can be no mistake.
BLJ	135	3	Brother K, how dare you venture to transgress a commandment so solemn and important? Has the Lord made an exception by which you are absolved from the law He has given to the world? Are your transgressions omitted from the book of record? Has He agreed to excuse your disobedience when the nations come before Him for judgment? Do not for a moment deceive yourself with the thought that your sin will not bring its merited punishment. Your transgressions will be visited with the rod, because you have had the light, yet have walked directly contrary to it. "That servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes."
BLJ	135	4	God has given us six days in which to do our own work and carry on the usual business of life; but He claims one day, which He has set apart and sanctified. He gives it to us as a day in which we may rest from labor and devote ourselves to worship and the improvement of our spiritual condition. What a flagrant outrage it is for us to steal the one sanctified day of Jehovah and appropriate it to our own selfish purposes!
BLJ	135	5	It is the grossest presumption for mortal beings to venture upon a compromise with the Almighty in order to secure their own petty, temporal interests. It is as ruthless a violation of the law to occasionally use the Sabbath for secular business as to entirely reject it; for it is making the Lord's commandments a matter of convenience.--Testimonies for the Church 4:249.
------------------------The Sabbath Turns Minds to the Creator, May 5
BLJ	136	1	If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, ... then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. Isaiah 58:13, 14, NKJV.
BLJ	136	2	Many professing Christians of today are closing their hearts and minds to the Sun of Righteousness, whose bright beams would chase away the darkness and mist that exist there. They refuse the light, and make God's requirements and will of secondary importance. In place of the rest day given them by Jehovah, they accept a counterfeit sabbath; they worship an idol, and transgress God's holy law in trampling upon the Sabbath which He has instituted and blessed.
BLJ	136	3	The object of the Sabbath was that all humanity might be benefited. After God had made the world in six days, He rested, and blessed and sanctified the day upon which He rested from all His work which He had created and made. He set apart that special day for human beings to rest from their labor, that as they should look upon the earth beneath, and the heavens above, the tangible proofs of God's infinite wisdom, their hearts might be filled with love and reverence for their Maker.
BLJ	136	4	Had the human family always kept the day which God has blessed and sanctified, there would never have been an infidel in our world; for the Sabbath was given as a memorial of the Creator's work; it was given that, upon that day in a special sense, people might draw their minds away from the things of earth to the contemplation of God and His mighty power....
BLJ	136	5	The heathen in their blindness bow down to idols of wood and stone. "These be our gods," they say. But in the fourth commandment we have the proof that our God is the true and living God. In it is the seal of His authority: "... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it." In the heavens that declare the glory of their Maker--the sun, shining in its strength, giving life and beauty to all created things; the moon, and the stars, the works of His hands--we see the superiority of the God we worship. He is the God that "made the earth and the heavens."--The Bible Echo, October 12, 1896.
------------------------On Day Six, Prepare for the Sabbath, May 6
BLJ	137	1	This is what the Lord has said: "Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning." Exodus 16:23, NKJV.
BLJ	137	2	On the sixth day, it was found that a double quantity [of manna] had been deposited, and the people gathered two omers for every person. When the rulers saw what they were doing, they hastened to acquaint Moses of this apparent violation of his directions; but his answer was "This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning." They did so, and found that it remained unchanged. And Moses said, "Eat that today; for today is a sabbath unto the Lord: today ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none."
BLJ	137	3	The Lord is no less particular now in regard to His Sabbath than when He gave the foregoing special directions to the children of Israel. He required them to bake that which they would bake, and seethe (that is, boil) that which they would seethe, on the sixth day, preparatory to the rest of the Sabbath. Those who neglect to make suitable preparation on the sixth day for the Sabbath violate the fourth commandment, and are transgressors of God's law. In His instructions to the Israelites, God forbade baking and boiling upon the Sabbath. That prohibition should be regarded by all Sabbathkeepers as a solemn injunction from Jehovah to them. The Lord would guard His people from indulging in gluttony upon the Sabbath, which He has set apart for sacred meditation and worship....
BLJ	137	4	God manifested His great care and love for His people in sending them bread from heaven. "Man did eat angels' food"; that is, food provided for them by the angels.... After they were abundantly supplied with food, they were ashamed of their unbelief and murmurings, and promised to trust the Lord for the future.--The Signs of the Times, April 15, 1880.
------------------------Threefold Miracle Reveals Sabbath Sacredness, May 7
BLJ	138	1	And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. Exodus 16:35, NKJV.
BLJ	138	2	Every week during their long sojourn in the wilderness the Israelites witnessed a threefold miracle, designed to impress their minds with the sacredness of the Sabbath: a double quantity of manna fell on the sixth day, none on the seventh, and the portion needed for the Sabbath was preserved sweet and pure, when if any were kept over at any other time it became unfit for use.
BLJ	138	3	In the circumstances connected with the giving of the manna, we have conclusive evidence that the Sabbath was not instituted, as many claim, when the law was given at Sinai. Before the Israelites came to Sinai they understood the Sabbath to be obligatory upon them. In being obliged to gather every Friday a double portion of manna in preparation for the Sabbath, when none would fall, the sacred nature of the day of rest was continually impressed upon them. And when some of the people went out on the Sabbath to gather manna, the Lord asked, "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?"
BLJ	138	4	"The children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan." For forty years they were daily reminded by this miraculous provision, of God's unfailing care and tender love. In the words of the psalmist, God gave them "of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels' food" (Psalm 78:24, 25)--that is, food provided for them by the angels. Sustained by "the corn of heaven," they were daily taught that, having God's promise, they were as secure from want as if surrounded by fields of waving grain on the fertile plains of Canaan.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 296, 297.
------------------------Satan's Attack Against God's Memorial, May 8
BLJ	139	1	In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Matthew 15:9, NKJV.
BLJ	139	2	The enemy has worked in the religious world to deceive people into the belief that the law of God can be set aside. He has had long years of experience in this work, for he began with our first parents, using his powers to cause them to distrust God. If he could interpose himself between their souls and God, he knew that he would succeed. The prospect of becoming gods, knowing good and evil, was pleasing to Adam and Eve, and they yielded to the temptation.
BLJ	139	3	In receiving a knowledge of good and evil, human beings feel that they are gaining much; but they do not understand the purposes of Satan. They do not understand that they are taken in his snare when they tamper with the law of God. The enemy knows that if the church can be controlled by political enactments, if it can be led to unite with the world, it virtually acknowledges him as its head. Then the authority of human-made commandments will work to oppose the rule of the government of heaven. Under the leadership of Satan there are those who will dispense with the righteous, holy enactments of God concerning the Sabbath, the observance of which is to be a sign between God and His people forever.
BLJ	139	4	Satan's plan has taken with the religious world. He has created an order of things entirely his own, making void the law of God. Through his deceptive working he has gained in the professedly Christian world that which he thought to gain in heaven--an abrogation of the laws of Jehovah. Through the Roman power he has worked to remove God's memorial, and has erected a memorial of his own to sever God from His people. Today the Protestant world is estranged from God by its acceptance of a spurious sabbath. Not one iota of sacred authority can they find for doing this; yet, full of zeal, they assert that the Lord's memorial given at creation should be ignored, despised, trampled upon, and the first day of the week take its place.
BLJ	139	5	No deeper wound could be inflicted on God than to ignore His holy day, and place in its stead a spurious sabbath that bears no mark of sanctity. God gave the Sabbath to the world to be set apart for His name's glory. He says: "It is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.... Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant."--The Signs of the Times, November 22, 1899.
------------------------Sabbath Truth Supported by the Word, May 9
BLJ	140	1	Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. Exodus 31:16, NKJV.
BLJ	140	2	The days in which we live are times that call for constant vigilance, times in which God's people should be awake to do a great work in presenting the light on the Sabbath question. They should arouse, and warn the inhabitants of the world that Christ is soon coming the second time with power and great glory....
BLJ	140	3	This is a time for the Lord's servants to work with undiminished zeal to carry the third angel's message to all parts of the world. The work of this message is spreading far and near; yet we should not feel satisfied, but hasten to carry to thousands more the truth regarding the perpetuity of the law of Jehovah. From all our institutions of learning, from our publishing houses, from our sanitariums, the message is to be proclaimed. The people of God everywhere are to be aroused to cooperate in the great, grand work represented by the first, second, and third angels' messages. This last warning to the inhabitants of the earth is to make everyone see the importance God attaches to His holy law. So plainly is the truth to be presented, that no transgressor, hearing it, shall fail to discern the importance of obedience to the Sabbath commandment....
BLJ	140	4	I am instructed to say to our people, Gather together from the Scriptures the proofs that God has sanctified the Sabbath, and let the words of the Lord be read before the congregations, showing that all who turn aside from a plain "Thus saith the Lord" will be condemned. The Sabbath has been the test of the loyalty of God's people in all ages. "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever," the Lord declares.
BLJ	140	5	In giving the Word of God to the people, there is nothing to be argued. The Word of the Lord is given for the observance of the seventh day; let this Word be given to the people, and not the words of human beings. In so doing you throw the burden of responsibility upon those who reject it; and the arguments of opposers are arguments against the specifications of the Word. While you exalt a "Thus saith the Lord," the controversy is not with the worker, but with God.--The Review and Herald, March 26, 1908.
------------------------The Sign of God's Authority, May 10
BLJ	141	1	Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In. Isaiah 58:12, NKJV.
BLJ	141	2	The Sabbath is a golden clasp that unites God and His people. But the Sabbath command has been broken. God's holy day has been desecrated. The Sabbath has been torn from its place by the man of sin, and a common working day has been exalted in its stead. A breach has been made in the law, and this breach is to be repaired. The true Sabbath is to be exalted to its rightful position as God's rest day.
BLJ	141	3	In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah is outlined the work which God's people are to do. They are to magnify the law and make it honorable, to build up the old waste places, and to raise up the foundations of many generations. To those who do this work God says: "Thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (Verses 12-14).
BLJ	141	4	The Sabbath question is to be the issue in the great final conflict in which all the world will act a part. Men and women have honored Satan's principles above the principles that rule in the heavens. They have accepted the spurious sabbath, which Satan has exalted as the sign of his authority. But God has set His seal upon His royal requirement. Each sabbath institution [both true and false] bears the name of its author, an ineffaceable mark that shows the authority of each. It is our work to lead the people to understand this. We are to show them that it is of vital consequence whether they bear the mark of God's kingdom or the mark of the kingdom of rebellion, for they acknowledge themselves subjects of the kingdom whose mark they bear. God has called us to uplift the standard of His downtrodden Sabbath. How important, then, that our example in Sabbathkeeping should be right.--Testimonies for the Church 6:351-353.
------------------------The Spurious Sabbath a False Signpost, May 11
BLJ	142	1	Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: "Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you." Exodus 31:13, NKJV.
BLJ	142	2	The Lord has clearly defined the road to the City of God; but the great apostate has changed the signpost, setting up a false one--a spurious sabbath. He says: "I will work at cross-purposes with God. I will empower my delegate, the man of sin, to take down God's memorial, the seventh-day Sabbath. Thus will I show the world that the day sanctified and blessed by God has been changed. That day shall not live in the minds of the people. I will obliterate the memory of it. I will place in its stead a day bearing not the credentials of heaven, a day that cannot be a sign between God and His people.
BLJ	142	3	"I will lead the people who accept this day to place upon it the sanctity that God placed upon the seventh day. Through my vicegerent I will exalt myself. The first day shall be extolled, and the Protestant world shall receive this spurious sabbath as genuine. Through the nonobservance of the Sabbath God instituted, I will bring His law into contempt. The words 'a sign between me and you throughout your generations' I will make to serve on the side of my sabbath. Thus the world will become mine. I will be ruler of the earth, prince of the world. I will so control the minds under my power that God's Sabbath shall be an object of contempt." ...
BLJ	142	4	The man of sin has instituted a false sabbath, and the professed Christian world has adopted this child of the papacy, refusing to obey God. Thus Satan leads men and women in a direction opposite to the city of refuge; and by the multitudes who follow him, it is demonstrated that Adam and Eve are not the only ones who have accepted the words of the wily foe.
BLJ	142	5	The enemy of all good has turned the signpost round, so that it points to the path of disobedience as the path of happiness.--The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 4, 1171, 1172.
------------------------Do Good on the Sabbath, May 12
BLJ	143	1	“For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." ... "It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Matthew 12:8-12, NKJV.
BLJ	143	2	Jesus had lessons which He desired to give to His disciples, that when He was no longer with them, they might not be misled by the wily misrepresentations of the priests and rulers in regard to the correct observance of the Sabbath. He would remove from the Sabbath the traditions and exactions with which the priests and rulers had burdened it.
BLJ	143	3	In passing through a field of grain on the Sabbath day, He and His disciples, being hungry, began to pluck the heads of grain and to eat. "But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day." To answer their accusation, He referred them to the action of David and others, saying: "Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple."
BLJ	143	4	If excessive hunger excused David from violating even the holiness of the sanctuary, and made his act guiltless, how much more excusable was the simple act of the disciples in plucking grain and eating it upon the Sabbath day! Jesus would teach His disciples and His enemies that the service of God was first of all; and if fatigue and hunger attended the work, it was right to satisfy the wants of humanity even upon the Sabbath day....
BLJ	143	5	Works of mercy and of necessity are no transgression of the law. God does not condemn these things. The act of mercy and necessity in passing through a grainfield, of plucking the heads of wheat, of rubbing them in their hands, and of eating to satisfy their hunger, He declared to be in accordance with the law which He Himself had proclaimed from Sinai. Thus He declared Himself guiltless before scribes, rulers, and priests, before the heavenly universe, before fallen angels and fallen men.--The Review and Herald, August 3, 1897.
------------------------Do Soul-saving Work on the Sabbath, May 13
BLJ	144	1	I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, a man more than the golden wedge of Ophir. Isaiah 13:12, NKJV.
BLJ	144	2	If it was right for David to satisfy his hunger by eating of the bread that had been set apart to a holy use, then it was right for the disciples to supply their need by plucking the grain upon the sacred hours of the Sabbath. Again, the priests in the Temple performed greater labor on the Sabbath than upon other days. The same labor in secular business would be sinful; but the work of the priests was in the service of God. They were performing those rites that pointed to the redeeming power of Christ, and their labor was in harmony with the object of the Sabbath. But now Christ Himself had come. The disciples, in doing the work of Christ, were engaged in God's service, and that which was necessary for the accomplishment of this work it was right to do on the Sabbath day.
BLJ	144	3	Christ would teach His disciples and His enemies that the service of God is first of all. The object of God's work in this world is the redemption of humankind; therefore that which is necessary to be done on the Sabbath in the accomplishment of this work is in accord with the Sabbath law. Jesus then crowned His argument by declaring Himself the "Lord of the Sabbath," One above all question and above all law. This infinite Judge acquits the disciples of blame, appealing to the very statutes they are accused of violating....
BLJ	144	4	Upon another Sabbath, as Jesus entered a synagogue, He saw there a man who had a withered hand. The Pharisees watched Him, eager to see what He would do. The Savior well knew that in healing on the Sabbath He would be regarded as a transgressor, but He did not hesitate to break down the wall of traditional requirements that barricaded the Sabbath. Jesus bade the afflicted man stand forth, and then asked, "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?" It was a maxim among the Jews that a failure to do good, when one had opportunity, was to do evil; to neglect to save life was to kill. Thus Jesus met the rabbis on their own ground. "But they held their peace. And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other" (Mark 3:4, 5).--The Desire of Ages, 285, 286.
------------------------Doing Well on the Sabbath Honors the Day, May 14
BLJ	145	1	Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Matthew 12:12, NKJV.
BLJ	145	2	When questioned, "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days?" Jesus answered, "What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days" (Matthew 12:10-12).
BLJ	145	3	The spies dared not answer Christ in the presence of the multitude, for fear of involving themselves in difficulty. They knew that He had spoken the truth. Rather than violate their traditions, they would leave a human being to suffer, while they would relieve a brute because of the loss to the owner if it were neglected. Thus greater care was shown for a dumb animal than for a person, who is made in the image of God.
BLJ	145	4	This illustrates the working of all false religions. They originate in the human desire to exalt self above God, but they result in degrading humanity below the brute. Every religion that wars against the sovereignty of God defrauds human beings of the glory which was theirs at the creation, and which is to be restored to them in Christ. Every false religion teaches its adherents to be careless of human needs, sufferings, and rights. The gospel places a high value upon humanity as the purchase of the blood of Christ, and it teaches a tender regard for the wants and woes of humankind....
BLJ	145	5	When Jesus turned upon the Pharisees with the question whether it was lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill, He confronted them with their own wicked purposes. They were hunting His life with bitter hatred, while He was saving life and bringing happiness to multitudes. Was it better to slay upon the Sabbath, as they were planning to do, than to heal the afflicted, as He had done? Was it more righteous to have murder in the heart upon God's holy day rather than love, which finds expression in deeds of mercy?
BLJ	145	6	In the healing of the withered hand, Jesus condemned the custom of the Jews, and left the fourth commandment standing as God had given it. "It is lawful to do well on the sabbath days," He declared. By sweeping away the senseless restrictions of the Jews, Christ honored the Sabbath, while those who complained of Him were dishonoring God's holy day.--The Desire of Ages, 286, 287.
------------------------The Sabbath Designed to Bring Us Into Harmony With God, May 15
BLJ	146	1	And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." Mark 2:27, NKJV.
BLJ	146	2	When accused of Sabbathbreaking at Bethesda, Jesus defended Himself by affirming His Sonship to God, and declaring that He worked in harmony with the Father. Now that the disciples are attacked, He cites His accusers to examples from the Old Testament, acts performed on the Sabbath by those who were in the service of God.
BLJ	146	3	The Jewish teachers prided themselves on their knowledge of the Scriptures, and in the Savior's answer there was an implied rebuke for their ignorance of the Sacred Writings. "Have ye not read so much as this," He said, "what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him; how he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread ...; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone?" (Luke 6:3, 4). "And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27). "Have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple" (Matthew 12:5, 6). "The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath" (Mark 2:28)....
BLJ	146	4	Jesus did not let the matter pass without administering a rebuke to His enemies. He declared that in their blindness they had mistaken the object of the Sabbath. He said, "If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless" (Matthew 12:7). Their many heartless rites could not supply the lack of that truthful integrity and tender love which will ever characterize the true worshiper of God....
BLJ	146	5	It is the service of love that God values. When this is lacking, the mere round of ceremony is an offense to Him. So with the Sabbath. It was designed to bring men and women into communion with God; but when the mind was absorbed with wearisome rites, the object of the Sabbath was thwarted. Its mere outward observance was a mockery.--The Desire of Ages, 284-286.
------------------------The Sabbath a Sign of Covenant Relationship, May 16
BLJ	147	1	It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. Exodus 31:17, NKJV.
BLJ	147	2	If men and women would acknowledge the true Sabbath, they would not, as they now do, despise the Word of God. The observance of the seventh day would be a golden chain binding them to their Creator. But the commandment which points out who the true God is--the Creator and Ruler of the earth--is dishonored and disobeyed. This is the reason why there is so little stability in the world. The churches have refused God's sign and misrepresented His character. They have torn down God's sacred rest day, exalting a spurious sabbath in its place. Oh, that men and women would cease to lock themselves out of heaven by their own perversities.--Manuscript Releases 5:82.
BLJ	147	3	A breach has been made in the law of God, and He is calling for a people that will repair this breach. A spurious sabbath has been exalted instead of the Sabbath of Jehovah. Soon laws will be passed compelling all to observe the first day of the week instead of the seventh. We must meet this difficulty, and we shall find trouble enough, without stirring up contention among those who profess to be keeping God's commandments.--Manuscript Releases 5:82, 83.
BLJ	147	4	With these plain words [Exodus 31:16, 17] before us, who of those who know the truth will dare to make less prominent the distinguishing features of our faith? It is an established fact, to be made prominent before all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples, that the Lord God made the world in six days, and rested on the seventh day. "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made."--Manuscript Releases 5:83.
BLJ	147	5	The Sabbath was God's sign between Him and His people, and evidence of His kindness, mercy, and love, a token by which His people are distinguished from all false religionists of the world. And God has pledged Himself that He will bless them in their obedience, showing Himself that He is their God, and has taken them into covenant relation with Himself, and that He will fulfill His promise to all that are obedient.--Manuscript Releases 5:84.
------------------------A Day of Healing and Joy, May 17
BLJ	148	1	But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, "There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day." Luke 13:14, NKJV.
BLJ	148	2	"And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her; and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God."
BLJ	148	3	The compassionate heart of Christ was touched at the sight of this suffering woman, and we should suppose that every human being who looked upon her would have rejoiced that she was loosed from her bondage, and healed of an affliction that had bowed her down for eighteen years. But Jesus perceived by the lowering, angry countenances of the priests and rabbis that they felt no joy at her deliverance. They were not ready to utter thankful words because one who had been suffering and deformed by disease was restored to health and symmetry. They felt no gratitude that her deformed body was made comely, and that the Holy Spirit made glad her heart till it overflowed with thankfulness, and she glorified God.
BLJ	148	4	The psalmist says, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me." But in the midst of the words of gratitude is heard a discordant note. "And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day." He was indignant that Christ had caused an unhappy woman to sound a note of joy upon the Sabbath. In a loud voice, harsh with passion, he said to the people, "There are six days in which men ought to work; in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day."
BLJ	148	5	If this man had really had conscientious scruples in regard to the true observance of the Sabbath, he would have discerned the nature and character of the work that Christ had performed.... The work that Christ had done was in harmony with the sanctification of the Sabbath day. The people on this side and that side wondered and were glad at the work that had been wrought for the suffering woman; and there were those whose hearts were touched, whose minds were enlightened, who would have acknowledged themselves the disciples of Christ, had it not been for the lowering, angry countenances of the rabbis.--The Signs of the Times, April 23, 1896.
------------------------A Day on Which to Show Mercy, May 18
BLJ	149	1	Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy; for You render to each one according to his work. Psalm 62:12, NKJV.
BLJ	149	2	The Lord God of Sabaoth will hear earnest prayer. He will lead those who feel their dependence upon Him, and will so guide the workers that many souls shall come to a knowledge of the truth.
BLJ	149	3	Truth as it is in Jesus exercises a transforming influence upon the minds of its receivers. Let no one forget that God is always a majority, and that with Him success is bound to crown all missionary effort. Those who have a living connection with God know that divinity works through humanity. Every soul that cooperates with God will do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
BLJ	149	4	The Lord is a God of mercy, and cares even for the dumb beasts He has created. When He healed on the Sabbath day, and was accused of breaking the law of God, He said to His accusers: "Doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him."
BLJ	149	5	The Lord looks upon the creatures He has made with compassion, no matter to what race they may belong. God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring."
BLJ	149	6	Speaking to His disciples, the Savior said, "All ye are brethren." God is our common Father, and each one of us is our brother's keeper.--The Review and Herald, January 21, 1896.
------------------------Set Example of Sabbath Sacredness, and Teach It, May 19
BLJ	150	1	These words which I command you today shall be in your heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Deuteronomy 6:6, 7, NKJV.
BLJ	150	2	You have failed in your family to appreciate the sacredness of the Sabbath and to teach it to your children and enjoin upon them the importance of keeping it according to the commandment. Your sensibilities are not clear and ready to discern the high standard that we must reach in order to be commandment keepers. But God will assist you in your efforts when you take hold of the work earnestly. You should possess perfect control over yourself; then you can have better success in controlling your children when they are unruly.
BLJ	150	3	There is a great work before you to repair past neglects; but you are not required to perform it in your own strength. Ministering angels will aid you in the work. Do not give up the work nor lay aside the burden, but take hold of it with a will and repair your long neglect. You must have higher views of God's claims upon you in regard to His holy day. Everything that can possibly be done on the six days which God has given to you should be done. You should not rob God of one hour of holy time.
BLJ	150	4	Great blessings are promised to those who place a high estimate upon the Sabbath and realize the obligations resting upon them in regard to its observance: "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath [from trampling upon it, setting it at naught], from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; ... I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
BLJ	150	5	When the Sabbath commences, we should place a guard upon ourselves, upon our acts and our words, lest we rob God by appropriating to our own use that time which is strictly the Lord's....
BLJ	150	6	Nothing which will in the sight of Heaven be regarded as a violation of the holy Sabbath should be left unsaid or undone, to be said or done upon the Sabbath. God requires not only that we refrain from physical labor upon the Sabbath, but that the mind be disciplined to dwell upon sacred themes.--Testimonies for the Church 2:701-703.
------------------------The Commandments Are for All, May 20
BLJ	151	1	Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants--everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant--even them I will bring to My holy mountain. Isaiah 56:6, 7, NKJV.
BLJ	151	2	Under the mosaic law, strangers and eunuchs were excluded from the full enjoyment of the privileges granted to Israel. But the prophet declares that a time is coming when these restrictions will cease. The holy oracles were especially committed to the Jews; not to be an Israelite was not to belong to the favored people of God. The Jews had come more and more to regard themselves as superior by divine right to every other people upon the earth; yet they had not been careful to maintain their separate and holy character by rendering obedience to all the commandments of God.
BLJ	151	3	Now the prophet declares that the stranger who will love and obey God shall enjoy the privileges that have belonged exclusively to the chosen people. Hitherto, circumcision and a strict observance of the ceremonial law had been the conditions upon which Gentiles could be admitted to the congregation of Israel; but these distinctions were to be abolished by the gospel. [Isaiah 56:6-8 quoted.] ...
BLJ	151	4	The first part of [Isaiah 58] brings to view a people who apparently delight in the service of God; they seek Him daily, "as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God." Yet their lives are not right before the Lord; for He commands His prophet, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." ...
BLJ	151	5	This prophecy reaches down the centuries to the time when the man of sin attempted to make void one of the precepts of God's law, to trample under foot the original Sabbath of Jehovah, and in its stead exalt one of his own creation. And when the Christian world set aside God's holy Sabbath, and in its place accept a common working day, unsanctioned by a single "Thus saith the Lord," they are encouraging infidelity, and virtually acknowledging the supremacy of that power by whose authority alone the change has been effected. The rejection of the Sabbath has led to the rejection of the whole law, and thousands of professed Christians now boldly declare it void.--The Signs of the Times, February 28, 1884.
------------------------Jesus Kept the Sabbath by Doing Good, May 21
BLJ	152	1	Then Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one thing: is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" Luke 6:9, NKJV.
BLJ	152	2	It is no violation of the Sabbath to perform works of necessity, as ministering to the sick or aged, and relieving distress. Such works are in perfect harmony with the Sabbath law. Our great Exemplar was ever active upon the Sabbath, when the necessities of the sick and suffering came before Him. The Pharisees, because of this, accused Him of Sabbathbreaking, as do many ministers today who are in opposition to the law of God. But we say, Let God be true, and every man a liar who dares make this charge against the Savior.
BLJ	152	3	Jesus answered the accusation of the Jews thus, "If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless." He had already declared to them that He had kept His Father's commandments. When He was accused of Sabbathbreaking in the matter of healing the withered hand, He turned upon His accusers with the question "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?" In summing up His answer to the questioning of the Pharisees He said, "Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days." Here Christ justified His work as in perfect harmony with the Sabbath law.--The Signs of the Times, February 28, 1878.
BLJ	152	4	Those who hold that Christ abolished the law teach that He broke the Sabbath and justified His disciples in doing the same. Thus they are really taking the same ground as did the caviling Jews. In this they contradict the testimony of Christ Himself, who declared, "I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10).
BLJ	152	5	Neither the Savior nor His followers broke the law of the Sabbath. Christ was a living representative of the law. No violation of its holy precepts was found in His life.
BLJ	152	6	Looking upon a nation of witnesses who were seeking occasion to condemn Him, He could say unchallenged, "Which of you convicteth me of sin?" (John 8:46, RV)....
BLJ	152	7	"The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath," Jesus said. The institutions that God has established are for the benefit of humankind.... The law of Ten Commandments, of which the Sabbath forms a part, God gave to His people as a blessing. "The Lord commanded us," said Moses, "to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive" (Deuteronomy 6:24).--The Desire of Ages, 287, 288.
------------------------The Sabbath Memorializes a Literal Day, May 22
BLJ	153	1	God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend. Job 37:5, NKJV.
BLJ	153	2	When God spoke His law with an audible voice from Sinai, He introduced the Sabbath by saying, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." He then declares definitely what shall be done on the six days, and what shall not be done on the seventh. He next gives the reason for thus observing the week, by pointing us back to His example on the first seven days of time. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." This reason appears beautiful and forcible when we understand the record of Creation to mean literal days.
BLJ	153	3	The first six days of each week are given to us in which to labor, because God employed the same period of the first week in the work of Creation. The seventh day God has reserved as a day of rest, in commemoration of His rest during the same period of time after He had performed the work of Creation in six days.
BLJ	153	4	But the infidel supposition, that the events of the first week required seven vast, indefinite periods for their accomplishment, strikes directly at the foundation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. It makes indefinite and obscure that which God has made very plain. It is the worst kind of infidelity; for with many who profess to believe the record of Creation, it is infidelity in disguise. It charges God with commanding us to observe the week of seven literal days in commemoration of seven indefinite periods, which is unlike His dealings with us, and is an impeachment of His wisdom....
BLJ	153	5	The Word of God is given as a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path. Those who cast His Word behind them, and seek by their own blind philosophy to penetrate the mysteries of Jehovah, will stumble in darkness. A guide has been given to mortals whereby they may trace His works as far as will be for their good. Inspiration, in giving us the history of the Flood, has explained wonderful mysteries that geology alone could never fathom.--The Signs of the Times, March 20, 1879.
------------------------The Sabbath Reminds Us of God's Creative Power, May 23
BLJ	154	1	Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. Psalm 145:3, NKJV.
BLJ	154	2	Infidel geologists claim that the world is very much older than the Bible record makes it. They reject the testimony of God's Word because of those things which are to them evidences from the earth itself that it has existed tens of thousands of years. And many who profess to believe the Bible are at a loss to account for wonderful things which are found in the earth, with the view that Creation week was only seven literal days, and that the world is now only about six thousand years old. These, to free themselves from difficulties thrown in their way by infidel geologists, adopt the view that the six days of Creation were six vast, indefinite periods, and the day of God's rest was another indefinite period; making senseless the fourth commandment of God's holy law. Some eagerly receive this position; for it destroys the force of the fourth commandment, and they feel a freedom from its claims upon them.
BLJ	154	3	Bones of human beings and animals are found in the earth, in mountains and in valleys, showing that much larger humans and beasts once existed. Instruments of warfare are sometimes found; also petrified wood. Because the bones found are so much larger than those of humans and animals now living, or that have existed for many generations past, some conclude that the earth was populated long before the record of Creation by a race of beings vastly superior in size to those now living. Those who reason in this manner have limited ideas of the size of people, animals, and trees, before the Flood, and of the great changes which then took place in the earth.
BLJ	154	4	Without Bible history, geology can prove nothing.... When human beings leave the Word of God, and seek to account for His creative works upon natural principles, they are upon a boundless ocean of uncertainty. Just how God accomplished the work of Creation in six literal days, He has never revealed to mortals. His creative works are as incomprehensible as His existence.--The Signs of the Times, March 20, 1879.
------------------------Believe God's Word, Not Human Reasoning, May 24
BLJ	155	1	The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29, NKJV.
BLJ	155	2	It has been the special work of Satan to lead fallen humanity to rebel against God's government, and he has succeeded too well in his efforts. He has tried to obscure the law of God, which in itself is very plain. He has manifested a special hatred against the fourth precept of the Decalogue, because it defines the living God, the maker of the heavens and the earth. Yielding to his devices, people have turned from the plainest precepts of Jehovah to receive infidel fables.
BLJ	155	3	They will be left without excuse. God has given sufficient evidence upon which to base faith, if one wishes to believe. In the last days, the earth will be almost destitute of true faith. Upon the merest pretense, the Word of God will be considered unreliable, while human reasoning will be received, though it be in opposition to plain Scripture facts. Men and women will endeavor to explain from natural causes the work of Creation. But just how God wrought in the work of Creation He has never revealed to mortals. Human science cannot search out the secrets of the God of heaven....
BLJ	155	4	Human beings professing to be ministers of God raise their voices against the investigation of prophecy, and tell the people that the prophecies, especially of Daniel and John, are obscure, and that we cannot understand them. Yet some of these very ones eagerly receive the suppositions of geologists, which dispute the Mosaic record. But if God's revealed will is so difficult to be understood, certainly people should not rest their faith upon mere suppositions in regard to that which He has not revealed. God's ways are not as our ways, neither are His thoughts as our thoughts. … Humans, with their vain reasoning, make a wrong use of these things which God designed should lead them to exalt Him. They fall into the same error as did the people before the Flood--those things which God gave them as a benefit, they turned into a curse, by making a wrong use of them.--The Signs of the Times, March 20, 1879.
------------------------The Sabbath Was Kept Anciently, and Is Today, May 25
BLJ	156	1	“Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water." ... "Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Revelation 14:7-12, NKJV.
BLJ	156	2	The prophet ... points out the ordinance which has been forsaken: "Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord" (Isaiah 58:12-14)....
BLJ	156	3	Hallowed by the Creator's rest and blessing, the Sabbath was kept by Adam in his innocence in holy Eden; by Adam, fallen yet repentant, when he was driven from his happy estate. It was kept by all the patriarchs, from Abel to righteous Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob. When the chosen people were in bondage in Egypt, many, in the midst of prevailing idolatry, lost their knowledge of God's law; but when the Lord delivered Israel, He proclaimed His law in awful grandeur to the assembled multitude, that they might know His will and fear and obey Him forever.
BLJ	156	4	From that day to the present the knowledge of God's law has been preserved in the earth, and the Sabbath of the fourth commandment has been kept. Though the "man of sin" succeeded in trampling underfoot God's holy day, yet even in the period of his supremacy there were, hidden in secret places, faithful souls who paid it honor. Since the Reformation, there have been some in every generation to maintain its observance. Though often in the midst of reproach and persecution, a constant testimony has been borne to the perpetuity of the law of God and the sacred obligation of the creation Sabbath.
BLJ	156	5	These truths, as presented in Revelation 14 in connection with "the everlasting gospel," will distinguish the church of Christ at the time of His appearing. For as the result of the threefold message it is announced: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." And this message is the last to be given before the coming of the Lord. Immediately following its proclamation the Son of man is seen by the prophet, coming in glory to reap the harvest of the earth.--The Great Controversy, 452-454.
------------------------Keeping the Sabbath as a Family, May 26
BLJ	157	1	Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments. Deuteronomy 7:9, NKJV.
BLJ	157	2	Search the scriptures, parents. Be not only hearers, but doers of the Word. Meet God's standard in the education of your children. Let them see that you are preparing for the Sabbath on the working days of the week. All preparation should be made, every stitch taken, on the six working days; all cooking for the Sabbath should be done on the preparation day. It is possible to do this, and if you make it a rule, you can do it....
BLJ	157	3	Explain your work and its purpose to your children, and let them help themselves and their parents in their preparation to keep the Sabbath according to the commandment. Lead your children to consider the Sabbath a delight, the day of days, the holy of the Lord, honorable....
BLJ	157	4	On Friday the clothing of the children ... should all be laid out by their own hands under the direction of the mother, so that they can dress quickly, without any confusion or rushing about, and hasty speeches.... This is God's holy day; the day that He has set apart to commemorate His creative works; a day which He has sanctified and hallowed....
BLJ	157	5	On the Sabbath, parents should give all the time they can to their children, thus making it a delight. I have seen many families where father, mother, and the older members of the household take themselves away from the younger children, and leave them to amuse themselves as best they can. After a while, the children become weary and go out of doors, and engage in play or some kind of mischief. Thus the Sabbath has no sacred significance to them. In pleasant weather the parents can take their children out for a walk in the fields and forest, and talk to them of the lofty trees, the shrubs and flowers, and teach them that God is the Maker of all these things. Then teach them the reasons for the Sabbath, that it is to commemorate God's created works. After working six days, He rested the seventh, and blessed and hallowed the day of His rest. Thus the most profitable instruction can be given.--Lake Union Herald, April 14, 1909.
------------------------Good Works Continue on the Sabbath, May 27
BLJ	158	1	For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." John 5:16, 17, NKJV.
BLJ	158	2	At Jerusalem, where the Savior now was, many of the learned rabbis lived. Here their false ideas about the Sabbath were taught to the people. Great numbers came to worship at the Temple, and thus the rabbis' teaching was spread far and wide. Christ wished to correct these errors. This was why He healed the man on the Sabbath day, and told him to carry his bed. He knew that this act would attract the attention of the rabbis, and thus would give Him an opportunity to instruct them. So it proved. The Pharisees brought Christ before the Sanhedrin, the chief council of the Jews, to answer the charge of Sabbathbreaking.
BLJ	158	3	The Savior declared that His action was in harmony with the Sabbath law. It was in harmony with the will and the work of God. "My Father worketh hitherto," He said, "and I work" (John 5:17).
BLJ	158	4	God works continually in sustaining every living thing. Was His work to cease upon the Sabbath day? Should God forbid the sun to fulfill its office on the Sabbath? Should He cut off its rays from warming the earth and nourishing vegetation?
BLJ	158	5	Should the brooks stay from watering the fields, and the waves of the sea still their ebbing and flowing? Must the wheat and maize stop growing, and the trees and flowers put forth no bud or blossom on the Sabbath?
BLJ	158	6	Then people would miss the fruits of the earth, and the blessings that sustain their life. Nature must continue its work, or mortals would die. And they also have a work to do on this day. The necessities of life must be attended to, the sick must be cared for, the wants of the needy must be supplied. God does not desire His creatures to suffer an hour's pain that may be relieved on the Sabbath or any other day.
BLJ	158	7	Heaven's work never ceases, and we should never rest from doing good. Our own work the law forbids us to do on the rest day of the Lord. The toil for a livelihood must cease; no labor for worldly pleasure or profit is lawful upon that day. But the Sabbath is not to be spent in useless inactivity. As God ceased from His labor of creating, and rested upon the Sabbath, so we are to rest. He bids us lay aside our daily occupations, and devote those sacred hours to healthful rest, to worship, and to holy deeds.--The Story of Jesus, 73, 74.
------------------------A Vision of the Sabbath Commandment, May 28
BLJ	159	1	The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. Deuteronomy 5:14, NKJV.
BLJ	159	2	Jesus stood by the ark, and as the saints' prayers came up to Him, the incense in the censer would smoke, and He would offer up their prayers with the smoke of the incense to His Father.
BLJ	159	3	In the ark was the golden pot of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of stone, which folded together like a book. Jesus opened them, and I saw the ten commandments written on them with the finger of God. On one table were four, and on the other six. The four on the first table shone brighter than the other six. But the fourth, the Sabbath commandment, shone above them all; for the Sabbath was set apart to be kept in honor of God's holy name. The holy Sabbath looked glorious--a halo of glory was all around it....
BLJ	159	4	And I saw that if God had changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day, He would have changed the writing of the Sabbath commandment, written on the tables of stone, which are now in the ark in the most holy place of the temple in heaven; and it would read thus: The first day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. But I saw that it read the same as when written on the tables of stone by the finger of God, and delivered to Moses on Sinai, "But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God." I saw that the holy Sabbath is, and will be, the separating wall between the true Israel of God and unbelievers; and that the Sabbath is the great question to unite the hearts of God's dear, waiting saints.
BLJ	159	5	I saw that God had children who do not see and keep the Sabbath. They have not rejected the light upon it. And at the commencement of the time of trouble, we were filled with the Holy Ghost as we went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully.--Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 100, 101.
------------------------Why Worship Is Due God, May 29
BLJ	160	1	Hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. Ezekiel 20:20, NKJV.
BLJ	160	2	In Revelation 14, human beings are called upon to worship the Creator; and the prophecy brings to view a class that, as the result of the threefold message, are keeping the commandments of God. One of these commandments points directly to God as the Creator. The fourth precept declares: "The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: ... for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it" (Exodus 20:10, 11)....
BLJ	160	3	"The importance of the Sabbath as the memorial of creation is that it keeps ever present the true reason why worship is due to God"--because He is the Creator, and we are His creatures. "The Sabbath therefore lies at the very foundation of divine worship, for it teaches this great truth in the most impressive manner, and no other institution does this. The true ground of divine worship, not of that on the seventh day merely, but of all worship, is found in the distinction between the Creator and His creatures. This great fact can never become obsolete, and must never be forgotten."--J. N. Andrews, History of the Sabbath, chap. 27.
BLJ	160	4	It was to keep this truth ever before the minds of people that God instituted the Sabbath in Eden; and so long as the fact that He is our Creator continues to be a reason why we should worship Him, so long the Sabbath will continue as its sign and memorial. Had the Sabbath been universally kept, the thoughts and affections of humans would have been led to the Creator as the object of reverence and worship, and there would never have been an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel.
BLJ	160	5	The keeping of the Sabbath is a sign of loyalty to the true God, "him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." It follows that the message which commands mortals to worship God and keep His commandments will especially call upon them to keep the fourth commandment.--The Great Controversy, 437, 438.
------------------------The Sabbath Not Jewish but Christ's Holy Day, May 30
BLJ	161	1	So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. Luke 4:16, NKJV.
BLJ	161	2	How can we account for the observance of the first day of the week by the majority of professed Christians, when the Bible presents no authority for this change either in the precepts or in the example of Christ or His followers? We can account for it in the fact that the world has followed the traditions of human beings instead of a "Thus saith the Lord." This has been the work that Satan has always sought to accomplish--lead people away from the commandments of God to the veneration and obedience of the traditions of the world. Through human instrumentalities he has cast contempt upon the Sabbath of Jehovah, and has stigmatized it as "the old Jewish Sabbath."
BLJ	161	3	Thousands have thoughtlessly echoed this reproach, as though it were something to which was attached great weight of argument; but they have lost sight of the fact that the Jewish people were especially chosen of God as the guardians of His truth, the keepers of His law, the depositary of His sacred oracles. They received the lively oracles to give unto us. The Old and New Testaments both came through the Jews to us. Every promise in the Bible, every ray of light which has shone upon us from the Word of God, has come through the Jewish nation.
BLJ	161	4	Christ was the leader of the Hebrews as they marched from Egypt to Canaan. In union with the Father, Christ proclaimed the law amid the thunders of Sinai to the Jews, and when He appeared on earth as a man, He came as a descendant of Abraham. Shall we use the same argument concerning the Bible and Christ, and reject them as Jewish, as is done in rejecting the Sabbath of the Lord our God? The Sabbath institution is as closely identified with the Jews as is the Bible, and there is the same reason for the rejection of one as of the other. But the Sabbath is not Jewish in its origin. It was instituted in Eden before there were such a people known as the Jews. The Sabbath was made for all humanity, and was instituted in Eden before the fall of Adam and Eve. The Creator called it "my holy day." Christ announced Himself as the "Lord ... of the sabbath." Beginning with creation, it is as old as the human race, and having been made for human beings it will exist as long as they shall exist.--The Signs of the Times, November 12, 1894.
------------------------Sabbath Rest and Joy in Eternity, May 31
BLJ	162	1	“And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me," says the Lord. Isaiah 66:23, NKJV.
BLJ	162	2	At last Jesus was at rest. The long day of shame and torture was ended. As the last rays of the setting sun ushered in the Sabbath, the Son of God lay in quietude in Joseph's tomb. His work completed, His hands folded in peace, He rested through the sacred hours of the Sabbath day.
BLJ	162	3	In the beginning the Father and the Son had rested upon the Sabbath after Their work of creation. When "the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them" (Genesis 2:1), the Creator and all heavenly beings rejoiced in contemplation of the glorious scene. "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7).
BLJ	162	4	Now Jesus rested from the work of redemption; and though there was grief among those who loved Him on earth, yet there was joy in heaven. Glorious to the eyes of heavenly beings was the promise of the future....With this scene the day upon which Jesus rested is forever linked. For "his work is perfect" (Deuteronomy 32:4); and "whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever" (Ecclesiastes 3:14). When there shall be a "restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:21), the creation Sabbath, the day on which Jesus lay at rest in Joseph's tomb, will still be a day of rest and rejoicing. Heaven and earth will unite in praise, as "from one sabbath to another" (Isaiah 66:23) the nations of the saved shall bow in joyful worship to God and the Lamb.
BLJ	162	5	In the closing events of the crucifixion day, fresh evidence was given of the fulfillment of prophecy, and new witness borne to Christ's divinity. When the darkness had lifted from the cross, and the Savior's dying cry had been uttered, immediately another voice was heard, saying, "Truly this was the Son of God" (Matthew 27:54).--The Desire of Ages, 769, 770.
------------------------Be Like Jesus, Not Like the World, June 1
BLJ	164	1	You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. Deuteronomy 25:13, 14, NKJV.
BLJ	164	2	Those who profess to love and fear God should cherish sympathy and love for one another, and should guard the interests of others as their own. Christians should not regulate their conduct by the world's standard. In all ages the people of God are as distinct from worldlings as their profession is higher than that of the ungodly. From the beginning to the end of time, God's people are one body.
BLJ	164	3	The love of money is the root of all evil. In this generation the desire for gain is the absorbing passion. If wealth cannot be secured by honest industry, human beings seek to obtain it by fraud. Widows and orphans are robbed of their scanty pittance, and poor people are made to suffer for the necessaries of life. And all this that the rich may support their extravagance, or indulge their desire to hoard.
BLJ	164	4	The terrible record of crime daily committed for the sake of gain is enough to chill the blood and fill the soul with horror. The fact that even among those who profess godliness the same sins exist to a greater or less extent calls for deep humiliation of soul and earnest action on the part of the followers of Christ. Love of display and love of money have made this world a den of thieves and robbers. But Christians are professedly not dwellers upon the earth; they are in a strange country, stopping, as it were, only for a night. They should not be actuated by the same motives and desires as are those who have their home and treasure here. God designed that our lives should represent the life of our great Pattern: that, like Jesus, we should live to do others good....
BLJ	164	5	Every wrong done to the children of God is done to Christ Himself in the person of His saints. Every attempt to advantage one's self by the ignorance, weakness, or misfortune of another is registered as fraud in the ledger of heaven.--The Southern Watchman, May 10, 1904.
------------------------Do Right in Business, Not Just in Church, June 2
BLJ	165	1	In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12, NRSV.
BLJ	165	2	Those who truly fear God would rather toil day and night, and eat the bread of poverty, than to indulge a passion for gain which would oppress the widow and the fatherless, or turn strangers from their right. Our Savior sought to impress upon His hearers that the person who would venture to defraud a neighbor in the smallest item would, if the opportunity were favorable, overreach in larger matters. The slightest departure from rectitude breaks down the barriers, and prepares the heart to do greater injustice. By precept and example Christ taught that the strictest integrity should govern our conduct toward our fellow beings. Said the divine Teacher, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
BLJ	165	3	Just to the extent that people would advantage themselves at the disadvantage of others will their souls become insensible to the influence of the Spirit of God. Gain obtained at such a cost is a fearful loss. It is better to want than to lie; better to hunger than to defraud; better to die than to sin. Extravagance, overreaching, extortion indulged by those professing godliness, are corrupting their faith and destroying their spirituality. The church is in a great degree responsible for the sins of its members. It gives countenance to the evil if it fails to lift its voice against it. The influence from which it has most to fear is not that of open opposers, infidels, and blasphemers, but of inconsistent professors of Christ. These are the ones who keep back the blessing of the God of Israel....
BLJ	165	4	The business world does not lie outside the limits of God's government. True religion is not to be merely paraded on the Sabbath and displayed in the sanctuary; it is for every day and for every place. Its claims must be recognized and obeyed in every act of life. Those who possess the genuine article will in all their business affairs show as clear a perception of right as when offering their supplications at the throne of grace.--The Southern Watchman, May 10, 1904.
------------------------Be Honest With Others and With God, June 3
BLJ	166	1	You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Deuteronomy 25:15, NKJV.
BLJ	166	2	It is best to deal honestly with your fellow beings and with God. You are dependent upon Christ for every favor you enjoy; you are dependent upon Him for the future, immortal life; and you cannot afford to be without respect unto the recompense of reward. Those who realize their dependence upon God will feel that they must be honest with others, and, above all, they must be honest with God, from whom come all the blessings of life. The evasion of the positive commands of God concerning tithes and offerings is registered in the books of heaven as robbery toward Him.
BLJ	166	3	No one who is dishonest with God or with others can truly prosper.... The Lord has bought us with His own precious blood, and it is because of His mercy and grace that we may hope for the great gift of salvation. And we are enjoined to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. Yet the Lord declares, "Ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." When we deal unjustly with other human beings or with our God, we despise the authority of God and ignore the fact that Christ has purchased us with His own life.
BLJ	166	4	The world is robbing God upon the wholesale plan. The more He imparts of wealth, the more thoroughly do people claim it as their own, to be used as they shall please. But shall the professed followers of Christ follow the customs of the world? Shall we forfeit peace of conscience, communion with God, and fellowship with our brethren and sisters because we fail to devote to His cause the portion He has claimed as His own?
BLJ	166	5	Let those who claim to be Christians bear in mind that they are trading on the capital entrusted them of God, and that they are required to faithfully follow the directions of the Scriptures in regard to its disposal. If your heart is right with God, you will not embezzle your Lord's goods and invest them in your own selfish enterprises.--The Review and Herald, December 17, 1889.
------------------------Imitate Jesus and His Ethics, June 4
BLJ	167	1	Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:4, 5, NKJV.
BLJ	167	2	The ethics inculcated by the gospel acknowledge no standard but the perfection of God's mind, God's will. God requires from His creatures conformity to His will. Imperfection of character is sin, and sin is the transgression of the law. All righteous attributes of character dwell in God as a perfect, harmonious whole. All those who receive Christ as their personal Savior are privileged to possess these attributes. This is the science of holiness.
BLJ	167	3	How glorious are the possibilities set before the fallen race! Through His Son, God has revealed the excellency to which human beings are capable of attaining. Through the merits of Christ, they are lifted from their depraved state, purified, and made more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir. It is possible for them to become companions of the angels in glory, and to reflect the image of Jesus Christ, shining even in the bright splendor of the eternal throne. It is their privilege to have faith that through the power of Christ they shall be made immortal. Yet how seldom they realize to what heights they could attain if they would allow God to direct their every step!
BLJ	167	4	God permits every human being to exercise individuality. He desires no one to submerge his or her mind in the mind of a fellow mortal. Those who desire to be transformed in mind and character are not to look to others, but to the divine Example. .. .
BLJ	167	5	As our Example we have One who is all and in all, the chiefest among ten thousand, One whose excellency is beyond comparison. He graciously adapted His life for universal imitation. United in Christ were wealth and poverty; majesty and abasement; unlimited power, and meekness and lowliness which in every soul who receives Him will be reflected. In Him, through the qualities and powers of the human mind, the wisdom of the greatest Teacher the world has ever known was revealed.--The Signs of the Times, September 3, 1902.
------------------------Never Take Advantage of Another's Misfortune, June 5
BLJ	168	1	You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow's garment as a pledge. Deuteronomy 24:17, NKJV.
BLJ	168	2	God's word sanctions no policy that will enrich one class by the oppression and suffering of another. In all our business transactions it teaches us to put ourselves in the place of those with whom we are dealing, to look not only on our own things, but also on the things of others. Those who would take advantage of another's misfortunes in order to benefit themselves, or who seek to profit themselves through another's weakness or incompetence, are transgressors both of the principles and of the precepts of the Word of God.
BLJ	168	3	"Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow's raiment to pledge" (Deuteronomy 24:17). "When thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge. Thou shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee. And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge" (Verses 10-12). "If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: for that is his covering only ...: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious" (Exodus 22:26, 27). "If thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buyest aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another" (Leviticus 25:14).
BLJ	168	4	"Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity" (Leviticus 19:35, ARV). "Thou shalt not have in thy bag diverse weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thy house diverse measures, a great and a small" (Deuteronomy 25:13, 14, ARV). "Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have" (Leviticus 19:36, ARV).
BLJ	168	5	"Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away" (Matthew 5:42). "The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth" (Psalm 37:21)....
BLJ	168	6	The plan of life that God gave to Israel was intended as an object lesson for all humankind. If these principles were carried out today, what a different place this world would be!--The Ministry of Healing, 187, 188.
------------------------Character Tested by Presence of the Less Fortunate, June 6
BLJ	169	1	When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. Deuteronomy 24:19, NKJV.
BLJ	169	2	I saw that it is in the providence of God that widows and orphans, the blind, the deaf, the lame, and persons afflicted in a variety of ways, have been placed in close Christian relationship to His church; it is to prove His people and develop their true character. Angels of God are watching to see how we treat these persons who need our sympathy, love, and disinterested benevolence. This is God's test of our character.
BLJ	169	3	If we have the true religion of the Bible we shall feel that a debt of love, kindness, and interest is due to Christ in behalf of His children; and we can do no less than to show our gratitude for His immeasurable love to us while we were sinners unworthy of His grace, by having a deep interest and unselfish love for fellow believers who are less fortunate than ourselves.
BLJ	169	4	The two great principles of the law of God are supreme love to God and unselfish love to our neighbor. The first four commandments and the last six hang upon, or grow out of, these two principles. Christ explained to the lawyer who his neighbor was in the illustration of the man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and who fell among thieves and was robbed and beaten and left half dead.
BLJ	169	5	The priest and the Levite saw this man suffering, but their hearts did not respond to his wants. They avoided him by passing by on the other side. The Samaritan came that way, and when he saw the stranger's need of help he did not question whether he was a relative or was of his country or creed; but he went to work to help the sufferer because there was work which needed to be done. He relieved him as best he could, put him upon his own beast, and carried him to an inn and made provision for his wants at his own expense.
BLJ	169	6	This Samaritan, said Christ, was neighbor to him who fell among thieves. The Levite and the priest represent a class in the church who manifest an indifference to the very ones who need their sympathy and help. This class, notwithstanding their position in the church, are commandment breakers. The Samaritan represents a class who are true helpers with Christ and who are imitating His example in doing good.--Testimonies for the Church 3:511, 512.
------------------------The Golden Rule to Govern Business Dealings, June 7
BLJ	170	1	What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8, NKJV.
BLJ	170	2	The laws of the nations bear marks of the infirmities and passions of the unrenewed heart; but God's laws bear the stamp of the divine, and if they are obeyed, they will lead to a tender regard for the rights and privileges of others.... His watchful care is over all the interests of His children, and He declares He will undertake the cause of the afflicted and the oppressed. If they cry unto Him, He says, "I will hear; for I am gracious."
BLJ	170	3	A man of means, if he possesses strict integrity, and loves and fears God, may be a benefactor to the poor. He can help them, and take no more interest [on the money he lends] than can be mercifully exacted. He thus meets with no loss himself, and his unfortunate neighbor is greatly benefited, for he is saved from the hands of the dishonest schemer. The principles of the golden rule are not to be lost sight of for a moment in any business transaction.... God never designed that one person should prey upon another. He jealously guards the rights of His children, and in the books of Heaven great loss is set down on the side of the unjust dealer.
BLJ	170	4	In the Holy Scriptures fearful denunciations are pronounced against the sin of covetousness. "No ... covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." The psalmist says, "The wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth." Paul ranks covetous people with idolaters, adulterers, thieves, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners, none of whom shall inherit the kingdom of God. These are the fruits of a corrupt tree, and God is dishonored by them. We are not to make the customs and maxims of the world our criterion. Reforms must take place; all injustice must be put away.
BLJ	170	5	We are commanded to "search the scriptures." The whole Word of God is our rule of action. We are to carry out its principles in our daily lives; there is no surer mark of Christianity than this. We must carry out the great principles of justice and mercy in our relations with one another. We must be daily cultivating those qualities that will fit us for the society of heaven. If we do these things, God becomes our surety, and promises to bless all that we undertake; and we "shall never be moved."--The Signs of the Times, February 7, 1884.
------------------------God's Plan to Prevent Poverty, June 8
BLJ	171	1	That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine.... And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor's hand, you shall not oppress one another. Leviticus 25:11-14, NKJV.
BLJ	171	2	In God's plan for Israel every family had a home on the land, with sufficient ground for tilling. Thus were provided both the means and the incentive for a useful, industrious, and self-supporting life. And no devising of human beings has ever improved upon that plan. To the world's departure from it is owing, to a large degree, the poverty and wretchedness that exist today.
BLJ	171	3	At the settlement of Israel in Canaan, the land was divided among the whole people, the Levites only, as ministers of the sanctuary, being excepted from the equal distribution. The tribes were numbered by families, and to each family, according to its numbers, was apportioned an inheritance.
BLJ	171	4	And although some might for a time dispose of their possessions, they could not permanently barter away the inheritance of their children. When able to redeem their land, they were at liberty at any time to do so. Debts were remitted every seventh year, and in the fiftieth, or year of jubilee, all landed property reverted to the original owner.
BLJ	171	5	"The land shall not be sold for ever" was the Lord's direction: "for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if the man ... himself be able to redeem it; ... he may return unto his possession. But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee" (Leviticus 25:23-28).... Thus every family was secured in its possession, and a safeguard was afforded against the extremes of either wealth or want.--The Ministry of Healing, 183-185.
------------------------God's Grace Needed to Polish Us, June 9
BLJ	172	1	Therefore you shall not oppress one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 25:17, NKJV.
BLJ	172	2	You are in danger of making grave mistakes in your business transactions. God warns you to be on your guard lest you indulge a spirit of crowding one another. Be careful not to cultivate the sharper's tact, for this will not stand the test of the day of God. Shrewdness and close calculation are needed, for you have all classes to deal with.... But let not these traits become a ruling power. Under proper control, they are essential elements in the character; and if you keep the fear of God before you, and His love in the heart, you will be safe.
BLJ	172	3	It is far better to yield some advantages that might be gained than to cultivate an avaricious spirit and thus make it a law of nature. Petty sharpness is unworthy of a Christian. We have been separated from the world by the great cleaver of truth. Our wrong traits of character are not always visible to ourselves, although they may be very apparent to others. But time and circumstances will surely prove us and bring to light the gold of character or discover the baser metal....
BLJ	172	4	Every base thought, every wrong action, reveals some defect in the character. These rugged traits must be brought under the chisel and hammer in God's great workshop, and the grace of God must smooth and polish before we can be fitted for a place in the glorious temple.
BLJ	172	5	God can make these [leaders in our church institutions] more precious than fine gold, even the golden wedge of Ophir, if they will yield themselves to His transforming hand. They should be determined to make the noblest use of every faculty and every opportunity. The Word of God should be their study and their guide in deciding what is the highest and best in all cases....
BLJ	172	6	The weakest follower of Christ has entered into alliance with infinite power. In many cases God can do little with men and women of learning because they feel no need of leaning upon Him who is the Source of all wisdom; therefore, after a trial, He sets them aside for people of inferior talent who have learned to rely upon Him, whose souls are fortified by goodness, truth, and unwavering fidelity, and who will not stoop to anything that will leave a stain upon the conscience.--Testimonies for the Church 4:540, 541.
------------------------Principles of the Gospel Must Control Us, June 10
BLJ	173	1	Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, "Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?" Luke 13:7, NKJV.
BLJ	173	2	The Lord would be pleased to have His people more considerate than they now are, more merciful and more helpful to one another. When the love of Christ is in the heart, each will be tenderly regardful of the interests of others. Brothers and sisters will not take advantage of each other in business transactions. They will not charge exorbitant interest because they see their brothers or sisters in a close place where they must have help.
BLJ	173	3	Those who will take advantage of the necessities of another prove conclusively that they are not governed by the principles of the gospel of Christ. Their course is recorded in the books of heaven as fraud and dishonesty; and wherever these principles rule, the blessing of the Lord will not come into the heart. Such persons are receiving the impress of the great adversary rather than that of the Spirit of God. But those who shall finally inherit the heavenly kingdom must be transformed by divine grace. They must be pure in heart and life and possess symmetrical characters....
BLJ	173	4	All the means you may accumulate, even though it should be millions, will not be sufficient to pay a ransom for your soul. Then do not remain in impenitence and unbelief, and ... defeat the gracious purposes of God; do not force from His reluctant hand destruction of your property or affliction of your person.
BLJ	173	5	How many there are who are now taking a course which must erelong lead to just such visitations of judgment. They live on day by day, week by week, year by year, for their own selfish interest. Their influence and means, accumulated through God-given skill and tact, are used upon themselves and their families without thought of their gracious Benefactor. Nothing is allowed to flow back to the Giver....
BLJ	173	6	At last His patience with these unfaithful stewards is exhausted; and He brings all their selfish, worldly schemes to an abrupt termination, showing them that as they have gathered for their own glory, He can scatter; and they are helpless to resist His power.--Testimonies for the Church 5:350, 351.
------------------------Our Business Standards Reveal Our Character, June 11
BLJ	174	1	Shall I count pure those with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights? Micah 6:11, NKJV.
BLJ	174	2	An honest person, according to Christ's measurement, is one who will manifest unbending integrity. Deceitful weights and false balances, with which many seek to advance their interests in the world, are abomination in the sight of God. Yet many who profess to keep the commandments of God are dealing with false weights and false balances. When men or women are indeed connected with God, and are keeping His law in truth, their lives will reveal the fact; for all their actions will be in harmony with the teachings of Christ. They will not sell their honor for gain. Their principles are built upon the sure foundation, and their conduct in worldly matters is a transcript of their principles.
BLJ	174	3	Firm integrity shines forth as gold amid the dross and rubbish of the world. Deceit, falsehood, and unfaithfulness may be glossed over and hidden from the eyes of humanity, but not from the eyes of God. The angels of God, who watch the development of character and weigh moral worth, record in the books of heaven these minor transactions which reveal character. If working people in the daily vocations of life are unfaithful and slight their work, the world will not judge incorrectly if they estimate their standard in religion according to their standard in business.
BLJ	174	4	"He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." It is not the magnitude of the matter that makes it fair or unfair. As men and women deal with their fellow citizens, so will they deal with God. Those who are unfaithful in the mammon of unrighteousness will never be entrusted with the true riches. The children of God should not fail to remember that in all their business transactions they are being proved, weighed in the balances of the sanctuary.--Testimonies for the Church 4:310, 311.
------------------------Even "Small" Sins Have Big Consequences, June 12
BLJ	175	1	The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them. Proverbs 11:3, NKJV.
BLJ	175	2	Christ has said: "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." The deeds of people's lives are the fruit they bear. If they are unfaithful and dishonest in temporal matters, they are bringing forth briers and thorns; they will be unfaithful in the religious life and will rob God in tithes and offerings.
BLJ	175	3	The Bible condemns in the strongest terms all falsehood, false dealing, and dishonesty. Right and wrong are plainly stated. But I was shown that God's people have placed themselves on the enemy's ground; they have yielded to his temptations and followed his devices until their sensibilities have become fearfully blunted. A slight deviation from truth, a little variation from the requirements of God, is thought to be, after all, not so very sinful, when pecuniary gain or loss is involved. But sin is sin, whether committed by the possessor of millions or by the beggar in the streets. Those who secure property by false representations are bringing condemnation on their souls. All that is obtained by deceit and fraud will be only a curse to the receiver.
BLJ	175	4	Adam and Eve suffered the terrible consequences of disobeying the express command of God. They might have reasoned: This is a very small sin, and will never be taken into account. But God treated the matter as a fearful evil, and the woe of their transgression will be felt through all time. In the times in which we live, sins of far greater magnitude are often committed by those who profess to be God's children. In the transaction of business, falsehoods are uttered and acted by God's professed people that bring His frown upon them and a reproach upon His cause.
BLJ	175	5	The least departure from truthfulness and rectitude is a transgression of the law of God. Continual indulgence in sin accustoms the person to a habit of wrongdoing, but does not lessen the aggravated character of the sin. God has established immutable principles, which He cannot change without a revision of His whole nature. If the Word of God were faithfully studied by all who profess to believe the truth, they would not be dwarfs in spiritual things. Those who disregard the requirements of God in this life would not respect His authority were they in heaven.--Testimonies for the Church 4:311, 312.
------------------------Build Character on Jesus, the Rock, June 13
BLJ	176	1	I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.... Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end. Psalm 73:3-17, NKJV.
BLJ	176	2	The very first step in the path to life is to keep the mind stayed on God, to have His fear continually before the eyes. A single departure from moral integrity blunts the conscience, and opens the door to the next temptation. "He that walketh uprightly walketh surely; but he that perverteth his ways shall be known" (Proverbs 10:9).
BLJ	176	3	We are commanded to love God supremely, and our neighbor as ourselves; but the daily experience of life shows that this law is disregarded. Uprightness in deal and moral integrity will secure the favor of God, and make men and women a blessing to themselves and to society; but amid the varied temptations that assail them whichever way they may turn, it is impossible to keep a clear conscience and the approval of heaven without divine aid and a principle to love honesty for the sake of the right.
BLJ	176	4	A character that is approved of God and humanity is to be preferred to wealth. The foundation should be laid broad and deep, resting on the rock Christ Jesus. There are too many who profess to work from the true foundation, whose loose dealing shows them to be building on sliding sand; but the great tempest will sweep away their foundation, and they will have no refuge.
BLJ	176	5	Many plead that unless they are sharp, and watch to advantage themselves, they will meet with loss. Their unscrupulous neighbors, who take selfish advantages, are prospered; while they, although trying to deal strictly in accordance with Bible principles, are not so highly favored. Do these persons see the future? Or are their eyes too dim to see, through the miasma-laden fogs of worldliness, that honor and integrity are not rewarded in the coin of this world? Will God reward virtue with mere worldly success? He has their names graven on the palms of His hands, as heirs to enduring honors, riches that are imperishable.--The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 3, p. 1158.
------------------------Public Service Demands Strict Integrity, June 14
BLJ	177	1	It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink; lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted. Proverbs 31:4, 5, NKJV.
BLJ	177	2	Intemperate persons should not by vote of the people be placed in positions of trust. Their influence corrupts others, and grave responsibilities are involved. With brain and nerve narcotized by tobacco and stimulus they make a law of their nature, and when the immediate influence is gone there is a collapse. Frequently human life is hanging in the balance; on the decision of those in these positions of trust depends life and liberty, or bondage and despair. How necessary that all who take part in these transactions should be those who are proved, those of self-culture, those of honesty and truth, of staunch integrity, who will spurn a bribe, who will not allow their judgment or convictions of right to be swerved by partiality or prejudice.
BLJ	177	3	Thus saith the Lord, "Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause. Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked. And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous."--The Signs of the Times, July 8, 1880.
BLJ	177	4	Only men and women of strict temperance and integrity should be admitted to our legislative halls and chosen to preside in our courts of justice. Property, reputation, and even life itself are insecure when left to the judgment of those who are intemperate and immoral. How many innocent persons have been condemned to death, how many more have been robbed of all their earthly possessions, by the injustice of drinking jurors, lawyers, witnesses, and even judges! ...
BLJ	177	5	There is need now of people like Daniel--men and women who have the self-denial and the courage to be radical temperance reformers. Let every Christian see that his or her example and influence are on the side of reform. Let ministers of the gospel be faithful in instructing and warning the people. And let all remember that our happiness in two worlds depends upon the right improvement of one.--The Signs of the Times, February 11, 1886.
------------------------God's Word Approves the Judicial Oath, June 15
BLJ	178	1	You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Exodus 23:1, NKJV.
BLJ	178	2	I saw that the Lord still has something to do with the laws of the land. While Jesus is in the sanctuary, God's restraining Spirit is felt by rulers and people. But Satan controls to a great extent the mass of the world, and were it not for the laws of the land, we should experience much suffering. I was shown that when it is actually necessary, and they are called upon to testify in a lawful manner, it is no violation of God's Word for His children to solemnly take God to witness that what they say is the truth, and nothing but the truth.
BLJ	178	3	Human beings are so corrupt that laws are made to throw the responsibility upon their own heads. Some men and women do not fear to lie to other people; but they have been taught, and the restraining Spirit of God has impressed them, that it is a fearful thing to lie to God. The case of Ananias and Sapphira his wife is given for an example. The matter is carried from humans to God, so that if one bears false witness, it is not to mortals, but to the great God, who reads the heart, and knows the exact truth in every case. Our laws make it a high crime to take a false oath. God has often visited judgment upon false swearers, and even while the oath was on their lips, the destroying angel has cut them down. This was to prove a terror to evildoers.
BLJ	178	4	I saw that if there is anyone on earth who can consistently testify under oath, it is Christians. They live in the light of God's countenance. They grow strong in His strength. And when matters of importance must be decided by law, there is no one who can so well appeal to God as the Christian....
BLJ	178	5	Jesus submitted to the oath in the hour of His trial. The high priest said unto Him: "I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said unto him: "Thou hast said." If Jesus in His teachings to His disciples referred to the judicial oath, He would have reproved the high priest, and there enforced His teachings, for the good of His followers present.
BLJ	178	6	Satan has been pleased that some have viewed oath taking in a wrong light; for it has given him opportunity to oppress them and take from them their Lord's money. The stewards of God must be more wise, lay their plans, and prepare themselves to withstand Satan's devices; for he is to make greater efforts than ever before.--Testimonies for the Church 1:202, 203.
------------------------Choices Being Made Between Two Sides, June 16
BLJ	179	1	You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute. Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked. Exodus 23:6, 7, NKJV.
BLJ	179	2	Christ pronounces a woe upon all who transgress the law of God. He pronounced a woe upon the lawyers in His day because they exercised their power to afflict those who looked to them for justice and judgment. All the terrible consequences of sin will come to those who, even though they may be nominal church members, regard it as a light matter to set aside the law of Jehovah, and to make no distinction between good and evil.
BLJ	179	3	In the representations the Lord has given me, I have seen those who follow their own desires misrepresenting the truth, oppressing their brethren, and placing difficulties before them. Characters are now being developed, and many are taking sides, some on the side of the Lord Jesus Christ, some on the side of Satan and his angels. The Lord calls for all who will be true and obedient to His law to come out of and away from all connection with those who have placed themselves on the side of the enemy. Against their names is written, "TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting" (Daniel 5:27)....
BLJ	179	4	There are many men and women, apparently moral, but who are not Christians. They are deceived in their estimate of what constitutes true Christians. They possess an alloy of character that destroys the value of the gold, and they cannot be stamped with the impress of divine approval. They must be rejected as impure, worthless metal.
BLJ	179	5	We cannot, of ourselves, perfect a true moral character, but we can accept of Christ's righteousness. We can be partakers of the divine nature, and escape the corruptions that are in the world through lust. Christ has left before us a perfect pattern of what we are to be as sons and daughters of God.--This Day With God, 222.
------------------------Handling Money to Meet God's Approval, June 17
BLJ	180	1	Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:20, 21, NKJV.
BLJ	180	2	Many fathers and mothers are poor in the midst of abundance. They abridge, in a degree, their own personal comforts and frequently deny themselves of those things that are necessary for the enjoyment of life and health, while they have ample means at their command. They feel forbidden, as it were, to appropriate their means for their own comfort or for charitable purposes. They have one object before them, and that is to save property to leave for their children.
BLJ	180	3	This idea is so prominent, so interwoven with all their actions, that their children learn to look forward to the time when this property will be theirs. They depend upon it, and this prospect has an important but not a favorable influence upon their characters. Some become spendthrifts, others become selfish and avaricious, and still others grow indolent and reckless. Many do not cultivate habits of economy; they do not seek to become self-reliant. They are aimless, and have but little stability of character. The impressions received in childhood and youth are wrought in the texture of character and become the principle of action in mature life....
BLJ	180	4	With the light of God's Word, so plain and clear in reference to the money lent to stewards, and with the warnings and reproofs which God has given through the Testimonies in regard to the disposition of means--if, with all this light before them, children either directly or indirectly influence their parents to divide their property while living, or to will it mainly to the children to come into their hands after the death of their parents, they take upon themselves fearful responsibilities.
BLJ	180	5	Children of aged parents who profess to believe the truth should, in the fear of God, advise and entreat their parents to be true to their profession of faith, and take a course in regard to their means which God can approve. Parents should lay up for themselves treasures in heaven by appropriating their means themselves to the advancement of the cause of God. They should not rob themselves of heavenly treasure by leaving a surplus of means to those who have enough; for by so doing they not only deprive themselves of the precious privilege of laying up a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, but they rob the treasury of God.--Testimonies for the Church 3:119, 120.
------------------------To Win Souls, Forgo Personal Gain, June 18
BLJ	181	1	I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:12, 13, NKJV.
BLJ	181	2	In every age Satan has sought to impair the efforts of God's servants by introducing into the church a spirit of fanaticism. Thus it was in Paul's day, and thus it was in later centuries during the time of the Reformation. Wycliffe, Luther, and many others who blessed the world by their influence and their faith encountered the wiles by which the enemy seeks to lead into fanaticism overzealous, unbalanced, and unsanctified minds.
BLJ	181	3	Misguided souls have taught that the attainment of true holiness carries the mind above all earthly thoughts and leads men and women to refrain wholly from labor. Others, taking extreme views of certain texts of Scripture, have taught that it is a sin to work--that Christians should take no thought concerning the temporal welfare of themselves or their families, but should devote their lives wholly to spiritual things. The teaching and example of the apostle Paul are a rebuke to such extreme views....
BLJ	181	4	When Paul first visited Corinth, he found himself among a people who were suspicious of the motives of strangers. The Greeks on the seacoast were keen traders. So long had they trained themselves in sharp business practices, that they had come to believe that gain was godliness, and that to make money, whether by fair means or foul, was commendable. Paul was acquainted with their characteristics, and he would give them no occasion for saying that he preached the gospel in order to enrich himself. He might justly have claimed support from his Corinthian hearers; but this right he was willing to forgo, lest his usefulness and success as a minister should be injured by the unjust suspicion that he was preaching the gospel for gain. He would seek to remove all occasion for misrepresentation, that the force of his message might not be lost.--The Acts of the Apostles, 348, 349.
------------------------Set Right Priorities in Life, June 19
BLJ	182	1	Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:33, NKJV.
BLJ	182	2	On every hand there is that which would tempt the Christian to forsake the narrow way; but those who would perfect a character fit for eternity must take the will of God as their standard, separating entirely from everything that is displeasing to Him. Thousands are betrayed into sin because they leave the citadel of the heart unguarded. They become engrossed with the cares of this world, and true godliness is driven from their hearts. They rush eagerly into speculation, seeking to accumulate more of this world's treasure. Thus they place themselves where it is impossible for them to advance in the Christian life. "Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." And while you pray, strive earnestly to guard your heart from all pollution; for prayer without effort is a solemn mockery.
BLJ	182	3	"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Every moment of our time belongs to God, and we have no right so to burden ourselves with cares that there is no room in our hearts for His love. At the same time, we are to obey the injunction "Not slothful in business." We are to labor, that we may have to give to him that needs. God does not desire us to allow our powers to rust through inaction. Christians must work; they must engage in business; and they can go a certain length in this line, and commit no sin against God.
BLJ	182	4	But too often Christians allow the cares of life to take the time that belongs to God. They devote their precious moments to business or to amusement. Their whole energies are employed in acquiring earthly treasure. In so doing they place themselves on forbidden ground.
BLJ	182	5	Many professing Christians are very careful that all their business transactions shall bear the stamp of strict honesty, but dishonesty marks their relations with God. Absorbed in worldly business, they fail to perform the duties they owe to those around them. Their children are not brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The family altar is neglected; private devotion is forgotten. Eternal interests, instead of being put first, are given only the second place. God is robbed because their best thoughts are given to the world, because their time is spent on things of minor importance. Thus they are ruined, not because of their dishonesty in dealing with others, but because they have defrauded God of what is rightfully His own.--The Signs of the Times, December 17, 1896.
------------------------Christians Must Never Depart From Integrity, June 20
BLJ	183	1	He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God." Luke 16:15, NRSV.
BLJ	183	2	In all the details of life the strictest principles of honesty are to be maintained. These are not the principles which govern our world, for Satan--deceiver, liar, and oppressor--is the master, and his subjects follow him and carry out his purposes. But Christians serve under a different Master, and their actions must be wrought in God, irrespective of all selfish gain.
BLJ	183	3	Deviation from perfect fairness in business deals may appear as a small thing in the estimation of some, but our Savior did not thus regard it. His words on this point are plain and explicit: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10). People who will overreach their neighbors on a small scale will overreach in a larger scale if the temptation is brought to bear upon them. A false representation in a small matter is as much dishonesty in the sight of God as falsity in a larger matter.
BLJ	183	4	In the Christian world today fraud is practiced to a fearful extent. God's commandment-keeping people should show that they are above all these things. The dishonest practices which mar the dealing of men and women with their fellow human beings should never be practiced by one who professes to be a believer in present truth. God's people do great harm to the truth by the least departure from integrity.
BLJ	183	5	Some persons may not have a pleasant exterior, they may be deficient in many respects, but if they have a reputation for straightforward honesty, they will be respected. Stern integrity covers many objectionable traits of character. Those who steadfastly adhere to truth will win the confidence of all. Not only will fellow believers in the faith trust them, but unbelievers will be constrained to acknowledge them as persons of honor.--Mind, Character, and Personality 2:437.
BLJ	183	6	The servants of God are obliged to be more or less connected with the worldly by business transactions, but they should buy and sell with a realization that the eye of God is upon them. No false balances or deceitful weights are to be used, for these are an abomination to the Lord. In every business transaction Christians will be just what they want their church friends to think they are. Their course of action is guided by underlying principles. They do not scheme; therefore they have nothing to conceal, nothing to gloss over.--Mind, Character, and Personality 2:437, 438.
------------------------Reveal Love While Doing God's Business, June 21
BLJ	184	1	Dead flies putrefy the perfumer's ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor; so does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor. Ecclesiastes 10:1, NKJV.
BLJ	184	2	I appeal to my brothers and sisters in faith, and urge them to cultivate tenderness of heart. Whatever may be your calling or position, if you cherish selfishness and covetousness, the displeasure of the Lord will be upon you. Do not make the work and cause of God an excuse for dealing closely and selfishly with anyone, even if transacting business that has to do with His work. God will accept nothing in the line of gain that is brought into His treasury through selfish transactions.
BLJ	184	3	Every act in connection with His work is to bear divine inspection. Every sharp transaction, every attempt to take advantage of persons who are under pressure of circumstances, every plan to purchase their land or property for a sum beneath its value, will not be acceptable to God, even though the money gained is made an offering to His cause. The price of the blood of the only-begotten Son of God has been paid for every human being, and it is necessary to deal honestly, to deal with equity with every person, in order to carry out the principles of the law of God....
BLJ	184	4	If a brother or sister who has labored disinterestedly for the cause of God becomes enfeebled in body and is unable to work, let him or her not be dismissed and be obliged to get along the best way they can. Give them wages sufficient to support themselves, for remember they belong to God's family, and that you are all brothers and sisters....
BLJ	184	5	We are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. This command is not that we shall simply love those who think and believe exactly as we think and believe. Christ illustrated the meaning of the commandment by the parable of the good Samaritan. But how strangely these precious words are neglected, and how frequently people oppress their fellow human beings, and lift up their souls unto vanity.--The Review and Herald, December 18, 1894.
------------------------Imitate Christ, Not the World, June 22
BLJ	185	1	For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1 Timothy 6:10, NKJV.
BLJ	185	2	I saw that God's people are in great peril; many are dwellers upon the earth; their interest and affections are centered in the world. Their example is not right. The world is deceived by the course pursued by many who profess great and noble truths. Our responsibility is in accordance with the light given, the graces and gifts bestowed. On the workers whose talents, whose means, whose opportunities and abilities, are greatest rests the heaviest responsibility....
BLJ	185	3	Brother A was presented before me to represent a class who are in a similar position. They have never been indifferent to the smallest worldly advantage. By diligent business tact and successful investments, by trading, not on pounds, but on pence and farthings, they have accumulated property. But in doing this they have educated faculties inconsistent with the development of Christian character. Their lives in no way represent Christ; for they love the world and its gain better than they love God or the truth. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
BLJ	185	4	All the abilities which men and women possess belong to God. Worldly conformity and attachments are emphatically forbidden in His Word. When the power of the transforming grace of God is felt upon the heart, it will send a person, hitherto worldly, into every pathway of beneficence. Those who have in their hearts a determination to lay up treasure in the world will "fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil [the foundation of all avarice and worldliness]: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." ...
BLJ	185	5	Jesus has opened to everyone a way by which wisdom, grace, and power may be obtained. He is our example in all things, and nothing should divert the mind from the main object in life, which is to have Christ in the soul, melting and subduing the heart. When this is the case, every member of the church, every professor of the truth, will be Christlike in character, in words, in actions.--Testimonies for the Church 5:277, 278.
------------------------Be Compassionate When Poverty Is Unavoidable, June 23
BLJ	186	1	Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards reproof will be honored. Proverbs 13:18, NKJV.
BLJ	186	2	In the parable [Matthew 18:32] the Lord summoned the unmerciful debtor, and "said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me; shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him." "So likewise," said Jesus, "shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." Those who refuse to forgive are thereby casting away their own hope of pardon.
BLJ	186	3	But the teaching of this parable should not be misapplied. God's forgiveness toward us lessens in no wise our duty to obey Him. So the spirit of forgiveness toward our fellow beings does not lessen the claim of just obligation. In the prayer which Christ taught His disciples He said, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:12).
BLJ	186	4	By this He did not mean that in order to be forgiven our sins we must not require our just dues from our debtors. If they cannot pay, even though this may be the result of unwise management, they are not to be cast into prison, oppressed, or even treated harshly; but the parable does not teach us to encourage indolence. The Word of God declares that "anyone unwilling to work should not eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10, NRSV).
BLJ	186	5	The Lord does not require the hardworking man or woman to support others in idleness. With many there is a waste of time, a lack of effort, which brings to poverty and want. If these faults are not corrected by those who indulge them, all that might be done in their behalf would be like putting treasure into a bag with holes. Yet there is an unavoidable poverty, and we are to manifest tenderness and compassion toward those who are unfortunate. We should treat others just as we ourselves, in like circumstances, would wish to be treated.--Christ's Object Lessons, 247, 248.
------------------------Show Divine Love by Being Merciful, June 24
BLJ	187	1	But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them. Psalm 103:17, 18, NKJV.
BLJ	187	2	Mercy is an attribute that the human agent may share with God. As did Christ, so one may lay hold on the divine arm and be in communication with divine power. To us has been given a service of mercy to perform for our fellow human beings. In performing this service, we are laboring together with God. We do well, then, to be merciful, even as our Father in heaven is merciful.
BLJ	187	3	"I will have mercy," God says, "and not sacrifice." Mercy is kind, pitiful. Mercy and the love of God purify the soul, beautify the heart, and cleanse the life from selfishness. Mercy is a manifestation of divine love, and is shown by those who, identified with God, serve Him by reflecting the light of heaven upon the pathway of their fellow creatures.
BLJ	187	4	The condition of many persons calls for the exercise of genuine mercy. Christians, in their dealing with one another, are to be controlled by principles of mercy and love. They are to improve every opportunity for helping fellow beings in distress. The duty of every Christian is plainly outlined in the words: "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over." "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." These are the principles that we shall do well to cherish.
BLJ	187	5	Let those who desire to perfect a Christlike character ever keep in view the cross on which Christ died a cruel death in order to redeem humankind. Let them ever cherish the same merciful spirit that led the Savior to make an infinite sacrifice for our redemption.--The Signs of the Times, May 21, 1902.
------------------------Seek Divine Wisdom in Handling Money, June 25
BLJ	188	1	His Lord said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord." Matthew 25:21, NKJV.
BLJ	188	2	[Brother C] is in a responsible position, but if the members of the family to which he has allied himself in marriage will prove true to him, they will influence him to become a wise steward of his Lord's goods. Then he will bestow his means as if in the view of the whole universe of heaven. He will not participate in any unlawful scheme for making money, but will move with an eye single to the glory of God. He will eschew all petty tricks and avoid all mean, dishonest devices, and will do nothing that will [in] any way work against the cultivation of true piety. He will realize that all his business transactions lie within the domain of God.
BLJ	188	3	We must not lose sight of the fact that stewards are to trade with their Lord's goods, and that they are handling a sacred responsibility. The Bible requires that people buy and sell and transact all their business with as keen a sense of their religious obligation as they have when offering up petitions to their heavenly Father, asking for strength and grace. The Lord has not left any to do as they please with their goods, and to give as impulse shall dictate, or as friends may demand. The money they handle is not theirs, and is not to be expended unnecessarily, for the vineyard of the Lord is to be worked, and its working requires the expenditure of means.
BLJ	188	4	Now is our day of trust, and the day of reckoning is yet to come. The Lord has entrusted means to His stewards to be used wisely, for all are moral agents and are required to bear responsibilities. Our varied trusts are given in proportion to our ability to use, but we are not to use God's means merely for the gratification of selfish desires, and as inclination may dictate.
BLJ	188	5	[Brother C] has failed at times in the past in handling his Lord's goods, and has not always considered whether he was using the money entrusted to him in a way that would please his Master and advance the cause of truth. He must give an account of how he disposes of the means given in trust to him. He cannot study his own will in this matter. He must seek wisdom from God.--Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery, and Divorce, 70, 71.
------------------------Invest to Glorify God, Not Self, June 26
BLJ	189	1	Talk no more so very proudly; let no arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is the God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed. 1 Samuel 2:3, NKJV.
BLJ	189	2	I was in the night season called upon to behold buildings rising story after story toward heaven. These buildings were warranted to be fireproof, and they were erected to glorify the owners and builders.... Those to whom these buildings belonged were not asking themselves: "How can we best glorify God?" The Lord was not in their thoughts.
BLJ	189	3	I thought: "Oh, that those who are thus investing their means could see their course as God sees it! They are piling up magnificent buildings, but how foolish in the sight of the Ruler of the universe is their planning and devising. They are not studying with all the powers of heart and mind how they may glorify God. They have lost sight of this, the first duty of human beings."
BLJ	189	4	As these lofty buildings went up, the owners rejoiced with ambitious pride that they had money to use in gratifying self and provoking the envy of their neighbors. Much of the money that they thus invested had been obtained through exaction, through grinding down the poor. They forgot that in heaven an account of every business transaction is kept; every unjust deal, every fraudulent act, is there recorded. The time is coming when in their fraud and insolence men and women will reach a point that the Lord will not permit them to pass, and they will learn that there is a limit to the forbearance of Jehovah....
BLJ	189	5	There are not many, even among educators and statesmen, who comprehend the causes that underlie the present state of society. Those who hold the reins of government are not able to solve the problem of moral corruption, poverty, pauperism, and increasing crime. They are struggling in vain to place business operations on a more secure basis. If men and women would give more heed to the teaching of God's Word, they would find a solution of the problems that perplex them.--Testimonies for the Church 9:12, 13.
------------------------Represent Christ in Every Circumstance, June 27
BLJ	190	1	For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Romans 12:3, NRSV.
BLJ	190	2	Live for something besides self. If your motives are pure and unselfish, if you are looking out to do work that somebody must do, to show kind attentions and to do courteous acts, you are unconsciously building your own monument. In the home life, in the church, and in the world you are representing Christ in character. This is the work the Lord calls upon all ... to do....
BLJ	190	3	Let your aspirations and your motives be pure. In every business transaction be rigidly honest. However tempted, never deceive or prevaricate in the least matter. At times a natural impulse may bring temptation to diverge from the straightforward path of honesty, but do not vary one hair's breadth. If in any matter you make a statement as to what you will do, and afterward find that you have favored others to your own loss, do not vary from principle. Carry out your agreement.
BLJ	190	4	By seeking to change your plans you would show that you could not be depended on. And should you draw back in little transactions, you would draw back in larger ones. Under such circumstances some are tempted to deceive, saying, I was not understood. My words have been taken to mean more than I intended. The fact is, they meant just what they said, but lost the good impulse, and then wanted to draw back from their agreement, lest it prove a loss to them. The Lord requires us to do justice, to love mercy, and truth, and righteousness....
BLJ	190	5	Men and women are destitute of the stern virtues required to build up the church. They are not capable of devising methods and plans of a healthful, solid character. They are deficient in the very qualifications essential to the prosperity of the church. It is this kind of education that needs to be changed to an education that is sound and sensible, in harmony with Bible principles.--Manuscript Releases 20:343, 344.
------------------------In Planning, Consider the Unending Future, June 28
BLJ	191	1	For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. 1 Timothy 4:8, NKJV.
BLJ	191	2	The accounts of every business, the details of every transaction, pass the scrutiny of unseen auditors, agents of Him who never compromises with injustice, never overlooks evil, never palliates wrong....
BLJ	191	3	Against all evildoers God's law utters condemnation. They may disregard that voice, they may seek to drown its warning, but in vain. It follows them. It makes itself heard. It destroys their peace. If unheeded, it pursues them to the grave. It bears witness against them at the judgment. A quenchless fire, it consumes at last soul and body.
BLJ	191	4	"What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36, 37).
BLJ	191	5	This is a question that demands consideration by every parent, every teacher, every student--by every human being, young or old. No scheme of business or plan of life can be sound or complete that embraces only the brief years of this present life and makes no provision for the unending future. Let the youth be taught to take eternity into their reckoning. Let them be taught to choose the principles and seek the possessions that are enduring--to lay up for themselves that "treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth" (Luke 12:33)....
BLJ	191	6	All who do this are making the best possible preparation for life in this world. No man or woman can lay up treasure in heaven without finding life on earth thereby enriched and ennobled.
BLJ	191	7	"Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come" (1 Timothy 4:8).--Education, 144, 145.
------------------------Never Dishonor God by Violating Righteous Principles, June 29
BLJ	192	1	So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain; it takes away the life of its owners. Proverbs 1:19, NKJV.
BLJ	192	2	To every person is given his or her work. Each has a place in the eternal plan of heaven. It is the duty of fathers and mothers to overcome their own lawlessness, their untidy habits. Truth is clean and pure and of great value and needs to be brought into the character building. Those who have the truth, the love of the truth in their hearts, will make any and every sacrifice that this truth may have the first place in everything....
BLJ	192	3	There are those in our churches who have much to say in regard to Christianity, but in whose presence we should always be guarded, for they dismiss the Word of God from their business transactions. When there is buying and selling to be done, God is not by their side. The enemy is on the ground, and he takes possession of them. Christian brotherhood and love is laid a sacrifice on the altar of greed. God, heaven, the precepts of Jehovah, His oft-repeated injunctions, are obliterated from the soul. They know not what it means to practice the principles laid down in the Word of God. They sell their souls for unlawful gain. So thick is the veil which blinds their eyes that they can see only the fraudulent gain. So hard is the incrustation that envelops the heart that it feels not the love and tenderness and pity of Christ for their fellow beings. The holiness and truth of God are shut out from their souls.
BLJ	192	4	Will the people of God frown down all this corrupting influence? Will they give their hearts to God? Will they deal mercifully with their fellow mortals? Will Seventh-day Adventists bear in mind that they cannot swerve from truth in their dealings with their fellow beings, that they cannot violate justice or let go their integrity without forsaking God? Anything that dishonors Him will never benefit you. People who expect to prosper by violating the eternal principles of righteousness are laying up for themselves a harvest they will not care to reap. They place themselves in the enemy's ranks and bring degradation upon themselves. Although for a time they may seem to prosper, they can never help to compose the family of God.--Sermons and Talks 2:133, 134.
------------------------Faithful Stewards Provide for God's Work, June 30
BLJ	193	1	I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles. Isaiah 42:6, NKJV.
BLJ	193	2	I had been shown that some people who are shrewd, prudent, and sharp in regard to the transaction of business generally, some who are distinguished for promptness and thoroughness, manifest a want of foresight and promptness in regard to a proper disposal of their property while they are living. They know not how soon their probation may close; yet they pass on from year to year with their business unsettled, and frequently their lives finally close without their having the use of their reason. Or they may die suddenly, without a moment's warning, and their property be disposed of in a manner that they would not have approved. These are guilty of negligence; they are unfaithful stewards.
BLJ	193	3	Christians who believe the present truth should manifest wisdom and foresight. They should not neglect the disposition of their means, expecting a favorable opportunity to adjust their business during a long illness. They should have their business in such a shape that, were they called at any hour to leave it, and should they have no voice in its arrangement, it might be settled as they would have had it were they alive.
BLJ	193	4	Many families have been dishonestly robbed of all their property and have been subjected to poverty because the work that might have been well done in an hour had been neglected. Those who make their wills should not spare pains or expense to obtain legal advice and to have them drawn up in a manner to stand the test.
BLJ	193	5	I saw that those who profess to believe the truth should show their faith by their works. They should, with the unrighteous mammon, make friends, that they may finally be received into everlasting habitations. God has made men and women stewards of means. He has placed in their hands the money with which to carry forward the great work for the salvation of souls for whom Christ left His home, His riches, His glory, and became poor that He might, by His own humiliation and sacrifice, bring many sons and daughters of Adam to God.
BLJ	193	6	In His providence the Lord has ordained that the work in His vineyard should be sustained by the means entrusted to the hands of His stewards. A neglect on their part to answer the calls of the cause of God in carrying forward His work shows them to be unfaithful and slothful servants.--Testimonies for the Church 3:116, 117.
------------------------The New Lifestyle Through Jesus, July 1
BLJ	195	1	I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20, NKJV.
BLJ	195	2	Self must die if we would be counted as the followers of Christ. The apostle says, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.... For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
BLJ	195	3	When men and women are converted to God, a new moral taste is created; and they love the things that God loves; for their lives are bound up by the golden chain of the immutable promises, to the life of Jesus. Their hearts are drawn out after God. Their prayer is "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." In the immutable standard they see the character of the Redeemer, and know that though they have sinned, they are not to be saved in their sins, but from their sins; for Jesus is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. It is through the blood of Christ that they are brought nigh unto God.
BLJ	195	4	As they behold the righteousness of Christ in the divine precepts, they exclaim, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." As sinners are pardoned for their transgressions through the merits of Christ, as they are clothed with the righteousness of Christ through faith in Him, they declare with the psalmist, "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." This is conversion.
BLJ	195	5	When the Spirit of God controls the mind and heart, it turns the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. The law of Jehovah will then be regarded as a transcript of the divine character, and a new song bursts forth from hearts that have been touched by divine grace; for they realize that the promise of God has been fulfilled in their experience, that their transgressions are forgiven, their sins covered. They have exercised repentance toward God for the violation of His law, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, who has died for their justification.--The Review and Herald, June 21, 1892.
------------------------Jesus Requires Wholehearted Commitment, July 2
BLJ	196	1	“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind," and "your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27, NKJV.
BLJ	196	2	The Lord is testing and proving you. He has counseled, admonished, and entreated. All these solemn admonitions will either make the church better or decidedly worse. The oftener the Lord speaks to correct or counsel, and you disregard His voice, the more disposed will you be to reject it again and again, till God says: "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof.... Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices."
BLJ	196	3	Are you not halting between two opinions? Are you not neglecting to heed the light which God has given you? Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. You know not the time of your visitation. The great sin of the Jews was that of neglecting and rejecting present opportunities. As Jesus views the state of His professed followers today, He sees base ingratitude, hollow formalism, hypocritical insincerity, pharisaical pride, and apostasy.
BLJ	196	4	The tears which Christ shed on the crest of Olivet were for the impenitence and ingratitude of every individual to the close of time. He sees His love despised. The soul's temple courts have been converted into places of unholy traffic. Selfishness, mammon, malice, envy, pride, passion, are all cherished in the human heart. His warnings are rejected and ridiculed, His ambassadors are treated with indifference, their words seem as idle tales. Jesus has spoken by mercies, but these mercies have been unacknowledged; He has spoken by solemn warnings, but these warnings have been rejected.
BLJ	196	5	I entreat you who have long professed the faith and who still pay outward homage to Christ: Do not deceive your own souls. It is the whole heart that Jesus prizes. The loyalty of the soul is alone of value in the sight of God. "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!" "Thou ... even thou"--Christ is at this moment addressing you personally, stooping from His throne, yearning with pitying tenderness over those who feel not their danger, who have no pity for themselves.--Testimonies for the Church 5:72, 73.
------------------------God Has Sent Warnings, but Few Listen, July 3
BLJ	197	1	And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and punish the men who are settled in complacency, who say in their heart, "The Lord will not do good, nor will He do evil." Zephaniah 1:12, NKJV.
BLJ	197	2	We are near the close of time. I have been shown that the retributive judgments of God are already in the land. The Lord has given us warning of the events about to take place. Light is shining from His Word; yet darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people. "When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them ...; and they shall not escape."
BLJ	197	3	It is our duty to inquire the cause of this terrible darkness, that we may shun the course by which men and women have brought upon themselves so great delusion. God has given the world an opportunity to learn and to obey His will. He has given them, in His Word, the light of truth; He has sent them warning, counsel, and admonition; but few will obey His voice. Like the Jewish nation, the majority, even of professed Christians, pride themselves on their superior advantages, but make no returns to God for these great blessings.
BLJ	197	4	In infinite mercy a last warning message has been sent to the world, announcing that Christ is at the door and calling attention to God's broken law. But as the antediluvians rejected with scorn the warning of Noah, so will the pleasure lovers of today reject the message of God's faithful servants. The world pursues its unvarying round, absorbed as ever in its business and its pleasures, while the wrath of God is about to be visited on the transgressors of His law.
BLJ	197	5	Our compassionate Redeemer, foreseeing the perils that would surround His followers at this time, has given them special warning: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man."--Testimonies for the Church 5:99, 100.
------------------------Fanaticism and Noise No Evidence of Faith, July 4
BLJ	198	1	Thanks be to God, I speak in tongues more than all of you; but in the congregation I would rather speak five words intelligibly to instruct others than a myriad of words in a tongue. 1 Corinthians 14:18, 19, MLB.
BLJ	198	2	Error must first be rooted up, then the soil is prepared for the good seed to spring up and bear fruit to the glory of God.
BLJ	198	3	The only remedy ... is thorough discipline and organization. A spirit of fanaticism has ruled a certain class of Sabbathkeepers ...; they have sipped but lightly at the fountain of truth and are unacquainted with the spirit of the message of the third angel. Nothing can be done for this class until their fanatical views are corrected. Some who were in the 1854 movement have brought along with them erroneous views, such as the non-resurrection of the wicked, and the future age, and they are seeking to unite these views and their past experience with the message of the third angel. They cannot do this; there is no concord between Christ and Belial.
BLJ	198	4	The non-resurrection of the wicked and their peculiar views of the age to come are gross errors which Satan has worked in among the last-day heresies to serve his own purpose to ruin souls. These errors can have no harmony with the message of heavenly origin.
BLJ	198	5	Some of these persons have exercises which they call gifts and say that the Lord has placed them in the church. They have an unmeaning gibberish which they call the unknown tongue, which is unknown not only by human beings but by the Lord and all heaven. Such gifts are manufactured by men and women, aided by the great deceiver. Fanaticism, false excitement, false talking in tongues, and noisy exercises have been considered gifts which God has placed in the church. Some have been deceived here. The fruits of all this have not been good. "Ye shall know them by their fruits."
BLJ	198	6	Fanaticism and noise have been considered special evidences of faith. Some are not satisfied with a meeting unless they have a powerful and happy time. They work for this and get up an excitement of feeling. But the influence of such meetings is not beneficial. When the happy flight of feeling is gone, they sink lower than before the meeting because their happiness did not come from the right source. The most profitable meetings for spiritual advancement are those which are characterized with solemnity and deep searching of heart; each seeking to know themselves, and earnestly, and in deep humility, seeking to learn of Christ.--Testimonies for the Church 1:411, 412.
------------------------God Not Pleased With Tasteless Disorder, July 5
BLJ	199	1	Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes." ... And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God. Exodus 19:10-17, NKJV.
BLJ	199	2	Some receive the idea that in order to carry out that separation from the world which the Word of God requires, they must be neglectful of their apparel. There is a class of sisters who think that they are carrying out the principle of nonconformity to the world by wearing ... the same dress worn by them through the week, upon the Sabbath, to appear in the assembly of the saints to engage in the worship of God.
BLJ	199	3	And some men who profess to be Christians view the matter of dress in the same light. They assemble with God's people upon the Sabbath, with their clothing dusty, and soiled, and even with gaping rents in them, and placed upon their persons in a slovenly manner.
BLJ	199	4	This class, if they had an engagement to meet a friend honored by the world, and they wished to be especially favored by him or her, would exert themselves to appear ... with the best apparel that could be obtained; for this friend would feel insulted were they to come ... with hair uncombed, and garments uncleanly, and in disorder.
BLJ	199	5	Yet these persons think that it is no matter in what dress they appear, or what is the condition of their persons, when they meet upon the Sabbath to worship the great God. They assemble in His house, which is as the audience chamber of the Most High, where heavenly angels are in attendance, with but little respect, or reverence, as their persons and clothing indicate. Their whole appearance typifies the character of such men and women.
BLJ	199	6	The favorite theme of this class is pride of dress. Decency, taste, and order, they regard as pride. And according to the dress of these mistaken souls will be their conversation, their acts, and their deal. They are careless, and often low in their conversation at their homes, among their brethren and sisters, and before the world. The dress, and its arrangement upon the person, is generally found to be the index of the man or the woman. Those who are careless and untidy in dress are seldom elevated in their conversation, and possess but little refinement of feelings. They sometimes consider oddity and coarseness, humility....
BLJ	199	7	Our God is a God of order, and He is not in any degree pleased with distraction, with filthiness, or with sin.--Selected Messages 2:475, 476.
------------------------Follow Christ and Defeat the Enemy, July 6
BLJ	200	1	For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. 1 John 2:16, NKJV.
BLJ	200	2	Many of the people of God are stupefied by the spirit of the world, and are denying their faith by their works. They cultivate a love for money, for houses and lands, until it absorbs the powers of mind and being, and shuts out love for the Creator and for souls for whom Christ died. The god of this world has blinded their eyes; their eternal interests are made secondary; and brain, bone, and muscle are taxed to the utmost to increase their worldly possessions. And all this accumulation of cares and burdens is borne in direct violation of the injunction of Christ, who said, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal."
BLJ	200	3	They forget that He said also, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven"; that in so doing they are working for their own interest. The treasure laid up in heaven is safe; no thief can approach nor moth corrupt it. But their treasure is upon the earth, and their affections are upon their treasure.
BLJ	200	4	In the wilderness, Christ met the great leading temptations that would assail humanity. There, singlehanded, He encountered the wily, subtle foe, and overcame him. The first great temptation was upon appetite; the second, presumption; the third, love of the world. The thrones and kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, were offered to Christ. Satan came with worldly honor, wealth, and the pleasures of life, and presented them in the most attractive light to allure and deceive. "All these things," said he to Christ, "will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." Yet Christ repelled the wily foe, and came off victor....
BLJ	200	5	The example of Christ is before us. He overcame Satan, showing us how we also may overcome. Christ resisted Satan with Scripture. He might have had recourse to His own divine power, and used His own words; but He said, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." If the Sacred Scriptures were studied and followed, the Christian would be fortified to meet the wily foe; but the Word of God is neglected, and disaster and defeat follow.--Counsels on Stewardship, 209, 210.
------------------------Decided Efforts Must Be Made Against Sin, July 7
BLJ	201	1	Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but one who rejects a rebuke goes astray. Proverbs 10:17, NRSV.
BLJ	201	2	Many apologize for their spiritual weakness, for their outbursts of passion, for the lack of love they show their brethren and sisters. They feel a sense of estrangement from God, a realization of their bondage to self and sin; but their desire to do God's will is based upon their own inclination, not upon the deep, inward conviction of the Holy Spirit. They believe that the law of God is binding; but they do not, with the eager interest of judgment-bound souls, compare their actions with that law. They admit that God should be worshiped and loved supremely, but God is not in all their thoughts. They believe that the precepts which enjoin love to others should be observed; but they treat their associates with cold indifference, and sometimes with injustice. Thus they walk away from the path of willing obedience. They do not carry the work of repentance far enough. The sense of their wrong should lead them to seek God most earnestly for power to reveal Christ by kindness and forbearance.
BLJ	201	3	Many spasmodic efforts to reform are made, but those who make these efforts do not crucify self. They do not give themselves entirely into the hands of Christ, seeking for divine power to do His will. They are not willing to be molded after the divine similitude. In a general way they acknowledge their imperfections, but the particular sins are not given up. "We have done the things we ought not to have done," they say, "and have left undone the things we ought to have done." But their acts of selfishness, so offensive to God, are not seen in the light of His law. Full contrition is not expressed for the victories that self has gained.
BLJ	201	4	The enemy is willing that these spasmodic efforts should be made; for those who make them engage in no decided warfare against evil. A soothing plaster, as it were, is placed over their minds, and in self-sufficiency they make a fresh start to do the will of God.
BLJ	201	5	But a general conviction of sin is not reformative. We may have a vague, disagreeable sense of imperfection, but this will avail us nothing unless we make a decided effort to obtain the victory over sin. If we wish to cooperate with Christ, to overcome as He overcame, we must, in His strength, make the most determined resistance against self and selfishness.--The Signs of the Times, March 11, 1897.
------------------------Seek to Be Temperate in All Things, July 8
BLJ	202	1	In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death. Proverbs 12:28, NKJV.
BLJ	202	2	God has permitted the light of health reform to shine upon us in these last days, that by walking in the light we may escape many of the dangers to which we shall be exposed. Satan is working with great power to lead men and women to indulge appetite, gratify inclination, and spend their days in heedless folly. He presents attractions in a life of selfish enjoyment and of sensual indulgence.
BLJ	202	3	Intemperance saps the energies of both mind and body. Those who are thus overcome have placed themselves upon Satan's ground, where they will be tempted and annoyed, and finally controlled at pleasure by the enemy of all righteousness.
BLJ	202	4	Parents need to be impressed with their obligation to give to the world children having well-developed characters--children who will have moral power to resist temptation, and whose life will be an honor to God and a blessing to others. Those who enter upon active life with firm principles will be prepared to stand unsullied amid the moral pollutions of this corrupt age. Let mothers improve every opportunity to educate their children for usefulness.
BLJ	202	5	The work of the mother is sacred and important. She should teach her children, from the cradle up, habits of self-denial and self-control. Her time, in a special sense, belongs to her children. But if it is mostly occupied with the follies of this degenerate age, if society, dress, and amusements absorb her attention, her children will fail to be suitably educated....
BLJ	202	6	Intemperance begins at the table, and, with the majority, appetite is indulged until indulgence becomes second nature. Whoever eats too much, or of food which is not healthful, is weakening the power to resist the clamors of other appetites and passions.
BLJ	202	7	Many parents, to avoid the task of patiently educating their children to habits of self-denial, indulge them in eating and drinking whenever they please. The desire to satisfy the taste and to gratify inclination does not lessen with the increase of years; and these indulged youth, as they grow up, are governed by impulse, slaves to appetite. When they take their places in society, and begin life for themselves, they are powerless to resist temptation.--Christian Education, 175-177.
------------------------Training Children a Sacred Responsibility, July 9
BLJ	203	1	“Come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you." "I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18, NKJV.
BLJ	203	2	When parents and children meet at the final reckoning, what a scene will be presented! Thousands of children who have been slaves to appetite and debasing vice, whose lives are moral wrecks, will stand face to face with the parents who made them what they are. Who but the parents must bear this fearful responsibility? Did the Lord make these youth corrupt? Oh, no! Who, then, has done this fearful work? Were not the sins of the parents transmitted to the children in perverted appetites and passions? And was not the work completed by those who neglected to train them according to the pattern which God has given? Just as surely as they exist, all these parents will pass in review before God.
BLJ	203	3	Satan is ready to do his work; he will not neglect to present allurements which the children have no will or moral power to resist. I saw that, through his temptations, he is instituting ever-changing fashions, and attractive parties and amusements, that mothers may be led to devote their time to frivolous matters, instead of to the education and training of their children. Our youth need mothers who will teach them from the cradle to control passion, to deny appetite, and to overcome selfishness. They need line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little....
BLJ	203	4	Woman should fill the position which God originally designed for her, as her husband's equal. The world needs mothers who are mothers not merely in name, but in every sense of the word. We may safely say that the distinctive duties of woman are more sacred, more holy, than those of man. Let woman realize the sacredness of her work, and in the strength and fear of God take up her life mission. Let her educate her children for usefulness in this world, and for a home in the better world....
BLJ	203	5	I entreat Christian mothers to realize their responsibility, and to live, not to please themselves, but to glorify God. Christ pleased not Himself, but took upon Him the form of a servant. He left the royal courts, and clothed His divinity with humanity, that by His own example He might teach us how we may be exalted to the position of sons and daughters in the royal family, children of the heavenly King.--Christian Education, 177-179.
------------------------Work and Exercise Contribute to Health, July 10
BLJ	204	1	You are wearied in the length of your way; yet you did not say, "There is no hope." You have found the life of your hand; therefore you were not grieved. Isaiah 57:10, NKJV.
BLJ	204	2	Riches and idleness are thought by some to be blessings indeed. But when some persons have acquired wealth, or inherited it unexpectedly, their active habits have been broken up, their time is unemployed, they live at ease, and their usefulness seems at an end; they become restless, anxious, and unhappy, and their lives soon close.
BLJ	204	3	Those who are always busy, and go cheerfully about the performance of their daily tasks, are the most happy and healthy. The rest and composure of night brings to their wearied frames unbroken slumber. The Lord knew what was for the happiness of human beings when He gave them work to do. The sentence that they must toil for their bread, and the promise of future happiness and glory, came from the same throne. Both are blessings....
BLJ	204	4	Exercise will aid the work of digestion. To walk out after a meal, hold the head erect, put back the shoulders, and exercise moderately will be a great benefit. The mind will be diverted from self to the beauties of nature. The less the attention is called to the stomach after a meal, the better. If you are in constant fear that your food will hurt you, it most assuredly will. Forget self, and think of something cheerful....
BLJ	204	5	The lungs should not be deprived of pure, fresh air. If pure air is ever necessary, it is when any part of the system, [such] as the lungs or stomach, is diseased. Judicious exercise would induce the blood to the surface, and thus relieve the internal organs. Brisk, yet not violent exercise in the open air, with cheerfulness of spirits, will promote the circulation, giving a healthful glow to the skin, and sending the blood, vitalized by the pure air, to the extremities.
BLJ	204	6	The diseased stomach will find relief by exercise. Physicians frequently advise invalids to visit foreign countries, to go to the springs, or to ride upon the ocean, in order to regain health; when, in nine cases out of ten, if they would eat temperately and engage in healthful exercise with a cheerful spirit, they would regain health and save time and money. Exercise, and a free and abundant use of the air and sunlight--blessings which Heaven has freely bestowed upon all--would give life and strength to the emaciated invalid.--Testimonies for the Church 2:529-531.
------------------------When Trials Come, Cling to Jesus, July 11
BLJ	205	1	Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10, NKJV.
BLJ	205	2	Parents should devise ways and means for keeping their children usefully busy.... Parents must never forget that they must work earnestly for themselves and their little ones, if they with them are gathered into the ark of safety. We are still in the enemy's country. Let parents strive to reach a higher standard, and to carry their children with them. Let them cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
BLJ	205	3	Prove your willingness to make every effort in your power to place your children in the most favorable situation for forming the character that God requires His servants to form. Exercise every spiritual sinew and muscle to save your little flock. The powers of hell will conspire for your destruction. Pray much more than you do. Lovingly, tenderly teach your children to come to God as a heavenly Father.
BLJ	205	4	By your example in the management of the home, teach them self-control. Teach them to be helpful in the home. Tell them that Christ lived not to please Himself. The Holy Spirit will fill your mind with the most precious thoughts as you work for your own salvation and the salvation of your children.
BLJ	205	5	Parents, gather the rays of divine light which are shining upon your pathway. Walk in the light as Christ is in the light. As you take up the work of saving your children and maintaining your position on the highway of holiness, the most provoking trials will come. But do not lose your hold. Cling to Jesus. He says, "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me."
BLJ	205	6	Difficulties will arise. You will meet with obstacles. Look constantly to Jesus. When an emergency arises, ask, "Lord, what shall I do now?" If you refuse to storm or fret or scold, the Lord will show you the way through. He will help you to use the talent of speech in such a Christlike way that the precious attributes of patience, comfort, and love will be brought into the home....
BLJ	205	7	Do all in your power to stand on vantage ground before your children. By following a Christlike course of action, holding firmly to the promises of God, you may be evangelists in the home, ministers of grace to your children.--Spalding and Magan Collection, 185.
------------------------For Every Difficulty, God's Grace Is Sufficient, July 12
BLJ	206	1	And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9, NKJV.
BLJ	206	2	None can be so situated that they cannot obey God. There is too little faith with Christians of today. They are willing to work for Christ and His cause only when they themselves can see a prospect of favorable results. Divine grace will aid the efforts of every true believer. That grace is sufficient for us under all circumstances. The Spirit of Christ will exert His renewing, perfecting power upon the character of all who will be obedient and faithful.
BLJ	206	3	God is the great I AM, the source of being, the center of authority and power. Whatever the condition or situation of His creatures, they can have no sufficient excuse for refusing to answer the claims of God. The Lord holds us responsible for the light shining upon our pathway. We may be surrounded by difficulties that appear formidable to us, and because of these we may excuse ourselves for not obeying the truth as it is in Jesus; but there can be no excuse that will bear investigation. Could there be an excuse for disobedience, it would prove our heavenly Father unjust, in that He had given us conditions of salvation with which we could not comply....
BLJ	206	4	Christians should not array before their imagination all the trials which may occur before the end of the race. They have but to begin to serve God, and each day live and labor for the glory of God that day, and obstacles which appeared insurmountable will gradually grow less and less; or, should they encounter all that they have feared, the grace of Christ will be imparted to them according to their need. Strength increases with the difficulties met and overcome....
BLJ	206	5	Those whose hearts are fixed to serve God will find opportunity to serve Him. They will pray, they will read the Word of God, they will seek virtue and forsake vice. They can brave contempt and derision while looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself. Help and grace are promised by Him whose words are truth. God will not fail to fulfill His promise to all who trust in Him.--Sketches from the Life of Paul, 296-298.
------------------------Husbands Are to Be Thoughtful and Cheerful, July 13
BLJ	207	1	Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. 1 Peter 3:7, NKJV.
BLJ	207	2	The husband should manifest great interest in his family. Especially should he be very tender of the feelings of a feeble wife. He can shut the door against much disease. Kind, cheerful, and encouraging words will prove more effective than the most healing medicines. These will bring courage to the heart of the desponding and discouraged, and the happiness and sunshine brought into the family by kind acts and encouraging words will repay the effort tenfold.
BLJ	207	3	The husband should remember that much of the burden of training his children rests upon the mother, that she has much to do with molding their minds. This should call into exercise his tenderest feelings, and with care should he lighten her burdens. He should encourage her to lean upon his large affections and direct her mind to heaven, where there is strength and peace and a final rest for the weary. He should not come to his home with a clouded brow, but should with his presence bring sunlight into the family and should encourage his wife to look up and believe in God. Unitedly they can claim the promises of God and bring His rich blessing into the family.--Testimonies for the Church 1:306, 307.
BLJ	207	4	Many a husband and father might learn a helpful lesson from the carefulness of the faithful shepherd. Jacob, when urged to undertake a rapid and difficult journey, made answer: "The children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die.... I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure."
BLJ	207	5	In life's toilsome way let the husband and father "lead on softly," as the companion of his journey is able to endure. Amidst the world's eager rush for wealth and power, let him learn to stay his steps, to comfort and support the one who is called to walk by his side.--The Ministry of Healing, 374.
------------------------Bible Holiness Is Our Great Need, July 14
BLJ	208	1	To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27, NKJV.
BLJ	208	2	It is difficult for those who feel secure in their attainments, and who believe themselves to be rich in spiritual knowledge, to receive the message [to the Laodiceans] which declares that they are deceived and in need of every spiritual grace. The unsanctified heart is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." I was shown that many are flattering themselves that they are good Christians, who have not a ray of light from Jesus. They have not a living experience for themselves in the divine life. They need a deep and thorough work of self-abasement before God before they will feel their true need of earnest, persevering effort to secure the precious graces of the Spirit.
BLJ	208	3	God leads His people on step by step. The Christian life is a constant battle and a march. There is no rest from the warfare. It is by constant, unceasing effort that we maintain the victory over the temptations of Satan. As a people we are triumphing in the clearness and strength of the truth. We are fully sustained in our positions by an overwhelming amount of plain scriptural testimony. But we are very much wanting in Bible humility, patience, faith, love, self-denial, watchfulness, and the spirit of sacrifice. We need to cultivate Bible holiness. Sin prevails among the people of God. The plain message of rebuke to the Laodiceans is not received. Many cling to their doubts and their darling sins while they are in so great a deception as to talk and feel that they are in need of nothing. They think the testimony of the Spirit of God in reproof is uncalled for or that it does not mean them.
BLJ	208	4	Such are in the greatest need of the grace of God and spiritual discernment that they may discover their deficiency in spiritual knowledge. They lack almost every qualification necessary to perfect Christian character. They have not a practical knowledge of Bible truth, which leads to lowliness of life and a conformity of their will to the will of Christ. They are not living in obedience to all God's requirements.
BLJ	208	5	It is not enough to merely profess to believe the truth. All the soldiers of the cross of Christ virtually obligate themselves to enter the crusade against the adversary of souls, to condemn wrong and sustain righteousness. But the message of the True Witness reveals the fact that a terrible deception is upon our people, which makes it necessary to come to them with warnings, to break their spiritual slumber, and arouse them to decided action.--Testimonies for the Church 3:253, 254.
------------------------Be Faithful in Small, Common Tasks, July 15
BLJ	209	1	Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15, NKJV.
BLJ	209	2	By faithfulness in little things, Elisha was preparing for weightier trusts. Day by day, through practical experience, he gained a fitness for a broader, higher work. He learned to serve; and in learning this, he learned also how to instruct and lead. The lesson is for all. None can know what may be God's purpose in His discipline; but all may be certain that faithfulness in little things is the evidence of fitness for greater responsibilities....
BLJ	209	3	Those who feel that it is of no consequence how they perform the smaller tasks prove themselves unfit for a more honored position. They may think themselves fully competent to take up the larger duties; but God looks deeper than the surface. After test and trial, there is written against them the sentence "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." Their unfaithfulness reacts upon themselves. They fail of gaining the grace, the power, the force of character, which is received through unreserved surrender.
BLJ	209	4	Because they are not connected with some directly religious work, many feel that their lives are useless, that they are doing nothing for the advancement of God's kingdom. If they could do some great thing, how gladly they would undertake it! But because they can serve only in little things, they think themselves justified in doing nothing. In this they err....
BLJ	209	5	Many long for special talent with which to do a wonderful work, while the duties lying close at hand, the performance of which would make the life fragrant, are lost sight of. Let such ones take up the duties lying directly in their pathway. Success depends not so much on talent as on energy and willingness. It is not the possession of splendid talents that enables us to render acceptable service, but the conscientious performance of daily duties, the contented spirit, the unaffected, sincere interest in the welfare of others. In the humblest lot true excellence may be found. The commonest tasks, wrought with loving faithfulness, are beautiful in God's sight.--Prophets and Kings, 218, 219.
------------------------Meeting Difficulties Develops Spiritual Muscle, July 16
BLJ	210	1	The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9, NKJV.
BLJ	210	2	In seasons of temptations we seem to lose sight of the fact that God tests us that our faith may be tried, and be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus. The Lord places us in different positions to develop us. If we have defects of character of which we are not aware, He gives us discipline that will bring those defects to our knowledge, that we may overcome them.
BLJ	210	3	It is His providence that brings us into varying circumstances. In each new position, we meet a different class of temptations. How many times, when we are placed in some trying situation, we think, "This is a wonderful mistake. How I wish I had stayed where I was before." But why is it that you are not satisfied? It is because your circumstances have served to bring new defects in your character to your notice; but nothing is revealed but that which was in you. What should you do when you are tried by the providences of the Lord? You should rise to the emergency of the case, and overcome your defects of character.
BLJ	210	4	It is coming in contact with difficulties that will give you spiritual muscle and sinew. You will become strong in Christ if you endure the testing process and the proving of God. But if you find fault with your situation and with everybody around you, you will only grow weaker. I have seen people who were always finding fault with everything and everybody around them, but the fault was in themselves. They had need to fall upon the Rock and be broken. They felt whole in their own self-righteousness. The trials that come upon us come to prove us. The enemy of our souls is working against us continually, but our defects of character will be made manifest to us, and when they are made plain, instead of finding fault with others, let us say, "I will arise and go to my Father."
BLJ	210	5	When we begin to realize that we are sinners, and fall on the Rock to be broken, the everlasting arms are placed about us, and we are brought close to the heart of Jesus. Then we shall be charmed with His loveliness, and disgusted with our own righteousness. We need to come close to the foot of the cross. The more we humble ourselves there, the more exalted will God's love appear.--The Review and Herald, August 6, 1889.
------------------------Maintain Integrity, Whatever the Cost, July 17
BLJ	211	1	Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Hebrews 13:7, NKJV.
BLJ	211	2	Every plan and purpose of life should be subjected to this unerring test [the Word of God]. The Word of inspiration is the wisdom of God applied to human affairs. However advantageous a certain course may appear to finite judgment, if denounced by that Word it will be only evil in its results.
BLJ	211	3	It may be a difficult matter for those in high positions to pursue the path of undeviating integrity whether they shall receive praise or censure. Yet this is the only safe course. All the rewards which they might gain by selling their honor would be only as the breath from polluted lips, as dross to be consumed in the fire. Those who have moral courage to stand in opposition to the vices and errors of their fellow beings--it may be of those whom the world honors--will receive hatred, insult, and abusive falsehood. They may be thrust down from their high position, because they would not be bought or sold, because they could not be induced by bribes or threats to stain their hands with iniquity.
BLJ	211	4	Everything on earth may seem to conspire against them; but God has set His seal upon His own work. They may be regarded by other people as weak, ... unfit to hold office; but how differently does the Most High regard them. Those who despise them are the really ignorant. While the storms of calumny and reviling may pursue persons of integrity through life, and beat upon their graves, God has the "well done" prepared for them. Folly and iniquity will at best yield only a life of unrest and discontent, and at its close a thorny dying pillow. And how many, as they view their course of action and its results, are led to end with their own hands their disgraceful career. And beyond all this waits the judgment, and the final, irrevocable doom, Depart! ...
BLJ	211	5	The Son of God has set an example for all His followers. They are not to court praise from others, not to seek for themselves ease or wealth, but to emulate His life of purity and self-denial at whatever cost.... They will not manifest a disregard for the rights of others. God's law commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves, to suffer no evil to be instituted against them which we can hinder. But the rule which Christ has given extends still further. Said the world's Redeemer, "Love one another, as I have loved you." Nothing short of this can reach the standard of Christianity.--The Signs of the Times, February 2, 1882.
------------------------Motive Determines Value of Our Acts, July 18
BLJ	212	1	So He called His disciples to Him and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood." Mark 12:43, 44, NKJV.
BLJ	212	2	It is the motive that gives character to our acts, stamping them with ignominy or with high moral worth. Not the great things which every eye sees and every tongue praises does God account most precious. The little duties cheerfully done, the little gifts which make no show, and which to human eyes may appear worthless, often stand highest in His sight. A heart of faith and love is dearer to God than the most costly gift.
BLJ	212	3	The poor widow gave her living to do the little that she did. She deprived herself of food in order to give those two mites to the cause she loved. And she did it in faith, believing that her heavenly Father would not overlook her great need. It was this unselfish spirit and childlike faith that won the Savior's commendation.
BLJ	212	4	Among the poor there are many who long to show their gratitude to God for His grace and truth. They greatly desire to share with their more prosperous fellow church members in sustaining His service. These souls should not be repulsed. Let them lay up their mites in the bank of heaven. If given from a heart filled with love for God, these seeming trifles become consecrated gifts, priceless offerings, which God smiles upon and blesses.
BLJ	212	5	When Jesus said of the widow, She "hath cast in more than they all," His words were true, not only of the motive, but of the results of her gift. The "two mites, which make a farthing" have brought to God's treasury an amount of money far greater than the contributions of those rich Jews. The influence of that little gift has been like a stream, small in its beginning, but widening and deepening as it flowed down through the ages. In a thousand ways it has contributed to the relief of the poor and the spread of the gospel.
BLJ	212	6	Her example of self-sacrifice has acted and reacted upon thousands of hearts in every land and in every age. It has appealed to both the rich and the poor, and their offerings have swelled the value of her gift. God's blessing upon the widow's mite has made it the source of great results. So with every gift bestowed and every act performed with a sincere desire for God's glory. It is linked with the purposes of Omnipotence. Its results for good no one can measure.--The Desire of Ages, 615, 616.
------------------------Stay Close to Jesus and Become Like Him, July 19
BLJ	213	1	You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11, NKJV.
BLJ	213	2	This world is our school--a school of discipline and training. We are placed here to form characters like the character of Christ, and to acquire the habits and the language of the higher life. Influences opposed to good abound on every hand. The developments of sin are becoming so full, so deep, so abhorrent to God, that soon He will arise in majesty to shake terribly the earth.
BLJ	213	3	So artful are the plans of the enemy, so specious the complications which he brings about, that those who are weak in the faith do not discern his deceptions. They fall into the snares prepared by Satan, who works through human instrumentalities to deceive if possible the very elect. Those only who are closely connected with God will be able to discern the falsehoods and the intrigues of the enemy.
BLJ	213	4	There are in this world only two classes, those who serve God, and those who stand under the black banner of the prince of darkness. Those who enter the gates of the City of God must, in this world, live in union with Christ.
BLJ	213	5	The principles of God's government--the only principles that will endure from everlasting to everlasting--are to be followed by those who are seeking for entrance into the kingdom of heaven. The line of demarcation between those who serve God and those who serve Him not is to be kept clear and distinct.
BLJ	213	6	Let us allow God to control our minds. Let us not say or do anything that will turn a fellow being from the right way. I feel very sad as I think of how few there are who show that they have tasted the deep blessedness of communion with a risen, ascended Savior. Men and women of the world are striving for the supremacy. God's followers are to keep Christ ever in view, inquiring at every step, "Is this the way of the Lord?" A holy desire to live the life of Christ is to fill their hearts. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
BLJ	213	7	Oh, that our people could realize what advantages would be theirs if they would look constantly to Jesus.... He is our Alpha and our Omega. Pressing close to Him, and holding communion with Him, we become like Him. Through the transforming power of the Spirit of Christ, we are changed in heart and life.--(Australasian) Union Conference Record, February 1, 1904.
------------------------To Find True Happiness, Obey God, July 20
BLJ	214	1	This is my happy way of life: obeying your commandments. Psalm 119:56, NLT.
BLJ	214	2	Happiness must be sought in the right way, and from the right source. Some think they may surely find happiness in a course of indulgence in sinful pleasures, or in deceptive worldly attractions. And some sacrifice physical and moral obligations, thinking to find happiness, and they lose both soul and body. Others will seek their happiness in the indulgence of an unnatural appetite, and consider the indulgence of taste more desirable than health and life. Many suffer themselves to be enchained by sensual passions, and will sacrifice physical strength, intellect, and moral powers to the gratification of lust. They will bring themselves to untimely graves, and in the judgment will be charged with self-murder.
BLJ	214	3	Is this ... happiness desirable which is to be found in the path of disobedience and transgression of physical and moral law? Christ's life points out the true source of happiness, and how it is to be attained. His life points the direct and only path to heaven. Let the voice of wisdom be heard. Let it mark out the path. "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace."
BLJ	214	4	Temptations are on every side to allure the steps of youth to their ruin. The sad deficiency in the education of children leaves them weak and unguarded, vacillating in character, feeble in intellect, and deficient in moral strength, so that so far from imitating the life of Christ, the youth generally are like a reed trembling in the wind. They have not physical constitution or moral power, because they yield to temptations. Through sinful indulgences, they stain their purity, and their manners are corrupted. They are impatient of restraint, and flatter themselves if they could only have their own way they should then be very happy....
BLJ	214	5	If children and youth would seek their highest earthly good, they must look for it in the path of faithful obedience. A sound constitution, which is the greatest earthly prize, can only be obtained by a denial of unnatural appetite. If they would be happy indeed, they should cheerfully seek to be found at the post of duty, doing the work which devolves upon them with fidelity, conforming their hearts and lives to the perfect pattern.--Youth's Instructor, April 1872.
------------------------When in Trial, Review God's Great Mercy, July 21
BLJ	215	1	Uphold my steps in Your paths, that my footsteps may not slip. I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God; incline Your ear to me, and hear my speech. Psalm 17:5, 6, NKJV.
BLJ	215	2	The Lord directed Moses to recount to the children of Israel His dealings with them in their deliverance from Egypt and their wonderful preservation in the wilderness. He was to call to mind their unbelief and murmuring when brought into trial, and the Lord's great mercy and loving-kindness, which had never forsaken them. This would stimulate their faith and strengthen their courage....
BLJ	215	3	It is just as essential that the people of God in this day should bear in mind how and when they have been tested, and where their faith has failed; where they have imperiled His cause by their unbelief and also by their self-confidence. God's mercy, His sustaining providence, His never-to-be-forgotten deliverances, are to be recounted, step by step.
BLJ	215	4	As God's people thus review the past, they should see that the Lord is ever repeating His dealings. They should understand the warnings given, and should beware not to repeat their mistakes. Renouncing all self-dependence, they are to trust in Him to save them from again dishonoring His name. In every victory that Satan gains, souls are imperiled. Some become the subjects of his temptations, never to recover themselves....
BLJ	215	5	God sends trials to prove who will stand faithful under temptation. He brings all into trying positions to see if they will trust in a power out of and above themselves. Everyone has undiscovered traits of character that must come to light through trial. God allows those who are self-sufficient to be sorely tempted, that they may understand their helplessness.
BLJ	215	6	When trials come to us; when we can see before us, not an increase of prosperity, but a pressure necessitating sacrifice on the part of all, how shall we receive Satan's insinuation that we are to have a very hard time? If we listen to his suggestions, unbelief in God will spring up.... We should look at the work He has done, the reforms He has wrought. We should gather up the evidences of Heaven's blessings, the tokens for good, saying: "Lord, we believe in Thee, in Thy servants, and in Thy work."--Testimonies for the Church 7:210, 211.
------------------------Receive Light, and Walk in It, July 22
BLJ	216	1	You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Matthew 5:14, NKJV.
BLJ	216	2	There is one thing in this world which is the greatest object of Christ's solicitude. It is His church on earth; for its members should be representatives, in spirit and character, of Him. The world is to recognize in them the representatives of Christianity, the depository of sacred truths in which is stored the most precious jewels for the enrichment of others. Through the ages of moral darkness and error, through centuries of strife and persecution, the church of Christ has been as a city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive generations to the present time, the pure doctrines of the Bible have been unfolding within its borders.
BLJ	216	3	But in order that the church on earth may be an educating power in the world, it must cooperate with the church in heaven. The hearts of those who are members of the church must be open to receive every ray of light that God shall choose to impart. God has light to impart to us according to our ability to receive, and as we receive the light, we shall be capable of receiving more and more of the rays of the Sun of Righteousness....
BLJ	216	4	Every one of us is upon probation, in school, where we are required to be diligent students. It is enjoined upon us to walk in the light, as Christ is in the light. It is by walking in the light that we learn of God, and "this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). These are the words of Him who was with the Father before the world was, and He uttered these words while praying for all those who should believe in God through the words of His disciples. To know God in His works is true science. Let us follow on to know the Lord till we shall know that His goings forth are prepared as the morning....
BLJ	216	5	Faithful souls have constituted the church of God on earth, and He has taken them into covenant relation with Himself, uniting His church on earth with His church in heaven. He has sent forth heavenly angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His people.--Manuscript Releases 2:265, 266.
------------------------Reveal Love, Compassion, and Tenderness, July 23
BLJ	217	1	And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:17, NKJV.
BLJ	217	2	Great responsibility comes to those who have been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Strive to understand the meaning of the words "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." In the new life upon which you have entered, you are pledged to represent the life of Christ....
BLJ	217	3	The old sinful life is dead, the new life entered into with Christ by the pledge of baptism. Practice the virtues of the Savior's character. Let His word "dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." ...
BLJ	217	4	These things are to be presented in the churches. Love, compassion, and tenderness are to be revealed among us. Put on, as the elect of God, mercy and kindness. The sins that were practiced before conversion are to be put off with the old man. With the new man, Christ Jesus, are to be put on "kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering."
BLJ	217	5	Those who have risen with Christ to walk in newness of life are the elect of God. They are holy unto the Lord, and are acknowledged by Him as His beloved. As such, they are under solemn covenant to distinguish themselves by showing humility of mind. They are to clothe themselves in garments of righteousness. They are separate from the world, from its spirit, its practices, and they are to reveal that they are learning of Him who says, "I am meek and lowly in heart."
BLJ	217	6	If they realize that they have died with Christ, if they keep their baptismal vow, the world will have no power to draw them aside to deny Christ. If they live the life of Christ in this world, they are partakers of the divine nature. Then, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, they also will appear with Him in glory.--Manuscript Releases 19:236, 237.
------------------------Do Not Accuse Others, but Intercede for Them, July 24
BLJ	218	1	Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2:17, NKJV.
BLJ	218	2	Let human beings, subject to temptation, remember that in the heavenly courts they have a High Priest who is touched with the feeling of their infirmities, because He Himself was tempted, even as they are. And let those in positions of responsibility, especially, remember that they are subject to temptation, and wholly dependent on the merits of the Savior. However sacred the work to which they may be called, they are still sinners, who can be saved only through the grace of Christ. One day they must stand before the throne of God, saved by the blood of the Lamb, or condemned to the punishment of the wicked....
BLJ	218	3	How grieved Christ is by the lack of love and tenderness manifested by His people in their dealings with one another! He notes the words, the tones of the voice. He hears the harsh, severe judgment passed on those whom He, in infinite love, is presenting to the Father. He hears every sigh of pain and sorrow caused by human harshness, and His Spirit is grieved.
BLJ	218	4	Apart from Christ we can do no good thing. How inconsistent, then, it is for human beings to exalt themselves! How strange that any should forget that they must repent, in common with their fellow beings, and that those whom they condemn with severity may stand justified before God, receiving the sympathy of Christ and the angels.
BLJ	218	5	Let God's messengers act as wise men and women. Let them not lift up their souls unto vanity, but cherish humility. "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." ...
BLJ	218	6	Christ is pleading the case of every tempted soul, but while He is doing this, many of His people are grieving Him by taking their stand with Satan to accuse their brethren and sisters, pointing to their polluted garments.
BLJ	218	7	Let not the criticized ones become discouraged; for while others are condemning them, Christ is saying of them, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands. By creation and by redemption thou art Mine.--The Review and Herald, March 17, 1903.
------------------------Live Unselfishly, and Teach People to Love Jesus, July 25
BLJ	219	1	You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess. Deuteronomy 5:33, NKJV.
BLJ	219	2	Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. I ask you to study His life.... He came to bring to lost souls the gift of eternal life. In the sacrifice of His Son, the Father revealed how much He desires that sinners shall be saved. "Therefore doth my Father love me," Christ declared, "because I lay down my life." The Father loves us with a love that is but feebly comprehended.
BLJ	219	3	It is because men and women lack the spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice that they cannot comprehend the sacrifice made by Heaven in giving Christ to the world. Their religious experience is mingled with selfishness and self-exaltation. How can such professors have anything but a meager hope of sharing the inheritance of Christ? "Verily I say unto you," He said to His disciples, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."
BLJ	219	4	There are many who, while professing godliness, measure themselves among themselves, and in consequence grow weak in spiritual life. Pride is not overcome. Not until these souls fall on the Rock and are broken will they understand their need. Oh, that they might confess their wrongs before God, and plead for the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives! Truth and righteousness will flow into the hearts that are cleansed from selfishness and sin, and through the lives of those in whose souls truth occupies the first place....
BLJ	219	5	The wickedness of the world is not abating. Every year evil becomes more prevalent, and is more lightly regarded. Let our gatherings together be made seasons of heart searching and confession. It is the privilege of this people who have had such great blessings to be trees of righteousness, shedding forth comfort and blessing. They are to be living stones, emitting light. Those who have received pardon for their sins should with earnest purpose lead those who are in the ways of sin into paths of righteousness. Partaking of Christ's self-denial and self-sacrifice, they will teach men and women to give up selfishness and sin, and accept in their place the lovely attributes of the divine nature.--The Review and Herald, July 22, 1909.
------------------------Bring the Lower Passions Into Subjection, July 26
BLJ	220	1	Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that ... they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:11, 12, NKJV.
BLJ	220	2	Near the close of this earth's history Satan will work with all his powers in the same manner and with the same temptations wherewith he tempted ancient Israel just before their entering the Land of Promise. He will lay snares for those who claim to keep the commandments of God, and who are almost on the borders of the heavenly Canaan. He will use his powers to their utmost in order to entrap souls, and to take God's professed people upon their weakest points.
BLJ	220	3	Those who have not brought the lower passions into subjection to the higher powers of their being, those who have allowed their minds to flow in a channel of carnal indulgence of the baser passions, Satan is determined to destroy with his temptations--to pollute their souls with licentiousness. He is not aiming especially at the lower and less important marks, but he makes use of his snares through those whom he can enlist as his agents to allure or attract men and women to take liberties which are condemned in the law of God.
BLJ	220	4	And those in responsible positions, teaching the claims of God's law, whose mouths are filled with arguments in vindication of His law, against which Satan has made such a raid--over such he sets his hellish powers and his agencies at work, and overthrows them upon the weak points in their character, knowing that those who offend on one point are guilty of all, thus obtaining complete mastery over the entire person. Mind, soul, body, and conscience are involved in the ruin. If they be messengers of righteousness, and have had great light, or if the Lord has used them as His special workers in the cause of truth, then how great is the triumph of Satan! How he exults! How God is dishonored! ...
BLJ	220	5	Satan knows it is his time. He has but little time left now in which to work, and he will work with tremendous power to ensnare the people of God upon their weak points of character.... It is necessary to guard the thoughts; to fence the soul about with the injunctions of God's Word; and to be very careful in every thought, word, and action not to be betrayed into sin.--The Review and Herald, May 17, 1887.
------------------------Seek to Reflect the Image of Jesus, July 27
BLJ	221	1	Whoever says, "I abide in him," ought to walk just as he walked. 1 John 2:6, NRSV.
BLJ	221	2	What surpassing love and condescension, that when we had no claim on divine mercy, Christ was willing to undertake our redemption! But our great Physician requires of every soul unquestioning obedience. We are never to prescribe for our own case. Christ must have the entire control of our will and action, or He will not undertake in our behalf.
BLJ	221	3	Many are not sensible of their condition and their danger; and there is much in the nature of the Christian religion that is averse to every worldly feeling and principle, and opposed to the pride of the human heart. We may flatter ourselves, as did Nicodemus, that our lives and our moral character have been correct, and think that we need not humble our heart before God, like the common sinner; but we must be content to enter into life in the very same way as the chief of sinners. Self must die. We must not trust to our own righteousness, but depend on the righteousness of Christ. He is our strength and our hope.
BLJ	221	4	Genuine faith is followed by love--love that is manifested in the home, in society, and in all the relations of life--love which smooths away difficulties, and lifts us above the disagreeable trifles that Satan places in our way to annoy us. And love will be followed by obedience. All the powers and the passions of the converted person are brought under the control of Christ. His Spirit is a renewing power, transforming to the divine image all who will receive it.
BLJ	221	5	To become a disciple of Christ is to deny self, and follow Jesus through evil as well as through good report. It is to close the door to pride, envy, doubt, and other sins, and thus shut out strife, hatred, and every evil work. It is to welcome into our hearts Jesus, the meek and lowly one, who is seeking admittance as our guest....
BLJ	221	6	Jesus is a pattern for humanity, complete, perfect. He proposes to make us like Himself--true in every purpose, feeling, and thought--true in heart, soul, and life. The man or woman who cherishes the most of the love of Christ in the soul, who reflects the image of Christ most perfectly, is, in the sight of God, the truest, most noble, and most honorable person. But those who have not the Spirit of Christ are "none of his."--The Signs of the Times, July 14, 1887.
------------------------We Should Give Hope to the Fallen, July 28
BLJ	222	1	And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:23, 24, NRSV.
BLJ	222	2	Christ was a faithful reprover. Never lived there another who so hated evil; never another whose denunciation of it was so fearless. To all things untrue and base His very presence was a rebuke. In the light of His purity, people saw themselves unclean, their life's aims mean and false. Yet He drew them. He who had created them understood the value of humanity. Evil He denounced as the foe of those whom He was seeking to bless and to save. In every human being, however fallen, He beheld a child of God, one who might be restored to the privilege of divine relationship.
BLJ	222	3	"God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:17). Looking upon people in their suffering and degradation, Christ perceived ground for hope where appeared only despair and ruin. Wherever there existed a sense of need, there He saw opportunity for uplifting. Souls tempted, defeated, feeling themselves lost, ready to perish, He met, not with denunciation, but with blessing.
BLJ	222	4	The beatitudes were His greeting to the whole human family. Looking upon the vast throng gathered to listen to the Sermon on the Mount, He seemed for the moment to have forgotten that He was not in heaven, and He used the familiar salutation of the world of light. From His lips flowed blessings as the gushing forth of a long-sealed fountain.
BLJ	222	5	Turning from the ambitious, self-satisfied favorites of this world, He declared that those were blessed who, however great their need, would receive His light and love. To the poor in spirit, the sorrowing, the persecuted, He stretched out His arms, saying, "Come unto me, ... and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).
BLJ	222	6	In every human being He discerned infinite possibilities. He saw men and women as they might be, transfigured by His grace--in "the beauty of the Lord our God" (Psalm 90:17). Looking upon them with hope, He inspired hope. Meeting them with confidence, He inspired trust.... In many a heart that seemed dead to all things holy were awakened new impulses. To many a despairing one there opened the possibility of a new life.--Education, 79, 80.
------------------------Take Time for Prayer and the Word, July 29
BLJ	223	1	These are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Mark 4:18, 19, NKJV.
BLJ	223	2	Christ specified the things that are dangerous to the soul. As recorded by Mark, He mentions the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things. Luke specifies the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life. These are what choke the word, the growing spiritual seed. The soul ceases to draw nourishment from Christ, and spirituality dies out of the heart.
BLJ	223	3	"The cares of this world." No class is free from the temptation to worldly care. To the poor, toil and deprivation and the fear of want bring perplexities and burdens. To the rich come fear of loss and a multitude of anxious cares. Many of Christ's followers forget the lesson He has bidden us learn from the flowers of the field. They do not trust to His constant care. Christ cannot carry their burden, because they do not cast it upon Him....
BLJ	223	4	Many who might be fruitful in God's service become bent on acquiring wealth. Their whole energy is absorbed in business enterprises, and they feel obliged to neglect things of a spiritual nature. Thus they separate themselves from God.... We are to labor that we may impart to those in need. Christians must work, they must engage in business, and they can do this without committing sin. But many become so absorbed in business that they have no time for prayer, no time for the study of the Bible, no time to seek and serve God.
BLJ	223	5	At times the longings of the soul go out for holiness and heaven; but there is no time to turn aside from the din of the world to listen to the majestic and authoritative utterances of the Spirit of God. The things of eternity are made subordinate, the things of the world supreme. It is impossible for the seed of the Word to bring forth fruit; for the life of the soul is given to nourish the thorns of worldliness.
BLJ	223	6	And many who are working with a very different purpose fall into a like error. They are working for others' good; their duties are pressing, their responsibilities are many, and they allow their labor to crowd out devotion.... They walk apart from Christ, their life is not pervaded by His grace, and the characteristics of self are revealed.--Christ's Object Lessons, 51, 52.
------------------------Study Christ's Words, Not Human Opinions, July 30
BLJ	224	1	For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17, NKJV.
BLJ	224	2	Jesus was the light of the world. He came forth from God with a message of hope and salvation to the fallen children of Adam. If men and women would but receive Him as their personal Savior, He promised to restore to them the image of God, and to redeem all that had been lost through sin. He presented to human beings the truth, without one thread of interwoven error. When He taught, His words came with authority; for He spoke with positive knowledge of the truth.
BLJ	224	3	The teaching of mortals is wholly different from the teaching of Christ. There is a constant tendency on the part of humans to present their own theories and opinions as matter worthy of attention, even when they have no foundation in truth. They are very tenacious for their erroneous ideas and idle opinions. They will hold firmly to the traditions of humanity, and defend them as vigorously as if they were the veritable truth. Jesus declared that everyone that was of the truth would hear His voice.
BLJ	224	4	How much more power would attend the preaching of the Word today if ministers dwelt less upon human theories and arguments and far more upon the lessons of Christ and upon practical godliness. He who had stood in the counsel of God, who had dwelt in His presence, was well acquainted with the origin and elements of truth, and understood its relation and importance to humanity. He presented to the world the plan of salvation, and unfolded truth of the highest order, even the words of eternal life.
BLJ	224	5	Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and they plainly stated that they spoke not by their own power, nor in their own name. They desired that no credit might be ascribed to them, that no one might regard them as the originators of anything whereof they might glory. They were jealous for the honor of God, to whom all praise belongs. They declared that their ability and the messages they brought were given them as delegates of the power of God. God was their authority and sufficiency....
BLJ	224	6	Christ is the Author of all truth. Every brilliant conception, every thought of wisdom, every capacity and talent of human beings, is the gift of Christ. He borrowed no new ideas from humanity; for He originated all.--The Review and Herald, January 7, 1890.
------------------------Be Used by the Spirit in Christ's Service, July 31
BLJ	225	1	Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You. Revelation 15:3, 4, NKJV.
BLJ	225	2	God will move upon those in humble positions to declare the message of present truth. Many such will be seen hastening hither and thither, constrained by the Spirit of God to give the light to those in darkness. The truth is as a fire in their bones, filling them with a burning desire to enlighten those who sit in darkness. Many, even among the uneducated, will proclaim the Word of the Lord. Children will be impelled by the Holy Spirit to go forth to declare the message of heaven. The Spirit will be poured out upon those who yield to His promptings. Casting off humanity's binding rules and cautious movements, they will join the army of the Lord.
BLJ	225	3	In the future, those in the common walks of life will be impressed by the Spirit of the Lord to leave their ordinary employment and go forth to proclaim the last message of mercy. As rapidly as possible they are to be prepared for labor, that success may crown their efforts. They cooperate with heavenly agencies, for they are willing to spend and be spent in the service of the Master. No one is authorized to hinder these workers. They are to be bidden Godspeed as they go forth to fulfill the great commission. No taunting word is to be spoken of them as in the rough places of the earth they sow the gospel seed.
BLJ	225	4	Life's best things--simplicity, honesty, truthfulness, purity, unsullied integrity--cannot be bought or sold; they are as free to the ignorant as to the educated, to the black person as to the white person, to the humble peasant as to the king upon his throne.
BLJ	225	5	Humble workers, who do not trust in their own strength, but who labor in simplicity, trusting always in God, will share in the joy of the Savior. Their persevering prayers will bring souls to the cross. In cooperation with their self-sacrificing efforts Jesus will move upon hearts, working miracles in the conversion of souls. Men and women will be gathered into church fellowship. Meetinghouses will be built and schools established. The hearts of the workers will be filled with joy as they see the salvation of God.--Testimonies for the Church 7:26-28.
------------------------Happiness to Be Found in Natural Surroundings, August 1
BLJ	227	1	And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:10, NKJV.
BLJ	227	2	The father and the Son engaged in the mighty, wondrous work they had contemplated, of creating the world. The earth came forth from the hand of the Creator exceedingly beautiful. There were mountains and hills and plains; and interspersed among them were rivers and other bodies of water. The earth was not one extensive plain. Its surface was diversified with hills and mountains. These, however, were not high and ragged as they now are, but regular and beautiful in shape. The bare, high rocks were never seen upon them, but lay beneath the surface, answering as bones to the earth.
BLJ	227	3	The waters were regularly dispersed. The hills, mountains, and very beautiful plains were adorned with plants and flowers, and tall, majestic trees of every description, which were many times larger, and much more beautiful, than trees now are. The air was pure and healthful, and the earth seemed like a noble palace. Angels beheld and rejoiced at the wonderful and beautiful works of God.
BLJ	227	4	After the earth was created, and the beasts upon it, the Father and Son carried out their purpose, which was designed, before the fall of Satan, to make human beings in their own image. They had wrought together in the creation of the earth and every living thing upon it. And now God says to His Son, "Let us make man in our image." As Adam came forth from the hand of his Creator, he was of noble height and of beautiful symmetry. He was more than twice as tall as men now living upon the earth, and was well proportioned. His features were perfect and beautiful. His complexion was neither white nor sallow, but ruddy, glowing with the rich tint of health. Eve was not quite as tall as Adam. Her head reached a little above his shoulders. She, too, was noble--perfect in symmetry, and very beautiful.
BLJ	227	5	This sinless pair wore no artificial garments. They were clothed with a covering of light and glory, such as the angels wear. While they lived in obedience to God, this circle of light enshrouded them. Although everything God had made was in the perfection of beauty, and there seemed nothing wanting upon the earth which God had created to make Adam and Eve happy, yet He manifested His great love to them by planting a garden especially for them.... This beautiful garden was to be their home, their special residence.--The Signs of the Times, January 9, 1897.
------------------------All Nature Entrusted to Adam and Eve, August 2
BLJ	228	1	Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Genesis 1:26, NKJV.
BLJ	228	2	While they remained true to God, Adam and his companion were to bear rule over the earth. Unlimited control was given them over every living thing. The lion and the lamb sported peacefully around them or lay down together at their feet. The happy birds flitted about them without fear; and as their glad songs ascended to the praise of their Creator, Adam and Eve united with them in thanksgiving to the Father and the Son.
BLJ	228	3	The holy pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. They were visited by angels, and were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring veil between. They were full of the vigor imparted by the tree of life, and their intellectual power was but little less than that of the angels. The mysteries of the visible universe--"the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge" (Job 37:16)--afforded them an exhaustless source of instruction and delight.
BLJ	228	4	The laws and operations of nature, which have engaged humanity's study for six thousand years, were opened to their minds by the infinite Framer and Upholder of all. They held converse with leaf and flower and tree, gathering from each the secrets of its life. With every living creature, from the mighty leviathan that playeth among the waters to the insect mote that floats in the sunbeam, Adam was familiar. He had given to each its name, and he was acquainted with the nature and habits of all.
BLJ	228	5	God's glory in the heavens, the innumerable worlds in their orderly revolutions, "the balancings of the clouds," the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night--all were open to the study of our first parents. On every leaf of the forest or stone of the mountains, in every shining star, in earth and air and sky, God's name was written. The order and harmony of creation spoke to them of infinite wisdom and power. They were ever discovering some attraction that filled their hearts with deeper love and called forth fresh expressions of gratitude.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 50, 51.
------------------------God's Wisdom and Love Revealed in Nature, August 3
BLJ	229	1	Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Genesis 1:28, NKJV.
BLJ	229	2	The holy pair looked upon nature as a picture of unsurpassed loveliness. The brown earth was clothed with a carpet of living green, diversified with an endless variety of self-propagating, self-perpetuating flowers. Shrubs, flowers, and trailing vines regaled the senses with their beauty and fragrance. The many varieties of lofty trees were laden with fruit of every kind, and of delicious flavor, adapted to please the taste and meet the wants of the happy Adam and Eve. This Eden home God provided for our first parents, giving them unmistakable evidences of His great love and care for them.
BLJ	229	3	Adam was crowned as king in Eden. To him was given dominion over every living thing that God had created. The Lord blessed Adam and Eve with intelligence such as He had not given to the animal creation. He made Adam the rightful sovereign over all the works of His hands....
BLJ	229	4	Adam and Eve could trace the skill and glory of God in every spire of grass, and in every shrub and flower. The natural loveliness which surrounded them like a mirror reflected the wisdom, excellence, and love of their heavenly Father. And their songs of affection and praise rose sweetly and reverentially to heaven, harmonizing with the songs of the exalted angels, and with the happy birds who were caroling forth their music without a care. There was no disease, decay, nor death anywhere. Life, life was in everything the eye rested upon. The atmosphere was impregnated with life. Life was in every leaf, in every flower, and in every tree.
BLJ	229	5	The Lord knew that Adam could not be happy without labor, therefore He gave him the pleasant employment of dressing the garden. And as he tended the things of beauty and usefulness around him, he could behold the goodness and glory of God in His created works. Adam had themes for contemplation in the works of God in Eden, which was heaven in miniature.
BLJ	229	6	God did not form human beings merely to contemplate His glorious works; therefore He gave them hands for labor, as well as minds and hearts for contemplation. If the happiness of humans consisted in doing nothing, the Creator would not have given Adam his appointed work. In labor, humanity was to find happiness as well as in meditation.--The Review and Herald, February 24, 1874.
------------------------Work Given as a Source of Happiness, August 4
BLJ	230	1	Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. Genesis 2:15, NKJV.
BLJ	230	2	God placed human beings under law, as an indispensable condition of their very existence. They were subjects of the divine government, and there can be no government without law. God might have created humans without the power to transgress His law; He might have withheld the hand of Adam from touching the forbidden fruit; but in that case people would have been, not free moral agents, but mere automatons. Without freedom of choice, their obedience would not have been voluntary, but forced. There could have been no development of character. Such a course would have been contrary to God's plan in dealing with the inhabitants of other worlds. It would have been unworthy of humans as intelligent beings, and would have sustained Satan's charge of God's arbitrary rule....
BLJ	230	3	The home of our first parents was to be a pattern for other homes as their children should go forth to occupy the earth. That home, beautified by the hand of God Himself, was not a gorgeous palace. Men and women, in their pride, delight in magnificent and costly edifices, and glory in the works of their own hands; but God placed Adam and Eve in a garden. This was their dwelling. The blue heavens were its dome; the earth, with its delicate flowers and carpet of living green, was its floor; and the leafy branches of the goodly trees were its canopy. Its walls were hung with the most magnificent adornings--the handiwork of the great Master Artist.
BLJ	230	4	In the surroundings of the holy pair was a lesson for all time--that true happiness is found, not in the indulgence of pride and luxury, but in communion with God through His created works. If people would give less attention to the artificial, and would cultivate greater simplicity, they would come far nearer to answering the purpose of God in their creation. Pride and ambition are never satisfied, but those who are truly wise will find substantial and elevating pleasure in the sources of enjoyment that God has placed within the reach of all.
BLJ	230	5	To the dwellers in Eden was committed the care of the garden, "to dress it and to keep it." Their occupation was not wearisome, but pleasant and invigorating. God appointed labor as a blessing to our first parents, to occupy their minds, to strengthen their bodies, and to develop their faculties.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 49, 50.
------------------------The Earth Will Produce Abundantly for Diligent Workers, August 5
BLJ	231	1	Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. Ezekiel 34:27, NKJV.
BLJ	231	2	There is need of much more extensive knowledge in regard to the preparation of the soil. There is not sufficient breadth of view as to what can be realized from the earth. A narrow and unvarying routine is followed with discouraging results.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 317.
BLJ	231	3	Let the educated ability be employed in devising improved methods of work. This is what the Lord wants....
BLJ	231	4	There is need of intelligent and educated ability to devise the best methods in farming, in building, and in every other department, that the worker may not labor in vain.... God, who has made the world for the benefit of human beings, will provide means from the earth to sustain the diligent worker.
BLJ	231	5	The seed placed in thoroughly prepared soil will produce its harvest. God can spread a table for His people in the wilderness.... There is much mourning over unproductive soil, when, if people would read the Old Testament Scriptures, they would see that the Lord knew much better than they in regard to the proper treatment of land. After being cultivated for several years, and giving its treasures to the possession of humankind, portions of the land should be allowed to rest, and then the crops should be changed. We might learn much also from the Old Testament in regard to the labor problem....
BLJ	231	6	The earth has its concealed treasures, and the Lord would have thousands and tens of thousands working upon the soil who are crowded into the cities to watch for a chance to earn a trifle.... The earth is to be made to give forth its strength; but without the blessing of God it could do nothing.
BLJ	231	7	In the beginning, God looked upon all He had made, and pronounced it very good. The curse was brought upon the earth in consequence of sin. But shall this curse be multiplied by increasing sin? Ignorance is doing its baleful work. Slothful servants are increasing the evil by their lazy habits.... But the earth has blessings hidden in its depths for those who have courage and will and perseverance to gather its treasures.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 315-327.
BLJ	231	8	Who will be missionaries to do this work, to teach proper methods to the youth and to all who feel willing and humble enough to learn?--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 324.
------------------------Work and Study Benefit Both the Earth and the Mind, August 6
BLJ	232	1	Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. Deuteronomy 10:14, NKJV.
BLJ	232	2	In itself the beauty of nature leads the soul away from sin and worldly attractions, and toward purity, peace, and God. For this reason the cultivation of the soil is good work for children and youth. It brings them into direct contact with nature and nature's God. And that they may have this advantage, there should be, as far as possible, in connection with our schools, large flower gardens and extensive lands for cultivation.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 186, 187.
BLJ	232	3	In the school that is started here in Cooranbong [Australia], we look to see real success in agricultural lines, combined with the study of the sciences. We mean for this place to be a center, from which shall radiate light, precious advanced knowledge that shall result in the working of unimproved lands, so that hills and valleys shall blossom as the rose. For both children and adults, labor combined with mental taxation will give the right kind of all-round education. The cultivation of the mind will bring tact and fresh incentive to the cultivation of the soil.--Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 244.
BLJ	232	4	The school has made an excellent beginning. The students are learning how to plant trees, strawberries, etc.; how they must keep every spangle and fiber of the roots uncramped in order to give them a chance to grow. Is not this a most precious lesson as to how to treat the human mind, and the body as well--not to cramp any of the organs of the body, but to give them ample room to do their work? ...
BLJ	232	5	We should work the soil cheerfully, hopefully, gratefully, believing that the earth holds in its bosom rich stores for the faithful worker to garner, richer than gold or silver.... With proper, intelligent cultivation the earth will yield its treasures for the benefit of humanity....
BLJ	232	6	The cultivation of our land requires the exercise of all the brainpower and tact we possess. The lands around us testify to the indolence of human beings. We hope to arouse to action the dormant senses. We hope to see intelligent farmers who will be rewarded for their earnest labor. The hand and heart must cooperate, bringing new and sensible plans into operation in the cultivation of the soil.--Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 242-244.
------------------------Cooperating With God in Work Promotes Happiness, August 7
BLJ	233	1	And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure. 1 Corinthians 4:12, NKJV.
BLJ	233	2	At the creation, labor was appointed as a blessing. It meant development, power, happiness. The changed condition of the earth through the curse of sin has brought a change in the conditions of labor; yet though now attended with anxiety, weariness, and pain, it is still a source of happiness and development. And it is a safeguard against temptation. Its discipline places a check on self-indulgence, and promotes industry, purity, and firmness. Thus it becomes a part of God's great plan for our recovery from the Fall.
BLJ	233	3	The youth [and others] should be led to see the true dignity of labor. Show them that God is a constant worker. All things in nature do their allotted work. Action pervades the whole creation, and in order to fulfill our mission we, too, must be active.
BLJ	233	4	In our labor we are to be workers together with God. He gives us the earth and its treasures; but we must adapt them to our use and comfort. He causes the trees to grow; but we prepare the timber and build the house. He has hidden in the earth the gold and silver, the iron and coal; but it is only through toil that we can obtain them....
BLJ	233	5	While God has created and constantly controls all things, He has endowed us with a power not wholly unlike His. To us has been given a degree of control over the forces of nature. As God called forth the earth in its beauty out of chaos, so we can bring order and beauty out of confusion. And though all things are now marred with evil, yet in our completed work we feel a joy akin to His when, looking on the fair earth, He pronounced it "very good."
BLJ	233	6	As a rule, the exercise most beneficial to the youth will be found in useful employment. The little children find both diversion and development in play; and their sports should be such as to promote not only physical, but mental and spiritual growth. As they gain strength and intelligence, the best recreation will be found in some line of effort that is useful. That which trains the hand to helpfulness, and teaches the young to bear their share of life's burdens, is most effective in promoting the growth of mind and character.--Education, 214, 215.
------------------------Well-regulated Work Aids All-around Development, August 8
BLJ	234	1	For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. Hebrews 6:7, 8, NKJV.
BLJ	234	2	The youth need to be taught that life means earnest work, responsibility, caretaking. They need a training that will make them practical--men and women who can cope with emergencies. They should be taught that the discipline of systematic, well-regulated labor is essential, not only as a safeguard against the vicissitudes of life, but as an aid to all-around development.
BLJ	234	3	Notwithstanding all that has been said and written concerning the dignity of labor, the feeling prevails that it is degrading. Young men are anxious to become teachers, clerks, merchants, physicians, lawyers, or to occupy some other position that does not require physical toil. Young women shun housework and seek an education in other lines. These need to learn that no man or woman is degraded by honest toil. That which degrades is idleness and selfish dependence. Idleness fosters self-indulgence, and the result is a life empty and barren--a field inviting the growth of every evil....
BLJ	234	4	Since both men and women have a part in homemaking, boys as well as girls should gain a knowledge of household duties.... Let the children and youth learn from the Bible how God has honored the work of the everyday toiler.
BLJ	234	5	Let them read of "the sons of the prophets" (2 Kings 6:1-7), students at school, who were building a house for themselves, and for whom a miracle was wrought to save from loss the ax that was borrowed. Let them read of Jesus the carpenter, and Paul the tentmaker, who with the toil of the craftsman linked the highest ministry, human and divine. Let them read of the lad whose five loaves were used by the Savior in that wonderful miracle for the feeding of the multitude; of Dorcas the seamstress, called back from death, that she might continue to make garments for the poor; of the wise woman described in the Proverbs, who "seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands"; who "looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness" (Proverbs 31:13, 27).--Education, 215-217.
------------------------The Beauty of Nature Reveals God's Character, August 9
BLJ	235	1	I will lift up my eyes to the hills--from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1, 2, NKJV.
BLJ	235	2	I once had the pleasure of beholding one of Colorado's most beautiful sunsets. The great Master Artist had hung out on the shifting canvas of the heavens, for the benefit of all, both rich and poor, one of His finest paintings. It almost seemed that the gates of heaven were ajar that we might see the beauty there was within. Oh! thought I, as one after another passed without noticing the scene, if it had been painted by human hands, how many would have been ready to fall down and worship it!
BLJ	235	3	God is a lover of the beautiful. He loves beauty of character, and He would have us cultivate purity and simplicity, the quiet graces of the flowers. We are to seek for the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
BLJ	235	4	Parents, what kind of education are you giving your children? Are you teaching them to cherish that which is pure and lovely, or are you seeking to place their hands in that of the world? Are you spending time and means that they may learn the outward proprieties of life, and secure the superficial, the deceptive adornments of the world?
BLJ	235	5	From their earliest childhood, open before them the great book of nature. Teach them the ministry of the flowers. Show them that if Jesus had not come to earth and died, we should have had none of the beautiful things which we now enjoy. Call their attention to the fact that the color and even the arrangement of every delicate bud and flower is an expression of the love of God to human beings, and that affection and gratitude to their heavenly Father should be awakened in their hearts for all these gifts.
BLJ	235	6	Jesus, the greatest teacher the world ever knew, drew the most valuable illustrations of truth from scenes in nature. Parents, imitate His example, and use the things that delight the senses to impress important truths upon the minds of your children. Take them out in the morning, and let them hear the birds caroling forth their songs of praise. Teach them that we too should return thanks to the bountiful Giver of all for the blessings we daily receive. Teach them that it is not dress that makes the man or the woman, but that it is true goodness of heart.--The Review and Herald, October 27, 1885.
------------------------God's Love and Glory Seen in Nature, August 10
BLJ	236	1	What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than angels [margin], and crowned them with glory and honor. Psalm 8:4, 5, NRSV.
BLJ	236	2	Our kind heavenly Father would have His children trust in Him as a child trusts in earthly parents. But we too often see poor, feeble mortals loading themselves down with cares and perplexities that God never intended them to bear. They have reversed the order; they are seeking the world first, and making the kingdom of heaven secondary. If even the little sparrow, which has no thought of future need, is cared for, why should the time and attention of human beings, who are made in the image of God, be wholly absorbed with these things?
BLJ	236	3	God has given us every evidence of His love and care, yet how often we fail to discern the divine hand in our manifold blessings. Every faculty of our being, every breath we draw, every comfort we enjoy, comes from Him. Every time we gather around the family board to partake of refreshments, we should remember that all this is an expression of the love of God. And shall we take the gift, and deny the Giver? ...
BLJ	236	4	When Adam and Eve were placed in their Eden home, they had everything that a benevolent Creator could give them to add to their comfort and happiness. But they ventured to disobey God, and were therefore expelled from their lovely home. Then it was that the great love of God was expressed to us in one gift, that of His dear Son. If our first parents had not accepted the gift, the race would today be in hopeless misery. But how gladly did they hail the promise of the Messiah.
BLJ	236	5	It is the privilege of all to accept this Savior, to become children of God, members of the royal family, and to sit at last at God's right hand. What love, what marvelous love, is this! John calls upon us to behold it: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."
BLJ	236	6	Notwithstanding the curse was pronounced upon the earth that it should bring forth thorns and thistles, there is a flower upon the thistle. This world is not all sorrow and misery. God's great book of nature is open for us to study, and from it we are to gain more exalted ideas of His greatness and unexcelled love and glory.--The Review and Herald, October 27, 1885.
------------------------God's Power Exercised Constantly in Nature, August 11
BLJ	237	1	Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Isaiah 40:12, NKJV.
BLJ	237	2	The psalmist says: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard." Some may suppose that these grand things in the natural world are God. They are not God. All these wonders in the heavens are only doing the work appointed them. They are the Lord's agencies. God is the superintendent, as well as the Creator, of all things. The divine Being is engaged in upholding the things that He has created. The same hand that holds the mountains and balances them in position guides the worlds in their mysterious march around the sun.
BLJ	237	3	There is scarcely an operation of nature to which we may not find reference in the Word of God. The Word declares that "he maketh his sun to rise," and the rain to descend. He "maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.... He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels.... He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow." "He maketh lightnings for the rain; and bringeth the wind out of his treasuries."
BLJ	237	4	These words of Holy Writ say nothing of the independent laws of nature. God furnishes the matter and the properties with which to carry out His plans. He employs His agencies that vegetation may flourish. He sends the dew and the rain and the sunshine, that verdure may spring forth, and spread its carpet over the earth; that the shrubs and fruit trees may bud and blossom and bring forth.
BLJ	237	5	It is not to be supposed that a law is set in motion for the seed to work itself, that the leaf appears because it must do so of itself. God has laws that He has instituted, but they are only the servants through which He effects results. It is through the immediate agency of God that every tiny seed breaks through the earth, and springs into life. Every leaf grows, every flower blooms, by the power of God.--The Review and Herald, March 17, 1904.
------------------------Appreciate Earth's Natural, Quiet Beauty, August 12
BLJ	238	1	Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water, or a path for the thunderbolt, to cause it to rain on a land where there is no one, a wilderness in which there is no man; to satisfy the desolate waste, and cause to spring forth the growth of tender grass? Job 38:25-27, NKJV.
BLJ	238	2	He who laid the foundation of the earth, who garnished the heavens and marshaled the stars in their order, He who has clothed the earth with a living carpet, and beautified it with lovely flowers of every shade and variety, would have His children appreciate His works and delight in the simple, quiet beauty with which He has adorned their earthly home.
BLJ	238	3	Christ sought to draw the attention of His disciples away from the artificial to the natural: "If God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"
BLJ	238	4	Why did not our heavenly Father carpet the earth with brown or gray? He chose the color that was most restful, the most acceptable to the senses. How it cheers the heart and refreshes the weary spirit to look upon the earth, clad in its garments of living green! Without this covering the air would be filled with dust, and the earth would appear like a desert. Every spire of grass, every opening bud and blooming flower, is a token of God's love, and should teach us a lesson of faith and trust in Him. Christ calls our attention to their natural loveliness, and assures us that the most gorgeous array of the greatest king that ever wielded an earthly scepter was not equal to that worn by the humblest flower....
BLJ	238	5	I would present before you Christ and Him crucified. Give Him your heart's best affections. Give Him your intellect; it belongs to Him. Give Him your talents of means and of influence; they were only lent to you for improvement. Jesus laid aside His robes of royalty, stepped down from His eternal throne, clothed His divinity with humanity, and for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich. Rich in money? in lands? in bank stock? No; that we might secure eternal riches.
BLJ	238	6	There is no salvation except that which comes through Christ. He came to earth to lift up the fallen. With His human arm He encircles the race, while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the infinite, thus connecting finite humans to the infinite God, and uniting earth to heaven.--The Review and Herald, October 27, 1885.
------------------------Nature Offers Messages of Hope and Comfort, August 13
BLJ	239	1	He sends the springs into the valleys, which flow among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. Psalm 104:10, 11, NKJV.
BLJ	239	2	Nature and revelation alike testify of God's love. Our Father in heaven is the source of life, of wisdom, and of joy. Look at the wonderful and beautiful things of nature. Think of their marvelous adaptation to the needs and happiness, not only of human beings, but of all living creatures. The sunshine and the rain, that gladden and refresh the earth, the hills and seas and plains, all speak to us of the Creator's love. It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures.
BLJ	239	3	In the beautiful words of the psalmist: "The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing" (Psalm 145:15, 16).
BLJ	239	4	God made Adam and Eve perfectly holy and happy; and the fair earth, as it came from the Creator's hand, bore no blight of decay or shadow of the curse. It is transgression of God's law--the law of love--that has brought woe and death.
BLJ	239	5	Yet even amid the suffering that results from sin, God's love is revealed. It is written that God cursed the ground for man's sake (Genesis 3:17). The thorn and the thistle--the difficulties and trials that make life one of toil and care--were appointed for our good as a part of the training needful in God's plan for our uplifting from the ruin and degradation that sin has wrought.
BLJ	239	6	The world, though fallen, is not all sorrow and misery. In nature itself are messages of hope and comfort. There are flowers upon the thistles, and the thorns are covered with roses.
BLJ	239	7	"God is love" is written upon every opening bud, upon every spire of springing grass. The lovely birds making the air vocal with their happy songs, the delicately tinted flowers in their perfection perfuming the air, the lofty trees of the forest with their rich foliage of living green--all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God and to His desire to make His children happy.--Steps to Christ, 9, 10.
------------------------Draw Spiritual Lessons and Health Benefits From Trees, August 14
BLJ	240	1	He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring forth food from the earth. Psalm 104:14, NKJV.
BLJ	240	2	In a certain place, preparations were being made to clear the land for the erection of a sanitarium. Light was given that there is health in the fragrance of the pine, the cedar, and the fir. And there are several other kinds of trees that have medicinal properties that are health-promoting.
BLJ	240	3	Let not such trees be ruthlessly cut down. Better change the site of the [sanitarium] building than cut down these evergreen trees. There are lessons for us in these trees. God's Word declares, "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." David says, "I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever."
BLJ	240	4	The Christian is likened to the cedar of Lebanon. I have read that this tree does more than send down a few short roots into the yielding loam. It sends strong roots deep down into the earth, and strikes down further and still further in search of a still stronger hold. And in the fierce blast of the tempest, it stands firm, held by its network of cables beneath.
BLJ	240	5	So Christians strike roots deep into Christ. They have faith in their Redeemer. They know in whom they believe. They are fully persuaded that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of sinners. The goodly sound of the gospel is received without conflicting doubts. The roots of faith strike deep down. Genuine Christians, like the cedar of Lebanon, do not grow in the soft surface soil, but are rooted in God, riveted in the clefts of the mountain rocks.
BLJ	240	6	Study these lessons from the trees. I could dwell long on this subject, but I must not just now. I ask you not to cut away your pine trees. They will be a blessing to many. Let them live.
BLJ	240	7	I want to say to you, my brethren and sisters, that you have my prayers and my sympathy in your work. Remember that you are trees in the garden of the Lord, and that the divine protection is round about you. The more visible the line of demarcation between the flowers of God and the briar and thorn of Satan's planting, the more the Lord is glorified.--Spalding and Magan Collection, 228, 229.
------------------------Nature Is Guided and Upheld by the Creator, August 15
BLJ	241	1	Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praises on the harp to our God, who covers the heavens with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the mountains. Psalm 147:7, 8, NKJV.
BLJ	241	2	Many teach that matter possesses vital power. They hold that certain properties are imparted to matter, and it is then left to act through its own inherent power; and that the operations of nature are carried on in harmony with fixed laws that God Himself cannot interfere with. This is false science, and is sustained by nothing in the Word of God.
BLJ	241	3	Nature is not self-acting; it is the servant of its Creator. God does not annul His laws nor work contrary to them; but He is continually using them as His instruments. Nature testifies of an intelligence, a presence, an active agency, that works in, and through, and above its laws. There is in nature the continual working of the Father and the Son. Said Christ, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."
BLJ	241	4	God has finished His creative work, but His energy is still exerted in upholding the objects of His creation. It is not because the mechanism that has once been set in motion continues its work by its own inherent energy that the pulse beats and breath follows breath; but every breath, every pulsation of the heart, is an evidence of the all-pervading care of Him in whom we live and have our being.
BLJ	241	5	It is not because of inherent power that year by year the earth produces its bounties and continues its motion around the sun. The hand of God guides the planets, and keeps them in position in their orderly march through the heavens. It is through His power that vegetation flourishes, that the leaves appear and the flowers bloom. His word controls the elements, and by Him the valleys are made fruitful. He covers the heavens with clouds, and prepares rain for the earth; He "maketh grass to grow upon the mountains." "He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes." "When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures." ...
BLJ	241	6	His care is over all the works of His hands. Nothing is too great to be directed by Him; nothing is too small to escape His notice.--The Signs of the Times, March 20, 1884.
------------------------Christ Points Us to a More Glorious World, August 16
BLJ	242	1	We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18, NKJV.
BLJ	242	2	Earth and earthly things will perish with the using. A few years will pass by, and death will come. Your eternal destiny will be fixed, eternally fixed. If your soul is lost, what will compensate you for its loss? Christ the Life Giver, Christ the Redeemer, Christ the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, points you to a nobler world. He brings it within range of your vision. He takes you to the threshold of heaven, and brings you to contemplate the glories of eternal realities, that your aspirations may be quickened to grasp the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. As you contemplate heavenly scenes, desire is kindled in your heart to have friendship with God, to be wholly reconciled to Him.
BLJ	242	3	Our Savior's work is to adjust the claims between earthly and heavenly interests, to put the duties and responsibilities of the life that now is in proper relation to those that pertain to eternal life. The fear and love of God are the first things that should claim our attention. We cannot afford to put off that which concerns our soul's interest till tomorrow. The life which we now live we are to live by faith in the Son of God. We are redeemed from the beggarly elements of the world with a redemption that is full and complete, that cannot be increased by any supplement from human sources.
BLJ	242	4	But in the midst of this flood of mercies, this plentitude of divine love, many hearts continue in indifference, careless, and unimpressed by the provisions of God's grace. Shall we who claim to be Christians make no effort to break the spell which Satan has cast upon these souls? Shall we let them go on in hardness of heart, without God, and without hope in the world? No; although every appeal we may make may be slighted and refused, we cannot cease to pray for them and to make tender entreaty for their souls. We must do all we can, through the aid of God's Holy Spirit, to break down the barriers by which they have sought to make themselves impregnable to the light of God's truth. We must seek to open their eyes to their blindness, to loose them from the captivity of Satan.--The Signs of the Times, July 17, 1893.
------------------------Many Lessons to Be Learned From Nature, August 17
BLJ	243	1	Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. He has also established them forever and ever; He has made a decree which shall not pass away. Psalm 148:5, 6, NKJV.
BLJ	243	2	How beautiful the psalmist's description of God's care for the creatures of the woods: "The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies" (Psalm 104:18). He sends the springs to run among the hills, where the birds have their habitation and "sing among the branches" (Verse 12). All the creatures of the woods and hills are a part of His great household. He opens His hand, and satisfies "the desire of every living thing" (Psalm 145:16).
BLJ	243	3	The eagle of the Alps is sometimes beaten down by the tempest into the narrow defiles of the mountains. Storm clouds shut in this mighty bird of the forest, their dark masses separating her from the sunny heights where she has made her home. Her efforts to escape seem fruitless. She dashes to and fro, beating the air with her strong wings, and waking the mountain echoes with her cries. At length, with a note of triumph, she darts upward, and, piercing the clouds, is once more in the clear sunlight, with the darkness and tempest far beneath.
BLJ	243	4	So we may be surrounded with difficulties, discouragement, and darkness. Falsehood, calamity, injustice, shut us in. There are clouds that we cannot dispel. We battle with circumstances in vain. There is one, and but one, way of escape. The mists and fogs cling to the earth; beyond the clouds God's light is shining. Into the sunlight of His presence we may rise on the wings of faith.
BLJ	243	5	Many are the lessons that may thus be learned. Self-reliance, from the tree that, growing alone on plain or mountainside, strikes down its roots deep into the earth, and in its rugged strength defies the tempest. The power of early influence, from the gnarled, shapeless trunk, bent as a sapling, to which no earthly power can afterward restore its lost symmetry. The secret of a holy life from the water lily, that, on the bosom of some slimy pool, surrounded by weeds and rubbish, strikes down its channeled stem to the pure sands beneath, and, drawing thence its life, lifts up its fragrant blossoms to the light in spotless purity.--Education, 118, 119.
------------------------How to Learn From Nature Its Deepest Lessons, August 18
BLJ	244	1	Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? Job 12:9, 10, NKJV.
BLJ	244	2	While the children and youth gain a knowledge of facts from teachers and textbooks, let them learn to draw lessons and discern truth for themselves. In their gardening, question them as to what they learn from the care of their plants. As they look on a beautiful landscape, ask them why God clothed the fields and woods with such lovely and varied hues. Why was not all colored a somber brown? When they gather the flowers, lead them to think why He spared us the beauty of these wanderers from Eden. Teach them to notice the evidences everywhere manifest in nature of God's thought for us, the wonderful adaptation of all things to our need and happiness.
BLJ	244	3	Those alone who recognize in nature their Father's handiwork, who in the richness and beauty of the earth read the Father's handwriting--those alone learn from the things of nature their deepest lessons, and receive their highest ministry. Only those can fully appreciate the significance of hill and vale, river and sea, who look upon them as an expression of the thought of God, a revelation of the Creator.
BLJ	244	4	Many illustrations from nature are used by the Bible writers, and as we observe the things of the natural world, we shall be enabled, under the guiding of the Holy Spirit, more fully to understand the lessons of God's Word. It is thus that nature becomes a key to the treasure-house of the Word.
BLJ	244	5	Children should be encouraged to search out in nature the objects that illustrate Bible teachings, and to trace in the Bible the similitudes drawn from nature. They should search out, both in nature and in Holy Writ, every object representing Christ, and those also that He employed in illustrating truth. Thus may they learn to see Him in tree and vine, in lily and rose, in sun and star. They may learn to hear His voice in the song of birds, in the sighing of the trees, in the rolling thunder, and in the music of the sea. And every object in nature will repeat to them His precious lessons.
BLJ	244	6	To those who thus acquaint themselves with Christ, the earth will nevermore be a lonely and desolate place. It will be their Father's house, filled with the presence of Him who once dwelt among us.--Education, 119, 120.
------------------------Nature Teaches the Value of Obedience to Law, August 19
BLJ	245	1	Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. Matthew 10:29, NKJV.
BLJ	245	2	The great teacher brought His hearers in contact with nature, that they might listen to the voice which speaks in all created things; and as their hearts became tender and their minds receptive, He helped them to interpret the spiritual teaching of the scenes upon which their eyes rested. The parables, by means of which He loved to teach lessons of truth, show how open His spirit was to the influences of nature and how He delighted to gather the spiritual teaching from the surroundings of daily life.
BLJ	245	3	The birds of the air, the lilies of the field, the sower and the seed, the shepherd and the sheep--with these Christ illustrated immortal truth. He drew illustrations also from the events of life, facts of experience familiar to the hearers--the leaven, the hid treasure, the pearl, the fishing net, the lost coin, the prodigal son, the houses on the rock and the sand. In His lessons there was something to interest every mind, to appeal to every heart. Thus the daily task, instead of being a mere round of toil, bereft of higher thoughts, was brightened and uplifted by constant reminders of the spiritual and the unseen.
BLJ	245	4	So we should teach. Let the children learn to see in nature an expression of the love and the wisdom of God; let the thought of Him be linked with bird and flower and tree; let all things seen become to them the interpreters of the unseen, and all the events of life be a means of divine teaching.
BLJ	245	5	As they learn thus to study the lessons in all created things, and in all life's experiences, show that the same laws which govern the things of nature and the events of life are to control us; that they are given for our good; and that only in obedience to them can we find true happiness and success.--Education, 102, 103.
------------------------Valuable Objects in Nature Are Pruned or Refined, August 20
BLJ	246	1	Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. Isaiah 48:10, NKJV.
BLJ	246	2	The furnace fires are not to destroy, but to refine, ennoble, sanctify. Without trial we would not feel so much our need of God and His help; and we would become proud and self-sufficient. In the trials that come to us we should see the evidences that the Lord's eye is upon us, and that He means to draw us to Himself. It is not the whole, but the wounded, who need a physician; it is those who are pressed almost beyond the point of endurance who need a Helper.
BLJ	246	3	The fact that we are called upon to endure trial proves that the Lord sees something in us very precious, which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. We do not take special pains in pruning brambles. Christ does not cast worthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He tests.
BLJ	246	4	The blacksmith puts the iron and steel into the fire that he may know what manner of metal they are. The Lord allows His chosen ones to be placed in the furnace of affliction, in order that He may see what temper they are of, and whether He can mold and fashion them for His work.
BLJ	246	5	It may be that much work needs to be done in your character-building, that you are a rough stone which must be squared and polished before it can fill a place in God's temple. You need not be surprised if, with chisel and hammer, God cuts away the sharp corners of your character, until you are prepared to fill the place He has for you. No human being can accomplish this work. Only by God can it be done. And be assured that He will not strike one useless blow. His every blow is struck in love, for your eternal happiness. He knows your infirmities, and works to restore, not to destroy.
BLJ	246	6	When trials arise that seem unexplainable, we should not allow our peace to be spoiled. However unjustly we may be treated, let not passion arise. By indulging a spirit of retaliation, we injure ourselves. We destroy our own confidence in God, and grieve the Holy Spirit. There is by our side a witness, a heavenly messenger, who will lift up for us a standard against the enemy. He will shut us in with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Beyond this, Satan cannot penetrate. He cannot pass this shield of holy light.--The Signs of the Times, August 18, 1909.
------------------------Nature Testifies of a Master Artist and Designer, August 21
BLJ	247	1	Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Psalm 19:2, 3, NKJV.
BLJ	247	2	The things of nature that we now behold give us but a faint conception of Eden's glory. Sin has marred earth's beauty; on all things may be seen traces of the work of evil. Yet much that is beautiful remains. Nature testifies that One infinite in power, great in goodness, mercy, and love, created the earth, and filled it with life and gladness. Even in their blighted state, all things reveal the handiwork of the great Master Artist. Wherever we turn, we may hear the voice of God, and see evidences of His goodness.
BLJ	247	3	From the solemn roll of the deep-toned thunder and old ocean's ceaseless roar, to the glad songs that make the forests vocal with melody, nature's ten thousand voices speak His praise. In earth and sea and sky, with their marvelous tint and color, varying in gorgeous contrast or blended in harmony, we behold His glory.
BLJ	247	4	The everlasting hills tell us of His power. The trees that wave their green banners in the sunlight, and the flowers in their delicate beauty, point to their Creator. The living green that carpets the brown earth tells of God's care for the humblest of His creatures. The caves of the sea and the depths of the earth reveal His treasures. He who placed the pearls in the ocean and the amethyst and chrysolite among the rocks is a lover of the beautiful. The sun rising in the heavens is a representative of Him who is the life and light of all that He has made. All the brightness and beauty that adorn the earth and light up the heavens speak of God.... All things tell of His tender, fatherly care and of His desire to make His children happy.
BLJ	247	5	The mighty power that works through all nature and sustains all things is not, as some proponents of science represent, merely an all-pervading principle, an actuating energy. God is a Spirit; yet He is a personal Being; for so He has revealed Himself: "The Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king" (Jeremiah 10:10)....
BLJ	247	6	God's handiwork in nature is not God Himself in nature. The things of nature are an expression of God's character and power; but we are not to regard nature as God. The artistic skill of human beings produces very beautiful workmanship, things that delight the eye, and these things reveal to us something of the thought of the designer; but the thing made is not the maker. It is not the work, but the workman, that is counted worthy of honor. So while nature is an expression of God's thought, it is not nature, but the God of nature, that is to be exalted.--The Ministry of Healing, 411-413.
------------------------Earth's Bounties Give Evidence of God's Love, August 22
BLJ	248	1	Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. 2 Corinthians 9:10, 11, NKJV.
BLJ	248	2	As we are continually receiving the blessings of God, so are we to be continually giving. When the heavenly Benefactor ceases to give to us, then we may be excused; for we shall have nothing to bestow. God has never left us without evidence of His love, in that He did us good. He gives us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, providing us abundantly with His bounties, and filling our hearts with gladness. He has declared that "while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."
BLJ	248	3	We are sustained every moment by God's care, and upheld by His power. He spreads our tables with food. He gives us peaceful and refreshing sleep. Weekly He brings to us the Sabbath, that we may rest from our temporal labors, and worship Him in His own house. He has given us His Word to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. In its sacred pages we find the counsels of wisdom; and as oft as we lift our hearts to Him in penitence and faith, He grants us the blessings of His grace. Above all else is the infinite gift of God's dear Son, through whom flow all other blessings for this life and for the life to come.
BLJ	248	4	Surely goodness and mercy attend us at every step. Not till we wish the infinite Father to cease bestowing His gifts on us, should we impatiently exclaim, Is there no end of giving? Not only should we faithfully render to God our tithes, which He claims as His own, but we should bring a tribute to His treasury as an offering of gratitude. Let us with joyful hearts bring to our Creator the first fruits of all His bounties--our choicest possessions, our best and holiest service.--The Review and Herald, February 9, 1886.
------------------------The Natural World Speaks of the Creator, August 23
BLJ	249	1	Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them. For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and possess it. Psalm 69:34, 35, NKJV.
BLJ	249	2	The same creative energy that brought the world into existence is still exerted in upholding the universe and continuing the operations of nature. The hand of God guides the planets in their orderly march through the heavens. It is not because of inherent power that year by year the earth continues its motion round the sun, and produces its bounties. The word of God controls the elements. He covers the heavens with clouds, and prepares rain for the earth. He makes the valleys fruitful, and "grass to grow upon the mountains." It is through His power that vegetation flourishes; that the leaves appear and the flowers bloom.
BLJ	249	3	The whole natural world is designed to be an interpreter of the things of God. To Adam and Eve in their Eden home, nature was full of the knowledge of God, teeming with divine instruction. It was vocal with the voice of wisdom to their attentive ears. Wisdom spoke to the eye, and was received into the heart; for they communed with God in His created works. As soon as the holy pair transgressed the law of the Most High, the brightness from the face of God departed from the face of nature. Nature is now marred and defiled by sin. But God's object lessons are not obliterated; even now, rightly studied and interpreted, [nature] speaks of the Creator.
BLJ	249	4	As divine truth is revealed in Holy Writ, so it is reflected, as from a mirror, in the face of nature; and through His creation we become acquainted with the Creator. And so the book of nature becomes a great lesson book, which instructors who are wise can use, in connection with the Scriptures, to guide lost sheep back to the fold of God. As the works of God are studied, the Holy Spirit flashes conviction into the mind. It is not the conviction which logical reasoning produces; but unless the mind has become too dark to know God, the eye too dim to see Him, the ear too dull to hear His voice, a deeper meaning is grasped, and the sublime, spiritual truths of the written Word are impressed on the heart.
BLJ	249	5	The most effective way to teach the heathen who know not God is through His works. In this way, far more readily than by any other method, they can be made to realize the difference between their idols, the works of their own hands, and the true God, the Maker of heaven and earth.--Special Testimonies On Education, 58-60.
------------------------Rich Blessings From a Sabbath for the Land, August 24
BLJ	250	1	Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. Leviticus 25:3, 4, NKJV.
BLJ	250	2	The feast of tabernacles, or harvest festival, with its offerings from orchard and field, its week's encampment in the leafy booths, its social reunions, the sacred memorial service, and the generous hospitality to God's workers, the Levites of the sanctuary, and to His children, the strangers and the poor, uplifted all minds in gratitude to Him who had crowned the year with His goodness, and whose paths dropped fatness.
BLJ	250	3	By the devout in Israel, fully a month of every year was occupied in this way. It was a period free from care and labor, and almost wholly devoted, in the truest sense, to purposes of education.
BLJ	250	4	In apportioning the inheritance of His people, it was God's purpose to teach them, and through them the people of after generations, correct principles concerning the ownership of the land. The land of Canaan was divided among the whole people, the Levites only, as ministers of the sanctuary, being excepted. Though one might for a season dispose of his possession, he could not barter away the inheritance of his children. When able to do so, he was at liberty at any time to redeem it; debts were remitted every seventh year, and in the fiftieth, or year of jubilee, all landed property reverted to the original owner. Thus every family was secured in its possession, and a safeguard was afforded against the extremes either of wealth or of poverty.
BLJ	250	5	By the distribution of the land among the people, God provided for them, as for the dwellers in Eden, the occupation most favorable to development--the care of plants and animals. A further provision for education was the suspension of agricultural labor every seventh year, the land lying fallow, and its spontaneous products being left to the poor. Thus was given opportunity for more extended study, for social interaction and worship, and for the exercise of benevolence, so often crowded out by life's cares and labors.
BLJ	250	6	Were the principles of God's laws regarding the distribution of property carried out in the world today, how different would be the condition of the people!--Education, 42-44.
------------------------The Poor Have Rights in God's World, August 25
BLJ	251	1	The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. Psalm 24:1, NKJV.
BLJ	251	2	"On the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement," the trumpet of the jubilee was sounded. Throughout the land, wherever the Jewish people dwelt, the sound was heard, calling upon all the children of Jacob to welcome the year of release. On the great Day of Atonement satisfaction was made for the sins of Israel, and with gladness of heart the people would welcome the jubilee.
BLJ	251	3	As in the sabbatical year, the land was not to be sown or reaped, and all that it produced was to be regarded as the rightful property of the poor. Certain classes of Hebrew slaves--all who did not receive their liberty in the sabbatical year--were now set free.
BLJ	251	4	But that which especially distinguished the year of jubilee was the reversion of all landed property to the family of the original possessor. By the special direction of God the land had been divided by lot. After the division was made no one was at liberty to trade his estate. Neither was he to sell his land unless poverty compelled him to do so, and then, whenever he or any of his kindred might desire to redeem it, the purchaser must not refuse to sell it; and if unredeemed, it would revert to its first possessor or his heirs in the year of jubilee....
BLJ	251	5	The people were to be impressed with the fact that it was God's land which they were permitted to possess for a time; that He was the rightful owner, the original proprietor, and that He would have special consideration made for the poor and unfortunate. It was to be impressed upon the minds of all that the poor have as much right to a place in God's world as have the more wealthy.
BLJ	251	6	Such were the provisions made by our merciful Creator, to lessen suffering, to bring some ray of hope, to flash some gleam of sunshine, into the life of the destitute and distressed.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 533, 534.
------------------------Work, for Earth's Night Is Coming, August 26
BLJ	252	1	Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. Daniel 12:3, NKJV.
BLJ	252	2	The work given us is a great and important one, and in it are needed wise, unselfish workers, workers who understand what it means to give themselves to unselfish effort to save souls. But there is no need for the service of men and women who are lukewarm, for such Christ cannot use. Workers are needed whose hearts are touched with human suffering and whose lives give evidence that they are receiving and imparting light and life and grace.
BLJ	252	3	The people of God are to come close to Christ in self-denial and sacrifice, their one aim being to give the message of mercy to all the world. Some will work in one way and some in another, as the Lord shall call and lead them. But they are all to strive together, seeking to make the work a perfect whole. With pen and voice they are to labor for Him. The printed word of truth is to be translated into different languages and carried to the ends of the earth.
BLJ	252	4	My heart is often burdened because so many who might work are doing nothing. They are the sport of Satan's temptations. Every church member who has a knowledge of the truth is expected to work while the day lasts; for the night cometh, wherein no one can work. Erelong we shall understand what that night means. The Spirit of God is being grieved away from the earth. The nations are angry with one another. Widespread preparations are being made for war. The night is at hand. Let the church arouse and go forth to do its appointed work. Every believer, educated or uneducated, can bear the message.
BLJ	252	5	Eternity stretches before us. The curtain is about to be lifted. What are we thinking of, that we cling to our selfish love of ease, while all around us souls are perishing? Have our hearts become utterly callous? Can we not see and understand that we have a work to do in behalf of others? My brethren and sisters, are you among those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not? Is it in vain that God has given you a knowledge of His will? Is it in vain that He has sent you warning after warning of the nearness of the end? Do you believe the declarations of His Word concerning what is coming upon the world? Do you believe that God's judgments are hanging over the inhabitants of the earth? How, then, can you sit at ease, careless and in-different?--Testimonies for the Church 9:26, 27.
------------------------Cultivating the Soil Is Doing God's Service, August 27
BLJ	253	1	“And behold, this vine" "was planted in good soil by many waters, to bring forth branches, bear fruit, and become a majestic vine." Ezekiel 17:7, 8, NKJV.
BLJ	253	2	The tithing system was instituted by the Lord as the very best arrangement to help the people in carrying out the principles of the law. If this law were obeyed, the people would be entrusted with the entire vineyard, the whole earth....
BLJ	253	3	Human beings were to cooperate with God in restoring the diseased land to health, that it might be a praise and a glory to His name. And as the land they possessed would, if managed with skill and earnestness, produce its treasures, so their hearts, if controlled by God, would reflect His character....
BLJ	253	4	In the laws which God gave for the cultivation of the soil, He was giving the people opportunity to overcome their selfishness and become heavenly-minded. Canaan would be to them as Eden if they obeyed the word of the Lord. Through them the Lord designed to teach all the nations of the world how to cultivate the soil so that it would yield healthy fruit, free from disease. The earth is the Lord's vineyard, and is to be treated according to His plan. Those who cultivated the soil were to realize that they were doing God service. They were as truly in their lot and place as were the men appointed to minister in the priesthood and in work connected with the tabernacle. God told the people that the Levites were a gift to them, and no matter what their trade, they were to help to support them.--The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 1, p. 1112.
BLJ	253	5	Through disobedience to God, Adam and Eve had lost Eden, and because of sin the whole earth was cursed. But if God's people followed His instruction, their land would be restored to fertility and beauty. God Himself gave them directions in regard to the culture of the soil, and they were to cooperate with Him in its restoration. Thus the whole land, under God's control, would become an object lesson of spiritual truth. As in obedience to His natural laws the earth should produce its treasures, so in obedience to His moral law the hearts of the people were to reflect the attributes of His character. Even the heathen would recognize the superiority of those who served and worshiped the living God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 289.
------------------------An Exhaustless Source of Instruction and Delight, August 28
BLJ	254	1	Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? Job 38:4, 5, NKJV.
BLJ	254	2	To Adam and Eve was committed the care of the garden, "to dress it and to keep it" (Genesis 2:15). Though rich in all that the Owner of the universe could supply, they were not to be idle. Useful occupation was appointed them as a blessing, to strengthen the body, to expand the mind, and to develop the character.
BLJ	254	3	The book of nature, which spread its living lessons before them, afforded an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. On every leaf of the forest and stone of the mountains, in every shining star, in earth and sea and sky, God's name was written. With both the animate and the inanimate creation--with leaf and flower and tree, and with every living creature, from the leviathan of the waters to the mote in the sunbeam--the dwellers in Eden held converse, gathering from each the secrets of its life. God's glory in the heavens, the innumerable worlds in their orderly revolutions, "the balancings of the clouds" (Job 37:16), the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night--all were objects of study by the pupils of earth's first school.
BLJ	254	4	The laws and operations of nature, and the great principles of truth that govern the spiritual universe, were opened to their minds by the infinite Author of all. In "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 4:6), their mental and spiritual powers developed, and they realized the highest pleasures of their holy existence.
BLJ	254	5	As it came from the Creator's hand, not only the Garden of Eden but the whole earth was exceedingly beautiful. No taint of sin, or shadow of death, marred the fair creation. God's glory "covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise." ...
BLJ	254	6	The Garden of Eden was a representation of what God desired the whole earth to become, and it was His purpose that, as the human family increased in numbers, they should establish other homes and schools like the one He had given. Thus in course of time the whole earth might be occupied with homes and schools where the words and the works of God should be studied, and where the students should thus be fitted more and more fully to reflect, throughout endless ages, the light of the knowledge of His glory.--Education, 21, 22.
------------------------Fallow Ground of the Human Heart Should Be Worked, August 29
BLJ	255	1	Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12, NKJV.
BLJ	255	2	I want to exhort those who are in positions of responsibility to waken to their duty, and not imperil the cause of present truth by engaging inefficient men and women to do the work of God. We want those who are willing to go into new fields, and to do hard service for the Lord.
BLJ	255	3	I remember visiting in Iowa when the country was new, and I saw the farmers breaking the new ground. I noticed that they had heavy teams, and made tremendous efforts to make deep furrows, but the laborers gained strength and muscle by the exercise of their physical powers. It will make our young workers strong to go into new fields, and break up the fallow ground of human hearts. This work will drive them nearer to God. It will help them to see that they are altogether inefficient in themselves.
BLJ	255	4	They must be wholly the Lord's. They must put away their self-esteem and self-importance, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. When they do this, they will be willing to go without the camp, and bear the burden as good soldiers of the cross. They will gain efficiency and ability by mastering difficulties and overcoming obstacles. Workers are wanted for responsible positions, but they must be those who have given full proof of their ministry in willingness to wear the yoke of Christ. Heaven regards this class with approval.
BLJ	255	5	I exhort you to have the eyesalve, that you may discern what God would have you do. There are too many Christless sermons preached. An array of powerless words only confirms the people in their backslidings. May God help us that His Spirit may be made manifest among us. We should not wait until we go home to obtain the blessing of Heaven. The ministers should begin right here with the people to seek God, and to work from the right standpoint. Those who have been long in the work have been far too content to wait for the showers of the latter rain to revive them.
BLJ	255	6	We are the people who, like John, are to prepare the way of the Lord; and if we are prepared for the second coming of Christ, we must work with all diligence to prepare others for Christ's second advent, as did the forerunner of Christ for His first advent, calling men and women to repentance.... May God help us to search the Scriptures for ourselves, and when we are all filled with the truth of God, it will flow out as water from a living spring.--The Review and Herald, October 8, 1889.
------------------------Greater Efficiency and Deeper Consecration Needed, August 30
BLJ	256	1	However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. John 16:13, NKJV.
BLJ	256	2	Every day that passes brings us nearer the end. Does it bring us also near to God? Are we watching unto prayer? Those with whom we associate day by day need our help, our guidance. They may be in such a condition of mind that a word in season will be sent home by the Holy Spirit as a nail in a sure place. Tomorrow some of these souls may be where we can never reach them again. What is our influence over these fellow travelers? What effort do we make to win them to Christ?
BLJ	256	3	Time is short, and our forces must be organized to do a larger work. Laborers are needed who comprehend the greatness of the work and who will engage in it, not for the wages they receive, but from a realization of the nearness of the end. The time demands greater efficiency and deeper consecration. Oh, I am so full of this subject that I cry to God: "Raise up and send forth messengers filled with a sense of their responsibility, messengers in whose hearts self-idolatry, which lies at the foundation of all sin, has been crucified." ...
BLJ	256	4	Putting our trust in God, we are to move steadily forward, doing His work with unselfishness, in humble dependence upon Him, committing ourselves and our present and future to His wise providence, holding the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end, remembering that it is not because of our worthiness that we receive the blessings of heaven, but because of the worthiness of Christ, and our acceptance, through faith in Him, of God's abounding grace.--Testimonies for the Church 9:27-29.
------------------------Keep Streams of Beneficence in Constant Circulation, August 31
BLJ	257	1	Do you not say, "There are still four months and then comes the harvest"? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! John 4:35, NKJV.
BLJ	257	2	Human power did not establish the work of God, neither can human power destroy it. To those who carry forward His work in face of difficulty and opposition, God will give the constant guidance and guardianship of His holy angels. His work on earth will never cease. The building of His spiritual temple will be carried forward until it shall stand complete, and the headstone shall be brought forth with shoutings: "Grace, grace unto it."
BLJ	257	3	Christians are to be a benefit to others. Thus they themselves are benefited. "He that watereth shall be watered also himself" (Proverbs 11:25). This is a law of the divine administration, a law by which God designs that the streams of beneficence shall be kept, like the waters of the great deep, in constant circulation, perpetually returning to their source. In the fulfilling of this law is the power of Christian missions.
BLJ	257	4	I have been instructed that wherever by self-sacrifice and urgent efforts facilities for the establishment and advancement of the cause have been provided, and the Lord has prospered the work, those in that place should give of their means to help His servants who have been sent to new fields. Wherever the work has been established on a good foundation, the believers should feel themselves under obligation to help those in need by transferring, even at great sacrifice, a portion or all of the means which in former years was invested in behalf of the work in their locality. Thus the Lord designs that His work shall increase. This is the law of restitution in right lines.--Testimonies for the Church 7:170.
------------------------Tell Others to Love and Obey Christ, September 1
BLJ	259	1	“You are My witnesses," says the Lord, "and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me." Isaiah 43:10, NKJV.
BLJ	259	2	Satan is constantly alluring away from faithfulness and thoroughness in the essential works of preparedness for the great event that will try every person's soul. The work in the heavenly sanctuary is going forward. Jesus is cleansing the sanctuary. The work on earth corresponds with the work in heaven. The heavenly angels are at work constantly to draw human beings, the living agents, to look to Jesus, to contemplate and meditate upon Jesus, that they may, in viewing the perfection of Christ, be impressed with the imperfections of their own characters. The promised Comforter, Christ ... declared, "shall testify of me." This is the burden of the message for this time....
BLJ	259	3	Talk as Christ talked. Work as Christ worked. We must look to Christ and live. Catching sight of His loveliness, we long to practice the virtues and righteousness of Christ. It is by beholding Christ that we become changed into His image, and by renouncing self, giving our hearts up wholly to Jesus for His Spirit to refine, ennoble, and elevate, we will be in close connection with the future world, bathed in the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. We rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Then we are commanded to go into other cities and towns and tell them the good news with hearts all aglow with divine love, even to them that are afar off, even as many as the Lord your God shall call.
BLJ	259	4	Tell to others the blessed truths of His Word, and in obeying the words of Christ, continue in His love. [Tell them] how He urges us by the love we bear to Him to keep His commandments. He does this, not to urge us to do impossible things, but because He knows what it means to keep His Father's commandments. He wants every soul that heareth His invitation to say the same to others, and to receive His richest gifts, for He knows that in keeping the commandments of God, we are not brought into servile bondage, but are made free through the blood of Jesus Christ. "And in keeping of them [His commandments] there is great reward" (Psalm 19:11).
BLJ	259	5	Tell it to others with pen and voice, with piety, with humility, with love, representing the character of Christ. "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17).--The Upward Look, 344.
------------------------All Have a Duty to Witness, September 2
BLJ	260	1	You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Acts 1:8, NKJV.
BLJ	260	2	My heart was rejoiced to see among the converts so many young men and women, with hearts softened and subdued by the love of Jesus, acknowledging the good work wrought by God for their souls. It was indeed a precious season. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." God forbid that these souls should ever lose the ardor of their first love, that a strange coldness, through pride and love of the world, should take possession of their minds and hearts.
BLJ	260	3	It is essential that these who have newly come to the faith should have a sense of their obligation to God, who has called them to a knowledge of the truth, and filled their hearts with His sacred peace, that they may exert a sanctifying influence over all with whom they associate. "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord."
BLJ	260	4	To every one God has committed a work, to make known His salvation to the world. In true religion there is nothing selfish or exclusive. The gospel of Christ is diffusive and aggressive. It is described as the salt of the earth, the transforming leaven, the light which shineth in darkness. It is impossible for one to retain the favor and love of God, and enjoy communion with Him, and still feel no responsibility for the souls for whom Christ died, who are in error and darkness, perishing in their sins.
BLJ	260	5	If those who profess to be followers of Christ neglect to shine as lights in the world, the vital power will leave them, and they will become cold and Christless. The spell of indifference will be upon them, a deathlike sluggishness of soul, which will make them bodies of death instead of living representatives of Jesus. All must lift the cross and in modesty, meekness, and lowliness of mind take up their God-given duties, engaging in personal effort for those around them who need help and light.
BLJ	260	6	All who accept these duties will have a rich and varied experience, their own hearts will glow with fervor, and they will be strengthened and stimulated to renewed, persevering efforts to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, because it is God that worketh in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure.--The Review and Herald, July 21, 1891
------------------------Carry Light and Hope Everywhere, September 3
BLJ	261	1	Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16, NKJV.
BLJ	261	2	Practical work will have far more effect than mere sermonizing. We are to give food to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and shelter to the homeless. And we are called to do more than this. The wants of the soul, only the love of Christ can satisfy. If Christ is abiding in us, our hearts will be full of divine sympathy. The sealed fountains of earnest, Christlike love will be unsealed.
BLJ	261	3	God calls not only for our gifts for the needy, but for our cheerful countenance, our hopeful words, our kindly handclasp. When Christ healed the sick, He laid His hands upon them. So should we come in close touch with those whom we seek to benefit.
BLJ	261	4	There are many from whom hope has departed. Bring back the sunshine to them. Many have lost their courage. Speak to them words of cheer. Pray for them. There are those who need the bread of life. Read to them from the Word of God. Upon many is a soul sickness which no earthly balm can reach nor physician heal. Pray for these souls, bring them to Jesus. Tell them that there is a balm in Gilead and a Physician there.
BLJ	261	5	Light is a blessing, a universal blessing, pouring forth its treasures on a world unthankful, unholy, demoralized. So it is with the light of the Sun of Righteousness. The whole earth, wrapped as it is in the darkness of sin, and sorrow, and pain, is to be lighted with the knowledge of God's love. From no sect, rank, or class of people is the light shining from heaven's throne to be excluded.
BLJ	261	6	The message of hope and mercy is to be carried to the ends of the earth.... No longer are the heathen to be wrapped in midnight darkness. The gloom is to disappear before the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. The power of hell has been overcome.
BLJ	261	7	But no one can impart that which he or she has not received. In the work of God, humanity can originate nothing.... It was the golden oil emptied by the heavenly messengers into the golden tubes, to be conducted from the golden bowl into the lamps of the sanctuary, that produced a continuous bright and shining light. It is the love of God continually transferred to men and women that enables them to impart light. Into the hearts of all who are united to God by faith the golden oil of love flows freely, to shine out again in good works, in real, heartfelt service for God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 417-419.
------------------------To Witness Successfully, First Crucify Self, September 4
BLJ	262	1	There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. John 1:6, 7, NKJV.
BLJ	262	2	God's word to us is "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." He calls upon everyone to crucify self. Those who respond grow strong in Him. They learn daily from Christ, and the more they learn, the greater is their desire to build up God's kingdom by helping their fellow beings. The more enlightenment they have, the greater is their desire to enlighten others. The more they talk with God, the less they live to themselves. The greater their privileges, opportunities, and facilities for Christian work, the greater is the obligation they feel to work for others.
BLJ	262	3	Human nature is ever struggling for expression. A person who is made complete in Christ must first be emptied of pride, of self-sufficiency. Then there is silence in the soul, and God's voice can be heard. Then the Spirit can find unobstructed entrance. Let God work in and through you. Then with Paul you can say, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." But until self is laid on the altar, until we let the Holy Spirit mold and fashion us according to the divine similitude, we cannot reach God's ideal for us.
BLJ	262	4	Christ said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." This life is what we must have in order to work for Christ, and we must have it "more abundantly." God will breathe this life into every soul that dies to self. But entire self-renunciation is required. Unless this takes place, we carry with us that which destroys our happiness and usefulness.
BLJ	262	5	The Lord needs men and women who carry with them into the daily life the light of a godly example, men and women whose words and actions show that Christ is abiding in the heart, teaching, leading, and guiding. He needs men and women of prayer, who, by wrestling alone with God, obtain the victory over self, and then go forth to impart to others that which they have received from the Source of power.
BLJ	262	6	God accepts those who crucify self, and makes them vessels unto honor. They are in His hands as clay in the hands of the potter, and He works His will through them. Such men and women receive spiritual power. Christ lives in them, and the power of His Spirit attends their efforts. They realize that they are to live in this world the life that Jesus lived--a life free from all selfishness; and He enables them to bear witness for Him that draws souls to the cross of Calvary.--The Signs of the Times, April 9, 1902.
------------------------Invite People to Become Children of God, September 5
BLJ	263	1	Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 1 John 3:1, NKJV.
BLJ	263	2	"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."
BLJ	263	3	In this scripture are portrayed Christian privileges that are comprehended by but comparatively few. Everyone should become familiar with the blessings that God has offered us in His Word. He has given us many assurances as to what He will do for us. And all that He has promised is made possible by Christ's sacrifice in our behalf.
BLJ	263	4	John the Baptist bore witness of the One through whom we may become sons and daughters of God.... "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
BLJ	263	5	Divine sonship is not something that we may gain of ourselves. Only to those who receive Christ as their Savior is given the power to become sons and daughters of God. Sinners cannot, by any power of their own, rid themselves of sin. For the accomplishment of this result, they must look to a higher Power. John exclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Christ alone has power to cleanse the heart. He who is seeking for forgiveness and acceptance can say only: "Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling."
BLJ	263	6	But the promise of sonship is made to all who "believe on his name." Everyone who comes to Jesus in faith will receive pardon. As soon as the penitent one looks to the Savior for help to turn from sin, the Holy Spirit begins His transforming work upon the heart. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God."
BLJ	263	7	What an incentive to greater effort this should be to all who are trying to set the hope of the gospel before those who are still in the darkness of error.--The Review and Herald, September 3, 1903.
------------------------Angels Cooperate With Soul Winners, September 6
BLJ	264	1	To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins. Acts 10:43, NKJV.
BLJ	264	2	God works through heavenly instrumentalities that those who know the truth may be brought in connection with souls who need light and knowledge. Read the tenth chapter of Acts. The God of heaven beheld the devotion and piety of Cornelius. He witnessed his prayers and his almsgiving, and marked the power of his influence. He desired to give him light in regard to Christ's mission and to connect him with His work.
BLJ	264	3	The Lord sent His angel to signify this to Cornelius, and to place him in connection with the apostle Peter. The angel told Cornelius just where Peter lived, and assured him, "He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do." Then an angel was sent to Peter to remove his doubt as to the propriety of working for the Gentiles. "What God has cleansed, that call not thou common." While Peter was pondering in regard to the mysterious revelation that had been given him, the Spirit said unto him, "Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and ... go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them."
BLJ	264	4	What a history is this to show that Heaven is in close connection with our world. On the ladder that Jacob saw, angels of God are ascending and descending. God is above the ladder, and beams of light and glory are shining the whole length from heaven to earth. This line of communication is still open.
BLJ	264	5	And what was the outcome of God's dealing with Cornelius? Read the precious history, and learn, and praise God; for its lesson is for us.... And God "commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins."
BLJ	264	6	As Peter spoke these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon the assembly, and they were baptized in the name of the Lord. Thus in Caesarea a company of Christian believers was established to hold up the light of truth.
BLJ	264	7	This is the work to be done today. We have a message to give to the people.... Christ declares, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.... All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."--(Australasian) Union Conference Record, January 1, 1900.
------------------------Guard Your Words and Be Tactful as You Witness, September 7
BLJ	265	1	Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Colossians 4:5, 6, NKJV.
BLJ	265	2	It is true that we are commanded to "cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins" (Isaiah 58:1). This message must be given; but while it must be given, we should be careful not to thrust and crowd and condemn those who have not the light that we have....
BLJ	265	3	Those who have had great privileges and opportunities, and who have failed to improve their physical, mental, and moral powers, but who have lived to please themselves and have refused to bear their responsibility, are in greater danger and in greater condemnation before God than those who are in error upon doctrinal points, yet who seek to live to do good to others. Do not censure others; do not condemn them.
BLJ	265	4	If we allow selfish considerations, false reasoning, and false excuses to bring us into a perverse state of mind and heart, so that we shall not know the ways and will of God, we shall be far more guilty than the open sinner. We need to be very cautious in order that we may not condemn those who, before God, are less guilty than ourselves.
BLJ	265	5	Let everyone bear in mind that we are in no case to invite persecution. We are not to use harsh and cutting words. Keep them out of every article written, drop them out of every address given. Let the Word of God do the cutting, the rebuking; let finite men and women hide and abide in Jesus Christ. Let the spirit of Christ appear. Let all be guarded in their words, lest they place those not of our faith in deadly opposition against us and give Satan an opportunity to use the unadvised words to hedge up our way.
BLJ	265	6	There is to be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. Our work is to study to weed out of all our discourses everything that savors of retaliation and defiance and making a drive against churches and individuals, because this is not Christ's way and method.
BLJ	265	7	The fact that God's people, who know the truth, have failed to do their duty according to the light given in the Word of God makes it a necessity for us to be the more guarded, lest we offend unbelievers before they have heard the reasons for our faith in regard to the Sabbath and Sunday.--Testimonies for the Church 9:243, 244.
------------------------Now Is the Time to Work for Christ, September 8
BLJ	266	1	I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 2 Timothy 4:1, 2, NKJV.
BLJ	266	2	What use have you made of the gift of God? He has supplied you with the motive force of action, that with patience and hope and untiring vigilance you might set forth Christ and Him crucified, calling the lost to repent of their sins, sounding the note of warning that Christ is soon to come with power and great glory.
BLJ	266	3	If the members of the ... church do not arouse now and go to work in missionary fields, they will fall back into deathlike slumber. How did the Holy Spirit work upon your hearts? ... Were you not inspired to exercise the talents God has given you, that every man and woman and youth should employ them to set forth the truth for this time, making personal efforts, going into the cities where the truth has never been proclaimed, and lifting up the standard?
BLJ	266	4	Have not your energies been quickened by the blessing that God has bestowed upon you? Has not the truth been more deeply impressed upon your soul? Can you not see more clearly its relative importance to those who are perishing out of Christ? Since the manifest revealing of God's blessing, are you witnessing for Christ more distinctly and decidedly than ever before?
BLJ	266	5	The Holy Spirit has brought decidedly to your minds the important, vital truths for this time. Is this knowledge to be bound up in a napkin and hidden in the earth? No, no. It is to be put out to the exchangers. As a person uses his or her talents, however small, with faithfulness, the Holy Spirit takes the things of God, and presents them anew to the mind. Through His Spirit God makes His Word a vivifying power. It is quick and powerful, exerting a strong influence upon minds, not because of the learning or intelligence of the human agent, but because divine power is working with the human power. And it is to the divine power that all praise is to be given.--Testimonies for the Church 8:54, 55.
------------------------Practical Christianity Important in Witnesses, September 9
BLJ	267	1	You know the commandments: "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not bear false witness," "Do not defraud," "Honor your father and mother." Mark 10:19, NKJV.
BLJ	267	2	People who will not admit the claims of God's law, which are so very plain, will generally take a lawless course; for they have so long taken sides with the great rebel in warring against the law of God, which is the foundation of His government in heaven and earth, that they are trained in this labor. In their warfare they will not open their eyes or consciences to light. They close their eyes, lest they shall become enlightened.
BLJ	267	3	Their case is as hopeless as was that of the Jews who would not see the light which Christ brought to them. The wonderful evidences which He gave them of His Messiahship in the miracles that He performed, in healing the sick, raising the dead, and doing the works which no other had done or could do, instead of melting and subduing their hearts, and overcoming their wicked prejudices, inspired them with satanic hatred and fury such as Satan possessed when he was thrust out of heaven. The greater light and evidence they had, the greater was their hatred. They were determined to extinguish the light by putting Christ to death....
BLJ	267	4	Our work should be to embrace every opportunity to present the truth in its purity and simplicity where there is any desire or interest to hear the reasons of our faith. Those who have dwelt mostly upon the prophecies and the theoretical points of our faith should without delay become Bible students upon practical subjects. They should take a deeper draft at the fountain of divine truth. They should carefully study the life of Christ and His lessons of practical godliness, given for the benefit of all and to be the rule of right living for all who should believe on His name. They should be imbued with the spirit of their great Exemplar and have a high sense of the sacred life of a follower of Christ.--Testimonies for the Church 3:213, 214.
------------------------Witness Wherever Jesus Calls You, September 10
BLJ	268	1	The Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. 2 Timothy 4:17, NKJV.
BLJ	268	2	Resolve, not in your own strength, but in the strength and grace given of God, that you will consecrate to Him now, just now, every power, every ability. You will then follow Jesus because He bids you, and you will not ask where, or what reward will be given. It will be well with you as you obey the word: "Follow me." Your part is to lead others to the light by judicious, faithful efforts. Under the guardianship of the divine Leader, will to do, resolve to act, without a moment's hesitation.
BLJ	268	3	When you die to self, when you surrender to God, to do His work, to let the light that He has given you shine forth in good works, you will not labor alone. God's grace stands forth to cooperate with every effort to enlighten the ignorant and those who do not know that the end of all things is at hand.
BLJ	268	4	But God will not do your work. Light may shine in abundance, but the grace given will convert your soul only as it arouses you to cooperate with divine agencies. You are called upon to put on the Christian armor and enter the Lord's service as active soldiers. Divine power is to cooperate with human effort to break the spell of worldly enchantment that the enemy has cast upon souls....
BLJ	268	5	Let your hearts be drawn out in love for perishing souls. Obey the impulse given by High Heaven. Grieve not the Holy Spirit by delay. Resist not God's methods of recovering souls from the thralldom of sin. To everyone, according to their several ability, is given their work. Do your best, and God will accept your efforts.--Testimonies for the Church 8:55, 56.
------------------------Jesus Identifies Himself With the Needy, September 11
BLJ	269	1	And the King will answer them and say to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." Matthew 25:40, NKJV.
BLJ	269	2	While God in His providence has laden the earth with His bounties and filled its storehouses with the luxuries of life, there is no excuse whatever for allowing the treasury of God to remain empty. Christians are not excusable for permitting the widow's cries and the orphan's prayers to ascend to Heaven because of their suffering want, while a liberal Providence has placed in the hands of these Christians abundance to supply their need.
BLJ	269	3	Let not the cries of the widow and fatherless call down the vengeance of Heaven upon us as a people. In the professed Christian world, there is enough expended in extravagant display, for jewels and ornaments, to supply the wants of all the hungry and clothe the naked in our towns and cities; and yet these professed followers of the meek and lowly Jesus need not deprive themselves of suitable food or comfortable clothing.
BLJ	269	4	What will these church members say when confronted in the day of God by the worthy poor, the afflicted, the widows and fatherless, who have known pinching want for the meager necessities of life, while there was expended by these professed followers of Christ, for superfluous clothing, and needless ornaments expressly forbidden in the Word of God, enough to supply all their wants?
BLJ	269	5	We see ladies professing godliness wear elegant gold chains, necklaces, rings, and other jewelry ... while want stalks in the streets, and the suffering and destitute are on every side. These do not interest them, nor awaken their sympathy; but they will weep over the imaginary suffering depicted in the last novel. They have no ears for the cries of the needy, no eyes to behold the cold and almost naked forms of women and children around them. They look upon real want as a species of crime, and withdraw from suffering humanity as from a contagious disease. To such, Christ will say, "I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: ... sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not."
BLJ	269	6	But on the other hand Christ says to the righteous: "For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me."... Thus Christ identifies His interest with that of suffering humanity. Deeds of love and charity done to the suffering are as though done to Himself.--The Review and Herald, November 21, 1878.
------------------------The Holy Spirit Will Empower for Witnessing, September 12
BLJ	270	1	And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Acts 4:33, NKJV.
BLJ	270	2	What was the result of the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost? The glad tidings of a risen Savior were carried to the uttermost parts of the inhabited world. The hearts of the disciples were surcharged with a benevolence so full, so deep, so far-reaching, that it impelled them to go to the ends of the earth, testifying, God forbid that we should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
BLJ	270	3	As they proclaimed the truth as it is in Jesus, hearts yielded to the power of the message. The church beheld converts flocking to it from all directions. Believers were reconverted. Sinners united with Christians in seeking the pearl of great price. Those who had been the bitterest opponents of the gospel became its champions.... The only ambition of the believers was to reveal the likeness of Christ's character, and to labor for the enlargement of His kingdom....
BLJ	270	4	Under their labors there were added to the church chosen ones, who, receiving the word of life, consecrated their lives to the work of giving to others the hope that had filled their hearts with peace and joy. Hundreds proclaimed the message "The kingdom of God is at hand." They could not be restrained or intimidated by threatenings. The Lord spoke through them, and wherever they went, the sick were healed, and the poor had the gospel preached unto them. So mightily can God work when human beings give themselves up to the control of His Spirit.
BLJ	270	5	To us today, as verily as to the first disciples, the promise of the Spirit belongs. God will today endow men and women with power from above, as He endowed those who on the day of Pentecost heard the message of salvation. At this very hour His Spirit and His grace are for all who need them and who will take Him at His word.
BLJ	270	6	Notice that it was after the disciples had come into perfect unity, when they were no longer striving for the highest place, that the Spirit was poured out. They were of one accord. All differences had been put away. And the testimony borne of them after the Spirit had been given is the same. Mark the word: "The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul." The Spirit of Him who died that sinners might live animated the entire company of believers.--(Australasian) Union Conference Record, June 1, 1904.
------------------------God Gives Grace to Those Who Believe His Word, September 13
BLJ	271	1	But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6, NKJV.
BLJ	271	2	I have been shown that many have confused ideas in regard to conversion. They have often heard the words repeated from the pulpit, "Ye must be born again." "You must have a new heart." These expressions have perplexed them. They could not comprehend the plan of salvation.
BLJ	271	3	Many have stumbled to ruin because of the erroneous doctrines taught by some ministers concerning the change that takes place at conversion. Some have lived in sadness for years, waiting for some marked evidence that they were accepted by God. They have separated themselves in a large measure from the world, and find pleasure in associating with the people of God; yet they dare not profess Christ, because they fear it would be presumption to say that they are children of God. They are waiting for that peculiar change that they have been led to believe is connected with conversion.
BLJ	271	4	After a time some of these do receive evidence of their acceptance with God, and are then led to identify themselves with His people. And they date their conversion from this time. But I have been shown that they were adopted into the family of God before that time. God accepted them when they became weary of sin, and having lost their desire for worldly pleasures, resolved to seek God earnestly. But, failing to understand the simplicity of the plan of salvation, they lost many privileges and blessings which they might have claimed had they only believed, when they first turned to God, that He had accepted them.
BLJ	271	5	Others fall into a more dangerous error. They are governed by impulse. Their sympathies are stirred, and they regard this flight of feeling as an evidence that they are accepted by God and are converted. But the principles of their life are not changed. The evidences of a genuine work of grace on the heart are to be found not in feeling, but in the life. "By their fruits," Christ declared, "ye shall know them." ...
BLJ	271	6	The work of grace upon the heart is not an instantaneous work. It is effected by continuous, daily watching and believing the promises of God. The repentant, believing ones, who cherish faith and earnestly desire the renewing grace of Christ, God will not turn away empty. He will give them grace. And ministering angels will aid them as they persevere in their efforts to advance.--Evangelism, 286, 287.
------------------------One Small Book Produced Big Results, September 14
BLJ	272	1	Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside.... But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Matthew 13:3-9, NKJV.
BLJ	272	2	After the meeting closed [a service at the Michigan camp meeting], a sister took me heartily by the hand, expressing great joy at meeting Sister White again. She inquired if I remembered calling at a log house in the woods twenty-two years before. She gave us refreshments, and I left with them a little book, Experience and Views.
BLJ	272	3	She stated that she had lent that little book to her neighbors, as new families had settled around her, until there was very little left of it; and she expressed a great desire to obtain another copy of the work. Her neighbors were deeply interested in it, and were desirous of seeing the writer. She said that when I called upon her I talked to her of Jesus and the beauties of heaven, and that the words were spoken with such fervor that she was charmed, and had never forgotten them.
BLJ	272	4	Since that time the Lord had sent ministers to preach the truth to them, and now there was quite a company observing the Sabbath. The influence of that little book, now worn out with perusing, had extended from one to another, performing its silent work, until the soil was ready for the seeds of truth.
BLJ	272	5	I well remember the long journey we took twenty-two years ago, in Michigan. We were on our way to hold a meeting in Vergennes. We were fifteen miles from our destination. Our driver had passed over the road repeatedly and was well acquainted with it, but was compelled to acknowledge that he had lost the way. We traveled forty miles that day, through the woods, over logs and fallen trees, where there was scarcely a trace of road....
BLJ	272	6	We could not understand why we should be left to this singular wandering in the wilderness. We were never more pleased than when we came in sight of a little clearing on which was a log cabin, where we found the sister I have mentioned. She kindly welcomed us to her home, and provided us with refreshments, which were gratefully received. As we rested, I talked with the family and left them the little book. She gladly accepted it, and has preserved it until the present time.
BLJ	272	7	For twenty-two years our wanderings on this journey have seemed indeed mysterious to us, but here we met quite a company who are now believers in the truth, and who date their first experience from the influence of that little book.--The Signs of the Times, October 19, 1876.
------------------------Personal Ministry Is Key to Winning Souls, September 15
BLJ	273	1	Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men.... When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." Mark 2:3-5, NKJV.
BLJ	273	2	There is need of coming close to the people by personal effort. If less time were given to sermonizing, and more time were spent in personal ministry, greater results would be seen. The poor are to be relieved, the sick cared for, the sorrowing and the bereaved comforted, the ignorant instructed, the inexperienced counseled. We are to weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice. Accompanied by the power of persuasion, the power of prayer, the power of the love of God, this work will not, cannot, be without fruit.
BLJ	273	3	We should ever remember that the object of the medical missionary work is to point sin-sick men and women to the Man of Calvary, who taketh away the sin of the world. By beholding Him, they will be changed into His likeness. We are to encourage the sick and suffering to look to Jesus and live. Let the workers keep Christ, the Great Physician, constantly before those to whom disease of body and soul has brought discouragement.... Encourage them to place themselves in the care of Him who gave His life to make it possible for them to have life eternal. Talk of His love; tell of His power to save.
BLJ	273	4	This is the high duty and precious privilege of the medical missionary. And personal ministry often prepares the way for this. God often reaches hearts through our efforts to relieve physical suffering....
BLJ	273	5	In almost every community there are large numbers who do not listen to the preaching of God's Word or attend any religious service. If they are reached by the gospel, it must be carried to their homes. Often the relief of their physical needs is the only avenue by which they can be approached.
BLJ	273	6	Missionary nurses who care for the sick and relieve the distress of the poor will find many opportunities to pray with them, to read to them from God's Word, and to speak of the Savior. They can pray with and for the helpless ones who have not strength of will to control the appetites that passion has degraded. They can bring a ray of hope into the lives of the defeated and disheartened. Their unselfish love, manifested in acts of disinterested kindness, will make it easier for these suffering ones to believe in the love of Christ.--The Ministry of Healing, 143-145.
------------------------Make Clear the Worth of the Soul, September 16
BLJ	274	1	Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. 1 Timothy 4:16, NKJV.
BLJ	274	2	The work you are doing to help our sisters feel their individual accountability to God is a good and necessary work. Long has it been neglected; but when this work has been laid out in clear lines, simple and definite, we may expect that the essential duties of the home, instead of being neglected, will be done much more intelligently. The Lord would ever have us urge, upon those who do not understand, the worth of the human soul.
BLJ	274	3	If we can arrange, as you are now working, to have regularly organized companies intelligently instructed in regard to the part they should act as servants of the Master, our churches will have life and vitality such as have been so long needed.
BLJ	274	4	Christ our Savior appreciated the excellency of the soul. Our sisters have generally a very hard time, with their increasing families and their unappreciated trials. I have so longed for women who could be educators to help them to arise from their discouragement, and to feel that they could do a work for the Lord. And this effort is bringing rays of sunshine into their lives, and is being reflected upon the hearts of others. God will bless you, and all who shall unite with you, in this grand work.
BLJ	274	5	Many youth as well as our older sisters manifest themselves shy of religious conversation. They do not take in the matter as it is. The Word of God must be their assurance, their hope, their peace. They close the windows that should open heavenward, and open the windows wide earthward. But when they shall see the excellency of the human soul, they will close the windows earthward, cease depending on earthly amusements and associations, break away from folly and sin, and will open the windows heavenward, that they may behold spiritual things. Then can they say, I will receive the light of the Sun of Righteousness, that I may shine forth to others.
BLJ	274	6	The most successful toilers are those who will cheerfully work to serve God in small things. Every human being is to work with his or her own individual thread, weave it into the fabric that composes the web, and complete the pattern.--The Review and Herald, May 9, 1899.
------------------------Music Can Attract People to God's Message, September 17
BLJ	275	1	Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Psalm 96:1, 2, NKJV.
BLJ	275	2	A few nights since, my mind was much troubled in contemplating what we could do to get the truth before the people in these large cities. We are sure if they would only hear the message, some would receive the truth and in their turn communicate it to others.
BLJ	275	3	The ministers warn their congregations and say it is dangerous doctrine that is presented, and if they go out to hear they will be deceived and deluded with this strange doctrine. The prejudices would be removed if we could get the people out to hear. We are praying over this matter and believe that the Lord will make a place for the message of warning and instruction to come to the people in these last days.
BLJ	275	4	One night I seemed to be in a council meeting where these matters were being talked over. And a very grave, dignified man said, "You are praying for the Lord to raise up men and women of talent to give themselves to the work. You have talent in your midst which needs to be recognized."
BLJ	275	5	Several wise propositions were made and then words were spoken in substance as I write them. He said, "I call your attention to the singing talent which should be cultivated; for the human voice in singing is one of God's entrusted talents to be employed to His glory. The enemy of righteousness makes a great account of this talent in his service. And that which is the gift of God, to be a blessing to souls, is perverted, misapplied, and serves the purpose of Satan.
BLJ	275	6	"This talent of voice is a blessing if consecrated to the Lord to serve His cause. [Carrie Gribble] has talent, but it is not appreciated. Her position should be considered and her talent will attract the people, and they will hear the message of truth."--Evangelism, 497, 498.
------------------------Truth Is to Be Lived, Not Merely Spoken, September 18
BLJ	276	1	Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns; the world also is firmly established, it shall not be moved; He shall judge the peoples righteously." Psalm 96:10, NKJV.
BLJ	276	2	Men and women are not to be spiritually dwarfed by a connection with the church, but strengthened, elevated, ennobled, prepared for the most sacred work ever committed to mortals. It is the Lord's purpose to have a well-trained army, ready to be called into action at a moment's notice. This army will be made up of well-disciplined men and women who have placed themselves under influences that have prepared them for service.
BLJ	276	3	God's workers are to watch for souls as they that must give an account, and they need the abiding presence of Christ in their hearts, in order that they may win sinners to Him. They must themselves have surrendered all to God, that they may tell those for whom they labor the need and meaning of unreserved surrender. They must remember that they are laborers together with God, and must guard against dilatory, uncertain movements. Satan watches untiringly for opportunities to gain control of those whom they are seeking to win to Christ. Only through ceaseless vigilance can the workers for Jesus beat back the enemy. Only in the strength of the Redeemer can they lead the tempted one to the cross. It is not learning nor eloquence that will accomplish this, but the presentation of the truth of God, spoken in simplicity and with the power of the Spirit.
BLJ	276	4	There is only one power that can turn the sinner from sin to holiness--the power of Christ. Our Redeemer is the only one who can take away sin. He alone can forgive sin. He alone can make men and women steadfast, and keep them so.
BLJ	276	5	The truth is not merely to be spoken by those who work for Christ; it is to be lived. People are watching and weighing those who claim to believe the special truths for this time. They are watching to see wherein their life represents Christ. By humbly and earnestly engaging in the work of doing good to all, God's people will exert an influence that will tell on all with whom they are brought in contact. If those who know the truth will take hold of this work as opportunities are presented, day by day doing deeds of love and kindness in the neighborhood where they live, Christ will be revealed in their lives.--The Review and Herald, June 2, 1903.
------------------------Aim High and Attempt Much for God, September 19
BLJ	277	1	By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, "and was not found, because God had taken him"; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Hebrews 11:5, NKJV.
BLJ	277	2	The Lord has a great work to be done, and He will bequeath the most in the future life to those who do the most faithful, willing service in the present life. The Lord chooses His own agents, and each day under different circumstances He gives them a trial in His plan of operation. In each truehearted endeavor to work out His plan, He chooses His agents not because they are perfect but because, through a connection with Him, they may gain perfection.
BLJ	277	3	God will accept only those who are determined to aim high. He places every human agent under obligation to do his or her best. Moral perfection is required of all. Never should we lower the standard of righteousness in order to accommodate inherited or cultivated tendencies to wrongdoing. We need to understand that imperfection of character is sin. All righteous attributes of character dwell in God as a perfect, harmonious whole, and everyone who receives Christ as a personal Savior is privileged to possess these attributes....
BLJ	277	4	Let no one say, I cannot remedy my defects of character. If you come to this decision, you will certainly fail of obtaining everlasting life. The impossibility lies in your own will. If you will not, then you cannot overcome. The real difficulty arises from the corruption of an unsanctified heart, and an unwillingness to submit to the control of God.
BLJ	277	5	Many whom God has qualified to do excellent work accomplish very little, because they attempt little. Thousands pass through life as if they had no definite object for which to live, no standard to reach. Such will obtain a reward proportionate to their works....
BLJ	277	6	Be ambitious, for the Master's glory, to cultivate every grace of character. In every phase of your character building you are to please God. This you may do; for Enoch pleased Him though living in a degenerate age. And there are Enochs in this our day.--Christ's Object Lessons, 330-332.
------------------------Witness at Every Large Gathering in Cities, September 20
BLJ	278	1	And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority. Luke 4:32, NKJV.
BLJ	278	2	I was given instruction that as we approach the end, there will be large gatherings in our cities ... and that preparations must be made to present the truth at these gatherings. When Christ was upon this earth, He took advantage of such opportunities. Wherever a large number of people were gathered for any purpose, His voice was heard, clear and distinct, giving His message. And as a result, after His crucifixion and ascension, thousands were converted in a day. The seed sown by Christ sank deep into hearts, and germinated, and when the disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit, the harvest was gathered in.
BLJ	278	3	The disciples went forth and preached the Word everywhere with such power that fear fell upon their opposers, and they dared not do that which they would have done had not the evidence been so plain that God was working.
BLJ	278	4	At every large gathering some of our ministers should be in attendance. They should work wisely to obtain a hearing and to get the light of the truth before as many as possible....
BLJ	278	5	At all such gatherings there should be present men and women whom God can use. Leaflets containing the light of present truth should be scattered among the people like the leaves of autumn. To many who attend these gatherings these leaflets would be as the leaves of the tree of life, which are for the healing of the nations.
BLJ	278	6	I send you this, my brethren, that you may give it to others. Those who go forth to proclaim the truth shall be blessed by Him who has given them the burden of proclaiming this truth....
BLJ	278	7	The time has come when, as never before, Seventh-day Adventists are to arise and shine, because their light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon them.--Evangelism, 35, 36.
------------------------Christ's Followers to Differ From the World, September 21
BLJ	279	1	But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9, NKJV.
BLJ	279	2	As we read the Word of God, how plain it appears that His people are to be peculiar and distinct from the unbelieving world around them. Our position is interesting and fearful; living in the last days, how important that we imitate the example of Christ, and walk even as He walked. "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." The opinions and wisdom of mortals must not guide or govern us. They always lead away from the cross.
BLJ	279	3	The servants of Christ have neither their home nor their treasure here. Would that all of them could understand that it is only because the Lord reigns that we are even permitted to dwell in peace and safety among our enemies. It is not our privilege to claim special favors of the world. We must consent to be poor and despised among men and women, until the warfare is finished and the victory won. The members of Christ are called to come out and be separate from the friendship and spirit of the world; their strength and power consists in being chosen and accepted of God....
BLJ	279	4	The world is ripening for its destruction. God can bear with sinners but a little longer. They must drink the dregs of the cup of His wrath unmixed with mercy. Those who will be heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ to the immortal inheritance, will be peculiar. Yes, so peculiar that God places a mark upon them as His, wholly His. Think ye that God will receive, honor, and acknowledge a people so mixed up with the world that they differ from them only in name? Read again Titus 2:13-15. It is soon to be known who is on the Lord's side, who will not be ashamed of Jesus. Those who have not moral courage to conscientiously take their position in the face of unbelievers, leave the fashions of the world, and imitate the self-denying life of Christ are ashamed of Him, and do not love His example.--Testimonies for the Church 1:286, 287.
------------------------Win Souls Through the Sabbath School, September 22
BLJ	280	1	Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3, NKJV.
BLJ	280	2	The Sabbath school teacher should be a laborer together with God, cooperating with Christ. Do not be content with a lifeless, formal religion. The object of Sabbath school work should be the ingathering of souls. The order of working may be faultless, the facilities all that could be desired; but if the children and youth are not brought to Christ, the school is a failure; for unless souls are drawn to Christ, they become more and more unimpressionable under the influence of a formal religion.
BLJ	280	3	The teacher should cooperate, as He knocks at the door of the heart of those who need help. If pupils respond to the pleading of the Spirit, and open the door of the heart, that Jesus may come in, He will open their understanding, that they may comprehend the things of God. The teacher's work is simple work, but if it is done in the Spirit of Jesus, depth and efficiency will be added to it by the operation of the Spirit of God.
BLJ	280	4	There should be much personal work done in the Sabbath school. The necessity of this kind of work is not recognized and appreciated as it should be. From a heart filled with gratitude for the love of God, which has been imparted to the soul, the teacher should labor tenderly and earnestly for the conversion of the scholars.
BLJ	280	5	What evidence can we give to the world that the Sabbath school work is not a mere pretense? It will be judged by its fruits. It will be estimated by the character and work of the pupils. In our Sabbath schools the Christian youth should be entrusted with responsibilities, that they may develop their abilities and gain spiritual power.
BLJ	280	6	Let the youth first give themselves to God, and then let them in their early experience be taught to help others. This work will bring their faculties into exercise and enable them to learn how to plan and how to execute their plans for the good of their associates. Let them seek the company of those who need help, not to engage in foolish conversation, but to represent Christian character, to be laborers together with God, winning those who have not given themselves to God.--Testimonies on Sabbath School Work, 47, 48.
------------------------Work to Be Done in Large Cities, September 23
BLJ	281	1	The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. Isaiah 9:2, NKJV.
BLJ	281	2	Every Christian will have a missionary spirit. To bear fruit is to work as Christ worked, to love souls as He has loved us. The very first impulse of the renewed heart is to bring others also to the Savior: and just as soon as a person is converted to the truth, he or she feels an earnest desire that those in darkness should see the precious light shining from God's Word....
BLJ	281	3	Missionaries are needed to spread the light of truth in ... great cities, and the children of God--those whom He calls the light of the world--ought to be doing all they can in this direction. You will meet with discouragements; you will have opposition. The enemy will whisper, What can these few poor people do in this great city? But if you walk in the light, you can every one be light bearers to the world.
BLJ	281	4	Do not seek to accomplish some great work, and neglect the little opportunities close at hand. We can do very much by exemplifying the truth in our daily life. The influence which we may thus exert cannot be easily withstood.
BLJ	281	5	People may combat and defy our logic; they may resist our appeals; but a life of holy purpose, of disinterested love in their behalf, is an argument in favor of the truth that they cannot gainsay. Far more can be accomplished by humble, devoted, virtuous lives than can be effected by preaching when a godly example is lacking. You can labor to build up the church, to encourage your fellow believers, and to make the social meetings interesting; and you can let your prayers go out, like sharp sickles, with the laborers into the harvest field. Each should have a personal interest, a burden of soul, to watch and pray for the success of the work.
BLJ	281	6	You can also in meekness call the attention of others to the precious truths of God's Word. Young men should be instructed that they may labor in these cities. They may never be able to present the truth from the desk, but they could go from house to house, and point the people to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. The dust and rubbish of error have buried the precious jewels of truth; but the Lord's workers can uncover these treasures, so that many will look upon them with delight and awe.--Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 181, 182.
------------------------Expressions of Sympathy Open Hearts to the Gospel, September 24
BLJ	282	1	Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 1 Corinthians 13:8, NKJV.
BLJ	282	2	God expects personal service from everyone to whom He has entrusted a knowledge of the truth for this time. Not all can go as missionaries to foreign lands, but all can be home missionaries in their families and neighborhoods. There are many ways in which church members may give the message to those around them. One of the most successful is by living helpful, unselfish, Christian lives.
BLJ	282	3	Those who are fighting the battle of life at great odds may be refreshed and strengthened by little attentions which cost nothing. Kindly words simply spoken, little attentions simply bestowed, will sweep away the clouds of temptation and doubt that gather over the soul. The true heart expression of Christlike sympathy, given in simplicity, has power to open the door of hearts that need the simple, delicate touch of the spirit of Christ.
BLJ	282	4	Christ accepts, oh, so gladly, every human agency that is surrendered to Him. He brings the human into union with the divine, that He may communicate to the world the mysteries of incarnate love. Talk it, pray it, sing it, fill the world with the message of His truth, and keep pressing on into the regions beyond.
BLJ	282	5	Heavenly intelligences are waiting to cooperate with human instrumentalities, that they may reveal to the world what human beings may become and what, through their influence, they may accomplish for the saving of souls that are ready to perish. Those who are truly converted will be so filled with the love of God that they will long to impart to others the joy that they themselves possess.
BLJ	282	6	The Lord desires His church to show forth to the world the beauty of holiness. It is to demonstrate the power of Christian religion. Heaven is to be reflected in the character of the Christian. The song of gratitude and praise is to be heard by those in darkness.
BLJ	282	7	For the good tidings of the gospel, for its promises and assurances, we are to express our gratitude by seeking to do others good. The doing of this work will bring rays of heavenly righteousness to wearied, perplexed, suffering souls. It is as a fountain opened for the wayworn, thirsty traveler. At every work of mercy, every work of love, angels of God are present.--Testimonies for the Church 9:30, 31.
------------------------Soul Winning Creates Demand for Holy Spirit, September 25
BLJ	283	1	Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. Isaiah 60:1, 2, NKJV.
BLJ	283	2	Our Redeemer spent whole nights in prayer to His Father; and the foundation of the Christian church and missionary activity was laid in the very element of prayer. The disciples were of one accord in one place, calling upon the Lord that the outpouring of His Holy Spirit might come upon them.
BLJ	283	3	While the Holy Spirit is given richly through various channels, the more we seek it the wider will be the diffusion. Thus, earnest work being done to save souls, there will be constantly furnished us a necessity for renewed application to the Source of all power; and thus there will be established an habitual communication between the soul and God. The fountain of the water of life is constantly drawn upon by faith, and is never exhausted.
BLJ	283	4	The work is progressive--action and reaction. Love and devotion to God will give activity to benevolence, and benevolence will increase faith and spirituality. Oh, how much we need heavenly wisdom! Well, is it not promised us? "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." Oh, what an assurance is this! How full and broad! Let us take the promise just as it reads. The Lord wants us to come unto Him with full assurance of faith, believing His word, that He will do just as He said He would.
BLJ	283	5	Would that we might feel the importance of educating every individual member of the church to do something. We should individually sense the solemn obligation of Christians to bring into activity all their divinely entrusted resources and capabilities, to do to the utmost of their power the work the Lord expects them to do....
BLJ	283	6	We need more faith, more sanctified ability. High and ennobling motives are before us. We have no time, no words to spend in controversy.... There is need of sanctified energy. The armies of heaven are on the move, and where is the human agent to cooperate with God?--Testimonies to Southern Africa, 43, 44.
------------------------Consecrated Workers Could Do Great Work in Short Time, September 26
BLJ	284	1	Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and one soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. Acts 4:32, NRSV.
BLJ	284	2	The world needs missionaries, consecrated home missionaries, and no one will be registered in the books of heaven as a Christian who has not a missionary spirit. But we can do nothing without sanctified energy. Just as soon as the missionary spirit is lost from the heart, and zeal for the cause of God begins to wane, the burden of our testimonies and plans is a cry for prudence and economy, and real backsliding begins in the missionary work.
BLJ	284	3	Instead of diminishing the work, let all the councils be conducted in such a manner that increased purpose may be manifested to carry forward the great work of warning the world, though it may cost self-denial and sacrifice. If every member of the church was constantly impressed with the thought, I am not my own, but have been bought with a price, all would feel that they are under the most sacred obligation to improve every ability given of God, to double their usefulness year by year, and have no excuse for spiritual negligence. Then there would be no lack of sympathy with the Master in the great work of saving souls.
BLJ	284	4	Who are there among us that with spiritual perception can discern the stirring conflict that is going on in the world between the forces of good and evil? Do you understand the nature of the great controversy between Christ, the Prince of life, and Satan, the prince of darkness? Does the conflict appear the same to you as it appears to the heavenly intelligences?
BLJ	284	5	Oh, if all who professed to be followers of Christ were indeed living channels of light to the world, imbued by the Spirit of God, with hearts full to overflowing with the gospel message, with the very countenance beaming with devotion to God and love to others, what a work might be accomplished in a short time! The messengers of the truth would not speak with hesitation, with uncertainty, but with fearlessness and confidence. Their words and the very tones of the voice would strike conviction to the hearts of the hearers.--The Review and Herald, August 23, 1892.
------------------------Workers to Reveal the Spirit of Jesus, September 27
BLJ	285	1	The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Romans 13:12, NKJV.
BLJ	285	2	After most earnest efforts have been made to bring the truth before those whom God has entrusted with large responsibilities, be not discouraged if they reject it. Truth was rejected in the days of Christ. Be sure to maintain the dignity of the work by well-ordered plans and a godly conversation.
BLJ	285	3	Never be afraid of elevating the standard too high. The families who engage in this missionary work should come close to hearts. The spirit of Jesus should pervade the souls of the workers; for it is the pleasant, sympathetic words, the manifestation of disinterested love for souls, that will break down the barriers of pride and selfishness, and show to unbelievers that we have the love of Christ, and then the truth will find its way to their hearts. This is our work and the fulfilling of God's plans.
BLJ	285	4	All coarseness and roughness must be purged from us. Courtesy, refinement, and Christian politeness must be cherished. Guard against being abrupt and blunt. Do not regard such peculiarities as virtues, for God does not so regard them. But seek in all things not to offend those who are not of our faith. Never make the most objectionable features of our faith stand out prominently, when there is no call for it. Such a course is only an injury to the cause.
BLJ	285	5	All should seek to have the softening, subduing influence of the Spirit of God in the heart--Christlike tenderness and love for souls. Those who are sent out to labor together should put away their peculiar notions and set ideas, and seek to labor together, heart and soul, to carry out God's will. They must plan to work in harmony in order to work to advantage.
BLJ	285	6	We want more, much more, of the Spirit of Christ, and less, much less, of self and the peculiarities of character which build up a wall to keep us apart from our fellow beings. We can do much to break down these barriers by revealing the graces of Christ in our lives. Jesus has been trusting His goods to the church, age after age. One generation after another for century after century have been gathering up their hereditary trust until the increasing responsibilities have descended to our time.... We want to be clothed, not in our own garments, but in the whole armor of Christ's righteousness.--The Atlantic Canvasser, 18, 1890.
------------------------Consecrate Self, Then Search for Perishing Souls, September 28
BLJ	286	1	The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Isaiah 40:3, NKJV.
BLJ	286	2	Do you feel the sanctifying power of sacred truth in heart and life and character? Have you the assurance that God, for the sake of His dear Son, has forgiven your sins? Are you striving to live with a conscience void of offense toward God and humanity? Do you often plead with God in behalf of your friends and neighbors? If you have made your peace with God, and have placed all upon the altar, you may engage with profit in soul-winning service.
BLJ	286	3	In following any plan that may be set in operation for carrying to others a knowledge of present truth and of the marvelous providences connected with the advancing cause, let us first consecrate ourselves fully to Him whose name we wish to exalt. Let us also pray earnestly in behalf of those whom we expect to visit, by living faith bringing them, one by one, into the presence of God.
BLJ	286	4	The Lord knows our thoughts and purposes, and how easily can He melt us! How His Spirit, like a fire, can subdue the flinty heart! How He can fill the soul with love and tenderness! How He can give us the graces of His Spirit, and fit us to go in and out, in laboring for souls!
BLJ	286	5	The power of overcoming grace should be felt throughout the church today; and it may be felt, if we take heed to the counsels of Christ to His followers. As we learn to adorn the doctrine of Christ our Savior, we shall surely see of the salvation of God.
BLJ	286	6	To all who are about to take up special missionary work ... I would say: Be diligent in your efforts; live under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Add daily to your Christian experience. Let those who have special aptitude work for unbelievers in the high places as well as in the low places of life. Search diligently for perishing souls. Oh, think of the yearning desire Christ has to bring to His fold again those who have gone astray!
BLJ	286	7	Watch for souls as they that must give an account. In your church and neighborhood missionary work, let your light shine forth in such clear, steady rays that no one can stand up in the judgment and say, "Why did you not tell me about this truth? Why did you not care for my soul?"--The Church Officers' Gazette, September 1914.
------------------------Unselfish Service Gives Joy to Both Christ and Us, September 29
BLJ	287	1	Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Galatians 6:9, NKJV.
BLJ	287	2	In this life our work for God often seems to be almost fruitless. Our efforts to do good may be earnest and persevering, yet we may not be permitted to witness their results. To us the effort may seem to be lost. But the Savior assures us that our work is noted in heaven, and that the recompense cannot fail.... In the words of the psalmist we read: "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him" (Psalm 126:6).
BLJ	287	3	And while the great final reward is given at Christ's coming, truehearted service for God brings a reward even in this life. Obstacles, opposition, and bitter, heartbreaking discouragements the workers will have to meet. They may not see the fruit of their toil. But in face of all this they find in their labor a blessed recompense.
BLJ	287	4	All who surrender themselves to God in unselfish service for humanity are in cooperation with the Lord of glory. This thought sweetens all toil, it braces the will, it nerves the spirit for whatever may befall. Working with unselfish heart, ennobled by being partakers of Christ's sufferings, sharing His sympathies, they help to swell the tide of His joy, and bring honor and praise to His exalted name.
BLJ	287	5	In fellowship with God, with Christ, and with holy angels they are surrounded with a heavenly atmosphere, an atmosphere that brings health to the body, vigor to the intellect, and joy to the soul.
BLJ	287	6	All who consecrate body, soul, and spirit to God's service will be constantly receiving a new endowment of physical, mental, and spiritual power. The inexhaustible supplies of heaven are at their command. Christ gives them the breath of His own Spirit, the life of His own life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in heart and mind.--Testimonies for the Church 6:305, 306.
------------------------Every Member to Help Spread the Gospel, September 30
BLJ	288	1	Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." John 8:12, NKJV.
BLJ	288	2	Those who follow Jesus will be laborers together with God. They will not walk in darkness, but will find the true path where Jesus, the Light of the world, leads the way; and as they bend their steps Zionward, moving on in faith, they will attain unto a bright experience in the things of God. The mission of Christ, so dimly understood, so faintly comprehended, that called Him from the throne of God to the mystery of the altar of the cross of Calvary, will more and more unfold to the mind, and it will be seen that in the sacrifice of Christ are found the spring and principle of every other mission of love. It is the love of Christ which has been the incentive of every true missionary worker in cities, in towns, in the highways and the byways of the world.
BLJ	288	3	The church of Christ has been organized on earth for missionary purposes, and it is of the highest importance that every individual member of the church should be a sincere laborer together with God, filled with the Spirit, having the mind of Christ, perfected in sympathy with Christ, and therefore bending every energy according to his or her entrusted ability to the saving of souls. Christ requires that everyone who would be called by His name should make His work the first and highest consideration, and disinterestedly cooperate with heavenly intelligences in saving the perishing for whom Christ has died.
BLJ	288	4	To misapply means or influence or any entrusted capital of mind or body is to rob God and to rob the world; for it is turning the energies into another channel than that in which God designed they should move for the salvation of the world. When Christ was here upon earth, He sent out His disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God throughout Judea, and in this example He clearly revealed that it is the duty of His people throughout all time to impart to others the knowledge they have of the way, the life, and the truth. In all His labors Jesus sought to train His church for missionary work, and as their numbers increased, their mission would extend, until eventually the gospel message would belt the world through their ministrations.--The Review and Herald, October 30, 1894.
------------------------Everyone Should Know and Obey the Laws of Life, October 1
BLJ	290	1	My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Proverbs 4:20-22, NKJV.
BLJ	290	2	Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power--these are the true remedies. Every person should have a knowledge of nature's remedial agencies and how to apply them. It is essential both to understand the principles involved in the treatment of the sick and to have a practical training that will enable one rightly to use this knowledge.
BLJ	290	3	The use of natural remedies requires an amount of care and effort that many are not willing to give. Nature's process of healing and upbuilding is gradual, and to the impatient it seems slow. The surrender of hurtful indulgences requires sacrifice. But in the end it will be found that nature, untrammeled, does its work wisely and well. Those who persevere in obedience to its laws will reap the reward in health of body and health of mind.
BLJ	290	4	Too little attention is generally given to the preservation of health. It is far better to prevent disease than to know how to treat it when contracted. It is the duty of every person, for one's own sake, and for the sake of humanity, to inform himself or herself in regard to the laws of life and conscientiously to obey them. All need to become acquainted with that most wonderful of all organisms, the human body. They should understand the functions of the various organs and the dependence of one upon another for the healthy action of all. They should study the influence of the mind upon the body, and of the body upon the mind, and the laws by which they are governed.
BLJ	290	5	We cannot be too often reminded that health does not depend on chance. It is a result of obedience to law. This is recognized by the contestants in athletic games and trials of strength. These men and women make the most careful preparation. They submit to thorough training and strict discipline. Every physical habit is carefully regulated. They know that neglect, excess, or carelessness, which weakens or cripples any organ or function of the body, would ensure defeat....
BLJ	290	6	In view of the issues at stake, nothing with which we have to do is small. Every act casts its weight into the scale that determines life's victory or defeat. The scriptures bid us, "So run, that ye may obtain."--The Ministry of Healing, 127-129.
------------------------Leaders to Practice and Teach Health Reform, October 2
BLJ	291	1	Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals. Psalm 66:5, NRSV.
BLJ	291	2	The church is making history. Every day is a battle and a march. On every side we are beset by invisible foes, and we either conquer through the grace given us by God or we are conquered. I urge that those who are taking a neutral position in regard to health reform be converted. This light is precious, and the Lord gives me the message to urge that all who bear responsibilities in any line in the work of God take heed that truth is in the ascendancy in the heart and life. Only thus can any meet the temptations they are sure to encounter in the world.
BLJ	291	3	Why do some of our ministers manifest so little interest in health reform? It is because instruction on temperance in all things is opposed to their practice of self-indulgence. In some places this has been the great stumbling block in the way of our bringing the people to investigate and practice and teach health reform. No one should be set apart as a teacher of the people while his or her own teaching or example contradicts the testimony God has given His servants to bear in regard to diet, for this will bring confusion. Disregard of health reform unfits one to stand as the Lord's messenger.
BLJ	291	4	The light that the Lord has given on this subject in His Word is plain, and leaders will be tested and tried in many ways to see if they will heed it. Every church, every family, needs to be instructed in regard to Christian temperance. All should know how to eat and drink in order to preserve health. We are amid the closing scenes of this world's history; and there should be harmonious action in the ranks of Sabbathkeepers. Those who stand aloof from the great work of instructing the people upon this question do not follow where the Great Physician leads the way. "If any man will come after me," Christ said, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
BLJ	291	5	The Lord has presented before me that many, many will be rescued from physical, mental, and moral degeneracy through the practical influence of health reform. Health talks will be given; publications will be multiplied. The principles of health reform will be received with favor; and many will be enlightened. The influences that are associated with health reform will commend it to the judgment of all who want light; and they will advance step by step to receive the special truths for this time. Thus truth and righteousness will meet together.--The Review and Herald, June 18, 1914.
------------------------It's Time to Give Up Health-destroying Indulgences, October 3
BLJ	292	1	Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5, 6, NKJV.
BLJ	292	2	There is a message regarding health reform to be borne in every church. There is a work to be done in every school. Neither principal nor teachers should be entrusted with the education of the youth until they have a practical knowledge of this subject. Some have felt at liberty to criticize and question and find fault with health reform principles of which they knew little by experience. They should stand shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart, with those who are working in right lines.
BLJ	292	3	The subject of health reform has been presented in the churches; but the light has not been heartily received. The selfish, health-destroying indulgences of men and women have counteracted the influence of the message that is to prepare a people for the great day of God. If the churches expect strength, they must live the truth which God has given them. If the members of our churches disregard the light on this subject, they will reap the sure result in both spiritual and physical degeneracy. And the influence of these older church members will leaven those newly come to the faith.
BLJ	292	4	The Lord does not now work to bring many souls into the truth, because of the church members who have never been converted and those who were once converted but who have backslidden. What influence would these unconsecrated members have on new converts? Would they not make of no effect the God-given message which His people are to bear?
BLJ	292	5	Let all examine their own practices to see if they are not indulging in that which is a positive injury to them. Let them dispense with every unhealthful gratification in eating and drinking. Some go to distant countries to seek a better climate; but wherever they may be, the stomach creates for them a malarious atmosphere. They bring upon themselves suffering that no one can alleviate. Let them bring their daily practice into harmony with nature's laws; and by doing as well as believing, an atmosphere may be created about both soul and body that will be a savor of life unto life.--Testimonies for the Church 6:370, 371.
------------------------Share the Light on Healthful Living, October 4
BLJ	293	1	Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Isaiah 58:8, NKJV.
BLJ	293	2	Our ministers should become intelligent on health reform. They need to become acquainted with physiology and hygiene; they should understand the laws that govern physical life, and their bearing upon the health of mind and soul.
BLJ	293	3	Thousands upon thousands know little of the wonderful body God has given them or of the care it should receive; and they consider it of more importance to study subjects of far less consequence. The ministers have a work to do here. When they take a right position on this subject, much will be gained. In their own lives and homes they should obey the laws of life, practicing right principles and living healthfully. Then they will be able to speak correctly on this subject, leading the people higher and still higher in the work of reform. Living in the light themselves, they can bear a message of great value to those who are in need of just such a testimony.
BLJ	293	4	There are precious blessings and a rich experience to be gained if ministers will combine the presentation of the health question with all their labors in the churches. The people must have the light on health reform. This work has been neglected, and many are ready to die because they need the light which they ought to have and must have before they will give up selfish indulgence.
BLJ	293	5	The presidents of our conferences need to realize that it is high time they were placing themselves on the right side of this question. Ministers and teachers are to give to others the light they have received. Their work in every line is needed. God will help them; He will strengthen His servants who stand firmly, and will not be swayed from truth and righteousness in order to accommodate self-indulgence.
BLJ	293	6	The work of educating in medical missionary lines is an advance step of great importance in awakening men and women to their moral responsibilities. Had the ministers taken hold of this work in its various departments in accordance with the light which God has given, there would have been a most decided reformation in eating, drinking, and dressing.
BLJ	293	7	... They themselves and a large number of others have been sufferers unto death, but all have not yet learned wisdom.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, 452, 453.
------------------------Nutritious Diet Important for Intellectual Vigor, October 5
BLJ	294	1	Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Daniel 1:8, NKJV.
BLJ	294	2	The human intellect must gain expansion and vigor and acuteness and activity. It must be taxed to do hard work, or it will become weak and inefficient. Brainpower is required to think most earnestly; it must be put to the stretch to solve hard problems and master them, else the mind decreases in power and aptitude to think. The mind must invent, work, and wrestle, in order to give hardness and vigor to the intellect; and if the physical organs are not kept in the most healthful condition by substantial, nourishing food, the brain does not receive its portion of nutrition to work.
BLJ	294	3	Daniel understood this, and he brought himself to a plain, simple, nutritious diet, and refused the luxuries of the king's table. The desserts which take so much time to prepare are, many of them, detrimental to health. Solid foods requiring mastication will be far better than mush or liquid foods. I dwell upon this as essential....
BLJ	294	4	The intellect is to be kept thoroughly awake with new, earnest, wholehearted work. How is it to be done? The power of the Holy Spirit must purify the thoughts and cleanse the soul of its moral defilement. Defiling habits not only abase the soul, but debase the intellect. Memory suffers, laid on the altar of base, hurtful practices....
BLJ	294	5	When teachers and learners shall consecrate soul, body, and spirit to God, and purify their thoughts by obedience to the laws of God, they will continually receive a new endowment of physical and mental power. Then will there be heart-yearnings after God, and earnest prayer for clear perception to discern....
BLJ	294	6	Diligent study is essential, and diligent hard work.... A well-balanced mind is not usually obtained in the devotion of the physical powers to amusements. Physical labor that is combined with mental taxation for usefulness is a discipline in practical life, sweetened always by the reflection that it is qualifying and educating the mind and body better to perform the work God designs us to do in various lines.... The mind thus educated to enjoy physical taxation in practical life becomes enlarged and, through culture and training, well disciplined and richly furnished for usefulness, and acquires a knowledge essential to be a help and blessing to themselves and to others.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 226-229.
------------------------Higher Powers to Control Physical Nature, October 6
BLJ	295	1	Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.... But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:25-27, NKJV.
BLJ	295	2	The progress of reform depends upon a clear recognition of fundamental truth. While, on the one hand, danger lurks in a narrow philosophy and a hard, cold orthodoxy, on the other hand there is great danger in a careless liberalism. The foundation of all enduring reform is the law of God. We are to present in clear, distinct lines the need of obeying this law. Its principles must be kept before the people. They are as everlasting and inexorable as God Himself.
BLJ	295	3	One of the most deplorable effects of the original apostasy was that people lost the power of self-control. Only as this power is regained can there be real progress.
BLJ	295	4	The body is the only medium through which the mind and the soul are developed for the upbuilding of character. Hence it is that the adversary of souls directs his temptations to the enfeebling and degrading of the physical powers. His success here means the surrender to evil of the whole being. The tendencies of our physical nature, unless under the dominion of a higher power, will surely work ruin and death.
BLJ	295	5	The body is to be brought into subjection. The higher powers of the being are to rule. The passions are to be controlled by the will, which is itself to be under the control of God. The kingly power of reason, sanctified by divine grace, is to bear sway in our lives.
BLJ	295	6	The requirements of God must be brought home to the conscience. Men and women must be awakened to the duty of self-mastery, the need of purity, freedom from every depraving appetite and defiling habit. They need to be impressed with the fact that all their powers of mind and body are the gift of God, and are to be preserved in the best possible condition for His service.
BLJ	295	7	In that ancient ritual which was the gospel in symbol, no blemished offering could be brought to God's altar. The sacrifice that was to represent Christ must be spotless. The Word of God points to this as an illustration of what His children are to be--"a living sacrifice," "holy and without blemish."--The Ministry of Healing, 129, 130.
------------------------Good Health Needed to Achieve Success, October 7
BLJ	296	1	I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment. Ezekiel 34:16, NKJV.
BLJ	296	2	Since the mind and the soul find expression through the body, both mental and spiritual vigor are in great degree dependent upon physical strength and activity; whatever promotes physical health promotes the development of a strong mind and a well-balanced character. Without health no one can as distinctly understand or as completely fulfill his or her obligations to oneself, to other persons, or to the Creator. Therefore the health should be as faithfully guarded as the character. A knowledge of physiology and hygiene should be the basis of all educational effort.
BLJ	296	3	Though the facts of physiology are now so generally understood, there is an alarming indifference in regard to the principles of health. Even of those who have a knowledge of these principles, there are few who put them in practice. Inclination or impulse is followed as blindly as if life were controlled by mere chance rather than by definite and unvarying laws.
BLJ	296	4	The youth, in the freshness and vigor of life, little realize the value of their abounding energy. A treasure more precious than gold, more essential to advancement than learning or rank or riches--how lightly it is held! how rashly squandered! How many men and women, sacrificing health in the struggle for riches or power, have almost reached the object of their desire, only to fall helpless, while others, possessing superior physical endurance, grasped the longed-for prize! Through morbid conditions, the result of neglecting the laws of health, how many have been led into evil practices, to the sacrifice of every hope for this world and the next!
BLJ	296	5	In the study of physiology, pupils should be led to see the value of physical energy and how it can be so preserved and developed as to contribute in the highest degree to success in life's great struggle.
BLJ	296	6	Children should be early taught, in simple, easy lessons, the rudiments of physiology and hygiene.... They should understand the importance of guarding against disease by preserving the vigor of every organ and should also be taught how to deal with common diseases and accidents. Every school should give instruction in both physiology and hygiene, and, so far as possible, should be provided with facilities for illustrating the structure, use, and care of the body.--Education, 195, 196.
------------------------Aim for Holiness, Not Merely Health, October 8
BLJ	297	1	I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1, NRSV.
BLJ	297	2	Should those connected with this enterprise [the Health Institute at Battle Creek] cease to look at their work from a high religious standpoint, and descend from the exalted principles of present truth to imitate in theory and practice those at the head of institutions where the sick are treated only for the recovery of health, the special blessing of God would not rest upon our institution more than upon those where corrupt theories are taught and practiced.
BLJ	297	3	I saw that a very extensive work could not be accomplished in a short time, as it would not be an easy matter to find physicians whom God could approve and who would work together harmoniously, disinterestedly, and zealously for the good of suffering humanity. It should ever be kept prominent that the great object to be attained through this channel is not only health, but perfection, and the spirit of holiness, which cannot be attained with diseased bodies and minds. This object cannot be secured by working merely from the worldling's standpoint. God will raise up men and women and qualify them to engage in the work, not only as physicians of the body, but of the sin-sick soul, as spiritual parents to the young and inexperienced....
BLJ	297	4	The view that those who have abused both their physical and mental powers, or who have broken down in either mind or body, must suspend activity in order to regain health is a great error. In a very few cases entire rest for a short period may be necessary, but these instances are very rare. In most cases the change would be too great.
BLJ	297	5	Those who have broken down by intense mental labor should have rest from wearing thought, yet to teach them that it is wrong and even dangerous for them to exercise their mental powers to a degree leads them to view their condition as worse than it really is....
BLJ	297	6	Those who have broken down by physical exertion must have less labor, and that which is light and pleasant. But to shut them away from all labor and exercise would in many cases prove their ruin.... Inactivity is the greatest curse that could come upon such. Their powers become so dormant that it is impossible for them to resist disease and languor, as they must do in order to regain health.--Testimonies for the Church 1:554-556.
------------------------Health Reform and Third Angel's Message Closely Allied, October 9
BLJ	298	1	Who gives food to all flesh, for His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven! For His mercy endures forever. Psalm 136:25, 26, NKJV.
BLJ	298	2	The Lord had in His providence given light in regard to the establishment of sanitariums where the sick should be treated upon hygienic principles. The people must be taught to depend on the Lord's remedies, pure air, pure water, simple, healthful foods.
BLJ	298	3	Every effort made for the physical and moral health of the people should be based on moral principles. The advocates of reform who are laboring with the glory of God in view will plant their feet firmly upon the principles of hygiene; they will adopt a correct practice. The people need true knowledge. By their wrong habits of life, men and women of this generation are bringing upon themselves untold suffering.
BLJ	298	4	Physicians have a work to do to bring about reform by educating the people, that they may understand the laws which govern their physical life. They should know how to eat properly, to work intelligently, to dress healthfully, and should be taught to bring all their habits into harmony with the laws of life and health, and to discard drugs. There is a great work to be done. If the principles of health reform are carried out, the work will indeed be as closely allied to that of the third angel's message as the hand is to the body.
BLJ	298	5	Why is there so much dissension? Why so much independent action, so much selfish ambition in this great missionary field? God is dishonored. There should be concentrated, united action. This is as necessary in the physician's work as in any other branch of the work of preparation for the great day of God....
BLJ	298	6	Teach the people how to prevent disease. Tell them to cease rebelling against nature's laws, and by removing every obstruction give it a chance to put forth its very best efforts to set things right. Nature must have a fair chance to employ its healing agencies. We must make earnest efforts to reach a higher platform in regard to the methods of treating the sick. If the light which God has given prevails, if truth overcomes error, advanced steps will be taken in health reform. This must be.--Manuscript Releases 13:177, 178.
------------------------Advent Message to Sanctify Body and Soul, October 10
BLJ	299	1	Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. 3 John 2, NKJV.
BLJ	299	2	God's purpose for His children is that they shall grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ. In order to do this they must use aright every power of mind, soul, and body. They cannot afford to waste any mental or physical strength.
BLJ	299	3	The question of how to preserve the health is one of primary importance. When we study this question in the fear of God, we shall learn that it is best, for both our physical health and our spiritual advancement, to observe simplicity in diet. Let us patiently study this question. We need knowledge and judgment in order to move wisely in this matter. Nature's laws are not to be resisted, but obeyed.
BLJ	299	4	Those who have received instruction regarding the evils of the use of flesh meats, tea and coffee, and rich and unhealthful food preparations, and who are determined to make a covenant with God by sacrifice, will not continue to indulge their appetite for food that they know to be unhealthful. God demands that the appetite be cleansed, and that self-denial be practiced in regard to those things which are not good. This is a work that will have to be done before His people can stand before Him a perfected people.
BLJ	299	5	The remnant people of God must be a converted people. The presentation of this message is to result in the conversion and sanctification of souls. We are to feel the power of the Spirit of God in this movement. This is a wonderful, definite message; it means everything to the receiver, and it is to be proclaimed with a loud cry. We must have a true, abiding faith that this message will go forth with increasing importance till the close of time....
BLJ	299	6	A solemn responsibility rests upon those who know the truth, that all their works shall correspond with their faith, and that their lives shall be refined and sanctified, and they be prepared for the work that must rapidly be done in these closing days of the message. They have no time or strength to spend in the indulgence of appetite. The words should come to us now with impelling earnestness, "Repent ..., and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord."--The Review and Herald, February 24, 1910.
------------------------Conditions for Good Health Must Be Observed, October 11
BLJ	300	1	If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you. Exodus 15:26, NKJV.
BLJ	300	2	Christ had been the guide and teacher of ancient Israel, and He taught them that health is the reward of obedience to the laws of God. The Great Physician who healed the sick in Palestine had spoken to His people from the pillar of cloud, telling them what they must do, and what God would do for them. [Exodus 15:26 quoted.] Christ gave to Israel definite instruction in regard to their habits of life, and He assured them, "The Lord will take away from thee all sickness" (Deuteronomy 7:15). When they fulfilled the conditions, the promise was verified to them. "There was not one feeble person among their tribes" (Psalm 105:37).
BLJ	300	3	These lessons are for us. There are conditions to be observed by all who would preserve health. All should learn what these conditions are. The Lord is not pleased with ignorance in regard to His laws, either natural or spiritual. We are to be workers together with God for the restoration of health to the body as well as to the soul.
BLJ	300	4	And we should teach others how to preserve and to recover health. For the sick we should use the remedies which God has provided in nature, and we should point them to Him who alone can restore. It is our work to present the sick and suffering to Christ in the arms of our faith. We should teach them to believe in the Great Healer. We should lay hold on His promise, and pray for the manifestation of His power. The very essence of the gospel is restoration, and the Savior would have us bid the sick, the hopeless, and the afflicted take hold upon His strength.
BLJ	300	5	The power of love was in all Christ's healing, and only by partaking of that love, through faith, can we be instruments for His work. If we neglect to link ourselves in divine connection with Christ, the current of life-giving energy cannot flow in rich streams from us to the people....
BLJ	300	6	To take His yoke is one of the first conditions of receiving His power. The very life of the church depends upon its faithfulness in fulfilling the Lord's commission. To neglect this work is surely to invite spiritual feebleness and decay. Where there is no active labor for others, love wanes, and faith grows dim.--The Desire of Ages, 824, 825.
------------------------Self-development Essential to Accomplish Most Good, October 12
BLJ	301	1	Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? Luke 9:24, 25, NRSV.
BLJ	301	2	Only one lease of life is granted us; and the inquiry with everyone should be "How can I invest my powers so that they may yield the greatest profit? How can I do most for the glory of God and the benefit of my fellow beings?" For life is valuable only as it is used for the attainment of these ends.
BLJ	301	3	Our first duty toward God and our fellow humans is that of self-development. Every faculty with which the Creator has endowed us should be cultivated to the highest degree of perfection, that we may be able to do the greatest amount of good of which we are capable. Hence that time is spent to good account which is used in the establishment and preservation of physical and mental health. We cannot afford to dwarf or cripple any function of body or mind. As surely as we do this, we must suffer the consequences.
BLJ	301	4	Every person has the opportunity, to a great extent, of making himself or herself whatever he or she chooses to be. The blessings of this life, and also of the immortal state, are within their reach. They may build up a character of solid worth, gaining new strength at every step. They may advance daily in knowledge and wisdom, conscious of new delights as they progress, adding virtue to virtue, grace to grace.... Their intelligence, knowledge, and virtue will thus develop into greater strength and more perfect symmetry.
BLJ	301	5	On the other hand, they may allow their powers to rust out for want of use, or to be perverted through evil habits, lack of self-control, or moral and religious stamina. Their course then tends downward; they are disobedient to the law of God and to the laws of health. Appetite conquers them; inclination carries them away. It is easier for them to allow the powers of evil, which are always active, to drag them backward, than to struggle against them and go forward. Dissipation, disease, and death follow. This is the history of many lives that might have been useful in the cause of God and humanity.--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 41, 42.
------------------------Temperate Habits and Physical Exercise Produce Vigor, October 13
BLJ	302	1	Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1, NKJV.
BLJ	302	2	Many have suffered from severe mental taxation, unrelieved by physical exercise. The result is a deterioration of their powers, and they are inclined to shun responsibilities. What they need is more active labor. This condition is not confined to those whose heads are white with the frost of time; those young in years have fallen into the same state, and have become mentally feeble.
BLJ	302	3	Strictly temperate habits, combined with exercise of the muscles as well as of the mind, will preserve both mental and physical vigor, and give power of endurance to those engaged in the ministry, to editors, and to all others whose habits are sedentary.
BLJ	302	4	Ministers, teachers, and students do not become as intelligent as they should in regard to the necessity of physical exercise in the open air. They neglect this duty, a duty which is most essential to the preservation of health. They closely apply their minds to study, and yet eat the allowance of a laboring man. Under such habits, some grow corpulent, because the system is clogged. Others become thin and feeble, because their vital powers are exhausted in throwing off the excess of food.... If physical exercise were combined with mental exertion, the circulation of the blood would be quickened, the action of the heart would be more perfect, impure matter would be thrown off, and new life and vigor would be felt in every part of the body....
BLJ	302	5	It is a sacred work in which we are engaged.... It is a duty that we owe to God to keep the spirit pure, as a temple for the Holy Ghost. If the heart and mind are devoted to the service of God, obeying all His commandments, loving Him with all the heart, might, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves, we shall be found loyal and true to the requirements of Heaven.
BLJ	302	6	We are now in God's workshop. Many of us are rough stones from the quarry. But as the truth of God is brought to bear upon us, every imperfection is removed, and we are prepared to shine as lively stones in the heavenly temple, where we shall be brought into association not only with the holy angels but with the King of heaven Himself.
BLJ	302	7	The consciousness of right doing is the best medicine for diseased bodies and minds. The special blessing of God resting upon the receiver is health and strength. A person whose mind is quiet and satisfied in God is in the pathway to health.--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 160-162.
------------------------Follow the Example Set by the Four Hebrews, October 14
BLJ	303	1	“Then let our countenances be examined before you, and the countenances of the young men who eat the portion of the king's delicacies; and as you see fit, so deal with your servants." ... And at the end of ten days their countenance appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies. Daniel 1:13-15, NKJV.
BLJ	303	2	"As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm."
BLJ	303	3	This record contains much of importance on the subject of health reform. In the experience of the four Hebrew children a lesson is given regarding the need of abstaining from all spirituous liquors, and from indulgence of perverted appetite. The position taken by these Hebrew youth was vindicated, and at the end of ten days they were found fairer in flesh and better in knowledge than all the rest whom the king was proving.
BLJ	303	4	In this our day, the Lord would be pleased to have those who are preparing for the future, immortal life follow the example of Daniel and his companions in seeking to maintain strength of body and clearness of mind. The more careful we learn to be in treating our bodies, the more readily shall we be able to escape the evils that are in the world through lust....
BLJ	303	5	Let us ask, What is the object of true higher education? Is it not that we may stand in right relation to God? The test of all education should be Is it fitting us to keep our minds fixed upon the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus? ...
BLJ	303	6	We are to learn how to equalize the labor done by brain, bone, and muscle. If you put to task the faculties of the mind, loading them with heavy burdens, while you leave the muscles unexercised, this course will tell its story just as surely as the wise course of the Hebrew youth told its story. Parents should follow a consistent course in the education of their children. Our youth should be taught from their very childhood how to exercise the body and the mind proportionately.--The General Conference Bulletin, May 30, 1909.
------------------------Control the Appetite Through Christ's Power, October 15
BLJ	304	1	Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 3:19, NKJV.
BLJ	304	2	The power of Christ alone can work the transformation in heart and mind that all must experience who would partake with Him of the new life in the kingdom of God.... In order to serve Him aright, we must be born of the divine Spirit. This will lead to watchfulness. It will purify the heart and renew the mind, and give us a new capacity for knowing and loving God. It will give us willing obedience to all His requirements. This is true worship.
BLJ	304	3	God requires continual advancement from His people. They need to learn that indulged appetite is the greatest hindrance to mental improvement and soul sanctification. With all our profession of health reform, many of us eat improperly. Indulgence of appetite is the greatest cause of physical and mental debility, and lies largely at the foundation of feebleness and premature death. Let the individual who is seeking to possess purity of spirit bear in mind that in Christ there is power to control the appetite....
BLJ	304	4	Flesh foods are injurious to the physical well-being, and we should learn to do without them. Those who are in a position where it is possible to secure a vegetarian diet, but who choose to follow their own preferences in this matter, eating and drinking as they please, will gradually grow careless of the instruction the Lord has given regarding other phases of the present truth, and will lose their perception of what is truth; they will surely reap as they have sown....
BLJ	304	5	I appeal to old and young and to middle-aged: Deny your appetite of those things that are doing you injury. Serve the Lord by sacrifice. Let the children have an intelligent part in this work. We are all members of the Lord's family, and the Lord would have His children, young and old, determine to deny appetite, and to save the means needed for the building of meetinghouses and the support of missionaries.
BLJ	304	6	I am instructed to say to parents: Place yourselves, soul and spirit, on the Lord's side of this question. We need ever to bear in mind that in these days of probation we are on trial before the Lord of the universe. Will you not give up indulgences that are doing you injury? Words of profession are cheap; let your acts of self-denial testify that you will be obedient to the demands that God makes on His peculiar people.--The Review and Herald, February 24, 1910.
------------------------Christians to Be Strictly Temperate, Governed by Principle, October 16
BLJ	305	1	Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31, NKJV.
BLJ	305	2	The apostle Paul writes: "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
BLJ	305	3	There are many in the world who indulge pernicious habits. Appetite is the law that governs them; and because of their wrong habits, the moral sense is clouded and the power to discern sacred things is to a great extent destroyed. But it is necessary for Christians to be strictly temperate. They should place their standard high. Temperance in eating, drinking, and dressing is essential. Principle should rule instead of appetite or fancy. Those who eat too much, or whose food is of an objectionable quality, are easily led into dissipation, and into other "foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition" (1 Timothy 6:9). The "labourers together with God" should use every jot of their influence to encourage the spread of true temperance principles.
BLJ	305	4	It means much to be true to God. He has claims upon all who are engaged in His service. He desires that mind and body be preserved in the best condition of health, every power and endowment under the divine control, and as vigorous as careful, strictly temperate habits can make them. We are under obligation to God to make an unreserved consecration of ourselves to Him, body and soul, with all the faculties appreciated as His entrusted gifts, to be employed in His service.
BLJ	305	5	All our energies and capabilities are to be constantly strengthened and improved during this probationary period. Only those who appreciate these principles, and have been trained to care for their bodies intelligently and in the fear of God, should be chosen to take responsibilities in this work.... Every church needs a clear, sharp testimony, giving the trumpet a certain sound.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, 156, 157.
------------------------Food to Be Wholesome and Palatable, October 17
BLJ	306	1	Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Isaiah 55:2, NKJV.
BLJ	306	2	Some of our people, while conscientiously abstaining from eating improper foods, neglect to supply themselves with the elements necessary for the sustenance of the body. Those who take an extreme view of health reform are in danger of preparing tasteless dishes, making them so insipid that they are not satisfying. Food should be prepared in such a way that it will be appetizing as well as nourishing. It should not be robbed of that which the system needs. I use some salt, and always have, because salt, instead of being deleterious, is actually essential for the blood. Vegetables should be made palatable with a little milk or cream, or something equivalent.
BLJ	306	3	While warnings have been given regarding the dangers of disease through butter, and the evil of the free use of eggs by small children, yet we should not consider it a violation of principle to use eggs from hens which are well cared for and suitably fed. Eggs contain properties which are remedial agencies in counteracting certain poisons.
BLJ	306	4	Some, in abstaining from milk, eggs, and butter, have failed to supply the system with proper nourishment, and as a consequence have become weak and unable to work. Thus health reform is brought into disrepute. The work that we have tried to build up solidly is confused with strange things that God has not required, and the energies of the church are crippled. But God will interfere to prevent the results of these too strenuous ideas. The gospel is to harmonize the sinful race. It is to bring the rich and poor together at the feet of Jesus.
BLJ	306	5	The time will come when we may have to discard some of the articles of diet we now use, such as milk and cream and eggs; but it is not necessary to bring upon ourselves perplexity by premature and extreme restrictions. Wait until the circumstances demand it, and the Lord prepares the way for it....
BLJ	306	6	Let us never bear a testimony against health reform by failing to use wholesome, palatable food in place of the harmful articles of diet that we have discarded. Do not in any way encourage an appetite for stimulants. Eat only plain, simple, wholesome food, and thank God constantly for the principles of health reform. In all things be true and upright, and you will gain precious victories.--The Review and Herald, March 3, 1910.
------------------------Control of Appetite to Begin in Childhood, October 18
BLJ	307	1	The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7, NKJV.
BLJ	307	2	Not only has disease been transmitted from generation to generation, but parents bequeath to their children their own wrong habits, their perverted appetites, and corrupt passions. Men and women are slow to learn wisdom from the history of the past. The strange absence of principle that characterizes the present generation, the disregard of the laws of life and health, is astonishing. Although a knowledge of these things can be readily obtained, a deplorable ignorance prevails.
BLJ	307	3	With the majority, the principal anxiety is "What shall I eat? what shall I drink? and wherewithal shall I be clothed?" Notwithstanding all that has been said and written upon the importance of health and the means to preserve it, appetite is the great law which governs men and women generally.
BLJ	307	4	What can be done to stay the tide of disease and crime that is sweeping our race down to ruin and to death? As the great cause of the evil is to be found in the indulgence of appetite and passion, so the first and great work of reform must be to learn and practice the lessons of temperance and self-control.
BLJ	307	5	To effect a permanent change for the better in society, the education of the masses must begin in early life. The habits formed in childhood and youth, the tastes acquired, the self-control gained, the principles inculcated from the cradle, are almost certain to determine the future of the man or woman. The crime and corruption occasioned by intemperance and lax morals might be prevented by the proper training of the youth.
BLJ	307	6	One of the greatest aids in perfecting pure and noble characters in the young, strengthening them to control appetite and refrain from debasing excesses, is sound physical health. And, on the other hand, these very habits of self-control are essential to the maintenance of health....
BLJ	307	7	Especially is youth the time to lay up a stock of knowledge to be put in daily practice through life. Youth is the time to establish good habits, to correct wrong ones already contracted, to gain and to hold the power of self-control, and to lay the plan and accustom one's self to the practice of ordering all the acts of life with reference to the will of God and the welfare of our fellow creatures.--The Review and Herald, December 13, 1881.
------------------------Stimulants Eventually Produce Evil Results, October 19
BLJ	308	1	No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13, NRSV.
BLJ	308	2	As a people, with all our profession of health reform, we eat too much. Indulgence of appetite is the greatest cause of physical and mental debility, and lies at the foundation of the feebleness which is apparent everywhere.
BLJ	308	3	Intemperance commences at our tables in the use of unhealthful food. After a time, through continued indulgence, the digestive organs become weakened, and the food taken does not satisfy the appetite. Unhealthy conditions are established, and there is a craving for more stimulating food. Tea, coffee, and flesh meats produce an immediate effect. Under the influence of these poisons the nervous system is excited, and, in some cases, for the time being, the intellect seems to be invigorated and the imagination to be more vivid. Because these stimulants produce for the time being such agreeable results, many conclude that they really need them and continue their use.
BLJ	308	4	But there is always a reaction. The nervous system, having been unduly excited, borrowed power for present use from its future resources of strength. All this temporary invigoration of the system is followed by depression. In proportion as these stimulants temporarily invigorate the system will be the letting down of the power of the excited organs after the stimulus has lost its force. The appetite is educated to crave something stronger which will have a tendency to keep up and increase the agreeable excitement, until indulgence becomes habit, and there is a continual craving for stronger stimulus, as tobacco, wines, and liquors....
BLJ	308	5	The great end for which Christ endured that long fast in the wilderness was to teach us the necessity of self-denial and temperance. This work should commence at our tables and should be strictly carried out in all the concerns of life. The Redeemer of the world came from heaven to help us in our weakness, that, in the power which Jesus came to bring us, we might become strong to overcome appetite and passion, and might be victor on every point.--Testimonies for the Church 3:487, 488.
------------------------Through Jesus Comes Health and Relief From Perplexities, October 20
BLJ	309	1	Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" Exodus 15:23, 24, NKJV.
BLJ	309	2	The Lord had a lesson to teach the children of Israel. The waters of Marah were an object lesson, representing the diseases brought upon human beings because of sin. It is no mystery that the inhabitants of the earth are suffering from disease of every stripe and type. It is because they transgress the law of God.
BLJ	309	3	Thus did the children of Israel. They broke down the barriers which God in His providence had erected to preserve them from disease, that they might live in health and holiness, and so learn obedience in their journeyings through the wilderness. They journeyed under the special direction of Christ, who had given Himself as a sacrifice to preserve a people who would ever keep God in their remembrance, notwithstanding Satan's masterly temptations. Enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, it was Christ's desire to keep under His sheltering wing of preservation all who would do His will.
BLJ	309	4	It was not by chance that in their journey the children of Israel came to Marah. Before they left Egypt the Lord began His lessons of instruction, that He might lead them to realize that He was their God, their Deliverer, their Protector. They murmured against Moses and against God, but still the Lord sought to show them that He would relieve all their perplexities if they would look to Him. The evils they met and passed through were part of God's great plan, whereby He desired to prove them.
BLJ	309	5	When they came to the waters of Marah, "the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them." ... Though invisible to human eyes, God was the leader of the Israelites, their mighty Healer. He it was who put into the tree the properties which sweetened the waters. Thus He desired to show them that by His power He could cure the evils of the human heart.
BLJ	309	6	Christ is the great Physician, not only of the body, but of the soul. He restores us to our God. God permitted His only begotten Son to be bruised, that healing properties might flow forth from Him to cure all our diseases.--Manuscript Releases 15:29-31.
------------------------Obey Nature's Laws to Enjoy Health, October 21
BLJ	310	1	Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12, NKJV.
BLJ	310	2	There is not one in a thousand, married or unmarried, who realizes the importance of purity of habits, in preserving cleanliness of the body and purity of thought. Sickness and disease is the sure consequence of disobedience to nature's laws, and neglect of the laws of life and health. It is the house in which we live that we need to preserve, that it may do honor to God, who has redeemed us. We need to know how to preserve the living machinery, that our soul, body, and spirit may be consecrated to His service.
BLJ	310	3	As rational beings we are deplorably ignorant of the body and its requirements. While the schools we have established have taken up the study of physiology, they have not taken hold of the matter with that decided energy which they should. They have not practiced intelligently that which they have received in knowledge. And they do not realize that unless it is practiced, the body will decay.
BLJ	310	4	Notwithstanding all the light shining forth from the Scriptures on this subject; notwithstanding the lessons given in the history of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; notwithstanding the result of plain healthful diet, there is little regard for the lessons penned by those inspired of God. The dietetic habits of the people generally are neglected; there is an increase of tobacco using, liquor drinking, and subsisting on flesh meats....
BLJ	310	5	You are the Lord's property--His by creation and His by redemption. "Thou shalt love ... thy neighbour as thyself." The law of self-respect, for the property of the Lord is here brought to view. And this will lead to respect for the obligations which every human being is under to preserve the living machinery that is so fearfully and wonderfully made. This living machinery is to be understood. Every part of its wonderful mechanism is to be carefully studied. Self-preservation is to be practiced....
BLJ	310	6	The transgression of the physical law is the transgression of God's law. Our Creator is Jesus Christ. He is the Author of our being. He has created the human structure. He is the Author of physical laws as He is the Author of the moral law. And human beings who are careless and reckless of the habits and practices that concern their physical life and health sin against God.--The Kress Collection, 45, 46.
------------------------Follow Divine Counsel to Preserve Health, October 22
BLJ	311	1	So Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you do is not good. Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself." Exodus 18:17, 18, NKJV.
BLJ	311	2	When we do all we can on our part to have health, then may we expect that the blessed results will follow, and we can ask God in faith to bless our efforts for the preservation of health. He will then answer our prayer, if His name can be glorified thereby. But let all understand that they have a work to do. God will not work in a miraculous manner to preserve the health of persons who are taking a sure course to make themselves sick.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, 26.
BLJ	311	3	A careful conformity to the laws God has implanted in our being will ensure health, and there will not be a breaking down of the constitution.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, 20.
BLJ	311	4	Many have inquired of me, What course shall I take best to preserve my health? My answer is Cease to transgress the laws of your being; cease to gratify a depraved appetite, eat simple food, dress healthfully, which will require modest simplicity, work healthfully, and you will not be sick.... Many are suffering in consequence of the transgression of their parents. They cannot be censured for their parents' sin; but it is nevertheless their duty to ascertain wherein their parents violated the laws of their being ...; and wherein their parents' habits were wrong, they should change their own course, and place themselves, by correct habits, in a better relation to health.--The Health Reformer, August 1866.
BLJ	311	5	The harmonious, healthy action of all the powers of body and mind results in happiness; the more elevated and refined the powers, the more pure and unalloyed the happiness. An aimless life is a living death. The mind should dwell upon themes relating to our eternal interests. This will be conducive to health of body and mind.--The Review and Herald, July 29, 1884.
BLJ	311	6	God has pledged Himself to keep this living machinery in healthful action if the human agent will obey His laws and cooperate with God.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, 17.
BLJ	311	7	The Lord has given His people a message in regard to health reform. This light has been shining upon their pathway for [many] years; and the Lord cannot sustain His servants in a course which will counteract it....The light which God has given upon health reform cannot be trifled with without injury to those who attempt it; and no human being can hope to succeed in the work of God while, by precept and example, they act in opposition to the light which God has sent.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, 38.
------------------------Effect Follows Cause, Producing Health or Disease, October 23
BLJ	312	1	Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Matthew 12:33, NKJV.
BLJ	312	2	Adam and Eve in Eden were noble in stature, and perfect in symmetry and beauty. They were sinless, and in perfect health. What a contrast to the human race now! Beauty is gone. Perfect health is not known. Everywhere we look we see disease, deformity, and imbecility....
BLJ	312	3	Since the fall, intemperance in almost every form has existed. The appetite has controlled reason. The human family have followed in a course of disobedience and, like Eve, have been beguiled by Satan to disregard the prohibitions God has made, flattering themselves that the consequence would not be as fearful as had been apprehended. The human family have violated the laws of health, and have run to excess in almost everything. Disease has been steadily increasing. The cause has been followed by the effect.
BLJ	312	4	God gave our first parents the food He designed that the race should eat. It was contrary to His plan to have the life of any creature taken. There was to be no death in Eden. The fruit of the trees in the garden was the food their wants required. God gave no one permission to eat animal food until after the Flood....
BLJ	312	5	Many marvel that the human race has so degenerated, physically, mentally, and morally. They do not understand that it is the violation of God's constitution and laws and the violation of the laws of health that have produced this sad degeneracy. The transgression of God's commandments has caused His prospering hand to be removed. Intemperance in eating and in drinking, and the indulgence of base passions, have benumbed the fine sensibilities, so that sacred things have been placed upon a level with common things....
BLJ	312	6	Many have expected that God would keep them from sickness merely because they have asked Him to do so. But God did not regard their prayers, because their faith was not made perfect by works. God will not work a miracle to keep those from sickness who have no care for themselves, but are continually violating the laws of health, and make no effort to prevent disease.... God will not work in a miraculous manner to preserve the health of persons who are taking a sure course to make themselves sick, by their careless inattention to the laws of health.--The Review and Herald, April 2, 1914.
------------------------To Have a Clear Mind, Follow Temperance Principles, October 24
BLJ	313	1	Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23, NKJV.
BLJ	313	2	The apostle thus entreats, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." ...
BLJ	313	3	When we pursue a course of eating and drinking that lessens physical and mental vigor, or become the prey of habits that tend to the same results, we dishonor God, for we rob Him of the service He claims from us. Those who acquire and indulge the unnatural appetite for tobacco do this at the expense of health. They are destroying nervous energy, lessening vital force and sacrificing mental strength.
BLJ	313	4	Those who profess to be the followers of Christ yet have this terrible sin at their door cannot have a high appreciation of the atonement and an elevated estimate of eternal things. Minds that are clouded and partially paralyzed by narcotics are easily overcome by temptation, and cannot enjoy communion with God.
BLJ	313	5	Those who use tobacco can make but a poor plea to the liquor inebriate. Two thirds of the drunkards in our land created an appetite for liquor by the use of tobacco. Those who claim that tobacco does not injure them can be convinced of their mistake by depriving themselves of it for a few days; the trembling nerves, the giddy head, the irritability they feel, will prove to them that this sinful indulgence has bound them in slavery. It has overcome willpower. They are in bondage to a vice that is fearful in its results....
BLJ	313	6	God requires that His people should be temperate in all things. The example of Christ, during that long fast in the wilderness, should teach His followers to repulse Satan when he comes under the guise of appetite. Then may they have influence to reform those who have been led astray by indulgence, and have lost moral power to overcome the weakness and sin that has taken possession of them. Thus may Christians secure health and happiness, in a pure, well-ordered life and a mind clear and untainted before God.--The Signs of the Times, January 6, 1876.
------------------------Physical Work Helps to Develop Mind and Character, October 25
BLJ	314	1	They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Isaiah 65:21, 22, NKJV.
BLJ	314	2	Now, as in the days of Israel, every youth should be instructed in the duties of practical life. Each should acquire a knowledge of some branch of manual labor by which, if need be, to obtain a livelihood. This is essential, not only as a safeguard against the vicissitudes of life, but from its bearing upon physical, mental, and moral development. Even if it were certain that one would never need to resort to manual labor for support, still they should be taught to work. Without physical exercise no one can have a sound constitution and vigorous health; and the discipline of well-regulated labor is no less essential to the securing of a strong, active mind and a noble character.
BLJ	314	3	Students who have gained book knowledge without gaining a knowledge of practical work cannot lay claim to a symmetrical education. The energies that should have been devoted to business of various lines have been neglected. Education does not consist in using the brain alone. Physical employment is a part of the training essential for every youth. An important phase of education is lacking if the student is not taught how to engage in useful labor.
BLJ	314	4	The healthful exercise of the whole being will give an education that is broad and comprehensive. Every student should devote a portion of each day to active labor. Thus habits of industry will be formed and a spirit of self-reliance encouraged, while the youth will be shielded from many evil and degrading practices that are so often the result of idleness. And this is all in keeping with the primary object of education; for in encouraging activity, diligence, and purity, we are coming into harmony with the Creator....
BLJ	314	5	The discipline for practical life that is gained by physical labor combined with mental taxation is sweetened by the reflection that it is qualifying mind and body better to perform the work that God designs human beings to do. The more perfectly the youth understand how to perform the duties of practical life, the greater will be their enjoyment day by day in being of use to others. The mind educated to enjoy useful labor becomes enlarged; through training and discipline it is fitted for usefulness; for it has acquired the knowledge essential to make its possessor a blessing to others.--Messages to Young People, 177-179
------------------------Temperance in All Things Is Essential, October 26
BLJ	315	1	According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. Philippians 1:20, NKJV.
BLJ	315	2	There are many now under the shadow of death who have prepared to do a work for the Master, but who have not felt that a sacred obligation rested upon them to observe the laws of health. The laws of the physical system are indeed the laws of God; but this fact seems to have been forgotten.
BLJ	315	3	Some have limited themselves to a diet that cannot sustain them in health. They have not provided nourishing food to take the place of injurious articles; and they have not considered that tact and ingenuity must be exercised in preparing food in the most healthful manner. The system must be properly nourished in order to perform its work....
BLJ	315	4	There are many in the world who indulge pernicious habits. Appetite is the law that governs them; and because of their wrong habits, the moral sense is clouded, and the power to discern sacred things is to a great extent destroyed. But it is necessary for Christians to be strictly temperate. They should place their standard high. Temperance in eating, drinking, and dressing is essential. Principle should rule instead of appetite or fancy....
BLJ	315	5	It means much to be true to God. He has claims upon all who are engaged in His service. He desires that mind and body be preserved in the best condition of health, every power and endowment under the divine control, and as vigorous as careful, strictly temperate habits can make them. We are under obligation to God to make an unreserved consecration of ourselves to Him, body and soul, with all the faculties appreciated as His entrusted gifts, to be employed in His service. All our energies and capabilities are to be constantly strengthened and improved during this probationary period....
BLJ	315	6	If we can arouse the moral sensibilities of our people on the subject of temperance, a great victory will be gained. Temperance in all things of this life is to be taught and practiced. Temperance in eating, drinking, sleeping, and dressing is one of the grand principles of the religious life. Truth brought into the sanctuary of the soul will guide in the treatment of the body. Nothing that concerns the health of the human agent is to be regarded with indifference. Our eternal welfare depends upon the use we make during this life of our time, strength, and influence.--The Review and Herald, June 11, 1914.
------------------------Our Thinking Is Affected by Our Eating, October 27
BLJ	316	1	Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. Jeremiah 33:6, NKJV.
BLJ	316	2	The principles of healthful living mean a great deal to us individually and as a people. When the message of health reform first came to me, I was weak and feeble, subject to frequent fainting spells. I was pleading with God for help, and He opened before me the great subject of health reform. He instructed me that those who are keeping His commandments must be brought into sacred relation to Himself, and that by temperance in eating and drinking they must keep mind and body in the most favorable condition for service....
BLJ	316	3	We do not mark out any precise line to be followed in diet; but we do say that in countries where there are fruits, grains, and nuts in abundance, flesh meat is not the right food for God's people. I have been instructed that flesh meat has a tendency to animalize the nature, to rob men and women of that love and sympathy which they should feel for everyone, and to give the lower passions control over the higher powers of the being. If meat eating was ever healthful, it is not safe now. Cancers, tumors, and pulmonary diseases are largely caused by meat eating.
BLJ	316	4	We are not to make the use of flesh meat a test of fellowship, but we should consider the influence that professed believers who use flesh meats have over others. As God's messengers, shall we not say to the people, "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God"?
BLJ	316	5	Shall we not bear a decided testimony against the indulgence of perverted appetite? Will any who are ministers of the gospel, proclaiming the most solemn truth ever given to mortals, set an example in returning to the fleshpots of Egypt? Will those who are supported by the tithe from God's storehouse permit themselves by self-indulgence to poison the life-giving current flowing through their veins? Will they disregard the light and warnings that God has given them?
BLJ	316	6	The health of the body is to be regarded as essential to growth in grace and the acquirement of an even temper. If the stomach is not properly cared for, the formation of an upright moral character will be hindered. The brain and nerves are in sympathy with the stomach. Erroneous eating and drinking result in erroneous thinking and acting.--The Review and Herald, March 3, 1910.
------------------------Prepare Wholesome Diet Without Flesh Meats, October 28
BLJ	317	1	Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people? Jeremiah 8:22, NKJV.
BLJ	317	2	All are now being tested and proved. We have been baptized into Christ, and if we will act our part by separating from everything that would drag us down and make us what we ought not to be, strength to grow into Christ, who is our living head, will be given us, and we shall see the salvation of God.
BLJ	317	3	Only when we are intelligent in regard to the principles of healthful living can we be fully aroused to see the evils resulting from improper diet. Those who, after seeing their mistakes, have courage to change their habits will find that the reformatory process requires a struggle and much perseverance; but when correct tastes are once formed, they will realize that the use of the food which they formerly regarded as harmless was slowly but surely laying the foundation for dyspepsia and other diseases.
BLJ	317	4	Fathers and mothers, watch unto prayer. Guard strictly against intemperance in every form. Teach your children the principles of true health reform. Teach them what things to avoid in order to preserve health. Already the wrath of God has begun to be visited on the children of disobedience. What crimes, what sins, what iniquitous practices, are now being revealed on every hand! As a people we are to exercise great care in guarding our children against depraved associates.
BLJ	317	5	Greater efforts should be put forth to educate the people in the principles of health reform. Cooking schools should be established, and house-to-house instruction should be given in the art of cooking wholesome food. Old and young should learn how to cook more simply. Wherever the truth is presented, the people are to be taught how to prepare food in a simple yet appetizing way. They are to be shown that a nourishing diet can be provided without the use of flesh meats....
BLJ	317	6	Much tact and discretion should be employed in preparing nourishing food to take the place of that which has formerly constituted the diet of those who are learning to be health reformers. Faith in God, earnestness of purpose, and a willingness to help one another will be required. A diet lacking in the proper elements of nutrition brings reproach upon the cause of health reform. We are mortal, and must supply ourselves with food that will give proper nourishment to the body.--The Review and Herald, March 3, 1910.
------------------------Both Physical and Mental Faculties to Be Cultivated, October 29
BLJ	318	1	Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19, NKJV.
BLJ	318	2	Health is a great treasure. It is the richest possession mortals can have. Wealth, honor, or learning is dearly purchased, if it be at the loss of the vigor of health. None of these attainments can secure happiness if health is wanting. It is a terrible sin to abuse the health that God has given us. Every abuse of health enfeebles us for life and makes us losers, even if we gain any amount of education....
BLJ	318	3	Poverty, in many cases, is a blessing; for it prevents youth and children from being ruined by inaction. The physical as well as the mental powers should be cultivated and properly developed. The first and constant care of parents should be that their children may have firm constitutions, that they may be sound men and women. It is impossible to attain this object without physical exercise.
BLJ	318	4	For their own physical health and moral good, children should be taught to work, even if there is no necessity as far as want is concerned. If they would have pure and virtuous characters they must have the discipline of well-regulated labor, which will bring into exercise all the muscles. The satisfaction that children will have in being useful, and in denying themselves to help others, will be the most healthful pleasure they ever enjoyed....
BLJ	318	5	Physical labor will not prevent the cultivation of the intellect. Far from it. The advantages gained by physical labor will balance a person and prevent the mind from being overworked. The toil will come upon the muscles and relieve the wearied brain....
BLJ	318	6	It does not require a frail, helpless, overdressed, simpering thing to make a lady. A sound body is required for a sound intellect. Physical soundness and a practical knowledge of all the necessary household duties will never be hindrances to a well-developed intellect; both are highly important for a lady.
BLJ	318	7	All the powers of the mind should be called into use and developed in order for men and women to have well-balanced minds. The world is full of one-sided men and women who have become such because one set of their faculties is cultivated while others were dwarfed from inaction....
BLJ	318	8	The human mind will have action. If it is not active in the right direction, it will be active in the wrong. And in order to preserve the balance of the mind, labor and study should be united in the schools.--Testimonies for the Church 3:150-153.
------------------------Pure, Fresh Air Promotes Health of Mind and Body, October 30
BLJ	319	1	Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones. Proverbs 3:7, 8, NKJV.
BLJ	319	2	A contented mind, a cheerful spirit, is health to the body and strength to the soul. Nothing is so fruitful a cause of disease as depression, gloominess, and sadness. Mental depression is terrible....
BLJ	319	3	Air, air, the precious boon of heaven which all may have, will bless you with its invigorating influence if you will not refuse it entrance. Welcome it, cultivate a love for it, and it will prove a precious soother of the nerves. Air must be in constant circulation to be kept pure. The influence of pure, fresh air is to cause the blood to circulate healthfully through the system. It refreshes the body and tends to render it strong and healthy, while at the same time its influence is decidedly felt upon the mind, imparting a degree of composure and serenity. It excites the appetite, and renders the digestion of food more perfect, and induces sound and sweet sleep.
BLJ	319	4	The effects produced by living in close, ill-ventilated rooms are these: The system becomes weak and unhealthy, the circulation is depressed, the blood moves sluggishly through the system because it is not purified and vitalized by the pure, invigorating air of heaven....
BLJ	319	5	Do you believe that the end of all things is at hand, that the scenes of this earth's history are fast closing? If so, show your faith by your works....
BLJ	319	6	"Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." Few have that genuine faith which works by love and purifies the soul. But all who are accounted worthy of everlasting life must obtain a moral fitness for the same. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." This is the work before you, and you have none too much time if you engage in the work with all your soul.--Testimonies for the Church 1:702-705.
------------------------Love for God Is Essential for Perfect Health, October 31
BLJ	320	1	For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:20, NKJV.
BLJ	320	2	Our bodies belong to God. He paid the price of redemption for the body as well as for the soul.... The Creator watches over the human machinery, keeping it in motion. Were it not for His constant care, the pulse would not beat, the action of the heart would cease, the brain would no longer act its part.
BLJ	320	3	The brain is the organ and instrument of the mind, and controls the whole body. In order for the other parts of the system to be healthy, the brain must be healthy. And in order for the brain to be healthy, the blood must be pure. If by correct habits of eating and drinking the blood is kept pure, the brain will be properly nourished.
BLJ	320	4	It is the lack of harmonious action in the human organism that brings disease. The imagination may control the other parts of the body to their injury. All parts of the system must work harmoniously. The different parts of the body, especially those remote from the heart, should receive a free circulation of blood. The limbs act an important part, and should receive proper attention.
BLJ	320	5	God is the great caretaker of the human machinery. In the care of our bodies we must cooperate with Him. Love for God is essential for life and health.... In order to have perfect health our hearts must be filled with love and hope and joy....
BLJ	320	6	Those who put their whole souls into the medical missionary work, who labor untiringly in peril, in privation, in watchings oft, in weariness and painfulness, are in danger of forgetting that they must be faithful guardians of their own mental and physical powers. They are not to allow themselves to be overtaxed. But they are filled with zeal and earnestness, and they sometimes move unadvisedly, putting themselves under too heavy a strain. Unless such workers make a change, the result will be that sickness will come upon them and they will break down....
BLJ	320	7	We have a calling as much higher than common, selfish interests as the heavens are higher than the earth. But this thought should not lead the willing, hardworking servants of God to carry all the burdens they can possibly bear, without periods of rest.--Medical Ministry, 291-293.
------------------------Though We Fall, We Can Conquer, November 1
BLJ	322	1	Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days! Psalm 90:14, NKJV.
BLJ	322	2	If God's people would recognize His dealings with them and accept His teachings, they would find a straight path for their feet and a light to guide them through darkness and discouragement. David learned wisdom from God's dealings with him and bowed in humility beneath the chastisement of the Most High. The faithful portrayal of his true state by the prophet Nathan made David acquainted with his own sins and aided him to put them away. He accepted counsel meekly and humiliated himself before God. "The law of the Lord," he exclaims, "is perfect, converting the soul."
BLJ	322	3	Repentant sinners have no cause to despair because they are reminded of their transgressions and warned of their danger. These very efforts in their behalf show how much God loves them and desires to save them. They have only to follow His counsel and do His will to inherit eternal life. God sets the sins of His erring people before them, that they may behold them in all their enormity under the light of divine truth. It is then their duty to renounce them forever.
BLJ	322	4	God is as powerful to save from sin today as He was in the times of the patriarchs, of David, and of the prophets and apostles. The multitude of cases recorded in sacred history where God has delivered His people from their own iniquities should make the Christian of this time eager to receive divine instruction and zealous to perfect a character that will bear the close inspection of the judgment.
BLJ	322	5	Bible history stays the fainting heart with the hope of God's mercy. We need not despair when we see that others have struggled through discouragements like our own, have fallen into temptations even as we have done, and yet have recovered their ground and been blessed of God. The words of inspiration comfort and cheer the erring soul.
BLJ	322	6	Although the patriarchs and apostles were subject to human frailties, yet through faith they obtained a good report, fought their battles in the strength of the Lord, and conquered gloriously. Thus may we trust in the virtue of the atoning sacrifice and be overcomers in the name of Jesus. Humanity is humanity the world over from the time of Adam down to the present generation, and the love of God through all ages is without a parallel.--Testimonies for the Church 4:14, 15.
------------------------Move Forward in Faith and Unity, November 2
BLJ	323	1	Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Philippians 2:1, 2, NKJV.
BLJ	323	2	I well remember how, when we were living in the Carroll House [in Takoma Park, Maryland], near the water tower, the young men working on the school land would meet together in a large room in this house at half-past five every morning for family worship. As we worshiped God together, we knew that the Holy Spirit was among us.
BLJ	323	3	We sought the Lord with the whole heart, and He came very near to us. We presented the promise "Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Is not this assurance strong enough? We took this promise with us into the place of prayer, asking the Lord to lead and direct in the work to be done here....
BLJ	323	4	If there are any of you who have weak faith, remember that it is because you do not work on the affirmative side. It is of no use for us to think that we can carry forward the glorious work of God without strong, unfaltering faith. The world is fast becoming as it was in the days of Noah. Satan is working with intensity of effort, knowing that he has but a short time. Wickedness prevails to an appalling extent. God's people are but a handful, compared with the ungodly, and we can gain success only as we cooperate with the heavenly angels, who will go before all who press forward to do that which God has said should be done....
BLJ	323	5	When I think of all that God has done for us, I say, "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow." As the work is opened up in the various places, may we ever remember that we are to draw in even cords. Those who have educated themselves to stand on the negative side should without delay repent and be converted.... Remember that when you stand on the negative side, accusing and condemning, you make room for the agencies of the power of darkness. Precious time has to be spent in waging war against these agencies, because there were those who refused to stand on the affirmative side....
BLJ	323	6	"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory." Satan is behind all strife and vainglory. Let us get out of his company, and stand with those who say, "Victory is for us, and we will cling to the arm of infinite power."--The Review and Herald, June 15, 1905.
------------------------Make Family Worship Interesting, November 3
BLJ	324	1	Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts which are toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Psalm 40:5, NKJV.
BLJ	324	2	Your children should be educated to be kind, thoughtful of others, gentle, easy to be entreated, and, above everything else, to respect religious things and feel the importance of the claims of God. They should be taught to respect the hour of prayer; they should be required to rise in the morning so as to be present at family worship.--Testimonies for the Church 5:424.
BLJ	324	3	The father, who is the priest of his household, should conduct the morning and evening worship. There is no reason why this should not be the most interesting and enjoyable exercise of the home life, and God is dishonored when it is made dry and irksome. Let the seasons of family worship be short and spirited. Do not let your children or any member of your family dread them because of their tediousness or lack of interest. When a long chapter is read and explained and a long prayer offered, this precious service becomes wearisome, and it is a relief when it is over.
BLJ	324	4	It should be the special object of the heads of the family to make the hour of worship intensely interesting. By a little thought and careful preparation for this season, when we come into the presence of God, family worship can be made pleasant and will be fraught with results that eternity alone will reveal....
BLJ	324	5	Select a portion of Scripture that is interesting and easily understood; a few verses will be sufficient to furnish a lesson which may be studied and practiced through the day.... At least a few verses of spirited song may be sung, and the prayer offered should be short and pointed. The one who leads in prayer should not pray about everything, but should express the needs in simple words and praise God with thanksgiving.--The Signs of the Times, August 7, 1884.
BLJ	324	6	In arousing and strengthening a love for Bible study, much depends on the use of the hour of worship. The hours of morning and evening worship should be the sweetest and most helpful of the day. Let it be understood that into these hours no troubled, unkind thoughts are to intrude; that parents and children assemble to meet with Jesus and to invite into the home the presence of holy angels.
BLJ	324	7	Let the services be brief and full of life, adapted to the occasion, and varied from time to time. Let all join in the Bible reading and learn and often repeat God's law. It will add to the interest of the children if they are sometimes permitted to select the reading.--Education, 186.
------------------------Daily Family Worship Yields Precious Results, November 4
BLJ	325	1	Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. Deuteronomy 7:12, NKJV.
BLJ	325	2	For some reason many parents dislike to give their children religious instruction, and they leave them to pick up in Sabbath school the knowledge which it is their privilege and duty to impart. Such parents fail to fulfill the responsibility laid upon them, to give their children an all-around education. God commands His people to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord....
BLJ	325	3	Parents, let the instruction you give your children be simple, and be sure that it is clearly understood. The lessons that you learn from the Word you are to present to their young minds so plainly that they cannot fail to understand. By simple lessons drawn from the Word of God and their own experience, you may teach them how to conform their lives to the highest standard. Even in childhood and youth they may learn to live thoughtful, earnest lives that will yield a rich harvest of good.
BLJ	325	4	In every Christian home God should be honored by the morning and evening sacrifices of prayer and praise. Children should be taught to respect and reverence the hour of prayer. It is the duty of Christian parents, morning and evening, by earnest prayer and persevering faith, to make a hedge about their children.
BLJ	325	5	In the church at home the children are to learn to pray and to trust in God. Teach them to repeat God's law. Concerning the commandments the Israelites were instructed: "Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deuteronomy 6:7).
BLJ	325	6	Come in humility, with a heart full of tenderness, and with a sense of the temptations and dangers before yourselves and your children; by faith bind them to the altar, entreating for them the care of the Lord. Train the children to offer their simple words of prayer. Tell them that God delights to have them call upon Him.
BLJ	325	7	Will the Lord of heaven pass by such homes and leave no blessing there? Nay, verily. Ministering angels will guard the children who are thus dedicated to God. They hear the offering of praise and the prayer of faith, and they bear the petitions to Him who ministers in the sanctuary for His people, and offers His merits in their behalf.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 109, 110.
------------------------Worship Faithfully Every Morning and Evening, November 5
BLJ	326	1	Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. Matthew 7:24, NKJV.
BLJ	326	2	Let the members of every family bear in mind that they are closely allied to heaven. The Lord has a special interest in the families of His children here below. Angels offer the smoke of the fragrant incense for the praying saints. Then in every family let prayer ascend to heaven both in the morning and at the cool sunset hour, in our behalf presenting before God the Savior's merits. Morning and evening the heavenly universe take notice of every praying household.--Child Guidance, 519.
BLJ	326	3	Before leaving the house for labor, all the family should be called together; and the father, or the mother in the father's absence, should plead fervently with God to keep them through the day. Come in humility, with a heart full of tenderness, and with a sense of the temptations and dangers before yourselves and your children; by faith bind them upon the altar, entreating for them the care of the Lord. Ministering angels will guard children who are thus dedicated to God.--Testimonies for the Church 1:397, 398.
BLJ	326	4	In every family there should be a fixed time for morning and evening worship. How appropriate it is for parents to gather their children about them before the fast is broken, to thank the heavenly Father for His protection during the night, and to ask Him for His help and guidance and watch care during the day! How fitting, also, when evening comes, for parents and children to gather once more before Him and thank Him for the blessings of the day that is past!--Testimonies for the Church 7:43.
BLJ	326	5	Family worship should not be governed by circumstances. You are not to pray occasionally and, when you have a large day's work to do, neglect it. In thus doing you lead your children to look upon prayer as of no special consequence. Prayer means very much to the children of God, and thank offerings should come up before God morning and evening.--Child Guidance, 520.
BLJ	326	6	In our efforts for the comfort and happiness of guests, let us not overlook our obligations to God. The hour of prayer should not be neglected for any consideration. Do not talk and amuse yourselves till all are too weary to enjoy the season of devotion. To do this is to present to God a lame offering. At an early hour of the evening, when we can pray unhurriedly and understandingly, we should present our supplications and raise our voices in happy, grateful praise.--Messages to Young People, 342.
------------------------Parents to Begin Reformation in the Home, November 6
BLJ	327	1	Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You. Psalm 143:8, NKJV.
BLJ	327	2	When [God] gave Jesus to our world, He included all heaven in that one gift. He did not leave us to retain our defects and deformities of character, or to serve Him as best we could in the corruption of our sinful nature. He has made provision that we may be complete in His Son, not having our own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ. In Christ the whole storehouse of knowledge and of grace is at our command; for in Him dwells "all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."
BLJ	327	3	Christ has given His life for us; we are His property. "Know ye not," He says, "that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." God's children are to show their love for Him by meeting His requirements, by giving themselves to Him. Then only can He use them in His service, that others, through them, may discern the truth and rejoice in it.
BLJ	327	4	But the people of God are asleep to their present and eternal good. The Lord says to them, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." He desires them to go to work in unity, in faith, and love. He desires that the work of reformation shall begin in the home, with the fathers and mothers, and then the church will realize the Holy Spirit's working. The influence of this work will go through the church like leaven. Fathers and mothers need converting. They have not educated themselves to mold and fashion the characters of their children aright.
BLJ	327	5	As God's ministers, dear parents, you must use the precious remnant of time in doing the work He has left for you. He desires that by wise methods in your home you shall train your children for Him. Learn of Jesus; be doers of His Word....
BLJ	327	6	Children need to have religion made attractive, not repulsive. The hour of family worship should be made the happiest hour of the day. Let the reading of the Scriptures be well chosen and simple; let the children join in singing; and let the prayers be short, and right to the point....Consider ... that you are in the service of God, that you have access to One who is a present help in every time of need.--The Review and Herald, March 18, 1902.
------------------------Time for Worship to Be Set Apart as Sacred, November 7
BLJ	328	1	I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. John 6:51, NKJV.
BLJ	328	2	The incense, ascending with the prayers of Israel, represents the merits and intercession of Christ, His perfect righteousness, which through faith is imputed to His people, and which can alone make the worship of sinful beings acceptable to God. Before the veil of the most holy place was an altar of perpetual intercession, before the holy, an altar of continual atonement. By blood and by incense God was to be approached--symbols pointing to the great Mediator, through whom sinners may approach Jehovah, and through whom alone mercy and salvation can be granted to the repentant, believing soul.
BLJ	328	3	As the priests morning and evening entered the holy place at the time of incense, the daily sacrifice was ready to be offered upon the altar in the court without. This was a time of intense interest to the worshipers who assembled at the tabernacle. Before entering into the presence of God through the ministration of the priest, they were to engage in earnest searching of heart and confession of sin. They united in silent prayer, with their faces toward the holy place. Thus their petitions ascended with the cloud of incense, while faith laid hold upon the merits of the promised Savior prefigured by the atoning sacrifice.
BLJ	328	4	The hours appointed for the morning and the evening sacrifice were regarded as sacred, and they came to be observed as the set time for worship throughout the Jewish nation. And when in later times the Jews were scattered as captives in distant lands, they still at the appointed hour turned their faces toward Jerusalem and offered up their petitions to the God of Israel. In this custom Christians have an example for morning and evening prayer. While God condemns a mere round of ceremonies without the spirit of worship, He looks with great pleasure upon those who love Him, bowing morning and evening to seek pardon for sins committed and to present their requests for needed blessings.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 353, 354.
------------------------God's People Will Be Refined by Time of Trouble, November 8
BLJ	329	1	O Lord, be gracious to us; we have waited for You. Be their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. Isaiah 33:2, NKJV.
BLJ	329	2	Jacob's history is also an assurance that [in the final time of trouble] God will not cast off those who have been deceived and tempted and betrayed into sin, but who have returned unto Him with true repentance. While Satan seeks to destroy this class, God will send His angels to comfort and protect them in the time of peril.
BLJ	329	3	The assaults of Satan are fierce and determined, his delusions are terrible; but the Lord's eye is upon His people, and His ear listens to their cries. Their affliction is great, the flames of the furnace seem about to consume them; but the Refiner will bring them forth as gold tried in the fire. God's love for His children during the period of their severest trial is as strong and tender as in the days of their sunniest prosperity; but it is needful for them to be placed in the furnace of fire; their earthliness must be consumed, that the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected.
BLJ	329	4	The season of distress and anguish before us will require a faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger--a faith that will not faint though severely tried. The period of probation is granted to all to prepare for that time. Jacob prevailed because he was persevering and determined. His victory is an evidence of the power of importunate prayer. All who will lay hold of God's promises, as he did, and be as earnest and persevering as he was, will succeed as he succeeded. Those who are unwilling to deny self, to agonize before God, to pray long and earnestly for His blessing, will not obtain it.
BLJ	329	5	Wrestling with God--how few know what it is! How few have ever had their souls drawn out after God with intensity of desire until every power is on the stretch. When waves of despair which no language can express sweep over the suppliant, how few cling with unyielding faith to the promises of God.
BLJ	329	6	Those who exercise but little faith now are in the greatest danger of falling under the power of satanic delusions and the decree to compel the conscience. And even if they endure the test they will be plunged into deeper distress and anguish in the time of trouble, because they have never made it a habit to trust in God. The lessons of faith which they have neglected they will be forced to learn under a terrible pressure of discouragement.--The Great Controversy, 621, 622.
------------------------Consecrate Your Family to God, and Look to Calvary, November 9
BLJ	330	1	Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth. Hosea 6:3, NKJV.
BLJ	330	2	You should never separate Christ from your life and family, and close the doors against Him by un-Christlike words and actions. There are those who profess the truth who neglect family prayer. But how can you venture to go to your labor without committing the care of your souls to your heavenly Father? You should show that you trust in Him. You should consecrate your families to God before you leave your homes.
BLJ	330	3	Every prayer that you offer up to God in faith will surely be respected and answered by your heavenly Father. When Abraham was told to go out into a place which he knew not, wherever he pitched his tent he built an altar, and offered up his prayer morning and evening; and the Lord said of Abraham, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment."
BLJ	330	4	This is the very work that should be done in every family, but it is strangely neglected. We want to live as in the sight of God in this world. It is of the greatest importance that we constantly make preparation here for the future, immortal life. We may have that life that measures with the life of God; if we are faithful, we shall have an immortal inheritance, an eternal substance; we shall see the King in His beauty; we shall behold the matchless charms of our blessed Savior.
BLJ	330	5	We should feel the importance of educating and training our children, that they shall seek and appreciate eternal life. Their will must be brought into subjection to the will of God, and they must seek constantly to repress everything that is evil in their natures. If fathers and mothers want their children to be Christlike in disposition, they must set them the example. Your every act should be one to fit yourself and your children for heaven, and you will have special help in the matter.
BLJ	330	6	The Savior desires your joy to be full; therefore He tells you to abide in Him and He will abide in you. Open the door of your heart, and let in Jesus and the bright rays of His righteousness. He loves us with a love that is inexpressible, and if at any time you begin to fear that you will be lost, that Jesus does not love you, look to Calvary.--The Review and Herald, August 5, 1890.
------------------------The Way Opens When We Advance by Faith, November 10
BLJ	331	1	Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God. Psalm 50:23, NKJV.
BLJ	331	2	All the inhabitants of heaven unite in praising God. Let us learn the song of the angels now, that we may sing it when we join their shining ranks. Let us say with the psalmist, "While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being" (Psalm 146:2). "Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee" (Psalm 67:5).
BLJ	331	3	God in His providence brought the Hebrews into the mountain fastnesses before the sea, that He might manifest His power in their deliverance and signally humble the pride of their oppressors. He might have saved them in any other way, but He chose this method in order to test their faith and strengthen their trust in Him. The people were weary and terrified, yet if they had held back when Moses bade them advance, God would never have opened the path for them.
BLJ	331	4	It was "by faith" that "they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land" (Hebrews 11:29). In marching down to the very water, they showed that they believed the word of God as spoken by Moses. They did all that was in their power to do, and then the Mighty One of Israel divided the sea to make a path for their feet.
BLJ	331	5	The great lesson here taught is for all time. Often the Christian life is beset by dangers, and duty seems hard to perform. The imagination pictures impending ruin before and bondage or death behind. Yet the voice of God speaks clearly, "Go forward." We should obey this command, even though our eyes cannot penetrate the darkness, and we feel the cold waves about our feet. The obstacles that hinder our progress will never disappear before a halting, doubting spirit.
BLJ	331	6	Those who defer obedience till every shadow of uncertainty disappears and there remains no risk of failure or defeat will never obey at all. Unbelief whispers, "Let us wait till the obstructions are removed, and we can see our way clearly"; but faith courageously urges an advance, hoping all things, believing all things.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 289, 290.
------------------------Angels in Heaven Worship With Us, November 11
BLJ	332	1	And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth ... I heard saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!" Revelation 5:13, NKJV.
BLJ	332	2	The church of God upon the earth is one with the church of God above. Believers on the earth, and those who have never fallen in heaven, are one church. Every heavenly intelligence is interested in the assemblies of the saints, who on earth meet to worship God in spirit and in truth, and in the beauty of holiness. In the inner court of heaven, they listen to the testimonies of the witnesses for Christ in the outer court on earth. And the praise and thanksgiving that come from the church below are taken up in the heavenly anthem, and praise and rejoicing resound through the heavenly courts because Christ has not died in vain for the fallen sons and daughters of Adam.
BLJ	332	3	While angels drink from the fountainhead, the saints on earth drink from the pure streams flowing from the throne of God, making glad the City of God. Oh, that we could all realize the nearness of heaven to earth! When the earthborn children know it not, they have the angels of light as their companions; for the heavenly messengers are sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation.
BLJ	332	4	A silent witness guards every soul that lives, seeking to win and draw it to Christ. The angels never leave the tempted ones a prey to the enemy who would destroy the souls of men and women if permitted to do so. As long as there is hope, until they resist the Holy Spirit to their eternal ruin, they are guarded by heavenly intelligences.
BLJ	332	5	Let us all bear in mind that in every assembly of the saints below are the angels of God, listening to the thanksgiving, the praise, the supplication that is offered by the people of God in testimonies, songs, and prayers. Let them remember that their praises are supplemented by the choir of the angelic host above.--The General Conference Bulletin, February 15, 1895.
BLJ	332	6	The image of Christ engraved upon the heart is reflected in character, in practical life, day by day, because we represent a personal Savior. The Holy Spirit is promised to all who will ask for it. When you search the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit is by your side, personating Jesus Christ.
BLJ	332	7	If we will open the door to Jesus, He will come in and abide with us. Our strength will always be reinforced by His actual representative, the Holy Spirit.--;Ibid.
------------------------Christ's Blood and Righteousness Purify Our Worship, November 12
BLJ	333	1	Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. Hebrews 8:1, NKJV.
BLJ	333	2	Christ Jesus is represented as continually standing at the altar, momentarily offering up the sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is a minister of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. The typical shadows of the Jewish tabernacle no longer possess any virtue. A daily and yearly typical atonement is no longer to be made, but the atoning sacrifice through a mediator is essential because of the constant commission of sin. Jesus is officiating in the presence of God, offering up His shed blood, as it had been a lamb slain. Jesus presents the oblation offered for every offense and every shortcoming of the sinner.
BLJ	333	3	Christ, our Mediator, and the Holy Spirit are constantly interceding in humanity's behalf, but the Spirit pleads not for us as does Christ who presents His blood, shed from the foundation of the world; the Spirit works upon our hearts, drawing out prayers and penitence, praise and thanksgiving. The gratitude which flows from our lips is the result of the Spirit striking the chords of the soul in holy memories, awakening the music of the heart.
BLJ	333	4	The religious services, the prayers, the praise, the penitent confession of sin ascend from true believers as incense to the heavenly sanctuary; but passing through the corrupt channels of humanity, they are so defiled that unless purified by blood, they can never be of value with God. They ascend not in spotless purity, and unless the Intercessor who is at God's right hand presents and purifies all by His righteousness, it is not acceptable to God.
BLJ	333	5	All incense from earthly tabernacles must be moist with the cleansing drops of the blood of Christ. He holds before the Father the censer of His own merits, in which there is no taint of earthly corruption. He gathers into this censer the prayers, the praise, and the confessions of His people, and with these He puts His own spotless righteousness. Then, perfumed with the merits of Christ's propitiation, the incense comes up before God wholly and entirely acceptable. Then gracious answers are returned.
BLJ	333	6	Oh, that all may see that everything in obedience, in penitence, in praise and thanksgiving, must be placed upon the glowing fire of the righteousness of Christ. The fragrance of this righteousness ascends like a cloud around the mercy seat.--;The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments 6:1077, 1078.
------------------------Talk of Jesus, and Reflect the Joy of Being a Christian, November 13
BLJ	334	1	Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ... who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3, 4, NKJV.
BLJ	334	2	If our people do not enjoy much ministerial labor, it is all the more important that they place themselves in a right relation to God, so that they can receive of His blessing themselves, and become channels of light to others. Much more is included in the term "missionary work" than is commonly supposed. Every true follower of Christ is a missionary, and there is almost an endless variety of ways in which to work.
BLJ	334	3	But there is one thing which is frequently overlooked and neglected. It is the work of making the prayer and social meetings as interesting as they should be. If all would do their duty with fidelity, they would be so filled with peace, faith, and courage, and would have such an experience to relate when they came to the meetings, that others would be refreshed by their clear, strong testimony for God.
BLJ	334	4	Our prayer and social meetings are not what they should be--seasons of special help and encouragement to one another. Each one has a duty to do to make these gatherings as interesting and profitable as possible. This can best be done by having a fresh experience daily in the things of God, and by not hesitating to speak of His love in the assemblies of His saints.
BLJ	334	5	If you do not allow darkness and unbelief to enter your hearts, they will not be manifest in your meetings. Do not gratify the enemy by dwelling upon the dark side of your experience, but trust Jesus more fully for help to resist temptation. If we thought and talked more of Jesus and less of ourselves, we should have much more of His presence in our meetings.
BLJ	334	6	When we make our Christian experience appear to unbelievers, or to one another, as one that is joyless, filled with trial, doubt, and perplexity, we dishonor God; we do not correctly represent Jesus or the Christian faith. We have a friend in Jesus, who has given us the most marked evidence of His love, and who is able and willing to give life and salvation to all who come unto Him....
BLJ	334	7	It is not necessary for us to be ever stumbling and repenting and mourning and writing bitter things against ourselves. It is our privilege to believe the promises of the Word of God, and accept the blessings that Jesus loves to bestow, that our joy may be full.--The Review and Herald, July 20, 1886.
------------------------Jesus in the Heart Makes the Life Fragrant, November 14
BLJ	335	1	My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up. Psalm 5:3, NKJV.
BLJ	335	2	Christian reader, let the great purpose that constrained Paul to press forward in the face of hardship and difficulty lead you to consecrate yourself wholly to God's service. Whatever your hands find to do, do it with your might. Let your daily prayer be "Lord, help me to do my best. Teach me how to do better work. Help me to bring into my service the loving ministry of the Savior."
BLJ	335	3	The responsibility of each human agent is measured by the gifts he or she holds in trust. All are to be workers; but upon the worker who has had the greatest opportunities, the greatest clearness of mind in understanding the Scriptures, rests the highest responsibility. All receivers should hold themselves accountable to God, and use their talents for God's glory.
BLJ	335	4	Success in the work of God is not the result of chance, of accident, or of destiny; it is the outworking of God's providence, and the award of faith and discretion, of virtue and persevering labor. It is the practice of the truth that brings success and moral power. The bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness are to be welcomed as the light of the mind; the principles of the character of Christ are to be made the principles of the human character....
BLJ	335	5	"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This is the love that is the fulfilling of the law. Every person whose heart is filled with compassion for fallen humanity, who loves to a purpose, will reveal that love by the performance of Christlike deeds. True Christianity diffuses love through the whole being. It touches every vital part--the brain, the heart, the helping hands, the feet--enabling us to stand firmly where God requires us to stand, lest the lame be turned out of the way. The contemplation of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us will make the life fragrant and give power to perfect a Christian experience.
BLJ	335	6	We can, we can, reveal the likeness of our divine Lord. We can know the science of spiritual life. We can glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, which are His. Christ has shown us what we may accomplish through cooperation with Him. "Abide in me," He says, "and I in you."--The Review and Herald, April 4, 1912.
------------------------Family Worship Can Help Create Harmony, November 15
BLJ	336	1	Who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. Malachi 3:2, NKJV.
BLJ	336	2	We are rapidly nearing the close of this earth's history. The end is very near, much nearer than many suppose, and I feel burdened to urge upon our people the necessity of seeking the Lord earnestly. Many are asleep, and what can be said to arouse them from their carnal slumber? The Lord would have His church purified before His judgments shall fall more signally upon the world....
BLJ	336	3	Christ will remove every pretentious cloak. No mingling of the true with the spurious can deceive Him. "He is like a refiner's fire," separating the precious from the vile, the dross from the gold.
BLJ	336	4	Like the Levites, God's chosen people are set apart by Him for His special work. Every true Christian bears priestly credentials. All are honored with the sacred responsibility of representing to the world the character of their heavenly Father. They are to heed well the words "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." ...
BLJ	336	5	I am instructed to urge upon our people most earnestly the necessity of religion in the home. Among the members of the household there is ever to be a kind, thoughtful consideration. Morning and evening let all hearts be united in reverent worship. At the season of evening worship, let every member of the family search well his own heart. Let every wrong that has been committed be made right. If, during the day, one has wronged another, or spoken unkindly, let the transgressor seek pardon of the one injured. Often grievances are cherished in the mind, and misunderstandings and heartaches are created that need not be. If the one who is suspected of wrong be given an opportunity, he or she might be able to make explanations that would bring relief to other members of the family.
BLJ	336	6	"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another," that ye may be healed of all spiritual infirmities, that sinful dispositions may be changed. Make diligent work for eternity. Pray most earnestly to the Lord, and hold fast to the faith. Trust not in the arm of flesh, but trust implicitly in the Lord's guidance. Let each one now say, "As for me, I will come out, and be separate from the world. I will serve the Lord with full purpose of heart."--The Review and Herald, November 8, 1906.
------------------------Victory Is Assured for All Who Obey Christ's Orders, November 16
BLJ	337	1	These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. John 16:33, NKJV.
BLJ	337	2	Christ came to our world as the surety for humanity, preparing the way for all to gain the victory by giving them moral power. It is not His will that any shall be placed at a disadvantage. He would not have those who are striving to overcome intimidated and discouraged by the crafty assaults of the serpent. "Be of good cheer," He says, "I have overcome the world."
BLJ	337	3	With such a General to lead us on to victory, we may indeed have joy and courage. He came as our champion. He takes cognizance of the battle that all who are at enmity with Satan must fight. He lays before His followers a plan of the battle, pointing out its peculiarities and severity, and warning them not to join His army without first counting the cost. He tells them that the vast confederacy of evil is arrayed against them, and shows them that they are fighting for an invisible world, and that His army is not composed merely of human agencies. His soldiers are coworkers with heavenly intelligences, and One higher than angels is in the ranks; for the Holy Spirit, Christ's representative, is there.
BLJ	337	4	Then Christ summons every decided follower, every true soldier, to fight for Him, assuring them that there is deliverance for all who will obey His orders. If Christ's soldiers look faithfully to their Captain for their orders, success will attend their warfare against the enemy. No matter how they may be beset, in the end they will be triumphant.
BLJ	337	5	Their infirmities may be many, their sins great, their ignorance seemingly insurmountable; but if they realize their weakness, and look to Christ for aid, He will be their efficiency. He is ever ready to enlighten their dullness and overcome their sinfulness. If they avail themselves of His power, their characters will be transformed; they will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and holiness. Through His merits and imparted power they will be "more than conquerors." Supernatural help will be given them, enabling them in their weakness to do the deeds of omnipotence.
BLJ	337	6	Those who fight for Christ are fighting in the sight of the heavenly universe, and they should be soldiers, not cowards.... By faith they are to look calmly upon every foe, exclaiming: "We fight the good fight of faith, under the command of an omnipotent Power. Because He lives, we shall live also."--The Signs of the Times, May 27, 1897.
------------------------In Every Situation Jesus Gives Fresh Blessings, November 17
BLJ	338	1	Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God. Psalm 42:11, NKJV.
BLJ	338	2	We have learned in the midst of dark providences that it was not wise to have a will or way of our own, and to cast not reflection and surmises on the divine faithfulness. I feel that we are those who can understand and sympathize with each other. We are bound together by the grace of Jesus Christ and in the bonds of Christian sympathies made sacred by afflictions....
BLJ	338	3	Afflictions are oft mercies in disguise. We know not what we might have been without them. When God in His mysterious providence overthrows all our cherished plans, and we may receive sorrow in the place of joy, we will bow in submission and say, "Thy will, O God, be done." We must and we will ever cherish a calm, religious trust in One who loves us, who gave His life for us. "The Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" ...
BLJ	338	4	The Lord looks upon our afflictions. He graciously and discriminately metes them out and apportions them. As a refiner of silver He watches us every moment until the purification is complete. The furnace is to purify and refine, not to destroy and consume. He will cause those who put their trust in Him to sing of mercies in the midst of judgments. He is ever watching to impart, when most needed, new and fresh blessings, strength in the hour of weakness, succor in the hour of danger, friends in the hour of loneliness, sympathy, human and divine, in the hour of sorrow.
BLJ	338	5	We are homeward bound. He that loveth us so much as to die for us hath builded for us a city. The New Jerusalem is our place of rest. There will be no sadness in the City of God. No wail of sadness. No dirge of crushed hopes and buried affection shall ever more be heard.--Daughters of God, 223, 224.
------------------------In Love and Mercy Jesus Pleads With Us and For Us, November 18
BLJ	339	1	Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22, 23, NKJV.
BLJ	339	2	"Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." The Lord honors His human agents by taking them into partnership with Himself. The heart of Christ is full of forgiving mercy and truth. He is afflicted in all the afflictions of His people. We are to be compassionate, and find joy in coming with a kindly interest to bind up the wounds of those who have been pursued and left half dead by the ruthless hand of the destroyer. We are to be ready to heal the bruises that sin has made.
BLJ	339	3	Those who do this are Christ's ministers, and the world has a living testimony of the love of God before them in His representatives. God is revealed before the world in those who practice the works of Christ, and through His messengers He is known as a God of mercy, goodness, and forgiveness. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"
BLJ	339	4	God in Christ is ours, and His bounties of love and mercy are inexhaustible. He desires that everyone shall be benefited by the rich provisions that He has made for those who love Him; He invites us all to share with Him in His glory. The bliss of heaven has been provided for all who love God supremely and their fellow mortals as themselves.
BLJ	339	5	Men and women would no longer be the slaves of sin if they would but turn from Satan's alluring, delusive attractions, and look to Jesus long enough to see and understand His love. New habits will be formed, and powerful propensities for evil will be held in check. Our Leader is a conqueror, and He guides us on to certain victory.
BLJ	339	6	Our Advocate, Jesus, is pleading before His Father's throne in our behalf, and He is also pleading with the sinner, saying, "Turn ye, for why will ye die?" Has not God done everything possible through Christ to win us from satanic deception? ... Is He not a risen Savior, ever living to make intercession for us? Is He not ever following up His great work of atonement by the work of the Holy Spirit on every heart? The bow of mercy still arches the throne of God, testifying to the fact that every soul who believes in Christ as a personal Savior shall have everlasting life. Mercy and justice are blended in God's dealing with His heritage.--The Signs of the Times, September 19, 1895.
------------------------Diffuse the Light Throughout the Dark World, November 19
BLJ	340	1	As I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: To the unknown God. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you. Acts 17:23, NKJV.
BLJ	340	2	Jesus taught his followers that they were debtors both to the Jews and the Greeks, to the wise and the unwise, and gave them to understand that race distinction, caste, and lines of division made by human beings were not approved of Heaven, and were to have no influence in the work of disseminating the gospel. The disciples of Christ were not to make distinctions between their neighbors and their enemies, but they were to regard every person as a neighbor who needed help, and they were to look upon the world as their field of labor, seeking to save the lost.
BLJ	340	3	Jesus has given to both men and women their work, taking them from the narrow circle which their selfishness has prescribed, annihilating territorial lines, and all artificial distinctions of society. He marks off no limited boundary for missionary zeal, but bids His followers extend their labors to the uttermost parts of the earth....
BLJ	340	4	The field of labor presents one vast community of human beings who are in the darkness of error, who are filled with longing, who are praying to One they know not. They need to hear the voice of those who are laborers together with God, saying to them, as Paul said to the Athenians, "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you."
BLJ	340	5	The members of the church of Christ are to be faithful workers in the great harvest field. They are to be diligently working and earnestly praying, making progress, and diffusing light amid the moral darkness of the world; for are not the angels of heaven imparting to them divine inspiration? They are never to think of, and much less to speak of, failure in their work.... They are to be filled with hope, knowing that they do not rely upon human ability or upon finite resources, but upon the promised divine aid, the ministry of heavenly agencies who are pledged to open the way before them....
BLJ	340	6	Angels of God will break the way before us, preparing hearts for the gospel message, and the promised power will accompany the laborer, and "the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward."--The Review and Herald, October 30, 1894.
------------------------God Alone Is to Be Worshiped, November 20
BLJ	341	1	You shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 7:5, 6, NKJV.
BLJ	341	2	God would have His people understand that He alone should be the object of their worship; and when they should overcome the idolatrous nations around them, they should not preserve any of the images of their worship, but utterly destroy them. Many of these heathen deities were very costly, and of beautiful workmanship, which might tempt those who had witnessed idol worship, so common in Egypt, to even regard these senseless objects with some degree of reverence. The Lord would have His people know that it was because of the idolatry of these nations, which had led them to every degree of wickedness, that He would use the Israelites as His instruments to punish them, and destroy their gods....
BLJ	341	3	"I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee." ...
BLJ	341	4	These promises of God to His people were on condition of their obedience. If they would serve the Lord fully, He would do great things for them. After Moses had received the judgments from the Lord, and had written them for the people, also the promises, on condition of obedience, the Lord said unto him, "Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship ye afar off. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him. And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do."
BLJ	341	5	Moses had written--not the ten commandments, but the judgments which God would have them observe, and the promises, on conditions that they would obey Him. He read this to the people, and they pledged themselves to obey all the words which the Lord had said. Moses then wrote their solemn pledge in a book, and offered sacrifice unto God for the people. "And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people, and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient."--Spiritual Gifts 3:269, 270.
------------------------Christ's Self-sacrificing Life Is Our Lesson Book, November 21
BLJ	342	1	It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night. Psalm 92:1, 2, NKJV.
BLJ	342	2	Practical Christianity means laboring together with God every day; working for Christ, not now and then, but continuously. A neglect to reveal practical righteousness in our lives is a denial of our faith and of the power of God. God is seeking for a sanctified people, a people set apart for His service, a people who will heed and accept the invitation "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me."
BLJ	342	3	How earnestly Christ prosecuted the work of our salvation! What devotion His life revealed as He sought to give value to fallen humanity by imputing to every repenting, believing sinner the merits of His spotless righteousness! How untiringly He worked! In the temple and the synagogue, in the streets of the cities, in the marketplace, in the workshop, by the seaside, among the hills, He preached the gospel and healed the sick. He gave all there was of Himself, that He might work out the plan of redeeming grace.
BLJ	342	4	Christ was under no obligation to make this great sacrifice. Voluntarily He pledged Himself to bear the punishment due to the transgressor of His law. His love was His only obligation, and without a murmur He endured every pang and welcomed every indignity that was part of the plan of salvation. The life of Christ was one of unselfish service, and His life is our lesson book. The work that He began we are to carry forward.
BLJ	342	5	With His life of toil and sacrifice before them, can those who profess His name hesitate to deny self, to lift the cross and follow Him? He humbled Himself to the lowest depths that we might be lifted to the heights of purity and holiness and completeness. He became poor that He might pour into our poverty-stricken souls the fullness of His riches. He endured the cross of shame that He might give us peace and rest and joy, and make us partakers of the glories of His throne.
BLJ	342	6	Should we not appreciate the privilege of working for Him, and be eager to practice self-denial and self-sacrifice for His sake? Should we not give back to God all that He has redeemed, the affections He has purified, and the body that He has purchased, to be kept unto sanctification and holiness?--The Review and Herald, April 4, 1912.
------------------------Memorize the Scriptures, Preparing for the Future, November 22
BLJ	343	1	You will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Mark 13:13, NRSV.
BLJ	343	2	The servants of Christ were to prepare no set speech to present when brought to trial. Their preparation was to be made day by day in treasuring up the precious truths of God's Word, and through prayer strengthening their faith. When they were brought into trial, the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance the very truths that would be needed.
BLJ	343	3	A daily, earnest striving to know God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent, would bring power and efficiency to the soul. The knowledge obtained by diligent searching of the Scriptures would be flashed into the memory at the right time. But if any had neglected to acquaint themselves with the words of Christ, if they had never tested the power of His grace in trial, they could not expect that the Holy Spirit would bring His words to their remembrance. They were to serve God daily with undivided affection, and then trust Him.
BLJ	343	4	So bitter would be the enmity to the gospel that even the tenderest earthly ties would be disregarded. The disciples of Christ would be betrayed to death by the members of their own households.... But He bade them not to expose themselves unnecessarily to persecution. He Himself often left one field of labor for another, in order to escape from those who were seeking His life. When He was rejected at Nazareth, and His own townsmen tried to kill Him, He went down to Capernaum, and there the people were astonished at His teaching, "for his word was with power" (Luke 4:32). So His servants were not to be discouraged by persecution, but to seek a place where they could still labor for the salvation of souls.
BLJ	343	5	The servant is not above his master. The Prince of heaven was called Beelzebub, and His disciples will be misrepresented in like manner. But whatever the danger, Christ's followers must avow their principles. They should scorn concealment. They cannot remain uncommitted until assured of safety in confessing the truth. They are set as watchmen, to warn men and women of their peril. The truth received from Christ must be imparted to all, freely and openly.--The Desire of Ages, 355.
------------------------We May Receive God's Unlimited Grace, to Do Good, November 23
BLJ	344	1	If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Matthew 7:11, NKJV.
BLJ	344	2	We are all under obligation to deny self daily for Christ's sake. Jesus says, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me"; "whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple."
BLJ	344	3	As we call upon God at every step, pleading for divine wisdom as we advance, seeking for light and grace in order that under all and in every circumstance we shall do unto others as we would that they should do unto us were we in their place, we shall feel the necessity of fulfilling the broad and deep requirements of the holy law of God. Thus shall we lose sight of self, and looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, we shall lay upon the foundation deeds of mercy, benevolence, compassion, and love, which are compared to gold, silver, and precious stones, which the fires of the last days cannot consume.
BLJ	344	4	The Lord Jesus is our efficiency in all things; His Spirit is to be our inspiration; and as we place ourselves in His hands to be channels of light, our means of doing good will never be exhausted; for the resources of the power of Jesus Christ are to be at our command. We may draw upon His fullness, and receive of that grace which has no limit. The Captain of our salvation at every step would teach us that almighty power is at the demand of living faith. He says, "Without me ye can do nothing"; but again declares that "greater works than these shall [ye] do; because I go unto my Father."
BLJ	344	5	We are to pray without ceasing. In supplicating the throne of grace in the name of Christ, the promise is sure, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." When you make God your trust, when you call upon Him with your whole heart, He will be found of you. "Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am."--The Review and Herald, October 30, 1894.
------------------------To Feed the Soul, Commune Constantly With Jesus, November 24
BLJ	345	1	O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1, NKJV.
BLJ	345	2	No human agent can supply that which will satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul. But Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst" (John 6:35).
BLJ	345	3	As we need food to sustain our physical strength, so do we need Christ, the Bread from heaven, to sustain spiritual life and impart strength to work the works of God. As the body is continually receiving the nourishment that sustains life and vigor, so the soul must be constantly communing with Christ, submitting to Him and depending wholly upon Him.
BLJ	345	4	As the weary traveler seeks the spring in the desert and, finding it, quenches his burning thirst, so will the Christian thirst for and obtain the pure water of life, of which Christ is the fountain.
BLJ	345	5	As we discern the perfection of our Savior's character we shall desire to become wholly transformed and renewed in the image of His purity. The more we know of God, the higher will be our ideal of character and the more earnest our longing to reflect His likeness. A divine element combines with the human when the soul reaches out after God and the longing heart can say, "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him" (Psalm 62:5).
BLJ	345	6	If you have a sense of need in your soul, if you hunger and thirst after righteousness, this is an evidence that Christ has wrought upon your heart, in order that He may be sought unto to do for you, through the endowment of the Holy Spirit, those things which it is impossible for you to do for yourself....
BLJ	345	7	The words of God are the wellsprings of life. As you seek unto those living springs you will, through the Holy Spirit, be brought into communion with Christ. Familiar truths will present themselves to your mind in a new aspect, texts of Scripture will burst upon you with a new meaning as a flash of light, you will see the relation of other truths to the work of redemption, and you will know that Christ is leading you, a divine Teacher is at your side.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 18-20.
------------------------Be Courteous, Lifting Others' Burdens, as Did Jesus, November 25
BLJ	346	1	Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. 1 Peter 3:8, 9, NKJV.
BLJ	346	2	Those who work for Christ are to be pure, upright, and trustworthy, and they are also to be tenderhearted, compassionate, and courteous. There is a charm in the dealings and conversation of those who are truly courteous. Kind words, pleasant looks, a courteous demeanor, are of inestimable value. Uncourteous Christians, by their neglect of others, show that they are not in union with Christ. It is impossible to be in union with Christ and yet be uncourteous.
BLJ	346	3	What Christ was in His life on this earth, that every Christian should be. He is our example, not only in His spotless purity but in His patience, gentleness, and winsomeness of disposition. He was as firm as a rock where truth and duty were concerned, but He was invariably kind and courteous. His life was a perfect illustration of true courtesy. He had ever a kind look and a word of comfort for the needy and oppressed.
BLJ	346	4	His presence brought a purer atmosphere into the home, and His life was as leaven working amid the elements of society. Harmless and undefiled, He walked among the thoughtless, the rude, the uncourteous; amid the unjust publicans, the unrighteous Samaritans, the heathen soldiers, the rough peasants, and the mixed multitude. He spoke a word of sympathy here, and a word there, as He saw people weary, and compelled to bear heavy burdens. He shared their burdens, and repeated to them the lessons He had learned from nature of the love, the kindness, the goodness of God.
BLJ	346	5	He sought to inspire with hope the most rough and unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character as would make them manifest as children of God....
BLJ	346	6	The love of Christ mellows the heart and smooths all roughness from the disposition. Let us learn from Him how to combine a high sense of purity and integrity with sunniness of temperament. A kind, courteous Christian is the most powerful argument in favor of the gospel that can be produced.--The Review and Herald, August 20, 1959.
------------------------We Are to Grow in Piety, Purity, and Love, November 26
BLJ	347	1	As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 1 Peter 2:2, 3, NKJV.
BLJ	347	2	God has made every provision for the saving of every soul; but if we spurn the gift of everlasting life, purchased at infinite cost for us, the time will come when God will also spurn us from His presence, whether we are rich or poor, high or low, learned or unlearned. The principles of eternal justice will have full control in the great day of God's wrath.
BLJ	347	3	We shall not hear a charge against us on the ground of the outbreaking sins we have committed, but the charge will be made against us for the neglect of good and noble duties enjoined upon us by the God of love. The deficiencies of our characters will be held up to view. It will then be known that all who are so condemned had light and knowledge, were entrusted with their Lord's goods, and were found unfaithful to their trust. It will be seen that they had no appreciation of the heavenly trust, that they did not use their capital in loving service to others, that they did not, by precept and example, cultivate faith and devotion in those with whom they associated. It will be according to the light they have had that they will be judged and punished.
BLJ	347	4	God requires that every human agent shall improve all the means of grace heaven has provided, and become more and more efficient in the work of God. Every provision has been made that the piety, purity, and love of Christ's followers shall ever increase, that their talents may double, and their ability increase in the service of their divine Master.
BLJ	347	5	But though this provision has been made, many who profess to believe in Jesus do not make it manifest by growth that testifies to the sanctifying power of the truth upon life and character. When we first receive Jesus into our hearts, we are as babes in religion; but we are not to remain babes in experience. We are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; we are to attain to the full measure of the stature of men and women in Him. We are to make advances, to gain new and rich experiences through faith, growing in trust and confidence and love, knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.--;Youth's Instructor, June 8, 1893.
------------------------God's Word and Love Will Open Hearts to Jesus, November 27
BLJ	348	1	With my soul I have desired You in the night, yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; for when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Isaiah 26:9, NKJV.
BLJ	348	2	It is the Savior's love that constrains the messenger to bear the message to the lost. Oh, how wonderful is the importuning of Christ with sinners! Although His love is beaten back by the refusal of hard, stubborn hearts, He returns to plead with greater force, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." His love woos with winning force, until souls are compelled to come in.
BLJ	348	3	Those who come to the supper turn to the blessed Jesus and say, "Thy gentleness hath made me great." He wins them by the word of His love and power; for the Word of God is the rod of His power. He says, "Is not my word like a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"
BLJ	348	4	When the Word of God is sent home to the human heart by the Holy Spirit, it is mighty to the pulling down of the strongholds of Satan. Finite men and women could do nothing in the great warfare, were it not for the Word of God. They could not plead successfully with human hearts that are as hard as steel, that are bolted and barred lest Jesus should find an entrance there; but the Lord endows men and women with His wisdom, and the weakest one may become as David by faith in God.
BLJ	348	5	The Lord takes those who are devoted to Him, even though they may be uneducated, humble men and women, and sends them forth with His warning message. He stirs their hearts by His Spirit, He gives them spiritual muscle and sinew, and they are enabled to go forth with the Word of God, and to compel human beings to come in. Thus many poor, fainting souls, who are starving for the Bread of Life, are out of weakness made strong, and wax valiant in the fight, and put to flight the armies of the aliens.
BLJ	348	6	"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh." Every time you turn away your ear and refuse to listen, every time you fail to open the door of your heart, you strengthen yourself in unbelief, and make yourself more and more unwilling to listen to the voice of Him that speaketh, and you diminish your chance of responding to the last appeal of mercy.... Let not Christ weep over you as He wept over Jerusalem, saying, "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."--The Review and Herald, September 24, 1895.
------------------------Special Endowment of Grace and Power Needed Today, November 28
BLJ	349	1	The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10, NKJV.
BLJ	349	2	The great controversy between good and evil will increase in intensity to the very close of time. In all ages the wrath of Satan has been manifested against the church of Christ; and God has bestowed His grace and Spirit upon His people to strengthen them to stand against the power of the evil one. When the apostles of Christ were to bear His gospel to the world and to record it for all future ages, they were especially endowed with the enlightenment of the Spirit.
BLJ	349	3	But as the church approaches its final deliverance, Satan is to work with greater power. He comes down "having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time" (Revelation 12:12).... For six thousand years that mastermind that once was highest among the angels of God has been wholly bent to the work of deception and ruin. And all the depths of satanic skill and subtlety acquired, all the cruelty developed, during these struggles of the ages, will be brought to bear against God's people in the final conflict.
BLJ	349	4	And in this time of peril the followers of Christ are to bear to the world the warning of the Lord's second advent; and a people are to be prepared to stand before Him at His coming, "without spot, and blameless" (2 Peter 3:14). At this time the special endowment of divine grace and power is not less needful to the church than in apostolic days....
BLJ	349	5	Satan's efforts to misrepresent the character of God, to cause men and women to cherish a false conception of the Creator, and thus to regard Him with fear and hate rather than with love; his endeavors to set aside the divine law, leading the people to think themselves free from its requirements; and his persecution of those who dare to resist his deceptions have been steadfastly pursued in all ages. They may be traced in the history of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, of martyrs and reformers.--The Great Controversy, ix-xi.
------------------------When We Thirst for Righteousness, Jesus Draws Near, November 29
BLJ	350	1	As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Psalm 42:1, 2, NKJV.
BLJ	350	2	The Lord has momentous truths to reveal to those who would understand the things of the Spirit. His lessons are for all, and adapted to the needs of all. While His lessons are clothed in language so simple that a child might understand them, the truth is so deep that the most learned may well be charmed, and worship the Author of matchless wisdom. Though the wisest may find abundant food for thought in His simplest utterance, the humblest may comprehend His truth, and appropriate His promises to the need of the soul.
BLJ	350	3	Jesus taught men and women for the purpose of arousing desire to understand the things of God, that they might behold the excellence of the divine character, and make application for the righteousness of Christ, in which they might stand accepted before the Lord Jehovah.
BLJ	350	4	Have you a sense of want in your soul? Do you hunger and thirst after righteousness? Then this is an evidence that Christ has wrought upon your heart, and created this sense of need in your soul, in order that He may be sought unto to do for you, through the endowment of the Holy Spirit, those things which it is impossible for you to do for yourself....
BLJ	350	5	The parables of Christ have been placed on record, and to the honest, diligent searcher after truth, their meaning will be made plain, their mystery unveiled. Those who will not seek for truth as for hidden treasure make manifest the fact that they do not sincerely desire to know what is truth. Christ still says to His true followers, "It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance."
BLJ	350	6	Those who respond to the drawing of Christ will be found inquiring as to what is truth, that their feet may be directed into the way of righteousness. Christ is drawing all, but not all respond to His drawing. Those who yield their will to God's will, who are willing to follow where the Spirit of God may lead, who receive the light and walk therein, will seek for still more of heavenly enlightenment, and "shall have more abundance."--The Signs of the Times, November 7, 1892.
------------------------Angels Join Us as We Help Those in Need, November 30
BLJ	351	1	Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me. Isaiah 27:5, NKJV.
BLJ	351	2	There are many who err, and who feel their shame and their folly. They look upon their mistakes and errors until they are driven almost to desperation. These souls we are not to neglect. When one has to swim against the stream, there is all the force of the current driving him or her back. Let a helping hand then be held out ... as was the Elder Brother's hand to the sinking Peter. Speak hopeful words, words that will establish confidence and awaken love.
BLJ	351	3	Thy brother and sister, sick in spirit, need thee, as thou thyself hast needed their love.... The knowledge of our own weakness should help us to help others in their bitter need. Never should we pass by one suffering soul without seeking to impart the comfort wherewith we are comforted of God.
BLJ	351	4	It is fellowship with Christ, personal contact with a living Savior, that enables the mind and heart and soul to triumph over the lower nature....[The wanderers] need to clasp a hand that is warm, to trust in a heart full of tenderness. Keep their minds stayed upon the thought of a divine presence ever beside them, ever looking upon them with pitying love....
BLJ	351	5	As you engage in this work, you have companions unseen by human eyes. Angels of heaven were beside the Samaritan who cared for the wounded stranger. Angels from the heavenly courts stand by all who do God's service in ministering to their fellow beings. And you have the cooperation of Christ Himself. He is the Restorer, and as you work under His supervision, you will see great results.
BLJ	351	6	Upon your faithfulness in this work not only the well-being of others but your own eternal destiny depends. Christ is seeking to uplift all who will be lifted to companionship with Himself, that we may be one with Him as He is one with the Father. He permits us to come in contact with suffering and calamity in order to call us out of our selfishness; He seeks to develop in us the attributes of His character--compassion, tenderness, and love. By accepting this work of ministry we place ourselves in His school, to be fitted for the courts of God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 387-389.
------------------------Jesus, the Chief Shepherd, Knows Each Sheep, December 1
BLJ	353	1	I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. Luke 15:7, NKJV.
BLJ	353	2	The minister is to be a shepherd. Our Redeemer is called the chief Shepherd. The apostle writes, "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ." However lowly, however elevated we may be, whether we are in the shadow of adversity or in the sunshine of prosperity, we are His sheep, the flock of His pasture, and under the care of the chief Shepherd.
BLJ	353	3	But the chief Shepherd has His undershepherds, whom He has delegated to care for His sheep and lambs. The great Shepherd never loses one from His care, is never indifferent even to the feeblest one of His flock. The beautiful parable that Christ gave of the one lost sheep, of the shepherd that left the ninety and nine to go in search of that which was lost, illustrates the care of the great Shepherd. He did not look carelessly over the sheep of the fold, and say, "I have ninety and nine, and it will cost me too much trouble to go in search of the straying one; let it come back, and I will open the door of the sheepfold and let it in; but I cannot go after it."
BLJ	353	4	No; for no sooner does the sheep go astray than the countenance of the shepherd is filled with grief and anxiety. He counts and recounts the flock, and when he is certain that one sheep is lost, he slumbereth not. He leaves the ninety and nine within the fold; however dark and tempestuous the night, however perilous and unpleasant the way, however long and tedious the search, he does not weary, he does not falter, until the lost is found.
BLJ	353	5	But when it is found, does he act indifferently? Does he call the sheep, and command the straying one to follow him? Does he threaten and beat it, or drive it before him, recounting the bitterness and discomfiture and anxiety that he has had on its account? No; he lays the weary, exhausted, wandering sheep on his shoulder, and with cheerful gratitude that his search has not been in vain, he returns it to the fold. His gratitude finds expression in melodious songs of rejoicing, and heavenly choirs respond to the shepherd's note of joy.
BLJ	353	6	When the lost is found, heaven and earth unite in rejoicing and thanksgiving.... Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine." Just as the shepherds of earth know their sheep, so does the chief Shepherd know His flock that are scattered throughout the whole world.--The Review and Herald, August 23, 1892.
------------------------True Christians Focus on Christ, Not Self, December 2
BLJ	354	1	When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." Mark 8:34, NKJV.
BLJ	354	2	The word of God gives the description of a true Christian, which corresponds with the work of the Holy Spirit on the heart and life. The children of God know at once they have the evidence in their own hearts that they are born of God.... It means depth and breadth of experience to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Self-denial and self-sacrifice will always be found in the path that leads through the strait gate to the broad meadows of the Lord's pastures.
BLJ	354	3	To them that believe, Christ is precious. His Spirit moving upon the mind and heart of the believer is in perfect agreement with that which is written in the Word. The Spirit and the Word agree perfectly. Thus the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are born of God.
BLJ	354	4	The ones who find in their heart no resemblance to the great moral standard of righteousness, the Word of God, have no Christ to confess. Their language, their thoughts, are not in harmony with the Spirit of Christ. Their profession of faith is a counterfeit one. Do you ever find cream rising on water? The soul must have the vivifying influences of the breath of life from Christ in order to reveal in the conversation that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory.
BLJ	354	5	One never gathers grapes from thistles. The words of Christians will be in accordance with their enjoyment of Christ. Those who are perpetually talking doubts and demanding additional evidence to banish their cloud of unbelief do not build on the Word. Their faith rests on haphazard circumstances; it is founded in feeling. But feeling, be it ever so pleasing, is not faith. God's Word is the foundation upon which our hopes of heaven must be built.
BLJ	354	6	It is a great misfortune to be a chronic doubter, keeping the eye and thoughts on self. While you are beholding self, while this is the theme of thought and conversation, you cannot expect to be conformed to the image of Christ. Self is not your savior. You have no redeeming qualities in yourself. "I" is a very leaky boat for your faith to embark in. Just as surely as you trust yourself in it, it will founder. The lifeboat, to the lifeboat! This is your only safety. Jesus is the Captain of the lifeboat, and He has never lost a passenger.--Manuscript Releases 21:23, 24.
------------------------Truly Converted People Aim for Perfection, December 3
BLJ	355	1	Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48, NKJV.
BLJ	355	2	It means much to be a consistent Christian. It means to walk circumspectly before God, to press toward the mark of the prize of our high calling in Christ. It means to bear much fruit to the glory of Him who gave His Son to die for us. As sons and daughters of God, Christians should strive to reach the high ideal set before them in the gospel. They should be content with nothing less than perfection....
BLJ	355	3	Let us make God's holy Word our study, bringing its holy principles into our lives. Let us walk before God in meekness and humility, daily correcting our faults. Let us not by selfish pride separate the soul from God. Cherish not a feeling of lofty supremacy, thinking yourself better than others. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Peace and rest will come to you as you bring your will into subjection to the will of Christ. Then the love of Christ will rule in the heart, bringing into captivity to the Savior the secret springs of action. The hasty, easily roused temper will be soothed and subdued by the oil of Christ's grace. The sense of sins forgiven will bring that peace that passeth all understanding. There will be an earnest striving to overcome all that is opposed to Christian perfection. Variance will disappear. People who once found fault with those around them will see that far greater faults exist in their own character.
BLJ	355	4	There are those who listen to the truth, and are convinced that they have been living in opposition to Christ. They are condemned, and they repent of their transgressions. Relying upon the merits of Christ, exercising true faith in Him, they receive pardon for sin. As they cease to do evil and learn to do well, they grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. They see that they must sacrifice in order to separate from the world; and after counting the cost, they look upon all as loss if they may but win Christ. They have enlisted in Christ's army. The warfare is before them, and they enter it bravely and cheerfully, fighting against their natural inclinations and selfish desires, bringing the will into subjection to the will of Christ. Daily they seek the Lord for grace to obey Him, and they are strengthened and helped.
BLJ	355	5	This is true conversion. In humble, grateful dependence those who have been given a new heart rely upon the help of Christ. They reveal in their life the fruit of righteousness. They once loved themselves. Worldly pleasure was their delight. Now their idol is dethroned, and God reigns supreme.--Youth's Instructor, September 26, 1901.
------------------------Converted Sinners Live a New Life, December 4
BLJ	356	1	Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:25, 26, NKJV.
BLJ	356	2	Many who speak to others of the need of a new heart do not themselves know what is meant by these words. The youth especially stumble over this phrase, "a new heart." They do not know what it means. They look for a special change to take place in their feelings. This they term conversion. Over this error thousands have stumbled to ruin, not understanding the expression "Ye must be born again."
BLJ	356	3	Satan leads people to think that because they have felt a rapture of feeling, they are converted. But their experience does not change. Their actions are the same as before. Their lives show no good fruit. They pray often and long, and are constantly referring to the feelings they had at such and such a time. But they do not live the new life. They are deceived. Their experience goes no deeper than feeling. They build upon the sand, and when adverse winds come, their house is swept away.
BLJ	356	4	Many poor souls are groping in darkness, looking for the feelings which others say they have had in their experience. They overlook the fact that the believers in Christ must work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. The convicted sinners have something to do. They must repent and show true faith.
BLJ	356	5	When Jesus speaks of the new heart, He means the mind, the life, the whole being. To have a change of heart is to withdraw the affections from the world, and fasten them upon Christ. To have a new heart is to have a new mind, new purposes, new motives. What is the sign of a new heart? A changed life. There is a daily, hourly dying to selfishness and pride.
BLJ	356	6	Some make a great mistake by supposing that a high profession will compensate for real service. But a religion which is not practical is not genuine. True conversion makes us strictly honest in our dealings with our fellow beings. It makes us faithful in our everyday work. All sincere followers of Christ will show that the religion of the Bible qualifies them to use their talents in the Master's service....
BLJ	356	7	It is the noble principles which are brought into the work that make it wholly acceptable in the Lord's sight. True service links the lowliest of God's servants on earth with the highest of His servants in the courts above.--Youth's Instructor, September 26, 1901.
------------------------Repent Today, and Receive Christ's Robe of Righteousness, December 5
BLJ	357	1	So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Luke 11:9, 10, NRSV.
BLJ	357	2	We are to surrender our hearts to God, that He may renew and sanctify us, and fit us for His heavenly courts. We are not to wait for some special time, but today we are to give ourselves to Him, refusing to be the servants of sin. Do you imagine you can leave off sin a little at a time? Oh, leave the accursed thing at once! Hate the thing that Christ hates, love the thing that Christ loves. Has He not by His death and suffering made provision for your cleansing from sin?
BLJ	357	3	When we begin to realize that we are sinners, when we fall on the Rock and are broken, the everlasting arms are placed about us, and we are brought close to the heart of Jesus. Then we shall be charmed with His loveliness and disgusted with our own righteousness.
BLJ	357	4	We need to come close to the foot of the cross. The more we humble ourselves there, the more exalted will God's love appear. The grace and righteousness of Christ will not avail for those who feel whole, for those who think they are reasonably good, who are contented with their own condition. There is no room for Christ in the heart of those who do not realize their need of divine light and aid.
BLJ	357	5	Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." There is fullness of grace in God, and we may have His Spirit and power in large measure. Do not feed on the husks of self-righteousness, but go to the Lord; He has the best robe to put upon you, and His arms are open to receive you....
BLJ	357	6	You are proved of God through His Word. You are not to wait for wonderful emotions before you believe that God has heard you; feeling is not to be your criterion, for emotions are as changeable as the clouds. You must have something solid for the foundation of your faith. The Word of the Lord is a word of infinite power, upon which you may rely; and He has said, "Ask, and ye shall receive." Look to Calvary. Has not Jesus said that He is your Advocate? Has He not said that if you ask anything in His name, you shall receive?
BLJ	357	7	You are to come to God as a repenting sinner, through the name of Jesus, the divine Advocate; to a merciful, forgiving Father, believing that He will do just as He has promised. Let those who desire the blessing of God knock, and wait at the throne of mercy with firm assurance.--The Bible Echo, April 1, 1893.
------------------------Jesus Lovingly Calls, but Many Wait Too Long to Respond, December 6
BLJ	358	1	Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent. Revelation 2:4, 5, NKJV.
BLJ	358	2	The Redeemer of the world declares that there are greater sins than that for which Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Those who hear the gospel invitation calling sinners to repentance, and heed it not, are more guilty before God than were the dwellers in the vale of Siddim. And still greater sin is theirs who profess to know God and to keep His commandments, yet who deny Christ in their character and their daily life. In the light of the Savior's warning, the fate of Sodom is a solemn admonition, not merely to those who are guilty of outbreaking sin, but to all who are trifling with Heaven-sent light and privileges....
BLJ	358	3	The Savior watches for a response to His offers of love and forgiveness with a more tender compassion than that which moves the heart of an earthly parent to forgive a wayward, suffering son or daughter. He cries after the wanderer, "Return unto me, and I will return unto you" (Malachi 3:7). But if the erring one persistently refuses to heed the voice that calls him or her with pitying, tender love, he or she will at last be left in darkness.
BLJ	358	4	The heart that has long slighted God's mercy becomes hardened in sin and is no longer susceptible to the influence of the grace of God. Fearful will be the doom of that soul of whom the pleading Savior shall finally declare, he "is joined to idols: let him alone" (Hosea 4:17). It will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for the cities of the plain than for those who have known the love of Christ, and yet have turned away to choose the pleasures of a world of sin.
BLJ	358	5	You who are slighting the offers of mercy, think of the long array of figures accumulating against you in the books of heaven; for there is a record kept of the impieties of nations, of families, of individuals. God may bear long while the account goes on, and calls to repentance and offers of pardon may be given; yet a time will come when the account will be full; when the soul's decision has been made; when by a person's own choice one's destiny has been fixed. Then the signal will be given for judgment to be executed.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 165.
------------------------When Sinners Repent, Heaven Rejoices, December 7
BLJ	359	1	As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. John 17:18, 19, NKJV.
BLJ	359	2	In the parable of the lost sheep, Christ teaches that salvation does not come through our seeking after God but through God's seeking after us. "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way" (Romans 3:11, 12). We do not repent in order that God may love us, but He reveals to us His love in order that we may repent....
BLJ	359	3	The rabbis had a saying that there is rejoicing in heaven when one who has sinned against God is destroyed; but Jesus taught that to God the work of destruction is a strange work. That in which all heaven delights is the restoration of God's own image in the souls whom He has made.
BLJ	359	4	When some who have wandered far in sin seek to return to God, they will encounter criticism and distrust. There are those who will doubt whether their repentance is genuine, or will whisper, "They have no stability; I do not believe that they will hold out."
BLJ	359	5	These persons are doing not the work of God but the work of Satan, who is the accuser of the brethren. Through their criticisms the wicked one hopes to discourage those souls, and to drive them still farther from hope and from God. Let the repenting sinners contemplate the rejoicing in heaven over the return of the one that was lost. Let them rest in the love of God and in no case be disheartened by the scorn and suspicion of the Pharisees.
BLJ	359	6	The rabbis understood Christ's parable as applying to the publicans and sinners; but it has also a wider meaning. By the lost sheep Christ represents not only the individual sinner but the one world that has apostatized and has been ruined by sin. This world is but an atom in the vast dominions over which God presides, yet this little fallen world--the one lost sheep--is more precious in His sight than are the ninety and nine that went not astray from the fold.
BLJ	359	7	Christ, the loved Commander in the heavenly courts, stooped from His high estate, laid aside the glory that He had with the Father, in order to save the one lost world. For this He left the sinless worlds on high, the ninety and nine that loved Him, and came to this earth, to be "wounded for our transgressions" and "bruised for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5). God gave Himself in His Son that He might have the joy of receiving back the sheep that was lost....
BLJ	359	8	Every soul whom Christ has rescued is called to work in His name for the saving of the lost. This work had been neglected in Israel. Is it not neglected today by those who profess to be Christ's followers?--Christ's Object Lessons, 189-191.
------------------------Conversion Creates New Interests and New Loves, December 8
BLJ	360	1	Put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts. Ephesians 4:22, NRSV.
BLJ	360	2	God now calls upon you to repent, to be zealous in the work. Your eternal happiness will be determined by the course you now pursue. Can you reject the invitations of mercy now offered? Can you choose your own way? Will you cherish pride and vanity, and lose your soul at last? The Word of God plainly tells us that few will be saved, and that the greater number even of those who are called will prove themselves unworthy of everlasting life. They will have no part in heaven, but will have their portion with Satan, and experience the second death.
BLJ	360	3	Men and women may escape this doom if they will. It is true that Satan is the great originator of sin; yet this does not excuse anyone for sinning; for he cannot force any to do evil. He tempts them to it, and makes sin look enticing and pleasant; but he has to leave it to their own wills whether they will do it or not. He does not force people to become intoxicated, neither does he force them to remain away from religious meetings; but he presents temptations in a manner to allure to evil, and human beings are free moral agents to accept or refuse.
BLJ	360	4	Conversion is a work that most do not appreciate. It is not a small matter to transform an earthly, sin-loving mind and bring it to understand the unspeakable love of Christ, the charms of His grace, and the excellency of God, so that souls shall be imbued with divine love and captivated with the heavenly mysteries. When they understand these things, their former life appears disgusting and hateful. They hate sin, and, breaking their heart before God, they embrace Christ as the life and joy of the soul. They renounce their former pleasures. They have a new mind, new affections, new interest, new will; their sorrows, and desires, and love are all new. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, which have heretofore been preferred before Christ, are now turned from, and Christ is the charm of the life, the crown of rejoicing.
BLJ	360	5	Heaven, which once possessed no charms, is now viewed in its riches and glory; and they contemplate it as their future home, where they shall see, love, and praise the One who hath redeemed them by His precious blood.--Testimonies for the Church 2:293, 294.
------------------------Repentant Souls Hate Sin and Love Righteousness, December 9
BLJ	361	1	Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Acts 2:37, 38, NKJV.
BLJ	361	2	How shall a person be just with God? How shall the sinner be made righteous? It is only through Christ that we can be brought into harmony with God, with holiness; but how are we to come to Christ? Many are asking the same question as did the multitude on the day of Pentecost, when, convicted of sin, they cried out, "What shall we do?" The first word of Peter's answer was "Repent" (Acts 2:37, 38). At another time, shortly after, he said, "Repent ..., and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 3:19).
BLJ	361	3	Repentance includes sorrow for sin and a turning away from it. We shall not renounce sin unless we see its sinfulness; until we turn away from it in heart there will be no real change in the life.
BLJ	361	4	There are many who fail to understand the true nature of repentance. Multitudes sorrow that they have sinned and even make an outward reformation because they fear that their wrongdoing will bring suffering upon themselves. But this is not repentance in the Bible sense. They lament the suffering rather than the sin. Such was the grief of Esau when he saw that the birthright was lost to him forever. Balaam, terrified by the angel standing in his pathway with drawn sword, acknowledged his guilt lest he should lose his life; but there was no genuine repentance for sin, no conversion of purpose, no abhorrence of evil.
BLJ	361	5	Judas Iscariot, after betraying his Lord, exclaimed, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood" (Matthew 27:4). The confession was forced from his guilty soul by an awful sense of condemnation and a fearful looking for of judgment. The consequences that were to result to him filled him with terror, but there was no deep, heartbreaking grief in his soul that he had betrayed the spotless Son of God and denied the Holy One of Israel.... These all lamented the results of sin, but did not sorrow for the sin itself.
BLJ	361	6	But when the heart yields to the influence of the Spirit of God, the conscience will be quickened, and the sinner will discern something of the depth and sacredness of God's holy law, the foundation of His government in heaven and on earth.... [The sinner] sees the love of God, the beauty of holiness, the joy of purity; [and] longs to be cleansed and to be restored to communion with Heaven.--Steps to Christ, 23, 24.
------------------------Humanity, Allied With Divinity, Can Keep the Law, December 10
BLJ	362	1	Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him. Matthew 3:13-15, NKJV.
BLJ	362	2	In fulfilling "all righteousness," Christ did not bring all righteousness to an end. He fulfilled all the requirements of God in repentance, faith, and baptism, the steps in grace in genuine conversion. In His humanity Christ filled up the measure of the law's requirements. He was the head of humanity, its substitute and surety. Human beings, by uniting their weakness to the divine nature of Christ, may become partakers of His character.
BLJ	362	3	Christ came to give an example of the perfect conformity to the law of God required of Adam, the first man, down to the last person that shall live on the earth. He declares that His mission is not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it in perfect and entire obedience.
BLJ	362	4	In this way He magnified the law and made it honorable. In His life He revealed its spiritual nature. He revealed to heavenly beings, to worlds unfallen, to a disobedient, unthankful, unholy world, that He fulfilled the far-reaching principles of the law. He came to demonstrate the fact that humanity, allied by living faith to divinity, can keep all God's commandments.
BLJ	362	5	The typical offerings pointed to Christ, and when the perfect sacrifice was made the sacrificial offerings were no longer acceptable to God. Type met antitype in the death of the only begotten Son of God. He came to make plain the immutable character of the law, to declare that disobedience and transgression could never be rewarded by God with eternal life. He came as a man to humanity, that humanity might touch humanity.
BLJ	362	6	But in no case did He come to lessen the obligations of mortals to be perfectly obedient. He did not destroy the validity of the Old Testament Scriptures. He fulfilled that which was predicted by God Himself. He did not come to set human beings free from the law: He came to open a way by which they might obey that law and teach others to do the same.--Manuscript Releases 10:292, 293.
------------------------Conscientious Persons Must Guard Against Being Deceived, December 11
BLJ	363	1	Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Mark 14:38, NKJV.
BLJ	363	2	Those professing to have new light, claiming to be reformers, will have great influence over a certain class who are convinced of the heresies that exist in the present age and who are not satisfied with the spiritual condition of the churches. With true, honest hearts, these desire to see a change for the better, a coming up to a higher standard. If the faithful servants of Christ would present the truth, pure and unadulterated, to this class, they would accept it, and purify themselves by obeying it. But Satan, ever vigilant, sets upon the track of these inquiring souls. Someone making high profession as a reformer comes to them, as Satan came to Christ disguised as an angel of light, and draws them still further from the path of right.
BLJ	363	3	The unhappiness and degradation that follow in the train of licentiousness cannot be estimated. The world is defiled under its inhabitants. They have nearly filled up the measure of their iniquity; but that which will bring the heaviest retribution is the practice of iniquity under the cloak of godliness. The Redeemer of the world never spurned true repentance, however great the guilt; but He hurls burning denunciations against Pharisees and hypocrites. There is more hope for the open sinner than for this class....
BLJ	363	4	This man [a pseudo reformer] and those deceived by him love not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness. And what stronger delusion could come upon them than that there is nothing displeasing to God in licentiousness and adultery? The Bible contains many warnings against these sins. Paul writes to Titus of those who "profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." ...
BLJ	363	5	In this age of corruption when our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, I see the necessity of lifting my voice in warning. "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." There are many who possess brilliant talents who wickedly devote them to the service of Satan.... Many of them cherish impure thoughts, unholy imaginations, unsanctified desires, and base passions. God hates the fruit borne upon such a tree. Angels, pure and holy, look upon the course of such with abhorrence, while Satan exults.
BLJ	363	6	Oh, that men and women would consider what is to be gained by transgressing God's law! Under any and every circumstance, transgression is a dishonor to God and a curse to humanity. We must regard it thus, however fair its guise, and by whomsoever committed.--Testimonies for the Church 5:144-146.
------------------------True Repentance Involves Remorse for Sin and Forsaking It, December 12
BLJ	364	1	For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. 2 Corinthians 7:10, NKJV.
BLJ	364	2	The love of God will never lead to the belittling of sin; it will never cover or excuse an unconfessed wrong. Achan learned too late that God's law, like its Author, is unchanging. It has to do with all our acts and thoughts and feelings. It follows us, and reaches every secret spring of action. By indulgence in sin, men and women are led to lightly regard the law of God. Many conceal their transgressions from other people, and flatter themselves that God will not be strict to mark iniquity.
BLJ	364	3	But His law is the great standard of right, and with it every act of life must be compared in that day when God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil. Purity of heart will lead to purity of life. All excuses for sin are vain. Who can plead for sinners when God testifies against them?--The Signs of the Times, April 21, 1881.
BLJ	364	4	There are many professed Christians whose confessions of sin are similar to that of Achan. They will, in a general way, acknowledge their unworthiness, but they refuse to confess the sins whose guilt rests upon their conscience, and which have brought the frown of God upon His people....
BLJ	364	5	Genuine repentance springs from a sense of the offensive character of sin. These general confessions are not the fruit of true humiliation of soul before God. They leave sinners with a self-complacent spirit to go on as before, until the conscience becomes hardened, and warnings that once aroused them produce hardly a feeling of danger, and after a time their sinful course appears right. All too late their sins will find them out, in that day when they shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever. There is a vast difference between admitting facts after they are proved, and confessing sins known only to ourselves and God.--The Signs of the Times, May 5, 1881.
BLJ	364	6	Achan, the guilty party, did not feel the burden. He took it very coolly. We find nothing in the account to signify that he felt distressed. There is no evidence that he felt remorse, or reasoned from cause to effect, saying. "It is my sin that has brought the displeasure of the Lord upon the people." ... He had no idea of making his wrong right by confession of sin and humiliation of soul.--The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 2, p. 997.
BLJ	364	7	The confession of Achan, although too late to be available in bringing to him any saving virtue, yet vindicated the character of God in His manner of dealing with him, and closed the door to the temptation that so continually beset the children of Israel, to charge upon the servants of God the work that God Himself had ordered to be done.--Ibid.
------------------------By Grace You Can Reach Christ's Ideal, December 13
BLJ	365	1	For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: "In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." Isaiah 30:15, NKJV.
BLJ	365	2	The Lord will recognize every effort you make to reach His ideal for you. When you make a failure, when you are betrayed into sin, do not feel that you cannot pray, that you are not worthy to come before the Lord. "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." With outstretched arms He waits to welcome the prodigal. Go to Him, and tell Him about your mistakes and failures. Ask Him to strengthen you for fresh endeavor. He will never disappoint you, never abuse your confidence.
BLJ	365	3	Trial will come to you. Thus the Lord polishes the roughness from your character. Do not murmur. You make the trial harder by repining. Honor God by cheerful submission. Patiently endure the pressure. Even though a wrong is done you, keep the love of God in the heart....
BLJ	365	4	Christ knows the strength of your temptations and the strength of your power to resist. His hand is always stretched out in pitying tenderness to every suffering child. To the tempted, discouraged one He says, Child for whom I suffered and died, cannot you trust Me? "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." ...
BLJ	365	5	Words cannot describe the peace and joy possessed by those who take God at His word. Trials do not disturb them, slights do not vex them. Self is crucified. Day by day their duties may become more taxing, their temptations stronger, their trials more severe; but they do not falter; for they receive strength equal to their need.--Youth's Instructor,June 26, 1902.
BLJ	365	6	Christ has given us no assurance that to attain perfection of character is an easy matter. A noble all-around character is not inherited. It does not come to us by accident. A noble character is earned by individual effort through the merits and grace of Christ. God gives the talents, the powers of the mind; we form the character. It is formed by hard, stern battles with self. Conflict after conflict must be waged against hereditary tendencies. We shall have to criticize ourselves closely, and allow not one unfavorable trait to remain uncorrected.
BLJ	365	7	Let no one say, I cannot remedy my defects of character. If you come to this decision, you will certainly fail of obtaining everlasting life. The impossibility lies in your own will. If you will not, then you cannot overcome. The real difficulty arises from the corruption of an unsanctified heart, and an unwillingness to submit to the control of God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 331.
------------------------God's People Are Polished Stones in His Spiritual Temple, December 14
BLJ	366	1	Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him. Isaiah 30:18, NKJV.
BLJ	366	2	The gospel is designed for all, and it will bring together in church capacity men and women who are different in training, in character, and in disposition. Among these will be some who are naturally slack, who feel that order is pride, and that it is not necessary to be so particular. God will not come down to their low standard; He has given them probation, and the necessary directions in His Word, and He requires them to be transformed, to perfect holy characters. Everyone who is converted from sin to righteousness, from error to truth, will exemplify in words and acts the sanctifying power of the truth.
BLJ	366	3	The people of God have a high and holy calling. They are Christ's representatives. Paul addresses the church in Corinth as those who are "sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints." ... Says Peter, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light."
BLJ	366	4	These passages are calculated to impress the mind with the sacred, exalted character of God's work, and with the high and holy position His people are to occupy. Could these things be said of those who do not seek to be refined by the truth?
BLJ	366	5	The Jewish Temple was built of hewn stones quarried out of the mountains; and every stone was fitted for its place in the Temple, hewed, polished, and tested, before it was brought to Jerusalem. And when all were brought to the ground, the building went together without the sound of an ax or hammer.
BLJ	366	6	This building represents God's spiritual temple, which is composed of material gathered out of every nation and tongue and people, of all grades, high and low, rich and poor, learned and ignorant. These are not dead substances, to be fitted by hammer and chisel. They are living stones quarried out from the world by the truth; and the great Master Builder, the Lord of the Temple, is now hewing and polishing them, and fitting them for their respective places in the spiritual temple. When completed, this temple will be perfect in all its parts, the admiration of angels and of men and women; for its builder and maker is God. Truly, those who are to compose this glorious building are "called to be saints."--The Review and Herald, May 6, 1884.
------------------------Advance the Kingdom by Leading Sinners to Repentance, December 15
BLJ	367	1	All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look, to the humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at my word. Isaiah 66:2, NRSV.
BLJ	367	2	In his word God has shown us the only way in which this work should be done. We are to do earnest, faithful work, laboring for souls as they that must give an account. "Repent, repent" was the message rung out by John in the wilderness....
BLJ	367	3	Christ's message to the people was "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." And the apostles were commanded to preach everywhere that sinners should repent. The Lord would have His servants preach today the old gospel doctrine, sorrow for sin, repentance, and confession. We want old-fashioned sermons, old-fashioned customs, old-fashioned fathers and mothers in Israel, who have the tenderness of Christ.
BLJ	367	4	Sinners must be labored for perseveringly, earnestly, wisely, until they shall see that they are transgressors of God's law, and shall exercise repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. When they are conscious of their helpless condition, and feel their need of a Savior, they may come with faith and hope to "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Christ will accept the soul who comes to Him in true repentance. A broken and a contrite heart He will not despise.
BLJ	367	5	The battle cry is sounding along the line. Let every soldier of the cross push to the front, not in self-sufficiency, but in meekness and lowliness of heart. Your work, my work, will not cease with this life. For a little while we may rest in the grave; but when the call comes, we shall take up our work in the kingdom of God to advance the glory of Christ. This holy work must be begun upon earth. We are not to study our own pleasure or convenience. Our question must be What can I do to lead others to Christ? How can I make known to others the love of God which passeth knowledge?--The Signs of the Times, December 27, 1899.
------------------------Look to Jesus, and He Will Give You Victory, December 16
BLJ	368	1	And the Lord said, "Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes." Luke 12:42, 43, NKJV.
BLJ	368	2	I hope that none will obtain the idea that they are earning the favor of God by confession of sins or that there is special virtue in confessing to human beings. There must be in the experience that faith that works by love and purifies the soul. The love of Christ will subdue the carnal propensities. The truth not only bears within itself the evidence of its heavenly origin, but proves that by the grace of God's Spirit it is effectual in the purification of the soul. The Lord would have us come to Him daily with all our troubles and confessions of sin, and He can give us rest in wearing His yoke and bearing His burden. His Holy Spirit, with its gracious influences, will fill the soul, and every thought will be brought into subjection to the obedience of Christ.
BLJ	368	3	Now I am fearful that by some error on your part the blessing of God which has come to you ... will be turned into a curse; that some false idea will obtain, so that you will be in a worse condition in a few months than you were before this work of revival. If you do not keep your souls guarded you will appear in the worst possible light to unbelievers. God would not be glorified with this fitful kind of service. Be careful not to carry matters to extremes and bring lasting reproach upon the precious cause of God. The failure that many make is that after they have been blessed of God they do not, in the humility of Christ, seek to be a blessing to others. Now that words of eternal life have been sown in your hearts, I entreat you to walk humbly with God, do the works of Christ, and bring forth much fruit unto righteousness. I do hope and pray that you will act like sons and daughters of the Most High and not become extremists or do anything that shall grieve the Spirit of God.
BLJ	368	4	Do not look to human beings nor hang your hopes upon them, feeling that they are infallible; but look to Jesus constantly. Say nothing that would cast a reproach upon our faith. Confess your secret sins alone before your God. Acknowledge your heart wanderings to Him who knows perfectly how to treat your case. If you have wronged your neighbor, acknowledge ... your sin and show fruit of the same by making restitution. Then claim the blessing. Come to God just as you are, and let Him heal all your infirmities. Press your case to the throne of grace; let the work be thorough. Be sincere in dealing with God and your own soul. If you come to Him with a heart truly contrite, He will give you the victory.--Testimonies for the Church 5:648, 649.
------------------------Lift Up the Standard as the Great Controversy Intensifies, December 17
BLJ	369	1	For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, that you may be made complete. 2 Corinthians 13:8, 9, NKJV.
BLJ	369	2	God has appointed apostles, pastors, evangelists, and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith. God declares to His people, "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." There must be a continual advancement. Step by step His followers must make straight paths for their feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way.
BLJ	369	3	Those who would labor for God must work intelligently to replenish the deficiencies in themselves and glorify the Lord God of Israel by standing in the light, working in the light of the Sun of Righteousness. Thus they will carry the church forward and upward and heavenward, making its separation from the world more and more distinct.
BLJ	369	4	As they assimilate their character to the divine Pattern, men and women will not guard their own personal dignity. With jealous, sleepless, loving, devoted interest, they will guard the sacred interest of the church from the evil which threatens to dim and cloud the glory that God intends shall shine forth through it. They will see that Satan's devices have no place or countenance in it by encouraging faultfinding, gossiping, evil speaking, and accusing of the members; for those things would weaken and overthrow it.
BLJ	369	5	There never will be a time in the history of the church when God's workers can fold their hands and be at ease, saying, "All is peace and safety." Then it is that sudden destruction cometh. Everything may move forward amid apparent prosperity; but Satan is wide awake, and is studying and counseling with his evil angels another mode of attack where he can be successful. The contest will wax more and more fierce on the part of Satan; for he is moved by a power from beneath.
BLJ	369	6	As the work of God's people moves forward with sanctified, resistless energy, planting the standard of Christ's righteousness in the church, moved by a power from the throne of God, the great controversy will wax stronger and stronger, and will become more and more determined. Mind will be arrayed against mind, plans against plans, principles of heavenly origin against principles of Satan. Truth in its varied phases will be in conflict with error in its ever-varying, increasing forms, and which, if possible, will deceive the very elect.--Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 406, 407.
------------------------Bible Sanctification Involves Humility and Constant Growth, December 18
BLJ	370	1	For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me. 2 Corinthians 12:6, NKJV.
BLJ	370	2	The followers of Christ are to become like Him--by the grace of God to form characters in harmony with the principles of His holy law. This is Bible sanctification.
BLJ	370	3	This work can be accomplished only through faith in Christ, by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God.... The Christian will feel the promptings of sin, but will maintain a constant warfare against it. Here is where Christ's help is needed. Human weakness becomes united to divine strength, and faith exclaims: "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57).
BLJ	370	4	The Scriptures plainly show that the work of sanctification is progressive. When in conversion the sinner finds peace with God through the blood of the atonement, the Christian life has but just begun. Now he or she is to "go on unto perfection;" to grow up "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." ... Peter sets before us the steps by which Bible sanctification is to be attained: "Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.... If ye do these things, ye shall never fall" (2 Peter 1:5-10).
BLJ	370	5	Those who experience the sanctification of the Bible will manifest a spirit of humility. Like Moses, they have had a view of the awful majesty of holiness, and they see their own unworthiness in contrast with the purity and exalted perfection of the Infinite One. The prophet Daniel was an example of true sanctification. His long life was filled up with noble service for his Master. He was a man "greatly beloved" (Daniel 10:11) of Heaven. Yet instead of claiming to be pure and holy, this honored prophet identified himself with the really sinful of Israel as he pleaded before God in behalf of his people.... When at a later time the Son of God appeared, to give him instruction, Daniel says: "My comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength" (Verse 8)....
BLJ	370	6	There can be no self-exaltation, no boastful claim to freedom from sin, on the part of those who walk in the shadow of Calvary's cross. They feel that it was their sin which caused the agony that broke the heart of the Son of God, and this thought will lead them to self-abasement. Those who live nearest to Jesus discern most clearly the frailty and sinfulness of humanity, and their only hope is in the merit of a crucified and risen Savior.--The Great Controversy, 469-471.
------------------------Repentance to Be Followed by Change of Character, December 19
BLJ	371	1	“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways," says the Lord God. "Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin." Ezekiel 18:30, NKJV.
BLJ	371	2	The learned Nicodemus had read these pointed prophecies [e.g., Psalm 51:10-13; Ezekiel 36:26, 27] with a clouded mind, but now he began to comprehend their true meaning, and to understand that even a man as just and honorable as himself must experience a new birth through Jesus Christ, as the only condition upon which he could be saved and secure an entrance into the kingdom of God. Jesus spoke positively that unless a person is born again he or she cannot discern the kingdom which Christ came upon earth to set up. Rigid precision in obeying the law would entitle no one to enter the kingdom of heaven.
BLJ	371	3	There must be a new birth, a new mind through the operation of the Spirit of God, which purifies the life and ennobles the character. This connection with God fits mortals for the glorious kingdom of heaven. No human invention can ever find a remedy for the sinning soul. Only by repentance and humiliation, a submission to the divine requirements, can the work of grace be performed. Iniquity is so offensive in the sight of God, whom the sinner has so long insulted and wronged, that a repentance commensurate with the character of the sins committed often produces an agony of spirit hard to bear.
BLJ	371	4	Nothing less than a practical acceptance and application of divine truth opens the kingdom of God to human beings. Only a pure and lowly heart, obedient and loving, firm in the faith and service of the Most High, can enter there. Jesus also declares that as "Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."
BLJ	371	5	The serpent in the wilderness was lifted up on a pole before the people, that all who had been stung unto death by the fiery serpent might look upon this brazen serpent, a symbol of Christ, and be instantly healed. But they must look in faith, or it would be of no avail. Just so must people today look upon the Son of man as their Savior unto eternal life. The human race had separated itself from God by sin. Christ brought His divinity to earth, veiled by humanity, in order to rescue the race from its lost condition. Human nature is vile, and the character must be changed before it can harmonize with the pure and holy in God's immortal kingdom. This transformation is the new birth.--The Signs of the Times, November 15, 1883.
------------------------Both Repentance and Forgiveness Are Gifts From Christ, December 20
BLJ	372	1	Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Acts 5:31, NKJV.
BLJ	372	2	There are many who have erroneous ideas in regard to the nature of repentance. They think that they cannot come to Christ unless they first repent, and that repentance prepares them for the forgiveness of their sins. It is true that repentance does precede the forgiveness of sins; for it is only the broken and contrite heart that will feel the need of a Savior.
BLJ	372	3	But must sinners wait until they have repented before they can come to Jesus? Is repentance to be made an obstacle between the sinner and the Savior? Jesus has said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Christ is constantly drawing people to Himself, while Satan is as diligently seeking by every imaginable device to draw them away from their Redeemer. Christ must be revealed to sinners as the Savior dying for the sins of the world; and as they behold the Lamb of God on the cross of Calvary, the mysteries of redemption begin to unfold to the mind, and the goodness of God leads to repentance.
BLJ	372	4	Although the plan of salvation calls for the deepest study of the philosopher, it is not too deep for the comprehension of a child. In dying for sinners, Christ manifested a love that is incomprehensible; and in beholding this love the heart is impressed, the conscience is aroused, and the soul is led to inquire, "What is sin, that it should require such a sacrifice for the redemption of its victim?" ... The apostle Paul gave instruction in regard to the plan of salvation. He declares, "I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." John, speaking of the Savior, says, "Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin." ...
BLJ	372	5	Sinners must come to Christ because they see Him as their Savior, their only helper, that they may be enabled to repent; for if they could repent without coming to Christ, they could also be saved without Christ. It is the virtue that goes forth from Christ that leads to genuine repentance.... Repentance is as much the gift of Christ as is forgiveness, and it cannot be found in the heart where Jesus has not been at work. We can no more repent without the Spirit of Christ to awaken the conscience than we can be pardoned without Christ. Christ draws the sinner by the exhibition of His love upon the cross, and this softens the heart, impresses the mind, and inspires contrition and repentance in the soul.--The Review and Herald, April 1, 1890.
------------------------God Calls for Repentance and Holy Living, December 21
BLJ	373	1	For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him. Genesis 18:19, NKJV.
BLJ	373	2	God's plan for our salvation is perfect in every particular. If we will faithfully perform our allotted part, all will be well with us. It is our apostasy that causes discord, and brings wretchedness and ruin. God never uses His power to oppress the creatures of His hand. He never requires more than they are able to perform; never punishes His disobedient children more than is necessary to bring them to repentance; or to deter others from following their example. Rebellion against God is inexcusable.
BLJ	373	3	The judgments of God quickly following upon transgression, His counsels and reproofs, the manifestations of His love and mercy, and the oft-repeated exhibitions of His power--all were a part of God's plan to preserve His people from sin, to make them pure and holy, that He might be their strength and shield and their exceeding great reward. But the persistent transgressions of the Israelites, their readiness to depart from God, and their forgetfulness of His mercies, showed that many had chosen to be servants of sin, rather than children of the Most High.
BLJ	373	4	God had created them, Christ had redeemed them. From the house of bondage their cry of anguish went up to the throne of God, and He put forth His arm to rescue them, for their sake, bringing desolation upon the whole land of Egypt. He had granted them high honors. He had made them His peculiar people, and had showered upon them unnumbered blessings. If they would obey Him, He would make them a mighty nation--a praise and excellence in all the earth. God designed to magnify His name through His chosen people, by showing the vast difference existing between the righteous and the wicked, the servants of God and the worshipers of idols.
BLJ	373	5	Joshua sought to show his people the inconsistency of their course of backsliding. He wished them to feel that the time had come to make a decided change, to put away every vestige of idolatry, and to turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart. He endeavored to impress upon their minds the fact that open apostasy would not be more offensive to God than hypocrisy, and a lifeless form of worship.
BLJ	373	6	If the favor of God was worth anything, it was worth everything. Thus Joshua had decided; and after weighing the whole matter, he had determined to serve Him with full purpose of heart. And more than this, he would endeavor to induce his family to pursue the same course.--The Signs of the Times, May 19, 1881.
------------------------God Waits to Receive All Who Repent, December 22
BLJ	374	1	Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. Ezekiel 11:19, 20, NKJV.
BLJ	374	2	The Lord has plainly revealed His will concerning the salvation of the sinner. And the attitude which many assume in expressing doubts and unbelief as to whether the Lord will save them is a reflection upon the character of God. Those who complain of His severity are virtually saying: "The way of the Lord is not equal." But He distinctly throws back the imputation upon the sinner: "Are not your ways unequal? Can I pardon your transgressions when you do not repent and turn from your sins?" ...
BLJ	374	3	The Lord will receive sinners when they repent and forsake their sins so that God can work with their efforts in seeking perfection of character.... The whole purpose in giving His Son for the sins of the world is that people may be saved, not in transgression and unrighteousness, but in forsaking sin, washing their robes of character, and making them white in the blood of the Lamb. He proposes to remove from sinners the offensive thing that He hates, but they must cooperate with God in the work. Sin must be given up, hated, and the righteousness of Christ must be accepted by faith. Thus will the divine cooperate with the human.
BLJ	374	4	We should beware that we do not give place to doubt and unbelief, and in our attitude of despair complain of God and misrepresent Him to the world. This is placing ourselves on Satan's side of the question. "Poor souls," he says, "I pity you, mourning under sin; but God has no pity. You long for some ray of hope; but God leaves you to perish, and finds satisfaction in your misery."
BLJ	374	5	This is a terrible deception. Do not give ear to the tempter, but say: "Jesus has died that I might live. He loves me, and wills not that I should perish. I have a compassionate heavenly Father; and although I have abused His love, though the blessings He has graciously given me have been squandered, I will arise, and go to my Father, and say: 'I have sinned ..., and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.'"
BLJ	374	6	The parable tells you how the wanderer will be received.... Thus the Bible represents God's willingness to receive the repentant, returning sinner.--Testimonies for the Church 5:631, 632.
------------------------Jesus' Love Draws Sinners to Repentance, December 23
BLJ	375	1	Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself. John 12:31, 32, NKJV.
BLJ	375	2	Christ came to manifest the love of God to the world to draw the hearts of all to Himself.... The first step toward salvation is to respond to the drawing of the love of Christ. God sends message after message to people, entreating them to repentance, that He may forgive, and write pardon against their names. Shall there be no repentance? Shall His appeals be unheeded? Shall His overtures of mercy be ignored, and His love utterly rejected?
BLJ	375	3	Oh, then sinners will cut themselves off from the medium through which they may gain life eternal; for God only pardons the penitent. By the manifestation of His love, by the entreating of His Spirit, He woos them to repentance; for repentance is the gift of God, and whom He pardons He first makes penitent. The sweetest joy comes through sincere repentance toward God for the transgression of His law, and through faith in Christ as the sinner's Redeemer and Advocate.
BLJ	375	4	It is that all may understand the joy of forgiveness, the peace of God, that Christ draws them through the manifestation of His love. If they respond to His drawing, yielding their hearts to His grace, He will lead them on step by step, to a full knowledge of Himself; and this is life eternal.
BLJ	375	5	Christ came to reveal to the sinner the justice and love of God, that He might give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins. When sinners behold Jesus lifted up upon the cross, suffering the guilt of the transgressor, bearing the penalty of sin; when they behold God's abhorrence of evil in the fearful manifestation of the death of the cross, and His love for fallen humanity, they are led to repentance toward God because of their transgression of the law which is holy, and just, and good. They exercise faith in Christ, because the divine Savior has become their Substitute, Surety, and Advocate, the one in whom their very life is centered. To repenting sinners God can show His mercy and truth, and bestow upon them His forgiveness and love....
BLJ	375	6	By the suffering and death of Christ is proved His boundless love to human beings. He is willing and able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him.--The Signs of the Times, September 12, 1911.
------------------------Good Works to Follow Revival, December 24
BLJ	376	1	If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9, NKJV.
BLJ	376	2	The soul that lives by faith in Christ desires no other nor greater good than to know and to do the will of God. It is God's will that faith in Christ shall be made perfect by works; He connects the salvation and eternal life of those who believe with these works, and through them provides for the light of truth to go to all countries and peoples. This is the fruit of the working of God's Spirit.
BLJ	376	3	The truth has taken hold of hearts. It is not a fitful impulse, but a true turning unto the Lord, and the perverse will of human beings is brought into subjection to the will of God. To rob God in tithes and offerings is a violation of the plain injunction of Jehovah and works the deepest injury to those who do it; for it deprives them of the blessing of God, which is promised to those who deal honestly with Him....
BLJ	376	4	If Satan cannot keep souls bound in the ice of indifference, he will try to push them into the fire of fanaticism. When the Spirit of the Lord comes among His people, the enemy seizes the opportunity to work also, seeking to mold the work of God through the peculiar, unsanctified traits of different ones who are connected with that work. Thus there is always danger that unwise moves will be made. Many carry on a work of their own devising, a work which God has not prompted....
BLJ	376	5	If the enemy can push individuals to extremes, he is well pleased. He can thus do greater harm than if there had been no religious awakening. We know that there has never yet been a religious effort made in which Satan has not tried his best to intrude himself, and in these last days he will do this as never before. He sees that his time is short, and he will work with all deceivableness of unrighteousness to mingle errors and incorrect views with the work of God and push men and women into false positions....
BLJ	376	6	Hearts that are under the influence of the Spirit of God will be in sweet harmony with His will. I have been shown that when the Lord works by His Holy Spirit, there will be nothing in its operations which will degrade the Lord's people before the world, but it will exalt them. The religion of Christ does not make those who profess it coarse and rough. The subjects of grace are not unteachable, but ever willing to learn of Jesus and to counsel with one another.--Testimonies for the Church 5:644-647.
------------------------Jesus Pays the Debt of Repentant Sinners, December 25
BLJ	377	1	Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Romans 2:4, NKJV.
BLJ	377	2	Among the disciples who ministered to Paul at Rome was Onesimus, a fugitive slave from the city of Colosse. He belonged to a Christian named Philemon, a member of the Colossian church. But he had robbed his master and fled to Rome.... In the kindness of his heart, the apostle sought to relieve the poverty and distress of the wretched fugitive, and then endeavored to shed the light of truth into his darkened mind. Onesimus listened attentively to the words of life which he had once despised, and was converted to the faith of Christ. He now confessed his sin against his master, and gratefully accepted the counsel of the apostle.
BLJ	377	3	He had endeared himself to Paul by his piety, meekness, and sincerity, no less than by his tender care for the apostle's comfort and his zeal to promote the work of the gospel. Paul saw in him traits of character that would render him a useful helper in missionary labor, and he would gladly have kept him at Rome. But he would not do this without the full consent of Philemon.
BLJ	377	4	He therefore decided that Onesimus should at once return to his master.... It was a severe test for this servant to thus deliver himself up to the master he had wronged; but he had been truly converted, and, painful as it was, he did not shrink from this duty. Paul made Onesimus the bearer of a letter to Philemon, in which he with great delicacy and kindness pleaded the cause of the repentant slave, and intimated his own wishes concerning him....
BLJ	377	5	He requests Philemon to receive him as his own child. He says that it was his desire to retain Onesimus, that he might act the same part in ministering to him in his bonds as Philemon would have done. But he did not desire his services unless Philemon should voluntarily set him free; for it might be in the providence of God that Onesimus had left his master for a season in so improper a manner, that, being converted, he might on his return be forgiven and received with such affection that he would choose to dwell with him ever after, "not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved." ...
BLJ	377	6	How fitting an illustration of the love of Christ toward repenting sinners! As the servant who had defrauded his master had nothing with which to make restitution, so sinners who have robbed God of years of service have no means of canceling their debt; Jesus interposes between them and the just wrath of God, and says, I will pay the debt. Let them be spared the punishment of their guilt. I will suffer in their stead.--Sketches from the Life of Paul, 284-287.
------------------------God's People to Reflect His Glory, December 26
BLJ	378	1	The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Isaiah 61:1, NKJV.
BLJ	378	2	The Lord is not pleased to have His people a band of mourners. He wants them to repent of their sins, that they may enjoy the liberty of the children of God. Then they will be filled with the praises of God, and will be a blessing to others. The Lord Jesus was anointed also "to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified." ...
BLJ	378	3	Oh, that this might be the purpose of our lives! Then we should have regard even to the expression of our countenance, to our words, and even to the tone of our voice when we speak. All our business transactions would be wrought in faith and integrity. Then would the world be convinced that there is a people that are loyal to the God of heaven....
BLJ	378	4	God calls for all to come into harmony with Himself. He will receive them if they will put away their evil actions. By a union with the divine nature of Christ, they may escape the corrupting influences of this world. It is time for every one of us to decide whose side we are on. The agencies of Satan will work with every mind that will allow itself to be worked by him. But there are also heavenly agencies waiting to communicate the bright rays of the glory of God to all that are willing to receive Him. It is truth that we want, precious truth in all its loveliness. Truth will bring liberty and gladness.--The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 4, 1153, 1154.
------------------------Everyone to Work for the Lost, December 27
BLJ	379	1	And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16, NKJV.
BLJ	379	2	"If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us"; and that love cannot be restrained.... Only by becoming partakers of the divine nature can the law of God be fulfilled by men and women. Only those who love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves, can give glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will to men. This was the work of Christ; and when His work is appreciated and represented by His followers, the great result will be achieved in the "joy that was set before him" in the saving of the souls for whom He gave His life.
BLJ	379	3	The Lord has been laboring constantly from age to age to awaken in the souls of human beings a sense of their divine kinship, and thus to establish an order and divine harmony proportionate to the great and eternal deliverance He has wrought out for everyone who will receive Him. The Lord calls upon all who profess to believe in Him to be coworkers with Him, to use every God-given ability, opportunity, and privilege to lead perishing souls within the sphere of their influence to Jesus Christ.
BLJ	379	4	Here is the only hope for transformation of character; this will give peace and joy in believing, and fit them for the society of the heavenly angels in the kingdom of God. Oh, how earnest, persevering, and untiring should be the efforts of every sin-pardoned soul to seek to bring other souls to Jesus Christ, that their neighbors shall become joint-heirs with Jesus!
BLJ	379	5	Whoever is your neighbor is to be sought for, labored for. Are they ignorant? Let your communication, your association, make them more intelligent. The outcast, the youth, full of defects in character, are the very ones God enjoins upon us to help. "I came not to call the righteous," said Christ, "but sinners to repentance." ...
BLJ	379	6	Those who will be humble enough to learn, the very nobility of the world will consider it an honor to go to heaven in their company, and angels of God will cooperate with such as are workers together with God. We need to hunger and thirst after righteousness, that we may have Christ in us as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.--Special Instruction Relating to the Review and Herald Office and the Work in Battle Creek, 4-6.
------------------------Repentance Essential During Day of Atonement, December 28
BLJ	380	1	Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down." Revelation 12:10, NKJV.
BLJ	380	2	God is leading His people out from the abominations of the world, that they may keep His law; and because of this, the rage of "the accuser of our brethren" knows no bounds. "The devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."
BLJ	380	3	The antitypical land of promise is just before us, and Satan is determined to destroy the people of God, and cut them off from their inheritance. The admonition "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation" was never more needed than now. We are now living in the great day of atonement. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin and humiliation before the Lord, lest they be cut off from among the people.
BLJ	380	4	In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the book of life should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin, and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart. The light, frivolous spirit indulged by so many of professed Christians must be put away. There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery.
BLJ	380	5	The work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another. Though all nations are to pass in judgment before God, yet He will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being upon the earth. Everyone must be tested, and found without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
BLJ	380	6	Solemn are the scenes connected with the closing work of the atonement. Momentous are the interests involved therein. The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above.... Soon--none know how soon--it will pass to the cases of the living....When the work of the investigative judgment closes, the destiny of all will have been decided for life or death. Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven. Christ in the Revelation, looking forward to that time, declares: ... "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be."--The Gospel Herald, August 1910.
------------------------God's Law Leads to True Repentance, December 29
BLJ	381	1	Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings. Jeremiah 26:3, NKJV.
BLJ	381	2	[The apostle Paul writes that] "I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." ... The law which promised life to the obedient pronounced death upon the transgressor. "Wherefore," he says, "the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good."
BLJ	381	3	How wide the contrast between these words of Paul and those that come from many of the pulpits of today. The people are taught that obedience to God's law is not necessary to salvation; that they have only to believe in Jesus, and they are safe. Without the law, human beings have no conviction of sin, and feel no need of repentance. Not seeing their lost condition as violators of God's law, they do not feel their need of the atoning blood of Christ as their only hope of salvation.
BLJ	381	4	The law of God is an agent in every genuine conversion. There can be no true repentance without conviction of sin. The Scriptures declare that "sin is the transgression of the law," and that "by the law is the knowledge of sin."
BLJ	381	5	In order to see their guilt, sinners must test their character by God's great standard of righteousness. To discover their defects, they must look into the mirror of the divine statutes. But while the law reveals their sins, it provides no remedy. The gospel of Christ alone can offer pardon. In order to stand forgiven, sinners must exercise repentance toward God, whose law has been transgressed, and faith in Christ, their atoning sacrifice.
BLJ	381	6	Without true repentance, there can be no true conversion. Many are deceived here, and too often their entire experience proves to be a deception. This is why so many who are joined to the church have never been joined to Christ.
BLJ	381	7	"The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." In the new birth, the heart is renewed by divine grace, and brought into harmony with God as it is brought into subjection to His law. When this mighty change has taken place, the sinner has passed from death unto life, from sin unto holiness, from transgression and rebellion to obedience and loyalty. The old life of alienation from God has ended; the new life of reconciliation, of faith and love, has begun. Then will "the righteousness of the law" "be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."--The Spirit of Prophecy 4:297, 298.
------------------------Christ's Robe of Righteousness Is for the Repentant, December 30
BLJ	382	1	Now therefore, amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; then the Lord will relent concerning the doom that He has pronounced against you. Jeremiah 26:13, NKJV.
BLJ	382	2	Although as sinners we are under the condemnation of the law, yet Christ, by His obedience rendered to the law, claims for the repentant soul the merit of His own righteousness. In order to obtain the righteousness of Christ, it is necessary for the sinner to know what that repentance is which works a radical change of mind and spirit and action. The work of transformation must begin in the heart, and manifest its power through every faculty of the being; but human beings are not capable of originating such a repentance as this, and can experience it alone through Christ, who ascended up on high, led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto humanity.
BLJ	382	3	Who is desirous of becoming truly repentant? What must they do? They must come to Jesus, just as they are, without delay. They must believe that the word of Christ is true, and, believing the promise, ask, that they may receive. When sincere desire prompts people to pray, they will not pray in vain. The Lord will fulfill His word, and will give the Holy Spirit to lead to repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. They will pray and watch, and put away their sins, making manifest their sincerity by the vigor of their endeavor to obey the commandments of God. With prayer they will mingle faith, and not only believe in but obey the precepts of the law. They will announce themselves as on Christ's side of the question. They will renounce all habits and associations that tend to draw the heart from God.
BLJ	382	4	All sinners who would become children of God must receive the truth that repentance and forgiveness are to be obtained through nothing less than the atonement of Christ. Assured of this, they must put forth an effort in harmony with the work done for them, and with unwearied entreaty they must supplicate the throne of grace, that the renovating power of God may come into their souls.
BLJ	382	5	Christ pardons none but the penitent, but whom He pardons He first makes penitent. The provision made is complete, and the eternal righteousness of Christ is placed to the account of every believing soul. The costly, spotless robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has been provided for the repenting, believing sinner, and everyone may say: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10).--Selected Messages, book 1, 393, 394.
------------------------All Who Repent Will Be Forgiven and Accepted, December 31
BLJ	383	1	Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1, NKJV.
BLJ	383	2	Though David had fallen, the Lord lifted him up. He was now more fully in harmony with God and in sympathy with his fellow men than before he fell. In the joy of his release he sang: "I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.... Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance" (Psalm 32:5-7).
BLJ	383	3	Many have murmured at what they called God's injustice in sparing David, whose guilt was so great, after having rejected Saul for what appear to them to be far less flagrant sins. But David humbled himself and confessed his sin, while Saul despised reproof and hardened his heart in impenitence.
BLJ	383	4	This passage in David's history is full of significance to the repenting sinner. It is one of the most forcible illustrations given us of the struggles and temptations of humanity, and of genuine repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Through all the ages it has proved a source of encouragement to souls that, having fallen into sin, were struggling under the burden of their guilt. Thousands of the children of God, who have been betrayed into sin, when ready to give up to despair have remembered how David's sincere repentance and confession were accepted by God, notwithstanding he suffered for his transgression; and they also have taken courage to repent and try again to walk in the way of God's commandments.
BLJ	383	5	Whoever under the reproof of God will humble the soul with confession and repentance, as did David, may be sure that there is hope for him or her. Whoever will in faith accept God's promises will find pardon. The Lord will never cast away one truly repentant soul. He has given this promise: "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me" (Isaiah 27:5). "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:7).--Patriarchs and Prophets, 726.

------------------------Conflict and Courage
CC	7	1	That We May Be Encouraged, January 1
CC	8	1	There's Hope, January 2
CC	9	1	A Place in Line, January 3
CC	10	1	What Fruit? January 4
CC	11	1	In God's Image, January 5
CC	12	1	Eden, January 6
CC	13	1	A Chance to Choose, January 7
CC	14	1	Someone to Share, January 8
CC	15	1	Deceived! January 9
CC	16	1	Used by Satan, January 10
CC	17	1	When it's Better not to Know, January 11
CC	18	1	Cursed! January 12
CC	19	1	Taught by Nature, January 13
CC	20	1	Between God and Man, January 14
CC	21	1	One Expensive Mistake, January 15
CC	22	1	By Word of Mouth, January 16
CC	23	1	Home Again! January 17
CC	24	1	It's Up to You, January 18
CC	25	1	Two Ways to Go, January 19
CC	26	1	Your Face is Telling, January 20
CC	27	1	Cain Went Out, January 21
CC	28	1	He Walked with God, January 22
CC	29	1	God Took Him, January 23
CC	30	1	Looking at Christ, January 24
CC	31	1	An Open Door, January 25
CC	32	1	God or Idols? January 26
CC	33	1	Giants in the Land, January 27
CC	34	1	Abused Talents, January 28
CC	35	1	An Affluent Society, January 29
CC	36	1	Marrying and Giving in Marriage, January 30
CC	37	1	Until the Day ..., January 31
CC	38	1	Build an Ark, February 1
CC	39	1	Safe Inside, February 2
CC	40	1	After Seven Days, February 3
CC	41	1	As it was in the Days of Noah, February 4
CC	42	1	God Comes Down to See, February 5
CC	43	1	Confused and Scattered, February 6
CC	44	1	No Questions Asked, February 7
CC	45	1	There's a Reason, February 8
CC	46	1	God Protects His Own, February 9
CC	47	1	Keeping the Peace, February 10
CC	48	1	Toward Sodom, February 11
CC	49	1	A Home God can Bless, February 12
CC	50	1	Entertaining Strangers, February 13
CC	51	1	Countdown for Sodom, February 14
CC	52	1	Unsafe Streets, February 15
CC	53	1	That Last Night, February 16
CC	54	1	Don't Forget, February 17
CC	55	1	A Better Country, February 18
CC	56	1	Nothing Too Precious, February 19
CC	57	1	Choosing a Wife, February 20
CC	58	1	A Happy Marriage, February 21
CC	59	1	Let Your Religion Show, February 22
CC	60	1	Nonidentical Twins, February 23
CC	61	1	Twisted Values, February 24
CC	62	1	Bartered Birthright, February 25
CC	63	1	A Bitter Price, February 26
CC	64	1	Hope for a Fugitive, February 27
CC	65	1	Return to God His Own, February 28
CC	66	1	Seven Short Years, March 1
CC	67	1	A Life and Death Matter, March 2
CC	68	1	The Time of Jacob's Trouble, March 3
CC	69	1	Power Guaranteed, March 4
CC	70	1	Reunion, March 5
CC	71	1	Separate Ways, March 6
CC	72	1	A Home in Trouble, March 7
CC	73	1	An Inspired Resolution, March 8
CC	74	1	A Blessed Partnership, March 9
CC	75	1	How Can I Do It? March 10
CC	76	1	A Prison Apprenticeship, March 11
CC	77	1	Always the Same, March 12
CC	78	1	All in God's Plan, March 13
CC	79	1	He was Like Christ, March 14
CC	80	1	A Slave Mother, March 15
CC	81	1	The Right Choice, March 16
CC	82	1	Not God's Way, March 17
CC	83	1	God's University, March 18
CC	84	1	Worth More, March 19
CC	85	1	Seeing the Invisible, March 20
CC	86	1	Learning and Unlearning, March 21
CC	87	1	God Sent Him, March 22
CC	88	1	Who is the Lord? March 23
CC	89	1	Hardening of the Heart, March 24
CC	90	1	Free at Last! March 25
CC	91	1	Cloud and Fire, March 26
CC	92	1	A Safe Path, March 27
CC	93	1	The Song of Moses and the Lamb, March 28
CC	94	1	Complaining Again, March 29
CC	95	1	Hands Toward Heaven, March 30
CC	96	1	Two Hands for God, March 31
CC	97	1	A Crisis in Israel, April 1
CC	98	1	He Failed His Brother, April 2
CC	99	1	Face to Face, April 3
CC	100	1	Strange Fire, April 4
CC	101	1	Too Drunk to Care, April 5
CC	102	1	Misplaced Love, April 6
CC	103	1	Undernourished Souls, April 7
CC	104	1	Two Against One, April 8
CC	105	1	The Most Satanic Trait, April 9
CC	106	1	A Contradictory Report, April 10
CC	107	1	Why Wait? April 11
CC	108	1	Rebellion in the Camp, April 12
CC	109	1	He Lost His Patience, April 13
CC	110	1	No Excuse for Sinning, April 14
CC	111	1	From Grave to Glory, April 15
CC	112	1	Prophecy for Pay, April 16
CC	113	1	Duty or Desire, April 17
CC	114	1	Two of a Kind, April 18
CC	115	1	Sins That Scar, April 19
CC	116	1	The Only Way to Win, April 20
CC	117	1	The Invisible Ally, April 21
CC	118	1	Only God Could Do It, April 22
CC	119	1	One Man's Sin, April 23
CC	120	1	No Hiding from God, April 24
CC	121	1	Too Late! April 25
CC	122	1	The Price of a Lie, April 26
CC	123	1	"Give Me This Mountain", April 27
CC	124	1	Iron Chariots, April 28
CC	125	1	As for Me ..., April 29
CC	126	1	Haven't I Sent You? April 30
CC	127	1	Too Many Soldiers, May 1
CC	128	1	Still Too Many, May 2
CC	129	1	Betrayed into Error, May 3
CC	130	1	Before the Baby Comes, May 4
CC	131	1	Compromise, May 5
CC	132	1	Mighty Weakling, May 6
CC	133	1	What's the Secret? May 7
CC	134	1	This is the Secret, May 8
CC	135	1	A Sure Crop, May 9
CC	136	1	God Remembered, May 10
CC	137	1	She Kept Her Promise, May 11
CC	138	1	God's Property, May 12
CC	139	1	Like Parent, Like Child, May 13
CC	140	1	A Dangerous Example, May 14
CC	141	1	No Restraint, May 15
CC	142	1	Delayed Judgment, May 16
CC	143	1	A Fainthearted Father, May 17
CC	144	1	No Generation Gap, May 18
CC	145	1	Revival, May 19
CC	146	1	Like Everyone Else, May 20
CC	147	1	No Apologies Needed, May 21
CC	148	1	The People's Choice, May 22
CC	149	1	The Potential is There, May 23
CC	150	1	Running Ahead of God, May 24
CC	151	1	Found Wanting, May 25
CC	152	1	A Time for Courage, May 26
CC	153	1	The Real King, May 27
CC	154	1	It Works Two Ways, May 28
CC	155	1	Tested Again, May 29
CC	156	1	Not to be Trusted, May 30
CC	157	1	I Hear the Sheep, May 31
CC	158	1	Not Really Sorry, June 1
CC	159	1	Sanity Almost Gone, June 2
CC	160	1	God's Choice, Not Man's, June 3
CC	161	1	Preparing to Lead, June 4
CC	162	1	Human Boasting, June 5
CC	163	1	Five Smooth Stones, June 6
CC	164	1	A Sure Outcome, June 7
CC	165	1	No One Sorry, June 8
CC	166	1	Music in a Cave, June 9
CC	167	1	Result of Insanity, June 10
CC	168	1	A Mismatched Pair, June 11
CC	169	1	Gentle Rebuke, June 12
CC	170	1	Divine Vengeance, June 13
CC	171	1	No Answer from God, June 14
CC	172	1	That's Not Samuel, June 15
CC	173	1	God's Secrets, June 16
CC	174	1	A Suicide, June 17
CC	175	1	A Friend Mourns, June 18
CC	176	1	His Last Mistake, June 19
CC	177	1	Satan's Stealthy Work, June 20
CC	178	1	One Sin Leads to Another, June 21
CC	179	1	A King Rebuked, June 22
CC	180	1	Sin's Way is Hard, June 23
CC	181	1	Superficial Beauty, June 24
CC	182	1	Greatness in Humiliation, June 25
CC	183	1	A Foolish Wise Man, June 26
CC	184	1	A Monument of Stones, June 27
CC	185	1	More Than Money, June 28
CC	186	1	Growing Old Gracefully, June 29
CC	187	1	Last Words, June 30
CC	188	1	A Contract with God, July 1
CC	189	1	As a Little Child, July 2
CC	190	1	Wisdom for the Asking, July 3
CC	191	1	Wisest Among Men, July 4
CC	192	1	What an Epitaph! July 5
CC	193	1	Sold Out, July 6
CC	194	1	True Riches, July 7
CC	195	1	At the Crossroads, July 8
CC	196	1	A Late Awakening, July 9
CC	197	1	The Voice of Experience, July 10
CC	198	1	Unsanctified Skill, July 11
CC	199	1	Praise Where it Belongs, July 12
CC	200	1	Disgraceful Monuments, July 13
CC	201	1	"All Israel with Him", July 14
CC	202	1	A Paralyzed Arm, July 15
CC	203	1	Asa Trusted God, July 16
CC	204	1	Jezebel's Blighting Influence, July 17
CC	205	1	A Voice in the Wilderness, July 18
CC	206	1	Sharing Her Morsel, July 19
CC	207	1	"More Blessed to Give", July 20
CC	208	1	Elijah Before Ahab, July 21
CC	209	1	God's Heroes, July 22
CC	210	1	Idolatry Then and Now, July 23
CC	211	1	Waiting Upon God, July 24
CC	212	1	Emptied of Self, July 25
CC	213	1	Overwhelmed by Discouragement, July 26
CC	214	1	What Doest Thou Here? July 27
CC	215	1	Elijahs Needed Today, July 28
CC	216	1	In Moments of Weakness, July 29
CC	217	1	The Battle is the Lord's, July 30
CC	218	1	The Battle Song, July 31
CC	219	1	Sorcery, Ancient and Modern, August 1
CC	220	1	The Work Lying Nearest, August 2
CC	221	1	Why Elisha? August 3
CC	222	1	All on the Altar, August 4
CC	223	1	Elijah's Successor, August 5
CC	224	1	Pollution and Purification, August 6
CC	225	1	Rudeness Rebuked, August 7
CC	226	1	Table in the Wilderness, August 8
CC	227	1	Even a Child, August 9
CC	228	1	God's Ways, August 10
CC	229	1	No Fiery Chariot, August 11
CC	230	1	Reluctant Prophet, August 12
CC	231	1	There is a Limit, August 13
CC	232	1	Send Me, August 14
CC	233	1	Humility--True or False? August 15
CC	234	1	The Living Coal, August 16
CC	235	1	White Like Snow, August 17
CC	236	1	For Everyone, August 18
CC	237	1	Jeremiah, God's Mouthpiece, August 19
CC	238	1	The Rechabites, August 20
CC	239	1	Jehovah's Honor Vindicated, August 21
CC	240	1	Divine Healing, August 22
CC	241	1	What Do They See? August 23
CC	242	1	Faith and God's Promises, August 24
CC	243	1	Too Drunk to Think, August 25
CC	244	1	For Such a Time as This, August 26
CC	245	1	Men's Decrees Versus God's, August 27
CC	246	1	Four Boys in Babylon, August 28
CC	247	1	The Source of Wisdom, August 29
CC	248	1	No Compromise, August 30
CC	249	1	Witnessing, August 31
CC	250	1	Under God's Control, September 1
CC	251	1	Babylon's Leading Citizen, September 2
CC	252	1	Four in the Furnace, September 3
CC	253	1	Nebuchadnezzar Humiliated, September 4
CC	254	1	Daniel, God's Ambassador, September 5
CC	255	1	God Sent His Angel, September 6
CC	256	1	Burden-Sharing, September 7
CC	257	1	God's Hand on the Machinery, September 8
CC	258	1	Obstacles a Test of Faith, September 9
CC	259	1	Ezra, Student and Teacher, September 10
CC	260	1	Knowledge Requires Action, September 11
CC	261	1	God Their Protector, September 12
CC	262	1	A Holy Purpose, September 13
CC	263	1	A Man of Action, September 14
CC	264	1	Let Us Build, September 15
CC	265	1	Uninvolved, September 16
CC	266	1	Unholy Alliance, September 17
CC	267	1	Remember the Poor, September 18
CC	268	1	"I Cannot Come Down", September 19
CC	269	1	Build--Repair--Restore, September 20
CC	270	1	One of God's Great Men, September 21
CC	271	1	In the Spirit of Elijah, September 22
CC	272	1	A Straight Message, September 23
CC	273	1	A Living Sacrifice, September 24
CC	274	1	Ready to Step Aside, September 25
CC	275	1	I Must Decrease, September 26
CC	276	1	What Made Him Great? September 27
CC	277	1	In Prison for Christ's Sake, September 28
CC	278	1	The Highest Honor, September 29
CC	279	1	A True Witness, September 30
CC	280	1	Come and See, October 1
CC	281	1	Under the Fig Tree, October 2
CC	282	1	Apprenticed to Christ, October 3
CC	283	1	Follow Me, October 4
CC	284	1	Publicans Not Excluded, October 5
CC	285	1	Judas, Self-Seeking Disciple, October 6
CC	286	1	Without Excuse, October 7
CC	287	1	Sower of Strife, October 8
CC	288	1	Unity in Diversity, October 9
CC	289	1	None were Perfect, October 10
CC	290	1	Doubts and Questions, October 11
CC	291	1	Secret Interview, October 12
CC	292	1	As the Wind Blows, October 13
CC	293	1	Born Again, October 14
CC	294	1	Confrontation at Jacob's Well, October 15
CC	295	1	From Doubt to Faith, October 16
CC	296	1	I Am Not Worthy, October 17
CC	297	1	God Abhors Caste, October 18
CC	298	1	It has to be Personal, October 19
CC	299	1	What Lack I? October 20
CC	300	1	He Failed the Test, October 21
CC	301	1	He Made Things Right, October 22
CC	302	1	Rich Man and God, October 23
CC	303	1	She Gave Her All, October 24
CC	304	1	Fretting and Fussing, October 25
CC	305	1	A Gift of Love, October 26
CC	306	1	The Fragrance Lingers, October 27
CC	307	1	Nothing Too Costly, October 28
CC	308	1	Simon's Change of Heart, October 29
CC	309	1	Christ Sees Our Possibilities, October 30
CC	310	1	Peter Looked Back, October 31
CC	311	1	Peter Speaks Up, November 1
CC	312	1	Under Satan's Power, November 2
CC	313	1	Peter Learned His Lesson, November 3
CC	314	1	A Fond Mother's Request, November 4
CC	315	1	Beloved Disciple, November 5
CC	316	1	John and Judas--A Contrast, November 6
CC	317	1	Enslaved by Money, November 7
CC	318	1	A Chance for All, November 8
CC	319	1	Only Jesus Knew, November 9
CC	320	1	A Slow Student, November 10
CC	321	1	On Enemy Ground, November 11
CC	322	1	Converted at Last, November 12
CC	323	1	Caiaphas, November 13
CC	324	1	Pilate, November 14
CC	325	1	The Cross Bearer, November 15
CC	326	1	Remember Me, November 16
CC	327	1	Secret Friends No Longer, November 17
CC	328	1	Thomas the Doubter, November 18
CC	329	1	Religious Liberty, November 19
CC	330	1	Mishandling God's Goods, November 20
CC	331	1	Martyred for Christ, November 21
CC	332	1	Just for One Man, November 22
CC	333	1	The First Dorcas, November 23
CC	334	1	No National Barriers, November 24
CC	335	1	To All the World, November 25
CC	336	1	Angel Protectors, November 26
CC	337	1	Linked with Heaven, November 27
CC	338	1	At the Damascus Gate, November 28
CC	339	1	Saul to Paul, November 29
CC	340	1	Arabian Interlude, November 30
CC	341	1	Paul Exalts the Cross, December 1
CC	342	1	Gospel Tentmaker, December 2
CC	343	1	Profitable Bonfire, December 3
CC	344	1	While You are Young, December 4
CC	345	1	From a Child, December 5
CC	346	1	All That a Son Could Be, December 6
CC	347	1	Passing the Torch, December 7
CC	348	1	This Dropout Made Good, December 8
CC	349	1	Mark and Demas, December 9
CC	350	1	Master and Servant, December 10
CC	351	1	The Race Before Us, December 11
CC	352	1	A Voice of Gladness, December 12
CC	353	1	Toward the Mark, December 13
CC	354	1	To Caesar, December 14
CC	355	1	Divine Bodyguard, December 15
CC	356	1	A Good Fight, December 16
CC	357	1	"Love One Another", December 17
CC	358	1	Perils Within and Without, December 18
CC	359	1	Pure in Heart and Life, December 19
CC	360	1	Beyond the Gloom to Glory, December 20
CC	361	1	The Last of the Twelve, December 21
CC	362	1	Shut Away with God, December 22
CC	363	1	Keep Your Armor On, December 23
CC	364	1	"Hitherto Hath the Lord Helped Us", December 24
CC	365	1	To God be the Glory, December 25
CC	366	1	Noble Examples, December 26
CC	367	1	"All Things Through Christ", December 27
CC	368	1	We Need Not Despair, December 28
CC	369	1	God Remembers His Own, December 29
CC	370	1	First Things First, December 30
CC	371	1	God's Plan for Me, December 31

------------------------That We May Be Encouraged, January 1
CC	7	1	For all those words which were written long ago are meant to teach us today; that when we read in the scriptures of the endurance of men and of all the help that God gave them in those days, we may be encouraged to go on hoping in our own time. Romans 15:4, Phillips.
CC	7	2	The lives recorded in the Bible are authentic histories of actual individuals. From Adam down through successive generations to the times of the apostles we have a plain, unvarnished account of what actually occurred and the genuine experience of real characters. It is a subject of wonder to many that inspired history should narrate in the lives of good men facts that tarnish their moral characters.... The inspired writers did not testify to falsehoods to prevent the pages of sacred history being clouded by the record of human frailties and faults....
CC	7	3	It is one of the best evidences of the authenticity of the Scriptures that the truth is not glossed over nor the sins of its chief characters suppressed.... How many biographies have been written of faultless Christians, who, in their ordinary home life and church relations, shone as examples of immaculate piety.... Yet had the pen of inspiration written their histories, how different would they have appeared. There would have been revealed human weaknesses, struggles with selfishness, bigotry, and pride, hidden sins, perhaps, and the continual warfare between the spirit and the flesh....
CC	7	4	Had our good Bible been written by uninspired persons, it would have presented quite a different appearance and would have been a discouraging study to erring mortals, who are contending with natural frailties and the temptations of a wily foe. But as it is, we have a correct record of the religious experience of marked characters in Bible history. Men whom God favored, and to whom He entrusted great responsibilities, were sometimes overcome by temptation and committed sins, even as we of the present day strive, waver, and frequently fall into error. But it is encouraging to desponding hearts to know that through God's grace they could gain fresh vigor to again rise above their evil natures; and, remembering this, we are ready to renew the conflict ourselves.1
------------------------There's Hope, January 2
			1 Corinthians 10:1-13
CC	8	1	Now these things which happened to our ancestors are illustrations of the way in which God works, and they were written down to be a warning to us who are the heirs of the ages which have gone before us. 1 Corinthians 10:11, Phillips.
CC	8	2	The murmurings of ancient Israel and their rebellious discontent, as well as the mighty miracles wrought in their favor and the punishment of their idolatry and ingratitude, are recorded for our benefit. The example of ancient Israel is given as a warning to the people of God, that they may avoid unbelief and escape His wrath. If the iniquities of the Hebrews had been omitted from the Sacred Record, and only their virtues recounted, their history would fail to teach us the lesson that it does....
CC	8	3	If God's people would recognize His dealings with them and accept His teachings, they would find a straight path for their feet and a light to guide them through darkness and discouragement. David learned wisdom from God's dealings with him and bowed in humility beneath the chastisement of the Most High. The faithful portrayal of his true state by the prophet Nathan made David acquainted with his own sins and aided him to put them away. He accepted counsel meekly and humiliated himself before God. "The law of the Lord," he exclaims, "is perfect, converting the soul."
CC	8	4	Repentant sinners have no cause to despair because they are reminded of their transgressions and warned of their danger. These very efforts in their behalf show how much God loves them and desires to save them. They have only to follow His counsel and do His will, to inherit eternal life. God sets the sins of His erring people before them, that they may behold them in all their enormity under the light of divine truth. It is then their duty to renounce them forever.
CC	8	5	God is as powerful to save from sin today as He was in the times of the patriarchs, of David, and of the prophets and apostles. The multitude of cases recorded in sacred history where God has delivered His people from their own iniquities should make the Christian of this time eager to receive divine instruction and zealous to perfect a character that will bear the close inspection of the judgment.2
------------------------A Place in Line, January 3
CC	9	1	The lips of the righteous feed many. Proverbs 10:21.
CC	9	2	Notwithstanding the prevailing iniquity, there was a line of holy men who, elevated and ennobled by communion with God, lived as in the companionship of heaven. They were men of massive intellect, of wonderful attainments. They had a great and holy mission--to develop a character of righteousness, to teach a lesson of godliness, not only to the men of their time, but for future generations. Only a few of the most prominent are mentioned in the Scriptures; but all through the ages God had faithful witnesses, truehearted worshipers.3
CC	9	3	How often those who trusted the word of God, though in themselves utterly helpless, have withstood the power of the whole world--Enoch, pure in heart, holy in life, holding fast his faith in the triumph of righteousness against a corrupt and scoffing generation; Noah and his household against the men of his time, men of the greatest physical and mental strength and the most debased in morals; the children of Israel at the Red Sea, a helpless, terrified multitude of slaves, against the mightiest army of the mightiest nation on the globe; David, a shepherd lad, having God's promise of the throne, against Saul, the established monarch, bent on holding fast his power; Shadrach and his companions in the fire, and Nebuchadnezzar on the throne; Daniel among the lions, his enemies in the high places of the kingdom; Jesus on the cross, and the Jewish priests and rulers forcing even the Roman governor to work their will; Paul in chains led to a criminal's death, Nero the despot of a world empire.
CC	9	4	Such examples are not found in the Bible only. They abound in every record of human progress. The Vaudois and the Huguenots, Wycliffe and Huss, Jerome and Luther, Tyndale and Knox, Zinzendorf and Wesley, with multitudes of others have witnessed to the power of God's word against human power and policy in support of evil. These are the world's true nobility. This is its royal line. In this line the youth of today are called to take their places.4
------------------------What Fruit? January 4
CC	10	1	They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. Job 4:8.
CC	10	2	As an educator no part of the Bible is of greater value than are its biographies. These biographies differ from all others in that they are absolutely true to life. It is impossible for any finite mind to interpret rightly, in all things, the workings of another. None but He who reads the heart, who discerns the secret springs of motive and action, can with absolute truth delineate character, or give a faithful picture of a human life. In God's word alone is found such delineation.
CC	10	3	No truth does the Bible more clearly teach than that what we do is the result of what we are. To a great degree the experiences of life are the fruition of our own thoughts and deeds.
CC	10	4	"The curse causeless shall not come" (Proverbs 26:2). "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him.... Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him" (Isaiah 3:10, 11). "Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts" (Jeremiah 6:19). Terrible is this truth, and deeply should it be impressed. Every deed reacts upon the doer. Never a human being but may recognize, in the evils that curse his life, fruitage of his own sowing. Yet even thus we are not without hope....
CC	10	5	Jacob resorted to fraud, and he reaped the harvest in his brother's hatred. Through twenty years of exile he was himself wronged and defrauded.... But God says: "... I have seen his ways, and will heal him...." (Isaiah 57:18). Jacob in his distress was not overwhelmed. He had repented, he had endeavored to atone for the wrong to his brother. And when threatened with death through the wrath of Esau, he sought help from God.... "He wept, and made supplication" (Hosea 12:4). "And he blessed him there" (Genesis 32:29).... The power of evil in his own nature was broken; his character was transformed....
CC	10	6	God does not annul His laws. He does not work contrary to them. The work of sin He does not undo. But He transforms. Through His grace the curse works out blessing.5
------------------------In God's Image, January 5
			Genesis 1:26-31
CC	11	1	So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:27.
CC	11	2	After the earth with its teeming animal and vegetable life had been called into existence, man, the crowning work of the Creator, and the one for whom the beautiful earth had been fitted up, was brought upon the stage of action. To him was given dominion over all that his eye could behold....
CC	11	3	God created man in His own image. Here is no mystery. There is no ground for the supposition that man was evolved by slow degrees of development from the lower forms of animal or vegetable life. Such teaching lowers the great work of the Creator to the level of man's narrow, earthly conceptions. Men are so intent upon excluding God from the sovereignty of the universe that they degrade man and defraud him of the dignity of his origin. He who set the starry worlds on high and tinted with delicate skill the flowers of the field, who filled the earth and the heavens with the wonders of His power, when He came to crown His glorious work, to place one in the midst to stand as ruler of the fair earth, did not fail to create a being worthy of the hand that gave him life. The genealogy of our race, as given by inspiration, traces back its origin, not to a line of developing germs, mollusks, and quadrupeds, but to the great Creator. Though formed from the dust, Adam was "the son of God." ...
CC	11	4	His nature was in harmony with the will of God. His mind was capable of comprehending divine things. His affections were pure; his appetites and passions were under the control of reason. He was holy and happy in bearing the image of God and in perfect obedience to His will.6
CC	11	5	He [Adam] was more than twice as tall as men now living upon the earth, and was well proportioned. His features were perfect and beautiful.... Eve was not quite as tall as Adam. Her head reached a little above his shoulders. She, too, was noble, perfect in symmetry, and very beautiful.
CC	11	6	This sinless pair wore no artificial garments. They were clothed with a covering of light and glory, such as the angels wear.7
------------------------Eden, January 6
			Genesis 2:8-15
CC	12	1	And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Genesis 2:15.
CC	12	2	Although everything God had made was in the perfection of beauty, and there seemed nothing wanting upon the earth which God had created to make Adam and Eve happy, yet He manifested His great love to them by planting a garden especially for them. A portion of their time was to be occupied in the happy employment of dressing the garden, and a portion in receiving the visits of angels, listening to their instruction, and in happy meditation. Their labor was not wearisome but pleasant and invigorating. This beautiful garden was to be their home.
CC	12	3	In this garden the Lord placed trees of every variety for usefulness and beauty. There were trees laden with luxuriant fruit, of rich fragrance, beautiful to the eye, and pleasant to the taste, designed of God to be food for the holy pair. There were the lovely vines which grew upright, laden with their burden of fruit, unlike anything man has seen since the fall. The fruit was very large and of different colors; some nearly black, some purple, red, pink, and light green. This beautiful and luxuriant growth of fruit upon the branches of the vine was called grapes. They did not trail upon the ground, although not supported by trellises, but the weight of the fruit bowed them down. It was the happy labor of Adam and Eve to form beautiful bowers from the branches of the vine and train them, forming dwellings of nature's beautiful, living trees and foliage, laden with fragrant fruit.9
CC	12	4	It was the design of God that man should find happiness in the employment of tending the things He had created, and that his wants should be met with the fruits of the trees of the garden....
CC	12	5	Had happiness consisted in doing nothing, man, in his state of holy innocence, would have been left unemployed. But He who created man knew what would be for his happiness; and no sooner had He created him than He gave him his appointed work. The promise of future glory, and the decree that man must toil for his daily bread, came from the same throne.9
------------------------A Chance to Choose, January 7
			Genesis 2:16-17
CC	13	1	But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:17.
CC	13	2	Our first parents, though created innocent and holy, were not placed beyond the possibility of wrongdoing.... They were to enjoy communion with God and with holy angels; but before they could be rendered eternally secure, their loyalty must be tested. At the very beginning of man's existence a check was placed upon the desire for self-indulgence, the fatal passion that lay at the foundation of Satan's fall. The tree of knowledge, which stood near the tree of life in the midst of the garden, was to be a test of the obedience, faith, and love of our first parents. While permitted to eat freely of every other tree, they were forbidden to taste of this, on pain of death. They were also to be exposed to the temptations of Satan; but if they endured the trial, they would finally be placed beyond his power, to enjoy perpetual favor with God....
CC	13	3	God might have created man without the power to transgress His law; He might have withheld the hand of Adam from touching the forbidden fruit; but in that case man would have been, not a free moral agent, but a mere automaton. Without freedom of choice, his obedience would not have been voluntary, but forced. There could have been no development of character.... It would have been unworthy of man as an intelligent being, and would have sustained Satan's charge of God's arbitrary rule.
CC	13	4	God made man upright; He gave him noble traits of character, with no bias toward evil. He endowed him with high intellectual powers, and presented before him the strongest possible inducements to be true to his allegiance. Obedience, perfect and perpetual, was the condition of eternal happiness. On this condition he was to have access to the tree of life....
CC	13	5	So long as they remained loyal to the divine law, their capacity to know, to enjoy, and to love would continually increase. They would be constantly gaining new treasures of knowledge, discovering fresh springs of happiness, and obtaining clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the immeasurable, unfailing love of God.10
------------------------Someone to Share, January 8
			Genesis 2:18-25
CC	14	1	It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Genesis 2:18.
CC	14	2	After the creation of Adam every living creature was brought before him to receive its name; he saw that to each had been given a companion, but among them "there was not found an help meet for him." Among all the creatures that God had made on the earth, there was not one equal to man. And God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." Man was not made to dwell in solitude; he was to be a social being. Without companionship the beautiful scenes and delightful employments of Eden would have failed to yield perfect happiness. Even communion with angels could not have satisfied his desire for sympathy and companionship. There was none of the same nature to love and to be loved.
CC	14	3	God Himself gave Adam a companion. He provided "an help meet for him"--a helper corresponding to him--one who was fitted to be his companion, and who could be one with him in love and sympathy. Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his feet as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected by him. A part of man, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, she was his second self; showing the close union and the affectionate attachment that should exist in this relation. "For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it" (Ephesians 5:29). "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one" (Genesis 2:24).
CC	14	4	God celebrated the first marriage. Thus the institution has for its originator the Creator of the universe. "Marriage is honorable" (Hebrews 13:4); it was one of the first gifts of God to man, and it is one of the two institutions that, after the Fall, Adam brought with him beyond the gates of Paradise. When the divine principles are recognized and obeyed in this relation, marriage is a blessing; it guards the purity and happiness of the race, it provides for man's social needs, it elevates the physical, the intellectual, and the moral nature.11
------------------------Deceived! January 9
			Genesis 3:1-6
CC	15	1	And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Genesis 3:1.
CC	15	2	To man, the crowning work of creation, God has given power to understand His requirements, to comprehend the justice and beneficence of His law, and its sacred claims upon him; and of man unswerving obedience is required.
CC	15	3	Like the angels, the dwellers in Eden had been placed upon probation; their happy estate could be retained only on condition of fidelity to the Creator's law. They could obey and live, or disobey and perish....
CC	15	4	The angels had cautioned Eve to beware of separating herself from her husband while occupied in their daily labor in the garden; with him she would be in less danger from temptation than if she were alone. But absorbed in her pleasing task, she unconsciously wandered from his side.... She soon found herself gazing with mingled curiosity and admiration upon the forbidden tree. The fruit was very beautiful, and she questioned with herself why God had withheld it from them. Now was the tempter's opportunity. As if he were able to discern the workings of her mind, he addressed her: "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" ...
CC	15	5	The tempter intimated that the divine warning was not to be actually fulfilled; it was designed merely to intimidate them....
CC	15	6	Such has been Satan's work from the days of Adam to the present, and he has pursued it with great success. He tempts men to distrust God's love and to doubt His wisdom. He is constantly seeking to excite a spirit of irreverent curiosity, a restless, inquisitive desire to penetrate the secrets of divine wisdom and power. In their efforts to search out what God has been pleased to withhold, multitudes overlook the truths which He has revealed, and which are essential to salvation....
CC	15	7	Eve really believed the words of Satan, but her belief did not save her from the penalty of sin. She disbelieved the words of God, and this was what led to her fall. In the judgment men will not be condemned because they conscientiously believed a lie, but because they did not believe the truth, because they neglected the opportunity of learning what is truth.12
------------------------Used by Satan, January 10
			Genesis 3:6-14
CC	16	1	She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. Genesis 3:6.
CC	16	2	Having herself transgressed, she [Eve] became the agent of Satan working the ruin of her husband. In a state of strange, unnatural excitement, with her hands filled with the forbidden fruit, she sought his presence, and related all that had occurred.
CC	16	3	An expression of sadness came over the face of Adam. He appeared astonished and alarmed. To the words of Eve he replied that this must be the foe against whom they had been warned; and by the divine sentence she must die. In answer she urged him to eat, repeating the words of the serpent, that they should not surely die. She reasoned that this must be true, for she felt no evidence of God's displeasure, but on the contrary realized a delicious, exhilarating influence, thrilling every faculty with new life, such, she imagined, as inspired the heavenly messengers.
CC	16	4	Adam understood that his companion had transgressed the command of God, disregarded the only prohibition laid upon them as a test of their fidelity and love. There was a terrible struggle in his mind. He mourned that he had permitted Eve to wander from his side. But now the deed was done; he must be separated from her whose society had been his joy. How could he have it thus? Adam had enjoyed the companionship of God and of holy angels. He had looked upon the glory of the Creator. He understood the high destiny opened to the human race should they remain faithful to God. Yet all these blessings were lost sight of in the fear of losing that one gift which in his eyes outvalued every other. Love, gratitude, loyalty to the Creator--all were overborne by love to Eve. She was a part of himself, and he could not endure the thought of separation.... He resolved to share her fate; if she must die, he would die with her. After all, he reasoned, might not the words of the wise serpent be true? Eve was before him, as beautiful and apparently as innocent as before this act of disobedience. She expressed greater love for him than before. No sign of death appeared in her, and he decided to brave the consequences. He seized the fruit and quickly ate.13
------------------------When it's Better not to Know, January 11
			Genesis 3:6-24
CC	17	1	And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. Ecclesiastes 1:17.
CC	17	2	Adam and Eve both ate of the fruit, and obtained a knowledge which, had they obeyed God, they would never have had,--an experience in disobedience and disloyalty to God,--the knowledge that they were naked. The garment of innocence, a covering from God, which surrounded them, departed; and they supplied the place of this heavenly garment by sewing together fig-leaves for aprons.
CC	17	3	This is the covering that the transgressors of the law of God have used since the days of Adam and Eve's disobedience.... The fig-leaves represent the arguments used to cover disobedience....
CC	17	4	But the nakedness of the sinner is not covered....
CC	17	5	Had Adam and Eve never disobeyed their Creator, had they remained in the path of perfect rectitude, they could have known and understood God. But when they listened to the voice of the tempter, and sinned against God, the light of the garments of heavenly innocence departed from them; and in parting with the garments of innocence, they drew about them the dark robes of ignorance of God. The clear and perfect light that had hitherto surrounded them had lightened everything they approached; but deprived of that heavenly light, the posterity of Adam could no longer trace the character of God in His created works.14
CC	17	6	If Adam and Eve had never touched the forbidden tree, the Lord would have imparted to them knowledge,--knowledge upon which rested no curse of sin, knowledge that would have brought them everlasting joy....
CC	17	7	Age after age, the curiosity of men has led them to seek for the tree of knowledge; and often they think they are plucking fruit most essential, when, like Solomon's research, they find it altogether vanity and nothingness in comparison with that science of true holiness which will open to them the gates of the city of God. The human ambition has been seeking for that kind of knowledge that will bring to them glory and self-exaltation and supremacy. Thus Adam and Eve were worked upon by Satan.15
------------------------Cursed! January 12
			Genesis 3:14-19
CC	18	1	Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; ... and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, ... cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Genesis 3:16, 17.
CC	18	2	Eve was told of the sorrow and pain that must henceforth be her portion.... In the creation God had made her the equal of Adam. Had they remained obedient to God--in harmony with His great law of love--they would ever have been in harmony with each other; but sin had brought discord, and now their union could be maintained and harmony preserved only by submission on the part of the one or the other. Eve had been the first in transgression; and she had fallen into temptation by separating from her companion, contrary to the divine direction. It was by her solicitation that Adam sinned, and she was now placed in subjection to her husband....
CC	18	3	Eve had been perfectly happy by her husband's side in her Eden home; but, like restless modern Eves, she was flattered with the hope of entering a higher sphere than that which God had assigned her. In attempting to rise above her original position, she fell far below it. A similar result will be reached by all who are unwilling to take up cheerfully their life duties in accordance with God's plan. In their efforts to reach positions for which He has not fitted them, many are leaving vacant the place where they might be a blessing....
CC	18	4	When God made man, He made him ruler over the earth and all living creatures. So long as Adam remained loyal to Heaven, all nature was in subjection to him. But when he rebelled against the divine law, the inferior creatures were in rebellion against his rule. Thus the Lord, in His great mercy, would show men the sacredness of His law, and lead them, by their own experience, to see the danger of setting it aside, even in the slightest degree.
CC	18	5	And the life of toil and care which was henceforth to be man's lot was appointed in love. It was a discipline rendered needful by his sin, to place a check upon the indulgence of appetite and passion, to develop habits of self-control. It was a part of God's great plan for man's recovery from the ruin and degradation of sin.16
------------------------Taught by Nature, January 13
			Genesis 3:14-17
CC	19	1	But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? Job 12:7-9.
CC	19	2	Although the earth was blighted with the curse, nature was still to be man's lesson book. It could not now represent goodness only; for evil was everywhere present, marring earth and sea and air with its defiling touch....
CC	19	3	In drooping flower and falling leaf Adam and his companion witnessed the first signs of decay. Vividly was brought to their minds the stern fact that every living thing must die. Even the air, upon which their life depended, bore the seeds of death.
CC	19	4	Continually they were reminded also of their lost dominion. Among the lower creatures Adam had stood as king, and so long as he remained loyal to God, all nature acknowledged his rule; but when he transgressed, this dominion was forfeited. The spirit of rebellion, to which he himself had given entrance, extended throughout the animal creation....
CC	19	5	But man was not abandoned to the results of the evil he had chosen. In the sentence pronounced upon Satan was given an intimation of redemption.... This sentence, spoken in the hearing of our first parents, was to them a promise. Before they heard of the thorn and the thistle, of the toil and sorrow that must be their portion, or of the dust to which they must return, they listened to words that could not fail of giving them hope. All that had been lost by yielding to Satan could be regained through Christ.17
CC	19	6	After the transgression of Adam, God might have destroyed every opening bud and blooming flower, or He might have taken away their fragrance, so grateful to the senses. In the earth seared and marred by the curse, in the briers, the thistles, the thorns, the tares, we may read the law of condemnation; but in the delicate color and perfume of the flowers, we may learn that God still loves us, that His mercy is not wholly withdrawn from the earth.18
------------------------Between God and Man, January 14
			Genesis 3:22-24
CC	20	1	Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25.
CC	20	2	The Lord did not place in Adam fallen and disobedient, the confidence He placed in Adam loyal and true.... The rewards of heaven are not granted to transgressors....
CC	20	3	The eyes of Adam and Eve were indeed opened, but to what? To see their own shame and ruin, to realize that the garments of heavenly light which had been their protection were no longer around them as their safeguard. Their eyes were opened to see that nakedness was the fruit of transgression. As they heard God in the garden, they hid themselves from Him; for they anticipated that which till their fall they had not known,--the condemnation of God....
CC	20	4	God has declared that man's only means of safety is entire obedience to all His words. We are not to make the experiment of testing the evil course, with all its results. This will bring weakness through disobedience. God's plan was to give man clear-sightedness in all his work....
CC	20	5	There was to be co-operation between man and God. But this plan was greatly interfered with by Adam's transgression. Satan led him to sin, and the Lord would not communicate with him after he had sinned as he did when he was without sin.
CC	20	6	After the fall Christ became Adam's instructor. He acted in God's stead toward humanity, saving the race from immediate death. He took upon him the office of mediator. Adam and Eve were given a probation in which to return to their allegiance, and in this plan all their posterity were embraced.19
CC	20	7	Without the atonement of the Son of God there could have been no communication of blessing or salvation from God to man. God was jealous for the honor of His law. The transgression of that law had caused a fearful separation between God and man. To Adam in his innocence was granted communion, direct, free, and happy, with his Maker. After his transgression, God would communicate to man only through Christ and angels.20
------------------------One Expensive Mistake, January 15
CC	21	1	God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. Ecclesiastes 7:29.
CC	21	2	The book of Genesis gives quite a definite account of social and individual life, and yet we have no record of an infant's being born blind, deaf, crippled, deformed, or imbecile. There is not an instance upon record of a natural death in infancy, childhood, or early manhood. There is no account of men and women dying of disease. Obituary notices in the book of Genesis run thus: "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died." "And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died." ...
CC	21	3	God endowed man with so great vital force that he has withstood the accumulation of disease brought upon the race in consequence of perverted habits, and has continued for six thousand years. This fact of itself is enough to evidence to us the strength and electrical energy that God gave to man at his creation.... If Adam, at his creation, had not been endowed with twenty times as much vital force as men now have, the race, with their present habits of living in violation of natural law, would have become extinct....
CC	21	4	God did not create the race in its present feeble condition. This state of things is not the work of Providence, but the work of man; it has been brought about by wrong habits and abuses, by violating the laws that God has made to govern man's existence.21
CC	21	5	God created man for His own glory, that after test and trial the human family might become one with the heavenly family. It was God's purpose to re-populate heaven with the human family, if they would show themselves obedient to His every word.22
CC	21	6	To Eve it seemed a small thing to disobey God by tasting the fruit of the forbidden tree, and to tempt her husband also to transgress; but their sin opened the floodgates of woe upon the world. Who can know, in the moment of temptation, the terrible consequences that will result from one wrong step?23
------------------------By Word of Mouth, January 16
CC	22	1	And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. Genesis 5:5.
CC	22	2	Adam's life was one of sorrow, humility, and continual repentance. As he taught his children and grandchildren the fear of the Lord, he was often bitterly reproached for the sin which had resulted in so much misery to his posterity. When he left beautiful Eden, the thought that he must die thrilled him with horror. He looked upon death as a dreadful calamity.... Most bitterly did he reproach himself for his first great transgression. He entreated pardon from God through the promised Sacrifice. Deeply had he felt the wrath of God for his crime committed in Paradise. He witnessed the general corruption which finally provoked God to destroy the inhabitants of the earth by a flood. Though the sentence of death pronounced upon him by his Maker at first appeared so terrible to him, yet after he had lived some hundreds of years, it looked just and merciful in God, thus to bring to an end a miserable life.
CC	22	3	As Adam witnessed the first signs of decay in the falling leaf and in the drooping flowers, he mourned more deeply than men now mourn over their dead. The dying flowers were not so great a cause of grief, because they were more tender and delicate; but when the tall stately trees cast off their leaves to decay, it presented before him the general dissolution of beautiful nature, which God had created for the especial benefit of man.
CC	22	4	To his children, and to their children, to the ninth generation, Adam delineated the perfections of his Eden home; and also his fall and its dreadful results.... He declared to them that sin would be punished, in whatever form it existed; and he entreated them to obey God, who would deal mercifully with them if they should love and fear Him.
CC	22	5	Adam was commanded to teach his descendants the fear of the Lord, and, by his example of humble obedience, lead them to highly regard the offerings which typified a Saviour to come. Adam carefully treasured what God had revealed to him, and handed it down by word of mouth to his children and children's children. By this means the knowledge of God was preserved.24
------------------------Home Again! January 17
CC	23	1	For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23.
CC	23	2	Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints.... The dead shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live. And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people....
CC	23	3	All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when they entered the tomb. Adam, who stands among the risen throng, is of lofty height and majestic form, in stature but little below the Son of God. He presents a marked contrast to the people of later generations; in this one respect is shown the great degeneracy of the race. But all arise with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth....
CC	23	4	All blemishes and deformities are left in the grave. Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will "grow up" to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory....
CC	23	5	As the ransomed ones are welcomed to the City of God, there rings out upon the air an exultant cry of adoration. The two Adams are about to meet. The Son of God is standing with outstretched arms to receive the father of our race--the being whom He created, who sinned against his Maker, and for whose sin the marks of the crucifixion are borne upon the Saviour's form. As Adam discerns the prints of the cruel nails, he does not fall upon the bosom of his Lord, but in humiliation casts himself at His feet, crying: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" Tenderly the Saviour lifts him up and bids him look once more upon the Eden home from which he has so long been exiled....
CC	23	6	This reunion is witnessed by the angels who wept at the fall of Adam and rejoiced when Jesus, after His resurrection, ascended to heaven, having opened the grave for all who should believe on His name. Now they behold the work of redemption accomplished, and they unite their voices in the song of praise.25
------------------------It's Up to You, January 18
			Genesis 4:1-5
CC	24	1	By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Hebrews 11:4.
CC	24	2	Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam, differed widely in character. Abel had a spirit of loyalty to God; he saw justice and mercy in the Creator's dealings with the fallen race, and gratefully accepted the hope of redemption. But Cain cherished feelings of rebellion, and murmured against God because of the curse pronounced upon the earth and upon the human race for Adam's sin. He permitted his mind to run in the same channel that led to Satan's fall--indulging the desire for self-exaltation and questioning the divine justice and authority....
CC	24	3	These two brothers erected their altars alike, and each brought an offering. Abel presented a sacrifice from the flock, in accordance with the Lord's directions. "And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering." Fire flashed from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. But Cain, disregarding the Lord's direct and explicit command, presented only an offering of fruit. There was no token from heaven to show that it was accepted....
CC	24	4	Abel grasped the great principles of redemption. He saw himself a sinner, and he saw sin and its penalty, death, standing between his soul and communion with God. He brought the slain victim, the sacrificed life, thus acknowledging the claims of the law that had been transgressed. Through the shed blood he looked to the future sacrifice, Christ dying on the cross of Calvary; and trusting in the atonement that was there to be made, he had the witness that he was righteous, and his offering accepted.
CC	24	5	Cain had the same opportunity of learning and accepting these truths as had Abel. He was not the victim of an arbitrary purpose. One brother was not elected to be accepted of God, and the other to be rejected. Abel chose faith and obedience; Cain, unbelief and rebellion. Here the whole matter rested.26
------------------------Two Ways to Go, January 19
			Genesis 4:1-5
CC	25	1	And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. Genesis 4:4, 5.
CC	25	2	Cain came before God with murmuring and infidelity in his heart in regard to the promised sacrifice and the necessity of the sacrificial offerings. His gift expressed no penitence for sin. He felt, as many now feel, that it would be an acknowledgement of weakness to follow the exact plan marked out by God, of trusting his salvation wholly to the atonement of the promised Saviour. He chose the course of self-dependence. He would come in his own merits. He would not bring the lamb, and mingle its blood with his offering, but would present his fruits, the products of his labor. He presented his offering as a favor done to God, through which he expected to secure the divine approval. Cain obeyed in building an altar, obeyed in bringing a sacrifice, but he rendered only a partial obedience. The essential part, the recognition of the need of a Redeemer, was left out....
CC	25	3	Cain and Abel represent two classes that will exist in the world till the close of time. One class avail themselves of the appointed sacrifice for sin; the other venture to depend upon their own merits; theirs is a sacrifice without the virtue of divine mediation, and thus it is not able to bring man into favor with God. It is only through the merits of Jesus that our transgressions can be pardoned....
CC	25	4	It is claimed by some that the human race is in need, not of redemption, but of development--that it can refine, elevate, and regenerate itself. As Cain thought to secure the divine favor by an offering that lacked the blood of a sacrifice, so do these expect to exalt humanity to the divine standard, independent of the atonement. This history of Cain shows what must be the result. It shows what man will become apart from Christ. Humanity has no power to regenerate itself. It does not tend upward, toward the divine, but downward, toward the satanic. Christ is our only hope. "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." "Neither is there salvation in any other" (Acts 4:12).27
------------------------Your Face is Telling, January 20
			Genesis 4:3-7
CC	26	1	And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. Genesis 4:6, 7.
CC	26	2	The Lord saw the wrath of Cain. He saw the falling of his countenance. Thus is revealed how closely the Lord marks every action, all the intents and purposes, yes, even the expression of the countenance. This, though man may say nothing, expresses his refusal to do the way and will of God.28
CC	26	3	Mark the words of the Lord....This question may be addressed to every young man and young woman who, like Cain, reveal their passion ... when acting out the promptings of Satan, which are in direct opposition to the requirements of God.29
CC	26	4	If you choose to throw off the sacred, restraining influence of the truth, Satan will lead you captive at his will. You will be in danger of giving scope to your appetites and passions, giving loose rein to lusts, to evil and abominable desires. Instead of bearing in your countenance a calm serenity under trial and affliction, like faithful Enoch, having your face radiant with hope and that peace which passeth understanding, you will stamp your countenance with carnal thoughts, with lustful desires. You will bear the impress of the satanic instead of the divine.30
CC	26	5	Many children and youth have their characters imprinted on their countenances. Their life's history they carry in the features of the face.... If Christ is the abiding principle in the heart, you may read purity, refinement, peace, and love in the features. In other countenances, an evil character hangs out the sign; selfishness, cunning, deceit, falsehood, enmity, and jealousy are expressed there. How difficult it is for truth to impress the hearts and countenances of such characters! ...
CC	26	6	All spiritual culture Christ has provided for His children. If Jesus is abiding in the soul, the heart is filled with the holy graces of His Spirit, which makes itself manifest in the transforming of the features. If you would have beauty and loveliness of character, the divine law must be written upon the heart and carried out in the life.31
------------------------Cain Went Out, January 21
			Genesis 4:8-16
CC	27	1	And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. Genesis 4:16.
CC	27	2	God had given Cain an opportunity to confess his sin.... He knew the enormity of the deed he had done, and of the falsehood he had uttered to conceal it; but he was rebellious still, and sentence was no longer deferred....
CC	27	3	Notwithstanding that Cain had by his crimes merited the sentence of death, a merciful Creator still spared his life, and granted him opportunity for repentance. But Cain lived only to harden his heart, to encourage rebellion against the divine authority, and to become the head of a line of bold, abandoned sinners. This one apostate, led on by Satan, became a tempter to others; and his example and influence exerted their demoralizing power, until the earth became so corrupt and filled with violence as to call for its destruction....
CC	27	4	Upon receiving the curse of God, Cain had withdrawn from his father's household.... He had gone out from the presence of the Lord, cast away the promise of the restored Eden, to seek his possessions and enjoyment in the earth under the curse of sin, thus standing at the head of that great class of men who worship the god of this world. In that which pertains to mere earthly and material progress, his descendants became distinguished. But they were regardless of God, and in opposition to His purposes for man.32
CC	27	5	In sparing the life of Cain the murderer, God gave the world an example of what would be the result of permitting the sinner to live to continue a course of unbridled iniquity. Through the influence of Cain's teaching and example, multitudes of his descendants were led into sin, until "the wickedness of man was great in the earth," and "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."33
CC	27	6	As Cain went out from the presence of the Lord to seek his home; as the prodigal wandered into the "far country," so do sinners seek happiness in forgetfulness of God.34
------------------------He Walked with God, January 22
			Genesis 5:21-24
CC	28	1	Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years. Genesis 5:21, 22.
CC	28	2	Of Enoch it is written that he lived sixty-five years, and begat a son.... During these earlier years Enoch had loved and feared God and had kept His commandments.... But after the birth of his first son, Enoch reached a higher experience; he was drawn into a closer relationship with God. He realized more fully his own obligations and responsibility as a son of God. And as he saw the child's love for its father, its simple trust in his protection; as he felt the deep, yearning tenderness of his own heart for that firstborn son, he learned a precious lesson of the wonderful love of God to men in the gift of His Son, and the confidence which the children of God may repose in their heavenly Father. The infinite, unfathomable love of God through Christ became the subject of his meditation day and night; and with all the fervor of his soul he sought to reveal that love to the people among whom he dwelt.
CC	28	3	Enoch's walk with God was not in a trance or a vision, but in all the duties of his daily life. He did not become a hermit, shutting himself entirely from the world; for he had a work to do for God in the world. In the family and in his intercourse with men, as a husband and father, a friend, a citizen, he was the steadfast, unwavering servant of the Lord.... And this holy walk was continued for three hundred years. There are few Christians who would not be far more earnest and devoted if they knew that they had but a short time to live, or that the coming of Christ was about to take place. But Enoch's faith waxed the stronger, his love became more ardent, with the lapse of centuries.35
CC	28	4	He [Enoch] was of one mind with God.... If we are of one mind with God, our will will be swallowed up in God's will, and we shall follow wherever God leads the way. As a loving child places his hand in that of his father, and walks with him in perfect trust whether it is dark or bright, so the sons and daughters of God are to walk with Jesus through joy or sorrow.36
------------------------God Took Him, January 23
			Genesis 5:21-24
CC	29	1	Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Genesis 5:24.
CC	29	2	Enoch, we read, walked with God three hundred years. That was a long time to be in communion with Him.... He communed with God because it was agreeable to him, ... and he loved the society of God.37
CC	29	3	Enoch was a marked character. Many look upon his life as something above what the generality of mortals can ever reach. But Enoch's life and character ... represent what the lives and characters of all must be, if like Enoch, they are subjects to be translated when Christ shall come. His life was what the life of every individual may be if he closely connects with God. We should remember that Enoch was surrounded with influences so depraved that God brought a flood of waters on the world to destroy its inhabitants for their corruption.38
CC	29	4	We are living in an evil age. The perils of the last days thicken around us. Because iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold....
CC	29	5	Enoch's case is before us.... He lived in a corrupt age, when moral pollution was teeming all round him; yet he trained his mind to devotion, to love purity. His conversation was upon heavenly things. He educated his mind to run in this channel, and he bore the impress of the divine. His countenance was lighted up with the light which shineth in the face of Jesus.
CC	29	6	Enoch had temptations as well as we. He was surrounded with society no more friendly to righteousness than is that which surrounds us. The atmosphere he breathed was tainted with sin and corruption, the same as ours; yet he lived a life of holiness. He was unsullied with the prevailing sins of the age in which he lived. So may we remain pure and uncorrupted. He was a representative of the saints who live amid the perils and corruptions of the last days. For his faithful obedience to God he was translated. So, also, the faithful, who are alive and remain, will be translated. They will be removed from a sinful and corrupt world to the pure joys of heaven.39
CC	29	7	Our present work is to come out from the world and be separate. This is the only way we can walk with God, as did Enoch.40
------------------------Looking at Christ, January 24
			Jude 14, 15
CC	30	1	But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
CC	30	2	In the midst of a life of active labor, Enoch steadfastly maintained his communion with God. The greater and more pressing his labors, the more constant and earnest were his prayers. He continued to exclude himself at certain periods from all society. After remaining for a time among the people, laboring to benefit them by instruction and example, he would withdraw, to spend a season in solitude, hungering and thirsting for that divine knowledge which God alone can impart. Communing thus with God, Enoch came more and more to reflect the divine image. His face was radiant with a holy light, even the light that shineth in the face of Jesus. As he came forth from these divine communings, even the ungodly beheld with awe the impress of heaven upon his countenance.41
CC	30	3	Enoch kept the Lord ever before him.... He made Christ his constant companion. He was in the world, and performed his duties to the world; but he was ever under the influence of Jesus. He reflected Christ's character, exhibiting the same qualities of goodness, mercy, tender compassion, sympathy, forbearance, meekness, humility, and love. His association with Christ day by day transformed him into the image of Him with whom he was so intimately connected. Day by day he was growing away from his own way into Christ's way, the heavenly, the divine, in his thoughts and feelings.42
CC	30	4	If we keep the Lord ever before us, allowing our hearts to go out in thanksgiving and praise to Him, we shall have a continual freshness in our religious life. Our prayers will take the form of a conversation with God as we would talk with a friend. He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Often there will come to us a sweet, joyful sense of the presence of Jesus. Often our hearts will burn within us as He draws nigh to commune with us as He did with Enoch. When this is in truth the experience of the Christian, there is seen in his life a simplicity, a humility, meekness, and lowliness of heart, that show to all with whom he associates that he has been with Jesus and learned of Him.43
------------------------An Open Door, January 25
CC	31	1	By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Hebrews 11:5.
CC	31	2	When we learn to walk by faith and not by feeling, we shall have help from God just when we need it, and His peace will come into our hearts. It was this simple life of obedience and trust that Enoch lived. If we learn this lesson of simple trust, ours may be the testimony that he received, that he pleased God.44
CC	31	3	In every phase of your character building you are to please God. This you may do; for Enoch pleased Him though living in a degenerate age. And there are Enochs in this our day.45
CC	31	4	For three hundred years Enoch had been seeking purity of heart, that he might be in harmony with heaven. For three centuries he had walked with God. Day by day he had longed for a closer union; nearer and nearer had grown the communion, until God took him to Himself. He had stood at the threshold of the eternal world, only a step between him and the land of the blest; and now the portals opened, the walk with God, so long pursued on earth, continued, and he passed through the gates of the holy city,--the first from among men to enter there.46
CC	31	5	With the word of God in his hands, every human being, wherever his lot in life may be cast, may have such companionship as he shall choose. In its pages he may hold converse with the noblest and best of the human race, and may listen to the voice of the Eternal as He speaks with men.... He may dwell in this world in the atmosphere of heaven, imparting to earth's sorrowing and tempted ones thoughts of hope and longings for holiness; ... like him of old who walked with God, drawing nearer and nearer the threshold of the eternal world, until the portals shall open, and he shall enter there. He will find himself no stranger. The voices that will greet him are the voices of the holy ones, who, unseen, were on earth his companions--voices that here he learned to distinguish and to love. He who through the word of God has lived in fellowship with heaven, will find himself at home in heaven's companionship.47
------------------------God or Idols? January 26
			Genesis 6:1-8
CC	32	1	Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.... They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. Psalm 115:4-8.
CC	32	2	In the days of Noah a double curse was resting upon the earth in consequence of Adam's transgression and of the murder committed by Cain. Yet this had not greatly changed the face of nature.... The human race yet retained much of its early vigor. But a few generations had passed since Adam had access to the tree which was to prolong life; and man's existence was still measured by centuries. Had that long-lived people with their rare powers to plan and execute, devoted themselves to the service of God, they would have made their Creator's name a praise in the earth.... But they failed to do this....
CC	32	3	Not desiring to retain God in their knowledge, they soon came to deny His existence. They adored nature in place of the God of nature.... Extensive groves, that retained their foliage throughout the year, were dedicated to the worship of false gods.... Men put God out of their knowledge and worshiped the creatures of their own imagination; and as the result, they became more and more debased.48
CC	32	4	The men of that generation were not all, in the fullest acceptation of the term, idolaters. Many professed to be worshipers of God. They claimed that their idols were representations of the Deity and that through them the people could obtain a clearer conception of the divine Being. This class were foremost in rejecting the preaching of Noah. As they endeavored to represent God by material objects, their minds were blinded to His majesty and power; they ceased to realize the holiness of His character, or the sacred, unchanging nature of His requirements.49
CC	32	5	Man will rise no higher than his conceptions of truth, purity, and holiness. If the mind is never exalted above the level of humanity, if it is not uplifted by faith to contemplate infinite wisdom and love, the man will be constantly sinking lower and lower. The worshipers of false gods clothed their deities with human attributes and passions, and thus their standard of character was degraded to the likeness of sinful humanity.50
------------------------Giants in the Land, January 27
			Genesis 6:1-8
CC	33	1	There were giants in the earth in those days. Genesis 6:4.
CC	33	2	The first people upon the earth received their instructions from that infinite God who created the world. Those who received their knowledge direct from infinite wisdom were not deficient in knowledge....
CC	33	3	There are many inventions and improvements, and labor-saving machines now that the ancients did not have. They did not need them....
CC	33	4	Men before the flood lived many hundreds of years, and when one hundred years old were considered but youths. Those long-lived men had sound minds in sound bodies.... They came upon the stage of action from the ages of sixty to one hundred years, about the time those who now live the longest have acted their part in their little short life time, and have passed off the stage.51
CC	33	5	There were many giants, men of great stature and strength, renowned for wisdom, skillful in devising the most cunning and wonderful works; but their guilt in giving loose rein to iniquity was in proportion to their skill and mental ability.
CC	33	6	God bestowed upon these antediluvians many and rich gifts; but they used His bounties to glorify themselves, and turned them into a curse by fixing their affections upon the gifts instead of the Giver. They employed the gold and silver, the precious stones and the choice wood, in the construction of habitations for themselves, and endeavored to excel one another in beautifying their dwellings with the most skillful workmanship. They sought only to gratify the desires of their own proud hearts, and reveled in scenes of pleasure and wickedness.52
CC	33	7	They became corrupt in their imagination, because they left God out of their plans and councils. They were wise to do what God had never told them to do, wise to do evil.... They used the probation so graciously granted them in ridiculing Noah. They caricatured him and criticized him. They laughed at him for his peculiar earnestness and intense feeling in regard to the judgments which he declared God would surely fulfill. They talked of science and of the laws controlling nature. Then they held a carnival over the words of Noah, calling him a crazy fanatic.53
------------------------Abused Talents, January 28
CC	34	1	And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron. Genesis 4:21, 22.
CC	34	2	There perished in the Flood greater inventions of art and human skill than the world knows of today. The arts destroyed were more than the boasted arts of today....
CC	34	3	Looking upon the world, God saw that the intellect He had given man was perverted, that the imagination of his heart was evil and that continually. God had given these men knowledge. He had given them valuable ideas, that they might carry out His plan. But the Lord saw that those whom He designed should possess wisdom, tact, and judgment, were using every quality of the mind to glorify self. By the waters of the Flood, He blotted this long-lived race from the earth, and with them perished the knowledge they had used only for evil. When the earth was repeopled, the Lord trusted His wisdom more sparingly to men, giving them only the ability they would need in carrying out His great plan.54
CC	34	4	The world today takes much satisfaction in talking of the progress of the age. But in this God does not delight. It may be said of the men of this time, as of those before the flood, They have sought out many inventions. In the antediluvian world there were many wonderful works of art and science. These descendants of Adam, fresh from the hand of God, possessed capabilities and powers that we never now look upon.55
CC	34	5	Those who lived before the flood were only a few steps from God, the Creator of the world and its inhabitants. The long life and large intellect given to these men might have been used in God's service. But their intellectual strength, that mighty power, was perverted to dishonor God....
CC	34	6	When men separate from God, they place themselves under the control of Satan. Talents have been given to men that they may be used in God's service.... There is only one safe way for any man, and that is the way of obedience to a "Thus saith the Lord."56
------------------------An Affluent Society, January 29
CC	35	1	In the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking ... and knew not until the flood came and took them all away. Matthew 24:38, 39.
CC	35	2	The sin of the Noatic world was intemperance, and today the sin exhibited by intemperance in eating and drinking is so marked that God will not always tolerate it.... Man carries to excess that which is lawful, and his whole being suffers the result of the violation of the laws which the Lord has established.
CC	35	3	Intemperance in eating and drinking is on the increase. Tables are spread with all kinds of food with which to satisfy the epicurean appetite. Suffering must follow this course of action. The vital force of the system cannot bear up under the tax placed on it, and it finally breaks down.
CC	35	4	God ... will not work a miracle to counteract a perverse violation of the laws of health and life.... Man should estimate himself by the price which has been paid for him. When he places this value upon himself, he will not knowingly abuse one of his physical or mental faculties. It is an insult to the God of heaven for man to abuse his precious powers by placing himself under the control of Satanic agencies, and besotting himself by indulging in that which is ruinous to health, to piety, and to spirituality.57
CC	35	5	Though the wickedness of the world was so great, yet the Lord gave men one hundred and twenty years of probation, in which, if they would, they could repent. But notwithstanding the forbearance of a good and merciful God, the people did not improve their opportunities. For a little time they were awed, and afraid to go on as recklessly as they had done. Then, depraved habits prevailed over restraint. In proportion as the people resisted conviction, their discernment was clouded, and their desire to follow a course of ungodliness strengthened.58
CC	35	6	It is necessary for us to eat and to drink that we may have physical strength to serve the Lord, but when we carry our eating to gluttony, without a thought of pleasing our heavenly Father, eating just that which is pleasing to our taste, we are doing just as they did in the days of Noah.59
------------------------Marrying and Giving in Marriage, January 30
			Genesis 6:1-8
CC	36	1	In the days that were before the flood they were ... marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark. Matthew 24:38.
CC	36	2	In Noah's day brute force was the prevailing influence in the world. By threatened punishment, men intimidated other men.60
CC	36	3	Instead of doing justice to their neighbors, they carried out their own unlawful wishes. They had a plurality of wives, which was contrary to God's wise arrangement. In the beginning God gave to Adam one wife--showing to all who should live upon the earth, his order and law in that respect. The transgression and fall of Adam and Eve brought sin and wretchedness upon the human race, and man followed his own carnal desires, and changed God's order. The more men multiplied wives to themselves, the more they increased in wickedness and unhappiness. If one chose to take the wives, or cattle, or anything belonging to his neighbor, he did not regard justice or right but if he could prevail over his neighbor by reason of strength, or by putting him to death, he did so, and exulted in his deeds of violence. They loved to destroy the lives of animals. They used them for food, and this increased their ferocity and violence, and caused them to look upon the blood of human beings with astonishing indifference.61
CC	36	4	The descendants of Seth were called the sons of God; the descendants of Cain, the sons of men. As the sons of God mingled with the sons of men, they became corrupt and, by intermarriage with them, lost, through the influence of their wives, their peculiar, holy character, and united with the sons of Cain in their idolatry. Many cast aside the fear of God and trampled upon His commandments. But there were a few that did righteousness, who feared and honored their Creator. Noah and his family were among the righteous few.62
CC	36	5	Polygamy was practiced at an early date. It was one of the sins that brought the wrath of God upon the antediluvian world.... It was Satan's studied effort to pervert the marriage institution, to weaken its obligations and lessen its sacredness; for in no surer way could he deface the image of God in man and open the door to misery and vice.63
------------------------Until the Day ..., January 31
			Genesis 6:11-13
CC	37	1	And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. 2 Peter 2:5.
CC	37	2	God warned the inhabitants of the old world of what He purposed to do in cleansing the earth of its impurity. But they laughed to scorn what they regarded as a superstitious prediction.64
CC	37	3	Many at first appeared to receive the warning; yet they did not turn to God with true repentance. They were unwilling to renounce their sins. During the time that elapsed before the coming of the Flood, their faith was tested, and they failed to endure the trial. Overcome by the prevailing unbelief, they finally joined their former associates in rejecting the solemn message. Some were deeply convicted, and would have heeded the words of warning; but there were so many to jest and ridicule, that they partook of the same spirit, ... and were soon among the boldest and most defiant scoffers; for none are so reckless and go to such lengths in sin as do those who have once had light but have resisted the convicting Spirit of God.65
CC	37	4	They continued their festivities and their gluttonous feasts; they ate and drank, planted and builded, laying their plans in reference to advantages they hoped to gain in the future; and they went to greater lengths in wickedness, and in defiant disregard of God's requirements, to testify that they had no fear of the Infinite One....
CC	37	5	Had the antediluvians believed the warning, and repented of their evil deeds, the Lord would have turned aside His wrath, as He afterward did from Nineveh. But by their obstinate resistance to the reproofs of conscience and the warnings of God's prophet, that generation filled up the measure of their iniquity, and became ripe for destruction.66
CC	37	6	The Lord has sent us, by His ambassadors, messages of warning, declaring that the end of all things is at hand. Some will listen to these warnings, but by the vast majority they will be disregarded.
CC	37	7	Thus will it be when Christ comes. Farmers, merchants, lawyers, tradesmen, will be wholly engrossed in business, and upon them the day of the Lord will come as a snare.67
------------------------Build an Ark, February 1
			Genesis 6:5-22
CC	38	1	And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark. Genesis 6:13, 14.
CC	38	2	God gave Noah the exact dimensions of the ark and explicit directions in regard to its construction in every particular. Human wisdom could not have devised a structure of so great strength and durability. God was the designer, and Noah the master builder. It was constructed like the hull of a ship, that it might float upon the water, but in some respects it more nearly resembled a house.... The material employed in the construction of the ark was the cypress, or gopher wood, which would be untouched by decay for hundreds of years. The building of this immense structure was a slow and laborious process.1
CC	38	3	The race of men then living were of very great stature, and possessed wonderful strength. The trees were vastly larger, and far surpassing in beauty and perfect proportions anything mortals can now look upon. The wood of these trees was of fine grain and hard substance--in this respect more like stone. It required much more time and labor, even of that powerful race, to prepare the timber for building, than it requires in this degenerate age to prepare trees that are now growing upon the earth, even with the present weaker strength men now possess.2
CC	38	4	Every piece of timber was closely fitted, and every seam covered with pitch. All that men could do was done to make the work perfect; yet, after all, God alone could preserve the building upon the angry, heaving billows, by His miraculous power.3
CC	38	5	Methuselah and his sons, and grandsons, lived in the time of the building of the ark. They, with some others, received instruction from Noah, and assisted him in building the ark.4
CC	38	6	While Noah was giving his warning message to the world, his works testified of his sincerity. It was thus that his faith was perfected and made evident. He gave the world an example of believing just what God says. All that he possessed, he invested in the ark.... Every blow struck upon the ark was a witness to the people.5
------------------------Safe Inside, February 2
			Genesis 7
CC	39	1	And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Genesis 7:1.
CC	39	2	Noah had faithfully followed the instructions which he had received from God. The ark was finished in every part as the Lord had directed, and was stored with food for man and beast. And now the servant of God made his last solemn appeal to the people. With an agony of desire that words cannot express, he entreated them to seek a refuge while it might be found. Again they rejected his words, and raised their voices in jest and scoffing. Suddenly a silence fell upon the mocking throng. Beasts of every description, the fiercest as well as the most gentle, were seen coming from mountain and forest and quietly making their way toward the ark. A noise as of a rushing wind was heard, and lo, birds were flocking from all directions, their numbers darkening the heavens, and in perfect order they passed to the ark. Animals obeyed the command of God, while men were disobedient.6
CC	39	3	When they saw the beasts come from the forests to the door of the ark, and Noah take them in, they had so long resisted, so long denied the message that God had given them, that ... conscience had become unimpressible.7
CC	39	4	Mercy had ceased its pleadings for the guilty race. The beasts of the field and the birds of the air had entered the place of refuge. Noah and his household were within the ark, "and the Lord shut him in." ... The massive door, which it was impossible for those within to close, was slowly swung to its place by unseen hands. Noah was shut in, and the rejecters of God's mercy were shut out. The seal of Heaven was on that door; God had shut it, and God alone could open it. So when Christ shall cease His intercession for guilty men, before His coming in the clouds of heaven, the door of mercy will be shut. Then divine grace will no longer restrain the wicked, and Satan will have full control of those who have rejected mercy. They will endeavor to destroy God's people; but as Noah was shut into the ark, so the righteous will be shielded by divine power.8
------------------------After Seven Days, February 3
			Genesis 7
CC	40	1	And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. Genesis 7:10.
CC	40	2	For seven days after Noah and his family entered the ark, there appeared no sign of the coming storm. During this period their faith was tested. It was a time of triumph to the world without. The apparent delay confirmed them in the belief that Noah's message was a delusion, and that the Flood would never come. Notwithstanding the solemn scenes which they had witnessed ... they still continued their sport and revelry, even making a jest of these signal manifestations of God's power. They gathered in crowds about the ark, deriding its inmates with a daring violence which they had never ventured upon before.9
CC	40	3	At the end of seven days clouds began to gather. This was a new sight; for the people had never seen clouds.... Soon rain began to fall. Still the people tried to think that this was nothing very alarming.... For a time the ground drank up the rain; but soon the water began to rise, and day by day it rose higher and higher. Each morning as the people found the rain still falling they looked at one another in despair, and each night they repeated the words, "Raining still!"10
CC	40	4	The people first beheld the destruction of the works of their own hands. Their splendid buildings, and the beautiful gardens and groves where they had placed their idols, were destroyed by lightning from heaven, and the ruins were scattered far and wide.... The terror of man and beast was beyond description. Above the roar of the tempest was heard the wailing of a people that had despised the authority of God.... In that terrible hour they saw that the transgression of God's law had caused their ruin. Yet while, through fear of punishment, they acknowledged their sin, they felt no true contrition, no abhorrence of evil. They would have returned to their defiance of Heaven, had the judgment been removed. So when God's judgments shall fall upon the earth before its deluge by fire, the impenitent will know just where and what their sin is--the despising of His holy law. Yet they will have no more true repentance than did the old-world sinners.11
------------------------As it was in the Days of Noah, February 4
			Genesis 6:5-13
CC	41	1	And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Luke 17:26, 27.
CC	41	2	God did not condemn the antediluvians for eating and drinking; He had given them the fruits of the earth in great abundance to supply their physical wants. Their sin consisted in taking these gifts without gratitude to the Giver, and debasing themselves by indulging appetite without restraint. It was lawful for them to marry. Marriage was in God's order; it was one of the first institutions which He established. He gave special directions concerning this ordinance, clothing it with sanctity and beauty; but these directions were forgotten, and marriage was perverted and made to minister to passion.
CC	41	3	A similar condition of things exists now. That which is lawful in itself is carried to excess. Appetite is indulged without restraint.... Multitudes feel under no moral obligation to curb their sensual desires, and they become the slaves of lust. Men are living for the pleasures of sense; for this world and this life alone.... The picture which Inspiration has given of the antediluvian world represents too truly the condition to which modern society is fast hastening....
CC	41	4	As the time of their probation was closing, the antediluvians gave themselves up to exciting amusements and festivities. Those who possessed influence and power were bent on keeping the minds of the people engrossed with mirth and pleasure, lest any should be impressed by the last solemn warning.12
CC	41	5	Before the Flood God sent Noah to warn the world, that the people might be led to repentance, and thus escape the threatened destruction. As the time of Christ's second appearing draws near, the Lord sends His servants with a warning to the world to prepare for that great event. Multitudes have been living in transgression of God's law, and now He in mercy calls them to obey its sacred precepts. All who will put away their sins by repentance toward God and faith in Christ are offered pardon.13
------------------------God Comes Down to See, February 5
			Genesis 11:1-9
CC	42	1	Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." Genesis 11:4, R.S.V.
CC	42	2	For a time the descendants of Noah continued to dwell among the mountains where the ark had rested. As their numbers increased, apostasy soon led to division. Those who desired to forget their Creator and to cast off the restraint of His law felt a constant annoyance from the teaching and example of their God-fearing associates, and after a time they decided to separate from the worshipers of God. Accordingly they journeyed to the plain of Shinar, on the banks of the river Euphrates.... Here they decided to build a city, and in it a tower of such stupendous height as should render it the wonder of the world....
CC	42	3	The dwellers on the plain of Shinar disbelieved God's covenant that He would not again bring a flood upon the earth. Many of them denied the existence of God and attributed the Flood to the operation of natural causes. Others believed in a Supreme Being, and that it was He who had destroyed the antediluvian world; and their hearts, like that of Cain, rose up in rebellion against Him. One object before them in the erection of the tower was to secure their own safety in case of another deluge. By carrying the structure to a much greater height than was reached by the waters of the Flood, they thought to place themselves beyond all possibility of danger. And as they would be able to ascend to the region of the clouds, they hoped to ascertain the cause of the Flood....
CC	42	4	There are tower builders in our time. Infidels construct their theories from the supposed deductions of science, and reject the revealed word of God.... In the professedly Christian world many turn away from the plain teachings of the Bible and build up a creed from human speculations and pleasing fables, and they point to their tower as a way to climb up to heaven....
CC	42	5	The time of God's investigation is at hand. The Most High will come down to see that which the children of men have builded. His sovereign power will be revealed; the works of human pride will be laid low.14
------------------------Confused and Scattered, February 6
			Genesis 11:1-9
CC	43	1	So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Genesis 11:8.
CC	43	2	The dwellers on the plain of Shinar established their kingdom for self-exaltation, not for the glory of God. Had they succeeded, a mighty power would have borne sway, banishing righteousness and inaugurating a new religion. The world would have been demoralized.... But God never leaves the world without witnesses for Him. At this time there were men who humbled themselves before God and cried unto Him. "O God," they pleaded, "interpose between Thy cause, and the plans and methods of men."15
CC	43	3	When the tower had been partially completed, a portion of it was occupied as a dwelling place for the builders; other apartments, splendidly furnished and adorned, were devoted to their idols....
CC	43	4	Suddenly the work that had been advancing so prosperously was checked. Angels were sent to bring to naught the purpose of the builders. The tower had reached a lofty height, and it was impossible for the workmen at the top to communicate directly with those at the base; therefore men were stationed at different points, each to receive and report to the one next below him the orders for needed material or other directions concerning the work. As messages were thus passing from one to another the language was confounded, so that material was called for which was not needed, and the directions delivered were often the reverse of those that had been given. Confusion and dismay followed. All work came to a standstill....
CC	43	5	Up to this time all men had spoken the same language; now those that could understand one another's speech united in companies; some went one way, and some another. "The Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth." This dispersion was the means of peopling the earth, and thus the Lord's purpose was accomplished through the very means that men had employed to prevent its fulfillment.16
CC	43	6	In our day the Lord desires that His people shall be dispersed throughout the earth. They are not to colonize. Jesus said: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).17
------------------------No Questions Asked, February 7
			Genesis 12:1-9
CC	44	1	By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. Hebrews 11:8.
CC	44	2	Abraham had grown up in the midst of superstition and heathenism. Even his father's household, by whom the knowledge of God had been preserved, were yielding to the seductive influences surrounding them, and they "served other gods" than Jehovah....
CC	44	3	The message of God came to Abraham, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee." In order that God might qualify him for his great work as the keeper of the sacred oracles, Abraham must be separated from the associations of his early life.... Abraham's unquestioning obedience is one of the most striking evidences of faith to be found in all the Bible....
CC	44	4	It was no light test that was thus brought upon Abraham, no small sacrifice that was required of him. There were strong ties to bind him to his country, his kindred, and his home. But he did not hesitate to obey the call. He had no question to ask concerning the land of promise--whether the soil was fertile and the climate healthful; whether the country afforded agreeable surroundings and would afford opportunities for amassing wealth. God had spoken, and His servant must obey; the happiest place on earth for him was the place where God would have him to be.
CC	44	5	Many are still tested as was Abraham.... They may be required to abandon a career that promises wealth and honor, to leave congenial and profitable associations, and separate from kindred, to enter upon what appears to be only a path of self-denial, hardship, and sacrifice. God has a work for them to do....
CC	44	6	Who is ready at the call of Providence to renounce cherished plans and familiar associations? Who will accept new duties and enter untried fields ...? He who will do this has the faith of Abraham, and will share with him that "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," with which "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared" (2 Corinthians 4:17; Romans 8:18).18
------------------------There's a Reason, February 8
			Genesis 12:9, 10
CC	45	1	That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:7.
CC	45	2	Abraham continued to journey southward, and again his faith was tested. The heavens withheld their rain, the brooks ceased to flow in the valleys, and the grass withered on the plains. The flocks and herds found no pasture, and starvation threatened the whole encampment. Did not the patriarch now question the leadings of Providence? Did he not look back with longing to the plenty of the Chaldean plains? All were eagerly watching to see what Abraham would do, as trouble after trouble came upon him. So long as his confidence appeared unshaken, they felt that there was hope....
CC	45	3	Abraham could not explain the leadings of Providence; he had not realized his expectations; but he held fast the promise, "I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing." With earnest prayer he considered how to preserve the life of his people and his flocks, but he would not allow circumstances to shake his faith in God's word. To escape the famine he went down into Egypt. He did not forsake Canaan, or in his extremity turn back to the Chaldean land from which he came, where there was no scarcity of bread; but he sought a temporary refuge as near as possible to the Land of Promise, intending shortly to return where God had placed him.
CC	45	4	The Lord in His providence had brought this trial upon Abraham to teach him lessons of submission, patience, and faith....
CC	45	5	God permits trials to assail His people, that by their constancy and obedience they themselves may be spiritually enriched, and that their example may be a source of strength to others. "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil" (Jeremiah 29:11). The very trials that task our faith most severely and make it seem that God has forsaken us, are to lead us closer to Christ, that we may lay all our burdens at His feet and experience the peace which He will give us in exchange.19
------------------------God Protects His Own, February 9
			Genesis 12:10-20
CC	46	1	He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Psalm 105:14, 15.
CC	46	2	It is by close, testing trials that God disciplines His servants. He sees that some have powers which may be used in the advancement of His work, and He puts these persons upon trial; in His providence He brings them into positions that test their character and reveal defects and weaknesses that have been hidden from their own knowledge. He gives them opportunity to correct these defects and to fit themselves for His service. He shows them their own weakness, and teaches them to lean upon Him; for He is their only help and safeguard. Thus His object is attained. They are educated, trained, and disciplined, prepared to fulfill the grand purpose for which their powers were given them....
CC	46	3	During his stay in Egypt, Abraham gave evidence that he was not free from human weakness and imperfection. In concealing the fact that Sarah was his wife, he betrayed a distrust of the divine care, a lack of that lofty faith and courage so often and nobly exemplified in his life.... He reasoned that he was not guilty of falsehood in representing Sarah as his sister, for she was the daughter of his father, though not of his mother. But this concealment of the real relation between them was deception. No deviation from strict integrity can meet God's approval. Through Abraham's lack of faith, Sarah was placed in great peril. The king of Egypt, being informed of her beauty, caused her to be taken to his palace, intending to make her his wife. But the Lord, in His great mercy, protected Sarah by sending judgments upon the royal household....
CC	46	4	The warning that had been given to Pharaoh proved a protection to Abraham in his after-intercourse with heathen peoples; ... it was seen that the God whom Abraham worshiped would protect His servant, and that any injury done him would be avenged. It is a dangerous thing to wrong one of the children of the King of heaven.20
------------------------Keeping the Peace, February 10
			Genesis 13:1-13
CC	47	1	Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou will take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. Genesis 13:8, 9.
CC	47	2	Abraham returned to Canaan "very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold." Lot was still with him and again they came to Bethel, and pitched their tents by the altar which they had before erected. They soon found that increased possessions brought increased trouble. In the midst of hardships and trials they had dwelt together in harmony, but in their prosperity there was danger of strife between them. The pasturage was not sufficient for the flocks and herds of both.... It was evident that they must separate. Abraham was Lot's senior in years, and his superior in relation, in wealth and in position; yet he was the first to propose plans for preserving peace. Although the whole land had been given him by God Himself, he courteously waived his right....
CC	47	3	Here the noble, unselfish spirit of Abraham was displayed. How many under similar circumstances would, at all hazards, cling to their individual rights and preferences! How many households have thus been rent asunder! How many churches have been divided, making the cause of truth a byword and a reproach among the wicked! "Let there be no strife between me and thee," said Abraham, "for we be brethren;" not only by natural relationship, but as worshipers of the true God. The children of God the world over are one family, and the same spirit of love and conciliation should govern them. "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another" (Romans 12:10), is the teaching of our Saviour. The cultivation of a uniform courtesy, a willingness to do to others as we would wish them to do to us, would annihilate half the ills of life. The spirit of self-aggrandizement is the spirit of Satan; but the heart in which the love of Christ is cherished, will possess that charity which seeketh not her own. Such will heed the divine injunction, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others" (Philippians 2:4).21
------------------------Toward Sodom, February 11
			Genesis 13:1-13
CC	48	1	Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Genesis 13:12, 13.
CC	48	2	The most fertile region in all Palestine was the Jordan valley.... There were cities also, wealthy and beautiful, inviting to profitable traffic in their crowded marts. Dazzled with visions of worldly gain, Lot overlooked the moral and spiritual evils that would be encountered there.... He "chose him all the plain of Jordan," and "pitched his tent toward Sodom." How little did he foresee the terrible results of that selfish choice!22
CC	48	3	Lot chose Sodom for his home because he saw that there were advantages to be gained there from a worldly point of view. But after he had established himself, and grown rich in earthly treasure, he was convinced that he had made a mistake in not taking into consideration the moral standing of the community in which he was to make his home.
CC	48	4	The dwellers in Sodom were corrupt; vile conversation greeted his ears daily, and his righteous soul was vexed by the violence and crime he was powerless to prevent. His children were becoming like these wicked people, for association with them had perverted their morals. Taking all these things into consideration, the worldly riches he had gained seemed small and not worth the price he had paid for them. His family connections were extensive, his children having married among the Sodomites. The Lord's anger was finally kindled against the wicked inhabitants of the city, and angels of God visited Sodom to bring forth Lot, that he should not perish in the overthrow of the city.23
CC	48	5	The influence of his wife and the associations of that wicked city would have led him to apostatize from God had it not been for the faithful instruction he had early received from Abraham. The marriage of Lot and his choice of Sodom for a home were the first links in a chain of events fraught with evil to the world for many generations.24
CC	48	6	It is Satan's purpose to attract men and women to the cities, and to gain his object he invents every kind of novelty and amusement, every kind of excitement. And the cities of the earth today are becoming as were the cities before the Flood.25
------------------------A Home God can Bless, February 12
CC	49	1	For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. Genesis 18:19.
CC	49	2	In God's sight, a man is just what he is in his family. The life of Abraham, the friend of God, was signalized by a strict regard for the word of the Lord. He cultivated home religion. The fear of God pervaded his household. He was the priest of his home. He looked upon his family as a sacred trust. His household numbered more than a thousand souls, and he directed them all, parents and children, to the divine Sovereign. He suffered no parental oppression on the one hand or filial disobedience on the other. By the combined influence of love and justice, he ruled his household in the fear of God, and the Lord bore witness to his faithfulness.26
CC	49	3	He "will command ... his household." There would be no sinful neglect to restrain the evil propensities of his children, no weak, unwise, indulgent favoritism, no yielding of his conviction of duty to the claims of mistaken affection. Abraham would not only give right instruction, but he would maintain the authority of just and righteous laws.
CC	49	4	How few there are in our day who follow this example. On the part of too many parents there is a blind and selfish sentimentalism, which is manifested in leaving children with their unformed judgment and undisciplined passions, to the control of their own will. This is the worst cruelty to the youth and a great wrong to the world. Parental indulgence causes disorder in families and in society. It confirms in the young the desire to follow inclination, instead of submitting to the divine requirements.27
CC	49	5	Parents and children alike belong to God to be ruled by Him. By affection and authority combined, Abraham ruled his house. God's word has given us rules for our guidance. These rules form the standard from which we cannot swerve if we would keep the way of the Lord. God's will must be paramount. The question for us to ask is not: What have others done? What will my relatives think? or, What will they say of me if I pursue this course? but, What has God said? Neither parent nor child can truly prosper in any course excepting in the way of the Lord.28
------------------------Entertaining Strangers, February 13
			Genesis 18:1-8
CC	50	1	Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Hebrews 13:2.
CC	50	2	God conferred great honor upon Abraham. Angels of heaven walked and talked with him as friend with friend. When judgments were about to be visited upon Sodom, the fact was not hidden from him, and he became an intercessor with God for sinners. His interview with the angels presents also a beautiful example of hospitality.29
CC	50	3	In the records of Genesis we see the patriarch at the hot summer noontide resting in his tent door under the shadow of the oaks of Mamre. Three travelers are passing near. They make no appeal for hospitality, solicit no favor; but Abraham does not permit them to go on their way unrefreshed. He is a man full of years, a man of dignity and wealth, one highly honored, and accustomed to command; yet on seeing these strangers he "ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground." Addressing the leader he said: "My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant" (Genesis 18:2, 3). With his own hands he brought water that they might wash the dust of travel from their feet. He himself selected their food; while they were at rest under the cooling shade, Sarah his wife made ready for their entertainment, and Abraham stood respectfully beside them while they partook of his hospitality. This kindness he showed them simply as wayfarers, passing strangers, who might never come his way again. But, the entertainment over, his guests stood revealed. He had ministered not only to heavenly angels, but to their glorious Commander, his Creator, Redeemer, and King. And to Abraham the counsels of heaven were opened, and he was called "the friend of God." ...
CC	50	4	The privilege granted Abraham and Lot is not denied to us. By showing hospitality to God's children we, too, may receive His angels into our dwellings. Even in our day, angels in human form enter the homes of men and are entertained by them. And Christians who live in the light of God's countenance are always accompanied by unseen angels, and these holy beings leave behind them a blessing in our homes.30
------------------------Countdown for Sodom, February 14
			Genesis 18:16-33
CC	51	1	And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ... That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: ... Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Genesis 18:23, 25.
CC	51	2	Abraham had honored God, and the Lord honored him, taking him into His counsels, and revealing to him His purposes. "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" said the Lord....
CC	51	3	And the man of faith pleaded for the inhabitants of Sodom. Once he had saved them by his sword, now he endeavored to save them by prayer.... With deep reverence and humility he urged his plea.... Himself a sinner, he pleaded in the sinner's behalf. Such a spirit all who approach God should possess. Yet Abraham manifested the confidence of a child pleading with a loved father. He came close to the heavenly Messenger, and fervently urged his petition.
CC	51	4	Though Lot had become a dweller in Sodom, he did not partake in the iniquity of its inhabitants. Abraham thought that in that populous city there must be other worshipers of the true God.... Abraham asked not once merely, but many times. Waxing bolder as his requests were granted, he continued until he gained the assurance that if even ten righteous persons could be found in it, the city would be spared.
CC	51	5	Love for perishing souls inspired Abraham's prayer. While he loathed the sins of that corrupt city, he desired that the sinners might be saved. His deep interest for Sodom shows the anxiety that we should feel for the impenitent. We should cherish hatred of sin, but pity and love for the sinner.
CC	51	6	All around us are souls going down to ruin as hopeless, as terrible, as that which befell Sodom. Every day the probation of some is closing. Every hour some are passing beyond the reach of mercy. And where are the voices of warning and entreaty to bid the sinner flee from this fearful doom? Where are the hands stretched out to draw him back from death? Where are those who with humility and persevering faith are pleading with God for him?31
------------------------Unsafe Streets, February 15
			Genesis 19:1-14
CC	52	1	And there came two angels to Sodom at even: and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; ... and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night. Genesis 19:1, 2.
CC	52	2	Lot, Abraham's nephew, though he had made his home in Sodom, was imbued with the patriarch's spirit of kindness and hospitality. Seeing at nightfall two strangers at the city gate, and knowing the dangers sure to beset them in that wicked city, Lot insisted on bringing them to his home. To the peril that might result to himself and his household he gave no thought. It was a part of his lifework to protect the imperiled and to care for the homeless, and the deed performed in kindness to two unknown travelers brought angels to his home. Those whom he sought to protect, protected him. At nightfall he had led them for safety to his door; at the dawn they led him and his household forth in safety from the gate of the doomed city.32
CC	52	3	Lot did not know their true character, but politeness and hospitality were habitual with him; they were a part of his religion--lessons that he had learned from the example of Abraham. Had he not cultivated a spirit of courtesy, he might have been left to perish with the rest of Sodom. Many a household, in closing its doors against a stranger, has shut out God's messenger, who would have brought blessing and hope and peace.
CC	52	4	Every act of life, however small, has its bearing for good or for evil. Faithfulness or neglect in what are apparently the smallest duties may open the door for life's richest blessings or its greatest calamities. It is little things that test the character. It is the unpretending acts of daily self-denial, performed with a cheerful, willing heart, that God smiles upon. We are not to live for self, but for others. And it is only by self-forgetfulness, by cherishing a loving, helpful spirit, that we can make our life a blessing. The little attentions, the small, simple courtesies, go far to make up the sum of life's happiness, and the neglect of these constitutes no small share of human wretchedness.33
------------------------That Last Night, February 16
			Genesis 19:12-29
CC	53	1	And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly. 2 Peter 2:6.
CC	53	2	The flames that consumed the cities of the plain shed their warning light down even to our time. We are taught the fearful and solemn lesson that while God's mercy bears long with the transgressor, there is a limit beyond which men may not go on in sin. When that limit is reached, then the offers of mercy are withdrawn, and the ministration of judgment begins.
CC	53	3	The Redeemer of the world declares that there are greater sins than that for which Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Those who hear the gospel invitation calling sinners to repentance, and heed it not, are more guilty before God than were the dwellers in the vale of Siddim. And still greater sin is theirs who profess to know God and to keep His commandments, yet who deny Christ in their character and their daily life. In the light of the Saviour's warning, the fate of Sodom is a solemn admonition ... to all who are trifling with Heaven-sent light and privileges.34
CC	53	4	The judgments of God are soon to be poured out upon the earth. "Escape for thy life" is the warning from the angels of God. Other voices are heard saying: "Do not become excited; there is no cause for special alarm." Those who are at ease in Zion cry "Peace and safety," while heaven declares that swift destruction is about to come upon the transgressor. The young, the frivolous, the pleasure loving, consider these warnings as idle tales and turn from them with a jest. Parents are inclined to think their children about right in the matter, and all sleep on at ease. Thus it was at the destruction of the old world and when Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed by fire. On the night prior to their destruction the cities of the plain rioted in pleasure. Lot was derided for his fears and warnings. But it was these scoffers that perished in the flames. That very night the door of mercy was forever closed to the wicked, careless inhabitants of Sodom.35
CC	53	5	The same voice that warned Lot to leave Sodom bids us, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, ...and touch not the unclean" (2 Corinthians 6:17). Those who obey this warning will find a refuge.36
------------------------Don't Forget, February 17
			Genesis 19:19, 29
CC	54	1	Remember Lot's wife. Luke 17:32.
CC	54	2	One of the fugitives ventured to cast a look backward to the doomed city, and she became a monument of God's judgment. If Lot himself had manifested no hesitancy to obey the angels' warning, but had earnestly fled toward the mountains, without one word of pleading or remonstrance, his wife also would have made her escape. The influence of his example would have saved her from the sin that sealed her doom. But his hesitancy and delay caused her to lightly regard the divine warning. While her body was upon the plain, her heart clung to Sodom, and she perished with it. She rebelled against God because His judgments involved her possessions and her children in the ruin. Although so greatly favored in being called out from the wicked city, she felt that she was severely dealt with, because the wealth that it had taken years to accumulate must be left to destruction. Instead of thankfully accepting deliverance, she presumptuously looked back to desire the life of those who had rejected the divine warning. Her sin showed her to be unworthy of life, for the preservation of which she felt so little gratitude.
CC	54	3	We should beware of treating lightly God's gracious provisions for our salvation. There are Christians who say, "I do not care to be saved unless my companion and children are saved with me." They feel that heaven would not be heaven to them without the presence of those who are so dear. But have those who cherish this feeling a right conception of their own relation to God, in view of His great goodness and mercy toward them? Have they forgotten that they are bound by the strongest ties of love and honor and loyalty to the service of their Creator and Redeemer? The invitations of mercy are addressed to all; and because our friends reject the Saviour's pleading love, shall we also turn away?
CC	54	4	The redemption of the soul is precious. Christ has paid an infinite price for our salvation, and no one who appreciates the value of this great sacrifice or the worth of the soul will despise God's offered mercy because others choose to do so.37
------------------------A Better Country, February 18
CC	55	1	Now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:16.
CC	55	2	When Lot entered Sodom he fully intended to keep himself free from iniquity and to command his household after him. But he signally failed....
CC	55	3	Many are still making a similar mistake.... Their children are surrounded by temptation, and too often they form associations that are unfavorable to the development of piety and the formation of a right character. The atmosphere of lax morality, of unbelief, of indifference to religious things, has a tendency to counteract the influence of the parents. Examples of rebellion against parental and divine authority are ever before the youth; many form attachments for infidels and unbelievers, and cast in their lot with the enemies of God.
CC	55	4	In choosing a home, God would have us consider, first of all, the moral and religious influences that will surround us and our families. We may be placed in trying positions, for many cannot have their surroundings what they would; and whenever duty calls us, God will enable us to stand uncorrupted, if we watch and pray, trusting in the grace of Christ. But we should not needlessly expose ourselves to influences that are unfavorable to the formation of Christian character....
CC	55	5	Those who secure for their children worldly wealth and honor at the expense of their eternal interests, will find in the end that these advantages are a terrible loss. Like Lot, many see their children ruined, and barely save their own souls. Their lifework is lost; their life is a sad failure. Had they exercised true wisdom, their children might have had less of worldly prosperity, but they would have made sure of a title to the immortal inheritance.
CC	55	6	The heritage that God has promised to His people is not in this world....
CC	55	7	We must dwell as pilgrims and strangers here if we would gain "a better country, that is, an heavenly."38
------------------------Nothing Too Precious, February 19
			Genesis 22:1-14
CC	56	1	By faith Abraham when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, ... accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead. Hebrews 11:17-19.
CC	56	2	God had called Abraham to be the father of the faithful, and his life was to stand as an example of faith to succeeding generations. But his faith had not been perfect. He had shown distrust of God in concealing the fact that Sarah was his wife, and again in his marriage with Hagar. That he might reach the highest standard, God subjected him to another test, the closest which man was ever called to endure.39
CC	56	3	The Lord spoke unto him, saying: "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest," "and offer him ... for a burnt offering." The heart of the old man stood still with horror. The loss of such a son by disease would have been most heartrending to the fond father, it would have bowed his whitened head with sorrow; but now he is commanded to shed the precious blood of that son with his own hand. It seemed to him a fearful impossibility. Yet God had spoken, and His word must be obeyed. Abraham was stricken in years, but this did not excuse him from duty. He grasped the staff of faith and in dumb agony took by the hand his child, beautiful in the rosy health of youth, and went out to obey the word of God....
CC	56	4	Abraham did not stop to question how God's promises could be fulfilled if Isaac were slain. He did not stay to reason with his aching heart, but carried out the divine command to the very letter, till, just as the knife was about to be plunged into the quivering flesh of the child, the word came: "Lay not thine hand upon the lad;" "for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me."40
CC	56	5	This act of faith in Abraham is recorded for our benefit. It teaches the great lesson of confidence in the requirements of God, however close and cutting they may be; and it teaches children perfect submission to their parents and to God. By Abraham's obedience we are taught that nothing is too precious for us to give to God.41
------------------------Choosing a Wife, February 20
			Genesis 24
CC	57	1	Thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. Genesis 24:3, 4.
CC	57	2	Abraham's habitual faith in God and submission to His will were reflected in the character of Isaac; but the young man's affections were strong, and he was gentle and yielding in disposition. If united with one who did not fear God, he would be in danger of sacrificing principle for the sake of harmony. In the mind of Abraham, the choice of a wife for his son was a matter of grave importance; he was anxious to have him marry one who would not lead him from God....
CC	57	3	Abraham had marked the result of the intermarriage of those who feared God and those who feared Him not, from the days of Cain to his own time. The consequences of his own marriage with Hagar, and of the marriage connections of Ishmael and Lot, were before him. The lack of faith on the part of Abraham and Sarah had resulted in the birth of Ishmael, the mingling of the righteous seed with the ungodly. The father's influence upon his son was counteracted by that of the mother's idolatrous kindred and by Ishmael's connection with heathen wives....
CC	57	4	The wife of Lot was a selfish, irreligious woman, and her influence was exerted to separate her husband from Abraham. But for her, Lot would not have remained in Sodom, deprived of the counsel of the wise, God-fearing patriarch....
CC	57	5	No one who fears God can without danger connect himself with one who fears Him not. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3). The happiness and prosperity of the marriage relation depends upon the unity of the parties; but between the believer and the unbeliever there is a radical difference of tastes, inclinations, and purposes. They are serving two masters, between whom there can be no concord. However pure and correct one's principles may be, the influence of an unbelieving companion will have a tendency to lead away from God.... The Lord's direction is, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers" (2 Corinthians 6:14, 17, 18).42
------------------------A Happy Marriage, February 21
			Genesis 24
CC	58	1	The Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. Genesis 24:7.
CC	58	2	Isaac was highly honored by God in being made inheritor of the promises through which the world was to be blessed; yet when he was forty years of age he submitted to his father's judgment in appointing his experienced, God-fearing servant to choose a wife for him. And the result of that marriage, as presented in the Scriptures, is a tender and beautiful picture of domestic happiness: "Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death."
CC	58	3	What a contrast between the course of Isaac and that pursued by the youth of our time, even among professed Christians! Young people too often feel that the bestowal of their affections is a matter in which self alone should be consulted--a matter that neither God nor their parents should in any wise control. Long before they have reached manhood or womanhood they think themselves competent to make their own choice, without the aid of their parents.... Many have thus wrecked their happiness in this life and their hope of the life to come....
CC	58	4	Parents should never lose sight of their own responsibility for the future happiness of their children. Isaac's deference to his father's judgment was the result of the training that had taught him to live a life of obedience. While Abraham required his children to respect parental authority, his daily life testified that the authority was not a selfish or arbitrary control, but was founded in love, and had their welfare and happiness in view.43
CC	58	5	If there is any subject which should be carefully considered and in which the counsel of older and more experienced persons should be sought, it is the subject of marriage; if ever the Bible was needed as a counselor, if ever divine guidance should be sought in prayer, it is before taking a step that binds persons together for life.44
------------------------Let Your Religion Show, February 22
CC	59	1	That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15.
CC	59	2	Abraham was honored by the surrounding nations as a mighty prince and a wise and able chief. He did not shut away his influence from his neighbors. His life and character, in their marked contrast with those of the worshipers of idols, exerted a telling influence in favor of the true faith. His allegiance to God was unswerving, while his affability and benevolence inspired confidence and friendship and his unaffected greatness commanded respect and honor.
CC	59	3	His religion was not held as a precious treasure to be jealously guarded and enjoyed solely by the possessor. True religion cannot be thus held, for such a spirit is contrary to the principles of the gospel. While Christ is dwelling in the heart it is impossible to conceal the light of His presence, or for that light to grow dim. On the contrary, it will grow brighter and brighter as day by day the mists of selfishness and sin that envelop the soul are dispelled by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
CC	59	4	The people of God are His representatives upon the earth, and He intends that they shall be lights in the moral darkness of this world. Scattered all over the country, in the towns, cities, and villages, they are God's witnesses, the channels through which He will communicate to an unbelieving world the knowledge of His will and the wonders of His grace. It is His plan that all who are partakers of the great salvation shall be missionaries for Him. The piety of the Christian constitutes the standard by which worldlings judge the gospel. Trials patiently borne, blessings gratefully received, meekness, kindness, mercy, and love, habitually exhibited, are the lights that shine forth in the character before the world, revealing the contrast with the darkness that comes of the selfishness of the natural heart.45
------------------------Nonidentical Twins, February 23
			Genesis 25:19-28
CC	60	1	And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. Genesis 25:27.
CC	60	2	Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac, present a striking contrast, both in character and in life.... Esau grew up loving self-gratification and centering all his interest in the present. Impatient of restraint, he delighted in the wild freedom of the chase, and early chose the life of a hunter. Yet he was the father's favorite. The quiet, peace-loving shepherd was attracted by the daring and vigor of this elder son, who fearlessly ranged over mountain and desert, returning home with game for his father and with exciting accounts of his adventurous life.
CC	60	3	Jacob, thoughtful, diligent, and care-taking, ever thinking more of the future than the present, was content to dwell at home, occupied in the care of the flocks and the tillage of the soil. His patient perseverance, thrift, and foresight were valued by the mother. His affections were deep and strong, and his gentle, unremitting attentions added far more to her happiness than did the boisterous and occasional kindnesses of Esau....
CC	60	4	Jacob had learned from his mother of the divine intimation that the birthright should fall to him, and he was filled with an unspeakable desire for the privileges which it would confer. It was not the possession of his father's wealth that he craved; the spiritual birthright was the object of his longing. To commune with God as did righteous Abraham, to offer the sacrifice of atonement for his family, to be the progenitor of the chosen people and of the promised Messiah, and to inherit the immortal possessions embraced in the blessings of the covenant--here were the privileges and honors that kindled his most ardent desires....
CC	60	5	But while he thus esteemed eternal above temporal blessings, Jacob had not an experimental knowledge of the God whom he revered. His heart had not been renewed by divine grace. He believed that the promise concerning himself could not be fulfilled so long as Esau retained the rights of the first-born, and he constantly studied to devise some way whereby he might secure the blessing which his brother held so lightly, but which was so precious to himself.46
------------------------Twisted Values, February 24
			Genesis 25:29-34
CC	61	1	Thus Esau despised his birthright. Genesis 25:34.
CC	61	2	Esau had no love for devotion, no inclination to a religious life. The requirements that accompanied the spiritual birthright were an unwelcome and even hateful restraint to him. The law of God, which was the condition of the divine covenant with Abraham, was regarded by Esau as a yoke of bondage. Bent on self-indulgence, he desired nothing so much as liberty to do as he pleased. To him power and riches, feasting and reveling, were happiness. He gloried in the unrestrained freedom of his wild, roving life.47
CC	61	3	There are very many who are like Esau. He represents a class who have a special, valuable blessing within their reach,--the immortal inheritance, life that is as enduring as the life of God, the Creator of the universe, happiness immeasurable, and an eternal weight of glory,--but who have so long indulged their appetites, passions, and inclinations, that their power to discern and appreciate the value of eternal things is weakened.
CC	61	4	Esau had a special, strong desire for a particular article of food, and he had so long gratified self that he did not feel the necessity of turning from the tempting, coveted dish. He thought upon it, making no special effort to restrain his appetite, until the power of appetite ... controlled him, and he imagined that he would suffer great inconvenience, and even death, if he could not have that particular dish. The more he thought upon it, the more his desire strengthened, until his birthright, which was sacred, lost its value and its sacredness.48
CC	61	5	Esau passed the crisis of his life without knowing it. What he regarded as a matter worthy of scarcely a thought was the act which revealed the prevailing traits of his character. It showed his choice, showed his true estimate of that which was sacred and which should have been sacredly cherished. He sold his birthright for a small indulgence to meet his present wants, and this determined the after course of his life.49
CC	61	6	Esau represents those who have not tasted of the privileges which are theirs, purchased for them at infinite cost, but have sold their birthright for some gratification of appetite, or for the love of gain.50
------------------------Bartered Birthright, February 25
			Genesis 27:1-40
CC	62	1	Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37:5.
CC	62	2	Isaac loved Esau better than Jacob. And when he thought that he was about to die he requested Esau to prepare him meat, that he might bless him before he died.... Rebekah heard the words of Isaac, and she remembered the words of the Lord, "The elder shall serve the younger," and she knew that Esau had lightly regarded his birthright and sold it to Jacob....
CC	62	3	Rebekah was acquainted with Isaac's partiality for Esau, and was satisfied that reasoning would not change his purpose. Instead of trusting in God, the Disposer of events, she manifested her lack of faith by persuading Jacob to deceive his father....
CC	62	4	If Esau had received the blessing of his father, which was bestowed upon the first-born, his prosperity could have come from God alone; and He would have blessed him with prosperity, or brought upon him adversity, according to his course of action. If he should love and reverence God, like righteous Abel, he would be accepted and blessed of God. If, like wicked Cain, he had no respect for God nor for His commandments, but followed his own corrupt course, he would not receive a blessing from God but would be rejected of God, as was Cain. If Jacob's course should be righteous, if he should love and fear God, he would be blessed of God, and the prospering hand of God would be with him, even if he did not obtain the blessings and privileges generally bestowed upon the first-born.51
CC	62	5	Jacob and Rebekah succeeded in their purpose, but they gained only trouble and sorrow by their deception. God had declared that Jacob should receive the birthright, and His word would have been fulfilled in His own time had they waited in faith for Him to work for them. But like many who now profess to be children of God, they were unwilling to leave the matter in His hands. Rebekah bitterly repented the wrong counsel she had given her son; it was the means of separating him from her, and she never saw his face again.52
------------------------A Bitter Price, February 26
			Genesis 27:30-40
CC	63	1	He found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. Hebrews 12:17.
CC	63	2	No sooner had Jacob left his father's tent than Esau entered. Though he had sold his birthright, and confirmed the transfer by a solemn oath, he was now determined to secure its blessings, regardless of his brother's claim. With the spiritual was connected the temporal birthright, which would give him the headship of the family and possession of a double portion of his father's wealth. These were blessings that he could value....
CC	63	3	Esau had lightly valued the blessing while it seemed within his reach, but he desired to possess it now that it was gone from him forever. All the strength of his impulsive, passionate nature was aroused, and his grief and rage were terrible. He cried with an exceeding bitter cry, "Bless me, even me also, O my father!" ...
CC	63	4	The birthright which he had so carelessly bartered he could not now regain. "For one morsel of meat," for a momentary gratification of appetite that had never been restrained, Esau sold his inheritance; but when he saw his folly, it was too late to recover the blessing....
CC	63	5	Esau was not shut out from the privilege of seeking God's favor by repentance, but he could find no means of recovering the birthright. His grief did not spring from conviction of sin; he did not desire to be reconciled to God. He sorrowed because of the results of his sin, but not for the sin itself.53
CC	63	6	Repentance includes sorrow for sin, and a turning away from it. We shall not renounce sin unless we see its sinfulness; until we turn away from it in heart, there will be no real change in the life.
CC	63	7	There are many who fail to understand the true nature of repentance. Multitudes sorrow that they have sinned, and even make an outward reformation, because they fear that their wrongdoing will bring suffering upon themselves. But this is not repentance in the Bible sense. They lament the suffering, rather than the sin. Such was the grief of Esau when he saw that the birthright was lost to him forever.54
------------------------Hope for a Fugitive, February 27
			Genesis 27:41-28:15
CC	64	1	And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Genesis 28:12.
CC	64	2	Threatened with death by the wrath of Esau, Jacob went out from his father's home a fugitive; but he carried with him the father's blessing; Isaac had renewed to him the covenant promise, and had bidden him, as its inheritor, to seek a wife of his mother's family in Mesopotamia. Yet it was with a deeply troubled heart that Jacob set out on his lonely journey. With only his staff in his hand he must travel hundreds of miles through a country inhabited by wild, roving tribes. In his remorse and timidity he sought to avoid men, lest he should be traced by his angry brother. He feared that he had lost forever the blessing that God had purposed to give him; and Satan was at hand to press temptations upon him....
CC	64	3	The darkness of despair pressed upon his soul, and he hardly dared to pray. But he was so utterly lonely that he felt the need of protection from God as he had never felt it before. With weeping and deep humiliation he confessed his sin, and entreated for some evidence that he was not utterly forsaken.... God did not forsake Jacob. His mercy was still extended to His erring, distrustful servant. The Lord compassionately revealed just what Jacob needed--a Saviour....
CC	64	4	Wearied with his journey, the wanderer lay down upon the ground, with a stone for his pillow. As he slept he beheld a ladder, bright and shining, whose base rested upon the earth, while the top reached to heaven. Upon this ladder angels were ascending and descending; above it was the Lord of glory....
CC	64	5	Jacob awoke from his sleep in the deep stillness of night. The shining forms of his vision had disappeared. Only the dim outline of the lonely hills, and above them the heavens bright with stars, now met his gaze. But he had a solemn sense that God was with him. An unseen presence filled the solitude. "Surely the Lord is in this place," he said, "and I knew it not.... This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."55
------------------------Return to God His Own, February 28
			Genesis 28:16-22
CC	65	1	And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee. Genesis 28:22.
CC	65	2	In accordance with the custom of commemorating important events, Jacob set up a memorial of God's mercy, that whenever he should pass that way he might tarry at this sacred spot to worship the Lord.... With deep gratitude he repeated the promise that God's presence would be with him; and then he made the solemn vow, "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth upon thee."
CC	65	3	Jacob was not here seeking to make terms with God. The Lord had already promised him prosperity, and this vow was the outflow of a heart filled with gratitude for the assurance of God's love and mercy. Jacob felt that God had claims upon him which he must acknowledge, and that the special tokens of divine favor granted him demanded a return. So does every blessing bestowed upon us call for a response to the Author of all our mercies. The Christian should often review his past life and recall with gratitude the precious deliverances that God has wrought for him, supporting him in trial, opening ways before him when all seemed dark and forbidding, refreshing him when ready to faint. He should recognize all of them as evidences of the watchcare of heavenly angels. In view of these innumerable blessings he should often ask, with subdued and grateful heart, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?" (Psalm 116:12).
CC	65	4	Our time, our talents, our property, should be sacredly devoted to Him who has given us these blessings in trust. Whenever a special deliverance is wrought in our behalf, or new and unexpected favors are granted us, we should acknowledge God's goodness, not only by expressing our gratitude in words, but, like Jacob, by gifts and offerings to His cause. As we are continually receiving the blessings of God, so we are to be continually giving.56
------------------------Seven Short Years, March 1
			Genesis 29:1-20
CC	66	1	And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her. Genesis 29:20.
CC	66	2	How different his [Jacob's] arrival from that of Abraham's messenger nearly a hundred years before! The servant had come with a train of attendants riding upon camels, and with rich gifts of gold and silver; the son was a lonely, footsore traveler, with no possession save his staff. Like Abraham's servant, Jacob tarried beside a well, and it was here that he met Rachel, Laban's younger daughter.... Though he came portionless and unattended, a few weeks showed the worth of his diligence and skill, and he was urged to tarry. It was arranged that he should render Laban seven years' service for the hand of Rachel.
CC	66	3	In early times custom required the bridegroom, before the ratification of a marriage engagement, to pay a sum of money or its equivalent in other property, according to his circumstances, to the father of his wife. This was regarded as a safeguard to the marriage relation.... But provision was made to test those who had nothing to pay for a wife. They were permitted to labor for the father whose daughter they loved, the length of time being regulated by the value of the dowry required. When the suitor was faithful in his services, and proved in other respects worthy, he obtained the daughter as his wife; and generally the dowry which the father had received was given her at her marriage....
CC	66	4	The ancient custom, though sometimes abused, as by Laban, was productive of good results. When the suitor was required to render service to secure his bride, a hasty marriage was prevented, and there was opportunity to test the depth of his affections, as well as his ability to provide for a family. In our time many evils result from pursuing an opposite course. It is often the case that persons before marriage have little opportunity to become acquainted with each other's habits and disposition, and, so far as everyday life is concerned, they are virtually strangers when they unite their interests at the altar. Many find, too late, that they are not adapted to each other, and lifelong wretchedness is the result of their union.1
------------------------A Life and Death Matter, March 2
			Genesis 32
CC	67	1	And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Genesis 32:26.
CC	67	2	Jacob, in the great crisis of his life, turned aside to pray. He was filled with one overmastering purpose--to seek for transformation of character.2
CC	67	3	It was in a lonely, mountainous region, the haunt of wild beasts and lurking place of robbers and murderers. Solitary and unprotected, Jacob bowed in deep distress upon the earth.... With earnest cries and tears he made his prayer before God. Suddenly a strong hand was laid upon him. He thought that an enemy was seeking his life, and he endeavored to wrest himself from the grasp of his assailant.
CC	67	4	In the darkness the two struggled for the mastery. Not a word was spoken, but Jacob put forth all his strength, and did not relax his efforts for a moment. While he was thus battling for his life, the sense of his guilt pressed upon his soul; his sins rose up before him, to shut him out from God. But in his terrible extremity he remembered God's promises, and his whole heart went out in entreaty for His mercy. The struggle continued until near the break of day, when the stranger placed his finger upon Jacob's thigh, and he was crippled instantly. The patriarch now discerned the character of his antagonist. He knew that he had been in conflict with a heavenly messenger, and this was why his almost superhuman effort had not gained the victory. It was Christ, "the Angel of the covenant," who had revealed Himself to Jacob. The patriarch was now disabled and suffering the keenest pain, but he would not loosen his hold....
CC	67	5	He urged, "Let me go, for the day breaketh;" but Jacob answered, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." Had this been a boastful, presumptuous confidence, Jacob would have been instantly destroyed; but his was the assurance of one who confesses his own unworthiness, yet trusts the faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God.3
CC	67	6	That for which Jacob had vainly wrestled in his own strength was won through self-surrender and steadfast faith.4
------------------------The Time of Jacob's Trouble, March 3
			Genesis 32:24-30
CC	68	1	Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. Jeremiah 30:7.
CC	68	2	When Christ shall cease His work as mediator in man's behalf, then this time of trouble will begin. Then the case of every soul will have been decided, and there will be no atoning blood to cleanse from sin....
CC	68	3	Then the restraining Spirit of God is withdrawn from the earth. As Jacob was threatened with death by his angry brother, so the people of God will be in peril from the wicked who are seeking to destroy them. And as the patriarch wrestled all night for deliverance from the hand of Esau, so the righteous will cry to God day and night for deliverance from the enemies that surround them....
CC	68	4	When in his distress Jacob laid hold of the Angel, and made supplication with tears, the heavenly Messenger, in order to try his faith, also reminded him of his sin, and endeavored to escape from him. But Jacob would not be turned away. He had learned that God is merciful, and he cast himself upon His mercy. He pointed back to his repentance for his sin, and pleaded for deliverance. As he reviewed his life, he was driven almost to despair; but he held fast the Angel, and with earnest, agonizing cries urged his petition until he prevailed.
CC	68	5	Such will be the experience of God's people in their final struggle with the powers of evil. God will test their faith, their perseverance, their confidence in His power to deliver them. Satan will endeavor to terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless; that their sins have been too great to receive pardon. They will have a deep sense of their shortcomings, and as they review their lives their hopes will sink. But remembering the greatness of God's mercy, and their own sincere repentance, they will plead His promises made through Christ to helpless, repenting sinners. Their faith will not fail because their prayers are not immediately answered. They will lay hold of the strength of God, as Jacob laid hold of the Angel, and the language of their souls will be, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me."5
------------------------Power Guaranteed, March 4
			Genesis 32:24-30
CC	69	1	As a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. Genesis 32:28.
CC	69	2	Had not Jacob previously repented of his sin in obtaining the birthright by fraud, God could not have heard his prayer and mercifully preserved his life. So in the time of trouble, if the people of God had unconfessed sins to appear before them while tortured with fear and anguish, they would be overwhelmed; despair would cut off their faith, and they could not have confidence to plead with God for deliverance. But while they have a deep sense of their unworthiness, they will have no concealed wrongs to reveal. Their sins will have been blotted out by the atoning blood of Christ, and they cannot bring them to remembrance....
CC	69	3	All who endeavor to excuse or conceal their sins, and permit them to remain upon the books of heaven, unconfessed and unforgiven, will be overcome by Satan. The more exalted their profession, and the more honorable the position which they hold, the more grievous is their course in the sight of God, and the more certain the triumph of the great adversary.
CC	69	4	Yet Jacob's history is an assurance that God will not cast off those who have been betrayed into sin, but who have returned unto Him with true repentance. It was by self-surrender and confiding faith that Jacob gained what he had failed to gain by conflict in his own strength. God thus taught His servant that divine power and grace alone could give him the blessing he craved. Thus it will be with those who live in the last days. As dangers surround them, and despair seizes upon the soul, they must depend solely upon the merits of the atonement.... None will ever perish while they do this....
CC	69	5	Jacob prevailed because he was persevering and determined.... It is now that we are to learn this lesson of prevailing prayer, of unyielding faith. The greatest victories to the church of Christ or to the individual Christian are not those that are gained by talent or education, by wealth or the favor of men. They are those victories that are gained in the audience chamber with God, when earnest, agonizing faith lays hold upon the mighty arm of power.6
------------------------Reunion, March 5
			Genesis 33:1-16
CC	70	1	And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32.
CC	70	2	While Jacob was wrestling with the Angel, another heavenly messenger was sent to Esau. In a dream, Esau beheld his brother for twenty years an exile from his father's house; he witnessed his grief at finding his mother dead; he saw him encompassed by the hosts of God. This dream was related by Esau to his soldiers, with the charge not to harm Jacob, for the God of his father was with him.
CC	70	3	The two companies at last approached each other, the desert chief leading his men of war, and Jacob with his wives and children, attended by shepherds and handmaidens, and followed by long lines of flocks and herds. Leaning upon his staff, the patriarch went forward to meet the band of soldiers. He was pale and disabled from his recent conflict, and he walked slowly and painfully, halting at every step; but his countenance was lighted up with joy and peace.
CC	70	4	At sight of that crippled sufferer, "Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept." As they looked upon the scene, even the hearts of Esau's rude soldiers were touched. Notwithstanding he had told them of his dream, they could not account for the change that had come over their captain. Though they beheld the patriarch's infirmity, they little thought that this his weakness had been made his strength.
CC	70	5	In his night of anguish beside the Jabbok, when destruction seemed just before him, Jacob had been taught how vain is the help of man, how groundless is all trust in human power. He saw that his only help must come from Him against whom he had so grievously sinned. Helpless and unworthy, he pleaded God's promise of mercy to the repentant sinner. That promise was his assurance that God would pardon and accept him. Sooner might heaven and earth pass than that word could fail; and it was this that sustained him through that fearful conflict.7
------------------------Separate Ways, March 6
			Genesis 35:27-29
CC	71	1	He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. John 3:36.
CC	71	2	Jacob and Esau met at the deathbed of their father. Once the elder brother had looked forward to this event as an opportunity for revenge, but his feelings had since greatly changed. And Jacob, well content with the spiritual blessings of the birthright, resigned to the elder brother the inheritance of their father's wealth--the only inheritance that Esau sought or valued....
CC	71	3	Esau and Jacob had alike been instructed in the knowledge of God, and both were free to walk in His commandments and to receive His favor; but they had not both chosen to do this. The two brothers had walked in different ways, and their paths would continue to diverge more and more widely.
CC	71	4	There was no arbitrary choice on the part of God by which Esau was shut out from the blessings of salvation. The gifts of His grace through Christ are free to all. There is no election but one's own by which any may perish.... Every soul is elected who will work out his own salvation with fear and trembling. He is elected who will put on the armor and fight the good fight of faith. He is elected who will watch unto prayer, who will search the Scriptures, and flee from temptation. He is elected who will have faith continually, and who will be obedient to every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The provisions of redemption are free to all; the results of redemption will be enjoyed by those who have complied with the conditions.
CC	71	5	Esau had despised the blessings of the covenant. He had valued temporal above the spiritual good, and he had received that which he desired. It was by his own deliberate choice that he was separated from the people of God. Jacob had chosen the inheritance of faith. He had endeavored to obtain it by craft, treachery, and falsehood; but God had permitted his sin to work out its correction.... The baser elements of character were consumed in the furnace fire, the true gold was refined, until the faith of Abraham and Isaac appeared undimmed in Jacob.8
------------------------A Home in Trouble, March 7
			Genesis 37:1-11
CC	72	1	And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him. Genesis 37:4.
CC	72	2	The sin of Jacob, and the train of events to which it led, had not failed to exert an influence for evil--an influence that revealed its bitter fruit in the character and life of his sons. As these sons arrived at manhood they developed serious faults. The results of polygamy were manifest in the household. This terrible evil tends to dry up the very springs of love, and its influence weakens the most sacred ties. The jealousy of the several mothers had embittered the family relation, the children had grown up contentious and impatient of control, and the father's life was darkened with anxiety and grief.
CC	72	3	There was one, however, of a widely different character--the elder son of Rachel, Joseph, whose rare personal beauty seemed but to reflect an inward beauty of mind and heart. Pure, active, and joyous, the lad gave evidence also of moral earnestness and firmness. He listened to his father's instructions, and loved to obey God.... His mother being dead, his affections clung the more closely to the father, and Jacob's heart was bound up in this child of his old age. He "loved Joseph more than all his children."
CC	72	4	But even this affection was to become a cause of trouble and sorrow. Jacob unwisely manifested his preference for Joseph, and this excited the jealousy of his other sons.... The father's injudicious gift to Joseph of a costly coat, or tunic, ... excited a suspicion that he intended to pass by his elder children, to bestow the birthright upon the son of Rachel. Their malice was still further increased as the boy one day told them of a dream that he had had....
CC	72	5	As the lad stood before his brothers, his beautiful countenance lighted up with the Spirit of Inspiration, they could not withhold their admiration; but they did not choose to renounce their evil ways, and they hated the purity that reproved their sins. The same spirit that actuated Cain was kindling in their hearts.9
------------------------An Inspired Resolution, March 8
			Genesis 37:12-36
CC	73	1	Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall. Genesis 49:22.
CC	73	2	Joseph regarded his being sold into Egypt as the greatest calamity that could have befallen him; but he saw the necessity of trusting in God as he had never done when protected by his father's love.10
CC	73	3	As the caravan journeyed southward toward the borders of Canaan, the boy could discern in the distance the hills among which lay his father's tents. Bitterly he wept at thought of that loving father in his loneliness and affliction. Again the scene at Dothan came up before him. He saw his angry brothers and felt their fierce glances bent upon him. The stinging, insulting words that had met his agonized entreaties were ringing in his ears. With a trembling heart he looked forward to the future. What a change in situation--from the tenderly cherished son to the despised and helpless slave! ...
CC	73	4	But, in the providence of God, even this experience was to be a blessing to him. He had learned in a few hours that which years might not otherwise have taught him. His father, strong and tender as his love had been, had done him wrong by his partiality and indulgence. This unwise preference had angered his brothers and provoked them to the cruel deed that had separated him from his home. Its effects were manifest also in his own character. Faults had been encouraged that were now to be corrected....
CC	73	5	His thoughts turned to his father's God. In his childhood he had been taught to love and fear Him. Often in his father's tent he had listened to the story of the vision that Jacob saw as he fled from his home an exile and a fugitive.... His soul thrilled with the high resolve to prove himself true to God--under all circumstances to act as became a subject of the King of heaven. He would serve the Lord with undivided heart; he would meet the trials of his lot with fortitude and perform every duty with fidelity. One day's experience had been the turning point in Joseph's life. Its terrible calamity had transformed him from a petted child to a man, thoughtful, courageous, and self-possessed.11
------------------------A Blessed Partnership, March 9
			Genesis 39:1-6
CC	74	1	And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man.... And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. Genesis 39:2, 3.
CC	74	2	Arriving in Egypt, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, captain of the king's guard, in whose service he remained for ten years. He was here exposed to temptations of no ordinary character. He was in the midst of idolatry. The worship of false gods was surrounded by all the pomp of royalty, supported by the wealth and culture of the most highly civilized nation then in existence. Yet Joseph preserved his simplicity and his fidelity to God. The sights and sounds of vice were all about him, but he was as one who saw and heard not. His thoughts were not permitted to linger upon forbidden subjects. The desire to gain the favor of the Egyptians could not cause him to conceal his principles. Had he attempted to do this, he would have been overcome by temptation; but he was not ashamed of the religion of his fathers, and he made no effort to hide the fact that he was a worshiper of Jehovah.... Potiphar's confidence in Joseph increased daily, and he finally promoted him to be his steward, with full control over all his possessions....
CC	74	3	The marked prosperity which attended everything placed under Joseph's care was not the result of a direct miracle; but his industry, care, and energy were crowned with the divine blessing. Joseph attributed his success to the favor of God and even his idolatrous master accepted this as the secret of his unparalleled prosperity. Without steadfast, well-directed effort, however, success could never have been attained. God was glorified by the faithfulness of His servant. It was His purpose that in purity and uprightness the believer in God should appear in marked contrast to the worshipers of idols--that thus the light of heavenly grace might shine forth amid the darkness of heathenism.
CC	74	4	Joseph's gentleness and fidelity won the heart of the chief captain, who came to regard him as a son rather than a slave. The youth was brought in contact with men of rank and learning, and he acquired a knowledge of science, of languages, and of affairs--an education needful to the future prime minister of Egypt.12
------------------------How Can I Do It? March 10
			Genesis 39:7-12
CC	75	1	How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? Genesis 39:9.
CC	75	2	It is always a critical period in a young man's life when he is separated from home influences and wise counsels and enters upon new scenes and trying tests. But if he does not of his own accord place himself in these positions of danger and remove himself from parental restraint; if, without will or choice of his own, he is placed in dangerous positions and relies upon God for strength--cherishing the love of God in his heart--he will be kept from yielding to temptation by the power of God who placed him in that trying position. God will protect him from being corrupted by the fierce temptation. God was with Joseph in his new home. He was in the path of duty, suffering wrong but not doing wrong. He therefore had the love and protection of God for he carried his religious principle into everything he undertook.13
CC	75	3	Joseph's faith and integrity were to be tested by fiery trials. His master's wife endeavored to entice the young man to transgress the law of God. Heretofore he had remained untainted by the corruption teeming in that heathen land; but this temptation, so sudden, so strong, so seductive--how should it be met? Joseph knew well what would be the consequence of resistance. On the one hand were concealment, favor, and rewards; on the other, disgrace, imprisonment, perhaps death. His whole future life depended upon the decision of the moment. Would principle triumph? Would Joseph still be true to God? With inexpressible anxiety, angels looked upon the scene.
CC	75	4	Joseph's answer reveals the power of religious principle. He would not betray the confidence of his master on earth, and, whatever the consequences, he would be true to his Master in heaven. Under the inspecting eye of God and holy angels many take liberties of which they would not be guilty in the presence of their fellow men, but Joseph's first thought was of God. "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" he said.
CC	75	5	If we were to cherish an habitual impression that God sees and hears all that we do and say and keeps a faithful record of our words and actions, and that we must meet it all, we would fear to sin.14
------------------------A Prison Apprenticeship, March 11
			Genesis 39:13-23
CC	76	1	His feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in chains of iron: until the time that his word came to pass; the word of the Lord tried him. Psalm 105:18, 19, R.V.
CC	76	2	Joseph's faithful integrity led to the loss of his reputation and his liberty. This is the severest test that the virtuous and God-fearing are subjected to, that vice seems to prosper while virtue is trampled in the dust.... Joseph's religion kept his temper sweet and his sympathy with humanity warm and strong, notwithstanding all his trials.... No sooner does he enter upon prison life, than he brings all the brightness of his Christian principles into active exercise; he begins to make himself useful to others.... He is cheerful, for he is a Christian gentleman. God was preparing him under this discipline for a situation of great responsibility, honor, and usefulness, and he was willing to learn; he took kindly to the lessons the Lord would teach him. He learned to bear the yoke in his youth. He learned to govern by first learning obedience himself.15
CC	76	3	Joseph's real character shines out, even in the darkness of the dungeon. He held fast his faith and patience; his years of faithful service had been most cruelly repaid, yet this did not render him morose or distrustful. He had the peace that comes from conscious innocence, and he trusted his case with God.... He found a work to do, even in the prison. God was preparing him in the school of affliction for greater usefulness, and he did not refuse the needful discipline. In the prison, witnessing the results of oppression and tyranny and the effects of crime, he learned lessons of justice, sympathy, and mercy, that prepared him to exercise power with wisdom and compassion.... It was the part he acted in the prison--the integrity of his daily life and his sympathy for those who were in trouble and distress--that opened the way for his future prosperity and honor. Every ray of light that we shed upon others is reflected upon ourselves. Every kind and sympathizing word spoken to the sorrowful, every act to relieve the oppressed, and every gift to the needy, if prompted by a right motive, will result in blessings to the giver.16
------------------------Always the Same, March 12
			Genesis 41:1-43
CC	77	1	Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men. Proverbs 22:29.
CC	77	2	From the dungeon Joseph was exalted to be ruler over all the land of Egypt. It was a position of high honor, yet it was beset with difficulty and peril. One cannot stand upon a lofty height without danger. As the tempest leaves unharmed the lowly flower of the valley, while it uproots the stately tree upon the mountaintop, so those who have maintained their integrity in humble life may be dragged down to the pit by the temptations that assail worldly success and honor. But Joseph's character bore the test alike of adversity and prosperity. The same fidelity to God was manifest when he stood in the palace of the Pharaohs as when in a prisoner's cell. He was still a stranger in a heathen land, separated from his kindred, the worshipers of God; but he fully believed that the divine hand had directed his steps, and in constant reliance upon God he faithfully discharged the duties of his position. Through Joseph the attention of the king and great men of Egypt was directed to the true God; and though they adhered to their idolatry, they learned to respect the principles revealed in the life and character of the worshiper of Jehovah.
CC	77	3	How was Joseph enabled to make such a record of firmness of character, uprightness, and wisdom?--In his early years he had consulted duty rather than inclination; and the integrity, the simple trust, the noble nature, of the youth bore fruit in the deeds of the man. A pure and simple life had favored the vigorous development of both physical and intellectual powers. Communion with God through His works and the contemplation of the grand truths entrusted to the inheritors of faith had elevated and ennobled his spiritual nature, broadening and strengthening the mind as no other study could do. Faithful attention to duty in every station, from the lowliest to the most exalted, had been training every power for its highest service. He who lives in accordance with the Creator's will is securing to himself the truest and noblest development of character.17
------------------------All in God's Plan, March 13
CC	78	1	The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding. Job 28:28.
CC	78	2	Joseph's checkered life was not an accident; it was ordered of Providence. But how was he enabled to make such a record of firmness of character, uprightness and wisdom? It was the result of careful training in his early years. He had consulted duty rather than inclination; and the purity and simple trust of the boy bore fruit in the deeds of the man. The most brilliant talents are of no value unless they are improved; industrious habits and force of character must be gained by cultivation. A high moral character and fine mental qualities are not the result of accident. God gives opportunities; success depends upon the use made of them. The openings of Providence must be quickly discerned and eagerly seized upon.18
CC	78	3	Not to the people of Egypt alone, but to all the nations connected with that powerful kingdom, God manifested Himself through Joseph. He desired to make him a light bearer to all peoples, and He placed him next the throne of the world's greatest empire, that the heavenly illumination might extend far and near.19
CC	78	4	There are few who realize the influence of the little things of life upon the development of character. Nothing with which we have to do is really small. The varied circumstances that we meet day by day are designed to test our faithfulness and to qualify us for greater trusts. By adherence to principle in the transactions of ordinary life, the mind becomes accustomed to hold the claims of duty above those of pleasure and inclination. Minds thus disciplined are not wavering between right and wrong, like the reed trembling in the wind; they are loyal to duty because they have trained themselves to habits of fidelity and truth. By faithfulness in that which is least they acquire strength to be faithful in greater matters. An upright character is of greater worth than the gold of Ophir. Without it none can rise to an honorable eminence. But character is not inherited. It cannot be bought. Moral excellence and fine mental qualities are not the result of accident. The most precious gifts are of no value unless they are improved.20
------------------------He was Like Christ, March 14
CC	79	1	The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: but his bow abode in strength. Genesis 49:23, 24.
CC	79	2	The life of Joseph illustrates the life of Christ. It was envy that moved the brothers of Joseph to sell him as a slave; they hoped to prevent him from becoming greater than themselves. And when he was carried to Egypt, they flattered themselves that they were to be no more troubled with his dreams, that they had removed all possibility of their fulfillment. But their own course was overruled by God to bring about the very event that they designed to hinder. So the Jewish priests and elders were jealous of Christ, fearing that He would attract the attention of the people from them. They put Him to death, to prevent Him from becoming king, but they were thus bringing about this very result.
CC	79	3	Joseph, through his bondage in Egypt, became a savior to his father's family; yet this fact did not lessen the guilt of his brothers. So the crucifixion of Christ by His enemies made Him the Redeemer of mankind, the Saviour of the fallen race, and Ruler over the whole world: but the crime of His murderers was just as heinous as though God's providential hand had not controlled events for His own glory and the good of man.
CC	79	4	As Joseph was sold to the heathen by his own brothers, so Christ was sold to His bitterest enemies by one of His disciples. Joseph was falsely accused and thrust into prison because of his virtue: so Christ was despised and rejected because His righteous, self-denying life was a rebuke to sin; and though guilty of no wrong, He was condemned upon the testimony of false witnesses. And Joseph's patience and meekness under injustice and oppression, his ready forgiveness and noble benevolence toward his unnatural brothers, represent the Saviour's uncomplaining endurance of the malice and abuse of wicked men, and His forgiveness, not only of His murderers, but of all who have come to Him confessing their sins and seeking a pardon.21
CC	79	5	He who receives Christ by living faith ... has a living connection with God.... He carries with him the atmosphere of heaven, which is the grace of God, a treasure that the world cannot buy. He who is in living connection with God may be in humble stations, yet his moral worth is as precious as was that of Joseph.22
------------------------A Slave Mother, March 15
			Exodus 2:1-10
CC	80	1	Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6.
CC	80	2	Jochebed was a woman and a slave. Her lot in life was humble, her burden heavy. But through no other woman, save Mary of Nazareth, has the world received greater blessing. Knowing that her child [Moses] must soon pass beyond her care, to the guardianship of those who knew not God, she the more earnestly endeavored to link his soul with heaven.23
CC	80	3	She endeavored to imbue his mind with the fear of God and the love of truth and justice, and earnestly prayed that he might be preserved from every corrupting influence. She showed him the folly and sin of idolatry, and early taught him to bow down and pray to the living God, who alone could hear him and help him in every emergency.
CC	80	4	She kept the boy as long as she could, but was obliged to give him up when he was about twelve years old. From his humble cabin home he was taken to the royal palace, to the daughter of Pharaoh, "and he became her son." Yet even here he did not lose the impressions received in childhood. The lessons learned at his mother's side could not be forgotten. They were a shield from the pride, the infidelity, and the vice that flourished amid the splendor of the court.
CC	80	5	How far-reaching in its results was the influence of that one Hebrew woman, and she an exile and a slave! The whole future life of Moses, the great mission which he fulfilled as the leader of Israel, testifies to the importance of the work of the Christian mother. There is no other work that can equal this. To a very great extent the mother holds in her own hands the destiny of her children.... She is sowing seed that will spring up and bear fruit, either for good or for evil. She has not to paint a form of beauty upon canvas or to chisel it from marble, but to impress upon a human soul the image of the divine....
CC	80	6	Let every mother feel that her moments are priceless; her work will be tested in the solemn day of accounts.24
------------------------The Right Choice, March 16
CC	81	1	By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Hebrews 11:24, 25.
CC	81	2	In the schools of Egypt, Moses received the highest civil and military training. Of great personal attractions, noble in form and stature, of cultivated mind and princely bearing, and renowned as a military leader, he became the nation's pride.25
CC	81	3	All who occupied the throne of the Pharaohs must become members of the priestly caste; and Moses as the heir apparent, was to be initiated into the mysteries of the national religion.... But while he was an ardent and untiring student, he could not be induced to participate in the worship of the gods. He was threatened with the loss of the crown, and warned that he would be disowned by the princess should he persist in his adherence to the Hebrew faith. But he was unshaken in his determination to render homage to none save the one God....
CC	81	4	Moses was fitted to take pre-eminence among the great of the earth, to shine in the courts of its most glorious kingdom, and to sway the scepter of its power. His intellectual greatness distinguishes him above the great men of all ages. As historian, poet, philosopher, general of armies, and legislator, he stands without a peer. Yet with the world before him, he had the moral strength to refuse the flattering prospects of wealth and greatness and fame....
CC	81	5	Moses had been instructed in regard to the final reward to be given to the humble and obedient servants of God, and worldly gain sank to its proper insignificance in comparison. The magnificent palace of Pharaoh and the monarch's throne were held out as an inducement to Moses; but he knew that the sinful pleasures that make men forget God were in its lordly courts. He looked beyond the gorgeous palace, beyond a monarch's crown, to the high honors that will be bestowed on the saints of the Most High in a kingdom untainted by sin. He saw by faith an imperishable crown that the King of heaven would place on the brow of the overcomer.26
------------------------Not God's Way, March 17
			Exodus 2:11-15
CC	82	1	And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. Acts 7:22.
CC	82	2	Moses supposed that his education in the wisdom of Egypt had fully qualified him to lead Israel from bondage. Was he not learned in all the things necessary for a general of armies? Had he not had the greatest advantages of the best schools in the land?--Yes: he felt that he was able to deliver them. He first set about his work by trying to gain the favor of his own people by redressing their wrongs. He killed an Egyptian who was imposing upon one of his brethren. In this he manifested the spirit of him who was a murderer from the beginning, and proved himself unfit to represent the God of mercy, love, and tenderness. He made a miserable failure of his first attempt. Like many another, he then immediately lost his confidence in God, and turned his back upon his appointed work; he fled from the wrath of Pharaoh. He concluded that because of his mistake ... God would not permit him to have any part in the work of delivering His people from their cruel bondage. But the Lord permitted these things that He might be able to teach him the gentleness, goodness, long-suffering, which it is necessary for every laborer for the Master to possess....
CC	82	3	In the very height of his human glory the Lord permitted Moses to reveal the foolishness of man's wisdom, the weakness of human strength, that he might be led to understand his utter helplessness, and his inefficiency without being upheld by the Lord Jesus.27
CC	82	4	In slaying the Egyptian, Moses had fallen into the same error so often committed by his fathers, of taking into their own hands the work that God has promised to do. It was not God's will to deliver His people by warfare, as Moses thought, but by His own mighty power, that the glory might be ascribed to Him alone. Yet even this rash act was overruled by God to accomplish His purposes. Moses was not prepared for his great work. He had yet to learn the same lesson of faith that Abraham and Jacob had been taught--not to rely upon human strength or wisdom, but upon the power of God for the fulfillment of His promises.28
------------------------God's University, March 18
CC	83	1	For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 1 Corinthians 3:19.
CC	83	2	In their efforts to qualify themselves to be colaborers with God, men frequently place themselves in such positions as will completely disqualify them for the molding and fashioning which the Lord desires to give them. Thus they are not found bearing, as did Moses, the divine similitude. By submitting to God's discipline, Moses became a sanctified channel through which the Lord could work. He did not hesitate to change his way for the Lord's way, even though it did lead in strange paths, in untried ways....
CC	83	3	It was not the teachings of the schools of Egypt that enabled Moses to triumph over all his enemies, but an ever-abiding faith, an unflinching faith, a faith that did not fail under the most trying circumstances.... Moses acted as seeing the Invisible.
CC	83	4	God is not seeking for men of perfect education.... The Lord wants men to appreciate the privilege of being laborers together with God--men who will honor Him by rendering implicit obedience to His requirements regardless of previously inculcated theories....
CC	83	5	Many who are seeking efficiency for the exalted work of God by perfecting their education in the schools of men, will find that they have failed of learning the more important lessons which the Lord would teach them. By neglecting to submit themselves to the impressions of the Holy Spirit, by not living in obedience to all God's requirements, their spiritual efficiency has become weakened.... By absenting themselves from the school of Christ, they have forgotten the sound of the voice of the Teacher, and He cannot direct their course. Men may acquire all the knowledge possible to be imparted by the human teacher; but there is still greater wisdom required of them by God. Like Moses, they must learn meekness, lowliness of heart, and distrust of self. Our Saviour Himself, bearing the test for humanity, acknowledged that of Himself He could do nothing. We must also learn that there is no strength in humanity alone. Man becomes efficient only by becoming a partaker of the divine nature.29
------------------------Worth More, March 19
CC	84	1	Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. Hebrews 11:26.
CC	84	2	Moses had been a student. He was well educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, but this was not the only qualification which he needed to prepare him for his work. He was, in the providence of God, to learn patience, to temper his passions. In a school of self-denial and hardships he was to receive an education which would be of the utmost importance to him. These trials would prepare him to exercise a fatherly care over all who needed his help. No knowledge, no study, no eloquence, could be a substitute for this experience in trials to one who was to watch for souls as they that must give an account. In doing the work of a humble shepherd, in being forgetful of self and interested for the flock given to his charge, he was to become fitted for the most exalted work ever entrusted to mortals, that of being a shepherd of the sheep of the Lord's pasture.
CC	84	3	Those who fear God in the world must be connected with Him. Christ is the most perfect educator the world ever knew. To receive wisdom and knowledge from Him was more valuable to Moses than all the learning of the Egyptians....
CC	84	4	The faith of Moses led him to look at the things which are unseen, which are eternal. He left the splendid attractions of court life because sin was there. He gave up present and seeming good that flattered only to ruin and destroy. The real attractions, the eternal, were of value to him. The sacrifices made by Moses were really no sacrifices. With him it was letting go a present, apparent, flattering good for sure, high, immortal good.
CC	84	5	Moses endured the reproach of Christ, considering reproach greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. He believed what God had said and was not influenced to swerve from his integrity by any of the world's reproaches. He walked the earth as God's free man.... He looked to the things unseen and faltered not. The recompense of reward was attractive to him, and it may be also to us. He was familiar with God.30
------------------------Seeing the Invisible, March 20
CC	85	1	By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Hebrews 11:27.
CC	85	2	Moses had a deep sense of the personal presence of God. He was not only looking down through the ages for Christ to be made manifest in the flesh, but he saw Christ in a special manner accompanying the children of Israel in all their travels. God was real to him, ever present in his thoughts. When misunderstood, when called upon to face danger and to bear insult for Christ's sake, he endured without retaliation. Moses believed in God as one whom he needed and who would help him because of his need. God was to him a present help.
CC	85	3	Much of the faith which we see is merely nominal; the real, trusting, persevering faith is rare. Moses realized in his own experience the promise that God will be a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him. He had respect unto the recompense of the reward. Here is another point in regard to faith which we wish to study; God will reward the man of faith and obedience. If this faith is brought into the life experience, it will enable everyone who fears and loves God to endure trials. Moses was full of confidence in God because he had appropriating faith. He needed help, and he prayed for it, grasped it by faith, and wove into his experience the belief that God cared for him. He believed that God ruled his life in particular. He saw and acknowledged God in every detail of his life and felt that he was under the eye of the All-seeing One, who weighs motives, who tries the heart. He looked to God and trusted in Him for strength to carry him uncorrupted through every form of temptation.... The presence of God was sufficient to carry him through the most trying situations in which a man could be placed.
CC	85	4	Moses did not merely think of God; he saw Him. God was the constant vision before him; he never lost sight of His face. He saw Jesus as his Saviour, and he believed that the Saviour's merits would be imputed to him. This faith was to Moses no guesswork; it was a reality. This is the kind of faith we need, faith that will endure the test. Oh, how often we yield to temptation because we do not keep our eye upon Jesus!31
------------------------Learning and Unlearning, March 21
			Exodus 2:15-3:1
CC	86	1	The Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6.
CC	86	2	In the wilds of Midian, Moses spent forty years as a keeper of sheep. Apparently cut off forever from his life's mission, he was receiving the discipline essential for its fulfillment.32
CC	86	3	Moses had been learning much that he must unlearn. The influences that had surrounded him in Egypt--the love of his foster mother, his own high position as the king's grandson, the dissipation on every hand, the refinement, the subtlety, and the mysticism of a false religion, the splendor of idolatrous worship, the solemn grandeur of architecture and sculpture--all had left deep impressions upon his developing mind and had molded, to some extent, his habits and character. Time, change of surroundings, and communion with God could remove these impressions. It would require on the part of Moses himself a struggle as for life to renounce error and accept truth, but God would be his helper when the conflict should be too severe for human strength....
CC	86	4	In order to receive God's help, man must realize his weakness and deficiency; he must apply his own mind to the great change to be wrought in himself.... Many never attain to the position that they might occupy, because they wait for God to do for them that which He has given them power to do for themselves....
CC	86	5	Shut in by the bulwarks of the mountains, Moses was alone with God. The magnificent temples of Egypt no longer impressed his mind with their superstition and falsehood. In the solemn grandeur of the everlasting hills he beheld the majesty of the Most High, and in contrast realized how powerless and insignificant were the gods of Egypt. Everywhere the Creator's name was written. Moses seemed to stand in His presence and to be overshadowed by His power. Here his pride and self-sufficiency were swept away. In the stern simplicity of his wilderness life, the results of the ease and luxury of Egypt disappeared. Moses became patient, reverent, and humble, "very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth" (Numbers 12:3), yet strong in faith in the mighty God of Jacob.33
------------------------God Sent Him, March 22
			Exodus 3:7-16
CC	87	1	Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. Exodus 3:10.
CC	87	2	The time for Israel's deliverance had come. But God's purpose was to be accomplished in a manner to pour contempt on human pride. The deliverer was to go forth as a humble shepherd, with only a rod in his hand; but God would make that rod the symbol of His power....
CC	87	3	The divine command given to Moses found him self-distrustful, slow of speech, and timid. He was overwhelmed with a sense of his incapacity to be a mouthpiece for God to Israel. But having once accepted the work, he entered upon it with his whole heart, putting all his trust in the Lord.... God blessed his ready obedience, and he became eloquent, hopeful, self-possessed, and well fitted for the greatest work ever given to man. This is an example of what God does to strengthen the character of those who trust Him fully and give themselves unreservedly to His commands.
CC	87	4	A man will gain power and efficiency as he accepts the responsibilities that God places upon him, and with his whole soul seeks to qualify himself to bear them aright. However humble his position or limited his ability, that man will attain true greatness who, trusting to divine strength, seeks to perform his work with fidelity....
CC	87	5	On the way from Midian, Moses received a startling and terrible warning of the Lord's displeasure. An angel appeared to him in a threatening manner, as if he would immediately destroy him. No explanation was given; but Moses remembered that he had ... neglected to perform the rite of circumcision upon their youngest son.... In his mission to Pharaoh, Moses was to be placed in a position of great peril; his life could be preserved only through the protection of holy angels. But while living in neglect of a known duty, he would not be secure; for he could not be shielded by the angels of God.
CC	87	6	In the time of trouble just before the coming of Christ, the righteous will be preserved through the ministration of heavenly angels; but there will be no security for the transgressor of God's law. Angels cannot then protect those who are disregarding one of the divine precepts.34
------------------------Who is the Lord? March 23
			Exodus 5:7-11
CC	88	1	Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7.
CC	88	2	Pharaoh sowed obstinacy, and he reaped obstinacy. He himself put this seed into the soil. There was no more need for God by some new power to interfere with its growth, than there is for Him to interfere with the growth of a grain of corn. All that is required is that a seed shall be left to germinate and spring up to bring forth fruit after its kind. The harvest reveals the kind of seed that has been sown.35
CC	88	3	Pharaoh saw the mighty working of the Spirit of God; he saw the miracles which the Lord performed by His servant; but he refused obedience to God's command. The rebellious king had proudly inquired, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? ... [Exodus 5:2]." And as the judgments of God fell more and more heavily upon him, he persisted in stubborn resistance. By rejecting light from heaven, he became hard and unimpressible. The providence of God was revealing His power, and these manifestations, unacknowledged, were the means of hardening Pharaoh's heart against greater light. Those who exalt their own ideas above the plainly specified will of God, are saying as did Pharaoh, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?" Every rejection of light hardens the heart and darkens the understanding; and thus men find it more and more difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, and they become bolder in resisting the will of God.36
CC	88	4	He who has once yielded to temptation will yield more readily the second time. Every repetition of the sin lessens his power of resistance, blinds his eyes, and stifles conviction. Every seed of indulgence sown will bear fruit. God worked no miracle to prevent the harvest.... He who manifests an infidel hardihood, a stolid indifference to divine truth, is but reaping the harvest of that which he has himself sown. It is thus that multitudes come to listen with stoical indifference to the truths that once stirred their very souls. They sowed neglect and resistance to the truth, and such is the harvest which they reap.37
------------------------Hardening of the Heart, March 24
			Exodus 7:11-17
CC	89	1	But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go. Exodus 10:20.
CC	89	2	How does the Lord harden the hearts of men? In the same way in which the heart of Pharaoh was hardened. God sent this king a message of warning and mercy, but he refused to acknowledge the God of heaven, and would not render obedience to His commands. He asked, "Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?"
CC	89	3	The Lord gave him evidence of His power by working signs and miracles before him. The great I AM acquainted Pharaoh with His mighty works, showing him that He was the ruler of heaven and earth, but the king chose to defy the God of heaven. He would not consent to break his proud, stubborn heart even before the King of kings, that he might receive the light; for he was determined to have his own way, and work out his rebellion. He chose to do his own will, and set aside the command of God, and the very evidence given him that Jehovah was above all the gods of the nations, above all the wise men and magicians, only served to blind his mind and harden his heart.
CC	89	4	Had Pharaoh accepted the evidence of God's power given in the first plague, he would have been spared all the judgments that followed. But his determined stubbornness called for still greater manifestations of the power of God, and plague followed plague, until at last he was called to look upon the dead face of his own first born, and those of his kindred; while the children of Israel, whom he had regarded as slaves, were unharmed by the plagues, untouched by the destroying angel. God made it evident upon whom rested His favor, who were His people.38
CC	89	5	Every additional evidence of the power of God that the Egyptian monarch resisted, carried him on to a stronger and more persistent defiance of God.... This case is a clear illustration of the sin against the Holy Ghost. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Gradually the Lord withdrew His Spirit. Removing His restraining power, He gave the king into the hands of the worst of all tyrants--self.39
------------------------Free at Last! March 25
			Exodus 12:29-42
CC	90	1	And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness. Psalm 105:43.
CC	90	2	With sandaled feet, and staff in hand, the people of Israel had stood, hushed, awed, yet expectant, awaiting the royal mandate that should bid them go forth. Before the morning broke, they were on their way.... That day completed the history revealed to Abraham in prophetic vision centuries before: "Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance" (Genesis 15:13, 14).40
CC	90	3	In bringing forth Israel from Egypt, the Lord again manifested His power and His mercy. His wonderful works in their deliverance from bondage and His dealings with them in their travels through the wilderness were not for their benefit alone. These were to be as an object lesson to the surrounding nations. The Lord revealed Himself as a God above all human authority and greatness. The signs and wonders He wrought in behalf of His people showed His power over nature and over the greatest of those who worshiped nature.
CC	90	4	God went through the proud land of Egypt as He will go through the earth in the last days. With fire and tempest, earthquake and death, the great I AM redeemed His people. He took them out of the land of bondage. He led them through the "great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought" (Deuteronomy 8:15). He brought them forth water out of "the rock of flint," and fed them with "the corn of heaven" (Psalm 78:24). "For," said Moses, "the Lord's portion is his people: Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him" (Deuteronomy 32:9-12). Thus He brought them unto Himself, that they might dwell as under the shadow of the Most High.41
------------------------Cloud and Fire, March 26
			Exodus 13:20-23
CC	91	1	He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night. Psalm 105:39.
CC	91	2	"And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light." ... The standard of their invisible Leader was ever with them. By day the cloud directed their journeyings or spread as a canopy above the host. It served as a protection from the burning heat, and by its coolness and moisture afforded grateful refreshment in the parched, thirsty desert. By night it became a pillar of fire, illuminating their encampment and constantly assuring them of the divine presence.
CC	91	3	In one of the most beautiful and comforting passages of Isaiah's prophecy, reference is made to the pillar of cloud and of fire to represent God's care for His people in the great final struggle with the powers of evil: "The Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for above all the glory shall be a covering. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain" (Isaiah 4:5, 6, margin).42
CC	91	4	In the time of trial before us God's pledge of security will be placed upon those who have kept the word of His patience. Christ will say to His faithful ones: "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast" (Isaiah 26:20). The Lion of Judah, so terrible to the rejectors of His grace, will be the Lamb of God to the obedient and faithful. The pillar of cloud which speaks wrath and terror to the transgressor of God's law is light and mercy and deliverance to those who have kept His commandments. The arm strong to smite the rebellious will be strong to deliver the loyal. Every faithful one will surely be gathered. "He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24:31).43
------------------------A Safe Path, March 27
			Exodus 14
CC	92	1	And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. Exodus 14:15.
CC	92	2	God in His providence brought the Hebrews into the mountain fastnesses before the sea, that He might manifest His power in their deliverance and signally humble the pride of their oppressors. He might have saved them in any other way, but He chose this method in order to test their faith and strengthen their trust in Him. The people were weary and terrified, yet if they had held back when Moses bade them advance, God would never have opened the path for them. It was "by faith" that "they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land" (Hebrews 11:29). In marching down to the very water, they showed that they believed the word of God as spoken by Moses. They did all that was in their power to do, and then the Mighty One of Israel divided the sea to make a path for their feet.
CC	92	3	The great lesson here taught is for all time. Often the Christian life is beset by dangers, and duty seems hard to perform. The imagination pictures impending ruin before and bondage or death behind. Yet the voice of God speaks clearly, "Go forward." We should obey this command, even though our eyes cannot penetrate the darkness, and we feel the cold waves about our feet. The obstacles that hinder our progress will never disappear before a halting, doubting spirit. Those who defer obedience till every shadow of uncertainty disappears and there remains no risk of failure or defeat, will never obey at all. Unbelief whispers, "Let us wait till the obstructions are removed, and we can see our way clearly:" but faith courageously urges an advance, hoping all things, believing all things.
CC	92	4	The cloud that was a wall of darkness to the Egyptians was to the Hebrews a great flood of light, illuminating the whole camp, and shedding brightness upon the path before them. So the dealings of Providence bring to the unbelieving, darkness and despair, while to the trusting soul they are full of light and peace. The path where God leads the way may lie through the desert or the sea, but it is a safe path.44
------------------------The Song of Moses and the Lamb, March 28
			Exodus 15
CC	93	1	The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: this is my God, and I will praise him; my father's God, and I will exalt him. Exodus 15:2, R.V.
CC	93	2	From the most terrible peril one night had brought complete deliverance. That vast, helpless throng--bondmen unused to battle, women, children, and cattle, with the sea before them, and the mighty armies of Egypt pressing behind--had seen their path opened through the waters and their enemies overwhelmed in the moment of expected triumph. Jehovah alone had brought them deliverance, and to Him their hearts were turned in gratitude and faith. Their emotion found utterance in songs of praise. The Spirit of God rested upon Moses, and he led the people in a triumphant anthem of thanksgiving, the earliest and one of the most sublime that are known to man....
CC	93	3	That song does not belong to the Jewish people alone. It points forward to the destruction of all the foes of righteousness and the final victory of the Israel of God. The prophet of Patmos beholds the white-robed multitude that have "gotten the victory," standing on the "sea of glass mingled with fire," having "the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb" (Revelation 15:2, 3)....
CC	93	4	In freeing our souls from the bondage of sin, God has wrought for us a deliverance greater than that of the Hebrews at the Red Sea. Like the Hebrew host, we should praise the Lord with heart and soul and voice for His "wonderful works to the children of men." Those who dwell upon God's great mercies, and are not unmindful of His lesser gifts, will put on the girdle of gladness and make melody in their hearts to the Lord. The daily blessings that we receive from the hand of God, and above all else the death of Jesus to bring happiness and heaven within our reach, should be a theme for constant gratitude....
CC	93	5	All the inhabitants of heaven unite in praising God. Let us learn the song of the angels now, that we may sing it when we join their shining ranks.45
------------------------Complaining Again, March 29
			Exodus 16:1-21
CC	94	1	And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Exodus 16:2.
CC	94	2	Many look back to the Israelites, and marvel at their unbelief and murmuring, feeling that they themselves would not have been so ungrateful; but when their faith is tested, even by little trials, they manifest no more faith or patience than did ancient Israel.46
CC	94	3	God had promised to be their God, to take them to Himself as a people, and to lead them to a large and good land; but they were ready to faint at every obstacle encountered in the way to that land.... They forgot their bitter service in Egypt. They forgot the goodness and power of God displayed in their behalf in their deliverance from bondage. They forgot how their children had been spared when the destroying angel slew all the first-born of Egypt. They forgot the grand exhibition of divine power at the Red Sea. They forgot that while they had crossed safely in the path that had been opened for them, the armies of their enemies, attempting to follow them, had been overwhelmed by the waters of the sea. They saw and felt only their present inconveniences and trials; and instead of saying, "God has done great things for us; whereas we were slaves, He is making of us a great nation," they talked of the hardness of the way, and wondered when their weary pilgrimage would end.
CC	94	4	The history of the wilderness life of Israel was chronicled for the benefit of the Israel of God to the close of time. The record of God's dealing with the wanderers of the desert in all their marchings to and fro, in their exposure to hunger, thirst, and weariness, and in the striking manifestations of His power for their relief, is fraught with warning and instruction for His people in all ages. The varied experience of the Hebrews was a school of preparation for their promised home in Canaan. God would have His people in these days review with a humble heart and teachable spirit the trials through which ancient Israel passed, that they may be instructed in their preparation for the heavenly Canaan.47
------------------------Hands Toward Heaven, March 30
			Exodus 17:8-16
CC	95	1	I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. 1 Timothy 2:8.
CC	95	2	Because of Israel's disobedience and departure from God, they were allowed to be brought into close places and to suffer adversity; their enemies were permitted to make war with them, to humble them and lead them to seek God in their trouble and distress....
CC	95	3	When Israel was assailed by the Amalekites, Moses gave Joshua directions to fight with their enemies.48
CC	95	4	Moses and Aaron and Hur were stationed on a hill overlooking the battlefield. With arms outstretched toward heaven, and holding the rod of God in his right hand, Moses prayed for the success of the armies of Israel. As the battle progressed, it was observed that so long as his hands were reaching upward, Israel prevailed, but when they were lowered, the enemy was victorious. As Moses became weary, Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands until the going down of the sun, when the enemy was put to flight.
CC	95	5	As Aaron and Hur supported the hands of Moses, they showed the people their duty to sustain him in his arduous work while he should receive the word from God to speak to them. And the act of Moses also was significant, showing that God held their destiny in His hands; while they made Him their trust, He would fight for them and subdue their enemies; but when they should let go their hold upon Him, and trust in their own power, they would be even weaker than those who had not the knowledge of God, and their foes would prevail against them.
CC	95	6	As the Hebrews triumphed when Moses was reaching his hands toward heaven and interceding in their behalf, so the Israel of God prevail when they by faith take hold upon the strength of their mighty Helper. Yet divine strength is to be combined with human effort. Moses did not believe that God would overcome their foes while Israel remained inactive. While the great leader was pleading with the Lord, Joshua and his brave followers were putting forth their utmost efforts to repulse the enemies of Israel and of God.49
------------------------Two Hands for God, March 31
			Exodus 31:1-11
CC	96	1	We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. 2 Corinthians 6:1.
CC	96	2	The Lord gave an important lesson to His people in all ages when to Moses on the mount He gave instruction regarding the building of the tabernacle. In that work He required perfection in every detail. Moses was proficient in all the learning of the Egyptians; he had a knowledge of God, and God's purposes had been revealed to him in visions; but he did not know how to engrave and embroider.
CC	96	3	Israel had been held all their days in the bondage of Egypt, and although there were ingenious men among them, they had not been instructed in the curious arts which were called for in the building of the tabernacle. They knew how to make bricks, but they did not understand how to work in gold or silver. How was the work to be done? ...
CC	96	4	Then God Himself explained how the work was to be accomplished. He signified by name the persons He desired to do a certain work. Bezaleel was to be the architect. This man belonged to the tribe of Judah--a tribe that God delighted to honor....
CC	96	5	"And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wisehearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee" (Exodus 31:1-6).50
CC	96	6	Among the multitude were Egyptians, who had acted as overseers for such work, and thoroughly understood how it should be done. But the work was not dependent upon them. The Lord united with human agencies, giving them wisdom to work skillfully.51
CC	96	7	Skill in the common arts is a gift from God. He provides both the gift and the wisdom to use the gift aright.52
CC	96	8	In order that the earthly tabernacle might represent the heavenly, it must be perfect in all its parts, and it must be, in every smallest detail, like the pattern in the heavens. So it is with the characters of those who are finally accepted in the sight of heaven.53
CC	96	9	Let the workmen in the service of God today pray to Him for wisdom and keen foresight, that they may do their work perfectly.54
------------------------A Crisis in Israel, April 1
			Exodus 32:1-6
CC	97	1	They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. Psalm 106:19, 20.
CC	97	2	In the absence of Moses, the judicial authority had been delegated to Aaron, and a vast crowd gathered about his tent, with the demand, "Make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, ... we wot not what is become of him." The cloud, they said, ... now rested permanently upon the mount; it would no longer direct their travels....
CC	97	3	Such a crisis demanded a man of firmness, decision, and unflinching courage; one who held the honor of God above popular favor, personal safety, or life itself. But the present leader of Israel was not of this character. Aaron feebly remonstrated with the people, but his wavering and timidity at the critical moment only rendered them the more determined.... There were some who remained true to their covenant with God, but the greater part of the people joined in the apostasy....
CC	97	4	Aaron feared for his own safety; and instead of nobly standing up for the honor of God, he yielded to the demands of the multitude.... He made a molten calf, in imitation of the gods of Egypt. The people proclaimed, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." And Aaron basely permitted this insult to Jehovah. He did more. Seeing with what satisfaction the golden god was received, he built an altar before it, and made proclamation, "Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord." The announcement was heralded by trumpeters from company to company throughout the camp.... Under the pretense of holding "a feast to the Lord," they gave themselves up to gluttony and licentious reveling.
CC	97	5	How often, in our own day, is the love of pleasure disguised by a "form of godliness!" A religion that permits men, while observing the rites of worship, to devote themselves to selfish or sensual gratification, is as pleasing to the multitudes now as in the days of Israel. And there are still pliant Aarons, who, while holding positions of authority in the church, will yield to the desires of the unconsecrated, and thus encourage them in sin.1
------------------------He Failed His Brother, April 2
			Exodus 32:7-24
CC	98	1	And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? Exodus 32:21.
CC	98	2	Aaron endeavored to shield himself by relating the clamors of the people.... But his excuses and prevarications were of no avail....
CC	98	3	The fact that Aaron had been blessed and honored so far above the people was what made his sin so heinous. It was Aaron "the saint of the Lord" (Psalm 106:16), that had made the idol and announced the feast. It was he who had been appointed as spokesman for Moses, and concerning whom God Himself had testified, "I know that he can speak well" (Exodus 4:14), that had failed to check the idolaters in their heaven-daring purpose. He by whom God had wrought in bringing judgments both upon the Egyptians and upon their gods, had heard unmoved the proclamation before the molten image, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." It was he who had been with Moses on the mount, and had there beheld the glory of the Lord, who had seen that in the manifestation of that glory there was nothing of which an image could be made--it was he who had changed that glory into the similitude of an ox. He to whom God had committed the government of the people in the absence of Moses, was found sanctioning their rebellion. "The Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him" (Deuteronomy 9:20). But in answer to the earnest intercession of Moses, his life was spared: and in penitence and humiliation for his great sin, he was restored to the favor of God.
CC	98	4	If Aaron had had courage to stand for the right, irrespective of consequences, he could have prevented that apostasy. If he had unswervingly maintained his own allegiance to God, if he had cited the people to the perils of Sinai, and had reminded them of their solemn covenant with God to obey His law, the evil would have been checked. But his compliance with the desires of the people and the calm assurance with which he proceeded to carry out their plans, emboldened them to go to greater lengths in sin than had before entered their minds....
CC	98	5	Of all the sins that God will punish, none are more grievous in His sight than those that encourage others to do evil.2
------------------------Face to Face, April 3
			Exodus 33:1-17
CC	99	1	And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Exodus 33:11.
CC	99	2	After the transgression of Israel in making the golden calf, Moses again goes to plead with God in behalf of his people.... He has learned from experience that in order to have an influence with the people he must first have power with God. The Lord reads the sincerity and unselfish purpose of the heart of His servant and condescends to commune with this feeble mortal, face to face, as a man speaks with a friend. Moses casts himself and all his burdens fully upon God and freely pours out his soul before Him. The Lord does not reprove His servant, but stoops to listen to his supplications....
CC	99	3	The answer comes: "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." But Moses does not feel that he can stop here. He has gained much, but he longs to come still nearer to God, to obtain a stronger assurance of His abiding presence. He has carried the burden of Israel; he has borne an overwhelming weight of responsibility; when the people sinned, he suffered keen remorse, as though he himself were guilty; and now there presses upon his soul a sense of the terrible results should God leave Israel to hardness and impenitence of heart.... Moses presses his petition with such earnestness and fervency that the answer comes: I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name."
CC	99	4	Now, indeed, we would expect the prophet to cease pleading; but no, emboldened by his success, he ventures to come still nearer to God, with a holy familiarity which is almost beyond our comprehension. He now makes a request which no human being ever made before: "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." What a petition to come from finite, mortal man! But is he repulsed? Does God reprove him for presumption? No; we hear the gracious words: "I will make all my goodness pass before thee."...
CC	99	5	In the history of Moses we may see what intimate communion with God it is man's privilege to enjoy.3
------------------------Strange Fire, April 4
			Leviticus 10:1-11
CC	100	1	And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. Leviticus 10:1.
CC	100	2	Next to Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu had stood highest in Israel. They had been especially honored by the Lord, having been permitted with the seventy elders to behold His glory in the mount. But their transgression was not therefore to be excused or lightly regarded. All this rendered their sin more grievous. Because men have received great light, because they have, like the princes of Israel, ascended to the mount, and been privileged to have communion with God, and to dwell in the light of His glory, let them not flatter themselves that they can afterward sin with impunity, that because they have been thus honored, God will not be strict to punish their iniquity. This is a fatal deception. The great light and privileges bestowed require returns of virtue and holiness corresponding to the light given. Anything short of this, God cannot accept. Great blessings or privileges should never lull to security or carelessness. They should never give license to sin or cause the recipients to feel that God will not be exact with them....
CC	100	3	Nadab and Abihu had not in their youth been trained to habits of self-control.... Habits of self-indulgence, long cherished, obtained a hold upon them which even the responsibility of the most sacred office had not power to break. They had not been taught to respect the authority of their father, and they did not realize the necessity of exact obedience to the requirements of God. Aaron's mistaken indulgence of his sons prepared them to become the subjects of the divine judgments.
CC	100	4	God designed to teach the people that they must approach Him with reverence and awe, and in His own appointed manner. He cannot accept partial obedience. It was not enough that in this solemn season of worship nearly everything was done as He had directed.... Let no one deceive himself with the belief that a part of God's commandments are nonessential, or that He will accept a substitute for that which He has required.4
------------------------Too Drunk to Care, April 5
			Leviticus 10:1-11
CC	101	1	Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Proverbs 20:1.
CC	101	2	Nadab and Abihu would never have committed that fatal sin had they not first become partially intoxicated by the free use of wine. They understood that the most careful and solemn preparation was necessary before presenting themselves in the sanctuary, where the divine Presence was manifested; but by intemperance they were disqualified for their holy office. Their minds became confused and their moral perceptions dulled so that they could not discern the difference between the sacred and the common. To Aaron and his surviving sons was given the warning: "Do not drink wine nor strong drink, ... that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean...." The use of spirituous liquors has the effect to weaken the body, confuse the mind, and debase the morals. It prevents men from realizing the sacredness of holy things or the binding force of God's requirements. All who occupied positions of sacred responsibility were to be men of strict temperance, that their minds might be clear to discriminate between right and wrong, that they might possess firmness of principle, and wisdom to administer justice and to show mercy.
CC	101	3	The same obligation rests upon every follower of Christ.... To the church of Christ in all ages is addressed the solemn and fearful warning, "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Corinthians 3:17).5
CC	101	4	The case of Aaron's sons has been placed upon record for the benefit of God's people, and should teach those especially who are preparing for the second coming of Christ, that the indulgence of a depraved appetite destroys the fine feelings of the soul, and so affects the reasoning powers which God has given to man, that spiritual and holy things lose their sacredness. Disobedience looks pleasing, instead of exceeding sinful.6
------------------------Misplaced Love, April 6
			Exodus 4:14-16; Exodus 4:27-31
CC	102	1	He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen. Psalm 105:26.
CC	102	2	Aaron was a man of amiable disposition, whom God selected to stand with Moses and speak for him.... God might have chosen Aaron as leader; but He who is acquainted with hearts, who understands character, knew that Aaron was yielding and lacked moral courage to stand in defense of the right under all circumstances, irrespective of consequences. Aaron's desire to have the good will of the people sometimes led him to commit great wrongs.... The same lack of firmness for the right in his family resulted in the death of two of his sons.... Nadab and Abihu failed to reverence the command of God to offer sacred fire upon their censers with the incense before Him....
CC	102	3	Here is seen the result of loose discipline. As these sons of Aaron had not been educated to respect and reverence the commands of their father, as they disregarded parental authority, they did not realize the necessity of explicitly following the requirements of God.... Contrary to God's express direction, they dishonored Him by offering common instead of sacred fire. God visited them with His wrath; fire went forth from His presence and destroyed them.
CC	102	4	Aaron bore his severe affliction with patience and humble submission. Sorrow and keen agony wrung his soul. He was convicted of his neglect of duty. He was priest of the most high God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. He was priest of his household, yet he had been inclined to pass over the folly of his children. He had neglected his duty to train and educate them to obedience, self-denial, and reverence for parental authority. Through feelings of misplaced indulgence, he failed to mold their characters with high reverence for eternal things. Aaron did not see, any more than many Christian parents now see, that his misplaced love and the indulgence of his children in wrong was preparing them for the certain displeasure of God.... His gentle remonstrance, without a firm exercise of parental restraint, and his imprudent tenderness toward his sons were cruelty in the extreme.7
------------------------Undernourished Souls, April 7
			Numbers 11:4-35
CC	103	1	They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. Psalm 106:13-15.
CC	103	2	Whenever their appetite was restricted, the Israelites were dissatisfied, and murmured and complained against Moses and Aaron, and against God.8
CC	103	3	God gave the people that which was not for their highest good, because they persisted in desiring it; they would not be satisfied with those things that would prove a benefit to them. Their rebellious desires were gratified, but they were left to suffer the result. They feasted without restraint, and their excesses were speedily punished.... Large numbers were cut down by burning fevers, while the most guilty among them were smitten as soon as they tasted the food for which they had lusted.9
CC	103	4	God might as easily have provided them with flesh as with manna, but a restriction was placed upon them for their good. It was His purpose to supply them with food better suited to their wants than the feverish diet to which many had become accustomed in Egypt. The perverted appetite was to be brought into a more healthy state, that they might enjoy the food originally provided for man--the fruits of the earth, which God gave to Adam and Eve in Eden. It was for this reason that the Israelites had been deprived, in a great measure, of animal food.
CC	103	5	Satan tempted them to regard this restriction as unjust and cruel. He caused them to lust after forbidden things, because he saw that the unrestrained indulgence of appetite would tend to produce sensuality, and by this means the people could be more easily brought under his control. The author of disease and misery will assail men where he can have the greatest success. Through temptations addressed to the appetite he has, to a large extent, led men into sin from the time when he induced Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit. It was by this same means that he led Israel to murmur against God. Intemperance in eating and drinking, leading as it does to the indulgence of the lower passions, prepares the way for men to disregard all moral obligations. When assailed by temptation, they have little power of resistance.10
------------------------Two Against One, April 8
			Numbers 12
CC	104	1	Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? Numbers 12:8.
CC	104	2	In the affections of the people and the honor of Heaven she [Miriam] stood second only to Moses and Aaron. But the same evil that first brought discord in heaven sprang up in the heart of this woman of Israel, and she did not fail to find a sympathizer in her dissatisfaction....
CC	104	3	Had Aaron stood up firmly for the right, he might have checked the evil; but instead of showing Miriam the sinfulness of her conduct, he sympathized with her, listened to her words of complaint, and thus came to share her jealousy.11
CC	104	4	In the appointment of the seventy elders Miriam and Aaron had not been consulted, and their jealousy was excited against Moses.... Miriam and Aaron had never known the weight of care and responsibility which had rested upon Moses; yet because they had been chosen to aid him they regarded themselves as sharing equally with him the burden of leadership, and they regarded the appointment of further assistants as uncalled for....
CC	104	5	"And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?" Regarding themselves as equally favored by God, they felt that they were entitled to the same position and authority....
CC	104	6	God had chosen Moses, and had put His Spirit upon him; and Miriam and Aaron, by their murmurings, were guilty of disloyalty, not only to their appointed leader, but to God Himself....
CC	104	7	He who has placed upon men the heavy responsibility of leaders and teachers of His people will hold the people accountable for the manner in which they treat His servants. We are to honor those whom God has honored. The judgment visited upon Miriam should be a rebuke to all who yield to jealousy, and murmur against those upon whom God lays the burden of His work.12
------------------------The Most Satanic Trait, April 9
			Numbers 12
CC	105	1	Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy? Proverbs 27:4.
CC	105	2	Their [Miriam's and Aaron's] accusations were borne by Moses in uncomplaining silence. It was the experience gained during the years of toil and waiting in Midian--the spirit of humility and long-suffering there developed--that prepared Moses to meet with patience the unbelief and murmuring of the people and the pride and envy of those who should have been his unswerving helpers. Moses "was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth," and this is why he was granted divine wisdom and guidance above all others. Says the Scripture, "The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way" (Psalm 25:9). The meek are guided by the Lord, because they are teachable, willing to be instructed....
CC	105	3	"And Jehovah came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam." ... "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and he departed." The cloud disappeared from the tabernacle in token of God's displeasure, and Miriam was smitten. She "became leprous, white as snow." ... Now, their pride humbled in the dust, Aaron confessed their sin, and entreated that his sister might not be left to perish by that loathsome and deadly scourge. In answer to the prayers of Moses the leprosy was cleansed. Miriam was, however, shut out of the camp for seven days....
CC	105	4	This manifestation of the Lord's displeasure was designed to be a warning to all Israel, to check the growing spirit of discontent and insubordination. If Miriam's envy and dissatisfaction had not been signally rebuked, it would have resulted in great evil. Envy is one of the most satanic traits that can exist in the human heart, and it is one of the most baleful in its effects.... It was envy that first caused discord in heaven, and its indulgence has wrought untold evil among men. "Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work" (James 3:16).13
------------------------A Contradictory Report, April 10
			Numbers 13:1-3; Numbers 13:14-20
CC	106	1	And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel. Numbers 13:32.
CC	106	2	The Lord commanded Moses to send men to search the land of Canaan, which He would give unto the children of Israel.... After they had spoken of the fertility of the land, all but two spoke very discouragingly of their ability to possess it.... As the people listened to this report, they gave vent to their disappointment in bitter reproaches and wailing. They did not wait to reflect and reason that God, who had brought them out thus far, would certainly give them the land....
CC	106	3	Caleb urged his way to the front, and his clear, ringing voice was heard above all the clamor of the multitude. He opposed the cowardly views of his fellow spies, which had weakened the faith and courage of all Israel. He commanded the attention of the people, and they hushed their complaints for a moment to listen to him.... But as he spoke, the unfaithful spies interrupted him, crying: "We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we."
CC	106	4	These men, starting upon a wrong course, set their hearts against God, against Moses and Aaron, and against Caleb and Joshua. Every step they advanced in this wrong direction made them firmer in their design to discourage every attempt to possess the land of Canaan. They distorted the truth in order to carry their baneful purpose. They represented the climate as being unhealthful and all the people of giant stature....
CC	106	5	This was not only an evil report, but a lying one also. It was contradictory; for if the land was unhealthy, and had eaten up the inhabitants, how was it that they had attained to such massive proportions? When men in responsible positions yield their hearts to unbelief, there are no bounds to the advance they will make in evil.... If only the two men had brought the evil report, and all the ten had encouraged them to possess the land in the name of the Lord, they would still have taken the advice of the two in preference to the ten, because of their wicked unbelief.14
------------------------Why Wait? April 11
			Numbers 13:30-14:10
CC	107	1	Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. Numbers 13:30.
CC	107	2	It was Caleb's faith in God that gave him courage; that ... enabled him to stand boldly and unflinchingly in defense of the right. From the same exalted source, the mighty General of the armies of heaven, every true soldier of the cross of Christ must receive strength and courage to overcome obstacles that often seem insurmountable.... Those who would do their duty must be ever ready to speak the words that God gives them, and not the words of doubt, discouragement, and despair....
CC	107	3	While the doubting ones talk of impossibilities, while they tremble at the thought of high walls and strong giants, let the faithful Calebs, who have "another spirit," come to the front. The truth of God, which bringeth salvation, will go forth to the people if ministers and professed believers will not hedge up its way, as did the unfaithful spies....
CC	107	4	Human agencies are to be employed in this work. Zeal and energy must be intensified; talents that are rusting from inaction must be pressed into service. The voice that would say, "Wait; do not allow yourself to have burdens imposed upon you," is the voice of the cowardly spies. We want Calebs now who will press to the front--chieftains in Israel who with courageous words will make a strong report in favor of immediate action. When the selfish, ease-loving, panic-stricken people, fearing tall giants and inaccessible walls, clamor for retreat, let the voice of the Calebs be heard, even though the cowardly ones stand with stones in their hands, ready to beat them down for their faithful testimony.15
CC	107	5	It is when the unbelieving cast contempt upon the Word of God that the faithful Calebs are called for. It is then that they will stand firm at the post of duty, without parade, and without swerving because of reproach. The unbelieving spies stood ready to destroy Caleb. He saw the stones in the hands of those who had brought a false report, but this did not deter him; he had a message, and he would bear it. The same spirit will be manifested today by those who are true to God.16
------------------------Rebellion in the Camp, April 12
			Numbers 16
CC	108	1	These men are arrogant and presumptuous--they think nothing of scoffing at the glories of the unseen world. 2 Peter 2:10, Phillips.
CC	108	2	It is hardly possible for men to offer greater insult to God than to despise and reject the instrumentalities He would use for their salvation....
CC	108	3	In the rebellion of Korah is seen the working out, upon a narrower stage, of the same spirit that led to the rebellion of Satan in heaven. It was pride and ambition that prompted Lucifer to complain of the government of God, and to seek the overthrow of the order which had been established in heaven. Since his fall it has been his object to infuse the same spirit of envy and discontent, the same ambition for position and honor, into the minds of men. He thus worked upon the minds of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, to arouse the desire for self-exaltation and excite envy, distrust, and rebellion. Satan caused them to reject God as their leader, by rejecting the men of God's appointment. Yet while in their murmuring against Moses and Aaron they blasphemed God, they were so deluded as to think themselves righteous, and to regard those who had faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan.
CC	108	4	Do not the same evils still exist that lay at the foundation of Korah's ruin? Pride and ambition are widespread; and when these are cherished, they open the door to envy, and a striving for supremacy; the soul is alienated from God, and unconsciously drawn into the ranks of Satan.... While endeavoring to destroy the confidence of the people in the men of God's appointment, they really believe that they are engaged in a good work, verily doing God service....
CC	108	5	It is by sinful indulgence that men give Satan access to their minds, and they go from one stage of wickedness to another. The rejection of light darkens the mind and hardens the heart, so that it is easier for them to take the next step in sin and to reject still clearer light, until at last their habits of wrongdoing become fixed. Sin ceases to appear sinful to them.17
------------------------He Lost His Patience, April 13
			Numbers 20:1-13
CC	109	1	But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:4.
CC	109	2	Notwithstanding the fact that Moses was the meekest man that lived upon the earth, on one occasion he drew the displeasure of God upon himself.... The undeserved reproaches of the people which fell upon him led him for a moment to forget that their murmuring was not against him, but against God; and instead of being grieved because the Spirit of God was insulted, he became irritated, offended, and in a self-willed, impatient manner struck the rock twice saying: "Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?" ...
CC	109	3	Moses revealed great weakness before the people. He showed a marked lack of self-control, a spirit similar to that possessed by the murmurers. He should have been an example of forbearance and patience before that multitude, who were ready to excuse their failures, disaffections, and unreasonable murmurings, on account of this exhibition of wrong on his part. The greatest sin consisted in assuming to take the place of God. The position of honor that Moses had heretofore occupied did not lessen his guilt, but greatly magnified it. Here was a man hitherto blameless, now fallen. Many in a similar position would reason that their sin would be overlooked because of their long life of unwavering fidelity. But no; it was a more serious matter for a man who had been honored of God to show weakness of character in the exhibition of passion than if he had occupied a less responsible position. Moses was a representative of Christ, but how sadly was the figure marred! Moses had sinned, and his past fidelity could not atone for the present sin.... Moses and Aaron must die without entering Canaan, subjected to the same punishment that fell upon those in a more lowly position. They bowed in submission, though with anguish of heart that was inexpressible; but their love for and confidence in God was unshaken.... But few realize the sinfulness of sin.... The cases of Moses and Aaron ... show that it is not a safe thing to sin in word or thought or deed.18
------------------------No Excuse for Sinning, April 14
			Numbers 20:1-13
CC	110	1	They angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account; for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke words that were rash. Psalm 106:32, 33, R.S.V.
CC	110	2	Had Moses and Aaron been cherishing self-esteem or indulging a passionate spirit in the face of divine warning and reproof, their guilt would have been far greater. But they were not chargeable with willful or deliberate sin; they had been overcome by a sudden temptation, and their contrition was immediate and heartfelt. The Lord accepted their repentance, though because of the harm their sin might do among the people, He could not remit its punishment....
CC	110	3	God had forgiven the people greater transgressions, but He could not deal with sin in the leaders as in those who were led. He had honored Moses above every other man upon the earth.... The fact that Moses had enjoyed so great light and knowledge made his sin more grievous. Past faithfulness will not atone for one wrong act. The greater the light and privileges granted to man, the greater is his responsibility, the more aggravated his failure, and the heavier his punishment.
CC	110	4	Moses was not guilty of a great crime, as men would view the matter.... But if God dealt so severely with this sin in His most faithful and honored servant, He will not excuse it in others.... All who profess godliness are under the most sacred obligation to guard the spirit, and to exercise self-control under the greatest provocation. The burdens placed upon Moses were very great; few men will ever be so severely tried as he was; yet this was not allowed to excuse his sin. God has made ample provision for His people; and if they rely upon His strength, they will never become the sport of circumstances. The strongest temptation cannot excuse sin. However great the pressure brought to bear upon the soul, transgression is our own act. It is not in the power of earth or hell to compel anyone to do evil. Satan attacks us at our weak points, but we need not be overcome. However severe or unexpected the assault, God has provided help for us, and in His strength we may conquer.19
------------------------From Grave to Glory, April 15
			Deuteronomy 3:23-28; Deuteronomy 34
CC	111	1	I besought the Lord at that time, saying, ... I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. Deuteronomy 3:23-26.
CC	111	2	Never, till exemplified in the sacrifice of Christ, were the justice and the love of God more strikingly displayed than in His dealings with Moses. God shut Moses out of Canaan, to teach a lesson which should never be forgotten--that He requires exact obedience, and that men are to beware of taking to themselves the glory which is due to their Maker. He could not grant the prayer of Moses that he might share the inheritance of Israel, but He did not forget or forsake His servant. The God of heaven understood the suffering that Moses had endured; He had noted every act of faithful service through those long years of conflict and trial. On the top of Pisgah, God called Moses to an inheritance infinitely more glorious than the earthly Canaan.
CC	111	3	Upon the mount of transfiguration Moses was present with Elijah, who had been translated. They were sent as bearers of light and glory from the Father to His Son. And thus the prayer of Moses, uttered so many centuries before, was at last fulfilled. He stood upon the "goodly mountain," within the heritage of his people....
CC	111	4	Moses was a type of Christ.... God saw fit to discipline Moses in the school of affliction and poverty before he could be prepared to lead the hosts of Israel to the earthly Canaan. The Israel of God, journeying to the heavenly Canaan, have a Captain who needed no human teaching to prepare Him for His mission as a divine leader; yet He was made perfect through sufferings; and "in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted" (Hebrews 2:10, 18). Our Redeemer manifested no human weakness or imperfection; yet He died to obtain for us an entrance into the Promised Land.
CC	111	5	"And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, ... but Christ as a son over his own house; whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end" (Hebrews 3:5, 6).20
------------------------Prophecy for Pay, April 16
			Numbers 22
CC	112	1	They have abandoned the right road and wandered off to follow the old trail of Balaam, son of Beor, the man who had no objection to wickedness as long as he was paid for it. 2 Peter 2:15, Phillips.
CC	112	2	Balaam was once a good man and a prophet of God; but he had apostatized, and had given himself up to covetousness; yet he still professed to be a servant of the Most High. He was not ignorant of God's work in behalf of Israel; and when the messengers announced their errand, he well knew that it was his duty to refuse the rewards of Balak and to dismiss the ambassadors. But he ventured to dally with temptation, and urged the messengers to tarry with him that night, declaring that he could give no decided answer till he had asked counsel of the Lord. Balaam knew that his curse could not harm Israel. God was on their side, and so long as they were true to Him no adverse power of earth or hell could prevail against them. But his pride was flattered by the words of the ambassadors, "He whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed." The bribe of costly gifts and prospective exaltation excited his covetousness. He greedily accepted the offered treasures, and then, while professing strict obedience to the will of God, he tried to comply with the desires of Balak....
CC	112	3	The sin of covetousness, which God declares to be idolatry, had made him a timeserver, and through this one fault Satan gained entire control of him. It was this that caused his ruin. The tempter is ever presenting worldly gain and honor to entice men from the service of God. He tells them it is their overconscientiousness that keeps them from prosperity. Thus many are induced to venture out of the path of strict integrity. One wrong step makes the next easier, and they become more and more presumptuous. They will do and dare most terrible things when once they have given themselves to the control of avarice and a desire of power. Many flatter themselves that they can depart from strict integrity for a time, ... and that having gained their object, they can change their course when they please. Such are entangling themselves in the snare of Satan, and it is seldom that they escape.21
------------------------Duty or Desire, April 17
			Numbers 22
CC	113	1	But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof. Proverbs 1:25.
CC	113	2	In the night season the angel of God came to Balaam with the message, "Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed." ...
CC	113	3	A second time Balaam was tested. In response to the solicitations of the ambassadors he professed great conscientiousness and integrity, assuring them that no amount of gold and silver could induce him to go contrary to the will of God. But he longed to comply with the king's request; and although the will of God had already been definitely made known to him, he urged the messengers to tarry, that he might further inquire of God; as though the Infinite One were a man, to be persuaded.
CC	113	4	In the night season the Lord appeared to Balaam and said, "If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do." Thus far the Lord would permit Balaam to follow his own will, because he was determined upon it. He did not seek to do the will of God, but chose his own course, and then endeavored to secure the sanction of the Lord.
CC	113	5	There are thousands at the present day who are pursuing a similar course. They would have no difficulty in understanding their duty if it were in harmony with their inclinations. It is plainly set before them in the Bible or is clearly indicated by circumstances and reason. But because these evidences are contrary to their desires and inclinations they frequently set them aside and presume to go to God to learn their duty. With great apparent conscientiousness they pray long and earnestly for light. But God will not be trifled with. He often permits such persons to follow their own desires and to suffer the result.... When one clearly sees a duty, let him not presume to go to God with the prayer that he may be excused from performing it. He should rather, with a humble, submissive spirit, ask for divine strength and wisdom to meet its claims.22
------------------------Two of a Kind, April 18
			Numbers 23
CC	114	1	“Be on your guard against covetousness in any shape or form. For a man's real life in no way depends upon the number of his possessions." Luke 12:15, Phillips.
CC	114	2	The curse which Balaam had not been permitted to pronounce against God's people, he finally succeeded in bringing upon them by seducing them into sin.23
CC	114	3	Balaam witnessed the success of his diabolical scheme. He saw the curse of God visited upon His people, and thousands falling under His judgments; but the divine justice that punished sin in Israel did not permit the tempters to escape. In the war of Israel against the Midianites, Balaam was slain....
CC	114	4	The fate of Balaam was similar to that of Judas, and their characters bear a marked resemblance to each other. Both these men tried to unite the service of God and mammon, and met with signal failure. Balaam acknowledged the true God, and professed to serve Him; Judas believed in Jesus as the Messiah, and united with His followers. But Balaam hoped to make the service of Jehovah the steppingstone to the acquirement of riches and worldly honor; and failing in this he stumbled and fell and was broken. Judas expected by his connection with Christ to secure wealth and promotion in that worldly kingdom which, as he believed, the Messiah was about to set up. The failure of his hopes drove him to apostasy and ruin. Both Balaam and Judas had received great light and enjoyed special privileges, but a single cherished sin poisoned the entire character and caused their destruction....
CC	114	5	One cherished sin will, little by little, debase the character, bringing all its nobler powers into subjection to the evil desire. The removal of one safeguard from the conscience, the indulgence of one evil habit, one neglect of the high claims of duty, breaks down the defenses of the soul and opens the way for Satan to come in and lead us astray. The only safe course is to let our prayers go forth daily from a sincere heart, as did David, "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not" (Psalm 17:5).24
------------------------Sins That Scar, April 19
			Numbers 25; Numbers 31:16
CC	115	1	For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Proverbs 6:23, 24.
CC	115	2	The crime that brought the judgments of God upon Israel was that of licentiousness. The forwardness of women to entrap souls did not end at Baal-peor. Notwithstanding the punishment that followed the sinners in Israel, the same crime was repeated many times. Satan was most active in seeking to make Israel's overthrow complete. Balak by the advice of Balaam laid the snare. Israel would have bravely met their enemies in battle, and resisted them, and come off conquerors; but when women invited their attention and sought their company and beguiled them by their charms, they did not resist temptations. They were invited to idolatrous feasts, and their indulgence in wine further beclouded their dazed minds. The power of self-control, their allegiance to God's law, was not preserved. Their senses were so beclouded with wine, and their unholy passions had such full sway, overpowering every barrier, that they invited temptation even to the attending of these idolatrous feasts. Those who had never flinched in battle, who were brave men, did not barricade their souls to resist temptation to indulge their basest passions.... They first defiled their conscience by lewdness, and then departed from God still farther by idolatry, thus showing contempt for the God of Israel.
CC	115	3	Near the close of this earth's history Satan will work with all his powers in the same manner and with the same temptations wherewith he tempted ancient Israel just before their entering the land of promise. He will lay snares for those who claim to keep the commandments of God, and who are almost on the borders of the heavenly Canaan. He will use his powers to their utmost in order to entrap souls, and to take God's professed people upon their weakest points....
CC	115	4	It is now the duty of God's commandment-keeping people to watch and pray, to search the Scriptures diligently, to hide the word of God in the heart, lest they sin against Him in idolatrous thoughts and debasing practices, and thus the church of God become demoralized.25
------------------------The Only Way to Win, April 20
			Joshua 1:1-9
CC	116	1	This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein; for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Joshua 1:8.
CC	116	2	If men will walk in the path that God has marked out for them, they will have a counselor whose wisdom is far above any human wisdom. Joshua was a wise general because God was his guide. The first sword that Joshua used was the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God....
CC	116	3	It was because the strongest influences were to be brought to bear against his principles of righteousness that the Lord in mercy charged him not to turn to the right hand or to the left. He was to follow a course of strictest integrity.... If there had been no peril before Joshua, God would not over and over again have charged him to be of good courage. But amid all his cares, Joshua had his God to guide Him.
CC	116	4	There is no greater deception than for man to suppose that in any difficulty he can find a better guide than God, a wiser counselor in any emergency, a stronger defense under any circumstance....
CC	116	5	The Lord has a great work to be done in our world. To every man He has given His work for man to do. But man is not to make man his guide, lest he be led astray; this is always unsafe. While Bible religion embodies the principles of activity in service, at the same time there is the necessity of asking for wisdom daily from the Source of all wisdom. What was Joshua's victory? Thou shalt meditate upon the Word of God day and night. The word of the Lord came to Joshua just before he passed over Jordan.... This was the secret of Joshua's victory. He made God his Guide.26
CC	116	6	Those holding the positions of counselors should be unselfish men, men of faith, men of prayer, men that will not dare to rely upon their own human wisdom, but will seek earnestly for light and intelligence as to what is the best manner of conducting their business. Joshua, the commander of Israel, searched the books diligently in which Moses had faithfully chronicled the directions given by God,--His requirements, reproofs, and restrictions,--lest he should move unadvisedly.27
------------------------The Invisible Ally, April 21
			Joshua 5:13-15
CC	117	1	I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Joshua 1:5.
CC	117	2	Study carefully the experiences of Israel in their travels to Canaan.... We need to keep the heart and mind in training, by refreshing the memory with the lessons that the Lord taught His ancient people. Then to us, as He designed it should be to them, the teachings of His Word will ever be interesting and impressive.28
CC	117	3	When Joshua went forth in the morning before the taking of Jericho, there appeared before him a warrior fully equipped for battle. And Joshua asked, "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" and he answered, "As Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come." If the eyes of Joshua had been opened as were the eyes of the servant of Elisha at Dothan, and he could have endured the sight, he would have seen the angels of the Lord encamped about the children of Israel; for the trained army of heaven had come to fight for the people of God, and the Captain of the Lord's host was there to command. When Jericho fell, no human hand touched the walls of the city, for the angels of the Lord overthrew the fortifications, and entered the fortress of the enemy. It was not Israel, but the Captain of the Lord's host that took Jericho. But Israel had their part to act to show their faith in the Captain of their salvation.
CC	117	4	Battles are to be fought every day. A great warfare is going on over every soul, between the prince of darkness and the Prince of life.... As God's agents you are to yield yourselves to Him, that He may plan and direct and fight the battle for you, with your cooperation. The Prince of life is at the head of His work. He is to be with you in your daily battle with self, that you may be true to principle; that passion, when warring for the mastery, may be subdued by the grace of Christ; that you come off more than conqueror through Him that hath loved us. Jesus has been over the ground. He knows the power of every temptation. He knows just how to meet every emergency, and how to guide you through every path of danger. Then why not trust Him?29
------------------------Only God Could Do It, April 22
CC	118	1	All the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat. Joshua 6:5.
CC	118	2	At the taking of Jericho the mighty General of armies planned the battle in such simplicity that no human being could take the glory to himself. No human hand must cast down the walls of the city, lest man should take to himself the glory of victory. So today no human being is to take to himself glory for the work he accomplishes. The Lord alone is to be magnified. Oh, that men would see the necessity for looking to God for their orders! ...
CC	118	3	The Lord marshaled His armies about the doomed city; no human hand was raised against it; the hosts of heaven overthrew its walls, that God's name alone might have the glory. It was that proud city whose mighty bulwarks had struck terror to the unbelieving spies. Now in the capture of Jericho, God declared to the Hebrews that their fathers might have possessed the city forty years before, had they but trusted in Him.30
CC	118	4	Men's weakness shall find supernatural strength and help in every stern conflict to do the deeds of Omnipotence, and perseverance in faith and perfect trust in God will ensure success. While the vast confederacy of evil is arrayed against them He bids them to be brave and strong and fight valiantly for they have a heaven to win, and they have more than an angel in their ranks, the mighty General of armies leads on the armies of heaven. As on the occasion of the taking of Jericho, not one of the armies of Israel could boast of exercising their finite strength to overthrow the walls of the city, but the Captain of the Lord's host planned that battle in the greatest simplicity, that the Lord alone should receive the glory and man should not be exalted. God has promised us all power; for the promise is unto you and your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.31Ibid., 995, 996.
CC	118	5	There must be continual faith and trust in the Captain of our salvation. We must obey His orders. The walls of Jericho came down as a result of obeying orders.32
------------------------One Man's Sin, April 23
			Joshua 6:17-19; Joshua 7
CC	119	1	Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have. Hebrews 13:5, R.S.V.
CC	119	2	Achan had fostered covetousness and deception in his heart, until his perceptions of sin had become blunted, and he fell an easy prey to temptation. Those who venture to indulge in a known sin will be more readily overcome the second time. The first transgression opens the door to the tempter, and he gradually breaks down all resistance and takes full possession of the citadel of the soul. Achan had listened to oft-repeated warnings against the sin of covetousness. The law of God, pointed and positive, had forbidden stealing and all deception, but he continued to cherish sin. As he was not detected and openly rebuked, he grew bolder; warnings had less and less effect upon him, until his soul was bound in chains of darkness.33
CC	119	3	Shame, defeat, and death were brought upon Israel by one man's sin. That protection which had covered their heads in the time of battle was withdrawn. Various sins that are cherished and practiced by professed Christians bring the frown of God upon the church....
CC	119	4	The influence most to be feared by the church is not that of open opposers, infidels, and blasphemers, but of inconsistent professors of Christ. These are the ones who keep back the blessing of the God of Israel and bring weakness upon the church, a reproach that is not easily wiped away....
CC	119	5	Christianity is not to be merely paraded on the Sabbath and displayed in the sanctuary; it is for every day in the week and for every place. Its claims must be recognized and obeyed in the workshop, at home, and in business transactions with brethren and with the world....
CC	119	6	It is better to die than to sin; better to want than to defraud; better to hunger than to lie. Let all who are tempted meet Satan with the words: "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee" (Psalm 128:1, 2).34
------------------------No Hiding from God, April 24
			Joshua 7
CC	120	1	Neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. Joshua 7:12.
CC	120	2	The sin of one man caused Israel to be beaten before the enemy. Something more than prayer was required. They were to get up and cleanse the camp of Israel.35
CC	120	3	Have you considered why it was that all who were connected with Achan were also subjects of the punishment of God? It was because they had not been trained and educated according to the directions given them in the great standard of the law of God. Achan's parents had educated their son in such a way that he felt free to disobey the Word of the Lord; the principles inculcated in his life led him to deal with his children in such a way that they also were corrupted.... The punishment ... reveals the fact that all were involved in the transgression.36
CC	120	4	The history of Achan teaches the solemn lesson that for one man's sin the displeasure of God will rest upon a people or a nation till the transgression is searched out and punished. Sin is corrupting in its nature. One man infected with its deadly leprosy may communicate the taint to thousands. Those who occupy responsible positions as guardians of the people are false to their trust if they do not faithfully search out and reprove sin....
CC	120	5	The love of God will never lead to the belittling of sin; it will never cover or excuse an unconfessed wrong.... It has to do with all our acts and thoughts and feelings. It follows us, and reaches every secret spring of action. By indulgence in sin, men are led to lightly regard the law of God. Many conceal their transgressions from their fellow men, and flatter themselves that God will not be strict to mark iniquity. But His law is the great standard of right, and with it every act of life must be compared in that day when God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil. Purity of heart will lead to purity of life. All excuses for sin are vain. Who can plead for the sinner when God testifies against him?37
------------------------Too Late! April 25
			Joshua 7
CC	121	1	He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Proverbs 28:13.
CC	121	2	Achan acknowledged his guilt, but when it was too late for the confession to benefit himself. He had seen the armies of Israel return from Ai defeated and disheartened; yet he did not come forward and confess his sin. He had seen Joshua and the elders of Israel bowed to the earth in grief too great for words. Had he then made confession, he would have given some proof of true penitence; but he still kept silence. He had listened to the proclamation that a great crime had been committed, and had even heard its character definitely stated. But his lips were sealed. Then came the solemn investigation. How his soul thrilled with terror as he saw his tribe pointed out, then his family and his household! But still he uttered no confession, until the finger of God was placed upon him. Then, when his sin could no longer be concealed, he admitted the truth. How often are similar confessions made. There is a vast difference between admitting facts after they have been proved and confessing sins known only to ourselves and to God. Achan would not have confessed had he not hoped by so doing to avert the consequences of his crime. But his confession only served to show that his punishment was just. There was no genuine repentance for sin, no contrition, no change of purpose, no abhorrence of evil.
CC	121	3	So confessions will be made by the guilty when they stand before the bar of God, after every case has been decided for life or death.... When the records of heaven shall be opened, the Judge will not in words declare to man his guilt, but will cast one penetrating, convicting glance, and every deed, every transaction of life, will be vividly impressed upon the memory of the wrongdoer. The person will not ... need to be hunted out ... but his own lips will confess his shame. The sins hidden from the knowledge of men will then be proclaimed to the whole world.38
CC	121	4	If you have sins to confess, lose no time. These moments are golden. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).39
------------------------The Price of a Lie, April 26
			Joshua 9; Joshua 10
CC	122	1	Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight. Proverbs 12:22.
CC	122	2	From Shechem the Israelites returned to their encampment at Gilgal. Here they were soon after visited by a strange deputation, who desired to enter into treaty with them. The ambassadors represented that they had come from a distant country, and this seemed to be confirmed by their appearance. Their clothing was old and worn, their sandals were patched, their provisions moldy, and the skins that served them for wine bottles were rent and bound up, as if hastily repaired on the journey....
CC	122	3	These representations prevailed.... "And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them." Thus the treaty was entered into....
CC	122	4	But it would have fared better with the Gibeonites had they dealt honestly with Israel. While their submission to Jehovah secured the preservation of their lives, their deception brought them only disgrace and servitude. God had made provision that all who would renounce heathenism, and connect themselves with Israel, should share the blessings of the covenant. They were included under the term, "the stranger that sojourneth among you," and with few exceptions this class were to enjoy equal favors and privileges with Israel. The Lord's direction was--"If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself" (Leviticus 19:33, 34)....
CC	122	5	Such was the footing on which the Gibeonites might have been received, but for the deception to which they had resorted. It was no light humiliation to those citizens of a "royal city," "all the men whereof were mighty," to be made hewers of wood and drawers of water throughout their generations. But they had adopted the garb of poverty for the purpose of deception, and it was fastened upon them as a badge of perpetual servitude. Thus through all their generations their servile condition would testify to God's hatred of falsehood.40
------------------------"Give Me This Mountain", April 27
			Joshua 14
CC	123	1	I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me.... Now therefore give me this mountain. Joshua 14:11, 12.
CC	123	2	Before the distribution of the land had been entered upon, Caleb, accompanied by the heads of his tribe, came forward with a special claim. Except Joshua, Caleb was now the oldest man in Israel. Caleb and Joshua were the only ones among the spies who had brought a good report of the Land of Promise, encouraging the people to go up and possess it in the name of the Lord. Caleb now reminded Joshua of the promise then made, as the reward of his faithfulness: "The land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's forever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord." He therefore presented a request that Hebron be given him for a possession.... His claim was immediately granted. To none could the conquest of this giant stronghold be more safely entrusted....
CC	123	3	Caleb's faith now was just what it was when his testimony had contradicted the evil report of the spies. He had believed God's promise that He would put His people in possession of Canaan, and in this he had followed the Lord fully. He had endured with his people the long wandering in the wilderness, thus sharing the disappointments and burdens of the guilty; yet he made no complaint of this, but exalted the mercy of God that had preserved him in the wilderness when his brethren were cut off.... The brave old warrior was desirous of giving to the people an example that would honor God, and encourage the tribes fully to subdue the land which their fathers had deemed unconquerable. Caleb obtained the inheritance upon which his heart had been set for forty years, and, trusting in God to be with him, he "drove thence the three sons of Anak." ...
CC	123	4	The cowards and rebels had perished in the wilderness, but the righteous spies ate of the grapes of Eshcol. To each was given according to his faith. The unbelieving had seen their fears fulfilled. Notwithstanding God's promise, they had declared that it was impossible to inherit Canaan, and they did not possess it. But those who trusted in God, looking not so much to the difficulties to be encountered as to the strength of their Almighty Helper, entered the goodly land.41
------------------------Iron Chariots, April 28
			Joshua 17:14-17
CC	124	1	And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit? Joshua 17:14.
CC	124	2	Another claim concerning the division of the land revealed a spirit widely different from that of Caleb. It was presented by the children of Joseph, the tribe of Ephraim with the half tribe of Manasseh. In consideration of their superior numbers, these tribes demanded a double portion of territory. The lot designated for them was the richest in the land, including the fertile plain of Sharon; but many of the principal towns in the valley were still in possession of the Canaanites, and the tribes shrank from the toil and danger of conquering their possessions, and desired an additional portion in territory already subdued. The tribe of Ephraim was one of the largest in Israel, as well as the one to which Joshua himself belonged, and its members naturally regarded themselves as entitled to special consideration. "Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit," they said, "seeing I am a great people?" But no departure from strict justice could be won from the inflexible leader.
CC	124	3	His answer was, "If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if Mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee."
CC	124	4	Their reply showed the real cause of complaint. They lacked faith and courage to drive out the Canaanites. "The hill is not enough for us," they said; "and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron."
CC	124	5	The power of the God of Israel had been pledged to His people, and had the Ephraimites possessed the courage and faith of Caleb, no enemy could have stood before them. Their evident desire to shun hardship and danger was firmly met by Joshua. "Thou art a great people, and hast great power," he said; "Thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong." Thus their own arguments were turned against them. Being a great people, as they claimed, they were fully able to make their own way, as did their brethren. With the help of God they need not fear the chariots of iron.42
------------------------As for Me ..., April 29
			Joshua 24
CC	125	1	Choose you this day whom ye will serve. Joshua 24:15.
CC	125	2	As Joshua felt the infirmities of age stealing upon him, and realized that his work must soon close, he was filled with anxiety for the future of his people. It was with more than a father's interest that he addressed them, as they gathered once more about their aged chief....
CC	125	3	By Joshua's direction the ark had been brought from Shiloh. The occasion was one of great solemnity, and this symbol of God's presence would deepen the impression he wished to make upon the people. After presenting the goodness of God toward Israel, he called upon them, in the name of Jehovah, to choose whom they would serve. The worship of idols was still to some extent secretly practiced, and Joshua endeavored now to bring them to a decision that should banish this sin from Israel.... Joshua desired to lead them to serve God, not by compulsion, but willingly....
CC	125	4	"As for me and my house," said Joshua, "we will serve Jehovah." The same holy zeal that inspired the leader's heart was communicated to the people. His appeals called forth the unhesitating response, "God forbid that we should forsake Jehovah, to serve other gods." ... Joshua endeavored to lead his hearers to weigh well their words, and refrain from vows which they would be unprepared to fulfill. With deep earnestness they repeated the declaration: "Nay; but we will serve the Lord." Solemnly consenting to the witness against themselves that they had chosen Jehovah, they once more reiterated their pledge of loyalty: "The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey...." Having written an account of this solemn transaction, he placed it, with the book of the law, in the side of the ark....
CC	125	5	Joshua's work for Israel was done. He had "wholly followed the Lord;" and in the book of God he is written, "The servant of Jehovah." The noblest testimony to his character as a public leader is the history of the generation that had enjoyed his labors: "Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua."43
------------------------Haven't I Sent You? April 30
			Judges 6:1-23
CC	126	1	And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might ... : have not I sent thee? Judges 6:14.
CC	126	2	To Gideon came the divine call to deliver his people. He was engaged at the time in threshing wheat. A small quantity of grain had been concealed, and not daring to beat it out on the ordinary threshing floor, he had resorted to a spot near the winepress; for the season of ripe grapes being still far off, little notice was now taken of the vineyards. As Gideon labored in secrecy and silence, he sadly pondered upon the condition of Israel and considered how the oppressor's yoke might be broken from off his people.
CC	126	3	Suddenly the "Angel of the Lord" appeared and addressed him with the words,"Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of valor."
CC	126	4	"O my Lord," was his answer, "if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites."
CC	126	5	The Messenger of heaven replied, "Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?"44
CC	126	6	Gideon deeply felt his own insufficiency for the great work before him.... The Lord does not always choose for His work men of the greatest talents, but He selects those whom He can best use. Individuals who might do good service for God, may for a time be left in obscurity, apparently unnoticed and unemployed by their Master. But if they faithfully perform the duties of their humble position, cherishing a willingness to labor and to sacrifice for Him, He will in His own time intrust them with greater responsibilities.
CC	126	7	Before honor is humility. The Lord can use most effectually those who are most sensible of their own unworthiness and inefficiency. He will teach them to exercise the courage of faith. He will make them strong by uniting their weakness to His might, wise by connecting their ignorance with His wisdom.45
------------------------Too Many Soldiers, May 1
			Judges 7:1-3
CC	127	1	And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Judges 7:2.
CC	127	2	It had been made a law in Israel that before they went to battle the following proclamation should be made throughout the army: "What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her." And the officers were to speak further to the people, saying, "What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart" (Deuteronomy 20:5-8).
CC	127	3	Because his numbers were so few compared with those of the enemy, Gideon had refrained from making the usual proclamation. He was filled with astonishment at the declaration that his army was too large. But the Lord saw the pride and unbelief existing in the hearts of His people. Aroused by the stirring appeals of Gideon, they had readily enlisted; but many were filled with fear when they saw the multitudes of the Midianites. Yet, had Israel triumphed, those very ones would have taken the glory to themselves instead of ascribing the victory to God.
CC	127	4	Gideon obeyed the Lord's direction, and with a heavy heart he saw twenty-two thousand, or more than two thirds of his entire force, depart for their homes.1
CC	127	5	The Lord is willing to do great things for us. We shall not gain the victory through numbers, but through the full surrender of the soul to Jesus. We are to go forward in His strength, trusting in the mighty God of Israel. There is a lesson for us in the story of Gideon's army.... The Lord is just as willing to work through human efforts now, and to accomplish great things through weak instrumentalities.2
------------------------Still Too Many, May 2
			Judges 7:4-23
CC	128	1	And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. Judges 7:4.
CC	128	2	The people were led down to the waterside, expecting to make an immediate advance upon the enemy. A few hastily took a little water in the hand and sucked it up as they went on; but nearly all bowed upon their knees, and leisurely drank from the surface of the stream. Those who took of the water in their hands were but three hundred out of ten thousand; yet these were selected; all the rest were permitted to return to their homes.
CC	128	3	By the simplest means character is often tested. Those who in time of peril were intent upon supplying their own wants were not the men to be trusted in an emergency. The Lord has no place in His work for the indolent and self-indulgent. The men of His choice were the few who would not permit their own wants to delay them in the discharge of duty. The three hundred chosen men not only possessed courage and self-control, but they were men of faith. They had not defiled themselves with idolatry. God could direct them, and through them He could work deliverance for Israel. Success does not depend upon numbers. God can deliver by few as well as by many. He is honored not so much by the great numbers as by the character of those who serve Him.3
CC	128	4	All who would be soldiers of the cross of Christ, must gird on the armor and prepare for conflict. They should not be intimidated by threats, or terrified by dangers. They must be cautious in peril, yet firm and brave in facing the foe and doing battle for God. The consecration of Christ's follower must be complete. Father, mother, wife, children, houses, lands, everything, must be held secondary to the work and cause of God. He must be willing to bear patiently, cheerfully, joyfully, whatever in God's providence he may be called to suffer. His final reward will be to share with Christ the throne of immortal glory.4
------------------------Betrayed into Error, May 3
			Judges 8:22-27
CC	129	1	And Gideon made an ephod ... which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house. Judges 8:27.
CC	129	2	The people of Israel, in their gratitude at deliverance from the Midianites, proposed to Gideon that he should become their king, and that the throne should be confirmed to his descendants. This proposition was in direct violation of the principles of the theocracy.... Gideon recognized this fact; his answer shows how true and noble were his motives. "I will not rule over you," he declared; "neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you."
CC	129	3	But Gideon was betrayed into another error, which brought disaster upon his house and upon all Israel. The season of inactivity that succeeds a great struggle is often fraught with greater danger than is the period of conflict. To this danger Gideon was now exposed. A spirit of unrest was upon him. Hitherto he had been content to fulfill the directions given him from God; but now, instead of waiting for divine guidance, he began to plan for himself. When the armies of the Lord have gained a signal victory, Satan will redouble his efforts to overthrow the work of God....
CC	129	4	Because he had been commanded to offer sacrifice upon the rock where the Angel appeared to him, Gideon concluded that he had been appointed to officiate as a priest. Without waiting for the divine sanction, he determined to provide a suitable place, and to institute a system of worship similar to that carried on at the tabernacle. With the strong popular feeling in his favor he found no difficulty in carrying out his plan.5
CC	129	5	Those who are placed in the highest positions may lead astray, especially if they feel that there is no danger. The wisest err; the strongest grow weary.... It is a solemn thought that the removal of one safeguard from the conscience, the failure to fulfill one good resolution, the formation of one wrong habit, may result not only in our own ruin, but in the ruin of those who have put confidence in us. Our only safety is to follow where the steps of the Master lead the way, to trust for protection implicitly to Him who says, "Follow me."6
------------------------Before the Baby Comes, May 4
			Judges 13
CC	130	1	Teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. Judges 13:8.
CC	130	2	God Himself appeared to the wife of Manoah and told her that she should have a son, and that he should be a great man and should deliver Israel. Then He gave her special instructions regarding her diet.... Let us regard this as instruction given to every mother in our world. If you want your children to have well-balanced minds, you must be temperate yourselves. Keep your own heart and affections sound and healthful, that you may impart to your offspring a healthful mind and body.7
CC	130	3	Every mother may understand her duty. She may know that the character of her children will depend vastly more upon her habits before their birth and her personal efforts after their birth, than upon external advantages or disadvantages.... The mother who is a fit teacher for her children must, before their birth, form habits of self-denial and self-control; for she transmits to them her own qualities, her own strong or weak traits of character.8
CC	130	4	Unwise advisers will urge upon the mother the necessity of gratifying every wish and impulse, but such teaching is false and mischievous. The mother is by the command of God Himself placed under the most solemn obligation to exercise self-control. And fathers as well as mothers are involved in this responsibility. Both parents transmit their own characteristics, mental and physical, their dispositions and appetites, to their children.9
CC	130	5	Many make the subject of temperance a matter of jest. They claim that the Lord does not concern Himself with such minor matters as our eating and drinking. But if the Lord had no care for these things, He would not have revealed Himself to the wife of Manoah, giving her definite instructions, and twice enjoining upon her to beware lest she disregard them.10
CC	130	6	The effect of prenatal influences is by many parents looked upon as a matter of little moment; but heaven does not so regard it.... In the words spoken to the Hebrew mother, God speaks to all mothers in every age.11
------------------------Compromise, May 5
			Judges 14
CC	131	1	Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? 2 Corinthians 6:14.
CC	131	2	The town of Zorah being near the country of the Philistines, Samson came to mingle with them on friendly terms. Thus in his youth intimacies sprang up, the influence of which darkened his whole life. A young woman dwelling in the Philistine town of Timnath engaged Samson's affections, and he determined to make her his wife. To his God-fearing parents, who endeavored to dissuade him from his purpose, his only answer was, "She pleaseth me well." The parents at last yielded to his wishes, and the marriage took place.
CC	131	3	Just as he was entering upon manhood, the time when he must execute his divine mission--the time above all others when he should have been true to God--Samson connected himself with the enemies of Israel. He did not ask whether he could better glorify God when united with the object of his choice, or whether he was placing himself in a position where he could not fulfill the purpose to be accomplished by his life. To all who seek first to honor Him, God has promised wisdom; but there is no promise to those who are bent upon self-pleasing....
CC	131	4	Christianity ought to have a controlling influence upon the marriage relation, but it is too often the case that the motives which lead to this union are not in keeping with Christian principles. Satan is constantly seeking to strengthen his power over the people of God by inducing them to enter into alliance with his subjects; and in order to accomplish this he endeavors to arouse unsanctified passions in the heart....
CC	131	5	At his marriage feast Samson was brought into familiar association with those who hated the God of Israel. Whoever voluntarily enters into such relations will feel it necessary to conform, to some degree, to the habits and customs of his companions. The time thus spent is worse than wasted. Thoughts are entertained and words are spoken, that tend to break down the strongholds of principle, and to weaken the citadel of the soul.12
------------------------Mighty Weakling, May 6
			Judges 15
CC	132	1	He shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Judges 13:5.
CC	132	2	God's promise that through Samson He would "begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines" was fulfilled; but how dark and terrible the record of that life which might have been a praise to God and a glory to the nation! Had Samson been true to his divine calling, the purpose of God could have been accomplished in his honor and exaltation. But he yielded to temptation and proved untrue to his trust, and his mission was fulfilled in defeat, bondage, and death.
CC	132	3	Physically, Samson was the strongest man upon the earth; but in self-control, integrity, and firmness, he was one of the weakest of men. Many mistake strong passions for a strong character, but the truth is that he who is mastered by his passions is a weak man. The real greatness of the man is measured by the power of the feelings that he controls, not by those that control him.
CC	132	4	God's providential care had been over Samson, that he might be prepared to accomplish the work which he was called to do. At the very outset of life he was surrounded with favorable conditions for physical strength, intellectual vigor, and moral purity. But under the influence of wicked associates he let go that hold upon God which is man's only safeguard, and he was swept away by the tide of evil. Those who in the way of duty are brought into trial may be sure that God will preserve them; but if men willfully place themselves under the power of temptation, they will fall, sooner or later.
CC	132	5	The very ones whom God purposes to use as His instruments for a special work, Satan employs his utmost power to lead astray. He attacks us at our weak points, working through defects in the character to gain control of the whole man; and he knows that if these defects are cherished, he will succeed. But none need be overcome. Man is not left alone to conquer the power of evil by his own feeble efforts. Help is at hand and will be given to every soul who really desires it.13
------------------------What's the Secret? May 7
			Judges 16:4-14
CC	133	1	And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth. Judges 16:6.
CC	133	2	The Israelites made Samson judge, and he ruled Israel for twenty years. But one wrong step prepares the way for another.... He continued to seek those sensuous pleasures that were luring him to ruin. "He loved a woman in the valley of Sorek," not far from his own birthplace. Her name was Delilah, "the consumer." ... The Philistines kept a vigilant watch over the movements of their enemy, and when he degraded himself by this new attachment, they determined, through Delilah, to accomplish his ruin.
CC	133	3	A deputation consisting of one leading man from each of the Philistine provinces was sent to the vale of Sorek. They dared not attempt to seize him while in possession of his great strength, but it was their purpose to learn, if possible, the secret of his power. They therefore bribed Delilah to discover and reveal it.
CC	133	4	As the betrayer plied Samson with her questions, he deceived her by declaring that the weakness of other men would come upon him if certain processes were tried. When she put the matter to the test, the cheat was discovered. Then she accused him of falsehood, saying, "How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me?" ... Three times Samson had the clearest evidence that the Philistines had leagued with his charmer to destroy him; but when her purpose failed, she treated the matter as a jest, and he blindly banished fear.14
CC	133	5	In the society of this enchantress, the judge of Israel squandered precious hours that should have been sacredly devoted to the welfare of his people. But the blinding passions which make even the strongest weak, had gained control of reason and of conscience....
CC	133	6	Samson's infatuation seems almost incredible. At first he was not so wholly enthralled as to reveal the secret; but he had deliberately walked into the net of the betrayer of souls, and its meshes were drawing close about him at every step.15
------------------------This is the Secret, May 8
			Judges 16:15-23
CC	134	1	And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. Judges 16:20.
CC	134	2	Day by day Delilah urged him, until "his soul was vexed unto death;" yet a subtle power kept him by her side. Overcome at last, Samson made known the secret: "There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man." A messenger was immediately dispatched to the lords of the Philistines, urging them to come to her without delay. While the warrior slept, the heavy masses of his hair were severed from his head. Then, as she had done three times before, she called, "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!" Suddenly awaking, he thought to exert his strength as before, and destroy them; but his powerless arms refused to do his bidding, and he knew that "Jehovah was departed from him." When he had been shaven, Delilah began to annoy him and cause him pain, thus making a trial of his strength; for the Philistines dared not approach him till fully convinced that his power was gone. Then they seized him and, having put out both his eyes, they took him to Gaza. Here he was bound with fetters in their prison house and confined to hard labor.
CC	134	3	What a change to him who had been the judge and champion of Israel!--now weak, blind, imprisoned, degraded to the most menial service! Little by little he had violated the conditions of his sacred calling. God had borne long with him; but when he had so yielded himself to the power of sin as to betray his secret, the Lord departed from him. There was no virtue in his long hair merely, but it was a token of his loyalty to God; and when the symbol was sacrificed in the indulgence of passion, the blessings of which it was a token were also forfeited.16
CC	134	4	Had Samson's head been shaven without fault on his part, his strength would have remained. But his course had shown contempt for the favor and authority of God as much as if he had in disdain himself severed his locks from his head. Therefore God left him to endure the results of his own folly.17
------------------------A Sure Crop, May 9
CC	135	1	My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Proverbs 1:10.
CC	135	2	Samson in his peril had the same source of strength as had Joseph. He could choose the right or the wrong as he pleased. But instead of taking hold of the strength of God, he permitted the wild passions of his nature to have full sway. The reasoning powers were perverted, the morals corrupted. God had called Samson to a position of great responsibility, honor, and usefulness; but he must first learn to govern by first learning to obey the laws of God. Joseph was a free moral agent. Good and evil were before him. He could choose the path of purity, holiness, and honor, or the path of immorality and degradation. He chose the right way, and God approved. Samson, under similar temptations, which he had brought upon himself, gave loose rein to passion. The path which he entered upon he found to end in shame, disaster, and death. What a contrast to the history of Joseph!18
CC	135	3	The Lord has in His Word plainly instructed His people not to unite themselves with those who have not His love and fear before them. Such companions will seldom be satisfied with the love and respect which are justly theirs. They will constantly seek to gain from the God-fearing wife or husband some favor which shall involve a disregard of the divine requirements. To a godly man, and to the church with which he is connected, a worldly wife or a worldly friend is as a spy in the camp, who will watch every opportunity to betray the servant of Christ, and expose him to the enemy's attacks.19
CC	135	4	The history of Samson conveys a lesson for those whose characters are yet unformed, who have not yet entered upon the stage of active life. The youth who enter our schools and colleges will find there every class of mind. If they desire sport and folly, if they seek to shun the good and unite with the evil, they have the opportunity. Sin and righteousness are before them, and they are to choose for themselves. But let them remember that "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap."20
------------------------God Remembered, May 10
			Judges 16:24-31
CC	136	1	And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, Remember me. Judges 16:28.
CC	136	2	In suffering and humiliation, a sport for the Philistines, Samson learned more of his own weakness than he had ever known before; and his afflictions led him to repentance. As his hair grew, his power gradually returned; but his enemies, regarding him as a fettered and helpless prisoner, felt no apprehensions.
CC	136	3	The Philistines ascribed their victory to their gods; and, exulting, they defied the God of Israel. A feast was appointed in honor of Dagon, the fish god, "the protector of the sea." From town and country throughout the Philistine plain the people and their lords assembled. Throngs of worshipers filled the vast temple and crowded the galleries about the roof. It was a scene of festivity and rejoicing. There was the pomp of the sacrificial service, followed by music and feasting. Then, as the crowning trophy of Dagon's power, Samson was brought in. Shouts of exultation greeted his appearance. People and rulers mocked his misery and adored the god who had overthrown "the destroyer of their country." After a time, as if weary, Samson asked permission to rest against the two central pillars which supported the temple roof. Then he silently uttered the prayer, "O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines." With these words he encircled the pillars with his mighty arms; and crying, "Let me die with the Philistines!" he bowed himself, and the roof fell, destroying at one crash all that vast multitude. "So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life."
CC	136	4	The idol and its worshipers, priest and peasant, warrior and noble, were buried together beneath the ruins of Dagon's temple. And among them was the giant form of him whom God had chosen to be the deliverer of His people.21
CC	136	5	The contest, instead of being between Samson and the Philistines, was now between Jehovah and Dagon, and thus the Lord was moved to assert His almighty power and His supreme authority.22
------------------------She Kept Her Promise, May 11
			1 Samuel 1:1-18
CC	137	1	I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. 1 Samuel 1:11.
CC	137	2	Elkanah, a Levite of Mount Ephraim, was a man of wealth and influence, and one who loved and feared the Lord. His wife, Hannah, was a woman of fervent piety. Gentle and unassuming, her character was marked with deep earnestness and a lofty faith.
CC	137	3	The blessing so earnestly sought by every Hebrew was denied this godly pair; their home was not gladdened by the voice of childhood; and the desire to perpetuate his name led the husband--as it had led many others--to contract a second marriage. But this step, prompted by a lack of faith in God, did not bring happiness. Sons and daughters were added to the household; but the joy and beauty of God's sacred institution had been marred and the peace of the family was broken. Peninnah, the new wife, was jealous and narrow-minded, and she bore herself with pride and insolence. To Hannah, hope seemed crushed and life a weary burden; yet she met the trial with uncomplaining meekness....
CC	137	4	The burden which she could share with no earthly friend she cast upon God. Earnestly she pleaded that He would take away her reproach and grant her the precious gift of a son to nurture and train for Him. And she made a solemn vow that if her request were granted, she would dedicate her child to God, even from its birth....
CC	137	5	Hannah's prayer was granted; she received the gift for which she had so earnestly entreated. As she looked upon the child, she called him Samuel--"asked of God."23
CC	137	6	As soon as the little one was old enough to be separated from its mother, she fulfilled her solemn vow. She loved her child with all the devotion of a mother's heart; day by day her affections entwined about him more closely as she watched his expanding powers, and listened to the childish prattle; he was her only son, the especial gift of heaven; but she had received him as a treasure consecrated to God, and she would not withhold from the Giver His own. Faith strengthened the mother's heart, and she yielded not to the pleadings of natural affection.24
------------------------God's Property, May 12
			1 Samuel 1:19-28
CC	138	1	I have lent him to the Lord. 1 Samuel 1:28.
CC	138	2	From Shiloh, Hannah quietly returned to her home at Ramah, leaving the child Samuel to be trained for service in the house of God, under the instruction of the high priest. From the earliest dawn of intellect she had taught her son to love and reverence God and to regard himself as the Lord's. By every familiar object surrounding him she had sought to lead his thoughts up to the Creator. When separated from her child, the faithful mother's solicitude did not cease. Every day he was the subject of her prayers. Every year she made, with her own hands, a robe of service for him; and as she went up with her husband to worship at Shiloh, she gave the child this reminder of her love. Every fiber of the little garment had been woven with a prayer that he might be pure, noble, and true. She did not ask for her son worldly greatness, but she earnestly pleaded that he might attain that greatness which Heaven values--that he might honor God and bless his fellow men.
CC	138	3	What a reward was Hannah's! and what an encouragement to faithfulness is her example! There are opportunities of inestimable worth, interests infinitely precious, committed to every mother. The humble round of duties which women have come to regard as a wearisome task should be looked upon as a grand and noble work. It is the mother's privilege to bless the world by her influence, and in doing this she will bring joy to her own heart. She may make straight paths for the feet of her children, through sunshine and shadow, to the glorious heights above. But it is only when she seeks, in her own life, to follow the teachings of Christ that the mother can hope to form the character of her children after the divine pattern. The world teems with corrupting influences. Fashion and custom exert a strong power over the young. If the mother fails in her duty to instruct, guide, and restrain, her children will naturally accept the evil, and turn from the good. Let every mother go often to her Saviour with the prayer, "Teach us, how shall we order the child, and what shall we do unto him?" Let her heed the instruction which God has given in His word, and wisdom will be given her as she shall have need.25
------------------------Like Parent, Like Child, May 13
CC	139	1	My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching. Proverbs 6:20, R.S.V.
CC	139	2	What the parents are, that, to a great extent, the children will be. The physical conditions of the parents, their dispositions and appetites, their mental and moral tendencies, are, to a greater or less degree, reproduced in their children.
CC	139	3	The nobler the aims, the higher the mental and spiritual endowments, and the better developed the physical power of the parents, the better will be the life equipment they give their children. In cultivating that which is best in themselves, parents are exerting an influence to mold society and to uplift future generations.
CC	139	4	Fathers and mothers need to understand their responsibility. The world is full of snares for the feet of the young.... They cannot discern the hidden dangers or the fearful ending of the path that seems to them the way of happiness....
CC	139	5	Even before the birth of the child, the preparation should begin that will enable it to fight successfully the battle against evil.
CC	139	6	Especially does responsibility rest upon the mother. She, by whose lifeblood the child is nourished and its physical frame built up, imparts to it also mental and spiritual influences that tend to the shaping of mind and character....
CC	139	7	It was Hannah, the woman of prayer and self-sacrifice and heavenly inspiration, who gave birth to Samuel, the heaven-instructed child, the incorruptible judge, the founder of Israel's sacred schools.26
CC	139	8	Would that every mother could realize how great are her duties and her responsibilities, and how great will be the reward of faithfulness. The mother's daily influence upon her children is preparing them for everlasting life or eternal death. She exercises in her home a power more decisive than the minister in the desk, or even the king upon his throne.27
------------------------A Dangerous Example, May 14
			1 Samuel 2:22-36
CC	140	1	They hearkened not unto the voice of their father. 1 Samuel 2:25.
CC	140	2	Eli was priest and judge in Israel. He held the highest and most responsible positions among the people of God. As a man divinely chosen for the sacred duties of the priesthood, and set over the land as the highest judicial authority, he was looked up to as an example, and he wielded a great influence over the tribes of Israel. But although he had been appointed to govern the people, he did not rule his own household.... Loving peace and ease, he did not exercise his authority to correct the evil habits and passions of his children. Rather than contend with them or punish them, he would submit to their will and give them their own way. Instead of regarding the education of his sons as one of the most important of his responsibilities, he treated the matter as of little consequence. The priest and judge of Israel had not been left in darkness as to the duty of restraining and governing the children that God had given to his care. But Eli shrank from this duty, because it involved crossing the will of his sons, and would make it necessary to punish and deny them....
CC	140	3	The curse of transgression was apparent in the corruption and evil that marked the course of his sons. They had no proper appreciation of the character of God or of the sacredness of His law. His service was to them a common thing. From childhood they had been accustomed to the sanctuary and its service; but instead of becoming more reverent, they had lost all sense of its holiness and significance. The father had not corrected their want of reverence for his authority, had not checked their disrespect for the solemn services of the sanctuary; and when they reached manhood, they were full of the deadly fruits of skepticism and rebellion....
CC	140	4	There is no greater curse upon households than to allow the youth to have their own way. When parents regard every wish of their children and indulge them in what they know is not for their good, the children soon lose all respect for their parents, all regard for the authority of God or man, and are led captive at the will of Satan.28
------------------------No Restraint, May 15
			1 Samuel 2:22
CC	141	1	I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. 1 Samuel 3:13.
CC	141	2	Eli was a good man, pure in morals; but he has too indulgent. He incurred the displeasure of God because he did not strengthen the weak points in his character. He did not want to hurt the feelings of anyone and had not the moral courage to rebuke and reprove sin....
CC	141	3	He loved purity and righteousness; but he had no sufficient moral force to suppress the evil. He loved peace and harmony, and became more and more insensible to impurity and crime....
CC	141	4	Eli was gentle, loving, and kind, and had a true interest in the service of God and the prosperity of His cause. He was a man who had power in prayer. He never rose up in rebellion against the words of God. But he was wanting; he did not have firmness of character to reprove sin and execute justice against the sinner so that God could depend upon him to keep Israel pure. He did not add to his faith the courage and power to say No at the right time and in the right place.29
CC	141	5	Eli was acquainted with the divine will. He knew what characters God could accept, and what He would condemn. Yet he suffered his children to grow up with unbridled passions, perverted appetites, and corrupt morals.
CC	141	6	Eli had instructed his children in the law of God, and had given them a good example in his own life; but this was not his whole duty. God required him, both as a father and as a priest, to restrain them from following their own perverse will. This he had failed to do.30
CC	141	7	Those who have too little courage to reprove wrong, or who through indolence or lack of interest make no earnest effort to purify the family or the church of God, are held accountable for the evil that may result from their neglect of duty. We are just as responsible for evils that we might have checked in others by exercise of parental or pastoral authority as if the acts had been our own.31
------------------------Delayed Judgment, May 16
			1 Samuel 2:22-36
CC	142	1	In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. 1 Samuel 3:12.
CC	142	2	Eli had greatly erred in permitting his sons to minister in holy office. By excusing their course, on one pretext and another, he became blinded to their sins; but at last they reached a pass where he could no longer hide his eyes from the crimes of his sons. The people complained of their violent deeds, and the high priest was grieved and distressed. He dared remain silent no longer. But his sons had been brought up to think of no one but themselves, and now they cared for no one else. They saw the grief of their father, but their hard hearts were not touched. They heard his mild admonitions, but they were not impressed, nor would they change their evil course though warned of the consequences of their sin. Had Eli dealt justly with his wicked sons, they would have been rejected from the priestly office and punished with death.32
CC	142	3	Year after year the Lord delayed His threatened judgments. Much might have been done in those years to redeem the failures of the past, but the aged priest took no effective measures to correct the evils that were polluting the sanctuary of the Lord and leading thousands in Israel to ruin. The forbearance of God caused Hophni and Phinehas to harden their hearts and to become still bolder in transgression. The messages of warning and reproof to his house were made known by Eli to the whole nation. By this means he hoped to counteract, in some measure, the evil influence of his past neglect. But the warnings were disregarded by the people, as they had been by the priests.33
CC	142	4	God condemns the negligence that dallies with sin and crime, and the insensibility that is slow to detect its baleful presence in the families of professed Christians. He holds parents accountable in a great degree for the faults and follies of their offspring. God visited with His curse not only the sons of Eli, but Eli himself, and this fearful example should be a warning to the parents of this time.34
------------------------A Fainthearted Father, May 17
			1 Samuel 2:22-36
CC	143	1	The iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever. 1 Samuel 3:14.
CC	143	2	Eli did not manage his household according to God's rules for family government. He followed his own judgment.... Many are now making a similar mistake. They think they know a better way of training their children than that which God has given in His word. They foster wrong tendencies in them, urging as an excuse. "They are too young to be punished. Wait till they become older, and can be reasoned with." Thus wrong habits are left to strengthen until they become second nature. The children grow up without restraint, with traits of character that are a lifelong curse to them and are liable to be reproduced in others.35
CC	143	3	In contrast with the story of Abraham's faithfulness, and the words of commendation spoken of him, is the record of Eli, who kept his sons in office while they were committing great iniquity. Here is a lesson for all parents.... Evil, without restraint, was tolerated by Eli. The result was sin that would not be atoned for, by sacrifice or by offerings, forevermore.36
CC	143	4	While some err upon the side of undue severity, Eli went to the opposite extreme.... Their faults were overlooked in their childhood, and excused in their days of youth. The commands of the parents were disregarded, and the father did not enforce obedience.
CC	143	5	The children saw that they could hold the lines of control, and they improved the opportunity. As the sons advanced in years, they lost all respect for their fainthearted father. They went on in sin without restraint. He remonstrated with them, but his words fell unheeded. Gross sins and revolting crimes were daily committed by them, until the Lord Himself visited with judgment the transgressors of His law....
CC	143	6	The Lord Himself decreed that for the sins of Eli's sons no atonement should be made by sacrifice or offering forever. How great, how lamentable, was their fall,--men upon whom rested sacred responsibilities, proscribed, outlawed from mercy, by a just and holy God!37
------------------------No Generation Gap, May 18
			1 Samuel 3
CC	144	1	And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. 1 Samuel 3:1.
CC	144	2	Young as he was when brought to minister in the tabernacle, Samuel had even then duties to perform in the service of God, according to his capacity. These were at first very humble, and not always pleasant; but they were performed to the best of his ability, and with a willing heart....
CC	144	3	If children were taught to regard the humble round of everyday duties as the course marked out for them by the Lord, as a school in which they were to be trained to render faithful and efficient service, how much more pleasant and honorable would their work appear. To perform every duty as unto the Lord, throws a charm around the humblest employment and links the workers on earth with the holy beings who do God's will in heaven.38
CC	144	4	The life of Samuel from early childhood had been a life of piety and devotion. He had been placed under the care of Eli in his youth, and the loveliness of his character drew forth the warm affection of the aged priest. He was kind, generous, diligent, obedient, and respectful. The contrast between the course of the youth Samuel and that of the priest's own sons was very marked, and Eli found rest and comfort and blessing in the presence of his charge. It was a singular thing that between Eli, the chief magistrate of the nation, and the simple child so warm a friendship should exist. Samuel was helpful and affectionate, and no father ever loved his child more tenderly than did Eli this youth. As the infirmities of age came upon Eli, he felt more keenly the disheartening, reckless, profligate course of his own sons, and he turned to Samuel for comfort and support.
CC	144	5	How touching to see youth and old age relying one upon the other, the youth looking up to the aged for counsel and wisdom, the aged looking to the youth for help and sympathy. This is as it should be. God would have the young possess such qualifications of character that they shall find delight in the friendship of the old, that they may be united in the endearing bonds of affection to those who are approaching the borders of the grave.39
------------------------Revival, May 19
			1 Samuel 7
CC	145	1	We have sinned against the Lord.... Cry unto the Lord our God for us. 1 Samuel 7:6, 8.
CC	145	2	Samuel visited the cities and villages throughout the land, seeking to turn the hearts of the people to the God of their fathers; and his efforts were not without good results. After suffering the oppression of their enemies for twenty years, the Israelites "mourned after the Lord." Samuel counseled them, "If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only." Here we see that practical piety, heart religion, was taught in the days of Samuel as taught by Christ when He was upon the earth. Without the grace of Christ the outward forms of religion were valueless to ancient Israel. They are the same to modern Israel.
CC	145	3	There is need today of such a revival of true heart religion as was experienced by ancient Israel. Repentance is the first step that must be taken by all who would return to God. No one can do this work for another. We must individually humble our souls before God and put away our idols. When we have done all that we can do, the Lord will manifest to us His salvation....
CC	145	4	A large assembly was gathered at Mizpeh. Here a solemn fast was held. With deep humiliation the people confessed their sins; and as an evidence of their determination to obey the instructions they had heard, they invested Samuel with the authority of judge....
CC	145	5	While Samuel was in the act of presenting a lamb as a burnt offering, the Philistines drew near for battle.... A terrible storm burst upon the advancing host, and the earth was strewn with the dead bodies of mighty warriors. The Israelites had stood in silent awe, trembling with hope and fear. When they beheld the slaughter of their enemies, they knew that God had accepted their repentance....
CC	145	6	For nations as well as for individuals, the path of obedience to God is the path of safety and happiness, while that of transgression leads only to disaster and defeat.40
------------------------Like Everyone Else, May 20
			1 Samuel 8
CC	146	1	Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations. 1 Samuel 8:19, 20.
CC	146	2	The Hebrews demanded a king of Samuel, like the nations around them. By preferring a despotic monarch to the wise and mild government of God Himself, by the jurisdiction of His prophets, they showed a great want of faith in God, and confidence in His providence to raise them up rulers to lead and govern them. The children of Israel being peculiarly the people of God, their form of government was essentially different from all the nations around them. God had given them statutes and laws, and had chosen their rulers for them, and these leaders the people were to obey in the Lord. In all cases of difficulty and great perplexity, God was to be inquired of. Their demand for a king was a rebellious departure from God, their special leader. He knew that a king would not be best for His chosen people.... If they had a king, whose hearts was lifted up and not right with God, he would lead them away from Him, and cause them to rebel against Him. The Lord knew that no one could occupy the position of king, and receive the honors usually given to a king, without becoming exalted, and their ways seem right in their own eyes, while at the same time they were sinning against God.41
CC	146	3	God had separated the Israelites from every other people, to make them His own peculiar treasure. But they, disregarding this high honor, eagerly desired to imitate the example of the heathen! And still the longing to conform to worldly practices and customs exists among the professed people of God. As they depart from the Lord they become ambitious for the gains and honors of the world. Christians are constantly seeking to imitate the practices of those who worship the god of this world. Many urge that by uniting with worldlings and conforming to their customs they might exert a stronger influence over the ungodly. But all who pursue this course thereby separate from the Source of their strength. Becoming the friends of the world, they are the enemies of God.42
------------------------No Apologies Needed, May 21
			1 Samuel 12
CC	147	1	And he said unto them, The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. 1 Samuel 12:5.
CC	147	2	The dissatisfied longing for worldly power and display, is as difficult to cure now as in the days of Samuel. Christians seek to build as worldlings build, to dress as worldlings dress--to imitate the customs and practices of those who worship only the god of this world. The instructions of God's Word, the counsels and reproofs of His servants, and even warnings sent directly from His throne, seem powerless to subdue this unworthy ambition. When the heart is estranged from God, almost any pretext is sufficient to justify a disregard of His authority....
CC	147	3	The most useful men are seldom appreciated. Those who have labored most actively and unselfishly for their fellow man, and who have been instrumental in achieving the greatest results, are often repaid with ingratitude and neglect. When such men find themselves set aside, their counsels slighted and despised, they may feel that they are suffering great injustice. But let them learn from the example of Samuel not to justify or vindicate themselves, unless the Spirit of God unmistakably prompts to such a course.43
CC	147	4	The honor accorded him who is concluding his work is of far more worth than the applause and congratulations which those receive who are just entering upon their duties, and who have yet to be tested.44
CC	147	5	How many retiring from a position of responsibility as a judge, can say in regard to their purity, Which of you convinceth me of sin? Who can prove that I have turned aside from my righteousness to accept bribes? I have never stained my record as a man who does judgment and justice. Who today can say what Samuel said when he was taking leave of the people of Israel, because they were determined to have a king? ... Brave, noble judge! But it is a sorrowful thing that a man of the strictest integrity should have to humble himself to make his own defence.45
------------------------The People's Choice, May 22
			1 Samuel 9:1-2; 1 Samuel 15:10-11
CC	148	1	Behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired. 1 Samuel 12:13.
CC	148	2	In Saul, God had given to Israel a king after their own heart.... Comely in person, of noble stature and princely bearing, his appearance accorded with their conceptions of royal dignity; and his personal valor and his ability in the conduct of armies were the qualities which they regarded as best calculated to secure respect and honor from other nations. They felt little solicitude that their king should possess those higher qualities which alone could fit him to rule with justice and equity. They did not ask for one who had true nobility of character, who possessed the love and fear of God. They had not sought counsel from God as to the qualities a ruler should possess, in order to preserve their distinctive, holy character as His chosen people. They were not seeking God's way, but their own way. Therefore God gave them such a king as they desired--one whose character was a reflection of their own. Their hearts were not in submission to God, and their king also was unsubdued by divine grace. Under the rule of this king they would obtain the experience necessary in order that they might see their error, and return to their allegiance to God.
CC	148	3	Yet the Lord, having placed on Saul the responsibility of the kingdom, did not leave him to himself. He caused the Holy Spirit to rest upon Saul to reveal to him his own weakness and his need of divine grace; and had Saul relied upon God, God would have been with him. So long as his will was controlled by the will of God, so long as he yielded to the discipline of His Spirit, God could crown his efforts with success. But when Saul chose to act independently of God, the Lord could no longer be his guide, and was forced to set him aside. Then He called to the throne "a man after His own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14)--not one who was faultless in character, but who, instead of trusting to himself, would rely upon God, and be guided by His Spirit; who, when he sinned, would submit to reproof and correction.46
------------------------The Potential is There, May 23
			1 Samuel 9:1-2
CC	149	1	There was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he. 1 Samuel 9:2.
CC	149	2	The personal qualities of the future monarch were such as to gratify that pride of heart which prompted the desire for a king.... Of noble and dignified bearing, in the prime of life, comely and tall, he appeared like one born to command. Yet with these external attractions, Saul was destitute of those higher qualities that constitute true wisdom. He had not in youth learned to control his rash, impetuous passions; he had never felt the renewing power of divine grace.47
CC	149	3	The Lord would not leave Saul to be placed in a position of trust without divine enlightenment. He was to have a new calling, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. The effect was that he was changed into a new man. The Lord gave Saul a new spirit, other thoughts, other aims and desires than he had previously had. This enlightenment, with the spiritual knowledge of God, placing him on vantage ground, was to bind his will to the will of Jehovah....
CC	149	4	Saul had a mind and influence capable of governing a kingdom, if his powers had been submitted to the control of God, but the very endowments that qualified him for doing good could be used by Satan, when surrendered to his power, and would enable him to exert widespread influence for evil. He could be more sternly vindictive, more injurious and determined in prosecuting his unholy designs, than could others, because of the superior powers of mind and heart that had been given him of God.48
CC	149	5	Should he trust to his own strength and judgment, Saul would move impulsively, and would commit grave errors. But if he would remain humble, seeking constantly to be guided by divine wisdom, and advancing as the providence of God opened the way, he would be enabled to discharge the duties of his high position with success and honor. Under the influence of divine grace, every good quality would be gaining strength, while evil traits would as steadily lose their power. This is the work which the Lord proposes to do for all who consecrate themselves to Him.49
------------------------Running Ahead of God, May 24
			1 Samuel 13:1-16
CC	150	1	And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. 1 Samuel 13:8.
CC	150	2	It was not until the second year of Saul's reign that an attempt was made to subdue the Philistines. The first blow was struck by Jonathan, the king's son, who attacked and overcame their garrison at Geba. The Philistines, exasperated by this defeat, made ready for a speedy attack upon Israel. Saul now caused war to be proclaimed....
CC	150	3	Before the time appointed by the prophet had fully expired, he became impatient at the delay and allowed himself to be discouraged by the trying circumstances that surrounded him....
CC	150	4	The time for the proving of Saul had come. He was now to show whether or not he would depend on God and patiently wait according to His command, thus revealing himself as one whom God could trust in trying places as the ruler of His people, or whether he would be vacillating and unworthy of the sacred responsibility that had devolved upon him.50
CC	150	5	In detaining Samuel, it was the purpose of God that the heart of Saul should be revealed, that others might know what he would do in an emergency. It was a trying position in which to be placed, but Saul did not obey orders. He felt that it would make no difference who approached God, or in what way; and, full of energy and self-complacency, he put himself forward into the sacred office.
CC	150	6	The Lord has His appointed agencies; and if these are not discerned and respected by those who are connected with His work, if men feel free to disregard God's requirements, they must not be kept in positions of trust. They would not listen to counsel, nor to the commands of God through His appointed agencies. Like Saul, they would rush into a work that was never appointed them, and the mistakes they would make in following their human judgment would place the Israel of God where their Leader could not reveal Himself to them.51
------------------------Found Wanting, May 25
			1 Samuel 13:1-16
CC	151	1	And it came to pass, that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him. 1 Samuel 13:10.
CC	151	2	God had directed that only those consecrated to the office should present sacrifices before Him. But Saul commanded, "Bring hither a burnt offering;" and, equipped as he was with armor and weapons of war, he approached the altar and offered sacrifice before God.... If Saul had fulfilled the conditions upon which divine help was promised, the Lord would have wrought a marvelous deliverance for Israel, with the few who were loyal to the king. But Saul was so well satisfied with himself and his work that he went out to meet the prophet as one who should be commended rather than disapproved.52
CC	151	3	Saul endeavored to vindicate his own course, and blamed the prophet, instead of condemning himself. There are today many who pursue a similar course. Like Saul they are blinded to their errors. When the Lord seeks to correct them, they receive reproof as insult, and find fault with the one who brings the divine message.
CC	151	4	Had Saul been willing to see and confess his error, this bitter experience would have proved a safeguard for the future. He would afterward have avoided the mistakes which called forth divine reproof. But feeling that he was unjustly condemned, he would, of course, be likely again to commit the same sin.
CC	151	5	The Lord would have His people, under all circumstances, manifest implicit trust in Him. Although we cannot always understand the workings of His providence, we should wait with patience and humility until He sees fit to enlighten us.53
CC	151	6	Saul's transgression proved him unworthy to be intrusted with sacred responsibilities.... Had he patiently endured the divine test, the crown would have been confirmed to him and to his house. In fact, Samuel had come to Gilgal for this very purpose. But Saul had been weighed in the balance, and found wanting. He must be removed to make way for one who would sacredly regard the divine honor and authority.54
------------------------A Time for Courage, May 26
			1 Samuel 14:1-17
CC	152	1	And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. 1 Samuel 14:6.
CC	152	2	Because of Saul's sin in his presumptuous offering, the Lord would not give him the honor of vanquishing the Philistines. Jonathan, the king's son, a man who feared the Lord, was chosen as the instrument to deliver Israel. Moved by a divine impulse, he proposed to his armor-bearer that they should make a secret attack upon the enemy's camp....
CC	152	3	Together they withdrew from the camp, secretly, lest their purpose should be opposed. With earnest prayer to the Guide of their fathers, they agreed upon a sign by which they might determine how to proceed.... Approaching the Philistine fortress, they were revealed to the view of their enemies, who said, tauntingly, "Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves," then challenged them, "Come up to us, and we will show you a thing," meaning that they would punish the two Israelites for their daring. This challenge was the token that Jonathan and his companion had agreed to accept as evidence that the Lord would prosper their undertaking. Passing now from the sight of the Philistines, and choosing a secret and difficult path, the warriors made their way to the summit of a cliff that had been deemed inaccessible, and was not very strongly guarded. Thus they penetrated the enemy's camp and slew the sentinels, who, overcome with surprise and fear, offered no resistance.
CC	152	4	Angels of heaven shielded Jonathan and his attendant, angels fought by their side, and the Philistines fell before them.55
CC	152	5	These two men gave evidence that they were moving under the influence and command of a more than human general. To outward appearance, their venture was rash, and contrary to all military rules. But the action of Jonathan was not done in human rashness. He depended not on what he and his armor-bearer themselves could do; he was the instrument that God used in behalf of His people Israel.56
------------------------The Real King, May 27
			1 Samuel 14:24-46
CC	153	1	Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies. 1 Samuel 14:24.
CC	153	2	The command to refrain from food was prompted by selfish ambition, and it showed the king to be indifferent to the needs of his people when these conflicted with his desire for self-exaltation. To confirm his prohibition by a solemn oath showed Saul to be both rash and profane. The very words of the curse give evidence that Saul's zeal was for himself, and not for the honor of God. He declared his object to be, not "that the Lord may be avenged on His enemies," but "that I may be avenged on mine enemies." ...
CC	153	3	During the day's battle Jonathan, who had not heard of the king's command, unwittingly offended by eating a little honey as he passed through a wood. Saul learned of this at evening. He had declared that the violation of his edict should be punished with death; and though Jonathan had not been guilty of a willful sin, though God had miraculously preserved his life and had wrought deliverance through him, the king declared that the sentence must be executed. To spare the life of his son would have been an acknowledgment on the part of Saul that he had sinned in making so rash a vow. This would have been humiliating to his pride. "God do so, and more also," was his terrible sentence: "thou shalt surely die, Jonathan." ...
CC	153	4	At Gilgal, but a short time before, Saul had presumed to officiate as priest, contrary to the command of God. When reproved by Samuel, he had stubbornly justified himself. Now, when his own command was disobeyed--though the command was unreasonable and had been violated through ignorance--the king and father sentenced his son to death.
CC	153	5	The people refused to allow the sentence to be executed. Braving the anger of the king, they declared, "Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath wrought with God this day." The proud monarch dared not disregard this unanimous verdict, and the life of Jonathan was preserved.57
------------------------It Works Two Ways, May 28
			1 Samuel 14:36-46
CC	154	1	With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Matthew 7:2.
CC	154	2	Saul could not but feel that his son was preferred before him, both by the people and by the Lord. Jonathan's deliverance was a severe reproof to the king's rashness. He felt a presentiment that his curses would return upon his own head. He did not longer continue the war with the Philistines, but returned to his home, moody and dissatisfied.
CC	154	3	Those who are most ready to excuse or justify themselves in sin are often most severe in judging and condemning others. Many, like Saul, bring upon themselves the displeasure of God, but they reject counsel and despise reproof. Even when convinced that the Lord is not with them, they refuse to see in themselves the cause of their trouble. They cherish a proud, boastful spirit, while they indulge in cruel judgment or severe rebuke of others who are better than they....
CC	154	4	Often those who are seeking to exalt themselves are brought into positions where their true character is revealed. So it was in the case of Saul. His own course convinced the people that kingly honor and authority were dearer to him than justice, mercy, or benevolence. Thus the people were led to see their error in rejecting the government that God had given them. They had exchanged the pious prophet, whose prayers had brought down blessings, for a king who in his blind zeal had prayed for a curse upon them.
CC	154	5	Had not the men of Israel interposed to save the life of Jonathan, their deliverer would have perished by the king's decree. With what misgivings must that people afterward have followed Saul's guidance! How bitter the thought that he had been placed upon the throne by their own act! The Lord bears long with the waywardness of men, and to all He grants opportunity to see and forsake their sins; but while He may seem to prosper those who disregard His will and despise His warnings, He will, in His own time, surely make manifest their folly.58
------------------------Tested Again, May 29
			1 Samuel 15
CC	155	1	Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not. 1 Samuel 15:3.
CC	155	2	The Lord sent His servant with another message to Saul. By obedience he might still prove his fidelity to God and his worthiness to walk before Israel. Samuel came to the king and delivered the word of the Lord....
CC	155	3	The Amalekites had been the first to make war upon Israel in the wilderness; and for this sin, together with their defiance of God and their debasing idolatry, the Lord, through Moses, had pronounced sentence upon them.... For four hundred years the execution of this sentence had been deferred; but the Amalekites had not turned from their sins. The Lord knew that this wicked people would, if it were possible, blot out His people and His worship from the earth. Now the time had come for the sentence, so long delayed, to be executed.
CC	155	4	The forbearance that God has exercised toward the wicked, emboldens men in transgression; but their punishment will be none the less certain and terrible for being long delayed.... While He does not delight in vengeance, He will execute judgment upon the transgressors of His law. He is forced to do this, to preserve the inhabitants of the earth from utter depravity and ruin. In order to save some He must cut off those who become hardened in sin.... And the very fact of His reluctance to execute justice testifies to the enormity of the sins that call forth His judgments and to the severity of the retribution awaiting the transgressor.
CC	155	5	But while inflicting judgment, God remembered mercy. The Amalekites were to be destroyed, but the Kenites, who dwelt among them, were spared. This people, though not wholly free from idolatry, were worshipers of God and were friendly to Israel. Of this tribe was the brother-in-law of Moses, Hobab, who had accompanied the Israelites in their travels through the wilderness, and by his knowledge of the country had rendered them valuable assistance.59
------------------------Not to be Trusted, May 30
			1 Samuel 15
CC	156	1	But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. 1 Samuel 15:9.
CC	156	2	Since the defeat of the Philistines at Michmash, Saul had made war against Moab, Ammon, and Edom, and against the Amalekites and the Philistines; and wherever he turned his arms, he gained fresh victories. On receiving the commission against the Amalekites, he at once proclaimed war. To his own authority was added that of the prophet, and at the call to battle the men of Israel flocked to his standard. The expedition was not to be entered upon for the purpose of self-aggrandizement; the Israelites were not to receive either the honor of the conquest or the spoils of their enemies. They were to engage in the war solely as an act of obedience to God, for the purpose of executing His judgment upon the Amalekites. God intended that all nations should behold the doom of that people that had defied His sovereignty, and should mark that they were destroyed by the very people whom they had despised....
CC	156	3	This victory over the Amalekites was the most brilliant victory that Saul had ever gained, and it served to rekindle the pride of heart that was his greatest peril. The divine edict devoting the enemies of God to utter destruction was but partially fulfilled. Ambitious to heighten the honor of his triumphal return by the presence of a royal captive, Saul ventured to imitate the customs of the nations around him and spared Agag, the fierce and warlike king of the Amalekites. The people reserved for themselves the finest of the flocks, herds, and beasts of burden, excusing their sin on the ground that the cattle were reserved to be offered as sacrifices to the Lord. It was their purpose, however, to use these merely as a substitute, to save their own cattle.
CC	156	4	Saul had now been subjected to the final test. His presumptuous disregard of the will of God, showing his determination to rule as an independent monarch, proved that he could not be trusted with royal power as the vicegerent of the Lord.60
------------------------I Hear the Sheep, May 31
			1 Samuel 15
CC	157	1	It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. 1 Samuel 15:11.
CC	157	2	While Saul and his army were marching home in the flush of victory, there was deep anguish in the home of Samuel the prophet. He had received a message from the Lord denouncing the course of the king.... The prophet was deeply grieved over the course of the rebellious king, and he wept and prayed all night for a reversing of the terrible sentence.
CC	157	3	God's repentance is not like man's repentance. "The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent." Man's repentance implies a change of mind. God's repentance implies a change of circumstances and relations. Man may change his relation to God by complying with the conditions upon which he may be brought into the divine favor, or he may, by his own action, place himself outside the favoring condition; but the Lord is the same "yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8). Saul's disobedience changed his relation to God; but the conditions of acceptance with God were unaltered--God's requirements were still the same, for with Him there "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17).
CC	157	4	With an aching heart the prophet set forth the next morning to meet the erring king. Samuel cherished a hope that, upon reflection, Saul might become conscious of his sin, and by repentance and humiliation be again restored to the divine favor. But when the first step is taken in the path of transgression the way becomes easy. Saul, debased by his disobedience, came to meet Samuel with a lie upon his lips. He exclaimed, "Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord." The sounds that fell on the prophet's ears disproved the statement of the disobedient king.61
CC	157	5	Saul denied his sin even while the lowing of the oxen and the bleating of the sheep were publishing his guilt.62
------------------------Not Really Sorry, June 1
			1 Samuel 15
CC	158	1	Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. 1 Samuel 15:23.
CC	158	2	Terrified by the denunciation of the prophet, Saul acknowledged his guilt, which he had before stubbornly denied; but he still persisted in casting blame upon the people, declaring that he had sinned through fear of them.
CC	158	3	It was not sorrow for sin, but fear of its penalty, that actuated the king of Israel.... It was his chief anxiety to maintain his authority and retain the allegiance of the people.... As Samuel turned to depart, the king, in an agony of fear, laid hold of his mantle to hold him back, but it rent in his hands. Upon this, the prophet declared, "The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine, that is better than thou." ...
CC	158	4	Saul presumed upon his exaltation, and dishonored God by unbelief and disobedience. Though when first called to the throne he was humble and self-distrustful, success made him self-confident.... The sacrificial offerings were in themselves of no value in the sight of God. They were designed to express on the part of the offerer penitence for sin and faith in Christ and to pledge future obedience to the law of God. But without penitence, faith, and an obedient heart, the offerings were worthless. When, in direct violation of God's command, Saul proposed to present a sacrifice of that which God had devoted to destruction, open contempt was shown for the divine authority. The service would have been an insult to Heaven.
CC	158	5	Yet with the sin of Saul and its result before us, how many are pursuing a similar course. While they refuse to believe and obey some requirement of the Lord, they persevere in offering up to God their formal services of religion. There is no response of the Spirit of God to such service. No matter how zealous men may be in their observance of religious ceremonies, the Lord cannot accept them if they persist in willful violation of one of His commands.1
------------------------Sanity Almost Gone, June 2
			1 Samuel 15:24-35
CC	159	1	And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. 1 Samuel 15:26.
CC	159	2	When Saul saw that Samuel came no more to instruct him, he knew that the Lord had rejected him for his wicked course, and his character seemed ever after to be marked with extremes. His servants ... at times dared not approach him, for he seemed like an insane man, violent and abusive. He often seemed filled with remorse. He was melancholy, and often afraid where there was no danger.... He was always full of anxiety, and when in his gloomy moods he wished not to be disturbed, and at times would suffer none to approach him.... He would repeat prophetically sayings against himself with distracted energy, even in the presence of his lords and of the people.
CC	159	3	Those who witnessed these strange exhibitions in Saul recommended to him music, as calculated to have a soothing influence upon his mind when thus distracted. In the providence of God, David was brought to his notice as a skillful musician....
CC	159	4	David's skillful playing upon the harp soothed the troubled spirit of Saul. As he listened to the enchanting strains of music, it had an influence to dispel the gloom which settled upon him, and to bring his excited mind into a more rational, happy state.2
CC	159	5	Saul was shorn of his strength, because he failed to make obedience to God's commandments the rule of his life. It is a fearful thing for a man to set his will against the will of God, as revealed in His specified requirements. All the honor that a man could receive on the throne of a kingdom, would be a poor compensation for the loss of the favor of God through an act of disloyalty to heaven. Disobedience to the commandments of God can only bring disaster and dishonor at last. God has given to every man his work, just as truly as He appointed to Saul the government of Israel; and the practical and important lesson to us is to accomplish our appointed work in such a manner that we may meet our life records with joy, and not with grief.3
------------------------God's Choice, Not Man's, June 3
			1 Samuel 16:1-13
CC	160	1	And the Lord said unto Samuel, ... fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. 1 Samuel 16:1.
CC	160	2	When the sacrifice was ended, and before partaking of the offering feast, Samuel began his prophetic inspection of the noble-appearing sons of Jesse. Eliab was the eldest, and more nearly resembled Saul for stature and beauty than the others. His comely features and finely developed form attracted the attention of the prophet. As Samuel looked upon his princely bearing, he thought, "This is indeed the man whom God has chosen as successor to Saul." ... But Jehovah did not look upon the outward appearance. Eliab did not fear the Lord. Had he been called to the throne, he would have been a proud, exacting ruler....
CC	160	3	No outward beauty can recommend the soul to God. The wisdom and excellence revealed in the character and deportment, express the true beauty of the man; and it is the inner worth, the excellency of the heart, that determines our acceptance with the Lord of hosts. How deeply should we feel this truth in the judgment of ourselves and others. We may learn from the mistake of Samuel how vain is the estimation that rests on beauty of face or nobility of stature.4
CC	160	4	The elder brothers, from whom Samuel would have chosen, did not possess the qualifications that God saw to be essential in a ruler of His people. Proud, self-centered, self-confident, they were set aside for the one whom they lightly regarded, one who had preserved the simplicity and sincerity of his youth, and who, while little in his own sight, could be trained by God for the responsibilities of the kingdom. So today, in many a child whom the parents would pass by, God sees capabilities far above those revealed by others who are thought to possess great promise. And as regards life's possibilities, who is capable of deciding what is great and what is small? How many a worker in the lowly places of life, by setting on foot agencies for the blessing of the world, has achieved results that kings might envy!5
------------------------Preparing to Lead, June 4
			1 Samuel 17:1-37
CC	161	1	When there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. 1 Samuel 17:34, 35, R.V.
CC	161	2	David was growing in favor with God and man. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he now set his heart more fully to do the will of God than ever before. He had new themes for thought. He had been in the court of the king and had seen the responsibilities of royalty. He had discovered some of the temptations that beset the soul of Saul and had penetrated some of the mysteries in the character and dealings of Israel's first king. He had seen the glory of royalty shadowed with a dark cloud of sorrow, and he knew that the household of Saul, in their private life, were far from happy. All these things served to bring troubled thoughts to him who had been anointed to be king over Israel. But while he was absorbed in deep meditation, and harassed by thoughts of anxiety, he turned to his harp, and called forth strains that elevated his mind to the Author of every good, and the dark clouds that seemed to shadow the horizon of the future were dispelled.
CC	161	3	God was teaching David lessons of trust. As Moses was trained for his work, so the Lord was fitting the son of Jesse to become the guide of His chosen people. In his watchcare for his flocks, he was gaining an appreciation of the care that the Great Shepherd has for the sheep of His pasture.
CC	161	4	The lonely hills and the wild ravines where David wandered with his flocks were the lurking place of beasts of prey. Not infrequently the lion from the thickets by the Jordan, or the bear from his lair among the hills, came, fierce with hunger, to attack the flocks. According to the custom of his time, David was armed only with his sling and shepherd's staff; yet he early gave proof of his strength and courage in protecting his charge....
CC	161	5	His experience in these matters proved the heart of David and developed in him courage and fortitude and faith.6
------------------------Human Boasting, June 5
			1 Samuel 17:4-29
CC	162	1	And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. 1 Samuel 17:10.
CC	162	2	When war was declared by Israel against the Philistines, three of the sons of Jesse joined the army under Saul; but David remained at home. After a time, however, he went to visit the camp of Saul. By his father's direction he was to carry a message and a gift to his elder brothers and to learn if they were still in safety and health.... As David drew near to the army, he heard the sound of commotion, as if an engagement was about to begin....
CC	162	3	Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, came forth, and with insulting language defied Israel and challenged them to provide a man from their ranks who would meet him in single combat....
CC	162	4	For forty days the host of Israel had trembled before the haughty challenge of the Philistine giant. Their hearts failed within them as they looked upon his massive form, in height measuring six cubits and a span. Upon his head was a helmet of brass, he was clothed with a coat of mail that weighed five thousand shekels, and he had greaves of brass upon his legs. The coat was made of plates of brass that overlaid one another, like the scales of a fish, and they were so closely joined that no dart or arrow could possibly penetrate the armor. At his back the giant bore a huge javelin, or lance, also of brass. "The staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and one bearing a shield went before him."7
CC	162	5	Israel did not defy Goliath, but Goliath made his proud boasts against God and His people. The defying, the boasting, and the railing must come from the opposers of truth, who act the Goliath. But none of this spirit should be seen in those whom God has sent forth to proclaim the last message of warning to a doomed world.
CC	162	6	Goliath trusted in his armor. He terrified the armies of Israel by his defiant, savage boastings, while he made a most imposing display of his armor, which was his strength.8
------------------------Five Smooth Stones, June 6
			1 Samuel 17:28-37
CC	163	1	David said ..., The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee. 1 Samuel 17:37.
CC	163	2	When David saw that all Israel were filled with fear, and learned that the Philistine's defiance was hurled at them day after day, without arousing a champion to silence the boaster, his spirit was stirred within him. He was fired with zeal to preserve the honor of the living God and the credit of His people.9
CC	163	3	David, in his humility and zeal for God and his people, proposed to meet this boaster. Saul consented and had his own kingly armor placed upon David. But he would not consent to wear it. He laid off the king's armor, for he had not proved it. He had proved God and, in trusting in Him, had gained special victories. To put on Saul's armor would give the impression that he was a warrior, when he was only little David who tended the sheep. He did not mean that any credit be given to the armor of Saul, for his trust was in the Lord God of Israel.10
CC	163	4	Choosing five smooth stones out of the brook, he put them in his bag, and, with his sling in his hand, drew near to the Philistine. The giant strode boldly forward, expecting to meet the mightiest of the warriors of Israel. His armor-bearer walked before him, and he looked as if nothing could withstand him. As he came nearer to David he saw but a stripling, called a boy because of his youth. David's countenance was ruddy with health, and his well-knit form, unprotected by armor, was displayed to advantage; yet between its youthful outline and the massive proportions of the Philistine, there was a marked contrast.
CC	163	5	Goliath was filled with amazement and anger. "Am I a dog," he exclaimed, "that thou comest to me with staves?" Then he poured upon David the most terrible curses by all the gods of his knowledge. He cried in derision, "Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.11
------------------------A Sure Outcome, June 7
			1 Samuel 17:38-58
CC	164	1	Then said David to the Philistine, ... I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. 1 Samuel 17:45.
CC	164	2	Goliath railed upon David and cursed him by his gods. He felt that it was an insult upon his dignity to have a mere stripling, without so much as an armor, come to meet him.... David did not become irritated because he was looked upon as so inferior, neither did he tremble at his terrible threats, but replied: "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied."12
CC	164	3	This speech, given in a clear, musical voice, rang out on the air, and was distinctly heard by the listening thousands marshaled for war. The anger of Goliath was roused to the very highest heat. In his rage he pushed up the helmet that protected his forehead and rushed forward to wreak vengeance upon his opponent. The son of Jesse was preparing for his foe. "And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in the forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth."
CC	164	4	Amazement spread along the lines of the two armies. They had been confident that David would be slain; but when the stone went whizzing through the air, straight to the mark, they saw the mighty warrior tremble, and reach forth his hands, as if he were struck with sudden blindness. The giant reeled, and staggered, and like a smitten oak, fell to the ground. David did not wait an instant. He sprang upon the prostrate form of the Philistine, and with both hands laid hold of Goliath's heavy sword. A moment before, the giant had boasted that with it he would sever the youth's head from his shoulders and give his body to the fowls of the air. Now it was lifted in the air, and then the head of the boaster rolled from his trunk, and a shout of exultation went up from the camp of Israel.13
------------------------No One Sorry, June 8
			1 Samuel 22
CC	165	1	All of you have conspired against me ... and there is none of you that is sorry for me. 1 Samuel 22:8.
CC	165	2	The spirit of evil was upon Saul. He felt that his doom had been sealed by the solemn message of his rejection from the throne of Israel. His departure from the plain requirements of God was bringing its sure results. He did not turn, and repent, and humble his heart before God, but opened it to receive every suggestion of the enemy. He listened to every false witness, eagerly receiving anything that was detrimental to the character of David, hoping that he might find an excuse for manifesting his increasing envy and hatred of him who had been anointed to the throne of Israel.
CC	165	3	Every rumor was credited, no matter how inconsistent and irreconcilable it was with the former character and custom of David.
CC	165	4	Every evidence that the protecting care of God was over David seemed to imbitter and deepen his one engrossing and determined purpose. The failure to accomplish his own designs appeared in marked contrast to the success of the fugitive in eluding his search, but it only made the determination of the king the more unrelenting and firm. He was not careful to conceal his designs toward David, nor scrupulous as to what means should be employed in accomplishing his purpose.
CC	165	5	It was not the man David, who had done him no harm, against whom the king was contending. He was in controversy with the King of heaven; for when Satan is permitted to control the mind that will not be ruled by Jehovah, he will lead it according to his will, until the man who is thus in his power becomes an efficient agent to carry out his designs. So bitter is the enmity of the great originator of sin against the purposes of God, so terrible is his power for evil, that when men disconnect from God, Satan influences them, and their minds are brought more and more into subjection, until they cast off the fear of God, and the respect of men, and become bold and avowed enemies of God and of His people.... God hates all sin, and when man persistently refuses all the counsel of heaven, he is left to the deceptions of the enemy.14
------------------------Music in a Cave, June 9
			1 Samuel 22
CC	166	1	My soul is among lions; and I lie even among them that are set on fire. Psalm 57:4.
CC	166	2	Oh, how precious is the sweet influence of the Spirit of God as it comes to depressed or despairing souls, encouraging the fainthearted, strengthening the feeble, and imparting courage and help to the tried servants of the Lord! Oh, what a God is ours, who deals gently with the erring and manifests His patience and tenderness in adversity, and when we are overwhelmed with some great sorrow!
CC	166	3	Every failure on the part of the children of God is due to their lack of faith. When shadows encompass the soul, when we want light and guidance, we must look up: there is light beyond the darkness. David ought not to have distrusted God for one moment. He had cause for trusting in Him; he was the Lord's anointed, and in the midst of danger he had been protected by the angels of God; he had been armed with courage to do wonderful things; and if he had but removed his mind from the distressing situation in which he was placed and had thought of God's power and majesty, he would have been at peace even in the midst of the shadows of death....
CC	166	4	Among the mountains of Judah, David sought refuge from the pursuit of Saul. He made good his escape to the cave of Adullam, a place that, with a small force, could be held against a large army. "And when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him." ...
CC	166	5	In the cave of Adullam the family were united in sympathy and affection. The son of Jesse could make melody with voice and harp as he sang, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Psalm 133:1). He had tasted the bitterness of distrust on the part of his own brothers; and the harmony that had taken the place of discord brought joy to the exile's heart. It was here that David composed the fifty-seventh psalm.15
------------------------Result of Insanity, June 10
			1 Samuel 22
CC	167	1	And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father's house. 1 Samuel 22:16.
CC	167	2	Men cannot depart from the counsel of God and still retain that calmness and wisdom which will enable them to act with justice and discretion. There is no insanity so dreadful, so hopeless, as that of following human wisdom, unguided by the wisdom of God.
CC	167	3	Saul had been preparing to ensnare and capture David in the cave of Adullam, and when it was discovered that David had left this place of refuge, the king was greatly enraged. The flight of David was a mystery to Saul. He could account for it only by the belief that there had been traitors in his camp, who had informed the son of Jesse of his proximity and design.
CC	167	4	He affirmed to his counselors that a conspiracy had been formed against him, and with the offer of rich gifts and positions of honor he bribed them to reveal who among his people had befriended David. Doeg the Edomite turned informer. Moved by ambition and avarice, and by hatred of the priest, who had reproved his sins, Doeg reported David's visit to Ahimelech, representing the matter in such a light as to kindle Saul's anger against the man of God. The words of that mischievous tongue, set on fire of hell, stirred up the worst passions in Saul's heart. Maddened with rage, he declared that the whole family of the priest should perish. And the terrible decree was executed. Not only Ahimelech, but the members of his father's house ... were slain at the king's command, by the murderous hand of Doeg....
CC	167	5	This is what Saul could do under the control of Satan. When God had said that the iniquity of the Amalekites was full, and had commanded him to destroy them utterly, he thought himself too compassionate to execute the divine sentence, and he spared that which was devoted to destruction; but now, without a command from God, under the guidance of Satan, he could slay the priests of the Lord and bring ruin upon the inhabitants of Nob. Such is the perversity of the human heart that has refused the guidance of God.16
------------------------A Mismatched Pair, June 11
			1 Samuel 25:2-17
CC	168	1	Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Proverbs 31:30.
CC	168	2	In the character of Abigail, the wife of Nabal, we have an illustration of womanhood after the order of Christ; while her husband illustrates what a man may become who yields himself to the control of Satan.17
CC	168	3	When David was a fugitive from the face of Saul, he had camped near the possessions of Nabal, and had protected the flocks and the shepherds of this man.... In a time of need, David sent messengers to Nabal with a courteous message, asking for food for himself and his men, and Nabal answered with insolence, returning evil for good, and refusing to share his abundance with his neighbors. No message could have been more respectful than that which David sent to this man, but Nabal accused David and his men falsely in order to justify himself in his selfishness, and represented David and his followers as runaway slaves. When the messenger returned with this insolent taunt, David's indignation was aroused, and he determined to have speedy revenge. One of the young men in the employ of Nabal, fearing that evil results would follow Nabal's insolence, came and stated the case to Nabal's wife, knowing that she had a different spirit from her husband, and was a woman of great discretion....
CC	168	4	Abigail saw that something must be done to avert the result of Nabal's fault, and that she must take the responsibility of acting immediately without the counsel of her husband. She knew that it would be useless to speak to him, for he would only receive her proposition with abuse and contempt. He would remind her that he was the lord of his household, that she was his wife, and therefore in subjection to him, and must do as he should dictate....
CC	168	5	Without his consent, she gathered together such stores as she thought best to conciliate the wrath of David; for she knew he was determined to avenge himself for the insult he had received .... Abigail's course in this matter was one that God approved, and the circumstance revealed in her a noble spirit and character.18
------------------------Gentle Rebuke, June 12
			1 Samuel 25:18-35
CC	169	1	I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. 1 Samuel 25:28.
CC	169	2	Abigail met David with respect, showing him honor and deference, and pleaded her case eloquently and successfully. While not excusing her husband's insolence, she still pleaded for his life. She also revealed the fact that she was not only a discreet woman, but a godly woman, acquainted with the works and ways of God in David. She stated her firm faith in the fact that David was the anointed of the Lord.19
CC	169	3	Abigail presented by implication the course that David ought to pursue. He should fight the battles of the Lord. He was not to seek revenge for personal wrongs, even though persecuted as a traitor.... These words could have come only from the lips of one who had partaken of the wisdom from above. The piety of Abigail, like the fragrance of a flower, breathed out all unconsciously in face and word and action. The Spirit of the Son of God was abiding in her soul. Her speech, seasoned with grace, and full of kindness and peace, shed a heavenly influence. Better impulses came to David, and he trembled as he thought what might have been the consequences of his rash purpose....
CC	169	4	A consecrated Christian life is ever shedding light and comfort and peace. It is characterized by purity, tact, simplicity, and usefulness. It is controlled by that unselfish love that sanctifies the influence. It is full of Christ, and leaves a track of light wherever its possessor may go.
CC	169	5	Abigail was a wise reprover and counselor. David's passion died away under the power of her influence and reasoning....
CC	169	6	With a humble heart he received the rebuke.... He gave thanks and blessings because she advised him righteously. There are many who, when they are reproved, think it praiseworthy if they receive the rebuke without becoming impatient; but how few take reproof with gratitude of heart and bless those who seek to save them from pursuing an evil course.20
------------------------Divine Vengeance, June 13
			1 Samuel 25:36-39
CC	170	1	Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Romans 12:19.
CC	170	2	Although Nabal had refused the needy company of David and his men, yet that very night he made an extravagant feast for himself and his riotous friends, and indulged in eating and drinking till he sank in drunken stupor.21
CC	170	3	Nabal thought nothing of spending an extravagant amount of his wealth to indulge and glorify himself; but it seemed too painful a sacrifice for him to make to bestow compensation which he never would have missed, upon those who had been like a wall to his flocks and herds. Nabal was like the rich man in the parable. He had only one thought,--to use God's merciful gifts to gratify his selfish animal appetites. He had no thought of gratitude to the Giver. He was not rich toward God; for eternal treasure had no attraction for him. Present luxury, present gain, was the one absorbing thought of his life. This was his god.22
CC	170	4	Nabal was a coward at heart; and when he realized how near his folly had brought him to a sudden death, he seemed smitten with paralysis. Fearful that David would still pursue his purpose of revenge, he was filled with horror, and sank down in a condition of helpless insensibility. After ten days he died. The life that God had given him had been only a curse to the world. In the midst of his rejoicing and making merry, God had said to him, as He said to the rich man of the parable, "This night thy soul shall be required of thee" (Luke 12:20).23
CC	170	5	When David heard the tidings of the death of Nabal, he gave thanks that God had taken vengeance into His own hands. He had been restrained from evil, and the Lord had returned the wickedness of the wicked upon his own head. In this dealing of God with Nabal and David, men may be encouraged to put their cases into the hands of God; for in His own good time He will set matters right.24
------------------------No Answer from God, June 14
			1 Samuel 28:3-25
CC	171	1	The Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. 1 Samuel 28:6.
CC	171	2	The Lord never turned away a soul that came to Him in sincerity and humility. Why did he turn Saul away unanswered? The king had by his own act forfeited the benefits of all the methods of inquiring of God. He had rejected the counsel of Samuel the prophet; he had exiled David, the chosen of God; he had slain the priests of the Lord.... He had sinned away the Spirit of grace, and could he be answered by dreams and revelations from the Lord? Saul did not turn to God with humility and repentance. It was not pardon for sin and reconciliation with God, that he sought, but deliverance from his foes. By his own stubbornness and rebellion he had cut himself off from God. There could be no return but by the way of penitence and contrition; but the proud monarch, in his anguish and despair, determined to seek help from another source.... It was told the king that a woman who had a familiar spirit was living in concealment at Endor.... Disguising himself, Saul went forth by night with but two attendants, to seek the retreat of the sorceress....
CC	171	3	What bondage so terrible as that of him who is given over to the control of the worst of tyrants--himself! Trust in God and obedience to His will were the only conditions upon which Saul could be king of Israel. Had he complied with these conditions throughout his reign, his kingdom would have been secure; God would have been his guide, the Omnipotent his shield. God had borne long with Saul; and although his rebellion and obstinacy had well-nigh silenced the divine voice in the soul, there was still opportunity for repentance. But when in his peril he turned from God to obtain light from a confederate of Satan, he had cut the last tie that bound him to his Maker....
CC	171	4	By consulting that spirit of darkness Saul had destroyed himself. Oppressed by the horror of despair, it would be impossible for him to inspire his army with courage. Separated from the Source of strength, he could not lead the minds of Israel to look to God as their helper. Thus the prediction of evil would work its own accomplishment.25
------------------------That's Not Samuel, June 15
			1 Samuel 28:3-25
CC	172	1	For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Ecclesiastes 9:5.
CC	172	2	When Saul inquired for Samuel, the Lord did not cause Samuel to appear to Saul. He saw nothing. Satan was not allowed to disturb the rest of Samuel in the grave, and bring him up in reality to the witch of Endor. God does not give Satan power to resurrect the dead. But Satan's angels assume the form of dead friends, and speak and act like them, that through professed dead friends he can the better carry on his work of deception. Satan knew Samuel well, and he knew how to represent him before the witch of Endor, and to utter correctly the fate of Saul and his sons.
CC	172	3	Satan will come in a very plausible manner to such as he can deceive, and will insinuate himself into their favor, and lead them almost imperceptibly from God. He wins them under his control, cautiously at first, until their perceptibilities become blunted. Then he will make bolder suggestions, until he can lead them to commit almost any degree of crime. When he has led them fully into his snare, he is then willing that they should see where they are, and he exults in their confusion, as in the case of Saul. He had suffered Satan to lead him a willing captive, and now Satan spreads before Saul a correct description of his fate. By giving Saul a correct statement of his end, through the woman of Endor, Satan opens a way for Israel to be instructed by his satanic cunning, that they may, in their rebellion against God, learn of him, and by thus doing, sever the last link which would hold them to God.
CC	172	4	Saul knew that in this last act, of consulting the witch of Endor, he cut the last shred which held him to God. He knew that if he had not before wilfully separated himself from God, this act sealed that separation, and made it final. He had made an agreement with death, and a covenant with hell. The cup of his iniquity was full.26
------------------------God's Secrets, June 16
			1 Samuel 28:3-25
CC	173	1	It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. Acts 1:7.
CC	173	2	The witch of Endor had made agreement with Satan to follow his directions in all things; and he would perform wonders and miracles for her, and would reveal to her the most secret things, if she would yield herself unreservedly to be controlled by his Satanic majesty. This she had done.27
CC	173	3	By the prediction of Saul's doom, given through the woman of Endor, Satan planned to ensnare the people of Israel. He hoped that they would be inspired with confidence in the sorceress, and would be led to consult her. Thus they would turn from God as their counselor and would place themselves under the guidance of Satan. The lure by which spiritualism attracts the multitudes is its pretended power to draw aside the veil from the future and reveal to men what God has hidden. God has in His word opened before us the great events of the future--all that it is essential for us to know--and He has given us a safe guide for our feet amid all its perils; but it is Satan's purpose to destroy men's confidence in God, to make them dissatisfied with their condition in life, and to lead them to seek a knowledge of what God has wisely veiled from them, and to despise what He has revealed in His Holy Word.
CC	173	4	There are many who become restless when they cannot know the definite outcome of affairs. They cannot endure uncertainty, and in their impatience they refuse to wait to see the salvation of God. Apprehended evils drive them nearly distracted. They give way to their rebellious feelings, and run hither and thither in passionate grief, seeking intelligence concerning that which has not been revealed. If they would but trust in God, and watch unto prayer, they would find divine consolation. Their spirit would be calmed by communion with God. The weary and the heavy-laden would find rest unto their souls if they would only go to Jesus; but when they neglect the means that God has ordained for their comfort, and resort to other sources, hoping to learn what God has withheld, they commit the error of Saul, and thereby gain only a knowledge of evil.28
------------------------A Suicide, June 17
			1 Samuel 31:1-6
CC	174	1	The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. Proverbs 11:5.
CC	174	2	On the plain of Shunem and the slopes of Mount Gilboa the armies of Israel and the hosts of the Philistines closed in mortal combat. Though the fearful scene in the cave of Endor had driven all hope from his heart, Saul fought with desperate valor for his throne and his kingdom. But it was in vain. "The men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa." Three brave sons of the king died at his side. The archers pressed upon Saul. He had seen his soldiers falling around him and his princely sons cut down by the sword. Himself wounded, he could neither fight nor fly. Escape was impossible, and determined not to be taken alive by the Philistines, he bade his armor-bearer, "Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith." When the man refused to lift his hand against the Lord's anointed, Saul took his own life by falling upon his sword. Thus the first king of Israel perished, with the guilt of self-murder upon his soul.29
CC	174	3	By following the dictates of Satan, Saul was himself hastening the very result which, with unsanctified ability, he was endeavoring to avert.
CC	174	4	The counsel of the Lord had been disregarded again and again by the rebellious king, and the Lord had given him up to the folly of his own wisdom. The influences of the Spirit of God would have restrained him from the course of evil which he had chosen, that eventually worked out his ruin. God hates all sin, and when man persistently refuses all the counsel of heaven, he is left to the deceptions of the enemy, to be drawn away of his own lusts, and enticed.30
CC	174	5	The first king of Israel proved a failure, because he set his will above the will of God. Through the prophet Samuel the Lord instructed Saul that as king of Israel his course of action must be one of strictest integrity. Then God would bless his government with prosperity. But Saul refused to make obedience to God his first consideration, and the principles of heaven the government of his conduct. He died in dishonor and despair.31
------------------------A Friend Mourns, June 18
			2 Samuel 1:13-27, Revised Version.
CC	175	1	How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished! 2 Samuel 1:27.
CC	175	2	Twice David had had Saul in his power; but when urged to slay him, he had refused to lift his hand against him who had been consecrated by the command of God to rule over Israel....
CC	175	3	David's grief at the death of Saul was sincere and deep, evincing the generosity of a noble nature. He did not exult in the fall of his enemy. The obstacle that had barred his access to the throne of Israel was removed, but at this he did not rejoice. Death had obliterated the remembrance of Saul's distrust and cruelty, and now nothing in his history was thought of but that which was noble and kingly. The name of Saul was linked with that of Jonathan, whose friendship had been so true and so unselfish.32
CC	175	4	Jonathan, by birth heir to the throne, yet knowing himself set aside by the divine decree; to his rival the most tender and faithful of friends, shielding David's life at the peril of his own; steadfast at his father's side through the dark days of his declining power, and at his side falling at the last--the name of Jonathan is treasured in heaven, and it stands on earth a witness to the existence and the power of unselfish love.33
CC	175	5	The song in which David gave utterance to the feelings of his heart became a treasure to his nation, and to the people of God in all subsequent ages: ...
CC	175	6	"How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan is slain upon thy high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: Very pleasant hast thou been unto me: Thy love to me was wonderful, Passing the love of women. How are the mighty fallen, And the weapons of war perished!"
------------------------His Last Mistake, June 19
			2 Samuel 6:1-11
CC	176	1	Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his error. 2 Samuel 6:6, 7.
CC	176	2	The fate of Uzzah was a divine judgment upon the violation of a most explicit command. Through Moses the Lord had given special instruction concerning the transportation of the ark. None but the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were to touch it, or even to look upon it uncovered....
CC	176	3	The priests were to cover the ark, and then the Kohathites must lift it by the staves, which were placed in rings upon each side of the ark and were never removed. To the Gershonites and Merarites, who had in charge the curtains and boards and pillars of the tabernacle, Moses gave carts and oxen for the transportation of that which was committed to them. "But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none: because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto them was that they should bear upon their shoulders" (Numbers 7:9). Thus in the bringing of the ark from Kirjathjearim there had been a direct and inexcusable disregard of the Lord's directions....
CC	176	4	The Philistines, who had not a knowledge of God's law, had placed the ark upon a cart when they returned it to Israel, and the Lord accepted the effort which they made. But the Israelites had in their hands a plain statement of the will of God in all these matters, and their neglect of these instructions was dishonoring to God. Upon Uzzah rested the greater guilt of presumption. Transgression of God's law had lessened his sense of its sacredness, and with unconfessed sins upon him he had, in face of the divine prohibition, presumed to touch the symbol of God's presence. God can accept no partial obedience, no lax way of treating His commandments. By the judgment upon Uzzah He designed to impress upon all Israel the importance of giving strict heed to His requirements. Thus the death of that one man, by leading the people to repentance, might prevent the necessity of inflicting judgments upon thousands.35
------------------------Satan's Stealthy Work, June 20
			2 Samuel 11
CC	177	1	For our fight is not against any physical enemy: it is against organizations and powers that are spiritual. We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil. Ephesians 6:12, Phillips.
CC	177	2	The Bible has little to say in praise of men. Little space is given to recounting the virtues of even the best men who have ever lived. This silence is not without purpose; it is not without a lesson. All the good qualities that men possess are the gift of God; their good deeds are performed by the grace of God through Christ. Since they owe all to God the glory of whatever they are or do belongs to Him alone; they are but instruments in His hands. More than this--as all the lessons of Bible history teach--it is a perilous thing to praise or exalt men; for if one comes to lose sight of his entire dependence on God, and to trust to his own strength, he is sure to fall....
CC	177	3	It is impossible for us in our own strength to maintain the conflict; and whatever diverts the mind from God, whatever leads to self-exaltation or to self-dependence, is surely preparing the way for our overthrow. The tenor of the Bible is to inculcate distrust of human power and to encourage trust in divine power.
CC	177	4	It was the spirit of self-confidence and self-exaltation that prepared the way for David's fall. Flattery and the subtle allurements of power and luxury were not without effect upon him. Intercourse with surrounding nations also exerted an influence for evil. According to the customs prevailing among Eastern rulers, crimes not to be tolerated in subjects were uncondemned in the king; the monarch was not under obligation to exercise the same self-restraint as the subject. All this tended to lessen David's sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And instead of relying in humility upon the power of Jehovah, he began to trust to his own wisdom and might.
CC	177	5	As soon as Satan can separate the soul from God, the only Source of strength, he will seek to arouse the unholy desires of man's carnal nature. The work of the enemy is not abrupt; it is not, at the outset, sudden and startling; it is a secret undermining of the strongholds of principle.36
------------------------One Sin Leads to Another, June 21
			2 Samuel 11
CC	178	1	The thing that David had done displeased the Lord. 2 Samuel 11:27.
CC	178	2	When in ease and self-security he let go his hold upon God, David yielded to Satan and brought upon his soul the stain of guilt. He, the Heaven-appointed leader of the nation, chosen by God to execute His law, himself trampled upon its precepts. He who should have been a terror to evildoers, by his own act strengthened their hands.
CC	178	3	Amid the perils of his earlier life David in conscious integrity could trust his case with God. The Lord's hand had guided him safely past the unnumbered snares that had been laid for his feet. But now, guilty and unrepentant, he did not ask help and guidance from Heaven, but sought to extricate himself from the dangers in which sin had involved him. Bathsheba, whose fatal beauty had proved a snare to the king, was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of David's bravest and most faithful officers. None could foresee what would be the result should the crime become known....
CC	178	4	Every effort which David made to conceal his guilt proved unavailing.... In his desperation he was hurried on to add murder to adultery. He who had compassed the destruction of Saul was seeking to lead David also to ruin. Though the temptations were different, they were alike in leading to transgression of God's law....
CC	178	5	Uriah was made the bearer of his own death warrant. A letter sent by his hand to Joab from the king commanded, "Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die." Joab, already stained with the guilt of one wanton murder, did not hesitate to obey the king's instructions, and Uriah fell by the sword of the children of Ammon....
CC	178	6	He whose tender conscience and high sense of honor would not permit him, even when in peril of his life, to put forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, had so fallen that he could wrong and murder one of his most faithful and most valiant soldiers, and hope to enjoy undisturbed the reward of his sin. Alas! how had the fine gold become dim! how had the most fine gold changed!37
------------------------A King Rebuked, June 22
			2 Samuel 12:1-14
CC	179	1	And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. 2 Samuel 12:7.
CC	179	2	As time passed on, David's sin toward Bathsheba became known, and suspicion was excited that he had planned the death of Uriah. The Lord was dishonored. He had favored and exalted David, and David's sin misrepresented the character of God and cast reproach upon His name. It tended to lower the standard of godliness in Israel, to lessen in many minds the abhorrence of sin; while those who did not love and fear God were by it emboldened in transgression.
CC	179	3	Nathan the prophet was bidden to bear a message of reproof to David. It was a message terrible in its severity. To few sovereigns could such a reproof be given but at the price of certain death to the reprover. Nathan delivered the divine sentence unflinchingly, yet with such heaven-born wisdom as to engage the sympathies of the king, to arouse his conscience, and to call from his lips the sentence of death upon himself....
CC	179	4	The guilty may attempt, as David had done, to conceal their crime from men; they may seek to bury the evil deed forever from human sight or knowledge; but "all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13).38
CC	179	5	The prophet Nathan's parable of the ewe lamb, given to King David, may be studied by all.... While he was following his course of self-indulgence and commandment breaking, the parable of a rich man who took from a poor man his one ewe lamb, was presented before him. But the king was so completely wrapped in his garments of sin, that he did not see that he was the sinner. He fell into the trap, and ... passed his sentence upon another man, as he supposed, condemning him to death....
CC	179	6	This experience was most painful to David, but it was most beneficial. But for the mirror which Nathan held up before him, in which he so clearly recognized his own likeness, he would have gone on unconvicted of his heinous sin, and would have been ruined. The conviction of his guilt was the saving of his soul. He saw himself in another light, as the Lord saw him, and as long as he lived he repented of his sin.39
------------------------Sin's Way is Hard, June 23
			2 Samuel 12:1-14
CC	180	1	By this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. 2 Samuel 12:14.
CC	180	2	Through successive generations infidels have pointed to the character of David, bearing this dark stain, and have exclaimed in triumph and derision, "This is the man after God's own heart!" Thus a reproach has been brought upon religion, God and His word have been blasphemed, souls have been hardened in unbelief, and many, under a cloak of piety, have become bold in sin.
CC	180	3	But the history of David furnishes no countenance to sin. It was when he was walking in the counsel of God that he was called a man after God's own heart. When he sinned, this ceased to be true of him until by repentance he had returned to the Lord....
CC	180	4	Though David repented of his sin, and was forgiven and accepted by the Lord, he reaped the baleful harvest of the seed he himself had sown.... His authority in his own household, his claim to respect and obedience from his sons, was weakened. A sense of his guilt kept him silent when he should have condemned sin; it made his arm feeble to execute justice in his house....
CC	180	5	Those who, by pointing to the example of David, try to lessen the guilt of their own sins, should learn from the Bible record that the way of transgression is hard. Though like David they should turn from their evil course, the results of sin, even in this life, will be found bitter and hard to bear.40
CC	180	6	A man incurs guilt by injuring a fellow-being, but his chief guilt is the sin that he has committed against the Lord, and the evil influence of his example upon others. The sincere child of God does not make light of any of His requirements.41
CC	180	7	God intended the history of David's fall to serve as a warning that even those whom He has greatly blessed and favored are not to feel secure and neglect watchfulness and prayer. And thus it has proved to those who in humility have sought to learn the lesson that God designed to teach.42
------------------------Superficial Beauty, June 24
			2 Samuel 14:25-15:30
CC	181	1	But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. Psalm 3:3.
CC	181	2	With the memory ever before him of his own transgression of the law of God, David seemed morally paralyzed; he was weak and irresolute, when before his sin he had been courageous and decided. His influence with the people had been weakened. And all this favored the designs of his unnatural son....
CC	181	3	While the king was more and more inclined to desire retirement and solitude, Absalom sedulously courted the popular favor.... Day by day this man of noble mien might be seen at the gate of the city, where a crowd of suppliants waited to present their wrongs for redress. Absalom mingled with them and listened to their grievances, expressing sympathy with their sufferings and regret at the inefficiency of the government.43
CC	181	4	By his remarkable beauty, winning manners, and pretended kindness, he cunningly stole the hearts of the people. He did not possess benevolence at heart, but was ambitious and, as his course shows, would resort to intrigue and crime to obtain the kingdom. He would have returned his father's love and kindness by taking his life. He was proclaimed king by his followers in Hebron, and led them out to pursue his father.44
CC	181	5	In humility and sorrow David passed out of the gate of Jerusalem--driven from his throne, from his palace, from the ark of God, by the insurrection of his cherished son. The people followed in long, sad procession, like a funeral train.45
CC	181	6	Many who see not as God seeth, but view matters from man's standpoint, might reason that with David there might have been excuse for repining and that the sincerity of his repentance years before might have excepted him from present judgment.... David utters no complaint. The most eloquent psalm he ever sang was when he was climbing Mount Olivet, weeping and barefooted, yet humbled in spirit, unselfish and generous, submissive and resigned.46
------------------------Greatness in Humiliation, June 25
CC	182	1	When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me. Micah 7:8, 9.
CC	182	2	Conscience was uttering bitter and humiliating truths to David. While his faithful subjects wondered at his sudden reverse of fortune, it was no mystery to the king. He had often had forebodings of an hour like this. He had wondered that God had so long borne with his sins, and had delayed the merited retribution. And now in his hurried and sorrowful flight, his feet bare, his royal robes changed for sackcloth, the lamentations of his followers awaking the echoes of the hills, he thought of his loved capital--of the place which had been the scene of his sin--and as he remembered the goodness and long-suffering of God, he was not altogether without hope....
CC	182	3	Many a wrongdoer has excused his own sin by pointing to David's fall, but how few there are who manifest David's penitence and humility. How few would bear reproof and retribution with the patience and fortitude that he manifested. He had confessed his sin, and for years had sought to do his duty as a faithful servant of God; he had labored for the upbuilding of his kingdom, and under his rule it had attained to strength and prosperity never reached before. He had gathered rich stores of material for the building of the house of God, and now was all the labor of his life to be swept away? Must the results of years of consecrated toil, the work of genius and devotion and statesmanship, pass into the hands of his reckless and traitorous son, who regarded not the honor of God nor the prosperity of Israel? How natural it would have seemed for David to murmur against God in this great affliction!
CC	182	4	But he saw in his own sin the cause of his trouble.... And the Lord did not forsake David. This chapter in his experience, when, under cruelest wrong and insult, he shows himself to be humble, unselfish, generous, and submissive, is one of the noblest in his whole experience. Never was the ruler of Israel more truly great in the sight of heaven than at this hour of his deepest outward humiliation.47
------------------------A Foolish Wise Man, June 26
			2 Samuel 16:15-17:24
CC	183	1	The Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom. 2 Samuel 17:14.
CC	183	2	Ahithophel urged upon Absalom the necessity of immediate action against David.... This plan was approved by the king's counselors. Had it been followed, David would surely have been slain, unless the Lord had directly interposed to save him. But a wisdom higher than that of the renowned Ahithophel was directing events....
CC	183	3	Hushai had not been called to the council, and he would not intrude himself unasked, lest suspicion should be drawn upon him as a spy; but after the assembly had dispersed, Absalom, who had a high regard for the judgment of his father's counselor, submitted to him the plan of Ahithophel. Hushai saw that if the proposed plan were followed, David would be lost. And he said, "The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time." ... He suggested a plan attractive to a vain and selfish nature, fond of the show of power.... "And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel." But there was one who was not deceived--one who clearly foresaw the result of this fatal mistake of Absalom's.
CC	183	4	Ahithophel knew that the cause of the rebels was lost. And he knew that whatever might be the fate of the prince, there was no hope for the counselor who had instigated his greatest crimes. Ahithophel had encouraged Absalom in rebellion; he had counseled him to the most abominable wickedness, to the dishonor of his father; he had advised the slaying of David and had planned its accomplishment; he had cut off the last possibility of his own reconciliation with the king; and now another was preferred before him, even by Absalom.
CC	183	5	Jealous, angry, and desperate, Ahithophel "gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died." Such was the result of the wisdom of one, who, with all his high endowments, did not make God his counselor.48
------------------------A Monument of Stones, June 27
			2 Samuel 18:1-18
CC	184	1	And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him. 2 Samuel 18:17.
CC	184	2	David and all his company--warriors and statesmen, old men and youth, the women and the little children--in the darkness of night crossed the deep and swift-flowing river.... Hushai's counsel had achieved its object, gaining for David opportunity for escape; but the rash and impetuous prince could not be long restrained, and he soon set out in pursuit of his father....
CC	184	3	The place of battle was a wood near the Jordan, in which the great numbers of Absalom's army were only a disadvantage to him. Among the thickets and marshes of the forest these undisciplined troops became confused and unmanageable.... Absalom, seeing that the day was lost, had turned to flee, when his head was caught between the branches of a widespreading tree, and his mule going out from under him, he was left helplessly suspended, a prey to his enemies. In this condition he was found by a soldier, who, for fear of displeasing the king, spared Absalom, but reported to Joab what he had seen. Joab was restrained by no scruples. He had befriended Absalom, having twice secured his reconciliation with David, and the trust had been shamelessly betrayed. But for the advantages gained by Absalom through Joab's intercession, this rebellion, with all its horrors, could never have occurred. Now it was in Joab's power at one blow to destroy the instigator of all this evil. "And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom...."
CC	184	4	Thus perished the instigators of rebellion in Israel. Ahithophel had died by his own hand. The princely Absalom, whose glorious beauty had been the pride of Israel, had been cut down in the vigor of his youth, his dead body thrust into a pit, and covered with a heap of stones, in token of everlasting reproach. During his lifetime Absalom had reared for himself a costly monument in the king's dale, but the only memorial which marked his grave was that heap of stones in the wilderness.49
------------------------More Than Money, June 28
			1 Chronicles 29:1-14
CC	185	1	Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord. 1 Chronicles 29:9.
CC	185	2	From the very opening of David's reign one of his most cherished plans had been that of erecting a temple to the Lord. Though he had not been permitted to execute this design, he had manifested no less zeal and earnestness in its behalf. He had provided an abundance of the most costly material--gold, silver, onyx stones, and stones of divers colors; marble, and the most precious woods. And now these valuable treasures that he had collected must be committed to others; for other hands must build the house for the ark, the symbol of God's presence.
CC	185	3	Seeing that his end was near, the king summoned the princes of Israel, with representative men from all parts of the kingdom, to receive this legacy in trust. He desired to commit to them his dying charge and secure their concurrence and support in the great work to be accomplished....
CC	185	4	"Who then," he asked of the assembled multitude that had brought their liberal gifts--"who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?" There was a ready response from the assembly....
CC	185	5	With deepest interest the king had gathered the rich material for building and beautifying the temple. He had composed the glorious anthems that in afteryears should echo through its courts. Now his heart was made glad in God, as the chief of the fathers and the princes of Israel so nobly responded to his appeal, and offered themselves to the important work before them....
CC	185	6	All that man receives of God's bounty still belongs to God. Whatever God has bestowed in the valuable and beautiful things of earth is placed in the hands of men to test them--to sound the depths of their love for Him and their appreciation of His favors. Whether it be the treasures of wealth or of intellect, they are to be laid, a willing offering, at the feet of Jesus; the giver saying, meanwhile, with David, "All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee."50
------------------------Growing Old Gracefully, June 29
CC	186	1	Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth. Psalm 71:9.
CC	186	2	David entreated the Lord not to forsake him in old age. And why did he thus pray? He saw that most of the aged around him were unhappy, because of the unfortunate traits of their character being increased with their age. If they had been naturally close and covetous, they were most disagreeably so in mature years. If they had been jealous, fretful, and impatient, they were especially so when aged.51
CC	186	3	David was distressed as he saw that kings and nobles who seemed to have the fear of God before them while in the strength of manhood, became jealous of their best friends and relatives when aged. They were in continual fear that it was selfish motives which led their friends to manifest an interest for them. They would listen to the hints and the deceptive advice of strangers in regard to those in whom they should confide. Their unrestrained jealousy sometimes burned into a flame because all did not agree with their failing judgment. Their covetousness was dreadful. They often thought that their own children and relatives were wishing them to die in order to take their place and possess their wealth, and receive the homage which had been bestowed upon them. And some were so controlled by their jealous, covetous feelings as to destroy their own children.
CC	186	4	David marked that although the lives of some while in the strength of manhood had been righteous, as old age came upon them they seemed to lose their self-control. Satan stepped in and guided their minds, making them restless and dissatisfied....
CC	186	5	David was deeply moved; he was distressed as he looked forward to the time when he should be aged. He feared that God would leave him and that he would be as unhappy as other aged persons whose course he had noticed, and would be left to the reproach of the enemies of the Lord. With his burden upon him he earnestly prays: "Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth."52
------------------------Last Words, June 30
			2 Samuel 23:1-5, Revised Version
CC	187	1	Now these be the last words of David. 2 Samuel 23:1.
CC	187	2	David's "last words," as recorded, are a song--a song of trust, of loftiest principle, and undying faith:
CC	187	3	"David the son of Jesse saith, And the man who was raised on high saith, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel: The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me: .... One that ruleth over men righteously, That ruleth in the fear of God, He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, A morning without clouds, When the tender grass springeth out of the earth, Through clear shining after rain. Verily my house is not so with God, Yet he hath made me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things, and sure: For it is all my salvation, and all my desire" (2 Samuel 23:1-5, R.V.).
CC	187	4	Great had been David's fall, but deep was his repentance, ardent was his love, and strong his faith. He had been forgiven much, and therefore he loved much (Luke 7:48).
CC	187	5	The psalms of David pass through the whole range of experience, from the depths of conscious guilt and self-condemnation to the loftiest faith and the most exalted communing with God. His life record declares that sin can bring only shame and woe, but that God's love and mercy can reach to the deepest depths, that faith will lift up the repenting soul to share the adoption of the sons of God. Of all the assurances which His word contains, it is one of the strongest testimonies to the faithfulness, the justice, and the covenant mercy of God.... Glorious are the promises made to David and his house, promises that look forward to the eternal ages, and find their complete fulfillment in Christ.53
------------------------A Contract with God, July 1
			2 Chronicles 1
CC	188	1	And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly. 2 Chronicles 1:1.
CC	188	2	Not in the surpassing wisdom, the fabulous riches, the far-reaching power and fame that were his, lay the real glory of Solomon's early reign; but in the honor that he brought to the name of the God of Israel through a wise use of the gifts of Heaven.1
CC	188	3	Noble in youth, noble in manhood, the beloved of his God, Solomon entered on a reign that gave high promise of prosperity and honor. Nations marveled at the knowledge and insight of the man to whom God had given wisdom. But the pride of prosperity brought separation from God. From the joy of divine communion Solomon turned to find satisfaction in the pleasures of sense.2
CC	188	4	Satan well knew the results that would attend obedience, and during the earlier years of Solomon's reign,--years glorious because of the wisdom, the beneficence, and the uprightness of the king,--he sought to bring in influences that would insidiously undermine Solomon's loyalty to principle, and cause him to separate from God.3
CC	188	5	Did the Lord make a mistake in placing Solomon in a position of so great responsibility? Nay. God prepared him to bear these responsibilities, and promised him grace and strength on condition of obedience....
CC	188	6	The Lord sets men in responsible places, not to act out their own wills, but His will. So long as they cherish His pure principles of government, He will bless and strengthen them, recognizing them as His instrumentalities. God never forsakes the one who is true to principle.4
CC	188	7	The Lord told Solomon that if he would walk in His way, His blessing would go with him, and wisdom would be given him. But Solomon failed to keep his contract with God. He followed the promptings of his own heart, and the Lord left him to his own impulses.
CC	188	8	Today each one has a part to act--duties to perform and responsibilities to carry. No one can act his part acceptably without wisdom from on high.5
------------------------As a Little Child, July 2
			1 Kings 3:4-15
CC	189	1	I am but a little child.... Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people. 1 Kings 3:7, 9.
CC	189	2	The language used by Solomon while praying to God before the ancient altar at Gibeon reveals his humility and his strong desire to honor God. He realized that without divine aid he was as helpless as a little child to fulfill the responsibilities resting on him. He knew that he lacked discernment, and it was a sense of his great need that led him to seek God for wisdom. In his heart there was no selfish aspiration for a knowledge that would exalt him above others. He desired to discharge faithfully the duties devolving upon him, and he chose the gift that would be the means of causing his reign to bring glory to God. Solomon was never so rich or so wise or so truly great as when he confessed, "I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in."
CC	189	3	Those who today occupy positions of trust should seek to learn the lesson taught by Solomon's prayer. The higher the position a man occupies, the greater the responsibility that he has to bear, the wider will be the influence that he exerts and the greater his need of dependence on God. Ever should he remember that with the call to work comes the call to walk circumspectly before his fellow men. He is to stand before God in the attitude of a learner. Position does not give holiness of character. It is by honoring God and obeying His commands that a man is made truly great.6
CC	189	4	Our petitions to God should not proceed from hearts that are filled with selfish aspirations. God exhorts us to choose those gifts that will redound to His glory. He would have us choose the heavenly instead of the earthly. He throws open before us the possibilities and advantages of a heavenly commerce. He gives encouragement to our loftiest aims, security to our choicest treasure. When the worldly possession is swept away, the believer will rejoice in his heavenly treasure, the riches that cannot be lost in any earthly disaster.7
------------------------Wisdom for the Asking, July 3
			1 Kings 3:6-14
CC	190	1	If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. James 1:5.
CC	190	2	The God whom we serve is no respecter of persons. He who gave to Solomon the spirit of wise discernment is willing to impart the same blessing to His children today.... When a burden bearer desires wisdom more than he desires wealth, power, or fame, he will not be disappointed. Such a one will learn from the Great Teacher not only what to do, but how to do it in a way that will meet with the divine approval.
CC	190	3	So long as he remains consecrated, the man whom God has endowed with discernment and ability will not manifest an eagerness for high position, neither will he seek to rule or control. Of necessity men must bear responsibilities; but instead of striving for the supremacy, he who is a true leader will pray for an understanding heart, to discern between good and evil.
CC	190	4	The path of men who are placed as leaders is not an easy one. But they are to see in every difficulty a call to prayer. Never are they to fail of consulting the great Source of all wisdom. Strengthened and enlightened by the Master Worker, they will be enabled to stand firm against unholy influences and to discern right from wrong, good from evil. They will approve that which God approves, and will strive earnestly against the introduction of wrong principles into His cause. The wisdom that Solomon desired above riches, honor, or long life, God gave him. His petition for a quick mind, a large heart, and a tender spirit was granted.8
CC	190	5	It would be well for us carefully to study Solomon's prayer, and to consider every point on which depended his receiving the rich blessings that the Lord was ready to give him.9
CC	190	6	God commended Solomon's prayer. And He will today hear and commend the prayers of those who in faith and humility cry to Him for aid. He will certainly answer the fervent prayer for a preparation for service. In answer He will say, Here I am. What wilt thou that I shall do for thee? ... He who led Solomon's mind as he made this prayer will today teach His servants how to pray for what they need.10
------------------------Wisest Among Men, July 4
			1 Kings 4:29-34
CC	191	1	And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. 1 Kings 4:33.
CC	191	2	As the years went by and Solomon's fame increased, he sought to honor God by adding to his mental and spiritual strength, and by continuing to impart to others the blessings he received. None understood better than he that it was through the favor of Jehovah that he had come into possession of power and wisdom and understanding, and that these gifts were bestowed that he might give to the world a knowledge of the King of kings.
CC	191	3	Solomon took an especial interest in natural history, but his researches were not confined to any one branch of learning. Through a diligent study of all created things, both animate and inanimate, he gained a clear conception of the Creator. In the forces of nature, in the mineral and the animal world, and in every tree and shrub and flower, he saw a revelation of God's wisdom; and as he sought to learn more and more, his knowledge of God and his love for Him constantly increased.
CC	191	4	Solomon's divinely inspired wisdom found expression in songs of praise and in many proverbs.... In the proverbs of Solomon are outlined principles of holy living and high endeavor, principles that are heaven-born and that lead to godliness, principles that should govern every act of life. It was the wide dissemination of these principles, and the recognition of God as the One to whom all praise and honor belong, that made Solomon's early reign a time of moral uplift as well as of material prosperity....
CC	191	5	O that in later years Solomon had heeded these wonderful words of wisdom! O that he who had declared, "The lips of the wise disperse knowledge" (Proverbs 15:7), and who had himself taught the kings of the earth to render to the King of kings the praise they desired to give to an earthly ruler, had never with a "froward mouth," in "pride and arrogancy," taken to himself the glory due to God alone!11
------------------------What an Epitaph! July 5
			1 Kings 3:1; 1 Kings 11:1-8
CC	192	1	Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord. 2 Corinthians 6:17.
CC	192	2	Many who started out in life with as fair and promising a morning, in their limited sphere, as Solomon had in his exalted station, through one false and irrevocable step in the marriage relation, lose their souls, and draw others down to ruin with them. As Solomon's wives turned his heart away from God to idolatry, so do frivolous companions, who have no depth of principle, turn away the hearts of those who were once noble and true, to vanity, corrupting pleasures, and downright vice.12
CC	192	3	Solomon flattered himself that his wisdom and the power of his example would lead his wives from idolatry to the worship of the true God, and also that the alliances thus formed would draw the nations round about into close touch with Israel. Vain hope! Solomon's mistake in regarding himself as strong enough to resist the influence of heathen associates was fatal. And fatal, too, the deception that led him to hope that notwithstanding a disregard of God's law on his part, others might be led to revere and obey its sacred precepts.13
CC	192	4	Let the sad memory of Solomon's apostasy warn every soul to shun the same precipice.... The greatest king that ever wielded a scepter, of whom it had been said that he was the beloved of God, through misplaced affection became contaminated and was miserably forsaken of his God. The mightiest ruler of the earth had failed to rule his own passions. Solomon may have been saved "as by fire," yet his repentance could not efface those high places, nor demolish those stones, which remained as evidences of his crimes. He dishonored God, choosing rather to be controlled by lust than to be a partaker of the divine nature. What a legacy Solomon's life has committed to those who would use his example to cover their own base actions. We must either transmit a heritage of good or evil. Shall our lives and our example be a blessing or a curse? Shall people look at our graves and say, He ruined me, or, He saved me?14
------------------------Sold Out, July 6
CC	193	1	No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24.
CC	193	2	So gradual was Solomon's apostasy that before he was aware of it, he had wandered far from God. Almost imperceptibly he began to trust less and less in divine guidance and blessing, and to put confidence in his own strength....
CC	193	3	Engrossed in an overmastering desire to surpass other nations in outward display, the king overlooked the need of acquiring beauty and perfection of character. In seeking to glorify himself before the world, he sold his honor and integrity....
CC	193	4	The conscientious, considerate spirit that had marked his dealings with the people during the early part of his reign, was now changed. From the wisest and most merciful of rulers, he degenerated into a tyrant. Once the compassionate, God-fearing guardian of the people, he became oppressive and despotic.15
CC	193	5	Men who have the use of money are to learn a lesson from the history of Solomon. Those who have a competence are in continual danger of thinking that money and position will ensure them respect, and they need not be so particular. But self-exaltation is but a bubble. By misusing the talents given him, Solomon apostatized from God. When God gives men prosperity, they are to beware of following the imaginations of their own hearts, lest they endanger the simplicity of their faith and deteriorate in religious experience.16
CC	193	6	The lesson for us to learn from the history of this perverted life is the necessity of continual dependence upon the counsels of God; to carefully watch the tendency of our course, and to reform every habit calculated to draw us from God. It teaches us that great caution, watchfulness, and prayer are needed to keep undefiled the simplicity and purity of our faith. If we would rise to the highest moral excellence, and attain to the perfection of religious character, what discrimination should be used in the formation of friendships, and the choice of a companion for life!17
------------------------True Riches, July 7
CC	194	1	The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10:22.
CC	194	2	Many envied the popularity and abundant glory of Solomon, thinking that of all men he must be the most happy. But amid all that glory of artificial display the man envied is the one to be most pitied. His countenance is dark with despair. All the splendor about him is but to him mockery of the distress and anguish of his thoughts as he reviews his misspent life in seeking for happiness through indulgence and selfish gratification of every desire.18
CC	194	3	In the midst of prosperity lurks danger. Throughout the ages, riches and honor have ever been attended with peril to humility and spirituality. It is not the empty cup that we have difficulty in carrying; it is the cup full to the brim that must be carefully balanced. Affliction and adversity may cause sorrow, but it is prosperity that is most dangerous to spiritual life. Unless the human subject is in constant submission to the will of God, unless he is sanctified by the truth, prosperity will surely arouse the natural inclination to presumption.
CC	194	4	In the valley of humiliation, where men depend on God to teach them and to guide their every step, there is comparative safety. But the men who stand, as it were, on a lofty pinnacle, and who, because of their position, are supposed to possess great wisdom--these are in gravest peril. Unless such men make God their dependence, they will surely fall.
CC	194	5	Whenever pride and ambition are indulged, the life is marred, for pride, feeling no need, closes the heart against the infinite blessings of Heaven. He who makes self-glorification his aim will find himself destitute of the grace of God, through whose efficiency the truest riches and the most satisfying joys are won. But he who gives all and does all for Christ will know the fulfillment of the promise, "The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it."19
CC	194	6	All the sins and excesses of Solomon can be traced to his great mistake in ceasing to rely upon God for wisdom, and to walk in humility before Him.20
------------------------At the Crossroads, July 8
CC	195	1	And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom. 1 Kings 4:34.
CC	195	2	In the days of Solomon the kingdom of Israel extended from Hamath on the north to Egypt on the south, and from the Mediterranean Sea to the river Euphrates. Through this territory ran many natural highways of the world's commerce, and caravans from distant lands were constantly passing to and fro. Thus there was given to Solomon and his people opportunity to reveal to men of all nations the character of the King of kings, and to teach them to reverence and obey Him....
CC	195	3	Placed at the head of a nation that had been set as a beacon light to the surrounding nations, Solomon should have used his God-given wisdom and power of influence in organizing and directing a great movement for the enlightenment of those who were ignorant of God and His truth. Thus multitudes would have been won to allegiance to the divine precepts, Israel would have been shielded from the evils practiced by the heathen, and the Lord of glory would have been greatly honored. But Solomon lost sight of this high purpose. He failed of improving his splendid opportunities for enlightening those who were continually passing through his territory or tarrying at the principal cities.
CC	195	4	The missionary spirit that God had implanted in the heart of Solomon and in the hearts of all true Israelites was supplanted by a spirit of commercialism. The opportunities afforded by contact with many nations, were used for personal aggrandizement....
CC	195	5	In this our day the opportunities for coming into contact with men and women of all classes and many nationalities are much greater than in the days of Israel. The thoroughfares of travel have multiplied a thousandfold. Like Christ, the messengers of the Most High today should take their position in these great thoroughfares, where they can meet the passing multitudes from all parts of the world. Like Him, hiding self in God, they are to sow the gospel seed, presenting before others the precious truths of Holy Scripture that will take deep root in mind and heart, and spring up unto life eternal.21
------------------------A Late Awakening, July 9
			Ecclesiastes
CC	196	1	Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. Ecclesiastes 2:11.
CC	196	2	By his own bitter experience, Solomon learned the emptiness of a life that seeks in earthly things its highest good. He erected altars to heathen gods, only to learn how vain is their promise of rest to the spirit. Gloomy and soul-harassing thoughts troubled him night and day. For him there was no longer any joy of life or peace of mind, and the future was dark with despair.
CC	196	3	Yet the Lord forsook him not. By messages of reproof and by severe judgments, He sought to arouse the king to a realization of the sinfulness of his course.... At last the Lord, through a prophet, delivered to Solomon the startling message: ... "I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son."
CC	196	4	Awakened as from a dream by this sentence of judgment pronounced against him and his house, Solomon with quickened conscience began to see his folly in its true light. Chastened in spirit, with mind and body enfeebled, he turned wearied and thirsting from earth's broken cisterns, to drink once more at the fountain of life.... He could never hope to escape the blasting results of sin; he could never free his mind from all remembrance of the self-indulgent course he had been pursuing; but he would endeavor earnestly to dissuade others from following after folly....
CC	196	5	The true penitent does not put his past sins from his remembrance. He does not, as soon as he has obtained peace, grow unconcerned in regard to the mistakes he has made. He thinks of those who have been led into evil by his course, and tries in every possible way to lead them back into the true path. The clearer the light that he has entered into, the stronger is his desire to set the feet of others in the right way.22
------------------------The Voice of Experience, July 10
CC	197	1	Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Ecclesiastes 11:9.
CC	197	2	The lesson to be learned from the life of Solomon has a special moral bearing upon the life of the aged, of those who are no longer climbing the mountain but are descending and facing the western sun. We expect to see defects in the characters of youth who are not controlled by love and faith in Jesus Christ. We see youth wavering between right and wrong, vacillating between fixed principle and the almost overpowering current of evil that is bearing them off their feet to ruin. But of those of mature age we expect better things. We look for the character to be established, for principles to be rooted, and for them to be beyond the danger of pollution. But the case of Solomon is before us as a beacon of warning. When thou, aged pilgrim who hast fought the battles of life, thinkest that thou standest take heed lest thou fall. How, in Solomon's case, was weak, vacillating character, naturally bold, firm, and determined, shaken like a reed in the wind under the tempter's power! How was an old gnarled cedar of Lebanon, a sturdy oak of Bashan, bent before the blast of temptation! What a lesson for all who desire to save their souls to watch unto prayer continually! What a warning to keep the grace of Christ ever in their heart, to battle with inward corruptions and outward temptations!23
CC	197	3	Let none venture into sin as he did, in the hope that they too may recover themselves. Sin can be indulged only at the peril of infinite loss. But none who have fallen need give themselves up to despair. Aged men, once honored of God, may have defiled their souls, sacrificing virtue on the altar of lust; but there is still hope for them if they repent, forsake sin, and turn to God.
CC	197	4	The misapplication of noble talents in Solomon's case should be a warning to all. Goodness alone is true greatness.24
------------------------Unsanctified Skill, July 11
CC	198	1	And Huram finished the work that he was to make for king Solomon for the house of God. 2 Chronicles 4:11.
CC	198	2	Chosen men were specially endowed by God with skill and wisdom for the construction of the wilderness tabernacle (Exodus 35:30-35).... The descendants of these men inherited to a large degree the skill conferred upon their forefathers.... For a time these men remained humble and unselfish; but gradually, almost imperceptibly, they lost their hold upon God and His truth. They began to ask for higher wages because of their superior skill. In some instances their request was granted, but more often those asking higher wages found employment in the surrounding nations.... It was to these apostates that Solomon looked for a master workman to superintend the construction of the temple on Mount Moriah....
CC	198	3	This master workman, Huram, was a descendant, on his mother's side, of Aholiab, to whom, hundreds of years before, God had given special wisdom for the construction of the tabernacle. Thus at the head of Solomon's company of workmen there was placed an unsanctified man, who demanded large wages because of his unusual skill.... The baleful influences set in operation by the employment of this man of a grasping spirit, permeated all branches of the Lord's service, and extended throughout Solomon's kingdom.... Extravagance and corruption were to be seen on every hand. The poor were oppressed by the rich; the spirit of self-sacrifice in God's service was well-nigh lost.
CC	198	4	Herein lies a most important lesson for God's people today--a lesson that many are slow to learn.... Those who claim to be followers of the Master Worker, and who engage in His service as colaborers with God, are to bring into their work the exactitude and skill, the tact and wisdom, that the God of perfection required in the building of the earthly tabernacle. And now, as in that time and as in the days of Christ's earthly ministry, devotion to God and a spirit of sacrifice should be regarded as the first requisites of acceptable service.25
------------------------Praise Where it Belongs, July 12
			1 Kings 10:1-13
CC	199	1	Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice. 1 Kings 10:9.
CC	199	2	A Greater than Solomon was the designer of the temple; the wisdom and glory of God stood there revealed. Those who were unacquainted with this fact naturally admired and praised Solomon as the architect and builder; but the king disclaimed any honor for its conception or erection.
CC	199	3	Thus it was when the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon. Hearing of his wisdom and of the magnificent temple he had built, she determined "to prove him with hard questions" and to see for herself his famous works. Attended by a retinue of servants, and with camels bearing "spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones," she made the long journey to Jerusalem. "And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart." She talked with him of the mysteries of nature; and Solomon taught her of the God of nature, the great Creator, who dwells in the highest heaven and rules over all. "Solomon told her all her questions: there was not anything hid from the king, which he told her not."
CC	199	4	"When the Queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built, ... there was no more spirit in her." "It was a true report," she acknowledged, "which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom: howbeit I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it:" "and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard." ...
CC	199	5	By the time of the close of her visit the queen had been so fully taught by Solomon as to the source of his wisdom and prosperity that she was constrained, not to extol the human agent, but to exclaim, "Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made He thee king, to do judgment and justice." This is the impression that God designed should be made upon all peoples.26
------------------------Disgraceful Monuments, July 13
CC	200	1	There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler: folly is set in great dignity. Ecclesiastes 10:5, 6.
CC	200	2	In the days of King Josiah a strange appearance could be seen opposite the temple of God. Crowning the eminence of the Mount of Olives, peering above the groves of myrtle and olive trees, were unseemly, gigantic idols. Josiah gave commandment that these idols should be destroyed. This was done, and the broken fragments rolled down the channel of the Kidron. The shrines were left a mass of ruins.
CC	200	3	But the question was asked by many a devout worshiper, How came that architecture on the opposite side of the Jehoshaphat ravine, thus impiously confronting the temple of God? The truthful answer must be made: The builder was Solomon, the greatest king that ever wielded a sceptre. These idols bore testimony that he who had been honored and applauded as the wisest among kings, became a humiliating wreck....
CC	200	4	His once noble character, bold and true for God and righteousness, became deteriorated. His profligate expenditure for selfish indulgence made him the instrument of Satan's devices. His conscience became hardened. His conduct as a judge changed from equity and righteousness to tyranny and oppression.... Solomon tried to incorporate light with darkness, Christ with Belial, purity with impurity. But in the place of converting the heathen to the truth, pagan sentiments incorporated themselves with his religion. He became an apostate.27
CC	200	5	The marks of Solomon's apostasy lived ages after him. In the days of Christ, the worshipers in the temple could look, just opposite them, upon the Mount of Offense, and be reminded that the builder of their rich and glorious temple, the most renowned of all kings, had separated himself from God, and reared altars to heathen idols; that the mightiest ruler on earth had failed in ruling his own spirit. Solomon went down to death a repentant man; but his repentance and tears could not efface from the Mount of Offense the signs of his miserable departure from God. Ruined walls and broken pillars bore silent witness for a thousand years to the apostasy of the greatest king that ever sat upon an earthly throne.28
------------------------"All Israel with Him", July 14
			2 Chronicles 12
CC	201	1	It came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him. 2 Chronicles 12:1.
CC	201	2	The extravagance of Solomon's reign during his apostasy had led him to tax the people heavily and to require of them much menial service.... Had Rehoboam and his inexperienced counselors understood the divine will concerning Israel, they would have listened to the request of the people for decided reforms in the administration of the government. But in the hour of opportunity that came to them during the meeting in Shechem, they failed to reason from cause to effect....
CC	201	3	The pen of inspiration has traced the sad record of Solomon's successor as one who failed to exert a strong influence for loyalty to Jehovah. Naturally headstrong, confident, self-willed, and inclined to idolatry, nevertheless, had he placed his trust wholly in God, he would have developed strength of character, steadfast faith, and submission to the divine requirements. But as time passed, the king put his trust in the power of position and in the strongholds he had fortified. Little by little he gave way to inherited weakness, until he threw his influence wholly on the side of idolatry....
CC	201	4	How sad, how filled with significance, the words, "And all Israel with him"! The people whom God had chosen to stand as a light to the surrounding nations were turning from their Source of strength and seeking to become like the nations about them. As with Solomon, so with Rehoboam--the influence of wrong example led many astray. And as with them, so to a greater or less degree is it today with everyone who gives himself up to work evil--the influence of wrongdoing is not confined to the doer. No man liveth unto himself. None perish alone in their iniquity. Every life is a light that brightens and cheers the pathway of others, or a dark and desolating influence that tends toward despair and ruin. We lead others either upward to happiness and immortal life, or downward to sorrow and eternal death. And if by our deeds we strengthen or force into activity the evil powers of those around us, we share their sin.29
------------------------A Paralyzed Arm, July 15
			1 Kings 13:1-6
CC	202	1	And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. 1 Kings 13:4.
CC	202	2	Jeroboam was filled with a spirit of defiance against God and attempted to restrain the one who had delivered the message. In wrath "he put forth his hand from the altar" and cried out, "Lay hold on him." His impetuous act met with swift rebuke. The hand outstretched against the messenger of Jehovah suddenly became powerless and withered, and could not be withdrawn.
CC	202	3	Terror-stricken, the king appealed to the prophet to intercede with God in his behalf.... "And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before."
CC	202	4	Vain had been Jeroboam's effort to invest with solemnity the dedication of a strange altar, respect for which would have led to disrespect for the worship of Jehovah in the temple at Jerusalem. By the message of the prophet, the king of Israel should have been led to repent and to renounce his wicked purposes, which were turning the people away from the true worship of God. But he hardened his heart and determined to follow a way of his own choosing....
CC	202	5	The Lord seeks to save, not to destroy. He delights in the rescue of sinners. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezekiel 33:11). By warnings and entreaties He calls the wayward to cease from their evil-doing and to turn to Him and live. He gives His chosen messengers a holy boldness, that those who hear may fear and be brought to repentance. How firmly the man of God rebuked the king! And this firmness was essential; in no other way could the existing evils have been rebuked. The Lord gave His servant boldness, that an abiding impression might be made on those who heard. The messengers of the Lord are never to fear the face of man, but are to stand unflinchingly for the right. So long as they put their trust in God, they need not fear; for He who gives them their commission gives them also the assurance of His protecting care.30
------------------------Asa Trusted God, July 16
			2 Chronicles 14
CC	203	1	And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee. 2 Chronicles 14:11.
CC	203	2	The faith of Asa was put to a severe test when "Zerah the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots," invaded his kingdom. In this crisis Asa did not put his trust in the "fenced cities in Judah" that he had built, with "walls, and towers, gates, and bars," nor in the "mighty men of valor" in his carefully trained army. The king's trust was in Jehovah of hosts.... Setting his forces in battle array, he sought the help of God.
CC	203	3	The opposing armies now stood face to face. It was a time of test and trial to those who served the Lord. Had every sin been confessed? Had the men of Judah full confidence in God's power to deliver? Such thoughts as these were in the minds of the leaders. From every human viewpoint the vast host from Egypt would sweep everything before it. But in time of peace Asa had not been giving himself to amusement and pleasure; he had been preparing for any emergency. He had an army trained for conflict; he had endeavored to lead his people to make their peace with God. And now, although his forces were fewer in number than the enemy, his faith in the One whom he had made his trust did not weaken.
CC	203	4	Having sought the Lord in the days of prosperity, the king could now rely upon Him in the day of adversity. His petitions showed that he was not a stranger to God's wonderful power....
CC	203	5	The prayer of Asa is one that every Christian believer may fittingly offer.... In life's conflict we must meet evil agencies that have arrayed themselves against the right. Our hope is not in man, but in the living God. With full assurance of faith we may expect that He will unite His omnipotence with the efforts of human instrumentalities, for the glory of His name. Clad with the armor of His righteousness, we may gain the victory over every foe.31
------------------------Jezebel's Blighting Influence, July 17
			1 Kings 21
CC	204	1	But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. 1 Kings 21:25.
CC	204	2	Ahab was weak in moral power. His union by marriage with an idolatrous woman of decided character and positive temperament resulted disastrously both to himself and to the nation. Unprincipled, and with no high standard of rightdoing, his character was easily molded by the determined spirit of Jezebel....
CC	204	3	Under the blighting influence of Ahab's rule, Israel wandered far from the living God and corrupted their ways before Him.... The dark shadow of apostasy covered the whole land. Images of Baalim and Ashtoreth were everywhere to be seen. Idolatrous temples and consecrated groves, wherein were worshiped the works of men's hands, were multiplied. The air was polluted with the smoke of the sacrifices offered to false gods. Hill and vale resounded with the drunken cries of a heathen priesthood who sacrificed to the sun, moon, and stars.
CC	204	4	Through the influence of Jezebel and her impious priests, the people were taught that the idol gods that had been set up were deities, ruling by their mystic power the elements of earth, fire, and water. All the bounties of heaven--the running brooks, the streams of living water, the gentle dew, the showers of rain which refreshed the earth and caused the fields to bring forth abundantly--were ascribed to the favor of Baal and Ashtoreth, instead of to the Giver of every good and perfect gift. The people forgot that the hills and valleys, the streams and fountains, were in the hand of the living God, that He controlled the sun, the clouds of heaven, and all the powers of nature....
CC	204	5	In their blind folly they chose to reject God and His worship.32
CC	204	6	How few realize the power of an unconsecrated woman.... God would have been with Ahab if he had walked in the counsel of heaven. But Ahab did not do this. He married a woman given to idolatry. Jezebel had more power over the king than God had. She led him into idolatry, and with him the people.33
------------------------A Voice in the Wilderness, July 18
			1 Kings 17:1-7
CC	205	1	And Elijah the Tishbite, ... said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. 1 Kings 17:1.
CC	205	2	Among the mountains of Gilead, east of the Jordan, there dwelt in the days of Ahab a man of faith and prayer whose fearless ministry was destined to check the rapid spread of apostasy in Israel. Far removed from any city of renown, and occupying no high station in life, Elijah the Tishbite nevertheless entered upon his mission confident in God's purpose to prepare the way before him and to give him abundant success. The word of faith and power was upon his lips, and his whole life was devoted to the work of reform. His was the voice of one crying in the wilderness to rebuke sin and press back the tide of evil. And while he came to the people as a reprover of sin, his message offered the balm of Gilead to the sin-sick souls of all who desired to be healed....
CC	205	3	To Elijah was entrusted the mission of delivering to Ahab Heaven's message of judgment. He did not seek to be the Lord's messenger; the word of the Lord came to him. And jealous for the honor of God's cause, he did not hesitate to obey the divine summons, though to obey seemed to invite swift destruction at the hand of the wicked king....
CC	205	4	It was only by the exercise of strong faith in the unfailing power of God's word that Elijah delivered his message. Had he not possessed implicit confidence in the One whom he served, he would never have appeared before Ahab. On his way to Samaria, Elijah had passed by ever-flowing streams, hills covered with verdure, and stately forests that seemed beyond the reach of drought. Everything on which the eye rested was clothed with beauty. The prophet might have wondered how the streams that had never ceased their flow could become dry, or how those hills and valleys could be burned with drought. But he gave no place to unbelief. He fully believed that God would humble apostate Israel, and that through judgments they would be brought to repentance. The fiat of Heaven had gone forth; God's word could not fail; and at the peril of his life Elijah fearlessly fulfilled his commission.34
------------------------Sharing Her Morsel, July 19
			1 Kings 17:8-16
CC	206	1	And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. 1 Kings 17:13, 14.
CC	206	2	This woman was not an Israelite. She had never had the privileges and blessings that the chosen people of God had enjoyed; but she was a believer in the true God and had walked in all the light that was shining on her pathway. And now, when there was no safety for Elijah in the land of Israel, God sent him to this woman to find an asylum in her home....
CC	206	3	In this poverty-stricken home the famine pressed sore, and the pitifully meager fare seemed about to fail. The coming of Elijah on the very day when the widow feared that she must give up the struggle to sustain life tested to the utmost her faith in the power of the living God to provide for her necessities. But even in her dire extremity she bore witness to her faith by a compliance with the request of the stranger who was asking her to share her last morsel with him....
CC	206	4	No greater test of faith than this could have been required. The widow had hitherto treated all strangers with kindness and liberality. Now, regardless of the suffering that might result to herself and child, and trusting in the God of Israel to supply her every need, she met this supreme test of hospitality....
CC	206	5	The widow of Zarephath shared her morsel with Elijah, and in return her life and that of her son were preserved. And to all who, in time of trial and want, give sympathy and assistance to others more needy, God has promised great blessing.35
CC	206	6	That God who cared for Elijah in the time of famine, will not pass by one of His self-sacrificing children. He who has numbered the hairs of their head, will care for them, and in the days of famine they will be satisfied. While the wicked are perishing all around them for want of bread, their bread and water will be sure.36
------------------------"More Blessed to Give", July 20
			1 Kings 17:8-24
CC	207	1	But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19.
CC	207	2	Read the story of the widow of Sarepta. To this woman in a heathen land God sent His servant in time of famine to ask for food.... Wonderful was the hospitality shown to God's prophet by this Phoenician woman, and wonderfully were her faith and generosity rewarded....
CC	207	3	God has not changed. His power is no less now than in the days of Elijah.... To His faithful servants today as well as to His first disciples Christ's words apply: "He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me" (Matthew 10:40). No act of kindness shown in His name will fail to be recognized and rewarded. And in the same tender recognition Christ includes even the feeblest and lowliest of the family of God. "Whosoever shall give to drink," He says, "unto one of these little ones"--those who are as children in their faith and their knowledge of Christ--"a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward" (Matthew 10:42).
CC	207	4	Poverty need not shut us out from showing hospitality. We are to impart what we have. There are those who struggle for a livelihood and who have great difficulty in making their income meet their necessities; but they love Jesus in the person of His saints and are ready to show hospitality to believers and unbelievers, trying to make their visits profitable. At the family board and the family altar the guests are made welcome. The season of prayer makes its impression on those who receive entertainment, and even one visit may mean the saving of a soul from death. For this work the Lord makes a reckoning, saying: "I will repay." ...
CC	207	5	"Man doth not live by bread only," and as we impart to others our temporal food, so we are to impart hope and courage and Christlike love.... And the assurance is ours: "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8).37
------------------------Elijah Before Ahab, July 21
			1 Kings 18:1-20
CC	208	1	And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim. 1 Kings 18:18.
CC	208	2	Through the long years of drought and famine, Elijah prayed earnestly that the hearts of Israel might be turned from idolatry to allegiance to God. Patiently the prophet waited, while the hand of the Lord rested heavily on the stricken land....
CC	208	3	At last, "after many days," the word of the Lord came to Elijah, "Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth." ...
CC	208	4	The king and the prophet stand face to face. Though Ahab is filled with passionate hatred, yet in the presence of Elijah he seems unmanned, powerless. In his first faltering words, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" he unconsciously reveals the inmost feelings of his heart. Ahab knew that it was by the word of God that the heavens had become as brass, yet he sought to cast upon the prophet the blame for the heavy judgments resting on the land....
CC	208	5	Standing in conscious innocence before Ahab, Elijah makes no attempt to excuse himself or to flatter the king. Nor does he seek to evade the king's wrath by the good news that the drought is almost over. He has no apology to offer. Indignant, and jealous for the honor of God, he casts back the imputation of Ahab, fearlessly declaring to the king that it is his sins, and the sins of his fathers, that have brought upon Israel this terrible calamity....
CC	208	6	Today there is need of the voice of stern rebuke; for grievous sins have separated the people from God.... The smooth sermons so often preached make no lasting impression; the trumpet does not give a certain sound. Men are not cut to the heart by the plain, sharp truths of God's word....
CC	208	7	God calls for men like Elijah, Nathan, and John the Baptist--men who will bear His message with faithfulness, regardless of the consequences; men who will speak the truth bravely, though it call for the sacrifice of all they have.38
------------------------God's Heroes, July 22
			1 Kings 18:21-40
CC	209	1	How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. 1 Kings 18:21.
CC	209	2	Elijah, amid the general apostasy, did not seek to hide the fact that he served the God of heaven. Baal's prophets numbered four hundred and fifty, his priests, four hundred, and his worshipers were thousands; yet Elijah did not try to make it appear that he was on the popular side. He grandly stood alone.... With clear, trumpetlike tones Elijah addressed the vast multitude: "How long halt ye between two opinions? ..." ... Where are the Elijahs of today?39
CC	209	3	God would have His honor exalted before men as supreme, and His counsels confirmed in the eyes of the people. The witness of the prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel gives the example of one who stood wholly for God and His work in the earth.... "Let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel," he prays, "and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord," he pleads, "hear me." ...
CC	209	4	His zeal for God's glory and his deep love for the house of Israel present lessons for the instruction of all who stand today as representatives of God's work in the earth.40
CC	209	5	Nothing is gained by cowardice or by fearing to let it be known that we are God's commandment-keeping people. Hiding our light, as if ashamed of our faith, will result only in disaster. God will leave us to our own weakness. May the Lord forbid that we should refuse to let our light shine forth in any place to which He may call us. If we venture to go forth of ourselves, following our own ideas, our own plans, and leave Jesus behind, we need not expect to gain fortitude, courage, or spiritual strength. God has had moral heroes, and He has them now,--those who are not ashamed of being His peculiar people. Their wills and plans are all subordinate to the law of God. The love of Jesus has led them not to count their lives dear unto themselves. Their work has been to catch the light from the word of God and to let it shine forth in clear, steady rays to the world. "Fidelity to God" is their motto.41
------------------------Idolatry Then and Now, July 23
			1 Kings 17
CC	210	1	Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3.
CC	210	2	Though in a different form, idolatry exists in the Christian world today as verily as it existed among ancient Israel in the days of Elijah. The God of many professedly wise men, of philosophers, poets, politicians, journalists--the God of polished fashionable circles, of many colleges and universities, even of some theological institutions--is little better than Baal, the sun-god of Phoenicia.
CC	210	3	No error accepted by the Christian world strikes more boldly against the authority of Heaven, ... none is more pernicious in its results, than the modern doctrine, so rapidly gaining ground, that God's law is no longer binding upon men.42
CC	210	4	The Bible is within the reach of all, but there are few who really accept it as the guide of life. Infidelity prevails to an alarming extent, not in the world merely, but in the church. Many have come to deny doctrines which are the very pillars of the Christian faith. The great facts of creation as presented by the inspired writers, the fall of man, the atonement, and the perpetuity of the law of God, are practically rejected, either wholly or in part, by a large share of the professedly Christian world. Thousands who pride themselves upon their wisdom and independence regard it as an evidence of weakness to place implicit confidence in the Bible; they think it a proof of superior talent and learning to cavil at the Scriptures and to spiritualize and explain away their most important truths. Many ministers are teaching their people, and many professors and teachers are instructing their students, that the law of God has been changed or abrogated; and those who regard its requirements as still valid, to be literally obeyed, are thought to be deserving only of ridicule or contempt.43
CC	210	5	The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God. Upon this battle we are now entering.44
------------------------Waiting Upon God, July 24
			1 Kings 18:41-46
CC	211	1	And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain. 1 Kings 18:41.
CC	211	2	It was not because of any outward evidence that the showers were about to fall, that Elijah could so confidently bid Ahab prepare for rain. The prophet saw no clouds in the heavens; he heard no thunder. He simply spoke the word that the Spirit of the Lord had moved him to speak in response to his own strong faith.... Having done all that was in his power to do, he knew that Heaven would freely bestow the blessings foretold. The same God who had sent the drought had promised an abundance of rain as the reward of rightdoing; and now Elijah waited for the promised outpouring. In an attitude of humility, "his face between his knees," he interceded with God in behalf of penitent Israel....
CC	211	3	Six times the servant returned with the word that there was no sign of rain in the brassy heavens. Undaunted, Elijah sent him forth once more; and this time the servant returned with the word, "Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand."
CC	211	4	This was enough. Elijah did not wait for the heavens to gather blackness. In that small cloud he beheld by faith an abundance of rain; and he acted in harmony with his faith.... As he prayed, his faith reached out and grasped the promises of Heaven, and he persevered in prayer until his petitions were answered. He did not wait for the full evidence that God had heard him, but was willing to venture all on the slightest token of divine favor. And yet what he was enabled to do under God, all may do in their sphere of activity in God's service....
CC	211	5	Faith such as this is needed in the world today--faith that will lay hold on the promises of God's word and refuse to let go until Heaven hears....
CC	211	6	With the persevering faith of Jacob, with the unyielding persistence of Elijah, we may present our petitions to the Father, claiming all that He has promised. The honor of His throne is staked for the fulfillment of His word.45
------------------------Emptied of Self, July 25
			1 Kings 18:41-46
CC	212	1	Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. James 5:17, 18.
CC	212	2	Important lessons are presented to us in the experience of Elijah. When upon Mt. Carmel he offered the prayer for rain, his faith was tested, but he persevered in making known his request unto God.... Had he given up in discouragement at the sixth time, his prayer would not have been answered, but he persevered till the answer came. We have a God whose ear is not closed to our petitions; and if we prove His word, He will honor our faith. He wants us to have all our interests interwoven with His interests, and then He can safely bless us; for we shall not then take glory to self when the blessing is ours, but shall render all the praise to God. God does not always answer our prayers the first time we call upon Him; for should He do this, we might take it for granted that we had a right to all the blessings and favors He bestowed upon us. Instead of searching our hearts to see if any evil was entertained by us, any sin indulged, we should become careless, and fail to realize our dependence upon Him, and our need of His help.
CC	212	3	Elijah humbled himself until he was in a condition where he would not take the glory to himself. This is the condition upon which the Lord hears prayer, for then we shall give the praise to Him. The custom of offering praise to men is one that results in great evil. One praises another, and thus men are led to feel that glory and honor belong to them. When you exalt man, you lay a snare for his soul, and do just as Satan would have you.... God alone is worthy to be glorified.46
CC	212	4	As he [Elijah] searched his heart, he seemed to be less and less, both in his own estimation and in the sight of God. It seemed to him that he was nothing, and that God was everything; and when he reached the point of renouncing self, while he clung to the Saviour as his only strength and righteousness, the answer came.47
------------------------Overwhelmed by Discouragement, July 26
			1 Kings 19:1-8
CC	213	1	And he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. 1 Kings 19:4.
CC	213	2	It would seem that after showing courage so undaunted, after triumphing so completely over king and priests and people, Elijah could never afterward have given way to despondency nor been awed into timidity. But he who had been blessed with so many evidences of God's loving care was not above the frailties of mankind, and in this dark hour his faith and courage forsook him.... Had he remained where he was, had he made God his refuge and strength, standing steadfast for the truth, he would have been shielded from harm. The Lord would have given him another signal victory by sending His judgments on Jezebel....
CC	213	3	Into the experience of all there come times of keen disappointment and utter discouragement--days when sorrow is the portion, and it is hard to believe that God is still the kind benefactor of His earthborn children; days when troubles harass the soul, till death seems preferable to life. It is then that many lose their hold on God.... Could we at such times discern with spiritual insight the meaning of God's providences we should see angels seeking to save us from ourselves, striving to plant our feet upon a foundation more firm than the everlasting hills, and new faith, new life, would spring into being....
CC	213	4	For the disheartened there is a sure remedy--faith, prayer, work. Faith and activity will impart assurance and satisfaction that will increase day by day.... In the darkest days, when appearances seem most forbidding, fear not. Have faith in God. He knows your need. He has all power. His infinite love and compassion never weary.... And He will bestow upon His faithful servants the measure of efficiency that their need demands....
CC	213	5	Did God forsake Elijah in his hour of trial? Oh, no! He loved His servant no less when Elijah felt himself forsaken of God and man than when, in answer to his prayer, fire flashed from heaven and illuminated the mountaintop.48
------------------------What Doest Thou Here? July 27
			1 Kings 19:8-18
CC	214	1	And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? 1 Kings 19:9.
CC	214	2	Elijah's retreat on Mount Horeb, though hidden from man, was known to God; and the weary and discouraged prophet was not left to struggle alone with the powers of darkness that were pressing upon him....
CC	214	3	God met His tried servant with the inquiry, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" I sent you to the brook Cherith and afterward to the widow of Sarepta. I commissioned you to return to Israel and to stand before the idolatrous priests on Carmel, and I girded you with strength to guide the chariot of the king to the gate of Jezreel. But who sent you on this hasty flight into the wilderness? What errand have you here?....
CC	214	4	Much depends on the unceasing activity of those who are true and loyal, and for this reason Satan puts forth every possible effort to thwart the divine purpose to be wrought out through the obedient. He causes some to lose sight of their high and holy mission, and to become satisfied with the pleasures of this life.... Others he causes to flee in discouragement from duty, because of opposition or persecution.... To every child of God whose voice the enemy of souls has succeeded in silencing, the question is addressed, "What doest thou here?" I commissioned you to go into all the world and preach the gospel, to prepare a people for the day of God. Why are you here? ...
CC	214	5	Of families, as of individuals, the question is asked, "What doest thou here?" In many churches there are families well instructed in the truths of God's word, who might widen the sphere of their influence by moving to places in need of the ministry they are capable of giving. God calls for Christian families to go into the dark places of the earth and work wisely and perseveringly for those who are enshrouded in spiritual gloom.... For the sake of worldly advantage, for the sake of acquiring scientific knowledge, men are willing to venture into pestilential regions and to endure hardship and privation. Where are those who are willing to do as much for the sake of telling others of the Saviour?49
------------------------Elijahs Needed Today, July 28
			1 Kings 19:8-18
CC	215	1	Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. 1 Kings 19:18.
CC	215	2	Elijah had thought that he alone in Israel was a worshiper of the true God. But He who reads the hearts of all revealed to the prophet that there were many others who, through the long years of apostasy, had remained true to Him....
CC	215	3	From Elijah's experience during those days of discouragement and apparent defeat there are many lessons to be drawn, lessons invaluable to the servants of God in this age, marked as it is by general departure from right. The apostasy prevailing today is similar to that which in the prophet's day overspread Israel. In the exaltation of the human above the divine, in the praise of popular leaders, in the worship of mammon, and in the placing of the teachings of science above the truths of revelation, multitudes today are following after Baal. Doubt and unbelief are exercising their baleful influence over mind and heart, and many are substituting for the oracles of God the theories of men. It is publicly taught that we have reached a time when human reason should be exalted above the teachings of the Word. The law of God, the divine standard of righteousness, is declared to be of no effect. The enemy of all truth is working with deceptive power to cause men and women to place human institutions where God should be, and to forget that which was ordained for the happiness and salvation of mankind.
CC	215	4	Yet this apostasy, widespread as it has come to be, is not universal. Not all in the world are lawless and sinful; not all have taken sides with the enemy. God has many ... who are hoping against hope that Jesus will come soon to end the reign of sin and death.... These need the personal help of those who have learned to know God and the power of His word.... As those who have an understanding of Bible truth try to seek out the men and women who are longing for light, angels of God will attend them.... Many will cease to pay homage to man-made institutions and will take their stand fearlessly on the side of God and His law.50
------------------------In Moments of Weakness, July 29
			1 Kings 19:8-18
CC	216	1	And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. 1 Kings 19:14.
CC	216	2	If, under trying circumstances, men of spiritual power, pressed beyond measure, become discouraged and desponding, if at times they see nothing desirable in life, that they should choose it, this is nothing strange or new. Let all such remember that one of the mightiest of the prophets fled for his life before the rage of an infuriated woman.... Those who, while spending their life energies in self-sacrificing labor, are tempted to give way to despondency and distrust, may gather courage from the experience of Elijah....
CC	216	3	It is the time of greatest weakness that Satan assails the soul with the fiercest temptations.... He who had maintained his trust in Jehovah during the years of drought and famine, he who had stood undaunted before Ahab, he who throughout that trying day on Carmel had stood before the whole nation of Israel the sole witness to the true God, in a moment of weariness allowed the fear of death to overcome his faith in God....
CC	216	4	When we are encompassed with doubt, perplexed by circumstances, or afflicted by poverty or distress, Satan seeks to shake our confidence in Jehovah.... But God understands, and He still pities and loves. He reads the motives and the purposes of the heart. To wait patiently, to trust when everything looks dark, is the lesson that the leaders in God's work need to learn. Heaven will not fail them in their day of adversity. Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invincible, than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly on God.
CC	216	5	Not alone for men in positions of large responsibility is the lesson of Elijah's experience in learning anew how to trust God in the hour of trial. He who was Elijah's strength is strong to uphold every struggling child of His, no matter how weak. Of everyone He expects loyalty, and to everyone He grants power according to the need.51
------------------------The Battle is the Lord's, July 30
			2 Chronicles 20:1-30
CC	217	1	O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee. 2 Chronicles 20:12.
CC	217	2	Toward the close of Jehoshaphat's reign the kingdom of Judah was invaded by an army before whose approach the inhabitants of the land had reason to tremble.... Jehoshaphat was a man of courage and valor. For years he had been strengthening his armies and his fortified cities. He was well prepared to meet almost any foe; yet in this crisis he put not his trust in the arm of flesh. Not by disciplined armies and fenced cities, but by a living faith in the God of Israel, could he hope to gain the victory over these heathen who boasted of their power to humble Judah in the eyes of the nations.
CC	217	3	"Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the Lord: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord." Standing in the temple court before his people, Jehoshaphat poured out his soul in prayer, pleading God's promises, with confession of Israel's helplessness....
CC	217	4	With confidence Jehoshaphat could say to the Lord, "Our eyes are upon Thee." For years he had taught the people to trust in the One who in past ages had so often interposed to save His chosen ones from utter destruction; and now, when the kingdom was in peril, Jehoshaphat did not stand alone; "all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children." Unitedly they fasted and prayed; unitedly they besought the Lord to put their enemies to confusion, that the name of Jehovah might be glorified....
CC	217	5	God was the strength of Judah in this crisis, and He is the strength of His people today. We are not to trust in princes, or to set men in the place of God. We are to remember that human beings are fallible and erring, and that He who has all power is our strong tower of defense. In every emergency we are to feel that the battle is His. His resources are limitless, and apparent impossibilities will make the victory all the greater.52
------------------------The Battle Song, July 31
			2 Chronicles 20:22-30
CC	218	1	And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever. 2 Chronicles 20:21.
CC	218	2	It was a singular way of going to battle against the enemy's army--praising the Lord with singing, and exalting the God of Israel. This was their battle song. They possessed the beauty of holiness. If more praising of God were engaged in now, hope and courage and faith would steadily increase. And would not this strengthen the hands of the valiant soldiers who today are standing in defense of truth?53
CC	218	3	They praised God for the victory, and four days thereafter the army returned to Jerusalem, laden with the spoils of their enemies, singing praise for the victory won.54
CC	218	4	When we have a deeper appreciation of the mercy and loving- kindness of God, we shall praise Him, instead of complaining. We shall talk of the loving watchcare of the Lord, of the tender compassion of the Good Shepherd. The language of the heart will not be selfish murmuring and repining. Praise, like a clear, flowing stream, will come from God's truly believing ones....
CC	218	5	Why not awake the voice of spiritual song in the days of our pilgrimage? ... We need to study God's Word, to meditate and pray. Then we shall have spiritual eyesight to discern the inner courts of the celestial temple. We shall catch the notes of thanksgiving sung by the heavenly choir around the throne. When Zion shall arise and shine, her light will be most penetrating, and songs of praise and thanksgiving will be heard in the assembly of the saints. Little disappointments and difficulties will be lost sight of.
CC	218	6	The Lord is our helper.... No one ever trusted God in vain. He never disappoints those who put their dependence on Him. If we would only do the work that the Lord would have us do, walking in the footsteps of Jesus, our hearts would become sacred harps, every chord of which would send forth praise and thanksgiving to the One sent by God to take away the sin of the world.55
------------------------Sorcery, Ancient and Modern, August 1
			2 Kings 1:2-17
CC	219	1	And he said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. 2 Kings 1:16.
CC	219	2	During his father's reign, Ahaziah had witnessed the wondrous works of the Most High. He had seen the terrible evidences that God had given apostate Israel of the way in which He regards those who set aside the binding claims of His law. Ahaziah had acted as if these awful realities were but idle tales. Instead of humbling his heart before the Lord, he had followed after Baal, and at last he had ventured upon this, his most daring act of impiety....
CC	219	3	Today the mysteries of heathen worship are replaced by the secret associations and seances, the obscurities and wonders, of spiritistic mediums. The disclosures of these mediums are eagerly received by thousands who refuse to accept light from God's word or through His Spirit....
CC	219	4	The apostles of nearly all forms of spiritism claim to have power to heal.... And there are not a few, even in this Christian age, who go to these healers, instead of trusting in the power of the living God and the skill of well-qualified physicians....
CC	219	5	The king of Israel, turning from God to ask help of the worst enemy of his people, proclaimed to the heathen that he had more confidence in their idols than in the God of heaven. In the same manner do men and women dishonor Him when they turn from the Source of strength and wisdom to ask help or counsel from the powers of darkness....
CC	219	6	Those who give themselves up to the sorcery of Satan, may boast of great benefit received; but does this prove their course to be wise or safe? What if life should be prolonged? What if temporal gain should be secured? Will it pay in the end to have disregarded the will of God? All such apparent gain will prove at last an irrecoverable loss. We cannot with impunity break down a single barrier which God has erected to guard His people from Satan's power.1
------------------------The Work Lying Nearest, August 2
			1 Kings 19:19-21
CC	220	1	He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. Luke 16:10.
CC	220	2	God had bidden Elijah anoint another to be prophet in his stead. "Elisha the son of Shaphat ... shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room," He had said; and in obedience to the command, Elijah went to find Elisha....
CC	220	3	Elisha's father was a wealthy farmer, a man whose household were among the number that in a time of almost universal apostasy had not bowed the knee to Baal. Theirs was a home where God was honored and where allegiance to the faith of ancient Israel was the rule of daily life. In such surroundings the early years of Elisha were passed. In the quietude of country life, under the teaching of God and nature and the discipline of useful work, he received the training in habits of simplicity and of obedience to his parents and to God that helped to fit him for the high position he was afterward to occupy.
CC	220	4	The prophetic call came to Elisha while, with his father's servants, he was plowing in the field. He had taken up the work that lay nearest. He possessed both the capabilities of a leader among men and the meekness of one who is ready to serve. Of a quiet and gentle spirit, he was nevertheless energetic and steadfast. Integrity, fidelity, and the love and fear of God were his, and in the humble round of daily toil he gained strength of purpose and nobleness of character, constantly increasing in grace and knowledge. While co-operating with his father in the home-life duties, he was learning to co-operate with God.
CC	220	5	By faithfulness in little things, Elisha was preparing for weightier trusts. Day by day, through practical experience, he gained a fitness for a broader, higher work.... None can know what may be God's purpose in His discipline; but all may be certain that faithfulness in little things is the evidence of fitness for greater responsibilities. Every act of life is a revelation of character, and he only who in small duties proves himself "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed" can be honored by God with higher service.2
------------------------Why Elisha? August 3
			1 Kings 19:19-21
CC	221	1	He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:37, 38.
CC	221	2	As Elijah, divinely directed in seeking a successor, passed the field in which Elisha was plowing, he cast upon the young man's shoulders the mantle of consecration.... To him it was the signal that God had called him to be the successor of Elijah.... Elisha must count the cost--decide for himself to accept or reject the call. If his desires clung to his home and its advantages, he was at liberty to remain there. But Elisha understood the meaning of the call.... Not for any worldly advantage would he forgo the opportunity of becoming God's messenger, or sacrifice the privilege of association with His servant.... Without hesitation he left a home where he was beloved, to attend the prophet in his uncertain life.3
CC	221	3	Because they are not connected with some directly religious work, many feel that their lives are useless, that they are doing nothing for the advancement of God's kingdom.... Because they can serve only in little things, they think themselves justified in doing nothing. In this they err. A man may be in the active service of God while engaged in the ordinary, everyday duties--while felling trees, clearing the ground, or following the plow. The mother who trains her children for Christ is as truly working for God as is the minister in the pulpit.
CC	221	4	Many long for special talent with which to do a wonderful work, while the duties lying close at hand, the performance of which would make the life fragrant, are lost sight of.... Success depends not so much on talent as on energy and willingness. It is not the possession of splendid talents that enables us to render acceptable service, but the conscientious performance of daily duties, the contented spirit, the unaffected, sincere interest in the welfare of others. In the humblest lot true excellence may be found. The commonest tasks, wrought with loving faithfulness, are beautiful in God's sight.4
------------------------All on the Altar, August 4
CC	222	1	No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62.
CC	222	2	We are not all asked to serve as Elisha served, nor are we all bidden to sell everything we have; but God asks us to give His service the first place in our lives, to allow no day to pass without doing something to advance His work in the earth. He does not expect from all the same kind of service. One may be called to ministry in a foreign land; another may be asked to give of his means for the support of gospel work. God accepts the offering of each. It is the consecration of the life and all its interests, that is necessary. Those who make this consecration will hear and obey the call of Heaven....
CC	222	3	It was no great work that was at first required of Elisha; commonplace duties still constituted his discipline. He is spoken of as pouring water on the hands of Elijah, his master. He was willing to do anything that the Lord directed, and at every step he learned lessons of humility and service.... Elisha's life after uniting with Elijah was not without temptations. Trials he had in abundance; but in every emergency he relied on God. He was tempted to think of the home that he had left, but to this temptation he gave no heed. Having put his hand to the plow, he was resolved not to turn back, and through test and trial he proved true to this trust....
CC	222	4	As Elisha accompanied the prophet ... his faith and resolution were once more tested. At Gilgal, and again at Bethel and Jericho, he was invited by the prophet to turn back.... But ... he would not be diverted from his purpose.... "And ... Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee."
CC	222	5	Elisha asked not for worldly honor, or for a high place among the great men of earth. That which he craved was a large measure of the Spirit that God had bestowed so freely upon the one about to be honored with translation. He knew that nothing but the Spirit which had rested upon Elijah, could fit him to fill the place in Israel to which God had called him; and so he asked, "I pray thee, let a double portion of thy Spirit be upon me."5
------------------------Elijah's Successor, August 5
			2 Kings 2:1-15
CC	223	1	Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52.
CC	223	2	In the desert, in loneliness and discouragement, Elijah had said that he had had enough of life and had prayed that he might die. But the Lord in His mercy had not taken him at his word. There was yet a great work for Elijah to do; and when his work was done, he was not to perish in discouragement and solitude. Not for him the descent into the tomb, but the ascent with God's angels to the presence of His glory.
CC	223	3	"And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan; and he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over. And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The Spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him."
CC	223	4	When the Lord in His providence sees fit to remove from His work those to whom He has given wisdom, He helps and strengthens their successors, if they will look to Him for aid and will walk in His ways. They may be even wiser than their predecessors; for they may profit by their experience and learn wisdom from their mistakes.6
CC	223	5	Elijah, the man of power, had been God's instrument for the overthrow of gigantic evils.... As successor to Elijah was needed one who by careful, patient instruction could guide Israel in safe paths. For this work Elisha's early training under God's direction had prepared him....
CC	223	6	Every act of life is a revelation of character, and he only who in small duties proves himself "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed," will be honored by God with weightier trusts.7
------------------------Pollution and Purification, August 6
			2 Kings 2:19-22
CC	224	1	And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. 2 Kings 2:21.
CC	224	2	In casting salt into the bitter spring, Elisha taught the same spiritual lesson imparted centuries later by the Saviour to His disciples when He declared, "Ye are the salt of the earth." The salt mingling with the polluted spring purified its waters and brought life and blessing where before had been blighting and death. When God compares His children to salt, He would teach them that His purpose in making them the subjects of His grace is that they may become agents in saving others....
CC	224	3	Salt must be mingled with the substance to which it is added; it must penetrate, infuse it, that it may be preserved. So it is through personal contact and association that men are reached by the saving power of the gospel. They are not saved as masses, but as individuals. Personal influence is a power. It is to work with the influence of Christ, ... and to stay the progress of the world's corruption.... It is to uplift, to sweeten the lives and characters of others by the power of a pure example united with earnest faith and love....
CC	224	4	The polluted stream represents the soul that is separate from God.... Through sin, the whole human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination corrupted; the faculties of the soul are degraded. There is an absence of pure religion, of heart holiness. The converting power of God has not wrought in transforming the character....
CC	224	5	The heart that receives the word of God is not as a pool that evaporates.... It is like a river constantly flowing and, as it advances, becoming deeper and wider, until its life-giving waters are spread over all the earth.... So it is with the true child of God. The religion of Christ reveals itself as a vitalizing, pervading principle, a living, working, spiritual energy. When the heart is opened to the heavenly influence of truth and love, these principles will flow forth again like streams in the desert, causing fruitfulness to appear where now are barrenness and dearth.8
------------------------Rudeness Rebuked, August 7
			2 Kings 2:23-25
CC	225	1	Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:32.
CC	225	2	Elisha was a man of mild and kindly spirit; but that he could also be stern is shown by his course when, on the way to Bethel, he was mocked by ungodly youth who had come out of the city. These youth had heard of Elijah's ascension, and they made this solemn event the subject of their jeers, saying to Elisha, "Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head." At the sound of their mocking words the prophet turned back, and under the inspiration of the Almighty he pronounced a curse upon them. The awful judgment that followed was of God. "There came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two" of them (2 Kings 2:23, 24).
CC	225	3	Had Elisha allowed the mockery to pass unnoticed, he would have continued to be ridiculed and reviled by the rabble, and his mission to instruct and save in a time of grave national peril might have been defeated. This one instance of terrible severity was sufficient to command respect throughout his life. For fifty years he went in and out of the gate of Bethel, and to and fro in the land, from city to city, passing through crowds of idle, rude, dissolute youth; but none mocked him or made light of his qualifications as the prophet of the Most High....
CC	225	4	Reverence, in which the youth who mocked Elisha were so lacking, is a grace that should be carefully cherished. Every child should be taught to show true reverence for God. Never should His name be spoken lightly or thoughtlessly. Angels, as they speak it, veil their faces. With what reverence should we, who are fallen and sinful, take it upon our lips!....
CC	225	5	Courtesy, also, is one of the graces of the Spirit and should be cultivated by all. It has power to soften natures which without it would grow hard and rough. Those who profess to be followers of Christ, and are at the same time rough, unkind, and uncourteous, have not learned of Jesus. Their sincerity may not be doubted, their uprightness may not be questioned; but sincerity and uprightness will not atone for a lack of kindness and courtesy.9
------------------------Table in the Wilderness, August 8
			2 Kings 4:38-44
CC	226	1	Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Psalm 33:18, 19.
CC	226	2	Like the Saviour of mankind, of whom he was a type, Elisha in his ministry among men combined the work of healing with that of teaching. Faithfully, untiringly, throughout his long and effective labors, Elisha endeavored to foster and advance the important educational work carried on by the schools of the prophets.... It was on the occasion of one of his visits to the school established at Gilgal that he healed the poisoned pottage....
CC	226	3	At Gilgal, also, while the dearth was still in the land, Elisha fed one hundred men with the present brought to him by "a man from Baalshalisha," "bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof." ...
CC	226	4	What condescension it was on the part of Christ, through His messenger, to work this miracle to satisfy hunger! Again and again since that time, though not always in so marked and perceptible a manner, has the Lord Jesus worked to supply human need....
CC	226	5	It is the grace of God on the small portion that makes it all-sufficient. God's hand can multiply it a hundredfold. From His resources He can spread a table in the wilderness. By the touch of His hand He can increase the scanty provision and make it sufficient for all. It was His power that increased the loaves and corn in the hands of the sons of the prophets....
CC	226	6	When the Lord gives a work to be done, let not men stop to inquire into the reasonableness of the command or the probable result of their efforts to obey. The supply in their hands may seem to fall short of the need to be filled; but in the hands of the Lord it will prove more than sufficient. The servitor "set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord." ...
CC	226	7	The gift brought to Him with thanksgiving and with prayer for His blessing, He will multiply as He multiplied the food given to the sons of the prophets and to the weary multitude.10
------------------------Even a Child, August 9
			2 Kings 5:1-4
CC	227	1	And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. 2 Kings 5:2.
CC	227	2	A slave, far from her home, this little maid was nevertheless one of God's witnesses, unconsciously fulfilling the purpose for which God had chosen Israel as His people. As she ministered in that heathen home, her sympathies were aroused in behalf of her master; and, remembering the wonderful miracles of healing wrought through Elisha, she said to her mistress, "Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy." She knew that the power of Heaven was with Elisha, and she believed that by this power Naaman could be healed.
CC	227	3	The conduct of the captive maid, the way that she bore herself in that heathen home, is a strong witness to the power of early home training. There is no higher trust than that committed to fathers and mothers in the care and training of their children. Parents have to do with the very foundations of habit and character. By their example and teaching, the future of their children is largely decided.
CC	227	4	Happy are the parents whose lives are a true reflection of the divine, so that the promises and commands of God awaken in the child gratitude and reverence; the parents ... who by teaching the child to love and trust and obey them, are teaching him to love and trust and obey his Father in heaven. Parents who impart to the child such a gift have endowed him with a treasure more precious than the wealth of all the ages, a treasure as enduring as eternity.
CC	227	5	We know not in what line our children may be called to serve. They may spend their lives within the circle of the home; they may engage in life's common vocations, or go as teachers of the gospel to heathen lands; but all are alike called to be missionaries for God, ministers of mercy to the world.11
CC	227	6	He who sent ... the little Israelitish maiden to the help of Naaman, the Syrian captain, sends men and women and youth today as His representatives to those in need of divine help and guidance.12
------------------------God's Ways, August 10
			2 Kings 5:5-14
CC	228	1	For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8, 9.
CC	228	2	Naaman the Syrian consulted the prophet of God as to how he could be cured of a loathsome disease, the leprosy. He was bidden to go and bathe in Jordan seven times. Why did he not immediately follow the directions of Elisha, the prophet of God? ... In his mortification and disappointment he became passionate, and in a rage refused to follow the humble course marked out by the prophet of God. "I thought," said he, "he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage." His servant said: "My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash [merely], and be clean?" Yes, this great man considered it beneath his dignity to go to the humble river Jordan, and wash. The rivers he mentioned and desired were beautified by surrounding trees and groves, and idols were placed in these groves. Many flocked to these rivers to worship their idol gods; therefore it would have cost him no humility. But it was following the specified directions of the prophet which would humble his proud and lofty spirit. Willing obedience would bring the desired result. He washed, and was made whole.13
CC	228	3	Our plans are not always God's plans.... In His loving care and interest for us, often He who understands us better than we understand ourselves refuses to permit us selfishly to seek the gratification of our own ambition.... Many things He ask us to yield to Him, but in doing this we are but giving up that which hinders us in the heavenward way....
CC	228	4	In the future life the mysteries that here have annoyed and disappointed us will be made plain. We shall see that our seemingly unanswered prayers and disappointed hopes have been among our greatest blessings.14
------------------------No Fiery Chariot, August 11
			2 Kings 13:14-20
CC	229	1	Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. Revelation 14:13.
CC	229	2	It was not given Elisha to follow his master in a fiery chariot. Upon him the Lord permitted to come a lingering illness. During the long hours of human weakness and suffering his faith laid fast hold on the promises of God, and he beheld ever about him heavenly messengers of comfort and peace. As on the heights of Dothan he had seen the encircling hosts of heaven, the fiery chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof, so now he was conscious of the presence of sympathizing angels, and he was sustained. Throughout his life he had exercised strong faith, and as he had advanced in a knowledge of God's providences and of His merciful kindness, faith had ripened into an abiding trust in his God, and when death called him he was ready to rest from his labors....
CC	229	3	Elisha could say in all confidence, "God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me." And with rejoicing he could testify, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."15
CC	229	4	Christ claims all those as His who have believed in His name. The vitalizing power of the Spirit of Christ dwelling in the mortal body binds every believing soul to Jesus Christ. Those who believe in Jesus are sacred to His heart; for their life is hid with Christ in God....
CC	229	5	What a glorious morning will the resurrection morning be! What a wonderful scene will open when Christ shall come to be admired of them that believe! All who were partakers with Christ in His humiliation and sufferings will be partakers with Him in His glory. By the resurrection of Christ from the dead every believing saint who falls asleep in Jesus will come forth from his prison house in triumph. The resurrected saint will proclaim, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55).16
------------------------Reluctant Prophet, August 12
			Jonah
CC	230	1	Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. Jonah 1:2.
CC	230	2	Nineveh, wicked though it had become, was not wholly given over to evil. He who "beholdeth all the sons of men" (Psalm 33:13) ... perceived in that city many who were reaching out after something better and higher.... God revealed Himself to them in an unmistakable manner, to lead them, if possible, to repentance.
CC	230	3	The instrument chosen for this work was the prophet Jonah.... Had the prophet obeyed unquestioningly, he would have been spared many bitter experiences, and would have been blessed abundantly. Yet in the hour of Jonah's despair the Lord did not desert him. Through a series of trials and strange providences, the prophet's confidence in God and in His infinite power to save was to be revived....
CC	230	4	Once more the servant of God was commissioned to warn Nineveh.... As Jonah entered the city, he began at once to "cry against" it the message, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." From street to street he went, sounding the note of warning.
CC	230	5	The message was not in vain. The cry that rang through the streets of the godless city was passed from lip to lip until all the inhabitants had heard the startling announcement. The Spirit of God pressed the message home to every heart and caused multitudes to tremble because of their sins and to repent in deep humiliation.... Their doom was averted, the God of Israel was exalted and honored throughout the heathen world, and His law was revered. Not until many years later was Nineveh to fall a prey to the surrounding nations through forgetfulness of God and through boastful pride....
CC	230	6	The lesson is for God's messengers today, when the cities of the nations are as verily in need of a knowledge of the attributes and purposes of the true God as were the Ninevites of old.... The only city that will endure is the city whose builder and maker is God.... The Lord Jesus is calling upon men to strive with sanctified ambition to secure the immortal inheritance.17
------------------------There is a Limit, August 13
CC	231	1	Behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. Isaiah 26:21.
CC	231	2	Our God is a God of mercy. With long-sufferance and tender compassion He deals with the transgressors of His law.... But there is a point beyond which divine patience is exhausted, and the judgments of God are sure to follow. The Lord bears long with men, and with cities, mercifully giving warnings to save them from divine wrath; but a time will come when pleadings for mercy will no longer be heard....
CC	231	3	The time is at hand when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn. Disasters by sea and by land follow one another in quick succession. How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property! Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of disorganized, unregulated forces of nature, wholly beyond the control of man; but in them all, God's purpose may be read. They are among the agencies by which He seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger.
CC	231	4	God's messengers in the great cities are not to become discouraged over the wickedness, the injustice, the depravity, which they are called upon to face while endeavoring to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation.... In every city, filled though it may be with violence and crime, there are many who with proper teaching may learn to become followers of Jesus.... God's message for the inhabitants of earth today is, "Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 24:44).... We are standing on the threshold of the crisis of the ages....
CC	231	5	The storm of God's wrath is gathering; and those only will stand who respond to the invitations of mercy, as did the inhabitants of Nineveh under the preaching of Jonah, and become sanctified through obedience to the laws of the divine Ruler. The righteous alone shall be hid with Christ in God till the desolation be overpast.18
------------------------Send Me, August 14
			Isaiah 6:1-10
CC	232	1	Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. Isaiah 6:8.
CC	232	2	It was under circumstances of difficulty and discouragement that Isaiah, while yet a young man, was called to the prophetic mission. Disaster was threatening his country. By their transgression of God's law the people of Judah had forfeited His protection, and the Assyrian forces were about to come against the kingdom of Judah. But the danger from their enemies was not the greatest trouble. It was the perversity of the people that brought upon the Lord's servant the deepest depression. By their apostasy and rebellion they were inviting the judgments of God. The youthful prophet had been called to bear to them a message of warning, and he knew that he would meet with obstinate resistance.... His task seemed to him almost hopeless....
CC	232	3	Such thoughts as these were crowding upon his mind as he stood under the portico of the holy temple. Suddenly the gate and the inner veil of the temple seemed to be uplifted or withdrawn, and he was permitted to gaze within, upon the holy of holies, where even the prophet's feet might not enter. There rose up before him a vision of Jehovah sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, while His train filled the temple. On each side of the throne hovered the seraphim, two wings bearing them up, two veiling their faces in adoration, and two covering their feet....
CC	232	4	Never before had Isaiah realized so fully the greatness of Jehovah or His perfect holiness; and he felt that in his human frailty and unworthiness he must perish in that divine presence. "Woe is me!" he cried; "for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." But a seraph came to him to fit him for his great mission. A living coal from the altar was laid upon his lips with the words: "Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." And when the voice of God was heard saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isaiah with holy confidence responded, "Here am I; send me." ... The prophet was nerved for the work before him.19
------------------------Humility--True or False? August 15
			Isaiah 6:1-4
CC	233	1	And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah 6:3.
CC	233	2	These holy beings sang forth the praise and glory of God with lips unpolluted with sin. The contrast between the feeble praise which he [Isaiah] had been accustomed to bestow upon the Creator and the fervid praises of the seraphim, astonished and humiliated the prophet....
CC	233	3	While he listened to the song of the angels, ... the glory, the infinite power, and the unsurpassed majesty of the Lord passed before his vision, and was impressed upon his soul. In the light of this matchless radiance that made manifest all he could bear in the revelation of the divine character, his own inward defilement stood out before him with startling clearness. His very words seemed vile to him.
CC	233	4	Thus when the servant of God is permitted to behold the glory of the God of heaven, as He is unveiled to humanity, and realizes to a slight degree the purity of the Holy One of Israel, he will make startling confessions of the pollution of his soul, rather than proud boasts of his holiness. In deep humiliation Isaiah exclaimed, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips...." This is not that voluntary humility and servile self-reproach that so many seem to consider it a virtue to display. This vague mockery of humility is prompted by hearts full of pride and self-esteem. There are many who demerit themselves in words, who would be disappointed if this course did not call forth expressions of praise and appreciation from others. But the conviction of the prophet was genuine.20
CC	233	5	The seraphim before the throne are so filled with reverential awe in beholding the glory of God that they do not for an instant look upon themselves with self-complacency, or in admiration of themselves or one another. Their praise and glory are for the Lord of Hosts.... They are fully satisfied to glorify God; and in His presence, beneath His smile of approbation, they wish for nothing more. In bearing His image, in doing His service and worshiping Him, their highest ambition is fully reached.21
------------------------The Living Coal, August 16
			Isaiah 6:1-10
CC	234	1	Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Isaiah 6:6, 7.
CC	234	2	Isaiah had denounced the sin of others; but now he sees himself exposed to the same condemnation he had pronounced upon them. He had been satisfied with a cold, lifeless ceremony in his worship of God. He had not known this until the vision was given him of the Lord. How little now appeared his wisdom and talents as he looked upon the sacredness and majesty of the sanctuary. How unworthy he was! how unfitted for sacred service! ...
CC	234	3	The vision given to Isaiah represents the condition of God's people in the last days. They are privileged to see by faith the work that is going forward in the heavenly sanctuary. "And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament." As they look by faith into the holy of holies, and see the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, they perceive that they are a people of unclean lips,--a people whose lips have often spoken vanity, and whose talents have not been sanctified and employed to the glory of God. Well may they despair as they contrast their own weakness and unworthiness with the purity and loveliness of the glorious character of Christ. But if they, like Isaiah, will receive the impression the Lord designs shall be made upon the heart, if they will humble their souls before God, there is hope for them. The bow of promise is above the throne, and the work done for Isaiah will be performed in them. God will respond to the petitions coming from the contrite heart.22
CC	234	4	We want the living coal from off the altar placed upon our lips. We want to hear the word spoken, "Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged."23
CC	234	5	The live coal is symbolical of purification. If it touches the lips, no impure word will fall from them.24
------------------------White Like Snow, August 17
			Isaiah 6:1-10
CC	235	1	For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah 57:15.
CC	235	2	In the vision that came to Isaiah in the temple court, he was given a clear view of the character of the God of Israel. "The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy," had appeared before him in great majesty; yet the prophet was made to understand the compassionate nature of his Lord....
CC	235	3	In beholding his God, the prophet ... had not only been given a view of his own unworthiness; there had come to his humbled heart the assurance of forgiveness, full and free; and he had arisen a changed man. He had seen his Lord. He had caught a glimpse of the loveliness of the divine character. He could testify of the transformation wrought through beholding Infinite Love. Henceforth he was inspired with longing desire to see erring Israel set free from the burden and penalty of sin. "Why should ye be stricken any more?" the prophet inquired. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." ... The God whom they had been claiming to serve, but whose character they had misunderstood, was set before them as the great Healer of spiritual disease....
CC	235	4	The heart of Infinite Love yearns after those who feel powerless to free themselves from the snares of Satan; and He graciously offers to strengthen them to live for Him. "Fear thou not," He bids them; "for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee: yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness." ...
CC	235	5	Have you, reader, chosen your own way? Have you wandered far from God? Have you sought to feast upon the fruits of transgression, only to find them turn to ashes upon your lips? ... Return to your Father's house. He invites you, saying, "Return unto me; for I have redeemed thee." "Come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live."25
------------------------For Everyone, August 18
CC	236	1	Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. Psalm 68:31.
CC	236	2	Throughout his ministry Isaiah bore a plain testimony concerning God's purpose for the heathen. Other prophets had made mention of the divine plan, but their language was not always understood. To Isaiah it was given to make very plain to Judah the truth that among the Israel of God were to be numbered many who were not descendants of Abraham after the flesh. This teaching was not in harmony with the theology of his age, yet he fearlessly proclaimed the messages given him of God and brought hope to many a longing heart reaching out after the spiritual blessings promised to the seed of Abraham....
CC	236	3	Often the Israelites seemed unable or unwilling to understand God's purpose for the heathen. Yet it was this very purpose that had made them a separate people and had established them as an independent nation among the nations of the earth. Abraham, their father, to whom the covenant promise was first given, had been called to go forth from his kindred, to the regions beyond, that he might be a light bearer to the heathen. Although the promise to him included a posterity as numerous as the sand by the sea, yet it was for no selfish purpose that he was to become the founder of a great nation.... "I will bless thee," Jehovah declared, "and make thy name great; ... in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." ...
CC	236	4	No distinction on account of nationality, race, or caste, is recognized by God.... Christ came to demolish every wall of partition, to throw open every compartment of the temple courts, that every soul may have free access to God. His love is so broad, so deep, so full, that it penetrates everywhere. It lifts out of Satan's influence those who have been deluded by his deceptions, and places them within reach of the throne of God, the throne encircled by the rainbow of promise. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free.26
------------------------Jeremiah, God's Mouthpiece, August 19
CC	237	1	It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:26.
CC	237	2	Among those who had hoped for a permanent spiritual revival as the result of the reformation under Josiah was Jeremiah, called of God to the prophetic office while still a youth....
CC	237	3	In the youthful Jeremiah, God saw one who would be true to his trust and who would stand for the right against great opposition.... "Say not, I am a child," the Lord bade His chosen messenger; "for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee." ...
CC	237	4	For forty years Jeremiah was to stand before the nation as a witness for truth and righteousness. In a time of unparalleled apostasy he was to exemplify in life and character the worship of the only true God. During the terrible sieges of Jerusalem he was to be the mouthpiece of Jehovah.27
CC	237	5	Naturally of a timid and shrinking disposition, Jeremiah longed for the peace and quite of a life of retirement, where he need not witness the continued impenitence of his beloved nation. His heart was wrung with anguish over the ruin wrought by sin....
CC	237	6	The experiences through which Jeremiah passed in the days of his youth and also in the later years of his ministry, taught him the lesson that "the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." He learned to pray, "O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing" (Jeremiah 10:23, 24).
CC	237	7	When called to drink of the cup of tribulation and sorrow, and when tempted in his misery to say, "My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord," he recalled the providences of God in his behalf and triumphantly exclaimed, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.... The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him."28
------------------------The Rechabites, August 20
			Jeremiah 35:1-19
CC	238	1	And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, ... Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, ... therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever. Jeremiah 35:18, 19.
CC	238	2	God commanded Jeremiah to gather the Rechabites into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and set wine before them and invite them to drink. Jeremiah did as the Lord commanded him. "But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons forever."
CC	238	3	"Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, ... Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the Lord. The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father's commandment." Here God contrasts the obedience of the Rechabites with the disobedience and rebellion of His people, who will not receive His words of reproof and warning.... The Rechabites were commended for their ready and willing obedience, while God's people refused to be reproved by their prophets.29
CC	238	4	If the requirements of a good and wise father, who took the best and most effectual means to secure his posterity against the evils of intemperance, were worthy of strict obedience, surely God's authority should be held in as much greater reverence as He is holier than man. Our Creator and our Commander, infinite in power, terrible in judgment, seeks by every means to bring men to see and repent of their sins. By the mouth of His servants He predicts the dangers of disobedience; He sounds the note of warning and faithfully reproves sin. His people are kept in prosperity only by His mercy, through the vigilant watchcare of chosen instrumentalities. He cannot uphold and guard a people who reject His counsel and despise His reproofs. For a time He may withhold His retributive judgments; yet He cannot always stay His hand.30
------------------------Jehovah's Honor Vindicated, August 21
			2 Chronicles 32:1-23
CC	239	1	With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. 2 Chronicles 32:8.
CC	239	2	Hezekiah, in the earlier years of his reign, had continued to pay tribute to Assyria, in harmony with the agreement entered into by Ahaz. Meanwhile the king had taken "counsel with his princes and his mighty men," and had done everything possible for the defense of his kingdom....
CC	239	3	The long-expected crisis finally came. The forces of Assyria, advancing from triumph to triumph, appeared in Judea.... Judah's only hope was now in God. All possible help from Egypt had been cut off, and no other nations were near to lend a friendly hand.... Sennacherib wrote "letters to rail on the Lord God of Israel, and to speak against Him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people out of mine hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver His people out of mine hand." ...
CC	239	4	When the king of Judah received the taunting letter, he took it into the temple and "spread it before the Lord" and prayed with strong faith for help from heaven, that the nations of earth might know that the God of the Hebrews still lived and reigned. The honor of Jehovah was at stake; He alone could bring deliverance....
CC	239	5	Hezekiah was not left without hope. Isaiah sent to him, saying, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard." ... That very night deliverance came. "The angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand." ...
CC	239	6	The God of the Hebrews had prevailed over the proud Assyrian. The honor of Jehovah was vindicated in the eyes of the surrounding nations. In Jerusalem the hearts of the people were filled with holy joy. Their earnest entreaties for deliverance had been mingled with confession of sin and with many tears. In their great need they had trusted wholly in the power of God to save, and He had not failed them.31
------------------------Divine Healing, August 22
			2 Kings 20:1-11; Isaiah 38:1-8
CC	240	1	I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 2 Kings 20:3.
CC	240	2	In the midst of his prosperous reign King Hezekiah was suddenly stricken with a fatal malady. "Sick unto death," his case was beyond the power of man to help. And the last vestige of hope seemed removed when the prophet Isaiah appeared before him with the message, "Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live."
CC	240	3	The outlook seemed utterly dark; yet the king could still pray to the One who had hitherto been his "refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1). And so "he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord." ...
CC	240	4	He whose "compassions fail not," heard the prayer of His servant. "It came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee...." Gladly the prophet returned with the words of assurance and hope. Directing that a lump of figs be laid upon the diseased part, Isaiah delivered to the king the message of God's mercy and protecting care.32
CC	240	5	Those who seek healing by prayer should not neglect to make use of the remedial agencies within their reach. It is not a denial of faith to use such remedies as God has provided to alleviate pain and to aid nature in her work of restoration.... God has put it in our power to obtain a knowledge of the laws of life. This knowledge has been placed within our reach for use. We should employ every facility for the restoration of health, taking every advantage possible, working in harmony with natural laws. When we have prayed for the recovery of the sick, we can work with all the more energy, thanking God that we have the privilege of co-operating with Him, and asking His blessing on the means which He Himself has provided.33
------------------------What Do They See? August 23
			2 Kings 20:1-19
CC	241	1	Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them. Isaiah 39:4.
CC	241	2	The visit of the ambassadors to Hezekiah was a test of his gratitude and devotion.... Had Hezekiah improved the opportunity given him to bear witness to the power, the goodness, the compassion, of the God of Israel, the report of the ambassadors would have been as light piercing darkness. But he magnified himself above the Lord of hosts. He "rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up." ...
CC	241	3	The story of Hezekiah's failure to prove true to his trust ... is fraught with an important lesson for all. Far more than we do, we need to speak of the precious chapters in our experience, of the mercy and loving-kindness of God, of the matchless depths of the Saviour's love. When mind and heart are filled with the love of God, it will not be difficult to impart that which enters into the spiritual life. Great thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, unselfish purposes, yearnings for piety and holiness, will find expression in words that reveal the character of the heart treasure.
CC	241	4	Those with whom we associate day by day need our help, our guidance. They may be in such a condition of mind that a word spoken in season will be as a nail in a sure place. Tomorrow some of these souls may be where we can never reach them again. What is our influence over these fellow travelers?34
CC	241	5	What have your friends and acquaintances seen in your house? Are you, instead of revealing the treasures of the grace of Christ, displaying those things that will perish with the using? Or do you, to those with whom you are brought in contact, communicate some new thought of Christ's character and work? ... O that those for whom God has done marvelous things would show forth His praises, and tell of His mighty works. But how often those for whom God works are like Hezekiah--forgetful of the Giver of all their blessings.35
------------------------Faith and God's Promises, August 24
			Habakkuk
CC	242	1	Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4.
CC	242	2	At the time Josiah began to rule, and for many years before, the truehearted in Judah were questioning whether God's promises to ancient Israel could ever be fulfilled....
CC	242	3	These anxious questionings were voiced by the prophet Habakkuk. Viewing the situation of the faithful in his day, he expressed the burden of his heart in the inquiry: "O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!" ... And then, his faith reaching out beyond the forbidding prospect of the immediate future, and laying fast hold on the precious promises that reveal God's love for His trusting children, the prophet added, "We shall not die." With this declaration of faith he rested his case, and that of every believing Israelite, in the hands of a compassionate God....
CC	242	4	The faith that strengthened Habakkuk and all the holy and the just in those days of deep trial was the same faith that sustains God's people today. In the darkest hours, under circumstances the most forbidding, the Christian believer may keep his soul stayed upon the source of all light and power. Day by day, through faith in God, his hope and courage may be renewed. "The just shall live by his faith." ...
CC	242	5	We must cherish and cultivate the faith of which prophets and apostles have testified--the faith that lays hold on the promises of God and waits for deliverance in His appointed time and way. The sure word of prophecy will meet its final fulfillment in the glorious advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as King of kings and Lord of lords.... With the prophet who endeavored to encourage Judah in a time of unparalleled apostasy, let us confidently declare, "The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." Let us ever hold in remembrance the cheering message, "The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come."36
------------------------Too Drunk to Think, August 25
			Esther 1:1-12
CC	243	1	When the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded ... to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on. Esther 1:10, 11.
CC	243	2	When this command came from the king, Vashti did not carry out his orders, because she knew that wine had been freely used, and that Ahasuerus was under the influence of the intoxicating liquor. For her husband's sake as well as her own, she decided not to leave her position at the head of the women of the court.37
CC	243	3	It was when the king was not himself, when his reason was dethroned by wine-drinking that he sent for the queen, that those present at his feast, men besotted by wine, might gaze on her beauty. She acted in harmony with a pure conscience.
CC	243	4	Vashti refused to obey the king's command, thinking that when he came to himself, he would commend her course of action. But the king had unwise advisers. They argued it would be a power given to woman that would be to her injury.38
CC	243	5	However high their office, men are amenable to God. The great power exercised by kings, often leads to extremes in exaltation of self. And the worthless vows made to enact laws which disregard the higher laws of God, lead to great injustice.
CC	243	6	Occasions of indulgence such as are pictured in the first chapter of Esther, do not glorify God. But the Lord accomplishes His will through men who are nevertheless misleading others. If God did not stretch forth His restraining hand, strange presentations would be seen. But God impresses human minds to accomplish His purpose, even though the one used continues to follow wrong practices. And the Lord works out His plans through men who do not acknowledge His lessons of wisdom. In His hand is the heart of every earthly ruler, to turn whithersoever He will, as He turneth the waters of the river.39
------------------------For Such a Time as This, August 26
			Esther 4:14-17
CC	244	1	And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther 4:14.
CC	244	2	A certain day was appointed on which the Jews were to be destroyed and their property confiscated. Little did the king realize the far-reaching results that would have accompanied the complete carrying out of this decree. Satan himself, the hidden instigator of the scheme, was trying to rid the earth of those who preserved the knowledge of the true God.... The decree of the Medes and Persians could not be revoked; apparently there was no hope; all the Israelites were doomed to destruction.
CC	244	3	But the plots of the enemy were defeated by a Power that reigns among the children of men. In the providence of God, Esther, a Jewess who feared the Most High, had been made queen of the Medo-Persian kingdom. Mordecai was a near relative of hers. In their extremity, they decided to appeal to Xerxes in behalf of their people. Esther was to venture into his presence as an intercessor. "Who knoweth," said Mordecai, "whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
CC	244	4	The crisis that Esther faced demanded quick, earnest action; but both she and Mordecai realized that unless God should work mightily in their behalf, their own efforts would be unavailing. So Esther took time for communion with God, the source of her strength. "Go," she directed Mordecai, "gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me ... : I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish."40
CC	244	5	To every household and every school, to every parent, teacher, and child upon whom has shone the light of the gospel, comes at this crisis the question put to Esther the queen at that momentous crisis in Israel's history. "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"41
------------------------Men's Decrees Versus God's, August 27
			Esther 3
CC	245	1	And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 12:17.
CC	245	2	Through Esther the queen the Lord accomplished a mighty deliverance for His people. At a time when it seemed that no power could save them, Esther and the women associated with her, by fasting and prayer and prompt action, met the issue, and brought salvation to their people.42
CC	245	3	The trying experiences that came to God's people in the days of Esther were not peculiar to that age alone.... The same spirit that in ages past led men to persecute the true church, will in the future lead to the pursuance of a similar course toward those who maintain their loyalty to God.... The decree that will finally go forth against the remnant people of God will be very similar to that issued by Ahasuerus against the Jews. Today the enemies of the true church see in the little company keeping the Sabbath commandment, a Mordecai at the gate. The reverence of God's people for His law is a constant rebuke to those who have cast off the fear of the Lord and are trampling on His Sabbath....
CC	245	4	Men of position and reputation will join with the lawless and the vile to take counsel against the people of God. Wealth, genius, education, will combine to cover them with contempt. Persecuting rulers, ministers, and church members will conspire against them.
CC	245	5	With voice and pen, by boasts, threats, and ridicule, they will seek to overthrow their faith. By false representations and angry appeals, men will stir up the passions of the people. Not having a "Thus saith the Scriptures" to bring against the advocates of the Bible Sabbath, they will resort to oppressive enactments to supply the lack. To secure popularity and patronage, legislators will yield to the demand for Sunday laws. But those who fear God, cannot accept an institution that violates a precept of the Decalogue. On this battlefield will be fought the last great conflict in the controversy between truth and error. And we are not left in doubt as to the issue. Today, as in the days of Esther and Mordecai, the Lord will vindicate His truth and His people.43
------------------------Four Boys in Babylon, August 28
			Daniel 1:1-15
CC	246	1	As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. Daniel 1:17.
CC	246	2	Daniel and his companions enjoyed the benefits of correct training and education in early life, but these advantages alone would not have made them what they were. The time came when they must act for themselves--when their future depended upon their own course. Then they decided to be true to the lessons given them in childhood.44
CC	246	3	What a lifework was that of these noble Hebrews! As they bade farewell to their childhood home, how little did they dream of their high destiny! Faithful and steadfast, they yielded themselves to the divine guiding, so that through them God could fulfill His purpose.45
CC	246	4	Daniel and his companions in Babylon were, in their youth, apparently more favored of fortune than was Joseph in the earlier years of his life in Egypt; yet they were subjected to tests of character scarcely less severe. From the comparative simplicity of their Judean home these youth of royal line were transported to the most magnificent of cities, to the court of its greatest monarch, and were singled out to be trained for the king's special service. Strong were the temptations surrounding them in that corrupt and luxurious court.... The direction that their food should be supplied from the royal table was an expression both of the king's favor and of his solicitude for their welfare. But a portion having been offered to idols, the food from the king's table was consecrated to idolatry; and in partaking of the king's bounty these youth would be regarded as uniting in his homage to false gods.46
CC	246	5	The history of Daniel and his youthful companions has been recorded on the pages of the inspired word for the benefit of the youth of all succeeding ages. Through the record of their fidelity to the principles of temperance, God is speaking today to young men and young women, bidding them gather up the precious rays of light He has given on the subject of Christian temperance, and place themselves in right relation to the laws of health.47
------------------------The Source of Wisdom, August 29
			Daniel 1:17-21
CC	247	1	Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God. 1 Chronicles 22:12.
CC	247	2	In acquiring the wisdom of the Babylonians, Daniel and his companions were far more successful than their fellow students; but their learning did not come by chance.... They placed themselves in connection with the Source of all wisdom, making the knowledge of God the foundation of their education. In faith they prayed for wisdom, and they lived their prayers. They placed themselves where God could bless them. They avoided that which would weaken their powers, and improved every opportunity to become intelligent in all lines of learning. They followed the rules of life that could not fail to give them strength of intellect. They sought to acquire knowledge for one purpose--that they might honor God.... In order to stand as representatives of true religion amid the false religions of heathenism they must have clearness of intellect and must perfect a Christian character. And God Himself was their teacher. Constantly praying, conscientiously studying, keeping in touch with the Unseen, they walked with God as did Enoch.
CC	247	3	True success in any line of work is not the result of chance or accident or destiny. It is the outworking of God's providences, the reward of faith and discretion, of virtue and perseverance. Fine mental qualities and a high moral tone are not the result of accident. God gives opportunities; success depends upon the use made of them....
CC	247	4	His grace is given to work in us to will and to do, but never as a substitute for our effort. As the Lord cooperated with Daniel and his fellows, so He will cooperate with all who strive to do His will. And by the impartation of His Spirit He will strengthen every true purpose, every noble resolution. Those who walk in the path of obedience will encounter many hindrances. Strong, subtle influences may bind them to the world; but the Lord is able to render futile every agency that works for the defeat of His chosen ones; in His strength they may overcome every temptation, conquer every difficulty.48
------------------------No Compromise, August 30
			Daniel 1:17-21
CC	248	1	Them that honour me, I will honour. 1 Samuel 2:30.
CC	248	2	In the experience of Daniel and his companions we have an instance of the triumph of principle over temptation to indulge the appetite. It shows us that through religious principle young men may triumph over the lusts of the flesh, and remain true to God's requirements, even though it costs them a great sacrifice.
CC	248	3	What if Daniel and his companions had made a compromise with those heathen officers, and had yielded to the pressure of the occasion, by eating and drinking as was customary with the Babylonians? That single instance of departure from principle would have weakened their sense of right and their abhorrence of wrong. Indulgence of appetite would have invoked the sacrifice of physical vigor, clearness of intellect, and spiritual power. One wrong step would probably have led to others, until, their connection with Heaven being severed, they would have been swept away by temptation....
CC	248	4	While Daniel clung to his God with unwavering trust, the spirit of prophetic power came upon him. While he was instructed of man in the duties of court life, he was taught of God to read the mysteries of future ages, and to present to coming generations, through figures and similitudes, the wonderful things that would come to pass in the last days.49
CC	248	5	God designed that man should be constantly improving, daily reaching a higher point in the scale of excellence. He will help us, if we seek to help ourselves. Our hope of happiness in two worlds depends upon our improvement in one. At every point we should be guarded against the first approach to intemperance.
CC	248	6	Dear youth, God calls upon you to do a work which through His grace you can do.... Show a purity of tastes, appetite, and habits that bears comparison with Daniel's. God will reward you with calm nerves, a clear brain, an unimpaired judgment, keen perceptions. The youth of today whose principles are firm and unwavering, will be blessed with health of body, mind, and soul.50
------------------------Witnessing, August 31
			Daniel 1
CC	249	1	But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 1 Corinthians 9:27.
CC	249	2	As God called Daniel to witness for Him in Babylon, so He calls us to be His witnesses in the world today. In the smallest as well as the largest affairs of life, He desires us to reveal to men the principles of His kingdom. Many are waiting for some great work to be brought to them, while daily they lose opportunities for revealing faithfulness to God. Daily they fail of discharging with wholeheartedness the little duties of life....
CC	249	3	In the life of the true Christian there are no nonessentials; in the sight of Omnipotence every duty is important. The Lord measures with exactness every possibility for service. The unused capabilities are just as much brought into account as those that are used. We shall be judged by what we ought to have done, but did not accomplish because we did not use our powers to glorify God.
CC	249	4	A noble character is not the result of accident; it is not due to special favors or endowments of Providence. It is the result of self-discipline, of subjection of the lower to the higher nature, of the surrender of self to the service of God and man....
CC	249	5	The body is a most important medium through which the mind and the soul are developed for the upbuilding of character. Hence it is that the adversary of souls directs his temptations to the enfeebling and degrading of the physical powers....
CC	249	6	The body is to be brought into subjection to the higher powers of the being. The passions are to be controlled by the will, which is itself to be under the control of God. The kingly power of reason, sanctified, by divine grace, is to bear sway in the life. Intellectual power, physical stamina, and the length of life depend upon immutable laws. Through obedience to these laws, man may stand conqueror of himself, conqueror of his own inclinations, conqueror of ... "the rulers of the darkness of this world," and of "spiritual wickedness in high places."51
------------------------Under God's Control, September 1
			Daniel 2
CC	250	1	Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: and he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. Daniel 2:20, 21.
CC	250	2	Behold the Jewish captive, calm and self-possessed, in the presence of the monarch of the world's most powerful empire. In his first words he disclaimed honor for himself and exalted God as the source of all wisdom. To the anxious inquiry of the king, "Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?" he replied: "The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king; but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days." ...
CC	250	3	In the annals of human history, the growth of nations, the rise and fall of empires, appear as if dependent on the will and prowess of man; the shaping of events seems, to a great degree, to be determined by his power, ambition, or caprice. But in the word of God the curtain is drawn aside, and we behold, above, behind, and through all the play and counterplay of human interest and power and passions, the agencies of the All-merciful One, silently, patiently working out the counsels of His own will....
CC	250	4	In the history of nations the student of God's word may behold the literal fulfillment of divine prophecy. Babylon, shattered and broken at last, passed away because in prosperity its rulers had regarded themselves as independent of God, and had ascribed the glory of their kingdom to human achievement.... The kingdoms that followed were even more base and corrupt; and these sank lower and still lower in the scale of moral worth.
CC	250	5	The power exercised by every ruler on the earth is Heaven-imparted; and upon his use of the power thus bestowed, his success depends.... To recognize the outworking of these principles in the manifestation of His power who "removeth kings, and setteth up kings"--this is to understand the philosophy of history.1
------------------------Babylon's Leading Citizen, September 2
			Daniel 2:13-30
CC	251	1	There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Daniel 2:28.
CC	251	2	Daniel sought the Lord when the decree went forth to slay all the wise men of the kingdom of Babylon because they could not relate or interpret a dream which had gone from the king's mind. Nebuchadnezzar demanded not only the interpretation of the dream, but the relation of the dream itself.... They declared that the request of the king was... beyond that which had ever been required of any man. The king became furious, and acted like all men who have great power and uncontrollable passions. He decided that every one of them should be put to death, and as Daniel and his fellows were numbered with the wise men, they also were to share this fate.2
CC	251	3	Daniel was imbued with the spirit of Jesus Christ, and he pleaded that the wise men of Babylon should not be destroyed. The followers of Christ do not possess the attributes of Satan, which make it a pleasure to grieve and afflict the creatures of God. They have the spirit of their Master who said, "I am come to seek and to save that which was lost. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." Had Daniel possessed the same quality of religious zeal which is so quickly inflamed today in the churches, and men are led by it to afflict and oppress and destroy those who do not serve God after their prescribed plan, he would have said to Arioch, "These men who claim to be wise men, are deceiving the king. They have not the knowledge they claim to have, and should be destroyed. They dishonor the God of heaven, they serve idols, and their lives in no way do honor to God; let them die; but bring me in before the king and I will show unto the king the interpretation."
CC	251	4	The transforming grace of God was made manifest in His servant, and he pleaded most earnestly for the lives of the very men who afterwards, in a secret, underhanded manner made plans by which they thought to put an end to the life of Daniel. These men became jealous of Daniel because he found favor with kings and nobles, and was honored as the greatest man in Babylon.3
------------------------Four in the Furnace, September 3
			Daniel 3
CC	252	1	Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. Daniel 3:17.
CC	252	2	The Lord did not forget His own. As His witnesses were cast into the furnace, the Saviour revealed Himself to them in person, and together they walked in the midst of the fire. In the presence of the Lord of heat and cold, the flames lost their power to consume.
CC	252	3	From his royal seat the king looked on, expecting to see the men who had defied him utterly destroyed. But his feelings of triumph suddenly changed. The nobles standing near saw his face grow pale as he started from the throne and looked intently into the glowing flames. In alarm the king, turning to his lords, asked, "Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? ... Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."
CC	252	4	How did that heathen king know what the Son of God was like? The Hebrew captives filling positions of trust in Babylon had in life and character represented before him the truth. When asked for a reason of their faith, they had given it without hesitation. Plainly and simply they had presented the principles of righteousness, thus teaching those around them of the God whom they worshiped. They had told of Christ, the Redeemer to come; and in the form of the fourth in the midst of the fire the king recognized the Son of God....
CC	252	5	He who walked with the Hebrew worthies in the fiery furnace will be with His followers wherever they are. His abiding presence will comfort and sustain. In the midst of the time of trouble--trouble such as has not been since there was a nation--His chosen ones will stand unmoved. Satan with all the hosts of evil cannot destroy the weakest of God's saints. Angels that excel in strength will protect them, and in their behalf Jehovah will reveal Himself as a "God of gods," able to save to the uttermost those who have put their trust in Him.4
------------------------Nebuchadnezzar Humiliated, September 4
			Daniel 4
CC	253	1	And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? Daniel 4:35.
CC	253	2	The last dream which God gave to Nebuchadnezzar, and the experience of the king in connection with it, contain lessons of vital importance to all those who are connected with the work of God. The king was troubled with his dream; for it was evidently a prediction of adversity, and none of his wise men would attempt to interpret it. The faithful Daniel stood before the king, not to flatter, not to misinterpret in order to secure favor. A solemn duty rested upon him to tell the king of Babylon the truth....
CC	253	3	Nebuchadnezzar did not heed the heaven-sent message. One year after he had been thus warned, as he walked in his palace, he said within himself, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built ...?" The God of heaven read the heart of the king, and heard its whisperings of self-congratulation.... "There fell a voice from heaven, saying, ... The kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar."5
CC	253	4	For seven years Nebuchadnezzar was an astonishment to all his subjects; for seven years he was humbled before all the world. Then his reason was restored and, looking up in humility to the God of heaven, he recognized the divine hand in his chastisement. In a public proclamation he acknowledged his guilt and the great mercy of God in his restoration....
CC	253	5	God's purpose that the greatest kingdom in the world should show forth His praise was now fulfilled. This public proclamation, in which Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged the mercy and goodness and authority of God, was the last act of his life recorded in sacred history.6
------------------------Daniel, God's Ambassador, September 5
			Daniel 7-12
CC	254	1	Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Daniel 6:4.
CC	254	2	Daniel, the prime minister of the greatest of earthly kingdoms, was at the same time a prophet of God, receiving the light of heavenly inspiration. A man of like passions as ourselves, the pen of inspiration describes him as without fault. His business transactions, when subjected to the closest scrutiny of his enemies, were found to be without one flaw. He was an example of what every businessman may become when his heart is converted and consecrated, and when his motives are right in the sight of God....
CC	254	3	Unwavering in his allegiance to God, unyielding in his mastery of self, Daniel, by his noble dignity and unswerving integrity, while yet a young man, won the "favor and tender love" of the heathen officer in whose charge he had been placed.... He rose speedily to the position of prime minister of the kingdom of Babylon. Through the reign of successive monarchs, the downfall of the nation, and the establishment of another world empire, such were his wisdom and statesmanship, so perfect his tact, his courtesy, his genuine goodness of heart, his fidelity to principle, that even his enemies were forced to the confession that "they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful."
CC	254	4	Honored by men with the responsibilities of state and with the secrets of kingdoms bearing universal sway, Daniel was honored by God as His ambassador, and was given many revelations of the mysteries of ages to come. His wonderful prophecies, as recorded by him in chapters 7 to 12 of the book bearing his name, were not fully understood even by the prophet himself; but before his life labors closed, he was given the blessed assurance that "at the end of the days"--in the closing period of this world's history--he would again be permitted to stand in his lot and place....
CC	254	5	We may, like Daniel and his fellows, live for that which is true and noble and enduring. And learning in this life the principles of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, ... we may be prepared at His coming to enter with Him into its possession.7
------------------------God Sent His Angel, September 6
			Daniel 6:11-28
CC	255	1	Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee. Daniel 6:16.
CC	255	2	Daniel was high in command. The accusing host of evil angels stirred up the presidents and princes to envy and jealousy.... These agents of Satan sought to make his faithfulness to God the cause of his destruction....
CC	255	3	The king was ignorant of the subtle mischief purposed against Daniel. With full knowledge of the king's decree, Daniel still bows before his God, "his windows being open." He considers supplication to God of so great importance that he would rather sacrifice his life than relinquish it.8
CC	255	4	God did not prevent Daniel's enemies from casting him into the lions' den; He permitted evil angels and wicked men thus far to accomplish their purpose; but it was that He might make the deliverance of His servant more marked, and the defeat of the enemies of truth and righteousness more complete.... Through the courage of this one man who chose to follow right rather than policy, Satan was to be defeated, and the name of God was to be exalted and honored.
CC	255	5	Early the next morning King Darius hastened to the den and "cried with a lamentable voice," "O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?"
CC	255	6	The voice of the prophet replied: "O king, live forever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me." ...
CC	255	7	Daniel in the lions' den was the same Daniel who stood before the king as chief among the ministers of state and as a prophet of the Most High. A man whose heart is stayed upon God will be the same in the hour of his greatest trial as he is in prosperity, when the light and favor of God and of man beam upon him.... The power that is near to deliver from physical harm or distress is also near to save from the greater evil, making it possible for the servant of God to maintain his integrity under all circumstances, and to triumph through divine grace.9
------------------------Burden-Sharing, September 7
			Daniel 9:1-14
CC	256	1	And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession. Daniel 9:3, 4.
CC	256	2	Burdened in behalf of Israel, Daniel studied anew the prophecies of Jeremiah. They were very plain--so plain that he understood by these testimonies recorded in books "the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem."
CC	256	3	With faith founded on the sure word of prophecy, Daniel pleaded with the Lord for the speedy fulfillment of these promises. He pleaded for the honor of God to be preserved. In his petition he identified himself fully with those who had fallen short of the divine purpose, confessing their sins as his own.10
CC	256	4	What a prayer was that which came forth from the lips of Daniel! What humbling of soul it reveals! The warmth of heavenly fire was recognized in the words that were going upward to God. Heaven responded to that prayer by sending its messenger to Daniel. In this our day, prayers offered in like manner will prevail with God. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." As in ancient times, when prayer was offered, fire descended from heaven, and consumed the sacrifice upon the altar, so in answer to our prayers, the heavenly fire will come into our souls. The light and power of the Holy Spirit will be ours....
CC	256	5	Have not we as great need to call upon God as had Daniel? I address those who believe that we are living in the very last period of this earth's history. I entreat you to take upon your own souls a burden for our churches, our schools, and our institutions. That God who heard Daniel's prayer will hear ours when we come to Him in contrition. Our necessities are as urgent, our difficulties are as great, and we need to have the same intensity of purpose, and in faith roll our burden upon the great Burden-bearer. There is need for hearts to be as deeply moved in our time as in the time when Daniel prayed.11
------------------------God's Hand on the Machinery, September 8
			Ezra 1; Isaiah 45:1-6
CC	257	1	That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid. Isaiah 44:28.
CC	257	2	The Lord has resources. His hand is on the machinery. When the time came for His temple to be rebuilt, He moved upon Cyrus as His agent to discern the prophecies concerning Himself, and to grant the Jewish people their liberty.12
CC	257	3	The deliverance of Daniel from the den of lions had been used of God to create a favorable impression upon the mind of Cyrus the Great....
CC	257	4	As the king saw the words foretelling, more than a hundred years before his birth, the manner in which Babylon should be taken; as he read the message addressed to him by the Ruler of the universe, ... his heart was profoundly moved, and he determined to fulfill his divinely appointed mission. He would let the Judean captives go free; he would help them restore the temple of Jehovah. In a written proclamation published "throughout all his kingdom," Cyrus made known his desire to provide for the return of the Hebrews and for the rebuilding of their temple....
CC	257	5	Tidings of this decree reached the farthermost provinces of the king's realm, and everywhere among the children of the dispersion there was great rejoicing. Many, like Daniel, had been studying the prophecies, and had been asking God for His promised intervention in behalf of Zion....
CC	257	6	Upon Zerubbabel ... Cyrus placed the responsibility of acting as governor of the company returning to Judea; and with him was associated Joshua the high priest. The long journey across the desert wastes was accomplished in safety, and the happy company ... at once undertook the work of re-establishing that which had been broken down and destroyed.13
CC	257	7	The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. All kings, all nations, are His, under His rule and government. His resources are infinite. The wise man declares, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will." Those upon whose actions hang the destinies of nations, are watched over with a vigilance that knows no relaxation by Him who "giveth salvation unto kings."14
------------------------Obstacles a Test of Faith, September 9
			Ezra 4:6-24
CC	258	1	For who hath despised the day of small things? Zechariah 4:10.
CC	258	2	In rebuilding the house of the Lord, Zerubbabel had labored in the face of manifold difficulties. From the beginning, adversaries had "weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building," "and made them to cease by force and power." But the Lord had interposed in behalf of the builders, and now He spoke through His prophet to Zerubbabel, saying, "Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." ...
CC	258	3	Throughout the history of God's people great mountains of difficulty, apparently insurmountable, have loomed up before those who were trying to carry out the purposes of Heaven. Such obstacles are permitted by the Lord as a test of faith. When we are hedged about on every side, this is the time above all others to trust in God and in the power of His Spirit. The exercise of a living faith means an increase of spiritual strength and the development of an unfaltering trust. It is thus that the soul becomes a conquering power. Before the demand of faith, the obstacles placed by Satan across the pathway of the Christian will disappear; for the powers of heaven will come to his aid. "Nothing shall be impossible unto you."
CC	258	4	The way of the world is to begin with pomp and boasting. God's way is to make the day of small things the beginning of the glorious triumph of truth and righteousness. Sometimes He trains His workers by bringing to them disappointment and apparent failure. It is His purpose that they shall learn to master difficulties.
CC	258	5	Often men are tempted to falter before the perplexities and obstacles that confront them. But if they will hold the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end, God will make the way clear.... Before the intrepid spirit and unwavering faith of a Zerubbabel, great mountains of difficulty will become a plain; and he whose hands have laid the foundation, even "his hands shall also finish it."15
------------------------Ezra, Student and Teacher, September 10
CC	259	1	Ezra ... prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it. Ezra 7:10.
CC	259	2	Born of the sons of Aaron, Ezra had been given a priestly training; and in addition to this he had acquired a familiarity with the writings of the magicians, the astrologers, and the wise men of the Medo-Persian realm. But he was not satisfied with his spiritual condition. He longed to be in full harmony with God; he longed for wisdom to carry out the divine will.... This led him to apply himself diligently to a study of the history of God's people, as recorded in the writings of prophets and kings. He searched the historical and poetical books of the Bible to learn why the Lord had permitted Jerusalem to be destroyed and His people carried captive into a heathen land....
CC	259	3	He studied the instruction given at Mount Sinai and through the long period of wilderness wandering. As he learned more and still more concerning God's dealings with His children, and comprehended the sacredness of the law given at Sinai, Ezra's heart was stirred. He experienced a new and thorough conversion and determined to master the records of sacred history, that he might use this knowledge to bring blessing and light to his people.
CC	259	4	Ezra endeavored to gain a heart preparation for the work he believed was before him. He sought God earnestly, that he might be a wise teacher in Israel. As he learned to yield mind and will to divine control, there were brought into his life the principles of true sanctification, which, in later years, had a molding influence, not only upon the youth who sought his instruction, but upon all others associated with Him....
CC	259	5	Ezra became a mouthpiece for God, educating those about him in the principles that govern heaven.... Whether near the court of the king of Medo-Persia or at Jerusalem, his principal work was that of a teacher. As he communicated to others the truths he learned, his capacity for labor increased. He became a man of piety and zeal. He was the Lord's witness to the world of the power of Bible truth to ennoble the daily life.16
------------------------Knowledge Requires Action, September 11
CC	260	1	Ezra ... was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given. Ezra 7:6.
CC	260	2	More than two thousand years have passed since Ezra "prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it," yet the lapse of time has not lessened the influence of his pious example. Through the centuries the record of his life of consecration has inspired many with the determination "to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it."
CC	260	3	Ezra's motives were high and holy; in all that he did he was actuated by a deep love for souls. The compassion and tenderness that he revealed toward those who had sinned, either willfully or through ignorance, should be an object lesson to all who seek to bring about reforms....
CC	260	4	There is no such thing as weakening or strengthening the law of Jehovah. As it has been, so it is. It always has been, and always will be, holy, just, and good, complete in itself. It cannot be repealed or changed. To "honor" or "dishonor" it is but the speech of men....
CC	260	5	Christians should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise, and this preparation they should make by diligently studying the word of God and striving to conform their lives to its precepts. The tremendous issues of eternity demand of us something besides an imaginary religion, a religion of words and forms, where truth is kept in the outer court....
CC	260	6	If the saints of the Old Testament bore so bright a testimony of loyalty, should not those upon whom is shining the accumulated light of centuries, bear a still more signal witness to the power of truth?17
CC	260	7	Shall we let the example of Ezra teach us the use we should make of our knowledge of the Scriptures? The life of this servant of God should be an inspiration to us to serve the Lord with heart and mind and strength. We each have an appointed work to do, and this can be accomplished only by consecrated effort. We need first to set ourselves to know the requirements of God, and then to practice them. Then we can sow seeds of truth that will bear fruit unto eternal life.18
------------------------God Their Protector, September 12
			Ezra 7; Ezra 8
CC	261	1	For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. Ezra 8:22.
CC	261	2	Ezra's faith that God would do a mighty work for His people, led him to tell Artaxerxes of his desire to return to Jerusalem to revive an interest in the study of God's word and to assist his brethren in restoring the holy city. As Ezra declared his perfect trust in the God of Israel as one abundantly able to protect and care for His people, the king was deeply impressed.... He made him a special representative of the Medo-Persian kingdom, and conferred on him extensive powers for the carrying out of the purposes that were in his heart....
CC	261	3	Thus again the children of the dispersion were given opportunity to return to the land with the possession of which were linked the promises to the house of Israel....
CC	261	4	Before them was a journey that would occupy several months. The men were taking with them their wives and children, and their substance, besides large treasure for the temple and its service. Ezra was aware that enemies lay in wait by the way, ready to plunder and destroy him and his company; yet he had asked from the king no armed force for protection....
CC	261	5	In this matter, Ezra and his companions saw an opportunity to magnify the name of God before the heathen. Faith in the power of the living God would be strengthened if the Israelites themselves should now reveal implicit faith in their divine Leader. They therefore determined to put their trust wholly in Him. They would ask for no guard of soldiers. They would give the heathen no occasion to ascribe to the strength of man the glory that belongs to God alone. They could not afford to arouse in the minds of their heathen friends one doubt as to the sincerity of their dependence on God as His people.... Only by keeping the law of the Lord before them, and striving to obey it, would they be protected.... "So we fasted and besought our God for this: and He was entreated of us."19
------------------------A Holy Purpose, September 13
			Nehemiah 1
CC	262	1	O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, ... and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Nehemiah 1:11.
CC	262	2	Nehemiah, one of the Hebrew exiles, occupied a position of influence and honor in the Persian court. As cupbearer to the king he was admitted freely to the royal presence.... Through this man ... God purposed to bring blessing to His people in the land of their fathers....
CC	262	3	The Hebrew patriot learned that days of trial had come to Jerusalem, the chosen city. The returned exiles were suffering affliction and reproach.... The work of restoration was hindered, the temple services were disturbed, and the people kept in constant alarm by the fact that the walls of the city were still largely in ruins....
CC	262	4	Nehemiah had often poured out his soul in behalf of his people. But now as he prayed a holy purpose formed in his mind. He resolved that if he could obtain the consent of the king, and the necessary aid in procuring implements and material, he would himself undertake the task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem....
CC	262	5	Four months Nehemiah waited for a favorable opportunity to present his request to the king.... He had a sacred trust to fulfill, in which he required help from the king; and he realized that much depended upon his presenting the matter in such a way as to win his approval and enlist his aid. "I prayed," he said, "to the God of heaven." In that brief prayer, Nehemiah pressed into the presence of the King of kings and won to his side a power that can turn hearts as the rivers of waters are turned.
CC	262	6	To pray as Nehemiah prayed in his hour of need is a resource at the command of the Christian under circumstances when other forms of prayer may be impossible.... In times of sudden difficulty or peril the heart may send up its cry for help to One who has pledged Himself to come to the aid of His faithful, believing ones whenever they call upon Him. In every circumstance, under every condition, the soul weighed down with grief and care, or fiercely assailed by temptation, may find assurance, support, and succor in the unfailing love and power of a covenant-keeping God.20
------------------------A Man of Action, September 14
			Nehemiah 2:1-8
CC	263	1	It pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. Nehemiah 2:6.
CC	263	2	While Nehemiah implored the help of God, he did not fold his own hands, feeling that he had no more care or responsibility in the bringing about of his purpose to restore Jerusalem. With admirable prudence and forethought he proceeded to make all the arrangements necessary to insure the success of the enterprise....
CC	263	3	The example of this holy man should be a lesson to all the people of God, that they are not only to pray in faith, but to work with diligence and fidelity. How many difficulties we encounter, how often we hinder the working of Providence in our behalf, because prudence, forethought, and painstaking are regarded as having little to do with religion! This is a grave mistake. It is our duty to cultivate and to exercise every power that will render us more efficient workers for God. Careful consideration and well-matured plans are as essential to the success of sacred enterprises today as in the time of Nehemiah.... Men of prayer should be men of action. Those who are ready and willing, will find ways and means of working. Nehemiah did not depend upon uncertainties. The means which he lacked he solicited from those who were able to bestow.
CC	263	4	The Lord still moves upon the hearts of kings and rulers in behalf of His people. Those who are laboring for Him are to avail themselves of the help that He prompts men to give for the advancements of His cause.... These men may have no sympathy with God's work, no faith in Christ, no acquaintance with His word; but their gifts are not on this account to be refused....
CC	263	5	As long as we are in this world, as long as the Spirit of God strives with the children of men, so long are we to receive favors as well as to impart them. We are to give to the world the light of truth, as revealed in the Scriptures; and we are to receive from the world that which God moves upon them to give in behalf of His cause.... O that Christians might realize more and still more fully that it is their privilege and their duty, while cherishing right principles, to take advantage of every Heaven-sent opportunity for advancing God's kingdom in this world!21
------------------------Let Us Build, September 15
			Nehemiah 2:9-20
CC	264	1	Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me ... and they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work. Nehemiah 2:18.
CC	264	2	With sorrow-stricken heart, the visitor from afar gazed upon the ruined defenses of his loved Jerusalem. And is it not thus that angels of heaven survey the condition of the church of Christ? Like the dwellers at Jerusalem, we become accustomed to existing evils, and often are content while making no effort to remedy them. But how are these evils regarded by beings divinely illuminated? Do not they, like Nehemiah, look with sorrow-burdened heart upon ruined walls, and gates burned with fire?22
CC	264	3	Nehemiah bore a royal commission requiring the inhabitants to cooperate with him in rebuilding the walls of the city, but he did not depend upon the exercise of authority. He sought rather to gain the confidence and sympathy of the people, knowing that a union of hearts as well as of hands was essential in the great work before him.23
CC	264	4	There is need of Nehemiahs in the church today,--not men who can pray and preach only, but men whose prayers and sermons are braced with firm and eager purpose.... The success attending Nehemiah's efforts shows what prayer, faith, and wise, energetic action will accomplish.... The spirit manifested by the leader will be, to a great extent, reflected by the people. If the leaders professing to believe the solemn, important truths that are to test the world at this time, manifest no ardent zeal to prepare a people to stand in the day of God, we must expect the church to be careless, indolent, and pleasure-loving.24
CC	264	5	Nehemiah was a reformer, a great man raised up for an important time. As he came in contact with evil and every kind of opposition, fresh courage and zeal were aroused. His energy and determination inspired the people of Jerusalem; and strength and courage took the place of feebleness and discouragement. His holy purpose, his high hope, his cheerful consecration to the work, were contagious. The people caught the enthusiasm of their leader, and in his sphere each man became a Nehemiah, and helped to make stronger the hand and heart of his neighbor.25
------------------------Uninvolved, September 16
			Nehemiah 3
CC	265	1	And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord. Nehemiah 3:5.
CC	265	2	Among the first to catch Nehemiah's spirit of zeal and earnestness were the priests. Because of their influential position, these men could do much to advance or hinder the work; and their ready co-operation at the very outset, contributed not a little to its success. The majority of the princes and rulers of Israel came up nobly to their duty, and these faithful men have honorable mention in the book of God. There were a few, the Tekoite nobles, who "put not their necks to the work of their Lord," The memory of these slothful servants is branded with shame and has been handed down as a warning to all future generations.
CC	265	3	In every religious movement there are some who, while they cannot deny that the cause is God's, still hold themselves aloof, refusing to make any effort to help. It were well for such ones to remember the record kept on high--that book in which there are no omissions, no mistakes, and out of which they will be judged. There every neglected opportunity to do service for God is recorded; and there, too, every deed of faith and love is held in everlasting remembrance.
CC	265	4	Against the inspiring influence of Nehemiah's presence the example of the Tekoite nobles had little weight. The people in general were animated by patriotism and zeal. Men of ability and influence organized the various classes of citizens into companies, each leader making himself responsible for the erection of a certain part of the wall. And of some it is written that they builded "everyone over against his house."
CC	265	5	Nor did Nehemiah's energy abate, now that the work was actually begun. With tireless vigilance he superintended the building, directing the workmen, noting the hindrance, and providing for emergencies.... In his many activities Nehemiah did not forget the source of his strength. His heart was constantly uplifted to God, the great Overseer of all. "The God of heaven," he exclaimed, "He will prosper us;" and the words, echoed and re-echoed, thrilled the hearts of all the workers on the wall.26
------------------------Unholy Alliance, September 17
			Nehemiah 4
CC	266	1	Our God shall fight for us. Nehemiah 4:20.
CC	266	2	The restoration of the defenses of Jerusalem did not go forward unhindered. Satan was working to stir up opposition, and bring discouragement.... But taunts and ridicule, opposition and threats, seemed only to inspire Nehemiah with firmer determination and to arouse him to greater watchfulness. He recognized the dangers that must be met in this warfare with their enemies, but his courage was undaunted. "We made our prayer unto our God," he declares, "and set a watch against them day and night." ...
CC	266	3	Beside Nehemiah stood a trumpeter, and on different parts of the wall were stationed priests bearing the sacred trumpets. The people were scattered in their labors; but on the approach of danger at any point, a signal was given for them to repair thither without delay. "So we labored in the work," Nehemiah says, "and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared." ... Nehemiah and his companions did not shrink from hardship or trying service. Neither by day nor night, not even during the short time given to sleep, did they put off their clothing, or lay aside their armor.
CC	266	4	The opposition and discouragement that the builders in Nehemiah's day met from open enemies and pretended friends is typical of the experience that those today will have who work for God. Christians are tried, not only by the anger, contempt, and cruelty of enemies, but by the indolence, inconsistency, lukewarmness, and treachery of avowed friends and helpers....
CC	266	5	Satan takes advantage of every unconsecrated element for the accomplishment of his purposes. Among those who profess to be the supporters of God's cause there are those who unite with His enemies and thus lay His cause open to the attacks of His bitterest foes. Even some who desire the work of God to prosper will yet weaken the hands of His servants by hearing, reporting, and half believing the slanders, boasts, and menaces of His adversaries.... The response of faith today will be the response made by Nehemiah, "Our God shall fight for us;" for God is in the work, and no man can prevent its ultimate success.27
------------------------Remember the Poor, September 18
			Nehemiah 5:1-13
CC	267	1	If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, ... thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need. Deuteronomy 15:7, 8.
CC	267	2	At times following the return of the exiles from Babylon, the wealthy Jews had gone directly contrary to these commands. When the poor were obliged to borrow to pay tribute to the king, the wealthy had lent them money, but had exacted a high rate of interest. By taking mortgages on the lands of the poor, they had gradually reduced the unfortunate debtors to the deepest poverty. Many had been forced to sell their sons and daughters into servitude; and there seemed no hope of improving their condition, no way to redeem either their children or their lands, no prospect before them but ever-increasing distress, with perpetual want and bondage. Yet they were of the same nation, children of the same covenant, as their more favored brethren....
CC	267	3	As Nehemiah heard of this cruel oppression, his soul was filled with indignation.... He saw that if he succeeded in breaking up the oppressive custom of exaction he must take a decided stand for justice. With characteristic energy and determination he went to work to bring relief to his brethren.
CC	267	4	The fact that the oppressors were men of wealth, whose support was greatly needed in the work of restoring the city, did not for a moment influence Nehemiah. He sharply rebuked the nobles and rulers, and when he had gathered a great assembly of the people he set before them the requirements of God touching the case....
CC	267	5	This record teaches an important lesson. "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10). In this generation the desire for gain is the absorbing passion.... We were all debtors to divine justice, but we had nothing with which to pay the debt. Then the Son of God, who pitied us, paid the price of our redemption. He became poor that through His poverty we might be rich. By deeds of liberality toward His poor we may prove the sincerity of our gratitude for the mercy extended to us.28
------------------------"I Cannot Come Down", September 19
			Nehemiah 6
CC	268	1	I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you? Nehemiah 6:3.
CC	268	2	Nehemiah was chosen by God because he was willing to cooperate with the Lord as a restorer.... When he saw wrong principles being acted upon, he did not stand by as an onlooker, and by his silence give consent. He did not leave the people to conclude that he was standing on the wrong side. He took a firm, unyielding stand for the right.29
CC	268	3	Every device that the prince of darkness can suggest will be employed to induce God's servants to form a confederacy with the agents of Satan.... Like Nehemiah, they should steadfastly reply, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down." God's workers may safely keep on with their work, letting their efforts refute the falsehoods that malice may coin for their injury. Like the builders on the walls of Jerusalem they must refuse to be diverted from their work by threats or mockery....
CC	268	4	As the time of the end draws near, Satan's temptations will be brought to bear with greater power upon God's workers. He will employ human agents to mock and revile those who "build the wall." But should the builders come down to meet the attacks of their foes, this would but retard the work. They should endeavor to defeat the purposes of their adversaries, but they should not allow anything to call them from their work. Truth is stronger than error, and right will prevail over wrong.... In Nehemiah's firm devotion to the work of God, and his equally firm reliance on God, lay the reason of the failure of his enemies to draw him into their power. The soul that is indolent falls an easy prey to temptation; but in the life that has a noble aim, an absorbing purpose, evil finds little foothold....
CC	268	5	God has provided divine assistance for all the emergencies to which our human resources are unequal. He gives the Holy Spirit to help in every strait, to strengthen our hope and assurance, to illuminate our minds and purify our hearts. He provides opportunities and opens channels of working. If His people are watching the indications of His providence, and are ready to co-operate with Him, they will see mighty results.30
------------------------Build--Repair--Restore, September 20
CC	269	1	They that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12.
CC	269	2	In the work of reform to be carried forward today, there is need of men who, like Ezra and Nehemiah, will not palliate or excuse sin, nor shrink from vindicating the honor of God. Those upon whom rests the burden of this work will not hold their peace when wrong is done, neither will they cover evil with a cloak of false charity. They will remember that God is no respecter of persons, and that severity to a few may prove mercy to many. They will remember also that in the one who rebukes evil the spirit of Christ should ever be revealed.
CC	269	3	In their work, Ezra and Nehemiah humbled themselves before God, confessing their sins and the sins of their people, and entreating pardon as if they themselves were the offenders.... Nehemiah was not a priest; he was not a prophet; he made no pretension to high title. He was a reformer raised up for an important time. It was his aim to set his people right with God. Inspired with a great purpose, he bent every energy of his being to its accomplishment.... As he came into contact with evil and opposition to right he took so determined a stand that the people were roused to labor with fresh zeal and courage....
CC	269	4	The work of restoration and reform carried on by the returned exiles, under the leadership of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, presents a picture of a work of spiritual restoration that is to be wrought in the closing days of this earth's history.... God's remnant people, standing before the world as reformers, are to show that the law of God is the foundation of all enduring reform and that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is to stand as a memorial of creation, a constant reminder of the power of God. In clear, distinct lines they are to present the necessity of obedience to all the precepts of the Decalogue. Constrained by the love of Christ, they are to co-operate with Him in building up the waste places. They are to be repairers of the breach, restorers of paths to dwell in.31
------------------------One of God's Great Men, September 21
			Luke 1:13-24; Luke 1:57-80
CC	270	1	He will be one of God's great men; he will touch neither wine nor strong drink and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment of his birth. Luke 1:15, Phillips.
CC	270	2	On heaven's record of noble men the Saviour declared that there stood not one greater than John the Baptist. The work committed to him was one demanding not only physical energy and endurance, but the highest qualities of mind and soul. So important was right physical training as a preparation for this work that the highest angel in heaven was sent with a message of instruction to the parents of the child.32
CC	270	3	They were to faithfully co-operate with God in forming such a character in John as would fit him to perform the part God had assigned him.... John was the son of their old age, he was a child of miracle, and the parents might have reasoned that he had a special work to do for the Lord and the Lord would take care of him. But the parents did not thus reason; they moved to a retired place in the country, where their son would not be exposed to the temptations of city life, or induced to depart from the counsel and instruction which they as parents would give him.33
CC	270	4	In the wilderness, John could the more readily deny himself and bring his appetite under control, and dress in accordance to natural simplicity. And there was nothing in the wilderness that would take his mind from meditation and prayer. Satan had access to John, even after he had closed every avenue in his power through which he would enter. But his habits of life were so pure and natural that he could discern the foe, and had strength of spirit and decision of character to resist him.
CC	270	5	The book of nature was open before John with its inexhaustible store of varied instruction. He sought the favor of God, and the Holy Spirit rested upon him, and kindled in his heart a glowing zeal to do the great work of calling the people to repentance, and to a higher and holier life. John was fitting himself, by the privations and hardships of his secluded life, to so control all his physical and mental powers that he could stand among the people as unmoved by surrounding circumstances as the rocks and mountains of the wilderness that had surrounded him for thirty years.34
------------------------In the Spirit of Elijah, September 22
			Luke 1:5-23
CC	271	1	He will go out before God in the spirit and power of Elijah--to reconcile fathers and children, and bring back the disobedient to the wisdom of good men--and he will make a people fully ready for their Lord. Luke 1:17, Phillips.
CC	271	2	God had called the son of Zacharias to a great work, the greatest ever committed to men.... John was to go forth as Jehovah's messenger, to bring to men the light of God. He must give a new direction to their thoughts. He must impress them with the holiness of God's requirements, and their need of His perfect righteousness. Such a messenger must be holy. He must be a temple for the indwelling Spirit of God. In order to fulfill his mission, he must have a sound physical constitution, and mental and spiritual strength. Therefore it would be necessary for him to control the appetites and passions. He must be able so to control all his powers that he could stand among men as unmoved by surrounding circumstances as the rocks and mountains of the wilderness.
CC	271	3	In the time of John the Baptist, greed for riches, and the love of luxury and display had become widespread. Sensuous pleasures, feasting and drinking, were causing physical disease and degeneracy, benumbing the spiritual perceptions, and lessening the sensibility to sin. John was to stand as a reformer. By his abstemious life and plain dress he was to rebuke the excesses of his time. Hence the directions given to the parents of John,--a lesson of temperance by an angel from the throne of heaven....
CC	271	4	In preparing the way for Christ's first advent, he was a representative of those who are to prepare a people for our Lord's second coming. The world is given to self-indulgence. Errors and fables abound. Satan's snares for destroying are multiplied. All who would perfect holiness in the fear of God must learn the lessons of temperance and self-control. The appetites and passions must be held in subjection to the higher powers of the mind. This self-discipline is essential to that mental strength and spiritual insight which will enable us to understand and to practice the sacred truths of God's word. For this reason temperance finds its place in the work of preparation for Christ's second coming.35
------------------------A Straight Message, September 23
			Luke 1:80; Matthew 3:1-6
CC	272	1	Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Amos 4:12, last part.
CC	272	2	John the Baptist in his desert life was taught of God. He studied the revelations of God in nature. Under the guiding of the divine Spirit, he studied the scrolls of the prophets. By day and by night, Christ was his study, his meditation, until mind and heart and soul were filled with the glorious vision. He looked upon the King in His beauty, and self was lost sight of. He beheld the majesty of holiness, and knew himself to be inefficient and unworthy. It was God's message that he was to declare. It was in God's power and His righteousness that he was to stand. He was ready to go forth as Heaven's messenger, unawed by the human, because he had looked upon the Divine....
CC	272	3	With no elaborate arguments or fine-spun theories did John declare his message. Startling and stern, yet full of hope, his voice was heard from the wilderness, "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." ... Unlearned peasants and fishermen from the surrounding country; the Roman soldiers from the barracks of Herod; chieftains with their swords at their sides, ready to put down anything that might savor of rebellion; the avaricious tax-gatherers from their toll-booths; and from the Sanhedrim the phylactered priests,--all listened as if spellbound; and all ... went away ... cut to the heart with a sense of their sins....
CC	272	4	In this age, just prior to the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, such a work as that of John is to be done. God calls for men who will prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord.... As a people who believe in Christ's soon coming, we have a message to bear,--"prepare to meet thy God." Our message must be as direct as was the message of John. He rebuked kings for their iniquity. Notwithstanding that his life was imperiled, he did not hesitate to declare God's word. And our work in this age must be done as faithfully.
CC	272	5	In order to give such a message as John gave, we must have a spiritual experience like his. The same work must be wrought in us. We must behold God, and in beholding Him, lose sight of self.36
------------------------A Living Sacrifice, September 24
			Luke 1:13-15; Luke 3:1-9
CC	273	1	With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Romans 12:1, Phillips.
CC	273	2	The Lord has been calling the attention of His people to health reform. This is one of the great branches of the work of preparation for the coming of the Son of man. John the Baptist went forth in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord....
CC	273	3	John separated himself from friends and from the luxuries of life. The simplicity of his dress, a garment woven of camel's hair, was a standing rebuke to the extravagance and display of the Jewish priests, and of the people generally. His diet, purely vegetable, of locusts and wild honey, was a rebuke to the indulgence of appetite and the gluttony that everywhere prevailed.... Those who are to prepare the way for the second coming of Christ are represented by faithful Elijah, as John came in the spirit of Elijah to prepare the way for Christ's first advent. The great subject of reform is to be agitated.... Temperance in all things is to be connected with the message, to turn the people of God from their idolatry, their gluttony, and their extravagance in dress and other things.
CC	273	4	The self-denial, humility, and temperance required of the righteous, whom God especially leads and blesses, is to be presented to the people in contrast to the extravagant, health-destroying habits of those who live in this degenerate age.... There is nowhere to be found so great a cause of physical and moral degeneracy as a neglect of this important subject. Those who indulge appetite and passion, and close their eyes to the light for fear they will see sinful indulgences which they are unwilling to forsake, are guilty before God. Whoever turns from the light in one instance hardens his heart to disregard the light upon other matters. Whoever violates moral obligations in the matter of eating and dressing prepares the way to violate the claims of God in regard to eternal interests. Our bodies are not our own. God has claims upon us to take care of the habitation He has given us, that we may present our bodies to Him a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable.37
------------------------Ready to Step Aside, September 25
			Matthew 3:1-12
CC	274	1	Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29.
CC	274	2	For a time the Baptist's influence over the nation had been greater than that of its rulers, priests, or princes. If he had announced himself as the Messiah, and raised a revolt against Rome, priests and people would have flocked to his standard. Every consideration that appeals to the ambition of the world's conquerors Satan had stood ready to urge upon John the Baptist. But with the evidence before him of his power, he had steadfastly refused the splendid bribe. The attention which was fixed upon him he had directed to Another. Now he saw the tide of popularity turning away from himself to the Saviour. Day by day the crowds about him lessened....
CC	274	3	The disciples of John came to him ... saying, "Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him." Through these words, Satan brought temptation upon John. Though John's mission seemed about to close, it was still possible for him to hinder the work of Christ. If he had sympathized with himself, and expressed grief or disappointment at being superseded, he would have sown the seeds of dissension, would have encouraged envy and jealousy, and would seriously have impeded the progress of the gospel.
CC	274	4	John had by nature the faults and weaknesses common to humanity, but the touch of divine love had transformed him. He dwelt in an atmosphere uncontaminated with selfishness and ambition, and far above the miasma of jealousy.... It was his joy to witness the success of the Saviour's work....
CC	274	5	Looking in faith to the Redeemer, John had risen to the height of self-abnegation. He sought not to attract men to himself, but to lift their thoughts higher and still higher, until they should rest upon the Lamb of God. He himself had been only a voice, a cry in the wilderness. Now with joy he accepted silence and obscurity that the eyes of all might be turned to the Light of life. Those who are true to their calling as messengers for God will not seek honor for themselves. Love for self will be swallowed up in love for Christ.38
------------------------I Must Decrease, September 26
			John 3:23-36
CC	275	1	That is why my happiness is now complete. He must grow greater and greater and I less and less. John 3:29, 30, Phillips.
CC	275	2	In every stage of this earth's history God has had His agencies to carry forward His work.... John the Baptist had a special work, for which he was born and to which he was appointed--the work of preparing the way of the Lord.39
CC	275	3	When, after Christ's ministry began, the disciples of John came to him with the complaint that all men were following the new Teacher, John showed how clearly he understood his relation to the Messiah, and how gladly he welcomed the One for whom he had prepared the way.40
CC	275	4	John had been called to lead out as a reformer. Because of this, his disciples were in danger of fixing their attention upon him ... and losing sight of the fact that he was only an instrument through which God had wrought. But the work of John was not sufficient to lay the foundation of the Christian church. When he had fulfilled his mission, another work was to be done, which his testimony could not accomplish. His disciples did not understand this. When they saw Christ coming in to take the work, they were jealous and dissatisfied.
CC	275	5	The same dangers still exist. God calls a man to do a certain work; and when he has carried it as far as he is qualified to take it, the Lord brings in others, to carry it still farther. But, like John's disciples, many feel that the success of the work depends on the first laborer. Attention is fixed upon the human instead of the divine, jealousy comes in, and the work of God is marred. The one thus unduly honored is tempted to cherish self-confidence. He does not realize his dependence on God. The people are taught to rely on man for guidance, ... and are led away from God.
CC	275	6	The work of God is not to bear the image and superscription of man. From time to time the Lord will bring in different agencies, through whom His purpose can best be accomplished. Happy are they who are willing for self to be humbled, saying with John the Baptist, "He must increase, but I must decrease."41
------------------------What Made Him Great? September 27
			Matthew 11:7-15
CC	276	1	Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Matthew 11:11.
CC	276	2	What was it that made John the Baptist great? He closed his mind to the mass of tradition presented by the teachers of the Jewish nation, and opened it to the wisdom which comes from above.42
CC	276	3	John the Baptist was not fitted for his high calling as the forerunner of Christ by association with the great men of the nation in the schools of Jerusalem. He went out into the wilderness, where the customs and doctrines of men could not mold his mind, and where he could hold unobstructed communion with God.43
CC	276	4	John the Baptist was a man filled with the Holy Ghost from his birth, and if there was anyone who could remain unaffected by the corrupting influences of the age in which he lived, it was surely he. Yet he did not venture to trust his strength; he separated himself from his friends and relatives, that his natural affections might not prove a snare to him. He would not place himself unnecessarily in the way of temptation nor where the luxuries or even the conveniences of life would lead him to indulge in ease or to gratify his appetite, and thus lessen his physical and mental strength....
CC	276	5	He subjected himself to privation and solitude in the wilderness, where he could preserve the sacred sense of the majesty of God by studying His great book of nature.... It was an atmosphere calculated to perfect moral culture and to keep the fear of the Lord continually before him. John, the forerunner of Christ, did not expose himself to evil conversation and the corrupting influences of the world. He feared the effect upon his conscience, that sin might not appear to him so exceedingly sinful. He chose rather to have his home in the wilderness, where his senses would not be perverted by his surroundings. Should we not learn something from this example of one whom Christ honored and of whom He said: "Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist"?44
------------------------In Prison for Christ's Sake, September 28
			Matthew 11:1-6; Matthew 14:3
CC	277	1	For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Philippians 1:29.
CC	277	2	John the Baptist had been first in heralding Christ's kingdom, and he was also first in suffering.... He was now shut in by the walls of a dungeon cell.... As week after week passed, bringing no change, despondency and doubt crept over him. His disciples did not forsake him.... But they questioned why, if this new teacher was the Messiah, He did nothing to effect John's release....
CC	277	3	Like the Saviour's disciples, John the Baptist did not understand the nature of Christ's kingdom. He expected Jesus to take the throne of David; and as time passed, and the Saviour made no claim to kingly authority, John became perplexed and troubled.... There were hours when the whisperings of demons tortured his spirit, and the shadow of a terrible fear crept over him. Could it be that the long-hoped-for Deliverer had not yet appeared? ...
CC	277	4	But the Baptist did not surrender his faith in Christ.... He determined to send a message of inquiry to Jesus. This he entrusted to two of his disciples.... The disciples came to Jesus with their message, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" ... The Saviour did not at once answer the disciples' question. As they stood wondering at His silence, the sick and afflicted were coming to Him to be healed.... While He healed their diseases, He taught the people....
CC	277	5	Thus the day wore away, the disciples of John seeing and hearing all. At last Jesus called them to Him, and bade them go and tell John what they had witnessed.... The evidence of His divinity was seen in its adaptation to the needs of suffering humanity....
CC	277	6	The disciples bore the message, and it was enough.... The works of Christ not only declared Him to be the Messiah, but showed in what manner His kingdom was to be established.... Understanding more clearly now the nature of Christ's mission, he [John] yielded himself to God for life or for death, as should best serve the interests of the cause he loved.45
------------------------The Highest Honor, September 29
			Matthew 14:3-12
CC	278	1	And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28.
CC	278	2	To many minds a deep mystery surrounds the fate of John the Baptist. They question why he should have been left to languish and die in prison. The mystery of this dark providence our human vision cannot penetrate; but it can never shake our confidence in God when we remember that John was but a sharer in the sufferings of Christ....
CC	278	3	Jesus did not interpose to deliver His servant. He knew that John would bear the test. Gladly would the Saviour have come to John, to brighten the dungeon gloom with His own presence. But He was not to place Himself in the hands of enemies and imperil His own mission. Gladly would He have delivered His faithful servant. But for the sake of thousands who in after years must pass from prison to death, John was to drink the cup of martyrdom. As the followers of Jesus should languish in lonely cells, or perish by the sword, the rack, or the fagot, ... what a stay to their hearts would be the thought that John the Baptist, to whose faithfulness Christ Himself had borne witness, had passed through a similar experience!
CC	278	4	Satan was permitted to cut short the earthly life of God's messenger; but that life which "is hid with Christ in God," the destroyer could not reach. Colossians 3:3. He exulted that he had brought sorrow upon Christ, but he had failed of conquering John. Death itself only placed him forever beyond the power of temptation....
CC	278	5	God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning, and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as coworkers with Him. Not Enoch, who was translated to heaven, not Elijah, who ascended in a chariot of fire, was greater or more honored than John the Baptist, who perished alone in the dungeon. "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake" (Philippians 1:29). And of all the gifts that Heaven can bestow upon men, fellowship with Christ in His sufferings is the most weighty trust and the highest honor.46
------------------------A True Witness, September 30
CC	279	1	John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true. And many believed on him there. John 10:41, 42.
CC	279	2	In the announcement to Zacharias before the birth of John, the angel had declared, "He shall be great in the sight of the Lord" (Luke 1:15). In the estimation of Heaven, what is it that constitutes greatness? Not that which the world accounts greatness; not wealth, or rank, or noble descent, or intellectual gifts, in themselves considered.... It is moral worth that God values. Love and purity are the attributes He prizes most. John was great in the sight of the Lord, when, before the messengers from the Sanhedrin, before the people, and before his own disciples, he refrained from seeking honor for himself, but pointed all to Jesus as the Promised One. His unselfish joy in the ministry of Christ presents the highest type of nobility ever revealed in man....
CC	279	3	Aside from the joy that John found in his mission, his life had been one of sorrow. His voice had been seldom heard except in the wilderness. His was a lonely lot. And he was not permitted to see the result of his own labors. It was not his privilege to be with Christ and witness the manifestation of divine power attending the greater light. It was not for him to see the blind restored to sight, the sick healed, and the dead raised to life. He did not behold the light that shone through every word of Christ, shedding glory upon the promises of prophecy. The least disciple who saw Christ's mighty works and heard His words was in this sense more highly privileged than John the Baptist, and therefore is said to have been greater than he.47
CC	279	4	It was not given to John to call down fire from heaven, or to raise the dead, as Elijah did, nor to wield Moses' rod of power in the name of God. He was sent to herald the Saviour's advent, and to call upon the people to prepare for His coming. So faithfully did he fulfill his mission that as the people recalled what he had taught them of Jesus, they could say, "All things that John spake of this Man were true." Such witness to Christ every disciple of the Master is called upon to bear.48
------------------------Come and See, October 1
			John 1:29-51
CC	280	1	Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. John 1:45.
CC	280	2	Philip called Nathanael.... If Nathanael had trusted to the rabbis for guidance, he would never have found Jesus. It was by seeing and judging for himself that he became a disciple. So in the case of many today whom prejudice withholds from good. How different would be the result if they would "come and see"! ...
CC	280	3	Like Nathanael, we need to study God's word for ourselves, and pray for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. He who saw Nathanael under the fig tree will see us in the secret place of prayer. Angels from the world of light are near to those who in humility seek for divine guidance.
CC	280	4	With the calling of John and Andrew and Simon, of Philip and Nathanael, began the foundation of the Christian church. John directed two of his disciples to Christ. Then one of these, Andrew, found his brother, and called him to the Saviour. Philip was then called, and he went in search of Nathanael. These examples should teach us the importance of personal effort, of making direct appeals to our kindred, friends, and neighbors....
CC	280	5	There are many who need the ministration of loving Christian hearts. Many have gone down to ruin who might have been saved if their neighbors, common men and women, had put forth personal effort for them. Many are waiting to be personally addressed. In the very family, the neighborhood, the town, where we live, there is work for us to do as missionaries for Christ. If we are Christians, this work will be our delight. No sooner is one converted than there is born within him a desire to make known to others what a precious friend he has found in Jesus. The saving and sanctifying truth cannot be shut up in his heart....
CC	280	6	Now that Jesus has ascended to heaven, His disciples are His representatives among men, and one of the most effective ways of winning souls to Him is in exemplifying His character in our daily life.... A consistent life, characterized by the meekness of Christ, is a power in the world.1
------------------------Under the Fig Tree, October 2
			John 1:45-51
CC	281	1	When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, he said, "Here is an Israelite worthy of the name: there is nothing false in him." John 1:47, N.E.B.
CC	281	2	Nathanael heard John as he pointed to the Saviour and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29)! Nathanael looked at Jesus, but he was disappointed in the appearance of the world's Redeemer. Could He who bore the marks of toil and poverty be the Messiah? Jesus was a worker; He had toiled with humble workingmen, and Nathanael went away. But he did not form his opinion decidedly as to what the character of Jesus was. He knelt down under a fig tree, inquiring of God if indeed this man was the Messiah. While he was there, Philip came and said, "We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." But the word "Nazareth" again aroused his unbelief, and he said, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" He was full of prejudice, but Philip did not seek to combat his prejudice; he simply said, "Come and see." ...
CC	281	3	Would it not be well for us to go under the fig tree to plead with God as to what is truth? Would not the eye of God be upon us as it was upon Nathanael? Nathanael believed on the Lord, and exclaimed, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel."2
CC	281	4	His unbelief was swept away, and faith, firm, strong, and abiding, took possession of his soul. Jesus commended the trusting faith of Nathanael.
CC	281	5	There are many in the same condition as was Nathanael. They are prejudiced and unbelieving because they have never come in contact with the special truths for these last days or with the people who hold them, and it will require but attendance upon a meeting full of the Spirit of Christ to sweep away their unbelief. No matter what we have to meet, what opposition, what effort to turn souls away from the truth of heavenly origin, we must give publicity to our faith, that honest souls may see and hear and be convinced for themselves. Our work is to say, as did Philip: "Come and see." We hold no doctrine that we wish to hide.3
------------------------Apprenticed to Christ, October 3
			Mark 1:16-20
CC	282	1	And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him. Mark 1:17, 18.
CC	282	2	They were humble and unlearned men, those fishers of Galilee; but Christ, the light of the world, was abundantly able to qualify them for the position for which He had chosen them. The Saviour did not despise education; for when controlled by the love of God, and devoted to His service, intellectual culture is a blessing. But He passed by the wise men of His time, because they were so self-confident that they could not sympathize with suffering humanity, and become colaborers with the man of Nazareth. In their bigotry they scorned to be taught by Christ. The Lord Jesus seeks the co-operation of those who will become unobstructed channels for the communion of His grace....
CC	282	3	Jesus chose unlearned fishermen because they had not been schooled in the traditions and erroneous customs of their time. They were men of native ability, and they were humble and teachable,--men whom He could educate for His work. In the common walks of life there is many a man patiently treading the round of daily toil, unconscious that he possesses powers which, if called into action, would raise him to an equality with the world's most honored men. The touch of a skillful hand is needed to arouse those dormant faculties. It was such men that Jesus called to be His colaborers; and He gave them the advantage of association with Himself. Never had the world's great men such a teacher. When the disciples came forth from the Saviour's training, they were no longer ignorant and uncultured. They had become like Him in mind and character, and men took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.4
CC	282	4	He who called the fishermen of Galilee is still calling men to His service. And He is just as willing to manifest His power through us as through the first disciples. However imperfect and sinful we may be, the Lord holds out to us the offer of partnership with Himself, of apprenticeship to Christ. He invites us to come under the divine instruction, that, uniting with Christ, we may work the works of God.5
------------------------Follow Me, October 4
			Luke 5:27-32
CC	283	1	And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom; and he said unto him, Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. Luke 5:27, 28.
CC	283	2	Of the Roman officials in Palestine, none were more hated than the publicans. The fact that the taxes were imposed by a foreign power was a continual irritation to the Jews, being a reminder that their independence had departed. And the taxgatherers were ... extortioners on their own account, enriching themselves at the expense of the people. A Jew who accepted this office at the hands of the Romans was looked upon as betraying the honor of his nation. He was despised as an apostate, and was classed with the vilest of society.
CC	283	3	To this class belonged Levi-Matthew, who, after the four disciples at Gennesaret, was the next to be called to Christ's service. The Pharisees had judged Matthew according to his employment, but Jesus saw in this man a heart open for the reception of truth. Matthew had listened to the Saviour's teaching. As the convicting Spirit of God revealed his sinfulness, he longed to seek help from Christ; but he was accustomed to the exclusiveness of the rabbis, and had not thought that this Great Teacher would notice him.
CC	283	4	Sitting at his toll booth one day, the publican saw Jesus approaching. Great was his astonishment to hear the words addressed to himself, "Follow me." Matthew "left all, rose up, and followed him." There was no hesitation, no questioning, no thought of the lucrative business to be exchanged for poverty and hardship. It was enough for him that he was to be with Jesus, that he might listen to His words, and unite with Him in His work....
CC	283	5	To Matthew in his wealth, and to Andrew and Peter in their poverty, the same test was brought; the same consecration was made by each. At the moment of success, when the nets were filled with fish, and the impulses of the old life were strongest, Jesus asked the disciples at the sea to leave all for the work of the gospel. So every soul is tested as to whether to desire for temporal good or for fellowship with Christ is strongest.6
------------------------Publicans Not Excluded, October 5
			Matthew 9:9-13
CC	284	1	For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6.
CC	284	2	The calling of Matthew to be one of Christ's disciples excited great indignation. For a religious teacher to choose a publican as one of his immediate attendants was an offense against the religious, social, and national customs.7
CC	284	3	In his grateful humility, Matthew desired to show his appreciation of the honor bestowed upon him; and, calling together those who had been his associates in business, in pleasure, and in sin, he made a great feast for the Saviour. If Jesus would call him, who was so sinful and unworthy, He would surely accept his former companions, who were, thought Matthew, far more deserving than himself. Matthew had a great longing that they should share the benefits of the mercies and grace of Christ. He desired them to know that Christ did not ... despise and hate the publicans and sinners. He wanted them to know Christ as the blessed Saviour....
CC	284	4	Jesus never refused an invitation to such a feast. The object ever before Him was to sow in the hearts of His hearers the seeds of truth--through His winning conversation to draw hearts to Himself. In His every act Christ had a purpose, and the lesson which He gave on this occasion was timely and appropriate. By this act He declared that even publicans and sinners were not excluded from His presence....
CC	284	5	The Pharisees beheld Christ sitting and eating with publicans and sinners.... These self-righteous men, who felt no need of help, could not appreciate the work of Christ. They placed themselves where they could not accept the salvation which He came to bring. They would not come unto Him that they might have life. The poor publicans and sinners felt their need of help, and they accepted the instruction and aid which they knew Christ was able to give them.8
CC	284	6	To Matthew himself the example of Jesus at the feast was a constant lesson. The despised publican became one of the most devoted evangelists, in his own ministry following closely in his Master's steps.9
------------------------Judas, Self-Seeking Disciple, October 6
			John 6:64-71
CC	285	1	But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. John 6:64.
CC	285	2	While Jesus was preparing the disciples for their ordination, one who had not been summoned urged his presence among them. It was Judas Iscariot, a man who professed to be a follower of Christ.... Judas believed Jesus to be the Messiah; and by joining the apostles, he hoped to secure a high position in the new kingdom....
CC	285	3	The disciples were anxious that Judas should become one of their number. He was of commanding appearance, a man of keen discernment and executive ability, and they commended him to Jesus as one who would greatly assist Him in His work.... The after history of Judas would show them the danger of allowing any worldly consideration to have weight in deciding the fitness of men for the work of God....
CC	285	4	Yet when Judas joined the disciples, he was not insensible to the beauty of the character of Christ. He felt the influence of that divine power which was drawing souls to the Saviour.... The Saviour read the heart of Judas; He knew the depths of iniquity to which, unless delivered by the grace of God, Judas would sink. In connecting this man with Himself, He placed him where he might, day by day, be brought in contact with the outflowing of His own unselfish love. If he would open his heart to Christ, divine grace would banish the demon of selfishness, and even Judas might become a subject of the kingdom of God.
CC	285	5	God takes men as they are ... and trains them for His service, if they will be disciplined and learn of Him. They are not chosen because they are perfect, but notwithstanding their imperfections, that through the knowledge and practice of the truth, through the grace of Christ, they may become transformed into His image.
CC	285	6	Judas had the same opportunities as had the other disciples. He listened to the same precious lessons. But the practice of the truth, which Christ required, was at variance with the desires and purposes of Judas, and he would not yield his ideas in order to receive wisdom from Heaven.10
------------------------Without Excuse, October 7
CC	286	1	For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1 Timothy 6:10.
CC	286	2	How tenderly the Saviour dealt with him who was to be His betrayer! In His teaching, Jesus dwelt upon principles of benevolence that struck at the very root of covetousness. He presented before Judas the heinous character of greed, and many a time the disciple realized that his character had been portrayed, and his sin pointed out; but he would not confess and forsake his unrighteousness. He was self-sufficient, and instead of resisting temptation, he continued to follow his fraudulent practices.... Jesus dealt him no sharp rebuke for his covetousness, but with divine patience bore with this erring man, even while giving him evidence that He read his heart as an open book. He presented before him the highest incentives for right doing; and in rejecting the light of Heaven, Judas would be without excuse.11
CC	286	3	Satan is playing the game of life for every soul. He knows that practical sympathy is a test of the purity and unselfishness of the heart, and he will make every possible effort to close our hearts to the needs of others.... He will bring in many things to prevent the expression of love and sympathy. It is thus that he ruined Judas. Judas was constantly planning to benefit self. In this he represents a large class of professed Christians of today. Therefore we need to study his case. We are as near to Christ as he was. Yet if, as with Judas, association with Christ does not make us one with Him, if it does not cultivate within our hearts a sincere sympathy for those for whom Christ gave His life, we are in the same danger as was Judas....
CC	286	4	We need to guard against the first deviation from righteousness; for one transgression, one neglect to manifest the spirit of Christ, opens the way for another and still another, until the mind is overmastered by the principles of the enemy. If cultivated, the spirit of selfishness becomes a devouring passion which nothing but the power of Christ can subdue.12
------------------------Sower of Strife, October 8
CC	287	1	Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Matthew 20:26, 27.
CC	287	2	With Judas an element of antagonism was introduced among the disciples.... That which ruled him was the hope of selfish benefit in the worldly kingdom which he expected Christ to establish. Though recognizing the divine power of the love of Christ, Judas did not yield to its supremacy. He continued to cherish his own judgment and opinions, his disposition to criticize and condemn. Christ's motives and movements, often so far above his comprehension, excited doubt and disapproval, and his own questionings and ambitions were insinuated to the disciples. Many of their contentions for supremacy, much of their dissatisfaction with Christ's methods, originated with Judas.13
CC	287	3	He introduced controversies and misleading sentiments, repeating the arguments urged by the scribes and Pharisees against the claims of Christ.... He would introduce texts of Scripture that had no connection with the truths Christ was presenting. These texts, separated from their connection, perplexed the disciples.... Yet all this was done by Judas in such a way as to make it appear that he was conscientious. And while the disciples were searching for evidence to confirm the words of the Great Teacher, Judas would lead them almost imperceptibly on another track.... In all that Christ said to His disciples, there was something with which, in heart, Judas disagreed....
CC	287	4	Yet Judas made no open opposition, nor seemed to question the Saviour's lessons. He made no outward murmur until the time of the feast in Simon's house. When Mary anointed the Saviour's feet, Judas manifested his covetous disposition. At the reproof from Jesus his very spirit seemed turned to gall. Wounded pride and desire for revenge broke down the barriers, and the greed so long indulged held him in control. This will be the experience of everyone who persists in tampering with sin. The elements of depravity that are not resisted and overcome respond to Satan's temptation, and the soul is led captive at his will.14
------------------------Unity in Diversity, October 9
			Mark 3:13-19
CC	288	1	And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach. Mark 3:14.
CC	288	2	In these first disciples was presented a marked diversity. They were to be the world's teachers, and they represented widely varied types of character. There were Levi Matthew the publican, called from a life of business activity, and subservience to Rome; the zealot Simon, the uncompromising foe of the imperial authority; the impulsive, self-sufficient, warm-hearted Peter, with Andrew his brother; Judas the Judean, polished, capable, and mean-spirited; Philip and Thomas, faithful and earnest, yet slow of heart to believe; James the less and Jude, of less prominence among the brethren, but men of force, positive both in their faults and in their virtues; Nathanael, a child in sincerity and trust; and the ambitious, loving-hearted sons of Zebedee....
CC	288	3	Of the twelve disciples, four were to act a leading part, each in a distinct line. In preparation for this, Christ taught them, foreseeing all. James, destined to swift-coming death by the sword; John, longest of the brethren to follow his Master in labor and persecution; Peter, the pioneer in breaking through the barriers of ages, and teaching the heathen world; and Judas, in service capable of pre-eminence above his brethren, yet brooding in his soul purposes of whose ripening he little dreamed.15
CC	288	4	In order successfully to carry forward the work to which they had been called, these disciples, differing so widely in natural characteristics, in training, and in habits of life, needed to come into unity of feeling, thought, and action. This unity it was Christ's object to secure.... The burden of His labor for them is expressed in His prayer to the Father, "that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us" (John 17:21).16
CC	288	5	In the apostles of our Lord there was nothing to bring glory to themselves. It was evident that the success of their labors was due only to God. The lives of these men, the characters they developed, and the mighty work that God wrought through them, are a testimony to what He will do for all who are teachable and obedient.17
------------------------None were Perfect, October 10
CC	289	1	This priceless treasure we hold, so to speak, in a common earthenware jar--to show that the splendid power of it belongs to God and not to us. 2 Corinthians 4:7, Phillips.
CC	289	2	All the disciples had serious faults when Jesus called them to His service. Even John, who came into closest association with the meek and lowly One, was not himself naturally meek and yielding. He and his brother were called "the sons of thunder." While they were with Jesus, any slight shown to Him aroused their indignation and combativeness. Evil temper, revenge, the spirit of criticism, were all in the beloved disciple. He was proud, and ambitious to be first in the kingdom of God. But day by day, in contrast with his own violent spirit, he beheld the tenderness and forbearance of Jesus, and heard His lessons of humility and patience. He opened his heart to the divine influence, and became not only a hearer but a doer of the Saviour's words. Self was hid in Christ. He learned to wear the yoke of Christ and to bear His burden.
CC	289	3	Jesus reproved His disciples, He warned and cautioned them; but John and his brethren did not leave Him; they chose Jesus, notwithstanding the reproofs. The Saviour did not withdraw from them because of their weakness and errors. They continued to the end to share His trials and to learn the lessons of His life. By beholding Christ, they became transformed in character....
CC	289	4	As His representatives among men, Christ does not choose angels who have never fallen, but human beings, men of like passions with those they seek to save....
CC	289	5	Having been in peril themselves, they are acquainted with the dangers and difficulties of the way, and for this reason are called to reach out for others in like peril. There are souls perplexed with doubt, burdened with infirmities, weak in faith, and unable to grasp the Unseen; but a friend whom they can see, coming to them in Christ's stead, can be a connecting link to fasten their trembling faith upon Christ.
CC	289	6	We are to be laborers together with the heavenly angels in presenting Jesus to the world.18
------------------------Doubts and Questions, October 11
			Matthew 14:22-33
CC	290	1	Straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. Matthew 14:27.
CC	290	2	They [the disciples] "entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum." They had left Jesus with dissatisfied hearts.... They murmured because they had not been permitted to proclaim Him king. They blamed themselves for yielding so readily to His command....
CC	290	3	Unbelief was taking possession of their minds and hearts. Love of honor had blinded them.... Would Christ never assert His authority as king? Why did not He who possessed such power reveal Himself in His true character, and make their way less painful? Why had He not saved John the Baptist from a violent death? Thus the disciples reasoned until they brought upon themselves great spiritual darkness. They questioned, Could Jesus be an impostor, as the Pharisees asserted?
CC	290	4	The disciples had that day witnessed the wonderful works of Christ. It had seemed that heaven had come down to the earth. The memory of that precious, glorious day should have filled them with faith and hope. Had they, out of the abundance of their hearts, been conversing together in regard to these things, they would not have entered into temptation.... Their thoughts were stormy and unreasonable, and the Lord gave them something else to afflict their souls and occupy their minds. God often does this when men create burdens and troubles for themselves....
CC	290	5	A violent tempest had been stealing upon them, and they were unprepared for it.... They forgot their disaffection, their unbelief, their impatience. Everyone worked to keep the boat from sinking.... Until the fourth watch of the night they toiled at the oars. Then the weary men gave themselves up for lost. In storm and darkness the sea had taught them their own helplessness, and they longed for the presence of their Master.
CC	290	6	Jesus had not forgotten them.... At the moment when they believe themselves lost, a gleam of light reveals a mysterious figure approaching them upon the waters.... Their beloved Master turns, His voice silences their fear, "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid."19
------------------------Secret Interview, October 12
			John 3:1-21
CC	291	1	He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5, R.S.V.
CC	291	2	Nicodemus held a high position of trust in the Jewish nation. He was highly educated, and possessed talents of no ordinary character, and he was an honored member of the national council. With others, he had been stirred by the teaching of Jesus....
CC	291	3	He greatly desired an interview with Jesus, but shrank from seeking Him openly.... He waited until the city was hushed in slumber, and then sought Him....
CC	291	4	"Rabbi," he said, "we know that thou art a teacher come from God." ... His words were designed to express and to invite confidence; but they really expressed unbelief. He did not acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah, but only a teacher sent from God....
CC	291	5	Jesus bent His eyes upon the speaker, as if reading his very soul. In His infinite wisdom He saw before Him a seeker after truth.... He came directly to the point, saying solemnly, yet kindly, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3, margin)....
CC	291	6	Nicodemus had heard the preaching of John the Baptist concerning repentance and baptism.... Yet the heart-searching message of the Baptist had failed to work in him conviction of sin. He was a strict Pharisee, and prided himself on his good works. He was widely esteemed for his benevolence and his liberality in sustaining the temple service, and he felt secure of the favor of God. He was startled at the thought of a kingdom too pure for him to see in his present state....
CC	291	7	By virtue of his birth as an Israelite he regarded himself as sure of a place in the kingdom of God. He felt that he needed no change. Hence his surprise at the Saviour's words. He was irritated by their close application to himself. The pride of the Pharisee was struggling against the honest desire of the seeker after truth.20
------------------------As the Wind Blows, October 13
			John 3:1-21
CC	292	1	Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:5.
CC	292	2	Nicodemus was astonished as well as indignant at these words. He regarded himself as not only an intellectual, but a pious and religious man.... He could not harmonize this doctrine of conversion with his understanding of what constituted religion. He could not explain to his own satisfaction the science of conversion; but Jesus showed him, by a figure, that it could not be explained by any of his precise methods. Jesus pointed out to him the fact that he could not see the wind, yet he could discern its action. He might never be able to explain the process of conversion, but he would be able to discern its effect. He heard the sound of the wind which bloweth where it listeth, and he could see the result of its action. The operating agency was not revealed to view.... No human reasoning of the most learned man can define the operations of the Holy Spirit upon human minds and characters; yet they can see the effects upon the life and actions....
CC	292	3	He was not willing to admit truth, because he could not understand all that was connected with the operation of the power of God; and yet he accepted the facts of nature, although he could not explain or even comprehend them. Like other men of all ages, he was looking to forms and precise ceremonies as more essential to religion than the deep movings of the Spirit of God.21
CC	292	4	We may have flattered ourselves, as did Nicodemus, that our life has been upright, that our moral character is correct, and think that we need not humble the heart before God, like the common sinner: but when the light from Christ shines into our souls, we shall see how impure we are; we shall discern the selfishness of motive, the enmity against God, that has defiled every act of life. Then we shall know that our own righteousness is indeed as filthy rags, and that the blood of Christ alone can cleanse us from the defilement of sin, and renew our hearts in His own likeness.22
------------------------Born Again, October 14
			John 3:1-21
CC	293	1	But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. John 3:21.
CC	293	2	Nicodemus had come to the Lord thinking to enter into a discussion with Him, but Jesus laid bare the foundation principles of truth. He said to Nicodemus, It is not theoretical knowledge you need so much as spiritual regeneration. You need not to have your curiosity satisfied, but to have a new heart....
CC	293	3	He [Nicodemus] saw that the most rigid obedience to the mere letter of the law as applied to the outward life could entitle no man to enter the kingdom of heaven. In the estimation of men, his life had been just and honorable; but in the presence of Christ he felt that his heart was unclean, and his life unholy.... As the Saviour explained to him concerning the new birth, he longed to have this change wrought in himself.... Jesus answered the unspoken question: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." ...
CC	293	4	Nicodemus received the lesson, and carried it with him. He searched the Scriptures in a new way, not for the discussion of a theory, but in order to receive life for the soul. He began to see the kingdom of heaven as he submitted himself to the leading of the Holy Spirit....
CC	293	5	For a time Nicodemus did not publicly acknowledge Christ, but he watched His life, and pondered His teachings. In the Sanhedrin council he repeatedly thwarted the schemes of the priests to destroy Him....
CC	293	6	After the Lord's ascension, when the disciples were scattered by persecution, Nicodemus came boldly to the front. He employed his wealth in sustaining the infant church that the Jews had expected to be blotted out at the death of Christ. In the time of peril he who had been so cautious and questioning was firm as a rock, encouraging the faith of the disciples, and furnishing means to carry forward the work of the gospel. He was scorned and persecuted by those who had paid him reverence in other days. He became poor in this world's goods; yet he faltered not in the faith which had its beginning in that night conference with Jesus.23
------------------------Confrontation at Jacob's Well, October 15
			John 4:4-42
CC	294	1	Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14.
CC	294	2	When Jesus sat down to rest at Jacob's well, He had come from Judea, where His ministry had produced little fruit.... He was faint and weary; yet He did not neglect the opportunity of speaking to one woman, though she was a stranger, an alien from Israel, and living in open sin.24
CC	294	3	As the woman talked with Jesus, she was impressed with His words.... She realized her soul thirst, which the waters of the well of Sychar could never satisfy. Nothing that had hitherto come in contact with her had so awakened her to a higher need. Jesus had convinced her that He read the secrets of her life; yet he felt that He was her friend, pitying and loving her. While the very purity of His presence condemned her sin, He had spoken no word of denunciation, but had told her of His grace, that could renew the soul....
CC	294	4	Leaving her waterpot, she returned to the city, to carry the message to others.... With heart overflowing with gladness, she hastened on her way, to impart to others the precious light she had received.
CC	294	5	"Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did," she said to the men of the city. "Is not this the Christ?" Her words touched their hearts. There was a new expression on her face, a change in her whole appearance. They were interested to see Jesus.25
CC	294	6	As soon as she had found the Saviour the Samaritan woman brought others to Him. She proved herself a more effective missionary than His own disciples.... Their thoughts were fixed upon a great work to be done in the future. They did not see that right around them was a harvest to be gathered. But through the woman whom they despised, a whole cityful were brought to hear the Saviour....
CC	294	7	This woman represents the working of a practical faith in Christ. Every true disciple is born into the kingdom of God as a missionary. He who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life. The receiver becomes a giver.26
------------------------From Doubt to Faith, October 16
			John 4:46-54
CC	295	1	Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. John 4:48.
CC	295	2	Like a flash of light, the Saviour's words to the nobleman laid bare his heart. He saw that his motives in seeking Jesus were selfish. His vacillating faith appeared to him in its true character. In deep distress he realized that his doubt might cost the life of his son. He knew that he was in the presence of One who could read the thoughts, and to whom all things were possible. In an agony of supplication he cried, "Sir, come down ere my child die." His faith took hold upon Christ as did Jacob, when, wrestling with the Angel, he cried, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me" (Genesis 32:26).
CC	295	3	Like Jacob he prevailed. The Saviour cannot withdraw from the soul that clings to Him, pleading its great need. "Go thy way," He said: "thy son liveth." The nobleman left the Saviour's presence with a peace and joy he had never known before. Not only did he believe that his son would be restored, but.... he trusted in Christ as the Redeemer....
CC	295	4	Like the afflicted father, we are often led to seek Jesus by the desire for some earthly good; and upon the granting of our request we rest our confidence in His love. The Saviour longs to give us a greater blessing than we ask; and He delays the answer to our request that He may show us the evil of our own hearts, and our deep need of His grace. He desires us to renounce the selfishness that leads us to seek Him. Confessing our helplessness and bitter need, we are to trust ourselves wholly to His love.
CC	295	5	The nobleman wanted to see the fulfillment of his prayer before he should believe; but he had to accept the word of Jesus that his request was heard and the blessing granted. This lesson we also have to learn.27
CC	295	6	The day is just before us when Satan will ... present numerous miracles to confirm the faith of all those who are seeking this kind of evidence. How terrible will be the situation of those who close their eyes to the light of truth and ask for miracles to establish them in deception!28
------------------------I Am Not Worthy, October 17
			Matthew 8:5-13
CC	296	1	Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. Matthew 8:10.
CC	296	2	The centurion did not question the Saviour's power.... He had not seen the Saviour, but the reports he heard had inspired him with faith.... In the teaching of Christ, as it had been reported to him, he found that which met the need of the soul. All that was spiritual within him responded to the Saviour's words. But he felt unworthy to come into the presence of Jesus, and he appealed to the Jewish elders to make request for the healing of his servant.29
CC	296	3	On the way to the centurion's home, Jesus receives a message from the officer himself, "Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof." Still the Saviour keeps on His way, and the centurion comes in person to complete the message, saying, "Neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee," "but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it." ...
CC	296	4	"As thou hast believed," Christ said, "so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour."
CC	296	5	The Jewish elders had commended the centurion to Christ because of the favor he had shown to "our nation." He is worthy, they said, for "he hath built us a synagogue." But the centurion said of himself, "I am not worthy."30
CC	296	6	His heart had been touched by the grace of Christ. He saw his own unworthiness; yet he feared not to ask help. He trusted not to his own goodness; his argument was his great need. His faith took hold upon Christ in His true character. He did not believe in Him merely as a worker of miracles, but as the friend and Saviour of mankind.
CC	296	7	It is thus that every sinner may come to Christ.... Renouncing all self-dependence, we may look to the cross of Calvary and say,--
CC	296	8	"In my hand no price I bring; Simply to Thy cross I cling."
------------------------God Abhors Caste, October 18
			Matthew 15:21-28
CC	297	1	For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10:12, 13.
CC	297	2	"Behold, a Canaanitish woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil" (Matthew 15:22, R. V.). The people of this district were of the old Canaanite race. They were idolaters, and were despised and hated by the Jews. To this class belonged the woman who now came to Jesus. She was a heathen....
CC	297	3	Christ did not immediately reply to the woman's request. He received this representative of a despised race as the Jews would have done.... The woman urged her case with increased earnestness, bowing at Christ's feet, and crying, "Lord, help me." ...
CC	297	4	She yields at once to the divine influence of Christ, and has implicit faith in His ability to grant the favor she asks. She begs for the crumbs that fall from the Master's table. If she may have the privilege of a dog, she is willing to be regarded as a dog. She has no national or religious prejudice or pride to influence her course, and she immediately acknowledges Jesus as the Redeemer, and as being able to do all that she asks of Him.
CC	297	5	The Saviour is satisfied. He has tested her faith in Him.... Turning to her with a look of pity and love, He says, "O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt." From that hour her daughter became whole. The demon troubled her no more....
CC	297	6	In faith the woman of Phoenicia flung herself against the barriers that had been piled up between Jew and Gentile. Against discouragement, regardless of appearances that might have led her to doubt, she trusted the Saviour's love. It is thus that Christ desires us to trust in Him. The blessings of salvation are for every soul. Nothing but his own choice can prevent any man from becoming a partaker of the promise in Christ by the gospel.
CC	297	7	Caste is hateful to God. He ignores everything of this character. In His sight the souls of all men are of equal value.32
------------------------It has to be Personal, October 19
			Luke 8:41-48
CC	298	1	If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. Matthew 9:21.
CC	298	2	It was a poor woman who spoke these words--a woman who for twelve years had suffered from a disease that made her life a burden. She had spent all her means upon physicians and remedies, only to be pronounced incurable. But as she heard of the Great Healer, her hopes revived.... Again and again she had tried in vain to get near Him.33
CC	298	3	She had begun to despair, when, in making His way through the multitude, He came near where she was.... But amid the confusion she could not speak to Him, nor catch more than a passing glimpse of His figure.... As He was passing, she reached forward, and succeeded in barely touching the border of His garment. But in that moment she knew that she was healed. In that one touch was concentrated the faith of her life, and instantly her pain and feebleness gave place to the vigor of perfect health.
CC	298	4	With a grateful heart she then tried to withdraw from the crowd; but suddenly Jesus stopped.... The Saviour could distinguish the touch of faith from the casual contact of the careless throng. Such trust should not be passed without comment.... Finding concealment vain, she came forward tremblingly, and cast herself at His feet. With grateful tears she told the story of her suffering, and how she had found relief. Jesus gently said, "Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." He gave no opportunity for superstition to claim healing virtue for the mere act of touching His garments. It was not through the outward contact with Him, but through the faith which took hold on His divine power, that the cure was wrought....
CC	298	5	So in spiritual things. To talk of religion in a casual way, to pray without soul hunger and living faith, avails nothing. A nominal faith in Christ, which accepts Him merely as the Saviour of the world, can never bring healing to the soul.... It is not enough to believe about Christ; we must believe in Him. The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces Him as a personal Saviour; which appropriates His merits to ourselves.34
------------------------What Lack I? October 20
			Luke 18:18-27
CC	299	1	And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Luke 18:18.
CC	299	2	The young man who asked Jesus what he should do that he might have eternal life was answered: "Keep the commandments."35
CC	299	3	The character of God is expressed in His law; and in order for you to be in harmony with God, the principles of His law must be the spring of your every action....
CC	299	4	To the words, "Keep the commandments," the young man answered, "Which?" ... Christ was speaking of the law given from Sinai. He mentioned several commandments from the second table of the Decalogue....
CC	299	5	The young man answered without hesitation, "All these things have I kept from my youth up; what lack I yet?" His conception of the law was external and superficial. Judged by a human standard, he had preserved an unblemished character. To a great degree his outward life had been free from guilt; he verily thought that his obedience had been without a flaw. Yet he had a secret fear that all was not right between his soul and God. This prompted the question, "What lack I yet?"
CC	299	6	"If thou wilt be perfect," Christ said, "go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow Me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions."
CC	299	7	The lover of self is a transgressor of the law. This Jesus desired to reveal to the young man, and He gave him a test that would make manifest the selfishness of his heart. He showed him the plague spot in his character. The young man desired no further enlightenment. He had cherished an idol in the soul; the world was his god. He professed to have kept the commandments, but he was destitute of the principle which is the very spirit and life of them all. He did not possess true love for God or man. This want was the want of everything that would qualify him to enter the kingdom of heaven. In his love of self and worldly gain he was out of harmony with the principles of heaven.36
------------------------He Failed the Test, October 21
			Mark 10:17-27
CC	300	1	Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. Mark 10:21.
CC	300	2	Christ looked into the face of the young man, as if reading his life and searching his character. He loved him, and He hungered to give him that peace and grace and joy which would materially change his character....
CC	300	3	With what earnest, anxious longing, what soul hunger, did the Saviour look at the young man, hoping that he would yield to the invitation of the Spirit of God! ... The ruler was quick to discern all that Christ's words involved, and he became sad.... To give up his earthly treasure, that was seen, for the heavenly treasure, that was unseen, was too great a risk. He refused the offer of eternal life, and went away, and ever after the world was to receive his worship.
CC	300	4	Thousands are passing through this ordeal, weighing Christ against the world; and many choose the world. Like the young ruler, they turn from the Saviour, saying in their hearts, I will not have this Man as my leader.... All should consider what it means to desire heaven, and yet to turn away because of the conditions laid down. Think of what it means to say "No" to Christ. The ruler said, No, I cannot give You all. Do we say the same? ...
CC	300	5	The ruler's possessions were entrusted to him that he might prove himself a faithful steward; he was to dispense these goods for the blessing of those in need. So God now entrusts men with means, with talents and opportunities, that they may be His agents in helping the poor and the suffering. He who uses his entrusted gifts as God designs becomes a co-worker with the Saviour....
CC	300	6	To those who, like the young ruler, are in high positions of trust and have great possessions, it may seem too great a sacrifice to give up all in order to follow Christ. But this is the rule of conduct for all who would become His disciples. Nothing short of obedience can be accepted. Self-surrender is the substance of the teachings of Christ.37
------------------------He Made Things Right, October 22
			Luke 19:1-10
CC	301	1	For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke 19:10.
CC	301	2	"The chief among the publicans," Zacchaeus, was a Jew, and detested by his countrymen. His rank and wealth were the reward of a calling they abhorred, and which was regarded as another name for injustice and extortion. Yet the wealthy customs officer was not altogether the hardened man of the world that he seemed. Beneath the appearance of worldliness and pride was a heart susceptible to divine influences.
CC	301	3	Zacchaeus had heard of Jesus.... In this chief of the publicans was awakened a longing for a better life.... He felt that he was a sinner in the sight of God. Yet what he had heard of Jesus kindled hope in his heart. Repentance, reformation of life, was possible, even to him.... Zacchaeus began at once to follow the conviction that had taken hold upon him, and to make restitution to those whom he had wronged.
CC	301	4	Already he had begun thus to retrace his steps, when the news sounded through Jericho that Jesus was entering the town. Zacchaeus determined to see Him.... In the presence of the multitude, "Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house."38
CC	301	5	There are those who have had very meager opportunities, who have walked in ways of error because they knew no better way, to whom beams of light will come. As the word of Christ came to Zacchaeus, "Today I must abide at thy house," so the word will come to them; and those who were supposed to be hardened sinners will be found to have hearts as tender as a child's because Christ has deigned to notice them. Many will come from the grossest error and sin, and will take the place of others who have had opportunities and privileges but have not prized them. They will be accounted the chosen of God, elect, precious; and when Christ shall come into His kingdom, they will stand next His throne.39
------------------------Rich Man and God, October 23
			Luke 19:1-10
CC	302	1	If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. Ezekiel 33:15.
CC	302	2	No sooner did Zacchaeus yield to the influence of the Holy Spirit than he cast aside every practice contrary to integrity. No repentance is genuine that does not work reformation. The righteousness of Christ is not a cloak to cover unconfessed and unforsaken sin....
CC	302	3	Every converted soul will, like Zacchaeus, signalize the entrance of Christ into his heart by an abandonment of the unrighteous practices that have marked his life. Like the chief publican, he will give proof of his sincerity by making restitution....
CC	302	4	If we have injured others through any unjust business transaction, ... we should confess our wrong, and make restitution as far as lies in our power. It is right for us to restore not only that which we have taken, but all that it would have accumulated if put to a right and wise use during the time it has been in our possession.
CC	302	5	To Zacchaeus the Saviour said, "This day is salvation come to this house." Not only was Zacchaeus himself blessed, but all his household with him.... They had been shut out from the synagogues by the contempt of rabbis and worshipers; but now, the most favored household in all Jericho, they gathered in their own home about the divine Teacher, and heard for themselves the words of life.
CC	302	6	It is when Christ is received as a personal Saviour that salvation comes to the soul. Zacchaeus had received Jesus, not merely as a passing guest in his home, but as One to abide in the soul temple.40
CC	302	7	When the rich young ruler had turned away from Jesus, the disciples had marveled at their Master's saying, "How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!" They had exclaimed one to another, "Who then can be saved?" Now they had a demonstration of the truth of Christ's words, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." They saw how, through the grace of God, a rich man could enter into the kingdom.41
------------------------She Gave Her All, October 24
CC	303	1	Believe me, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. For they have all put in what they can easily afford, but she in her poverty who needs so much, has given away everything, her whole living! Mark 12:43, 44, Phillips.
CC	303	2	Jesus was in the court where were the treasure chests, and He watched those who came to deposit their gifts. Many of the rich brought large sums, which they presented with great ostentation. Jesus looked upon them sadly, but made no comment on their liberal offerings. Presently His countenance lighted as He saw a poor widow approach hesitatingly, as though fearful of being observed.... Watching her opportunity, she hurriedly threw in her two mites, and turned to hasten away. But in doing this she caught the eye of Jesus, which was fastened earnestly upon her.
CC	303	3	The Saviour called His disciples to Him, and bade them mark the widow's poverty. Then His words of commendation fell upon her ear.... Tears of joy filled her eyes as she felt that her act was understood and appreciated.... Jesus understood her motive. She believed the service of the temple to be of God's appointment, and she was anxious to do her utmost to sustain it. She did what she could, and her act was to be a monument to her memory through all time, and her joy in eternity. Her heart went with her gift; its value was estimated, not by the worth of the coin, but by the love to God and the interest in His work that had prompted the deed....
CC	303	4	The rich bestowed from their abundance, many of them to be seen and honored by men. Their large donations had deprived them of no comfort, or even luxury; they had required no sacrifice, and could not be compared in value with the widow's mite.... Her example of self-sacrifice has acted and reacted upon thousands of hearts in every land and in every age. It has appealed to both the rich and the poor, and their offerings have swelled the value of her gift. God's blessing upon the widow's mite has made it the source of great results. So with every gift bestowed and every act performed with a sincere desire for God's glory. It is linked with the purposes of Omnipotence. Its results for good no man can measure.42
------------------------Fretting and Fussing, October 25
			Luke 10:38-42
CC	304	1	The Lord answered, "Martha, Martha, you are fretting and fussing about so many things; but one thing is necessary. The part that Mary has chosen is best; and it shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41, 42, N.E.B.
CC	304	2	As Christ gave His wonderful lessons, Mary sat at His feet, a reverent and devoted listener. On one occasion, Martha, perplexed with the care of preparing the meal, went to Christ, saying, "Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me." This was the time of Christ's first visit to Bethany. The Saviour and His disciples had just made the toilsome journey on foot from Jericho. Martha was anxious to provide for their comfort, and in her anxiety she forgot the courtesy due to her Guest....
CC	304	3	The "one thing" that Martha needed was a calm, devotional spirit, a deeper anxiety for knowledge concerning the future, immortal life, and the graces necessary for spiritual advancement. She needed less anxiety for the things which pass away, and more for those things which endure forever. Jesus would teach His children to seize every opportunity of gaining that knowledge which will make them wise unto salvation. The cause of Christ needs careful, energetic workers. There is a wide field for the Marthas, with their zeal in active religious work. But let them first sit with Mary at the feet of Jesus. Let diligence, promptness, and energy be sanctified by the grace of Christ; then the life will be an unconquerable power for good.43
CC	304	4	The reason why the youth, and even those of mature years, are so easily led into temptation and sin, is that they do not study the word of God and meditate upon it as they should. The lack of firm, decided will power, which is manifest in life and character, results from neglect of the sacred instruction of God's word. They do not by earnest effort direct the mind to that which would inspire pure, holy thought and divert it from that which is impure and untrue. There are few who choose the better part, who sit at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary, to learn of the divine Teacher. Few treasure His words in the heart and practice them in the life.44
------------------------A Gift of Love, October 26
			Matthew 26:3-13; John 12:1-8
CC	305	1	She hath done what she could. Mark 14:8.
CC	305	2	Simon of Bethany was accounted a disciple of Jesus. He was one of the few Pharisees who had openly joined Christ's followers. He acknowledged Jesus as a teacher, and hoped that He might be the Messiah, but he had not accepted Him as a Saviour. His character was not transformed; his principles were unchanged.
CC	305	3	Simon had been healed of the leprosy, and it was this that had drawn him to Jesus. He desired to show his gratitude, and at Christ's last visit to Bethany he made a feast for the Saviour and His disciples.... At the table the Saviour sat with Simon... on one side, and Lazarus ... on the other. Martha served at the table, but Mary was earnestly listening to every word from the lips of Jesus. In His mercy, Jesus had pardoned her sins, He had called forth her beloved brother from the grave, and Mary's heart was filled with gratitude. She had heard Jesus speak of His approaching death, and in her deep love and sorrow she had longed to show Him honor. At great personal sacrifice she had purchased an alabaster box of "ointment of spikenard, very costly," with which to anoint His body. But now many were declaring that He was about to be crowned king. Her grief was turned to joy, and she was eager to be first in honoring her Lord. Breaking her box of ointment, she poured its contents upon the head and feet of Jesus; then, as she knelt weeping, moistening them with her tears, she wiped His feet with her long, flowing hair....
CC	305	4	Judas looked upon this act with great displeasure.... He asked, "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" ... The murmur passed round the table, "To what purpose is this waste?..." Mary heard the words of criticism.... She was about to shrink away, when the voice of her Lord was heard, "Let her alone; why trouble ye her?"... Lifting His voice above the murmur of criticism, He said, "She hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying."45
------------------------The Fragrance Lingers, October 27
			Mark 14:1-11
CC	306	1	Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. Mark 14:9.
CC	306	2	The fragrant gift which Mary had thought to lavish upon the dead body of the Saviour she poured upon His living form. At the burial its sweetness could only have pervaded the tomb; now it gladdened His heart with the assurance of her faith and love. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus offered not their gift of love to Jesus in His life. With bitter tears they brought their costly spices for His cold, unconscious form. The women who bore spices to the tomb found their errand in vain, for He had risen. But Mary, pouring out her love upon the Saviour while He was conscious of her devotion, was anointing Him for the burial. And as He went down into the darkness of His great trial, He carried with Him the memory of that deed, an earnest of the love that would be His from His redeemed ones forever.
CC	306	3	Many there are who bring their precious gifts for the dead.... Tenderness, appreciation, devotion, all are lavished upon one who sees not nor hears. Had these words been spoken when the weary spirit needed them so much, when the ear could hear and the heart could feel, how precious would have been their fragrance!...
CC	306	4	Christ told Mary the meaning of her act.... He said, "she did it for my burial." As the alabaster box was broken, and filled the whole house with its fragrance, so Christ was to die, His body was to be broken; but He was to rise from the tomb, and the fragrance of His life was to fill the earth.... Looking into the future, the Saviour spoke with certainty concerning His gospel. It was to be preached throughout the world. And as far as the gospel extended, Mary's gift would shed its fragrance, and hearts would be blessed through her unstudied act. Kingdoms would rise and fall; the names of monarchs and conquerors would be forgotten; but this woman's deed would be immortalized upon the pages of sacred history. Until time should be no more, that broken alabaster box would tell the story of the abundant love of God for a fallen race.46
------------------------Nothing Too Costly, October 28
			Luke 7:36-50
CC	307	1	For the love of Christ constraineth us. 2 Corinthians 5:14.
CC	307	2	Christ delighted in the earnest desire of Mary to do the will of her Lord. He accepted the wealth of pure affection which His disciples did not, would not, understand. The desire that Mary had to do this service for her Lord was of more value to Christ than all the precious ointment in the world, because it expressed her appreciation of the world's Redeemer. It was the love of Christ that constrained her. The matchless excellence of the character of Christ filled her soul. That ointment was a symbol of the heart of the giver. It was the outward demonstration of a love fed by heavenly streams until it overflowed.
CC	307	3	The work of Mary was just the lesson the disciples needed to show them that the expression of their love for Him would be pleasing to Christ. He had been everything to them, and they did not realize that soon they would be deprived of His presence, that soon they could offer Him no token of their gratitude for His great love. The loneliness of Christ, separated from the heavenly courts, living the life of humanity, was never understood or appreciated by the disciples as it should have been....
CC	307	4	Their afterknowledge gave them a true sense of the many things they might have done for Jesus expressive of the love and gratitude of their hearts.... When Jesus was no longer with them, ... they began to see how they might have shown Him attentions that would have brought gladness to His heart. They no longer cast blame upon Mary, but upon themselves. Oh, if they could have taken back their censuring, their presenting the poor as more worthy of the gift than was Christ! They felt the reproof keenly as they took from the cross the bruised body of their Lord.
CC	307	5	The same want is evident in our world today. But few appreciate all that Christ is to them. If they did, the great love of Mary would be expressed, the anointing would be freely bestowed. The expensive ointment would not be called a waste. Nothing would be thought too costly to give for Christ, no self-denial or self-sacrifice too great to be endured for His sake.47
------------------------Simon's Change of Heart, October 29
			Luke 7:36-50
CC	308	1	Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. Romans 2:1.
CC	308	2	Simon the host had been influenced by the criticism of Judas upon Mary's gift, and he was surprised at the conduct of Jesus. His Pharisaic pride was offended. He knew that many of his guests were looking upon Christ with distrust and displeasure. Simon said in his heart, "This Man, if He were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him: for she is a sinner."
CC	308	3	By curing Simon of leprosy, Christ had saved him from a living death. But now Simon questioned whether the Saviour were a prophet.... Jesus knows nothing of this woman who is so free in her demonstrations, he thought, or He would not allow her to touch Him....
CC	308	4	As did Nathan with David, Christ concealed His home thrust under the veil of a parable. He threw upon His host the burden of pronouncing sentence upon himself. Simon had led into sin the woman he now despised. She had been deeply wronged by him.... But Simon felt himself more righteous than Mary, and Jesus desired him to see how great his guilt really was. He would show him that his sin was greater than hers, as much greater as a debt of five hundred pence exceeds a debt of fifty pence....
CC	308	5	Simon's coldness and neglect toward the Saviour showed how little he appreciated the mercy he had received. He had thought he honored Jesus by inviting Him to his house. But he now saw himself as he really was.... His religion had been a robe of Pharisaism.... While Mary was a sinner pardoned, he was a sinner unpardoned. The rigid rule of justice he had desired to enforce against her condemned him.
CC	308	6	Simon was touched by the kindness of Jesus in not openly rebuking him before the guests. He had not been treated as he desired Mary to be treated.... Stern denunciation would have hardened Simon against repentance, but patient admonition convinced him of his error. He saw the magnitude of the debt which he owed his Lord. His pride was humbled, he repented, and the proud Pharisee became a lowly, self-sacrificing disciple.48
------------------------Christ Sees Our Possibilities, October 30
			Luke 7:36-50
CC	309	1	I tell you, Simon, that her sins, many as they are, are forgiven; for she has shown me so much love. But the man who has little to be forgiven has only a little love to give. Luke 7:47, Phillips.
CC	309	2	Mary had been looked upon as a great sinner, but Christ knew the circumstances that had shaped her life. He might have extinguished every spark of hope in her soul, but He did not. It was He who had lifted her from despair and ruin. Seven times she had heard His rebuke of the demons that controlled her heart and mind. She had heard His strong cries to the Father in her behalf. She knew how offensive is sin to His unsullied purity, and in His strength she had overcome.
CC	309	3	When to human eyes her case appeared hopeless, Christ saw in Mary capabilities for good. He saw the better traits of her character. The plan of redemption has invested humanity with great possibilities, and in Mary these possibilities were to be realized. Through His grace she became a partaker of the divine nature. The one who had fallen, and whose mind had been a habitation of demons, was brought very near to the Saviour in fellowship and ministry. It was Mary who sat at His feet and learned of Him. It was Mary who poured upon His head the precious anointing oil, and bathed His feet with her tears. Mary stood beside the cross, and followed Him to the sepulcher. Mary was first at the tomb after His resurrection. It was Mary who first proclaimed a risen Saviour.
CC	309	4	Jesus knows the circumstances of every soul. You may say, I am sinful, very sinful. You may be; but the worse you are, the more you need Jesus. He turns no weeping, contrite one away. He does not tell to any all that He might reveal, but He bids every trembling soul take courage. Freely will He pardon all who come to Him for forgiveness and restoration.... He is today standing at the altar of incense, presenting before God the prayers of those who desire His help.
CC	309	5	The souls that turn to Him for refuge, Jesus lifts above the accusing and the strife of tongues. No man or evil angel can impeach these souls. Christ unites them to His own divine-human nature. They stand beside the great Sin Bearer, in the light proceeding from the throne of God.49
------------------------Peter Looked Back, October 31
			Matthew 14:23-33
CC	310	1	O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Matthew 14:31.
CC	310	2	Looking unto Jesus, Peter walks securely; but as in self-satisfaction he glances back toward his companions in the boat, his eyes are turned from the Saviour. The wind is boisterous. The waves roll high.... For a moment Christ is hidden from his view, and his faith gives way. He begins to sink. But while the billows talk with death, Peter lifts his eyes from the angry waters, and fixing them upon Jesus, cries, "Lord, save me." Immediately Jesus grasps the outstretched hand, saying, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"
CC	310	3	Walking side by side, Peter's hand in that of his Master, they stepped into the boat together. But Peter was now subdued and silent. He had no reason to boast over his fellows, for through unbelief and self-exaltation he had very nearly lost, his life. When he turned his eyes from Jesus, his footing was lost and he sank amid the waves.
CC	310	4	When trouble comes upon us, how often we are like Peter! We look upon the waves, instead of keeping our eyes fixed upon the Saviour. Our footsteps slide, and the proud waters go over our souls. Jesus did not bid Peter come to Him that he should perish; He does not call us to follow Him, and then forsake us....
CC	310	5	In this incident on the sea He desired to reveal to Peter his own weakness,--to show that his safety was in constant dependence upon divine power. Amid the storms of temptation he could walk safely only as in utter self-distrust he should rely upon the Saviour. It was on the point where he thought himself strong that Peter was weak; and not until he discerned his weakness could he realize his need of dependence upon Christ. Had he learned the lesson that Jesus sought to teach him in that experience on the sea, he would not have failed when the great test came upon him.
CC	310	6	Day by day God instructs His children. By the circumstances of the daily life He is preparing them to act their part upon that wider stage to which His providence has appointed them. It is the issue of the daily test that determines their victory or defeat in life's great crisis.50
------------------------Peter Speaks Up, November 1
			Matthew 16:13-20
CC	311	1	He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Matthew 16:15, 16.
CC	311	2	From the first, Peter had believed Jesus to be the Messiah. Many others who had been convicted by the preaching of John the Baptist, and had accepted Christ, began to doubt as to John's mission when he was imprisoned and put to death; and they now doubted that Jesus was the Messiah, for whom they had looked so long.... But Peter and his companions turned not from their allegiance. The vacillating course of those who praised yesterday and condemned today did not destroy the faith of the true follower of the Saviour....
CC	311	3	Peter had expressed the faith of the twelve. Yet the disciples were still far from understanding Christ's mission. The opposition and misrepresentation of the priests and rulers, while it could not turn them away from Christ, still caused them great perplexity.... From time to time precious rays of light from Jesus shone upon them, yet often they were like men groping among shadows. But on this day, before they were brought face to face with the great trial of their faith, the Holy Spirit rested upon them in power. For a little time their eyes were turned away from "the things which are seen," to behold "the things which are not seen" (2 Corinthians 4:18). Beneath the guise of humanity they discerned the glory of the Son of God....
CC	311	4	The truth which Peter had confessed is the foundation of the believer's faith. It is that which Christ Himself has declared to be eternal life. But the possession of this knowledge was no ground for self-glorification. Through no wisdom or goodness of his own had it been revealed to Peter. Never can humanity, of itself, attain to a knowledge of the divine. "It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?" (Job 11:8). Only the spirit of adoption can reveal to us the deep things of God, which "eye hath not seen, not ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man." "God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:9, 10).1
------------------------Under Satan's Power, November 2
			Matthew 16:21-25
CC	312	1	But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Matthew 16:23.
CC	312	2	Satan is ever intruding himself between the soul of man and God.... This lesson in regard to Peter needs to be studied carefully.2
CC	312	3	Peter did not desire to see the cross in the work of Christ. The impression which his words would make was directly opposed to that which Christ desired to make on the minds of His followers, and the Saviour was moved to utter one of the sternest rebukes that ever fell from His lips....
CC	312	4	Satan was trying to discourage Jesus, and turn Him from His mission; and Peter, in his blind love, was giving voice to the temptation. The prince of evil was the author of the thought. His instigation was behind that impulsive appeal.... He was seeking to fix Peter's gaze upon the earthly glory, that he might not behold the cross to which Jesus desired to turn his eyes. And through Peter, Satan was again pressing the temptation upon Jesus. But the Saviour heeded it not; His thought was for His disciple. Satan had interposed between Peter and his Master, that the heart of the disciple might not be touched at the vision of Christ's humiliation for him. The words of Christ were spoken, not to Peter, but to the one who was trying to separate him from his Redeemer. "Get thee behind Me, Satan." No longer interpose between Me and My erring servant. Let Me come face to face with Peter, that I may reveal to him the mystery of My love.
CC	312	5	It was to Peter a bitter lesson, and one which he learned but slowly, that the path of Christ on earth lay through agony and humiliation. The disciple shrank from fellowship with his Lord in suffering. But in the heat of the furnace fire he was to learn its blessing. Long afterward, when his active form was bowed with the burden of years and labors, he wrote, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:12, 13).3
------------------------Peter Learned His Lesson, November 3
			Luke 22:31-34
CC	313	1	And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Luke 22:31, 32.
CC	313	2	Bold, aggressive, and self-confident, quick to perceive and forward to act, prompt in retaliation yet generous in forgiving, Peter often erred, and often received reproof. Nor were his warmhearted loyalty and devotion to Christ the less decidedly recognized and commended. Patiently, with discriminating love, the Saviour dealt with His impetuous disciple, seeking to check his self-confidence, and to teach him humility, obedience, and trust. But only in part was the lesson learned.... Over and over again was given the warning, "Thou shalt ... deny that thou knowest me." It was the grieved, loving heart of the disciple that spoke out in the avowal, "Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death." ...
CC	313	3	When in the judgment hall the words of denial had been spoken; when Peter's love and loyalty, awakened under the Saviour's glance of pity and love and sorrow, had sent him forth to the garden where Christ had wept and prayed; when his tears of remorse dropped upon the sod that had been moistened with the blood drops of His agony--then the Saviour's words, "I have prayed for thee" ... were a stay to his soul. Christ, though foreseeing his sin, had not abandoned him to despair.
CC	313	4	If the look that Jesus cast upon him had spoken condemnation instead of pity; if in foretelling the sin He had failed of speaking hope, how dense would have been the darkness that encompassed Peter! ...
CC	313	5	He who could not spare His disciple the anguish, left him not alone to its bitterness. His is a love that fails not nor forsakes. Human beings, themselves given to evil, are prone to deal untenderly with the tempted and the erring. They cannot read the heart, they know not its struggle and pain. Of the rebuke that is love, of the blow that wounds to heal, of the warning that speaks hope, they have need to learn....
CC	313	6	A miracle of divine tenderness was Peter's transformation. It is a life lesson to all who seek to follow in the steps of the Master Teacher.4
------------------------A Fond Mother's Request, November 4
			Matthew 20:20-28
CC	314	1	To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Revelation 3:21.
CC	314	2	James and John presented through their mother a petition requesting that they might be permitted to occupy the highest positions of honor in Christ's kingdom. Notwithstanding Christ's repeated instruction concerning the nature of His kingdom, these young disciples still cherished the hope for a Messiah who would take His throne and kingly power in accordance with the desires of men....
CC	314	3	But the Saviour answered, "Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They recalled His mysterious words pointing to trial and suffering, yet answered confidently, "We are able." They would count it highest honor to prove their loyalty by sharing all that was to befall their Lord.
CC	314	4	"Ye shall drink indeed of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with," Christ declared.... James and John were to be sharers with their Master in suffering--the one, destined to swift-coming death by the sword; the other, longest of all the disciples to follow his Master in labor and reproach and persecution. "But to sit on my right hand, and on my left," He continued, "is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father." ...
CC	314	5	In the kingdom of God, position is not gained through favoritism. It is not earned, nor is it received through an arbitrary bestowal. It is the result of character. The crown and the throne are the tokens of a condition attained--tokens of self-conquest through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ....
CC	314	6	The one who stands nearest to Christ will be he who has drunk most deeply of His spirit of self-sacrificing love,--love that "vaunteth not itself, ... seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil,"--love that moves the disciple, as it moved our Lord, to give all, to live and labor and sacrifice even unto death, for the saving of humanity.5
------------------------Beloved Disciple, November 5
CC	315	1	We love him, because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19.
CC	315	2	John is distinguished above the other apostles as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 21:20).... He received many tokens of the Saviour's confidence and love. He was one of the three permitted to witness Christ's glory upon the mount of transfiguration and His agony in Gethsemane, and it was to his care that our Lord confided His mother in those last hours of anguish upon the cross.6
CC	315	3	John's was a nature that longed for love, for sympathy and companionship. He pressed close to Jesus, sat by His side, leaned upon His breast. As a flower the sun and dew, so did he drink in the divine light and life.7
CC	315	4	The depth and fervor of John's affection for his Master was not the cause of Christ's love for him, but the effect of that love. John desired to become like Jesus, and under the transforming influence of the love of Christ he did become meek and lowly. Self was hid in Jesus. Above all his companions, John yielded himself to the power of that wondrous life.... John knew the Saviour by an experimental knowledge. His Master's lessons were graven on his soul. When he testified of the Saviour's grace, his simple language was eloquent with the love that pervaded his whole being.
CC	315	5	It was John's deep love for Christ which led him always to desire to be close by His side. The Saviour loved all the Twelve, but John's was the most receptive spirit. He was younger than the others, and with more of the child's confiding trust he opened his heart to Jesus. Thus he came more into sympathy with Christ, and through him the Saviour's deepest spiritual teaching was communicated to the people....
CC	315	6	John could talk of the Father's love as no other of the disciples could. He revealed to his fellow men that which he felt in his own soul, representing in his character the attributes of God.... The beauty of holiness which had transformed him shone with a Christlike radiance from his countenance. In adoration and love he beheld the Saviour until likeness to Christ and fellowship with Him became his one desire, and in his character was reflected the character of his Master.8
------------------------John and Judas--A Contrast, November 6
CC	316	1	He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 1 John 2:6.
CC	316	2	In the life of the disciple John true sanctification is exemplified. During the years of his close association with Christ, he was often warned and cautioned by the Saviour; and these reproofs he accepted. As the character of the Divine One was manifested to him, John saw his own deficiencies, and was humbled by the revelation.... The power and tenderness, the majesty and meekness, the strength and patience, that he saw in the daily life of the Son of God, filled his soul with admiration. He yielded his resentful, ambitious temper to the molding power of Christ, and divine love wrought in him a transformation of character.
CC	316	3	In striking contrast to the sanctification worked out in the life of John is the experience of his fellow disciple, Judas.... John warred earnestly against his faults; but Judas violated his conscience and yielded to temptation, fastening upon himself more securely his habits of evil....
CC	316	4	John and Judas are representatives of those who profess to be Christ's followers. Both these disciples had the same opportunities to study and follow the divine Pattern. Both were closely associated with Jesus and were privileged to listen to His teaching. Each possessed serious defects of character; and each had access to the divine grace that transforms character. But while one in humility was learning of Jesus, the other revealed that he was not a doer of the word, but a hearer only. One, daily dying to self and overcoming sin, was sanctified through the truth; the other, resisting the transforming power of grace and indulging selfish desires, was brought into bondage to Satan.
CC	316	5	Such transformation of character as is seen in the life of John is ever the result of communion with Christ. There may be marked defects in the character of an individual, yet when he becomes a true disciple of Christ, the power of divine grace transforms and sanctifies him. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, he is changed from glory to glory, until he is like Him whom he adores.9
------------------------Enslaved by Money, November 7
			Matthew 26:14-16; Matthew 26:47-49; Matthew 27:3-8
CC	317	1	Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. Matthew 26:14, 15.
CC	317	2	Judas had naturally a strong love for money; but he had not always been corrupt enough to do such a deed as this. He had fostered the evil spirit of avarice until it had become the ruling motive of his life. The love of mammon overbalanced his love for Christ. Through becoming the slave of one vice he gave himself to Satan....
CC	317	3	Judas was highly regarded by the disciples, and had great influence over them. He himself had a high opinion of his own qualifications, and looked upon his brethren as greatly inferior to him in judgment and ability. They did not see their opportunities, he thought, and take advantage of circumstances. The church would never prosper with such shortsighted men as leaders. Peter was impetuous; he would move without consideration. John, who was treasuring up the truths that fell from Christ's lips, was looked upon by Judas as a poor financier. Matthew, whose training had taught him accuracy in all things, was very particular in regard to honesty, and he was ever contemplating the words of Christ, and became so absorbed in them that, as Judas thought, he could not be trusted to do sharp, farseeing business. Thus Judas summed up all the disciples, and flattered himself that the church would often be brought into perplexity and embarrassment if it were not for his ability as a manager.10
CC	317	4	The history of Judas presents the sad ending of a life that might have been honored of God. Had Judas died before his last journey to Jerusalem he would have been regarded as a man worthy of a place among the twelve, and one who would be greatly missed. The abhorrence which has followed him through the centuries would not have existed but for the attributes revealed at the close of his history. But it was for a purpose that his character was laid open to the world. It was to be a warning to all who, like him, should betray sacred trusts.... For thirty pieces of silver--the price of a slave--he sold the Lord of glory to ignominy and death.11
------------------------A Chance for All, November 8
CC	318	1	Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 7:21.
CC	318	2	Not all who profess to be workers for Christ are true disciples. Among those who bear His name, and who are even numbered with His workers, are some who do not represent Him in character.... Till the end of time there will be tares among the wheat....
CC	318	3	In His mercy and long-suffering, God bears patiently with the perverse and even the falsehearted. Among Christ's chosen apostles was Judas the traitor. Should it then be a cause of surprise or discouragement that there are falsehearted ones among His workers today? If He who reads the heart could bear with him who He knew was to be His betrayer, with what patience should we bear with those at fault.
CC	318	4	And not all, even of those who appear most faulty, are like Judas. Peter, impetuous, hasty, and self-confident, often appeared to far greater disadvantage than Judas did. He was oftener reproved by the Saviour. But what a life of service and sacrifice was his! What a testimony does it bear to the power of God's grace!12
CC	318	5	Christ connected Judas and impulsive Peter with Himself, not because Judas was covetous and Peter passionate, but that they might learn of Him, their great Teacher, and become, like Him, unselfish, meek, and lowly of heart. He saw good material in both these men. Judas possessed financial ability and would have been of value to the church had he taken home to his heart the lessons which Christ was giving by rebuking all selfishness, fraud, and avarice, even in the little matters of life.13
CC	318	6	The world has no right to doubt the truth of Christianity because there are unworthy members in the church, nor should Christians become disheartened because of these false brethren. How was it with the early church? Ananias and Sapphira joined themselves to the disciples. Simon Magus was baptized.... Judas Iscariot was numbered with the apostles. The Redeemer does not want to lose one soul; His experience with Judas is recorded to show His long patience with perverse human nature; and He bids us bear with it as He has borne.14
------------------------Only Jesus Knew, November 9
			Matthew 26:14-30; John 13:1-17
CC	319	1	The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born. Matthew 26:24.
CC	319	2	The disciples knew nothing of the purpose of Judas. Jesus alone could read his secret. Yet He did not expose him. Jesus hungered for his soul.... His heart was crying, How can I give thee up? The constraining power of that love was felt by Judas. When the Saviour's hands were bathing those soiled feet, and wiping them with the towel, the heart of Judas thrilled through and through with the impulse then and there to confess his sin. But he would not humble himself. He hardened his heart against repentance; and the old impulses, for the moment put aside, again controlled him. Judas was now offended at Christ's act in washing the feet of His disciples. If Jesus could so humble Himself, he thought, He could not be Israel's king. All hope of worldly honor in a temporal kingdom was destroyed. Judas was satisfied that there was nothing to be gained by following Christ.... He was possessed by a demon, and he resolved to complete the work he had agreed to do in betraying his Lord.15
CC	319	3	Judas the betrayer was present at the sacramental service. He received from Jesus the emblems of His broken body and His spilled blood. He heard the words, "This do in remembrance of Me." And sitting there in the very presence of the Lamb of God, the betrayer brooded upon his own dark purposes, and cherished his sullen, revengeful thoughts.16
CC	319	4	At the Passover supper Jesus proved His divinity by revealing the traitor's purpose. He tenderly included Judas in the ministry to the disciples. But the last appeal of love was unheeded. Then the case of Judas was decided, and the feet that Jesus had washed went forth to the betrayer's work.17
CC	319	5	Until this step was taken, Judas had not passed beyond the possibility of repentance. But when he left the presence of his Lord and his fellow disciples, the final decision had been made. He had passed the boundary line.18
CC	319	6	How many today are, like Judas, betraying their Lord?19
------------------------A Slow Student, November 10
			John 14:1-11; John 6:5-14
CC	320	1	Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? John 14:9.
CC	320	2	At the head of one of the groups into which the apostles are divided stands the name of Philip. He was the first disciple to whom Jesus addressed the distinct command, "Follow me." ... He had listened to the teaching of John the Baptist, and had heard his announcement of Christ as the Lamb of God. Philip was a sincere seeker for truth, but he was slow of heart to believe.... Though Christ had been proclaimed by the voice from heaven as the Son of God, to Philip He was "Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph" (John 1:45). Again, when the five thousand were fed, Philip's lack of faith was shown. It was to test him that Jesus questioned, "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" ... Again, in those last hours before the crucifixion, the words of Philip were such as to discourage faith.... So slow of heart, so weak in faith, was that disciple who for three years had been with Jesus.20
CC	320	3	He wished Christ to reveal the Father in bodily form; but in Christ God had already revealed Himself. Is it possible, Christ said, that after walking with Me, hearing My words, seeing the miracle of feeding the five thousand, of healing the sick of the dread disease leprosy, of bringing the dead to life, of raising Lazarus, who was a prey to death, whose body had indeed seen corruption, you do not know Me? Is it possible that you do not discern the Father in the works that He does by Me? ... God cannot be seen in external form by any human being. Christ alone can represent the Father to humanity.21
CC	320	4	In happy contrast to Philip's unbelief was the childlike trust of Nathanael. He was a man of intensely earnest nature, one whose faith took hold upon unseen realities. Yet Philip was a student in the school of Christ, and the divine Teacher bore patiently with his unbelief and dullness. When the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples, Philip became a teacher after the divine order. He knew whereof he spoke, and he taught with an assurance that carried conviction to the hearers.22
------------------------On Enemy Ground, November 11
			Matthew 26:31-35; Matthew 26:56; Matthew 26:58; Matthew 26:69-75
CC	321	1	Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 Corinthians 10:12.
CC	321	2	When Christ on the eve of His betrayal forewarned His disciples, "All ye shall be offended because of me this night," Peter confidently declared, "Although all shall be offended, yet will not I" (Mark 14:27, 29). Peter did not know his own danger. Self-confidence misled him. He thought himself able to withstand temptation; but in a few short hours the test came, and with cursing and swearing he denied his Lord.23
CC	321	3	Peter had not designed that his real character should be known. In assuming an air of indifference he had placed himself on the enemy's ground, and he became an easy prey to temptation. If he had been called to fight for his Master, he would have been a courageous soldier; but when the finger of scorn was pointed at him, he proved himself a coward. Many who do not shrink from active warfare for their Lord are driven by ridicule to deny their faith. By associating with those whom they should avoid, they place themselves in the way of temptation. They invite the enemy to tempt them, and are led to say and do that of which under other circumstances they would never have been guilty. The disciple of Christ who in our day disguises his faith through dread of suffering or reproach denies his Lord as really as did Peter in the judgment hall.24
CC	321	4	When the crowing of the cock reminded him of the words of Christ, surprised and shocked at what he had just done he turned and looked at his Master. At that moment Christ looked at Peter, and beneath that grieved look, in which compassion and love for him were blended, Peter understood himself. He went out and wept bitterly. That look of Christ's broke his heart. Peter had come to the turning point, and bitterly did he repent his sin.... Now his self-confidence was gone. Never again were the old boastful assertions repeated....
CC	321	5	It was through self-sufficiency that Peter fell; and it was through repentance and humiliation that his feet were again established. In the record of his experience every repenting sinner may find encouragement.25
------------------------Converted at Last, November 12
			John 21:15-19
CC	322	1	He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? John 21:17.
CC	322	2	This heart-searching question was necessary in the case of Peter, and it is necessary in our case. The work of restoration can never be thorough unless the roots of evil are reached. Again and again the shoots have been clipped, while the root of bitterness has been left to spring up and defile many; but the very depth of the hidden evil must be reached....
CC	322	3	When, the third time, Christ said to Peter, "Lovest thou me?" the probe reached the soul center. Self-judged, Peter fell upon the Rock, saying, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee."
CC	322	4	This is the work before every soul who has dishonored God, and grieved the heart of Christ, by a denial of truth and righteousness. If the tempted soul endures the trying process, and self does not awake to life to feel hurt and abused under the test, that probing knife reveals that the soul is indeed dead to self, but alive unto God.
CC	322	5	Some assert that if a soul stumbles and falls, he can never regain his position; but the case before us contradicts this.... In committing to his stewardship the souls for whom He had given His life, Christ gave to Peter the strongest evidence of His confidence in his restoration. And he was commissioned to feed not only the sheep, but the lambs--a broader and more delicate work than had hitherto been appointed him.26
CC	322	6	Peter was now humble enough to understand the words of Christ, and without further questioning, the once restless, boastful, self-confident disciple became subdued and contrite. He followed his Lord indeed--the Lord he had denied. The thought that Christ had not denied and rejected him was to Peter a light and comfort and blessing. He felt that he could be crucified from choice, but it must be with his head downward. And he who was so close a partaker of Christ's sufferings will also be a partaker of His glory when He shall "sit upon the throne of his glory."27
------------------------Caiaphas, November 13
			Matthew 26:57-65
CC	323	1	Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God. Joel 2:13.
CC	323	2	It was the custom among the Jews for the garments to be rent at the death of friends, but this custom the priests were not to observe.... Everything worn by the priest was to be whole and without blemish. By those beautiful official garments was represented the character of the great antitype, Jesus Christ. Nothing but perfection, in dress and attitude, in word and spirit, could be acceptable to God. He is holy, and His glory and perfection must be represented by the earthly service.... Finite man might rend his own heart by showing a contrite and humble spirit. This God would discern. But no rent must be made in the priestly robes, for this would mar the representation of heavenly things.28
CC	323	3	When Christ declared Himself the Son of God, Caiaphas, in pretended horror, rent his robe, and accused the Holy One of Israel of blasphemy.29
CC	323	4	He had done the very thing that the Lord had commanded should not be done. Standing under the condemnation of God, he pronounced sentence on Christ as a blasphemer.... The priestly robe he rent in order to impress the people with his horror of the sin of blasphemy covered a heart full of wickedness.30
CC	323	5	How different was the true High Priest from the false and corrupted Caiaphas. Christ stood before the false high priest, pure and undefiled, without a taint of sin. Christ mourned for the transgression of every human being. He bore even the guiltiness of Caiaphas, knowing the hypocrisy that dwelt in his soul, while for pretense he rent his robe. Christ did not rend His robe, but His soul was rent. His garment of human flesh was rent as He hung on the cross, the sin-bearer of the race.31
CC	323	6	Many today who claim to be Christians are in danger of rending their garments, making an outward show of repentance, when their hearts are not softened nor subdued. This is why so many continue to make failures in the Christian life. An outward appearance of sorrow is shown for wrong, but their repentance is not that which needs not to be repented of.32
------------------------Pilate, November 14
			Matthew 27:11-26
CC	324	1	When Pilate realized that nothing more could be done but that there would soon be a riot, he took a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying: "I take no responsibility for the death of this man. You must see to that yourselves." Matthew 27:24, Phillips.
CC	324	2	If at the first Pilate had stood firm, refusing to condemn a man whom he found guiltless, he would have broken the fatal chain that was to bind him in remorse and guilt as long as he lived. Had he carried out his convictions of right, the Jews would not have presumed to dictate to him. Christ would have been put to death, but the guilt would not have rested upon Pilate. But Pilate had taken step after step in the violation of his conscience. He had excused himself from judging with justice and equity, and he now found himself almost helpless in the hands of the priests and rulers. His wavering and indecision proved his ruin.33
CC	324	3	In fear and self-condemnation Pilate looked upon the Saviour. In the vast sea of upturned faces, His alone was peaceful. About His head a soft light seemed to shine. Pilate said in his heart, He is a God. Turning to the multitude he declared, I am clear of His blood. Take ye Him, and crucify Him. But ... I pronounce Him a just man. May He whom He claims as His Father judge you and not me for this day's work. Then to Jesus he said, Forgive me for this act; I cannot save You....
CC	324	4	Pilate longed to deliver Jesus. But he saw that he could not do this, and yet retain his own position and honor. Rather than lose his worldly power, he chose to sacrifice an innocent life. How many, to escape loss or suffering, in like manner sacrifice principle. Conscience and duty point one way, and self-interest points another....
CC	324	5	Pilate yielded to the demands of the mob. Rather than risk losing his position, he delivered Jesus up to be crucified. But ... the very thing he dreaded afterward came upon him. His honors were stripped from him, he was cast down from his high office, and, stung by remorse and wounded pride, not long after the crucifixion he ended his own life. So all who compromise with sin will gain only sorrow and ruin. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Proverbs 14:12).34
------------------------The Cross Bearer, November 15
			Matthew 27:26-33
CC	325	1	And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. Luke 23:26.
CC	325	2	Jesus had hardly passed the gate of Pilate's house when the cross which had been prepared for Barabbas was brought out and laid upon His bruised and bleeding shoulders. He had borne His burden but a few rods, when, from loss of blood and excessive weariness and pain, He fell fainting to the ground. When He revived, the cross was again placed upon His shoulders, and He was forced forward. He staggered on for a few steps, bearing His heavy load, and then fell as one lifeless to the ground. The priests and rulers felt no compassion for their suffering victim, but they saw that it was impossible for Him to carry the instrument of torture farther. They were puzzled to find anyone who would humiliate himself to bear the cross to the place of execution.35
CC	325	3	The crowd that followed the Saviour to Calvary taunted and reviled Him because He could not carry the wooden cross. They all saw the weak and staggering steps of Christ, but compassion did not reveal itself in the hearts of those who had advanced from one step to another in their abuse and torture of the Son of God....
CC	325	4	A stranger, Simon, a Cyrenian, coming to the city from the country, hears the crowd pass the taunts and ribaldry; he hears the contemptuous repetition, "Make way for the King of the Jews." He stops in astonishment at the scene, and as he expresses his compassion in words and deeds, they seize him and compel him to lift the cross which is too heavy for Christ to bear.... That wooden cross borne by him to Calvary was the means of Simon taking upon himself the cross of Christ from choice, to ever cheerfully stand beneath its burden. His compulsory companionship with Christ in bearing His cross to Calvary, in beholding the sad and dreadful work and the spectators beneath the cross, was the means of drawing his heart to Jesus. Every word from the lips of Christ was graven upon his soul.... And the heart of Simon believed.36
------------------------Remember Me, November 16
			Luke 23:13-44
CC	326	1	And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Luke 23:42.
CC	326	2	To Jesus in His agony on the cross there came one gleam of comfort. It was the prayer of the penitent thief.... This man was not a hardened criminal; he had been led astray by evil associations.... He had seen and heard Jesus, and had been convicted by His teaching, but he had been turned away from Him by the priests and rulers. Seeking to stifle conviction, he had plunged deeper and deeper into sin, until he was arrested, tried as a criminal, and condemned to die on the cross.
CC	326	3	In the judgment hall and on the way to Calvary he had been in company with Jesus. He had heard Pilate declare, "I find no fault in Him" (John 19:4). He had marked His godlike bearing, and His pitying forgiveness of His tormentors.... The conviction comes back to him that this is the Christ. Turning to his fellow criminal he says, "Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?" The dying thieves have no longer anything to fear from man. But upon one of them presses the conviction that there is a God to fear, a future to cause him to tremble. And now, all sin-polluted as it is, his life history is about to close....
CC	326	4	When condemned for his crime, the thief had become hopeless and despairing; but strange, tender thoughts now spring up. He calls to mind all he has heard of Jesus.... The Holy Spirit illuminates his mind, and little by little the chain of evidence is joined together. In Jesus, bruised, mocked, and hanging upon the cross, he sees the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Hope is mingled with anguish in his voice as the helpless, dying soul casts himself upon a dying Saviour. "Lord, remember me," he cries, "when Thou comest into Thy kingdom."
CC	326	5	Quickly the answer came. Soft and melodious the tone, full of love, compassion, and power the words: Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with Me in paradise.... To the penitent thief came the perfect peace of acceptance with God.37
------------------------Secret Friends No Longer, November 17
			John 19:38-42
CC	327	1	Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. John 19:38, 39.
CC	327	2	Neither Joseph nor Nicodemus had openly accepted the Saviour while He was living. They knew that such a step would exclude them from the Sanhedrin, and they hoped to protect Him by their influence in its councils. For a time they had seemed to succeed; but the wily priests, seeing their favor to Christ, had thwarted their plans. In their absence Jesus had been condemned and delivered to be crucified. Now that He was dead, they no longer concealed their attachment to Him. While the disciples feared to show themselves openly as His followers, Joseph and Nicodemus came boldly to their aid....
CC	327	3	Nicodemus, when he saw Jesus lifted up on the cross, remembered His words spoken by night in the Mount of Olives: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14, 15).
CC	327	4	On that Sabbath, when Christ lay in the grave, Nicodemus had opportunity for reflection. A clearer light now illuminated his mind, and the words which Jesus had spoken to him were no longer mysterious. He felt that he had lost much by not connecting himself with the Saviour during His life. Now he recalled the events of Calvary. The prayer of Christ for His murderers and His answer to the petition of the dying thief spoke to the heart of the learned councilor. Again he looked upon the Saviour in His agony; again he heard that last cry, "It is finished," spoken like the words of a conqueror. Again he beheld the reeling earth, the darkened heavens, the rent veil, the shivered rocks, and his faith was forever established.
CC	327	5	The very event that destroyed the hopes of the disciples convinced Joseph and Nicodemus of the divinity of Jesus. Their fears were overcome by the courage of a firm and unwavering faith.38
------------------------Thomas the Doubter, November 18
			John 20:19-29
CC	328	1	Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. John 20:29.
CC	328	2	When Jesus first met the disciples in the upper chamber [following His resurrection], Thomas was not with them. He heard the reports of the others, and received abundant proof that Jesus had risen; but gloom and unbelief filled his heart.... He was determined not to believe, and for a whole week he brooded over his wretchedness, which seemed all the darker in contrast with the hope and faith of his brethren.... He ardently loved his Lord, but he had allowed jealousy and unbelief to take possession of his mind and heart.39
CC	328	3	[He] firmly and self-confidently affirmed that he would not believe unless he should put his fingers in the prints of the nails and his hand in the side where the cruel spear was thrust....
CC	328	4	When Jesus again met with His disciples, Thomas was with them.... And Jesus gave him the evidence which he had desired.40
CC	328	5	His heart leaped for joy, and he cast himself at the feet of Jesus crying, "My Lord and my God." Jesus accepted his acknowledgment, but gently reproved his unbelief....
CC	328	6	Many who, like Thomas, wait for all cause of doubt to be removed, will never realize their desire. They gradually become confirmed in unbelief....
CC	328	7	In His treatment of Thomas, Jesus gave a lesson for His followers. His example shows how we should treat those whose faith is weak, and who make their doubts prominent. Jesus did not overwhelm Thomas with reproach, nor did He enter into controversy with him. He revealed Himself to the doubting one. Thomas had been most unreasonable in dictating the conditions of his faith, but Jesus, by His generous love and consideration, broke down all the barriers. Unbelief is seldom overcome by controversy.... But let Jesus, in His love and mercy, be revealed as the crucified Saviour, and from many once unwilling lips will be heard the acknowledgment of Thomas, "My Lord and my God."41
------------------------Religious Liberty, November 19
			Acts 4:1-22
CC	329	1	But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Acts 4:19, 20.
CC	329	2	On the day following the healing of the cripple [Acts 3], Annas and Caiaphas, with the other dignitaries of the temple, met together for the trial, and the prisoners [Peter and John] were brought before them. In that very room and before some of those very men, Peter had shamefully denied his Lord. This came distinctly to his mind as he appeared for his own trial. He now had an opportunity of redeeming his cowardice....
CC	329	3	But the Peter who denied Christ in the hour of His greatest need was impulsive and self-confident, differing widely from the Peter who was brought before the Sanhedrin for examination. Since his fall he had been converted. He was no longer proud and boastful, but modest and self-distrustful. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and by the help of this power he was resolved to remove the stain of his apostasy by honoring the name he had once disowned.42
CC	329	4	The principle for which the disciples stood so fearlessly when, in answer to the command not to speak any more in the name of Jesus, they declared, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye," is the same that the adherents of the gospel struggled to maintain in the days of the Reformation....
CC	329	5	This principle we in our day are firmly to maintain. The banner of truth and religious liberty held aloft by the founders of the gospel church and by God's witnesses during the centuries that have passed since then, has, in this last conflict, been committed to our hands.... We are to recognize human government as an ordinance of divine appointment, and teach obedience to it as a sacred duty, within its legitimate sphere. But when its claims conflict with the claims of God, we must obey God rather than men. God's word must be recognized as above all human legislation. A "Thus saith the Lord" is not to be set aside for a "Thus saith the church" or a "Thus saith the state." The crown of Christ is to be lifted above the diadems of earthly potentates.43
------------------------Mishandling God's Goods, November 20
			Acts 4:32; Acts 5:11
CC	330	1	When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee. Deuteronomy 23:21.
CC	330	2	The brief but terrible history of Ananias and Sapphira is traced by the pen of inspiration for the benefit of all who profess to be the followers of Christ. This important lesson has not rested with sufficient weight upon the minds of our people.... This one marked evidence of God's retributive justice is fearful, and should lead all to fear and tremble to repeat sins which brought such a punishment....
CC	330	3	Ananias and his wife Sapphira had the privilege of hearing the gospel preached by the apostles.... While under the direct influence of the Spirit of God, they made a pledge to give to the Lord certain lands; but when they were no longer under this heavenly influence, the impression was less forcible, and they began to question and draw back from fulfilling the pledge which they had made.... Covetousness was first cherished; then, ashamed to have their brethren know that their selfish souls grudged that which they had solemnly dedicated and pledged to God, deception was practiced.... When convicted of their falsehood, their punishment was instant death.44
CC	330	4	Not to the early church only, but to all future generations, this example of God's hatred of covetousness, fraud, and hypocrisy, was given as a danger-signal.... When the heart is stirred by the influence of the Holy Spirit, and a vow is made to give a certain amount, the one who vows has no longer any right to the consecrated portion. Promises of this kind made to men would be looked upon as binding; are those not more binding that are made to God? ...
CC	330	5	Many spend money lavishly in self-gratification. Men and women consult their pleasure and gratify their taste, while they bring to God, almost unwillingly, a stinted offering. They forget that God will one day demand a strict account of how His goods have been used, and that He will no more accept the pittance they hand into the treasury than He accepted the offering of Ananias and Sapphira.45
------------------------Martyred for Christ, November 21
			Acts 6; Acts 7
CC	331	1	And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Acts 6:15.
CC	331	2	Stephen, the foremost of the seven deacons, was a man of deep piety and broad faith.... He was very active in the cause of Christ and boldly proclaimed his faith. Learned rabbis and doctors of the law engaged in public discussion with him, confidently expecting an easy victory. But "they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake." ...
CC	331	3	As the priests and rulers saw the power that attended the preaching of Stephen, they were filled with bitter hatred.... [They] seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin council for trial....
CC	331	4	Saul of Tarsus was present and took a leading part against Stephen. He brought the weight of eloquence and the logic of the rabbis to bear upon the case, to convince the people that Stephen was preaching delusive and dangerous doctrines; but in Stephen he met one who had a full understanding of the purpose of God in the spreading of the gospel to other nations....
CC	331	5	In the cruel faces about him the prisoner read his fate; but he did not waver. For him the fear of death was gone. For him the enraged priests and the excited mob had no terror. The scene before him faded from his vision. To him the gates of heaven were ajar, and, looking in, he saw the glory of the courts of God, and Christ, as if just risen from His throne, standing ready to sustain His servant.46
CC	331	6	In every age God's chosen messengers have been reviled and persecuted, yet through their affliction the knowledge of God has been spread abroad.... When the noble and eloquent Stephen was stoned to death ... there was no loss to the cause of the gospel. The light of heaven that glorified his face, the divine compassion breathed in his dying prayer, were as a sharp arrow of conviction to the bigoted Sanhedrist who stood by, and Saul, the persecuting Pharisee, became a chosen vessel to bear the name of Christ before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.47
------------------------Just for One Man, November 22
			Acts 8:26-40
CC	332	1	And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went. Acts 8:26, 27.
CC	332	2	Notice how much effort was put forth for just one man, an Ethiopian.48
CC	332	3	This Ethiopian was a man of good standing and of wide influence. God saw that when converted he would give others the light he had received and would exert a strong influence in favor of the gospel. Angels of God were attending this seeker for light, and he was being drawn to the Saviour. By the ministration of the Holy Spirit the Lord brought him into touch with one who could lead him to the light.
CC	332	4	Philip was directed to go to the Ethiopian and explain to him the prophecy that he was reading. "Go near," the Spirit said, "and join thyself to this chariot." ... The man's heart thrilled with interest as the Scriptures were explained to him; and when the disciple had finished, he was ready to accept the light given. He did not make his high worldly position an excuse for refusing the gospel....
CC	332	5	This Ethiopian represented a large class who need to be taught by such missionaries as Philip--men who will hear the voice of God and go where He sends them. There are many who are reading the Scriptures who cannot understand their true import. All over the world men and women are looking wistfully to heaven. Prayers and tears and inquiries go up from souls longing for light, for grace, for the Holy Spirit. Many are on the verge of the kingdom, waiting only to be gathered in.
CC	332	6	An angel guided Philip to the one who was seeking for light and who was ready to receive the gospel, and today angels will guide the footsteps of those workers who will allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify their tongues and refine and ennoble their hearts.49
CC	332	7	He who sent Philip to the Ethiopian councilor, Peter to the Roman centurion, and the little Israelitish maiden to the help of Naaman, the Syrian captain, sends men and women and youth today as His representatives to those in need of divine help and guidance.50
------------------------The First Dorcas, November 23
			Acts 9:36-42
CC	333	1	Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. Acts 9:36.
CC	333	2	At Joppa, which was near Lydda, there lived a woman named Dorcas, whose good deeds had made her greatly beloved. She was a worthy disciple of Jesus, and her life was filled with acts of kindness. She knew who needed comfortable clothing and who needed sympathy, and she freely ministered to the poor and the sorrowful....
CC	333	3	"And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died." ... Hearing that Peter was at Lydda, the believers sent messengers to him.... "When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them." ...
CC	333	4	The apostle's heart was touched with sympathy as he beheld their sorrow. Then, directing that the weeping friends be sent from the room, he kneeled down and prayed fervently to God to restore Dorcas to life and health.... Dorcas had been of great service to the church, and God saw fit to bring her back from the land of the enemy, that her skill and energy might still be a blessing to others, and also that by this manifestation of His power the cause of Christ might be strengthened.51
CC	333	5	Let the children and youth learn from the Bible how God has honored the work of the everyday toiler.... Let them read of Jesus the carpenter, and Paul the tent-maker, who with the toil of the craftsman linked the highest ministry, human and divine. Let them read of the lad whose five loaves were used by the Saviour in that wonderful miracle for the feeding of the multitude; of Dorcas the seamstress, called back from death, that she might continue to make garments for the poor; of the wise woman described in the Proverbs, who "seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands." ... who "stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, ... reacheth forth her hands to the needy." ...
CC	333	6	Of such a one, God says: "She shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates."52
------------------------No National Barriers, November 24
			Acts 10
CC	334	1	Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: he lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. Acts 10:4-6.
CC	334	2	The explicitness of these directions, in which was named even the occupation of the man with whom Peter was staying, shows that Heaven is acquainted with the history and business of men in every station of life. God is familiar with the experience and work of the humble laborer, as well as with that of the king upon his throne.53
CC	334	3	My heart is made very tender as I read of the interest manifested by the Lord in Cornelius. Cornelius was a man in high position, an officer in the Roman army, but he was walking in strict accordance with all the light he had received. The Lord sent a special message from heaven to him, and by another message directed Peter to visit him and give him light.54
CC	334	4	Cornelius was gladly obedient to the vision.55
CC	334	5	Thus was the gospel brought to those who had been strangers and foreigners, making them fellow citizens with the saints, and members of the household of God. The conversion of Cornelius and his household was but the first fruits of a harvest to be gathered in. From this household a wide-spread work of grace was carried on in that heathen city.
CC	334	6	Today God is seeking for souls among the high as well as the lowly. There are many like Cornelius, men whom the Lord desires to connect with His work in the world. Their sympathies are with the Lord's people, but the ties that bind them to the world hold them firmly. It requires moral courage for them to take their position for Christ. Special efforts should be made for these souls, who are in so great danger, because of their responsibilities and associations.56
CC	334	7	From the story of Cornelius we learn that God will lead every one who is willing to be led. He led Cornelius. He drew out His servant's heart in prayer. He prepared him to receive the light of His truth, and he chose to enlighten the mind of Cornelius through the agency of one who had already received light from above.57
------------------------To All the World, November 25
			Acts 10
CC	335	1	Peter began: "I now see how true it is that God has no favourites, but that in every nation the man who is godfearing and does what is right is acceptable to him." Acts 10:34, 35, N.E.B.
CC	335	2	Peter ... was called by God to take the gospel to Cornelius....
CC	335	3	As yet none of the disciples had preached the gospel to the Gentiles. In their minds the middle wall of partition, broken down by the death of Christ, still existed, and their labors had been confined to the Jews, for they had looked upon the Gentiles as excluded from the blessings of the gospel. Now the Lord was seeking to teach Peter the world-wide extent of the divine plan....
CC	335	4	How carefully the Lord worked to overcome the prejudice against the Gentiles that had been so firmly fixed in Peter's mind by his Jewish training! By the vision of the sheet and its contents He sought to divest the apostle's mind of this prejudice and to teach the important truth that in heaven there is no respect of persons; that Jew and Gentile are alike precious in God's sight; that through Christ the heathen may be made partakers of the blessings and privileges of the gospel....
CC	335	5	It was with reluctance at every step that he [Peter] undertook the duty laid upon him but he dared not disobey.... As Peter pointed those present [Cornelius and his kinsmen and friends] to Jesus as the sinner's only hope, he himself understood more fully the meaning of the vision he had seen, and his heart glowed with the spirit of the truth that he was presenting....
CC	335	6	When the brethren in Judea heard that Peter had gone to the house of a Gentile and preached to those assembled, they were surprised and offended. They feared that such a course, which looked to them presumptuous, would have the effect of counteracting his own teaching....
CC	335	7	Peter laid the whole matter before them.... Convinced that Peter's course was in direct fulfillment of the plan of God, and that their prejudices and exclusiveness were utterly contrary to the spirit of the gospel, they glorified God, saying, "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life."58
------------------------Angel Protectors, November 26
			Acts 12:1-19
CC	336	1	And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod. Acts 12:11.
CC	336	2	The day of Peter's execution was at last appointed, but still the prayers of the believers ascended to heaven; and while all their energies and sympathies were called out in fervent appeals for help, angels of God were watching over the imprisoned apostle....
CC	336	3	Herod on this occasion had taken double precautions. To prevent all possibility of release, Peter had been put under the charge of sixteen soldiers, who, in different watches, guarded him day and night. In his cell, he was placed between two soldiers, and was bound by two chains, each chain being fastened to the wrist of one of the soldiers. He was unable to move without their knowledge. With the prison doors securely fastened, and a strong guard before them, all chance of rescue or escape through human means was cut off. But man's extremity is God's opportunity .... Herod was lifting his hand against Omnipotence, and he was to be utterly defeated. By the putting forth of His might, God was about to save the precious life that the Jews were plotting to destroy.... A mighty angel is sent from heaven to rescue Peter.59
CC	336	4	The principalities and powers of heaven are watching the warfare which, under apparently discouraging circumstances, God's servants are carrying on. New conquests are being achieved, new honors won, as the Christians, rallying round the banner of their Redeemer, go forth to fight the good fight of faith. All the heavenly angels are at the service of the humble, believing people of God; and as the Lord's army of workers here below sing their songs of praise, the choir above join with them in ascribing praise to God and to His Son....
CC	336	5	Every true child of God has the co-operation of heavenly beings. Invisible armies of light and power attend the meek and lowly ones who believe and claim the promises of God. Cherubim and seraphim, and angels that excel in strength, stand at God's right hand, "all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.60
------------------------Linked with Heaven, November 27
CC	337	1	The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. Psalm 34:7.
CC	337	2	The experience of Philip, directed by an angel from heaven to go to the place where he met one seeking for truth; of Cornelius, visited by an angel with a message from God; of Peter, in prison and condemned to death, led by an angel forth to safety--all show the closeness of the connection between heaven and earth.
CC	337	3	To the worker for God the record of these angel visits should bring strength and courage. Today, as verily as in the days of the apostles, heavenly messengers are passing through the length and breadth of the land, seeking to comfort the sorrowing, to protect the impenitent, to win the hearts of men to Christ. We cannot see them personally; nevertheless they are with us, guiding, directing, protecting.
CC	337	4	Heaven is brought near to earth by that mystic ladder, the base of which is firmly planted on the earth, while the topmost round reaches the throne of the Infinite. Angels are constantly ascending and descending this ladder of shining brightness, bearing the prayers of the needy and distressed to the Father above, and bringing blessing and hope, courage and help, to the children of men. These angels of light create a heavenly atmosphere about the soul, lifting us toward the unseen and the eternal. We cannot behold their forms with our natural sight.... The spiritual ear alone can hear the harmony of heavenly voices....
CC	337	5	God commissions His angels to save His chosen ones from calamity, to guard them from "the pestilence that walketh in darkness" and "the destruction that wasteth at noonday."
CC	337	6	Again and again have angels talked with men as a man speaketh with a friend, and led them to places of security. Again and again have the encouraging words of angels renewed the drooping spirits of the faithful and, carrying their minds above the things of earth, caused them to behold by faith the white robes, the crowns, the palm branches of victory, which overcomers will receive when they surround the great white throne.61
------------------------At the Damascus Gate, November 28
			Acts 9:1-9
CC	338	1	And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Acts 9:3, 4.
CC	338	2	With the faith and experience of the Galilean disciples who had companied with Jesus were united, in the work of the gospel, the fiery vigor and intellectual power of a rabbi of Jerusalem. A Roman citizen, born in a Gentile city; a Jew, not only by descent but by lifelong training, patriotic devotion, and religious faith; educated in Jerusalem by the most eminent of the rabbis, and instructed in all the laws and traditions of the fathers, Saul of Tarsus shared to the fullest extent the pride and the prejudices of his nation. While still a young man, he became an honored member of the Sanhedrin. He was looked upon as a man of promise, a zealous defender of the ancient faith.
CC	338	3	In the theological schools of Judea the word of God had been set aside for human speculations; it was robbed of its power by the interpretations and traditions of the rabbis.... With their fierce hatred of their Roman oppressors, they cherished the determination to recover by force of arms their national supremacy. The followers of Jesus, whose message of peace was so contrary to their schemes of ambition, they hated and put to death. In this persecution, Saul was one of the most bitter and relentless actors....
CC	338	4	At the gate of Damascus the vision of the Crucified One changed the whole current of his life. The persecutor became a disciple, the teacher a learner. The days of darkness spent in solitude at Damascus were as years in his experience. The Old Testament Scriptures stored in his memory were his study, and Christ his teacher.62
CC	338	5	Paul did not think that he made any real sacrifice when he exchanged Phariseeism for the gospel of Jesus Christ.... When Paul found that he was in a wrong path, he linked himself, according to divine light, with a people he had thought he must wipe from the earth.... He taught Christ and lived Christ, and suffered martyrdom for Christ's sake.63
------------------------Saul to Paul, November 29
			Acts 9:10-22
CC	339	1	And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. Acts 9:6.
CC	339	2	In the wonderful conversion of Paul we see the miraculous power of God.... Jesus, whose name of all others he most hated and despised, revealed Himself to Paul for the purpose of arresting his mad yet honest career, that He might make this most unpromising instrument a chosen vessel to bear the gospel to the Gentiles.... The light of heavenly illumination had taken away Paul's eyesight; but Jesus, the Great Healer of the blind, does not restore it. He answers the question of Paul in these words: "Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." Jesus could not only have healed Paul of his blindness, but He could have forgiven his sins and told him his duty by marking out his future course. From Christ all power and mercies were to flow; but He did not give Paul an experience, in his conversion to truth, independent of His church recently organized upon the earth.
CC	339	3	The marvelous light given Paul upon that occasion astonished and confounded him. He was wholly subdued. This part of the work man could not do for Paul, but there was a work still to be accomplished which the servants of Christ could do. Jesus directs him to His agents in the church for a further knowledge of duty. Thus He gives authority and sanction to His organized church. Christ had done the work of revelation and conviction, and now Paul was in a condition to learn of those whom God had ordained to teach the truth. Christ directs Paul to His chosen servants, thus placing him in connection with His church. The very men whom Paul was purposing to destroy were to be his instructors in the very religion that he had despised and persecuted....
CC	339	4	An angel is sent to Ananias, directing him to go to a certain house where Saul is praying to be instructed in what he is to do next.... In Christ's stead Ananias touches his eyes that they may receive sight; in Christ's stead he lays his hands upon him, prays in Christ's name, and Saul receives the Holy Ghost.64
------------------------Arabian Interlude, November 30
			Galatians 1:11-18
CC	340	1	Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Galatians 1:17.
CC	340	2	Paul's life was in peril, and he received a commission from God to leave Damascus for a time. He went into Arabia; and there, in comparative solitude, he had ample opportunity for communion with God and for contemplation. He wished to be alone with God, to search his own heart, to deepen his repentance, and to prepare himself by prayer and study to engage in a work which appeared to him too great and too important for him to undertake. He was an apostle, not chosen of men, but chosen of God, and his work was plainly stated to be among the Gentiles.
CC	340	3	While in Arabia he did not communicate with the apostles; he sought God earnestly with all his heart, determining not to rest till he knew for a certainty that his repentance was accepted and his great sin pardoned. He would not give up the conflict until he had the assurance that Jesus would be with him in his coming ministry. He was ever to carry about with him in the body the marks of Christ's glory, in his eyes, which had been blinded by the heavenly light, and he desired also to bear with him constantly the assurance of Christ's sustaining grace. Paul came into close connection with Heaven, and Jesus communed with him, and established him in his faith bestowing upon him His wisdom and grace.65
CC	340	4	All who are under the training of God need the quiet hour for communion with their own hearts, with nature, and with God.... They need to have a personal experience in obtaining a knowledge of the will of God. We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God.... Amidst the hurrying throng, and the strain of life's intense activities, he who is thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. He will receive a new endowment of both physical and mental strength. His life will breathe out a fragrance, and will reveal a divine power that will reach men's hearts.66
------------------------Paul Exalts the Cross, December 1
			Acts 17:15-33 to Acts 18:4
CC	341	1	For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.... And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. 1 Corinthians 2:2-4.
CC	341	2	It had been Paul's custom to adopt an oratorical style in his preaching. He was a man fitted to speak before kings, before the great and learned men of Athens, and his intellectual acquirements were often of value to him in preparing the way for the gospel. He tried to do this in Athens, meeting eloquence with eloquence, philosophy with philosophy, and logic with logic; but he failed to meet with the success he had hoped for. His aftersight led him to understand that there was something needed above human wisdom.... He must receive his power from a higher source. In order to convict and convert sinners, the Spirit of God must come into his work and sanctify every spiritual development.1
CC	341	3	To Paul the cross was the one object of supreme interest. Ever since he had been arrested in his career of persecution against the followers of the crucified Nazarene he had never ceased to glory in the cross.... He knew by personal experience that when a sinner once beholds the love of the Father, as seen in the sacrifice of His Son, and yields to the divine influence, a change of heart takes place, and henceforth Christ is all and in all.
CC	341	4	At the time of his conversion, Paul was inspired with a longing desire to help his fellow men to behold Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of the living God, mighty to transform and to save. Henceforth his life was wholly devoted to an effort to portray the love and power of the Crucified One.... The apostle's efforts were not confined to public speaking; there were many who could not have been reached in that way.... He visited the sick and the sorrowing, comforted the afflicted, and lifted up the oppressed. And in all that he said and did he magnified the name of Jesus....
CC	341	5	Paul realized that his sufficiency was not in himself, but in the presence of the Holy Spirit, whose gracious influence filled his heart.... Self was hidden; Christ was revealed and exalted.2
------------------------Gospel Tentmaker, December 2
			Acts 18:1-3; Acts 20:34; 1 Thessalonians 1:6-9
CC	342	1	In all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. 2 Corinthians 11:9.
CC	342	2	Paul was a tentmaker, and he supported himself by working at his trade. While working thus, he spoke of the gospel to those with whom he came in contact, and turned many souls from error to truth. He lost no opportunity of speaking of the Saviour, or of helping those in trouble.3
CC	342	3	The history of the apostle Paul is a constant testimony that manual labor cannot be degrading, that it is not inconsistent with true greatness and elevation of human or Christian character. Those toilworn hands, he deemed, detracted nothing from the force of his pathetic appeals, sensible, intelligent, and eloquent.... Those toilworn hands as he presented them before the people bore testimony that he was not chargeable to any man for his support.... At times he also supported his fellow workers, himself suffering from hunger in order to relieve the necessities of others. He shared his earnings with Luke, and helped Timothy obtain the necessary equipment for his journey.4
CC	342	4	Paul set an example against the sentiment, then gaining influence in the church, that the gospel could be proclaimed successfully only by those who were wholly freed from the necessity of physical toil. He illustrated in a practical way what might be done by consecrated laymen in many places where the people were unacquainted with the truths of the gospel. His course inspired many humble toilers with a desire to do what they could to advance the cause of God, while at the same time they supported themselves in daily labor....
CC	342	5	While some with special talents are chosen to devote all their energies to the work of teaching and preaching the gospel, many others, upon whom human hands have never been laid in ordination, are called to act an important part in soulsaving.... The self-sacrificing servant of God who labors untiringly in word and doctrine, carries on his heart a heavy burden.... His wages do not influence him in his labor.... From heaven he received his commission, and to heaven he looks for his recompense when the work entrusted to him is done.5
------------------------Profitable Bonfire, December 3
			Acts 19:1-20
CC	343	1	And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men. Acts 19:18, 19.
CC	343	2	By burning their books on magic, the Ephesian converts showed that the things in which they had once delighted they now abhorred. It was by and through magic that they had especially offended God and imperiled their souls; and it was against magic that they showed such indignation.... By retaining these books the disciples would have exposed themselves to temptation; by selling them they would have placed temptation in the way of others. They had renounced the kingdom of darkness, and to destroy its power they did not hesitate at any sacrifice. Thus truth triumphed over men's prejudices and their love of money.... The influence of what had taken place was more widespread than even Paul realized. From Ephesus the news was widely circulated, and a strong impetus was given to the cause of Christ. Long after the apostle himself had finished his course, these scenes lived in the memory of men and were the means of winning converts to the gospel.
CC	343	3	It is fondly supposed that heathen superstitions have disappeared before the civilization of the twentieth century. But the word of God and the stern testimony of facts declare that sorcery is practiced in this age as verily as in the days of the old-time magicians. The ancient system of magic is, in reality, the same as what is now known as modern spiritualism. Satan is finding access to thousands of minds by presenting himself under the guise of departed friends....
CC	343	4	The magicians of heathen times have their counterpart in the spiritualistic mediums, the clairvoyants, and the fortunetellers of today.... Could the veil be lifted from before our eyes, we should see evil angels employing all their arts to deceive and to destroy. Wherever an influence is exerted to cause men to forget God, there Satan is exercising his bewitching power.... The apostle's admonition to the Ephesian church should be heeded by the people of God today: "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."6
------------------------While You are Young, December 4
			Acts 16:1-5
CC	344	1	Don't let people look down on you because you are young; see that they look up to you because you are an example to them in your speech and behavior, in your love and faith and sincerity. 1 Timothy 4:12, Phillips.
CC	344	2	He [Timothy] was a mere lad when chosen by God as a teacher; but so fixed were his principles by a correct education that he was fitted for this important position. He bore his responsibilities with Christlike meekness. He was faithful, steadfast, and true, and Paul selected him to be his companion in labor and travel. Lest Timothy should meet with slights because of his youthfulness, Paul wrote to him, "Let no man despise thy youth." He could safely do this, because Timothy was not self-sufficient, but continually sought guidance.
CC	344	3	There are many youth who move from impulse rather than from judgment. But Timothy inquired at every step, "Is this the way of the Lord?" He had no specially brilliant talents, but he consecrated all his abilities to the service of God, and this made his work valuable. The Lord found in him a mind that He could mold and fashion for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
CC	344	4	God will use the youth today as He used Timothy, if they will submit to His guidance. It is your privilege to be God's missionaries. He calls upon you to work for your companions. Seek out those you know to be in danger, and in the love of Christ try to help them. How are they to know the Saviour unless they see His virtues in His followers?7
CC	344	5	The highest aim of our youth should not be to strain after something novel. There was none of this in the mind and work of Timothy. They should bear in mind that, in the hands of the enemy of all good, knowledge alone may be a power to destroy them. It was a very intellectual being, one who occupied a high position among the angelic throng, that finally became a rebel; and many a mind of superior intellectual attainments is now being led captive by his power. The youth should place themselves under the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, and weave them into their daily thoughts and practical life. Then they will possess the attributes classed as highest in the heavenly courts.8
------------------------From a Child, December 5
			2 Timothy 3:14-17
CC	345	1	From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:15.
CC	345	2	We see the advantage that Timothy had in a correct example of piety and true godliness. Religion was the atmosphere of his home. The manifest spiritual power of the piety in the home kept him pure in speech, and free from all corrupting sentiments.9
CC	345	3	God had commanded the Hebrews to teach their children His requirements and to make them acquainted with all His dealings with their fathers. This was one of the special duties of every parent--one that was not to be delegated to another. In the place of stranger lips the loving hearts of the father and mother were to give instruction to their children. Thoughts of God were to be associated with all the events of daily life. The mighty works of God in the deliverance of His people and the promises of the Redeemer to come were to be often recounted in the homes of Israel.... The great truths of God's providence and of the future life were impressed on the young mind. It was trained to see God alike in the scenes of nature and the words of revelation. The stars of heaven, the trees and flowers of the field, the lofty mountains, the rippling brooks--all spoke of the Creator. The solemn service of sacrifice and worship at the sanctuary and the utterances of the prophets were a revelation of God.
CC	345	4	Such was the training of Moses in the lowly cabin home in Goshen; of Samuel, by the faithful Hannah; of David, in the hill dwelling at Bethlehem; of Daniel, before the scenes of the captivity separated him from the home of his fathers. Such, too, was the early life of Christ at Nazareth; such the training by which the child Timothy learned from the lips of his grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice, the truths of Holy Writ.10
CC	345	5	Parents, there is a great work for you to do for Jesus.... Satan seeks to bind the children to himself as with bands of steel, and you can attain success in bringing them to Jesus only through determined personal effort.11
------------------------All That a Son Could Be, December 6
			2 Timothy 2
CC	346	1	Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15, R.S.V.
CC	346	2	Paul loved Timothy, his "own son in the faith" (1 Timothy 1:2). The great apostle often drew the younger disciple out, questioning him in regard to Scripture history, and as they traveled from place to place, he carefully taught him how to do successful work.12
CC	346	3	The affection between Paul and Timothy began with Timothy's conversion; and the tie had strengthened as they had shared the hopes, the perils, and the toils of missionary life, till they seemed to be as one. The disparity in their ages and the difference in their characters made their love for each other more earnest. The ardent, zealous, indomitable spirit of Paul found repose and comfort in the mild, yielding, retiring disposition of Timothy. The faithful ministration and tender love of this tried companion had brightened many a dark hour in the apostle's life.... All that a son could be to a loved and honored father, the youthful Timothy was to the tried and lonely Paul.13
CC	346	4	Paul loved Timothy because Timothy loved God. His intelligent knowledge of experimental piety and of the truth gave him distinction and influence. The piety and influence of his home life was not of a cheap order, but pure, sensible, and uncorrupted by false sentiments.... The Word of God was the rule which guided Timothy.... Impressions of the highest possible order were kept before his mind. His home instructors cooperated with God in educating this young man to bear the burdens that were to come upon him at an early age.14
CC	346	5	In his work, Timothy constantly sought Paul's advice and instruction. He did not move from impulse, but exercised consideration and calm thought.... The Holy Spirit found in him one who could be molded and fashioned as a temple for the indwelling of the divine Presence.
CC	346	6	As the lessons of the Bible are wrought into the daily life, they have a deep and lasting influence upon the character. These lessons Timothy learned and practiced.15
------------------------Passing the Torch, December 7
			2 Timothy 4:1-5; 2 Timothy 3:1-5
CC	347	1	I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 2 Timothy 4:1, 2.
CC	347	2	In this his last letter to Timothy, Paul held up before the younger worker a high ideal, pointing out the duties devolving on him as a minister of Christ.... Paul bids him preach the word, not the sayings and customs of men; to be ready to witness for God whenever opportunity should present itself--before large congregations and private circles, by the way and at the fireside, to friends and to enemies, whether in safety or exposed to hardship and peril, reproach and loss.
CC	347	3	Fearing that Timothy's mild, yielding disposition might lead him to shun an essential part of his work, Paul exhorted him to be faithful in reproving sin and even to rebuke with sharpness those who were guilty of gross evils. Yet he was to do this "with all long-suffering and doctrine." He was to reveal the patience and love of Christ....
CC	347	4	To hate and reprove sin, and at the same time to show pity and tenderness for the sinner, is a difficult attainment. The more earnest our own efforts to attain to holiness of heart and life, the more acute will be our perception of sin and the more decided our disapproval of any deviation from the right. We must guard against undue severity toward the wrongdoer, but we must also be careful not to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. There is need of showing Christlike patience and love for the erring one, but there is also danger of showing so great toleration for his error that he will look upon himself as undeserving of reproof....
CC	347	5	With the growing contempt for God's law there is an increasing distaste for religion, an increase of pride, love of pleasure, disobedience to parents, and self-indulgence; and thoughtful minds everywhere are anxiously inquiring. What can be done to correct these alarming evils? The answer is found in Paul's exhortation to Timothy, "Preach the word." In the Bible are found the only safe principles of action. It is a transcript of the will of God, an expression of divine wisdom.16
------------------------This Dropout Made Good, December 8
			Acts 12:25; Acts 13:13; Acts 15:36-41
CC	348	1	Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for I find him a useful assistant. 2 Timothy 4:11, N.E.B.
CC	348	2	Mark's mother was a convert to the Christian religion, and her home at Jerusalem was an asylum for the disciples.... Mark proposed to Paul and Barnabas that he should accompany them on their missionary tour. He felt the favor of God in his heart and longed to devote himself entirely to the work of the gospel ministry....
CC	348	3	Their way was toilsome; they encountered hardships and privations, and were beset with dangers on every side.... But Paul and Barnabas had learned to trust God's power to deliver. Their hearts were filled with fervent love for perishing souls. As faithful shepherds in search of the lost sheep, they gave no thought to their own ease and convenience. Forgetful of self, they faltered not when weary, hungry, and cold. They had in view but one object--the salvation of those who had wandered far from the fold....
CC	348	4	Mark, overwhelmed with fear and discouragement, wavered for a time in his purpose to give himself wholeheartedly to the Lord's work. Unused to hardships, he was disheartened by the perils and privations of the way.... He had yet to learn to face danger and persecution and adversity with a brave heart. As the apostles advanced, and still greater difficulties were apprehended, Mark was intimidated and, losing all courage, refused to go farther and returned to Jerusalem.
CC	348	5	This desertion caused Paul to judge Mark unfavorably, and even severely, for a time. Barnabas, on the other hand, was inclined to excuse him because of his inexperience. He felt anxious that Mark should not abandon the ministry, for he saw in him qualifications that would fit him to be a useful worker for Christ. In after years his solicitude in Mark's behalf was richly rewarded, for the young man gave himself unreservedly to the Lord and to the work of proclaiming the gospel message in difficult fields. Under the blessing of God, and the wise training of Barnabas, he developed into a valuable worker. Paul was afterward reconciled to Mark and received him as a fellow laborer.17
------------------------Mark and Demas, December 9
			Colossians 4:7-14
CC	349	1	Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15.
CC	349	2	Among Paul's assistants at Rome were many of his former companions and fellow workers. Luke, "the beloved physician," ... was with him still.... Demas and Mark were also with him....
CC	349	3	Since the earlier years of his profession of faith, Mark's Christian experience had deepened. As he had studied more closely the life and death of Christ he had obtained clearer views of the Saviour's mission, its toils and conflicts. Reading in the scars in Christ's hands and feet the marks of His service for humanity, and the length to which self-abnegation leads to save the lost and perishing, Mark had become willing to follow the Master in the path of self-sacrifice. Now, sharing the lot of Paul the prisoner, he understood better than ever before that it is infinite gain to win Christ, infinite loss to win the world and lose the soul for whose redemption the blood of Christ was shed. In the face of severe trial and adversity, Mark continued steadfast, a wise and beloved helper of the apostle.
CC	349	4	Demas, steadfast for a time, afterward forsook the cause of Christ. In referring to this, Paul wrote, "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world" (2 Timothy 4:10). For worldly gain, Demas bartered every high and noble consideration. How shortsighted the exchange! Possessing only worldly wealth or honor, Demas was poor indeed, however much he might proudly call his own; while Mark, choosing to suffer for Christ's sake, possessed eternal riches, being accounted in heaven an heir of God and a joint heir with His Son.18
CC	349	5	If we would permit our minds to dwell more upon Christ and the heavenly world, we should find a powerful stimulus and support in fighting the battles of the Lord. Pride and love of the world will lose their power as we contemplate the glories of that better land so soon to be our home. Beside the loveliness of Christ, all earthly attractions will seem of little worth.19
------------------------Master and Servant, December 10
			Philemon
CC	350	1	Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord? Philemon 16.
CC	350	2	Among those who gave their hearts to God through the labors of Paul in Rome was Onesimus, a pagan slave who had wronged his master, Philemon, a Christian believer in Colosse, and had escaped to Rome. In the kindness of his heart, Paul sought to relieve the poverty and distress of the wretched fugitive and then endeavored to shed the light of truth into his darkened mind. Onesimus listened to the words of life, confessed his sins, and was converted to the faith of Christ.... Paul ... counseled him to return without delay to Philemon, beg his forgiveness, and plan for the future. The apostle promised to hold himself responsible for the sum of which Philemon had been robbed.... It was a severe test for this servant thus to deliver himself up to the master he had wronged; but he had been truly converted, and he did not turn aside from this duty....
CC	350	3	Paul's letter to Philemon shows the influence of the gospel upon the relation between master and servant. Slaveholding was an established institution throughout the Roman Empire, and both masters and slaves were found in most of the churches for which Paul labored....
CC	350	4	It was not the apostle's work to overturn arbitrarily or suddenly the established order of society. To attempt this would be to prevent the success of the gospel. But he taught principles which struck at the very foundation of slavery and which, if carried into effect, would surely undermine the whole system.... When converted, the slave became a member of the body of Christ, and as such was to be loved and treated as a brother, a fellow heir with his master to the blessings of God and the privileges of the gospel. On the other hand, servants were to perform their duties, "not with eyeservice, as men pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart" (Ephesians 6:6).
CC	350	5	Christianity makes a strong bond of union between master and slave, king and subject.... They have been washed in the same blood, quickened by the same Spirit; and they are made one in Christ Jesus.20
------------------------The Race Before Us, December 11
			1 Corinthians 9:24-27
CC	351	1	Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:1, 2.
CC	351	2	In the epistle to the Hebrews is pointed out the singlehearted purpose that should characterize the Christian's race for eternal life.... Envy, malice, evil thinking, evilspeaking, covetousness--these are weights that the Christian must lay aside if he would run successfully the race for immortality. Every habit or practice that leads into sin and brings dishonor upon Christ must be put away, whatever the sacrifice.... "Know ye not," Paul asked, "that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?" However eagerly and earnestly the runners might strive, the prize could be awarded to but one....
CC	351	3	Such is not the case in the Christian warfare. Not one who complies with the conditions will be disappointed at the end of the race.... The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. The weakest saint, as well as the strongest, may wear the crown of immortal glory....
CC	351	4	That he might not run uncertainly or at random in the Christian race, Paul subjected himself to severe training. The words, "I keep under my body," literally mean to beat back by severe discipline the desires, impulses, and passions....
CC	351	5	It was this singlehearted purpose to win the race for eternal life that Paul longed to see revealed in the lives of the Corinthian believers. He knew that in order to reach Christ's ideal for them, they had before them a life struggle from which there would be no release. He entreated them to strive lawfully, day by day seeking for piety and moral excellence. He pleaded with them to lay aside every weight and to press forward to the goal of perfection in Christ.21
CC	351	6	In view of the issue at stake, nothing is small that will help or hinder. Every act casts its weight into the scale that determines life's victory or defeat. And the reward given to those who win will be in proportion to the energy and earnestness with which they have striven.22
------------------------A Voice of Gladness, December 12
CC	352	1	Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4.
CC	352	2	The great apostle Paul was firm where duty and principle were at stake; but courtesy was a marked trait of his character, and this gave him access to the highest class of society. Paul never doubted the ability of God or His willingness to give him the grace he needed to live the life of a Christian.... He does not live under a cloud of doubt, groping his way in the mist and darkness of uncertainty, complaining of hardship and trials. A voice of gladness, strong with hope and courage, sounds all along the line down to our time. Paul had a healthful religious experience. The love of Christ was his grand theme, and the constraining power that governed him.
CC	352	3	When in the most discouraging circumstances, which would have had a depressing influence upon half-way Christians, he is firm of heart, full of courage and hope and cheer.... The same hope and cheerfulness is seen when he is upon the deck of the ship, the tempest beating about him, the ship going to pieces. He gives orders to the commander of the ship and preserves the lives of all on board. Although a prisoner, he is really the master of the ship, the freest and happiest man on board....
CC	352	4	When before kings and dignitaries of the earth, who held his life in their hands, he quailed not; for he had given his life to God, and it was hid in Christ. He softened, by his courtesy, the hearts of these men in power, men of fierce temper, wicked and corrupt though they were in heart and life.... Propriety of deportment, the grace of true politeness, marked all his conduct. When he stretched out his hand, as was his custom in speaking, the clanking chains caused him no shame or embarrassment. He looked upon them as tokens of honor, and rejoiced that he could suffer for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.... His reasoning was so clear and convincing that it made the profligate king tremble.... Grace, like an angel of mercy, makes his voice heard sweet and clear, repeating the story of the cross, the matchless love of Jesus.23
------------------------Toward the Mark, December 13
CC	353	1	This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13, 14.
CC	353	2	Paul did many things. He was a wise teacher. His many letters are full of instructive lessons setting forth correct principles. He worked with his hands, for he was a tent-maker, and in this way earned his daily bread.... He carried a heavy burden for the churches. He strove most earnestly to present their errors before them, that they might correct them, and not be deceived and led away from God. He was always seeking to help them in their difficulties; and yet he declares, "One thing I do." ... The responsibilities of his life were many, yet he kept always before him this "one thing." The constant sense of the presence of God constrained him to keep his eye ever looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of his faith.24
CC	353	3	The great purpose that constrained Paul to press forward in the face of hardship and difficulty should lead every Christian worker to consecrate himself wholly to God's service. Worldly attractions will be presented to draw his attention from the Saviour, but he is to press on toward the goal, showing to the world, to angels, and to men that the hope of seeing the face of God is worth all the effort and sacrifice that the attainment of this hope demands.25
CC	353	4	The lowliest disciple of Christ may become an inhabitant of heaven, an heir of God to an inheritance incorruptible, and that fadeth not away. O that every one might make choice of the heavenly gift, become an heir of God to that inheritance whose title is secure from any destroyer, world without end! O, choose not the world, but choose the better inheritance! Press, urge your way toward the mark for the prize of your high calling in Christ Jesus.26
CC	353	5	Soon we shall witness the coronation of our King. Those whose lives have been hidden with Christ, those who on this earth have fought the good fight of faith, will shine forth with the Redeemer's glory in the kingdom of God.27
------------------------To Caesar, December 14
			Acts 25
CC	354	1	I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged.... For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not do die: but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar. Acts 25:10, 11.
CC	354	2	Once more, because of hatred born of bigotry and self-righteousness, a servant of God was driven to turn for protection to the heathen. It was this same hatred that forced the prophet Elijah to flee for succor to the widow of Sarepta; and that forced the heralds of the gospel to turn from the Jews to proclaim their message to the Gentiles. And this hatred the people of God living in this age have yet to meet. Among many of the professing followers of Christ there is the same pride, formalism, and selfishness, the same spirit of oppression, that held so large a place in the Jewish heart.... In the great crisis through which they are soon to pass, the faithful servants of God will encounter the same hardness of heart, the same cruel determination, the same unyielding hatred.
CC	354	3	All who in that evil day would fearlessly serve God according to the dictates of conscience, will need courage, firmness, and a knowledge of God and His word; for those who are true to God will be persecuted, their motives will be impugned, their best efforts misinterpreted, and their names cast out as evil. Satan will work with all his deceptive power to influence the heart and becloud the understanding, to make evil appear good, and good evil....
CC	354	4	God desires His people to prepare for the soon-coming crisis.... Those only who have brought their lives into conformity to the divine standard, will stand firm at that time of test and trial. When secular rulers unite with ministers of religion to dictate in matters of conscience, then it will be seen who really fear and serve God. When the darkness is deepest, the light of a godlike character will shine the brightest.... And while the enemies of truth are on every side, watching the Lord's servants for evil, God will watch over them for good. He will be to them as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.28
------------------------Divine Bodyguard, December 15
CC	355	1	At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.... Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear. 2 Timothy 4:16, 17.
CC	355	2	When Paul was summoned to appear before the emperor Nero for trial, it was with the near prospect of certain death.... Among the Christians at Rome, there was not one who came forward to stand by him in that trying hour.... Paul before Nero--how striking the contrast! ... The name of Nero made the world tremble. To incur his displeasure was to lose property, liberty, life; and his frown was more to be dreaded than a pestilence.
CC	355	3	Without money, without friends, without counsel, the aged prisoner stood before Nero--the countenance of the emperor bearing the shameful record of the passions that raged within; the face of the accused telling of a heart at peace with God.29
CC	355	4	How could Nero, a capricious, passionate, licentious tyrant, be expected to understand or appreciate the character and motives of this son of God? ... The results of opposite systems of education stood that day contrasted--a life of unbounded self-indulgence and a life of entire self-sacrifice. Here were the representatives of two theories of life--all-absorbing selfishness, which counts nothing too valuable to be sacrificed for momentary gratification, and self-denying endurance, ready to give up life itself, if need be, for the good of others....
CC	355	5	The people and the judges looked at him in surprise. They had been present at many trials, and had looked upon many a criminal; but never had they seen a man wear a look of such holy calmness.... His words struck a chord that vibrated in the hearts even of the most hardened. Truth, clear and convincing, overthrew error.... The words spoken on this occasion were destined to shake nations....
CC	355	6	Faithful among the faithless, loyal among the disloyal, he stands as God's representative, and his voice is as a voice from heaven.... His words are as a shout of victory above the roar of battle.30
------------------------A Good Fight, December 16
CC	356	1	I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:7, 8.
CC	356	2	Through his long term of service, Paul had never faltered in his allegiance to his Saviour. Wherever he was--whether before scowling Pharisees, or Roman authorities; before the furious mob at Lystra, or the convicted sinners in the Macedonian dungeon; whether reasoning with the panic-stricken sailors on the shipwrecked vessel, or standing alone before Nero to plead for his life--he had never been ashamed of the cause he was advocating. The one great purpose of his Christian life had been to serve Him whose name had once filled him with contempt; and from this purpose no opposition or persecution had been able to turn him aside.31
CC	356	3	Paul's life was an exemplification of the truths he taught, and herein lay his power. His heart was filled with a deep, abiding sense of his responsibility, and he labored in close communion with Him who is the fountain of justice, mercy, and truth.... The love of the Saviour was the undying motive that upheld him in his conflicts with self and in his struggles against evil as in the service of Christ he pressed forward against the unfriendliness of the world and the opposition of his enemies.
CC	356	4	What the church needs in these days of peril is an army of workers who, like Paul, have educated themselves for usefulness, who have a deep experience in the things of God, and who are filled with earnestness and zeal. Sanctified, self-sacrificing men are needed; men who will not shun trial and responsibility; men who are brave and true; men in whose hearts Christ is formed "the hope of glory," and who with lips touched with holy fire will "preach the word." ...
CC	356	5	Will our young men accept the holy trust at the hands of their fathers? Are they preparing to fill the vacancies made by the death of the faithful? Will the apostle's charge be heeded, the call to duty be heard, amidst the incitements to selfishness and ambition that allure the youth?32
------------------------"Love One Another", December 17
			1 John 4:7-21
CC	357	1	Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:10, 11.
CC	357	2	After the ascension of Christ, John stands forth as a faithful, earnest laborer for the Master.... The love for Christ which glowed in his heart led him to put forth earnest, untiring labor for his fellow men, especially for his brethren in the Christian church.
CC	357	3	Christ had bidden the first disciples love one another as He had loved them.... After the descent of the Holy Spirit, when the disciples went forth to proclaim a living Saviour, their one desire was the salvation of souls. They rejoiced in the sweetness of communion with saints. They were tender, thoughtful, self-denying, willing to make any sacrifice for the truth's sake. In their daily association with one another, they revealed the love that Christ had enjoined upon them....
CC	357	4	But gradually a change came. The believers began to look for defects in others.... They lost sight of the Saviour and His love.... John, realizing that brotherly love was waning in the church, urged upon believers the constant need of this love.... It is not the opposition of the world that most endangers the church of Christ. It is the evil cherished in the hearts of believers that works their most grievous disaster and most surely retards the progress of God's cause. There is no surer way of weakening spirituality than by cherishing envy, suspicion, faultfinding, and evil surmising. On the other hand, the strongest witness that God has sent His Son into the world is the existence of harmony and union among men of varied dispositions who form His church....
CC	357	5	Unbelievers are watching to see if the faith of professed Christians is exerting a sanctifying influence upon their lives; and they are quick to discern the defects in character, the inconsistencies in action.... Christians are all members of one family, all children of the same heavenly Father, with the same blessed hope of immortality. Very close and tender should be the tie that binds them together.... "Let us not love in word," the apostle writes, "but in deed and in truth."33
------------------------Perils Within and Without, December 18
CC	358	1	Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1.
CC	358	2	As the years went by and the number of believers grew, John labored with increasing fidelity and earnestness for his brethren. The times were full of peril for the church. Satanic delusions existed everywhere. By misrepresentation and falsehood the emissaries of Satan sought to arouse opposition against the doctrines of Christ, and in consequence dissensions and heresies were imperiling the church.... Thus many were being led into the mazes of skepticism and delusion.
CC	358	3	John was filled with sadness as he saw these poisonous errors creeping into the church. He saw the dangers to which the church was exposed, and he met the emergency with promptness and decision. The epistles of John breathe the spirit of love. It seems as if he wrote with a pen dipped in love. But when he came in contact with those who were breaking the law of God, yet claiming that they were living without sin, he did not hesitate to warn them of their fearful deception....
CC	358	4	We are authorized to hold in the same estimation as did the beloved disciple those who claim to abide in Christ while living in transgression of God's law. There exist in these last days evils similar to those that threatened the prosperity of the early church; and the teachings of the apostle John on these points should be carefully heeded.... While we are to love the souls for whom Christ died, we are to make no compromise with evil. We are not to unite with the rebellious and call this charity. God requires His people in this age of the world to stand for the right as unflinchingly as did John in opposition to soul-destroying errors....
CC	358	5	He declared what he knew, what he had seen and heard.... Out of the abundance of a heart overflowing with love for the Saviour he spoke; and no power could stay his words....
CC	358	6	So may every true believer be able, through his own experience, to "set to his seal that God is true" (John 3:33). He can bear witness to that which he has seen and heard and felt of the power of Christ.34
------------------------Pure in Heart and Life, December 19
CC	359	1	And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 1 John 3:3.
CC	359	2	John was a teacher of holiness, and in his letters to the church he laid down unerring rules for the conduct of Christians.... He taught that the Christian must be pure in heart and life. Never should he be satisfied with an empty profession. As God is holy in His sphere, so fallen man, through faith in Christ, is to be holy in his sphere....
CC	359	3	There are those who profess holiness, who declare that they are wholly the Lord's, who claim a right to the promises of God, while refusing to render obedience to His commandments. These transgressors of the law claim everything that is promised to the children of God; but this is presumption on their part, for John tells us that true love for God will be revealed in obedience to all His commandments. It is not enough to believe the theory of truth, to make a profession of faith in Christ.... "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments," John wrote, "is a liar, and the truth is not in him." ...
CC	359	4	John did not teach that salvation was to be earned by obedience; but that obedience was the fruit of faith and love.... If we abide in Christ, if the love of God dwells in the heart, our feelings, our thoughts, our actions, will be in harmony with the will of God....
CC	359	5	There are many who, though striving to obey God's commandments, have little peace or joy. This lack in their experience is the result of a failure to exercise faith. They walk as it were in a salt land, a parched wilderness. They claim little, when they might claim much; for there is no limit to the promises of God. Such ones do not correctly represent the sanctification that comes through obedience to the truth. The Lord would have all His sons and daughters happy, peaceful, and obedient. Through the exercise of faith the believer comes into possession of these blessings. Through faith, every deficiency of character may be supplied, every defilement cleansed, every fault corrected, every excellence developed.35
------------------------Beyond the Gloom to Glory, December 20
CC	360	1	Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Timothy 3:12.
CC	360	2	In the experience of the apostle John under persecution, there is a lesson of wonderful strength and comfort for the Christian. God does not prevent the plottings of wicked men, but He causes their devices to work for good to those who in trial and conflict maintain their faith and loyalty....
CC	360	3	It is the work of faith to rest in God in the darkest hour, to feel, however sorely tried and tempest-tossed, that our Father is at the helm. The eye of faith alone can look beyond the things of time to estimate aright the worth of the eternal riches.
CC	360	4	Jesus does not present to His followers the hope of attaining earthly glory and riches, of living a life free from trial. Instead He calls upon them to follow Him in the path of self-denial and reproach. He who came to redeem the world was opposed by the united forces of evil.... So it will be with all who will live godly in Christ Jesus. Persecution and reproach await all who are imbued with the Spirit of Christ....
CC	360	5	In all ages Satan has persecuted the people of God. He has tortured them and put them to death, but in dying they became conquerors. They bore witness to the power of One mightier than Satan. Wicked men may torture and kill the body, but they cannot touch the life that is hid with Christ in God. They can incarcerate men and women in prison walls, but they cannot bind the spirit.
CC	360	6	Through trial and persecution the glory--the character--of God is revealed in His chosen ones.... They follow Christ through sore conflicts; they endure self-denial and experience bitter disappointments; but thus they learn the guilt and woe of sin, and they look upon it with abhorrence. Being partakers of Christ's sufferings, they can look beyond the gloom to the glory, saying, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).36
------------------------The Last of the Twelve, December 21
CC	361	1	Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:11, 12.
CC	361	2	John lived to be very old. He witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the ruin of the stately temple. The last survivor of the disciples who had been intimately connected with the Saviour, his message had great influence in setting forth the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, the Redeemer of the world....
CC	361	3	The rulers of the Jews were filled with bitter hatred against John for his unwavering fidelity to the cause of Christ. They declared that their efforts against the Christians would avail nothing so long as John's testimony kept ringing in the ears of the people. In order that the miracles and teachings of Jesus might be forgotten, the voice of the bold witness must be silenced.
CC	361	4	John was accordingly summoned to Rome to be tried for his faith. Here before the authorities the apostle's doctrines were misstated. False witnesses accused him of teaching seditious heresies.... John answered for himself in a clear and convincing manner.... But the more convincing his testimony, the deeper was the hatred of his opposers. The emperor Domitian was filled with rage. He could neither dispute the reasoning of Christ's faithful advocate, nor match the power that attended his utterance of truth; yet he determined that he would silence his voice.
CC	361	5	John was cast into a caldron of boiling oil; but the Lord preserved the life of His faithful servant, even as He preserved the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace. As the words were spoken, Thus perish all who believe in that deceiver, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, John declared, My Master patiently submitted to all that Satan and his angels could devise to humiliate and torture Him. He gave His life to save the world. I am honored in being permitted to suffer for His sake. I am a weak, sinful man. Christ was holy, harmless, undefiled. He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. These words had their influence, and John was removed from the caldron by the very men who had cast him in.37
------------------------Shut Away with God, December 22
CC	362	1	Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; ... be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Revelation 2:10.
CC	362	2	By the emperor's decree John was banished to the Isle of Patmos, condemned "for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 1:9). Here, his enemies thought, his influence would no longer be felt, and he must finally die of hardship and distress.
CC	362	3	Patmos, a barren, rocky island in the Aegean Sea, had been chosen by the Roman government as a place of banishment for criminals; but to the servant of God this gloomy abode became the gate of heaven. Here, shut away from the busy scenes of life, and from the active labors of former years, he had the companionship of God and Christ and the heavenly angels, and from them he received instruction for the church for all future time.... Among the cliffs and rocks of Patmos, John held communion with his Maker. He reviewed his past life, and at thought of the blessings he had received, peace filled his heart....
CC	362	4	In his isolated home John was able to study more closely than ever before the manifestations of divine power as recorded in the book of nature and in the pages of inspiration.... In former years his eyes had been greeted by the sight of forest-covered hills, green valleys, and fruitful plains; and in the beauties of nature it had ever been his delight to trace the wisdom and skill of the Creator. He was now surrounded by scenes that to many would appear gloomy and uninteresting; but to John it was otherwise. While his surroundings might be desolate and barren, the blue heavens that bent above him were as bright and beautiful as the skies above his loved Jerusalem. In the wild, rugged rocks, in the mysteries of the deep, in the glories of the firmament, he read important lessons. All bore the message of God's power and glory....
CC	362	5	By the rocks he was reminded of Christ, the Rock of his strength, in whose shelter he could hide without fear. From the exiled apostle on rocky Patmos there went up the most ardent longing of soul after God, the most fervent prayers.38
------------------------Keep Your Armor On, December 23
CC	363	1	And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you. Isaiah 46:4.
CC	363	2	The history of John affords a striking illustration of the way in which God can use aged workers. When John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos, there were many who thought him to be past service, an old and broken reed, ready to fall at any time. But the Lord saw fit to use him still. Though banished from the scenes of his former labor, he did not cease to bear witness to the truth. Even in Patmos he made friends and converts. His was a message of joy, proclaiming a risen Saviour....
CC	363	3	The most tender regard should be cherished for those whose life interest has been bound up with the work of God. These aged workers have stood faithful amid storm and trial. They may have infirmities, but they still possess talents that qualify them to stand in their place in God's cause. Though worn, and unable to bear the heavier burdens that younger men can and should carry, the counsel they can give is of the highest value.
CC	363	4	They may have made mistakes, but from their failures they have learned to avoid errors and dangers, and are they not therefore competent to give wise counsel? They have borne test and trial, and though they have lost some of their vigor, the Lord does not lay them aside. He gives them special grace and wisdom.... The Lord desires the younger laborers to gain wisdom, strength, and maturity by association with these faithful men....
CC	363	5	As those who have spent their lives in the service of Christ draw near to the close of their earthly ministry, they will be impressed by the Holy Spirit to recount the experiences they have had in connection with the work of God. The record of His wonderful dealings with His people, of His great goodness in delivering them from trial, should be repeated to those newly come to the faith. God desires the old and tried laborers to stand in their place, doing their part to save men and women from being swept downward by the mighty current of evil. He desires them to keep the armor on till He bids them lay it down.39
------------------------"Hitherto Hath the Lord Helped Us", December 24
CC	364	1	O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works. Psalm 105:1, 2.
CC	364	2	The dealings of God with His people should be often repeated. How frequently were the waymarks set up by the Lord in His dealings with ancient Israel! Lest they should forget the history of the past, He commanded Moses to frame these events into song, that parents might teach them to their children. They were to gather up memorials and to lay them up in sight. Special pains were taken to preserve them, that when the children should inquire concerning these things, the whole story might be repeated. Thus the providential dealings and the marked goodness and mercy of God in His care and deliverance of His people were kept in mind. We are exhorted to "call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions" (Hebrews 10:32). For His people in this generation the Lord has wrought as a wonder-working God.... We need often to recount God's goodness and to praise Him for His wonderful works.40
CC	364	3	Let us not cast away our confidence, but have firm assurance, firmer than ever before. "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," and He will help us to the end (1 Samuel 7:12). Let us look to the monumental pillars, reminders of what the Lord has done to comfort us and to save us from the hand of the destroyer. Let us keep fresh in our memory all the tender mercies that God has shown us--the tears He has wiped away, the pains He has soothed, the anxieties removed, the fears dispelled, the wants supplied, the blessings bestowed--thus strengthening ourselves for all that is before us through the remainder of our pilgrimage.
CC	364	4	We cannot but look forward to new perplexities in the coming conflict, but we may look on what is past as well as on what is to come, and say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25). The trial will not exceed the strength that shall be given us to bear it. Then let us take up our work just where we find it, believing that whatever may come, strength proportionate to the trial will be given.41
------------------------To God be the Glory, December 25
CC	365	1	From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised. Psalm 113:3.
CC	365	2	The Bible has little to say in praise of men. Little space is given to recounting the virtues of even the best men who have ever lived. This silence is not without purpose; it is not without a lesson. All the good qualities that men possess are the gift of God; their good deeds are performed by the grace of God through Christ. Since they owe all to God the glory of whatever they are or do belongs to Him alone; they are but instruments in His hands. More than this--as all the lessons of Bible history teach--it is a perilous thing to praise or exalt men; for if one comes to lose sight of his entire dependence on God, and to trust to his own strength, he is sure to fall. Man is contending with foes who are stronger than he.... It is impossible for us in our own strength to maintain the conflict; and whatever diverts the mind from God, whatever leads to self-exaltation or to self-dependence, is surely preparing the way for our overthrow. The tenor of the Bible is to inculcate distrust of human power and to encourage trust in divine power.42
CC	365	3	The truly converted soul is illuminated from on high.... His words, his motives, his actions, may be misinterpreted and falsified; but he does not mind it because he has greater interests at stake.... He is not ambitious for display; he does not crave the praise of men. His hope is in heaven, and he keeps straight on, with his eye fixed on Jesus. He does right because it is right.43
CC	365	4	By their good works, Christ's followers are to bring glory, not to themselves, but to Him through whose grace and power they have wrought. It is through the Holy Spirit that every good work is accomplished, and the Spirit is given to glorify, not the receiver, but the Giver. When the light of Christ is shining in the soul, the lips will be filled with praise and thanksgiving to God. Your prayers, your performance of duty, your benevolence, your self-denial, will not be the theme of your thought or conversation. Jesus will be magnified, self will be hidden, and Christ will appear as all in all.44
------------------------Noble Examples, December 26
CC	366	1	The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. Job 17:9.
CC	366	2	Sacred history presents many illustrations of the results of true education. It presents many noble examples of men whose characters were formed under divine direction, men whose lives were a blessing to their fellow men and who stood in the world as representatives of God. Among these are Joseph and Daniel, Moses, Elisha, and Paul--the greatest statesmen, the wisest legislator, one of the most faithful of reformers, and except Him who spoke as never man spake, the most illustrious teacher that this world has known.
CC	366	3	In early life, just as they were passing from youth to manhood, Joseph and Daniel were separated from their homes and carried as captives to heathen lands. Especially was Joseph subject to the temptations that attend great changes of fortune. In his father's home a tenderly cherished child; in the house of Potiphar a slave, then a confidant and companion; a man of affairs, educated by study, observation, contact with men; in Pharaoh's dungeon a prisoner of state, condemned unjustly, without hope of vindication or prospect of release; called at a great crisis to the leadership of the nation--what enabled him to preserve his integrity? ...
CC	366	4	Loyalty to God, faith in the Unseen, was Joseph's anchor. In this lay the hiding of his power....
CC	366	5	By their wisdom and justice, by the purity and benevolence of their daily life, by their devotion to the interests of the people--and they idolaters--Joseph and Daniel proved themselves true to the principles of their early training, true to Him whose representative they were....
CC	366	6	What a lifework was that of these noble Hebrews!...
CC	366	7	The same mighty truths that were revealed through these men, God desires to reveal through the youth and the children of today. The history of Joseph and Daniel is an illustration of what He will do for those who yield themselves to Him and with the whole heart seek to accomplish His purpose.45
------------------------"All Things Through Christ", December 27
CC	367	1	What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Psalm 56:3.
CC	367	2	Only the sense of God's presence can banish the fear that, for the timid child, would make life a burden. Let him fix in his memory the promise, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them" (Psalm 34:7). Let him read that wonderful story of Elisha in the mountain city, and, between him and the hosts of armed foemen, a mighty encircling band of heavenly angels. Let him read how to Peter, in prison and condemned to death, God's angel appeared; how, past the armed guards, the massive doors and great iron gateway with their bolts and bars, the angel led God's servant forth in safety. Let him read of that scene on the sea, when to the tempest-tossed soldiers and seamen, worn with labor and watching and long fasting, Paul the prisoner, on his way to trial and execution, spoke those grand words of courage and hope: "Be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you.... For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee." In the faith of this promise Paul assured his companions, "There shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you." So it came to pass. Because there was in that ship one man through whom God could work, the whole shipload of heathen soldiers and sailors was preserved. "They escaped all safe to land" (Acts 27:22-24, 34, 44).
CC	367	3	These things were not written merely that we might read and wonder, but that the same faith which wrought in God's servants of old might work in us. In no less marked a manner than He wrought then will He work now wherever there are hearts of faith to be channels of His power.
CC	367	4	Let the self-distrustful, whose lack of self-reliance leads them to shrink from care and responsibility, be taught reliance upon God. Thus many a one who otherwise would be but a cipher in the world, perhaps only a helpless burden, will be able to say with the apostle Paul, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).46
------------------------We Need Not Despair, December 28
CC	368	1	For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. Proverbs 24:16.
CC	368	2	The pen of inspiration, true to its task, tells us of the sins that overcame Noah, Lot, Moses, Abraham, David, and Solomon, and that even Elijah's strong spirit sank under temptation during his fearful trial. Jonah's disobedience and Israel's idolatry are faithfully recorded. Peter's denial of Christ, the sharp contention of Paul and Barnabas, the failings and infirmities of the prophets and apostles, are all laid bare.... There before us lie the lives of the believers, with all their faults and follies, which are intended as a lesson to all the generations following them. If they had been without foible they would have been more than human, and our sinful natures would despair of ever reaching such a point of excellence. But seeing where they struggled and fell, where they took heart again and conquered through the grace of God, we are encouraged, and led to press over the obstacles that degenerate nature places in our way.
CC	368	3	God has ever been faithful to punish crime. He sent His prophets to warn the guilty, denounce their sins, and pronounce judgment upon them....
CC	368	4	We need just such lessons as the Bible gives us, for with the revelation of sin is recorded the retribution which follows. The sorrow and penitence of the guilty, and the wailing of the sin-sick soul, come to us from the past, telling us that man was then, as now, in need of the pardoning mercy of God....
CC	368	5	Bible history stays the fainting heart with the hope of God's mercy. We need not despair when we see that others have struggled through discouragements like our own, have fallen into temptations even as we have done, and yet have recovered their ground and been blessed of God. The words of inspiration comfort and cheer the erring soul. Although the patriarchs and apostles were subject to human frailties, yet through faith they obtained a good report, fought their battles in the strength of the Lord, and conquered gloriously. Thus may we trust in the virtue of the atoning sacrifice and be overcomers in the name of Jesus.47
------------------------God Remembers His Own, December 29
CC	369	1	Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. Revelation 12:12.
CC	369	2	In all ages God's appointed witnesses have exposed themselves to reproach and persecution for the truth's sake. Joseph was maligned and persecuted.... David, the chosen messenger of God, was hunted like a beast of prey by his enemies.... Stephen was stoned because he preached Christ and Him crucified. Paul was imprisoned, beaten with rods, stoned, and finally put to death.... John was banished to the Isle of Patmos "for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."
CC	369	3	These examples of human steadfastness bear witness to the faithfulness of God's promises--of His abiding presence and sustaining grace. They testify to the power of faith to withstand the powers of the world.48
CC	369	4	The season of distress and anguish before us will require a faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger--a faith that will not faint though severely tried.49
CC	369	5	Many of all nations and of all classes, high and low, rich and poor, black and white, will be cast into the most unjust and cruel bondage. The beloved of God pass weary days, bound in chains, shut in by prison bars, sentenced to be slain, some apparently left to die of starvation in dark and loathsome dungeons.... No human hand is ready to lend them help.
CC	369	6	Will the Lord forget His people in this trying hour? Did He forget faithful Noah when judgments were visited upon the antediluvian world? Did He forget Lot when the fire came down from heaven to consume the cities of the plain? ... Did He forget Elijah when the oath of Jezebel threatened him with the fate of the prophets of Baal? Did He forget Jeremiah in the dark and dismal pit of his prison house? Did He forget the three worthies in the fiery furnace? or Daniel in the den of lions? ...
CC	369	7	Though enemies may thrust them into prison, yet dungeon walls cannot cut off the communication between their souls and Christ. One who sees their every weakness, who is acquainted with every trial, is above all earthly powers; and angels will come to them in lonely cells, bringing light and peace from heaven.50
------------------------First Things First, December 30
CC	370	1	But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33.
CC	370	2	This promise will never fail. We cannot enjoy the favor of God unless we comply with the conditions upon which His favor is bestowed. By so doing there will come to us that peace, contentment, and wisdom that the world can neither give nor take away.... A humble mind and a grateful heart will elevate us above petty trials and real difficulties. The less earnest, energetic, and vigilant we are in the service of the Master, the more will the mind dwell upon self, magnifying molehills into mountains of difficulty....
CC	370	3	The burden of God's work, laid upon Moses, made him a man of power. While keeping, for so many years, the flocks of Jethro, he gained an experience that taught him true humility.... The command to deliver Israel seemed overwhelming; but, in the fear of God, Moses accepted the trust. Mark the result: He did not bring the work down to his deficiency; but in the strength of God he put forth the most earnest efforts to elevate and sanctify himself for his sacred mission.
CC	370	4	Moses would never have been prepared for his position of trust had he waited for God to do the work for him. Light from heaven will come to those who feel the need of it, and who seek for it as for hidden treasures. But if we sink down into a state of inactivity, willing to be controlled by Satan's power, God will not send His inspiration to us. Unless we exert to the utmost the powers which He has given us, we shall ever remain weak and inefficient. Much prayer and the most vigorous exercise of the mind are necessary if we would be prepared to do the work which God would entrust to us. Many never attain to the position which they might occupy, because they wait for God to do for them that which He has given them power to do for themselves. All who are fitted for usefulness, in this life must be trained by the severest mental and moral discipline, and then God will assist them by combining divine power with human effort....
CC	370	5	Wrong habits are not overcome by a single effort. Only through long and severe struggle is self mastered.51
------------------------God's Plan for Me, December 31
CC	371	1	For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Isaiah 14:27.
CC	371	2	Each actor in history stands in his lot and place; for God's great work after His own plan will be carried out by men who have prepared themselves to fill positions for good or evil. In opposition to righteousness, men become instruments of unrighteousness. But they are not forced to take this course of action. They need not become instruments of unrighteousness, any more than Cain needed to....
CC	371	3	Men of all characters, righteous and unrighteous, will stand in their several positions in God's plan. With the characters they have formed, they will act their part in the fulfillment of history. In a crisis, just at the right moment, they will stand in the places they have prepared themselves to fill. Believers and unbelievers will fall into line as witnesses to confirm truth that they themselves do not comprehend. All will cooperate in accomplishing the purposes of God, just as did Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, and Herod. In putting Christ to death, the priests thought they were carrying out their own purposes, but unconsciously and unintentionally they were fulfilling the purpose of God.52
CC	371	4	God looks into the tiny seed that He Himself has formed, and sees wrapped within it the beautiful flower, the shrub, or the lofty, wide-spreading tree. So does He see the possibilities in every human being. We are here for a purpose. God has given us His plan for our life, and He desires us to reach the highest standard of development....
CC	371	5	He desires the youth to cultivate every power of their being, and to bring every faculty into active exercise.... Let them look to Christ as the pattern after which they are to be fashioned. The holy ambition that He revealed in His life they are to cherish--an ambition to make the world better for their having lived in it. This is the work to which they are called.53
CC	371	6	You want now to ... so relate yourself to society and to life that you may answer the purpose of God in your creation.54

------------------------Christ Triumphant
CTr	7	1	God Is Love, January 1
CTr	8	1	The New Creation, January 2
CTr	9	1	"Perfect In Thy Ways", January 3
CTr	10	1	A Tragic Change, January 4
CTr	11	1	No Excuse For Sin, January 5
CTr	12	1	Satan's Tactics Exposed, January 6
CTr	13	1	Our Choices Determine Our Destiny, January 7
CTr	14	1	By Their Fruits, January 8
CTr	15	1	Worship The Creator And Redeemer, January 9
CTr	16	1	Setting Aside Divine Authority, January 10
CTr	17	1	The Controversy Recalled, January 11
CTr	18	1	Significance Of The Sabbath, January 12
CTr	19	1	First Transgression Inexcusable, January 13
CTr	20	1	Labor Necessary Even In Eden, January 14
CTr	21	1	Temptation Sometimes Disguised As Pleasure, January 15
CTr	22	1	Satan Urges Dependence On Self, January 16
CTr	23	1	Warning Against Counterfeit Knowledge, January 17
CTr	24	1	Value In Comparing Eden And Gethsemane, January 18
CTr	25	1	The Consequences Of Sin, January 19
CTr	26	1	Results Of Opposing God's Plans, January 20
CTr	27	1	Sin Forced Change In God's Plans, January 21
CTr	28	1	God Put Satan On Notice, January 22
CTr	29	1	Enmity Between Christ And Satan, January 23
CTr	30	1	Christ Only Could Make Atonement For Sin, January 24
CTr	31	1	Angels Amazed At God's Plan To Save Humanity, January 25
CTr	32	1	Fallen Humans Can Become One With God, January 26
CTr	33	1	Don't Seek The Knowledge Of Fools, January 27
CTr	34	1	Hope Delayed But Not Terminated, January 28
CTr	35	1	Faithfulness To God Excites Fury Of Wicked, January 29
CTr	36	1	Abel's Offering Represented Christ's Sacrifice, January 30
CTr	37	1	Bitterness Leads to Disloyalty, January 31
CTr	38	1	God Begins Anew With Seth, February 1
CTr	39	1	Seth's Descendants Settle For Less Than God's Plan, February 2
CTr	40	1	A Time of Rare Spiritual Opportunity, February 3
CTr	41	1	With Whom Are You Walking? February 4
CTr	42	1	Enoch's Experience Can Be Ours, February 5
CTr	43	1	How Did Enoch Walk, February 6
CTr	44	1	Enoch's Example Challenges Us Today, February 7
CTr	45	1	Channels of God's Grace, February 8
CTr	46	1	Blending Personal Piety With Outreach To Others, February 9
CTr	47	1	Walk With God Anywhere, February 10
CTr	48	1	Enoch's Faith Was Always Evident, February 11
CTr	49	1	Always Strive To Be On Vantage Ground, February 12
CTr	50	1	Jesus In The Heart, February 13
CTr	51	1	Enoch Kept God's Law, February 14
CTr	52	1	Pressing Into Christ's Presence, February 15
CTr	53	1	We Need An Ever-Increasing Faith, February 16
CTr	54	1	The Value Of A Living Faith, February 17
CTr	55	1	Noah Had Genuine Faith--We Can Too, February 18
CTr	56	1	Only Two Classes Of People; Only One Ark Of Safety, February 19
CTr	57	1	When We Are Tested, Will Our Faith Endure, February 20
CTr	58	1	Results Of Transgressing God's Law, February 21
CTr	59	1	Vindicators Of God's Law, February 22
CTr	60	1	More Than Believing Is Needed, February 23
CTr	61	1	Will We Look For Safety After It Is Too Late? February 24
CTr	62	1	In The World But Not Of It, February 25
CTr	63	1	Jesus: Changeless Throughout Eternity, February 26
CTr	64	1	Singleness Of Purpose, February 27
CTr	65	1	More Of Heaven--Less Of Self, February 28
CTr	66	1	Christians Are God's Agents, February 29
CTr	67	1	Character Makes A Difference In Life, March 1
CTr	68	1	An Evil Character Leads To Apostasy, March 2
CTr	69	1	Some Go To Great Lengths To Avoid God, March 3
CTr	70	1	Babel Builders Still Exist, March 4
CTr	71	1	Abraham's Faith Tested, March 5
CTr	72	1	The Effect Of Choices, March 6
CTr	73	1	Lot's Experience Serves As A Warning, March 7
CTr	74	1	Importance Of Choosing Our Location Carefully, March 8
CTr	75	1	God Hears Our Intercessory Prayers, March 9
CTr	76	1	Angels Are Limited In What They Can Do For Us, March 10
CTr	77	1	Give Nothing Less Than Loving Obedience To God, March 11
CTr	78	1	Seek Bible Truth At Any Cost, March 12
CTr	79	1	Do Not Resist Salvation's Invitation, March 13
CTr	80	1	Strive For A Heavenly Inheritance, March 14
CTr	81	1	Guard Against Losing Communion With God, March 15
CTr	82	1	Abraham's Failure Of Faith Can Serve As A Warning To Us, March 16
CTr	83	1	The Supreme Test Of Abraham's Faith, March 17
CTr	84	1	Characters Of Jacob And Esau Contrasted, March 18
CTr	85	1	Never Sacrifice Integrity Nor Despise Your Birthright, March 19
CTr	86	1	When All Seems Hopeless, Look For Heaven's Ladder, March 20
CTr	87	1	Truth Moves Us Toward Heaven, March 21
CTr	88	1	Christ Is Our Only Ladder To Heaven, March 22
CTr	89	1	Valuable Lessons In Jacob's Experience, March 23
CTr	90	1	Love For God Leads Us To Security In Him, March 24
CTr	91	1	Our Character Often Revealed In Our Children, March 25
CTr	92	1	Reaction To Circumstances Reveals True Character, March 26
CTr	93	1	Truth Will Gain Victory Eventually, March 27
CTr	94	1	Goodness Is True Greatness, March 28
CTr	95	1	Circumstances Need Not Control Us, March 29
CTr	96	1	Inner Character Revealed In Actions, March 30
CTr	97	1	Vice Does Not Triumph Over Virtue, March 31
CTr	98	1	We Can Grow In Faith As Did Moses, April 1
CTr	99	1	God's Methods Of Training Different From Man's, April 2
CTr	100	1	We Need Always To Lean Upon God, April 3
CTr	101	1	We Must Labor For Time And Eternity, April 4
CTr	102	1	God's Outward Seal Signifies Inward Faith, April 5
CTr	103	1	Results Of Hardening The Heart Against God, April 6
CTr	104	1	God's Protective Cloud In The Desert, April 7
CTr	105	1	God Delivers His People From The Enemy, April 8
CTr	106	1	In The End God's Enemies Will Perish, April 9
CTr	107	1	Only Genuine Faith Survives When Tested, April 10
CTr	108	1	The Sin Of Unbelief Leads Away From God, April 11
CTr	109	1	How Long Will You Refuse To Keep My Commandments, April 12
CTr	110	1	Israel's Experience Reminds Us Of Sabbath Importance, April 13
CTr	111	1	Warnings Against A Depraved Appetite, April 14
CTr	112	1	Christian Life Is Not Always Green Pastures, April 15
CTr	113	1	Cleanliness Should Mark The Life Of A Christian, April 16
CTr	114	1	God's Law Not Given For Israel Only, April 17
CTr	115	1	Settled Rebellion Is Incurable, April 18
CTr	116	1	Moses Was An Example Of Genuine Humility, April 19
CTr	117	1	God Invites Holy Boldness As We Approach Him, April 20
CTr	118	1	Heavenly Observers Witness Every Word Spoken, April 21
CTr	119	1	Be Careful Of Giving A False Report, April 22
CTr	120	1	Speak No Words Of Unbelief, April 23
CTr	121	1	Learning To Trust And Obey, April 24
CTr	122	1	Calebs Still Needed Today, April 25
CTr	123	1	When We Face Difficulties and Tests, April 26
CTr	124	1	True Moral and Intellectual Power Originates With God, April 27
CTr	125	1	Acknowledge Correction and Profit From It, April 28
CTr	126	1	To God, Not Self, Be the Glory, April 29
CTr	127	1	Unbelief and Murmuring Exalt Satan, April 30
CTr	128	1	In Vision Moses Viewed the Promised Land, May 1
CTr	129	1	The Grave Cannot Hold God's Sleeping Saints, May 2
CTr	130	1	Moses' Resurrection Certifies Satan's Defeat, May 3
CTr	131	1	We Should Convey The Truth In Tactful Words, May 4
CTr	132	1	God Performs Miracles For A Reason, May 5
CTr	133	1	We Can Follow The Lord With Confidence, May 6
CTr	134	1	Victories Are Won By God's Power Not Ours, May 7
CTr	135	1	Our Eyes Must Be Fixed On Jesus, May 8
CTr	136	1	Faith And Trust In Christ Assures True Success, May 9
CTr	137	1	God's View Of A Supposed "Small" Sin, May 10
CTr	138	1	No Sin Can Be Hidden From God, May 11
CTr	139	1	God Faithfully Fulfills His Promises, May 12
CTr	140	1	Never Forget God's Leading In The Past, May 13
CTr	141	1	Unsanctified Desires Are Sometimes Granted, May 14
CTr	142	1	God Wants To Lead His People--If They Will Only Let Him, May 15
CTr	143	1	Disobedience To God Bring About Poor Excuses, May 16
CTr	144	1	Kindness Overcomes Selfishness, May 17
CTr	145	1	The Fruits Of A Soft Answer, May 18
CTr	146	1	Instruction Of God To Be Carefully Cherished, May 19
CTr	147	1	One Sin Often Forces Another, May 20
CTr	148	1	In Adversity The Character Is Revealed, May 21
CTr	149	1	David's Remorse Was As Great As Was His Guilt, May 22
CTr	150	1	To Receive God's Pardon Is To Receive His Justification, May 23
CTr	151	1	David's Experiences Were Like Ours, May 24
CTr	152	1	God's Punishments--Preferable To Those Of Mortals? May 25
CTr	153	1	Our Ideas Of God Are Based On Our Experiences, May 26
CTr	154	1	Churches To Be Built To God's Glory, May 27
CTr	155	1	Churches Should Be Suitable Dwelling Places For God, May 28
CTr	156	1	Leaders With Various Talents Are Needed In God's Church, May 29
CTr	157	1	Exercise Care In Forming Friendships, May 30
CTr	158	1	Departure From Integrity May Imperil The Soul, May 31
CTr	159	1	Prosperity Sometimes Causes Spiritual Downfall, June 1
CTr	160	1	Satan Arranges Overpowering Temptations, June 2
CTr	161	1	Beware Of Those Who Contradict God's Commands, June 3
CTr	162	1	Anger At God's Messengers, June 4
CTr	163	1	Spiritual Highs Will Not Prevent Spiritual Lows, June 5
CTr	164	1	When Sorely Tempted, Look To Jesus, June 6
CTr	165	1	Largest I Not Necessarily Best, June 7
CTr	166	1	Learning To Lead Through Serving, June 8
CTr	167	1	When God Calls, How Do We Respond? June 9
CTr	168	1	Humble Tasks Prepare For Higher Service, June 10
CTr	169	1	Everyday Duties Of Life Are Important, June 11
CTr	170	1	Anger Can Cause Us To Miss God's Blessings, June 12
CTr	171	1	The Tangled Web Of Sinning, June 13
CTr	172	1	The Value Of Souls Versus One's Reputation, June 14
CTr	173	1	Stand For Principle, June 15
CTr	174	1	God's Word The Foundation For Character Building, June 16
CTr	175	1	Wrong Choices In Friends Produces Evil Consequences, June 17
CTr	176	1	Always Credit God For Ideas He Gives, June 18
CTr	177	1	Standing For God In Times Of Crisis, June 19
CTr	178	1	In Every Test God Is With Us, June 20
CTr	179	1	God Warns Against Self-Centered Pride, June 21
CTr	180	1	We Decide Our Eternal Destiny, June 22
CTr	181	1	God Still Needs People, June 23
CTr	182	1	Position Does Not Preclude The Need For Prayer, June 24
CTr	183	1	Faith And Works Should Be Combined, June 25
CTr	184	1	Careful Planning Necessary In God's Work, June 26
CTr	185	1	Our Words And Acts Carry A Powerful Influence, June 27
CTr	186	1	Jesus Receives And Defends Repentant Souls, June 28
CTr	187	1	All Heaven Hears Our Praise And Thanks Giving To God, June 29
CTr	188	1	Learning The Lessons Of Sacred History, June 30
CTr	189	1	Constant Prayer Needed To Resist Satan's Cunning, July 1
CTr	190	1	Christ Refused To Argue With Satan, July 2
CTr	191	1	No Temptation Could Induce The Saviour To Sin, July 3
CTr	192	1	Christ Proved That We Can Keep The Commandments, July 4
CTr	193	1	Christ Met Temptation With Scripture, July 5
CTr	194	1	Christ's Mission Fulfilled Only Through Suffering, July 6
CTr	195	1	The Redeemer Comforted After Enduring The Test, July 7
CTr	196	1	Angels Involved In Times Of Temptation, July 8
CTr	197	1	Power Of God Available To Give Us Victory, July 9
CTr	198	1	Every Temptation Resisted Is A Precious Victory, July 10
CTr	199	1	Jesus Has Power To Save Every Soul, July 11
CTr	200	1	Be Alert To Satan's Perversion Of Scripture, July 12
CTr	201	1	Jesus Gives Us Power To Become God's Children, July 13
CTr	202	1	We Can Always Rely Upon "Thus Saith The Lord", July 14
CTr	203	1	Fervent, Importunate Prayer Will Bring Divine Help, July 15
CTr	204	1	Victory Obtained In The Name Of Jesus, July 16
CTr	205	1	Christ Is With Us Always, July 17
CTr	206	1	Salvation Placed Within Reach Of Every Human Being, July 18
CTr	207	1	All May Become Conquerors Through Christ, July 19
CTr	208	1	In Christ We May Have Perfect Humanity, July 20
CTr	209	1	All Called To Be Children Of God, July 21
CTr	210	1	Our Influence Is A Power For Good Or For Evil, July 22
CTr	211	1	We Are To Live By God's Every Word, July 23
CTr	212	1	Jesus Our Example On How To Overcome Satan, July 24
CTr	213	1	Our Saviour Was Tempted Exactly As We Are, July 25
CTr	214	1	At Last We Shall See The King In His Beauty, July 26
CTr	215	1	Through Divine Aid We Can Be Victors Against Satan, July 27
CTr	216	1	Are We Prepared For Christ's Return, July 28
CTr	217	1	Better To Suffer Than To Yield To Temptation, July 29
CTr	218	1	Christ Knows Just How To Help Us Overcome, July 30
CTr	219	1	Jesus Gained The Victory For Us, July 31
CTr	220	1	Believe That Christ Will Give Us Power To Overcome, August 1
CTr	221	1	All May Know God The Father, August 2
CTr	222	1	He Who Made The Worlds Became A Helpless Babe, August 3
CTr	223	1	Christ "Grew In Knowledge" Going About His Father's Business, August 4
CTr	224	1	Jesus An Example To Children And Youth, August 5
CTr	225	1	Jesus Presented Truth By Using Familiar Objects, August 6
CTr	226	1	Prefer Tradition Rather Than Obedience To God's Law, August 7
CTr	227	1	Mortals Can Overcome Only Through Christ, August 8
CTr	228	1	Jesus Taught By Both Words And Example, August 9
CTr	229	1	Jesus Cares About Human Problems And Perplexities, August 10
CTr	230	1	Water To Wine, August 11
CTr	231	1	The Living Water Comes From Jesus, August 12
CTr	232	1	No Position Too Lowly To Be Honorable In Christ, August 13
CTr	233	1	Christ Will Create A New Heart In His Followers, August 14
CTr	234	1	"Never Man Spake Like This Man", August 15
CTr	235	1	We Are Sanctified Through The Truth In Jesus, August 16
CTr	236	1	The Lord Trusts Us To Sow Good Seed For A Good Harvest, August 17
CTr	237	1	Christ Healed The Palsied Man And Forgave His Sins, August 18
CTr	238	1	Heart Must Be Refilled With Love Of God, August 19
CTr	239	1	The Touch Of Faith Is Healing, August 20
CTr	240	1	The Sermon On The Mount, August 21
CTr	241	1	Pure, Unselfish Faith Honored By Heaven, August 22
CTr	242	1	Jesus Walks With Us Through All The Storms Of Life, August 23
CTr	243	1	The Messiah Of Prophecy Rejected, August 24
CTr	244	1	Singing Drives Back The Power Of Satan, August 25
CTr	245	1	Pharisees Refused To Acknowledge Christ's Power, August 26
CTr	246	1	Adam's Disgraceful Fall Redeemed By Christ, August 27
CTr	247	1	Believe The Truth And Practice It, August 28
CTr	248	1	Persecution In Jesus' Day; Persecution Now, August 29
CTr	249	1	Learn Of Jesus, August 30
CTr	250	1	Jesus Will Give Us Life Eternal, August 31
CTr	251	1	Christ Identifies With Our Sorrows, September 1
CTr	252	1	Jesus Values Our Gifts Of Loving Service, September 2
CTr	253	1	Jesus Triumphal Entry Witnessed By Many, September 3
CTr	254	1	The Saviour Has Intense Sorrow When We Reject His Love, September 4
CTr	255	1	"My House Shall Be Called A House Of Prayer", September 5
CTr	256	1	God's People Not To Make A Pretentious Show, September 6
CTr	257	1	Christ Wants Us To Bear Fruit By Working For Him, September 7
CTr	258	1	Believers Should Have Personal Knowledge Of Christ, September 8
CTr	259	1	By His Death The Saviour Ended Satan's Power Over Us, September 9
CTr	260	1	Christ Came To Impart Peace To His People, September 10
CTr	261	1	Jesus, The True Passover Lamb, Was Slain For Our Sins, September 11
CTr	262	1	If We Want To Be Great, We Must Give Humble Service, September 12
CTr	263	1	We Are To Be Washed In The Great Fountain, September 13
CTr	264	1	Covetousness And Greed Will Lead To Ruin If Indulged, September 14
CTr	265	1	We Do The Work Of Satan Sowing Seeds Of Doubt And Unbelief, September 15
CTr	266	1	In Gethsemane Our Destiny Hung In The Balance, September 16
CTr	267	1	Christ Was Not Forced To Bear The Guilt Of The World, September 17
CTr	268	1	When He Was Betrayed, Christ Felt What We Would Feel, September 18
CTr	269	1	Our Place In History Will Be Determined By Our Characters, September 19
CTr	270	1	Like Pilate, We Condemn Christ By Our Silence, September 20
CTr	271	1	History Is Repeated Christ's Followers Persecuted, September 21
CTr	272	1	Against Overwhelming Evidence Pilate Still Wavered, September 22
CTr	273	1	The World's Redeemer Rejected By His Own People, September 23
CTr	274	1	Will You Choose Jesus? September 24
CTr	275	1	Each Of Us Needs to Know Our Own Weaknesses, September 25
CTr	276	1	While We Look To God Satan Has No Power Over Us, September 26
CTr	277	1	Christ Crucified For Us, September 27
CTr	278	1	Jesus Became Sin For Us And Suffered Alone, September 28
CTr	279	1	"Wounded For Our Transgressions", September 29
CTr	280	1	Christ's Followers Will Be Hated By The World, September 30
CTr	281	1	Temple Service Ended At Death Of Christ, October 1
CTr	282	1	Men And Women To Stand Boldly For Christ, October 2
CTr	283	1	There Is Always Light Amid Darkness, October 3
CTr	284	1	"He Is Risen!", October 4
CTr	285	1	Witness Of The Guards At The Tomb, October 5
CTr	286	1	Firstfruits Of Victory Over Death, October 6
CTr	287	1	Jesus Will Give Us Power To Overcome, October 7
CTr	288	1	The Question Of God's Supremacy Settled, October 8
CTr	289	1	The Bottom Line: "Sin Is The Transgression Of The Law", October 9
CTr	290	1	All Creation Affected By The Great Controversy, October 10
CTr	291	1	God's Law Finally Vindicated, October 11
CTr	292	1	The Son Of God Was Bruised And Scarred In Our Place, October 12
CTr	293	1	Heaven's Triumphal Reception Of Christ, October 13
CTr	294	1	The Promise Of Divine Power, October 14
CTr	295	1	Two Disciples Went From Despair To Hope, October 15
CTr	296	1	The Disciples Enlightened On Christ's Identity, October 16
CTr	297	1	Jesus Reveals Himself To The Disciples, October 17
CTr	298	1	"The Lord Is Risen Indeed!", October 18
CTr	299	1	Jesus Opened The Understanding Of His Followers, October 19
CTr	300	1	When The Holy Spirit Comes As The Comforter, October 20
CTr	301	1	The Promise Of The Holy Spirit: "Ye Shall Receive Power", October 21
CTr	302	1	The Power That Shook The World, October 22
CTr	303	1	Opposed By Religious Leaders, October 23
CTr	304	1	"We Must Obey God", October 24
CTr	305	1	There Is Danger In Refusing To Repent, October 25
CTr	306	1	In Our Time The Holy Spirit Will Come Again, October 26
CTr	307	1	Stephen, The First Christian Martyr, October 27
CTr	308	1	Philip The Evangelist, October 28
CTr	309	1	Saul Becomes Paul, Apostle To The Gentiles, October 29
CTr	310	1	Timothy, An Exemplary Youth, October 30
CTr	311	1	John The Beloved Becomes John The Revelator, October 31
CTr	312	1	God's Message For His People, November 1
CTr	313	1	Revelation An Open Book For Our Study, November 2
CTr	314	1	Testimony Of Jesus Reveals God's Eternal Love, November 3
CTr	315	1	Christ's Work For Our Redemption Is Described, November 4
CTr	316	1	Looking Into The Future, November 5
CTr	317	1	We Are Accountable For The Light We Have Been Given, November 6
CTr	318	1	Danger Of Indifference To Light, November 7
CTr	319	1	Persecution In Early Centuries, November 8
CTr	320	1	Early Church Corrupted By Satan's Followers, November 9
CTr	321	1	There Are Two Classes Among Christ's Followers, November 10
CTr	322	1	They Also Will Persecute You, November 11
CTr	323	1	Reformation Principles Are To Be Upheld Today, November 12
CTr	324	1	Understand The Difference In Faith And Presumption, November 13
CTr	325	1	Be Faithful Unto Death, November 14
CTr	326	1	Followers Of Jesus Face A Life-And-Death Struggle, November 15
CTr	327	1	God Reveals His Secrets In Every Age, November 16
CTr	328	1	God Calls Us To Be Children of the Light, November 17
CTr	329	1	Make No Hasty, Rash Moves, November 18
CTr	330	1	Avoid Contention; Promote Harmony, November 19
CTr	331	1	We Are To Know the Truth and Practice It, November 20
CTr	332	1	People To Be Educated To Search the Scriptures, November 21
CTr	333	1	Good and Evil Angels Always Present, November 22
CTr	334	1	Study Daniel and Revelation Together, November 23
CTr	335	1	Book of Daniel Now Unsealed for Study, November 24
CTr	336	1	Early Opponents Ridiculed Adventists, November 25
CTr	337	1	The Witness of William Miller, November 26
CTr	338	1	Three Angels' Messages--A Call To The Word of God, November 27
CTr	339	1	The Law of God Needs No Revision, November 28
CTr	340	1	The Angel of Revelation 10 Proclaims God's Last Message, November 29
CTr	341	1	Hold Fast to the Truth As It Is in Jesus, November 30
CTr	342	1	Search the Scriptures to Confirm Truth, December 1
CTr	343	1	God Gives No Authority to Set a Time for Christ's Return, December 2
CTr	344	1	"Time No Longer," December 3
CTr	345	1	We Are Called To Be Separate From the World, December 4
CTr	346	1	Live Every Day As Though It Might Be the Last, December 5
CTr	347	1	Now Is Not A Time To Compromise, December 6
CTr	348	1	Some Will Choose Rebellion Rather Than Obedience, December 7
CTr	349	1	Those Who Keep God's Commandments Are His Jewels, December 8
CTr	350	1	Our Work Is To Proclaim The Three Angels' Messages, December 9
CTr	351	1	"A New Heart Also Will I Give You", December 10
CTr	352	1	God's People Not To Be Hidden Away, December 11
CTr	353	1	"When Shall These Things Be?", December 12
CTr	354	1	We Are Soldiers Of The Lord, December 13
CTr	355	1	The Seal Of God Is The Sabbath, December 14
CTr	356	1	Believer Of Present Truth Must Be Strong In The Lord, December 15
CTr	357	1	The Past Recorded In The Bible Is Also For Our Time, December 16
CTr	358	1	Give The Last Message Of Warning To The World, December 17
CTr	359	1	The Path Of Obedience Is The Way To Holiness, December 18
CTr	360	1	Let Us Stand On The Side Of Christ, December 19
CTr	361	1	We Are Laborers Together With God, December 20
CTr	362	1	There Will Never Be A Time To Change Our Message, December 21
CTr	363	1	Take Care In Receiving "New Light", December 22
CTr	364	1	Not Only Believe, But Do The Will Of The Father, December 23
CTr	365	1	The Holy Spirit Helps Discern Truth From Error, December 24
CTr	366	1	The Death Decree Against God's People, December 25
CTr	367	1	All Revelation In Scripture Comes From Jesus Christ, December 26
CTr	368	1	Angels To Answer Prayers Of Unselfish Workers, December 27
CTr	369	1	Christ Is Knocking At Your Heart's Door; Let Him In, December 28
CTr	370	1	We Are On The Borders Of The Promised Land, December 29
CTr	371	1	Baptism Of The Holy Ghost Leads To True Religion, December 30
CTr	372	1	The Controversy Between Christ And Satan Is Ended, December 31

------------------------God Is Love, January 1
CTr	7	1	God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16.
CTr	7	2	God is love. "His nature, His law, is love." It ever has been; it ever will be. "The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity," whose "ways are everlasting," changeth not. With Him "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Isaiah 57:15; Habakkuk 3:6; James 1:17.
CTr	7	3	Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love. The sovereignty of God involves fullness of blessing to all created beings.... The history of the great conflict between good and evil, from the time it first began in heaven to the final overthrow of rebellion and the total eradication of sin, is also a demonstration of God's unchanging love.
CTr	7	4	The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate--a coworker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." ... Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father--one in nature, in character, in purpose--the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God....
CTr	7	5	The Father wrought by His Son in the creation of all heavenly beings. "By him were all things created ... whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him." ... The Son, the anointed of God, the "express image of his person," "the brightness of his glory," "upholding all things by the word of his power," holds supremacy over them all....
CTr	7	6	The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all intelligent beings depends upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. God desires from all His creatures the service of love--service that springs from an appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced obedience, and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 33, 34.
------------------------The New Creation, January 2
CTr	8	1	And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Genesis 1:31.
CTr	8	2	How beautiful the earth was when it came from the Creator's hand! God presented before the universe a world in which even His all-seeing eye could find no spot or stain, no defect or crookedness. Each part of His creation occupied the place assigned it and answered the purpose for which it was created. Like the parts of some great machine, part fitted to part, and all was in perfect harmony.... There was no disease ... and the vegetable kingdom was without taint of corruption. God looked upon the work of His hands wrought out by Christ and pronounced it "very good." He looked upon a perfect world, in which there was no trace of sin, no imperfection.
CTr	8	3	But a change came. Satan tempted Adam, and he fell. He who in heaven had become disloyal and had been cast out made lying reports of God to the beings He had created, and they listened to his reports and believed his lie. And sin entered the world, and death by sin.--Letter 23, 1903 (see also The Review and Herald, July 21, 1904).
CTr	8	4	When Christ saw that there was no human being able to be humanity's intercessor, He Himself entered the fierce conflict and battled with Satan. The First Begotten of God was the only one who could liberate those who by Adam's sin had been brought in subjection to Satan.
CTr	8	5	The Son of God gave Satan every opportunity to try all his arts upon Him. The enemy had tempted the angels in heaven, and afterward the first Adam. Adam fell, and Satan supposed he could succeed in ensnaring Christ after He assumed humanity. All the fallen host looked upon this engagement as an opportunity to gain the supremacy over Christ. They had longed for a chance to show their enmity against God. When the lips of Christ were sealed in death, Satan and his angels imagined that they had obtained the victory....
CTr	8	6	In the death struggle the Son of God could rely only upon His heavenly Father. All was by faith. He Himself was a ransom, a gift, given for the freeing of the captives. By His own arm He has brought salvation to humanity; but at what a cost to Himself!--Manuscript 125, 1901 (The Upward Look, 357).
------------------------"Perfect In Thy Ways", January 3
CTr	9	1	Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. Ezekiel 28:15.
CTr	9	2	So long as all created beings acknowledged the allegiance of love, there was perfect harmony throughout the universe of God. It was the joy of the heavenly host to fulfill the purpose of their Creator. They delighted in reflecting His glory and showing forth His praise. And while love to God was supreme, love for one another was confiding and unselfish. There was no note of discord to mar the celestial harmonies. But a change came over this happy state. There was one who perverted the freedom that God had granted to His creatures. Sin originated with him who, next to Christ, had been most honored of God and was highest in power and glory among the inhabitants of heaven. Lucifer, "son of the morning," was first of the covering cherubs, holy and undefiled. He stood in the presence of the great Creator, and the ceaseless beams of glory enshrouding the eternal God rested upon him....
CTr	9	3	Little by little Lucifer came to indulge the desire for self-exaltation.... Though all his glory was from God, this mighty angel came to regard it as pertaining to himself. Not content with his position, though honored above the heavenly host, he ventured to covet homage due alone to the Creator. Instead of seeking to make God supreme in the affections and allegiance of all created beings, it was his endeavor to secure their service and loyalty to himself. And coveting the glory with which the infinite Father had invested His Son, this prince of angels aspired to power that was the prerogative of Christ alone...
CTr	9	4	To dispute the supremacy of the Son of God, thus impeaching the wisdom and love of the Creator, had become the purpose of this prince of angels. To this object he was about to bend the energies of that master mind, which, next to Christ's, was first among the hosts of God. But He who would have the will of all His creatures free left none unguarded to the bewildering sophistry by which rebellion would seek to justify itself. Before the great contest should open, all were to have a clear presentation of His will, whose wisdom and goodness were the spring of all their joy.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 35-37.
------------------------A Tragic Change, January 4
CTr	10	1	He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. John 8:44.
CTr	10	2	Once Satan was in copartnership with God, Jesus Christ, and the holy angels. He was highly exalted in heaven and was radiant in light and glory that came to him from the Father and the Son, but he became disloyal and lost his high and holy position as covering cherub. He became the antagonist of God, an apostate, and was excluded from heaven.... He invited all the powers of evil to rally about his standard, in order to form a desperate companionship of evil to league against the God of heaven. He worked perseveringly and determinedly to perpetuate his rebellion, and to cause members of the human family to turn from Bible truth, and to stand under his banner.
CTr	10	3	As soon as the Lord through Jesus Christ created our world and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Satan announced his purpose to conform to his own nature the father and mother of all humanity, and to unite them with his own ranks of rebellion. He was determined to efface the image of God from the human posterity, and to trace his own image upon the soul in the place of the divine image. He adopted methods of deception by which to accomplish his purpose. He is called the father of lies, an accuser of God and of those who maintain their allegiance to God, a murderer from the beginning. He put forth every power at his command to win Adam and Eve to cooperate with him in apostasy, and succeeded in bringing rebellion into our world....
CTr	10	4	Through generation after generation, from age to age, Satan has gathered human agencies through whom to work out his diabolical purposes, and to bring about the enforcement of his plans and devices in the earth. The great putrid fountain of evil has been continually flowing through human society. Though unable to expel God from His throne, Satan has charged God with satanic attributes and has claimed the attributes of God as his own.... Through his serpentine sharpness, through his crooked practices, he has drawn to himself the homage that human beings should have given to God, and has planted his satanic throne between the human worshiper and the divine Father.--Manuscript 39, 1894 (The Review and Herald, April 14, 1896).
------------------------No Excuse For Sin, January 5
CTr	11	1	Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. Ezekiel 28:17.
CTr	11	2	The sin of Lucifer is unexplainable. He was disloyal to God. His mourning and complaining aroused sympathy among the angelic hosts, and many took the same position as did Satan [Lucifer]. How did the Lord break the force of these accusations?
CTr	11	3	Because of Satan's accusing power, it was not the plan of God to deal with him as he deserved. The tempter would throw all the blame of his course upon others who were below him. He would make it appear that if he could have moved according to his own judgment all this demonstration of rebellion would have been avoided.
CTr	11	4	The condemning power of Satan would lead him to institute a theory of justice inconsistent with mercy. He claims to be officiating as the voice and power of God, claims that his decisions are justice, are pure and without fault. Thus he takes his position on the judgment seat and declares that his counsels are infallible. Here his merciless justice comes in, a counterfeit of justice, abhorrent to God.
CTr	11	5	But how shall the universe know that Lucifer is not a safe and just leader? To their eyes he appears right. They cannot see, as God sees, beneath the outward covering. They cannot know as God knows. To work to unmask him and make plain to the angelic host that his judgment is not God's judgment, that he has made a standard of his own and exposed himself to the righteous indignation of God, would create a state of things that must be avoided.
CTr	11	6	It was on account of Satan's deceiving power that many angels became disloyal to God. God was true and right. Satan was wrong and he was convinced that he was wrong. He must now choose, either by submission to place himself on the Lord's side, or by lying to sustain himself. By sophistry and fraud he appeared to gain an advantage, but it was only for a short time. God cannot lie; He moves in a direct line. Lucifer could speak the truth when it served his purpose best, but he could move in a crooked course to avoid humiliation and defeat....
CTr	11	7	Satan could not be presented to the universe at once in his real character. His crooked course must be allowed to continue until he should reveal himself as an accuser, a deceiver, a liar, and a murderer. In the latter act, Satan uprooted himself from the affection of the loyal universe. In the death of the Son of God the deceiver was unmasked.--Letter 16a, 1892.
------------------------Satan's Tactics Exposed, January 6
CTr	12	1	How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! Isaiah 14:12.
CTr	12	2	Rejecting with disdain the arguments and entreaties of the loyal angels, he [Satan] denounced them as deluded slaves.... He would never again acknowledge the supremacy of Christ. He had determined to claim the honor that should have been given him, and take command of all who would become his followers; and he promised those who would enter his ranks a new and better government, under which all would enjoy freedom. Great numbers of the angels signified their purpose to accept him as their leader....
CTr	12	3	Still the loyal angels urged him and his sympathizers to submit to God, and they set before them the inevitable result should they refuse: He who had created them could overthrow their power and signally punish their rebellious daring....
CTr	12	4	Many were disposed to heed this counsel, to repent of their disaffection, and seek to be again received into favor with the Father and His Son. But Lucifer had another deception ready. The mighty revolter now declared that the angels who had united with him had gone too far to return; that he was acquainted with the divine law, and knew that God would not forgive.... The only course remaining for him and his followers, he said, was to assert their liberty, and gain by force the rights that had not been willingly accorded them.
CTr	12	5	So far as Satan himself was concerned, it was true that he had now gone too far to return. But not so with those who had been blinded by his deceptions.... But pride, love for their leader, and the desire for unrestricted freedom were permitted to bear sway, and the pleadings of divine love and mercy were finally rejected....
CTr	12	6	God could employ only such means as were consistent with truth and righteousness. Satan could use what God could not--flattery and deceit.... God permitted him to demonstrate the nature of his claims, to show the working out of his proposed changes in the divine law. His own work must condemn him. Satan had claimed from the first that he was not in rebellion. The whole universe must see the deceiver unmasked.
CTr	12	7	Even when he was cast out of heaven, Infinite Wisdom did not destroy Satan. Since only the service of love can be acceptable to God, the allegiance of His creatures must rest upon a conviction of His justice and benevolence.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 40-42.
------------------------Our Choices Determine Our Destiny, January 7
CTr	13	1	Sometimes there is a way that seems to be right, but in the end it is the way to death. Proverbs 16:25, NRSV.
CTr	13	2	The principles of the character of God were the foundation of the education constantly kept before the heavenly angels. These principles were goodness, mercy, and love. Self-evidencing light was to be recognized and freely accepted by all who occupied a position of trust and power. They must accept God's principles and convince all who were in the service of God, through the presentation of truth and justice and goodness, [that] this was the only power to be used. Force must never come in....
CTr	13	3	These principles are to be the great foundation of education in every administration on the earth. The rules given by God are to be observed and respected in every church. God has enjoined this. His government is to be moral. Nothing is to be done by compulsion. Truth is to be the prevailing power. All service is to be done willingly and for love of the service of God. All who are honored with positions of influence are to represent God, for when officiating they act in the place of God....
CTr	13	4	Satan's representations against the government of God, and his defense of those who sided with him, were a constant accusation against God. These murmurings and complaints were groundless. Yet God allowed Satan to work out his theories. He could have handled Satan and all his sympathizers as easily as one can pick up a pebble and cast it to the earth. But by this He would have given a precedent for the violence of human beings that is so abundantly shown in our world in the compelling principles.
CTr	13	5	The Lord's principles are not of this order. All the compelling power is to be found under Satan's government. God would not work in this line. He would not give the slightest encouragement for any human being to set himself up as God over another human being, and cause him mental or physical suffering. This principle is wholly of Satan's creation....
CTr	13	6	In the councils of heaven it was decided that principles must be acted upon that would not at once destroy Satan's power, for it was His [God's] purpose to place things upon an eternal basis of security.... God's order must be contrasted with the new order after Satan's devising. The corrupting principles of Satan's rule must be revealed. The principles of righteousness expressed in God's law must be demonstrated as unchangeable, eternal, perfect.--Manuscript 57, 1896 (Manuscript Releases 18:360, 361).
------------------------By Their Fruits, January 8
CTr	14	1	Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Matthew 7:20.
CTr	14	2	When those who are in God's service resort to accusation, they are adopting Satan's principles to cast out Satan. It never will work. Satan will work. He is working upon human minds by his crooked principles. These will be adopted and acted upon by those who claim to be loyal and true to God's government. How shall we know that they are untrue, disloyal? "By their fruits ye shall know them."
CTr	14	3	The Lord saw the use that Satan was making of his power, and He set before him truth in contrast with falsehood. Time and again during the controversy Satan was ready to be convinced, ready to admit that he was wrong. But those he had deceived were ready to accuse him of leaving them. What could he do--submit to God, or continue in a course of deception? He chose to deny truth, to take refuge in misstatements and fraud. The Lord allowed Satan to go on and demonstrate his principles.
CTr	14	4	God did establish Himself, and He carried the worlds unfallen and the heavenly universe with Him, but at a terrible cost. His only begotten Son was given up as Satan's victim. The Lord Jesus Christ revealed a character entirely opposite to that of Satan. As the high priest laid off his gorgeous, pontifical robes, and officiated in the white linen dress of a common priest, so Christ emptied Himself and took the form of a servant and offered sacrifice, Himself the priest, Himself the victim.
CTr	14	5	By causing the death of the Sovereign of heaven, Satan defeated his own purposes. The death of the Son of God made the death of Satan unavoidable. Satan was allowed to go on until his administration was laid open before the worlds unfallen and before the heavenly universe. By shedding the blood of the Son of God, he uprooted himself [from sympathy], and was seen by all to be a liar, a thief, and a murderer.
CTr	14	6	God sees that the same course of action is being pursued the world over. Men and women come to the place where the road diverges: it is either right or wrong. Thousands upon thousands clothe themselves in what they suppose to be an impenetrable disguise, and choose the wrong.... God does not force anyone. He leaves all free to choose. But He says, "By their fruits ye shall know them." The Lord will not write as wise those who cannot distinguish between a tree that bears thorn berries and a tree that bears olives.--Manuscript 57, 1896 (Manuscript Releases 18:361-363).
------------------------Worship The Creator And Redeemer, January 9
CTr	15	1	Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Matthew 4:10.
CTr	15	2	It is those who obey that will be blessed of God. He says that He will bless your children and your lands and all that you lay your hand unto. Do you think that Satan is going to allow this without making a struggle for the mastery?
CTr	15	3	The enemy is working just as sharply and decidedly now as he worked upon the minds of Adam and Eve in Eden. The people are gathering under his banner, and he is encircling them with his power. But everyone who sees that the law of God is changeless in its character will decide on the side of Christ. If God could have changed one precept of His law to meet the fallen human race, then Jesus Christ need never have come to our earth to die.
CTr	15	4	Did Christ die to let loose the whole of humanity to worship idols instead of God, when the commandment said, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve"? And "the Lord made heaven and earth," and what then? "And rested the seventh day" and "sanctified it," and gave it to you to observe as God's memorial--a memorial that He is the living God who created the heavens overhead and the earth upon which we stand. He made the lofty trees and put the covering upon every flower. He gave to each one its tints, and the Lord of heaven made human beings and gave them the Sabbath. What for? For all the posterity of Adam; it was a gift to all his posterity. If they had always obeyed the fourth commandment there never would have been an infidel in the world, because it testified that "the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is."...
CTr	15	5	His hands are over His created works. Can you wonder that the devil wants to make void the law of God, the standard of His character? It will be the standard in the judgment when the books shall be opened and every person judged according to the deeds that are done. And the names are written--what does He say?--engraven "upon the palms of my hands." The marks of the crucifixion have engraven them. Humans are His property, and they are God's by creation and by redemption....
CTr	15	6	What do we give to Satan when we concede the point that the law of God needs to be taken away? We give the whole creative universe a defective God, a God that made a law and it was so defective that He had to take it away. That is all Satan wants. Can we afford to be working on any side but that of God?--Manuscript 10, 1894 (Sermons and Talks, 1:234-235).
------------------------Setting Aside Divine Authority, January 10
CTr	16	1	Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities. Ezekiel 28:18.
CTr	16	2	The high honors conferred upon Lucifer were not appreciated as the gift of God and called forth no gratitude to the Creator. He gloried in his brightness and exaltation, and aspired to be equal with God. He was beloved and reverenced by the heavenly host. Angels delighted to execute his commands, and he was clothed with wisdom and glory above them all. Yet the Son of God was the acknowledged Sovereign of heaven, one in power and authority with the Father. In all the councils of God, Christ was a participant, while Lucifer was not permitted thus to enter into the divine purposes. "Why," questioned this mighty angel, "should Christ have the supremacy? Why is He thus honored above Lucifer?"--The Great Controversy, 495.
CTr	16	3	To the very close of the controversy in heaven, the great usurper continued to justify himself. When it was announced that with all his sympathizers he must be expelled from the abode of bliss, then the rebel leader boldly avowed his contempt for the Creator's law. He denounced the divine statutes as a restriction of their liberty, and declared that it was his purpose to secure the abolition of law. With one accord, Satan and his host threw the blame of their rebellion wholly upon Christ, declaring that if they had not been reproved, they would never have rebelled.
CTr	16	4	Satan's rebellion was to be a lesson to the universe through all coming ages, a perpetual testimony to the nature and terrible results of sin. The working out of Satan's rule, its effects upon both humans and angels, would show what must be the fruit of setting aside the divine authority. It would testify that with the existence of God's government and His law is bound up the well-being of all the creatures He has made. Thus the history of this terrible experiment of rebellion was to be a perpetual safeguard to all holy intelligences, to prevent them from being deceived as to the nature of transgression, to save them from committing sin and suffering its punishment.
CTr	16	5	At any moment God can withdraw from the impenitent the tokens of His wonderful mercy and love. Oh, that human agencies might consider what will be the sure result of their ingratitude to Him and of their disregard of the infinite Gift of Christ to our world! If they continue to love transgression more than obedience, the present blessings and the great mercy of God that they now enjoy, but do not appreciate, will finally become the occasion of their eternal ruin.--Manuscript 125, 1907 (Sermons and Talks, 1:389).
------------------------The Controversy Recalled, January 11
CTr	17	1	Thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Ezekiel 28:16.
CTr	17	2	I am writing out more fully the volume of Great Controversy, containing the history of the fall of Satan and the introduction of sin into our world, and I can have a more vivid sense of this great controversy between Christ, the Prince of light, and Satan, the prince of darkness, than I have ever had before. As I see the various devices of Satan to compass the ruin of erring people and make them like himself, a transgressor of God's holy law, I would that angels of God could come to earth and present this matter in its great importance.
CTr	17	3	Then I feel so intensely for souls who are willfully departing from light and knowledge and obedience to God's holy law. As Adam and Eve believed the lie of Satan, "Ye shall be as gods," so these souls hope through disobedience to rise to greater heights, to gain some flattering position. I am so anxious that, while others are sleeping, I spend hours in prayer that God will work in mighty power to break the fatal deception upon human minds and lead them in simplicity to the cross of Calvary. Then I quiet myself with the thought that all these souls are purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus. We may have love for these souls, but Calvary testifies how God loves them. This work is not ours, but the Lord's.
CTr	17	4	We are only the instruments in His hands to do His will, not our own. We look at those who are doing despite to the Spirit of grace, and tremble for them. We feel sorry, and are disappointed, that they prove untrue to God and the truth; but we feel a deeper sorrow as we think of Jesus, who has purchased them with His own blood. We would give all our possessions to save one, but we find we cannot do this. We would give life itself to save one soul unto life eternal, but even this sacrifice would not do the work.
CTr	17	5	The one great sacrifice has been made in the life, the mission, and the death of Jesus Christ. Oh, that minds would contemplate the greatness of that sacrifice! Then might they be better able to comprehend the greatness of salvation.--Testimonies for the Church 5:625, 626.
------------------------Significance Of The Sabbath, January 12
CTr	18	1	Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. Genesis 2:1, 2.
CTr	18	2	Human philosophy declares that an indefinite period of time was taken in the creation of the world. Does God state the matter thus? No; He says, "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days [not six indefinite periods of time, for then there would be no possible way for us to observe the day specified in the fourth commandment] the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed." Please read carefully the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy. God says again, "Remember [do not forget] the sabbath day, to keep it holy.... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."
CTr	18	3	Yet with the living oracles before them, those who claim to preach the Word present the suppositions of human minds, the maxims and commandments of humans. They make void the law of God by their traditions. The sophistry in regard to the world's being created in an indefinite period of time is one of Satan's falsehoods. God speaks to the human family in language they can comprehend. He does not leave the matter so indefinite that human beings can handle it according to their theories. When the Lord declares that He made the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, He means the day of twenty-four hours, which He has marked off by the rising and setting of the sun.
CTr	18	4	God would not pronounce the death sentence for a disregard of the Sabbath unless He had presented before His people a clear understanding of the Sabbath.... When the foundation of the earth was laid, the foundation of the Sabbath was laid also. When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, God saw that a Sabbath was essential for Adam and Eve, even in Paradise. In giving them the Sabbath, God considered their spiritual and physical health.
CTr	18	5	God made the world in six literal days, and on the seventh literal day He rested from all His work which He had done, and was refreshed. So He has given human beings six days in which to labor.... By thus setting apart the Sabbath, God gave the world a memorial. He did not set apart one day and any day in seven, but one particular day, the seventh day. And by observing the Sabbath, we show that we recognize God as the living God, the Creator of heaven and earth.--Letter 31, 1898.
------------------------First Transgression Inexcusable, January 13
CTr	19	1	I made the earth, and created humankind upon it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. Isaiah 45:12, NRSV.
CTr	19	2	Adam and Eve received knowledge through direct communion with God, and they learned of Him through His works. All created things, in their original perfection, were an expression of the thought of God. To Adam and Eve nature was teeming with divine wisdom. But by transgression the human family was cut off from learning of God through direct communion and, to a great degree, through His works.... Upon every page of the great volume of His created works may still be traced His handwriting. Nature still speaks of her Creator. Yet these revelations are partial and imperfect. And in our fallen state, with weakened powers and restricted vision, we are incapable of interpreting aright. We need the fuller revelation of Himself that God has given in His written word.--Education, 16, 17.
CTr	19	3	All heaven took a deep and joyful interest in the creation of the world and of Adam and Eve. Human beings were a distinct order. They were made "in the image of God," and it was the Creator's design that they should populate the earth. They were to live in close communion with heaven, receiving and assimilating power from the great Source of power. Upheld by God, they were to live sinless lives.
CTr	19	4	Satan determined to defeat God's plan. We need not try to understand the motives that prompted the being next to Christ in the heavenly courts to bring envy and jealousy into the ranks of the angels. To many he communicated his disaffection, and there was war in heaven, which ended in the expulsion of Satan and his sympathizers. We need not puzzle our minds for a reason that Satan acted as he did. Could a reason be found, there would be excuse for sin. But there is no excuse. There is no reason human beings should travel over the same ground that Satan traveled....
CTr	19	5	After Satan was thrust from heaven, he determined to set up his kingdom on this earth. Through him sin entered the world, and death by sin. By listening to his misrepresentation of God, Adam fell from his high estate, and the floodgates of woe were opened upon our world.
CTr	19	6	There is no excuse for Adam's transgression. All his wants were generously supplied. He had need of nothing more. Only one prohibition was laid upon him.... This prohibition Satan used as a means of insinuating suggestions of evil.--Manuscript 97, 1901.
------------------------Labor Necessary Even In Eden, January 14
CTr	20	1	But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. Genesis 2:17.
CTr	20	2	In creating Adam and Eve, God designed that they should be active and useful. The holy pair was placed in Paradise and surrounded with everything that was pleasant to the eye or good for food. A beautiful garden was planted for them in Eden. In it were stately trees of every description, all that could serve for use or ornament. Flowers of rare loveliness, and of every tint and hue, perfumed the air. Merry songsters of varied plumage caroled joyous songs of praise of the Creator.
CTr	20	3	Paradise delighted the senses of the holy pair, but this was not enough; they must have something to call into play the wonderful human organism. He who formed them knew what would be for their good; and had happiness consisted in doing nothing, they, in their state of holy innocence, would have been left unemployed. But no sooner were our first parents created than God appointed them their work. They were to find employment and happiness in tending the things which God had created, and their wants were to be abundantly supplied from the fruits of the garden.
CTr	20	4	Work of brain and muscle is beneficial. Each faculty of the mind and each muscle of the body has its distinctive office, and all require exercise to develop them and give them healthful vigor. Each wheel in the living mechanism must be brought into use. The whole organism needs to be constantly exercised in order to be efficient and meet the object of its creation.--Manuscript 58, 1890.
CTr	20	5	Christ is called the second Adam. In purity and holiness, connected with God and beloved by God, He began where the first Adam began. But the first Adam was in every way more favorably situated than was Christ. The wonderful provision made in Eden for the holy pair was made by a God who loved them. Everything in nature was pure and undefiled. Fruits, flowers, and beautiful, lofty trees flourished in the Garden of Eden. With everything that Adam and Eve required, they were abundantly supplied.
CTr	20	6	But Satan came and insinuated doubts of God's wisdom.... Eve fell under the temptation, and Adam accepted the forbidden fruit from his wife's hand. He fell under the smallest test that the Lord could devise to prove his obedience, and the floodgates of woe were opened upon our world.... By one man's disobedience many were made sinners.--Manuscript 20, 1898 (Manuscript Releases 8:39, 40).
------------------------Temptation Sometimes Disguised As Pleasure, January 15
CTr	21	1	Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Genesis 3:1.
CTr	21	2	In order to accomplish his work unperceived, Satan chose to employ as his medium the serpent--a disguise well adapted for his purpose of deception. The serpent was then one of the wisest and most beautiful creatures on the earth. It had wings, and while flying through the air presented an appearance of dazzling brightness, having the color and brilliancy of burnished gold. Resting in the rich-laden branches of the forbidden tree and regaling itself with the delicious fruit, it was an object to arrest the attention and delight the eye of the beholder. Thus in the garden of peace lurked the destroyer, watching for his prey.
CTr	21	3	The angels had cautioned Eve to beware of separating herself from her husband while occupied in their daily labor in the garden; with him she would be in less danger from temptation than if she were alone. But absorbed in her pleasing task, she unconsciously wandered from his side. On perceiving that she was alone, she felt an apprehension of danger, but dismissed her fears, deciding that she had sufficient wisdom and strength to discern evil and to withstand it. Unmindful of the angels' caution, she soon found herself gazing with mingled curiosity and admiration upon the forbidden tree. The fruit was very beautiful, and she questioned with herself why God had withheld it from them.
CTr	21	4	Now was the tempter's opportunity. As if he were able to discern the workings of her mind, he addressed her: "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" Eve was surprised and startled as she thus seemed to hear the echo of her thoughts.... To the tempter's ensnaring question she replied: "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."...
CTr	21	5	Such has been Satan's work from the days of Adam to the present, and he has pursued it with great success. He tempts people to distrust God's love and to doubt His wisdom. He is constantly seeking to excite a spirit of irreverent curiosity, a restless, inquisitive desire to penetrate the secrets of divine wisdom and power. In their efforts to search out what God has been pleased to withhold, multitudes overlook the truths that He has revealed, and that are essential to salvation.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 53-55.
------------------------Satan Urges Dependence On Self, January 16
CTr	22	1	God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:5.
CTr	22	2	By listening to the tempter, our first parents lost their beautiful Eden home. Satan found Eve willing to listen to his temptations, and [he] read a disposition to distrust the word of God....
CTr	22	3	Satan desired to make transgression appear a real blessing to them, and that in prohibiting them from taking of the fruit of the tree God was withholding from them great good. If you eat, your eyes shall be opened, he said, and you shall be as gods. You will be like God Himself in knowledge and in power....
CTr	22	4	But what an opening it was! "Ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil." That knowledge was obtained, but what a knowledge it was! The curse of sin was the knowledge they gained. Eve coveted the thing God had forbidden. She revealed a distrust of God and His goodness, and a desire to be independent and do as she thought best. Eve offered the fruit to Adam and became his tempter. She would be a god. She would be a law unto herself. She would acknowledge no restraint. But that apparently smallest of sins constituted her a transgressor of the law of God....
CTr	22	5	The Lord Jesus came into our world and was tempted by the same enemy. He passed over the ground where Adam fell, but He was steadfast. He resisted the devil, and in behalf of the human race was Conqueror. The universe of heaven triumphed. Satan came to Christ with his specious temptations to induce Him to question the plans and law of God, and to make Him occupy an independent position; but the tempter was foiled. Christ would enter into no controversy with Satan. He met the enemy of God with the Word of God--"It is written."
CTr	22	6	"Know ye not that ... ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price." And what a price it was--the sacrifice of Christ to save a perishing world.... All who are united with Christ will come out of the world and be separate. They will not enter into the world from any choice of their own. They will not by their associations place themselves in the way of temptation. They will not be educated in worldly lines. They will choose to come into the school of Christ and learn of the great Teacher. He invites every soul, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."--Manuscript 21, 1898.
------------------------Warning Against Counterfeit Knowledge, January 17
CTr	23	1	And when the woman saw that the tree was ... pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. Genesis 3:6.
CTr	23	2	There is a spurious knowledge, the knowledge of evil and sin, which has been brought into the world by the cunning of Satan. The pursuit of this knowledge is prompted by unsanctified desires, unholy aims. Its lessons are dearly bought, but many will not be convinced that they are better left unlearned....
CTr	23	3	In educational pursuits as in all others, selfish, earthly aims are dangerous to the soul. In educational lines many ideas are advanced which proceed not from the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity, but from those who make scholastic studies an idol and worship a science that divorces God from the education. Yet because these errors are clothed in an attractive garb, they are widely received....
CTr	23	4	It is well to gain a knowledge of the sciences. But the acquirement of this knowledge is the ambition of a large class who are unconsecrated, and who have no thought as to the use they will make of their attainments. The world is full of men and women who manifest no sense of obligation to God for their entrusted gifts.... They are eager for distinction. It is the object of their lives to obtain the highest place....
CTr	23	5	There are people whom God has qualified with more than ordinary ability. They are deep thinkers, energetic and thorough. But many of them are bent upon the attainment of their own selfish ends, without regard to the honor and glory of God. Some of these have seen the light of truth, but because they honored themselves, and did not make God first and last and best in everything, they have wandered away from Bible truth into skepticism and infidelity.
CTr	23	6	When these are arrested by the chastisements of God, and through affliction are led to inquire for the old paths, the mist of skepticism is swept from their minds. Some of them repent, return to the old love, and set their feet in the way cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in.... When this amazing change is wrought, the thoughts are directed by the Spirit of God into new channels, the character is transformed, and the aspirations of the soul reach out toward heavenly things.... The grace which Christ imparts ... will lead them to the cross of Jesus as active, devoted, loyal workers for the advancement of the truth of heaven.--Manuscript 51, 1900 (Manuscript Releases 20:40, 41).
------------------------Value In Comparing Eden And Gethsemane, January 18
CTr	24	1	As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Romans 5:19.
CTr	24	2	The life of Christ is to be carefully meditated upon, and to be constantly studied with a desire to understand the reason He had to come at all. We can form our conclusions only by searching the Scriptures as Christ has enjoined upon us to do, for He says, "They ... testify of me." We may find by searching the Word the virtues of obedience in contrast with the sinfulness of disobedience. "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
CTr	24	3	The Garden of Eden, with its foul blot of disobedience, is to be carefully studied and compared with the Garden of Gethsemane, where the world's Redeemer suffered superhuman agony when the sins of the whole world were rolled upon Him. Listen to the prayer of the only begotten Son of God, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." And the second time He prayed saying, "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done."
CTr	24	4	And the third time He prayed saying the same words. It was here the mysterious cup trembled in the hands of the Son of God. Shall He wipe the bloody sweat from His agonized countenance and let the human race go? The wail, wretchedness, and ruin of a lost world rolls up its horrible picture before Him.
CTr	24	5	"And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.""And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him." The conflict is ended; Jesus consents to honor His Father by doing His will and bearing His curse, the consequence of humanity's transgression. He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Here was what was involved in Adam's disobedience and what the obedience of the Son of God means to us....
CTr	24	6	The happiness of human beings is in their obedience to the laws of God. In their obedience to God's law they are surrounded as with a hedge and kept from the evil. No one can be happy and depart from God's specified requirements, and set up a standard of their own, which they decide they can safely follow.--Manuscript 1, 1892 (Manuscript Releases 6:336-338).
------------------------The Consequences Of Sin, January 19
CTr	25	1	And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8.
CTr	25	2	Adam did not consider all the consequences resulting from his disobedience. He did not set his mind in defiance against God, nor did he in any way speak against God; he simply went directly contrary to His express command. And how many today are doing the very same thing, and their guilt is of much greater magnitude because they have the example of Adam's experience in disobedience, and its terrible results, to warn them of the consequences of transgressing the law of God. So they have clear light upon this subject, and no excuse for their guilt in denying and disobeying God's authority....
CTr	25	3	Adam yielded to temptation, and as we have the matter of sin and its consequences laid so distinctly before us, we can read from cause to effect and see the greatness of the act is not that which constitutes sin; but the disobedience of God's expressed will, which is a virtual denial of God, refusing the laws of His government....
CTr	25	4	The law of self is erected, human will is made supreme, and when the high and holy will of God is presented to be obeyed, respected, and honored, the human will wants its own way, to do its own promptings, and there is a controversy between the human agent and the Divine.
CTr	25	5	The fall of our first parents broke the golden chain of implicit obedience of the human will to the Divine. Obedience has no longer been deemed an absolute necessity. The human agents follow their own imaginations, which the Lord said of the inhabitants of the old world were evil and that continually. The Lord Jesus declares, "I have kept my Father's commandments." How? As a man. "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." To the accusations of the Jews He stood forth in His pure, virtuous, holy character and challenged them, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?"...
CTr	25	6	We are not to serve God as if we were not human, but we are to serve Him in the nature we have, that has been redeemed by the Son of God; through the righteousness of Christ we shall stand pardoned before God, and as though we had never sinned. We will never gain strength in considering what we might do if we were angels. We are to turn in faith to Jesus Christ, and show our love to God through obedience to His commands.--Manuscript 1, 1892 (Manuscript Releases 6:337-342).
------------------------Results Of Opposing God's Plans, January 20
CTr	26	1	And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Genesis 3:13.
CTr	26	2	It was God's purpose to repopulate heaven with the human family if they would show themselves obedient to His every word. Adam was to be tested, to see whether he would be obedient, as the loyal angels, or disobedient. If he stood the test, his instruction to his children would have been only of loyalty. His mind and thoughts would have been as the mind and thoughts of God....
CTr	26	3	Satan, the fallen prince, was jealous of God. He determined through subtlety, cunning, and deceit to defeat God's purpose. He approached Eve, not in the form of an angel, but as a serpent, subtle, cunning, and deceitful. With a voice that appeared to proceed from the serpent, he spoke to her.... As Eve listened, the warnings God had given faded from her mind. She yielded to the temptation, and as she tempted Adam, he also forgot God's warnings. He believed the words of the enemy of God....
CTr	26	4	The lie that Satan told Eve, "Ye shall not surely die," has been sounding through the centuries from generation to generation. Thus Satan tempted our first parents, and thus he tempts us today....
CTr	26	5	Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden, and an angel with a flaming sword guarded the way to the tree of life, that the disloyal, disobedient pair might not gain access to it and thus immortalize transgression. Mark this point. The Lord did not place in Adam fallen and disobedient the confidence He placed in Adam loyal and true, living by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God....
CTr	26	6	The eyes of Adam and Eve were indeed opened, but to what? To see their own shame and ruin, to realize that the garments of heavenly light that had been their protection were no longer around them as their safeguard. Their eyes were opened to see that nakedness was the fruit of transgression....
CTr	26	7	All who today allow themselves to be used as Satan's instruments to lead others to disregard the commandments of God are under the curse of God. Our safety lies in a wholehearted belief in a "Thus saith the Lord." This is the declaration of truth. Those who are led away from the truth from any motive, however great may have been their supposed wisdom and exaltation, and venture in a path of their own choosing, are following a false leader and will be led by him into false paths.--Letter 91, 1900.
------------------------Sin Forced Change In God's Plans, January 21
CTr	27	1	Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said . . Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Genesis 3:16, 17.
CTr	27	2	Eve was told of the sorrow and pain that must henceforth be her portion. And the Lord said, "Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." In the creation God had made her the equal of Adam. Had they remained obedient to God--in harmony with His great law of love--they would ever have been in harmony with each other; but sin had brought discord, and now their union could be maintained and harmony preserved only by submission on the part of the one or the other.
CTr	27	3	Eve had been the first in transgression; she had fallen into temptation by separating from her companion, contrary to the divine direction. It was by her solicitation that Adam sinned, and she was now placed in subjection to her husband. Had the principles enjoined in the law of God been cherished by the fallen race, this sentence, though growing out of the results of sin, would have proved a blessing to them. But man's abuse of the supremacy thus given him has too often rendered the lot of woman very bitter and made her life a burden.
CTr	27	4	Eve had been perfectly happy by her husband's side in her Eden home. But, like restless modern Eves, she was flattered with the hope of entering a higher sphere than that which God had assigned her. In attempting to rise above her original position, she fell far below it....
CTr	27	5	To Adam the Lord declared: "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: . . In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
CTr	27	6	It was not the will of God that the sinless pair should know aught of evil. He had freely given them the good, and had withheld the evil. But, contrary to His command, they had eaten of the forbidden tree, and now they would continue to eat of it--they would have the knowledge of evil--all the days of their life. From that time the race would be afflicted by Satan's temptations. Instead of the happy labor heretofore appointed them, anxiety and toil were to be their lot. They would be subject to disappointment, grief, and pain, and finally to death.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 58, 59.
------------------------God Put Satan On Notice, January 22
CTr	28	1	And I will put enmity between thee and the woman. Genesis 3:15.
CTr	28	2	There is a strife between the forces of good and evil, between the loyal and the disloyal angels. Christ and Satan are not at an agreement, and they never will be. In every age the true church of God has engaged in decided warfare against satanic agencies. Until the controversy is ended, the struggle will go on between wicked angels and wicked people on the one side, and holy angels and true believers on the other.
CTr	28	3	The battle that is raging will grow more fierce as the end approaches. Those who are in unity with satanic agencies are designated by the Lord as the children of darkness. There is not, and cannot be, a natural enmity between fallen angels and fallen humans. Both are evil. Through apostasy both cherish evil sentiments. Wicked angels and wicked people are leagued in a desperate confederacy against the good. Satan knew that if he could induce the human race, as he had induced angels, to unite with him in his rebellion, he would have a strong force with which to carry on his rebellion.
CTr	28	4	In the hosts of evil there is jarring and discord, but they are all firm allies in fighting against heaven. Their one aim is to disparage God, and their great numbers lead them to entertain the hope that they will be able to dethrone Omnipotence.
CTr	28	5	When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, they were innocent and sinless, in perfect harmony with God. Enmity had no natural existence in their hearts. But when they transgressed, their nature was no longer sinless. They became evil, for they had placed themselves on the side of the fallen foe, doing the very things that God specified they should not do. Had there been no interference on the part of God, fallen humans would have formed a firm alliance with Satan against heaven. But when the words were spoken, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," Satan knew that although he had succeeded in making human beings sin, although he had led them to believe his lie and to question God, although he had succeeded in depraving human nature, some arrangement had been made whereby the beings who had fallen would be placed on vantage ground, their nature renewed in godliness. He saw that his actions in tempting them would react upon himself, and that he would be placed where he could not become conqueror....
CTr	28	6	God pledged Himself to introduce into the hearts of human beings a new principle--a hatred of sin, of deception, of pretense, of everything that bears the marks of Satan's guile.--Manuscript 72, 1904.
------------------------Enmity Between Christ And Satan, January 23
CTr	29	1	And I will put enmity between ... thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15.
CTr	29	2	The Lord said concerning Satan, that old serpent, that he should bruise the heel of Christ, but Christ would bruise his head. Thank God, he cannot touch the head. "With the mind I myself serve the law of God," said the apostle. The mind and heart are enlisted in the service of Christ, while Satan has enlisted humans and fallen angels to join in his company to league against good. They can bruise only the heel, while in the very act, when Satan seems to have triumphed in putting them to torture and death, the faithful who stand in defense of the law of Jehovah are wounding the head of the great rebel.
CTr	29	3	This prophecy of enmity between Satan and Christ is far-reaching. It is a delineation of an unwearied conflict between Christ and His followers, Satan and his angels, and fallen humans united in a desperate companionship to reproach, bruise, wound, and exterminate the followers of Christ to the close of time. This controversy between Satan and Christ was carried on here in this world. Satan was constantly afflicting the Son of God and creating prejudice in the minds of people. Not only were Christ's doctrines and teachings perverted, misinterpreted, and wrested from their true meaning, but falsehoods followed Him everywhere. The misrepresentations that the chief priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees poured into the ears of the people appealed to the worst passions of adulterers, fornicators, and the dishonest, exciting a burning prejudice that made it almost impossible for Him to live upon the earth for even three and a half years after His public ministry began.
CTr	29	4	Why, then, Christ has said, should those who bear the truth of God to the world be discouraged and fainthearted? "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you." Ye "are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." They will "revile you, and persecute you, and ... say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.""Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me."
CTr	29	5	Satan's malignity reached its height when the Lord of Glory was crucified, and we may expect in our day that human hearts will be open to prejudice and to the falsehoods, wicked misrepresentations, and slander of those who love this kind of satanic work. It is a wisdom from beneath. It is hell-born, and its results will be as in Christ's day.--Manuscript 55, 1886.
------------------------Christ Only Could Make Atonement For Sin, January 24
CTr	30	1	Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1:18, 19.
CTr	30	2	The fall of humanity filled all heaven with sorrow. The world that God had made was blighted with the curse of sin and inhabited by beings doomed to misery and death. There appeared no escape for those who had transgressed the law. Angels ceased their songs of praise. Throughout the heavenly courts there was mourning for the ruin that sin had wrought.
CTr	30	3	The Son of God, heaven's glorious Commander, was touched with pity for the fallen race. His heart was moved with infinite compassion as the woes of the lost world rose up before Him. But divine love had conceived a plan whereby the lost might be redeemed. The broken law of God demanded the life of sinners. In all the universe there was but One who could, in behalf of humanity, satisfy its claims. Since the divine law is as sacred as God Himself, only one equal with God could make atonement for its transgression. None but Christ could redeem fallen humans from the curse of the law and bring them again into harmony with Heaven. Christ would take upon Himself the guilt and shame of sin--sin so offensive to a holy God that it must separate the Father and His Son....
CTr	30	4	Before the Father [Christ] pleaded in the sinner's behalf, while the host of heaven awaited the result with an intensity of interest that words cannot express. Long continued was that mysterious communing--"the counsel of peace" for the fallen human race. The plan of salvation had been laid before the creation of the earth, for Christ is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Yet it was a struggle, even with the King of the universe, to yield up His Son to die for the guilty race.... Oh, the mystery of redemption! The love of God for a world that did not love Him! Who can know the depths of that love that "passeth knowledge"? ...
CTr	30	5	God was to be manifest in Christ, "reconciling the world unto himself." Human beings had become so degraded by sin that it was impossible for them, in themselves, to come into harmony with Him whose nature is purity and goodness. But Christ, after having redeemed them from the condemnation of the law, could impart divine power to unite with human effort. Thus by repentance toward God and faith in Christ the fallen children of Adam might once more become "sons of God."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 63, 64.
------------------------Angels Amazed At God's Plan To Save Humanity, January 25
CTr	31	1	Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Hebrews 1:14.
CTr	31	2	The plan by which alone humanity's salvation could be secured involved all heaven in its infinite sacrifice. The angels could not rejoice as Christ opened before them the plan of redemption, for they saw that salvation of the human race must cost their loved Commander unutterable woe. In grief and wonder they listened to His words as He told them how He must descend from heaven's purity and peace, its joy and glory and immortal life, and come in contact with the degradation of earth, to endure its sorrow, shame, and death.
CTr	31	3	He was to stand between the sinner and the penalty of sin; yet few would receive Him as the Son of God. He would leave His high position as the Majesty of heaven, appear upon the earth and humble Himself as a man, and by His own experience become acquainted with the sorrows and temptations that humans would have to endure. All this would be necessary in order that He might be able to succor them that should be tempted.
CTr	31	4	When His mission as a teacher should be ended, He must be delivered into the hands of wicked men and be subjected to every insult and torture that Satan could inspire them to inflict. He must die the cruelest of deaths, lifted up between the heavens and the earth as a guilty sinner. He must pass long hours of agony so terrible that angels could not look upon it, but would veil their faces from the sight. He must endure anguish of soul, the hiding of His Father's face, while the guilt of transgression--the weight of the sins of the whole world--should be upon Him.
CTr	31	5	The angels prostrated themselves at the feet of their Commander and offered to become a sacrifice for lost humans. But an angel's life could not pay the debt; only He who created them had power to redeem them. Yet the angels were to have a part to act in the plan of redemption. Christ was to be made "a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death." As He should take human nature upon Him, His strength would not be equal to theirs, and they were to minister to Him, to strengthen and soothe Him under His sufferings. They were also to be ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who should be heirs of salvation. They would guard the subjects of grace from the power of evil angels and from the darkness constantly thrown around them by Satan....
CTr	31	6	Christ assured the angels that by His death He would ransom many, and would destroy him who had the power of death.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 64, 65.
------------------------Fallen Humans Can Become One With God, January 26
CTr	32	1	So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 2 Corinthians 5:17, NRSV.
CTr	32	2	Human beings have severed their connection with God, and their souls have become palsied and strengthless by the deadly poison of sin. But there was a time when the proclamation sounded through the heavenly courts, "I have found a ransom! A divine life is given as humanity's ransom. One equal with the Father has become humanity's substitute."...
CTr	32	3	God gave His only begotten Son to the human race, that people might become partakers of the divine nature by accepting the remedy for sin and allowing the divine grace of Christ to work in their lives.... Fallen humans, by laying hold of the divine power brought within their reach, can become one with God. Everlasting life is the blessing that Christ came to give to the world.
CTr	32	4	"The angels which kept not their first estate," God declares, "... he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." The element of evil introduced into heaven by the first angels that fell will never again be allowed to enter heaven. But just so long as we live on this earth, we shall have to meet evil and battle against it. A battle is being fought with every soul. All who choose their own will and way and refuse to be converted to the Lord's way, Satan will use in his service. The knowledge they have acquired in divine things is then united with the knowledge that Satan uses to strengthen his side of the controversy....
CTr	32	5	Grace abounds with Christ, and those who take their position on the side of the Redeemer become new creatures. In character they become one with God. Herein is love! God places the virtues of His character upon those who receive Him. Through His infinite sacrifice He lifts the human race from its position of slavery to the will of Satan and makes men and women sons and daughters of the heavenly King....
CTr	32	6	Christ came to suffer in behalf of the fallen race, for Satan made the boast that no one could withstand his devising and in this world live a spotless life. Clothed with human nature, the Redeemer subjected Himself to all the temptations with which human beings are beset; and He overcame on every point. The record of His life is given to the world, that no one need be in doubt as to the power of the grace of God. To every soul who strives for perfection of Christian character, this world becomes a battlefield on which is fought the controversy between good and evil. And everyone who trusts in Christ will gain the victory.--Letter 38, 1907.
------------------------Don't Seek The Knowledge Of Fools, January 27
CTr	33	1	And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. Genesis 3:22.
CTr	33	2	Age after age the curiosity of people has led them to seek for the tree of knowledge, and often they think they are plucking fruit most essential, when, like Solomon's research, they find it altogether vanity and nothingness in comparison with that science of true holiness, which will open to them the gates of the city of God. The human ambition has been seeking for that kind of knowledge that will bring to them glory and self-exaltation and supremacy. Thus Adam and Eve were worked upon by Satan until God's restraint was snapped asunder, and their education under the teacher of lies began in order that they might have the knowledge that God had refused them--to know the consequence of transgression.
CTr	33	3	Human beings have had a practical knowledge of evil, but Christ came to the world to show them that He had planted for them the tree of life, the leaves of which were for the healing of the nations.
CTr	33	4	The whole probationary period is a time of test and trial, but by all who are obedient to Christ the words of the inspired John will be experienced: "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." The Lord Jesus came to strengthen every earnest seeker for truth, to reveal the Father. He allowed nothing to divert His mind from the great work of restoring to men and women the moral image of God. And every human agent must see that the great and important work for them in this life is to receive the divine likeness, to prepare a character for the future life....
CTr	33	5	Satan has been constantly at work to obscure the vital truths that are essential for the well-being of the human family, making indistinct and unimportant the obedience that must be rendered to the commandments of God. But fallen humans are to return to their obedience to God and walk in communion with God, as did Enoch. This God will help every soul to do if they will learn their lessons out of the Word....
CTr	33	6	[Satan] plans to crowd the mind so fully that no time can be given to consider what they propose to do with the knowledge they gain, or to the quality of their studies, or whether they are of such a character to give them an increased knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. If their education is according to the standard of the world, if they seek their knowledge in order that the world may call them great and learned, God calls them fools.--Manuscript 67, 1898.
------------------------Hope Delayed But Not Terminated, January 28
CTr	34	1	When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son ... to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. Galatians 4:4, 5, NRSV.
CTr	34	2	The Saviour's coming was foretold in Eden. When Adam and Eve first heard the promise, they looked for its speedy fulfillment. They joyfully welcomed their firstborn son, hoping that he might be the Deliverer. But the fulfillment of the promise tarried. Those who first received it died without the sight. From the days of Enoch the promise was repeated through patriarchs and prophets, keeping alive the hope of His appearing, and yet He came not. The prophecy of Daniel revealed the time of His advent, but not all rightly interpreted the message.... The hand of the oppressor was heavy upon Israel, and many were ready to exclaim, "The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth."
CTr	34	3	But like the stars in the vast circuit of their appointed path, God's purposes know no haste and no delay. Through the symbols of the great darkness and the smoking furnace, God had revealed to Abraham the bondage of Israel in Egypt, and had declared that the time of their sojourning should be four hundred years. "Afterward," He said, "shall they come out with great substance." Against that word, all the power of Pharaoh's proud empire battled in vain. On "the selfsame day" appointed in the divine promise, "it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt." So in heaven's council the hour for the coming of Christ had been determined.
CTr	34	4	When the great clock of time pointed to that hour, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son." Providence had directed the movements of nations, and the tide of human impulse and influence, until the world was ripe for the coming of the Deliverer. The nations were united under one government. One language was widely spoken and was everywhere recognized as the language of literature. From all lands the Jews of the dispersion gathered to Jerusalem to the annual feasts. As these returned to the places of their sojourn, they could spread throughout the world the tidings of the Messiah's coming....
CTr	34	5	While few understood the nature of Christ's mission, there was a widespread expectation of a mighty prince who should establish his kingdom in Israel, and who should come as a deliverer to the nations.--The Desire of Ages, 31-34.
------------------------Faithfulness To God Excites Fury Of Wicked, January 29
CTr	35	1	And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. Genesis 4:4, 5.
CTr	35	2	The Lord gave Cain and Abel directions regarding the sacrifice they were to bring Him. Abel, a keeper of sheep, obeyed the Lord's command and brought a lamb as his offering. This lamb, as it was slain, represented the Lamb of God, who was to be slain for the sins of the world. Cain brought as an offering the fruit of the ground, his own produce. He was not willing to be dependent on Abel for an offering. He would not go to him for a lamb. He thought his own works perfect, and these he presented to God....
CTr	35	3	Cain talked with Abel about their sacrifices and charged God with partiality. Abel interceded with his brother, repeating to him the very words of God's command to them both regarding the offerings He required. Cain was provoked because his younger brother should presume to teach him. He allowed envy and jealousy to fill his heart. He hated his brother because he was preferred before him.
CTr	35	4	As Cain pondered over the matter, he grew still more angry. He saw his mistake in offering only his own substance before the Lord, without the fitting sacrifice of a lamb, but he determined to vindicate himself and condemn Abel. Satan worked through him, inspiring him with a desire to slay his brother....
CTr	35	5	By this history the Lord would teach everybody that His Word is to be implicitly obeyed. Cain and Abel represent two classes--the wicked and the righteous, those who follow their own way and those who conscientiously keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment....
CTr	35	6	Abel did not try to force Cain to obey God's command. It was Cain, inspired by Satan and filled with wrath, who used force. Furious because he could not compel Abel to disobey God and because God had accepted Abel's offering and refused his, which did not recognize the Saviour, Cain killed his brother.
CTr	35	7	The two parties represented by Cain and Abel will exist till the close of this earth's history. The well-doer, the obedient, does not war against the transgressor of God's holy law. But those who do not respect the law of God oppress and persecute other people. They follow their leader, who is an accuser of God and of those who are made perfect through obedience.... The spirit that leads people to accuse, condemn, imprison, and put to death other people has waxed strong in our world. It is this spirit that always works in the children of disobedience.--Manuscript 136, 1899.
------------------------Abel's Offering Represented Christ's Sacrifice, January 30
CTr	36	1	Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. Genesis 4:6, 7.
CTr	36	2	In the working of God's people there are always times of test and trial, and God does not design that we shall shield men and women and youth from the liabilities that test the character. God will reveal His workings and will supply His attributes to the humble people who are seeking Him. Satan also will reveal his workings and will supply every soul he tempts with his attributes, his evil surmisings, his evil speaking and accusing of the brethren.
CTr	36	3	From this condition of things, the Lord cannot possibly shield those who place themselves on the enemy's side, for God does not compel the human mind. He gives His bright beams of light as a lamp to lead and guide all who will walk in the rays reflected from Him. That lamp, His Word, is a light unto our feet. But if people disregard the path lighted by the heavenly beams and choose a path suited to their own natural hearts, they will stumble on in darkness, not knowing where they stumble or why. They will accuse and hate the very ones who make straight paths for their feet.
CTr	36	4	The history of Cain and Abel will be repeated. Cain insisted on carrying out his own plans in his offering to the Lord. Abel was steadfast in carrying out the directions of the Lord. He would not be converted in Cain's way. Although the offering of Cain was a very acceptable one, that which made the offering required at all--the blood of the slain lamb--was left out. There could be no harmony between the two brothers, and contention must come. Abel could not concede to Cain without being guilty of disobedience to the special commands of God....
CTr	36	5	The Lord preferred the offering of Abel because it was correct. His offering was of value because it prefigured the redemption plan of God in the costly offering of His only begotten Son as the hope and salvation of the fallen race.
CTr	36	6	Cain was very angry when God accepted the offering of Abel and gave no sign that He recognized the offering of Cain, because it left out the true figure, the representation of the world's Redeemer. But the Lord did not give up His way and will to conciliate Cain. He reasoned with him: "Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door."--Letter 16, 1897.
------------------------Bitterness Leads to Disloyalty, January 31
CTr	37	1	And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. Genesis 4:5.
CTr	37	2	I beseech of all who engage in the work of murmuring and pitying themselves because something has been said or done that does not suit them, and that does not, as they think, give them due consideration, to remember that they are carrying on the very work Satan began in heaven. They are following in his track, sowing unbelief, discord, and disloyalty, for no one can entertain feelings of disaffection and keep it secret. They must tell others that they are not treated as they should be. Thus others are led to murmur and complain. This is the root of bitterness springing up, whereby many are defiled....
CTr	37	3	Thus Satan works today through his evil angels. He confederates with people who claim to be in the faith, and those who are trying to carry forward the work of God with fidelity ... will have just as severe trials brought against them as Satan can bring through those who claim to know the truth. Satan's success is proportionate to the light and knowledge these opposers have. The root of bitterness strikes down deep, and is communicated to others. Thus many are defiled....
CTr	37	4	Satan must deceive in order to lead away.... Underhand work must be done, a deceiving influence must be exerted; false pretenses must be set forth as truth; suspicion must be lulled to sleep. Satan will clothe temptation and sin with the garments of righteousness, and by this deception he will win many to his side. Christ pronounced Satan a liar and a murderer. Oh, that unwary souls would learn wisdom from God....
CTr	37	5	Test and trial will come to every soul that loves God. The Lord does not work a miracle to prevent this ordeal of trial, to shield His people from the temptations of Satan. If they are tempted severely, it is because circumstances have been so shaped by the apostasy of Satan that temptations are permitted in order that characters may be developed that will decide the fitness of the human family for the home in heaven, characters that will stand through all the pressure of unfavorable circumstances in private and public life.--Manuscript 57, 1896 (Manuscript Releases 18:363-365).
------------------------God Begins Anew With Seth, February 1
CTr	38	1	God ... hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.... Adam ... begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth. Genesis 4:25-5:3.
CTr	38	2	To Adam was given another son, to be the inheritor of the divine promise, the heir of the spiritual birthright. The name Seth, given to this son, signified "appointed," or "compensation," "for," said the mother, "God ... hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." Seth was of more noble stature than Cain or Abel, and resembled Adam more closely than did his other sons. He was a worthy character, following in the steps of Abel. Yet he inherited no more natural goodness than did Cain. Concerning the creation of Adam it is said, "In the likeness of God made he him"; but Adam, after the Fall, "begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." ...
CTr	38	3	The Sabbath was honored by all the children of Adam that remained loyal to God. But Cain and his descendants did not respect the day upon which God had rested. They chose their own time for labor and for rest, regardless of Jehovah's express command....
CTr	38	4	For some time the two classes remained separate. The race of Cain, spreading from the place of their first settlement, dispersed over the plains and valleys where the children of Seth had dwelt; and the latter, in order to escape from their contaminating influence, withdrew to the mountains, and there made their home.... But in the lapse of time they ventured, little by little, to mingle with the inhabitants of the valleys. This association was productive of the worst results. "The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair." The children of Seth, attracted by the beauty of the daughters of Cain's descendants, displeased the Lord by intermarrying with them. Many of the worshipers of God were beguiled into sin by the allurements that were now constantly before them, and they lost their peculiar, holy character....
CTr	38	5	For nearly a thousand years Adam lived among his descendants, a witness to the results of sin. Faithfully he sought to stem the tide of evil.... He witnessed the wide-spreading corruption that was finally to cause the destruction of the world by a flood; and though the sentence of death pronounced upon him by His Maker had at first appeared terrible, yet after beholding for nearly a thousand years the results of sin, he felt that it was merciful in God to bring to an end a life of suffering and sorrow.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 80-82.
------------------------Seth's Descendants Settle For Less Than God's Plan, February 2
CTr	39	1	To Seth also a son was born, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to invoke the name of the Lord. Genesis 4:26, NRSV.
CTr	39	2	After the translation of Enoch to heaven, the sons of men that were set against the worship of God were drawing away the sons of God. There were two parties in the world then, and there always will be. The worshipers of God called themselves the sons of God. The descendants of Seth went up into the mountains and there made themselves homes separate from the sons of Cain. Here in their mountainous homes they thought to preserve themselves from the prevailing wickedness and idolatry of the descendants of Cain. But after the exhortations and the influence of Enoch were removed from them, they commenced to unite with the descendants of Cain.
CTr	39	3	Here I wish to impress upon your minds that there are always two parties: those who stand as faithful sentinels for God, and those who are against God. God has a test and a trial for every living soul upon the face of the earth. There are always witnesses standing faithful to God, as representatives of God's righteousness, and those who are opposed to God, representatives of the government of Satan. It is the privilege of all who witness these two parties to choose which party they will be in....
CTr	39	4	The descendants of Seth might have preserved their integrity before God, and they might have exerted a saving influence upon the inhabitants of the Noachic world, but in place of doing this they began to unite with the universal corruption that was prevailing in the valleys.
CTr	39	5	The Cain worshipers despised everything like the sacrificial offerings that represented the Lamb of God that was to take away the sins of the world.... Here we see the two parties standing right out in that degenerate age. It was not all corruption; it was not all fidelity....
CTr	39	6	The law of God was trampled under the feet of the Cain worshipers--they were idolaters; they worshiped the creature instead of the Creator. The descendants of Seth acknowledged the power and government and right of the living God to govern. God had borne with the perversity and iniquity of that long-lived race until He declared that He would bear with them no longer. He sent His angels to Noah to tell him what His purpose was in regard to the inhabitants of the old world. That faithful preacher of righteousness [Noah] declared the message to the inhabitants that one hundred twenty years would be the end of their probation.--Manuscript 86, 1886.
------------------------A Time of Rare Spiritual Opportunity, February 3
CTr	40	1	When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21.
CTr	40	2	Notwithstanding the wickedness of the antediluvian world, that age was not, as has often been supposed, an era of ignorance and barbarism. The people were granted the opportunity of reaching a high standard of moral and intellectual attainment. They possessed great physical and mental strength, and their advantages for acquiring both religious and scientific knowledge were unrivaled. It is a mistake to suppose that because they lived to a great age their minds matured late; their mental powers were early developed, and those who cherished the fear of God and lived in harmony with His will continued to increase in knowledge and wisdom throughout their life.... As the years of human beings have decreased, and their physical strength has diminished, so their mental capacities have lessened....
CTr	40	3	The antediluvians were without books, they had no written records; but with their great physical and mental vigor, they had strong memories, able to grasp and to retain that which was communicated to them, and in turn to transmit it unimpaired to their posterity.... Far from being an era of religious darkness, that was an age of great light. All the world had opportunity to receive instruction from Adam....
CTr	40	4	Skepticism could not deny the existence of Eden while it stood just in sight, its entrance barred by watching angels. The order of creation, the object of the garden, the history of its two trees so closely connected with human destiny, were undisputed facts. And the existence and supreme authority of God, the obligation of His law, were truths that people were slow to question while Adam was among them.
CTr	40	5	Notwithstanding the prevailing iniquity, there was a line of holy men and women who, elevated and ennobled by communion with God, lived as in the companionship of heaven. They were people of massive intellect, of wonderful attainments. They had a great and holy mission--to develop a character of righteousness, to teach a lesson of godliness not only to the people of their time but for future generations. Only a few of the most prominent are mentioned in the Scriptures, but all through the ages God had faithful witnesses, truehearted worshipers.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 82-84.
------------------------With Whom Are You Walking? February 4
CTr	41	1	Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Amos 3:3.
CTr	41	2	Even some who are striving for the mastery over the enemy develop a predisposition to do wrong. Evil prevails over good because they do not trust wholly in Christ. They do not abide in Him, and because of their lack of dependence on God, they show inconsistency of character. But no one is compelled to choose this class as familiar associates. The temptations of life are met everywhere, and those who complain of the church members' being cold, proud, haughty, un-Christlike, need not associate with this class. There are many who are warmhearted, self-denying, self-sacrificing, who would if necessary lay down their lives to save souls. Let none then become accusers of the church members, but let the tares grow together with the wheat, for thus Christ has said it should be. But we are not under the necessity of being tares ourselves, because the harvest is not all wheat.
CTr	41	3	Those who reject the life and character of Jesus, refusing to be like Him, declare themselves to be in controversy with God. "He that is not with me is against me," Christ declares, "and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." Those who love God will not choose His enemies as their friends. The question is asked, "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them which hate the Lord?" True Christians will not choose the society of non-Christians.
CTr	41	4	If the Lord gives them a special position in the world, as He gave Joseph and Daniel, He will keep them from being contaminated. We need to discern good from evil. We need all the help and instruction that comes from a true faith. We need to listen to the inculcation of Scripture doctrines, which are free from the sophistry and deception of the great deceiver. We need to live in as pure a religious atmosphere as possible, that we may bring solid timbers into our character-building.
CTr	41	5	By association with those who have no faith in God, wrong ideas are imperceptibly insinuated into mind and heart by the master worker of deception. These prove the ruin of many. Will you choose the association of the irreligious and the disloyal who are openly transgressing God's law? Will you separate yourselves by your own choice from those who love God? Will you place yourselves as far from the light as possible? This is the way of delusion. You will never be where you will find too much light, but woe to those who choose darkness rather than light.--Manuscript 49, 1893.
------------------------Enoch's Experience Can Be Ours, February 5
CTr	42	1	For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. Hebrews 2:11, NRSV.
CTr	42	2	Of Enoch it is written that he lived sixty-five years, and begat a son. After that he walked with God three hundred years. During these earlier years Enoch had loved and feared God and had kept His commandments.... But after the birth of his first son, Enoch reached a higher experience; he was drawn into a closer relationship with God. He realized more fully his own obligations and responsibility as a son of God....
CTr	42	3	What a blessed thing it is that we have an Enoch! ... Notwithstanding the corruption that was so great around him, yet he walked with God, and his light shone out to that degenerate age. And if Enoch walked with God amid corruption then, why cannot men and women walk with God today, in this age of the world?
CTr	42	4	Many of us know something of this experience. We know that in sadness and grief we feel very frail, but we know that Jesus is right by our side to sympathize with us, and He will help us. We can commune with our best Friend; He is right by our side. We need not go into the heavens to bring Him down, for He is right by us to help us.
CTr	42	5	As we walk in the streets with those who care not for God or heaven or heavenly things, we can talk to them of Jesus. We have something more precious than they to look upon--it is Jesus. He is with us in the moral darkness of this age. We can tell Him of the afflictions of our soul and the wickedness in the world, and none of these things need hinder us. We can talk with Jesus. We can talk with Jesus as Enoch talked with God; he could tell his Lord all about his trials....
CTr	42	6	Enoch formed a righteous character, and the result was that he was translated to heaven without seeing death. When the Lord shall come the second time, there will be some who will be translated without seeing death, and we want to know if we will be among that number. We want to know if we are wholly on the Lord's side--partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust--not by trying to make a clear path for our feet where we shall have no trials or difficulties to meet, but by placing ourselves in right relation to God and letting Him take care of the consequences.--Manuscript 83, 1886.
------------------------How Did Enoch Walk, February 6
CTr	43	1	Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Psalm 119:18.
CTr	43	2	Could your eyes be opened, you would see not only good angels who are trying to impress hearts, but you would see also evil angels who are seeking to make of none effect the message of truth God has in mercy sent.
CTr	43	3	While we are in this world we are not safe unless our petitions are continually ascending to the God of heaven that He will keep us unspotted from the corruptions of the world. Our Saviour has told us what would be in these last days. Iniquity will abound, but the souls that are open to the influence of the Spirit of God will receive strength to withstand the corruptions of this degenerate age.
CTr	43	4	Enoch walked with God three hundred years previous to his translation to heaven, and the state of the world was not then more favorable for the perfection of Christian character than it is today. And how did Enoch walk with God? He educated his mind and heart to ever feel that he was in the presence of God, and when in perplexity his prayers would ascend to God to keep him. He refused to take any course that would offend his God. He kept the Lord continually before him. He would pray, "Teach me Thy way, that I may not err. What is Thy pleasure concerning me? What shall I do to honor Thee, my God?"...
CTr	43	5	We want to pray with David, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Many close their eyes lest they shall see the truth. They do not want to see the defects in their life and character, and they are disturbed if you mention anything about God's law. In this they show that they have a human standard of their own, that their will is not the will of God. We want that you should not be deceived by Satan, the first great adversary of God's law. We want to bear in mind that God's law is the only standard by which He will judge us....
CTr	43	6	In the beginning God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." But sin has almost obliterated the moral image of God in human beings. Jesus came down to our world that He might give us a living example, that we might know how to live and how to keep the way of the Lord. He was the image of the Father. His beautiful and spotless character is before us as an example for us to imitate. We must study and copy and follow Jesus Christ, then we shall bring His loveliness and beauty into our character. In doing this we are standing before God through faith, winning back by conflict with the powers of darkness the power of self-control, the love of God that Adam lost.--Manuscript 6a, 1886 (Sermons and Talks, 1:33-34).
------------------------Enoch's Example Challenges Us Today, February 7
CTr	44	1	Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
CTr	44	2	It was no easier for Enoch to live a righteous life in his day than it is for us at the present time. The world in Enoch's time was no more favorable to a growth in grace and holiness than it is now, but Enoch devoted time to prayer and communion with God, and this enabled him to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. It was his devotion to God that fitted him for translation.
CTr	44	3	We are living amid the perils of the last days, and we must receive our strength from the same source as did Enoch. We must walk with God. A separation from the world is required of us. We cannot remain free from this pollution unless we follow the example of faithful Enoch and walk with God. But how many are slaves to the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. This is the reason they are not partakers of the divine nature, and do not escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. They are serving and honoring self. Their constant study is: What shall I eat, what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be clothed?
CTr	44	4	Many talk of sacrifice, when they do not know what sacrifice is. They have not tasted its first draught. They talk of the cross of Christ, they profess the faith, but they have no experience in self-denial, lifting the cross and bearing it after their Lord.
CTr	44	5	If they were partakers of the divine nature, the same spirit that dwelt in their Lord would dwell in them. The same tenderness and love, the same pity and compassion, would be manifested in their lives. They would not then wait to have the needy and unfortunate come to them, and be entreated to feel their woes. It would be as natural for them to aid the needy and minister to their wants as it was for Christ to go about doing good.
CTr	44	6	Every man, woman, and youth who professes the religion of Christ should realize the responsibility resting upon them. All should feel that this is an individual work, an individual warfare, an individual preaching of Christ in the daily practice. If each would realize this, and take hold of the work, we should be mighty as an army with banners. The heavenly dove would hover over us. The Sun of Righteousness would shine upon us, and the light of the glory of God would no more be shut from us than it was from the devoted Enoch.--Manuscript 1, 1869 (Sermons and Talks, 2:5, 6).
------------------------Channels of God's Grace, February 8
CTr	45	1	Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16, NRSV
CTr	45	2	The Holy Spirit is waiting for channels through whom to work. If all would do the work to which they were appointed, thousands of people might be saved. Satan will not always triumph. The Spirit of God will be poured out upon the church just as soon as the vessels are prepared to receive it.... Why not exercise faith that the divine blessings of the Holy Spirit shall increase in large measure and will intensify human agencies, so that the glory of the Lord shall be revealed?
CTr	45	3	My son Edson,* the more humble you keep, the closer you draw to God and show you trust Him as a little child trusts its parents, the more securely you will walk. Your strength is wholly in God--in your simple, entire trust in God. The churches of Seventh-day Adventists need to walk more by faith and be less dependent upon feeling....
CTr	45	4	The softening, subduing influence of the Spirit of God upon human hearts and minds will make the true children of God sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.... There will be a soft, subdued spirit in all those who are looking unto Jesus. The love of Jesus always leads to Christian courtesy, refinement of language, and purity of expression that testify to the company we are with--that like Enoch we are walking with God. There is no storming, no harshness, but a sweet fragrance in speech and in spirit.
CTr	45	5	The Word is to be our study. Here is a mine of precious ore. Much of it has been glimpsed, but there is digging to be done to secure more precious treasures. There have been many who have just rummaged over the surface in a most careless, slovenly manner, when others are searching more carefully, prayerfully, and perseveringly, and hidden, inestimable treasures are found....
CTr	45	6	Do not let anyone's speeches, or thoughts revealed in actions, affect you. You want an abiding Christ. He loves you. He has drawn you by the cords of His love. Let it be seen that your life is hid with Christ in God. Let there be no hasty speech, no cheap words, no slang phrases. Let it be demonstrated that you are conscious of a Companion whom you honor, and that you will not make Him ashamed of you. Only think, dear children [Edson and his wife, Emma], we are representatives of Jesus Christ! Then represent His character in words, in deportment, that others may see and understand your good works and glorify God.--Letter 171, 1897.
------------------------Blending Personal Piety With Outreach To Others, February 9
CTr	46	1	Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude 21.
CTr	46	2	We are the Lord's family, His children, and by Him we are to be instructed in regard to what is and what will be in the future. Vigilant waiting and earnest looking are required in preparation for the solemn events soon to take place. Perfect men and women in Christ do not spend all their time in waiting, in meditation and contemplation. While we should have quiet, prayerful hours of meditation, when we leave the busy bustle and excitement to commune with God, to learn from Him His will concerning us, we are not to forget that we have a positive message of warning to bear to the world.
CTr	46	3	Enoch walked with God, and he bore a message of warning to the inhabitants of the old world. His words and actions, his example of piety, were a continual witness in favor of the truth. In an age no more favorable to the development of a pure, holy character than is the present age, he lived a life of obedience. So filled had the earth become with impurity that the Lord washed it by a flood. He turned the world upside down, as it were, to empty it of its corruption.
CTr	46	4	Enoch was holy because he walked with God in God's way. In him the world had an example of what those will be who, when Christ comes, are caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the air. As Enoch was, so are we to be. Personal piety is to be blended with the most earnest and energetic warnings and appeals. We are to point to what is, with what is to be following fast after. We are instructed to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." We are to be earnest in our efforts to clear the King's highway, to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord. Fervency of spirit must be brought into our service for the Lord. The lamps of the soul must be kept filled and burning.
CTr	46	5	Service for God demands the whole being--heart, mind, soul, and strength. Without reservation we are to give ourselves to God, that we may bear the image of the heavenly instead of the image of the earthly. There must be a quickening of the sensibilities, that the mind may be fully awake to the work to be done for all classes, high and low, rich and poor, learned and ignorant. We are to reveal the tenderness shown by the great Shepherd as He gathers the lambs in His arms and carefully guards His flock from harm, leading it in safe paths. Christ's followers are to show His tenderness and sympathy, and they must also show His intensity of desire to impart the truths that mean eternal life to the receiver.--Letter 97, 1902 (Manuscript Releases 12:213, 214).
------------------------Walk With God Anywhere, February 10
CTr	47	1	Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. Revelation 3:4.
CTr	47	2	The men and women who have the most to do have the greatest need of keeping God ever before them. When Satan presses his suggestions upon their minds, they may, if they cherish a "Thus saith the Lord," be drawn into the secret pavilion of the Most High. His promises will be their safeguard. Amid all the confusion and rush of business, they will find a quiet resting place. If they will place their trust in God, He will be their resting place.
CTr	47	3	Take God with you in every place. The door is open for every son and daughter of God. The Lord is not far from the soul who seeks Him. The reason so many are left to themselves in places of temptation is that they do not set the Lord ever before them. It is in the places God is least thought of that you need to carry the lamp of life. If God be left out of sight, if our faith and communion with Him are broken, the soul is in positive danger. Integrity will not be maintained.
CTr	47	4	The Lord is our helper, our defense. God has provided that no soul that trusts in Him shall be overcome by the enemy. Christ is just as much with His believing ones when they are compelled to be associated in any sense with the world as when they meet in His house to worship Him. Think of these words: "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."
CTr	47	5	These words are given for the people while they are in connection with the world, subject to temptations and influences that are deceiving and deluding. While they stay their mind upon Him who is their sun and their shield, the blackness and darkness that surround them will not leave one spot or stain upon their garments. They will walk with Christ. They will pray and believe and work to save the souls that are ready to perish. These are trying to break the bands that Satan has fastened upon them, and they will not be put to shame if by faith they will make Christ their companion. Temptations and deceptions will be constantly brought up by the great deceiver to spoil the work of the human agents, but if they trust God, if they are humble and meek and lowly of heart, keeping the way of the Lord, heaven will rejoice, for they will gain the victory.--Manuscript 97, 1898.
------------------------Enoch's Faith Was Always Evident, February 11
CTr	48	1	And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all. Jude 14.
CTr	48	2	Enoch was an active worker for God. He did not seek ease and comfort. Nor did he spend his time in idle meditation or in striving to gain happiness for himself. He did not participate in the festivities and amusements constantly engaging the attention of the pleasure lovers of the antediluvian world. In his day the minds of many were absorbed in worldly pleasures--pleasures that tempted them to go astray. But Enoch was terribly in earnest. He did not idly saunter along the streets or linger near places of amusement as if he were an indifferent worldling. He never engaged in common conversation with those who were corrupt, as if he were one of them. With the sinful and with the workers of iniquity he mingled only as God's messenger, to warn them to turn with abhorrence from their evil ways and to repent and seek God.
CTr	48	3	Enoch lived an active, zealous life of self-denial. He walked with God in a world so corrupt that the Lord afterward destroyed it by the Flood. And he walked with the ungodly as one among them, not as one of them, but as one whose purposes and works and hopes were based not only on time, but on eternity. He did not give the worldly-wise any reason to question his profession and his faith. By earnest words and decided actions he showed that he was separate from the world. After periods of retirement he would mingle with the ungodly to exhort them to abhor the evil and to choose the good. As a faithful worker for God he sought to save them. He warned the world. He preached faith in Christ, the Saviour of sinners, the sinner's only hope.
CTr	48	4	Enoch was an Adventist. He carried the minds of people forward to the great day of God, when Christ will come the second time, to judge everyone's work....
CTr	48	5	Like Enoch, we must walk with God, bringing the will into submission to His will. We must be willing to go where Jesus leads, willing to suffer for His dear sake. In seeking to save the souls for whom Christ has died, in conquering difficulties, and in keeping ourselves unspotted from the world, we reveal the genuineness of our religion. Faithful Christians do not seek the easiest place, the lightest burdens. They are found where the work is hardest, where their help is most needed.--Manuscript 36, 1902.
------------------------Always Strive To Be On Vantage Ground, February 12
CTr	49	1	Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father. 1 Thessalonians 1:3.
CTr	49	2	From the instruction given us in the Old and New Testaments God desires us to learn that we are not to place ourselves, and those connected with us, in intimate connection with [those] who are corrupt in thought, word, and action. If workers of limited experience are placed in close connection with this class, there is danger that they will by beholding become changed into the same image, that the standard of holiness and truth will be lowered. There is danger that corruption will cease to appear in its vileness to those who are trying to bring about a reform, and that the truth will become confused with that which is common and low....
CTr	49	3	The difference between a good person and a wicked person is not always caused by natural goodness of disposition. Goodness is the result of divine power transforming human nature. By believing in Christ, the fallen race that He has redeemed may obtain that faith that works by love and purifies the soul from all defilement. Then Christlike attributes appear, for by beholding Christ people become changed into the same image...
CTr	49	4	People who are compelled by circumstances they cannot control--to be where wickedness, deep and pronounced, is all around them--may remember that God and the angels are with them. Their only safety is to keep looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith. Their father, mother, brothers, and sisters may be on the side of the enemy, but they have the assurance that they are guarded by the Lord. It may cost them their lives to stand for the truth, yet they will be saved when the wicked are destroyed....
CTr	49	5	He [Enoch] did not make his abode with the wicked. He did not locate in Sodom, thinking to save Sodom. He placed himself and his family where the atmosphere would be as pure as possible. Then at times he went forth to the inhabitants of the world with his God-given message. Every visit he made to the world was painful to him. He saw and understood something of the leprosy of sin. After proclaiming his message, he always took back with him to his place of retirement some who had received the warning. Some of these became overcomers and died before the Flood came. But some had lived so long in the corrupting influence of sin that they could not endure righteousness. They did not retain their purity of faith, but returned to their former customs and practices.--Manuscript 42, 1900.
------------------------Jesus In The Heart, February 13
CTr	50	1	I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:23.
CTr	50	2	Enoch not only meditated and prayed, and put on the armor of watchfulness, but he came forth from his pleadings with God to plead with unbelievers. He did not mask the truth to find favor with unbelievers, thus neglecting their souls. This close connection with God gave him courage to work the works of God. Enoch walked with God and had the testimony that his ways "pleased God." This is the privilege of every believer today. It is the believer dwelling with God, and God taking up His abode with the believer. "I in them, and thou in me," says Jesus. To walk with God and have the witness that their ways please Him is an experience not to be confined to Enoch, to Elijah, to patriarchs, to prophets, to apostles, and to martyrs. It is not only the privilege but the duty of every follower of Christ to have Jesus enshrined in the heart, to carry Him with them in their lives, and they will indeed be fruit-bearing trees....
CTr	50	3	How many who have been entrusted with talents of influence and means have lost sight of the Pattern, and follow the standard of the world instead of the example of Christ. Men and women who have been blessed with an abundance of money, with houses and with lands, generally train their children to a life of idleness and selfish indulgence. Thus they are made useless for this life, and unfit for the future, immortal life. Christ in His life gave people an altogether different example. In His youth He worked with His father at the carpenter's trade; but the youth of today are educated to believe that it is the money that makes the person. The sure result of such education is seen in the pride, the vanity, the love of pleasure, the sinful practices that are so prevalent in this degenerate age.
CTr	50	4	Where there is an abundance of idleness, Satan works with his temptations to spoil life and character. If youth are not trained to useful labor, whether they be rich or poor, they are in peril, for Satan will find employment for them after his own order. The youth who are not barricaded with principle do not regard time as a precious treasure, a trust from God for which every human being must give an account. Money is also a trust from God. It is given to parents, not to use in an extravagant way to gratify pride to the ruin of themselves and their children, but that they may be the means of doing good to persons in need.--Manuscript 43, 1900.
------------------------Enoch Kept God's Law, February 14
CTr	51	1	The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5, NRSV.
CTr	51	2	God had a church when Adam and Eve and Abel accepted and hailed with joy the good news that Jesus was their Redeemer. They realized as fully then as we realize now the promise and the presence of God in their midst. Wherever Enoch found one or two who were willing to hear the message he had for them, Jesus joined with them in their worship of God. In Enoch's day there were some among the wicked inhabitants of earth who believed. The Lord never yet has left His faithful few without His presence, nor the world without a witness.
CTr	51	3	Enoch was a public teacher of the truth in the age in which he lived. He taught the truth; he lived the truth; and the character of the teacher who walked with God was in every way harmonious with the greatness and sacredness of his mission. Enoch was a prophet who spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. He was a light amid the moral darkness, ... a man who walked with God, being obedient to God's law--that law that Satan had refused to obey, that Adam had transgressed, and that Abel had obeyed and, because of his obedience, been murdered over. And now God would demonstrate to the universe the falsity of Satan's charge that human beings cannot keep God's law. He would demonstrate that though humans had sinned, they could so relate themselves to God that they would have the mind and spirit of God and would be representative symbols of Christ. This holy man was selected of God to denounce the wickedness of the world, and to evidence to the world that it is possible for a person to keep all the law of God....
CTr	51	4	Enoch walked with God, while of the world around him sacred history records: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Enoch's righteous life was in marked contrast to the wicked people around him. His piety, his purity, his unswerving integrity, was the result of his walking with God, while the wickedness of the world was the result of their walking with the [great] deceiver....
CTr	51	5	Enoch was a representative man, but he is not praised, he is not exalted; he simply did that which every son and daughter of Adam may do.--Manuscript 43, 1900.
------------------------Pressing Into Christ's Presence, February 15
CTr	52	1	For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light. Ephesians 5:8.
CTr	52	2	What think ye of Christ?" What is He to you personally? Is your faith centered in Him as your Redeemer? Do you believe that He saves you from sin, that He imputes to you His righteousness?
CTr	52	3	"This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and [men and women] loved darkness rather than light." They will not come to the light for fear that their deeds will be reproved. This is the position taken by many. Their names are in the church books. They observe a round of ceremonies, but they do not love the truth. They have been satisfied to stand at the door. They do not press their way into Christ's presence, to share with Him the glory of His royal life. Their characters are not brought into harmony with the truth. They have not the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Evil-speaking, evil-surmising, dishonest actions, cast a dark shadow athwart their pathway. Their faith sinks into this shadow of shame, and they feel that they are separated from Christ. There is a sting in the conscience, a condemnation in the life. They feel a desire to hide away from God. Light has come into the world, but they love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil....
CTr	52	4	The time has come when it is for our eternal interest to believe in Christ.... He is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He says, "I will ... write [My law] in their hearts." He will create in those who come to Him in faith a divine principle of holiness, which shall rule in the soul, enlightening the understanding and captivating the affections....
CTr	52	5	[Matthew 11:28-30 quoted.] What an invitation! It was this invitation that He gave to Enoch before the world was destroyed by the Flood.... Christ was as verily Enoch's Saviour as He is our Saviour, and in His power, notwithstanding the corruption of that degenerate age, Enoch perfected a Christian character.
CTr	52	6	The voice saying to us, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness," said the same words to Enoch, assuring him that if he followed the Saviour, he would not walk in the darkness of ignorance.
CTr	52	7	The Lord instructed Enoch and made him His watchman. He was a faithful witness for God. He warned the inhabitants of the old world not to follow the example of the Cain-worshipers, but to serve the living God.--Manuscript 13, 1899.
------------------------We Need An Ever-Increasing Faith, February 16
CTr	53	1	Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12, 13.
CTr	53	2	The fact that human beings can please God is a wonderful incentive for us to make the most persevering, intense efforts, efforts which are proportionate to the value of the object that we are seeking to gain. "We are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." ... Enoch walked with God. He was not satisfied with his own companionship. He walked with God. He pleased God. The Lord is not pleased when those whom He has created are sinners. We are ever to walk with God and learn of Jesus Christ, who has overcome every temptation wherewith we are beset. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
CTr	53	3	The Lord draws people close to His side, to walk with them, to work with them, to teach them how He overcame every temptation in humanity, and how, therefore, they may overcome through the provision the Lord has made. With every temptation there is a way of escape, by walking humbly with God. Without faith, ever increasing faith, it is impossible to please God....
CTr	53	4	In their fallen nature people can do the very things God expects them to do through the help provided for them. They can walk and work and live by faith in the Son of God. God is not pleased with those who are satisfied with a mere animal life. He has formed human beings after the divine similitude. He designs that they shall possess the character of God by obeying His law, the expression of His divine character. The Lord has given them mind, intellect, and affections. These gifts are entrusted to them to be exercised and improved. God has given them a conscience that must be carefully cherished and appreciated. He has given them knowledge and virtue. These entrusted capabilities are to hold the supremacy that God has assigned to them.
CTr	53	5	The Lord expects every person to exercise the faculty of faith. It is the real, vital essence of Christianity to grasp the unseen by faith, reaching out constantly to lay hold of the spiritual efficiency found in Christ. If people do not constantly improve by exercising the gifts of God, it is not possible for them to have that faith that works by love and purifies the soul. To cultivate a few of God's entrusted talents is not enough. The conscience is to be in touch with the life and character of God. This is spiritual walking with Jesus Christ, partaking of the divine nature, having overcome the corruptions that are in the world through lust.--Letter 195, 1899.
------------------------The Value Of A Living Faith, February 17
CTr	54	1	If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13.
CTr	54	2	We are assured that the greatest gift that can be given to us will not be withheld. Christ says, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" But ask in faith, nothing doubting. It is because of unbelief that so many of our church members are weak. Christ said to Martha at the grave of Lazarus, "If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God."
CTr	54	3	This is the greatest blessing that can be bestowed upon God's believing children. But many do not have the virtue of a living faith. They think they have faith, but it is only the thought or action of a moment. They do not persevere in knocking at the door and keeping their request before the Lord. It is not a transient thought that is to be given to God. Our prayers are to be fervent and earnest as were the petitions of the needy friend who asked for the loaves at midnight. The more you ask, the firmer will be your spiritual union. You may come into that place where you will have increased blessings because you have increased faith.
CTr	54	4	While [you are] trusting in your heavenly Father for the help you need, He will not leave you. God has a heaven full of blessings that He wants to bestow on those who are earnestly seeking for that help that the Lord alone can give. It was in looking in faith to Jesus, in asking of Him, in believing that every word spoken would be verified, that Enoch walked with God. He kept close by the side of God, obeying His every word. And the record comes down along the line to our time, "Enoch walked with God." His was a wonderful life of oneness. Christ was his companion. He was in intimate fellowship with God.
CTr	54	5	Enoch prophesied in regard to the last days. He said, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."--Manuscript 111, 1898.
------------------------Noah Had Genuine Faith--We Can Too, February 18
CTr	55	1	And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Genesis 7:1.
CTr	55	2	Noah was commanded to build an ark for the saving of himself and his house. It is stated, "Noah ... have I found righteous before me in this generation." And it is also stated that "Noah walked with God." Noah did not stop to question, "What will the inhabitants of the old world think of me if I begin to build this boat upon dry land?" He believed just what God had told him, and he commenced to work upon the light and plan that God had given him. He had to employ many carpenters to help him in this great work of building, and there were many of these who were believers at that time. But the largest part of the Noachic world were unbelievers, and they made a great deal of sport of Noah. They ridiculed the idea of building a great boat on dry land.
CTr	55	3	The surface of the earth was very much as it was when God created it, although some changes had taken place. They looked at the lofty trees and the wonderful things that God had made in nature and said, "It is impossible that God shall destroy these things." The sight of their eyes and their senses made a greater impression upon the inhabitants of the Noachic world than the message from heaven, and Noah stood there in his faithful integrity as a witness to that generation.
CTr	55	4	Abel, Enoch, and Noah were representative men in that age to the inhabitants of the old world. Everyone had had their test upon the law of God. Would they obey God, would they do just as He told them to do, or would they disobey and realize the results? If Noah had been like many in our day who say, "Believe, believe; all you have to do is believe," then he would not have condemned the world. But Noah had that genuine faith, that faith that works. He testified by his faith and works to the inhabitants of the Noachic world that he believed God. Had he stood back and said, "I cannot build this ark; why, I will be considered crazy if I build this ark on dry land," then he would have had no influence for good upon them. But he believed just what God had said, and carried it out by his works.
CTr	55	5	They considered him insane; they laughed at him and mocked him, but still he kept at work building the ark according to God's directions. When the last message of Noah was given to that degenerate age, as he stood before the people giving his warning, they turned from him to ridicule him. They had listened to the prayers of Noah that had ascended day after day in their behalf, and with his heart drawn out for them he delivered his very last message to them.--Manuscript 86, 1886.
------------------------Only Two Classes Of People; Only One Ark Of Safety, February 19
CTr	56	1	And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Genesis 6:13.
CTr	56	2	In the future there will be broken thrones and great distress of nations with perplexity. Satan will work with intense activity. The earth will be filled with the shrieks of suffering, expiring nations. There will be war. The places of the earth will be in confusion, as from its bowels pour forth its burning contents to destroy the inhabitants of the world who, in their wickedness, resemble the inhabitants of the antediluvian world.
CTr	56	3	In that time [before the Flood], as in this, there were two classes, the righteous and the wicked. Enoch and others walked with God in uprightness. But the great majority of the inhabitants of the earth were given over to iniquity, and their wickedness rose before God....
CTr	56	4	God gave direction that an ark was to be built for those who desired to be saved from the coming destruction. He was about to speak in determined language against the wickedness that had grown to fearful proportions. He was about to clothe Himself with vengeance and execute His judgment against the transgressors of His law.--Manuscript 72, 1902 (Manuscript Releases 18:92, 93).
CTr	56	5	As Noah proclaimed his warning message, some listened and worked with him in building the ark. But they did not endure. Evil influences prevailed. They turned away from the truth to become scoffers.
CTr	56	6	Thus it will be in the last days of this earth's history. Those who today hear the message of truth, but do not believe, will fall amid the moral infidelity, even as in Noah's day those who were not firmly grounded failed to stand till the end of their probation. When the Lord rewards everyone according to his deeds, these people will understand that God is truth, and that His message would have been their life and salvation if they had accepted the evidence given and practiced the conditions laid down. Then they will see that they might have been saved had they not rejected the only means of salvation.
CTr	56	7	The trials of God's people may be long and severe, but the Lord never forgets them. Those who believe the truth and obey the commandments will find refuge in Christ. They will have the effectual protection of His ever-loving care as long as they take their position on the side of God and His law, which ever has governed, and ever will govern, His kingdom.--Manuscript 42, 1900.
------------------------When We Are Tested, Will Our Faith Endure, February 20
CTr	57	1	And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. Genesis 7:5.
CTr	57	2	And God said to Noah that he and his wife, and his sons and their wives, should come into the ark. You see how few there were who would believe the message of Heaven, the Word of God, and thus be saved from the waters of the Flood. The consequences of the transgression of God's law were evidenced upon the population and upon the earth. Violence and corruption were prevailing everywhere.
CTr	57	3	But the time came when there was a singular sight witnessed by the inhabitants of the Noachic world. Those who had laughed and scoffed and derided Noah now could see that something was taking place that was wonderful. There were seen coming, through the forest and from every quarter, animals, two by two, making their way to the ark. These animals were obedient to the commandments of God, but humans were disobedient. Then there was seen, like a dark cloud in the heavens, the fowls of the air flocking to that ark. At that moment this made an impression upon their minds. But as they spent time with one another, in their unbelief and corruption they put it away from their minds.
CTr	57	4	Then the commandment was given for Noah and his family to enter the ark. The probation for the inhabitants of the Noachic world was ended. Noah went into the ark and there was seen a bright light--an angel of heaven came and shut the massive door.... Noah and his family were shut into the ark and the unrighteous were shut out. The mercy of God was withdrawn from that polluted and corrupt generation....
CTr	57	5	It was a tremendous test brought to bear upon Noah and his family; [they were] shut in that ark for seven days, and yet no rain came. The jeers and scoffs and triumphs of their enemies seemed complete. But as soon as the seven days were ended, there began to come in the dark and heavy clouds such as they had never seen before. The clouds increased in blackness, and the rain began to fall from them.
CTr	57	6	Up to this time there had never been any rain, but a mist had arisen and watered the earth. For this very reason the people had taken occasion to triumph. But the rain continued to fall, and then there were some serious thoughts. But in order to put these reflections away from them, they went still deeper into their iniquity, and they earnestly looked to see if there was not some evidence that the clouds were rolling back, but there was none. The rain increased until it came in torrents.--Manuscript 86, 1886.
------------------------Results Of Transgressing God's Law, February 21
CTr	58	1	Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. Isaiah 51:4.
CTr	58	2	God had concealed in the earth His weapons whereby He would purify the earth at that time. The jets of water began to come up from the depths of the earth, and as this water increased in force, it would throw up stones and uproot trees. Do you not think that there were some who would have been glad at that time to find refuge in the ark? There were some reaching toward the ark, and some entreaties, but it was too late. They began to move their families, and they climbed up to the highest points of land ... and struggled for refuge there. They would climb into the highest trees, thinking to find refuge there, but these trees would be uprooted and they would be buried in the waters of the earth.
CTr	58	3	Thus the inhabitants of that long-lived race perished in the Flood, and even the beasts perished, except those that were in the ark. Christ said, "As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all." Thus shall it be when Christ shall be revealed at His second coming.
CTr	58	4	The law of God was first transgressed by Satan in heaven. He has kept up his controversy upon that point till the present time, and will until the close of time. The test that was brought to bear upon the representative people in past ages will be brought to bear upon people in this age. Will men and women acknowledge the government of the God of the universe and honor that government? Did it make the inhabitants of the old world any better by trampling upon the law of Jehovah? Did it improve their condition to separate themselves from the law of their Creator? Will it make men and women any better in this age to put their feet upon God's holy law and transgress it?
CTr	58	5	The very same results that were seen in the transgression of God's law by the inhabitants of the Noachic world will be seen in the inhabitants of this generation. The rights and property, and even human life, were not respected then, but violated. The thoughts and imaginations of the heart were evil continually. They worshiped anything and everything but God. So it is in this age of the world--deception, infidelity, and idolatry prevail to an alarming extent.--Manuscript 86, 1886.
------------------------Vindicators Of God's Law, February 22
CTr	59	1	But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act--they will be blessed in their doing. James 1:25, NRSV.
CTr	59	2	Does it make a nation happy to put away the laws of God? The countries here [in Europe] have their laws, and the safety of the inhabitants of these countries is due to their obedience to these laws, and you know how strictly they require that these laws shall be observed. You see an officer by the side of a man who wears shackles upon his hands and feet, and you know that man has transgressed the laws of the land. He forfeited his liberty and was put in prison because he transgressed the laws of the country.
CTr	59	3	And shall anybody advocate that the Lord of the universe has no law to govern His kingdom? Is it the doctrine of Jesus Christ or of heaven that the law of God has no binding claims upon the world's inhabitants? Why, the law of ten commandments is the great moral standard of righteousness in heaven and upon earth. This great law is the foundation of all laws, to all nations, and to all families.
CTr	59	4	What a piece of workmanship of the devil it is to say that the law of God is done away, and is no more binding upon the human race. We know that the murderer, the adulterer, and the thief get in trouble with this law at once. They are the ones that would like to have this law swept away so they could have free license to all their imaginations and wickedness. We do not think as we see a man attended by an officer of justice that he has been keeping the law but that he has been transgressing it.
CTr	59	5	Every soul of us living upon the face of the earth must have our test and trials. Circumstances will occur in the providence of God when we will be called to vindicate our faith. We shall give decided evidence which side we are on. We shall either be decidedly the vindicators of God's holy law, or on the side of the transgressors. We shall be tested as Noah was tested. Because the corruption was nearly universal in his age, did he then argue that it would not pay for him to stand separate and alone for God's law? He took his position as God's nobleman on the side of right because it was right.--Manuscript 86, 1886.
------------------------More Than Believing Is Needed, February 23
CTr	60	1	Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. James 2:19.
CTr	60	2	In the near future we shall understand something of what it is to be tested. There will be laws of the land that will interfere with our obedience to the laws of God, and then the test will come as to whose side we are on, on the side of God or the side of those who are against God. We want, every one of us, to be prepared for that which is coming upon our world. You cannot, any one of you, at once jump into the position to stand the test of God. It is by patient continuance in well-doing that you gain the element of character that will enable you to stand the test at last. It is by persevering integrity of soul day by day, and by calling upon God, that we get strength to stand the test.
CTr	60	3	There will be every influence that will lead us to make light of God's requirements. But if we are prepared to meet the Son of man when He shall come in the clouds of heaven, we must be getting ready for it now.... We want a living faith and a living religion. We want that our faith shall be made perfect by our works. And of those who are crying, "Only believe, only believe, and you shall be saved," we want to inquire, "What shall we believe? What is the testing faith for this time?" ...
CTr	60	4	There was one in the parable that Christ gave us who begged that someone from the dead might go to his relatives and warn them that they might believe. But Christ told them, "They have Moses and the prophets.... If they hear not [them], neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." ...
CTr	60	5	We read that the devil believed and trembled, but that faith did not save him. We want that faith that has the Bible foundation for it--that faith that grasps a living Saviour and a living God.... The blood of Christ alone can cleanse the sinner from every stain of sin. Had they acknowledged that law, it would have pointed out to them in the old world what sin was, and they would not have dared to sin....
CTr	60	6	God is gathering out and binding up those who love and serve Him, and the wicked are being bound in bundles, ready for the fires of the last day. It depends wholly upon us which bundles we will be in, whether we will be with the good wheat or bound in bundles for the fires of the last day....
CTr	60	7	The eternal reward is to be given to those who are faithful and obedient to God.--Manuscript 86, 1886.
------------------------Will We Look For Safety After It Is Too Late? February 24
CTr	61	1	The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. Genesis 7:11.
CTr	61	2	The antediluvians were warned, but the record states that they knew not until the Flood came and took them all away.... They saw Noah and his wife and their sons and their wives passing into the ark; and the door was closed upon them. Only eight persons entered that refuge from the storm, and for a week they waited for the rain to come.... Daily the sun rose and set in a clear sky, and daily there came to Noah the temptation to doubt. But the Lord had said that the Flood was coming, and Noah rested in this word.
CTr	61	3	At the end of seven days clouds began to gather. This was a new sight, for the people had never seen clouds.... Thicker and thicker gathered the clouds, and soon rain began to fall. Still the people tried to think that this was nothing very alarming. But soon it seemed as if the windows of heaven had been opened, for the rain poured down in torrents. For a time the ground drank up the rain; but soon the water began to rise, and day by day it rose higher and higher. Each morning as the people found the rain still falling they looked at one another in despair, and each night they repeated the words "Raining still!" Thus it was, morning and evening.
CTr	61	4	For forty days and forty nights the rain poured down. The water entered the houses and drove the people to the temples that they had erected for their idolatrous worship. But the temples were swept away. The crust of the earth was broken, and the water that had been concealed in its bowels burst forth. Large stones were thrown into the air.
CTr	61	5	Everywhere could be seen human beings fleeing in search of a refuge. The time had come when they would have been only too glad to accept an invitation to enter the ark. Filled with anguish, they cried, "Oh, for a place of safety!" Some shrieked to Noah, pleading for admission into the ark. But amid the furious blast of the tempest their voices were unheard. Some clung to the ark till they were washed away by the dashing waves. God had shut in those who believed His word, and no others could enter.
CTr	61	6	Parents with their children sought the highest branches of the trees yet standing; but no sooner had they reached this refuge than the wind flung tree and people into the foaming, seething water....
CTr	61	7	Where now was the ark and those at whom the people had jeered and mocked? Preserved by the power of God, the immense boat was riding safely upon the waters, and Noah and his family were safe inside.--The Signs of the Times, April 10, 1901.
------------------------In The World But Not Of It, February 25
CTr	62	1	Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 2 Corinthians 6:17.
CTr	62	2	Because iniquity abounds, the love of many is growing cold, but shall we cover our light on account of this? The prevalence of greatest iniquity should be the time of the greatest earnestness of the people of God. As you see the love of many waxing cold, you should work to show Christ to the world.
CTr	62	3	The law and the gospel are interwoven as warp and woof. Here mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and peace have kissed each other. We want to come to God's standard. He has a law governing human intelligences, and it is for our happiness to observe it. We are to love God. Love leading to disobedience is the inspiration of the devil; love leading to obedience is the inspiration of Heaven.
CTr	62	4	"Come out from among them, and be ye separate," says the Lord, and again, "Cleanse yourselves." But how are we to know that we have impurity? The law of God shows this. The first four commandments point out duty to God, and the last six allow no selfishness toward our friends and acquaintances. When I see that I fail, I flee to the Stronghold. I know that He pardons sins of ignorance. Jesus is a sin-pardoning Saviour. Jesus kept His Father's commandments, and He says, Blessed are they that do; they shall enter in.
CTr	62	5	When we obey we shall have happy families. Teach the children the commandments of God forever. This was important in Israel's time, and it is none the less so now. All your profession of keeping the commandments will not give you an entrance to the city. Bind them on your heart and carry them out in every act....
CTr	62	6	Will you not from this very day try to represent Christ to the world? You will have a refuge. You will be sunny Christians. We have been gloomy long enough. Had we not better come out of the cave and stand with God? Then we will have Christ with us so that we can talk of redemption as did the disciples when they had been with Jesus and learned of Him. Carry the light of Jesus. Carry it to your neighbors.
CTr	62	7	When we bring Christ into our experience, there will be a loving of one another, there will be an unlocking of the hardest hearts.... If we humble ourselves and have His converting power every moment, His righteousness will be our covering.--Manuscript 27, 1891 (Sermons and Talks, 2:97, 98).
------------------------Jesus: Changeless Throughout Eternity, February 26
CTr	63	1	Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever. Hebrews 13:8.
CTr	63	2	The power of Christ, a crucified Saviour, to give eternal life should be presented to the people. We should show them that the Old Testament is as verily the gospel in types and shadows as the New Testament is in its unfolding power. The New Testament is not a new religion, and the Old Testament is not an old religion to be superseded by the New. The New Testament is only the advancement and unfolding of the Old. Abel was a believer in Christ and was as verily saved by His power as were Peter and Paul.
CTr	63	3	Enoch was a representative of Christ as surely as was the beloved disciple John. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. To him was committed the message of the second coming of Christ. "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." The message preached by Enoch, and his translation to heaven, were a convincing argument to all who lived in Enoch's time. These things were an argument that Methuselah and Noah could use with power to show that the righteous would be translated.
CTr	63	4	That God who walked with Enoch was our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He was the light of the world then, just as He is today. Those living then were not without teachers to instruct them in the paths of life, for Noah and Enoch were Christians. The gospel is given in precept in Leviticus. Implicit obedience is required now, as then. How important it is that we understand the meaning of this word. Only two classes will be developed in the world--the obedient and the disobedient. This must be made apparent in all our labors. If we could only bear in mind that Christ, in disguise, is constantly by our side. "I am at your right hand to help you." We are to be His witnesses to convince the sinner of sin. None can be compelled against their will, but they can be convinced. Christ is the miracle-working power that can do this.--Letter 119, 1895.
------------------------Singleness Of Purpose, February 27
CTr	64	1	The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Matthew 6:22.
CTr	64	2	This says, "thine eye," not some other person's eye. The rich experience that it is our privilege to have, we lose when we expect someone else to do our seeing for us, and guide us in our spiritual experience as if we were blind. We must have a single eye to God's glory, a single and persistent purpose to leave self and the preferences of others out of the question, not asking, "If I take this course, shall I increase my personal possessions, or shall I decrease them?"
CTr	64	3	Great simplicity must be cherished by those who seek wisdom of God. Then their feet will not slide. "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble." ...
CTr	64	4	A person who truly loves and fears God, striving with singleness of purpose to do His will, will place body, mind, heart, soul, and strength under service to God. Thus it was with Enoch. He walked with God. His mind was not defiled by an impure, defective eyesight. Those who are determined to make the will of God their own must serve and please God in everything. Then the character will be harmonious and well-balanced, consistent, cheerful, and true.
CTr	64	5	"But if thine eye be evil," if you study selfish purposes, and work only to that end, the whole character is defective, the whole body is full of darkness. Such do not look to Jesus. They do not behold His character, and they are not changed into His image. The spiritual vision is defective, and the way from earth to heaven is darkened by the hellish shadow of Satan. So Satan is pleased to have it, for he can lead that person blindfolded to ruin.
CTr	64	6	"If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" The conscience is the regulative faculty, and if people allow their conscience to become perverted, they cannot serve God aright. Their object in life shows to the world whether they are Christians or in rebellion against God. Their whole life is a failure. It is distorted and double, and all the faculties are misdirected. The profession may be all right, but the faith is perverted, and this is revealed by the practice, which misleads others. "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."--Letter 128, 1897 (Manuscript Releases 13:154, 155).
------------------------More Of Heaven--Less Of Self, February 28
CTr	65	1	These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 7:14.
CTr	65	2	I wish that I could carry your minds to the future glory, and could impress upon each the great sacrifice that had to be made to redeem the human race. It rests with you whether you will enjoy this glory....
CTr	65	3	To each one God has given talents, and if we neglect to cultivate them, we shall fail and lose eternal life. Everything has been done for us that could be done to elevate us, and if we fail on our part, then the sacrifice has been in vain so far as we are concerned. Shall we be weighed in the balances and found wanting? Or shall we be with the white-robed throng? This will depend upon our course of action. If we are in the workshop of God, He will beautify us and polish us, and we shall be fitted for the heavenly mansions.
CTr	65	4	Oh, the matchless charms of our loving Saviour! There is nothing in earthly treasures; it is enough to look to Calvary. I want everyone to accept the salvation offered. All have something to do, and if they come off victors they will cry, Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us.
CTr	65	5	Will you have eternal life? If so, you must turn away from the pleasures of the world. The wickedness in this age is as great as it was in the days of Noah. But one man was found that walked with God even in that crooked and perverse generation. Enoch kept his mind stayed upon God, and God did not leave him but finally took him from this sinful world. This man was a representative of those who will be translated to heaven when Christ comes to gather His people. Are we ready for the appearing of Christ? Are we constantly seeking God for strength to stand against the wiles of the enemy? Have we washed our robes and made them clean in the blood of the Lamb?
CTr	65	6	God is in earnest with us and claims all the power of our being. We need the Great Physician to heal us. We need more of heaven and less of self. We must be partakers of the divine nature. Oh, what love has been manifested for us! The divine Son of God left the throne of heaven and gave His life for us, and for our sakes became poor. He clothed His divinity with humanity. Now in return are you willing to deny self and follow your Saviour? Oh, do not trifle away the few moments left you by seeking worldly honor and thus lose the precious boon of everlasting life!--Manuscript 40, 1886.
------------------------Christians Are God's Agents, February 29
CTr	66	1	Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat. Isaiah 55:1.
CTr	66	2	Before Christ clothed His divinity with humanity and came to our world, God sent this message through Noah, Enoch, Seth, and Methuselah. Lot bore the message in Sodom, and a race of messengers proclaimed the coming One. But at this time the message is to be proclaimed everywhere....
CTr	66	3	The feast is now spread. The last invitation to be given is to go forth to all nations to the end of the world. This is our work. The messengers are now in a more special sense to call, "Hearken diligently." The message is to go forth from the lips of human intelligences. He who came to our world to proclaim the message was the Lord Himself. Then tell the people that Christ came in human form, that His humanity might touch humanity, and that His divinity might lay hold upon divinity. His servants are to be linked together. "Ye are labourers together with God," He says. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." If His workers will be worked by the Holy Spirit, a great work can be done. "Compel them to come in" are the words addressed to the messengers, "that my house may be filled." The Lord means that we shall be in earnest. If we are wholly consecrated to God, the Holy Spirit will work with us.
CTr	66	4	Look at our world today, you who claim to be Christians. Are you awake to the situation as you see how the kindness and love of a long-forbearing God is treated with contempt and absolute rejection? Finite, fallen human beings in need of pardon and peace, and all are invited to come. The Lord Jesus, the Great Teacher, gives the invitation, but often it is met with frivolous excuses or turned from with jesting and contempt. All who will may come and respond to the gracious invitation. Why cannot people see the importance of accepting the call and making their peace with God?
CTr	66	5	The devil is not dead. He is working with all his attractive allurements to persuade people to close their ears that they shall not hear, and thousands who ought to be giving this testing message to the world are hiding their talents in the earth. They are making no use of their powers to draw souls to the bountifully spread table. Unfaithful, slothful servants! God will call you to account. But we thank God that there are some faithful voices heard, that there are some who feel their responsibility, and who are at work with every means in their power to compel them to come in.--Letter 89, 1898.
------------------------Character Makes A Difference In Life, March 1
CTr	67	1	The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.... For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. Psalm 37:18-22.
CTr	67	2	The reverence manifested by Shem and Japheth for their father, and thus for the divine statutes, promised a brighter future for their descendants. Concerning these sons it was declared: "Blessed be Jehovah, God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." The line of Shem was to be that of the chosen people, of God's covenant, of the promised Redeemer. Jehovah was the God of Shem. From him would descend Abraham, and the people of Israel, through whom Christ was to come. "Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord." And Japheth "shall dwell in the tents of Shem." In the blessings of the gospel the descendants of Japheth were especially to share....
CTr	67	3	The prophecy of Noah was no arbitrary denunciation of wrath or declaration of favor. It did not fix the character and destiny of his sons. But it showed what would be the result of the course of life they had severally chosen and the character they had developed. It was an expression of God's purpose toward them and their posterity in view of their own character and conduct. As a rule, children inherit the dispositions and tendencies of their parents, and imitate their example; so that the sins of the parents are practiced by the children from generation to generation. Thus the vileness and irreverence of Ham were reproduced in his posterity, bringing a curse upon them for many generations. "One sinner destroyeth much good."
CTr	67	4	On the other hand, how richly rewarded was Shem's respect for his father; and what an illustrious line of holy people appears in his posterity! "The Lord knoweth the days of the upright," "and his seed is blessed." "Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 117, 118.
------------------------An Evil Character Leads To Apostasy, March 2
CTr	68	1	Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Genesis 9:25.
CTr	68	2	To repeople the desolate earth, which the Flood had so lately swept from its moral corruption, God had preserved but one family, the household of Noah, to whom He had declared, "Thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." Yet in the three sons of Noah was speedily developed the same great distinction seen in the world before the Flood. In Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who were to be the founders of the human race, was foreshadowed the character of their posterity.
CTr	68	3	Noah, speaking by divine inspiration, foretold the history of the three great races to spring from these fathers of the human race. Tracing the descendants of Ham, through the son rather than the father, he declared, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren."... Evil characteristics were perpetuated in Canaan and his posterity, whose continued guilt called upon them the judgments of God....
CTr	68	4	Though the prophetic curse had doomed them to slavery, the doom was withheld for centuries. God bore with their impiety and corruption until they passed the limits of divine forbearance. Then they were dispossessed, and became bondmen to the descendants of Shem and Japheth....
CTr	68	5	For a time the descendants of Noah continued to dwell among the mountains where the ark had rested. As their numbers increased, apostasy soon led to division. Those who desired to forget their Creator and to cast off the restraint of His law felt a constant annoyance from the teaching and example of their God-fearing associates, and after a time they decided to separate from the worshipers of God. Accordingly they journeyed to the plain of Shinar, on the banks of the river Euphrates. They were attracted by the beauty of the situation and the fertility of the soil, and upon this plain they determined to make their home.
CTr	68	6	Here they decided to build a city, and in it a tower of such stupendous height as should render it the wonder of the world. These enterprises were designed to prevent the people from scattering abroad in colonies. God had directed men and women to disperse throughout the earth, to replenish and subdue it; but these Babel builders determined to keep their community united in one body, and to found a monarchy that should eventually embrace the whole earth.... The magnificent tower, reaching to the heavens, was intended to stand as a monument of the power and wisdom of its builders, perpetuating their fame to the latest generations.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 117-119.
------------------------Some Go To Great Lengths To Avoid God, March 3
CTr	69	1	Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad. Genesis 11:4.
CTr	69	2	Some of the descendants of Noah soon began to apostatize.... They journeyed a distance ... and selected a large plain wherein to dwell. There they built a city, and then conceived the idea of erecting a large tower to reach unto the clouds, that they might dwell together in the city and tower, and be no more scattered. They reasoned that they would secure themselves in case of another flood, for they would build their tower to a much greater height than the waters prevailed in the time of the Flood, and all the world would honor them.... Before the work of building was accomplished, people dwelt in the tower. Rooms gorgeously furnished and decorated were devoted to their idols....--The Signs of the Times, March 20, 1879.
CTr	69	3	But among the people of Babel there were living some God-fearing persons who had been deceived by the pretensions of the ungodly and drawn into their schemes. These would not join this confederacy to thwart the purposes of God. They refused to be deceived by the wonderful representations and the grand outlook. For the sake of these faithful ones, the Lord delayed His judgments and gave the people time to reveal their true character....
CTr	69	4	This confederacy was born of rebellion against God. The dwellers on the plain of Shinar established their kingdom for self-exaltation, and not for the glory of God.... Determined individuals, inspired by the first great rebel, would have been urged on by him and would have permitted nothing to interfere with their plans or to stop them in their evil course. In the place of the divine precepts they would have substituted laws framed in accordance with the desires of their selfish hearts, in order that they might carry out their purposes.
CTr	69	5	But God never leaves the world without witnesses for Him. Those who loved and feared Him at the time of the first great apostasy after the Flood humbled themselves and cried unto Him. "O God," they pleaded, "interpose Thyself between Thy cause and the plans and methods of men.""And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded." ...
CTr	69	6	God bears long with the perversity of human beings, giving them ample opportunity for repentance, but He marks all their devices to resist the authority of His just and holy law. As an evidence of His displeasure over the building of this tower, He confounded the language of the builders, so that none could understand the words of fellow workers.--Manuscript 94, 1903 (Manuscript Releases 8:42, 43).
------------------------Babel Builders Still Exist, March 4
CTr	70	1	The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Psalm 33:10, 11.
CTr	70	2	The schemes of the Babel builders ended in shame and defeat. The monument to their pride became the memorial of their folly. Yet people today are continually pursuing the same course--depending upon self, and rejecting God's law. It is the principle that Satan tried to carry out in heaven; the same that governed Cain in presenting his offering.
CTr	70	3	There are tower builders in our time. Infidels construct their theories from the supposed deductions of science and reject the revealed Word of God. They presume to pass sentence upon God's moral government; they despise His law and boast of the sufficiency of human reason. Then, "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."
CTr	70	4	In the professedly Christian world many turn away from the plain teachings of the Bible and build up a creed from human speculations and pleasing fables, and they point to their tower as a way to climb up to heaven. People hang with admiration upon the lips of eloquence while it teaches that the transgressor shall not die, that salvation may be secured without obedience to the law of God. If the professed followers of Christ would accept God's standard, it would bring them into unity; but so long as human wisdom is exalted above His Holy Word, there will be divisions and dissension.
CTr	70	5	The existing confusion of conflicting creeds and sects is fitly represented by the term "Babylon," which prophecy applies to the world-loving churches of the last days. Many seek to make a heaven for themselves by obtaining riches and power. They "speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily," trampling upon human rights and disregarding divine authority. The proud may be for a time in great power, and may see success in all that they undertake, but in the end they will find only disappointment and wretchedness.
CTr	70	6	The time of God's investigation is at hand. The Most High will come down to see that which rebel humans have builded. His sovereign power will be revealed; the works of human pride will be laid low.... "The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 123, 124.
------------------------Abraham's Faith Tested, March 5
CTr	71	1	I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. Genesis 12:2.
CTr	71	2	It was not a small trial to Abraham to be called to leave his home and acquaintances and go into a land that he knew not. When he came into that land, he found that the Canaanites were there, and he would have all their idolatry to meet.
CTr	71	3	This was a severe trial to Abraham's faith. He could not see any possession that he could claim as his own. But in his perplexity the God of heaven condescended to preach the gospel to him and show him the possession that he should have for an eternal inheritance.
CTr	71	4	Abraham moved from place to place, as it seemed advisable for him, in order to obtain a support for his family, and his family was not small. His trained servants numbered more than four hundred. At every place where he pitched his tent, close beside it he erected an altar; so he worshiped God in every place where he was called to be. In thus doing he was training his family to love and fear God....
CTr	71	5	All God's followers, wherever they shall go, should carry the true principles of their religion with them. If sin, forgetfulness of God, and idolatry exist in the places where they shall go, then is the time for them to show their true principles.
CTr	71	6	When we set ourselves where all is convenience and ease, we do not feel so much the necessity of depending moment by moment upon God. God in His providence brings us into positions where we shall feel our necessity of His help and strength....
CTr	71	7	Now, the Lord has a controversy with His people, and He wants every one of us to come into obedience to His requirements. We are none of us, when duty is laid out before us, to question, "Is it convenient or will it please me to do this?" If God says it, it is enough. We are to take our Bibles; we are to study and see what the will of God is concerning us, and then to follow as Abraham did, in faith and confidence.
CTr	71	8	Now, you see, the first test was a very close test for Abraham--to leave everything and go into a land of strangers.... There were adverse circumstances that followed Abraham for a time that brought him into positions of trial and where he was proved of God.... When the Lord opened before him the view of immortal life, of this earth purified, which was to be his home, he was satisfied.--Manuscript 19, 1886 (see also In Heavenly Places, 112; Manuscript Releases 10:120, 121).
------------------------The Effect Of Choices, March 6
CTr	72	1	If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. Genesis 13:9.
CTr	72	2	Abraham was tested to see whether he would hear the voice of God and obey. The Lord saw that it was not for his best spiritual interest to remain in his country and among his relatives, where he could not exert that influence over them that would be a blessing. He told him to leave them. Abraham was a rich man, but in the greatest simplicity he obeyed God and went out, a sojourner into a strange country. As he left his home and his kindred, God assured him that he would have earthly greatness and prosperity in the land of Canaan.
CTr	72	3	Why did not Abraham make use of all his means to bring about this prosperity? Why did he not invest his means to enrich himself with wealth and influence above anyone with whom he was brought in contact? Abraham did not do anything to glorify himself. He did not aim at power. He did not aspire to greatness by building up cities and calling them by his name. He was content.
CTr	72	4	The record tells us that Abraham took Lot, his nephew, with him, and for a time they lived together. But their families were large, and there was a quarrel between the herdsmen of Abraham and the herdsmen of Lot over their cattle. "And Abraham said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee?"...
CTr	72	5	Lot's choice was the land of Sodom. Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan and Lot in the cities of the plain, and he pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom sinned before the Lord exceedingly.
CTr	72	6	Here is brought to view another separation. It makes a great difference when and how a separation takes place. It was Lot's privilege to inquire, to be very careful where he should go, very careful in regard to the society he chose for his family. But without reference to the inhabitants, he chose a land that was beautiful in situation, that promised great returns. Lot went in rich, and came forth with nothing as the result of his choice. It makes every difference whether people place themselves in positions where they will have the very best help of correct influences or whether they choose temporal advantages. There are many ways that lead to Sodom. We all need anointed eyesight, that we may discern the way that leads to God.--Letter 109, 1899.
------------------------Lot's Experience Serves As A Warning, March 7
CTr	73	1	Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. Genesis 13:11.
CTr	73	2	We see the marked traits in Abraham's character when the strife commenced between the herdsmen, and Abraham said, "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee.... Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left."
CTr	73	3	Lot saw that the country near Sodom was most favorable for his worldly and temporal prosperity, and he chose that location. If Lot had manifested the same courtesy that Abraham had, he would have given him the choice. But Abraham did not take the position that he was superior to everyone around him; he took a humble position. It was the right of Abraham to make his choice, and to be first, but he chose to be courteous in this matter.
CTr	73	4	Lot, instead of inquiring whether this would be the most favorable for his morality and godliness, thought only of his worldly prosperity. But the time came when Lot was placed in a most trying position because of the wickedness of the inhabitants of Sodom. When Lot and his family were taken by those who came in to conquer Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham went to deliver him from his captors. When the king of Sodom would have Abraham take some gifts of the spoils, he there again showed the true nobility of his character. He said he would not take so much as a thread or a shoe tie lest they should say, "I have made Abraham rich." God had given to Abraham the promise that he should have great riches, and he would not have anyone say that the wicked had given him the treasures he possessed. We see that every step with Abraham was one of faith.
CTr	73	5	We read [in Genesis 18] of visitors coming to Abraham as he was sitting in the door of his tent.... These were angels of God, and one of them was no less than the Son of God. When these guests came up to his tent, they were strangers, but he observed the rules of true courtesy toward them. The Word of God tells us to "be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Abraham did this. And when the heavenly guests made themselves known to Abraham, they told him what their purpose was in regard to Sodom.... And while Abraham was not in Sodom, was not connected with Sodom, yet we see that he had an intense interest that Sodom should not be destroyed if God could spare it.--Manuscript 19, 1886.
------------------------Importance Of Choosing Our Location Carefully, March 8
CTr	74	1	And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where. Genesis 13:10.
CTr	74	2	The eyes of Abraham's understanding were not closed when he decided that the best thing he could do was to separate from Lot, although he had been to him as a father. But contention and strife he could not endure, even among the herdsmen. He could not have his peace of mind disturbed by unpleasant differences. Separation was painful to him, but it must be.
CTr	74	3	Abraham gave Lot the choice of where he would go so that afterward Lot should not be tempted to think that in the separation Abraham had his own interest in view. Lot chose a beautiful location near Sodom. The land of his choice possessed every natural advantage, but he failed to investigate the morals and religion of the Sodomites. We have on record his after-history. The time came when he had to flee from the corrupt city, which was dark with crime of every stripe and type. He was permitted to warn his daughters and sons-in-law, but they would not heed this warning any more than they had heeded his instruction. They mocked at his faith in God, and they perished in the destruction of Sodom.
CTr	74	4	This is a lesson for us all. We should move carefully in the selection of homes for our families. We should seek the help of the Lord in the training of our children and their choice of a lifework. Every family should constantly look to God, trusting in Him to guide aright. Sharp discrimination is necessary in order to avoid following a wrong course for the sake of worldly gain.
CTr	74	5	The Lord's will is to be our will. God must be made first and last and best in everything. We are to be as teachable as a little child, moving carefully and with entire trust in God. Our eternal interests are involved in the steps we take, whether we move heavenward toward the city whose maker and builder is God, or earthward toward Sodom's beautiful attractions.
CTr	74	6	God does not consult our opinions or preferences. He knows what human beings do not know--the future results of every movement--and therefore our eyes should be directed to Him and not to the worldly advantages presented by Satan.--Manuscript 50, 1893 (Sermons and Talks, 1:219, 220).
------------------------God Hears Our Intercessory Prayers, March 9
CTr	75	1	And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Genesis 18:23.
CTr	75	2	We are told that Abraham drew near and said: "Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" While Abraham had a true sense of humility that every child of God should possess, yet he had an intense interest in the souls of sinners. He is represented as drawing near. He steps close to those heavenly messengers and pleads with them as a child would plead with its parents. He remembers that Lot has made his home in Sodom and that Lot has connections all through Sodom by marriage. Therefore Abraham commences at fifty, and the Lord tells him that He will spare it for fifty; then he goes down to ten, and the Lord tells him that He will spare it for ten's sake. He does not make any further appeal, but he does hope that there will be found ten righteous [persons] in Sodom.
CTr	75	3	But when the angels came to Sodom, they could not find even five righteous ones in that splendid city, so we may reason that there may be the most splendid cities, having the greatest wealth, and yet there may not be found five righteous in them. As we are seeking for the future immortal life, every one of us should have everything connected with us as favorable as we can make it for the development of Christian character. God frequently calls us to break every tie that binds us to unholy influences and to come out from among them.
CTr	75	4	Here Abraham stands as one who is a representative for God, and his history is brought down along the line to our time. Abraham's interest and anxiety for Sodom is a lesson to us that we should have an intense interest for those around us. Although we should hate the sin, we should love the souls of those for whom Christ died. And then we should feel most grateful to God that we have One who is pleading in the heavens above in our behalf.
CTr	75	5	Jesus knows the worth of every soul because it is He who paid the price for everyone. When He was in His agony at the crucifixion, He prayed there for His enemies and He said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." And here, as we see in the case of Abraham, He pleads for the guilty as one person pleads for another. We should [offer] that [same] earnest prayer for those who are in darkness.--Manuscript 19, 1886.
------------------------Angels Are Limited In What They Can Do For Us, March 10
CTr	76	1	And there came two angels to Sodom at even: and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. Genesis 19:1.
CTr	76	2	Lot had been kept with Abraham's household, and he had become so molded that he had the same courteous spirit that Abraham manifested. These men [the angels] appeared just like other men when they came to Lot, and if a spirit of courtesy had not been cultivated by Lot, he might have perished with the rest of Sodom. The wickedness of the inhabitants of Sodom was so great that they would have abused the men who brought this message and were entertained by Lot. But angels of God protected Lot from being torn in pieces by the rabble that were outside his door. They smote them with blindness so that they could not find the door.
CTr	76	3	After this exhibition of wickedness the angels opened to Lot the object of their visit. They told Lot that if he had any sons or daughters in that place to bring them out of the city. Lot was permitted to go to his relatives and tell them that the city was to be destroyed and that they must flee from it. But all his entreaties and all his warnings were of no avail with them. They mocked at what they called his superstitious fears. Why, here was Sodom just as it had been, and there was no evidence in anything their eyes beheld that led them to think there was a destruction before them.
CTr	76	4	But the angel, as Lot returned, was in haste, and bade them flee out of Sodom. Lot was, as it were, stupefied at the thought that he must go without his property, and with only his wife and two children with him. The angels laid hold upon them and led them out of the city.... As soon as they were out of the city and on their way toward the mountain, the angel said to them, "Flee for your life, and tarry not in all the plain." The command was "Look not behind you." ...
CTr	76	5	The wife of Lot turned her eyes toward the city, [looking] for what she had left there; the curse of God came upon her, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.... We can see that Lot made a mistake when he made his home in Sodom. Here he lost not only all his possessions; he lost all but two of his children. This is a lesson that we should take to heart. There may be very flattering openings for the children of God, but they must look on every side of the question before deciding. The very first question with every one of us should be "How will it be with my soul?"--Manuscript 19a, 1886.
------------------------Give Nothing Less Than Loving Obedience To God, March 11
CTr	77	1	Whoever says, "I have come to know him," but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist. 1 John 2:4, NRSV.
CTr	77	2	I have been reported as saying you could not be saved unless you kept the Sabbath. Does it indeed seem meaningless, the requirement of the fourth commandment? Does not the habitual subjection to our heavenly Master's will lead the obedient to ask constantly and earnestly, not "What is pleasing?" not "What is the most convenient or agreeable to self or those around us?" but "What does my Lord require? What is the will of God concerning me?"
CTr	77	3	Is it anything strange that one should do this or that under the conviction of the Spirit of God, under a sense of the fact that a refusal or neglect to do so would endanger the soul's salvation? Is this a matter hard to comprehend, that obedience on our part to all God's law is absolutely essential to eternal life? Is this an unfathomable mystery to the Christian--to secure the soul's salvation at any cost to self or selfish interest? Does the Word of God give us any assurance that we can get to heaven just as well transgressing the law as obeying it? If so, the whole requirement of God as a condition of salvation is an entire mistake.
CTr	77	4	Were the inhabitants of the old world who perished in the Flood punished for their disobedience of God's requirements? Or were they washed by the waters of the deluge straight into glory because our merciful God is too good to execute the final penalty of transgressing His law? Were the Sodomites punished for their disobedience and only Lot saved? Or were the inhabitants of Sodom winged by the fire that fell from heaven straight into glory?
CTr	77	5	Has God commanded? Then we must obey--without hesitating and seeking to find some way to be saved without obedience; this would be climbing up some other way. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "I have kept my Father's commandments," says the Majesty of heaven....
CTr	77	6	We should not obey the commandments merely to secure heaven, but to please Him who died to save sinners from the penalty of the transgression of the Father's law. The sinner's salvation depends upon ... ceasing to transgress and obedience to that transgressed law. No one should venture or presume upon the mercy of God, feeling at liberty to sin as much as they dare.... It is a sad resolve to follow Christ as far off as possible, venturing as near the verge of perdition as possible without falling in.--Letter 35b, 1877.
------------------------Seek Bible Truth At Any Cost, March 12
CTr	78	1	For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 1 John 5:3.
CTr	78	2	It was a great sacrifice Christ made for us in dying for us upon the cross. What are we willing to sacrifice for His love? Jesus says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" not to select out one or two or nine, but the whole ten. All His commandments must be kept. John tells us of those who pretend to love but do not obey God's requirements. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous."
CTr	78	3	You may say, So you believe that all the learned world is wrong and that a poor company, greatly in the minority, looked upon as ignorant, common people, are all that will be saved? I answer, Jesus was among the lowly of the earth. He did not take His position by the side of the learned rabbis or the rulers. He was not found among the potentates of earth, but among the lowly ones. The truth was never found among the majority. It was ever found among the minority.
CTr	78	4	The angels from heaven did not come to the school of the prophets and sing their anthems over the Temple or synagogues, but they went to those who were humble enough to receive the message. They sang the glad tidings of a Saviour over Bethlehem's plains while the great, the rulers, and the honorable were left in darkness because they were perfectly satisfied with their position and felt no need of a piety greater than that which they possessed. Teachers in the schools of the prophets, the scribes and priests and rulers, were the worst persecutors of Christ. Those who made the highest pretensions to spiritual light were the very ones who slighted and rejected and crucified Christ.
CTr	78	5	Great men and women and professedly very good people may do terrible deeds in their bigotry and self-exalted position, and flatter themselves that they are doing God service. It will not do to rely upon them. Truth, Bible truth, you and I want at any cost. Like the noble Bereans we want to search the Scriptures daily with earnest prayer, to know what is truth, and then obey the truth at any cost to ourselves, without reference to prominent people or good people. If truth is in the Bible, we can find it there as well as the good and great ones of earth. God help us to be wise unto salvation is my prayer.--Letter 35b, 1877.
------------------------Do Not Resist Salvation's Invitation, March 13
CTr	79	1	To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Hebrews 3:15.
CTr	79	2	Who will describe to you the lamentations that will arise when, at the boundary line that parts time and eternity, the righteous Judge will lift up His voice and declare, "It is too late." Long have the wide gates of heaven stood open, and the heavenly messengers have invited and entreated: "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." But at length the mandate goes forth: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still."
CTr	79	3	The heavenly gate closes, the invitation of salvation ceases. In heaven it is said, "It is done." Such a time is not far distant. I plead with you to make sure work for eternity, to lay hold on the hope set before you in the gospel. Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for if you merely seek, you will not be able.
CTr	79	4	The world is loaded down with the curse that sin brings. It is literally deluged with sin, with violence and corruption, as in the days of Noah. And yet at this fearful period of our world's history many are asleep. They cease to make efforts to become Christians. Self-gratification and carnal security still imperil the eternal welfare. Is not this foolhardy? Satan's followers may call it honorable, praiseworthy, to manifest that independence of mind that will lead you to regard with indifference your former instructions and make you think you have found a better way. As you listen to these suggestions, you are becoming hardened through the deceitfulness of sin....
CTr	79	5	What shall worldly pleasures avail you when all the world shall be overwhelmed as was Sodom and destroyed like Gomorrah? These cities are set forth as examples to other sinners that they may know that their day is coming.
CTr	79	6	Too late will sinners realize that they have sold their birthright. The crown that they might have had shines upon the brow of another. The inheritance that they might have had is lost. Beware how you trifle with temptation. Beware how you boast of your strength. Christ is your ever-lasting strength; confide in God, lay hold of His strength, and He will bring you off conqueror and you will wear the crown of victory.--Letter 21, 1867 (see also In Heavenly Places, 362).
------------------------Strive For A Heavenly Inheritance, March 14
CTr	80	1	If the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. Matthew 11:23.
CTr	80	2	God promised to Abraham, and his seed after him, that they should have possessions and lands, and yet they were only strangers and sojourners. The inheritance and lands that are to be given not only to Abraham but to the children of Abraham will not be until after this earth is purified. Abraham will then receive the title to his farm, his possessions; and the children of Abraham will have a title to their possessions. Every one of us should constantly bear in mind that this earth is not our dwelling place, but that we are to have an inheritance in the earth made new. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah symbolizes to us how this world will be destroyed by fire. It is not safe for any one of us to build our hopes in this life. We want first to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness....
CTr	80	3	Sodom and Gomorrah were like the Garden of Eden. The Lord had lavished His blessings upon that portion of the earth. Everything was beautiful; everything was lovely; and yet it did not lead people to honor the Giver. When the Lord rained the fire and brimstone from heaven to consume Sodom and Gomorrah, what a desolation! How easily could the blast of God make that beautiful situation an unsightly place.
CTr	80	4	There is a lesson in this destruction of Sodom to those who lived in Christ's day, and the message comes down the lines to our time. [Matthew 11:20-24 quoted.] We can see that their guilt was measured according to the proportion of light that shone upon them. And this is a lesson to every one of us before whom God has opened the precious light of truth....
CTr	80	5	You may feel that you have accepted the truth, that you understand it, and you may stop there and go no further. It is one thing to accept and hold the truth, and another thing to have the truth as it is in Jesus. While you are engaged in labor, while your hands and minds are employed in doing useful work, there is a necessity for meditation and reflection and earnest prayer. You want this light that comes down from heaven to do something for you. You want that faith that is represented as gold. You want to cultivate the love of Jesus in your heart, and you want to bear in mind that the very angels that appeared to Abraham and to Lot may be in your midst, though you may not see them.--Manuscript 19a, 1886.
------------------------Guard Against Losing Communion With God, March 15
CTr	81	1	I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. Genesis 18:19.
CTr	81	2	There is hope for every one of us, but only in one way--by fastening ourselves to Christ and exerting every energy to attain to the perfection of His character. This goody-goody religion that makes light of sin, and that is forever dwelling upon the love of God to the sinner, encourages sinners to believe that God will save them while they continue in sin and know it to be sin. This is the way that many are doing who profess to believe present truth. The truth is kept apart from their life, and that is the reason it has no more power to convict and convert the soul. There must be a straining of every nerve and spirit and muscle to leave the world, its customs, its practices, and its fashions....
CTr	81	3	The lives of many show that they have no living connection with God. They are drifting into the channel of the world. In reality they have no part or lot with Christ. They love amusement and are filled with selfish plans, hopes, and ambitions. They serve the enemy under the pretense of serving God. They are in bondage to a taskmaster, and this bondage they choose, making themselves willing slaves of Satan....
CTr	81	4	Are there not reasons the Spirit of God does not work with His people? Truth is kept in the outer court. Communion with God is forfeited to please worldly relations and friends whose hearts are constantly in opposition to the truth....
CTr	81	5	God's blessing was upon Abraham because he would cultivate home religion. He who blesses the habitation of the righteous says, "I know him, that he will command his ... household after him." There will be no betraying of the truth on his part....
CTr	81	6	If you want the blessing of God, parents, do as did Abraham. Repress the evil, and encourage the good. Some commanding may be necessary in the place of consulting the inclination and pleasure of the children. Blind affection will not be the rule of the house. Indulgence, which is the veriest cruelty, will not be practiced.... Bring your children with you into the house of God.... Satan will surely take possession of them if you are not on your guard. Do not encourage their association with the ungodly. Draw them away. Come out from among them yourselves, and show them that you will be on the Lord's side.--Letter 53, 1887.
------------------------Abraham's Failure Of Faith Can Serve As A Warning To Us, March 16
CTr	82	1	And Abraham ... took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away. Genesis 21:14.
CTr	82	2	Abraham had accepted without question the promise of a son, but he did not wait for God to fulfill His word in His own time and way. A delay was permitted, to test his faith in the power of God; but he failed to endure the trial. Thinking it impossible that a child should be given her in her old age, Sarah suggested, as a plan by which the divine purpose might be fulfilled, that one of her handmaidens should be taken by Abraham as a secondary wife. Polygamy had become so widespread that it had ceased to be regarded as a sin, but it was no less a violation of the law of God, and was fatal to the sacredness and peace of the family relation....
CTr	82	3	Though it was at Sarah's earnest entreaty that he had married Hagar, she now reproached him as the one at fault. She desired to banish her rival; but Abraham refused to permit this; for Hagar was to be the mother of his child, as he fondly hoped, the son of promise.... "When Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face."
CTr	82	4	She made her way to the desert, and as she rested beside a fountain, lonely and friendless, an angel of the Lord, in human form, appeared to her.... He bade her, "Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands." ... As a perpetual reminder of His mercy, she was bidden to call her child Ishmael, "God shall hear."
CTr	82	5	When Abraham was nearly one hundred years old, the promise of a son was repeated to him, with the assurance that the future heir should be the child of Sarah. But Abraham did not yet understand the promise....
CTr	82	6	The birth of Isaac, bringing, after a lifelong waiting, the fulfillment of their dearest hopes, filled the tents of Abraham and Sarah with gladness. But to Hagar this event was the overthrow of her fondly cherished ambitions. Ishmael, now a youth, had been regarded by all in the encampment as the heir of Abraham's wealth and the inheritor of the blessings promised to his descendants. Now he was suddenly set aside; and in their disappointment, mother and son hated the child of Sarah....
CTr	82	7	The general rejoicing increased their jealousy, until Ishmael dared openly to mock the heir of God's promise. Sarah saw in Ishmael's turbulent disposition a perpetual source of discord, and she appealed to Abraham, urging that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away from the encampment....
CTr	82	8	The instruction given to Abraham touching the sacredness of the marriage relation was to be a lesson for all ages.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 145-147.
------------------------The Supreme Test Of Abraham's Faith, March 17
CTr	83	1	Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. Genesis 22:2.
CTr	83	2	In a vision of the night, in his home in Beersheba, when he was one hundred and twenty years old, Abraham received the startling command, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." His son, his only son, the son of promise, to be sacrificed. There was no more sleep for Abraham that night.... God had promised him that his name was to be perpetuated in Isaac, but here was a severe trial of his faith. Abraham had clung to the promise of a son from his own wife Sarah, and God had fulfilled His promise.... He left Ishmael out of the question, saying, "Thine only son, Isaac."...
CTr	83	3	God had already told him that through Isaac his seed should be as the sand of the sea for multitude. As he stepped out into the night, he seemed to hear the divine voice that called him out of Chaldea fifty years before and said to him, "Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them.... So shall thy seed be." Can it be the same voice that commands him to slay his son? He remembered the promise, "I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered." Is it not the voice of a stranger that commands him to offer his son as a sacrifice? Can God contradict Himself? Shall He cut off the only hope of the fulfillment of the promise? Must he become childless?
CTr	83	4	But Abraham does not reason; he obeys. His only hope is that the God who can do all things will raise his son from the dead. The knife was raised, but it did not fall. God spoke, "It is enough." The faith of the father and the submission of the son were fully tested. "Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me."
CTr	83	5	Abraham's test was the most severe that could ever come to a human being. Had he then turned from God, he would never have been registered as the father of the faithful. Had he deviated from God's command, the world would have lost this rich example of faith in God and victory over unbelief....
CTr	83	6	Nothing is too precious to give to God. Confidence in the divine Word will lead to a doing of that Word.--Letter 110, 1897.
------------------------Characters Of Jacob And Esau Contrasted, March 18
CTr	84	1	One people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. Genesis 25:23.
CTr	84	2	Esau grew up loving self-gratification and centering all his interest in the present. Impatient of restraint, he delighted in the wild freedom of the chase, and early chose the life of a hunter. Yet he was the father's favorite. The quiet, peace-loving shepherd was attracted by the daring and vigor of this elder son, who fearlessly ranged over mountain and desert, returning home with game for his father and with exciting accounts of his adventurous life.
CTr	84	3	Jacob, thoughtful, diligent, and care-taking, ever thinking more of the future than the present, was content to dwell at home, occupied in the care of the flocks and the tillage of the soil. His patient perseverance, thrift, and foresight were valued by the mother. His affections were deep and strong, and his gentle, unremitting attentions added far more to her happiness than did the boisterous and occasional kindnesses of Esau. To Rebekah, Jacob was the dearer son....
CTr	84	4	Esau had no love for devotion, no inclination to a religious life. The requirements that accompanied the spiritual birthright were an unwelcome and even hateful restraint to him. The law of God ... was regarded by Esau as a yoke of bondage. Bent on self-indulgence, he desired nothing so much as liberty to do as he pleased. To him power and riches, feasting and reveling, were happiness. He gloried in the unrestrained freedom of his wild, roving life....
CTr	84	5	Jacob had learned from his mother of the divine intimation that the birthright should fall to him, and he was filled with an unspeakable desire for the privileges that it would confer.... The spiritual birthright was the object of his longing. To commune with God as did righteous Abraham, to offer the sacrifice of atonement for his family, to be the progenitor of the chosen people and of the promised Messiah, and to inherit the immortal possessions embraced in the blessings of the covenant--here were the privileges and honors that kindled his most ardent desires....
CTr	84	6	He carefully treasured what he had learned from his mother. Day and night the subject occupied his thoughts, until it became the absorbing interest of his life.... He believed that the promise concerning himself could not be fulfilled so long as Esau retained the rights of the firstborn, and he constantly studied to devise some way whereby he might secure the blessing that his brother held so lightly, but that was so precious to himself.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 177-179.
------------------------Never Sacrifice Integrity Nor Despise Your Birthright, March 19
CTr	85	1	And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: ... And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.... And he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Genesis 25:30-34.
CTr	85	2	There is too much yielding to desire and inclination for present enjoyment. There is not that earnest soul hunger for spiritual strength and heavenly wisdom. Temptations are yielded to, the appetite is gratified, and there is a separation from God.... You remember the case of Esau. He passed the crisis of his life without knowing it. What he regarded as a matter worthy of scarcely a thought was the act that revealed the prevailing traits of his character. It showed his choice, showed his true estimate of that which was sacred and which should have been sacredly cherished. He sold his birthright for a small indulgence to meet his present wants, and this determined the after course of his life. To Esau, a morsel of meat was more than the service of his Master.--Letter 5, 1877.
CTr	85	3	Oh, that the people of God would consider that by one wrong action on their part a blot is made in the history and experience that nothing but the blood of Christ can wash away. Every action of the life should be carefully considered, for it is sending forth to the world, as from an open fountain, streams of blessing or streams of evil. Let those who know their Bibles live the life of Christ. All should consider that they are doing work that will be as lasting as eternity....
CTr	85	4	No one in our world can do a selfish act but that they are in danger of selling their birthright for a mess of pottage. Let them remember that Esau was controlled by his desires; appetite and inclination ruled the man, and he sold his soul for the gratification of appetite. Are there any doing this who know the present truth? ...
CTr	85	5	"Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." How many whose names are registered on the church books will, for the sake of some selfish advantage, sacrifice integrity and risk the consequences. In order to gratify their own carnal desires, they will walk unguarded into Satan's snares. For selfish influences they sell their peace, they sell their souls.
CTr	85	6	After his desire was gratified, Esau regretted what he had done. "For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." May the Lord grant that everyone who has named the name of Christ shall depart from all iniquity!--Letter 47, 1894.
------------------------When All Seems Hopeless, Look For Heaven's Ladder, March 20
CTr	86	1	And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. Genesis 28:16.
CTr	86	2	The angels of God were ascending and descending upon this mystic ladder, and when he [Jacob] awoke he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not." Thus it is with us. If our eyes could be opened, we would see the angels of God all around us, and the evil angels are here also, trying to destroy us, but the good angels are pressing them back.
CTr	86	3	Jacob thought to gain a right to the birthright through deception, but he found himself disappointed. He thought he had lost everything, his connection with God, his home and all; and there he was a disappointed fugitive. But what did God do? He looked upon him in his hopeless condition, He saw his disappointment, and He saw there was material there that would render back glory to God. No sooner does He see his condition than He presents the mystic ladder, which represents Jesus Christ. Here is a man who had lost all connection with God, and the God of heaven looks upon him and consents that Christ shall bridge the gulf that sin has made.
CTr	86	4	We might have looked and said, I long for heaven, but how can I reach it? I see no way. That is what Jacob thought, and so God shows him the vision of the ladder, and that ladder connects earth with heaven, with Jesus Christ. A person can climb it, for the base rests upon the earth and the top-most round reaches into heaven. Then the soul climbs right away from the customs, practices, and fashions of earth right towards heaven. The light and glory of God are upon every round of this mystic ladder, and men and women climb upon whom? Jesus Christ. Cling to what? Jesus Christ. Made one with whom? Jesus Christ....
CTr	86	5	Now we find that the battlements can be reached, that God is above the ladder and is waiting with arms outstretched to help every soul who will come into the everlasting kingdom of our God. Praise His holy name! Ye inhabitants of the earth, praise Him! And why? Because through Jesus Christ--whose long human arm encircles the race while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the Almighty--the gulf is bridged with His own body; and this atom of a world, which was separated from the continent of heaven by sin and became an island, is again reinstated because Christ bridged the gulf--Christ has bridged it!
CTr	86	6	Here is a soul in danger; well, God stands ready to help that soul. All the heavenly angels will be sent to assist that soul.--Manuscript 5, 1891.
------------------------Truth Moves Us Toward Heaven, March 21
CTr	87	1	Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. John 10:9, NRSV.
CTr	87	2	Truth is an active, working principle, molding heart and life so that there is a constant upward movement, climbing the ladder Jacob saw, to the Lord above the ladder. In every step of climbing, the will is obtaining a new spring of action.... The glory of God revealed above the ladder can be appreciated only by the progressive climber, who is ever attracted higher, to nobler aims that Christ reveals. All the faculties of mind and body must be enlisted....
CTr	87	3	To make our calling and election sure requires far greater diligence than many are giving to this important matter. "For if ye do these things" live on the plan of addition, growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ--ye shall mount up, step by step, the ladder Jacob saw, and "ye shall never fall." ...
CTr	87	4	Let us consider this ladder that was presented to Jacob. The human race was cut off from intercourse [communication] with God. They might look at a paradise lost but could see no means of entering it and holding communion with heaven. The sin of Adam cut off all intercourse between heaven and earth. Up to the moment Adam and Eve transgressed God's law there had been free communion between earth and heaven. They were connected by a path Deity could traverse. But the transgression of God's law broke up this path, and the human race was separated from God.
CTr	87	5	As soon as Satan seduced our first parents to disobedience of God's holy law, every link that bound earth to heaven and the human race to the infinite God seemed broken. Humans might look to heaven, but how could they attain it? But joy to the world! The Son of God, the Sinless One, the One perfect in obedience, becomes the channel through which the lost communion may be renewed, the way through which the lost paradise may be regained. Through Christ, our substitute and surety, we may keep the commandments of God. We may return to our allegiance, and God will accept us.
CTr	87	6	Christ is the ladder.... This is the ladder, the base of it resting upon the earth, the top reaching to the highest heavens. The broken links have been repaired. A highway has been thrown up along which the weary and heavy laden may pass. They may enter heaven and find rest.--Manuscript 13, 1884 (Manuscript Releases 19:341-353).
------------------------Christ Is Our Only Ladder To Heaven, March 22
CTr	88	1	And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven ... And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said ... the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. Genesis 28:12, 13.
CTr	88	2	The ladder is the medium of communication between God and the human race. Through the mystic ladder the gospel was preached to Jacob. As the ladder stretched from earth, reaching to the highest heavens, and the glory of God was seen above the ladder, so Christ in His divine nature reached immensity and was one with the Father. As the ladder, though its top penetrated into heaven, had its base upon the earth, so Christ, though [He was] God, clothed His divinity with humanity and was in the world "found in fashion as a man." The ladder would be useless if it rested not on the earth or if it reached not to the heavens.
CTr	88	3	God appeared in glory above the ladder, looking down with compassion on erring, sinful Jacob, addressing to him words of encouragement. It is through Christ that the Father beholds sinful human beings. The ministering angels were communicating to the inhabitants of the earth through the medium of the ladder. The only way that people can be saved is by clinging to Christ.
CTr	88	4	We ascend to heaven by climbing the ladder--the whole height of Christ's work--step by step. There must be a holding fast to Christ, a climbing up by the merits of Christ. To let go is to cease to climb, to fall, to perish....
CTr	88	5	The question with men and women gazing heavenward is How can I obtain the mansions for the blessed? It is by being a partaker of the divine nature. It is by escaping the "corruption that is in the world through lust." It is by entering into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, laying hold of the hope set before you in the gospel.... It is by being in Christ and yet led by Christ, by believing and working--trusting in Jesus, yet working upon the plan of addition, holding on to Christ and constantly mounting upward toward God....
CTr	88	6	We point you to the mansions Christ is preparing for all those who love Him. We point you to that city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.... Climb step by step, and you will reach God above the ladder and the Holy City of God. None who will resolutely mount up on the ladder will fail of everlasting life. "For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."--Manuscript 13, 1884 (Manuscript Releases 19:353-355).
------------------------Valuable Lessons In Jacob's Experience, March 23
CTr	89	1	And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Genesis 32:26.
CTr	89	2	To tell tempted souls of their guilt in no way inspires them with a determination to do better.... Hold up before them the possibilities that are theirs. Point them to the heights to which they may attain. Help them to take hold upon the mercy of the Lord, to trust in His forgiving power. Jesus is waiting to clasp them by the hand, waiting to give them power to live a noble, virtuous life.
CTr	89	3	God often brings people to a crisis to show them their own weakness and to point them to the Source of strength. If they pray and watch unto prayer, fighting bravely, their weak points will become their strong points. Jacob's experience contains many valuable lessons for us. God taught Jacob that in his own strength he could never gain the victory, that he must wrestle with God for strength from above.
CTr	89	4	All night Jacob wrestled with the Angel. Finally the strong wrestler was weakened by a touch on his thigh. He was now disabled and suffering the keenest pain, but he would not loose his hold. All penitent and broken, he clung to the Angel, ... pleading for a blessing. He must have the assurance that his sin was pardoned. His determination grew stronger, his faith more earnest and persevering, until the very last. The Angel tried to release Himself; He urged, "Let me go, for the day breaketh," but Jacob answered, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me."
CTr	89	5	Had this been a boastful, presumptuous confidence, Jacob would have been instantly destroyed; but his was the assurance of one who confesses his own unworthiness, yet trusts to the faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God.... Through humiliation, repentance, and self-surrender this sinful, erring mortal prevailed with the Majesty of heaven. He had fastened his trembling grasp on the promises of God, and the heart of infinite love could not turn away the sinner's plea.
CTr	89	6	As an evidence that Jacob had been forgiven, his name was changed from one that was a reminder of his sin to one that commemorated his victory. "Thy name," said the Angel, "shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."
CTr	89	7	Shall we obtain strength from God, and win victory after victory, or shall we try in our own strength, and at last fall back defeated, worn out by vain efforts? Let us, by unreserved surrender to God, obtain the power that everyone must have who conquers in the battle against evil.--Manuscript 2, 1903.
------------------------Love For God Leads Us To Security In Him, March 24
CTr	90	1	Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. Psalm 27:3.
CTr	90	2	You should be willing for all to know that you are not your own but His who bought you with an infinite price, and that you are not only bound but are determined to glorify Him in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. May the love of so great magnitude constrain you to confess Christ not only with the mouth but with the life, to bear fruit to the glory of God.
CTr	90	3	We are passing through an enemy's land. Foes are upon every side to hinder our advancement. They hate God and all who follow after Him and bear His name. But those who are our enemies are the Lord's enemies, and although they are strong and artful, yet the Captain of our salvation who leadeth us can vanquish them. As the sun disperses the clouds from its path, so will the Sun of Righteousness remove the obstacles to our progress. We may cheer our souls by looking at the things unseen that will cheer and animate us in our journey.
CTr	90	4	We may indeed say, "Thy presence is our security, our treasure, our glory, our joy.". . Do we pray that Christ will go where we go and dwell where we dwell? If we can live without Christ in this world, He will live without us in the better world. But if we cling to Him by living faith, saying with Jacob, "I will not let thee go"; if we entreat, "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me," the promise is to us "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
CTr	90	5	We cannot afford to live in neglect of the great salvation offered to us upon such liberal terms. The knowledge of the claims of God as our Father will keep us from offending Him. This will make us anxious to please Him. As His children we must walk in the light, walk worthy of God, who hath called us unto glory and His immortal kingdom.
CTr	90	6	We have read an account of a noble prince who carried the picture of his father always near his heart, and on important occasions, when there was danger of forgetting him, he would take out the likeness and view it, and say, "Let me do nothing unbecoming so excellent a father." God has claims upon us as Christians that we should never, never lose sight of for a moment....
CTr	90	7	God's people are called a crown, a diadem. Satan would eagerly seize the Lord's treasure, but God has secured it so that Satan cannot obtain it.... We are secure, perfectly secure, from the enemy's subtlety while we have unwavering trust in God.--Letter 8, 1873.
------------------------Our Character Often Revealed In Our Children, March 25
CTr	91	1	Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. Genesis 37:3.
CTr	91	2	Jacob had chosen the inheritance of faith. He had endeavored to obtain it by craft, treachery, and falsehood; but God had permitted his sin to work out its correction.... The sin of Jacob, and the train of events to which it led, had not failed to exert an influence for evil--an influence that revealed its bitter fruit in the character and life of his sons....
CTr	91	3	There was one, however, of a widely different character--the elder son of Rachel, Joseph, whose rare personal beauty seemed but to reflect an inward beauty of mind and heart.... He listened to his father's instructions, and loved to obey God.... His mother being dead, his affections clung the more closely to the father, and Jacob's heart was bound up in this child of his old age....
CTr	91	4	But even this affection was to become a cause of trouble and sorrow. Jacob unwisely manifested his preference for Joseph, and this excited the jealousy of his other sons.... The father's injudicious gift to Joseph of a costly coat, or tunic, such as was usually worn by persons of distinction, seemed to them another evidence of his partiality.... Their malice was still further increased as the boy one day told them of a dream that he had had....
CTr	91	5	As the lad stood before his brothers, his beautiful countenance lighted up with the Spirit of Inspiration, they could not withhold their admiration; but they did not choose to renounce their evil ways, and they hated the purity that reproved their sins....
CTr	91	6	The brothers were obliged to move from place to place to secure pasturage for their flocks.... Some time passed, bringing no tidings from them, and the father began to fear for their safety.... He therefore sent Joseph to find them, and bring him word as to their welfare....
CTr	91	7	Joseph came on, unsuspicious of danger ...; but instead of the expected greeting, he was terrified by the angry and revengeful glances he met.... He was seized and his coat stripped from him.... Rudely dragging him to a deep pit, they thrust him in, and having made sure that there was no possibility of his escape, they left him there to perish from hunger, while they "sat down to eat bread."
CTr	91	8	But some of them were ill at ease; they did not feel the satisfaction they had anticipated from their revenge. Soon a company of travelers was seen approaching.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 208-211.
------------------------Reaction To Circumstances Reveals True Character, March 26
CTr	92	1	And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother. Genesis 37:26, 27.
CTr	92	2	Judah now proposed to sell their brother to these heathen traders [Ishmaelites] instead of leaving him to die. While he would be effectually put out of their way, they would remain clear of his blood; "for," he urged, "he is our brother and our flesh." To this proposition all agreed, and Joseph was quickly drawn out of the pit.
CTr	92	3	As he saw the merchants the dreadful truth flashed upon him. To become a slave was a fate more to be feared than death. In an agony of terror he appealed to one and another of his brothers, but in vain. Some were moved with pity, but fear of derision kept them silent; all felt that they had now gone too far to retreat. If Joseph were spared, he would doubtless report them to the father, who would not overlook their cruelty toward his favorite son. Steeling their hearts against his entreaties, they delivered him into the hands of the heathen traders. The caravan moved on, and was soon lost to view....
CTr	92	4	As the caravan journeyed southward toward the borders of Canaan, the boy could discern in the distance the hills among which lay his father's tents. Bitterly he wept at thought of that loving father in his loneliness and affliction.... With a trembling heart he looked forward to the future. What a change in situation--from the tenderly cherished son to the despised and helpless slave! ...
CTr	92	5	But, in the providence of God, even this experience was to be a blessing to him. He had learned in a few hours that which years might not otherwise have taught him. His father, strong and tender as his love had been, had done him wrong by his partiality and indulgence.... Faults had been encouraged that were now to be corrected. He was becoming self-sufficient and exacting....
CTr	92	6	Then his thoughts turned to his father's God.... He had been told of the Lord's promises to Jacob, and how they had been fulfilled.... His soul thrilled with the high resolve to prove himself true to God--under all circumstances to act as became a subject of the King of heaven. He would serve the Lord with undivided heart; he would meet the trials of his lot with fortitude and perform every duty with fidelity. One day's experience had been the turning point in Joseph's life. Its terrible calamity had transformed him from a petted child to a man, thoughtful, courageous, and self-possessed.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 211-214.
------------------------Truth Will Gain Victory Eventually, March 27
CTr	93	1	The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Genesis 49:10.
CTr	93	2	The great controversy between the Prince of life and the prince of darkness has been going forward, strengthening with each successive generation. Severe indeed has been the conflict waged between right and wrong, between truth and error, between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. Truth has fought against error and error against truth. The conflict has existed for thousands of years....
CTr	93	3	The truth as it is in Jesus will gain the victory that the prophecy assured to it; but to all human appearance, error will overwhelm truth. The larger number of the human race will be swept into idolatry. They will lift up that which Christ has not lifted up and strive to tear down God's great standard of righteousness....
CTr	93	4	Satan is referred to as the originator of sin. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." Satan's first manifest defeat was his failure to overcome Christ in the wilderness of temptation....
CTr	93	5	"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." This prophecy was uttered by the dying Jacob, and addressed to his sons. But it bore with weight upon future generations.... The scepter is a rod carried in the hands of chiefs and rulers as a badge of authority.... "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah." The ensign of his tribeship shall remain. Judah shall not cease to be a distinct tribe until Shiloh come.... And the tribe of Judah did maintain its supremacy through all its adversities till Christ's first advent. It remained a distinct tribe till Shiloh came.
CTr	93	6	Nearly seventeen hundred years before the death of Christ the dying Jacob uttered this prophecy. Christ Himself threw back the veil, that with prophetic eye Jacob could trace the history of his descendants.... He saw a wonderful Counsellor arise in the midst of this tribe. It was the promised Seed, Shiloh, the Sent of God, who was to set up a spiritual kingdom. Jacob saw the time when the scepter would no longer be in the hands of Judah. The nations would be gathered under the banner of Christ. When the Jews appeared before Pilate to secure Christ, they said, "We have no king but Caesar." By this they confessed that the scepter had indeed departed from Judah.--Manuscript 110, 1897.
------------------------Goodness Is True Greatness, March 28
CTr	94	1	And his master saw that the Lord was with him.... And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. Genesis 39:3, 4.
CTr	94	2	God can make the humblest followers of Christ more precious than fine gold, even than the golden wedge of Ophir, if they yield themselves to His transforming hand. They should be determined to make the noblest use of every faculty and opportunity. The Word of God should be their study and their guide in deciding what is the highest and best in all cases. The one faultless character, the perfect Pattern set before them in the gospel, should be studied with deepest interest. The one lesson essential to learn is that goodness alone is true greatness....
CTr	94	3	The weakest follower of Christ has entered into an alliance with Infinite Power. In many cases God can do little with men and women of learning, because they feel no need of leaning upon Him who is the source of all wisdom....
CTr	94	4	If you trust in your own strength and wisdom, you will surely fail. God calls for complete and entire consecration, and anything short of this He will not accept. The more difficult your position, the more you need Jesus. The love and fear of God kept Joseph pure and untarnished in the king's court....
CTr	94	5	It is impossible to stand upon a lofty height without danger. The tempest leaves unharmed the modest flower of the valley, while it wrestles with the lofty tree upon the mountain height. There are many people whom God could have used in poverty--He could have made them useful there, and crowned them with glory hereafter--but prosperity ruined them. They were dragged down to the pit, because they forgot to be humble--forgot that God was their strength--and became independent and self-sufficient.
CTr	94	6	Joseph bore the test of character in adversity, and the gold was undimmed by prosperity. He showed the same sacred regard for God's will when he stood next to the throne as when in the prisoner's cell. Joseph carried his religion everywhere, and this was the secret of his unwavering fidelity. As a representative of Christ, you must have the all-pervading power of godliness. You must be hid in Jesus. You are not safe unless you hold the hand of Christ. You must guard against everything like presumption and cherish that spirit that would rather suffer than sin. No victory you can gain will be so precious as that gained over self. Selfish ambition, desire for supremacy, will die when Christ takes possession of the affections.--Manuscript 14, 1889.
------------------------Circumstances Need Not Control Us, March 29
CTr	95	1	The Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.... Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured. Genesis 39:5, 6.
CTr	95	2	Many blame their circumstances and plead, as an excuse for their condition, that they are unfavorably situated, being thrown into the society of the irreligious and self-indulgent and intemperate. But do not let yourself be deceived. You can shape your surroundings in the place of bending and being molded in character by circumstances. Godliness will stand the test, because it has a living root to sustain it, a wellspring from which it draws its nourishment.
CTr	95	3	The corruption of the human heart is that which leads it to love the society of the careless and unholy. The true secret of all true followers of Jesus, and their continued, unsullied integrity, is that they love truth, they love righteousness. Their moral taste is not depraved, and although they are surrounded by evil the deep work of the truth wrought in their hearts keeps them true and steadfast to God even in very bad circumstances. This is the fruit that grows on the Christian tree, the faith that realizes the presence and help of God at all times. There is a constant dread of incurring the displeasure of God, whom they reverence and whom they love. It was this principle that preserved Joseph amid temptation. You must cultivate real faith in God, in His gracious goodness, faith in His presence. You must pray as you have never prayed before.
CTr	95	4	Albert [a friend] is no help to you and you are no help to him, because you do not exercise the power of influence for good. Your influence is to strengthen the temptations of Satan, to lead each other away from truth, purity, and holiness. Angels blush over your words and your actions. You have become tempters to one another. You both need to greatly humble your souls at the foot of the cross and learn meekness and lowliness of heart. It is genuine godliness woven into the character that will make young men a light in the world....
CTr	95	5	Fearing God--how little of it there is! ... There are those who will be like the men and women who helped to build the ark. They hear the truth; they have every advantage to become people of moral worth, yet they will not choose the good society, but the corrupt. If there is an influence that is not heavenly, they will gather to their side and unite with them, and although they act a part in the preparation of the truth that is to fit a people to stand in the day of the Lord, they will perish in the general ruin like Noah's carpenters who helped to build the ark. God help you that you may not be of that class.--Letter 36, 1887 (Manuscript Releases 18:260-262).
------------------------Inner Character Revealed In Actions, March 30
CTr	96	1	His master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. But he refused, and said unto his master's wife ... :how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? Genesis 39:7-9.
CTr	96	2	Joseph, in the providence of God, was deprived of his happy home and the teachings and example of his God-fearing father, and his lot was cast in a family of dark heathen. There his virtue was severely tested. It is always a critical period in a young man's life when he is separated from home influences and wise counsels and enters upon new scenes and trying tests....
CTr	96	3	God was with Joseph in his new home. He was in the path of duty, suffering wrong but not doing wrong. He therefore had the love and protection of God, for he carried his religious principles into everything he undertook. What a difference there was in Joseph's case and the case of young people who apparently force their way into the very field of the enemy, exposing themselves to the fierce assaults of Satan. Joseph suffered for righteousness' sake, while the trials of others are of their own procuring. Joseph did not conceal his religion or manly piety to avoid persecution.
CTr	96	4	The Lord prospered Joseph, but in the midst of his prosperity came the darkest adversity. The wife of his master was a licentious woman, one who urged his steps to take hold on hell. Would Joseph yield his moral gold of character to the seductions of a corrupt woman? Would he remember that the eye of God was upon him?
CTr	96	5	Few temptations are more dangerous or more fatal to young men than the temptation of sensuality, and none, if yielded to, will prove so decidedly ruinous to soul and body for time and eternity. The welfare of his entire future was suspended upon the decision of a moment. Joseph calmly cast his eyes to heaven for help, slipped off his loose outer garment, leaving it in the hand of his tempter, and while his eye was lighted with determined resolve in the place of unholy passion, he exclaimed, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"...
CTr	96	6	True religion extends to all the thoughts of the mind, penetrating to all the secret thoughts of the heart, to all the motives of action, to the object and direction of the affections, to the whole framework of our lives. "Thou God seest me" will be the watchword, the guard of the life....
CTr	96	7	But Joseph was a Christian.... He entered into the troubles of his fellow prisoners. He was cheerful, for he was a Christian gentleman. God was preparing him under this discipline for a situation of great responsibility, honor, and usefulness, and he was willing to learn ... the lessons the Lord would teach him.--Letter 3, 1879 (Manuscript Releases 4:220-223).
------------------------Vice Does Not Triumph Over Virtue, March 31
CTr	97	1	And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison.... But the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. Genesis 39:20, 21.
CTr	97	2	Wherever you may be placed, you must be fortified by firm principle. Enter life determined by the help of God to cleave close to whatsoever things are honest, true, lovely, and of good report. The fear of God, united with the love of that which is noble, pure, and elevating, will guard you from a dishonest action.... How pleasant, how satisfactory, will be the recollection all through life that though exposed to many and fierce temptations, your hands were unstained by dishonesty, and your heart undefiled by cherishing temptation....
CTr	97	3	What a lesson for all youth we have in the history of Joseph. Here moral integrity was preserved under the strongest temptations. How fierce and seductive was the assault upon his virtue! Coming from such a source and in such a form, it was the most likely to corrupt a youthful mind. Joseph was saved by his religious principles, which led him promptly and firmly to resist the device of Satan. His tempter, defeated in her purpose, wickedly sought to ruin the youth whose virtues she could not corrupt, and accused Joseph of the very crime he would not commit.... God made the imprisonment of this faithful youth the means of his elevation. Had it not been for this wicked act of Potiphar's wife, Joseph would never have become prime minister of Egypt.
CTr	97	4	Although vice seemed to triumph while virtue was trampled in the dust, Joseph did not make his lot worse by repining. He possessed genuine religion.... God was teaching Joseph important lessons. He was preparing him for a position of trust, honor, and usefulness. Joseph learned to govern by first learning to obey. He humbled himself, and God exalted him. The religion of the Bible never degrades the receiver; on the contrary, it elevates and ennobles all who accept and obey its teachings. The fear of God is a strong defense for the youth. With this shield they may pass through the most corrupting scenes uncontaminated.
CTr	97	5	My dear son [Edson], do not get above the simplicity of a humble Christian life. Let the character of Joseph be your character; let his strength to resist temptation be your strength. Your efforts will be successful if you make them in the strength of God. Jesus is a present help. May the blessing of Jesus ever rest upon you is the prayer of your mother.--Letter 20, 1868.
------------------------We Can Grow In Faith As Did Moses, April 1
CTr	98	1	By faith Moses, when he had come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Hebrews 11:24, 25.
CTr	98	2	Egypt, in that age the greatest kingdom of the world, offered its highest position of honor to Moses. But he did not accept the alluring temptation, "for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible."...
CTr	98	3	The strength of Moses was his connection with the Source of all power, the Lord God of hosts. He rises grandly above every earthly inducement, and trusts himself wholly to God. He considered that he was the Lord's. While he was connected with the official interests of the king of Egypt, he was constantly studying the laws of God's government, and thus his faith grew. That faith was of value to him. It was deeply rooted in the soil of his earliest teachings, and the culture of his life was to prepare him for the great work of delivering Israel from bondage....
CTr	98	4	After slaying the Egyptian, he saw that he had not understood God's plan, and he fled from Egypt and became a shepherd. He was no longer planning to do a great work, but he became very humble; the mists that were beclouding his mind were expelled, and he disciplined his mind to seek after God as his refuge. He recognized the presence of God in his surroundings. All nature seemed to be filled with the presence of the Unseen One. He knew God as a personal God, and as he meditated upon His character, he grasped more and more the sense of His presence. He found refuge in the everlasting arms. God talked with Moses face-to-face, as a man speaketh with his friend. The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone into his heart and into the chambers of his mind. God was his refuge; God was his dwelling place, his home....
CTr	98	5	By faith you, like Moses, may endure as seeing Him who is invisible. The Lord desires to give you a precious experience. God has a work for you to do. You may seek after a higher sense of eternal things. God is nigh unto all them that call upon Him with the whole heart. What are the advantages and honors that the world proffers you when compared with the privileges of the sons of God? ...
CTr	98	6	The shades of darkness will soon pass away; the morning cometh; the conflict is well-nigh ended. There is a crown of life laid up for everyone who has been a partaker with Christ in His suffering.--Letter 21a, 1893 (Manuscript Releases 14:-16).
------------------------God's Methods Of Training Different From Man's, April 2
CTr	99	1	Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian. Exodus 2:15.
CTr	99	2	Moses spent forty years as a shepherd of flocks to prepare him to understand himself, and to purify himself by emptying himself so that the Lord could accomplish His will in him. The Lord does not take for His workers mere machines in intellect or feelings. Both are essential to do the work, but these human elements of character must be purged from defects, not by talking of the will of God, but by doing His will. If any will do His will, they shall know of the doctrine. Moses was under training to God. He endured a long process of mental training to fit him to be leader of the armies of Israel.
CTr	99	3	Inspiration will come to people of God's appointment, but not to those who retain a high idea of their own mental superiority. Every person whom God will use to do His will must have humble ideas of self and must seek, in persevering earnestness, for light. God will not require any person to become a novice and to sink down into a voluntary humility, and become more and more incapacitated. God calls upon everyone with whom He works to do the very highest kind of thinking and praying and hoping and believing.
CTr	99	4	Many have, as had Moses, very much to unlearn in order to learn the very lessons that they need to learn. Moses had need to be self-trained by severest mental and moral discipline, and God wrought with him before he could be fitted to train others in mind and heart. He had been instructed in the Egyptian courts. Nothing was left as unnecessary to train him to become a general of armies. The false theories of the idolatrous Egyptians had been instilled into his mind, and the influences surrounding him, and the things his eyes looked upon, could not be easily shaken off or corrected.
CTr	99	5	Thus it is with many who have had a false training in any line. All the idolatrous rubbish of heathen lore must be removed--bit by bit, item by item--from Moses' mind. Jethro helped him in many things to a correct faith, as far as he himself understood. He was working upward toward the light where he could see God in singleness of heart. God Jehovah was revealed to him. This thorough intellectual training in Egypt, and as a shepherd among the mountains, in the pure air, made him a strong thinker and a strong doer of the Word of God.--Manuscript 45, 1890 (Manuscript Releases 2:324-326).
------------------------We Need Always To Lean Upon God, April 3
CTr	100	1	By faith he [Moses] forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Hebrews 11:27.
CTr	100	2	Moses was a child of God, chosen for a special work. Having been adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, he was greatly honored by those in the king's court. As the king's intended grandson, everyone was intensely desirous of exalting him. They looked upon him as the successor to the throne.
CTr	100	3	Moses was a man of intelligence, and God in His providence placed him where he could acquire knowledge and fitness for a great work. He was thoroughly educated as a general. When he went out to meet the enemy, he was successful; and on his return from the battle, his praises were sung by the whole army.
CTr	100	4	Notwithstanding this, Moses constantly kept in mind the fact that by his hand God would deliver the children of Israel. But although learned among the Egyptians, he received in the service of Pharaoh a certain mold that disqualified him for the wonderful work he was to do. This weakness was manifested when he visited his brethren and "spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew." Moses took the case in hand and privately "slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand."...
CTr	100	5	In order that Moses might be fitted for his appointed work, the God of heaven separated him from his former surroundings. He was to enter another school--the school of Providence. What a change here took place in the life and employment of Moses! ...
CTr	100	6	Looking at this experience from a human standpoint, observers would pronounce it a splendid failure on the part of Moses. Instead of allowing this learned general, who was regarded as fully prepared to do his appointed work, to go ahead and accomplish that which it had been foretold he should do, the Lord sent him into the mountains to obtain an education that would fit him to stand as the general of Israel....
CTr	100	7	God designed that Moses should stand out alone, leaning upon His strong arm, that he should learn to pray and to believe.... Everyone should have an individual experience. We should ever be learning the lessons that Providence designs us to learn.... If we place ourselves where we look to others to brace us and support us, if we depend on finite help, we do not really know our own strength because we do not stand alone, making God our helper. When thrust out where we have to stand alone, the taproot of our faith fastens upon the only sure support--the infinite God.--Manuscript 36, 1885.
------------------------We Must Labor For Time And Eternity, April 4
CTr	101	1	He smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. Exodus 12:27.
CTr	101	2	Eternal interests are at stake with every one of us. We shall all be tried and tempted. Many act as though there were no devil, no tempter, no conflict between good and evil. Unless you realize that you have something to contend against, your feet will slip from under you. Someone will come to our churches with a message, and you will be unable to discern light from darkness, and will be just as likely to accept the darkness as the light.
CTr	101	3	"Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee" (Revelation 3:3).
CTr	101	4	Many are bringing themselves into close affinity to the world. Many have not heeded the light that has called us to place our children under the best influences, where they will hear the truth. Many have not heeded the instruction of the Lord to take their children from the public schools and place them in schools where they can learn the truths of the Word of God, line upon line, and precept upon precept. Their education should be made preparatory to the education that is to be continued in the higher school above.
CTr	101	5	When the judgments of God were about to fall upon the land of Egypt, Christ gave instructions through Moses that the children of Israel were to call their children in and keep them under their own roof. If any should be found in the houses of the Egyptians, they would not escape the plagues. Keep your children close to you and, so far as possible, away from worldly and evil influences. The Lord wants you to prepare your children for the future, immortal life. Unless we are more careful, our children will imbibe the same spirit of unbelief that was revealed among the Israelites of old, by reason of which God could not bring them into the Promised Land.
CTr	101	6	Let us put on the whole armor of God and act like people who are waiting for their Lord to come in the clouds of heaven. When you do this, souls will be converted. Your ministers will not labor month after month and bring no one into the truth. We are to hunt and fish for souls. Sometimes you will catch fish and sometimes you will not, but we are to persevere in the work of God, knowing that He has given us a message to unbelievers, a message that will win its way to many hearts.--Manuscript 161, 1904.
------------------------God's Outward Seal Signifies Inward Faith, April 5
CTr	102	1	When your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt. Exodus 12:26, 27.
CTr	102	2	Every human agent is merging his or her character under one of two heads--the Prince of Life or the prince of darkness....If we serve sin we shall meet the reward of the transgressor of the law of Jehovah before the judgment seat of Christ.... All the invitations given by a gracious God--given, but slighted and refused and rejected--will be presented to every individual, and the sentence that will fix the destiny of the soul in eternal bliss or to be punished with the fiery element of the wrath of God, will close the history of the wicked forever.
CTr	102	3	The condition given to the Hebrews in Egypt on that night when the firstborn were slain was that every family should manifest that faith in the message given them of God that would lead them to act in perfect obedience to the directions given them of God. Every member of the family was to be gathered into the dwelling place of the Hebrews. They were to eat the Passover with their preparations all made for their departure, even with their staffs in their hands. God was about to do His work in judgment, and this was to bring Pharaoh to understand that the Lord, He was God, and beside Him there was none else.
CTr	102	4	The angel of God was to pass over the houses of the Hebrews with the blood sprinkled on the lintels and doorposts. This sign was to be respected.
CTr	102	5	But suppose that the inmates of the house were careless and did not gather their children with them in the house. Or suppose the children who had been born and brought up in Egypt thought this only a whim, and altogether unnecessary, and should refuse the entreaties of their parents, making some excuse as did those called to the marriage supper. Then the judgment of God would not spare, but the stroke would as surely come upon the firstborn of the Hebrews as the firstborn of the Egyptians.
CTr	102	6	What is the condition of those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus? If in families there are those who are refusing obedience to the Lord in keeping His Sabbath, then the seal cannot be placed upon them. The sealing is a pledge from God of perfect security to His chosen ones. Sealing indicates you are God's chosen. He has appropriated you to Himself. As the sealed of God we are Christ's purchased possession, and no one shall pluck us out of His hands.--Manuscript 59, 1895 (Manuscript Releases 15:223-225).
------------------------Results Of Hardening The Heart Against God, April 6
CTr	103	1	And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel. Exodus 14:8.
CTr	103	2	When light from God, strong and convincing, came to make known the great I AM, Pharaoh was compelled to yield. But as soon as the pressure was removed, his unbelief returned and counteracted the great light God had given. When he refused the evidence of the first miracle, he sowed the seed of infidelity, which, left to its natural course, produced a harvest after its own kind. Afterward the king would not be convinced by any working of God's power. The monarch hardened his heart, and went on from one step to another of unbelief, until throughout the vast realm of Egypt the firstborn, the pride of every household, had been laid low. After this he hurried with his army after Israel. He sought to bring back a people delivered by the arm of Omnipotence. But he was fighting against a Power greater than any human power, and with his host he perished in the waters of the Red Sea.
CTr	103	3	The despisers of God's law are practicing the same sin that Pharaoh practiced. They are hardening their hearts. The voice of God is rejected for human theories, for satanic suggestions and delusions. The Holy Spirit is resisted and set aside. The iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the children....
CTr	103	4	The Spirit of God keeps evil under the control of conscience. When people exalt themselves above the influence of the Spirit, they reap a harvest of iniquity.... Warnings have less and less power over them. They gradually lose their fear of God. They sow to the flesh; they will reap corruption. The harvest of the seed that they themselves have sown is ripening.... Their heart of flesh becomes a heart of stone. Resistance to truth confirms them in iniquity.... All should be intelligent in regard to the agency by which the soul is destroyed. It is not because of any decree that God has sent out against men or women. He does not make them spiritually blind. God gives sufficient light and evidence to enable them to distinguish truth from error. But He does not force them to receive truth. He leaves them free to choose the good or to choose the evil. If people resist evidence that is sufficient to guide their judgment in the right direction and choose evil once, they will do this more readily the second time. The third time they will still more eagerly withdraw from God and choose to stand on the side of Satan. And in this course they will continue until they are confirmed in evil and believe the lie they have cherished as truth.--Manuscript 126, 1901 (Sermons and Talks, 2:183, 184).
------------------------God's Protective Cloud In The Desert, April 7
CTr	104	1	Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us? Exodus 14:11.
CTr	104	2	There is a lesson of the greatest importance for us in the experience of the children of Israel as they left Egypt. More than a million people had been led out of the right course, as many of them thought, into a valley hemmed in by mountains. Before them lay the Red Sea, and behind them, following fast after in pursuit, was Pharaoh's host.
CTr	104	3	In the beginning of their march the children of Israel had been guided by a cloud. Ignorant and superstitious because of their long years of bondage in a land of superstition, the people looked upon this cloud with wonder. Some regarded it with fear, while others declared that it was a favorable omen. As the people were encamped beside the sea, they saw in the distance the flashing armor and moving chariots of Pharaoh's host. Terror filled their hearts. Some cried unto the Lord, but by far the greater part hastened to Moses with their complaints....
CTr	104	4	Moses was greatly troubled that his people should manifest so little faith in God, notwithstanding they had repeatedly witnessed the manifestation of His power in their behalf.... True, there was no possibility of deliverance unless God Himself should interpose for their release, but having been brought into this position in obedience to the divine direction, Moses felt no fear of the consequences. His calm and assuring reply to the people was "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord."...
CTr	104	5	It was not an easy thing to hold the hosts of Israel in waiting before the Lord. Lacking discipline and self-control, they became violent and unreasonable.... The wonderful pillar of cloud had been followed as the signal of God to go forward; but now they questioned if it might not foreshadow some great calamity, for had it not led them on the wrong side of the mountain, into an impassable way? ...
CTr	104	6	But now, as the Egyptian host approached them, expecting to make them an easy prey, the cloudy column arose majestically, passed over the Israelites, and descended between them and the armies of Egypt. A wall of darkness interposed between the pursued and their pursuers. The Egyptians could no longer discern the camp of the Hebrews and were forced to halt. But as the darkness of night deepened, the wall of cloud became a great light to the Hebrews, flooding the entire encampment with the radiance of day. That which had been a terror to the people had become their protection.--Manuscript 6a, 1903.
------------------------God Delivers His People From The Enemy, April 8
CTr	105	1	And the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea. Exodus 14:21, 22.
CTr	105	2	"Go forward" was the word given by Moses, and it was echoed by the captains of the different divisions. In obedience the host of Israel stepped into the path so strangely and so wonderfully prepared for them. The light from God's pillar of fire shone upon the foam-capped billows and lighted the road that was cut like a mighty furrow through the waters of the sea.
CTr	105	3	As the cloud moved slowly on, the Egyptian sentinels discovered that the Israelites had moved their encampment, and at once the mighty army was set in readiness for motion. They heard the sound of the marching of the Hebrews, but they could see nothing, for the cloud that gave light to Israel was to the Egyptians a wall of darkness. Guided by the sound, they followed on into the miraculous path God had prepared for His people. All night they followed, but they moved slowly, for their chariots drove heavily. Yet still they moved on, expecting soon to break through the cloud and overtake the fugitives.
CTr	105	4	At last the shadows of the night passed away, the morning dawned, and the pursuing army was almost within reach of the fleeing Hebrews.... Before their astonished eyes the mysterious cloud changed to a pillar of fire reaching from earth to heaven. The thunders pealed and the lightnings flashed. "The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook."
CTr	105	5	The Egyptians were seized with confusion and dismay. Amid the wrath of the elements, in which they heard the voice of an angry God, they endeavored to retrace their steps and to flee to the shore they had quitted. But Moses stretched out his rod, and the piled-up waters, hissing, roaring, and eager for their prey, rushed together and swallowed the Egyptian army in their black depths.
CTr	105	6	As morning broke, it revealed to the multitudes of Israel all that remained of their mighty foe--the mail-clad bodies cast upon the shore. From the most terrible peril one night had brought deliverance.... Jehovah alone had brought them deliverance, and to Him their hearts were turned in gratitude and faith. Their emotions found utterance in songs of praise.--Manuscript 6a, 1903.
------------------------In The End God's Enemies Will Perish, April 9
CTr	106	1	And the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. Exodus 14:27.
CTr	106	2	In the whole territory of the world He has created, there is not a kingdom that is independent of God. And when men and women in an earthly kingdom or community understand the laws made to govern the subjects of the Ruler of the universe but still refuse obedience, they bring themselves under condemnation of the law that God, our Supreme Ruler, has established from the foundation of the world....
CTr	106	3	Because of the stubbornness of Pharaoh, it was decided that the voice of God, in words of command, must demand that the Israelites be set free from their life of slavery. Pharaoh refused, and the Lord punished the kingdom because the earthly ruler would not let God's people go to become a kingdom under divine rulership. Pharaoh's refusal brought many plagues upon Egypt, until the stubborn king was impelled to concede to God's plan. And then he again hardened his heart in rebellion against God and sent his immense army to bring the Israelites back to continual service for the Egyptian ruler.
CTr	106	4	The Lord wrought wonderfully for the salvation of His people. He made a way of escape in the midst of the Red Sea. The waters were piled up as a strong wall, and a path of deliverance was made for the hosts of Israel following the leadership of Moses.
CTr	106	5	In pursuit of Israel the vast armies of Egypt ventured to traverse the sea by the same path. A dark cloud was before them, and yet they pressed on. When the whole army--"all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen" were in the very bed of the sea, the Lord said unto Moses, "Stretch out thine hand over the sea." Israel had passed over on dry land, but they heard the shouting of the armies in pursuit. As Moses stretched out his rod over the sea, the embanked waters that had stood as a great wall rolled on in their natural course. Of all the men of Egypt in that vast army, not one escaped. All perished in their determination to have their own way and to refuse God's way. That occasion was the end of their probation.
CTr	106	6	Thus it will be with every class who choose to refuse the light God gives, and persist in following a course of action that makes void the law of Him who is Supreme Ruler over all kings--over all human powers that oppose themselves to the law of the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and set themselves in array against the expressed will of the great I AM.--Manuscript 35, 1906 (Manuscript Releases 21:64, 65).
------------------------Only Genuine Faith Survives When Tested, April 10
CTr	107	1	And Israel saw the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses. Exodus 14:31.
CTr	107	2	The voices of the people rang out over the waters of the Red Sea in glorious triumph.
CTr	107	3	But soon their faith was tested. The Lord would know how much He could depend on His people to be true and loyal to Him. They went three days' journey into the wilderness and found no water. "And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter."... "The people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?" Instead of trusting and fearing the Lord, believing in Him under apparently discouraging circumstances, they cast reflections upon their leader.
CTr	107	4	So people act in this generation. Satan's plan of temptation is always the same. While everything moves prosperously, people think that they have faith. But when suffering, disaster, or disappointment comes, they lose heart. A faith that is dependent on circumstances or surroundings, that lives only when everything goes smoothly, is not a genuine faith.
CTr	107	5	In his trouble Moses cried to the Lord. This is what the children of Israel, so recently delivered, ought to have done. The Lord heard the cry of His servant, against whom the people had said so many bitter things. He showed Moses a tree, "which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet." It was not the virtue of the tree that turned the bitter water to sweet; it was the power of Him who was enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, the One who can do all things....
CTr	107	6	Did the people then appreciate and acknowledge God's blessings? Were their hearts filled with gratitude and thanksgiving to Him? Did they have a praise service, as when they stood on the banks of the Red Sea? We have no evidence that their faith was strengthened by God's mercy and grace and love toward them....
CTr	107	7	When trial comes to prove us, when we cannot see an increase of prosperity and comfort before us, but a probable lessening of these things, when there is a pressure necessitating sacrifice on the part of all, how shall we receive Satan's insinuations that we are going to have a hard time, that everything is going to pieces, that there is sore trouble ahead of us? ... We ought to gather up the fragments of heaven's blessings and tokens for good, saying, Lord, I believe in Thee, in Thy servants, and in Thy work. I will trust in Thee.--Letter 49a, 1896.
------------------------The Sin Of Unbelief Leads Away From God, April 11
CTr	108	1	In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit. Isaiah 63:9.
CTr	108	2	From the beginning of sin Christ was with His people to dispute the authority of Satan, for He saw that the conflict must be carried on here in the earth. Satan withstood the Son of God in every effort to redeem His people. Enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day and in the pillar of fire by night, Christ directed, guided, counseled the children of Israel in their journeyings from Egypt to Canaan. But how unwilling were the children of Israel to be led, how unwilling to be controlled by the voice of the Angel of the Lord! How eager they were in vindicating their own course, in justifying themselves in their rebellious feelings, and in following their own ideas and plans!
CTr	108	3	It was the mighty Counselor who was enshrouded in the pillar of cloud and fire, and who was beholding the encampment of His people. It was He who corrected them in their evil ways, and encouraged them to trust in the living God to lead them safely to the Land of Promise. They were continually under the eye that never slumbers nor sleeps, and yet they murmured against Moses, the man whom God had appointed as their visible leader, and to whom Jesus Christ talked face-to-face, as a man talketh with his friend. Notwithstanding the fact that the Lord wrought through His servant Moses, yet when the enemy tempted them to evil surmising, jealousy, and faultfinding, they did not resist his temptations and stand firmly for principle.
CTr	108	4	But their failure is explained by the Inspired Word, and a warning given to us upon whom the ends of the world are come, lest we also fall after the same example of unbelief.... The children of Israel fell under the power of the enemy by cherishing an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, and when once they were found on the enemy's side, he pressed his advantage, and made them his allies to the utmost extent. The sin of unbelief, by which their confidence in the Son of God was destroyed, led Israel far astray. At the very time when they should have been praising God and magnifying the name of the Lord, talking of His goodness, telling of His power, they were found in unbelief, and full of murmuring and complaint. The deceiver was seeking through every means possible to sow discord among them, to create envy and hatred in their hearts against Moses, and to stir up rebellion against God. By listening to the voice of the great deceiver they were led into affliction, trial, and destruction.--Manuscript 65, 1895 (The Signs of the Times, April 25, 1895).
------------------------How Long Will You Refuse To Keep My Commandments, April 12
CTr	109	1	And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. Exodus 16:5.
CTr	109	2	The Lord suffered His people Israel to go into bondage in Egypt because they did not walk in His ways but dishonored Him by their continual transgressions. Here, subjected to oppression and hard servitude, they could not keep God's Sabbath, and by their long mingling with a nation of idolaters their faith became confused and corrupted. Association with the ungodly and unbelieving will have the same influence upon those who believe the present truth unless they keep the Lord ever before them so that His Spirit shall be their shield....
CTr	109	3	Pharaoh saw the mighty working of the Spirit of God; he saw the miracles the Lord performed by His servant; but he refused obedience to God's command. The rebellious king had proudly inquired, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." And as the judgments of God fell more and more heavily upon him, he persisted in stubborn resistance. By rejecting light from heaven, he became hard and unimpressible.... Those who exalt their own ideas above the plainly specified will of God are saying, as did Pharaoh, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" Every rejection of light hardens the heart and darkens the understanding; and thus people find it more and more difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, and they become bolder in resisting the will of God.
CTr	109	4	The Lord brought Israel from Egypt, that they might keep His Sabbath, and He gave them special directions how to keep it. The instructions given to Moses were recorded for the benefit of all who should live upon the earth to the close of time. God has spoken; let us listen to His words and obey them.
CTr	109	5	When the manna was given, the people were tested upon God's law. Then said the Lord to the children of Israel through Moses, "I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no."...
CTr	109	6	Notwithstanding this special direction of God, some did go out to gather manna on the seventh day, but they found none; and the Lord said unto Moses, "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?" That there might be no mistake in the matter, the Father and the Son descended upon Mount Sinai, and there the precepts of His law were spoken in awful grandeur in the hearing of all Israel.--Manuscript 3, 1885.
------------------------Israel's Experience Reminds Us Of Sabbath Importance, April 13
CTr	110	1	See! The Lord has given you the sabbath, therefore on the sixth day he gives you food for two days; each of you stay where you are; do not leave your place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. Exodus 16:29, 30, NRSV.
CTr	110	2	Before the law was given from Sinai, God wrought a miracle each week to impress the people with the sanctity of the Sabbath. He rained manna from heaven for their food, and each day they gathered this manna, but on the sixth day they gathered twice as much as usual, according to the directions of Moses....
CTr	110	3	"And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan." Thus for forty years God worked a miracle before His people each week, to show them that His Sabbath was a sacred day.
CTr	110	4	God directed that a tabernacle should be built where the Israelites, during their wilderness journeying, could worship Him. Orders from heaven were given that this tabernacle should be built without delay. Because of the sacredness of the work and the need for haste, some argued that the work on the tabernacle should be carried forward on the Sabbath, as well as on other days of the week. Christ heard these suggestions, and saw that the people were in great danger of being ensnared by concluding that they would be justified in working on the Sabbath so that the tabernacle might be completed as quickly as possible.
CTr	110	5	The word came to them, "Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep." Though the work on the tabernacle must be carried forward with expedition, the Sabbath must not be employed as a working day. Even the work on the Lord's house must give way to the sacred observance of the Lord's rest day. Thus God is jealous for the honor of His memorial of creation.
CTr	110	6	The Sabbath is a token between God and His people. It is a holy day, given by the Creator to us as a day upon which to rest, and reflect upon sacred things. God designed it to be observed through every age as a perpetual covenant....
CTr	110	7	As we refrain from labor on the seventh day, we testify to the world that we are on God's side and are striving to live in perfect conformity to His commandments. Thus we recognize as our Sovereign the God who made the world in six days and rested on the seventh.... The true Sabbath is to be restored to its rightful position as God's rest day.--Manuscript 77, 1900 (The Review and Herald, October 28, 1902).
------------------------Warnings Against A Depraved Appetite, April 14
CTr	111	1	Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth ... to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Exodus 16:3.
CTr	111	2	God designed to bestow great blessings upon His people. He purposed to bring them to a good land, which for its richness and fertility was called a land flowing with milk and honey. God designed to establish them there as a healthful, strong, and mighty people if they would submit to His requirements. The people of Israel had lived upon rich and luxurious food in Egypt, not the most healthful for them, and God would bring them through the wilderness to the good land He had promised them. In their travels [He] would remove from them flesh meats and give them a simple yet healthful quality of food and establish them in the good land of Canaan, a powerful people with not a feeble man, woman, or child in all their tribes....
CTr	111	3	Since the fall of Eve in Eden through intemperate desire to gratify the taste, this has been the prevailing sin of the human family. Eve, after her transgression, prevailed upon her husband to eat also. Adam was not deceived as was Eve, but he was influenced by her to do as she had done--eat and risk the consequences since no harm, she said, had come to her. Adam yielded to the temptations of his wife. He could not endure to be separated from her. He ate and fell from his integrity. Since this lamentable occurrence--which has introduced sin into our world--intemperate, lustful appetite, and the power of influence that one in the wrong exerts over another, have brought an accumulation of misery that it is not possible for language to describe. In no other way has Satan come with his temptations to fallen humankind as successfully as through the appetite.
CTr	111	4	In their journeyings through the wilderness, rebellion and insurrection were continually arising in the armies of Israel because their depraved appetites would not be indulged. Moses was brought into the greatest perplexity and his heart made sad through the continual murmurings of the children of Israel because God, for their own good, withheld from them flesh meats.
CTr	111	5	They were continually imagining trouble and anticipating evil. They were jealous of Moses, thinking that he might have selfish motives in leading them from Egypt, that it might be his desire to lead them into the wilderness so that they might perish there, and he enrich himself with their possessions.--Manuscript 32, 1885.
------------------------Christian Life Is Not Always Green Pastures, April 15
CTr	112	1	Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. Exodus 17:6.
CTr	112	2	Though the way may be rough, we must exercise implicit faith in the power of the Lord to guide us. The experience of the children of Israel when journeying through the wilderness is a lesson for us on this point. "All the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin ... according to the commandments of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink."...
CTr	112	3	He who was enshrouded in the pillar of cloud was leading them, and it was by His express command that they were encamped at this place. The General of the armies of heaven knew of the lack of water at Rephidim, and He brought His people hither to test their faith. But how poorly they proved themselves to be a people whom He could trust. Again and again He had manifested Himself to His chosen people. He had slain the first-born of all families of Egypt to accomplish their deliverance, and had brought them out of the land of their captivity with a high hand. He had fed them with angels' food, and had covenanted to bring them into the Promised Land. But now, when brought into difficulty, they broke into rebellion, distrusted God, and complained that Moses had brought them and their children out of Egypt only that they might die of thirst in the wilderness. By their murmurings and lack of faith they dishonored God and placed themselves where they could not appreciate His mercies.
CTr	112	4	Many today think that when they begin their Christian life they will find freedom from all want and difficulty. But all who take up their cross to follow Christ come to a Rephidim in their experience. Life is not all made up of green pastures and cooling streams. Disappointment overtakes us, privations come, circumstances occur that bring us into difficult places. As we follow in the narrow way, doing our best as we think, we find that grievous trials come to us. We think that we must have walked by our own wisdom far away from God. Conscience-stricken, we reason that if we had walked with God we would not have suffered so....
CTr	112	5	But of old the Lord led His people to Rephidim, and He may choose to bring us there also in order to test our faithfulness and loyalty to Him. In mercy to us He does not always place us in the easiest places, for if He did, in our self-sufficiency we would forget that the Lord is our helper in time of necessity.--Letter 24, 1896.
------------------------Cleanliness Should Mark The Life Of A Christian, April 16
CTr	113	1	And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. Exodus 19:10.
CTr	113	2	Incorrect personal habits are among the most prolific causes of disease. Order and cleanliness are laws of heaven. The directions given to Moses when the Lord was about to declare His law upon Mount Sinai were very strict in this respect.... They were directed to do this, lest there should be impurity about them as they should come before God. He is a God of order, and He requires order and cleanliness in His people.
CTr	113	3	On no occasion were the children of Israel to allow impurities to remain upon their clothing or their persons. Those who had any uncleanness were to be shut out of the camp until the evening and then were required to cleanse themselves and their clothing before they could return. They were also commanded to carry all their refuse to a distance from the camp....
CTr	113	4	The Lord requires no less of His people now than He did anciently. If cleanliness was so necessary to those journeying in the wilderness, who were in the open air nearly all the time, it is no less necessary to us, who live in close houses, where impurities are more observable and have a more unhealthful influence.
CTr	113	5	The moral law, spoken from Sinai, cannot have a place in the hearts of persons of disorderly, filthy habits. If the children of Israel could not so much as listen to the proclamation of that holy law without cleanliness of person and clothing, how can its pure precepts be written upon the hearts of those who are untidy in their persons and their homes? ...
CTr	113	6	Violent epidemics of fever have occurred in villages and cities that were considered perfectly healthful, and these have resulted in death or broken constitutions. In many instances the premises of the very ones who fell victims to these epidemics contained the agents of destruction, which sent forth deadly poison into the atmosphere to be inhaled by the family and the neighborhood....
CTr	113	7	When Lord Palmerston was premier of England, he was at one time petitioned by the Scottish clergy to appoint a day of fasting and prayer to avert the cholera. He replied, "Cleanse and disinfect your streets and houses, promote cleanliness and health among the poor, and see that they are plentifully supplied with good food and raiment, and employ right sanitary measures generally, and you will have no occasion to fast and pray. Nor will the Lord hear your prayers while these, His preventatives, remain unheeded."--Manuscript 58, 1890.
------------------------God's Law Not Given For Israel Only, April 17
CTr	114	1	If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. Exodus 19:5, 6.
CTr	114	2	God purposed to make the occasion of speaking His law a scene of awful grandeur, in keeping with its exalted character.... Preparations were made according to the command; and in obedience to a further injunction, Moses directed that a barrier be placed about the mount, that neither man nor beast might intrude upon the sacred precinct....
CTr	114	3	On the morning of the third day, as the eyes of all the people were turned toward the mount, its summit was covered with a thick cloud, which grew more black and dense, sweeping downward until the entire mountain was wrapped in darkness and awful mystery. Then a sound as of a trumpet was heard, summoning the people to meet with God; and Moses led them forth to the base of the mountain. From the thick darkness flashed vivid lightnings, while peals of thunder echoed and re-echoed among the surrounding heights....
CTr	114	4	The thunders ceased; the trumpet was no longer heard; the earth was still. There was a period of solemn silence, and then the voice of God was heard. Speaking out of the thick darkness that enshrouded Him, as He stood upon the mount, surrounded by a retinue of angels, the Lord made known His law....
CTr	114	5	Jehovah revealed Himself, not alone in the awful majesty of the judge and lawgiver, but as the compassionate guardian of His people: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." He whom they had already known as their guide and deliverer, who had brought them forth from Egypt, making a way for them through the sea, and overthrowing Pharaoh and his hosts, who had thus shown Himself to be above all the gods of Egypt--He it was who now spoke His law.
CTr	114	6	The law was not spoken at this time exclusively for the benefit of the Hebrews. God honored them by making them the guardians and keepers of His law, but it was to be held as a sacred trust for the whole world. The precepts of the Decalogue are adapted to all humankind, and they were given for the instruction and government of all. Ten precepts, brief, comprehensive, and authoritative, cover the duty of human beings to God and to other humans; and all based upon the great fundamental principle of love.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 303-305.
------------------------Settled Rebellion Is Incurable, April 18
CTr	115	1	The people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, ... we wot not what is become of him. Exodus 32:1.
CTr	115	2	All are at liberty to choose and take their position with the rebellious or take their stand with those who are on the side of God and the truth--those who have labored earnestly, faithfully, and unselfishly in this great cause, and who have endured trial, reproach, and fought with courage the battles of the Lord.
CTr	115	3	Settled rebellion is incurable. It first originated in heaven with the angel next highest in order to Jesus Christ. This exalted angel had sympathizers who joined him in his rebellion. He, Satan, the great rebel, was turned out of heaven, and all his rebel sympathizers shared his fate. Since then it has been his special work to excite to rebellion all he can gain control over.
CTr	115	4	Said the angel, "Rebellion will occur up to the time of the closing of the work of the third angel's message. Marvel not, neither be discouraged. He who conquered the leader in rebellion stands at the head of this great work. Although Satan may exult and seem for a time to triumph, the first great Conqueror has His eyes upon him, and he can go no farther than He permits. He is permitted to have power for a time to reveal the true-hearted, to prove the faithful, to develop the spurious and separate them from the pure in heart. Rebels will be purged out from among the loyal and true in due time, for the truth has gathered of every kind."
CTr	115	5	I was then shown the travels of the children of Israel. Rebellion was common among ancient Israel. Moses was gone from them only forty days, but the time was long enough for there to be enacted one of the greatest apostasies from God, who had shown to them such special favors and whose voice they had recently heard from Mount Sinai. In awful grandeur He spoke the Ten Commandments in the hearing of the people, which led them to exceedingly fear and tremble and plead with Moses that the great Jehovah should not speak to them any more, but that he should receive the words and speak to them. They wrought out a calf and turned from God to the lowest idolatry, that of worshiping the work of their own hands.--Manuscript 1, 1865.
------------------------Moses Was An Example Of Genuine Humility, April 19
CTr	116	1	If thou wilt forgive their sin--and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. Exodus 32:32.
CTr	116	2	After the children of Israel had listened at Sinai to the giving of the Ten Commandments, they fell into idolatry, and the Lord was angry with them. He said to Moses, "Let me alone ... that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation." But no; the man who had learned to seek after the lost sheep in the wilderness, who had endured cold and storm rather than leave one sheep to perish, could not give up the people placed in his care. He pleaded with God not to give them up, but to forgive their transgression....
CTr	116	3	Moses declared, "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." He no longer had any confidence in himself. His watchword was The God of Israel is my Strength and my Leader. He received no adoration as did the kings of other nations. Repeatedly he told the children of Israel that he was only what the God of Israel had made him. In all the battles in which they obtained the victory, he told them that they were not to claim the honor, for it was the God of Israel who gained the victory in their behalf.
CTr	116	4	When the Lord told Moses, "My presence shall go with thee," we might think that this mighty man of God would have been satisfied. But he was not. He still urged his petition. "He said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." Was Moses rebuked for his presumption? ... He [God] took that mighty man of faith, and put him into a cleft in the rock, and there revealed to him His glory....
CTr	116	5	When Moses returned to the people, they could not look upon his countenance, for he had been talking with God, and his face reflected the glory of God, which had been revealed to him. "The skin of his face shone." When talking with the people, he was obliged to cover his face with a veil.
CTr	116	6	Not the pompous, boastful, unbelieving person, but the humble, faithful one is mighty in the sight of God. In order that He may answer their prayers, the Lord desires His people to obtain an individual experience. The nearer they come to Jesus Christ, the closer their view of His loveliness and life, the more humble will be their opinion of themselves. The lower their estimate of self, the more distinct will be their views of the glory and majesty of God. When individuals claim that they are sanctified and holy, no clearer evidence is needed to show that they are not holy.--Manuscript 36, 1885.
------------------------God Invites Holy Boldness As We Approach Him, April 20
CTr	117	1	And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. Exodus 33:18.
CTr	117	2	All who have responsible positions must realize that they must first have power with God, in order that they may have power with the people.... God listens to the appeal of His self-denying workers who labor to advance His cause. He has even condescended to talk face-to-face with feeble mortals. He listens not only with patience but with approval to the importunate prayers of those who really long for His help.
CTr	117	3	His servant Moses felt his insufficiency for the great work before him and pleaded, with an earnestness that seemed almost presumption, for the presence of God to be with him. But instead of receiving a reproof, the earnest pleader receives the reply "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest"--an assurance that all his burdens may be rested upon God. But the mind of Moses is so burdened with the tremendous weight of the responsibilities resting upon him that he approaches still nearer to God, and his request is pressed still further. The answer from God is "I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken; for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name."
CTr	117	4	Encouraged by his success, Moses ventures still further--a holy boldness he possesses, until it reaches a point that is incomprehensible to poor, finite human beings. The servant of God has been, through prayer, approaching nearer and nearer to God, and now [makes] a request such as no mortal human had ever dared to make--"I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." Will God thrust aside His servant now for his apparent presumption? The third time the answer comes, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee." ...
CTr	117	5	Oh, what condescension on the part of God! That hand that made the worlds takes the mighty man of faith and puts him in a cleft of the rock, that He may show him His glory, and make all His goodness to pass before him....
CTr	117	6	The most brilliant intellect, the most earnest study, the highest eloquence, can never be substituted for the wisdom and power of God in those who are bearing the responsibilities connected with His cause.... God has made every provision for workers to have the help that He alone can give. If they allow their work to hurry, drive, and confuse, so that they will have no time for devotional thought or for prayer, they will make mistakes. If a standard is not lifted up by Jesus Christ against Satan, he will overcome those who are engaged in the important work for this time.--Manuscript 6, 1879.
------------------------Heavenly Observers Witness Every Word Spoken, April 21
CTr	118	1	And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. Numbers 12:2.
CTr	118	2	Aaron and Miriam became displeased with Moses because of his marriage.... They thought Moses regarded himself as superior to them, and they must ever stand as second. This state of feeling was just what Satan desired to bring about. It was in his lines to carry forward the work he began in heaven.... Satan could not touch the head, the reasoning faculties, the eyes of the mind; but he could make things that the outward eye looked upon appear in accordance with his subtle working.... Aaron and Miriam became one in mind. They communicated with one another and they said, "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?" Mark that which follows: "And the Lord heard it." The Lord hears many things human beings say, and He understands the current of evil started into intense activity by words spoken in secret. If persons could always consider that there is a Witness present to hear every word they speak, even in the secret chamber, there would be fewer private communications coming from human lips to leaven the minds of others by their ideas and evil suggestions that are voicing the temptations of the great deceiver....
CTr	118	3	There was One who could vindicate Moses. Hear His testimony; the words come sounding down along the lines to our time, evidencing that the mind of God is not in agreement with the thoughts of unsanctified humans. "(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) ... And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.
CTr	118	4	"And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth.... And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow."...
CTr	118	5	Because Aaron and Miriam were honored with a part in the work, they thought they were equal to Moses, and were indeed a very essential part of the great whole. They felt that credit should be given to them and that Moses should not have all the honor. Let the human agent consider that in any position where God has placed him or her, he or she must put entire confidence in God.--Letter 7, 1894.
------------------------Be Careful Of Giving A False Report, April 22
CTr	119	1	We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. Numbers 13:31.
CTr	119	2	Young people are needed in the work--those who will undertake the work interestedly and will carry it forward zealously and strongly. But the Lord is, and ever will be, with the old, steadfast leaders who have held fast to the truth in times of peril. When the foundation of the faith of the younger leaders seems to be swept away and their houses falling, the testimony, like that of Caleb, will be heard from the old warriors, "Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." Then the voice of unbelief was heard. "We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we." One word of unbelief prepares the way for more. Satan does not easily let alone any person whom he can tempt to dishonor God by expressing unbelief....
CTr	119	3	What effect did this report have upon the congregation? ... "And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!"...
CTr	119	4	Let all read carefully the fourteenth chapter of Numbers, and let them understand that people can make false reports as did these who had been sent on an errand that concerned the movements of more than a million people....
CTr	119	5	Those who bore the discouraging report and brought discouragement to the whole camp of Israel, when opposed because of their unfaithful witness, served the satanic powers in complete rebellion. And they carried the disappointed congregation with them, in that they believed their interpretation of the land. The congregation took the wrong side, and, inspired by satanic agencies, they cried out against the faithful spies, and bade them stone Joshua and Caleb, who dared to bear the truthful representation in regard to the land.
CTr	119	6	But there is always a defense provided for those who have borne witness for the truth. What was it that saved the lives of Joshua and Caleb? "And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel."...
CTr	119	7	We have here a positive evidence that the anger of the Lord was awakened against the rebellious people--those who had been blessed with great light and precious opportunities to know the will of God, which was communicated to them by Christ Himself, their invisible Leader, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.--Letter 106, 1897 (Manuscript Releases 15:289-291).
------------------------Speak No Words Of Unbelief, April 23
CTr	120	1	We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Numbers 13:27.
CTr	120	2	Thus far [the spies'] words had been spoken in faith; but see what followed. After describing the beauty and fertility of the land, all but two of the spies enlarged upon the difficulties and dangers that lay before the Israelites should they undertake the conquest of Canaan....
CTr	120	3	Their unbelief cast a gloomy shadow over the congregation. A wail of agony arose and mingled with the confused murmur of voices. Caleb comprehended the situation and did all in his power to counteract the evil influence of his unfaithful associates. He did not contradict what had been said. The walls were high and the Canaanites strong. But God had promised the land to Israel.
CTr	120	4	"Let us go up at once, and possess it," urged Caleb, "for we are well able to overcome it." But the ten, interrupting him, pictured the obstacles in darker colors than at first. "We be not able to go up against the people," they declared, "for they are stronger than we.... And all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."
CTr	120	5	It is right that human beings should be considered as grasshoppers when compared with the Lord God of Israel. But it showed a lack of faith for the spies to speak of the Israelites thus in comparison with the people they had seen in Canaan. The children of Israel had on their side the mighty powers of heaven. The One who, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, had led them through the wilderness was fighting for them. They had seen His power displayed at the Red Sea, when at His word the waters parted, leaving a plain path for them through the sea. Nevertheless, when the spies saw the walled cities in the Promised Land, they allowed unbelief to enter their hearts, and they returned to the congregation with a faithless report....
CTr	120	6	This shows us to what desperation unbelief will bring people. My brethren and sisters, when thoughts of unbelief and distrust come to you, remember that silence is eloquence. Speak no words of unbelief, for such words are as seeds that will spring up and bear fruit. There is among us altogether too much talking and too little praying. We think and speak of the difficulties that exist, and forget to trust the Lord. God's Spirit would work mightily in behalf of His people if we would give Him opportunity.--Manuscript 10, 1903.
------------------------Learning To Trust And Obey, April 24
CTr	121	1	Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations ... will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land ... therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. Numbers 14:15, 16.
CTr	121	2	The Lord had fulfilled the word that He spoke to Abraham when He declared that after the children of Israel had been in bondage four hundred years, He would deliver them.... Yet here, on the border of the Promised Land, they dishonored Him by giving way to unbelief.
CTr	121	3	We shall be brought into strait places, but we do not want to wait until then before we learn to trust and obey. Now, just now, is our day of opportunity and privilege. When the light of truth is shining upon us, we are to learn the lesson. Let us plead with God to give us a true conception of His character and a willingness to obey Him.
CTr	121	4	We are to stand in the strength and power of Israel's God. Shall we do it, brethren and sisters? Or shall we murmur and complain, looking at the obstacles in the way and making a mountain out of a molehill? Today God gives His people, to confirm their faith, evidences of His power such as He gave to Israel. Will they make these evidences of no effect? Will they act as if God had not wrought in their behalf? The Lord wants us to acknowledge His power and His grace and His great salvation, which He has brought us at an infinite cost--in the death of His only-begotten Son.
CTr	121	5	We are living in a day of trial, a day of probation, a day of test. God is proving His people, to see whether He can work in their behalf. He cannot work for them if they open their hearts to the impulses of the enemy. He cannot cooperate with them if they trust in human beings in the place of looking to Jesus, and rejoicing in His goodness and His love. He wants to make of us a people through whom He can reveal His grace, and He will do this if we will only give Him opportunity, if we will open the windows of the soul heavenward and close them earthward against human rabble, against murmuring, complaining, and faultfinding....
CTr	121	6	Those who today murmur against God's appointed agencies, weakening the confidence of the people in them, are doing the same work that the children of Israel did. The Lord hears every murmuring word. He hears every word that detracts from the influence of those whom He is using to proclaim the truth that is to prepare a people to stand in the last days.--Manuscript 10, 1903 (The General Conference Bulletin, March 30, 1903).
------------------------Calebs Still Needed Today, April 25
CTr	122	1	And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. Numbers 13:30.
CTr	122	2	Calebs have been greatly needed in different periods of the history of our work. Today we need workers of thorough fidelity, workers who follow the Lord fully, workers who are not disposed to be silent when they ought to speak, who are as true as steel to principle, who do not seek to make a pretentious show, but who walk humbly with God--patient, kind, obliging, courteous workers, who understand that the science of prayer is to exercise faith and show works that will tell to the glory of God and the good of His people....
CTr	122	3	God will have no leaders in His work who offer divided service. His servants are to take the position that they will not sanction any evil work. To follow Jesus requires wholehearted conversion at the start, and a repetition of this conversion every day.
CTr	122	4	There have been times when a crisis has determined character.... There are workers who have put out their spiritual eyesight. They cannot distinguish between the sacred and the common. Their voice is the loudest when they are in the enemy's service. It will be greatly to their credit to keep still. This is their strength. Silence is their eloquence. It means very much to every person whether he or she is on the Lord's side of the question or on Satan's side.
CTr	122	5	God's people today have far greater light than had ancient Israel. They have not only the increased light that has been shining upon them, but the instruction given by God to Moses, to be given to the people. God specified the difference between the sacred and the common, and declared that this difference must be strictly observed....
CTr	122	6	The Lord has given His people great light and precious instruction. What sorrow, what shame, what agony of soul, has been felt by God's faithful servants who have stood, as did Joshua and Caleb, to hear Israel cast off their leader ... and choose one of their rebellious number to lead them back to Egypt. In their complaints the Israelites blasphemed God. God had signified that the defense of the land of Canaan had departed, and that now was the opportune time for them to enter it.
CTr	122	7	Caleb declared the truth for that and every time: "The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not."--Letter 39, 1899.
------------------------When We Face Difficulties and Tests, April 26
CTr	123	1	Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers. Numbers 14:23.
CTr	123	2	When difficulties arise in any branch of the cause--as they surely will, for the church militant is not the church triumphant--all heaven is watching to see what will be the course of those who are entrusted with sacred responsibilities. Some will stumble; some will give heed to seducing spirits; some will choose darkness rather than light because they are not true to God. Like their Master, those who are abiding in Christ will not fail nor be discouraged....
CTr	123	3	The Lord requires our undivided affections. If people are not whole-hearted, they will fail in the day of test and proving and trial. When the enemy shall put his forces in array against them, and the battle seems to go hard, at the very time when all the strength of intellect and capability, all the tact of wise generalship, is needed to repulse the enemy, those who are halfhearted will turn their weapons against their own soldiers; they weaken the hands that should be strong for warfare.
CTr	123	4	God is testing all who have a knowledge of the truth to see if they can be depended on to fight the battles of the Lord when hard pressed by principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and wicked spirits in high places. Perilous times are before us, and our only safety is in having the converting power of God every day, yielding ourselves fully to Him to do His will and walk in the light of His countenance. (See 1 Peter 2:9).
CTr	123	5	Now when we are just on the borders of the Promised Land, let none repeat the sin of the unfaithful spies.... They made it appear as folly and presumption to think of going up to possess the land. Thus they leavened the whole congregation with their unbelief....
CTr	123	6	While the people were cherishing doubts and believing the unfaithful spies, the golden opportunity for Israel passed by. The inhabitants of the land were aroused to make a determined resistance, and the work that the Lord had prepared to do for them to manifest His greatness and His favor to His people could not be done because of their wicked unbelief and rebellion....
CTr	123	7	Shall it be then in these last days, just before we enter into the heavenly Canaan, that God's people shall indulge the spirit that was revealed by ancient Israel? Men and women full of doubts and criticisms and complaints can sow seeds of unbelief and distrust that will yield an abundant harvest.--Manuscript 6, 1892.
------------------------True Moral and Intellectual Power Originates With God, April 27
CTr	124	1	My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. Numbers 14:24.
CTr	124	2	The whole of the Christian world is involved in the great conflict of faith and unbelief. All will take sides. Some apparently may not engage in the conflict on either side. They may not appear to take sides against the truth, but they do not come out boldly for Christ through fear of losing property or suffering reproach; all such are numbered with the enemies of God.
CTr	124	3	Morality cannot be separated from religion. Not all conservative tradition received from educated persons and from the writings of outstanding people of the past are a safe guide for us in these last days, for the great struggle before us is such as the world has never seen....
CTr	124	4	We are not one of us safe, even with past experience, unless we live as seeing Him who is invisible. Daily, hourly, we must be actuated by the principles of Bible truth--righteousness, mercy, and the love of God. Any person who would have moral and intellectual power must draw from the Divine Source.
CTr	124	5	At every point and decision inquire, Is this the way of the Lord? With your Bibles open before you, consult sanctified reason and a good conscience. Your heart must be moved, your soul touched, your reason and intellect awakened by the Spirit of God. The holy principles laid down in His Word will give light to the soul. I tell you ... our true source of wisdom and virtue and power is in the cross of Calvary. Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith. He says, "Without me ye can do nothing." Jesus is the only sure guarantee for intellectual success and advancement.
CTr	124	6	We need to practice temperance in all things so that the taste may be elevated, the appetite controlled, the passions subdued. The Lord Jesus can supply every grace. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance--these are the fruits borne by the Christian tree....
CTr	124	7	If you would have divine enlightenment, go to the throne of grace, and you will be answered from the seat of mercy. A compact was entered into by the Father and the Son to save the world through Christ, who would give Himself that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. No human power or angelic power could make such a covenant.--Manuscript 16, 1890.
------------------------Acknowledge Correction and Profit From It, April 28
CTr	125	1	Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy. Numbers 16:3.
CTr	125	2	While some under correction will acknowledge that they have been an injury to the cause, there are others who will charge with having an unkind spirit the one who has manifested true friendship by pointing out their wrongs, and will either be impudent or disrespectful to the reprover or will put on the disguise of injured innocence. This martyr-like appearance is a specious hypocrisy and is calculated to deceive those who are easily blinded, who are always ready to sympathize with the wrongdoer....
CTr	125	3	[Korah, Dathan, and Abiram] complained and influenced the people to stand with them in rebellion, and even after God stretched forth His hand and swallowed up the wrongdoers and the people fled to their tents in horror, their rebellion was not cured.
CTr	125	4	The depth of their disaffection was made manifest even under the judgment of the Lord. The morning after the destruction of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and their confederates, the people came to Moses and Aaron saying, "Ye have killed the people of the Lord." For this false charge on the servants of God thousands more were killed, for there was in them sin, exultation, and presumptuous wickedness.
CTr	125	5	Shall the example presented in the history of the children of Israel have any weight with us? Shall those who claim to believe the truth be influenced to judge from their human feelings as did Israel? When the servants of God are called upon to do the disagreeable duty of correcting the erring, let not those upon whom the Lord has not laid this burden stand between the offender and God. If you cannot see matters in the light in which they have been presented, hold your peace; let the arrows of the Almighty fall just where He has directed they shall fall....
CTr	125	6	Reproof and rebuke may, and will, come closer home to individuals than they dream of. God has His work in hand, and declarations will be made that will test the faith and loyalty of the people of God. There are those who have had great light, who are far from God, who in heart are apostates....
CTr	125	7	But we may still rejoice in the fact that it is not yet too late for wrongs to be righted. Jesus is a risen, living Saviour, our Advocate in the courts of heaven. "And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." As soon as sinners see their sins in the light of God's Word, repent, and seek pardon with contrition of soul, confessing their sins, the Lord hears and answers.--Letter 12a, 1893.
------------------------To God, Not Self, Be the Glory, April 29
CTr	126	1	With his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly.... And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, ye shall not bring this congregation into the land. Numbers 20:10-12.
CTr	126	2	It would be the greatest folly in the world for any of us to take credit to ourselves for any success we may have. The more humbly we walk with God, the more will He manifest Himself to us to help us. The Lord never designed to send out His servants to do a work for Him, with all the opposition of Satan and evil angels against them, unless He gives them divine help. The reason that we do not have greater success in the work is that we depend on our own efforts rather than upon the help God will give us.... Consider how Satan rules his agents and works through them to do his work of darkness and deception. It is your privilege to believe that Jesus will work more earnestly for you so that you can do His work....
CTr	126	3	All heaven is interested in the work of those who are to be saved in the kingdom of God. "Without me," says Christ, "ye can do nothing." Therefore there is not one iota of glory that we can take to ourselves. Notwithstanding you may feel your weakness, yet you may link yourself to the mighty God. I know that I am nothing, but Jesus is mighty to save. I can do nothing, but Jesus can do great things. God wants me in the work, but my efforts will be useless without His help.
CTr	126	4	The constant cry of Israel was "It is Moses that has done this," and they did not keep God in view. God had a lesson to teach His people, and when Moses ventured to take the glory to himself, God showed the people that it was not Moses but God who had done the work. At last came the word to Moses, "Thou shalt not go into the holy land." The Lord demonstrated to the Israelitish host whose hand it was that was leading them.
CTr	126	5	When we feel our utter nothingness, it is then that Christ sees it is time for Him to give us His Spirit. He will clothe us with His salvation when we give the whole credit and glory of the work to Him. The Lord help us, my dear brethren and sisters, to learn the precious lessons in the school of Christ. These lessons are meekness and lowliness of heart. Some never learn these lessons. They work and work in themselves, and they do not understand who is the Source of their strength and power.--Manuscript 8, 1886.
------------------------Unbelief and Murmuring Exalt Satan, April 30
CTr	127	1	And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. Numbers 21:8.
CTr	127	2	The same lesson that Christ bade Moses give to the children of Israel in the wilderness is for all such souls suffering under the plague spot of sin. From the billowy cloud Christ spoke to Moses and told him to make a brazen serpent and place it upon a pole, and then bid all that were bitten with the fiery serpents to look and live. What if, in the place of looking as Christ commanded them, they had said, "I do not believe it will do me the least bit of good to look. I am too great a sufferer from the sting of the poisonous serpent." Obedience was the object to be gained, implicit and blind obedience, without stopping to inquire the reason or the science of the matter....
CTr	127	3	Looking at self will give you neither light nor hope nor peace. The longer you look and ponder over these things, the more dark and discouraged will you become. You please the enemy of God and of the human race by keeping in the cave of darkness where there is not a ray of the Light of life....
CTr	127	4	If men and women could only see and realize how their unbelief and mournful murmurings exalt Satan and give him honor, while they rob Jesus Christ of His glory in the work of saving them, wholly and entirely, from all sin! ... He broke the fetters of the tomb and came forth to take again His life that He laid down for us. He ascended on high, having led captivity captive and received gifts for us. All this suffering He endured for us.... He will be our helper, and He will be our refuge in every time of need. He should be revealed in our Christian experience as all-sufficient, a present Saviour.
CTr	127	5	Only look and live. We dishonor God when we do not go forth from the dark cellar of doubts into the upper chamber of hope and faith. When the Light shineth in all its brightness, let us take hold on Jesus Christ by the mighty hand of faith. No longer cultivate your doubts by expressing them and pouring them into other minds, and thus becoming an agent of Satan to sow the seeds of doubt. Talk faith, live faith, cultivate love to God; evidence to the world all that Jesus is to you. Magnify His holy name. Tell of His goodness; talk of His mercy; and tell of His power.--Manuscript 42, 1890.
------------------------In Vision Moses Viewed the Promised Land, May 1
CTr	128	1	Thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel. Deuteronomy 32:52.
CTr	128	2	As he [Moses] looked back upon his experience as a leader of God's people, one wrong act marred the record. If that transgression could be blotted out, he felt that he would not shrink from death. He was assured that repentance, and faith in the promised Sacrifice, were all that God required, and again Moses confessed his sin and implored pardon in the name of Jesus.
CTr	128	3	And now a panoramic view of the Land of Promise was presented to him. Every part of the country was spread out before him, not faint and uncertain in the dim distance, but standing out clear, distinct, and beautiful to his delighted vision. In this scene it was presented, not as it then appeared, but as it would become, with God's blessing upon it, in the possession of Israel. He seemed to be looking upon a second Eden. There were mountains clothed with cedars of Lebanon, hills gray with olives and fragrant with the odor of the vine, wide green plains bright with flowers and rich in fruitfulness, here the palm trees of the tropics, there waving fields of wheat and barley, sunny valleys musical with the ripple of brooks and the song of birds, goodly cities and fair gardens, lakes rich in "the abundance of the seas," grazing flocks upon the hillsides, and even amid the rocks the wild bee's hoarded treasures....
CTr	128	4	Moses saw the chosen people established in Canaan, each of the tribes in its own possession. He had a view of their history after the settlement of the Promised Land; the long, sad story of their apostasy and its punishment was spread out before him. He saw them, because of their sins, dispersed among the heathen, the glory departed from Israel, her beautiful city in ruins, and her people captives in strange lands. He saw them restored to the land of their fathers, and at last brought under the dominion of Rome.
CTr	128	5	He was permitted to look down the stream of time and behold the first advent of our Saviour. He saw Jesus as a babe in Bethlehem.... He followed the Saviour to Gethsemane, and beheld the agony in the garden, the betrayal, the mockery and scourging--the crucifixion....
CTr	128	6	Still another scene opens to his view--the earth freed from the curse, lovelier than the fair Land of Promise so lately spread out before him. There is no sin, and death cannot enter. There the nations of the saved find their eternal home.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 472-477.
------------------------The Grave Cannot Hold God's Sleeping Saints, May 2
CTr	129	1	So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. Deuteronomy 34:5.
CTr	129	2	After sin entered the world Eden had been caught up from the earth, for God would not suffer it to feel the marks of the curse.... As Moses beheld that lovely garden [in vision], an expression of joy came over his countenance. But the servant of God was carried still farther. He saw the earth purified by fire and cleansed from every vestige of sin, every mark of the curse, and renovated and given to the saints to possess forever and ever. He saw the kingdoms of the earth given to the saints of the Most High....
CTr	129	3	In the new earth the prophecies that the Jews applied to the first advent of Christ will be fulfilled. The saints will then be redeemed and made immortal. Upon their heads will be crowns of immortality, and joy and glory will be pictured on their countenances, which will reflect the image of their Redeemer.
CTr	129	4	Moses saw the land of Canaan as it will appear when it becomes the home of the saints. John the revelator was given a view of this same land, of which he writes: "I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God."...
CTr	129	5	As Moses beheld this scene, joy and triumph were expressed in his countenance. He could understand the force of all that the angels revealed to him. He took in the whole scene as it was presented before him. His mind was firm, his intellect clear. His strength was unabated, his eye was undimmed. Then he closed his eyes in death and the angels of God buried him in the mount. And there he slept.
CTr	129	6	But it was not long before Christ came to raise Moses to life. As He stood by the grave and bade him come forth, Satan stood by His side, saying, "I have control over him. I tempted him and he yielded. Even Moses was not able to keep God's law. He has transgressed and has placed himself on my side of the controversy. He appropriated to himself the glory that belonged to God. He is my property, for by his sin he has placed himself in my dominion and in my power."--Manuscript 69, 1912 (Manuscript Releases 10:158, 159).
------------------------Moses' Resurrection Certifies Satan's Defeat, May 3
CTr	130	1	Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. Jude 9.
CTr	130	2	Satan contended earnestly for the body of Moses. Again he sought to enter into controversy with Christ in regard to the injustice of God's law, and with deceiving power reiterated his false statements about not being fairly treated. His accusations were such that Christ did not bring against him the record of the cruel work he had done in heaven by deceptive misrepresentation, the falsehoods he had told in Eden that led to Adam's transgression, and the stirring up of the worst passions of the hosts of Israel to incite them to murmur and rebel until Moses lost command of himself.... Christ did not retaliate in answer to Satan. He brought no railing accusation against him, but raised Moses from the dead and took him to heaven.
CTr	130	3	Here for the first time the power of Christ was exercised to break the power of Satan and give life to the dead. Here began His work of making alive that which was dead. Thus He testified that He was indeed the Resurrection and the Life, that He had power to ransom those whom Satan had made his captives, that although people die they will live again. The question had been asked, "If a man die, shall he live again?" (Job 14:14). The question was now answered.
CTr	130	4	This act was a great victory over the powers of darkness. This display of power was an incontrovertible testimony to the supremacy of the Son of God. Satan had not expected that the body would be raised to life after death. He had concluded that the sentence "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" gave him undisputed possession of the bodies of the dead. Now he saw that he would be despoiled of his prey, that mortals would live again after death.
CTr	130	5	After Moses was raised to life, the heavenly gates of Paradise were opened, and Jesus passed in with His captive. No longer was Moses the captive of Satan. In consequence of his sin Moses merited the penalty of transgression and became subject to death. When he was raised to life he held his title in another name--the name of Jesus his Head.
CTr	130	6	The day of exile is nearly ended. The time is at hand when all who are sleeping in their graves will hear His voice and come forth, some to everlasting life, and some to final destruction. Christ will raise all His saints, glorify them with an immortal body, and open to them the gates of the city of God.--Manuscript 69, 1912 (Manuscript Releases 10:159, 160).
------------------------We Should Convey The Truth In Tactful Words, May 4
CTr	131	1	Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. James 1:12, NRSV.
CTr	131	2	Strong statements often are made by our workers who bear the message of mercy and warning to our world that would better be repressed. Every statement should be carefully considered. Not one word should be spoken that will give the opposers of our faith advantage over us. Let nothing be said in a spirit of retaliation, nothing that will bear even the appearance of railing accusation. Let everyone read and ponder the signification of the scripture that relates how Christ, when contending with Satan about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a railing accusation.
CTr	131	3	Truth will bear the test of all opposition. Let it be put strongly, as in Jesus, and let the characteristics of the worker be hidden in Christ. Let not one word be expressed to stir up the spirit of retaliation in opposers of the truth. Let nothing be done to arouse the dragon-like spirit, for it will reveal itself soon enough, and in all its dragon character, against those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. There are hereditary tendencies and natural dispositions that will wrestle for exhibition, but self must be lost in Jesus. The truth must appear in its beautiful, solemn character, dignified, uplifting, and ennobling. Let souls that are ready to perish receive from the teacher of truth only such impressions as are not perishable, but enduring as eternity. Give opportunity for the Holy Spirit to place the acceptable mold upon the souls that are turning from error to truth, from darkness to light....
CTr	131	4	Guard every word, control every emotion, giving no occasion for Satan to triumph over the believers. The time will come when we shall be called to stand before kings and rulers, magistrates and powers, in vindication of the truth. Then it will be a surprise to those witnesses to learn that their positions, their words, the very expressions made in a careless manner or thoughtless way when attacking error or advancing truth--expressions that they had not thought would be remembered--will be reproduced, and they will be confronted with them, and their enemies will have the advantage, putting their own construction on these words that were spoken unadvisedly.
CTr	131	5	Satanic agencies in disguise are on the track of every true worker for the Master. Let this be borne in mind: all who strive for the faith must strive lawfully, then when brought into strait places they will not be confused and confounded at meeting their own careless assertions, and words spoken from impulse.--Letter 66, 1894.
------------------------God Performs Miracles For A Reason, May 5
CTr	132	1	And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. Joshua 3:17.
CTr	132	2	At this time of the year--in the spring season--the melting snows of the mountains had so raised the Jordan that the river overflowed its banks, making it impossible to cross at the usual fording places. God willed that the passage of Israel over Jordan should be miraculous....
CTr	132	3	At the appointed time began the onward movement, the ark, borne upon the shoulders of the priests, leading the van.... All watched with deep interest as the priests advanced down the bank of the Jordan. They saw them with the sacred ark move steadily forward toward the angry, surging stream, till the feet of the bearers were dipped into the waters. Then suddenly the tide above was swept back, while the current below flowed on, and the bed of the river was laid bare....
CTr	132	4	When the people had all passed over, the ark itself was borne to the western shore. No sooner had it reached a place of security, and "the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up unto the dry land," than the imprisoned waters, being set free, rushed down, a resistless flood, in the natural channel of the stream.
CTr	132	5	Coming generations were not to be without a witness to this great miracle. While the priests bearing the ark were still in the midst of Jordan, twelve men previously chosen, one from each tribe, took up each a stone from the riverbed where the priests were standing, and carried it over to the western side. These stones were set up as a monument in the first camping place beyond the river....
CTr	132	6	The influence of this miracle, both upon the Hebrews and upon their enemies, was of great importance. It was an assurance to Israel of God's continued presence and protection--an evidence that He would work for them through Joshua as He had wrought through Moses....
CTr	132	7	This exercise of divine power in behalf of Israel was designed also to increase the fear with which they were regarded by the surrounding nations, and thus prepare the way for their easier and complete triumph.... To the Canaanites, to all Israel, and to Joshua himself, unmistakable evidence had been given that the living God, the King of heaven and earth, was among His people, and that He would not fail them nor forsake them.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 483-485.
------------------------We Can Follow The Lord With Confidence, May 6
CTr	133	1	And Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. Joshua 5:13, 14.
CTr	133	2	After the death of Moses the reins of government were placed in the hands of Joshua. As the servant of the Lord he was given a special work to do. His office carried with it great honor and responsibility, and the instruction given to Moses was transferred to him in a marked manner. "Now therefore," the Lord said, "arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses."...
CTr	133	3	As Joshua viewed the city of Jericho, and viewed its fortifications, he lifted up his heart in prayer to God, for appearances seemed against him. "And, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand." This was no vision, but Christ in person, His glory hidden by the garb of humanity....
CTr	133	4	Had the eyes of Joshua been opened he would have seen the heavenly host present to take down the walls of Jericho and place the city in the hands of God's people. Now with all confidence Joshua could follow the instruction and leave his burden, so great and perplexing, with the Lord! ...
CTr	133	5	The Lord favored His chosen people with prosperity.... God declared this people to be a holy people unto Himself, and He promised that if they would keep their covenant with Him, He would supply them with every necessity for their happiness.
CTr	133	6	Very definite was the instruction that Christ gave when He made known to Moses the terms of their prosperity, and their freedom from disease. "The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself," He said, "above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt."...
CTr	133	7	This assurance comes to the people of God through their earthly pilgrimage to the heavenly Canaan, where an abundant inheritance is prepared for all who love God and keep His commandments.--Manuscript 134, 1899.
------------------------Victories Are Won By God's Power Not Ours, May 7
CTr	134	1	And it came to pass, when ... the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city ... and they took the city. Joshua 6:20.
CTr	134	2	In obedience to the divine command Joshua marshaled the armies of Israel. No assault was to be made. They were simply to make the circuit of the city, bearing the ark of God and blowing upon trumpets. First came the warriors, a body of chosen men, not now to conquer by their own skill and prowess, but by obedience to the directions given them from God. Seven priests with trumpets followed. Then the ark of God, surrounded by a halo of divine glory, was borne by priests clad in the dress denoting their sacred office. The army of Israel followed, each tribe under its standard.... No sound was heard but the tread of that mighty host and the solemn peal of the trumpets, echoing among the hills and resounding through the streets of Jericho....
CTr	134	3	For six days the host of Israel made the circuit of the city. The seventh day came, and with the first dawn of light, Joshua marshaled the armies of the Lord. Now they were directed to march seven times around Jericho, and at a mighty peal from the trumpets to shout with a loud voice, for God had given them the city....
CTr	134	4	As the seventh circuit was completed, the long procession paused. The trumpets, which for an interval had been silent, now broke forth in a blast that shook the very earth. The walls of solid stone, with their massive towers and battlements, tottered and heaved from their foundations, and with a crash fell in ruin to the earth. The inhabitants of Jericho were paralyzed with terror, and the hosts of Israel marched in and took possession of the city.
CTr	134	5	The Israelites had not gained the victory by their own power; the conquest had been wholly the Lord's; and as the firstfruits of the land, the city, with all that it contained, was to be devoted as a sacrifice to God.... Only faithful Rahab, with her household, was spared, in fulfillment of the promise of the spies....
CTr	134	6	The utter destruction of the people of Jericho was but a fulfillment of the commands previously given through Moses concerning the inhabitants of Canaan: "Thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them."... To many these commands seem to be contrary to the spirit of love and mercy enjoined in other portions of the Bible, but they were in truth the dictates of infinite wisdom and goodness.... The Canaanites had abandoned themselves to the foulest and most debasing heathenism, and it was necessary that the land should be cleared of what would so surely prevent the fulfillment of God's gracious purposes.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 488-492.
------------------------Our Eyes Must Be Fixed On Jesus, May 8
CTr	135	1	I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14.
CTr	135	2	Throughout life we will have our conflicts with the powers of darkness and will be obtaining precious victories. Our eyes must be kept fixed upon the mark of the prize. When Joshua went up from the Jordan to take Jericho, he met a majestic Being, and at once challenged Him: "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" The answer was "As captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.... Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy." Not Joshua, the leader of Israel, but Christ Himself, accomplished the work of taking Jericho.
CTr	135	3	These were the lessons continually given the children of Israel. By directing their attention to the God of heaven, Christ taught them not to take the glory to themselves. Let us not cherish self-exaltation. When we begin to think we are something, let us remember that we have nothing different from or better than other mortals, except what God has given us.
CTr	135	4	When in need, bear in mind our relation to the children of Israel. Their history is clearly traced by the pen of inspiration. We are not to imitate their example of murmuring and repining. God placed upon the lips of Moses no words of condemnation. In this respect they were separate and distinct from other nations.
CTr	135	5	In accepting the religion of Jesus Christ, many seem to think that they are taking a downward step. These are in need of stepping down from their self-esteem and self-righteousness, and humbling themselves before God. But those who place themselves in connection with the living God, as His sons and daughters, are taking steps upward....
CTr	135	6	We are to talk of heaven and heavenly things, keeping ourselves in a position of supplication before God. It is not safe for any of us to feel that we are where our feet cannot slip, but we should feel that the ground whereon we stand is holy. Cleanse the soul temple of its defilement, that Christ may come in and reign supreme. By beholding Jesus Christ, we shall grow up into His likeness. The more closely we are connected with Him, the more clearly we shall see our imperfections.... In order to know the power and strength of true godliness, we must hide in Jesus, dedicating ourselves to Him without reserve.... Fully dedicate your strength, your mind, all your abilities, to God. Wherever He places you, however humble may be your position, work with fidelity.--Manuscript 36, 1885.
------------------------Faith And Trust In Christ Assures True Success, May 9
CTr	136	1	In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33.
CTr	136	2	Our Lord is cognizant of the conflict of His people in these last days with the satanic agencies combined with evil people who neglect and refuse this great salvation. With the greatest simplicity and candor, our Saviour, the mighty General of the armies of heaven, does not conceal the stern conflict that they will experience. He points out the dangers, He shows us the plan of the battle and the hard and hazardous work to be done, and then lifts His voice before entering the conflict, [telling us] to count the cost while at the same time [encouraging] all to take up the weapons of their warfare and expect the heavenly host to compose the armies to war in defense of truth and righteousness.
CTr	136	3	Human weakness shall find supernatural strength and help in every stern conflict to do the deeds of Omnipotence, and perseverance in faith and perfect trust in God will ensure success. While the vast confederacy of evil is arrayed against His people He bids them to be brave and strong and fight valiantly, for they have a heaven to win, and they have more than an angel in their ranks--the mighty General of armies leads on the armies of heaven. As on the occasion of the taking of Jericho, not one of the armies of Israel could boast of exercising their finite strength to overthrow the walls of this city, but the Captain of the Lord's host planned that battle in the greatest simplicity, that the Lord God alone should receive the glory and mortals should not be exalted. God has promised us all power.
CTr	136	4	It is not great talent that we want now, it is humble hearts and direct, consecrated, personal effort, watching, praying, working with all perseverance.... Christ has sent His representative, the Holy Spirit, surrounding His living agents who are employed to pierce the ignorance with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. His voice will give assurance, "Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." The fact is to be ever kept before us that we are carrying forward the warfare in the presence of an invisible world.
CTr	136	5	We are all to calmly depend upon God as we look upon the obstacles and stubborn unbelief and consider all the risks that must be ventured, and then listen to the voice of Jesus: "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Yes, Christ is conqueror. He is our Leader, our Captain, and we can advance to the victory. Because He lives, we shall live also.--Letter 51, 1895.
------------------------God's View Of A Supposed "Small" Sin, May 10
CTr	137	1	There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you. Joshua 7:13.
CTr	137	2	Those who make a profession of Christianity and yet fail to have true piety are false lights, false signboards pointing in a wrong direction.... They fail to bring the principles of the truth they profess to believe into their life practices, and regard their sins and errors as trifling things. When Achan stole the golden wedge and the Babylonish garment, he also thought it was a trifling matter....
CTr	137	3	Because of this one man's sin, the presence of the Lord was withdrawn from the armies of Israel. The Lord would not serve with their sins. When the children of Israel went up against Ai, they were defeated....
CTr	137	4	When they came back in disgrace, overcome by the enemy, "Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?"
CTr	137	5	You can see by the prayer of Joshua, if you have spiritual discernment, that that which was esteemed by Achan as a very little thing was the cause of great anguish and sorrow to the responsible men of Israel.... Achan, the guilty party, did not feel the burden. He took it very coolly....
CTr	137	6	Before the people had gone to take Jericho, they had been instructed what course to pursue. Joshua had said, "The city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein."... Achan had heard all this charge, but he coveted the accursed thing of Jericho, appointed to destruction. He was even ready to steal the gold and silver that were to be consecrated to God and put them into the treasury of his house....
CTr	137	7	Hear the words from the lips of Jesus Christ, who was enshrouded in the cloudy pillar: "Neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you."--Letter 13, 1893 (The Youth's Instructor, January 25, 1894).
------------------------No Sin Can Be Hidden From God, May 11
CTr	138	1	And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel. Joshua 7:15.
CTr	138	2	The Lord did not specify who was the guilty party, but He gave directions as to what was to be done. He said, "In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the Lord shall take shall come ... man by man."
CTr	138	3	In thus sifting the matter to the bottom, the Lord reveals the fact that He is acquainted with the hidden things of dishonesty, however people may think that they are hidden. In all the transaction, Achan manifested a determination not to acknowledge his sin; but now the Lord fastened his sin upon him. Had Joshua declared Achan's sin, many might have sympathized with the guilty one as he protested that he was innocent, and they might, in their human judgment, have thought he was misused and maltreated. It is thus that many do today when people are reproved for sin, for they drop God out of their reckoning. This is the reason that Joshua addressed Achan as he did. He said, "My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me."
CTr	138	4	The Lord had told Joshua just what Achan had done, but so many are led by human sympathy, and the wrongdoer is so often excused, that the Lord meant to give Israel a lesson that should also be of benefit to us in our day. Therefore Joshua entreated the young man to tell him what he had done....
CTr	138	5	Had punishment come upon Achan before he had with his own lips made confession of his wrong, the people, who were naturally ready to rebel, would have charged Joshua with dealing harshly with the young man, and would have denounced him as unmerciful in apportioning so dreadful a punishment....
CTr	138	6	Achan confessed, and said, "Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them ... and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it."...
CTr	138	7	"And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones."--Letter 13, 1893 (The Youth's Instructor, January 25, 1894; The Youth's Instructor, February 1, 1894).
------------------------God Faithfully Fulfills His Promises, May 12
CTr	139	1	Ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you. Joshua 23:3.
CTr	139	2	The wars of conquest ended, Joshua had withdrawn to the peaceful retirement of his home at Timnath-serah.... The Lord had impressed His faithful servant to do as Moses had done before him--to recapitulate the history of the people, and call to mind the terms that the Lord had made with them when He gave them His vineyard.
CTr	139	3	Several years had passed since the people had settled in their possessions, and already could be seen cropping out the same evils that had heretofore brought judgments upon Israel. As Joshua felt the infirmities of age stealing upon him, he was filled with anxiety for the future of his people. It was with more than a father's interest that he addressed them, as they gathered once more about him.... Although the Canaanites had been subdued, they still possessed a considerable portion of the land promised to Israel, and Joshua exhorted the people not to settle down at ease and forget the Lord's commands to utterly dispossess these idolatrous nations....
CTr	139	4	Joshua appealed to the people themselves as witnesses that, so far as they had complied with the conditions, God had faithfully fulfilled His promises to them.... Satan deceives many with the plausible theory that since God's love for His people is so great, He will excuse sin in them; that while the threatenings of God's Word are to serve a certain purpose in His moral government, they are never to be literally fulfilled. But in His dealings with His creatures, God has maintained the principles of righteousness by revealing sin in its true character--by demonstrating that its sure result is misery and death. The unconditional pardon of sin never has been and never will be. Such pardon would show the abandonment of the principles of righteousness that are the very foundation of the government of God....
CTr	139	5	God has faithfully pointed out the results of sin, and if these warnings are not true, how can we be sure that His promises will be fulfilled? That so-called benevolence, which would set aside justice, is not benevolence, but weakness....
CTr	139	6	After presenting the goodness of God toward Israel, Joshua called upon the people, in the name of Jehovah, to choose whom they would serve.... Joshua desired to lead them to serve God, not by compulsion, but willingly. Love to God is the very foundation of religion. To engage in His service merely from the hope of reward or the fear of punishment would avail nothing. Open apostasy would not be more offensive to God than hypocrisy and mere formal worship.--Manuscript 135, 1899 (The Youth's Instructor, June 13, 1901; The Youth's Instructor, June 20, 1901).
------------------------Never Forget God's Leading In The Past, May 13
CTr	140	1	Choose you this day whom ye will serve; ... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15.
CTr	140	2	If those who are still on the stage of action, who have had an experience in the dealings of God in the rise and progress of the work, would stand as did Joshua to strengthen the faith of the people of God by reviewing past blessings and mercies, they themselves would be blessed and they would prove a blessing to those who have not had this experience. If they would recount the sacrifices made by those who led out in the work, and would keep before the people the simplicity of the early workers and the power of God that was manifested to keep the work free from error, delusion, and extravagance, they would have a molding influence upon the workers at this time.
CTr	140	3	When we lose sight of what the Lord has done in the past for His people, we lose sight of His present working in their behalf. Those who enter the work now know comparatively nothing of the self-denial and self-sacrifice of those upon whom the Lord laid the burden of the work at its commencement. This should be told them again and again....
CTr	140	4	A stern conflict is in progress between the Prince of life and the prince of darkness, and this battle calls for constant vigilance on the part of devoted workers.... If men and women refuse to accept the ways of the Lord, if they resist for any cause the light sent them by heaven, they will be found among the workers of iniquity.... When these see the error they have made and realize that they have not had a right spirit, that they have tried to kill that which the Lord would have live, let them honestly and frankly acknowledge their error.... When they humble their hearts before God as did David, confessing that they have erred, they have the sure Word of God that they will find pardon....
CTr	140	5	Satan has been encouraged in his special work for this time. Those who have erred in the past, and have not humbled themselves to fully confess their wrongs and make them right, will continue to move in their own spirit. They will call truth error and error truth. These workers will eventually be found on Satan's side of the controversy....
CTr	140	6	As God is faithful in His promise, so also will He be faithful in His threatenings. Brethren and sisters, I may be silent in the grave before these warnings from God may have the desired effect upon your minds and hearts; but in the words of Paul I say to you, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" everywhere to repent.--Manuscript 23, 1899.
------------------------Unsanctified Desires Are Sometimes Granted, May 14
CTr	141	1	And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 1 Samuel 8:7.
CTr	141	2	We have a living Head, and every person in office where sacred responsibilities are involved must inquire at every step, "Is this the way of the Lord?" All must look constantly and continuously to Jesus for His guidance and maintain principle at any cost. It is not what finite human beings can do, but what God can do through finite people who are teachable, humble, unselfish, and sanctified. We cannot put the least confidence in human ability unless the divine power cooperates with the human....
CTr	141	3	God has given minds and talents to mortals only in trust, on trial, to test and prove them to see if they will work in His way and do His will and put not confidence in themselves alone....
CTr	141	4	When Israel demanded a king to "judge us like all the nations," "the thing displeased Samuel." "And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them."... Israel had become tired of pious rulers who kept God's purposes and God's will and God's honor ever before them according to God's instructions. They wanted a reformed religion that they might by external, flattering prosperity be esteemed great in the eyes of the surrounding nations. As they at one time hankered after the leeks and onions of Egypt, and murmured because they did not have everything to gratify their appetites, and declared their choice to go back into bondage rather than deny their appetites, so they now insulted God to His face in throwing off His wise rule. They were hankering after riches and splendor like those of other nations around them....
CTr	141	5	Satan's mind was imbuing the hearts of people that Israel should follow his own satanic counsel. They were bewitched by the devil to carry out their own purposes even in the face of the solemn protestations from their aged prophet, whom they had every reason to respect and to believe spoke to them the words that God Himself had told him to speak.--Manuscript 40, 1890.
------------------------God Wants To Lead His People--If They Will Only Let Him, May 15
CTr	142	1	Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us. 1 Samuel 8:19.
CTr	142	2	The Lord told Samuel further to grant their [the people's] request, but to bear a strong testimony against them in regard to their sin in choosing a temporal ruler rather than a divine ruler.... To have a king was not after God's arrangement but after the order of the nations who did not know and acknowledge God.
CTr	142	3	After this plain statement they still persisted in having their own way, and Samuel consented. The people still were determined to have a king. They decided that Samuel did not understand the situation. If he only knew all the circumstances, the motives, and the designs, and understood as well as themselves the great advantages, he would be as ready as they to have a king to go in and out before them, that the nations should not look down upon them and despise them. They did not, in their spiritual blindness, look beyond Samuel and discern that it was the word of God that they were hearing through His servant.
CTr	142	4	God was leading and guiding and working for His people in many ways unseen. Their enemies could not distinguish the source of their wisdom and power and who was to be glorified for their wonderful deliverance and marvelous success. God wrought through Gideon. But the manner of their deliverance was of that character that no human being could take the glory, and in recounting the wonderful victory, they could not extol any mortal's wisdom.... The power, the wisdom, and the might were in heaven, but they wanted it upon the earth. It was of God, their mighty King, but they wanted it visibly embodied in a person. In this light God accounted the sin of Israel a rejection of Himself. If they had cherished a sacred, reverent fear of God as their Supreme Ruler, they would never have invested authority in human power, to be controlled by it.
CTr	142	5	Yet the Lord would not leave Saul to be placed in a position of trust without divine enlightenment. He was to have a new calling, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. The effect was that he was changed into a new man. The Lord gave Saul a new spirit, other thoughts, other aims and desires, than he had previously had. This enlightenment, with the spiritual knowledge of God, was to bind his will to the will of Jehovah.
CTr	142	6	Knowing the will of God, which had been plainly stated to him, did Saul bear the test, did he show reverence for God? When brought into a strait place, he did not heed and obey the express command of God, but he ventured to transgress.--Letter 12a, 1888.
------------------------Disobedience To God Bring About Poor Excuses, May 16
CTr	143	1	Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22.
CTr	143	2	The last days are upon us, and Satan is working with all his hellish arts to deceive and destroy souls. Reproofs by testimony are met almost universally, by the ones corrected and reproved, with "I believe the testimonies, but I do not understand them." The Lord has corrected their wrong ways in order to save them from unhappiness, deception, and ruin; but they pass on the same as if light and warnings had never come to them. If they were in harmony with God, they would not be departing from Him. It is because they are so far departed from God that they do not hear His voice as He calls to them, "Return unto me, and I will return unto you," "and I will heal your backslidings."
CTr	143	3	Saul, after he had disobeyed the requirement of God to destroy the Amalekites, met Samuel and said, "Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears?"... The answer was the same that we have heard in similar cases--an excuse, a falsehood: "The people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God." Saul did not say "my" or "our," but "thy" God. Many who profess to be serving God are in the same position as Saul--covering over ambitious projects, pride of display, with a garment of pretended righteousness....
CTr	143	4	Samuel looked upon Saul with indignation, yet with deep pity and undisguised grief for the sinful course of one he loved sincerely; but this love must not close his lips.... Samuel then spake the cutting words of the Lord.... "Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king."...
CTr	143	5	Oh, how few can know the sadness of heart that Samuel bore back to Ramah! God had laid upon him the burden of Saul and the burden of this terrible message that he must bear to the monarch.
CTr	143	6	Sinners seldom feel right in regard to reproof. They blame the ones who open their lips to speak the words of warning, as though it were a personal matter. In their blindness they fail to see that they are flinging from them, in their stubborn resistance, the last offer of light and mercy.--Manuscript 1a, 1890.
------------------------Kindness Overcomes Selfishness, May 17
CTr	144	1	And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal. 1 Samuel 25:19.
CTr	144	2	The Lord would have the wife render respect unto her husband, but always as it is fit in the Lord. In the character of Abigail, the wife of Nabal, we have an illustration of womanhood after the order of Christ, while her husband illustrates what a man may become who yields himself to the control of Satan. When David was a fugitive from the face of Saul, he had camped near the possessions of Nabal and had protected the flocks and the shepherds of this man from all depredation while in Carmel. In a time of need David sent messengers to Nabal with a courteous message, asking for food for himself and his men, and Nabal answered with insolence, returning evil for good and refusing to share his abundance with his neighbors....
CTr	144	3	Nabal accused David and his men falsely in order to justify himself in his selfishness, and represented David and his followers as runaway slaves.... One of the young men in the employ of Nabal, fearing that evil results would follow Nabal's insolence, came and stated the case to Nabal's wife, knowing that she had a different spirit from her husband and was a woman of great discretion. He set forth the true character of Nabal as he presented the difficulties to her, saying, "Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him."
CTr	144	4	Abigail saw that something must be done to avert the result of Nabal's fault, and that she must take the responsibility of acting immediately, without the counsel of her husband. She knew that it would be useless to speak to him, for he would receive her proposition only with abuse and contempt. He would remind her that he was the lord of his household, that she was his wife and therefore in subjection to him and must do as he should dictate.... She gathered together such stores as she thought best to conciliate the wrath of David, for she knew he was determined to avenge himself for the insult he had received....
CTr	144	5	Abigail's course in this matter was one that God approved, and the circumstance revealed in her a noble spirit and character.... Abigail met David with respect, showing him honor and deference, and pleaded her cause eloquently and successfully. While not excusing her husband's insolence, she still pleaded for his life. She also revealed the fact that she was not only a discreet woman, but a godly woman, acquainted with the works and ways of God in David.--Manuscript 17, 1891 (Manuscript Releases 21:213, 214).
------------------------The Fruits Of A Soft Answer, May 18
CTr	145	1	A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. Proverbs 15:1.
CTr	145	2	Abigail's manner and conciliatory gifts softened the spirit of David. He declared that it had been his intention to destroy Nabal and his household, but that now he would refrain from vengeance, for he believed that she had been sent by the Lord to prevent him from doing so great an evil. He promised that her request should be ever remembered, even when he should sit as ruler over Israel, and he would never seek retaliation for the insult of Nabal.
CTr	145	3	Although Nabal had refused the needy company of David and his men, yet that very night he made an extravagant feast for himself and his riotous friends, and indulged in eating and drinking till he sank in drunken stupor. The next day after the effects of his drunken debauch had somewhat passed away, his wife told him of how near he had been to death, and of how the calamity had been averted.... Palsied with horror, he sat down and never recovered from the shock.
CTr	145	4	From this history we can see that there are circumstances under which it is proper for a woman to act promptly and independently, moving with decision in the way she knows to be the way of the Lord. The wife is to stand by the side of the husband as his equal, sharing all the responsibilities of life, rendering due respect to him who has selected her for his life-long companion. "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he [referring to Christ] is the saviour of the body," or church.... When the Spirit of Christ controls the husband, the wife's subjection will result only in rest and benefit, for he will require from her only that which will result in good, and in the same way that Christ requires submission from the church....
CTr	145	5	When the husband has the nobility of character, purity of heart, and elevation of mind that every true Christian must possess, it will be made manifest in the marriage relation. If he has the mind of Christ he will not be a destroyer of the body, but will be full of tender love, seeking to reach the highest standard in Christ. He will seek to keep his wife in health and courage....
CTr	145	6	The Lord Jesus has not been correctly represented in His relation to the church by many husbands in their relation to their wives, for they do not keep the way of the Lord.... It was not the design of God that the husband should have control, as head of the house, when he himself does not submit to Christ.--Manuscript 17, 1891 (Manuscript Releases 21:214, 215).
------------------------Instruction Of God To Be Carefully Cherished, May 19
CTr	146	1	How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Beth-lehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. 1 Samuel 16:1.
CTr	146	2	When God called David from his father's sheepfold to anoint him king of Israel, He saw in him one to whom He could impart His Spirit. David was susceptible to the influence of the Holy Spirit, and the Lord in His providence trained him for His service, preparing him to carry out His purposes....
CTr	146	3	How joyfully David triumphs in God and his relation to Him. "Who is a rock save our God? ... The Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted." He is my strength, my power. He is the source and foundation of all my blessings. He is to be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. He is my strength, my support. He it is who keeps me safe. In Him will I trust....
CTr	146	4	After David had been made king of Israel, God did not compliment him on his exalted position or his dignity and the extent of his power, but instructed him in regard to the obligations resting on him. This instruction was to be carefully cherished as the Word of the Lord for all who should follow David as rulers of the people. They were to be often repeated as lessons of counsel to future generations....
CTr	146	5	The heavier the responsibilities that people bear, the more humble should they be and the more jealous of themselves, lest they withdraw their confidence from God and become haughty, overbearing, presumptuous, and self-exalted. This is the danger threatening those who have been especially favored by God. Unless they become wise in the wisdom of God, and strive constantly to reveal the attributes of God, they are in danger of thinking themselves sufficient for all things....
CTr	146	6	Those placed in positions of responsibility should be men and women who fear God, who realize that they are humans only, not God. They should be people who will rule under God and for Him. Will they give expression to the will of God for His people? Do they allow selfishness to tarnish word and action? Do they, after obtaining the confidence of the people as leaders of wisdom who fear God and keep His commandments, belittle the exalted position that the people of God should occupy in these days of peril? Will they through self-confidence become false guideposts, pointing the way to friendship with the world instead of the way to heaven?--Manuscript 163, 1902.
------------------------One Sin Often Forces Another, May 20
CTr	147	1	And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die. 2 Samuel 12:5.
CTr	147	2	The Bible has little to say in praise of mortals. Little space is given to recounting the virtues of even the best men and women who have ever lived. This silence is not without purpose; it is not without a lesson. All the good qualities that people possess are the gift of God; their good deeds are performed by the grace of God through Christ....
CTr	147	3	It was the spirit of self-confidence and self-exaltation that prepared the way for David's fall.... According to the customs prevailing among Eastern rulers, crimes not to be tolerated in subjects were uncondemned in the king; the monarch was not under obligation to exercise the same self-restraint as the subject. All this tended to lessen David's sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin.... As soon as Satan can separate the soul from God, the only Source of strength, he will seek to arouse the unholy desires of humanity's carnal nature....
CTr	147	4	When in ease and self-security he let go his hold upon God, David yielded to Satan and brought upon his soul the stain of guilt.... Bathsheba, whose fatal beauty had proved a snare to the king, was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of David's bravest and most faithful officers.... Every effort that David made to conceal his guilt proved unavailing. He had betrayed himself into the power of Satan.... There appeared but one way of escape, and in his desperation he was hurried on to add murder to adultery....
CTr	147	5	Nathan the prophet was bidden to bear a message of reproof to David. It was a message terrible in its severity. To few sovereigns could such a reproof be given but at the price of certain death to the reprover.... Appealing to David as the divinely appointed guardian of his people's rights, the prophet repeated a story of wrong and oppression that demanded redress....
CTr	147	6	Nathan fixed his eyes upon the king; then, lifting his right hand to heaven, he solemnly declared, "Thou art the man." "Wherefore," he continued, "hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight?" The guilty may attempt, as David had done, to conceal their crime...; they may seek to bury the evil deed forever from human sight or knowledge; but "all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."...
CTr	147	7	The prophet's rebuke touched the heart of David; conscience was aroused; his guilt appeared in all its enormity. His soul was bowed in penitence before God. With trembling lips he said, "I have sinned against the Lord."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 717-722.
------------------------In Adversity The Character Is Revealed, May 21
CTr	148	1	And David said unto all his servants that were with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee; for we shall not else escape from Absalom. 2 Samuel 15:14.
CTr	148	2	David was never more worthy of admiration than in his hour of adversity. Never was this cedar of God truly greater than when wrestling with the storm and tempest.... With spirits broken and in tearful emotion, but without one expression of repining, he turns his back upon the scenes of his glory and also of his crime, and pursues his flight for his life.
CTr	148	3	Shimei comes forth as David passes and, with a storm of curses, hurls against him invectives, throwing stones and dirt. Said one of David's faithful men, "Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head." David in his sorrow and humility says, "Let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David."...
CTr	148	4	When the march of the procession is arrested by Zadok and Abiathar with the Levites who come bearing the ark of God, the symbol of God's presence, David for a moment sees the star of hope amid the clouds, for with this precious token with him, he may greatly improve his situation....
CTr	148	5	But how unselfish, how noble, is the man David! In his overwhelming affliction, David's resolution is taken. He, like the tall cedar of Lebanon, looks toward heaven. The royal command is "Carry back the ark of God into the city."... His reverence and respect for the ark of God would not allow him to consent that it should be imperiled by his vicissitudes in his hasty flight....
CTr	148	6	To rob the city of that symbol that gives it the name of the "Mount of Holiness," he could not consent. Had he possessed selfish motives and a high opinion of himself, he would gladly have gathered everything that would build up his sinking fortunes and give him power to secure his safety. But he sends back to its place the sacred chest and will make no advancement until he sees the priests returning with the hallowed burden, to place it in the tabernacle of Zion....
CTr	148	7	The voice of conscience, more terrible than Shimei, was bringing his sins to his mind. Uriah was continually before his eyes. His great crime was the sin of adultery.... Although he did not with his own hand kill Uriah, he knew that the guilt of his death rested upon him....
CTr	148	8	He recalled how ofttimes God had worked for him, and thought, "If He accepts my repentance, He may yet give me His favor and turn my mourning to joy.... On the other hand, if He has no delight in me, if He has forgotten me, if He will leave me to exile or to perish, I will not murmur. I deserve His judgments and will submit to it all."--Letter 6, 1880.
------------------------David's Remorse Was As Great As Was His Guilt, May 22
CTr	149	1	I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15, NRSV.
CTr	149	2	Sinners seldom feel right in regard to reproof.... How little sympathy they feel for the one who has carried the heavy load the Lord has laid upon him! They assume the role of a martyr and think they deserve great pity, because they are reproved and counseled contrary to their own ideas and feelings. They may admit some things, but with dogged persistency they hold fast to their errors, their own ideas. "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." To all intents and purposes the Word of God is rejected....
CTr	149	3	How different was the character of David! Though he had sinned, when God sent him sharp rebukes he always bowed under the chastisement of the Lord. David was beloved of God, not because he was a perfect man, but because he did not cherish stubborn resistance to God's expressed will. His spirit did not rise up in rebellion against reproof....
CTr	149	4	David erred greatly, but he was just as greatly humbled and his contrition was as profound as his guilt. There was never a person more humble than David under a sense of his sin. He showed himself a strong man, not in always resisting temptation, but in the contrition of soul and sincere penitence manifested. He never lost his confidence in God, who put the stern rebuke in the mouth of His prophet. He had no hatred for the prophet of God. He was beloved, also, because he relied upon the mercy of a God whom he had loved and served and honored.
CTr	149	5	To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. David did not take counsel of associates who were sinning against God. This is where many fail. They are left in midnight darkness because they choose to counsel with those who walk not in the counsel of the Lord. They will excuse sin in the sinner when it is not repented of, and pass over wrongs when God has not forgiven them. David trusted in God more than in humans. The decision of God was accepted as just and merciful. Oh, how many are walking in blindness and leading others in the same path, where both must perish because they will not heed the reproofs of the Spirit of God!--Manuscript 1a, 1890.
------------------------To Receive God's Pardon Is To Receive His Justification, May 23
CTr	150	1	Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Psalm 32:1, 2, NRSV.
CTr	150	2	Many commit the error of trying to define minutely the fine points of distinction between justification and sanctification. Into the definitions of these two terms they often bring their own ideas and speculations. Why try to be more minute than is Inspiration on the vital question of righteousness by faith? Why try to work out every minute point, as if the salvation of the soul depended upon all having exactly your understanding of this matter? All cannot see in the same line of vision. You are in danger of making a world of an atom, and an atom of a world.
CTr	150	3	As penitent sinners, contrite before God, discern Christ's atonement in their behalf, and accept this atonement as their only hope in this life and the future life, their sins are pardoned. This is justification by faith. Every believing soul is to conform his or her will entirely to God's will, and keep in a state of repentance and contrition, exercising faith in the atoning merits of the Redeemer, and advancing from strength to strength, from glory to glory. Pardon and justification are one and the same thing....
CTr	150	4	Justification is the opposite of condemnation. God's boundless mercy is exercised toward those who are wholly undeserving. He forgives transgressions and sins for the sake of Jesus, who has become the propitiation for our sins. Through faith in Christ the guilty transgressor is brought into favor with God and into the strong hope of life eternal....
CTr	150	5	David was pardoned of his transgression because he humbled his heart before God in repentance and contrition of soul and believed that God's promise to forgive would be fulfilled. He confessed his sin, repented, and was reconverted. In the rapture of the assurance of forgiveness he exclaimed, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." The blessing comes because of pardon; pardon comes through faith that the sin, confessed and repented of, is borne by the great Sin-bearer. Thus from Christ cometh all our blessings. His death is an atoning sacrifice for our sins. He is the great medium through whom we receive the mercy and favor of God. He, then, is indeed the Originator, the Author, as well as the Finisher, of our faith.--Manuscript 21, 1891 (Manuscript Releases 9:300, 301).
------------------------David's Experiences Were Like Ours, May 24
CTr	151	1	Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Psalm 28:1.
CTr	151	2	David was a representative human being. His history is of interest to every soul who is striving for eternal victories. In his life two powers struggled for the mastery. Unbelief marshaled its forces, and tried to eclipse the light shining upon him from the throne of God. Day by day the battle went on in his heart, Satan disputing every step of advance made by the forces of righteousness. David understood what it meant to fight against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. At times it seemed that the enemy must gain the victory. But in the end, faith conquered, and David rejoiced in the saving power of Jehovah.
CTr	151	3	The struggle that David went through, every other follower of Christ must go through. Satan has come down with great power, knowing that his time is short. The controversy is being waged in full view of the heavenly universe, and angels stand ready to lift up for God's hard-pressed soldiers a standard against the enemy, and to put into their lips songs of victory and rejoicing.--Manuscript 38, 1905 (The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 3, pp. 1142, 1143, Ellen G. White Comments).
CTr	151	4	Wherever the will of God is violated by nations or by individuals a day of retribution comes. Many set aside the wisdom of God and prefer the wisdom of worldly people and adopt some human invention or device. David placed the Word of God beside him on his throne. He was then immovable. But forsaking its doctrines he sullied one of the fairest reputations....
CTr	151	5	We must bring our religion to the Bible standard. We must not place ourselves where we claim wisdom to welcome or reject God's words at pleasure. Never let the world think that the Christian and the world are the same in mind and judgment. There is a line drawn between the eternal God and the church on one side and the world on the other. There is no unity between the two. One chooses the way of the Lord, the other the ways of Satan. There will always be found a necessity to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints....
CTr	151	6	People of the world hate the Bible because it will not let them sin just as they please and carry along with them their hereditary and cultivated traits of character. They want their own ideas to be cherished as the mind of God. They oppose the Word of God for the same reason that the Jews cried "Away with Christ!" because He rebuked their sins and laid bare their iniquities.--Letter 16, 1888 (Manuscript Releases 21:169).
------------------------God's Punishments--Preferable To Those Of Mortals? May 25
CTr	152	1	Then David said to Gad, "I am in great distress: let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into human hands." 2 Samuel 24:14, NRSV.
CTr	152	2	It was an insult to God when David numbered Israel. God's rebuke rested upon him, for he made himself as God, as though he could tell the strength of the armies of Israel by their numbers. "This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." God looks not on the numbers of Israel for the success of His work. His armies number thousands of thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. These cooperate with the people who will connect with God to be channels of light.--Manuscript 17, 1898.
CTr	152	3	The soul that is conscious of sincere and honest intentions finds less to fear from God than from people who have hearts of steel. The soul wrenched with human agony turns away from the misjudgment and condemnation of people who cannot read the heart, yet have taken it upon them to judge their associates. He turns to One who is without a shadow of misapprehension, One who knows all the impulses of the heart, who is acquainted with all the circumstances of temptation. God knows every deed of the past life, and yet in consideration of all this, the troubled soul is ready to trust his or her case with God, knowing that He is a God of mercy and compassion.
CTr	152	4	When David was bidden to choose the punishment for his sin, he said, "Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man." He felt that God knew the struggle and anguish of the soul. When people are enabled to catch a glimpse of the character of God, they see not in Him the heartless, vindictive spirit manifested by human agents; they see that affliction and trial are God's appointed means of disciplining His children, and teaching them His way, that they may lay hold of His grace.... As poor backsliding souls are led to the river of God's love, they exclaim, When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold purified. Suffering souls are made patient, trustful, triumphant in God under adverse circumstances....
CTr	152	5	When finite, erring human beings give evidence that they regard themselves as of greater importance than God, when they think themselves righteous, yet do not manifest the tenderness of spirit that characterized the life of our Lord Jesus, we may know that unless they repent, the candlestick will quickly be removed out of its place.--Manuscript 7, 1895 (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 354-356).
------------------------Our Ideas Of God Are Based On Our Experiences, May 26
CTr	153	1	I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. Psalm 77:11, 12.
CTr	153	2	Be careful how you interpret Scripture. Read it with a heart opened to the entrance of God's Word, and it will express Heaven's light, giving understanding unto the simple. This does not mean the weak-minded but those who do not stretch themselves beyond their measure and ability in trying to be original and independent in reaching after knowledge above that which constitutes true knowledge....
CTr	153	3	The psalmist David in his experience had many changes of mind. At times as he obtained views of God's will and ways, he was highly exalted. Then as he caught sight of the reverse of God's mercy and changeless love, everything seemed to be shrouded in a cloud of darkness.... When he meditated upon the difficulties and dangers of life, they looked so forbidding that he thought himself abandoned by God because of his sins. He viewed his sin in such a strong light that he exclaimed, "Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?"
CTr	153	4	As he wept and prayed, he obtained a clearer view of the character and attributes of God, and being educated by heavenly agencies, he decided that his ideas of God's justice and severity were exaggerated.... As David considered His [God's] pledges and promises to them [Israel], knowing they were for all who need them as much as for Israel, he appropriated them to himself....
CTr	153	5	As David appropriated these promises and privileges to himself, he decided that he would no longer be hasty in judgment, becoming discouraged and casting himself down in helpless despair. His soul took courage as he contemplated the general character of God as displayed in His teaching, His forbearance, His surpassing greatness and mercy, and he saw that the works and wonders of God are to have no confined application.
CTr	153	6	But again David's experience changed. As he saw that transgressors and sinners were allowed to receive blessings and favors, while those who really loved God were compassed with difficulties and perplexities that the open sinner did not have, he thought that God's ways were not equal...."For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.... They are not in trouble as other men."
CTr	153	7	David could not understand this till he went into the sanctuary of God, and then, he says, "Understood I their end." "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.... It is good for me to draw near to God."--Manuscript 4, 1896.
------------------------Churches To Be Built To God's Glory, May 27
CTr	154	1	Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord ... and all that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of the Lord, and in his own house, he prosperously effected. 2 Chronicles 7:11.
CTr	154	2	Nearly three thousand years ago by divine appointment the temple was built in Jerusalem. The nation of God's choice had been greatly favored; they dwelt in costly houses while they still worshiped God in the curtained tabernacle. Here the Shekinah, the visible emblem of God's presence, dwelt between the cherubim, and out of the perfection of beauty God shined....
CTr	154	3	There have been times when it seemed necessary to worship God in very humble places; but the Lord did not withhold His Spirit nor refuse His presence because of this. It was the best His people could do at the time, and if they worshiped Him in Spirit and in truth, He never reproved or condemned their efforts....
CTr	154	4	The Lord reminded David of the lowly position he was in when He called him and entrusted him with great responsibilities, and He would have him ever bear in mind that his prosperity and success came through the blessing of God and not through any inherited goodness that he possessed. Although God did not allow him to carry out the wish of his heart, He granted him the next highest honor, that of entrusting the work to his son.
CTr	154	5	Solomon received special wisdom from God. Yet Solomon did not find among the workers of his nation and religion those qualifications, that fine skill, that he deemed essential to carry forward the work of building a temple for the God of heaven. He was therefore obliged to send away for artisans, people who would do justice to the responsible work entrusted to them....
CTr	154	6	We have no command from God to erect a building that will compare for richness and splendor with the temple. But we are to build a humble house of worship, plain and simple, neat and perfect in its design. Then let those who have means look to it that they are as liberal and tasteful in erecting a temple wherein we may worship God as they have been in locating and building and furnishing their own houses. Let them manifest a willingness and a desire to show greater honor to God than themselves. Let them build with nicety, but not with extravagance. Let the house be built conveniently and thoroughly so that when it is presented to God He can accept it and let His Spirit rest upon the worshipers who have an eye single to His glory.... Let everyone, old and young, bring gifts and donations to help in building a house for God.--Manuscript 23, 1886.
------------------------Churches Should Be Suitable Dwelling Places For God, May 28
CTr	155	1	The king [David] said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. 2 Samuel 7:2.
CTr	155	2	David, while dwelling in his palace of cedar, felt disturbed in his conscience as he considered that there was no suitable dwelling place for the ark of God, which symbolized His presence. It still rested in the tabernacle which had been constructed in the wilderness, and borne all the way from Horeb to Jerusalem in a pilgrimage of nearly forty years. But now the nation had ended their pilgrimage and obtained a permanent location. David looked around him upon the costly buildings of cedar, the homes of the inhabitants settled in the goodly land of Canaan, and conceived the idea that a temple should be built, more worthy for the residence of God. The site of the building was indicated and the most complete instructions were given, and Solomon entered upon the great work....
CTr	155	3	The people that built the temple were many and the house that they built was large and grand; and the Lord God of heaven honored them because they had built Him a sanctuary where they could meet to worship Him. Those that worshiped Him sincerely had His blessing.
CTr	155	4	The first tabernacle, built according to God's directions, was indeed blessed of Him. The people thus were preparing themselves to worship in the temple not made with hands--a temple in the heavens. The stones of the temple built by Solomon were all prepared at the quarry and then brought to the temple site. They came together without the sound of ax or hammer. The timbers were also fitted in the forest. The furniture was likewise brought to this house all prepared for use.
CTr	155	5	Even so, the mighty cleaver of truth has taken out a people from the quarry of the world and is fitting this people, who profess to be the children of God, for a place in His heavenly temple. We want the cleaver of truth to do its work for us.... We are here as probationers, and we must pass under the hand of God. All rough edges and rough surfaces must be removed, and we must be stones fitted for the building. We are brought into church capacity with defects of character, but we must not retain them. We must be fitted and squared for the building. We must be "labourers together with God," for we are "God's husbandry," we are "God's building." In view of this we must see that the temple is not defiled with sin. We should be lively stones, not dead ones, but live ones that will reflect the image of Christ. We must be worshipers in spirit and in truth.--Manuscript 49, 1886 (Manuscript Releases 3:230-232).
------------------------Leaders With Various Talents Are Needed In God's Church, May 29
CTr	156	1	Keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God: that ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you for ever. 1 Chronicles 28:8.
CTr	156	2	The last great work of David in his official position was to call the attention of the people once more to their solemn relation to God as subjects of His theocracy....
CTr	156	3	Fidelity to God is required for the reception of the blessings that He has promised to impart to all who obey His instruction. All who are accepted in His service are required to do His commandments. If with heart and mind and soul they do His holy will, they become representatives of His kingdom.
CTr	156	4	David's solemn charge should be kept in mind by those who are in positions of trust today, for it is as verily binding upon these people as it was upon Solomon at the time it was given. In this our day of probation God's people are being tested and tried as surely as they were in the days of Solomon.
CTr	156	5	This whole chapter [1 Chronicles 28] is of importance to all the people of God living in this age.... God's service is not committed to one person's judgment and option, but is divided among those who are willing to labor interestedly and self-sacrificingly. Thus all, according to the skill and ability God has given them, bear the responsibilities that He has appointed to them. The important interests of a great nation were entrusted to leaders whose talents fitted them to handle these responsibilities. Some were chosen to direct the business affairs; others were chosen to look after spiritual matters connected with the worship of God. All the religious service and every branch of the business was to bear the signature of heaven. "Holiness Unto the Lord" was to be the motto of the laborers in every department. It was regarded as essential that everything be conducted with regularity, propriety, fidelity, and dispatch.
CTr	156	6	To all who are engaged in His service, the Lord gives wisdom. The tabernacle to be borne in the wilderness, and the temple at Jerusalem, were built in accordance with special directions from God. In the very beginning He was particular as to the design and the accomplishment of His work. In this age of the world He has given His people much light and instruction in regard to how His work is to be carried forward--on an elevated, refined, ennobling basis.--Manuscript 81, 1900.
------------------------Exercise Care In Forming Friendships, May 30
CTr	157	1	If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. James 1:5, NRSV.
CTr	157	2	All the wisdom that people possess is God's gift, and He can and will impart wisdom to every person who asks it of Him in faith. Solomon sought wisdom from God, and it was given him in large measure. But how did the universe of heaven look upon him when he perverted that wisdom and employed God's great and holy gift to exalt himself? God chose him to build the temple, but how he perverted the sacred trust! He leagued himself with idolatrous nations. Thus he, who at the dedication of the temple had prayed that their hearts might be undividedly given to the Lord, himself began to separate his heart from God. He imperiled his soul's interest by the formation of friendships with the Lord's enemies.
CTr	157	3	What carefulness should be exercised in the formation of friendship! Companionship with the world will surely lower the standard of religious principle. Solomon's heathen wives turned away his heart from God. His finer sensibilities were blunted, and he became hardhearted, for he lost his sympathy for humankind and his love for God. His conscience was seared, and his rule became tyranny.
CTr	157	4	Solomon prepared the way for his own ruin when he sought for wise artisans from other nations to build the temple. God had been the educator of His people, and He designed that they should stand in His wisdom, and with His imparted talents they should be second to none. If they had the clean hands, the pure heart, and the noble, sanctified purpose, the Lord would communicate to them His grace. But Solomon looked to worldlings instead of God, and he found his supposed strength to be weakness. He brought to Jerusalem the leaven of the evil influences that were perpetuated in polygamy and idolatry. It was no question as to who made Israel to sin.
CTr	157	5	Although Solomon afterward repented, his repentance could not abolish the idolatrous practices that he had brought into the nation. We shall individually transmit an inheritance of either good or evil. The silver of Tarshish and the gold of Ophir were obtained by Solomon at a terrible expense, even the betrayal of sacred trusts. The evil communications with heathen nations corrupted good manners. When the Lord's people turn from the God of all wisdom, and look to people who love not God, in order to obtain wisdom and arrive at decisions, the Lord will allow them to follow that wisdom that is not from above but from beneath.--Manuscript 44, 1894 (The General Conference Bulletin, February 25, 1895).
------------------------Departure From Integrity May Imperil The Soul, May 31
CTr	158	1	And the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel. 1 Chronicles 29:25.
CTr	158	2	Solomon, who had once solemnly charged the people at the dedication of the temple, "Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God," chose his own way and in his heart separated from God. He might have linked himself with God and have received more and still more of the knowledge of God, but he betrayed his trust and wandered farther and farther from God....
CTr	158	3	Looking upon this picture, we see what human beings become when they separate from God. One false step prepares the way for a second and a third, and every step is taken more easily than the last. Let us beware of imperiling the soul by departing from the principles of integrity. There is no safety in tampering with the divine safeguards of peace and righteousness.
CTr	158	4	Did the Lord make a mistake in placing Solomon in a position of so great responsibility? Nay; God prepared him to bear these responsibilities and promised him grace and strength on condition of obedience. "Then shalt thou prosper," David said to him, "if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed."
CTr	158	5	The Lord sets people in responsible places, not to act out their own wills, but His will. So long as they cherish His pure principles of government, He will bless and strengthen them, recognizing them as His instrumentalities. God never forsakes the one who is true to principle.
CTr	158	6	Let those in positions of responsibility remember that we are approaching the perils of the last days. The whole world is passing in review before God.... Let none make erring, finite beings their guide. God is the one who stands behind mortals, the one from whom all receive the wisdom and knowledge that enable them to do anything good. And God is willing to help everyone. He is no respecter of persons.
CTr	158	7	Let those upon whom the Lord bestows rich gifts be guarded, lest pride and self-sufficiency obtain the control. The person who exerts a wide influence, the one that people are willing to follow, needs to be constantly prayed for and admonished by other workers. Let them pray that he or she may be kept from pride and self-exaltation.--Manuscript 164, 1902.
------------------------Prosperity Sometimes Causes Spiritual Downfall, June 1
CTr	159	1	Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. Ecclesiastes 2:11.
CTr	159	2	Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs, but after a time his wisdom became mingled with chaff. Whence came the chaff? After a manhood of such glorious promise, a change came in Solomon's history. He did not continue true to his purity and allegiance to God. He broke through the barriers that God had erected to preserve His people from idolatry. The Lord had singled out Israel as a nation, making them the depositories of sacred truth to be given to the world. But Solomon cherished pride of political powers. He encouraged alliances with pagan kingdoms....
CTr	159	3	In the early part of his reign, Solomon was visited by the queen of Sheba. She came to see and hear his wisdom, and after she had heard him she said that the half had not been told her. But his wise and strictly just reign changed. He who had known God and the truth made a great outlay of means to please his godless wives. He made expensive gardens. God's money, which should have been held sacred to help the poor among the people, as God directed, was absorbed by the king's ambitious projects. It was diverted from its original channel.... The suffering ones were not given houses and food and clothing as God had specified they should be given. By his extravagant outlay of means Solomon sought to please his wives and glorify himself. Thus he used the means that had been abundant and brought a heavy taxation upon the poor....
CTr	159	4	His moral efficiency was gone, as the power is gone from a paralytic. He made an effort to incorporate light with darkness, to serve God and mammon. He felt at liberty to experiment in wild license. But Belial and purity could not mingle, and the course the king pursued brought its own penalty. He separated from God, and the knowledge of God departed from him....
CTr	159	5	People who have the use of money are to learn a lesson from the history of Solomon. Those who have a competence are in continual danger of thinking that money and position will ensure them respect and they need not be so particular. But self-exaltation is but a bubble. By misusing the talents given him, Solomon apostatized from God. When God gives people prosperity, they are to beware of following the imaginations of their own hearts, lest they endanger the simplicity of their faith and deteriorate in religious experience.--Manuscript 40, 1898.
------------------------Satan Arranges Overpowering Temptations, June 2
CTr	160	1	Those to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they lack nothing of all that they desire, yet God does not enable them to enjoy these things, but a stranger enjoys them. Ecclesiastes 6:2, NRSV.
CTr	160	2	The life of Solomon is full of warning, not only to youth but to those of mature years, and to the aged, those who are descending the hill of life and facing the western sun. We see and hear of unsteadiness in youth, the young wavering between right and wrong and the current of evil passions proving too strong for them. But we do not look for unsteadiness and unfaithfulness in those of mature years; we expect the character to be established, the principles to be firmly rooted. In many cases this is so, but there are exceptions, as with Solomon.... When his strength should have been the firmest, he was found the weakest of men....
CTr	160	3	We need to inquire at every step, "Is this the way of the Lord?" As long as life shall last, there is need of guarding the affections and the passions with a firm purpose. There is inward corruption; there are outward temptations, and wherever the work of God shall be advanced, Satan plans to arrange circumstances so that temptation shall come with overpowering force upon the soul....
CTr	160	4	Many have closed their eyes to danger and have gone on in their own way, infatuated, deluded by Satan until they fall under his temptations. Then they abandon themselves to despair. This was the history of Solomon. But even for him there was help. He truly repented of his course of sin and found help. Let none venture into sin as he did, in the hope that they too may recover themselves. Sin can be indulged only at the peril of infinite loss. But none who have fallen need give themselves up to despair....
CTr	160	5	The misapplication of noble talents in Solomon's case should be a warning to all. Goodness alone is true greatness. Everyone will transmit a heritage of good or of evil. On the southern eminence of the Mount of Olives were the memorial stones of Solomon's apostasy.... Josiah, the youthful reformer, in his religious zeal destroyed these images of Ashtoreth and Chemosh and Moloch, but the broken fragments and masses of ruins remained opposite Mount Moriah, where stood the temple of God. As strangers in after generations asked, "What mean these ruins confronting the temple of the Lord?" they were answered, "There is Solomon's Mount of Offense, where he built altars for idol worship to please his heathen wives."--Letter 8b, 1891.
------------------------Beware Of Those Who Contradict God's Commands, June 3
CTr	161	1	Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.... The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. 1 Kings 13:1-5.
CTr	161	2	When Jeroboam [king of ten tribes of Israel after Solomon] saw the altar rent and the ashes from it poured out on the ground, he cried out in wrath, "Lay hold on him.""And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him." In alarm he said to the prophet, "Entreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king's hand ... became as it was before."
CTr	161	3	"And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward. And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee ... for so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest."
CTr	161	4	The prophet refused to receive anything from Jeroboam, but he fell under the temptation of an aged prophet living at Bethel.... To him he said, "Come home with me, and eat bread." But the man of God answered him as he had answered Jeroboam.... The old prophet then lied to him, saying, "I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water." He declared that the Lord had spoken through him, when He had not....
CTr	161	5	The man of God had been fearless in delivering his message of rebuke. He had not hesitated to denounce the king's false system of worship. And he had refused Jeroboam's invitation, even though promised a reward. But he allowed himself to be overpersuaded by the one who claimed to have a message from heaven.
CTr	161	6	When the Lord gives a person a command such as He gave this messenger, He Himself must countermand the order. Upon those who turn from the voice of God to listen to counterorders, the threatened evil will come. Because this messenger obeyed false orders, God permitted him to be destroyed....
CTr	161	7	The rent altar, the palsied arm, the fearful result of the prophet's disobedience--these were evidences that should have led the king to turn from his evil ways and serve the Lord. But we read, "After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way."--Manuscript 1, 1912.
------------------------Anger At God's Messengers, June 4
CTr	162	1	Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord. 1 Kings 18:17, 18.
CTr	162	2	God would have been with Ahab if he had walked in the counsel of heaven. But Ahab did not do this. He married a woman given to idolatry. Jezebel had more power over the king than God had. She led him into idolatry, and with him the people. God sent Elijah to Israel with messages of warning, but neither king nor people would heed his words. They looked upon him as a messenger of evil. At last God sent a drought upon the land.
CTr	162	3	Did the people discern and acknowledge the object of this judgment and humble their hearts before Him? No; Jezebel said that the prophets of Jehovah had brought this calamity upon them. She said that all Israel was suffering because of their reproofs, and that there would be no rest or prosperity in the land until these prophets were put to death. Thus a feeling of anger was aroused against the men whom God had sent to entreat the people to repent of their wickedness. Many holy men died for their testimony. Elijah was preserved by a miracle of divine power, to proclaim before the king and queen the warnings and threatenings of God.
CTr	162	4	"Go, shew thyself unto Ahab," God said to Elijah. When the king and the prophet met, Ahab said, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?"... But Elijah said, "I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim."
CTr	162	5	He told Ahab to gather the prophets of Baal together; and then came a wonderful manifestation of the power of God. All day long the false prophets called upon Baal, but received no response. When Elijah appealed to the God of heaven, the answer was at once given. The prophets of Baal had prayed wildly and incoherently. Elijah prayed simply and fervently, asking God to show His superiority over Baal that Israel might be led to turn to Him. As his prayer ascended, the answer came. Fire descended from heaven and consumed the sacrifice and the water with which it had been drenched.
CTr	162	6	Seeing this wonderful manifestation of power, Israel cried, "The Lord, he is the God." While their hearts were touched and softened by the miracle they had witnessed, Elijah took this opportune time to slay the false prophets.--Manuscript 29, 1911.
------------------------Spiritual Highs Will Not Prevent Spiritual Lows, June 5
CTr	163	1	Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. 1 Kings 19:2.
CTr	163	2	However bold and successful and courageous the people of God may have been in doing a special work, unless they constantly look to God and continue to have confidence in the work He has given them, they will lose their courage. After God has given them a wonderful revelation of His power, bracing them up to do His work, circumstances will arise to test their faith, and they will fail unless they trust implicitly in the Lord.
CTr	163	3	Thus it was with Elijah. He had by the help of God defeated the prophets of Baal. But he was disappointed as to the results of the manifestation of God. Under the threats of the wicked queen he lost his courage and his faith. He lost sight of Him in whose keeping he was, and without being sent he fled for his life. He was terribly depressed, for he had hoped for much from the miracle wrought before the people.
CTr	163	4	Had Elijah, knowing he had done the divine will, maintained his confidence in God, had he made God his refuge and strength, standing steadfast and immovable for the truth, the impression made upon the king and the people would have wrought a reformation. Elijah had been braced for trial under the inspiration of God, but when Jezebel's threatening message was brought to him and shouted in his ear, awakening from a deep sleep, he lost his hold on God....
CTr	163	5	This was the time when he should have had courage in the Lord, showing a living, active faith. He should not have fled from his post of duty. God had given him a wonderful manifestation of His power to assure him that He would not forsake him, that His power was wholly sufficient to sustain him, for He was the Lord of the powers of heaven and earth.
CTr	163	6	But Elijah forgot God and fled.... "And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head.... And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee."
CTr	163	7	My heart melts within me as I read the words of Holy Writ, and see the interest that the heavenly family has in the faithful servants of the Most High. "And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God."--Letter 62, 1900.
------------------------When Sorely Tempted, Look To Jesus, June 6
CTr	164	1	And he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. 1 Kings 19:4.
CTr	164	2	In all our afflictions, Jesus was afflicted. The Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering. In this life we shall be proved whether we bear the test of God. When Satan's temptations come, we shall have a trial. Shall we be overcome by the bewitching power of Satan or shall we overcome Satan's temptations as Christ overcame them? Shall we have the mind stored with the heavenly treasures of truth, that we may be enabled to meet the adversary of souls with "It is written" as did Christ, and not with any of our impetuous speeches? Satan understands more of what "is written" than many a professed Christian, for he is a diligent student of the Scriptures, and his work is to pervert the truth of God, to lead people to disobedience and to neglect the searching of God's Word....
CTr	164	3	It is a great mistake to dictate to God. Elijah knew not what he said when he told God that he had enough of life and asked to die. The Lord did not take him at his word, for he had a work to do before he would be exalted and translated to heaven. Have we forgotten that Jesus, the Majesty of heaven, suffered being tempted? Jesus did not allow the enemy to pull Him into the mire of unbelief, or crowd Him into the mire of despondency and despair....
CTr	164	4	God hates sin. Satan's work is to allure to works of evil. How adroitly Satan worked with his bewitching power to fascinate the mind to choose sin rather than righteousness. The influence of one person on another had become dangerous because of Satan's leading and controlling the mind and pressing this influence of one over another in his own service. But the Lord Jesus, by the agency of His Holy Spirit, changes the order of things and takes the sins and guilt of the human race upon Himself, and draws people to Himself, and sanctifies and employs the human agent as His instrumentality to engage his powers to do an entirely opposite work than Satan advised....
CTr	164	5	"Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." How precious to the tempted soul is this positive promise. If those in trouble and temptation keep their eyes fixed on Jesus and draw nigh to God, talking of His goodness and mercy, Jesus draws nigh to them, and the annoyances that they thought almost unbearable vanish....
CTr	164	6	Troublous times are before us, but this is not to worry us. To be worried is to be unbelieving, but Christ invites you saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."--Letter 43, 1892.
------------------------Largest I Not Necessarily Best, June 7
CTr	165	1	Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal. 1 Kings 19:18.
CTr	165	2	And he [Elijah] came thither [to Mount Horeb] unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
CTr	165	3	"And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave."
CTr	165	4	His petulance was silenced. The Lord desired him to understand that boisterous, noisy elements are not always producers of the best results. The still small voice could subdue and soften and accomplish great things.
CTr	165	5	The Lord convinced Elijah that the wrongdoers would not always go unpunished. He told him to go to the land of Horeb and appoint three persons who were to fulfill the Lord's purpose in punishing idolatrous Israel. All working in different ways, these three were to avenge the controversy God had with Israel.
CTr	165	6	Then He who knows every heart corrected the impression held by Elijah that he was the only one left who was true to the worship of God. "I have left me," God said, "seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him."
CTr	165	7	The Lord desired to teach His servant that it is not the thing that makes the greatest show, the most powerful representation, that is the most successful in doing His work. It is not always the most powerful presentation by pen or voice that accomplishes the most good.--Letter 62, 1900.
------------------------Learning To Lead Through Serving, June 8
CTr	166	1	Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. 1 Kings 19:16.
CTr	166	2	We would do well to consider the case of Elisha when [he was] chosen for his work. Elisha was of a family who had kept the ancient true faith of Israel. He did not live in the thickly populated cities. His father was a tiller of the soil, a farmer. Even during the captivity there were souls who had not degenerated and gone into apostasy, and this family was included in the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal.
CTr	166	3	Elijah was about to close his earthly labors. Another was to be chosen to carry forward the work to be done for that time. In his course of travel, Elijah was directed northward.... Now everything seems to be springing up as if to redeem the time of famine and dearth. The plenteous rains had done more for the earth than for the hearts of humanity; it was better prepared for labor than were the hearts of apostate Israel.
CTr	166	4	Wherever Elijah looked, the land he saw was owned by one man--a man who had not bowed the knee to Baal, whose heart had remained undivided in the service of God. The owner of this land was Shaphat. Busy activity was seen among the husbandry. While the flocks were enjoying the green pastures, the busy hands of his servants were sowing the seed for a harvest.
CTr	166	5	The attention of Elijah was attracted to Elisha, the son of Shaphat.... Far from city and court dissipation, Elisha had received his education. He had been trained in habits of simplicity, of obedience to his parents and to God.... But though of a meek and quiet spirit, Elisha had no changeable character. Integrity and fidelity and the love and fear of God were his. He had the characteristics of a ruler, but with it all was the meekness of one who would serve. His mind had been exercised to be faithful in the little things, to be faithful in whatever he should do, so that if God should call him to act more directly for Him, he would be prepared to hear His voice....
CTr	166	6	His surroundings at home were those of wealth, but he realized that in order to obtain an all-around education, he must be a constant worker in any line of work that needed to be done. He would not consent to be in any respect less informed than his father's servants. He would learn how to serve first, that he might know how to lead and instruct and command. While doing all that he possibly could do with his God-entrusted capabilities in cooperating with his father in the home firm, he was doing God service.--Letter 12, 1897.
------------------------When God Calls, How Do We Respond? June 9
CTr	167	1	So he ... found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him ... and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. 1 Kings 19:19.
CTr	167	2	When Elijah saw Elisha in the field with the servants, plowing with his twelve yoke of oxen, he went to the field of labor, and while passing by he unfastened his mantle and threw it upon the shoulders of Elisha. During the three and a half years of barrenness and famine, the family of Shaphat became familiar with the work and mission of Elijah the prophet. The Spirit of God impressed the heart of Elisha in regard to the meaning of this action. This was his signal that God had called him to be the successor of Elijah. It was similar to the commission of Christ to the young ruler to leave all--houses, lands, friends, riches, comforts, and ease, "and come and follow me."
CTr	167	3	Elijah passed on as if that were the end of the matter. But he knew that Elisha had understood the significance of the action, and he left him, without speaking a word, to decide whether he would accept the call or reject it. Elisha hastened after the prophet and, overtaking him, asked permission to take leave of his parents, and bid farewell to his family.
CTr	167	4	The answer of Elijah was "Go back again: for what have I done unto thee?" This was not a repulse, but a test, a trial. If his heart clung to his home and its advantages, he was at liberty to remain there. But Elisha was prepared to hear the call of God. He had not been disorderly, running before the call had come, and when he was called he revealed that he would not hesitate, nor relent, nor draw back....
CTr	167	5	Had Elisha asked Elijah what was expected of him, what would be his work, he would have answered, God knows; He will make it known to you. If you wait upon the Lord He will answer your every question. You may come with me if you have evidence that God has called you; if not, forbear. Come not simply because I called you. Know for yourself that God stands back of me, and that it is His voice you hear. If you can count everything but dross that you may win the favor of God, Come.
CTr	167	6	Let all bear in mind that the Lord will not accept halfhearted service. Those who love to do the will of God can do perfect service.... If we follow on to know the Lord, willingly, gladly, we shall know that "his going forth is prepared as the morning." ...
CTr	167	7	Elisha immediately left all to commence his ministry.--Letter 12, 1897.
------------------------Humble Tasks Prepare For Higher Service, June 10
CTr	168	1	Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah. 2 Kings 3:11.
CTr	168	2	His [Elisha's] leave-taking was not with mourning and bitter regrets. They made a feast in his home in commemoration of the honor conferred upon one of the family. And what was the first work of Elisha? It was to take up the little things, and do them with heartiness. He is spoken of as pouring water on the hands of Elijah his master. He was the prophet's personal attendant.
CTr	168	3	Any work, however small it may appear, that is done for the Master with a thorough surrender of self, is as acceptable to Him as the highest service.... Humble, willing service is before everyone who claims to be a child of God.
CTr	168	4	After Elisha had been some time in the service of Elijah, he was called to take his place in the first rank. No one in that time was to be greater than he. He had worked under Elijah as a learner, and the time came when the head manager was removed, and the one under him came to the front; and as in Elijah there was a preparedness to be translated, so Elisha was prepared to take his place as the successor of the prophet....
CTr	168	5	"And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he answered, Yea, I know it.... And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee." So they came to Jericho.... "And they two stood by Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.... And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
CTr	168	6	"And Elisha saw it.... He took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over."...
CTr	168	7	By plowing in the field, Elisha had learned the lesson of not allowing failure or discouragement to be entertained. He had now set his hand to the plow in another line of work, and he would not fail nor be discouraged. Every time the invitation to turn back was given, he declared, "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee."--Letter 12, 1897.
------------------------Everyday Duties Of Life Are Important, June 11
CTr	169	1	Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. Luke 16:10, NRSV.
CTr	169	2	When Elisha followed Elijah, and traveled with him, he was first given the position of a servant; he had to perform the humble duty of pouring water on the hands of Elijah. Yet he kept at the humble work until the last journey. There it was to be revealed to him that Elijah was to be translated. Called as Elisha was from the twelve yoke of oxen and the plow, he followed Elijah without complaint, leaving a wealthy home where he was beloved, to attend the prophet in his uncertain life. He willingly fulfilled the very humblest duties. His connection with Elijah revealed that he had traits of character that would endure test and trial, that he was a valuable young man with precious traits of character. Trials and temptations he had in abundance, but he relied upon God in trying circumstances. His surroundings of wealth and comfort were a temptation. In his home he was fully capable of ruling, but in the service of Elijah he must obtain an experience, he must learn how to serve under a ruler, that he might learn to serve God.
CTr	169	3	Many errors are entertained by people in their vocations. They overestimate their capabilities, and in test and trial reveal that they need a different kind of experience than they have had in order to be a laborer together with Christ. Persons who do not see their need of serving God in little things, doing humble work, give unmistakable evidence that they are not fitted to serve in larger things. In overlooking the humble service as nonessential, they bear testimony that they cannot be trusted with larger responsibilities.
CTr	169	4	The idea that prevails in some minds, and that is difficult to change, an idea they have permitted to be unconsciously woven into their experience, is that a certain position of gentility and dignity must be maintained or else their influence will be marred in their work of preaching. But when these learn to minister, they will know that humble, active service means to interest themselves in the duties of everyday life, and to obtain the education essential to do the ordinary duties of life in any small vocation--it may be in tilling the soil, in following the plow, in sowing or in reaping....
CTr	169	5	There is to be no neglect or low estimate of the lowly, everyday duties of life. True conversion to God will act as leaven in every phase of duty in the relationships of life. Then, if the Lord sees us faithful in that which is least, diligent and persevering in the use of our physical powers, doing with our hands that which someone must do, He will say, "Come up higher. You may be entrusted with greater responsibilities."--Letter 64, 1897.
------------------------Anger Can Cause Us To Miss God's Blessings, June 12
CTr	170	1	And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? 2 Kings 5:13.
CTr	170	2	I often think of the case of Naaman. He wished a great blessing, even cleansing from leprosy. Hearing of the power of Elisha the prophet, he went to him, to know what he might do to be healed. And Elisha sent him the message "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
CTr	170	3	"But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
CTr	170	4	"And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
CTr	170	5	"Then went he down, and dipped himself in Jordan seven times, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean."
CTr	170	6	Each soul inherits certain un-Christlike traits of character. It is the grand and noble work of a lifetime to keep under control these tendencies to wrong. It is the little things that cross our path that are likely to cause us to lose our power of self-control.
CTr	170	7	The Lord will honor those who in this life have been faithful in the little things.... They will not be found wanting when the greater tests come to them. Those who honor God in the smaller duties of the daily life will develop into men and women of sound judgment. Whatever trial may come to them, they will stand firm for the right.
CTr	170	8	God will understand you as you open your heart to Him. He knows what discipline each one needs. If you ask Him, He will surely give you power to resist evil. Your faith will be increased, and you will give evidence to others of the keeping power of God.--Letter 123, 1904.
------------------------The Tangled Web Of Sinning, June 13
CTr	171	1	But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said ... I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. 2 Kings 5:20.
CTr	171	2	It is seldom that one sin will stand alone or be restricted in the range of transgression to one precept or one prohibition of the moral law. There is ever a complication of disobedience, which leads the perverted conscience to a greater length of entanglement by entering to greater temptations and sinning more and more....
CTr	171	3	The heart not given entirely to the control of Jesus Christ has a door open for Satan to enter, and the archdeceiver weaves about the soul ingenious apologies in performing its hidden purposes of evil. All these excuses and pretensions are seen of God, and are as spiderwebs in the eyes of Him who never slumbers or sleeps. Oh, how readily will the human soul find poor and wretched excuses to deceive and cover up its own course of evil, which it pursues. There is an exact judge who weigheth actions. He cannot be deceived, neither can He be mocked. He will one day strike off the covering, unveil the conscience, and sweep away these excuses as smoke.
CTr	171	4	The Lord God hath a witness to every transaction. Elisha's reproof to Gehazi when he denied having left to follow Naaman was: "Whence comest thou, Gehazi?" The answer is "Thy servant went no whither." Then the stern reproof came that showed he knew all. "Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants? The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever." The Lord had revealed the whole matter. The interview with Naaman, the minutest incidents of the scene, were accurately presented before him. Oh, the workings of the powers of darkness are so deceiving!
CTr	171	5	Elisha revealed to Gehazi the very thoughts of his heart, and that he would enrich himself with the earthly treasure from Naaman. There was a man who should have been a standard-bearer in the army of the Lord, [but] through Satan's temptations his course of action was a stumbling block to Naaman, upon whose mind a wonderful light had broken and he was favorably disposed toward truth, to serve the living God. Gehazi went from his presence a leper. The Lord calls upon you to seek His counsel, to be true to your own soul and to God, and to seek most earnestly to recover yourself and your children from Satan's snares.--Letter 22, 1893.
------------------------The Value Of Souls Versus One's Reputation, June 14
CTr	172	1	Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. Jonah 1:2.
CTr	172	2	When the people of Nineveh humbled themselves before God, and cried to Him for mercy, He heard their cry. "God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not."
CTr	172	3	But Jonah revealed that he did not value the souls in that wretched city. He valued his reputation, lest they should say he was a false prophet.... Now when he sees the Lord exercise His compassionate attributes and spare the city that had corrupted its ways before Him, Jonah does not co-operate with God in His merciful design. He has not the people's interests in view. It does not grieve him that so large a number must perish who have not been educated to do right. Listen to his complaint:
CTr	172	4	"Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd."
CTr	172	5	Then the Lord gave Jonah an object lesson. He "prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live."... "Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?"
CTr	172	6	In the history of Nineveh there is a lesson that you should study carefully.... You must know your duty to your fellow beings who are ignorant and defiled, and who need your help.--Manuscript 164, 1897.
------------------------Stand For Principle, June 15
CTr	173	1	But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Daniel 1:8.
CTr	173	2	Daniel was but a youth when carried away captive into Babylon. He was about fifteen or sixteen years old, for he is called a child, which means that he was in his youth. Why did Daniel refuse to eat at the king's luxurious table? Why did he refuse the use of wine as his beverage, when it was at the king's command that it was placed before him? He knew that, by use, wine would become to him a pleasant thing, and would be preferred before water.
CTr	173	3	Daniel could have argued that at the royal table and at the king's command, there was no other course for him to pursue. But he and his fellows had a council together.... The wine of itself, they decided, was a snare. They were acquainted with the history of Nadab and Abihu that had come to them in parchments. In these men the use of wine had encouraged their love for it. They drank wine before their sacred services in the sanctuary. Their senses were confused. They could not distinguish the difference between the sacred and the common fire. In their brain-benumbed state they did that which the Lord had charged all who served in holy office not to do....
CTr	173	4	The instruction given to the people was carefully treasured up, and often composed into song and taught to their children, that through song they might become familiar with the truths....
CTr	173	5	A second consideration of these youthful captives was that the king always asked a blessing before his meals, and addressed his idols as deity.... This act, according to their religious instruction, consecrated the whole to the heathen god. To sit at the table where such idolatry was practiced, Daniel and his three brethren deemed, would be a dishonor to the God of heaven....
CTr	173	6	There was much involved in this decision. They were regarded as slaves, but were particularly favored because of their apparent intelligence and comeliness of person. But they decided that any pretense, even to sit at the table of the king and eat of the food or accept of the wine, even if they did not drink it, would be a denial of their religious faith.... They did not choose to be singular but they must be, else they would corrupt their ways in the courts of Babylon and be exposed to every kind of temptation in eating and drinking. The corrupting influences would remove their safeguard, and they would dishonor God and ruin their own characters.--Manuscript 122, 1897.
------------------------God's Word The Foundation For Character Building, June 16
CTr	174	1	Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink ... and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. Daniel 1:12, 13.
CTr	174	2	Daniel placed himself in right relation to God and to his outward circumstances and opportunities. He was taken as a captive to Babylon, and with others was placed under training, to be prepared for a place in the king's court. His food and drink were appointed him, but we read that he determined that he would not defile himself with the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank.
CTr	174	3	In taking this step, Daniel did not act rashly.... Daniel said to Melzar, who had been given charge of him and his companions, "Prove thy servants.... And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat of the portion of the king's meat." ...
CTr	174	4	Having done this, Daniel and his companions did still more. They did not choose as friends those who were agents of the prince of darkness. They did not go with a multitude to do evil. They secured Melzar as their friend, and there was no friction between him and them. They went to him for advice, and at the same time educated him by the wisdom of their deportment.
CTr	174	5	It was God's purpose that these youth should become channels of light in the kingdom of Babylon. Satan was determined to defeat this purpose. He worked upon the minds of the youth who had refused to be God's representatives, causing them to be jealous of Daniel and his companions. At Satan's suggestion they laid plans to entrap those who were making such steady, rapid advancement in knowledge....
CTr	174	6	Satan was trying to compass their destruction.... They made a faithful study of the Word of God, that they might know the divine will. By faith they believed that the One whom they served would communicate to them His will, and in answer to their faith God opened His Word to them.... They made the Word of God their textbook, looking upon it as the foundation upon which they must build character. They had only the Old Testament....
CTr	174	7	Satan often cast his shadow across their pathway to obscure their view of divine light and darken their faith and confidence in God. But they would not yield, and the Lord gave them wisdom and power to prevail with Him in prayer.--Letter 34, 1900.
------------------------Wrong Choices In Friends Produces Evil Consequences, June 17
CTr	175	1	As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Daniel 1:17.
CTr	175	2	You will go through this world but once. Then do not choose as companions young men or young women who will lead you in wrong paths. Turn away from these tempters, for they are Satan's helping hand, used by him to beguile souls to dishonor God.... Do not give the enemy any advantage. Study the history of Daniel and his fellows. Though living where they were met on every side by the temptation to indulge self, Daniel and his companions honored and glorified God in their daily life. They determined to avoid all evil, to refuse to place themselves in the enemy's path. And with rich blessings God rewarded their steadfast loyalty.
CTr	175	3	Each one of us is making his or her future. All who desire the life that measures with the life of God must take a firm stand against the depravity that is spreading its loathsome disease over the world. They must reject the wrong and choose the right, bravely resisting temptation in every line. They must overcome small temptations; then they will be strengthened to overcome large ones.
CTr	175	4	There are those who say, You need not be so particular about little matters. In such, conscience accommodates itself to the suggestion of evil until they are educated to do the work that places them in Satan's army. From small wrongs they are led to large wrongs.... The lower passions bear sway, holding the entire being in the tyranny of satanic power. The high, noble purposes that might have controlled the life are swept away by self-indulgence....
CTr	175	5	Unite with one another in being true to virtue, true to God. Be studious. Reach upward for the highest attainments. The Lord commends earnest, determined effort to gain that knowledge and understanding that will enable you to take your place in the higher grade in the courts above. He looks with approval on watchful, diligent students....
CTr	175	6	Pray as did Daniel--three times a day, alone with God. Confess every sin you have committed, every mistake you have made.... God says, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed." Thus you have built barriers between yourself and sin. You are walking in harmony with God. He has avouched Himself as one who will hear and answer your sincere prayers. He has assured you that He will pardon and accept you. How powerful you may be in this assurance! The Lord is near to all who call upon Him--near to answer and to bless.--Letter 134, 1901.
------------------------Always Credit God For Ideas He Gives, June 18
CTr	176	1	Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel 2:19.
CTr	176	2	Daniel sought the Lord when the decree went forth to slay all the wise men of the kingdom of Babylon because they could not relate or interpret a dream that had gone from the king's mind. He demanded not only the interpretation of the dream, but the relation of the dream itself....
CTr	176	3	The magicians were full of fear and trembling. They declared that the request of the king was something unreasonable, and a test beyond that which had ever been required of anyone. The king became furious and acted like all persons who have great power and uncontrollable passions. He decided that every one of them should be put to death, and as Daniel and his fellows were numbered with the wise men, they also were to share their fate....
CTr	176	4	Daniel came before the king and pleaded for time to bring this matter before the supreme court of the universe, from whose decision there could be no appeal. When his request was granted, Daniel laid the whole matter before his companions who were united with him in worshiping the true God. The matter was carefully considered, and on their bended knees, they pleaded that God would give them the power and wisdom that alone would avail them in their great necessity.... With contrition of heart they submitted their case to the great Judge of the earth. It was all that they could do....
CTr	176	5	Daniel prayed, "I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter."...
CTr	176	6	Daniel was imbued with the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and he pleaded that the wise men of Babylon should not be destroyed. The followers of Christ do not possess the attributes of Satan, which make it a pleasure to grieve and afflict the creatures of God. They have the spirit of their Master, who said, I am "come to seek and to save that which was lost."...
CTr	176	7	"Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation." ... Then in all humility of mind he [Daniel] acknowledges that the wisdom is not in him, but in the God of heaven, and that the vision has been revealed to him for the sake of God's servants, and that the king might know the thoughts of his heart.--Letter 90, 1894.
------------------------Standing For God In Times Of Crisis, June 19
CTr	177	1	Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, ... we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Daniel 3:17, 18.
CTr	177	2	Nebuchadnezzar's wonderful dream caused a marked change in his ideas and opinions, and for a little time he was influenced by the fear of God; but his heart was not yet cleansed from its pride, its worldly ambition, its desire for self-exaltation. After the first impression wore away, he thought only of his own greatness, and studied how the dream might be turned to his own honor.
CTr	177	3	The words "Thou art this head of gold" made the deepest impression upon Nebuchadnezzar's mind. He determined to make an image that should excel the original. This image was not to deteriorate in value from the head to the feet, like the one he had been shown, but was to be composed throughout of the most precious metal. Thus the whole image would represent the greatness of Babylon, and he determined that by the splendor of this image the prophecy concerning the kingdoms that were to follow should be effaced from his mind and from the minds of others who had heard the dream and its interpretation. From the treasures obtained in war, Nebuchadnezzar "made an image of gold"... and issued a proclamation, calling upon all the officers of the kingdom to assemble at the dedication of this image, and at the sound of musical instruments, to bow and worship it....
CTr	177	4	The appointed day came, and at the sound of entrancing music the vast company "fell down and worshipped the golden image." But the three Hebrew youth, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (we have no record of Daniel's being present), did not dishonor the God of heaven by paying homage to this idol. Their action was reported to the king. Angered, he called them before him and by threats endeavored to induce them to unite with the multitude in worshiping the image. Courteously yet firmly they declared their allegiance to the God of heaven and their faith in His power to deliver them in the hour of trial.
CTr	177	5	The king's wrath knew no bounds. He commanded that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than it was wont. And without delay the Hebrew exiles were cast in. So furious were the flames that the men who cast the Hebrews in were burned to death.--Manuscript 110, 1904.
------------------------In Every Test God Is With Us, June 20
CTr	178	1	And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed. Daniel 3:27.
CTr	178	2	Suddenly the countenance of the king paled with terror. He looked intently upon the glowing flames and, turning to his lords, in tones of alarm, inquired, "Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" The answer was "True, O king." His voice trembling with excitement, the monarch exclaimed, "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."
CTr	178	3	The Hebrew captives had told Nebuchadnezzar of Christ, the Redeemer that was to come, and from the description thus given the king recognized the form of the fourth in the fiery furnace as the Son of God. Hastening to the furnace, Nebuchadnezzar cried, "Ye servants of the most high God, come forth." And they obeyed, before that vast multitude showing themselves unhurt, not even the smell of fire being on their garments. True to duty, they had been proof against the flames. Only their fetters had been burned.
CTr	178	4	Tests will come to every one of us. We know not how many will be placed in peculiar positions where we shall have opportunity of showing forth the glory of God. We are to keep in view the honor of our heavenly Father....
CTr	178	5	History will repeat itself. In this age the great test will be upon the point of Sabbath observance.... A rival sabbath is exalted, as was the great golden image in the plain of Dura. Leaders claiming to be Christians will call upon the world to observe the spurious sabbath that they have made. All who refuse will be put under oppressive laws. This is the mystery of iniquity, the devising of satanic agencies, carried into effect by the man of sin....
CTr	178	6	We are to warn men and women against the worship of the beast and his image--against the worship of the idol Sunday. But in doing this work, we need not begin a warfare against unbelievers. We are simply to present the Word of the Lord, in its true dignity and purity, before the minds of those who are ignorant or indifferent regarding its teachings.... We need not tell them that they will go to hell unless they keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. The truth itself, accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit, will convict and convert hearts.--Manuscript 110, 1904.
------------------------God Warns Against Self-Centered Pride, June 21
CTr	179	1	They shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, ... and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men. Daniel 4:22-25.
CTr	179	2	The faithful Daniel stood before the king, not to flatter, not to misinterpret in order to secure favor. A solemn duty rested upon him, to tell the king of Babylon the truth. He said, "My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies. The tree that thou sawest, ... it is thou, O king."
CTr	179	3	Do we regard the kingdom of Babylon as of more importance in the estimation of God than are the instrumentalities and responsibilities He has entrusted to His chosen people, upon whom the ends of the world are come? We have here the workings of the great I AM to change even the heart of a heathen king. There is a Watcher just as really taking cognizance of all the works of human beings, but in a special sense of those who are to represent God by receiving His sacred truth into the heart and revealing it to the world....
CTr	179	4	In the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, the true object of government is beautifully represented by the great tree "whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation."--Manuscript 29, 1895.
CTr	179	5	The prophet Daniel interpreted the dream to the king, and he added the solemn admonition "Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thy iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity." ... For twelve months the king was tested and proved. During this time his actions were weighed in the balances of the sanctuary in heaven.
CTr	179	6	One morning as he walked in his palace, "the king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" While the king was swelling with self-importance, even "while the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee."--Letter 71, 1894.
------------------------We Decide Our Eternal Destiny, June 22
CTr	180	1	Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase. Daniel 4:37.
CTr	180	2	The strength of nations and of individuals is not found in the opportunities and facilities that appear to make them invincible; it is not found in their boasted greatness. That alone which can make them great and strong is the power and purpose of God. They themselves, by their attitude toward His purpose, decide their own destiny. Human histories relate people's achievements, their victories in battle, their success in climbing to worldly greatness. God's history describes men and women as heaven views them....
CTr	180	3	The prophet Daniel described the kingdoms that would rise and fall. Interpreting to the king of Babylon the dream of the great image, he declared to Nebuchadnezzar that his kingdom would be superseded. His greatness and power in God's world would have its day, and a second kingdom would arise that also would have its period of test and trial as to whether the people would exalt the one Ruler, the only true God. Not doing this, they and their glory would fade away, and a third kingdom would occupy their place. Proved by obedience or disobedience, this also would pass away, and a fourth, strong as iron, was to subdue the nations of the world. This Word, opened by the infinite God to finite human beings, recorded on the prophetic page, and traced on the pages of history, declares that God is the ruling power....
CTr	180	4	The voice of God, heard in past ages, is sounding down along the line from century to century, through generations that have come on the stage of action and passed away.... History and prophecy testify that the God of the whole earth revealeth secrets through His chosen light bearers to the world.... Nebuchadnezzar, through his terrible humiliation in the loss of his reason, was brought to see his own weakness, and to acknowledge the supremacy of the living God....
CTr	180	5	To every person, God has assigned a place in His great plan. By truth or falsehood, by folly or wisdom, each is fulfilling a purpose, bringing about certain results. And each, according as he or she chooses obedience or disobedience, is deciding his or her own eternal destiny. To everyone is given freedom to act, and upon everyone rests the responsibility of their own actions....
CTr	180	6	We are not to say God was, but God is.... Though kings shall be cast down, and nations removed, the souls that through faith link themselves with God's purposes shall abide forever.--Manuscript 36, 1896.
------------------------God Still Needs People, June 23
CTr	181	1	The former governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bare rule over the people. Nehemiah 5:15.
CTr	181	2	The children of Israel were taken captive to Babylon because they separated from God, and no longer felt that it was their duty to maintain principles unadulterated by the sentiments of the nations around them. Because of their separation from God, the Lord humbled them. He could not work for their prosperity, He could not fulfill His covenant with them while they were untrue to the principles He had given them to zealously maintain, that they might be kept from the methods and practices of the heathen nations who dishonored God.... He left them to their own ways, and the innocent suffered with the sinners in Zion.
CTr	181	3	But among the children of Israel there were Christian patriots, who were as true as steel to principle, and upon these loyal and true men the Lord looked with great pleasure.... They had to suffer with the guilty, but in the providence of God this captivity was the means of bringing them to the front. Their example of untarnished integrity, while captives at Babylon, shines with heaven's luster.
CTr	181	4	Many of the Lord's chosen people had proved themselves untrustworthy. They separated from God and became selfish, scheming, and dishonorable. The part acted by Daniel and his fellows, and by Ezra and Nehemiah, was in marked contrast to this, and the Lord specially blessed these men for standing firmly for the right.
CTr	181	5	Nehemiah was chosen by God because he was willing to cooperate with God as a restorer.... He would not be led and corrupted by the devices of unprincipled men who had been hired to do an evil work. He would not allow them to intimidate him into following a cowardly course. When he saw wrong principles being acted upon, he did not stand by as an onlooker and by his silence give consent. He did not leave the people to conclude that he would stand on the wrong side. He took a firm, unyielding stand for the right. He would not lend one jot of influence to the perversion of the principles that God had established. Whatever course others might pursue, he could say, "So did not I, because of the fear of God."--Manuscript 121, 1898.
------------------------Position Does Not Preclude The Need For Prayer, June 24
CTr	182	1	Let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Nehemiah 1:11.
CTr	182	2	Nehemiah, the Hebrew exile, occupied a position of influence and honor in the Persian court. As cupbearer of the king, he was admitted to the royal presence, and by virtue of this intimacy and his own high abilities and tried fidelity, he became the monarch's counselor. He was a man of high principle, unbending integrity, and great sagacity.
CTr	182	3	In that heathen land, surrounded by royal pomp and splendor, Nehemiah did not forget the God of his fathers or the people who had been entrusted with the holy oracles. The dignity of his position did not rob him of his piety or his love for his brethren.... He was not ashamed to own his relationship to them and to the truth. He felt that he must honor the truth in all places. He did not make apology for holding a faith distinct from the faith of those in the Persian court....
CTr	182	4	Days of peculiar trial and affliction had come to the chosen city. Messengers from Judah described to Nehemiah its condition. The second temple had been reared, and portions of the city rebuilt, but its prosperity was impeded, the temple service disturbed, and the people kept in constant alarm by the fact that its walls were still in ruins and its gates burned with fire. The capital of Judah was fast becoming a desolate place, and the few inhabitants remaining were deeply embittered by the taunts of their idolatrous assailants, "Where is your God?"
CTr	182	5	The soul of the Hebrew patriot was overwhelmed by these evil tidings. So great was his sorrow that he could not eat or drink; he "wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted." But when the first outburst of his grief was over, he turned in his affliction to the sure Helper. The record says that he "prayed before the God of heaven." He unburdened his heart to God. He knew that the affliction that had come upon Israel was the result of her transgression, and with deep humiliation he came before God to ask for pardon and a renewal of the divine favor. Faithfully he makes confession of his sins and the sins of his people.
CTr	182	6	Taking hold by faith of the divine promise, Nehemiah lays down at the footstool of heavenly mercy his petition that God would maintain the cause of his penitent people, restore their strength, and build up their waste places.--Manuscript 58, 1903.
------------------------Faith And Works Should Be Combined, June 25
CTr	183	1	And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it. Nehemiah 2:5.
CTr	183	2	At last the sorrow that burdened Nehemiah's heart could no longer be concealed. Sleepless nights devoted to earnest prayer, care-filled days, dark with the shadow of hope deferred, leave their trace upon his countenance. The keen eye of the monarch, accustomed jealously to guard his own safety, is accustomed to read countenances and to penetrate disguises. Seeing that some secret trouble is preying upon his servant, he suddenly inquires, "Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart."
CTr	183	3	The question fills the listener with apprehension. Will not the king be angry to hear that while outwardly engaged in his service, the courtier's thoughts have been far away with his afflicted people? Will not the offender's life be forfeited? And his cherished plan for restoring Jerusalem--is it not about to be overthrown? "Then," he says, "I was very sore afraid." With trembling lips and tearful eyes he reveals the cause of his sorrow--the city, which is the place of his father's sepulchre, lying waste, and its gates consumed with fire. The touching recital awakens the sympathy of the monarch without arousing his idolatrous prejudices; another question gives the opportunity for which Nehemiah has long sought: "For what dost thou make request?"
CTr	183	4	But the man of God does not reply until he has first asked the support of One higher than Artaxerxes. "I prayed," he says, "to the God of heaven." The silent petition then sent to God was the same that he had offered for many weeks--that God would prosper his request. And now, taking courage at the thought that he has a Friend, omniscient and all-powerful, to work in his behalf, the man of God calmly makes known to the king his desire to be released for a time from his office at the court and be authorized to build up the waste places of Jerusalem, and to make it once more a strong and defensed city. Momentous results to the Jewish city and nation hang upon this request. "And," says Nehemiah, "the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me."
CTr	183	5	While Nehemiah implored the help of God, he did not fold his own hands, feeling that he had no more care or responsibility in the matter. With admirable prudence and forethought, he proceeded to make all the arrangements necessary to ensure the success of the enterprise.--Manuscript 58, 1903.
------------------------Careful Planning Necessary In God's Work, June 26
CTr	184	1	Let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah; and a letter unto Asaph ... that he may give me timber ... for the wall of the city. Nehemiah 2:7, 8.
CTr	184	2	As his [Nehemiah's] request to the king had been so favorably received, he was encouraged to ask for such assistance as was necessary to carry out his plans. To give dignity and authority to his mission, as well as to provide protection on the journey, he secured a military escort. He obtained royal letters to the governors of the provinces beyond the Euphrates, the territory through which he must pass on his way to Judea; he obtained also a letter to the keeper of the king's forest in the mountains of Lebanon, directing him to furnish such timber as was needed for the wall of Jerusalem and such buildings as Nehemiah proposed to erect.
CTr	184	3	The example of this holy man should be a lesson to all the people of God, that they are not only to pray in faith but to work with wise diligence and fidelity. How many difficulties we encounter, and how we hinder the working of Providence on our behalf, because prudence, forethought, and painstaking are regarded as having little to do with religion.... Careful consideration and well-matured plans are as essential to the success of sacred enterprises today as in the time of Nehemiah....
CTr	184	4	Nehemiah does not depend upon uncertainties. The means that he has not he solicits from those who are able to bestow. All the world, with its riches and treasures, belongs to God, although it is now in the possession of wicked people. If His servants take a wise and prudent course, so that the good hand of the Lord may be with them, they can obtain the means that they need to advance His cause.
CTr	184	5	Nehemiah's experience in connection with the rebuilding of Jerusalem teaches lessons that will be needed by God's people as long as time shall last. The times call for men and women of strength and decision of character. Paul says, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." The enemy will mingle his evil with every good work that is done if the workers are not on guard. Thus he seeks to spoil God's purposes.--Manuscript 58, 1903.
------------------------Our Words And Acts Carry A Powerful Influence, June 27
CTr	185	1	Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. Ezra 7:10.
CTr	185	2	Ezra was of the sons of Aaron, a priest whom God chose to be an instrument of good unto Israel, that He might put honor upon the priesthood, the glory of which had been greatly eclipsed during the captivity. Ezra was a man of great piety and holy zeal. He was also a man of learning and a ready scribe in the law of Moses. These qualifications made him an eminent man.
CTr	185	3	Ezra was impressed by the Spirit of God to search the historical and poetical books of the Bible, and by this means he became familiar with the sense and understanding of the law. During the captivity the knowledge of God's will had to some extent been lost. Ezra gathered all the copies of the law that he could find. He published copies of these among God's people and became a teacher of the law and the prophecies in the schools of the prophets. The pure Word, thus diligently taught by Ezra, gave knowledge that was invaluable at that time....
CTr	185	4	Some of the prophecies were about to be fulfilled; he would search diligently for the light that had been obscured. He sought this knowledge that he might educate the people how to bring into their practical life the principles of the Word of God....
CTr	185	5	That which Ezra knew he desired to teach others, and thus he became a mouthpiece for God, educating those about him in the holy principles that govern in heaven.... Teaching thus, he educated others in the knowledge of truth that would live through eternal ages....
CTr	185	6	As Ezra labored to communicate what he had learned, his capabilities for labor increased and developed. He became the Lord's witness to the world of what Bible truth is when revealed in the daily life of the receiver.
CTr	185	7	Ezra's example, in words and deeds, carried with it a weight of influence, for the Spirit of God was with him.... He diligently prepared his heart to do the work that he believed was appointed to him. He searched out the words that had been written concerning the duties of God's denominated people, and he found a solemn pledge that God's people had given that they would obey the words of God and the pledge of God's blessing to the obedient....
CTr	185	8	We each have an appointed work to do, and this can be accomplished only by consecrated effort. Shall we let the example of Ezra address itself to us individually, and teach us the use we should make of our knowledge of the Scriptures?--Letter 100, 1907.
------------------------Jesus Receives And Defends Repentant Souls, June 28
CTr	186	1	And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Zechariah 3:2.
CTr	186	2	Satan claims a right to have those who once stood under his black banner, but who have turned from sin to the living God and have cast their helpless souls upon Jesus. All who take hold of the merits of Christ by faith have the pledged word of God that they shall make peace with Him....
CTr	186	3	Trials are permitted to come upon the chosen people of God. The expressions are used, "God tempted Abraham," "God tempted the children of Israel." This means that the Lord permitted Satan to tempt them in order that their faith might be found unto honor and glory when the judgment shall sit, and when every person shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body. God knows every heart, every motive, every thought in the heart; but He permits Satan to try and tempt and test His believing ones in order that their trust and confidence in God may be revealed....
CTr	186	4	The Lord hates sin; but He loves and forgives the repentant, believing sinner, and takes everyone under His guardianship and control. Satan is on the track of every soul, but with every temptation that is permitted to come upon the children of God's pardoning love, He makes a way of escape in order that they shall not be tempted above that which they are able to bear....
CTr	186	5	"And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him." The work of Satan is plainly defined as that of resisting the meritorious work of Christ.... When Christ steps in between the tempted souls and Satan, the adversary is angry and opens up with a tirade of abuse and accusation, declaring that Christ is unfair in protecting these souls, and in lifting up a standard against him....
CTr	186	6	In the presence of the unfallen worlds, in the presence of the universe of heaven, in the presence of the angry adversary who has painted them in robes of blackness and moral defilement, urging that they be given into his hands, Jesus answered Satan's malignant charge whereby he accused them before God day and night. To those who stood before Him, earnestly watching the controversy and marking the determination of Satan to destroy the righteous, Jesus spoke, saying, "Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment."--Manuscript 27, 1894.
------------------------All Heaven Hears Our Praise And Thanks Giving To God, June 29
CTr	187	1	Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. Malachi 3:16.
CTr	187	2	Two classes of witnesses are presented in the prophet's [Malachi's] words. Of the first class it is written, "Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord.... Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?" These words describe those who ought to have better represented the precious truth, who ought to have been an example to those newly come to the faith. For all who follow Him the Lord has prepared a rich feast of heavenly things. He has ordained that those who follow Him shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.... The Lord does not call upon His believing, obedient followers to cover the altar with tears, but to walk cheerfully and happily along....
CTr	187	3	Malachi turns away from the dark picture that Satan presents to these professed followers of Jesus Christ, for it is a libel on the paternal character of God. Satan has framed this picture for the contemplation of poor, unbelieving, mourning souls, and they have hung it up in memory's hall where they can gaze upon it. But the Lord has presented another picture for the contemplation of every believer. "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened." ...
CTr	187	4	Do the believers who meet in their small assemblies in humble churches or in private houses often look upon this picture framed by the Lord of hosts? ... What a hope-inspiring picture is this where the Lord is represented as bending down and hearkening to the testimonies borne by His witnesses! What inspiration it should give us to consider the fact that all the heavenly universe is represented as listening with pleasure to the words that are spoken exalting the name of God in the earth....
CTr	187	5	The words to which God and the angels listen with delight are words of appreciation for the great Gift that has been made to the world in the only begotten Son of God. Every word of praise for the blessing of the light of truth that has come in messages of warning, and that has dispelled the darkness of error, is written in the heavenly records.--Manuscript 32, 1894.
------------------------Learning The Lessons Of Sacred History, June 30
CTr	188	1	Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 1 Corinthians 10:11.
CTr	188	2	The instruction given in the Old Testament Scriptures is as verily the word of Christ as the instruction in the New Testament. Christ was as verily humanity's Redeemer in the days when the Old Testament was written as He was when He appeared in the form of a man. He gave those of ancient Israel just as favorable an opportunity of working out their own salvation as He did those who listened to His words.
CTr	188	3	A character formed after the divine likeness is the only treasure that people can take from this world to the next. The character as formed in this world determines one's destiny for eternity. The element of value in one's life in this world will be of value in the world to come. A person's future is determined by the way one allows himself or herself to be influenced. If one cherishes and cultivates hereditary tendencies for wrong, indulging fleshly inclinations, appetites, and passions, that individual can never enter the kingdom of God. But the person who strives to repress evil inclinations, who is willing to be governed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, is transformed....
CTr	188	4	Christ's character was exemplified in Abel, Noah, Seth, Enoch, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, and all the host of those recorded as having characters that God could approve. [As examples], we are also given Cain and all who form characters opposite to truth, fidelity, obedience, and righteousness. All had an opportunity to show themselves members of the Cain family, or as members of the royal family.... Purity and holiness come only through Christ....
CTr	188	5	We are to listen to the voice of Christ speaking in the creation of the world and from the pillar of cloud, for our eternal welfare depends upon our obedience to the voice of God. Let all move guardedly. Let us not pass by anything that Christ has given through the holy people of old for the benefit of every generation.
CTr	188	6	All that God's mind has planned, that His hand has touched, are lessons written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Those things that have been will be. Christ's words of approval or disapproval come sounding down along the line of our time. Our spiritual and eternal interests are involved in the facts stated. The Lord means what He says, and says what He means.--Letter 34, 1899.
------------------------Constant Prayer Needed To Resist Satan's Cunning, July 1
CTr	189	1	And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Luke 4:1.
CTr	189	2	Why was it that at the beginning of His public ministry Christ was led into the wilderness to be tempted? It was the Spirit that led Him thence, and He went, not in His own behalf, but in our behalf, to overcome for us. There was no compulsion about it. He was led by the Spirit, His humanity to be proved, as one who had undertaken to stand at the head of the fallen race.
CTr	189	3	Christ had been, and was then, in perfect harmony with the Father. He was to be tried and tested as a representative of the race. He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to meet the foe in personal encounter, to overthrow him who claimed to be the head of the kingdoms of the world.
CTr	189	4	While in the wilderness Christ fasted, but He was insensible to hunger. Engaged in constant prayer to His Father for a preparation to resist the adversary, Christ did not feel the pangs of hunger. He spent the time in earnest prayer, shut in with God. It was as if He were in the presence of His Father. He sought for strength to meet the foe, for the assurance that He would receive grace to carry out all that He had undertaken in behalf of humanity. The thought of the warfare before Him made Him oblivious to all else, and His soul was fed with the bread of life, just as today those tempted souls will be fed who go to God for aid. He ate of the truth that He was to give to the people as having power to deliver them from Satan's temptations. He saw the breaking of Satan's power over fallen and tempted ones. He saw Himself healing the sick, comforting the hopeless, cheering the desponding, and preaching the gospel to the poor--doing the work that God had outlined for Him; and He did not realize any sense of hunger until the forty days of His fast were ended....
CTr	189	5	Christ is in the wilderness, the wild beasts His only companions, and everything around Him tending to make Him realize His humanity. Suddenly an angel appears before Him, apparently one of the angels that He saw not long since, and addresses Him with the words "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." "If thou be the Son of God" here is the insinuation of distrust. The words rankle with the bitterness in his [Satan's] mind. In the tones of his voice is an expression of utter incredulity.--Letter 159, 1903 (Manuscript Releases 21:8, 9).
------------------------Christ Refused To Argue With Satan, July 2
CTr	190	1	When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. Luke 11:21.
CTr	190	2	He [Satan] ridiculed the idea of Christ, the Majesty of heaven, being left in the wilderness to suffer from hunger. Would God treat His own Son thus? Would He leave Him in the desert with wild beasts, without food, without companions, without comfort? He insinuates that God never meant His Son to be in such a state as this....
CTr	190	3	The words from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," were still sounding in the ears of Satan. But he was determined to make Christ disbelieve this testimony. The word of God was Christ's assurance of His divine mission.... It was Satan's purpose to make Him doubt this word. If Christ's confidence in God could be shaken, Satan knew that victory in the whole conflict would be his. He could overcome Jesus. He hoped that under the force of despondency and extreme hunger, Christ would lose faith in His Father and work a miracle in His own behalf. Had He done this, the plan of salvation would have been broken.
CTr	190	4	And Christ, the Son of God, answering said, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Christ had been warned not to enter into argument with Satan. And though He recognized him from the beginning, He was not provoked to enter into controversy with him. Strengthened with the memory of the voice from heaven, He rested in His Father's love. He would not parley with temptation.
CTr	190	5	Satan tempted the first Adam in Eden, and Adam reasoned with the enemy, thus giving him the advantage. Satan exercised his power of hypnotism over Adam and Eve, and this power he strove to exercise over Christ. But after the word of Scripture was quoted, Satan knew that he had no chance of triumphing.
CTr	190	6	Satan came to Christ hoping to gain the victory. He thought that he had every advantage over Him. But he was conquered by the Saviour's meekness and humility, and by His reliance on the Word of God. Meek and lowly, and seemingly helpless, Christ was stronger than the strong man armed. Oh, how Satan strove to make Him sin against God! But all his efforts failed to make Christ swerve from His allegiance.
CTr	190	7	Our Saviour could receive the heavenly revelation without becoming self-exalted.... The enemy is subtle and very daring, but he is not invincible. He is a strong man armed, but if we keep close to the Captain of our salvation, using the weapon that He has given us, we shall be victorious.--Letter 159, 1903 (Manuscript Releases 21:9, 10).
------------------------No Temptation Could Induce The Saviour To Sin, July 3
CTr	191	1	But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Hebrews 1:8.
CTr	191	2	In the wilderness Christ endured trials human beings cannot comprehend. Here Christ was brought face-to-face with the subtle power of Satan, the fallen angel. The enemy pursued the same course with the Saviour that he did with Adam and Eve in Eden. He began by disputing the sovereignty of Christ. If you are the Son of God, he said, give me evidence that You are....
CTr	191	3	Well did Satan know who Christ was, for when the Saviour went to Gadara, the evil spirits in the two madmen there cried out, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" As Christ passed through the test of the second Adam, His beauty of character shone out through His disguise. Satan could see through His humanity the glory and purity of the Holy One with whom he had been associated in the heavenly courts. As he looked upon Christ, there rose before his mind a picture of what he himself was then. At the time he had beauty and holiness. Self-exaltation led him to strive for a place above Christ. But he had failed. Could he now carry out his design upon the enfeebled humanity of Christ? He knew that if he could induce Christ to yield one jot in His allegiance to His Father, he would have the world entirely in his power, and would be able to rule as only he in his changed spiritual nature could rule. But the One Satan was trying to overcome was the Lord of heaven, and all the efforts of the tempter were without avail. As Satan saw that he could not obtain the victory, he was aroused to malignant hatred....
CTr	191	4	Then Satan took Christ to the pinnacle of the temple, and told Him to cast Himself down.... Thus he tried to lead Him to commit the sin of presumption. He reminded Him of the ministration of angels. But no temptation could make the Saviour accept the challenge of the tempter....
CTr	191	5	The adversary seemed to have power to take Christ where he pleased, for he next took Him to an exceeding high mountain, and there presented before Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.... Then it was that divinity flashed through humanity, and the fallen angels saw Jesus glorified before them as He said, "Get thee behind me, Satan."...
CTr	191	6	As the Commander in the heavenly courts, Christ was accustomed to receive the attendance of angels. And at any time during His life on this earth He could have called to His Father for twelve legions of angels. But no bribe, no temptation to lead Him to manifest His divine prerogatives, could induce Him to deviate from the path of God's appointment.--Letter 7, 1900.
------------------------Christ Proved That We Can Keep The Commandments, July 4
CTr	192	1	If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Matthew 4:3.
CTr	192	2	If His divine nature had not been clothed with the garb of humanity, Christ could not have associated with the fallen race and have become their Redeemer. It was necessary for Him to know the power of all our temptations, to pass through all the trials and afflictions that we are called to pass through, in order to be indeed a Saviour.... Satan, the powerful foe who had been turned out of heaven, had long claimed to have dominion on the earth, and Christ came to conquer this foe, in order that we might, through divine grace, also obtain the victory over the enemy of our souls. Standing at the head of humanity, Christ by His perfect obedience demonstrated to the universe that human beings could keep the commandments of God.
CTr	192	3	Under all circumstances--whether in prosperity or in adversity, whether received or rejected, whether at the marriage feast or suffering the pangs of hunger--Christ remained faithful to every precept of God's law, and wrought out for our example a perfect life. He has endured every hardship that comes to the poor and afflicted. Without sin He has suffered weariness and hunger. He understands every inconvenience to which we may be put. From childhood to manhood He stood the test of obedience.
CTr	192	4	When Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted, He was led by the Spirit of God. He did not invite temptation. He went into the wilderness to be alone, to contemplate His mission and work. By fasting and prayer He was to brace Himself for the bloodstained path He must travel. But Satan knew that the Saviour had gone into the wilderness, and he thought this was the best time to approach Him. Weak and emaciated from hunger, worn and haggard with mental agony, Christ's "visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men." Now was Satan's opportunity. Now he supposed that he could overcome Christ.
CTr	192	5	The first temptation was on the point of appetite. There came to the Saviour, as if in answer to His prayers, one in the guise of an angel from heaven. He claimed to have a commission from God to declare that Christ's fast was at an end. The Saviour was faint from hunger; He was craving for food when Satan came suddenly upon Him. Pointing to the stones that strewed the desert, and that had the appearance of loaves of bread, the tempter said, "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread."--Manuscript 155, 1902 (Sermons and Talks, 2:217, 218).
------------------------Christ Met Temptation With Scripture, July 5
CTr	193	1	It is written, "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4, NRSV.
CTr	193	2	Though he [Satan] appears as an angel of light, these first words betray his character: "If thou be the Son of God." Here is the insinuation of distrust. Should Jesus do that which Satan suggests, it would be an acceptance of the doubt. If Christ's confidence in God could be shaken, Satan knew that the victory in the whole controversy would be his. He hoped that under the force of despondency and extreme hunger, Christ would lose faith in His Father and work a miracle in His own behalf.
CTr	193	3	Not without a struggle could Jesus listen in silence to the archdeceiver. But the Son of God was not to prove His divinity to Satan. He met the tempter with the words of Scripture. "It is written," He said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." In every temptation the weapon of His warfare was the Word of God.
CTr	193	4	When Christ said to the tempter, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," He repeated the words that more than fourteen hundred years before, He had spoken to Israel. And the same words are written for our admonition. We are to commune with the One who gives us life, the One who keeps the heart in motion and the pulse beating. God is giving the breath of life to every member of His great family here below. He deserves your sincere reverence, your earnest devotion. When you consider what He has done for you, how can you help loving Him? He has given His Son as a propitiation for sin, in order that you might stand on vantage ground with God.
CTr	193	5	If the world should recognize the claims of God upon them, we would not see and hear of the awful sins that are now so common; we would not read of the murders, the wickedness, and the tyranny daily chronicled in the newspapers. Like the antediluvians, the inhabitants of the world have almost entirely forgotten God and His law.--Manuscript 155, 1902 (Sermons and Talks, 2:218).
CTr	193	6	When Satan can bring his craftiness to bear on human minds, deceptive influences are received [as] from heaven. If his deceptions are allowed to enter, many souls will be ensnared by them before it is seen that they are not from God, but from the enemy of all righteousness.--Manuscript 37, 1903 (The Upward Look, 135).
------------------------Christ's Mission Fulfilled Only Through Suffering, July 6
CTr	194	1	If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Matthew 4:6.
CTr	194	2	The second temptation was on the point of presumption.... Satan now supposes that he has met Jesus on His own ground. The wily foe himself presents words that proceeded from the mouth of God. He makes it evident that he is acquainted with the Scriptures. But when he quoted the promise "He shall give his angels charge over thee," he omitted the words "to keep thee in all thy ways," that is, in all the ways of God's choosing. Jesus refused to go outside the path of obedience. He would not force Providence to come to His rescue, and thus fail of giving us an example of trust and submission. Never did He work a miracle in His own behalf. His wonderful works were all for the good of others. Jesus declared to Satan, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." God will preserve all who walk in the path of obedience, but to depart from it is to venture on Satan's ground. There we are sure to fall....
CTr	194	3	Jesus was victor in the second temptation, and now Satan manifests himself in his true character, claiming to be the god of this world. Placing Jesus upon a high mountain, Satan caused the kingdoms of the world, in all their glory, to pass in panoramic view before Him. The eyes of Jesus, so lately greeted by gloom and desolation, now gazed upon a scene of unsurpassed loveliness and prosperity. Then the tempter's voice was heard, "All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine."
CTr	194	4	Christ's mission could be fulfilled only through suffering. Before Him was a life of sorrow, hardship, and conflict, and an ignominious death. But now Christ might deliver Himself from the dreadful future by acknowledging the supremacy of Satan. But to do this was to yield the victory in the great controversy. Christ declared to the tempter, "Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Christ's divinity flashed through suffering humanity. Satan had no power to resist the command to depart. Humiliated and enraged, he was forced to withdraw from the presence of the world's Redeemer.--Manuscript 155, 1902 (Sermons and Talks, 2:218, 219).
------------------------The Redeemer Comforted After Enduring The Test, July 7
CTr	195	1	Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Matthew 4:11.
CTr	195	2	After the foe had departed, Jesus fell exhausted to the earth. He had endured the test, but He now was fainting on the field of battle. What hand was there to be put beneath His head? How was He to be given care and nourishment so that He might regain His strength? Was He to be left to perish after gaining the victory? Oh, no; the angels of heaven had watched the conflict with intense interest, and they now came and ministered to the Son of God as He lay like one dying. He was strengthened with food, comforted with the message of His Father's love and the assurance that all heaven triumphed in His victory. He returned from the wilderness to proclaim with power His message of mercy and salvation.
CTr	195	3	What if Satan had gained the victory? What hope would we have had? Christ came to reveal to worlds unfallen, to angels, and to the human race that in God's law there is no restriction that we cannot obey. He came to represent God in humanity. He met every requirement that we are asked to meet.--Manuscript 155, 1902 (Sermons and Talks, 2:219, 220).
CTr	195	4	In their conflicts with Satan, the human family has all the help that Christ had. They need not be overcome. They may be more than conquerors through Him who has loved them and given His life for them.... The Son of God in His humanity wrestled with the very same fierce, apparently overwhelming, temptations that assail us--temptations to indulgence of appetite, to presumptuous venturing where God has not led them, and to the worship of the god of this world, to sacrifice an eternity of bliss for the fascinating pleasures of this life. Everyone will be tempted, but the Word declares that we shall not be tempted above our ability to bear. We may resist and defeat the wily foe.
CTr	195	5	Every soul has a heaven to win and a hell to shun. And the angelic agencies are all ready to come to the help of the tried and tempted soul. He, the Son of the infinite God, endured the test and trial in our behalf. The cross of Calvary stands vividly before every soul. When the cases of all are judged, and they are delivered to suffer for their contempt for God and their disregard of His honor in their disobedience, not one will have an excuse, not one will need to have perished. It was left to their own choice who should be their prince, Christ or Satan. All the help Christ received, every person may receive in the great trial.--Letter 116, 1899.
------------------------Angels Involved In Times Of Temptation, July 8
CTr	196	1	For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Psalm 91:11, 12.
CTr	196	2	It is expressly stated that Satan works in the children of disobedience, not merely having access to their minds, but working through their influence, conscious and unconscious, to draw others into the same disobedience. If evil angels have such power over human beings in their disobedience, how much greater power the good angels have over those who are striving to be obedient. When we put our trust in Jesus Christ, working obedience unto righteousness, angels of God work in our hearts unto righteousness....
CTr	196	3	Angels came and ministered to our Lord in the wilderness of temptation. Heavenly angels were with Him during all the period in which He was exposed to the assaults of satanic agencies. These assaults were more severe than any of us have ever passed through. Everything was at stake in behalf of the human family. In this conflict Christ did not frame His words even. He depended upon "It is written." In this conflict the humanity of Christ was taxed as none of us will ever know.
CTr	196	4	The Prince of life and the prince of darkness met in terrible conflict, but Satan was unable to gain the least advantage in word or in action. These were real temptations, no pretense. Christ "suffered being tempted." Angels of heaven were on the scene on that occasion, and kept the standard uplifted, that Satan could not exceed his bounds and overpower the human nature of Christ. In the last temptation Satan presented to Christ the prospect of gaining the whole world with all its glory if He would only worship him who claimed to be sent of God. Christ must then issue His command. He must then exercise authority above all satanic agencies.
CTr	196	5	Divinity flashed through humanity, and Satan was peremptorily repulsed. "Get thee hence, Satan," Christ said.... It was enough. Satan could go no further. Angels ministered to the Saviour. Angels brought Him food. The severity of this conflict no human mind can compass. The welfare of the whole human family and of Christ Himself was at stake. One admission from Christ, one word of concession, and the world would be claimed by Satan as his; and he, the prince of the power of darkness would, he supposed, commence his rule. There appeared unto Christ an angel from heaven, for the conflict ended. Human power was ready to fail. But all heaven sang the song of eternal victory.--Letter 116, 1899 (Selected Messages 1:94, 95).
------------------------Power Of God Available To Give Us Victory, July 9
CTr	197	1	His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. 2 Peter 1:3.
CTr	197	2	We are to be partakers of knowledge. As I have seen pictures representing Satan's coming to Christ in the wilderness of temptation in the form of a hideous monster, I have thought, How little the artists knew of the Bible! Before his fall Satan was next to Christ, the highest angel in heaven. How foolish then to suppose that he approached Christ in the wilderness in any such form as is given him in the illustration The Game of Life. Some have seen that picture. After the Saviour had fasted forty days and forty nights, "he was afterward an hungered." Then it was that Satan appeared to Him. He came as a beautiful angel from heaven, claiming that he had a commission from God to declare the Saviour's fast at an end. "If thou be the Son of God," he said, "command that these stones be made bread." But in Satan's insinuation of distrust, Christ recognized the enemy whose power He had come to the earth to resist. He would not accept the challenge, nor be moved by the temptation....
CTr	197	3	Christ stood by every word of God, and He prevailed. If we would always take such a position as this when tempted, refusing to dally with temptation or argue with the enemy, the same experience would be ours. It is when we stop to reason with the devil that we are overcome. It is for us to know individually that we are right in the warfare, to take the affirmative in the sight of God, and there to stand. It is thus that we obtain the divine power promised, through which we obtain "all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue."
CTr	197	4	There is such a thing as being partakers of the divine nature. We shall be tempted in a variety of ways, but when we are tempted we need to remember that a provision has been made whereby we may overcome.... Those who truly believe in Christ are made partakers of the divine nature and have power that they can appropriate under every temptation. They will not fall under temptation and be left to defeat. In time of trial they will claim the promises and by these escape the corruptions that are in the world through lust.
CTr	197	5	We think it costs us something to stand in this position before the world; and so it does. But what has our salvation cost the heavenly universe? To make us partakers of the divine nature, heaven gave its most costly treasure. The Son of God laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown and came to our earth as a little child.--Manuscript 99a, 1908.
------------------------Every Temptation Resisted Is A Precious Victory, July 10
CTr	198	1	Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Psalm 128:1, 2.
CTr	198	2	You are to show to the world your purpose to be a citizen of Paradise. Let no careless, irreverent expression come from your lips. What you say in the world will be marked with special consequence if it corresponds with what you say in the church. Your attitude, your words, your spirit, are constantly making an impression upon those with whom you associate....
CTr	198	3	Satan is offering to every soul the kingdoms of this world in return for the carrying out of his will. This was the great inducement he presented to Christ in the wilderness of temptation. And so he says to Christ's followers, If you will follow my business methods, I will reward you with wealth. Every Christian is at some time brought to the test that will reveal any weak points of character. If the temptation is resisted, one has gained precious victories.... In Satan's last bold attempt to overcome Christ, the Saviour met him with the words "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Hitherto the Saviour's response to his temptations had been in the affirmative; now He commands the tempter to depart, and Satan leaves Him--defeated where he had hoped for victory....
CTr	198	4	Those who purchase success at the fearful price of submission to the will of Satan will find that they have made a hard bargain. Everything in Satan's trade is secured at a high price. The advantages he presents are a fearful, deceptive mirage. The promised high hopes he holds out are secured at the loss of things that are good and holy and pure. Let Satan always be confounded with the words "It is written."...
CTr	198	5	I speak these words to all who love and fear God. People who stand prepared to do the works of righteousness will not be deceived by the allurements of the enemy. The angels of God are by their side restraining them if they will be restrained. Their actions will be guided by an exalted sense of right. They will be enabled to distinguish between right and wrong, between truth--exalted truth--and error. Those who enter the kingdom of heaven will be those who have reached the highest standard of moral obligation, those who have not sought to hide the truth or to deceive, those by whom God has been exalted and His Word defended, those by whom principle has not been misapplied to vindicate the wiles of Satan.--Letter 188, 1905.
------------------------Jesus Has Power To Save Every Soul, July 11
CTr	199	1	That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:7.
CTr	199	2	We are not kept by our intelligence, by our words, or by our riches. In these we find no safety. We are kept only by the power of God through faith unto salvation. We are living in a period of time during which we must by faith be allied with an infinite God or else we cannot overcome the strong powers of darkness seeking to destroy us....
CTr	199	3	Temptations will come. But when Satan throws his hellish shadow before us, we should reach in faith through the shadow to the Light of life--to Him who has not only created us but who by His own blood has redeemed us. We are Christ's cherished heritage. In living faith we must cooperate with Him in working out our own salvation. Amid trials and temptations His hand upholds and sustains us....
CTr	199	4	Those who hold fast their faith unto the end will come forth from the furnace of trial as fine gold seven times purified.... When in trouble, remember that faith tried in the furnace of affliction is more precious than gold tried with fire....
CTr	199	5	Do you suppose that after Christ gave His precious life to redeem the beings He created He would fail to give them sufficient power to enable them to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony? He has power to save every individual. At the time of His ascension He said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." For our redemption all power is given to Him who stood at the head of humanity. For nearly six weeks the Sinless One fought a battle with the powers of darkness in the wilderness of temptation, overcoming not on His account, but on our account, thus making it possible for every son and daughter of Adam to overcome through the merit of His sinlessness....
CTr	199	6	Only those who practice holiness in this life will see the King in His beauty. Put away all vain, trifling talk, and everything of a frivolous and sensational nature. Do not engross your mind with thoughts of worldly entertainments and pleasures. Engage in the work of saving your soul. If you should lose your soul, it would have been better for you never to have been born. But you need not lose your soul. You may use every moment of this God-given life to His name's glory. Strengthen yourself to resist the powers of darkness, that they shall not obtain a victory over you.--Manuscript 110, 1901 (Sermons and Talks, 2:174-176).
------------------------Be Alert To Satan's Perversion Of Scripture, July 12
CTr	200	1	The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him. Psalm 37:39, 40.
CTr	200	2	The wilderness temptation Christ endured was a personal conflict with the wicked one who had shown himself to be the author of sin. Satan was once a covering cherub in the heavenly courts, the angel next in power to Christ Himself. But he lifted himself up against God and induced some of the angels to join him in rebellion. There was war in heaven, and Satan and his followers were cast out. Expelled from heaven, Satan determined to set up a kingdom on this earth and win the human race to his side. But Christ pledged His word that if humans were overcome by temptation, He, the Son of God, would be their surety.
CTr	200	3	Christ came to our world to stand where Adam stood, to endure the temptations Adam failed to endure.... After His baptism, He went forth to the wilderness, and there He was tempted by the enemy. For forty days and forty nights He fasted; then, when He was an hungered, Satan came to Him as though he were a messenger from the heavenly courts, and tempted Him....
CTr	200	4	The enemy knew well the power of God's word. He knew that this word had supplied bread for the Israelites in their journeyings through the wilderness, and that the same word could now supply the necessities of Christ. But this was not God's plan. He designed that Christ should be treated as human beings are treated. He was not to exercise miraculous power in His own behalf, for if He did, Satan would say that His test had not been a fair one, because He had made use of supernatural power; and that He could not require human beings to keep all His requirements if the effort to keep them would destroy life....
CTr	200	5	Satan desired Christ to make Himself guilty of the sin of presumption by needlessly exposing His life. He did not repeat the whole of the quotation, but left out the words "in all thy ways," that is, in the path of duty. If Christ had presumed on God's mercy by risking His life to give Satan evidence of His Messiahship, He would not have been in the path of duty.
CTr	200	6	All should become familiar with God's Word, because Satan perverts and misquotes Scripture, and people follow his example by presenting part of God's Word to those whom they wish to lead in false paths, withholding the part that would spoil their plans.--Manuscript 153, 1899.
------------------------Jesus Gives Us Power To Become God's Children, July 13
CTr	201	1	But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. John 1:12, NRSV.
CTr	201	2	We are the Lord's property. Christ has paid a sum for our ransom that in no way can be computed. He gave Himself a living offering to God. He bore the sins of the transgressor, that God might be just and yet be the justifier of the repenting, believing sinner. In the wilderness of temptation He overcame every temptation on the point of appetite. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and in His weak condition Satan assailed Him. But He answered not with His own words, for Satan was ready to enter into controversy had He done this.... The insinuating temptation was presented, "If thou be the Son of God, command that this stone be made bread." But the "if" was not accepted, and there was no ground for controversy....
CTr	201	3	In His human nature Jesus gave evidence that in every temptation wherewith Satan shall assail fallen human beings, there is help for them in God if they will take hold of His strength, and through obedience make peace with Him....
CTr	201	4	All heaven was watching the working of the enemy against Christ when tempted in behalf of the fallen race. And all heaven is watching the strivings of every individual soul under every temptation by which men and women shall be beset. If they will resist the temptation, if they will not yield on any point, Satan cannot have the victory. In the books of heaven will stand registered against your name that on such a day Satan sought to overthrow and ensnare one of My redeemed ones, but the tempted one looked to Me, the conqueror, and I gave him or her angels to press back the powerful foe....
CTr	201	5	And what will those answer who have turned away from light and from knowledge and lived a careless, self-indulgent life? The amount of evidence people have had presented before them, the number of talents they have received, the returns made to the Master--these will determine their destiny for eternity.
CTr	201	6	Those who have had privileges and opportunities and light upon light will find themselves brought into comparison with those whose religious advantages have been limited, but who have made diligent, persevering effort to lay hold on eternal life. Over such the Lord rejoices with singing.--Manuscript 49, 1897.
------------------------We Can Always Rely Upon "Thus Saith The Lord", July 14
CTr	202	1	If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it may be made bread.... If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence. Luke 4:3-9.
CTr	202	2	In the wilderness of temptation the riches of the world was the bribe presented to our Lord. Satan did not come to Him with his temptations until the human nature was weakened and was crying out its necessity....
CTr	202	3	Christ's humanity would have shrunk from that which awaited Him in the desert. But He came to the world so that by coming into close contact with him [Satan], He might wrest from the hands of the usurper the Lord's human heritage....
CTr	202	4	Satan knew that the personal controversy between the Prince of life and the prince of darkness had commenced, and he sought to overcome Christ in His physical weakness. The proof that Satan required was for Christ to accept the doubt and act upon it, thus showing that He entertained the doubt by giving the evidence that Satan desired. Had Christ complied with this suggestion of the enemy, his satanic majesty would still have said, Show me a sign, that I may believe you to be the Son of God. But not one of the signs specified was Christ to give. By working a miracle in His own behalf He would show that He questioned God. That sign that is greater than all miracles, a firm reliance upon a "Thus saith the Lord," was a sign that could not be controverted....
CTr	202	5	How artfully had Satan approached Eve in Eden! "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" Thus far every word that Satan spoke was truth, but his manner of saying them was a disguised contempt for the words of God. There was in his words of truth a covert negative, a denial, a doubt of the divine truthfulness. He sought to instill into her mind the thought that God would not do as He had said, that the withholding of such beautiful fruit was a contradiction of His love and compassion for them.
CTr	202	6	And now he seeks to inspire Christ with his own sentiments. "If thou be the Son of God." Thus he sought to imbue Christ with his doubts.... Would God treat His own Son thus?...
CTr	202	7	Temptations will arise [among some] to cause distrust of God and to question His love.... They become traitors, rebels against God, and accept the temptations of him whom they choose as their leader. They become a medium for Satan, a channel through which he communicates to other minds the doubts and infidelity with which he has imbued them.--Letter 3, 1897.
------------------------Fervent, Importunate Prayer Will Bring Divine Help, July 15
CTr	203	1	Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. Luke 13:24.
CTr	203	2	Christ resisted the manifold temptations of Satan on our behalf, and through His name made it possible for us to overcome Satan on our own behalf. When we are burdened, when we are pressed with temptation, when the feelings and desires of the natural heart are contending for the victory, we should offer up fervent, importunate prayer to our heavenly Father in the name of Christ; and this will bring Jesus to our help, so that, through His all-powerful and efficacious name, we may gain the victory and banish Satan from our side. But we should not flatter ourselves that we are safe while we make but feeble efforts in our own behalf....
CTr	203	3	Our danger does not arise from the opposition of the world, but it is found in the liability of our being in friendship with the world, and imitating the example of those who love not God or His truth. The loss of earthly things for the truth's sake, the suffering of great inconvenience for loyalty to principle, does not place us in danger of losing our faith and hope, but we are in danger of suffering loss because of being deceived and overcome by the temptations of Satan. Trials will work for our good if we receive and bear them without murmuring, and will tend to separate us from the love of the world, and will lead us to trust more fully in God.
CTr	203	4	There is help for us only in God. We should not flatter ourselves that we have any strength or wisdom of our own, for our strength is weakness, our judgment foolishness. Christ conquered the foe in our behalf, because He pitied our weakness and knew that we would be overcome and would perish if He did not come to our help....
CTr	203	5	The merits of Christ elevate and ennoble humanity, and through the name and grace of Christ it is possible for us to overcome the degradation caused by the Fall, and, through the exalted, divine nature of Christ, to be linked to the Infinite. It is dangerous for us to think that by any easy or common effort we may win the eternal reward. Let us consider how much it cost our Saviour in the wilderness of temptation to carry on in our behalf the conflict with the wily, malignant foe. Satan knew that everything depended upon his success or failure in his attempt to overcome Christ with his manifold temptations. Satan knew that the plan of salvation would be carried out to its fulfillment, that his power would be taken away, that his destruction would be certain, if Christ bore the test that Adam failed to endure.--Manuscript 65, 1894 (The Review and Herald, February 5, 1895).
------------------------Victory Obtained In The Name Of Jesus, July 16
CTr	204	1	To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. Revelation 3:21, NRSV.
CTr	204	2	The temptations of Satan were most effective in degrading human nature, for human beings could not stand against their powerful influence; but Christ in our behalf, as our representative, resting wholly upon the power of God, endured the severe conflict in order that He might be a perfect example to us....
CTr	204	3	Christ suffered on our account beyond our comprehension, and we should welcome trial and suffering on our own account for Christ's sake, that we may overcome as Christ also overcame, and be exalted to the throne of our Redeemer. Let us consider the life and suffering of our precious Saviour in our behalf, and remember that if we are not willing to endure trial, toil, and conflict, if we are not willing to be partakers with Christ of His sufferings, we shall be found unworthy of a seat upon His throne.
CTr	204	4	We have everything to gain in the conflict with our mighty foe, and we dare not for a moment yield to his temptations. We know that in our own strength it is not possible for us to succeed; but as Christ humbled Himself and took upon Himself our nature, He is acquainted with our necessities, and has Himself borne the heaviest temptations that human beings will have to bear, has conquered the enemy in resisting his suggestions, in order that we may learn how to be conquerors....
CTr	204	5	Christ is our pattern, the perfect and holy example that has been given us to follow. We can never equal the pattern, but we may imitate and resemble it according to our ability.... When we surrender all we have and are to God, and are placed in trying and dangerous positions, coming in contact with Satan, we should remember that we shall have victory in meeting the enemy in the name and power of the Conqueror. Every angel would be commissioned to come to our rescue when we thus depend upon Christ, rather than that we should be permitted to be overcome. But we need not expect to get the victory without suffering, for Jesus suffered in conquering for us....
CTr	204	6	The Christian life is a life of warfare, of continual conflict. It is a battle and a march. But every act of obedience to Christ, every act of self-denial for His sake, every trial well endured, every victory gained over temptation, is a step in the march to the glory of final victory.--Manuscript 65, 1894 (The Review and Herald, February 5, 1895).
------------------------Christ Is With Us Always, July 17
CTr	205	1	While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18.
CTr	205	2	For forty days and nights He [Christ] fasted in the wilderness of temptation, and there Satan came to Him with great power, hoping to overcome Him in His weakness. The temptations then brought upon Christ were in every way greater than those brought upon Adam, but the Redeemer did not swerve a hairsbreadth from His allegiance to God....
CTr	205	3	Although it may seem that you are alone, yet you are not alone, for Christ is with you; you are in blessed company. And you have the words sounding down along the line from the prophets and apostles to encourage you in steadfastness. Many of these holy people lost their lives because of their faithfulness to God. If you suffer for the truth's sake, remember that this is no more than others have done before you. What trials and afflictions Paul endured, and yet he says, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."...
CTr	205	4	When difficulties arise, as they will, remember that Jesus is by your side, a very present help in time of need. To meet trial bravely is part of the Christian warfare, and in this warfare all heaven is interested. Christ knows what temptations you will meet. He knows that when one accepts the truth he or she will have a cross to lift, and He is ready to give the needed help.
CTr	205	5	Let the light of truth shine forth in your life. Do you say, How shall I let it shine? If before you accepted the truth, you were impatient and fretful, let your life now show to those around you that the truth has had a sanctifying influence upon your heart and character, that instead of being fretful and impatient, you are now cheerful and uncomplaining. Thus you reveal Christ to the world....
CTr	205	6	At the moment when you are offering your prayer for help, you may not feel all the joy and blessing that you would like to feel; but if you believe that Christ will hear and answer your petition, the peace of Christ will come.--Manuscript 8, 1885.
------------------------Salvation Placed Within Reach Of Every Human Being, July 18
CTr	206	1	Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. 2 Peter 1:10.
CTr	206	2	Here is our life assurance policy [2 Peter 1:10]. Here we have the directions laid down as to how we shall secure the life that measures with the life of God.... Many profess the religion of Jesus Christ, but they do not live it. What is their profession good for? They might just as well trace their name in the sand--and how long would it stand?
CTr	206	3	The religion of Jesus Christ makes us better men and better women.... Christ came to our world to reshape the deformed character of humanity. It was a very crooked character. God wants us to be His sons and His daughters. He wants us, during the hours of probation here, to be fitted up with all these graces that He has presented "according as his divine power hath given unto us all things." Nothing is withheld that pertains unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Then the rich promise is that we shall be partakers of the divine nature. This means everything to us, to be a partaker of the divine nature.
CTr	206	4	What victories should we gain in this lifetime if Christ had not overcome point after point for us in the wilderness of temptation? Here the enemy met Him with the three great leading temptations wherewith we are beset.... Christ had instituted and framed the plan Himself that with humanity upon Him, He was to bear every temptation wherewith men and women are beset.
CTr	206	5	He was not to work a miracle so as to avoid suffering Himself, but He was to stand the test upon every point of appetite that could be brought to the human family.... If Adam had depended on the words of God in place of the words of a stranger, he would not have transgressed the law of Jehovah. Temptation will come to every one of us as it came to Jesus Christ, and what is our hope? We may be pressed sore with temptations, but we may overcome, because Christ has brought moral power within our reach.
CTr	206	6	Everything that pertains to godliness, everything that pertains to the salvation of the human soul, is to be placed within the reach of every human being upon the face of the earth. There is no excuse for one of us to falter and fail in any respect in the work of overcoming, for Christ has said, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."--Manuscript 49, 1894.
------------------------All May Become Conquerors Through Christ, July 19
CTr	207	1	Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. Jeremiah 13:23.
CTr	207	2	We know that intemperance is in our world everywhere. There is no sin in eating and drinking to sustain us physically, and in doing that which is for our spiritual good. But when we lose eternity out of our reckoning, and carry these necessary things to excess, that is when the sin comes in. We see on every side such crime, such iniquity. Is it not time that we shall begin to study for ourselves? ...
CTr	207	3	Satan is represented by the serpent. The tempter is everywhere, on every side, and when God says ye shall not, what is the result? In many instances in the place of obeying the voice of warning, people listen to the tempter. And in the place of all the attractions that Satan presents they have woe and misery....
CTr	207	4	When Christ came into our world as a babe in Bethlehem, the angels sang out, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."... Satan with all his synagogue--for Satan claims to be religious--determined that Christ should not carry out the counsels of heaven. After Christ was baptized, He bowed on the banks of Jordan, and never before had heaven listened to such a prayer as came from His divine lips.... The glory of God, in the form of a dove of burnished gold, rested upon Him, and from the infinite glory was heard these words, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The human race is encircled by the human arm of Christ, while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the Infinite One. The prayer of Christ cleaved right through the darkness and entered where God is. To each of us it means that heaven is open before us. It means that the gates are ajar, that the glory is imparted to the Son of God and all who believe in His name....
CTr	207	5	Christ entered into the wilderness with the Spirit of God upon Him, to be tempted of the devil.... Satan left the field as a conquered foe. Our Saviour passed over the ground and was victor....
CTr	207	6	What has He done for the human family? He has elevated us in the scale of moral value. We may become conquerors through our Sufficiency. There is hope for the most hopeless, in Christ.... What did Christ come here for? To represent the Father. What a heart of love and sympathy! ... When God gave His Son, He gave all heaven. He could give no more.--Manuscript 27, 1893 (Temperance, 283-287).
------------------------In Christ We May Have Perfect Humanity, July 20
CTr	208	1	Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John 15:4.
CTr	208	2	Satan wished to change the government of God, to fix his own seal to the rules of God's kingdom. Christ would not be brought into this desire, and here the warfare against Christ commenced and waxed strong. Working in secrecy but known to God, Lucifer became a deceiving character. He told falsehood for truth.
CTr	208	3	He was expelled from heaven, and apparently Christ was alone with him in the wilderness of temptation. Yet He was not alone, for angels were round Him just as angels of God are commissioned to minister unto those who are under the fearful assaults of the enemy. Christ was in the wilderness with the one with whom there was war in heaven, and the one whom He overcame; and Satan was defeated.
CTr	208	4	Now Satan meets Him under different circumstances, as the glory that was round about Him is no longer visible. He has humbled Himself, taken upon Himself our nature.... What mental anguish Christ passed through! What grief! What torture of mind! He was face-to-face not with a hideous monster, as is represented with bat's wings and cloven feet, but a beautiful angel of light, apparently just from the presence of God....
CTr	208	5	It is impossible to take in the depth and the force of these temptations unless the Lord shall bring us where He can open these scenes before us by a revelation of the matter, and then it can only be but partially comprehended.... Our Lord's trial and test and proving shows that He could yield to these temptations, else the battle was all a farce. But He did not yield to the solicitude of the enemy, thus evidencing that human nature, united with the divine nature by faith, may be strong and withstand Satan's temptations.
CTr	208	6	Christ's perfect humanity is the same that we may have through connection with Christ. As God, Christ could not be tempted any more than He was not tempted from His allegiance in heaven. But as Christ humbled Himself to our nature, He could be tempted. He had not taken on Him even the nature of the angels, but humanity, perfectly identical with our own nature, except without the taint of sin....
CTr	208	7	Here the test to Christ was far greater than that of Adam and Eve, for Christ took our nature, fallen but not corrupted, and would not be corrupted unless He received the words of Satan in the place of the words of God.--Manuscript 57, 1890 (Manuscript Releases 16:180-183).
------------------------All Called To Be Children Of God, July 21
CTr	209	1	Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 1 John 3:2, NRSV.
CTr	209	2	First 1John 3:1-3 quoted. Here John has a view of the measureless love of an infinite God. John cannot find language to express it, and he calls upon the world to behold it. There were types and shadows that prefigured Christ in the Old Testament. Those who had been with Christ through His ministry recorded His works in the New Testament. For three and a half years the disciples were learning lessons from the lips of Christ, the greatest Teacher the world ever knew.... What brought Him here? Adam and Eve had transgressed the law of God in Eden....
CTr	209	3	Christ looked upon our world before He came to it, and He saw that Satan's power was exercised upon the human family. And because of the transgression of Adam he claimed the whole human family. He pointed to their calamities and diseases and reflected them upon God. He said God would have no mercy upon them and they might as well be under his control. Jesus had enlisted to give His own life for the salvation of the human race. He laid aside His royal robe and royal crown that He might clothe divinity with humanity....
CTr	209	4	Since the law of God was transgressed, the sentiment prevailed that it was impossible for human beings to keep the law of God.... The human and divine were combined in Jesus Christ. He came to our world to elevate humanity in the scale of moral value with God. He passed over the ground where Adam fell. He stood against the temptations of Satan and came off conqueror. He [Satan] approached the Son of God as an angel of light, just as he may tempt you.
CTr	209	5	Jesus Christ came off conqueror in the wilderness of temptation. When upon Jordan's banks, He offered such a prayer to heaven as heaven had never listened to before. His prayer penetrated through the darkness around Him and reached the highest heavens. The heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit, in appearance like a dove of burnished gold, descended upon Him, and from the lips of the Infinite One was heard these words, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." We have not understood how much this was saying to us. You are "accepted in the beloved."...
CTr	209	6	Christ came here to our atom of a world, and He honored it by taking human nature upon Himself. He honored humanity in the sight of all the created intelligences.--Manuscript 16, 1893.
------------------------Our Influence Is A Power For Good Or For Evil, July 22
CTr	210	1	And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:3.
CTr	210	2	True Christians will have an experience like that of Christ in the wilderness of temptation, especially those who engage in rescuing souls from the snares of Satan. They will meet the assaults of the enemy of all righteousness; and as Christ overcame, so may they overcome through His grace. Christians should not feel that they are abandoned of God because they are subjected to sore temptations. If they remain unshaken by the temptations, Satan will leave them, and angels will minister to them as they did to Jesus. There is no comfort equal to that which Christians enjoy when the tempted soul has patiently suffered and Satan has been vanquished. They have borne witness for Jesus, relying wholly upon the Word of God, "It is written," and thus have resisted every advance of Satan, till they have beaten him back and gained the victory.
CTr	210	3	Let us in no case depreciate people because they are severely tempted and the billows seem to go over their head. We must remember that Jesus was sorely tempted in all points like as we are, so that He might succor all who should be tempted....
CTr	210	4	We all have a personal influence. Our words and actions leave an indelible impress. It is our duty to live, not for self but for the good of others; to be controlled not by feelings, but by principle. We should consider that our influence is a power for good or for evil. We are either a light to cheer or a tempest to destroy....
CTr	210	5	The law of God requires that we love one another as we love ourselves. Then every power and action of the mind must be put forth to that end--to do the greatest amount of good.... How pleasing to the Giver for us to hold the royal gifts of the soul so that they shall tell with power upon others! They are the connecting link between God and humans, and reveal the Spirit of Christ and the attributes of heaven. The power of holiness, seen but not boasted of, speaks more eloquently than the most able sermons. It speaks of God and opens to men and women their duty more powerfully than mere words can do.--Letter 39, 1887 (Manuscript Releases 20:137, 138).
------------------------We Are To Live By God's Every Word, July 23
CTr	211	1	This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:17.
CTr	211	2	As Christ bowed upon Jordan's banks after His baptism, there was a bright light that descended like a dove of burnished gold and lighted upon Him, and from heaven was heard a voice saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." We read over these words, but do not take in their significance. We do not seem to understand their value to us. They are stating to you that you are accepted in the Beloved. Christ with His long human arm encircles the fallen race, while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the Almighty, thus uniting earth with heaven, and fallen, finite human beings with the Infinite God. And this earth, which was divorced from heaven, is again united with heaven. A communication is opened with heaven through Jesus Christ [so] that the human race, which was fallen, is brought back again into favor with God. Here Jesus passed into the wilderness of temptation, and trial is brought to bear upon Him one hundred times more trying than that brought upon Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden....
CTr	211	3	If Adam and Eve had lived by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God, they never would have fallen, never lost the right to the tree of life. All who will live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God now will be brought back to the Eden home....
CTr	211	4	There is happiness, hope, and peace for the desponding. We cannot afford to give our God-given ability and devote it to the commonplace things of this earth. We want a faith that will grasp the promise set before us in the gospel....
CTr	211	5	I see matchless charms in Jesus. I never talk of any trials I cannot bear, or any self-sacrifice that I cannot make. I see One who died in my behalf, and He shall not die for me in vain. I will place myself in right relation to God, and I will have a right hold from above. I am not studying what the world will say of me, but my study is, Lord, how shall I please Thee? How shall I perform my mission in this world? ...
CTr	211	6	If we are overcomers at last, there are battles for us to fight, and we will find that the flesh warreth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. It is for us to say which will triumph.--Manuscript 16, 1886 (Sermons and Talks, 2:32-34).
------------------------Jesus Our Example On How To Overcome Satan, July 24
CTr	212	1	All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16, 17, NRSV.
CTr	212	2	The great leading temptations wherewith we would be beset, Christ met and overcame in the wilderness. His coming off victor over appetite, presumption, and the world shows how we may overcome. Satan has overcome his millions in tempting the appetite and leading people to give up to presumptuous sins. There are many who profess to be followers of Christ, claiming by their faith to be enlisted in the warfare against all evil in their nature, yet who, with hardly a thought, plunge into scenes of temptation that would require a miracle to bring them forth unsullied. Meditation and prayer would have preserved them and led them to shun the dangerous positions in which they have placed themselves, and that give Satan the advantage over them.
CTr	212	3	The promises of God are not for us to claim rashly, to protect us while we rush on recklessly into danger, violating the laws of nature, or disregarding prudence and the judgment God has given us to use. This would not be genuine faith but presumption. The thrones and kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, were presented to Christ. Never will we have temptations as strong as those that assailed Him.
CTr	212	4	But Satan comes to us with worldly honor, wealth, and the pleasures of life. These temptations are varied to meet people of every rank and degree, tempting them away from God to serve themselves more than their Creator. "All these things will I give thee," said Satan to Christ. "All these things will I give thee," says Satan to us. "All this money, this land, all this power, this honor, and these riches, will I give thee," and we are charmed, deceived, and treacherously allured on to our ruin. If we give ourselves up to worldliness of heart and of life, Satan is satisfied.
CTr	212	5	The Saviour overcame the wily foe, showing us how we may overcome. He has left us His example, to repel Satan with Scripture. He might have had recourse to His own divine power and used His own words, but His example would not then have been as useful to us. Christ used only Scripture. How important that the Word of God be thoroughly studied and followed, that in case of emergency we may be "throughly furnished unto all good works" and especially fortified to meet the wily foe.--Letter 1a, 1872.
------------------------Our Saviour Was Tempted Exactly As We Are, July 25
CTr	213	1	Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. Isaiah 27:5.
CTr	213	2	Imagine, if you can, yourself in Christ's stead in the wilderness. There is no human voice you hear, but you are surrounded with demons under deceptive pretensions as angels from heaven, presenting in the most seducing attractions Satan's wily insinuations against God, as he did to our first parents. His sophistry is most deceiving and artful in undermining your confidence in God and destroying your faith and your trust. He keeps your mind on a constant strain so that he can get one clue that he can use to his own advantage to allure you into a controversy, as if reading your thoughts to which you will not give utterance, just as he did Eve.
CTr	213	3	He could not obtain from Christ one word to lead him on. The word, "It is written," was spoken from point to point as he tested Him. But only the quotation of His own words that He had inspired the holy men of old to write would come from Christ's lips... In our Lord's great scene of conflict in the wilderness, apparently under the power of Satan and his angels, was He capable, in His human nature, of yielding to these temptations? ...
CTr	213	4	As God He could not be tempted, but as a man He could be tempted, and that strongly, and could yield to the temptations. His human nature must pass through the same test and trial Adam and Eve passed through. His human nature was created; it did not even possess the angelic powers. It was human, identical with our own. He was passing over the ground where Adam fell. He was now where, if He endured the test and trial in behalf of the fallen race, He would redeem Adam's disgraceful failure and fall, in our own humanity.
CTr	213	5	A human body and a human mind were His. He was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.... He was subject to disappointment and trial in His own home, among His own brethren. He was not surrounded, as in the heavenly courts, with pure and lovely characters. He was compassed with difficulties. He came into our world to maintain a pure, sinless character, and to refute Satan's lie that it was not possible for human beings to keep the law of God....
CTr	213	6	Through being partakers of the divine nature we may stand pure and holy and undefiled. The Godhead was not made human, and the human was not deified by the blending together of the two natures. Christ did not possess the same sinful, corrupt, fallen disloyalty we possess, for then He could not be a perfect offering.--Manuscript 94, 1893 (Manuscript Releases 6:110-112).
------------------------At Last We Shall See The King In His Beauty, July 26
CTr	214	1	To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7, NRSV.
CTr	214	2	If you feel a spirit of controversy with anyone, just go out somewhere and speak of the love of Christ to souls who need a testimony in favor of the truth. Speak of the loveliness of Christ, and the wicked spirit that has been in your heart will depart. What we need is an experience in overcoming the enemy, and in clinging to the Mighty One. We cannot afford to lose everlasting life.
CTr	214	3	I must tell you that heaven is to be sought for, to be prayed for, to be worked for. We cannot, with our unconverted traits of character, drift into heaven....
CTr	214	4	Do not spend time in controversy with those who bring up objections, for the enemy will suggest to other minds enough to occupy your time in combating them. Your strength is to keep to the affirmative. When the devil met Christ in the wilderness, Christ did not enter into controversy with him. Satan tempted Him to perform a miracle to create bread. Had Christ done this, He would have given the enemy a decided advantage, for Satan might have given a similar evidence of his own power....
CTr	214	5	So today, if people bring to you objections to the truth, and try to stir you up, do not become excited. Keep on the track of the affirmative. Affirm the truth, "Thus saith the Lord," and let me tell you, the enemy will soon desire to get out of your presence....
CTr	214	6	Let us lay aside the warfare the enemy would have us put on. Let us begin to work in earnest to overcome our hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil. Let us plead with God to take away the wicked propensity to faultfinding, and in its place to give us life and the love of Christ....
CTr	214	7	We have a heaven to win, and Christ wants us to have it. He died that we might have it. Every soul who is saved in the kingdom of God will give the glory to Him, not to any human being. Christ will open for us the golden gates; He will invite us to enter....
CTr	214	8	And we must enter heaven here below or we shall never enter the heaven hereafter. Right here on this earth we must begin to live the life of Christ, and then it will be a heaven to you and it will be a heaven to those who associate with you.... And at last you will see the King in His beauty; you will behold His matchless charms and, touching the golden harp, fill heaven with rich music and songs to the Lamb.--Manuscript 97, 1906.
------------------------Through Divine Aid We Can Be Victors Against Satan, July 27
CTr	215	1	Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57.
CTr	215	2	It is at an immense cost that we have been placed on the high vantage ground where we can be liberated from the bondage of sin, which has been wrought by the fall of Adam.... Never can we understand the value of the human soul until we realize the great sacrifice made for the redemption of the soul upon Calvary. Adam's sin in Eden plunged the human race into hopeless misery. But in the scheme of salvation a way has been provided for all to escape if they comply with the requirements. A second probation has been granted by the sacrifice of the Son of God. We have a battle to fight, but we can come off victor through the merits of Christ's blood.
CTr	215	3	God saw that it was impossible for us to overcome and gain the victory in our own strength. The race has ever been growing weaker in every succeeding generation since the fall, and without the help of Christ we cannot resist the evil of intemperance. How thankful we should be that we have a Saviour and that He consented to lay off His royal robes and leave the royal throne, and to clothe His divinity with humanity and become a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief....
CTr	215	4	After His baptism, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and was tempted of the devil. Christ commenced the work of redemption just where the ruin began, and the future welfare of the world depended on that battle fought by the Prince of life in the wilderness. Thanks be to God that He came off victorious, passing over the same ground where Adam fell and redeeming Adam's disgraceful failure. Satan left the field of battle a conquered foe. This victory is an assurance to us that through divine help we may come off victorious in our behalf on our own account in the conflict with the enemy....
CTr	215	5	Satan felt that all the power of this fallen planet was in his possession, but when Christ came to measure strength with the prince of darkness, Satan found One who was able to resist his temptations. The words of Christ are, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me."... All heaven was watching the result of the controversy between Christ and Satan.... Now the question is, Will we take advantage of the situation and come off more than conquerors through Him who loved us?--Manuscript 26, 1887.
------------------------Are We Prepared For Christ's Return, July 28
CTr	216	1	He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. John 1:10.
CTr	216	2	All that the world could endure of their Redeemer was the few years He was with them upon the earth, and they wanted to get rid of Him almost as soon as His mission commenced.... The question that every one of us has to settle is: Am I prepared for the coming of the Son of man? If you have accepted your Saviour by living faith, if you have repented of your sins, then you are in a position of acceptance with God so that if Christ should come you would meet Him in peace....
CTr	216	3	Let us notice the steps that the Son of man had to take in order to carry out the plan of salvation. He stepped down from the royal throne, laid aside His royal robes, clothed His divinity with humanity, and consented to come to this world. This world--right here--was to be the field of battle where Christ and Satan, the prince of this earth, should engage in conflict. And the question to be settled was How could God be just and true to His law and yet justify the sinner? This could be done only by the sacrifice of the Son of God....
CTr	216	4	It was difficult to uproot Satan from the affection of the angels in heaven. He took the position that the law of God was against the heavenly intelligences, and the warfare and controversy between Christ and Satan was started in heaven and is going on in the earth to the present day. The controversy between Christ and Satan was witnessed not only by the heavenly intelligences but by all the worlds that God had created. Here the power arises that claims to have the right to change times and laws--it is the man of sin. But does he have power to change times and laws? No; because God's law is written in the tables of stone, engraven with His own finger, and placed in the temple of God in heaven. That great moral standard will be the criterion that will judge every being upon the face of the earth, both dead and living....
CTr	216	5	Christ went into the wilderness of temptation to bear the severest temptations, He was tempted in all points as Adam was tempted, and He passed over the very ground where Adam stumbled and fell.... Christ was now to stand where Adam stood, bearing humanity and overcoming in behalf of the race where Adam fell. And Christ withstood the test on every point; He resisted on the point of appetite.... He was tempted upon the point of ambition, and presumption, and He overcame the enemy on these points.... The Saviour of the world overcame and obtained the victory on every point.--Manuscript 11, 1886.
------------------------Better To Suffer Than To Yield To Temptation, July 29
CTr	217	1	He humbled you ... in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8:3, NRSV.
CTr	217	2	The duel between Christ and Satan was fought in the wilderness, Christ with apparently not a friend to aid Him. Satan was subtle; falsehood is his stock in trade. With all the power that he possessed he tried to overcome the humanity of Christ....
CTr	217	3	Satan charmed the first Adam by his sophistry, just as he charms men and women today, leading them to believe a lie. Adam did not reach above his humanity for divine power; he believed the words of Satan. But the second Adam was not to become the enemy's bond slave.
CTr	217	4	Adam had the advantage over Christ in that, when he was assailed by the tempter, none of the effects of sin were upon him. He stood in the strength of perfect manhood, possessing the full vigor of mind and body. He was surrounded with the glories of Eden and was in daily communion with heavenly beings. It was not thus with Jesus when He entered the wilderness to cope with Satan....
CTr	217	5	Every device that the enemy could suggest was brought against Him. It was when Christ was in a weakened condition, after His long fast of forty days, that the wisest of the fallen angels used the most enticing words at his command in an effort to compel the mind of Christ to yield to his mind.... "If thou be the Son of God," he said, "show thy power by relieving thyself of this pressing hunger.""Command that these stones be made bread."...
CTr	217	6	When Christ said to Satan, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," He repeated the words that, more than fourteen hundred years before, He had spoken to Israel. [Deuteronomy 8:3, quoted].
CTr	217	7	In the wilderness, when all means of sustenance failed, God sent His people manna from heaven; and a sufficient and constant supply was given. This provision was to teach them that while they trusted in God and walked in His ways, He would not forsake them. The Saviour now practiced the lesson He had taught to Israel. By the word of God succor had been given to the Hebrew host, and by the same word it would be given to Jesus. He awaited God's time to bring relief. He was in the wilderness in obedience to God, and He would not obtain food by following the suggestions of Satan. In the presence of the witnessing universe, He testified that it is a lesser calamity to suffer whatever may befall than to depart in any manner from the will of God.--Manuscript 113, 1902.
------------------------Christ Knows Just How To Help Us Overcome, July 30
CTr	218	1	Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him. Deuteronomy 6:13.
CTr	218	2	We should not present our petitions to God to prove whether He will fulfill His word, but because He will fulfill it; not to prove that He loves us, but because He loves us.
CTr	218	3	"Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain ... and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."
CTr	218	4	This was Satan's crowning effort. Into this effort he threw all his beguiling power. It was the charm of the serpent. He exerted the power of his fascination upon Christ, striving to make Him yield His will to him. In His weakness Christ laid hold of God. Divinity flashed through humanity. Christ stood revealed as the Commander of heaven, and His words were the words of one who has all power. "Get thee behind me, Satan," He said, "for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."
CTr	218	5	Satan had questioned whether Jesus was the Son of God. In his summary dismissal he had proof that he could not gainsay. He had no power to resist the command. Writhing with humiliation and rage, he was forced to withdraw from the presence of the world's Redeemer. Christ's victory was as complete as had been the failure of Adam.
CTr	218	6	Christ knew of the long years of conflict in the future between human beings and their subtle foe. He is the refuge of all who, beset by temptation, call upon Him. Temptation and trial will come to us all, but we need never be worsted by the enemy. Our Saviour has conquered in our behalf. Satan is not invincible. Day by day he meets those who are on trial, striving by his wiles to gain the mastery over them. His accusing power is great, and it is in this line that he wins more victories than in any other. Christ was tempted, that He might know how to help every soul that should afterward be tempted. Temptation is not sin; the sin lies in yielding. To the soul who trusts in Jesus, temptation means victory and greater strength.
CTr	218	7	Christ is ready to pardon all who come to Him confessing their sins. To the tried, struggling soul is spoken the word "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." Thank God, we have a high priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities, for He was in all points tempted as we are.--Manuscript 113, 1902.
------------------------Jesus Gained The Victory For Us, July 31
CTr	219	1	The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. Proverbs 18:10.
CTr	219	2	There was never a time when Christian men and women, in all walks of life, were in so great need of clear spiritual eyesight as now. It is not safe to lose sight of Christ for one moment. His followers must pray and believe and love Him fervently....
CTr	219	3	Satan demanded of Christ a miracle as a sign of His divinity. But that which is greater than all miracles, a firm reliance upon a "Thus saith the Lord," was a sign that could not be controverted. So long as Christ held to this position, the tempter could gain no advantage.
CTr	219	4	It was in the time of greatest weakness that Christ was assailed by the fiercest temptations. Thus Satan thought to prevail. By this policy he had gained the victory over both men and women. When strength had failed and the willpower weakened, and faith ceased to repose in God, then those who had stood long and valiantly for the right were overcome. Moses was wearied with the forty years' wandering of Israel, when for the moment his faith let go its hold upon Infinite Power. He failed just upon the borders of the Promised Land. So with Elijah, who had stood undaunted before King Ahab; who had faced the whole nation of Israel with the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal at their head. After that terrible day upon Carmel when the false prophets had been slain and the people had declared their allegiance to God, Elijah fled for his life before the threats of idolatrous Jezebel....
CTr	219	5	Whenever one is encompassed with clouds, perplexed by circumstances, or afflicted by poverty or distress, Satan is at hand to tempt and annoy. He attacks our weak points of character. He seeks to shake our confidence in God, who suffers such a condition of things to exist. We are tempted to distrust God, to question His love....
CTr	219	6	Christ declared to the tempter, "Get thee behind me, Satan."... So we may resist temptation and force Satan to depart from us. Jesus gained the victory through submission and faith in God, and by the apostle He says to us, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." We cannot save ourselves from the tempter's power; he has conquered humanity, and when we try to stand in our own strength, we shall become a prey to his devices; but "the name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." Satan trembles and flees before the weakest soul who finds refuge in that mighty name.--Manuscript 15, 1908.
------------------------Believe That Christ Will Give Us Power To Overcome, August 1
CTr	220	1	For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10.
CTr	220	2	In your efforts to overcome, you will meet with many temptations; but if you continue to strive, Christ will give you great success. The more serious the trials, the more precious the victory you gain. If you will only flee to the Source of your strength, then you will receive a great blessing. But we must learn to cast all our cares upon Jesus Christ, who is our helper. All our sorrow and grief, take it to the Lord in prayer.
CTr	220	3	It is a great thing to believe in Jesus. We hear many say, "Believe, believe, all you have to do is to believe in Jesus." But it is our privilege to inquire, What does this belief take in, and what does it comprehend? There are many of us who have a nominal faith, but we do not bring that faith into our characters. The statement is made that the devil believed and trembled. While he was in heaven, he believed that Christ was the Son of God, and when upon this earth he was in conflict with Him here on the field of battle. He believed on Christ, but could this save him? No; because he did not weave Christ into his life and character. We must have that faith that works by love and purifies the soul, and this belief in Christ will lead us to put away everything that is offensive in His sight.
CTr	220	4	Unless we have this faith that works, it is of no advantage to us. You may admit that Christ is the Saviour of the world, but is He your Saviour? Do you believe today that He will give you strength and power to overcome every defect in your character? ... We are to grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, and we are thus growing up a precious temple unto the Lord. He says, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."...
CTr	220	5	It makes every difference with us whether we are living righteously or in sin. To some of us Christ may say that He is ashamed to call us brothers and sisters; but to those who are loaded down with burdens, the pitying Saviour stands right by their side to help them....
CTr	220	6	He took our nature upon Him, that He might come right down to us in the temptation wherewith we are beset.... Then shall we not accept Him as our Saviour? If you feel the wound and sting of sin, then it is for you to cry to the Saviour to help you.--Manuscript 5, 1886.
------------------------All May Know God The Father, August 2
CTr	221	1	For by grace are ye saved through faith; ... it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8.
CTr	221	2	Jesus Christ is our spiritual touchstone. He reveals the Father.... The mind must be prepared to appreciate the work and words of Christ, for He came from heaven to awaken a desire and to give the bread of life to all who hunger for spiritual knowledge. Inspiration declared that His mission was to preach the gospel to the poor, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. His Word declared that He should set judgment on the earth, and that the isles should wait for His law; that Gentiles should come to His light, and kings to the brightness of His rising. This was the Messenger of the Covenant yet to come, the Son of Righteousness yet to rise upon our world.
CTr	221	3	Adam and Eve were formed in the image of God. But Satan worked constantly to destroy the divine similitude. The holy pair yielded to temptation, and God's image was obliterated. Christ put His hand a second time to the work. He would recreate human beings. When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son. Hear, O heaven, and be astonished, O earth! The appointed Instructor appears, and He is no other than the Son of God; His divinity was clothed with humanity.
CTr	221	4	Christ came to reveal perfection amid the imperfection of a world corrupted by disobedience and sin. The eternal Word appeared in human form, bringing with Him all grace, all healing, all efficiency. He brought with Him the bread of life, which, if received, will be to us as the tree of life. The Inspired Word declares of this Teacher, "For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people."
CTr	221	5	The question of how to obtain a knowledge of God is to all a life-and-death question. Read Christ's prayer to His Father, intended not merely as an important lesson in education for the disciples, but to come down through all time for the benefit of those who would read the Inspired Writings. "Father," He prayed, "the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."--Manuscript 15, 1898.
------------------------He Who Made The Worlds Became A Helpless Babe, August 3
CTr	222	1	And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Luke 2:40.
CTr	222	2	We cannot understand how Christ became a little helpless babe.... His face could have been bright with light, and His form could have been tall and beautiful. He could have come in such a way as to charm those who looked upon Him; but this was not the way that God planned He should come among the human family. He was to be like those who belonged to the human family and to the Jewish race. His features were to be like those of other human beings, and He was not to have such beauty of person as to make people point Him out as different from others. He was to come as one of the human family, and to stand as a man before heaven and earth. He had come to take our place, to pledge Himself in our behalf, to pay the debt that sinners owed. He was to live a pure life on the earth, and show that Satan had told a falsehood when he claimed that the human family belonged to him forever, and that God could not take the race out of his hands.
CTr	222	3	People first beheld Christ as a babe, as a child. His parents were very poor, and He had nothing in this earth save that which the poor have. He passed through all the trials that the poor and lowly pass through from babyhood to childhood, from youth to manhood....
CTr	222	4	The more we think about Christ's becoming a babe here on earth, the more wonderful it appears. How can it be that the helpless babe in Bethlehem's manger is still the divine Son of God? Though we cannot understand it, we can believe that He who made the worlds became, for our sakes, a helpless babe. Though higher than any of the angels, though as great as the Father on the throne of heaven, He became one with us. In Him God and humanity became one, and it is in this fact that we find the hope of our fallen race....
CTr	222	5	From His earliest year, Christ lived a life of toil. In His youth He worked with His father at the carpenter's trade, and thus showed that there is nothing of which to be ashamed in work.... Those who are idle do not follow the example that Christ has given, for from His childhood He was a pattern of obedience and industry. He was as a pleasant sunbeam in the home circle. Faithfully and cheerfully He acted His part, doing the humble duties that He was called to do in His lowly life. Christ became one with us in order that He might do us good.--Youth's Instructor, November 21, 1895.
------------------------Christ "Grew In Knowledge" Going About His Father's Business, August 4
CTr	223	1	Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? Luke 2:49.
CTr	223	2	Every year His parents went to the city of Jerusalem to attend the feast of the Passover, and in His twelfth year Jesus went with them to the city. When the feast was over, the parents, forgetting all about Jesus, started on their road home with some of their relations, and did not know that Jesus was not with them. They supposed that He was in the company, and went a whole day's journey before they found out that He was not there. Frightened as to what had become of Him, they turned back to the city....
CTr	223	3	Jesus knew that God had given Him this opportunity to give light to those who were in darkness, and He sought to do all in His power to open the truth to the rabbis and teachers. He led these men to speak about different verses in the Bible telling about the Messiah whom they expected to come. They thought that Christ was to come to the world in great glory at this time, and make the Jewish nation the greatest nation on the earth. But Jesus asked them what the Scriptures meant when they spoke of the humble life, the suffering and sorrow, the rejection and death, of the Son of God. Though Christ seemed like a child that was seeking help from those who knew a great deal more than He did, He was bringing light to their minds in every word He spoke....
CTr	223	4	While Christ was teaching others, He Himself was receiving light and knowledge about His own work and mission in the world, for it is plainly stated that Christ "grew in knowledge." What a lesson there is in this for all the youth of our day! They may be like Christ, and by studying the Word of God, by receiving the light that the Holy Spirit can give them, they will be able to give light to others....
CTr	223	5	The wise men were surprised at the questions that the child Jesus asked.... When there was a pause, Mary, the mother of Jesus, came up to her son and asked, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." Then a divine light shone from Jesus' face, as He lifted His hand and said, "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"... They did not know what He really meant by these words, but they knew He was a true son, who would be submissive to their commands. Though He was the Son of God, He went down to Nazareth and was subject to His parents.--Youth's Instructor, November 28, 1895.
------------------------Jesus An Example To Children And Youth, August 5
CTr	224	1	And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Luke 2:52.
CTr	224	2	As Jesus looked upon the offerings that were brought as a sacrifice to the temple, the Holy Spirit taught Him that His life was to be sacrificed for the life of the world.... From His earliest years He was guarded by heavenly angels; yet His life was one long struggle against the powers of darkness. Satan sought in every way to tempt and try Him. He caused people to misunderstand His words, so that they might not receive the salvation He came to bring them. He was opposed both at home and abroad, not because He was an evildoer, but because His life was free from every taint of sin, and condemned all impurity....
CTr	224	3	His stainless life was a rebuke, and many avoided His presence; but there were some who sought to be with Him because they felt at peace where He was. He was gentle, and never contended for His rights; but His own brethren scorned and hated Him, showing that they did not believe in Him, and casting contempt upon Him.... He lived above the difficulties of His life, as if in the light of God's countenance. He bore insult patiently, and in His human nature became an example for all children and youth....
CTr	224	4	His life was as leaven, working amid the elements of society. Harmless and undefiled He walked amid the careless, the thoughtless, the rude and unholy. He mingled with the unjust publicans, the reckless prodigals, the unrighteous Samaritans, the heathen soldiers, the rough peasants, and the mixed multitudes.... He treated every human being as having great value. He taught people to look upon themselves as persons to whom had been given precious talents that, if rightly used, would elevate and ennoble them, and secure for them eternal riches. By His example and character He taught that every moment of life was precious, as a time in which to sow seed for eternity.--The Youth's Instructor, December 12, 1895.
CTr	224	5	Jesus carried the burden of the salvation of the human family upon His heart. He knew that unless people would receive Him, and become changed in purpose and life, they would be eternally lost. This was the burden of His soul, and He was alone in carrying this load.... From His youth He was filled with a deep longing to be a lamp in the world, and He purposed that His life should be "the light of the world." This He was, and that light still shines to all who are in darkness. Let us walk in the light that He has given.--The Youth's Instructor, January 2, 1896.
------------------------Jesus Presented Truth By Using Familiar Objects, August 6
CTr	225	1	All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables. Matthew 13:34.
CTr	225	2	The great Teacher proclaimed the truth to humanity, many of whom could not be educated in the schools of the rabbis, neither in Greek philosophy. Jesus uttered truth in a plain, direct manner, giving vital force and impressiveness to all His utterances....
CTr	225	3	The rabbis and teachers had virtually shut up the kingdom of heaven from the poor and the afflicted, and left them to perish. In His discourses Christ did not bring many things before them at once, lest He might confuse their minds. He made every point clear and distinct....
CTr	225	4	Christ was the originator of all the ancient gems of truth. Through the work of the enemy these truths had been displaced. They had been disconnected from their true position and placed in the framework of error. Christ's work was to readjust and establish the precious gems in the framework of truth. The principles of truth that had been given by Himself to bless the world had, through Satan's agency, been buried and had apparently become extinct. Christ rescued them from the rubbish of error, gave them a new, vital force, and commanded them to shine as precious jewels and stand fast forever. Christ Himself could use any of these old truths without borrowing the smallest particle, for He had originated them all....
CTr	225	5	As Christ presented these truths to minds, He broke up their accustomed train of thought as little as possible.... He therefore aroused their minds by presenting truth through the agency of their most familiar associations. He used illustrations in His teaching that called into activity their most hallowed recollections and sympathies, that He might reach the inner temple of the soul. Identifying Himself with their interests, He drew His illustrations from the great book of nature, using objects with which they were familiar. The lily of the field, the seed sown by the sower, the springing up of the seed, and the harvesting of the grain, the birds of the air--all these figures He used to present divine truth, for these would remind them of His lessons whenever they should afterward look upon them....
CTr	225	6	Although Satan has misrepresented God's purposes, falsified His character, and caused people to look upon God in a false light, yet through the ages God's love for His earthly children has never ceased. Christ's work was to reveal the Father as merciful, compassionate, full of goodness and truth.... The only begotten Son of God sweeps back the hellish shadow in which Satan has enveloped the Father, and declares, "I and My Father are one; look on Me and behold God."--Manuscript 25, 1890 (Manuscript Releases 13:240-243).
------------------------Prefer Tradition Rather Than Obedience To God's Law, August 7
CTr	226	1	And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. Mark 7:9.
CTr	226	2	The most learned men in the days of Christ--philosophers, legislators, priests, in all their pride and superiority--could not interpret God's character.... When, in the fullness of time, Christ came to our world, it was darkened and marred by the curse of apostasy and spiritual wickedness. The Jews had wrapped themselves about with the dark mantle of unbelief. They kept not the commandments of God....
CTr	226	3	Those whom He addressed regarded themselves as exalted above all other peoples. To them, they proudly boasted, had been committed the oracles of God. The earth was languishing for a teacher sent from God, but when He came just as the living Oracles specified He would come, the priests and instructors of the people could not discern that He was their Saviour, nor could they understand the manner of His coming. Unaccustomed to accept God's Word exactly as it reads, or to allow it to be its own interpreter, they read it in the light of their maxims and traditions. So long had they neglected to study and contemplate the Bible that its pages were to them a mystery. They turned with aversion from the truth of God to the traditions of men.
CTr	226	4	The Jewish nation had reached a critical time in its history. Much was at stake. Would human ignorance give way? Would there be a thirsting for a deeper knowledge of God? Would this thirst develop into a longing for spiritual drink, as the thirst of David developed into a longing for water from the well of Bethlehem? Would the Jews turn from the influence of false teachers, which had perverted their senses, and call upon God for divine instruction? ...
CTr	226	5	When Christ came as a human being, a flood of light was shed upon the world. Many would have received Him gladly, choosing to walk in the light, if the priests and the rulers had only been true to God and had guided the people aright by giving to them a true interpretation of the truths of the Word. But so long had the leaders misapplied the Scriptures that the people were misled by falsehoods....
CTr	226	6	The Jews, as a nation, refused to accept Christ. They turned from the only One who could have saved them from eternal ruin. A similar condition of things exists in the so-called Christian world today. People who claim to understand the Scriptures are rejecting God's law and exerting a strong, determined influence against it.... What is the result? Look at the course of the youth growing up around us.--Manuscript 24, 1891 (Manuscript Releases 19:252-254).
------------------------Mortals Can Overcome Only Through Christ, August 8
CTr	227	1	I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. Revelation 3:12.
CTr	227	2	Never will the human family--redeemed by the example of the Sent of God, the only begotten of the Father--understand and fully comprehend the terrible conflict waged with deceptive, alluring power and concealed, deadly hatred by Satan against our Lord when He lived upon earth. After the battle of the great day of God shall take place, when the power of rebellion is forever broken and Christ's mediatorial work in its magnitude is represented so plainly that all of the redeemed of God's family shall, with clear comprehension, understand the mission of His Son as the mediatorial remedy to make of the fallen race a repentant, humble, meek, reclaimed order of beings--then there will be seen developed the difference between the person that serveth God and the one that serveth Him not.
CTr	227	3	Rebellion will exist in our world until in heaven are spoken the words "It is done." Rebellion in the church is caused by its members feeling opposed to God and to His terms of salvation. Human beings want abundant room to express themselves and to attract attention. They do not know or understand that they are working out the plans of Satan. If they refuse to see and to become enlightened, if they refuse to be instructed, they reject the mediatorial remedy that has been given to save the sinner--not in sin but from sin. For the express purpose of saving sinners was the remedial work of Christ planned.
CTr	227	4	When Christ first announced to the heavenly host His mission and work in the world, He declared that He was to leave His position of dignity and disguise His holy mission by assuming the likeness of a man, when in reality He was the Son of the infinite God. And when the fullness of time was come, He stepped down from His throne of highest command, laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown, clothed His divinity with humanity, and came to this earth to exemplify what humanity must do and be in order to overcome the enemy and to sit with the Father upon His throne.... He made it possible for Himself to be buffeted by human agencies inspired by Satan, the rebel who had been expelled from heaven.
CTr	227	5	As the head of humanity, Christ lived on this earth a perfect, consistent life, in conformity with the will of His heavenly Father.... Always uppermost in His mind and heart was the thought "Not My human will, but Thy will, be done."--Letter 303, 1903.
------------------------Jesus Taught By Both Words And Example, August 9
CTr	228	1	For neither did his brethren believe in him. John 7:5.
CTr	228	2	The people saw that the Holy Spirit was resting upon Jesus at the age of twelve. He felt something of the burden of the mission for which He had come to our world....
CTr	228	3	He understands the temptations of children, for He bore their sorrows and trials. Firm and steadfast was His purpose to do the right; though others tried to lead Him to do evil, yet He never did wrong, and would not turn away in the least from the path of truth and right. He always obeyed His parents, and did every duty that lay in His path.
CTr	228	4	But His childhood and youth were anything but smooth and joyous. His spotless life aroused the envy and jealousy of His brethren, for they did not believe on Him. They were annoyed because He did not act in all things as they did and would not become one with them in doing evil.--The Youth's Instructor, November 28, 1895.
CTr	228	5	Because He was so quick to see what was false and what was true, His brethren were greatly annoyed at Him, for they said that whatever the priest taught ought to be considered as sacred as a command of God. But Jesus taught both by His words and by His example that people ought to worship God just as He has directed them to worship Him, and not follow the ceremonies that religious leaders have said ought to be followed....
CTr	228	6	The priests and the Pharisees also were annoyed because this Child would not accept their human inventions, maxims, and traditions.... Failing to convince Him that He ought to look upon human traditions as sacred, they came to Joseph and Mary and complained that Jesus was taking a wrong course in regard to their customs and traditions. Jesus knew what it was to have His family divided against Him on account of His religious faith. He loved peace; He craved the love and confidence of the members of His family; but He knew what it was to have them withdraw their affection from Him. He suffered rebuke and censure because He took a straightforward course and would not do evil because others did evil, but was true to the commandments of Jehovah....
CTr	228	7	The scribes, rabbis, and Pharisees could not force Jesus to turn from the Word of God and follow human traditions, but they could influence His brethren in such a way that His life might become a very bitter one. His brethren threatened Him and sought to compel Him to take a wrong course, but He passed on, making the Scriptures His guide.--The Youth's Instructor, December 5, 1895.
------------------------Jesus Cares About Human Problems And Perplexities, August 10
CTr	229	1	The steward called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now." John 2:10, NRSV.
CTr	229	2	The joyous festivities of a Jewish wedding were preceded by solemn religious ceremonies. In preparation for their new relationship, the parties performed certain rites of purification and confessed their sins.
CTr	229	3	A most interesting part of the ceremony took place in the evening when the bridegroom went to meet his bride and bring her to his home. At the house of the bride a company of invited guests awaited the appearance of the bridegroom. As he approached, the cry went forth, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." The bride, clothed in pure white, her head encircled with flowers, received the bridegroom, and, accompanied by the guests, they went from her father's house. By torchlight, with impressive display, with sounds of singing and instruments of music, the procession slowly proceeded to the house of the bridegroom, where a feast was provided for the guests.
CTr	229	4	For the feast the best food that could be secured was provided. Unfermented wine was used as a beverage. It was the custom of the time for marriage festivities to continue several days. On this occasion, before the feast ended it was found that the supply of wine had failed. When a call was made for more wine, Jesus' mother, thinking that He might suggest something to relieve the embarrassment, came to Him and said, "They have no wine."... The active part that Mary took in this feast indicates that she was not merely a guest, but a relative of one of the parties. As one having authority, she said to the servants, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it."...
CTr	229	5	Jesus said unto them, "Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast."... The action of Christ at this time was left on record for all ages, that we might see that Christ did not fail even in such a perplexity as arose on this occasion. Yet He never worked a miracle to help Himself. A few days before this He had refused to satisfy His own hunger by changing a stone into bread at Satan's suggestion.--Manuscript 126, 1903.
------------------------Water To Wine, August 11
CTr	230	1	This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him. John 2:11.
CTr	230	2	Jesus Christ is the originator of all missionary work done in our world. He worked miracles to heal the sick, but He never worked a miracle in His own behalf. His first noted miracle was performed at a marriage feast in Cana, when He turned water into wine....
CTr	230	3	By this miracle Christ wished to teach that unfermented wine is far preferable to fermented wine. Christ never created fermented wine. The wine made on this occasion was exactly like the wine that comes fresh from the cluster. Christ knew the influence of fermented wine, and by giving them pure, unfermented wine, He showed them the only safe way in which to use grape juice.
CTr	230	4	Christ did not draw attention to this act to receive public notice. He wished to teach an important lesson. He did not make or use fermented wine.... Christ did turn water into wine, but He used wine fresh from the grapes, and never any other. He is our example in all things, and before His death He left as a last legacy to His church the bread, representing His body given for the sins of the world, and the wine, representing His spilt blood. But nothing but unleavened bread and unfermented wine could be used. Nothing of a fermented character is to be used in the Communion service, for fermented wine would destroy the figure representing the blood of Christ. We may all look upon this question as forever settled.
CTr	230	5	Christ wrought this miracle to teach still another lesson. He would not yield to the enemy when tempted to perform a miracle to supply His own necessities by converting a stone into bread. But on the occasion of the marriage feast He desired to express His sympathy with, and approval of, those at the wedding. Christ did not come to this world to forbid marriage or to break down or destroy the relationship and influence that exist in the domestic circle. He came to restore, elevate, purify, and ennoble every current of pure affection, that the family on earth might become a symbol of the family in heaven. In the Christian home the grace of God is to subdue and transform human character, and then the church will become an active, living, working church. In such families the song may well be sung, "There are angels hovering round; there are angels hovering round. Go, carry the tidings home."--Manuscript 22, 1898.
------------------------The Living Water Comes From Jesus, August 12
CTr	231	1	There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. John 4:7.
CTr	231	2	Consider how circumstances that occur bring truth before the minds of others. Call to mind the woman of Samaria who came, as was her usual custom, to draw water. A stranger sitting on the well asks her for a drink. A conversation begins. Jesus says to her, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.""Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
CTr	231	3	Remembering the weary work that she had to repeat day after day, and thinking what an advantage it would be if she could have water without all this trouble, the woman said, "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." She did not realize that Jesus was presenting to her the soul's highest interest, the water of life.
CTr	231	4	The words spoken by Christ were the living water. But she soon became so interested that she left her water pot and, going into the city, bore the words to her countrymen, "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?"
CTr	231	5	The woman had come for water, and she heard of the water of life. She had been convinced of sin, and believed on Jesus Christ. Thus the holy oil is emptied, by the holy messengers represented by the two olive trees, into the golden tubes and from thence into the golden bowls. The emptying process goes on, from the receiving of the golden oil to the communicating of the same to others. Words are spoken; the unconscious influences that surround the soul are felt, although no words are designedly spoken. A word may be often spoken that will be as seed sown....
CTr	231	6	The Lord has made ample provision that the heavenly graces shall be abundantly supplied to all, that the truth as it is in Jesus shall hold the first place in the heart and shall ever occupy the soul temple. Then there will be thorough devotion to God, and all true believers will become fishers of men. They will pray for wisdom, and will walk in accordance with the prayer: "Ye are the light of the world." "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."--Letter 48, 1897.
------------------------No Position Too Lowly To Be Honorable In Christ, August 13
CTr	232	1	Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. Mark 6:3.
CTr	232	2	Christ's life of humiliation should be a lesson to all who desire to exalt themselves above others. Though He had no taint of sin upon His character, yet He condescended to connect our fallen human nature with His divinity....
CTr	232	3	In humility Christ began His mighty work of lifting the fallen race from the degradation of sin, recovering them by His divine power, which He had linked with humanity. Passing by the grand cities and the renowned places of learning and supposed wisdom, He made His home in the humble and obscure village of Nazareth. The greater part of His life was passed in this place, from which it was commonly believed that no good could come. In the path that the poor, the neglected, the suffering, and the sorrowing must tread, He walked while on earth, taking upon Him all the woes that the afflicted must bear.... His family was not distinguished by learning, riches, or position. For many years He worked at His trade as a carpenter.
CTr	232	4	The Jews had proudly boasted that Christ was to come as a king, to conquer His enemies and tread down the heathen in His wrath. But the humble, submissive life our Saviour led, which should have enshrined Him in the hearts of the people and given them confidence in His mission, offended and disappointed the Jews, and we all know of the treatment He received from them....
CTr	232	5	Christ did not exalt people by ministering to their pride. He humbled Himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Unless human pride is humbled and subdued, unless the stubborn heart is made tender by the Spirit of Christ, it is not possible for Him to impress His divine similitude upon us. He, the humble Nazarene, might have poured contempt upon the world's pride, for He was commander in the heavenly courts. But He came to our world in humility, in order to show that it is not riches or position or authority or honorable titles that the universe of heaven respects and honors, but those who will follow Christ, making any position of duty honorable by the virtue of their character through the power of His grace.
CTr	232	6	No human being is warranted to uplift self in pride. "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."--Letter 81, 1896.
------------------------Christ Will Create A New Heart In His Followers, August 14
CTr	233	1	Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.
CTr	233	2	The change that must come to the natural, inherited, and cultivated tendencies of the human heart is that change of which Jesus spoke when He said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."... He virtually said to Nicodemus, It is not controversy that will help your case. Arguments will not bring light to your soul. You must have a new heart, or you cannot discern the kingdom of heaven. It is not greater evidence that will bring you into a right position, but new purposes, new springs of action. You must be born again. Until this change takes place, until all things are made new, the strongest evidence that could be presented would be useless....
CTr	233	3	To Nicodemus this was a very humiliating statement, and with a feeling of irritation he took up the words of Christ, saying, "How can a man be born when he is old?"... But the Saviour did not meet argument with argument. Raising His hand in solemn, quiet dignity, He pressed home the truth with greater assurance, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."...
CTr	233	4	Christ's words conveyed the lesson that instead of feeling irritated over the plain words of truth and indulging in irony, Nicodemus should have a far more humble opinion of himself because of his spiritual ignorance. Yet the words of Christ were spoken with such solemn dignity, and both look and tone expressed such earnest love that Nicodemus was not offended as he realized his humiliating position....
CTr	233	5	This lesson to Nicodemus I present as highly applicable to those who today are in responsible positions as rulers in Israel, and whose voices are often heard in council, giving evidence of the spirit that Nicodemus possessed. The words of Christ are spoken just as verily to presidents of conferences, elders of churches, and those occupying responsible positions in our churches....
CTr	233	6	Nicodemus was converted as the result of this interview. In that night conference with Jesus, the convicted man stood before the Saviour under the softening, subduing influence of the truth that was shining into the chambers of his mind and impressing his heart.... Jesus told Nicodemus not only that he must have a new heart in order to see the kingdom of heaven, but how to obtain this new heart.--Letter 54, 1895.
------------------------"Never Man Spake Like This Man", August 15
CTr	234	1	Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him? The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. John 7:45, 46.
CTr	234	2	Christ came to this world just as the Old Testament Scriptures foretold that He would come, but notwithstanding this, He was misapprehended and misjudged. The Pharisees were filled with a frenzy of hatred against Him, because they could see that His teaching had a power and an attractiveness of which their words were utterly devoid. They decided that the only way to cut off His influence was to pass sentence of death upon Him, and therefore they sent officers to take Him. But when these officers came within hearing of His voice, and listened to His gracious words, they were charmed into forgetting their errand....
CTr	234	3	"Are ye also deceived?" the elders asked.... Nicodemus saith unto them, "Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?"
CTr	234	4	The lesson that Christ had given to Nicodemus had not been in vain. Conviction had fastened upon his mind, and in his heart he had accepted Jesus. Since his interview with the Saviour, he had earnestly searched the Old Testament Scriptures, and he had seen truth placed in the setting of the gospel.
CTr	234	5	The question asked by him was wise and would have commended itself to those presiding at the council had they not been deceived by the enemy. But they were so filled with prejudice that no argument in favor of Jesus of Nazareth, however convincing, had any weight with them. The answer that Nicodemus received was "Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look; for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet."
CTr	234	6	The priests and rulers had been deceived, as Satan meant them to be, into believing that Christ came out of Galilee. Some who knew that He had been born in Bethlehem kept silent, that the falsehood might not be robbed of its power.
CTr	234	7	The facts were plain. There was no dimness of the light. But the work of Christ was interpreted by different ones in accordance with the state of their minds....
CTr	234	8	The Prince of Peace came to proclaim truth that was to bring harmony out of confusion. But He who came to bring peace and goodwill started a controversy that ended in His crucifixion.--Manuscript 31, 1889.
------------------------We Are Sanctified Through The Truth In Jesus, August 16
CTr	235	1	Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:17.
CTr	235	2	Every soldier engaged in the spiritual conflict must be brave in God. Those who are fighting the battles for the Prince of life must point their weapons of warfare outward, and not form a hollow square and aim their missiles of destruction at those who are serving under the banner of the Prince Emmanuel. We have no time for wounding and tearing down one another. How many there are who need to heed the words that Christ spoke to Nicodemus, ... "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."...
CTr	235	3	There are many who claim to be followers of Christ, whose names are enrolled on the church books, who have not been a strength to the church. They have not been sanctified through the truth.... It is not receiving the truth simply, but practicing the truth, that sanctifies the soul. Let those who would be sanctified through the truth search carefully and prayerfully both the Old and New Testaments that they may know what is truth....
CTr	235	4	Those who are truly converted to Christ [must] keep on constant guard lest they shall accept error in place of truth. Those who think that it matters not what they believe in doctrine, so long as they believe in Jesus Christ, are on dangerous ground. There are some who think that they will be just as acceptable to God by obeying some other law than the law of God--by meeting some other conditions than those He has specified in the gospel--as if they obeyed His commandments and complied with His requirements. But they are under a fatal delusion, and unless they renounce this heresy and come into harmony with His requirements, they cannot become members of the royal family....
CTr	235	5	Those who claim to be sanctified, and who give no heed to the words of divine authority spoken from Mount Sinai, make it manifest that they will not render to God the obedience that the Lawgiver requires...."Without me," Christ says, "ye can do nothing." Provision for our perfection is found in union with Christ. "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one."...
CTr	235	6	What pleasure could [heaven] possibly be to souls who would not be drawn to Jesus in this life, to study His character and to be with Him in the life that is to come? They would prefer to be anywhere else than in the presence and companionship of Him in whom they have no delight. They did not know Him while in the world and could not learn to know Him in heaven.--Manuscript 40, 1894.
------------------------The Lord Trusts Us To Sow Good Seed For A Good Harvest, August 17
CTr	236	1	The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. Matthew 13:24, 25, NRSV.
CTr	236	2	The Lord has a work to do in our world, but He will not trust His work in the hands of people who know nothing of the Bible or of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. The Lord presents in parables the rise and progress of the work that results from the preaching of His Word, the present truth for this time. He brings before us the fashioning of a church that shall stand before the world as chosen and faithful. The parable of the sower shows the manner in which we should work. The work of the gospel ministry is the sowing of the seed....
CTr	236	3	The parable of the wheat and the tares shows the mystery of the divine and the satanic agencies working in direct opposition, in vital conflict. The conflict continues till the close of this earth's history. The incorruptible seed is the living Word of God, which works in the personal sanctification of the receivers, elevating them by bringing them into the participation of the divine nature.
CTr	236	4	Many matters need to be considered. Those who have all their lifetime been the servants of sin, desiring to act in direct opposition to the divine will, need to be most thoroughly converted. Otherwise the leaven of evil will work under cover, as Satan appearing like an angel of light tempted Christ to oppose the divine will. God's great standard of righteousness is obnoxious to the tastes and appetites of sinful men and women. The active energy of the Saviour and that of the destroyer are in conflict.
CTr	236	5	The wheat is to be gathered for Christ's garner. The tares have the appearance of wheat, but when the harvest comes they must be rejected. Yet there is an imitation of the wheat through a long period of time. Satan puts forth a determined effort to deceive and lead into strange paths those who have any connection with the Word of God, and he will devise every possible scheme to lengthen the period of his control. The Lord God of heaven gives no sanction to mix and corrupt church associations. The Lord would have His work in the preaching of the gospel so done that there will be no encouragement to evil workers, no toleration of evil associations in Christian assemblies.--Manuscript 7, 1900.
------------------------Christ Healed The Palsied Man And Forgave His Sins, August 18
CTr	237	1	And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. Matthew 9:2.
CTr	237	2	When Jesus came as a man to our world, Satan had led the Jews into the practice of a religion that pleased the powers of darkness. The professed people of God had departed from God and were following another leader. Through their own perversity, they were going on to destruction, but Christ came to dispute the authority of Satan....
CTr	237	3	The life of Christ was made one long scene of conflict. Satan stirred up the evil hearts of people, and set envy and prejudice at work against the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. He caused people to question and to doubt the word, works, and mission of Christ.... They [the Jews] followed Christ from place to place, in order that, if possible, they might catch some word from His lips to misstate, misconstrue, and publish abroad, giving it a meaning that had neither been expressed nor intended. Thus the way of Christ was hedged up by people who claimed to be just and holy....
CTr	237	4	In this way Satan led people who might have been a power for Christ to work on the enemy's side in the controversy, and to become agents whereby he instilled into the hearts of the people questioning, suspicion, doubt, and hatred....
CTr	237	5	The leaders of the people were ever watching for an excuse for their attitude of unbelief, and when He wrought His most convincing miracles, they were ready to catch up anything that would appear like an objection to His divine claims. When Jesus had healed the palsied man, He had said to him, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."...
CTr	237	6	In the miracle that Christ had wrought, He had changed the man's heart and had renewed him in mind and body, thus demonstrating to the Pharisees the fact that He had power to forgive sins, and to bring righteousness and peace to the sinner. Yet the Pharisees saw in His words of divine power a matter for unbelief and accusation.... Jesus saw that however deeply rooted were the principles that were set in opposition to the principles He proclaimed, yet they were delusion and falsehood, and had originated in the enemy of all righteousness. Jesus said to the people, "Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."--Manuscript 65, 1895 (The Signs of the Times, April 25, 1895).
------------------------Heart Must Be Refilled With Love Of God, August 19
CTr	238	1	Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. Matthew 12:45.
CTr	238	2	The man in the parable broke with Satan, refused to do his work, but the trouble with him was that after the heart was swept and garnished he failed to invite the heavenly Guest. It is not enough to make the heart empty; we must have the vacuum filled with the love of God. The soul must be furnished with the graces of the Spirit of God. People may leave off many bad habits and yet not be truly sanctified, because they do not have a connection with God; they do not unite with Christ....
CTr	238	3	Satan, the great rebel, is ever seeking to entice us to sin against God. He will introduce false imaginings, arming the understanding against the revealed will of God, the lower passions against purity and self-denial, the will against God's will, setting up a wisdom from beneath to conflict with the wisdom from above.... Shall God's will be put in the background and our will be held as supreme? Can this be the controlling power in God's great contest for the recovery of His own? ...
CTr	238	4	I have been warned that henceforth we shall have a constant contest. Science, so-called, and religion will be placed in opposition to each other, because finite beings do not comprehend the power and greatness of God. These words of Holy Writ were presented to me: "Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." This will surely be seen among the people of God. There will be those who are unable to perceive the most wonderful and important truths for this time, truths that are essential for their own safety and salvation, while matters that are in comparison as the merest atoms, matters in which there is scarcely a grain of truth, are dwelt upon and magnified by the power of Satan so that they appear of the utmost importance....
CTr	238	5	As the lovers of the world make religion subservient to the world, God requires His worshipers to subordinate the world to religion.--Manuscript 16, 1890.
------------------------The Touch Of Faith Is Healing, August 20
CTr	239	1	But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. Matthew 9:22.
CTr	239	2	Satan is the destroyer; the Lord is the Restorer. The Lord has not worked as a physician in the way that He desires to work, because, He says, Ye will not come to Me, that I may give you life. We look to every source for relief except to the One who proclaimed over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, "I am the resurrection, and the life." ...
CTr	239	3	Christ met one poor soul who had spent all her living in order that she might be cured of a physical malady. The statement is that she had spent all that she had on many physicians, and was nothing better, but rather made worse. But one touch of Christ by faith took away the infirmity of long years. This suffering woman came behind Christ and touched His garment, [having] faith in the Person whom the garment covered, and instantly she was made whole. "Who touched me?" said Christ. Peter was astonished. He answered, "Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?"
CTr	239	4	Christ desired to give a lesson that all present would never forget. He would show the difference between the touch of living faith and a casual touch. He said, "Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me." When the woman saw that she could not be hid, she came forward trembling, and throwing herself at His feet, told her pitiful story. Christ comforted her. "Daughter," He said, "thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague."
CTr	239	5	Why do we not come to Jesus in faith? Many give Him a casual touch, coming in contact only with His person. The woman did more than this. She put forth her hand in faith and was healed instantly.... The friends of the truth will honor Him who is the Author and Finisher of their faith. Christ will prove Himself a physician in restoring the body as well as the soul. The workers together with God will yoke up with Christ and place themselves, soul, body, and spirit, in right relation to God....
CTr	239	6	The will of men, women, and children must be trained by cooperation with God.... The melody of spiritual joy, and spiritual as well as physical health, will be revealed and will promote that blessedness that the Lord Jesus came to our world to impart to every individual who will believe.--Letter 106, 1898.
------------------------The Sermon On The Mount, August 21
CTr	240	1	And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. Matthew 5:1.
CTr	240	2	Christ's sermon on the mount was designed to enter into our everyday life. The commandments are so broad that they take hold of even our thoughts. But how few take heed to the words of our Saviour! Consequently we shall have objections to meet. Some will claim that they are wholly led by the Spirit, and consequently they have not much use for the law of God or any portion of God's Word. Those who claim great light and are not sanctified through the truth are dangerous people, but they can be easily tested. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah 8:20....
CTr	240	3	We must expect to be assailed by the powers of darkness, but if we successfully resist, then there will be rejoicing in heaven. The souls of human beings are valued by the heavenly host.... We must not be under anyone's banner but Christ's.--Manuscript 45, 1886.
CTr	240	4	Christ spake as never man spake. To the multitude that listened to His sermon on the mount--His lessons illustrated by things with which they were familiar--the law of God, with its living, matchless principles, was brought home to their minds and consciences. Among the thousands who were converted in a day, after Christ had risen from the tomb and ascended to the Father, were the very ones who had heard and believed the words spoken on that occasion.
CTr	240	5	As Jesus stood among the people, clothed with the garb of humanity, He longed to unfold to His disciples the deep mysteries of the plan of redemption; but with sadness He was forced to say, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." The temporal, the earthly, was so mingled in their minds with the spiritual and the eternal that the sacred and heavenly were eclipsed....
CTr	240	6	The soul must be infused with the Spirit of the great Teacher if the mind would penetrate into the deep things of God. The truth will enlarge and enrich the mind. Its beauty, its purity, its holiness, [and] its invigorating power, will inspire the receivers, and they will not be content to be circumscribed in their work. The yearning soul will cry out after the living God, Show me Thy glory.--Manuscript 104, 1898.
------------------------Pure, Unselfish Faith Honored By Heaven, August 22
CTr	241	1	There came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. Matthew 8:5-7.
CTr	241	2	The centurion felt his unworthiness. He was a man of contrite spirit although he was a man of authority. He felt unworthy to have Jesus Christ, with His miracle-working power, come under his roof, but His word spoken would be all that was essential, just as the centurion could say to his soldiers under him, "Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it." He had confidence in the merely spoken words of Christ to restore his servant. When Jesus heard it, He marveled. "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."...
CTr	241	3	The Jewish nation would not receive their promised Messiah when He came in just the manner prophecies declared He would come. Here was a man, not professedly of Israel, who had not had the opportunities that Israel had abundantly received, who in faith and appreciation of Christ was far in advance of the people of Israel, whom the Lord had made the repository of most sacred, precious truth.
CTr	241	4	Who were Israelites indeed--Jew or Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free? Jesus "was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not." John 1:10, 11. But this Roman, a commander in authority, came to Jesus with a most earnest entreaty for one of his servants, sick of palsy, grievously tormented with pain. His faith in its simplicity was a pure, unselfish faith. He asks not of Jesus, "Show me a sign from heaven," but solicits Him to work a cure for his suffering servant. He tells Him he feels unworthy to have Him come under his roof. He who dwells in the high and lofty place, yet will He come and make His abode with the humble and contrite in heart....
CTr	241	5	Let people receive the light as presented in the Word of God, in truth, and there will be a steadfastness of purpose that will enable them to stand erect in moral independence amid difficulties and danger. A character is formed, barricaded by truth--a character that will abide the day of trial and test before us, however dark may be the pressure, however severe the tribulation that the day of God's preparation may bring forth. The principle of righteousness works outward from within and makes itself felt.--Letter 114, 1895.
------------------------Jesus Walks With Us Through All The Storms Of Life, August 23
CTr	242	1	But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. Matthew 14:27.
CTr	242	2	I was today to write upon Christ walking on the sea and stilling the tempest.... How vividly before my mind was the boat, with the disciples, buffeted by the waves. The night was dark and tempestuous. Their Master was absent. The sea was strong, the winds contrary. Had Jesus, their Saviour, been with them, they would have felt safe. All through the long and tedious night they bend to their oars, forcing their way against wind and waves. They are beset with danger and horror. These were strong men, accustomed to hardships and perils, and not easily intimidated with danger.
CTr	242	3	They had expected to take their Saviour on board the ship at a certain designated point, but how could they even reach that spot without Him? All [seemed] in vain, [for] the wind was against them. The strength of the rowers was exhausted, and yet the merciless storm had not abated, but was lashing the waves into a fury as though to engulf the boat and themselves. Oh, how they longed for Jesus. In the hour of their greatest peril, when they had given up all for lost, amid the lightning flashes in the fourth watch of the night Jesus is revealed to them walking upon the water. Oh, then, Jesus had not forgotten them. His watchful eye of tender sympathy and pitying love had watched them all through that fearful storm. In their greatest need He was close by them....
CTr	242	4	At the very point when despair was taking the place of hope, when they felt that they were utterly deserted, the eye of the world's Redeemer was watching them with a compassion that was as tender as a mother watching over a suffering child, and this love is infinite. The disciples were at first affrighted, but above the roaring of the angry tempest is heard the words the disciples longed most to hear, "Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid." Their confidence is restored. "Jesus; it is Jesus!" was spoken from one to the other. "Be not afraid; it is Jesus, the Master."
CTr	242	5	Jesus said to winds and waves, to the troubled waters, "Peace, be still." Oh, how many times have we in our experience been in a similar position as were these disciples. How many times has Christ revealed Himself to us and turned our sorrow into joy. Oh, powerful Redeemer, gracious and compassionate Saviour, able with Thine infinite power to calm all tempests, able to revive all hearts. He is our Redeemer. We may trust Him in the storm as well as the sunshine.--Letter 5, 1876.
------------------------The Messiah Of Prophecy Rejected, August 24
CTr	243	1	And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. Luke 4:24.
CTr	243	2	With what intense interest was this controversy watched by the heavenly angels and the unfallen worlds as the honor of the law was being vindicated. Not merely for this world, but for the universe of heaven and the worlds that God had created, was the controversy to be forever settled. The confederacy of darkness was watching for the semblance of a chance to rise and triumph over the divine and human Substitute and Surety of the human race, that the apostate might shout, Victory, and the world and its inhabitants forever become his kingdom. But Satan reached only the heel; he could not touch the head. Now he sees that his true character is clearly revealed before all heaven, and that the heavenly beings and the worlds that God has created would be wholly on the side of God. He sees that his prospects of future influence with them will be entirely cut off. Christ's humanity will demonstrate for eternal ages the question that settled the controversy....
CTr	243	3	What was it that moved His own nation to throw such scorn upon Jesus? The Jews were expecting an earthly prince who would deliver them from the power that God had declared would rule over them if they refused to keep the way of the Lord and obey His statutes, His commandments, and His laws. They had made their proud boast that Israel's king, the star arising from Judah, would break their thraldom, and make of them a kingdom of priests.
CTr	243	4	But it was not the absence of external honor and riches and glory that caused the Jews to reject Jesus. The Sun of Righteousness shining amid the moral darkness in such distinct rays revealed the contrast between sin and holiness, purity and defilement, and such light was not welcome to them....
CTr	243	5	That which Christ had specified would be His work was fulfilled. The sick were healed, demoniacs were restored, lepers and paralytics were made whole. The dumb spake, the ears of the deaf were opened, the dead were brought to life, and the poor had the gospel preached to them.... Every miracle wrought by Christ convinced some of them of His true character, which answered to the specifications of the Messiah of prophecy, but those who did not receive the light of heaven set themselves more determinedly against this evidence....
CTr	243	6	The teachings of Christ, in precept and example, were the sowing of the seed to be afterward cultivated by His disciples.--Manuscript 143, 1897.
------------------------Singing Drives Back The Power Of Satan, August 25
CTr	244	1	The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. Psalm 28:7.
CTr	244	2	The Lord Jesus came to the world to live the life that it will be for the interest of every being on earth to live--that of humble obedience. Those to whom Christ has given a probation in which to form characters for the mansions He has gone to prepare are to enter into His life example. If they are indeed learners in the school of Christ, they will not exalt themselves because they are possessors of houses and lands, because the Lord has in His providence lent them His goods to trade upon....
CTr	244	3	Christ took upon Him human nature, that He might be able to sympathize with all hearts.... His spirit was never so full of worldly cares that He had no time or thought for the heavenly. He could give evidence of His cheerfulness by singing psalms and heavenly songs. The people of Nazareth often heard His voice raised in praise and thanksgiving to God. He often held communion with heaven in song, and all who were associated with Him, who often complained of their weariness of labor, were cheered by the sweet melody that fell from His lips. His praises seemed to drive away the evil angels and, as incense, filled the room with sweet fragrance.
CTr	244	4	This, too, had its lesson. It taught that people could commune with God in words of holy song. Christ carried the minds of His hearers away from their earthy exile to their future eternal home.... The house of God may be very humble in comparison with the temple of Solomon, but it is no less acknowledged by God. To those who worship there it is the gate of heaven, if they worship God in spirit and in truth, and in the beauty of holiness. As songs of praise are sung, as earnest fervent prayers arise to heaven, as lessons are repeated of the wondrous works of God, as the heart's gratitude is expressed in prayer and song, angels from heaven take up the strain and unite in praise and thanksgiving to God.
CTr	244	5	These exercises drive back the power of Satan. They expel murmuring and complaints, and Satan loses ground. God teaches us that we should assemble in His house to cultivate the attributes of perfect love. This will fit the dwellers of earth for the mansions Christ has gone to prepare for them that love Him. Then they will assemble in the sanctuary from Sabbath to Sabbath, from one new moon to another, to unite in loftier strains of song, in thanksgiving and praise to Him who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever.--Manuscript 24, 1898.
------------------------Pharisees Refused To Acknowledge Christ's Power, August 26
CTr	245	1	But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. Matthew 9:34.
CTr	245	2	In Christ's mighty works there was sufficient evidence for faith. But these people did not want truth. They could not but acknowledge the reality of the works of Christ, but they cast condemnation upon them all. They must acknowledge that supernatural power attended His work, but this power, they declared, was derived from Satan. Did they really believe this? No; but they were so determined that the truth should not affect their hearts and they be converted that they charged the work of the Spirit of God to the devil....
CTr	245	3	All-compassionate Redeemer! What love, what matchless love, was Thine! Charged by the great men of Israel with doing His works of mercy through the prince of devils, scorned and maligned, He was yet as one who saw and heard not. The work He came from heaven to do must not be left undone. He saw that truth must be unfolded to the people. The Light of the world must flash His beams into the darkness of sin and superstition and reveal error in contrast with truth....
CTr	245	4	Christ does not use force or compulsion in drawing people to Him. But while truth was being proclaimed, the hearts of those who professed to be children of God were barricaded against it, and those who had not been so highly privileged, those who were not clothed with the garment of self-righteousness, were drawn to Christ. Their minds were convinced and quickened into activity, and light and truth vibrated through the universe....
CTr	245	5	Satan endeavored to keep hidden from the world the great atoning sacrifice, which reveals the law in all its sacred dignity and impresses hearts with the force of its binding claims. He was warring against the work of Christ and united all his evil angels with human instrumentalities in opposition to that work. But while he was carrying on this work, heavenly intelligences were combining with human instrumentalities in the work of restoration....
CTr	245	6	Here are the two great powers, the power of truth and righteousness and the working of Satan to make of none effect the law of God. The human agent, magnetized by the power of Satan, works in the lines of the enemy; the Saviour employs His human instrumentalities to be laborers together with God.... Those who expect to be children of God are not to expect an easy time in this life.... We are not left alone to engage in this conflict. Jesus Christ is the Captain of our salvation.--Manuscript 61, 1899.
------------------------Adam's Disgraceful Fall Redeemed By Christ, August 27
CTr	246	1	For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:22.
CTr	246	2	Christ is called the second Adam. In purity and holiness, connected with God, and beloved by God, He began where the first Adam began. But the first Adam was in every way more favorably situated than was Christ. The wonderful provision made in Eden for the holy pair was made by a God who loved them. Everything in nature was pure and undefiled. Fruits, flowers, and beautiful, lofty trees flourished in the Garden of Eden. With everything that Adam and Eve required, they were abundantly supplied.
CTr	246	3	But Satan came, and insinuated doubts of God's wisdom. He accused Him, their heavenly Father and Sovereign, of selfishness, because to test their loyalty, He had prohibited them from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Eve fell under the temptation, and Adam accepted the forbidden fruit from his wife's hand. He fell under the smallest test that the Lord could devise to prove his obedience, and the floodgates of woe were opened upon our world. He was furnished with a holy nature, sinless, pure, undefiled; but he fell because he listened to the suggestions of the enemy; and his posterity became depraved....
CTr	246	4	When Christ came, He entered a world disloyal to God, a world all seared and marred by the curse of rebellion against the Creator. The archdeceiver had carried on his work with intense vigor, until the curse of transgression had fallen upon the earth. People were corrupted by Satan's inventions.... Claiming for himself the attributes of mercy, goodness, and truth, Satan attributed his own attributes to God. These misrepresentations must be met and demonstrated as false, by Christ in human nature.
CTr	246	5	Christ was tempted by Satan in a hundredfold more severe manner than was Adam, and under circumstances in every way more trying.... He redeemed Adam's disgraceful fall and saved the world. There is hope for all who will come to Christ and receive Him as their personal Saviour....
CTr	246	6	By transgression the world had been divorced from heaven. Christ bridged the gulf and connected earth with heaven. In human nature He maintained the purity of His divine character. He lived the law of God, and honored it in a world of transgression, revealing to the worlds unfallen, to the heavenly universe, to Satan, and to all the fallen sons and daughters of Adam that through His grace humanity can keep the law of God! He came to impart His own divine nature, His own image, to the repentant, believing soul.--Manuscript 20, 1898 (Manuscript Releases 8:39-41).
------------------------Believe The Truth And Practice It, August 28
CTr	247	1	For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26.
CTr	247	2	Jesus Christ is the Restorer. Satan, the apostate, is the destroyer. Here is the conflict between the Prince of life and the prince of this world, the power of darkness.... The world's Redeemer did not design that His purchased inheritance should live and die in their sins. What, then, is the matter? Why are so few reached and saved? It is because so many of those who profess to be Christians are working in the same lines as the great apostate. They let Satan devise and plan for them. He makes them apostates, disloyal to God, rebels against His precepts and laws. This brings severe, taxing labor upon the true Christian. He must convince the transgressor that he is a sinner, because "sin is the transgression of the law."
CTr	247	3	How much more might be done for Christ if all who have had the light and the truth set before them, and who profess to believe the Word, would practice the Word and adorn the doctrine of Christ our Saviour.... There are many earnest, prudent, warmhearted men and women who could do much for Christ if they would first give themselves to God and draw nigh to Him, seeking Him with their whole hearts....
CTr	247	4	As a people we have to meet that which Christ met. The lukewarm, the covetous, the self-righteous, the impure, were the chief stumbling blocks He had to encounter, and those who work with Him will find the same discouraging hindrances in their experiences.... All who engage in this work as colaborers with Christ must be willing not only to preach the truth but to practice it.... There will be no change made in the divine economy in order to bring about marked changes in the religious world. Men and women must arise to the emergency; they must receive the golden oil, the divine communication, in rich blessings. This will enable them to arise and shine, because their light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon them.
CTr	247	5	Those who claim to believe the Word of God, and yet cherish their own hereditary and cultivated traits of character, are the greatest stumbling blocks we shall meet as we present the grand, holy truths for this time. Those who believe present truth are to practice the truth, live the truth. They are to study the Word and eat the Word, which means eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. They are to bring that Word, which is Spirit and life, into their daily, practical life. It is the bread from heaven, and it will give life to the world.--Letter 34, 1896.
------------------------Persecution In Jesus' Day; Persecution Now, August 29
CTr	248	1	If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. John 15:20.
CTr	248	2	We read in Luke where Christ, in the synagogue of Nazareth, announced Himself as the Anointed One, as He read from the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."...
CTr	248	3	Then Satan whispered his unbelief, and [those in the synagogue] said, "Is not this Joseph's son?"... How quickly the current changed, and they were filled with madness and rage because Jesus set before them their true spiritual apostasy. They "rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong." But Jesus was protected in His mission by the heavenly angels. Passing through the midst of them unobserved, He went His way....
CTr	248	4	Herod and the wicked authorities killed the Just One, but Christ never killed anyone, and we may attribute the spirit of persecution--because men and women want liberty of conscience--to its origin, Satan. He is a deceiver, a liar, a murderer, an accuser of the brethren. He loves to see human misery. He exults in distress, and as we view the cruel persecutions of those who would obey God according to the dictates of their own consciences, we may know that this is the mystery of iniquity....
CTr	248	5	This conflict was opened upon the Son of God. He was afflicted, He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The Majesty of heaven had to leave the scene of His labor again and again because of Satan's bruising His heel, and finally Satan's malignity reached its utmost power when Satan inspired and controlled the minds of wicked men to crucify Him....
CTr	248	6	The enmity of Satan will continue, fierce and determined, against the followers of Jesus. Christ has said to His faithful ones, "They have persecuted Me; they will also persecute you." There can be no enmity between fallen angels and fallen human beings who have practiced the very works and sport of Satan.... Evil--wherever it exists, in rejecting light and truth and departing from the living God--will always league against the righteous and obedient.--Manuscript 62, 1886.
------------------------Learn Of Jesus, August 30
CTr	249	1	Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:29.
CTr	249	2	The great controversy between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness has not abated one jot or tittle of its fierceness as time has gone on. The stern conflict between light and darkness, between error and truth, is deepening in its intensity. The synagogue of Satan is intensely active, and in this age the deceiving power of the enemy is working in the most subtle way. Every human mind that is not surrendered to God, and is not under the control of the Spirit of God, will be perverted through satanic agencies.
CTr	249	3	The enemy is working continually to supplant Jesus Christ in the human heart, and to place his attributes in the human character in the place of the attributes of God. He brings his strong delusions to bear upon the human mind in order that he may have a controlling power. He seeks to obliterate the truth and abolish the true pattern of goodness and righteousness, in order that the professed Christian world shall be swept to perdition through separation from God. He is working in order that selfishness shall become worldwide, and thus make of no effect the mission and work of Christ.
CTr	249	4	Christ came to the world to bring back the character of God to humankind, and to retrace on the human soul the divine image. Through His entire life Christ sought by continuous, laborious efforts to call the world's attention to God and to His holy requirements in order that people might be imbued with the Spirit of God, might be actuated by love, and might reveal in life and character the divine attributes....
CTr	249	5	In the character of Christ majesty and humility were blended. Temperance and self-denial were seen in every act of His life. But there was no taint of bigotry, no cold austerity manifested in His manner to lessen His influence over those with whom He came in contact. The world's Redeemer had a greater-than-angelic nature, yet united with His divine majesty were meekness and humility that attracted all to Himself....
CTr	249	6	Christ, our Redeemer, comprehended all the necessities of humanity. He formulated the mighty plans by which the fallen race is to be uplifted from the degradation of sin. In every circumstance, however trivial, He represented the Father. Though upholding the world by the word of His power, yet He would stoop to relieve a wounded bird.--Manuscript 39, 1894.
------------------------Jesus Will Give Us Life Eternal, August 31
CTr	250	1	And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3.
CTr	250	2	The Lord Jesus said to His disciples when He was with them, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." He could have made disclosures which would have absorbed the attention of the disciples and caused them to lose sight of His former instruction that He wished to be the subject of their most earnest thought. But He withheld those things that they would have been amazed to hear, and that would have afforded them opportunity to cavil, to create misunderstanding and disaffection. He would give no occasion for persons of little faith and piety to mystify and misrepresent the truth, and thus create factions.
CTr	250	3	Jesus could have presented mysteries that would have given subject for thought and investigation for generations, even to the close of time. Himself the source of all true science, He could have led people to the investigation of mysteries, and age after age their minds would have been so thoroughly absorbed that they would have felt no desire to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God.
CTr	250	4	Jesus well knew that Satan is constantly working to excite curiosity, and to busy people with conjecture. Thus he seeks to eclipse the grand and momentous truth that Christ wished to be ever prominent before their minds. "For this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
CTr	250	5	There is a lesson for us in those words of Christ spoken after the feeding of the five thousand. He said, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." These words meant more than that the disciples should gather the broken pieces of bread into baskets. Jesus meant that they should mark His words, should study the Scriptures, and treasure every ray of light. Instead of searching for a knowledge of something that God had not revealed, they were carefully to gather up what He had given them.
CTr	250	6	Satan had tried to eclipse from human minds the knowledge of God, and to eradicate from their hearts the attributes of God.... That which God had revealed was misconstrued, misapplied, and mingled with satanic delusions. Satan will quote Scripture in order to deceive. He tried to deceive Christ in this way. So he still tries to deceive.... Christ came to adjust truths that had been misplaced and made to serve the cause of error. He recalled them, repeated them, ... and bade them stand fast forever.--Manuscript 32, 1896 (Manuscript Releases 17:20, 21).
------------------------Christ Identifies With Our Sorrows, September 1
CTr	251	1	Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord ... he hath been dead four days. John 11:39.
CTr	251	2	Christ alone was able to bear the afflictions of the many. "In all their affliction he was afflicted." He never bore disease in His own flesh, but He carried the sickness of others. With tenderest sympathy He looked upon the suffering ones who pressed about Him. He groaned in spirit as He saw the work of Satan revealed in all their woe, and He made every case of need and of sorrow His own.... The power of love was in all His healing. He identified His interests with suffering humanity.
CTr	251	3	Christ was health and strength in Himself, and when sufferers were in His immediate presence, disease was always rebuked. It was for this that He did not go at once to Lazarus. He could not witness his suffering and not bring him relief. He could not witness disease or death without combating the power of Satan. The death of Lazarus was permitted that through his resurrection the last and crowning evidence might be given to the Jews that Jesus was the Son of God.
CTr	251	4	And in all this conflict with the power of evil, there was ever before Christ the darkened shadow into which He Himself must enter. Ever before Him was the means by which He must pay the ransom for these souls. As He witnessed the suffering of humanity, He knew that He must bear a greater pain, mingled with mockery, that He would suffer the greatest humiliation. When He raised Lazarus from the dead, He knew that for that life He must pay the ransom on the cross of Calvary....
CTr	251	5	Christ was strong to save the whole world. He wept at the grave of Lazarus at the thought that He could not save everyone whom Satan's power had laid low in death.... From the light of His exalted purity, the world's Redeemer could see that the maladies from which the human family were suffering were brought upon them by transgression of the law of God. Every case of suffering He could trace back to its cause.... He knew that He alone could rescue them from the pit into which they had fallen. He alone could place their feet in the right path. His perfection alone could avail for their imperfection. He alone could cover their nakedness with His own spotless robe of righteousness....
CTr	251	6	By actual experience He knew nothing of sin; He stood before the world the spotless Lamb of God. When suffering humanity pressed about Him, He who was in the health of perfect manhood was as one afflicted with them. This was essential, that He might express His perfect love in behalf of humanity.--Manuscript 18, 1898.
------------------------Jesus Values Our Gifts Of Loving Service, September 2
CTr	252	1	Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. Matthew 26:6, 7.
CTr	252	2	This incident is full of instruction. Jesus, the world's Redeemer, is drawing close to the time when He will give His life for a sinful world. Yet how little did even His disciples realize what they were about to lose. Mary could not reason upon this subject. Her heart was filled with pure, holy love. The sentiment of her heart was "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?" This ointment, costly as it was estimated by the disciples, was but a poor expression of her love for her Master. But Christ could appreciate the gift as an expression of her love, and Mary's heart was filled with perfect peace and happiness.
CTr	252	3	Christ delights in the earnest desire of Mary to do the will of her Lord. He accepts the wealth of pure affection which His disciples did not, could not, understand.... Mary's ointment was the gift of love, and this gave it its value in the eyes of Christ.... Jesus saw Mary shrink away abashed, expecting to hear reproof from the One she loved and worshiped. But instead of this she hears words of commendation. "Why trouble ye the woman?" He said, "for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." No other anointing would Jesus receive, for the Sabbath was nigh at hand, and they kept the Sabbath according to the commandment.... The desire that Mary had to do this service for her Lord was of more value to Christ than all the spikenard and precious ointment in the world, because it expressed her appreciation of the world's Redeemer. It was the love of Christ that constrained her....
CTr	252	4	Mary, by the Holy Spirit's power, saw in Jesus One who had come to seek and to save the souls that were ready to perish. Every one of the disciples should have been inspired with a similar devotion.--Manuscript 28, 1897.
------------------------Jesus Triumphal Entry Witnessed By Many, September 3
CTr	253	1	Ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them. Matthew 21:2, 3.
CTr	253	2	The time of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem was the most beautiful season of the year. The Mount of Olives was carpeted with green, and the groves were beautiful with varied foliage. Very many had come to the feast from the regions round about Jerusalem with an earnest desire to see Jesus. The crowning miracle of the Saviour in raising Lazarus from the dead had a wonderful effect upon minds, and a large and enthusiastic multitude was drawn to the place where Jesus was tarrying.
CTr	253	3	The afternoon was half spent when Jesus sent His disciples to the village of Bethphage.... This was the first time during His life of ministry that Christ had consented to ride, and the disciples interpreted this move to be an indication that He was about to assert His kingly power and authority, and take His position on David's throne. Joyfully they executed the commission. They found the colt as Jesus had said....
CTr	253	4	As Jesus takes His seat on the animal, the air becomes vocal with acclamations of praise and triumph.... He bears no outward sign of royalty. He wears no dress of state, nor is He followed by a train of men of arms. Instead He is surrounded by a company wrought up to the highest pitch of excitement. They cannot restrain the joyous feeling of expectancy that animate their hearts....
CTr	253	5	The shout echoes from mountain and valley, "Hosanna to the son of David: ... Hosanna in the highest." "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."... Those who have once been blind ... are the first to lead the way in that wonderful procession... One whom He has raised from the dead leads the animal on which He is seated. The once deaf and dumb, with ears opened and tongues unloosed, help swell the glad hosannas. Cripples, with buoyant steps and grateful hearts, are now most active in breaking down the palm branches and strewing them in His path as their tribute of homage to the mighty Healer. The leper, who has listened to the dread words of the priest, "Unclean," ... is there. The widow and the orphan are there to tell of His wonderful works. The restored dead are there. Their tongues, once palsied by the power of Satan, take up the song of rejoicing.... The demoniac is there, not now to have the words wrenched from his lips by Satan's power.... On the crest of Olivet the procession pauses.--Manuscript 128, 1899.
------------------------The Saviour Has Intense Sorrow When We Reject His Love, September 4
CTr	254	1	He came unto his own, and his own received him not. John 1:11.
CTr	254	2	Before them [the crowd with Jesus at His triumphal entry] lies the city of Jerusalem, with the temple of pure white marble, which is gilded with glory by the rays of the setting sun. It is a picture of unsurpassed loveliness, and well might the people apply to her the words of the prophet, "A crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God." At the entrancing sight, the throng joins with renewed fervor in their shouts of praise.... They suppose that Christ is now to take the throne of David and reign as a temporal prince. Their eyes turn to Him to see how He is impressed by the scene. But lo, the Son of man is in tears!
CTr	254	3	As Christ's eyes rest upon the temple, so soon to be desolated and its veil rent when the final act of the Jews would consummate His death, He wept over the disobedient city.... In a few short hours the world's Redeemer would be taken by wicked hands and crucified. Not the Roman nation, not the Gentiles, but the people for whom He had done so much, and from whom He had hoped for so much, were to be His murderers....
CTr	254	4	The grace that bringeth salvation would no longer be heard in the city. This was the cause of the Saviour's intense sorrow.... The tender tears He shed over Jerusalem were the last tears of rejected love.... The glad throng could not understand the cause of the Saviour's sorrow. They did not know that the iniquities of Israel were bringing her final calamities upon her. But a mysterious awe falls upon the procession, and calms in a degree its enthusiasm.... A large number in that throng bear in their own bodies the evidence that divine power is among them, and each has a story to tell of the merciful works of Christ. The relation of those wonderful works increases the fervor of their feelings until it reaches an intensity that is indescribable. Disciples and people join in the songs of praise.
CTr	254	5	Then came the priests and rulers to Him, requesting Him to silence these acclamations of praise. "Master, rebuke thy disciples," they say. Christ answered them, "If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out."
CTr	254	6	Christ had come to earth to reveal the principles of the kingdom of heaven. His character as Saviour and Life-giver had been demonstrated only a short time before at the grave of Lazarus, but in their pride the Jews rejected the One who was mighty and having salvation. How different would have been Christ's attitude had the priests and rulers been true to the trust reposed in them.--Manuscript 128, 1899.
------------------------"My House Shall Be Called A House Of Prayer", September 5
CTr	255	1	And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves. Matthew 21:12.
CTr	255	2	The temple courts were filled with cattle, sheep, oxen, and doves. Above the noise of the lowing of cattle, the bleating of the sheep, and the cooing of the doves could be heard the voice of the traffickers as they offered for sale the animals and birds, at the highest rates, to those who had come to the Passover to offer sacrifice. Jesus said, "It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."
CTr	255	3	This act on the part of Christ was deeply significant, more significant than any of the beholders realized. When the priests and Pharisees had recovered from the terror that had taken possession of their guilty souls at the words of Christ, they returned to the temple. They were not converted or even humbled. They determined to challenge Christ as to His authority for expelling them from the temple courts. When they reached the temple they found that a wonderful work had been done during their absence. The sick and dying had been restored to health. They were astonished, but they would not yield their stubborn unbelief. They had already determined to put Christ to death, and Lazarus also, who had been raised from the dead. They knew that the people would still believe in Christ as long as there lived among them one who had been raised from the dead by His power.
CTr	255	4	The evidence Christ had given was calculated to convince every sincere mind, but it was not evidence that these people wanted. It was the rejection and condemnation of Christ by the people for which they were seeking. Every additional evidence given only increased their aversion to Christ. To have Christ in the world performing His wonderful works, to have Him live before the people His life of goodness and self-denial and self-sacrifice, to have Him exercise for others the tender compassion that had long since departed from their lives, was the very thing they did not want.
CTr	255	5	Christ was fulfilling the commission given Him of His Father. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison for them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."--Manuscript 128, 1899.
------------------------God's People Not To Make A Pretentious Show, September 6
CTr	256	1	And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. Matthew 21:19.
CTr	256	2	It was not a common thing for a fig tree to present full foliage at that early period of the season. The fruit of the fig tree makes its appearance before the leaves; therefore a fig tree in full leaf might be expected to have fruit upon it. Christ approached the tree, expecting to find fruit there, but searching from the lowest bough to the topmost branch, He found nothing but leaves, and His curse fell upon it.
CTr	256	3	This instance in the ministry of Christ is a singular one. It was unlike the ways and works of Christ.... Wherever He went He scattered mercy in words of counsel and deeds of goodness. He was the Restorer, the Healer. He came not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. The disciples could not understand the action of Christ in punishing a tree for its barrenness, and they said unto Him, "How soon is the fig tree withered away!"
CTr	256	4	Just before this Christ had made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. For the second time He had cleansed the temple and had driven out from its courts the traffickers.... Dishonest dealing was practiced by the people who brought cattle to sell in the temple courts, but the word of command was given; divinity flashed through humanity, and no priest in his gorgeous dress, or trafficker looking on that countenance, dared to remain...
CTr	256	5	This was a parable of the dispersion of the Jews. Now Christ, under the symbol of the blighted tree, presents before His disciples the righteous anger of God as He sees the temple courts desecrated to obtain unlawful gain, and the destruction of the Jewish nation. That tree, flaunting its pretentious foliage in the very face of Christ, was a symbol of the Jewish nation, which had been separating from God until, in their pride and apostasy, they had lost their power of discernment and knew not their Redeemer....
CTr	256	6	This blighted fig tree with its pretentious branches is to repeat its lesson in every age to the close of this earth's history.... If the spirit of Satan entered unto unsanctified hearts in the days of Christ to counterwork the requirements of God in that generation, it will surely enter into the professed Christian churches in [our day]. History will repeat itself.... But the people who obey the commandments of God have no controversy. They take the Word of God for their guide.--Manuscript 32, 1898.
------------------------Christ Wants Us To Bear Fruit By Working For Him, September 7
CTr	257	1	Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. John 15:2.
CTr	257	2	I have been thinking about the lesson that Christ gave to His disciples just prior to His entering the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing it would be His last opportunity to instruct His disciples before His crucifixion. He says to them, as He points to a vine--and the vine is something that the Jews greatly prized and respected and considered very beautiful--"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away."
CTr	257	3	Now, here is something for us to study.... We have our opportunities now to bear fruit; we can reveal that we are fruit-bearing branches of the vine. And if we go on now in a careless and indifferent manner, then what will be our position? He tells us He will take us away, for we cannot do anything without Christ, and if we are as a dead branch and do not draw sap and nourishment from the living Vine, we shall become withered branches. He says that every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it (pruneth it), that it may bring forth more fruit....
CTr	257	4	We have the enemy in our world to contend with. We have the powers of darkness to meet. We have to be in this conflict as long as time shall last. Our Saviour was in the conflict with the powers of darkness, and the powers of darkness were in conflict with Him, even after He entered our world. Satan was in conflict with Him. And then just as soon as His reasoning powers were exercised, He was in conflict with the powers of darkness. His very coming--as a babe in Bethlehem--was to set up a standard against the enemy....
CTr	257	5	And when He went away, what did He do? Who is to take up the controversy? Who are the visible ones who are to take up the controversy here in this world and carry it through to the very end? They are those who are Christ's followers, every soul of them. It is not merely the delegated ministers. There is where our people make a grand mistake. They seem to think that day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute in the conflict, the ministers must take care of them. It belongs to every soul of us.
CTr	257	6	We do not know what work God has for us to do.... If we have only the one talent and we begin to put that to the exchangers, and then we begin to work with that one talent, and God sees that we are faithful in that which is least, then He will give us another talent.... And thus the talent keeps increasing and growing; and the more we put it to the exchangers, the more talents we have to employ to the glory of God.--Manuscript 56, 1890.
------------------------Believers Should Have Personal Knowledge Of Christ, September 8
CTr	258	1	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 1 John 3:1.
CTr	258	2	How many today see Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, as He is! How few know Him! How few know the Father! Everyone that knows Christ has a knowledge of the Father. To see Christ as He is is one of the greatest blessings that can ever come to fallen humanity; the precious Saviour, to see Him as He is! How many have partial views of Jesus Christ. How many acknowledge Him as the world's Redeemer, but they know Him not as a personal Saviour; and this is essential--the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ...
CTr	258	3	"And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself." What hope? Why, of seeing Jesus as He is, the living faith that lays hold of the arm of the infinite God, the living faith that takes Christ as our personal Saviour. Who knows Him as thus? All your casual views of Christ will not save a single soul. Do you know Him by the living connection of faith? ...
CTr	258	4	There was a wondrous work for Him to perform here when He came to our earth. Satan was having things about as he pleased. He claimed this earth's territory as his, the prince of the world. Christ came to dispute his power and his claim. Christ came to rescue the human race from his oppressive power.... The battlefield was right here in this little world; the conflict went on between the Prince of life and the powers of darkness. Which shall triumph? All the heavenly universe, the heavenly intelligences, were looking upon Christ and taking cognizance of the battle. Here was Christ disputing the authority of Satan, and Satan was following Him at every step, determined to overthrow Him with his temptations, determined that he would weary and exhaust the patience and forbearance of God for the human family so that he should be able to ruin every one of them....
CTr	258	5	Whatever may be your weakness, [however] compassed with infirmities, there is hope for you in God. Our precious Saviour came to save to the utmost every soul that will come unto Him.... To those who have their minds engrossed with earthly pleasures He comes and lifts the voice of warning, and He presents eternity to your view; He there opens before you heaven, the threshold lightened and brightened with His glory, and the glory streams through the open door. The door is ajar, thank God.--Manuscript 86, 1894.
------------------------By His Death The Saviour Ended Satan's Power Over Us, September 9
CTr	259	1	Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. John 14:30.
CTr	259	2	The Commander of heaven was assailed by the tempter. He had no clear, unobstructed passage through the world. He was not left free and without hindrance to win to His kingdom the souls of people by His gracious mercy and loving-kindness.... No human being had come into the world and escaped the power of the deceiver. The whole forces of the confederacy of evil were set upon His track to engage in warfare against Him, and, if possible, to prevail over Him....
CTr	259	3	Satan saw the image of God in the character and person of Jesus Christ. He knew that if Christ carried out His plan, his satanic authority would be at an end. Therefore, the life of Christ was a perpetual warfare against satanic agencies.... The conflict increased in fierceness and malignity as again and again the prey was taken out of his hands....
CTr	259	4	Just previous to His crucifixion the Saviour said, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." Though it was the hour of the power of darkness, yet in anticipation of His triumph Christ could say, "The prince of the world is judged." "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." Viewing the work of redemption as completed, He could, even in death, speak of the great final deliverance and represent things that were future as if [they were] present. The only begotten Son of the infinite God could successfully carry through the great plan that made humanity's salvation sure....
CTr	259	5	The condition of the world previous to the first appearing of Christ is a picture of the condition of the world just previous to His second advent. The same iniquity will exist; Satan manifests the same delusive power upon human minds.... He is securing his army of human agents to engage in the last conflict against the Prince of life, to overthrow the law of God, which is the foundation of His throne. Satan will work with miraculous presentations to confirm people in the belief that he is what he claims to be--the prince of this world--and that victory is his. He will turn his forces against those who are loyal to God; but though he may cause pain, distress, and human agony, he cannot defile the soul.... The people of God in these last days must expect to enter into the thick of the conflict, for the prophetic Word says, "The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."--Letter 43, 1895 (The Review and Herald, October 29, 1895).
------------------------Christ Came To Impart Peace To His People, September 10
CTr	260	1	Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27.
CTr	260	2	In the East the customary greeting when visiting the house of a friend was "Peace be to this house," and in leaving it the same words were used. But Christ's farewell is of an altogether different character. [John 14:27 quoted.] Much is embodied in these words. They are of richest import, and will be reechoed to earth's remotest bounds....
CTr	260	3	Christ brought that peace with Him to the world. He came to impart that peace, that all who will believe on Him might have a peace that passeth understanding. He, the world's Redeemer, had carried that peace with Him throughout His earthly life, and now He had come to the time when He must give His life so that the treasure of peace might ever abide in the heart by faith. He left that peace with His disciples, and He is implanting and maintaining it in the hearts of all who will welcome its presence....
CTr	260	4	The time had come for Satan's last attempt to overcome Christ. But Christ declared, He hath nothing in Me, no sin that brings Me in his power. He can find nothing in Me that responds to his satanic suggestions....
CTr	260	5	Why this severe conflict with the prince of the world when Jesus, through His childhood, youth, and manhood, had lived the law of God? ... By a word Christ could have mastered the powers of Satan. But He came into the world that He might endure every test, every provocation, that it is possible for human beings to bear and yet not be provoked or impassioned, or retaliate in word, in spirit, or in action. For the honor and glory of God He was to offer Himself a living, spotless sacrifice to the Father.... The worlds unfallen, the heavenly angels, and the fallen race were watching every movement made by the Representative of the Father, and the Representative of perfect humanity. And His character was without a flaw....
CTr	260	6	The last assault would soon come. The great victory to be achieved was union with His chosen people so that, although Christ was to be removed from earth to heaven, His church might have communion with Him....
CTr	260	7	At times our trials do not come singly, followed by a period of peace and rest; temptations come in as an overwhelming wave to destroy all before it. The afflictions do not create Christians, but simply develop in them the mind and will of Christ, the living principles of virtue and holiness.--Manuscript 44, 1897.
------------------------Jesus, The True Passover Lamb, Was Slain For Our Sins, September 11
CTr	261	1	Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat. Luke 22:7, 8.
CTr	261	2	Christ had chosen Peter and John, who were to be closely associated in labor, to prepare for the supper.... "And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the good man of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?"...
CTr	261	3	Christ desired to guard against any premature movements that might be made by traitors coming to the supper and reciprocating the action designed by Judas. It was customary for those living in the metropolis to accommodate strangers desirous of celebrating the Passover. The message took the form of a command. It might seem to us to be unbecoming for these two Galileans to speak thus to a stranger. But circumstances happened as Christ foretold. The disciples met a man carrying a pitcher. They followed him and entered the house that he entered and repeated their message, and it met a ready assent on the part of the master of the house....
CTr	261	4	It was the last Passover that Jesus would keep with His disciples. He knew that His hour was come; He Himself was the true Paschal Lamb, and on the day the Passover was eaten He was to be sacrificed. He knew that the circumstances connected with this occasion would never be forgotten by His disciples.
CTr	261	5	Christ's first words after they had gathered about the table were "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God."...
CTr	261	6	On this last evening with His disciples, Jesus had much to tell them. If they had been prepared to receive what He longed to impart, they would have been saved from heartbreaking anguish, from disappointment and unbelief. But Jesus saw that they could not bear what He had to say. As He looked into their faces, the words of warning and comfort were stayed upon His lips. Moments passed in silence. Jesus appeared to be waiting. The disciples were ill at ease. The glances they cast at each other told of jealousy and contention.... The disciples clung to their favorite idea that Christ would assert His power and take His position on the throne of David. And in heart each still longed for the highest place in the kingdom.--Manuscript 106, 1903.
------------------------If We Want To Be Great, We Must Give Humble Service, September 12
CTr	262	1	And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. Luke 22:24.
CTr	262	2	The request of James and John to sit on the right and left of Christ's throne had excited the indignation of the others. That the two brothers should presume to ask for the highest position so stirred the ten that alienation threatened. They felt that they were misjudged, that their fidelity and talents were not appreciated. Judas was the most severe upon James and John.
CTr	262	3	When the disciples entered the upper room, their hearts were full of resentful feelings. Judas pressed next to Christ on the left side; John was on the right. If there was a highest place, Judas was determined to have it, and that place was thought to be next to Christ. And Judas was a traitor.
CTr	262	4	Another cause of dissension had arisen. At a feast it was customary for a servant to wash the feet of the guests, and on this occasion preparation had been made for the service. The pitcher, the basin, and the towel were there, but no servant was present, and it was the disciples' part to perform it. But each of the disciples, yielding to wounded pride, determined not to act the part of a servant....
CTr	262	5	Looking at the disturbed countenances of His disciples, Christ rose from the table, and, laying aside His outer garment, which would have impeded His movements, He took a towel and girded Himself....
CTr	262	6	Judas was the first whose feet Jesus washed. Judas had already closed the contract to deliver Jesus into the hands of the priests and scribes. Christ knew his secret. Yet He did not expose him. He hungered for his soul. His heart was crying, How can I give thee up? He hoped that His act in washing Judas' feet would touch the heart of the erring disciple and save him from completing his act of disloyalty. And for a moment the heart of Judas thrilled through and through with the impulse then and there to confess his sin. But he would not humble himself. He hardened his heart against repentance. He made no remonstrance, no protestation against the Saviour thus humiliating Himself. He was offended at Christ's act. If Jesus could so humble Himself, he thought, He could not be Israel's king....
CTr	262	7	Even Judas, had he repented, would have been received and pardoned. The guilt of his soul would have been washed away by the atoning blood of Christ. But, self-confident and self-exalted, cherishing a high estimate of his own wisdom, he justified his course.--Manuscript 106, 1903.
------------------------We Are To Be Washed In The Great Fountain, September 13
CTr	263	1	Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? John 13:6.
CTr	263	2	When Peter's turn came, he was unable to restrain himself and exclaimed with astonishment, "Lord, dost thou wash my feet?"...
CTr	263	3	Calmly Jesus replied, "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter." Feeling keenly the humiliation of his Lord, and filled with love and reverence for Him, Peter with great emphasis exclaimed, "Thou shalt never wash my feet."
CTr	263	4	Solemnly Jesus said to Peter, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me."
CTr	263	5	A ray of light penetrated the mind of the disciple. He saw that the service that he refused was the type of a higher cleansing--the spiritual cleansing of mind and heart. He could not endure the thought of separation from Christ; that would have been death. "Not my feet only," he said, "but also my hands and my head."
CTr	263	6	"Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit."...
CTr	263	7	Every person who came from the bath was clean, but the sandaled feet soon became dusty and again needed to be washed. So Peter and his brethren had been washed in the great fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. Christ acknowledged them as His. But temptation had led them into evil, and they still needed His cleansing grace. When Jesus girded Himself with a towel to wash the dust from their feet, He desired by this very act to wash the alienation, jealousy, and pride from their hearts. This was of far more consequence than the washing of their dusty feet. With the spirit they had then, not one of them was prepared ... to partake of the Paschal supper or to share in the memorial service that Christ was about to institute. Their hearts must be cleansed. Pride and self-seeking create dissension and hatred, but all this Jesus washed away in washing their feet.
CTr	263	8	A change of feeling was brought about. Looking upon them, Jesus could say, "Ye are clean." Now there was union of heart, love for one another. They had become humble and teachable. Except Judas, each one was ready to concede to another the highest place....
CTr	263	9	Before the emblems of Christ's broken body and shed blood are partaken of, every difference existing between brother and brother is to be removed.... We are to seek for a preparation to sit with Christ in His kingdom.--Manuscript 106, 1903.
------------------------Covetousness And Greed Will Lead To Ruin If Indulged, September 14
CTr	264	1	Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. John 13:21.
CTr	264	2	The disciples had searched one another's faces closely as they asked, "Lord, is it I?" Until now Judas had sat silent, as if unconcerned. Now his silence drew all eyes to him. To escape the scrutiny of the disciples, he nerved himself to ask, as they had done, "Master, is it I?" Jesus solemnly replied, "Thou hast said."...
CTr	264	3	Even now Judas could have acknowledged his guilt, even now broken the spell upon him. Christ was close beside him, ready to aid him. But his pride and the temptation of the enemy were so strong that he had no power to escape from the snare. Instead of casting himself upon the mercy of a compassionate Saviour, he braced himself in resistance....
CTr	264	4	The history of Judas presents the sad ending of a life that might have been honored of God.... Judas had himself solicited a place in the inner circle of disciples. With great earnestness and apparent sincerity he declared, "Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest."...
CTr	264	5	The disciples were anxious that Judas should become one of their number. He was a man of commanding appearance, a man of keen discernment and executive ability, and they commended him to Jesus as one who would greatly assist Him in His work.
CTr	264	6	The face of Judas was not repulsive. It was keen and intelligent, but it lacked the tenderness and compassion that is seen in a truly converted person.... In ministering to others, Judas might have developed an unselfish spirit. But though listening daily to the lessons of Christ, and witnessing His unselfish life, Judas indulged his covetous disposition....
CTr	264	7	Christ read his heart, and in His teaching He dwelt upon the principles of benevolence that strike at the very root of covetousness. He presented before Judas the heinous character of greed, and many a time the disciple realized that his character had been portrayed and his sin pointed out. But he did not confess and forsake his unrighteousness. He was self-sufficient, and instead of resisting temptation he continued to follow his fraudulent practices....
CTr	264	8	Though Jesus knew Judas from the beginning, He washed his feet. And the betrayer was privileged to unite with Christ in partaking of the sacrament.... To him had been offered the bread of life and the water of salvation. To him the Saviour's lesson had been given. But Judas refused to be benefited.--Manuscript 106, 1903.
------------------------We Do The Work Of Satan Sowing Seeds Of Doubt And Unbelief, September 15
CTr	265	1	Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him. John 6:70, 71.
CTr	265	2	Judas was one who exerted a large influence over the disciples. He was of commanding appearance and had excellent qualifications. But these endowments had not been sanctified to God. Judas had opened the chambers of his mind, the door of his heart, to the temptations of Satan. His energies were devoted to self-serving, self-exaltation, and the love of money....
CTr	265	3	That poor, independent soul, separate from the spirit and life of Christ, had a hard time. He was ever under condemnation, because the lessons of Christ were always cutting him. Yet he did not become transformed and converted into a living branch through connection with the True Vine. Oh, if Judas had only humbled his heart before God under this divine instruction that pointed so plainly to himself in the principles set forth. Then he would no longer have remained a tempter to his brother disciples, sowing the seed of unbelief in their hearts.
CTr	265	4	Satan sowed in the heart and mind of Judas the seed that he communicated to his brethren. The questioning doubts that were passed from the devil into the mind of Judas, he passed on to the minds of his brethren. He presented so much accusation of his brethren that he was counterworking the lessons of Christ. This is why Jesus called Judas a devil....
CTr	265	5	There is no such thing as occupying a neutral position. Each will have given to Him his or her work according to his or her ability. And all will, through faith in Christ, have a sense of their privilege in being connected with Him.... The disciple whose religion is a profession only is distinguished from the true....
CTr	265	6	The hearing of the Word of God is not enough. Unless taught of God, the truth will not be accepted to the saving of the soul. It must be brought into the life practice. The human agent will reveal whether he or she is taught of God. And if not, it is not because God is not willing to teach, but because the person is not willing to receive His teaching and eat of the Bread of Life.
CTr	265	7	"Every one that doeth evil hateth the light [that God sends], neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." He or she hates reproof.... The self-righteous will not search for light. They love darkness rather than light, because they do not want to see themselves as God sees them. "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."--Manuscript 67, 1897 (see also The Review and Herald, November 2, 1897).
------------------------In Gethsemane Our Destiny Hung In The Balance, September 16
CTr	266	1	And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. Mark 14:32.
CTr	266	2	As Christ left the disciples, bidding them pray for themselves and for Him, He selected three--Peter, James, and John--and went still farther into the seclusion of the garden. These three disciples had seen His transfiguration; they had seen the heavenly visitors, Moses and Elias, talking with Jesus, and Christ desired their presence with Him on this occasion also....
CTr	266	3	Christ expressed His desire for human sympathy, and then withdrawing Himself from them about a stone's cast, He fell on His face and prayed, saying, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done."...
CTr	266	4	The superhuman agony with which He had been wrestling had brought Him to His disciples, longing for human companionship. But He was disappointed; they did not bring to Him the help He expected from them....
CTr	266	5	Hear that agonizing prayer of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane! While the disciples were sleeping beneath the spreading branches of the olive trees, the Son of man--a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief--was prostrate upon the cold earth. As the agony of soul came upon Him, large blood drops of perspiration were forced from His pores, and with the falling dew moistened the sod of Gethsemane....
CTr	266	6	Here the mysterious cup trembled in His hand. Here the destiny of a lost world was hanging in the balance. Should He wipe the blood drops from His brow and root from His soul the guilt of a perishing world, which was placing Him, all innocent, all undeserving, under the penalty of a just law? Should He refuse to become sinners' substitute and surety? Refuse to give them another trial, another probation?
CTr	266	7	Separation from His Father, the punishment for transgression and sin, was to fall upon Him in order to magnify God's law and testify to its immutability. And this was to settle forever the controversy between the Prince of God and Satan in regard to the changeless character of that law.
CTr	266	8	The Majesty of heaven was as one bewildered with agony. No human being could endure such suffering; but Christ had contemplated the struggle. He had said to His disciples, "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" Now is the "hour, and the power of darkness."--Manuscript 42, 1897.
------------------------Christ Was Not Forced To Bear The Guilt Of The World, September 17
CTr	267	1	And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Luke 22:44.
CTr	267	2	Christ had not been forced to do this [bear the guilt of a perishing world]. He had volunteered to lay down His life to save the world. The claims of God's government had been misapprehended through the deceptive words and works of Satan, and the necessity of a mediator was seen and felt by the Father and the Son....
CTr	267	3	The universe of heaven had watched with intense interest the entire life of Christ--every step from the manger to the present awful scene of momentous interest. The unfallen worlds were watching the result of this controversy. They beheld the Son of God, their loved Commander, in His superhuman agony, apparently dying on the field of battle to save a lost and perishing world....
CTr	267	4	Satan was urging upon Him all the force of his temptations. He presented before Him that the sin of the world, so offensive to God, was chastisement too great. He would never again be looked upon as pure and holy and undefiled, as God's only begotten Son.
CTr	267	5	Christ was now standing in a different attitude than He had ever done before. Hitherto He had stood as an intercessor for others; now He longs for an intercessor for Himself. Could His human nature bear the strain? Shall the sins of an apostate world, since Adam's transgression to the close of time, be laid upon Him? ...
CTr	267	6	In the supreme crisis, when heart and soul are breaking under the [world's] load of sin, Gabriel is sent to strengthen Him. And while the angel supports His fainting form, Christ takes the bitter cup and consents to drink its contents. Before the suffering One comes up the wail of a lost and perishing world, and the words come from the bloodstained lips, "Nevertheless, if the fallen race must perish unless I drink this cup, Thy will, not Mine, be done."...
CTr	267	7	There was silence in heaven; no harp was touched. They see their Lord enclosed by legions of satanic forces, His human nature weighed down with a shuddering, mysterious dread.... Strengthened by the angel sent from heaven, Jesus arises in sweat and blood and agony and for the third time returns to His disciples.... But He was disappointed. He found them sleeping in the hour of His bitterest agony. And the sight made angels grow sad.... Prophecy had declared that the "Mighty One"... was to tread the winepress alone; "of the people there was none" with Him.--Manuscript 42, 1897.
------------------------When He Was Betrayed, Christ Felt What We Would Feel, September 18
CTr	268	1	Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand. Mark 14:42.
CTr	268	2	And now they hear the heavy tramp of soldiers in the garden.... "And he that betrayed him had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, and lead him away safely. And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway to him, and saith, Master; master; and kissed him." "But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?"...
CTr	268	3	To the multitude Jesus said, "Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled."
CTr	268	4	John's record of this event is "Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.... Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?"
CTr	268	5	At this saying terror seized upon the disciples. They were now all together again, surrounding their Lord; but at the proposition of Peter, they "all ... forsook him, and fled."
CTr	268	6	The human nature of Christ was like unto ours. And suffering was really more keenly felt by Him, for His spiritual nature was free from every taint of sin. The aversion to suffering was in proportion to its severity. His desire for the removal of suffering was just as strong as human beings experience....
CTr	268	7	How intense was the desire of the humanity of Christ to escape the displeasure of an offended God; how His soul longed for relief is shown in the words of the Sufferer, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."... All the accumulated sin of the world was laid upon the Sinbearer, the One who was innocent of all sin, the One who alone could be the propitiation for sin, because He Himself was obedient. His life was one with God. Not a taint of corruption was upon Him.--Manuscript 42, 1897.
------------------------Our Place In History Will Be Determined By Our Characters, September 19
CTr	269	1	Consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. John 11:50.
CTr	269	2	With Caiaphas the Jewish high priesthood ended. This proud, overbearing, wicked man proved his unworthiness ever to have worn the garments of the high priest. He had neither capacity nor authority from heaven for doing the work.... Virtually, Caiaphas was no high priest. He wore the priestly robes, but he had no vital connection with God....
CTr	269	3	The mock trial of Christ shows how base the priesthood had become. The priests hired people to testify under oath to falsehood, that Jesus might be condemned. But on this occasion, truth came to the help of Christ.... Thus it was shown that the testimonies borne against Him were false, that the witnesses had been hired by men who cherished in their hearts the basest elements of corruption. It was God's design that the men who delivered Jesus should hear the testimony of His innocence. "I find no fault in him," Pilate declared. And Judas, throwing at the feet of the priests the money he had received for betraying Christ, bore testimony, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood."
CTr	269	4	Previously, when the Sanhedrin had been called together to lay plans for waylaying Christ and putting Him to death, Caiaphas said, Cannot ye see that the world is gone after Him? The voices of some members of the council were heard, pleading with the others to check their passion and hatred against Christ. They wished to save Him from being put to death. In reply to them, Caiaphas said, "Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us [he might have said "a corrupted priesthood"] that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not."
CTr	269	5	These words were uttered by one who knew not their significance.... He was condemning One whose death would end the need for types and shadows, whose death was prefigured in every sacrifice made. But the high priest's words meant more than he, or those who were combined with him, knew. By them he bore testimony that the time had come for the Aaronic priesthood to cease forever....
CTr	269	6	Caiaphas was the one that was to be in office when types and shadow were to meet the reality, when the true High Priest was to come into office.... People of all characters, righteous and unrighteous, will stand in their positions. With the characters they have formed, they will act their part in the fulfillment of history.--Manuscript 101, 1897.
------------------------Like Pilate, We Condemn Christ By Our Silence, September 20
CTr	270	1	Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. John 19:10, 11.
CTr	270	2	Before the judgment seat Christ stands bound as a prisoner. The judge looks upon Him with suspicion and severity. The people are fast gathering, and spectators are on every side as the charges against Him are read: "He says he is the king of the Jews." "He refuses to pay tribute to Caesar." "He makes himself equal with God."... Pilate was convinced that no evidence of the guilt of Christ could be substantiated, notwithstanding the priests and rulers had declared that He had spoken blasphemy. But the Jews were under the inspiration of Satan as was Cain and other murderers who have determined to destroy life rather than to save it. "And they were the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place."
CTr	270	3	Here Pilate thought he saw a chance how he might rid himself of the whole matter of the trial of Christ. He perceived clearly that the Jews had delivered Christ up from envy.... "As soon as he knew that he [Christ] belonged unto Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time."
CTr	270	4	This was the Herod whose hands were stained with the blood of John. "And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him...."
CTr	270	5	The work and mission of Christ in this world was not to gratify the idle curiosity of princes, rulers, scribes, priests, or peasants. He came to heal the brokenhearted.... Could Christ have spoken any word to heal the bruises of sin-sick souls, He would not have kept silent. But the precious gems of truth, He had instructed His disciples, were not to be cast before swine. And Christ's deportment and silence before Herod made His silence eloquent.
CTr	270	6	The Jewish people had brought their long-looked-for Messiah for condemnation to the power to which they themselves were in bondage. They sought to obtain the condemnation of the Prince of life--the only One who could deliver them from their bondage.--Manuscript 112, 1897.
------------------------History Is Repeated Christ's Followers Persecuted, September 21
CTr	271	1	And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. Luke 23:11.
CTr	271	2	Past history will be repeated. A determined conflict is to be waged in the Christian world. People who are disloyal to the commandments of the living God will, in their supposed self-importance, be inspired by Satan to war against those who follow the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.... The result will be that people will become inhuman in their actions toward other people....
CTr	271	3	If the professed Christian world would take a lesson from the Jews' treatment of Christ, and resolve in God never themselves to tread over the same ground, they would not make themselves responsible for the death of Christ in the person of His saints.
CTr	271	4	A large company of the priests and elders accompanied Christ to Herod. And when Christ was brought before Herod, these priests and rulers and scribes were all speaking excitedly, bringing in their accusations against Him. But the tetrarch paid little regard to the charges brought against Christ. He found Him to be innocent of all crime.
CTr	271	5	The Roman soldiers knew that they would please the low, coarse, hardened rabble and the priests and rulers if they should show Christ all the contempt that a wicked, corrupt soldiery could instigate. And they were helped on by the Jewish dignitaries themselves.... They set the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, before them as a pretender, and treated Him as an object of derision.
CTr	271	6	They made the King of glory appear in as ridiculous a light as possible. They clothed Him with an old purple, kingly robe, which had done service to some king. They placed in His hands an old reed, and on His divine head a crown of cruel thorns, which pierced the holy temples and sent the blood trickling down His face and beard. The most contemptuous speeches were made before Him. But Christ did not cast upon them one reproachful look. They covered His face with an old garment and struck Him in the face, saying, "Prophesy, who is it that smote thee?" Then snatching the garment rudely away, they spat in His face, and smote Him with the reed with all the brutal force of a corrupt soldiery. The most grotesque attitude and the most vile language were used, while in mock humility they bowed before Him....
CTr	271	7	The Jews had desired evidence of His divinity by working a miracle, but here they had far greater evidence than any miracle that could have been wrought.--Manuscript 112, 1897.
------------------------Against Overwhelming Evidence Pilate Still Wavered, September 22
CTr	272	1	And from henceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. John 19:12.
CTr	272	2	After Herod had done his satanic work, he sent Christ, without having pronounced judgment upon Him, back to Pilate, a man convinced, a man convicted, of the truth but unwilling to yield. Pilate seemed wrought upon by unseen influences to acknowledge his convictions in regard to the Holy One of Israel. His wavering mind was compelled to acknowledge that Christ was no pretender, that not a single trace of deception could be found in His words or deportment.... Before that satanic, maddened throng, he pleaded for the scourge in the place of the cross.
CTr	272	3	The determined priests and rulers designed that the scourge should not be left out, but nothing short of the cross would they consent to be His punishment. This is human nature today when under the control of Satan....
CTr	272	4	Pilate was unwilling to condemn Christ, and he thought he could, irrespective of the rulers, make an appeal to the sympathy of the human side of the character of the mob. He knew he had nothing to hope for in this line from the priests and rulers. He made a short speech declaring that he found no fault in Christ at all. He confirmed the testimony of Herod that the witnesses against Christ were worthless--they did not agree....
CTr	272	5	Pilate was moving against light and overwhelming evidence and conviction. The priests and rulers saw that they could obtain all that they desired. Pilate had evidence and justice on his side, and if he had taken his stand firmly on the ground of Christ's innocence, he would have saved himself the after remorse and despair of a man who had sacrificed innocence to the deadly enmity and hatred of an envious, professedly religious people. Jesus was scourged.
CTr	272	6	A message from God warned Pilate from the deed he was about to commit.... While Pilate was examining the prisoner, his wife was visited by an angel from heaven, and in a vision of the night she beheld Jesus and conversed with Him.... She heard the condemnation of Pilate and saw him give Christ up to His murderers. She awoke with a cry of horror. Calling for pen and paper, she wrote him words of warning. Now, in Pilate's dilemma, a messenger makes his way to him with the message from his wife, "Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him."--Manuscript 112, 1897.
------------------------The World's Redeemer Rejected By His Own People, September 23
CTr	273	1	Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? Matthew 27:17.
CTr	273	2	One other course suggested itself to Pilate whereby he might save Him whom he dared not give up to that maddened power, knowing that for envy they had brought Jesus to the judgment hall. Pagan invention, without one particle of justice in it, had made a custom that at the great national festival there should be set at liberty one prisoner who had been condemned to death. Could the convicted Pilate make use of this subterfuge and bring about that which he desired--save an innocent man, whose power, even while bound and under accusation, he knew to be the power of no common man, but of God? His soul was in terrible conflict. He would present the true and innocent Christ side by side with the notable Barabbas, and he flattered himself that the contrast between innocence and guilt would be so convincing that Jesus of Nazareth would be their choice.
CTr	273	3	Barabbas had pretended to be Christ and had done great wickedness. Under satanic delusion he claimed that whatever he could obtain by theft and robbery and murder was his own. A most striking contrast was presented between the two. Barabbas was a notorious character who had done wonderful things through satanic agencies. He claimed to have religious power, a right to establish a different order of things....
CTr	273	4	This false Christ was claiming what Satan claimed in heaven--a right to all things. Christ in His humiliation was possessor of all things. In Him was no darkness at all....
CTr	273	5	Barabbas and Christ stood side by side, and the whole heavenly universe beheld them. The people looked upon the two. Where now were the voices that a few days before were loud in proclaiming the wonderful works that Christ had done? ... Then the fickle multitude had been imbued with the enthusiasm of heavenly impulse to pour forth in sacred song their praise and hosannas as Christ rode into Jerusalem. Now the choice was given them. Pilate asks, "Whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?"...
CTr	273	6	There arose to heaven a cry of tremendous significance to all the world. All heaven heard that cry in which all seemed to join with a zeal and desperation born of their choice. "Not this man," they said, pointing to Jesus, "but Barabbas."... The world's Redeemer was rejected, the guilty murderer spared.--Manuscript 112, 1897.
------------------------Will You Choose Jesus? September 24
CTr	274	1	But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? John 18:39.
CTr	274	2	The great controversy between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness has not abated one jot or tittle of its influence as time has gone on....
CTr	274	3	In our behalf Christ met the specious temptations of Satan and left to us an example as to how to overcome Satan in the conflict. He exhorts His followers, saying, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Satan has made masterly efforts to perpetuate sin. He arrayed all his evil agencies to war against Jesus Christ in an active, desperate conflict, in order that he might bruise the heart of infinite Love. He seduced the people to bow to idols, and thus gained supremacy over earthly kingdoms. He considered that to be the god of this world was the next best thing to gaining possession of the throne of God in heaven. In a large measure he has been successful in his plans. When Jesus was on earth Satan led the people to reject the Son of God and to choose Barabbas, who in character represented Satan, the god of this world.
CTr	274	4	The Lord Jesus Christ came to dispute the usurpation of Satan in the kingdoms of the world. The conflict is not yet ended, and as we draw near the close of time, the battle waxes more intense. As the second appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ draws near, satanic agencies are moved from beneath. Not only will Satan appear as a human being, but he will personate Jesus Christ, and the world who has rejected the truth will receive him as the Lord of lords and the King of kings. He will exercise his power and work upon human imagination. He will corrupt both the minds and the bodies of people, and will work through the children of disobedience, fascinating and charming, as does a serpent. What a spectacle will the world be for heavenly intelligences! What a spectacle for God, the Creator of the world, to behold!
CTr	274	5	The form Satan assumed in Eden when leading our first parents to transgress was of a character to bewilder and confuse the mind. He will work in [just] as subtle a manner as we near the end of earth's history. All his deceiving power will be brought to bear upon human subjects, to complete the work of deluding the human family. So deceptive will be his working that people will do as they did in the days of Christ, and when asked, "Whom shall I release unto you, Christ or Barabbas?" the almost universal cry will be "Barabbas, Barabbas!" And when the question is asked, "What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews?" the cry again will be "Crucify Him!"--Manuscript 39, 1894 (The Review and Herald, April 14, 1896).
------------------------Each Of Us Needs to Know Our Own Weaknesses, September 25
CTr	275	1	And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Luke 22:31, 32.
CTr	275	2	Satan is ever intruding himself between the human soul and God. He is ever seeking to make the human agent voice his suggestions rather than the words of God....
CTr	275	3	How little did Peter understand his own weakness. He could not discern but that his spirit was all right, even when he sought to make of none effect the solemn words of Christ that opened to them [the disciples] a future full of sorrow and of suffering, both to Him and to them. Christ saw that unless Peter was changed in spirit, he would not be able to endure the test and the trial of his Lord's rejection, humiliation, condemnation, and death. To his Master's warning words he responded, "Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me."
CTr	275	4	We see how human nature can be deceived, how human nature can be misled, because Satan is allowed to step in between the human soul and Jesus. The word of Christ needs to be spoken with authority, "Get thee behind me, Satan." Let Me come close to My servants, that they may not be overcome, that they may believe My words rather than the words of deceivers, for what I speak is truth and righteousness....
CTr	275	5	God's people, rescued from the fire by Jesus Christ, have a sense of their sin, and feel humbled and ashamed. God sees and recognizes their repentance and notes their sorrow for sin, which they cannot remove or cancel themselves; but as they pray, their prayers are heard, and this is the reason that Satan stands by to resist Christ.... He steps in between the repenting, believing soul and Christ. He seeks to cast his hellish shadow before that soul, to dampen faith, and to make of none effect the words of God....
CTr	275	6	If Satan stands between the soul and Jesus Christ, then the love and acceptance and pardon of Christ is eclipsed. Men and women will be constantly striving to prepare a robe of righteousness to cover their deformity and sin, whereas Christ wants them to come to Him just as they are, and believe in Him as their personal Saviour. In His tender love a forgiving Father brings forth His best robe in which to array His returning child.--Letter 65, 1894 (Manuscript Releases 7:201-203).
------------------------While We Look To God Satan Has No Power Over Us, September 26
CTr	276	1	Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 Corinthians 10:12.
CTr	276	2	Just before Peter's fall, Christ said to him, "Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." How true was the Saviour's friendship for Peter! How compassionate His warning! But the warning was resented. In self-sufficiency Peter declared confidently that he would never do what Christ had warned him against. "Lord," he said, "I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death." His self-confidence proved his ruin. He tempted Satan to tempt him, and he fell under the arts of the wily foe. When Christ needed him most, he stood on the side of the enemy and openly denied his Lord.
CTr	276	3	But even when Peter was denying Him, Christ showed that He still loved him. In the judgment hall, surrounded by those who were clamoring for His life, Jesus thought of His suffering, erring disciple, and turning, He looked at him. In that look Peter read the Saviour's love and compassion, and a tide of memories rushed over him.... He saw that he was doing the very thing that he had declared he would not do.... Once more he looked at his Master and saw a sacrilegious hand raised to smite Him in the face. Unable longer to endure the scene, he rushed heartbroken from the hall.
CTr	276	4	He pressed on in solitude and darkness, he knew not and cared not whither. At last he found himself in Gethsemane. The scene of a few hours before came vividly to his mind. He thought of how the Saviour, during His agony in the garden, had come for sympathy and comfort to those who had been so closely connected with Him in labor....
CTr	276	5	On the very spot where Jesus poured out His soul in agony, Peter fell upon his face and wished that he might die.... Had Peter been left to himself, he would have been overcome. But One who could say, Father, I know "that thou hearest me always," One who is mighty to save interceded for him. Christ saves to the uttermost all who come to Him.
CTr	276	6	Many today stand where Peter stood when in self-confidence he declared that he would not deny his Lord. And because of their self-sufficiency they fall an easy prey to Satan's devices. Those who realize their weakness trust in a power higher than self. And while they look to God, Satan has no power against them....
CTr	276	7	There are some lessons that will never be learned except through failure. Peter was a better man after his fall.... As fire purifies gold, so Christ purifies His people by temptation and trial.--Manuscript 115, 1902.
------------------------Christ Crucified For Us, September 27
CTr	277	1	And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Luke 23:33.
CTr	277	2	For transgression of the law of God, Adam and Eve were banished from Eden. Christ, our substitute, was to suffer without the boundaries of Jerusalem. He died outside the gate, where felons and murderers were executed. Full of significance are the words "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."--The Desire of Ages, 741.
CTr	277	3	Upon Christ as our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. He was counted a transgressor, that He might redeem us from the condemnation of the law. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. All His life Christ had been publishing to a fallen world the good news of the Father's mercy and pardoning love. Salvation for the chief of sinners was His theme. But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father's reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by us. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt.
CTr	277	4	Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father's acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish that the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father's wrath upon Him as the sinner's substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God.--The Desire of Ages, 753.
CTr	277	5	Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God, Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe. In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father's acceptance heretofore given Him. He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey. And as in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father's favor was withdrawn. By faith, Christ was victor.--The Desire of Ages, 756.
------------------------Jesus Became Sin For Us And Suffered Alone, September 28
CTr	278	1	Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. Psalm 69:20.
CTr	278	2	The spotless Son of God hung upon the cross, His flesh lacerated with stripes; those hands so often reached out in blessing, nailed to the wooden bars; those feet so tireless on ministries of love, spiked to the tree; that royal head pierced by the crown of thorns; those quivering lips shaped to the cry of woe. And all that He endured--the blood drops that flowed from His head, His hands, His feet, the agony that racked His frame, and the unutterable anguish that filled His soul at the hiding of His Father's face--speaks to each child of humanity, declaring, It is for thee that the Son of God consents to bear this burden of guilt; for thee He spoils the domain of death, and opens the gates of Paradise.--The Desire of Ages, 755.
CTr	278	3	In the sufferings of Christ upon the cross prophecy was fulfilled. Centuries before the crucifixion, the Saviour had foretold the treatment He was to receive. He said, "Dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." The prophecy concerning His garments was carried out without counsel or interference from the friends or the enemies of the Crucified One. To the soldiers who had placed Him upon the cross, His clothing was given. Christ heard the men's contention as they parted the garments among them. His tunic was woven throughout without seam, and they said, "Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be."
CTr	278	4	To those who suffered death by the cross, it was permitted to give a stupefying potion, to deaden the sense of pain. This was offered to Jesus; but when He had tasted it, He refused it. He would receive nothing that could becloud His mind. His faith must keep fast hold upon God. This was His only strength. To becloud His senses would give Satan an advantage.
CTr	278	5	The enemies of Jesus vented their rage upon Him as He hung upon the cross. Priests, rulers, and scribes joined with the mob in mocking the dying Saviour. At the baptism and at the transfiguration the voice of God had been heard proclaiming Christ as His Son. Again, just before Christ's betrayal, the Father had spoken, witnessing to His divinity. But now the voice from heaven was silent. No testimony in Christ's favor was heard. Alone He suffered abuse and mockery from wicked men.--The Desire of Ages, 746.
------------------------"Wounded For Our Transgressions", September 29
CTr	279	1	But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5.
CTr	279	2	God has a controversy with the inhabitants of this world. Satan has come to them disguised as an angel of light, and under his direction the majority of Christians bow at idolatrous shrines and worship an unknown god....
CTr	279	3	The human family broke the law of God and defied His will. This law reveals to the world the attributes of God's character, and not a jot or tittle of it could be changed to meet humankind in its fallen condition. But God gave men and women unmistakable evidence that He loved them, and that justice is the foundation of His throne and the evidence of His love. He carried out the penalty of transgression, but let it fall upon a Substitute, even His only begotten Son.
CTr	279	4	God could not abolish His law to save the human race, for this would immortalize transgression and place the whole world under Satan's control. But He "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." In this wonderful gift is shown the depth of God's goodness. He so loved sinful people that He gave Himself in His Son, that they might have another opportunity, another trial, another chance to show their obedience. He so loved men and women that in order to save them He gave His Son to the world, and in that gift He gave all heaven! This was the only provision God could make. By this gift a way was provided for sinners to return to their loyalty.
CTr	279	5	God is calling upon all to behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Christ lifts the guilt of sin from the sinner, standing Himself under the condemnation of the Lawgiver. He came to this world to live the law in humanity, that Satan's charge that human beings cannot keep the law of God might be demonstrated as false.
CTr	279	6	He kept the law in humanity, and when He was accused falsely by the Pharisees, He turned to them, asking with a voice of authority and power, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" He came to reveal to the heavenly universe, to the worlds unfallen, and to sinful people, that every provision had been made by God in behalf of humanity, and that through the imputed righteousness of Christ all who receive Him by faith can show their loyalty by keeping the law. As repenting sinners lay hold of Christ as their personal Saviour, they are made partakers of the divine nature.--Manuscript 63, 1897.
------------------------Christ's Followers Will Be Hated By The World, September 30
CTr	280	1	If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.... because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. John 15:18, 19.
CTr	280	2	The followers of Christ should bear in mind that all the evil speeches made against Christ, all the abuse that He received, they must, as His followers, endure for His name's sake. The piety of the church may professedly be of a high order, but when the truth of the Word of God is brought to bear upon the heart, and when conviction of truth is rejected and despised so that they may keep in friendship with the majority, they place themselves ... as rejecters of truth and light, on the side of the enemy. Satan stirs them up by a power from beneath, with an intensity that reveals his enmity to God and His laws. They enact human laws that are oppressive and galling....
CTr	280	3	As Christ was hated without cause, so will His people be hated without cause, merely because they are obedient to the commandments of God and do His works in the place of working directly contrary to them. If He who was pure, holy, and undefiled, who did good and only good in our world, was treated as a base criminal and condemned to death without a vestige of evidence against Him, what can His disciples expect but similar treatment, however faultless may be their life and blameless their character? Human enactments, laws manufactured by satanic agencies under a plea of goodness and restriction of evil, will be exalted while God's holy enactments are despised and trampled underfoot....
CTr	280	4	We see how professedly righteous people can act out the spirit of Satan to carry their wicked purposes through envy and jealousy and religious bigotry.... There is no warfare between Satan and the sinner, between fallen angels and fallen humans. Both possess the same attributes, both are evil through apostasy and sin....
CTr	280	5	The prediction given in Eden refers in a special manner to Christ, and to all who accept and confess Him as the only begotten Son of God. Christ has pledged Himself to engage in the conflict with the prince and power of darkness and to bruise the serpent's head. All who are the sons and daughters of God are His chosen ones, His soldiers, to war against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It is an unwearied conflict of which there is to be no end until Christ shall come the second time.--Manuscript 104, 1897.
------------------------Temple Service Ended At Death Of Christ, October 1
CTr	281	1	And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. Matthew 27:51.
CTr	281	2	The next day the courts of the Temple were filled with worshipers.... But never had the service been performed with such conflicting feelings. The trumpets and musical instruments and the voices of the singers were as loud and clear as usual, but a sense of strangeness pervaded everything. One after another inquired about the strange event that had taken place. Hitherto the Most Holy Place had always been most sacredly guarded from intrusion....
CTr	281	3	Only once a year was it entered, and then by the high priest. But now a curious horror was seen on many countenances, for this apartment was open to all eyes. At the very moment that Christ had expired, the heavy veil of tapestry, made of pure linen, and beautifully wrought with scarlet and purple, had been rent from top to bottom. The place where Jehovah had met with the priest, to communicate His glory, the place that had been God's sacred audience chamber, lay open to every eye--a place no longer recognized by the Lord.
CTr	281	4	Many who at that time united in the services of the Passover never again took part in them. Light was to shine into their hearts. The disciples were to communicate to them the knowledge that the great Teacher had come.
CTr	281	5	According to their practice, the people brought their sick and suffering to the Temple courts, inquiring, Who can tell us of Jesus of Nazareth, the Healer? Some had come from far to see and hear Him.... They would not be turned away. But they were driven from the Temple courts, and the people of Jerusalem could not fail to see the contrast between this scene and the scenes of Christ's life.
CTr	281	6	On every side was heard the cry "We want Christ, the Healer." A world without a Christ was blackness and darkness, not only to the disciples and to the sick and suffering, but to the priests and rulers. The Jewish leaders and even the Roman authorities found it harder to deal with a dead Christ than with a living Christ. The people learned that Jesus had been put to death by the priests. Inquiries were made regarding His death. The particulars of His trial were kept as private as possible, but during the time that He was in the grave, His name was on thousands of lips, and reports of His mock trial and of the inhumanity of the priests and rulers were circulated everywhere.--Manuscript 111, 1897 (Manuscript Releases 12:417-419).
------------------------Men And Women To Stand Boldly For Christ, October 2
CTr	282	1	He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.... And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock. Matthew 27:58-60.
CTr	282	2	By those of intellect the priests were called upon to explain the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Messiah, and while trying to frame some falsehood in reply, the priests became like men insane. Upon many minds the conviction rested that the Scriptures had been fulfilled....
CTr	282	3	Joseph was a disciple of Christ, but in the past he had not identified himself with Him for fear of the Jews. He now went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Christ. He was a rich man, and this gave him influence with the governor. Had he delayed, the body of the Saviour would have been placed with the bodies of the thieves in a dishonored grave.
CTr	282	4	Nicodemus, a chief ruler and a rabbi, was also a disciple of Christ. He had come to the Saviour by night, as if afraid to have it known that his heart was troubled. That night he listened to the most important discourse that ever fell from human lips. [See John 3.] The words he heard had penetrated his soul. He had been enlightened by them, but still he had not identified himself with Christ. He had been among the number spoken of by John. "Among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue." But Nicodemus had endeavored, as far as he could, to defend Christ. On one occasion he had asked the priests, "Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?"...
CTr	282	5	After the crucifixion Nicodemus came to the cross, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes to embalm Christ's body. He had witnessed the cruel treatment of the priests; he had marked Christ's patience and Godlike bearing, even in His humiliation. He now saw more clearly the real character of the high priest, and he came boldly to take the bruised body of his Saviour, looked upon as the body of a malefactor. Thus he identified himself with Christ in His shame and death.
CTr	282	6	With the death of Christ the hopes of the disciples had perished. Often they repeated the words "We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel."... They met together in the upper chamber, and closed and fastened the doors, knowing that the fate of their beloved Teacher might at any time be theirs.--Manuscript 111, 1897 (Manuscript Releases 12:419, 420).
------------------------There Is Always Light Amid Darkness, October 3
CTr	283	1	And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. Matthew 28:2.
CTr	283	2	If, after His crucifixion and burial, in the place of giving way to their sorrow the disciples had carefully reviewed what Christ had told them to prepare them for this time, they would have seen light amid the darkness. They need not have been in such apparently hopeless discouragement.
CTr	283	3	Before anyone had reached the sepulcher, there was a great earthquake. The mightiest angel from heaven, he who held the position from which Satan fell, received his commission from the Father, and, clothed with the panoply of heaven, he parted the darkness from his track. His face was like lightning, and his garments white as snow. As soon as his feet touched the ground it quaked beneath his tread. The Roman guards were keeping their weary watch when this wonderful scene took place, and they were enabled to endure the sight, for they had a message to bear as witnesses of the resurrection of Christ.
CTr	283	4	The angel approached the grave, rolled away the stone as though it had been a pebble, and sat upon it. The light of heaven encircled the tomb, and the whole heaven was lighted by the glory of the angels. Then his voice was heard, "Thy Father calls thee, come forth." And Jesus came forth from the grave with the step of a mighty Conqueror. There was a burst of triumph, for the heavenly family was waiting to receive Him, and the mighty angel, followed by the army of heaven, bowed in adoration before Him as He, the Monarch of heaven, proclaimed over the rent tomb of Joseph, "I am the resurrection and the life."
CTr	283	5	When Christ upon the cross cried out, "It is finished," there was a mighty earthquake that rent open the graves of many who had been faithful and loyal, bearing their testimony against every evil work, and magnifying the Lord God of hosts. Now as the Life-giver came forth from the sepulcher, proclaiming, "I am the resurrection and the life," He summoned these saints from the grave. When alive, they had, at the cost of their lives, borne their testimony unflinchingly for the truth. Now they were to be witnesses of Him who had raised them from the dead. These, said Christ, are no longer the captives of Satan. I have redeemed them; I have brought them from the grave as the firstfruits of My power, to be with me where I am, nevermore to see death or experience sorrow.--Manuscript 115, 1897.
------------------------"He Is Risen!", October 4
CTr	284	1	He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. Luke 24:6, 7.
CTr	284	2	The Sabbath was past, and Mary Magdalene came early in the morning, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher. Other women were to meet her there, but Mary was the first at the sepulcher. They had prepared the sweet spices to anoint the body of their Lord. The women were greatly terrified, and buried their faces in the earth, for the sight of the angels was more than they could endure. The angels were compelled to hide their glory yet more decidedly before they could converse with the women. The women trembled with awe. The angels said, "Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay."...
CTr	284	3	There was no more weeping for Mary. Her heart was filled with joy and rejoicing.... While Mary was absent, He [Christ] appeared to the women who had come to the sepulcher from another direction.... "Go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him." As yet there had been no revelation of Christ to the eleven, and the women went to tell the disciples the wondrous news.... Thus Christ made an appointment for a public meeting with His followers in Galilee. Who was it that reminded the women who were seeking Christ in the tomb of what the Saviour had said to them previously? It was Christ who had risen, as He had told them He would.
CTr	284	4	In this connection Mark gives a most precious statement that must not be overlooked. The angel said to the women, "Go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee." What a comforting message was thus given to the women to give to Peter. The last look Jesus had given Peter was after the disciple's thrice-repeated denial. Peter was not forgotten by Christ, and this mention of his name signified to him that he was forgiven....
CTr	284	5	The wonderful instruction that Christ had given His disciples was never to lose its force, but they had to be reminded of the lessons that Christ had repeatedly given them while He was yet with them. "Remember," said the angel, "how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." The disciples were surprised that they had not thought of these things before.--Manuscript 115, 1897.
------------------------Witness Of The Guards At The Tomb, October 5
CTr	285	1	And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. Matthew 28:4.
CTr	285	2	But where were the Roman guards? They had been enabled to view the mighty angel who sang the song of triumph at the birth of Christ. The angels now sang the song of redeeming love....
CTr	285	3	When the heavenly train was hidden from their sight, they arose to their feet and made their way as quickly as their tottering limbs would carry them to the gate of the garden. As they came up, staggering like blind or drunken men, their faces pale as the dead, they told those they met of the wonderful scenes they had witnessed. Messengers preceded them quickly to the chief priests and rulers, declaring as best they could, the incidents that had taken place. The guards were making their way first to Pilate, but the priests and rulers sent word for them to be brought into their presence. The hardened soldiers presented a strange appearance, as they bore testimony both to the resurrection of Christ and also of the multitude whom He brought forth with Him as the One who holds life-giving power....
CTr	285	4	They had not time to think or speak anything but the truth. They thought their story would at once commend itself to the supposedly righteous men who had employed them. But the rulers were not pleased by the report....
CTr	285	5	The soldiers were bribed to report a falsehood, and the priests guaranteed that if the matter came to Pilate's ears, as it most assuredly would, they would be responsible for the actions of the soldiers. They bribed Pilate to silence. They did more. By special messengers they sent the report that they had prepared to every part of the country....
CTr	285	6	Many had believed on Jesus as they saw the terrible sights that took place. They remembered the voice that was heard at the foot of the cross amid the noise and confusion: "When the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God."... All eyes were turned to the place from whence came the voice. Who had spoken? It was the centurion and the Roman soldiers, heathen and idolaters....
CTr	285	7	What so enlightened and convinced these men that they could not refrain from confessing their faith in Jesus? It was the sermon that was given in every action of Christ and in His silence under cruel abuse.... In that lacerated, bruised, broken body hanging on the cross, the centurion recognized the form of the Son of God.--Manuscript 115, 1897.
------------------------Firstfruits Of Victory Over Death, October 6
CTr	286	1	And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Matthew 27:52, 53.
CTr	286	2	During His ministry Jesus raised the dead to life. He raised the son of the widow of Nain and Jairus' daughter and Lazarus. But these were not clothed with immortality. After they were raised they continued to be subject to death and decay. But those who came forth from the grave at Christ's resurrection were raised to everlasting life. They were the multitude of captives who ascended with Him as trophies of His victory over death and the grave....
CTr	286	3	These went into the city, and appeared unto many, declaring, "Christ has risen from the dead, and we be risen with him." Some were terrified at the sight. They bore the most undeniable evidence not only of their own resurrection, but of the resurrection of the crucified Redeemer. After His resurrection, Christ did not show Himself to any save His followers, but testimony in regard to His resurrection was not wanting. It came from various sources, [including] from the five hundred who assembled in Galilee to see their risen Lord. This testimony could not be quenched. The sacred facts of Christ's resurrection were immortalized.
CTr	286	4	Those who had been raised were presented as trophies to the heavenly universe--samples of the resurrection of all who receive and believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. They were a symbol of the final resurrection of the righteous. That same power that has raised Christ from the dead will raise His church--as His bride--and glorify it, with Christ, above all principalities, above all powers, above every name that is named, not only in this world, but in the heavenly courts, the world above....
CTr	286	5	Christ was the firstfruits of them that slept. This very scene, the resurrection of Christ from the dead, was observed in type by the Jews at one of their sacred feasts, called the feast of the Jews. They came up to the temple when the firstfruits had been gathered in, and held a feast of thanksgiving. The firstfruits of the harvest crop was sacredly dedicated to the Lord....
CTr	286	6	As Christ ascends while in the act of blessing His disciples, an army of angels encircles Him as a cloud. Christ takes with Him the multitude of captives as His trophy. He will Himself bring to the Father the firstfruits of them that slept, to present [them] to God as an assurance that He is conqueror over death and the grave.--Manuscript 115, 1897.
------------------------Jesus Will Give Us Power To Overcome, October 7
CTr	287	1	To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Revelation 3:21.
CTr	287	2	Satan is wrestling and battling for our souls. He casts his hellish shadow right athwart our pathway.... Look away from his power to the One that is mighty to save to the utmost. Why doesn't your faith plow through the shadow to where Christ is? He has led captivity captive and given gifts unto His followers. He will teach you that Satan claims every soul that does not join with him as his property.
CTr	287	3	Satan is the author of death. What did Christ do after He brought Satan under the dominion of death? The very last words of Christ while expiring on the cross were "It is finished" (John 19:30). The devil saw that he had overdone himself. Christ by dying accomplished the death of Satan and brought immortality to light.
CTr	287	4	And after Christ came up from the resurrection, what did He do? He grasped His power and held His scepter. He opened the graves and brought up the multitude of captives, testifying to everyone in our world, and in creation, that He had the power over death and that He rescued the captives of death.
CTr	287	5	Not all who believed in Jesus were brought to life at that time. It was only a specimen of what would be, that we may know that death and the grave are not to hold the captives, because Christ took them to heaven. And when He comes again with power and great glory, He will open the graves. Again the prison house will be opened, and the dead will come forth to a glorious immortality.
CTr	287	6	Here are the trophies that Christ took up with Him and presented to the universe of heaven and the worlds that God had created. Any affection that they ever had for Lucifer, who was the covering cherub, is now destroyed. God gave him a chance to work out his character. If He had not done this, there might have been those who felt the accusation he [Lucifer] brought against God, that He didn't give him a fair chance, was justified.
CTr	287	7	The Prince of life and the prince of darkness were in conflict. The Prince of life prevailed, but at an infinite cost. His triumph is our salvation.... Did not our Saviour have something to overcome? Did He not keep up the battle with the prince of darkness until He was a victor on every point? Then He left the work right in the hands of His followers. We have something to do.--Manuscript 1, 1889.
------------------------The Question Of God's Supremacy Settled, October 8
CTr	288	1	Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Psalm 24:7.
CTr	288	2	All heaven is watching the controversy.... Here upon the earth Satan stirs up the enmity that is in the human mind to resist the salvation that has been brought to them at such an infinite cost. He [Christ] was the light of the world, and yet the world knew Him not. He created the world, and yet the world would not acknowledge Him. But when His life was sought for, the Majesty of heaven had to go from place to place; heaven marked this. And He was despised and rejected; He was mocked at, reviled; but when He was reviled, He reviled not again. But Satan did not stop his persecutions until Christ hung upon the cross of Calvary. All heaven, and all the worlds God had created, were watching the controversy; would Christ carry out the plan He had undertaken to lift lost souls from the pit of sin? ...
CTr	288	3	The great rebel was uprooted from the thoughts of everyone as they saw Christ's resurrection; the question was settled that the law of God was immutable and covered all that were in heaven and in earth, and all the created intelligences. Christ was with His disciples forty days and forty nights and then ... He was taken up from them into heaven; and the multitude of captives were with Him; and a multitude of heavenly host was around Him; and as they approached the city of God, the angel that was accompanying Him said, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in."...
CTr	288	4	Now this Saviour is our intercessor, making an atonement for us before the Father... And that precious Saviour is coming again.... When He cometh the second time, it is not to wear the crown of thorns, it is not to have that old purple robe placed upon His divine form. The voices will not be raised, Crucify Him, Crucify Him, but there is a shout from the angelic host and from those who are waiting to receive Him, Worthy, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. A divine Conqueror, in the place of the crown of thorns He will wear a crown of glory; in the place of that old kingly robe that they put upon Him in mockery, He will wear a robe whiter than the whitest white. And those hands that were bruised with the cruel nails will shine like gold....
CTr	288	5	The righteous dead come forth from their graves, and they that are alive and remain are caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall they ever be with the Lord. And they will listen to the voice of Jesus, sweeter than any music that ever fell on mortal ear, ... "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."--Manuscript 11, 1886.
------------------------The Bottom Line: "Sin Is The Transgression Of The Law", October 9
CTr	289	1	For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
CTr	289	2	The rebellion against God's law was begun by Satan in heaven. By this rebellion sin was brought into existence.... Satan insisted that God had not dealt with him justly. He criticized God's plan of government. He declared the divine law to be arbitrary, detrimental to the interests of the heavenly universe, and in need of change.
CTr	289	3	Vital interests were at stake in the worlds that God had created. Would these supposed defects be made so apparent that the inhabitants of the heavenly universe would be justified in claiming that the law could be improved? Would Satan succeed in undermining their confidence in the law?
CTr	289	4	God in His wisdom did not use measures of force to suppress Satan's rebellion. Such measures would have aroused sympathy for Satan, strengthening his rebellion rather than changing his principles. If God had summarily punished him, many would have looked upon him as one who had been dealt with unjustly, and he would have carried a much larger number with him in his apostasy.
CTr	289	5	It was necessary to give Satan time to develop his principles. He has had every opportunity to present his side of the question. He has been artful. As often as his position has been seen in its true light, he has changed to some other position. By making false charges, and by misstating the purposes and declared will of God, he has secured sympathizers.
CTr	289	6	Adam and Eve were placed on trial and failed.... Satan deceived Eve, and she disobeyed God. The holy pair, not resisting temptation, were brought under Satan's jurisdiction. The enemy gained supremacy over the human race, bringing in death, the penalty of disobedience.
CTr	289	7	Jesus declared that He would bear the penalty for sin and that He would conquer Satan by coming to the world and meeting the foe on his own battlefield.
CTr	289	8	When Christ entered upon His campaign, Satan met Him and contested every inch of ground, exerting his utmost powers to conquer Him. Much was involved in this controversy.... The questions to be answered were: Is God's law imperfect, in need of being amended or abrogated? Or is it immutable? Is God's government stable? Or is it in need of changes? Not only before those living in the city of God, but before the inhabitants of all the heavenly universe, were these questions to be answered.--Manuscript 1, 1902.
------------------------All Creation Affected By The Great Controversy, October 10
CTr	290	1	It is finished. John 19:30.
CTr	290	2	From the manger to the cross Satan followed the Son of God. Temptations beat upon Him like a tempest. But the more fierce the conflict, the more familiar He became with the temptations wherewith human beings are beset, and the better prepared He was to succor the tempted. The severity of the trial through which Christ passed was proportionate to the value of the object to be gained or lost by His success or failure. Not merely the interests of one world were involved. This world was the battlefield, but all the worlds that God had created were affected by the result of the conflict.
CTr	290	3	In order that he might reign as supreme ruler, Satan sought to overthrow Christ. And he planned and carried out the murder of Christ for no other reason than that to the last he entertained the hope that Christ would not endure a death made as horrible as infernal wisdom could make it. He endeavored to prove the correctness of his assertion that Christ was not self-sacrificing.
CTr	290	4	Actuated by satanic influences, the crowd clamored for the crucifixion of Christ. All heaven watched the successive steps of Christ's humiliation--His trial, rejection, and death. When on the cross He exclaimed, "It is finished," the warfare was ended. The blood of the Innocent was shed for the guilty. The life that He gave up ransomed the human race from eternal death and sealed the doom of him who had the power of death--the devil.
CTr	290	5	Satan sought to make it appear that he was working for the liberty of the universe. Even while Christ was on the cross, the enemy was determined to make his arguments so varied, so deceptive, so insidious, that all would be convinced that God's law was tyrannical. He himself laid every scheme, planned every evil, inflamed every mind to bring affliction on Christ. He himself instigated the false accusations against One who had done only good. He himself inspired the cruel deeds that added to the suffering of the Son of God--the pure, the holy, the innocent.
CTr	290	6	By this course of action Satan has forged a chain by which he himself will be bound. The heavenly universe will bear witness to the justice of God in punishing him. Heaven itself saw what heaven would be if he were in it. The hearts of all in the heavenly universe were united in regarding God's law as changeless. They supported the government of Him who, to redeem the transgressor, spared not His own Son from suffering the penalty of sin.
CTr	290	7	In His ministry, Christ by word and deed vindicated the honor of God's law. It was for this purpose that He came into the world.--Manuscript 1, 1902.
------------------------God's Law Finally Vindicated, October 11
CTr	291	1	Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Psalm 119:34.
CTr	291	2	When Christ ascended and laid open before the heavenly intelligences the scene of the conflict and the fierce attacks that Lucifer made against Him to prevent Him from accomplishing His work on the earth, all the prevarications and accusations of him who had been an exalted angel were seen in their true light. It was seen that his professedly spotless character was deceptive. His deeply laid scheme to exalt himself to supremacy was now fully discerned.... When the issue was finally settled, every unfallen being expressed indignation at the rebellion. With one voice they extolled God as righteous, merciful, self-denying, just. His law had been vindicated.
CTr	291	3	In the beginning Satan's purpose was to separate the human family from God. And in every age he has carried out this same purpose. The same method of deception, the same logic that he used to deceive the holy pair in Eden, he has used in all succeeding ages. His plan of work has ever been one of deception. He claims to be religious. He has a synagogue in which there are worshipers.... He sways all classes.
CTr	291	4	Constantly Satan works among people of all ages. At times he assumes a cloak of piety, purity, and holiness. Often he transforms himself into an angel of light. He has blinded the eyes of men and women so that they cannot see beneath the surface and discern his real purposes.
CTr	291	5	God is omnipotent, omniscient, immutable. He always pursues a straightforward course. His law is truth--unchanging, eternal truth. His precepts are consistent with His attributes. But Satan makes them appear in a false light. By perverting them he seeks to give human beings an unfavorable impression of God. Throughout his rebellion he has sought to represent God as an unjust, tyrannical being.
CTr	291	6	But Satan's hypocrisy has been unmasked by Christ's life, trial, and death. Christ took upon Himself human nature, and by His perfect life demonstrated the falsity of the claims of him who constantly accuses those who are trying to obey God's law. And the blood of Christ shed on the cross is the everlasting, incontrovertible testimony that God's law is as immutable as is His own character. The crucifixion of Christ was a murder instigated by Satan and carried out by people who had separated themselves from God. In the day of judgment, when the death of Christ upon the cross is seen in all its reality, every voice will be hushed. Everyone will see that Satan is a rebel.--Manuscript 1, 1902.
------------------------The Son Of God Was Bruised And Scarred In Our Place, October 12
CTr	292	1	Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 1 Peter 2:24.
CTr	292	2	Well might all heaven be astonished at the reception their loved Commander received in the world! That a nation claiming to believe prophecy should deny Him, that they should go forward in face of warnings and predictions, close their eyes to light and fulfill the prophecies' every specification, and yet be so blind, so deluded by the enemy of souls that they claimed to be doing God service! And how amazing that a world should reject Him, as did one nation! ...
CTr	292	3	His hands were pierced with nails, His holy temples were crowned with thorns. He was indeed bruised by Satan, who nerved his agents to do most cruel things.... Our salvation was wrought out by infinite suffering to the Son of God.... The heel of Christ was indeed bruised when His humanity suffered, and grief heavier than that which ever oppressed the [human] beings He had created weighed down His soul as He was engaged in paying the vast debt that sinners owed to God, which they could never pay to redeem themselves from bondage. On Him was laid the transgression and grief of us all....
CTr	292	4	Can men and women for whom Christ died have any just sense of the sufferings of God's dear Son to bring salvation within their reach, that the sons and daughters of Adam might be brought back again to their Eden home? ...
CTr	292	5	The conflict was so severe that He was fainting and apparently dying on the field of battle, when angels from the world of light came to the royal Sufferer and ministered unto Him and strengthened Him with food.
CTr	292	6	Jesus ascended on high from the field of conflict, bearing in His own person His bruises and scars as trophies of His victory, which was to result in annihilating the power of the first rebel, who [before he rebelled] was a chieftain in glory, an exalted angel in heaven. There was rejoicing in heaven, and the proclamation was carried to all worlds that the ruined race was redeemed. The gates of heaven were thrown open to the repentant race who would cease their rebellion and return to their allegiance to the law of God....
CTr	292	7	The great Head of the church left His work with His delegated servants to carry forward in His name.... Christ's followers are not left to carry on this conflict against Satan in their own finite strength; the Captain of our salvation stands at the head, unseen by human vision. The eye of faith discerns their Captain and obeys His orders.--Manuscript 75, 1886.
------------------------Heaven's Triumphal Reception Of Christ, October 13
CTr	293	1	Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Psalm 24:9.
CTr	293	2	Christ longed for careworn, oppressed, weary human beings to come to Him, that He might give them the light and life and joy and peace that is to be found nowhere else. The veriest sinners were the objects of His deep, earnest interest, pity, and love. But when in the greatest need of human sympathy, in the hour of His greatest trial and heaviest temptation, the most promising of His disciples left Him. He was indeed compelled to tread the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Him. An atmosphere of apostasy surrounded Him. On every side could be heard sounds of mockery, taunting, and blasphemy. What then was the outlook for His disciples, left in a world that would not tolerate the Son of the living God? ...
CTr	293	3	Christ's work was finished when He expired on the cross, crying with a loud voice, "It is finished." The way was laid open; the veil was rent in twain. Sinners could approach God without sacrificial offerings, without the service of a priest. Christ Himself was a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Heaven was His home. He came to this world to reveal the Father. His work on the field of His humiliation and conflict was now done. He ascended up into the heavens, and is forever set down on the right hand of God....
CTr	293	4	In Joseph's tomb He wrapped Himself in the garment of immortality, and then waited in the world for a sufficient length of time to put beyond doubt the evidence that He was indeed risen from the dead.... He rose from the dead to become familiar with His disciples preparatory to His ascension, when He should be glorified before the heavenly universe....
CTr	293	5	All heaven waited with eager earnestness for the end of the tarrying of the Son of God in a world all seared and marred with the curse of transgression. He ascended from the Mount of Olives in a cloud of angels, who triumphantly escorted Him to the City of God.... What a contrast was Christ's reception on His return to heaven to His reception on this earth.... There was no sorrow, no suffering, to meet Him at every turn. There were no scowling priests to exercise their ingenuity in finding some word of His that they could misinterpret and thus gain opportunity to harass, abuse, insult, and deride Him....
CTr	293	6	In proportion to Christ's humiliation and suffering is His exaltation. He could have become the Saviour, the Redeemer, only by first being the Sacrifice.--Manuscript 128, 1897.
------------------------The Promise Of Divine Power, October 14
CTr	294	1	And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. Luke 24:49.
CTr	294	2	Having magnified the law and made it honorable by accepting its conditions in saving a world from ruin, Christ hastened to heaven to perfect His work, and to accomplish His mission by sending the Holy Spirit to His disciples. Thus He would assure His believing ones that He had not forgotten them, though now in the presence of God where there is fullness of joy forevermore.
CTr	294	3	The Holy Spirit was to descend on those in this world who loved Christ. By this they would be qualified, in and through the glorification of their Head, to receive every endowment necessary for the fulfilling of their mission. The Life-giver held in His hands not only the keys of death but a whole heaven of rich blessings. All power in heaven and earth was given to Him, and having taken His place in the heavenly courts, He could dispense these blessings to all who receive Him....
CTr	294	4	The Holy Spirit was sent as the most priceless treasure the world could receive. The church was baptized with the Spirit's power. The disciples were fitted to go forth and proclaim Christ, first in Jerusalem, where the shameful work of dishonoring the rightful King had been done, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. The evidence of the enthronement of Christ in His mediatorial kingdom was given....
CTr	294	5	The Father gave all honor to His Son, seating Him at His right hand, far above all principalities and powers. He expressed His great joy and delight in receiving the crucified One and crowning Him with glory and honor. And all the favors He has shown to His Son in His acceptance of the great atonement are shown to His people. Those who have united their interests in love with Christ are accepted in the Beloved. They suffered with Christ in His deepest humiliation, and His glorification is of great interest to them, because they are accepted in Him. God loves them as He loves His Son. Christ, Emmanuel, stands between God and the believer, revealing the glory of God to His chosen ones, and covering their defects and transgressions with the garments of His own spotless righteousness....
CTr	294	6	If God's people will sanctify themselves by obedience to His precepts, the Lord will work in their midst. He will renew humble, contrite souls, making their characters pure and holy.--Manuscript 128, 1897.
------------------------Two Disciples Went From Despair To Hope, October 15
CTr	295	1	Two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. Luke 24:13, 14.
CTr	295	2	On the first day of the week after Christ's crucifixion, the disciples had everything to fill their hearts with rejoicing. But this day was not a day of joy to all. To some it was a day of uncertainty, confusion, and perplexity.... The women brought tidings that ... positively affirmed that Christ had risen from the dead, and that they themselves had seen Jesus alive in the garden.
CTr	295	3	But still the disciples seemed unbelieving. Their hopes had died with Christ. And when the news of His resurrection was brought to them, it was so different from what they had anticipated that they could not believe it.... From eyewitnesses some of the disciples had obtained quite a full account of the events of Friday. Others beheld the scenes of the crucifixion with their own eyes. In the afternoon of the first day of the week, two of the disciples, restless and unhappy, decided to return to their home in Emmaus, a village about eight miles from Jerusalem....
CTr	295	4	They had not advanced far on their journey when they were joined by a stranger. But they were so absorbed in their gloom and disappointment that they did not observe Him closely. They continued their conversation, expressing the thoughts of their hearts.... Jesus knew that their hearts were bound up with Him in love, and He longed to take them in His arms and wipe away their tears, and put joy and gladness in their hearts. But He must first give them lessons that they would never forget....
CTr	295	5	They told Him of their disappointment in regard to their Master, "how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him." With hearts sore with disappointment and with quivering lips they said, "We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done."
CTr	295	6	Why did not the disciples remember Christ's words, and realize that events were to be as they had been? Why did not they realize that the last part of His disclosure would be just as verily fulfilled as the first part, that the third day He would rise again? This was the part they should have remembered. The priests and rulers did not forget this.--Manuscript 113, 1897.
------------------------The Disciples Enlightened On Christ's Identity, October 16
CTr	296	1	And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:27.
CTr	296	2	The disciples wondered what this stranger could know that He should penetrate to their very souls and speak with such earnestness, tenderness, sympathy, and with such hopefulness. For the first time since Christ's betrayal in the garden, they began to feel hopeful. Often they looked earnestly at their Companion, and thought that His words were just the words that Christ would have spoken. They were filled with amazement, and their hearts began to throb with expectation, hope, and joy....
CTr	296	3	There are many who discount Old Testament history. They advocate the idea that the New Testament takes the place of the Old, and that therefore the Old Testament is no longer of any use. But Christ's first work with His disciples was to begin at the Alpha of the Old Testament to prove that He was to come to this world and pass through the experiences that had taken place in His incarnation. The rejection of the Son of God was plainly seen by the prophets....
CTr	296	4	Christ would have the ideas of His disciples pure and true in every specification. They must understand, as far as possible, in regard to the cup of suffering that was apportioned to Him. He showed them that the awful conflict that they could not yet understand, but that they should understand, was the fulfillment of the covenant made before the foundation of the world was laid. Christ must die as all transgressors of the law will die if they continue in sin. All this should be, but it would not end in defeat but in glorious, eternal victory....
CTr	296	5	As the disciples were about to enter their house, the Stranger appeared as though He would continue His journey. But the disciples felt drawn to Him.... "Abide with us," they said, "for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." Christ responded to the invitation without making any excuses. "He went in to tarry with them."
CTr	296	6	Had the disciples failed on this occasion to press their invitation, they would not have known that their traveling Companion was no other than the risen Lord. Christ never forces His company upon anyone. He interests Himself in those who He knows need Him. But if they pass along, indifferent and careless, never thinking of the heavenly Guest, or asking Him to abide with them, He passes on. Thus many meet with great loss. They do not know Christ any more than did the disciples as He walked and talked with them by the way.--Manuscript 113, 1897.
------------------------Jesus Reveals Himself To The Disciples, October 17
CTr	297	1	And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. Luke 24:30, 31.
CTr	297	2	The simple evening meal of bread is prepared. It is placed before the Guest, and He puts forth His hands to bless the food. Why do the disciples start back in astonishment? Their companion spreads forth His hands in exactly the same way as their Master used to do. They look again, and lo, they see in His hands the print of nails. Both exclaim at once, It is the Lord Jesus. He has risen from the dead.
CTr	297	3	They rise to cast themselves at His feet and worship Him. But He has vanished out of their sight. They look at the space that had been occupied by One whose body had lately lain in the grave, and say to each other, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and which he opened to us the scriptures?"
CTr	297	4	But with this great news to communicate, they cannot sit and talk. Their weariness and hunger have gone. Full of joy, they immediately set out again on the same path by which they came, hurrying to tell the tidings to His disciples in the city. The moon has set, but the Sun of Righteousness has shone upon them. Their hearts leap for joy. They seem to be in a new world. Christ is a living Saviour. They no longer mourn over Him as dead, but rejoice over a living Redeemer....
CTr	297	5	In some parts the road was not safe or secure, but they climbed over the steep places, slipping on the smooth rocks. They did not know, they did not see, that they had the protection of Him who had just traveled the road with them. With their pilgrim's staff in hand, they press on, desiring to go faster than they dare. They lose their track, but find it again. Sometimes running, sometimes stumbling, they urge their way forward, their unseen Companion close beside them.
CTr	297	6	Entering Jerusalem, they go to the upper chamber where Christ spent the hours of the last evening before His death instructing His disciples. It is late, but they know that the disciples will not sleep till they know for a certainty what has become of the body of their Lord. They find the door of the chamber securely barred. They knock for admission, but no answer comes. All is still. Then they give their names. The door is carefully unbarred, but as soon as they have entered it is again fastened to keep out spies.--Manuscript 113, 1897.
------------------------"The Lord Is Risen Indeed!", October 18
CTr	298	1	And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. Luke 24:35, 36.
CTr	298	2	The travelers find all in surprised excitement. The voices of those in the room break out into thanksgiving and praise, saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon." Then the travelers, panting from the haste with which they have made their journey, tell the wondrous story of how, as they were journeying along full of discouragement and hopelessness, they were joined by a Stranger. With wonder and hope they relate how He opened the Scriptures to them, and how they invited Him to abide with them. They tell how they prepared the evening meal, and when, as their Guest had extended His hands to bless the food, they recognized Him....
CTr	298	3	They have just finished their story, and some are saying they could not believe it, for it is too good to be true, when behold, another Person stands before them. Every eye is fastened upon the Stranger. No one has knocked for entrance. No footstep has been heard. The disciples are startled, and wonder what it means. Then they hear a voice that is no other than the familiar voice of their Master. Clear and distinct the words fall from His lips, "Peace be unto you."
CTr	298	4	"Then," John states, "were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost."...
CTr	298	5	No one is to venture presumptuously into the work of God. Men and women are not to go unless the Holy Spirit is evidently upon them. Only under the supervision of the Holy Spirit can Christ's followers work as He worked.
CTr	298	6	That evening Christ showed His disciples His hands and His feet so that no doubt that He was the Christ might exist in their minds. "Behold my hands and my feet," He said, "that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.... These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day."--Manuscript 113, 1897.
------------------------Jesus Opened The Understanding Of His Followers, October 19
CTr	299	1	Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. Luke 24:45.
CTr	299	2	The sayings of Christ are to be valued, not merely in accordance with the measure of the understanding of those who hear; they are to be considered in the important bearing that Christ Himself attaches to them. He took the old truths, of which He Himself was the originator, and placed them before His hearers in heaven's own light. How different was their representation. What a flood of meaning and brightness and spirituality was brought in by their explanation.
CTr	299	3	After His resurrection Christ opened the understanding of His followers, that they might understand the Scriptures. Everything had been transformed by the working of the arts of Satan. Truth was covered up by the rubbish of error, and hidden from finite sight. When Christ referred to His humiliation, rejection, and crucifixion, the disciples could not take in His meaning. It had been a part of their education to expect Christ to set up a temporal kingdom, and when He spoke of His sufferings they could not understand His words....
CTr	299	4	Christ had many truths to give to His disciples of which He could not speak, because they did not advance with the light that was flashed upon the Levitical laws and the sacrificial offerings. They did not embrace the light, advance with the light, and follow on to still greater brightness as Providence should lead the way.
CTr	299	5	And for the same reason Christ's disciples today do not comprehend important matters of truth. So dull has been the comprehension of even those who teach the truth to others that many things cannot be opened to them until they reach heaven. It ought not to be so. But as minds become narrow, they think they know it all, and set one stake after another in points of truths of which they have only a glimpse. People close their minds as though there were no more for them to learn, and should the Lord attempt to lead them on they would not take up with the increased light. They cling to the spot where they think they see a glimmer of light, when it is only a link in the living chain of truths and promises to be studied....
CTr	299	6	The development of truth will be the reward to the humble-hearted seeker who will fear God and walk with Him. The truth that the mind grasps as truth is capable of constant expansion and new development.... As the mind grasps it in its preciousness, it becomes elevated, ennobled, and sanctified.--Manuscript 143, 1897 (Manuscript Releases 16:122, 123).
------------------------When The Holy Spirit Comes As The Comforter, October 20
CTr	300	1	But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. John 15:26.
CTr	300	2	It is not right for us to devote time, brain, bone, and muscle to gathering in the things of earth and drop eternity out of our reckoning, but we should gather sheaves for the Master's garner.... The Lord wants us to expand, to grow like the seed introduced into the soil--first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear....
CTr	300	3	Some have asked, What shall I do to receive the Holy Ghost? Ask God to search your hearts as with a lighted candle. Do nothing for selfish gratification. Suppose that Christ's professed followers were representatives of Christ in our earth; would not worldlings see this and take knowledge of such that they had learned of Jesus? Will not such be a power? We want the religion of Christ. This will bring forth the fruits of love, joy, and peace. The desire of the Master is not for a scanty supply, but to bear it in abundance.
CTr	300	4	John 15:17-21 points to the opposition between Christ and the world, and to the persecution inflicted upon Christ and His followers.... We want to know Christ, whom to know aright is life eternal. In John 15 He points to trials, to conflicts. He asks if you can endure the conflict; then He points to eternal realities and shows you the thousands of angels sent to be ministers to those who are heirs of salvation. Though He shows the armies arrayed against you, yet He tells you that you need not be discouraged, for the Captain of the Lord's host is with you, as with the Lord's people in Joshua's time.... What we want is to know how to fight the battle. The victory is not in the minister or the layperson, but in the Captain of the Lord's host who fights the battle for us....
CTr	300	5	We fight not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places, and God is with us.
CTr	300	6	We are not to consider that the smartness of men and women will bring success. People may have all the learning possible for a human being to comprehend, and yet they may be alone; without Christ they can do nothing. Do you walk humbly before Him? Have you a cherishing of inward sins, heartburnings against anyone? Are you seeking God with all your heart? We can bear to be separated from everything else but the Spirit of God. We want the inspiration of the cross, making us to fall helpless, and the Lord will lift us up.--Manuscript 27, 1891.
------------------------The Promise Of The Holy Spirit: "Ye Shall Receive Power", October 21
CTr	301	1	But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8.
CTr	301	2	After His resurrection, Christ ascended to His appointed honor. Before the heavenly universe and the worlds unfallen He was to be enthroned. The Father would impress the minds of the believers with the glorious reception of His Son in the home He had left. For our sake He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich....
CTr	301	3	As Christ ascended, His hands were outstretched in blessing upon His disciples. While they stood gazing upward to catch the last glimpse of their ascending Lord, He was received by the heavenly throng into the rejoicing ranks of cherubs and seraphs. And as they escorted Him to His heavenly home, they sang in triumph, "Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth; O sing praises unto the Lord; ... that rideth upon the heavens of heavens."
CTr	301	4	Christ determined to bestow a gift on those who had been with Him and on those who should believe on Him, because this was the occasion of His ascension and inauguration, a jubilee in heaven. What gift could Christ bestow rich enough to signalize and grace His ascension to the mediatorial throne? It must be worthy of His greatness and His royalty. Christ gave His representative, the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. This Gift could not be excelled....
CTr	301	5	On the day of Pentecost Christ gave His disciples the Holy Spirit as their Comforter. It was ever to abide with His church. During the whole Jewish economy the influence of this Spirit has often been revealed in a marked manner, but not in full. The Spirit had been waiting for the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. For ages prayers had been offered for the fulfillment of the promise, for the impartation of the Spirit; and not one of these earnest supplications had been forgotten. Now for ten days the disciples sent up their petitions, and Christ in heaven added His intercession. He claimed the gift of the Spirit, that He might pour it out upon His people.... [Christ] having reached His throne, the Spirit was given as He had promised, and like a rushing, mighty wind, it fell upon those assembled, filling the whole house. It came with a fullness and power, as if for ages it had been restrained, but was now poured forth upon the church, to be communicated to the world. What followed this outpouring? Thousands were converted in a day.--Manuscript 44, 1898.
------------------------The Power That Shook The World, October 22
CTr	302	1	I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Acts 2:17.
CTr	302	2	After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the disciples, clothed with the divine panoply, went forth as witnesses to tell the wonderful story of the manger and the cross. They were humble men, but they went forth with the truth. After the death of their Lord, they were a helpless, disappointed, discouraged company--as sheep without a shepherd; but now they go forth as witnesses for the truth, with no weapons but the Word and the Spirit of God, to triumph over all opposition.... They were transformed in character and united in the bonds of Christian love.... From their lips came words of divine eloquence and power that shook the world.
CTr	302	3	The third, fourth, and fifth chapters of Acts give an account of their witnessing. Those who had rejected and crucified the Saviour expected to find His disciples discouraged, crestfallen, and ready to disown their Lord. With amazement they heard the clear, bold testimony given under the power of the Holy Spirit. The words and works of the disciples represented the words and works of their Teacher, and all who heard them said, They have learned of Jesus; they talk as He talked. "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all."
CTr	302	4	The chief priests and rulers thought themselves competent to decide what the apostles should do and teach. As they went forth preaching Jesus everywhere, the men who were worked by the Holy Spirit did many things that the Jews did not approve. There was danger that the ideas and doctrines of the rabbis would be brought into disrepute.
CTr	302	5	The apostles were creating a wonderful excitement. The people were bringing their sick folk ... and those that had been healed were shouting the praises of God and glorifying the name of Jesus, the very One whom the Jews had condemned, scorned, spit upon, crowned with thorns, and caused to be scourged and crucified. This Jesus was extolled above the priests and rulers. The apostles were even declaring that He had risen from the dead. The Jewish rulers decided that this work must be stopped, for it was proving them guilty of the blood of Jesus.--Letter 38, 1896.
------------------------Opposed By Religious Leaders, October 23
CTr	303	1	The Sadducees, came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day. Acts 4:1-3.
CTr	303	2	The assertions made by the apostles that they had seen Jesus after His resurrection, and that He had ascended to heaven, were overthrowing the fundamental principles of the Sadducean doctrine. This was not to be allowed. The priests and rulers were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. The disciples were not intimidated or cast down....
CTr	303	3	"The angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life." We see here that persons in authority are not always to be obeyed, even though they may profess to be teachers of Bible doctrines. There are many today who feel indignant and aggrieved that any voice should be raised presenting ideas that differ from their own in regard to points of religious belief. Have they not long advocated their ideas as truth? So the priests and rabbis reasoned in apostolic days. What mean these men who are unlearned, some of them mere fishermen, who are presenting ideas contrary to the doctrines that the learned priests and rulers are teaching the people? They have no right to meddle with the fundamental principles of our faith.
CTr	303	4	But we see that the God of heaven sometimes commissions people to teach that which is regarded as contrary to the established doctrines. Because those who were once the depositories of truth became unfaithful to their sacred trust, the Lord chose others who would receive the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and would advocate truths that were not in accordance with the ideas of the religious leaders. And then these leaders, in the blindness of their minds, give full sway to what is supposed to be righteous indignation against the ones who have set aside cherished fables....
CTr	303	5	But the Holy Spirit will from time to time reveal the truth through its own chosen agencies; and no one, not even a priest or ruler, has a right to say, You shall not give publicity to your opinions, because I do not believe them. That wonderful "I" may attempt to put down the Holy Spirit's teaching.--Letter 38, 1896.
------------------------"We Must Obey God", October 24
CTr	304	1	But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority." Acts 5:29, NRSV.
CTr	304	2	In most of the religious controversies, the foundation of the trouble is that self is striving for the supremacy. About what? About matters that are not vital points at all, and that are regarded as such only because people have given importance to them. See Matthew 12:31-37; Mark 14:56; Luke 5:21; Matthew 9:3.
CTr	304	3	But let us follow the history of the men whom the Jewish priests and rulers thought so dangerous because they were bringing in new and strange teaching on almost every theological subject. The command given by the Holy Spirit, "Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of life," was obeyed by the apostles....
CTr	304	4	If the priests and rulers had dared act out their own feelings toward the apostles, there would have been a different record, for the angel of God was a watcher on that occasion, to magnify His name if any violence had been offered to His servants.
CTr	304	5	"And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? ... Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.... And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them."
CTr	304	6	Then the Holy Spirit moved upon Gamaliel, a Pharisee, a doctor of the law, who had a reputation among all the people. His advice was "Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought. But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. And to him they agreed."
CTr	304	7	Yet the attributes of Satan so controlled their minds that notwithstanding the wonderful miracles that had been wrought in healing the sick and in releasing God's servants from prison, the priests and rulers were so filled with prejudice and hatred they could hardly be restrained. "When they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ."--Letter 38, 1896.
------------------------There Is Danger In Refusing To Repent, October 25
CTr	305	1	But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. Acts 5:39.
CTr	305	2	We can see what evidence was given the priests and rulers and how firmly they resisted the Spirit of God. Those who claim superior wisdom and piety may make most terrible and (to themselves) fatal mistakes if they allow their minds to be molded by another power, and pursue a course in resistance to the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus, represented by the Holy Spirit, was in the presence of that assembly [of priests trying the apostles], but they did not discern Him. For a moment they had felt the conviction of the Spirit, that Jesus was the Son of God, but they stifled conscience and became blinder and more hardened than before. Even after they had crucified the Saviour, God in His mercy had sent them ... another call to repentance, even in the terrible charge brought against them by the apostles, that they had killed the Prince of life.
CTr	305	3	It was not alone the sin of putting to death the Son of God that cut them off from salvation, but their persistence in rejecting light and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The spirit that works in the children of disobedience worked in them, leading them to abuse the men through whom God was giving a testimony to them. The malignity of rebellion reappeared and was intensified in every successive act of resistance against God's servants and the message He had given them to declare.
CTr	305	4	Every act of resistance makes it harder to yield. Being the leaders of the people, the priests and rulers felt it incumbent on them to defend the course they had taken. They must prove that they had been in the right. Having committed themselves in opposition to Christ, every act of resistance became an additional incentive to persist in the same path. The events of their past career of opposition were as precious treasures to be jealously guarded. And the hatred and malignity that inspired those acts was concentrated against the apostles.
CTr	305	5	The Spirit of God revealed its presence unto those who, irrespective of the fear or favor of the public, declared the truth that had been committed to them. Under the demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power, the Jews saw their guilt in refusing the evidence that God had sent; but they would not yield their wicked resistance. Their obstinacy became more and more determined, and worked the ruin of their souls. It was not that they could not yield, but that they could and would not.--Letter 38, 1896.
------------------------In Our Time The Holy Spirit Will Come Again, October 26
CTr	306	1	Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. James 5:7.
CTr	306	2	We have taught, we have expected, that an angel is to come down from heaven, that the earth will be lightened with his glory. Then we shall behold an ingathering of souls similar to that witnessed on the day of Pentecost. This mighty angel comes bearing no soft, smooth message, but words that are calculated to stir the hearts of men and women to their very depths.... Are we, indeed, as human agencies to cooperate with the divine instrumentalities in sounding the message of this mighty angel who is to lighten the earth with His glory?
CTr	306	3	How great and widespread must be the power of the prince of evil, which can be subdued only by the mighty power of the Spirit. Disloyalty to God, transgression in every form, has spread over our world. Those who would preserve their allegiance to God, who are active in His service, become the mark of every shaft and weapon of hell. If those who have had great light have not corresponding faith and obedience, they soon become leavened with the prevailing apostasy; another spirit controls them. While they have been exalted to heaven in point of opportunities and privileges, they are in a worse condition than the most zealous advocates of error....
CTr	306	4	Others who have not had so great light, who have never identified themselves with the truth, will, under the influence of the Spirit, respond to the light when it shines upon them. Truth that has lost its power upon those who have long slighted its precious teaching appears beautiful and attractive to those who are ready to walk in the light....
CTr	306	5	Amid the confusion of delusive doctrines, the Spirit of God will be a guide and a shield to those who have not resisted the evidences of truth.... We have no time to confer with flesh and blood. The power of Satan is apparently in the supremacy; he is seeking to convert all things in the world to his own purpose, to imbue human beings with his own spirit and nature. The conflict will be terrible.... The confederacy of satanic agencies, united with evil persons, are as instruments of unrighteousness, throwing their whole force into the battlefield, evil against good....
CTr	306	6	When the Spirit was poured out from on high, the church was flooded with light, but Christ was the Source of that light. His name was on every tongue; His love filled every heart. So it will be when the angel that comes down from heaven having great power shall lighten the whole earth with His glory.--Letter 25b, 1892.
------------------------Stephen, The First Christian Martyr, October 27
CTr	307	1	Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. Acts 7:57, 58.
CTr	307	2	Stephen was the first Christian martyr.... The enemies of God and the truth felt stirred with hatred and opposition. Satan impelled them to resist the truth. Stephen had to meet in argument the most artful, deceptive disputants, hoping to confuse and put down his arguments. If Stephen had not searched the Scriptures and himself become fortified with the evidence of God's Word, he could not have borne the test; but he knew the foundation of his faith and was firm, and he was ready to answer his opponents.
CTr	307	3	Stephen came off victorious. He spoke with assurance and wisdom and power that astonished and confounded the enemies of truth. When they found themselves baffled and defeated at every attempt, then they were bent on his destruction. Had these professedly honest and wise men been really seeking for the truth, they would have admitted evidence that they could not controvert.... But such was not their purpose or character. They hated Christ, they hated all His followers, and they put Stephen to death.--Manuscript 17, 1885.
CTr	307	4	Stephen, a man loved by God, and one who was laboring to win souls to Christ, lost his life because he bore a triumphant testimony of the crucified and risen Saviour. The record states that he was full of faith and power, and that he did great wonders and miracles among the people.... But the spirit that had manifested itself in bitter opposition to the world's Redeemer was still working in the children of disobedience. The hatred that the enemies of truth had shown for the Son of God, they revealed in their hatred for His followers....
CTr	307	5	In the light that they saw in the face of Stephen, the men of authority had evidence from God. But they despised the evidence. Oh, that they would heed! Oh, that they would repent! But they would not; and the rebuke of God came from the lips of the faithful witness: "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye."...
CTr	307	6	Here two armies were in conflict, the army of heaven and the army of false religious zealots. On which side would this company forever after stand? It was still possible for them to repent and be forgiven even after having done this terrible evil against Christ in the person of His saint.--Manuscript 11, 1900.
------------------------Philip The Evangelist, October 28
CTr	308	1	A man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority, ... was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. Acts 8:27-29.
CTr	308	2	A heavenly messenger was sent to Philip [one of the chosen deacons] to show him his work for the Ethiopian. The evangelist was directed: "Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert."...
CTr	308	3	Today, just as much as then, the angels are leading and guiding those who will be guided and led. This angel could have done the work himself, but this is not God's way of working. Believers must connect with other believers, and as God's instrumentalities work in behalf of the lost.
CTr	308	4	Philip understood his work. This man of high authority was being drawn to the Saviour, and he did not resist the drawing. He did not make his high position an excuse why he could not accept the crucified One. The evangelist asked him, "Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him" and explain to him the Word of God....
CTr	308	5	"Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.... And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him."...
CTr	308	6	While angels from heaven are doing their work, evil agencies are working to draw the mind to something else. Satan is interposing obstacles, so that the inquiring mind that would understand the Word of God shall become confused. Thus he worked with Christ in the wilderness of temptation. The experience of Christ is placed on record that we may understand the methods and plans of Satan. Had Philip left the eunuch with his case hanging in the balance, he might never have accepted the Saviour. Evil angels were waiting for their opportunity when they could press in their falsehoods and divert the newly awakened mind from seeking after truth. The Lord's agencies must be wholly consecrated to His service, that they may be quick to understand their work. As wise stewards they must take advantage of every circumstance to teach the grace of God and draw people to Christ.--Manuscript 11, 1900.
------------------------Saul Becomes Paul, Apostle To The Gentiles, October 29
CTr	309	1	And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Acts 9:4, 5.
CTr	309	2	Saul had been educated by the most learned teachers of the age. He had been taught by Gamaliel. Saul was a rabbi and a statesman. He was a member of the Sanhedrin and was very zealous for the suppression of Christianity. He acted a part in the stoning of Stephen, and we read further of him, "As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison." But he was stopped in his career of persecution.
CTr	309	3	As he was on his way to Damascus to arrest any Christians he could find, "suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"...
CTr	309	4	Saul converted was called Paul. He united with the disciples and was among the chief of the apostles.--Manuscript 95, 1899.
CTr	309	5	Although the apostles were often cast down in the conflict with evil people and the powers of darkness, yet they were enabled to press again to the conflict, having before them triumph or death in the effort. In their bodies, in bruises and wounds and stripes received for the sake of Jesus, they carried the evidence of the crucifixion of Christ, that they were partakers with Him of His sufferings.
CTr	309	6	Their very deliverance and preservation under manifold difficulties and trials testified that Jesus lived, and because of His power they lived also.--Manuscript 58, 1900.
CTr	309	7	A true and faithful Stephen was stoned to death by the enemies of Christ. Surely it did not appear that God was strengthening His cause in the earth by thus permitting wicked men to triumph. But from this very circumstance, Paul was converted to the faith, and through his words thousands were brought to the light of the gospel.--Letter 10, 1879.
CTr	309	8	Those selected for the work of God should be men and women who are faithful and true, workers whom God can instruct, who will impart what they receive, proclaiming without reserve the will of God, pointing out the better way to all with whom they come in contact. New men and women in Christ are born to conflict, toil, and labor, born to engage in the good fight of faith. There is ever within their reach a power by which they may obtain the victory at every onset, power that will enable them to be more than conquerors over the difficulties they meet.--Letter 150, 1900.
------------------------Timothy, An Exemplary Youth, October 30
CTr	310	1	Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12.
CTr	310	2	Timothy's principles had been so established by a correct education that he was fitted to be placed as a religious teacher in connection with Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles. He was a mere youth, yet he bore his great responsibilities with Christian meekness. He was faithful, steadfast, and true; and Paul made him his companion in labor and travel, that he might have the benefit of his experience in preaching the gospel and establishing churches....
CTr	310	3	Paul loved Timothy because Timothy loved God. His intelligent knowledge of experimental piety and of the truth gave him distinction and influence.... The moral influence of his home was substantial, not fitful, not impulsive, not changeable. The Word of God was the rule that guided Timothy....
CTr	310	4	There are many who move from first impulse rather than from experience and judgment. But Timothy exercised consideration and calm thought, inquiring at every step, "Is this the way of the Lord?"... He had no specially wonderful talents; but his work was valuable because he used his God-given abilities as consecrated gifts in the service of God. The Holy Spirit found in Timothy a mind that could be molded and fashioned to become a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, because he submitted to be molded.
CTr	310	5	The highest aim of our youth should not be to strain after something novel, but to place themselves under the teaching of the Holy Scriptures. Then they may possess the attributes classed as highest in the heavenly courts. They will hide themselves in God, and in all their teaching will simplify the original truth so that it will not appear strange but familiar to other minds. They will weave it into their daily thoughts and practical life.
CTr	310	6	We see the advantage that Timothy had in a correct example of piety and true godliness.... The manifest spiritual power of the piety in the home kept him pure in speech and free from all corrupting sentiments. From a child Timothy had known the Holy Scriptures. He had the benefit of the Old Testament Scripture, and the manuscript of part of the New, the teachings and lessons of Christ....
CTr	310	7	A noble, all-round character does not come by chance. It is the result of the molding process of character-building in the early years of youth, and a practice of the law of God in the home.--Letter 33, 1897.
------------------------John The Beloved Becomes John The Revelator, October 31
CTr	311	1	The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John. Revelation 1:1.
CTr	311	2	After Christ had ascended, John's testimony concerning Christ disturbed those in authority. With power he bore witness that Christ was a risen Saviour. To please the Jews, the Romans had crucified Christ, and now they sought still further to please them by placing John where his voice would not be heard by Jew or Gentile. He was banished to the Isle of Patmos.
CTr	311	3	Apparently the Lord permitted His enemies to triumph, as far as outward appearance was concerned. But God's hand was moving unseen in the darkness. God permitted His faithful servant to be placed where Christ could give him a more wonderful revelation of Himself to give to the world.... He was hidden as it were on a desert island, and here Christ visited him, giving him a most wonderful view of His glory, and making known to him what was to come upon the earth....
CTr	311	4	John was deprived of the society of his brethren and of the pleasure of association. But no one could deprive him of the light and revelation of Christ. A great light was to shine from Christ to His servant. Richly favored was this beloved disciple. With the other disciples he had traveled with Jesus, learning of Him and feasting on His words.... On the holy Sabbath day the risen Saviour made His presence known to John; and the testimony then given him is given also to us. God would have us search the Scriptures, that we may know what will be in the last days of this earth's history....
CTr	311	5	[Portions of Revelation 1 are quoted.] This is a most powerful testimony, but its true significance is but dimly discerned. Let every student of Scripture carefully ponder every word in the first chapter of Revelation, for every sentence and every word is of weight and consequence.
CTr	311	6	The appearance of Christ to John should be to all, believers and unbelievers, an evidence that we have a risen Christ. It should give living power to the church. At times dark clouds surround God's people. It seems as though oppression and persecution would extinguish them. But at such times the most instructive lessons are given. As in the darkest night the stars shine the brightest, so the most brilliant beams of God's glory are revealed in the deepest gloom. The darker the sky, the more clear and impressive are the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, the risen Saviour.--Manuscript 106, 1897.
------------------------God's Message For His People, November 1
CTr	312	1	The devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Revelation 2:10.
CTr	312	2	John had been closely associated with the Saviour during His life of ministry. He had heard His wonderful words and had seen His wonderful deeds, and his testimony was given in clear lines. Out of the abundance of a heart overflowing with love for Christ he spoke, and no power could stay his words....
CTr	312	3	Like his Master, John patiently submitted to every attempt to put him to death. When his enemies cast him into the cauldron of boiling oil, they thought to hear no more from him. But as the words of satanic origin were spoken, "Thus perish all who believe in that deceiver, Jesus Christ of Nazareth," John declared, "My Master patiently submitted to all that Satan and his angels could devise to humiliate and torture Him. He gave His life to save the world. He died that we might live. I am honored in being permitted to suffer for His sake. I am only a weak, sinful man, but Christ was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." John's words, while suffering at the hands of his enemies, had an influence, and he was removed from the cauldron by the very ones who had cast him in.
CTr	312	4	It was after this that John was sent to the Isle of Patmos, where, separated from his companions in the faith, his enemies supposed that he would die from hardship and neglect. But John made friends and converts even there. They thought that they had at last placed the faithful witness where he could no longer trouble Israel or the wicked rulers of the world....
CTr	312	5	God and Christ and the heavenly host were John's companions on the Isle of Patmos. From them he received instruction that he imparted to those separated with him from the world. There he wrote out the visions and revelations he received from God, telling of the things that would take place in the closing period of this earth's history. When his voice would no longer witness for the truth, when he could no longer testify of the One he loved and served, the messages given to him on that rocky, barren coast were to go forth as a lamp that burneth. Every nation, kindred, tongue, and people would learn the sure purpose of the Lord, not concerning the Jewish nation merely, but every nation upon the earth.--Manuscript 150, 1899.
------------------------Revelation An Open Book For Our Study, November 2
CTr	313	1	Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. Revelation 1:3.
CTr	313	2	Many have entertained the idea that the book of Revelation is a sealed book, and they will not devote time and study to its mysteries. They say that they are to keep looking to the glories of salvation, and that the mysteries revealed to John on the Isle of Patmos are worthy of less consideration than these.
CTr	313	3	But God does not so regard this book. He declares: "I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."...
CTr	313	4	The Lord revealed to His servant John the mysteries of the book of Revelation, and He designs that they shall be open to the study of all. In this book are depicted scenes that are now in the past and some of eternal interest that are taking place around us; other of its prophecies will not receive their complete fulfillment until the close of time, when the last great conflict between the powers of darkness and the Prince of heaven will take place....
CTr	313	5	Many of the prophecies are about to be fulfilled in quick succession. Every element of power is about to be set to work. Past history will be repeated, old controversies will arouse to new life, and peril will beset God's people on every side. Intensity is taking possession of the human family. It is permeating everything upon the earth. And for what? Games, plays, amusements; people are rushing and crowding and contending for the mastery. That which is common and perishable is absorbing their attention, so that things of eternal interest are scarcely thought of.
CTr	313	6	Human beings, possessed with energy, zeal, and perseverance, will place all their God-given powers in cooperation with Satan's despotism to make void the law of God. Impostors of every caste and grade will claim to be worthy and true, and there will be a magnifying of the common and impure against the true and the holy. Thus the spurious is accepted, and the true standard of holiness is discarded, as the word of God was discarded by Adam and Eve for the lie of Satan.--Manuscript 143, 1901.
------------------------Testimony Of Jesus Reveals God's Eternal Love, November 3
CTr	314	1	I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 1:9.
CTr	314	2	It is through one who is "a brother, and companion in tribulation" that Christ reveals to His people the fearful conflict that they must meet before His second coming. Before the scenes of their bitter struggle are opened to them, they are reminded that other believers also have drunk of the cup and been baptized with the baptism. He who sustained these early witnesses to the truth will not forsake His people in the final conflict.
CTr	314	3	It was in a time of fierce persecution and great darkness, when Satan seemed to triumph over the faithful witnesses for God, that John in his old age was sentenced to banishment. He was separated from his companions in the faith, and cut off from his labors in the gospel; but he was not separated from the presence of God. The desolate place of his exile proved to him to be the gate of heaven. He says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day"--the holy day that God had blessed and set apart as His own--"and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book.... And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man."...
CTr	314	4	Christ walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks. Thus is symbolized His relation to the churches. He is in communion with His people.... Although He is High Priest and Mediator in the sanctuary above, yet He walks up and down in the midst of the churches on earth....
CTr	314	5	Again, as the Holy Spirit rested upon the prophet, he sees a door opened in heaven, and hears a voice calling him to look upon the things which shall be hereafter. And he says, "Behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone." Ministering angels were around about Him, waiting and eager to do His will, while the rainbow of God's promise, which was a token of His covenant with Noah, was seen by John encircling the throne on high--a pledge of God's mercy to every repentant, believing soul. It is an everlasting testimony that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It declares to the whole world that God will never forget His people in their struggle with evil.--Manuscript 100, 1893.
------------------------Christ's Work For Our Redemption Is Described, November 4
CTr	315	1	Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda.... And in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb as it had been slain. Revelation 5:5, 6.
CTr	315	2	The Saviour was presented to John under the symbols of the "Lion of the tribe of Juda," and "a Lamb as it had been slain." Here the whole work of redemption was expressed. These symbols represent the union of omnipotent power and self-sacrificing love. As the Lion of Judah, Christ will defend His chosen ones and bring them off victorious, because they accepted Him as "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Christ the slain Lamb--who was despised, rejected, the victim of Satan's wrath, of human abuse and cruelty--how tender was His sympathy with His people who were in the world! And according to the infinite depths of His humiliation and sacrifice as the Lamb of God will be His power in glory as the Lion of Judah, for the deliverance of His people.
CTr	315	3	To John were opened the great events of the future that were to shake the thrones of kings and cause all earthly powers to tremble. He beheld the close of all earthly scenes, the ushering in of His reign who is to be King of kings, and whose kingdom shall endure forever.... He saw Christ receiving the adoration of all the hosts of heaven and heard the promise that whatever tribulation might come upon God's people, if they would but patiently endure they should be more than conquerors through Him that loved them....
CTr	315	4	John was now prepared to witness the thrilling scenes in the great conflict between those who keep the commandments of God and those who make void His law. He saw the wonder-working power arise that was to deceive all who should dwell upon the earth who were not connected with God, "saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live."...
CTr	315	5	Of the loyal and true who do not bow to the decrees of earthly rulers against the authority of the King of heaven the revelator says, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
CTr	315	6	These lessons are for our benefit. We need to stay our faith upon God, for there is just before us a time that will try every soul. Christ upon the Mount of Olives rehearsed the fearful judgments that were to precede His second coming.... While these prophecies received a partial fulfillment at the destruction of Jerusalem, they have a more direct application in the last days.--Manuscript 100, 1893.
------------------------Looking Into The Future, November 5
CTr	316	1	There will be signs.... People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world. Luke 21:25, 26, NRSV.
CTr	316	2	John also was a witness of the terrible scenes that will take place as signs of Christ's coming. He saw armies mustering for battle, and people's hearts failing them for fear. He saw the earth moved out of its place, the mountains carried into the midst of the sea, the waves thereof roaring and troubled. He saw the vials of wrath opened, and pestilence, famine, and death come upon the inhabitants of the earth.
CTr	316	3	Already the restraining Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the world. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, fire and flood, disasters by sea and land, follow each other in quick succession. Science seeks to explain all these. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause. People cannot discern the sentinel angels restraining the four winds, that they shall not blow until the servants of God are sealed. But when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture.
CTr	316	4	We are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Prophecy is fast fulfilling. The Lord is at the door. There is soon to open before us a period of overwhelming interest to all who are living. The controversies of the past are to be revived. New controversies will arise. The scenes to be enacted in our world are not even dreamed of. Satan is at work through human agencies.
CTr	316	5	But God's servants are not to trust to themselves in this great emergency. The program of coming events is in the hands of the Lord. The world is not without a ruler; the Majesty of heaven has the destiny of nations, as well as the concerns of His church, in His own hands....
CTr	316	6	The important future is before us. To meet its trials and temptations, and to perform its duties, will require great faith and perseverance. But we may triumph gloriously, for not one watching, praying, believing soul will be ensnared by the devices of the enemy. All heaven is interested in our welfare and waits our demand upon its wisdom and strength. In the time of trial just before us, God's pledge of security will be placed upon those who have kept the word of His patience.--Manuscript 100, 1893.
------------------------We Are Accountable For The Light We Have Been Given, November 6
CTr	317	1	Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:14.
CTr	317	2	The mild, beloved disciple [John] has said, "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:4). The Word of God is very plain and pointed. It is dangerous business to profess to be a follower of Jesus and in works deny Him by indifference to even one of His requirements.
CTr	317	3	The history of the Reformation teaches us that the church of Christ is never to come to a standstill and cease reforming. God stands at the head, saying to them as He did to Moses, "Go forward." "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." God's work is onward; step by step His people advance onward through conflict and trial to final victory. The history of the church teaches us that God's people are not to be stereotyped in their theories of faith, but to be prepared for new light, for opening truth revealed in His Word.
CTr	317	4	The past history of the advancement of truth amid error and darkness shows us that sacred truth is not cherished and sought after by the majority. Those who have advanced in reform, obeying the voice of God--"Go forward" have been subject to opposition, torture, and death; and in the face of gaping prisons and threatened torture and death, they deemed the truth for their time of sufficient importance to hold tenaciously, yielding their life rather than to sacrifice their faith. They counted not their life dear unto them if sacrificed for the truth of God. The truth in our day is as important as it was in the days of the martyrs....
CTr	317	5	What if in Luther's day people had taken a position to cover their disobedience to God's requirement with: "God is too merciful to condemn me for not taking unpopular truth. Our intellectuals and our religious leaders do not accept it. I will run the risk of transgressing God's law because the world rejects it.... I am satisfied with my religion; ... I will risk going with the crowd."
CTr	317	6	If I go with the crowd, the Bible tells me I am in the broad road to death. Said the Majesty of heaven, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." We are accountable for the light that shines in our day. Christ wept in agony over Jerusalem because they knew not the time of their visitation. It was their day of trust, their day of opportunity and privilege.... The foul ingratitude, the hollow formalism, and the hypocritical insincerity of hundreds of years called these tears of irrepressible anguish from His eyes.--Letter 35a, 1877.
------------------------Danger Of Indifference To Light, November 7
CTr	318	1	And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light. John 3:19, NRSV.
CTr	318	2	The loss of one soul is represented as a catastrophe in comparison with which the gain of a world sinks into insignificance.... In Jerusalem is represented every soul who neglects present privileges and refuses the light that God sends them. Have the counsels of God been cherished? Have the entreaties and warnings of His servants been accepted? Has remonstrance been heeded? Oh, that we may individually improve the golden moments of this "thy day" lest the word shall come, "but now they are hid from thine eyes." If light shines in our day we are to receive the light, appreciate it, and walk in the light without waiting to see whether prominent people or scholars accept it....
CTr	318	3	The words of Christ [are]: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."... Jesus looked down through the centuries and saw that the Christian world would think and teach that the death of Christ abrogated the Father's law. He therefore makes a plain statement to undeceive all minds that want to be undeceived upon this point....
CTr	318	4	Men and women have died without keeping the seventh-day Sabbath. They were good people and lived up to all the light they had. They could not be responsible for the light that they never had. We are accountable for the light that shines in our day. To excuse our transgression of God's law because good people in generations past did not keep it would be folly....
CTr	318	5	It is never safe to be indifferent to light. If professedly great and good people do not obey the law of God, is it any reason we should transgress? ... It was the scribes, the rulers, the priests, men in holy office, men who believed their righteousness was above the whole world, who persecuted Christ. These pious pretenders were the fiercest persecutors Jesus had.... It was the teachers of the people that mocked Him while He hung upon the cross.
CTr	318	6	Professed Christians of today who reject light will be no more favorable to those who receive and rejoice in the light of truth than were the Jews in the days of Christ. If they had known that He was the Prince of life, they would not have crucified Him. Why did they not know? Because they refused every evidence given them that Christ was the Messiah.... They will look upon the believers as a little, weak people, a few fanatics, and will speak derisively of them.--Letter 35a, 1877.
------------------------Persecution In Early Centuries, November 8
CTr	319	1	And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. Hebrews 11:36.
CTr	319	2	When Jesus revealed to His disciples the fate of Jerusalem and the scenes of the Second Advent, He foretold also the experience of His people from the time when He should be taken from them to His return in power and glory for their deliverance. From Olivet the Saviour beheld the storms about to fall upon the apostolic church, and, penetrating deeper into the future, His eye discerned the fierce, wasting tempests that were to beat upon His followers in the coming ages of darkness and persecution....
CTr	319	3	The history of the early church testified to the fulfillment of the Saviour's words. The powers of earth and hell arrayed themselves against Christ in the person of His followers.... Christians were stripped of their possessions and driven from their homes.... Great numbers sealed their testimony with their blood....
CTr	319	4	Under the fiercest persecution these witnesses for Jesus kept their faith unsullied.... With words of faith, patience, and hope they encouraged one another to endure privation and distress. The loss of every earthly blessing could not force them to renounce their belief in Christ. Trials and persecutions were but steps bringing them nearer their rest and their reward....
CTr	319	5	In vain were Satan's efforts to destroy the church of Christ by violence. The great controversy in which the disciples of Jesus yielded up their lives did not cease when these faithful standard-bearers fell at their post. By defeat they conquered. God's workmen were slain, but His work went steadily forward. The gospel continued to spread, and the number of its adherents to increase.... Said a Christian, expostulating with the heathen rulers who were urging forward the persecution: "You may torment, afflict, and vex us. Your wickedness puts our weakness to the test, but your cruelty is of no avail. It is but a stronger invitation to bring others to our persuasion. The more we are mowed down, the more we spring up again. The blood of the Christians is seed."
CTr	319	6	Thousands were imprisoned and slain; but others sprang up to fill their places. And those who were martyred for their faith were secured to Christ, and accounted of Him as conquerors. They had fought the good fight, and they were to receive the crown of glory when Christ should come. The sufferings that they endured brought Christians nearer to one another and to their Redeemer.--The Spirit of Prophecy 4:39-42.
------------------------Early Church Corrupted By Satan's Followers, November 9
CTr	320	1	I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. Revelation 2:20.
CTr	320	2	Their [the martyrs'] living example and dying testimony were a constant witness for the truth; and, where least expected, the subjects of Satan were leaving his service and enlisting under the banner of Christ....
CTr	320	3	The great adversary now endeavored to gain by artifice what he had failed to secure by force. Persecution ceased, and in its stead were substituted the dangerous allurements of temporal prosperity and worldly honor. Idolaters were led to receive a part of the Christian faith, while they rejected other essential truths. They professed to accept Jesus as the Son of God, and to believe in His death and resurrection; but they had no conviction of sin, and felt no need of repentance or of a change of heart. With some concessions on their part, they proposed that Christians should make concessions, that all might unite on the platform of belief in Christ.
CTr	320	4	Now was the church in fearful peril. Prison, torture, fire, and sword were blessings in comparison with this. Some of the Christians stood firm, declaring that they could make no compromise. Others reasoned that if they should yield or modify some features of their faith, and unite with those who had accepted a part of Christianity it might be the means of their full conversion.... Under a cloak of pretended Christianity Satan was insinuating himself into the church, to corrupt their faith and turn their minds from the word of truth.
CTr	320	5	At last the larger portion of the Christian company lowered their standard, and a union was formed between Christianity and paganism. Although the worshipers of idols professed to be converted, and united with the church, they still clung to their idolatry, only changing the objects of their worship to images of Jesus, and even of Mary and the saints. The foul leaven of idolatry, thus introduced into the church, continued its baleful work. Unsound doctrines, superstitious rites, and idolatrous ceremonies were incorporated into her faith and worship. As the followers of Christ united with idolaters, the Christian religion became corrupted, and the church lost her purity and power. There were some, however, who were not misled by these delusions.--The Spirit of Prophecy 4:42, 43.
------------------------There Are Two Classes Among Christ's Followers, November 10
CTr	321	1	Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Matthew 25:1, 2.
CTr	321	2	There have ever been two classes among those who profess to be followers of Christ. While one class study the Saviour's life and earnestly seek to correct their defects and conform to the Pattern, the other class shun the plain, practical truths that expose their errors. Even in her best estate the church was not composed wholly of the true, pure, and sincere. Our Saviour taught that those who willfully indulge in sin are not to be received into the church; yet He connected with Himself men who were faulty in character, and granted them the benefits of His teachings and example, that they might have an opportunity to see and correct their errors.
CTr	321	3	Among the twelve apostles was a traitor. Judas was accepted, not because of his defects of character, but notwithstanding them. He was connected with the disciples that through the instruction and example of Christ he might learn what constitutes Christian character, and thus be led to see his errors, to repent, and, by the aid of divine grace, to purify his soul "in obeying the truth."
CTr	321	4	But Judas did not walk in the light so graciously permitted to shine upon him. By indulgence in sin he invited the temptations of Satan. His evil traits of character became predominant. He yielded his mind to the control of the powers of darkness, he became angry when his faults were reproved, and thus he was led to commit the fearful crime of betraying his Master. In like manner do all who cherish evil under a profession of godliness hate those who disturb their peace by condemning their course of sin. When a favorable opportunity is presented, they will, like Judas, betray those who for their good have sought to reprove them.
CTr	321	5	The apostles encountered those in the church who professed godliness while they were secretly cherishing iniquity. Ananias and Sapphira acted the part of deceivers, pretending to make an entire sacrifice for God, when they were covetously withholding a portion for themselves.... As trials and persecution came upon His [Christ's] followers, those only who were willing to forsake all for the truth's sake desired to become His disciples. Thus, as long as persecution continued, the church remained comparatively pure. But as it ceased, converts were added who were less sincere and devoted, and the way was opened for Satan to obtain a foothold.--The Spirit of Prophecy 4:44, 45.
------------------------They Also Will Persecute You, November 11
CTr	322	1	Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Timothy 3:12.
CTr	322	2	Herod and the wicked authorities killed the Just One, but Christ never killed anyone, and we may attribute the spirit of persecution--because people want liberty of conscience--to its origin, Satan. He is a deceiver, a liar, a murderer, and accuser of the brethren and sisters. He loves to see human misery. He exults in distress, and as we view the cruel persecutions of those who would obey God according to the dictates of their own consciences, we may know that this is the mystery of iniquity. The Lord said to Satan, that old serpent, "It [the Seed of the woman] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15). Christ in a special manner bruised the head of the serpent, but the prophecy is far-reaching. It is a declaration of an unwearied conflict between Christ and His followers, and Satan and his angels and human agencies on this earth, to the close of time.
CTr	322	3	This conflict was opened upon the Son of God. He was afflicted; He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The Majesty of heaven had to leave the scene of His labor again and again because of Satan's bruising His heel, and finally Satan's malignity reached its utmost power when Satan inspired and controlled the minds of wicked men to crucify Him. He has followed the children of God, causing them disaster and death.... Isaiah, Daniel, and John have in prophecy announced these very struggles and conquests that God's people would pass through, and the triumph of Satan in his supposed victories.
CTr	322	4	The enmity of Satan will continue fierce and determined against the followers of Jesus.... Evil, wherever it exists, in rejecting light and truth and departing from the living God, will always league against the righteous and obedient. Fallen angels and fallen human beings join in a desperate companionship. This is the very union that the persecutors of the faithful entered into.
CTr	322	5	Satan made his calculations that if he could induce men and women, as he deceived and induced the angels in his warfare, he should have them as his allies in every enterprise against heaven....
CTr	322	6	The truth does not present ideas mingled with traditions and fables. The religion of Jesus Christ presents the truth, pure and undefiled. It will bear investigation, and honest seekers after the truth will have it. True religion does not excite the mind and feelings, but appeals to the intellect and to the heart. It is constantly developing and rising higher and higher heavenward.--Manuscript 62, 1886.
------------------------Reformation Principles Are To Be Upheld Today, November 12
CTr	323	1	Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. Revelation 1:19.
CTr	323	2	The principle that we are called to uphold at this time is the same that was maintained by the adherents of the gospel in the days of the great Reformation. When the princes assembled at the Diet of Spires in 1529, it seemed that the hope of the world was about to be crushed out. To this assembly was presented the emperor's decree restricting religious liberty, and prohibiting all further dissemination of the reform doctrines....
CTr	323	3	Mighty issues for the world depended upon the action of a few heroes of faith. Those who had accepted the truths of the Reformation met together, and their unanimous decision was "Let us object to the decree. In matters of conscience the majority has no power." They drew up their protest and submitted it to the assembled states....
CTr	323	4	In this last conflict God has committed to our hands the banner of truth and religious liberty that these reformers held aloft. Those whom He has blessed with the knowledge of His Word are held responsible for this great gift. We are to receive God's Word as supreme authority. We must accept its truths for ourselves, as our own individual act. And we shall be able to appreciate these truths only as we shall search them out for ourselves, by personal study of the Word of God....
CTr	323	5	The Protestant churches, having received doctrines that the Word of God condemns, will bring these to the front and force them upon the consciences of the people, just as the papal authorities urged their dogmas upon the advocates of truth in Luther's time. The same battle is again to be fought, and every soul will be called upon to decide upon which side of the controversy he or she will be found.
CTr	323	6	When people are not willing to see the truth and receive it because it involves a cross, they are opening the door to Satan's temptations. He will lead them, as he led Eve in Eden, to believe a lie. The truth through which they might have been sanctified is set aside for some pleasing delusion presented by the destroyer of souls.
CTr	323	7	It is often the case that the most precious truth appears to lie close by the side of fatal errors. The rest that Christ promised to all who should learn of Him lies close beside indifference and carnal quietude, and multitudes overlook the fact that this rest is found only in wearing Christ's yoke and bearing His burden, in possessing His meekness and lowliness.--Manuscript 100, 1893.
------------------------Understand The Difference In Faith And Presumption, November 13
CTr	324	1	Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Psalm 19:13.
CTr	324	2	The great truth of our entire dependence upon Christ for salvation lies close to the error of presumption. Freedom in Christ is by thousands mistaken for lawlessness; and because Christ came to release us from the condemnation of the law, many declare that the law itself is done away, and that those who keep it are fallen from grace. And thus, as truth and error appear so near akin, minds that are not guided by the Holy Spirit will be led to accept the error and, in so doing, place themselves under the power of Satan's deceptions. In thus leading people to receive error for truth, Satan is working to secure the homage of the Protestant world.
CTr	324	3	Every soul needs to be on guard against his devices. We must be Bible readers, and obedient to the Scriptures.... The inquiry should rise from every heart, What is truth? If we would stand against the deceptive teaching that now meets us on every side, that is turning the truth of God into a lie, we must have the heavenly anointing....
CTr	324	4	Those early reformers, whose protests have given us the name of Protestant, felt that God had called them to give the light of the gospel to the world, and in doing this they were ready to sacrifice their possessions, their liberty, and their own lives. Are we, in this, the last conflict of the great controversy, as faithful to our trust? ...
CTr	324	5	Luther's pen was a power, and his writing, scattered broadcast, stirred the world. The same agencies are at our command, with facilities multiplied a hundredfold. Bibles and publications in many languages setting forth the truth for this time are at our hand and can be swiftly carried to every part of the world....
CTr	324	6	The truth must be proclaimed in the dark places of the earth. Obstacles must be met and surmounted. A great work is to be done, and those who know the truth should make mighty intercession for help now.... The Spirit of Christ must be poured out upon them, and they must be making ready to stand in the judgment. While they are consecrating themselves to God, a convincing power will attend their efforts to present the truth to others. We must sleep no longer on Satan's enchanted ground, but call into requisition all our resources, and avail ourselves of every facility with which Providence has furnished us.... And the promise is given, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."--Manuscript 100, 1893.
------------------------Be Faithful Unto Death, November 14
CTr	325	1	He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Psalm 91:4.
CTr	325	2	The body of [John] Huss was consumed. The council had done all that they could do with the man whose only crime was that he could not accept as infallible the Council of Constance, and he could not let their voice stand above the voice of God in His Word. But God seeks again "that which is past," recalling all the proceedings whether of judgment or of mercy.... The biography of the righteous is among the best treasures that the church can possess. We have the benefit of the accounts of the workings of the power of evil in contrast to the deeds of those who through many centuries were living by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
CTr	325	3	This rich experience is bequeathed to us as a legacy of great value. When history shall be repeated, when the great men and women of earth will not come to the Bible for light and evidence and truth, when human commandments shall be exalted above the commandments of God, and when it shall be regarded a crime to obey God rather than civil laws, then we shall not have to tread a path in which we have had but few examples of others who have gone before us.
CTr	325	4	The Lord supported His faithful ones to the end. This should be an encouragement. It should give confidence to the righteous in all ages that the Lord is unchangeable. He will manifest for His people in this age His grace and His power as He has done in past ages. The declarations of God's Word and the accuracy with which He has made them good in history combine to give us assurance and instruction of greatest value....
CTr	325	5	In the experience of Huss was a witness, a monument erected, calling the attention of the world to the promise: "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life" (Revelation 2:10). Registered in the history of nations, John Huss lives. His godly works and steadfast faith, his pure life and conscientious following of the truth that was unfolded to him, these he would not yield even to be saved a cruel death. That triumphant death was witnessed by all heaven, by the whole universe. Satan bruised the heel of the seed of the woman, but in the act of Huss his head was bruised....
CTr	325	6	The battlements of heaven are thronged with a great crowd of angels watching the conflict of human beings with the prince of darkness.... With intense interest they watch to see if the child of God, harassed, perplexed, persecuted, denounced, defamed, and condemned as was the Master, will look to heaven for strength. Heaven waits our demand upon its resources.--Manuscript 38, 1887.
------------------------Followers Of Jesus Face A Life-And-Death Struggle, November 15
CTr	326	1	I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1, 2.
CTr	326	2	As the cars [of the train] glided slowly along we had a fine opportunity of seeing the country [Switzerland] through which we passed....
CTr	326	3	Here among the rocks and caverns of the earth the Lord has provided a hiding place for His people. These chapels, built so high upon the precipitous rocks that seem inaccessible to humans, were thus arranged for safety and protection. They testify to us that there was a time when the people of God were suffering because they, like Daniel of old, purposed in their hearts that they would worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. They could not consent that any person should be conscience for them, and they felt more secure in the wildness of rocks and mountains, where the wild beasts make their home from the snare of the fowler, than to trust themselves to the mercy of human beings who were infected with an erroneous religion and satanic zeal to maintain human customs and traditions that were in direct opposition to the religion of the Bible. These were cruel as bloodthirsty wolves to extirpate all who should dare to differ with the doctrines of papists--men and women who would take the Bible and the Bible alone as their foundation, until its glorious beams scattered human tradition from their path, making clear the way of the Lord....
CTr	326	4	The man of sin is Satan's agent. He sets his inventive powers to work, and Satan plans; then the followers of Jesus must prepare for a life-and-death struggle. The authority of the church, combined with the authorities of the nation, set themselves to work to cripple the conscience--to be themselves conscience for everybody. For anyone to differ, and stand in opposition to these great men of the world in their religious faith and worship, would raise endless questions, and they could not keep this light to themselves. The more they pondered the question, the more they saw was involved in turning from old traditions to the Word of God. But they must face the conflict, harness for battle, rise above human littleness, and not have thoughts of self-preservation detain them in the prospect of unmeasurable danger and peril. The world's Redeemer had given them in His life an example of what they must do and what they must be in order to win eternal life.--Manuscript 52, 1886.
------------------------God Reveals His Secrets In Every Age, November 16
CTr	327	1	But there is a God in heaven that revealeth king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Daniel 2:28.
CTr	327	2	In past ages the Lord God of heaven revealed His secrets to His prophets, and this He does still. The present and the future are equally clear to Him, and He shows to His servants the future history of what shall be. The Omniscient looked down the ages and predicted through His prophets the rise and fall of kingdoms hundreds of years before the events foretold took place. The voice of God echoes down the ages, telling earth's inhabitants what is to take place. Kings and princes take their places at their appointed time. They think they are carrying out their own purposes, but in reality they are fulfilling the word God has given through His prophets....
CTr	327	3	The unbelieving and godless do not discern the signs of the times. In ignorance they may refuse to accept the inspired record. But when professed Christians speak sneeringly of the ways and means employed by the great I AM to make His ways and purposes known, they show themselves to be both ignorant of the Scriptures and of the power of God.... The Christian who accepts the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth will look at Bible history in its true bearing. The past, the history of the Jewish economy from the beginning to the end, instead of being spoken of contemptuously and sneered at as "the dark ages," will reveal light, and still more light, as it is studied.
CTr	327	4	The word of men and women fails, and those who take their assertions as their dependence may well tremble, for they will one day be as shipwrecked vessels. But God's Word is infallible and endures forever....
CTr	327	5	God lives and reigns. His glory is not confined to the temple made with hands. He has not closed heaven against His people. As in the Jewish age, so in this age God reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets.
CTr	327	6	The image shown to Nebuchadnezzar [Daniel 2] in the visions of the night represents the kingdoms of the world. The metals in the image, symbolizing the different kingdoms, became less and less pure and valuable. The head of the image was of gold, the breast and arms of silver, the sides of brass, [the legs of iron], and the feet and toes of iron mingled with clay. So the kingdoms represented by them deteriorated in value.... If they had kept the fear of the Lord ever before them, they would have been given wisdom and power which would have bound them together and kept them strong.--Manuscript 39, 1899 (see also The Review and Herald, February 6, 1900).
------------------------God Calls Us To Be Children of the Light, November 17
CTr	328	1	Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 1 Thessalonians 5:5.
CTr	328	2	The Bible is God's great director. It is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path. It flashes its light ahead, that we may see the path by which we are traveling; and its rays are thrown back on past history, showing the most perfect harmony in that which to the mind in darkness appears like error and discord. In that which seems to the worldling an inexplicable mystery, God's children see light and beauty....
CTr	328	3	The Israelites placed over their doors a signature of blood, to show that they were God's property. So every child of God in this age will bear the signature God has appointed.... God declares, "I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify them." When people say that the law of God is abrogated by the testimonies of "the fathers," they are teaching for doctrine the commandments of men....
CTr	328	4	We are living in a momentous period in this earth's history. The great conflict is just before us.... The man of sin has worked with a marvelous perseverance to exalt a spurious sabbath, and the disloyal Protestant world has wondered after the beast and has called obedience to the Sabbath instituted by Jehovah disloyalty to the laws of the nations. Kingdoms have confederated to sustain a false sabbath institution, which has not a word of authority in the oracles of God....
CTr	328	5	The great conflict now being waged is not merely a strife of humans against humans. On the one side stands the Prince of Life, acting as our substitute and surety; on the other [stands] the prince of darkness, with the fallen angels under his command.... "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."
CTr	328	6	There will be a sharp conflict between those who are loyal to God and those who cast scorn upon His law. The church has joined hands with the world. Reverence to God's law has been subverted. The religious leaders have taught for doctrine the commandments of men. As it was in the days of Noah, so it is in this age of the world.... The truly loyal will not be carried away by the current of evil. They will not throw scorn and contempt on that which God has set apart as holy. The test comes to everyone. There are only two sides. Which are you on?--Manuscript 39, 1899 (see also The Review and Herald, February 6, 1900).
------------------------Make No Hasty, Rash Moves, November 18
CTr	329	1	Ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly. Acts 19:36.
CTr	329	2	Let Christ be seen in all that you do. Let all see that you are living epistles of Jesus Christ.... Let your life win the hearts of all who are brought in contact with you. There is too little done at the present time to render the truth attractive to others. There have been some who have, in speaking to the people, felt like making a raid on the churches. They sour minds by their censoriousness. We want our hearts mellowed by the love of Jesus. That is in God's order. If not presented in the most pleasant, acceptable form, truth will be unpalatable to many. While we must present the truth in contrast with error, let it be presented in a manner that shall create as little prejudice as possible....
CTr	329	3	While we will not violate the Sabbath, which a despotic power will seek to compel us to do, we will be wise in Christ--Christ's wisdom--and not in our own spirit. A consistent, substantial, lovable Christian is a powerful argument for the truth. We must say no words that will do ourselves harm, for this would be bad enough, but when we speak words, and when we do presumptuous things that imperil the cause of God, we are doing a cruel work, for we give Satan advantage. We are not to be rash and impetuous, but always learning of Jesus and how to act in His Spirit, presenting the truth as it is in Jesus....
CTr	329	4	Let everyone be careful and not step off the ground where God is, onto Satan's ground. Many did this in the ranks of the Reformers of past ages. Luther had great trouble because of these elements. Rash persons stepped out of their place, when God did not send them, and rushed heedlessly forward to do a very objectionable, impulsive work. They ran ahead of Christ and provoked the devil's wrath. In their untimely, misguided zeal, they closed the door to great usefulness of many souls who might have done great good for the Master....
CTr	329	5	There are those who will, through hasty, unadvised moves, betray the cause of God into the enemy's power. There will be people who will seek to be revenged, who will become apostates and betray Christ in the person of His saints. All need to learn discretion; then there is danger on the other hand of being conservative, of giving away to the enemy in concession. Our brethren and sisters should be very cautious in this matter for the honor of God.... The two armies will stand distinct and separate, and this distinction will be so marked that many who shall be convinced of truth will come on the side of God's commandment-keeping people.--Manuscript 6, 1889.
------------------------Avoid Contention; Promote Harmony, November 19
CTr	330	1	Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom. Proverbs 13:10.
CTr	330	2	The Reformation was greatly retarded by making prominent differences on some points of faith and each party holding tenaciously to those things where they differed. We shall see eye-to-eye erelong, but to become firm and consider it your duty to present your views in decided opposition to the faith or truth, as it has been taught by us as a people is a mistake and will result in harm, and only harm, as in the days of Martin Luther. Begin to draw apart and feel at liberty to express your ideas without reference to the views of your associates, and a state of things will be introduced that you do not dream of.
CTr	330	3	My husband had some ideas on some points differing from the views taken by his brethren. I was shown that however true his views were, God did not call for him to put them in front before his brethren and create differences of ideas....
CTr	330	4	Speculative ideas should not be agitated, for there are peculiar minds that love to get some point that others do not accept, and argue and attract everything to that one point, urging that point, magnifying that point, when it is really a matter that is not of vital importance and will be understood differently. Twice I have been shown that everything of a character to cause our ministers to be diverted from the very points now essential for this time should be kept in the background.
CTr	330	5	Christ did not reveal many things that were truth, because it would create a difference of opinion and get up disputations. But young men who have not passed through the experience we have had would as soon have a brush as not. Nothing would suit them better than [to] have a sharp discussion....
CTr	330	6	We are in the great day of atonement, a time when we must be afflicting our souls, confessing our sins, humbling our hearts before God, and getting ready for the great conflict. When these contentions come in before the people, they will think one has the argument, and then that another directly opposed has the argument. The poor people become confused, and the conference will be a dead loss, worse than if they had had no conference.
CTr	330	7	Now when everything is dissension and strife, there must be decided efforts to handle, to publish with pen and voice, these things that will reveal only harmony.--Letter 37, 1887 (Manuscript Releases 15:20-22).
------------------------We Are To Know the Truth and Practice It, November 20
CTr	331	1	Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. John 7:17, NRSV.
CTr	331	2	We are not to set our stakes and then interpret everything to reach this set point. Here is where some of our great Reformers have failed, and this is the reason that many who today might be mighty champions for God and the truth are warring against the truth.... God designs we should be learners, first from the living oracles, and second from our associates. This is God's order.
CTr	331	3	The Word of God is the great detector of error; to it we believe everything must be brought. The Bible must be our standard for every doctrine. We must study it reverentially. We are to receive no one's opinion without comparing it with the Scriptures. Here is divine authority, which is supreme in matters of faith.
CTr	331	4	It is the Word of the living God that is to decide all controversies. It is when people mingle their own human smartness with God's words of truth, in giving sharp thrusts to those who are in controversy with them, that they show that they have not a sacred reverence for God's Inspired Word. They mix the human with the divine, the common with the sacred, and they belittle God's Word....
CTr	331	5	The correct interpretation of the Scriptures is not all that God requires. He enjoins upon us that we should not only know the truth, but that we should practice the truth as it is in Jesus. We are to bring into our practice, in our association with others, the spirit of Him who gave us the truth. We must not only search for the truth as for hidden treasures, but it is a positive necessity, if we are laborers together with God, that we comply with the conditions laid down in His Word, and bring the spirit of Christ into our hearts, that our understanding may be strengthened and we become apt teachers to make known to others the truth revealed to us in His Word....
CTr	331	6	There is no assurance that our doctrine is right and free from all chaff and error unless we are daily doing the will of God. If we do His will, we shall know of the doctrine. We shall see the truth in its sacred beauty. We shall accept it with reverence and godly fear, and then we can present to others that which we know is truth....
CTr	331	7	The soul that is in love with God and His work will be as candid as the day. There will be no quibbling, no evading the true bearing of Scripture. God's Word is our foundation of all doctrine.--Letter 20, 1888 (The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 42-44).
------------------------People To Be Educated To Search the Scriptures, November 21
CTr	332	1	Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. John 5:39.
CTr	332	2	The present is a time of great peril to the people of God. God is leading out a people, not an individual here and there...."Take heed, therefore, how ye hear" is an admonition of Christ. We are to hear for the sake of learning the truth, that we may walk in it. And again: "Take heed what ye hear." Examine closely, "prove all things," "believe not every spirit."... This is the counsel of God; shall we heed it?
CTr	332	3	A person may hear and acknowledge the whole truth, and yet know nothing of personal piety and true experimental religion. He or she may explain the way of salvation to others, and yet be a castaway.... "Why," asked a man who had been and still was practicing wickedness, "are souls converted to the truth through my influence?" I answered, "Christ is constantly drawing souls to Himself, and flashing His own light in their path. The seeker after salvation is not permitted to read the character of him who teaches him. If he himself is sincere, if he draws nigh to God, believing in Him, confessing his sins, he will be accepted."...
CTr	332	4	In the time of the Reformers, some were afraid of the influence on the church of those in error, and hence special pain was taken to make iron rules that the common people should not read and interpret the Scriptures for themselves. Thus the church came to exercise tyranny over dissenters....
CTr	332	5	We should never let the impression prevail that only a privileged few have a knowledge of the Scriptures and that others must refer to these--one or another of their favorite ministers--as authority for their doctrines. People should be educated to search the Scriptures for themselves, to dare to think for themselves, taking the Bible as their guidebook, their standard of faith. Although heresy may lift its head boldly, and insult the truth by perverted ideas and false interpretations and misapplication of Scripture, there should be no suppression of religious freedom by reformers.
CTr	332	6	The church should ever bear in mind that they are never to ascribe to fallible mortals the unerring wisdom of the one living God.... We want all souls to have a pure gospel and to feel the necessity of searching the Scriptures for themselves, to know what saith the voice of the Eternal, and bind themselves to the great heart of Infinite Love.--Letter 12, 1890.
------------------------Good and Evil Angels Always Present, November 22
CTr	333	1	For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Ephesians 6:12.
CTr	333	2	Angels from heaven communicate with the human family, and not one of us by anything we can do may uphold or keep ourselves. We are where we are, kept every moment by the power of God. I have thought that we do not make the ministration of heavenly angels as important as we should.... What would we do without them? I want you to consider what kind of position we should be left in if we had not the ministry of holy angels....
CTr	333	3	We meet the opposition of men and women, but there is someone behind that opposition. It is the prince of the powers of darkness, with his evil angels, who is constantly at work.... Who is it that is ruling the world today? And who is it that has chosen to stand under the banner of the prince of darkness? Why, it is nearly the whole world at large. All the world that has not accepted Jesus Christ has chosen for their leader the prince of darkness, and just as soon as they stand under his banner, they have connection with evil angels.
CTr	333	4	Either the evil angels or the angels of God are controlling all human minds.... Every provision has been made; everything in God's plan has been arranged so that we should not be left to our own impulses, to our own finite powers, to carry on the warfare against the powers of darkness in our own finite strength, because we would certainly fail if we were thus left to ourselves....
CTr	333	5	In the Psalm David speaks of God's being a refuge and a strong tower, a refuge and a fortress; unto Him we can run and we can be saved. How precious is the thought that God is our refuge and that He will be our helper in all times and in all places, and that in every emergency we have God with us. He says that He will give His angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways.... In our God we have a helper, and we will trust in Him. We must constantly look in that direction, believing that the angels of God are round about us, and that heaven is in communication with us, because these heavenly messengers are ascending and descending upon the ladder of shining brightness....
CTr	333	6	How is it with us? Are we standing with the whole armor on, so that we can work in harmony with the angels of God who are working for us? If we separate ourselves from these angels by taking our own course of action, then we place ourselves where the wicked one can tempt us.--Manuscript 1, 1890 (Sermons and Talks, 2:57-59).
------------------------Study Daniel and Revelation Together, November 23
CTr	334	1	Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days. Daniel 10:14.
CTr	334	2	Daniel identified himself with Israel's sins, and confessed their sins as his own. He prayed, "O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name." Yet Gabriel, the heavenly messenger, thrice called him a man greatly beloved....
CTr	334	3	How can we but see how closely the universe of heaven is connected with this fallen world! These communications given to Daniel should fill our souls with awe, with humility, with meekness, and lay our pride low in the dust....
CTr	334	4	A wonderful connection is here seen between the universe of heaven and this world. The things revealed to Daniel were afterward complemented by the revelation made to John on the isle of Patmos. These two books should be carefully perused. Twice Daniel inquired, How long shall it be to the end of time? "And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.... But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days."
CTr	334	5	It was the Lion of the tribe of Judah who unsealed the book and gave to John the revelation of what should be in these last days. Daniel stood in his lot to bear his testimony, which was sealed until the time of the end, when the first angel's message should be proclaimed to our world. These matters are of infinite importance in these last days.... The book of Daniel is unsealed in the revelation to John, and it carries us forward to the last scenes of this earth's history.
CTr	334	6	The case of Daniel reveals to us the fact that the Lord is always ready to hear the prayers of the contrite soul, and when we seek the Lord with all our hearts, He will answer our petitions. Here is revealed where Daniel obtained his skill and understanding; and if we will only ask of God wisdom, we may be blessed with increased ability, and with power from heaven. If we will come to God just as we are, and pray to Him in faith as did Daniel, we shall see of the salvation of God. We need to pray as we never prayed before.--Letter 59, 1896 (Manuscript Releases 18:14-16).
------------------------Book of Daniel Now Unsealed for Study, November 24
CTr	335	1	But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Daniel 12:4.
CTr	335	2	There is need of a much closer study of the Word of God; especially should Daniel and the Revelation have attention as never before in the history of our work. We may have less to say in some lines, in regard to the Roman power and the papacy, but we should call attention to what the prophets and apostles have written under the inspiration of the Spirit of God....
CTr	335	3	Read the book of Daniel. Call up, point by point, the history of the kingdoms there represented. Behold statesmen, councils, powerful armies, and see how God wrought to abase pride and lay human glory in the dust. God alone is represented as great. In the vision of the prophet He is seen casting down one mighty ruler and setting up another. He is revealed as the monarch of the universe, about to set up His everlasting kingdom--the Ancient of days, the living God, the Source of all wisdom, the Ruler of the present, the Revealer of the future. Read and understand how poor, how frail, how short-lived, how erring, how guilty, are mortals....
CTr	335	4	The light that Daniel received direct from God was given especially for these last days. The visions he saw by the banks of the Ulai and the Hiddekel, the great rivers of Shinar, are now in process of fulfillment, and all the events foretold will soon have come to pass.
CTr	335	5	Consider the circumstances of the Jewish nation when the prophecies of Daniel were given. The Israelites were in captivity, their temple had been destroyed, their temple services suspended. Their religion had centered in the ceremonies of the sacrificial system. They had made the outward forms all-important, while they had lost the spirit of true worship.... The Lord wrought to bring the people into captivity, and to suspend the services of the temple, in order that the outward ceremonies might not become the sum total of their religion.... The outward glory was removed, that the spiritual might be revealed....
CTr	335	6	In giving the light to His people, God did not work exclusively through any one class of persons. Daniel was a prince of Judah. Isaiah also was of the royal tribe. David was a shepherd boy, Amos a herdsman, Zechariah a captive from Babylon, Elisha a tiller of the soil. The Lord raised up as representative leaders the prophets and princes, the noble and the lowly, and by inspiration taught them truths to be given to His people.--Letter 57, 1896 (Manuscript Releases 16:333-335).
------------------------Early Opponents Ridiculed Adventists, November 25
CTr	336	1	Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Romans 8:35.
CTr	336	2	Instead of arguments from the Scriptures, the opponents of the Advent faith chose to employ ridicule and scoffing. The careless and ungodly, emboldened by the position of religious teachers, resorted to opprobrious epithets, to base and blasphemous witticisms, in their efforts to heap contumely upon William Miller and his work. The gray-headed man who had left a comfortable home to travel at his own expense from city to city, from town to village, toiling unceasingly to bear to the world the solemn warning of the judgment near, was sneeringly denounced as a fanatic, a liar, a speculating knave.
CTr	336	3	Time, means, and talents were employed in misrepresenting and maligning Adventists, in exciting prejudice against them, and holding them up to public contempt. Ministers occupied themselves in gathering up damaging reports, absurd and malicious fabrications, and dealing them out from the pulpit. Earnest were the efforts put forth to draw away the minds of the people from the subject of the Second Advent. But in seeking to crush out Adventism, the popular ministry undermined faith in the Word of God. It was made to appear a sin, something of which people should be ashamed, to study the prophecies that relate to the coming of Christ and the end of the world. This teaching made some infidels, and many took license to walk after their own ungodly lusts. Then the authors of the evil charged it all upon Adventists.
CTr	336	4	The Wesleys encountered similar accusations from the ease-loving, godless ministers who were constantly intercepting their labors and seeking to destroy their influence. They were pronounced uncharitable, and accused of pride and vanity, because they did not pay homage to the popular teachers of their time. They were accused of skepticism, of disorderly practices, and of contempt of authority. John Wesley fearlessly threw back these charges upon those who framed them, showing that they themselves were responsible for the very evils of which they accused the Methodists.... The great controversy between truth and error has been carried forward from century to century since the fall of man. God and angels, and those united with them, have been inviting, urging people to repentance and holiness and heaven; while Satan and his angels, and human agents inspired by them, have been opposing every effort to benefit and save the fallen race.--The Spirit of Prophecy 4:218-220.
------------------------The Witness of William Miller, November 26
CTr	337	1	We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:8, 9.
CTr	337	2	William Miller was disturbing Satan's kingdom, and the archenemy sought not only to counteract the effect of the message, but to destroy the messenger himself. As Father Miller made a practical application of Scripture truth to the hearts of his hearers, the rage of professed Christians was kindled against him, even as the anger of the Jews was excited against Christ and His apostles. Church members stirred up the baser classes, and upon several occasions enemies plotted to take his life as he should leave the place of meeting. But holy angels were in the throng, and one of these, in the form of a man, took the arm of this servant of the Lord and led him to safety from the angry mob. His work was not yet done, and Satan and his emissaries were disappointed in their purpose.
CTr	337	3	Comparing his own expectations as to the effect of his preaching with the manner in which it had been received by the religious world, William Miller said: "It is true, but not wonderful, when we become acquainted with the state and corruption of the present age, ... that I have met with great opposition from the pulpit and professed religious press; and I have been instrumental, through the preaching of the Advent doctrine, of making it quite manifest that not a few of our theological teachers are infidels in disguise....
CTr	337	4	"Surely, we have fallen on strange times. I expected, of course, that the doctrine of Christ's speedy coming would be opposed by infidels, blasphemers, drunkards, gamblers, and the like; but I did not expect that ministers of the gospel and professors of religion would unite with characters of the above description, at stores and public places, in ridiculing the solemn doctrine of the Second Advent."...
CTr	337	5	Now, as in the time of our Saviour, people build the sepulchers and sound the praises of the dead prophets, while they persecute the living messengers of the Most High. William Miller was despised and hated by the ungodly and unbelieving; but his influence and his labors were a blessing to the world. Under his preaching, thousands of sinners were converted, backsliders were reclaimed, and multitudes were led to study the Scriptures and to find in them a beauty and glory before unknown.--The Spirit of Prophecy 4:220, 221.
------------------------Three Angels' Messages--A Call To The Word of God, November 27
CTr	338	1	And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, ... saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come. Revelation 14:6, 7.
CTr	338	2	The proclamation of the first, second, and third angels' messages has been located by the Word of Inspiration. Not a peg or pin is to be removed. No human authority has any more right to change the location of these messages than to substitute the New Testament for the Old. The Old Testament is the gospel in figures and symbols. The New Testament is the substance. One is as essential as the other. The Old Testament presents lessons from the lips of Christ, and these lessons have not lost their force in any particular.
CTr	338	3	The first and second messages [Revelation 14:6-8] were given in 1843 and 1844, and we are now under the proclamation of the third; but all three of the messages are still to be proclaimed. It is just as essential now as ever before that they shall be repeated to those who are seeking for the truth. By pen and voice we are to sound the proclamation, showing their order and the application of the prophecies that bring us to the third angel's message. There cannot be a third without the first and second....
CTr	338	4	The book that was sealed was not the book of Revelation, but that portion of the prophecy of Daniel that related to the last days.... When the book was opened, the proclamation was made, "Time shall be no longer." The book of Daniel is now unsealed, and the revelation made by Christ to John is to come to all the inhabitants of the earth. By the increase of knowledge a people is to be prepared to stand in the latter days.
CTr	338	5	[Revelation 14:6, 7 quoted.] This message, if heeded, will call the attention of every nation and kindred and tongue and people to a close examination of the Word, and to the true light in regard to the power that has changed the seventh-day Sabbath to a spurious sabbath.... The Sabbath memorial, declaring who the living God is, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, has been torn down, and a spurious sabbath has been given to the world in its place. Thus a breach has been made in the law of God....
CTr	338	6	In the first angel's message people are called upon to worship God, our Creator, who made the world and all things that are therein.... The message proclaimed by the angel flying in the midst of heaven is the everlasting gospel, the same gospel that was declared in Eden when God said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed."--Manuscript 32, 1896 (Manuscript Releases 17:6, 7).
------------------------The Law of God Needs No Revision, November 28
CTr	339	1	And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12.
CTr	339	2	Christ came to our world to represent the character of God as it is represented in His holy law, for His law is a transcript of His character. Christ was both the law and the gospel....
CTr	339	3	In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah the work of those who worship God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, is specified: "They that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations." God's memorial, His seventh-day Sabbath, will be uplifted....
CTr	339	4	The history of the church and the world, the loyal and the disloyal, is here plainly revealed. The loyal, under the proclamation of the third angel's message, have turned their feet into the way of God's commandments, to respect, to honor and glorify Him who created the heavens and the earth. The opposing forces have dishonored God by making a breach in His law, and when light from His Word has called attention to His holy commandments, revealing the breach made in the law by the papal authority, then, to get rid of conviction, many have tried to destroy the whole law. But could they destroy it? No; for all who will search the Scriptures for themselves will see that the law of God stands immutable, eternal, and His memorial, the Sabbath, will endure through eternal ages, pointing to the only true God in distinction from all false gods.
CTr	339	5	Satan has been persevering and untiring in his efforts to prosecute the work he began in heaven, to change the law of God. He has succeeded in making the world believe the theory he presented in heaven before his fall, that the law of God was faulty and needed revising. A large part of the professed Christian church, by their attitude, if not by their words, show that they have accepted the same error. But if in one jot or tittle the law of God has been changed, Satan has gained on earth that which he could not gain in heaven. He has prepared his delusive snare, hoping to take captive the church and the world. But not all will be taken in the snare. A line of distinction is being drawn between the children of obedience and the children of disobedience, the loyal and true and the disloyal and untrue. Two great parties are developed, the worshipers of the beast and his image, and the worshipers of the true and living God.--Manuscript 32, 1896 (Manuscript Releases 17:8, 9).
------------------------The Angel of Revelation 10 Proclaims God's Last Message, November 29
CTr	340	1	And he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth. Revelation 10:2.
CTr	340	2	The message of Revelation 14, proclaiming that the hour of God's judgment is come, is given in the time of the end. The angel of Revelation 10 is represented as having one foot on the sea and one foot on the land, showing that the message will be carried to distant lands, the ocean will be crossed, and the islands of the sea will hear the proclamation of the last message of warning to our world....
CTr	340	3	"That there should be time no longer." This message announces the end of the prophetic periods. The disappointment of those who expected to see our Lord in 1844 was indeed bitter to those who had so ardently looked for His appearing. It was in the Lord's order that this disappointment should come, and that hearts should be revealed.
CTr	340	4	Not one cloud has fallen upon the church that God has not prepared for; not one opposing force has risen to counterwork the work of God that He has not foreseen. All has taken place as He has predicted through His prophets. He has not left His church forsaken in darkness, but has traced in prophetic declarations what would occur, and through His providence, acting in its appointed place in the world's history, He has brought about that which His Holy Spirit inspired the prophets to foretell. All His purposes will be fulfilled and established. His law is linked with His throne, and satanic agencies combined with human agencies cannot destroy it.
CTr	340	5	Truth is inspired and guarded by God; it will live, and will succeed, although it may appear at times to be overshadowed. The gospel of Christ is the law exemplified in character. The deceptions practiced against it, every device for vindicating falsehood, every error forged by satanic agencies, will eventually be eternally broken, and the triumph of truth will be like the appearing of the sun at noonday. The Sun of Righteousness shall shine forth with healing in His wings, and the whole earth shall be filled with His glory.
CTr	340	6	All that God has in prophetic history specified to be fulfilled in the past has been, and all that is yet to come in its order will be. Daniel, God's prophet, stands in his place. John stands in his place. In the Revelation the Lion of the tribe of Judah has opened to the students of prophecy the book of Daniel, and thus is Daniel standing in his place. He bears his testimony, that which the Lord revealed to him in vision, of the great and solemn events that we must know as we stand on the very threshold of their fulfillment.--Manuscript 32, 1896 (Manuscript Releases 17:9-11).
------------------------Hold Fast to the Truth As It Is in Jesus, November 30
CTr	341	1	And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again. Revelation 10:10, 11.
CTr	341	2	In history and prophecy the Word of God portrays the long, continued conflict between truth and error. That conflict is yet in progress. Those things that have been will be repeated. Old controversies will be revived, and new theories will be continually arising. But God's people, who in their belief in fulfillment of prophecy have acted a part in the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels' messages, know where they stand.... They are to stand firm as a rock, holding the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end.
CTr	341	3	A transforming power attended the proclamation of the first and second angels' messages, as it attends the message of the third angel.... There was diligent study of the Scriptures, point by point. Almost entire nights were devoted to earnest searching of the Word. We searched for the truth as for hidden treasures. The Lord revealed Himself to us. Light was shed on the prophecies, and we knew that we received divine instruction....
CTr	341	4	After the Great Disappointment there were few who set themselves to seek the Word with all their heart. But some souls would not settle down in discouragement and deny that the Lord had led them. To these the truth was opened point by point, and entwined with their most hallowed recollections and sympathies.... Truth was made to shine forth, beautiful in its simplicity, dignified with a power and invested with an assurance unknown before the Disappointment. We could then proclaim the message in unity. But among those who had not held fast their faith and experience there was great confusion. Every conceivable opinion was presented as the message of truth, but the Lord's voice was "Believe them not; for I have not sent them."
CTr	341	5	We walked carefully with God. The message was to be given to the world, and we knew that this present light was the special gift of God.... His disappointed ones, who were still seeking after truth, were led step by step to communicate to the world that which had been communicated to them.... The work moved hard at first. Often the hearers rejected the message as unintelligible, and the conflict began in decided earnest, especially upon the Sabbath question. But the Lord manifested His presence. At times the veil that concealed His glory from our eyes was drawn aside. We beheld Him in the high and holy place.--Manuscript 32, 1896 (Manuscript Releases 17:11, 12).
------------------------Search the Scriptures to Confirm Truth, December 1
CTr	342	1	Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.
CTr	342	2	The Lord will not lead minds now to set aside the truth that the Holy Spirit has moved upon His servants in the past to proclaim. Many will honestly search the Word for light as those in the past have searched it; and they see light in the Word. But they did not pass over the ground, in their experience, when these messages of warning were first proclaimed. Not having had this experience, some do not appreciate the value of the truths that have been to us as waymarks, and that have made us as a peculiar people what we are. They do not make a right application of the Scriptures, and thus they frame theories that are not correct. It is true that they quote an abundance of Scripture, and teach much that is true; but truth is so mixed with error as to lead to wrong conclusions....
CTr	342	3	Satan is working [so] that the history of the Jewish nation may be repeated in the experience of those who claim to believe present truth. The Jews had the Old Testament Scriptures and supposed themselves conversant with them. But they made a woeful mistake. The prophecies that refer to the glorious second appearing of Christ in the clouds of heaven they regarded as referring to His first coming. Because He did not come according to their expectations, they turned away from Him....
CTr	342	4	The very same Satan is at work to undermine the faith of the people of God at this time. There are persons ready to catch up every new idea. The prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation are misinterpreted.... These messages, received and acted upon, are doing their work to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God. If we search the Scriptures to confirm the truth God has given His servants for the world, we shall be found proclaiming the first, second, and third angels' messages.
CTr	342	5	It is true that there are prophecies yet to be fulfilled. But very erroneous work has been done again and again, and will continue to be done by those who seek to find new light in the prophecies, and who begin by turning away from the light that God has already given. The messages of Revelation 14 are those by which the world is to be tested; they are the everlasting gospel and are to be sounded everywhere.--Manuscript 32, 1896 (Manuscript Releases 17:12-15).
------------------------God Gives No Authority to Set a Time for Christ's Return, December 2
CTr	343	1	But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Matthew 24:36, NRSV.
CTr	343	2	Your views have found favor with some, but it is because these persons have not discernment to see the true bearing of the arguments you present. They have had but a limited experience in the work of God for this time, and they do not see where your views would lead them. They are ready to assent to your statements; they see nothing in them but that which is correct. But they are misled because you have woven together much Scripture in constructing your theory; your arguments appear conclusive to them.
CTr	343	3	Not so, however, with those who have an experimental knowledge of the truth that applies in the last period of this earth's history. While they see that you hold some precious truth, they see also that you have misapplied Scripture, placing it in a framework of error, where it does not belong, and making it give force to that which is not present truth.... The light God has given me is that the Scriptures you have woven together you yourself do not fully understand....
CTr	343	4	I have had to speak plainly in regard to those who were then leading away from right paths. With pen and voice I have borne the message, "Go not ye after them." The hardest task I ever had to do in this line was in dealing with one who, I knew, wanted to follow the Lord. For some time he had thought he was obtaining new light. He was very ill, and must soon die.... Those to whom he presented his views listened to him eagerly, and some thought him inspired. He had a chart made and reasoned from the Scriptures to show that the Lord would come at a certain date, in 1894 I think. To many his reasoning seemed to be without a flaw. They told of his powerful exhortations in his sickroom. Most wonderful views passed before him. But what was the source of his inspiration? It was the morphine given him to relieve his pain....
CTr	343	5	No one has a true message fixing the time when Christ is to come or not to come. Be assured that God gives no one authority to say that Christ delays His coming five years, ten years, or twenty years. "Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not."...
CTr	343	6	All who are laborers together with God will contend most earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. They will not be turned from the present message, which is already lightening the earth with its glory. Nothing is worth contending for but the glory of God. The only rock that will stand is the Rock of Ages. The truth as it is in Jesus is the refuge in these days of error.--Letter 32, 1896.
------------------------"Time No Longer," December 3
CTr	344	1	And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, ... that there should be time no longer. Revelation 10:5, 6.
CTr	344	2	The mighty Angel who instructed John was no less a personage than Jesus Christ. Setting His right foot on the sea, and His left upon the dry land, shows the part that He is acting in the closing scenes of the great controversy with Satan. This position denotes His supreme power and authority over the whole earth. The controversy has waxed stronger and more determined from age to age, and will continue to do so to the concluding scenes when the masterly working of the powers of darkness shall reach their height....
CTr	344	3	After these seven thunders uttered their voices, the instruction comes to John, as to Daniel, in regard to the little book: "Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered."... John sees the little book unsealed.... Then Daniel's prophecies have their proper place in the first, second, and third angels' messages to be given to the world. The unsealing of the little book was the message in relation to time.
CTr	344	4	The books of Daniel and the Revelation are one. One is a prophecy, the other a revelation; one a book sealed, the other a book opened.... The special light given to John, which was expressed in the seven thunders, was a delineation of events that would transpire under the first and second angels' messages.... The first and second angels' messages were to be proclaimed, but no further light was to be revealed before these messages had done their specific work....
CTr	344	5	This time, which the Angel declares with a solemn oath, is not the end of this world's history, neither of probationary time, but of prophetic time, which would precede the advent of our Lord. That is, the people will not have another message upon definite time. After this period of time, reaching from 1842 to 1844, there can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time. The longest reckoning reaches to the autumn of 1844.
CTr	344	6	The Angel's position, with one foot on the sea, the other on the land, signifies the wide extent of the proclamation of the message. It will cross the broad waters and be proclaimed in other countries, even to all the world. The comprehension of truth, the glad reception of the message, is represented in the eating of the little book. The truth in regard to the time of the advent of our Lord was a precious message to our souls.--Manuscript 59, 1900 (Manuscript Releases 19:319-321).
------------------------We Are Called To Be Separate From the World, December 4
CTr	345	1	Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, ... These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. Titus 2:14, 15.
CTr	345	2	When the truth we now cherish was first seen to be Bible truth, how strange it appeared, and how strong was the opposition we had to meet in presenting it to the people for the first time. But how earnest and sincere were the truth-loving, truth-obeying ones. We were indeed a peculiar people. We were few in numbers, without wealth, without worldly wisdom or worldly honors, and yet we believed God, and were strong and successful, a terror to evildoers. Our love for one another was firm; it was not easily shaken. The power of God was manifested in our midst, the sick were healed, and there was much calm, sweet, holy joy.
CTr	345	3	But while the light has continued to increase, the advancement of the church has not been proportionate to the light. The fine gold has gradually become dim, and deadness and formality have come in to cripple the energies of the church. Their abundant privileges and opportunities have not led His people onward and upward to purity and holiness. A faithful improvement of the talents entrusted to them by God would have increased those talents greatly. Where much is given, much will be required. Those only who faithfully accept and appreciate the light God has given us, and who will take a high, noble stand in self-denial and self-sacrifice, will be channels of light to the world....
CTr	345	4	No one has a right to start out on his or her own responsibility and advance ideas in our papers on Bible doctrines and place them in the foreground when it is known that there are various opinions on the same subject and that it will create a controversy. The first-day Adventists have done this. Each one has followed his or her own independent judgment and sought to present original ideas, until there is no concentrated action among them except perhaps that of opposing Seventh-day Adventists. We should not follow their example....
CTr	345	5	We cannot, my brethren and sisters, float along with the current of the world. The work for us to do is to come out and be separate. This is the only way we can walk with God as did Enoch.... Like Enoch we are called upon to have a strong, living, working faith; it is the only way we can be laborers together with God. We must meet the conditions laid down in the Word of God or die in our sins. We must know what moral changes are essential to be made in our characters through the grace of Christ in order to be fitted for the mansions above.--Letter 53, 1887.
------------------------Live Every Day As Though It Might Be the Last, December 5
CTr	346	1	Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.... Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Matthew 24:42-44.
CTr	346	2	God gives no one a message that it will be ten or twenty years before this earth's history shall close. If it were forty or one hundred years, the Lord would not authorize anyone to proclaim it. He would not give any living being an excuse for delaying the preparation for His appearing. He would have no one say, as did the unfaithful servant, "My Lord delayeth his coming," for this leads to reckless neglect of opportunities and privileges to prepare for that great day. Every soul who claims to be a servant of God is called to do His service as if every day might be the last....
CTr	346	3	Let everyone to whom the Lord has given light from His Word be sure to make a right use of that light. Let all be guarded that they do not presume to feed the flock of God with food that is not appropriate for the time.
CTr	346	4	Talk of the speedy appearing of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Put not off that day. God has given no one light to say, "My Lord delayeth his coming." Let the inquiry be made, Shall I stand at the right hand or at the left hand of the Judge at that day? ...
CTr	346	5	It is essential that all shall know what atmosphere surrounds their own souls, whether they are in copartnership with the enemy of righteousness and unconsciously doing his work, or whether they are linked up with Christ, doing His work, and seeking to establish souls more firmly in the truth.
CTr	346	6	Satan would be pleased to have anyone and everyone become his allies to weaken the confidence believers have in one another, and to sow discord among those who profess to believe the truth. Satan can accomplish his purposes most successfully through professed friends of Christ who are not walking and working in Christ's lines. Those who in mind and heart are turning away from the Lord's special work for this time, those who do not cooperate with Him in establishing souls in the faith by leading them to heed His words of warning, are doing the work of the enemy of Christ....
CTr	346	7	This is the day of the Lord's preparation. We have no time now to talk unbelief and to gossip, no time now to do the devil's work.... So long as the people of God are in this world they will have to meet conflict and trouble and deception, because many choose the attributes of Satan instead of the attributes of God.--Manuscript 32a, 1896 (Manuscript Releases 18:58-62).
------------------------Now Is Not A Time To Compromise, December 6
CTr	347	1	The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come. Isaiah 21:12.
CTr	347	2	We are pressing on to the final conflict, and this is no time to compromise; it is no time to hide your colors. When the battle rages sore, let no one turn traitor. It is no time to lay down or conceal our weapons and give Satan the advantage in the warfare, but unless you watch and keep your garments unspotted from the world, you will not stand true to your Captain.... Call to your fellow watchmen, crying, "The morning cometh, and also the night."
CTr	347	3	It is no time now to relax our efforts, to become dull and spiritless, no time to hide our light under a bushel, to speak smooth things, to prophesy deceit. Every power is to be employed for God. You are to maintain your allegiance, bearing testimony for God and for truth. Do not be turned aside by any suggestion the world may make. We cannot afford to compromise; there is a living issue before us, of vital importance to the remnant people of God to the very close of this earth's history, for eternal interests are involved. On the very eve of the crisis, it is no time to be found with an evil heart of unbelief, departing from the living God.
CTr	347	4	The original apostasy began in disbelief and denial of the truth; but if we would triumph, we must fix the eye of faith steadfastly upon Jesus, the Captain of our salvation. We are to follow the example of Christ. In all that Jesus did on earth, He had an eye single to the glory of God.... Divinity and humanity were united in Christ, that He might reveal to us God's purpose, and bring us into close union with Himself. This union will enable us to overcome the enemy, for through faith in Christ, we shall have divine power.
CTr	347	5	Our numbers are increasing; our facilities are enlarging, and all this calls for union among the workers, and for entire consecration and real devotion to the cause of God. There is no place in the work of God for halfhearted workers, for those who are neither hot nor cold.
CTr	347	6	Watchmen on the walls of Zion are to be vigilant, and sleep not day or night. But if they have not received the message from the lips of Christ, their trumpets will give an uncertain sound. Brethren and sisters, God calls upon you, both ministers and laypersons, listen to His voice, as speaking to you through His Word. Let His truth be received into your heart, that you may be spiritualized by His living, sanctifying power. Then let the distinct message for this time be sent from watchman to watchman on the walls of Zion.--Manuscript 152, 1897.
------------------------Some Will Choose Rebellion Rather Than Obedience, December 7
CTr	348	1	And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Matthew 25:32, 33.
CTr	348	2	The world, under Satan's training, has become qualified to do the work that he has purposed--place rebellion on the judgment seat, and summon the Creator of the heavens and the earth to be judged according to human judgment. Satanic agencies confront God with the will of humankind. In the last great conflict, people will attempt to array God before their judgment seat and pronounce sentence against Him, judging His law by the standard of the world. But the supreme Ruler will judge every person according to his or her works. All heaven has been watching for this movement. Then everyone will have an opportunity to choose on whose side they will stand.
CTr	348	3	All are working out their own destiny at the present time. God brings the light of His Word before the world, but there are those who will choose rebellion rather than obedience, and this decision will be for all time. The sinner voluntarily turns from a "Thus saith the Lord" to the deceiving representations of Satan. Has not God spoken? Has He not presented before human minds the motives that are to bear upon human hearts? In their resistance, they are rebelling against the word and power and authority of God, saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us."
CTr	348	4	And you are taking sides. A reward is offered you if you are obedient--connected with God as His sons and daughters. On the other hand is presented the judgment scene. When the Son of man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, the judgment will sit, and the books will be opened, and everyone will be judged out of those things that are written in the books....
CTr	348	5	The world is to be again destroyed as by the Flood, not by water, but by fire.... Fathers and mothers must awake to their responsibilities, lest by their own course of action they encourage rebellion in their children. We feel to the depths of our being the peril that meets us in these last days. But the Lord sees, He understands all our necessities....
CTr	348	6	Left to yourselves, you will never exercise your reason correctly. But the Lord will not leave you to yourselves. He follows you by His Holy Spirit. He thrusts the subject upon you.--Manuscript 10a, 1898.
------------------------Those Who Keep God's Commandments Are His Jewels, December 8
CTr	349	1	And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Malachi 3:17.
CTr	349	2	There are only two places in the universe in which we can place our treasures--in God's storehouse or in Satan's. God's work is moving slowly for want of means. Workers are not able to enter new fields. Yet there are millions under the undisturbed domination of Satan.
CTr	349	3	Satan is busily laying his plans for the last mighty conflict, when all will take sides. After the gospel has been traveling over the world for nearly two thousand years, Satan will present to men and women the same scene that he presented to Christ. In a wonderful panorama, he will cause the kingdoms of the world in their glory to pass before them.... He will present before them entrancing views of the kingdom of God, and he claims that these are views of His kingdom. But are they? No; no.
CTr	349	4	Look, oh, look. Listen to the voices and powers that prevail in the world. The heavenly Watcher sees the earth filled with violence and crime. Is there any voice of prayer? Do you see any sign that God is recognized? ... Look, you who are hesitating between obedience and disobedience. Look in imagination at the vast multitudes worshiping at Satan's altar. Listen to the music, to the language--called higher education. But what has God written upon it? Mystery of iniquity.
CTr	349	5	The working of the power of iniquity seems to have taken the whole world captive... Enumerate the vices of men and women, if you can. But it is of no use to try to number them. Wealth is obtained by every species of robbery--not robbery of people alone but of God. People are using His means to gratify their selfishness. Everything that they can grasp is made to minister to their greed. Avarice and sensuality prevail....
CTr	349	6	But they do not see all things.... John saw this multitude. This demon worship was revealed to him, and it seemed as though the whole world was standing on the brink of perdition. But as he looked with intense interest, he beheld a company of God's commandment-keeping people. They had the sign of the living God upon their foreheads, and he exclaimed, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."--Manuscript 122, 1898.
------------------------Our Work Is To Proclaim The Three Angels' Messages, December 9
CTr	350	1	Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Isaiah 58:1.
CTr	350	2	The last great conflict will be short but terrible. Old controversies will be revived. New controversies will arise. The last warnings must be given to the world. There is a special power in the presentation of the truth at the present time, but how long will it continue? Only a little while. If ever there was a crisis, it is now.
CTr	350	3	Decided efforts should be made to bring the message for this time prominently before the people. The third angel is to go forth with great power. Let none ignore this work or treat it as of little importance. The truth is to be proclaimed to the world, that they may see the light.
CTr	350	4	This is our work. The light that we have upon the third angel's message is the true light. The mark of the beast is exactly what it has been proclaimed to be. All in regard to this matter is not yet understood, and will not be understood until the unrolling of the scroll, but a most solemn work is to be accomplished in our world. The Lord's command to His servants is "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins."
CTr	350	5	There is to be no change in the features of our work. It is to stand as clear and distinct as prophecy has made it. We are to enter into no confederacy with the world, supposing that by so doing we could accomplish more. If any stand in the way, to hinder the advancement of the work in the lines that God has appointed, they will displease God. No line of our faith that has made us what we are is to be weakened. We have the old landmarks of truth, experience, and duty; we are to stand firmly in defense of our principles, in full view of the world.
CTr	350	6	It is essential that workers be raised up to open the living oracles of God to all nations, tongues, and peoples. People of all ranks and capacities, with various gifts, are to stand in their God-given armor, to cooperate harmoniously for a common result. They are to unite in the work of bringing the truth to all nations and peoples, each worker fulfilling his or her own special appointment.
CTr	350	7	There is a wide field of action, and in their plans and devising, all need to consider the result. Everything is to move according to the divine plan. The whole body must be fitly joined together, that each member may promote the designs of Him who gave His life for the life of the world.--Manuscript 3, 1899.
------------------------"A New Heart Also Will I Give You", December 10
CTr	351	1	A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26.
CTr	351	2	The truths of the Word of God are not mere sentiments, but the utterances of the Most High. Anyone who makes these truths a part of the life becomes in every sense a new creature. The person is not given new mental powers, but the darkness, that through ignorance and sin has clouded the understanding, is removed.
CTr	351	3	The words "A new heart will I give you" mean "A new mind will I give you." This change of heart is always attended by a clear conception of Christian duty, an understanding of truth. The clearness of our view of truth will be proportionate to our understanding of the Word of God. A person who gives the Scriptures close, prayerful attention will gain clear comprehension and sound judgment, as if in turning to God he or she had reached a higher grade of intelligence....
CTr	351	4	We are dependent on the Bible for a knowledge of the early history of our world, of the creation of Adam and Eve, and of their fall. Remove the Word of God, and what can we expect other than to be left to fables and conjectures, and to that enfeebling of the intellect which is the sure result of entertaining error? We need the authentic history of the origin of the earth, of the fall of the covering cherub, and of the introduction of sin into our world. Without the Bible we should be bewildered by false theories....
CTr	351	5	Wherever Christians are they may hold communion with God. And they may enjoy the intelligence of sanctified science. Their minds may be strengthened even as Daniel's was....
CTr	351	6	The mind in which error has once taken possession can never expand freely to truth, even after investigation. The old theories will claim recognition. The understanding of things that are true and elevated and sanctifying will be confused. Superstitious ideas will enter the mind to mingle with the true, and these ideas are always debasing in their influence. Christian knowledge bears its own stamp of unmeasured superiority in all that concerns the preparation for the future, immortal life. It distinguishes the Bible reader and believer, who has been receiving the precious treasures of truth, from the skeptic and the believer in pagan philosophy....
CTr	351	7	In the cities and nations of our world, there will be found among unbelievers a remnant who will appreciate the blessed Word and who will receive the Saviour. Christ will give men and women power to become the sons and daughters of God.--Manuscript 42, 1904.
------------------------God's People Not To Be Hidden Away, December 11
CTr	352	1	Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Matthew 5:14.
CTr	352	2	Daniel was a statesman in Babylon.... By his faithful service he taught those in Babylon that his God was a living God, not an image such as they worshiped. It was God's design to show the Babylonians that there was a King above the king of Babylon--the God whom the Hebrew youth worshiped. These youth exalted God. They knew that they were to carry out the principles of truth, and therefore they refused the meat from the royal table and the wine from the royal cellar. Their abstinence from the prescribed bill of fare made a distinction in every way between their appearance and the appearance of those youth who indulged their appetite.
CTr	352	3	There were plenty to make remarks, but these youth were faithful even in little things. And in physical appearance they were far ahead of the youth who sat at the king's table. Their simple diet kept their minds clear. They were better prepared for their studies, for they never knew the oppression caused by eating luxurious food. They were better prepared physically for taxing labor, for they were never sick. With clear minds they could think and work vigorously. By obeying God, they were doing the very things that will give strength of thought and memory. God ordained Daniel and his fellows to be connected with the great men of Babylon, that these men might become acquainted with the religion of the Hebrews, and know that God reigns over all kingdoms....
CTr	352	4	In like manner the Lord means that Seventh-day Adventists shall witness for Him. They are not to be hidden away from the world. They are to be in the world, but not of the world. They are to stand distinct from the world in their manner of dealing. They are to show that they have purity of character, that the world may see that the truth, which they conscientiously believe, makes them honest in their dealings; that those with whom they are connected may see that believers of truth are sanctified through the truth, and that the truth received and obeyed makes the receivers as sons and daughters of God, children of the heavenly King, members of the royal family, faithful, true, honest, and upright, in the small as well as the great acts of life....
CTr	352	5	Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. Let us be faithful in the smallest duties, as well as the work requiring the largest sacrifice. To all who follow Daniel's example, not only professing the truth but living the truth, acting in accordance with the principles of temperance, the Lord will give encouragement similar to the encouragement He gave Daniel.--Manuscript 47, 1898.
------------------------"When Shall These Things Be?", December 12
CTr	353	1	The disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? Matthew 24:3.
CTr	353	2	Christ warned His disciples of the destruction of Jerusalem as well as of the temple. This event was foretold by Daniel. The oblations and sacrifices were no more of value, for type had reached anti-type in the one great oblation....
CTr	353	3	When Christ referred to the destruction of Jerusalem, His prophetic words reached beyond that event to the final conflagration that will take place in that day when the Lord rises out of His place to punish the world for their iniquity, when the earth shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain. This entire chapter is a warning to those who shall live in the last scenes of this earth's history.
CTr	353	4	Turning to His disciples, Christ said, "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." Many false messiahs will appear, claiming to work miracles, and declaring that the time of the deliverance of the Jewish nation has come. These will mislead many. These words were fulfilled. Between the death of Christ and the siege of Jerusalem, many false messiahs appeared. But this warning is given also to those who live in this age of the world. The same deceptions practiced prior to the destruction of Jerusalem will be practiced again. The same events that took place at the overthrow of Jerusalem will take place again....
CTr	353	5	Prior to the destruction of Jerusalem human beings wrestled for the supremacy. Emperors were murdered. Those supposed to be standing next to the throne were slain...
CTr	353	6	Through the apostles God gave the Jewish people a last opportunity to repent. He manifested Himself through His witnesses, in their arrest, in their trial, and in their imprisonment. Yet their judges pronounced on them the death sentence....
CTr	353	7	So it will be again. Seventh-day Adventists will fight the battle over the seventh-day Sabbath.... Christ told His disciples that they would be delivered up to councils, but He told them also that they were not to be anxious as to how they might vindicate the truth, for He would give them a mouth and wisdom that all their adversaries could not gainsay nor resist....
CTr	353	8	Magicians and sorcerers, claiming miraculous power, drew the people after them into the mountain solitudes. But this prophecy was spoken also for the last days. This sign is given as a sign of the Second Advent. Companies inspired by Satan will be formed to deceive and to delude.--Manuscript 78, 1897.
------------------------We Are Soldiers Of The Lord, December 13
CTr	354	1	For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18.
CTr	354	2	No one would think of entering an army in time of war, hoping to have ease and self-indulgence and a real pleasant and profitable time. They know that hardships and privations are the liabilities; and as long as the war lasts, they will have coarse food and often short rations, long weary marches by day, enduring the heat of the burning sun, camping out at night in the open air, exposed to drenching rains and chilling frosts, venturing health and life itself as they stand as targets for the enemy.
CTr	354	3	The Christian life is compared to the life of a soldier, and there can be no bribes presented of ease and self-indulgence. The idea that Christian soldiers are to be excused from the conflicts, experiencing no trials, having all temporal comforts to enjoy, and even the luxuries of life, is a farce. The Christian conflict is a battle and a march, calling for endurance. Difficult work has to be done. It often proves fatal to the Christianity of those who, with false ideas of pleasantness and ease, enlist as soldiers in Christ's army and then experience trials. God does not present the reward to those whose whole life in this world has been one of self-indulgence and pleasure....
CTr	354	4	Those who serve under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel are expected to do difficult work that will tax every power God has given them. They will have painful trials to endure for Christ's sake. They will have conflicts that rend the soul, but if they are faithful soldiers they will say with Paul, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."...
CTr	354	5	An army would be demoralized if it did not learn to obey the orders of the captain. Each soldier must act in concert. Union is strength; without union, efforts are meaningless. Whatever excellent qualities soldiers may possess, they cannot be safe, trustworthy soldiers if they claim a right to act independently of their comrades. This independent action cannot be maintained in the service of Christ....
CTr	354	6	Those who prefer to act alone are not good soldiers; they have some crookedness in their character that needs to be straightened. They may think themselves conscientious, but they do not the works of Christ. They cannot render efficient service. Their work will be of a character to draw apart when Christ's prayer was that His disciples might be one as He was one with the Father.--Letter 62, 1886.
------------------------The Seal Of God Is The Sabbath, December 14
CTr	355	1	I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Ezekiel 20:19, 20.
CTr	355	2	The Sabbath was given to all humankind to commemorate the work of creation. The great Jehovah, when He had laid the foundations of the earth, when He had dressed the whole world in its garb of beauty, and created all the wonders of the land and the sea, instituted the Sabbath day and made it holy.... God sanctified and blessed the day in which He had rested from all His wondrous work. And this Sabbath, sanctified of God, was to be kept for a perpetual covenant. It was a memorial that was to stand from age to age, till the close of earth's history....
CTr	355	3	During their stay in Egypt, Israel had so long heard and seen idolatry practiced that to a large degree they had lost their knowledge of God and of His law, and their sense of the importance and sacredness of the Sabbath. The law was given a second time to call these things to their remembrance. In God's statutes was defined practical religion for all humankind....
CTr	355	4	There are those who hold that the Sabbath was given only for the Jews; but God has never said this. He committed the Sabbath to His people Israel as a sacred trust, but the very fact that the desert of Sinai, and not Palestine, was the place selected by Him in which to proclaim His law reveals that He intended it for all humankind. The law of Ten Commandments is as old as creation. Therefore the Sabbath institution has no special relation to the Jews, any more than to all other created beings. God has made the observance of the Sabbath obligatory upon all people. "The Sabbath," it is plainly stated, "was made for man." Let everyone, therefore, who is in danger of being deceived on this point give heed to the Word of God rather than the assertions of humans....
CTr	355	5	Every person has been placed on trial, as were Adam and Eve in Eden. As the tree of knowledge was placed in the midst of the Garden of Eden, so the Sabbath command is placed in the midst of the Decalogue. In regard to the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the restriction was made, Ye shall not eat of it ... lest ye die. Of the Sabbath, God said, Ye shall not defile it, but keep it holy.... As the tree of knowledge was the test of Adam's obedience, so the fourth command is the test that God has given to prove the loyalty of all His people. The experience of Adam is to be a warning to us so long as time shall last. It warns us not to receive any assurance from the mouths of mortals or of angels that will detract one jot or tittle from the sacred law of Jehovah.--The Review and Herald, August 30, 1898.
------------------------Believer Of Present Truth Must Be Strong In The Lord, December 15
CTr	356	1	Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Ephesians 6:10.
CTr	356	2	True Christianity will always be aggressive, and wherever it exists it will arouse enmity. All who live a conscientious life, who bear testimony of the claims of God, of the evil of sin, of the judgment to come, will be called the disturbers of Israel. Those whose testimony awakens apprehension of the soul offend pride and arouse opposition. The hatred of evil against good exists as surely now as in the days of Christ when the multitudes cried, "Away with this man!" "Release unto us Barabbas." There is no kind of evil in our world but that some have an interest in maintaining it. Evil is ever warring against good. And since we know that the conflict with the prince of darkness is constant and must be severe, let us be united in the warfare. Cease to war against those of your own faith. Let no one help Satan in his work. We have all that we can do in another direction....
CTr	356	3	The first thing recorded in Scripture history after the fall was the persecution of Abel. And the last thing in Scripture prophecy is the persecution against those who refuse to receive the mark of the beast. We should be the last people on the earth to indulge in the slightest degree the spirit of persecution against those who are bearing the message of God to the world....
CTr	356	4	A passive piety will not answer for this time; let the passiveness be manifested where it is needed, in patience, kindness, and forbearance. But we must bear a decided message of warning to the world. The Prince of Peace thus proclaimed His work, "I came not to send peace [on earth], but a sword." Evil must be assailed; falsehood and error must be made to appear in their true character; sin must be denounced; and the testimony of every believer in the truth must be as one. All your little differences, which arouse the combative spirit among brethren and sisters, are devices of Satan to divert minds from the great and fearful issue before us....
CTr	356	5	Those who profess to believe the special truths for this time need to be converted and sanctified by the truth. As Christians we are made depositories of sacred truth, and we are not to keep the truth in the outer court, but bring it into the sanctuary of the soul. Then the church will possess divine vitality throughout.... One question will be all absorbing--Who shall approach nearest the likeness of Christ? Who shall do most to win souls to righteousness? When this is the ambition of believers, contention is at an end; the prayer of Christ is answered.--Letter 25b, 1892.
------------------------The Past Recorded In The Bible Is Also For Our Time, December 16
CTr	357	1	Not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. 1 Peter 1:12.
CTr	357	2	Never are we absent from the mind of God. God is our joy and our salvation. Each of the ancient prophets spoke less for their own time than for ours, so that their prophesying is in force for us. [First 1 Corinthians 10:11 and above text quoted.] The Bible has been your study book. It is well thus, for it is the true counsel of God, and it is the conductor of all the holy influences that the world has contained since its creation. We have the encouraging record that Enoch walked with God. If Enoch walked with God in that degenerate age just prior to the destruction of the world by a flood, we are to receive courage and be stimulated with his example that we need not be contaminated with the world, but amid all its corrupting influences and tendencies we may walk with God. We may have the mind of Christ.
CTr	357	3	Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was ever prophesying the coming of the Lord. This great event had been revealed to him in vision. Abel, though dead, is ever speaking of the blood of Christ, which alone can make our offerings and gifts perfect. The Bible has accumulated and bound up together its treasures for this last generation. All the great events and solemn transactions of Old Testament history have been, and are, repeating themselves in the church in these last days. There is Moses still speaking, teaching self-renunciation by wishing himself blotted from the book of life for his people so that they might be saved. David is leading the intercession of the church for the salvation of souls to the ends of the earth. The prophets are still testifying of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. There the whole accumulated truths are presented in force to us, that we may profit by their teachings. We are under the influence of the whole.
CTr	357	4	What manner of persons ought we to be to whom all this rich light of inheritance has been given? Concentrating all the influence of the past with new and increased light of the present, accrued power is given to all who will follow the light. Their faith will increase and be brought into exercise at the present time, awakening an energy and an intensely increased earnestness, and thorough dependence upon God for His power to replenish the world and send the light of the Sun of Righteousness to the ends of the earth. God has enriched the world in these last days proportionately with the increase of ungodliness if His people will only lay hold of His priceless gift and bind up their every interest with Him.--Letter 74a, 1897.
------------------------Give The Last Message Of Warning To The World, December 17
CTr	358	1	He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world ... and then shall the end come. Matthew 24:13, 14.
CTr	358	2	It is not enough in this time of test and trial to have merely an intellectual knowledge of the truth. Heart work must be done.... The Lord cannot use the worker into whose experience true conversion has not entered.... The agencies of God and satanic agencies cannot combine. While so many are saying, Who is the Lord, that I should serve Him? While there prevails a lack of faith in God, let those who represent the work of the third angel's message act like converted people.... I am hoping that we may have the satisfaction of seeing a work done that is free from selfishness and that will rapidly advance work in missionary lines....
CTr	358	3	If ever there was a time in the history of Seventh-day Adventists when they should arise and shine, it is now. No voice should be restrained from proclaiming the third angel's message. Let none, for fear of losing prestige with the world, obscure one ray of light coming from the Source of all light. It requires moral courage to do the work of God for these last days, but let us not be led by the spirit of human wisdom. The truth should be everything to us. Let those who want to make a name with the world go with the world.
CTr	358	4	The great conflict is right at hand in which all will take sides; in it the whole Christian world will be involved. Daily, hourly, we must be actuated by the principles of the Word of God. Self must be sanctified by the principles of the righteousness, the mercy, and the love of God. At every point of uncertainty, pray and earnestly inquire: Is this the way of the Lord? With your Bibles before you, consult with God as to what He would have you do. Holy principles are revealed in the Word of God. The source of all true wisdom is found in the cross of Calvary.
CTr	358	5	Everywhere we see increasing evidence that the message we have from God is to be the last message of warning to the churches of the world. Yet year after year is passing into eternity, and the churches are unwarned. I am instructed to speak to my brethren and sisters and to ask, Are we conscious of the neglect? I have been given message after message for our leaders, encouraging them to begin work in every place where the way shall open. If laborers would go forth to the work, the Lord would bless their own souls and would make their efforts fruitful. As the people hear the reasons of our faith, they will become interested and will be converted. There are many important places open to those who will work for souls.--Letter 94a, 1909.
------------------------The Path Of Obedience Is The Way To Holiness, December 18
CTr	359	1	Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. Daniel 12:10.
CTr	359	2	The world is a theater. The actors, the inhabitants of the world, are preparing to act their part in the last great drama. God is lost sight of. There is no unity of purpose, except as parties of people confederate to gain their ends. God is looking on. His purposes in regard to His rebellious subjects will be fulfilled. The world has not been given into human hands, though God is permitting the elements of confusion and disorder to bear sway for a season. A power from beneath is ... working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who are binding themselves together in secret societies. Those who are yielding to the passion for confederation are working out the plans of the enemy. The cause will be followed by the effect.
CTr	359	3	Transgression has almost reached its limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise....
CTr	359	4	The wicked have chosen Satan as their leader. Under his control, the wonderful faculties of the mind are used to construct agencies of destruction. God has given the human mind great power, power to show that the Creator has endowed human beings with ability to do a great work against the enemy of all righteousness, power to show what victories may be gained in the conflict against evil....
CTr	359	5	But when those to whom God has entrusted capabilities give themselves into the hands of the enemy, they become a power to destroy. When people do not make God first and last and best in everything, when they do not give themselves to Him for the carrying out of His purposes, Satan comes in and uses in his service the minds that, given to God, could achieve great good. Under his direction they do an evil work with great and masterly power. God designed them to work on a high plane of action, to enter into His mind, and thus acquire an education that would enable them to work the works of righteousness. But they know nothing of this education. They are helpless. Their powers do not guide them aright, for they are under the enemy's control.
CTr	359	6	The way to holiness and heaven is found in the path of obedience. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."--Letter 141, 1902.
------------------------Let Us Stand On The Side Of Christ, December 19
CTr	360	1	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:28, 29.
CTr	360	2	All who would work for the Master must submit to the yoke of Christ. This submission involves self-sacrifice and entire consecration of body, soul, and spirit. As they learn of Christ, His meekness and lowliness, they will find that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. They will not become weary in His service.... Let all ask of God, and they will receive wisdom to carry on His work under the ministration of the Holy Spirit....
CTr	360	3	Time is precious. The destiny of souls is in the balance. At infinite cost a way of salvation has been provided. Shall Christ's great sacrifice be in vain? Shall the earth be entirely controlled by satanic agencies? The salvation of souls is dependent upon the consecration and activity of God's church. The Lord calls all who believe in Him to be workers together with Him. While their life shall last, they are not to feel that their work is done. Until the time comes when Christ shall say, "It is finished," His work for the saving of souls will not decrease, but will grow in importance.
CTr	360	4	The mercy of God is shown by His long forbearance. He is holding back His judgments, waiting for the message of warning to be sounded to all. There are many who have not yet heard the testing truths for this time. The last call of mercy is to be given more fully to our world....
CTr	360	5	The terrible condition of the world today would indicate that apparently the death of Christ has been almost in vain, that Satan has triumphed. The great majority of the earth's inhabitants belong to Satan's kingdom.... Christ has not yet set up His kingdom. "We see not yet all things put under him."
CTr	360	6	But we have not been deceived. Notwithstanding the apparent triumph of Satan on the earth, Christ is carrying forward His mediatorial work in the heavenly sanctuary.... As we see the fulfillment of prophecy, our faith in the final triumph of Christ's kingdom should be increased. We should go forth with courage to do our appointed work.
CTr	360	7	By the fragrance of our speech and the nobility of our characters, let us make it clear that in the great conflict between good and evil we are on the side of Christ. Let us express our faith in the triumph of the cross of Calvary. Let all our people decide that in their life truth and righteousness shall be magnified.--Manuscript 57, 1903.
------------------------We Are Laborers Together With God, December 20
CTr	361	1	For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
CTr	361	2	There never will be a time in the history of the church when God's workers can fold their hands and be at ease, saying, "All is peace and safety." Then it is that sudden destruction cometh. Everything may move forward amid apparent prosperity; but Satan is wide awake and is studying and counseling with his evil angels another mode of attack where he can be successful. The contest will wax more and more fierce on the part of Satan, for he is moved by a power from beneath.
CTr	361	3	As the work of God's people moves forward with sanctified, resistless energy, planting the standard of Christ's righteousness in the church, moved by a power from the throne of God, the great controversy will wax stronger and stronger, and will become more and more determined. Mind will be arrayed against mind, plans against plans, principles of heavenly origin against principles of Satan. Truth in its varied phases will be in conflict with error in its ever-varying, increasing forms, and which, if possible, will deceive the very elect....
CTr	361	4	There is danger now of our losing sight of the important truths applicable for this period of time, and seeking for those things that are new and strange and entrancing. Many, if reproved by the Spirit of God through His appointed agencies, refuse to receive correction, and a root of bitterness is planted in their hearts against the Lord's servants who carry heavy, disagreeable burdens.... They have not the moral courage to do the things that it is for their special benefit to do. They see no necessity for reform, and so they reject the words of the Lord and hate Him who reproveth at the gate. This very refusal to heed the admonitions that the Lord sends gives Satan every advantage to make them the bitterest enemies of those who have told them the truth.--Manuscript 92, 1897 (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 406-408).
CTr	361	5	Our work must be an earnest one. We are not to fight as those who beat the air. The ministry, the pulpit, and the press demand people like Caleb, who will do and dare, people whose eyes are single to detect the truth from error, whose ears are consecrated to catch the words from the faithful Watcher. And the Spirit from the throne of God will make itself felt upon a degenerate Christianity, a corrupt world, ready to be consumed by the long-deferred judgments of an offended God.--Manuscript 92, 1897 (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 407).
------------------------There Will Never Be A Time To Change Our Message, December 21
CTr	362	1	In vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines. Matthew 15:9, NRSV.
CTr	362	2	My soul is much burdened, for I know what is before us. Every conceivable deception will be brought to bear upon those who have not a daily, living connection with God. Satan's angels are wise to do evil, and they will create that which some will claim to be advanced light and will proclaim it as new and wonderful; yet while in some respects the message may be truth, it will be mingled with human inventions and will teach for doctrine the commandments of men.... Many apparently good things will need to be carefully considered with much prayer, for they are specious devices of the enemy to lead souls in a path that lies so close to the path of truth that it will be scarcely distinguishable from it....
CTr	362	3	A new order of things has come into the ministry. There is a desire to pattern after other churches, and simplicity and humility are almost unknown. The young ministers seek to be original, and to introduce new ideas and new plans for labor. Some open revival meetings, and by this means call large numbers into the church. But when the excitement is over, where are the converted ones? Repentance and confession of sin are not seen. The sinner is entreated to believe in Christ and accept Him, without regard to one's past life of sin and rebellion. The heart is not broken. There is no contrition of soul. The supposed converted ones have not fallen upon the Rock, Christ Jesus....
CTr	362	4	The Lord desires His servants today to preach the old gospel doctrine, sorrow for sin, repentance, and confession.... Sinners must be labored for, perseveringly, earnestly, wisely, until they shall see that they are transgressors of God's law, and shall exercise repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ....
CTr	362	5	Workers should not feel that it is a virtue to stand apart because they do not see all minor points in exactly the same light. If they agree on fundamental truths, they should not differ and dispute about matters of little real importance. To dwell on perplexing questions, that after all are of no vital consequence, tends to call the mind away from truths vital to the saving of the soul....
CTr	362	6	Unbelievers are critical, and they seek to frame some excuse for not receiving the truth as it is in Jesus. Where these differences exist among us, those who stand outside will say, "It will be time enough for us to believe as you do when you can agree among yourselves as to what constitutes truth." Thus the ungodly take advantage of the divisions and controversies among Christians.--Manuscript 82, 1894 (The Review and Herald, November 4, 1965).
------------------------Take Care In Receiving "New Light", December 22
CTr	363	1	We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:16.
CTr	363	2	We are to pray for divine enlightenment, and at the same time we should be careful about receiving everything termed new light.... I have been shown that it is the device of the enemy to divert minds to some obscure or unimportant point, something that is not fully revealed or is not essential to salvation....
CTr	363	3	We must let the principles of the third angel's message stand out clear and distinct. The great pillars of our faith will hold all the weight that can be placed upon them.--Manuscript 82, 1894 (The Review and Herald, November 4, 1965).
CTr	363	4	Our ministers must cease to dwell upon their peculiar ideas, with the feeling, "You must see the point as I do, or you cannot be saved." Away with this egotism! The great work to be done in every case is to win souls to Christ....
CTr	363	5	There is a time of trouble coming to the people of God, but we are not to keep that constantly before the people, and rein them up to have a time of trouble beforehand. There is to be a shaking among God's people; but this is not the present truth to carry to the churches; it will be the result of refusing the truth presented.
CTr	363	6	The ministers should not feel that they have some wonderful advanced ideas, and unless all receive these, they will be shaken out, and a people will arise to go forward and upward to the victory. Satan's object is accomplished just as surely when people run ahead of Christ and do the work He has never entrusted to their hands, as when they remain in the Laodicean state, lukewarm, feeling rich and increased with goods, and in need of nothing. The two classes are equally stumbling blocks.
CTr	363	7	Some zealous ones who are aiming and straining every energy for originality have made a grave mistake in trying to get something startling, wonderful, entrancing, before the people, something that they think others do not comprehend. But often they do not themselves know what they are talking about....
CTr	363	8	Some are naturally combative.... They would like to enter into controversy, would like to fight for their particular ideas; but they should lay this aside, for it is not developing the Christian graces. Work with all your power to answer the prayer of Christ, that His disciples may be one as He is one with the Father.--Ibid. (The Review and Herald, November 11, 1965).
------------------------Not Only Believe, But Do The Will Of The Father, December 23
CTr	364	1	Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Matthew 7:21, NRSV.
CTr	364	2	Holiness means perfect obedience to God's law--"Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not." Those who pay no heed to this law, except to tear it down by their unsanctified actions, are in rebellion against God and cannot possibly be holy....
CTr	364	3	Are those who so boldly claim to be sanctified doing the works of Christ? Are they holding up before the people the law of God given on Mount Sinai? They declare that they have with them the power of God, but the Scriptures declare: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20)....
CTr	364	4	Another doctrine that will be presented is that all we have to do is to believe in Christ--to believe that He has forgiven our sins, and that after we are forgiven, it is impossible for us to sin. This is a snare of Satan. It is true that we must believe in Christ. He is our only hope of salvation. But it also is true that we must work out our individual salvation daily in faith, not boastingly, but with fear and trembling. We are to use every power of our being in His service, and after we have done our utmost, we are still to regard ourselves as unprofitable servants. Divine power will unite with our efforts, and as we cling to God with the hand of faith, Christ will impart to us His wisdom and His righteousness. Thus, by His grace we shall be enabled to build upon the sure foundation.
CTr	364	5	It is not the purpose of God that we should be dwarfs in the religious life. He desires us to be constantly growing in grace and the knowledge of the truth. He wants us to be able to do better work for Him today than we did yesterday. He has for us a heaven full of blessings, and He wants us to claim these blessings, and ... glorify God as His obedient disciples.
CTr	364	6	As we follow on step by step to know the Lord, we need not expect that the way will be free from hindrances. Just as surely as we strive to serve the Lord, so surely will Satan put forth every effort in his power to accomplish our ruin. But help has been laid upon One that is mighty, and to every struggling child of His who asks Him for grace, believing, He comes with the needed aid. We have an all-powerful Saviour who was victorious in His assumed humanity, and we are to press forward in the work of overcoming in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. In His strength, which we claim by faith, we are gaining the victory over sin.--Manuscript 27, 1886.
------------------------The Holy Spirit Helps Discern Truth From Error, December 24
CTr	365	1	For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. 1 Thessalonians 1:5.
CTr	365	2	It is the truth as it is in Jesus that quickens the conscience and transforms the mind, for it is accompanied to the heart by the Holy Spirit. Without the enlightenment of the Spirit of God, we shall not be able to discern truth from error, and shall fall under the masterful temptations and deceptions that Satan will bring upon the world. We are near the close of the controversy between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness, and soon the delusions of the enemy will try our faith, of what sort it is....
CTr	365	3	But though the prince of darkness will work to cover the earth with darkness, and with gross darkness the people, the Lord will manifest His converting power. A work is to be accomplished in the earth similar to that which took place at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the days of the early disciples, when they preached Jesus and Him crucified. Many will be converted in a day, for the message will go with power. It can then be said: "Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost."...
CTr	365	4	The work of the Holy Spirit is immeasurably great. It is from this source that power and efficiency come to the worker for God; and the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, as the personal presence of Christ to the soul. Any person who looks to Christ in simple, childlike faith is made a partaker of the divine nature through the agency of the Holy Spirit. When led by the Spirit of God, Christians may know that they are made complete in Him who is the head of all things. As Christ was glorified on the day of Pentecost, so will He again be glorified in the closing work of the gospel, when He shall prepare a people to stand the final test in the closing conflict of the great controversy....
CTr	365	5	The people of God are to be called out from their association with worldlings and evildoers to stand in the battle for the Lord against the powers of darkness. When the earth is lightened with the glory of God, we shall see a work similar to that which was wrought when the disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed the power of a risen Saviour. [After] the light of heaven penetrated the darkened minds of those who had been deceived by the enemies of Christ, the false representation of Him was rejected, for through the efficiency of the Holy Spirit they now saw Him exalted to be a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins.--Manuscript 143, 1901.
------------------------The Death Decree Against God's People, December 25
CTr	366	1	And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day. Esther 3:13.
CTr	366	2	Satan will excite the indignation of apostate Christendom against the humble remnant who conscientiously refuse to accept false customs and traditions.... The church and the world will unite, and the world will lend to the church power to crush out the right of the people to worship according to His Word.
CTr	366	3	The decree that is to go forth against the people of God in the near future is in some respects similar to that issued by Ahasuerus against the Jews in the time of Esther. The Persian edict sprang from the malice of Haman toward Mordecai.... The king's decision against the Jews was secured under false pretenses, through a misrepresentation of that peculiar people. Satan instigated this scheme in order to rid the earth of those who preserved the knowledge of the true God....
CTr	366	4	History repeats itself. The same masterful mind that plotted against the faithful in ages past is now at work to gain control of the fallen churches, that through them he may condemn and put to death all who will not worship the idol sabbath. We have not to battle with mortals, as it may appear. We war not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places. But if the people of God will put their trust in Him and by faith rely upon His power, the devices of Satan will be defeated in our time as signally as in the days of Mordecai.
CTr	366	5	The decree is to go forth that all who will not receive the mark of the beast shall neither buy nor sell and, finally, that they shall be put to death. But the saints of God do not receive this mark. The prophet of Patmos beheld those who had gotten the victory over the beast and over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb....
CTr	366	6	Paul writes to the Romans, "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." But there is a point beyond which it is impossible to maintain union and harmony without the sacrifice of principle. Separation then becomes an absolute duty. The laws of nations should be respected when they do not conflict with the laws of God. But when there is collision between them, every true disciple of Christ will say, as did the apostle Peter when commanded to speak no more in the name of Jesus, "We ought to obey God rather than men."--Manuscript 51, 1899 (see also The Signs of the Times, November 8, 1899).
------------------------All Revelation In Scripture Comes From Jesus Christ, December 26
CTr	367	1	No prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. 2 Peter 1:20, 21, NRSV.
CTr	367	2	The whole Bible is a revelation, for all revelation to human beings comes through Christ and all centers in Him. God has spoken unto us by His Son, whose we are by creation and by redemption. Christ came to John, exiled on the isle of Patmos, to give him the truth for these last days, to show him that which must shortly come to pass. Jesus Christ is the great trustee of divine revelation. It is through Him that we have a knowledge of what we are to look for in the closing scenes of this earth's history....
CTr	367	3	John, the beloved disciple, was the one chosen to receive this revelation. He was the last survivor of the first chosen disciples. Under the New Testament dispensation he was honored as the prophet Daniel was honored under the Old Testament dispensation.
CTr	367	4	The instruction to be communicated to John was so important that Christ came from heaven to give it to His servant, telling him to send it to the churches. This instruction is to be the object of our careful and prayerful study, for we are living in a time when persons who are not under the teaching of the Holy Spirit will bring in false theories....
CTr	367	5	After the passing of the time [1844], God entrusted to His faithful followers the precious principles of present truth.... Those who passed through these experiences are to be as firm as a rock to the principles that have made us Seventh-day Adventists.... Those who took part in the establishment of our work upon a foundation of Bible truth, those who know the way marks that have pointed out the right path, are to be regarded as workers of the highest value. They can speak from personal experience regarding the truths entrusted to them. These workers are not to permit their faith to be changed to infidelity; they are not to permit the banner of the third angel to be taken from their hands. They are to hold the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end.
CTr	367	6	The Lord has declared that the history of the past shall be rehearsed as we enter upon the closing work. Every truth that He has given for these last days is to be proclaimed to the world. Every pillar that He has established is to be strengthened. We cannot now step off the foundation that God has established. We cannot now enter into any new organization, for this would mean apostasy from the truth.--Manuscript 129, 1905.
------------------------Angels To Answer Prayers Of Unselfish Workers, December 27
CTr	368	1	The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just. Isaiah 26:7.
CTr	368	2	We have before us in the Word of God instances of heavenly agencies working on the minds of kings and rulers, while at the same time satanic agencies were also at work on their minds. No human eloquence, in strongly set forth human opinions, can change the working of satanic agencies. Satan seeks continually to block the way, so that the truth shall be bound about by human devising, and those who have light and knowledge are in the greatest danger unless they constantly consecrate themselves to God, humiliating self, and realizing the peril of the times.
CTr	368	3	Heavenly beings are appointed to answer the prayers of those who are working unselfishly for the interests of the cause of God. The very highest angels in the heavenly courts are appointed to work out the prayers that ascend to God for the advancement of the cause of God. Each angel has a particular post of duty, and is not permitted to leave for any other place. If an angel should leave, the powers of darkness would gain an advantage....
CTr	368	4	Day by day the conflict between good and evil is going on.... As a people we do not understand as we should the great conflict going on between invisible agencies, the controversy between loyal and disloyal angels. Evil angels are constantly at work, planning their line of attack, controlling as commanders, kings, and rulers, the disloyal human forces.
CTr	368	5	I call upon you who are not ready for the last great controversy to wake up. You are not watching for that which is soon coming upon the earth. Human instrumentalities under the control of fallen angels are seeking to gather in their harvest. Those who would find themselves under the protection of the angels of God must live wholly for God's glory, prepared to stand in their lot and in their place....
CTr	368	6	Over every person good and evil angels strive. It is the person himself who determines which shall win. I call upon the ministers of Christ to press home upon the understanding of all who come within the reach of their voice the truth of the ministration of angels. Do not indulge in fanciful speculations. The written Word is our only safety. We must pray as did Daniel, that we may be guarded by heavenly intelligences. As ministering spirits, angels are sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. Pray ... pray as you have never prayed before. We are not prepared for the Lord's coming. We need to make thorough work for eternity.--Letter 201, 1899.
------------------------Christ Is Knocking At Your Heart's Door; Let Him In, December 28
CTr	369	1	For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, ... to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Hebrews 2:10.
CTr	369	2	Among the people of God there is to be no dissension, no controversy, no warfare against one another. The forces of righteousness are to be a unit in their conflict with evil. All the strength of God's people is to be directed against the forces of the enemy. The will of every child of God is to be placed on the side of God's will. Satan's strong efforts against good, and the terrible hatred of his agencies against God's agencies, show the need of union and harmony among the forces of righteousness.
CTr	369	3	A terrible contest is before us. We are nearing the battle of the great day of God Almighty. That which has been held in control is to be let loose. The angel of mercy is folding its wings, preparing to step down from the golden throne and leave the world to the control of Satan, the king they have chosen, a murderer and a destroyer from the beginning.
CTr	369	4	The principalities and powers of earth are in bitter revolt against the God of heaven. They are filled with hatred against all who serve Him, and soon, very soon, is to be fought the last great battle between good and evil. The earth is to be the battlefield--the scene of the final contest and the final victory. Here, where for so long Satan has led people against God, rebellion is to be forever suppressed.
CTr	369	5	Christ came to this earth in human form that He might stand as the Captain of our salvation, so that we should not be overcome by Satan's power. And when the enemy has seemed to be gaining a signal victory over righteousness, God has been working in mercy and power to counteract his designs....
CTr	369	6	God's people are to bear a bold, decided testimony for the truth, unfolding the purposes of God by the witness of pen and voice.... When we consecrate ourselves to Christ, He speaks to the heart, filling it with His Spirit. We have no time to wrestle and contend among ourselves, no time to work on suppositions or cherish prejudices. It is too late for this ... for Christ is at the door.
CTr	369	7	There is a reality in sound doctrine. It is not a vapor that passes away. Light is to shine forth from the Word of God. God calls upon His people to draw near to Him. Let no one interpose between Him and His people. Christ is knocking at the door of the heart, seeking for entrance. Will you let Him in?--Letter 153, 1901.
------------------------We Are On The Borders Of The Promised Land, December 29
CTr	370	1	And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. Numbers 13:32.
CTr	370	2	The time when the work goes hardest is the very time to test the spiritual strength and the wisdom of every worker.... When difficulties arise in any branch of the cause--as they surely will, for the church militant is not the church triumphant--all heaven is watching to see what will be the course of those who are entrusted with sacred responsibilities. Some will stumble, some will give heed to seducing spirits; some will choose darkness rather than light because they are not true to God. Like their Master, those who are abiding in Christ will not fall nor be discouraged....
CTr	370	3	Now when we are just on the borders of the Promised Land, let none repeat the sin of the unfaithful spies. They acknowledged that the land they went up to see was a good land, but they declared that the inhabitants were strong, the giants were there, and that they themselves were in comparison as grasshoppers in the sight of the people and in their own sight. All the difficulties were magnified into insurmountable obstacles. They made it appear as folly and presumption to think of going up to possess the land.... But Caleb stilled them before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it."
CTr	370	4	This was the language of faith; but the spies who had spoken discouragingly were not to be baffled in their attempts to prevent the people from going forward in doing the word of the Lord.... They exaggerated the difficulties until all the congregation was crazed with discouragement and fear....
CTr	370	5	Amid all the lamentations and bitterness of feeling, Caleb and Joshua spoke to the congregation, "The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land." But the people wished to believe the worst, and while the ringing voice of Caleb was heard above the tumult, they stood with stones in their hands to batter down the men who bore the right testimony....
CTr	370	6	While the people were cherishing doubts, and believing the unfaithful spies, the golden opportunity for Israel passed by.... Shall it be, in these last days just before we enter into the heavenly Canaan, that God's people shall indulge the spirit that was revealed by ancient Israel? People full of doubts and criticisms and complaints can sow seeds of unbelief and distrust that will yield an abundant harvest. The history of Israel was written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.--Manuscript 6, 1892.
------------------------Baptism Of The Holy Ghost Leads To True Religion, December 30
CTr	371	1	But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26.
CTr	371	2	What promise did our Lord Jesus Christ make to His disciples to furnish them with consolation in view of His departure from them? It was the promise of the Holy Spirit of God. The divine influence of the Holy Spirit was to cooperate with the human mind and bring to their remembrance whatsoever Christ had spoken unto them. The great need of this time of peril is the Holy Spirit, for it will bring to the receiver all other blessings in its train. The truth believed will transform the character.
CTr	371	3	In the light of the truth that is shining in our day, we are reproved for the dearth of the Holy Spirit.... As long as individuals are content with a mere theory of truth, and are yet lacking in the daily operation of the Spirit of God upon the heart, which is manifested in outward transformation of character, they are cutting themselves off from the qualification that would fit them for greater efficiency in the Master's work....
CTr	371	4	The baptism of the Holy Ghost as on the day of Pentecost will lead to a revival of true religion, and to the performance of many wonderful works. Heavenly intelligences will come among us, and men and women will speak as they are moved upon by the Holy Spirit of God. But should the Lord work upon people as He did on and after the day of Pentecost, many who now claim to believe the truth would know so very little of the operation of the Holy Spirit that they would cry, "Beware of fanaticism." They would say of those who were filled with the Spirit, "They are filled with new wine" [Acts 2:13, NRSV]....
CTr	371	5	When souls long after Christ, and seek to become one with Him, then those who are content with the form of godliness exclaim, "Be careful; do not go to extremes."
CTr	371	6	When angels of heaven come among us and work through human agents, there will be solid, substantial conversions, after the order of the conversions of the day of Pentecost. Now ... be careful and do not go into human excitement. But while we should be careful not to go into human excitement, we should not be among those who will raise inquiries and cherish doubts in reference to the work of the Spirit of God, for there will be those who will question and criticize when the Spirit of God takes possession of men and women, because their own hearts are not moved, but are cold and unimpressible.--Letter 27, 1894.
------------------------The Controversy Between Christ And Satan Is Ended, December 31
CTr	372	1	And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4.
CTr	372	2	The wicked receive their recompense in the earth. They "shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts." ... The sins of the righteous having been transferred to Satan, he is made to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all the sins that he has caused God's people to commit....
CTr	372	3	Satan's work of ruin is forever ended.... While God is to the wicked a consuming fire, He is to His people both a sun and a shield.... The fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away. No eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful consequences of sin.
CTr	372	4	One reminder alone remains: Our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought....
CTr	372	5	In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called "a country."... The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord....
CTr	372	6	In the City of God "there shall be no night." None will need or desire repose. There will be no weariness in doing the will of God and offering praise to His name. We shall ever feel the freshness of the morning and shall ever be far from its close.... All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar--worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of human woe and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul....
CTr	372	7	The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all flow life and light and gladness throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.--The Great Controversy, 673-678.

------------------------From the Heart
FH	13	1	The Old Year and the New, January 1
FH	14	1	Watch and Pray, January 2
FH	15	1	Understanding for All, January 3
FH	16	1	Fervent Prayer, January 4
FH	17	1	The Importance of Prayer, January 5
FH	18	1	Prayer Lessons From Elijah, January 6
FH	19	1	The Model Prayer, January 7
FH	20	1	Prevailing Prayer, January 8
FH	21	1	Rooted and Grounded in Christ, January 9
FH	22	1	Striking Examples of Prayer, January 10
FH	23	1	Prayers of Form and Prayers of Faith, January 11
FH	24	1	Bible Religion Is Practical, January 12
FH	25	1	Be Conformed to the Word, January 13
FH	26	1	God Hears Prayers, January 14
FH	27	1	Pray Without Ceasing, January 15
FH	28	1	The Power of Prayer, January 16
FH	29	1	God Speaks to Us, January 17
FH	30	1	Bible Study Strengthens Intellect, January 18
FH	31	1	Personal Study Is Essential, January 19
FH	32	1	Jesus Reveals the Father, January 20
FH	33	1	A Steward's Duty, January 21
FH	34	1	Lay Up Treasure in Heaven, January 22
FH	35	1	A New Mind Will I Give You, January 23
FH	36	1	A Time for Prevailing Prayer, January 24
FH	37	1	God's Word Our Light, January 25
FH	38	1	The Word in Human Form, January 26
FH	39	1	What the Word Is to Us, January 27
FH	40	1	In My Name, January 28
FH	41	1	God Will Not Turn Away From You, January 29
FH	42	1	Cheerful Giving, January 30
FH	43	1	The Prophetic Messenger Prays, January 31
FH	44	1	Holiness in the Lord, February 1
FH	45	1	What Do We Sacrifice for Heaven? February 2
FH	46	1	Grow in Grace, February 3
FH	47	1	Counterfeit Sanctification, February 4
FH	48	1	Winning Back the Erring, February 5
FH	49	1	The Secret of Spiritual Life, February 6
FH	50	1	A Living Church, February 7
FH	51	1	The Christian Race, February 8
FH	52	1	Faith Is the Victory, February 9
FH	53	1	Giving, a Habit Born of Love, February 10
FH	54	1	The Christian's Rest, February 11
FH	55	1	Developing a Godlike Character, February 12
FH	56	1	Led by the Spirit, February 13
FH	57	1	Adding and Multiplying, February 14
FH	58	1	United With Our Maker, February 15
FH	59	1	Heavenly Attributes, February 16
FH	60	1	God's Blessings and Our Responsibility, February 17
FH	61	1	Let Your Light Shine, February 18
FH	62	1	Our Need of the Holy Spirit, February 19
FH	63	1	Dare to Be a Daniel, February 20
FH	64	1	Becoming a Child of God, February 21
FH	65	1	Godliness With Contentment, February 22
FH	66	1	What Is Faith? February 23
FH	67	1	The Only Treasure, February 24
FH	68	1	God's Way, Not My Way, February 25
FH	69	1	Unquestioning Faith, February 26
FH	70	1	The Power of Song, February 27
FH	71	1	Truth Conquers Evil, February 28
FH	72	1	Sacrifice for the Cause of God, March 1
FH	73	1	God Uses Us to Help Others, March 2
FH	74	1	Deceitfulness of Riches, March 3
FH	75	1	Give to God What Is His, March 4
FH	76	1	Liberality and Love for God's Work, March 5
FH	77	1	The Joy of Advancing God's Work, March 6
FH	78	1	What God Values, March 7
FH	79	1	Trust the Word, Not Feelings, March 8
FH	80	1	The Word Became Flesh, March 9
FH	81	1	What Are We Reading? March 10
FH	82	1	True and False Sanctification, March 11
FH	83	1	The Royal Family, March 12
FH	84	1	Choose You This Day, March 13
FH	85	1	The Example of Liberality, March 14
FH	86	1	In Christ's Steps, March 15
FH	87	1	God Needs Our Talents, March 16
FH	88	1	Receiving to Give, March 17
FH	89	1	First Things First, March 18
FH	90	1	Christian Temperance, March 19
FH	91	1	God's Innumerable Bounties, March 20
FH	92	1	Jesus' Love Seen in the Clouds, March 21
FH	93	1	God Revealed in Nature and Jesus, March 22
FH	94	1	Hidden Treasure, March 23
FH	95	1	Christ Connects Heaven to Earth, March 24
FH	96	1	God and Mammon, March 25
FH	97	1	What Must I Do to Be Saved? March 26
FH	98	1	Gathering or Scattering, March 27
FH	99	1	Asking to Give, March 28
FH	100	1	For the Mission Fields, March 29
FH	101	1	Privilege of Giving, March 30
FH	102	1	They Shall See His Face, March 31
FH	103	1	The Great Supper, April 1
FH	104	1	Two Sons, April 2
FH	105	1	The Barren Fig Tree, April 3
FH	106	1	I Have Many Things to Say Unto You, April 4
FH	107	1	Wayside Hearers, April 5
FH	108	1	Stony-ground Hearers, April 6
FH	109	1	Thorny-ground Hearers, April 7
FH	110	1	Good-ground Hearers, April 8
FH	111	1	Opposition May Benefit Us, April 9
FH	112	1	The Rich Man, April 10
FH	113	1	The Laborers, April 11
FH	114	1	A Teacher of Righteousness, April 12
FH	115	1	Have You Oil in Your Lamps? April 13
FH	116	1	The Unfaithful Servant, April 14
FH	117	1	What Can Be, April 15
FH	118	1	Captivating Words, April 16
FH	119	1	The Vine and the Branches, April 17
FH	120	1	The Pearl of Great Price, April 18
FH	121	1	How Often Shall I Forgive? April 19
FH	122	1	The Marriage of the King's Son, April 20
FH	123	1	The Wedding Garment, April 21
FH	124	1	The Lord's Vineyard, April 22
FH	125	1	How Jesus Taught Truth, April 23
FH	126	1	The Lost Sheep, April 24
FH	127	1	The Prodigal Son, April 25
FH	128	1	The Older Brother, April 26
FH	129	1	The Good Samaritan, Part I, April 27
FH	130	1	The Good Samaritan, Part 2, April 28
FH	131	1	The Unjust Judge, April 29
FH	132	1	The Pharisee and the Publican, April 30
FH	133	1	Compare the Sinner and the Righteous, May 1
FH	134	1	What Does the Christian Gain? May 2
FH	135	1	The Blessings of Benevolence, May 3
FH	136	1	Does God Ask Too Much? , May 4
FH	137	1	True Christians Are Happy, May 5
FH	138	1	The Laodicean Church, May 6
FH	139	1	The Creation, May 7
FH	140	1	The Chance to Choose, May 8
FH	141	1	The Fall, May 9
FH	142	1	A Redeemer Is Promised, May 10
FH	143	1	God's Mirror, May 11
FH	144	1	Praise God! May 12
FH	145	1	A New Song, May 13
FH	146	1	A Short Time, May 14
FH	147	1	Come and Be Separate, May 15
FH	148	1	One Day at a Time, May 16
FH	149	1	Come Out From Among Them, May 17
FH	150	1	The Two Ways, May 18
FH	151	1	The Light of the World, May 19
FH	152	1	True Temperance Is Well-balanced Living, May 20
FH	153	1	Work Is a Blessing, May 21
FH	154	1	The Eye of the Lord Is Upon You, May 22
FH	155	1	Science and Revelation, May 23
FH	156	1	Cheerful Service, May 24
FH	157	1	Put God First, May 25
FH	158	1	A Living Church, May 26
FH	159	1	Rest in Christ, May 27
FH	160	1	Ordained to Bring Forth Fruit, May 28
FH	161	1	Be Separate From the World, May 29
FH	162	1	The Blood on the Doorpost, May 30
FH	163	1	There Is Work for Everyone, May 31
FH	164	1	Jesus Is God, June 1
FH	165	1	Enmity, God's Gift, June 2
FH	166	1	Experiencing Forgiveness, June 3
FH	167	1	Strong in Christ, June 4
FH	168	1	Sweet Thoughts, June 5
FH	169	1	Today's Assignment, June 6
FH	170	1	Slow to Learn, June 7
FH	171	1	The Great Source of Truth, June 8
FH	172	1	Cleansing the Temple, June 9
FH	173	1	Jesus Loves You, June 10
FH	174	1	Jesus, the Fulfillment of Prophecy, June 11
FH	175	1	The Uplifted Savior, June 12
FH	176	1	The Ordinances, June 13
FH	177	1	Principles in Business, June 14
FH	178	1	A Teacher Sent From God, June 15
FH	179	1	Beholding Christ, June 16
FH	180	1	The Only Source of Truth, June 17
FH	181	1	Secure in Jesus' Hands, June 18
FH	182	1	Jesus' Convincing Power, June 19
FH	183	1	As a Root Out of Dry Ground, June 20
FH	184	1	True Riches, June 21
FH	185	1	Will a Man Rob God? June 22
FH	186	1	Remedy for Soul Poverty, June 23
FH	187	1	Ministry of Comfort, June 24
FH	188	1	Meekness, a Fruit of the Spirit, June 25
FH	189	1	Hungering for Righteousness, June 26
FH	190	1	The Fruits of Mercy, June 27
FH	191	1	A Friend to the Pure in Heart, June 28
FH	192	1	Harmony, June 29
FH	193	1	Seek Peace, June 30
FH	194	1	Salvation Promised, July 1
FH	195	1	Cain and Abel Tested, July 2
FH	196	1	The Anger of Cain, July 3
FH	197	1	A More Excellent Sacrifice, July 4
FH	198	1	The First Promise of the Gospel, July 5
FH	199	1	Enoch, July 6
FH	200	1	Enoch and the Spirit of Prophecy, July 7
FH	201	1	Modern-day Enochs, July 8
FH	202	1	The Promise to Israel, July 9
FH	203	1	The Faith of Abraham, Part 1, July 10
FH	204	1	The Faith of Abraham, Part 2, July 11
FH	205	1	Heaven's Ladder, July 12
FH	206	1	The Lord Is in This Place, July 13
FH	207	1	An Example of Forgiveness, July 14
FH	208	1	Joseph, a Type of Christ, July 15
FH	209	1	Forty Years of Retraining, July 16
FH	210	1	The Unlearning Experience, July 17
FH	211	1	The Call of Moses, July 18
FH	212	1	Double Bondage, July 19
FH	213	1	God Will Surely Visit You, July 20
FH	214	1	God's Superior Power, July 21
FH	215	1	Let the Plagues Begin, July 22
FH	216	1	Now Lice and Flies, July 23
FH	217	1	Then Pestilence, Boils, and Hail, July 24
FH	218	1	A False Confession and Promise, July 25
FH	219	1	Locusts, July 26
FH	220	1	Darkness Over the Land, July 27
FH	221	1	Death of the Firstborn, July 28
FH	222	1	The Passover, July 29
FH	223	1	Christ, the Passover Lamb, July 30
FH	224	1	The Repairer of the Breach, July 31
FH	225	1	God Fulfilled His Promises, August 1
FH	226	1	One Equal With God, August 2
FH	227	1	An Unprepared People, August 3
FH	228	1	The Joyful News, August 4
FH	229	1	Where His Voice Was Heard, August 5
FH	230	1	Christ as a Child, August 6
FH	231	1	The Father's Business, August 7
FH	232	1	An Example of Love, August 8
FH	233	1	The Youthful Jesus, August 9
FH	234	1	A Model for the Young, August 10
FH	235	1	Living the Truth, August 11
FH	236	1	Scripture Was Jesus' Guide, August 12
FH	237	1	Jesus Was From Nazareth, August 13
FH	238	1	By Words and by Example, August 14
FH	239	1	Overcoming As Christ Overcame, August 15
FH	240	1	Christ, the Way to Victory, August 16
FH	241	1	Rejected, August 17
FH	242	1	Revealing the Father, August 18
FH	243	1	Blinded by Prejudice, August 19
FH	244	1	Act When Opportunity Knocks, August 20
FH	245	1	Abundant Evidence for Faith, August 21
FH	246	1	The Blind Man Healed, August 22
FH	247	1	The Water of Life, August 23
FH	248	1	Quenching the Soul's Thirst, August 24
FH	249	1	Feeding the 5,000, August 25
FH	250	1	Receive to Give, August 26
FH	251	1	The Joy of Christ's Fellowship in Heaven, August 27
FH	252	1	Coworkers With Christ, August 28
FH	253	1	Gethsemane, August 29
FH	254	1	Calvary, August 30
FH	255	1	A Job Well Done, August 31
FH	256	1	Representative Men and Women, September 1
FH	257	1	The Wise Men, September 2
FH	258	1	Nicodemus, September 3
FH	259	1	Full Surrender, September 4
FH	260	1	The Call of Elisha, September 5
FH	261	1	Answering God's Call, September 6
FH	262	1	Never Look Back, September 7
FH	263	1	Timothy, September 8
FH	264	1	Joseph, God's Unwavering Witness, September 9
FH	265	1	Victorious Over Temptation, September 10
FH	266	1	Interpreter of Dreams, September 11
FH	267	1	The Call of Gideon, September 12
FH	268	1	Growing Confidence, September 13
FH	269	1	Righteousness Gains the Victory, September 14
FH	270	1	The Need for More Trust, September 15
FH	271	1	Qualifications of the Chosen, September 16
FH	272	1	Eavesdropping, September 17
FH	273	1	God's Overarching Love, September 18
FH	274	1	God's Victory, September 19
FH	275	1	God Provides, September 20
FH	276	1	Simple Faith, September 21
FH	277	1	Acting on Faith, September 22
FH	278	1	Simple Faith Rewarded, September 23
FH	279	1	Daniel's Commitment to God, September 24
FH	280	1	An Example of Trust and Prayer, September 25
FH	281	1	Miraculous Transformation, September 26
FH	282	1	Judas and John Contrasted, September 27
FH	283	1	Mary's Offering, September 28
FH	284	1	Learning From Peter's Experience, September 29
FH	285	1	Peter's Restoration, September 30
FH	286	1	A Twofold System of Law, October 1
FH	287	1	God's Eternal Law, October 2
FH	288	1	Glorifying God, October 3
FH	289	1	The Dynamic Duo, October 4
FH	290	1	Rest in Christ, October 5
FH	291	1	Onward and Upward, October 6
FH	292	1	Like Christ, October 7
FH	293	1	A New Creation, October 8
FH	294	1	The Purpose of Grace, October 9
FH	295	1	The Impact of Truth, October 10
FH	296	1	Christ in Light of the Law, October 11
FH	297	1	Walk in Christ, October 12
FH	298	1	Two Vital Lessons, October 13
FH	299	1	Would You Have Peace? October 14
FH	300	1	How Faith Works, October 15
FH	301	1	Be Honest With God, October 16
FH	302	1	Guided by the Holy Spirit, October 17
FH	303	1	Evidence of the Spirit's Work, October 18
FH	304	1	Lights Shining in Darkness, October 19
FH	305	1	Gifts of the Spirit, October 20
FH	306	1	Pentecost, October 21
FH	307	1	The Fruits of Pentecost, October 22
FH	308	1	Pray for God's Spirit, October 23
FH	309	1	The Coming Test, October 24
FH	310	1	Last-day Delusions, October 25
FH	311	1	Spiritualism and Its End, October 26
FH	312	1	Be on Guard, October 27
FH	313	1	Final Preparation, October 28
FH	314	1	Nearness of the End, October 29
FH	315	1	Fasten Your Eyes on the Future, October 30
FH	316	1	A Divine Command, October 31
FH	317	1	The Chosen of God, November 1
FH	318	1	A Peculiar People, November 2
FH	319	1	Separation From the World, November 3
FH	320	1	God's People Identified, November 4
FH	321	1	Christ's Representatives, November 5
FH	322	1	Working With Christ, November 6
FH	323	1	The Church to Advance God's Work, November 7
FH	324	1	An Enlightened Church, November 8
FH	325	1	Someone Is at the Door, November 9
FH	326	1	Unity Is Essential, November 10
FH	327	1	A Challenge to God's Church, November 11
FH	328	1	God's Final Warning, November 12
FH	329	1	Seal of God and Mark of the Beast, November 13
FH	330	1	Image to the Beast, November 14
FH	331	1	History Repeats Itself, November 15
FH	332	1	Victory at Last! November 16
FH	333	1	Channels for the Sun of Righteousness, November 17
FH	334	1	Source of All Truth, November 18
FH	335	1	The Proclamation of God's Remnant, November 19
FH	336	1	The Closing Work, November 20
FH	337	1	Forgiveness Is Not Impossible, November 21
FH	338	1	Work in the Cities, November 22
FH	339	1	Reject Speculation, November 23
FH	340	1	The Holy Spirit and the Remnant, November 24
FH	341	1	A Holy People, November 25
FH	342	1	A Perfected Church, November 26
FH	343	1	A Reflection of Christ, November 27
FH	344	1	Separate From the World, November 28
FH	345	1	God's Temple, November 29
FH	346	1	Coworkers With the Church in Heaven, November 30
FH	347	1	A Colorado Sunset, December 1
FH	348	1	John the Baptist's Example, December 2
FH	349	1	A Voice in the Wilderness, December 3
FH	350	1	Forerunner of Christ, December 4
FH	351	1	As in the Days of Noah, December 5
FH	352	1	Build an Ark, Noah, December 6
FH	353	1	Noah's Unwavering Obedience, December 7
FH	354	1	The End of Patience, December 8
FH	355	1	God's Sabbath, December 9
FH	356	1	The Sabbath in the Gospel Dispensation, December 10
FH	357	1	Biblical Foundation for the Sabbath, December 11
FH	358	1	What Is Lawful on the Sabbath? December 12
FH	359	1	Preparation for Jesus' Coming, December 13
FH	360	1	Present Duty, December 14
FH	361	1	Reflectors of Christ, December 15
FH	362	1	Decisive Action, December 16
FH	363	1	Heaven-filled Lives, December 17
FH	364	1	Honor the Giver of Gifts, December 18
FH	365	1	Individually Responsible, December 19
FH	366	1	The Latter Rain, December 20
FH	367	1	Accept the Invitation, December 21
FH	368	1	To All Nations, December 22
FH	369	1	The First and Second Advent, December 23
FH	370	1	What a Christmas Present! December 24
FH	371	1	The Promise Fulfilled, December 25
FH	372	1	A Resolution, December 26
FH	373	1	Change in Raiment, December 27
FH	374	1	Use What You Have, December 28
FH	375	1	The Blessed Hope, December 29
FH	376	1	Preparing for Heaven, December 30
FH	377	1	Heaven Below and Heaven Above, December 31

------------------------The Old Year and the New, January 1
FH	13	1	Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. 2 Corinthians 13:5.
FH	13	2	Already has the new year been ushered in; yet before we greet its coming, we pause to ask, What has been the history of the year that with its burden of records has now passed into eternity?... God forbid that at this important hour we should be so engrossed with other matters as to give no time to serious, candid, critical self-examination! Let things of minor consequence be put in the background, and let us now bring to the front the things which concern our eternal interests....
FH	13	3	No one of us can in our own strength represent the character of Christ, but if Jesus lives in the heart, the spirit dwelling in Him will be revealed in us. All our lack will be supplied. Who will seek at the beginning of this new year to obtain a new and genuine experience in the things of God? Make your wrongs right as far as possible. Confess your errors and sins to one another. Let all bitterness and wrath and malice be put away. Let patience, long-suffering, kindness, and love become a part of your very being; then whatsoever things are pure and lovely and of good report will mature in your experience....
FH	13	4	It behooves us individually to cultivate the grace of Christ, to be meek and lowly of heart, to be firm, unwavering, steadfast in the truth; for thus only can we advance in holiness and be made fit for the inheritance of the saints in light. Let us begin the year with an entire renunciation of self. Let us pray for clear discernment,... that we may always and everywhere be witnesses for Christ.
FH	13	5	Our time and talents belong to God, to be used for His honor and glory. It should be our earnest, anxious effort to let the light shine through our life and character to illumine the pathway heavenward, that souls may be attracted from the broad road to the narrow way of holiness....
FH	13	6	Strong men and women are needed in the church, successful workers in the Lord's vineyard, men and women who will labor that the church may be transformed to the image of Christ rather than conformed to the customs and practices of the world. We have everything to gain or to lose. Let us see that we are on the side of Christ-the gaining side; that we are making sure work for Heaven.--Signs of the Times, January 4, 1883.
------------------------Watch and Pray, January 2
FH	14	1	But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. 1 Peter 4:7.
FH	14	2	Our Redeemer perfectly understood the wants of humanity. He who condescended to take upon Himself human nature was acquainted with our weakness. Christ lived as our example. He was tempted in all points as we are, that He might know how to succor all who should be tempted....
FH	14	3	Christ took upon Himself our infirmities, and in the weakness of humanity He needed to seek strength from His Father. He was often to be found in earnest prayer, in the grove, by the lakeside, and in the mountains. He has enjoined upon us to watch and pray. It is the neglect of watchfulness and close searching of heart that leads to self-sufficiency and spiritual pride. Without a deep sense of our need of help from God, there will be but little earnest, heartfelt prayer for divine aid....
FH	14	4	Unceasing watchfulness is a great help to prayer.... The one whose mind loves to dwell upon God has a strong defense. Such a one will be quick to perceive the dangers that threaten the spiritual life, and a sense of danger will lead that person to call upon God for help and protection.
FH	14	5	There are times when the Christian life seems beset by dangers, and duty seems hard to perform. But the clouds that gather about our way, and the perils that surround us, will never disappear before a halting, doubting, prayerless spirit. At such times unbelief says, We can never surmount these obstructions; let us wait until we can see our way clearly." But faith courageously urges an advance, hoping all things, believing all things....
FH	14	6	The prayer may well be offered daily by those who have the fear of God before them, that He will preserve their hearts from evil desires, and strengthen their souls to resist temptation....
FH	14	7	The Word of God exhorts us to be found "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance"; and again, "Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." Here is the Christians' safeguard, their protection amid the perils that surround their pathway.--The Review and Herald, October 11, 1881.
------------------------Understanding for All, January 3
FH	15	1	The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. Psalm 119:130.
FH	15	2	The Word of God presents the most potent means of education, as well as the most valuable source of knowledge, within the reach of humanity. The understanding adapts itself to the dimensions of the subjects with which it is required to deal. If occupied with trivial, commonplace matters only, never summoned to earnest effort to comprehend great and eternal truths, it becomes dwarfed and enfeebled. Hence the value of the Scriptures as a means of intellectual culture. Their perusal in a reverent and teachable spirit will expand and strengthen the mind as no other study can. They lead directly to the contemplation of the most exalted, the most ennobling, and the most stupendous truths that are presented to the human mind. They direct our thoughts to the infinite Author of all things.
FH	15	3	We see revealed the character of the Eternal and listen to His voice as He communes with patriarchs and prophets. We see explained the mysteries of His providence, the great problems which have engaged the attention of every thoughtful mind, but which, without the aid of revelation, human intellect seeks in vain to solve. They open to our understanding a simple yet sublime system of theology, presenting truths which a child may grasp but which are yet so far reaching as to baffle the powers of the strongest mind....
FH	15	4	Our Savior did not ignore learning or despise education, yet He chose unlearned fishermen for the work of the gospel because they had not been schooled in the false customs and traditions of the world. They were men of good natural ability and of a humble, teachable spirit; men whom He could educate for His great work....
FH	15	5	The learned lawyers, priests, and scribes scorned to be taught by Christ. They desired to teach Him, and frequently made the attempt, only to be defeated by the wisdom that laid bare their ignorance and rebuked their folly. In their pride and bigotry, they would not accept the words of Christ, yet they were surprised at the wisdom with which He spake.... But the words and deeds of the humble Teacher, recorded by the unlettered companions of His daily life, have exerted a living power upon the minds of men and women from that day to the present.--The Review and Herald, September 25, 1883.
------------------------Fervent Prayer, January 4
FH	16	1	The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. James 5:16.
FH	16	2	Jesus is our Savior today. He is pleading for us in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, and He will forgive our sins. It makes all the difference in the world with us spiritually whether we rely upon God without doubt, as upon a sure foundation, or whether we are seeking to find some righteousness in ourselves before we come to Him....
FH	16	3	The Lord loves us, and bears with us, even when we are ungrateful to Him, forgetful of His mercies, wickedly unbelieving.... Let us make a complete change. Let us cultivate the precious plant of love, and delight to help one another....
FH	16	4	There are rich promises for us in the Word of God. The plan of salvation is ample. It is no narrow, limited provision that has been made for us. We are not obliged to trust the evidence that we had a year or a month ago, but we may have the assurance today that Jesus lives and is making intercession for us....
FH	16	5	If we would refresh others, we must ourselves drink of the Fountain that never becomes dry. It is our privilege to become acquainted with the Source of our strength, to have hold of the arm of God. If we would have spiritual life and energy, we must commune with God. We can speak to Him of our real wants; and our earnest petitions will show that we realize our needs and will do what we can to answer our own prayers. We must obey the injunction of Paul, "Arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light."
FH	16	6	[Martin] Luther was a man of prayer. He worked and prayed as though something must be done.... His prayers were followed up by venturing something on the promises of God; and through divine aid, he was enabled to shake the vast power of Rome, so that in every country the foundations of the church trembled.
FH	16	7	The Spirit of God cooperates with the humble worker that abides in Christ and communes with Him. Pray.... When you are desponding, close the lips firmly to others; keep all the darkness within, lest you shadow the path of another, but tell it to Jesus. Ask for humility, wisdom, courage, increase of faith, that you may see light in His light and rejoice in His love. Only believe, and you shall surely see the salvation of God.--The Review and Herald, April 22, 1884.
------------------------The Importance of Prayer, January 5
FH	17	1	Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Daniel 1:8.
FH	17	2	Prayer is not understood as it should be. Our prayers are not to inform God of something He does not know. The Lord is acquainted with the secrets of every soul. Our prayers need not be long and loud. God reads the hidden thought. We may pray in secret, and He who sees in secret will hear and will reward us openly....
FH	17	3	Prayer is not intended to work any change in God; it brings us into harmony with God. It does not take the place of duty.... Prayer will not pay our debts to God. The servants of Christ are to rely upon God as did Daniel in the courts of Babylon. Daniel knew the value of prayer, its aim, and its object; and the prayers which he and his three companions offered to God after being chosen by the king for the courts of Babylon, were answered.
FH	17	4	There was another class of captives carried into Babylon. These the Lord permitted to be torn from their homes and carried into a land of idolaters because they were themselves continually going into idolatry. The Lord let them have all they desired of the idolatrous practices of Babylon....
FH	17	5	As the wisdom of the world viewed the matter, Daniel and his three companions had every advantage secured to them in the courts of Babylon, but it was here that their first great test was to come. Their principles were to come into collision with the regulations and appointments of the king....
FH	17	6	Daniel and his three companions did not take the position that because their food and drink were of the king's appointment it was their duty to partake of it. They prayed over the matter and studied the Scriptures. Their education had been of such a character that they felt even in their captivity that God was their dependence.... The appearance of Daniel and his companions was like what every youth's should be. They were courteous, kind, respectful, possessing the grace of meekness and modesty....
FH	17	7	When we are surrounded by influences calculated to lead us away from God, our petitions for help and strength must be unwearied. Unless this is so, we shall never be successful in breaking down pride and overcoming the power of temptation to sinful indulgences which keep us from the Savior.--Youth's Instructor, August 18, 1898.
------------------------Prayer Lessons From Elijah, January 6
FH	18	1	Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. James 5:17, 18.
FH	18	2	Important lessons are presented to us in the experience of Elijah. When upon Mount Carmel he offered the prayer for rain, his faith was tested, but he persevered in making known his request unto God. Six times he prayed earnestly, and yet there was no sign that his petition was granted, but with strong faith he urged his plea to the throne of grace. Had he given up in discouragement at the sixth time, his prayer would not have been answered.... We have a God whose ear is not closed to our petitions; and if we prove His word, He will honor our faith. He wants us to have all our interests interwoven with His interests, and then He can safely bless us; for we shall not then take glory to self when the blessing is ours, but shall render all the praise to God.
FH	18	3	God does not always answer our prayers the first time we call upon Him; for should He do this, we might take it for granted that we had a right to all the blessings and favors He bestowed upon us. Instead of searching our hearts to see if any evil was entertained by us, any sin indulged, we would become careless, and fail to realize our dependence upon Him, and our need of His help.
FH	18	4	Elijah humbled himself until he was in a condition where he would not take the glory to himself. This is the condition upon which the Lord hears prayer; for then we shall give the praise to Him....
FH	18	5	We are to believe the Word of God whether we have any manifestation of feeling or not. I used to ask God for a flight of feeling, but I do not do this now.... Like Elijah, again and again I press my petition to the throne of grace; and when the Lord sees that I realize my inefficiency and weakness, the blessing comes....
FH	18	6	I have committed the keeping of my soul unto God as unto a faithful Creator, and I know that He will keep that which I have committed to Him until that day....
FH	18	7	Let us praise Him with heart and soul and voice. If any have lost faith, let them seek God today. The Lord has promised that if we seek Him with the whole heart, He will be found of us.--The Review and Herald, June 9, 1891.
------------------------The Model Prayer, January 7
FH	19	1	Lord, teach us to pray. Luke 11:1.
FH	19	2	The world's Redeemer frequently went away alone to pray. On one occasion His disciples were not so far away but that they could hear His words. They were deeply impressed by His prayer, for it was charged with vital power that reached their hearts. It was very unlike the prayers which they themselves had offered, and unlike any prayers which they had heard from human lips. After Jesus had joined them again, they said to Him: "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."...
FH	19	3	It means much to pray to our Heavenly Father. We come to lay our imperfect tribute of thanksgiving at His feet in acknowledgment of His love and mercy, of which we are wholly undeserving. We come to make known our wants, to confess our sins, and to present to Him His own promises....
FH	19	4	Jesus has given to us a prayer in which every expression is full of meaning, to be studied and brought into practical life.... It is a prayer that expresses the essential subjects that we need to present to our heavenly Father....
FH	19	5	In the Lord's Prayer, solidity, strength, and earnestness are united with meekness and reverence. It is an expression of the divine character of its Author....
FH	19	6	Long prayers in a congregation are tedious to those who listen, and do not prepare the hearts of the people for the sermon which is to follow. The prayer of Christ was in marked contrast to these long prayers with their many repetitions. The Pharisees thought that they would be heard for their much speaking, and they made long, tedious, drawn-out prayers....
FH	19	7	The model prayer of Christ is in marked contrast to the prayers of the heathen. In all false religions, ceremonies and forms have been substituted for genuine piety and for practical godliness....
FH	19	8	Christ reproved the scribes and the Pharisees because of their self-righteous prayers.... Prayers of this order, that are made to be heard of men, call down no blessing from God.... But humility is always recognized by Him who has said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."--The Review and Herald, May 28, 1895.
------------------------Prevailing Prayer, January 8
FH	20	1	In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6.
FH	20	2	God has made it our duty to pray. The riches of the universe belong to Him. He has all temporal and spiritual treasures at His command and can supply every want from His abundant fullness. We receive our breath from Him; every temporal blessing that we enjoy is His gift. We are dependent upon Him not only for temporal blessings but for grace and strength to keep us from falling under the power of temptation. We daily need the Bread of Life to give us spiritual strength and vigor, just as much as we need food to sustain our physical strength and give us firm muscles. We are compassed with weakness and infirmities, doubts and temptations; but we can come to Jesus in our need, and He will not turn us away empty. We must accustom ourselves to seek divine guidance through prayer; we must learn to trust in Him from whom our help cometh....
FH	20	3	We must have a deep, earnest sense of our needs. We must feel our weakness and our dependence upon God, and come to Him with contrition of soul and brokenness of heart. Our petitions must be offered in perfect submission; every desire must be brought into harmony with the will of God, and His will must be done in us....
FH	20	4	If we walk in the light as Christ is in the light, we may come to the throne of grace with holy boldness. We may present the promises of God in living faith and urge our petitions. Although we are weak and erring and unworthy, "the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities."... When we have offered our petition once, we must not then abandon it, but say, as did Jacob when he wrestled all night with the angel, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me," and like him we shall prevail....
FH	20	5	It is only by watching unto prayer, and the exercise of living faith, that Christians can preserve integrity in the midst of the temptations that Satan brings to bear upon them.... Talk to your heart constantly the language of faith: "Jesus said He would receive me, and I believe His word. I will praise Him; I will glorify His name." Satan will be close by your side to suggest that you do not feel any joy. Answer him,... "I have everything to be glad of, for I am a child of God. I am trusting in Jesus."--Signs of the Times, May 15, 1884.
------------------------Rooted and Grounded in Christ, January 9
FH	21	1	The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. Psalm 92:12.
FH	21	2	He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. Psalm 1:3.
FH	21	3	These texts describe the happy state of the man or woman whose soul is rooted and grounded in Christ. But there is always danger of being satisfied with a superficial work; there is always danger that souls will not anchor themselves in God, but be content to drift hither and thither, the sport of Satan's temptations.
FH	21	4	Are you beginning to see the defects in your character? Do not feel helpless and discouraged. Look to Jesus, who knows your every weakness and pities your every infirmity.... It is no disgrace to confess our sins and forsake them. The disgrace rests upon those who know their sins but continue in them and grieve the dear Savior by their crooked paths. A knowledge of our wrongs should be more highly prized than a happy flight of feeling, for it is evidence that the Spirit of God is striving with us and that angels are round about us....
FH	21	5	In true contrition for sin, come to the foot of the cross, and there leave your burdens. Come exercising repentance toward God because you have broken His law, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ to pardon your transgressions and reconcile you to the Father. Believe what God says; take His promises to your heart....
FH	21	6	See the weary traveler toiling over the hot sands of the desert, with no shelter to protect him from the rays of a tropical sun. His water supply fails, and he has nothing to slake his burning thirst. His tongue becomes swollen; he staggers like a drunken man. Visions of home and friends pass before his mind as he believes himself ready to perish in the terrible desert. Suddenly those in advance send forth a shout of joy. In the distance, looming up out of the dreary, sandy waste, is a palm tree, green and flourishing....
FH	21	7	As the palm tree, drawing nourishment from fountains of living water, is green and flourishing in the midst of the desert, so the Christian may draw rich supplies of grace from the fountain of God's love and may guide weary souls, that are full of unrest and ready to perish in the desert of sin, to those waters of which they may drink, and live.--Signs of the Times, June 26, 1884.
------------------------Striking Examples of Prayer, January 10
FH	22	1	If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. John 15:7.
FH	22	2	Prayer has been made the means of obtaining blessings that would not otherwise be received. The patriarchs were men of prayer, and God did great things for them. When Jacob left his father's house for a strange land, he prayed in humble contrition, and in the night season the Lord answered him through vision. He saw a ladder, bright and shining, its base resting on earth, and its topmost round reaching to the highest heaven.... Afterward, while on his return to his father's house, he wrestled with the Son of God all night, even till break of day, and prevailed. The assurance was given him, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men."
FH	22	3	Joseph prayed, and he was preserved from sin amid influences that were calculated to lead him away from God. When tempted to leave the path of purity and uprightness, he said, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"
FH	22	4	Moses, who was much in prayer, was known as the meekest man on the face of the earth. For his meekness and humility he was honored of God, and he discharged with fidelity the high, noble, and sacred responsibilities intrusted to him. While leading the children of Israel through the wilderness, again and again it seemed that they must be exterminated on account of their murmuring and rebellion. But Moses went to the true Source of power; he laid the case before the Lord....
FH	22	5	Daniel was a man of prayer, and God gave him wisdom and firmness to resist every influence that conspired to draw him into the snare of intemperance. Even in his youth he was a moral giant in the strength of the Mighty One....
FH	22	6	In the prison at Philippi, while suffering from the cruel stripes they had received, their feet fast in the stocks, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praise to God, and angels were sent from heaven to deliver them. The earth shook under the tread of these heavenly messengers, and the prison doors flew open, setting the prisoners free.... We should be continually loosening our hold upon earth, and fastening it upon heaven.--Signs of the Times, August 14, 1884.
------------------------Prayers of Form and Prayers of Faith, January 11
FH	23	1	When you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Matthew 6:7.
FH	23	2	There are two kinds of prayer-the prayer of form and the prayer of faith. The repetition of set, customary phrases when the heart feels no need of God, is formal prayer.... We should be extremely careful in all our prayers to speak the wants of the heart and to say only what we mean. All the flowery words at our command are not equivalent to one holy desire. The most eloquent prayers are but vain repetitions if they do not express the true sentiments of the heart. But the prayer that comes from an earnest heart, when the simple wants of the soul are expressed just as we would ask an earthly friend for a favor, expecting that it would be granted-this is the prayer of faith. The publican who went up to the temple to pray is a good example of a sincere, devoted worshipper. He felt that he was a sinner, and his great need led to an outburst of passionate desire, "God be merciful to me a sinner."...
FH	23	3	To commune with God we must have something to say to Him concerning our actual life. The long, black catalogue of our delinquencies is before the eye of the Infinite. The register is complete; none of our offenses are forgotten. But He who wrought wonderfully for His servants of old will listen to the prayer of faith and pardon our transgressions. He has promised, and He will fulfill His word....
FH	23	4	After we have offered our petitions, we are to answer them ourselves as far as possible, and not wait for God to do for us what we can do for ourselves.... Divine help is to be combined with human effort, aspiration, and energy.... We cannot be borne up by the prayers of others when we ourselves neglect to pray, for God has made no such provision for us. Not even divine power can lift one soul to heaven that is unwilling to put forth efforts in his own behalf....
FH	23	5	As thus step by step we ascend the shining ladder that leads to the city of God, oh how many times we shall be discouraged and come to weep at the feet of Jesus over our failures and our defeats.... Yet let us not cease our efforts. Heaven can be attained by every one of us if we will strive lawfully, doing the will of Jesus and growing into His image. Temporary failure should make us lean more heavily on Christ, and we should press on with brave heart, determined will, and unfaltering purpose.--Signs of the Times, August 14, 1884.
------------------------Bible Religion Is Practical, January 12
FH	24	1	Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. James 1:27.
FH	24	2	Bible religion is not a garment which can be put on and taken off at pleasure. It is an all-pervading influence which leads us to be patient, self-denying followers of Christ, doing as He did, walking as He walked.... This religion teaches us to exercise patience and long-suffering when brought into places where we receive treatment that is hard and unjust....
FH	24	3	But if the word of God is made an abiding principle in our lives, everything with which we have to do, each word, each trivial act, will reveal that we are subject to Jesus Christ, that even our thoughts have been brought into captivity to Him. If the word of God is received into the heart, it will empty the soul of self-sufficiency and self-dependence. Our lives will be a power for good, because the Holy Spirit will fill our minds with the things of God. The religion of Christ will be practiced by us, for our wills are in perfect conformity to the will of God....
FH	24	4	"Search the scriptures." No other book will give you such pure, elevating, ennobling thoughts; from no other book can you obtain a deep religious experience. When you devote time to self-examination, to humble prayer, to earnest study of God's Word, the Holy Spirit is near to apply the truth to your heart....
FH	24	5	The Bible, and the Bible alone, is to be the rule of our faith. It is a leaf from the tree of life, and by eating it, by receiving it into our minds, we shall grow strong to do the will of God....
FH	24	6	If we do not receive the religion of Christ by feeding upon the Word of God, we shall not be entitled to an entrance into the city of God. Having lived on earthly food, having educated our tastes to love worldly things,... we could not appreciate the pure, heavenly current that circulates in heaven....
FH	24	7	Jesus says, "Without me ye can do nothing." Living in Christ, adhering to Christ, supported by Christ, drawing nourishment from Christ, we bear fruit after the similitude of Christ. We live and move in Him; we are one with Him and one with the Father. The name of Christ is glorified in the believing child of God. This is Bible religion.--The Review and Herald, May 4, 1897.
------------------------Be Conformed to the Word, January 13
FH	25	1	In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Matthew 15:9.
FH	25	2	Those who desire to know the truth have nothing to fear from the investigation of the Word of God. But upon the threshold of investigation of the Word of God, inquirers after truth should lay aside all prejudice and hold in abeyance all preconceived opinion, and open the ear to hear the voice of God from His messenger. Cherished opinions, long-practiced customs and habits, are to be brought to the test of the Scriptures; and if the Word of God opposes your views, then, for your soul's sake, do not wrest the Scriptures, as many do to their soul's destruction in order to make them seem to bear a testimony in favor of their errors. Let your inquiry be, What is truth? Not, What have I hitherto believed to be truth? Do not interpret the Scriptures in the light of your former belief, and assert that some doctrine of finite humanity is truth. Let your inquiry be, What saith the Scriptures?...
FH	25	3	Make up your mind that your former theories must change if they are not in harmony with the doctrines of the Bible. You are called upon to put forth diligent effort to discover what is truth. This should not be thought a hard requirement; for we are called upon to toil for our temporal and earthly blessings, and it is not to be expected that we shall find the heavenly treasure unless we are willing to dig in the mines of truth and exercise all our powers of mind and heart to understand....
FH	25	4	Beware lest you read the Word of God in the light of erroneous teaching. It was on this very ground that the Jews made their fatal mistake. They declared that there must be no different interpretation placed upon the Scriptures than that which had been given by the rabbis in former years; and as they had multiplied their traditions and maxims and had clothed them with sacredness, the Word of God was made of no effect through their traditions; and if Jesus Christ, the Word of God, had not come into the world, humanity would have lost all knowledge of the true God....
FH	25	5	It is Satan's studied plan to pervert the Scriptures and to lead us to put a false construction on the Word of God.... All articles of faith, all doctrines and creeds, however sacred they have been regarded, are to be rejected if they contradict the plain statements of the Word of God.--The Review and Herald, March 25, 1902.
------------------------God Hears Prayers, January 14
FH	26	1	The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. Psalm 34:15.
FH	26	2	When Jesus was upon earth, and walked a man among the children of humanity, He prayed, and oh, how earnest were His prayers! How often He spent the whole night upon the damp, cold ground, in agonizing supplication! And yet He was the beloved and sinless Son of God. If Jesus felt the necessity of communion with His Father and manifested so much earnestness in calling upon Him, how much more should we, whom He has called to be heirs of salvation, who are subject to the fiery temptations of the wily foe and dependent upon divine grace for strength to overcome, have our whole souls stirred to wrestle with God....
FH	26	3	Satan is ever ready to insinuate that prayer is a mere form and avails us nothing. He cannot bear to have his powerful rival appealed to. At the sound of fervent prayer, the hosts of darkness tremble. Fearing that their captives may escape, they form a wall around them, that Heaven's light may not reach their souls. But if in their distress and helplessness they look to Jesus, pleading the merits of His blood, their compassionate Redeemer listens to the earnest, persevering prayer of faith and sends to their deliverance a reinforcement of angels that excel in strength. And when these angels, all-powerful, clothed with the armory of heaven, come to the help of the fainting, pursued souls, the angels of darkness fall back, well knowing that their battle is lost, and that more souls are escaping from the power of their influence....
FH	26	4	If you expect salvation, you must pray. Take time. Be not hurried and careless in your prayers. Intercede with God to work in you a thorough reformation, that the fruits of the Spirit may dwell in you, and that, by your godly life, you may shine as a light in the world....
FH	26	5	Take time to pray. And as you pray, believe that God hears you; have faith mixed with your prayers. Let faith take hold of the blessing, and it is yours....
FH	26	6	Every petition that is offered to God in faith and with a true heart will be answered. Such prayer is never lost; but to claim that it will always be answered in the very way and for the particular thing that we desire is presumption. God is too wise to err and too good to withhold any good thing from them that walk uprightly.--Signs of the Times, November 18, 1886.
------------------------Pray Without Ceasing, January 15
FH	27	1	Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Ephesians 6:18.
FH	27	2	We are not always so situated that we can enter into our closets to seek God in prayer, but there is no time or place in which it is inappropriate to offer up a petition to God. There is nothing that can hinder us from lifting up our hearts in the spirit of earnest prayer. In the crowds of the street, in the midst of a business engagement, we may send up a petition to God and plead for divine guidance, as did Nehemiah when he made his request before the king Artaxerxes. A closet of communion may be found wherever we are. We should have the door of the heart open continually and our invitation going up that Jesus may come and abide as a heavenly guest in our souls.
FH	27	3	Although there may be a tainted, corrupted atmosphere around us, we need not breathe its miasma but may live in the pure atmosphere of heaven. We may close every door to impure imaginings and unholy thoughts by lifting the soul into the presence of God through sincere prayer. Those whose hearts are open to receive the support and blessing of God will walk in a holier atmosphere than that of earth and will have constant communion with God.... The heart is to be continually going out in desire for the presence and grace of Jesus, that the soul may have divine enlightenment and heavenly wisdom.
FH	27	4	We need to have more distinct views of Jesus, and a fuller comprehension of the value of eternal realities. The beauty of holiness is to fill the hearts of God's people, and that this may be accomplished, we should seek for divine disclosures of heavenly things....
FH	27	5	We may keep so near to God that in every unexpected trial our thoughts may turn to God as naturally as the flower turns to the sun. The sunflower keeps its face sunward. If it is turned from the light, it will twist itself on the stem until it lifts up its petals to the bright beams of the sun. So let everyone who has given the heart to God turn to the Sun of Righteousness and eagerly look up to receive the bright beams of the glory that shine in the face of Jesus....
FH	27	6	The Lord is under no obligation to grant us His favors, yet He has pledged His word that if we will comply with the conditions stated in the Scriptures, He will fulfill His part of the contract. Men and women often make promises but do not live up to them. Often we have found that in trusting others we have leaned upon broken reeds; but the Lord will never disappoint the soul that believes in Him.--Signs of the Times, December 16, 1889.
------------------------The Power of Prayer, January 16
FH	28	1	You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3.
FH	28	2	Prayer to the Great Physician for the healing of the soul brings the blessing of God. Prayer unites us one to another and to God. Prayer brings Jesus to our side and gives new strength and fresh grace to the fainting, perplexed soul. By prayer the sick have been encouraged to believe that God will look with compassion upon them. A ray of light penetrates to the hopeless soul and becomes a savor of life unto life. Prayer has "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire"-we shall know what this means when we hear the reports of the martyrs who died for their faith-"turned to flight the armies of the aliens."
FH	28	3	We shall hear about these victories when the Captain of our salvation, the glorious King of heaven, opens the record before those of whom John writes, "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."...
FH	28	4	Christ our Savior was tempted in all points like as we are, yet He was without sin. He took human nature, being made in fashion as a man, and His necessities were the necessities of mankind....
FH	28	5	Prayer went before and sanctified every act of His ministry. He communed with His Father till the close of His life; and when He hung upon the cross, there arose from His lips the bitter cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Then in a voice which has reached to the very ends of the earth, He exclaimed, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."... The night seasons of prayer which the Savior spent in the mountain or in the desert were essential to prepare Him for the trials He must meet in the days to follow....
FH	28	6	All things are possible to those that believe. No one coming to the Lord in sincerity of heart will be disappointed. How wonderful it is that we can pray effectually, that unworthy, erring mortals possess the power of offering their requests to God!... We utter words that reach the throne of the Monarch of the universe.--The Review and Herald, October 30, 1900.
------------------------God Speaks to Us, January 17
FH	29	1	Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us? Luke 24:32.
FH	29	2	After Christ's death two disciples, on their way to Emmaus from Jerusalem, were talking over the scenes of the crucifixion. Christ Himself drew near, unrecognized by the sorrowing travelers. Their faith had died with their Lord, and their eyes, blinded by unbelief, did not recognize their risen Savior. Jesus, walking by their side, longed to reveal Himself to them, but He accosted them merely as fellow travelers, saying "What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?" Astonished at the question, they asked if He were a stranger in Jerusalem and had not heard that a prophet, mighty in word and deed, had been crucified. "We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel," they said, sadly.
FH	29	3	"O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken," Christ said; "ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."...
FH	29	4	The disciples had lost sight of the precious promises linked with the prophecies of Christ's death, but when these were brought to their remembrance, faith revived; and after Christ had revealed Himself to them, they exclaimed, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?"...
FH	29	5	If we would search the Scriptures, our hearts would burn within us as the truths revealed therein are opened to our understanding. Our hopes would brighten as we claim the precious promises strewn like pearls through the Sacred Writings. As we study the history of patriarchs and prophets, men who loved and feared God, walking with Him, our souls would glow with the spirit that animated them....
FH	29	6	The question is asked, What is the cause of the dearth of spiritual power in the churches? The answer is, We allow our minds to be drawn away from the Word.... The Word of the living God is not merely written, but spoken. It is God's voice speaking to us, just as surely as if we could hear it with our ears. If we realized this, with what awe we would open God's Word, and with what earnestness we would search its pages.--The Review and Herald, March 31, 1903.
------------------------Bible Study Strengthens Intellect, January 18
FH	30	1	Behold, I long for Your precepts; revive me in Your righteousness.
FH	30	2	"Given by inspiration of God," "able to make thee wise unto salvation," rendering "the man of God... perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works"-the Book of books has the highest claims to our reverent attention. Superficial study of the Word of God cannot meet the claims it has upon us nor furnish us with the benefit that is promised.... To read daily a certain number of chapters, or to commit to memory a stipulated amount of Scripture, without careful thought as to the meaning of the text, will profit but little.
FH	30	3	To study one passage until its significance is clear to the mind and its relation to the plan of salvation is evident is of more value than the perusal of many chapters with no definite purpose in view and no positive instruction gained. We cannot obtain wisdom from the Word of God without giving earnest and prayerful attention to its study. It is true that some portions of Scripture are, indeed, too plain to be misunderstood, but there are many portions whose meaning cannot be seen at a glance, for the truth does not lie upon the surface....
FH	30	4	No study is better to give energy to the mind, to strengthen the intellect, than the study of the Word of God. No other book is so potent in elevating the thoughts, in giving vigor to the faculties, as is the Bible, which contains the most ennobling truths. If God's Word were studied as it should be, we would see breadth of mind, stability of purpose, nobility of character, such as is rarely seen in these times....
FH	30	5	Of all the books that flood the world, however valuable, the Bible is the Book of books, most deserving of our study and admiration. It gives not only the history of this world but a description of the world to come. It contains instruction concerning the wonders of the universe; it reveals to our understanding the character of the Author of the heavens and the earth....
FH	30	6	The one who studies the Bible holds converse with patriarchs and prophets. Contact is made with truth clothed in elevated language, which exerts a fascinating power over the mind and lifts the thoughts from the things of earth to the glory of the future immortal life. What human wisdom can compare with the revelation of the grandeur of God?--Signs of the Times, January 30, 1893.
------------------------Personal Study Is Essential, January 19
FH	31	1	Make me understand the way of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on Your wonderful works. Psalm 119:27.
FH	31	2	The Bible is not exalted to its place among the books of the world, although its study is of infinite importance to the souls of men and women. In searching its pages the imagination beholds scenes majestic and eternal. We behold Jesus, the Son of God, coming to our world, and engaging in the mysterious conflict that discomfited the powers of darkness. Oh, how wonderful, how almost incredible it is, that the infinite God would consent to the humiliation of His own Son that we might be elevated to a place with Him upon His throne! Let all students of the Scriptures contemplate this great fact, and they will not come from a study of the Bible without being purified, elevated, and ennobled....
FH	31	3	All over the field of revelation are scattered glad springs of heavenly truth, of peace and joy. These glad springs of truth are within the reach of every seeker. The words of inspiration, pondered in the heart, will be as living streams flowing from the river of the water of life.... Whenever we study the Bible with a prayerful heart, the Holy Spirit is near to open to us the meaning of the words we read....
FH	31	4	The opening of God's Word is always followed by a remarkable opening and strengthening of human faculties, for the entrance of God's words giveth light....
FH	31	5	If the pillars of our faith will not stand the test of investigation, it is time that we knew it, for it is foolish to become set in our ideas and think that no one should interfere with our opinions. Let everything be brought to the Bible, for it is the only rule of faith and doctrine.
FH	31	6	We must study the truth for ourselves; no living person should be relied upon to think for us, no matter who that person may be or in what position he or she may be placed. We are not to look upon any human being as a perfect criterion for us. We are to counsel together, and be subject one to another, but at the same time we are to exercise the ability God has given us to learn what is truth.
FH	31	7	Each one of us must look to God for divine enlightenment, that we may individually develop a character that will stand the test of the day of God.--Signs of the Times, February 6, 1893.
------------------------Jesus Reveals the Father, January 20
FH	32	1	I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. John 17:6.
FH	32	2	If the poor and unlearned are not capable of understanding the Bible, then the mission of Christ to our world was useless, for He says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." The command to search the Scriptures Christ addressed not only to the Pharisees and scribes but to the great multitude of the common people who crowded about them.
FH	32	3	If the Bible is not to be understood by every class of people, whether they be rich or poor, what would be the need of the Savior's charge to search the Scriptures? What profit would there be in searching that which could never be understood?...
FH	32	4	The duty of every intelligent person is to search the Scriptures. Each one should know for certainty the conditions upon which salvation is provided....
FH	32	5	The Pharisees and the religious teachers so misrepresented the character of God that it was necessary for Christ to come to the world to represent the Father. Through the subtlety of Satan, men and women were led to charge upon God satanic attributes; but the Savior swept back the thick darkness which Satan had rolled before the throne of God in order that he might intercept the bright rays of mercy and love which came from God to us....
FH	32	6	Christ took upon Him humanity in order that the light and radiance of divine love should not extinguish the human race. When Moses pleaded, "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory," he was placed in the cleft of the rock, and the Lord passed by before him. When Philip asked Christ to show them the Father, He said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."...
FH	32	7	In plain language the Savior taught the world that the tenderness, the compassion, the love that He manifested toward humanity, were the very attributes of His Father in heaven. Whatever doctrine of grace He presented, whatever promise of joy, whatever deed of love, whatever divine attraction He exhibited, had its source in the Father of all. In the person of Christ we behold the eternal God engaged in an enterprise of boundless mercy toward the fallen race.--Signs of the Times, August 20, 1894.
------------------------A Steward's Duty, January 21
FH	33	1	He who gives, [let him do it] with liberality. Romans 12:8.
FH	33	2	Liberality is a duty on no account to be neglected; but let not rich or poor for a moment entertain the thought that their offerings to God can atone for their defects of Christian character. Says the great apostle, "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."...
FH	33	3	It is to cultivate a spirit of benevolence in us that the Lord calls for our gifts and offerings. He is not dependent upon us for means to sustain His cause. He declares by the prophet, "Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills."...
FH	33	4	God might have made angels the ambassadors of His truth. He might have made known His will, as He proclaimed the law from Sinai, with His own voice. But He has chosen to employ men and women to do this work. And it is only as we fulfill the divine purpose in our creation that life can be a blessing to us. All the riches intrusted to us will prove only a curse unless we employ them to relieve our own daily wants and the wants of the needy around us, and to glorify God by advancing His cause in the earth.
FH	33	5	The Majesty of heaven yielded up His high command, His glory with the Father, and even His own life to save us. And now what will we do for Him? God forbid that His professed children should live for themselves!... The first and best of everything rightfully belongs to Him.... It is in this life that He requires all our talents to be put out to the exchangers....
FH	33	6	We should not look upon the tithe as the limit of our liberality. The Jews were required to bring to God numerous offerings besides the tithe; and shall not we, who enjoy the blessings of the gospel, do as much to sustain God's cause as was done in the former, less-favored dispensation? As the work for this time is extending in the earth, the calls for help are constantly increasing....
FH	33	7	Not till we wish the infinite Father to cease bestowing His gifts on us should we impatiently exclaim, Is there no end of giving? Not only should we faithfully render to God our tithes, which He claims as His own, but we should bring a tribute to His treasury as an offering of gratitude. Let us with joyful hearts bring to our Creator the firstfruits of all His bounties-our choicest possessions, our best and holiest service.--The Review and Herald, February 9, 1886.
------------------------Lay Up Treasure in Heaven, January 22
FH	34	1	Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:20, 21.
FH	34	2	What shall I eat? and what shall I drink? and wherewithal shall I be clothed? are the questions which are occupying the minds of men and women, while eternity is dropped out of their reckoning. There are some who do not look upon the Lord Jesus Christ as the only hope of the world.... Those for whom He died are absorbed in providing themselves with temporal things that are not required. At the same time they are neglecting the preparation of character which would fit them for an abode in the mansions which He has purchased for them at an infinite price....
FH	34	3	When temporal matters absorb the mind and engage the attention, the whole strength of the being is engaged in the service of self, and we look upon the worship due to God as a trifling matter. Religious interests are made subservient to the world. But Jesus, who has paid the ransom for the souls of the human family, requires that they shall subordinate temporal interests to the heavenly interests. He would have them cease to indulge in hoarding up earthly treasures, in spending money upon luxuries, and in surrounding themselves with those things which they do not need....
FH	34	4	By choosing to lay up treasure in heaven, our characters will be molded after the likeness of Christ. The world will see that our hopes and plans are made in reference to the advancement of the truth and the salvation of perishing souls....
FH	34	5	In securing treasure in heaven, we place ourselves in living connection with God, who owns all the treasures of the earth and supplies all temporal mercies that are essential for life. Every soul may secure the eternal inheritance.... It is the highest wisdom to live in such a way as to secure eternal life. This may be done by not living in the world for ourselves but by living for God, by passing our property on to a world where it will never perish. By using our property to advance the cause of God, our uncertain riches are placed in an unfailing bank.... Every sacrifice made for the purpose of blessing others, every appropriation of means for the service of God, will be treasure laid up in heaven.--The Review and Herald, April 7, 1896.
------------------------A New Mind Will I Give You, January 23
FH	35	1	I will give you a new heart. Ezekiel 36:26.
FH	35	2	In the Bible the will of God is revealed. Through all time this book is to stand as a revelation of Jehovah. To human beings the divine oracles have been committed to be the power of God. The truths of the Word of God are not mere sentiment but the utterances of the Most High. Those who make these truths a part of their lives become in every sense new creatures. They are not given new mental powers, but the darkness that through ignorance and sin has clouded their understanding is removed.
FH	35	3	The words, "A new heart also will I give you," mean, A new mind will I give you. This change of heart is always attended by a clear conception of Christian duty, an understanding of truth. The clearness of our views of truth will be proportionate to our understanding of the Word of God. Those who give the Scriptures close, prayerful attention will gain clear comprehension and sound judgment, as if in turning to God they had reached a higher grade of intelligence.
FH	35	4	The Word of God, studied and obeyed as it should be, will give light and knowledge. Its perusal will strengthen the understanding. By contact with the purest, most lofty truths, the mind will be enlarged, the taste refined.
FH	35	5	We are dependent on the Bible for a knowledge of the early history of our world, of the creation of human life, and of the fall. Remove the Word of God, and what can we expect but to be left to fables and conjectures and to that enfeebling of the intellect which is the sure result of entertaining error.
FH	35	6	We need the authentic history of the origin of the earth, of the fall of Lucifer, and of the introduction of sin into the world. Without the Bible, we should be bewildered by false theories.
FH	35	7	The mind would be subjected to the tyranny of superstition and falsehood.... Wherever Christians are, they may hold communion with God. And they may enjoy the intelligence of sanctified science....
FH	35	8	Cleave to the word, "It is written." Cast out of the mind the dangerous, obtrusive theories which, if entertained, will hold the mind in bondage so that we shall not become new creatures in Christ.--The Review and Herald, November 10, 1904.
------------------------A Time for Prevailing Prayer, January 24
FH	36	1	It is time for You to act, O Lord, for they have regarded Your law as void. Psalm 119:126.
FH	36	2	The Lord is soon to come. Wickedness and rebellion, violence and crime, are filling the world. The cries of the suffering and the oppressed rise to God for justice. In the place of being softened by the patience and forbearance of God, the wicked are growing stronger in stubborn rebellion. The time in which we live is one of marked depravity. Religious restraint is thrown off, and people reject the law of God as unworthy of their attention. A more than common contempt is placed upon this holy law.
FH	36	3	A moment of respite has been graciously given us of God. Every power lent us of heaven is to be used in doing the work assigned us by the Lord for those who are perishing in ignorance. The warning message is to be sounded in all parts of the world. There must be no delay. The truth must be proclaimed in the dark places of the earth. Obstacles must be met and surmounted. A great work is to be done, and this work is entrusted to those who know the truth for this time.
FH	36	4	Now is the time for us to lay hold of the arm of our strength. The prayer of David should be the prayer of pastors and laymen: "It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law." Let the servants of God weep between the porch and the altar, crying, "Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach." God has always wrought in behalf of His truth. The designs of the wicked, the enemies of the church, are subject to His power and His overruling providence. He can move upon the hearts of statesmen; the wrath of the haters of His truth and His people can be turned aside, even as the waters of a river could be turned, if thus He ordered it.
FH	36	5	Prayer moves the arm of Omnipotence. He who marshals the stars in order in the heavens, whose word controls the waves of the great deep-the same infinite Creator will work in behalf of His people if they will call upon Him in faith. He will restrain all the forces of darkness until the warning is given to the world, and all who will heed it are prepared for His coming.--The Review and Herald, December 14, 1905.
------------------------God's Word Our Light, January 25
FH	37	1	Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105.
FH	37	2	I have a decided message from the Lord for the people who claim to believe the truth for this time....
FH	37	3	The Bible is the voice of God to His people. As we study the living oracles, we are to remember that God is speaking to His people out of His Word. We are to make this Word the man of our counsel.... If we realized the importance of searching the Scriptures, how much more diligently we would study them!... The Scriptures would be read and studied as the sure evidence of God's will concerning us.
FH	37	4	The Bible is to be studied with special interest, for it contains the most valuable information that finite beings can have, pointing out the way in which we are to prepare for the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven, putting away sin, and putting on the white robes of character that will give us entrance into the mansions that Christ told His disciples He was going to prepare for them....
FH	37	5	If we do not receive the Word of God as food for the soul, we shall miss the greatest treasure that has been prepared for men and women, for the Word is a message to each and every soul.... If obeyed, it gives spiritual life and strength. The pure, spiritual current that enters the life in a living experience is eternal life to the receiver.
FH	37	6	God's Word is our light. It is Christ's message to His heritage, who have been bought with the price of His blood. It was written for our guidance, and if we make this Word our counselor, we shall never walk in strange paths....
FH	37	7	The spiritual life is built up from the food given to the mind, and if we eat the food provided in the Word of God, spiritual and mental health will be the result....
FH	37	8	We are each deciding our eternal destiny, and it rests wholly with us whether we shall gain eternal life. Shall we live the lessons given in the Word of God, Christ's great lesson book? It is the grandest and yet most simply arranged and easily understood study book ever provided for human beings. It is the only book that will prepare men and women for the life that measures with the life of God.--The Review and Herald, March 22, 1906.
------------------------The Word in Human Form, January 26
FH	38	1	He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Matthew 7:29.
FH	38	2	Clad in the vestments of humanity, the Son of God came down to the level of those He wished to save. In Him was no guile or sinfulness; He was ever pure and undefiled; yet He took upon Him our sinful nature. Clothing His divinity with humanity that He might associate with fallen humanity, He sought to redeem for humanity that which by disobedience Adam had lost, for himself and for the world. In His own character Jesus manifested to the world the character of God; He pleased not Himself, but went about doing good. His whole history for more than thirty years was of pure, disinterested benevolence.
FH	38	3	Can we wonder that those who heard Him were astonished at His teaching? "He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." The teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees was a continuous repetition of fables and childish traditions. Their opinions and ceremonies rested on the authority of ancient maxims and rabbinical sayings, which were frivolous and worthless. Christ did not dwell on weak, insipid sayings and human theories. As one possessing higher authority He addressed His hearers, presenting before them momentous subjects, and His appeals carried conviction to their hearts. The opinion of all, expressed by many who were not able to keep silent, was, "Never man spake like this man."
FH	38	4	The Bible teaches the whole will of God concerning us.... The teaching of this Word is exactly that needed in all circumstances in which we may be placed. It is a sufficient rule of faith and practice, for it is the voice of God speaking to the soul, giving the members of His family directions for keeping the heart with all diligence. If this Word is studied, not merely read, but studied, it furnishes us with a storehouse of knowledge which enables us to improve every God-given endowment....
FH	38	5	All who come to the Word of God for guidance, with humble, inquiring minds, determined to know the terms of salvation, will understand what saith the Scripture....
FH	38	6	We need to humble our hearts and with sincerity and reverence search the Word of life; for that mind alone that is humble and contrite can see light.... The Lord speaks to the heart that humbles itself before Him.--The Review and Herald, August 22, 1907.
------------------------What the Word Is to Us, January 27
FH	39	1	Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.
FH	39	2	The Bible contains a simple and complete system of theology and philosophy. It is the book that makes us wise unto salvation. It tells us how to reach the abode of eternal happiness. It tells us of the love of God as shown in the plan of redemption, imparting the knowledge essential for all-the knowledge of Christ. He is the Sent of God; He is the Author of our salvation. But apart from the Word of God we could have no knowledge that such a person as the Lord Jesus Christ ever visited our world, nor any knowledge of His divinity, as indicated by His previous existence with the Father.
FH	39	3	The Bible is not written for the scholar alone; on the contrary, it was designed for the common people. The great truths necessary for our salvation are made as clear as noonday, and none will mistake and lose their way except those who follow their own judgment instead of the plainly revealed will of God.
FH	39	4	The Word of God strikes at every wrong trait of character, molding the whole person, internally and externally, abasing pride and self-exaltation, leading that person to bring the spirit of Christ into the smaller as well as the larger duties of life. It teaches all to be unswerving in their allegiance to justice and purity, and at the same time always to be kind and compassionate.
FH	39	5	The appreciation of the Bible grows with its study. Whichever way the student may turn, the infinite wisdom and love of God is displayed. To all who are truly converted, the Word of God is the joy and consolation of the life. The Spirit of God speaks to them, and their heart becomes like a watered garden....
FH	39	6	No knowledge is so firm, so consistent, so far-reaching, as that obtained from a study of the Word of God. If there were not another book in the wide world, the Word of God, lived out through the grace of Christ, would make us perfect in this world, with a character fitted for the future, immortal life. Those who study the Word, taking it in faith as the truth and receiving it into the character, will be complete in Him who is all in all. Thank God for the possibilities set before humanity.--The Review and Herald, June 11, 1908.
------------------------In My Name, January 28
FH	40	1	If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. John 14:14.
FH	40	2	The disciples were unacquainted with the Savior's unlimited resources and power. He said to them, "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name." John 16:24. He explained that the secret of their success would be in asking for strength and grace in His name. He would be present before the Father to make requests for them. The prayer of the humble suppliant He presents as His own desire in that soul's behalf. Every sincere prayer is heard in heaven. It may not be fluently expressed, but if the heart is in it, it will ascend to the sanctuary where Jesus ministers, and He will present it to the Father without one awkward, stammering word, beautiful and fragrant with the incense of His own perfection....
FH	40	3	"In my name" Christ bade His disciples to pray. In Christ's name His followers are to stand before God. Through the value of the sacrifice made for them, they are of value in the Lord's sight....
FH	40	4	The Lord is disappointed when His people place a low estimate upon themselves. He desires His chosen heritage to value themselves according to the price He has placed upon them. God wanted them, else He would not have sent His Son on such an expensive errand to redeem them. He has a use for them, and He is well pleased when they make the very highest demands upon Him, that they may glorify His name. They may expect large things if they have faith in His promises.
FH	40	5	But to pray in Christ's name means much. It means that we are to accept His character, manifest His spirit, and work His works. The Savior's promise is given on condition. "If ye love me," He says, "keep my commandments." He saves us, not in sin, but from sin; and those who love Him will show their love by obedience.
FH	40	6	All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart-work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service.--The Review and Herald, July 14, 1910.
------------------------God Will Not Turn Away From You, January 29
FH	41	1	All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. John 6:37.
FH	41	2	Jesus Himself, while He dwelt among us, was often in prayer. Prayer went before and sanctified every act of His ministry....
FH	41	3	He found comfort and joy in communion with His Father. And if our Savior, the Son of God, felt the need of prayer, how much more should feeble, sinful mortals feel the necessity of fervent, constant prayer....
FH	41	4	Do not entertain the thought that because you have made mistakes, because your life has been darkened by errors, your Heavenly Father does not love you and will not hear you when you pray.... His heart of love is touched by our sorrows, and even by our utterance of them.... Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over the affairs of the universe. Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. None have fallen so low, none are so vile, that they cannot find deliverance in Christ....
FH	41	5	If we keep the Lord ever before us, allowing our hearts to go out in thanksgiving and praise to Him, we shall have a continual freshness in our religious life. Our prayers will take the form of conversation with God, as we would talk with a friend. He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Often there will come to us a sweet, joyful sense of the presence of Jesus....
FH	41	6	How wonderful it is that we can pray effectually, that unworthy, erring mortals possess the power of offering their requests to God. What higher power can we require than this-to be linked with the infinite God? Feeble, sinful people have the privilege of speaking to their Maker. They utter words that reach the throne of the Monarch of the universe....
FH	41	7	The rainbow about the throne is an assurance that God is true, that in Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.... When we come to Him confessing our unworthiness and sin, He has pledged Himself to give heed to our cry. The honor of His throne is staked for the fulfillment of His Word unto us.--Signs of the Times, June 18, 1902.
------------------------Cheerful Giving, January 30
FH	42	1	Let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7.
FH	42	2	All our offerings should be presented with cheerfulness, for they come from the fund which the Lord has seen fit to place in our hands for the purpose of carrying forward His work in the world, in order that the banner of truth may be unfurled in the highways and byways of the earth. If all who profess the truth would give to the Lord His own in tithes and gifts and offerings, there would be meat in the house of the Lord. The cause of benevolence would no longer be dependent on the uncertain gifts of impulse, and vary according to people's changing feelings. God's claims would be welcomed, and His cause would be considered as justly entitled to a portion of the funds entrusted to our hands. The Lord is our divine Creditor, and He has made us promises through the prophet Malachi that are very plain, positive, and important. It means very much to us whether or not we are rendering to God His own. He allows His stewards a certain portion for their own use, and if they will trade upon that which He claims, He will divinely bless the means in their hands....
FH	42	3	The only plan which the gospel has marked out for sustaining the work of God is one that leaves the support of His cause to the honor of men and women....
FH	42	4	Those who are recipients of His grace, who contemplate the cross of Calvary, will not question concerning the proportion to be given, but will feel that the richest offering is all too meager, all disproportionate to the great gift of the only begotten Son of the infinite God.... Through self-denial, the poorest will find ways of obtaining something to give back to God....
FH	42	5	The rich are not to feel that they can be content in giving of their money merely.... Parents and children are not to regard themselves as their own, and feel that they can dispose of their time and property as shall please themselves. They are God's purchased possession, and the Lord calls for the profit of their physical powers, which are to be employed in bringing a revenue to the treasury of the Lord....
FH	42	6	Will every soul consider the fact that Christian discipleship includes self-denial, self-sacrifice, even to the laying down of life itself if need be, for the sake of Him who has given His life for the life of the world?--The Review and Herald, July 14, 1896.
------------------------The Prophetic Messenger Prays, January 31
FH	43	1	So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Exodus 33:11.
FH	43	2	[Prayer offered by Ellen White at the 1903 General Conference session.] Our heavenly Father, we come to Thee this morning just as we are, needy and wholly dependent upon Thee. Help us to have a clear knowledge of what we must be, and of the characters that we must form, in order that we may be prepared to unite with the heavenly family in the city of our God....
FH	43	3	O my Father, how can we proclaim Thy goodness, and Thy mercy, and Thy love, unless we cherish them in our own hearts and reveal them in our own experiences? Thou knowest how Thou hast presented this matter to Thy servant....
FH	43	4	Here are Thy ministers, whose work it is to proclaim Bible truth. I ask Thee that they may have a clear realization of the responsibilities that rest upon them as guardians and as shepherds of Thy flock.... Let them understand their own weakness, and may the sanctification of the Spirit come to them....
FH	43	5	Here are those who bear responsibilities in our institutions.... They have not in their dealings given a right example to the world. They did not realize that others were taking knowledge of them, to see whether they were sanctified by the truth.
FH	43	6	Oh, pardon our transgressions and forgive our sins! Show us where we have come short. Let Thy Holy Spirit descend upon us. The world is perishing in sin, and we ask Thee to roll the burden upon us at this meeting....
FH	43	7	Thou hast opened these things before me, and Thou alone canst prepare minds and hearts to hear the message that unless those who have left their first love shall return to recognize the work that needs to be done in their individual hearts, Thou wilt come quickly and remove the candlestick out of his place....
FH	43	8	We must be reconverted, sanctified, and made fit to bear the message of the Lord....
FH	43	9	My Father, break down the barriers, that confessions may be made, from heart To Whom It May Concern: heart, from brother to brother. May the Spirit of God come in; and Thy blessed name shall have all the glory. Amen.--The General Conference Bulletin, April 2, 1903.
------------------------Holiness in the Lord, February 1
FH	44	1	This is a hard saying; who can understand it? John 6:60.
FH	44	2	Some professed followers of Christ may be inclined to say, as did the disciples at a certain time as they listened to the earnest truths which fell from the lips of the divine Teacher, "This is an hard saying; who can hear it?" Many may think that the way is made too straight. When we talk of self-denial and sacrifice for Christ's sake, they think we dwell too much on these points. You would prefer to hear us speak of the Christian's reward. We know that those who are faithful will inherit all things, but the great question with us should be, "Who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?" Who shall be counted worthy to receive the exceeding great and precious reward that shall be given to the overcomers? Those who shall be partakers of Christ's sufferings will be sharers with Him of His glory.
FH	44	3	Without holiness, the Word of God tells us, no one can see the Lord. Without purity of life it is impossible for us to be fitted and prepared to dwell with the holy and sinless angels in a pure and holy heaven. No sin can be there. No impurity can enter the pearly gates of the golden city of God. And the question for us to settle is whether we will turn from all sin and comply with the conditions God has given us, that we may become His sons and daughters. Separation from the world He requires of us in order to become members of the royal family....
FH	44	4	We believe without a doubt that Christ is soon to come, and believing this we feel a necessity upon us to plead with men and women to prepare for the coming of the Son of man.... We want you to be of that company that shall bow before the throne of God crying, "Worthy, worthy, worthy, is the Lamb that was slain for us."...
FH	44	5	When you are all ready, having overcome your sins, having put away all your iniquity from you, you are in a condition to receive the finishing touch of immortality....
FH	44	6	It will not be safe for you to wait for a better time to come. It is while it is called today. If anyone will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. It is to listen today to the invitation of mercy. It is to yield your pride, your folly, your vanity, and make an entire surrender of your heart to God. Come to Him with your talents and all the influence you have, and lay all these without reserve at the feet of Him who died on Calvary's cross to redeem you.--The Review and Herald, April 12, 1870.
------------------------What Do We Sacrifice for Heaven? February 2
FH	45	1	You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.... You shall love your neighbor as yourself Mark 12:30, 31.
FH	45	2	We see beauty and loveliness and glory in Jesus. We behold in Him matchless charms. He was the majesty of heaven.... Angels bowed in adoration before Him and readily obeyed His commands. Our Savior gave up all. He laid aside His glory, His majesty, and splendor, and came down to this earth and died for a race of rebels who were transgressors against His Father's commandments. Christ condescended to humble Himself that He might save the fallen race. He drank the cup of suffering, and in its place offers us the cup of blessing; yes, that cup was drained for us; and although many know all this, yet they choose to go on in sin and folly; and still Jesus invites them.... The truths of God's Word must be brought to bear upon us, and we must lay hold upon them. If we do this, they will have a sanctifying influence upon our lives; they will fit us that we may have a preparation for the kingdom of glory, that when our probation shall close, we may see the King in His beauty and dwell in His presence forevermore.
FH	45	3	And now the question is, Are we willing to make the sacrifice?... "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." What a promise is this!
FH	45	4	And do you think that by embracing the truth of God you are degrading yourself?... The truth elevates the receiver every time.... It brings purity of character and purity of life and gives a fitness that we may join the heavenly company in the kingdom of glory. Without this fitness we can never see the heavenly abode....
FH	45	5	Does the truth require you to stand alone in your position to serve God, because others around you are not willing to yield to the claims that Christ has upon them? Does it require a separation in feeling from them? Yes; and this is the cross which you must bear, which leads many to say, I cannot yield to the claims of the truth. But says Christ, If anyone love father, or mother, or brother, or sister, more than me, he is not worthy of me.... Is this too great a sacrifice to make for Him who sacrificed all for you?--The Review and Herald, April 19, 1870.
------------------------Grow in Grace, February 3
FH	46	1	You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 2:1.
FH	46	2	The seeking of the kingdom of God and His righteousness is to be the object and aim of our lives. It is no child's play to fulfill this injunction, but whatever self-denial it calls for, it is still for our interest in this life and the life to come to obey this command. We are to have an eye single to the glory of God, and thus grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The more earnestly and diligently we seek for divine wisdom, the more firmly established we shall be in the truth....
FH	46	3	We are not always to remain children in our knowledge and experience in spiritual things. We are not always to express ourselves in the language of one who has just received Christ, but our prayers and exhortations are to grow in intelligence as we advance in experience in the truth. The language of a child of 6 in a child of 10 years of age would not be pleasing to us, and how painful would it be to hear expressions of childish intelligence in one who had arrived at years of maturity....
FH	46	4	The youth who has had several years of experience in the Christian life ought not to have the hesitating language of one who is a babe in Christ. There is a want of growth in professed Christians. Those who are not growing up unto the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus manifest this in the way they speak of the things of the kingdom of God....
FH	46	5	The testimonies that are borne by many of the professed followers of Christ are those of persons who have become dwarfs in the Christian life. The language of true, deep, intelligent experience is wanting....
FH	46	6	We are not to cultivate the language of the earthy, and be so familiar with human conversation that the language of Canaan will be new and unfamiliar to us....
FH	46	7	Christians are to be faithful students in the school of Christ, ever learning more of heaven, more of the words and will of God, more of the truth, and how to use faithfully the knowledge that they have gained to instruct others and to lead them to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We are to have an intelligent knowledge of the Scriptures, for how can we know God's will and way without searching for the treasures of God's righteousness in His Holy Word? We should know the truth for ourselves and understand both the prophecies and the practical teachings of our Lord.--Youth's Instructor, June 28, 1894.
------------------------Counterfeit Sanctification, February 4
FH	47	1	Because you say, "I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing"-and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Revelation 3:17.
FH	47	2	Dear Brother: We are pained to learn the condition of Brother B [A. W Bartlett], and to know that Satan is pushing him on to cause disaffection in the Indiana Conference under the pious guise of Christian holiness. Both you and ourselves fully believe that holiness of life is necessary to fit us for the inheritance of saints in light. We contend that this state must be reached in a Bible way. Christ prayed that His disciples might be sanctified through the truth, and the apostles preached of purifying our hearts by obeying the truth.
FH	47	3	The professed church of Christ is full of the spurious article, and one distinct feature of it is the more the members drink into the spirit of popular sanctification, the less they prize the present truth. Many of those who are the open opponents of God's Sabbath, the third angel's message, and the health reform are among the sanctified ones. Some of them have even reached the almost hopeless position that they cannot sin. These, of course, have no further use for the Lord's Prayer, which teaches us to pray that our sins may be forgiven, and but very little use for the Bible, as they profess to be led by the Spirit....
FH	47	4	What a terrible deception! They think they are complete in Christ, and know not that they are wretched, blind, miserable, poor, and naked....
FH	47	5	We warn our brethren of the Indiana Conference and elsewhere. Our position has ever been that true sanctification, which will stand the test of the judgment, is that which comes through obedience of the truth and of God....
FH	47	6	God is leading out a people, but it has been Satan's effort all the way to induce certain ones to set up their judgment against that of the body, and thus lead them away from the body to certain ruin. Thus have self-deceived souls fallen all the way along during the history of the third angel's message. Those who are led by fanaticism will gradually feel in harmony with those who fully reject the truth, and unless they can be arrested in their course will, sooner or later, be in the ranks of our bitterest opponents. (Signed by both James and Ellen White.)-The Review and Herald, June 6, 1878.
------------------------Winning Back the Erring, February 5
FH	48	1	If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. Matthew 18:15.
FH	48	2	If you are grieved because your neighbors or friends are doing wrong to their own hurt, if they are overtaken in fault, follow the Bible rule. "Tell him his fault between thee and him alone." As you go to the one you suppose to be in error, see that you speak in a meek and lowly spirit, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. The erring can in no other way be restored than in the spirit of meekness and gentleness and tender love. Be careful in your manner. Avoid anything in look or gesture, word or tone of voice, that savors of pride or self-sufficiency. Guard yourself against a word or look that would exalt self or present your goodness and righteousness in contrast with their failings. Beware of the most distant approach to disdain, overbearing, or contempt. With care avoid every appearance of anger, and though you use plainness of speech, yet let there be no reproach, no railing accusation, no token of warmth, but that of earnest love. Above all, let there be no shadow of hate or ill will, no bitterness nor sourness of expression....
FH	48	3	Bear in mind that the success of reproof depends greatly upon the spirit in which it is given. Do not neglect earnest prayer that you may possess a lowly mind and that angels of God may work upon the hearts you are trying to reach, before you, and so soften them by heavenly impressions, that your efforts may avail....
FH	48	4	You may have excused yourself for speaking evil of your brother or sister or neighbor to others before going to them, and taking the steps God has absolutely commanded. Perhaps you say, "I did not speak to anyone until I was so burdened that I could not refrain." What burdened you? Was it a plain neglect of your own duty, a thus saith the Lord? You were under the guilt of sin because you did not go tell him his fault between thee and him alone....
FH	48	5	Sometimes the mildest and tenderest reproof will have no good effect. In that case, the blessing you wanted another to receive by pursuing a course of righteousness, ceasing to do evil and learning to do well, will return into your own bosom. If the erring persist in sin, treat them kindly and leave them with your Heavenly Father.--The Review and Herald, July 17, 1879.
------------------------The Secret of Spiritual Life, February 6
FH	49	1	Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3:5.
FH	49	2	The question is often asked, Why is there not more power in the church? Why not more vital godliness? The reason is, the requirements of God's Word are not complied with in verity and in truth; God is not loved supremely, and our neighbor as ourselves. This covers the entire ground. Upon these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Let these two requirements of God be obeyed explicitly, and there would be no discord in the church, no inharmonious notes in the family. With many the work is too superficial. Outward forms take the place of the inner work of grace.... The theory of the truth has converted the head, but the soul temple has not been cleansed from its idols.
FH	49	3	When the commandment came home to the mind and heart of Paul, he says, "Sin revived and I died." In these days of pretense there are many sham conversions. True conviction of sin, real heart sorrow because of wickedness, death to self, the daily overcoming of defects of character, and the new birth-these, represented as old things, Paul says had passed away, and all things had become new. Such a work many know nothing of. They grafted the truth into their natural hearts, and then went on as before, manifesting the same unhappy traits of character....
FH	49	4	Make the tree good, and good fruit will be the result. The work of the Spirit of God upon the heart is essential to godliness. It must be received into the hearts of those who accept the truth, and create in them clean hearts, before one of them can keep His commandments and be doers of the Word....
FH	49	5	The Bible is not studied as much as it should be; it is not made the rule of life. Were its precepts conscientiously followed and made the basis of character, there would be steadfastness of purpose that no business speculations or worldly pursuits could seriously influence. A character thus formed, and supported by the Word of God, will abide the day of trial, of difficulties and dangers. The conscience must be enlightened, and the life sanctified by the love of the truth received into the heart, before the influence will be saving upon the world.--The Review and Herald, August 28, 1879.
------------------------A Living Church, February 7
FH	50	1	You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven. 1 Thessalonians 1:9, 10.
FH	50	2	A living church will be a working church. Practical Christianity will develop earnest workers for the advancement of the cause of truth.... We long to see the true Christian character manifested in the church. We long to see its members free from a light, irreverent spirit; and we earnestly desire that they may realize their high calling in Christ Jesus. Some who profess Christ are exerting themselves to the utmost to so live and act that their religious faith may commend itself to people of moral worth, that they may be induced to accept the truth. But there are many who feel no responsibility even to keep their own souls in the love of God, and who, instead of blessing others by their influence, are a burden to those who would work and watch and pray....
FH	50	3	Those who are seeking in humbleness of mind to exalt the truth of Christ by their exemplary course are represented in the Word of God as fine gold, while the class whose chief thought and study is to exhibit themselves are as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal....
FH	50	4	We entreat those who have a connection with God to pray earnestly and in faith, and not to stop here, but to work as well as pray, for the purification of the church. The present time calls for men and women who have a moral fixedness of purpose, men and women who will not be molded or subdued by any unsanctified influences....
FH	50	5	No man or woman can succeed in the service of God without putting the whole soul in the work and counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Those who make any reserve, who refuse to give all that they have, cannot be disciples of Christ; much less can they be His colaborers. The consecration must be complete....
FH	50	6	Jesus has gone to prepare mansions for those who are waiting and watching for His appearing. There they will meet the pure angels and the redeemed host and will join their songs of praise and triumph. There the Savior's love surrounds His people, and the city of God is irradiated with the light of His countenance-a city whose walls, great and high, are garnished with all manner of precious stones, whose gates are pearls, and whose streets are pure gold, as it were transparent glass.--The Review and Herald, June 3, 1880.
------------------------The Christian Race, February 8
FH	51	1	Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1.
FH	51	2	In this text one of the public games so famous in Paul's time is used to illustrate the Christian race. The competitors in the race submitted to a painful training process, practicing the most rigid self-denial that their physical powers might be in the most favorable condition, and then they taxed these powers to the utmost to win the honor of a perishable wreath. Some never recovered from the effects. In consequence of the terrible strain, men would sometimes fall by the racecourse, bleeding at the mouth and nose. Others breathed out their life, firmly grasping the poor bauble that had cost them so dear.
FH	51	3	Paul compares the followers of Christ to the competitors in a race. "Now," says the apostle, "they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible." Here Paul makes a sharp contrast, to put to shame the feeble efforts of professed Christians who plead for their selfish indulgences and refuse to place themselves, by self-denial and strictly temperate habits, in a position that they will make a success of overcoming. All who entered the list in the public games were animated and excited by the hope of a prize if they were successful. In like manner a prize is held out before Christians, the reward of faithfulness to the end of the race. If the prize is won, their future welfare is assured; an exceeding and eternal weight of glory is in reserve for the overcomers....
FH	51	4	In the races, the crown of honor was placed in sight of the competitors, that if any were tempted for a moment to relax their efforts, the eye would rest on the prize, and they would be inspired with new vigor. So the heavenly goal is presented to the view of the Christian, that it may have its just influence and inspire all with zeal and ardor....
FH	51	5	All ran in the race, but only one received the prize.... It is not so with the Christian race. None who are earnest and persevering will fail of success. The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. The weakest saint as well as the strongest may obtain the crown of immortal glory, if they are thoroughly in earnest and will submit to privation and loss for Christ's sake.--The Review and Herald, October 18, 1881.
------------------------Faith Is the Victory, February 9
FH	52	1	I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14.
FH	52	2	The greatest blessing we can have is a correct knowledge of ourselves, that we may see our defects of character and by divine grace remedy them....
FH	52	3	Are we nearer to God today than we were a year ago? What a change there would be in our religious experience, what a transformation in our characters, if day by day we carried out the principle that we are not our own, but that our time and talents belong to God, and every faculty should be used to do His will and advance His glory....
FH	52	4	We may be shut in by the promises of God, which will be as a wall of fire about us. We want to know how to exercise faith. Faith "is the gift of God," but the power to exercise it is ours. If faith lies dormant, it is no advantage to us; but in exercise it holds all blessings in its grasp. It is the hand by which the soul takes hold of the strength of the Infinite. It is the medium by which human hearts, renewed by the grace of Christ, are made to beat in harmony with the great Heart of love. Faith plants itself on the promises of God and claims them as surety that He will do just as He said He would. Jesus comes to the sinful, helpless, needy soul and says, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Believe, claim the promises, and praise God that you do receive the things you have asked of Him, and when your need is greatest, you will experience His blessing and receive special help....
FH	52	5	The inquiry in many hearts is, How shall I find happiness? We are not to make it our object to live for happiness, but we shall surely find it in the path of humble obedience. Paul was happy. He affirms repeatedly that notwithstanding the sufferings, conflicts, and trials that he was called to bear, he enjoyed great consolation. He says, "I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation." All the energies of the chiefest of the apostles were bent to a preparation for the future, immortal life, and when the time of his departure was at hand, he could exclaim in holy triumph, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day."--Signs of the Times, May 22, 1884.
------------------------Giving, a Habit Born of Love, February 10
FH	53	1	Let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper. 1 Corinthians 16:2.
FH	53	2	Giving is a part of gospel religion. The foundation of the plan of salvation was laid in sacrifice. Jesus left the royal courts of heaven and became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. His life on earth was unselfish, marked with humiliation and sacrifice. And is the servant greater than his Lord? Shall we, partakers of the great salvation which He wrought out for us, refuse to follow our Lord, and to share in His self-denial? When the world's Redeemer has suffered so much for us, shall we, the members of His body, live in thoughtless self-indulgence? No; self-denial is an essential condition of discipleship....
FH	53	3	Christ, as our head, led out in the great work of salvation, but He has entrusted that work to His followers upon earth. It cannot be carried on without means, and He has given His people a plan for raising means sufficient to make His cause prosperous. The tithing system, instituted for this purpose, reaches back to the time of Moses. Even as far back as the days of Adam, long before the definite system was given, men were required to offer to God gifts for religious purposes....
FH	53	4	God does not compel us to give to His cause. Our action must be voluntary. He will not have His treasury replenished with unwilling offerings. His design in the plan of systematic giving was to bring us into close relationship with our Creator and in sympathy and love with our fellow human beings, thus placing upon us responsibilities that would counteract selfishness and strengthen disinterested, generous impulses. We are inclined to be selfish and to close our hearts to generous deeds. The Lord, by requiring gifts to be made at stated times, designed that giving should become a habit and be looked upon as a Christian duty. The heart, opened by one gift, was not to have time to close and become selfishly cold, before another offering was bestowed....
FH	53	5	Every man, woman, and child may become a treasurer for the Lord....
FH	53	6	It is for our own good that He has planned to have us bear some part in the advancement of His cause. He has honored us by making us coworkers with Himself. He has ordained that there should be a necessity for the cooperation of His people, that they may cultivate and keep in exercise their benevolent affections.--Signs of the Times, March. 18, 1886.
------------------------The Christian's Rest, February 11
FH	54	1	Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30.
FH	54	2	The world is full of unrest, trials, and difficulties. It is an enemy's land, and on every hand we are beset by temptations. "In the world," says Jesus, "ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world"; and "my peace I give unto you."
FH	54	3	Our Savior represents His requirements as a yoke, and the Christian life as one of burden-bearing. Yet, contrasting these with the cruel power of Satan and with the burdens imposed by sin, He declares: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." When we try to live the life of a Christian, to bear its responsibilities and perform its duties without Christ as a helper, the yoke is galling, the burden intolerably heavy. But Jesus does not desire us to do this....
FH	54	4	Many profess to come to Christ, while they yet cling to their own ways, which are a painful yoke. Selfishness, covetousness, ambition, love of the world, or some other cherished sin, destroys their peace and joy....
FH	54	5	In every act the Christian should seek to represent his Master, to make His service appear attractive. Let none make religion repulsive by persistent gloominess, and by relating their trials and their difficulties, their self-denials and their sacrifices....
FH	54	6	Let it be seen that with you the love of Christ is an abiding motive; that your religion is not like a garment that may be put off and resumed again, as the circumstances demand, but a principle, calm, steady, unvarying-one that rules your whole life....
FH	54	7	Whatever your lot in life may be, remember that you are in the service of Christ, and manifest a contented, grateful spirit. Whatever your burden or cross, lift it in the name of Jesus; bear it in His strength....
FH	54	8	Love to Jesus cannot be hidden, but will make itself seen and felt.... It makes the timid bold, the slothful diligent, the ignorant wise. It makes the stammering tongue eloquent, and rouses the dormant intellect into new life and vigor.... Peace in Christ is of more value than all the treasures of earth.--Signs of the Times, December 17, 1885.
------------------------Developing a Godlike Character, February 12
FH	55	1	The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Galatians 5:22, 23.
FH	55	2	People can be just what they choose to be. Character is not obtained by receiving an education. Character is not obtained by amassing wealth or by gaining worldly honor. Character is not obtained by trying to have others fight the battle of life for us. It must be sought, worked for, fought for; and it requires a purpose, a will, a determination. To form a character which God will approve requires persevering effort. It will take a continual resisting of the powers of darkness to stand under the bloodstained banner of Prince Immanuel, to be approved in the day of judgment, and have our names retained in the book of life. Is it not worth more to have our names registered in that book, have them immortalized among the heavenly angels, than to have them sounded in praise throughout the whole earth? Let me know that Jesus smiles upon me; let me know that He approves my actions and my course, and then let come what may, let afflictions be ever so great, I will be resigned to my lot and rejoice in the Lord....
FH	55	3	Have you kindled your fire from the altar? Then let it shine forth in good works to those around you. Gather yourselves together, and by your divine influence and earnest efforts scatter the light....
FH	55	4	We must work for God, and we must work for heaven, with all the might and faith there is in us. Be not deceived by the temporary things of this life. Consider the things of eternal interest. I want a closer connection with God. I want to sing the song of redemption in the kingdom of glory. I want the crown of immortality to be placed upon my brow. With an immortal tongue I want to sing praises to Him who left glory and came to earth to save those that were lost. I want to praise Him. I want to magnify Him. I want to glorify Him. I want the immortal inheritance and the eternal substance. And what care I, I ask you, what care I for the things of the world if I lose or if I gain heaven at last? Or what advantage will they be to me? But if I have a hold on Heaven, I can have a right hold on my fellow human beings; I can have an influence that will constantly press against the tide of evil that there is in the world, and lead souls into the ark of safety.--The Review and Herald, December 21, 1886.
------------------------Led by the Spirit, February 13
FH	56	1	See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. Isaiah 49:16.
FH	56	2	There are two courses of action which we may pursue. One leads us away from God, and shuts us out of His kingdom; and in this path are envying, strife, murder, and all evil deeds. The other course of action we are to follow, and in its pursuance will be found joy, peace, harmony, and love.... It is the love that glowed in the bosom of Jesus which we most need; and when it is in the heart, it will reveal itself. Can we have the love of Jesus Christ in the heart, and that love not go out to others? It cannot be there without testifying that it is there. It will reveal itself in the words, in the very expression of the countenance....
FH	56	3	When our eldest son, in whom we had the brightest hopes, and upon whom we expected to lean, and whom we had solemnly dedicated to God, was taken from us, when we had closed his eyes in death,* and mourned in great sorrow because of our affliction, then there came a peace into my soul that was beyond description, that was past understanding. I could think of the morn of the resurrection; I could think of the future, when the great Life-giver will come and break the fetters of the tomb, and call forth the righteous dead from their dusty beds; when He will release the captives from their prison houses; that then our son will be among the living ones again. In this there was a peace, there was a joy, there was a consolation, that was beyond description....
FH	56	4	When Christ left the world He committed a work into our hands. While here He Himself carried His work forward; but when He ascended to heaven His followers were left to take it up where He left it. Others took up the work where the disciples left it; and so it has been carried on until now we have the work to do in our own time....
FH	56	5	We do not have to walk alone. We can carry all our sorrows and griefs, troubles and trials, afflictions and cares, and pour them into the ear that is open to hear, of One who is pleading before the Father the merits of His own blood. He is pleading His wounds-My hands, My hands! "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." He offers the wounded hands to God, and His petitions are heard, and swift angels are sent to minister to fallen men and women, to lift up and to sustain.--The Review and Herald, January 4, 1887.
------------------------Adding and Multiplying, February 14
FH	57	1	Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 2 Peter 1:2.
FH	57	2	We are not to trust in our faith, but in the promises of God. When we repent of our past transgressions of His law, and resolve to render obedience in the future, we should believe that God for Christ's sake accepts us and forgives our sins.
FH	57	3	Darkness and discouragement will sometimes come upon the soul and threaten to overwhelm us, but we should not cast away our confidence. We must keep the eye fixed on Jesus, feeling or no feeling. We should seek to faithfully perform every known duty, and then calmly rest in the promises of God....
FH	57	4	We may not feel today the peace and joy which we felt yesterday, but we should by faith grasp the hand of Christ, and trust Him as fully in the darkness as in the light.
FH	57	5	Satan may whisper, "You are too great a sinner for Christ to save." While you acknowledge that you are indeed sinful and unworthy, you may meet the tempter with the cry, "By virtue of the atonement, I claim Christ as my Savior."...
FH	57	6	If we would permit our minds to dwell more upon Christ and the heavenly world, we should find a powerful stimulus and support in fighting the battles of the Lord.... When the mind has been long permitted to dwell only on earthly things, it is a difficult matter to change the habits of thought. That which the eye sees and the ear hears, too often attracts the attention and absorbs the interest. But if we would enter the city of God, and look upon Jesus in His glory, we must become accustomed to beholding Him with the eye of faith here....
FH	57	7	Sanctification is a progressive work. The successive steps are set before us in the words of Peter: "Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity."... Here is a course by which we may be assured that we shall never fall. Those who are thus working upon the plan of addition in obtaining the Christian graces, have the assurance that God will work upon the plan of multiplication in granting them the gifts of His Spirit.--The Review and Herald, November 15, 1887.
------------------------United With Our Maker, February 15
FH	58	1	He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. 1 John 2:6.
FH	58	2	There is a great work for us to do if we would inherit eternal life. We are to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live a life of righteousness. Many teach that all that is necessary to salvation is to believe in Jesus; but what saith the word of truth? "Faith without works is dead." We are to "fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life," take up the cross, deny self, war against the flesh, and follow daily in the footsteps of the Redeemer. There is no salvation for us except in Jesus, for it is through faith in Him that we receive power to become the sons and daughters of God; but it is not merely a passing faith; it is faith that works the works of Christ....
FH	58	3	Living faith makes itself manifest by exhibiting a spirit of sacrifice and devotion toward the cause of God. Those who possess it stand under the banner of Prince Emmanuel, and wage a successful warfare against the powers of darkness....
FH	58	4	Genuine faith in Jesus leads to denial of self, but however high the profession may be, if self is exalted and indulged, the faith of Jesus is not in the heart. True Christians manifest by a life of daily consecration that they are bought with a price and are not their own....
FH	58	5	Whoever takes the position that it makes no difference whether or not we keep the commandments of God, is not acquainted with Christ.... It is a fatal mistake to think that there is nothing for you to do in obtaining salvation. You are to cooperate with the agencies of heaven....
FH	58	6	Those who are connected with Jesus are in union with the Maker and Upholder of all things. They have a power that the world cannot give nor take away. But while great and exalted privileges are given to them, they are not simply to rejoice in their blessings. As stewards of the manifold grace of God, they are to become a blessing to others....
FH	58	7	We are our brother's keeper. Christ "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." And that faith which accomplishes this zeal in us is the only genuine faith. If the branch is abiding in the True Vine, its union is made manifest by the fruit that appears, for "by their fruits ye shall know them."--The Review and Herald, March 6, 1888.
------------------------Heavenly Attributes, February 16
FH	59	1	Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. John 17:17.
FH	59	2	Every moment of our probationary time is precious, for it is our time for character-building. We should give most diligent heed to the culture of our spiritual nature. We should watch our hearts, guarding our thoughts lest impurity tarnish the soul. We should seek to keep every faculty of the mind in the very best condition, that we serve God to the extent of our ability. Nothing should be permitted to interrupt our communion with God....
FH	59	3	We have a work to do in this world, and we must not allow ourselves to become self-absorbed, and so forget the claims of God and humanity upon us. If we seek God with earnestness, He will impress us by His Holy Spirit. He knows what we need, for He is acquainted with our every weakness, and He would have us work away from self, that we may become kind in thought and word and deed. We must cease to think and talk of self, making our needs and wants the sole object of our thoughts. God would have us cultivate the attributes of heaven....
FH	59	4	How patiently should we bear with the faults and errors of our brethren, when we remember how great are our own failings in the sight of God. How can we pray to our Heavenly Father, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," if we are denunciatory, resentful, exacting in our treatment of others? God would have us more kind, more loving and lovable, less critical and suspicious. Oh, that we all might have the Spirit of Christ, and know how to deal with our brethren and neighbors!...
FH	59	5	There are too many among those who profess to be followers of Christ who seek to excuse their own defects by magnifying the errors of others. We should copy the example of Jesus, for when He was reviled, He reviled not again, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.... He was the Majesty of heaven, and in His pure breast there dwelt no room for the spirit of retaliation, but only for pity and love....
FH	59	6	We may not remember some act of kindness which we do, it may fade from our memory; but eternity will bring out in all its brightness every act done for the salvation of souls, every word spoken for the comfort of God's children; and these deeds done for Christ's sake will be a part of our joy through all eternity.--The Review and Herald, February 24, 1891.
------------------------God's Blessings and Our Responsibility, February 17
FH	60	1	“Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3:7.
FH	60	2	Satan constantly presents the sins and wrongs of those who claim to be the children of God, and he taunts the angels of God with their defects. What will bring the Lord's people into a right position before Him? The Lord answers the question in Malachi, saying, "Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts." When we seek the Lord with full purpose of heart, He will be found of us.
FH	60	3	Daniel purposed in his heart that he would be true to the God of heaven. He determined that he would not eat of the king's meat, or drink of his wine; and his three companions determined that they would not dishonor God by bowing down before the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar set up in the plain of Dura. When we purpose to serve the Lord with a determination like that of these faithful servants of God, the Lord will take our part and enable us to lay hold of His strength....
FH	60	4	Angels look with amazement upon the ingratitude of those for whom God has done so much in continually bestowing His favors and gifts. People forget the claims of God, and indulge in selfishness and worldliness....
FH	60	5	God cannot bless us in lands and flocks when we do not use His blessings for His glory. He cannot trust His treasure to those who misapply it. In the simplest language the Lord has told His children what He requires of them. They are to pay tithes of all they possess, and to make offerings of that which He bestows upon them. His mercies and blessings have been abundant and systematic. He sends down His rain and sunshine, and causes vegetation to flourish. He gives the seasons; sowing and reaping-time come in their order; and the unfailing goodness of God calls for something better than the ingratitude and forgetfulness that many render to Him.
FH	60	6	Shall we not return to God, and with grateful hearts present our tithes and offerings? The Lord has made duty so plain that if we neglect to fulfill His requirements we shall be without excuse. The Lord has left His goods in the hands of His servants to be handled with equity, that the gospel may be preached in all the world. The arrangement and provision for the spread of His truth in the world has not been left to chance.--Signs of the Times, January 13, 1890.
------------------------Let Your Light Shine, February 18
FH	61	1	But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. John 3:21.
FH	61	2	In His sermon on the mount, Christ presented to the people the fact that personal piety was their strength. They were to surrender themselves to God, working with Him with unreserved cooperation. High pretensions, forms, and ceremonies, however imposing, do not make the heart good and the character pure. True love for God is an active principle, a purifying agency....
FH	61	3	The Jewish nation had occupied the highest position; they had built walls great and high to enclose themselves from association with the heathen world; they had represented themselves as the special, loyal people who were favored of God. But Christ presented their religion as devoid of saving faith. It was a combination of dry, hard doctrines, intermingled with sacrifices and offerings. They were very particular to practice circumcision, but they did not teach the necessity of having a pure heart. They exalted the commandments of God in words, but refused to exalt them in practice, and their religion was only a stumbling block to others....
FH	61	4	Although they had hitherto held undisputed authority in religious matters, they must now give place to the great Teacher, and to a religion which knew no bounds and made no distinction of caste or position in society, or of race among nations. But the truth taught by Christ was designed for the whole human family. The only true faith is that which works by love and purifies the soul. It is as leaven that transforms human character....
FH	61	5	The gospel of Christ means practical godliness, a religion which lifts the receiver out of his natural depravity. The one who beholds the Lamb of God knows that He takes away the sins of the world. True religion would result in an entirely different development of life and character than that seen in the lives of the scribes and Pharisees....
FH	61	6	God does not give light that it may be hidden selfishly, and not penetrate to those who sit in darkness. Human agents are God's appointed channel to the world. Instead of being instructed to hide their light, the Savior says to His people, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."--The Review and Herald, April 30, 1895.
------------------------Our Need of the Holy Spirit, February 19
FH	62	1	If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:25.
FH	62	2	The Holy Spirit is not only to sanctify but to convict. We cannot repent of our sins until we are convicted of our guilt. How necessary, then, it is that we should have the Holy Spirit with us as we labor to reach fallen souls. Our human abilities will be exercised in vain unless they are united with this heavenly agency....
FH	62	3	In the work of saving sinners, we and angels are to work in harmony, teaching the truth of God to those who are unlearned therein, in order that they may be set free from the bonds of sin. Truth alone can make us free. The liberty that comes through a knowledge of truth is to be proclaimed to every creature. Our heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the angels of heaven are all interested in this grand and holy work. To us has been given the exalted privilege of revealing the divine character by unselfishly seeking to rescue sinners from the pit of ruin into which they have been plunged. Every human being who will submit to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit is to be used for the accomplishment of this divinely conceived purpose....
FH	62	4	Our Savior is to be more distinctly recognized and acknowledged as the all-sufficiency of His church. He alone can perfect the faith of His people....
FH	62	5	We need to leave more room for the working of the Holy Spirit in order that laborers may be bound together and may move forward in the strength of the united body of soldiers.... Entire consecration to the service of God will reveal the molding influence of the Holy Spirit at every step along the way....
FH	62	6	God desires that His church shall lay hold by faith upon His promises, and ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to help them in every place....
FH	62	7	Oh, that frail mankind would realize that it is the General of the armies of heaven that is leading and directing the movements of His allies on earth. Christ Himself is the renewing power, working in and through every soldier by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Every individual is to become an instrument in His hands to work for the salvation of souls. Not one who desires to labor for the Master is to be refused a place, if he is a true follower of Christ. Every one has an individual responsibility to bear in the cause of Christ. The efficiency of the Spirit of God will make effective the labors of all who are willing to submit to His guidance.--The Review and Herald, July 16, 1895.
------------------------Dare to Be a Daniel, February 20
FH	63	1	Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you. Acts 24:25.
FH	63	2	No matter how sinful we have been, no matter what our position may be, if we will repent and believe, coming unto Christ, and trusting Him as our personal Savior, we may be saved to the uttermost. But how dangerous is the position of the one who knows truth but delays to practice it. How perilous it is for men and women to seek to amuse the mind, to gratify the taste and satisfy the reason, by neglecting what has been revealed as duty, and rambling off in search of something they do not know....
FH	63	3	Jesus says, "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you."... Practice every precept of truth presented to you. Live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, and you will then follow Jesus wherever He goeth.... The Lord does not refuse to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. When conviction comes home to the conscience, why not listen, and heed the voice of the Spirit of God? By every hesitation and delay we place ourselves where it is more and more difficult for us to accept the light of heaven, and at last it seems impossible to be impressed by admonitions and warnings. The sinner says, more and more easily, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee."...
FH	63	4	The souls that at first delay and hesitate, resisting light and pressing against all knowledge, have excellent intentions of making a square turnabout when a convenient season shall come; but the wily foe that is upon their track makes his plans to bind them by the imperceptible threads of evil habits. Character is formed by habits, and one step in the downward road is a preparation for the second step, and the second for those that shall follow....
FH	63	5	The children of God are to shine as lights in the midst of a perverse and crooked generation. But if right habits are not cultivated, they will give way to natural tendencies, and will become self-sufficient, self-indulgent, reckless, covetous, revengeful, independent, self-willed, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God....
FH	63	6	The character of Daniel is an illustration of what a sinner may become through the grace of Christ. He was strong in intellectual and spiritual power.... The Holy Spirit is to be in us a divine indweller. Then let gratitude and love abound in your heart to God.--The Review and Herald, June 29, 1897.
------------------------Becoming a Child of God, February 21
FH	64	1	But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. John 1:12.
FH	64	2	If we could appreciate this great blessing, what an advantage it would be to us! We are given the privilege of being laborers together with God in the saving of our souls. Receiving and believing is our part of the contract. We are to receive Christ as our personal Savior, and are to continue to believe in Him. This means abiding in Christ, showing in Him, at all times and under all circumstances, a faith that is a representation of His character-a faith that works by love, and purifies the soul from all defilement....
FH	64	3	We must each obtain an experience for ourselves. No one can depend for salvation on the experience or practice of any other individual. We must each become acquainted with Christ in order properly to represent Him to the world.... None of us need to excuse our hasty temper, our misshapen character, our selfishness, envy, jealousy, or any impurity of soul, body, or spirit. God has called us to glory and virtue. We are to obey the call....
FH	64	4	How can we escape the power of one who was once an exalted angel in the heavenly courts? He was a being full of beauty and personal charm, blessed with a powerful intellect. Because of his exaltation he thought himself equal with God.... How can we discern his false theories and resist his temptations? Only through the individual experience gained by receiving a knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. Without divine aid we could not possibly escape the temptations and snares that Satan has prepared to deceive human minds....
FH	64	5	We are to walk as He walked, following closely in His footsteps, manifesting His meekness and lowliness.... The service of Christ is pure and elevated. The path He traveled is not one of self-pleasing, self-gratification. He speaks to His children, saying, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." The price of heaven is submission to Christ. The way to heaven is obedience to the command, Deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow Me. As Jesus journeyed, so we must journey. The path He followed, we must follow; for that path leads to the mansions He is preparing for us.--The Review and Herald, April 24, 1900.
------------------------Godliness With Contentment, February 22
FH	65	1	How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! Luke 18:24.
FH	65	2	These words of the Savior are deeply significant and call for our earnest study.... Many who possess great wealth have obtained their riches by close dealing, by benefiting themselves at the expense of their fellow human beings; and they glory in their shrewdness in closing a bargain. Every dollar thus obtained, and the increase of every such dollar, has upon it the curse of God....
FH	65	3	Wealthy men and women are to be more closely tested than they have ever yet been. If they stand the test, and remove the blemishes of dishonesty and injustice from their characters, and as faithful stewards render to God the things that are God's, to them it will be said, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant:... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."...
FH	65	4	"No man can serve two masters," Christ said, "for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other."... When the Pharisees, who were covetous, heard these things, they derided Him. But turning to them, Christ said, "Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God."...
FH	65	5	Writing to his son in the gospel, Paul says, "Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."...
FH	65	6	Paul would impress upon the mind of Timothy the necessity of giving such instruction as would remove the deception which so easily steals upon the rich, that because of their wealth they are superior to others who do not have such large possessions as themselves. They suppose their gain to be godliness....
FH	65	7	There are high and holy interests which call for our money, and the money invested in these will yield to the giver more elevated and permanent enjoyment than if it were expended for personal gratification or selfishly hoarded for greed of gain.--The Review and Herald, December 19, 1899.
------------------------What Is Faith? February 23
FH	66	1	Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.
FH	66	2	The thought that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, not because of any merit on our part, but as a free gift from God, is a precious thought. The enemy of God and humanity is not willing that this truth should be clearly presented, for he knows that if the people receive it fully, his power will be broken. If he can control minds, so that doubt and unbelief and darkness shall compose the experience of those who claim to be the children of God, he can overcome them with temptation. The simple faith that takes God at His word should be encouraged. God's people must have that faith which will lay hold of divine power; "for by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." Those who believe that God for Christ's sake has forgiven their sins should not, through temptation, fail to press on to fight the good fight of faith. Their faith should grow stronger until their Christian life, as well as their words, shall declare, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
FH	66	3	Faith is trusting God-believing that He loves us and knows best what is for our good. Thus instead of our own way, it leads us to choose His way. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His righteousness. Our lives, ourselves, are already His; faith acknowledges His ownership and accepts its blessing. Truth, uprightness, purity, have been pointed out as secrets of life's success.... Every good impulse or aspiration is the gift of God; faith receives from God the life that alone can produce true growth and efficiency.
FH	66	4	How to exercise faith should be made very plain. To every promise of God there are conditions. If we are willing to do His will, all His strength is ours. Whatever gift He promises is in the promise itself.... As surely as the oak is in the acorn, so surely is the gift of God in His promise....
FH	66	5	Faith that enables us to receive God's gifts is itself a gift.... It grows as it is exercised in appropriating the Word of God. In order to strengthen faith, we must often bring it in contact with the Word.
FH	66	6	How often those who trusted the Word of God, though in themselves utterly helpless, have withstood the power of the whole world.... These are the world's true noblemen. They are its royal line.--The Review and Herald, December 24, 1908.
------------------------The Only Treasure, February 24
FH	67	1	For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10.
FH	67	2	A character formed after the divine likeness is the only treasure that we can take from this world to the next.... Regard every moment of time as golden. Do not waste it in indolence, do not spend it in folly, but use it in grasping higher treasures. Cultivate the thoughts and expand the soul by refusing to allow the mind to be filled with unimportant matters. Secure every advantage within your reach for strengthening the intellect. Do not rest satisfied with a low standard. Be not content until, by faithful endeavor, watchfulness, and earnest prayer, you have secured the wisdom that is from above....
FH	67	3	Cherish every ray of light you can obtain by searching the Word of God. Take up your God-given work today, and see how much good you can accomplish in the strength of Christ. Make God your counselor....
FH	67	4	Christ remembered our nature in the requirements He made. He took our nature upon Himself, and brought to us moral power to combine with human effort.... Our spirit may be so identified with His Spirit that in thought and aim we shall be one with Him....
FH	67	5	The intellectual, moral, and physical faculties are to be equally cultivated and improved, that we may reach the highest standard in the attainment of knowledge....
FH	67	6	Daniel of sacred history was but a youth when with his friends he was taken captive to Babylon. But he stands before the heavenly universe, before the worlds unfallen, and before a rebellious world, as a bright example of what the grace of God can do for sinners.... It was not his choice to be exposed to the profligacy, the gluttony, and the spendthrift habits of that heathen nation. But he set his heart, while there, to serve the Lord. He cooperated with God. He stood under Christ's banner as a loyal subject of the heavenly King....
FH	67	7	The character formed in this world determines the destiny for eternity. The element of value in the life in this world will be of value in the world to come. Our future is determined by the way in which we now allow ourselves to be influenced.... We take Christ's yoke upon us, and learn His way.--Youth's Instructor, August 17, 1899.
------------------------God's Way, Not My Way, February 25
FH	68	1	Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Psalm 25:4.
FH	68	2	Sometimes one who professes to be a follower of Christ is heard saying, "You must not be surprised if I am rough, if I speak bluntly, if I manifest temper; it is my way."
FH	68	3	You ask us not to be surprised! Is not Heaven surprised at such manifestations, since the plan of salvation has been devised, since an infinite sacrifice has been made on Calvary's cross, that you might reflect the image of Jesus? Will "your way" enter heaven? Suppose someone comes up to the pearly gates, and says, "I know that I have been rude and unkind, and that it is my disposition to lie and steal; but I want an entrance to the heavenly mansions." Will such a disposition find entrance through the portals of the heavenly city? No, no! Only those who keep God's way will enter there.
FH	68	4	The manifestation of natural and cultivated tendencies to wrongdoing cannot be excused by the plea, "It is my way." Christians realize that in order to bring the principles of Christianity into the daily life, they need much of the grace of Christ.
FH	68	5	The youth who cooperate with Christ will find that their way is full of errors needing to be corrected. Brought into the character-building, these errors are as rotten timbers. Let none allow them to remain. Let none plead for the privilege of clinging to their imperfections, excusing themselves by saying, "It is my way." Those who please self, refusing to give up their way for Christ's way, will suffer the sure result....
FH	68	6	Are you striving to walk in the way of truth and righteousness? Then be not discouraged by temptation. True, you will be tempted, but remember that temptation is not sin; it is no indication of the Lord's displeasure. He suffers you to be tempted, but He measures the temptation by the power which He imparts to enable you to resist and overcome. It is in the time of temptation and trial that you are to measure the degree of your faith in God, and to estimate the stability of your Christian character.
FH	68	7	Do not say, "It is impossible for me to overcome."... In your own strength you cannot overcome, but help has been laid upon One that is mighty. Breathe the prayer, "Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths."--Youth's Instructor, October 2, 1902.
------------------------Unquestioning Faith, February 26
FH	69	1	The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. John 4:50.
FH	69	2	In the city of Capernaum a nobleman's son lies sick unto death. In vain his father has tried to save him. A messenger comes with hurried steps to the mansion, and asks to see the nobleman. He tells him that he has just come from Jerusalem, and that there is in Galilee a prophet of God, declared by some to be the long-expected Messiah.... It may be that He can heal the child.
FH	69	3	As the nobleman listens, the expression of his countenance changes from despair to hope.... The hope born in his soul strengthens as he prepares for his journey. Before the day dawns, he is on his way to Cana of Galilee, where Jesus is supposed to have gone....
FH	69	4	Finding Jesus, he beseeches Him to come to Capernaum and heal his son. "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe," Jesus answers. To a certain extent the nobleman did believe, else he would not have taken the long journey at that critical time. But Christ desired to increase his faith.
FH	69	5	With heartbroken entreaty the father cries, "Sir, come down ere my child die." He fears that each passing moment will place his son beyond the power of the Healer.... Desiring to lead him to perfect faith, the Savior replies, "Go thy way; thy son liveth."
FH	69	6	"And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way." Assured that the death he has dreaded will not come to his son, the nobleman does not ask any question nor seek any explanation. He believes. Over and over again he repeats the words, "Thy son liveth."
FH	69	7	And the power of the words of the Redeemer flashes like lightning from Cana to Capernaum, and the child is healed.... The watchers by the bedside mark with bated breath the conflict between life and death. And when in an instant the burning fever disappears, they are filled with amazement. Knowing the anxiety of the father, they go to greet him with the joyful tidings. He has only one question to ask, When did the child begin to mend? They tell him and he is satisfied.... Now his faith is crowned with assurance....
FH	69	8	In our work for Christ, we need more of the unquestioning faith of the nobleman.... The one who trusts the Savior implicitly finds the gates of heaven ajar and flooded with glory from the throne of God.--Youth's Instructor, December 4, 1902.
------------------------The Power of Song, February 27
FH	70	1	He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Isaiah 51:3.
FH	70	2	The melody of praise is the atmosphere of heaven; and when heaven comes in touch with the earth, there is music and song-"thanksgiving and the voice of melody."
FH	70	3	Above the new-created earth, as it lay, fair and unblemished under the smile of God, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." So human hearts, in sympathy with heaven, have responded to God's goodness in notes of praise. Many of the events of human history have been linked with sacred song.
FH	70	4	The history of the songs of the Bible is full of suggestion as to the uses and benefits of music and song. Music is often perverted to serve purposes of evil, and it thus becomes one of the most alluring agencies of temptation. But rightly employed, it is a precious gift of God, designed to uplift the thoughts to high and noble themes, to inspire and elevate the soul. As the children of Israel, journeying through the wilderness, cheered their way by the music of sacred song, so God bids His children today gladden their pilgrim life. There are few means more effective for fixing His Word in the memory than repeating them in song. And such song has wonderful power. It has power to subdue rude and uncultivated natures, power to quicken thought and to awaken sympathy, to promote harmony of action, and to banish the gloom and foreboding that destroy courage and weaken effort.
FH	70	5	It is one of the most effective means of impressing the heart with spiritual truth. How often to the soul hard-pressed and ready to despair, memory recalls some word of God's-the long-forgotten burden of a childhood song-and temptations lose their power, and courage and gladness are imparted to other souls!...
FH	70	6	Let there be singing in the home of songs that are sweet and pure, and there will be fewer words of censure, and more of cheerfulness and hope and joy. Let there be singing in the schools, and the pupils will be drawn closer to God, to their teachers, and to one another.
FH	70	7	As a part of religious service, singing is as much an act of worship as is prayer.--Youth's Instructor, March 29, 1904.
------------------------Truth Conquers Evil, February 28
FH	71	1	Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. Matthew 10:34.
FH	71	2	The question has been asked, How can there be agreement between the statement, "I came not to send peace, but a sword," and the song sung by the angels when Christ was born in the manger at Bethlehem, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men"? The song of the angels is in harmony with the words of the prophet Isaiah, who, when he predicted the birth of Christ, declared Him to be the Prince of peace. The gospel is a glorious message of peace and goodwill to men; the blessing that Christ came to bring was that of harmony and peace. He left His throne of glory, and clothed His divinity with humanity, that He might bring back from apostasy to loyalty to God the children of men, and bind their hearts together and to the heart of Infinite Love. He came to present to a fallen world the remedy for sin, so that whosoever should believe on Him should not perish, but by becoming one with Him and the Father should have everlasting life....
FH	71	3	The condition of the world at the time when Christ came into the walks of humanity was no exceptional condition. At that time the Scriptures had been buried beneath human traditions, and Christ declared that those who professed to interpret the Word of God were ignorant both of the Scriptures and of the power of God....
FH	71	4	Christ presented to His countrymen and to the world brightness, beauty, and holiness, the divine nature, by which they might be bound close to the heart of Infinite Love. He brought light into the world to dispel spiritual darkness and to reveal truth.... The truth, which was to restore and renew, is a destroyer of evil; and when evil is persistently cherished, it becomes a destroyer of the sinner also....
FH	71	5	Sinners' perversity, their resistance of the truth, makes the mission of Christ appear to be what He announced to His disciples-the sending of a sword upon the earth; but the strife is not the effect of Christianity, but the result of opposition in the hearts of those who will not receive its blessings.
FH	71	6	From the first presentation of Christianity to the world, there has been a deadly warfare instituted against it.... Those who suffer for the truth know the value of a pure gospel, a free Bible, and liberty of conscience.--Bible Echo (Australia), March 12, 1894.
------------------------Sacrifice for the Cause of God, March 1
FH	72	1	If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. Matthew 19:21.
FH	72	2	Said Jesus [to the rich young ruler], "Give to the poor."... In this direct reference He pointed out his idol. His love of riches was supreme, therefore it was impossible for him to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind. And this supreme love for his riches shut his eyes to the wants of his fellow human beings. He did not love his neighbor as himself, therefore he failed to keep the last six commandments....
FH	72	3	I saw that if men and women love their riches better than their fellow human beings, better than God or the truth of His Word, and their hearts are on their riches, they cannot have eternal life. They would rather yield the truth than sell and give to the poor. Here they are proved to see how much God is loved, how much the truth is loved, and like the young man in the Bible, many go away sorrowful, because they cannot have their riches and a treasure in heaven too.... The love of Jesus and riches cannot dwell in the same heart....
FH	72	4	I saw that God could send means from heaven to carry on His work; but this is out of His order. He has ordained that men and women should be His instruments, that as a great sacrifice was made to redeem them, they should act a part in this work of salvation by making a sacrifice for each other, and by thus doing show how highly they prize the sacrifice that has been made for them....
FH	72	5	I have seen that some give of their abundance, but yet they feel no lack. They do not particularly deny themselves of anything for the cause of Christ. They still have all that heart can wish. They give liberally and heartily. God regards it, and the action and motive is known, and strictly marked by Him. They will not lose their reward. You that cannot bestow so liberally must not excuse yourselves because you cannot do as much as some others. Do what you can. Deny yourself of some article that you can do without, and sacrifice for the cause of God. Like the widow, cast in your two mites. You will actually give more than all those who have given of their abundance. And you will know how sweet it is to give to the needy, to deny self, and sacrifice for the truth, and lay up treasure in heaven.--The Review and Herald, November 26, 1857.
------------------------God Uses Us to Help Others, March 2
FH	73	1	Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine. Proverbs 3:9, 10.
FH	73	2	God is abundantly able to fulfill His promises. Every earthly good comes from His hand. The resources of the Lord are infinite, and He employs them all in accomplishing His purposes. Faithful stewards, who wisely use the goods which God has entrusted to them to advance the truth and bless suffering humanity, will be rewarded for so doing. God will pour into their hands while they dispense to others. He is advancing His cause in the earth through stewards entrusted with His capital. Some there are who, notwithstanding they greatly desire wealth, would be ruined by its possession. God has tested individuals by lending them talents of means. It was in their power to abuse the gift or use it to the glory of God.... They have been tested and proved and found unfaithful in using that which was another's as though it was their own. God will not entrust such with the eternal riches.
FH	73	3	Those who make a judicious and unselfish disposition of the Lord's goods, thus identifying their interest with that of suffering humanity, will be advanced, for they act the part which God designed they should in His own system of beneficence....
FH	73	4	Every good thing upon the earth was given to us as an expression of the love of God. He makes people His stewards and gives them talents of influence and means to use for the accomplishment of His work in the earth. Our heavenly Father proposes to connect finite human beings with Himself. As laborers they may be His instruments in the salvation of souls....
FH	73	5	Those who walk in the light of truth will emit light to those around them. They are living witnesses for Christ. They will not be like the world, living in moral darkness, loving themselves and the things of the world, and seeking for earthly treasures....
FH	73	6	God has made us our brother's keeper and will hold us responsible for this great trust. God has taken us into union with Himself, and He has planned that we shall work in harmony with Him. He has provided the system of beneficence, that we whom He has made in His image may be self-denying in character, like Him whose infinite nature is love.--The Review and Herald, October 31, 1878.
------------------------Deceitfulness of Riches, March 3
FH	74	1	For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1 Timothy 6:10.
FH	74	2	Many who profess the special truths for our time have not a proper discernment of character. They fail to appreciate moral worth. They may boast much of their fidelity to the cause of God and their knowledge of the Scriptures, but they are not humble in heart. They have a special regard for those who are wealthy and prosperous, forgetting that riches do not give us favor with God. True excellence of character is frequently overlooked if possessed by the poor. Money sways a mighty influence. But does God care for money-for property? The cattle upon a thousand hills are His, the world and all that is therein....
FH	74	3	God has committed to His stewards means to be used in doing good, and thus securing a treasure in heaven. But if, like the man who had one talent, they hide their means, fearing that God will receive that which belongs to Him, they will not only lose the increase which will finally be awarded the faithful steward, but also the principal which God gave them to work upon....
FH	74	4	The great apostle, in his letter to Timothy, would impress upon his mind the necessity of giving such instruction as should remove the deception which so easily steals upon the rich-that because of their ability to acquire wealth they are superior in wisdom and judgment to those who are in poverty, that gain is godliness....
FH	74	5	Individuals may devote their whole lives to the one object of acquiring riches, yet as they brought nothing into the world, they can carry nothing out.... They have sacrificed noble, elevated principles, given up their faith for riches, and if not disappointed in their object, they are disappointed in the happiness they supposed wealth would bring....
FH	74	6	The apostle shows the only true use for riches, and bids Timothy charge the rich to do good, to be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, for in so doing they are laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come-referring to the close of time-that they may lay hold on eternal life.... Godliness with contentment is great gain. Here is the true secret of happiness, and real prosperity of soul and body.--The Review and Herald, March 4, 1880.
------------------------Give to God What Is His, March 4
FH	75	1	The world is Mine, and all its fullness. Psalm 50:12.
FH	75	2	The end of all things is at hand, and what is done for the salvation of souls must be done quickly. For this reason we are establishing institutions for the dissemination of the truth through the press, for the education of the young, and for the recovery of the sick. But the selfish and money-loving inquire, "What is the use of all this, when time is so short? Is it not a contradiction of our faith to spend so much in publishing houses, schools, and health institutions?" We ask in reply, If time is to continue but a few years, why invest so much in houses and lands, or in needless and extravagant display, while so meager a sum is devoted to the work of preparation for the great event before us?...
FH	75	3	With God's blessing, the power of the press can hardly be overestimated.... Let the publishing houses be sustained, and the message of truth be sent out to all the nations of the earth.
FH	75	4	Schools have been established that our youth and children may receive the education and discipline needed to prepare them for the searching test so soon to come to every soul. In these schools the Bible should be made one of the principal subjects of study. Attention should be given to the development of both the moral and intellectual powers. We hope that in these schools many earnest workers may be prepared to carry the light of truth to those who sit in darkness.
FH	75	5	In a health institution we provide a place where the sick can enjoy the benefit of nature's remedial agents, instead of depending upon deadly drugs. And many who thus find relief will be ready to yield to the influence of the truth....
FH	75	6	Wealth is a great blessing if used according to the will of God. But the selfish heart can make the possession of wealth a heavy curse.... The ones who obtain the most real enjoyment in this life are those who use God's bounty and do not abuse it....
FH	75	7	God is the rightful owner of the universe. All things belong to Him. Every blessing which men and women enjoy is the result of divine beneficence.... He justly bids us consecrate to Him the first and best of His entrusted capital. If we thus acknowledge His rightful sovereignty and gracious providence, He has pledged His word that He will bless the remainder.--The Review and Herald, May 16, 1882.
------------------------Liberality and Love for God's Work, March 5
FH	76	1	“Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary." And the people were restrained from bringing. Exodus 36:6.
FH	76	2	Under the Jewish system, the people were required to cherish a spirit of liberality, both in sustaining the cause of God and in supplying the wants of the needy. At the harvest and the vintage, the firstfruits of the fields-corn, wine, and oil-were to be consecrated as an offering to the Lord. The gleanings and the corners of the fields were reserved for the poor. The firstfruits of the wool when the sheep were shorn, of the grain when the wheat was threshed, were to be offered to the Lord; and at the feast it was commanded that the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the strangers should be invited. At the close of every year all were required to make solemn oath whether or not they had done according to the command of God.
FH	76	3	This arrangement was made by the Lord to impress upon the people that in every matter He must be first. They were, by this system of benevolence, reminded that their gracious Master was the true proprietor of their fields, their flocks, and their herds, that the God of heaven sent them sunshine and rain for their seed-time and harvest, and that everything which they possessed was of His creation. All was the Lord's, and He had made them stewards of His goods.
FH	76	4	The liberality of the Jews in the construction of the tabernacle evinced a spirit of benevolence which has not been equaled by the people of God at any later date. The Hebrews had just been freed from their long bondage in Egypt, they were wanderers in the wilderness; yet scarcely were they delivered from the armies of the Egyptians who pursued them in their hasty journey, when the word of the Lord came to Moses, "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering."...
FH	76	5	All gave with a willing hand, not a certain amount of their increase, but a large portion of their actual possessions. They devoted it gladly and heartily to the Lord. They honored Him by so doing. Was it not all His? Had He not given them all that they possessed? If He called for it, was it not their duty to give back to the lender His own? No urging was needed. The people brought even more than was required; and they were told to desist, for there was already more than could be appropriated.--The Review and Herald, October 17, 1882.
------------------------The Joy of Advancing God's Work, March 6
FH	77	1	O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build You a house for Your holy name is from Your hand, and is all Your own. 1 Chronicles 29:16.
FH	77	2	In building the temple, the call for means met with a hearty response. The people did not give reluctantly; they rejoiced in the prospect of a building being erected for the worship of God. They donated more than enough for the purpose. David blessed the Lord before all the congregation, and said, "But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee."...
FH	77	3	David well understood from whom came all his bounties. Would that those of this day who rejoice in a Savior's love could realize that their silver and gold is the Lord's, and should be used to promote His glory, not grudgingly retained to enrich and gratify themselves. He has an indisputable right to all that He has lent His creatures. All that they possess is His.
FH	77	4	There are high and holy objects that require means; thus invested, it will yield to the giver more elevated and permanent enjoyment than if expended in personal gratification or selfishly hoarded for the greed of gain....
FH	77	5	Many selfishly retain their means and soothe their conscience with a plan for doing some great thing for the cause of God after their death. They make a will donating a large sum to the church and its various interests, and then settle down with a feeling that they have done all that is required of them. Wherein have they denied self by this act? They have, on the contrary, exhibited only selfishness. When they have no further use for their money, they propose to give it to God. But they will retain it as long as they can, till they are compelled to relinquish it by a messenger that cannot be turned down.
FH	77	6	God has made us all His stewards, and in no case authorized us to neglect our duty or leave it for others to do. The call for means to advance the cause of truth will never be more urgent than now. Our money will never do a greater amount of good than at the present time.... If we leave others to accomplish that which God has left for as to do, we wrong ourselves and Him who gave us all we have.... God would have all be executors of their own will in this matter, during their lifetime.--The Review and Herald, October 17, 1882.
------------------------What God Values, March 7
FH	78	1	There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. Proverbs 11:24.
FH	78	2	Experience shows that a spirit of benevolence is more often to be found with those of limited means than among the more wealthy. The most liberal donations for the cause of God or the relief of the needy come from the poor person's purse, while many to whom the Lord has committed an abundance for this very purpose see not the necessity for means to advance the truth, and hear not the cries of the poor among them....
FH	78	3	The gift of the poor, the fruit of self-denial to extend the precious light of truth, is as fragrant incense before God. And every act of self-sacrifice for the good of others will strengthen the spirit of beneficence in the giver's heart, allying the donor more closely to the Redeemer of the world, who "was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."
FH	78	4	The smallest sum given cheerfully as the result of self-denial is of more value in God's sight than the offerings of those who could give thousands and yet feel no lack. The poor widow who cast two mites into the treasury of the Lord showed love, faith, and benevolence. She gave all that she had, trusting to God's care for the uncertain future. Her little gift was pronounced by our Savior the greatest that day cast into the treasury. Its value was measured not by the worth of the coin, but by the purity of the motive which prompted her sacrifice.
FH	78	5	God's blessing upon that sincere offering has made it the source of great results. The widow's mite has been like a tiny stream flowing down through the ages, widening and deepening in its course, and contributing in a thousand directions to the extension of the truth and the relief of the needy. The influence of that small gift has acted and reacted upon thousands of hearts in every age and in every country upon the globe. As the result, unnumbered gifts have flowed into the treasury of the Lord from the liberal, self-denying poor. And again, her example has stimulated to good works thousands of ease-loving, selfish, and doubting ones, and their gifts also have gone to swell the value of her offering.
FH	78	6	Liberality is a duty on no account to be neglected....
FH	78	7	It is to cultivate a spirit of benevolence in us that the Lord calls for our gifts and offerings.--The Review and Herald, February 9, 1886.
------------------------Trust the Word, Not Feelings, March 8
FH	79	1	Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Colossians 3:16.
FH	79	2	The Word of God is the foundation of our faith, and therefore it is by the Word of God that we may obtain evidence of our standing before God. We are not to make our feelings a test by which to discern whether we are in or out of favor with God, whether they be what we consider encouraging or not. As soon as we begin to contemplate feelings, we are on dangerous ground. If we feel joyous, we are confident we are in a favorable condition, but when a change comes, as it will, for circumstances will be so arranged that feelings of depression will make the heart sad, then we will be naturally led to doubt that God has accepted us....
FH	79	3	Satan will not be slow in presenting to the repentant soul suggestions and difficulties to weaken faith and destroy courage. He has manifold temptations that he can send trooping into the mind, one in succession of another, but Christians must not study their emotions, and give way to their feelings, or they will soon entertain the evil guest, doubt, and become entangled in the perplexities of despair....
FH	79	4	Do not exalt your feelings and be swayed by them, whether they be good, bad, sad, or joyful.... It is the Word of God that is to be your assurance.... There is a warfare in which every soul must engage who would have the crown of life. Inch by inch the overcomer must fight the good fight of faith, using the weapons of God's Word. We must meet the foe with "It is written."...
FH	79	5	When the enemy begins to draw away the mind from Jesus, to shut away His mercy, His love, His all-sufficiency, do not devote precious time to the consideration of your feelings, but flee to the Word. In the Scriptures Christ is presented as the one by whom God made the worlds. He is the light of the world, and, as we seekers for light study the Word, we find heavenly illumination....
FH	79	6	What do we hope to accomplish by longing to have the whole world converted to Jesus by believing in His pardoning love, when we do not ourselves believe in His love or find rest in His grace? How can we possibly lead others to a full assurance, to simple, childlike faith in our heavenly Father, when we are measuring and judging our love to Him by our feelings?--Signs of the Times, December 3, 1894.
------------------------The Word Became Flesh, March 9
FH	80	1	Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.... Behold, I have come... to do Your will, O God. Hebrews 10:5-7.
FH	80	2	Should the angel Gabriel be sent to this world to take upon himself human nature and to teach the knowledge of God, how eagerly people would listen to his instruction. Supposing that he were able to set us a perfect example of purity and holiness, sympathizing with us in all our sorrows, bereavements, and afflictions, and suffering the punishment of our sins, how eagerly we would follow him....
FH	80	3	If, when this heavenly being returned to his home, he should leave behind him a book containing the history of his mission, with revelations regarding the history of the world, how eagerly would its seal be broken! How anxiously men and women would seek to obtain a copy!... But One surpassing all that imagination can present came from heaven to this world.... Of Himself Christ declares, "Before Abraham was, I am." "I and my Father are one."...
FH	80	4	As Paul beheld Christ in His power, he broke out into exclamations of admiration and amazement: "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."... "And he is before all things, and by him all things consist."
FH	80	5	The Bible is God's voice speaking to us, just as surely as if we could hear it with our ears. If we realized this,... with what earnestness we would search its precepts. The reading and contemplation of the Scriptures would be regarded as an audience with the Infinite One....
FH	80	6	Christ's words are the bread of life. As the disciples ate the words of Christ, their understanding was quickened.... In their comprehension of these teachings they stepped from the obscurity of dawn to the radiance of noonday.
FH	80	7	So will it be with us as we study God's Word. Our minds will be quickened and our understanding enlarged. Those who receive and assimilate this Word, making it a part of every act, of every attribute of character, grow strong in the strength of God. It gives vigor to the soul, perfecting the experience, and bringing joys that abide forever.--Signs of the Times, April 4, 1906.
------------------------What Are We Reading? March 10
FH	81	1	Give attention to reading. 1 Timothy 4:13.
FH	81	2	The enemy knows that to a great degree the mind is affected by that upon which it feeds. He is seeking to lead both the youth and those of mature age to read story books, tales, and other literature. Those who yield to this temptation soon lose their relish for solid reading. They have no interest in Bible study. Their moral powers become enfeebled. Sin appears less and less repulsive. There is manifest an increasing unfaithfulness, a growing distaste for life's practical duties. As the mind becomes perverted, it is ready to grasp any reading of a stimulating character....
FH	81	3	Works that do not so decidedly mislead and corrupt are yet to be shunned, if they impart a disrelish for the study of the Bible. This Word is the true manna. Let all repress the desire for reading matter that is not food for the mind. You cannot possibly do the work of God with clear perception while the mind is occupied with this class of reading....
FH	81	4	Question your own experience as to the influence of light reading. Can you, after spending time in such reading, open the Bible and read with interest the words of life? Do you not find the Book of God uninteresting?...
FH	81	5	In order to have a healthy tone of mind and sound religious principles, we must live in communion with God through His Word. Pointing out the way of salvation, the Bible is our guide to a higher, better life. It contains the most interesting and most instructive history and biography that were ever written. Those whose imaginations have not been perverted by the reading of fiction will find the Bible the most interesting of all books.
FH	81	6	Resolutely discard all worthless reading. Such reading will not strengthen your spirituality, but will introduce into the mind sentiments that will pervert the imagination, causing you to think less of Jesus and to dwell less upon His precious lessons....
FH	81	7	The Bible is the Book of books. If you love the Word, searching it as you have opportunity, that you may come into the possession of the rich treasure that it contains and be thoroughly furnished unto all good works, then you may be assured that Jesus is drawing you to Himself.--Signs of the Times, June 13, 1906.
------------------------True and False Sanctification, March 11
FH	82	1	By their fruits you will know them. Matthew 7:20.
FH	82	2	Jesus came into the world because the human race were under sentence of death for their transgressions. His work was to bring them back to allegiance to the law of God, which Paul declares is "holy, and just, and good." He kept His Father's commandments. Those who by repentance and obedience testify their appreciation of the salvation He came to bring will show the work of the Spirit on their hearts. And the test is the life. "By their fruits ye shall know them." "He that saith, I know Him," says John, "and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."
FH	82	3	Yet notwithstanding these inspired testimonies as to the nature of sin, many claim to be sanctified and incapable of sin, while they are constantly transgressing the law of God....
FH	82	4	No one who claims holiness is really holy. Those who are registered as holy in the books of heaven are not aware of the fact and are the last ones to boast of their own goodness. None of the prophets and apostles ever professed holiness, not even Daniel, Paul, or John. The righteous never make such a claim. The more nearly they resemble Christ, the more they lament their unlikeness to Him, for their consciences are sensitive, and they regard sin more as God regards it....
FH	82	5	The only safe position for any of us to take is to consider ourselves sinners, daily needing divine grace. Mercy through the atoning blood of Christ is our only plea.... Those who have the truth as it is revealed in that Holy Word must stand fast on the platform of truth, relying on, "It is written."...
FH	82	6	God has great blessings to bestow upon His people. They may have the "peace of God, which passeth all understanding." They "may be able to comprehend with all saints"... "what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of the love of Christ, being "filled with all the fulness of God." But it is only to those who are meek and lowly of heart that Christ will thus manifest Himself. The ones whom God justifies are represented by the publican rather than the self-righteous Pharisee. Humility is heaven-born, and none can enter the pearly gates without it. All unconsciously, it shines in the church and in the world, and it will shine in the courts of heaven.--Signs of the Times, February 26, 1885.
------------------------The Royal Family, March 12
FH	83	1	He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. John 3:36.
FH	83	2	Those who are truly children of God are believers, not doubters and chronic grumblers.... Through all ages and in every nation those that believe that Jesus can and will save them personally from sin, are the elect and chosen of God; they are His peculiar treasure....
FH	83	3	The Lord has graciously opened out to our understanding by the Holy Spirit rich truth, and we should respond to this by corresponding works of piety and devotion, in harmony with the superior privileges and advantages that have been bestowed upon us. The Lord is waiting to be gracious to His people, to give them an increased knowledge of His paternal character, of His goodness, mercy, and love. He waits to show them His glory; and if they follow on to know the Lord, they shall know that His goings forth are prepared as the morning.
FH	83	4	The people of God are not to stand upon common ground, but upon the holy ground of gospel truth. They are to keep step with their Leader, looking continually to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith, marching onward and upward, and having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness....
FH	83	5	It is the privilege of the children of God to be delivered from the control of the lusts of the flesh, and to preserve their peculiar, heavenly character, which distinguishes them from the lovers of the world. In their moral taste, in their habits and customs, they are separate from the world. Who are the children of God? They are members of the royal family, and a royal nation, a peculiar people, showing forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light....
FH	83	6	Will not those to whom have been committed the treasures of truth, consider the superior advantages of light and privilege that have been purchased for us by the sacrifice of the Son of God on Calvary's cross? We are to be judged by the light that has been given us, and we can find no excuse by which to extenuate our course. The Way, the Truth, and the Life has been set before us....
FH	83	7	We are to place our will on the side of the Lord's will, and firmly determine that by His grace we will be free from sin.--The Review and Herald, August 1, 1893.
------------------------Choose You This Day, March 13
FH	84	1	Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew 28:20.
FH	84	2	For many months I have been troubled as I have seen that some of our brethren whom God has used in His cause are now perplexed over the scientific theology which has come in to lead men away from a true faith in God. Sabbath night, a week ago, after I had been prayerfully studying over these things, I had a vision in which I was speaking before a large company where many questions were asked concerning my work and writings.
FH	84	3	I was directed by a messenger from heaven not to take the burden of picking up and answering all the sayings and doubts that are being put into many minds. "Stand as the messenger of God anywhere, in any place," I was bidden, "and bear the testimony I shall give you. Be free. Bear the testimony that the Lord has for you to bear in reproof, in rebuke, in the work of encouraging and lifting up the soul; 'teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.'"
FH	84	4	After the vision I prayed aloud with great fervor and earnestness. My soul was strengthened, for the words had been spoken: "Be strong, yea, be strong. Let none of the misleading words of ministers or physicians distress your mind. Tell them to take the light given them in publications. Truth will always bear away the victory. Go straight forward with your work.
FH	84	5	"If the Holy Spirit is rejected, all My words will not help to remove, even for the time being, the false representations that have been made, and Satan stands ready to invent more. If the evidence already given is rejected, all other evidence will be useless until there is seen the converting power of God upon minds. If the convincing impressions of the Holy Spirit made in the past will not be accepted as trustworthy evidence, nothing that can be presented hereafter will reach them, because the bewitching guile of Satan has perverted their discernment."...
FH	84	6	God now calls for all who choose to serve Him to stand firmly on the platform of eternal truth. Let those who have brought about the present state of confusion by making the division that exists, stop to consider seriously before going any further. "Choose you this day whom ye will serve." "If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him."--The Review and Herald, August 9, 1906.
------------------------The Example of Liberality, March 14
FH	85	1	He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 2 Corinthians 9:6.
FH	85	2	Liberality is one of the directions of the Holy Spirit, and when the professed people of God withhold from the Lord His own in gifts and offerings, they meet with spiritual loss....
FH	85	3	It were better not to give at all than to give grudgingly, for if we impart of our means when we have not the spirit to give freely, we mock God. Let us bear in mind that we are dealing with One upon whom we depend for every blessing, One who reads every thought of the heart, every purpose of the mind.
FH	85	4	The apostle Paul had a special work to present before his Corinthian brethren. There was a famine in Jerusalem, and the disciples, "every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea." They presented the need to the churches, expecting to receive a small sum for the relief of the needy saints; and in prayer they presented before the Lord the necessity.
FH	85	5	But the Macedonian believers, moved by the Spirit of God, first made an entire consecration of themselves to God, and then gave all that they had. They felt it a privilege thus to give expression to their trust in God. The Macedonian believers were poor, but they did not have to be urged to give. They rejoiced that they had opportunity to contribute of their means. Of themselves they came forward and made the offering, in their Christlike simplicity, their integrity and love for their brethren, denying themselves of food and clothing in cases where they had no money. And when the apostles would have restrained them, they pleaded with them to receive the contribution and carry it to the afflicted saints.
FH	85	6	This self-denial and self-sacrifice far exceeded Paul's expectations, and he was filled with thanksgiving; and taking courage by this example, by epistle he exhorted Titus to stir up the church in Corinth to the same good works....
FH	85	7	"We desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also."
FH	85	8	This movement on the part of the Macedonians was inspired of God to arouse in the Corinthian church the spirit of liberality.--The Review and Herald, May 15, 1900.
------------------------In Christ's Steps, March 15
FH	86	1	Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,... who made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:5-7.
FH	86	2	The Son of God... left His riches and honor and glory, and clothed His divinity with humanity, that humanity might take hold of divinity and become a partaker of the divine nature. He came not to live in the palaces of kings, to live without care and labor and be supplied with all the conveniences which human nature naturally craves. The world never saw its Lord wealthy. In the council of heaven He had chosen to stand in the ranks of the poor and the oppressed,... to learn the trade of His earthly parent. He came to the world to be a reconstructor of character, and He brought into all His work the perfection which He desired to bring into the character He was transforming by His divine power.
FH	86	3	Nor did He shun the social life of His countrymen. That all might become acquainted with God manifest in the flesh, He mingled with every class of society, and was called the friend of sinners. In Himself Christ possessed an absolute right to all things, but He gave Himself to a life of poverty that we might be rich in heavenly treasure. Commander in the heavenly courts, He took the lowest place on earth. Rich, yet for our sake He became poor....
FH	86	4	For a little time the Lord allows His people to be His stewards, that He may test their character. In that time they decide their eternal destiny. If they work in opposition to the will of God, they cannot belong to the royal family....
FH	86	5	Evidence of the work of grace in the heart is given when we do good to everyone as we have opportunity. The proof of our love is given in a Christlike spirit, a willingness to impart the good things God has given us, a readiness to practice self-denial and self-sacrifice in order to help advance the cause of God and suffering humanity. Never should we pass by the object that calls for our liberality....
FH	86	6	The Lord will use all who will give themselves to be used. But He requires heart service.... When the heart is given to God, our talents, our energy, our possessions, all we have and are, will be devoted to His service.--The Review and Herald, May 15, 1900.
------------------------God Needs Our Talents, March 16
FH	87	1	We are God's fellow workers. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
FH	87	2	Our indebtedness to God and our entire dependence upon Him should lead us to acknowledge Him as the giver of all our blessings, and by our offerings we acknowledge this. Of the bounties He has bestowed upon us, He requires that a portion be returned to Him. By giving to the Lord His due, we declare to the world that all our mercies are from Him, that all we possess belongs to Him....
FH	87	3	When the Jews held their services of thanksgiving after the ingathering of nature's treasure, they offered sacrifices to God. To us it might seem strange that sacrificial offerings should have formed so important a part of the universal rejoicing; and to outward appearances, it was a strange combination to mingle the sacrifice of beasts with the expressions of joy. But this was built upon the true foundation, for Christ Himself was the object of these ceremonial services. When, in these festal gatherings, blood was shed and offerings were made to God, the people were not only thanking Him for His present mercies, but they were thanking Him for the promise of a Savior, and by this expressing the truth that without the shedding of the blood of the Son of God there could be no forgiveness of sins....
FH	87	4	The Lord has committed talents to men and women, that they may be better fitted to honor and glorify Him. To some He has entrusted means; to others, special qualifications for service; to others, tact and influence. Some have five talents, others two, and others one. From the highest to the lowest each has been entrusted with some gift. These talents are not our own. They belong to God. He has given them to us for conscientious use, and He will one day ask for an account of them.
FH	87	5	The great lesson we are daily to learn is that we are stewards of God's gifts-stewards of money, of reason, of intellect, of influence. As stewards of the Lord's gifts, we are to trade upon these talents, however small they may be....
FH	87	6	However small your talent may appear, use it in God's service, for He has need of it. If it is wisely used, you may bring to God one soul who also will dedicate his or her powers to the Master's service. That soul may win other souls, and thus one talent, faithfully used, may gain many talents.--The Review and Herald, November 24, 1896.
------------------------Receiving to Give, March 17
FH	88	1	Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. John 6:11.
FH	88	2	By this miracle Christ has shown how missionary work is to be bound up with the ministry of the Word. Not only did the Master give the people spiritual food; by a miracle He also provided temporal food to satisfy their physical hunger. This merciful provision helped to fasten in the minds of the people the gracious words of truth which He had spoken....
FH	88	3	By this miracle Christ desires to teach us the truth of the words, "Without me ye can do nothing." He is the source of all power, the giver of all temporal and spiritual blessings. He employs human beings as coworkers, giving them a part to act with Him as His helping hand. We are to receive from Him, not to hoard for self-gratification, but to impart to others. As we do this work, let us not suppose that we are to receive the glory. All the glory is to be given to the great Master Worker. The disciples were not to receive the glory for feeding the five thousand. They were only the instruments used by the Lord....
FH	88	4	He, the great Master Worker, slumbers not. Constantly He is working for the harmonious accomplishment of His purposes. He entrusts talents to us that we may cooperate with Him. We are ever to remember that we are but instruments in His hands. "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."...
FH	88	5	All who have really accepted Christ will not be satisfied to enjoy the divine favor without giving to others the joy that cheers their souls. The purest and holiest devotion is that which leads to persevering, unselfish effort for the salvation of those outside the fold....
FH	88	6	Those who impart to others of the riches of the grace of heaven will themselves be enriched. The ministering angels are waiting, longing, for channels through which they can communicate the treasures of heaven. Men and women can reach the highest stage of mental and moral development only by cooperating with Jesus in unselfish effort for the good of others. We are never so truly enriched as when we are trying to enrich others. We cannot diminish our treasure by sharing it. The more we enlighten others, the brighter our light will shine.--The Review and Herald, April 4, 1907.
------------------------First Things First, March 18
FH	89	1	You are the light of the world. Matthew 5:14.
FH	89	2	Eternal things should awaken our interest and should be regarded, in comparison with temporal things, as of infinite importance. God requires of us to make it our first business to attend to the health and prosperity of the soul. We should know that we are enjoying the favor of God, that He smiles upon us, and that we are His children indeed, and in a position where He can commune with us and we with Him. We should not be at rest until we are in that position of lowliness and meekness that He can safely bless us, and we be brought into a sacred nearness with God, where His light may shine upon us, and we reflect that light to all around us. But we cannot do this unless we are earnestly striving ourselves to live in the light. This God requires of all His followers, not merely for their own good, but also for the benefit of others around them.
FH	89	3	We cannot let our light shine out to others so as to attract their attention to heavenly things unless we have the light in us. We must be imbued with the Spirit of Jesus Christ, or we cannot manifest to others that Christ is in us the hope of glory. We must have an indwelling Savior, or we cannot exemplify in our lives His life of devotion, His love, His gentleness, His pity, His compassion, His self-denial, and purity. This is what we earnestly desire. This should be the study of our lives, How shall I conform my character to the Bible standard of holiness?...
FH	89	4	Christ sacrificed His majesty, His splendor, His glory, and His honor, and for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. He condescended to a life of humiliation. He was subjected to scorn. He was despised and rejected of men. He bore insult and mockery, and a most painful death in the most shameful manner, in order that He might exalt and save the fallen sons and daughters of Adam from hopeless misery. In view of this unparalleled sacrifice and mysterious love manifested for us by our Redeemer, shall we withhold from God our entire service, which at the best is so feeble? Shall we use selfishly, for business or pleasure, the time which is necessary for us to devote to religious exercises, to the study of the Scriptures, and to self-examination and prayer?...
FH	89	5	We have not built our hopes here, in this world. Our actions have testified to our faith, that in heaven is our enduring substance.--The Review and Herald, March 29, 1870.
------------------------Christian Temperance, March 19
FH	90	1	I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1.
FH	90	2	We are living in an age of intemperance. Health and life are sacrificed, by very many, to gratify their appetite for hurtful indulgences. These last days are characterized by depreciated morals and physical debility, in consequence of these indulgences and the general unwillingness to engage in physical labor. Many are suffering today from inaction and wrong habits....
FH	90	3	When we pursue a course of eating and drinking that lessens physical and mental vigor, or become the prey of habits that tend to the same results, we dishonor God, for we rob Him of the service He claims from us. Those who acquire and indulge the unnatural appetite for tobacco do this at the expense of health. They are destroying nervous energy, lessening vital force, and sacrificing mental strength.
FH	90	4	Those who profess to be the followers of Christ, yet have this terrible sin at their door, cannot have a high appreciation of the atonement and an elevated estimate of eternal things. Minds that are clouded and partially paralyzed by narcotics are easily overcome by temptation and cannot enjoy communion with God.
FH	90	5	Those who use tobacco can make but a poor plea to the liquor inebriate. Two thirds of the drunkards in our land created an appetite for liquor by the use of tobacco. Those who claim that tobacco does not injure them can be convinced of their mistake by depriving themselves of it for a few days; the trembling nerves, the giddy head, the irritability they feel, will prove to them that this sinful indulgence has bound them in slavery. It has overcome will power....
FH	90	6	Means are thereby squandered that would aid in the good work of clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and sending the truth to poor souls out of Christ. What a record will appear when the accounts of life are balanced in the book of God! It will then appear that vast sums of money have been expended for tobacco and alcoholic liquors! For what? To ensure health and prolong life? Oh, no! To aid in the perfection of Christian character and a fitness for the society of holy angels? Oh, no! But to minister to a depraved, unnatural appetite for that which poisons and kills not only the users but those to whom they transmit their legacy of disease and imbecility.--Signs of the Times, January 6, 1876.
------------------------God's Innumerable Bounties, March 20
FH	91	1	Jesus... said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." John 4:10.
FH	91	2	The gifts of God are on every hand, and all His gifts come to us through the merit of Jesus, whom He gave to the world. The apostle Paul breaks forth in an exclamation of gratitude, saying, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." And with Christ God has given us all things. The opening bud, the blooming flowers in their variety and loveliness, delightful to the senses, are the work of the Master Artist's expressions of His love toward us.... The Lord has taken great care that everything should be grateful and pleasant to us, and yet how much greater effort He has made to provide us with that gift whereby we may perfect a Christian character, after the pattern of Christ.
FH	91	3	Through the flowers of the field God would call our attention to the loveliness of Christlike character.... God is a lover of the beautiful. He desires that we shall consider the lovely flowers of the valley, and learn lessons of trust in Him. They are to be our teachers.... The Lord takes care of the flowers of the field, and clothes them with loveliness, and yet He has made it evident that He looks upon humanity as of greater value than the flowers for which He cares....
FH	91	4	Suppose that our benevolent Father should grow weary with our ingratitude, and for a few weeks should withhold His innumerable bounties. Suppose He should become discouraged in seeing His treasures applied to selfish ends, in hearing no response of praise and gratitude for His unmerited mercies, and should forbid the sun to shine, the dew to fall, the earth to yield her increase. What a sensation would be created! What dismay would fall upon the world! What a cry would be raised as to what we should do to supply our tables with food and our bodies with clothing!...
FH	91	5	God has not only supplied us with temporal benefits, but has provided for our eternal welfare; "for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."... Oh, if we did but know the gift of God, if we did but appreciate what this gift of God means to us, we would have been earnestly seeking for it with unwavering perseverance.--Signs of the Times, June 19, 1893.
------------------------Jesus' Love Seen in the Clouds, March 21
FH	92	1	I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.... The waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. Genesis 9:13-15.
FH	92	2	Some time ago, we were favored with a view of the most glorious rainbow we ever beheld. We have often visited galleries of art and have admired the skill displayed by the artist in paintings representing God's great bow of promise....
FH	92	3	As we look upon this bow, the seal and sign of God's promise to us that the tempest of His wrath should no more desolate our world by the waters of a flood, we contemplate that other than finite eyes are looking upon this glorious sight. Angels rejoice as they gaze upon this precious token of God's love to us. The world's Redeemer looks upon it, for it was through His instrumentality that this bow was made to appear in the heavens as a token or covenant of promise to us. God Himself looks upon the bow in the clouds and remembers His everlasting covenant between Himself and us.
FH	92	4	After the fearful exhibition of God's avenging power in the destruction of the Old World by a flood had passed, He knew that those who had been saved from the general ruin would have their fears awakened whenever the clouds should gather, the thunders roll, and the lightnings flash, and that the sound of the tempest and the pouring out of the waters from the heavens would strike terror to their hearts, for fear that another flood was coming upon them....
FH	92	5	The family of Noah looked with admiration and reverential awe mingled with joy upon this sign of God's mercy which spanned the heavens. The bow represents Christ's love which encircles the earth and reaches unto the highest heavens, connecting humanity with God and linking earth with heaven.
FH	92	6	As we gaze upon the beautiful sight, we may be joyful in God, assured that He Himself is looking upon this token of His covenant, and that as He looks upon it He remembers the children of earth, to whom it was given. Their afflictions, perils, and trials are not hidden from Him. We may rejoice in hope, for the bow of God's covenant is over us. He will never forget the children of His care. How difficult for the mind of finite human beings to take in the peculiar love and tenderness of God and His matchless condescension when He said, "I will look upon the bow in the cloud, and remember thee."--The Review and Herald, February 26, 1880.
------------------------God Revealed in Nature and Jesus, March 22
FH	93	1	For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead. Romans 1:20.
FH	93	2	The created works of God are a pictured history of ministry. The sun is doing its appointed work in ministering to all animate and inanimate nature. It causes the trees to grow and yield their blessings in fruit. It causes vegetation to flourish for the benefit of all. The moon also has its mission. It makes light in the nighttime for our happiness, and the stars also are marshaled in the heavens to minister to the enjoyment of the world. None of us can fully understand the appointment of these silent watchers, but they all have their work of ministry.
FH	93	3	The deep waters, too, have their place in God's great plan. The mountains and the rocks are subjects for meditation, and contain lessons for the student. Everything in nature-the humblest flower and the grass that carpets the earth with its covering of green-proclaims the goodness and love of God to us....
FH	93	4	His thoughts and works are so connected with one another that we can read in nature the great love of God for a fallen world. The universe contains one great masterpiece of infinite Wisdom in the innumerable diversities of His great works, which in their matchless variety form a perfect whole.
FH	93	5	By close investigation, God's innumerable providences in the natural world are found to have connection one with another, and in tracing these links in the chain of Providence we are led to become better acquainted with the great Center. This is a truth worthy of our careful study. Jesus Christ is the one great Unity; He possesses the attributes that harmonize all diversities. And He, the Gift above all others, was given to our world to give expression to the mind and character of God, that every intelligent being who will may see God in the revelation of His Son.
FH	93	6	All these things were given by God to the human family.... Have you looked upon God's created works as prepared by His hand to minister to the happiness of the human family?...
FH	93	7	There is a precious reward awaiting those who are faithful in their ministry. They will have a home in the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for them that love Him and wait for His appearing.--Youth's Instructor, August 19, 1897.
------------------------Hidden Treasure, March 23
FH	94	1	He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. John 5:24.
FH	94	2	The sayings of Christ are to be valued not merely in accordance with the measure of our understanding; they are to be considered in the important bearing which Christ Himself gave them. He took the old truths, of which He Himself was the originator, and placed them before His hearers in heaven's own light. And how different was their representation! What a flood of meaning and brightness and spirituality was brought in by their explanation!...
FH	94	3	The rich treasures of truth, opened before the people, attracted and charmed them. They were in marked contrast with the spiritless, lifeless expositions of the Old Testament Scriptures by the rabbis. And the miracles which Jesus wrought kept constantly before His hearers the honor and glory of God. He seemed to them a messenger direct from heaven, for He spoke not to their ears only, but to their hearts. As He stood forth in His humility, yet in dignity and majesty, as one born to command, a power attended Him; hearts were melted into tenderness. An earnest desire was created to be in His presence, to listen to the voice of Him who uttered truth with such solemn melody....
FH	94	4	Every miracle wrought by Christ convinced some of His true character. Had someone in the common walks of life done the same works that Christ did, all would have declared that person to be working by the power of God. But there were those who did not receive the light of heaven, and they set themselves more determinedly against this evidence....
FH	94	5	It was not the absence of external honor and riches and glory that caused the Jews to reject Jesus. The Sun of Righteousness, shining amid the moral darkness in such distinct rays, revealed the contrast between sin and holiness, purity and defilement, and such light was not welcome to them....
FH	94	6	The teachings of Christ, in precept and example, were the sowing of the seed afterward to be cultivated by His disciples. The testimony of these fishermen was to be referred to as the highest authority by all the nations of the world.--The Review and Herald, July 12, 1898.
------------------------Christ Connects Heaven to Earth, March 24
FH	95	1	As the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. John 14:31.
FH	95	2	Those who have experienced the blessing of God should be the most grateful of persons.
FH	95	3	They should send up to God words of thanksgiving because Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, clothing His divinity with humanity in order that He might bring before the world the perfection of God in His own character. He came to represent God, not as a stern judge, but as a loving father....
FH	95	4	The Lord Jesus is an example in all things. By the works which He did He made it plain that He was in council with the Father and that He was in every move fulfilling the eternal purposes of God. In spirit, in works, in His whole earthly history, He revealed the mind and purpose of God toward His heritage among humanity. In His obedience to the law of God, He exemplified in His human nature the fact that the law is a transcript of divine perfection. In the gift of Christ to the world God would overwhelm fallen men and women with a marvelous manifestation of His great love wherewith He has loved us; but while He would that all should come to repentance, the declaration no less expressed His character, that He will by no means clear the guilty. Should He give the least sanction to sin, His throne would be corrupted....
FH	95	5	All who receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior also are provided with heavenly protection and heavenly light, for the angels of God are sent to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. The representation given to Jacob of a ladder whose base rested upon earth and whose top reached to the throne of God, whereon ascended and descended the angels of heaven, is a representation of the plan of salvation. Had the ladder failed to connect with earth by one inch, the connection between earth and heaven would have been broken, and all would have been hopelessly lost. But the ladder is planted firmly upon the earth, that heaven may connect with earth and that the fallen human family be redeemed and rescued. Christ is the ladder that Jacob saw, whose base is upon the earth and whose topmost round reaches the throne of God.... Through Christ heavenly intelligences may communicate with human agents.--Signs of the Times, April 11, 1895.
------------------------God and Mammon, March 25
FH	96	1	No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24.
FH	96	2	Satan presents the same temptations today that he presented to Adam, and to Jesus, the second Adam, who overcame him and made it possible for us to overcome.... Our efforts and Christ's power will bring us off conquerors....
FH	96	3	All heaven is watching with interest to see what use we are making of God's entrusted talents. If we lay up treasure in heaven, we shall use the Lord's goods to advance His cause, to save souls, and to bless humanity, and all that is so used the Lord will place to our account in the bank that never fails. When the heart loves God supremely, property is no hindrance to advancement in the Christian warfare, because the consecrated followers of Jesus will discern the best investments to make, and will use their wealth to bless the children of God.
FH	96	4	The constant employment of the capabilities to amass wealth on earth binds us to earth. We become slaves to mammon. When wealth increases, the idolatrous heart becomes forgetful of God, and grows self-secure and satisfied. Religious duties are neglected. There is an impatience manifested under restraint, and we become self-sufficient.... The world comes in between the soul and heaven. Our eyes are blinded by the "god of this world," so that we cannot discern or appreciate the value of eternal things....
FH	96	5	Motives stronger, and agencies more powerful, could never be brought into operation-the enjoyment of heaven, the exceeding rewards for right-doing, the society of angels, the communion and love of God and His Son, the elevation and extension of all our powers throughout eternal ages; and it hath not "entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). Are these not mighty incentives and encouragements to urge us to give our heart's loving service to our Creator and Redeemer?...
FH	96	6	Shall we not regard the great mercy of God? Let us place ourselves in right relation to Him who has loved us with amazing love, and avail ourselves of the great privilege of becoming instruments in His hands, that we may cooperate with the ministering angels and be colaborers with God and Christ.--Bible Echo (Australia), Feb. 15, 1889.
------------------------What Must I Do to Be Saved? March 26
FH	97	1	You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain. John 15:16.
FH	97	2	Christ ever rebuked the Pharisees for their self-righteousness.... They were exalted to heaven in point of opportunity, in having the Scriptures, in knowing the true God, but their hearts were not filled with thankfulness to God for His great goodness toward them. They came forth filled with spiritual pride, and their theme was self-"myself, my feelings, my knowledge, my ways." Their own attainments became the standard by which they measured others....
FH	97	3	Let every disciple of Christ inquire in all humility of mind, What must I do to be saved? If we sincerely desire to understand, we shall know. It is not because of our riches, our knowledge, our superiority of position, that Jesus loves us and blesses us, but because we believe in Him as our personal Savior. Jesus loved us while we were yet sinners, but having chosen us He says He has ordained us to go and bring forth fruit. Has each one something to do? Certainly, everyone that is yoked up with Christ must bear His burden, work in His lines.... The life of Christ's pardoning love in the soul is as a well of water springing up unto eternal life. If the well of water is in the heart, then the entire life will reveal the fact, and the refreshing grace of God will be made manifest.
FH	97	4	Religion is not simply to have joyous feelings, to be conscious of having privileges and light, to have rapturous emotions, while expending all the energies to keep a balance in the Christian life, while doing nothing for the salvation of souls. Religion is doing the words of Christ; it is standing as faithful sentinels, not doing to earn salvation, but doing because, all undeserving, you have received the heavenly gift. Religion is to work out God's plans, to cooperate with the intelligences of heaven....
FH	97	5	If we will follow on to know the Lord, our views will broaden. They will not be bound about by self. We should pray the Lord to enlarge our understanding, so that we may not only understand that Jesus Christ is our substitute and surety, but that we belong to Christ as His purchased possession. Paul says, "Ye are bought with a price," and draws this conclusion, "Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."--Signs of the Times, December 17, 1894.
------------------------Gathering or Scattering, March 27
FH	98	1	He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad. Matthew 12:30.
FH	98	2	Half-converted men and women make halfhearted Christians. They are fruitless trees. On them Christ looks in vain for fruit; He finds nothing but leaves....
FH	98	3	If Christ and self could be served at the same time, a large number would join the ranks of those who are journeying heavenward. But it is not for such as these that Jesus calls. His cause does not need such adherents.
FH	98	4	Christ's true followers use their knowledge to make others the recipients of His grace. With their lamps filled with holy oil, they go forth to give light to those in darkness. Such workers see many souls turning to the Lord. New truths continually unfold to them, and as they receive, they impart.
FH	98	5	Those for whom the fetters of sin have been broken, who have sought the Lord with brokenness of heart and have obtained answer to their yearning requests for righteousness, are never cold and spiritless. They realize that they have a part to act in the work of soul-saving. They watch and pray and work for the salvation of souls. Molded and fashioned by the Holy Spirit, they gain depth and breadth and stability of Christian character. They gain enduring spiritual happiness. Walking in Christ's footsteps, they become identified with Him in His self-sacrificing plans. Such Christians are not cold and unimpressible. Their hearts are filled with unselfish love for sinners. They put away from them all worldly ambition, all self-seeking. Contact with the deep things of God makes them more and more like their Savior. They exult in His triumphs; they are filled with His joy. Day by day they are growing up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus....
FH	98	6	By the way in which we do the work Christ has given us to do in His absence, we decide our future destiny.... Christ, the Master of the household, has gone to prepare for us mansions in the heavenly city. We are waiting for His return. Let us honor Him in His absence by doing with faithfulness the work He has placed in our hands. Waiting, watching, working, we are to prepare for His return.--Signs of the Times, July 9, 1902.
------------------------Asking to Give, March 28
FH	99	1	The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. Mark 10:45.
FH	99	2	Christ was continually receiving from the Father, that He might communicate to us. "The word which ye hear," He said, "is not mine, but the Father's which sent me."... Not for Himself, but for others, He lived and thought and prayed. From hours spent with God He came forth morning by morning to bring the light of heaven to those who heard Him. Daily He received a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. In the early hours of the new day the Lord awakened Him from His slumbers, and His soul and His lips were anointed with grace, that He might impart to others. His words were given Him fresh from the heavenly courts, words that He might speak in season to the weary and oppressed....
FH	99	3	Christ's disciples were much impressed by His prayers and by His habit of communion with God. One day after a short absence from their Lord, they found Him absorbed in supplication. Seemingly unconscious of their presence, He continued praying aloud. The hearts of the disciples were deeply moved. As He ceased praying, they exclaimed, "Lord, teach us to pray." In answer Christ repeated the Lord's Prayer, as He had given it in the Sermon on the Mount....
FH	99	4	"Which of you," He said, "shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?"...
FH	99	5	Here Christ represents the petitioner as asking that he may give again.... In like manner the disciples were to seek blessings from God. In the feeding of the multitude and in the sermon on the bread from heaven, Christ had opened to them their work as His representatives. They were to give the bread of life to the people.... Souls that were hungering for the bread of life would come to them, and they would feel themselves to be destitute and helpless. They must receive spiritual food, or they would have nothing to impart. But they were not to turn one soul away unfed. Christ directs them to the source of supply.... And would not God, who had sent His servants to feed the hungry, supply their need for His own work?--The Review and Herald, August 11, 1910.
------------------------For the Mission Fields, March 29
FH	100	1	Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them. Matthew 28:19.
FH	100	2	Our churches are often appealed to for gifts and offerings to aid missionary enterprises in the home field and to sustain the missionary work abroad.... From every church prayers should ascend to God for an increase of devotion and liberality. Those whose hearts are knit with the heart of Christ will be glad to do what they can to help the cause of God. They will rejoice in the continual expansion and advancement, which means larger and more frequently given offerings.
FH	100	3	We may well feel that it is a privilege to be laborers together with God by giving of our means to set in operation that which will carry out His purposes in the world. All who possess that Spirit of Christ will have a tender, sympathetic heart and an open, generous hand. Nothing can be really selfish that has Christ for its absorbing object....
FH	100	4	Consider the necessities of our mission fields throughout the world. Our missionaries labor hard and earnestly, but often they are greatly hindered in their work because the treasury is empty, and they cannot be given facilities necessary for the greatest success of their labor. May God help those who have been entrusted with this world's goods to awaken to His design and to their individual responsibilities. God says to them, I have put you in possession of My goods that you may trade upon them to carry forward the Christian missions that are to be established far and near....
FH	100	5	Not all can go as missionaries to foreign lands, but all can do the work waiting for them in their own neighborhood. All can give of their means for the carrying forward of foreign missionary work....
FH	100	6	God will encourage His faithful stewards who are ready to put all their energies and God-given endowments to the very best use. As all learn the lesson of faithfully rendering to God what is His due, He through His providence will enable some to bring princely offerings. He will enable others to make smaller offerings; and the small and the large gifts are acceptable to Him if given with an eye single to His glory. "He that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness; being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God."--The Review and Herald, April 18, 1912.
------------------------Privilege of Giving, March 30
FH	101	1	As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 1 Peter 4:10.
FH	101	2	The Lord has made men and women His agents, and with hearts filled with the love of Jesus, they are to cooperate with Him in turning human beings from error to truth. God blesses the earth with sunshine and showers. He causes the earth to bring forth its plenteous treasures for the use of all. The Lord has made us His almoner to dispense His heavenly gifts by bringing souls to the truth. Will my brethren in America [written from Australia in 1895] inquire how the precious, saving truth reached them when they were in darkness? Men and women brought their tithes and offerings unto God, and as means filled the treasury, laborers were sent out to advance the work. This same process must be repeated if souls in darkness are reached in this day....
FH	101	3	The necessities of the work now demand a greater outlay than ever before. The Lord calls upon His people to make every effort to curtail their expenses.... Let the money that has been devoted to the gratification of self flow into the Lord's treasury to sustain those who are working to save perishing souls....
FH	101	4	The Lord is soon to come. We must work while the day lasts, for the night is coming in which no one can work. Oh, many, many have lost the spirit of self-denial and sacrifice. They have been burying their money in temporal possessions. There are souls whom God has blessed, whom He is testing to see what response they will make to His benefits.... Make haste, brethren, you now have opportunity to be honest with God; delay not. For your soul's sake no longer rob God in tithes and offerings....
FH	101	5	As the plan of redemption begins and ends with a gift, so it is to be carried forward. The same spirit of sacrifice which purchased salvation for us will dwell in the hearts of all who become partakers of the heavenly gift. Says Peter, "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." Said Jesus to His disciples as He sent them forth, "Freely ye have received, freely give."...
FH	101	6	Let all do everything in their power to help, both by their means and by their prayers, to carry the burden for souls for whom the ministers are laboring.--The General Conference Bulletin, May 30, 1897.
------------------------They Shall See His Face, March 31
FH	102	1	They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. Revelation 22:4.
FH	102	2	When Moses pleaded with God, saying, "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory," God said, "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live."... Moses could not behold the revelation of the glory of the face of God, and live; but there is a promise given to us, "They shall see his face."
FH	102	3	When Moses came down from the mount where he had been given a view of the glory of God, his face was so lighted up that Aaron and all the children of Israel "were afraid to come nigh him."...
FH	102	4	We cannot now see the glory of God; but it is only by receiving Him here that we shall be able by and by to see Him face to face. God would have us keep our eyes fixed on Him, that we may lose sight of the things of this world....
FH	102	5	Today by our associations, by our life, by our character, we are choosing whom we will have as our king. Heavenly intelligences are seeking to draw us to Christ.... Though we are transgressors of the law of God, if we repent in faith, God can work through us the works of Christ....
FH	102	6	When Christ ascended on high, He sent His Representative as a Comforter. This Representative is by our side wherever we may be-a watcher and a witness to all that is said and done-standing ready to protect us from the assaults of the enemy if we will but place ourselves under His protection. But we must act our part, and then God will act His part. When we are brought into trial and affliction for His sake, the Comforter will stand by our side, bringing to our remembrance the words and teachings of Christ.
FH	102	7	Is your name written in the book of life? Only by looking to Jesus, the Lamb of God, and following in His steps, can you prepare to meet God. Follow Him, and you will one day walk the golden streets of the city of God....
FH	102	8	Those who consecrate their lives to the service of God will live with Him through the ceaseless ages of eternity....
FH	102	9	He takes them as His children, saying, Enter ye into the joy of your Lord. The crown of immortality is placed on the brow of the overcomers.--Youth's Instructor, August 20, 1896.
------------------------The Great Supper, April 1
FH	103	1	A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, "Come, for all things are now ready." Luke 14:16, 17. (Read Luke 14:16-24.)
FH	103	2	This parable correctly represents the condition of many professing to believe the present truth. The Lord has sent them an invitation to come to the supper which He has prepared for them at great cost to Himself, but worldly interests look to them of greater importance than the heavenly treasure. They are invited to take part in the things of eternal value, but their farms, their cattle, and their home interest, seem of so much greater importance than obedience to the heavenly invitation that they overpower every divine attraction, and these earthly things are made the excuse for their disobedience to the heavenly command, "Come; for all things are now ready."...
FH	103	3	The very blessings which God has given to these individuals, to prove them, to see if they will render "unto God the things that are God's," they use as an excuse that they cannot obey the claims of truth. They have grasped their earthly treasure in their arms and say, I must take care of these things; I must not neglect the things of this life; these things are mine. Thus the hearts of these people have become as unimpressible as the beaten highway....
FH	103	4	Their hearts are so overgrown with thorns and cares of this life that heavenly things can find no place. Jesus invites the weary and heavy laden with promises of rest if they will come to Him.... He would have them lay aside the heavy burdens of worldly cares and perplexities, and take His yoke, which is self-denial and sacrifice for others. This burden will prove to be light. Those who refuse to accept the relief Christ offers them, and will continue to wear the galling yoke of selfishness, tasking their souls to the utmost in plans to accumulate money for selfish gratification, have not experienced the peace and rest found in bearing the yoke of Christ and lifting the burdens of self-denial and disinterested benevolence which Christ has borne in their behalf....
FH	103	5	Souls for whom Christ died might be saved by their personal effort and godly example.... But the precious light is hid under a bushel, and it gives no light to those who are in the house.--The Review and Herald, August 25, 1874.
------------------------Two Sons, April 2
FH	104	1	A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, "Son, go, work today in my vineyard." He answered and said, "I will not," but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, "I go, sir," but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? Matthew 21:28-31.
FH	104	2	In the parable the son who refused to go represented the Gentile world, and the class who said, "I go, sir" represented the Pharisees. Christ had just cleansed the temple of those who defiled it with forbidden traffic. Divinity had flashed through humanity, and the people had seen the glory and power of God manifested before them.... As He had traveled toward Jerusalem, the multitude had spread their garments in the way and had strewn His path with palm branches, and they had proclaimed His praises, singing, "Hosanna to the son of David." Though the rejoicing ones had not dared to carry their acclamations to the very gate of the temple, fearing the priests and rulers, the children had taken up the song, and were praising God in the temple, and shouting, "Hosanna to the son of David."...
FH	104	3	The Gentile world would accept the truth; but those who had so great light and such wonderful privileges, to whom had been granted both temporal and spiritual blessings, refused the message of salvation. They had professed to be the people of God. They had said, "We go, sir," but they failed of doing their Father's will....
FH	104	4	When the invitation of heaven has been brought to your ears, have you said, "Yes, Lord, I believe the truth," yet by the actions of your life shown that you did not believe? Have you brought it into your heart? Has its transforming power taken hold upon your soul? Has its sanctifying grace been brought into your character? How is it with you?...
FH	104	5	It is the privilege of everyone to say, "I will carry out my Captain's orders to the very letter, feeling or no feeling.... I will say, 'What are my orders? What is the line of my duty? What says the Master to me?... What is my position before God?'" Just as soon as we come into right relations to God, we shall understand our duty and do it, and we shall not think the good things we do entitle us to salvation....
FH	104	6	The question is not, How will you stand in the day of trouble, or at some future time, but how is it with your soul today? Will you go to work today?--The Review and Herald, April 9, 1889.
------------------------The Barren Fig Tree, April 3
FH	105	1	Having a form of godliness but denying its power. 2 Timothy 3:5. (Read Matthew 21:19-21.)
FH	105	2	The treatment of the barren fig tree by the Savior of the world shows how all pretenders to godliness will be treated.... This tree represents the Jews, who refused to respond to the love of Christ. Despite all the privileges and opportunities granted them, they brought forth only briers and thorns-no fruit to the glory of God. This blighted tree was a parable to the house of Israel-a most impressive lesson. It is also a lesson to the professed followers of Christ in every age. Reaching through all time, it speaks in unmistakable language to all formalists and boasters of godliness who stand forth to the world with high profession but are utterly devoid of that vital piety which alone God recognizes as fruit....
FH	105	3	Like the barren fig tree, many flaunt their foliage-covered branches before the Lord, proudly claiming to be His commandment-keeping people, while the heart-searching God finds them destitute of fruit....
FH	105	4	We learn from the Sacred Record that this tree, upon which hung not a redeeming cluster of fruit, was clothed with green foliage. Notice the words, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." The doom of the fruitless fig tree has an application to individual professors who manifest the natural tendencies of the unrenewed heart, and contradict their faith by their daily life. They do not represent to the world the character of Christ, because they have not Christ in them.
FH	105	5	Our Savior never turned away from the truly penitent, no matter how great their guilt. But He hates all hypocrisy and vain display....
FH	105	6	Fruitless professors, sad indeed is your fate; for the open sinner stands in a more favorable position in the sight of God. The blight of God's curse is upon that class who hide the deformity of their lives under a profession of godliness. John, that bold, undaunted reprover of sin, who came to prepare the way for Christ's first advent, thus addressed the multitude that flocked to hear him: "Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."--The Review and Herald, January 11, 1881.
------------------------I Have Many Things to Say Unto You, April 4
FH	106	1	I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. John 16:12, 13.
FH	106	2	The Lord Jesus had precious truth to open before His disciples, but He could not unfold it to their minds until they were in a condition to comprehend the significance of what He desired to teach....
FH	106	3	Though He unfolded great and wonderful things to the minds of His disciples, He left many things unsaid that could not be comprehended by them. At His last meeting with them before His death, He said, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now."... Earthly ideas, temporal things, occupied so large a place in their minds, that they could not then understand the exalted nature, the holy character, of His kingdom, though He laid it out in clear lines before them. It was because of their former erroneous interpretation of the prophecies, because of human customs and traditions, presented and urged upon them by the priests, that their minds had become confused and were hardened to truth.
FH	106	4	What was it that Jesus withheld because they could not comprehend it? It was the more spiritual, glorious truths concerning the plan of redemption. The words of Christ, which the Comforter would recall to their minds after His ascension, led them to more careful thought and earnest prayer that they might comprehend His words and give them to the world. Only the Holy Spirit could enable them to appreciate the significance of the plan of redemption. The lessons of Christ, coming to the world through the inspired testimony of the disciples, have a significance and value far beyond that which the casual reader of the Scriptures gives them. Christ sought to make plain His lessons by means of illustrations and parables. He spoke of the truths of the Bible as a treasure hid in a field, which, when a man had found, he went and sold all that he had, and bought the field. He represents the gems of truth, not as lying directly upon the surface, but as buried deep in the ground; as hidden treasures that must be searched for. We must dig for the precious jewels of truth, as a man would dig in a mine.
FH	106	5	In presenting the truth to others, we should follow the example of Jesus.--The Review and Herald, October 14, 1890.
------------------------Wayside Hearers, April 5
FH	107	1	A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside. Luke 8:5.
FH	107	2	The great controversy between Christ, the prince of light, and Satan, the prince of darkness, is presented before us in the parable of the sower....
FH	107	3	The sower is the Son of God, or the one to whom He delegates His work, for by cooperating with Christ, we are to become laborers together with God. Those who by personal ministry open to others the Scriptures are sowing the good seed, for the good seed is the Word of God....
FH	107	4	The seed sown by the wayside represents the word of God as it falls upon the heart of those who are inattentive hearers, for those who are to bring the fruit forth must meditate much upon the word of God which has been presented to them.... As the birds of the air are ready to catch up the seed from the wayside, so Satan is represented as ready with his unseen agencies of evil to catch away the seeds of divine truth from the heart, lest it should find a lodgment there and bring forth fruit unto eternal life....
FH	107	5	Satan and his angels are in the assembly where the gospel of the kingdom is preached. While heavenly angels also are present to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation, the enemy is ever on the alert that he may make of no effect the influence of the truth. With an earnestness that is only equaled by his malice, he seeks to thwart the operation of the Spirit of God on the heart of the hearer, for he sees that if the truth is accepted, he has lost control of his subject, and Christ has won the victory....
FH	107	6	There are many whose hearts are as hard as the beaten pathway, and apparently it is a useless effort to present the truth to them; but while logic may fail to move, and argument be worthless to convince, let the laborer for Christ come close to such in Christlike sympathy and compassion, and it may be that the love of Christ will subdue and melt the soul into tenderness and contrition....
FH	107	7	Through the years of probation, God is testing and proving the hearts of all, that it may be seen who will find room for Jesus. The question to be answered by every soul is, Will you accept the pardoning love of God, which is a remedy for the diseases of the soul, or will you choose the enmity of Satan, and reap the terrible doom of the lost?--The Review and Herald, May 31, 1892.
------------------------Stony-ground Hearers, April 6
FH	108	1	Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. Matthew 13:5.
FH	108	2	The seed sown upon stony ground finds little depth of soil in which to take root. The plants spring up quickly, but the tender roots cannot penetrate into the rock and find nutriment to sustain the growing plant, and it soon perishes. A large number who make a profession of religion may be represented by the stony-ground hearers. They are a class that are easily convinced, but they have only a superficial religion....
FH	108	3	There are those who receive the precious truth with joy; they are exceedingly zealous, and express amazement that all cannot see the things that are so plain to them. They urge others to embrace the doctrine that they find so satisfying. They hastily condemn the hesitating and those who carefully weigh the evidences of the truth, and consider it in all its bearings.... But in the time of trial, these enthusiastic persons too often falter and fail....
FH	108	4	As the roots of a plant strike down into the soil, gathering moisture and nutriment from the ground, so Christians must abide in Christ, drawing sap and nourishment from Him, as does the branch from the vine, until they cannot be turned away from the Source of their strength by trials....
FH	108	5	Stony-ground hearers may rejoice for a season, for they think that religion is something that will free them from test and from all difficulty. They have not counted the cost....
FH	108	6	The class that Jesus represents as stony-ground hearers trusted in their good works, in their good impulses, and were strong in themselves, in their own righteousness. They were not "strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." They did not feel that eternal vigilance was the price of safety. They might have put on the whole armor of God, and have been able to stand against the wiles of the enemy. The rich and abundant promises of God were spoken for their benefit, and believing the Word of God, they might have been clothed with a "Thus saith the Lord" and been able to meet every wily device of the adversary; for when the enemy should come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord would have lifted up a standard against him.--The Review and Herald, June 7, 1892.
------------------------Thorny-ground Hearers, April 7
FH	109	1	And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. Matthew 13:7.
FH	109	2	In the thorns that choke the good seed, the Great Teacher would depict the dangers that are around those who hear the Word of God; for there are foes on every hand to make of no effect the precious truth of God. All that draws the affections from God, all that fills the attention so that Christ has no room in the heart, must be renounced if the seed of truth is to flourish in the soul. Jesus specifies the things that are dangerous to the soul. He says the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things, choke the word, the growing spiritual seed, so that the soul does not draw nourishment from Christ, as does the branch from the vine, and the spiritual life dies from the heart. Love of the world, love of its pleasures and display, and love of other things keep the soul away from God; for those who love the world do not depend upon God for their courage, their hope, their joy. They know not what it is to have the joy of Christ, for this is the joy of leading others to the Fountain of life, of winning souls from sin to righteousness....
FH	109	3	When those who have but a partial knowledge of the truth are called upon to study some point that cuts across their preconceived opinions, they are confused. Their preconceived opinions are as thorns that choke the Word of God, and when truth is sown, and it becomes necessary to root up the thorns to give it place, they feel that everything is going from them, and they are in trouble.
FH	109	4	There are many who have but an imperfect understanding of the character of God. They think of Him as stern and arbitrary, and when the fact is presented that God is love, it is a difficult matter for these souls to lay aside their false conceptions of God. But if they do not let the Word of truth in, rooting out the thorns, the briers will start up afresh and choke out the good Word of God; their religious experience will be dwarfed, for the evil of their hearts will overtop the tender plant of truth, and shut away the spiritual atmosphere....
FH	109	5	The law of God is the rule of God's government, and through eternal ages it will be the standard of His kingdom.... If we do not yield to its requirements in this life, learning to love God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves, we shall meet with no change in character at the appearing of Jesus.--The Review and Herald, June 21, 1892.
------------------------Good-ground Hearers, April 8
FH	110	1	But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Matthew 13:8.
FH	110	2	What an encouragement it is that the sower is not always to meet with disappointment. The seed is sometimes received into honest hearts. The hearers comprehend the truth and do not resist the Holy Spirit or refuse to receive the impression of truth upon their hearts.... They receive the truth into the heart, and it accomplishes its transforming work upon the character. They are not able to change their own hearts, but the Holy Spirit, through their obedience to the truth, sanctifies the soul.
FH	110	3	The good heart does not mean a heart without sin, for the gospel is to be preached to the lost. Jesus says, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Convicted sinners see themselves as transgressors in the great moral mirror, God's holy law. They look upon the Savior upon the cross of Calvary and ask why this great sacrifice was made; and the cross points to the holy law of God, which has been transgressed. It was to save the transgressor from ruin that He who was coequal with God offered up His life on Calvary.... The law has no power to pardon the evil-doer; but Jesus has taken the sins of the transgressor upon Himself, and as a sinner exercises faith in Him as the sacrifice, Christ imputes His own righteousness to the guilty one. There has been but one way of salvation since the days of Adam. "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." We have no reason to fear while we are looking to Jesus, believing that He is able to save all who come unto Him.
FH	110	4	As the result of active faith in Christ we are brought into the moral warfare with the world, the flesh, and the devil. If we undertake this warfare in our own wisdom, our human ability, we shall certainly be overcome; but if we exercise living faith in Jesus, and practice godliness, we shall understand what it means to be sanctified through the truth, and we shall not be overcome in the conflict, for heavenly angels encamp around about us. Christ is the captain of our salvation. He it is who strengthens His followers for the moral conflict which they are pledged to undertake....
FH	110	5	Those who open the Scriptures and feed upon the heavenly manna become partakers of the divine nature. They have no life or experience apart from Christ.... They know that in character they must be like Him with whom God is well pleased.--The Review and Herald, June 28, 1892.
------------------------Opposition May Benefit Us, April 9
FH	111	1	But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. Luke 8:15.
FH	111	2	But if the love of the world, if self-esteem or any defiling thoughts or actions, obtain the victory over us, then shall we lose confidence in Jesus, or in ourselves? Is it because Jesus failed us and did not supply us with His grace? No; it is because we did not do what the Lord has told us to do, "Watch unto prayer"; "Pray always"; "Pray without ceasing."
FH	111	3	How can your soul be in health when you shut yourself away from prayer and have no connection with Christ, the source of all spiritual light and life and power? We must have a constant connection with Christ, for He is our sustenance. He is that bread which came down from heaven. Then let us be doers of His word, and we shall have spiritual life and power. We must place ourselves often before God as suppliants, because prayer brings the soul into immediate contact with God through Jesus Christ. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If Christians fail, it is because they do not obey the orders of their Captain. They are off guard; they are not Christlike. It will work disaster to the soul to neglect prayer, for you will be led to yield carelessly to temptation. But if you do yield, do not therefore cast away your confidence in God; lose confidence in yourself, and press closer to the side of Christ.
FH	111	4	Christ is not to be charged with the results of the negligence and indecision. He who gave His life to save fallen men and women appreciates the value of the soul. He will never fail of doing His part nor become discouraged. He will never leave the erring one, tempted and tried in the conflict. "My grace is sufficient for thee." "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able." He weighs and measures every trial before He permits it to come....
FH	111	5	The opposition we meet may prove a benefit to us in many ways. If it is well borne, it will develop virtues which would never have appeared if the Christian had nothing to endure. And faith, patience, forbearance, heavenly mindedness, trust in Providence, and genuine sympathy with the erring, are the results of trial well borne....
FH	111	6	If the word is received into good and honest hearts, the stubborn soul will be subdued, and faith, grasping the promises and relying upon Jesus, will prove triumphant.--The Review and Herald, June 28, 1892.
------------------------The Rich Man, April 10
FH	112	1	The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself saying, "What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?" Luke 12:16, 17.
FH	112	2	This man had received everything from God. The sun had been permitted to shine upon his land; for it falls on the just and on the unjust alike. The showers of heaven fall on the evil and the good. The Lord had caused vegetation to flourish, and the fields to yield fruit, and bring to perfection an abundant harvest. The rich man was in perplexity as to what he should do with all his produce. He regarded himself as favored above others and took credit to himself for his wisdom. He had great wealth, and could not reproach himself with the sins of which many were guilty. He had obtained his goods, not by gambling, not by taking advantage of another's misfortune who had been involved in financial embarrassment and who was obliged to sell his goods below cost; but his wealth had been obtained through the providence of God in causing his land to yield abundantly. But the man revealed his selfishness, and manifested that which he did not before suspect was in his character.
FH	112	3	He did not think of God, the great giver of all his blessings. He did not consider his accountability to God.... Had he loved and feared God, he would have offered up thanksgiving and bowed before God, saying, "Instruct me how to use these goods."...
FH	112	4	How many hungry could have been fed, how many naked clothed, how many hearts made glad, how many prayers answered for bread and clothing, and what a melody of praise could he have caused to ascend to heaven. The Lord was answering the prayers of the poor and needy and was making abundant provision for the supply of all their wants by the blessing He had bestowed upon the rich man. But the man made suddenly so rich closed the avenues of his soul to the cry of the needy; and in place of disposing of his superabundance of goods in supplying their needs, he said to his servants, "This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods."...
FH	112	5	He said, "I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry."... God said unto him, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee."--The Review and Herald, June 19, 1894.
------------------------The Laborers, April 11
FH	113	1	For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. Matthew 20:1, 2. (Read Matthew 20:1-16.)
FH	113	2	Christ taught by means of figures and symbols. On one occasion He spoke a parable in regard to the hiring of laborers to illustrate the way in which God deals with those who devote themselves to His service....
FH	113	3	It was the custom in Judea for men to wait at the marketplaces for someone to come and employ them; and in Europe this custom is still in vogue. Those who need help go to the marketplace to find servants that they may employ. The man in the parable is represented as going out at different hours to engage workmen. Those he hired at the earliest hour agreed to work for him for a stated sum of money, while those who were hired later left the wages they were to receive wholly to the discretion of the householder.
FH	113	4	"So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny."...
FH	113	5	The lesson of the laborers had a bearing upon the question about which the disciples had disputed by the way-who should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The world's Redeemer saw the danger that would imperil His church, and sought to arouse His people to an understanding of their position; for this parable was but a continuation of the lesson taught when Peter asked, "Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?"...
FH	113	6	With implicit trust we are to stay upon God, and let the heart rest in Him without a question as to what is to be our measure of reward....
FH	113	7	Jesus would have those who are engaged in His service not [be] eager for rewards nor feel that they must receive compensation for all that they do.... The Lord measures the spirit, and rewards accordingly, and the pure, humble, childlike spirit of love makes the offering precious in His sight.--The Review and Herald, July 3, 1894.
------------------------A Teacher of Righteousness, April 12
FH	114	1	If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:31, 32.
FH	114	2	Jesus says, "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Jesus was the greatest teacher the world ever knew. He presented truth in clear, forcible statements, and the illustrations He used were of the purest and highest order....
FH	114	3	In His sermon on the mount, Christ gave the true interpretation to the Old Testament Scriptures, expounding the truth that had been perverted by the rulers, the scribes, and the Pharisees. What a vast meaning does He give to the law of God! He Himself had given the law when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Christ Himself was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy, the end of types, symbols, and sacrifices. Enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, He Himself had given specific directions to Moses for the Jewish nation, and He was the only one who could disperse the multitude of errors that through human maxims and traditions had accumulated about the truth....
FH	114	4	He set the truth on high, in order that like a light it might illuminate the moral darkness of the world. He rescued every gem of truth from the rubbish of human maxims and traditions, and exalted the truth to the throne of God from whence it had issued....
FH	114	5	His course was in such marked contrast to the course of the scribes and Pharisees and the religious teachers of that day, that they were made manifest as whited sepulchers, hypocritical pretenders to religion, who sought to exalt themselves by a profession of holiness, while within they were full of ravening and all uncleanness. They could not tolerate true holiness, true zeal for God, which was the distinguishing feature of the character of Christ; for true religion cast a reflection upon their spirit and practices....
FH	114	6	In the heart of Jesus there was hatred of nothing save sin. They could have received Him as the Messiah had He simply manifested His miracle-working power and refrained from denouncing sin, from condemning their corrupt passions, and from pronouncing the curse of God upon their idolatry; but since He would give no license to evil, though He healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, and raised the dead, they had nothing for the divine Teacher but bitter abuse, jealousy, envy, evil-surmising, and hatred.--The Review and Herald, August 6, 1895.
------------------------Have You Oil in Your Lamps? April 13
FH	115	1	Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Matthew 25:1. (Read Matthew 25:13.)
FH	115	2	Though five of these virgins are represented as wise and five as foolish, all had lamps. They had all been convicted that they must prepare for the coming of the bridegroom, and all had gained a knowledge of the truth. There was no apparent difference between the wise and the foolish until the cry was made, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him," but the true state of things was then developed. The wise had taken precautions to carry oil with them in their vessels, so that their lamps that were beginning to burn dimly might be replenished with oil; but the foolish had not provided for this emergency, and now they made an earnest, distressed petition to those who were wise.... They had neglected to prepare themselves to meet the bridegroom, and now turned to those who had provided themselves with oil....
FH	115	3	In reading this parable one cannot but pity the foolish virgins and ask the question, Why is it that the wise did not divide their supply of oil? But as we make the spiritual application of the parable, we can see the reason. It is not possible for those who have faith and grace to divide their supply with those who have not. It is not possible for those who have made a thorough heart work, to impart the benefit of this to those who have done but surface work....All the ten virgins appeared to be ready for the coming of the bridegroom, and yet the test brought out the fact that five were unready....
FH	115	4	The foolish virgins do not represent those who are hypocritical. They had a regard for truth, they advocated the truth, they were intending to go forth to meet the bridegroom. They are attached to those who believe the truth, and go with them, having lamps, which represent a knowledge of the truth....
FH	115	5	Many receive the truth readily, but they fail to assimilate truth, and its influence is not abiding. They are like the foolish virgins, who had no oil in their vessels with their lamps. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, which is brought into the soul through faith in Jesus Christ. Those who earnestly search the Scriptures with much prayer, who rely upon God with firm faith, who obey His commandments, will be among those who are represented as wise virgins.--The Review and Herald, September 17, 1895.
------------------------The Unfaithful Servant, April 14
FH	116	1	Then he who had received the one talent came and said, "Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground." Matthew 25:24, 25.
FH	116	2	The teaching of this parable is plain. All the gifts of intellect or of property which anyone has are entrusted to him. They are the Lord's goods, and are to be used to His honor and glory. They are to be improved and increased by use, that the Lord may receive returns from them. But the Lord receives no returns from many talents; for, like the unfaithful servant, those to whom they are entrusted put them where they are not increased.
FH	116	3	All in whose hearts selfishness is cherished will listen to the temptations of Satan and will act the part of the unfaithful, slothful servant. They will hide their entrusted treasure, neglecting to use their talents for the Lord.... They have sown sparingly, or not at all, and they will reap sparingly. But although the Lord has told them this in words too plain to be honestly misconstrued, they cherish dissatisfaction in their hearts, and complain that the Lord is a hard master, that they are dealt hardly and unjustly with....
FH	116	4	Today this work is being done by many who claim to know God. They speak in a repining, complaining manner of the Lord's requirements. They do not directly charge God with being unjust, but they complain of everything touching the question of using their influence or their means in His service. Whoever they may be, if those to whom the Lord has entrusted His gifts do not make the best use of their endowments, if they do not cooperate with the heavenly angels by trying to be a blessing to their fellow human beings, they will receive the denunciation from the Lord, Thou wicked and slothful servant. You had My gifts to use, but you neglected to use them.... You, who thought you knew so much, wickedly misrepresented Me and led others to think that I was unjustly hard and exacting. "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." In that day these unfaithful servants will see their mistake and will realize that by selfishly putting their talents where the Lord could receive no increase from them, they have not only lost all they had but have lost also the eternal riches.--The Review and Herald, January 5, 1897.
------------------------What Can Be, April 15
FH	117	1	To everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. Matthew 25:29.
FH	117	2	Those who accept Jesus as their personal Savior will live lives of humility, patience, and love. They did not give themselves to the Lord for the sake of the profit they should receive. They have become one with Christ, as Christ is one with the Father, and daily they receive their reward in being partakers of the humility, the reproach, the self-denial, and the self-sacrifice of Christ. They find their joy in keeping the Lord's ordinances. In true service they find hope, and peace, and comfort; and with faith and courage they go forward in the path of obedience, following Him who gave His life for them. By their consecration and devotion they reveal to the world the truth of the words, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."
FH	117	3	"They that feared the Lord," writes the prophet Malachi, "spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name." Were the words spoken, words of complaint, of faultfinding, of self-sympathy? No; in contrast to those who speak against God, those who fear Him speak words of courage, of thankfulness, and of praise. They do not cover the altar of God with tears and lamentations; they come with faces lighted up with the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and praise God for His goodness.
FH	117	4	Such words make all heaven rejoice. Those who utter them may be poor in worldly possessions, but by faithfully giving to God the portion He claims, they acknowledge their indebtedness to Him. Self-serving does not make up the chapters of their life history. In love and gratitude, with songs of joy upon their lips, they bring their offerings to God, saying as did David, Of Thine own we freely give Thee. "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."...
FH	117	5	Those who truly serve God will fear Him, but not as did the unfaithful servant, who hid his talent in the earth because he was afraid the Lord would receive His own. They will fear to dishonor their Maker by failing to improve their talents.--The Review and Herald, January 5, 1897.
------------------------Captivating Words, April 16
FH	118	1	No man ever spoke like this Man! John 7:46.
FH	118	2	The educated were charmed with Christ's teaching, and the uneducated were always profited, for He appealed to their understanding. His illustrations were taken from the things of daily life, and although they were simple, they had in them a wonderful depth of meaning. The fowls of the air, the lilies of the field, the seed, the shepherd and his sheep-with these objects, Christ illustrated immortal truth; and ever afterward when His hearers chanced to see these things in nature, they recalled His words. Christ's illustrations constantly repeated His lessons.
FH	118	3	Christ always used the most simple language, yet His words were received by deep, unprejudiced thinkers, for they were words that tested their wisdom. Spiritual things should always be presented in simple language even though learned men are being addressed, for such are generally ignorant regarding spiritual things. The simplest language is the most eloquent.... Christ's words, so comforting and cheering to those that listened to them, are for us today. As a faithful shepherd knows and cares for his sheep, so Christ cares for His children.... Christ knows His sheep intimately, and the suffering and helpless are objects of His special care....
FH	118	4	Christ did not design that His words should return to Him void.... He Himself wrote nothing; but the Holy Spirit brought all His words and acts to the remembrance of His disciples, that they might be recorded for our benefit. Christ's instruction was given with the greatest clearness. There was no need for anyone to misunderstand. But the scribes and Pharisees... misconstrued and misapplied His words. The utterances which were the bread of life to starving souls were bitterness to the Jewish rulers....
FH	118	5	In His sermon on the mount, Christ spoke as though He knew that the scribes and Pharisees believed the Old Testament. They were in that gathering, and the disciples were close beside their beloved Teacher. There Christ declared, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." By His words He condemned their formalism and hypocrisy. And though applying directly to those before Him, these words apply also to those of this age who do not the will of God. They are far-reaching, and come sounding down the ages to our time.--The Review and Herald, May 18, 1897.
------------------------The Vine and the Branches, April 17
FH	119	1	I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. John 15:1.
FH	119	2	In His lessons, Christ did not aspire to high-flown, imaginary things. He came to teach, in the simplest manner, truths that were of vital importance, that even the class whom He called babes might understand them. And yet, in His simplest imagery there was a depth and beauty that the most educated minds could not exhaust....
FH	119	3	The vine had often been used as a symbol of Israel, and the lesson Christ now gave His disciples was drawn from this. He might have used the graceful palm to represent Himself. The lofty cedar that was towering toward the skies, or the strong oak that spreads its branches and lifts them heavenward, He might have used to represent the stability and integrity of those who are followers of Christ. But instead of this, He took the vine, with its clinging tendrils, to represent Himself and His relation to His true followers.
FH	119	4	"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman."
FH	119	5	On the hills of Palestine our heavenly Father planted a goodly Vine, and He Himself was the Husbandman. It had no remarkable form that would at first sight give an impression of its value. It appeared to come up as a root out of dry ground, and attracted but little attention. But when attention was called to the plant, it was by some declared to be of heavenly origin. The people of Nazareth stood entranced as they saw its beauty; but when they received the idea that it would stand more gracefully and attract more attention than themselves, they wrestled to uproot the precious plant, and cast it over the wall. The people of Jerusalem took the plant, and bruised it, and trampled it under their unholy feet. Their thought was to destroy it forever. But the heavenly Husbandman never lost sight of His plant. After the people thought that they had killed it, He took it, and replanted it on the other side of the wall. He hid it from earthly view....
FH	119	6	Every branch that bears fruit is a living representative of the vine, for it bears the same fruit as the vine.... Every branch will show whether or not it has life; for where there is life, there is growth. There is a continual communication of the life-giving properties of the vine, and this is demonstrated by the fruit which the branches bear.
FH	119	7	As the graft receives life when united to the vine, so the sinner partakes of the divine nature when in connection with Christ. Finite men and women are united with the infinite God.--The Review and Herald, November 2, 1897.
------------------------The Pearl of Great Price, April 18
FH	120	1	Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matthew 13:45, 46.
FH	120	2	By comparing the kingdom of heaven to a pearl, Christ desired to lead every soul to appreciate that pearl above all else. The possession of the pearl, which means the possession of a personal Savior, is the symbol of true riches. It is a treasure above every earthly treasure.
FH	120	3	Christ is ready to receive all who come to Him in sincerity. He is our only hope, our Alpha and Omega. He is our sun and shield, our wisdom, our sanctification, our righteousness. Only by His power can our hearts be kept in the love of God....
FH	120	4	On one occasion Christ warned His disciples to beware how they cast their pearls before those who had not discernment to appreciate their value.... "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs," He said, "neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."...
FH	120	5	When people show themselves unimpressionable, unable to appreciate the pearl of great price; when they deal dishonestly with God and with others; when they show that the fruit they bear is the fruit of the forbidden tree, beware lest, by connecting with them, you lose your connection with God....
FH	120	6	Truth as it is in Jesus sets us right and keeps us so. The truth is an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast. But the truth is no truth to those who do not obey it. When men and women drift away from the principles of truth, they always betray sacred trust. Let every soul, in whatever sphere of action, make sure that the truth is implanted in the heart by the power of the Spirit of God. Unless this is made certain, those who preach the Word will betray holy trusts. Physicians will make shipwreck of the faith. Lawyers, judges, senators, will become corrupted, and yielding to bribery, will allow themselves to be bought and sold. Those who do not walk in the light as Christ is in the light are blind leaders of the blind, "Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots."--The Review and Herald, August 1, 1899.
------------------------How Often Shall I Forgive? April 19
FH	121	1	Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." Matthew 18:22. (Read Matthew 18:15-35.)
FH	121	2	Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven....
FH	121	3	"The kingdom of heaven [is] likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
FH	121	4	"But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not."...
FH	121	5	This parable is designed to show the spirit of tenderness and compassion which we should manifest for others. The pardon of this king represents a pardon that is supernatural-a divine forgiveness of all sin. Christ is represented by the king who, moved with compassion, forgave the debt of his servant....
FH	121	6	When the debtor pleaded for delay with the promise, "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all," the sentence was revoked; the whole debt was canceled, and he was soon given an opportunity to pattern after the master who had forgiven him.... But he who had been so mercifully treated dealt with his fellow laborer in an altogether different manner....
FH	121	7	The lesson to be learned is that we must have the spirit of true forgiveness, even as Christ forgives sinners, who can in no case pay their enormous debt. We are to bear in mind that Christ has paid an infinite price for erring human beings, and we are to treat them as Christ's purchased possession.--The Review and Herald, January 3, 1899.
------------------------The Marriage of the King's Son, April 20
FH	122	1	The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Matthew 22:2, 3. (Read Matthew 22:1-14.)
FH	122	2	The king sent his messengers first to those who were called his chosen people. But these, wholly intent on securing worldly gain, sent in their refusal, saying, "I pray thee have me excused."...
FH	122	3	When the class that were first called refused the invitation, the king sent his messengers into the highways, where were found those who were not so deeply absorbed in the work of buying and selling, planting and building....
FH	122	4	"And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; for there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."...
FH	122	5	There are those who come in to enjoy the privileges of the banquet of truth who have not eaten the flesh and drunk the blood of the Son of God. They claim to believe and teach the Word to others, but they work the works of unrighteousness....
FH	122	6	The invitation neglected by those who had first been bidden was sent to another class. It was given to the Gentile world. And it was first to be proclaimed in "the highways"-to those who had an active part in the world's work, to the leaders and teachers among humanity....
FH	122	7	Those who give the last message of mercy to a fallen world are not to pass by the ministers. God's servants are to approach them as those who have a deep interest in their welfare, and then plead for them in prayer....
FH	122	8	Lest we should think only of the great and gifted, to the neglect of the poorer classes, those who are in humble circumstances, Christ in the parable of the great supper instructs His messengers to go also to those in the byways and hedges, to the poor and lowly of this earth.... Labor is to be put forth for all classes.--The Review and Herald, May 8, 1900.
------------------------The Wedding Garment, April 21
FH	123	1	When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. Matthew 22:11. (Read Matthew 22:1-14.)
FH	123	2	By the help of the Holy Spirit, men and women can rise from commonness and live pure, holy lives. Those professed believers who do not do this lie against the truth.... They do not show forth in word and deportment the transforming power that attends the truth. How can the Lord be pleased with those who make no effort to rise to a high standard? Do they not claim to have received a high, noble truth?...
FH	123	3	God does not ask men and women to surrender anything that is for the health of soul or body, but He does ask them to surrender debasing, enfeebling vices which, if cherished, will exclude them from heaven. He leaves them room for every pleasure that can be enjoyed without compunction of conscience, and remembered without remorse. He asks them, for their present and eternal good, to cultivate those virtues that bring health to the body and strength to the soul. Pure thoughts and correct habits are necessary to our happiness as human beings and as Christians. Everything of a debasing character must be overcome if we would see the King in His beauty....
FH	123	4	The Lord can and will help everyone who seeks His help in the effort to become pure and holy.... Have earnest efforts been made to overcome natural inclinations to wrong, to conquer the habits and practices that were a part of the life before the acceptance of the truth? Are those who claim to believe the truth as untidy and disorderly in the home and as un-Christlike in the daily life as before they professed to accept Christ? If so, they are not showing forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness. They have not put on Christ's righteousness.
FH	123	5	Strive to make decided improvement. Cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. Be neat and tidy in your dress, and kind and courteous in your manner. Be pure and refined, for heaven is the very essence of purity and refinement. As God is pure and holy in His sphere, so we are to be in our sphere.
FH	123	6	Read carefully and critically the parable of the wedding garment, and make a personal application of the lessons it teaches.... Those who make a profession of faith, and yet remain unchanged in habit and practice, are represented... by the man who came to the feast without a wedding garment.--The Review and Herald, February 26, 1901.
------------------------The Lord's Vineyard, April 22
FH	124	1	There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it. Matthew 21:33. (Read Matthew 21:33-41.)
FH	124	2	A description of this vineyard is given in Isaiah: "Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein."
FH	124	3	This figure represents the advantages and opportunities given to Israel.... Through Moses they received divine precepts and commandments.... God gave them riches and prosperity. They had every temporal and every spiritual advantage. They were hedged about by the law of ten commandments. This was what distinguished Israel from every other nation on the face of the earth.
FH	124	4	The church is God's peculiar treasure, precious in His sight, and dear to His heart of infinite love.... The householder made every provision that the vineyard should receive the best of attention. Nothing was left undone that could be done to make the vineyard an honor to the one who owned it....
FH	124	5	With fire and tempest and death the great I AM redeemed His people, to make them glorious as His special representatives. He took them out of the land of bondage. He bore them as upon eagles' wings and brought them unto Himself, that they might dwell under the shadow of the Most High. Christ was the invisible leader of the children of Israel in their wilderness wanderings.... They witnessed a most wonderful manifestation of God's power when they passed through the Red Sea. And day by day they journeyed under the pillar of cloud, the symbol of the divine presence....
FH	124	6	With such a Leader, with such manifestations of His greatness and power, the children of Israel should have been inspired with faith and courage to go forward.... Only two of those who crossed the Red Sea lived to go over into the promised land....
FH	124	7	We need to beware lest we suffer the same fate as did ancient Israel. The history of their disobedience and downfall has been recorded for our instruction, that we may avoid doing as they did.--The Review and Herald, July 10, 1900.
------------------------How Jesus Taught Truth, April 23
FH	125	1	And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3.
FH	125	2	If Christ had thought it necessary, He could have opened to His disciples mysteries which would have eclipsed and put far out of sight all the discoveries of the human mind. He could have presented facts concerning every subject that would have gone beyond human reasonings, and yet not misrepresented the truth in any particular. He could have revealed that which was unknown, that which would have put imagination to the stretch and attracted the thoughts of successive generations to the close of earth's history. He could have opened doors into the mysteries that the human mind had sought in vain to open. He could have presented to men and women a tree of knowledge from which they might have plucked from age to age; but this work was not essential to their soul's salvation, and the knowledge of the character of God was necessary to their eternal interests....
FH	125	3	Jesus, the Lord of life and glory, came to plant the tree of life for the human family and to invite the members of a fallen race to eat and be satisfied. He came to reveal to them what was their only hope, their only happiness, both in this world and in that which is to come.... He would allow nothing to divert His attention from the work which He came to do....
FH	125	4	Jesus saw that people needed to have their minds attracted to God, that they might become acquainted with His character and obtain the righteousness of Christ represented in His holy law. He knew that it was necessary that all should have a faithful representation of the divine character, that they might not be deceived by the misrepresentations of Satan, who had cast his hellish shadow athwart their pathway, and to their minds clothed God with his own satanic characteristics....
FH	125	5	However great and wise the teachers of the world might have been regarded in His day or may be regarded in our day, yet in comparison to Him they are not to be admired; for all the truth they uttered was but that which He originated, and all that came from any other source was foolishness. Even the truth they uttered, in His mouth was beautified and made glorious; for He presented it in simplicity and dignity.--Signs of the Times, May 1, 1893.
------------------------The Lost Sheep, April 24
FH	126	1	If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? Matthew 18:12. (Read Matthew 18:11-14.)
FH	126	2	In the parable of the shepherd seeking for the lost sheep is a representation of the tender patience, perseverance, and great love of God. As we contemplate the unselfish love of God, our hearts well up with gratitude, praise, and thanksgiving. We praise Him for the priceless gift of His only begotten Son. There is no animal so helpless and bewildered as is the sheep that has strayed away from the fold. If the wanderer is not sought for by the compassionate shepherd, it will never find its way back to the fold. The shepherd must take it in his arms himself, and bear it to the fold....
FH	126	3	The Pharisees were ready to accuse and condemn Jesus because He did not, like themselves, repulse and condemn the publicans and sinners.... They thought that the law would justify them, and they would not consider the compassion and mercy that Jesus presented in His lessons as necessary to be brought into their practical life.... Christ never invited the wicked to come to Him to be saved in their sins, but to be saved from their sins....
FH	126	4	Christ did not ordain the plan of salvation for any one people or nation. He said: "I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."...
FH	126	5	Let every desponding, distrustful soul take courage, even though that individual may have done wickedly....You are not to think that perhaps God will pardon your transgressions and permit you to approach into His presence, but you are to remember that it is God who has made the first advance, that He has come forth to seek you while you were still in rebellion against Him....
FH	126	6	If the ardor and enthusiasm encouraged as necessary to the success of attaining worldly things is not commendable in seeking the salvation of the lost, which has a twofold object-to bless and to make us a blessing-what is? Through conversion we are personally placed in vital connection with Jesus Christ, who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.--Signs of the Times, January 22, 1894.
------------------------The Prodigal Son, April 25
FH	127	1	A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me." So he divided to them his livelihood. Luke 15:11, 12. (Read Luke 15:11-32.)
FH	127	2	It was to answer the accusation of the scribes and Pharisees to the effect that Jesus chose the companionship of sinners that He spake the parables concerning the lost sheep, the lost silver, and the prodigal son, and in these presentations showed that His mission to the world was not to make miserable, not to condemn and destroy, but to recover that which was lost.... These were the very ones that needed a Savior....
FH	127	3	The prodigal son was not a dutiful son, not one who would please his father, but one who desired his own way.... The tender sympathy and love of his father were misinterpreted, and the more patient, kind, and benevolent the father acted, the more restless the son became. He thought his liberty was restricted, for his idea of liberty was wild license, and as he craved to be independent of all authority, he broke loose from all the restraint of his father's house, and soon spent his fortune in riotous living. A great famine arose in the country in which he sojourned, and in his hunger he would fain have filled himself with the husks that the swine did eat....
FH	127	4	He had no one now to say: "Do not do that, for you will do injury to yourself. Do this, because it is right."... Starvation stared him in the face, and he joined himself to a citizen of the place. He was sent to do the most menial of work-to feed the swine. Although this to a Jew was the most disreputable of callings, yet he was willing to do anything, so great was his need....
FH	127	5	He is suffering keen hunger, and cannot fill his want, and, under these circumstances he remembers that his father has bread enough and to spare, and resolves to go to his father.... Having made this decision, he does not wait to make himself more respectable.... "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."...
FH	127	6	The home looks just as it did when he left it; but what a difference there is in himself.... The father does not give him a chance to say, "Make me as one of thy hired servants." The welcome he receives assures him that he is reinstated to the place of son.--Signs of the Times, January 29, 1894.
------------------------The Older Brother, April 26
FH	128	1	But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. Luke 15:28.
FH	128	2	Mark the points in the parable. The elder brother coming from the field, hearing the sound of rejoicing, inquires what it all means, and is told of the return of his brother, and how the fatted calf has been killed to provide for the feast. Then is revealed in the elder brother selfishness, pride, envy, and malignity. He feels that favor to the prodigal is an insult to himself, and the father remonstrates with him, but he will not look upon the matter in the right light, nor will he unite with the father in rejoicing that the lost is found. He gives the father to understand that, had he been in the father's place, he would not have received the son back, and forgets that the poor prodigal is his own brother. He speaks with disrespect to his father, charging him with injustice to himself while he shows favor to one who has wasted his living. He speaks of the prodigal to his father as "this thy son." Yet notwithstanding all this unfilial conduct, his expressions of contempt and arrogance, the father deals patiently and tenderly with him....
FH	128	3	Did the elder son finally come to see his unworthiness of so kind and considerate a father? Did he come to see that, though his brother had done wickedly, he was his brother still, that their relationship had not altered? And did he repent of his jealousy, and ask his father's forgiveness for so misrepresenting him to his face?
FH	128	4	How true a representation was the action of this elder son of unrepenting and unbelieving Israel, who refused to acknowledge that the publicans and sinners were their brethren, who should be forgiven and should be sought for, labored for, and not left to perish, but led to have everlasting life! How beautiful is this parable as it illustrates the welcome that every repentant soul will receive from the heavenly Father! With what joy will the heavenly intelligences rejoice to see souls returning to their Father's house! The sinners will meet with no reproach, no taunt, no reminder of their unworthiness. All that is required is penitence. The psalmist says, "For thou desirest not sacrifice; else I would give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."--Signs of the Times, January 29, 1894.
------------------------The Good Samaritan, Part I, April 27
FH	129	1	A certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Luke 10:25. (Read Luke 10:30-37.)
FH	129	2	With breathless attention the large congregation awaited Jesus' answer.... But Christ, the true searcher of hearts, understood the intents and purposes of His enemies. He turned the matter over to the lawyer who had asked the question, saying, "What is written in the law? how readest thou?"... And the lawyer said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself."...
FH	129	3	The lawyer had asked a plain, decided question, and the answer is equally plain and decided.... In answering the question, "What is written in the law?" the lawyer passed over all the mass of ceremonial and ritualistic ordinances as of no value, and presented only the two great principles on which hang all the law and the prophets, and Jesus commended his wisdom, and said, "This do, and thou shalt live."...
FH	129	4	To answer the question, "Who is my neighbour?" Jesus presented the parable of the good Samaritan. He knew that the Jews included only those of their own nation under the title of neighbors, and looked upon the Gentiles with contempt, calling them dogs, uncircumcised, unclean, and polluted. But above all others they despised the Samaritans.... Yet Jesus said: "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead."...
FH	129	5	As the sufferer lies thus, a priest passes by, but merely glances at the wounded man; and, as he does not wish to be put to the trouble and expense of helping him, he passes by on the other side. Then a Levite passes. Curious to know what has happened, he stops and looks at the sufferer; but he has no feeling of compassion to prompt him to help the dying man. He does not like the work, and, as he thinks it is no concern of his, he too passes by. Both these men were in sacred office, and claimed to know and to expound the Scriptures. They had been trained in the school of national bigotry, and had become selfish, narrow, and exclusive, and they felt no sympathy for anyone unless that person was of the Jews. They look upon the wounded man, but cannot tell whether he is of their nation or not. He might be of the Samaritans-and they turn away.--Signs of the Times, July 16, 1894.
------------------------The Good Samaritan, Part 2, April 28
FH	130	1	So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. Luke 10:34.
FH	130	2	In this parable Jesus presented a stranger, a neighbor, a brother in suffering, wounded and dying.... But though priests and scribes had read the law, they had not brought it into their practical life....
FH	130	3	In speaking of the manner in which the priest and the Levite treated the wounded man, the lawyer had heard nothing out of harmony with his own ideas, nothing contrary to the forms and ceremonies that he had been taught were all the law required. But Jesus presented another scene: "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him."...
FH	130	4	After Christ had shown up the cruelty and selfishness manifested by the representatives of the nation, he brought forward the Samaritan, who was despised, hated, and cursed by the Jews, and set him before them as one who possessed attributes of character far superior to those possessed by those who claimed exalted righteousness....
FH	130	5	Everyone who claims to be a child of God should note every detail of this lesson.... The Samaritan realized that there was before him a human being in need and suffering, and as soon as he sees him, he has compassion upon him....
FH	130	6	The Samaritan followed the impulse of a kind and loving heart. Christ so presented the scene that the most severe rebuke was placed upon the unfeeling actions of priest and Levite. But this lesson is not only for them, but for Christians of this day, and is a solemn warning to us that for humanity's sake we may not fail to show mercy and pity to those who suffer....
FH	130	7	In the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus presented His own love and character. The life of Christ was filled with works of love toward the lost and erring. In the man bruised and wounded and stripped of his possessions, the sinner is represented. The human family, the lost race, is pictured in the sufferer, left naked, bleeding, and destitute. Jesus takes His own robe of righteousness to cover the soul, and whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.--Signs of the Times, July 23, 1894.
------------------------The Unjust Judge, April 29
FH	131	1	Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Luke 18:4, 5. (Read Luke 18:1-8.)
FH	131	2	In this parable Christ draws a sharp contrast between the unjust judge and God. The judge, though fearing neither God nor man, listened to the widow because of her constant petitions. Although his heart remained like ice, yet the widow's persistence resulted in her success. He avenged her, though he felt no pity or compassion for her, though her misery was nothing to him. "And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily."
FH	131	3	The judge yielded to the widow's request merely because of selfishness, that he might be relieved of her persistence. How different is God's attitude in regard to prayer! Our heavenly Father may not seem to respond immediately to the prayers and appeals of His people, but He never turns from them indifferently. In this parable and the parable of the man rising at midnight to supply his friend's necessity, that the friend might minister to a needy, wayfaring man, we are taught that God hears our prayers. Too often we think that our petitions are unheard, and we cherish unbelief, distrusting God when we should claim the promise, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."...
FH	131	4	What is prayer-merely the presentation of our soul hunger? No; the presentation of our perplexities and necessities, and of our need of God's help against our adversary the devil.... Prayer is to be offered for the preservation of life, for the preservation of every power and faculty, that we may render the highest service to our Maker....
FH	131	5	The just Judge repulses no one who comes to Him in contrition. He has more pleasure in His church, struggling with temptation here below, than in the imposing host of angels that surround His throne. Not one sincere prayer is lost. Amid the anthems of the celestial choir, God hears the cries of the weakest human being. You who feel most unworthy, commit your case to Him, for His ears are open to your cry. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"--Signs of the Times, September 15, 1898.
------------------------The Pharisee and the Publican, April 30
FH	132	1	God, I thank You that I am not like other men... or even as this tax collector. Luke 18:11. (Read Luke 18:9-14.)
FH	132	2	Both these men are represented as resorting to the same place for prayer. Both came to meet with God. But what a contrast there was between them! One was full of self-praise. He looked it, he walked it, he prayed it; the other realized fully his own nothingness. The Pharisee was looked upon as righteous before God, and thus he was in his own estimation. The publican, in his humility, looked upon himself as having no claim to the mercy or approval of God....
FH	132	3	The publican would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, "God be merciful to me a sinner." The Searcher of hearts looked down upon both men, and He discerned the value of each prayer. He looks not on the outward appearance; He judges not as humans judge. He does not value us according to our rank, talent, education, or position.... He saw that the Pharisee was full of self-importance and self-righteousness, and the record was made against his name, "Weighed in the balances, and found wanting."...
FH	132	4	The Majesty of heaven humbled Himself from the highest authority, from the position of one equal with God, to the lowest place, that of a servant.... His trade was that of a carpenter, and He labored with His hands to do His part in sustaining the family.... His humility did not consist in a low estimate of His own character and qualifications, but in humbling Himself to fallen humanity, in order to raise them with Him to a higher life....
FH	132	5	That person is nearest God, and is the most honored of Him, who has the least self-importance and self-righteousness, the least trust and confidence in self, who waits on God in humble, trusting faith....
FH	132	6	Pride and self-importance, when compared with humility and lowliness, are indeed weakness. It was our Savior's gentleness, His plain, unassuming manners, that made Him a conqueror of hearts....
FH	132	7	God looks down from heaven with pleasure on the trusting, believing ones who have a full sense of their dependence on Him. To such He delights to give when they ask Him. "He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness."--Signs of the Times, October 21, 1897.
------------------------Compare the Sinner and the Righteous, May 1
FH	133	1	Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4.
FH	133	2	We often hear the life of Christians described as being filled with trials, sadness, and sorrow, with but little to cheer and comfort; and the impression is too often given that if they should give up their faith and their efforts for eternal life, the scene would be changed to pleasure and happiness. But I have been led to compare the life of the sinner with the life of the righteous. Sinners do not have a desire to please God, therefore can have no pleasing sense of His approval. They do not enjoy their state of sin and worldly pleasure without trouble. They feel deeply the ills of this mortal life. Oh yes, at times they are fearfully troubled. They fear God but do not love Him.
FH	133	3	Are sinners free from disappointment, perplexity, earthly losses, poverty, and distress? Oh, no! In this respect they are no more secure than the righteous. They often suffer lingering sicknesses, yet have no strong and mighty arm to lean upon, no strengthening grace from a higher power to support them. In their weakness they must lean upon their own strength. They cannot look forward with any pleasure to the resurrection morn, for they have no cheering hope that they will then have part with the blest. They obtain no consolation by looking forward to the future. A fearful uncertainty torments them, and thus they close their eyes in death. This is the end of poor sinners' lives of vain pleasures.
FH	133	4	Christians are subject to sickness, disappointment, poverty, reproach, and distress. Yet amid all this they love God, and love to do His will, and prize nothing so highly as His approval. In the conflicts, trials, and changing scenes of this life, they know that there is One who understands it all; One who will bend His ear low to the cries of the sorrowful and distressed; One who can sympathize with every sorrow and soothe the keenest anguish of every heart. He has invited the sorrowing ones to come to Him and find rest. Amid all their affliction Christians have strong consolation, and if they suffer a lingering, distressing sickness, before they close their eyes in death, they can with cheerfulness bear it all, for they hold communion with their Redeemer.--The Review and Herald, April 28, 1859.
------------------------What Does the Christian Gain? May 2
FH	134	1	Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:33.
FH	134	2	Many speak of the life of the Christian taking away from us pleasure and worldly enjoyment. I say it takes away nothing worth having. Is there perplexity, poverty, and distress endured by the Christian? Oh, yes, this is expected in this life. But are the sinners of whom we speak as enjoying the pleasures of this world free from these ills of life? Do we not often see in them the pale cheek, the wracking cough, indicating a fatal disease? Are they not subject to burning fevers and contagious diseases? How often do you hear their complaints of meeting with heavy losses of worldly goods; and consider, this is their only treasure. They lose all. These troubles of sinners are overlooked.
FH	134	3	Christians are too apt to think they are the only ones who have a hard time, and some seem to think that it is a condescension in them to embrace unpopular truth and profess to be Christ's followers. The road seems hard. They think they have many sacrifices to make, when in truth they make no real sacrifice. If they are adopted into the family of God, what sacrifices have they made? Their following Christ may have broken friendship with worldly relatives, but look at the exchange-their names written in the Lamb's book of life-elevated, yes, greatly exalted to be partakers of salvation-heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ to an imperishable inheritance. If the link which binds them to worldly relatives is weakened for Christ's sake, a stronger one is formed, a link which binds finite humanity to the infinite God. Shall we call this a sacrifice on our part because we yield error for truth, light for darkness, weakness for strength, sin for righteousness, and a perishable name and inheritance for honors that are lasting and an immortal treasure?...
FH	134	4	If there is anyone who enjoys happiness even in this life, it is the faithful follower of Jesus Christ.... If Christians dwell too much upon the rough pathway, they make it harder than it really is. If they dwell upon the bright spots in the way and are grateful for every ray of light, and then dwell upon the rich reward that lies at the end of the race, instead of gloom, mourning, and complaints, they will bear a cheerful countenance.--The Review and Herald, April 28, 1859.
------------------------The Blessings of Benevolence, May 3
FH	135	1	The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself Proverbs 11:25.
FH	135	2	Divine wisdom has appointed, in the plan of salvation, the law of action and reaction, making the work of beneficence, in all its branches, twice blessed. Those who give to the needy bless others, and are blessed themselves in a still greater degree....
FH	135	3	That we might not lose the blessed results of benevolence, our Redeemer formed the plan of enlisting us as His coworkers. By a chain of circumstances which would call forth our charities, He bestows upon us the best means of cultivating benevolence, and keeps us habitually giving to help the poor and to advance His cause. By their necessities, a ruined world are drawing forth from us talents of means and influence, to present to them the truth, of which they are in perishing need.... In bestowing, we bless others, and thus accumulate true riches....
FH	135	4	The cross of Christ appeals to the benevolence of every follower of the blessed Savior. The principle there illustrated is to give, give. This, carried out in actual benevolence and good works, is the true fruit of the Christian life. The principle of worldlings is to get, get, and thus they expect to secure happiness, but carried out in all its bearings, the fruit is misery and death....
FH	135	5	Christ assigned to human beings the work of spreading the gospel. But while some go forth to preach, He calls upon others to answer His claims upon them for offerings, with which to support His cause in the earth. This is one of God's ways of exalting us. It is just the work that we need, for it will stir the deepest sympathies of our heart and call into exercise the highest capabilities of the mind....
FH	135	6	God planned the system of beneficence in order that we might become, like our Creator, benevolent and unselfish in character....
FH	135	7	Christ's believing people are to perpetuate His love.... Meet around the cross of Calvary in self-sacrifice and self-denial. As you stand before the cross and see the Royal Prince of heaven dying for you, can you seal your heart, saying, "No; I have nothing to give"? God will bless you as you do your best.--The Review and Herald, October 3, 1907.
------------------------Does God Ask Too Much? , May 4
FH	136	1	Do not love the world or the things in the world. 1 John 2:15.
FH	136	2	We see beauty and loveliness and glory in Jesus. We behold in Him matchless charms. He was the Majesty of heaven. He filled all heaven with splendor. Angels bowed in adoration before Him and readily obeyed His commands. Our Savior gave up all. He laid aside His glory, His majesty, and splendor and came down to this earth and died for a race of rebels who were transgressors against His Father's commandments. Christ condescended to humble Himself that He might save the fallen race; He drank the cup of suffering, and in its place offers us the cup of blessing; yes, that cup was drained for us; and although many know all this, yet they choose to go on in sin and folly; and still Jesus invites them. He says, Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely....
FH	136	3	The truths of God's Word must be brought to bear upon us, and we must lay hold upon them. If we do this, they will have a sanctifying influence upon our lives; they will fit us that we may have a preparation for the kingdom of glory; that when our probation shall close, we may see the King in His beauty and dwell in His presence forevermore....
FH	136	4	It is the strength of the entire being that God requires. He requires of you a separation from the world and the things of the world. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." It is separation from the love of the world that is required, and what is given you in its place? "I will be a father unto you." Do you have to separate in your affections from friends? Does the truth require you to stand alone in your position to serve God because others around you are not willing to yield to the claims that Christ has upon them? Does it require a separation in feeling from them? Yes, and this is the cross which you must bear, which leads many to say, I cannot yield to the claims of the truth. But says Christ, If anyone love father, or mother, or brother, or sister, more than Me, he is not worthy of Me. Whosoever will come after Me and will be My disciple, let him take up his cross and follow Me. Here is the cross of self-denial and sacrifice, to separate in your affections here from those who will not yield to the claims of truth. Is this too great a sacrifice to make for Him who sacrificed all for you?--The Review and Herald, April 19, 1870.
------------------------True Christians Are Happy, May 5
FH	137	1	Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation! Psalm 68:19.
FH	137	2	Christians should be the most cheerful and happy people that live. They may have the consciousness that God is their father and their everlasting friend. But many professed Christians do not correctly represent the Christian religion. They appear gloomy, as if under a cloud. They often speak of the great sacrifices they have made to become Christians. They appeal to those who have not accepted Christ, representing by their own example and conversation that they must give up everything which would make life pleasant and joyful. They throw a pall of darkness over the blessed Christian hope. The impression is given that God's requirements are a burden even to the willing soul, and that everything that would give pleasure or that would delight the taste must be sacrificed.
FH	137	3	We do not hesitate to say that this class of professed Christians have not the genuine article. God is love. Whoso dwelleth in God dwelleth in love. All who have indeed become acquainted, by experimental knowledge, with the love and tender compassion of our heavenly Father will impart light and joy wherever they may be. Their presence and influence will be to their associates as the fragrance of sweet flowers, because they are linked to God and heaven, and the purity and exalted loveliness of heaven are communicated through them to all that are brought within their influence. This constitutes them the light of the world, the salt of the earth....
FH	137	4	Where does the artist obtain his design? From nature. But the great Master Artist has painted upon heaven's shifting, changing canvas the glories of the setting sun. He has tinted and gilded the heavens with gold, silver, and crimson as though the portals of high heaven were thrown open that we might view its gleamings and our imagination take hold of the glory within....
FH	137	5	As we are attracted to the beautiful in nature and associate the things which God has created for the happiness of men and women with His character, we will regard God as a tender, loving Father rather than merely a stern judge.... The heart is quickened and throbs with new and deeper love mingled with awe and reverence as we contemplate God in nature.--The Review and Herald, July 25, 1871.
------------------------The Laodicean Church, May 6
FH	138	1	As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Revelation 3:19.
FH	138	2	The message to the church of the Laodiceans is a startling denunciation, and is applicable to the people of God at the present time....
FH	138	3	The Lord here shows us that the message to be borne to His people by ministers whom He has called to warn the people is not a peace-and-safety message.... The people of God are represented in the message to the Laodiceans in a position of carnal security. They are at ease, believing themselves in an exalted condition of spiritual attainments....
FH	138	4	The message of the True Witness finds the people of God in a sad deception, yet honest in that deception. They know not that their condition is deplorable in the sight of God. While those addressed are flattering themselves that they are in an exalted spiritual condition, the message of the True Witness breaks their security by the startling denunciation of their true situation of spiritual blindness, poverty, and wretchedness....
FH	138	5	The Christian life is a constant battle and a march. There is no rest from the warfare. It is by constant, unceasing effort that we maintain the victory over the temptations of Satan.... We are fully sustained in our positions by an overwhelming amount of plain scriptural testimony. But we are very much wanting in Bible humility, patience, faith, love, self-denial, watchfulness, and a spirit of sacrifice. We need to cultivate Bible holiness. Sin prevails among the people of God.... Many cling to their doubts and their darling sins, while they are in so great a deception as to talk and feel that they are in need of nothing....
FH	138	6	All the soldiers of the cross of Christ virtually obligate themselves to enter a crusade against the adversary of souls, to condemn wrong, and sustain righteousness.... Eternal life is of infinite value, and will cost us all that we have....
FH	138	7	It is not enough for ministers to present theoretical subjects. They need to study the practical lessons Christ gave His disciples, and make a close application of the same to their own souls and to the people. Because Christ bears this rebuking testimony, shall we suppose that He is destitute of tender love to His people? Oh, no!... He rebukes those He loves.--The Review and Herald, September 16, 1873.
------------------------The Creation, May 7
FH	139	1	Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. Genesis 1:31.
FH	139	2	Adam and Eve came forth from the hand of their Creator in the perfection of every physical, mental, and spiritual endowment. God planted for them a garden and surrounded them with everything lovely and attractive to the eye and that which their physical necessities required. This holy pair looked out upon a world of unsurpassed loveliness and glory. A benevolent Creator had given them evidences of His goodness and love in providing them with fruits, vegetables, and grains, and had caused to grow out of the ground trees of every variety for usefulness and beauty.
FH	139	3	The holy pair looked upon nature as a picture of unsurpassed loveliness. The brown earth was clothed with a carpet of living green diversified with an endless variety of self-propagating, self-perpetuating flowers. Shrubs, flowers, and trailing vines regaled the senses with their beauty and fragrance. The many varieties of lofty trees were laden with fruit of every kind and of delicious flavor adapted to please the taste and meet the wants of the happy Adam and Eve. This Eden home God provided for our first parents, giving them unmistakable evidences of His great love and care for them.
FH	139	4	Adam was crowned as king in Eden. To him was given dominion over every living thing that God had created. The Lord blessed Adam and Eve with intelligence such as He had not given to the animal creation. He made Adam the rightful sovereign over all the works of His hands. Human beings made in the divine image could contemplate and appreciate the glorious works of God in nature....
FH	139	5	The natural loveliness which surrounded them, like a mirror reflected the wisdom, excellence, and love of their heavenly Father. And their songs of affection and praise rose sweetly and reverentially to heaven, harmonizing with the songs of the exalted angels and with the happy birds who were caroling forth their music without a care. There was no disease, decay, nor death anywhere. Life, life was in everything the eye rested upon. The atmosphere was impregnated with life. Life was in every leaf, in every flower, and in every tree.--The Review and Herald, February 24, 1874.
------------------------The Chance to Choose, May 8
FH	140	1	But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Genesis 2:17.
FH	140	2	The Lord knew that Adam and Eve could not be happy without labor; therefore He gave them the pleasant employment of dressing the garden. And, as they tended the things of beauty and usefulness around them, they could behold the goodness and glory of God in His created works. Adam and Eve had themes for contemplation in the works of God in Eden, which was heaven in miniature. God did not form them merely to contemplate His glorious works; therefore He gave them hands for labor, as well as minds and hearts for contemplation. If the happiness of His creatures consisted in doing nothing, the Creator would not have given them their appointed work. In labor, Adam and Eve were to find happiness as well as meditation. They could reflect that they were created in the image of God, to be like Him in righteousness and holiness. Their minds were capable of continual cultivation, expansion, refinement, and noble elevation; for God was their teacher, and angels were their companions.
FH	140	3	The Lord placed Adam and Eve upon probation, that they might form characters of steadfast integrity for their own happiness and for the glory of their Creator. He had endowed the holy pair with powers of mind superior to any other living creature that He had made. Their mental powers were but little lower than those of the angels. They could become familiar with the sublimity and glory of nature, and understand the character of their heavenly Father in His created works. Everything that their eyes rested upon in the immensity of the Father's works, provided with a lavish hand, testified of His love and infinite power....
FH	140	4	The first great moral lesson given to Adam and Eve was that of self-denial. The reins of self-government were placed in their hands. Judgment, reason, and conscience were to bear sway.... Adam and Eve were permitted to partake of every tree in the garden save one. There was only a single prohibition. The forbidden tree was as attractive and lovely as any of the trees in the garden. It was called the tree of knowledge, because in partaking of that tree, of which God had said, "Thou shalt not eat of it," they would have a knowledge of sin, an experience in disobedience.--The Review and Herald, February 24, 1874.
------------------------The Fall, May 9
FH	141	1	Of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die." Genesis 3:3.
FH	141	2	Eve went from the side of her husband, viewing the beautiful things of nature in God's creation, delighting her senses with the colors and fragrance of the flowers and the beauty of the trees and shrubs. She was thinking of the restrictions God had placed upon them in regard to the tree of knowledge. She was pleased with the beauties and bounties which the Lord had furnished for the gratification of every want. All these, said she, God has given us to enjoy....
FH	141	3	Eve had wandered near the forbidden tree, and her curiosity was aroused to know how death could be concealed in the fruit of this fair tree. She was surprised to hear her queries taken up and repeated by a strange voice. "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" Eve was not aware that she had revealed her thoughts by conversing to herself aloud; therefore she was greatly astonished to hear her queries repeated by a serpent. She really thought the serpent had a knowledge of her thoughts and that he must be very wise.
FH	141	4	She answered him, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."...
FH	141	5	Eve had overstated the words of God's command. He had said to Adam and Eve, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." In Eve's controversy with the serpent, she added the clause, "Neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.".... This statement of Eve gave him advantage, and he plucked the fruit, and placed it in her hand, and used her own words, "He hath said, 'If ye touch it, ye shall die.' You see no harm comes to you from touching the fruit, neither will you receive any harm by eating it."... She ate the fruit, and realized no immediate harm. She then plucked the fruit for herself and for her husband....
FH	141	6	Adam and Eve should have been perfectly satisfied with the knowledge of God in His created works, and by the instruction of the holy angels.... It was for their happiness to be ignorant of sin.--The Review and Herald, February 24, 1874.
------------------------A Redeemer Is Promised, May 10
FH	142	1	And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. Genesis 3:15.
FH	142	2	Adam and Eve should have been perfectly satisfied with the knowledge of God in His created works, and by the instruction of the holy angels.... The high state of knowledge to which they thought to attain by eating of the forbidden fruit plunged them into the degradation of sin and guilt.
FH	142	3	The angels who had been appointed to guard Adam and Eve in their Eden home before their transgression and expulsion from paradise were now appointed to guard the gates of paradise and the way of the tree of life, lest they should return and gain access to the tree of life and sin be immortalized.
FH	142	4	Sin drove Adam and Eve from paradise. And sin was the cause of paradise being removed from the earth. In consequence of transgression of God's law, they lost paradise. In obedience to the Father's law and through faith in the atoning blood of His Son, paradise may be regained....
FH	142	5	Satan made his exulting boasts to Christ and to loyal angels that he had succeeded in gaining a portion of the angels in heaven to unite with him in his daring rebellion. And now that he had succeeded in overcoming Adam and Eve, he claimed that their Eden home was his. He proudly boasted that the world which God had made was his dominion. Having conquered Adam, the monarch of the world, he had gained the race as his subjects, and he should now possess Eden and make that his headquarters. And he would there establish his throne and be monarch of the world.
FH	142	6	But measures were immediately taken in heaven to defeat Satan in his plans. Strong angels, with beams of light representing flaming swords turning in every direction, were placed as sentinels to guard the way of the tree of life from the approach of Satan and the guilty pair....
FH	142	7	A council was held in heaven, which resulted in God's dear Son undertaking to redeem the human race from the curse and from the disgrace of Adam's failure, and to conquer Satan. Oh, wonderful condescension! The Majesty of heaven, through love and pity for fallen humanity, proposed to become their substitute and surety.--The Review and Herald, February 24, 1874.
------------------------God's Mirror, May 11
FH	143	1	By the law is the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20.
FH	143	2	The law of God is the mirror to show men and women the defects in their characters. But it is not pleasant to those who take pleasure in unrighteousness to see their moral deformity. They do not prize this faithful mirror because it reveals to them their sins. Therefore, instead of instituting a war against their carnal minds, they war against the true and faithful mirror, given them by Jehovah for the very purpose that they may not be deceived, but that they may have revealed to them the defects in their characters. Should the discovery of these defects lead them to hate the mirror, or to hate themselves? Should they put away the mirror which discovers these defects? No. The sins which they cherish, which the faithful mirror shows them as existing in their characters, will close before them the portals of heaven unless they are put away, and they become perfect before God.
FH	143	3	Listen to the words of the faithful apostle, "By the law is the knowledge of sin." These people who are zealous to abolish the law had far better manifest their zeal in abolishing their sins....
FH	143	4	The Lord made humanity upright, but we have fallen and become degraded because we refuse to yield obedience to the sacred claims which the law of God has upon us. All our passions, if properly controlled and rightly directed, will contribute to our physical and moral health and insure to us a great amount of happiness. The adulterer, the fornicator, and the wanton do not enjoy life. There can be no true enjoyment for the transgressor of God's law. The Lord knew this; therefore He restricts us. He directs, commands, and He positively forbids....
FH	143	5	Sin does not appear as sinful unless viewed in the truthful mirror God has given us as a test of character. When men and women acknowledge the claims of the law of God and plant their feet upon the platform of eternal truth, they will stand where the Lord can give them moral power to let their light so shine before men that they may see their good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.
FH	143	6	Their course will be marked with consistency. They will not justly earn the charge of hypocrisy and sensualism. They can preach Christ with power, being imbued with His Spirit. They can utter truths which will melt and burn their way to the hearts of the people.--The Review and Herald, March 8, 1870.
------------------------Praise God! May 12
FH	144	1	Then all the people answered, "Amen, Amen!" while lifting up their hands. Nehemiah 8:6.
FH	144	2	God says by the psalmist, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me." The worship of God consists chiefly of praise and prayer. Every follower of Christ should engage in this worship. No one can sing by proxy, bear testimony by proxy, or pray by proxy. As a rule, too many dark testimonies are borne in social service [prayer meeting], savoring more of murmuring than of gratitude and praise.
FH	144	3	When the word of God was spoken to the Hebrews anciently, the Lord said to Moses, "And let all the people say, Amen." This response, in the fervor of their souls, was required as evidence that they understood the word spoken and were interested in it.
FH	144	4	When the ark of God was brought into the city of David and a psalm of joy and triumph was chanted, all the people said, Amen. And David felt that he was fully repaid for his labor and anxiety....
FH	144	5	There is too much formality in the church.... We should be so connected with the Source of all light that we can be channels of light to the world. The Lord would have His ministers who preach the Word energized by His Holy Spirit. And the people who hear should not sit in drowsy indifference or stare vacantly about, making no response to what is being said. The spirit of the world has paralyzed the spirituality of such, and they are not awake to the precious theme of redemption. The truth of God's Word is spoken to leaden ears, and hard, unimpressible hearts.... These dull, careless ones show ambition and zeal when engaged in the business of the world, but things of eternal importance do not engross the mind and interest them as do worldly things....
FH	144	6	Fruitful Christians will be connected with God and intelligent in the things of God. The truth and the love of God is their meditation. They have feasted upon the words of life, and when they hear it spoken from the desk, they can say, as did the two disciples who were traveling to Emmaus when Christ explained to them the prophecies in reference to Himself, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?"
FH	144	7	All who are connected with the light will let their light shine to the world, and will, in their testimonies, praise God, to whom their hearts will flow forth in gratitude.--The Review and Herald, January 1, 1880.
------------------------A New Song, May 13
FH	145	1	And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy... for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth." Revelation 5:9, 10.
FH	145	2	God has reposed confidence in us by making us stewards of means and of His rich grace; and He now points us to the poor and suffering and oppressed, to souls bound in chains of superstition and error, and assures us that if we do good to these, He will accept the deed as though done to Himself. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren," He declares, "ye have done it unto me."
FH	145	3	The poor are not excluded from the privilege of giving. They, as well as the wealthy, may act a part in this work. The lesson that Christ gave in regard to the widow's two mites shows us that the smallest willing offerings of the poor, if given from a heart of love, are as acceptable as the largest donations of the rich....
FH	145	4	All wise stewards of the means entrusted to them, will enter into the joy of their Lord. What is this joy? "Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." There will be a blessed commendation, a holy benediction, on the faithful winners of souls. They will join the rejoicing ones in heaven who shout the harvest home. How great will be the joy when the redeemed of the Lord shall all meet-gathered into the mansions prepared for them! Oh, what rejoicing for all who have been impartial, unselfish laborers together with God in carrying forward His work in the earth! What satisfaction will every reaper have when the clear, musical voice of Jesus shall be heard, saying, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."...
FH	145	5	With glad, rejoicing hearts, those who have been colaborers with God see of the travail of their soul for perishing, dying sinners, and are satisfied.... The self-denial they have practiced in order to support the work is remembered no more. As they look upon the souls they sought to win to Jesus, and see them saved, eternally saved--monuments of God's mercy and of a Redeemer's love--there ring through the arches of heaven shouts of praise and thanksgiving.--The Review and Herald, October 10, 1907.
------------------------A Short Time, May 14
FH	146	1	Woe to the inhabitants of the earth... ! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. Revelation 12:12.
FH	146	2	Jesus Christ is the only refuge in these perilous times. Satan is at work in secrecy and darkness. Cunningly he draws away the followers of Christ from the cross and brings them into self-indulgence and wickedness.
FH	146	3	Satan is opposed to everything that will strengthen the cause of Christ and weaken his own power.... He never rests for a moment when he sees that the right is gaining the ascendancy. He has legions of evil angels that he sends to every point where light from heaven is shining upon the people. Here he stations his pickets to seize every unguarded man, woman, or child, and pass them over to his service....
FH	146	4	God would have His work done intelligently, not in a haphazard manner. He would have it done with faith and careful exactitude, that He may place the sign of His approval upon it. Those who love Him and walk with fear and humility before Him, He will bless, and guide, and connect them with heaven. If the workers rely upon Him, He will give them wisdom and correct their infirmities, so that they will be able to do the work of the Lord with perfection.
FH	146	5	Our good works alone will not save any of us, but we cannot be saved without good works. And after we have done all that we can do, in the name and strength of Jesus we are to say, "We are unprofitable servants." We are not to think we have made great sacrifices and should receive great reward for our feeble services.
FH	146	6	We must put on the armor and be prepared to successfully resist all the attacks of Satan. His malignity and cruel power are not sufficiently estimated. When he finds himself foiled upon one point, he assumes new ground and fresh tactics, and tries again, working wonders in order to deceive and destroy humanity....
FH	146	7	Christ asks for all. It will not do to withhold anything. He has purchased us with an infinite price, and He requires that all we have shall be yielded to Him a willing offering. If we are fully consecrated to Him in heart and life, faith will take the place of doubts, and confidence the place of distrust and unbelief.--Signs of the Times, April 20, 1876.
------------------------Come and Be Separate, May 15
FH	147	1	Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. 2 Corinthians 6:17.
FH	147	2	Here is a promise to us on condition of obedience. If we will come out from the world and be separate, and touch not the unclean, He will receive us. Here are the conditions of our acceptance with God. We have something to do ourselves. Here is a work for us. We are to show our separation from the world. The friendship of the world is enmity with God. It is impossible for us to be friends of the world and yet be in union with Christ. But what does this mean, to be friends of the world? It is to unite hands with them, to enjoy what they enjoy, to love that which they love, to seek for pleasure, to seek for gratification, to follow our own inclinations. We do not in following inclination have our affections upon God; we are loving and serving ourselves. But here is a grand promise: "Come out from among them, and be ye separate." Separate from what? The inclinations of the world, their tastes, their habits; the fashions, the pride, and the customs of the world.... In making this move, in showing that we are not in harmony with the world, the promise of God is ours. He does not say perhaps I will receive you; but "I will receive you." It is a positive promise.
FH	147	3	You have a surety that you will be accepted of God. Then in separating from the world you connect yourself with God; you become a member of the royal family; you become sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty; you are children of the heavenly King, adopted into His family, and have a hold from above, united with the infinite God whose arm moves the world.
FH	147	4	What an exalted privilege is this to be thus favored, thus honored of God, to be called sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. It is incomprehensible; but still, with all these promises and encouragements, there are many who question and hesitate. They are in an undecided position. They seem to think that if they were to become Christians, there would be a mountain of responsibilities to be borne in religious duties and Christian obligations. There is a mountain of responsibility, a lifetime of watchfulness, of battling with their own inclinations, with their own wills, with their own desires, with their own pleasures; and as they look at it, it seems like an impossibility for them to take the step, to decide that they will be children of God, servants of the Most High.--Signs of the Times, January 31, 1878.
------------------------One Day at a Time, May 16
FH	148	1	Walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:10.
FH	148	2	I am reminded of an incident I once read, of an aged gentleman who had been broken down by hard labor and yet was seeking some employment by which he could obtain means. A nobleman who had a hundred cords of wood to cut was informed of the wish of the old gentleman. He told him that if he would cut the wood he should have one hundred dollars for the job. But the old gentleman replied, No, he could never do that. It was impossible. He was an old man, and not able to undertake such a job. "Well," said the nobleman, "we will make a different bargain. Can you cut one cord today? If so, I will give you one dollar." The bargain was made, and the cord of wood was cut that day. "Now," said the nobleman, "you may cut another cord tomorrow," and another cord was cut the next day; and thus the whole job was accomplished. In one hundred days the work was completed, and the laborer was in just as good health as when he commenced the work. He could take it cord by cord, but when presented to him in one large job, the accomplishment of it seemed impossible.
FH	148	3	This well represents the cases of many who are undecided. They have a desire to be Christians, yet the responsibilities of a Christian life seem so great to them that they fear they will make a failure, [and] are almost certain they can never reach the mark if they make the attempt. But when it is taken into consideration that it is not for them to see the end of the Christian's journey, it is not for them to comprehend and accomplish it at once. Only one day at a time with its burdens and responsibilities is presented to us.
FH	148	4	Yes, dear friends, dear youth, tomorrow is not yours. It is the duties of today that you are to perform. If you resolve to be on the Lord's side, and come out from among the world and be separate, and choose to be sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, to leave the ranks of the enemy, the service of sin and of Satan, make up your mind to always do present duty. Take hold of the duties of today, realizing that the Lord has claims upon you, that you are responsible to your Creator; these claims are to be met only a day at a time. In the strength of God take hold, believing that you can overcome for that one day.--Signs of the Times, January 31, 1878.
------------------------Come Out From Among Them, May 17
FH	149	1	I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:18.
FH	149	2	There are only two roads; one leads to heaven, the other to death and hell. Every one has a work to do. Every one of us that has reasoning powers knows that there is a God.... We want an arm to lean upon in the hours of affliction that can sustain. We want such an arm to rely upon when the earth shall reel to and fro, and be removed as a cottage. We want to know then that God is our Father, that our life is hid with Christ in God. Every one of you needs this assurance. The students at our school need this assurance. Some will soon return to their homes. How many of them have come to this school without a hope in Christ? How many have given their hearts to Him since they have been attending our college? How many are still in a position of indecision, sometimes inclined to be wholly on the Lord's side, and then again draw back for the very reasons I have mentioned, the responsibilities and duties devolving upon the Christian? These seem so great that they hesitate and remain undecided....
FH	149	3	How long is the extent of your life? Who of you have the assurance that you will live until the next term of school? How many of you have any surety of your life? But if you had a lifetime before you, if you knew that you should live your three-score years and ten, what is that little span of life? Is it too much for you to give to God?... Does He require you to give anything that is for your interest or happiness to retain? Oh, no....
FH	149	4	How can any feel as though they were making a sacrifice, to be adopted into the family of the King of kings, the Lord who reigns in the heavens; know you not that it is the highest exaltation to become children of God, "sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty"?
FH	149	5	Ever since I was 11 years old I have been in the service of this heavenly King. I can speak from experience. He has asked me to give Him nothing that was for my best interest to retain. Precious Jesus; precious Savior; I love Him; and I love His service.--Signs of the Times, January 31, 1878.
FH	149	6	[This discourse was followed by a large number coming forward for prayers. The interest continued till the camp meeting, when more than 130 were baptized, many of whom were students at Battle Creek College.]
------------------------The Two Ways, May 18
FH	150	1	Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13, 14.
FH	150	2	These roads are distinct, separate, and in opposite directions. One leads to eternal life, the other to death, eternal death. There is a distinction between these roads, also between the companies traveling in them. One road is broad and smooth; the other is narrow and rugged. So the parties that travel in them are opposite in character, life, dress, and conversation.
FH	150	3	Those traveling in the narrow way are talking of the joy and happiness at the end of the journey. Their countenances are often sad, yet beam with holy, sacred joy. A Man of sorrow and acquainted with grief opened that road for them, and traveled it Himself. His followers see His footsteps and are comforted. He went through safely; so can they if they follow Him.
FH	150	4	In the broad road all are occupied with their dress and the pleasures in the way. They freely indulge in hilarity and glee, and think not of their journey's end, of the certain destruction that awaits them there. Every day they approach nearer their destination, yet they madly rush on, faster and faster.
FH	150	5	Why is it so hard to lead a self-denying, humble life? Because professed Christians are not dead to the world. It is easier living for Christ after dying to the world. They desire to be as much like the world as possible and yet be considered Christians. Such seek to climb up some other way.... Earth attracts them. Its treasures seem of worth to them. They find enough to engross the mind, and have no time to prepare for heaven....
FH	150	6	Both young and old neglect the study of the Bible and do not make it their rule of life. That important book by which they are to be judged is scarcely studied at all. Idle stories have been attentively read, while the Bible has been passed by, neglected. A day is coming when all will wish to be thoroughly furnished by the plain truths of the Word of God....
FH	150	7	When Bible truths affect the heart, they cause a desire to be separate from the world, like the Master. Those who acquaint themselves with the meek and lowly Jesus will walk worthy of Him.--Signs of the Times, April 1, 1880.
------------------------The Light of the World, May 19
FH	151	1	For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Ephesians 5:8.
FH	151	2	Christ said to His disciples, "Ye are the light of the world." As the sun goes forth in the heavens to fill the world with brightness, so must the followers of Jesus shed the light of truth upon those who are groping in the darkness of error and superstition. But Christ's followers have no light of themselves. It is the light of Heaven that falls upon them, which is to be reflected by them to the world....
FH	151	3	The light of life is freely proffered to all. Every one who will may be guided by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Christ is the great remedy for sin. None can plead their circumstances, their education, or their temperament as an excuse for living in rebellion against God. Sinners are such by their own deliberate choice. Said our Savior, "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."...
FH	151	4	When the claims of God are presented, those who love sin evince their true character by the satisfaction with which they point to the faults and errors of professed Christians. They are actuated by the same spirit as their master, Satan, whom the Bible declares to be the "accuser of the brethren." Let an evil report be started, and how rapidly it will be exaggerated and passed from lip to lip! How many will feast upon it, like vultures upon a heap of garbage....
FH	151	5	The true Christian, "he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." His godly life and holy conversation are a daily testimony against sin and sinners. He is a living representative of the truth which he professes. Of these true-hearted followers, Jesus declares that He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Everyone who at last secures eternal life will here manifest zeal and devotion in the service of God.... To know their duty is to do it heartily and fearlessly. They follow the light as it shines upon their path, regardless of consequences. The God of truth is on their side and will never forsake them.--Signs of the Times, March 9, 1882.
------------------------True Temperance Is Well-balanced Living, May 20
FH	152	1	Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16.
FH	152	2	Only one lease of life is granted us here; and the inquiry with everyone should be, How can I invest my life that it may yield the greatest profit? Life is valuable only as we improve it for the benefit of our fellow creatures and the glory of God. Careful cultivation of the abilities with which the Creator has endowed us will qualify us for elevated usefulness here and a higher life in the world to come.
FH	152	3	That time is spent to good account which is directed to the establishment and preservation of sound physical and mental health. We cannot afford to dwarf or cripple a single function of the mind or body by overwork or abuse of any part of the living machinery. As surely as we do this, we must suffer the consequences. Our first duty to God and our fellow beings is that of self-development. Every faculty with which the Creator has endowed us should be cultivated to the highest degree of perfection, that we may be able to do the greatest amount of good of which we are capable. In order to purify and refine our characters, we need the grace given us of Christ that will enable us to see and correct our deficiencies and improve that which is excellent. This work, wrought for ourselves in the strength and name of Jesus, will be of more benefit to our fellow creatures than any sermon we might preach them. The example of a well-balanced, well-ordered life is of inestimable value.
FH	152	4	Intemperance is at the foundation of the larger share of the ills of life.... We do not speak of intemperance as limited only to the use of intoxicating liquors; it has a broader meaning, including the hurtful indulgence of any appetite or passion.... If the appetites and passions were under the control of sanctified reason, society would present a widely different aspect. Many things that are usually made articles of diet are unfit for food; the taste for them is not natural, but has been cultivated. Stimulating food creates a desire for still stronger stimulants.
FH	152	5	Indigestible food throws the entire system out of order, and unnatural cravings and inordinate appetites are the results.... True temperance teaches us to abstain entirely from that which is injurious and to use judiciously only such articles of food as are healthful and nutritious.--Signs of the Times, April 20, 1882.
------------------------Work Is a Blessing, May 21
FH	153	1	Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom:... pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness. Ezekiel 16:49.
FH	153	2	God gave labor to humanity as a blessing, to occupy our minds, to strengthen our bodies, and to develop our faculties. Adam and Eve labored in the Garden of Eden, and they found in mental and physical activity the highest pleasures of their holy existence. When they were driven from that beautiful home as the result of disobedience and were forced to struggle with a stubborn soil to gain their daily bread, that very labor was a relief to their sorrowing souls, a safeguard against temptation.
FH	153	3	Judicious labor is indispensable both to the happiness and the prosperity of our race. It makes the feeble strong, the timid brave, the poor rich, and the wretched happy. Our varied trusts are proportioned to our various abilities, and God expects corresponding returns for the talents He has given to His servants. It is not the greatness of the talents possessed that determines the reward, but the manner in which they are used-the degree of faithfulness with which the duties of life are performed, be they great or small.
FH	153	4	Idleness is one of the greatest curses that can fall upon us, for vice and crime follow in its train. Satan lies in ambush, ready to surprise and destroy those who are unguarded, whose leisure gives him opportunity to insinuate himself into their favor under some attractive disguise. He is never more successful than when he comes to men and women in their idle hours....
FH	153	5	The rich often consider themselves entitled to the preeminence among their fellow human beings and in the favor of God. Many feel above honest labor and look down with contempt upon their poorer neighbors. The children of the wealthy are taught that to be gentlemen and ladies they must dress fashionably, avoid all useful labor, and shun the society of the working classes....
FH	153	6	Such ideas are wholly at variance with the divine purpose in the creation of mankind....
FH	153	7	The Son of God honored labor. Though He was the Majesty of heaven, He chose His earthly home among the poor and lowly, and worked for His daily bread in the humble carpenter shop of Joseph.... The path of the Christian laborer may be hard and narrow, but it is honored by the footprints of the Redeemer, and they are safe who follow in that sacred way.--Signs of the Times, May 4, 1882.
------------------------The Eye of the Lord Is Upon You, May 22
FH	154	1	The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. Psalm 34:15.
FH	154	2	The opinion is widely held that spirituality and devotion to God are detrimental to health. While this conclusion is radically false, it is not without apparent foundation. Many who profess to be Christians are ever walking under a cloud. They seem to think it a virtue to complain of depression of spirits, great trials, and severe conflicts.
FH	154	3	But these persons do not correctly represent the religion of the Bible. So far from being antagonistic to health and happiness, the fear of the Lord lies at the foundation of all real prosperity....
FH	154	4	The consciousness of right-doing is the best medicine for diseased bodies and minds. Those who are at peace with God have secured the most important requisite to health. The blessing of the Lord is life to the receiver. The assurance that the eye of the Lord is upon us, and His ear open to our prayer, is a never-failing source of satisfaction. To know that we have an all-wise Friend, to whom we can confide all the secrets of the soul, is a privilege which words can never express.
FH	154	5	The gloom and despondency supposed to be caused by obedience to God's moral law is often attributable to disregard of His physical laws. Those whose moral faculties are beclouded by disease are not the ones to rightly represent the Christian life, to show forth the joys of salvation or the beauties of holiness. They are too often in the fire of fanaticism or the water of cold indifference or stolid gloom....
FH	154	6	It is the duty of every Christian to follow closely the example of Christ-to cultivate peace and hope and joy, which will be manifested in unfeigned cheerfulness and habitual serenity. Thus may they shed light upon all around them, instead of casting the dark shadow of discouragement and gloom.
FH	154	7	Many are constantly craving excitement and diversion. They are restless and dissatisfied when not absorbed in mirth, frivolity, and pleasure-seeking. These persons may make a profession of religion, but they are deceiving their own souls. They do not possess the genuine article. Their life is not hid with Christ in God. They do not find in Jesus their joy and peace.--Signs of the Times, June 15, 1882.
------------------------Science and Revelation, May 23
FH	155	1	The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." Psalm 14:1.
FH	155	2	There are those who think they have made wonderful discoveries in science. They quote the opinions of learned people as though they considered them infallible, and teach the deductions of science as truths that cannot be controverted. And the Word of God, which is given as a lamp to the feet of the world-weary traveler, is judged by this standard, and pronounced wanting. The scientific research in which these individuals have indulged has proved a snare to them. It has clouded their minds, and they have drifted into skepticism. They have a consciousness of power, and instead of looking to the Source of all wisdom, they triumph in the smattering of knowledge they may have gained. They have exalted their human wisdom in opposition to the wisdom of the great and mighty God and have dared to enter into controversy with Him. The Word of Inspiration pronounces these persons "fools."
FH	155	3	God has permitted a flood of light to be poured upon the world in discoveries in science and art, but when professed scientists lecture and write upon these subjects from a merely human standpoint, they will assuredly come to wrong conclusions. The greatest minds, if not guided by the Word of God in their research, become bewildered in their attempts to investigate the relations of science and revelation. The Creator and His works are beyond their comprehension; and because they cannot explain these by natural laws, Bible history is considered unreliable. Those who doubt the reliability of the records of the Old and New Testaments will be led to go a step farther and doubt the existence of God, and then, having let go their anchor, they are left to beat about upon the rocks of infidelity. Moses wrote under the guidance of the Spirit of God, and a correct theory of geology will never claim discoveries that cannot be reconciled with his statements. The idea that many stumble over, that God did not create matter when He brought the world into existence, limits the power of the Holy One of Israel.
FH	155	4	Many, when they find themselves incapable of measuring the Creator and His works by their own imperfect knowledge in science, doubt the existence of God and attribute infinite power to nature.... The Bible is not to be tested by human ideas of science, but science is to be brought to the test of this unerring standard.--Signs of the Times, March 13, 1884.
------------------------Cheerful Service, May 24
FH	156	1	And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. Hebrews 6:11.
FH	156	2	The Lord looks with approval upon the works of His faithful servants.... It has always been the duty of God's chosen people to labor unselfishly; but some neglect the work they ought to do, and others are overburdened to make up for their deficiencies. If all would cheerfully do their part, they would be sustained; but those who complain and murmur at every step will receive neither help nor reward.
FH	156	3	God was displeased with the children of Israel because they murmured against Him and against Moses, whom He had sent to be their deliverer. In a marvelous manner He brought them out from their bondage in the land of Egypt, that He might elevate and ennoble them, and make them a praise in the earth. But there were difficulties to be encountered, and weariness and privations to be endured. It was necessary for them to bear these hardships. God was bringing them from a state of degradation and fitting them to occupy an honorable place among the nations, and to receive important and sacred trusts....
FH	156	4	They forgot their bitter service in Egypt. They forgot the goodness and power of God displayed in their behalf in their deliverance from bondage. They forgot how their children were spared when the destroying angel passed over Egypt. They forgot the grand exhibition of divine power at the Red Sea, when Jehovah proclaimed, "Here shall thy proud waves be stayed," and the waters were rolled together, forming a solid wall. They forgot that while they had crossed safely in the path that had been opened for them, the armies of their enemies, attempting to follow them, were overwhelmed by the waters of the sea....
FH	156	5	God does not bind upon anyone burdens so heavy that at every step he must complain of the load he is obliged to bear. It is the friction, and not the constant motion, that wears the machinery. It is the continual worry, and not the work they do, that is killing these persons....
FH	156	6	There is peace and contentment in the service of Christ. As He was about to leave His disciples, He made them this parting promise,... "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you."--Signs of the Times, June 12, 1884.
------------------------Put God First, May 25
FH	157	1	Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. 1 Timothy 6:17.
FH	157	2	It is dangerous to give time, thought, and strength to the pursuit of worldly gain, even if success follows persevering effort, for in thus doing there is danger of making God and His righteousness secondary. It is better far to be in poverty, to endure disappointment and have our earthly hopes shattered, than to have our eternal interests imperiled. Flattering inducements may be presented to us, and we may think to obtain wealth and honor, and so set our heart and soul on worldly enterprises....
FH	157	3	Money has become the measure of manhood in the world, and men are estimated, not by their integrity, but by the amount of wealth they possess. Thus it was in the days before the Flood....
FH	157	4	Let us not be determined to get rich. If we see that poverty will be our portion in abiding in the simple truth, let us abide by the truth and enter into life. Jesus said that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." The devotees of the world may smile at this statement, but it is nevertheless the counsel of eternal wisdom.... Christians who are called into the world by their business, if they follow Christ, will bear their cross and meet their perplexities in the Spirit of Christ. They will not make the world their God, and give brain and bone and muscle to the service of mammon. They will realize that Heaven is looking upon them, and whatever success attends them, they will give glory to God. They will realize that God knows, as we do not, that a few more years will roll by and the treasures of earth be no more....
FH	157	5	It is the vision of the world to come that balances the mind so that the things which are seen do not obtain control over the affections, which have been bought with an infinite price by the world's Redeemer. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit the things unseen and eternal are brought before the soul, and the advantages of the eternal, imperishable treasure are made to appear before the mind's eye in their attractive beauty. In this way we learn to look to the unseen and the eternal, and to esteem the reproaches of Christ greater value than the treasures of the world.--Signs of the Times, June 26, 1893.
------------------------A Living Church, May 26
FH	158	1	We urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God. 1 Thessalonians 4:1.
FH	158	2	We long to see the true Christian character manifested in the church; we long to see its members free from a light, irreverent spirit; and we earnestly desire that they may realize their high calling in Christ Jesus. Some who profess Christ are exerting themselves to the utmost to so live and act that their religious faith may commend itself to people of moral worth, that they may be induced to accept the truth. But there are many who feel no responsibility even to keep their own souls in the love of God, and who, instead of blessing others by their influence, are a burden to those who would work and watch and pray....
FH	158	3	The present time calls for men and women who have a moral fixedness of purpose, men and women who will not be molded or subdued by any unsanctified influences. Such persons will make a success in the work of perfecting Christian character through the grace of Christ so freely given....
FH	158	4	No one can succeed in the service of God whose whole soul is not in the work and who does not count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Those who make any reserve, who refuse to give all that they have, cannot be disciples of Christ, much less His colaborers. The consecration must be complete. Father, mother, wife and children, houses and lands, everything which the servant of Christ possesses, must be held subject to God's call-bound upon the sacred altar....
FH	158	5	Those who seek by earnest study of God's Word and fervent prayer the guidance of His Spirit, will be led by Him. The pillar of cloud will guide them by day, the pillar of fire by night; and with an abiding sense of God's presence it will not be possible to disregard His holy law....
FH	158	6	Let us, as the peculiar people of God, elevate the standard of Christian character, lest we come short of the reward that will be given to the good and the faithful.... We must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. It is those who hold fast the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end that will receive the crown of immortal glory.... Simplicity, purity, forbearance, benevolence, and love should characterize our Christian experience.--The Review and Herald, June 3, 1880.
------------------------Rest in Christ, May 27
FH	159	1	You who are troubled rest with us. 2 Thessalonians 1:7.
FH	159	2	Let us not forget that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. The compassionate Savior invites all to come to Him. Let us believe the words of our Lord and not make the way to Him so hard. Let us not travel the precious road, cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in, with murmuring, with doubts, with cloudy forebodings, groaning, as if forced to an unpleasant, exacting task. The ways of Christ are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. If we have made rough paths for our feet and taken upon us heavy burdens of care in laying up for ourselves treasures upon the earth, let us now change and follow the path Jesus has prepared for us.
FH	159	3	We are not always willing to give our burdens to Jesus. We sometimes pour our troubles into human ears and tell our afflictions to those who cannot help us, and neglect to confide all to Jesus, that He may change the sorrowful ways to paths of joy and peace....
FH	159	4	The shortness of time is urged as an incentive for us to seek righteousness and to make Christ our friend. This is not the great motive. It savors of selfishness. Is it necessary that the terrors of the day of God be held before us to compel us through fear to right action? This ought not to be. Jesus is attractive. He is full of love, mercy, compassion. He proposes to be our friend, to walk with us through all the rough pathways of life....
FH	159	5	Christ's invitation to us all is a call to a life of peace and rest, a life of liberty and love, and to a rich inheritance in the future immortal life.... We need not be alarmed if this path of liberty is laid through conflicts and sufferings. The liberty we shall enjoy will be the more valuable because we made sacrifices to obtain it. The peace which passeth knowledge will cost us battles with the powers of darkness, struggles severe against selfishness and inward sins.... In the face of temptation we should school ourselves to firm endurance, which will not provoke one murmuring thought, although we may be weary in toiling and in fighting the good fight of faith....
FH	159	6	We cannot appreciate our Redeemer in the highest sense until we can see Him by the eye of faith reaching to the very depths of human wretchedness, taking upon Himself the nature of humanity, the capacity to suffer, and by suffering putting forth His divine power to save and lift sinners up to companionship with Himself.--The Review and Herald, August 2, 1881.
------------------------Ordained to Bring Forth Fruit, May 28
FH	160	1	I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:5.
FH	160	2	In the plan of restoring in men and women the divine image, it was provided that the Holy Spirit should move upon human minds and be as the presence of Christ, a molding agency upon human character. Those who receive the truth become also recipients of the grace of Christ and devote their sanctified human ability to the work in which Christ was engaged--men and women become laborers together with God. It is to make them agents for God that divine truth is brought home to their understanding....
FH	160	3	Through the mediumship of truth the character is transformed and fashioned after the divine similitude. Peter represents Christians as those who have purified their souls through obedience to the truth through the operation of the Holy Spirit....
FH	160	4	It is the Christian's business to shine. The professed followers of Christ are not fulfilling the requirements of the gospel unless they are ministering to others. They are never to forget that they are to let their light so shine before others that they, seeing their good works, may glorify their Father which is in heaven. Their speech is to be always with grace and in harmony with their profession of faith. Their work is to reveal Christ to the world. Jesus Christ and Him crucified is their inexhaustible theme, of which they are freely to speak, bringing out of the good treasure of their hearts the precious things of the gospel. The heart that is filled with the blessed hope, that is big with immortality and full of glory, cannot be dumb. Those who have a realization of the sacred presence of Christ cannot speak light and trifling words, for their words are to be sober, a savor of life unto life. We are not to be children tossed to and fro, but we are to be anchored in Jesus Christ and to have something of solid worth of which to speak.... Christians are to publish the good news of salvation, and they are never to weary of the recital of God's goodness....
FH	160	5	You are to speak to sinners, for you know not but God is moving upon their hearts. Never forget that great responsibility attaches to every word you utter in their presence. Ask yourself the question, How many have I spoken to with my heart filled with the love of Christ concerning the unspeakable gift of God's mercy and Christ's righteousness?--The Review and Herald, February 12, 1895.
------------------------Be Separate From the World, May 29
FH	161	1	I die daily. 1 Corinthians 15:31.
FH	161	2	Those who profess the name of Christ are to represent Christ as their pattern and example. They are to unfold to others the truth in its purity and make known to them what are the privileges and responsibilities of the Christian life; and this can be done by the professed followers of Christ only as they conform their characters to the sacred principles of truth. There must be no betrayal of sacred trusts on the part of anyone who professes to be a child of God. There must be no obliterating of the line of demarkation between Christians and the world. There must be no bringing down of the truth to a low, common level, for this will dishonor God, who has given an infinite sacrifice in the gift of His Son for the sins of the world....
FH	161	3	Many who claim to be the children of God do not seem to understand that the heart must be regenerated, for their practices ignore the words and works of Christ. By their actions they plainly say, "It is my privilege to act out myself. I should be perfectly miserable if I did not act out myself." This is the kind of religion that is current in the world, but it bears not the heavenly endorsement....
FH	161	4	Science so-called, human reasoning, and poetry cannot be passed on as of equal authority with revelation; but it is Satan's studied purpose to exalt human maxims, traditions, and inventions to an equal authority with the Word of God; and, having accomplished this, to exalt human words to the place of supremacy....
FH	161	5	There is no safety for any of us except as we daily receive a new experience in looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Day by day we are to behold Him and to become changed into His image. We are to represent the divine attributes and follow the footsteps of Jesus at whatever cost to ourselves. We are to place ourselves under divine guidance, consulting the Word of God, and daily inquiring, Is this the way of the Lord?... No deficiency of character will be immortalized and mar heaven with its imperfection....
FH	161	6	A profession of truth is of no value unless the soul grasps fast the principles, and appropriates and absorbs the rich nourishment of the truth, and thus becomes a partaker of the divine nature.--The Review and Herald, November 20, 1894.
------------------------The Blood on the Doorpost, May 30
FH	162	1	And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood. Exodus 12:22.
FH	162	2	The directions that Moses gave concerning the Passover feast are full of significance, and have an application to parents and children in this age of the world....
FH	162	3	The father is to dedicate every inmate of his home to God and to do a work that is represented by the feast of the Passover. It is perilous to leave this solemn duty in the hands of others. This peril is well illustrated by an incident that is related concerning a Hebrew family on the night of the Passover.
FH	162	4	The legend goes that the eldest daughter was sick, but that she was acquainted with the fact that a lamb was to be chosen for every family, and that its blood was to be sprinkled upon the lintel and side posts of the door so that the Lord might behold the mark of the blood and not suffer the destroyer to enter in to smite the firstborn. With what anxiety she saw the evening approach when the destroying angel was to pass by. She became very restless. She called her father to her side, and asked, "Have you marked the doorpost with blood?" He answered, "Yes, I have given directions in regard to the matter. Do not be troubled, for the destroying angel will not enter here."
FH	162	5	The night came on, and again and again the child called her father, still asking, "Are you sure that the doorpost is marked with blood?" Again and again the father assured her that she need have no fear, that a command which involved such consequences would not be neglected by his trustworthy servants. As midnight approached, her pleading voice was heard saying, "Father, I am not sure. Take me in your arms, and let me see the mark for myself, so that I can rest."
FH	162	6	The father conceded to the wishes of his child; he took her in his arms and carried her to the door; but there was no blood mark upon the lintel or the posts. He trembled with horror as he realized that his home might have become a house of mourning. With his own hands he seized the hyssop bough and sprinkled the doorpost with blood. He then showed the sick child that the mark was there.--The Review and Herald, May 21, 1895.
------------------------There Is Work for Everyone, May 31
FH	163	1	Each of us shall give account of himself to God. Romans 14:12.
FH	163	2	God has given to "every man his work." He has not left the spiritual interests of the church wholly in the hands of the minister. It is not for the good of the minister, nor for the good of the individual members of the church, that the minister should undertake exclusive charge of the Lord's heritage. Each member of the church has a part to act in order that the body may be preserved in a healthful condition. We are all members of the same body, and each member must act a part for the benefit of all the others. All members have not the same office. As the members of our natural body are directed by the head, so as members of the spiritual body we should submit ourselves to the direction of Christ, the living head of the church....
FH	163	3	The minister and the church members are to unite as one person in laboring for the upbuilding and prosperity of the church. Every one who is a true soldier in the army of the Lord will be an earnest, sincere, efficient worker, laboring to advance the interests of Christ's kingdom....
FH	163	4	Many members of the church have been deprived of the experience which they should have had, because the sentiment has prevailed that the minister should do all the work and bear all the burdens. Either the burdens have been crowded upon the minister, or he has assumed those duties that should have been performed by the members of the church. Ministers should take the officers and members of the church into their confidence, and teach them how to labor for the Master. Thus the minister will not have to perform all the labor himself, and at the same time the church will receive greater benefit than if he endeavored to do all the work and release the members of the church from acting the part which the Lord designed that they should....
FH	163	5	The burden of church work should be distributed among its individual members, so that each one may become an intelligent laborer for God. There is altogether too much unused force in our churches.... Many have willing hands and hearts, but they are discouraged from putting their energies into the work.... The wisdom to adapt ourselves to peculiar situations, the strength to act in time of emergency, are acquired by putting to use the talents the Lord has given us and by gaining an experience through personal work.--The Review and Herald, July 9, 1895.
------------------------Jesus Is God, June 1
FH	164	1	And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14.
FH	164	2	Christ came to the world to reveal the character of the Father and to redeem the fallen race. The world's Redeemer was equal with God. His authority was as the authority of God. He declared that He had no existence separate from the Father. The authority by which He spoke and wrought miracles was expressly His own, yet He assures us that He and His Father are one....
FH	164	3	As legislator, Jesus exercised the authority of God; His commands and decisions were supported by the Sovereignty of the eternal throne. The glory of the Father was revealed in the Son; Christ made manifest the character of the Father. He was so perfectly connected with God... that He who had seen the Son had seen the Father. His voice was as the voice of God....
FH	164	4	Christ was misjudged by the Jews because He did not dwell constantly on the law as written in the tables of stone. He invited men and women to learn of Him, for He was a living representation of the law of God.... He knew that no one could point out any defect in His character or conduct. What power His spotless purity gave to His instructions, what force to His reproofs, what authority to His commands! Truth never languished on His lips, never lost any of its sacredness, because it was illustrated in the divine character of its Advocate....
FH	164	5	When Jesus spoke, it was not with hesitating uncertainty, with repetition of words and familiar figures. The truth came from His lips clothed in new and interesting representations that gave it the freshness of a new revelation. His voice was never pitched to an unnatural key, and His words came with an earnestness and assurance appropriate to their importance and the momentous consequences involved in their reception or rejection. When His doctrines were opposed, He defended them with so great zeal and certainty as to impress His hearers that He would die, if need be, to sustain the authority of His teachings.
FH	164	6	Jesus was the light of the world. He came forth from God with a message of hope and salvation to the fallen descendants of Adam. If men and women would but receive Him as their personal Savior, He promised to restore to them the image of God and to redeem all that had been lost through sin. He presented to them the truth without one thread of interwoven error.--The Review and Herald, January 7, 1890.
------------------------Enmity, God's Gift, June 2
FH	165	1	I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. Genesis 3:15.
FH	165	2	In this first prophecy contained in the Scriptures is found an intimation of redemption. Though a part of the sentence pronounced upon the serpent, it was uttered in the hearing of our first parents, and hence must be regarded as a promise. While it announces war between Satan and mankind, it declares that the power of the great adversary will finally be broken.
FH	165	3	Adam and Eve stood as criminals before their God, awaiting the sentence which transgression had incurred. But before they hear of the thorn and the thistle, the sorrow and anguish which should be their portion, and the dust to which they should return, they listen to words which must have inspired them with hope. Though they must suffer from the power of their adversary, they might look forward to ultimate victory.
FH	165	4	God declares, "I will put enmity." This enmity is supernaturally put and not naturally entertained. When Adam and Eve sinned, their nature became evil, and they were in harmony, and not at variance, with Satan. The lofty usurper, having succeeded in seducing our first parents as he had seduced angels, counted on securing their allegiance and cooperation in all his enterprises against the government of heaven. There was no enmity between himself and the fallen angels. Whatever discord might exist between them, all were united, as by bands of steel, in their opposition and hatred against God. But when Satan heard that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, he knew that though he had succeeded in depraving human nature and assimilating it to his own, yet by some mysterious process God would restore to humans their lost power and enable them to resist and overcome their conqueror.
FH	165	5	It is the grace that Christ implants in the soul that creates the enmity against Satan. Without this grace we would continue to be the captives of Satan, servants ever ready to do his bidding. The new principle in the soul creates conflict where hitherto had been peace. The power which Christ imparts enables us to resist the tyrant and usurper. Whenever men and women are seen to abhor sin instead of loving it, when they resist and conquer those passions that have held sway within, there is seen the operation of a principle wholly from above.--The Review and Herald, July 18, 1882.
------------------------Experiencing Forgiveness, June 3
FH	166	1	Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? Micah 7:18.
FH	166	2	We need greater faith in Jesus Christ. We need to bring Him into our everyday life. Then we shall have peace and joy, and we shall know by experience the meaning of His words, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." Our faith must claim the promise that we abide in the love of Jesus....
FH	166	3	Precious opportunities and privileges are granted to us to be a light and blessing to others, strengthening their faith and encouraging them through the heavenly sunshine in our own souls. We may gather for our own benefit precious rays of cheerful hope and peace and fullness of joy, and in so doing help everyone with whom we associate. Instead of strengthening unbelief and doubt, we shall inspire hope.
FH	166	4	It is the privilege of all who comply with the conditions to have an experimental faith, to know for themselves that pardon is freely extended for every sin. God has pledged His word that when we confess our sins He will forgive them and cleanse from all unrighteousness. Put away unbelief. Put away the suspicion that these promises are not meant for you. They are for every repentant transgressor, and God is dishonored by your unbelief. Let those who have been filled with doubt only believe the words of Jesus fully, and thenceforward they will rejoice in blessedness of light....
FH	166	5	We keep the Savior too far apart from our everyday lives. We want Him abiding with us as an honored, trusted friend. We should consult Him on all subjects. We should tell Him every trial, and thus gain strength to meet temptation....
FH	166	6	What more can we ask of God than what He has already given us? Oh, the love, the infinite love of our blessed Lord, to be our sacrifice! What joy should fill the hearts of Christians, and what expressions of gratitude be heard from their lips, that through the blood of Jesus it is possible for us to gain the love of God, to be one with Him!... Believing on the Son, we shall be obedient to all of the Father's commandments and have life through Jesus Christ....
FH	166	7	Christ is our hope and our refuge. His righteousness is imputed only to the obedient. Let us accept it through faith, that the Father shall find in us no sin.--The Review and Herald, September 21, 1886.
------------------------Strong in Christ, June 4
FH	167	1	That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. Ephesians 3:16.
FH	167	2	Our Savior represents His requirements as a yoke and the Christian life as one of burden-bearing. Yet, contrasting these with the cruel power of Satan and the burdens imposed by sin, He declares, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
FH	167	3	When we try to live the life of a Christian, to bear its responsibilities and perform its duties without Christ as a helper, the yoke is galling, the burden intolerably heavy. But Jesus does not desire us to do this. He bids the weary and heavy-laden, "Come unto me,... and I will give you rest." "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Here is revealed the secret of that rest which Christ promises to bestow. We must possess His meekness of spirit, and we shall find peace in Him.
FH	167	4	Many profess to come to Christ while yet they cling to their own ways, which are as a painful yoke. Selfishness, love of the world, or other cherished sin destroys their peace and joy. My fellow Christian,... remember that you are in the service of Christ. Whatever your burden or cross, lift it in the name of Jesus; bear it in His strength. He pronounces the yoke easy and the burden light, and I believe Him. I have proved the truth of His words.
FH	167	5	Those who are restless, impatient, dissatisfied under the weight of care and responsibility, are seeking to carry their burden without the aid of Jesus. If He were by their side, the sunshine of His presence would scatter every cloud, the help of His strong arm would lighten every burden....
FH	167	6	We cumber ourselves with needless cares and anxieties and weigh ourselves down with heavy burdens because we do not learn of Jesus.... Christ's true followers are unlike the world in words, in works, and in deportment. Oh, why will not all His professed children follow Him fully? Why will any bear burdens which He has not imposed?...
FH	167	7	In every act of life Christians should seek to represent Christ-seek to make His service appear attractive.... Let the graces of the Spirit be manifested in kindness, meekness, forbearance, cheerfulness, and love....
FH	167	8	Love to Jesus will be seen, will be felt. It cannot be hidden. It exerts a wondrous power. It makes the timid bold, the slothful diligent, the ignorant wise.... Love to Christ will not be dismayed by tribulation nor turned aside from duty by reproaches.--The Review and Herald, November 29, 1887.
------------------------Sweet Thoughts, June 5
FH	168	1	I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the Lord. Psalm 104:33, 34.
FH	168	2	If the mind is molded by the objects with which it has most to do, then to think of Jesus, to talk of Him, will enable you to become like Him in spirit and character. You will reflect His image in that which is great and pure and spiritual. You will have the mind of Christ, and He will send you forth to the world as His spiritual representative....
FH	168	3	The sun shining in the heavens pours its bright beams into all the highways and byways of life. It has sufficient light for thousands of worlds like ours. And so it is with the Sun of Righteousness. His bright beams of healing and gladness are amply sufficient to save our little world, and are efficacious in establishing security in every world that has been created....
FH	168	4	It is growth in knowledge of the character of Christ that sanctifies the soul. To discern and appreciate the wonderful work of the atonement transforms all who contemplate the plan of salvation. By beholding Christ, they become changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. The beholding of Jesus becomes an ennobling, refining process to the actual Christian....
FH	168	5	What kind of faith is it that overcomes the world? It is that faith which makes Christ your own personal Savior-that faith which, recognizing your helplessness, your utter inability to save yourself, takes hold of the Helper who is mighty to save as your only hope. It is faith that will not be discouraged, that hears the voice of Christ saying, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world, and my divine strength is yours." It is the faith that hears Him say, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."...
FH	168	6	Every soul must have a realization that Christ is our personal Savior; then love and zeal and steadfastness will be manifest in the Christian life....
FH	168	7	Christ should never be out of the mind.... He is the dispeller of all our doubts, the earnest of all our hopes. How precious is the thought that we may indeed become partakers of the divine nature, whereby we may overcome as Christ overcame!... He is the melody of our songs, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. He is living water to the thirsty soul. He is our refuge in the storm. He is our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption.--The Review and Herald, August 26, 1890.
------------------------Today's Assignment, June 6
FH	169	1	Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me. John 17:24.
FH	169	2	Christ was infinite in wisdom, and yet He thought best to accept of Judas, although He knew what were his imperfections of character. John was not perfect; Peter denied his Lord; and yet it was of men like these that the early Christian church was organized. Jesus accepted them that they might learn of Him what constitutes a perfect Christian character. The business of every Christian is to study the character of Christ. The lessons which Jesus gave His disciples did not always harmonize with their reasonings.... The Redeemer of the world ever sought to carry the mind from the earthly to the heavenly. Christ constantly taught the disciples, and His sacred lessons had a molding influence upon their characters. Judas alone did not respond to divine enlightenment. To all appearances he was righteous, and yet he cultivated his tendency to accuse and condemn others....
FH	169	3	Judas was selfish, covetous, and a thief, yet he was numbered with the disciples. He was defective in character, and he failed to practice the words of Christ. He braced his soul to resist the influence of the truth, and while he practiced criticizing and condemning others, he neglected his own soul, and cherished and strengthened his natural evil traits of character until he became so hardened that he could sell his Lord for thirty pieces of silver.
FH	169	4	Oh, let us encourage our souls to look to Jesus! Tell everyone how dangerous it is to neglect the soul's eternal healthfulness by looking upon the diseased souls of others, by talking upon the uncomeliness of character found in those who profess the name of Christ. The soul does not become more and more like Christ by beholding evil, but like the evil which it beholds....
FH	169	5	Let us remember that our great High Priest is pleading before the mercy seat in behalf of His ransomed people. He ever liveth to make intercession for us.... The blood of Jesus is pleading with power and efficacy for those who are backslidden, for those who are rebellious, for those who sin against great light and love.... He will not forget His church in the world of temptation.--The Review and Herald, August 15, 1893.
------------------------Slow to Learn, June 7
FH	170	1	In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:4, 5.
FH	170	2	Christ was the foundation of the whole system of Jewish worship, and in it was shadowed forth the living reality-the manifestation of God in Christ. Through the sacrificial system all could see Christ's personality and look forward to their divine Savior. But when He stood before them representing the invisible God-for in Him dwelt "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"-they were not able to discern His divine character because of their want of spirituality. Their own prophets had foretold Him as a Deliverer.... But though His character and mission had been so plainly delineated, though He came unto His own, His own received Him not. Occasionally divinity flashed through humanity-the glory escaped through the disguise of the flesh and brought forth an expression of homage from His disciples. But it was not until Christ ascended to His Father, not until the descent of the Holy Spirit, that the disciples fully appreciated the character and the mission of Christ. After the baptism of the Holy Spirit they began to realize that they had been in the very presence of the Lord of life and glory. As the Holy Spirit brought the sayings of Christ to their remembrance, their understanding was opened to comprehend the prophecies, to understand the mighty miracles which He had wrought.... They seemed of much less importance in their own eyes after their awakening to the fact that Christ had been among them than they did before they realized this. They never wearied of rehearsing every item which had come under their notice in connection with His words and works. They were often filled with remorse at their stupidity and unbelief and misapprehension as they recalled His lessons of instruction which they had but dimly understood when He had spoken them in their presence, and which now came to them as a fresh revelation. The Scriptures became a new book to them....
FH	170	3	The disciples remembered that Christ had said, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." The Word was to be their guide and director. As the disciples searched Moses and the prophets which testified of Christ, they were brought into fellowship with the Deity and learned anew of their great Teacher, who had ascended to heaven to complete the work which He had begun upon earth.--The Review and Herald, April 23, 1895.
------------------------The Great Source of Truth, June 8
FH	171	1	Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:29.
FH	171	2	Christ is the author of all truth. Every brilliant conception, every thought of wisdom, every human capacity and talent, is the gift of Christ. He borrowed no new ideas from humanity; for He originated all. But when He came to earth, He found the bright gems of truth which He had entrusted to the human race, all buried up in superstition and tradition. Truths of most vital importance were placed in the framework of error, to serve the purpose of the archdeceiver. Human opinions, the most popular sentiments of the people, were glossed over with the appearance of truth, and were presented as the genuine gems of heaven, worthy of attention and reverence. But Christ swept away erroneous theories of every grade. No one save the world's Redeemer had power to present the truth in its primitive purity, divested of the error that Satan had accumulated to hide its heavenly beauty.
FH	171	3	Some of the truths that Christ spoke were familiar to the people. They had heard them from the lips of priests and rulers and from people of thought; but for all that, they were distinctively the thoughts of Christ. He had given them to people in trust, to be communicated to the world. On every occasion He proclaimed the particular truth He thought appropriate for the needs of His hearers, whether the ideas had been expressed before or not.
FH	171	4	The work of Christ was to take the truth of which the people were in want, and separate it from error, and present it free from the superstitions of the world, that the people might accept it on its own intrinsic and eternal merit. He dispersed the mists of doubt, that the truth might be revealed, and shed distinct rays of light into the darkness of human hearts. He placed the truth in clear contrast with error, that it might appear as truth before the people. But how few appreciate the value of the work that Christ was doing! How few in our day have a just conception of the preciousness of the lessons which He gave to His disciples!
FH	171	5	He proved Himself to be the way, the truth, the life. He sought to attract minds from the passing pleasures of this life to the unseen and eternal realities. Views of heavenly things do not incapacitate men and women for the duties of this life, but rather render them more efficient and faithful.--The Review and Herald, January 7, 1890.
------------------------Cleansing the Temple, June 9
FH	172	1	“My house is a house of prayer, " but you have made it a "den of thieves." Luke 19:46.
FH	172	2	Why was it that Christ's indignation was stirred as He came into the temple courts? His eye swept over the scene, and He saw in it the dishonor of God and the oppression of the people. He heard the lowing of the oxen, the bleating of the sheep, and the altercation between those who were buying and selling. In the courts of God even the priests and rulers were engaged in traffic.... When once their attention was called to Him, they could not withdraw their eyes from His face, for there was something in His countenance that awed and terrified them. Who was He? A humble Galilean, the son of a carpenter who had worked at His trade with His father, but as they gazed upon Him, they felt as though they were arraigned before the judgment bar....
FH	172	3	Christ saw the poor and the distressed and the afflicted in trouble and dismay because they had not sufficient to purchase even a dove for an offering. The blind, the lame, the deaf, the afflicted, were in suffering and distress because they longed to present an offering for their sins, but the prices were so exorbitant they could not compass it. It seemed that there was no chance for them to have their sins pardoned....
FH	172	4	When Christ had expelled those who had sold doves, He had said, "Take these things hence." He had not driven the doves out as He had the oxen and the sheep, and why? Because they were the only offering of the poor. He knew their necessities, and as the sellers were driven from the temple, the suffering and the afflicted were left in the courts....
FH	172	5	But the priests and the rulers, recovering from their dismay, said, "We will return and challenge Him, and ask Him by what authority He had presumed to expel us from the temple."
FH	172	6	But what a scene met their eyes as they entered again the courts of the temple. Christ was ministering to the poor, the suffering, and the afflicted.... He gave the suffering tender comfort. He took the little ones in His arms and commanded freedom from disease and suffering. He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, health to the diseased, and comfort to the afflicted....
FH	172	7	He was doing the very work which had been prophesied that the Messiah would do.--The Review and Herald, August 27, 1895.
------------------------Jesus Loves You, June 10
FH	173	1	But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.
FH	173	2	I love to speak of Jesus and His matchless love. I have not one doubt of the love of God. I know that He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto Him. His precious love is a reality to me, and the doubts expressed by those who know not the Lord Jesus Christ have no effect upon me.... Take Jesus as your personal Savior. Come to Him just as you are, give yourself to Him, grasp His promise by living faith, and He will be to you all that you desire....
FH	173	3	Those who give their hearts to Christ will find rest in His love. We have a token of the magnitude of His love in His sufferings and death.... Jesus endured such agony... because He became the sinner's substitute and surety. He Himself bore the penalty of the law which sinners deserved in order that they might have... another chance to prove their loyalty to God....
FH	173	4	There are only two classes in the whole universe--those who believe in Christ and whose faith leads them to keep God's commandments, and those who do not believe in Him and are disobedient....
FH	173	5	You have every reason to believe that He can and will save you. Why? Because you are guiltless? No; because you are a sinner, and Jesus says, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." The call is addressed to you, and when Satan says to you that there is no hope, tell him you know there is, "for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."...
FH	173	6	The hand that was nailed to the cross for you is stretched out to save you. Believe that Jesus will hear your confession, receive your requests, forgive your sins, and make you a member of the royal family. You need the hope which Jesus will give to cheer you under every circumstance....
FH	173	7	Those who accept the truth will find their love for earthly things dislodged. They see the surpassing glory of heavenly things and appreciate the excellence of that which relates to everlasting life. They are charmed with the unseen and eternal. Their grasp loosens from earthly things; they fasten their eyes with admiration upon the invisible glories of the heavenly world. They realize that their trials are working out for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and in comparison to the riches that are theirs to enjoy, they count them light afflictions which are for but a moment.--The Review and Herald, June 23, 1896.
------------------------Jesus, the Fulfillment of Prophecy, June 11
FH	174	1	For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. John 5:46.
FH	174	2	[Jesus] spoke with assurance and revealed a depth of knowledge far exceeding that of the most learned of the scribes and rabbis. It was evident that He had a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures and that He presented truth that was unmingled with human sayings and maxims. The old truths fell upon their ears like a new revelation....
FH	174	3	Jesus presented His lessons to the people, but He did not make a practice of asserting His high and authoritative claim. He had come to save the lost world, and His words and works, His whole life in humanity, was to speak of His divinity. He left it to His own dignity, to His life, to His course of action, to witness to the people that He worked the works of God. He left it to them to draw their own conclusion concerning His claims while He expounded to them the prophecies concerning Himself. He directed them to search the Scriptures, for it was essential that they should interpret correctly the mission and work of the Son of God. He pointed out the fact to them that He was fulfilling the prophecies that had hitherto been given by holy men who were moved upon by the Holy Spirit. He declared plainly that they wrote of Him, and brought the clear rays of the light of prophecy to illuminate His words and works.... He stood forth in His ministry as one distinguished from every other teacher. He Himself had inspired the prophets to write of Him. His life work had been planned in the eternal counsels of heaven before the foundation of the world.... His life was the light of the world, and He presented His life before the people, that their faith might lay hold upon it, and that they might become one with Him.
FH	174	4	Though He presented infinite truth, He left many things unsaid that He might have said, because even His disciples were not able to comprehend them. He said, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." The burden of His teaching was obedience to the commandments of God, that would work transformation of character and inculcate moral excellence, shaping the soul after the divine similitude. Christ had been sent to earth to represent God in character. Jesus was the Life-giver, the Teacher sent of God to provide salvation for a lost world and to save us in spite of all Satan's temptations and lying deceptions. He Himself was the gospel. In His teachings He clearly presented the great plan devised for the redemption of the race.--The Review and Herald, July 7, 1896.
------------------------The Uplifted Savior, June 12
FH	175	1	As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:14, 15.
FH	175	2	In humility Christ began His mighty work for the uplifting of the fallen race. Passing by the cities and the renowned seats of learning, He made His home in the humble and obscure village of Nazareth. In this place, from which it was commonly supposed that no good could come, the world's Redeemer passed the greater part of His life working at His trade as a carpenter. His home was among the poor; His family was not distinguished by learning, riches, or position. In the path which the poor, the neglected, the sorrowing, must tread, He walked while on earth, taking upon Him all the woes which the afflicted must bear.
FH	175	3	It was the proud boast of the Jews that the Messiah was to come as a king, conquering His enemies and treading down the heathen in His wrath. But it was not the mission of Christ to exalt men and women by ministering to their pride. He, the humble Nazarene, might have poured contempt upon the world's pride, for He was commander in the heavenly courts; but He came in humility, showing that it is not riches or position or authority that the God of heaven respects, but that He honors a humble, contrite heart made noble by the power of the grace of Christ.
FH	175	4	Christ closed His life of toil and denial in our behalf by a crowning sacrifice for us.... Christ is a living Savior. Today He sits at the right hand of God as our Advocate, making intercession for us; and He calls upon us to look unto Him and be saved. But it has ever been the tempter's determined purpose to eclipse Jesus from the view, that we may be led to lean upon the arm of humanity for help and strength; and he has so well accomplished his purpose that we, turning our eyes from Jesus, in whom all hope of eternal life is centered, look to our fellow men for aid and guidance....
FH	175	5	As the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness by Moses, that all who had been bitten by the fiery serpents might look and live, so must the Son of Man be lifted up before the world by His servants. Christ and Him crucified is the message God would have His servants sound through the length and breadth of the world.--The Review and Herald, September 29, 1896.
------------------------The Ordinances, June 13
FH	176	1	I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. John 13:15.
FH	176	2	The symbols of the Lord's house are simple and plainly understood, and the truths represented by them are of the deepest significance to us. In instituting the sacramental service to take the place of the Passover, Christ left for His church a memorial of His great sacrifice for sinners. "This do," He said, "in remembrance of me." This was the point of transition between two economies and their two great festivals. The one was to close forever; the other, which He had just established, was to take its place, and to continue through all time as the memorial of His death....
FH	176	3	With the rest of the disciples, Judas partook of the bread and wine symbolizing the body and blood of Christ. This was the last time that Judas would be present with the twelve; but that the scripture might be fulfilled, he left the sacramental table, Christ's last gift to His disciples, to complete his work of betrayal....
FH	176	4	The children of God are to bear in mind that God is brought sacredly near on every such occasion as the service of feet washing....
FH	176	5	The object of this service is to call to mind the humility of our Lord and the lessons He has given in washing the feet of His disciples. There is in us a disposition to esteem ourselves more highly than our brothers and sisters, to work for ourselves, to serve ourselves, to seek the highest places; and often evil surmisings and bitterness of spirit spring up over mere trifles. This ordinance, preceding the Lord's Supper, is to clear away these misunderstandings, to bring us out of our selfishness, down from our stilts of self-exaltation to the humility of spirit that will lead us to wash one another's feet....
FH	176	6	The ordinance of feet washing has been especially enjoined by Christ, and on these occasions the Holy Spirit is present to witness and put a seal to His ordinance. He is there to convict and soften the heart. He draws the believers together and makes them one in heart. They are made to feel that Christ indeed is present to clear away the rubbish that has accumulated to separate the hearts of the children of God from Him.--The Review and Herald, June 22, 1897.
------------------------Principles in Business, June 14
FH	177	1	What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Mark 8:36, 37.
FH	177	2	It is the place of the followers of Christ to acknowledge their dependence upon God in everything and to carry out the principles of their faith in all the relations of life, including business transactions. They cannot otherwise correctly represent the religion of Christ. And they should be honest with God as well as with others. Can someone be dishonest with God? Read the prophet's answer: "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me."...
FH	177	3	Tithes and offerings belong to God. The means in our possession should be regarded as a sacred trust, to be used to the glory of the Giver. Self-denial is the condition of salvation. The charity that seeketh not her own is the fruit of that disinterested love that characterized the life of our Redeemer. Those who for love to Christ deny themselves will find the happiness which the selfish seek in vain, but those who make their own pleasures and selfish interests the chief object of life will lose the happiness they think to enjoy.
FH	177	4	The apostle Paul has something to say on the subject of system in giving: "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him."
FH	177	5	God's rule of giving, as expressed in His Word, excludes no one, and it presses heavily on no one. It touches the poor but lightly, and is not really felt by the rich....
FH	177	6	Said Christ, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." If we lay up our treasure in heaven, our hearts will be in heaven; if our treasure is on the earth, our hearts will be set on things of the earth, worrying about losses, and anxious about gains and riches....
FH	177	7	As in the balances of the sanctuary the offering is estimated in accordance with the spirit of love and sacrifice that prompted it, the promises will just as surely be fulfilled to the liberal poor man or woman who has little to offer but gives that little freely, as to the wealthy who give largely of their abundance....
FH	177	8	Christ's kingdom should be superior to every other interest.... [God] feeds the sparrow and clothes the lily; will He be less mindful of the needs of His children?--Bible Echo (Australia), December 9, 1895.
------------------------A Teacher Sent From God, June 15
FH	178	1	If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Matthew 12:28.
FH	178	2	In Christ's mighty works there was sufficient evidence to convince anyone. But the Jewish rulers did not want the truth. They could not but acknowledge the reality of the works of Christ, but they cast condemnation upon them all. They were forced to acknowledge that supernatural power attended His work, but this power, they declared, was derived from Satan. Did they really believe this? No, but they were so determined that the truth should not lead to their conversion that they charged the work of the Spirit of God to the devil....
FH	178	3	All-compassionate Redeemer! What love, what matchless love, is Thine! Charged by the great men of Israel with doing His works of mercy by the power of the prince of devils, He was as one who saw and heard not. The work He came from heaven to do must not be left undone. Truth must be unfolded to humanity. The Light of the world must flash His beams into the darkness of sin and superstition. The truth found no place in the hearts of those who should have been foremost to receive it, because they were barricaded with prejudice and wicked unbelief. Among those who had not such exalted privileges, Christ prepared hearts to receive His message. He made new bottles for the new wine.
FH	178	4	Every truth is invested by the God of heaven with an influence proportionate to its character and importance. The plan of redemption, which means everything to a lost and ruined world, was to be proclaimed, and the Spirit of God in Christ Jesus was brought into vital contact with the heart of the world....
FH	178	5	By Christ the truth was proclaimed. The hearts of those who professed to be the children of God were barricaded against it, but those who had not been so highly privileged, those who were not clothed with the garments of self-righteousness, were drawn to Christ....
FH	178	6	Today Satan endeavors to keep hidden from the world the great atoning sacrifice, which reveals the love of God and the binding claims of His law. He wars against the work of Christ.... But while he is carrying on this work, heavenly intelligences are combining with God's human instrumentalities in the work of restoration.--The Review and Herald, April 30, 1901.
------------------------Beholding Christ, June 16
FH	179	1	Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17.
FH	179	2	Through the power that Jesus gives, we can be "more than conquerors." But we cannot manufacture this power. Only through the Spirit of God can we receive it. We need a deep insight into the nature of Christ and into the mystery of His love, "which passeth knowledge." We are to live in the warm, genial rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Nothing but Christ's loving compassion, His divine grace, His almighty power, can enable us to baffle the relentless foe and subdue the opposition of our own hearts. What is our strength? The joy of the Lord. Let the love of Christ fill our hearts, and then we shall be prepared to receive the power that He has for us.
FH	179	3	Let us thank God every day for the blessings that are ours. If human agents will humble themselves before God, realizing how inappropriate it is for them to cherish self-sufficiency, realizing their utter inability to do the work that needs to be done in order that their souls may be purified; if they will cast away their own righteousness, Christ will abide in their hearts. He will put His hand to the work of creating them anew and will continue the work till they are complete in Him.
FH	179	4	Christ will never neglect the work that has been placed in His hands. He will inspire the resolute disciple with a sense of the perversity, the sin-stained condition, the depravity, of the heart upon which He is working. True penitents learn the uselessness of self-importance. Looking to Jesus, comparing their own defective characters with the Savior's perfect character, they say only,
FH	179	5	"In my hand no price I bring; Simply to thy cross I cling."
FH	179	6	With Isaiah they declare, "Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name."--The Review and Herald, March 31, 1904.
------------------------The Only Source of Truth, June 17
FH	180	1	I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. John 6:35.
FH	180	2	There are many in this age of the world who act as if they were at liberty to question the words of the Infinite, to review His decisions and statutes, endorsing, revising, reshaping, and annulling at their pleasure. We are never safe while we are guided by human opinions, but we are safe when we are guided by a "Thus saith the Lord." We cannot trust the salvation of our souls to any lower standard than the decisions of an infallible Judge. Those who make God their guide and His Word their counselor behold the lamp of life. God's living oracles guide their feet in straight paths. Those who are thus led do not dare to judge the Word of God, but ever hold that His Word judges them. They get their faith and religion from the Word of the living God. It is the guide and counselor that directs their path. The Word is indeed a light to their feet and a lamp to their path. They walk under the direction of the Father of light, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He whose tender mercies are over all His works makes the path of the just as a shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day....
FH	180	3	The world is perishing for want of pure, unadulterated truth. Christ is the truth. His words are truth, and they have a greater value and a deeper significance than appears on the surface. All the sayings of Christ have a value beyond their unpretending appearance. Minds that are quickened by the Holy Spirit will discern the value of these sayings. They will discern the precious gems of truth, though they may be buried treasure....
FH	180	4	The heart is the citadel of the being, and until that is wholly on the Lord's side, the enemy will gain constant victories over us through his subtle temptations.
FH	180	5	If the life is given into its control, the power of the truth is unlimited. The thoughts are brought into captivity to Jesus Christ. From the treasure of the heart are brought forth appropriate and fitting words. Writing to Timothy, Paul says, "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."--The Review and Herald, March 29, 1906.
------------------------Secure in Jesus' Hands, June 18
FH	181	1	My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.... And they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. John 10:27, 28.
FH	181	2	When Satan heard the word, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed," he knew that men and women would be given power to resist his temptations. He realized that his claim to the position of prince of the newly created world was to be contested, that One would come whose work would be fatal to his evil purposes, that he and his angels would be forever defeated. His assurance of certain power, his sense of security, was gone. Adam and Eve had yielded to his temptations, and their posterity would feel the strength of his assaults. But they would not be left without a helper. The Son of God was to come to the world, to be tempted in our behalf, and in our behalf to overcome.
FH	181	3	There is enmity between fallen human beings and Satan only as they place themselves on God's side and yield obedience to the law of Jehovah. This brings to them power to withstand Satan's attacks. It is through Christ's sacrifice that they are enabled to obey.... The Son of God, bearing human nature, and tempted on all points as we are tempted, met and resisted the assaults of the enemy. And in His strength human beings can gain the victory, meeting the tempter, yet not overcome by his artifice and his presumptuous presentations. By accepting Christ as a personal Savior, men and women can stand firm against the temptations of the enemy. Human beings may have eternal life if they will accept the principles of heaven and allow Christ to bring the heart and mind into obedience to the law of Jehovah.
FH	181	4	Christ saw the meaning of Satan's wiles, and till the end of His test and trial, He stood firm in His resistance, refusing to swerve from allegiance to God....
FH	181	5	The way in which Satan tempted Christ, he is today tempting every soul. He seeks to hold every person under his reasoning. The Savior warns us against entering into controversy with him or his agencies. We are not to meet them except on the Bible ground, "It is written." The less that we have to do with the arguments of those who are opposed to God, the firmer will be our foundation. We are to repeat as seldom as possible the sentiments of Satan's forming. Let every tempted soul keep looking at the principles that are wholly from above, remembering the promise, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman."--The Review and Herald, May 3, 1906.
------------------------Jesus' Convincing Power, June 19
FH	182	1	And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority. Luke 4:32.
FH	182	2	The mission of Jesus was demonstrated by convincing miracles. His doctrine astonished the people. It was not the contradictory jargon of the scribes, full of mysticism, burdened with absurd forms and meaningless exactions, but it was a system of truth that met the wants of the heart. His teaching was plain, clear, and comprehensive. The practical truths He uttered had a convincing power and arrested the attention of the people. Multitudes lingered at His side, marveling at His wisdom. His manner corresponded with the great truths He proclaimed. There was no apology, no hesitancy, not the shadow of a doubt or uncertainty that it might be other than He declared. He spoke of the earthly and the heavenly, of the human and the divine, with positive authority, and the people "were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power."
FH	182	3	He had declared Himself to be the Messiah, but the people would not receive Him, though they saw His wonderful works and marveled at His wisdom. He did not meet their expectation of the Messiah. They had been instructed to look for earthly pomp and glory at the advent of their Deliverer, and they dreamed that under the power of "the Lion of the tribe of Judah" the Jewish nation would be exalted to preeminence among the nations of the world. With these ideas they were not prepared to receive the humble Teacher of Galilee, although He came just as the prophets had foretold that He would come. He was not recognized as "the truth," the "light of the world," although He spoke as never anyone spoke, for His appearance was humble and unpretending. He came without attendants of earthly pageant and glory. There was, however, a majesty in His very presence that bespoke His divine character. His manners, though gentle and winning, possessed an authority that inspired respect and awe. He commanded, and disease left the sufferer. The dead heard His voice and lived, the sorrowing rejoiced, and the weary and heavy-laden found rest in His compassionate love....
FH	182	4	The lame, the blind, the palsy-stricken, and leprous, and those afflicted with all manner of diseases came to Him, and He healed them all.... Heaven endorsed His claims with mighty manifestations.--The Review and Herald, July 6, 1911.
------------------------As a Root Out of Dry Ground, June 20
FH	183	1	For He shall grow up... as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. Isaiah 53:2.
FH	183	2	The people of Jesus' day could not see, beneath the disguise of humility, the glory of the Son of God. He was "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." He was to them as a root out of dry ground, with no form nor comeliness that they should desire Him....
FH	183	3	Christ reached the people where they were. He presented the plain truth to their minds in the most forcible and simple language. The humble poor, the most unlearned, could comprehend through faith in Him the most exalted truths of God. No one needed to consult the learned doctors as to His meaning. He did not perplex the ignorant with mysterious inferences nor use unaccustomed and learned words of which they had no knowledge. The greatest Teacher the world has ever known was the most definite, simple, and practical in His instruction.
FH	183	4	While priests and rabbis were assuring themselves of their competency to teach the people and to cope even with the Son of God in expounding doctrine, He charged them with ignorance of the Scriptures or the power of God. It is not learning of the world's great persons that opens the mysteries of the plan of redemption. The priests and rabbis had studied the prophecies, but they failed to discover the precious proofs of the Messiah's advent, of the manner of His coming, of His mission and character. Those who claimed to be worthy of confidence because of their wisdom did not perceive that Christ was the Prince of life.
FH	183	5	The rabbis looked with suspicion and contempt upon everything that did not bear the appearance of worldly wisdom, national exaltation, and religious exclusiveness; but the mission of Jesus was to oppose these very evils, to correct these erroneous views, and to work a reformation in faith and morals. He attracted attention to purity of life, to humility of spirit, and to devotion to God and His cause without hope of worldly honor or reward....
FH	183	6	He rejoiced in spirit as He beheld the poor of this world eagerly accepting the precious message which He brought. He looked up to heaven and said, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."--The Review and Herald, August 3, 1911.
------------------------True Riches, June 21
FH	184	1	Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. Matthew 8:20.
FH	184	2	Christ came to this world to live a life of perfect obedience to the laws of God's kingdom. He came to uplift and ennoble human beings, to work out an enduring righteousness for them. He came as a medium through which truth was to be imparted. In Him are found all the excellencies necessary to absolute perfection of character....
FH	184	3	Christ gave up His high command in the heavenly courts, and laying aside His royal robe and kingly crown, He clothed His divinity with humanity. For our sakes He became poor in earthly riches and advantages, that human beings might be rich in the eternal weight of glory. He took His place at the head of the human family and consented to endure in our behalf the trials and temptations that sin has brought. He might have come in power and great glory, escorted by a multitude of heavenly angels. But no, He came in humility, of lowly parentage. He was brought up in an obscure and despised village. He lived a life of poverty and suffered often with privation and hunger. This He did to show that earthly riches and high rank do not increase the value of souls in the sight of God. He has given us no encouragement to think that riches make anyone worthy of eternal life. Those church members who, when a brother becomes poor, treat him as if he were unworthy of their notice certainly did not learn this from Christ....
FH	184	4	It is submission to sin that brings the great unhappiness of the soul. It is not poverty but disobedience that lessens our hope of gaining eternal life, which the Savior came to bring us. True riches, true peace, true content, enduring happiness-these are found only in entire surrender to God, in perfect reconciliation to His will.
FH	184	5	Christ came to our world to live a life of stainless purity, thus to show sinners that in His strength they, too, can obey God's holy precepts, the laws of His kingdom. He came to magnify the law and make it honorable by His perfect conformity to its principles. He united humanity and divinity, that fallen human beings might become partakers of the divine nature and thus escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.
FH	184	6	It was from the Father that Christ constantly drew the power that enabled Him to keep His life free from spot or stain of sin.--The Review and Herald, July 4, 1912.
------------------------Will a Man Rob God? June 22
FH	185	1	But you say, "In what way have we robbed You?" In tithes and offerings. Malachi 3:8.
FH	185	2	Would you do it? The Bible speaks of this as if it were an impossibility that anyone should venture to do such a thing. "Yet ye have robbed me."...
FH	185	3	The Lord saw just how it would be when the world was filled with inhabitants, and therefore He makes a covenant with His people that they should give Him their tithes and offerings, according to the arrangement which He has made. This is His. It does not belong to any of you. God has made this arrangement with you, that you may show that you realize your dependence and accountability to God by returning to Him His portion. If you do this, His blessing will come upon you. All that we have is the Lord's, entrusted to us as His stewards. That which we hand back to Him He must first give to us....
FH	185	4	We breathe because God takes charge of the human machinery. Day by day He keeps it in working order, and He wants us to think of the infinite sacrifice He has made for us in suffering with One equal with Himself-His only begotten Son. He consented to let Him come to a world all seared and marred with the curse of sin, to stand at the head of humanity as a sin-bearing, sin-pardoning Savior....
FH	185	5	Christ declared that all power in heaven and earth has been given to Him.... He takes His position at the head of humanity, covering humanity with divinity....
FH	185	6	God forbid that any one of us should fail of gaining the precious boon of eternal life. Do not rob God. Walk honestly before Him. All is His. He has entrusted goods to His agents for the advancement of His work in the world. They are to bring to His treasury a faithful tithe, and besides this they are to bring gifts and offerings as the cause shall demand.... God desires us to realize that heaven has been brought near to earth. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation....
FH	185	7	God is in earnest with us. He expects us to help in planting His standard in places which have never heard the truth.... From all over the world, calls for help are coming. Lay out no money unnecessarily. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow the Master. You can never give Him as much as He has given you. He gave His life for you. What have you given for Him?--The General Conference Bulletin, April 8, 1901. (Taken from Ellen White's talk, Apr. 6, 1901.)
------------------------Remedy for Soul Poverty, June 23
FH	186	1	Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3.
FH	186	2	These comforting words of Christ are addressed not to the proud, not to the boastful and self-conceited, but to those who realize their own weakness and sinfulness. Those who mourn, the meek who feel themselves unworthy of the favor of God, and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are all included in "the poor in spirit."...
FH	186	3	The poor in spirit feel their poverty, their want of the grace of Christ. They realize that they know little of God and His great love, and that they need light in order that they may know and keep the way of the Lord. They dare not face temptation in their own strength, for they realize that they have not moral force to resist evil. They have no pleasure in reviewing their past life and little confidence in looking to the future, for they are sick at heart. But it is to such that Christ says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Christ saw that those who feel their poverty may be made rich....
FH	186	4	What great privileges are within the reach of those who feel the poverty of their soul and submit to the will of God! The remedy for soul poverty is found alone in Christ. When the heart is sanctified by grace, when Christians have the mind of Christ, they have the love of Christ, which is spiritual riches more precious than the gold of Ophir. But before there can be an intense desire for the wealth contained in Christ, which is available to all who feel their poverty, there must be a sense of need. When the heart is full of self-sufficiency and preoccupied with the superficial things of earth, the Lord Jesus rebukes and chastens in order that men and women may awake to a realization of their true condition....
FH	186	5	You may come to Jesus in faith and without delay. His provision is rich and free, His love is abundant, and He will give you grace to wear His yoke and to lift His burden with cheerfulness. You may claim your right to His blessing by virtue of His promise. You may enter into His kingdom, which is His grace, His love, His righteousness, His peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. If you feel in deepest need, you may be supplied with all His fullness, for Christ says, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Jesus calls you to come. "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's is the kingdom of heaven."--The Signs of the Times, August 1, 1895.
------------------------Ministry of Comfort, June 24
FH	187	1	Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4.
FH	187	2	The Lord works through human instrumentalities and has commissioned to His followers the duty of ministering to those who are desponding and distressed. There are hearts all around us that need to be uplifted, that need the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. The Lord looks to those whom He has comforted and blessed to enlighten those who are in darkness and to relieve those who are in sorrow. Those who have received light and peace and joy are not to pass by those who mourn, but are to come close to them in human sympathy and help them to see a sin-pardoning Savior, a merciful God.
FH	187	3	Christ has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and He will give joy and gladness to those who mourn. Will you, my brother and sister who have felt the sorrows of earth, do service for Christ in helping the very ones who need your help?...
FH	187	4	Those who love Jesus will have the mind of Christ and will comfort all who mourn; those who are poor, tempted, and discouraged they will help to walk in the light of the cross and not in the shadows and in the darkness....
FH	187	5	The Lord Jesus has given to His people the special work of comforting all that mourn. Christ is working for this class, and He calls upon human beings to become His instrumentalities in bringing light and hope to those who are mourning in the midst of apparently dark providences.....
FH	187	6	The furnace fire may kindle upon the servants of God, but it is for the purpose of purifying them from all dross, and not that they may be destroyed and consumed....
FH	187	7	We honor God by trusting in Him when all looks dark and forbidding. Let those who are afflicted look unto Him, and talk of His power, and sing of His mercy....
FH	187	8	There is a blessing pronounced upon all who mourn. Had there been no mourners in our world, Christ could not have revealed the parental character of God. Those oppressed by the conviction of sin are to know the blessedness of forgiveness and to have their transgressions blotted out. Had there been none who mourn, the sufficiency of Christ's expiation for sin would not have been understood.--Signs of the Times, August 8, 1895.
------------------------Meekness, a Fruit of the Spirit, June 25
FH	188	1	Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5.
FH	188	2	Those who have humbly sought God for comfort and peace in the midst of trial have had imparted to them the gentleness of Christ. Those who have learned of Him who is meek and lowly of heart express sympathy and manifest gentleness toward those who are in need of consolation, for they can comfort others with the consolation wherewith they are comforted of God....
FH	188	3	Meekness is a fruit of the Spirit and an evidence that we are branches of the living God. The abiding presence of meekness is an unmistakable evidence that we are branches of the True Vine and are bearing much fruit. It is an evidence that we are by faith beholding the King in His beauty and becoming changed into His likeness. Where meekness exists, the natural tendencies are under the control of the Holy Spirit. Meekness is not a species of cowardice. It is the spirit which Christ manifested when suffering injury, when enduring insult and abuse. To be meek is not to surrender our rights, but it is the preservation of self-control under provocation to give way to anger or to the spirit of retaliation. Meekness will not allow passion to take the lines.
FH	188	4	When Christ was accused by the priests and Pharisees, He preserved His self-control, but He took His position decidedly that their charges were untrue. He said to them, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?"... He knew that His position was right. When Paul and Silas were beaten and thrust into prison without trial or sentence, they did not surrender their right to be treated as honest citizens....
FH	188	5	At all times and in all places Christians should be that which the Lord designs that they should be-free in Christ Jesus. Duty performed in the Spirit of Christ will be done with sanctified prudence. We shall be guided as with a light from heaven when we have a vital connection with God.... Those who have repented of their sins, who have cast their weary, heavy-burdened souls at the feet of Christ, who have submitted to His yoke and become His colaborers, will be partakers with Christ in His sufferings and partakers also of His divine nature....
FH	188	6	Jesus is our pattern, and it is from Him that we receive strength and grace to walk in humility and contrition before God.--Signs of the Times, August 22, 1895.
------------------------Hungering for Righteousness, June 26
FH	189	1	Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6.
FH	189	2	The true bread of life is found only in Christ. Those who do not recognize that the bounties of rich grace, the heavenly banquet, have been prepared at an infinite cost to satisfy those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will not be refreshed....
FH	189	3	"Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger."...
FH	189	4	Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are filled with a longing desire to become Christlike in character, to be assimilated to His image, to keep the way of the Lord, and to do justice and judgment. We should ever cultivate an earnest desire for the righteousness of Christ. No temporal wants should attract and divert the mind to such a degree that we should not experience this soul hunger to possess the attributes of Christ.... When in trouble and affliction, the soul longs for the love and power of God. There is an intense desire for assurance, for hope, for faith, for confidence. We should seek for pardon, for peace, for the righteousness of Christ.... Every soul who seeks the Lord with the whole heart is hungering and thirsting after righteousness....
FH	189	5	The soul hunger will be satisfied when our hearts are emptied of pride, vanity, and selfishness; for faith will then appropriate the promises of God, and Christ will supply the vacuum and abide in the heart. There will be a new song in the mouth, for the word will be fulfilled, "A new heart also will I give you." The testimony of the believer will be, "Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace."...
FH	189	6	Without Christ the hunger and thirst of the soul would remain unsatisfied. The feeling of want, the craving after something not temporal, not tainted with earthliness and commonness, could never be appeased. The mind must grasp something higher and purer than anything that can be found in this world....
FH	189	7	Christ was crucified for the sin of the world, and after His resurrection and ascension all the world were invited to look to Him and live. We are enjoined to look at the things unseen, to keep before the mind's eye the most vivid images of eternal realities, that by beholding we may become changed into the image of Christ.--Signs of the Times, August 29, 1895.
------------------------The Fruits of Mercy, June 27
FH	190	1	Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Matthew 5:7.
FH	190	2	It is the duty of the children of God to be all light in the Lord and scatter blessings upon the path of others. They are not to say, "Be ye warmed, and be ye fed," and do nothing to relieve the necessities of those who are in want....
FH	190	3	We are the Lord's purchased possession, and as His human agents it is our positive duty to administer in temporal and spiritual things from the store which God has given us. Love must be kept in constant exercise to inspire faith in God, that praise may be called forth from human hearts to God and that the golden chain of love may bind the hearts of humanity together. Those who are recipients of the mercy, sympathy, and compassion of God should pass it along to others....
FH	190	4	The Son of the infinite God is our Pattern. Heaven is full of mercy, and it is constantly outflowing not only to a favored few, but for the blessing of those who need it most, for the benefit of those who have the least pleasantness and happiness brought into their lives....
FH	190	5	Those whom God has made stewards of capabilities and means, He commands, for their own interest, to lay up their treasure in heaven, and as He has given freely to them of His bountiful mercy, to give freely to others. Instead of living for themselves, Christ is to live in them, and His Holy Spirit is to lead them to dispense wisely their goods, being merciful to others even as He is merciful to all. No man or woman can be a follower of Christ and live for self....
FH	190	6	In proportion as goods are entrusted they should be dispensed to others. The humblest men and women are to trade upon the Lord's talents, realizing that what has been lent to them should be returned with usury to God. Though we have but one talent, if it be faithfully consecrated to God and employed in acts of mercy in temporal or spiritual things, we thus ministering to the wants of the needy, our talent will increase in value and be noted upon the heavenly record as exceeding our powers of computation. Every merciful action, every sacrifice, every self-denial, will bring a sure requital, a hundredfold in this time, and in the world to come everlasting life.--Signs of the Times, September 12, 1895.
------------------------A Friend to the Pure in Heart, June 28
FH	191	1	Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8.
FH	191	2	The pure in heart shall see God. While all shall behold Christ as a judge, the pure in heart shall behold Him as a friend; for Jesus has said, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." The pure in heart shall see Christ as a friend and elder brother. Those who are constantly looking unto Christ for His counsel, who pray in sincerity for His Holy Spirit, will be grieved if a cloud hides Him from their sight....
FH	191	3	The Christian world in this age are inclined to accept the sophistries of Satan in the place of the words of God. Many have separated themselves from God by wicked works, and they love not to behold God or to retain Him in their knowledge. They do not want to see God any more than did Adam when he hid himself from the approach of his heavenly Father....
FH	191	4	We are to look unto Jesus as our only hope for the taking away of our sins, for in Him is no sin. He became sin for us that He might bear our guilt, standing before the Father as guilty in our place, while we who believe in Him as a personal Savior shall, because of His merits, be accounted as pure from the contaminating influence of sin. Through the imputed righteousness of Christ, we are accounted guiltless. Christ has given to every human being the evidence that He alone is able to bear human grief, sorrow, and sin. Those who claim Christ as their substitute and surety, hanging their helpless souls upon Christ, can endure as seeing Him who is invisible. The benediction, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" belongs to them.
FH	191	5	When you are betrayed into sin, do not despair. Do not delay and mourn in hopeless unbelief, but take your case at once to Jesus....
FH	191	6	Christ passed over the ground where Adam failed, and redeemed his disgraceful failure. He was made perfect through suffering and is able to succor all who shall be tempted, and to make a way of escape that they may be able to endure temptation.... He knows how to sympathize with every human being, for He has identified His interest with the interests of those He came to save. What a wonderful high priest is Jesus! We may lay our very soul burden upon Him.--Signs of the Times, October 3, 1895.
------------------------Harmony, June 29
FH	192	1	Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9.
FH	192	2	Those who have glimpses of the perfection of Christ's character will be filled with a longing to become like Him. They will desire to be peacemakers and to receive the blessing He has promised to the peacemakers....
FH	192	3	The enemy of all righteousness will be ready to lead you into a course that will be the very opposite of that which the peacemaker should take. He who loves discord and strife will tempt you to act a part in connection with himself to stir up strife. He will lead you to think that you see in some brother or sister something that is wrong, and Satan will urge you to go and tell it to others; but Christ has told you to go to your brother and "tell him his fault between thee and him alone." Which leader are you going to obey? It is not in accordance with the natural heart to deal frankly and faithfully one with another. It appears easier to tell your brother's fault to someone else than it does to tell it to him alone, but it is his ear alone that should hear your accusation.... They who are blessed are those who work in harmony with God, who are laborers together with Christ. The grace which the Spirit of God imparts is a wellspring of life to the soul and will refresh all who come in contact with the peacemaker....
FH	192	4	It is important that we consider that the spirit we cherish now, the works that we now do, will testify to our fitness or unfitness for the future life. We are now upon trial, and it is to be seen whether or not we will fulfill the Lord's prayer and do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven. Those who are carrying out Satan's plans and are hurting and bruising souls by their course of action prove that they are not the children of Christ....
FH	192	5	It is best that every one of us should do right because it is right, and thus we may create about us an atmosphere of peace. We shall not then be found pressing to the side of Satan's human agents to catch their spirit and to repeat their words of accusation and reproach against those who are seeking to be obedient to the commandments of the Lord. We shall not link in with the adversary of souls and aid him in stirring up suspicion and strife and in causing souls who love God to be tempted to do evil.--Signs of the Times, October 10, 1895.
------------------------Seek Peace, June 30
FH	193	1	Blessed is the man whose strength is in You. Psalm 84:5.
FH	193	2	"Blessed are the peacemakers."... How many are there who are truly desirous of becoming blessed, who would not only hear but do the words of Christ? Those who will not rely upon themselves, but who will put their trust in a power out of and above themselves, will be enabled to become doers of the words of Christ....
FH	193	3	"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake" (not for their coarse, harsh spirit that leads them to stir up strife and dissension, but "for righteousness' sake"). The righteous are those who desire peace and will have peace at the cost of everything save the sacrifice of principle. Truth they cannot sacrifice, though adherence to it costs them distress, reproach, suffering, and even death. "For their's is the kingdom of heaven." Those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake place the commandments of God first in their lives, and they allow no human policy, no promise of reward, no offer of honor, to come between them and their God. They cannot be induced to deny Christ and to betray His cause. The rich promises of God have a place in their memory, and when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him. The Holy Spirit opens to the understanding the preciousness of the Scriptures....
FH	193	4	The church itself needs converting so that its members may be made channels of light, may be blessed and made a blessing. A vague reliance upon God's mercy will not obtain for us access to the throne of grace or draw down the blessing from God the Father which He has provided for those who do His will. Faith must center in the Word of God, which is spirit and life. Every page of the Sacred Word is illumined with the beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
FH	193	5	The Word of God is to be the support of the afflicted, the comfort of the persecuted. God Himself speaks to the believing, trusting soul, for God's Spirit is in His Word, and a special blessing will be received by those who accept the words of God when illuminated to their mind by the Holy Spirit. It is thus that the believer eats of Christ, the Bread of Life. Truth is seen in a new light, and the soul rejoices as in the visible presence of Christ.--Signs of the Times, October 10, 1895.
------------------------Salvation Promised, July 1
FH	194	1	Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. Isaiah 45:22.
FH	194	2	When Adam and Eve were created and placed in their Eden home, they had a knowledge of the law that was to govern them.... When they transgressed that law, fell from that state of happy innocence, and became sinners in the sight of God, the dark future of the fallen race was not relieved by a single ray of hope. Because of the transgression of the divine law, paradise was lost to the human family, the curse was pronounced upon the earth, and the reign of death commenced.
FH	194	3	But Heaven pitied fallen men and women, and the plan of salvation was devised. When the curse was pronounced upon the race, in connection with the curse there was given the promise of pardon through a Savior who was to come. This promise was the star of hope that lighted up the gloom that, like the pall of death, hung over the future of Adam's descendants and of the world which was given them as their dominion. The gospel was first preached to Adam and Eve in Eden. They sincerely repented of their guilt, believed the promise of God, and were saved from utter ruin....
FH	194	4	For three hundred years [Enoch] walked with God, giving to the world the example of a pure and spotless life, one which was in marked contrast with the lives of his contemporaries in that self-willed and perverse generation, who openly disregarded God's law and boasted of their freedom from its restraints. But his testimony and his example were alike unheeded, because men and women loved sin better than holiness. Enoch served God with singleness of heart; and the Lord communicated to him His will and through holy vision revealed to him the great events connected with Christ's second appearing. And then this favored servant of the Lord was borne to heaven by angels without seeing death.
FH	194	5	At length the wickedness became so great that God could no longer bear with it; and He made known to Noah that because of the continual transgressions of His law, He would destroy those whom He had created by a flood of water which He would bring upon the earth. Noah and his family were obedient to the divine law, and for their loyalty to the God of heaven they were saved from the destruction that overwhelmed the ungodly world around them. Thus the Lord preserved to Himself a people in whose hearts was His law.--Signs of the Times, April 22, 1886.
------------------------Cain and Abel Tested, July 2
FH	195	1	It came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. Genesis 4:3-5.
FH	195	2	Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam, were unlike in character.... These brothers were tested, as Adam had been tested before them, to see if they would be obedient to God's requirements. They had been instructed in regard to the provision made for the salvation of the human race. Through the system of sacrificial offerings, God designed to impress upon people's minds the offensive character of sin and to make known to them its sure penalty, death. The offerings were to be a constant reminder that it was only through the promised Redeemer that men and women could come into the presence of God. Cain and Abel understood the system of offerings which they were required to carry out. They knew that in presenting these offerings they showed humble and reverential obedience to the will of God and acknowledged faith in, and dependence upon, the Savior whom these offerings typified.
FH	195	3	Cain and Abel erected their altars alike, and each brought an offering. Cain thought it unnecessary to be particular about fulfilling all the requirements of God; he therefore brought an offering without the shedding of blood. He brought of the fruits of the ground and presented his offering before the Lord; but there was no token from heaven to show that it was accepted. Abel entreated his brother to come into the presence of God only in the divinely prescribed way. But his remonstrances made Cain all the more determined to carry out his own purpose. As the eldest, he felt above being advised by his brother, and despised his counsel.
FH	195	4	Abel brought of the firstlings of the flock, the very best, as God had commanded him. In the slain lamb he sees by faith the Son of God, appointed to death because of the transgression of His Father's law. God had respect to Abel's offering. Fire flashes from heaven and consumes the sacrifice of the penitent sinner.
FH	195	5	Cain now has an opportunity to see and acknowledge his mistake.... And He who is no respecter of persons will have respect to the offering of faith and obedience....
FH	195	6	Abel's offering had been accepted, but this was because Abel had done in every particular as God required him to do.--Signs of the Times, December 16, 1886.
------------------------The Anger of Cain, July 3
FH	196	1	So the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?" Genesis 4:6, 7.
FH	196	2	The Lord was not ignorant of the feelings of resentment cherished by Cain, but He would have Cain reflect upon his course, and, becoming convinced of his sin, repent and set his feet in the path of obedience. There was no cause for his wrathful feelings toward either his brother or his God; it was his own disregard of the plainly expressed will of God that had led to the rejection of his offering.... Abel's offering had been accepted, but this was because Abel had done in every particular as God required him to do. This would not rob Cain of his birthright....Thus the matter was plainly laid open before Cain; but his combativeness was aroused because his course was questioned and he was not permitted to follow his own independent ideas. He was angry with God and angry with his brother. He was angry with God because He would not accept the plans of a sinner in place of the divine requirements, and he was angry with his brother for disagreeing with him....
FH	196	3	Cain invites Abel to walk with him in the fields, and he there gives utterance to his unbelief and his murmuring against God. He claims that he was doing well in presenting his offering; and the more he talks against God and impeaches His justice and mercy in rejecting his own offering and accepting that of his brother Abel, the more bitter are his feelings of anger and resentment.
FH	196	4	Abel defends the goodness and impartiality of God and places before Cain the simple reason why God did not accept his offering.
FH	196	5	The fact that Abel ventured to disagree with him and even went so far as to point out his errors astonished Cain.... Cain's reason told him that Abel was right when he spoke of the necessity of presenting the blood of a slain victim if he would have his sacrifice accepted, but Satan presented the matter in a different light. He urged Cain on to a furious madness, till he slew his brother, and the sin of murder was laid upon his soul.--Signs of the Times, December 16, 1886.
------------------------A More Excellent Sacrifice, July 4
FH	197	1	By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. Hebrews 11:4.
FH	197	2	These two brothers, Cain and Abel, represent the whole human family. They were both tested on the point of obedience, and all will be tested as they were. Abel bore the proving of God. He revealed the gold of a righteous character, the principles of true godliness. But Cain's religion had not a good foundation; it rested on human merit. He brought to God something in which he had a personal interest-the fruits of the ground, which had been cultivated by his toil; and he presented his offering as a favor done to God through which he expected to secure the divine approval. He obeyed in building an altar, obeyed in bringing a sacrifice, but it was only a partial obedience. The essential part, the recognition of the need of a Redeemer, was left out....
FH	197	3	Both were sinners, and both acknowledged the claims of God as an object of worship. To all outward appearance, their religion was the same up to a certain point of time; but the Bible history shows us that there was a time when the difference between the two became very great. This difference lay in the obedience of one and the disobedience of the other.
FH	197	4	The apostle says that Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Abel grasped the great principles of redemption. He saw himself a sinner, and he saw sin and its penalty, death, standing between his soul and communion with God. He brought the slain victim, the sacrificed life, thus acknowledging the claims of the law which had been transgressed. Through the shed blood he looked to the future Sacrifice, Christ dying on the cross of Calvary; and, trusting in the atonement that was there to be made, he had the witness that he was righteous and his offering accepted.
FH	197	5	How did Abel know so well the plan of salvation? Adam taught it to his children and grandchildren.... After Adam had sinned, a feeling of terror seized him. A constant dread was upon him; shame and remorse tortured his soul. In this state of mind he wished to be as far removed as possible from the presence of God, whom he had so loved to meet in his Eden home. But the Lord followed this conscience-stricken man, and while He condemned the sin of which Adam had been guilty, gave him words of gracious promise.--Signs of the Times, December 23, 1886.
------------------------The First Promise of the Gospel, July 5
FH	198	1	For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:22.
FH	198	2	"I will put enmity... between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
FH	198	3	This was the first gospel sermon ever preached to sinners; this promise was the star of hope, illuminating the dark and dismal future of the race. Adam gladly received the welcome assurance of deliverance and diligently instructed his children in the way of the Lord. This promise was presented in close connection with the altar of sacrificial offerings. The altar and the promise stand side by side, and one casts clear beams of light upon the other, showing that the justice of an offended God could be appeased only by the death of His beloved Son....
FH	198	4	Abel heard these precious lessons, and to him they were like seed sown on good ground. Cain also heard them. He had the same privileges as his brother, but he did not improve them. He ventured to go contrary to the commands of God, and the result is strongly presented before us. Cain was not the victim of an arbitrary purpose; one was not elected to be chosen of God, and the other to be rejected. The whole matter rested upon doing or not doing as God had said.
FH	198	5	In the case of Cain and Abel we have a type of two classes that will exist in the world till the close of time; and this type is worthy of close study. There is a marked difference in the characters of these two brothers, and the same difference is seen in the human family today. Cain represents those who carry out the principles and works of Satan, by worshipping God in a way of their own choosing. Like the leader whom they follow, they are willing to render partial obedience but not entire submission to God....
FH	198	6	The Cain class of worshippers includes by far the largest number, for every false religion that has been invented has been based on the Cain principle, that a sinner can depend upon his own merits and righteousness for salvation....
FH	198	7	The religion of Christ is for men and women to accept with all its inconveniences. They may invent an easier way, but it will not lead to the city of God, the saints' secure abode. Only those who "do his commandments" will have "right to the tree of life" and "enter in through the gates into the city."--The Signs of the Times, December 23, 1886.
------------------------Enoch, July 6
FH	199	1	After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years. Genesis 5:22.
FH	199	2	Enoch learned from the lips of Adam the painful story of the fall and the precious story of God's condescending grace in the gift of His Son as the world's Redeemer. He believed and relied upon the promise given. Enoch was a holy man. He served God with singleness of heart. He realized the corruptions of the human family and separated himself from the descendants of Cain and reproved them for their great wickedness. There were those upon the earth who acknowledged God, who feared and worshipped Him. Yet righteous Enoch was so distressed with the increasing wickedness of the ungodly that he would not daily associate with them, fearing that he should be affected by their infidelity and that he might not ever regard God with that holy reverence which was due His exalted character. His soul was vexed as he daily beheld them trampling upon the authority of God. He chose to be separate from them and spent much of his time in solitude, giving himself to reflection and prayer. He waited before God and prayed to know His will more perfectly, that he might perform it. God communed with Enoch through His angels and gave him divine instruction. He made known to him that He would not always bear with human beings in their rebellion-that it was His purpose to destroy the sinful race by bringing a flood of waters upon the earth.
FH	199	3	The beautiful Garden of Eden, from which our first parents had been driven, remained until God determined to destroy the earth by a flood. The Lord had planted that garden and especially blessed it, and in His wonderful providence He withdrew it from the earth and will return it again, more gloriously adorned than before it was removed. God purposed to preserve a specimen of His perfect work of creation free from the curse which sin had brought upon the earth....
FH	199	4	Enoch continued to grow more heavenly while communing with God. His face was radiant with a holy light.... The Lord loved Enoch, because he steadfastly followed Him.... He yearned to unite himself still more closely to God, whom he feared, reverenced, and adored. The Lord would not permit Enoch to die like others, but sent His angels to take him to heaven without seeing death. In the presence of the righteous and the wicked, Enoch was removed from them.--Signs of the Times, February 20, 1879.
------------------------Enoch and the Spirit of Prophecy, July 7
FH	200	1	Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints." Jude 14.
FH	200	2	The Lord opened... to Enoch the plan of salvation and by the Spirit of prophecy carried him down through the generations which should live after the Flood, and showed him the great events connected with the second coming of Christ and the end of the world.
FH	200	3	Enoch was troubled in regard to the dead. It seemed to him that the righteous and the wicked would go to the dust together, and that would be their end. He could not see the life of the just beyond the grave. In prophetic vision he was instructed in regard to the Son of God, who was to die as a sacrifice, and was shown the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, attended by the angelic host, to give life to the righteous dead and ransom them from their graves. He also saw the corrupt state of the world at the time when Christ should appear the second time-that there would be a boastful, presumptuous, self-willed generation arrayed in rebellion against the law of God, denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ, trampling upon His blood and despising His atonement. He saw the righteous crowned with glory and honor, while the wicked were separated from the presence of the Lord and consumed with fire....
FH	200	4	By the blessings and honors which He bestowed upon Enoch, the Lord teaches a lesson of the greatest importance, that all will be rewarded who by faith rely upon the promised Sacrifice and faithfully obey God's commandments. Here, again, two classes are represented which were to exist until the second coming of Christ-the righteous and the wicked, the loyal and the rebellious. God will remember the righteous, who fear Him. On account of His dear Son, He will respect and honor them and give them everlasting life. But the wicked, who trample upon His authority, He will destroy from the earth, and they will be as though they had not been.
FH	200	5	After Adam's fall from a state of perfect happiness to a condition of sin and misery, there was danger that men and women would become discouraged.... But the instructions which God gave to Adam, and which were repeated by Seth and fully exemplified by Enoch, cleared away the gloom and darkness, and gave hope to all, that as through Adam came death, through Jesus, the promised Redeemer, would come life and immortality.--Signs of the Times, February 20, 1879.
------------------------Modern-day Enochs, July 8
FH	201	1	And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. Genesis 5:24.
FH	201	2	After Adam's fall from a state of perfect happiness to a condition of sin and misery, there was danger that men and women would become discouraged.... But the instructions which God gave to Adam, and which were repeated by Seth and fully exemplified by Enoch, cleared away the gloom and darkness and gave hope to all that as through Adam came death, through Jesus, the promised Redeemer, would come life and immortality.
FH	201	3	In the case of Enoch, the desponding faithful were taught that while living among a corrupt and sinful people who were in open and daring rebellion against their Creator, if they would obey Him and have faith in the promised Redeemer, they would work righteousness like the faithful Enoch, be accepted of God, and finally exalted to His heavenly throne.
FH	201	4	Enoch, separating himself from the world and spending much of his time in prayer and communion with God, represents God's loyal people in the last days, who will be separate from the world. Unrighteousness will prevail to a dreadful extent upon the earth. People will give themselves up to follow every imagination of their corrupt hearts and carry out their deceptive philosophy and rebel against the authority of high heaven.
FH	201	5	God's people will separate themselves from the unrighteous practices of those around them and will seek for purity of thought and holy conformity to His will until His divine image will be reflected in them. Like Enoch, they will be fitting for translation to heaven. While they endeavor to instruct and warn the world, they will not conform to the spirit and customs of unbelievers but will condemn them by their holy conversation and godly example. Enoch's translation to heaven just before the destruction of the world by a flood represents the translation of all the living righteous from the earth previous to its destruction by fire. The saints will be glorified in the presence of those who have hated them for their loyal obedience to God's righteous commandments.
FH	201	6	Enoch instructed his family in regard to the Flood. Methuselah, the son of Enoch, listened to the preaching of his grandson Noah, who faithfully warned the inhabitants of the old world that a flood of waters was coming upon the earth. Methuselah and his sons and his grandsons lived in the time of the building of the ark. They, with some others, received instruction from Noah and assisted him in his work.--Signs of the Times, February 20, 1879.
------------------------The Promise to Israel, July 9
FH	202	1	In the Lord all the descendants of Israel shall be justified, and shall glory. Isaiah 45:25.
FH	202	2	Abraham was called out from an idolatrous family and was appointed of God to preserve His truth amid the prevailing and increasing corruptions of that idolatrous age. The Lord appeared to Abraham and said, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly."...
FH	202	3	The Lord communicated His will to Abraham and gave him a distinct knowledge of the requirements of the moral law and of the salvation that would be accomplished through Himself. It was a high honor to which Abraham was called, that of being the father of the people who for centuries were the guardians and preservers of the truth of God for the world-of that people through whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed in the advent of the promised Messiah....
FH	202	4	God conferred upon His faithful servant special honor and blessings. Through vision and through the angels that walked and talked with him as friend with friend, he was made acquainted with the purposes as well as with the will of God....
FH	202	5	But the descendants of Abraham departed from the worship of the true God and transgressed His law. They mingled with the nations who had no knowledge or fear of God before their eyes, and gradually imitated their customs and manners until God's anger was kindled against them, and He permitted them to have their own way and follow the devices of their own corrupt hearts....
FH	202	6	But when they humbled themselves before God and acknowledged His dealings and cried unto Him earnestly for deliverance from the oppressive yoke of the Egyptians, their cries and their promises to be obedient reached heaven. Their prayers were answered in a most wonderful manner, and Israel was brought forth from Egypt, and the covenant made with their fathers was renewed to them.
FH	202	7	Thus was the knowledge of the law of God preserved through successive generations from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, and from Abraham to Moses.--Signs of the Times, April 22, 1886.
------------------------The Faith of Abraham, Part 1, July 10
FH	203	1	Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. Genesis 22:2.
FH	203	2	[Abraham] was one hundred and twenty years old when this terrible and startling command came to him in a vision of the night. He was to travel three days' journey and would have ample time for reflection. Fifty years previous, at the divine command, he had left father and mother, relatives and friends, and had become a pilgrim and a stranger in a land not his own. He had obeyed the command of God to send away his son Ishmael to wander in the wilderness. His soul was bowed down with grief at this separation, and his faith was sorely tried, yet he submitted because God required it....
FH	203	3	Abraham was tempted to believe that after all, this might be a delusion. Stricken with grief, he bowed before God and prayed as never before for a confirmation of this strange command, for greater light if he must perform this terrible duty. He remembered the angels sent to tell him of God's purpose to destroy Sodom and those who bore to him the promise that he should have this same son Isaac....
FH	203	4	He finally awakened Isaac softly, informing him that he was commanded of God to offer sacrifice upon a distant mountain, and that he must accompany him. He called his servants and made every necessary preparation for his long journey. If he could unburden his mind to Sarah and they together bear the suffering and responsibility, it might bring him some relief; but he decided that this would not do, for her heart was bound up in her son, and she might hinder him. He went forth on his journey, with Satan by his side to suggest unbelief and impossibility....
FH	203	5	The journey of the third day is commenced. Abraham lifts his eyes to the mountains, and upon one he beholds the promised sign. He looks earnestly, and lo, a bright cloud hovered over the top of Mount Moriah....
FH	203	6	He was yet a great distance from the mountain, but he removed the burden from the shoulders of his servants and bade them remain behind while he placed the wood upon the shoulders of his son, and himself took the knife and fire.--Signs of the Times, April 1, 1875.
------------------------The Faith of Abraham, Part 2, July 11
FH	204	1	My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering. Genesis 22:8.
FH	204	2	As they drew near the mountain, "Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" These endearing words, "My father," pierced his affectionate heart, and again he thought, Oh! That I, in my old age, might die instead of Isaac....
FH	204	3	Isaac assisted his father in building the altar. Together they placed on the wood, and the last work preparatory to the sacrifice is done. With quivering lips and trembling voice, Abraham revealed to his son the message that God had sent him.... Isaac was the victim, the lamb to be slain. Had Isaac chosen to resist his father's command, he could have done so, for he was grown to manhood; but he had been so thoroughly instructed in the knowledge of God that he had perfect faith in His promises and requirements....
FH	204	4	He comforted his father by assuring him that God conferred honor upon him in accepting him as a sacrifice, that in this requirement he saw not the wrath and displeasure of God, but special tokens that God loved him, in that He required him to be consecrated to Himself in sacrifice.
FH	204	5	He encouraged the almost nerveless hands of his father to bind the cords which confined him to the altar. The last words of endearing love were spoken by father and son, the last affectionate filial and parental tears were shed, the last embrace was given, and the father had pressed his beloved son to his aged breast for the last time. His hand is uplifted, grasping firmly the instrument of death which was to take the life of Isaac, when suddenly his arm is stayed.... "And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns."...
FH	204	6	Our heavenly Father surrendered His beloved Son to the agonies of the crucifixion. Legions of angels witnessed the humiliation and soul anguish of the Son of God but were not permitted to interpose as in the case of Isaac. No voice was heard to stay the sacrifice. God's dear Son, the world's Redeemer, was insulted, mocked at, derided, and tortured until He bowed His head in death. What greater proof can the Infinite One give us of His divine love and pity?--Signs of the Times, April 1, 1875.
------------------------Heaven's Ladder, July 12
FH	205	1	This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven! Genesis 28:17.
FH	205	2	Jacob was not perfect in character. He sinned against his father, his brother, his own soul, and against God. Inspiration faithfully records the faults of good men, those who were distinguished by the favor of God; indeed, their faults are much more fully transcribed than their virtues.... They were assaulted by temptations and were often overcome by them, but they were willing to learn in the school of Christ. Were these characters presented before us as faultless, it would tend to discourage us in our strivings after righteousness.... It shows that God will by no means clear the guilty. He sees sin in His most favored ones, and He punishes them even more decidedly than those who have less light and responsibility. But in contrast with the sins and errors of humanity there is presented one perfect character-that of the Son of God, who clothed His divinity with humanity, and walked a man among the children of men....
FH	205	3	Jacob obtained by fraud the blessing designed for his brother. God had promised him the birthright, and the promise would have been fulfilled in good time had he been willing to wait. But like many who now profess to be the children of God, he lacked faith and thought he must do something himself instead of submissively leaving the matter in the hands of the Lord....
FH	205	4	As he pursued his lonely way, he was greatly cast down and discouraged.... Yet God did not utterly forsake Jacob. His mercy was still extended to His erring, distrustful servant, although He would permit afflictions to come upon him until he should learn the lesson of patient submission. The Lord graciously and compassionately revealed just what Jacob needed, a Savior....
FH	205	5	Wearied with his journey, the wanderer lay down upon the ground with a stone for his pillow. And while he slept, the Lord gave him a vision. He beheld a ladder, bright and shining, whose base rested upon earth while the top reached to heaven. Upon this ladder angels were ascending and descending, and above it was the Lord of glory, who addressed Jacob in words of wonderful encouragement. He assured Jacob that he was under divine guardianship in his absence from home, and that the land whereon he lay as an exile and a fugitive would be given to him and his posterity.--Signs of the Times, July 31, 1884.
------------------------The Lord Is in This Place, July 13
FH	206	1	Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. Genesis 28:16.
FH	206	2	Jacob awoke with a solemn sense of the presence of God.... Through the Spirit of God, the plan of redemption was revealed to him, not fully, but such parts as it was essential for him to know. The time of Christ's first advent was yet far in the future, but God would not let His servant remain in ignorance of the fact that sinful men and women have been provided an Advocate with the Father.
FH	206	3	Up to the time of Adam and Eve's rebellion against the government of God, there had been free communion with God. Heaven and earth had been connected by a path that the Lord loved to traverse. But the sin of Adam and Eve separated earth from heaven. The curse of sin was upon the human race and was so offensive to God that fallen humanity could have no communion with their Maker, however much they might desire it. They could not climb the battlements of heaven and enter the city of God, for there entereth into it nothing that defileth. The ladder represents Jesus, the appointed medium of communication. Had He not with His own merits bridged the gulf that sin had made, the ministering angels, ascending and descending on that ladder, would have held no communication with sinners.
FH	206	4	All this was revealed to Jacob in his dream. Although his mind at once grasped a part of the revelation, its great and mysterious truths were the study of his lifetime and unfolded to his understanding more and more. In his conversation with Nathanael, Jesus referred to this mystic ladder on which Jacob gazed with pleased wonder. Said He, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."
FH	206	5	It is our lifework to commence at the lowest round of the ladder and step by step to ascend toward heaven.... We ascend by successive steps. When we let go of one round, it is to grasp another that is still higher. Thus the hand is constantly reaching upward for successive degrees of grace, and the feet are planted on one round after another, until finally an abundant entrance shall be administered to us into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.--Signs of the Times, July 31, 1884.
------------------------An Example of Forgiveness, July 14
FH	207	1	“I will provide for you and your little ones." And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Genesis 50:21.
FH	207	2	The sons of Jacob returned to their father with the joyful tidings, "Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt." At first the old man was overwhelmed; he could not believe what he heard, yet their words brought a faintness to his heart. But when he saw the carriages and the long line of loaded animals, and when Benjamin was at his side once more, he felt reassured and, in the fullness of his joy, exclaimed, "It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die." The brothers then made their humiliating confession to their father and entreated his forgiveness for their wicked treatment of Joseph. Jacob had not suspected them of such cruelty, but he saw that God had overruled it all for good, and he forgave and blessed his erring children....
FH	207	3	In a vision of the night the divine words came to Jacob, "Fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes."
FH	207	4	The meeting of Joseph and his father was very affective. Joseph left his chariot and ran to meet his father on foot and embraced him, and they wept over each other. "And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive."...
FH	207	5	[Jacob's] last years were more peaceful. His sons had turned from their evil ways, Joseph had been restored to him, and, surrounded by every comfort which the prime minister of Egypt could bestow, and in the society of his children, he passed down gently and calmly toward the grave.
FH	207	6	A short time before his death, his children gathered about him to receive his blessing and to listen to his last words of counsel. As he addressed them for the last time, the Spirit of God rested upon him, and he laid open before them their past lives and also uttered prophecies which reached far into the future....
FH	207	7	Jacob was an affectionate father. He had no resentful feelings toward his sorrowing children. He had forgiven them. He loved them to the last. But God, by the Spirit of prophecy, elevated the mind of Jacob above his natural feelings. In his last hours, angels were all around him, and the power of God rested upon him.--Signs of the Times, February 5, 1880.
------------------------Joseph, a Type of Christ, July 15
FH	208	1	You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Genesis 50:20.
FH	208	2	Jacob predicted a cheerful future for most of his sons. Especially for Joseph he uttered words of eloquence of a happy character: "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: the archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob."...
FH	208	3	The life of Joseph illustrates the life of Christ. Joseph's brethren proposed to kill him but were finally content to sell him as a slave to prevent his becoming greater than themselves. They thought they had placed him where they would be no more troubled with his dreams and where there would not be a possibility of their fulfillment. But the very course which they pursued, God overruled to bring about that which they designed never should take place-that he should have dominion over them....
FH	208	4	Joseph walked with God. And when he was imprisoned and suffered because of his innocence, he meekly bore it without murmuring. His self-control, his patience in adversity, and his unwavering fidelity are left on record for the benefit of all who should afterward live on the earth....
FH	208	5	The life of Jesus, the Savior of the world, was a pattern of benevolence, goodness, and holiness. Yet He was despised and insulted, mocked and derided, for no other reason than because His righteous life was a constant rebuke to sin. His enemies would not be satisfied until He was given into their hands, that they might put Him to a shameful death. He died for the guilty race and, while suffering the most cruel torture, meekly forgave His murderers. He rose from the dead, ascended up to His Father, and received all power and authority, and returned to the earth again to impart it to His disciples. He "gave gifts unto men." And all who have ever come to Him repentant, confessing their sins, He has received into His favor and freely pardoned. And if they remain true to Him, He will exalt them to His throne and make them His heirs to the inheritance which He has purchased with His own blood.--Signs of the Times, February 5, 1880.
------------------------Forty Years of Retraining, July 16
FH	209	1	The children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. Exodus 2:23.
FH	209	2	Moses had become, in every sense, a great man. As a writer, as a military leader, and as a philosopher, he had no superior. Love of truth and righteousness had become the basis of his character and had produced a steadfastness of purpose which no fickleness of fashion, opinion, or pursuits could influence. Courtesy, diligence, and a firm trust in God marked his life. He was young and vigorous, overflowing with energy and manly strength. He had deeply sympathized with his brethren in their affliction, and his soul had kindled with a desire to deliver them. Surely, it would appear to human wisdom that he was in every way fitted for his work.
FH	209	3	But God seeth not as man sees; His ways are not as ours. Moses is not yet prepared to accomplish this great work; neither are the people prepared for deliverance. He has been educated in the school of Egypt, but he has yet to pass through the stern school of discipline before he is qualified for his sacred mission. Before he can successfully govern the hosts of Israel, he must learn to obey, he must learn self-control. For forty long years he is sent into the retirement of the desert, that, in his life of obscurity, in the humble work of caring for the sheep and lambs of the flock, he may gain the victory over his own passions. He must learn entire submission to the will of God before he can teach that will to a great people.
FH	209	4	Short-sighted mortals would have dispensed with that forty years of training amid the mountains of Midian, deeming it a great loss of time. But Infinite Wisdom placed him who was to be the mighty statesman, the deliverer of his people from slavery, in circumstances during this period to develop his honesty, his forethought, his faithfulness and caretaking, and his ability to identify himself with the necessities of his dumb charge. Those to whom God has entrusted important responsibilities have not been brought up in ease and luxury; the noble prophets, the leaders and judges of God's appointment, have been those whose characters were formed by the stern realities of life.
FH	209	5	God does not select for His work persons of one mold and one temperament only, but individuals of varied temperaments.--Signs of the Times, February 19, 1880.
------------------------The Unlearning Experience, July 17
FH	210	1	Then Moses was content to live with the man [the priest of Midian] Exodus 2:21.
FH	210	2	The human element is seen in all who have been chosen to accomplish a work for God.... Connected with God, the source of all wisdom, individuals may reach any height of moral excellence....
FH	210	3	Moses had been learning much which he must unlearn. The influence which had surrounded him in Egypt-the love of his adopted mother, his own high position as the king's grandson, the enchantments of grandeur in art, the dissipation on every hand, the imposing display connected with the idolatrous worship, and the constant repetition, by the priests, of countless fables concerning the power of their gods-all had left deep impressions upon his developing mind and had molded, to some extent, his habits and character. These impressions, time, change of surroundings, and close connection with God could remove. Yet it must be by earnest, persevering effort, a struggle as for life, with himself, to uproot the seeds of error, and in their place have truth firmly implanted. At every point Satan would be prepared to strengthen error and dislodge truth, but while God designed that Moses should be self-trained by severe discipline, He Himself would be his ever-ready helper against Satan when the conflict should be too severe for human strength....
FH	210	4	The light of nature and that of revelation are from the same source, teaching grand truths and always agreeing with each other. As Moses saw that all God's created works act in sublime harmony with His laws, he realized how unreasonable it is for humans to array themselves in opposition to the law of God. The conflict was most trying, the effort long, to bring heart and mind on all points in harmony with truth and with heaven; but Moses was finally a victor....
FH	210	5	As year after year passed by and left the servant of God still in his humble position, it would have seemed to one of less faith than he as if God had forgotten him, as if his ability and experience were to be lost to the world. But as he wandered with his silent flocks in solitary places, the abject condition of his people was ever before him. He recounted all God's dealings with the faithful in ages past and His promises of future good, and his soul went out toward God in behalf of his brethren in bondage, and his fervent prayers echoed amid the mountain caverns by day and by night. He was never weary of presenting before God the promises made to His people, and pleading with Him for their deliverance.--Signs of the Times, February 19, 1880.
------------------------The Call of Moses, July 18
FH	211	1	Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Exodus 3:10.
FH	211	2	To the oppressed and suffering Hebrews the day of their deliverance seemed to be long deferred, but in His own appointed time God designed to work for them in mighty power. Moses was not to stand, as he at first anticipated, at the head of armies, with waving banners and glittering armor. That people, so long abused and oppressed, were not to gain the victory for themselves by rising up and asserting their rights. God's purpose was to be accomplished in a way to pour contempt on human pride and glory. The deliverer was to go forth as a humble shepherd with only a rod in his hand; but God would make that rod powerful in delivering His people from oppression and in preserving them when pursued by their enemies.
FH	211	3	Before Moses went forth, he received his high commission to his great work in a way that filled him with awe and gave him a deep sense of his own weakness and unworthiness. While engaged in his round of duties, he saw a bush, branches, foliage, and trunk, all burning, yet not consumed. He drew near to view the wonderful sight, when a voice addressed him from out of the flame. It was the voice of God. It was He who, as an angel of the covenant, had revealed Himself to the fathers in ages past. The frame of Moses quivered, he was thrilled with terror, as the Lord called him by name. With trembling lips he answered, "Here am I." He was warned not to approach his Creator with undue familiarity: "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."...
FH	211	4	Finite creatures may learn a lesson that should never be forgotten-to approach God with reverence. We may come boldly into His presence presenting the name of Jesus, our righteousness and substitute, but never with the boldness of presumption as though He were on a level with ourselves. We have heard some address the great and all-powerful and holy God, who dwelleth in light unapproachable, as they would not address an equal or even an inferior.... God is greatly to be reverenced; wherever His presence is clearly realized, sinners will bow in the most humble attitude.--Signs of the Times, February 26, 1880.
------------------------Double Bondage, July 19
FH	212	1	And Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!" Exodus 5:5.
FH	212	2	Aaron, being instructed by angels, went forth to meet his brother, from whom he had been separated for many years, and they met amid the desert solitudes in the mount of God.... Together they journeyed over the Arabian wastes, toward Egypt; and having reached the land of Goshen, they proceeded to assemble together the elders of Israel. Aaron, the eloquent spokesman, communicated to them all the dealings of God with Moses, and then they gave the signs before the people. "The people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped."
FH	212	3	The next work of the two brothers was to communicate with the king himself. They entered the great palace of the Pharaohs as commissioners from Jehovah; they felt that God was with them there, and they spoke with authority: "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness."...
FH	212	4	The king had heard of them before, and of the excitement among the people. He became very angry....
FH	212	5	The same day the king issued orders to all the officers superintending the work of the Israelites, to do that which made their slavery doubly severe and cruel. The buildings of that country were and still are made of sun-dried bricks, with cut straw intermixed to hold the earth together, even their finest edifices being so constructed, and then faced with stone. The king now commanded that no more straw should be issued to the workmen, but the same amount of brick was rigidly required....
FH	212	6	When the unfeeling requirement of the king was put in force, the people scattered themselves throughout the land to gather stubble instead of straw, but they found it impossible to accomplish the usual amount of labor. For this failure, the Hebrew officers, as well as the people, were cruelly beaten....
FH	212	7	The Hebrews had expected to be released from bondage without any particular trial of faith or any suffering on their part. But they were not yet prepared to be delivered. They had but little faith and were unwilling patiently to suffer their afflictions until God should work for them a glorious deliverance.--Signs of the Times, March 4, 1880.
------------------------God Will Surely Visit You, July 20
FH	213	1	Joseph said to his brethren, "I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." Genesis 50:24.
FH	213	2	Only a few families went down into Egypt, but they had become a great multitude. And being surrounded with idolatry, many had lost the knowledge of the true God and had forgotten His law. Yet there were some among them who still worshipped... the maker of the heavens and the earth. They were grieved to see their children daily witnessing, and even engaging in, the abominations of the idolatrous people around them.... In their distress the faithful cried unto the Lord for deliverance from the Egyptian yoke....
FH	213	3	They did not conceal their faith but openly acknowledged before the Egyptians that they served the only true and living God. They rehearsed the evidences of His existence and power, from Creation down. The Egyptians thus had an opportunity to become acquainted with the faith of the Hebrews, and their God....
FH	213	4	The elders of Israel endeavored to encourage the sinking faith of their brethren by referring to the promise made to Abraham and the prophetic words of Joseph before his death, foretelling their deliverance from Egypt. Some would listen and believe. Others looked at their own sad condition and would not hope. When the Egyptians learned the expectations of the children of Israel, they derided their hopes of deliverance and spoke scornfully of the power of their God....
FH	213	5	The faithful servants of God understood that it was because of their unfaithfulness to Him as a people and their disposition to intermarry with other nations, thus being led into idolatry, that the Lord had suffered them to go into Egypt....
FH	213	6	But many of the Hebrews were content to remain in bondage rather than to go to a new country and meet the difficulties attending such a journey; and the habits of some had become so much like those of the Egyptians that they preferred to dwell in Egypt. Therefore the Lord did not deliver them by the first display of His signs and wonders before Pharaoh. He overruled events to more fully develop the tyrannical spirit of the Egyptian king, and also by manifestations of almighty power to give the Israelites more exalted views of the divine character, that they might be anxious to leave Egypt and choose the service of the true and merciful God.--Signs of the Times, March 4, 1880.
------------------------God's Superior Power, July 21
FH	214	1	You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. Exodus 7:2.
FH	214	2	The Lord directed Moses to go again to the children of Israel and repeat the promise of deliverance, with a fresh assurance of divine favor. Moses went as he was commanded, but the people were in no mood to receive him; their hearts were full of bitterness, the lash was still sounding in their ears, the cry of anguish and distress drowned all other sounds, and they would not listen. Moses bowed his head in humiliation and disappointment, and again God's voice was heard by him-"Go in, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land."...
FH	214	3	He was informed that the monarch would not give his consent until God should lay His hand in judgment upon Egypt and bring Israel out by His almighty power.... He would show them by His servant Moses that the Maker of the heavens and the earth is the living and all-powerful God, above all gods; that His strength is mightier than the strongest-that Omnipotence could bring forth His people with a high hand and with an outstretched arm....
FH	214	4	Obedient to the command of God, Moses and Aaron again entered the lordly halls of the king of Egypt. There, surrounded by the massive and richly sculptured columns and the gorgeousness of rich hangings and adornments of silver and gold and gems, before the monarch of the most powerful kingdom then in existence stood these two men of the despised race, one with a rod in his hand, come once more to deliver their request that he would let their people go.
FH	214	5	The king demanded a miracle. Moses and Aaron had been previously directed of God how to act in case such a demand should be made, and Aaron now took the rod and cast it down before the king. It became a serpent. The monarch sent for his "wise men and the sorcerers," who, at his command "cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods."... The magicians did not really cause their rods to become serpents, but by magic, aided by the great deceiver, made them appear like serpents, to counterfeit the work of God....
FH	214	6	The work of God was thus shown to be superior to the power of Satan.--Signs of the Times, March 11, 1880.
------------------------Let the Plagues Begin, July 22
FH	215	1	Go to Pharaoh in the morning,... and you shall stand by the river's bank to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand. Exodus 7:15.
FH	215	2	Moses and his brother were next directed to meet the king as he visited the river in the morning, and standing upon its bank they were again to repeat their message to him, and as proof that God had indeed sent them, they were to stretch out the rod over the waters in all directions, thus changing them into blood. It was done, and the river ran blood, and all the water in their houses was changed to blood, the fish died, and the water became offensive to the smell. But "the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments," changing in the same way the water drawn from wells. Still the king hardened his heart and refused to yield. For seven days the plague continued, the inhabitants being obliged to dig wells to supply themselves with water.
FH	215	3	Another effort at moving the king was now made. The rod was again stretched out over the waters, and frogs came up from the river and spread over the country-into the houses and bedchambers and ovens and kneading troughs. The magicians with their enchantments appeared to bring up similar animals. The general nuisance soon became so intolerable that the king was earnest to have it removed. But although the magicians had succeeded in producing frogs, they could not remove them. When Pharaoh saw this, he was somewhat humbled and desired Moses and Aaron to entreat the Lord for him that the plague might be stayed. They reminded the haughty king of his former boasting and asked where was now the vaunted power of his magicians; then they requested him to appoint a time for their prayers, and at the hour specified the living cause was removed, though the effect remained; for the frogs, perishing, polluted the atmosphere.
FH	215	4	The work of the magicians had led Pharaoh to believe that these miracles were performed by magic, but he had abundant evidence that this was not the case when the plague of frogs was removed. The Lord could have caused them to disappear and return to dust in a moment, but He did not do this, lest, after they should be removed, the king and the Egyptians should say that it was the result of magic, like the work of the magicians.... Here the king and all Egypt had evidence which their vain philosophy could not dispose of, that this work was not accomplished by magic, but was a judgment from the God of heaven.--Signs of the Times, March 11, 1880.
------------------------Now Lice and Flies, July 23
FH	216	1	So the Lord said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the land, so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.'" Exodus 8:16.
FH	216	2	The frogs died and were then gathered together in heaps. Here the king and all Egypt had evidence which their vain philosophy could not dispose of, that this work was not accomplished by magic, but was a judgment from the God of heaven.
FH	216	3	When the king was relieved of his immediate distress, he again stubbornly refused to let Israel go. Aaron, at the command of God, stretched out his hand and caused the dust of the earth to become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh called upon the magicians to do the same with their enchantments, but they could not.... The magicians themselves acknowledged that their imitative power was at an end, saying, "This is the finger of God." But the king was still unmoved.
FH	216	4	Still another trial was made, after another appeal to "let my people go." Flies filled the houses and swarmed upon the ground, so that "the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies." These were not such flies as harmlessly annoy us at some seasons of the year, but they were large and venomous. Their sting was very painful to man and beast. It had been previously stated that the land of Goshen would be exempt from this visitation, which was accordingly found to be true.
FH	216	5	Pharaoh now sent for the two brothers and told them that he would allow the Israelites to offer sacrifices in Egypt itself; but this offer was refused. Certain animals were regarded as objects of worship by the Egyptians, and such was the reverence in which these creatures were held that to slay one, even accidentally, was a crime punishable with death. Moses assured the king that it was impossible for them to sacrifice to God in the land of Egypt, for they might select for their offering some one of the animals which the Egyptians considered sacred.
FH	216	6	Moses again proposed to go three days' journey into the wilderness. The king consented and begged the servants of God to entreat that the plague might be removed. They promised to do this but cautioned him against dealing deceitfully with them. The plague ceased at their prayer. But the king's heart had become hardened by his persistent rebellion, and he still refused to let the people go.--Signs of the Times, March 11, 1880.
------------------------Then Pestilence, Boils, and Hail, July 24
FH	217	1	Behold, the hand of the Lord will be on your cattle in the field,... a very severe pestilence. Exodus 9:3.
FH	217	2	Pharaoh was now forewarned of a still more terrible visitation, that of murrain [pestilence] upon all the Egyptian cattle which were out in the field. It was distinctly stated that the Hebrews should be exempted from this evil. The plague came, as predicted, and Pharaoh, on sending messengers to the homes of the Israelites, found that they had entirely escaped. Still the king was obstinate, and he was encouraged in his persistency by the priests and magicians.
FH	217	3	But they also were to feel the judgments of God. Moses and Aaron were commanded to take ashes of the furnace and sprinkle them in the air before Pharaoh. As they did so, the fine particles spread as dust over all the land of Egypt, and where it settled became a "boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast." The magicians could not by any of their enchantments shield themselves from the grievous plague. They could no longer stand before Moses and Aaron, because of this affliction. The Egyptians were thus permitted to see how useless it would be for them to put their trust in the boasted power of the magicians, when they could not protect even their own persons.
FH	217	4	Still there was no yielding on the part of the monarch.... Then a plague of hail was threatened which would destroy the cattle and every man and woman found in the field. Here was an opportunity to test the pride of the Egyptians and to show how many were really affected by the wonderful dealings of God with His people. All who regarded the word of the Lord gathered their cattle into barns and houses, while those who disbelieved the warning left their animals in the field. In thus providing a way of escape for all who chose to act upon the warning given, we see the mercy of God in the midst of judgment.
FH	217	5	The storm came on the morrow as predicted-thunder and hail, and fire mingled with it, destroying every herb, shattering trees, and smiting man and beast. Hitherto none of the lives of the Egyptians had been taken, but now death and desolation followed in the track of the destroying angel. The land of Goshen alone was spared. Here the Lord demonstrated to the Egyptians that the whole earth is under the command of the God of the Hebrews, that even the elements obey His voice.--Signs of the Times, March 18, 1880.
------------------------A False Confession and Promise, July 25
FH	218	1	I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Exodus 9:27.
FH	218	2	"My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places."...
FH	218	3	The only true safety of nations and individuals is to be obedient to the voice of God and to ever stand on the side of truth and righteousness. Pharaoh now humbled himself and said, "I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked." He entreated the servants of God to intercede with Him, that the terrific thunder and lightning might cease.
FH	218	4	Moses knew that the contest was not ended, for he understood the workings of the human heart that is set in proud defiance against God. Pharaoh's confessions and promises were not made because there was any change in his mind or heart; but terror and anguish compelled him, for the time being, to yield the controversy with God. Moses, however, promised to grant his request as though his confession was genuine and his repentance sincere, for he would not give him any occasion for future exhibitions of stubbornness....
FH	218	5	On going out of the city he "spread abroad his hands unto the Lord: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth." But as soon as the awful exhibitions of divine power had passed, the heart of the king returned to its stubbornness and rebellion.
FH	218	6	The Lord was manifesting His power to confirm the faith of His people Israel in Him as the only true and living God. He would give them unmistakable evidences of the difference He placed between the Egyptians and His people. He would cause all nations to know that although they had been bound down by hard labor and had been despised, yet He had chosen them as His peculiar people, and that He would work for their deliverance in a wonderful manner.
FH	218	7	By long association with the Egyptians and continually beholding the imposing worship of idols, the Hebrews' idea of the true and living God had become degraded.... They saw the idolatrous Egyptians enjoying an abundant prosperity, while they were continually taunted with the remark, "Your God has forsaken you." But by His mighty works, the Lord would now teach His people in regard to His character and divine authority and show them the utter worthlessness of false gods.--Signs of the Times, March 18, 1880.
------------------------Locusts, July 26
FH	219	1	Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land-all that the hail has left." Exodus 10:12.
FH	219	2	Moses... warned the monarch that... a plague of locusts would be sent, which would cover the face of the earth and eat up every green thing....
FH	219	3	The counselors of Pharaoh were appalled at this new danger. They had sustained great loss in the death of their cattle. Many of their people had been killed by the hail....
FH	219	4	Then Moses and Aaron were again summoned, and the monarch said to them, "Go, serve the Lord your God: but who are they that shall go?"
FH	219	5	The answer was, "We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord."
FH	219	6	The king was filled with rage....
FH	219	7	Does your God think that I will let you go, with your wives and children, upon so dangerous an expedition? I will not do this; only you that are men shall go to serve the Lord. This hard-hearted, oppressive king, who had sought to destroy the Israelites by hard labor, would now pretend that he had a deep interest in their welfare and a tender care for their little ones, when he only designed to keep them as a pledge of their return....
FH	219	8	Moses was commanded to stretch out his hand over the land, and an east wind blew and brought locusts: "very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such." They filled the sky till the land was darkened, and devoured every green thing on the ground and among the trees.
FH	219	9	The king sent for Moses and Aaron in haste, and said to them, "I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the Lord your God, that he may take away from me this death only."
FH	219	10	They did so, and a strong west wind arose, which carried away the locusts toward the Red Sea so that not one was left behind. But notwithstanding the king's humility while death threatened him, as soon as the plague was removed he hardened his heart and again refused to let Israel go.--Signs of the Times, March 18, 1880.
------------------------Darkness Over the Land, July 27
FH	220	1	Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt." Exodus 10:21.
FH	220	2	The people of Egypt were in despair. The scourges which had already fallen upon them seemed almost beyond endurance, and they were filled with fears for the future. The people had worshipped Pharaoh as being a representative of their god and carrying out his purposes. But notwithstanding, many were convinced that he was opposing his will to a superior Power who held all nations under His control. Suddenly a darkness settled over the land, so thick and black that it seemed a darkness which could be felt. Not only were the people deprived of light, but the atmosphere was very oppressive, so that breathing was difficult.... But all the children of Israel had light and a pure atmosphere in their dwellings....
FH	220	3	The Hebrew slaves were continually favored of God and were becoming confident that they would be delivered. The taskmasters dared not exercise their cruelty as heretofore, fearing lest the vast Hebrew host would rise up and be revenged for the abuse they had already suffered.
FH	220	4	This terrible darkness lasted three days, and during this time the busy activities of life could not be carried on. This was God's plan. He would give them time for reflection and repentance before bringing upon them the last and most dreadful scourge, the death of the firstborn. He would remove everything which would divert their attention and give them time for meditation, thus giving new evidence of His compassion and unwillingness to destroy.
FH	220	5	At the end of the three days of darkness, Pharaoh sent for Moses and said, "Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you." The answer was, "Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God; and we know not with what we must serve the Lord, until we come thither."
FH	220	6	The king was stern and determined. "Get thee from me," he cried, "take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die." The answer was, "Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more."--Signs of the Times, March 18, 1880.
------------------------Death of the Firstborn, July 28
FH	221	1	And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals. Exodus 11:5.
FH	221	2	As Moses had witnessed the wonderful works of God, his faith had been strengthened and his confidence established. God had been qualifying him, by manifestations of divine power, to stand at the head of the armies of Israel and, as a shepherd of His people, to lead them from Egypt. He was elevated above fear by his firm trust in God. This courage in the presence of the king annoyed his haughty pride, and he uttered the threat of killing the servant of God. In his blindness, he did not realize that he was contending not only against Moses and Aaron, but against the mighty Jehovah, the maker of the heavens and the earth. If Pharaoh had not been blinded by his rebellion, he would have known that He who could perform such mighty miracles as had been wrought would preserve the lives of His chosen servants, even though He should have to slay the king of Egypt. Moses had obtained the favor of the people. He was regarded as a wonderful personage, and the king would not dare to harm him.
FH	221	3	Moses had still another message for the rebellious king, and before leaving his presence he fearlessly declared the word of the Lord. "About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel."...
FH	221	4	As Moses faithfully portrayed the nature and effects of the last dreadful plague, the king became exceedingly angry. He was enraged because he could not intimidate Moses and make him tremble before the royal authority. But the servant of God leaned for support upon a mightier arm than that of any earthly monarch.--Signs of the Times, March 18, 1880.
------------------------The Passover, July 29
FH	222	1	And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses. Exodus 12:7.
FH	222	2	The Lord gave Moses special directions for the children of Israel in regard to what they must do to preserve themselves and their families from the fearful plague that He was about to send upon the Egyptians. Moses was also to give his people instructions in regard to their leaving Egypt. On that night, so terrible to the Egyptians and so glorious to the people of God, the solemn ordinance of the Passover was instituted. By the divine command, each family, alone or in connection with others, was to slay a lamb or a goat "without blemish," and with a bunch of hyssop sprinkle its blood on "the two side posts, and on the upper door post" of their houses, as a token, that the destroying angel, coming at midnight, might not enter that dwelling. They were to eat the flesh roasted, with bitter herbs, at night, as Moses said, "with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord's passover." This name was given in memory of the angel's passing by their dwellings; and such a feast was to be observed as a memorial by the people of Israel in all future generations.
FH	222	3	Leaven works secretly and is a fit emblem of hypocrisy and deceit. And on this occasion the children of Israel were to abstain from leavened bread, that their minds might be impressed with the fact that God requires truth and sincerity in His worship. The bitter herbs represented their long and bitter servitude in Egypt, also the bondage of sin. It was not enough to simply slay the lamb and sprinkle its blood upon the doorposts, but it was to be eaten, thus representing the close union which must exist between Christ and His followers.
FH	222	4	A work was required of the children of Israel to prove them and to show their faith in the great deliverance which God had been bringing about for them. In order to escape the terrible judgment about to fall upon Egypt, the token of blood must be seen upon their houses. And they were required to separate themselves and their children from the Egyptians and gather them into their own houses; for if any of the Israelites were found in the dwellings of the Egyptians, they would fall by the hand of the destroying angel. They were also directed to keep the feast of the Passover for an ordinance, that when their children should inquire what such service meant, they should relate to them their wonderful preservation in Egypt.--Signs of the Times, March 25, 1880.
------------------------Christ, the Passover Lamb, July 30
FH	223	1	And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. Exodus 12:24.
FH	223	2	There were quite a number of the Egyptians who were led to acknowledge, by the manifestations of the signs and wonders shown in Egypt, that the gods whom they had worshipped were without knowledge and had no power to save or to destroy, and that the God of the Hebrews was the only true God. They begged to be permitted to come to the houses of the Israelites with their families upon that fearful night when the angel of God should slay the firstborn of the Egyptians. The Hebrews welcomed these believing Egyptians to their homes, and the latter pledged themselves henceforth to choose the God of Israel as their God and to leave Egypt and go with the Israelites to worship the Lord.
FH	223	3	The Passover pointed backward to the deliverance of the children of Israel and was also typical, pointing forward to Christ, the Lamb of God, slain for the redemption of fallen humanity. The blood sprinkled upon the doorposts prefigured the atoning blood of Christ and also the continual dependence of sinners upon the merits of that blood for safety from the power of Satan and for final redemption. Christ ate the Passover supper with His disciples just before His crucifixion, and the same night instituted the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, to be observed in commemoration of His death.... After partaking of the passover with His disciples, Christ arose from the table and said unto them, "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer." He then performed the humiliating office of washing the feet of His disciples. Christ gave His followers the ordinance of washing feet for them to practice, which would teach them lessons of humility....
FH	223	4	The example of washing the feet of His disciples was given for the benefit of all who should believe in Him....
FH	223	5	The salvation of men and women depends upon a continual application to their hearts of the cleansing blood of Christ. Therefore, the Lord's Supper was to be observed more frequently than the annual Passover. This solemn ordinance commemorates a far greater event than the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt. That deliverance was typical of the great atonement which Christ made by the sacrifice of His own life for the final redemption of His people.--Signs of the Times, March 25, 1880.
------------------------The Repairer of the Breach, July 31
FH	224	1	You shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In. Isaiah 58:12.
FH	224	2	We have reason to rejoice that the world has not been left in solitary hopelessness. Jesus left the royal throne and His high command in heaven and became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. He took upon Himself our nature, that He might teach us how to live. In the steps which the sinner must take in conversion-repentance, faith, and baptism-He led the way. He did not repent for Himself, for He was sinless, but in behalf of sinners.
FH	224	3	Jesus became "the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in." He became an exile to earth to bring back the one lost, straying sheep, the one world ruined by sin. In Him were combined the earthly and the heavenly, the human and the divine; otherwise, He could not be a Mediator whom the sinful could approach, and through whom they could be reconciled to their Maker. But now He encircles the race in arms of sympathy and love while He grasps the throne of the Infinite, thus uniting us in our weakness and helplessness with the Source of strength and power....
FH	224	4	We are indebted to Jesus for all the blessings we enjoy. We should be deeply grateful that we are the subjects of His intercession. But Satan deceives men and women by presenting the service of Christ before them in a false light and making them think that it is a condescension on their part to accept Jesus as their Redeemer. If we viewed the Christian privilege in the right light, we should consider it the highest exaltation to be accounted a child of God, an heir of heaven, and we should rejoice that we can walk with Jesus in His humiliation....
FH	224	5	Will you leave the dark abodes of sin and woe, and seek the mansions Jesus has gone to prepare for His followers? In His name we beseech you to plant your feet firmly on the ladder and climb upward. Forsake your sins, overcome your defects of character, and cling with all your powers to Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. We may every one of us succeed. None who shall persevere will fail of everlasting life. Those who believe on Christ shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of His hand.--Signs of the Times, July 31, 1884.
------------------------God Fulfilled His Promises, August 1
FH	225	1	But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son. Galatians 4:4.
FH	225	2	Christ came to this world to reveal the Father, to give to humanity a true knowledge of God. He came to manifest the love of God. Without a knowledge of God, humanity would be eternally lost.... Life and power must be imparted by Him who made the world.
FH	225	3	The promise made in Eden-the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head-was the promise of the Son of God, through whose power alone could the counsel of God be fulfilled and the knowledge of God be imparted.
FH	225	4	God made the promise to Abraham, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." To Abraham was unfolded God's purpose for the redemption of the race.... Christ declared, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad."
FH	225	5	Jacob declared, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be."
FH	225	6	To Moses God talked face to face, as one talks with a friend. On him shone the light regarding the Savior. He said to the people, "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken."
FH	225	7	The sacrifices and offerings told their story of the coming Savior, who was to be offered up for the sins of the world. They pointed forward to a better service than theirs, when God would be worshipped in spirit and truth and in the beauty of holiness.
FH	225	8	In the Jewish service was typified the atonement demanded by the broken law. The victim, a lamb without spot or blemish, represented the world's Redeemer, who is so holy and so efficient that He can take away the sin of the world.
FH	225	9	To David was given the promise that Christ should reign forever and ever, and that of His kingdom there should be no end.
FH	225	10	The Hebrews lived in an attitude of expectancy, looking for the promised Messiah. Many died in faith, not having received the promises; but having seen them afar off, they believed and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.--Youth's Instuctor, September 13, 1900.
------------------------One Equal With God, August 2
FH	226	1	Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Philippians 2:6.
FH	226	2	The divine Son of God was the only sacrifice of sufficient value to fully satisfy the claims of God's perfect law. The angels were sinless but of less value than the law of God. They were amenable to law.... They were created beings and probationers. Upon Christ no requirements were laid. He had power to lay down His life and to take it again. No obligation was laid upon Him to undertake the work of atonement. It was a voluntary sacrifice that He made. His life was of sufficient value to rescue sinners from their fallen condition....
FH	226	3	The sacrificial offerings and the priesthood of the Jewish system were instituted to represent the death and mediatorial work of Christ. All those ceremonies had no meaning and no virtue, only as they related to Christ, who was Himself the foundation of, and who brought into existence, the entire system. The Lord had made known to Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and the ancient worthies, especially Moses, that the ceremonial system of sacrifices and the priesthood, of themselves, were not sufficient to secure the salvation of one soul.
FH	226	4	The system of sacrificial offerings pointed to Christ. Through these, the ancient worthies saw Christ and believed in Him. These were ordained of Heaven to keep before the people the fearful separation which sin had made between God and the human family, requiring a mediating ministry. Through Christ the communication which was cut off because of Adam's transgression was opened between God and the ruined sinner....
FH	226	5	The Jewish system was symbolical and was to continue until the perfect Offering should take the place of the figurative.... The people of God, from Adam's day down to the time when the Jewish nation became a separate and distinct people from the world, had been instructed in regard to the Redeemer to come, which their sacrificial offerings represented. This Savior was to be a mediator, to stand between the Most High and His people. Through this provision, a way was opened whereby the guilty sinner might find access to God through the mediation of another.... Christ alone could open the way by making an offering equal to the demands of the divine law. He was perfect and undefiled by sin. He was without spot or blemish.--The Review and Herald, December 17, 1872.
------------------------An Unprepared People, August 3
FH	227	1	And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Matthew 1:21.
FH	227	2	The Jewish nation had corrupted their religion by useless ceremonies and customs.... They were also under bondage to the Romans and required to pay tribute to them. The Jews were unreconciled to their bondage and looked forward to the triumph of their nation through the Messiah, the powerful deliverer foretold in prophecy.... They thought the Coming One would, at His appearing, assume kingly honors and by force of arms subdue their oppressors and take the throne of David. Had they, with humble minds and spiritual discernment, studied the prophecies, they would not have been found in so great error as to overlook the prophecies which pointed to His first advent in humility, and misapply those which spoke of His second coming with power and great glory.... They could not distinguish between those prophecies which pointed to the first advent of Christ and those that described His second, glorious appearing. The power and glory described by the prophets as attending His second advent, they looked for at His first advent....
FH	227	3	When the time was fulfilled, Christ was born in a stable and cradled in a manger, surrounded by the beasts of the stall.... His divine glory and majesty were veiled by humanity, and angels heralded His advent. The tidings of His birth were borne with joy to the heavenly courts, while the great men of the earth knew it not.... They looked for a mighty prince who should reign upon David's throne and whose kingdom should endure forever. Their proud and lofty ideas of the coming of the Messiah were not in accordance with the prophecies which they professed to be able to expound to the people....
FH	227	4	In heaven it was understood that the time had come for the advent of Christ to the world, and angels leave glory to witness His reception by those He came to bless and save. They had witnessed His glory in heaven, and they anticipate that He will be received with honor in accordance with His character and the dignity of His mission.... The angels from heaven behold with astonishment the indifference of the people and their ignorance in regard to the advent of the Prince of life.--The Review and Herald, December 17, 1872.
------------------------The Joyful News, August 4
FH	228	1	Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them.... Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people." Luke 2:8-10.
FH	228	2	Angels behold the weary travelers, Joseph and Mary, making their way to the city of David to be taxed, according to the decree of Caesar Augustus. Here, in the providence of God, Joseph and Mary had been brought, for this was the place prophecy had predicted that Christ should be born. They seek a place of rest at the inn, but are turned away because there is no room. The wealthy and honorable have been welcomed and find refreshment and room, while these weary travelers are compelled to seek refuge in a coarse building which shelters the dumb beasts.
FH	228	3	Here the Savior of the world is born. The Majesty of glory, who filled all heaven with admiration and splendor, is humiliated to a bed in a manger. In heaven He was surrounded by holy angels, but now His companions are the beasts of the stall. What humiliation is this!...
FH	228	4	As there are none among the children of humanity to herald the advent of the Messiah, angels must now do that work which it was the honored privilege of human beings to do....
FH	228	5	Humble shepherds, who are guarding their flocks by night, are the ones who joyfully receive their testimony.... They do not at first discern the myriads of angels that are congregated in the heavens. The brightness and glory from the heavenly host illuminate and glorify the entire plain....
FH	228	6	The shepherds are filled with joy, and as the bright glory disappears and the angels return to heaven, they are all aglow with the glad tidings and hasten in search of the Savior. They find the infant Redeemer, as the celestial messengers had testified, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the narrow confines of a manger.
FH	228	7	The events which had but just transpired have made indelible impressions upon their minds and hearts, and they are filled with amazement, love, and gratitude for the great condescension of God to the human family in sending His Son into the world.--The Review and Herald, December 17, 1872.
------------------------Where His Voice Was Heard, August 5
FH	229	1	He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.... He will bring forth justice for truth. Isaiah 42:2, 3.
FH	229	2	From His childhood Jesus conformed His life strictly to the Jewish laws. He manifested great wisdom in His youth. The grace and power of God were upon Him. The word of the Lord, by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, describes the office and work of Christ and shows the sheltering care of God over His Son in His mission to earth, that the relentless hatred of men and women, inspired by Satan, should not be permitted to thwart the design of the great plan of salvation....
FH	229	3	The voice of Christ was not heard in the street in noisy contention with those who were opposed to His doctrine. Neither was His voice heard in the street in prayer to His Father.... His voice was not heard in joyful mirth. His voice was not raised to exalt Himself and to gain the applause and flattery of sinners. When engaged in teaching, He withdrew His disciples away from the noise and confusion of the busy city to some retired place more in harmony with the lessons of humility, piety, and virtue which He would impress upon their minds. He shunned human praise and preferred solitude and peaceful retirement to the noise and confusion of mortal life. His voice was often heard in earnest, prevailing intercessions to His Father, yet for these exercises He chose the lonely mountain and frequently spent whole nights in prayer for strength to sustain Him under the temptations He should meet and to accomplish the important work He came to do for the salvation of humanity. His petitions were earnest and mingled with strong cries and tears. And notwithstanding the labor of soul during the night, He ceased not His labor through the day....
FH	229	4	The chief priests and scribes and elders loved to pray in the most public places-not only in the crowded synagogues, but in the corners of the streets, that they might be seen by all and praised for their devotion and piety. Their acts of charity were done in the most public manner and for the purpose of calling the attention of the people to themselves. Their voices were indeed heard in the streets, not only in exalting themselves but in contention with those who differed with them in doctrine.... The Lord, through His faithful prophet, shows the life of Christ in marked contrast to the hypocritical chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees.--The Review and Herald, December 31, 1872.
------------------------Christ as a Child, August 6
FH	230	1	He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. John 1:10.
FH	230	2	The apocrypha of the New Testament attempts to supply the silence of the Scriptures in reference to the early life of Christ by giving a fancy [fanciful] sketch of His childhood years. These writers relate wonderful incidents and miracles which characterized His childhood and distinguished Him from other children. They relate fictitious tales and frivolous miracles which they say He wrought, attributing to Christ the senseless and needless display of His divine power and falsifying His character by attributing to Him acts of revenge and deeds of mischief which were cruel and ridiculous.
FH	230	3	In what marked contrast is the history of Christ as recorded by the evangelists, which is beautiful in its natural simplicity, with these unmeaning stories and fictitious tales. They are not at all in harmony with His character. They are more after the order of the novels that are written, which have no foundation in truth, but the characters delineated are of fancy creating.
FH	230	4	The life of Christ was distinguished from the generality of children. His strength of moral character and His firmness ever led Him to be true to His sense of duty and to adhere to the principles of right, from which no motive, however powerful, could move Him. Money or pleasure, applause or censure, could not purchase or flatter Him to consent to a wrong action. He was strong to resist temptation, wise to discover evil, and firm to abide faithful to His convictions....
FH	230	5	His wisdom was great, but it was childlike, and increased with His years. His childhood possessed peculiar gentleness and marked loveliness. His character was full of beauty and unsullied perfection....
FH	230	6	The path of obedience is exalted by the Majesty of heaven coming to the earth and condescending Himself to become a little child and living simply and naturally as children should live, submitting to restraint and privation, giving youth an example of faithful industry, showing them by His own life that body and soul are in harmony with natural laws....
FH	230	7	Although children live in a fallen world, they need not be corrupted by vice. They may be happy and through the merits of Christ attain heaven at last.--Youth's Instructor, April 1872.
------------------------The Father's Business, August 7
FH	231	1	Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business? Luke 2:49.
FH	231	2	The parents of Jesus yearly visited Jerusalem, in accordance with the Jewish law. Their son Jesus, then twelve years old, accompanied them. In returning to their home, after they had gone a day's journey, their anxiety was aroused as they missed Jesus.... They hastened back to Jerusalem, their hearts heavy with sorrow....
FH	231	3	While the parents of Christ were in search of Him, they saw large numbers flocking to the temple, and as they entered it, the well-known voice of their Son arrested their attention. They could not get sight of Him for the crowd, but they knew that they were not mistaken, for no voice was like His, marked with solemn melody. The parents gazed in astonishment at the scene. Their Son, in the midst of the grave and learned doctors and scribes, was giving evidence of superior knowledge by His discreet questions and answers. His parents were gratified to see Him thus honored. But the mother could not forget the grief and anxiety she had suffered because of His tarry at Jerusalem, and she, in a reproving manner, inquired why He had thus dealt with them, relating her fears and sorrow on His account.
FH	231	4	Said Jesus, "How is it that ye sought me?" This pointed question was to lead them to see that if they had been mindful of their duty, they would not have left Jerusalem without Him. He then adds, "Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business?" While they had been unmindful of the responsible charge intrusted to them, Jesus was engaged in the work of His Father. Mary knew that Christ did not refer to His earthly father, Joseph, but to Jehovah....
FH	231	5	It was His choice to return from Jerusalem with His parents alone, for in being retired, His father and mother would have more time for reflection and for meditation upon the prophecies which referred to His future sufferings and death.... After the celebration of the Passover, they sought Him sorrowing for three days. When He should be slain for the sins of the world, He would be separated from them, lost to them, for three days. But after that, He would reveal Himself to them, and be found of them, and their faith rely upon Him as the Redeemer of the fallen race, the advocate with the Father in their behalf.--The Review and Herald, December 31, 1872.
------------------------An Example of Love, August 8
FH	232	1	My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it. Luke 8:21.
FH	232	2	Jesus loved children and ever influenced them for good. He cared for the poor and needy even in His childhood. In every gentle, tender, and submissive way He sought to please those with whom He came in contact; but though so gentle and submissive, no one could lead Him to do anything that was contrary to the Word of God. Some admired His perfection of character and often sought to be with Him, but others who regarded human sayings more than the Word of God turned away from Him and avoided His company....
FH	232	3	As Jesus looked upon the offerings that were brought as a sacrifice to the temple, the Holy Spirit taught Him that His life was to be sacrificed for the life of the world.... From His earliest years He was guarded by heavenly angels, yet His life was one long struggle against the powers of darkness. Satan sought in every way to tempt and try Him. He caused people to misunderstand His words so that they might not receive the salvation He came to bring them....
FH	232	4	He was faithful in obeying the commands of God, and this made Him very different from those around Him, who disregarded the Word of God. His stainless life was a rebuke, and many avoided His presence, but there were some who sought to be with Him because they felt at peace where He was....
FH	232	5	He did not fail nor become discouraged. He lived above the difficulties of His life, as if in the light of God's countenance. He bore insult patiently and in His human nature became an example for all children and youth.
FH	232	6	Christ showed the greatest respect and love for His mother. Though she often talked with Him and sought to have Him do as His brethren desired Him to do, He never showed her the least lack of devotion....
FH	232	7	Mary had felt greatly troubled when the priests and rulers came to her to complain about Jesus, but peace and confidence came to her troubled heart as her Son showed her what the Scriptures said about His practices. At times she wavered between Jesus and His brethren, who did not believe that He was sent of God; but she saw enough to show her that His was a divine character.--Youth's Instructor, December 12, 1895.
------------------------The Youthful Jesus, August 9
FH	233	1	And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. Luke 2:52.
FH	233	2	Before He came to this earth, Jesus was a great king in heaven. He was as great as God, and yet He loved the poor people of this earth so much that He was willing to lay aside His kingly crown, His beautiful robe, and come to this earth as one of the human family.... He could have come to earth in such beauty that He would have been unlike the children of humanity.... He could have come in such a way as to charm those who looked upon Him; but this was not the way that God planned He should come among us. He was to be like those who belonged to the human family and to the Jewish race. His features were to be like those of other human beings, and He was not to have such beauty of person as to make people point Him out as different from others.... He had come to take our place, to pledge Himself in our behalf, to pay the debt that sinners owed. He was to live a pure life on the earth and show that Satan had told a falsehood when he claimed that the human family belonged to him forever, and that God could not take them out of his hands.
FH	233	3	Mankind first beheld Christ as a babe, as a child. His parents were very poor, and He had nothing in this earth save that which the poor have. He passed through all the trials that the poor and lowly pass through from babyhood to childhood, from youth to adulthood....
FH	233	4	In His youth He worked with His father at the carpenter's trade and thus showed that there is nothing of which to be ashamed in work. Though He was the king of heaven, He yet worked at a humble trade and thus rebuked all idleness in human beings.... Those who are idle do not follow the example that Christ has given, for from His childhood He was a pattern of obedience and industry. He was as a pleasant sunbeam in the home circle. Faithfully and cheerfully He acted His part, doing the humble duties that He was called to do in His lowly life. Christ became one with us in order that He might do us good.... The world's Redeemer did not live a life of selfish ease and pleasure. He did not choose to be the son of a rich man or to be in a position where people would praise and flatter Him. He passed through the hardships of those who toil for a living, and He could comfort all those who have to work at some humble trade. The story of His life of toil is written so that we may receive comfort out of it.--Youth's Instructor, November 21, 1895.
------------------------A Model for the Young, August 10
FH	234	1	And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom. Luke 2:40.
FH	234	2	The Jewish people had wrong ideas about the Messiah and His work.... They were looking for the glory that will be seen when Christ comes the second time, and did not study the Bible so that they could know that He was to come the first time in a very lowly way. But Jesus asked questions about the scriptures that pointed to His first appearing, that flashed light into the minds of those who were willing to receive the truth. Before He had come to the earth, He had given these prophecies to His servants who had written them down, and now as He studied the Bible, the Holy Spirit brought these things to His mind and showed Him the great work that He was to do in the earth. As He grew in knowledge, He imparted knowledge to others. But though He was wiser than the learned men, He did not become proud or feel that He was above doing the most humble toil. He took His share of the burden, with His father, mother, and brethren, and toiled to help support the family. Though the doctors had been amazed at His wisdom, He obeyed His parents and worked with His own hands as any toiler would work. It is stated of Jesus that as He grew older He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man."
FH	234	3	The understanding that He obtained from day to day, that showed Him how wonderful should be His mission in the world, did not lead Him to neglect the humblest duties. He cheerfully took up the work that children and youth who dwell in humble households are called upon to do, for He knew what it was to be pressed by poverty. He understands the temptations of children, for He bore their sorrows and trials. Firm and steadfast was His purpose to do the right; though others tried to lead Him to do evil, He yet never did wrong and would not turn away in the least from the path of truth and right. He always obeyed His parents and did every duty that lay in His path. But His childhood and youth were anything but smooth and joyous. His spotless life aroused the envy and jealousy of His brethren, for they did not believe on Him. They were annoyed because He did not act in all things as they did and would not become one with them in doing evil. In His home life He was cheerful but never boisterous. He ever seemed like one who was seeking to learn. He took great delight in nature, and God was His teacher.--Youth's Instuctor, November 28, 1895.
------------------------Living the Truth, August 11
FH	235	1	The grace of God was upon Him. Luke 2:40.
FH	235	2	Even in His childhood Jesus saw that the people did not live in the way that the Bible pointed out as the way for them to live. He studied the Bible and followed the simple habits and ways that the Word of God directs; and when people found fault with Him because He was so lowly and simple, He pointed them to the Word of God. His brothers told Him that He thought Himself much better than they were, and reproved Him for setting Himself up above the priests and rulers of the people. Jesus knew that if He obeyed the Word of God, He would not find rest and peace in the home circle.
FH	235	3	As He grew in knowledge, He knew that great errors were increasing among His people and that because they followed human commands instead of obeying the commands of God, simplicity and truth and true piety were becoming lost in the earth. He saw the people going through forms and ceremonies in their worship of God and passing by the sacred truths that made their service of value. He knew that their faithless services could not do them any good and would not bring them peace or rest. They could not know what it was to have freedom of spirit when they did not serve God in truth.
FH	235	4	Jesus did not always silently look upon these worthless services but sometimes told the people where they were going wrong. Because He was so quick to see what was false and what was true, His brethren were greatly annoyed at Him, for they said that whatever the priest taught ought to be considered as sacred as a command of God. But Jesus taught both by His words and by His example that men and women ought to worship God just as He has directed them to worship Him and not follow the ceremonies that human teachers have said ought to be followed....
FH	235	5	The priests and the Pharisees also were annoyed because this child would not accept their human inventions, maxims, and traditions. They thought that He showed great disrespect to their religion and to the rabbis who had commanded these services. He told them that He would heed every word that came from the mouth of God and that they must show Him from the Bible where He was in error. He pointed out to them the fact that they were placing the word of human beings above the Word of God and causing people to show disrespect to God through obeying these human commandments.--Youth's Instructor, December 5, 1895.
------------------------Scripture Was Jesus' Guide, August 12
FH	236	1	And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. Luke 2:47.
FH	236	2	They [the rabbis] knew that He was far in advance of them in spiritual understanding and that He lived a blameless life, yet they were angry with Him because He would not violate His conscience by obeying their dictates. Failing to convince Him that He ought to look upon human tradition as sacred, they came to Joseph and Mary and complained that Jesus was taking a wrong course in regard to their customs and traditions. Jesus knew what it was to have His family divided against Him on account of His religious faith. He loved peace; He craved the love and confidence of the members of His family; but He knew what it was to have them withdraw their affection from Him. He suffered rebuke and censure because He took a straightforward course and would not do evil because others did evil, but was true to the commandments of Jehovah. His brethren rebuked Him because He stood aloof from the ceremonies that were taught by the rabbis, for they regarded the word of human beings more highly than the word of God because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
FH	236	3	Jesus made the Scriptures His constant study; and when the scribes and Pharisees tried to make Him accept their doctrines, they found Him ready to meet them with the Word of God, and they could do nothing to convince Him that they were right. He seemed to know the Scriptures from beginning to end and repeated them in such a way that their true meaning shone out.... They were angry that this child should dare to question their word, when it was their calling to study and explain the Scriptures....
FH	236	4	His brethren threatened Him and sought to compel Him to take a wrong course, but He passed on, making the Scriptures His guide. From the time His parents found Him in the temple asking and answering questions among the doctors, they could not understand His course of action. Quiet and gentle, He seemed as one who was set apart. Whenever He could, He went out alone into the fields and on the mountainsides to commune with the God of nature. When His work was done, He wandered by the lakeside, among the trees of the forest, and in the green valleys where He could think about God and lift His soul to heaven in prayer. After a season thus spent, He would return to His home to take up again the humble duties of His life and to give to all an example of patient labor.--Youth's Instructor, December 5, 1895.
------------------------Jesus Was From Nazareth, August 13
FH	237	1	Can anything good come out of Nazareth? John 1:46.
FH	237	2	The first thirty years of the life of Christ were passed in the obscure village of Nazareth. The inhabitants of this village were proverbial for their wickedness, hence the inquiry of Nathanael, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" The evangelists say but very little in regard to the early life of Christ. With the exception of a brief account of His accompanying His parents to Jerusalem, we have the simple statement only, "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him."...
FH	237	3	Children and youth are frequently situated where their surroundings are not favorable to a Christian life, and they quite readily yield to temptations and plead as an excuse for pursuing a course of sin that their surroundings are unfavorable....
FH	237	4	Christ placed His feet in the most uneven path that children and youth will ever be called to travel. He did not have allotted to Him a life of affluence and indolence. His parents were poor and dependent upon their daily toil for sustenance; therefore the life of Christ was one of poverty, self-denial, and privation. He shared with His parents their life of diligent industry.
FH	237	5	None will ever be called to perfect Christian character under more unfavorable circumstances than that of our Savior. The fact that Christ lived thirty years in Nazareth, from which many thought it a wonder if any good thing could come, is a rebuke to the youth who consider that their religious character must conform to circumstances. If the surroundings of youth are unpleasant and positively bad, many make this an excuse for not perfecting Christian character. The example of Christ would rebuke the idea that His followers are dependent upon place, fortune, or prosperity in order to live blameless lives. Christ would teach them that their faithfulness would make any place, or position, where the providence of God called them, honorable, however humble....
FH	237	6	The trials and privations of which so many youth complain, Christ endured without murmuring. And this discipline is the very experience the youth need, which will give firmness to their character and make them like Christ, strong in spirit to resist temptation.... Through daily prayer to God they will have wisdom and grace from Him to bear the conflicts and stern realities of life and come off victorious.--Youth's Instructor, March 1872.
------------------------By Words and by Example, August 14
FH	238	1	And the common people heard Him gladly. Mark 12:37.
FH	238	2	Christ passed no human being by as worthless and hopeless, but sought to apply the saving remedy to every soul who needed help. Wherever He was found, He had a lesson to present that was the right one for the time and circumstance. He sought to inspire with hope the most rough and unpromising, setting before them the idea that they might become blameless and harmless and attain a character that would be Christlike. They could be the children of God and shine as lights in the world, even though they lived among evil people. This was the reason that so many heard Him gladly. From His very childhood He worked for others, letting His light shine amid the moral darkness of the world. In bearing burdens in His home life and in laboring in more public fields, He showed everyone what the character of God is. He encouraged everything that had a bearing on the real interests of life, but He did not encourage the youth in dreaming of what would be in the future. He taught them by His words and by His example that the future would be decided by the way in which they spent the present. Our destiny is marked out by our own course of action. Those who cherish that which is right, who work out God's plan though it be in a narrow sphere of action, and who do right because it is right will find wider fields of usefulness....
FH	238	3	It is our privilege now to act a part in the work and mission of Christ. We may be laborers together with Him. In whatever work we are called to engage, we may work with Christ. He is doing all that He can to set us free, to make our lives that seem so cramped and narrow reach out to bless and help others. He would have us understand that we are held responsible to do good, and have us realize that in shunning our work we are bringing loss upon ourselves....
FH	238	4	Jesus carried the burden of the salvation of the human family upon His heart. He knew that unless men and women would receive Him and become changed in purpose and life, they would be eternally lost. This was the burden of His soul, and He was alone in carrying this load. No one knew how heavy was the weight that rested upon His heart; but from His youth He was filled with a deep longing to be a lamp in the world, and He purposed that His life should be "the light of the world." This He was, and that light still shines to all who are in darkness. Let us walk in the light which He has given.--Youth's Instructor, January 2, 1896.
------------------------Overcoming As Christ Overcame, August 15
FH	239	1	For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
FH	239	2	As Christ's ministry was about to begin, He received baptism at the hands of John. Coming up out of the water, He bowed on the banks of the Jordan and offered to the Father such a prayer as heaven had never before listened to.... The heavens were opened, and a dove, in appearance like burnished gold, rested upon Jesus; and from the lips of the infinite God were heard the words, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
FH	239	3	This visible answer to the prayer of God's Son is of deep significance to us....
FH	239	4	All may find rest and peace and assurance in sending their prayers to God in the name of His dear Son. As the heavens were open to Christ's prayer, so they will be opened to our prayers....
FH	239	5	From the Jordan, Jesus was led into the wilderness of temptation. "And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread."...
FH	239	6	Adam had failed on the point of appetite, and Christ must conquer here. The power that rested upon Him came directly from the Father, and He must not exercise it in His own behalf.... He met and resisted the enemy in the strength of a "Thus saith the Lord." "Man shall not live by bread alone," He said, "but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."...
FH	239	7	Christ's experience is for our benefit. His example in overcoming appetite points out the way for those to overcome who would be His followers.
FH	239	8	Christ was suffering as the members of the human family suffer under temptation, but it was not the will of God that He should exercise His divine power in His own behalf. Had He not stood as our representative, Christ's innocence would have exempted Him from all this anguish; but it was because of His innocence that He felt so keenly the assaults of Satan. All the suffering that is the result of sin was poured into the bosom of the sinless Son of God. Satan was bruising the heel of Christ, but every pang endured by Christ, every grief, every disquietude, was fulfilling the great plan of our redemption. Every blow inflicted by the enemy was rebounding on himself. Christ was bruising the serpent's head.--Youth's Instructor, December 21, 1899.
------------------------Christ, the Way to Victory, August 16
FH	240	1	Away with you, Satan! For it is written. Matthew 4:10.
FH	240	2	Satan had been defeated in the first temptation. He next took Christ to the pinnacle of the temple at Jerusalem and asked Him to prove His Sonship to God by throwing Himself down from the dizzy height. "If thou be the Son of God," he said, "cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." But to do this would be presumption on the part of Christ, and He would not yield. "It is written again," He replied, "thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Again the tempter was baffled. Christ was victor still.
FH	240	3	Presumption is a common temptation, and when Satan assails us with this, he gains the victory almost every time. Those who claim to be enlisted in the warfare against evil frequently plunge without thought into temptation from which it would require a miracle to bring them forth unsullied. God's precious promises are not given to strengthen us in a presumptuous course or to rely upon when we rush needlessly into danger. The Lord requires us to move with a humble dependence upon His guidance. "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." In God is our prosperity and our life.... "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass." As children of God, we are to maintain a consistent Christian character.
FH	240	4	While you pray... that you may not be led into temptation, remember that your work does not end with prayer. As far as possible you must answer your own prayers by resisting temptation. Ask Jesus to do for you that which you cannot do for yourself. With God's Word for our guide and Jesus for our teacher, we need not be ignorant of God's requirements or of Satan's devices.
FH	240	5	"Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." Then divinity flashed through humanity. "Get thee hence, Satan," Christ said, "for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Satan did not then present another temptation. He left the presence of Christ a conquered foe.--Youth's Instructor, December 21, 1899.
------------------------Rejected, August 17
FH	241	1	He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. John 1:11.
FH	241	2	At the first advent of Christ, which was in apparent obscurity, the angels of heaven could scarcely be restrained from pouring forth their glories to grace the birth of the Son of God. The glorious manifestations of heaven were not entirely restrained. The wonderful event was not without some attestations of a divine character. That birth, so little prepared for on earth, was celebrated in the heavenly courts with praise and thanksgiving in behalf of sinners....
FH	241	3	He who came in human flesh and submitted to a life of humiliation was the Majesty of heaven, the Prince of life, and yet the wise men of the earth, the princes and rulers, and even His own nation, knew Him not. They did not recognize Him as the long-looked-for Messiah. Notwithstanding mighty miracles did show forth themselves in Him, notwithstanding He opened the eyes of the blind and raised the dead to life, Christ suffered the hatred and abuse of the people He came to bless. They regarded Him as a sinner and accused Him of casting out devils through the prince of devils. The circumstances of His birth were mysterious and were remarked upon by the rulers. They charged Him with being born in sin. The Prince of heaven was insulted because of the corrupt minds and the sinful, blasphemous unbelief of His people. What a baleful thing is unbelief! It originated with the first great apostate, and to what fearful lengths it will lead all who enter upon its path is seen in the Jews' rejection of their Messiah....
FH	241	4	The leaders in Israel professed to understand the prophecies, but they had received false ideas in regard to the manner of Christ's coming....
FH	241	5	The very One who died for sinners is to judge them in the last day; for the Father "hath committed all judgment unto the Son" and "hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man."
FH	241	6	What a day that will be, when those who rejected Christ will look upon Him whom their sins have pierced. They will then know that He proffered them all heaven if they would but stand by His side as obedient children; that He paid an infinite price for their redemption; but that they would not accept freedom from the galling slavery of sin. They chose to stand under the black banner of rebellion to the close of mercy's hour.--The Review and Herald, September 5, 1899.
------------------------Revealing the Father, August 18
FH	242	1	He who has seen Me has seen the Father. John 14:9.
FH	242	2	The fact that the people were more interested in Christ's teaching than they were in the dry, tedious arguments of the Jewish teachers maddened the scribes and Pharisees. These teachers spoke with uncertainty, interpreting the Scriptures to mean one thing and then another. This left the people in great confusion. But as they listened to Jesus, their hearts were warmed and comforted. He presented God as a loving Father, not as an avenging judge. He drew all, high and low, rich and poor, to see God in His true character, leading them to call Him by the endearing name, "Our Father."
FH	242	3	By loving words and by works of mercy, Christ bore down old traditions and man-made commandments and presented the love of the Father in its exhaustless fullness. His calm, earnest, musical voice fell like balm on the wounded spirit. He was revealing the image of God mirrored in Himself. He presented to His hearers the truths of the prophecies, separating them from the obscure interpretations which the scribes and Pharisees had attached to them. He scattered the heavenly grains of truth wherever He went.
FH	242	4	Determined to hear what Christ said to His disciples, the scribes and Pharisees kept spies on His track. These spies noted His words and reported them to the Jewish authorities, who, when they heard them, were almost beside themselves with ill-concealed rage, which they interpreted to be zeal for God.
FH	242	5	As the members of the Sanhedrin counseled together, there were not wanting men with strong, determined prejudices who advised that this man who claimed so much be at once put down....
FH	242	6	They saw that Christ's influence over the people was fast becoming greater than theirs. They longed to crush Him for daring to make their traditions of none effect, but they feared to move openly because of the people. They thought that if they worked secretly, watching His words and actions, they would soon find such accusations against Him that He could be put on trial for His life....
FH	242	7	Christ was giving the rulers of Israel light which would make them inexcusable. Nothing was left undone that could be done to convince them of their error.--The Review and Herald, March 5, 1901.
------------------------Blinded by Prejudice, August 19
FH	243	1	But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. John 5:38.
FH	243	2	As at different times during Christ's work divinity flashed through humanity and He stood transfigured before the people, the Jewish leaders were deeply impressed. But as they talked it over with one another, their unbelief strengthened, and the evidence that should have convinced them was rejected. The strongest evidence was no evidence to them, while the weakest, most superficial arguments, if against the truth which the Savior brought, were sound in their estimation. They had started upon a path leading to eternal ruin....
FH	243	3	Christ saw that the Jewish teachers misinterpreted the Word of God, and He urged upon them a more diligent study of its precepts. In Him were fast being fulfilled the types and shadows of the Jewish economy. If they searched the Scriptures as they should, they would find that He claimed nothing which was not rightfully His.
FH	243	4	Had the Jews searched God's Word as they should, they would have seen that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. But they searched with proud, selfish ambition as a guide, and they found a Messiah of their own imagination. Therefore when the Savior came, a humble man, bringing to naught by His teaching long-established theories and traditions, presenting truth entirely opposite to their practices, they said, Who is this invader that dares to set aside our authority? Christ did not come as they had expected; therefore they refused to receive Him and called Him a deceiver and an impostor. Instead of listening to Him that they might learn the truth, they listened with evil intent, that they might find something over which to cavil. And when once they had set their feet in the path of the great leader in rebellion, it was an easy matter for Satan to strengthen them in opposition. Christ's wonderful works, which God meant to be heaven-sent evidence to them, Satan caused them to interpret against Him. The more marked the way in which God spoke to them by His works of mercy and love, the more confirmed did they become in their resistance. Blinded by prejudice, they refused to acknowledge that Jesus is divine....
FH	243	5	He was God in human flesh, and He could not but work the works of God.--The Review and Herald, March 26, 1901.
------------------------Act When Opportunity Knocks, August 20
FH	244	1	Do you want to be made well? John 5:6.
FH	244	2	The healing of the sick man at Bethesda has a lesson of priceless worth to every Christian, a lesson of solemn and fearful import to the unbelieving and the skeptical. As the paralytic lay beside the pool, helpless and well-nigh hopeless, Jesus drew near and asked, in tones of pity, "Wilt thou be made whole?" Be made whole! This had been the burden of his desire and prayers for long, weary years. With trembling eagerness he told the story of his efforts and disappointments. No friend was at hand to bear him with sturdy arm into the healing fountain. His agonizing appeals for help fell unheeded; all around him were those who sought for their own loved ones the coveted boon. When at the troubling of the waters he painfully sought to reach the pool, another would be hurried down before him.
FH	244	3	Jesus looked upon the sufferer and said, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." There was no assurance of divine help, no manifestation of miraculous power. What marvel, had the man made answer, "It is impossible! How can I be expected now to use my limbs that have not obeyed my will for thirty-eight years?" From a merely human standpoint, such reasoning would appear consistent. The sufferer might have given place to doubt and thus have permitted that God-given opportunity to pass unimproved. But no; without a question he seized his only chance. As he attempted to do what Christ had commanded, strength and vigor came; he was made whole.
FH	244	4	Would you, doubting reader, receive the blessing of the Lord? Cease to question His word and distrust His promises. Obey the Savior's bidding, and you will receive strength. If you hesitate, to enter into a discussion with Satan or to consider the difficulties and improbabilities, your opportunity will pass, perhaps never to return.
FH	244	5	The miracle at Bethesda should have convinced all beholders that Jesus is the Son of God....
FH	244	6	At Christ's command, the paralytic had borne away the simple mat on which he had lain; and now Satan, ever ready with his insinuations, suggested that this act might be construed into a violation of the Sabbath.... It was hoped that a controversy on this point would destroy the faith inspired in some hearts by our Savior's act of healing.--Signs of the Times, June 8, 1882.
------------------------Abundant Evidence for Faith, August 21
FH	245	1	The man... told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. John 5:15.
FH	245	2	As the restored one went on his way with quick, elastic step, his pulses bounding with the vigor of renewed health, his countenance glowing with hope and joy, he was met by the Pharisees, who told him, with an air of great sanctity, that it was not lawful to carry his bed on the Sabbath day. There was no rejoicing at the deliverance of that long-imprisoned captive, no grateful praise that One was among them who could heal all manner of disease. Their traditions had been disregarded, and this closed their eyes to all the evidence of divine power.
FH	245	3	Bigoted and self-righteous, they would not admit that they could have misapprehended the true design of the Sabbath. Instead of criticizing themselves, they chose to condemn Christ. We meet with people of the same spirit today, who are blinded by error and yet flatter themselves that they are right, and all who differ from them are in the wrong.
FH	245	4	The man on whom the miracle had been wrought entered into no controversy with his accusers. He simply answered, "He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk."...
FH	245	5	When the Jews were informed that it was Jesus of Nazareth who had performed the miracle of healing, they openly sought to put Him to death, "because he had done these things on the sabbath day." These pretentious formalists were so full of zeal for their own traditions that to sustain them they were ready to violate the law of God!
FH	245	6	To their charges, Jesus replied calmly,... "I am working in perfect harmony with my Father." This answer furnished another pretext to condemn Him. Murder was in their hearts, and they waited only for a plausible excuse to take His life. But Jesus steadily continues to assert His true position. "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."...
FH	245	7	God works through whom He will by ways and means of His own choosing, but there are ever some to act the part of the criticizing Pharisees....
FH	245	8	God designs that all shall believe, not because there is no possibility of doubt, but because there is abundant evidence for faith.--Signs of the Times, June 8, 1882.
------------------------The Blind Man Healed, August 22
FH	246	1	Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. John 9:3.
FH	246	2	"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?"...
FH	246	3	In the question the disciples asked Jesus, they showed that they thought all disease and suffering the result of sin. This is indeed truth, but Jesus showed that it was an error to suppose that everyone who was a great sufferer was also a great sinner. While He corrected their errors, He spat upon the ground and made clay of the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay and said unto him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent)," and he went his way, and came seeing. Jesus answered the question the disciples put to Him in a practical way, and in the way He usually answered questions put to Him from curiosity. The disciples were not called upon to discuss the question of who had sinned or not sinned but to understand the power of God, His mercy and compassion, in giving sight to the blind. It was that all might be convinced that there was no healing virtue in the clay or in the pool wherein he was sent to wash, but that virtue was in Christ....
FH	246	4	The friends and neighbors of the young man who had been healed looked upon him with doubt, for when his eyes were opened, his countenance had been changed and brightened, and made him appear like another man. From one to another the question was passed, "Is it he?" And some said, "It is like him," but he who had received the great blessing settled the controversy by saying, "I am he." He then told them of Jesus and by what means Jesus had healed him, and they inquired, "Where is he? He said, I know not. They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.... Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them."...
FH	246	5	They knew not that it was He who had made the Sabbath, who knew all its obligations, who had healed the man.--Signs of the Times, October 23, 1893.
------------------------The Water of Life, August 23
FH	247	1	A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." John 4:7.
FH	247	2	As the world's Redeemer, the Son of God took upon Him our human nature.... Hungry and thirsty, He tarried to rest at Jacob's well, near the city of Sychar, while His disciples went to buy food in the city....
FH	247	3	As Jesus sat by the well side, the cool, refreshing water, so near and yet so inaccessible to Him, only increased His thirst. He had neither rope nor bucket with which to draw, and He waited until someone should come to the well. He might have performed a miracle and thus have obtained a draft from the well, had He wished, but this was not God's plan....
FH	247	4	"There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink." The woman answered, "How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." Christ was near to the woman of Samaria, and she knew Him not. She was thirsting for the truth, yet knew not that He, the Truth, was beside her and was able to enlighten her. And today there are thirsting souls sitting close by the living fountain. But they are looking far away from the well that contains the refreshing water, and, though told that the water is close by, they will not believe.
FH	247	5	Jesus answered the woman, saying, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?" Yes, Jesus could have answered, the One who is speaking to you is the only begotten Son of God; I am greater than your father Jacob, for before Abraham was, I am. But He made answer, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."...
FH	247	6	Christ was just as truly the water of life to Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, and all who received His instruction then as He is at the present time to those who ask of Him the refreshing draft.--Signs of the Times, April 22, 1897.
------------------------Quenching the Soul's Thirst, August 24
FH	248	1	Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. John 4:15.
FH	248	2	The woman was so astonished at His words that she rested her pitcher on the well, and, forgetting the thirst of the stranger and His request to give Him to drink, forgetting her errand to the well, she was lost in her earnest desire to hear every word....
FH	248	3	Jesus now abruptly changed the subject of conversation and bade the woman call her husband. She frankly replied, "I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly."
FH	248	4	As the past of her life was spread out before her, the listener trembled. Conviction of sin was awakened. She said, "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet." And then, in order to change the conversation to some other subject, she endeavored to lead Christ into a controversy upon their religious differences....
FH	248	5	The conviction of the Spirit of God had come to the heart of the Samaritan woman.... No teaching that she had hitherto heard had aroused her moral nature and awakened her to a sense of her higher need.
FH	248	6	Christ reads beneath the surface, and He revealed to the woman of Samaria her soul thirst, which the water from the well of Sychar could never satisfy....
FH	248	7	The natural thirst of the woman of Samaria had led her to a thirst of soul for the water of life....
FH	248	8	Forgetting the errand that had brought her to the well, the woman left her water pot and went into the city, saying to all whom she met, "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?"...
FH	248	9	Earth's cisterns will often be emptied, its pools become dry; but in Christ there is a living spring from which we may continually draw.... There is no danger of exhausting the supply; for Christ is the inexhaustible well-spring of truth. He has been the fountain of living water ever since the fall of Adam. He says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." And "whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."--Signs of the Times, April 22, 1897.
------------------------Feeding the 5,000, August 25
FH	249	1	You give them something to eat. Matthew 14:16.
FH	249	2	The disciples thought they had withdrawn where they would not be discovered, but as soon as the multitude missed the divine Teacher, they inquired, "Where is he?" Some among them had noticed the direction in which Christ and His disciples had gone, and soon an immense crowd was looking for Christ. Fresh additions were made to this number until the congregation was composed of no less than five thousand men, besides women and children.
FH	249	3	From the hillside Jesus looked upon the moving multitude, and His great heart of love and compassion was stirred with sympathy. Interrupted as He was and robbed of His rest, He was not impatient.... Leaving His mountain retreat, He found a convenient place where He could minister to their spiritual destitution....
FH	249	4	The people listened to the words of mercy flowing so freely from the lips of the Son of God. They heard the gracious words, so simple and so plain that they were as the balm of Gilead to their souls. The healing of His divine hand brought gladness and life to the dying and ease and health to those suffering with disease. The day seemed to them like heaven upon earth, and they were utterly unconscious of how long it was since they had eaten anything.
FH	249	5	"And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat." Surprised and astonished, they say unto Him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass.... And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes."
FH	249	6	He who taught the people the way to secure peace and happiness was just as thoughtful of their temporal necessities as of their spiritual need.--Signs of the Times, August 12, 1897.
------------------------Receive to Give, August 26
FH	250	1	I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 1 Corinthians 3:6, 7.
FH	250	2	The work of building up the kingdom of Christ will go forward, though to all appearances it moves slowly, and means are so limited that impossibilities seem to testify against advance....
FH	250	3	The disciples were bidden to feed the hungry multitude before eating themselves. After the wants of all had been supplied, the command was given, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." Twelve baskets full were gathered up, and then Christ and His disciples ate of the precious, heaven-supplied food....
FH	250	4	In the place of shifting your responsibility upon someone whom you think more richly endowed than you are, work according to your ability, even though you have but one talent....
FH	250	5	Christ received from the Father; He imparted to the disciples; and they imparted to the multitude. All who are united to Christ will be doers of His word, receiving the bread of life... and imparting it to others....
FH	250	6	Our Savior placed in the hands of His disciples the food for the people, and as they emptied their hands, they were again filled with the food, which multiplied in Christ's hands as fast as it was called for.... This should be a great encouragement to the disciples of Christ today. Christ is the great center, the source of all strength....
FH	250	7	A Paul may plant, and an Apollos water, but God only giveth the increase. This is so that no one may boast. The most intelligent, the most spiritually-minded, can bestow only as they receive. Of themselves they can manufacture nothing for the needs of the soul. We can impart only that which we receive from the hands of Christ, and we can receive only as we impart to others. As we continue imparting, we continue to receive, and the more we impart, the more we shall receive. Thus we may be constantly believing, trusting, receiving, and imparting....
FH	250	8	In the hand of Christ the small supply of food remained undiminished until the famished multitude were satisfied.... If we go to the Source of all strength with our hands of faith outstretched to receive, we shall be sustained in our work, even under the most forbidding circumstances, and shall be enabled to give to others the Bread of Life.--Signs of the Times, August 19, 1897.
------------------------The Joy of Christ's Fellowship in Heaven, August 27
FH	251	1	There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8.
FH	251	2	While sitting round the Communion table, Christ spoke words of intense interest to His disciples. He was soon to pass through scenes that would be to them the severest test. Not only did He see distinctly His own humiliation and suffering, but He saw also the effect that this would have upon the disciples. He would not leave them in darkness regarding His future work.... He knew that in their sorrow they would be assailed by the enemy, for Satan's craft is most successful when carried on against those who are depressed by difficulties....
FH	251	3	During these last sorrowful hours, Christ told His disciples that on the night of His trial, they would all be offended because of Him, and that He would be left alone. He told them that for a little while after His death they would be sorrowful, but that their sorrow would be turned into joy. He told them that the time was coming when they would be put out of the synagogues, and that those who killed them would think that they were doing God service. He stated plainly why He told them these things while He was yet with them-that when His words were fulfilled, they would remember that He had told them of them before they came to pass, and thus be strengthened to believe in Him as their Redeemer....
FH	251	4	Christ's statements saddened and amazed the disciples. But they were followed by the comforting assurance, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."...
FH	251	5	Not only to the disciples, but to us, are these words of comfort spoken. In the last scenes of this earth's history, war will rage. There will be pestilence, plague, and famine. The waters of the deep will overflow their boundaries. Property and life will be destroyed by fire and flood. We should be preparing for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for them that love Him. There is a rest from earth's conflict. Where is it? "That where I am, there ye may be also." Heaven is where Christ is. Heaven would not be heaven to those who love Christ if He were not there.--The Review and Herald, October 19, 1897.
------------------------Coworkers With Christ, August 28
FH	252	1	Greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. John 14:12.
FH	252	2	Christ's work was largely confined to Judea. But though His personal ministry did not extend to other lands, people from all nations listened to His teaching and carried the message to all parts of the world. Many heard of Jesus by hearing of the wonderful miracles that He performed. And the knowledge of His suffering and death, which were to be witnessed by the large number in attendance at the Passover, would be spread from Jerusalem to all parts of the world.
FH	252	3	Used as Christ's representatives, the apostles would make a decided impression on all minds. The fact that they were humble men would not diminish their influence but increase it. The minds of their hearers would be carried from them to the Majesty of heaven.... Their words of trust would assure all that it was not by their own power they worked, but that they were only continuing the same work carried forward by the Lord Jesus when He was with them. Humbling themselves, they would declare that He whom the Jews had crucified was the Prince of life, the Son of the living God, and that in His name they did the works that He had done....
FH	252	4	The whole universe is under the control of the Prince of life.... He paid the ransom money for the whole world. All may be saved through Him. He calls upon us to obey, believe, receive, and live. He would gather together a church embracing the whole human family, if all would leave the black banner of rebellion and place themselves under His banner. Those who believe on Him, He will present to God as loyal subjects. He is our Mediator as well as our Redeemer. He will defend His chosen followers against Satan's power and subdue all their enemies....
FH	252	5	Christ desired His disciples to understand that He would not leave them orphans.... He was about to die, but He desired them to realize that He would live again. And although after His ascension He would be absent from them, yet by faith they might see and know Him, and He would have the same loving interest in them that He had while with them.
FH	252	6	Christ assured His disciples that after His resurrection He would show Himself alive to them.... They would then understand that which they had not in the past understood-that there is a complete union between Christ and His Father, a union that will always exist.--The Review and Herald, October 26, 1897.
------------------------Gethsemane, August 29
FH	253	1	Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, "Sit here while I pray." Mark 14:32.
FH	253	2	As Christ left the disciples, bidding them pray for themselves and for Him, He selected three, Peter, James, and John, and went still farther into the seclusion of the garden. These three disciples had been with Him at His transfiguration; they had seen the heavenly visitors, Moses and Elias, talking with Jesus, and Christ desired their presence on this occasion also....
FH	253	3	Christ expressed His desire for human sympathy and then withdrew Himself from them about a stone's cast. Falling upon His face He prayed, saying, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."
FH	253	4	At the end of an hour, Jesus, feeling the need of human sympathy, rose from the ground and staggered to the place where He had left His three disciples.... He longed to hear from them words that would bring Him some relief in His suffering. But He was disappointed. They did not bring to Him the help He craved. Instead, He "findeth them sleeping."
FH	253	5	Just before He bent His footsteps to the garden, Jesus had said to His disciples, "All ye shall be offended because of me this night"; and they had given Christ the strongest assurances that they would never forsake their Lord, that they would go to prison with Him, and if need be would suffer and die with Him. And poor, self-sufficient Peter had added, "Although all shall be offended, yet will not I." But the disciples trusted in their own strength; they did not look to the mighty Helper, as Christ had counseled them to do.... Even the ardent Peter, who only a few hours before had declared that he would die with his Lord, was sleeping....
FH	253	6	Again the Son of God was seized with superhuman agony, and, fainting and exhausted, He staggered back to the place of His former struggle.... Only a short time before, Christ had poured out His soul in songs of praise in unfaltering accents, as one who was conscious of His Sonship to God.... Now His voice came to them on the still evening air, not in tones of triumph but full of human anguish. So lately He had been serene in His majesty; He had been like a mighty cedar. Now He was as a broken reed....
FH	253	7	Although sin was the awful thing that had opened the floodgates of woe upon the world, He would become the propitiation of a race that had willed to sin.--Signs of the Times, December 2, 1897.
------------------------Calvary, August 30
FH	254	1	At last two false witnesses came forward and said, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.'" Matthew 26:60, 61.
FH	254	2	This was the only charge that could be brought against Christ. But these words had been misstated and misapplied. Christ had said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.... But he spake of the temple of his body."
FH	254	3	Priests and rulers, with many others, taunted Him with this false statement. While He hung upon the cross, it was repeated in mockery by the scribes and Pharisees and echoed by the multitude. "They that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself." But though misstated, Christ's words were being fulfilled. Publicity was given to them, and they were made more impressive by the proclamations of His enemies....
FH	254	4	Those who in derision uttered the words, "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God," little thought that their testimony would sound down the ages. But although spoken in mockery, never were words more true. They led people to search the Scriptures for themselves. Wise men heard, searched, pondered, and prayed. There were those who never rested until, by searching the Scriptures and comparing passage with passage, they saw the meaning of Christ's mission. They saw that free forgiveness was provided by Him whose tender mercy embraces the whole world....
FH	254	5	Never before was there such a general knowledge of Jesus as when He hung upon the cross. He was lifted up from the earth to draw all unto Him. Into the hearts of many who beheld the crucifixion scene and who heard Christ's words was the light of truth to shine. With John they would proclaim, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."...
FH	254	6	This scene was transacted in the sight of heaven and earth. Angels beheld the pitiless scorn and contempt shown to Jesus by those who should have acknowledged Him as the Messiah....
FH	254	7	Again came the cry, as of one in mortal agony, "It is finished." "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost." Christ, the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, was dead.--The Review and Herald, December 28, 1897.
------------------------A Job Well Done, August 31
FH	255	1	I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. John 17:4.
FH	255	2	When Christ expired on the cross, crying with a loud voice, "It is finished," His work was completed. The way was laid open, the veil was rent in twain. Humanity could approach God without sacrificial offerings, without the service of earthly priests. Christ Himself was a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Heaven was His home. He came to this world to reveal the Father. His work on the field of His humiliation and conflict was now done. He ascended up into the heavens and is forever set down on the right hand of God.
FH	255	3	Christ's life on this earth had been a life of toil, a busy, earnest life. He rose from the dead and for forty days remained with His disciples, instructing them preparatory to His departure from them. He was ready for the leave-taking. He had demonstrated the fact that He was a living Savior; His disciples need no longer associate Him with the tomb of Joseph. They could think of Him as glorified amid the heavenly host....
FH	255	4	All heaven waited with eager earnestness for the end of the tarrying of the Son of God in a world all seared and marred with the curse. In proportion to Christ's humiliation and suffering was to be His exaltation. He became the Savior, the Redeemer, only by first becoming the Sacrifice....
FH	255	5	Christ came to earth as God in the guise of humanity. He ascended to heaven as the King of saints. His ascension was worthy of His exalted character. He ascended from the Mount of Olives in a cloud of angels, who triumphantly escorted Him to the city of God. Not in His own interest did He go, but as the covenant-making Redeemer of His believing sons and daughters, who are made thus through faith in His name. He went as one mighty in battle, a conqueror, leading captivity captive, amid acclamations of praise and celestial song....
FH	255	6	What a contrast between Christ's reception on His return to heaven and His reception on this earth! In heaven all was loyalty. There was no sorrow, no suffering, to meet Him at every turn....
FH	255	7	The time had come for the universe of heaven to accept their King.--Signs of the Times, August 16, 1899.
------------------------Representative Men and Women, September 1
FH	256	1	Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4.
FH	256	2	Those who would be His disciples He invites to take His yoke upon them and to learn of Him who is meek and lowly of heart; and He promises those who do this that they shall find rest unto their souls. The meekness and humility that characterized the life of Christ will be made manifest in the life and character of those who "walk, even as he walked."...
FH	256	3	Blessed is the soul who can say, "I am guilty before God, but Jesus is my Advocate. I have transgressed His law. I cannot save myself, but I make the precious blood that was shed on Calvary all my plea."...
FH	256	4	Christ came to magnify the law and to make it honorable; He came to extol the old commandment which ye had from the beginning. Then we need the law and the prophets. We need the Old Testament to bring us down along the line to the New Testament, which does not take the place of the Old Testament but more distinctly reveals to us the plan of salvation, giving significance to the whole system of sacrifices and offerings and to the word which we had from the beginning. Perfect obedience is enjoined upon every soul, and obedience to the expressed will of God will make you one with Christ. You will be enabled to live nobly, for the life of Christ as a servant of Jehovah was noble.... Self-reliance and an unsanctified independence hold many away from the richest gifts in Christ....
FH	256	5	It was the same Jesus who commanded that love should be the ruling principle in the old dispensation, that commanded that love should be the ruling principle in the hearts of His followers in the New Testament. The working out of the principle of love is true sanctification. Those who walk in the light will be the children of the light and will diffuse light to those who are around them in kindness, in affection, in unmistakable love....
FH	256	6	Pure doctrine will blend with works of righteousness; heavenly precepts will mingle with holy practices. The heart that is filled with the grace of Christ will be made manifest by its peace and joy; and where Christ abides, the character will become purified, elevated, ennobled, and glorified.--Youth's Instructor, November 8, 1894.
------------------------The Wise Men, September 2
FH	257	1	Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him." Matthew 2:1, 2.
FH	257	2	While the magi were studying the heavens, a luminous star, entirely new to them, made its appearance. As they stood gazing at it, they were impressed that it was the herald of some great event. They decided to investigate the matter, hoping that they would be rewarded by a knowledge of the promised Messiah. The Lord encouraged them to go forward; and as the pillar of cloud moved before the children of Israel through the wilderness, so the star guided the wise men as they journeyed toward Jerusalem.... Entering Jerusalem, the magi made the eager inquiry, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him."...
FH	257	3	The Jewish rulers were in ignorance of the coming of the Just One because they had not been making ready for Him.... They had not heard the angel's message, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy."...
FH	257	4	The shepherds had borne witness regarding the visit of the angels; now men from the Far East bore the tidings, "We have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him." Men of another nation and faith were the first to herald the advent of the Messiah....
FH	257	5	Herod was surprised that the Jewish rabbis-men looking upon themselves as favored above all other people-should apparently be in darkness, while those they termed heathen had received a sign from heaven that the King had been born....
FH	257	6	Calling the wise men to him, Herod "enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.... When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.... And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way."--Youth's Instructor, October 19, 1899.
------------------------Nicodemus, September 3
FH	258	1	Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.
FH	258	2	Nicodemus held a high position of trust in the Jewish nation. He was highly educated and possessed talents of no ordinary character. With others, he had been stirred by the teaching of Jesus of Galilee. Though rich, learned, and honored, he had been strangely attracted by the humble Nazarene. The lessons, so new and strange, which had fallen from the lips of this Teacher had greatly impressed him, and he resolved to seek Jesus, that he might learn more of these wonderful truths.
FH	258	3	But he did not visit Jesus by day; it would have been too humiliating for a ruler of the Jews to acknowledge himself in sympathy with a teacher as yet so little known. Learning by special inquiry where Jesus would be likely to retire for the night, he waited till the city was hushed in slumber and then sought Him.
FH	258	4	"Rabbi," he said, "we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." By speaking of Christ's rare gifts as a teacher and also of His wonderful power to perform miracles, he hoped to pave the way for his interview. But in His infinite wisdom, Christ saw before Him a seeker after truth. He knew the real object of the visit, and with a desire to deepen the conviction already resting upon His listener's mind, He came directly to the point, saying solemnly yet kindly, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
FH	258	5	This was a very humiliating statement to Nicodemus, and with a feeling of irritation he took up the words of Christ, saying, "How can a man be born when he is old?" But the Savior did not meet argument with argument. Raising His hand with solemn, quiet dignity, He pressed the truth home with greater assurance, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."...
FH	258	6	In this memorable interview, Christ laid down principles of the greatest importance to everyone. He defined the terms of salvation in clear terms and emphasized the necessity for a new life.... To everyone who names the name of Christ, who has decided to follow the meek and lowly Jesus, just as truly as to the Jewish ruler, these words are addressed, "Ye must be born again."--Youth's Instructor, September 2, 1897.
------------------------Full Surrender, September 4
FH	259	1	Do not marvel that I said to you, "You must be born again." John 3:7.
FH	259	2	As God's purchased possession, we are under contract to work as Christ worked in His divine service, not in accordance with our natural inclinations but in harmony with the Spirit of God. But the lives of all people, as the gospel finds them, are full of sin. By yielding to temptation they have weakened their power to obey. Their hearts are "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." They are dead in trespasses and sins, and in their own strength they can do no good.
FH	259	3	In order to serve God acceptably, we must be "born again." Our natural dispositions, which are in opposition to the Spirit of God, must be put away. We must be made new men and women in Christ Jesus. Our old, unrenewed lives must give place to a new life-a life full of love, of trust, of willing obedience.... Unless the change takes place, we cannot serve God aright. Our work will be defective. Earthly plans will be brought in; strange fire, dishonoring to God, will be offered. Our lives will be unholy and unhappy, full of unrest and trouble....
FH	259	4	Christ came to our world because He saw that we had lost the image and nature of God. He saw that we had wandered far from the path of peace and purity, and that, if left to ourselves, we would never find our way back. He came with a full and complete salvation, to change our stony hearts to hearts of flesh, to change our sinful natures into His similitude, that, by being partakers of the divine nature, we might be fitted for the heavenly courts....
FH	259	5	To all who, anxious for the salvation of their souls, come to Christ for aid, He says, as He said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." He is knocking at the door of your heart, asking for admittance. He longs to renew your heart, filling it with a love for all that is pure and true. He longs to crucify self for you, raising you to newness of life in Him. Nicodemus was converted as a result of his interview with Christ.... Fear not to make a full surrender of yourself to Christ. Place yourself, without reserve, under His control. Learn what it means to cease from sin, what it means to have a new heart, to bear the divine similitude. As you behold Christ, self will sink into insignificance, and you will be changed into His image, "from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord."--Youth's Instructor, September 9, 1897.
------------------------The Call of Elisha, September 5
FH	260	1	Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. 1 Kings 19:19.
FH	260	2	We would do well to consider the case of Elisha when chosen for his work. The prophet Elijah was about to close his earthly labors. Another was to be called to carry forward the work for that time. In his course of travel, Elijah was directed northward. How changed the scene before him now from that which the country had presented a little while before. Then the farming districts were unworked; the ground was parched, for neither dew nor rain had fallen for three years. Now everything seems to be springing up as if to redeem the time of famine and dearth. The plenteous rains had done more for the earth than for the hearts of humanity; the fields were better prepared for labor than were the hearts of apostate Israel.
FH	260	3	Wherever Elijah looked, the land he saw was owned by one man-a man who had not bowed the knee to Baal, whose heart had remained undivided in the service of God. Even during the captivity there were souls who had not gone into apostasy, and this family was included in the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. The owner of the land was Shaphat. Busy activity was seen among the workers. While the flocks were enjoying the green pastures, the busy hands of his servants were sowing the seed for a harvest.
FH	260	4	The attention of Elijah was attracted to Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who with the servants was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen.... Far from city and court dissipation, Elisha had received his education. He had been trained in habits of simplicity, of obedience to his parents and to God....
FH	260	5	Elisha waited contentedly, doing his work with fidelity. Day by day, through practical obedience and the divine grace in which he trusted, he obtained rectitude and strength of purpose. While doing all that he possibly could in cooperating with his father in the home firm, he was doing God's service. He was learning how to cooperate with God.--Youth's Instructor, April 14, 1898.
FH	260	6	When the prophet saw Elisha with his servants plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, he came to the field of labor, and while passing by, he unfastened his mantle and threw it upon the shoulders of Elisha. He then passed on as if that were the end of the matter. But he knew that Elisha understood the significance of the action; and he left him, without speaking a word, to decide whether he would accept or reject the call.--Youth's Instructor, April 21, 1898.
------------------------Answering God's Call, September 6
FH	261	1	Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant. 1 Kings 19:21.
FH	261	2	During the three years and a half of barrenness and famine, the family of Shaphat had become familiar with the mission of Elijah the prophet, and the Spirit of God impressed the heart of Elisha in regard to the meaning of this action [Elijah's placing his mantle on him]. This was the signal that God had called him to be the successor of Elijah. He hastened after the prophet and, overtaking him, asked permission to take leave of his parents and bid farewell to his family.
FH	261	3	The answer of Elijah was, "Go back again: for what have I done to thee?" This was not a repulse, but a test. If Elisha's heart clung to his home and its advantages, he was at liberty to remain there. But Elisha was prepared to hear the call of God....
FH	261	4	Had Elisha asked Elijah what was expected of him, what would be his work, he would have been answered, God knows; He will make it known to you. If you wait upon the Lord, He will answer your every question. You may come with me if you have evidence that God has called you; if not, forbear. Come not simply because I have called you. Know for yourself that God stands back of you, and that it is His voice you hear. If you can count everything but dross that you may win Christ, come....
FH	261	5	The call of Elijah [to Elisha] was similar to the commission of Christ to the young ruler. The ruler was commanded to leave all-houses, lands, friends, riches, comforts, and ease-and follow Jesus.... But with the call of Christ comes the question, Are we ready to advance? Are we willing? Shall we, like Moses, cheerfully deem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt?
FH	261	6	The Lord will not accept halfhearted service. Those alone who love to do the will of God can do perfect service.... If we follow on to know the Lord, willingly, gladly, we shall know that "his going forth is prepared as the morning." If we have decided to obey Christ, we shall respond to His call, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."...
FH	261	7	The work of God is a perfect whole,... and it is important that the worker for Christ shall take his Master with him in every department of labor. Whatever is done should be done with an exactness and dispatch that will bear inspection. The heart should be in the work.--Youth's Instructor, April 21, 1898.
------------------------Never Look Back, September 7
FH	262	1	I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God. Philippians 3:14.
FH	262	2	Elisha immediately left all to begin his ministry. His leave-taking was not with mourning and bitter regrets. They made a feast in his home in commemoration of the honor conferred upon one of the family. And what was the first work of Elisha? It was to take up the little things and do them with heartiness. He was the prophet's personal attendant. He is spoken of as pouring water on the hands of Elijah his master.
FH	262	3	After Elisha had been some time in the service of the prophet, he was called to take his place in the first rank. No one in that time was to be greater than he. He had worked under Elijah as a learner, and the time came when the head manager was removed, and the one under him came to the front. And as Elijah was prepared to be translated, so Elisha was prepared to become his successor as a prophet....
FH	262	4	There was a school of the prophets at Gilgal, and also at Bethel and at Jericho. Elijah wished to visit these important places before he was parted from them. His spirit was cheered as, by the direction of God, he was permitted to see the schools of the prophets and the work that was going on in those institutions-an education which was to keep the wonderful works of God continually before the students, and which magnified the law of God and made it honorable....
FH	262	5	At every place where Elisha tarried with Elijah, he was given opportunity to separate from him. "Tarry here, I pray thee," said Elijah. Thus Elisha's faith was tried at every point. But by plowing in the field, Elisha had learned not to yield to discouragement. He had now set his hand to the plow in another work, and he would not fail nor be discouraged. Every time the invitation to turn back was given, he declared, "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee."...
FH	262	6	Henceforth Elisha stood in the place of Elijah.... The greatest qualification for anyone in a position of trust is to obey implicitly the word of the Lord.... Elisha had put his hand to the plow, and he would not look back. He revealed his determination and firm reliance upon God.
FH	262	7	This lesson is for us to study carefully. We are in no case to swerve from our allegiance.... The Word of God is to be our counselor. It is only those who render perfect and thorough obedience to God that He will choose.--Youth's Instructor, April 28, 1898.
------------------------Timothy, September 8
FH	263	1	Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12.
FH	263	2	The Word of God was the rule which guided Timothy.... His home instructors cooperated with God in educating this young man to bear the burdens that were to come upon him at an early age.
FH	263	3	Timothy was a mere youth when he was chosen by God as a teacher. But his principles had been so established by a correct education that he was fitted to be placed as a religious teacher in connection with Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles. And though young, he bore his great responsibilities with Christian meekness. He was faithful, steadfast, and true; and Paul made him his companion in labor and travel, that he might have the benefit of the apostle's experience in preaching the gospel and establishing churches.
FH	263	4	Paul loved Timothy because Timothy loved God. The great apostle often drew him out and questioned him in regard to Scripture history. He taught him the necessity of shunning every evil way and told him that blessing would surely attend all who were faithful and true, giving them a noble manhood....
FH	263	5	The words of the apostle Paul just prior to his death were, "Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."...
FH	263	6	Paul could safely write this, for Timothy did not go forward in a self-sufficient spirit. He worked in connection with Paul, seeking his advice and instruction. He did not move from impulse. He exercised consideration and calm thought, inquiring at every step, "Is this the way of the Lord?"...
FH	263	7	"Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee."
FH	263	8	The charge given to Timothy should be heeded in every household and become an educating power in every family and in every school.--Youth's Instructor, May 5, 1898.
------------------------Joseph, God's Unwavering Witness, September 9
FH	264	1	The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. Genesis 39:2.
FH	264	2	It was God's design that through Joseph, Bible religion should be introduced among the Egyptians. This faithful witness was to represent Christ in the court of kings. Through dreams God communicated with Joseph in his youth, giving him an intimation of the high position he would be called to fill. The brothers of Joseph, to prevent the fulfillment of his dreams, sold him as a slave, but their cruel act resulted in bringing about the very thing the dreams had foretold.
FH	264	3	Those who seek to turn aside the purpose of God and oppose His will may appear for a time to prosper; but God is at work to fulfill His own purposes, and He will make manifest who is the ruler of the heavens and the earth.
FH	264	4	Joseph regarded his being sold into Egypt as the greatest calamity that could have befallen him, but he saw the necessity of trusting in God as he had never done when protected by his father's love. Joseph brought God with him into Egypt, and the fact was made apparent by his cheerful demeanor amid his sorrow.... It is God's purpose that those who love and honor His name shall be honored also themselves, and that the glory given to God through them shall be reflected upon themselves.
FH	264	5	Joseph's character did not change when he was exalted to a position of trust. He was brought where his virtue would shine in distinct light in good works. The blessing of God rested upon him in the house and in the field. All the responsibilities of Potiphar's house were placed upon him. And in all this he manifested steadfast integrity, for he loved and feared God.
FH	264	6	Placed as he was in the society of learned men, he gained a knowledge of science and language. This was his training school, that in early manhood he might become qualified to be prime minister of Egypt. He learned those things that would be essential in his future position of trust. He gathered all the wisdom and knowledge and tact that his opportunities presented, and these were not few. Yet his heart was steadfast with God. Human knowledge and divine wisdom were combined, that he should be a shining light, reflecting the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness amid the gross darkness of heathenism. Here the religion of the Hebrew was seen to be of an altogether different character from the religious rites and customs of the idolatrous Egyptians.--Youth's Instructor, March 11, 1897.
------------------------Victorious Over Temptation, September 10
FH	265	1	How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? Genesis 39:9.
FH	265	2	When trial came, when the arts of woman were exercised to draw him into iniquity, Joseph preserved his integrity. Fair words and guileful entreaties did not cause him to swerve one hair from the right. All fell on ears that heard not. The law of the Lord garrisoned his soul. He said to the bold enchantress, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"
FH	265	3	The woman signally failed to lead Joseph into sin. Satan was defeated. And then Joseph found that the lips which could praise could also lie. The wife of Potiphar revenged herself upon him by her accusations against him. Because Joseph would not sin against one who had trusted him, he was deprived of the honor which, through the grace of God, he had justly earned and which had brought him into relation with the great men of Egypt.
FH	265	4	This sudden humiliation from the position of a trusted, honored servant to that of a condemned criminal would have overwhelmed him had not the hand of the Lord upheld him. But his confidence in God was unshaken. The love of God kept his soul in perfect peace. Heaven was very near the fertile valley of Egypt, for there was a youth who kept the ways of the Lord. The presence of Jesus was with him in prison, instructing, strengthening, and sustaining his mind and soul, that the light of heaven might shine forth.
FH	265	5	Joseph had been tried by parental fondness and partiality; by the enmity, envy, and hatred of his brothers; by the esteem and confidence of his master; and by his high position of honor. He was tried by the seduction of woman's charms, by the flattery of her lips and her lawless love. But the steadfast virtue of Joseph would not permit him to listen to the voice of the tempter. The law of the Lord was his delight, and he would not depart from its precepts....
FH	265	6	Even while in prison, Joseph was allowed to be at liberty and had opportunity to give the light to his fellow prisoners. This prison was to him an educating school.... He saw in every phase of its management the superiority of the law of God, and by his experience and observation was learning to be just and merciful, thus representing the character of God.
FH	265	7	Power was to be put into the hands of Joseph, and through him God was to be revealed as the ruler of the heavens and the earth. But he was to be trained in adversity-the school in which God designs that His children shall learn.--Youth's Instructor, March 11, 1897.
------------------------Interpreter of Dreams, September 11
FH	266	1	I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it. Genesis 41:15.
FH	266	2	When Joseph interpreted the dreams of the butler and the cupbearer, he begged to be remembered when the chief butler should be reinstated in his position; but he was forgotten, and remained two years longer in the prison.
FH	266	3	But a more exalted person than the butler had a dream, and when there could be found no one able to interpret it, Joseph was called to the remembrance of the butler. "Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it." Joseph did not take the glory to himself. He pointed Pharaoh to God, saying, "It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace."
FH	266	4	Through the wisdom given him of God, Joseph could see the true meaning of the dream. He saw the wonderful workings of God, and he laid the whole matter distinctly before Pharaoh. He revealed to him the long famine that was to visit the land, and the plans to be pursued in order to save the nation from destruction.... His words were received as gold, and the answer was returned to him, "Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou."...
FH	266	5	Joseph represented Christ. He stood for many years as the honored ruler of Egypt. In his life and character was manifested that which was lovely, and pure, and noble. In bearing his sorrows under trying circumstances and in enduring temptation, Joseph was one in character with Christ....
FH	266	6	The example of Joseph, shining with heaven's brightness, did not shine in vain among this people for whom Christ had pledged Himself to become an offering-a people whom God had taken under His guardianship, and upon whom He was bestowing not only temporal but spiritual blessings, in order to attract them to Himself.--Youth's Instructor, March 11, 1897.
------------------------The Call of Gideon, September 12
FH	267	1	So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Judges 6:6.
FH	267	2	Alas, that in the history of God's chosen people the sorrowful story of apostasy and its punishment must be so oft repeated!...
FH	267	3	Because of their sins, the protecting hand of God was withdrawn from Israel, and they were left to the mercies of their enemies. The wild, fierce inhabitants of the desert [the Midianites and Amalekites], "as grasshoppers for multitude," came swarming into the land with their flocks and herds and pitched their tents in plain and valley. They came as soon as the harvests began to ripen and remained until the last fruits of the earth had been gathered. They stripped the fields of their increase and robbed and maltreated the inhabitants, and then returned to the deserts....
FH	267	4	For seven years this oppression continued, and then in their distress the people remembered Him who had so often delivered them; and they cried unto the Lord for help....
FH	267	5	Their prayers were heard, and again the Lord sent forth the man of His choice to act as deliverer for Israel. The one thus selected was Gideon, of the tribe of Manasseh.... It was only with the greatest difficulty that the Hebrews could secrete sufficient food to save them from actual starvation. Gideon had, however, retained possession of a small quantity of wheat, and fearing to beat it out in the threshing floor, he had taken it to the vineyard, near the winepress. The time of ripe grapes being far off, the attention of the Midianites would not be directed to that place.... Gideon almost despaired of inspiring the people with faith or courage, but he knew that the Lord would work mightily for Israel as He had done in the past....
FH	267	6	While Gideon's mind was absorbed in meditations like these, suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared to him and addressed him with the words, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour."
FH	267	7	The melancholy nature of Gideon's thoughts is revealed by his answer, "Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?"... With a sense of his own unfitness for so important a work, Gideon exclaimed, "Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."... Then the angel gave him the gracious assurance, "Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man."--Signs of the Times, June 23, 1881.
------------------------Growing Confidence, September 13
FH	268	1	If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. Judges 6:17.
FH	268	2	Gideon desired some token that the One now addressing him was the same that spoke to Moses in the burning bush. The angel had veiled the divine glory of His presence, but it was none other than Christ, the Son of God. When a prophet or an angel delivered a divine message, his words were, "The Lord saith, I will do this," but it is stated of the Person who talked with Gideon, "The Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee."
FH	268	3	Desiring to show special honor to his illustrious Visitor, and having obtained the assurance that the Angel would tarry, Gideon hastened to his tent, and out of his scanty store prepared a kid and unleavened cakes, which he brought forth to set before Him. Gideon was poor, yet he was ready to use hospitality without grudging.
FH	268	4	As the gift was presented, the Angel said, "Take the flesh and unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth." Gideon did so, and then the Lord gave him the sign which he desired. With the staff in His hand, the Angel touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and a fire rose up out of the rock and consumed the whole as a sacrifice, and not as a hospitable meal; for He was God, and not man. After this token of His divine character, the Angel disappeared.
FH	268	5	When convinced that he had looked upon the Son of God, Gideon was filled with fear, and exclaimed, "Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face." Then the Lord graciously appeared to Gideon a second time and said, "Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die."...
FH	268	6	The family to which Gideon belonged was grievously infected with idolatry. His father erected at Ophrah, where he dwelt, a large altar to Baal, at which the people of the towns worshipped. Gideon was commanded to destroy this altar, to cut down the groves that surrounded it, and in its stead to erect an altar to Jehovah, over the rock on which the offering had been consumed, and then to offer a sacrifice unto the Lord. Gideon faithfully carried out these directions, performing the work by night, lest he should be compelled to desist if he attempted it by day.--Signs of the Times, June 23, 1881.
------------------------Righteousness Gains the Victory, September 14
FH	269	1	The Lord said to him, "... tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it.." Judges 6:25.
FH	269	2	The deliverer of Israel must declare war upon idolatry before he went to battle with the enemies of his people. He must esteem the honor of God above the credit of his father and regard the divine commands as more obligatory than parental authority.
FH	269	3	The offering of sacrifice unto the Lord had been committed to the priests and Levites and had been restricted to the altar at Shiloh, but He who had established the Jewish economy, and to whom all its services pointed, had power to change its requirements. In this instance He saw fit to depart from the ritual appointment. It was of great importance that the deliverance of Israel should be preceded by a solemn protest against the worship of Baal and an acknowledgment of Jehovah as the only true and living God.
FH	269	4	When the men of the city, early in the morning, came to pay their devotions to Baal, they were greatly surprised and enraged at what had taken place. Soon it was known that Gideon had done this, and then nothing but his blood could satisfy those deluded idolaters....
FH	269	5	Gideon had told his father, Joash, of the Angel's visit and the promise that Israel should be delivered. He also related to him the divine command to destroy the altar of Baal. The Spirit of God moved upon the heart of Joash. He saw that the gods whom he had worshipped had no power even to save themselves from utter destruction, and hence they could not protect their worshippers. When the idolatrous multitude clamored for the death of Gideon, Joash fearlessly stood in his defense and endeavored to show the people how powerless and unworthy of trust or adoration were their gods: "Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar."...
FH	269	6	All thoughts of violence were dismissed, and when, moved by the Spirit of the Lord, Gideon sounded the trumpet of war, they were among the first to gather to him. He then sent messengers throughout his own tribe of Manasseh, and also to Asher, Zebulon, and Naphtali, and all cheerfully obeyed the call....
FH	269	7	Evil may seem for a time to prevail, but in the end righteousness will gain the victory.--Signs of the Times, June 23, 1881.
------------------------The Need for More Trust, September 15
FH	270	1	It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground. Judges 6:40.
FH	270	2	Gideon deeply felt his own insufficiency for the great work before him. He dared not place himself at the head of the army without positive evidence that God had called him to this work and that He would be with him. He prayed, "If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said."
FH	270	3	The Lord granted the prayer of His servant. In the morning the fleece was wet while the ground was dry. But now unbelief suggested that wool naturally absorbs moisture when there is any in the air, and that the test was not decisive. Hence, he asked a renewal of the sign, humbly pleading that unbelief might not move the Lord to anger. His request was granted.
FH	270	4	The Lord does not always choose for His work people of the greatest talents, but He selects those whom He can best use....
FH	270	5	God will accept the services of all who will work in obedience to His will, who will not for any consideration bring a stain upon the conscience, who will not permit any influence to lead them from the path of duty. If we choose, we may make the record of our lives such as we shall not be ashamed to own when the secrets of all hearts shall stand revealed, and everyone's work shall be weighed in the balances of truth. The Lord employs men and women as His colaborers, but let none imagine that they are essential to the work of God, that they cannot be dispensed with.
FH	270	6	The teachable and trusting ones, having a right purpose and a pure heart, need not wait for great occasions or for extraordinary abilities before they employ their powers. They should not stand irresolute, questioning, and fearing what the world will say or think of them. We are not to weary ourselves with anxious care, but to go on, quietly performing with faithfulness the work which God assigns us, and leaving the result wholly with Him....
FH	270	7	Let the daily life be a reflection of the life of Christ, and the testimony thus borne to the world will have a powerful influence.... The great contest of truth against error must be carried forward by men and women who kindle their taper at the divine altar.--Signs of the Times, June 23, 1881.
------------------------Qualifications of the Chosen, September 16
FH	271	1	The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, "My own hand has saved me." Judges 7:2.
FH	271	2	Gideon's courage was greatly strengthened by the tokens of divine favor vouchsafed to him. Without delay he went out with his forces to give battle to the Midianites. But now another severe trial of faith awaited him. With the immense host of invaders spread out before him-the thirty-two thousand of the Hebrews seeming, in contrast, like a mere handful-the word of the Lord came to him, "The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead."...
FH	271	3	Because of the weak condition of the armies of Israel in contrast with the numbers of the enemy, Gideon had refrained from making the usual proclamation. He was filled with astonishment at the declaration that his force was too large. But the Lord saw the pride and unbelief existing in the hearts of this people. Aroused by the stirring appeals of Gideon, they had readily enlisted; but when they saw the multitudes of the Midianites, their courage failed....
FH	271	4	Instead of being too many, the Israelites felt that their numbers were too few; but Gideon made the proclamation as the Lord had directed. With sinking heart he saw... more than two thirds of his entire force, depart....
FH	271	5	Again the word of the Lord came to His servant, "The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go."...
FH	271	6	A few hastily took a little water in the hand and sucked it up as they went on, but nearly all bowed upon their knees and leisurely drank from the surface of the water. Those who took of the water in their hands were but three hundred out of the ten thousand; yet these were selected, and the great body of the army were permitted to return to their homes.
FH	271	7	Here we see the simple means by which character is often tested.... The men of God's choice were the few who would not permit their own wants to hinder them in the discharge of duty.--Signs of the Times, June 30, 1881.
------------------------Eavesdropping, September 17
FH	272	1	Go down to the camp with Purah your servant, and you shall hear what they say. Judges 7:10, 11.
FH	272	2	When Gideon stood at the head of thirty thousand men to make war against the Midianites, he felt that unless God should work for Israel, their cause would be hopeless. At the divine command the Hebrew force had been reduced by successive tests until there remained with him only three hundred men to oppose that countless multitude. What wonder that his heart sank within him as he thought of the conflict of the morrow.
FH	272	3	But the Lord did not leave His faithful servant to despair. He spoke to Gideon in the night season, and bade him, with Phurah, his trusty attendant, go down to the camp of the Midianites, intimating that he would there hear matter for his encouragement. He went, and waiting there in darkness and silence, he heard one soldier, just awakened, relate a dream to his companion, "Lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along."
FH	272	4	The other answered in words that stirred the heart of that unseen listener, "This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host."
FH	272	5	Gideon recognized the voice of God speaking to him through the words of these Midianitish strangers. His faith and courage were greatly strengthened, and he rejoiced that Israel's God could work through the humblest means to abase human pride. With confidence and hope he returned to the few men under his command, saying, "Arise; for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian."...
FH	272	6	As that loaf overthrew the tent upon which it fell, so would the handful of Israelites destroy their numerous and powerful enemies.
FH	272	7	The Lord Himself directed Gideon's mind in the adoption of a plan which the latter immediately set out to execute....
FH	272	8	What lessons of humility and faith may we not learn as we trace the dealings of God with His creatures.--Signs of the Times, July 14, 1881.
------------------------God's Overarching Love, September 18
FH	273	1	The sword of the Lord and of Gideon! Judges 7:18.
FH	273	2	The Lord Himself directed Gideon's mind in the adoption of a plan.... [Gideon] divided his three hundred men into three companies. To every man was given a trumpet, and a pitcher containing a lighted lamp. He then stationed his men in such a manner that they surrounded the entire camp of Midian. They had been previously instructed how to proceed, and at midnight, at a signal from Gideon, all the three companies blew their trumpets, uncovered their lamps, and broke the pitchers, at the same time shouting, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" The light of three hundred lamps piercing the midnight darkness and that mighty shout from three hundred voices suddenly aroused the sleeping army. Believing themselves at the mercy of an overwhelming force, the Midianites were panic-stricken. A terrible scene of confusion ensued. In their fright they fled in all directions, and mistaking their own companions for enemies, they slew one another.
FH	273	3	As the news of Israel's victory spread, many who had been sent to their homes returned and joined in the pursuit of their fleeing enemies. Gideon also sent messengers to the Ephraimites, requesting them to seize the fords of the Jordan that the fugitives might not escape eastward.
FH	273	4	In this terrible overthrow, not less than one hundred and twenty thousand of the invaders were slain, and so completely were the Midianites subdued that they were never again able to make war upon Israel. A remnant of fifteen thousand who managed to escape across the river were pursued by Gideon and his faithful three hundred and utterly defeated, and Zebah and Zalmunna, two Midianite princes, were slain....
FH	273	5	Because of the pride and ambition of the human race, God has chosen to perform His mighty works by the most simple and humble means....
FH	273	6	His care for the works of His creation is unwearied and incessant. When men and women go forth to their daily toil, as when they engage in prayer; when they lie down at night, and when they rise in the morning; when the rich feast in their palaces, when the poor gather their children about the scanty board, all are tenderly watched by their heavenly Father....
FH	273	7	With humble prayer and trusting faith, we would seek counsel from God.... Then all our acts would be governed by discretion, our energies would be rightly directed.--Signs of the Times, July 14, 1881.
------------------------God's Victory, September 19
FH	274	1	Then the Lord said to Gideon, "By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you." Judges 7:7.
FH	274	2	After the overthrow of the Midianites, the tidings spread swiftly far and wide that Israel's God had again fought for His people. No words can describe the terror of the surrounding nations when they learned what simple means had prevailed against all the power and skill of a bold, warlike race.
FH	274	3	Wherever the news spread, all felt that the victory must be ascribed to God alone. Thus the Lord's name was glorified, the faith of Israel strengthened, and their enemies were brought to shame and confusion.
FH	274	4	It is not safe for God's people to adopt the maxims and customs of the ungodly. The divine principles and modes of working are widely different from those of the world. The history of nations presents no such victories as the conquest of Jericho or the overthrow of the Midianites. No general of heathen armies had ever conducted warfare as Joshua and Gideon had done. These victories teach the great lesson that the only sure ground of success is the help of God, working with human effort. Those who trust to their own wisdom and their own skill will surely be disappointed. The only safe course in all the plans and purposes of life is to preserve the simplicity of faith. Humble trust in God and faithful obedience to His will are as essential to the Christian in waging spiritual warfare as they were to Gideon and his brave associates in fighting the battles of the Lord.
FH	274	5	God's commands must be implicitly obeyed, irrespective of the world's opinion. This lesson should not be disregarded by those who occupy positions of responsibility among their fellow men.... All should earnestly improve every religious privilege and inquire of God daily to learn His will. The life and words of Christ must be diligently studied and His instructions cheerfully obeyed. Those who will thus gird on the armor of righteousness need not fear the enemies of God. They may be assured of the presence and protection of the Captain of the Lord's host....
FH	274	6	The Lord is willing to give His people a precious experience.... He would teach them to submit their judgment and their will implicitly to Him. Then will they see and know that of themselves they can do nothing; that God is all and in all.--Signs of the Times, July 21, 1881.
------------------------God Provides, September 20
FH	275	1	Nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net. Luke 5:5.
FH	275	2	John was one of the first to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. He had listened to the preaching of John the Baptist and knew that he was sent as the forerunner of Him who was the Hope of Israel. To John and Andrew the Baptist pointed out Jesus as "the Lamb of God."... Jesus saw them following Him and welcomed them to His humble abode. They remained with Him that night, and when they left His presence, it was with their faith in His divine character and mission fully confirmed.
FH	275	3	Andrew went in search of his own brother, Simon, and brought him to Jesus with the welcome announcement, "We have found the Messias." The next day Jesus called Philip to follow Him....
FH	275	4	Andrew, Peter, James, and John were henceforth known as disciples of Jesus....
FH	275	5	Though they attended upon the preaching of Jesus and were much in His society, they still pursued their humble calling; but the time came when they were to leave their nets and their fishing boats and be more closely associated with Jesus. Crowds now attended upon His ministry, and as He taught by the lake of Gennesaret, they so "pressed upon him to hear the word of God," that He entered into Peter's boat, and from it taught the people on the shore. When He had ceased speaking, He said unto Peter, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught."
FH	275	6	Peter answered that they had toiled all night and had taken nothing. Their labors had been fruitless in the usual time for fishing, and there was no human probability of success now; "nevertheless," said Peter, "at thy word I will let down the net." It was done, and the draft of fishes was so great that the net could not contain them, and James and John, the partners of Andrew and Peter, were called to their assistance....
FH	275	7	An important and solemn work was before them. They were to give up their only means of support and spend their lives in unselfish efforts to save perishing sinners, but before He called them to this life of self-denial and dependence upon God, the loving Savior showed them that, as Lord of heaven and earth, He was abundantly able to provide for all their wants.--Signs of the Times, January 8, 1885.
------------------------Simple Faith, September 21
FH	276	1	And the Philistine said, "I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together." 1 Samuel 17:10.
FH	276	2	For forty days the host of Israel had trembled before the haughty challenge of Goliath, the Philistine giant. Their hearts failed within them as they looked upon his massive form, measuring six cubits and a span, or ten and a half feet [nearly 3.2 meters] in height. Upon his head was a helmet of brass; he was clothed with a coat of mail that weighed five thousand shekels, or about a hundred and fifty-seven pounds [more than 70 kilograms]; and he had greaves of brass upon his legs. The coat was made of plates of brass that overlaid one another like the scales of a fish, and they were so closely joined that no dart or arrow could possibly penetrate the armor....
FH	276	3	For forty days, morning and evening, Goliath had approached the camp of Israel, saying with a loud voice, "Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.... When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid." No one had dared to go against this boaster until David, stirred with indignation at the proud words of the idolater, offered himself to Saul as one who was willing to fight for the glory of God and the honor of Israel.
FH	276	4	Saul decided to permit the shepherd to make the venture, but he had small hope that David would be successful in his courageous undertaking. Command was given to clothe the youth in the king's own armor. The heavy helmet of brass was put upon his head, and the coat of mail was placed upon his body, while he was girded with the monarch's sword. Thus equipped, he started upon his errand; but erelong he turned back and began to retrace his steps.... The first thought in the minds of the anxious spectators was that David had decided not to risk his life in meeting an antagonist in so unequal an encounter. But this was far from the thought of the brave young man.
FH	276	5	When he returned to Saul, he begged permission to lay aside the heavy armor, and he said, "I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them."...
FH	276	6	What an inspiration of courage and lofty faith was displayed by the simple shepherd before the armies of the Israelites and the Philistines.--Signs of the Times, August 10, 1888.
------------------------Acting on Faith, September 22
FH	277	1	You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 1 Samuel 17:45.
FH	277	2	He [David] laid off the king's armor and in its stead took only his staff in his hand, with his shepherd's pouch, and a simple sling. Choosing five smooth stones out of the brook, he put them in his bag, and with his sling in his hand he drew near to the Philistine. The champion strode boldly and proudly forward, expecting to meet with the mightiest of the warriors of Israel. His armor-bearer walked before him, and he looked as if nothing could stand before him. As he came nearer to David, he saw but a stripling, called a boy because of his youth. His countenance was ruddy with health; and his slender form, unprotected by armor, displayed all its youthful outline in marked contrast to the massive proportions of the Philistine.
FH	277	3	Goliath was filled with amazement and anger. His indignation burst forth in words that were calculated to terrify and overwhelm the daring youth before him. "Am I a dog," exclaimed the giant, "that thou comest to me with staves?" Then the Philistine poured upon David the most terrible curses by all the gods of his knowledge. He cried in derision, "Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field." This haughty threat only served to inspire the youth with loftier courage and to kindle in his breast a greater zeal to silence the enemy of his people. He did not weaken before the champion of the Philistines. He knew that he was about to fight for the honor of his God and the deliverance of Israel, and his heart was full of calm faith and hope.
FH	277	4	David stepped forward and addressed his antagonist in language that was both modest and eloquent. And he said to the Philistine, "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel."--Signs of the Times, August 10, 1888.
------------------------Simple Faith Rewarded, September 23
FH	278	1	All this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hands. 1 Samuel 11:41.
FH	278	2	What an inspiration of courage and lofty faith was displayed by the simple shepherd before the armies of the Israelites and the Philistines. There was a ring of fearlessness in his tone, a look of triumph and rejoicing upon his fair countenance....
FH	278	3	As David's rich voice uttered the words of trust and triumph, the anger of Goliath was roused to the very highest heat. In his rage, he pushed up the helmet that protected his forehead and rushed with determined hatred to wreak vengeance upon his opponent. The son of Jesse was preparing for his foe. Both armies were watching with the most intense interest. "And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth."
FH	278	4	Amazement spread along the lines of the two armies. They had been confident that David would be slain; but when the stone went whizzing through the air, straight to the mark, they saw the mighty warrior tremble and reach forth his hands as if he were struck with sudden blindness. The giant reeled, and staggered, and fell prostrate to the ground. David did not wait an instant. He knew not that life was extinct. He sprang upon the prostrate form of the Philistine, and with both hands he laid hold of Goliath's heavy sword. A moment before, the giant had flourished it before the face of David with the boast that he would sever the youth's head from his shoulders and give his body to the fowls of the air. Now it served to work the will of the servant of God. It was lifted in the air, and then the head of the boaster rolled from his trunk, and a shout of exultation went up from the camp of Israel.
FH	278	5	The Philistines were smitten with terror. They knew that the day was lost. In horror and confusion they began an irregular retreat....The triumphant Hebrews... rushed after their retreating enemies, and they "pursued the Philistines, until thou come to the valley, and to the gates of Ekron.... And David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armour in his tent."--Signs of the Times, August 10, 1888.
------------------------Daniel's Commitment to God, September 24
FH	279	1	He was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him. Daniel 6:4.
FH	279	2	When Darius set over the provinces of his kingdom a hundred and twenty princes, and over these, three presidents to whom the princes were to give account, we read that "Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm." But evil angels, fearing the influence of this good man over the king and in the affairs of the kingdom, stirred up the presidents and princes to envy. These wicked men watched Daniel closely, that they might find some fault in him which they could report to the king; but they failed. "He was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him."
FH	279	3	Then Satan sought to make Daniel's faithfulness to God the cause of his destruction. The presidents and princes came tumultuously together unto the king, and said, "All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions." The king's pride was flattered. He was ignorant of the mischief purposed against Daniel, and he granted their request. The decree was signed and became one of the unalterable laws of the Medes and Persians.
FH	279	4	These envious men did not believe that Daniel would be untrue to his God or that he would falter in his firm adherence to principle, and they were not mistaken in their estimate of his character. Daniel knew the value of communion with God. With full knowledge of the king's decree, he still bowed in prayer three times a day, "his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem." He did not seek to conceal his act, although he knew full well the consequences of his fidelity to God. He saw the dangers that beset his path, but his steps faltered not. Before those who were plotting his ruin, he would not allow even the appearance that his connection with Heaven was severed....
FH	279	5	He knew that no man, not even his king, had a right to come between his conscience and his God and interfere with the worship due to his Maker.--Signs of the Times, November 4, 1886.
------------------------An Example of Trust and Prayer, September 25
FH	280	1	But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, "Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you." Daniel 6:16.
FH	280	2	On account of his praying to God, Daniel was cast into the lions' den.... But Daniel continued to pray, even among the lions. Did God forget His faithful servant and suffer him to be destroyed? Oh, no; Jesus, the mighty Commander of the hosts of heaven, sent His angels to close the mouths of those hungry lions, that they should not hurt the praying man of God; and all was peace in that terrible den. The king witnessed the miraculous preservation of Daniel and brought him out with honors, while those who had plotted his destruction were utterly destroyed, with their wives and children, in the terrible manner in which they had planned to destroy Daniel.
FH	280	3	Through the moral courage of this one man who chose, even in the face of death, to take a right course rather than a politic one, Satan was defeated and God honored....
FH	280	4	Daniel was a moral and intellectual giant; yet he did not reach this preeminence all at once and without effort. He was continually seeking for greater knowledge, for higher attainments. Other young men had the same advantages, but they did not, like him, bend all their energies to seek wisdom-the knowledge of God as revealed in His Word and in His works. Daniel was but a youth when he was brought into a heathen court in service to the king of Babylon; and because of his extreme youth when he was exposed to all the temptations of an Eastern court, his noble resistance of wrong and his steadfast adherence to the right throughout his long career are the more admirable. His example should be a source of strength to the tried and tempted, even at the present day....
FH	280	5	From the history of Daniel we may learn that a strict compliance with the requirements of God will prove a blessing, not only in the future, immortal life, but also in the present life. Through religious principles, we may triumph over the temptations of Satan and the devices of evildoers, even though it costs us a great sacrifice....
FH	280	6	We are living in the most solemn period of this world's history, when the last conflict between truth and error is raging; and we need courage and firmness for the right and a prayerful trust in God no less than Daniel did.--Signs of the Times, November 4, 1886.
------------------------Miraculous Transformation, September 26
FH	281	1	The Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them. Luke 9:56.
FH	281	2	John was the disciple whom Jesus loved, because he was believing and trustful and loved his Master with devotion. His love for Christ was characterized by simplicity and ardor. There are many who think that this love for Christ was something natural to the character of John, and the disciple is frequently represented by the artist as of a soft, languid, feminine appearance, but such representations are incorrect. John and his brother were called the "sons of thunder." John was a man of decided character, but he had learned lessons from the great Teacher. He had defects of character, and any slight shown to Jesus aroused his indignation and combativeness. His love for Christ was the love of a soul saved through the merits of Jesus, but with this love there were natural evil traits that had to be overcome. At one time he and his brother claimed the right to the highest position in the kingdom of heaven, and at another he forbade a man to cast out devils and heal diseases because he followed not with the disciples. At another time, when he saw his Lord slighted by the Samaritans, he wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume them. But Christ rebuked him, saying, "The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."
FH	281	3	In the character and teaching of Christ, the disciples had both precept and example, and the grace of Christ was a transforming power, working marvelous changes in the life of the disciples. The natural traits of character, the spirit of criticism, revenge, ambition, evil temper, were all in the beloved disciple and had to be overcome in order that he might be a representative of Christ. He was not only a hearer but a doer of the words of his Lord. He learned of Jesus to be meek and lowly of heart.... This was the result of companionship with his Master....
FH	281	4	We have need of constant watchfulness, for we are nearing the coming of Christ, nearing the time when Satan is to work "with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." We must study the Pattern and become like Jesus, who was meek and lowly of heart, pure and undefiled. We should ever remember that God is near us, and all things great and small are under His control.--Signs of the Times, April 20, 1891.
------------------------Judas and John Contrasted, September 27
FH	282	1	Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me. John 13:21.
FH	282	2	The opportunities and advantages offered to John were given to Judas also. The same principles of truth were set before his understanding; the same example in the character of Christ was his to contemplate and imitate. But Judas failed to become a doer of the words of Christ. Evil temper, revengeful passions, dark and sullen thoughts, were cherished until Satan had full control of the man. John walked in the light and improved the opportunities given him to overcome; but Judas chose his defects and refused to be transformed into the image of Christ, and therefore became a representative of the enemy of Christ and manifested the attributes of the evil one. When Judas came into association with Christ, he had some precious traits of character that might have been used of God and made a blessing to the church. If he had been willing to wear the yoke of Christ, to become meek and lowly of heart, he might have been among the chief of the apostles; but he hardened his heart when his defects were pointed out, and in pride and rebellion chose his own selfish ambitions, and so unfitted himself for the work God might have given him. John and Peter, though imperfect, became sanctified through the truth.
FH	282	3	It is the same today as it was in the days of Christ. As the disciples were brought together, each with different faults, some inherited or cultivated tendency to evil, so in our church relations we find men and women whose characters are defective; not one of us is perfect. But in Christ, and through Christ, we are to dwell in the family of God, learning to become one in faith, in doctrine, in spirit, that at last we may be received into our eternal habitation. We shall have our tests, our grievances, our differences of opinion; but if Christ is abiding in the heart of each, there can be no dissension. The love of Christ will lead to love of one another, and the lessons of the Master will harmonize all differences, bringing us into unity, till we shall be of one mind and one judgment. Strife for supremacy will cease, and no one will be disposed to glory over another, but we shall esteem others better than ourselves and so be built up into a spiritual temple for the Lord....
FH	282	4	The lessons given to Peter, Judas, and the other disciples are profitable to us and have a special importance at this time.--Signs of the Times, April 20, 1891.
------------------------Mary's Offering, September 28
FH	283	1	Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. Mark 14:6.
FH	283	2	The feast at Simon's house brought together many of the Jews, for they knew that Christ was there. They came not only to see Jesus, but many were curious to see one who had been raised from the dead. They thought that Lazarus would have some wonderful experience to relate, and were surprised that he told them nothing.... Lazarus had a wonderful testimony to bear, however, in regard to the work of Christ. He had been raised from the dead for this purpose. He was a living testimony to the divine power. With assurance and power he declared that Jesus was the Son of God....
FH	283	3	At the feast the Savior sat at the table with Simon, whom He had cured of a loathsome disease, on one side, and Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead, on the other. Martha served at the table, but Mary was listening earnestly to every word that fell from the lips of Jesus. In His mercy Christ had pardoned Mary's sins, which had been many and grievous. Lazarus, her beloved brother, had been called from the grave and restored to his family by the power of the Savior; and Mary's heart was filled with gratitude. She longed to do Him honor. At great personal sacrifice she had purchased an alabaster box of precious ointment with which to anoint the body of Jesus at His death. Now, taking the box in her hands, she quietly broke it and poured the contents upon the head and feet of her Master.
FH	283	4	Her movements might have passed unnoticed had not the ointment made its presence known by its rich fragrance and published her act to all present. "When his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?" Judas was the first to make this suggestion, and others were ready to echo his words....
FH	283	5	Jesus saw Mary shrink away abashed, expecting to hear reproof from the One she loved and worshipped. But instead of this she heard words of commendation. "Why trouble ye the woman?" Christ said. "For she hath wrought a good work upon me."... "Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her."...
FH	283	6	Christ delighted in Mary's earnest desire to do the will of her Lord.... The desire that Mary had to do this service was of more value to Christ than all the precious ointment in the world, because it expressed her appreciation of her Redeemer.--Youth's Instructor, July 12, 1900.
------------------------Learning From Peter's Experience, September 29
FH	284	1	If I have to die with You, I will not deny You! Mark 14:31.
FH	284	2	The reason so many of Christ's professed disciples fall into grievous temptation is that they have not a correct knowledge of themselves. Here is where Peter was so thoroughly sifted by the enemy. If we could understand our own weakness, we should see so much to do for ourselves that we would humble our hearts under the mighty hand of God. Hanging our helpless souls upon Christ, we would supplement our ignorance with His wisdom, our weakness with His strength, our frailty with His enduring might....
FH	284	3	Mark the course pursued by Peter. His fall was not instantaneous, but gradual. Step after step was taken until the poor, sinful one denied his Lord with cursing and swearing....
FH	284	4	The crowing of the cock reminded Peter of the words of Christ, and, surprised and shocked, he turned and looked at his Master. At that moment Christ looked at Peter, and beholding that grieved look, in which compassion and love for him were blended, Peter understood himself. With startling vividness his self-confident words flashed upon his mind, "Although all shall be offended, yet will not I." "I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death." And yet he had denied his Lord with cursing and swearing!
FH	284	5	But Peter was not left in hopelessness. The look that Christ had given him brought a ray of hope to the erring disciple. He read there the words, "Peter, I am sorry for you. Because you are sorry and repent, I forgive you." While Peter's soul was passing through such deep humiliation, through the awful struggle with satanic agencies, he remembered the words of Christ, "I have prayed for thee," and they were to him a precious assurance....
FH	284	6	In Peter's fall we have before us our own individual cases. Just as verily as did Peter, many of the professedly commandment-keeping people of God dishonor and bring reproach upon their best Friend-the One who can save them to the uttermost. But the Lord would restore to Himself all who have put Him to shame by their unscriptural course of action.
FH	284	7	Peter sinned against light and knowledge and against great and exalted privileges. It was self-confidence that caused him to fail, and it is this same evil that is now working in human hearts. It may be our purpose to be right and to do right, but we shall most surely err unless we are constant learners in the school of Christ. Our only safety is in walking humbly with God.--Youth's Instructor, December 15, 1898.
------------------------Peter's Restoration, September 30
FH	285	1	Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these? John 21:15.
FH	285	2	Peter never forgot the painful scene of his humiliation. He did not forget his denial of Christ and think that, after all, it was not a very great sin....
FH	285	3	No restoration can be complete unless it reaches to the very depth of the soul by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Under the Holy Spirit's influence, Peter stood before a congregation of thousands and in holy boldness charged the wicked priests and rulers with the very sin of which he himself had been guilty....
FH	285	4	Three times after His resurrection, Christ tested Peter. "Simon, son of Jonas," He said, "lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep."...
FH	285	5	When the third time Christ said to Peter, "Lovest thou me?" the probe reached the soul center. Self-judged, Peter fell upon the Rock, saying, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee."...
FH	285	6	Some assert that if a soul stumbles and falls, he can never regain his position; but the case before us contradicts this. Before his denial, Christ said to Peter, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." In committing to his stewardship the souls for whom He had given His life, Christ gave to Peter the strongest evidence of His confidence in his restoration....
FH	285	7	Peter was now humble enough to understand the words of Christ, and without further questioning, the once restless, boastful, self-confident disciple became subdued and contrite. He followed his Lord indeed-the Lord he had denied. The thought that Christ had not denied and rejected him was to Peter a light and comfort and blessing. He felt that he could be crucified from choice, but it must be with his head downward....
FH	285	8	Christ is our tower of strength, and Satan can have no power over the soul who walks with God in humility of mind.... If we lean to our own wisdom, our wisdom will prove to be foolishness. But if we will give ourselves unselfishly to the work, never swerving in the least from principle, the Lord will throw about us the everlasting arms and will prove a mighty helper.--Youth's Instructor, December 22, 1898.
------------------------A Twofold System of Law, October 1
FH	286	1	For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
FH	286	2	The fact that the holy pair, in disregarding the prohibition of God in one particular, thus transgressed His law, and as the result suffered the consequences of the Fall, should impress all with a just sense of the sacred character of the law of God....
FH	286	3	God's people, whom He calls His peculiar treasure, were privileged with a twofold system of law, the moral and the ceremonial. The one, pointing back to Creation to keep in remembrance the living God who made the world, whose claims are binding upon all in every dispensation, and which will exist through all time and eternity. The other, given because of Adam's transgression of the moral law, the obedience to which consisted in sacrifices and offerings pointing to the future redemption....
FH	286	4	The love that God bore to humanity, whom He had created in His own image, led Him to give His Son to die for their transgression, and lest the increase of sin should lead them to forget God and the promised redemption, the system of sacrificial offerings was established to typify the perfect offering of the Son of God....
FH	286	5	Christ became sin for the fallen race in taking upon Himself the condemnation resting upon the sinner for his transgression of the law of God. Christ stood at the head of the human family as their representative. He had taken upon Himself the sins of the world. In the likeness of sinful flesh He condemned sin in the flesh....
FH	286	6	The law of Jehovah, dating back to Creation, was comprised in the two great principles, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."...
FH	286	7	What is the will of the Father? That we keep His commandments....
FH	286	8	The death of Jesus Christ for the redemption of mankind lifts the veil and reflects a flood of light back hundreds of years upon the whole institution of the Jewish system of religion. Without the death of Christ, all this system was meaningless.--The Review and Herald, May 6, 1875.
------------------------God's Eternal Law, October 2
FH	287	1	So shall I keep Your law continually, forever and ever. Psalm 119:44.
FH	287	2	How wonderful in its simplicity, its comprehensiveness and perfection, is the law of Jehovah!...
FH	287	3	There is no mystery in the law of God. The feeblest intellect can grasp these rules to regulate the life and form the character after the divine Model....
FH	287	4	The infinite sacrifice which Christ has made to magnify and exalt the law testifies that not one jot or tittle of that law will relinquish its claims upon the transgressor. Christ came to pay the debt which the sinner had incurred by transgression, and by His own example to teach us how to keep the law of God. Said Christ, "I have kept my Father's commandments." In consideration of all the facts so clearly establishing the claims of God's law, with heaven and eternal life in view to inspire hope and induce effort, it is inconceivable how so many professing to be servants of God can set aside His law and teach sinners that they are not amenable to its precepts. What a fatal delusion! Satan first devised this heresy, and by it he enticed Eve into sin. The sad results of that transgression are before us....
FH	287	5	Christ came to teach us the way of salvation. And when the shadowy services of the former dispensation were no longer of any value-when type had met antitype in the death of Christ-then we might expect that if the law of ten commandments were no longer binding, Christ would declare its abrogation. If the Old Testament Scriptures were no longer to be regarded as a guide for Christians, He would make known the fact....
FH	287	6	Holy prophets have foretold the manner of Christ's birth, the events of His life, His mission, and His death and resurrection. In the Old Testament we find the gospel of a coming Savior. In the New Testament we have the gospel of a Savior revealed as prophecy had foretold....
FH	287	7	There is no discord between the teachings of Christ in the Old Testament and His teachings in the New....
FH	287	8	In the very last message to His church, by way of Patmos, the risen Savior pronounces a benediction upon those who keep His Father's law: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."--The Review and Herald, September 14, 1886.
------------------------Glorifying God, October 3
FH	288	1	That you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:6.
FH	288	2	Supreme love to God will be shown by every man or woman who is a true follower of Jesus Christ.... We are His creatures, the work of His hands, and He is justly entitled to reverence, honor, and love....
FH	288	3	In love, with a desire to elevate and ennoble us, God provided for us a standard of obedience. In awful majesty, amid thundering and lightning, He proclaimed from Mount Sinai His ten holy precepts....
FH	288	4	God saw the sinner's hopeless condition. He looked with sorrow upon the world, which was steadily growing more and more degraded and sinful. He could not change His law to meet our deficiencies; for He says, "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." But in His great love for the human race, in His desire that we should not be left to meet the penalty of our transgression, but that we should be elevated and ennobled, He "gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Christ laid aside His royal robes and came to this earth, bringing with Him a power sufficient to overcome sin. He came to live the law of God in humanity, that by partaking of His divine nature, we also might live that law....
FH	288	5	Before the universe of heaven, before the fallen angels, and before those whom He had come to save, Christ lived the law of God. By His supreme obedience to its requirements, He exalted and enforced it. By His purity, goodness, beneficence, devotion, and zeal for the glory of God, by His unsurpassed love for others, He made known the perfection of the law. By His blameless life He illustrated its excellence....
FH	288	6	Obedience must come from the heart. It was heart work with Christ.... If we draw near to God, the unfailing source of strength, we shall realize the fulfillment of the promise, "Ask, and ye shall receive."...
FH	288	7	As Christ lived the law in humanity, so we may do if we will take hold of the Strong for strength. As we realize that we can do nothing of ourselves, we shall receive wisdom from on high to honor and glorify God. And as we behold "the glory of the Lord," we shall be changed into the same image, "from glory to glory."--Signs of the Times, March 4, 1897.
------------------------The Dynamic Duo, October 4
FH	289	1	Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! Galatians 3:21.
FH	289	2	The law and the gospel cannot be separated. In Christ mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. The gospel has not ignored the obligations due to God by men and women. The gospel is the law unfolded, nothing more nor less. It gives no more latitude to sin than does the law. The law points to Christ; Christ points to the law. The gospel calls us to repentance. Repentance of what? Of sin. And what is sin? It is the transgression of the law. Therefore the gospel calls sinners from their transgression back to obedience to the law of God. Jesus in His life and death taught the strictest obedience. He died, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, that the honor of God's law might be preserved, and yet humanity not utterly perish.
FH	289	3	The work of salvation in both the Old and New Testament dispensation is the same....
FH	289	4	Satan is working with all his deceptive power to ensnare the world. He would have them believe that this great sacrifice was made in order to abolish God's law. He represents Christ as opposed to the law of God's government in heaven and in earth. But the Sovereign of the world has a law by which to govern His heavenly intelligences and His human family, and the death of His Son fixes the immutability of that law beyond any question. God has no intention of doing away with His great standard of righteousness. By this standard He can define what a correct character is....
FH	289	5	It is necessary that every intelligent being shall understand the principles of the law of God. Christ through the apostle James declares, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." These words were spoken this side of the death of Christ; therefore the law was binding upon all at that time....
FH	289	6	People may talk of freedom, of gospel liberty. They may assert that they are not in bondage to the law. But the influence of a gospel hope will not lead sinners to look upon the salvation of Christ as a matter of free grace while they continue to live in transgression of the law of God. When the light of truth dawns upon their minds, and they fully understand the requirements of God and realize the extent of their transgressions, they will reform their ways, become loyal to God through the strength obtained from their Savior, and lead a new and purer life.--Signs of the Times, February 25, 1897.
------------------------Rest in Christ, October 5
FH	290	1	Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. Hebrews 4:1.
FH	290	2	Jesus, our compassionate Savior, is the way, the truth, and the life. Why will we not accept His gracious offer of mercy, believe His words of promise, and not make the way of life so hard? As we travel the precious road cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in, let us not overcast it with doubts and gloomy forebodings and pursue our way murmuring and groaning, as though forced to an unpleasant, exacting task. The ways of Christ are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. If we have made rough paths for our feet and taken heavy burdens of care in laying up for ourselves treasures upon the earth, let us now change and follow the path Jesus has prepared for us.
FH	290	3	We are not always willing to come to Jesus with our trials and difficulties. Sometimes we pour our troubles into human ears and tell our afflictions to those who cannot help us, and neglect to confide all to Jesus, who is able to change the sorrowful way to paths of joy and peace. Self-denying, self-sacrificing, gives glory and victory to the cross. The promises of God are very precious. We must study His Word if we would know His will. The words of inspiration, carefully studied and practically obeyed, will lead our feet in a plain path where we may walk without stumbling. Oh, that all, ministers and people, would take their burdens and perplexities to Jesus, who is waiting to receive them and to give them peace and rest! He will never forsake those who put their trust in Him....
FH	290	4	It is our duty to love Jesus as our Redeemer. He has a right to command our love, but He invites us to give Him our heart. He calls us to walk with Him in the path of humble, truthful obedience. His invitation to us is a call to a pure, holy, and happy life-a life of peace and rest, of liberty and love-and to a rich inheritance in the future, immortal life. Which will we choose-liberty in Christ, or bondage and tyranny in the service of Satan? Why should we reject the invitation of mercy and refuse the proffers of divine love? If we choose to live with Christ through the ceaseless ages of eternity, why not choose Him now as our most loved and trusted Friend, our best and wisest Counselor?--Signs of the Times, March 17, 1887.
------------------------Onward and Upward, October 6
FH	291	1	I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Philippians 3:8.
FH	291	2	To love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves is to keep the first four and the last six commandments. God has given to us a large field in which we may work; and in doing the work appointed us of God, we will not lift up ourselves but will exalt Christ. We will cherish love for God and love for our brethren and for all people. Love will soon die out of the heart if it is left without cultivation; we can only keep divine love in the soul by doing the words of the Master. Are there not many claiming to keep the commandments who are living in transgression of the sacred precepts? We cannot keep the law of God unless we give to our Creator and Redeemer our undivided affection. It is impossible to keep the last six commandments unless we keep the first four....
FH	291	3	When we come into close sympathy with Jesus, He will impart His love, and this will flow out in loving acts, in tender compassion to others. When we fail to love God supremely, we surely fail to love our neighbor as ourselves. When you love God with all your heart, might, mind, soul, and strength, you will be as a living stream in the desert to all around you. There will be no expressed doubts, no sowing of tares in your suggestions. You will not rest satisfied with a meager experience....
FH	291	4	There is no standing still in the Christian life. The followers of Jesus see ever before them higher things to be attained, and they will not be satisfied with a low standard. There is great danger in being satisfied, in not pressing forward for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus....
FH	291	5	In the truth, Jesus is unfolded in all His matchless loveliness; but of what advantage will be our knowledge of truth if it does not lead us to Jesus, if it does not increase our knowledge of Him and our love for Him? As soon as you surrender your whole heart to God, you will render self-denying, cheerful obedience. God requires that we shall be found in Him, not having our own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ. When, with grateful appreciation of His love, we open the door of our heart to Jesus, saying, "Come in," the heavenly Guest is with us. When we love Jesus, we love all whom Jesus loves.--Signs of the Times, September 22, 1890.
------------------------Like Christ, October 7
FH	292	1	By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature. 2 Peter 1:4.
FH	292	2	Christ is an open fountain, an inexhaustible fountain, from which all may drink and drink again, and ever find a fresh supply. But none will ever come to Him save those who will respond to the drawing of His love. None will feed on the bread of life which came down from heaven, none will drink of the water of life flowing down from the throne of God, save those who yield to the pleadings of the Spirit. Since God has given the treasures of heaven in the gift of His only begotten Son, how shall the sinner escape who neglects so great salvation and sets at naught the great provision of God? The justice of God is manifested in the condemnation of all who are finally impenitent and unbelieving. There will be no excuse for the sinner who willfully rejects and neglects so great salvation.
FH	292	3	The gift of life has been freely, graciously, joyously offered to fallen humanity. Through Christ we may become partakers of the divine nature and obtain the gift of eternal life; for it has been abundantly provided for all who will come and receive it through God's appointed means. When Paul beheld the wonders of redemption and the foolishness of those who did not comprehend its nature, he exclaimed, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?"...
FH	292	4	Those who go on to know the Lord know that His goings forth are prepared as the morning, and all who receive the precious jewels of truth will hasten to impart the knowledge of their riches in Christ to those who are around them. When people respond to the drawing of Christ and view Jesus as the royal Sufferer on the cross of Calvary, they enter into oneness with Christ, they become the elect of God, not by works of their own, but through the grace of Christ; for all their good works are wrought through the power of the Spirit of God. All is of God, and not of themselves....
FH	292	5	The fruit we are to bring forth is the fruit of the Spirit.... Your fruit is to remain, to be of such a character that it shall not perish but reproduce after its kind a harvest of a precious order.--Signs of the Times, May 2, 1892.
------------------------A New Creation, October 8
FH	293	1	For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. Galatians 6:15.
FH	293	2	The grace of Jesus Christ alone can change the heart of stone to a heart of flesh and make it alive unto God. Men and women may perform great deeds in the eyes of the world; their achievements may be many and of a high order in the sight of others, but all the talent, all the skill, all the ability of the world, will fail to transform the character and make a degraded child of sin a child of God, an heir of heaven. We have no power to justify the soul, to sanctify the heart....
FH	293	3	How the wondrous provision of the plan of God for the salvation of mankind widens and exalts our ideas of the love of God! How it binds our hearts to the great heart of Infinite Love! How it makes us delight in His service, as our hearts respond to the drawing of His loving kindness and tender mercy!...
FH	293	4	This is the work that is before us. We are to have the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Through faith our lives are to be hid with Christ in God. We shall then be God's hidden ones; for the value of Christian character is not discerned by the world. The world admire honesty, and the manifestations of the virtues and graces of Christian character; but at the same time they make a jest of true Christian conscientiousness because it is a rebuke to their own lives of sin. The living stones that shine in the spiritual temple of the Lord are a great annoyance to Satan, and he ever seeks to cut off the light and eclipse the Sun of Righteousness by interposing his shadow between the soul and God....
FH	293	5	Before human beings and angels, Christians are required to show by precept and example the value of Christian character. Those who receive Christ as their personal Savior will be able to do this, and for them Christ has gone to prepare mansions in heaven. There are some who declare that all are entitled to a place in heaven, and in the same breath they acknowledge that all are not fitted for that heavenly abode. If all... would but accept the truth as it is in Jesus and give it a place in the inner sanctuary of the soul, that they might become sanctified through it, they would be fitted for heaven....
FH	293	6	Those whose lives are hid with Christ in God, who have been clothed upon with His righteousness, will have a right to the inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.--Signs of the Times, May 2, 1892.
------------------------The Purpose of Grace, October 9
FH	294	1	For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8.
FH	294	2	The purpose and plan of grace existed from all eternity. Before the foundation of the world it was according to the determinate counsel of God that humanity should be created, endowed with power to do the divine will. But the defection of the human race, with all its consequences, was not hidden from the Omnipotent, and yet it did not deter Him from carrying out His eternal purpose, for the Lord would establish His throne in righteousness. God knows the end from the beginning: "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." Therefore redemption was not an afterthought-a plan formulated after the fall of Adam-but an eternal purpose to be wrought out for the blessing not only of this atom of a world but for the good of all the worlds which God has created.
FH	294	3	The creation of the worlds, the mystery of the gospel, are for one purpose, to make manifest to all created intelligences, through nature and through Christ, the glories of the divine character. By the marvelous display of His love in giving "his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," the glory of God is revealed to lost humanity and to the intelligences of other worlds. The Lord of heaven and earth revealed His glory to Moses when he offered his prayer to Jehovah in behalf of idolatrous Israel and pleaded, "Shew me thy glory."...
FH	294	4	It is the privilege of every follower of Christ to behold the glory of God, to understand His goodness, and know that He is a God of infinite mercy and love.... Jesus came to reveal the Father, to make His glory known before humanity. No one was excluded from the privileges of the gospel....
FH	294	5	The mystery of the gospel had been spoken in Eden when the lost pair were first in the guilt of transgression, for God said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." If Satan could have touched the head with his specious temptations, the human family would have been lost, but the Lord had made known the purpose and plan of the mystery of grace, for "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."--Signs of the Times, April 25, 1892.
------------------------The Impact of Truth, October 10
FH	295	1	Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
FH	295	2	Christ represents the truth as a treasure that is hid in the field, for which, if men and women would possess it, they must search diligently. In the field of revelation are hid the unsearchable riches of Christ.... Every part of the field of revelation is to be diligently explored and searched with persevering effort, in order that precious jewels of truth may reward the diligent seeker and may be restored to their proper framework in the plan of redemption. Let the shaft sink deep into the mines of truth. If you come to the searching of the Scriptures with contrition of soul, with a humble, teachable spirit, rich and precious treasures will reward your search....
FH	295	3	In the teachings of Christ, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is made prominent. What a vast theme is this for contemplation and encouragement! What treasures of truth did He add to the knowledge of His disciples in His instruction concerning the Holy Spirit, the Comforter! He dwelt upon this theme in order to console His disciples in the great trial they were soon to experience, that they might be cheered in their great disappointment....
FH	295	4	And yet, though Christ made much of this theme concerning the Holy Spirit, how little is it dwelt upon in the churches! The name and presence of the Holy Spirit are almost ignored, yet the divine influence is essential in the work of perfecting the Christian character....
FH	295	5	The Lord has given us a divine directory by which we may know His will.
FH	295	6	... Those who are guided by the Holy Spirit have cast their anchors within the veil wherein Jesus has entered for us. They search the Scriptures with eager earnestness and seek for light and knowledge to guide them amid the perplexities and perils which at every step compass their path....
FH	295	7	To the sincere, contrite heart, truth is truth; and if it is allowed, it will sanctify the soul and transform the character into the divine image.... Those who realize what is the character of the work that they must do in order to represent Christ will walk softly and tremblingly before God, looking unto Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of their faith. They dare not trust themselves, they dare not kindle a fire of their own and walk in sparks of their own kindling, for the Lord has said that all such shall lie down in sorrow. The Lord has entrusted to His people the treasures of sacred truth.--Signs of the Times, August 14, 1893.
------------------------Christ in Light of the Law, October 11
FH	296	1	Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Romans 7:12.
FH	296	2	Those who desire salvation should fix their mind upon the cross of Calvary. It is there that sinners may behold what sin has done. There they can see the infinite sacrifice that has been made to redeem them from the penalty of the broken law of God. As transgressors realize their lost condition, they see in Christ their only hope of salvation. From the cross they learn precious lessons of the life... of the Son of God, who gave Himself for us. Calvary portrays the matchless attributes of the divine character. As they look to the cross, they will hate sin, for they will understand that it was sin that rejected, reproached, denied, scourged, and crucified the Majesty of heaven....
FH	296	3	The cross of Calvary tells how Christ has magnified the law and made it honorable. It required the infinite merits of His blood to make an atonement for those who receive His love and follow in His footsteps. Sinners may obtain pardon and peace only through Him who has loved us and who will wash us from our sins in His own blood. Those who have been convinced of sin before the law and have exercised repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ cease to make void the law of God....
FH	296	4	We could never have known the value of Christ except through an understanding of the exalted claims of the law of Jehovah. We could never have appreciated the depth of the pit from which Christ has rescued us except through a comprehension of the excellence of the precepts of truth. Never could we have understood the depth of the love of God which is in Christ Jesus unless we could have beheld the marvelous character of the law of heaven and earth. In the light of that holy law, sinners see the Redeemer as He is-full of mercy, compassion, goodness, and love; and by looking to Jesus and by contemplating His matchless love to such sinners as themselves, their hearts are filled with gratitude and heavenly peace....
FH	296	5	Although the law of God is of a holy and unchangeable character, the adversary of God and humanity, the first great rebel who transgressed its precepts in heaven, has led men and women in all ages to war against God.... As sinners see that sin is the transgression of the law and that the law is the foundation of God's government in heaven and in earth, they make haste to place their feet in the path of righteousness, that they may be without offense.--Signs of the Times, July 6, 1888.
------------------------Walk in Christ, October 12
FH	297	1	As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Colossians 2:6.
FH	297	2	"Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour."...
FH	297	3	Obedience to the law of God is sanctification. There are many who have erroneous ideas in regard to this work in the soul, but Jesus prayed that His disciples might be sanctified through the truth, and added, "Thy word is truth." Sanctification is not an instantaneous but a progressive work, as obedience is continuous. Just as long as Satan urges his temptations upon us, the battle for self-conquest will have to be fought over and over again; but by obedience, the truth will sanctify the soul. Those who are loyal to the truth will, through the merits of Christ, overcome all weakness of character which has led them to be molded by every varying circumstance of life.
FH	297	4	Many have taken the position that they cannot sin because they are sanctified, but this is a delusive snare of the evil one. There is constant danger of falling into sin, for Christ has warned us to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation. If we are conscious of the weakness of self, we shall not be self-confident and reckless of danger, but we shall feel the necessity of seeking to the Source of our strength, Jesus our righteousness. We shall come in repentance and contrition, with a despairing sense of our own finite weakness, and learn that we must daily apply to the merits of the blood of Christ, that we may become vessels fit for the Master's use.
FH	297	5	While thus depending upon God, we shall not be found warring against the truth, but we shall always be enabled to take our stand for the right. We should cling to the teaching of the Bible and not follow the customs and traditions of the world, the sayings and doings of humanity. When errors arise and are taught as Bible truth, those who have a connection with Christ will not trust to what the minister says, but, like the noble Bereans, they will search the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so. When they discover what is the word of the Lord, they will take their stand on the side of truth. They will hear the voice of the true Shepherd saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it." Thus you will be educated to make the Bible the man of your counsel, and the voice of a stranger you will neither hear nor follow.--Signs of the Times, May 19, 1890.
------------------------Two Vital Lessons, October 13
FH	298	1	Gather my saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. Psalm 50:5.
FH	298	2	If the soul is to be purified and ennobled and made fit for the heavenly courts, there are two lessons to be learned-self-sacrifice and self-control. Some learn these important lessons more easily than do others, for they are exercised by the simple discipline the Lord gives them in gentleness and love. Others require the slow discipline of suffering, that the cleansing fire may purify their hearts of pride and self-reliance, of earthly passion and self-love, that the true gold of character may appear, and that they may become victors through the grace of Christ. The love of God will strengthen the soul, and through the virtue of the merits of the blood of Christ we may stand unscathed amid the fire of temptation and trial; but no other help can avail to save but Christ, our righteousness, who is made unto us wisdom and sanctification and redemption.
FH	298	3	True sanctification is nothing more or less than to love God with all the heart, to walk in His commandments and ordinances blameless. Sanctification is not an emotion, but a heaven-born principle that brings all the passions and desires under the control of the Spirit of God; and this work is done through our Lord and Savior.
FH	298	4	Spurious sanctification does not glorify God, but leads those who claim it to exalt and glorify themselves. Whatever comes in our experience, whether of joy or sorrow, that does not reflect Christ and point to Him as its author,... is not true Christian experience.
FH	298	5	When the grace of Christ is implanted in the soul by the Holy Spirit, its possessor will become humble in spirit and will seek for the society of those whose conversation is upon heavenly things. Then the Spirit will take the things of Christ and show them unto us, and will glorify, not the receiver, but the Giver. If, therefore, you have the sacred peace of Christ in your heart, your lips will be filled with praise and thanksgiving to God. Your prayers, the discharge of your duty, your benevolence, your self-denial, will not be the theme of your thought or conversation, but you will magnify Him who gave Himself for you when you were yet a sinner. You will say, "I give myself to Jesus. I have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write." As you praise Him, you will have a precious blessing, and all the praise and glory for that which is done through your instrumentality will be given back to God.--Signs of the Times, May 19, 1890.
------------------------Would You Have Peace? October 14
FH	299	1	Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright; for the future of that man is peace. Psalm 37:37.
FH	299	2	The peace of Christ is not a boisterous, untamable element made manifest in loud voices and bodily exercises. The peace of Christ is an intelligent peace, and it does not make those who possess it bear the marks of fanaticism and extravagance. It is not a rambling impulse, but an emanation from God. When the Savior imparts His peace to the soul, the heart will be in perfect harmony with the Word of God, for the Spirit and the Word agree. The Lord honors His Word in all His dealings with humanity. It is His own will, His own voice, that is revealed to them, and He has no new will, no new truth, aside from His Word to unfold to His children. If you have a wonderful experience that is not in harmony with the expressed directions of God's Word, you may well doubt it; for its origin is not from above. The peace of Christ comes through the knowledge of Jesus whom the Bible reveals.
FH	299	3	If happiness is drawn from outside sources and not from the Divine Fount, it will be as changeable as varying circumstances can make it; but the peace of Christ is a constant and abiding peace. It does not depend on any circumstance in life, on the amount of worldly goods, or the number of earthly friends. Christ is the fountain of living waters, and happiness and peace drawn from Him will never fail, for He is a wellspring of life. Those who trust in Him can say, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."...
FH	299	4	We have reason for ceaseless gratitude to God that Christ, by His perfect obedience, has won back the heaven that Adam lost through disobedience. Adam sinned, and the children of Adam share his guilt and its consequences; but Jesus bore the guilt of Adam, and all the children of Adam that will flee to Christ, the second Adam, may escape the penalty of transgression. Jesus regained heaven for us by bearing the test that Adam failed to endure, for He obeyed the law perfectly, and all who have a right conception of the plan of redemption will see that they cannot be saved while in transgression of God's holy precepts. They must cease to transgress the law, and lay hold on the promises of God that are available for us through the merits of Christ.
FH	299	5	Our faith is not to stand in human ability but in the power of God.... Christ must be our strength and our refuge.... Pure, living religion is found in obedience to every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.--Signs of the Times, May 19, 1890.
------------------------How Faith Works, October 15
FH	300	1	But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6.
FH	300	2	When through repentance and faith we accept Christ as our Savior, the Lord pardons our sins and remits the penalty prescribed for the transgression of the law. The sinner then stands before God as a just person, is taken into favor with heaven, and through the Spirit has fellowship with the Father and the Son. Then there is yet another work to be accomplished, and this is of a progressive nature. The soul is to be sanctified through the truth. And this also is accomplished through faith. For it is only by the grace of Christ, which we receive through faith, that the character can be transformed.
FH	300	3	It is important that we understand clearly the nature of faith. There are many who believe that Christ is the Savior of the world, that the gospel is true and reveals the plan of salvation, yet they do not possess saving faith. They are intellectually convinced of the truth, but this is not enough; in order to be justified, sinners must have that faith that appropriates the merits of Christ to their own soul. We read that the devils "believe, and tremble"; but their belief does not bring them justification, neither will the belief of those who give a merely intellectual assent to the truths of the Bible bring them the benefits of salvation. This belief fails of reaching the vital point, for the truth does not engage the heart or transform the character.
FH	300	4	In genuine, saving faith, there is trust in God through the belief in the great atoning sacrifice made by the Son of God on Calvary. In Christ, the justified believers behold their only hope and deliverer. Belief may exist without trust, but confidence born of trust cannot exist without faith. All sinners brought to a knowledge of the saving power of Christ will make manifest this trust in greater degree as they advance in experience.
FH	300	5	The words of the apostle shed light upon what constitutes genuine faith. He says, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." To believe with the heart is more than conviction, more than assent to the truth. This faith is sincere, earnest, and engages the affections of the soul; it is the faith that works by love and purifies the heart.--Signs of the Times, November 3, 1890.
------------------------Be Honest With God, October 16
FH	301	1	For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:14.
FH	301	2	God reveals Christ to sinners, and they behold Him dying upon Calvary for the sin of His creatures. They then understand how they are condemned by the law of God, for the Spirit works upon their consciences, enforcing the claim of the broken law. They are then given the opportunity of defying the law, of rejecting the Savior, or of yielding to its claims and receiving Christ as their Redeemer. God will not compel the service of sinners, but He reveals to them their obligation, unfolds to them the requirements of His holy law, and sets before them the result of their choice-to obey and live, or to disobey and perish.
FH	301	3	The command from heaven is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." When the force of this requirement is understood, the conscience is convicted, the sinner is condemned. The carnal mind, which is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, rises up in rebellion against the holy claims of the law. But as sinners behold Christ hanging upon the cross of Calvary, suffering for their transgression, deeper conviction takes hold upon them, and they see something of the offensive nature of sin.
FH	301	4	Where there is a true conception of the spirituality and holiness of the divine law, sinners are under condemnation, and their sins stand arrayed before them in their true character. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and in its light they understand the evil of secret thoughts and deeds of darkness....
FH	301	5	Character is tested and registered by Heaven more by the inward spirit, the hidden motives, than by that which appears to others. People may have a pleasing exterior and be outwardly excellent, while they are but whited sepulchers, full of corruption and uncleanness. Their works are registered as unsanctified, unholy. Their prayers and works, devoid of the righteousness of Christ, do not ascend before God as sweet fragrance, but they are abomination in the eyes of the Lord. To those who will open their eyes, the law presents a perfect likeness of the soul, a complete photograph of the inner being; and as this picture is unveiled before sinners, they are constrained to acknowledge that they are sold under sin, but that the law is holy, and just, and good.--Signs of the Times, November 3, 1890.
------------------------Guided by the Holy Spirit, October 17
FH	302	1	The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Isaiah 11:2.
FH	302	2	"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."... We cannot spiritually discern the character of God or accept of Jesus Christ by faith unless our life and character are marked by purity, by the casting down of imaginations and of every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and by bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ....
FH	302	3	The Lord is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that earnestly desire it than are earthly parents to give good gifts to their children. Christ has promised the Holy Spirit to guide us unto all truth and righteousness and holiness. The Holy Spirit is not given by measure to those who earnestly seek for it, who by faith stand upon the promises of God. They plead the pledged word of God, saying, "Thou hast said it. I take thee at thy word."
FH	302	4	The Comforter is given that He may take of the things of Christ and show them unto us, that He may present in their rich assurance the words that fell from His lips and convey them with living power to the soul who is obedient, who is emptied of self. It is then that the soul receives the image and superscription of the divine. Then Jesus Christ is formed within, the hope of glory....
FH	302	5	Food is the substance of which we partake, that our bodies may be strengthened and built up. In like manner we are to feed upon that which will build up our spiritual nature. Jesus said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Our bodies are composed of that upon which we feed; so our spiritual life will be composed of that upon which we feed. If we feed on Christ, by thinking of Him, by obeying His words, we are built up in Him and grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth unto the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus....
FH	302	6	As God works in us to will, we are to cooperate with God, manifesting a determination like that of Daniel to do the will of God, working in harmony with the divine Agent. Then we shall have rest in God.--Signs of the Times, December 25, 1893.
------------------------Evidence of the Spirit's Work, October 18
FH	303	1	Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10.
FH	303	2	The Holy Spirit is a free, working, independent agency. The God of heaven uses His Spirit as it pleases Him; and human minds, human judgment, and human methods can no more set boundaries to its working... than they can say to the wind, "I bid you to blow in a certain direction and to conduct yourself in such and such a manner." As the wind moves in its force, bending and breaking the lofty trees in its path, so the Holy Spirit influences human hearts, and no finite human can circumscribe its work....
FH	303	3	The fountain of the heart must be purified before the streams can become pure. There is no safety for one who has merely a legal religion, a form of godliness. The Christian's life is not a modification or improvement of the old life, but a transformation of the nature. There is a death to sin and self, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit....
FH	303	4	The Spirit of God is manifested in different ways upon different individuals. Some, under the movings of this Power, will tremble before the Word of God. Their convictions are so deep that a tumult of feeling seems to rage in their heart, and their whole being is prostrated under the convicting power of the truth....
FH	303	5	Others are brought to Christ in a more gentle way. Men and women who have been dead in trespasses and sins become convicted and converted under the operations of the Spirit. The thoughtless and wayward become serious. The hardened repent of their sins, and the faithless believe. The gambler, the drunkard, the licentious, become steady, sober, and pure. The rebellious and obstinate become meek and Christlike....
FH	303	6	The Holy Spirit moves upon the inner self until it becomes conscious of the divine power of God, and every spiritual faculty is quickened to decided action. A deep and thorough work is wrought in the soul, which the world cannot see....
FH	303	7	Those who truly love God have the internal evidence that they are beloved of God. They have communion with Christ, and their hearts are warmed with fervent love toward Him. God claims them for Himself and will impart to them special favors, enabling them to be complete in Christ, more than conquerors through Him who has loved them.--Signs of the Times, March 8, 1910.
------------------------Lights Shining in Darkness, October 19
FH	304	1	You are all sons of light and sons of the day. 1 Thessalonians 5:5.
FH	304	2	"Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."... God has left nothing undone that could in any way work for the recovering of sinners from the toils of the enemy. He poured upon the disciples the Holy Spirit in order that they might be enabled to cooperate with divine agencies in reshaping and remodeling human character....
FH	304	3	There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents than over the ninety and nine who suppose they need no repentance. When we hear of the success of the truth in any locality, let the whole church join in songs of rejoicing, let praises ascend to God. Let the name of the Lord be glorified by us....
FH	304	4	Entire consecration to the service of God will reveal the molding influence of the Holy Spirit at every step along the way. When apparent impossibilities arise in your path, present the ever ready, complete efficiency of the Holy Spirit before your unbelieving heart, that it may shame away your overcautious spirit. When your faith is weak, your efforts feeble, talk of the great Comforter, the Strength of heaven. When you are inclined to doubt that God is working by His Holy Spirit through human agents, remember that God has used the church and is using it to the glory of His own name. If we will not obstruct the way, God will move upon the minds of many more to engage in active service for Him....
FH	304	5	The end of all things is at hand. God is moving upon every mind that is open to receive the impressions of His Holy Spirit. He is sending out messengers, that they may give the warning in every locality. God is testing the devotion of His churches and their willingness to render obedience to the Spirit's guidance. Knowledge is to be increased. The messengers of heaven are to be seen running to and fro, seeking in every possible way to warn the people of the coming judgments, and presenting the glad tidings of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. The standard of righteousness is to be exalted. The Spirit of God is moving upon sinful hearts, and those who respond to its influence will become lights in the world. Everywhere they are seen going forth to communicate to others the light they have received, as they did after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And as they let their light shine, they receive more and more of the Spirit's power. The earth is lighted with the glory of God.--The Review and Herald, July 16, 1895.
------------------------Gifts of the Spirit, October 20
FH	305	1	Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. 1 Corinthians 12:1.
FH	305	2	Before He left His disciples, Christ breathed on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Again He said, "Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you." But not until after the Ascension was this gift received in its fullness. Not until through faith and prayer the disciples had surrendered themselves fully for His working was the outpouring of the Spirit bestowed....
FH	305	3	"When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men."... The gifts are already ours in Christ, but their actual possession depends upon our reception of the Spirit of God.
FH	305	4	The talents that Christ entrusts to His church represent especially the gifts and blessings imparted by the Holy Spirit.... Not all the gifts are imparted to each believer, but to every servant of the Master some gift of the Spirit is promised, according to that one's need for the Lord's work.
FH	305	5	In all the Lord's arrangements, there is nothing more beautiful than His plan of giving to men and women a diversity of gifts.... Many have received but a limited religious and intellectual training, but God has a work for this class to do if they will labor in humility, trusting in Him....
FH	305	6	Different gifts are imparted to different ones, that the workers may feel their need of one another. God bestows these gifts, and they are employed in His service, not to glorify the possessor, not to uplift human beings, but to uplift the world's Redeemer....
FH	305	7	It may seem to some that the contrast between their gifts and the gifts of a fellow laborer is too great to allow them to unite in harmonious effort; but when they remember that there are varied minds to be reached and that some will reject the truth as it is presented by one laborer, only to open their hearts to the same truth as presented in a different manner by another, they will hopefully endeavor to labor together in unity. Their talents, however diverse, may all be under the control of the same Spirit. In every word and act, kindness and love will be revealed; and as the workers fill their appointed places faithfully, the prayer of Christ for the unity of His followers will be answered, and the world will know that these are His disciples.--Signs of the Times, March 15, 1910.
------------------------Pentecost, October 21
FH	306	1	When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.... And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:1-4.
FH	306	2	During the Jewish economy, the influence of God's Spirit had been seen in a marked manner, but not in full. For ages prayers had been offered for the fulfillment of God's promise to impart His Spirit, and not one of these earnest supplications had been forgotten.
FH	306	3	Christ determined that when He ascended from this earth He would bestow a gift on those who had believed on Him and those who should believe on Him. What gift could He bestow rich enough to signalize and grace His ascension to the mediatorial throne? It must be worthy of His greatness and His royalty. He determined to give His representative, the third Person of the Godhead. This gift could not be excelled....
FH	306	4	The Spirit had been waiting for the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. For ten days the disciples offered their petitions for the outpouring of the Spirit, and Christ in heaven added His intercession....
FH	306	5	The Spirit was given as Christ had promised, and like a rushing mighty wind it fell upon those assembled, filling the whole house. It came with a fullness and power, as if for ages it had been restrained....
FH	306	6	On the day of Pentecost, Christ's witnesses proclaimed the truth, telling others the wonderful news of salvation through Christ. And as a flaming two-edged sword the truth flashed conviction into human hearts. People were brought under Christ's control. The glad tidings were carried to the uttermost bounds of the inhabited world. The church beheld converts flocking to her from all directions. The altar of the cross, which sanctifies the gift, was rebuilt. Believers were reconverted. Sinners united with Christians in seeking the pearl of great price. The prophecy was fulfilled: the weak "shall be as David," and David "as the angel of the Lord." Every Christian saw in his brother the divine similitude of benevolence and love. One interest prevailed. One object swallowed up all others. Every pulse beat in healthy concert. The only ambition of the believers was to see who could reveal most perfectly the likeness of Christ's character, who could do the most for the enlargement of His kingdom.... The Spirit of Christ animated the whole congregation, for they had found the pearl of great price.--Signs of the Times, December 1, 1898.
------------------------The Fruits of Pentecost, October 22
FH	307	1	Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John,... they realized that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13.
FH	307	2	After the crucifixion of Christ, the disciples were a helpless, discouraged company-as sheep without a shepherd. Their Master had been rejected, condemned, and nailed to the ignominious cross. Scornfully the Jewish priests and rulers had declared, "He saved others; himself he cannot save."...
FH	307	3	But the cross, that instrument of shame and torture, brought hope and salvation to the world. The disciples rallied; their hopelessness and helplessness left them. They were transformed in character, and united in bonds of Christian love. They were but humble men, without wealth and with no weapon but the Word and Spirit of God, counted by the Jews as mere fishermen. Yet in Christ's strength they went forth to witness for the truth and to triumph over all opposition. Clothed with the divine panoply, they went forth to tell the wonderful story of the manger and the cross. Without earthly honor or recognition, they were heroes of faith. From their lips came words of divine eloquence that shook the world.
FH	307	4	Those who had rejected and crucified the Savior expected to find the disciples discouraged and crestfallen, ready to disown their Lord. They heard with amazement the clear, bold testimony of the apostles given under the power of the Holy Spirit. The disciples worked and spoke as their Master had worked and spoken, and all who heard them said, "They have been with Jesus, and learned of Him."
FH	307	5	As the apostles went forth, preaching Jesus everywhere, they did many things that the Jewish rulers did not approve. The people brought their sick and those vexed with unclean spirits into the streets; crowds collected round them, and those who had been healed shouted the praises of God and glorified the name of Him whom the Jews had condemned, crowned with thorns, and caused to be scourged and crucified. Jesus was now extolled above priest and ruler, and there was danger that the doctrines of the rabbis would be brought into disrepute, for the apostles were even declaring that Christ had risen from the dead....
FH	307	6	"Daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." "And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."--Signs of the Times, September 20, 1899.
------------------------Pray for God's Spirit, October 23
FH	308	1	How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Luke 11:13.
FH	308	2	The promise of the Holy Spirit was the brightest hope and the strongest consolation that Christ could leave His disciples when He ascended to heaven. The truths of God's Word had been buried beneath the rubbish of misinterpretation; human maxims, the sayings of finite beings, had been exalted above the Word of the living God. Under the enlightening power of the Holy Spirit, the apostles separated truth from false theories and gave to the people the Word of life....
FH	308	3	The Spirit of God inspired His servants, who, irrespective of the fear or the favor of others, declared the truths which had been committed to them. And under the demonstration of the Spirit's power the Jews could not but see their guilt in refusing the evidences God had sent. But they would not yield their wicked resistance....
FH	308	4	We need to pray for the impartation of the divine Spirit as the remedy for sin-sick souls. The surface truths of revelation, made plain and easy to be understood, are accepted by many as supplying all that is essential; but the Holy Spirit, working upon the mind, awakens an earnest desire for truth uncorrupted by error. Those who are really desirous to know what is truth cannot remain in ignorance; for precious truth rewards the diligent seeker. We need to feel the converting power of God's grace, and I urge all who have closed their heart against God's Spirit to unlock the door, and plead earnestly, Abide with me....
FH	308	5	The Lord would have every one of His children rich in faith, and this faith is the fruit of the working of the Holy Spirit upon the mind. It dwells with each soul who will receive it....
FH	308	6	The Holy Spirit never leaves unassisted a soul who is looking to Jesus. It takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to the seeker. And if the eye is kept fixed upon Jesus, the work of the Spirit ceases not until the soul is conformed to His image. Through the gracious influence of the Spirit sinners are changed in spirit and purpose till they become one with Christ. Their affection for God increases; they hunger and thirst for righteousness, and by beholding Christ they are changed from glory to glory, from character to character, and become more and more like their Master.--Signs of the Times, September 27, 1899.
------------------------The Coming Test, October 24
FH	309	1	Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth. Ephesians 6:14.
FH	309	2	God has made full provision in the Scriptures for our equipment against deception, and we shall be without excuse if, through neglect of God's Word, we are unable to resist the errors of the evil one. We need to watch unto prayer. We need daily to search the Scriptures diligently, that we may not be ensnared by some delusive error that seems like truth....
FH	309	3	John writes concerning scenes that have to do with our own time. He says, "The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament." That ark contains the tables whereon is engraven the law of God. On the Isle of Patmos, John beheld in prophetic vision the people of God, and saw that at this time the attention of the loyal and true followers of Christ would be attracted to the open door of the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary. He saw that by faith they would follow Jesus within the veil where He ministers above the ark of God containing His immutable law. The prophet described the faithful ones, saying, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." This is the class that excite the wrath of the dragon because they obey God....
FH	309	4	The winds of doctrine will blow fiercely about us, but we should not be moved by them. God has given us a correct standard of righteousness and truth-the law and the testimony. There are many who profess to love God, but when the Scriptures are opened before them and evidences are presented showing the binding claims of God's law, they manifest the spirit of the dragon. They hate the light and will not come to it, lest their deeds should be reproved. They will not compare their faith and doctrine with the law and the testimony. They turn away their ears from hearing the truth, and impatiently declare that all they want to hear about is faith in Christ.... They refuse to acknowledge the fourth commandment, which requires us to keep holy the Sabbath day. They declare that the Lord has instructed them that they need not keep the Sabbath of His law.
FH	309	5	The Word of God declares, "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."... Our work is to hold up the law of God; for Christ has said,... "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."--Signs of the Times, April 22, 1889.
------------------------Last-day Delusions, October 25
FH	310	1	Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. 1 Timothy 4:1.
FH	310	2	Before the last developments of the work of apostasy there will be a confusion of faith. There will not be clear and definite ideas concerning the mystery of God. One truth after another will be corrupted.... There are many who deny the preexistence of Christ and therefore deny His divinity; they do not accept Him as a personal Savior. This is a total denial of Christ. He was the only begotten Son of God, who was one with the Father from the beginning. By Him the worlds were made.
FH	310	3	In denying the miraculous incarnation of Christ, many turn from other truths of heavenly origin and accept fables of Satan's invention. They lose spiritual discernment and practice that which is brought to them and impressed upon their minds through the agency of Satan....
FH	310	4	Spiritualism is about to take the world captive. There are many who think that spiritualism is upheld through trickery and imposture; but this is far from the truth. Superhuman power is working in a variety of ways, and few have any idea as to what will be the manifestations of spiritualism in the future. The foundation for the success of spiritualism has been laid in the assertions that have been made from the pulpits of our land. The ministers have proclaimed, as Bible doctrines, falsehoods that have originated from the archdeceiver. The doctrine of consciousness after death, of the spirits of the dead being in communion with the living, has no foundation in the Scriptures, and yet this theory is affirmed as truth. Through this false doctrine the way has been opened for the spirits of devils to deceive the people in representing themselves as the dead. Satanic agencies personate the dead and thus bring souls into captivity. Satan has a religion; he has a synagogue and devout worshippers....
FH	310	5	The signs and wonders of spiritualism will become more and more pronounced as the professed Christian world rejects the plainly revealed truth of the Word of God and refuses to be guided by a plain "Thus saith the Lord," accepting instead the doctrines and the commandments of men....
FH	310	6	The confederacy of evil will not stand. The Lord says:... "Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary."--Signs of the Times, May 28, 1894.
------------------------Spiritualism and Its End, October 26
FH	311	1	For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world. Revelation 16:14.
FH	311	2	The great power that attends spiritualism has its origin in the great leading rebel, Satan, the prince of devils. It is through his artifice that evil angels have been able to substitute themselves for the dead, and through lying hypocrisy they have led men and women to have communion with devils. Those who commune with the supposed spirits of the dead are communing with those who will have a corrupting, demoralizing power upon the mind. Christ commanded that we should have no communion with sorcerers and with those who have familiar spirits....
FH	311	3	For years spiritualism has been growing in strength and gaining in popularity by advocating a certain kind of faith in Christ, and thus many Protestants are becoming infatuated with this mystery of iniquity. It is little wonder that they are deluded when they persistently retain the error that, as soon as the breath leaves the body, the spirit goes immediately to heaven or hell. Through the hold this doctrine has upon them, the way is prepared for the delusive working of the prince of the power of the air....
FH	311	4	As the Spirit of God shall be withdrawn from the earth, Satan's power will be more and more manifest. The knowledge that he had through being in connection with God as a covering cherub, he will now use to subordinate his subjects who fell from their high estate. He will use every power of his exalted intellect to misrepresent God and to instigate rebellion against Jesus Christ, the Commander of heaven. In the synagogue of Satan he brings under his scepter and into his counsels those agents whom he can use to promote his worship. It is not a strange matter to find a species of refinement and a manifestation of intellectual greatness in the lives and characters of those who are inspired by fallen angels. Satan can impart scientific knowledge and give people chapters upon philosophy. He is conversant with history and versed in worldly wisdom....
FH	311	5	Satan will use his agencies to carry out diabolical devices to overpower the saints of God,... yet the people of God can look calmly at the whole array of evil and come to the triumphant conclusion that because Christ lives, we shall live also.... The confederacy of evil will finally be destroyed.--Signs of the Times, May 28, 1894.
------------------------Be on Guard, October 27
FH	312	1	Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. Matthew 24:42.
FH	312	2	The condition of society today is the same as when God presented before Israel the abominations of the heathen, and the same warnings are necessary to the remnant people. Spiritualism is advancing through the land in triumph. "The spirits of devils, working miracles" are going "forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Men and women are seeking unto them that have familiar spirits, but the people of God cannot in any sense follow the practices of the world. They must keep the commandments of the Lord. The line of separation must be distinctly marked between the obedient and the disobedient. There must be open and avowed enmity between the church and the serpent, between her seed and his seed.
FH	312	3	Satan was determined to keep his hold on the land of Canaan, and when it was made the habitation of the children of Israel and the law of God was made the law of the land, he hated Israel with a cruel and malignant hatred and plotted their destruction. Strange gods were introduced through the agency of evil spirits, and because of transgression the chosen people were finally scattered from the land of promise.
FH	312	4	The same experience is repeating in the history of God's people....
FH	312	5	It is time to heed the Savior's injunction as never before, "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." Trust in God, however perplexing may be your situation. Seek His counsel, and turn not after them that have familiar spirits to be defiled by them. He who has died to redeem you has promised to guide you and clothe you with His own righteousness, if you will but loathe sin and purge yourself from evil by washing your robes of character and making them white in the blood of the Lamb.
FH	312	6	What love, what wonderful love, that God bears with the perversity of His people and sends help to every soul that desires to do His will and forsake sin! If we will but cooperate with the agencies of heaven, we may come off more than conquerors. Fallen creatures as we are, capable of the most revolting crimes, yet we may become victors through the power of the grace of Christ and have a place in His everlasting kingdom, to reign with Him forevermore.--Signs of the Times, August 26, 1889.
------------------------Final Preparation, October 28
FH	313	1	Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Matthew 24:44.
FH	313	2	To us has been given the message of Christ's soon coming. At the ascension of our Lord, angels stood beside the disciples and with them watched the Savior as He passed into the heavens. Then they turned to the disciples with the words, "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."...
FH	313	3	Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet [fit] to appear in God's presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul....
FH	313	4	This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of human devising. Christ in His humanity wrought out a perfect character, and this character He offers to impart to us. "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Everything that we of ourselves can do is defiled by sin....
FH	313	5	By His perfect obedience, He has made it possible for every human being to obey God's commandments. When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart; the will is merged in His will; the mind becomes one with His mind; the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then, as the Lord looks upon us, He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the nakedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah....
FH	313	6	There will be no second probation in which to prepare for eternity. It is in this life that we are to put on the robe of Christ's righteousness. This is our only opportunity to form characters for the home which Christ has made ready for those who obey His commandments.
FH	313	7	The days of our probation are fast closing. The end is near. Solemnly there come down to us through the centuries the warning words of our Lord from the Mount of Olives, "Take heed to yourselves, lest... that day come upon you unawares."... "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man."--Signs of the Times, November 22, 1905.
------------------------Nearness of the End, October 29
FH	314	1	At that time Michael shall stand up,... and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. Daniel 12:1.
FH	314	2	Troublous times are right upon us. The fulfilling of the signs of the times gives evidence that the day of the Lord is near at hand. The daily papers are full of indications of a terrible conflict in the future. Bold robberies are of frequent occurrence. Strikes are common. Thefts and murders are committed on every hand. Men possessed of demons are taking the lives of men and women and little children. All these things testify that the coming of Christ is near at hand.
FH	314	3	The doctrine that men and women are released from obedience to God's requirements has weakened the force of moral obligation and opened the floodgates of iniquity upon the world....
FH	314	4	Courts of justice are corrupt. Rulers are actuated by a desire for gain and love of sensual pleasure. Intemperance has beclouded the faculties of many, so that Satan has almost complete control of them. Jurists are perverted, bribed, deluded. Drunkenness and revelry, passion, envy, dishonesty of every sort, are represented among those who administer the laws. "Justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." People are rushing on in the mad race for gain and selfish indulgence as if there were no God, no heaven, and no hereafter....
FH	314	5	The "time of trouble, such as never was," is soon to open upon us, and we shall need an experience which many are too indolent to obtain. It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality, but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal. In that trial all must stand for themselves before God....
FH	314	6	Now, while our great High Priest is making the atonement for us, we should seek to become perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought could our Savior be brought to yield to the power of temptation. Satan finds in human hearts some point where he can gain a foothold; some sinful desire is cherished, by means of which his temptations assert their power. But Christ declared of Himself, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." Satan could find nothing in the Son of God that would enable him to gain the victory. He had kept His Father's commandments, and there was no sin in Him that Satan could use to his advantage. This is the condition in which those must be found who shall stand in the time of trouble.--The Review and Herald, March 14, 1912.
------------------------Fasten Your Eyes on the Future, October 30
FH	315	1	And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21:4.
FH	315	2	In the darkest days of her long conflict with evil, the church of the living God has been given revelations of the eternal purpose of Jehovah. His people have been permitted to look beyond the trials of the present to the triumphs of the future, when, the warfare having been accomplished, the redeemed will enter into possession of the Promised Land. These visions of future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, should be dear to His church today, when the controversy of the ages is rapidly closing and the promised blessings are soon to be realized in all their fullness....
FH	315	3	Often the church militant is called upon to suffer trial and affliction, for not without severe conflict is the church to triumph. "The bread of adversity, and the water of affliction." are the common lot of all; but none who put their trust in the One mighty to deliver will be utterly overwhelmed....
FH	315	4	Clad in the armor of Christ's righteousness, the church is to enter upon her final conflict. "Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners," she is to go forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer.
FH	315	5	The darkest hour of the church's struggle with the powers of evil is that which immediately precedes the day of her final deliverance. But none who trust in God need fear....
FH	315	6	To us who are standing on the very verge of their fulfillment, of what deep moment, what living interest, are these delineations of the things to come-events for which, since our first parents turned their steps from Eden, God's children have watched and waited, longed and prayed!...
FH	315	7	The nations of the saved will know no other law than the law of heaven. All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite in proclaiming, There shall be no more sin; neither shall there be any more death.--The Review and Herald, July 1, 1915.
------------------------A Divine Command, October 31
FH	316	1	Watch therefore, and pray always. Luke 21:36.
FH	316	2	In the solemn language of this scripture, a duty is pointed out which lies in the daily pathway of everyone, whether old or young. This is the duty of watchfulness, and upon our faithfulness here our destiny for time and for eternity depends.
FH	316	3	We are living in an important time. When in 1844 the message was proclaimed, "Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come," that announcement stirred every soul to its very depths. A deep solemnity rested upon all who heard it. How earnest we were to show our faith by our works and to have our words and actions make a favorable impression on the world....
FH	316	4	Today angels are watching the development of character, and soon our lives will have to pass in review before God. Soon we shall be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and over against our names will be recorded the judgment rendered. And we shall receive the crowning gift of eternal life or be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. We may be unwilling to examine ourselves closely now to see what our spiritual condition is and whether our hearts are being suitably impressed by the testing message of truth; but that will not make any difference with the work of the judgment. Its decisions will be rendered just the same....
FH	316	5	"Watch ye therefore, and pray always." There is great need of watchfulness, not for our own sakes only, but also for the sake of our influence upon others. Our influence is far-reaching. We may think that it is confined to our own households; that only the members of our own families know what we are and what we are doing. In some cases this may seem to be true; but in some way the influence of the home life goes out beyond the home....
FH	316	6	If we would share in the glorious reward promised to the overcomer, we must fight the good fight of faith. This is what the apostle Paul did, and he says, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." Let us be of the number of those that are "rich in good works," "laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life."--Signs of the Times, January 7, 1886.
------------------------The Chosen of God, November 1
FH	317	1	For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. Deuteronomy 7:6.
FH	317	2	These words were spoken by Christ when enshrouded in the pillar of cloud and were given to Moses for the chosen people of God. The Lord has not left the world without witness. He has His loyal, chosen people. They do not make this world their home, but they are here to witness for God, and as long as probation lasts, a living witness will be borne by these faithful messengers....
FH	317	3	By the mighty cleaver of truth, God has separated a people from the quarry of the world and brought them into His workshop. Here the Master Worker can successfully hew them with ax and chisel, and polish them for a place in His kingdom. No longer are they like the mass from which they were taken. They stand like noble pillars, to be used for God's glory.
FH	317	4	The future glory of the adopted sons and daughters of God is not now discerned. By the world God's people are scorned and despised. But they have the sympathies of a better world than this, even a heavenly....
FH	317	5	The Word of God, just as it reads, is the ground of our faith. That Word is the sure word of prophecy, and it demands implicit faith from all who claim to believe it. It is authoritative, containing in itself the proof of its divine origin....
FH	317	6	What are we who claim to be one with Christ? "We are labourers together with God." Between the true believer and the unbeliever there will ever be the same conflict that there was between Christ and those who rejected Him. Those who are partakers with Christ in His sufferings will also be partakers with Him in His glory. But those who evade the cross here deny Him who has bought them at an infinite price, and in the day of judgment they will be denied. Many, many, are misrepresenting and denying Christ by their low standard of Christianity. Those who truly believe in Christ will show their faith by a well-ordered life and godly conversation. By working in Christ's lines, they will show that they have been adopted into the family of heaven. Of all such God says, "I will dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."--Signs of the Times, June 2, 1898.
------------------------A Peculiar People, November 2
FH	318	1	Who gave Himself for us, that He might... purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Titus 2:14.
FH	318	2	The Lord hath set apart them that are godly for Himself, and this consecration to God and separation from the world are plainly declared and positively enjoined in both the Old and New Testaments. There is a wall of separation which the Lord Himself has established between the things of the world and the things He has chosen out of the world and sanctified unto Himself. The calling and the character of God's people are peculiar. Their prospects are peculiar, and these peculiarities distinguish them from all people. All of God's people upon the earth are one body, from the beginning to the end of time. They have one Head that directs and governs the body. The same injunctions rest upon God's people now, to be separate from the world, as rested upon ancient Israel. The great Head of the church has not changed. The experience of Christians in these days is much like the travels of ancient Israel....
FH	318	3	As we read the Word of God, how plain that God's people are peculiar and distinct from the unbelieving world around them. Our position is interesting and fearful; living in the last days, how important that we imitate the example of Christ and walk even as He walked....
FH	318	4	The servants of Christ have not their home or their treasure here. Would that all of them could understand that it is only because the Lord reigns that we are even permitted to dwell in peace and safety among our enemies. It is not our privilege to claim special favors of the world. We must consent to be poor and despised in this world until the warfare is finished and the victory won. The members of Christ are called to come out and be separate from the friendship and spirit of the world, and their strength and power consist in their being chosen and accepted of God....
FH	318	5	Even so the members of Christ are as He was in this world. They are the sons and daughters of God and joint heirs with Christ, and the kingdom and dominion belong to them. The world understand not their character and holy calling. They perceive not their adoption into the family of God. Their union and fellowship with the Father and the Son are not manifest to the world, and while they behold their humiliation and reproach, it does not appear what they shall be. They are strangers. The world knows them not and appreciates not the motives which actuate them.--The Review and Herald, July 5, 1875.
------------------------Separation From the World, November 3
FH	319	1	You shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:18.
FH	319	2	I have been bidden to call the attention of our people to the instruction given by the Lord to Israel regarding the importance of separation from the world....
FH	319	3	Under David's rule, the people of Israel gained strength and uprightness through obedience to God's law. But the kings that followed strove for self-exaltation....
FH	319	4	God bore long with them, calling them often to repentance. But they refused to hear, and at last God spoke in judgment, showing them how weak they were without Him. He saw that they were determined to have their own way, and He gave them into the hands of their enemies....
FH	319	5	The alliances made by the Israelites with their heathen neighbors resulted in the loss of their identity as God's peculiar people. They became leavened by the evil practices of those with whom they formed forbidden alliances. Affiliation with worldlings caused them to lose their first love and their zeal for God's service. The advantages they sold themselves to gain brought only disappointment and caused the loss of many souls.
FH	319	6	The experience of Israel will be the experience of all who go to the world for strength, turning away from the living God. Those who forsake the mighty One, the source of all strength, and affiliate with worldlings, placing on them their dependence, become weak in moral power, as are those in whom they trust.
FH	319	7	God comes with entreaties and assurances to those who are making mistakes. He seeks to show them their error and lead them to repentance. But if they refuse to humble their hearts before Him, if they strive to exalt themselves above Him, He must speak to them in judgment. No semblance of nearness to God, no assertion of connection with Him, will be accepted from those who persist in dishonoring Him by leaning upon the arm of worldly power.
FH	319	8	Today God's word to His people is: "Come out from among them, and be ye separate,... and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters."...
FH	319	9	God's people are to be distinguished as a people who serve Him fully, wholeheartedly, taking no honor to themselves, and remembering that by a most solemn covenant they have bound themselves to serve the Lord, and Him only.--The Review and Herald, August 4, 1904.
------------------------God's People Identified, November 4
FH	320	1	Hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. Ezekiel 20:20.
FH	320	2	"The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you."...
FH	320	3	Do not these words point us out as God's denominated people? And do they not declare to us that so long as time shall last we are to cherish the sacred, denominational distinction placed on us?... The Sabbath has lost none of its meaning. It is still the sign between God and His people, and it will be so forever....
FH	320	4	God is testing His people to see who will be loyal to the principles of His truth. Our work is to proclaim to the world the first, second, and third angels' messages. In the discharge of our duty, we are neither to despise nor fear our enemies. To bind ourselves up by contracts or in partnerships or business associations with those not of our faith is not in the order of God. We are to treat with kindness and courtesy those who refuse to be loyal to God, but we are never, never to unite with them in counsel regarding the vital interests of His work....
FH	320	5	Putting our trust in God, we are to move steadily forward, doing His work with unselfishness,... committing ourselves and our present and future to His wise providence, holding the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end, remembering that it is not because of our worthiness that we receive the blessings of heaven, but because of the worthiness of Christ and our acceptance, through faith in Him, of God's abounding grace.
FH	320	6	I pray that my brethren may realize that the third angel's message means much to us, and that the observance of the true Sabbath is to be the sign that distinguishes those who serve God from those who serve Him not.... We are called to be holy, and we should carefully avoid giving the impression that it is of little consequence whether or not we retain the peculiar features of our faith. Upon us rests the solemn obligation of taking a more decided stand for truth and righteousness than we have taken in the past. The line of demarcation between those who keep the commandments of God and those who do not is to be revealed with unmistakable clearness.--The Review and Herald, August 4, 1904.
------------------------Christ's Representatives, November 5
FH	321	1	And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. Acts 5:32.
FH	321	2	True Christians will be Christlike. The Redeemer clothed His divinity with humanity and came to our world-a world seared and marred by the curse of sin, a vale of darkness and woe-to accomplish a great work, as He announced in the synagogue of Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor."...
FH	321	3	Each church member is to be a representative of the character and spirit of Christ. By precept and example the essential elements of a true, healthy, influential Christianity are to be revealed. Christ should be constantly set forth as the fountain of life, mercy, and love....
FH	321	4	By beholding we become changed. Through close study and earnest contemplation of the character of Christ, His image is reflected in our own lives, and a higher tone is imparted to the spirituality of the church. If the truth of God has not transformed our characters into the likeness of Christ, all our professed knowledge of Him and the truth is but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal....
FH	321	5	Let all who claim to keep the commandments of God look well to this matter and see if there are not reasons why they do not have more of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. How many have lifted up their souls unto vanity! They think themselves exalted in the favor of God, but they neglect the needy, they turn a deaf ear to the calls of the oppressed, and speak sharp, cutting words to those who need altogether different treatment. Thus they offend God daily by their hardness of heart. These afflicted ones have claims upon the sympathies and the interest of their fellow human beings. They have a right to expect help, comfort, and Christlike love. But this is not what they receive. Every neglect of God's suffering ones is written in the books of heaven as if shown to Christ Himself. Let all members of the church closely examine their heart and investigate their course of action to see if these are in harmony with the spirit and work of Jesus; for if not, what can they say when they stand before the Judge of all the earth? Can the Lord say to them, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world?"--The Review and Herald, April 24, 1913.
------------------------Working With Christ, November 6
FH	322	1	For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. Hebrews 6:10.
FH	322	2	Christ has identified His interest with that of suffering humanity; and while He is neglected in the person of His afflicted ones, all our assemblies, all our appointed meetings, all the machinery that is set in operation to advance the cause of God, will be of little avail....
FH	322	3	All who are to be saints in heaven will first be saints upon the earth. They will not follow the sparks of their own kindling, they will not work for praise nor speak words of vanity, nor put forth the finger in condemnation and oppression; but they will follow the Light of Life, diffuse light, comfort, hope, and courage to the very ones who need help, and not censure and reproach....
FH	322	4	The rich, clear light that has been shining upon our pathway has placed us on vantage ground, and we should improve every opportunity to do good. Christ came from the royal courts of heaven to seek and save the lost, and this is to be our work. The zeal which we manifest in this direction will show the measure of our love for Jesus and for others, [the measure] of our efficiency and missionary spirit.
FH	322	5	To every member of the church is committed a work, and their sanctification will be seen in the efficiency, the unselfishness, the zeal and purity and intelligence, with which they do the work. The cause of humanity and religion must not retrograde. Progress is expected of those who have received great light and have many advantages.
FH	322	6	The church must be a working church if it would be a living church. It should not be content merely to hold its own against the opposing forces of sin and error, not be content to advance with dilatory step, but it should bear the yoke of Christ and keep step with the Leader, gaining new recruits along the way.
FH	322	7	When we are truly Christ's, our hearts will be full of meekness, gentleness, and kindness, because Jesus has forgiven our sins. As obedient children we shall receive and cherish the precepts He has given and shall attend to the ordinances He has instituted. We shall be seeking constantly to obtain a knowledge of Him.--The Review and Herald, May 1, 1913.
------------------------The Church to Advance God's Work, November 7
FH	323	1	Do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:5.
FH	323	2	Those who are Christ's disciples will take the work where He left it and carry it forward in His name. They will copy the words, the spirit, the practices, of none but Him. Their eye is upon the Captain of their salvation. His will is their law. And as they advance, they catch more and clearer views of His countenance, of His character, of His glory. They do not cling to self, but hold fast His word, which is spirit and life. "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." They reduce their knowledge of His will to practice. They hear and do the things that Jesus teaches.
FH	323	3	In the church is work for all who love God and keep His commandments. The profession people may make is not certain evidence that they are Christians. The words they may speak give no surety that they are converted. Hear the words of Christ, "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" Unless the daily life conforms to the will and works of Christ, no one can establish a claim to be a child of God, an heir of heaven. There is a legal religion, which the Pharisees had, but such a religion does not give to the world a Christlike example; it does not represent Christ's character. Those who have Christ abiding in the heart will work the works of Christ. Such are entitled to all the promises of His Word. Becoming one with Christ, they do the will of God and exhibit the riches of His grace. "Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am." Oh, precious promise! "And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."
FH	323	4	In marked contrast to the murmuring and complaining of the wicked, the servants of God will sing: "I will praise thee with my whole heart.... Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off." Then let not a semblance of pride or self-importance be cherished, for it will crowd Jesus out of the heart, and the vacuum will be filled with the attributes of Satan.--The Review and Herald, May 1, 1913.
------------------------An Enlightened Church, November 8
FH	324	1	And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:15.
FH	324	2	The Lord cannot use men and women in His service, in any branch of His work, unless they possess a meek and teachable spirit. Those whom God employs in His service must be true to principle, but, while they must not swerve from the plain path of duty for any selfish interest, they are not to be bigoted and puffed up with self-esteem. Unless the heart is in connection with the Source of all wisdom, there will not be an abiding sense of the sacredness of the work. Workers for Christ must derive all their life and inspiration from God. They must seek to be conformed to His will and His ways and not seek to have their own will and way. Those who would become a living channel of light must be governed by something more than habit or opinion. They must live hourly in conscious communion with God. Their lives must be brought into contact with the principles of truth and righteousness. They must become partakers of divine nature.
FH	324	3	The servant of God must be continually seeking for intellectual power, and every acquisition of the mind must be devoted to glorifying God. We must have enlarged conceptions of what the requirement of God is of His people....
FH	324	4	We must not be content with anything short of the divine illumination from the central Light of the universe. When we have this illumination, we shall see the necessity of pressing onward and upward, of elevating the standard, of cultivating the loftiest ambition, and of reaching the highest attainments. We shall constantly draw from the Source of all wisdom and live as in the sight of the Lord....
FH	324	5	Your talent has been entrusted to you by the Lord, and you will be held responsible for its employment and improvement.... We must manifest the glory of God. This is the high aim of our existence. We must be in such a condition that we can appreciate the light that God has brought into the experience of others. Our lives and characters are influenced by the physical, intellectual, and moral acquirements of past generations. If we remain in ignorance, we have no one to blame but ourselves. If we put to the stretch every power, and task every ability to the utmost, with an eye single to the glory of God, we shall not fail of doing a valuable work for God.--Signs of the Times, November 30, 1888.
------------------------Someone Is at the Door, November 9
FH	325	1	Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Revelation 3:20.
FH	325	2	The time in which we live is full of the most solemn importance. There is nothing that can be more acceptable to God than to have the youth dedicate their lives to His service in the bloom and freshness of their years. Their talents may become a power for God when they are properly cultivated. Their characters may be characters that will be acceptable to Heaven, but they must be shaped by line upon line and precept upon precept. They must be modeled after the divine pattern....
FH	325	3	In the work of saving souls, we are to know whereof we speak. The words of John are full of significance when he says, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you."...
FH	325	4	When your soul is the temple for the indwelling Spirit of the Savior, the gross elements of your nature will be consumed, and the whole being will become a living purpose. Whoever is truly Christ's will have an experience like that of Daniel, and the fruits of the Spirit will appear in the life. There are powers within us that are paralyzed through sin, that need the vivifying influence of the grace of Christ, that they may be restored. A mighty power from the Life Giver must quicken them to life and rouse them to action. When this is your experience, you can work as Jesus has given you an example. Divine light and love will be reflected upon those who feel that they are sick in both soul and body. Jesus invites His own presence to your soul. He says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me." Shall we not open the door of our hearts to the divine Guest?
FH	325	5	Those who engage in the work of God must be pure in heart and circumspect in deportment. The souls of God's people should not be like a barren waste, as are so many souls at this time. God has given to everyone some ability to use in His service, and it is God's design that it should be employed to His glory and the good of others. Many are losing much, simply because they will not learn in the school of Christ. They might gain eternal treasure, but, in turning away from the divine Teacher, their consciences are violated and seared, and the admonitions of God's Word lose all power to stir their hearts. But there is no need of making such a failure. Christ will come into the heart and abide there if you will but cleanse the soul temple of every defilement.--Signs of the Times, November 30, 1888.
------------------------Unity Is Essential, November 10
FH	326	1	Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. John 17:11.
FH	326	2	The Holy Spirit will work with the consecrated human instrument, for this is God's purpose. God has opened a door between heaven and earth which no power can close.... When God's people place themselves in proper relation to Him and to one another, there will be a full impartation of the Holy Spirit for the harmonious combination of the whole body.
FH	326	3	Nothing so manifestly weakens a church as disunion and strife. Nothing so wars against Christ and the truth as this spirit....
FH	326	4	We can be united with one another only as we are united with Christ.... Many who have dwelt much upon doctrinal subjects, but who have not learned of Christ, have been found unable to control themselves. They need the Holy Spirit's power. We should seek to understand what it means to be in complete union with Christ, who is the propitiation for our sins and for the sins of the whole world. Our life should be bound up with His life....
FH	326	5	When God's chosen people are of one mind, barriers of selfishness will disappear as by magic, and many, many more souls will be converted because of the unity which exists among believers. There is one body and one spirit. Those who have been building territorial lines of distinction, barriers of color and caste, might better take these down much faster than they put them up.
FH	326	6	Those in whose hearts Christ abides recognize Christ abiding in the hearts of others. Christ never wars against Christ. Christ never exerts an influence against Christ. Christians are to do their work, whatever it may be, in the unity of the Spirit, for the perfecting of the whole body. The church is to be purified, refined, ennobled. The members are to cast from their hearts the idols which have hindered their advancement in spirituality. By the influence of the Spirit, the most discordant may be brought into harmony. Unselfishness is to bind God's people together with firm, tender bonds. There is a vast power in the church when the energies of the members are under the control of the Spirit, gathering good from every source, educating, training, and disciplining self. Thus is presented to God a powerful organization through which He can work for the conversion of sinners. Thus heaven and earth are connected, and all the divine agencies cooperate with human instrumentalities.--Signs of the Times, February 7, 1900.
------------------------A Challenge to God's Church, November 11
FH	327	1	Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. Revelation 13:11.
FH	327	2	To the apostle John on the Isle of Patmos were opened scenes of deep and thrilling interest in the experience of the church. Subjects of intense interest and vast importance were presented to him in figures and symbols, that the people of God might become intelligent concerning the perils and conflicts before them....
FH	327	3	Under the symbols of a great red dragon, a leopardlike beast, and a beast with lamblike horns, the earthly governments which would especially engage in trampling upon God's law and persecuting His people were presented to John. The war is carried on till the close of time. The people of God, symbolized by a holy woman and her children, were represented as greatly in the minority. In the last days only a remnant still existed....
FH	327	4	Through paganism, and then through the Papacy, Satan exerted his power for many centuries in an effort to blot from the earth God's faithful witnesses. Pagans and papists were actuated by the same dragon spirit. They differed only in that the Papacy, making a pretense of serving God, was the more dangerous and cruel foe. Through the agency of Romanism, Satan took the world captive. The professed church of God was swept into the ranks of this delusion, and for more than a thousand years the people of God suffered under the dragon's ire.
FH	327	5	And when the Papacy, robbed of its strength, was forced to desist from persecution, John beheld a new power coming up to echo the dragon's voice and carry forward the same cruel and blasphemous work. This power, the last that is to wage war against the church and the law of God, was symbolized by a beast with lamblike horns. The beasts preceding it had risen from the sea, but this came up out of the earth, representing the peaceful rise of the nation which is symbolized. The "two horns like a lamb" well represent the character of the United States Government as expressed in its two fundamental principles, Republicanism and Protestantism. These principles are the secret of our power and prosperity as a nation. Those who first found asylum on the shores of America rejoiced that they had reached a country free from the arrogant claims of popery and the tyranny of kingly rule. They determined to establish a government upon the broad foundation of civil and religious liberty.--Signs of the Times, November 1, 1899.
------------------------God's Final Warning, November 12
FH	328	1	If anyone worships the beast and his image,... he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God. Revelation 14:9, 10.
FH	328	2	But the stern tracing of the prophetic pencil reveals a change in this peaceful scene [civil and religious liberty]. The beast with lamblike horns speaks with the voice of a dragon, and "exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him." Prophecy declares that he will say to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast, and that "he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Thus Protestantism follows in the steps of the Papacy.
FH	328	3	It is at this time that the third angel is seen flying in the midst of heaven, proclaiming: "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation." "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." In marked contrast to the world stands the little company who will not swerve from their allegiance to God....
FH	328	4	The most solemn warning and the most awful threatening ever addressed to mortals is that contained in the third angel's message. The sin that calls down the wrath of God unmixed with mercy must be of the most heinous character. Is the world to be left in darkness as to the nature of this sin? Most assuredly not. God does not deal thus with His creatures. His wrath is never visited upon sins of ignorance. Before His judgments are brought upon the earth, the light in regard to this sin must be presented to the world, that all may know why these judgments are to be inflicted and may have opportunity to escape them.
FH	328	5	The message containing this warning is the last to be proclaimed before the revelation of the Son of man. The signs which He Himself has given declare His coming to be near at hand. For well-nigh forty years [as of 1899] has the message of the third angel been sounding.... The time has come when all who have an interest in their soul's salvation should earnestly and solemnly inquire, What is the seal of God? and what is the mark of the beast? How can we avoid receiving it?--Signs of the Times, November 1, 1899.
------------------------Seal of God and Mark of the Beast, November 13
FH	329	1	Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. Revelation 7:3.
FH	329	2	The seal of God, the token or sign of His authority, is found in the fourth commandment. This is the only precept of the Decalogue that points to God as the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and clearly distinguishes the true God from all false gods. Throughout the Scriptures the fact of God's creative power is cited as proof that He is above all heathen deities.
FH	329	3	The Sabbath enjoined by the fourth commandment was instituted to commemorate the work of Creation, thus to keep the minds of all ever directed to the true and living God. Had the Sabbath always been kept, there would never have been an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel. The sacred observance of God's holy day would have led the minds of men and women to their Creator. The things of nature would have brought Him to their remembrance, and they would have borne witness to His power and His love. The Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the seal of the living God. It points to God as the Creator and is the sign of His rightful authority over the beings He has made.
FH	329	4	What, then, is the mark of the beast, if it is not the spurious sabbath which the world has accepted in the place of the true?
FH	329	5	The prophetic declaration that the Papacy was to exalt itself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, has been strikingly fulfilled in the changing of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. Wherever the papal sabbath is honored in preference of the Sabbath of God, there the man of sin is exalted above the Creator of heaven and earth.
FH	329	6	Those who assert that Christ changed the sabbath are directly contradicting His own words. In the Sermon on the Mount He declared, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."...
FH	329	7	Roman Catholics acknowledge that the change in the Sabbath was made by their church, and they cite this very change as evidence of the supreme authority of this church. They declare that by observing the first day of the week as the Sabbath, Protestants are recognizing her power to legislate in divine things.... As the Sunday institution gains favor, he [the papist] rejoices, feeling assured that it will eventually bring the whole Protestant world under the banner of Rome.--Signs of the Times, November 1, 1899.
------------------------Image to the Beast, November 14
FH	330	1	Telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. Revelation 13:14.
FH	330	2	The change of the Sabbath is a sign or mark of the authority of the Romish Church. Those who, understanding the claims of the fourth commandment, choose to observe the false sabbath in the place of the true are thereby paying homage to that power by which alone it is commanded....
FH	330	3	There are true Christians in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic communion. None are condemned until they have had the light and have seen the obligation of the fourth commandment. But when the decree shall go forth enforcing the counterfeit sabbath, and the loud cry of "the third angel" shall warn the world against the worship of the beast and his image, the line will be clearly drawn between the false and the true. Then those who still continue in transgression will receive the mark of the beast.
FH	330	4	With rapid steps we are approaching this period. When Protestant churches shall unite with the secular power in sustaining a false religion, for opposing which their ancestors endured the fiercest persecution, then will the papal sabbath be enforced by the combined authority of church and state. There will be a national apostasy which will end only in national ruin....
FH	330	5	By compromises and concessions, Protestants have tampered with and patronized popery, giving her vantage ground which papists themselves are surprised to see and fail to understand. The Protestant world needs to be aroused to resist the advances of this most dangerous foe to civil and religious liberty.
FH	330	6	When the state shall enforce the decrees and sustain the institutions of the church, then will Protestant America have formed an image of the Papacy. Then the true church will be assailed by persecution as were God's people in ancient times. Almost every century furnishes instances of what human hearts, controlled by rage and malice, can do under a plea of serving God by protecting the rights of the church and state. The Protestant churches that have followed in the steps of Rome by forming alliances with worldly powers have manifested a similar desire to restrict liberty of conscience. How many nonconformist ministers have suffered under the power of the Church of England! Persecution always follows a restriction of religious liberty on the part of secular governments.--Signs of the Times, November 8, 1899.
------------------------History Repeats Itself, November 15
FH	331	1	For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. 2 Timothy 4:3.
FH	331	2	It is urged by many that the intellectual and moral darkness prevailing during the Middle Ages favored the spread of dogma, superstition, and the oppression of popery, and that the general diffusion of knowledge and the well-nigh universal acceptance of the principles of religious liberty forbid a revival of superstition and tyranny. It is true that great light, intellectual, moral, and religious, is shining upon this generation. Since 1844 light from the heaven of heavens has beamed from the open door of the temple of God. But it is to be remembered that the greater the light bestowed, the greater the delusion and darkness of those who reject the Word of God and accept fables, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.
FH	331	3	Satan will excite the indignation of apostate Christendom against the humble remnant who conscientiously refuse to accept false customs and traditions. Blinded by the prince of darkness, popular religionists will see only as he sees and feel as he feels.... Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. The church and the world will unite, and the world will lend to the church power to crush out the right of the people to worship God according to His Word.
FH	331	4	The decree which is to go forth against the people of God in the near future is in some respects similar to that issued by Ahasuerus against the Jews in the time of Esther. The Persian edict sprang from the malice of Haman against Mordecai. Not that Mordecai had done Haman harm, but he had refused to flatter his vanity by showing him the reverence which is due only to God....
FH	331	5	History repeats itself. The same masterful mind that plotted against the faithful in ages past is now at work to gain control of the Protestant churches, that through them he may condemn and put to death all who will not worship the idol sabbath. We have not to battle with mere mortals, as it may appear. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. But if the people of God will put their trust in Him, and by faith rely upon His power, the devices of Satan will be defeated in our time as signally as in the days of Mordecai.--Signs of the Times, November 8, 1899.
------------------------Victory at Last! November 16
FH	332	1	Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father's name written on their foreheads. Revelation 14:1.
FH	332	2	The decree is to go forth that all who will not receive the mark of the beast shall neither buy nor sell and, finally, that they shall be put to death. But the saints of God do not receive this mark. The prophet of Patmos beheld those that had gotten the victory over the beast and over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.
FH	332	3	To every soul will come the searching test, Shall I obey God rather than men? The decisive hour is even now at hand. Satan is putting forth his utmost efforts in the rage of a last despairing struggle against Christ and His followers. False teachers are employing every device possible to stimulate the hardened sinner in his rebellious daring, to confirm the questioning, the doubting, the unbelieving, and, by misrepresentation and falsehood, to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. Who are prepared to stand firmly under the banner on which is inscribed, "The commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus"?
FH	332	4	Christ never purchased peace and friendship by compromise with evil. Though His heart overflowed with love toward the human race, He could not be indulgent to their sins. Because He loved men and women, He was a stern reprover of their vices. His life of suffering, the humiliation to which He was subjected by a perverse nation, show His followers that there must be no sacrifice of principle. God's tried people must maintain watchfulness, with fervent prayer, lest, in their eagerness to prevent discord, they surrender truth and thus dishonor the God of truth. Peace is too dearly obtained if purchased by the smallest concession to Satan's agencies. The least surrender of principle entangles us in the snare of the enemy.
FH	332	5	Paul writes to the Romans, "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." But there is a point beyond which it is impossible to maintain union and harmony without the sacrifice of principle. Separation then becomes an absolute duty. The laws of nations should be respected when they do not conflict with the laws of God. But when there is collision between them, every true disciple of Christ will say, as did the apostle Peter when commanded to speak no more in the name of Jesus, "We ought to obey God rather than men."--Signs of the Times, November 8, 1899.
------------------------Channels for the Sun of Righteousness, November 17
FH	333	1	Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20.
FH	333	2	The professed church of God may be possessed of wealth, education, and knowledge of doctrine, and may say by her attitude, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing"; but if its members are devoid of inward holiness, they cannot be the light of the world. The church is to reflect light into the moral darkness of the world as the stars reflect light into the darkness of the night. These who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof do not reflect light into the world and will not have power to reach the hearts of the unsaved. Without vital connection with Christ the value of truth cannot be made to appear in good fruit in the world; but if Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, His saving grace will be manifested in sympathy and love for perishing souls.
FH	333	3	Every soul truly converted to God will be a light in the world. Bright, clear rays from the Sun of Righteousness will shine forth through human agents who use their entrusted ability to do good; for they will cooperate with heavenly agencies and labor with Christ for the conversion of souls. They will diffuse the light which Christ sheds upon them. The Sun of Righteousness shining in their hearts will shine forth, enlightening and blessing others.
FH	333	4	The rays of heaven shining from human agents will exert a subduing influence upon those whom Christ is drawing to Himself. The church is weak before the angels of heaven unless power is revealed through its members for the conversion of those who are perishing. Unless the church is the light of the world, it is darkness. But of the true followers of Christ it is written, "We are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building."
FH	333	5	The church may be composed of those who are poor and uneducated; but if they have learned of Christ the science of prayer, the church will have power to move the arm of Omnipotence. The true people of God will have an influence that will tell upon hearts. It is not the wealth or the educated ability which the members of the church may possess that constitutes their efficiency.... It is when the Sun of Righteousness shines forth from the people of God that Christ is glorified and His kingdom advanced. It is then that they are chosen vessels of salvation and are fitted for the Master's use.--Signs of the Times, September 11, 1893.
------------------------Source of All Truth, November 18
FH	334	1	I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 14:6.
FH	334	2	If the churches established in our world would follow Christ, they would pray as Christ prayed, and the result of their prayers would be seen in the conversion of souls; for when communication is opened up between souls and God, a divine influence is shed upon the world. When the members of the church abide in Christ, they deliver an effective testimony in their lives. They fulfill the words of Christ, "Ye are my witnesses." By their influence all the day long, by precept and example, they say, "Come," "behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."...
FH	334	3	Jesus is the fountainhead of knowledge, the treasure-house of truth, and He longed to open before His disciples treasures of infinite value, that they in turn might open them to others. But because of their blindness He could not unfold to them the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. He said to them, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." The minds of the disciples were to a great degree influenced by the traditions and maxims of the Pharisees, who placed the commandments of God on a level with their own inventions and doctrines. The scribes and Pharisees did not receive or teach the Scriptures in their original purity, but interpreted the language of the Bible in such a way as to make it express sentiments and injunctions that God had never given. They put a mystical construction upon the writing of the Old Testament and made indistinct that which the infinite God had made clear and plain. These learned men placed before the people their own ideas and made patriarchs and prophets responsible for things they never uttered. These false teachers buried the precious jewels of truth beneath the rubbish of their own interpretations and maxims, and covered up the plainest specifications of prophecy regarding Christ....
FH	334	4	When the Author of truth came to our world and was the living interpreter of His own laws, the Scriptures were opened to His hearers like a new revelation; for He taught as one having authority, as one who knew whereof He was speaking. The minds of people were confused with false teaching to such an extent that they could not fully grasp the meaning of divine truth, and yet they were attracted to the great Teacher and said, "Never man spake like this man."--Signs of the Times, September 11, 1893.
------------------------The Proclamation of God's Remnant, November 19
FH	335	1	Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth. Revelation 14:6.
FH	335	2	The fourteenth chapter of Revelation outlines the work that is to be done by the people of God just before the second advent of our Savior. Three messages are there represented, which must go to all the inhabitants of the world.
FH	335	3	John writes of an angel which he saw flying "in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.... And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen.... And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God...."
FH	335	4	These three angels represent the people who accept the light of God's messages and go forth as His agents to sound the warning throughout the length and breadth of the earth. Christ declared to His followers, "Ye are the light of the world." To every soul that accepts Jesus, the cross of Calvary speaks: "Behold the worth of the soul. 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.'" Nothing is to be permitted to hinder this work. It is the all-important work for this time, and it is to be far-reaching as eternity....
FH	335	5	In this day, God has called His church, as He called ancient Israel, to stand as a light in the earth. By the mighty cleaver of truth-the messages of the first, second, and third angels-He has separated a people from the churches and from the world, to bring them into a sacred nearness to Himself. He has made them the depositaries of His law and has committed to them the great truths of prophecy for this time. Like the holy oracles committed to ancient Israel, these are a sacred trust to be communicated to the world....
FH	335	6	In the issue of the contest, all Christendom will be divided into two great classes-those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark.... The prophet of Patmos beholds "them that had gotten the victory over the beast,... having the harps of God" and singing the "song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb."--Signs of the Times, January 25, 1910.
------------------------The Closing Work, November 20
FH	336	1	Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me. Revelation 22:12.
FH	336	2	Look upon the world today. Is the voice of prayer heard amidst the din of confusion? Altars are erected, but it is not to God that the sacrifices are offered. Deceivers, robbers, and murderers are many. Pride of ancestry and pride of wealth minister to the work of soul destruction. Avarice, sensuality, malice-these are the attributes that bear sway. Thousands are standing on the brink of perdition. Do you not see them, many of them lost, eternally lost, whilst professing Christians sleep the sleep of indifference?
FH	336	3	Earnest, self-sacrificing men and women are needed, men and women who will go to God, and with strong crying and tears plead for the precious souls that are going to ruin.... Christ gave His life to save sinners, and He says to His followers, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end." He has laid out before us the work to be done and has declared that He will give power for the accomplishment of this work....
FH	336	4	The work is fast closing up, and on every side wickedness is increasing. We have but a short time in which to work. God is not willing that any should perish. He has provided abundantly for the salvation of all. If His people had gone forth as they should, giving the invitation of mercy, many souls would have been won to Christ. Let us awake from spiritual slumber and consecrate all that we have and are to the Lord. His Spirit will abide with true missionaries, furnishing them with power for service. God is an overflowing fountain of efficiency and strength. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. When this power is utilized, it will be found to be more than sufficient to meet the power of the enemy.
FH	336	5	It is impossible for those of us who believe in Christ to see the work that needs to be done and not do anything. Daily the church is to receive from heaven the healing balm of God's grace to impart to the needy and suffering. The church of God is weighted with the most sacred responsibilities and the most glorious privileges. All who believe the message of Christ's soon coming will go forth to do something for the Master.... In practical obedience to the divine command, their confidence will increase and their talents will multiply.--Signs of the Times, November 28, 1906.
------------------------Forgiveness Is Not Impossible, November 21
FH	337	1	For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Matthew 6:14.
FH	337	2	"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," Christ taught us to pray. But it is most difficult even for those who claim to be followers of Jesus to forgive as He forgave us. The true spirit of forgiveness is so little practiced, and so many interpretations are placed upon Christ's requirement, that its force and beauty are lost sight of. We have very uncertain views of the great mercy and loving-kindness of God. He is full of compassion and forgiveness and freely pardons when we truly repent and confess our sins.... We must bring into our characters the love and sympathy expressed in Christ's life....
FH	337	3	If we have received the gift of God and have a knowledge of Jesus Christ, we have a work to do for others. We must imitate the long-suffering of God toward us. The Lord requires of us the same treatment toward His followers that we receive of Him. We are to exercise patience and to be kind, even though they do not meet our expectations. The Lord expects us to be pitiful and loving, to have sympathetic hearts. He desires us to show the fruits of the grace of God in our deportment one to another. Christ did not say, You may tolerate your neighbor, but, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." This means a great deal more than professing Christians carry out in their daily life....
FH	337	4	Christ proceeds to teach that the principles of God's law reach even to the intents and purposes of the mind. And He plainly states that if we faithfully keep the ten precepts, we shall love our neighbor as ourselves....
FH	337	5	A consistent religious life, holy conversation, a godly example, true-hearted benevolence, mark the representatives of Christ. They will labor to pluck sinners as brands from the burning; they will perform every duty faithfully. Thus they will become a beacon light.
FH	337	6	Reader, we are nearing the judgment. Talents have been lent us on trust. Let none of us be at last condemned as slothful servants. Send forth the words of life to those in darkness. Let the church be true to her trust. Her earnest, humble prayers will make the presentation of truth effectual, and Christ will be glorified.--The Review and Herald, May 19, 1910.
------------------------Work in the Cities, November 22
FH	338	1	On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. Acts 13:44.
FH	338	2	The message of the third angel of Revelation 14 is now to be proclaimed not only in lands far off, but in neglected places close by, where multitudes dwell unwarned and unsaved. God is calling His people at this time to a long-delayed work. Decided efforts are to be made to enlighten those who have never yet been warned. The work in the cities is now to be regarded as of special importance. Let workers be carefully selected to labor two and two in the cities in harmony with the counsel of experienced leaders and under the direction and commission of Jesus Christ.
FH	338	3	God desires His people to labor in perfect harmony in an effort to carry the truth into the cities. I am bidden to keep this matter before the attention of the believers until they shall be aroused to a realization of its importance. Let not ill-advised lips utter words of discouragement, but let everyone in responsibility unite in planning for the accomplishment of this work, knowing that He who has led His servants hitherto will not fail them in this time of special need. Angels of God will go before the workers and will be their sufficiency. Angels will be in the assemblies to make an impression upon the hearts of the hearers....
FH	338	4	The labors of the apostles in the early Christian church were characterized by wonderful manifestations of the power of God in the lives of the believers. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, multitudes were brought to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. The needs of the world today are no less than they were in the days of the apostles. Those who labor for souls in these times of impenitence and unbelief must yield themselves wholly to God, and work in unison with heavenly intelligences. The power of the Holy Spirit will accompany the labors of those who dedicate their energies and their all unreservedly to the completion of the work that must be done in the last days. Angels from heaven will cooperate with them, and many will be brought to a knowledge of the truth and will gladly cast in their lot with God's commandment-keeping people. Means will flow into the treasury, strong laborers will be raised up, the unwarned fields of the great regions beyond will be entered, and the work will soon close in triumph.--The Review and Herald, April 7, 1910.
------------------------Reject Speculation, November 23
FH	339	1	Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. 2 Timothy 4:2.
FH	339	2	The experience of the past will be repeated. In the future, Satan's superstitions will assume new forms. Errors will be presented in a pleasing and flattering manner. False theories, clothed with garments of light, will be presented to God's people. Thus Satan will try to deceive, if possible, the very elect. Most seducing influences will be exerted; minds will be hypnotized.
FH	339	3	Corruptions of every type, similar to those existing among the antediluvians, will be brought in to take minds captive. The exaltation of nature as God, the unrestrained license of the human will, the counsel of the ungodly-these Satan uses as agencies to bring about certain ends. He will employ the power of mind on mind to carry out his designs. The most sorrowful thought of all is that under his deceptive influence men and women will have a form of godliness without having a real connection with God. Like Adam and Eve, who ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, many are even now feeding upon the deceptive morsels of error.
FH	339	4	Satanic agencies are clothing false theories in an attractive garb, even as Satan in the Garden of Eden concealed his identity from our first parents by speaking through the serpent. These agencies are instilling into human minds that which in reality is deadly error. The hypnotic influence of Satan will rest upon those who turn from the plain Word of God to pleasing fables.
FH	339	5	It is those who have had the most light that Satan most assiduously seeks to ensnare. He knows that if he can deceive them, they will, under his control, clothe sin with garments of righteousness and lead many astray.
FH	339	6	I say to all, Be on your guard; for as an angel of light Satan is walking in every assembly of Christian workers and in every church, trying to win the members to his side. I am bidden to give the people of God the warning, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked."...
FH	339	7	Walk firmly, decidedly, your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You may be sure that pure and undefiled religion is not a sensational religion. God has not laid upon anyone the burden of encouraging an appetite for speculative doctrines and theories. My brethren, keep these things out of your teaching. Do not allow them to enter into your experience. Let not your lifework be marred by them.--The Review and Herald, March 3, 1904.
------------------------The Holy Spirit and the Remnant, November 24
FH	340	1	After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. Revelation 18:1.
FH	340	2	We see before us a special work to be done. We are now to pray as never before for the Holy Spirit's guidance. Let us seek the Lord with the whole heart, that we may find Him. We have received the light of the three angels' messages; and we need now to come decidedly to the front and take our position on the side of truth....
FH	340	3	The saving knowledge of God will accomplish its purifying work on the mind and heart of every believer. The Word declares: "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean...." This is the descent of the Holy Spirit, sent from God to do its office work. The house of Israel is to be imbued with the Holy Spirit and baptized with the grace of salvation.
FH	340	4	Amid the confusing cries, "Lo, here is Christ! Lo, there is Christ!" will be borne a special testimony, a special message of truth appropriate for this time, which message is to be received, believed, and acted upon.... The eternal truth of the Word will stand forth free from all seductive errors and spiritualistic interpretations, free from all fancifully drawn, alluring pictures. Falsehoods will be urged upon the attention of God's people, but the truth is to stand clothed in its beautiful, pure garments. The Word, precious in its holy, uplifting influence, is not to be degraded to a level with common, ordinary matters. It is always to remain uncontaminated by the fallacies by which Satan seeks to deceive, if possible, the very elect.
FH	340	5	The proclamation of the gospel is the only means in which God can employ human beings as His instrumentalities for the salvation of souls. As men, women, and children proclaim the gospel, the Lord will open the eyes of the blind to see His statutes and will write upon the hearts of the truly penitent His law. The animating Spirit of God, working through human agencies, leads the believers to be of one mind, one soul, unitedly loving God and keeping His commandments-preparing here below for translation....
FH	340	6	Let the work of proclaiming the gospel of Christ be made efficient by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Let not one believer, in the day of trial and proving that has already begun, listen to the devising of the enemy. The living Word is the sword of the Spirit. Mercies and judgments will be sent from heaven. The working of providence will be revealed both in mercies and in judgments.--The Review and Herald, October 13, 1904.
------------------------A Holy People, November 25
FH	341	1	The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and trust in Him. And all the upright in heart shall glory. Psalm 64:10.
FH	341	2	This scripture will be literally fulfilled. Everything is to be shaken that can be shaken, that those things that cannot be shaken may remain. I am amazed as I consider the past, present, and future of the people of God. The Lord will have a pure, holy people-a people who will stand the test. All believers need now to search their hearts as with a lighted candle....
FH	341	3	Before us is held out the wonderful possibility of being like Christ-obedient to all the principles of the law of God. But of ourselves we are utterly powerless to attain to this condition. All that is good in us comes to us through Christ. The holiness that God's Word declares we must have before we can be saved is the result of the working of divine grace as we bow in submission to the discipline and restraining influence of the Spirit of truth....
FH	341	4	The work of transformation from unholiness to holiness is a continuous work. Day by day God labors for our sanctification, and we are to cooperate with Him by putting forth persevering efforts in the cultivation of right habits. The way in which we are to work out our own salvation is plainly specified in the first chapter of Second Peter. Constantly we are to add grace to grace, and as we do this, God will work for us upon the plan of multiplication. He is always ready to hear and answer the prayer of the contrite heart, and grace and peace are multiplied to His faithful ones. Gladly He grants them the blessings that they need in their struggle against the evils that beset them. Those who listen to the counsels of His Word shall not want any good thing....
FH	341	5	God will more than fulfill the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him. He desires us to remember that when we are humble and contrite, we stand where He can and will manifest Himself to us. He is well pleased when we urge past mercies and blessings as a reason why He should bestow on us higher and greater blessings. He is honored when we love Him and bear testimony to the genuineness of our love by keeping His commandments. He is honored when we set apart the seventh day as sacred and holy. To those who do this, the Sabbath is a sign, "that they might know," God declares, "that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Sanctification means habitual communion with God. There is nothing so great and powerful as God's love for those who are His children.--The Review and Herald, March 15, 1906.
------------------------A Perfected Church, November 26
FH	342	1	And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. Colossians 1:18.
FH	342	2	Christ "loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
FH	342	3	When God gave His Son to the world, He made it possible for men and women to be perfect by the use of every capability of their beings to the glory of God. In Christ He gave to them the riches of His grace and a knowledge of His will....
FH	342	4	The church is yet militant in a world that is apparently in midnight darkness, and growing worse and worse. While the requirements of a plain "Thus saith the Lord" remain unheeded by the worldly element in the church, the voices of God's faithful servants are to be strengthened to give the solemn message of warning. The works that should characterize the church militant and the works of the church that has had the light of truth for this time do not correspond. The Lord calls upon church members to clothe themselves with the beautiful garments of Christ's righteousness....
FH	342	5	God needs men and women who will work in the simplicity of Christ to bring the knowledge of truth before those who need its converting power. The message of Christ's righteousness must be proclaimed from one end of the earth to the other. Our people are to be aroused to prepare the way of the Lord. The third angel's message-the last message of mercy to a perishing world-is so sacred, so glorious. Let the truth go forth as a lamp that burneth. Mysteries into which angels desired to look, which prophets and kings and the righteous desired to know, the church of God is to make known.
FH	342	6	Christ's wonderful sacrifice for the world testifies to the fact that men and women may be rescued from iniquity. If they will break with Satan and confess their sins, there is hope for them. People-sinful, blinded, wretched-may repent and be converted and day by day be forming a character like the character of Christ. Human beings may be reclaimed, regenerated, and may learn to live before the world precious, Christlike lives.--The Review and Herald, April 22, 1909.
------------------------A Reflection of Christ, November 27
FH	343	1	Put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:24.
FH	343	2	God is waiting to see revealed in His people a faith that works by love and purifies the soul; for this alone will fit them for the future, immortal life. There is a great work to be accomplished and little time in which to do it. The cause needs converted, devoted men and women who will make the Lord their dependence. Through such workers the Lord will reveal the power of His grace....
FH	343	3	My brethren and sisters, let the truth of God abide in your heart by a living, holy faith. Bible truth must be comprehended before it can convict the conscience and convert the life. The remnant people of God must be a converted people. The presentation of this message is to result in the conversion and sanctification of souls. We are to feel the power of the Spirit of God in this movement. This is a wonderful, definite message; it means everything to the receiver, and it is to be proclaimed with a loud cry. We must have true, eternal faith that this message will go forth with increasing importance to the close of time.
FH	343	4	Christ desires to see His likeness reflected in every renewed soul. Those who continue meek and lowly in heart, He will make laborers together with God. Our spiritual conflicts might often be called our spiritual rebellions. It is the heart's lack of submission to the will of God that so often brings us into difficulty. We want our own way, and this often means rebellion against God's way. We need to do as Christ did-wrestle with the Father in prayer for strength and for power to make Him known in our words and actions....
FH	343	5	To do the Master's bidding and to promote His work in the earth should be the one aim and purpose of our lives. Then there would be an upward growth, and the Holy Spirit would work upon the heart to transform the character. A generous spirit would be revealed in kindness and tender regard for others. Self would be hid with Christ in God. Beholding the character of Christ, we would become changed into His likeness.
FH	343	6	Let us forsake self and accept Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. Faith in Him is the only valuable science. He is the living representative of perfect obedience to the eternal Word.--The Review and Herald, August 26, 1909.
------------------------Separate From the World, November 28
FH	344	1	Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude 21.
FH	344	2	Those who hear from the lips of Christ the words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant," will be heroic ministers of righteousness. They may never preach a discourse from the pulpit, but loyal to a sense of God's claims upon them and jealous of His honor, they will minister to the souls who are the purchase of Christ's blood. They will see the necessity of carrying into their work a willing mind, an earnest spirit, and a hearty, unselfish zeal. They will not study how best they can preserve their own dignity, but by care and thoughtfulness will seek to win the hearts of those whom they serve....
FH	344	3	The apostle Paul urges upon us the advantages placed within our reach. "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved," he says, "let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." We are to separate from the world in spirit and practice if we would become sons and daughters of God. In His prayer for His followers, Christ asked, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."
FH	344	4	There is earnest work before each one of us. Right thoughts, pure and holy purposes, do not come to us naturally. We shall have to strive for them.... Those who are under the control of the Spirit of God will not seek their own pleasure or amusement. If Christ presides in the hearts of the members of His church, they will answer to the call, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate." Partake not of her sin.
FH	344	5	God has a work for His faithful sentinels to do in standing in defense of the truth. They are to warn and entreat, showing their faith by their works. They are to stand as did Noah, in noble, whole-souled fidelity, their characters untarnished by the evil around them. They are to be saviors of humanity, as Christ was. Workers who thus stand true to their trust will be exposed to hatred and reproach. False accusations will be brought against them to drag them from their high position. But they have their foundation upon the Rock, and they remain unmoved, warning, entreating, rebuking sin and pleasure-loving by their own moral rectitude and circumspect lives.--The Review and Herald, November 28, 1899.
------------------------God's Temple, November 29
FH	345	1	The temple of God is holy, which temple you are. 1 Corinthians 3:17.
FH	345	2	The church on earth is God's temple, and it is to assume divine proportions before the world. This building is to be the light of the world. It is to be composed of living stones laid close together, stone fitting to stone, making a solid building. All these stones are not of the same shape or dimension. Some are large and some are small, but each one has it own place to fill. In the whole building there is not to be one misshapen stone. Each one is perfect. And each stone is a living stone, a stone that emits light. The value of the stones is determined by the light they reflect to the world.
FH	345	3	Now is the time for the stones to be taken from the quarry of the world and brought into God's workshop to be hewed, squared, and polished, that they may shine. This is God's plan, and He desires all who profess to believe the truth to fill their respective places in the great, grand work for this time....
FH	345	4	It is God's design that His church shall ever advance in purity and knowledge, from light to light, from glory to glory.... His church is the court of holy life, filled with varied gifts and endowed with the Holy Spirit. Appropriate duties are assigned by Heaven to the church on earth, and the members are to find their happiness in the happiness of those whom they help and bless.
FH	345	5	Through the ages of moral darkness, through centuries of strife and persecution, the church of Christ has been as a city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive generations, to the present time, the pure doctrines of the Bible have been unfolding within her borders. The church of Christ, enfeebled and defective as she may appear, is the one object on earth on which He bestows in a special sense His love and regard. The church is the theater of His grace, in which He delights to make experiments of mercy on human hearts.
FH	345	6	The church is God's fortress, His city of refuge, which He holds in a revolted world. Any betrayal of her sacred trust is treachery to Him who has bought her with the precious blood of His only begotten Son. In the past, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth, and God has taken them into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His holy angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against it.--The Review and Herald, December 4, 1900.
------------------------Coworkers With the Church in Heaven, November 30
FH	346	1	Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:2.
FH	346	2	Today, as in the past, all heaven is watching to see the church develop in the true science of salvation. Christ has bought the church with His blood, and He longs to clothe her with salvation. He has made her the depositary of sacred truth, and He wishes her to partake of His glory. But in order that the church may be an educating power in the world, she must cooperate with the church in heaven. Her members must represent Christ. Their hearts must be open to receive every ray of light that God may see fit to impart. As they receive this light, they will be enabled to receive and impart more and more of the rays of the Sun of Righteousness.
FH	346	3	There is need of a higher grade of spirituality in the church. There is need of heart purification. God calls His people to their posts of duty. He calls upon them to purge themselves from that which has been revealed as the bane of the churches-an exalting of those who are placed in positions of trust. There is earnest work to be done. Upon their knees men and women are to seek God in faith and then go forth to speak the word with power sent down from on high. Such believers come before the people direct from the audience-chamber of the Most High, and their words and works promote spirituality. When they come in contact with wrong principles, they plant their feet firmly upon the words, "It is written."...
FH	346	4	The church today needs laborers who, like Enoch, walk with God, revealing Christ to the world. Church members need to reach a higher standard.... Our views of the Sun of Righteousness are clouded by self-seeking. Christ is crucified afresh by many who through self-indulgence allow Satan to gain control over them. The church needs men and women of devotion to bear to the world the message of salvation, pointing sinners to the Lamb of God-workers who, by their works of righteousness and their pure, true words, can lift those around them out of the pit of degradation.
FH	346	5	With pity and compassion, with tender yearning and love, the Lord is looking upon His tempted and tried people.... It is God's purpose that all shall be tested and tried, that He may see whether they are loyal or disloyal to the laws that govern the kingdom of heaven. To the last, God permits Satan to reveal himself as a liar, an accuser, and a murderer. Thus the final triumph of His people is made more marked, more glorious, more full and complete.--The Review and Herald, December 4, 1900.
------------------------A Colorado Sunset, December 1
FH	347	1	They desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:16.
FH	347	2	As the [railroad] cars bore our company into the city of Denver, we were charmed in beholding one of the beautiful sunsets of Colorado. The sun was passing behind the snowcapped mountains, leaving its softened beams of golden light to tint the heavens. As the blending tints were deepening and extending athwart the skies, with indescribable beauty, it seemed the gates of heaven were ajar to let the gleamings of its glory through. The golden hues were every moment more and more entrancing, as if to invite our imagination to picture the greater glory within.... If this so charms our senses, what must be the fullness of the glory in heaven itself....
FH	347	3	Heaven seemed very near.... As the eye was turned from the dazzling glories of the closing day, we could but reflect that should we see more of heaven by the eye of faith, greater light, more peace and joy, would be all along life's pathway.... If the eye of faith were uplifted to see through the veil of the future and discern the tokens of God's love and glory in the promised life beyond, we should be more spiritually minded, and the beauties and joys of heaven would mingle with our daily life. We should be fitting up for the faithful performance of our work in this life, and for the higher life beyond....
FH	347	4	Our heavenly Father has hung out glories in the firmament of the heavens, that we may have an expression of His love in the revealing of His wondrous works. God would not have us indifferent to the symbols of the glories of His infinite power in the heavens. David delighted to dwell upon these glories. He composed psalms which the Hebrew singers chanted to the praise of God. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.... In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race."...
FH	347	5	All the powers of our being, every means of our existence and happiness, all the blessings of the warm sunshine and the refreshing showers, causing vegetation to flourish, every comfort and every blessing of this life, come from God. He sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. The treasures of heaven are poured out to all.--Signs of the Times, December 12, 1878.
------------------------John the Baptist's Example, December 2
FH	348	1	There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. John 1:6.
FH	348	2	The birth of John the Baptist had been foretold by prophets, and an angel was sent to notify Zacharias of the event. The heavenly messenger expressly enjoined upon the father to bring up the child with strictly temperate habits....
FH	348	3	John did not feel strong enough to stand the great pressure of temptation he would meet in mingling with society. He feared his character would be molded according to the prevailing customs of the Jews, and he chose to separate himself from the world and make the wilderness his home.... So far from being lonely, gloomy, or morose, he enjoyed his life of simplicity and retirement, and his temperate habits kept all his senses unperverted....
FH	348	4	John had a special work to do for God. He was to deal with the sins and follies of the people. In order to be fitted for this important public work, he must qualify himself in private by seeking heavenly knowledge. He must meditate and pray, and by studying become acquainted with the prophecies and the will of God. Away from the busy world, whose cares and alluring pleasures would divert his mind and pervert his thoughts and imaginings, he was shut up with God and nature.... By his strictly temperate habits he secured to himself physical, mental, and moral health....
FH	348	5	John accustomed himself to privations and hardships, that he might be able to stand among the people as unmoved by circumstances as the rocks and mountains of the wilderness that had surrounded him for thirty years. A great work was before him; and it was necessary that he should form a character that would not be swerved from right and duty by any surrounding influence....
FH	348	6	John was an example to... people in these last days, to whom have been committed important and solemn truths. God would have them temperate in all things. He would have them see the necessity for the denial of appetite, for keeping their passions under the control of reason. This is necessary that they may have mental strength and clearness to discern between right and wrong, between truth and error. There is work for every one... to do in the vineyard of the Lord, and He would have them fit themselves to act a useful part.--Youth's Instructor, January 7, 1897.
------------------------A Voice in the Wilderness, December 3
FH	349	1	This is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.'" Matthew 3:3.
FH	349	2	The preaching of John the Baptist created intense excitement. At the beginning of his ministry, religious interest was very low. Superstition, tradition, and fables had confused the minds of the people, and the right way was not understood. Zealous in securing worldly treasure and honor, the people had forgotten God....
FH	349	3	The teaching of John aroused in the hearts of many a great desire to have a part in the blessings that Christ was to bring, and they received the truth. These saw the need of reform. They must not only seek to enter in at the strait gate; they must strive and agonize in order to have the blessings of the gospel. Nothing save a vehement desire, a determined will, a fixedness of purpose, could resist the moral darkness that covered the earth as the pall of death. In order to obtain the blessings that it was their privilege to have, they must work earnestly, they must deny self.
FH	349	4	The work of John the Baptist represents the work for these times. His work, and the work of those who go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah to arouse the people from their apathy, are the same in many respects. Christ is to come the second time to judge the world in righteousness. The messengers of God who bear the last message of warning to be given to the world are to prepare the way for Christ's second advent as John prepared the way for His first advent. If the kingdom of heaven suffered violence in the days of John, it suffers violence now; today the blessings of the gospel must be secured in the same way. If form and ceremony were of no avail then, a form of godliness without the power can be of no avail now.
FH	349	5	Two powers are at work. On the one side Satan is working with all his forces to counterwork the influence of the work of God; on the other hand God is working through His servants to call sinners to repentance. Which will prevail? Satan, knowing that his time is short, has come down with great power and is working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. Every agent that he can employ, he is using to prevent souls from coming to the light. The victories we gain over self and sin are gained at the expense of the enemy, and he will not let us enjoy the blessings of God without making determined efforts to resist us.--Youth's Instructor, May 17, 1900.
------------------------Forerunner of Christ, December 4
FH	350	1	He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children," and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Luke 1:17.
FH	350	2	In John the Baptist God raised up a messenger to prepare the way of the Lord. He was to bear to the world an unflinching testimony, reproving and denouncing sin.... John had not been educated in the schools of the rabbis. He had obtained no human scholarship....
FH	350	3	To prepare the way before Christ, one was needed who, like the prophets of old, could summon the degenerate nation to repentance, and the voice of John was lifted up like a trumpet. His commission was "Shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins."...
FH	350	4	In this age, just prior to the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, God calls for workers who will prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord. Just such a work as that of John is to be carried on in these last days. The Lord has given messages to His people, through the instruments He has chosen, and He would have all give heed to the admonitions and warnings He sends. The message preceding the public ministry of Christ was, Repent, publicans and sinners. Repent, Pharisees and Sadducees. Repent, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Our message is not to be one of peace and safety. As a people who believe in Christ's soon appearing, we have a message to bear-"Prepare to meet thy God." We are to lift up the standard and bear the third angel's message. Our message must be as direct as was the message of John. He rebuked kings for their iniquity. Notwithstanding that his life was in peril, the truth did not languish upon his lips. And our work in this age must be as faithfully done....
FH	350	5	Look at the picture which the world presents today. Dishonesty, fraud, and bankruptcies, violence and bloodshed, exist on every hand.... Thus the discernment and sensibilities have become deadened as to what constitutes right principles.... The light given, calling to repentance, has been shut out by the thick cloud of unbelief and opposition brought in by human plans and human inventions....
FH	350	6	The prayerful, earnest appeals that come from the heart of the wholehearted messenger will create conviction.... All who know the only true and living God will know Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, and they will preach Christ and Him crucified.--The Review and Herald, November 1, 1906.
------------------------As in the Days of Noah, December 5
FH	351	1	Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Genesis 6:5.
FH	351	2	The inhabitants of the world at this time are represented by the dwellers upon the earth at the time of the Flood. The wickedness of the antediluvians is plainly stated, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." God became weary of this people whose thoughts were only of sinful pleasure and indulgence. They sought not the counsel of God who had created them, nor cared to do His will. The rebuke of God was upon them because they followed the imagination of their own hearts; and there was violence in the land. "And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth...."
FH	351	3	In His teachings Christ referred to this. "But as the days of Noe were," He said, "so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."...
FH	351	4	The inhabitants of the antediluvian world had the warning given them prior to their overthrow, but the warning was not heeded. They refused to listen to the words of Noah; they mocked at his message. Righteous people lived in that generation. Before the destruction of the antediluvian world, Enoch bore his testimony unflinchingly. And in prophetic vision he saw the condition of the world at the present time. He said, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage."...
FH	351	5	It is living earnestness that God requires at this time. Ministers may have but little learning from books, but if they do the best they can with their talents; if they work as they have opportunity; if they clothe their utterances in the plainest and most simple language; if they walk in carefulness and humility, seeking for heavenly wisdom; if they work for God from the heart, actuated by love for Christ and the souls for whom Christ has died, they will be listened to by those of even superior ability and talents. There will be a charm in the simplicity of the truths they present.--The Review and Herald, November 1, 1906.
------------------------Build an Ark, Noah, December 6
FH	352	1	Make yourself an ark of gopherwood. Genesis 6:14.
FH	352	2	In how short a time from the first sin of Adam did sin increase and spread like the leprosy. It is the nature of sin to increase. From generation to generation sin has spread like a contagious disease. Hatred of God's law and-as the sure result-hatred of all goodness became universal. The world was in its infancy, yet after sin was first introduced, it soon became fearful in its proportions until it deluged the world. God, who created mankind and gave them with an unsparing hand the bounties of His providence, was slighted and despised by the recipients of His gifts.... But notwithstanding sinners forgot their benevolent Benefactor, God did not slight and turn away from them and leave them to perish in their violence and crime without setting before them their wickedness and the result of the transgression of His law. He sent them messages of warning and entreaty....
FH	352	3	God, whom men and women had slighted and dishonored and whose gracious love and benevolence they had abused, still pitied the race and in His love provided a refuge for all who would accept it. He directed Noah to build an ark and at the same time preach to the inhabitants of the world that God would bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy the wicked. If they would believe the message and prepare for that event by repentance and reformation, they should find pardon and be saved. God did not remove His Spirit from the human race without warning them of the sure result of their course in transgressing His law....
FH	352	4	The Spirit of God continued to strive with the rebellious until the time God had specified had nearly expired, when Noah and his family entered the ark and the hand of God closed the door of the ark. Mercy had stepped from the golden throne, no longer to intercede for mankind.
FH	352	5	Notwithstanding God was working to draw sinners to Himself by the conviction of His Holy Spirit, they in their rebellion were drawing away from God and continually resisting the pleadings of infinite love. Noah stood up nobly in the midst of a world who were disregarding God and were indulging in all manner of extravagant dissipation which led to crimes and violence of every kind.... What a spectacle to the world as Noah stands forth connected with God by his obedience, in contrast to the world.--Signs of the Times, December 20, 1877.
------------------------Noah's Unwavering Obedience, December 7
FH	353	1	Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. Genesis 6:9.
FH	353	2	How simple and childlike amid the unbelief of the world was the faith of Noah.... His faith was perfected by his works. He gave to the world an example in believing just what God had said. He commenced under the directions of God to construct the ark, an immense boat, on dry ground. Multitudes came from every direction to see this strange sight... and to hear the earnest, fervent words of this singular man who seemed to believe every word he uttered.... A power attended the words of Noah, for it was the voice of God to the people through His servant. Some were deeply convicted and would have heeded the words of warning, but there were so many to jest and ridicule the message of entreaty and warning to repentance that they partook of the same spirit, resisted the invitations of mercy,... and were soon among the boldest and most defiant scoffers; for none are as reckless and will go to such lengths in sin as those who have once had light, who have been convicted and resisted the Spirit of God. Amid popular contempt and ridicule, amid universal wickedness and disobedience, Noah distinguished himself by his holy integrity and unwavering obedience.... He was one in the world, but not one of the world. Noah made himself the object of contempt and ridicule by his steadfast adherence to the words of God....
FH	353	3	While the voice of God, through Noah, was making itself heard in entreaties and warnings in condemnation of sin and iniquity, Satan was not asleep; he was mustering his forces	Noah was tested and proved. Opposition met him from the great men of the world, from philosophers and men of science, so-called, who tried to show him that his message could not be true, but his voice was not silenced; one hundred and twenty years the words of warning continued to be heard in earnest tones and were sustained by his energetic work upon the ark.... God's Spirit was striving with the people to lead them to accept and believe the truth, but Satan's suggestions were also heeded; their own wicked hearts were more inclined to harmonize with the sophistry of the father of lies than with the pleadings of infinite love. They manifested their indifference and contempt of the solemn warnings of God in doing the same as they had done before the warning had been given....
FH	353	4	The days of Noah, Christ tells us, were as the days prior to His appearing in the clouds of heaven.--Signs of the Times, December 20, 1877.
------------------------The End of Patience, December 8
FH	354	1	And the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever." Genesis 6:3.
FH	354	2	In Noah's day all people were not in the fullest sense heathen idolaters.... The class who professed a knowledge of God were the ones who had the greatest influence and took the lead in making of none effect His word spoken to them by Noah. They not only rejected the message of the faithful preacher of righteousness themselves, but like their master the devil they sought every means in their power to prevent others from believing and being obedient to God.... While Noah was sounding the note of warning of the coming destruction of that generation, was their day of opportunity and privilege to become wise unto salvation. But they gave their minds to the control of Satan rather than God, and he deceived them as he did our first parents....
FH	354	3	The world before the Flood reasoned that for centuries the laws of nature had been fixed. The recurring seasons had come in their order. The rivers and brooks had never yet passed their boundaries but had borne their waters safely to the proud sea. Fixed decrees had kept the waters from overflowing their banks. But these reasons did not recognize the Hand that had stayed the waters, saying, thus far shalt thou go and no farther.... They reasoned then as people reason now, as though nature was above the God of nature, and her ways were so fixed that God Himself could not change them, thus making in the minds of the world God's messages of warning a delusion, a grand deception, reasoning that if the message of Noah was correct, nature would be turned out of her course of order....
FH	354	4	Human nature in Noah's day, uninfluenced by the Spirit of God, is the same in our age. Jesus in His assertions and representations recognizes Genesis as the words of inspiration. Many admit the New Testament to be divine, while they show no special regard for the Old Testament Scriptures; but these two grand books cannot be divorced. Inspired apostles who wrote the New Testament are continually carrying back the minds of the searchers of Scriptures to the Old. Christ carries the minds of all generations, present and future, to the Old Testament. He refers to Noah as a literal person who lived; He refers to the Flood as a fact in history; He shows the specification of that generation as characteristic of this age. The Truth and Life has anticipated the questioning and doubts of men and women in regard to the Old Testament by pronouncing it divine.--Signs of the Times, December 20, 1877.
------------------------God's Sabbath, December 9
FH	355	1	The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. Exodus 20:10.
FH	355	2	When God created the earth and placed human beings upon it, He divided time into seven periods. Six He gave to us for our own use, to employ in secular business; one He reserved for Himself. Having rested on the seventh day, He blessed and sanctified it. Henceforth, the seventh day was to be regarded as the Lord's rest day and to be sacredly observed as the memorial of His creative work. It was not the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth day that was sanctified, or set apart to a holy use; neither was it a seventh part of time and no day in particular; but it was the seventh day, the day upon which God had rested....
FH	355	3	When the law was given at Sinai, the Sabbath was placed in the midst of moral precepts, in the very bosom of the Decalogue. But the Sabbath institution was not then made known for the first time. The fourth commandment places its origin at Creation. The Creator's rest day was hallowed by Adam in holy Eden and by the people of God throughout the patriarchal ages. During Israel's long bondage in Egypt, under taskmasters that knew not God, they could not keep the Sabbath; therefore the Lord brought them out where they could remember His holy day....
FH	355	4	A threefold miracle was wrought in honor of the Sabbath, even before the law was given on Sinai. A double quantity of manna fell on the sixth day, none upon the Sabbath, and the portion needed for the Sabbath was preserved sweet and pure, when if any were kept over at any other time, it became unfit for food. Here is conclusive evidence that the Sabbath was instituted at Creation, when the foundations of the earth were laid, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. And its sacredness remains unchanged, and will so remain even to the close of time. From the Creation, every precept of the divine law has been obligatory on mankind and has been observed by those who fear the Lord. The doctrine that God's law has been abolished is one of Satan's devices to compass the ruin of the race....
FH	355	5	The holy oracles were especially committed to the Jews; not to be an Israelite was not to belong to the favored people of God.... Now the prophet declares that the stranger who will love and obey God shall enjoy the privileges that have belonged exclusively to the chosen people.--Signs of the Times, February 28, 1884.
------------------------The Sabbath in the Gospel Dispensation, December 10
FH	356	1	Blessed is the man... who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Isaiah 56:2.
FH	356	2	The prophet Isaiah, looking forward to the gospel dispensation, sets forth in the most impressive manner the obligation of the Sabbath and the blessings attending its observance....
FH	356	3	Hitherto, circumcision and a strict observance of the ceremonial law had been the conditions upon which Gentiles could be admitted to the congregation of Israel; but these distinctions were to be abolished by the gospel. "Every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people."...
FH	356	4	Again, after rebuking the selfishness, violence, and oppression of Israel and exhorting them to works of righteousness and mercy, He declares,... "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."...
FH	356	5	This prophecy reaches down the centuries to the time when the man of sin attempted to make void one of the precepts of God's law, to trample underfoot the original Sabbath of Jehovah, and in its stead exalt one of his own creation....
FH	356	6	There were two institutions founded in Eden that were not lost in the Fall-the Sabbath and the marriage relation. These were carried by humanity beyond the gates of paradise. All who love and observe the Sabbath, and maintain the purity of the marriage institution, thereby prove themselves the friends of humanity and the friends of God. All who by precept or example lessen the obligation of these sacred institutions are the enemies of both God and humanity, and are using their influence and their God-given talents to bring in a state of confusion and moral corruption.--Signs of the Times, February 28, 1884.
------------------------Biblical Foundation for the Sabbath, December 11
FH	357	1	It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4.
FH	357	2	Christ resisted the temptations of the enemy with the only weapon that the soldier of the cross of Christ can successfully use-"It is written." Where? In the Old and New Testaments. With these words we are to defend ourselves and warn others, holding forth to them the Word of life.
FH	357	3	Many have never understood that Sunday is not the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. In his subtlety, Satan has covered up this fact and has presented a common day as sacred, that the whole world may become guilty before God by transgression. Many are utterly ignorant that they are not keeping the fourth commandment. It is essential for all to seek for truth from the divine Guidebook, that they may decide what the Lord says on this question. People have said much, but we cannot build our faith on the words of any person. There are two sides to this question. The God of heaven presents His law, and Satan holds out his spurious sabbath....
FH	357	4	Sunday is a child of the Papacy. It has been nourished and cradled by the Protestant world as a genuine requirement of Jehovah; but it has no foundation in the Word of God. The Christian world is tested by their relation to this matter. God moves upon men and women to search the Scriptures for evidence to sustain Sunday. Those who search with a desire for truth will see that in the past they have been relying on tradition and have accepted an institution of the Papacy....
FH	357	5	We are accountable only for the light that shines upon us. The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus are testing us. If we are faithful and obedient, God will delight in us and bless us as His own chosen, peculiar people. When perfect faith and perfect love and obedience abound, working in the hearts of those who are Christ's followers, they will have a powerful influence. Light will emanate from them, dispelling the darkness around them, refining and elevating all who come within the sphere of their influence, and bringing to a knowledge of the truth all who are willing to be enlightened and to follow in the humble path of obedience.
FH	357	6	Great blessings are promised to those who keep holy God's Sabbath.--The Review and Herald, July 13, 1897.
------------------------What Is Lawful on the Sabbath? December 12
FH	358	1	Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered. Luke 6:6.
FH	358	2	"The scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?"... Here Christ settled the question He had asked. He pronounced it right to perform a work of mercy and necessity. "It is lawful," He said, "to do well on the sabbath days."...
FH	358	3	It had often been stated by the teachers of the people, and indeed was one of their maxims, that for them not to do good when they had opportunity was to do evil-that to refrain from saving life when it was in their power to do so was to make themselves guilty of murder.... They were following upon His track to find occasion for falsely accusing Him; they were hunting His life with bitter hatred and malice, while He was saving life and bringing happiness to many hearts. Was it better to slay on the Sabbath, as they were planning to do, than to heal the afflicted, as He had done? Was it more righteous to have murder in the heart upon God's holy day, than to have that love toward all people which finds expression in deeds of charity and mercy?...
FH	358	4	The rulers communed one with another how they should rid themselves of this bold advocate of righteousness, whose words and works were drawing the people away from the teachers of Israel. Notwithstanding their counterinfluence, "the world," they declared, "is gone after him." But they thought that might and numbers would bring things as they wished; and they took counsel together how they might destroy Him.
FH	358	5	We see this enacted today. Those who are themselves transgressing the law of God, making the commandments of God of none effect through their tradition, follow with reproach and accusations the servants whom God sends with a message to correct their evils. They determine to remove them, to still their voice forever, rather than forsake the sins that have called forth the rebuke of God.--The Review and Herald, August 10, 1897.
------------------------Preparation for Jesus' Coming, December 13
FH	359	1	Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13.
FH	359	2	Jesus is soon coming; and it is for us who believe this solemn truth to give the warning to the world. We should show by our dress, our conversation, and our actions, that our minds are fixed on something better than the business and pleasures of this short life. We are but pilgrims and strangers here and should give some evidence that we are ready and waiting for the appearing of our divine Lord. Let the world see that you are journeying from this to a better land, dear reader-to an immortal inheritance that passeth not away; that you cannot afford to devote your life to the things of this world, but that your concern is to prepare for the home that awaits you in the kingdom of God.
FH	359	3	How shall we make this preparation? It is by bringing our appetites and passions into subjection to the will of God and showing in our lives the fruits of holiness. We must deal justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God. We must let Christ into our hearts and homes. We must cultivate love, sympathy, and true courtesy one to another....
FH	359	4	Our lives should be consecrated to the good and happiness of others, as was our Savior's. This is the joy of angels, and the work in which they are ever engaged. The spirit of Christ's self-sacrificing love is the spirit that pervades heaven and is the source of its blessedness. And it must be our spirit, if we would be fitted to join the society of the angelic host. In proportion as the love of Christ fills our hearts and controls our lives, selfishness and love of ease will be overcome; it will be our pleasure to minister to others and to do the will of our Lord, whom we hope soon to see....
FH	359	5	We should do right because it is right, and not to avoid punishment, or for fear of some great calamity that may come upon us. I want to do right for the pleasure I have in righteousness. There is so much happiness to be found in doing good here; so much satisfaction in doing the will of God; so much pleasure in receiving His blessing. Then let us show that we are men and women of sound judgment, choosing our portion not in this world, but in that which is to come. Let us stand at our post, faithful in the discharge of every duty, having our lives hid with Christ in God, that when the chief Shepherd shall appear, we "shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."--Signs of the Times, November 10, 1887.
------------------------Present Duty, December 14
FH	360	1	Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Romans 12:11.
FH	360	2	The present duty of every true child of God is to wait patiently, to watch vigilantly, to work faithfully, until the coming of the Lord, that we may be prepared for the solemn event. The characteristics of the true follower of Christ, the perfect man and woman in Christ Jesus, will be manifested in working, watching, and waiting for the Lord. They will not be wholly given up to contemplation and meditation or be so engrossed in some busy works that they will neglect the exercise of personal piety; but in the symmetrical Christian, personal devotion will be blended with earnest work, and the followers of Christ will be "not slothful in business" but "fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." The lamps must be kept trimmed and burning, that they may send forth bright rays of light into the moral darkness of the world....
FH	360	3	The Lord is soon coming, and for this very reason we need our schools, not that we may be educated after the order of the world, but that our institutions of learning may be more like the schools of the prophets-places where we may learn the will of God and reach to the very highest branches of science, that we may better understand God and His works and the character of Jesus Christ whom He has sent.... The people of God must be gaining more and more skill and experience; for there will be increased work for all, and especially for those in positions of trust. As we near the end, Satan will be moved to make a desperate effort to overthrow all those who dispute his claim to supreme authority on earth, and the people of God must be prepared for the struggle. God requires the full exercise of all the ability He has given to men and women, that they may do to the extent of their natural and cultivated powers all that is possible for them to do.... The followers of Christ cannot leave their posts of duty without betraying sacred trusts, without endangering the salvation of their own souls and the souls of others. You are to be true to your entrusted work and not to be seeking after something new and strange.
FH	360	4	As Christ opened before the disciples the great work that was to be done, and promised to them the gift of the Holy Spirit, they were anxious to know if they should then see the fulfillment of their long-cherished hope. They asked, "Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" The Lord rebuked their curiosity and said, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power."--General Conference Bulletin, fourth quarter 1896, p. 764.
------------------------Reflectors of Christ, December 15
FH	361	1	It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. Acts 1:7.
FH	361	2	[The disciples could not know the time of the second coming of Christ.] There was one thing that they might understand, and that was that they were to receive power after that the Holy Ghost should come upon them, and that they were to be witnesses of Christ. All this itching curiosity to know the set time is rebuked. This has not been given to us to know, and we are not to feel anxious about these things which the Lord has never committed to us but has kept in His own possession, unrevealed. But the endowment of His Spirit is for us; this we may confidently expect and freely receive; for we can do nothing for the salvation of souls without this heavenly agency. Because of the shortness of human life, every event should be made an occasion for enriching souls with the truths of the gospel.
FH	361	3	As time is fast closing, we should keep before the mind the spirituality of the law and the utter worthlessness of a formal, ceremonial obedience to the commandments involved in a legal religion. The eternal principles of truth should be extolled. The holy and paternal character of God should be presented to all. Our obligation in our daily actions should be laid bare, that we may understand our relation to God and to each other; for we are to watch for souls as they who must give an account. We must present to the people not the imaginations of men, not their schemes and conclusions, but the grace of God in the gift of His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We are to lift up Jesus, that He may draw men and women unto Himself....
FH	361	4	How hard for them to realize the necessity of constant prayer, of sincere repentance, of attaining to more and more perfection of character, which is the salt of Christian experience and the evidence of the operation of the Holy Spirit on the heart. The Holy Spirit is to enlighten, renew, and sanctify the soul....
FH	361	5	Let all now do their duty, laboring actively with Jesus Christ. Represent Jesus by your example of Christian piety, that the grace of Christ may appear as it is-beautiful, attractive, harmonious, and always consistent. A life beautified with holiness is not a life of idle contemplation, but a life filled up with earnest work for the Master, whose light shineth more and more unto the perfect day.--Conference Bulletin, fourth quarter 1896, pp. 764, 765.
------------------------Decisive Action, December 16
FH	362	1	Do business till I come. Luke 19:13.
FH	362	2	As Seventh-day Adventists, we have a work to do in witnessing for Christ.... If the Lord is soon to come, begin to act decidedly and determinedly and with intense interest to increase the [institutional] facilities, that a great work may be done in a short time.
FH	362	3	Those who have been allied to the world should heed the invitation of the Lord. He says, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing."... The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness are to shine upon you, that you may be beautified with holiness.
FH	362	4	Shall we now say there is no need of facilities? that faith is all we need? Genuine faith is a working principle, and works will appear as a proof of this agent in the soul. You should redouble your efforts, redouble your working forces....
FH	362	5	A great work must be done all through the world, and let none flatter themselves that because the end is near, there is no need of making special efforts to build up the various institutions as the cause shall demand.... All are to be workers, but the heaviest burden of responsibility rests upon those who have the greatest talent, the largest means, the most abundant opportunity. We are to be justified by faith and judged by our works.
FH	362	6	When the Lord shall bid us to lay off the armor and to make no further effort to establish schools, to build institutions for the care of the sick, for the shelter of the orphans and the homeless and for the comfort of the worn-out ministers, it will be time to fold our hands and let the Lord close up the work, but now is our opportunity to show our zeal for God....
FH	362	7	Besides all this, God calls for home missionaries. Let every soul deny self, lift the cross, and expend far less means for the gratification of self, that there may be living, working agents in all the churches. A faith that comprehends less than this is one that denies the Christian character. The faith of the gospel is one whose power and grace are of divine authorship. Then let us make it manifest that Christ abides in us, by ceasing to expend money on dress and on needless things, when the cause of Christ is crippled for want of means, when debts are left unpaid on our meeting houses, and when the treasury is empty. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Shall we not follow the example of Him who for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich?--General Conference Bulletin, fourth quarter 1896, pp. 765-768.
------------------------Heaven-filled Lives, December 17
FH	363	1	Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14.
FH	363	2	If we would enter heaven we should strive to bring all that we can of heaven into our lives on earth. The religion of Christ never degrades the receiver. It exerts a heavenly influence upon the minds and manners of men and women. When the Word of God finds access to the hearts of the rough and coarse, it commences a process of refining upon the character, and those who endure it become humble and teachable, like little children.... They are to be living stones in the temple of God, and are hewed, and squared, and chiseled, to fit them for God's building. Those who are naturally full of self-esteem become meek and lowly of heart. They have a change of character, and are transformed by the renewing of their minds and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.
FH	363	3	God said in the beginning, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," but sin has almost obliterated the moral image of God in humanity. This lamentable condition would have known no change or hope if Jesus had not come down to our world to be our Savior and Example. In the midst of a world's moral degradation He stands, a beautiful and spotless character, the one model for our imitation. We must study, and copy, and follow the Lord Jesus Christ; then we shall bring the loveliness of His character into our own life and weave His beauty into our daily words and actions.... Through Christ we may possess the spirit of love and obedience to the commands of God. Through His merits it may be restored in our fallen natures; and when the judgment shall sit and the books be opened, we may be the recipients of God's approval.
FH	363	4	John saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, with its twelve gates of pearl and twelve foundations of precious stones, coming down from God out of heaven.... Everyone who shall enter those gates and walk those streets will here have been changed and purified by the power of the truth; and the crown of immortal glory will adorn the brow of the overcomer.
FH	363	5	The nations that have kept the truth shall enter in, and the voice of the Son of God will pronounce the glad welcome, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life."--Signs of the Times, December 22, 1887.
------------------------Honor the Giver of Gifts, December 18
FH	364	1	What have they seen in your house? 2 Kings 20:15.
FH	364	2	Study the case of Hezekiah. He had been sick unto death. He had appealed to the Lord, and God had added to his life fifteen years. "At that time... [the] king of Babylon sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered. And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee?... What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them...."
FH	364	3	The visit of the ambassadors to Hezekiah was a test of his gratitude and devotion.... God had raised him from a bed of death, giving him a new lease of life. The Babylonians had heard of his wonderful recovery. They marveled that the sun had been turned back ten degrees, as a sign that the word of the Lord should be fulfilled. They sent messengers to Hezekiah to congratulate him on his recovery. The visit of these messengers gave him an opportunity to extol the God of heaven. How easy it would have been to point them to the God of gods. But pride and vanity took possession of Hezekiah's heart, and in his self-exaltation he laid open to their covetous eyes the treasures with which God had enriched His people.... His indiscretion prepared the way for national disaster. The ambassadors carried to Babylon the report of Hezekiah's riches, and the king and his counselors planned to enrich Babylon with the treasures of Jerusalem.
FH	364	4	Had Hezekiah improved the opportunity given him to bear witness to the power, the goodness, the compassion, of the God of Israel, the report of the ambassadors would have been as light piercing darkness. But he magnified himself above the Lord of hosts and failed to give God the glory....
FH	364	5	Oh, that those for whom God has done marvelous things would show forth His praises and tell of His mighty works. But how often those for whom God works are like Hezekiah-forgetful of the Giver of all their blessings.--Signs of the Times, October 1, 1902.
------------------------Individually Responsible, December 19
FH	365	1	Let a man examine himself. 1 Corinthians 11:28.
FH	365	2	This world is a training school, and the great object of life should be to obtain a fitness for those glorious mansions that Jesus has gone to prepare. Let us remember that this work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another. Each case must bear individual inspection. Each of us must be tested and found without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
FH	365	3	We are living in the great antitypical day of atonement. Jesus is now in the heavenly sanctuary, making reconciliation for the sins of His people, and the judgment of the righteous dead has been going on almost forty years [written in May 1884]. How soon the cases of the living will come in review before this tribunal we know not; but we do know that we are living in the closing scenes of earth's history, standing, as it were, on the very borders of the eternal world. It is important that each of us inquire, How stands my case in the courts of heaven? Will my sins be blotted out? Am I defective in character, and so blinded to these defects by the customs and opinions of the world that sin does not appear to me to be as exceedingly offensive to God as it really is? It is no time now to allow our minds to be absorbed with the things of earth while we give only occasional thoughts to God and make but slight preparation for the country to which we are journeying.
FH	365	4	In the typical Day of Atonement, all the people were required to afflict their souls before God. They were not to afflict the souls of others, but the work was between God and their own souls. The same work of self-examination and humiliation is required of each of us now.... Precious, golden moments which should be spent in seeking the inward adorning of a meek and quiet spirit are frittered away in adorning the dress and in other trifling matters not at all essential to comfort....
FH	365	5	We are living in an important and eventful age. We are almost home. Soon the many mansions that our Savior has gone to prepare will burst upon our sight.... We may now have in our hearts joy and peace that are unspeakable and full of glory; and soon, at the coming of Christ, the prize that lies at the end of the Christian race will be ours to enjoy throughout ceaseless ages.--Signs of the Times, May 29, 1884.
------------------------The Latter Rain, December 20
FH	366	1	Ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain. The Lord will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain. Zechariah 10:1.
FH	366	2	In the East the former rain falls at the sowing time. It is necessary in order that the seed may germinate. Under the influence of the fertilizing showers, the tender shoot springs up. The latter rain, falling near the close of the season, ripens the grain, and prepares it for the sickle. The Lord employs these operations of nature to represent the work of the Holy Spirit. As the dew and the rain are given first to cause the seed to germinate and then to ripen the harvest, so the Holy Spirit is given to carry forward, from one stage to another, the process of spiritual growth. The ripening of the grain represents the completion of the work of God's grace in the soul....
FH	366	3	The latter rain, ripening earth's harvest, represents the spiritual grace that prepares the church for the coming of the Son of man. But unless the former rain has fallen, there will be no life; the green blade will not spring up. Unless the early showers have done their work, the latter rain can bring no seed to perfection....
FH	366	4	The work that God has begun in the human heart in giving His light and knowledge must be continually going forward. All of us must realize our own necessity. The heart must be emptied of every defilement and cleansed for the indwelling of the Spirit. It was by the confession and forsaking of sin, by earnest prayer and consecration of themselves to God, that the early disciples prepared for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The same work, only in greater degree, must be done now....
FH	366	5	Only those who are living up to the light they have will receive greater light. Unless we are daily advancing in the exemplification of the active Christian virtues, we shall not recognize the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain. It may be falling on hearts all around us, but we shall not discern or receive it.
FH	366	6	At no point in our experience can we dispense with the assistance of that which enables us to make the first start. The blessings received under the former rain are needful to us to the end.--The Review and Herald, March 2, 1897.
------------------------Accept the Invitation, December 21
FH	367	1	Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. Luke 14:23.
FH	367	2	A man who had been invited to the feast with Christ in the house of one of the chief Pharisees, and who heard Christ declare what was the duty of those who had God's bounties, had exclaimed in self-satisfied complacency, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." He had designed to draw away the minds of those at the feast from the subject of their practical duty; but instead of this he furnished an occasion for the utterance of a parable that had still deeper significance, and that more plainly opened before the company the character and value of their present privileges....
FH	367	3	Christ had sent out an invitation to a feast that He had provided at great cost. He had sent the Holy Spirit to move upon the minds of prophets and holy men of old to invite His chosen people to the rich feast of the gospel.... The man who had sought to divert the attention of the company spoke with great assurance, as though he thought he would certainly eat bread in the kingdom of God. But Jesus warned him and all present against the danger of rejecting the present invitation to the gospel feast....
FH	367	4	The Lord had first sent His invitation to His chosen people, but they had slighted and rejected His messenger. How vain, how needless, were the excuses they offered; but are the excuses that men and women give in this age any more sensible than those offered in the time of Christ?
FH	367	5	Some who are invited exclaim, "I beg Thee have me excused. If I should come, my neighbors would jest at and ridicule me, and I cannot bear their scorn. I have lived among them a long time, and I do not want to displease my neighbors."... Others are desirous of paying for their lands and of building up their temporal interests, and the powers of mind and soul and body are absorbed in their earthly affairs....
FH	367	6	The precious message has come to us in these last days.... The invitation has been given, "Come; for all things are now ready."...
FH	367	7	Christ has pledged His own life for the redemption of His people, and He would have them consider their higher, eternal claims.--The Review and Herald, November 5, 1895.
------------------------To All Nations, December 22
FH	368	1	You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Acts 1:8.
FH	368	2	Christ commissioned His disciples to do the work He had left in their hands, beginning at Jerusalem. Jerusalem had been the scene of His amazing condescension for the human race. There He had suffered, been rejected and condemned. The land of Judea was His birthplace. There, clad in the garb of humanity, He had walked with humanity, and few had discerned how near heaven came to earth when Jesus was among them. At Jerusalem the work of the disciples must begin.
FH	368	3	But the work was not to stop here. It was to be extended to the earth's remotest bounds. To His disciples Christ said: You have been witnesses of My life of self-sacrifice in behalf of the world. You have witnessed My labors for Israel. Although they would not come unto Me that they might have life, although priests and rulers have done unto Me as they wished, although they have rejected Me as the Scripture foretold, they shall have still another opportunity of accepting the Son of God. You have seen that all who come to Me confessing their sins, I freely receive. He that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. All who will, may be reconciled to God and receive everlasting life. To you, My disciples, I commit this message of mercy. It is to be given to Israel first, and then to all nations, tongues, and peoples....
FH	368	4	Through the gift of the Holy Spirit the disciples were to receive a marvelous power. Their testimony was to be confirmed by signs and wonders....
FH	368	5	The disciples were to begin their work where they were. The hardest and most unpromising field was not to be passed by. So all of Christ's workers are to begin where they are. In our own families may be souls hungry for sympathy, starving for the bread of life. There may be children to be trained for Christ. There are heathen at our very doors. Let us do faithfully the work that is nearest. Then let our efforts be extended as far as God's hand may lead the way. The work of many may appear to be restricted by circumstances; but wherever it is, if performed with faith and diligence it will be felt to the uttermost parts of the earth. Christ's work when upon earth appeared to be confined to a narrow field, but multitudes from all lands heard His message.--The Review and Herald, October 9, 1913.
------------------------The First and Second Advent, December 23
FH	369	1	And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 24:31.
FH	369	2	The leaders of the Jewish nation had the Old Testament Scriptures, which plainly foretold the manner of Christ's first advent. Through the prophet Isaiah God had described the appearance and mission of Christ, saying, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."...
FH	369	3	All the wonderful events clustering around His second coming, they looked for at His first. Therefore, when He came, they were not prepared to receive Him....
FH	369	4	Between the first and the second advent of Christ a wonderful contrast will be seen. No human language can portray the scenes of the second coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. He is to come with His own glory and with the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. He will come clad in the robe of light, which He has worn from the days of eternity. Angels will accompany Him.... The sound of the trumpet will be heard, calling the sleeping dead from the grave....
FH	369	5	As they [the Jewish leaders] gaze upon His glory, there flashes before their minds the memory of the Son of man clad in the garb of humanity. They remember how they treated Him, how they refused Him and pressed close to the side of the great apostate. The scenes of Christ's life appear before them in all their clearness. All He did, all He said, the humiliation to which He descended to save them from the taint of sin, rises before them in condemnation....
FH	369	6	We are now amid the perils of the last days. The scenes of conflict are hastening on, and the day of days is just upon us. Are we prepared for the issue?...
FH	369	7	The Son of man will bestow upon the righteous the crown of everlasting life, and they shall "serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."--The Review and Herald, September 5, 1899.
------------------------What a Christmas Present! December 24
FH	370	1	I will come again and receive you to Myself John 14:3.
FH	370	2	The time of Jesus' betrayal, suffering, and crucifixion was drawing near; and as the disciples gathered around Him, the Lord unfolded to them the mournful events that were about to take place, and their hearts were filled with sorrow. To comfort them He spoke these tender words: "Let not your heart be troubled.... I will come again, and receive you unto myself." He directed their minds away from the scenes of sorrow to the mansions of heaven and the time of reunion in the kingdom of God.... Though He must go from them and ascend to His Father, His work for those He loved would not be at an end. He was to prepare homes for those who, for His sake, were to be pilgrims and strangers on the earth....
FH	370	3	After His resurrection "he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven."... Do you imagine as they went back to Jerusalem that they said to one another, "Well, the Lord has left us. What is now the use of trying to gain followers to Jesus? Let us return to our nets."... There is no record of any such conversation. Not a line is written or a hint given that they had a thought of leaving the service of their ascended Lord for the service of self and the world. The Savior's hand had been outstretched in blessing His disciples He had left behind as He ascended. They had seen His glory. He had gone to prepare mansions for them. Their salvation had been provided for, and if they were faithful in complying with the conditions, they would assuredly follow Him to the world of unending joy. Their hearts were filled with songs of rejoicing and praise.
FH	370	4	We all have the same cause for thanksgiving. The resurrection and ascension of our Lord is a sure evidence of the triumph of the saints of God over death and the grave, and a pledge that heaven is open to those who wash their robes of character and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. Jesus ascended to the Father as a representative of the human race, and God will bring those who reflect His image to behold and share with Him His glory....
FH	370	5	Let us go forward together to reach the great reward and join in the song of the redeemed. If we ever sing the praises of God in heaven, we must first sing them here.--Signs of the Times, January 27, 1888.
------------------------The Promise Fulfilled, December 25
FH	371	1	Enter into the joy of your lord. Matthew 25:21.
FH	371	2	Though the disciples had gazed far into the heaven until their Lord had vanished from their sight, they did not behold the angels that gathered around their beloved Commander. Jesus led a multitude of captives who had risen from the grave at His resurrection. As the glorious company approach the gates of the eternal city, the angels sing, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." And the angels guarding the gates respond, "Who is this King of glory?" The attendant angels reply, "The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." As the glorious train passes in, the angels are about to bow in adoration before the Lord of glory; but He waves them back. Before He will permit their homage He must know that His sacrifice for the fallen race has been accepted of the Father. He must know whether the price paid for the redemption of the lost has been sufficient to ransom them from the power of sin and the grave.... Amid the splendor of the courts of glory, amid ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands waiting to cast their crowns at His feet, He does not forget those that He has left on earth to bear opposition, reproach, and scorn. After the Father has assured Him that the ransom paid is accepted, still He has a request to offer for those who believe in Him and follow in His footsteps, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." He requested that His disciples might enter into His joy and share His glory, and at last the faithful servant of the Lord will hear the glad words, "Enter thou into the joy of thy lord."
FH	371	3	When He had finished preferring His requests, the Father gave the command, "Let all the angels of God worship him." Then the song of joy and love swells through the heavenly courts, "Worthy, worthy, worthy, is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again, a triumphant conqueror." And this same Jesus, whom unnumbered hosts of angels delight to adore, is coming again to fulfill His promise and receive those who love Him unto Himself. Have we not great reason to rejoice?... The consummation of our hope is at hand; the faithful will soon enter into the joy of their Lord.--Signs of the Times, January 27, 1888.
------------------------A Resolution, December 26
FH	372	1	I will not let You go unless You bless me! Genesis 32:26.
FH	372	2	There is need of earnest work, that we may have strength from God to resist the enemy when he shall come in like a flood. We must agonize in order to subdue self; for self-ease and self-indulgence are the most deceptive of sins, stupefying the conscience and blinding the understanding.... We need the earnest desire of the importunate widow and the Syrophenician woman-a determination that will not be repulsed.
FH	372	3	Many, very many, are making a fatal mistake by failing to heed this lesson of God's providence. Peace and rest can be secured only by conflict. The powers of light and darkness are in array, and we must individually take a part in the struggle. Jacob wrestled all night with God before he gained the victory. As he pleaded with God in prayer, he felt a strong hand laid upon him, and thinking it to be the hand of an enemy, he put forth all his strength to resist Him. He wrestled for hours, but gained nothing over his Opponent, and he dared not relax his efforts for one moment, lest he should be overcome and lose his life.... Then the Stranger brought the conflict to a close. He touched the thigh of Jacob, and the wrestler's strength was paralyzed. It was not until then that Jacob learned who his Opponent really was, and, falling crippled and weeping on His neck, he pleaded for his life.
FH	372	4	The Angel could easily have released Himself from the grasp of Jacob, but He did not do this. "Let me go," He pleaded, "for the day breaketh." But the answer came from the suffering but determined Jacob, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." The suppliant's tears and prayers gained for him what he struggled in vain to obtain. "What is thy name?" the Angel asked. "And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.... And he blessed him there."...
FH	372	5	Resolution, self-denial, and consecrated effort are required for the work of preparation.... Only by earnest, determined effort and faith in the merits of Christ can we overcome and gain the kingdom of heaven. Our time for work is short. Christ is soon to come the second time.--Youth's Instructor, May 24, 1900.
------------------------Change in Raiment, December 27
FH	373	1	I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed. Revelation 3:18.
FH	373	2	The Lord Jesus has sent a most solemn message to the Laodicean church.... In the counsel of the True Witness, He urges upon His people the necessity of being clothed in the white garment of His righteousness. Every guest accepted for the marriage supper of the Lamb will be arrayed in this spotless robe. But Satan is determined that those who have been sinners shall not wear this spotless garment, and he is seeking to obtain unlimited power over them. The controversy over those who have been purchased by the blood of Christ is pictured by the prophet. He says, "And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?"
FH	373	3	Joshua represents those who are making a penitent plea at the throne of grace, and Satan stands as their adversary to accuse them before Christ. The prophet continues, "Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment...."
FH	373	4	The wedding garment is the righteousness of Christ and represents the character of those who will be accepted as guests for the marriage supper of the Lamb. Those who have transgressed the law, who have committed sin, can find no saving quality in the law which condemns them, but Christ has become the sin bearer for the whole world....
FH	373	5	Those who receive Christ as their personal Savior yield up their way to His will and His way. They cast their sins upon Him and receive and rejoice in the imputed righteousness of Christ. They know what it means to have a change of raiment.... "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."--Youth's Instructor, October 21, 1897.
------------------------Use What You Have, December 28
FH	374	1	And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men. Colossians 3:23.
FH	374	2	Every individual, from the lowliest and most obscure to the greatest and most exalted, is a moral agent endowed with abilities for which each is accountable to God....
FH	374	3	Let the business man and woman do their business in a way that will glorify their Master because of their fidelity. Let them carry their religion into everything that is done, and reveal to others the spirit of Christ. Let the mechanic be a diligent and faithful representative of Him who toiled in the lowly walks of life in the cities of Judea. Let all who name the name of Christ so work that others, by seeing their good works, may be led to glorify their Creator and Redeemer....
FH	374	4	Those who have been blessed with superior talents should not depreciate the value of the services of those who are less gifted than themselves. The smallest trust is a trust from God. With the blessing of God, the one talent through diligent use will be doubled, and the two used in the service of Christ will be increased to four; and thus the humblest instrument may grow in power and usefulness....
FH	374	5	We are responsible only for the talents which God has bestowed upon us. The Lord does not reprove the servant who has doubled his talent, who has done according to his ability. Those who thus prove their fidelity can be commended and rewarded; but those who loiter in the vineyard, those who do nothing, or do negligently the Lord's work, make manifest their real attitude toward the work to which they have been called, by their works. They show that their hearts are not in the service for which they have been engaged....
FH	374	6	Let none mourn that they have not larger talents to use for the Master.... Thank God for the ability you have, and pray that you may be enabled to meet the responsibilities that have been placed upon you. If you desire greater usefulness, go to work and acquire what you mourn for. Go to work with steady patience, and do your very best, irrespective of what others are doing.... Let not your thought or your words be, Oh, that I had a larger work! Oh, that I were in this or that position! Do your duty where you are. Make the best investments possible with your entrusted gift in the very place where your work will count the most before God.--The Review and Herald, October 26, 1911.
------------------------The Blessed Hope, December 29
FH	375	1	We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. Titus 2:12.
FH	375	2	We are exhorted to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, and to look for the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Some have made an objection to my work, because I teach that it is our duty to be looking for Christ's personal appearing in the clouds of heaven. They have said, "You would think that the day of the Lord was right upon us to hear Mrs. White speak in reference to the coming of Christ; and she has been preaching on that same subject for the last forty years, and the Lord has not yet come." This very objection might have been brought against the words of Christ Himself. He said by the mouth of the beloved disciple, "Behold, I come quickly," and John responds, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
FH	375	3	Jesus spoke these words as words of warning and encouragement to His people; and why should we not heed them? The Lord has said that it is the faithful who will be found watching and waiting for Him. It was the unfaithful servant who said, "My lord delayeth his coming," and began to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken.
FH	375	4	The exact time of Christ's second coming is not revealed. Jesus said, "No man knoweth the day nor the hour." But He also gave signs of His coming, and said, "When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." He bade them, as the signs of His coming should appear, "Look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." And in view of these things the apostle wrote, "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day." Since we know not the hour of Christ's coming, we must live soberly and godly in this present world, "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."
FH	375	5	Christ gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. His people are to preserve their peculiar character as His representatives. There is work for every one of them to do.... Says the apostle, "We are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."--Signs of the Times, June 24, 1889.
------------------------Preparing for Heaven, December 30
FH	376	1	So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. Zechariah 3:5.
FH	376	2	As we approach the perils of the last days, the temptations of the enemy become stronger and more determined. Satan has come down in great power, knowing that his time is short; and he is working "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." The warning comes to us through God's Word that, if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect.
FH	376	3	Wonderful events are soon to open before the world. The end of all things is at hand. The time of trouble is about to come upon the people of God. Then it is that the decree will go forth forbidding those who keep the Sabbath of the Lord to buy or sell, and threatening them with punishment, and even death, if they do not observe the first day of the week as the Sabbath....
FH	376	4	In the time of trouble, Satan stirs up the wicked, and they encircle the people of God to destroy them. But he does not know that "pardon" has been written opposite their names in the books of heaven. He does not know that the command has been given, "Take away the filthy garments" from them, clothe them with "change of raiment," and set "a fair mitre" upon their heads....
FH	376	5	While we speak of the necessity of separating from sin, remember that Christ came to our world to save sinners, and that "he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him." It is our privilege to believe that His blood is able to cleanse us from every spot and stain of sin. We must not limit the power of the Holy One of Israel. He wants us to come to Him just as we are, sinful and polluted. His blood is efficacious. I entreat you not to grieve His Spirit by continuing in sin. If you fall under temptation, do not become discouraged. This promise comes ringing down along the line to our time, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." I feel that for this one promise a continual song of thanksgiving ought to go forth from the lips of mortals. Let us gather up these precious jewels of promise, and when Satan accuses us of our great sinfulness, and tempts us to doubt the power of God to save, let us repeat the words of Christ, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."--The Review and Herald, November 19, 1908.
------------------------Heaven Below and Heaven Above, December 31
FH	377	1	For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4.
FH	377	2	We have but one probation in which to form character, and our destiny depends upon the manner of character we form. Those who on earth have formed characters that through the grace of Christ bear the heavenly mold will be ripened through the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit for the eternal reward. They become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. It is a realization of the fact that our characters are Christlike that calls forth the song of praise and thanksgiving to God and to the Lamb. Those who appreciate the goodness, mercy, and love of Christ, and by beholding Him become changed into His image, will be partakers of eternal life. The attributes of their character are like those of Christ, and they cannot fail of the rest that remains for the people of God....
FH	377	3	If we would see heaven, we must have heaven below. We must have a heaven to go to heaven in. We must have heaven in our families, through Christ continually approaching unto God. Christ is the great center of attraction, and the child of God hid in Christ meets with God, and is lost in the divine being. Prayer is the life of the soul; it is feeding on Christ; it is turning our faces fully toward the Sun of Righteousness. As we turn our faces toward Him, He turns His face toward us....
FH	377	4	By simple, earnest, contrite prayer, heavenly mindedness is greatly increased. No other means of grace can be substituted and healthiness of the soul be preserved. Prayer brings the soul into immediate contact with the wellspring of life and strengthens the spiritual sinew and muscle of our religious experience; for we live by faith, seeing Him who is invisible....
FH	377	5	The Word of God is a spiritual granary from whence the soul may receive that which will nourish its life. In perusing the Word of God we find doctrines, precepts, promises, admonitions, exhortations, and words of encouragement that will meet the case of emergency in every human mind. Here the man and woman of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works; for "all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."--Signs of the Times, July 31, 1893.

------------------------The Faith I Live By
FLB	7	1	A Light for My Path, January 1
FLB	8	1	My Defense in Temptation, January 2
FLB	9	1	Its Promises Are Mine, January 3
FLB	10	1	Lesson Book for All Mankind, January 4
FLB	11	1	The Bible From Heaven, January 5
FLB	12	1	All the Bible Inspired, January 6
FLB	13	1	An Infallible Revelation, January 7
FLB	14	1	Mysteries We Cannot Fathom, January 8
FLB	15	1	The Book That Endures, January 9
FLB	16	1	The Evidence of Experience, January 10
FLB	17	1	Christ the Living Word, January 11
FLB	18	1	The Secret of Power, January 12
FLB	19	1	Born of the Word, January 13
FLB	20	1	Food for My Soul, January 14
FLB	21	1	Life in God's Word, January 15
FLB	22	1	A Table Set Before Me, January 16
FLB	23	1	Linked to the Divine, January 17
FLB	24	1	Origin by Creation, January 18
FLB	25	1	Nature Speaks of God, January 19
FLB	26	1	The Heavens Are Telling, January 20
FLB	27	1	Creation Not Evolution, January 21
FLB	28	1	All Nature Upheld by God, January 22
FLB	29	1	The Crowning Act of Creation, January 23
FLB	30	1	What Is Your Life? January 24
FLB	31	1	Instituted at Creation, January 25
FLB	32	1	A Holy Memorial, January 26
FLB	33	1	A Special Sign, January 27
FLB	34	1	Preparing for the Holy Day, January 28
FLB	35	1	Sanctified for Worship, January 29
FLB	36	1	Happiest Day of the Week, January 30
FLB	37	1	To Be Kept in Eternity, January 31
FLB	38	1	Our Loving Heavenly Father, February 1
FLB	39	1	His Majesty and Greatness, February 2
FLB	40	1	A Personal God, February 3
FLB	41	1	Holy and Reverend Is His Name, February 4
FLB	42	1	Faithful and True, February 5
FLB	43	1	His Wonderful Love Expressed, February 6
FLB	44	1	Perfect in All His Ways, February 7
FLB	45	1	God's Gift to the Human Race, February 8
FLB	46	1	His Eternal Pre-existence, February 9
FLB	47	1	The Great "I AM", February 10
FLB	48	1	The Creator Incarnate, February 11
FLB	49	1	His Blameless Life, February 12
FLB	50	1	He Died for Us, February 13
FLB	51	1	Jesus' Resurrection and the New Life, February 14
FLB	52	1	Third Person of the Godhead, February 15
FLB	53	1	The Gift of God to You, February 16
FLB	54	1	A Mysterious and Tender Presence, February 17
FLB	55	1	Agent in Redemption, February 18
FLB	56	1	Comforter and Teacher, February 19
FLB	57	1	The Indwelling Spirit, February 20
FLB	58	1	Grieve Not the Spirit, February 21
FLB	59	1	God Is Love, February 22
FLB	60	1	No Respecter of Persons, February 23
FLB	61	1	Infinitely Wise and Good, February 24
FLB	62	1	The Divine Presence With Us Always, February 25
FLB	63	1	His Gentle, Loving Care, February 26
FLB	64	1	The Saving Providences of God, February 27
FLB	65	1	Lover of All Men, February 28
FLB	66	1	The Uprising of Rebellion, March 1
FLB	67	1	Ambition Brings Sorrow, March 2
FLB	68	1	Pride Comes Before a Fall, March 3
FLB	69	1	Guard Against Untruthfulness! March 4
FLB	70	1	Sin--Exceedingly Sinful, March 5
FLB	71	1	Life or Death? March 6
FLB	72	1	Rebellion Will Be Put Down, March 7
FLB	73	1	Waywardness of Man, March 8
FLB	74	1	The Way of Transgressors, March 9
FLB	75	1	First Promise of Redemption, March 10
FLB	76	1	A Saviour From Eternity, March 11
FLB	77	1	God's Plan to Ransom Man, March 12
FLB	78	1	Man's Inability to Save Himself, March 13
FLB	79	1	Our Angel Friends and Guardians, March 14
FLB	80	1	God's Commandments Are Sure, March 15
FLB	81	1	Tampering With the Commandments, March 16
FLB	82	1	Man a Free Moral Agent, March 17
FLB	83	1	In Harmony With Heaven, March 18
FLB	84	1	Wondrous Things in God's Law, March 19
FLB	85	1	Jesus' Example in Law Keeping, March 20
FLB	86	1	The Great Principle of the Law, March 21
FLB	87	1	Our Helpless Condition in Sin, March 22
FLB	88	1	The Gospel for Both Dispensations, March 23
FLB	89	1	Abundant Grace for Obedience, March 24
FLB	90	1	The Faith That Works, March 25
FLB	91	1	How Faith Is Made Perfect, March 26
FLB	92	1	Do We Contradict Our Profession? March 27
FLB	93	1	Does Faith Cancel Obedience? March 28
FLB	94	1	The Great Element of Saving Power, March 29
FLB	95	1	Praying for a Larger Experience, March 30
FLB	96	1	The Saving Power of Jesus, March 31
FLB	97	1	The Saviour of Men, April 1
FLB	98	1	The Sinner's Friend, April 2
FLB	99	1	A Wellspring of Life, April 3
FLB	100	1	My Guide and Pilot, April 4
FLB	101	1	The Sacrificial Blood of Christ, April 5
FLB	102	1	Justified by His Blood, April 6
FLB	103	1	Peace Through the Cross, April 7
FLB	104	1	A Glorious Substitution, April 8
FLB	105	1	A Perfect Atonement, April 9
FLB	106	1	Type Meets Antitype, April 10
FLB	107	1	Redemption and Forgiveness, April 11
FLB	108	1	Self-righteousness Insufficient, April 12
FLB	109	1	Filled With His Righteousness, April 13
FLB	110	1	The First Steps in Justification, April 14
FLB	111	1	The Righteousness of Christ Sufficient, April 15
FLB	112	1	His Righteousness Obtained by Faith, April 16
FLB	113	1	Clothed in His Righteousness, April 17
FLB	114	1	Proving the Will of God, April 18
FLB	115	1	Faith Demonstrated by Works, April 19
FLB	116	1	Sanctification the Work of a Lifetime, April 20
FLB	117	1	A Hatred of Sin, April 21
FLB	118	1	"If Any Man Sin--", April 22
FLB	119	1	The Test of Character, April 23
FLB	120	1	The Ladder to Perfection, April 24
FLB	121	1	Joy and Peace in the Holy Ghost, April 25
FLB	122	1	What Is Faith? April 26
FLB	123	1	Faith Comes Through the Promises, April 27
FLB	124	1	The Good Fight of Faith, April 28
FLB	125	1	The Just Shall Live by Faith, April 29
FLB	126	1	Faith Is the Victory, April 30
FLB	127	1	True Sorrow for Sin, May 1
FLB	128	1	Sincere Confession Essential, May 2
FLB	129	1	The Meaning of Forgiveness, May 3
FLB	130	1	The Sons and Daughters of God, May 4
FLB	131	1	Forgiven as We Forgive, May 5
FLB	132	1	Restitution Is Required, May 6
FLB	133	1	Come Just as You Are, May 7
FLB	134	1	A Personal Pardon, May 8
FLB	135	1	Union With Christ, May 9
FLB	136	1	Help for the Poor in Spirit, May 10
FLB	137	1	A Change of Heart Needed, May 11
FLB	138	1	Blessings on the Humble Man, May 12
FLB	139	1	A New Life Altogether, May 13
FLB	140	1	Holiness of Life, May 14
FLB	141	1	Strengthened by the Spirit, May 15
FLB	142	1	Amazing Transformation of Character, May 16
FLB	143	1	Our Lord's Example, May 17
FLB	144	1	"This Is My Beloved Son", May 18
FLB	145	1	Born of Water and the Spirit, May 19
FLB	146	1	Baptized Into His Death and Resurrection, May 20
FLB	147	1	Walking in His Steps, May 21
FLB	148	1	When Rebaptism Is Appropriate, May 22
FLB	149	1	Our Lord's Command, May 23
FLB	150	1	Changed by Beholding, May 24
FLB	151	1	Taking Up Our Cross, May 25
FLB	152	1	Developing Good Habits, May 26
FLB	153	1	Unashamed of Jesus, May 27
FLB	154	1	The Right Exercise of the Will, May 28
FLB	155	1	The Sowing Time of Life, May 29
FLB	156	1	Don't Get Discouraged! May 30
FLB	157	1	A Life Insurance Policy for You, May 31
FLB	158	1	Time a Precious Talent, June 1
FLB	159	1	A Cure for Idleness, June 2
FLB	160	1	The True Value of Money, June 3
FLB	161	1	An Aroused Conscience, June 4
FLB	162	1	A Living Benevolence, June 5
FLB	163	1	Faithful in Little Things, June 6
FLB	164	1	Source of All Life, June 7
FLB	165	1	He Cares for Us Every Minute, June 8
FLB	166	1	The Great Object of Life, June 9
FLB	167	1	One Lease of Life, June 10
FLB	168	1	Behind the Scenes of Life, June 11
FLB	169	1	Live While You Have a Chance, June 12
FLB	170	1	Seeking the Heavenly Treasure, June 13
FLB	171	1	The Arrow of Death, June 14
FLB	172	1	Light in the Shadows, June 15
FLB	173	1	Our Blessed Dead, June 16
FLB	174	1	Man a Mere Mortal, June 17
FLB	175	1	Man's State in Death, June 18
FLB	176	1	A Goodness in God's Justice, June 19
FLB	177	1	The Portion of the Wicked, June 20
FLB	178	1	Natural Immortality A Lie, June 21
FLB	179	1	Now is God's Time, June 22
FLB	180	1	Christ the First Fruits, June 23
FLB	181	1	Death Swallowed Up in Victory, June 24
FLB	182	1	A Special Resurrection, June 25
FLB	183	1	The Resurrection to Immortality, June 26
FLB	184	1	The Resurrection to Damnation, June 27
FLB	185	1	The Life-giver Is Coming, June 28
FLB	186	1	Sorrow With Hope, June 29
FLB	187	1	When Eternal Life Begins, June 30
FLB	188	1	The Lord Is in This Place, July 1
FLB	189	1	Keep Silence Before Him, July 2
FLB	190	1	Purging From Sin, July 3
FLB	191	1	The Spirit in the Soul Temple, July 4
FLB	192	1	The Purpose of the Sanctuary, July 5
FLB	193	1	A Temple Built by Sacrifice, July 6
FLB	194	1	Strength and Beauty in His Sanctuary, July 7
FLB	195	1	Redeemer, Priest, and King, July 8
FLB	196	1	A Daily Consecration to God, July 9
FLB	197	1	The Incense of Righteousness, July 10
FLB	198	1	Christ Died for the Individual, July 11
FLB	199	1	The Voluntary Sacrifice of Jesus, July 12
FLB	200	1	The Blood Applied Continually, July 13
FLB	201	1	Into the Holy Place, July 14
FLB	202	1	The Very Center of His Work, July 15
FLB	203	1	Appears in Heaven for Us, July 16
FLB	204	1	Uttermost Salvation for His Children, July 17
FLB	205	1	The True Mediator, July 18
FLB	206	1	The Heavenly Things Purified, July 19
FLB	207	1	Christ Before the Ancient of Days, July 20
FLB	208	1	The Signal to Begin, July 21
FLB	209	1	Our Eyes Fixed on Christ, July 22
FLB	210	1	Judged From the Records, July 23
FLB	211	1	Each Life Passes in Review, July 24
FLB	212	1	The Blotting Out of Sins, July 25
FLB	213	1	A Prior Judgment, July 26
FLB	214	1	Time Is Running Out! July 27
FLB	215	1	When Probation Closes, July 28
FLB	216	1	The Saints Shall Judge the World, July 29
FLB	217	1	Schemes of Satan, July 30
FLB	218	1	Established in the Present Truth, July 31
FLB	219	1	Jesus Our Perfect Pattern, August 1
FLB	220	1	Religion to be Supreme, August 2
FLB	221	1	Separated from the World, August 3
FLB	222	1	Security Only in Right Thinking, August 4
FLB	223	1	Transformed by Searching the Word, August 5
FLB	224	1	Watch and Pray, August 6
FLB	225	1	Heart Communion With God, August 7
FLB	226	1	Fullness of Joy, August 8
FLB	227	1	God's Dwelling Place, August 9
FLB	228	1	Health the Reward of Right Habits, August 10
FLB	229	1	Health in Obeying God's Law, August 11
FLB	230	1	Eating for Health and Happiness, August 12
FLB	231	1	Abstaining from Harmful Indulgences, August 13
FLB	232	1	Blessing in Physical Activity, August 14
FLB	233	1	Come Apart and Rest, August 15
FLB	234	1	Friendship of Christ's Friends, August 16
FLB	235	1	Your Influence Counts! August 17
FLB	236	1	Words of Grace, August 18
FLB	237	1	Something Better! August 19
FLB	238	1	Closing the Door of Temptation, August 20
FLB	239	1	Deposits in the Bank of Heaven, August 21
FLB	240	1	God and Caesar, August 22
FLB	241	1	Christian Youth and their Books, August 23
FLB	242	1	Melody in the Heart, August 24
FLB	243	1	Beauty that Endures, August 25
FLB	244	1	A Tenth for God, August 26
FLB	245	1	The Offerings of Gratitude, August 27
FLB	246	1	In the Channel of Blessing, August 28
FLB	247	1	God's Helping Hand, August 29
FLB	248	1	Keep Looking Up! August 30
FLB	249	1	The Hand that Never Lets Go, August 31
FLB	250	1	The Eden Home, September 1
FLB	251	1	The First Marriage, September 2
FLB	252	1	Blending of Two Lives, September 3
FLB	253	1	A Union for Life, September 4
FLB	254	1	Let God Control, September 5
FLB	255	1	The Love that Lasts, September 6
FLB	256	1	Far Above Rubies, September 7
FLB	257	1	Love Stands the Test, September 8
FLB	258	1	Sunshine or Shadows? September 9
FLB	259	1	A Partnership that Works, September 10
FLB	260	1	Kings and Queens, September 11
FLB	261	1	The Crowning Treasure of the Home, September 12
FLB	262	1	What Kind of Inheritance? September 13
FLB	263	1	Pattern for Children and Youth, September 14
FLB	264	1	The Grandest Work of All, September 15
FLB	265	1	House-Band of the Family, September 16
FLB	266	1	Holding the Reins of Government, September 17
FLB	267	1	Silken Cords of Affection, September 18
FLB	268	1	Working Together, September 19
FLB	269	1	"I Will Save Thy Children", September 20
FLB	270	1	Little Children May Be Christians, September 21
FLB	271	1	Feasting on God's Word, September 22
FLB	272	1	Sweetest Hour of the Day, September 23
FLB	273	1	Singing on Life's Way, September 24
FLB	274	1	Day of Days, September 25
FLB	275	1	The Royal Robe of Heaven, September 26
FLB	276	1	A Place of Refuge, September 27
FLB	277	1	An Ever-Widening Circle, September 28
FLB	278	1	A Bright and Holy Light, September 29
FLB	279	1	A Welcome to the Heavenly Home, September 30
FLB	280	1	Dear to the Heart of God, October 1
FLB	281	1	A City of Refuge, October 2
FLB	282	1	God Will Take Care of His Church, October 3
FLB	283	1	The Judgment-Hour Message, October 4
FLB	284	1	Light Through the Darkness, October 5
FLB	285	1	Babylon is Fallen, October 6
FLB	286	1	The Last Solemn Warning, October 7
FLB	287	1	Who Shall Receive God's Seal? October 8
FLB	288	1	God's Ideal for His Church, October 9
FLB	289	1	The Trial of the Church, October 10
FLB	290	1	Elijah and the Modern Church, October 11
FLB	291	1	A Sabbathkeeping Church, October 12
FLB	292	1	The Gifts of the Spirit, October 13
FLB	293	1	A Prophet's Voice in Our Time, October 14
FLB	294	1	"Fear Thou Not ... I Am With Thee", October 15
FLB	295	1	The Testimony of Jesus, October 16
FLB	296	1	Prove All Things, October 17
FLB	297	1	The Servant of Man, October 18
FLB	298	1	Jesus' Example in Humility, October 19
FLB	299	1	A Proof of Loyalty, October 20
FLB	300	1	In Remembrance of Me, October 21
FLB	301	1	"The New Testament in My Blood", October 22
FLB	302	1	As Oft as ye Eat and Drink, October 23
FLB	303	1	Baptism and the Passion of Christ, October 24
FLB	304	1	The Name the Lord has Given Us, October 25
FLB	305	1	Builders, Not Destroyers, October 26
FLB	306	1	Riches for the Laodiceans, October 27
FLB	307	1	A People Who Keep God's Law, October 28
FLB	308	1	The Gospel to All the World, October 29
FLB	309	1	Love Begets Love, October 30
FLB	310	1	Built on the Rock, October 31
FLB	311	1	For Such a Time as This! November 1
FLB	312	1	Cruel Power of the Enemy, November 2
FLB	313	1	The Device of Worldliness, November 3
FLB	314	1	Testing the Voice of the Shepherds, November 4
FLB	315	1	Prayer for the Sick, November 5
FLB	316	1	The Spirit of True Heroism, November 6
FLB	317	1	Testing Our Mettle, November 7
FLB	318	1	Safety in Vigilance, November 8
FLB	319	1	Mystic Voices of Today, November 9
FLB	320	1	A Dangerous Form of Mind Cure, November 10
FLB	321	1	"Science Falsely So Called", November 11
FLB	322	1	Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, November 12
FLB	323	1	Are You in Danger? November 13
FLB	324	1	Taking Hold of God's Strength, November 14
FLB	325	1	Seen and Unseen Foes, November 15
FLB	326	1	Revivals True and Counterfeit, November 16
FLB	327	1	Tears and Conflict, November 17
FLB	328	1	Physical Attacks of Satan, November 18
FLB	329	1	In the Hour of Decision, November 19
FLB	330	1	Hard Days of Persecution, November 20
FLB	331	1	Safety Only in Obedience, November 21
FLB	332	1	Another Pentecost Coming! November 22
FLB	333	1	The Early Rain of God's Spirit, November 23
FLB	334	1	Outpouring of the Latter Rain, November 24
FLB	335	1	Loud Cry of the Third Angel, November 25
FLB	336	1	Unmoved in the Shaking Time, November 26
FLB	337	1	Prepare to Meet Thy God, November 27
FLB	338	1	The Strange Act of God, November 28
FLB	339	1	"A Time of Trouble", November 29
FLB	340	1	Seven Last Plagues, November 30
FLB	341	1	As It Was in Noah's Day, December 1
FLB	342	1	The Criers of Peace, December 2
FLB	343	1	Signs by Land and Sea, December 3
FLB	344	1	Signs in the Heavens, December 4
FLB	345	1	Study the Prophecies, December 5
FLB	346	1	The Crowning Act of Deception, December 6
FLB	347	1	Saved From Violence, December 7
FLB	348	1	"Even so, Come, Lord Jesus", December 8
FLB	349	1	The King Appears in Person, December 9
FLB	350	1	Preparation for Translation, December 10
FLB	351	1	This Same Jesus Shall Return, December 11
FLB	352	1	A Crown for Every Saint, December 12
FLB	353	1	The Captivity of Satan, December 13
FLB	354	1	We Shall Judge Angels, December 14
FLB	355	1	Descent of the New Jerusalem, December 15
FLB	356	1	The Supremacy of Jesus, December 16
FLB	357	1	Satan and the Wicked Destroyed, December 17
FLB	358	1	The Justice of God, December 18
FLB	359	1	The Eternal Weight of Glory, December 19
FLB	360	1	Living the Life of Eden, December 20
FLB	361	1	Bright Beams of Glory, December 21
FLB	362	1	No More Death--Ever! December 22
FLB	363	1	The Metropolis of the World, December 23
FLB	364	1	Two Worlds Compared, December 24
FLB	365	1	The Blessedness of Heaven, December 25
FLB	366	1	Speculations About the Future Life, December 26
FLB	367	1	Heaven Begins on Earth, December 27
FLB	368	1	Heaven a Real Place, December 28
FLB	369	1	The Race for Eternal Life, December 29
FLB	370	1	Reward for Soul Winners, December 30
FLB	371	1	The Knowledge of God Covers the Earth, December 31

------------------------A Light for My Path, January 1
FLB	7	1	Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105.
FLB	7	2	We all need a guide through the many strait places in life as much as the sailor needs a pilot over the sandy bar or up the rocky river, and where is this guide to be found? We point you ... to the Bible.
FLB	7	3	God, has given us His Word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Its teachings have a vital bearing on our prosperity in all the relations of life....
FLB	7	4	The Bible is the great standard of right and wrong, clearly defining sin and holiness. Its living principles, running through our lives like threads of gold, are our only safeguard in trial and temptation. The Bible is a chart, showing us the waymarks of truth. Those who are acquainted with this chart will be enabled to tread with certainty in the path of duty, wherever they may be called to go.
FLB	7	5	When faith in God's Word is lost, the soul has no guide, no safeguard. The youth are drawn into paths which lead away from God and from everlasting life.
FLB	7	6	To this cause may in great degree be attributed the widespread iniquity in our world today. When the Word of God is set aside, its power to restrain the evil passions of the natural heart is rejected.
FLB	7	7	When God's Word is made the man of our counsel, when we search the Scriptures for light, heavenly angels come near to impress the mind and to enlighten the understanding, so that it can be truly said, "The entrance of thy words giveth light...." Psalm 119:130.
FLB	7	8	The Word of God is light and truth.... It is able to guide every step of the way to the city of God.
------------------------My Defense in Temptation, January 2
FLB	8	1	Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11.
FLB	8	2	If we would not be misled by error and falsehood, the heart must be preoccupied with the truth. The Word of God will furnish the mind with weapons of divine power, to vanquish the enemy. Happy is the man, who, when tempted, finds his soul rich in the knowledge of the Scriptures, who finds shelter beneath the promises of God. "Thy word," said the psalmist, "have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."
FLB	8	3	This Word is ever to be in our hearts and on our lips. "It is written" is to be our anchor. Those who make God's Word their counselor realize the weakness of the human heart and the power of the grace of God to subdue every unsanctified, unholy impulse. Their hearts are ever prayerful, and they have the guardianship of holy angels. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of God lifts up for them a standard against him. There is harmony in the heart, for the precious, powerful influences of truth bear sway.
FLB	8	4	The Word of God is a channel of communication with the living God. He who feeds upon the Word will become fruitful in all good works. He ... will be the discoverer of rich mines of truth which he must work to find the hidden treasure. When [he is] surrounded with temptations, the Holy Spirit will bring to his mind the very words with which to meet the temptation at the very moment when they are most needed, and he can use them effectually.
FLB	8	5	We must be better acquainted with our Bibles. We might close the door to many temptations, if we would commit to memory passages of Scripture. Let us hedge up the way to Satan's temptations with "It is written." We shall meet with conflicts to test our faith and courage, but they will make us strong if we conquer through the grace Jesus is willing to give. But we must believe; we must grasp the promises without a doubt.
------------------------Its Promises Are Mine, January 3
FLB	9	1	For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. 2 Corinthians 1:20.
FLB	9	2	The precious Bible is the garden of God, and His promises are the lilies, and the roses, and the pinks.
FLB	9	3	How I wish that we might all believe in the promises of God.... We are not to look into our hearts for a joyful emotion as an evidence of our acceptance with Heaven, but we are to take God's promises and say, "They are mine. The Lord is letting His Holy Spirit rest upon me. I am receiving the light; for the promise is, 'Believe that ye receive the things ye ask for, and ye shall have them.' By faith I reach within the veil and lay hold of Christ, my strength. I thank God that I have a Saviour."
FLB	9	4	The Scriptures are to be received as God's word to us, not written merely, but spoken. When the afflicted ones came to Christ, He beheld not only those who asked for help, but all who throughout the ages should come to Him in like need and with like faith. When He said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee"; when He said to the woman of Capernaum, "Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace," He spoke to other afflicted, sin-burdened ones who should seek His help.
FLB	9	5	So with all the promises of God's Word. In them He is speaking to us individually, speaking as directly as if we could listen to His voice. It is in these promises that Christ communicates to us His grace and power. They are leaves from that tree which is "for the healing of the nations." Received, assimilated, they are to be the strength of the character, the inspiration and sustenance of the life.
FLB	9	6	Let youth grasp the hand of infinite power. Faith grows by exercise. Feed upon the promises; be content to rely on the simple promise of God's Word.
FLB	9	7	Hang in memory's hall the precious words of Christ. They are to be valued far above silver or gold.
------------------------Lesson Book for All Mankind, January 4
FLB	10	1	For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21.
FLB	10	2	God committed the preparation of His divinely inspired Word to finite man. This Word, arranged into books, the Old and New Testaments, is the guidebook to the inhabitants of a fallen world, bequeathed to them that, by studying and obeying the directions, not one soul would lose its way to heaven.
FLB	10	3	The Bible points to God as its author; yet it was written by human hands; and in the varied style of its different books it presents the characteristics of the several writers. The truths revealed are all "given by inspiration of God" (2 Timothy 3:16); yet they are expressed in the words of men. The Infinite One by His Holy Spirit has shed light into the minds and hearts of His servants. He has given dreams and visions, symbols and figures; and those to whom the truth was thus revealed, have themselves embodied the thought in human language.
FLB	10	4	The Lord speaks to human beings in imperfect speech, in order that the degenerate senses, the dull, earthly perception, of earthly beings may comprehend His words. Thus is shown God's condescension. He meets fallen human beings where they are. The Bible, perfect as it is in its simplicity, does not answer to the great ideas of God; for infinite ideas cannot be perfectly embodied in finite vehicles of thought. Instead of the expressions of the Bible being exaggerated, as many people suppose, the strong expressions break down before the magnificence of the thought, though the penman selected the most expressive language through which to convey the truths of higher education.
FLB	10	5	God designed the Bible to be a lesson-book to all mankind, in childhood, youth, and manhood, and to be studied through all time. He gave His Word to men as a revelation of Himself.... It is the medium of communication between God and man.
------------------------The Bible From Heaven, January 5
FLB	11	1	But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 2 Corinthians 4:7.
FLB	11	2	God has been pleased to communicate His truth to the world by human agencies, and He Himself, by His Holy Spirit, qualified men and enabled them to do this work. He guided the mind in the selection of what to speak and what to write. The treasure was intrusted to earthen vessels, yet it is, none the less, from Heaven.... The obedient, believing child of God beholds in it [the testimony of God] the glory of a divine power, full of grace and truth.
FLB	11	3	The writers of the Bible had to express their ideas in human language. It was written by human men. These men were inspired of the Holy Spirit. Because of the imperfections of human understanding of language, or the perversity of the human mind, ingenious in evading truth, many read and understand the Bible to please themselves. It is not that the difficulty is in the Bible
FLB	11	4	The Scriptures were given to men, not in a continuous chain of unbroken utterances, but piece by piece through successive generations, as God in His providence saw a fitting opportunity to impress man at sundry times and divers places. Men wrote as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost....
FLB	11	5	There is not always perfect order or apparent unity in the Scriptures.... The truths of the Bible are as pearls hidden. They must be searched, dug out by painstaking effort. Those who take only a surface view of the Scriptures will, with their superficial knowledge, which they think is very deep, talk of the contradictions of the Bible, and question the authority of the Scriptures. But those whose hearts are in harmony with truth and duty will search the Scriptures with a heart prepared to receive divine impressions. The illuminated soul sees a spiritual unity, one grand golden thread running through the whole, but it requires patience, thought, and prayer to trace out the precious golden thread.
------------------------All the Bible Inspired, January 6
FLB	12	1	All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16.
FLB	12	2	The Word of God includes the Scriptures of the Old Testament as well as of the New. One is not complete without the other.
FLB	12	3	The Old Testament, no less than the New, should receive attention. As we study the Old Testament, we shall find living springs bubbling up where the careless reader discerns only a desert.
FLB	12	4	There is no discord between the Old Testament and the New. In the Old Testament we find the gospel of a coming Saviour; in the New Testament we have the gospel of a Saviour revealed as the prophecies had foretold. While the Old Testament is constantly pointing forward to the true offering, the New Testament shows that the Saviour prefigured by the typical offerings has come. The dim glory of the Jewish age has been succeeded by the brighter, clearer glory of the Christian age.
FLB	12	5	Christ as manifested to the patriarchs, as symbolized in the sacrificial service, as portrayed in the law, and as revealed by the prophets, is the riches of the Old Testament. Christ in His life, His death, and His resurrection, Christ as He is manifested by the Holy Spirit, is the treasure of the New Testament. Our Saviour, the outshining of the Father's glory, is both the Old and the New.... The Old Testament sheds light upon the New, and the New upon the Old. Each is a revelation of the glory of God in Christ. Both present truths that will continually reveal new depths of meaning to the earnest seeker.
FLB	12	6	Jesus said of the Old Testament Scriptures--and how much more it is true of the New--"They are they which testify of me" (John 5:39).... Yes, the whole Bible tells of Christ. From the first record of creation, for "without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3), to the closing promise, "Behold, I come quickly" (Revelation 22:12), we are reading of His works and listening to His voice. If you would become acquainted with the Saviour, study the Holy Scriptures.
------------------------An Infallible Revelation, January 7
FLB	13	1	The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times. Psalm 12:6.
FLB	13	2	In His Word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the revealer of doctrines, and the test of experience.
FLB	13	3	Spiritual darkness has covered the earth and gross darkness the people.... Many, very many, are questioning the verity and truth of the Scriptures. Human reasoning and the imaginings of the human heart are undermining the inspiration of the Word of God, and that which should be received as granted, is surrounded with a cloud of mysticism. Nothing stands out in clear and distinct lines, upon rock bottom. This is one of the marked signs of the last days....
FLB	13	4	There are men who strive to be original, who are wise above what is written; therefore, their wisdom is foolishness.... In seeking to make plain or to unravel mysteries hid from ages from mortal man, they are like a man floundering about in the mud, unable to extricate himself and yet telling others how to get out of the muddy sea they themselves are in. This is a fit representation of the men who set themselves to correct the errors of the Bible. No man can improve the Bible by suggesting what the Lord meant to say or ought to have said....
FLB	13	5	I take the Bible just as it is, as the Inspired Word. I believe its utterances in an entire Bible.
FLB	13	6	This Holy Book has withstood the assaults of Satan, who has united with evil men to make everything of divine character shrouded in clouds and darkness. But the Lord has preserved this Holy Book by His own miraculous power in its present shape--a chart or guidebook to the human family to show them the way to heaven....
FLB	13	7	We thank God that the Bible is prepared for the poor man as well as for the learned man. It is fitted for all ages and all classes.
------------------------Mysteries We Cannot Fathom, January 8
FLB	14	1	O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! Romans 11:33.
FLB	14	2	The Word of God, like the character of its divine Author, presents mysteries that can never be fully comprehended by finite beings....
FLB	14	3	If it were possible for created beings to attain to a full understanding of God and His works, then, having reached this point, there would be for them no further discovery of truth, no growth in knowledge, no further development of mind or heart. God would no longer be supreme; and men, having reached the limit of knowledge and attainment, would cease to advance. Let us thank God that it is not so. God is infinite; in Him are "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Colossians 2:3. And to all eternity men may be ever searching, ever learning, and yet they can never exhaust the treasures of His wisdom, His goodness, and His power.
FLB	14	4	In the natural world we are constantly surrounded with mysteries that we cannot fathom.... Should we then be surprised to find that in the spiritual world also there are mysteries that we cannot fathom?
FLB	14	5	The mysteries of the Bible ... are among the strongest evidences of its divine inspiration. If it contained no account of God but that which we could comprehend; if His greatness and majesty could be grasped by finite minds, then the Bible would not, as now, bear the unmistakable evidences of divinity.... The more we search the Bible, the deeper is our conviction that it is the word of the living God, and human reason bows before the majesty of divine revelation.
FLB	14	6	Christ will lead the redeemed ones beside the river of life, and will open to them that which while on this earth they could not understand.
FLB	14	7	In the light that shines from the throne, mysteries will disappear, and the soul will be filled with astonishment at the simplicity of the things that were never before comprehended.
------------------------The Book That Endures, January 9
FLB	15	1	Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Matthew 24:35.
FLB	15	2	He [Christ] pointed to the Scriptures as of unquestionable authority, and we should do the same. The Bible is to be presented as the word of the infinite God, as the end of all controversy and the foundation of all faith.
FLB	15	3	The infidel Voltaire once boastingly said: "I am weary of hearing people repeat that twelve men established the Christian religion. I will prove that one man may suffice to overthrow it." ... Millions have joined in the war upon the Bible. But it is so far from being destroyed, that where there were a hundred in Voltaire's time, there are now ten thousand, yes, a hundred thousand copies of the Book of God. In the words of an early Reformer concerning the Christian church, "The Bible is an anvil that has worn out many hammers." Saith the Lord, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn." Isaiah 54:17.
FLB	15	4	At this time, before the great final crisis, as before the world's first destruction, men are absorbed in the pleasures and the pursuits of sense. Engrossed with the seen and transitory, they have lost sight of the unseen and eternal. For the things that perish with the using, they are sacrificing imperishable riches.... From the rise and fall of nations as made plain in the pages of Holy Writ, they need to learn how worthless is mere outward and worldly glory.
FLB	15	5	The Word of God is the only steadfast thing our world knows. It is the sure foundation. "Heaven and earth shall pass away," said Jesus, "but my words shall not pass away."
FLB	15	6	"The word of God shall stand for ever." "All his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." Isaiah 40:8; Psalm 111:7, 8. Whatever is built upon the authority of man will be overthrown; but that which is founded upon the rock of God's immutable Word shall stand forever.
------------------------The Evidence of Experience, January 10
FLB	16	1	O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Psalm 34:8.
FLB	16	2	There is an evidence that is open to all--the most highly educated, and the most illiterate--the evidence of experience. God invites us to prove for ourselves the reality of His Word, the truth of His promises. He bids us "taste and see that the Lord is good." Instead of depending upon the word of another, we are to taste for ourselves.... And as we draw near to Jesus, and rejoice in the fullness of His love, our doubt and darkness will disappear in the light of His presence.
FLB	16	3	The Christian knows in whom he has believed. He does not only read the Bible; he experiences the power of its teaching. He has not only heard of Christ's righteousness; he has opened the windows of the soul to the light of the Sun of Righteousness.
FLB	16	4	Every one who has passed from death unto life is able to "set to his seal that God is true." John 3:33. He can testify, "I needed help, and I found it in Jesus. Every want was supplied, the hunger of my soul was satisfied; and now the Bible is to me the revelation of Jesus Christ. Do you ask why I believe in Jesus?--Because He is to me a divine Saviour. Why do I believe the Bible?--Because I have found it to be the voice of God to my soul." We may have the witness in ourselves that the Bible is true, that Christ is the Son of God. We know that we are not following cunningly devised fables.
FLB	16	5	Let the youth make the Word of God the food of mind and soul.... Thus through faith they will come to know God by an experimental knowledge. They have proved for themselves the reality of His Word, the truth of His promises. They have tasted, and they know that the Lord is good.... It is our privilege to reach higher and still higher for clearer revealings of the character of God.... In His light shall we see light, until mind and heart and soul are transformed into the image of His holiness.
------------------------Christ the Living Word, January 11
FLB	17	1	And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14.
FLB	17	2	Jesus is called the Word of God. He accepted His Father's law, wrought out its principles in His life, manifested its spirit, and showed its beneficent power in the heart. Says John: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."
FLB	17	3	All that man needs to know or can know of God has been revealed in the life and character of His Son....
FLB	17	4	Taking humanity upon Him, Christ came to be one with humanity and at the same time to reveal our heavenly Father to sinful human beings. He was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh, even as we are. He was hungry and thirsty and weary. He was sustained by food and refreshed by sleep. He shared the lot of men, and yet He was the blameless Son of God....
FLB	17	5	Tender, compassionate, sympathetic, ever considerate of others, He represented the character of God, and was constantly engaged in service for God and man.
FLB	17	6	The followers of Christ must be partakers of His experience. They must assimilate the Word of God. They must be changed into its likeness by the power of Christ and reflect the divine attributes.... The spirit and work of Christ must become the spirit and work of His disciples.
FLB	17	7	In the study of the Bible the converted soul eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the Son of God, which He Himself interprets as the receiving and doing of His words, that are spirit and life. The Word is made flesh, and dwells among us, in those who receive the holy precepts of the Word of God. The Saviour of the world has left a holy, pure example for all men. It illuminates, uplifts, and brings immortality to all who obey the divine requirements.
------------------------The Secret of Power, January 12
FLB	18	1	Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Psalm 119:9.
FLB	18	2	It is one thing to treat the Bible as a book of good moral instruction, to be heeded so far as is consistent with the spirit of the times and our position in the world; it is another thing to regard it as it really is--the Word of the living God, the Word that is our life, the Word that is to mold our actions, our words, and our thoughts. To hold God's Word anything less than this is to reject it.
FLB	18	3	The Word of God is a character-detector, a motive-tester. We are to read this Word with heart and mind open to receive the impressions that God will give. We must not think that the reading of the Word can accomplish that which only He whom the Word reveals, who stands behind the Word, can accomplish. Some are in danger of hastening to the conclusion that because they hold firmly to the doctrines of the truth, they are actually in possession of the blessings which these doctrines declare shall come to the receiver of truth. Many keep the truth in the outer court. Its sacred principles have not a controlling influence over the words, the thoughts, the actions.
FLB	18	4	In this perilous day of evil, when allurements to vice and corruption are on every hand, let the earnest, heartfelt cry of the young be raised to heaven: "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?" And may his ears be open and his heart inclined to obey the instruction given in the answer: "By taking heed thereto according to thy word." The only safety for the youth in this age of pollution is to make God their trust. Without divine help they will be unable to control human passions and appetites. In Christ is the very help needed.
FLB	18	5	Truth must reach down to the deepest recesses of the soul, and cleanse away everything unlike the spirit of Christ, and the vacuum be supplied by the attributes of His character who was pure and holy and undefiled, that all the springs of the heart may be as flowers, fragrant with perfume, a sweet smelling savor, a savor of life unto life.
------------------------Born of the Word, January 13
FLB	19	1	Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 1 Peter 1:23.
FLB	19	2	The change of heart by which we become children of God is in the Bible spoken of as birth. Again, it is compared to the germination of the good seed sown by the husbandman.... So from natural life, illustrations are drawn, to help us better to understand the mysterious truths of spiritual life. Not all the wisdom and skill of man can produce life in the smallest object in nature. It is only through the life which God Himself has imparted, that either plant or animal can live. So it is only through the life from God that spiritual life is begotten in the hearts of men.
FLB	19	3	When truth becomes an abiding principle in the life, the soul is "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." This new birth is the result of receiving Christ as the word of God. Then by the Holy Spirit divine truths are impressed upon the heart, new conceptions are awakened, and the energies hitherto dormant are aroused to cooperate with God.... Christ was the revealer of truth to the world. By Him the incorruptible seed--the Word of God--was sown in the hearts of men.
FLB	19	4	The Word destroys the natural, earthly nature, and imparts a new life in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes to the soul as a Comforter. By the transforming agency of His grace, the image of God is reproduced in the disciple; he becomes a new creature. Love takes the place of hatred, and the heart receives the divine similitude.
FLB	19	5	Henceforth you are not your own; you are brought with a price. "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, ... but with the precious blood of Christ...." 1 Peter 1:18, 19. Through this simple act of believing God, the Holy Spirit has begotten a new life in your heart. You are as a child born into the family of God, and He loves you as He loves His Son.
------------------------Food for My Soul, January 14
FLB	20	1	And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Luke 4:4.
FLB	20	2	The Word of God is to be our spiritual food.
FLB	20	3	The life of Christ that gives life to the world is in His word. It was by His word that Jesus healed disease and cast out demons; by His word He stilled the sea, and raised the dead....
FLB	20	4	As our physical life is sustained by food, so our spiritual life is sustained by the Word of God. And every soul is to receive life from God's Word for himself. As we eat for ourselves in order to receive nourishment, so we must receive the Word for ourselves....
FLB	20	5	In His promises and warnings, Jesus means me.... The experiences related in God's Word are to be my experiences. Prayer and promise, precept and warning, are mine.
FLB	20	6	The creative energy that called the worlds into existence is in the word of God. The word imparts power; it begets life. Every command is a promise; accepted by the will, received into the soul, it brings with it the life of the Infinite One....
FLB	20	7	The life thus imparted is in like manner sustained. "By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4) shall man live. The mind, the soul, is built up by that upon which it feeds; and it rests with us to determine upon what it shall be fed. It is within the power of every one to choose the topics that shall occupy the thoughts and shape the character.
FLB	20	8	Youth, in the name of Jesus I appeal to you whom I shall soon meet around the throne of God, Study your Bible. It will prove to you not only the pillar of cloud by day but the pillar of fire by night. It opens before you a path leading up and still upward, bidding you go forward. The Bible--you do not know its worth! It is a book for the mind, for the heart, for the conscience, the will, and the life. It is the message of God to you, in such simple style that it meets the comprehension of a little child. The Bible--precious Book!
------------------------Life in God's Word, January 15
FLB	21	1	It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63.
FLB	21	2	Every seed has in itself a germinating principle. In it the life of the plant is enfolded. So there is life in God's Word. Christ says, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." ... In every command and in every promise of the Word of God is the power, the very life of God, by which the command may be fulfilled and the promise realized. He who by faith receives the Word is receiving the very life and character of God.
FLB	21	3	By partaking of this Word our spiritual strength is increased; we grow in grace and in a knowledge of the truth. Habits of self-control are formed and strengthened. The infirmities of childhood--fretfulness, willfulness, selfishness, hasty words, passionate acts--disappear, and in their place are developed the graces of Christian manhood and womanhood.
FLB	21	4	In its power, men and women have broken the chains of sinful habit. They have renounced selfishness. The profane have become reverent, the drunken sober, the profligate pure. Souls that have borne the likeness of Satan have been transformed into the image of God.
FLB	21	5	Would you become assimilated to the divine image? ... Would you drink of the water which Christ shall give you, which shall be in you a well of water springing up into everlasting life? Would you bear fruit to the glory of God? Would you refresh others? Then with heart hungering for the bread of life, the Word of God, search the Scriptures, and live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Your soul's sanctification and righteousness will result from faith in the Word of God, which leads to obedience of its commands. Let the Word of God be to you as the voice of God instructing you, and saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it." Isaiah 30:21. Christ prayed, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John 17:17.
------------------------A Table Set Before Me, January 16
FLB	22	1	Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. John 6:54, 55.
FLB	22	2	Eternal life is the receiving of the living elements in the Scriptures, the doing of the will of God. This is what is meant by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. It is the privilege of all to partake of the bread of heaven by studying the Word, and thus gain spiritual sinew and muscle.
FLB	22	3	Each one must appropriate the blessing to his own soul, or he will not be fed.... You know you would not be nourished by seeing a well-spread table, and by others eating. We would starve if we did not partake of physical nourishment, and we shall lose our spiritual strength and vitality if we do not feed on spiritual bread....
FLB	22	4	The table has been spread, and Christ invites you to the feast. Shall we stand back, refusing bounties, and declaring, "He does not mean this for me?" We used to sing a hymn that described a feast where a happy household gathered to partake of the bounties of the board at a kind father's invitation. While the happy children gathered at the table, there stood a hungry beggar child at the threshold. She was invited to come in; but sadly she turned away, exclaiming, "I have no father there." Will you take this position as Jesus invites you in? Oh! if you have a Father in the courts above, I entreat you to reveal the fact. He wants to make you a partaker of His rich bounties and blessings. All who come with the confiding love of a little child will find a Father there.
FLB	22	5	Come to the water of life, and drink. Do not stay away and complain of thirst. The water of life is free to all.
FLB	22	6	Those who eat and digest this Word, making it a part of every action and of every attribute of character, grow strong in the strength of God. It gives immortal vigor to the soul, perfecting the experience, and bringing joys that will abide forever.
------------------------Linked to the Divine, January 17
FLB	23	1	Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
FLB	23	2	The Saviour took upon Himself the infirmities of humanity, and lived a sinless life, that men might have no fear that because of the weakness of human nature they could not overcome.
FLB	23	3	"The prince of this world cometh," said Jesus, "and hath nothing in me." John 14:30. There was in Him nothing that responded to Satan's sophistry. He did not consent to sin. Not even by a thought did He yield to temptation. So it may be with us. Christ's humanity was united with divinity; He was fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And He came to make us partakers of the divine nature. So long as we are united to Him by faith, sin has no more dominion over us.
FLB	23	4	We need not retain one sinful propensity.... As we partake of the divine nature, hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong are cut away from the character, and we are made a living power for good. Ever learning of the divine Teacher, daily partaking of His nature, we cooperate with God in overcoming Satan's temptations.
FLB	23	5	How this is accomplished, Christ has shown us. By what means did He overcome in the conflict with Satan? By the Word of God. Only by the Word could He resist temptation. "It is written," He said. And unto us are given "exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature...." Every promise in God's Word is ours.... When assailed by temptation, look not to circumstances or to the weakness of self, but to the power of the Word. All its strength is yours.
FLB	23	6	Grasp His promises as leaves from the tree of life: "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37. As you come to Him, believe that He accepts you, because He has promised. You can never perish while you do this--never.
------------------------Origin by Creation, January 18
FLB	24	1	Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Hebrews 11:3.
FLB	24	2	It is the Word of God alone that gives to us an authentic account of the creation of our world.
FLB	24	3	The theory that God did not create matter when He brought the world into existence is without foundation. In the formation of our world, God was not indebted to pre-existing matter. On the contrary, all things, material or spiritual, stood up before the Lord Jehovah at His voice and were created for His own purpose. The heavens and all the host of them, the earth and all things therein, are not only the work of His hand; they came into existence by the breath of His mouth.
FLB	24	4	While there is an individuality and variety in nature, there is a oneness in their diversity; for all things receive their usefulness and beauty from the same source. The great Master Artist writes His name on all His created works, from the loftiest cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop upon the wall. They all declare His handiwork, from the lofty mountain and the grand ocean to the tiniest shell upon the seashore.
FLB	24	5	He made the night, marshaling the shining stars in the firmament. He calls them all by name. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork, showing man that this little world is but a jot in God's creation.
FLB	24	6	The deepest students of science are constrained to recognize in nature the working of infinite power. But to man's unaided reason, nature's teaching cannot but be contradictory and disappointing. Only in the light of revelation can it be read aright. "Through faith we understand."
FLB	24	7	"In the beginning God." Genesis 1:1. Here alone can the mind in its eager questioning, fleeing as the dove to the ark, find rest. Above, beneath, beyond, abides Infinite Love, working out all things to accomplish "the good pleasure of his goodness." 2 Thessalonians 1:11.
------------------------Nature Speaks of God, January 19
FLB	25	1	Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Luke 12:27.
FLB	25	2	In their original perfection all created things were an expression of the thought of God. To Adam and Eve in their Eden home nature was full of the knowledge of God, teeming with divine instruction. Wisdom spoke to the eye and was received into the heart; for they communed with God in His created works.... The earth is now marred and defiled by sin. Yet even in its blighted state much that is beautiful remains.
FLB	25	3	Why did not our heavenly Father carpet the earth with brown or gray? He chose the color that was most restful, the most acceptable to the senses. How it cheers the heart and refreshes the weary spirit to look upon the earth, clad in its garments of living green!... Every spire of grass, every opening bud and blooming flower, is a token of God's love, and should teach us a lesson of faith and trust in Him.
FLB	25	4	The beauties of nature have a tongue that speaks to us without ceasing. The open heart can be impressed with the love and glory of God, as seen in the works of His hand. The listening ear can hear and understand the communications of God through the things of nature. There is a lesson in the sunbeam, and in the various objects of nature that God has presented to our view. The green fields, the lofty trees, the buds and flowers, the passing cloud, the falling rain, the babbling brook, the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens--all invite our attention and meditation.
FLB	25	5	You who are sighing for the artificial splendor which wealth alone can purchase, for costly paintings, furniture, and dress, listen to the voice of the divine Teacher. He points you to the flower of the field, the simple design of which cannot be equaled by human skill.
FLB	25	6	He is a lover of the beautiful, and above all that is outwardly attractive He loves beauty of character; He would have us cultivate purity and simplicity, the quiet graces of the flowers.
------------------------The Heavens Are Telling, January 20
FLB	26	1	Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. Isaiah 40:26.
FLB	26	2	God's great book of nature is open for us to study, and from it we are to gain more exalted ideas of His greatness and unexcelled love and glory. He ... would have His children appreciate His works, and delight in the simple, quiet beauty with which He has adorned their earthly home.
FLB	26	3	God calls upon His creatures to turn their attention from the confusion and perplexity around them, and admire His handiwork. The heavenly bodies are worthy of contemplation. God has made them for the benefit of man, and as we study His works, angels of God will be by our side to enlighten our minds, and guard them from satanic deception.
FLB	26	4	Go out, dear young man, at night, and behold the glories of the firmament. Look up to the gems of light which like precious gold stud the heavens. There is a wealth of glory there, but millions of minds are so obtuse they cannot appreciate this treasure. It is a little bit of heaven hung out before our senses to testify of the surpassing glories within.
FLB	26	5	We are not merely to gaze upon the heavens; we are to consider the works of God. He would have us study the works of infinity, and from this study, learn to love and reverence and obey Him.
FLB	26	6	Every shining star which God has placed in the heavens obeys His mandate, and gives its distinctive measure of light to make beautiful the heavens at night; so let every converted soul show the measure of light committed to him; and as it shines forth the light will increase and grow brighter. Give out your light, ... pour forth your beams mirrored from heaven. O daughter of Zion, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Isaiah 60:1.
------------------------Creation Not Evolution, January 21
FLB	27	1	By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Psalm 33:6.
FLB	27	2	Since the book of nature and the book of revelation bear the impress of the same master mind, they cannot but speak in harmony....
FLB	27	3	Inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature have, however, led to supposed conflict between science and revelation.... Millions of years, it is claimed, were required for the evolution of the earth from chaos; and in order to accommodate the Bible to this supposed revelation of science, the days of creation are assumed to have been vast, indefinite periods.... Such a conclusion is wholly uncalled for.
FLB	27	4	Of each successive day of creation, the Sacred Record declares that it consisted of the evening and the morning, like all other days that have followed.
FLB	27	5	In regard to the work of creation itself the divine testimony is, "He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast." Psalm 33:9. With Him who could thus call into existence unnumbered worlds, how long a time would be required for the evolution of the earth from chaos?
FLB	27	6	It is true that remains found in the earth testify to the existence of men, animals, and plants much larger than any now known.... But concerning these things Bible history furnishes ample explanation. Before the Flood, the development of vegetable and animal life was immeasurably superior to that which has since been known. At the Flood the surface of the earth was broken up, marked changes took place, and in the re-formation of the earth's crust were preserved many evidences of the life previously existing.... These things... are so many witnesses mutely testifying to the truth of the Word of God.
FLB	27	7	Just how God accomplished the work of creation He has never revealed to men; human science cannot search out the secrets of the Most High. His creative power is as incomprehensible as His existence.
------------------------All Nature Upheld by God, January 22
FLB	28	1	And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Colossians 1:17.
FLB	28	2	As regards this earth, Scripture declares the work of creation to have been completed. "The works were finished from the foundation of the world." Hebrews 4:3. But the power of God is still exercised in upholding the objects of His creation.... Every breath, every pulsation of the heart, is an evidence of the care of Him in whom we live and move and have our being.
FLB	28	3	Not by its own inherent energy does the earth produce its bounties, and year by year continue its motion around the sun. An unseen hand guides the planets in their circuit of the heavens.
FLB	28	4	The God of heaven is constantly at work. It is by His power that vegetation is caused to flourish, that every leaf appears and every flower blooms. Every drop of rain or flake of snow, every spire of grass, every leaf and flower and shrub, testifies of God. These little things so common around us teach the lesson that nothing is beneath the notice of the infinite God, nothing is too small for His attention.
FLB	28	5	Many teach that matter possesses vital power, ... and that the operations of nature are conducted in harmony with fixed laws, with which God Himself cannot interfere. This is false science, and is not sustained by the Word of God. Nature is the servant of her Creator. God does not annul His laws, or work contrary to them; but He is continually using them as His instruments.
FLB	28	6	God's handiwork in nature is not God Himself in nature.... While nature is an expression of God's thought, it is not nature but the God of nature that is to be exalted.
FLB	28	7	There is in nature the continual working of the Father and the Son. Christ says, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." John 5:17.
FLB	28	8	The hand that sustains the worlds in space, the hand that holds in their orderly arrangement and tireless activity all things throughout the universe of God, is the hand that was nailed to the cross for us.
------------------------The Crowning Act of Creation, January 23
FLB	29	1	So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him. Genesis 1:27.
FLB	29	2	Here is clearly set forth the origin of the human race; and the divine record is so plainly stated that there is no occasion for erroneous conclusions.
FLB	29	3	After the earth, with its teeming animal and vegetable life, had been called into existence, man, the crowning work of the Creator, and the one for whom the beautiful earth had been fitted up, was brought upon the stage of action....
FLB	29	4	As man came forth from the hand of his Creator, he was of lofty stature and perfect symmetry. His countenance bore the ruddy tint of health, and glowed with the light of life and joy. Adam's height was much greater than that of men who now inhabit the earth. Eve was somewhat less in stature; yet her form was noble, and full of beauty.
FLB	29	5	There is no ground for the supposition that man was evolved, by slow degrees of development, from the lower forms of animal or vegetable life.... He who set the starry worlds on high, and tinted with delicate skill the flowers of the field, who filled the earth and the heavens with the wonders of His power, when He came to crown His glorious work, to place one in the midst to stand as ruler of the fair earth, did not fail to create a being worthy of the hand that gave him life. The genealogy of our race, as given by inspiration, traces back its origin, not to a line of developing germs, mollusks, and quadrupeds, but to the great Creator. Though formed from the dust, Adam was "the son of God."
FLB	29	6	Next to the angelic beings, the human family, formed in "the image of God," are the noblest of His created works.
FLB	29	7	When Adam came from the Creator's hand, he bore, in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker.... It was His purpose that the longer man lived the more fully he should reveal this image--the more fully reflect the glory of the Creator.
------------------------What Is Your Life? January 24
FLB	30	1	The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Luke 12:23.
FLB	30	2	Our life was given us of God, and is dependent upon Him, as the leaf is dependent upon the bough for sustenance.
FLB	30	3	Life is a manifestation of God's love. It is a talent which God has committed to our care, and it is a very costly talent, as viewed in the light of the sacrifice of God's Son. It is an expression of the ownership of God. We are His by creation, and doubly His by redemption. We derive our life from Him. He is the Creator and the Source of all life. He is the Author of the higher life which He desires the beings formed in His image to have.
FLB	30	4	Every one should consider the solemn question, What is my life toward God and my fellow men? No man liveth unto himself. No life is simply neutral in its results....
FLB	30	5	Every soul is under obligation to live a Christian life. Our individuality, our talents, our time, our influence, our abilities, all given to us of God, are to be rendered back to Him in willing service. The aim and object of life is not to secure temporal advantages, but to make sure of the eternal advantages. God claims your soul, your body, your capabilities; for He has bought them by His own precious blood, and they all belong to Him. It is robbery to withhold yourself from God.... The question of importance to us is, Is our life interwoven with that of Jesus?
FLB	30	6	What is Christian life? It is a life rescued, a life taken out of a world of sin, and attached to the life of Christ.
FLB	30	7	If our life is hid with Christ in God, we shall, when Christ shall appear, also appear with Him in glory. And while in this world we will give to God, in sanctified service, all the capabilities He has given us.
FLB	30	8	What is your life? You must meet and answer that question sometime.
------------------------Instituted at Creation, January 25
FLB	31	1	And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. Genesis 2:2, 3.
FLB	31	2	The great Jehovah had laid the foundations of the earth; He had dressed the whole world in the garb of beauty, and had filled it with things useful to man; He had created all the wonders of the land and of the sea. In six days the great work of creation had been accomplished. And God "rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made...." God looked with satisfaction upon the work of His hands. All was perfect, worthy of its divine Author, and He rested, not as one weary, but as well pleased with the fruits of His wisdom and goodness and the manifestations of His glory.
FLB	31	3	After resting upon the seventh day, God sanctified it, or set it apart, as a day of rest for man. Following the example of the Creator, man was to rest upon this sacred day, that as he should look upon the heavens and the earth, he might reflect upon God's great work of creation; and that as he should behold the evidences of God's wisdom and goodness, his heart might be filled with love and reverence for his Maker....
FLB	31	4	God saw that a Sabbath was essential for man, even in Paradise. He needed to lay aside his own interests and pursuits for one day of the seven, that he might more fully contemplate the works of God, and meditate upon His power and goodness. He needed a Sabbath, to remind him more vividly of God, and to awaken gratitude because all that he enjoyed and possessed came from the beneficent hand of the Creator.
FLB	31	5	When the foundations of the earth were laid, ... then was laid the foundation of the Sabbath. Well may this institution demand our reverence: it was ordained by no human authority, and rests upon no human traditions; it was established by the Ancient of days, and commanded by His eternal word.
------------------------A Holy Memorial, January 26
FLB	32	1	He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. Psalm 111:4.
FLB	32	2	In Eden, God set up the memorial of His work of creation, in placing His blessing upon the seventh day. The Sabbath was committed to Adam, the father and representative of the whole human family. Its observance was to be an act of grateful acknowledgment, on the part of all who should dwell upon the earth, that God was their creator and their rightful sovereign; that they were the work of His hands, and the subjects of His authority. Thus the institution was wholly commemorative, and given to all mankind. There was nothing in it shadowy, or of restricted application to any people.
FLB	32	3	All things were created by the Son of God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.... All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." John 1:1-3. And since the Sabbath is a memorial of the work of creation, it is a token of the love and power of Christ.
FLB	32	4	The Sabbath calls our thoughts to nature, and brings us into communion with the Creator. In the song of the bird, the sighing of the trees, and the music of the sea, we still may hear His voice who talked with Adam in Eden in the cool of the day. And as we behold His power in nature we find comfort, for the word that created all things is that which speaks life to the soul.
FLB	32	5	God ... has given man six days in which to labor. But He sanctified the day of His rest, and gave it to man to be kept, free from all secular labor. By thus setting apart the Sabbath, God gave the world a memorial. He did not set apart one day and any day in seven, but one particular day, the seventh day. And by observing the Sabbath, we show that we recognize God as the living God, the Creator of the heaven and the earth.
FLB	32	6	Had the Sabbath always been sacredly observed, there could never have been an atheist or an idolater.
------------------------A Special Sign, January 27
FLB	33	1	Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. Ezekiel 20:12.
FLB	33	2	As the Sabbath was the sign that distinguished Israel when they came out of Egypt to enter the earthly Canaan, so it is the sign that now distinguishes God's people as they come out from the world to enter the heavenly rest.
FLB	33	3	The observance of the Sabbath is the means ordained by God of preserving a knowledge of Himself and of distinguishing between His loyal subjects and the transgressors of His law.
FLB	33	4	It [the Sabbath] belongs to Christ.... Since He made all things, He made the Sabbath. By Him it was set apart as a memorial of the work of creation. It points to Him as both the Creator and the Sanctifier. It declares that He who created all things in heaven and in earth, and by whom all things hold together, is the head of the church, and that by His power we are reconciled to God. For, speaking of Israel, He said, "I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them"--make them holy. Then the Sabbath is a sign of Christ's power to make us holy. And it is given to all whom Christ makes holy. As a sign of His sanctifying power, the Sabbath is given to all who through Christ become a part of the Israel of God....
FLB	33	5	To all who receive the Sabbath as a sign of Christ's creative and redeeming power, it will be a delight. Seeing Christ in it, they delight themselves in Him. The Sabbath points them to the works of creation as an evidence of His mighty power in redemption. While it calls to mind the lost peace of Eden, it tells of peace restored through the Saviour. And every object in nature repeats His invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28.
FLB	33	6	The Sabbath is a golden clasp that unites God and His people.
------------------------Preparing for the Holy Day, January 28
FLB	34	1	Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8.
FLB	34	2	At the very beginning of the fourth commandment the Lord said, "Remember." He knew that amid the multitude of cares and perplexities man would be tempted to excuse himself from meeting the full requirement of the law, or would forget its sacred importance. Therefore He said: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."
FLB	34	3	All through the week we are to have the Sabbath in mind and be making preparation to keep it according to the commandment....
FLB	34	4	When the Sabbath is thus remembered, the temporal will not be allowed to encroach upon the spiritual. No duty pertaining to the six working days will be left for the Sabbath. During the week our energies will not be so exhausted in temporal labor that on the day when the Lord rested and was refreshed we shall be too weary to engage in His service....
FLB	34	5	On Friday let the preparation for the Sabbath be completed. See that all the clothing is in readiness and that all the cooking is done.... The Sabbath is not to be given to the repairing of garments, to the cooking of food, to pleasure seeking, or to any other worldly employment. Before the setting of the sun let all secular work be laid aside and all secular papers be put out of sight. Parents, explain your work and its purpose to your children, and let them share in your preparation to keep the Sabbath according to the commandment.
FLB	34	6	There is another work that should receive attention on the preparation day. On this day all differences between brethren, whether in the family or in the church, should be put away. Let all bitterness and wrath and malice be expelled from the soul. In a humble spirit, "confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another."
FLB	34	7	Before the setting of the sun let the members of the family assemble to read God's Word, to sing and pray.
FLB	34	8	We should jealously guard the edges of the Sabbath. Remember that every moment is consecrated, holy time.
------------------------Sanctified for Worship, January 29
FLB	35	1	I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Psalm 122:1.
FLB	35	2	God has given us the whole of six days in which to do our work, and has reserved only one to Himself. This should be a day of blessing to us--a day when we should lay aside all our secular matters and center our thoughts upon God and heaven.
FLB	35	3	All heaven is keeping the Sabbath, but not in a listless, do-nothing way. On this day every energy of the soul should be awake, for are we not to meet with God and with Christ our Saviour? We may behold Him by faith. He is longing to refresh and bless every soul.
FLB	35	4	On Sabbath morning the family should be astir early. If they rise late, there is confusion and bustle in preparing for breakfast and Sabbath school. There is hurrying, jostling, and impatience. Thus unholy feelings come into the home. The Sabbath, thus desecrated, becomes a weariness, and its coming is dreaded rather than loved.
FLB	35	5	The Sabbath is God's time. He sanctified and hallowed the seventh day. He set it apart for man to keep as a day of worship.
FLB	35	6	We need to cherish and cultivate a spirit of true worship, a spirit of devotion upon the Lord's holy, sanctified day. We should assemble together believing that we shall receive comfort and hope, light and peace from Jesus Christ.
FLB	35	7	All heaven was represented to me as beholding and watching upon the Sabbath those who acknowledge the claims of the fourth commandment and are observing the Sabbath. Angels were marking their interest in, and high regard for, this divine institution. Those who sanctified the Lord God in their hearts by a strictly devotional frame of mind, and who sought to improve the sacred hours in keeping the Sabbath to the best of their ability, and to honor God by calling the Sabbath a delight--these the angels were specially blessing with light and health, and special strength was given them.
------------------------Happiest Day of the Week, January 30
FLB	36	1	If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord. Isaiah 58:13, 14.
FLB	36	2	God's love has set a limit to the demands of toil. Over the Sabbath He places His merciful hand. In His own day He preserves for the family opportunity for communion with Him, with nature, and with one another.
FLB	36	3	The Sabbath and the family were alike instituted in Eden, and in God's purpose they are indissolubly linked together. On this day more than on any other, it is possible for us to live the life of Eden. It was God's plan for the members of the family to be associated in work and study, in worship and recreation.
FLB	36	4	God's holy rest day was made for man, and acts of mercy are in perfect harmony with its intent.
FLB	36	5	To relieve the afflicted, to comfort the sorrowing, is a labor of love that does honor to God's holy day.
FLB	36	6	Since the Sabbath is the memorial of creative power, it is the day above all others when we should acquaint ourselves with God through His works.
FLB	36	7	During a portion of the day, all should have an opportunity to be out of doors. How can children receive a more correct knowledge of God ... than in spending a portion of their time out of doors, not in play, but in company with their parents? Let their young minds be associated with God in the beautiful scenery of nature.... As they view the beautiful things which He has created for the happiness of man, they will be led to regard Him as a tender, loving Father.... As the character of God puts on the aspect of love, benevolence, beauty, and attraction, they are drawn to love Him.
FLB	36	8	The Sabbath--oh!--make it the sweetest, the most blessed day of the whole week.
------------------------To Be Kept in Eternity, January 31
FLB	37	1	And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. Isaiah 66:23.
FLB	37	2	How beautiful the earth was when it came from the Creator's hand! God presented before the universe a world in which even His all-seeing eye could find no spot or stain. Each part of the creation occupied the part assigned to it, and answered the purpose for which it was created. Peace and holy joy filled the earth. There was no confusion, no clashing. There was no disease to afflict man or beast, and the vegetable kingdom was without taint or corruption. God looked upon the work of His hands, wrought out by Christ, and pronounced it "very good."
FLB	37	3	The Sabbath was hallowed at the creation. As ordained for man, it had its origin when "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job 38:7....
FLB	37	4	The Sabbath was not for Israel merely, but for the world. It had been made known to man in Eden, and, like the other precepts of the Decalogue, it is of imperishable obligation. Of that law of which the fourth commandment forms a part, Christ declares, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law." Matthew 5:18. So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creator's power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, God's holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. "From one sabbath to another" the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall ... "worship before me, saith the Lord."
FLB	37	5	God teaches that we should assemble in His house to cultivate the attributes of perfect love. This will fit the dwellers of earth for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for all who love Him. There they will assemble in the sanctuary from Sabbath to Sabbath, from one new moon to another, to unite in loftiest strains of song, in praise and thanksgiving to Him who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever.
------------------------Our Loving Heavenly Father, February 1
FLB	38	1	To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. 1 Corinthians 8:6.
FLB	38	2	God is our tender, pitiful Father, and every believing child is the object of His special care.
FLB	38	3	He [Jesus] pointed ... to the Ruler of the universe, under the new name, "Our Father."
FLB	38	4	This name, spoken to Him and of Him, is a sign of our love and trust toward Him, and a pledge of His regard and relationship to us. Spoken when asking His favor or blessing, it is as music in His ears....
FLB	38	5	He invites us to trust in Him with a trust deeper and stronger than that of a child in his earthly father. Parents love their children, but the love of God is larger, broader, deeper, than human love can possibly be. It is immeasurable.
FLB	38	6	Such a conception of God was never given to the world by any religion but that of the Bible. Heathenism teaches men to look upon the Supreme Being as an object of fear rather than of love--a malign deity to be appeased by sacrifices, rather than a Father pouring upon His children the gift of His love....
FLB	38	7	It is not earthly rank, nor birth, nor nationality, nor religious privilege, which proves that we are members of the family of God; it is love, a love that embraces all humanity.... To be kind to the unthankful and to the evil, to do good hoping for nothing again, is the insignia of the royalty of heaven, the sure token by which the children of the Highest reveal their high estate.
------------------------His Majesty and Greatness, February 2
FLB	39	1	Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. 1 Chronicles 29:11.
FLB	39	2	God is our Father, who loves and cares for us as His children; He is also the great King of the universe.
FLB	39	3	God cannot be compared with the things His hands have made. These are mere earthly things, suffering under the curse of God because of the sins of man. The Father cannot be described by the things of earth. The Father is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and is invisible to mortal sight.
FLB	39	4	We must not attempt to lift with presumptuous hand the curtain behind which He veils His majesty. The apostle exclaims: "How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" Romans 11:33. It is a proof of His mercy that there is the hiding of His power, that He is enshrouded in the awful clouds of mystery and obscurity; for to lift the curtain that conceals the divine presence is death. No mortal mind can penetrate the secrecy in which the Mighty One dwells and works. We can comprehend no more of His dealings with us and the motives that actuate Him than He sees fit to reveal. He orders everything in righteousness, and we are not to be dissatisfied and distrustful, but to bow in reverent submission. He will reveal to us as much of His purposes as it is for our good to know; and beyond that we must trust the hand that is omnipotent, the heart that is full of love.
FLB	39	5	Jehovah is the fountain of all wisdom, of all truth, of all knowledge .... Man can now only linger upon the borders of that vast expanse, and let imagination take its flight. Finite man cannot fathom the deep things of God.
FLB	39	6	True reverence for God is inspired by a sense of His infinite greatness and a realization of His presence. With this sense of the Unseen, every heart should be deeply impressed.
------------------------A Personal God, February 3
FLB	40	1	God ... hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son... ; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Hebrews 1:1-3.
FLB	40	2	God is a Spirit; yet He is a personal being; for so He has revealed Himself.
FLB	40	3	As a personal being, God has revealed Himself in His Son. The outshining of the Father's glory, "and the express image of his person," Jesus, as a personal Saviour, came to the world. As a personal Saviour He ascended on high. As a personal Saviour He intercedes in the heavenly courts.
FLB	40	4	I saw a throne, and on it sat the Father and the Son. I gazed on Jesus' countenance and admired His lovely person. The Father's person I could not behold, for a cloud of glorious light covered Him. I asked Jesus if His Father had a form like Himself. He said He had, but I could not behold it, for said He, "If you should once behold the glory of His person, you would cease to exist."
FLB	40	5	The theory that God is an essence pervading all nature is received by many who profess to believe the Scriptures; but, however beautifully clothed, this theory is a most dangerous deception.... If God is an essence pervading all nature, then He dwells in all men; and in order to attain holiness, man has only to develop the power within him. These theories [pantheism, etc.], followed to their logical conclusion, ... do away with the necessity for the atonement and make man his own savior.... Those who accept them are in great danger of being led finally to look upon the whole Bible as a fiction....
FLB	40	6	The revelation of Himself that God has given in His Word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate.... None are to indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion.
------------------------Holy and Reverend Is His Name, February 4
FLB	41	1	He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name. Psalm 111:9.
FLB	41	2	We are never in any manner to treat lightly the titles or appellations of the Deity.... The angels veil their faces in His presence. The cherubim and the bright and holy seraphim approach His throne with solemn reverence. How much more should we finite, sinful beings, come in a reverent manner before the Lord, our Maker!
FLB	41	3	I saw that God's holy name should be used with reverence and awe.
FLB	41	4	Some think it a mark of humility to pray to God in a common manner.... They profane His name by needlessly and irreverently mingling with their prayers the words, "God Almighty"--awful, sacred words, which should never pass the lips except in subdued tones and with a feeling of awe.
FLB	41	5	Those who realize the greatness and majesty of God, will take His name on their lips with holy awe. He dwelleth in light unapproachable; no man can see Him and live.
FLB	41	6	If Christ were on earth today, surrounded by those who bear the title of "Reverend" or "Right Reverend," would He not repeat His saying, "Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ"? Matthew 23:10. The Scripture declares of God, "Holy and reverend is his name." To what human being is such a title befitting? How little does man reveal of the wisdom and righteousness it indicates! How many of those who assume this title are misrepresenting the name and character of God! Alas, how often have worldly ambition, despotism, and the basest sins been hidden under the broidered garments of a high and holy office!
FLB	41	7	"The name of the Lord" is "merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, ... forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Exodus 34:5-7. Of the church of Christ it is written "This is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness." Jeremiah 33:16. This name is put upon every follower of Christ.
------------------------Faithful and True, February 5
FLB	42	1	For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Malachi 3:6.
FLB	42	2	In regard to the personality and prerogatives of God, where He is, and what He is, this is a subject which we are not to dare to touch.... The one who in the daily life holds closest communion with God, and who has the deepest knowledge of Him, realizes most keenly the utter inability of human beings to explain the Creator....
FLB	42	3	God always has been. He is the great I AM. The psalmist declares, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." Psalm 90:2. He is the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity. "I am the Lord, I change not," He declares. With Him there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He is "the same yesterday, and to day and for ever." Hebrews 13:8. He is infinite and omnipresent. No words of ours can describe His greatness and majesty.
FLB	42	4	Above the distractions of the earth He sits enthroned; all things are open to His divine survey; and from His great and calm eternity He orders that which His providence sees best.
FLB	42	5	God does not propose to be called to account for His ways and works. It is for His glory to conceal His purposes now; but by and by they will be revealed in their true importance. But He has not concealed His great love, which lies at the foundation of all His dealings with His children.
FLB	42	6	The rainbow about the throne is an assurance that God is true.... We have sinned against Him and are undeserving of His favor; yet He Himself has put into our lips that most wonderful of pleas: "Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us." Jeremiah 14:21. He has pledged Himself to give heed to our cry when we come to Him confessing our unworthiness and sin. The honor of His throne is staked for the fulfillment of His Word to us.
------------------------His Wonderful Love Expressed, February 6
FLB	43	1	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 1 John 3:1.
FLB	43	2	Love is the principle that underlies God's government in heaven and on earth, and this love must be interwoven in the life of the Christian.... The heart that is influenced by this holy principle will be carried above everything of a selfish nature.
FLB	43	3	When we seek for appropriate language in which to describe the love of God, we find words too tame, too weak, too far beneath the theme, and we lay down our pen and say, "No, it cannot be described." We can only do as did the beloved disciple, and say, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." 1 John 3:1. In attempting any description of this love, we feel that we are as infants lisping their first words. Silently we may adore; for silence in this matter is the only eloquence. This love is past all language to describe.
FLB	43	4	All the paternal love which has come down from generation to generation through the channel of human hearts, all the springs of tenderness which have opened in the souls of men, are but as a tiny rill to the boundless ocean when compared with the infinite, exhaustless love of God. Tongue cannot utter it; pen cannot portray it. You may meditate upon it every day of your life; you may search the Scriptures diligently in order to understand it; you may summon every power and capability that God has given you, in the endeavor to comprehend the love and compassion of the heavenly Father; and yet there is an infinity beyond. You may study that love for ages; yet you can never fully comprehend the length and the breadth, the depth and the height, of the love of God in giving His Son to die for the world. Eternity itself can never fully reveal it. Yet as we study the Bible and meditate upon the life of Christ and the plan of redemption, these great themes will open to our understanding more and more.
------------------------Perfect in All His Ways, February 7
FLB	44	1	Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
FLB	44	2	God's work is perfect as a whole because it is perfect in every part, however minute. He fashions the tiny spear of grass with as much care as He would exercise in making a world. If we desire to be perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect, we must be faithful in doing little things. That which is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
FLB	44	3	God's ideal for His children is higher than the highest human thought can reach.... The plan of redemption contemplates our complete recovery from the power of Satan. Christ always separates the contrite soul from sin. He came to destroy the works of the devil, and He has made provision that the Holy Spirit shall be imparted to every repentant soul, to keep him from sinning.
FLB	44	4	The tempter's agency is not to be accounted an excuse for one wrong act. Satan is jubilant when he hears the professed followers of Christ making excuses for their deformity of character. It is these excuses that lead to sin. There is no excuse for sinning. A holy temper, a Christlike life, is accessible to every repenting, believing child of God.
FLB	44	5	The ideal of Christian character is Christlikeness. As the Son of man was perfect in His life, so His followers are to be perfect in their life.... He bids us by faith in Him attain to the glory of the character of God.
FLB	44	6	A well-balanced character is formed by single acts well performed. One defect, cultivated instead of being overcome, makes the man imperfect, and closes against him the gate of the Holy City.... In all the redeemed host not one defect will be seen....
FLB	44	7	Whatever your work may be, do it faithfully.... As you work in this way, God will place His approval on you, and Christ will one day say to you. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Matthew 25:21.
------------------------God's Gift to the Human Race, February 8
FLB	45	1	For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
FLB	45	2	The heart of God yearns over His earthly children with a love stronger than death. In giving up His Son, He has poured out to us all heaven in one gift.
FLB	45	3	Through that gift there comes to us day by day the unfailing flow of Jehovah's goodness. Every flower, with its delicate tints and sweet fragrance, is given for our enjoyment through that one Gift. The sun and moon were made by Him; there is not a star that beautifies the heavens which He did not make. There is not an article of food upon our tables that He has not provided for our sustenance. The superscription of Christ is upon it all. Everything is supplied to man through the one unspeakable Gift, the only-begotten Son of God. He was nailed to the cross that all these bounties might flow to God's workmanship.
FLB	45	4	In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature. This is the pledge that God will fulfill His word. "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder." Isaiah 9:6. God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven.... Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love.
FLB	45	5	Christ bowed down in unparalleled humility, that in His exaltation to the throne of God, He might also exalt those who believe in Him, to a seat with Him upon His throne.
------------------------His Eternal Pre-existence, February 9
FLB	46	1	And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. John 17:5.
FLB	46	2	Christ was one with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory.
FLB	46	3	Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God.... In speaking of His pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God....
FLB	46	4	His divine life could not be reckoned by human computation. The existence of Christ before His incarnation is not measured by figures.
FLB	46	5	Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense. He was with God from all eternity, God over all, blessed forevermore. The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father. He was the surpassing glory of heaven. He was the commander of the heavenly intelligences, and the adoring homage of the angels was received by Him as His right.
FLB	46	6	He was equal with God, infinite and omnipotent.
FLB	46	7	But He humbled Himself, and took mortality upon Him. As a member of the human family, He was mortal; but as a God, He was the fountain of life to the world. He could, in His divine person, ever have withstood the advances of death, and refused to come under its dominion; but He voluntarily laid down His life, that in so doing He might give life and bring immortality to light. He bore the sins of the world, and endured the penalty, which rolled like a mountain upon His divine soul. He yielded up His life a sacrifice, that man should not eternally die. He died, not through being compelled to die, but by His own free will.
FLB	46	8	And this wonderful mystery, the incarnation of Christ and the atonement that He made, must be declared to every son and daughter of Adam.
------------------------The Great "I AM", February 10
FLB	47	1	And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. Exodus 3:14.
FLB	47	2	In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. "He that hath the Son hath life." 1 John 5:12. The divinity of Christ is the believer's assurance of eternal life.
FLB	47	3	All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ. It was the Son of God that gave to our first parents the promise of redemption. It was He who revealed Himself to the patriarchs. Adam ... understood the gospel....
FLB	47	4	Jesus was the light of His people--the light of the world--before He came to earth in the form of humanity. The first gleam of light that pierced the gloom in which sin had wrapped the world, came from Christ. And from Him has come every ray of heaven's brightness that has fallen upon the inhabitants of the earth. In the plan of redemption, Christ is the Alpha and the Omega--the First and the Last.
FLB	47	5	It was Christ who from the bush on Mount Horeb spoke to Moses saying, "I AM THAT I AM: Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." This was the pledge of Israel's deliverance. So when He came "in the likeness of men," He declared Himself the I AM. The Child of Bethlehem, the meek and lowly Saviour, is God "manifest in the flesh." 1 Timothy 3:16.
FLB	47	6	This unconscious babe was the promised seed, to whom the first altar at the gate of Eden pointed. This was Shiloh, the peace giver. ... This was He whom seers had long foretold. He was the Desire of all nations, the Root and the Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star.
FLB	47	7	And to us He says: "I AM the good shepherd." "I AM the living bread." "I AM the way, the truth, and the life."... I AM the assurance of every promise. I AM; be not afraid. "God with us" is the surety of our deliverance from sin.
------------------------The Creator Incarnate, February 11
FLB	48	1	And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. 1 Timothy 3:16.
FLB	48	2	The incarnation of Christ is the mystery of all mysteries.
FLB	48	3	Christ was one with the Father, yet ... He was willing to step down from the exaltation of one who was equal with God.
FLB	48	4	That He might accomplish His purpose of love for the fallen race, He became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.
FLB	48	5	How wide is the contrast between the divinity of Christ and the helpless infant in Bethlehem's manger! How can we span the distance between the mighty God and a helpless child? And yet the Creator of worlds, He in whom was the fullness of the Godhead bodily, was manifest in the helpless babe in the manger. Far higher than any of the angels, equal with the Father in dignity and glory, and yet wearing the garb of humanity! Divinity and humanity were mysteriously combined, and man and God became one.
FLB	48	6	It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life.
FLB	48	7	Those who claim that it was not possible for Christ to sin, cannot believe that He really took upon Himself human nature. But was not Christ actually tempted, not only by Satan in the wilderness, but all through His life, from childhood to manhood?
FLB	48	8	Our Saviour took humanity, with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding to temptation. We have nothing to bear which He has not endured.
------------------------His Blameless Life, February 12
FLB	49	1	Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. John 14:30.
FLB	49	2	We should have no misgivings in regard to the perfect sinlessness of the human nature of Christ.
FLB	49	3	He is a brother in our infirmities, but not in possessing like passions. As the sinless One, His nature recoiled from evil. He endured struggles and torture of soul in a world of sin. His humanity made prayer a necessity and privilege.
FLB	49	4	He could have sinned; He could have fallen, but not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity.
FLB	49	5	In taking upon Himself man's nature in its fallen condition, Christ did not in the least participate in its sin. He was subject to the infirmities and weaknesses by which man is encompassed.... He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and was in all points tempted like as we are. And yet He "knew no sin." He was the lamb "without blemish and without spot." Could Satan in the least particular have tempted Christ to sin, he would have bruised the Saviour's head. As it was, he could only touch His heel. Had the head of Christ been touched, the hope of the human race would have perished. Divine wrath would have come upon Christ as it came upon Adam. Christ and the church would have been without hope.
FLB	49	6	Not even by a thought could Christ be brought to yield to the power of temptation.... Christ declared of Himself, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me."
FLB	49	7	Jesus did not allow the enemy to pull Him into the mire of unbelief, or crowd Him into the mire of despondency and despair.
FLB	49	8	Christ's humanity was united with divinity, and in this strength He would bear all the temptations that Satan could bring against Him, and yet keep His soul untainted by sin. And this power to overcome He would give to every son and daughter of Adam who would accept by faith the righteous attributes of His character.
------------------------He Died for Us, February 13
FLB	50	1	But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.
FLB	50	2	There is one great central truth to be kept ever before the mind in the searching of the Scriptures--Christ and Him crucified. Every other truth is invested with influence and power corresponding to its relation to this theme.... The soul palsied by sin can be endowed with life only through the work wrought out upon the cross by the Author of our salvation.
FLB	50	3	When Christ bowed His head and died, He bore the pillars of Satan's kingdom with Him to the earth. He vanquished Satan.
FLB	50	4	Christ submitted to crucifixion, although the heavenly host could have delivered Him. The angels suffered with Christ. God Himself was crucified with Christ; for Christ was one with the Father. Those who reject Christ, those who will not have this man to rule over them, choose to place themselves under the rule of Satan, to do his work as his bondslaves. Yet for them Christ yielded up His life on Calvary.
FLB	50	5	He who died for the sins of the world was to remain in the tomb the allotted time. He was in that stony prison house as a prisoner of divine justice. He was responsible to the Judge of the universe. He was bearing the sins of the world, and His Father only could release Him.
FLB	50	6	He identified Himself with our interests, bared His breast for the stroke of death, took man's guilt and its penalty, and offered in man's behalf a complete sacrifice to God. By virtue of this atonement, He has power to offer to man perfect righteousness and full salvation. Whosoever shall believe on Him as a personal Saviour shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
FLB	50	7	The price of man's redemption has been paid, and all he has and is should be sprinkled with the blood of Christ, dedicated to God; for it belongs to Him.
------------------------Jesus' Resurrection and the New Life, February 14
FLB	51	1	The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10.
FLB	51	2	The resurrection of Jesus was a type of the final resurrection of all who sleep in Him.
FLB	51	3	He who had said, "I lay down my life, that I might take it again," came forth from the grave to life that was in Himself. Humanity died: divinity did not die. In His divinity, Christ possessed the power to break the bonds of death. He declares that He has life in Himself to quicken whom He will....
FLB	51	4	He is the spring, the fountain, of life. Only He who alone hath immortality, dwelling in light and life, could say, "I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again."
FLB	51	5	Christ was invested with the right to give immortality. The life which He had laid down in humanity, He again took up and gave to humanity. "I am come," He says, "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
FLB	51	6	Christ is life itself. He who passed through death to destroy him that had the power of death is the Source of all vitality. There is balm in Gilead, and a Physician there. Christ endured an agonizing death under the most humiliating circumstances that we might have life. He gave up His precious life that He might vanquish death. But He rose from the tomb, and the myriads of angels who came to behold Him take up the life He had laid down heard His words of triumphant joy as He stood above Joseph's rent sepulcher proclaiming: "I am the resurrection, and the life."
FLB	51	7	The resurrection and ascension of our Lord is a sure evidence of the triumph of the saints of God over death and the grave, and a pledge that heaven is open to those who wash their robes of character and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. Jesus ascended to the Father as a representative of the human race, and God will bring those who reflect His image to behold and share with Him His glory.
------------------------Third Person of the Godhead, February 15
FLB	52	1	The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. 2 Corinthians 13:14.
FLB	52	2	We need to realize that the Holy Spirit ... is as much a person as God is a person....
FLB	52	3	The Holy Spirit has a personality, else He could not bear witness to our spirits and with our spirits that we are the children of God. He must also be a divine person, else He could not search out the secrets which lie hidden in the mind of God.
FLB	52	4	The Holy Spirit is a free, working, independent agency. The God of heaven uses His Spirit as it pleases Him; and human minds, human judgment, and human methods can no more set boundaries to its working, or prescribe the channel through which it shall operate, than they can say to the wind, "I bid you to blow in a certain direction, and to conduct yourself in such and such a manner."
FLB	52	5	From the beginning God has been working by His Holy Spirit through human instrumentalities for the accomplishment of His purpose in behalf of the fallen race.... The same power that sustained the patriarchs, that gave Caleb and Joshua faith and courage, and that made the work of the apostolic church effective, has upheld God's faithful children in every succeeding age.
FLB	52	6	The Holy Spirit was the highest of all gifts that He [Jesus] could solicit from His Father for the exaltation of His people. The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of men to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power.
FLB	52	7	The Holy Spirit is an effective helper in restoring the image of God in the human soul.
------------------------The Gift of God to You, February 16
FLB	53	1	Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Acts 2:38.
FLB	53	2	Christ has promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to His church, and the promise belongs to us as much as to the first disciples.
FLB	53	3	We should pray as earnestly for the descent of the Holy Spirit as the disciples prayed on the day of Pentecost. If they needed it at that time, we need it more today.
FLB	53	4	The measure of the Holy Spirit we receive will be proportioned to the measure of our desire and the faith exercised for it, and the use we shall make of the light and knowledge that shall be given to us.
FLB	53	5	There are many who believe and profess to claim the Lord's promise; they talk about Christ and about the Holy Spirit, yet receive no benefit. They do not surrender the soul to be guided and controlled by the divine agencies. We cannot use the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit God works in His people "to will and to do of his good pleasure." Philippians 2:13. But many will not submit to this. They want to manage themselves. This is why they do not receive the heavenly gift. Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. The power of God awaits their demand and reception. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive.
FLB	53	6	When the Holy Spirit is abiding in the heart, it will lead the human agent to see his own defects of character, to pity the weakness of others, to forgive as he wishes to be forgiven. He will be pitiful, courteous, Christlike.
FLB	53	7	The Holy Spirit imparts love, joy, peace, strength, and consolation; it is as a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. The blessing is free to all.
------------------------A Mysterious and Tender Presence, February 17
FLB	54	1	The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. John 3:8.
FLB	54	2	The greatness of God is to us incomprehensible. "The Lord's throne is in heaven" (Psalm 11:4); yet by His Spirit He is everywhere present. He has an intimate knowledge of, and a personal interest in, all the works of His hand....
FLB	54	3	It was the Maker of all things ... who created the human soul, with its capacity for knowing and for loving. And He is not in Himself such as to leave the demands of the soul unsatisfied. No intangible principle, no impersonal essence or mere abstraction, can satisfy the needs and longings of human beings in this life of struggle with sin and sorrow and pain. It is not enough to believe in law and force, in things that have no pity, and never hear the cry for help. We need to know of an almighty arm that will hold us up, of an infinite Friend that pities us. We need to clasp a hand that is warm, to trust in a heart full of tenderness. And even so God has in His Word revealed Himself.
FLB	54	4	Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. The carnal mind cannot comprehend these mysteries.... The worldly-wise have attempted to explain upon scientific principles the influence of the Spirit of God upon the heart. The least advance in this direction will lead the soul into the mazes of skepticism. The religion of the Bible is simply the mystery of godliness; no human mind can fully understand it, and it is utterly incomprehensible to the unregenerate heart.
FLB	54	5	The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together passages of Scripture and put a human construction on them; but the acceptance of these views will not strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep for human understanding, silence is golden.
------------------------Agent in Redemption, February 18
FLB	55	1	And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Romans 5:5.
FLB	55	2	By nature the heart is evil, and "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." Job 14:4. No human invention can find a remedy for the sinning soul.... The fountain of the heart must be purified before the streams can become pure. He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility. There is no safety for one who has merely a legal religion, a form of godliness. The Christian's life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit.
FLB	55	3	It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character upon His church.
FLB	55	4	Like the wind, which is invisible, yet the effects of which are plainly seen and felt, is the Spirit of God in its work upon the human heart. That regenerating power, which no human eye can see, begets a new life in the soul; it creates a new being in the image of God.
FLB	55	5	The thoughtless and wayward become serious. The hardened repent of their sins, and the faithless believe. The gambler, the drunkard, the licentious, become steady, sober, and pure. The rebellious and obstinate become meek and Christlike. When we see these changes in the character, we may be assured that the converting power of God has transformed the entire man.
FLB	55	6	He who looks to Christ in simple, childlike faith is made a partaker of the divine nature through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
------------------------Comforter and Teacher, February 19
FLB	56	1	But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26.
FLB	56	2	The Holy Spirit is Christ's representative, but divested of the personality of humanity, and independent thereof. Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally. Therefore it was for their [the disciples'] interest that He should go to the Father, and send the Spirit to be His successor on earth. No one could then have any advantage because of his location or his personal contact with Christ. By the Spirit the Saviour would be accessible to all....
FLB	56	3	At all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all afflictions, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone, the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith. Circumstances may separate us from every earthly friend; but no circumstance, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always at our right hand to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer....
FLB	56	4	The Comforter is called "the Spirit of truth." His work is to define and maintain the truth. He first dwells in the heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus He becomes the Comforter. There is comfort and peace in the truth, but no real peace or comfort can be found in falsehood.... Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart.
FLB	56	5	Those who are under the influence of the Spirit of God will not be fanatical, but calm and steadfast, free from extravagance in thought, word, or deed. Amid the confusion of delusive doctrines, the Spirit of God will be a guide and a shield to those who have not resisted the evidences of truth.
FLB	56	6	Every man, woman, and child that is not under the control of the Spirit of God is under the influence of Satan's sorcery, and by his words and example he will lead others away from the path of truth.
------------------------The Indwelling Spirit, February 20
FLB	57	1	And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. 1 John 3:24.
FLB	57	2	The Holy Spirit is the breath of spiritual life in the soul. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ.
FLB	57	3	The Holy Spirit will enter the heart that can boast of nothing. The love of Jesus will fill the vacuum that is made by the emptying out of self.
FLB	57	4	Those who see Christ in His true character, and receive Him into the heart, have everlasting life. It is through the Spirit that Christ dwells in us; and the Spirit of God, received into the heart by faith, is the beginning of the life eternal.
FLB	57	5	We do not see Christ and speak to Him, but His Holy Spirit is just as near us in one place as in another. It works in and through every one who receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of the Spirit reveal the fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.
FLB	57	6	The Holy Spirit is to be continually present with the believer. We have need more carefully to consider the fact that the Comforter is to abide with us. If we individually comprehended this truth, we should never feel alone. When assailed by the enemy, when overwhelmed by temptation, we are to repose our faith in God; for we have His pledged word that we are never to be left to battle alone. Every soul, pardoned of sin, is precious in His sight--more precious than the whole world. It has been purchased at infinite cost, and Christ will never abandon the soul for whom He has died.
FLB	57	7	Christ is represented by the Holy Spirit; and when this Spirit is appreciated, when those controlled by the Spirit communicate to others the energy with which they are imbued, an invisible chord is touched which electrifies the whole. Would that we could all understand how boundless are the divine resources.
------------------------Grieve Not the Spirit, February 21
FLB	58	1	And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30.
FLB	58	2	Conscience is the voice of God, heard amid the conflict of human passions; when it is resisted, the Spirit of God is grieved.
FLB	58	3	Men have the power to quench the Spirit of God; the power of choosing is left with them. They are allowed freedom of action. They may be obedient through the name and grace of our Redeemer, or they may be disobedient, and realize the consequences.
FLB	58	4	The sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit does not lie in any sudden word or deed; it is the firm, determined resistance of truth and evidence.
FLB	58	5	It is not that God sends out a decree that man shall not be saved. He does not throw a darkness before the eyes which cannot be penetrated. But man at first resists a motion of the Spirit of God, and, having once resisted, it is less difficult to do so the second time, less the third, and far less the fourth. Then comes the harvest to be reaped from the seed of unbelief and resistance. Oh what a harvest of sinful indulgences is preparing for the sickle! ...
FLB	58	6	On the other hand, every ray of light cherished will yield a harvest of light. Temptation once resisted will give power to more firmly resist the second time; every new victory gained over self will smooth the way for higher and nobler triumphs. Every victory is a seed sown to eternal life.
FLB	58	7	God destroys no one. The sinner destroys himself by his own impenitence.
FLB	58	8	No one need look upon the sin against the Holy Ghost as something mysterious and indefinable. The sin against the Holy Ghost is the sin of persistent refusal to respond to the invitation to repent.
FLB	58	9	There is no ... hope of the higher life, but through the submission of the soul to Christ.
------------------------God Is Love, February 22
FLB	59	1	He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 1 John 4:8.
FLB	59	2	"God is love." His nature, His law, is love. It ever has been; it ever will be....
FLB	59	3	Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love.
FLB	59	4	It is through His power that summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, day and night, follow each other in their regular succession. It is by His word that vegetation flourishes, that leaves appear, and the flowers bloom. Every good thing we have, each ray of sunshine and shower of rain, every morsel of food, every moment of life, is a gift of love.
FLB	59	5	The history of the great conflict between good and evil, from the time it first began in heaven to the final overthrow of rebellion and the total eradication of sin, is also a demonstration of God's unchanging love.
FLB	59	6	The gift of Christ reveals the Father's heart.
FLB	59	7	God made to our world the wonderful gift of His only-begotten Son. In the light of this act, it could never be said by the inhabitants of other worlds that God could have done more than He did to show His love for the children of men. He made a sacrifice that defies all computation.
FLB	59	8	Thousands have a false conception of God and His attributes. They are as verily serving a false god as were the servants of Baal. Are we worshiping the true God as He is revealed in His Word, in Christ, in nature, or are we adoring some philosophical idol enshrined in His place? God is a God of truth. Justice and mercy are the attributes of His throne. He is a God of love, of pity and tender compassion. Thus He is represented in His Son, our Saviour. He is a God of patience and long-suffering. If such is the being whom we adore and to whose character we are seeking to assimilate, we are worshiping the true God.
------------------------No Respecter of Persons, February 23
FLB	60	1	Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. Acts 10:34, 35.
FLB	60	2	God is no respecter of persons.... Those who have the light and do not follow it, but disregard the requirements of God, will find that their blessings will be changed into curses and their mercies into judgments.
FLB	60	3	God does not regard all sins as of equal magnitude; there are degrees of guilt in His estimation, as well as in that of man; but however trifling this or that wrong act may seem in the eyes of men, no sin is small in the sight of God. Man's judgment is partial, imperfect; but God estimates all things as they really are. The drunkard is despised, and is told that his sin will exclude him from heaven; while pride, selfishness, and covetousness too often go unrebuked. But these are sins that are especially offensive to God; for they are contrary to the benevolence of His character, to that unselfish love which is the very atmosphere of the unfallen universe.
FLB	60	4	The exceeding sinfulness of sin can be estimated only in the light of the cross. When men urge that God is too good to cast off the sinner, let them look to Calvary. It was because there was no other way in which man could be saved, because without this sacrifice it was impossible for the human race to escape from the defiling power of sin, and be restored to communion with holy beings--impossible for them again to become partakers of spiritual life--it was because of this that Christ took upon Himself the guilt of the disobedient, and suffered in the sinner's stead. The love and suffering and death of the Son of God all testify to the terrible enormity of sin, and declare that there is no escape from its power, no hope of the higher life, but through the submission of the soul to Christ.
FLB	60	5	Let the soul be uplifted from the lowlands of sin to contemplate the God of all goodness, mercy, and love, but who will in no wise clear the guilty.
------------------------Infinitely Wise and Good, February 24
FLB	61	1	The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. Nahum 1:7.
FLB	61	2	God is the source of all wisdom. He is infinitely wise and just and good. Apart from Christ, the wisest men that ever lived cannot comprehend Him.... If men could see for a moment beyond the range of finite vision, if they could catch a glimpse of the Eternal, every mouth would be stopped in its boasting. Men living in this little atom of a world are finite; God has unnumbered worlds that are obedient to His laws, and are conducted with reference to His glory.
FLB	61	3	Nothing can happen in any part of the universe without the knowledge of Him who is omnipresent. Not a single event of human life is unknown to our Maker. While Satan is constantly devising evil, the Lord our God overrules all, so that it will not harm His obedient, trusting children. The same power that controls the boisterous waves of the ocean can hold in check all the power of rebellion and of crime. God says to one as to the other, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther."
FLB	61	4	What lessons of humility and faith may we not learn as we trace the dealings of God with His creatures. The Lord can do but little for the children of men, because they are so full of pride and vain glory. They exalt self, magnifying their own strength, learning, and wisdom. It is necessary for God to disappoint their hopes and frustrate their plans, that they may learn to trust in Him alone. All our powers are from God; we can do nothing independent of the strength which He has given us. Where is the man or woman or child that God does not sustain? Where is the desolate place which God does not fill? Where is the want that any but God can supply?
FLB	61	5	We are as ignorant of God as little children, but as little children we may love and obey Him. Instead of speculating in regard to His nature or His prerogatives, let us give heed to the word He has spoken: "Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10.
------------------------The Divine Presence With Us Always, February 25
FLB	62	1	Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. Psalm 139:7, 8.
FLB	62	2	The psalmist represents the presence of the Infinite One as pervading the universe. "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." We can never find a solitude where God is not.
FLB	62	3	The Lord God omnipotent, who reigneth in the heavens, declares, "I am with you." He assures His people that those who are obedient are in a position where He can bless them, to the glory of His name.... He will be a present help to all who serve Him in preference to serving self.
FLB	62	4	Although God dwells not in temples made with hands, yet He honors with His presence the assemblies of His people. He has promised that when they come together to seek Him, to acknowledge their sins, and to pray for one another, He will meet with them by His Spirit.
FLB	62	5	When Christ ascended to heaven, the sense of His presence was still with His followers. It was a personal presence, full of love and light....
FLB	62	6	Henceforth through the Spirit, Christ was to abide continually in the hearts of the children. Their union with Him was closer than when He was personally with them. The light, and love, and power of the indwelling Christ shone out through them, so that men, beholding, "marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13. All that Christ was to the disciples, He desires to be to His children today.
FLB	62	7	We may be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Receiving Christ, we are clothed with power. An indwelling Saviour makes His power our property.... Christ's presence in the heart is a vitalizing power, strengthening the entire being.
FLB	62	8	Never feel that Christ is far away. He is always near. His loving presence surrounds you.
------------------------His Gentle, Loving Care, February 26
FLB	63	1	Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 1 Peter 5:7.
FLB	63	2	The Lord's care is over all His creatures. He loves them all and makes no difference, except that He has the most tender pity for those who are called to bear life's heaviest burdens. God's children must meet trials and difficulties. But they should accept their lot with a cheerful spirit, remembering that for all that the world neglects to bestow, God Himself will make up to them in the best of favors.
FLB	63	3	It is when we come into difficult places that He reveals His power and wisdom in answer to humble prayer. Have confidence in Him as a prayer-hearing, prayer-answering God. He will reveal Himself to you as One who can help in every emergency. He who created man, who gave him his wonderful physical, mental, and spiritual faculties, will not withhold that which is necessary to sustain the life He has given. He who has given us His Word--the leaves of the tree of life--will not withhold from us a knowledge of how to provide food for His needy children.
FLB	63	4	Some are always anticipating evil, or magnifying the difficulties that really exist, so that their eyes are blinded to the many blessings which demand their gratitude. The obstacles they encounter, instead of leading them to seek help from God, the only source of strength, separate them from Him, because they awaken unrest and repining.
FLB	63	5	Do we well to be thus unbelieving? Why should we be ungrateful and distrustful? Jesus is our friend; all heaven is interested in our welfare; and our anxiety and fear grieve the Holy Spirit of God. We should not indulge in a solicitude that only frets and wears us, but does not help us to bear trials.... He invites the weary and care-laden, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Lay off the yoke of anxiety and worldly care that you have placed on your own neck, and "take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matthew 11:28, 29. We may find rest and peace in God.
------------------------The Saving Providences of God, February 27
FLB	64	1	And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28.
FLB	64	2	The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. He does not cast worthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines.
FLB	64	3	God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as co-workers with Him.
FLB	64	4	All that has perplexed us in the providences of God will in the world to come be made plain. The things hard to be understood will then find explanation. The mysteries of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken promises, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall know that infinite love ordered the experiences that seemed most trying.
FLB	64	5	He who is imbued with the Spirit of Christ abides in Christ. The blow that is aimed at him falls upon the Saviour, who surrounds him with His presence. Whatever comes to him comes from Christ. He has no need to resist evil, for Christ is his defense. Nothing can touch him except by our Lord's permission, and "all things" that are permitted "work together for good to them that love God."
FLB	64	6	Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing. Those who accept the one principle of making the service of God supreme, will find perplexities vanish and a plain path before their feet.
FLB	64	7	As a little child, trust to the guidance of Him who will "keep the feet of his saints." 1 Samuel 2:9.
FLB	64	8	As we commit our ways to Him, He will direct our steps.
------------------------Lover of All Men, February 28
FLB	65	1	For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Ephesians 3:14, 15.
FLB	65	2	The perception of God's love works the renunciation of selfishness. In calling God our Father, we recognize all His children as our brethren. We are all a part of the great web of humanity, all members of one family.
FLB	65	3	No distinction on account of nationality, race, or caste, is recognized by God. He is the Maker of all mankind. All men are of one family by creation, and all are one through redemption. Christ came to demolish every wall of partition, to throw open every compartment of the temple courts, that every soul may have free access to God.
FLB	65	4	He came to show that His gift of mercy and love is as unconfined as the air, the light, or the showers of rain that refresh the earth.
FLB	65	5	His love is so broad, so deep, so full, that it penetrates everywhere. It lifts out of Satan's influence those who have been deluded by his deceptions, and places them within reach of the throne of God, the throne encircled by the rainbow of promise.
FLB	65	6	God is our Father and Governor.... The principles which rule in heaven should rule upon earth, the same love that animates the angels, the same purity and holiness that reign in heaven, should, as far as possible, be reproduced upon earth.
FLB	65	7	If you call God your Father, you acknowledge yourselves His children, to be guided by His wisdom and to be obedient in all things, knowing that His love is changeless. You will accept His plan for your life. As children of God, you will hold His honor, His character, His family, His work, as the objects of your highest interest. It will be your joy to recognize and honor your relation to your Father and to every member of His family. You will rejoice to do any act, however humble, that will tend to His glory or to the well-being of your kindred.
------------------------The Uprising of Rebellion, March 1
FLB	66	1	But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:2.
FLB	66	2	Evil originated with Lucifer, who rebelled against the government of God. Before his fall he was a covering cherub, distinguished by his excellence. God made him good and beautiful, as near as possible like Himself.
FLB	66	3	Nothing is more plainly taught in Scripture than that God was in no wise responsible for the entrance of sin; that there was no arbitrary withdrawal of divine grace, no deficiency in the divine government, that gave occasion for the uprising of rebellion. Sin is an intruder, for whose presence no reason can be given. It is mysterious, unaccountable; to excuse it, is to defend it. Could excuse for it be found, or cause shown for its existence, it would cease to be sin.
FLB	66	4	The first sinner was one whom God had greatly exalted. He is represented under the figure of the prince of Tyrus flourishing in might and magnificence. Little by little Satan came to indulge the desire for self-exaltation.... Though all his glory was from God, this mighty angel came to regard it as pertaining to himself. Not content with his position, though honored above the heavenly host, he ventured to covet homage due alone to the Creator. Instead of seeking to make God supreme in the affections and allegiance of all created beings, it was his endeavor to secure their service and loyalty to himself....
FLB	66	5	Is he [Satan] not the first great apostate from God?
FLB	66	6	It is at Lucifer's throne that every evil work finds its starting point, and obtains its support.
------------------------Ambition Brings Sorrow, March 2
FLB	67	1	The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10:22.
FLB	67	2	Lucifer ... , before his rebellion, was a high and exalted angel, next in honor to God's dear Son. His countenance, like those of the other angels, was mild and expressive of happiness. His forehead was high and broad, showing a powerful intellect. His form was perfect; his bearing noble and majestic. A special light beamed in his countenance and shone around him brighter and more beautiful than around the other angels; yet Christ, God's dear Son, had the pre-eminence over all the angelic host. He was one with the Father before the angels were created....
FLB	67	3	Lucifer was envious and jealous of Jesus Christ. Yet when all the angels bowed to Jesus to acknowledge His supremacy and high authority and rightful rule, he bowed with them; but his heart was filled with envy and hatred.... Why should Christ thus be honored before himself?
FLB	67	4	Lucifer in heaven desired to be first in power and authority; he wanted to be God, to have the rulership of heaven; and to this end he won many of the angels to his side. When with his rebel host he was cast out from the courts of God, the work of rebellion and self-seeking was continued on earth. Through the temptation to self-indulgence and ambition Satan accomplished the fall of our first parents; and from that time to the present the gratification of human ambition and the indulgence of selfish hopes and desires have proved the ruin of mankind.
FLB	67	5	He who makes self-glorification his aim will find himself destitute of the grace of God, through whose efficiency the truest riches and the most satisfying joys are won. But he who gives all and does all for Christ will know the fulfillment of the promise, "The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it."
------------------------Pride Comes Before a Fall, March 3
FLB	68	1	Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18.
FLB	68	2	Satan fell because of his ambition to be equal with God. He desired to enter into the divine counsels and purposes, from which he was excluded by his own inability, as a created being, to comprehend the wisdom of the Infinite One. It was this ambitious pride that led to his rebellion, and by the same means he seeks to cause the ruin of man.
FLB	68	3	Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven. He sought to gain control of heavenly beings, to draw them away from their Creator, and to win their homage to himself. Therefore he misrepresented God, attributing to Him the desire for self-exaltation. With his own evil characteristics he sought to invest the loving Creator.
FLB	68	4	Had Lucifer really desired to be like the Most High, he would never have deserted his appointed place in heaven; for the spirit of the Most High is manifested in unselfish ministry. Lucifer desired God's power, but not His character. He sought for himself the highest place, and every being who is actuated by his spirit will do the same.
FLB	68	5	Whenever pride and ambition are indulged, the life is marred; for pride, feeling no need, closes the heart against the infinite blessings of Heaven.
FLB	68	6	Pride of heart is a fearful trait of character. "Pride goeth before destruction." This is true in the family, the church, and the nation.
FLB	68	7	God's people should be subject one to another. They should counsel with each other, that the lack of one be supplied by the sufficiency of the other.
FLB	68	8	God hates pride, and ... all the proud and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up.
FLB	68	9	"Learn of me," said Christ; "for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matthew 11:29.
------------------------Guard Against Untruthfulness! March 4
FLB	69	1	Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. Ephesians 6:14.
FLB	69	2	God permitted Satan to carry forward his work until the spirit of disaffection ripened into active revolt. It was necessary for his plans to be fully developed, that their true nature and tendency might be seen by all.... His power to deceive was very great. By disguising himself in a cloak of falsehood, he had gained an advantage. All his acts were so clothed with mystery, that it was difficult to disclose to the angels the true nature of his work.... It was his policy to perplex with subtle arguments concerning the purposes of God. Everything that was simple he shrouded in mystery, and by artful perversion cast doubt upon the plainest statements of Jehovah.
FLB	69	3	The underworking was so subtle that it could not be made to appear before the heavenly host as the thing that it really was; and so there was war in heaven, and Satan was expelled with all who would not stand on the side of loyalty to God's government.
FLB	69	4	I am bidden to warn all who make untruthful statements that they are serving him who has been a liar from the beginning. Let us be on our guard against untruthfulness, which grows upon him who practices it. I say to all, Make truth your girdle.... Put away all prevarication and exaggeration; never make a false statement.
FLB	69	5	An intention to deceive is what constitutes falsehood. By a glance of the eye, a motion of the hand, an expression of the countenance, a falsehood may be told as effectually as by words. All intentional overstatement, every hint or insinuation calculated to convey an erroneous or exaggerated impression, even the statement of facts in such a manner as to mislead, is falsehood.
FLB	69	6	There should be a continual effort to imitate the society we expect soon to join; namely, angels of God who have never fallen by sin. The character should be holy, the manners comely, the words without guile, and thus should we follow on step by step until we are fitted for translation.
------------------------Sin--Exceedingly Sinful, March 5
FLB	70	1	That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. Romans 7:13.
FLB	70	2	In great mercy, according to His divine character, God bore long with Lucifer. The spirit of discontent and disaffection had never before been known in heaven. It was a new element, strange, mysterious, unaccountable.
FLB	70	3	Lucifer himself had not at first been acquainted with the real nature of his feelings; for a time he had feared to express the workings and imaginings of his mind; yet he did not dismiss them. He did not see whither he was drifting. But such efforts as infinite love and wisdom only could devise, were made to convince him of his error. His disaffection was proved to be without cause, and he was made to see what would be the result of persisting in revolt. Lucifer was convinced that he was in the wrong. He saw that "the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works" (Psalm 145:17); that the divine statutes are just, and that he ought to acknowledge them as such before all heaven.... He nearly reached the decision to return; but pride forbade him.... He persistently defended his own course, and fully committed himself to the great controversy against his Maker....
FLB	70	4	Satan's rebellion was to be a lesson to the universe through all coming ages--a perpetual testimony to the nature of sin and its terrible results. The working out of Satan's rule, its effects upon both men and angels, would show what must be the fruit of setting aside the divine authority. It would testify that with the existence of God's government is bound up the well-being of all the creatures He has made. Thus the history of this terrible experiment of rebellion was to be a perpetual safeguard to all holy beings, to prevent them from being deceived as to the nature of transgression, to save them from committing sin, and suffering its penalty.
FLB	70	5	The infinite value of the sacrifice required for our redemption reveals the fact that sin is a tremendous evil.
------------------------Life or Death? March 6
FLB	71	1	For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23.
FLB	71	2	God, the One infinite and all-wise, sees the end from the beginning, and in dealing with evil His plans were far reaching and comprehensive. It was His purpose, not merely to put down the rebellion, but to demonstrate to all the universe the nature of rebellion.... It will be seen that all who have forsaken the divine precepts have placed themselves on the side of Satan, in warfare against Christ. When the prince of this world shall be judged, and all who have united with him shall share his fate, the whole universe as witnesses to the sentence will declare, "Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints." Revelation 15:3.
FLB	71	3	In the final execution of the judgment it will be seen that no cause for sin exists. When the Judge of all the earth shall demand of Satan, "Why hast thou rebelled against Me, and robbed Me of the subjects of My kingdom?" the originator of evil can render no excuse. Every mouth will be stopped, and all the hosts of rebellion will be speechless.... The whole universe will have become witnesses to the nature and results of sin. And its utter extermination, which in the beginning would have brought fear to angels and dishonor to God, will now vindicate His love and establish His honor before the universe.... Never will evil again be manifest. Says the Word of God, "Affliction shall not rise up the second time." Nahum 1:9.... A tested and proved creation will never again be turned from allegiance to Him whose character has been fully manifested before them.
FLB	71	4	He who chooses a course of disobedience to God's law is deciding his future destiny; he is sowing to the flesh, earning the wages of sin, even eternal destruction, the opposite of life eternal. Submission to God and obedience to His holy law bring the sure result. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." John 17:3.
------------------------Rebellion Will Be Put Down, March 7
FLB	72	1	And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. Romans 16:20.
FLB	72	2	Ever since Adam yielded his mind to Satan's device, the conflict has raged between right and wrong, between God and Satan. Connected with the doing of right there is a power that Satan cannot overcome. Righteousness has a vitality that is divine. Truth will triumph at last over falsehood, and God will vanquish the enemy.
FLB	72	3	Christ conquered Satan in our behalf.... He is mightier than Satan, and He will shortly bruise him under our feet.
FLB	72	4	In mercy to the universe ... God will finally destroy the rejecters of His grace.
FLB	72	5	"Upon the wicked he shall rain quick burning coals, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup." Psalm 11:6 (margin).
FLB	72	6	While life is the inheritance of the righteous, death is the portion of the wicked. Moses declared to Israel, "I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil." Deuteronomy 30:15. The death referred to in these scriptures is not that pronounced upon Adam, for all mankind suffer the penalty of his transgression. It is the "second death" that is placed in contrast with everlasting life.
FLB	72	7	In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch--Satan the root, his followers the branches. The full penalty of the law has been visited; the demands of justice have been met; and heaven and earth, beholding, declare the righteousness of Jehovah.
FLB	72	8	Satan's work of ruin is forever ended. For six thousand years he has wrought his will, filling the earth with woe, and causing grief throughout the universe. The whole creation has groaned and travailed together in pain. Now God's creatures are forever delivered from his presence and temptations.
FLB	72	9	It should be the aim of your life to fit yourself for association with the redeemed, with holy angels, and with Jesus, the world's Redeemer.
------------------------Waywardness of Man, March 8
FLB	73	1	O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever! Deuteronomy 5:29.
FLB	73	2	After Satan was shut out of heaven, with those who fell with him, he realized that he had lost all the purity and glory of heaven forever....
FLB	73	3	He consulted with his angels, and a plan was laid to still work against God's government. When Adam and Eve were placed in the beautiful garden, Satan was laying plans to destroy them....
FLB	73	4	Satan commenced his work with Eve, to cause her to disobey. She first erred in wandering from her husband, next, in lingering around the forbidden tree, and next in listening to the voice of the tempter, and even daring to doubt what God had said--In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. She thought, Perhaps it does not mean just as the Lord said. She ventured to disobey. She put forth her hand, took of the fruit, and ate.... She offered the fruit to her husband, thereby tempting him....
FLB	73	5	I saw a sadness come over Adam's countenance. He appeared afraid and astonished. A struggle appeared to be going on in his mind. He felt ... that his wife must die. They must be separated. His love for Eve was strong. And in utter discouragement he resolved to share her fate. He seized the fruit, and quickly ate it. Then Satan exulted....
FLB	73	6	Adam, through his love for Eve, disobeyed the command of God, and fell with her.
FLB	73	7	Notwithstanding the sophistry of Satan to the contrary, it is always disastrous to disobey God. We must set our hearts to know what is truth. All the lessons which God has caused to be placed on record in His Word are for our warning and instruction. They are given to save us from deception. Their neglect will result in ruin to ourselves. Whatever contradicts God's Word, we may be sure proceeds from Satan.
------------------------The Way of Transgressors, March 9
FLB	74	1	Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard. Proverbs 13:15.
FLB	74	2	The news of man's fall spread through heaven. Every harp was hushed. The angels cast their crowns from their heads in sorrow. All heaven was in agitation. A counsel was held to decide what must be done with the guilty pair. The angels feared that they would put forth the hand, and eat of the tree of life, and be immortal sinners. But God said that He would drive the transgressors from the garden. Angels were commissioned immediately to guard the way of the tree of life. It had been Satan's studied plan that Adam and Eve should disobey God, receive His frown, and then be led on to partake of the tree of life, that they might live forever in sin and disobedience, and thus sin be immortalized. But holy angels were sent to drive them out of the garden, while another company of angels were commissioned to guard the way to the tree of life....
FLB	74	3	Satan triumphed. Others he had made to suffer by his fall. He had been shut out of heaven, they out of Paradise.
FLB	74	4	By transgression Adam lost Eden. By the transgression of God's commandments man will lose heaven, and an eternity of bliss. These are no idle tales, but truth.... I ask, On which side are you standing?
FLB	74	5	It is true that Satan's path is made to appear attractive, but it is all a deception; in the way of evil there are bitter remorse and cankering care.... In the downward road the gateway may be bright with flowers, but thorns are in the path....
FLB	74	6	"The way of transgressors is hard," but wisdom's "ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Proverbs 13:15; 3:17. Every act of obedience to Christ, every act of self-denial for His sake, every trial well endured, every victory gained over temptation, is a step in the march to the glory of final victory. If we take Christ for our guide, He will lead us safely.
------------------------First Promise of Redemption, March 10
FLB	75	1	And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15.
FLB	75	2	To man the first intimation of redemption was communicated in the sentence pronounced upon Satan in the garden. The Lord declared, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This sentence, uttered in the hearing of our first parents, was to them a promise. While it foretold war between man and Satan, it declared that the power of the great adversary would finally be broken.... Adam and his companion were assured that notwithstanding their great sin, they were not to be abandoned to the control of Satan. The Son of God had offered to atone, with His own life, for their transgression. A period of probation would be granted them, and through repentance, and faith in Christ, they might again become the children of God.
FLB	75	3	The instant man accepted the temptations of Satan, and did the very things God had said he should not do, Christ, the Son of God, stood between the living and the dead, saying, "Let the punishment fall on Me. I will stand in man's place. He shall have another chance."
FLB	75	4	As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour. Christ knew that He would have to suffer, yet He became man's substitute. As soon as Adam sinned, the Son of God presented Himself as surety for the human race, with just as much power to avert the doom pronounced upon the guilty as when He died upon the cross of Calvary.
FLB	75	5	Although gloom and darkness hung, like the pall of death, over the future, yet in the promise of the Redeemer, the Star of hope lighted up the dark future. The gospel was first preached to Adam by Christ. Adam and Eve felt sincere sorrow and repentance for their guilt. They believed the precious promise of God, and were saved from utter ruin.
------------------------A Saviour From Eternity, March 11
FLB	76	1	Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Ephesians 1:3, 4.
FLB	76	2	Since the Fall the Lord has wrought out His will in the plan of redemption, a plan by which He is seeking to restore man to his original perfection. Christ's death on the cross has made it possible for God to receive and pardon every repentant soul.
FLB	76	3	As the divine Sufferer hung upon the cross, angels gathered about Him, and as they looked upon Him, and heard His cry, they asked, with intense emotion, "Will not the Lord Jehovah save Him?" ... Then were the words spoken: "The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent. Father and Son are pledged to fulfill the terms of the everlasting covenant. God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Christ was not alone in making His great sacrifice. It was the fulfillment of the covenant made between Him and His Father before the foundation of the world was laid. With clasped hands they had entered into the solemn pledge that Christ would become the surety for the human race if they were overcome by Satan's sophistry.
FLB	76	4	The salvation of the human race has ever been the object of the councils of heaven. The covenant of mercy was made before the foundation of the world. It has existed from all eternity, and is called the everlasting covenant. So surely as there never was a time when God was not, so surely there never was a moment when it was not the delight of the eternal mind to manifest His grace to humanity.
FLB	76	5	The more we consider this subject, the greater depths we find, and yet there are depths that we do not reach as we study the Redeemer's glory. It is the glory of the Prince of life, and the mightiest powers of man cannot reach it. The angels themselves desire to look into this mysterious and wonderful theme, the redemption of the human race.
------------------------God's Plan to Ransom Man, March 12
FLB	77	1	And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. Genesis 17:7.
FLB	77	2	As the Bible presents two laws, one changeless and eternal, the other provisional and temporary, so there are two covenants. The covenant of grace was first made with man in Eden, when after the Fall, there was given a divine promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. To all men this covenant offered pardon, and the assisting grace of God for future obedience through faith in Christ. It also promised them eternal life on condition of fidelity to God's law. Thus the patriarchs received the hope of salvation.
FLB	77	3	This same covenant was renewed to Abraham in the promise, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Genesis 22:18. This promise pointed to Christ. So Abraham understood it, and he trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. It was this faith that was accounted unto him for righteousness. The covenant with Abraham also maintained the authority of God's law. The Lord appeared unto Abraham, and said, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect." The testimony of God concerning His faithful servant was, "Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." Genesis 17:1; 26:5....
FLB	77	4	The Abrahamic covenant was ratified by the blood of Christ, and it is called the "second," or "new," covenant, because the blood by which it was sealed was shed after the blood of the first covenant.
FLB	77	5	The covenant of grace is not a new truth, for it existed in the mind of God from all eternity. This is why it is called the everlasting covenant.
FLB	77	6	There is hope for us only as we come under the Abrahamic covenant, which is the covenant of grace by faith in Christ Jesus. The gospel preached to Abraham, through which he had hope, was the same gospel that is preached to us today.... Abraham looked unto Jesus, who is also the author and the finisher of our faith.
------------------------Man's Inability to Save Himself, March 13
FLB	78	1	Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Galatians 2:16.
FLB	78	2	Another compact--called in Scripture the "old" covenant--was formed between God and Israel at Sinai, and was then ratified by the blood of a sacrifice....
FLB	78	3	God ... gave them [Israel] His law, with the promise of great blessings on condition of obedience: "If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ... ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation." Exodus 19:5, 6. The people did not realize the sinfulness of their own hearts, and that without Christ it was impossible for them to keep God's law; and they readily entered into covenant with God. Feeling that they were able to establish their own righteousness, they declared, "All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient." Exodus 24:7. They had witnessed the proclamation of the law in awful majesty, and had trembled with terror before the mount; and yet only a few weeks passed before they broke their covenant with God, and bowed down to worship a graven image. They could not hope for the favor of God through a covenant which they had broken; and now, seeing their sinfulness and their need of pardon, they were brought to feel their need of the Saviour revealed in the Abrahamic covenant, and shadowed forth in the sacrificial offerings....
FLB	78	4	The terms of the "old covenant" were, Obey and live: "If a man do, he shall even live in them;" but "cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them." Ezekiel 20:11; Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 27:26. The "new covenant" was established upon "better promises"--the promise of forgiveness of sins, and of the grace of God to renew the heart, and bring it into harmony with the principles of God's law.
FLB	78	5	The only means of salvation is provided under the Abrahamic covenant.
------------------------Our Angel Friends and Guardians, March 14
FLB	79	1	Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Hebrews 1:14.
FLB	79	2	The plan by which alone man's salvation could be secured, involved all heaven in its infinite sacrifice. The angels could not rejoice as Christ opened before them the plan of redemption; for they saw that man's salvation must cost their loved Commander unutterable woe. In grief and wonder they listened to His words as He told them how He must descend from heaven's purity and peace, ... and come in contact with the degradation of earth, to endure its sorrow, shame, and death....
FLB	79	3	The angels ... offered to become a sacrifice for man. But an angel's life could not pay the debt; only He who created man had power to redeem him. Yet the angels were to have a part to act in the plan of redemption. Christ was to be made "a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death." Hebrews 2:9. As He should take human nature upon Him, His strength would not be equal to theirs, and they were to minister to Him, to strengthen and soothe Him under His sufferings. They were also to be ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who should be heirs of salvation. They would guard the subjects of grace from the power of evil angels, and from the darkness constantly thrown around them by Satan.
FLB	79	4	Angels are ever present where they are most needed, with those who have the hardest battles with self to fight, and whose surroundings are the most discouraging. Weak and trembling souls who have many objectionable traits of character are their special charge. That which selfish hearts would regard as humiliating service, ministering to those who are wretched and in every way inferior in character, is the work of the pure, sinless beings from the courts above.
FLB	79	5	All the angels of heaven are united in the work of bringing to man the infinite treasures of the better world.
FLB	79	6	God and Christ and the heavenly angels are fighting with you.... In the strength of the Redeemer, you can be more than conquerors.
------------------------God's Commandments Are Sure, March 15
FLB	80	1	The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. Psalm 111:7, 8.
FLB	80	2	The law of God existed before the creation of man or else Adam could not have sinned. After the transgression of Adam the principles of the law were not changed, but were definitely arranged and expressed to meet man in his fallen condition.
FLB	80	3	The angels were governed by it [the law]. Satan fell because he transgressed the principles of God's government. After Adam and Eve were created, God made known to them His law. It was not then written, but was rehearsed to them by Jehovah.
FLB	80	4	In love, with a desire to elevate and ennoble us, God provided for us a standard of obedience. In awful majesty, amid thundering and lightning, He proclaimed from Mount Sinai His ten holy precepts. This law reveals the whole duty of the human family; the first four precepts define our duty to God, and the last six our duty to man.
FLB	80	5	The law of God, being a revelation of His will, a transcript of His character, must forever endure, "as a faithful witness in heaven." Not one command has been annulled; not a jot or tittle has been changed. Says the psalmist: "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." Psalm 119:89.
FLB	80	6	From the first, the great controversy had been upon the law of God. Satan had sought to prove that God was unjust, that His law was faulty, and that the good of the universe required it to be changed. In attacking the law, he aimed to overthrow the authority of its Author.
FLB	80	7	Through Satan's temptations the whole human race have become transgressors of God's law; but by the sacrifice of His Son a way is opened whereby they may return to God. Through the grace of Christ they may be enabled to render obedience to the Father's law.
FLB	80	8	When we trust God fully, when we rely upon the merits of Jesus as a sin-pardoning Saviour, we shall receive all the help that we can desire.
------------------------Tampering With the Commandments, March 16
FLB	81	1	And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws. Daniel 7:25.
FLB	81	2	Satan could not hinder the plan of salvation. Jesus was crucified, and arose again the third day. He [Satan] told his angels that he would make even the crucifixion and resurrection tell to his advantage. He was willing that those who professed faith in Jesus should believe that the laws regulating the Jewish sacrifices and offerings ceased at the death of Christ, if he could push them further, and make them believe that the law of ten commandments died also with Christ....
FLB	81	3	He [Satan] told his angels ... that the Ten Commandments were so plain that many would believe that they were still binding; therefore he must seek to corrupt the fourth commandment, which brings to view the living God. He led on his representatives to attempt to change the Sabbath, and alter the only commandment of the ten which brings to view the true God, the maker of the heavens and the earth. Satan presented before them the glorious resurrection of Jesus, and told them that by His rising on the first day of the week, He changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. Thus Satan used the resurrection to serve his purpose. He and his angels rejoiced that the errors they had prepared took so well with the professed friends of Christ.
FLB	81	4	Satan, working through unconsecrated leaders of the church, tampered with the fourth commandment ... and essayed to set aside the ancient Sabbath, the day which God had blessed and sanctified (Genesis 2:2, 3), and in its stead to exalt the festival observed by the heathen as "the venerable day of the sun."
FLB	81	5	The Lord has clearly defined the road to the city of God; but the great apostate has changed the signpost, setting up a false one--a spurious sabbath.... The enemy of all good has turned the signpost round, so that it points to the path of disobedience as the path of happiness.... He has thought to change times and laws.
------------------------Man a Free Moral Agent, March 17
FLB	82	1	If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. John 7:17.
FLB	82	2	Man was created a free moral agent. Like the inhabitants of all other worlds, he must be subjected to the test of obedience; but he is never brought into such a position that yielding to evil becomes a matter of necessity. No temptation or trial is permitted to come to him which he is unable to resist. God made such ample provision that man need never have been defeated in the conflict with Satan.
FLB	82	3	Satan is the great originator of sin; yet this does not excuse any man for sinning; for he cannot force men to do evil. He tempts them to it, and makes sin look enticing and pleasant; but he has to leave it to their own wills whether they will do it or not.... Man is a free moral agent to accept or refuse.
FLB	82	4	Conversion is a work that most do not appreciate. It is not a small matter to transform an earthly, sin-loving mind and bring it to understand the unspeakable love of Christ, the charms of His grace, and the excellency of God, so that the soul shall be imbued with divine love.
FLB	82	5	Every provision has been made; everything in God's plan has been arranged so that man should not be left to his own impulses, to his own finite powers, to carry on the warfare against the powers of darkness in his own finite strength; because he would certainly fail if he were thus left to himself.
FLB	82	6	As a redeemed, free moral agent, ransomed by an infinite price, God calls upon you to assert your liberty, and employ your God-given powers as a free subject of the kingdom of heaven.... You are to refuse to be in subjection to the power of evil.
FLB	82	7	Let a solemn, unalterable purpose take possession of you, and resolve in the strength and grace of God, that henceforth you will live for Him, and that no earthly consideration shall persuade you to disown the divine law of ten commandments.
------------------------In Harmony With Heaven, March 18
FLB	83	1	Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. Psalm 119:165.
FLB	83	2	Adam taught his descendants the law of God, and it was handed down from father to son through successive generations. But ... there were few who accepted it and rendered obedience. By transgression the world became so vile that it was necessary to cleanse it by the Flood from its corruption. The law was preserved by Noah and his family, and Noah taught his descendants the Ten Commandments. As men again departed from God, the Lord chose Abraham, of whom He declared, "Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." Genesis 25:5....
FLB	83	3	Concerning the law proclaimed from Sinai, Nehemiah says, "Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments." Nehemiah 9:13. And Paul ... declares, "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Romans 7:12.
FLB	83	4	The whole world will be judged by the moral law according to their opportunity of becoming acquainted with it, whether by reason, or tradition, or the written Word.
FLB	83	5	We behold in it the goodness of God, who by revealing to men the immutable principles of righteousness seeks to shield them from the evils that result from transgression....
FLB	83	6	The law is an expression of God's idea. When we receive it in Christ, it becomes our idea. It lifts us above the power of natural desires and tendencies, above temptations that lead to sin. "Great peace have they which love thy law; and nothing shall offend them"--cause them to stumble. There is no peace in unrighteousness; the wicked are at war with God. But he who receives the righteousness of the law in Christ is in harmony with heaven.
FLB	83	7	As received in Christ, it [God's law] works in us the purity of character that will bring joy to us through eternal ages.
------------------------Wondrous Things in God's Law, March 19
FLB	84	1	Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Psalm 119:18.
FLB	84	2	Jesus Christ is the glory of the law. The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness are to be reflected from His messengers upon the minds of sinners, in order that they may be led to say, with one of old, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Many ... do not discern the wondrous things that are to be seen in God's law. They have not beheld that which was revealed to Moses when he prayed, "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." Exodus 33:18. To Moses was revealed God's character.
FLB	84	3	In the law every specification is the character of the infinite God.
FLB	84	4	Heaven's law is always merciful, kind, tender, helpful, uplifting to others.
FLB	84	5	The downtrodden law of God is to be exalted before the people; as soon as they turn with earnestness and reverence to the Holy Scriptures, light from heaven will reveal to them wondrous things out of God's law.... Truths which have proved an overmatch for giant intellects are understood by babes in Christ.
FLB	84	6	The law of ten commandments is not to be looked upon as much from the prohibitory side as from the mercy side. Its prohibitions are the sure guarantee of happiness in obedience....
FLB	84	7	We are not to regard God as waiting to punish the sinner for his sin. The sinner brings punishment upon himself. His own actions start a train of circumstances that bring the sure result. Every act of transgression reacts upon the sinner, works in him a change of character, and makes it more easy for him to transgress again. By choosing to sin, men separate themselves from God, cut themselves off from the channel of blessing, and the sure result is ruin and death.
FLB	84	8	By obedience to this law the intellect is strengthened, and the conscience is enlightened and made sensitive. The youth need to gain a clear understanding of God's law.
------------------------Jesus' Example in Law Keeping, March 20
FLB	85	1	If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10.
FLB	85	2	The law of God is the only true standard of moral perfection. That law was practically exemplified in the life of Christ. He says of Himself, "I have kept my Father's commandments."
FLB	85	3	The law is an expression of the thought of God; when received in Christ, it becomes our thought.... God desires us to be happy, and He gave us the precepts of the law that in obeying them we might have joy. When at Jesus' birth the angels sang--"Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14), they were declaring the principles of the law which He had come to magnify and make honorable....
FLB	85	4	"Till heaven and earth pass," said Jesus, "one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matthew 5:18. The sun shining in the heavens, the solid earth upon which you dwell, are God's witnesses that His law is changeless and eternal. Though they may pass away, the divine precepts shall endure. "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke 16:17....
FLB	85	5	Since "the law of the Lord is perfect," every variation from it must be evil. Those who disobey the commandments of God, and teach others to do so, are condemned by Christ. The Saviour's life of obedience maintained the claims of the law, it proved that the law could be kept in humanity, and showed the excellence of character that obedience would develop. All who obey as He did are likewise declaring that the law is "holy, and just, and good." Romans 7:12.
FLB	85	6	When, through faith in Jesus Christ, man does according to the very best of his ability, and seeks to keep the way of the Lord by obedience to the Ten Commandments, the perfection of Christ is imputed to cover the transgression of the repentant and obedient soul.
------------------------The Great Principle of the Law, March 21
FLB	86	1	If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15.
FLB	86	2	The law was not spoken ... exclusively for the benefit of the Hebrews. God honored them by making them the guardians and keepers of His law, but it was to be held as a sacred trust for the whole world. The precepts of the Decalogue are adapted to all mankind, and they were given for the instruction and government of all. Ten precepts, brief, comprehensive, and authoritative, cover the duty of man to God and to his fellow man; and all based upon the great fundamental principle of love. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." Luke 10:27.
FLB	86	3	God's law is not a new thing. It is not holiness created, but holiness made known. It is a code of principles expressing mercy, goodness, and love. It presents to fallen humanity the character of God, and states plainly the whole duty of man.
FLB	86	4	In the precepts of His holy law, God has given a perfect rule of life; and He has declared that until the close of time this law, unchanged in a single jot or tittle, is to maintain its claim upon human beings. Christ came to magnify the law and make it honorable.... In His own life He gave an example of obedience to the law of God. In the sermon on the mount He showed how its requirements extend beyond the outward acts, and take cognizance of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
FLB	86	5	Today God gives men opportunity to show whether they love their neighbor. He who truly loves God and his fellow man is he who shows mercy to the destitute, the suffering, the wounded, those who are ready to die. God calls upon every man to take up his neglected work, to seek to restore the moral image of the Creator in humanity.
FLB	86	6	The Ten Commandments, Thou shalt, and Thou shalt not, are ten promises, assured to us if we render obedience to the law governing the universe. "If ye love me, keep my commandments." John 14:15.
------------------------Our Helpless Condition in Sin, March 22
FLB	87	1	And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 29:13, 14.
FLB	87	2	By sin we have been severed from the life of God. Our souls are palsied.... The sense of sin has poisoned the springs of life.
FLB	87	3	By nature we are alienated from God. The Holy Spirit describes our condition in such words as these: "Dead in trespasses and sins;" "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint"; "no soundness in it." We are held fast in the snare of Satan; "taken captive by him at his will." Ephesians 2:1; Isaiah 1:5, 6; 2 Timothy 2:26. God desires to heal us, to set us free. But since this requires an entire transformation, a renewing of our whole nature, we must yield ourselves wholly to Him.
FLB	87	4	The warfare against self is the greatest battle that was ever fought. The yielding of self, surrendering all to the will of God, requires a struggle; but the soul must submit to God before it can be renewed in holiness.
FLB	87	5	Many realize their helplessness; they are longing for that spiritual life which will bring them into harmony with God, and are striving to obtain it. But in vain.... Let those desponding, struggling ones look up....
FLB	87	6	When sin struggles for the mastery ... look to the Saviour. His grace is sufficient to subdue sin. Let your grateful heart, trembling with uncertainty, turn to Him. Lay hold on the hope set before you.... His strength will help your weakness; He will lead you step by step. Place your hand in His, and let Him guide you.
FLB	87	7	He will set free the captive that is held by weakness and misfortune and the chains of sin....
FLB	87	8	He is always near. His loving presence surrounds you. Seek Him as One who desires to be found of you.
FLB	87	9	God's promise is, "Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."
------------------------The Gospel for Both Dispensations, March 23
FLB	88	1	Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17.
FLB	88	2	Since the fall of Adam, it has been the fashion of the world to sin, and it is for our interest to know what sin is. John declares: "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4.
FLB	88	3	God's purpose is ... to save from sin.... The soul, corrupted and deformed, is to be purified, transformed.
FLB	88	4	Through the gospel, souls that are degraded and enslaved by Satan are to be redeemed to share the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
FLB	88	5	The gospel is the power and wisdom of God.
FLB	88	6	Christ had been sent to earth to represent God in character.... He Himself was the gospel.
FLB	88	7	Many who claim to believe and to teach the gospel ... set aside the Old Testament Scriptures, of which Christ declared, "They are they which testify of me." John 5:39. In rejecting the Old, they virtually reject the New; for both are parts of an inseparable whole. No man can rightly present the law of God without the gospel, or the gospel without the law. The law is the gospel embodied, and the gospel is the law unfolded. The law is the root, the gospel is the fragrant blossom and fruit which it bears.
FLB	88	8	He who proclaimed the law from Sinai, and delivered to Moses the precepts of the ritual law, is the same that spoke the sermon on the mount....The teacher is the same in both dispensations. God's claims are the same. The principles of His government are the same. For all proceed from Him "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
FLB	88	9	The gospel of the New Testament is not the Old Testament standard lowered to meet the sinner and save him in his sins. God requires of all His subjects obedience, entire obedience to all His commandments.
------------------------Abundant Grace for Obedience, March 24
FLB	89	1	For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Romans 6:14.
FLB	89	2	It is the sophistry of Satan that the death of Christ brought in grace to take the place of the law. The death of Jesus did not change, or annul, or lessen in the slightest degree, the law of ten commandments. That precious grace offered to men through a Saviour's blood, establishes the law of God. Since the fall of man, God's moral government and His grace are inseparable. They go hand in hand through all dispensations. "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Psalm 85:10.
FLB	89	3	Each law of God is an enactment of mercy, love, and saving power. These laws, obeyed, are our life, our salvation, our happiness, our peace.
FLB	89	4	Obedience to His statutes and laws is the life and prosperity of His people.
FLB	89	5	The influence of a gospel hope will not lead the sinner to look upon the salvation of Christ as a matter of free grace, while he continues to live in transgression of the law of God.... He will reform his ways, become loyal to God through the strength obtained from his Saviour, and lead a new and purer life.
FLB	89	6	As the sacrifice in our behalf was complete, so our restoration from the defilement of sin is to be complete. No act of wickedness will the law of God excuse; no unrighteousness can escape its condemnation. The ethics of the gospel acknowledge no standard but the perfection of the divine character. The life of Christ was a perfect fulfillment of every precept of the law. He said, "I have kept my Father's commandments." John 15:10. His life is our example of obedience and service. God alone can renew the heart. "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." But we are bidden, "Work out your own salvation." Philippians 2:13, 12.
FLB	89	7	To the obedient child of God, the commandments are a delight.
------------------------The Faith That Works, March 25
FLB	90	1	But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6.
FLB	90	2	Faith is not certainty of knowledge, it is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
FLB	90	3	Faith is trusting in God--believing that He loves us, and knows what is for our best good. Thus, instead of our own way, it leads us to choose His way. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His righteousness. Our lives, ourselves, are already His; faith acknowledges His ownership, and accepts its blessing. Truth, uprightness, purity, are pointed out as secrets of life's success. It is faith that puts us in possession of these. Every good impulse or aspiration is the gift of God; faith receives from God the life that alone can produce true growth and efficiency.
FLB	90	4	When we speak of faith, there is a distinction that should be borne in mind. There is a kind of belief that is wholly distinct from faith. The existence and power of God, the truth of His Word, are facts that even Satan and his hosts cannot at heart deny. The Bible says that "the devils also believe, and tremble"; but this is not faith. Where there is not only a belief in God's Word, but a submission of the will to Him; where the heart is yielded to Him, the affections fixed upon Him, there is faith--faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Through this faith the heart is renewed in the image of God. And the heart that in its unrenewed state is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, now delights in its holy precepts, exclaiming with the psalmist, "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day." Psalm 119:97. And the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Romans 8:1.
FLB	90	5	Faith earns nothing for us; it is the gift of God, which we may receive and cherish by making Christ our personal Saviour.
------------------------How Faith Is Made Perfect, March 26
FLB	91	1	Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. James 2:17.
FLB	91	2	The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. In its great need the soul cries out for a power out of and above itself; and through the operation of the Holy Spirit the nobler powers of the mind are imbued with strength to break away from the bondage of sin.
FLB	91	3	When man surrenders to Christ, the mind is brought under the control of the law, but it is the royal law, which proclaims liberty to every captive. Only by becoming one with Christ can men be made free. Subjection to the will of Christ means restoration to perfect manhood. Sin can triumph only by ... destroying the liberty of the soul.
FLB	91	4	Do you realize your sinfulness? Do you despise sin? Then remember that the righteousness of Christ is yours if you will grasp it. Can you not see what a strong foundation is placed beneath your feet when you accept Christ? God has accepted the offering of His Son as a complete atonement for the sins of the world.
FLB	91	5	True faith, which relies wholly upon Christ, will be manifested by obedience to all the requirements of God.... In all ages there have been those who claimed a right to the favor of God even while they were disregarding some of His commands. But the Scriptures declare that by works is "faith made perfect"; and that, without the works of obedience, faith "is dead."
FLB	91	6	Satan believes and trembles. He works. He knows his time is short, and he has come down in great power to do his evil works according to his faith. But God's professed people do not support their faith by their works. They believe in the shortness of time, yet grasp just as eagerly after this world's goods as though the world were to stand a thousand years as it now is.
FLB	91	7	Do you believe that the end of all things is at hand, that the scenes of this earth's history are fast closing? If so, show your faith by your works. A man will show all the faith he has.
------------------------Do We Contradict Our Profession? March 27
FLB	92	1	Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. Romans 2:23, 24.
FLB	92	2	All who join themselves to the church but not to the Lord will in time develop their true character. "Ye shall know them by their fruits." Matthew 7:16. The precious fruit of godliness, temperance, patience, kindness, love, and charity, does not appear in their lives. They bear only thorns and briers. God is dishonored before the world by all such professors.... They are, Satan knows, his best working agents while they are unchanged in heart and life, and their works are in such marked contrast to their profession that they are a stumbling block to unbelievers and a great trial to believers....
FLB	92	3	What an account will those have to give in the day of final reckoning, who profess to be keeping the commandments of God, while their lives contradict their profession, for they bear no precious fruit.
FLB	92	4	Many who would shrink with horror from some great transgression are led to look upon sin in little matters as of trifling consequence. But these little sins eat out the life of godliness in the soul. The feet which enter upon a path diverging from the right way are tending toward the broad road that ends in death. When once a retrograde movement begins, no one can tell where it may end.
FLB	92	5	A true disciple of Christ will seek to imitate the Pattern. His love will lead to perfect obedience. He will study to do the will of God on earth, as it is done in heaven. He whose heart is still defiled with sin cannot be zealous of good works, and is not careful to abstain from evil, ... is not jealous over his unruly tongue; he is not careful to deny self and lift the cross of Christ....
FLB	92	6	The fruits of the Spirit, ruling in the heart and controlling the life, are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, bowels of mercies, and humbleness of mind. True believers walk after the Spirit, and the Spirit of God dwells in them.
------------------------Does Faith Cancel Obedience? March 28
FLB	93	1	Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. Romans 3:31.
FLB	93	2	Faith is not an opiate, but a stimulant. Looking to Calvary will not quiet your soul into nonperformance of duty, but will create faith that will work, purifying the soul from all selfishness.
FLB	93	3	The faith in Christ which saves the soul is not what it is represented to be by many. "Believe, believe," is their cry; "only believe in Christ, and you will be saved. It is all you have to do." While true faith trusts wholly in Christ for salvation, it will lead to perfect conformity to the law of God.
FLB	93	4	There are two errors against which the children of God--particularly those who have just come to trust in His grace--especially need to guard. The first ... is that of looking to their own works, trusting to anything they can do, to bring themselves into harmony with God. He who is trying to become holy by his own works in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility.... It is the grace of Christ alone, through faith, that can make us holy.
FLB	93	5	The opposite and no less dangerous error is that belief in Christ releases men from keeping the law of God; that since by faith alone we become partakers of the grace of Christ, our works have nothing to do with our redemption.
FLB	93	6	But notice here that obedience is not a mere outward compliance, but the service of love. The law of God is an expression of His very nature; it is an embodiment of the great principle of love, and hence is the foundation of His government in heaven and earth.... Instead of releasing man from obedience, it is faith, and faith only, that makes us partakers of the grace of Christ, which enables us to render obedience.
FLB	93	7	As Jesus was in human nature, so God means His followers to be. In His strength we are to live the life of purity and nobility which the Saviour lived.
------------------------The Great Element of Saving Power, March 29
FLB	94	1	For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8, 9.
FLB	94	2	Grace is an attribute of God exercised toward undeserving human beings. We did not seek for it, but it was sent in search of us.
FLB	94	3	Divine grace is the great element of saving power; without it all human effort is unavailing.
FLB	94	4	Are you in Christ? Not if you do not acknowledge yourselves erring, helpless, condemned sinners. Not if you are exalting and glorifying self. If there is any good in you, it is wholly attributable to the mercy of a compassionate Saviour. Your birth, your reputation, your wealth, your talents, your virtues, your piety, your philanthropy, or anything else in you or connected with you, will not form a bond of union between your soul and Christ. Your connection with the church, the manner in which your brethren regard you, will be of no avail unless you believe in Christ. It is not enough to believe about Him; you must believe in Him. You must rely wholly upon His saving grace.
FLB	94	5	Would that you could conceive of the rich supplies of grace and power awaiting your demand.
FLB	94	6	In the matchless gift of His Son, God has encircled the whole world with an atmosphere of grace as real as the air which circulates around the globe. All who choose to breathe this life-giving atmosphere will live, and grow up to the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.
FLB	94	7	Christ ... died for us. He does not treat us according to our desert. Although our sins have merited condemnation, He does not condemn us. Year after year He has borne with our weakness and ignorance, with our ingratitude and waywardness. Notwithstanding our wanderings, ... His hand is stretched out still.
FLB	94	8	Through the grace of Christ we may accomplish everything that God requires.
------------------------Praying for a Larger Experience, March 30
FLB	95	1	I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Psalm 119:32.
FLB	95	2	The ten holy precepts spoken by Christ upon Sinai's mount ... made known to the world the fact that He had jurisdiction over the whole human heritage. That law of ten precepts of the greatest love that can be presented to man is the voice of God from heaven speaking to the soul in promise, "This do, and you will not come under the dominion and control of Satan." There is not a negative in that law, although it may appear thus. It is DO, and Live.
FLB	95	3	The God of heaven has placed a benediction upon them that keep the commandments of God. Shall we stand as a peculiar people of God, or shall we trample upon the law of God and say it is not binding? God might just as well have abolished Himself.
FLB	95	4	His law is the echo of His own voice, giving to all the invitation, "Come up higher. Be holy, holier still." Every day we may advance in perfection of Christian character.
FLB	95	5	As the stars tell us that there is a great light in heaven with whose glory they are made bright, so Christians are to make it manifest that there is a God on the throne of the universe whose character is worthy of praise and imitation.
FLB	95	6	The bright beams of heaven's light are shining upon your pathway, dear youth, and I pray that you may make the most of your opportunities. Receive and cherish every heaven-sent ray, and your path will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.
FLB	95	7	We gain ... strength by walking in the light, that we may have energy to run in the way of God's commandments. We may gain an increase of strength at every step we advance heavenward.
FLB	95	8	We need constantly a fresh revelation of Christ, a daily experience that harmonizes with His teachings. High and holy attainments are within our reach. Continual progress in knowledge and virtue is God's purpose for us.
------------------------The Saving Power of Jesus, March 31
FLB	96	1	And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.
FLB	96	2	Our precious Saviour has invited us to join ourselves to Him and unite our weakness with His strength, our ignorance with His wisdom, our unworthiness with His merit.
FLB	96	3	Rigid precision in obeying the law would entitle no man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
FLB	96	4	There must be a new birth, a new mind through the operation of the Spirit of God, which purifies the life and ennobles the character. This connection with God fits man for the glorious kingdom of heaven. No human invention can ever find a remedy for the sinning soul.
FLB	96	5	There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness.... The idea that it is necessary only to develop the good that exists in man by nature, is a fatal deception. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14.... Of Christ it is written, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men"--the only "name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." John 1:4; Acts 4:12....
FLB	96	6	Paul the apostle ... longed for the purity, the righteousness, to which in himself he was powerless to attain, and he cried out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?" Romans 7:24, margin. Such is the cry that has gone up from burdened hearts in all lands and in all ages. To all, there is but one answer, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29.
------------------------The Saviour of Men, April 1
FLB	97	1	But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5.
FLB	97	2	The blood of Christ is the eternal antidote for sin.
FLB	97	3	Christ's death on the cross was one of willing obedience, else in it there would have been no merit; for justice would not punish in the place of the sinner an innocent being who was unwilling to bear the penalty.
FLB	97	4	Jesus ... became a "Man of sorrows," that we might be made partakers of everlasting joy. God permitted His beloved Son, full of grace and truth, to come from a world of indescribable glory, to a world marred and blighted with sin, darkened with the shadow of death and the curse. He permitted Him to leave the bosom of His Love, the adoration of the angels, to suffer shame ... and death.
FLB	97	5	Behold the cross, and the Victim uplifted upon it.... Christ bore our sins in His own body. That suffering, that agony, is the price of your redemption.
FLB	97	6	The bitter cup was apportioned to us to drink. Our sins mingled it. But our dear Saviour took the cup from our lips and drank it Himself, and in its stead He presents to us a cup of ... salvation.
FLB	97	7	We cannot measure how much deeper our afflictions would have been, how much greater our woes, had not Jesus encircled us with His human arm of sympathy and love, and lifted us up.
FLB	97	8	We may rejoice in hope.... Through His [our Advocate's] merits we have pardon and peace. He died that He might wash away our sins, clothe us with His righteousness, and fit us for the society of heaven, where we may dwell in light forever.
------------------------The Sinner's Friend, April 2
FLB	98	1	A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24.
FLB	98	2	Jesus is the sinner's friend, His heart is ever open, ever touched with human woe; He has all power, both in heaven and upon earth.
FLB	98	3	In the person of Christ we behold the eternal God engaged in an enterprise of boundless mercy toward fallen man.
FLB	98	4	Christ came to this world to show that by receiving power from on high, man can live an unsullied life....
FLB	98	5	He could say to whom He pleased, "Follow Me," and the one addressed arose and followed Him. The spell of the world's enchantment was broken. At the sound of His voice the spirit of greed and ambition fled from the heart, and men arose, emancipated, to follow the Saviour....
FLB	98	6	He passed by no human being as worthless, but sought to apply the healing remedy to every soul.... He sought to inspire with hope the roughest and most unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character as would make them manifest as the children of God.
FLB	98	7	Often He met those who had drifted under Satan's control, and who had no power to break from his snare. To such a one, discouraged, sick, tempted, fallen, Jesus would speak words of tenderest pity, words that were needed and could be understood. Others He met who were fighting a hand-to-hand battle with the adversary of souls. These He encouraged to persevere, assuring them that they would win; for angels of God were on their side and would give them the victory.
FLB	98	8	The Sinless One pities the weakness of the sinner....
FLB	98	9	Men hate the sinner, while they love the sin. Christ hates the sin, but loves the sinner. This will be the spirit of all who follow Him. Christian love is slow to censure, quick to discern penitence, ready to forgive, to encourage, to set the wanderer in the path of holiness, and to stay his feet therein.
------------------------A Wellspring of Life, April 3
FLB	99	1	But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14.
FLB	99	2	Many are suffering from maladies of the soul far more than from diseases of the body, and they will find no relief until they come to Christ, the wellspring of life.... Christ is the mighty Healer of the sin-sick soul.
FLB	99	3	If we let go of Jesus we have nothing to hold on to.... Perpetual grace in ever-flowing streams is blessing those who will, if athirst, come unto Him and drink.
FLB	99	4	He who seeks to quench his thirst at the fountains of this world will drink only to thirst again. Everywhere men are unsatisfied. They long for something to supply the need of the soul. Only One can meet that want. The need of the world, "the desire of all nations," is Christ. The divine grace which He alone can impart, is as living water, purifying, refreshing, and invigorating the soul....
FLB	99	5	He who tastes of the love of Christ will continually long for more; but he seeks for nothing else. The riches, honors, and pleasures of the world do not attract him. The constant cry of his heart is, More of Thee. And He who reveals to the soul its necessity is waiting to satisfy its hunger and thirst. Every human resource and dependence will fail. The cisterns will be emptied, the pools become dry; but our Redeemer is an inexhaustible fountain. We may drink, and drink again, and ever find a fresh supply. He in whom Christ dwells has within himself the fountain of blessing--"a well of water springing up into everlasting life." From this source he may draw strength and grace sufficient for all his needs.
FLB	99	6	He who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life. The receiver becomes a giver. The grace of Christ in the soul is like a spring in the desert, welling up to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life.
------------------------My Guide and Pilot, April 4
FLB	100	1	I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Psalm 32:8.
FLB	100	2	Often the Christian life is beset with dangers, and duty seems hard to perform. The imagination pictures impending ruin before, and bondage and death behind. Yet the voice of God speaks clearly, Go forward.... Faith looks beyond the difficulties, and lays hold of the unseen, even Omnipotence, therefore it cannot be baffled. Faith is the clasping of the hand of Christ in every emergency.
FLB	100	3	Every ship sailing the sea of life needs to have the divine Pilot on board; but when storms arise, when tempests threaten, many persons push their Pilot overboard, and commit their bark into the hand of finite man, or try to steer it themselves. Then disaster and wreckage generally follow, and the Pilot is blamed for running them into such dangerous waters. Do not commit yourselves into the keeping of men, but say, "The Lord is my helper"; I will seek His counsel; I will be a doer of His will.... It is as impossible for us to receive qualification from man, without the divine enlightenment, as it was for the gods of Egypt to deliver those who trusted in them.... Do not trust yourself to men. Act under the divine Guide.
FLB	100	4	You have been chosen by Christ. You have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb. Plead before God the efficacy of that blood. Say unto Him: "I am Thine by creation; I am Thine by redemption. I respect human authority, and the advice of my brethren; but I cannot depend wholly upon these. I want Thee, O God, to teach me. I have covenanted with Thee to adopt the divine standard of character, and make Thee my counselor and guide--a party to every plan of my life; therefore teach me." Let the glory of the Lord be your first consideration.... Let every act of your life be sanctified by a holy endeavor to do the Lord's will, that your influence may not lead others into forbidden paths.
------------------------The Sacrificial Blood of Christ, April 5
FLB	101	1	Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1:18, 19.
FLB	101	2	Upon Christ as our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. He was counted a transgressor, that He might redeem us from the condemnation of the law.
FLB	101	3	Hating sin with a perfect hatred, He yet gathered to His soul the sins of the whole world. Guiltless, He bore the punishment of the guilty. Innocent, yet offering Himself as a substitute for the transgressor. The guilt of every sin pressed its weight upon the divine soul of the world's Redeemer. The evil thoughts, the evil words, the evil deeds of every son and daughter of Adam, called for retribution upon Himself; for He had become man's substitute.
FLB	101	4	Behold Him in the wilderness, in Gethsemane, upon the cross! The spotless Son of God took upon Himself the burden of sin. He who had been one with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that sin makes between God and man. This wrung from His lips the anguished cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46. It was the burden of sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of its separation of the soul from God--it was this that broke the heart of the Son of God.
FLB	101	5	"Ye know," says Peter, "that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold." 1 Peter 1:18. Oh, had these been sufficient to purchase the salvation of man, how easily it might have been accomplished by Him who says, "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine"! Haggai 2:8. But the sinner could be redeemed only by the precious blood of the Son of God.
FLB	101	6	By pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world, by giving us in Christ all heaven, God has purchased the will, the affections, the mind, the soul, of every human being.
------------------------Justified by His Blood, April 6
FLB	102	1	Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Romans 5:9.
FLB	102	2	God calls for faith in Christ as our atoning sacrifice. His blood is the only remedy for sin.
FLB	102	3	It is not God's will that you should be distrustful, and torture your soul with the fear that God will not accept you because you are sinful and unworthy.... You can say: "I know I am a sinner, and that is the reason I need a Saviour.... I have no merit or goodness whereby I may claim salvation, but I present before God the all-atoning blood of the spotless Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is my only plea."
FLB	102	4	God is approached through Jesus Christ, the Mediator, the only way through which He forgives sins. God cannot forgive sins at the expense of His justice, His holiness, and His truth. But He does forgive sins and that fully. There are no sins He will not forgive in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the sinner's only hope, and if he rests here in sincere faith, he is sure of pardon and that full and free. There is only one channel and that is accessible to all, and through that channel a rich and abundant forgiveness awaits the penitent, contrite soul and the darkest sins are forgiven. These lessons were taught to the chosen people of God thousands of years ago, and repeated in various symbols and figures, that the work of truth might be riveted in every heart, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.... Justice demanded the sufferings of man; but Christ rendered the sufferings of a God. He needed no atonement of suffering for Himself; all His sufferings were for us; all His merits and holiness were open to fallen man, presented as a gift.
FLB	102	5	Christ calls upon us to lay our sins upon Him, the Sin-Bearer.... But if we refuse to let them go, taking the responsibility ourselves, we will be lost. We may fall upon Christ, the living stone, and be broken, but if that Stone falls upon us, it will grind us to powder.
------------------------Peace Through the Cross, April 7
FLB	103	1	There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1.
FLB	103	2	If sinners can be led to give one earnest look at the cross, if they can obtain a full view of the crucified Saviour, they will realize the depth of God's compassion and the sinfulness of sin.
FLB	103	3	As your conscience has been quickened by the Holy Spirit, you have seen something of the evil of sin, of its power, its guilt, its woe; and you look upon it with abhorrence.... You long to be forgiven, to be cleansed, to be set free. Harmony with God, likeness to Him--what can you do to obtain it?
FLB	103	4	It is peace that you need--Heaven's forgiveness and peace and love in the soul. Money cannot buy it, intellect cannot procure it, wisdom cannot attain to it; you can never hope, by your own efforts, to secure it. But God offers it to you as a gift, "without money and without price." Isaiah 55:1....
FLB	103	5	Go to Him, and ask that He will wash away your sins, and give you a new heart. Then believe that He does this because He has promised .... It is our privilege to go to Jesus and be cleansed, and to stand before the law without shame or remorse.
FLB	103	6	When at the foot of the cross the sinner looks up to the One who died to save him, he may rejoice with fullness of joy; for his sins are pardoned. Kneeling in faith at the cross, he has reached the highest place to which man can attain.
FLB	103	7	Thank God for the gift of His dear Son, and pray that He may not have died for you in vain. The spirit invites you today. Come with your whole heart to Jesus, and you may claim His blessing.
FLB	103	8	As you read the promises, remember they are the expression of unutterable love and pity.... Yes, only believe that God is your helper. He wants to restore His moral image in man. As you draw near to Him with confession and repentance, He will draw near to you with mercy and forgiveness.
------------------------A Glorious Substitution, April 8
FLB	104	1	Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Galatians 3:13.
FLB	104	2	It is the province of the law to condemn, but there is in it no power to pardon or to redeem.
FLB	104	3	Without Christ the law of itself was only condemnation and death to the transgressor. It has no saving quality--no power to shield the transgressor from its penalty....
FLB	104	4	The transgression of God's law made the death of Christ essential to save man and yet maintain the dignity and honor of the law. Christ took upon Himself the condemnation of sin. He opened His bosom to the woes of man. He who knew no sin became sin for us.
FLB	104	5	As man's substitute and surety, the iniquity of men was laid upon Christ; He was counted a transgressor that He might redeem them from the curse of the law.... He, the Sin-Bearer, endures judicial punishment for iniquity and becomes sin itself for man.
FLB	104	6	Sin, so hateful to His sight, was heaped upon Him till He groaned beneath its weight. The despairing agony of the Son of God was so much greater than His physical pain, that the latter was hardly felt by Him.
FLB	104	7	God permits His Son to be delivered up for our offenses. He Himself assumes toward the Sin-Bearer the character of a judge, divesting Himself of the endearing qualities of a father.
FLB	104	8	Herein His love commends itself in the most marvelous manner to the rebellious race.
FLB	104	9	The sin of the whole world was laid upon Jesus, and divinity gave its highest value to the suffering of humanity in Jesus, that the whole world might be pardoned through faith in the Substitute. The most guilty need have no fear that God will not pardon, for because of the efficacy of the divine sacrifice the penalty of the law will be remitted. Through Christ the sinner may return to allegiance to God.
------------------------A Perfect Atonement, April 9
FLB	105	1	And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Romans 5:11.
FLB	105	2	The infinite sufficiency of Christ is demonstrated by His bearing the sins of the whole world. He occupies the double position of offerer and of offering, of priest and of victim.
FLB	105	3	In the atonement made for him the believer sees such breadth, and length, and height, and depth of efficiency--sees such completeness of salvation, purchased at such infinite cost, that his soul is filled with praise and thanksgiving. He sees as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and is changed into the same image as by the Spirit of the Lord.
FLB	105	4	The great High Priest has made the only sacrifice that will be of any value. The incense that is offered now by men, the masses that are said for the deliverance of souls from purgatory, are not of the least avail with God. All the altars and sacrifices, the traditions and inventions whereby men hope to earn salvation, are fallacies.... Christ is the only sin-bearer, the only sin-offering....
FLB	105	5	Priests and rulers have no right to interpose between Christ and the souls for whom He has died, as though invested with the Saviour's attributes, and able to pardon transgression and sin. They themselves are sinners. They are only human.
FLB	105	6	Prayer and confession are to be offered only to Him who has entered once for all into the holy place. Christ has declared, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John 2:1. He will save to the uttermost all who come to Him in faith.
FLB	105	7	The Elder Brother of our race is by the eternal throne. He looks upon every soul who is turning his face toward Him as the Saviour.
FLB	105	8	The heaviest burden that we bear is the burden of sin.... He will take the load from our weary shoulders. He will give us rest. The burden of care and sorrow also He will bear. He invites us to cast all our care upon Him; for He carries us upon His heart.
------------------------Type Meets Antitype, April 10
FLB	106	1	But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:13.
FLB	106	2	God's people, whom He calls His peculiar treasure, were privileged with a twofold system of law; the moral and ceremonial....
FLB	106	3	From the creation the moral law was an essential part of God's divine plan, and was as unchangeable as Himself. The ceremonial law was to answer a particular purpose in Christ's plan for the salvation of the race. The typical system of sacrifices and offerings was established that through these services the sinner might discern the great offering, Christ.... The ceremonial law was glorious; it was the provision made by Jesus Christ in counsel with His Father, to aid in the salvation of the race. The whole arrangement of the typical system was founded on Christ. Adam saw Christ prefigured in the innocent beast suffering the penalty of his transgression of Jehovah's law.
FLB	106	4	The need for the service of sacrifices and offerings ceased when type met antitype in the death of Christ. In Him the shadow reached the substance.... The law of God will maintain its exalted character as long as the throne of Jehovah endures. This law is the expression of God's character.... Types and shadows, offerings and sacrifices, had no virtue after Christ's death on the cross; but God's law was not crucified with Christ.... Today he [Satan] is deceiving human beings in regard to the law of God.
FLB	106	5	The law of the ten commandments lives and will live through the eternal ages....
FLB	106	6	God did not make the infinite sacrifice of giving His only-begotten Son to our world, to secure for man the privilege of breaking the commandments of God in this life and in the future eternal life.
FLB	106	7	He [Jesus] gave His precious, innocent life to save guilty human beings from eternal ruin, that through faith in Him they might stand guiltless before the throne of God.
------------------------Redemption and Forgiveness, April 11
FLB	107	1	In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Ephesians 1:7.
FLB	107	2	The grace of Christ is freely to justify the sinner without merit or claim on his part. Justification is a full, complete pardon of sin. The moment a sinner accepts Christ by faith, that moment he is pardoned. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to him, and he is no more to doubt God's forgiving grace.
FLB	107	3	There is nothing in faith that makes it our saviour. Faith cannot remove our guilt. Christ is the power of God unto salvation to all them that believe. The justification comes through the merits of Jesus Christ. He has paid the price for the sinner's redemption. Yet it is only through faith in His blood that Jesus can justify the believer.
FLB	107	4	The sinner cannot depend upon his own good works as a means of justification. He must come to the point where he will renounce all his sin, and embrace one degree of light after another as it shines upon his pathway. He simply grasps by faith the free and ample provision made in the blood of Christ. He believes the promises of God, which through Christ are made unto him sanctification and righteousness and redemption. And if he follows Jesus, he will walk humbly in the light, rejoicing in the light and diffusing that light to others.
FLB	107	5	Let the repenting sinner fix his eyes upon "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." ... When we see Jesus, a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, working to save the lost, slighted, scorned, derided, driven from city to city till His mission was accomplished; when we behold Him in Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood, and on the cross dying in agony--when we see this, self will no longer clamor to be recognized. Looking unto Jesus, we shall be ashamed of our coldness, our lethargy, our self-seeking. We shall be willing to be anything or nothing, so that we may do heart service for the Master. We shall rejoice to bear the cross after Jesus, to endure trial, shame, or persecution for His dear sake.
------------------------Self-righteousness Insufficient, April 12
FLB	108	1	For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20.
FLB	108	2	The greatest deception of the human mind in Christ's day was that a mere assent to the truth constitutes righteousness. In all human experience a theoretical knowledge of the truth has been proved to be insufficient for the saving of the soul. It does not bring forth the fruits of righteousness.... The Pharisees claimed to be children of Abraham, and boasted of their possession of the oracles of God; yet these advantages did not preserve them from selfishness, malignity, greed for gain, and the basest hypocrisy....
FLB	108	3	The same danger still exists. Many take it for granted that they are Christians, simply because they subscribe to certain theological tenets. But they have not brought the truth into practical life. They have not believed and loved it, therefore they have not received the power and grace that come through sanctification of the truth. Men may profess faith in the truth; but if it does not make them sincere, kind, patient, forbearing, heavenly-minded, it is a curse to its possessors, and through their influence it is a curse to the world.
FLB	108	4	The righteousness which Christ taught is conformity of heart and life to the revealed will of God. Sinful men can become righteous only as they have faith in God and maintain a vital connection with Him. Then true godliness will elevate the thoughts and ennoble the life. Then the external forms of religion accord with the Christian's internal purity. Then the ceremonies required in the service of God are not meaningless rites, like those of the hypocritical Pharisees.
FLB	108	5	Salvation is God's free gift to the believer, given to him for Christ's sake alone. The troubled soul may find peace through faith in Christ, and his peace will be in proportion to his faith and trust. He cannot present his good works as a plea for the salvation of his soul.
------------------------Filled With His Righteousness, April 13
FLB	109	1	Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6.
FLB	109	2	Righteousness is holiness, likeness to God, and "God is love." 1 John 4:16. It is conformity to the law of God, for "all thy commandments are righteousness" (Psalm 119:172), and "love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:10). Righteousness is love, and love is the light and the life of God. The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him.
FLB	109	3	Not by painful struggles or wearisome toil, not by gift or sacrifice, is righteousness obtained; but it is freely given to every soul who hungers and thirsts to receive it. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat;... without money and without price." Isaiah 55:1. "Their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord," and, "This is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our righteousness." Isaiah 54:17; Jeremiah 23:6.
FLB	109	4	No human agent can supply that which will satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul. But Jesus says, ... "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." John 6:35....
FLB	109	5	The more we know of God, the higher will be our ideal of character and the more earnest our longing to reflect His likeness. A divine element combines with the human when the soul reaches out after God and the longing heart can say, "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him." Psalm 62:5....
FLB	109	6	The continual cry of the heart is, "More of Thee," and ever the Spirit's answer is, "Much more." Romans 5:9, 10.... It was the good pleasure of the Father that in Christ should "all the fulness dwell," and "in him ye are made full." Colossians 1:19, R.V.; 2:10, R.V.
FLB	109	7	Christ is the great depository of justifying righteousness and sanctifying grace.
FLB	109	8	All may come to Him, and receive of His fullness.
------------------------The First Steps in Justification, April 14
FLB	110	1	Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. Acts 5:31.
FLB	110	2	Many are confused as to what constitutes the first steps in the work of salvation. Repentance is thought to be a work the sinner must do for himself in order that he may come to Christ. They think that the sinner must procure himself a fitness in order to obtain the blessing of God's grace. But while it is true that repentance must precede forgiveness, for it is only the broken and contrite heart that is acceptable to God, yet the sinner cannot bring himself to repentance, or prepare himself to come to Christ.... The very first step to Christ is taken through the drawing of the Spirit of God; as man responds to this drawing, he advances toward Christ in order that he may repent....
FLB	110	3	When before the high priests and Sadducees, Peter clearly presented the fact that repentance is the gift of God. Speaking of Christ, he said, "Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." Repentance is no less the gift of God than are pardon and justification, and it cannot be experienced except as it is given to the soul by Christ. If we are drawn to Christ, it is through His power and virtue. The grace of contrition comes through Him, and from Him comes justification.
FLB	110	4	Who is desirous of becoming truly repentant? What must he do? He must come to Jesus, just as he is, without delay. He must believe that the word of Christ is true, and, believing the promise, ask, that he may receive. When sincere desire prompts men to pray, they will not pray in vain. The Lord will fulfill His word, and will give the Holy Spirit to lead to repentance.... With prayer he [the repentant sinner] will mingle faith, and not only believe in but obey the precepts of the law.... He will renounce all habits and associations that tend to draw the heart from God.
------------------------The Righteousness of Christ Sufficient, April 15
FLB	111	1	But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference. Romans 3:21, 22.
FLB	111	2	What is justification by faith? It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself. When men see their own nothingness, they are prepared to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
FLB	111	3	Those whom heaven recognizes as holy ones are the last to parade their own goodness. The apostle Peter became a faithful minister of Christ, and he was greatly honored with divine light and power; he had an active part in the upbuilding of Christ's church; but Peter never forgot the fearful experience of his humiliation; his sin was forgiven; yet well he knew that for the weakness of character which had caused his fall only the grace of Christ could avail. He found in himself nothing in which to glory.
FLB	111	4	None of the apostles or prophets ever claimed to be without sin. Men who have lived nearest to God, men who would sacrifice life itself rather than knowingly commit a wrong act, men whom God had honored with divine light and power, have confessed the sinfulness of their own nature. They have put no confidence in the flesh, have claimed no righteousness of their own, but have trusted wholly in the righteousness of Christ. So will it be with all who behold Christ.
FLB	111	5	The righteousness of Christ, as a pure white pearl, has no defect, no stain, no guilt. This righteousness may be ours. Salvation, with its blood-bought, inestimable treasures, is the pearl of great price.
FLB	111	6	The thought that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, not because of any merit on our part, but as a free gift from God, is a precious thought. The enemy of God and man is not willing that this truth should be clearly presented; for he knows that if the people receive it fully, his power will be broken.
------------------------His Righteousness Obtained by Faith, April 16
FLB	112	1	But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Romans 4:5.
FLB	112	2	The faith that is unto salvation is not a casual faith, it is not the mere consent of the intellect, it is belief rooted in the heart, that embraces Christ as a personal Saviour, assured that He can save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him....
FLB	112	3	The perishing sinner may say: "I am a lost sinner; but Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. He says, 'I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' I am a sinner, and He died upon Calvary's cross to save me. I need not remain a moment longer unsaved. He died and rose again for my justification, and He will save me now. I accept the forgiveness He has promised." ...
FLB	112	4	The great work that is wrought for the sinner who is spotted and stained by evil is the work of justification. By Him who speaketh truth he is declared righteous. The Lord imputes unto the believer the righteousness of Christ and pronounces him righteous before the universe. He transfers his sins to Jesus, the sinner's representative, substitute, and surety. Upon Christ He lays the iniquity of every soul that believeth. "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Corinthians 5:21....
FLB	112	5	Through repentance and faith we are rid of sin, and look unto the Lord our righteousness. Jesus suffered, the just for the unjust....
FLB	112	6	Having made us righteous through the imputed righteousness of Christ, God pronounces us just, and treats us as just. He looks upon us as His dear children. Christ works against the power of sin, and where sin abounded, grace much more abounds. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Romans 5:1, 2.
FLB	112	7	God has made ample provision that we may stand perfect in His grace, wanting in nothing, waiting for the appearing of our Lord.
------------------------Clothed in His Righteousness, April 17
FLB	113	1	I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10.
FLB	113	2	Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet to appear in God's presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul. "I counsel thee," He says, "to buy of me ... white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed...." Revelation 3:18.
FLB	113	3	This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of human devising. Christ in His humanity wrought out a perfect character, and this character He offers to impart to us. "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Isaiah 64:6. Everything that we of ourselves can do is defiled by sin. But the Son of God "was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin." Sin is defined to be "the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:5, 4. But Christ was obedient to every requirement of the law....
FLB	113	4	By His perfect obedience He has made it possible for every human being to obey God's commandments. When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then as the Lord looks upon us He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the nakedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah.
FLB	113	5	Those who ... accept of Christ are looked upon by God, not as they are in Adam, but as they are in Jesus Christ, as the sons and daughters of God.
FLB	113	6	We are not to be anxious about what Christ and God think of us, but about what God thinks of Christ, our Substitute.
------------------------Proving the Will of God, April 18
FLB	114	1	And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2.
FLB	114	2	Christ came to the world to counteract Satan's falsehood that God had made a law which men could not keep. Taking humanity upon Himself, He came to this earth, and by a life of obedience showed that God has not made a law that man cannot keep. He showed that it is possible for man perfectly to obey the law. Those who accept Christ as their Saviour, becoming partakers of His divine nature, are enabled to follow His example, living in obedience to every precept of the law. Through the merits of Christ, man is to show by his obedience that he could be trusted in heaven, that he would not rebel.
FLB	114	3	In all His Godlike deeds, the world's Redeemer declares, "I can of mine own self do nothing." "This commandment have I received of my Father." John 5:30; 10:18. All I do is in fulfillment of the counsel and will of My heavenly Father. The history of the daily earthly life of Jesus is the exact record of the fulfillment of the purposes of God toward man. His life and character were the unfolding or representation of the perfection of the character that man may attain by becoming a partaker of the divine nature, and overcoming the world through daily conflicts.
FLB	114	4	The youth need to keep ever before them the course that Christ followed.... In the study of His life we shall learn how much God through Him will do for His children. And we shall learn that, however great our trials may be, they cannot exceed what Christ endured.
FLB	114	5	Those who walk even as Christ walked, who are patient, gentle, kind, meek and lowly in heart, those who yoke up with Christ and lift His burdens, who yearn for souls as He yearned for them--these will enter into the joy of their Lord. They will see with Christ the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. Heaven will triumph, for the vacancies made in heaven by the fall of Satan and his angels will be filled by the redeemed of the Lord.
------------------------Faith Demonstrated by Works, April 19
FLB	115	1	Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. James 2:18.
FLB	115	2	The part man has to act in the salvation of the soul is to believe on Jesus Christ as a perfect Redeemer, not for some other man, but for his own self.
FLB	115	3	Christ imputes His perfection and righteousness to the believing sinner when he does not continue in sin, but turns from transgression to obedience of the commandments.
FLB	115	4	While God can be just, and yet justify the sinner through the merits of Christ, no man can cover his soul with the garments of Christ's righteousness while practicing known sins, or neglecting known duties.
FLB	115	5	The apostle James saw that dangers would arise in presenting the subject of justification by faith, and he labored to show that genuine faith cannot exist without corresponding works. The experience of Abraham is presented. "Seest thou," he says, "how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?" James 2:22. Thus genuine faith does a genuine work in the believer. Faith and obedience bring a solid, valuable experience.
FLB	115	6	Faith and works are two oars which we must use equally if we [would] press our way up the stream against the current of unbelief.
FLB	115	7	The so-called faith that does not work by love and purify the soul will not justify any man. "Ye see," says the apostle, "how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." James 2:24. Abraham believed God. How do we know that he believed? His works testified to the character of his faith, and his faith was accounted to him for righteousness. We need the faith of Abraham in our day, to lighten the darkness that gathers around us, shutting out the sweet sunlight of God's love, and dwarfing spiritual growth. Our faith should be prolific of good works; for faith without works is dead.
------------------------Sanctification the Work of a Lifetime, April 20
FLB	116	1	And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. John 17:19.
FLB	116	2	The righteousness by which we are justified is imputed; the righteousness by which we are sanctified is imparted. The first is our title to heaven, the second is our fitness for heaven.
FLB	116	3	Many commit the error of trying to define minutely the fine points of distinction between justification and sanctification. Into the definitions of these two terms they often bring their own ideas and speculations. Why try to be more minute than is Inspiration on the vital question of righteousness by faith?
FLB	116	4	As the penitent sinner, contrite before God, discerns Christ's atonement in his behalf, and accepts this atonement as his only hope in this life and the future life, his sins are pardoned. This is justification by faith.
FLB	116	5	Sanctification is not the work of a moment, an hour, a day, but of a lifetime. It is not gained by a happy flight of feeling, but is the result of constantly dying to sin, and constantly living for Christ. Wrongs cannot be righted nor reformations wrought in the character by feeble, intermittent efforts. It is only by long, persevering effort, sore discipline, and stern conflict, that we shall overcome.
FLB	116	6	It [sanctification] is not merely a theory, an emotion, or a form of words, but a living, active principle, entering into the everyday life. It requires that our habits of eating, drinking, and dressing be such as to secure the preservation of physical, mental, and moral health, that we may present to the Lord our bodies--not an offering corrupted by wrong habits but--"a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."
FLB	116	7	The Scriptures are the great agency in the transformation of character.... If studied and obeyed, the Word of God works in the heart, subduing every unholy attribute.
FLB	116	8	There is no such thing as instantaneous sanctification. True sanctification is a daily work, continuing as long as life shall last.
------------------------A Hatred of Sin, April 21
FLB	117	1	Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Hebrews 1:9.
FLB	117	2	When in conversion the sinner finds peace with God through the blood of the atonement, the Christian life has but just begun.
FLB	117	3	The grace that Christ implants in the soul ... creates in man enmity against Satan. Without this converting grace and renewing power, man would continue the captive of Satan, a servant ever ready to do his bidding. But the new principle in the soul creates conflict where hitherto had been peace. The power which Christ imparts, enables man to resist the tyrant and usurper. Whoever is seen to abhor sin instead of loving it, whoever resists and conquers those passions that have held sway within, displays the operation of a principle wholly from above.
FLB	117	4	Conformity to the world and harmony with Christ cannot be maintained. Worldly maxims and worldly practices sap spirituality from heart and life. Conformity to the world means resemblance to the world in meeting the world's standard.... No man can serve the world and Jesus Christ at the same time. There is an irreconcilable antagonism, between Christ and the world.
FLB	117	5	How few can say: "I am dead to the world; the life I now live is by faith in the Son of God!" ... While those around us may be vain and engaged in pleasure-seeking and folly, our conversation is in heaven, whence we look for the Saviour; the soul is reaching out after God for pardon and peace, for righteousness and true holiness. Converse with God and contemplation of things above transform the soul into the likeness of Christ.
FLB	117	6	Let your heart be softened and melted under the divine influence of the Spirit of God. You should not talk so much about yourself, for this will strengthen no one.... Talk of Jesus, and let self go; let it be submerged in Christ.
------------------------"If Any Man Sin--", April 22
FLB	118	1	If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1.
FLB	118	2	When we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we shall have no relish for sin; for Christ will be working with us. We may make mistakes, but we will hate the sin that caused the suffering of the Son of God.
FLB	118	3	If one who daily communes with God errs from the path, if he turns a moment from looking steadfastly unto Jesus, it is not because he sins willfully; for when he sees his mistake, he turns again, and fastens his eyes upon Jesus, and the fact that he has erred does not make him less dear to the heart of God. He knows that he has communion with the Saviour; and when reproved for his mistake in some matter of judgment, he does not walk sullenly, and complain of God, but turns the mistake into a victory.
FLB	118	4	There are those who have known the pardoning love of Christ, and who really desire to be children of God, yet they realize that their character is imperfect, their life faulty, and they are ready to doubt whether their hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. To such I would say, Do not draw back in despair. We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes; but we are not to be discouraged. Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, not forsaken and rejected of God. No; Christ is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Said the beloved John, "These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." And do not forget the words of Christ, "The Father himself loveth you." John 16:27. He desires to restore you to Himself, to see His own purity and holiness reflected in you. And if you will but yield yourself to Him, He that hath begun a good work in you will carry it forward to the day of Jesus Christ.
FLB	118	5	All sin ... may be overcome by the Holy Spirit's power.
------------------------The Test of Character, April 23
FLB	119	1	And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Malachi 3:3.
FLB	119	2	Many who profess sanctification are entirely ignorant of the work of grace upon the heart.... They lay aside reason and judgment, and depend wholly upon their feelings, basing their claims to sanctification upon emotions which they have at some time experienced....
FLB	119	3	Bible sanctification does not consist in strong emotion. Here is where many are led into error. They make feelings their criterion. When they feel elated or happy, they claim that they are sanctified. Happy feelings or the absence of joy is no evidence that a person is or is not sanctified.... Those who are battling with daily temptations, overcoming their own sinful tendencies, and seeking for holiness of heart and life, make no boastful claims of holiness. They are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Sin appears to them exceedingly sinful.
FLB	119	4	In summer, as we look upon the trees of the distant forest, all clothed with a beautiful mantle of green, we may not be able to distinguish between the evergreens and the other trees. But as winter approaches, and the frost king encloses them in his icy embrace, stripping the other trees of their beautiful foliage, the evergreens are readily discerned. Thus it will be with all who are walking in humility, distrustful of self, but clinging tremblingly to the hand of Christ. While those who are self-confident, and trust in their own perfection of character, lose their false robe of righteousness when subjected to the storms of trial, the truly righteous, who sincerely love and fear God, wear the robe of Christ's righteousness in prosperity and adversity alike.
FLB	119	5	It requires the testing time to reveal the pure gold of love and faith in the character. When trials and perplexities come upon the church, then the steadfast zeal and warm affections of Christ's true followers are developed.
------------------------The Ladder to Perfection, April 24
FLB	120	1	According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. 2 Peter 1:3.
FLB	120	2	Jesus is the ladder to heaven, ... and God calls upon us to mount this ladder. But we cannot do this while we load ourselves down with earthly treasures. We wrong ourselves when we place our convenience and personal advantages before the things of God. There is no salvation in earthly possessions or surroundings. A man is not exalted in God's sight, or accredited by Him as possessing goodness, because he has earthly riches. If we gain a genuine experience in climbing, ... we must leave every hindrance behind. Those who mount must place their feet firmly on every round of the ladder.
FLB	120	3	We are saved by climbing round after round of the ladder, looking to Christ, clinging to Christ, mounting step by step to the height of Christ, so that He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity are the rounds of this ladder.
FLB	120	4	Courage, fortitude, faith, and implicit trust in God's power to save are needed. These heavenly graces do not come in a moment; they are acquired by the experience of years. But every sincere and earnest seeker will become a partaker of the divine nature. His soul will be filled with intense longing to know the fullness of that love which passes knowledge. As he advances in the divine life, he will be better able to grasp the elevated, ennobling truths of the Word of God, until, by beholding, he becomes changed, and is enabled to reflect the likeness of his Redeemer.
FLB	120	5	Child of God, angels are watching the character you develop, they are weighing your words and actions; therefore take heed to your ways, ... prove whether you are in the love of God.
FLB	120	6	To love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves is genuine sanctification.
------------------------Joy and Peace in the Holy Ghost, April 25
FLB	121	1	For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Romans 14:17.
FLB	121	2	The promises are, "A new heart will I give you"; "I will put my Spirit within you." This provision is made for us through the merit of Christ's righteousness: "And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever." Isaiah 32:17. Those who experience the change spoken of in these words will find that their restlessness and disquietude are all taken away, and they will find rest unto their souls in Christ. His merit, His righteousness, are imputed to the believing soul, and the believer has inward peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
FLB	121	3	The Lord would have all His sons and daughters happy, peaceful, and obedient....
FLB	121	4	Happiness that is sought from selfish motives, outside of the path of duty, is ill-balanced, fitful, and transitory; it passes away, and the soul is filled with loneliness and sorrow; but there is joy and satisfaction in the service of God; the Christian is not left to walk in uncertain paths; he is not left to vain regrets and disappointments. If we do not have the pleasures of this life, we may still be joyful in looking to the life beyond.
FLB	121	5	But even here Christians may have the joy of communion with Christ; they may have the light of His love, the perpetual comfort of His presence. Every step in life may bring us closer to Jesus, may give us a deeper experience of His love, and may bring us one step nearer to the blessed home of peace.
FLB	121	6	There is peace in believing, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Believing brings peace, and trusting in God brings joy. Believe, believe! my soul says, believe. Rest in God. He is able to keep that which you have committed to His trust. He will bring you off more than conqueror through Him who hath loved you.
------------------------What Is Faith? April 26
FLB	122	1	Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.
FLB	122	2	It is not essential to the exercise of faith that the feelings should be wrought up to a high pitch of excitement; neither is it necessary, in order to gain the hearing of the Lord, that our petitions should be noisy, or attended with physical exercise.
FLB	122	3	It is true that Satan frequently creates in the heart of the suppliant such a conflict with doubt and temptation that strong cries and tears are involuntarily forced from him; and it is also true that the penitent's sense of guilt is sometimes so great that a repentance commensurate with his sin causes him to experience an agony that finds vent in cries and groans, which the compassionate Saviour hears with pity. But Jesus does not fail to answer the silent prayer of faith. He who simply takes God at His word, and reaches out to connect himself with the Saviour, will receive His blessing in return.
FLB	122	4	Faith is not feeling.... True faith is in no sense allied to presumption. Only he who has true faith is secure against presumption, for presumption is Satan's counterfeit of faith.
FLB	122	5	Faith claims God's promises, and brings forth fruit in obedience. Presumption also claims the promises, but uses them as Satan did, to excuse transgression. Faith would have led our first parents to trust the love of God and to obey His commands. Presumption led them to transgress His law, believing that His great love would save them from the consequences of their sin. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions on which mercy is to be granted. Genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures.
FLB	122	6	To abide in faith is to put aside feeling and selfish desires, to walk humbly with the Lord, to appropriate His promises, and apply them to all occasions, believing that God will work out His own plans and purposes in your heart and life.
------------------------Faith Comes Through the Promises, April 27
FLB	123	1	So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17.
FLB	123	2	The truths of the Word of God meet man's great practical necessity--the conversion of the soul through faith. These grand principles are not to be thought too pure and holy to be brought into the daily life. They are truths which reach to heaven and compass eternity, yet their vital influence is to be woven into human experience. They are to permeate all the great things and all the little things of life.
FLB	123	3	How far we come from representing the character of Christ! But we must lay hold of His merits by living faith, and claim Him as our Saviour. He died on Calvary to save us. Each should make it a personal work between God and his own soul, as though there were no one in the world but himself. When we exercise personal faith, our hearts will not be as cold as an iron wedge; we shall be able to realize what is meant by the psalmist when he says, "Blessed is he ... whose sin is covered." Psalm 32:1.
FLB	123	4	God invites us to prove for ourselves the reality of His Word, the truth of His promises. He bids us "taste and see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8.... He declares, "Ask, and ye shall receive." John 16:24. His promises will be fulfilled. They have never failed; they never can fail.
FLB	123	5	Our Saviour wants you to keep in close relation to Himself, that He may make you happy. When Christ lets His blessing rest upon us, we should offer thanksgiving and praise to His dear name. But, you say, if I could only know that He is my Saviour! Well, what kind of evidence do you want? Do you want a special feeling or emotion to prove that Christ is yours? Is this more reliable than pure faith in God's promises? Would it not be better to take the blessed promises of God and apply them to yourself, bearing your whole weight upon them? This is faith.
------------------------The Good Fight of Faith, April 28
FLB	124	1	Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12.
FLB	124	2	The earnest counsel given by the apostle Paul to Timothy, that he might not fail in doing his duty, should be set before the youth of today: "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12. Besetting sins must be battled with and overcome. Objectionable traits of character, whether hereditary or cultivated, should be taken up separately, and compared with the great rule of righteousness; and in the light reflected from the Word of God, they should be firmly resisted and overcome, through the strength of Christ....
FLB	124	3	Day by day, and hour by hour, there must be a vigorous process of self-denial and of sanctification going on within; and then the outward works will testify that Jesus is abiding in the heart by faith. Sanctification does not close the avenues of the soul to knowledge, but it comes to expand the mind, and to inspire it to search for truth, as for hidden treasure; and the knowledge of God's will advances the work of sanctification. There is a heaven, and O, how earnestly we should strive to reach it. I appeal to you ... to believe in Jesus as your Saviour. Believe that He is ready to help you by His grace, when you come to Him in sincerity. You must fight the good fight of faith. You must be wrestlers for the crown of life. Strive, for the grasp of Satan is upon you; and if you do not wrench yourselves from him, you will be palsied and ruined. The foe is on the right hand, and on the left, before you, and behind you; and you must trample him under your feet. Strive, for there is a crown to be won.
FLB	124	4	Soon we shall witness the coronation of our King. Those whose lives have been hidden with Christ, those who on this earth have fought the good fight of faith, will shine forth with the Redeemer's glory in the kingdom of God.
------------------------The Just Shall Live by Faith, April 29
FLB	125	1	As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Colossians 2:6.
FLB	125	2	Our growth in grace, our joy, our usefulness--all depend upon our union with Christ. It is by communion with Him, daily, hourly--by abiding in Him--that we are to grow in grace. He is not only the author, but the finisher of our faith. It is Christ first and last and always. He is to be with us, not only at the beginning and the end of our course, but at every step of the way....
FLB	125	3	Do you ask, "How am I to abide in Christ?" In the same way as you received Him at first. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." Colossians 2:6. "The just shall live by faith." Hebrews 10:38. You gave yourself to God, to be His wholly, to serve and obey Him, and you took Christ as your Saviour. You could not yourself atone for your sins or change your heart; but having given yourself to God, you believe that He for Christ's sake did all this for you. By faith you became Christ's, and by faith you are to grow up in Him--by giving and taking. You are to give all--your heart, your will, your service--give yourself to Him to obey all His requirements; and you must take all--Christ, the fullness of all blessing, to abide in your heart, to be your strength, your righteousness, your everlasting helper--to give you power to obey.
FLB	125	4	Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be, "Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee." This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ.
------------------------Faith Is the Victory, April 30
FLB	126	1	For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John 5:4.
FLB	126	2	The Christian's life should be one of faith, of victory, and joy in God. "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." Truly spake God's servant Nehemiah, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." Nehemiah 8:10. And Paul says: "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." Philippians 4:4. "Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks...." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
FLB	126	3	God is able and willing to bestow upon His servants all the strength they need, and to give them the wisdom that their varied necessities demand. He will more than fulfill the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him.
FLB	126	4	Jesus does not call on us to follow Him, and then forsake us. If we surrender our lives to His service, we can never be placed in a position for which God has not made provision. Whatever may be our situation, we have a Guide to direct our way; whatever our perplexities, we have a sure Counselor; whatever our sorrow, bereavement, or loneliness, we have a sympathizing Friend. If in our ignorance we make missteps, Christ does not leave us.... "He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper." Psalm 72:12.
FLB	126	5	Faith ... enables us to look beyond the present, with its burdens and cares, to the great hereafter, where all that now perplexes us shall be made plain. Faith sees Jesus standing as our Mediator at the right hand of God. Faith beholds the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him. Faith sees the robe and crown prepared for the overcomer, and hears the song of the redeemed.
FLB	126	6	We may claim much of our kind heavenly Father.... We may believe in God, we may trust Him, and by so doing glorify His name.
FLB	126	7	The strength of those who, in faith, love and serve God, will be renewed day by day.
------------------------True Sorrow for Sin, May 1
FLB	127	1	Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 3:19.
FLB	127	2	The conditions of obtaining mercy of God are simple and just and reasonable. The Lord does not require us to do some grievous thing in order that we may have the forgiveness of sin. We need not make long and wearisome pilgrimages, or perform painful penances, to commend our souls to the God of heaven or to expiate our transgression; but he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy.
FLB	127	3	Repentance includes sorrow for sin, and a turning away from it. We shall not renounce sin unless we see its sinfulness; until we turn away from it in heart, there will be no real change in the life.
FLB	127	4	One ray of the glory of God, one gleam of the purity of Christ, penetrating the soul, makes every spot of defilement painfully distinct, and lays bare the deformity and defects of the human character. It makes apparent the unhallowed desires, the infidelity of the heart, the impurity of the lips. The sinner's acts of disloyalty in making void the law of God, are exposed to his sight, and his spirit is stricken and afflicted under the searching influence of the Spirit of God.
FLB	127	5	The tears of the penitent are only the raindrops that precede the sunshine of holiness. This sorrow heralds a joy which will be a living fountain in the soul. "Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God"; "and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord." Jeremiah 3:13, 12. "Unto them that mourn in Zion," He has appointed to give "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Isaiah 61:3.
------------------------Sincere Confession Essential, May 2
FLB	128	1	If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9.
FLB	128	2	The apostle says, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." James 5:16. Confess your sins to God, who only can forgive them, and your faults to one another. If you have given offense to your friend or neighbor, you are to acknowledge your wrong, and it is his duty freely to forgive you. Then you are to seek the forgiveness of God, because the brother you have wounded is the property of God, and in injuring him you have sinned against his Creator....
FLB	128	3	True confession is always of a specific character, and acknowledges particular sins. They may be of such a nature as to be brought before God only; they may be wrongs that should be confessed to individuals who have suffered injury through them; or they may be of a public character, and should then be as publicly confessed. But all confession should be definite and to the point, acknowledging the very sins of which you are guilty.
FLB	128	4	Many, many confessions should never be spoken in the hearing of mortals; for the result is that which the limited judgment of finite beings does not anticipate.... God will be better glorified if we confess the secret, inbred corruption of the heart to Jesus alone than if we open its recesses to finite, erring man, who cannot judge righteously unless his heart is constantly imbued with the Spirit of God.... Do not pour into human ears the story which God alone should hear.
FLB	128	5	The confession that is the outpouring of the inmost soul finds its way to the God of infinite pity.
FLB	128	6	Your sins may be as mountains before you; but if you humble your heart, and confess your sins, trusting in the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour, He will forgive, and will cleanse you from all unrighteousness.... Desire the fullness of the grace of Christ. Let your heart be filled with an intense longing for His righteousness.
------------------------The Meaning of Forgiveness, May 3
FLB	129	1	Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. Micah 7:18.
FLB	129	2	God's forgiveness is not merely a judicial act by which He sets us free from condemnation. It is not only forgiveness for sin but reclaiming from sin. It is the outflow of redeeming love that transforms the heart. David had the true conception of forgiveness when he prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10.
FLB	129	3	If you take even one step toward Him in repentance, He will hasten to enfold you in His arms of infinite love. His ear is open to the cry of the contrite soul. The very first reaching out of the heart after God is known to Him. Never a prayer is offered, however faltering, never a tear is shed, however secret, never a sincere desire after God is cherished, however feeble, but the Spirit of God goes forth to meet it. Even before the prayer is uttered or the yearning of the heart made known, grace from Christ goes forth to meet the grace that is working upon the human soul.
FLB	129	4	Your heavenly Father will take from you the garments defiled by sin. In the beautiful parabolic prophecy of Zechariah, the high priest Joshua, standing clothed in filthy garments before the angel of the Lord, represents the sinner. And the word is spoken by the Lord, "Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.... So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments." Zechariah 3:4, 5. Even so God will clothe you with "the garments of salvation," and cover you with "the robe of righteousness." Isaiah 61:10....
FLB	129	5	"If thou wilt walk in my ways," He declares, "I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by" (Zechariah 3:7)--even among the holy angels that surround His throne.
------------------------The Sons and Daughters of God, May 4
FLB	130	1	But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.
FLB	130	2	It is through faith in Jesus Christ that the truth is accepted in the heart, and the human agent is purified and cleansed.... He has an abiding principle in the soul, that enables him to overcome temptation. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." 1 John 3:6. God has power to keep the soul that is in Christ who is under temptation....
FLB	130	3	A mere profession of godliness is worthless. It is he that abideth in Christ that is a Christian.... Unless the mind of God becomes the mind of men, every effort to purify himself will be useless; for it is impossible to elevate man except through a knowledge of God.
FLB	130	4	The question you need to put to yourselves is, "Am I a Christian?" To be a Christian is to be far more than many understand. It means more than simply having your name upon the church records. It means to be joined to Christ. It means to have simple faith, unwavering reliance upon God. It means to have childlike confidence in your heavenly Father through the name and merit of His dear Son. Do you love to keep the commandments of God, because the commandments of God are God's precepts, the transcript of His character, and can no more be altered than can the character of God? Do you respect and love the law of Jehovah?
FLB	130	5	As sons and daughters of God, Christians should strive to reach the high ideal set before them in the gospel. They should be content with nothing less than perfection.
FLB	130	6	To those who receive Him He gives power to become the sons of God, that at last God may receive them as His, to dwell with Him throughout eternity. If during this life they are loyal to God, they will at last "see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads." Revelation 22:4. And what is the happiness of heaven but to see God? What greater joy could come to the sinner saved by the grace of Christ than to look upon the face of God and know Him as Father?
------------------------Forgiven as We Forgive, May 5
FLB	131	1	For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Matthew 7:2.
FLB	131	2	We can receive forgiveness from God only as we forgive others. It is the love of God that draws us unto Him, and that love cannot touch our hearts without creating love for our brethren.
FLB	131	3	After completing the Lord's Prayer, Jesus added: "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Matthew 6:14, 15. He who is unforgiving cuts off the very channel through which alone he can receive mercy from God. We should not think that unless those who have injured us confess the wrong we are justified in withholding from them our forgiveness. It is their part, no doubt, to humble their hearts by repentance and confession; but we are to have a spirit of compassion toward those who have trespassed against us, whether or not they confess their faults.
FLB	131	4	Nothing can justify an unforgiving spirit. He who is unmerciful toward others shows that he himself is not a partaker of God's pardoning grace. In God's forgiveness the heart of the erring one is drawn close to the great heart of Infinite Love. The tide of divine compassion flows into the sinner's soul, and from him to the souls of others....
FLB	131	5	We are not forgiven because we forgive, but as we forgive. The ground of all forgiveness is found in the unmerited love of God, but by our attitude toward others we show whether we have made that love our own. Wherefore Christ says, "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged."
FLB	131	6	Let Christ, the divine Life dwell in you and through you reveal the heaven-born love that will inspire hope in the hopeless and bring heaven's peace to the sin-stricken heart. As we come to God, this is the condition which meets us at the threshold, that, receiving mercy from Him, we yield ourselves to reveal His grace to others.
------------------------Restitution Is Required, May 6
FLB	132	1	If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. Ezekiel 33:15.
FLB	132	2	No repentance is genuine that does not work reformation....
FLB	132	3	The Christian in his business life is to represent to the world the manner in which our Lord would conduct business enterprises. In every transaction he is to make it manifest that God is his teacher. "Holiness unto the Lord" is to be written upon daybooks and ledgers, on deeds, receipts, and bills of exchange. Those who profess to be followers of Christ, and who deal in an unrighteous manner, are bearing false witness against the character of a holy, just, and merciful God.... If we have injured others through any unjust business transaction, if we have overreached in trade, or defrauded any man, even though it be within the pale of the law, we should confess our wrong, and make restitution as far as lies in our power. It is right for us to restore not only that which we have taken, but all that it would have accumulated if put to a right and wise use during the time it has been in our possession.
FLB	132	4	If we have in any manner defrauded or injured our brother, we should make restitution. If we have unwittingly borne false witness, if we have misstated his words, if we have injured his influence in any way, we should go to the ones with whom we have conversed about him, and take back all our injurious misstatements.
FLB	132	5	It will not be long before probation will close. If you do not now serve the Lord with fidelity, how will you meet the record of your unfaithful dealing? ... If you have refused to deal honestly with God, I beseech you to think of your deficiency, and if possible to make restitution. If this cannot be done, in humble penitence pray that God for Christ's sake will pardon your great debt. Begin now to act like Christians. Make no excuse for failing to give the Lord His own. Now, ... while it is not yet too late for wrongs to be righted, while it is called today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
------------------------Come Just as You Are, May 7
FLB	133	1	Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. Jeremiah 13:23.
FLB	133	2	God does not regard all sins as of equal magnitude; there are degrees of guilt in His estimation, as well as in that of man; but however trifling this or that wrong act may seem in the eyes of men, no sin is small in the sight of God. Man's judgment is partial, imperfect; but God estimates all things as they really are. The drunkard is despised, and is told that his sin will exclude him from heaven; while pride, selfishness, and covetousness too often go unrebuked. But these are sins that are especially offensive to God; for they are contrary to the benevolence of His character, to that unselfish love which is the very atmosphere of the unfallen universe. He who falls into some of the grosser sins may feel a sense of his shame and poverty and his need of the grace of Christ; but pride feels no need, and so it closes the heart against Christ, and the infinite blessings He came to give....
FLB	133	3	If you see your sinfulness, do not wait to make yourself better. How many there are who think they are not good enough to come to Christ. Do you expect to become better through your own efforts? ... There is help for us only in God. We must not wait for stronger persuasions, for better opportunities, or for holier tempers. We can do nothing for ourselves. We must come to Christ just as we are.
FLB	133	4	Yield yourself to Christ without delay; He alone, by the power of His grace, can redeem you from ruin. He alone can bring your moral and mental powers into a state of health. Your heart may be warm with the love of God; your understanding, clear and mature; your conscience, illuminated, quick, and pure; your will, upright and sanctified, subject to the control of the Spirit of God. You can make yourself what you choose. If you will now face rightabout, cease to do evil and learn to do well, then you will be happy indeed; you will be successful in the battles of life, and rise to glory and honor in the better life than this.
------------------------A Personal Pardon, May 8
FLB	134	1	Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1.
FLB	134	2	We should remember that all make mistakes; even men and women who have had years of experience sometimes err; but God does not cast them off because of their errors; to every erring son and daughter of Adam He gives the privilege of another trial.
FLB	134	3	Jesus loves to have us come to Him just as we are, sinful, helpless, dependent. We may come with all our weakness, our folly, our sinfulness, and fall at His feet in penitence. It is His glory to encircle us in the arms of His love, and to bind up our wounds, to cleanse us from all impurity.
FLB	134	4	Here is where thousands fail: they do not believe that Jesus pardons them personally, individually. They do not take God at His word. It is the privilege of all who comply with the conditions to know for themselves that pardon is freely extended for every sin. Put away the suspicion that God's promises are not meant for you. They are for every repentant transgressor. Strength and grace have been provided through Christ to be brought by ministering angels to every believing soul. None are so sinful that they cannot find strength, purity, and righteousness in Jesus, who died for them. He is waiting to strip them of their garments stained and polluted with sin, and to put upon them the white robes of righteousness; He bids them live and not die....
FLB	134	5	Can you believe that when the poor sinner longs to return, longs to forsake his sins, the Lord sternly withholds him from coming to His feet in repentance? Away with such thoughts! Nothing can hurt your own soul more than to entertain such a conception of our heavenly Father.... Come with your whole heart to Jesus, and you may claim His blessing.
FLB	134	6	He who through His own atonement provided for man an infinite fund of moral power will not fail to employ this power in their behalf.
------------------------Union With Christ, May 9
FLB	135	1	Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John 15:4.
FLB	135	2	Every individual, by his own act, either puts Christ from him by refusing to cherish His spirit and follow His example, or he enters into a personal union with Christ by self-renunciation, faith, and obedience. We must, each for himself, choose Christ, because He has first chosen us. This union with Christ is to be formed by those who are naturally at enmity with Him. It is a relation of utter dependence, to be entered into by a proud heart. This is close work, and many who profess to be followers of Christ know nothing of it. They nominally accept the Saviour, but not as the sole ruler of their hearts.
FLB	135	3	The evil tendencies of mankind are hard to overcome. The battles are tedious. Every soul in the strife knows how severe, how bitter, are these contests. Everything about growth in grace is difficult, because the standard and maxims of the world are constantly interposed between the soul and God's holy standard. The Lord would have us elevated, ennobled, purified, by carrying out the principles underlying His great moral standard, which will test every character in the great day of final reckoning.
FLB	135	4	We must gain the victory over self, crucify the affections and lusts; and then begins the union of the soul with Christ After this union is formed, it can be preserved only by continual, earnest, painstaking effort....
FLB	135	5	Every Christian must stand on guard continually, watching every avenue of the soul where Satan might find access. He must pray for divine help and at the same time resolutely resist every inclination to sin. By courage, by faith, by persevering toil, he can conquer. But let him remember that to gain the victory Christ must abide in him and he in Christ.... It is only by personal union with Christ, by communion with Him daily, hourly, that we can bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
------------------------Help for the Poor in Spirit, May 10
FLB	136	1	Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3.
FLB	136	2	All who have a sense of their deep soul poverty, who feel that they have nothing good in themselves, may find righteousness and strength by looking unto Jesus.
FLB	136	3	"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Psalm 51:17. Man must be emptied of self before he can be, in the fullest sense, a believer in Jesus. When self is renounced, then the Lord can make man a new creature.
FLB	136	4	When man has sinned against a holy and merciful God, he can pursue no course so noble as to repent sincerely, and confess his errors in tears and bitterness of soul. This God requires of him; He accepts nothing less than a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
FLB	136	5	The proud heart strives to earn salvation; but both our title to heaven and our fitness for it are found in the righteousness of Christ. The Lord can do nothing toward the recovery of man until, convinced of his own weakness, and stripped of all self-sufficiency, he yields himself to the control of God. Then he can receive the gift that God is waiting to bestow. From the soul that feels his need, nothing is withheld. He has unrestricted access to Him in whom all fullness dwells.
FLB	136	6	The only reason why we may not have remission of sins that are past is that we are not willing to humble our proud hearts and comply with the conditions.
FLB	136	7	God is very pitiful, for He understands our weaknesses and our temptations; and when we come to Him with broken hearts and contrite spirits. He accepts our repentance, and promises that, as we take hold of His strength to make peace with Him, we shall make peace with Him. Oh, what gratitude, what joy, should we feel that God is merciful!
FLB	136	8	The offering most sweet and acceptable in God's sight is a heart made humble by self-denial, by lifting the cross and following Jesus.
------------------------A Change of Heart Needed, May 11
FLB	137	1	Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.
FLB	137	2	Nicodemus held a high position of trust in the Jewish nation.... With others, he had been stirred by the teaching of Jesus....The lessons that had fallen from the Saviour's lips had greatly impressed him, and he desired to learn more of these wonderful truths....
FLB	137	3	Nicodemus had come to the Lord thinking to enter into a discussion with Him, but Jesus laid bare the foundation principles of truth. He said to Nicodemus, It is not theoretical knowledge you need so much as spiritual regeneration. You need not to have your curiosity satisfied, but to have a new heart. You must receive a new life from above before you can appreciate heavenly things.
FLB	137	4	The change of heart represented by the new birth can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit.... Pride and self-love resist the Spirit of God; every natural inclination of the soul opposes the change from self-importance and pride to the meekness and lowliness of Christ. But if we would travel in the pathway to eternal life, we must not listen to the whispering of self. In humility and contrition we must beseech our heavenly Father, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10. As we receive divine light, and cooperate with the heavenly intelligences, we are "born again," freed from the defilement of sin by the power of Christ.
FLB	137	5	The mighty power of the Holy Spirit works an entire transformation in the character of the human agent, making him a new creature in Christ Jesus.... The words and actions express the love of the Saviour. There is no striving for the highest place. Self is renounced. The name of Jesus is written on all that is said and done.
FLB	137	6	Is not this, the renewal of man, the greatest miracle that can be performed? What cannot the human agent do who by faith takes hold of the divine power?
------------------------Blessings on the Humble Man, May 12
FLB	138	1	And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:2, 3.
FLB	138	2	The helpless sinner must cling to Christ as his only hope. If he lets go his hold for a moment, he imperils his own soul and the souls of others. Only in the exercise of living faith are we safe. But the commission of any known sin, the neglect of known duties, at home or abroad, will destroy faith, and disconnect the soul from God.
FLB	138	3	Nothing is more offensive to God than a self-sufficient spirit. In the life of Peter is a sad lesson which should be a warning to all the professed followers of Christ. The Saviour had faithfully warned him of the approaching danger, but, self-confident and presumptuous, he asserted his constant fidelity and zeal, and declared himself willing to follow his Master to prison and to death. The test came for Peter when the storm burst upon the disciples by the humiliation of their Leader. Mournful are the words traced by the pen of inspiration: "Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled." Matthew 26:56. And the ardent, zealous, self-confident Peter repeatedly denied his Lord. He afterward bitterly repented; but this example should admonish all to beware of self-confidence and self-righteousness.
FLB	138	4	The men who humble themselves even as a little child are the men who will be taught by God. The Lord is not dependent on any man's talents; for He is the Source of all perfect gifts. The very humblest man, if he loves and fears God, is the possessor of heavenly gifts. The Lord can use such a man, because he does not strive to work himself according to his own standard. He works with fear and trembling lest he will spoil the pattern. His life is an expression of the life of Christ.
FLB	138	5	We must constantly cherish meekness and humility, if we would possess the spirit of Christ.
------------------------A New Life Altogether, May 13
FLB	139	1	That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24.
FLB	139	2	Conversion is a work that most do not appreciate. It is not a small matter to transform an earthly, sin-loving mind and bring it to understand the unspeakable love of Christ, the charms of His grace, and the excellency of God, so that the soul shall be imbued with divine love and captivated with the heavenly mysteries. When he understands these things, his former life appears disgusting and hateful. He hates sin, and, breaking his heart before God, he embraces Christ as the life and joy of the soul. He renounces his former pleasures. He has a new mind, new affections, new interest, new will; his sorrows, and desires, and love are all new.... Heaven, which once possessed no charms, is now viewed in its riches and glory; and he contemplates it as his future home, where he shall see, love, and praise the One who hath redeemed him by His precious blood. The works of holiness, which appeared wearisome, are now his delight. The Word of God, which was dull and uninteresting, is now chosen as his study, the man of his counsel. It is as a letter written to him from God, bearing the inscription of the Eternal. His thoughts, his words, and his deeds are brought to this rule and tested. He trembles at the commands and threatenings which it contains, while he firmly grasps its promises and strengthens his soul by appropriating them to himself.
FLB	139	3	When the transforming grace of Christ is upon the heart, a righteous indignation will take possession of the soul because the sinner has so long neglected the great salvation that God has provided for him. He will then surrender himself, body, soul, and spirit, to God and will withdraw from companionship with Satan, through the grace given him of God.
FLB	139	4	All need to understand the process of conversion. The fruit is seen in the changed life.
------------------------Holiness of Life, May 14
FLB	140	1	Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14.
FLB	140	2	No one who claims holiness is really holy. Those who are registered as holy in the books of heaven are not aware of the fact, and are the last ones to boast of their own goodness.
FLB	140	3	It is not a conclusive evidence that a man is a Christian because he manifests spiritual ecstasy under extraordinary circumstances. Holiness is not rapture: it is an entire surrender of the will to God; it is living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God; it is doing the will of our heavenly Father; it is trusting God in trial, in darkness as well as in the light; it is walking by faith and not by sight; it is relying on God with unquestioning confidence, and resting in His love.
FLB	140	4	No one can be omnipotent, but all can cleanse themselves from filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. God requires every soul to be pure and holy. We have hereditary tendencies to wrong. This is a part of self that no one need carry about. It is a weakness of humanity to pet selfishness, because it is a natural trait of character. But unless all selfishness is put away, unless self is crucified, we can never be holy as God is holy. There is in humanity a tendency to suspicious imagining, which circumstances quicken into lively growth. If this trait is indulged, it spoils the character and ruins the soul.
FLB	140	5	God requires moral perfection in all. Those who have been given light and opportunities should, as God's stewards, aim for perfection, and never, never lower the standard of righteousness to accommodate inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong. Christ took upon Him our human nature, and lived our life, to show us that we may be like Him.... We ought to be holy even as God is holy; and when we comprehend the full significance of this statement, and set our heart to do the work of God, to be holy as He is holy, we shall approach the standard set for each individual in Christ Jesus.
------------------------Strengthened by the Spirit, May 15
FLB	141	1	That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Ephesians 3:16.
FLB	141	2	Jesus says, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Mark 11:24. There is a condition to this promise--that we pray according to the will of God. But it is the will of God to cleanse us from sin, to make us His children, and to enable us to live a holy life. So we may ask for these blessings, and believe that we receive them, and thank God that we have received them. It is our privilege to go to Jesus and be cleansed, and to stand before the law without shame or remorse....
FLB	141	3	Through this simple act of believing God, the Holy Spirit has begotten a new life in your heart. You are as a child born into the family of God, and He loves you as He loves His Son.
FLB	141	4	Now that you have given yourself to Jesus, do not draw back, do not take yourself away from Him, but day by day say, "I am Christ's; I have given myself to Him;" and ask Him to give you His Spirit, and keep you by His grace. As it is by giving yourself to God, and believing Him, that you become His child, so you are to live in Him. The apostle says, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." Colossians 2:3.
FLB	141	5	Some seem to feel that they must be on probation, and must prove to the Lord that they are reformed, before they can claim His blessing. But they may claim the blessing of God even now. They must have His grace, the Spirit of Christ, to help their infirmities, or they cannot resist evil.
FLB	141	6	The Spirit furnishes the strength that sustains striving, wrestling souls in every emergency, amidst the hatred of the world, and the realization of their own failures and mistakes. In sorrow and affliction, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone--these are the times when, in answer to the prayer of faith, the Holy Spirit brings comfort to the heart.
------------------------Amazing Transformation of Character, May 16
FLB	142	1	As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. Psalm 17:15.
FLB	142	2	Jesus came to restore in man the image of his Maker. None but Christ can fashion anew the character that has been ruined by sin. He came to expel the demons that had controlled the will.
FLB	142	3	The Lord Jesus is making experiments on human hearts through the exhibition of His mercy and abundant grace. He is effecting transformations so amazing that Satan, with all his triumphant boasting, with all his confederacy of evil united against God and the laws of His government, stands viewing them as a fortress impregnable to his sophistries and delusions. They are to him an incomprehensible mystery. The angels of God, seraphim and cherubim, the powers commissioned to cooperate with human agencies, look on with astonishment and joy, that fallen men, once children of wrath, are through the training of Christ developing characters after the divine similitude, to be sons and daughters of God, to act an important part in the occupations and pleasures of heaven.
FLB	142	4	They were purified in the furnace of affliction. For Jesus' sake they endured opposition, hatred, calumny. They followed Him through conflicts sore; they endured self-denial and experienced bitter disappointments. By their own painful experience they learned the evil of sin, its power, its guilt, its woe; and they look upon it with abhorrence. A sense of the infinite sacrifice made for its cure, humbles them in their own sight, and fills their hearts with gratitude and praise which those who have never fallen cannot appreciate. They love much, because they have been forgiven much. Having been partakers of Christ's sufferings, they are fitted to be partakers with Him of His glory.
FLB	142	5	In their untainted purity and spotless perfection, Christ looks upon His people as the reward of all His suffering, His humiliation, and His love, and the supplement of His glory--Christ, the great center from which radiates all glory.
------------------------Our Lord's Example, May 17
FLB	143	1	Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4.
FLB	143	2	Jesus did not receive baptism as a confession of guilt on His own account. He identified Himself with sinners, taking the steps that we are to take, and doing the work that we must do. His life of suffering and patient endurance after His baptism was also an example to us.
FLB	143	3	Christ as the head of humanity was to take the same steps that we are required to take. Although sinless, He was our example in fulfilling all the requirements for the redemption of the sinful race. He bore the sins of the whole world. His baptism was to embrace the whole sinful world who by repentance and faith would be pardoned. "After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men." Titus 3:4-8. Man was brought again into favor with God by the washing of regeneration. The washing was the burial with Christ in the water in the likeness of His death, representing that all who repent of the transgression of the law of God receive purification, cleansing, through the work of the Holy Spirit. Baptism represents true conversion by the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
FLB	143	4	Those who have been buried with Christ in baptism, and been raised in the likeness of His resurrection, have pledged themselves to live in newness of life. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Colossians 3:1, 2.
------------------------"This Is My Beloved Son", May 18
FLB	144	1	And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:16, 17.
FLB	144	2	As Jesus asked for baptism, John drew back, exclaiming, "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" With firm yet gentle authority, Jesus answered, "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Matthew 3:14, 15. And John, yielding, led the Saviour down into the Jordan, and buried Him beneath the water. "And straightway coming up out of the water," Jesus "saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him. Mark 1:10.... The solemnity of the divine Presence rested upon the assembly. The people stood silently gazing upon Christ. His form was bathed in the light that ever surrounds the throne of God. His upturned face was glorified as they had never before seen the face of man. From the open heavens a voice was heard saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Matthew 3:17....
FLB	144	3	The word that was spoken to Jesus at the Jordan ... embraces humanity. God spoke to Jesus as our representative. With all our sins and weaknesses, we are not cast aside as worthless. "He hath made us accepted in the beloved." Ephesians 1:6. The glory that rested upon Christ is a pledge of the love of God for us His love has encircled man, and reached the highest heaven. The light which fell from the open portals upon the head of our Saviour will fall upon us as we pray for help to resist temptation. The voice which spoke to Jesus says to every believing soul, This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased....
FLB	144	4	Our Redeemer has opened the way so that the most sinful, the most needy, the most oppressed and despised, may find access to the Father. All may have a home in the mansions which Jesus has gone to prepare.
------------------------Born of Water and the Spirit, May 19
FLB	145	1	Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:5.
FLB	145	2	Christ here referred to water baptism and the renewing of the heart by the Spirit of God.
FLB	145	3	Repentance, faith, and baptism are the requisite steps in conversion.... As Christians submit to the solemn rite of baptism, He registers the vow that they make to be true to Him. This vow is their oath of allegiance.
FLB	145	4	Christ has made baptism the sign of entrance to His spiritual kingdom. He has made this a positive condition with which all must comply who wish to be acknowledged as under the authority of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Before man can find a home in the church, before passing the threshold of God's spiritual kingdom, he is to receive the impress of the divine name, "The Lord our Righteousness." Jeremiah 23:6 Those who are baptized in the threefold name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, at the very entrance of their Christian life declare publicly that they have forsaken the service of Satan and have become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. They have obeyed the command: "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, ... and touch not the unclean thing." And to them is fulfilled the promise: "I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18.
FLB	145	5	Henceforth the believer is to bear in mind that he is dedicated to God, to Christ, and to the Holy Spirit. He is to make all worldly considerations secondary to this new relation....
FLB	145	6	The obligations in the spiritual agreement entered into at baptism are mutual. As human beings act their part with whole-hearted obedience, they have a right to pray, "Let it be known, Lord, that Thou art God in Israel." The fact that you have been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is an assurance that if you will claim their help, these powers will help you in every emergency.
------------------------Baptized Into His Death and Resurrection, May 20
FLB	146	1	Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Romans 6:3.
FLB	146	2	Those who have taken part in the solemn rite of baptism have pledged themselves to seek for those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; pledged themselves to labor earnestly for the salvation of sinners. God asks those who take His name, How are you using the powers that have been redeemed by the death of My Son? Are you doing all in your power to rise to a greater height in spiritual understanding? Are you adjusting your interest and actions in harmony with the momentous claims of eternity?
FLB	146	3	Baptism is a most solemn renunciation of the world. Self is by profession dead to a life of sin. The waters cover the candidate, and in the presence of the whole heavenly universe the mutual pledge is made. In the name of the Father, and Son, and the Holy Spirit, man is laid in his watery grave, buried with Christ in baptism, and raised from the water to live the new life of loyalty to God. The three great powers in heaven are witnesses; they are invisible but present.
FLB	146	4	We have died to the world.… We have been buried in the likeness of Christ's death and raised in the likeness of His resurrection, and we are to live a new life. Our life is to be bound up with the life of Christ.
FLB	146	5	In the first chapter of Second Peter is presented the progressive work in the Christian life. The whole chapter is a lesson of deep importance. If man, in acquiring the Christian graces, works on the plan of addition, God has pledged Himself to work in his behalf upon the plan of multiplication. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." 2 Peter 1:2. The work is laid out before every soul that has acknowledged his faith in Jesus Christ by baptism.
FLB	146	6	If we are true to our vow, there is opened to us a door of communication with heaven--a door that no human hand or satanic agency can close.
------------------------Walking in His Steps, May 21
FLB	147	1	If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1.
FLB	147	2	All who enter upon the new life should understand, prior to their baptism, that the Lord requires the undivided affections....The practicing of the truth is essential. The bearing of fruit testifies to the character of the tree There is need of a thorough conversion to the truth.
FLB	147	3	There are children ... who have been taught from their youth to observe the Sabbath. Some of these are very good children, faithful to duty as far as temporal matters are concerned; but they feel no deep conviction of sin and no need of repentance from sin.... As there are no outbreaking sins in their own lives, they flatter themselves they are about right. To these youth I am authorized to say: Repent ye and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.... You are required to repent, believe, and be baptized. Christ was wholly righteous; yet He, the Saviour of the world, gave man an example by Himself taking the steps which He requires the sinner to take to become a child of God, and heir of heaven.
FLB	147	4	If Christ, the spotless and pure Redeemer of man, condescended to take the steps necessary for the sinner to take in conversion, why should any, with the light of truth shining upon their pathway, hesitate to submit their hearts to God, and in humility confess that they are sinners, and show their faith in the atonement of Christ by words and actions, identifying themselves with those who profess to be His followers?
FLB	147	5	All who study the life of Christ and practice His teachings will become like Christ. Their influence will be like His. They will reveal soundness of character. As they walk in the humble path of obedience, doing the will of God, they exert an influence that tells for the advancement of the cause of God and the healthful purity of His work.
------------------------When Rebaptism Is Appropriate, May 22
FLB	148	1	And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Acts 22:16.
FLB	148	2	There are many at the present day who have unwittingly violated one of the precepts of God's law. When the understanding is enlightened, and the claims of the fourth commandment are urged upon the conscience, they see themselves sinners in the sight of God. "Sin is the transgression of the law" and he that shall "offend in one point, he is guilty of all." 1 John 3:4; James 2:10.
FLB	148	3	The honest seeker after truth will not plead ignorance of the law as an excuse for transgression. Light was within his reach. God's Word is plain, and Christ has bidden him search the Scriptures. He reveres God's law as holy, just, and good, and he repents of his transgression. By faith he pleads the atoning blood of Christ, and grasps the promise of pardon. His former baptism does not satisfy him now. He has seen himself a sinner, condemned by the law of God. He has experienced anew a death to sin, and he desires again to be buried with Christ by baptism, that he may rise to walk in newness of life
FLB	148	4	This is a subject which each individual must conscientiously take his position upon in the fear of God.... The duty of urging belongs to no one but God; give God a chance to work with His Holy Spirit upon the minds, so that the individual will be perfectly convinced and satisfied in regard to this advanced step....
FLB	148	5	It [rebaptism] is a matter to be treated as a great privilege and blessing, and all who are rebaptized, if they have the right ideas upon this subject, will thus consider it.
FLB	148	6	It is the privilege and the duty of every Christian to have a rich and abundant experience in the things of God. "I am the light of the world," said Jesus. "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8:12.... Every step of faith and obedience brings the soul into closer connection with the Light of the world, in whom there "is no darkness at all."
------------------------Our Lord's Command, May 23
FLB	149	1	Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Matthew 28:19.
FLB	149	2	Thus Christ gave His disciples their commission. He made full provision for the prosecution of the work, and took upon Himself the responsibility for its success. So long as they obeyed His word, and worked in connection with Him, they could not fail. Go to all nations, He bade them. Go to the farthest part of the habitable globe.... Labor in faith , for the time will never come when I will forsake you.
FLB	149	3	The Saviour's commission to the disciples included all the believers. It includes all believers in Christ to the end of time. It is a fatal mistake to suppose that the work of saving souls depends alone on the ordained minister. All to whom the heavenly inspiration has come are put in trust with the gospel. All who receive the life of Christ are ordained to work for the salvation of their fellow men. For this work the church was established, and all who take upon themselves its sacred vows are thereby pledged to be co-workers with Christ.
FLB	149	4	We are to be consecrated channels, through which the heavenly life is to flow to others. The Holy Spirit is to animate and pervade the whole church, purifying and cementing hearts. Those who have been buried with Christ in baptism are to rise to newness of life, giving a living representation of the life of Christ.... You are dedicated to the work of making known the gospel of salvation. Heaven's perfection is to be your power.
FLB	149	5	The Duke of Wellington was once present where a party of Christian men were discussing the possibility of success in missionary effort among the heathen. They appealed to the duke to say whether in his judgment such efforts were likely to prove a success commensurate to the cost. The old soldier replied: "Gentlemen, what are your marching orders? Success is not the question for you to discuss. If I read your orders aright, they run thus, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' Gentlemen, obey your marching orders."
------------------------Changed by Beholding, May 24
FLB	150	1	But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
FLB	150	2	As the mind dwells upon Christ, the character is molded after the divine similitude. The thoughts are pervaded with a sense of His goodness, His love. We contemplate His character, and thus He is in all our thoughts. His love encloses us. If we gaze even a moment upon the sun in its meridian glory, when we turn away our eyes, the image of the sun will appear in everything upon which we look. Thus it is when we behold Jesus; everything we look upon reflects His image, the Sun of Righteousness. We cannot see anything else, or talk of anything else. His image is imprinted upon the eye of the soul, and affects every portion of our daily life, softening and subduing our whole nature. By beholding, we are conformed to the divine similitude, even the likeness of Christ. To all with whom we associate we reflect the bright and cheerful beams of His righteousness. We have become transformed in character; for heart, soul, mind, are irradiated by the reflection of Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us
FLB	150	3	Jesus Christ is everything to us--the first, the last, the best in everything. Jesus Christ, His Spirit, His character, colors everything; it is the warp and the woof, the very texture of our entire being. The words of Christ are spirit and life. We cannot, then, center our thoughts upon self; it is no more we that live, but Christ that liveth in us, and He is the hope of glory. Self is dead, but Christ is a living Saviour.
FLB	150	4	If we keep our minds stayed upon Christ, He will come unto us "as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." Hosea 6:3. As the Sun of Righteousness, He will arise upon us "with healing in his wings." Malachi 4:2. We shall "grow as the lily." We shall "revive as the corn, and grow as the vine." Hosea 14:5, 7. By constantly relying upon Christ as our personal Saviour, we shall grow up into Him in all things who is our head.
------------------------Taking Up Our Cross, May 25
FLB	151	1	And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23.
FLB	151	2	The foundation of the plan of salvation was laid in sacrifice. Jesus left the royal courts and became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. All who share this salvation, purchased for them at such an infinite sacrifice by the Son of God, will follow the example of the true Pattern. Christ was the chief Cornerstone, and we must build upon this Foundation. Each must have a spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice. The life of Christ upon earth was unselfish; it was marked with humiliation and sacrifice. And shall men, partakers of the great salvation which Jesus came from heaven to bring them, refuse to follow their Lord and to share in His self-denial and sacrifice? Is the servant greater than his Lord? ...
FLB	151	3	"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Matthew 16:24. I lead the way in the path of self-denial. I require nothing of you, My followers, but that of which I, your Lord, give you an example in My own life.
FLB	151	4	Self-denial and the cross lie directly in the pathway of every follower of Christ. The cross is that which crosses the natural affections and the will.
FLB	151	5	Jesus is our pattern. If He would lay aside His humiliation and sufferings, and cry, "If any man will come after Me, let him please himself, and enjoy the world, and he shall be My disciple," the multitude would believe and follow Him. But Jesus will come to us in no other character than that of the meek, crucified One. If we would be with Him in heaven, we must be like Him on earth.
FLB	151	6	Let us follow the Saviour in His simplicity and self-denial. Let us lift up the Man of Calvary by word and by holy living.
FLB	151	7	And to all who lift it and bear it after Christ, the cross is a pledge of the crown of immortality that they will receive.
------------------------Developing Good Habits, May 26
FLB	152	1	I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. Psalm 119:101.
FLB	152	2	We are nearing the end of time, and we want now, not to meet the world's tastes and practices, but to meet the mind of God; to see what saith the Scriptures, and then to walk according to the light which God has given us.
FLB	152	3	The youth are forming habits which will, in nine cases out of ten, decide their future. The influence of the company they keep, the associations they form, and the principles they adopt will be carried with them through life.
FLB	152	4	We shall be individually, for time and eternity, what our habits make us. The lives of those who form right habits, and are faithful in the performance of every duty, will be as shining lights, shedding bright beams upon the pathway of others.
FLB	152	5	There is no need of being spiritual dwarfs if the mind is continually exercised in spiritual things. But merely praying for this, and about this, will not meet the necessities of the case. You must habituate the mind to concentration upon spiritual things. Exercise will bring strength. Many professed Christians are in a fair way to lose both worlds. To be half a Christian and half a worldly man makes you about one-hundredth part a Christian and all the rest worldly.
FLB	152	6	The mind must be educated and disciplined to love purity. A love for spiritual things should be encouraged; yea, must be encouraged, if you would grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.... The will must be exercised in the right direction. I will be a whole-hearted Christian. I will know the length and breadth, the height and depth, of perfect love. Listen to the words of Jesus: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6. Ample provisions are made by Christ to satisfy the soul that hungers and thirst for righteousness.
------------------------Unashamed of Jesus, May 27
FLB	153	1	For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16.
FLB	153	2	Many of the young have not the spirit of Jesus. The love of God is not in their hearts, therefore all the natural besetments hold the victory instead of the Spirit of God and salvation.
FLB	153	3	Those who really possess the religion of Jesus will not be ashamed nor afraid to bear the cross before those who have more experience than they. They will, if they earnestly long to be right, desire all the help they can get from older Christians. Gladly will they be helped by them; hearts that are warmed by love to God will not be hindered by trifles in the Christian course. They will talk out what the Spirit of God works in. They will sing it out, pray it out. It is the lack of religion, lack of holy living, that makes the young backward. Their life condemns them. They know they do not live as Christians should, therefore they have not confidence toward God, or before the church.
FLB	153	4	We should speak of the mercy and loving-kindness of God, of the matchless depths of the Saviour's love. Our words should be words of praise and thanksgiving. If the mind and heart are full of the love of God, this will be revealed in the conversation. It will not be a difficult matter to impart that which enters into our spiritual life.
FLB	153	5	Never be ashamed of your faith; never be found on the side of the enemy. "Ye are the light of the world." Matthew 5:14. Your faith is to be revealed as precious truth, truth which all should have and all must have if they are saved.… We should fight the good fight of faith, and be found "stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." 1 Corinthians 15:58.
FLB	153	6	The unstudied, unconscious influence of a holy life is the most convincing sermon that can be given in favor of Christianity. Argument, even when unanswerable, may provoke only opposition; but a godly example has a power that it is impossible wholly to resist.
------------------------The Right Exercise of the Will, May 28
FLB	154	1	For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13.
FLB	154	2	God's promise is, "Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13.
FLB	154	3	The whole heart must be yielded to God, or the change can never be wrought in us by which we are to be restored to His likeness.
FLB	154	4	Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing power in the nature of man, bringing all the other faculties under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the deciding power which works in the children of men unto obedience to God or unto disobedience.
FLB	154	5	The Saviour says, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:33. Whatever shall draw away the heart from God must be given up. Mammon is the idol of many. The love of money, the desire for wealth, is the golden chain that binds them to Satan. Reputation and worldly honor are worshiped by another class. The life of selfish ease and freedom from responsibility is the idol of others. But these slavish bands must be broken. We cannot be half the Lord's and half the world's. We are not God's children unless we are such entirely....
FLB	154	6	Desires for goodness and holiness are right as far as they go; but if you stop here, they will avail nothing. Many will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians. They do not come to the point of yielding the will to God. They do not now choose to be Christians.
FLB	154	7	The Lord does not propose to save us in companies. Individually we are to make our choice. One by one we are to appropriate the grace of God to the soul, and one cannot decide for another what course he shall take.
FLB	154	8	A pure and noble life, a life of victory over appetite and lust, is possible to everyone who will unite his weak, wavering human will to the omnipotent, unwavering will of God.
------------------------The Sowing Time of Life, May 29
FLB	155	1	Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7.
FLB	155	2	In the laws of God in nature, effect follows cause with unerring certainty. The reaping will testify as to what the sowing has been....
FLB	155	3	Every seed sown produces a harvest of its kind. So it is in human life. We all need to sow the seeds of compassion, sympathy, and love; for we shall reap what we sow. Every characteristic of selfishness, self-love, self-esteem, every act of self-indulgence, will bring forth a like harvest. He who lives for self is sowing to the flesh, and of the flesh he will reap corruption.
FLB	155	4	God destroys no man. Everyone who is destroyed will have destroyed himself. Everyone who stifles the admonitions of conscience is sowing the seeds of unbelief, and these will produce a sure harvest. By rejecting the first warning from God, Pharaoh of old sowed the seeds of obstinacy, and he reaped obstinacy.
FLB	155	5	Each actor in history stands in his lot and place; for God's great work after His own plan will be carried out by men who have prepared themselves to fill positions for good or evil. In opposition to righteousness, men become instruments of unrighteousness. But they are not forced to take this course of action. They need not become instruments of unrighteousness, any more than Cain needed to.
FLB	155	6	Men act out their own free will, either in accordance with a character placed under the molding of God or a character placed under the harsh rule of Satan.
FLB	155	7	Every act, every word, is a seed that will bear fruit. Every deed of thoughtful kindness, of obedience, or of self-denial, will reproduce itself in others, and through them in still others. So every act of envy, malice, or dissension is a seed that will spring up in a "root of bitterness" (Hebrews 12:15), whereby many shall be defiled.
FLB	155	8	Dear young friends, that which you sow, you will also reap. Now is the sowing time for you. What will the harvest be?
------------------------Don't Get Discouraged! May 30
FLB	156	1	Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Joshua 1:9.
FLB	156	2	After the passing of the time in 1844, a number of brethren and sisters were assembled in a meeting. All were very sad, for the disappointment had been sore. Presently a man came in, crying, "Courage in the Lord, brethren; courage in the Lord!" This he repeated again and again, till every face was aglow, and every voice lifted in praise to God.
FLB	156	3	Today I say to every worker for the Master, "Courage in the Lord!"
FLB	156	4	Some look always at the objectionable and discouraging features, and therefore discouragement overtakes them. They forget that the heavenly universe is waiting to make them agencies of blessing to the world; and that the Lord Jesus is a never-failing storehouse from which human beings may draw strength and courage. There is no need for despondency and apprehension. The time will never come when the shadow of Satan will not be cast athwart our pathway. Thus the enemy seeks to hide the light shining from the Sun of Righteousness. But our faith should pierce this shadow.
FLB	156	5	Hope and courage are essential to perfect service for God. These are the fruit of faith. Despondency is sinful and unreasonable. God is able and willing "more abundantly" to bestow upon His servants the strength they need for test and trial....
FLB	156	6	For the disheartened there is a sure remedy--faith, prayer, work. Faith and activity will impart assurance and satisfaction that will increase day by day.... In the darkest days, when appearances seem most forbidding, fear not. Have faith in God.
FLB	156	7	Christ did not fail, neither was He discouraged, and His followers are to manifest a faith of the same enduring nature.... They are to despair of nothing, and to hope for everything. With the golden chain of His matchless love Christ has bound them to the throne of God.
------------------------A Life Insurance Policy for You, May 31
FLB	157	1	Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. 2 Peter 1:10.
FLB	157	2	In the council of heaven, provision was made that men, though transgressors, should not perish in their disobedience, but, through faith in Christ as their substitute and surety, might become the elect of God, predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. God wills that all men should be saved; for ample provision has been made, in giving His only-begotten Son to pay man's ransom. Those who perish will perish because they refuse to be adopted as children of God through Christ Jesus
FLB	157	3	There is no such thing in the Word of God as unconditional election--once in grace, always in grace. In the second chapter of Second Peter the subject is made plain and distinct. After a history of some who followed an evil course, the explanation is given: "Which have forsaken the right way, ... following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness." 2 Peter 2:15.... Here is a class of whom the apostle warns, "For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." 2 Peter 2:21....
FLB	157	4	There is truth to be received if souls are saved. The keeping of the commandments of God is life eternal to the receiver. But the Scriptures make it plain that those who once knew the way of life and rejoiced in the truth are in danger of falling through apostasy, and being lost. Therefore there is need of a decided, daily conversion to God.
FLB	157	5	All who seek to sustain the doctrine of election, once in grace, always in grace, do this against a plain, "Thus saith the Lord."
FLB	157	6	It depends upon your course of action as to whether or not you will secure the benefits bestowed upon those who, as the elect of God, receive an eternal life-insurance policy.
------------------------Time a Precious Talent, June 1
FLB	158	1	So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Psalm 90:12.
FLB	158	2	Our time belongs to God. Every moment is His, and we are under the most solemn obligation to improve it to His glory. Of no talent He has given will He require a more strict account than of our time.
FLB	158	3	The value of time is beyond computation. Christ regarded every moment as precious, and it is thus that we should regard it. Life is too short to be trifled away. We have but a few days of probation in which to prepare for eternity. We have no time to waste, no time to devote to selfish pleasure, no time for the indulgence of sin. It is now that we are to form characters for the future, immortal life. It is now that we are to prepare for the searching judgment.
FLB	158	4	The human family have scarcely begun to live when they begin to die.... The man who appreciates time as his working day will fit himself for a mansion and for a life that is immortal. It is well that he was born. We are admonished to redeem the time. But time squandered can never be recovered. We cannot call back even one moment. The only way in which we can redeem our time is by making the most of that which remains, by being co-workers with God in His great plan of redemption....
FLB	158	5	Every moment is freighted with eternal consequences. We are to stand as minute men, ready for service at a moment's notice. The opportunity that is now ours to speak to some needy soul the word of life may never offer again. God may say to that one, "This night thy soul shall be required of thee," and through our neglect he may not be ready. (Luke 12:20.) In the great judgment day, how shall we render our account to God?
------------------------A Cure for Idleness, June 2
FLB	159	1	Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord. Romans 12:11.
FLB	159	2	The life of Christ from His earliest years was a life of earnest activity. He lived not to please Himself. He was the Son of the infinite God, yet He worked at the carpenter's trade with His father Joseph. His trade was significant. He had come into the world as the character builder, and as such all His work was perfect. Into all His secular labor He brought the same perfection as into the characters He was transforming by His divine power. He is our pattern.
FLB	159	3	It is the duty of every Christian to acquire habits of order, thoroughness, and dispatch. There is no excuse for slow bungling at work of any character. When one is always at work and the work is never done, it is because mind and heart are not put into the labor. The exercise of the will power will make the hands move deftly.
FLB	159	4	The Bible gives no indorsement to idleness. It is the greatest curse that afflicts our world. Every man and woman who is truly converted will be a diligent worker.
FLB	159	5	Upon the right improvement of our time depends our success in acquiring knowledge and mental culture. The cultivation of the intellect need not be prevented by poverty, humble origin, or unfavorable surroundings. Only let the moments be treasured. A few moments here and a few there, that might be frittered away in aimless talk; the morning hours so often wasted in bed; the time spent in traveling on trams or railway cars, or waiting at the station; the moments of waiting for meals, waiting for those who are tardy in keeping an appointment--if a book were kept at hand, and these fragments of time were improved in study, reading, or careful thought, what might not be accomplished. A resolute purpose, persistent industry, and careful economy of time, will enable men to acquire knowledge and mental discipline which will qualify them for almost any position of influence and usefulness.
------------------------The True Value of Money, June 3
FLB	160	1	Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Proverbs 3:9, 10.
FLB	160	2	This scripture teaches that God, as the giver of all our benefits, has a claim upon them all; that His claim should be our first consideration; and that a special blessing will attend all who honor this claim.
FLB	160	3	Herein is set forth a principle that is seen in all God's dealings with men. The Lord placed our first parents in the Garden of Eden. He surrounded them with everything that could minister to their happiness, and He bade them acknowledge Him as the possessor of all things. In the Garden He caused to grow every tree that was pleasant to the eye or good for food; but among them He made one reserve. Of all else, Adam and Eve might freely eat; but of this one tree God said, "Thou shalt not eat of it." Here was the test of their gratitude and loyalty to God.
FLB	160	4	So the Lord has imparted to us heaven's richest treasure in giving us Jesus. With Him He has given us all things richly to enjoy.
FLB	160	5	God ... entrusts men with means. He gives them power to get wealth....
FLB	160	6	Our money has not been given us that we might honor and glorify ourselves. As faithful stewards we are to use it for the honor and glory of God. Some think that only a portion of their means is the Lord's. When they have set apart a portion for religious and charitable purposes, they regard the remainder as their own, to be used as they see fit. But in this they mistake. All we possess is the Lord's, and we are accountable to Him for the use we make of it. In the use of every penny, it will be seen whether we love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves. Money has great value, because it can do great good. In the hands of God's children it is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, and clothing for the naked.... But money is of no more value than sand, only as it is put to use in providing for the necessities of life, in blessing others, and advancing the cause of Christ.
------------------------An Aroused Conscience, June 4
FLB	161	1	Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. 1 Corinthians 15:34.
FLB	161	2	A decided advancement in spirituality, piety, charity, and activity, has been made ... in the ----- church. Discourses were preached on the sin of robbing God in tithes and offerings....
FLB	161	3	Many confessed that they had not paid tithes for years; and we know that God cannot bless those who are robbing Him, and that the church must suffer in consequence of the sin of its individual members....
FLB	161	4	One brother said that for two years he had not paid his tithes, and he was in despair; but as he confessed his sin, he began to gather hope. "What shall I do?" he asked.
FLB	161	5	I said, "Give your note to the treasurer of the church; that will be businesslike."
FLB	161	6	He thought that was a rather strange request; but he sat down, and began to write, "For value received, I promise to pay--" He looked up, as if to say, Is that the proper form in which to write out a note to the Lord?
FLB	161	7	"Yes," he continued, "for value received. Have I not been receiving the blessings of God day after day? Have not the angels guarded me? Has not the Lord blessed me with all spiritual and temporal blessings? For value received, I promise to pay the sum of $571.50 to the church treasurer." After doing all he could do on his part, he was a happy man. In a few days he took up his note, and paid his tithe into the treasury. He had also made a Christmas donation of $125.
FLB	161	8	Another brother gave a note for $1,000, expecting to meet it in a few weeks; and another gave a note for $300....
FLB	161	9	If you have robbed the Lord, make restitution. As far as possible, make the past right, and then ask the Saviour to pardon you. Will you not return to the Lord His own, before this year, with its burden of record, has passed into eternity?
------------------------A Living Benevolence, June 5
FLB	162	1	I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35.
FLB	162	2	We should regard ourselves as stewards of the Lord's property and God as the supreme proprietor, to whom we are to render His own when He shall require it....
FLB	162	3	The servants of God should be making their wills every day in good works and liberal offerings to God.
FLB	162	4	Dying legacies are a miserable substitute for living benevolence.
FLB	162	5	Hoarded wealth is not merely useless, it is a curse. In this life it is a snare to the soul, drawing the affections away from the heavenly treasure. In the great day of God its witness to unused talents and neglected opportunities will condemn its possessor.... He who realizes that his money is a talent from God will use it economically, and will feel it a duty to save that he may give.
FLB	162	6	It is utter folly to defer to make a preparation for the future life until nearly the last hour of the present life. It is also a great mistake to defer to answer the claims of God for liberality to His cause until the time comes when you are to shift your stewardship upon others. Those to whom you entrust your talents of means may not do as well with them as you have done. How dare rich men run so great risks! Those who wait till death before they make a disposition of their property, surrender it to death rather than to God. In so doing many are acting directly contrary to the plan of God plainly stated in His Word. If they would do good they must seize the present golden moments and labor with all their might, as if fearful that they may lose the favorable opportunity....
FLB	162	7	We must all be rich in good works in this life if we would secure the future, immortal life. When the judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened, every man will be rewarded according to his works.
------------------------Faithful in Little Things, June 6
FLB	163	1	And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. Luke 19:17.
FLB	163	2	Talents used are talents multiplied. Success is not the result of chance or of destiny; it is the outworking of God's own providence, the reward of faith and discretion, of virtue and persevering effort. The Lord desires us to use every gift we have; and if we do this, we shall have greater gifts to use. He does not supernaturally endow us with the qualifications we lack; but while we use that which we have, He will work with us to increase and strengthen every faculty....
FLB	163	3	Through faith in the power of God, it is wonderful how strong a weak man may become, how decided his efforts, how prolific of great results. He who begins with a little knowledge, in a humble way, and tells what he knows, while seeking diligently for further knowledge, will find the whole heavenly treasure awaiting his demand. The more he seeks to impart light, the more light he will receive....
FLB	163	4	The man [in the parable] who received the one talent "went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money."
FLB	163	5	It was the one with the smallest gift who left his talent unimproved. In this is given a warning to all who feel that the smallness of their endowments excuses them from service for Christ. If they could do some great thing, how gladly would they undertake it; but because they can serve only in little things, they think themselves justified in doing nothing. In this they err. The Lord in His distribution of gifts is testing character. The man who neglected to improve his talent proved himself an unfaithful servant. Had he received five talents, he would have buried them as he buried the one....
FLB	163	6	However small your talent, God has a place for it. That one talent, wisely used, will accomplish its appointed work. By faithfulness in little duties, we are to work on the plan of addition, and God will work for us on the plan of multiplication. These littles will become the most precious influence in His work.
------------------------Source of All Life, June 7
FLB	164	1	For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. Psalm 36:9.
FLB	164	2	All created beings live by the will and power of God. They are dependent recipients of the life of God. From the highest seraph to the humblest animate being, all are replenished from the Source of life.
FLB	164	3	The youth need to understand the deep truth underlying the Bible statement that with God "is the fountain of life." Not only is He the originator of all, but He is the life of everything that lives. It is His life that we receive in the sunshine, in the pure, sweet air, in the food which builds up our bodies and sustains our strength. It is by His life that we exist, hour by hour, moment by moment. Except as perverted by sin, all His gifts tend to life, to health and joy.
FLB	164	4	A mysterious life pervades all nature--a life that sustains the unnumbered worlds throughout immensity, that lives in the insect atom which floats in the summer breeze, that wings the flight of the swallow and feeds the young ravens which cry, that brings the bud to blossom and the flower to fruit.
FLB	164	5	The same power that upholds nature, is working also in man.... The laws that govern the heart's action, regulating the flow of the current of life to the body, are the laws of the mighty Intelligence that has the jurisdiction of the soul. From Him all life proceeds. Only in harmony with Him can be found its true sphere of action. For all the objects of His creation the condition is the same--a life sustained by receiving the life of God, a life exercised in harmony with the Creator's will. To transgress His law, physical, mental, or moral, is to place one's self out of harmony with the universe....
FLB	164	6	To him who learns thus to interpret its teachings, all nature becomes illuminated; the world is a lesson book, life a school. The unity of man with nature and with God, the universal dominion of law, the results of transgression, cannot fail of impressing the mind and molding the character.
------------------------He Cares for Us Every Minute, June 8
FLB	165	1	Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:3.
FLB	165	2	The work of creation cannot be explained by science. What science can explain the mystery of life?
FLB	165	3	Life is a gift of God.
FLB	165	4	The natural life is preserved moment by moment by divine power; yet it is not sustained by a direct miracle, but through the use of blessings placed within our reach.
FLB	165	5	The Saviour in His miracles revealed the power that is continually at work in man's behalf, to sustain and to heal him. Through the agencies of nature, God is working, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, to keep us alive, to build up and restore us. When any part of the body sustains injury, a healing process is at once begun; nature's agencies are set at work to restore soundness. But the power working through these agencies is the power of God. All life-giving power is from Him. When one recovers from disease, it is God who restores him. Sickness, suffering, and death are work of an antagonistic power. Satan is the destroyer; God is the restorer.
FLB	165	6	A great lesson is learned when we understand our relation to God, and His relation to us.
FLB	165	7	We have an individuality and an identity that is our own. No one can submerge his identity in that of any other. All must act for themselves, according to the dictates of their own conscience. As regards our responsibility and influence, we are amenable to God as deriving our life from Him. This we do not obtain from humanity, but from God only. We are His by creation and by redemption. Our very bodies are not our own, to treat as we please, to cripple by habits that lead to decay, making it impossible to render to God perfect service. Our lives and all our faculties belong to Him. He is caring for us every moment; He keeps the living machinery in action; if we were left to run it for one moment, we should die. We are absolutely dependent upon God.
------------------------The Great Object of Life, June 9
FLB	166	1	I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14.
FLB	166	2	When Adam came from the Creator's hand, he bore, in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker. "God created man in his own image" (Genesis 1:27), and it was His purpose that the longer man lived the more fully he should reveal this image--the more fully reflect the glory of the Creator. All his faculties were capable of development; their capacity and vigor were continually to increase. Vast was the scope offered for their exercise, glorious the field opened to their research. The mysteries of the visible universe--the "wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge" (Job 37:16)--invited man's study. Face-to-face, heart-to-heart communion with his Maker was his high privilege. Had he remained loyal to God, all this would have been his forever. Throughout eternal ages he would have continued to gain new treasures of knowledge, to discover fresh springs of happiness, and to obtain clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the wisdom, the power, and the love of God. More and more fully would he have ... reflected the Creator's glory.
FLB	166	3	But by disobedience this was forfeited. Through sin the divine likeness was marred, and well-nigh obliterated. Man's physical powers were weakened, his mental capacity was lessened, his spiritual vision dimmed. He had become subject to death. Yet the race was not left without hope. By infinite love and mercy the plan of salvation had been devised, and a life of probation was granted. To restore in man the image of his Maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized--this was to be the work of redemption. This is the object of education, the great object of life.
FLB	166	4	To honor Christ, to become like Him, to work for Him, is ... life's highest ambition and its greatest joy.
------------------------One Lease of Life, June 10
FLB	167	1	Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Ecclesiastes 12:1.
FLB	167	2	Life is mysterious and sacred. It is the manifestation of God Himself, the source of all life. Precious are its opportunities, and earnestly should they be improved. Once lost, they are gone forever.
FLB	167	3	Before us God places eternity, with its solemn realities, and gives us a grasp on immortal, imperishable themes. He presents valuable, ennobling truth, that we may advance in a safe and sure path, in pursuit of an object worthy of the earnest engagement of all our capabilities.
FLB	167	4	God looks into the tiny seed that He Himself has formed, and sees wrapped within it the beautiful flower, the shrub, or the lofty, widespreading tree. So does He see the possibilities in every human being. We are here for a purpose. God has given us His plan for our life, and He desires us to reach the highest standard of development.
FLB	167	5	He desires that we shall constantly be growing in holiness, in happiness, in usefulness. All have capabilities which they must be taught to regard as sacred endowments, to appreciate as the Lord's gifts, and rightly to employ. He desires the youth to cultivate every power of their being, and to bring every faculty into active exercise. He desires them to enjoy all that is useful and precious in this life, to be good and to do good, laying up a heavenly treasure for the future life.
FLB	167	6	It should be their ambition to excel in all things that are unselfish, high, and noble. Let them look to Christ as the pattern after which they are to be fashioned. The holy ambition that He revealed in His life they are to cherish--an ambition to make the world better for their having lived in it. This is the work to which they are called.
FLB	167	7	Only one lease of life is granted us; and the inquiry with everyone should be, How can I invest my life so that it will yield the greatest profit? How can I do most for the glory of God and the benefit of my fellow men?
------------------------Behind the Scenes of Life, June 11
FLB	168	1	And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16.
FLB	168	2	In the annals of human history the growth of nations, the rise and fall of empires, appear as dependent on the will and prowess of man. The shaping of events seems, to a great degree, to be determined by his power, ambition, or caprice. But in the Word of God the curtain is drawn aside, and we behold, behind, above, and through all the play and counterplay of human interests and power and passions, the agencies of the all-merciful One, silently, patiently working out the counsels of His own will....
FLB	168	3	Amidst the strife and tumult of nations, He that sitteth above the cherubim still guides the affairs of the earth.... To every nation and to every individual ... God has assigned a place in His great plan.... Men and nations are being measured by the plummet in the hand of Him who makes no mistake. All are by their own choice deciding their destiny, and God is overruling all for the accomplishment of His purposes.
FLB	168	4	The history which the great I AM has marked out in His Word, uniting link after link in the prophetic chain, from eternity in the past to eternity in the future, tells us where we are today in the procession of the ages, and what may be expected in the time to come.
FLB	168	5	All that prophecy has foretold as coming to pass, until the present time, has been traced on the pages of history, and we may be assured that all which is yet to come will be fulfilled in its order....
FLB	168	6	We need to study the working out of God's purpose in the history of nations and in the revelation of things to come, that we may estimate at their true value things seen and things unseen; that we may learn what is the true aim of life; that, viewing the things of time in the light of eternity, we may put them to their truest and noblest use.
------------------------Live While You Have a Chance, June 12
FLB	169	1	Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. Ecclesiastes 9:10.
FLB	169	2	It is a solemn thing to die, but a far more solemn thing to live. Every thought and word and deed of our lives will meet us again. What we make of ourselves in probationary time, that we must remain to all eternity. Death brings dissolution to the body, but makes no change in the character. The coming of Christ does not change our characters; it only fixes them forever beyond all change....
FLB	169	3	I appeal to the members of the church to be Christians, to be Christlike. Jesus was a worker, not for Himself, but for others.... If you are Christians you will imitate His example....
FLB	169	4	Awake, I beseech you, from the sleep of death. It is too late to devote the strength of brain, bone, and muscle to self-serving. Let not the last day find you destitute of heavenly treasure. Seek to push the triumphs of the cross, seek to enlighten souls, labor for the salvation of your fellow beings, and your work will abide the trying test of fire.
FLB	169	5	Let us remember that while the work we have to do may not be our choice, it is to be accepted as God's choice for us. Whether pleasing or unpleasing, we are to do the duty that lies nearest. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest."
FLB	169	6	If the Lord desires us to bear a message to Nineveh, it will not be as pleasing to Him for us to go to Joppa or to Capernaum. He has reasons for sending us to the place toward which our feet have been directed. At that very place there may be someone in need of the help we can give.
FLB	169	7	Whatever the line of work in which we engage, the Word of God teaches us to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." Romans 12:11.... "Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ." Colossians 3:24.
------------------------Seeking the Heavenly Treasure, June 13
FLB	170	1	Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2.
FLB	170	2	The Lord reveals man's relative estimate of time and eternity, of earth and heaven. He has admonished us: "If riches increase, set not your heart upon them." Psalm 62:10. They have a value when used for the good of others and the glory of God; but no earthly treasure is to be your portion, your god, or your savior.
FLB	170	3	God tests men, some in one way, and some in another. He tests some by bestowing upon them His rich bounties, and others by withholding His favors. He proves the rich to see if they will love God, the Giver, and their neighbor as themselves. When man makes a right use of these bounties, God is pleased; He can then trust him with greater responsibilities.
FLB	170	4	There is within the worldly man a craving for something that he does not have. He has, from force of habit, bent every thought, every purpose, in the direction of making provision for the future, and as he grows older, he becomes more eager than ever to acquire all that it is possible to gain....
FLB	170	5	All this energy, this perseverance, this determination, this industry after earthly power, is the result of the perversion of his powers to a wrong object. Every faculty might have been cultivated to the highest possible elevation by exercise, for the heavenly, immortal life, and for the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The customs and practices of the worldly man in his perseverance and his energies, and in availing himself of every opportunity to add to his store, should be a lesson to those who claim to be children of God, seeking for glory, honor, and immortality. The children of the world are wiser in their generation than the children of the light, and herein is seen their wisdom. Their object is for earthly gain, and to this end they direct all their energies. O that this zeal would characterize the toiler for heavenly riches!
------------------------The Arrow of Death, June 14
FLB	171	1	O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! Deuteronomy 32:29.
FLB	171	2	The Lord "doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." Lamentations 3:33. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." Psalm 103:13, 14. He knows our heart, for He reads every secret of the soul.... He knows the end from the beginning. Many will be laid away to sleep before the fiery ordeal of the time of trouble shall come upon our world....
FLB	171	3	If Jesus, the world's Redeemer, prayed, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," and added, "nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39), how very appropriate it is for finite mortals to make the same surrender to the wisdom and will of God.
FLB	171	4	We have but a brief lifetime here, and we know not how soon the arrow of death may strike our hearts. We know not how soon we may be called to give up the world and all its interests. Eternity stretches before us. The curtain is about to be lifted. But a few short years, and for everyone now numbered with the living the mandate will go forth: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: ... and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Revelation 22:11.
FLB	171	5	Are we prepared? Have we become acquainted with God, the Governor of heaven, the Lawgiver, and with Jesus Christ whom He sent into the world as His representative? When our lifework is ended, shall we be able to say, as did Christ our example:
FLB	171	6	"I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.... I have manifested thy name"? John 17:4-6.
FLB	171	7	The angels of God are seeking to attract us from ourselves and from earthly things. Let them not labor in vain.
------------------------Light in the Shadows, June 15
FLB	172	1	But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. Lamentations 3:32, 33.
FLB	172	2	When my eldest son was sixteen years old, he was stricken down in sickness. [Mrs. White's personal experience with sorrow is presented here for the encouragement of all who must suffer the loss of dear ones.--Compilers.] His case was considered critical, and he called us to his bedside, and said, "Father, Mother, it will be hard for you to part with your eldest son. If the Lord sees fit to spare my life, for your sake I will be pleased. If it is for my good and His name's glory for my life to close now, I will say, It is well with my soul. Father, go by yourself, and Mother, go by yourself; and pray. Then you will receive an answer according to the will of my Saviour, whom you love and I love." He was afraid that if we should bow together, our sympathies would strengthen, and we would ask for that which it would not be best for the Lord to grant.... We received no evidence that our son would recover. He died, putting his full trust in Jesus our Saviour. His death was a great blow to us, but it was a victory even in death; for his life was hid with Christ in God.
FLB	172	3	Before the death of my eldest boy, my babe was sick unto death. We prayed, and thought that the Lord would spare us our darling; but we closed his eyes in death, and laid him away to rest in Jesus, until the Life-giver shall come to awaken His precious loved ones to a glorious immortality.
FLB	172	4	Then my husband, the faithful servant of Jesus Christ, who had stood by my side for thirty-six years, was taken from me, and I was left to labor alone. He sleeps in Jesus. I have no tears to shed over his grave. But how I miss him! ...
FLB	172	5	The Lord has often instructed me that many little ones are to be laid away before the time of trouble. We shall see our children again. We shall meet them and know them in the heavenly courts. Put your trust in the Lord, and be not afraid.
------------------------Our Blessed Dead, June 16
FLB	173	1	And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. Revelation 14:13.
FLB	173	2	I hardly know what to say to you. [Words to a husband and children on the loss of a wife and mother.] The news of your wife's death was to me overwhelming. I could hardly believe it and can hardly believe it now. God gave me a view last Sabbath night which I will write....
FLB	173	3	I saw that she was sealed and would come up at the voice of God and stand upon the earth, and would be with the 144,000. I saw we need not mourn for her; she would rest in the time of trouble, and all that we could mourn for was our loss in being deprived of her company. I saw her death would result in good.
FLB	173	4	I warn F and the rest of the children to prepare to meet Jesus, and then they will meet their mother again, never more to be parted. O children, will you heed her faithful warning that she gave you while she was with you, and let not all her prayers that she has offered up to God for you be as water spilt upon the ground? Get ready to meet Jesus, and all will be well. Give your hearts to God and do not rest a day unless you know that you love Jesus. Dear Brother, we have prayed to God to gird you up and strengthen you to sustain your loss. God will be with you and uphold you. Only have faith....
FLB	173	5	Sorrow not as those who have no hope. The grave can hold her but a little while. Hope thou in God and cheer up, dear brother, and you will meet her in a little while. We will not cease to pray for the blessings of God to rest upon your family and you. God will be your sun and your shield. He will stand by you in this your deep affliction and trial. Endure the trial well and you will receive a crown of glory with your companion at the appearing of Jesus. Hold fast truth, and you with her will be crowned with glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life.
------------------------Man a Mere Mortal, June 17
FLB	174	1	Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker? Job 4:17.
FLB	174	2	Man is only mortal, and while he feels himself too wise to accept Jesus, he will remain only mortal.
FLB	174	3	Physical life is ... not eternal or immortal; for God, the Life-giver, takes it again. Man has no control over his life.
FLB	174	4	The Word of God nowhere teaches that the soul of man is immortal. Immortality is an attribute of God only.
FLB	174	5	Upon the fundamental error of natural immortality rests the doctrine of consciousness in death--a doctrine, like eternal torment, opposed to the teachings of the Scriptures, to the dictates of reason, and to our feelings of humanity.... What say the Scriptures concerning these things? David declares that man is not conscious in death. "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Psalm 146:4....
FLB	174	6	When, in answer to his prayer, Hezekiah's life was prolonged fifteen years, the grateful king rendered to God a tribute of praise for His great mercy. In this song he tells the reason why he thus rejoices: "The grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day." Isaiah 38:18, 19. Popular theology represents the righteous dead as in heaven, entered into bliss, and praising God with an immortal tongue; but Hezekiah could see no such glorious prospect in death....
FLB	174	7	Peter, on the day of Pentecost, declared that the patriarch David "is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day." "For David is not ascended into the heavens." Acts 2:29, 34. The fact that David remains in the grave until the resurrection, proves that the righteous do not go to heaven at death. It is only through the resurrection, and by virtue of the fact that Christ has risen, that David can at last sit at the right hand of God.
------------------------Man's State in Death, June 18
FLB	175	1	For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun. Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6.
FLB	175	2	The theory of the immortality of the soul was one of those false doctrines that Rome, borrowing from paganism, incorporated into the religion of Christendom. Martin Luther classed it with the "monstrous fables that form part of the Roman dunghill of decretals." Commenting on the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes, that the dead know not anything, the Reformer says: " ... Solomon judgeth that the dead are asleep, and feel nothing at all. For the dead lie there, accounting neither days nor years, but when they are awakened, they shall seem to have slept scarce one minute."
FLB	175	3	The martyr Tyndale, referring to the state of the dead, declared: "I confess openly, that I am not persuaded that they be already in the full glory that Christ is in, or the elect angels of God are in. Neither is it any article of my faith; for if it were so, I see not but then the preaching of the resurrection of the flesh were a thing in vain."
FLB	175	4	According to the popular belief, the redeemed in heaven are acquainted with all that takes place on the earth, and especially with the lives of the friends whom they have left behind. But how could it be a source of happiness to the dead to know the troubles of the living, ... to see them enduring all the sorrows, disappointments, and anguish of life? ... And how utterly revolting is the belief that as soon as the breath leaves the body, the soul of the impenitent is consigned to the flames of hell! To what depths of anguish must those be plunged who see their friends passing to the grave unprepared, to enter upon an eternity of woe and sin!
FLB	175	5	Christ represents death as a sleep to His believing children. Their life is hid with Christ in God, and until the last trump shall sound those who die will sleep in Him.
------------------------A Goodness in God's Justice, June 19
FLB	176	1	And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28.
FLB	176	2	How repugnant to every emotion of love and mercy, and even to our sense of justice, is the doctrine that the wicked dead are tormented with fire and brimstone in an eternally burning hell; that for the sins of a brief earthly life they are to suffer torture as long as God shall live....
FLB	176	3	Where, in the pages of God's Word, is such teaching to be found? Will the redeemed in heaven be lost to all emotions of pity and compassion, and even to feelings of common humanity? Are these to be exchanged for the indifference of the stoic, or the cruelty of the savage? No, no; such is not the teaching of the Book of God....
FLB	176	4	The theory of eternal torment is one of the false doctrines that constitute the wine of the abominations of Babylon.
FLB	176	5	When we consider in what false colors Satan has painted the character of God, can we wonder that our merciful Creator is feared,... even hated?
FLB	176	6	The principles of kindness, mercy, and love, taught and exemplified by our Saviour, are a transcript of the will and character of God.... God executes justice upon the wicked, for the good of the universe, and even for the good of those upon whom His judgments are visited....
FLB	176	7	Those who have chosen Satan as their leader, and have been controlled by his power, are not prepared to enter the presence of God....
FLB	176	8	Could they endure the glory of God and the Lamb? No, no; years of probation were granted them, that they might form characters for heaven; but they have never trained the mind to love purity; they have never learned the language of heaven, and now it is too late.
FLB	176	9	To sin, wherever found, "our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:29. In all who submit to His power the Spirit of God will consume sin. But if men cling to sin, they become identified with it. Then the glory of God, which destroys sin, must destroy them.
------------------------The Portion of the Wicked, June 20
FLB	177	1	Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Ezekiel 18:4.
FLB	177	2	While life is the inheritance of the righteous, death is the portion of the wicked.
FLB	177	3	The soul that sinneth it shall die an everlasting death--a death that will last forever, from which there will be no hope of a resurrection; and then the wrath of God will be appeased.
FLB	177	4	It was a marvel to me that Satan could succeed so well in making men believe that the words of God, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," mean that the soul that sinneth it shall not die, but live eternally in misery. Said the angel, "Life is life, whether it is in pain or happiness. Death is without pain, without joy, without hatred.
FLB	177	5	Christ endured an agonizing death under the most humiliating circumstances that we might have life. He gave up His precious life that He might vanquish death. But He rose from the tomb, and the myriads of angels who came to behold Him take up the life He had laid down heard His words of triumphant joy as He stood above Joseph's rent sepulcher proclaiming: "I am the resurrection, and the life." John 11:25.
FLB	177	6	The question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" has been answered. By bearing the penalty of sin, by going down into the grave, Christ has brightened the tomb for all who die in faith. God in human form has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. In dying, Christ secured eternal life for all who believe in Him. In dying, He condemned the originator of sin and disloyalty to suffer the penalty of sin--eternal death.
FLB	177	7	The possessor and giver of eternal life, Christ was the only one who could conquer death. He is our Redeemer.
FLB	177	8	Christ is life itself. He who passed through death to destroy him that had the power of death is the Source of all vitality. There is balm in Gilead, and a Physician there.
------------------------Natural Immortality A Lie, June 21
FLB	178	1	The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death. Proverbs 21:6.
FLB	178	2	The great original lie which he [Satan] told to Eve in Eden, "Ye shall not surely die," was the first sermon ever preached on the immortality of the soul. That sermon was crowned with success, and terrible results followed. He has brought minds to receive that sermon as truth, and ministers preach it, sing it, and pray it.
FLB	178	3	After the Fall, Satan bade his angels make a special effort to inculcate the belief in man's natural immortality; and having induced the people to receive this error, they were to lead them on to conclude that the sinner would live in eternal misery. Now the prince of darkness, working through his agents, represents God as a revengeful tyrant, declaring that He plunges into hell all those who do not please Him, and causes them ever to feel His wrath....
FLB	178	4	A large class to whom the doctrine of eternal torment is revolting, are driven to the opposite error. They see that the Scriptures represent God as a being of love and compassion, and they cannot believe that He will consign His creatures to the fires of an eternally burning hell. But holding that the soul is naturally immortal, they see no alternative but to conclude that all mankind will finally be saved. Many regard the threatenings of the Bible as designed merely to frighten men into obedience, and not to be literally fulfilled. Thus the sinner can live in selfish pleasure, disregarding the requirements of God, and yet expect to be finally received into His favor....
FLB	178	5	God has given to men a declaration of His character, and of His method of dealing with sin.... "All the wicked will he destroy." Psalm 145:20.... Yet all the manifestations of retributive justice will be perfectly consistent with the character of God as a merciful, long-suffering, benevolent being....
FLB	178	6	And all who have a just conception of these qualities will love Him because they are drawn toward Him in admiration of His attributes.
------------------------Now is God's Time, June 22
FLB	179	1	For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2.
FLB	179	2	God has ordained laws for the government, not only of living beings, but of all the operations of nature. Everything is under fixed laws, which cannot be disregarded....
FLB	179	3	Like the angels, the dwellers in Eden had been placed upon probation; their happy estate could be retained only on condition of fidelity to the Creator's law. They could obey and live, or disobey and perish. God had made them the recipients of rich blessings; but should they disregard His will, He who spared not the angels that sinned, could not spare them; transgression would forfeit His gifts, and bring upon them misery and ruin.
FLB	179	4	Adam and Eve transgressed the law of God. This made it necessary for them to be driven from Eden and be separated from the tree of life, to eat of which after their transgression would perpetuate sin....
FLB	179	5	Death entered the world because of transgression. But Christ gave His life that man should have another trial. He did not die on the cross to abolish the law of God, but to secure for man a second probation. He did not die to make sin an immortal attribute; He died to secure the right to destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.
FLB	179	6	It is impossible for men to secure the salvation of the soul after death....This life is the only time given to man in which to prepare for eternity.
FLB	179	7	Probation is granted to all, that all may form characters for eternal life. An opportunity will be given to all to decide for life or death....
FLB	179	8	The probation of those who choose to live a life of sin, and neglect the great salvation offered, closes when Christ's ministration ceases just previous to His appearing in the clouds of heaven.
FLB	179	9	Now is the hour of probation. Now is the day of salvation. Now, now, is God's time.
------------------------Christ the First Fruits, June 23
FLB	180	1	If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 1 Corinthians 15:19, 20.
FLB	180	2	Christ arose from the dead as the first fruits of those that slept. He was the antitype of the wave sheaf, and His resurrection took place on the very day when the wave sheaf was to be presented before the Lord. For more than a thousand years this symbolic ceremony had been performed. From the harvest fields the first heads of ripened grain were gathered, and when the people went up to Jerusalem to the Passover, the sheaf of first fruits was waved as a thank offering before the Lord. Not until this was presented could the sickle be put to the grain, and it be gathered into sheaves. The sheaf dedicated to God represented the harvest. So Christ the first fruits represented the great spiritual harvest to be gathered for the kingdom of God. His resurrection is the type and pledge of the resurrection of all the righteous dead.
FLB	180	3	The resurrection of Jesus was a sample of the final resurrection of all who sleep in Him. The risen body of the Saviour, His deportment, the accents of His speech, were all familiar to His followers. In like manner will those who sleep in Jesus rise again. We shall know our friends even as the disciples knew Jesus. Though they may have been deformed, diseased, or disfigured in this mortal life, yet in their resurrected and glorified body their individual identity will be perfectly preserved, and we shall recognize, in the face radiant with the light shining from the face of Jesus, the lineaments of those we love.
FLB	180	4	At His second coming all the precious dead shall hear His voice, and shall come forth to glorious, immortal life. The same power that raised Christ from the dead will raise His church, and glorify it with Him, above all principalities, above all powers, above every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come.
FLB	180	5	He will receive us with honor. To us will be given a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
------------------------Death Swallowed Up in Victory, June 24
FLB	181	1	For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 2 Corinthians 5:4.
FLB	181	2	The Life-giver is coming to break the fetters of the tomb. He is to bring forth the captives and proclaim, "I am the resurrection and the life."
FLB	181	3	Nowhere in the Sacred Scriptures is found the statement that the righteous go to their reward or the wicked to their punishment at death. The patriarchs and prophets have left no such assurance. Christ and His apostles have given no hint of it. The Bible clearly teaches that the dead do not go immediately to heaven. They are represented as sleeping until the resurrection. In the very day when the silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl broken, man's thoughts perish. They that go down to the grave are in silence. They know no more of anything that is done under the sun. Blessed rest for the weary righteous! Time, be it long or short, is but a moment to them. They sleep; they are awakened by the trump of God to a glorious immortality. "For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.... So when ... this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Corinthians 15:52-54. As they are called forth from their deep slumber, they begin to think just where they ceased. The last sensation was the pang of death, the last thought that they were falling beneath the power of the grave. When they arise from the tomb, their first glad thought will be echoed in the triumphal shout, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" 1 Corinthians 15:55.
FLB	181	4	The pangs of death were the last things they felt.... When they awake the pain is all gone.... The gates of the city of God swing back upon their hinges, ... and the ransomed of God walk in through the cherubims and seraphims. Christ bids them welcome and puts upon them His benediction. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: ... enter thou into the joy of thy lord." Matthew 25:21.
------------------------A Special Resurrection, June 25
FLB	182	1	And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Daniel 12:2.
FLB	182	2	It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people. The sun appears, shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow in quick succession. The wicked look with terror and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance. Everything in nature seems turned out of its course. The streams cease to flow. Dark, heavy clouds come up, and clash against each other. In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying, "It is done." Revelation 16:17....
FLB	182	3	That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty earthquake, "such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." Revelation 16:18.... The whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea. Its surface is breaking up. Its very foundations seem to be giving way....
FLB	182	4	Graves are opened, and "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth ... awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." Daniel 12:2. All who have died in the faith of the third angel's message come forth from the tomb glorified, to hear God's covenant of peace with those who have kept His law.
FLB	182	5	Those who had died in faith under the third angel's message, keeping the Sabbath, came forth from their dusty beds.
FLB	182	6	"They also which pierced him" (Revelation 1:7), those that mocked and derided Christ's dying agonies, and the most violent opposers of His truth and His people, are raised to behold Him in His glory, and to see the honor placed upon the loyal and obedient....
FLB	182	7	The voice of God is heard from heaven, declaring the day and hour of Jesus' coming, and delivering the everlasting covenant to His people. And when the blessing is pronounced on those who have honored God by keeping His Sabbath holy, there is a mighty shout of victory.
------------------------The Resurrection to Immortality, June 26
FLB	183	1	For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 1 Thessalonians 4:14.
FLB	183	2	To the believer, Christ is the resurrection and the life. In our Saviour the life that was lost through sin is restored; for He has life in Himself to quicken whom He will. He is invested with the right to give immortality. The life that He laid down in humanity, He takes up again, and gives to humanity.
FLB	183	3	When Christ comes to gather to Himself those who have been faithful, the last trump will sound, and the whole earth, from the summits of the loftiest mountains to the lowest recesses of the deepest mines, will hear. The righteous dead will hear the sound of the last trump, and will come forth from their graves.
FLB	183	4	All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when they entered the tomb. Adam, who stands among the risen throng, is of lofty height and majestic form, in stature but little below the Son of God. He presents a marked contrast to the people of later generations; in this one respect is shown the great degeneracy of the race. But all arise with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth.... The mortal, corruptible form, devoid of comeliness, once polluted with sin, becomes perfect, beautiful, and immortal.... Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will "grow up" to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory....
FLB	183	5	The living righteous are changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." 1 Corinthians 15:52. At the voice of God they were glorified; now they are made immortal, and with the risen saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air.... Little children are borne by holy angels to their mothers' arms. Friends long separated by death are united, nevermore to part, and with songs of gladness ascend together to the city of God.
FLB	183	6	All the precious dead, from righteous Abel to the last saint that dies, shall awake to glorious, immortal life.
------------------------The Resurrection to Damnation, June 27
FLB	184	1	For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Psalm 37:9.
FLB	184	2	At the close of the thousand years the second resurrection will take place. Then the wicked will be raised from the dead, and appear before God.... Thus the revelator, after describing the resurrection of the righteous, says, "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Revelation 20:5.
FLB	184	3	At the first resurrection all came forth in immortal bloom; but at the second the marks of the curse are visible on all. The kings and noblemen of the earth, the mean and low, the learned and unlearned, come forth together. All behold the Son of man; and those very men who despised and mocked Him, who put the crown of thorns upon His sacred brow, and smote Him with the reed, behold Him in all His kingly majesty. Those who spit upon Him in the hour of His trial now turn from His piercing gaze and from the glory of His countenance. Those who drove the nails through His hands and feet now look upon the marks of His crucifixion. Those who thrust the spear into His side behold the marks of their cruelty on His body. And they know that He is the very one whom they crucified and derided in His expiring agony. And then there arises one long protracted wail of agony, as they flee to hide from the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
FLB	184	4	All are seeking to hide in the rocks, to shield themselves from the terrible glory of Him whom they once despised. And, overwhelmed and pained with His majesty and exceeding glory, they with one accord raise their voices, and with terrible distinctness exclaim, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Psalm 118:26.
FLB	184	5	Fire will come down from God out of heaven and devour them [the wicked]--burn them up root and branch. Satan is the root, and his children are the branches.
FLB	184	6	The destiny of the wicked is fixed by their own choice. Their exclusion from heaven is voluntary with themselves, and just and merciful on the part of God.
------------------------The Life-giver Is Coming, June 28
FLB	185	1	If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Job 14:14.
FLB	185	2	The Life-giver will call up His purchased possession in the first resurrection, and until that triumphant hour, when the last trump shall sound and the vast army shall come forth to eternal victory, every sleeping saint will be kept in safety and will be guarded as a precious jewel, who is known to God by name. By the power of the Saviour that dwelt in them while living and because they were partakers of the divine nature, they are brought forth from the dead.
FLB	185	3	Our fondest hopes are often blighted here. Our loved ones are torn from us by death. We close their eyes and habit them for the tomb, and lay them away from our sight. But hope bears our spirits up. We are not parted forever, but shall meet the loved ones who sleep in Jesus. They shall come again from the land of the enemy. The Life-giver is coming. Myriads of holy angels escort Him on His way. He bursts the bands of death, breaks the fetters of the tomb, the precious captives come forth in health and immortal beauty.
FLB	185	4	Our personal identity is preserved in the resurrection, though not the same particles of matter or material substance as went into the grave.... In the resurrection every man will have his own character. God in His own time will call forth the dead, giving again the breath of life, and bidding the dry bones live.
FLB	185	5	There will be a relinking of the family chain. When we look upon our dead, we may think of the morning when the trump of God shall sound, when "the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." 1 Corinthians 15:52.
FLB	185	6	The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be removed, and Christ's faithful ones will appear in "the beauty of the Lord our God," in mind and soul and body reflecting the perfect image of their Lord.
FLB	185	7	Are we ready so that if we shall fall asleep, we can do so with hope in Jesus Christ?
------------------------Sorrow With Hope, June 29
FLB	186	1	But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13.
FLB	186	2	To the afflicted ones I would say, be of good comfort in the hope of the resurrection morning. The waters of which you have been drinking are as bitter to your taste as were the waters of Marah to the children of Israel in the wilderness, but Jesus can make them so sweet with His love....
FLB	186	3	God has provided a balm for every wound. There is a balm in Gilead, there is a Physician there. Will you not now as never before study the Scriptures? Seek the Lord for wisdom in every emergency. In every trial plead with Jesus to show you a way out of your troubles, then your eyes will be opened to behold the remedy and to apply to your case the healing promises that have been recorded in His Word. In this way the enemy will find no place to lead you into mourning and unbelief, but instead you will have faith and hope and courage in the Lord. The Holy Spirit will give you clear discernment that you may see and appropriate every blessing that will act as an antidote to grief, as a branch of healing to every draught of bitterness that is placed to your lips. Every draught of bitterness will be mingled with the love of Jesus, and in place of complaining of the bitterness, you will realize that Jesus' love and grace are so mingled with sorrow that it has been turned into subdued, holy, sanctified joy.
FLB	186	4	When Henry White, our eldest son, lay dying, he said, "A bed of pain is a precious place when we have the presence of Jesus." When we are obliged to drink of the bitter waters, turn away from the bitter to the precious and the bright. In trial grace can give the human soul assurance, and when we stand at the deathbed and see how the Christian can bear suffering and go through the valley of death, we gather strength ... and we fail not, neither are we discouraged in leading souls to Jesus.
------------------------When Eternal Life Begins, June 30
FLB	187	1	And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 1 John 5:11, 12.
FLB	187	2	Jesus declared, "I am the resurrection, and the life." In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. "He that hath the Son hath life." The divinity of Christ is the believer's assurance of eternal life. "He that believeth in me," said Jesus, "though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." John 11:25, 26.
FLB	187	3	To the believer, death is but a small matter. Christ speaks of it as if it were of little moment. "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death," "he shall never taste of death." John 8:51, 52. To the Christian, death is but a sleep, a moment of silence and darkness. The life is hid with Christ in God, and "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Colossians 3:4.
FLB	187	4	He who Himself was soon to die upon the cross stood ... a conqueror of the grave, and asserted His right and power to give eternal life.
FLB	187	5	"I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:40. Christ became one flesh with us, in order that we might become one spirit with Him. It is by virtue of this union that we are to come forth from the grave--not merely as a manifestation of the power of Christ, but because, through faith, His life has become ours. Those who see Christ in His true character, and receive Him into the heart, have everlasting life. It is through the Spirit that Christ dwells in us; and the Spirit of God, received into the heart by faith, is the beginning of the life eternal.
FLB	187	6	Jesus is ... crying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." "Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." John 7:37; Revelation 22:17; John 4:14.
------------------------The Lord Is in This Place, July 1
FLB	188	1	And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Genesis 28:16, 17.
FLB	188	2	True reverence for God is inspired by a sense of His infinite greatness and a realization of His presence. With this sense of the Unseen, every heart should be deeply impressed. The hour and place of prayer are sacred, because God is there. And as reverence is manifested in attitude and demeanor, the feeling that inspires it will be deepened. "Holy and reverend is his name," the psalmist declares (Psalm 111:9). Angels, when they speak that name, veil their faces. With what reverence, then, should we, who are fallen and sinful, take it upon our lips! Well would it be for old and young to ponder those words of Scripture that show how the place marked by God's special presence should be regarded. "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet," He commanded Moses at the burning bush, "for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Exodus 3:5.
FLB	188	3	God is high and holy; and to the humble, believing soul, His house on earth, the place where His people meet for worship, is as the gate of heaven. The song of praise, the words spoken by Christ's ministers, are God's appointed agencies to prepare a people for the church above, for that loftier worship into which there can enter nothing that is impure.... God sees every irreverent thought or action, and it is registered in the books of heaven.... Nothing is hid from His all-searching eye. If you have formed in any degree the habit of inattention and indifference in the house of God, exercise the powers you have to correct it.... Practice reverence until it becomes a part of yourself.
------------------------Keep Silence Before Him, July 2
FLB	189	1	The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. Habakkuk 2:20.
FLB	189	2	From the sacredness which was attached to the earthly sanctuary, Christians may learn how they should regard the place where the Lord meets with His people. There has been a great change, not for the better, but for the worse, in the habits and customs of the people in reference to religious worship. The precious, the sacred, things which connect us with God are fast losing their hold upon our minds and hearts, and are being brought down to the level of common things. The reverence which the people had anciently for the sanctuary where they met with God in sacred service has largely passed away. Nevertheless, God Himself gave the order of His service, exalting it high above everything of a temporal nature.
FLB	189	3	The house is the sanctuary for the family, and the closet or the grove the most retired place for individual worship; but the church is the sanctuary for the congregation.
FLB	189	4	In the name of Jesus we may come before Him with confidence, but we must not approach Him with the boldness of presumption, as though He were on a level with ourselves. There are those who address the great and all-powerful and holy God, who dwelleth in light unapproachable, as they would address an equal, or even an inferior. There are those who conduct themselves in His house as they would not presume to do in the audience-chamber of an earthly ruler. These should remember that they are in His sight whom seraphim adore.
FLB	189	5	Those who assemble to worship Him should put away every evil thing. Unless they worship Him in spirit and truth and in the beauty of holiness, their coming together will be of no avail.
FLB	189	6	It is your privilege, dear young friends, to glorify God upon the earth. In order to do this, you must direct your minds away from things that are superficial, frivolous, and unimportant, to those that are of eternal worth.
------------------------Purging From Sin, July 3
FLB	190	1	Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Isaiah 6:5.
FLB	190	2	As the prophet Isaiah beheld the glory of the Lord, he was amazed, and, overwhelmed with a sense of his own weakness and unworthiness, he cried, "Woe is me! ..."
FLB	190	3	Isaiah had denounced the sin of others; but now he sees himself exposed to the same condemnation he had pronounced upon them. He had been satisfied with a cold, lifeless ceremony in his worship of God. He had not known this until the vision was given him of the Lord. How little now appeared his wisdom and talents as he looked upon the sacredness and majesty of the sanctuary.... His view of himself might be expressed in the language of the apostle Paul, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans 7:24....
FLB	190	4	"Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." Isaiah 6:6, 7.
FLB	190	5	The vision given to Isaiah represents the condition of God's people in the last days. They are privileged to see by faith the work that is going forward in the heavenly sanctuary.... As they look by faith into the holy of holies, and see the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, they perceive that they are a people of unclean lips--a people whose lips have often spoken vanity, and whose talents have not been sanctified and employed to the glory of God. Well may they despair as they contrast their own weakness and unworthiness with the purity and loveliness of the glorious character of Christ. But if they, like Isaiah, will receive the impression the Lord designs shall be made upon the heart, if they will humble their souls before God, there is hope for them. The bow of promise is above the throne, and the work done for Isaiah will be performed in them.
------------------------The Spirit in the Soul Temple, July 4
FLB	191	1	Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16.
FLB	191	2	From eternal ages it was God's purpose that every created being, from the bright and holy seraph to man, should be a temple for the indwelling of the Creator. Because of sin, humanity ceased to be a temple for God. Darkened and defiled by evil, the heart of man no longer revealed the glory of the Divine One. But by the incarnation of the Son of God, the purpose of Heaven is fulfilled. God dwells in humanity, and through saving grace the heart of man becomes again His temple.
FLB	191	3	God designed that the temple at Jerusalem should be a continual witness to the high destiny open to every soul. But the Jews had not understood the significance of the building they regarded with so much pride. They did not yield themselves as holy temples for the Divine Spirit. The courts of the temple at Jerusalem, filled with the tumult of unholy traffic, represented all too truly the temple of the heart.... In cleansing the temple from the world's buyers and sellers, Jesus announced His mission to cleanse the heart from the defilement of sin--from ... the selfish lusts, the evil habits, that corrupt the soul....
FLB	191	4	No man can of himself cast out the evil throng that have taken possession of the heart. Only Christ can cleanse the soul temple. But He will not force an entrance. He comes not into the heart as to the temple of old; but He says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him." Revelation 3:20. He will come, not for one day merely; for He says, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; ... and they shall be my people." 2 Corinthians 6:16.... His presence will cleanse and sanctify the soul, so that it may be a holy temple unto the Lord, and "an habitation of God through the Spirit." Ephesians 2:22.
FLB	191	5	The Lord is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who serve Him than parents are to give good gifts to their children.
------------------------The Purpose of the Sanctuary, July 5
FLB	192	1	And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. Exodus 25:8.
FLB	192	2	"I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God," "and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory" (Exodus 29:45, 43), was the assurance given to Moses.
FLB	192	3	In the building of the sanctuary as a dwelling place for God, Moses was directed to make all things according to the pattern of things in the heavens. God called him into the mount, and revealed to him the heavenly things, and in their similitude the tabernacle, with all that pertained to it, was fashioned.
FLB	192	4	So to Israel, whom He desired to make His dwelling place, He revealed His glorious ideal of character. The pattern was shown them in the mount when the law was given from Sinai....
FLB	192	5	But this ideal they were, in themselves, powerless to attain. The revelation at Sinai could only impress them with their need and helplessness. Another lesson the tabernacle, through its service of sacrifice, was to teach--the lesson of pardon of sin, and power through the Saviour for obedience unto life.
FLB	192	6	Through Christ was to be fulfilled the purpose of which the tabernacle was a symbol--that glorious building, its walls of glistening gold reflecting in rainbow hues the curtains inwrought with cherubim, the fragrance of ever-burning incense pervading all, the priests robed in spotless white, and in the deep mystery of the inner place, above the mercy seat, between the figures of the bowed, worshiping angels, the glory of the Holiest. In all, God desired His people to read His purpose for the human soul. It was the same purpose long afterward set forth by the apostle Paul, speaking by the Holy Spirit:
FLB	192	7	"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17.
------------------------A Temple Built by Sacrifice, July 6
FLB	193	1	Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. Exodus 25:2.
FLB	193	2	God Himself gave to Moses the plan of that structure [the sanctuary], with particular directions as to its size and form, the materials to be employed, and every article of furniture which it was to contain. The holy places made with hands were to be "figures of the true" (Hebrews 9:24), "patterns of things in the heavens" (Hebrews 9:23)--a miniature representation of the heavenly temple where Christ, our great high priest, after offering His life as a sacrifice, was to minister in the sinner's behalf....
FLB	193	3	For the building of the sanctuary, great and expensive preparations were necessary; a large amount of the most precious and costly material was required; yet the Lord accepted only freewill offerings. "Of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering," was the divine command repeated by Moses to the congregation. Devotion to God and a spirit of sacrifice were the first requisites in preparing a dwelling place for the Most High.
FLB	193	4	All the people responded with one accord. "They came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments. And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted, and brought bracelets ... : and every man that offered offered an offering of gold unto the Lord." Exodus 35:21, 22....
FLB	193	5	The people, old and young--men, women, and children--continued to bring their offerings, until those in charge of the work found that they had enough, and even more than could be used....
FLB	193	6	All who love the worship of God, and prize the blessing of His sacred presence, will manifest the same spirit of sacrifice in preparing a house where He may meet with them.
FLB	193	7	If there was ever a time when sacrifices should be made, it is now.
------------------------Strength and Beauty in His Sanctuary, July 7
FLB	194	1	Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Psalm 96:6.
FLB	194	2	From the creation and fall of man to the present time, there has been a continual unfolding of the plan of God for the redemption, through Christ, of the fallen race. The tabernacle and temple of God on earth were patterned after the original in heaven. Around the sanctuary and its solemn services mystically gathered the grand truths which were to be developed through succeeding generations.
FLB	194	3	There has been no time when God has granted greater evidences of His grandeur and exalted majesty than while He was the acknowledged governor of Israel. The manifestations of an invisible King were grand and unspeakably awful. A scepter was swayed, but it was held by no human hand. The sacred ark, covered by the mercy seat, and containing the holy law of God, was symbolical of Jehovah Himself. It was the power of the Israelites to conquer in battle. Before it idols were thrown down, and for rashly looking into it thousands perished. Never in our world has the Lord given such open manifestations of His supremacy as when He alone was the acknowledged king of Israel.
FLB	194	4	The law of God, enshrined within the ark, was the great rule of righteousness and judgment. That law pronounced death upon the transgressor; but above the law was the mercy seat, upon which the presence of God was revealed, and from which, by virtue of the atonement, pardon was granted to the repentant sinner. Thus in the work of Christ for our redemption, symbolized by the sanctuary service, "mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Psalm 85:10.
FLB	194	5	While we rejoice today that our Saviour has come, that the sacrifices of the former dispensation have given place to the perfect offering for sin, we are not excusable in showing contempt for that period.
------------------------Redeemer, Priest, and King, July 8
FLB	195	1	For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Hebrews 7:26.
FLB	195	2	By divine direction the tribe of Levi was set apart for the service of the sanctuary. In the earliest times every man was the priest of his own household. In the days of Abraham, the priesthood was regarded as the birthright of the eldest son. Now, instead of the first-born of all Israel, the Lord accepted the tribe of Levi for the work of the sanctuary.... The priesthood, however, was restricted to the family of Aaron. Aaron and his sons alone were permitted to minister before the Lord; the rest of the tribe were entrusted with the charge of the tabernacle....
FLB	195	3	In accordance with their office, a special dress was appointed for the priests. "Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty" (Exodus 28:2), was the divine direction to Moses.... Everything connected with the apparel and deportment of the priests was to be such as to impress the beholder with a sense of the holiness of God, the sacredness of His worship, and the purity required of those who came into His presence. Not only the sanctuary itself, but the ministration of the priests, was to "serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things." Hebrews 8:5.
FLB	195	4	The people were taught each day, by means of types and shadows, the great truths relative to the advent of Christ as Redeemer, Priest, and King; and once each year their minds were carried forward to the closing events of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, the final purification of the universe from sin and sinners. The sacrifices and offerings of the Mosaic ritual were ever pointing toward a better service, even a heavenly.
FLB	195	5	The merits of His [Jesus'] sacrifice are sufficient to present to the Father in our behalf.
FLB	195	6	We are to have free access to the atoning blood of Christ. This we must regard as the most precious privilege, the greatest blessing, ever granted to sinful man.
------------------------A Daily Consecration to God, July 9
FLB	196	1	I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1.
FLB	196	2	The ministration of the sanctuary consisted of two divisions, a daily and a yearly service. The daily service was performed at the altar of burnt offering in the court of the tabernacle, and in the holy place; while the yearly service was in the most holy....
FLB	196	3	The daily service consisted of the morning and evening burnt offering, the offering of sweet incense on the golden altar, and the special offerings for individual sins. And there were also offerings for sabbaths, new moons, and special feasts.
FLB	196	4	Every morning and evening a lamb of a year old was burned upon the altar, with its appropriate meat offering, thus symbolizing the daily consecration of the nation to Jehovah, and their constant dependence upon the atoning blood of Christ. God expressly directed that every offering presented for the service of the sanctuary should be "without blemish. "... Only an offering "without blemish" could be a symbol of His perfect purity who was to offer Himself as "a lamb without blemish and without spot." 1 Peter 1:19. The apostle Paul points to these sacrifices as an illustration of what the followers of Christ are to become. He says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." ...
FLB	196	5	The hours appointed for the morning and the evening sacrifice were regarded as sacred, and they came to be observed as the set time for worship throughout the Jewish nation.... In this custom, Christians have an example for morning and evening prayer. While God condemns a mere round of ceremonies, without the spirit of worship, He looks with great pleasure upon those who love Him, bowing morning and evening to seek pardon for sins committed, and to present their requests for needed blessings.
------------------------The Incense of Righteousness, July 10
FLB	197	1	And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. Ephesians 5:2.
FLB	197	2	The showbread was kept ever before the Lord as a perpetual offering.... It was called showbread, or "bread of the presence," because it was ever before the face of the Lord. It was an acknowledgment of man's dependence upon God for both temporal and spiritual food, and that it is received only through the mediation of Christ.... Both the manna and the showbread pointed to Christ, the living bread, who is ever in the presence of God for us.
FLB	197	3	In the offering of incense the priest was brought more directly into the presence of God than in any other act of the daily ministration. As the inner veil of the sanctuary did not extend to the top of the building, the glory of God, which was manifested above the mercy seat, was partially visible from the first apartment. When the priest offered incense before the Lord, he looked toward the ark; and as the cloud of incense arose, the divine glory descended upon the mercy seat and filled the most holy place, and often so filled both apartments that the priest was obliged to retire to the door of the tabernacle. As in that typical service the priest looked by faith to the mercy seat which he could not see, so the people of God are now to direct their prayers to Christ, their great high priest, who, unseen by human vision, is pleading in their behalf in the sanctuary above.
FLB	197	4	The incense, ascending with the prayers of Israel, represents the merits and intercession of Christ, His perfect righteousness, which through faith is imputed to His people, and which can alone make the worship of sinful beings acceptable to God. Before the veil of the most holy place, was an altar of perpetual intercession, before the holy, an altar of continual atonement. By blood and by incense, God was to be approached--symbols pointing to the great Mediator, through whom sinners may approach Jehovah, and through whom alone mercy and salvation can be granted to the repentant, believing soul.
------------------------Christ Died for the Individual, July 11
FLB	198	1	This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 1 Timothy 1:15.
FLB	198	2	The most important part of the daily ministration was the service performed in behalf of individuals. The repentant sinner brought his offering to the door of the tabernacle, and placing his hand upon the victim's head, confessed his sins, thus in figure transferring them from himself to the innocent sacrifice. By his own hand the animal was then slain, and the blood was carried by the priest into the holy place and sprinkled before the veil, behind which was the ark containing the law that the sinner had transgressed. By this ceremony the sin was, through the blood, transferred in figure to the sanctuary. In some cases the blood was not taken into the holy place; but the flesh was then to be eaten by the priest.... Both ceremonies alike symbolized the transfer of the sin from the penitent to the sanctuary.
FLB	198	3	Such was the work that went on day by day throughout the year. The sins of Israel being thus transferred to the sanctuary, the holy places were defiled, and a special work became necessary for the removal of the sins. God commanded that an atonement be made for each of the sacred apartments, as for the altar, to "cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel." Leviticus 16:19.
FLB	198	4	Once a year, on the great Day of Atonement, the priest entered the most holy place for the cleansing of the sanctuary. The work there performed, completed the yearly round of ministration....
FLB	198	5	The earthly sanctuary was built ... according to the pattern shown ... in the mount. It was "a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices"; its two holy places were "patterns of things in the heavens"; Christ, our great high priest, is "a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." Hebrews 9:9, 23; 8:2.
FLB	198	6	He appears in the presence of God, ... ready to accept the repentance and to answer the prayers of His people.
------------------------The Voluntary Sacrifice of Jesus, July 12
FLB	199	1	Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. Psalm 40:7, 8.
FLB	199	2	The children of Israel were anciently commanded to make an offering for the entire congregation to purify them from ceremonial defilement. This sacrifice was a red heifer and represented the more perfect offering that should redeem from the pollution of sin. This was an occasional sacrifice for the purification of all those who had necessarily or accidentally touched the dead. All who came in contact with death in any way were considered ceremonially unclean. This was to forcibly impress the minds of the Hebrews with the fact that death came in consequence of sin and therefore is a representative of sin. The one heifer, the one ark, the one brazen serpent, impressively point to the one great offering, the sacrifice of Christ.
FLB	199	3	This heifer was to be red, which was a symbol of blood. It must be without spot or blemish, and one that had never borne a yoke. Here, again, Christ was typified. The Son of God came voluntarily to accomplish the work of atonement. There was no obligatory yoke upon Him, for He was independent and above all law. The angels, as God's intelligent messengers, were under the yoke of obligation; no personal sacrifice of theirs could atone for the guilt of fallen man. Christ alone was free from the claims of the law to undertake the redemption of the sinful race....
FLB	199	4	Jesus might have remained at His Father's right hand, wearing His kingly crown and royal robes. But He chose to exchange all the riches, honor, and glory of heaven for the poverty of humanity, and His station of high command for the horrors of Gethsemane and the humiliation and agony of Calvary....
FLB	199	5	The wounded hands, the pierced side, the marred feet, plead eloquently for fallen man, whose redemption is purchased at such an infinite cost. Oh, matchless condescension! Neither time nor events can lessen the efficacy of the atoning sacrifice.
------------------------The Blood Applied Continually, July 13
FLB	200	1	For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, ... purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrews 9:13, 14.
FLB	200	2	The sacrificial [red] heifer was conducted without the camp and slain in the most imposing manner. Thus Christ suffered without the gates of Jerusalem, for Calvary was outside the city walls. This was to show that Christ did not die for the Hebrews alone, but for all mankind. He proclaims to a fallen world that He has come to be their Redeemer and urges them to accept the salvation He offers them. The heifer having been slain in a most solemn manner, the priest, clothed in pure white garments, took the blood in his hands as it issued from the body of the victim and cast it toward the temple seven times....
FLB	200	3	The body of the heifer was burned to ashes, which signified a whole and ample sacrifice. The ashes were then gathered up by a person uncontaminated by contact with the dead and placed in a vessel containing water from a running stream. This clean and pure person then took a cedar stick with scarlet cloth and a bunch of hyssop, and sprinkled the contents of the vessel upon the tent and the people assembled. This ceremony was repeated several times ... and was done as a purification from sin.
FLB	200	4	Thus Christ, in His own spotless righteousness, after shedding His precious blood, enters into the holy place to cleanse the sanctuary. And there the crimson current is brought into the service of reconciling God to man. Some may look upon this slaying of the heifer as a meaningless ceremony, but it was done by the command of God and bears a deep significance that has not lost its application to the present time....
FLB	200	5	The blood of Christ is efficacious, but it needs to be applied continually....
FLB	200	6	If it was necessary in ancient times for the unclean to be purified by the blood of sprinkling, how essential for those living in the perils of the last days, and exposed to the temptations of Satan, to have the blood of Christ applied to their hearts daily.
------------------------Into the Holy Place, July 14
FLB	201	1	Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Hebrews 9:12.
FLB	201	2	In the spring of A.D. 31, Christ, the true Sacrifice, was offered on Calvary.
FLB	201	3	When Christ on the cross cried out, "It is finished," the veil of the temple was rent in twain. This veil was significant to the Jewish nation. It was of most costly material, of purple and gold, and was of great length and breadth. At the moment when Christ breathed His last, there were witnesses in the temple who beheld the strong, heavy material rent by unseen hands from top to bottom. This act signified to the heavenly universe, and to a world corrupted by sin, that a new and living way had been opened to the fallen race, that all sacrificial offerings terminated in the one great offering of the Son of God.
FLB	201	4	Type ... met antitype in the death of God's Son.... The way into the holiest is laid open. A new and living way is prepared for all. No longer need sinful, sorrowing humanity await the coming of the high priest. Henceforth the Saviour was to officiate as priest and advocate in the heaven of heavens.... There is now an end to all sacrifices and offerings for sin. The Son of God is come according to His word, "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God." "By his own blood" He entereth "in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Hebrews 10:7; 9:12.
FLB	201	5	The Holy Spirit which descended on the day of Pentecost carried the minds of the disciples from the earthly sanctuary to the heavenly, where Jesus had entered by His own blood, to shed upon His disciples the benefits of His atonement.
FLB	201	6	The eyes of men were turned to the true sacrifice for the sins of the world. The earthly priesthood ceased; but we look to Jesus, the minister of the new covenant.
FLB	201	7	The Elder Brother of our race is by the eternal throne.
------------------------The Very Center of His Work, July 15
FLB	202	1	Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. Hebrews 8:1, 2.
FLB	202	2	The question, What is the sanctuary? is clearly answered in the Scriptures. The term "sanctuary," as used in the Bible, refers, first, to the tabernacle built by Moses, as a pattern of heavenly things; and, secondly, to the "true tabernacle" in heaven, to which the earthly sanctuary pointed. At the death of Christ the typical service ended. The "true tabernacle" in heaven is the sanctuary of the new covenant.
FLB	202	3	The holy places of the sanctuary in heaven are represented by the two apartments in the sanctuary on earth. As in vision the apostle John was granted a view of the temple of God in heaven, he beheld there "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne." Revelation 4:5. He saw an angel "having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne." Revelation 8:3. Here the prophet was permitted to behold the first apartment of the sanctuary in heaven; and he saw there the "seven lamps of fire" and the "golden altar," represented by the golden candlestick and the altar of incense in the sanctuary on earth. Again, "the temple of God was opened" (Revelation 11:19), and he looked within the inner veil, upon the holy of holies. Here he beheld "the ark of his testament," represented by the sacred chest constructed by Moses to contain the law of God....
FLB	202	4	Moses made the earthly sanctuary after a pattern which was shown him. Paul teaches that that pattern was the true sanctuary which is in heaven. And John testifies that he saw it in heaven.
FLB	202	5	The sanctuary in heaven is the very center of Christ's work in behalf of men. It concerns every soul living upon the earth.
FLB	202	6	When Christ ascended to heaven, He ascended as our Advocate. We always have a Friend at court.
------------------------Appears in Heaven for Us, July 16
FLB	203	1	For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Hebrews 9:24.
FLB	203	2	The subject of the sanctuary ... should be clearly understood by the people of God. All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest....
FLB	203	3	The intercession of Christ in man's behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross. By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven. We must by faith enter within the veil, "whither the forerunner is for us entered." Hebrews 6:20. There the light from the cross of Calvary is reflected. There we may gain a clearer insight into the mysteries of redemption. The salvation of man is accomplished at an infinite expense to heaven; the sacrifice made is equal to the broadest demands of the broken law of God. Jesus has opened the way to the Father's throne, and through His mediation the sincere desire of all who come to Him in faith may be presented before God.
FLB	203	4	"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." Proverbs 28:13. If those who hide and excuse their faults could see how Satan exults over them, how he taunts Christ and holy angels with their course, they would make haste to confess their sins and to put them away. Through defects in the character, Satan works to gain control of the whole mind, and he knows that if these defects are cherished, he will succeed. Therefore he is constantly seeking to deceive the followers of Christ with his fatal sophistry that it is impossible for them to overcome. But Jesus pleads in their behalf His wounded hands, His bruised body; and He declares to all who would follow Him, "My grace is sufficient for thee." 2 Corinthians 12:9.... Let none, then, regard their defects as incurable. God will give faith and grace to overcome them.
------------------------Uttermost Salvation for His Children, July 17
FLB	204	1	But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:24, 25.
FLB	204	2	Every provision has been made for our infirmities, every encouragement offered us to come to Christ.
FLB	204	3	Christ offered up His broken body to purchase back God's heritage, to give man another trial.... By His spotless life, His obedience, His death on the cross of Calvary, Christ interceded for the lost race. And now, not as a mere petitioner does the Captain of our salvation intercede for us, but as a Conqueror claiming His victory. His offering is complete, and as our Intercessor He executes His self-appointed work, holding before God the censer containing His own spotless merits and the prayers, confessions, and thanksgiving of His people. Perfumed with the fragrance of His righteousness, these ascend to God as a sweet savor. The offering is wholly acceptable, and pardon covers all transgression.
FLB	204	4	Christ has pledged Himself to be our substitute and surety, and He neglects no one. He who could not see human beings exposed to eternal ruin without pouring out His soul unto death in their behalf, will look with pity and compassion upon every soul who realizes that he cannot save himself.
FLB	204	5	He will look upon no trembling suppliant without raising him up. He who through His own atonement provided for man an infinite fund of moral power, will not fail to employ this power in our behalf. We may take our sins and sorrows to His feet; for He loves us. His every look and word invites our confidence. He will shape and mold our characters according to His own will.
FLB	204	6	In the whole satanic force there is not power to overcome one soul who in simple trust casts himself on Christ. "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." Isaiah 40:29.
------------------------The True Mediator, July 18
FLB	205	1	For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5.
FLB	205	2	In the mediatorial work of Christ, the love of God was revealed in its perfection to men and angels.
FLB	205	3	He stands to mediate for you. He is the great High Priest who is pleading in your behalf; and you are to come and present your case to the Father through Jesus Christ. Thus you can find access to God; and though you sin, your case is not hopeless. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John 2:1.
FLB	205	4	Christ is your Redeemer; He will take no advantage of your humiliating confessions. If you have sin of a private character, confess it to Christ, who is the only mediator between God and man.
FLB	205	5	He presents us to the Father clothed in the white raiment of His own character. He pleads before God in our behalf, saying: I have taken the sinner's place. Look not upon this wayward child, but look on Me. Does Satan plead loudly against our souls, ... claiming us as his prey, the blood of Christ pleads with greater power.
FLB	205	6	The work of Christ in the sanctuary above, presenting His own blood each moment before the mercy seat, as He makes intercession for us, should have its full impression upon the heart, that we may realize the worth of each moment. Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us; but one moment carelessly spent can never be recovered.
FLB	205	7	Think of Jesus. He is in His holy place, not in a state of solitude, but surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand of heavenly angels who wait to do His bidding. And He bids them go and work for the weakest saint who puts his trust in God. High and low, rich and poor, have the same help provided.
FLB	205	8	Consider this great fact that Christ ceases not to engage in His solemn work in the heavenly sanctuary, and if you wear Christ's yoke, if you lift Christ's burden, you will be engaged in a work of like character with that of your living Head.
------------------------The Heavenly Things Purified, July 19
FLB	206	1	And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Hebrews 9:22, 23.
FLB	206	2	What is the cleansing of the sanctuary? That there was such a service in connection with the earthly sanctuary, is stated in the Old Testament Scriptures. But can there be anything in heaven to be cleansed? In Hebrews 9 the cleansing of both the earthly and the heavenly sanctuary is plainly taught....
FLB	206	3	The cleansing, both in the typical and in the real service, must be accomplished with blood: in the former, with the blood of animals; in the latter, with the blood of Christ.
FLB	206	4	The cleansing was not a removal of physical impurities, for it was to be accomplished with blood, and therefore must be a cleansing from sin.
FLB	206	5	But how could there be sin connected with the sanctuary, either in heaven or upon the earth?
FLB	206	6	As the sins of the people were anciently transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary by the blood of the sin offering, so our sins are, in fact, transferred to the heavenly sanctuary by the blood of Christ. And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded. This necessitates an examination of the books of record to determine who, through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of His atonement.
FLB	206	7	Then [in the great day of final award] by virtue of the atoning blood of Christ, the sins of all the truly penitent will be blotted from the books of heaven.
FLB	206	8	He [Christ] asks for His people not only pardon and justification, full and complete, but a share in His glory and a seat upon His throne.
------------------------Christ Before the Ancient of Days, July 20
FLB	207	1	I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. Daniel 7:13.
FLB	207	2	After His ascension, our Saviour began His work as our high priest. Says Paul, "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Hebrews 9:24....
FLB	207	3	For eighteen centuries this work of ministration continued in the first apartment of the sanctuary. The blood of Christ, pleaded in behalf of penitent believers, secured their pardon and acceptance with the Father, yet their sins still remained upon the books of record. As in the typical service there was a work of atonement at the close of the year, so before Christ's work for the redemption of men is completed, there is a work of atonement for the removal of sin from the sanctuary. This is the service which began when the 2300 days ended. At that time ... our High Priest entered the most holy, to perform the last division of His solemn work--to cleanse the sanctuary....
FLB	207	4	The coming of Christ as our high priest to the most holy place, for the cleansing of the sanctuary, brought to view in Daniel 8:14; the coming of the Son of man to the Ancient of days, as presented in Daniel 7:13; and the coming of the Lord to His temple, foretold by Malachi, are descriptions of the same event; and this is also represented by the coming of the bridegroom to the marriage, described by Christ in the parable of the ten virgins, of Matthew 25.
FLB	207	5	The cleansing of the sanctuary ... involves a work of investigation--a work of judgment. This work must be performed prior to the coming of Christ to redeem His people; for when He comes, His reward is with Him to give to every man according to his works.
FLB	207	6	In the day of final reckoning, position, rank, or wealth will not alter by a hair's breadth the case of any one. By the all-seeing God, men will be judged by what they are in purity, in nobility, in love for Christ.
------------------------The Signal to Begin, July 21
FLB	208	1	And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Daniel 8:14.
FLB	208	2	We should be earnest students of prophecy; we should not rest until we become intelligent in regard to the subject of the sanctuary, which is brought out in the visions of Daniel and John. This subject sheds great light on our present position and work, and gives us unmistakable proof that God has led us in our past experience. It explains our disappointment in 1844, showing us that the sanctuary to be cleansed was not the earth, as we had supposed, but that Christ then entered into the most holy apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, and is there performing the closing work of His priestly office, in fulfillment of the words of the angel to the prophet Daniel.
FLB	208	3	The 2300 days had been found to begin when the commandment of Artaxerxes for the restoration and building of Jerusalem went into effect, in the autumn of 457 B.C. Taking this as the starting point, there was perfect harmony in the application of all the events foretold in the explanation of that period in Daniel 9:25-27.... The seventy weeks, or 490 years, were to pertain especially to the Jews. At the expiration of this period, the nation sealed its rejection of Christ by the persecution of His disciples, and the apostles turned to the Gentiles, A.D. 34. The first 490 years of the 2300 having then ended, 1810 years would remain. From A.D. 34, 1810 years extend to 1844. "Then," said the angel, "shall the sanctuary be cleansed."
FLB	208	4	Our faith in reference to the messages of the first, second, and third angels was correct. The great waymarks we have passed are immovable. Although the hosts of hell may try to tear them from their foundation, and triumph in the thought that they have succeeded, yet they do not succeed. These pillars of truth stand firm as the eternal hills, unmoved by all the efforts of men combined with those of Satan and his host. We can learn much, and should be constantly searching the Scriptures to see if these things are so.
------------------------Our Eyes Fixed on Christ, July 22
FLB	209	1	O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee. 2 Chronicles 20:12.
FLB	209	2	"I beheld," says the prophet Daniel, "till thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days did sit.... Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened." Daniel 7:9, 10, R.V.
FLB	209	3	Thus was presented to the prophet's vision the great and solemn day when the characters and the lives of men should pass in review before the Judge of all the earth, and to every man should be rendered "according to his works." The Ancient of days is God the Father.... It is He, the source of all being, and the fountain of all law, that is to preside in the judgment. And holy angels, as ministers and witnesses, in number "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" (Revelation 5:11), attend this great tribunal.
FLB	209	4	"And, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him." Daniel 7:13.... The coming of Christ here described is not His second coming to the earth. He comes to the Ancient of days in heaven to receive dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, which will be given Him at the close of His work as a mediator. It is this coming, and not His second advent to the earth, that was foretold in prophecy to take place at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844. Attended by heavenly angels, our great High Priest enters the holy of holies, and there appears in the presence of God ... to perform the work of investigative judgment, and to make an atonement for all who are shown to be entitled to its benefits.
FLB	209	5	God's people are now to have their eyes fixed on the heavenly sanctuary, where ... our great High Priest ... is interceding for His people.
FLB	209	6	Soon we shall be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and over against our names will be recorded the judgment rendered.
------------------------Judged From the Records, July 23
FLB	210	1	For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Ecclesiastes 12:14.
FLB	210	2	In the great day of final atonement and investigative judgment, the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God. The judgment of the wicked is a distinct and separate work, and takes place at a later period.... The books of record in heaven, in which the names and the deeds of men are registered, are to determine the decisions of the judgment....
FLB	210	3	The book of life contains the names of all who have ever entered the service of God. Jesus bade His disciples, "Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." Luke 10:20. Paul speaks of his faithful fellow workers, "Whose names are in the book of life." Philippians 4:3....
FLB	210	4	"A book of remembrance" is written before God, in which are recorded the good deeds of "them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name." Malachi 3:16. Their words of faith, their acts of love, are registered in heaven....
FLB	210	5	There is a record also of the sins of men.... The secret purposes and motives appear in the unerring register.
FLB	210	6	Every man's work passes in review before God.... Opposite each name in the books of heaven is entered, with terrible exactness, every wrong word, every selfish act, every unfulfilled duty, and every secret sin, with every artful dissembling. Heaven-sent warnings or reproofs neglected, wasted moments, unimproved opportunities, the influence exerted for good or for evil, with its far-reaching results, all are chronicled by the recording angel.
FLB	210	7	If your name is registered in the Lamb's book of life, then all will be well with you. Be ready and anxious to confess your faults and forsake them, that your mistakes and sins may go beforehand to judgment and be blotted out.
------------------------Each Life Passes in Review, July 24
FLB	211	1	Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Ecclesiastes 11:9.
FLB	211	2	At the time appointed for the judgment--the close of the 2300 days, in 1844--began the work of investigation and blotting out of sins. All who have ever taken upon themselves the name of Christ must pass its searching scrutiny. Both the living and the dead are to be judged "out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." Revelation 20:12.
FLB	211	3	Said the Judge: "All will be justified by their faith and judged by their works."
FLB	211	4	Sins that have not been repented of and forsaken will not be pardoned, and blotted out of the books of record, but will stand to witness against the sinner in the day of God....
FLB	211	5	There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery. The work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another. Though all nations are to pass in judgment before God, yet He will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being upon the earth. Every one must be tested, and found without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
FLB	211	6	The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above. For many years this work has been in progress. Soon--none know how soon--it will pass to the cases of the living. In the awful presence of God our lives are to come up in review. At this time above all others it behooves every soul to heed the Saviour's admonition, "Watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is." Mark 13:33. "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." Revelation 3:3.
------------------------The Blotting Out of Sins, July 25
FLB	212	1	He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Revelation 3:5.
FLB	212	2	As the books of record are opened in the judgment, the lives of all who have believed on Jesus come in review before God. Beginning with those who first lived upon the earth, our Advocate presents the cases of each successive generation, and closes with the living. Every name is mentioned, every case closely investigated. Names are accepted, names rejected. When any have sins remaining upon the books of record, unrepented of and unforgiven, their names will be blotted out of the book of life, and the record of their good deeds will be erased from the book of God's remembrance....
FLB	212	3	All who have truly repented of sin, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice, have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven; as they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves will be accounted worthy of eternal life....
FLB	212	4	The divine Intercessor presents the plea that all who have overcome through faith in His blood be forgiven their transgressions, that they be restored to their Eden home, and crowned as joint heirs with Himself to the "first dominion." ...
FLB	212	5	While Jesus is pleading for the subjects of His grace, Satan accuses them before God as transgressors....
FLB	212	6	Jesus does not excuse their sins, but shows their penitence and faith, and, claiming for them forgiveness, He lifts His wounded hands before the Father and the holy angels, saying, "I know them by name." ... Their names stand enrolled in the book of life, and concerning them it is written, "They shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy." Revelation 3:4.
FLB	212	7	Christians may daily cultivate faith by contemplating the One who has undertaken their cause, their "merciful and faithful high priest."
------------------------A Prior Judgment, July 26
FLB	213	1	Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. 1 Timothy 5:24.
FLB	213	2	The work of the investigative judgment and the blotting out of sins is to be accomplished before the second advent of the Lord. Since the dead are to be judged out of the things written in the books, it is impossible that the sins of men should be blotted out until after the judgment at which their cases are to be investigated.... When the investigative judgment closes, Christ will come, and His reward will be with Him to give to every man as his work shall be.
FLB	213	3	All are to be judged according to the things written in the books, and to be rewarded as their works have been. This judgment does not take place at death.
FLB	213	4	In the typical service the high priest, having made the atonement for Israel, came forth and blessed the congregation. So Christ, at the close of His work as mediator, will appear, "without sin unto salvation," to bless His waiting people with eternal life. As the priest, in removing the sins from the sanctuary, confessed them upon the head of the scapegoat, so Christ will place all these sins upon Satan, the originator and instigator of sin. The scapegoat, bearing the sins of Israel, was sent away "unto a land not inhabited;" so Satan, bearing the guilt of all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit, will be for a thousand years confined to the earth, which will then be desolate, without inhabitant, and he will at last suffer the full penalty of sin in the fires that shall destroy all the wicked.
FLB	213	5	A few, yes, only a few, of the vast number who people the earth will be saved unto life eternal, while the masses who have not perfected their souls in obeying the truth will be appointed to the second death.
FLB	213	6	While the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God's people upon earth.
------------------------Time Is Running Out! July 27
FLB	214	1	Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:16.
FLB	214	2	On the morning of October 23, 1879, about two o'clock, the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me, and I beheld scenes in the coming judgment.... The great day of the execution of God's judgment seemed to have come. Ten thousand times ten thousand were assembled before a large throne, upon which was seated a person of majestic appearance. Several books were before Him, and upon the covers of each was written in letters of gold, which seemed like a burning flame of fire: "Ledger of Heaven." One of these books, containing the names of those who claim to believe the truth, was then opened.... As these persons were named, one by one, and their good deeds mentioned, their countenances would light up with a holy joy....
FLB	214	3	Another book was opened, wherein were recorded the sins of those who profess the truth. Under the general heading of selfishness came every other sin.... As the Holy One upon the throne slowly turned the leaves of the ledger, and His eyes rested for a moment upon individuals, His glance seemed to burn into their very souls, and at the same moment every word and action of their lives passed before their minds as clearly as though traced before their vision in letters of fire....
FLB	214	4	One class were registered as cumberers of the ground.... This class had made self supreme, laboring only for selfish interests....
FLB	214	5	The question was then asked: "Why have you not washed your robes of character and made them white in the blood of the Lamb? ... You would not be partaker of His sufferings, and you cannot now be partaker with Him of His glory." ... The book then closed, and the mantle fell from the Person on the throne, revealing the terrible glory of the Son of God.
FLB	214	6	The scene then passed away, and I found myself still upon the earth, inexpressibly grateful that the day of God had not yet come, and that precious probationary time is still granted us in which to prepare for eternity.
------------------------When Probation Closes, July 28
FLB	215	1	He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. Revelation 22:11.
FLB	215	2	God has not revealed to us the time when this message [the third angel's] will close, or when probation will have an end.... Letters have come to me asking me if I have any special light as to the time when probation will close; and I answer that I have only this message to bear, that it is now time to work while the day lasts, for the night cometh in which no man can work.
FLB	215	3	When Jesus rises up in the most holy place, and lays off His mediatorial garments, and clothes Himself with the garments of vengeance in place of the priestly attire, the work for sinners will be done.... The probation of all closes when the pleading for sinners is ended and the garments of vengeance are put on.
FLB	215	4	The case of every soul will have been decided, and there will be no atoning blood to cleanse from sin.... Then the restraining Spirit of God is withdrawn from the earth.
FLB	215	5	In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent .... Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old.
FLB	215	6	We have no time to lose. We know not how soon our probation may close Christ is soon to come.
FLB	215	7	When probation ends, it will come suddenly, unexpectedly--at a time when we are least expecting it. But we can have a clean record in heaven today, and know that God accepts us; and finally, if faithful, we shall be gathered into the kingdom of heaven.
------------------------The Saints Shall Judge the World, July 29
FLB	216	1	Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. 1 Corinthians 4:5.
FLB	216	2	During the thousand years between the first and the second resurrection, the judgment of the wicked takes place. The apostle Paul points to this judgment as an event that follows the Second Advent. "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come...." Daniel declares that when the Ancient of days came, "judgment was given to the saints of the most High." Daniel 7:22.
FLB	216	3	At this time the righteous reign as kings and priests unto God. John in the Revelation says: "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them." Revelation 20:4.... It is at this time that, as foretold by Paul, "the saints shall judge the world." 1 Corinthians 6:2, 3. In union with Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute book, the Bible, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body. Then the portion which the wicked must suffer is meted out, according to their works; and it is recorded against their names in the book of death.
FLB	216	4	We shall not hear a charge against us on the ground of the outbreaking sins we have committed, but the charge will be made against us for the neglect of good and noble duties enjoined upon us by the God of love. The deficiencies of our characters will be held up to view. It will then be known that all who are so condemned had light and knowledge, were entrusted with their Lord's goods, and were found unfaithful to their trust.
FLB	216	5	Satan also and evil angels are judged by Christ and His people. Says Paul, "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" 1 Corinthians 6:3.
FLB	216	6	When the Judge of all the earth shall demand of Satan, "Why hast thou rebelled against Me, and robbed Me of the subjects of My kingdom?" the originator of evil can render no excuse. Every mouth will be stopped, and all the hosts of rebellion will be speechless.
------------------------Schemes of Satan, July 30
FLB	217	1	Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8.
FLB	217	2	It is unsafe to trust to feelings or impressions; these are unreliable guides. God's law is the only correct standard of holiness. It is by this law that character is to be judged. If an inquirer after salvation were to ask, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" the modern teachers of sanctification would answer, "Only believe that Jesus saves you." But when Christ was asked this question He said, "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" And when the questioner replied, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself," Jesus said, "Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live." Luke 10:26-28.
FLB	217	3	No value is attached to a mere profession of faith in Christ; only the love which is shown by works is counted genuine. Yet it is love alone which in the sight of Heaven makes any act of value....
FLB	217	4	The hidden selfishness of men stands revealed in the books of heaven.... Sad is the record which angels bear to heaven. Intelligent beings, professed followers of Christ, are absorbed in the acquirement of worldly possessions or the enjoyment of earthly pleasures. Money, time, and strength are sacrificed for display and self-indulgence; but few are the moments devoted to prayer, to the searching of the Scriptures, to humiliation of soul and confession of sin.
FLB	217	5	Satan invents unnumbered schemes to occupy our minds, that they may not dwell upon the very work with which we ought to be best acquainted. The archdeceiver hates the great truths that bring to view an atoning sacrifice and an all-powerful Mediator. He knows that with him everything depends on his diverting minds from Jesus and His truth.
FLB	217	6	Those who would share the benefits of the Saviour's mediation should permit nothing to interfere with their duty to perfect holiness in the fear of God.
------------------------Established in the Present Truth, July 31
FLB	218	1	Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. 2 Peter 1:12.
FLB	218	2	We believe without a doubt that Christ is soon coming. This is not a fable to us; it is a reality. We have no doubt, neither have we had a doubt for years, that the doctrines we hold today are present truth, and that we are nearing the judgment. We are preparing to meet Him who, escorted by a retinue of holy angels, is to appear in the clouds of heaven to give the faithful and the just the finishing touch of immortality. When He comes He is not to cleanse us of our sins, to remove from us the defects in our characters, or to cure us of the infirmities of our tempers and dispositions. If wrought for us at all, this work will all be accomplished before that time.
FLB	218	3	When the Lord comes, those who are holy will be holy still. Those who have preserved their bodies and spirits in holiness, in sanctification and honor, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. But those who are unjust, unsanctified, and filthy will remain so forever. No work will then be done for them to remove their defects and give them holy characters. The Refiner does not then sit to pursue His refining process and remove their sins and their corruption.... It is now that this work is to be accomplished for us.
FLB	218	4	God is now testing and proving His people. Character is being developed. Angels are weighing moral worth, and keeping a faithful record of all the acts of the children of men.... That God who reads the hearts of everyone, will bring to light hidden things of darkness where they are often least suspected, that stumbling blocks which have hindered the progress of truth may be removed.
FLB	218	5	There will be no future probation in which to prepare for eternity. It is in this life that we are to put on the robe of Christ's righteousness. This is our only opportunity to form characters for the home which Christ has made ready for those who obey His commandments.
------------------------Jesus Our Perfect Pattern, August 1
FLB	219	1	He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 1 John 2:6.
FLB	219	2	We have before us the highest, holiest example. In thought, word, and deed Jesus was sinless. Perfection marked all that He did. He points us to the path that He trod, saying, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Matthew 16:24.
FLB	219	3	Christ unites in His person the fullness and perfection of the Godhead and the fullness and perfection of sinless humanity. He met all the temptations by which Adam was assailed, and overcame these temptations because in His humanity He relied upon divine power. This subject demands far more contemplation than it receives. Christians strike too low. They are content with a superficial spiritual experience, and therefore they have only the glimmerings of light, when they might discern more clearly the wonderful perfection of Christ's humanity, which rises far above all human greatness, all human power. Christ's life is a revelation of what fallen human beings may become through union and fellowship with the divine nature....
FLB	219	4	Men and women frame many excuses for their proneness to sin. Sin is represented as a necessity, an evil that cannot be overcome. But sin is not a necessity. Christ lived in this world from infancy to manhood, and during that time He met and resisted all the temptations by which man is beset. He is a perfect pattern of childhood, of youth, of manhood.
FLB	219	5	The life of Christ has shown what humanity can do by being partaker of the divine nature. All that Christ received from God we too may have. Then ask and receive.... Let your life be knit by hidden links to the life of Jesus.
------------------------Religion to be Supreme, August 2
FLB	220	1	Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. Matthew 22:37, 38.
FLB	220	2	The youth need to realize that they need a deep experience in the things of God. A mere surface work will be of no benefit to them. You need to bring the light of God's Word into your heart, that you may search it as with a lighted candle.
FLB	220	3	Many profess to be on the Lord's side, but they are not; the weight of all their actions is on Satan's side. By what means shall we determine whose side we are on? Who has the heart? With whom are our thoughts? Upon whom do we love to converse? Who has our warmest affections and our best energies? If we are on the Lord's side, our thoughts are with Him, and our sweetest thoughts are of Him. We have no friendship with the world; we have consecrated all that we have and are to Him. We long to bear His image, breathe His spirit, do His will, and please Him in all things.
FLB	220	4	Bible religion is not one influence among many others, but its influence is supreme, pervading and controlling every other influence. Bible religion is to exercise control over life and conduct. It is not to be like a dash of color, brushed here and there upon the canvas, but its influence is to pervade the whole life, as though the canvas were dipped into color until every thread of the fabric was dyed in a deep, fast, unfading hue.
FLB	220	5	The religion of Christ is a firm fabric, composed of innumerable threads, woven together with tact and skill. Only by the wisdom that God gives can we weave this fabric. Trusting to ourselves, we draw into it threads of selfishness, and the pattern is spoiled.
FLB	220	6	Let everyone inquire seriously, "Am I a genuine Christian? Am I bearing the true marks of a Christian? Am I doing my best to perfect a character after the divine model?"
FLB	220	7	Pure religion is an imitation of Christ.
------------------------Separated from the World, August 3
FLB	221	1	I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. John 17:15.
FLB	221	2	Many professed Christians are well represented by the vine that is trailing upon the ground and entwining its tendrils about the roots and rubbish that lie in its path. To all such the message comes, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord." 2 Corinthians 6:17. Your tendrils must be severed from everything earthly.... It is impossible for you to unite with those who are corrupt, and still remain pure.
FLB	221	3	O that the young might realize that they may be as precious plants in the Lord's garden.... Let the delicate tendrils of the affections twine about Jesus, to receive nourishment from Him; and instead of creeping upon the earth, turn the face toward the Sun of Righteousness, that you may catch divine rays of light. Day by day grow up into His likeness, and become a partaker of His divine nature, that you may at last be found perfect in the paradise of God....
FLB	221	4	Rivet the soul to the eternal Rock; for in Christ alone there will be safety.
FLB	221	5	A union with Christ by living faith is enduring; every other union must perish.... But this union costs us something.... There must be a painful work of detachment, as well as a work of attachment. Pride, selfishness, vanity, worldliness--sin in all its forms--must be overcome, if we would enter into a union with Christ. The reason why many find the Christian life so deplorably hard, why they are so fickle, so variable, is, they try to attach themselves to Christ without detaching themselves from these cherished idols.
FLB	221	6	Will we accept the condition laid down in His Word--separation from the world? ... Our consecration to God must be a living principle, interwoven with the life, and leading to self-denial and self-sacrifice. It must underlie all our thoughts, and be the spring of every action. This will elevate us above the world, and separate us from its polluting influence.
------------------------Security Only in Right Thinking, August 4
FLB	222	1	Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23.
FLB	222	2	As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he." Proverbs 23:7. Many thoughts make up the unwritten history of a single day; and these thoughts have much to do with the formation of character. Our thoughts are to be strictly guarded; for one impure thought makes a deep impression on the soul. An evil thought leaves an evil impress on the mind. If the thoughts are pure and holy, the man is better for having cherished them. By them the spiritual pulse is quickened, and the power for doing good is increased. And as one drop of rain prepares the way for another in moistening the earth, so one good thought prepares the way for another.
FLB	222	3	Wrong habits of thought, when once accepted, become a despotic power that fastens the mind as in a grasp of steel.
FLB	222	4	The thoughts are not to be allowed to run riot. They must be restrained, brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Let them be placed upon holy things. Then, through the grace of Christ, they will be pure and true. We need a constant sense of the ennobling power of pure thoughts. The only security for any soul is right thinking.
FLB	222	5	Our minds take the level of the things on which our thoughts dwell, and if we think upon earthly things, we shall fail to take the impress of that which is heavenly. We would be greatly benefited by contemplating the mercy, goodness, and love of God; but we sustain great loss by dwelling upon those things which are earthly and temporal.
FLB	222	6	Although there may be a tainted, corrupted atmosphere around us, we need not breathe its miasma, but may live in the pure air of heaven. We may close every door to impure imaginings and unholy thoughts by lifting the soul into the presence of God through sincere prayer. Those whose hearts are open to receive the support and blessing of God will walk in a holier atmosphere than that of earth and will have constant communion with Heaven.
------------------------Transformed by Searching the Word, August 5
FLB	223	1	As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. 1 Peter 2:2.
FLB	223	2	No man, woman, or youth can attain to Christian perfection and neglect the study of the Word of God. By carefully and closely searching His Word we shall obey the injunction of Christ, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." John 5:39. This search enables the student to observe closely the divine Model.... The Pattern must be inspected often and closely in order to imitate it. As one becomes acquainted with the history of the Redeemer, he discovers in himself defects of character; his unlikeness to Christ is so great that he sees he cannot be a follower without a very great change in his life. Still he studies, with a desire to be like his great Exemplar; he catches the looks, the spirit, of his beloved Master; by beholding he becomes changed.
FLB	223	3	All the philosophies of human nature have led to confusion and shame when God has not been recognized as all in all. But the precious faith inspired of God imparts strength and nobility of character. As His goodness, His mercy, and His love are dwelt upon, clearer and still clearer will be the perception of truth; higher, holier, the desire for purity of heart and clearness of thought. The soul dwelling in the pure atmosphere of holy thought is transformed by intercourse with God through the study of His Word. Truth is so large, so far-reaching, so deep, so broad, that self is lost sight of. The heart is softened and subdued into humility, kindness, and love.
FLB	223	4	The Bible ... trains the mind to grapple with the deepest problems and to pursue the broadest explorations. It exalts the intellect. It saves the soul.... Take it as your mirror. It will be a faithful monitor, detecting the faults and errors of your character. It will strengthen every good trait.
FLB	223	5	That Word which reveals the guilt of sin, has a power upon the human heart to make man right and keep him so.
------------------------Watch and Pray, August 6
FLB	224	1	Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Ephesians 6:18.
FLB	224	2	Prayer and watching thereunto are necessary for advancement in the divine life.... Your only safety is to live like a watchman. Watch and pray always. Oh, what a preventive against yielding to temptation and falling into the snares of the world!
FLB	224	3	"Take ye heed, watch and pray." Mark 13:13....
FLB	224	4	First, you are to watch. Watch, lest you should speak hastily, fretfully, and impatiently. Watch, lest pride should find a place in your heart. Watch, lest evil passions should overcome you, instead of your subduing them. Watch, lest ... you ... become light and trifling, and your influence savor of death, rather than life.
FLB	224	5	Second, you are to pray. Jesus would not have enjoined this upon you, unless there was actual necessity for it. It is well known to Him that of yourself you cannot overcome the many temptations of the enemy, and the many snares laid for your feet. He has not left you alone to do this; but has provided a way that you can obtain help. Therefore He has bid you to pray.
FLB	224	6	To pray aright is to ask God in faith for the very things you need. Go to your chamber, or in some retired place, and ask your Father for Jesus' sake to help you. There is power in that prayer that is sent up from a heart convinced of its own weakness, yet earnestly longing for that strength that comes of God. The earnest, fervent prayer will be heard and answered....
FLB	224	7	Faint not. Cast yourself at the feet of Jesus, who has been tempted, and knows how to help such as are tempted.... Plead your case before God, through Jesus, until your soul can with confidence rely upon Him for strength, and you feel that you are not left to do the work of overcoming alone. God will help you. Angels will watch over you. But before you can expect this help, you must do what you can on your part. Watch and pray.
------------------------Heart Communion With God, August 7
FLB	225	1	Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. Psalm 27:14.
FLB	225	2	An intensity such as never before was seen is taking possession of the world. In amusement, in moneymaking, in the contest for power, in the very struggle for existence, there is a terrible force that engrosses body and mind and soul. In the midst of this maddening rush, God is speaking. He bids us come apart and commune with Him. "Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10.
FLB	225	3	Many, even in their seasons of devotion, fail of receiving the blessing of real communion with God. They are in too great haste. With hurried steps they press through the circle of Christ's loving presence, pausing perhaps a moment within the sacred precincts, but not waiting for counsel. They have no time to remain with the divine Teacher. With their burdens they return to their work....
FLB	225	4	Not a pause for a moment in His presence, but personal contact with Christ, to sit down in companionship with Him--this is our need.
FLB	225	5	We may bring Him our little cares and perplexities as well as our greater troubles. Whatever arises to disturb or distress us, we should take it to the Lord in prayer.
FLB	225	6	Calmly, yet fervently, the soul is to reach out after God; and sweet and abiding will be the influence emanating from Him who sees in secret, whose ear is open to the prayer arising from the heart. He who in simple faith holds communion with God will gather to himself divine rays of light to strengthen and sustain him in the conflict with Satan.
FLB	225	7	If we keep the Lord ever before us, allowing our hearts to go out in thanksgiving and praise to Him, we shall have a continual freshness in our religious life. Our prayers will take the form of a conversation with God as we would talk with a friend. He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Often there will come to us a sweet, joyful sense of the presence of Jesus.... Prayer turns aside the attacks of Satan.
------------------------Fullness of Joy, August 8
FLB	226	1	Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11.
FLB	226	2	The religion of Jesus is joy, peace, and happiness.
FLB	226	3	All Heaven is interested in the happiness of man. Our heavenly Father does not close the avenues of joy to any of His creatures. The divine requirements call upon us to shun those indulgences that would bring suffering and disappointment, that would close to us the door of happiness and heaven.... He [the world's Redeemer] requires us to perform only those duties that will lead our steps to heights of bliss to which the disobedient can never attain. The true, joyous life of the soul is to have Christ formed within, the hope of glory.
FLB	226	4	Those who abide in Jesus will be happy, cheerful, and joyful in God. A subdued gentleness will mark the voice, reverence for spiritual and eternal things will be expressed in the actions, and music, joyful music, will echo from the lips, for it is wafted from the throne of God. This is the mystery of godliness, not easily explained, but nonetheless felt and enjoyed.
FLB	226	5	Words cannot describe the peace and joy possessed by him who takes God at His word. Trials do not disturb him, slights do not vex him. Self is crucified. Day by day his duties may become more taxing, his temptations stronger, his trials more severe; but he does not falter; for he receives strength equal to his need.
FLB	226	6	In those who possess it, the religion of Christ will reveal itself as a vitalizing, pervading principle, a living, working, spiritual energy. There will be manifest the freshness and power and joyousness of perpetual youth. The heart that receives the Word of God is not as a pool that evaporates, not like a broken cistern that loses its treasure. It is like the mountain stream fed by unfailing springs, whose cool, sparkling waters leap from rock to rock, refreshing the weary, the thirsty, the heavy laden.
------------------------God's Dwelling Place, August 9
FLB	227	1	Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19.
FLB	227	2	By a most beautiful and impressive figure, God's Word shows the regard He places upon our physical organism and the responsibility resting on us to preserve it in the best condition....
FLB	227	3	The body is a temple in which God desires to dwell,.... it must be kept pure, the abiding place of high and noble thoughts.
FLB	227	4	The knowledge that man is to be a temple for God, a habitation for the revealing of His glory, should be the highest incentive to the care and development of our physical powers. Fearfully and wonderfully has the Creator wrought in the human frame, and He bids us make it our study, understand its needs, and act our part in preserving it from harm and defilement.
FLB	227	5	Our first duty toward God and our fellow beings is that of self-development. Every faculty with which the Creator has endowed us, should be cultivated to the highest degree of perfection, that we may be able to do the greatest amount of good of which we are capable. Hence that time is spent to good account which is used in the establishment and preservation of physical and mental health. We cannot afford to dwarf or cripple any function of body or mind. As surely as we do this we must suffer the consequences.
FLB	227	6	The desire of God for every human being is expressed in the words, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." 3 John 2.
FLB	227	7	He it is who "forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies." Psalm 103:3, 4....
FLB	227	8	"Above all things," God desires us to "be in health"--health of body and of soul. And we are to be workers together with Him for the health of both soul and body.
------------------------Health the Reward of Right Habits, August 10
FLB	228	1	My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments; for length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Proverbs 3:1, 2.
FLB	228	2	The laws of nature are the laws of God--as truly divine as are the precepts of the Decalogue. The laws that govern our physical organism, God has written upon every nerve, muscle, and fiber of the body. Every careless or willful violation of these laws is a sin against our Creator.
FLB	228	3	There is an intimate relation between the mind and the body, and in order to reach a high standard of moral and intellectual attainment, the laws that control our physical being must be heeded. To secure a strong, well-balanced character, both the mental and the physical powers must be exercised and developed. What study can be more important for the young than that which treats of this wonderful organism that God has committed to us, and of the laws by which it may be preserved in health?
FLB	228	4	Health may be earned by proper habits of life and may be made to yield interest and compound interest. But this capital, more precious than any bank deposit, may be sacrificed by intemperance in eating and drinking, or by leaving the organs to rust from inaction. Pet indulgences must be given up; laziness must be overcome.
FLB	228	5	The health should be as sacredly guarded as the character.
FLB	228	6	Our bodies are Christ's purchased possession, and we are not at liberty to do with them as we please. All who understand the laws of health should realize their obligation to obey these laws which God has established in their being. Obedience to the laws of health is to be made a matter of personal duty. We ourselves must suffer the results of violated law. We must individually answer to God for our habits and practices. Therefore the question with us is not, "What is the world's practice?" but, "How shall I as an individual treat the habitation that God has given me?"
------------------------Health in Obeying God's Law, August 11
FLB	229	1	For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. 1 Timothy 4:8.
FLB	229	2	There is health in obedience to God's law.
FLB	229	3	The wise man says that wisdom's "ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Proverbs 3:17. Many cherish the impression that devotion to God is detrimental to health and to cheerful happiness in the social relations of life. But those who walk in the path of wisdom and holiness find that "godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." They are alive to the enjoyment of life's real pleasures, while they are not troubled with vain regrets over misspent hours, nor with gloom or horror of mind, as the worldling too often is when not diverted by some exciting amusement.... Godliness does not conflict with the laws of health, but is in harmony with them. Had men ever been obedient to the law of Ten Commandments, ... the curse of disease that now floods the world would not be.
FLB	229	4	The assurance of God's approval will promote physical health. It fortifies the soul against doubt, perplexity, and excessive grief, that so often sap the vital forces and induce nervous diseases.
FLB	229	5	The consciousness of rightdoing is the best medicine for diseased bodies and minds. The special blessing of God resting upon the receiver is health and strength.
FLB	229	6	A person whose mind is quiet and satisfied in God is in the pathway to health. To have a consciousness that the eyes of the Lord are upon us, and His ears open to hear our prayers, is a satisfaction indeed. To know that we have a never-failing Friend in whom we can confide all the secrets of the soul, is a privilege which words can never express.
FLB	229	7	Courage, hope, faith, sympathy, love, promote health and prolong life. A contented mind, a cheerful spirit, is health to the body and strength to the soul.
------------------------Eating for Health and Happiness, August 12
FLB	230	1	Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
FLB	230	2	Here is a principle which lies at the foundation of every act, thought, and motive; the consecration of the entire being, both physical and mental, to the control of the Spirit of God.
FLB	230	3	Even the natural act of eating or drinking, should be done ... "to the glory of God."
FLB	230	4	If the indulgence of appetite was so strong upon the race that, in order to break its power, the divine Son of God, in behalf of man, was required to fast nearly six weeks, what a work is before the Christian in order that he may overcome even as Christ overcame! The strength of the temptation to indulge perverted appetite can be measured only by the inexpressible anguish of Christ in that long fast in the wilderness.
FLB	230	5	As our first parents lost Eden through the indulgence of appetite, our only hope of regaining Eden is through the firm denial of appetite.
FLB	230	6	God has furnished man with abundant means for the gratification of an unperverted appetite. He has spread before him the products of the earth--a bountiful variety of food that is palatable to the taste and nutritious to the system. Of these our benevolent heavenly Father says we may freely eat. Fruits, grains, and vegetables, prepared in a simple way, free from spice and grease of all kinds, make, with milk or cream, the most healthful diet. They ... give a power of endurance and vigor of intellect that are not produced by a stimulating diet.
FLB	230	7	We do not mark out any precise line to be followed in diet; but we do say that in countries where there are fruits, grains, and nuts in abundance, flesh food is not the right food for God's people.... If meat eating was ever healthful, it is not safe now.
FLB	230	8	Again and again I have been shown that God is trying to lead us back, step by step, to His original design--that man should subsist upon the natural products of the earth.
------------------------Abstaining from Harmful Indulgences, August 13
FLB	231	1	Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. 1 Peter 2:11.
FLB	231	2	The Word of God plainly warns us that unless we abstain from fleshly lusts, the physical nature will be brought into conflict with the spiritual nature. Lustful eating wars against health and peace. Thus a warfare is instituted between the higher and the lower attributes of the man. The lower propensities, strong and active, oppress the soul. The highest interests of the being are imperiled by the indulgence of appetites unsanctioned by Heaven.
FLB	231	3	Health, character, and even life, are endangered by the use of stimulants, which excite the exhausted energies to unnatural, spasmodic effort.
FLB	231	4	Condiments are injurious in their nature. Mustard, pepper, spices, pickles, and other things of a like character, irritate the stomach and make the blood feverish and impure....
FLB	231	5	Tea and coffee do not nourish the system.... The continued use of these nerve irritants is followed by headache, wakefulness, palpitation of the heart, indigestion, trembling, and many other evils; for they wear away the life forces....
FLB	231	6	Tobacco is a slow, insidious, but most malignant poison. In whatever form it is used, it tells upon the constitution; it is all the more dangerous because its effects are slow and at first hardly perceptible.... Its use excites a thirst for strong drink and in many cases lays the foundations for the liquor habit.
FLB	231	7	In relation to tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcoholic drinks, the only safe course is to touch not, taste not, handle not.
FLB	231	8	True temperance teaches us to dispense entirely with everything hurtful, and to use judiciously that which is healthful.
FLB	231	9	The Spirit of God cannot come to our help, and assist us in perfecting Christian characters, while we are indulging our appetites to the injury of health.
------------------------Blessing in Physical Activity, August 14
FLB	232	1	And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Genesis 2:15.
FLB	232	2	One of the first laws of the being is that of action. Every organ of the body has its appointed work, upon the development of which depends its strength. The normal action of all the organs gives vigor and life; inaction brings decay and death.
FLB	232	3	To the dwellers in Eden was committed the care of the garden, "to dress it and to keep it." ... God appointed labor as a blessing to man, to occupy his mind, to strengthen his body, and to develop his faculties. In mental and physical activity, Adam found one of the highest pleasures of his holy existence.
FLB	232	4	A proportionate exercise of all the organs and faculties of the body is essential to the best work of each. When the brain is constantly taxed while the other organs of the living machinery are inactive, there is a loss of strength, physical and mental.
FLB	232	5	Those whose habits are sedentary should, when the weather will permit, exercise in the open air every day, summer or winter. Walking is preferable to riding or driving, for it brings more of the muscles into exercise. The lungs are forced into healthy action, since it is impossible to walk briskly without inflating them....
FLB	232	6	Full, deep inspirations of pure air, which fill the lungs with oxygen, purify the blood. They impart to it a bright color and send it, a life-giving current, to every part of the body. A good respiration soothes the nerves; it stimulates the appetite and renders digestion more perfect; and it induces sound, refreshing sleep.
FLB	232	7	Jesus was an earnest, constant worker. Never lived there among men another so weighted with responsibilities.... Yet His was a life of health. Physically as well as spiritually He was represented by the sacrificial lamb, "without blemish and without spot." 1 Peter 1:19. In body as in soul He was an example of what God designed all humanity to be through obedience to His laws.
------------------------Come Apart and Rest, August 15
FLB	233	1	And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. Mark 6:31.
FLB	233	2	He [Jesus] did not urge upon His disciples the necessity of ceaseless toil.... "Come ye yourselves apart, ... and rest a while," He says to those who are worn and weary. It is not wise to be always under the strain of work and excitement, ... for in this way personal piety is neglected, and the powers of mind and soul and body are overtaxed.
FLB	233	3	Care needs to be exercised in regard to the regulation of hours for sleeping and laboring. We must take periods of rest, periods of recreation, periods for contemplation.
FLB	233	4	There are modes of recreation which are highly beneficial to both mind and body.... Recreation in the open air, the contemplation of the works of God in nature, will be of the highest benefit.
FLB	233	5	It is for our health and happiness to go out of our houses, and spend as much of our time as possible in the open air.... We should invite our minds to be interested in all the glorious things God has provided for us with a liberal hand. And in reflecting upon these rich tokens of His love and care, we may forget infirmities, be cheerful, and make melody in our hearts unto the Lord.
FLB	233	6	Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power--these are the true remedies.... Nature, untrammeled, does her work wisely and well. Those who persevere in obedience to her laws will reap the reward in health of body and health of mind.
FLB	233	7	He [Jesus] found recreation amidst the scenes of nature.... His hours of greatest happiness were found when He could turn aside from His labors to go into the fields, to meditate in the quiet valleys, to hold communion with God on the mountainside or amid the trees of the forest.
FLB	233	8	We may ... make our seasons of recreation what the name implies--seasons of true upbuilding for body and mind and soul.
------------------------Friendship of Christ's Friends, August 16
FLB	234	1	I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. Psalm 119:63.
FLB	234	2	It is natural to seek companionship. Everyone will find companions or make them. And just in proportion to the strength of the friendship, will be the amount of influence which friends will exert over one another for good or for evil....
FLB	234	3	Young persons who are thrown into one another's society may make their association a blessing or a curse. They may edify, bless, and strengthen one another, improving in deportment, in disposition, in knowledge; or, by permitting themselves to become careless and unfaithful, they may exert only a demoralizing influence.
FLB	234	4	It is by leading the followers of Christ to associate with the ungodly and unite in their amusements, that Satan is most successful in alluring them into sin.... The followers of Christ are to separate themselves from sinners, choosing their society only when there is opportunity to do them good. We cannot be too decided in shunning the company of those who exert an influence to draw us away from God. While we pray, "Lead us not into temptation," we are to shun temptation, so far as possible.
FLB	234	5	By the choice of evil companions many have been led step by step from the path of virtue into depths of disobedience and dissipation to which at one time they would have thought it impossible for them to sink.
FLB	234	6	We may refuse to be corrupted, and place ourselves where evil association shall not corrupt our hearts. Individually the youth should seek for association with those who are toiling upward with unfaltering steps.
FLB	234	7	Better than all the friendship of the world is the friendship of Christ's redeemed.
FLB	234	8	The warmth of true friendship, the love that binds heart to heart, is a foretaste of the joys of heaven.
------------------------Your Influence Counts! August 17
FLB	235	1	This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. John 15:12.
FLB	235	2	What quality is this love? ... A love for the soul that would part with selfish gratifications and practice stern self-denial in order to elevate, ennoble, and sanctify those with whom we associate. "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." John 17:19. Do you love those with whom you associate well enough to forgo your desire for amusement and self-pleasing that you will not place these souls in the path of temptation, that you will not beckon them to pursue a course of fun and frolic which leads to the extinguishment of serious thoughts in regard to the salvation of their souls? Do you cultivate personal piety, ... that your youthful friends may follow where you lead the way, upward and forward to obedience to God? ... What is the quality of your love? Is it of a character to make your associates more Christlike? Will it have a tendency to bring solid timbers into their character building?
FLB	235	3	God enjoins upon all His followers to bear a living testimony in unmistakable language by their conduct, their dress and conversation, in all the pursuits of life, that the power of true godliness is profitable to all in this life and in the life to come.
FLB	235	4	A cheap Christian character works more harm in the world than the character of a worldling, for professed Christians mislead others by professing to represent Him whose name they assume.
FLB	235	5	God is love. Whoso dwelleth in God, dwelleth in love. All who have indeed become acquainted ... with the love and tender compassion of our heavenly Father will impart light and joy wherever they may be. Their presence and influence will be to their associates as the fragrance of sweet flowers, because they are linked to God and heaven, and the purity and exalted loveliness of heaven are communicated through them to all that are brought within their influence.
FLB	235	6	You can surround your souls with an atmosphere that will be like zephyrs from the heavenly Eden.
------------------------Words of Grace, August 18
FLB	236	1	Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Colossians 4:6.
FLB	236	2	How is it that many who profess the name of Christ utter so many vain, idle words? Satan watches to obtain an advantage over those who speak in a reckless manner.... When we utter meaningless and silly words we encourage others to indulge in the same kind of conversation.... The only words that should come from our lips should be pure, clean words. No one can tell how much sin is created by careless, foolish, unmeaning words.... Every word you speak is as a seed that will germinate and produce either good or bad fruit.
FLB	236	3	When in the company of those who indulge in foolish talk, it is our duty to change the subject of conversation if possible. By the help of the grace of God we should quietly drop words or introduce a subject that will turn the conversation into a profitable channel.
FLB	236	4	He [God] desires us to be cheerful, but not trifling. He says to each one of us, "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." 1 Peter 1:15. God wants us to be happy. He desires to put a new song on our lips, even praise to our God.
FLB	236	5	When you take the hand of a friend, let praise to God be on your lips and in your heart. This will attract his thoughts to Jesus.
FLB	236	6	How pleased the Saviour would be to hear His followers talking of His precious lessons of instruction, and to know that they had a relish for holy things! ... That which is in the heart will flow from the lips. It cannot be repressed. The things that God has prepared for those that love Him will be the theme of conversation. The love of Christ is in the soul as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life, sending forth living streams, that bring life and gladness wherever they flow.
FLB	236	7	We lose much by not talking more of Jesus and of heaven, the saints' inheritance. The more we contemplate heavenly things, the more new delights we shall see, and the more will our hearts be brimful of thanks to our beneficent Creator.
------------------------Something Better! August 19
FLB	237	1	I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Psalm 16:8.
FLB	237	2	Whatever Christ asks us to renounce, He offers in its stead something better. Often the youth cherish objects, pursuits, and pleasures that may not appear to be evil, but that fall short of the highest good. They divert the life from its noblest aim.
FLB	237	3	Never let amusements, or the companionship of others, come between you and Jesus, your best Friend.... When natural inclination draws you in the direction of fulfilling some selfish desire, set the Lord before you as your counselor, and ask, "Will this please Jesus? Will this increase my love for my best Friend? Will this course grieve my dear Saviour? Will it separate me from His company? Will Jesus accompany me to the pleasure party, where all will be lightness and gaiety, where there will be nothing of a religious nature, nothing serious, no thought of the things of God?"
FLB	237	4	Christians have many sources of happiness at their command, and they may tell with unerring accuracy what pleasures are lawful and right. They may enjoy such recreations as will not dissipate the mind or debase the soul, such as will not disappoint, and leave a sad after influence to destroy self-respect or bar the way to usefulness. If they can take Jesus with them, and maintain a prayerful spirit, they are perfectly safe.
FLB	237	5	An enlightened, discriminating mind will find abundant means for entertainment and diversion, from sources not only innocent, but instructive.
FLB	237	6	In all our seasons of recreation we may gather from the Divine Source of strength fresh courage and power, that we may the more successfully elevate our lives to purity, true goodness, and holiness.
FLB	237	7	Those who really enjoy the love of God will have joy and peace. Religion was never designed to make one pleasureless. What can be productive of greater happiness than to enjoy the peace of Christ, the bright sunshine of His presence?
------------------------Closing the Door of Temptation, August 20
FLB	238	1	Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15.
FLB	238	2	Between the associations of the followers of Christ for Christian recreation, and worldly gatherings for pleasure and amusement, will exist a marked contrast. Instead of prayer and the mentioning of Christ and sacred things, will be heard from the lips of worldlings the silly laugh and the trifling conversation. The idea is to have a general high time.
FLB	238	3	Worldly pleasures are infatuating; and for their momentary enjoyment many sacrifice the friendship of Heaven, with the peace, love, and joy that it affords. But these chosen objects of delight soon become disgusting, unsatisfying.
FLB	238	4	Some of the most popular amusements, such as football and boxing, have become schools of brutality.... Other athletic games, though not so brutalizing, are scarcely less objectionable because of the excess to which they are carried. They stimulate the love of pleasure and excitement, thus fostering a distaste for useful labor, a disposition to shun practical duties and responsibilities.... Thus the door is opened to dissipation and lawlessness, with their terrible results.
FLB	238	5	The true Christian will not desire to enter any place of amusement or engage in any diversion upon which he cannot ask the blessing of God. He will not be found at the theater, the billiard hall, or the bowling saloon. He will not unite with the gay waltzes or indulge in any other bewitching pleasure that will banish Christ from the mind. To those who plead for these diversions we answer, We cannot indulge in them in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.... No Christian would wish to meet death in such a place. No one would wish to be found there when Christ shall come.
FLB	238	6	If we venture on Satan's ground we have no assurance of protection from his power. So far as in us lies, we should close every avenue by which the tempter may find access to us.
------------------------Deposits in the Bank of Heaven, August 21
FLB	239	1	Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27.
FLB	239	2	The tender sympathies of our Saviour were aroused for fallen and suffering humanity. If you would be His followers, you must cultivate compassion and sympathy.... The widow, the orphan, the sick, and the dying will always need help. Here is an opportunity to proclaim the gospel--to hold up Jesus, the hope and consolation of all men. When the suffering body has been relieved, ... the heart is opened, and you can pour in the heavenly balm.
FLB	239	3	A company of believers may be poor, uneducated, and unknown; yet in Christ they may do a work in the home, the neighborhood, the church, and even in "the regions beyond," whose results will be as far-reaching as eternity. It is because this work is neglected that so many young disciples never advance beyond the mere alphabet of Christian experience. The light which was glowing in their own hearts when Jesus spoke to them, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," they might have kept alive by helping those in need. The restless energy that is so often a source of danger to the young might be directed into channels through which it would flow out in streams of blessing.
FLB	239	4	The hours so often spent in amusement that refreshes neither body nor soul should be spent in ... seeking to help someone who is in need.
FLB	239	5	Every opportunity to help a brother in need, or to aid the cause of God in the spread of the truth, is a pearl that you can send beforehand, and deposit in the bank of heaven for safe-keeping.
FLB	239	6	Love, courtesy, self-sacrifice--these are never lost. When God's chosen ones are changed from mortality to immortality, their words and deeds of goodness will be made manifest, and will be preserved through the eternal ages.... Through the merits of Christ's imputed righteousness, the fragrance of such words and deeds is forever preserved.
------------------------God and Caesar, August 22
FLB	240	1	Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no? ... And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's. Luke 20:22-25.
FLB	240	2	Christ's reply was ... a candid answer to the question. Holding in His hand the Roman coin, upon which were stamped the name and image of Caesar, He declared that since they were living under the protection of the Roman power, they should render to that power the support it claimed, so long as this did not conflict with a higher duty. But while peaceably subject to the laws of the land, they should at all times give their first allegiance to God.
FLB	240	3	We are to recognize human government as an ordinance of divine appointment, and teach obedience to it as a sacred duty, within its legitimate sphere. But when its claims conflict with the claims of God, we must obey God rather than men. God's Word must be recognized as above all human legislation. A "Thus saith the Lord" is not to be set aside for a "Thus saith the church" or a "Thus saith the state." The crown of Christ is to be lifted above the diadems of earthly potentates.
FLB	240	4	The wisdom and authority of the divine law are supreme.... The ten precepts of Jehovah are the foundation of all righteous and good laws. Those who love God's commandments will conform to every good law of the land.
FLB	240	5	We are not required to defy authorities.... We are to go forward in Christ's name, advocating the truths committed to us. If we are forbidden by men to do this work, then we may say, as did the apostles, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Acts 4:19, 20.
FLB	240	6	Our kingdom is not of this world. We are waiting for our Lord from heaven to come to earth to ... set up His everlasting kingdom.
------------------------Christian Youth and their Books, August 23
FLB	241	1	Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8.
FLB	241	2	Those who would not fall a prey to Satan's devices, must guard well the avenues of the soul; they must avoid reading, seeing, or hearing that which will suggest impure thoughts.
FLB	241	3	Many of the popular publications of the day are filled with sensational stories that are educating the youth in wickedness and leading them in the path to perdition. Mere children in years are old in a knowledge of crime. They are incited to evil by the tales they read.... The seeds of lawlessness are sown broadcast. None need marvel that a harvest of crime is the result.
FLB	241	4	The readers of fiction are indulging an evil that destroys spirituality, eclipsing the beauty of the sacred page. It creates an unhealthy excitement, fevers the imagination, unfits the mind for usefulness, weans the soul from prayer, and disqualifies it for any spiritual exercise.
FLB	241	5	Suffer not yourselves to open the lids of a book that is questionable. There is a hellish fascination in the literature of Satan. It is the powerful battery by which he tears down a simple religious faith. Never feel that you are strong enough to read infidel books; for they contain a poison like that of asps.
FLB	241	6	Young men and young women, read the literature that will give you true knowledge, and that will be a help to the entire family. Say firmly: "I will not spend precious moments in reading that which will be of no profit to me, and which only unfits me to be of service to others.... I will close my eyes to frivolous and sinful things."
FLB	241	7	The oftener and more diligently you study the Bible, the more beautiful will it appear, and the less relish you will have for light reading. Bind this precious volume to your hearts. It will be to you a friend and guide.
------------------------Melody in the Heart, August 24
FLB	242	1	Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Ephesians 5:19.
FLB	242	2	The melody of praise is the atmosphere of heaven; and when heaven comes in touch with the earth, there is music and song....
FLB	242	3	Above the new-created earth, as it lay, fair and unblemished, under the smile of God, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job 38:7. So human hearts, in sympathy with heaven, have responded to God's goodness in notes of praise.
FLB	242	4	Young men and women ... have a keen ear for music, and Satan knows what organs to excite to animate, engross, and charm the mind so that Christ is not desired.... Frivolous songs and the popular sheet music of the day seem congenial to their taste. The instruments of music have taken time which should have been devoted to prayer. Music, when not abused, is a great blessing; but when put to a wrong use, it is a terrible curse. It excites, but does not impart that strength and courage which the Christian can find only at the throne of grace.... Satan is leading the young captive.... He is a skillful charmer, luring them on to perdition.
FLB	242	5	Musical entertainments which, if conducted properly, will do no harm, are often a source of evil.... Musical talent too often fosters pride and ambition for display, and singers have but little thought of the worship of God.
FLB	242	6	Let all take time to cultivate the voice so that God's praise can be sung in clear, soft tones.... The ability to sing is the gift of God; let it be used to His glory.
FLB	242	7	Let us remember that our praises are supplemented by the choirs of the angelic hosts above.
FLB	242	8	Those who in heaven join with the angelic choir in their anthem of praise must learn on earth the song of heaven, the keynote of which is thanksgiving.
------------------------Beauty that Endures, August 25
FLB	243	1	Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Peter 3:3, 4.
FLB	243	2	In dress, as in all things else, it is our privilege to honor our Creator. He desires our clothing to be not only neat and healthful, but appropriate and becoming.... Our appearance in every respect should be characterized by neatness, modesty, and purity....
FLB	243	3	Our clothing, while modest and simple, should be of good quality, of becoming colors, and suited for service.
FLB	243	4	Chaste simplicity in dress, when united with modesty of demeanor, will go far toward surrounding a young woman with that atmosphere of sacred reserve which will be to her a shield from a thousand perils.
FLB	243	5	It is right to buy good material and have it carefully made. This is economy. But rich trimmings are not needed, and to indulge in them is to spend for self-gratification money that should be put into God's cause.... Practice economy in your outlay of means for dress.
FLB	243	6	When the mind is fixed upon pleasing God alone, all the needless embellishments of the person disappear.
FLB	243	7	He [Jesus] will send the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness into the soul, which will impart beauty and fragrance to the spiritual life. He will give to the character the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price.
FLB	243	8	It is right to love beauty and to desire it; but God desires us to love and seek first the highest beauty, that which is imperishable. No outward adorning can compare in value or loveliness with that "meek and quiet spirit," the "fine linen, white and clean," which all the holy ones of earth will wear. This apparel will make them beautiful and beloved here, and will hereafter be their badge of admission to the palace of the King.
------------------------A Tenth for God, August 26
FLB	244	1	And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's: it is holy unto the Lord. Leviticus 27:30.
FLB	244	2	The Lord has imparted to us heaven's richest treasure in giving us Jesus. With Him He has given us all things richly to enjoy. The productions of the earth, the bountiful harvests, the treasures of gold and silver, are His gifts. Houses and lands, food and clothing, He has placed in the possession of men. He asks us to acknowledge Him as the Giver of all things; and for this reason He says, Of all your possessions I reserve a tenth for Myself, besides gifts and offerings, which are to be brought into My storehouse.
FLB	244	3	God's plan in the tithing system is beautiful in its simplicity and equality.... All may feel that they can act a part in carrying forward the precious work of salvation. Every man, woman, and youth may become a treasurer for the Lord and may be an agent to meet the demands upon the treasury. Says the apostle: "Let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him." 1 Corinthians 16:2.
FLB	244	4	Let each regularly examine his income, which is all a blessing from God, and set apart the tithe as a separate fund, to be sacredly the Lord's. This fund should not in any case be devoted to any other use; it is to be devoted solely to support the ministry of the gospel.
FLB	244	5	A tithe of our income is "holy unto the Lord." The New Testament does not re-enact the law of the tithe, as it does not that of the Sabbath; for the validity of both is assumed.
FLB	244	6	I speak of the tithing system, yet how meager it looks to my mind! How small the estimate! How vain the endeavor to measure with mathematical rules, time, money and love against a love and sacrifice that is measureless and incomputable! Tithes for Christ! Oh, meager pittance, shameful recompense for that which cost so much! From the cross of Calvary, Christ calls for an unconditional surrender.... All we have should be consecrated to God.
------------------------The Offerings of Gratitude, August 27
FLB	245	1	Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7.
FLB	245	2	Not only should we faithfully render to God our tithes, which He claims as His own, but we should bring a tribute to His treasury as an offering of gratitude. Let us with joyful hearts bring to our Creator the first fruits of all His bounties--our choicest possessions, our best and holiest service.
FLB	245	3	The Lord requires gifts to be made at stated times, being so arranged that giving will become a habit and benevolence be felt to be a Christian duty. The heart, opened by one gift, is not to have time to become selfishly cold and to close before the next is bestowed. The stream is to be continually flowing, thus keeping open the channel by acts of benevolence.
FLB	245	4	The contributions required of the Hebrews for religious and charitable purposes amounted to fully one fourth of their income. So heavy a tax upon the resources of the people might be expected to reduce them to poverty; but, on the contrary, the faithful observance of these regulations was one of the conditions of their prosperity.
FLB	245	5	It is not the greatness of the gift that makes the offering acceptable to God; it is the purpose of the heart, the spirit of gratitude and love that it expresses. Let not the poor feel that their gifts are so small as to be unworthy of notice.
FLB	245	6	The small sums saved by deeds of sacrifice will do more for the upbuilding of the cause of God than larger gifts will accomplish that have not called for denial of self.
FLB	245	7	There is nothing too precious for us to give to Jesus. If we return to Him the talents of means He has entrusted to our keeping, He will give more into our hands. Every effort we make for Christ will be rewarded by Him; and every duty we perform in His name will minister to our own happiness.
------------------------In the Channel of Blessing, August 28
FLB	246	1	Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:25.
FLB	246	2	Never entertain the thought that you can be Christians and yet withdraw within yourselves. Each one is a part of the great web of humanity, and the nature and quality of your experience will be largely determined by the experiences of those with whom you associate.... Then let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
FLB	246	3	Many declare that it is certainly no harm to go to a concert and neglect the prayer meeting, or absent themselves from meetings where God's servants are to declare a message from heaven. It is safe for you to be just where Christ has said He would be.... Jesus has said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20. Can you afford to choose your pleasure and miss the blessing?
FLB	246	4	If Christians would associate together, speaking to each other of the love of God, and of the precious truths of redemption, their own hearts would be refreshed, and they would refresh one another.
FLB	246	5	All should have something to say for the Lord, for by so doing they will be blest. A book of remembrance is written of those who do not forsake the assembling of themselves together, but speak often one to another. The remnant are to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.... We should not come together to remain silent; those only are remembered of the Lord who assemble to speak of His honor and glory and tell of His power; upon such the blessing of God will rest, and they will be refreshed.
FLB	246	6	We should improve every opportunity of placing ourselves in the channel of blessing.... The convocations of the church, as in camp meetings, the assemblies of the home church, and all occasions where there is personal labor for souls, are God's appointed opportunities for giving the early and the latter rain.
------------------------God's Helping Hand, August 29
FLB	247	1	And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15.
FLB	247	2	"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." He "sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." John 3:16, 17. The love of God embraces all mankind. Christ, in giving the commission to the disciples, said: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
FLB	247	3	All who are ordained unto the life of Christ are ordained to work for the salvation of their fellow men. Their hearts will throb in unison with the heart of Christ. The same longing for souls that He has felt will be manifest in them. Not all can fill the same place in the work, but there is a place and a work for all.... Every gift is to be employed for the advancement of His kingdom and the glory of His name.
FLB	247	4	Christ desires to use the youth in His service. He needs missionaries. The barren fields all over the world call to heaven for laborers. If the youth will give themselves to God, He will give them wisdom and knowledge, preparing them for service. If they will consecrate themselves to Him, He will make them vessels unto honor, into which He can pour the precious oil of the Spirit, to be imparted to others. God's helping hand--this is what you may be if you will yield yourselves to His keeping.
FLB	247	5	To everyone who offers himself to the Lord for service, withholding nothing, is given power for the attainment of measureless results. For these God will do great things.
FLB	247	6	To young men and young women, as well as to those who are older, God will give power from above. With converted minds, converted hands, converted feet, and converted tongues, their lips touched with a living coal from the divine altar, they will go forth into the Master's service, moving steadily onward and upward, carrying the work forward to completion.
------------------------Keep Looking Up! August 30
FLB	248	1	Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2.
FLB	248	2	Several years ago, while journeying from Christiania, Norway, to Goteborg, Sweden, I was favored with the sight of the most glorious sunset it was ever my privilege to behold. Language is inadequate to picture its beauty. The last beams of the setting sun, silver and gold, purple, amber, and crimson, shed their glories athwart the sky, growing brighter and brighter, rising higher and higher in the heavens, until it seemed that the gates of the city of God had been left ajar, and gleams of the inner glory were flashing through. For two hours the wondrous splendor continued to light up the cold northern sky--a picture painted by the great Master Artist upon the shifting canvas of the heavens. Like the smile of God it seemed, above all earthly homes, above the rock-bound plains, the rugged mountains, the lonely forests, through which our journey lay.
FLB	248	3	Angels of mercy seemed whispering: "Look up! This glory is but a gleam of the light which flows from the throne of God. Live not for earth alone. Look up, and behold by faith the mansions of the heavenly home." This scene was to me as the bow of promise to Noah, enabling me to grasp the assurance of God's unfailing care, and to look forward to the haven of rest awaiting the faithful worker....
FLB	248	4	As God's children, it is our privilege ever to look up, keeping the eye of faith fixed on Christ. As we constantly keep Him in view, the sunshine of His presence floods the chambers of the mind. The light of Christ in the soul-temple brings peace. The soul is stayed on God. All perplexities and anxieties are committed to Jesus. As we continue to behold Him, His image becomes engraved on the heart, and is revealed in the daily life....
FLB	248	5	My dear young friends, ever keep Christ in view. Thus only can you keep the eye single to God's glory. Jesus is your light and life and peace and assurance forever.
------------------------The Hand that Never Lets Go, August 31
FLB	249	1	For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Isaiah 41:13.
FLB	249	2	The sun shone brilliantly on the dazzling snow of one of the highest mountains of the Alps, as a traveler followed his guide along the narrow path.... He had confidence in his guide, and followed fearlessly in his footsteps, though the track was entirely new to him. Suddenly he hesitated; for the bold mountaineer stepped across a narrow but very deep chasm, and then, holding out his hand, asked ... [him] to take it, and step across. Still the traveler hesitated, but the guide encouraged him to obey, saying reassuringly, "Take my hand; that hand never lets go."
FLB	249	3	Dear young friends, One greater than any human guide calls upon you to follow Him over the heights of patience and self-sacrifice. The path is not an easy one.... All the way along, Satan has prepared pitfalls for the feet of the unwary. But following our Guide, we may walk with perfect security; for the path is consecrated by His footsteps. It may be steep and rugged, but He has traveled it; His feet have pressed down the thorns to make the way easier for us. Every burden we are called upon to bear, He Himself has borne. Personal contact with Him brings light and hope and power. Of those who follow Him, He says, "They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." John 10:28.
FLB	249	4	We are to live only one day at a time. We do not have to do the work of a lifetime in a few hours. We need not look into the future with anxiety; for God has made it possible for us to be overcomers every day.
FLB	249	5	By the exercise of living faith today, we are to conquer the enemy. We must today seek God, and be determined that we will not rest satisfied without His presence. We should watch and work and pray as though this were the last day that would be granted us.
FLB	249	6	If you are right with God today, you are ready if Christ should come today.
------------------------The Eden Home, September 1
FLB	250	1	And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Genesis 2:8.
FLB	250	2	That home [the home of our first parents], beautified by the hand of God Himself, was not a gorgeous palace. Men, in their pride, delight in magnificent and costly edifices, and glory in the works of their own hands; but God placed Adam in a garden. This was his dwelling. The blue heavens were its dome; the earth, with its delicate flowers and carpet of living green, was its floor; and the leafy branches of the goodly trees were its canopy. Its walls were hung with the most magnificent adornings--the handiwork of the great Master Artist.
FLB	250	3	It was the design of God that man should find happiness in the employment of tending the things He had created, and that his wants should be met with the fruits of the trees of the garden.
FLB	250	4	In the surroundings of the holy pair was a lesson for all time--that true happiness is found, not in the indulgence of pride and luxury, but in communion with God through His created works. If men would ... cultivate greater simplicity, they would come far nearer to answering the purpose of God in their creation.... What are the possessions of even the most wealthy, in comparison with the heritage given to the lordly Adam?
FLB	250	5	The Garden of Eden was a representation of what God desired the whole earth to become, and it was His purpose that, as the human family increased in numbers, they should establish other homes ... like the one He had given. Thus in course of time the whole earth might be occupied with homes and schools where the words and the works of God should be studied, and where the students should thus be fitted more and more fully to reflect, throughout endless ages, the light of the knowledge of His glory.
------------------------The First Marriage, September 2
FLB	251	1	And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Genesis 2:18.
FLB	251	2	Man was not made to dwell in solitude; he was to be a social being. Without companionship, the beautiful scenes and delightful employments of Eden would have failed to yield perfect happiness. Even communion with angels could not have satisfied his desire for sympathy and companionship. There was none of the same nature to love, and to be loved.
FLB	251	3	God Himself gave Adam a companion. He provided "an help meet for him"--a helper corresponding to him--one who was fitted to be his companion, and who could be one with him in love and sympathy. Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his feet as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected by him. A part of man, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, she was his second self; showing the close union and the affectionate attachment that should exist in this relation. "For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it." Ephesians 5:29....
FLB	251	4	God celebrated the first marriage. Thus the institution has for its originator the Creator of the universe. "Marriage is honourable" (Hebrews 13:4); it was one of the first gifts of God to man, and it is one of the two institutions that, after the Fall, Adam brought with him beyond the gates of Paradise. When the divine principles are recognized and obeyed in this relation, marriage is a blessing; it guards the purity and happiness of the race, it provides for man's social needs, it elevates the physical, the intellectual, and the moral nature.
FLB	251	5	The family tie is the closest, the most tender and sacred, of any on earth. It was designed to be a blessing to mankind. And it is a blessing wherever the marriage covenant is entered into intelligently, in the fear of God, and with due consideration for its responsibilities.
------------------------Blending of Two Lives, September 3
FLB	252	1	Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24.
FLB	252	2	God has ordained that there should be perfect love and harmony between those who enter into the marriage relation. Let bride and bridegroom, in the presence of the heavenly universe, pledge themselves to love each other as God has ordained they should.
FLB	252	3	Around each family there is a sacred circle that should be kept unbroken. Within this circle no other person has a right to come. Let not the husband or the wife permit another to share the confidences that belong solely to themselves. Let each give love rather than exact it. Cultivate what is noblest in yourselves, and be quick to recognize the good qualities in each other.
FLB	252	4	Affection may be as clear as crystal and beauteous in its purity, yet it may be shallow because it has not been tested and tried. Make Christ first and last and best in everything. Constantly behold Him, and your love for Him will daily become deeper and stronger as it is submitted to the test of trial. And as your love for Him increases, your love for each other will grow deeper and stronger.
FLB	252	5	If Christ indeed is formed within, the hope of glory, there will be union and love in the home. Christ abiding in the heart of the wife will be at agreement with Christ abiding in the heart of the husband. They will be striving together for the mansions Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him.
FLB	252	6	Only where Christ reigns can there be deep, true, unselfish love. Then soul will be knit with soul, and the two lives will blend in harmony. Angels of God will be guests in the home, and their holy vigils will hallow the marriage chamber. [See The Adventist Home, chapter 18, "Marital Duties and Privileges," pages 121-128.]
FLB	252	7	The sweetest type of heaven is a home where the Spirit of the Lord presides.
------------------------A Union for Life, September 4
FLB	253	1	Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Matthew 19:6.
FLB	253	2	The marriage vow ... links the destinies of the two individuals with bonds which nought but the hand of death should sever.
FLB	253	3	In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus declared plainly that there could be no dissolution of the marriage tie, except for unfaithfulness to the marriage vow. "Every one," He said, "that putteth away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, maketh her an adulteress: and whosoever shall marry her when she is put away committeth adultery." Matthew 5:32, R.V....
FLB	253	4	Jesus pointed His hearers back to the marriage institution as ordained at creation.... Then marriage and the Sabbath had their origin, twin institutions for the glory of God in the benefit of humanity. Then, as the Creator joined the hands of the holy pair in wedlock, ... He enunciated the law of marriage for all the children of Adam to the close of time. That which the Eternal Father Himself had pronounced good was the law of highest blessing and development for man. Like every other one of God's good gifts entrusted to the keeping of humanity, marriage has been perverted by sin; but it is the purpose of the gospel to restore its purity and beauty.
FLB	253	5	Men and women, at the beginning of married life, should reconsecrate themselves to God....
FLB	253	6	Where the Spirit of God reigns, there will be no talk of unsuitability in the marriage relation.
FLB	253	7	Though difficulties, perplexities, and discouragements may arise, let neither husband nor wife harbor the thought that their union is a mistake or a disappointment. Determine to be all that it is possible to be to each other. Continue the early attentions. In every way encourage each other in fighting the battles of life. Study to advance the happiness of each other. Let there be mutual love, mutual forbearance. Then marriage, instead of being the end of love, will be as it were the very beginning of love.
------------------------Let God Control, September 5
FLB	254	1	Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. Psalm 127:1.
FLB	254	2	God ... desired that the earth should be filled with joy and peace. He created man for happiness, and He longs to fill human hearts with the peace of heaven. He desires that the families below shall be a symbol of the great family above.
FLB	254	3	Christian homes, established and conducted in accordance with God's plan, are among His most effective agencies for the formation of Christian character and for the advancement of His work.
FLB	254	4	Home should be made all that the word implies. It should be a little heaven upon earth, a place where the affections are cultivated instead of being studiously repressed. Our happiness depends upon this cultivation of love, sympathy, and true courtesy to one another.
FLB	254	5	Let your home be such that Christ can enter it as an abiding guest. Let it be such that people will take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus, and have learned of Him.
FLB	254	6	The home in which the members are kindly, courteous Christians exerts a far-reaching influence for good. Other families mark the results attained by such a home, and follow the example set, in their turn guarding their homes against evil influences.
FLB	254	7	Angels of heaven often visit the home in which the will of God bears sway. Under the power of divine grace, such a home becomes a place of refreshing to worn, weary pilgrims. Self is kept from asserting itself. Right habits are formed. There is a careful recognition of the rights of others. The faith that works by love and purifies the soul stands at the helm, presiding over the entire household.
FLB	254	8	The greatest evidence of the power of Christianity that can be presented to the world is a well-ordered, well-disciplined family. This will recommend the truth as nothing else can, for it is a living witness of its practical power upon the heart.
------------------------The Love that Lasts, September 6
FLB	255	1	Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. Song of Solomon 8:7.
FLB	255	2	Love is a precious gift, which we receive from Jesus. Pure and holy affection is not a feeling, but a principle. Those who are actuated by true love, are neither unreasonable nor blind.
FLB	255	3	The divine love emanating from Christ never destroys human love, but includes it. By it human love is refined and purified, elevated and ennobled. Human love can never bear its precious fruit until it is united with the divine nature and trained to grow heavenward.
FLB	255	4	True love is not a strong, fiery, impetuous passion. On the contrary, it is calm and deep in its nature. It looks beyond mere externals, and is attracted by qualities alone. It is wise and discriminating, and its devotion is real and abiding.
FLB	255	5	Hearts that are filled with the love of Christ can never get very far apart. Religion is love, and a Christian home is one where love reigns and finds expression in words and acts of thoughtful kindness and gentle courtesy.
FLB	255	6	Our homes must be made a Bethel, our hearts a shrine. Wherever the love of God is cherished in the soul, there will be peace, there will be light and joy.
FLB	255	7	Jesus wants to see happy marriages, happy firesides.
FLB	255	8	Men and women can reach God's ideal for them if they will take Christ as their helper. What human wisdom cannot do, His grace will accomplish for those who give themselves to Him in loving trust. His providence can unite hearts in bonds that are of heavenly origin. Love will not be a mere exchange of soft and flattering words. The loom of heaven weaves with warp and woof finer, yet more firm, than can be woven by the looms of earth. The result is not a tissue fabric, but a texture that will bear test and trial. Heart will be bound to heart in the golden bonds of a love that is enduring.
------------------------Far Above Rubies, September 7
FLB	256	1	Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. Proverbs 31:10, 11.
FLB	256	2	The happiness of the family depends much upon the wife and mother.
FLB	256	3	Let a young man seek one to stand by his side who is fitted to bear her share of life's burdens, one whose influence will ennoble and refine him, and who will make him happy in her love.
FLB	256	4	Married life is not all romance; it has its real difficulties and its homely details. The wife must not consider herself a doll, to be tended, but a woman; one to put her shoulder under real, not imaginary, burdens, and live an understanding, thoughtful life, considering that there are other things to be thought of than herself.
FLB	256	5	A knowledge of domestic duties is beyond price to every woman. There are families without number whose happiness is wrecked by the inefficiency of the wife and mother.
FLB	256	6	Every girl should learn to take charge of the domestic affairs of home, should be a cook, a housekeeper, a seamstress. She should understand all those things which it is necessary that the mistress of a house should know.
FLB	256	7	If need be, a young woman can dispense with a knowledge of French and algebra, or even of the piano; but it is indispensable that she learn to make good bread, to fashion neatly fitting garments, and to perform efficiently the many duties that pertain to homemaking.
FLB	256	8	"A prudent wife is from the Lord." Proverbs 19:14. "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her...." "She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her," saying, "Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all." Proverbs 31:11, 12, 26-29. He who gains such a wife "findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord."
------------------------Love Stands the Test, September 8
FLB	257	1	He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love." Song of Solomon 2:4.
FLB	257	2	Before giving her hand in marriage, every woman should inquire whether he with whom she is about to unite her destiny is worthy. What has been his past record? Is his life pure? Is the love which he expresses of a noble, elevated character, or is it a mere emotional fondness? Has he traits of character that will make her happy? Can she find true peace and joy in his affection? Will she be allowed to preserve her individuality, or must her judgment and conscience be surrendered to the control of her husband? As a disciple of Christ, she is not her own; she has been bought with a price. Can she honor the Saviour's claims as supreme? Will body and soul, thoughts and purposes, be preserved pure and holy? These questions have a vital bearing upon the well-being of every woman who enters the marriage relation.
FLB	257	3	If you are blessed with God-fearing parents, seek counsel of them. Open to them your hopes and plans, learn the lessons which their life experiences have taught, and you will be saved many a heartache. Above all, make Christ your counselor. Study His Word with prayer.
FLB	257	4	Under such guidance let a young woman accept as a life companion only one who possesses pure, manly traits of character, one who is diligent, aspiring, and honest, one who loves and fears God.
FLB	257	5	The heart yearns for human love, but this love is not strong enough, or pure enough, or precious enough, to supply the place of the love of Jesus. Only in her Saviour can the wife find wisdom, strength, and grace to meet the cares, responsibilities, and sorrows of life. She should make Him her strength and her guide. Let woman give herself to Christ before giving herself to any earthly friend, and enter into no relation which shall conflict with this.
FLB	257	6	It is only in Christ that a marriage alliance can be safely formed. Human love should draw its closest bonds from divine love. Only where Christ reigns can there be a deep, true, unselfish affection.
------------------------Sunshine or Shadows? September 9
FLB	258	1	Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness. 2 Corinthians 6:14.
FLB	258	2	One of the greatest dangers that besets the people of God today, is that of association with the ungodly; especially in uniting themselves in marriage with unbelievers.
FLB	258	3	Hundreds have sacrificed Christ and heaven in consequence of marrying unconverted persons.... The happiness and prosperity of the married life depend upon the unity of the parties. How can the carnal mind harmonize with the mind that is assimilated to the mind of Christ? ... There is a perpetual difference of taste, of inclination, and of purpose. Unless the believer shall, through his steadfast adherence to principle, win the impenitent, he will, as is much more common, become discouraged and sell his religious principles for the poor companionship of one who has no connection with Heaven.
FLB	258	4	Those who profess the truth trample on the will of God in marrying unbelievers; they lose His favor and make bitter work for repentance. The unbelieving may possess an excellent moral character; but the fact that he or she has not answered to the claims of God, and has neglected so great salvation, is sufficient reason why such a union should not be consummated.
FLB	258	5	Of Solomon the Inspired Record says, "His wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God." 1 Kings 11:4.... Let the sad memory of Solomon's apostasy warn every soul to shun the same precipice.
FLB	258	6	If men and women are in the habit of praying twice a day before they contemplate marriage, they should pray four times a day when such a step is anticipated. Marriage is something that will influence and affect your life, both in this world and in the world to come.
FLB	258	7	Unless you would have a home where the shadows are never lifted, do not unite yourself with one who is an enemy of God.
------------------------A Partnership that Works, September 10
FLB	259	1	For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Ephesians 5:23.
FLB	259	2	The Lord has constituted the husband the head of the wife to be her protector; he is the house-band of the family, binding the members together, even as Christ is the head of the church and the Saviour of the mystical body. Let every husband who claims to love God carefully study the requirements of God in his position. Christ's authority is exercised in wisdom, in all kindness and gentleness; so let the husband exercise his power and imitate the great Head of the church.
FLB	259	3	The husband should remember that much of the burden of training his children rests upon the mother.... This should call into exercise his tenderest feelings, and with care should he lighten her burdens. He should encourage her to lean upon his large affections.
FLB	259	4	Neither the husband nor the wife should attempt to exercise over the other an arbitrary control. Do not try to compel each other to yield to your wishes. You cannot do this and retain each other's love. Be kind, patient, and forbearing, considerate, and courteous. By the grace of God you can succeed in making each other happy, as in your marriage vow you promised to do.
FLB	259	5	Marriage, a union for life, is a symbol of the union between Christ and His church. The spirit that Christ manifests toward His church is the spirit that the husband and wife are to manifest toward each other. If they love God supremely, they will love each other in the Lord.... In their mutual self-denial and self-sacrifice they will be a blessing to each other....
FLB	259	6	God wants the home to be the happiest place on earth, the very symbol of the home in heaven. Bearing the marriage responsibilities in the home, linking their interests with Jesus Christ, leaning upon His arm and His assurance, husband and wife may share a happiness in this union that angels of God commend. Marriage does not lessen their usefulness, but strengthens it.
------------------------Kings and Queens, September 11
FLB	260	1	Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding is it established. Proverbs 24:3.
FLB	260	2	In God's plan for Israel every family had a home on the land, with sufficient ground for tilling. Thus were provided both the means and the incentive for a useful, industrious, and self-supporting life. And no devising of men has ever improved upon that plan.
FLB	260	3	The earth has blessings hidden in her depths for those who have courage and will and perseverance to gather her treasures. Fathers and mothers who possess a piece of land and a comfortable home are kings and queens.
FLB	260	4	An expensive dwelling, elaborate furnishings, display, luxury, and ease, do not furnish the conditions essential to a happy, useful life. Jesus came to this earth to accomplish the greatest work ever accomplished among men. He came as God's ambassador, to show us how to live so as to secure life's best results. What were the conditions chosen by the infinite Father for His Son? A secluded home in the Galilean hills; a household sustained by honest, self-respecting labor; a life of simplicity; daily conflict with difficulty and hardship; self-sacrifice, economy, and patient, gladsome service; the hour of study at His mother's side, with the open scroll of Scripture; the quiet of dawn or twilight in the green valley; the holy ministries of nature; the study of creation and providence; and the soul's communion with God--these were the conditions and opportunities of the early life of Jesus....
FLB	260	5	Let it be your first aim to make a pleasant home. Be sure to provide the facilities that will lighten labor and promote health and comfort....
FLB	260	6	Furnish your home with things plain and simple, things that will bear handling, that can be easily kept clean, and that can be replaced without great expense. By exercising taste, you can make a very simple home attractive and inviting, if love and contentment are there.
------------------------The Crowning Treasure of the Home, September 12
FLB	261	1	Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Psalm 128:3.
FLB	261	2	Children and youth are God's peculiar treasure.
FLB	261	3	When two compose a family, ... and there are no children to call into exercise patience, forbearance, and true love, there is need of constant watchfulness lest selfishness obtain the supremacy, lest you yourselves become the center, and you require attention, care, and interest, which you feel under no obligation to bestow upon others.
FLB	261	4	Care and affection for dependent children removes the roughness from our natures, makes us tender and sympathetic, and has an influence to develop the nobler elements of our character.
FLB	261	5	After the birth of his first son, Enoch reached a higher experience; he was drawn into a closer relationship with God. He realized more fully his own obligations and responsibility as a son of God. And as he saw the child's love for its father, its simple trust in his protection; as he felt the deep, yearning tenderness of his own heart for that first-born son, he learned a precious lesson of the wonderful love of God to men in the gift of His Son, and the confidence which the children of God may repose in their heavenly Father.
FLB	261	6	I have a very tender interest in all children.... I have taken many children to care for, and I have always felt that association with the simplicity of childhood was a great blessing to me....
FLB	261	7	The sympathy, forbearance, and love required in dealing with children would be a blessing in any household. They would soften and subdue set traits of character in those who need to be more cheerful and restful. The presence of a child in a home sweetens and refines. A child brought up in the fear of the Lord is a blessing....
FLB	261	8	Your sons and daughters are younger members of God's family. He has committed them to your care, to train and educate for heaven.
FLB	261	9	The soul of the little child that believes in Christ is as precious in His sight as are the angels about His throne.
------------------------What Kind of Inheritance? September 13
FLB	262	1	And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him? Judges 13:12.
FLB	262	2	The words spoken to the wife of Manoah contain a truth that the mothers of today would do well to study.
FLB	262	3	The child will be affected for good or for evil by the habits of the mother. She must herself be controlled by principle, and must practice temperance and self-denial, if she would seek the welfare of her child.
FLB	262	4	If before the birth of her child she is unstable, if she is selfish, peevish, and exacting, the disposition of her child will bear the marks of her wrong course.... But if she unswervingly adheres to the right, if she is kind, gentle, and unselfish, she will give her child these traits of character.
FLB	262	5	And fathers as well as mothers are involved in this responsibility. Both parents transmit their own characteristics, mental and physical, their dispositions and appetites, to their children.... The inquiry of every father and mother should be, "What shall we do unto the child that shall be born unto us?" The effect of prenatal influences has been by many lightly regarded; but the instruction sent from heaven to those Hebrew parents ... shows how the matter is looked upon by our Creator.
FLB	262	6	The mother who is a fit teacher for her children must, before their birth, form habits of self-denial and self-control; for she transmits to them her own qualities, her own strong or weak traits of character. The enemy of souls understands this matter much better than do many parents. He will bring temptations upon the mother, knowing that if she does not resist him, he can through her affect her child. The mother's only hope is in God. She may flee to Him for grace and strength. She will not seek help in vain. He will enable her to transmit to her offspring qualities that will help them to gain success in this life and to win eternal life.
------------------------Pattern for Children and Youth, September 14
FLB	263	1	And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Luke 2:40.
FLB	263	2	Jesus is our example.... It is in His home life that He is the pattern for all children and youth.
FLB	263	3	His mother was His first human teacher. From her lips and from the scrolls of the prophets, He learned of heavenly things.... His intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures shows how diligently His early years were given to the study of God's Word.... From His earliest years He was possessed of one purpose; He lived to bless others.
FLB	263	4	In His youth He worked with His father at the carpenter's trade.... From His childhood He was a pattern of obedience and industry. He was as a pleasant sunbeam in the home circle. Faithfully and cheerfully He acted His part, doing the humble duties that He was called to do in His lowly life.
FLB	263	5	The life of Christ was humble, free from affectation or display. He lived mostly in the open air.... The birds, the natural flowers that decked the fields with their glowing beauty, the majestic trees and lofty mountains, the ragged rocks and perpetual hills, all had special charms for Him.... Secluded from every human eye, He communed with His heavenly Father. His moral powers were strengthened by His meditation and communion with God.
FLB	263	6	It is the precious privilege of ... parents to cooperate in teaching the children how to drink in the gladness of Christ's life by learning to follow His example. The Saviour's early years were useful years. He was His mother's helper in the home; and He was just as verily fulfilling His commission when performing the duties of the home and working at the carpenter's bench as when He engaged in His public work of ministry.
FLB	263	7	Every youth who follows Christ's example of faithfulness and obedience in His lowly home may claim those words spoken of Him by the Father through the Holy Spirit, "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth." Isaiah 42:1.
------------------------The Grandest Work of All, September 15
FLB	264	1	That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace. Psalm 144:12.
FLB	264	2	The tenderest earthly tie is that between the mother and her child.
FLB	264	3	In the children committed to her care, every mother has a sacred charge from God. "Take this son, this daughter," He says; "train it for Me; give it a character polished after the similitude of a palace, that it may shine in the courts of the Lord forever."
FLB	264	4	This work of molding, refining, and polishing is the mother's. The character of the child is to be developed. The mother must engrave upon the tablet of the heart lessons as enduring as eternity.
FLB	264	5	Child training is the grandest work ever committed to mortals. The child belongs to the Lord, and from the time it is an infant in its mother's arms, it is to be trained for Him.
FLB	264	6	The home should be to the children the most attractive place in the world, and the mother's presence should be its greatest attraction.... By gentle discipline, in loving words and acts, mothers may bind their children to their hearts.
FLB	264	7	There is a God above, and the light and glory from His throne rests upon the faithful mother as she tries to educate her children to resist the influence of evil. No other work can equal hers in importance. She has not, like the artist, to paint a form of beauty upon canvas, nor, like the sculptor, to chisel it from marble. She has not, like the author, to embody a noble thought in words of power, nor, like the musician, to express a beautiful sentiment in melody. It is hers, with the help of God, to develop in a human soul the likeness of the divine.
FLB	264	8	The king upon his throne has no higher work than has the mother. The mother is queen of her household. She has in her power the molding of her children's characters, that they may be fitted for the higher, immortal life. An angel could not ask for a higher mission.
------------------------House-Band of the Family, September 16
FLB	265	1	And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4.
FLB	265	2	Great as is the work of the mother, it should never be forgotten that the father also has a part to act in the education and training of his children.... Especially as the children advance in years is the father's influence needed, in union with that of the mother, to restrain, control, and guide.
FLB	265	3	A Christian father is the house-band of his family, binding them close to the throne of God. Never is his interest in his children to flag. The father who has a family of boys should not leave these restless boys wholly to the care of the mother.... He should make himself their companion and friend. He should exert himself to keep them from evil associates.... He should take more of the burden upon himself, doing all in his power to lead his boys to God.
FLB	265	4	When children lose their self-control and speak passionate words, the parents should for a time keep silent.... Silence is golden, and will do more to bring repentance than any words that can be uttered. Satan is well pleased when parents irritate their children by speaking harsh, angry words.... "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged." Colossians 3:21.... Let your calmness help to restore them to a proper frame of mind.
FLB	265	5	By kind and judicious management, fathers as well as mothers should bind their children to them by the strong ties of reverence, gratitude, and love, and should kindle in their young hearts an earnest longing for righteousness and truth. While the mother seeks to implant good principles, the father should see that the precious seed is not choked by the growth of evil. His sterner discipline is needed that his children may learn firmness and self-control....
FLB	265	6	Christian father, labor kindly, patiently, for the welfare of your children. Seek to turn their hearts to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Teach them by precept and example that the spirit of Christ is the spirit of doing good.
------------------------Holding the Reins of Government, September 17
FLB	266	1	Children, obey your parents in the Lord; for this is right. Ephesians 6:1.
FLB	266	2	The will of God is the law of heaven. As long as that law was the rule of life, all the family of God were holy and happy. But when the divine law was disobeyed, then envy, jealousy, and strife were introduced, and a part of the inhabitants of heaven fell. As long as God's law is revered in our earthly homes, the family will be happy.
FLB	266	3	One of the first lessons a child needs to learn is the lesson of obedience. Before he is old enough to reason, he may be taught to obey.
FLB	266	4	The mother is the queen of the home, and the children are her subjects. She is to rule her household wisely, in the dignity of her motherhood. Her influence in the home is to be paramount.
FLB	266	5	Self-will should never be permitted to go unrebuked. The future well-being of the child requires kindly, loving, but firm discipline.... It is impossible to depict the evil that results from leaving a child to its own will.
FLB	266	6	A fitful government--at one time holding the lines firmly, and at another allowing that which has been condemned--is ruination to a child.
FLB	266	7	Uniform firmness and unimpassioned control are necessary to the discipline of every family. Say what you mean calmly, move with consideration, and carry out what you say without deviation.
FLB	266	8	The requirements of the parents should always be reasonable; kindness should be expressed, not by foolish indulgence, but by wise direction. Parents are to teach their children pleasantly, without scolding or faultfinding, seeking to bind the hearts of the little ones to them by silken cords of love.
FLB	266	9	The combined influence of authority and love will make it possible to hold firmly and kindly the reins of family government. An eye single to the glory of God and to what our children owe Him will keep us from looseness and from sanctioning evil.
------------------------Silken Cords of Affection, September 18
FLB	267	1	And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32.
FLB	267	2	The principle inculcated by the injunction, "Be kindly affectioned one to another" (Romans 12:10), lies at the very foundation of domestic happiness.
FLB	267	3	Unkindness, complaining, and anger shut Jesus from the dwelling. I saw that angels of God will flee from a house where there are unpleasant words, fretfulness, and strife.
FLB	267	4	Gentle manners, cheerful conversation, and loving acts will bind the hearts of children to their parents by the silken cords of affection and will do more to make home attractive than the rarest ornaments that can be bought for gold.
FLB	267	5	Tender affection should ever be cherished between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters. Every hasty word should be checked, and there should not be even the appearance of the lack of love one for another.... Children are to respect and reverence their parents, and parents are to manifest patience, kindness, and affection for their children. Each one should seek in every possible way to please and make happy the members of the family circle.
FLB	267	6	Acts of kindness.... will bind hearts together, and will draw them closer to the heart of Him from whom every generous impulse springs. The little attentions, the small acts of love and self-sacrifice, that flow out from the life as quietly as the fragrance from a flower--these constitute no small share of the blessings and happiness of life.
FLB	267	7	Oh, what rays of softness and beauty shone forth in the daily life of our Saviour! What sweetness flowed from His very presence! The same spirit will be revealed in His children. Those with whom Christ dwells will be surrounded with a divine atmosphere. Their white robes of purity will be fragrant with perfume from the garden of the Lord. Their faces will reflect light from His, brightening the path for stumbling and weary feet.
------------------------Working Together, September 19
FLB	268	1	Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2.
FLB	268	2	Children as well as parents have important duties in the home. They should be taught that they are a part of the home firm. They are fed and clothed and loved and cared for; and they should respond to these many mercies by bearing their share of the home burdens, and bringing all the happiness possible into the family.
FLB	268	3	Even the little ones should be trained to share in the daily work, and should be made to feel that their help is needed and is appreciated. The older ones should be their parents' assistants, entering into their plans, and sharing their responsibilities and burdens. Let fathers and mothers take time to teach their children, let them show that they value their help, desire their confidence, and enjoy their companionship, and the children will not be slow to respond. Not only will the parents' burden be lightened, and the children receive a practical training of inestimable worth, but there will be a strengthening of the home ties and a deepening of the very foundations of character.
FLB	268	4	Work is good for children; they are happier to be usefully employed a large share of the time; their innocent amusements are enjoyed with a keener zest after the successful completion of their tasks. Labor strengthens both the muscles and the mind. Mothers may make precious little helpers of their children.
FLB	268	5	The approval of God rests with loving assurance upon the children who cheerfully take their part in the duties of domestic life, sharing the burdens of father and mother.
FLB	268	6	If children were taught to regard the humble round of everyday duties as the course marked out for them by the Lord, ... how much more pleasant and honorable would their work appear. To perform every duty as unto the Lord, throws a charm around the humblest employment, and links the workers on earth with the holy beings who do God's will in heaven.
------------------------"I Will Save Thy Children", September 20
FLB	269	1	But thus saith the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. Isaiah 49:25.
FLB	269	2	The youth are the objects of Satan's special attacks.
FLB	269	3	Wherever we turn, the battle goes on unceasingly.... Multitudes of the youth are swept away by the overwhelming tide of evil. In every earnest Christian heart the question rises, "Why, oh, why, in a land of Bibles and Christian teaching, can the adversary of souls exert over our youth a power so mighty, so unrestrained?" The reason is apparent. Parents are neglecting their solemn responsibility.
FLB	269	4	If a field is left uncultivated, a crop of weeds is sure to appear. So it is with children. If the soil of the heart is uncultivated, Satan sows his seeds of anger and hatred, selfishness and pride, and they quickly spring up, to bear a harvest that parents reap with bitter regret. Too late they see their terrible mistake.
FLB	269	5	One of the signs of the "last days" is the disobedience of children to their parents.
FLB	269	6	The sin of rebellion against parental authority, lies at the very foundation of the misery and crime in the world today.
FLB	269	7	Jesus loves children and youth. He rejoices when He sees Satan repulsed in his efforts to overcome them. Many a youth is in imminent peril through manifold temptations, but the Saviour has the tenderest sympathy for him, and sends His angels to guard and protect him. He is the Good Shepherd, ever ready to ... seek for the lost, straying sheep.
FLB	269	8	Parents stand in the place of God to their children, and they will have to render an account, whether they have been faithful to the charge committed to their trust.
FLB	269	9	[Christian parents,] be true to your trust. God will help you. Guided by Him, your children will grow up to bless and honor you in this life and in the life to come.
------------------------Little Children May Be Christians, September 21
FLB	270	1	Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19:14.
FLB	270	2	God wants every child of tender age to be His child, to be adopted into His family. Young though they may be, the youth may be members of the household of faith, and have a most precious experience.
FLB	270	3	I was eleven years old when the light broke into my heart. I had pious parents, who in every way tried to make their children acquainted with their heavenly Father. We sang the praises of God in our household. Every morning and evening we had family prayer. There were eight children in the family, and every opportunity was improved by our parents to lead us to give our hearts to Jesus.
FLB	270	4	Children are most susceptible to the teachings of the gospel; their hearts are open to divine influences, and strong to retain the lessons received. The little children may be Christians, having an experience in accordance with their years.
FLB	270	5	Happy are the parents whose lives are a true reflection of the divine, so that the promises and commands of God awaken in the child gratitude and reverence; the parents whose tenderness and justice and long-suffering interpret to the child the love and justice and long-suffering of God; and who, by teaching the child to love and trust and obey them, are teaching him to love and trust and obey his Father in heaven. Parents who impart to a child such a gift have endowed him with a treasure more precious than the wealth of all the ages--a treasure as enduring as eternity.
FLB	270	6	Never allow your children to suppose that they are not children of God until they are old enough to be baptized.
FLB	270	7	If properly instructed, very young children may have correct views of their state as sinners and of the way of salvation through Christ.
FLB	270	8	In love, faith, and prayer let parents work for their households, until with joy they can come to God saying, "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me." Isaiah 8:18.
------------------------Feasting on God's Word, September 22
FLB	271	1	And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Deuteronomy 6:6, 7.
FLB	271	2	Our heavenly Father, in giving His Word, did not overlook the children. In all that men have written, where can be found anything that has such a hold upon the heart, anything so well adapted to awaken the interest of the little ones, as the stories of the Bible? In these simple stories may be made plain the great principles of the law of God.
FLB	271	3	The Sabbath school affords to parents and children a precious opportunity for the study of God's Word.... Parents, set apart a little time each day for the study of the Sabbath school lesson with your children.... Parents, as well as children, will receive benefit from this study. Let the more important passages of Scripture connected with the lesson be committed to memory, not as a task, but as a privilege....
FLB	271	4	Observe system in the study of the Scriptures in your families. Neglect anything of a temporal nature; ... but be sure that the soul is fed with the bread of life.
FLB	271	5	Many are the benefits derived from feasting on His Word.... Habits of self-control are formed and strengthened. The infirmities of childhood--fretfulness, willfulness, selfishness, hasty words, passionate acts--disappear, and in their place are developed the graces of Christian manhood and womanhood.
FLB	271	6	We need to recognize the Holy Spirit as our enlightener. That Spirit loves to address the children, and discover to them the treasures and beauties of the Word. The promises spoken by the Great Teacher will captivate the senses and animate the soul of the child with a spiritual power that is divine. There will grow in the receptive mind a familiarity with divine things which will be as a barricade against the temptations of the enemy.
------------------------Sweetest Hour of the Day, September 23
FLB	272	1	My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. Psalm 5:3.
FLB	272	2	If ever there was a time when every house should be a house of prayer, it is now.
FLB	272	3	In every Christian home God should be honored by the morning and evening sacrifices of prayer and praise. Children should be taught to respect and reverence the hour of prayer. It is the duty of Christian parents, morning and evening, by earnest prayer and persevering faith, to make a hedge about their children.
FLB	272	4	The hours of morning and evening worship should be sweetest and most helpful of the day. Let it be understood that into these hours no troubled, unkind thoughts are to intrude; that parents and children assemble to meet with Jesus, and to invite into the home the presence of holy angels. Let the services be brief and full of life, adapted to the occasion, and varied from time to time. Let all join in the Bible reading, and learn and often repeat God's law.
FLB	272	5	In the church at home the children are to learn to pray and to trust in God.... Come in humility, with a heart full of tenderness, and with a sense of the temptations and dangers before yourselves and your children; by faith bind them to the altar, entreating for them the care of the Lord. Train the children to offer their simple words of prayer. Tell them that God delights to have them call upon Him.
FLB	272	6	Will the Lord of heaven pass by such homes, and leave no blessing there? Nay, verily. Ministering angels will guard the children who are thus dedicated to God. They hear the offering of praise and the prayer of faith, and they bear the petitions to Him who ministers in the sanctuary for His people, and offers His merits in their behalf.
FLB	272	7	The beautiful lessons of the Bible stories and parables, the pure, simple instruction of God's Holy Word, is the spiritual food for you and your children. Oh, what a work is before you! Will you take hold of it in the love and fear of God?
------------------------Singing on Life's Way, September 24
FLB	273	1	Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. Psalm 89:15.
FLB	273	2	As the children of Israel, journeying through the wilderness, cheered their way by the music of sacred song, so God bids His children today gladden their pilgrim life. There are few means more effective for fixing His words in the memory than repeating them in song. And such song has wonderful power. It has power to subdue rude and uncultivated natures; power to quicken thought and ... to promote harmony of action.... It is one of the most effective means of impressing the heart with spiritual truth. How often to the soul hard-pressed and ready to despair, memory recalls some word of God's--the long-forgotten burden of a childhood song--and temptations lose their power.... Let there be singing in the home, of songs that are sweet and pure, and there will be fewer words of censure, and more of cheerfulness and hope and joy.
FLB	273	3	Jesus carried into His labor cheerfulness and tact.... Often He expressed the gladness of His heart by singing psalms and heavenly songs. Often the dwellers in Nazareth heard His voice raised in praise and thanksgiving to God. He held communion with heaven in song; and as His companions complained of weariness from labor, they were cheered by the sweet melody from His lips. His praise seemed to banish the evil angels, and, like incense, fill the place with fragrance.
FLB	273	4	With the voice of singing He welcomed the morning light. He listened to the lark caroling forth music to its God, and joined His voice with the voice of praise and thanksgiving.
FLB	273	5	Song is a weapon that we can always use against discouragement.
FLB	273	6	The voice of thanksgiving, praise, and rejoicing is heard in heaven. The voices of the angels in heaven unite with the voices of the children of God on earth as they ascribe honor and glory and praise to God and to the Lamb for the great salvation provided.
FLB	273	7	Let us learn the song of the angels now, that we may sing it when we join their shining ranks.
------------------------Day of Days, September 25
FLB	274	1	And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Ezekiel 20:20.
FLB	274	2	The Sabbath should be made so interesting to our families that its weekly return will be hailed with joy.
FLB	274	3	The Sabbath school and the meeting for worship occupy only a part of the Sabbath. The portion remaining to the family may be made the most sacred and precious season of all the Sabbath hours.
FLB	274	4	In the minds of the children the very thought of the Sabbath should be bound up with the beauty of natural things.... Happy the father and mother who can teach their children God's written word with illustrations from the open pages of the book of nature; who can gather under the green trees, in the fresh, pure air, to study the Word and to sing the praise of the Father above.
FLB	274	5	In pleasant weather let parents walk with their children in the fields and groves. Amid the beautiful things of nature tell them the reason for the institution of the Sabbath. Describe to them God's great work of creation. Tell them that when the earth came from His hand, it was holy and beautiful. Every flower, every shrub, every tree, answered the purpose of its Creator.... Show that it was sin which marred God's perfect work; that thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death, are all the result of disobedience to God. Bid them see how the earth, though marred with the curse of sin, still reveals God's goodness.
FLB	274	6	If we can cultivate within us a beauty of soul corresponding to the beauty of nature around us, there will be a blending of the divine and human agencies.
FLB	274	7	As the sun goes down, let the voice of prayer and the hymn of praise mark the close of the sacred hours and invite God's presence through the cares of the week of labor.
FLB	274	8	Thus parents can make the Sabbath, as it should be, the most joyful day of the week. They can lead their children to regard it as a delight, the day of days, the holy of the Lord, honorable.
------------------------The Royal Robe of Heaven, September 26
FLB	275	1	Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right. Proverbs 20:11.
FLB	275	2	Better than any other inheritance of wealth you can give to your children will be the gift of a healthy body, a sound mind, and a noble character.
FLB	275	3	The lessons learned, the habits formed, during the years of infancy and childhood have more to do with the formation of the character and the direction of the life than have all the instruction and training of after years.
FLB	275	4	God has withheld no blessing that is necessary for shaping the character of children and youth after the divine pattern given them in the youth of Jesus.
FLB	275	5	The physical constitution of Jesus, as well as His spiritual development, is brought before us in these words, "the child grew," and "increased in stature." In childhood and youth attention should be given to physical development. Parents should so train their children in good habits of eating and drinking, dressing, and exercise, that a good foundation will be laid for sound health in afterlife.... This places the children and youth in a favorable position, so that, with proper religious training, they may, like Christ, wax strong in spirit.
FLB	275	6	Let the youth and the little children be taught to choose for themselves that royal robe woven in heaven's loom, the "fine linen, clean and white" (Revelation 19:8), which all the holy ones of earth will wear. This robe, Christ's own spotless character, is freely offered to every human being. But all who receive it will receive and wear it here.
FLB	275	7	Let the children be taught that as they open their minds to pure, loving thoughts and do loving and helpful deeds, they are clothing themselves with His beautiful garment of character. This apparel will make them beautiful and beloved here, and will hereafter be their title of admission to the palace of the King. His promise is: "They shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy" (Revelation 3:4).
------------------------A Place of Refuge, September 27
FLB	276	1	Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Hebrews 13:2.
FLB	276	2	Our sympathies are to overflow the boundaries of self and the enclosure of family walls. There are precious opportunities for those who will make their homes a blessing to others.
FLB	276	3	We are in a world of sin and temptation; all around us are souls perishing out of Christ, and God wants us to labor for them in every way possible. If you have a pleasant home, invite to it the youth who have no home, those who are in need of help, who long for sympathy and kind words, for respect and courtesy.
FLB	276	4	Our homes should be a place of refuge for the tempted youth. Many there are who stand at the parting of the ways. Every influence, every impression, is determining the choice that shapes their destiny both here and hereafter. Evil invites them. Its resorts are made bright and attractive. They have a welcome for every comer. All about us are youth who have no home, and many whose homes have no helpful, uplifting power, and the youth drift into evil....
FLB	276	5	These youth need a hand stretched out to them in sympathy.... If we would ... invite them to our homes, and surround them with cheering, helpful influences, there are many who would gladly turn their steps into the upward path.
FLB	276	6	The season of prayer makes its impression on those who receive entertainment, and even one visit may mean the saving of a soul from death.
FLB	276	7	Let visitors see that we are striving to conform to the will of Christ.... The very atmosphere of a truly Christian home is that of peace and restfulness. Such an example will not be without effect.
FLB	276	8	As you open your door to Christ's needy and suffering ones, you are welcoming unseen angels. You invite the companionship of heavenly beings. They bring a sacred atmosphere of joy and peace. They come with praises upon their lips, and an answering strain is heard in heaven. Every deed of mercy makes music there.
------------------------An Ever-Widening Circle, September 28
FLB	277	1	Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6.
FLB	277	2	Fathers and mothers should feel that a duty devolves upon them to guide the affections of the youth, that they may be placed upon those who will be suitable companions. They should ... so mold the character of the children from their earliest years that they will be pure and noble, and will be attracted to the good and true....
FLB	277	3	True love is a high and holy principle, altogether different in character from that love which is awakened by impulse, and which suddenly dies when severely tested. It is by faithfulness to duty in the parental home that the youth are to prepare themselves for homes of their own. Let them here practice self-denial, and manifest kindness, courtesy, and Christian sympathy. Thus love will be kept warm in the heart, and he who goes out from such a household to stand at the head of a family of his own, will know how to promote the happiness of her whom he has chosen as a companion for life.
FLB	277	4	Fathers and mothers, you are to build up in this life characters which will help you to fit your children for the future, immortal life, which will help them to form such characters that you will not be ashamed to see them, as parents, taking the charge of their own children, and transferring to them your own attributes.
FLB	277	5	Let those who are contemplating marriage weigh every sentiment and watch every development of character in the one with whom they think to unite their life destiny.
FLB	277	6	Take God and your God-fearing parents into your counsel, young friends. Pray over the matter.... The step you are about to take is one of the most important in your life, and should not be taken hastily. While you may love, do not love blindly.
FLB	277	7	Let every step toward a marriage alliance be characterized by modesty, simplicity, sincerity, and an earnest purpose to please and honor God.
------------------------A Bright and Holy Light, September 29
FLB	278	1	That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15.
FLB	278	2	The mission of the home extends beyond its own members. The Christian home is to be an object lesson, illustrating the excellence of the true principles of life.... Far more powerful than any sermon that can be preached is the influence of a true home upon human hearts and lives. As the youth go out from such a home, the lessons they have learned are imparted. Nobler principles of life are introduced into other households, and an uplifting influence works in the community.
FLB	278	3	From every Christian home a holy light should shine forth. Love should be revealed in action. It should flow out in all home intercourse, showing itself in thoughtful kindness, in gentle, unselfish courtesy. There are homes where this principle is carried out--homes where God is worshiped, and truest love reigns. From these homes, morning and evening prayer ascends to God as sweet incense, and His mercies and blessings descend upon the suppliants like the morning dew.... All can see that there is an influence at work in the family that affects the children, and that the God of Abraham is with them. If the homes of professed Christians had a right religious mold, they would exert a mighty influence for good. They would indeed be the "light of the world."
FLB	278	4	He who lives Christianity in the home will be a bright and shining light everywhere.
FLB	278	5	A lamp, however small, if kept steadily burning, may be the means of lighting many other lamps. Our sphere of influence may seem narrow, ... yet wonderful possibilities are ours through a faithful use of the opportunities of our own homes. If we will open our hearts and homes to the divine principles of life we shall become channels for currents of life-giving power. From our homes will flow streams of healing, bringing life and beauty and fruitfulness where now are barrenness and dearth.
------------------------A Welcome to the Heavenly Home, September 30
FLB	279	1	Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Isaiah 26:2.
FLB	279	2	The life on earth is the beginning of the life in heaven.
FLB	279	3	We are children of the heavenly King, members of the royal family, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. The mansions Jesus has gone to prepare are to receive only those who are true, who are pure, who love and obey His words.... If we would enjoy eternal bliss, we must cultivate religion in the home.... Peace, harmony, affection, and happiness should be perseveringly cherished every day, until these precious things abide in the hearts of those who compose the family.
FLB	279	4	That which will make the character lovely in the home is that which will make it lovely in the heavenly mansions.
FLB	279	5	If we manifest the character of Christ here, keeping all the commandments of God, we shall be cheered and blessed with glimpses of the pleasant home in the mansions Jesus has gone to prepare.
FLB	279	6	Let all that is beautiful in our earthly home remind us of the crystal river and green fields, the waving trees and the living fountains, the shining city and the white-robed singers, of our heavenly home--that world of beauty which no artist can picture, no mortal tongue describe.
FLB	279	7	There the loves and sympathies that God has planted in the soul will find truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages, the sacred fellowship that binds together "the whole family in heaven and earth"--all are among the experiences of the hereafter.... With unutterable delight we shall enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings.
FLB	279	8	It is the privilege of parents to take their children with them to the gates of the city of God, saying, "I have tried to instruct my children to love the Lord, to do His will, and to glorify Him." To such the gate will be thrown open, and parents and children will enter in.
------------------------Dear to the Heart of God, October 1
FLB	280	1	Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. Isaiah 49:15, 16.
FLB	280	2	The church of Christ is very precious in His sight. It is the case which contains His jewels, the fold which encloses His flock.
FLB	280	3	Christ "loved the church, and gave himself for it." Ephesians 5:25. It is the purchase of His blood. The divine Son of God is seen walking amid the seven golden candlesticks. Jesus Himself supplies the oil to these burning lamps. He it is that kindles the flame. "In him was life; and the life was the light of men." John 1:4. No candlestick, no church, shines of itself. From Christ emanates all its light.... The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the light thereof.
FLB	280	4	At times the Lord may seem to have forgotten the perils of His church, and the injury done her by her enemies. But God has not forgotten. Nothing in this world is so dear to the heart of God as His church. It is not His will that worldly policy shall corrupt her record. He does not leave His people to be overcome by Satan's temptations.
FLB	280	5	God declares that even a mother may forget her child, "yet will I not forget thee." ... God thinks of His children with the tenderest solicitude and keeps a book of remembrance before Him, that He may never forget the children of His care. "Every human tie may perish, Friend to friend unfaithful prove, Mothers cease their own to cherish, Heaven and earth at last remove; But no changes Can attend Jehovah's love."
------------------------A City of Refuge, October 2
FLB	281	1	For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell; for I have desired it. Psalm 132:13, 14.
FLB	281	2	Through centuries of persecution, conflict, and darkness, God has sustained His church. Not one cloud has fallen upon it that He has not prepared for; not one opposing force has risen to counterwork His work, that He has not foreseen. All has taken place as He predicted. He has not left His church forsaken, but has traced in prophetic declarations what would occur, and that which His Spirit inspired the prophets to foretell has been brought about. All His purposes will be fulfilled. His law is linked with His throne, and no power of evil can destroy it. Truth is inspired and guarded by God; and it will triumph over all opposition.
FLB	281	3	During ages of spiritual darkness, the church of God has been as a city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive generations, the pure doctrines of heaven have been unfolding within its borders.... It is the theater of His grace, in which He delights to reveal His power to transform hearts.
FLB	281	4	The church is God's fortress, His city of refuge, which He holds in a revolted world. Any betrayal of the church is treachery to Him who has bought mankind with the blood of His only-begotten Son. From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His watchmen, who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which they lived. These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they were called to lay off their armor, others took up the work. God brought these witnesses into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His people.
FLB	281	5	God loves His children with infinite love. To Him the dearest object on earth is His church.
------------------------God Will Take Care of His Church, October 3
FLB	282	1	When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Isaiah 43:2.
FLB	282	2	God has a church upon the earth, who are His chosen people, who keep His commandments. He is leading, not stray offshoots, not one here and one there, but a people.
FLB	282	3	There is no need to doubt, to be fearful that the work will not succeed. God is at the head of the work, and He will set everything in order. If matters need adjusting at the head of the work, God will attend to that, and work to right every wrong. Let us have faith that God is going to carry the noble ship which bears the people of God safely into port.
FLB	282	4	When I voyaged from Portland, Maine, to Boston, many years ago, a storm came upon us, and the great waves dashed us to and fro. The chandeliers fell, and the trunks were rolled from side to side, like balls. The passengers were frightened, and many were screaming, waiting in expectation of death.
FLB	282	5	After a while the pilot came on board. The captain stood near the pilot as he took the wheel, and expressed fear about the course in which the ship was directed. "Will you take the wheel?" asked the pilot. The captain was not ready to do that, for he knew that he lacked experience. Then some of the passengers grew uneasy, and said they feared the pilot would dash them upon the rocks. "Will you take the wheel?" asked the pilot; but they knew that they could not manage the wheel.
FLB	282	6	When you think that the work is in danger, pray, "Lord stand at the wheel. Carry us through the perplexity. Bring us safely into port." Have we not reason to believe that the Lord will bring us through triumphantly? ...
FLB	282	7	You cannot with your finite minds understand the working of all the providences of God. Let God take care of His own work.
------------------------The Judgment-Hour Message, October 4
FLB	283	1	And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth ... , saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come. Revelation 14:6, 7.
FLB	283	2	An upright, honesthearted farmer, who had been led to doubt the divine authority of the Scriptures, yet who sincerely desired to know the truth, was the man specially chosen of God to lead out in the proclamation of Christ's second coming.
FLB	283	3	God sent His angel ... to lead him to search the prophecies.... He saw that the inhabitants of the earth were living in the closing scenes of this world's history, yet they knew it not.... God called him to leave his farm.... With trembling, William Miller began to unfold to the people the mysteries of the kingdom of God, carrying his hearers down through the prophecies to the second advent.
FLB	283	4	Thousands were led to embrace the truth preached by William Miller, and servants of God were raised up in the spirit and power of Elijah to proclaim the message.... And as the solemn warning to flee from the wrath to come was sounded, many who were united with the churches received the healing message; they saw their backslidings, and with bitter tears of repentance and deep agony of soul, humbled themselves before God.
FLB	283	5	The special blessing of the Lord, both in the conversion of sinners and the revival of spiritual life among Christians, ... testified that the message was of Heaven.
FLB	283	6	With clearness the believers ... gave the reasons why they expected their Lord in 1844. Their opposers could bring no arguments against the powerful reasons offered.
FLB	283	7	The announcement, "The hour of his judgment is come," points to the closing work of Christ's ministration for the salvation of men. It heralds a truth which must be proclaimed until the Saviour's intercession shall cease, and He shall return to the earth to take His people to Himself.
------------------------Light Through the Darkness, October 5
FLB	284	1	Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Hebrews 10:35, 36.
FLB	284	2	The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked the mystery of the disappointment of 1844. It opened to view a complete system of truth, connected and harmonious, showing that God's hand had directed the great Advent Movement.
FLB	284	3	Adventists then held that the earth, or some portion of it, was the sanctuary. They understood that the cleansing of the sanctuary was the purification of the earth by the fires of the last great day, and that this would take place at the Second Advent. Hence the conclusion that Christ would return to the earth in 1844.
FLB	284	4	But the appointed time had passed, and the Lord had not appeared. The believers knew that God's Word could not fail; their interpretation of the prophecy must be at fault; but where was the mistake? ...
FLB	284	5	In their investigation they learned that there is no Scripture evidence sustaining the popular view that the earth is the sanctuary; but they found in the Bible a full explanation of the subject of the sanctuary, its nature, location, and services.
FLB	284	6	Those who followed in the light of the prophetic word saw that, instead of coming to the earth at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844, Christ then entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, to perform the closing work of atonement, preparatory to His coming....
FLB	284	7	Now in the holy of holies they again beheld Him, their compassionate high priest, soon to appear as their king and deliverer.
FLB	284	8	Following Him by faith, they were led to see also the closing work of the church. They had a clearer understanding of the first and second angels' messages, and were prepared to receive and give to the world the solemn warning of the third angel of Revelation 14.
------------------------Babylon is Fallen, October 6
FLB	285	1	And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Revelation 14:8.
FLB	285	2	The second angel's message of Revelation 14 was first preached in the summer of 1844, and it then had a more direct application to the churches of the United States, where the warning of the judgment had been most widely proclaimed and most generally rejected, and where the declension in the churches had been most rapid. But the message of the second angel did not reach its complete fulfillment in 1844. The churches then experienced a moral fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the Advent message; but that fall was not complete. As they have continued to reject the special truths for this time, they have fallen lower and lower. Not yet, however, can it be said that "Babylon is fallen, ... because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." She has not yet made all nations do this.... The work of apostasy has not yet reached its culmination.
FLB	285	3	The Bible declares that before the coming of the Lord, Satan will work "with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness;" and they that "received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved," will be left to receive "strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11. Not until this condition shall be reached, and the union of the church with the world shall be fully accomplished throughout Christendom, will the fall of Babylon be complete. The change is a progressive one, and the perfect fulfillment of Revelation 14:8 is yet future.
FLB	285	4	Notwithstanding the spiritual darkness and alienation from God that exist in the churches which constitute Babylon, the great body of Christ's true followers are still to be found in their communion. There are many of these who have never seen the special truths for this time.
------------------------The Last Solemn Warning, October 7
FLB	286	1	And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. Revelation 14:9, 10.
FLB	286	2	As the ministration of Jesus closed in the holy place, and He passed into the holiest, and stood before the ark containing the law of God, He sent another mighty angel with a third message to the world.... This message was designed to put the children of God upon their guard, by showing them the hour of temptation and anguish that was before them.
FLB	286	3	This symbol [the beast], as most Protestants have believed, represents the Papacy....
FLB	286	4	The "image to the beast" represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas....
FLB	286	5	As the sign of the authority of the Catholic Church, papist writers cite "the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday." ... What then is the change of the Sabbath, but the sign, or mark, of the authority of the Roman Church--"the mark of the beast"?
FLB	286	6	Sundaykeeping is not yet the mark of the beast, and will not be until the decree goes forth causing men to worship this idol sabbath.
FLB	286	7	And it is not until the issue is ... plainly set before the people, and they are brought to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men, that those who continue in transgression will receive "the mark of the beast."
FLB	286	8	When God sends to men warnings so important that they are represented as proclaimed by holy angels flying in the midst of heaven, He requires every person endowed with reasoning powers to heed the message.
------------------------Who Shall Receive God's Seal? October 8
FLB	287	1	And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Revelation 7:2, 3.
FLB	287	2	The seal of the living God will be placed upon those only who bear a likeness to Christ in character.
FLB	287	3	As wax takes the impression of the seal, so the soul is to take the impression of the Spirit of God and retain the image of Christ.
FLB	287	4	It is obedience to the principles of the commandments of God, that molds the character after the divine similitude.
FLB	287	5	The seal of God's law is found in the fourth commandment. This only, of all the ten, brings to view both the name and the title of the Lawgiver. It declares Him to be the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and thus shows His claim to reverence and worship above all others. Aside from this precept, there is nothing in the Decalogue to show by whose authority the law is given.
FLB	287	6	The Israelites placed over their doors a signature of blood, to show that they were God's property. So the children of God in this age will bear the signature God has appointed. They will place themselves in harmony with God's holy law. A mark is placed upon every one of God's people just as verily as a mark was placed over the doors of the Hebrew dwellings, to preserve the people from the general ruin. God declares, "I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Ezekiel 20:12.
FLB	287	7	Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads--it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved--just as soon as God's people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come. Indeed, it has begun already; the judgments of God are now upon the land, ... that we may know what is coming.
------------------------God's Ideal for His Church, October 9
FLB	288	1	That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:27.
FLB	288	2	The Lord God is a jealous God; yet He bears long with the sins and transgressions of His people in this generation. If the people of God had walked in His counsel, the work of God would have advanced, the messages of truth would have been borne to all people that dwell on the face of the whole earth.... But because the people are disobedient, unthankful, unholy, as were ancient Israel, time is prolonged that all may hear the last message of mercy proclaimed with a loud voice. The Lord's work has been hindered, the sealing time delayed. Many have not heard the truth. But the Lord will give them a chance to hear and be converted.
FLB	288	3	What are you doing ... in the great work of preparation? Those who are uniting with the world are receiving the worldly mold and preparing for the mark of the beast. Those who are distrustful of self, who are humbling themselves before God and purifying their souls by obeying the truth--these are receiving the heavenly mold and preparing for the seal of God in their foreheads. When the decree goes forth and the stamp is impressed, their character will remain pure and spotless for eternity. Now is the time to prepare. The seal of God will never be placed upon the forehead of an impure man or woman. It will never be placed upon the forehead of the ambitious, world-loving man or woman. It will never be placed upon the forehead of men or women of false tongues or deceitful hearts. All who receive the seal must be without spot before God--candidates for heaven.
FLB	288	4	Every individual soul, if he would receive the seal of the living God, must hear the Word of the Lord, and do it with exactitude. There must be no such thing as haphazard religion if men would have a place in the family of God.
FLB	288	5	Now is the time, while the four angels are holding the four winds, to make our calling and election sure.
------------------------The Trial of the Church, October 10
FLB	289	1	Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. Revelation 12:12.
FLB	289	2	Those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will feel the ire of the dragon and his hosts. Satan numbers the world as his subjects, he has gained control of the apostate churches; but here is a little company that are resisting his supremacy. If he could blot them from the earth, his triumph would be complete. As he influenced the heathen nations to destroy Israel, so in the near future he will stir up the wicked powers of earth to destroy the people of God.... Their only hope is in the mercy of God; their only defense will be prayer.
FLB	289	3	The trying experiences that came to God's people in the days of Esther were not peculiar to that age alone. The revelator, looking down the ages to the close of time, has declared, "The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Revelation 12:17. Some who today are living on the earth will see these words fulfilled.
FLB	289	4	The wrath of Satan increases as his time grows short, and his work of deceit and destruction will reach its culmination in the time of trouble.
FLB	289	5	Fearful sights of a supernatural character will soon be revealed in the heavens, in token of the power of miracle-working demons. The spirits of devils will go forth to the kings of the earth and to the whole world, to fasten them in deception, and urge them on to unite with Satan in his last struggle against the government of heaven. By these agencies, rulers and subjects will be alike deceived.
FLB	289	6	Those who are seeking for truth, that they may obey it in the love of it, are the ones who excite his (Satan's) malice and stir his ire. He can never weaken them while they keep close to Jesus.
------------------------Elijah and the Modern Church, October 11
FLB	290	1	Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Malachi 4:5, 6.
FLB	290	2	The closing words of Malachi are a prophecy regarding the work that should be done preparatory to the first and the second advent of Christ.
FLB	290	3	Those who are to prepare the way for the second coming of Christ are represented by faithful Elijah, as John came in the spirit of Elijah to prepare the way for Christ's first advent.
FLB	290	4	Our message must be as direct as was that of John. He rebuked kings for their iniquity. Notwithstanding the peril his life was in, he never allowed truth to languish on his lips....
FLB	290	5	In this time of well-nigh universal apostasy, God calls upon His messengers to proclaim His law in the spirit and power of Elias. As John the Baptist, in preparing a people for Christ's first advent, called their attention to the Ten Commandments, so we are to give, with no uncertain sound, the message: "Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come." With the earnestness that characterized Elijah the prophet and John the Baptist, we are to strive to prepare the way for Christ's second advent.
FLB	290	6	The hour of God's judgment has come, and upon the members of His church on earth rests the solemn responsibility of giving warning to those who are standing as it were on the very brink of eternal ruin.
FLB	290	7	All can do something in the work. None will be pronounced guiltless before God unless they have worked earnestly and unselfishly for the salvation of souls.
FLB	290	8	Your duty cannot be shifted upon another. No one but yourself can do your work. If you withhold your light, someone must be left in darkness through your neglect.
FLB	290	9	The Lord has a place for everyone in His great plan.
------------------------A Sabbathkeeping Church, October 12
FLB	291	1	And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 12:17.
FLB	291	2	In the twelfth chapter of Revelation is represented the great conflict between the obedient and the disobedient.
FLB	291	3	The sign of obedience is the observance of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.
FLB	291	4	The Sabbath is a test to this generation. In obeying the fourth commandment in spirit and truth, men will obey all the precepts of the Decalogue. To fulfill this commandment one must love God supremely, and exercise love toward all the creatures that He has made.
FLB	291	5	The time is coming when God's people will feel the hand of persecution because they keep holy the seventh day.... The man of sin, who thought to change times and laws, and who has always oppressed the people of God, will cause laws to be made enforcing the observance of the first day of the week. But God's people are to stand firm for Him.
FLB	291	6	Let no one yield to temptation and become less fervent in his attachment to God's law because of the contempt placed upon it; for that is the very thing that should make us pray with all our heart, and soul, and voice, "It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law." Psalm 119:126. Therefore, because of the universal contempt, I will not turn traitor when God will be most glorified and most honored by my loyalty....
FLB	291	7	Shall Seventh-day Adventists relax their devotedness when all their capabilities and powers should be placed on the Lord's side; when an unflinching testimony, noble and uplifting, should come from their lips? "Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold." Psalm 119:127. When the law of God is most derided and brought into the most contempt, then it is time for every true follower of Christ ... to stand unflinchingly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
------------------------The Gifts of the Spirit, October 13
FLB	292	1	Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.... The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 1 Corinthians 12:1, 7.
FLB	292	2	Paul declares that the gifts and manifestations of the Spirit were set in the church ... "till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Ephesians 4:13.
FLB	292	3	All men do not receive the same gifts, but to every servant of the Master some gift of the Spirit is promised.
FLB	292	4	The Lord has need of all kinds of skillful workmen. "He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." Ephesians 4:11, 12.
FLB	292	5	In immediate connection with the scenes of the great day of God, the Lord by the prophet Joel has promised a special manifestation of His Spirit. Joel 2:28. This prophecy received a partial fulfillment in the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost; but it will reach its full accomplishment in the manifestation of divine grace which will attend the closing work of the gospel....
FLB	292	6	At this time the special endowment of divine grace and power is not less needful to the church than in apostolic days.
FLB	292	7	God will today endow men and women with power from above, as He endowed those who on the day of Pentecost heard the word of salvation. At this very hour His Spirit and His grace are for all who need them and will take Him at His word.
FLB	292	8	The gifts are already ours in Christ, but their actual possession depends upon our reception of the Spirit of God....
FLB	292	9	If they are connected with Christ, if the gifts of the Spirit are theirs, the poorest and most ignorant of His disciples will have a power that will tell upon hearts. God makes them the channel for the outworking of the highest influence in the universe.
------------------------A Prophet's Voice in Our Time, October 14
FLB	293	1	And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Joel 2:28.
FLB	293	2	In His Word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the revealer of doctrines, and the test of experience....
FLB	293	3	Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His Word, has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit....
FLB	293	4	During the ages while the Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testament were being given, the Holy Spirit did not cease to communicate light to individual minds, apart from the revelations to be embodied in the Sacred Canon.... And mention is made of prophets in different ages, of whose utterances nothing is recorded. In like manner, after the close of the canon of Scripture, the Holy Spirit was still to continue its work, to enlighten, warn, and comfort the children of God.
FLB	293	5	God has ... promised to give visions in the "last days"; not for a new rule of faith, but for the comfort of His people, and to correct those who err from Bible truth.
FLB	293	6	As the Spirit of God has opened to my mind the great truths of His Word, and the scenes of the past and the future, I have been bidden to make known to others that which has thus been revealed.
FLB	293	7	There are those who will be glad to lull you to sleep in your carnal security, but I have a different work. My message is to alarm you, to bid you reform your lives and cease your rebellion against the God of the universe. Take the Word of God, and see if you are in harmony with it. Is your character such as will bear the search of the heavenly investigation?
------------------------"Fear Thou Not ... I Am With Thee", October 15
FLB	294	1	Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10.
FLB	294	2	It was not long after the passing of the time in 1844 that my first vision was given me. I was visiting a dear sister in Christ, whose heart was knit with mine; five of us, all women, were kneeling quietly at the family altar. While we were praying, the power of God came upon me as I had never felt it before. I seemed to be surrounded with light, and to be rising higher and higher from the earth. I turned to look for the Advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a voice said to me: "Look again, and look a little higher." At this I raised my eyes and saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the Advent people were traveling toward the city....
FLB	294	3	I related this vision to the believers ... , who had full confidence that it was from God. The Spirit of the Lord attended the testimony, and the solemnity of eternity rested upon us. An unspeakable awe filled me, that I, so young and feeble, should be chosen as the instrument by which God would give light to His people....
FLB	294	4	In a second vision, which soon followed the first, I was shown the trials through which I must pass, and that it was my duty to go and relate to others what God had revealed to me....
FLB	294	5	I prayed earnestly for several days, and far into the night, that this burden might be removed from me and laid upon someone more capable of bearing it. But the light of duty did not change.
FLB	294	6	My Saviour declared me to be His messenger. "Your work," He instructed me, "is to bear My word.... My Spirit and My power shall be with you.... It is the Lord that giveth the messages."
FLB	294	7	I do not write ... expressing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision--the precious rays of light shining from the throne.
------------------------The Testimony of Jesus, October 16
FLB	295	1	And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19:10.
FLB	295	2	Above all other books, the Word of God must be our study, the great textbook, the basis of all education.
FLB	295	3	The Testimonies are not to belittle the Word of God, but to exalt it and attract minds to it, that the beautiful simplicity of truth may impress all.
FLB	295	4	I took the precious Bible and surrounded it with the several Testimonies for the Church.... Here, said I, the cases of nearly all are met. The sins they are to shun are pointed out. The counsel that they desire can be found here, given for other cases situated similarly to themselves. God has been pleased to give you line upon line and precept upon precept. But there are not many of you that really know what is contained in the Testimonies. You are not familiar with the Scriptures. If you had made God's Word your study, with a desire to reach the Bible standard and attain to Christian perfection, you would not have needed the Testimonies....
FLB	295	5	The Lord designs to warn you, to reprove, to counsel, through the testimonies given, and to impress your minds with the importance of the truth of His Word. The written testimonies are not to give new light, but to impress vividly upon the heart the truths of inspiration already revealed. Man's duty to God and to his fellow man has been distinctly specified in God's Word; yet but few of you are obedient to the light given. Additional truth is not brought out; but God has through the Testimonies simplified the great truths already given and in His own chosen way brought them before the people to awaken and impress the mind with them, that all may be left without excuse.
FLB	295	6	If we disregard them [the warnings in the Testimonies], what excuse can we offer?
------------------------Prove All Things, October 17
FLB	296	1	Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21.
FLB	296	2	"In ancient times God spoke to men by the mouth of prophets and apostles. In these days He speaks to them by the testimonies of His Spirit. There was never a time when God instructed His people more earnestly than He instructs them now concerning His will and the course that He would have them pursue."
FLB	296	3	The instruction that was given in the early days of the message is to be held as safe instruction to follow in these its closing days.
FLB	296	4	Let the Testimonies be judged by their fruits. What is the spirit of their teaching? What has been the result of their influence? "All who desire to do so can acquaint themselves with the fruits of these visions...."
FLB	296	5	"This work is of God, or it is not. God does nothing in partnership with Satan. My work ... bears the stamp of God or the stamp of the enemy. There is no halfway work in the matter. The Testimonies are of the Spirit of God, or of the devil."
FLB	296	6	The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Proverbs 29:18. Satan will work ingeniously, in different ways and through different agencies, to unsettle the confidence of God's remnant people in the true testimony. He will bring in spurious visions, to mislead and mingle the false with the true, and so disgust people that they will regard everything that bears the name of visions, as a species of fanaticism; but honest souls, by contrasting false and true, will be enabled to distinguish between them.
FLB	296	7	"When the Testimonies, which were once believed, are doubted and given up, Satan knows the deceived ones will not stop at this; and he redoubles his efforts till he launches them into open rebellion, which becomes incurable and ends in destruction.
------------------------The Servant of Man, October 18
FLB	297	1	Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. John 13:16.
FLB	297	2	In His life and lessons, Christ has given a perfect exemplification of the unselfish ministry which has its origin in God. God does not live for Himself. By creating the world, and by upholding all things, He is constantly ministering for others.... This ideal of ministry God has committed to His Son. Jesus was given to stand at the head of humanity, that by His example He might teach what it means to minister. His whole life was under a law of service.... Thus He lived the law of God, and by His example showed how we are to obey it.
FLB	297	3	Again and again Jesus had tried to establish this principle among His disciples. When James and John made their request for preeminence, He had said, "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister." Matthew 20:26. In My kingdom the principle of preference and supremacy has no place. The only greatness is the greatness of humility. The only distinction is found in devotion to the service of others.
FLB	297	4	The ordinance of feet washing is an ordinance of service. This is the lesson the Lord would have all learn and practice. When this ordinance is rightly celebrated, the children of God are brought into holy relationship with each other, to help and bless each other.
FLB	297	5	That His people might not be misled by the selfishness which dwells in the natural heart, and which strengthens by self-serving, Christ Himself set us an example of humility. He would not leave this great subject in man's charge. Of so much consequence did He regard it that He Himself, One equal with God, washed the feet of His disciples.... This ceremony means much to us. God would have us take in the whole scene, not only the single act of outward cleansing. This lesson does not merely refer to the one act. It is to reveal the great truth that Christ is an example of what we through His grace are to be in our intercourse with each other. It shows that the entire life should be one of humble, faithful ministry.
------------------------Jesus' Example in Humility, October 19
FLB	298	1	If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. John 13:14, 15.
FLB	298	2	There is in man a disposition to esteem himself more highly than his brother, to work for self, to seek the highest place; and often this results in evil surmisings and bitterness of spirit. The ordinance preceding the Lord's Supper is to clear away these misunderstandings, to bring man out of his selfishness, down from his stilts of self-exaltation, to the humility of heart that will lead him to serve his brother.
FLB	298	3	The ordinance of feet washing most forcibly illustrates the necessity of true humility. While the disciples were contending for the highest place, in the promised kingdom, Christ girded Himself, and performed the office of a servant by washing the feet of those who called Him Lord.
FLB	298	4	Reconciliation one with another is the work for which the ordinance of feet washing was instituted.... Whenever it is celebrated, Christ is present by His Holy Spirit. It is this Spirit that brings conviction to hearts.
FLB	298	5	As Christ celebrated this ordinance with His disciples, conviction came to the hearts of all save Judas. So we shall be convicted as Christ speaks to our hearts. The fountains of the soul will be broken up. The mind will be energized, and, springing into activity and life, will break down every barrier that has caused disunion and alienation. Sins that have been committed will appear with more distinctness than ever before; for the Holy Spirit will bring them to our remembrance.
FLB	298	6	Having washed the disciples' feet, He [Jesus] said, "I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." ... Christ was here instituting a religious service. By the act of our Lord this humiliating ceremony was made a consecrated ordinance. It was to be observed by the disciples, that they might ever keep in mind His lessons of humility and service.
------------------------A Proof of Loyalty, October 20
FLB	299	1	If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. John 13:17.
FLB	299	2	This ordinance of feet washing was made a religious service.... It was given as something to test and prove the loyalty of the children of God. When modern Israel observes the sacramental ordinance, this ceremony should precede the partaking of the emblems of the Lord's death.
FLB	299	3	This ordinance was given for the benefit of Christ's disciples. And Christ meant all that He said when His lips uttered the words, "I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.... If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." He designed by this to test the true state of the heart and mind of those who participated.
FLB	299	4	Christ gave His disciples to understand that the washing of their feet did not cleanse away their sin, but that the cleansing of their heart was tested in this humble service. If the heart was cleansed, this act was all that was essential to reveal the fact. He had washed the feet of Judas; but He said, "Ye are not all clean." Judas brought a traitor's heart to this scene, and Christ revealed to all that He knew him to be the betrayer of his Lord, and that the washing of his feet was not an ordinance to cleanse the soul from its moral defilement.
FLB	299	5	When believers assemble to celebrate the ordinances, there are present messengers unseen by human eyes.... Heavenly angels ... are present. These unseen visitants are present on every such occasion....
FLB	299	6	Christ by the Holy Spirit is there to set the seal to His own ordinance. He is there to convict and soften the heart. Not a look, not a thought of contrition, escapes His notice. For the repentant, brokenhearted one He is waiting. All things are ready for that soul's reception. He who washed the feet of Judas longs to wash every heart from the stain of sin.... All who come with their faith fixed upon Him will be greatly blessed.
------------------------In Remembrance of Me, October 21
FLB	300	1	And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Luke 22:19.
FLB	300	2	In the last Passover our Lord observed with His disciples, He instituted the Lord's Supper in place of the Passover, to be observed in memory of His death.
FLB	300	3	The national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was to be observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages.
FLB	300	4	God has not left it with men to say who shall present themselves on these occasions. For who can read the heart? Who can distinguish the tares from the wheat? "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup." For "whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." 1 Corinthians 11:28, 27, 29....
FLB	300	5	In partaking with His disciples of the bread and wine, Christ pledged Himself to them as their Redeemer.... As we receive the bread and wine symbolizing Christ's broken body and spilled blood, we in imagination join in the scene of Communion in the upper chamber. We seem to be passing through the garden consecrated by the agony of Him who bore the sins of the world. We witness the struggle by which our reconciliation with God was obtained. Christ is set forth crucified among us.
FLB	300	6	Looking upon the crucified Redeemer, we more fully comprehend the magnitude and meaning of the sacrifice made by the Majesty of heaven. The plan of salvation is glorified before us, and the thought of Calvary awakens living and sacred emotions in our hearts. Praise to God and the Lamb will be in our hearts and on our lips; for pride and self-worship cannot flourish in the soul that keeps fresh in memory the scenes of Calvary.
------------------------"The New Testament in My Blood", October 22
FLB	301	1	Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. Luke 22:20.
FLB	301	2	In partaking with His disciples of the bread and wine, Christ pledged Himself to them as their Redeemer. He committed to them the new covenant, by which all who receive Him become children of God, and joint heirs with Christ. By this covenant every blessing that Heaven could bestow for this life and the life to come was theirs. This covenant deed was to be ratified with the blood of Christ. And the administration of the sacrament was to keep before the disciples the infinite sacrifice made for each of them individually as a part of the great whole of fallen humanity.
FLB	301	3	But the communion service was not to be a season of sorrowing. This was not its purpose. As the Lord's disciples gather about His table, they are not to remember and lament their shortcomings. They are not to dwell upon their past religious experience, whether that experience has been elevating or depressing. They are not to recall the differences between them and their brethren. The preparatory service has embraced all this. The self-examination, the confession of sin, the reconciling of differences, has all been done. Now they come to meet with Christ. They are not to stand in the shadow of the cross, but in its saving light. They are to open the soul to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. With hearts cleansed by Christ's most precious blood, in full consciousness of His presence, although unseen, they are to hear His words, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." John 14:27.
FLB	301	4	The atoning sacrifice is full and sufficient. It is the new covenant, sealed with His blood, which was shed for many for the remission of sins. This Christ declared at the Last Supper. In this cup there is to those who drink in faith, peace-making, soul-cleansing efficacy. It is the balm of Gilead, which God has provided to restore health and soundness to the sin-stricken soul.
------------------------As Oft as ye Eat and Drink, October 23
FLB	302	1	For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. 1 Corinthians 11:26.
FLB	302	2	The salvation of men depends upon a continual application to their hearts of the cleansing blood of Christ. Therefore, the Lord's Supper was not to be observed only occasionally or yearly, but more frequently than the annual Passover. This solemn ordinance commemorates a far greater event than the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt. That deliverance was typical of the great atonement which Christ made by the sacrifice of His own life for the final deliverance of His people.
FLB	302	3	This ordinance is not to be exclusive, as many would make it. Each must participate in it publicly, and thus bear witness: I accept Christ as my personal Saviour. He gave His life for me, that I might be rescued from death.
FLB	302	4	The communion service points to Christ's second coming. It was designed to keep this hope vivid in the minds of the disciples. Whenever they met together to commemorate His death, they recounted how "he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom." Matthew 26:27-29. In their tribulation they found comfort in the hope of their Lord's return. Unspeakably precious to them was the thought, "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come." ...
FLB	302	5	Christ has instituted this service that it may speak to our senses of the love of God.... There can be no union between our souls and God except through Christ. The union and love between brother and brother must be cemented and rendered eternal by the love of Jesus. And nothing less than the death of Christ could make His love efficacious for us. It is only because of His death that we can look with joy to His second coming. His sacrifice is the center of our hope.
------------------------Baptism and the Passion of Christ, October 24
FLB	303	1	Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. Colossians 2:12.
FLB	303	2	Christ rested in the tomb on the Sabbath day, and when holy beings of both heaven and earth were astir on the morning of the first day of the week, He rose from the grave to renew His work of teaching His disciples. But this fact does not consecrate the first day of the week, and make it a Sabbath. Jesus, prior to His death, established a memorial of the breaking of His body and the spilling of His blood for the sins of the world, in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, saying, "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come." 1 Corinthians 11:26. And the repentant believer, who takes the steps required in conversion, commemorates in his baptism the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. He goes down into the water in the likeness of Christ's death and burial, and he is raised out of the water in the likeness of His resurrection...to live a new life in Christ Jesus.
FLB	303	3	The angelic host were filled with amazement as they beheld the sufferings and death of the King of glory. But...it was no marvel to them that the Lord of life and glory...should break the bands of death, and walk forth from His prison house, a triumphant conqueror. Therefore, if either of these events should be commemorated by a day of rest, it is the crucifixion. But I saw that neither of these events was designed to alter or abrogate God's law; on the contrary, they give the strongest proof of its immutability....
FLB	303	4	The Sabbath was instituted in Eden before the Fall, and was observed by Adam and Eve, and all the heavenly host. God rested on the seventh day, and blessed and hallowed it. I saw that the Sabbath never will be done away; but that the redeemed saints, and all the angelic host, will observe it in honor of the great Creator to all eternity.
------------------------The Name the Lord has Given Us, October 25
FLB	304	1	The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, ... if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee. Deuteronomy 28:9, 10.
FLB	304	2	If we would come into possession of the heavenly inheritance, the glorious, eternal substance, we must be in covenant relation with God, and employ every faculty of our being to win souls to Christ.... God's people must be a peculiar, holy people, distinct in character and practice from the world, distinguished from all the religionists of the day. They must be patterns in personal piety and good works. There is higher, holier work for us to do than we have yet done. Christ has said, "My Kingdom is not of this world." It has no principles that will meet the principles of the world. The Lord has set His church as a light in the world, to guide the world to heaven. It is to be a part of heaven on the earth, flashing divine light on the pathway of benighted souls.
FLB	304	3	You are a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. God's people should now receive the light and diffuse it. They need not try to shine; if their hearts are enlightened by Christ, they cannot help shining. The brightness will appear; every true disciple will reveal Christ to the world as the sin-pardoning Saviour.
FLB	304	4	We are Seventh-day Adventists. Are we ashamed of our name? We answer, No, no! We are not. It is the name the Lord has given us. It points out the truth that is to be the test of the churches. ... That this may be, we must look ever to Jesus.
FLB	304	5	The name Seventh-day Adventist carries the true features of our faith in front, and will convict the inquiring mind. Like an arrow from the Lord's quiver, it will wound the transgressors of God's law, and will lead to repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
FLB	304	6	There are many who are looking to you, to see what religion can do for you. If you are faithful in your God-given work, you will make right impressions, and will lead souls in the way of righteousness.
------------------------Builders, Not Destroyers, October 26
FLB	305	1	And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12.
FLB	305	2	Has God no living church? He has a church, but it is the church militant, not the church triumphant. We are sorry that there are defective members....While the Lord brings into the church those who are truly converted, Satan at the same time brings persons who are not converted into its fellowship. While Christ is sowing the good seed, Satan is sowing the tares. There are two opposing influences continually exerted on the members of the church. One influence is working for the purification of the church, and the other for the corrupting of the people of God....
FLB	305	3	Although there are evils existing in the church, and will be until the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin....
FLB	305	4	There is but one church in the world who are at the present time standing in the breach, and making up the hedge, building up the old waste places; and for any man to call the attention of the world and other churches to this church, denouncing her as Babylon, is to do a work in harmony with him who is the accuser of the brethren....The whole world is filled with hatred of those who proclaim the binding claims of the law of God, and the church who are loyal to Jehovah must engage in no ordinary conflict....Those who have any realization of what this warfare means, will not turn their weapons against the church militant, but with all their powers will wrestle with the people of God against the confederacy of evil.
FLB	305	5	Those who start up to proclaim a message on their own individual responsibility, who, while claiming to be taught and led of God, still make it their special work to tear down that which God has been for years building up, are not doing the will of God. Be it known that these men are on the side of the great deceiver. Believe them not.
------------------------Riches for the Laodiceans, October 27
FLB	306	1	I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Revelation 3:18.
FLB	306	2	The message to the Laodicean church is applicable to all who have had great light and many opportunities, and yet have not appreciated them.
FLB	306	3	There are a large number of professing Christians who do not really follow Jesus. They do not bear the cross by proper self-denial and self-sacrifice. Although making a great profession of being earnest Christians, they weave into the fabric of their character so many of the threads of their own imperfections that the beautiful pattern is spoiled. Of them Christ says: "You boast of being rich and increased with supposed spiritual attainments. In reality you are neither cold nor hot, but are filled with vain conceit. Unless converted, you cannot be saved; for you would mar heaven with your unsanctified wisdom. I cannot endorse your spirit and your work. You do not act according to the divine Example. You are following a pattern merely of your own invention. Because you are lukewarm, I must spue you out of My mouth."
FLB	306	4	The True Witness has said, "Buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear."
FLB	306	5	Jesus is going from door to door, standing in front of every soul temple, proclaiming, "I stand at the door, and knock." As a heavenly merchantman, He opens His treasures.... "Open your doors," says the great Merchantman, the possessor of spiritual riches, "and transact your business with Me. It is I, your Redeemer, who counsels you to buy of Me."
FLB	306	6	The counsel of the True Witness is full of encouragement and comfort. The churches may yet obtain the gold of truth, faith, and love, and be rich in heavenly treasure.
------------------------A People Who Keep God's Law, October 28
FLB	307	1	Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:12.
FLB	307	2	We are standing upon the threshold of great and solemn events. Prophecies are fulfilling. Strange, eventful history is being recorded in the books of heaven. Everything in our world is in agitation.... Only a moment of time, as it were, yet remains....
FLB	307	3	Satan is busily laying his plans for the last mighty conflict, when all will take sides....
FLB	307	4	Men in their blindness boast of wonderful progress and enlightenment; but to the eye of Omniscience are revealed the inward guilt and depravity. The heavenly watchers see the earth filled with violence and crime. Wealth is obtained by every species of robbery, not robbery of men only, but of God. Men are using His means to gratify their selfishness. Everything they can grasp is made to minister to their greed. Avarice and sensuality prevail. Men cherish the attributes of the first great deceiver. They ... have become imbued with his spirit.
FLB	307	5	But the cloud of judicial wrath hangs over them, containing the elements that destroyed Sodom. In his visions of things to come the prophet John beheld this scene. This demon worship was revealed to him, and it seemed to him as if the whole world were standing on the brink of perdition. But as he looked with intense interest he beheld the company of God's commandment-keeping people. They had upon their foreheads the seal of the living God, and he said: "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
FLB	307	6	This distinctive banner ... [Revelation 14:12 quoted] is to be borne through the world to the close of probation.
FLB	307	7	This is not a time to haul down our colors, to be ashamed of our faith.
FLB	307	8	Every man is to stand in his lot and place, thinking, speaking, and acting in harmony with the Spirit of God.
------------------------The Gospel to All the World, October 29
FLB	308	1	And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Matthew 24:14.
FLB	308	2	Not upon the ordained minister only rests the responsibility of going forth to fulfill this commission. Every one who has received Christ is called to work for the salvation of his fellow men. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come." Revelation 22:17. The charge to give this invitation includes the entire church. Every one who has heard the invitation is to echo the message from hill and valley, saying, "Come."
FLB	308	3	It is a fatal mistake to suppose that the work of soulsaving depends alone upon the ministry. The humble, consecrated believer upon whom the Master of the vineyard places a burden for souls, is to be given encouragement by the men upon whom the Lord has laid larger responsibilities. Those who stand as leaders in the church of God are to realize that the Saviour's commission is given to all who believe in His name. God will send forth into His vineyard many who have not been dedicated to the ministry by the laying on of hands.
FLB	308	4	Hundreds, yea, thousands, who have heard the message of salvation, are still idlers in the market place, when they might be engaged in some line of active service. To these Christ is saying, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" and He adds, "Go ye also into the vineyard." Matthew 20:6, 7. Why is it that many more do not respond to the call? Is it because they think themselves excused in that they do not stand in the pulpit? Let them understand that there is a large work to be done outside the pulpit, by thousands of consecrated lay members.
FLB	308	5	Long has God waited for the spirit of service to take possession of the whole church, so that every one shall be working for Him according to his ability. When the members of the church of God do their appointed work in the needy fields at home and abroad, in fulfillment of the gospel commission, the whole world will soon be warned, and the Lord Jesus will return to this earth with power and great glory.
------------------------Love Begets Love, October 30
FLB	309	1	He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32.
FLB	309	2	Those who are truly converted will ... dispense, for the advancement of the work, the means He has placed in their hands....
FLB	309	3	We are Christ's witnesses, and we are not to allow worldly interests and plans to absorb our time and attention. There are higher interests at stake....
FLB	309	4	We plead for the money that is spent on needless things.... Waste not your money in purchasing unnecessary things. You may think these little sums do not amount to much, but many littles will make a great whole. Cut off every extravagant expenditure. Indulge in nothing that is simply for display. Your money means the salvation of souls. Let there be systematic giving on the part of all. Some may be unable to give a large sum, but all can lay aside each week something for the Master. Let the children act their part. Let parents teach their children to save their pennies to give to the Lord. The gospel ministry is to be supported by self-denial and sacrifice....
FLB	309	5	Let not our church members complain because they are so often called upon to give. What is it that makes the frequent calls a necessity? Is it not the rapid increase of missionary enterprises? ...
FLB	309	6	So long as there are souls to save, our interest in the work of soulsaving is to know no abating. The church cannot abridge her task without denying her Master....
FLB	309	7	Love for lost souls brought Christ to Calvary's cross. Love for souls will lead us to self-denial and sacrifice, for the saving of that which is lost. And as Christ's followers give back to the Lord His own, they are accumulating treasure which will be theirs when they hear the words: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: ... enter thou into the joy of thy lord." Matthew 25:21.... The joy of seeing souls eternally saved will be the reward of all who follow in the steps of the Redeemer.
------------------------Built on the Rock, October 31
FLB	310	1	And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18.
FLB	310	2	The word Peter signifies a stone--a rolling stone. Peter was not the rock upon which the church was founded. The gates of hell did prevail against him when he denied his Lord with cursing and swearing. The church was built upon One against whom the gates of hell could not prevail.... The church is built upon Christ as its foundation; it is to obey Christ as its head.
FLB	310	3	If Jesus had delegated any special authority to one of the disciples above the others, we should not find them so often contending as to who should be the greatest. They would have submitted to the wish of their Master, and honored the one whom He had chosen.
FLB	310	4	Instead of appointing one to be their head, Christ said to the disciples, "Be not ye called Rabbi;" "neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ." Matthew 23:8, 10.
FLB	310	5	"The head of every man is Christ." God, who put all things under the Saviour's feet, "gave him to be the head over ... the church." 1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 1:22.
FLB	310	6	In the presence of God, and all the heavenly intelligences, in the presence of the unseen army of hell, Christ founded His church upon the living Rock. That Rock is Himself--His own body, for us broken and bruised. Against the church built upon this foundation, the gates of hell shall not prevail....
FLB	310	7	For six thousand years, faith has builded upon Christ. For six thousand years the floods and tempests of satanic wrath have beaten upon the Rock of our salvation; but it stands unmoved....
FLB	310	8	The Rock of faith is the living presence of Christ in the church. Upon this the weakest may depend, and those who think themselves the strongest will prove to be the weakest, unless they make Christ their efficiency.... The Lord "is the Rock, his work is perfect." "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 2:12.
------------------------For Such a Time as This! November 1
FLB	311	1	For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther 4:14.
FLB	311	2	Whoever sees the repulsive character of sin, and in strength from above resists temptation, will assuredly arouse the wrath of Satan.
FLB	311	3	The same spirit that in ages past led men to persecute the true church, will in the future lead to the pursuance of a similar course toward those who maintain their loyalty to God....
FLB	311	4	The decree that will finally go forth against the remnant people of God will be very similar to that issued by Ahasuerus against the Jews. Today the enemies of the true church see in the little company keeping the Sabbath commandment, a Mordecai at the gate....
FLB	311	5	Satan will arouse indignation against the minority who refuse to accept popular customs and traditions.... Persecuting rulers, ministers, and church members will conspire against them. With voice and pen, by boasts, threats, and ridicule, they will seek to overthrow their faith.... Not having a "Thus saith the Scriptures" to bring against the advocates of the Bible Sabbath, they will resort to oppressive enactments to supply the lack. To secure popularity and patronage, legislators will yield to the demand for Sunday laws. But those who fear God cannot accept an institution that violates a precept of the Decalogue. On this battlefield will be fought the last great conflict in the controversy between truth and error.
FLB	311	6	The words of Mordecai to Esther may apply to the men and youth of today: "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
------------------------Cruel Power of the Enemy, November 2
FLB	312	1	Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. James 4:7, 8.
FLB	312	2	There are multitudes today as truly under the power of evil spirits as was the demoniac of Capernaum. All who willfully depart from God's commandments are placing themselves under the control of Satan. Many a man tampers with evil, thinking that he can break away at pleasure; but he is lured on and on, until he finds himself controlled by a will stronger than his own. He cannot escape its mysterious power. Secret sin or master passion may hold him a captive as helpless as was the demoniac of Capernaum.
FLB	312	3	Satan is the god of the world; his influence is to pervert the senses, control the human mind for evil, and drive his victims to violence and crime. He sows discord and darkens the intellect. The work of Christ is to break his power over the children of men. Yet how many in every department of life, in the home, in business transactions, and in the church, turn Jesus from their doors but let the hateful monster in.
FLB	312	4	Satan's path is the broadest and the most deceptive. It is made to appear the most attractive, while it is hard, mystifying, and full of disappointment.
FLB	312	5	He who feels his own danger is on the watch lest he shall grieve the Holy Spirit and then draw away from God because he knows that He is not pleased with his course of action. How much better and safer it is to draw nigh to God, that the pure light shining from His Word may heal the wounds that sin has made in the soul. The closer we are to God, the safer we are, for Satan hates and fears the presence of God.
FLB	312	6	The subtlety of Satan will not decrease, but the wisdom given to men through a living connection with the Source of all light and divine knowledge will be proportionate to his arts and wiles.
------------------------The Device of Worldliness, November 3
FLB	313	1	Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 2 Corinthians 2:11.
FLB	313	2	Solomon says, "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool" (Proverbs 28:26); and there are hundreds of such to be found among professors of godliness. Says the apostle: "We are not ignorant of his [Satan's] devices." Oh, what art, what skill, what cunning, is exercised to lead the professed followers of Christ to a union with the world by seeking for happiness in the amusements of the world, under the delusion that some good is to be gained! And thus the unguarded walk right into the net, flattering themselves that there is no evil in the way....
FLB	313	3	How can I endure the thought that most of the youth in this age will come short of everlasting life! Oh, that the sound of instrumental music might cease and they no more while away so much precious time in pleasing their own fancy. Oh, that they would devote less time to dress and vain conversation, and send forth their earnest, agonizing prayers to God for a sound experience. There is great necessity for close self-examination in the light of God's Word; let each one raise the inquiry: "Am I sound, or am I rotten at heart? Am I renewed in Christ, or am I still carnal at heart, with a new dress put on the outside?" Rein yourself up to the great tribunal, and in the light of God examine to see if there be any secret sin that you are cherishing, any idol that you have not sacrificed. Pray, yes, pray as you have never prayed before, that you may not be deluded by Satan's devices.... Surely the foundation of your hope of everlasting life cannot be laid too sure.... While those around us may be vain and engaged in pleasure seeking and folly, our conversation is in heaven, whence we look for the Saviour; the soul is reaching out after God for pardon and peace, for righteousness and true holiness.
FLB	313	4	Expel sin from your hearts, for sin caused the death of the Son of God.
FLB	313	5	Jesus died, dear youth, not to save you in your sins, but from your sins.
------------------------Testing the Voice of the Shepherds, November 4
FLB	314	1	I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. John 10:14.
FLB	314	2	Every one of us will be sorely tempted; our faith will be tried to the uttermost.
FLB	314	3	We need to be anchored in Christ, rooted and grounded in the faith. Satan works through agents. He selects those who have not been drinking of the living waters, whose souls are athirst for something new and strange, and who are ever ready to drink at any fountain that may present itself. Voices will be heard, saying, "Lo, here is Christ," or "Lo, there;" but we must believe them not. We have unmistakable evidence of the voice of the True Shepherd, and He is calling upon us to follow Him. He says, "I have kept my Father's commandments." He leads His sheep in the path of humble obedience to the law of God....
FLB	314	4	"The voice of a stranger" is the voice of one who neither respects nor obeys God's holy, just, and good law. Many make great pretensions to holiness, and boast of the wonders they perform in healing the sick, when they do not regard this great standard of righteousness. But through whose power are these cures wrought? Are the eyes of either party opened to their transgressions of the law? and do they take their stand as humble, obedient children, ready to obey all of God's requirements? John testifies of the professed children of God: "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:4.... If those through whom cures are performed, are disposed, on account of these manifestations, to excuse their neglect of the law of God, and continue in disobedience, though they have power to any and every extent, it does not follow that they have the great power of God. On the contrary, it is the miracle-working power of the great deceiver.... We must beware of the pretended holiness that permits transgression of the law of God. Those cannot be sanctified who trample that law under their feet, and judge themselves by a standard of their own devising.
------------------------Prayer for the Sick, November 5
FLB	315	1	Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16.
FLB	315	2	Christ is the same compassionate physician now that He was during His earthly ministry. In Him there is healing balm for every disease.
FLB	315	3	Why is it that men are so unwilling to trust Him who created man, and who can, by a touch, a word, a look, heal all manner of disease? Who is more worthy of our confidence than the One who has made so great a sacrifice for our redemption? Our Lord has given us definite instruction, through the apostle James, as to our duty in case of sickness. When human help fails, God will be the helper of His people. "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up." James 5:14, 15.
FLB	315	4	But the offering of such prayer is a most solemn act, and should not be entered upon without careful consideration....
FLB	315	5	To those who desire prayer for their restoration to health, it should be made plain that the violation of God's law, either natural or spiritual, is sin, and that in order for them to receive His blessing, sin must be confessed and forsaken....
FLB	315	6	We know that God hears us if we ask according to His will. But to press our petitions without a submissive spirit is not right; our prayers must take the form, not of command, but of intercession.
FLB	315	7	There are cases where God works decidedly by His divine power in the restoration of health. But not all the sick are healed. Many are laid away to sleep in Jesus....
FLB	315	8	Our desires and interests should be lost in His will. These experiences that test faith are for our benefit.... Faith is strengthened by exercise. We must let patience have its perfect work, remembering that there are precious promises in the Scriptures for those who wait upon the Lord.
------------------------The Spirit of True Heroism, November 6
FLB	316	1	For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. Isaiah 50:7.
FLB	316	2	Strength of character consists of two things--power of will and power of self-control. Many youth mistake strong, uncontrolled passion for strength of character; but the truth is that he who is mastered by his passions is a weak man. The real greatness and nobility of the man is measured by the power of the feelings that he subdues, not by the power of the feelings that subdue him. The strongest man is he, who, while sensitive to abuse, will yet restrain passion and forgive his enemies. Such men are true heroes.
FLB	316	3	The example of an energetic person is far reaching; he has an electric power over others. He meets obstacles in his work; but he has the push in him, and instead of allowing his way to be hedged up, he breaks down every barrier....
FLB	316	4	There are thorns in every path. All who follow the Lord's leading must expect to meet with disappointments, crosses, and losses. But a spirit of true heroism will help them to overcome these. Many greatly magnify seeming difficulties, and then begin to pity themselves and give way to despondency. Such need to make an entire change in themselves. They need to discipline themselves to put forth exertion, and to overcome all childish feelings. They should determine that life shall not be spent in working at trifles. Let them resolve to accomplish something, and then do it. Many make good resolutions, but they are always going to do something and never get at it. About all their resolutions amount to is talk....
FLB	316	5	Every one should have an aim, an object, in life. The loins of the mind should be girded up, and the thoughts be trained to keep to the point, as the compass to the pole.... Worthy purposes should be kept constantly in view, and every thought and act should tend to their accomplishment. Let there ever be a fixedness of purpose to carry out that which is undertaken.
------------------------Testing Our Mettle, November 7
FLB	317	1	Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:12, 13.
FLB	317	2	The followers of Christ know little of the plots which Satan and his hosts are forming against them. But He who sitteth in the heavens will overrule all these devices for the accomplishment of His deep designs. The Lord permits His people to be subjected to the fiery ordeal of temptation, not because He takes pleasure in their distress and affliction, but because this process is essential to their final victory.
FLB	317	3	By God's mighty cleaver of truth we have been taken from the quarry of the world and brought into the workshop of the Lord to be prepared for a place in His temple. In this work the hammer and chisel must act their part, and then comes the polishing. Rebel not under this process of grace. You may be a rough stone, on which much work must be done before you are prepared for the place God designs you to fill. You need not be surprised if with the hammer and the chisel of trial God cuts away your defects of character. He alone can accomplish this work. And be assured that He will not strike one useless blow.
FLB	317	4	God has shown me that He gave His people a bitter cup to drink, to purify and cleanse them.... This bitter cup can be sweetened by patience, endurance, and prayer, and ... it will have its designed effect upon the hearts of those who thus receive it, and God will be honored and glorified. It is no small thing to be a Christian and to be owned and approved of God.
FLB	317	5	His grace is sufficient for all our trials; and although they are greater than ever before, yet if we trust wholly in God, we can overcome every temptation and through His grace come off victorious. We must have on the whole armor of God and be ready at any moment for a conflict with the powers of darkness.
------------------------Safety in Vigilance, November 8
FLB	318	1	Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 1 Thessalonians 5:6.
FLB	318	2	I was shown Satan as he once was, a happy, exalted angel. Then I was shown him as he now is. He still bears a kingly form. His features are still noble, for he is an angel fallen. But the expression of his countenance is full of anxiety, care, unhappiness, malice, hate, mischief, deceit, and every evil. That brow which was once so noble, I particularly noticed. His forehead commenced from his eyes to recede. I saw that he had so long bent himself to evil that every good quality was debased, and every evil trait was developed. His eyes were cunning, sly, and showed great penetration. His frame was large, but the flesh hung loosely about his hands and face. As I beheld him, his chin was resting upon his left hand. He appeared to be in deep thought. A smile was upon his countenance, which made me tremble, it was so full of evil and satanic slyness. This smile is the one he wears just before he makes sure of his victim, and as he fastens the victim in his snare, this smile grows horrible.
FLB	318	3	The people of God must be prepared to withstand the wily foe. It is this resistance that Satan dreads. He knows better than we do the limit of his power and how easily he can be overcome if we resist and face him. Through divine strength the weakest saint is more than a match for him and all his angels, and if brought to the test he [the weakest saint] would be able to prove his superior power. Therefore Satan's step is noiseless, his movements stealthy, and his batteries masked....
FLB	318	4	Man is Satan's captive and is naturally inclined to follow his suggestions and do his bidding. He has in himself no power to oppose effectual resistance to evil. It is only as Christ abides in him by living faith, influencing his desires and strengthening him with strength from above, that man may venture to face so terrible a foe. Every other means of defense is utterly vain.
------------------------Mystic Voices of Today, November 9
FLB	319	1	And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. Leviticus 20:6.
FLB	319	2	The magicians of heathen times have their counterpart in the spiritualistic mediums, the clairvoyants, and the fortune tellers of today. The mystic voices that spoke at Endor and at Ephesus are still by their lying words misleading the children of men. Could the veil be lifted from before our eyes, we should see evil angels employing all their arts to deceive and to destroy.
FLB	319	3	Spiritual beings sometimes appear to persons in the form of their deceased friends, and relate incidents connected with their lives, and perform acts which they performed while living. In this way they lead men to believe that their dead friends are angels, hovering over them, and communicating with them. Those who thus assume to be the spirits of the departed, are regarded with a certain idolatry, and with many their word has greater weight than the Word of God.
FLB	319	4	I saw the rapidity with which this delusion [spiritualism] was spreading. A train of cars was shown me, going with the speed of lightning. The angel bade me look carefully. I fixed my eyes upon the train. It seemed that the whole world was on board. Then he showed me the conductor, a fair, stately person, whom all the passengers looked up to and reverenced. I was perplexed and asked my attending angel who it was. He said, "It is Satan. He is the conductor, in the form of an angel of light. He has taken the world captive.... And they are all going with lightning speed to perdition."
FLB	319	5	This delusion will spread, and we shall have to contend with it face to face; and unless we are prepared for it, we shall be ensnared and overcome.
FLB	319	6	The people of God must be prepared to withstand these spirits with the Bible truth that the dead know not anything, and that they who thus appear are the spirits of devils.
------------------------A Dangerous Form of Mind Cure, November 10
FLB	320	1	Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Colossians 2:8.
FLB	320	2	There is ... a form of mind cure that is one of the most effective agencies for evil. Through this so-called science, one mind is brought under the control of another so that the individuality of the weaker is merged in that of the stronger mind. One person acts out the will of another....
FLB	320	3	But the so-called science is based upon false principles. It is foreign to the nature and spirit of Christ. It does not lead to Him who is life and salvation. The one who attracts minds to himself leads them to separate from the true Source of their strength.
FLB	320	4	In these days when skepticism and infidelity so often appear in a scientific garb, we need to be guarded on every hand. Through this means our great adversary is deceiving thousands, and leading them captive according to his will. The advantage he takes of the sciences, sciences which pertain to the human mind, is tremendous. Here, serpentlike, he imperceptibly creeps in to corrupt the work of God....
FLB	320	5	While it is believed that one human mind so wonderfully affects another, Satan, who is ready to press every advantage, insinuates himself, and works on the right hand and on the left. And while those who are devoted to these sciences, laud them to the heavens because of the great and good works which they affirm are wrought by them, they little know what a power for evil they are cherishing.... Mark the influence of these sciences, dear reader; for the conflict between Christ and Satan is not yet ended....
FLB	320	6	Neglect of prayer leads men to rely on their own strength, and opens the door to temptation. In many cases the imagination is captivated by scientific research, and men are flattered through the consciousness of their own powers.
FLB	320	7	Cut away from yourselves everything that savors of hypnotism, the science by which satanic agencies work.
------------------------"Science Falsely So Called", November 11
FLB	321	1	O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called. 1 Timothy 6:20.
FLB	321	2	Human knowledge of both material and spiritual things is partial and imperfect; therefore many are unable to harmonize their views of science with Scripture statements. Many accept mere theories and speculations as scientific facts, and they think that God's Word is to be tested by the teachings of "science falsely so called."...
FLB	321	3	Men have endeavored to be wiser than their Creator; human philosophy has attempted to search out and explain mysteries which will never be revealed, through the eternal ages.
FLB	321	4	To many, scientific research has become a curse. God has permitted a flood of light to be poured upon the world in discoveries in science and art; but even the greatest minds, if not guided by the Word of God in their research, become bewildered in their attempts to investigate the relations of science and revelation.
FLB	321	5	God is the foundation of everything. All true science is in harmony with His works; all true education leads to obedience to His government. Science opens new wonders to our view; she soars high, and explores new depths; but she brings nothing from her research that conflicts with divine revelation.
FLB	321	6	God is the author of science.... Rightly understood, science and the Written Word agree, and each sheds light on the other. Together they lead us to God, by teaching us something of the wise and beneficent laws through which He works.
FLB	321	7	A knowledge of true science is power.... But while the knowledge of science is power, the knowledge that Jesus came in person to impart is still greater power. The science of salvation is the most important science to be learned in the preparatory school of earth. The wisdom of Solomon is desirable, but the wisdom of Christ is far more desirable and more essential.
------------------------Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, November 12
FLB	322	1	For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. 2 Timothy 4:3.
FLB	322	2	Rapidly are men ranging themselves under the banner they have chosen, restlessly waiting and watching the movements of their leaders. There are those who are watching and waiting and working for our Lord's appearing; while the other party are rapidly falling into line under the generalship of the first great apostate. They look for a god in humanity, and Satan personifies the one they seek. Multitudes will be so deluded through their rejection of truth, that they will accept the counterfeit. Humanity is hailed as God.
FLB	322	3	Satan is ever on the alert to deceive and mislead. He is using every enchantment to allure men into the broad road of disobedience. He is working to confuse the senses with erroneous sentiments, and remove the landmarks by placing his false inscription on the signposts which God has established to point the right way.
FLB	322	4	Teachers of falsehood will arise to draw you away from the narrow path and the strait gate. Beware of them; though concealed in sheep's clothing, inwardly they are ravening wolves....
FLB	322	5	We are not bidden to prove them by their fair speeches and exalted professions. They are to be judged by the Word of God.... "Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge." Proverbs 19:27. What message do these teachers bring? Does it lead you to reverence and fear God? Does it lead you to manifest your love for Him by loyalty to His commandments?
FLB	322	6	These false teachers, arising in the church and accounted true by many of their brethren in the faith, the apostle compared to "wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever." 2 Peter 2:17.
FLB	322	7	Are our feet planted on the rock of God's immutable word? Are we prepared to stand firm in defense of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus?
------------------------Are You in Danger? November 13
FLB	323	1	Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Isaiah 50:10.
FLB	323	2	There are many youth who walk in darkness, and have no light....
FLB	323	3	The Lord's hand has been reached out in tenderest compassion and love; but they do not care to trust Him. They want to feel fully able to devise and plan for themselves.... The Lord marks out a way in which He would have them walk. He has lent them talents to be used for His glory, to do a certain work for the Master; but Satan says, "I will countermand the order of Christ. I will find another line of work for active brain and busy hands, whereby they shall serve me. I will eclipse eternal interests before this youth, and attract his mind by worldly interests.... I will bind him about with worldly allurements like the finest threads, whose power to bind will become at last like ropes of steel, and he shall be bound in my service...."
FLB	323	4	Let the youth critically examine their motives, by prayer and searching of the Scriptures, and see if their own will and inclinations do not lead away from God's requirements....
FLB	323	5	Young men and women, inquire in your business relations, Am I where God would have me to be? ... Am I in the line of my duty? The blessing of God will be upon those who are just where God's plans would have them be. Has the Lord given you light that He requires you to do a certain work? If so, it is not safe for you to be disobedient. Let there be serious thinking on your part. Ask yourself, Am I serving my Master, Jesus Christ? Or am I pleasing myself, and failing to please God, and to bring honor to His holy name?
FLB	323	6	Do you want to change this order of things without delay? Would you choose to serve God? Then Jesus invites you to believe.... Grasp the hand of infinite power. Faith grows by exercise. Feed upon the promises; be content to rely on the simple promise of God's Word. Wait no longer in unbelief; for you are in danger of losing your souls.
------------------------Taking Hold of God's Strength, November 14
FLB	324	1	Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. Isaiah 27:5.
FLB	324	2	In the Revelation he [Satan] is declared to be the "accuser of our brethren," "which accused them before our God day and night." Revelation 12:10. The controversy is repeated over every soul that is rescued from the power of evil and whose name is registered in the Lamb's book of life. Never is one received from the family of Satan into the family of God without exciting the determined resistance of the wicked one.... He leads men into skepticism, causing them to lose confidence in God and to separate from His love; he tempts them to break His law, and then he claims them as his captives and contests the right of Christ to take them from him. He knows that those who seek God earnestly for pardon and grace will obtain it; therefore he presents their sins before them to discourage them.... By countless devices, the most subtle and the most cruel, he endeavors to secure their condemnation.
FLB	324	3	Man cannot meet these charges himself. In his sin-stained garments, confessing his guilt, he stands before God. But Jesus our Advocate presents an effectual plea in behalf of all who by repentance and faith have committed the keeping of their souls to Him. He pleads their cause and vanquishes their accuser by the mighty arguments of Calvary. His perfect obedience to God's law, even unto the death of the cross, has given Him all power in heaven and in earth, and He claims of His Father mercy and reconciliation for guilty man....
FLB	324	4	Not one soul that in penitence and faith has claimed His protection will Christ permit to pass under the enemy's power. His word is pledged: "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." The promise ... is made to all: "If thou wilt keep my charge, ... I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by." Zechariah 3:7. Angels of God will walk on either side of them, even in this world, and they will stand at last among the angels that surround the throne of God."
------------------------Seen and Unseen Foes, November 15
FLB	325	1	Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. Daniel 12:10.
FLB	325	2	The church must and will fight against seen and unseen foes. Satan's agencies in human form are on the ground. Men have confederated to oppose the Lord of hosts. These confederacies will continue until Christ shall leave His place of intercession before the mercy seat and shall put on the garments of vengeance. Satanic agencies are in every city, busily organizing into parties those opposed to the law of God. Professed saints and avowed unbelievers take their stand with these parties.
FLB	325	3	God has revealed what is to take place in the last days, that His people may be prepared to stand against the tempest of opposition and wrath. Those who have been warned of the events before them are not to sit in calm expectation of the coming storm, comforting themselves that the Lord will shelter His faithful ones in the day of trouble....
FLB	325	4	It is no time now [Written in 1885, at a time when religious liberty was threatened, much as it is today.] to allow our minds to be engrossed with things of minor importance.... The Sunday movement is now making its way in darkness. The leaders are concealing the true issue, and many who unite in the movement do not themselves see whither the undercurrent is tending. Its professions are mild and apparently Christian, but when it shall speak it will reveal the spirit of the dragon. It is our duty to do all in our power to avert the threatened danger.
FLB	325	5	The time is coming when God's people will feel the hand of persecution because they keep holy the seventh day.... The man of sin, who thought to change times and laws, and who has always oppressed the people of God, will cause laws to be made enforcing the observance of the first day of the week. But God's people are to stand firm for Him. And the Lord will work in their behalf, showing plainly that He is the God of gods.
------------------------Revivals True and Counterfeit, November 16
FLB	326	1	Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Matthew 7:16, 17.
FLB	326	2	Before the final visitation of God's judgments upon the earth, there will be, among the people of the Lord, such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. At that time many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and His Word. Many, both of ministers and people, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at this time, to prepare a people for the Lord's second coming. The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it, by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power, he will make it appear that God's special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest....
FLB	326	3	Wherever men neglect the testimony of the Bible, turning away from those plain, soul-testing truths which require self-denial and renunciation of the world, there we may be sure that God's blessing is not bestowed....
FLB	326	4	A wrong conception of the character, the perpetuity, and the obligation of the divine law, has led to errors in relation to conversion and sanctification, and has resulted in lowering the standard of piety in the church. Here is to be found the secret of the lack of the Spirit and power of God in the revivals of our time....
FLB	326	5	It is only as the law of God is restored to its rightful position that there can be a revival of primitive faith and godliness among His professed people. "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:16.
------------------------Tears and Conflict, November 17
FLB	327	1	Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews. Acts 20:19.
FLB	327	2	From the days of Adam to our own time, our great enemy has been exercising his power to oppress and destroy. He is now preparing for his last campaign against the church.
FLB	327	3	The better to disguise his real character and purposes, he has caused himself to be so represented as to excite no stronger emotion than ridicule or contempt. He is well pleased to be painted as a ludicrous or loathsome object, misshapen, half animal and half human.
FLB	327	4	If Satan was so cunning at first, what must he be now, after gaining an experience of many thousands of years? Yet God and holy angels, and all those who abide in obedience to all the Lord's will, are wiser than he.
FLB	327	5	All who are actively engaged in the cause of God, seeking to unveil the deceptions of the evil one and to present Christ before the people, will be able to join in the testimony of Paul, in which he speaks of serving the Lord with all humility of mind, with many tears and temptations....
FLB	327	6	The tempter has no power to control the will or to force the soul to sin. He may distress, but he cannot contaminate. He can cause agony, but not defilement.
FLB	327	7	Satan cannot read our thoughts, but he can see our actions, hear our words; and from his long knowledge of the human family, he can shape his temptations to take advantage of our weak points of character. And how often do we let him into the secret of how he may obtain the victory over us. Oh, that we might control our words and actions!
FLB	327	8	Satan assailed Christ with his fiercest and most subtle temptations; but he was repulsed in every conflict. Those battles were fought in our behalf; those victories make it possible for us to conquer. Christ will give strength to all who seek it.
------------------------Physical Attacks of Satan, November 18
FLB	328	1	And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. Job 1:7.
FLB	328	2	Satan was "a murderer from the beginning." John 8:44.
FLB	328	3	His temptations are leading multitudes to ruin. Intemperance dethrones reason; sensual indulgence, strife, and bloodshed follow. Satan delights in war; for it excites the worst passions of the soul, and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the nations to war against one another; for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the work of preparation to stand in the day of God.
FLB	328	4	Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields His creatures, and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer....
FLB	328	5	In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous.
FLB	328	6	The power and malice of Satan and his host might justly alarm us, were it not that we may find shelter and deliverance in the superior power of our Redeemer.... Those who follow Christ are ever safe under His watchcare. Angels that excel in strength are sent from heaven to protect them. The wicked one cannot break through the guard which God has stationed about His people.
------------------------In the Hour of Decision, November 19
FLB	329	1	Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. Joel 3:14.
FLB	329	2	The prophecy of Revelation 13 declares that the power represented by the beast with lamblike horns shall cause "the earth and them which dwell therein" to worship the Papacy--there symbolized by the beast "like unto a leopard." The beast with two horns is also to say "to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast;" and, furthermore, it is to command all, "both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond," to receive "the mark of the beast." ...
FLB	329	3	The United States is the power represented by the beast with lamblike horns, and ... this prophecy will be fulfilled when the United States shall enforce Sunday observance, which Rome claims as the special acknowledgment of her supremacy. But in this homage to Papacy the United States will not be alone. The influence of Rome in the countries that once acknowledged her dominion, is still far from being destroyed. And prophecy foretells a restoration of her power. "I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast." Revelation 13:3.
FLB	329	4	The infliction of the deadly wound points to the downfall of the Papacy in 1798. After this, says the prophet, "His deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast." Paul states plainly that the man of sin will continue until the Second Advent.... In both the Old and the New World, the Papacy will receive homage in the honor paid to the Sunday institution, that rests solely upon the authority of the Roman Church....
FLB	329	5	God's Word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare.
FLB	329	6	We should now seek a deep and living experience in the things of God. We have not a moment to lose.
------------------------Hard Days of Persecution, November 20
FLB	330	1	Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Timothy 3:12.
FLB	330	2	As the time comes for it [the third angel's message] to be given with greatest power, the Lord will work through humble instruments, leading the minds of those who consecrate themselves to His service. The laborers will be qualified rather by the unction of His Spirit than by the training of literary institutions. Men of faith and prayer will be constrained to go forth with holy zeal, declaring the words which God gives them. The sins of Babylon will be laid open. The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority, the inroads of spiritualism, the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power--all will be unmasked. By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred....
FLB	330	3	The power attending the message will only madden those who oppose it.... The church appeals to the strong arm of civil power, and in this work, papists and Protestants unite. As the movement for Sunday enforcement becomes more bold and decided, the law will be invoked against commandment keepers....
FLB	330	4	The words of Paul will be literally fulfilled, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." As the defenders of truth refuse to honor the Sunday-sabbath, some of them will be thrust into prison, some will be exiled, some will be treated as slaves. To human wisdom, all this now seems impossible; but as the restraining Spirit of God shall be withdrawn from men, and they shall be under the control of Satan, ... there will be strange developments....
FLB	330	5	No man can serve God without enlisting against himself the opposition of the hosts of darkness.
FLB	330	6	What was the strength of those who in the past have suffered persecution for Christ's sake? It was union with God, union with the Holy Spirit, union with Christ. It is this fellowship with the Saviour that will enable God's people to endure to the end.
------------------------Safety Only in Obedience, November 21
FLB	331	1	For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. 1 Peter 3:12.
FLB	331	2	No man is safe for a day or an hour without prayer. Especially should we entreat the Lord for wisdom to understand His Word. Here are revealed the wiles of the tempter, and the means by which he may be successfully resisted. Satan is an expert in quoting Scripture, placing his own interpretation upon passages, by which he hopes to cause us to stumble. We should study the Bible with humility of heart, never losing sight of our dependence upon God. While we must constantly guard against the devices of Satan, we should pray in faith continually, "Lead us not into temptation."
FLB	331	3	When Balaam, allured by the promise of rich rewards, practiced enchantments against Israel, and by sacrifices to the Lord sought to invoke a curse upon His people, the Spirit of God forbade the evil which he longed to pronounce, and Balaam was forced to exclaim: "How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed?" Numbers 23:8....
FLB	331	4	The people of Israel were at this time loyal to God; and so long as they continued in obedience to His law, no power in earth or hell could prevail against them. But the curse which Balaam had not been permitted to pronounce against God's people, he finally succeeded in bringing upon them by seducing them into sin. When they transgressed God's commandments, then they separated themselves from Him, and they were left to feel the power of the destroyer.
FLB	331	5	Satan is well aware that the weakest soul who abides in Christ is more than a match for the hosts of darkness.... Only in humble reliance upon God, and obedience to all His commandments, can we be secure.
FLB	331	6	Let none deceive themselves with the belief that God will pardon and bless them while they are trampling upon one of His requirements. The willful commission of a known sin silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit, and separates the soul from God.
------------------------Another Pentecost Coming! November 22
FLB	332	1	And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. Ezekiel 34:26.
FLB	332	2	The Lord has appointed the youth to be His helping hand.
FLB	332	3	Many a lad of today, growing up as did Daniel in his Judean home, studying God's Word and His works, and learning the lessons of faithful service, will yet stand in legislative assemblies, in halls of justice, or in royal courts, as a witness for the King of kings....
FLB	332	4	With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world!
FLB	332	5	The great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening. The prophecies which were fulfilled in the outpouring of the former rain at the opening of the gospel, are again to be fulfilled in the latter rain at its close....
FLB	332	6	Servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven. By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given. Miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers. Satan also works with lying wonders, even bringing down fire from heaven in the sight of men. Thus the inhabitants of the earth will be brought to take their stand.
FLB	332	7	The message will be carried not so much by argument as by the deep conviction of the Spirit of God.... The rays of light penetrate everywhere, the truth is seen in its clearness, and the honest children of God sever the bands which have held them.
FLB	332	8	God has a work for His people to do for the world, and if they will work in harmony with one another and with heaven, He will demonstrate His power in their behalf as He did for His first disciples on the day of Pentecost.
------------------------The Early Rain of God's Spirit, November 23
FLB	333	1	Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. Joel 2:23.
FLB	333	2	Under the figure of the early and the latter rain, that falls in Eastern lands at seedtime and harvest, the Hebrew prophets foretold the bestowal of spiritual grace in extraordinary measure upon God's church. The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was the beginning of the early, or former, rain, and glorious was the result.... But near the close of earth's harvest, a special bestowal of spiritual grace is promised to prepare the church for the coming of the Son of man. This outpouring of the Spirit is likened to the falling of the latter rain.
FLB	333	3	The latter rain, ripening earth's harvest, represents the spiritual grace that prepares the church for the coming of the Son of man. But unless the former rain has fallen, there will be no life; the green blade will not spring up. Unless the early showers have done their work, the latter rain can bring no seed to perfection....
FLB	333	4	There must be a constant development of Christian virtue, a constant advancement in Christian experience....
FLB	333	5	Every individual must realize his own necessity. The heart must be emptied of every defilement, and cleansed for the indwelling of the Spirit. It was by the confession and forsaking of sin, by earnest prayer and consecration of themselves to God, that the early disciples prepared for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The same work, only in greater degree, must be done now....
FLB	333	6	There must be no neglect of the grace represented by the former rain. Only those who are living up to the light they have, will receive greater light. Unless we are daily advancing in the exemplification of the active Christian virtues, we shall not recognize the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain. It may be falling on hearts all around us, but we shall not discern or receive it.
------------------------Outpouring of the Latter Rain, November 24
FLB	334	1	Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. Zechariah 10:1.
FLB	334	2	In the East the former rain falls at the sowing time. It is necessary in order that the seed may germinate. Under the influence of the fertilizing showers, the tender shoot springs up. The latter rain, falling near the close of the season, ripens the grain, and prepares it for the sickle. The Lord employs these operations of nature to represent the work of the Holy Spirit....
FLB	334	3	While we cherish the blessing of the early rain, we must not, on the other hand, lose sight of the fact that without the latter rain, to fill out the ears and ripen the grain, the harvest will not be ready for the sickle, and the labor of the sower will have been in vain. Divine grace is needed at the beginning, divine grace at every step of advance, and divine grace alone can complete the work....
FLB	334	4	Do not rest satisfied that in the ordinary course of the season, rain will fall. Ask for it.... We must seek His favors with the whole heart if the showers of grace are to come to us. We should improve every opportunity of placing ourselves in the channel of blessing. Christ has said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst." Matthew 18:20. The convocations of the church, as in camp meetings, the assemblies of the home church, and all occasions where there is personal labor for souls, are God's appointed opportunities for giving the early and the latter rain....
FLB	334	5	At every meeting we attend our prayers should ascend that at this very time, God will impart warmth and moisture to our souls. As we seek God for the Holy Spirit, it will work in us meekness, humbleness of mind, a conscious dependence upon God for the perfecting latter rain. If we pray for the blessing in faith, we shall receive it as God has promised.
FLB	334	6	The Holy Spirit will come to all who are begging for the bread of life to give to their neighbors.
------------------------Loud Cry of the Third Angel, November 25
FLB	335	1	And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. Revelation 18:1.
FLB	335	2	I saw another mighty angel commissioned to descend to the earth, to unite his voice with the third angel, and give power and force to his message.
FLB	335	3	A work of worldwide extent and unwonted power is here foretold.
FLB	335	4	Great power and glory were imparted to the angel, and as he descended, the earth was lightened with his glory. The light which attended this angel penetrated everywhere, as he cried mightily, with a strong voice, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Revelation 18:2. The message of the fall of Babylon, as given by the second angel, is repeated, with the additional mention of the corruptions which have been entering the churches since 1844. The work of this angel comes in at the right time to join in the last great work of the third angel's message as it swells to a loud cry. And the people of God are thus prepared to stand in the hour of temptation, which they are soon to meet. I saw a great light resting upon them, and they united to fearlessly proclaim the third angel's message.
FLB	335	5	Angels were sent to aid the mighty angel from heaven, and I heard voices which seemed to sound everywhere, "Come out of her, my people." ... The glory of God rested upon the patient, waiting saints, and they fearlessly gave the last solemn warning, proclaiming the fall of Babylon and calling upon God's people to come out of her that they might escape her fearful doom.
FLB	335	6	The light that was shed upon the waiting ones penetrated everywhere, and those in the churches who had any light, who had not heard and rejected the three messages, obeyed the call and left the fallen churches.
------------------------Unmoved in the Shaking Time, November 26
FLB	336	1	Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Hebrews 12:28.
FLB	336	2	Those who accept Christ, and in their first confidence say, I am saved, are in danger of trusting to themselves. They lose sight of their own weakness and their constant need of divine strength. They are unprepared for Satan's devices.... Our only safety is in constant distrust of self, and dependence on Christ.
FLB	336	3	Man's great danger is in being self-deceived, indulging self-sufficiency, and thus separating from God, the source of his strength.
FLB	336	4	The Lord is coming very soon, and we are entering into scenes of calamity.
FLB	336	5	We need not say: The perils of the last days are soon to come upon us. Already they have come. We need now the sword of the Lord to cut to the very soul and marrow of fleshly lusts, appetites, and passions.
FLB	336	6	Minds that have been given up to loose thought need to change.... The thoughts must be centered upon God. Now is the time to put forth earnest effort to overcome the natural tendencies of the carnal heart.
FLB	336	7	As the storm approaches, a large class who have professed faith in the third angel's message, but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth, abandon their position, and join the ranks of the opposition. By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit, they have come to view matters in nearly the same light; and when the test is brought, they are prepared to choose the easy, popular side. Men of talent and pleasing address, who once rejoiced in the truth, employ their powers to deceive and mislead souls. They become the most bitter enemies of their former brethren.
FLB	336	8	We are in the shaking time, the time when everything that can be shaken will be shaken. The Lord will not excuse those who know the truth if they do not in word and deed obey His commands.
------------------------Prepare to Meet Thy God, November 27
FLB	337	1	Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Amos 4:12.
FLB	337	2	Many do not realize what they must be in order to live in the sight of the Lord without a high priest in the sanctuary through the time of trouble. Those who receive the seal of the living God and are protected in the time of trouble must reflect the image of Jesus fully.
FLB	337	3	Their robes must be spotless, their characters must be purified from sin by the blood of sprinkling. Through the grace of God and their own diligent effort, they must be conquerors in the battle with evil. While the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God's people upon earth.
FLB	337	4	I saw that many were neglecting the preparation so needful and were looking to the time of "refreshing" and the "latter rain" to fit them to stand in the day of the Lord and to live in His sight. Oh, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter! They had neglected the needful preparation; therefore they could not receive the refreshing that all must have to fit them to live in the sight of a holy God.
FLB	337	5	Those who refuse to be hewed by the prophets and fail to purify their souls in obeying the whole truth, and who are willing to believe that their condition is far better than it really is, will come up to the time of the falling of the plagues, and then see that they needed to be hewed and squared for the building....
FLB	337	6	I saw that none could share the "refreshing" unless they obtain the victory over every besetment, over pride, selfishness, love of the world, and over every wrong word and action. We should, therefore, be drawing nearer and nearer to the Lord and be earnestly seeking that preparation necessary to enable us to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. Let all remember that God is holy and that none but holy beings can ever dwell in His presence.
------------------------The Strange Act of God, November 28
FLB	338	1	For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Isaiah 28:21.
FLB	338	2	With unerring accuracy the Infinite One still keeps an account with all nations. While His mercy is tendered, with calls to repentance, this account will remain open; but when the figures reach a certain amount which God has fixed, the ministry of His wrath commences. The account is closed. Divine patience ceases. There is no more pleading of mercy in their behalf.
FLB	338	3	The prophet, looking down the ages, had this time presented before his vision. The nations of this age have been the recipients of unprecedented mercies.... But increased pride, covetousness, idolatry, contempt of God, and base ingratitude are written against them. They are fast closing up their account with God....
FLB	338	4	The crisis is fast approaching. The rapidly swelling figures show that the time for God's visitation has about come.
FLB	338	5	To our merciful God the act of punishment is a strange act. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." Ezekiel 33:11.... Yet He will "by no means clear the guilty." "The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked." Exodus 34:6, 7; Nahum 1:3. By terrible things in righteousness He will vindicate the authority of His downtrodden law. The severity of the retribution awaiting the transgressor may be judged by the Lord's reluctance to execute justice. The nation with which He bears long, and which He will not smite until it has filled up the measure of its iniquity in God's account, will finally drink the cup of wrath unmixed with mercy.
FLB	338	6	After God has done all that could be done to save men, if they still show by their lives that they slight offered mercy, death will be their portion; and it will be a dreadful death, for they will have to feel the agony that Christ felt upon the cross. They will then realize what they have lost--eternal life and the immortal inheritance.
------------------------"A Time of Trouble", November 29
FLB	339	1	And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. Daniel 12:1.
FLB	339	2	When the third angel's message closes, mercy no longer pleads for the guilty inhabitants of the earth. The people of God have accomplished their work.... The final test has been brought upon the world, and all who have proved themselves loyal to the divine precepts have received "the seal of the living God." Then Jesus ceases His intercession in the sanctuary above. He lifts His hands, and with a loud voice says, "It is done." ...
FLB	339	3	God's long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one. Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble.... The people of God will then be plunged into those scenes of affliction and distress described by the prophet as the time of Jacob's trouble.
FLB	339	4	Those only who have clean hands and pure hearts will stand in that trying time. Now is the time for the law of God to be in our minds, foreheads, and written in our hearts.... What leisure time we have should be spent in searching the Bible, which is to judge us in the last day....
FLB	339	5	Let the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ be in your minds continually and let them crowd out worldly thoughts and cares. When you lie down and when you rise up, let them be your meditation. Live and act wholly in reference to the coming of the Son of man. The sealing time is very short, and will soon be over. Now is the time, while the four angels are holding the four winds, to make our calling and election sure.
------------------------Seven Last Plagues, November 30
FLB	340	1	When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. Isaiah 41:17.
FLB	340	2	When Christ ceases His intercession in the sanctuary, the unmingled wrath threatened against those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark, will be poured out. The plagues upon Egypt when God was about to deliver Israel, were similar in character to those more terrible and extensive judgments which are to fall upon the world just before the final deliverance of God's people. Says the revelator, in describing those terrific scourges: "There fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image." The sea "became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea." And "the rivers and fountains of waters ... became blood." Revelation 16:2-4. Terrible as these inflictions are, God's justice stands fully vindicated....
FLB	340	3	These plagues are not universal, or the inhabitants of the earth would be wholly cut off. Yet they will be the most awful scourges that have ever been known to mortals. All the judgments upon men, prior to the close of probation, have been mingled with mercy. The pleading blood of Christ has shielded the sinner from receiving the full measure of his guilt; but in the final judgment, wrath is poured out unmixed with mercy.
FLB	340	4	It is impossible to give any idea of the experience of the people of God who will be alive on the earth when past woes and celestial glory will be blended. They will walk in the light proceeding from the throne of God. By the means of the angels there will be constant communication between heaven and earth.
FLB	340	5	The people of God will not be free from suffering; but ... they will not be left to perish.... While the wicked are dying from hunger and pestilence, angels will shield the righteous, and supply their wants. To him that "walketh righteously" is the promise, "Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure." Isaiah 33:16.
------------------------As It Was in Noah's Day, December 1
FLB	341	1	And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. Luke 17:26.
FLB	341	2	From age to age the warnings which God has sent to the world by His servants have been received with ... incredulity and unbelief. When the iniquity of the antediluvians moved Him to bring a flood of waters upon the earth, He first made known to them His purpose, that they might have opportunity to turn from their evil ways. For a hundred and twenty years was sounded in their ears the warning to repent, lest the wrath of God be manifested in their destruction. But the message seemed to them an idle tale, and they believed it not....
FLB	341	3	Scoffers pointed to the things of nature--to the unvarying succession of the seasons, to the blue skies that had never poured out rain, to the green fields refreshed by the soft dews of night--and they cried out, "Doth he not speak parables?" In contempt they declared the preacher of righteousness to be a wild enthusiast; and they went on, more eager in their pursuit of pleasure, more intent upon their evil ways, than ever before. But their unbelief did not hinder the predicted event....
FLB	341	4	Christ declares that there will exist similar unbelief concerning His second coming. As the people of Noah's day "knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so," in the words of our Saviour, "shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matthew 24:39.
FLB	341	5	Solemnly there come to us down through the centuries the warning words of our Lord from the Mount of Olives: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares," "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things...."
------------------------The Criers of Peace, December 2
FLB	342	1	For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 1 Thessalonians 5:3.
FLB	342	2	The evil servant says in his heart, "My lord delayeth his coming." He does not say that Christ will not come. He does not scoff at the idea of His second coming. But in his heart and by his actions and words he declares that the Lord's coming is delayed. He banishes from the minds of others the conviction that the Lord is coming quickly. His influence leads men to presumptuous, careless delay. They are confirmed in their worldliness and stupor. Earthly passions, corrupt thoughts, take possession of the mind. The evil servant eats and drinks with the drunken, unites with the world in pleasure seeking. He smites his fellow servants, accusing and condemning those who are faithful to their Master....
FLB	342	3	The advent of Christ will surprise the false teachers. They are saying, "Peace and safety." Like the priests and teachers before the fall of Jerusalem, they look for the church to enjoy earthly prosperity and glory. The signs of the times they interpret as foreshadowing this. But what saith the Word of Inspiration? "Sudden destruction cometh upon them." ...
FLB	342	4	Men are putting afar off the coming of the Lord. They laugh at warnings. The proud boast is made, "All things continue as they were from the beginning." "Tomorrow shall be as this day and much more abundant." 2 Peter 3:4; Isaiah 56:12. We will go deeper into pleasure loving. But Christ says, "Behold, I come as a thief." Revelation 16:15. At the very time when the world is asking in scorn, "Where is the promise of his coming?" the signs are fulfilling. While they cry, "Peace and safety," sudden destruction is coming. When the scorner, the rejecter of truth, has become presumptuous; when the routine of work in the various money-making lines is carried on without regard to principle; when the student is eagerly seeking knowledge of everything but his Bible, Christ comes as a thief.
------------------------Signs by Land and Sea, December 3
FLB	343	1	The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. Zephaniah 1:14.
FLB	343	2	We are near the close of time. I have been shown that the retributive judgments of God are already in the land. The Lord has given us warning of the events about to take place.... Those who are drinking from the same fountain of blessing will draw nearer together. Truth dwelling in the hearts of believers will lead to blessed and happy assimilation. Thus will be answered the prayer of Christ that His disciples might be one even as He is one with the Father. For this oneness every truly converted heart will be striving.
FLB	343	3	With the ungodly there will be a deceptive harmony that but partially conceals a perpetual discord. In their opposition to the will and the truth of God they are united, while on every other point they are rent with hatred, emulation, jealousy, and deadly strife.
FLB	343	4	The Lord is removing His restrictions from the earth, and soon there will be death and destruction, increasing crime, and cruel, evil working against the rich who have exalted themselves against the poor. Those who are without God's protection will find no safety in any place or position. Human agents are being trained and are using their inventive power to put into operation the most powerful machinery to wound and to kill.
FLB	343	5	The Lord will arise to shake terribly the earth. We shall see troubles on all sides. Thousands of ships will be hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by millions. Fires will break out unexpectedly, and no human effort will be able to quench them. The palaces of earth will be swept away in the fury of the flames. Disasters by rail will become more and more frequent; confusion, collision, and death without a moment's warning will occur on the great lines of travel. The end is near, probation is closing. Oh, let us seek God while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near!
------------------------Signs in the Heavens, December 4
FLB	344	1	Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Matthew 24:32, 33.
FLB	344	2	The Saviour gives signs of His coming, and more than this, He fixes the time when the first of these signs shall appear: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory...." Matthew 24:29-31.
FLB	344	3	At the close of the great papal persecution, Christ declared, the sun should be darkened, and the moon should not give her light. Next, the stars should fall from heaven.
FLB	344	4	Thus was displayed the last of those signs of His coming, concerning which Jesus bade His disciples, "When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." After these signs, John beheld, as the great event next impending, the heavens departing as a scroll, while the earth quaked, mountains and islands removed out of their places, and the wicked in terror sought to flee from the presence of the Son of man.
FLB	344	5	But the day and the hour of His coming Christ has not revealed.... The exact time of the second coming of the Son of man is God's mystery.
FLB	344	6	A little longer, and we shall see the King in His beauty. A little longer, and He will wipe all tears from our eyes. A little longer, and He will present us "faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." Jude 24. Wherefore, when He gave the signs of His coming He said, "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:28.
------------------------Study the Prophecies, December 5
FLB	345	1	Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. Revelation 1:3.
FLB	345	2	From the rise and fall of nations as made plain in the books of Daniel and the Revelation, we need to learn how worthless is mere outward and worldly glory. Babylon, with all its power and magnificence, the like of which our world has never since beheld--power and magnificence which to the people of that day seemed so stable and enduring--how completely has it passed away! As "the flower of the grass," it has perished. So perished the Medo-Persian kingdom, and the kingdoms of Grecia and Rome. And so perishes all that has not God for its foundation. Only that which is bound up with His purpose, and expresses His character, can endure. His principles are the only steadfast things our world knows.
FLB	345	3	When the books of Daniel and Revelation are better understood, believers will have an entirely different religious experience. They will be given such glimpses of the open gates of heaven that heart and mind will be impressed with the character that all must develop in order to realize the blessedness which is to be the reward of the pure in heart. The Lord will bless all who will seek humbly and meekly to understand that which is revealed in the Revelation. This book contains so much that is large with immortality and full of glory that all who read and search it earnestly receive the blessing to those "that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein." One thing will certainly be understood from the study of Revelation--that the connection between God and His people is close and decided.
FLB	345	4	Let us give more time to the study of the Bible. We do not understand the Word as we should. The book of Revelation opens with an injunction to us to understand the instruction that it contains.... When we ... understand what this book means to us, there will be seen among us a great revival.
------------------------The Crowning Act of Deception, December 6
FLB	346	1	And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. Matthew 24:4, 5.
FLB	346	2	As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Saviour's advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation.... The shout of triumph rings out upon the air, "Christ has come! Christ has come!" The people prostrate themselves in adoration before him.... In gentle, compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals the diseases of the people, and then, in his assumed character of Christ, he claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed....
FLB	346	3	Only those who have been diligent students of the Scriptures, and who have received the love of the truth, will be shielded from the powerful delusion that takes the world captive.
FLB	346	4	The Saviour has warned His people... , and has clearly foretold the manner of His second coming. "There shall arise false Christs.... Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matthew 24:24-27. This coming, there is no possibility of counterfeiting. It will be universally known--witnessed by the whole world....
FLB	346	5	Are the people of God now so firmly established upon His Word that they would not yield to the evidence of their senses? Would they, in such a crisis, cling to the Bible, and the Bible only?
------------------------Saved From Violence, December 7
FLB	347	1	Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel. Isaiah 30:29.
FLB	347	2	When the protection of human laws shall be withdrawn from those who honor the law of God, there will be, in different lands, a simultaneous movement for their destruction....
FLB	347	3	The people of God--some in prison cells, some hidden in solitary retreats in the forests and the mountains--still plead for divine protection, while in every quarter companies of armed men, urged on by hosts of evil angels, are preparing for the work of death....
FLB	347	4	With shouts of triumph, jeering, and imprecation, throngs of evil men are about to rush upon their prey, when, lo, a dense blackness, deeper than the darkness of the night, falls upon the earth. Then a rainbow ... spans the heavens, and seems to encircle each praying company....
FLB	347	5	By the people of God a voice, clear and melodious, is heard, saying, "Look up," and lifting their eyes to the heavens, they behold the bow of promise. The black, angry clouds that covered the firmament are parted, and like Stephen they look up steadfastly into heaven, and see the glory of God, and the Son of man seated upon His throne. In His divine form they discern the marks of His humiliation; and from His lips they hear the request, presented before His Father and the holy angels, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am." John 17:24. Again a voice, musical and triumphant, is heard, saying: "They come! they come! holy, harmless, and undefiled. They have kept the word of My patience; they shall walk among the angels;" and the pale, quivering lips of those who have held fast their faith, utter a shout of victory. It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people. The sun appears, shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow in quick succession. The wicked look with terror and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance.
------------------------"Even so, Come, Lord Jesus", December 8
FLB	348	1	Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13.
FLB	348	2	One of the most solemn and yet most glorious truths revealed in the Bible is that of Christ's second coming, to complete the great work of redemption.... The doctrine of the Second Advent is the very keynote of the Sacred Scriptures....
FLB	348	3	The coming of the Lord has been in all ages the hope of His true followers.
FLB	348	4	The patriarch Job in the night of his affliction exclaimed with unshaken trust: "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: ... in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." Job 19:25-27....
FLB	348	5	The Saviour's parting promise upon Olivet, that He would come again, lighted up the future for His disciples, filling their hearts with joy and hope that sorrow could not quench nor trials dim. Amid suffering and persecution, the "appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" was the "blessed hope." ...
FLB	348	6	On rocky Patmos the beloved disciple hears the promise, "Surely I come quickly," and his longing response voices the prayer of the church in all her pilgrimage, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Revelation 22:20....
FLB	348	7	"This aged world is not far from its end," said Melanchthon. Calvin bids Christians "not to hesitate, ardently desiring the day of Christ's coming as of all events most auspicious." ... "The thoughts of the coming of the Lord," said Baxter, "are most sweet and joyful to me." "It is the work of faith and the character of His saints to love His appearing." ...
FLB	348	8	"This is the day that all believers should long, and hope, and wait for, as being the accomplishment of all the work of their redemption, and all the desires and endeavors of their souls." "Hasten, O Lord, this blessed day!"
------------------------The King Appears in Person, December 9
FLB	349	1	Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Psalm 50:3, 4.
FLB	349	2	The King of kings descends upon the cloud, wrapped in flaming fire. The heavens are rolled together as a scroll, the earth trembles before Him, and every mountain and island is moved out of its place.
FLB	349	3	Jesus rides forth as a mighty conqueror. Not now a "man of sorrows," to drink the bitter cup of shame and woe, He comes, victor in heaven and earth, to judge the living and the dead. "Faithful and True," "in righteousness he doth judge and make war." And "the armies which were in heaven followed him." Revelation 19:11, 14. With anthems of celestial melody the holy angels, a vast, unnumbered throng, attend Him on His way. The firmament seems filled with radiant forms--"ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." No human pen can portray the scene; no mortal mind is adequate to conceive its splendor. "His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light." Habakkuk 3:3, 4. As the living cloud comes still nearer, every eye beholds the Prince of life. No crown of thorns now mars that sacred head, but a diadem of glory rests on His holy brow. His countenance outshines the dazzling brightness of the noonday sun. "And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords." Revelation 19:16.
FLB	349	4	Before His presence, "all faces are turned into paleness;" upon the rejecters of God's mercy falls the terror of eternal despair. "The heart melteth, and the knees smite together, ... and the faces of them all gather blackness." Jeremiah 30:6; Nahum 2:10. The righteous cry with trembling, "Who shall be able to stand?" The angels' song is hushed, and there is a period of awful silence. Then the voice of Jesus is heard, saying, "My grace is sufficient for you."
------------------------Preparation for Translation, December 10
FLB	350	1	By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Hebrews 11:5.
FLB	350	2	We are living in an evil age. The perils of the last days thicken around us. Because iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold. Enoch walked with God three hundred years. Now the shortness of time seems to be urged as a motive to seek righteousness. Should it be necessary that the terrors of the day of God be held before us in order to compel us to right action? Enoch's case is before us. Hundreds of years he walked with God. He lived in a corrupt age, when moral pollution was teeming all around him; yet he trained his mind to devotion, to love purity. His conversation was upon heavenly things. He educated his mind to run in this channel, and he bore the impress of the divine. His countenance was lighted up with the light which shineth in the face of Jesus.
FLB	350	3	Enoch had temptations as well as we. He was surrounded with society no more friendly to righteousness than is that which surrounds us. The atmosphere he breathed was tainted with sin and corruption, the same as ours; yet he lived a life of holiness. He was unsullied with the prevailing sins of the age in which he lived. So may we remain pure and uncorrupted. He was a representative of the saints who live amid the perils and corruptions of the last days. For his faithful obedience to God he was translated. So, also, the faithful, who are alive and remain, will be translated. They will be removed from a sinful and corrupt world to the pure joys of heaven. The course of God's people should be upward and onward to victory.
FLB	350	4	Enoch's translation to heaven just before the destruction of the world by a flood represents the translation of all the living righteous from the earth previous to its destruction by fire. The saints will be glorified in the presence of those who have hated them for their loyal obedience to God's righteous commandments.
------------------------This Same Jesus Shall Return, December 11
FLB	351	1	Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Acts 1:11.
FLB	351	2	The angels who lingered upon Olivet after Christ's ascension, repeated to the disciples the promise of His return: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."
FLB	351	3	Precious, indeed, was this promise to those sorrowing disciples, that they should again see Jesus, who was greatly beloved by them all. Precious also is this promise to every true follower of Christ. None who truly love Jesus will be sorry that He is coming again....
FLB	351	4	Jesus is coming! But not to listen to the woes of mankind, and to hear the guilty sinner confess his sins, and to speak pardon to him; for every one's case will then be decided for life or death. Those who have lived in sin will remain sinners forever. Those who have confessed their sins to Jesus in the sanctuary, have made Him their friend and have loved His appearing, will have pardon written for all their sins....
FLB	351	5	Jesus is coming as He ascended into heaven, only with additional splendor. He is coming with the glory of His Father, and all the holy angels with Him, to escort Him on His way. Instead of the cruel crown of thorns to pierce His holy temples, a crown of dazzling glory will deck His sacred brow.... He will not wear a plain seamless coat, but a garment whiter than snow--of dazzling brightness. Jesus is coming! But not to reign as a temporal prince. He will raise the righteous dead, change the living saints to a glorious immortality, and, with the saints, take the kingdom under the whole heaven....
FLB	351	6	Dear young reader, seek a thorough preparation to meet Jesus, that when He appears you may exclaim with joy, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us." Isaiah 25:9. Eternal life will then be yours, and you will be a partaker with Christ of His glory, ever to hear His glorious approving voice and behold His lovely person.
------------------------A Crown for Every Saint, December 12
FLB	352	1	Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1:12.
FLB	352	2	I saw a very great number of angels bring from the city glorious crowns--a crown for every saint, with his name written thereon. As Jesus called for the crowns, angels presented them to Him, and with His own right hand the lovely Jesus placed the crowns on the heads of the saints. In the same manner the angels brought the harps, and Jesus presented them also to the saints. The commanding angels first struck the note, and then every voice was raised in grateful, happy praise, and every hand skillfully swept over the strings of the harp, sending forth melodious music in rich and perfect strains....
FLB	352	3	Within the city there was everything to feast the eye. Rich glory they beheld everywhere. Then Jesus looked upon His redeemed saints; their countenances were radiant with glory; and as He fixed His loving eyes upon them, He said, with His rich, musical voice, "I behold the travail of My soul, and am satisfied. This rich glory is yours to enjoy eternally. Your sorrows are ended. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." ...
FLB	352	4	I then saw Jesus leading His people to the tree of life.... Upon the tree of life was most beautiful fruit, of which the saints could partake freely, in the city was a most glorious throne, from which proceeded a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal. On each side of this river was the tree of life, and on the banks of the river were other beautiful trees bearing fruit....
FLB	352	5	Language is altogether too feeble to attempt a description of heaven. As the scene rises before me, I am lost in amazement. Carried away with the surpassing splendor and excellent glory, I lay down the pen, and exclaim, "Oh, what love! what wondrous love!" The most exalted language fails to describe the glory of heaven or the matchless depths of a Saviour's love.
------------------------The Captivity of Satan, December 13
FLB	353	1	And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. Revelation 20:1, 2.
FLB	353	2	At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face of the whole earth--consumed with the spirit of His mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of His glory. Christ takes His people to the city of God, and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants....
FLB	353	3	The whole earth appears like a desolate wilderness. The ruins of cities and villages destroyed by the earthquake, uprooted trees, ragged rocks thrown out by the sea or torn out of the earth itself, are scattered over its surface, while vast caverns mark the spot where the mountains have been rent from their foundations.
FLB	353	4	Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years. Here he will be confined, to wander up and down over the broken surface of the earth and see the effects of his rebellion against God's law. For a thousand years he can enjoy the fruit of the curse which he has caused. Limited alone to the earth, he will not have the privilege of ranging to other planets, to tempt and annoy those who have not fallen. During this time, Satan suffers extremely. Since his fall his evil traits have been in constant exercise. But he is then to be deprived of his power, and left to reflect upon the part which he has acted since his fall, and to look forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future, when he must suffer for all the evil that he has done and be punished for all the sins that he has caused to be committed.
FLB	353	5	I heard shouts of triumph from the angels and from the redeemed saints, which sounded like ten thousand musical instruments, because they were to be no more annoyed and tempted by Satan and because the inhabitants of other worlds were delivered from his presence and his temptations.
------------------------We Shall Judge Angels, December 14
FLB	354	1	Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? 1 Corinthians 6:3.
FLB	354	2	During the thousand years between the first and the second resurrection, the judgment of the wicked takes place.... At this time the righteous reign as kings and priests unto God. John in the Revelation says: "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them." "They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." Revelation 20:4, 6. It is at this time that, as foretold by Paul, "the saints shall judge the world." 1 Corinthians 6:2. In union with Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute book, the Bible, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body. Then the portion which the wicked must suffer is meted out, according to their works; and it is recorded against their names in the book of death.
FLB	354	3	Satan also and evil angels are judged by Christ and His people. Says Paul, "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" And Jude declares that "the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Jude 6.
FLB	354	4	At the close of the thousand years the second resurrection will take place. Then the wicked will be raised from the dead, and appear before God for the execution of "the judgment written." Thus the revelator, after describing the resurrection of the righteous, says, "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Revelation 20:5. And Isaiah declares, concerning the wicked, "They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited." Isaiah 24:22.
FLB	354	5	The penalty for breaking the law of God is proportionate to the price paid to redeem its transgressors. What unutterable bliss is prepared for those who will be saved through Christ, and what depths of woe for those who despise and reject His great salvation!
------------------------Descent of the New Jerusalem, December 15
FLB	355	1	And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Revelation 21:10.
FLB	355	2	At the close of the thousand years, Christ again returns to the earth. He is accompanied by the host of the redeemed, and attended by a retinue of angels. As He descends in terrific majesty, He bids the wicked dead arise to receive their doom. They come forth, a mighty host, numberless as the sands of the sea. What a contrast to those who were raised at the first resurrection! The righteous were clothed with immortal youth and beauty. The wicked bear the traces of disease and death.
FLB	355	3	Every eye in that vast multitude is turned to behold the glory of the Son of God. With one voice the wicked hosts exclaim, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!" It is not love to Jesus that inspires this utterance. The force of truth urges the words from unwilling lips. As the wicked went into their graves, so they come forth, with the same enmity to Christ, and the same spirit of rebellion. They are to have no new probation, in which to remedy the defects of their past lives. Nothing would be gained by this. A lifetime of transgressions has not softened their hearts. A second probation, were it given them, would be occupied as was the first, in evading the requirements of God and exciting rebellion against Him.
FLB	355	4	Christ descends upon the Mount of Olives, whence, after His resurrection, He ascended, and where angels repeated the promise of His return. Says the prophet: "The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee." "And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof, ... and there shall be a very great valley." Zechariah 14:5, 4.... As the New Jerusalem, in its dazzling splendor, comes down out of heaven, it rests upon the place purified and made ready to receive it, and Christ, with His people and the angels, enters the holy city.
------------------------The Supremacy of Jesus, December 16
FLB	356	1	That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:10, 11.
FLB	356	2	In the presence of the assembled inhabitants of earth and heaven the final coronation of the Son of God takes place. And now, invested with supreme majesty and power, the King of kings pronounces sentence upon the rebels against His government, and executes justice upon those who have transgressed His law and oppressed His people.... As ... the eye of Jesus looks upon the wicked, they are conscious of every sin which they have ever committed....
FLB	356	3	Above the throne is revealed the cross; and like a panoramic view appear the scenes of Adam's temptation and fall, and the successive steps in the great plan of redemption....
FLB	356	4	The whole wicked world stand arraigned at the bar of God, on the charge of high treason against the government of heaven. They have none to plead their cause; they are without excuse; and the sentence of eternal death is pronounced against them. It is now evident to all that the wages of sin is not noble independence and eternal life, but slavery, ruin, and death.... Satan seems paralyzed as he beholds the glory and majesty of Christ. He who was once a covering cherub remembers whence he has fallen. A shining seraph, "son of the morning;" how changed, how degraded! ...
FLB	356	5	Satan sees that his voluntary rebellion has unfitted him for heaven. He has trained his powers to war against God; the purity, peace, and harmony of heaven would be to him supreme torture. His accusations against the mercy and justice of God are now silenced. The reproach which he has endeavored to cast upon Jehovah rests wholly upon himself. And now Satan bows down, and confesses the justice of his sentence.... With all the facts of the great controversy in view, the whole universe, both loyal and rebellious, with one accord declare, "Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints." Revelation 15:3.
------------------------Satan and the Wicked Destroyed, December 17
FLB	357	1	Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever. Psalm 9:5.
FLB	357	2	Now Satan prepares for a last mighty struggle for the supremacy.... As the wicked dead are raised, and he sees the vast multitudes upon his side, his hopes revive, and he determines not to yield the great controversy.... He represents himself to his deluded subjects as a redeemer, assuring them that his power has brought them forth from their graves.... At last the order to advance is given, and the countless host moves on.... The armies of Satan surround the city, and make ready for the onset.
FLB	357	3	Fire comes down from God out of heaven. The earth is broken up. The weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth. Devouring flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are on fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein are burned up. The earth's surface seems one molten mass--a vast, seething lake of fire.
FLB	357	4	Satan and all who have joined him in rebellion will be cut off. Sin and sinners will perish, root and branch (Malachi 4:1)--Satan the root, and his followers the branches.... "They shall be as though they had not been." Obadiah 16.
FLB	357	5	It will be seen that Satan's rebellion against God has resulted in ruin to himself, and to all that chose to become his subjects. He has represented that great good would result from transgression; but it will be seen that "the wages of sin is death." Romans 6:23.... An end will be made of sin, with all the woe and ruin that have resulted from it. Says the psalmist, "Thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end." Psalm 9:5, 6.
FLB	357	6	He [Satan] had hoped to break up the plan of salvation; but it was laid too deep.... He himself must finally die, and his kingdom be given to Jesus.
------------------------The Justice of God, December 18
FLB	358	1	He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. John 12:48.
FLB	358	2	The wicked receive their recompense in the earth.... Some are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many days. All are punished "according to their deeds." The sins of the righteous having been transferred to Satan, he is made to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit. His punishment is to be far greater than that of those whom he has deceived. After all have perished who fell by his deceptions, he is still to live and suffer on.
FLB	358	3	In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch--Satan the root, his followers the branches. The justice of God is satisfied, and the saints and all the angelic host say with a loud voice, Amen.
FLB	358	4	While the earth is wrapped in the fire of God's vengeance, the righteous abide safely in the Holy City. Upon those that had part in the first resurrection, the second death has no power. (Revelation 20:6.) While God is to the wicked a consuming fire, He is to His people both a sun and a shield. (Psalm 84:11.)
FLB	358	5	And a shout of praise and triumph ascends from the whole loyal universe. "The voice of a great multitude," "as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings," is heard, saying, "Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." Revelation 19:6....
FLB	358	6	The fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away. No eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful consequences of sin....
FLB	358	7	All that was lost by sin has been restored.... God's original purpose in the creation of the earth is fulfilled as it is made the eternal abode of the redeemed. "The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever." Psalm 37:29.
------------------------The Eternal Weight of Glory, December 19
FLB	359	1	For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2 Corinthians 4:17.
FLB	359	2	I was pointed to the glory of heaven, to the treasure laid up for the faithful. Everything was lovely and glorious. The angels would sing a lovely song, then they would cease singing and take their crowns from their heads and cast them glittering at the feet of the lovely Jesus, and with melodious voices cry, "Glory, Alleluia!" I joined with them in their songs of praise and honor to the Lamb, and every time I opened my mouth to praise Him, I felt an unutterable sense of the glory that surrounded me. It was a far more, an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Said the angel, "The little remnant who love God and keep His commandments and are faithful to the end will enjoy this glory and ever be in the presence of Jesus and sing with the holy angels."
FLB	359	3	Then my eyes were taken from the glory, and I was pointed to the remnant on the earth. The angel said to them, "... Get ready, get ready, get ready. Ye must have a greater preparation than ye now have, for the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. Sacrifice all to God. Lay all upon His altar--self, property, and all, a living sacrifice. It will take all to enter glory. Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where no thief can approach or rust corrupt. Ye must be partakers of Christ's sufferings here if ye would be partakers with Him of His glory hereafter."
FLB	359	4	Heaven will be cheap enough, if we obtain it through suffering. We must deny self all along the way, die to self daily, let Jesus alone appear, and keep His glory continually in view.
FLB	359	5	The work of salvation is not child's play, to be taken hold of at will and let alone at pleasure. It is the steady purpose, the untiring effort, that will gain the victory at last. It is he who endureth to the end that shall be saved. It is they who patiently continue in well-doing that shall have eternal life and the immortal reward.
------------------------Living the Life of Eden, December 20
FLB	360	1	And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. Revelation 21:1.
FLB	360	2	Heaven is a school; its field of study, the universe; its teacher, the Infinite One. A branch of this school was established in Eden; and, the plan of redemption accomplished, education will again be taken up in the Eden school....
FLB	360	3	The prophet of Patmos thus describes the location of the school of the hereafter:
FLB	360	4	"I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.... And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Revelation 21:1, 2....
FLB	360	5	The giving of the tree of life in Eden was conditional, and it was finally withdrawn. But the gifts of the future life are absolute and eternal....
FLB	360	6	Restored to His presence, man will again, as at the beginning, be taught of God: "My people shall know my name: ... they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I." Isaiah 52:6....
FLB	360	7	All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's children. With unutterable delight we shall enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. We shall share the treasures gained through ages upon ages spent in contemplation of God's handiwork. And the years of eternity, as they roll, will continue to bring more glorious revelations. "Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20) will be forever and forever, the impartation of the gifts of God....
FLB	360	8	The life on earth is the beginning of the life in heaven; education on earth is an initiation into the principles of heaven; the lifework here is a training for the lifework there. What we now are, in character and holy service, is the sure foreshadowing of what we shall be.
------------------------Bright Beams of Glory, December 21
FLB	361	1	And his brightness was as the light; he had bright beams out of his side: and there was the hiding of his power. Habakkuk 3:4, margin.
FLB	361	2	Satan, by means of his success in turning man aside from the path of obedience, became "the god of this world." 2 Corinthians 4:4. The dominion that once was Adam's, passed to the usurper. But the Son of God proposed to come to this earth to pay the penalty of sin, and thus not only redeem man, but recover the dominion forfeited.... The apostle Paul has referred to it [the restoration of the lost dominion] as "the redemption of the purchased possession." Ephesians 1:14.
FLB	361	3	Not only man but the earth had by sin come under the power of the wicked one, and was to be restored by the plan of redemption.
FLB	361	4	The cross of Calvary, while it declares the law immutable, proclaims to the universe that the wages of sin is death. In the Saviour's expiring cry, "It is finished," the death knell of Satan was rung. The great controversy which had been so long in progress was then decided, and the final eradication of evil was made certain. The Son of God passed through the portals of the tomb, that "through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Hebrews 2:14. Lucifer's desire for self-exaltation had led him to say, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: ... I will be like the most High." Isaiah 14:13, 14. God declares, "I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth.... And never shalt thou be any more." Ezekiel 28:18, 19.
FLB	361	5	"I saw a new heaven and a new earth...." Revelation 21:1.... Every trace of the curse is swept away....
FLB	361	6	One reminder alone remains: our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in His glory, "He had bright beams coming out of his side: and there was the hiding of his power."
FLB	361	7	The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity.
------------------------No More Death--Ever! December 22
FLB	362	1	And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4.
FLB	362	2	In the home of the redeemed there will be no tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." Isaiah 33:24. One rich tide of happiness will flow and deepen as eternity rolls on....
FLB	362	3	Let us consider most earnestly the blessed hereafter. Let our faith pierce through every cloud of darkness and behold him who died for the sins of the world. He has opened the gates of Paradise to all who receive and believe on Him.... Let the afflictions which pain us so grievously become instructive lessons, teaching us to press forward toward the mark of the prize of our high calling in Christ. Let us be encouraged by the thought that the Lord is soon to come. Let this hope gladden our hearts....
FLB	362	4	We are homeward bound. He who loved us so much as to die for us hath builded for us a city. The New Jerusalem is our place of rest. There will be no sadness in the city of God. No wail of sorrow, no dirge of crushed hopes and buried affections, will evermore be heard. Soon the garments of heaviness will be changed for the wedding garment. Soon we shall witness the coronation of our King. Those whose lives have been hidden with Christ, those who on this earth have fought the good fight of faith, will shine forth with the Redeemer's glory in the kingdom of God.
FLB	362	5	It will not be long till we shall see Him in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. And in His presence, all the trials and sufferings of this life will be as nothingness.... Look up, look up, and let your faith continually increase. Let this faith guide you along the narrow path that leads through the gates of the city of God into the great beyond, the wide, unbounded future of glory that is for the redeemed.
------------------------The Metropolis of the World, December 23
FLB	363	1	And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. Revelation 21:23.
FLB	363	2	There is the New Jerusalem, the metropolis of the glorified new earth, "a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God." Isaiah 62:3. "Her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." Revelation 21:11.
FLB	363	3	The streets of the city are paved with pure gold, and ... the gates of the city are of gold set with pearls. The riches obtained here may be consumed.... There no thief shall approach; no moth or rust shall corrupt.... You will have an imperishable treasure which you can be in no danger of losing.
FLB	363	4	In the city of God "there shall be no night." None will need or desire repose. There will be no weariness in doing the will of God and offering praise to His name. We shall ever feel the freshness of the morning, and shall ever be far from its close. "And they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord giveth them light." Revelation 22:5. The light of the sun will be superseded by a radiance which is not painfully dazzling, yet which immeasurably surpasses the brightness of our noontide. The glory of God and the Lamb floods the Holy City with unfading light. The redeemed walk in the sunless glory of perpetual day.
FLB	363	5	"I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." Revelation 21:22. The people of God are privileged to hold open communion with the Father and the Son. "Now we see through a glass, darkly." 1 Corinthians 13:12. We behold the image of God reflected, as in a mirror, in the works of nature and in His dealings with men; but then we shall see Him face to face, without a dimming veil between. We shall stand in His presence, and behold the glory of His countenance.
FLB	363	6	Let us determine that if it costs everything we will have heaven and become partakers of the divine nature.
------------------------Two Worlds Compared, December 24
FLB	364	1	But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9.
FLB	364	2	The glory of the eternal world has been opened before me. I want to tell you that heaven is worth winning. It should be the aim of your life to fit yourself for association with the redeemed, with holy angels, and with Jesus, the world's Redeemer. If we could have but one view of the celestial city, we would never wish to dwell on earth again. There are beautiful landscapes on earth, and I enjoy all these prospects of loveliness in nature. I associate them with the Creator. But I know that if I love God, and keep His commandments, there is a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory reserved in heaven for me.
FLB	364	3	There, when the veil that darkens our vision shall be removed, and our eyes shall behold that world of beauty of which we now catch glimpses through the microscope; when we look on the glories of the heavens, now scanned afar through the telescope; when, the blight of sin removed, the whole earth shall appear in "the beauty of the Lord our God," what a field will be open to our study! There the student of science may read the records of creation and discern no reminders of the law of evil. He may listen to the music of nature's voices and detect no note of wailing or undertone of sorrow. In all created things he may trace one handwriting--in the vast universe behold "God's name writ large," and not in earth or sea or sky one sign of ill remaining.
FLB	364	4	Let your imagination picture the home of the saved, and remember that it will be more glorious than your brightest imagination can portray. In the varied gifts of God in nature we see but the faintest gleaming of His glory.
FLB	364	5	Human language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous. It will be known only to those who behold it. No finite mind can comprehend the glory of the Paradise of God.
------------------------The Blessedness of Heaven, December 25
FLB	365	1	He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Revelation 21:7.
FLB	365	2	No man stumbles into heaven. No man goes there blindfold. If he will take time to consider, every man may know whether he is in the strait and narrow path, or in the broad road that leads to death and hell.
FLB	365	3	If we do not receive the religion of Christ by feeding upon the Word of God, we shall not be entitled to an entrance into the city of God. Having lived on earthly food, having educated our tastes to love worldly things, we would not be fitted for the heavenly courts; we could not appreciate the pure, heavenly current that circulates in heaven. The voices of the angels and the music of their harps would not satisfy us. The science of heaven would be as an enigma to our minds. We need to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of Christ; we need to be molded and fashioned by the transforming influence of His grace, that we may be fitted for the society of heavenly angels.
FLB	365	4	We must have a vision of the future and of the blessedness of heaven.... There the redeemed ones greet those who directed them to the uplifted Saviour.... The conflict is over. All tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all heaven as the redeemed stand around the throne of God.
FLB	365	5	Then the nations will own no other law than the law of heaven. All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving.... Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite in proclaiming, "There shall be no more sin, neither shall there be any more death.
FLB	365	6	We want to get in the habit of talking of heaven, beautiful heaven. Talk of that life which will continue as long as God shall live, and then you will forget your little trials and difficulties. Let the mind be attracted to God.
------------------------Speculations About the Future Life, December 26
FLB	366	1	For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. Mark 12:25.
FLB	366	2	There are men today who express their belief that there will be marriages and births in the new earth, but those who believe the Scriptures cannot accept such doctrines. The doctrine that children will be born in the new earth is not a part of the "sure word of prophecy." The words of Christ are too plain to be misunderstood. They should forever settle the question of marriages and births in the new earth. Neither those who shall be raised from the dead, nor those who shall be translated without seeing death, will marry or be given in marriage. They will be as the angels of God, members of the royal family.
FLB	366	3	I would say to those who hold views contrary to this plain declaration of Christ: Upon such matters silence is eloquence. It is presumption to indulge in suppositions and theories regarding matters that God has not made known to us in His Word. We need not enter into speculation regarding our future state....
FLB	366	4	"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season." 2 Timothy 4:2. Do not bring to the foundation wood, and hay, and stubble--your own surmisings and speculations, which can benefit no one.
FLB	366	5	Christ withheld no truths essential to our salvation. Those things that are revealed are for us and our children, but we are not to allow our imagination to frame doctrines concerning things not revealed.
FLB	366	6	The Lord has made every provision for our happiness in the future life. But He has made no revelations regarding these plans, and we are not to speculate concerning them. Neither are we to measure the conditions of the future life by the conditions of this life.... It is presented to me that spiritual fables are taking many captive.... To all who are indulging these unholy fancies, I would say, Stop; for Christ's sake, stop right where you are. You are on forbidden ground.
------------------------Heaven Begins on Earth, December 27
FLB	367	1	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28.
FLB	367	2	Heaven is to begin on this earth.
FLB	367	3	Those who take Christ at His word, and surrender their souls to His keeping, their lives to His ordering, will find peace and quietude. Nothing of the world can make them sad when Jesus makes them glad by His presence. In perfect acquiescence there is perfect rest. The Lord says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." Isaiah 26:3. Our lives may seem a tangle; but as we commit ourselves to the wise Master Worker, He will bring out the pattern of life and character that will be to His own glory. And that character which expresses the glory--character--of Christ will be received into the Paradise of God. A renovated race shall walk with Him in white, for they are worthy.
FLB	367	4	As through Jesus we enter into rest, heaven begins here. We respond to His invitation, Come, learn of Me, and in thus coming we begin the life eternal. Heaven is a ceaseless approaching to God through Christ. The longer we are in the heaven of bliss, the more and still more of glory will be opened to us; and the more we know of God, the more intense will be our happiness.
FLB	367	5	When the Lord's people are filled with meekness and tenderness, they will realize that His banner over them is love, and His fruit will be sweet to their taste. They will make a heaven below in which to prepare for heaven above.
FLB	367	6	As we walk with Jesus in this life, we may be filled with His love, satisfied with His presence. All that human nature can bear, we may receive here. But what is this compared with the hereafter? There "are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." Revelation 7:15-17.
------------------------Heaven a Real Place, December 28
FLB	368	1	And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. Isaiah 32:18.
FLB	368	2	A fear of making the future inheritance seem too material has led many to spiritualize away the very truths which lead us to look upon it as our home. Christ assured His disciples that He went to prepare mansions for them in the Father's house. Those who accept the teachings of God's Word will not be wholly ignorant concerning the heavenly abode....
FLB	368	3	In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called a country. There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. There the widespreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God's people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home.
FLB	368	4	"My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places." Isaiah 32:18. "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise." Isaiah 60:18. "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: ... mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." Isaiah 65:21, 22.
FLB	368	5	There, "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose." Isaiah 35:1. "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree." Isaiah 55:13. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; ... and a little child shall lead them." Isaiah 11:6.
------------------------The Race for Eternal Life, December 29
FLB	369	1	Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1.
FLB	369	2	In the epistle to the Hebrews is pointed out the singlehearted purpose that should characterize the Christian's race for eternal life.... Envy, malice, evilthinking, evilspeaking, covetousness--these are weights that the Christian must lay aside if he would run successfully the race for immortality. Every habit or practice that leads into sin and brings dishonor upon Christ, must be put away, whatever the sacrifice. The blessing of heaven cannot attend any man in violating the eternal principles of right. One sin cherished is sufficient to work degradation of character, and to mislead others.
FLB	369	3	"If thy hand cause thee to stumble," the Saviour said, "cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having thy two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. And if thy foot cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life halt, rather than having thy two feet to be cast into hell." Mark 9:43-45, R.V. If to save the body from death, the foot or the hand should be cut off, or even the eye plucked out, how much more earnest should the Christian be to put away sin, which brings death to the soul!
FLB	369	4	The competitors in the ancient games, after they had submitted to self-denial and rigid discipline, were not even then sure of the victory....
FLB	369	5	Such is not the case in the Christian warfare. Not one who complies with the conditions will be disappointed at the end of the race. Not one who is earnest and persevering will fail of success. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. The weakest saint, as well as the strongest, may wear the crown of immortal glory. All may win who, through the power of divine grace, bring their lives into conformity to the will of Christ.
------------------------Reward for Soul Winners, December 30
FLB	370	1	And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:3.
FLB	370	2	In our life here, earthly, sin-restricted though it is, the greatest joy and the highest education are in service. And in the future state, untrammeled by the limitations of sinful humanity, it is in service that our greatest joy and our highest education will be found.
FLB	370	3	"If any man's work abide ..., he shall receive a reward." 1 Corinthians 3:14. Glorious will be the reward bestowed when the faithful workers gather about the throne of God and of the Lamb.... They have been partakers with Christ in His sufferings, they have been workers together with Him in the plan of redemption, and they are partakers with Him in the joy of seeing souls saved in the kingdom of God, there to praise God through all eternity.
FLB	370	4	A Christian once said that when he reached heaven he expected to meet with three causes of wonder. He would wonder to find some that he did not expect to see there. He would wonder not to see some that he expected to meet, and, lastly, he would wonder most to find so unworthy a sinner as himself in the Paradise of God. Many who have stood in high places as Christians upon earth will not be found with the happy throng that shall surround the throne. Those who have had knowledge and talent, and yet have delighted in controversy and unholy strife, will not have a place with the redeemed.... They desired to do some great work, that they might be admired and flattered by men, but their names were not written in the Lamb's book of life. "I know you not," are the sad words that Christ addresses to such. But those whose lives were made beautiful by little acts of kindness, by tender words of affection and sympathy, whose hearts recoiled from strife and contention, who never did any great work in order to be lauded of men, these are found recorded in the Lamb's book of life. Though the world counted them as insignificant, they are approved of God before the assembled universe.
------------------------The Knowledge of God Covers the Earth, December 31
FLB	371	1	For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:9.
FLB	371	2	As we enter the kingdom of God, there to spend eternity, the trials and the difficulties and the perplexities that we have had here will sink into insignificance. Our life will measure with the life of God.
FLB	371	3	There, immortal minds will contemplate with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love. There will be no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to forgetfulness of God. Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body.
FLB	371	4	All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar.... With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. They share the treasures of knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon ages in contemplation of God's handiwork.... As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption, and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise....
FLB	371	5	One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.

------------------------Homeward Bound
HB	16	1	For The Common People, January 1
HB	17	1	Food For The Soul, January 2
HB	18	1	Only Rule of Faith, January 3
HB	19	1	Behold Wondrous Things, January 4
HB	20	1	Live In The Atmosphere of Heaven, January 5
HB	21	1	A Transcript Of God's Will, January 6
HB	22	1	The Plan of Salvation Made Plain, January 7
HB	23	1	Hearing Jesus' Voice, January 8
HB	24	1	The Keys of Heaven, January 9
HB	25	1	Without Rival, January 10
HB	26	1	Creative Energy, January 11
HB	27	1	Death of The Earthly Nature, January 12
HB	28	1	A Fortress Against Temptation, January 13
HB	29	1	Dig Deep, January 14
HB	30	1	Side by Side, January 15
HB	31	1	The Bible's Central Theme, January 16
HB	32	1	The Great Controversy In Scripture, January 17
HB	33	1	Verse by Verse, January 18
HB	34	1	God's Hand In History, January 19
HB	35	1	Why Doubt?, January 20
HB	36	1	Good-Ground Hearers, January 21
HB	37	1	Get Acquainted With Truth, January 22
HB	38	1	Example of The Bereans, January 23
HB	39	1	Have An Elevating Influence, January 24
HB	40	1	The Great Educator, January 25
HB	41	1	The Science of Salvation, January 26
HB	42	1	Science and The Bible, January 27
HB	43	1	Keep Your Eyes On Christ, January 28
HB	44	1	Last Day Deceptions, January 29
HB	45	1	The Scriptures Our Safeguard, January 30
HB	46	1	Our First Duty, January 31
HB	48	1	A Voluntary Sacrifice, February 1
HB	49	1	An Unbreakable Tie, February 2
HB	50	1	Greater Works, February 3
HB	51	1	Divinity Needed Humanity, February 4
HB	52	1	The Divine Teacher, February 5
HB	53	1	Self-Renouncing Love, February 6
HB	54	1	Lucifer Exposed, February 7
HB	55	1	Selfishness Cannot Understand Love, February 8
HB	56	1	God Understands, February 9
HB	57	1	The Story of Bethlehem, February 10
HB	58	1	Understanding His Mission, February 11
HB	59	1	"My Father's Business", February 12
HB	60	1	Family Problems, February 13
HB	61	1	Patience, February 14
HB	62	1	Stay Focused On Christ, February 15
HB	63	1	Love Stronger Than Death, February 16
HB	64	1	The Good Shepherd, February 17
HB	65	1	The Test Of Christ's Divinity, February 18
HB	66	1	Triumphal Entry, February 19
HB	67	1	Jesus Came To Glorify God, February 20
HB	68	1	The Gospel To The World, February 21
HB	69	1	You Are Clean, February 22
HB	70	1	The Penitent Thief, February 23
HB	71	1	It Is Finished, February 24
HB	72	1	He Is Risen, February 25
HB	73	1	He Is The King of Glory, February 26
HB	74	1	Christ's Coronation And Its Results, February 27
HB	75	1	The Intercession of Christ, February 28
HB	76	1	Christ's Heavenly Ministry, February 29
HB	78	1	Just As We Are, March 1
HB	79	1	Perfection, March 2
HB	80	1	By Grace Alone, March 3
HB	81	1	It's Your Choice, March 4
HB	82	1	It's Either or, March 5
HB	83	1	No Excuse For Sinning, March 6
HB	84	1	The Greatest Battle We Face, March 7
HB	85	1	Preparation For The Time of Trouble, March 8
HB	86	1	The Self-Righteous, March 9
HB	87	1	What God Can Do With You, March 10
HB	88	1	The Gospel Is For Everyone, March 11
HB	89	1	The Work of The Holy Spirit, March 12
HB	90	1	Spiritual Healing, March 13
HB	91	1	Cleansing The Temple, March 14
HB	92	1	Holiness Is. . . !, March 15
HB	93	1	Righteousness Is . . . !, March 16
HB	94	1	Sanctification Is . . . !, March 17
HB	95	1	Sanctification Is a Bible Doctrine, March 18
HB	96	1	Repentance Is . . . !, March 19
HB	97	1	Reaching Out After God, March 20
HB	98	1	An Example of Repentance, March 21
HB	99	1	The First Step In Acceptance, March 22
HB	100	1	Ask For Repentance, March 23
HB	101	1	What's Wrong With Procrastination?, March 24
HB	102	1	The Power of The Will, March 25
HB	103	1	The New Birth, March 26
HB	104	1	Believe What God Says, March 27
HB	105	1	In The Shadow of The Cross, March 28
HB	106	1	Grace From The Saviour, March 29
HB	107	1	An Example of True Sanctification, March 30
HB	108	1	Conformed To God's Will, March 31
HB	110	1	The Keynote of Victory, April 1
HB	111	1	Lowliness Gives Victory, April 2
HB	112	1	Victory In God Alone, April 3
HB	113	1	Foundation For Victory, April 4
HB	114	1	Temptation Can Result In Victory, April 5
HB	115	1	In Safe Paths, April 6
HB	116	1	Satan Can't Make You Sin, April 7
HB	117	1	God Must Have Your Consent, April 8
HB	118	1	Stepping Over The Line, April 9
HB	119	1	Learn To Distrust Self, April 10
HB	120	1	Stay Focused On Jesus, April 11
HB	121	1	You Are Not Alone, April 12
HB	122	1	Fortresses For God, April 13
HB	123	1	Heart Obedience, April 14
HB	124	1	Be True to Principle, April 15
HB	125	1	How Do We Deny Jesus?, April 16
HB	126	1	How Do We See Ourselves?, April 17
HB	127	1	Do We Sense Our Need?, April 18
HB	128	1	A New Life, April 19
HB	129	1	From Victory To Victory, April 20
HB	130	1	Sin No Longer Attractive, April 21
HB	131	1	Race For The Crown, April 22
HB	132	1	Abiding Peace, April 23
HB	133	1	Share What You Receive, April 24
HB	134	1	Victory Through The Merits of Christ, April 25
HB	135	1	Victorious Over Trials, April 26
HB	136	1	Crowns and Robes, April 27
HB	137	1	Look Up, Not Down, April 28
HB	138	1	Talk About God's Blessings, April 29
HB	139	1	Finally: A Position Above Angels, April 30
HB	142	1	What Do You Talk To God About?, May 1
HB	143	1	The Key In The Hand of Faith, May 2
HB	144	1	The Science of Prayer, May 3
HB	145	1	Another Condition, May 4
HB	146	1	Faith and Secret Prayer, May 5
HB	147	1	Your Very First Work, May 6
HB	148	1	Include Prayer Meeting, May 7
HB	149	1	Pray Like Jacob, May 8
HB	150	1	You Cannot Wear God Out, May 9
HB	151	1	Prayer Enhances Spiritual Growth, May 10
HB	152	1	Study With Earnest Prayer, May 11
HB	153	1	What We Need To Learn About Prayer, May 12
HB	154	1	Prayer Moves the Arm of Omnipotence, May 13
HB	155	1	No Prayer Lost, May 14
HB	156	1	Beautiful Prayers, May 15
HB	157	1	Christ's Remedy For Lifeless Prayers, May 16
HB	158	1	Live Your Prayers, May 17
HB	159	1	Promises and Prayer, May 18
HB	160	1	Power of Secret Prayer, May 19
HB	161	1	God-Inspired Prayers, May 20
HB	162	1	What Should We Pray For?, May 21
HB	163	1	The Importance of Family Worship, May 22
HB	164	1	Prayer For The Sick, May 23
HB	165	1	May God's Will Be Done, May 24
HB	166	1	No Prosy Prayer Meetings, May 25
HB	167	1	Daniel's Example In Prayer, May 26
HB	168	1	Golden Moments, May 27
HB	169	1	Nights In Prayer, May 28
HB	170	1	Pray With Bible In Hand, May 29
HB	171	1	Prayer and Moral Courage, May 30
HB	172	1	Prayer and A Revived Church, May 31
HB	174	1	God's Law, June 1
HB	175	1	The Sabbath A Test, June 2
HB	176	1	Obedience, A Condition For Happiness, June 3
HB	177	1	God's Shield, June 4
HB	178	1	On Probation, June 5
HB	179	1	The Law Is Holy, June 6
HB	180	1	Law of Love, June 7
HB	181	1	God's Law Is Eternal, June 8
HB	182	1	The Source of All Laws, June 9
HB	183	1	Exalting The Law, June 10
HB	184	1	What Does It Mean To Keep God's Commandments?, June 11
HB	185	1	Obedience Is The Fruit Of Love, June 12
HB	186	1	The Ten Commandments, With Sabbath At The Center, June 13
HB	187	1	Sabbath, The Seal Of God's Law, June 14
HB	188	1	The Sabbath Created By Christ, June 15
HB	189	1	Worship The Creator, June 16
HB	190	1	The Lord's Day, June 17
HB	191	1	Sabbath and The World of Nature, June 18
HB	192	1	An Expression of Thanks, June 19
HB	193	1	The Creation Week, June 20
HB	194	1	Faith In Inspired History, June 21
HB	195	1	Sabbath Preparations, June 22
HB	196	1	Double Manna, June 23
HB	197	1	A Perpetual Covenant, June 24
HB	198	1	A Joyous Work, June 25
HB	199	1	Satan's Attack On The Sabbath, June 26
HB	200	1	Standing For God's Honor, June 27
HB	201	1	The Line In The Sand, June 28
HB	202	1	Sabbath Reform, June 29
HB	203	1	God's Law and Sabbath Vindicated, June 30
HB	206	1	God Is Owner, July 1
HB	207	1	How Does Money Impact You?, July 2
HB	208	1	An Education In Stewardship, July 3
HB	209	1	Avoid Debt, July 4
HB	210	1	Remember The Poor, July 5
HB	211	1	Remember God In Your Will, July 6
HB	212	1	Stewards Of God's Grace, July 7
HB	213	1	The World's Greatest Want, July 8
HB	214	1	God is Speaking, July 9
HB	215	1	Help One Another To Grow, July 10
HB	216	1	Choose Wisely, July 11
HB	217	1	Prove Yourself, July 12
HB	218	1	God's Ideal, July 13
HB	219	1	Enlist In Christ's Army, July 14
HB	220	1	Character Building, July 15
HB	221	1	Lessons From The Rise and Fall of Nations, July 16
HB	222	1	Gaining A Knowledge of God, July 17
HB	223	1	Mind and Body, July 18
HB	224	1	Our Influence Is Vital, July 19
HB	225	1	Power To Think and Do, July 20
HB	226	1	The Power of Temperance, July 21
HB	227	1	The Example of John The Baptist, July 22
HB	228	1	Parental Commitment, July 23
HB	229	1	Appetite Cannot Be Trusted, July 24
HB	230	1	Be Consistent, July 25
HB	231	1	Touch Not, Taste Not, July 26
HB	232	1	The Highway To Drunkenness, July 27
HB	233	1	Offensive To Others, July 28
HB	234	1	Dangerous Theories, July 29
HB	235	1	Effects of Gratitude and Praise, July 30
HB	236	1	The Danger of Self-Trust, July 31
HB	238	1	God's Chosen, August 1
HB	239	1	God's Fortress, August 2
HB	240	1	Unity of the Faith, August 3
HB	241	1	A Channel of Light, August 4
HB	242	1	Working Together, August 5
HB	243	1	An Example of Church Unity, August 6
HB	244	1	Church Order, August 7
HB	245	1	The Mission of the Church, August 8
HB	246	1	Power in the Church, August 9
HB	247	1	Abide In Christ, August 10
HB	248	1	Emptied of Self, August 11
HB	249	1	Self-Sacrifice in the Church, August 12
HB	250	1	God Leads His People, August 13
HB	251	1	The Influence of Perfect Harmony, August 14
HB	252	1	Duty of the Church, August 15
HB	253	1	Dealing With Misunderstandings, August 16
HB	254	1	Dealing With an Offender, August 17
HB	255	1	Press Together, Now, August 18
HB	256	1	The Church is to Follow the Saviour's Rule, August 19
HB	257	1	The Gospel Net, August 20
HB	258	1	Christ's Love in the Church, August 21
HB	259	1	The Church is Not One Man's Opinion, August 22
HB	260	1	God's Spirit and Unity in the Church, August 23
HB	261	1	Unity Begets Strength, August 24
HB	262	1	The Danger of Self-Confidence, August 25
HB	263	1	Warnings to the Church, August 26
HB	264	1	Set On a Hill, August 27
HB	265	1	The Church Can Hasten Jesus' Return, August 28
HB	266	1	A Stormy Future, August 29
HB	267	1	Robes for the Remnant, August 30
HB	268	1	Advance as a Church United, August 31
HB	270	1	The Beginning of the Home, September 1
HB	271	1	A Little Heaven On Earth, September 2
HB	272	1	The Family Circle, September 3
HB	273	1	True Joy, September 4
HB	274	1	The Role of the Christian Home, September 5
HB	275	1	A Light In The Neighborhood, September 6
HB	276	1	Members of the Royal Family, September 7
HB	277	1	Parents, Set The Right Example, September 8
HB	278	1	Make Christianity Attractive, September 9
HB	279	1	Think Twice Before Marrying, September 10
HB	280	1	Like Parents, Like Children, September 11
HB	281	1	The Mother, September 12
HB	282	1	The Father, September 13
HB	283	1	The Family and Decisive Battles, September 14
HB	284	1	Parents, It's Up To You, September 15
HB	285	1	What Is "Family Religion"?, September 16
HB	286	1	Home, The Base For Future Missionaries, September 17
HB	287	1	Homes Where Angels Will Linger, September 18
HB	288	1	True Love Is A Holy Principle, September 19
HB	289	1	The Power of Love, September 20
HB	290	1	The Honor Due Parents, September 21
HB	291	1	Home Missions, September 22
HB	292	1	A Sympathetic Hand, September 23
HB	293	1	Refinement In The Home, September 24
HB	294	1	Family Worship, September 25
HB	295	1	Family Recreation, September 26
HB	296	1	Appeal To Unsaved Family Members, September 27
HB	297	1	Introduce Jesus To Neighbors, September 28
HB	298	1	The Influence of Jesus In The Home, September 29
HB	299	1	The Home's Only Safeguard, September 30
HB	302	1	The Central Pillar of Adventism, October 1
HB	303	1	The Correct Understanding of The Heavenly Sanctuary, October 2
HB	304	1	In The Holy of Holies, October 3
HB	305	1	A Figure of the Heavenly, October 4
HB	306	1	The Sanctuary and Judgment Must Be Clearly Understood, October 5
HB	307	1	Christ's Intercession Essential, October 6
HB	308	1	Two Sanctuaries, October 7
HB	309	1	The Meaning of the Sanctuary Services, October 8
HB	310	1	Access To God, October 9
HB	311	1	The True Mediator, October 10
HB	312	1	The Work In The First Apartment, October 11
HB	313	1	The Work In The Second Apartment, October 12
HB	314	1	The Union of Justice and Mercy, October 13
HB	315	1	Behold, The Bridegroom Cometh, October 14
HB	316	1	A Period of Trial, October 15
HB	317	1	Before The Ancient of Days, October 16
HB	318	1	The Standard of Judgment, October 17
HB	319	1	The Books of Record In Heaven, October 18
HB	320	1	Pardoned, October 19
HB	321	1	The Giving of Rewards, October 20
HB	322	1	End Of Jesus' Work As Priest And Mediator, October 21
HB	323	1	Words of Approval, October 22
HB	324	1	Rescue Souls Before Jesus Ends His Ministry, October 23
HB	325	1	The Close of Probation, October 24
HB	326	1	Satan Fell Like Lightning, October 25
HB	327	1	Jesus' Pleasure In His People, October 26
HB	328	1	From The Earthly To The Heavenly Temple, October 27
HB	329	1	Working With Our High Priest, October 28
HB	330	1	Jesus Does Not Forget His Church, October 29
HB	331	1	Jesus, A Righteous Judge, October 30
HB	332	1	A Perfect Atonement, October 31
HB	334	1	The Origin of Sin Is Unexplainable, November 1
HB	335	1	Selfishness, The Root of Sin, November 2
HB	336	1	Lucifer Ejected, November 3
HB	337	1	Hostilities, November 4
HB	338	1	Implanted Grace, November 5
HB	339	1	No Sinful Act Without Consent, November 6
HB	340	1	Vindication of God's Character, November 7
HB	341	1	Satan's Claim, November 8
HB	342	1	A Perpetual Safeguard, November 9
HB	343	1	Satan&ssquo;s Plan of Attack, November 10
HB	344	1	Satan Is A Destroyer, November 11
HB	345	1	The Push For A Sunday Law, November 12
HB	346	1	The Crowning Act of Deception, November 13
HB	347	1	God's People Not Deceived, November 14
HB	348	1	Troublers of The People, November 15
HB	349	1	The Gospel Commission, November 16
HB	350	1	Truth Will Conquer The World, November 17
HB	351	1	Help From The Holy Spirit, November 18
HB	352	1	The Power of the Latter Rain, November 19
HB	353	1	Come Out of Babylon, November 20
HB	354	1	God's Answer To Satan's Charges, November 21
HB	355	1	Babylon's Sins Laid Open, November 22
HB	356	1	Statesmen Won To Truth, November 23
HB	357	1	Know Why You Believe What You Believe, November 24
HB	358	1	The Close of Probation, November 25
HB	359	1	The Time of Jacob's Trouble, November 26
HB	360	1	God Is Our Defense, November 27
HB	361	1	Prayers Will Be Answered, November 28
HB	362	1	Under The Lord's Banner, November 29
HB	363	1	Victory In The Great Controversy, November 30
HB	366	1	Christ Could Have Come Before This, December 1
HB	367	1	God's Jewels, December 2
HB	368	1	The Shout of Victory, December 3
HB	369	1	Two Special Resurrections, December 4
HB	370	1	Secure At Last, December 5
HB	371	1	God's Grace Is Sufficient, December 6
HB	372	1	The Special Resurrection of The Lost, December 7
HB	373	1	The Destiny of The False Shepherds, December 8
HB	374	1	The Resurrection of The Righteous, December 9
HB	375	1	The Translation of The Righteous Living, December 10
HB	376	1	The Restoration of Adam, December 11
HB	377	1	The 144,000, December 12
HB	378	1	The Joy of the Heirs Of God, December 13
HB	379	1	A Study That Lasts Through Eternity, December 14
HB	380	1	Angel Interventions Revealed, December 15
HB	381	1	Satan's Imprisonment, December 16
HB	382	1	Work of the Redeemed During the Millennium, December 17
HB	383	1	The Ranks of the Redeemed, December 18
HB	384	1	The Cleansing of the Earth, December 19
HB	385	1	Eden Restored, December 20
HB	386	1	Mansions For The Redeemed, December 21
HB	387	1	A View of Other Worlds, December 22
HB	388	1	Heaven-Granted Opportunities, December 23
HB	389	1	Beyond The Power of Evil, December 24
HB	390	1	The Crown of Life, December 25
HB	391	1	Red Borders, December 26
HB	392	1	Sharing Jesus' Glory, December 27
HB	393	1	Songs To Be Sung, December 28
HB	394	1	Visions of Glory, December 29
HB	395	1	Heaven Begins In The Soul, December 30
HB	396	1	The Controversy Ended, December 31

------------------------For The Common People, January 1
HB	16	1	The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.--John 6:63.
HB	16	2	The Bible was not written for the scholar alone; on the contrary, it was designed for the common people. The great truths necessary for salvation are made as clear as noonday; and none will mistake and lose their way except those who follow their own judgment instead of the plainly revealed will of God.
HB	16	3	We should not take the testimony of anyone as to what the Scriptures teach, but should study the words of God for ourselves. If we allow others to do our thinking, we shall have crippled energies and contracted abilities. The noble powers of the mind may be so dwarfed by lack of exercise on themes worthy of their concentration as to lose their ability to grasp the deep meaning of the word of God. The mind will enlarge if it is employed in tracing out the relation of the subjects of the Bible, comparing scripture with scripture and spiritual things with spiritual.
HB	16	4	There is nothing more calculated to strengthen the intellect than the study of the Scriptures. No other book is so potent to elevate the thoughts, to give vigor to the faculties, as the broad, ennobling truths of the Bible. If God's word were studied as it should be, people would have a breadth of mind, a nobility of character, and a stability of purpose rarely seen in these times.
HB	16	5	But there is but little benefit derived from a hasty reading of the Scriptures. One may read the whole Bible through and yet fail to see its beauty or comprehend its deep and hidden meaning. One passage studied until its significance is clear to the mind and its relation to the plan of salvation is evident, is of more value than the perusal of many chapters with no definite purpose in view and no positive instruction gained. Keep your Bible with you. As you have opportunity, read it; fix the texts in your memory. Even while you are walking the streets you may read a passage and meditate upon it, thus fixing it in the mind.
HB	16	6	We cannot obtain wisdom without earnest attention and prayerful study. . . . There must be careful research and prayerful reflection. And such study will be richly repaid. . . .
HB	16	7	Never should the Bible be studied without prayer. Before opening its pages we should ask for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and it will be given.--Steps to Christ, 89-91.
------------------------Food For The Soul, January 2
HB	17	1	It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God."--Luke 4:4.
HB	17	2	Education is but a preparation of the physical, intellectual, and spiritual powers for the best performance of all the duties of life. The powers of endurance, and the strength and activity of the brain, are lessened or increased by the way in which they are employed. The mind should be so disciplined that all its powers will be symmetrically developed. . . .
HB	17	3	The nature of one's religious experience is revealed by the character of the books one chooses to read in one's leisure moments. In order to have a healthy tone of mind and sound religious principles, the youth must live in communion with God through His word. Pointing out the way of salvation through Christ, the Bible is our guide to a higher, better life. It contains the most interesting and the most instructive history and biography that were ever written. Those whose imagination has not become perverted by the reading of fiction will find the Bible the most interesting of books.
HB	17	4	The Bible is the book of books. If you love the Word of God, searching it as you have opportunity, that you may come into possession of its rich treasures, and be thoroughly furnished unto all good works, then you may be assured that Jesus is drawing you to Himself. But to read the Scriptures in a casual way, without seeking to comprehend Christ's lesson that you may comply with His requirements, is not enough. There are treasures in the word of God that can be discovered only by sinking the shaft deep into the mine of truth.
HB	17	5	The carnal mind rejects the truth; but the soul that is converted undergoes a marvelous change. The book that before was unattractive because it revealed truths which testified against the sinner, now becomes the food of the soul, the joy and consolation of the life. The Sun of righteousness illuminates the sacred pages, and the Holy Spirit speaks through them to the soul. . . .
HB	17	6	Let all who have cultivated a love for light reading, now turn their attention to the sure word of prophecy. Take your Bibles, and begin to study with fresh interest the sacred records of the Old and New Testaments. The oftener and more diligently you study the Bible, the more beautiful will it appear, and the less relish you will have for light reading. Bind this precious volume to your hearts. It will be to you a friend and guide.--Messages to Young People, 271, 273, 274.
------------------------Only Rule of Faith, January 3
HB	18	1	He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life.--John 5:24.
HB	18	2	The Bible is the only rule of faith and doctrine. . . .
HB	18	3	Those who are teaching the most solemn message ever given to the world, should discipline the mind to comprehend its significance. The theme of redemption will bear the most concentrated study, and its depth will never be fully explored. You need not fear that you will exhaust this wonderful theme. Drink deep of the well of salvation. Go to the fountain for yourself, that you may be filled with refreshment, that Jesus may be in you a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life. Only Bible truth and Bible religion will stand the test of the judgment. We are not to pervert the word of God to suit our convenience, and worldly interests, but to honestly inquire, "What wilt Thou have me to do?" "Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price." And what a price! Not "with corruptible things, as silver and gold, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ." When the human race was lost, the Son of God said, I will redeem them, I will become their surety and substitute. He laid aside His royal robes, clothed His divinity with humanity, stepped down from the royal throne, that He might reach the very depth of human woe and temptation, lift up our fallen natures, and make it possible for us to be overcomers--the sons and daughters of God, the heirs of the eternal kingdom. Shall we then allow any consideration of earth to turn us away from the path of truth? Shall we not challenge every doctrine and theory, and put it to the test of God's word?
HB	18	4	We should not allow any human argument to turn us away from a thorough investigation of Bible truth. Human opinions and customs are not to be received as of divine authority. God has revealed in His word what is the whole duty of man, and we are not to be swayed from the great standard of righteousness. He sent His only begotten Son to be our example, and bade us to hear and to follow Him. We must not be influenced from the truth as it is in Jesus, because great and professedly good people urge their ideas above the plain statements of the word of God.
HB	18	5	The work of Christ is to draw us from the false and spurious to the true and genuine. "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12.)--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 126-128.
------------------------Behold Wondrous Things, January 4
HB	19	1	Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.--Job 37:14.
HB	19	2	People of piety and talent catch views of eternal realities, but often they fail of understanding, because the things that are seen eclipse the glory of the unseen. Those who would seek successfully for the hidden treasure must rise to higher pursuits than the things of this world. Their affections and all their capabilities must be consecrated to the search.
HB	19	3	Disobedience has closed the door to a vast amount of knowledge that might have been gained from the Scriptures. Understanding means obedience to God's commandments. The Scriptures are not to be adapted to meet human prejudice and jealousy. They can be understood only by those who are humbly seeking for a knowledge of the truth that they may obey it.
HB	19	4	Do you ask, What shall I do to be saved? You must lay your preconceived opinions, your hereditary and cultivated ideas, at the door of investigation. If you search the Scriptures to vindicate your own opinions, you will never reach the truth. Search in order to learn what the Lord says. If conviction comes as you search, if you see that your cherished opinions are not in harmony with the truth, do not misinterpret the truth in order to suit your own belief, but accept the light given. Open mind and heart that you may behold wondrous things out of God's word.
HB	19	5	Faith in Christ as the world's Redeemer calls for an acknowledgment of the enlightened intellect controlled by a heart that can discern and appreciate the heavenly treasure. This faith is inseparable from repentance and transformation of character. To have faith means to find and accept the gospel treasure, with all the obligations which it imposes. . . .
HB	19	6	We need the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit in order to discern the truths in God's word. The lovely things of the natural world are not seen until the sun, dispelling the darkness, floods them with its light. So the treasures in the word of God are not appreciated until they are revealed by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
HB	19	7	The Holy Spirit, sent from heaven by the benevolence of infinite love, takes the things of God and reveals them to every soul that has an implicit faith in Christ. By His power the vital truths upon which the salvation of the soul depends are impressed upon the mind, and the way of life is made so plain that none need err therein.--Christ's Object Lessons, 112, 113.
------------------------Live In The Atmosphere of Heaven, January 5
HB	20	1	Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things.--Jeremiah 33:3.
HB	20	2	All who with sincere and teachable spirit study God's word, seeking to comprehend its truths, will be brought in touch with its Author; and, except by their own choice, there is no limit to the possibilities of their development.
HB	20	3	In its wide range of style and subjects the Bible has something to interest every mind and appeal to every heart. In its pages are found history the most ancient; biography the truest to life; principles of government for the control of the state, for the regulation of the household--principles that human wisdom has never equaled. It contains philosophy the most profound, poetry the sweetest and the most sublime, the most impassioned and the most pathetic [touching]. Immeasurably superior in value to the productions of any human author are the Bible writings, even when thus considered; but of infinitely wider scope, of infinitely greater value, are they when viewed in their relation to the grand central thought. Viewed in the light of this thought, every topic has a new significance. In the most simply stated truths are involved principles that are as high as heaven and that compass eternity. . . .
HB	20	4	With the word of God in their hands, all human beings, wherever their lot in life may be cast, may have such companionship as they shall choose. In its pages they may hold converse with the noblest and best of the human race, and may listen to the voice of the Eternal as He speaks with humanity. As they study and meditate upon the themes into which "the angels desire to look" (1 Peter 1:12), they may have their companionship. They may follow the steps of the heavenly Teacher, and listen to His words as when He taught on mountain and plain and sea. They may dwell in this world in the atmosphere of heaven, imparting to earth's sorrowing and tempted ones thoughts of hope and longings for holiness; themselves coming closer and still closer into fellowship with the Unseen; like him of old who walked with God, drawing nearer and nearer the threshold of the eternal world, until the portals shall open, and they shall enter there. They will find themselves no strangers. The voices that will greet them are the voices of the holy ones, who, unseen, were on earth their companions--voices that here they learned to distinguish and to love. Those who through the word of God have lived in fellowship with heaven, will find themselves at home in heaven's companionship.--Education, 125, 127.
------------------------A Transcript Of God's Will, January 6
HB	21	1	Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.--Psalm 119:11.
HB	21	2	In the precepts of His holy law, God has given a perfect rule of life; and He has declared that until the close of time this law, unchanged in a single jot or tittle, is to maintain its claim upon human beings. Christ came to magnify the law and make it honorable. He showed that it is based upon the broad foundation of love to God and love to man, and that obedience to its precepts comprises the whole duty of man. In His own life He gave an example of obedience to the law of God. In the Sermon on the Mount He showed how its requirements extend beyond the outward acts and take cognizance of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
HB	21	3	The law, obeyed, leads us to deny "ungodliness and worldly lusts," and to "live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." (Titus 2:12.) But the enemy of all righteousness has taken the world captive and has led men and women to disobey the law. As Paul foresaw, multitudes have turned from the plain, searching truths of God's word and have chosen teachers who present to them the fables they desire. Many among both ministers and people are trampling under their feet the commandments of God. Thus the Creator of the world is insulted, and Satan laughs in triumph at the success of his devices.
HB	21	4	With the growing contempt for God's law there is an increasing distaste for religion, an increase of pride, love of pleasure, disobedience to parents, and self-indulgence; and thoughtful minds everywhere are anxiously inquiring, What can be done to correct these alarming evils? The answer is found in Paul's exhortation to Timothy, "Preach the word." (2 Timothy 4:2.) In the Bible are found the only safe principles of action. It is a transcript of the will of God, an expression of divine wisdom. It opens to our understanding the great problems of life, and to all who heed its precepts it will prove an unerring guide, keeping them from wasting their lives in misdirected effort.
HB	21	5	God has made known His will, and it is folly for anyone to question that which has gone out of His lips. After Infinite Wisdom has spoken, there can be no doubtful questions for us to settle, no wavering possibilities for us to adjust. All that is required of us is a frank, earnest concurrence in the expressed will of God. Obedience is the highest dictate of reason as well as of conscience.--The Acts of the Apostles, 505, 506.
------------------------The Plan of Salvation Made Plain, January 7
HB	22	1	Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all.--Ecclesiastes 12:13.
HB	22	2	In the Bible the whole duty of man is defined. Solomon says, "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." The will of God is revealed in His written word, and this is the essential knowledge. Human wisdom, familiarity with the languages of different nations, is a help in the missionary work. An understanding of the customs of the people, of the location and time of events, is practical knowledge; for it aids in making the figures of the Bible clear, in bringing out the force of Christ's lessons; but it is not positively necessary to know these things. The wayfaring man may find the pathway cast up for the ransomed to walk in, and there will be no excuse found for anyone who perishes through misapprehension of the Scriptures.
HB	22	3	In the Bible every vital principle is declared, every duty made plain, every obligation made evident. The whole duty of man is summed up by the Saviour. He says, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. . . . Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." In the word the plan of salvation is plainly delineated. The gift of eternal life is promised on condition of saving faith in Christ. The drawing power of the Holy Spirit is pointed out as an agent in the work of our salvation. The rewards of the faithful, the punishment of the guilty, are all laid out in clear lines. The Bible contains the science of salvation for all those who will hear and do the words of Christ.
HB	22	4	The apostle says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." The Bible is its own expositor. One passage will prove to be a key that will unlock other passages, and in this way light will be shed upon the hidden meaning of the word. By comparing different texts treating on the same subject, viewing their bearing on every side, the true meaning of the Scriptures will be made evident. . . .
HB	22	5	The Lord God, the Creator of the worlds, at infinite cost has given the gospel to the world.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 186-188.
------------------------Hearing Jesus' Voice, January 8
HB	23	1	You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.--John 5:39.
HB	23	2	God speaks to us in His word. Here we have in clearer lines the revelation of His character, of His dealings with us, and the great work of redemption. Here is open before us the history of patriarchs and prophets and other holy believers of old. They were "subject to like passions as we are." (James 5:17.) We see how they struggled through discouragements like our own, how they fell under temptation as we have done, and yet took heart again and conquered through the grace of God; and, beholding, we are encouraged in our striving after righteousness. As we read of the precious experiences granted them, of the light and love and blessing it was theirs to enjoy, and of the work they wrought through the grace given them, the spirit that inspired them kindles a flame of holy emulation in our hearts and a desire to be like them in character--like them to walk with God.
HB	23	3	Jesus said of the Old Testament Scriptures--and how much more is it true of the New--"They are they which testify of Me," the Redeemer, Him in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. (John 5:39.) Yes, the whole Bible tells of Christ. From the first record of creation--for "without Him was not anything made that was made"--to the closing promise, "Behold, I come quickly," we are reading of His works and listening to His voice. (John 1:3; Revelation 22:12.) If you would become acquainted with the Saviour, study the Holy Scriptures.
HB	23	4	Fill the whole heart with the words of God. They are the living water, quenching your burning thirst. They are the living bread from heaven. Jesus declares, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." And He explains Himself by saying, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:53, 63) Our bodies are built up from what we eat and drink; and as in the natural economy, so in the spiritual economy: it is what we meditate upon that will give tone and strength to our spiritual nature.
HB	23	5	The theme of redemption is one that the angels desire to look into; it will be the science and the song of the redeemed throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. Is it not worthy of careful thought and study now?--Steps to Christ, 87-89.
------------------------The Keys of Heaven, January 9
HB	24	1	And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.--Matthew 16:19.
HB	24	2	Jesus continued: "I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18.) The word Peter signifies a stone--a rolling stone. Peter was not the rock upon which the church was founded. The gates of hell did prevail against him when he denied his Lord with cursing and swearing. The church was built upon One against whom the gates of hell could not prevail. . . .
HB	24	3	"Upon this rock," said Jesus, "I will build My church." In the presence of God, and all the heavenly intelligences, in the presence of the unseen army of hell, Christ founded His church upon the living Rock. That Rock is Himself--His own body, for us broken and bruised. Against the church built upon this foundation, the gates of hell shall not prevail.
HB	24	4	How feeble the church appeared when Christ spoke these words! There was only a handful of believers, against whom all the power of demons and evil men would be directed; yet the followers of Christ were not to fear. Built upon the Rock of their strength, they could not be overthrown.
HB	24	5	For six thousand years, faith has builded upon Christ. For six thousand years the floods and tempests of satanic wrath have beaten upon the Rock of our salvation; but it stands unmoved. Peter had expressed the truth which is the foundation of the church's faith, and Jesus now honored him as the representative of the whole body of believers. He said, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Verse 19.)
HB	24	6	"The keys of the kingdom of heaven" are the words of Christ. All the words of Holy Scripture are His, and are here included. These words have power to open and to shut heaven. They declare the conditions upon which people are received or rejected. Thus the work of those who preach God's word is a savor of life unto life or of death unto death. Theirs is a mission weighted with eternal results.--The Desire of Ages, 412-414.
------------------------Without Rival, January 10
HB	25	1	Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.--Psalm 119:24.
HB	25	2	No other study will so ennoble every thought, feeling, and aspiration as the study of the Scriptures. This Sacred Word is the will of God revealed to humanity. Here we may learn what God expects of the beings formed in His image. Here we learn how to improve the present life and how to secure the future life. No other book can satisfy the questionings of the mind and the craving of the heart. By obtaining a knowledge of God's word, and giving heed thereto, we may rise from the lowest depths of ignorance and degradation to become the sons and daughters of God, the associates of sinless angels.
HB	25	3	A clear conception of what God is, and what He requires us to be, will give us humble views of self. Those who study aright the Sacred Word will learn that human intellect is not omnipotent; that, without the help which none but God can give, human strength and wisdom are but weakness and ignorance.
HB	25	4	As an educating power the Bible is without a rival. Nothing will so impart vigor to all the faculties as requiring students to grasp the stupendous truths of revelation. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell. If occupied with commonplace matters only, to the exclusion of grand and lofty themes, it will become dwarfed and enfeebled. If never required to grapple with difficult problems, or put to the stretch to comprehend important truths, it will, after a time, almost lose the power of growth.
HB	25	5	The Bible is the most comprehensive and the most instructive history which mankind possesses. It came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth, and a divine hand has preserved its purity through all the ages. Its bright rays shine into the far distant past, where human research seeks vainly to penetrate. In God's word alone we find an authentic account of creation. Here we behold the power that laid the foundation of the earth and that stretched out the heavens. Here only can we find a history of our race, unsullied by human prejudice or human pride.
HB	25	6	In the word of God the mind finds subject for the deepest thought, the loftiest aspiration. Here we may hold communion with patriarchs and prophets, and listen to the voice of the Eternal as He speaks with mortals. Here we behold the Majesty of heaven.--Testimonies for the Church 5:24, 25.
------------------------Creative Energy, January 11
HB	26	1	By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.--Psalm 33:6.
HB	26	2	The creative energy that called the worlds into existence is in the word of God. This word imparts power; it begets life. Every command is a promise; accepted by the will, received into the soul, it brings with it the life of the Infinite One. It transforms the nature and re-creates the soul in the image of God.
HB	26	3	The life thus imparted is in like manner sustained. "By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4) shall man live.
HB	26	4	The mind, the soul, is built up by that upon which it feeds; and it rests with us to determine upon what it shall be fed. It is within the power of everyone to choose the topics that shall occupy the thoughts and shape the character. Of every human being privileged with access to the Scriptures, God says, "I have written to him the great things of My law." "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." (Hosea 8:12; Jeremiah 33:3.) . . .
HB	26	5	The word of God, like the character of its Author, presents mysteries that can never be fully comprehended by finite beings. But God has given in the Scriptures sufficient evidence of their divine authority. His own existence, His character, the truthfulness of His word, are established by testimony that appeals to our reason; and this testimony is abundant. True, He has not removed the possibility of doubt; faith must rest upon evidence, not demonstration; those who wish to doubt have opportunity; but those who desire to know the truth find ample ground for faith.
HB	26	6	We have no reason to doubt God's word because we cannot understand the mysteries of His providence. In the natural world we are constantly surrounded with wonders beyond our comprehension. Should we then be surprised to find in the spiritual world also mysteries that we cannot fathom? The difficulty lies solely in the weakness and narrowness of the human mind.
HB	26	7	The mysteries of the Bible, so far from being an argument against it, are among the strongest evidences of its divine inspiration.--Education, 126, 127, 169, 170.
------------------------Death of The Earthly Nature, January 12
HB	27	1	This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life.--Psalm 119:50.
HB	27	2	The life of Christ that gives life to the world is in His word. It was by His word that Jesus healed disease and cast out demons; by His word He stilled the sea, and raised the dead; and the people bore witness that His word was with power. He spoke the word of God, as He had spoken through all the prophets and teachers of the Old Testament. The whole Bible is a manifestation of Christ, and the Saviour desired to fix the faith of His followers on the word. When His visible presence should be withdrawn, the word must be their source of power. Like their Master, they were to live "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4.) . . .
HB	27	3	As faith thus receives and assimilates the principles of truth, they become a part of the being and the motive power of the life. The word of God, received into the soul, molds the thoughts, and enters into the development of character.
HB	27	4	By looking constantly to Jesus with the eye of faith, we shall be strengthened. God will make the most precious revelations to His hungering, thirsting people. They will find that Christ is a personal Saviour. As they feed upon His word, they find that it is spirit and life. The word destroys the natural, earthly nature, and imparts a new life in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes to the soul as a Comforter. By the transforming agency of His grace, the image of God is reproduced in the disciples; they become new creatures. Love takes the place of hatred, and the heart receives the divine similitude. This is what it means to live "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." This is eating the Bread that comes down from heaven.
HB	27	5	Christ had spoken a sacred, eternal truth regarding the relation between Himself and His followers. He knew the character of those who claimed to be His disciples, and His words tested their faith. He declared that they were to believe and act upon His teaching. All who received Him would partake of His nature, and be conformed to His character. This involved the relinquishment of their cherished ambitions. It required the complete surrender of themselves to Jesus. They were called to become self-sacrificing, meek and lowly in heart. They must walk in the narrow path traveled by the Man of Calvary, if they would share in the gift of life and the glory of heaven.--The Desire of Ages, 390, 391.
------------------------A Fortress Against Temptation, January 13
HB	28	1	How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.--Psalm 119:9.
HB	28	2	The whole Bible is a revelation of the glory of God in Christ. Received, believed, obeyed, it is the great instrumentality in the transformation of character. It is the grand stimulus, the constraining force, that quickens the physical, mental, and spiritual powers, and directs the life into right channels.
HB	28	3	The reason why the youth, and even those of mature years, are so easily led into temptation and sin, is that they do not study the word of God and meditate upon it as they should. The lack of firm, decided will power, which is manifest in life and character, results from neglect of the sacred instruction of God's word. They do not by earnest effort direct the mind to that which would inspire pure, holy thought and divert it from that which is impure and untrue. There are few who choose the better part, who sit at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary, to learn of the divine Teacher. Few treasure His words in the heart and practice them in the life.
HB	28	4	The truths of the Bible, received, will uplift mind and soul. If the word of God were appreciated as it should be, both young and old would possess an inward rectitude, a strength of principle, that would enable them to resist temptation.
HB	28	5	Let us teach and write the precious things of the Holy Scriptures. Let the thought, the aptitude, the keen exercise of brain power, be given to the study of the thoughts of God. Study not the philosophy of human conjectures, but study the philosophy of Him who is truth. No other literature can compare with this in value.
HB	28	6	The mind that is earthly finds no pleasure in contemplating the word of God; but for the mind renewed by the Holy Spirit, divine beauty and celestial light shine from the sacred page. That which to the earthly mind was a desolate wilderness, to the spiritual mind becomes a land of living streams.
HB	28	7	The knowledge of God as revealed in His word is the knowledge to be given to our children. From the earliest dawn of reason they should be made familiar with the name and the life of Jesus. Their first lessons should teach them that God is their Father.--The Ministry of Healing, 458-460.
------------------------Dig Deep, January 14
HB	29	1	Through Your precepts I get understanding.--Psalm 119:104.
HB	29	2	For the mind and the soul, as well as for the body, it is God's law that strength is acquired by effort. It is exercise that develops. In harmony with this law, God has provided in His word the means for mental and spiritual development.
HB	29	3	The Bible contains all the principles that we need to understand in order to be fitted either for this life or for the life to come. And these principles may be understood by all. No one with a spirit to appreciate its teaching can read a single passage from the Bible without gaining from it some helpful thought. But the most valuable teaching of the Bible is not to be gained by occasional or disconnected study. Its great system of truth is not so presented as to be discerned by the hasty or careless reader. Many of its treasures lie far beneath the surface, and can be obtained only by diligent research and continuous effort. The truths that go to make up the great whole must be searched out and gathered up, "here a little, and there a little." (Isaiah 28:10.)
HB	29	4	When thus searched out and brought together, they will be found to be perfectly fitted to one another. Each Gospel is a supplement to the others, every prophecy an explanation of another, every truth a development of some other truth. The types of the Jewish economy are made plain by the gospel. Every principle in the word of God has its place, every fact its bearing. And the complete structure, in design and execution, bears testimony to its Author. Such a structure no mind but that of the Infinite could conceive or fashion.
HB	29	5	In searching out the various parts and studying their relationship, the highest faculties of the human mind are called into intense activity. No one can engage in such study without developing mental power.
HB	29	6	And not alone in searching out truth and bringing it together does the mental value of Bible study consist. It consists also in the effort required to grasp the themes presented. The mind occupied with commonplace matters only, becomes dwarfed and enfeebled. If never tasked to comprehend grand and far-reaching truths, it after a time loses the power of growth. As a safeguard against this degeneracy, and a stimulus to development, nothing else can equal the study of God's word.--Education, 123, 124.
------------------------Side by Side, January 15
HB	30	1	So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.--Luke 24:15.
HB	30	2	Those who are seeking the righteousness of Christ will be dwelling upon the themes of the great salvation. The Bible is the storehouse that supplies their souls with nourishing food. They meditate upon the incarnation of Christ, they contemplate the great sacrifice made to save them from perdition, to bring in pardon, peace, and everlasting righteousness. The soul is aglow with these grand and elevating themes. Holiness and truth, grace and righteousness, occupy the thoughts. Self-dies, and Christ lives in His servants. In contemplation of the word their hearts burn within them as did the hearts of the two disciples while they went to Emmaus and Christ walked with them by the way and opened to them the scriptures concerning Himself.
HB	30	3	How few realize that Jesus, unseen, is walking by their side! How ashamed many would be to hear His voice speaking to them and to know that He heard all their foolish, common talk! And how many hearts would burn with holy joy if they only knew that the Saviour was by their side, that the holy atmosphere of His presence was surrounding them, and they were feeding on the bread of life! How pleased the Saviour would be to hear His followers talking on His precious lessons of instruction and to know that they had a relish for holy things!
HB	30	4	When the truth abides in the heart, there is no place for criticism of God's servants, or for picking flaws with the message He sends. That which is in the heart will flow from the lips. It cannot be repressed. The things that God has prepared for those that love Him will be the theme of conversation. The love of Christ is in the soul as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life, sending forth living streams that bring life and gladness wherever they flow.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 341, 342.
HB	30	5	And even greater is the power of the Bible in the development of the spiritual nature. We are created for fellowship with God, and can only in such fellowship find our real life and development. Created to find in God our highest joy, we can find in nothing else that which can quiet the cravings of the heart, can satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul. Those who with sincere and teachable spirit study God's word, seeking to comprehend its truths, will be brought in touch with its Author.--Education, 124, 125.
------------------------The Bible's Central Theme, January 16
HB	31	1	Beloved, now we are the children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.--1 John 3:2.
HB	31	2	As an educator no part of the Bible is of greater value than are its biographies. These biographies differ from all others in that they are absolutely true to life. It is impossible for any finite mind to interpret rightly, in all things, the workings of another. None but He who reads the heart, who discerns the secret springs of motive and action, can with absolute truth delineate character, or give a faithful picture of a human life. In God's word alone is found such delineation.
HB	31	3	No truth does the Bible more clearly teach than that what we do is the result of what we are. To a great degree the experiences of life are the fruition of our own thoughts and deeds. . . .
HB	31	4	The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other in the whole book clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God. From the first intimation of hope in the sentence pronounced in Eden to that last glorious promise of the Revelation, "They shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads" (Revelation 22:4), the burden of every book and every passage of the Bible is the unfolding of this wondrous theme--humanity's uplifting--the power of God, "which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:57.)
HB	31	5	Those who grasp this thought have before them an infinite field for study. They have the key that will unlock to them the whole treasure house of God's word.
HB	31	6	The science of redemption is the science of all sciences; the science that is the study of the angels and of all the intelligences of the unfallen worlds; the science that engages the attention of our Lord and Saviour; the science that enters into the purpose brooded in the mind of the Infinite--"kept in silence through times eternal" (Romans 16:25, R.V.); the science that will be the study of God's redeemed throughout endless ages.
HB	31	7	This is the highest study in which it is possible for man to engage. As no other study can, it will quicken the mind and uplift the soul. . . .
HB	31	8	The creative energy that called the worlds into existence is in the word of God. This word imparts power; it begets life. Every command is a promise; accepted by the will, received into the soul, it brings with it the life of the Infinite One. It transforms the nature and re-creates the soul in the image of God.--Education, 146, 125, 126.
------------------------The Great Controversy In Scripture, January 17
HB	32	1	And war broke out in heaven.--Revelation 12:7.
HB	32	2	The Bible is its own expositor. Scripture is to be compared with scripture. Students should learn to view the word as a whole, and to see the relation of its parts. They should gain a knowledge of its grand central theme, of God's original purpose for the world, of the rise of the great controversy, and of the work of redemption. They should understand the nature of the two principles that are contending for supremacy, and should learn to trace their working through the records of history and prophecy, to the great consummation. They should see how this controversy enters into every phase of human experience; how in every act of life they themselves reveal the one or the other of the two antagonistic motives; and how, whether willingly or not, they are even now deciding upon which side of the controversy they will be found.
HB	32	3	Every part of the Bible is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. The Old Testament no less than the New should receive attention. As we study the Old Testament we shall find living springs bubbling up where the careless reader discerns only a desert.
HB	32	4	The book of Revelation, in connection with the book of Daniel, especially demands study. Let every God-fearing teacher consider how most clearly to comprehend and to present the gospel that our Saviour came in person to make known to His servant John--"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass." (Revelation 1:1.) None should become discouraged in the study of the Revelation because of its apparently mystical symbols. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not." (James 1:5.)
HB	32	5	"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand." (Revelation 1:3.)
HB	32	6	When a real love for the Bible is awakened, and the students begin to realize how vast is the field and how precious its treasure, they will desire to seize upon every opportunity for acquainting themselves with God's word. Its study will be restricted to no special time or place. And this continuous study is one of the best means of cultivating a love for the Scriptures.--Education, 190, 191.
------------------------Verse by Verse, January 18
HB	33	1	Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes.--Psalm 119:12.
HB	33	2	The student of the Bible should be taught to approach it in the spirit of a learner. We are to search its pages, not for proof to sustain our opinions, but in order to know what God says.
HB	33	3	A true knowledge of the Bible can be gained only through the aid of that Spirit by whom the word was given. And in order to gain this knowledge we must live by it. All that God's word commands, we are to obey. All that it promises, we may claim. The life which it enjoins is the life that, through its power, we are to live. Only as the Bible is thus held can it be studied effectively.
HB	33	4	The study of the Bible demands our most diligent effort and persevering thought. As the miner digs for the golden treasure in the earth, so earnestly, persistently, must we seek for the treasure of God's word.
HB	33	5	In daily study the verse-by-verse method is often most helpful. Let the students take one verse, and concentrate the mind on ascertaining the thought that God has put into that verse for them, and then dwell upon the thought until it becomes their own. One passage thus studied until its significance is clear is of more value than the perusal of many chapters with no definite purpose in view and no positive instruction gained.
HB	33	6	One of the chief causes of mental inefficiency and moral weakness is the lack of concentration for worthy ends. We pride ourselves on the wide distribution of literature; but the multiplication of books, even books that in themselves are not harmful, may be a positive evil. With the immense tide of printed matter constantly pouring from the press, old and young form the habit of reading hastily and superficially, and the mind loses its power of connected and vigorous thought. Furthermore, a large share of the periodicals and books that, like the frogs of Egypt, are overspreading the land, are not merely commonplace, idle, and enervating, but unclean and degrading. Their effect is not merely to intoxicate and ruin the mind, but to corrupt and destroy the soul. The mind, the heart, that is indolent, aimless, falls an easy prey to evil. It is on diseased, lifeless organisms that fungus roots. It is the idle mind that is Satan's workshop. Let the mind be directed to high and holy ideals, let the life have a noble aim, an absorbing purpose, and evil finds little foothold.--Education, 189, 190.
------------------------God's Hand In History, January 19
HB	34	1	He removes kings and raises up kings.--Daniel 2:21.
HB	34	2	The Bible is the most ancient and the most comprehensive history that we possess. It came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth, and throughout the ages a divine hand has preserved its purity. It lights up the far-distant past, where human research in vain seeks to penetrate. In God's word only do we behold the power that laid the foundations of the earth and that stretched out the heavens. Here only do we find an authentic account of the origin of nations. Here only is given a history of our race unsullied by human pride or prejudice.
HB	34	3	In the annals of human history the growth of nations, the rise and fall of empires, appear as dependent on the will and prowess of man. The shaping of events seems, to a great degree, to be determined by his power, ambition, or caprice. But in the word of God the curtain is drawn aside, and we behold, behind, above, and through all the play and counterplay of human interests and power and passions, the agencies of the all-merciful One, silently, patiently working out the counsels of His own will.
HB	34	4	The Bible reveals the true philosophy of history. In those words of matchless beauty and tenderness spoken by the apostle Paul to the sages of Athens is set forth God's purpose in the creation and distribution of races and nations: He "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him." (Acts 17:26, 27.) God declares that whosoever will may come "into the bond of the covenant." (Ezekiel 20:37.) In the creation it was His purpose that the earth be inhabited by beings whose existence should be a blessing to themselves and to one another, and an honor to their Creator. All who will may identify themselves with this purpose. Of them it is spoken, "This people have I formed for Myself; they shall show forth My praise." (Isaiah 43:21.)
HB	34	5	God has revealed in His law the principles that underlie all true prosperity both of nations and of individuals. "This is your wisdom and your under-standing," Moses declared to the Israelites of the law of God. "It is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life." (Deuteronomy 4:6; 32:47.) The blessings thus assured to Israel are, on the same conditions and in the same degree, assured to every nation and every individual.--Education, 173, 174.
------------------------Why Doubt?, January 20
HB	35	1	O you of little faith, why did you doubt?--Matthew 14:31.
HB	35	2	The Word of God, like the character of its divine Author, presents mysteries that can never be fully comprehended by finite beings. The entrance of sin into the world, the incarnation of Christ, regeneration, the resurrection, and many other subjects presented in the Bible, are mysteries too deep for the human mind to explain, or even fully to comprehend. But we have no reason to doubt God's Word because we cannot understand the mysteries of His providence. In the natural world we are constantly surrounded with mysteries that we cannot fathom. The very humblest forms of life present a problem that the wisest of philosophers is powerless to explain. Everywhere are wonders beyond our ken. Should we then be surprised to find that in the spiritual world also there are mysteries that we cannot fathom? . . .
HB	35	3	The difficulties of Scripture have been urged by skeptics as an argument against the Bible; but so far from this, they constitute a strong evidence of its divine inspiration. If it contained no account of God but that which we could easily comprehend; if His greatness and majesty could be grasped by finite minds, then the Bible would not bear the unmistakable credentials of divine authority. The very grandeur and mystery of the themes presented should inspire faith in it as the Word of God.
HB	35	4	The Bible unfolds truth with a simplicity and a perfect adaptation to the needs and longings of the human heart, that has astonished and charmed the most highly cultivated minds, while it enables the humblest and uncultured to discern the way of salvation. And yet these simply stated truths lay hold upon subjects so elevated, so far-reaching, so infinitely beyond the power of human comprehension, that we can accept them only because God has declared them. Thus the plan of redemption is laid open to us, so that every soul may see the steps to take in repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, in order to be saved in God's appointed way; yet beneath these truths, so easily understood, lie mysteries that are the hiding of His glory-- mysteries that overpower the mind in its research, yet inspire the sincere seeker for truth with reverence and faith. The more we search the Bible, the deeper is the conviction that it is the Word of the living God, and human reason bows before the majesty of divine revelation.--Steps to Christ, 106-108.
------------------------Good-Ground Hearers, January 21
HB	36	1	But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.--Matthew 13:8.
HB	36	2	A knowledge of the truth depends not so much upon strength of intellect as upon pureness of purpose, the simplicity of an earnest, dependent faith. To those who in humility of heart seek for divine guidance, angels of God draw near. The Holy Spirit is given to open to them the rich treasures of the truth.
HB	36	3	The good-ground hearers, having heard the word, keep it. Satan with all his agencies of evil is not able to catch it away.
HB	36	4	Merely to hear or to read the word is not enough. Those who desire to be profited by the Scriptures must meditate upon the truth that has been presented to them. By earnest attention and prayerful thought they must learn the meaning of the words of truth, and drink deep of the spirit of the holy oracles.
HB	36	5	God bids us fill the mind with great thoughts, pure thoughts. He desires us to meditate upon His love and mercy, to study His wonderful work in the great plan of redemption. Then clearer and still clearer will be our perception of truth, higher, holier, our desire for purity of heart and clearness of thought. The soul dwelling in the pure atmosphere of holy thought will be transformed by communion with God through the study of Scriptures.
HB	36	6	"And bring forth fruit." (Mark 4:20.) Those who, having heard the word, keep it, will bring forth fruit in obedience. The word of God, received into the soul, will be manifest in good works. Its results will be seen in a Christlike character and life. Christ said of Himself, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart." (Psalm 40:8.) "I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me." (John 5:30.) And the Scripture says, "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." (1 John 2:6.)
HB	36	7	The word of God often comes in collision with our hereditary and cultivated traits of character and our habits of life. But the good-ground hearer, in receiving the word, accepts all its conditions and requirements.--Christ's Object Lessons, 59, 60.
------------------------Get Acquainted With Truth, January 22
HB	37	1	You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.--John 8:32.
HB	37	2	The Scriptures need not be read by the dim light of tradition or human speculation. As well might we try to give light to the sun with a torch as to explain the Scriptures by human tradition or imagination. God's holy word needs not the torchlight glimmer of earth to make its glories distinguishable. It is light in itself--the glory of God revealed, and beside it every other light is dim.
HB	37	3	But there must be earnest study and close investigation. Sharp, clear perceptions of truth will never be the reward of indolence. No earthy blessing can be obtained without earnest, patient, persevering effort. If people attain success in business, they must have a will to do and a faith to look for results. And we cannot expect to gain spiritual knowledge without earnest toil. Those who desire to find the treasures of truth must dig for them as the miner digs for the treasure hidden in the earth. No halfhearted, indifferent work will avail. It is essential for old and young, not only to read God's word, but to study it with wholehearted earnestness, praying and searching for truth as for hidden treasure. Those who do this will be rewarded, for Christ will quicken the understanding.
HB	37	4	Our salvation depends on a knowledge of the truth contained in the Scriptures. It is God's will that we should possess this. Search, O search the precious Bible with hungry hearts. Explore God's word as the miner explores the earth to find veins of gold. Never give up the search until you have ascertained your relation to God and His will in regard to you. Christ declared, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it." (John 14:13, 14.)
HB	37	5	People of piety and talent catch views of eternal realities, but often they fail of understanding, because the things that are seen eclipse the glory of the unseen. Those who would seek successfully for the hidden treasure must rise to higher pursuits than the things of this world. Their affections and all their capabilities must be consecrated to the search. . . .
HB	37	6	The Scriptures are not to be adapted to meet human prejudice and jealousy. They can be understood only by those who are humbly seeking for a knowledge of the truth that they may obey it.--Christ's Object Lessons, 111, 112.
------------------------Example of The Bereans, January 23
HB	38	1	They received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.--Acts 17:11.
HB	38	2	At Berea Paul found Jews who were willing to investigate the truths he taught. Luke's record declares of them: "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honorable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few." (Acts 17:11, 12.)
HB	38	3	The minds of the Bereans were not narrowed by prejudice. They were willing to investigate the truthfulness of the doctrines preached by the apostles. They studied the Bible, not from curiosity, but in order that they might learn what had been written concerning the promised Messiah. Daily they searched the inspired records, and as they compared scripture with scripture, heavenly angels were beside them, enlightening their minds and impressing their hearts.
HB	38	4	Wherever the truths of the gospel are proclaimed, those who honestly desire to do right are led to a diligent searching of the Scriptures. If, in the closing scenes of this earth's history, those to whom testing truths are proclaimed would follow the example of the Bereans, searching the Scriptures daily, and comparing with God's word the messages brought them, there would today be a large number loyal to the precepts of God's law, where now there are comparatively few. But when unpopular Bible truths are presented, many refuse to make this investigation. Though unable to controvert the plain teachings of Scripture, they yet manifest the utmost reluctance to study the evidences offered. Some assume that even if these doctrines are indeed true, it matters little whether or not they accept the new light, and they cling to pleasing fables which the enemy uses to lead souls astray. Thus their minds are blinded by error, and they become separated from heaven.
HB	38	5	All will be judged according to the light that has been given. The Lord sends forth His ambassadors with a message of salvation, and those who hear He will hold responsible for the way in which they treat the words of His servants. Those who are sincerely seeking for truth will make a careful investigation, in the light of God's word, of the doctrines presented to them.--The Acts of the Apostles, 231, 232.
------------------------Have An Elevating Influence, January 24
HB	39	1	Those who fear You will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in Your word.--Psalm 119:74.
HB	39	2	If the truths of the Bible are woven into practical life, they will bring the mind up from its earthliness and debasement. Those who are conversant with the Scriptures, will be found to be men and women who exert an elevating influence. In searching for the heaven-revealed truths, the Spirit of God is brought into close connection with the sincere searcher of the Scriptures. An understanding of the revealed will of God, enlarges the mind, expands, elevates, and endows it with new vigor, by bringing its faculties in contact with stupendous truths. If the study of the Scriptures is made a secondary consideration, great loss is sustained. The Bible was for a time excluded from our schools, and Satan found a rich field, in which he worked with marvelous rapidity, and gathered a harvest to his liking.
HB	39	3	The understanding takes the level of the things with which it becomes familiar. If all would make the Bible their study, we should see a people further developed, capable of thinking more deeply, and showing a greater degree of intelligence, than the most earnest efforts in studying merely the sciences and histories of the world could make them. The Bible gives the true seeker an advanced mental discipline, and he comes from contemplation of divine things with his faculties enriched; self is humbled, while God and His revealed truth are exalted. It is because people are unacquainted with the precious Bible histories, that there is so much lifting up of the human, and so little honor given to God. The Bible contains just that quality of food that the Christian needs in order to grow strong in spirit and intellect. The searching of all books of philosophy and science cannot do for the mind and morals what the Bible can do, if it is studied and practiced. Through the study of the Bible, converse is held with patriarchs and prophets. The truth is clothed in elevated language, which exerts a fascinating power over the mind; the thought is lifted up from the things of earth, and brought to contemplate the glory of the future immortal life. What wisdom of man can compare with the grandeur of the revelation of God? Finite man, who knows not God, may seek to lessen the value of the Scriptures, and may bury the truth beneath the supposed knowledge of science.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 129, 130.
------------------------The Great Educator, January 25
HB	40	1	Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.--Proverbs 3:5.
HB	40	2	The Bible unfolds truth with a simplicity and an adaptation to the needs and longings of the human heart that has astonished and charmed the most highly cultivated minds, while to the humble and uncultured also it makes plain the way of life. "The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." (Isaiah 35:8.) No child need mistake the path. Not one trembling seeker need fail of walking in pure and holy light. Yet the most simply stated truths lay hold upon themes elevated, far-reaching, infinitely beyond the power of human comprehension--mysteries that are the hiding of His glory, mysteries that overpower the mind in its research--while they inspire the sincere seeker for truth with reverence and faith. The more we search the Bible, the deeper is our conviction that it is the word of the living God, and human reason bows before the majesty of divine revelation.
HB	40	3	God intends that to the earnest seeker the truths of His word shall be ever unfolding. While "the secret things belong unto the Lord our God," "those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children." (Deuteronomy 29:29.) The idea that certain portions of the Bible cannot be understood has led to neglect of some of its most important truths. The fact needs to be emphasized, and often repeated, that the mysteries of the Bible are not such because God has sought to conceal truth, but because our own weakness or ignorance makes us incapable of comprehending or appropriating truth. The limitation is not in His purpose, but in our capacity. Of those very portions of Scripture often passed by as impossible to be understood, God desires us to understand as much as our minds are capable of receiving. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," that we may be "throughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Timothy 3:16, 17.)
HB	40	4	It is impossible for any human mind to exhaust even one truth or promise of the Bible. One catches the glory from one point of view, another from another point; yet we can discern only gleamings. The full radiance is beyond our vision.
HB	40	5	As we contemplate the great things of God's word, we look into a fountain that broadens and deepens beneath our gaze. Its breadth and depth pass our knowledge. As we gaze, the vision widens; stretched out before us we behold a boundless, shoreless sea.--Education, 170, 171.
------------------------The Science of Salvation, January 26
HB	41	1	Our God is the God of salvation.--Psalm 68:20.
HB	41	2	This is the treasure that is found in the Scriptures. The Bible is God's great lesson book, His great educator. The foundation of all true science is contained in the Bible. Every branch of knowledge may be found by searching the word of God. And above all else it contains the science of all sciences, the science of salvation. The Bible is the mine of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
HB	41	3	The true higher education is gained by studying and obeying the word of God. But when God's word is laid aside for books that do not lead to God and the kingdom of heaven, the education acquired is a perversion of the name.
HB	41	4	There are wonderful truths in nature. The earth, the sea, and the sky are full of truth. They are our teachers. Nature utters her voice in lessons of heavenly wisdom and eternal truth. But fallen human beings will not understand. Sin has obscured their vision, and they cannot of themselves interpret nature without placing it above God. Correct lessons cannot impress the minds of those who reject the word of God. The teaching of nature is by them so perverted that it turns the mind away from the Creator.
HB	41	5	By many, human wisdom is thought to be higher than the wisdom of the divine Teacher, and God's lesson book is looked upon as old-fashioned, stale, and uninteresting. But by those who have been vivified by the Holy Spirit it is not so regarded. They see the priceless treasure, and would sell all to buy the field that contains it. Instead of books containing the suppositions of reputedly great authors, they choose the word of Him who is the greatest Author and the greatest Teacher the world has ever known, who gave His life for us, that through Him we might have everlasting life. . . .
HB	41	6	Christ is the truth. His words are truth, and they have a deeper significance than appears on the surface. All the sayings of Christ have a value beyond their unpretending appearance. Minds that are quickened by the Holy Spirit will discern the value of these sayings. They will discern the precious gems of truth, though these may be buried treasures.--Christ's Object Lessons, 107, 108, 110.
------------------------Science and The Bible, January 27
HB	42	1	Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?--Job 38:4.
HB	42	2	Since the book of nature and the book of revelation bear the impress of the same master mind, they cannot but speak in harmony. By different methods, and in different languages, they witness to the same great truths. Science is ever discovering new wonders; but she brings from her research nothing that, rightly understood, conflicts with divine revelation. The book of nature and the written word shed light upon each other. They make us acquainted with God by teaching us something of the laws through which He works.
HB	42	3	Inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature have, however, led to supposed conflict between science and revelation; and in the effort to restore harmony, interpretations of Scripture have been adopted that undermine and destroy the force of the word of God. Geology has been thought to contradict the literal interpretation of the Mosaic record of the creation. Millions of years, it is claimed, were required for the evolution of the earth from chaos; and in order to accommodate the Bible to this supposed revelation of science, the days of creation are assumed to have been vast, indefinite periods, covering thousands or even millions of years.
HB	42	4	Such a conclusion is wholly uncalled for. The Bible record is in harmony with itself and with the teaching of nature. Of the first day employed in the work of creation is given the record, "The evening and the morning were the first day." (Genesis 1:5.) And the same in substance is said of each of the first six days of creation week. Each of these periods Inspiration declares to have been a day consisting of evening and morning, like every other day since that time. In regard to the work of creation itself the divine testimony is, "He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." (Psalm 33:9.) With Him who could thus call into existence unnumbered worlds, how long a time would be required for the evolution of the earth from chaos? In order to account for His works, must we do violence to His word? . . .
HB	42	5	Only by the aid of that Spirit who in the beginning "was brooding upon the face of the waters;" of that Word by whom "all things were made;" of that "true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," can the testimony of science be rightly interpreted.--Education, 128, 129, 134.
------------------------Keep Your Eyes On Christ, January 28
HB	43	1	For assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it.--Matthew 13:17.
HB	43	2	The warnings of the word of God regarding the perils surrounding the Christian church belong to us today. As in the days of the apostles men tried by tradition and philosophy to destroy faith in the Scriptures, so today, by the pleasing sentiments of higher criticism, evolution, spiritualism, theosophy, and pantheism, the enemy of righteousness is seeking to lead souls into forbidden paths. To many the Bible is as a lamp without oil, because they have turned their minds into channels of speculative belief that bring misunderstanding and confusion. The work of higher criticism, in dissecting, conjecturing, reconstructing, is destroying faith in the Bible as a divine revelation. It is robbing God's word of power to control, uplift, and inspire human lives. By spiritualism, multitudes are taught to believe that desire is the highest law, that license is liberty, and that they are accountable only to themselves.
HB	43	3	The followers of Christ will meet with the "enticing words" against which the apostle warned the Colossian believers. They will meet with spiritualistic interpretations of the Scriptures, but they are not to accept them. Their voices are to be heard in clear affirmation of the eternal truths of the Scriptures. Keeping their eyes fixed on Christ, they are to move steadily forward in the path marked out, discarding all ideas that are not in harmony with His teaching. The truth of God is to be the subject for their contemplation and meditation. They are to regard the Bible as the voice of God speaking directly to them. Thus they will find the wisdom which is divine.
HB	43	4	The knowledge of God as revealed in Christ is the knowledge that all who are saved must have. This is the knowledge that works transformation of character. Received into the life, it will re-create the soul in the image of Christ. This is the knowledge that God invites His children to receive, beside which all else is vanity and nothingness.
HB	43	5	In every generation and in every land the true foundation for character building has been the same--the principles contained in the word of God. The only safe and sure rule is to do what God says. "The statutes of the Lord are right," and "he that doeth these things shall never be moved." (Psalm 19:8; 15:5.) It was with the word of God that the apostles met the false theories of their day.--The Acts of the Apostles, 474, 475.
------------------------Last Day Deceptions, January 29
HB	44	1	You have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.--Revelation 3:8.
HB	44	2	Popular revivals are too often carried by appeals to the imagination, by exciting the emotions, by gratifying the love for what is new and startling. Converts thus gained have little desire to listen to Bible truth, little interest in the testimony of prophets and apostles. Unless a religious service has something of a sensational character, it has no attractions for them. A message which appeals to unimpassioned reason awakens no response. The plain warnings of God's word, relating directly to their eternal interests, are unheeded.
HB	44	3	With every truly converted soul the relation to God and to eternal things will be the great topic of life. But where, in the popular churches of today, is the spirit of consecration to God? . . .
HB	44	4	In many of the revivals which have occurred during the last half century, the same influences have been at work, to a greater or less degree, that will be manifest in the more extensive movements of the future. There is an emotional excitement, a mingling of the true with the false, that is well adapted to mislead. Yet none need be deceived. In the light of God's word it is not difficult to determine the nature of these movements. Wherever people neglect the testimony of the Bible, turning away from those plain, soul-testing truths which require self-denial and renunciation of the world, there we may be sure that God's blessing is not bestowed. And by the rule which Christ Himself has given, "Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16), it is evident that these movements are not the work of the Spirit of God.
HB	44	5	In the truths of His word, God has given us a revelation of Himself; and to all who accept them they are a shield against the deceptions of Satan. It is a neglect of these truths that has opened the door to the evils which are now becoming so widespread in the religious world. The nature and the importance of the law of God have been, to a great extent, lost sight of. A wrong conception of the character, the perpetuity, and the obligation of the divine law has led to errors in relation to conversion and sanctification, and has resulted in lowering the standard of piety in the church. Here is to be found the secret of the lack of the Spirit and power of God in the revivals of our time.--The Great Controversy, 463-465.
------------------------The Scriptures Our Safeguard, January 30
HB	45	1	To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.--Isaiah 8:20.
HB	45	2	The people of God are directed to the Scriptures as their safeguard against the influence of false teachers and the delusive power of spirits of darkness. Satan employs every possible device to prevent people from obtaining a knowledge of the Bible; for its plain utterances reveal his deceptions. At every revival of God's work the prince of evil is aroused to more intense activity; he is now putting forth his utmost efforts for a final struggle against Christ and His followers. The last great delusion is soon to open before us. Antichrist is to perform his marvelous works in our sight. So closely will the counterfeit resemble the true that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures. By their testimony every statement and every miracle must be tested.
HB	45	3	Those who endeavor to obey all the commandments of God will be opposed and derided. They can stand only in God. In order to endure the trial before them, they must understand the will of God as revealed in His word; they can honor Him only as they have a right conception of His character, government, and purposes, and act in accordance with them. None but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict. To every soul will come the searching test: Shall I obey God rather than men? The decisive hour is even now at hand. Are our feet planted on the rock of God's immutable word? Are we prepared to stand firm in defense of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus? . . .
HB	45	4	The truth and the glory of God are inseparable; it is impossible for us, with the Bible within our reach, to honor God by erroneous opinions. Many claim that it matters not what one believes, if the life is only right. But the life is molded by the faith. If light and truth is within our reach, and we neglect to improve the privilege of hearing and seeing it, we virtually reject it; we are choosing darkness rather than light. . .
HB	45	5	God has given us His word that we may become acquainted with its teachings and know for ourselves what He requires of us. When the lawyer came to Jesus with the inquiry, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" the Saviour referred him to the Scriptures, saying: "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" (Luke 10:25, 26.)--The Great Controversy, 593, 594, 597, 598.
------------------------Our First Duty, January 31
HB	46	1	If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine.--John 7:17.
HB	46	2	It is the first and highest duty of every rational being to learn from the Scriptures what is truth, and then to walk in the light and encourage others to follow this example. We should day by day study the Bible diligently, weighing every thought and comparing scripture with scripture. With divine help we are to form our opinions for ourselves as we are to answer for ourselves before God.
HB	46	3	The truths most plainly revealed in the Bible have been involved in doubt and darkness by learned scholars, who, with a pretense of great wisdom, teach that the Scriptures have a mystical, a secret, spiritual meaning not apparent in the language employed. These are false teachers. It was to such a class that Jesus declared: "Ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God." (Mark 12:24.) The language of the Bible should be explained according to its obvious meaning, unless a symbol or figure is employed. Christ has given the promise: "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." (John 7:17.) If people would but take the Bible as it reads, if there were no false teachers to mislead and confuse their minds, a work would be accomplished that would make angels glad and that would bring into the fold of Christ thousands upon thousands who are now wandering in error.
HB	46	4	We should exert all the powers of the mind in the study of the Scriptures and should task the understanding to comprehend, as far as mortals can, the deep things of God; yet we must not forget that the docility and submission of a child is the true spirit of the learner. Scriptural difficulties can never be mastered by the same methods that are employed in grappling with philosophical problems. We should not engage in the study of the Bible with that self-reliance with which so many enter the domains of science, but with a prayerful dependence upon God and a sincere desire to learn His will. We must come with a humble and teachable spirit to obtain knowledge from the great I AM. Otherwise, evil angels will so blind our minds and harden our hearts that we shall not be impressed by the truth.
HB	46	5	Many a portion of Scripture which scholars pronounce a mystery, or pass over as unimportant, is full of comfort and instruction to those who have been taught in the school of Christ.--The Great Controversy, 598, 599.
------------------------A Voluntary Sacrifice, February 1
HB	48	1	The preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began.--Romans 16:25.
HB	48	2	The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of "the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal." (Romans 16:25, R.V.) It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God's throne. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16.) . . .
HB	48	3	This was a voluntary sacrifice. Jesus might have remained at the Father's side. He might have retained the glory of heaven, and the homage of the angels. But He chose to give back the scepter into the Father's hands, and to step down from the throne of the universe, that He might bring light to the benighted, and life to the perishing.
HB	48	4	Nearly two thousand years ago, a voice of mysterious import was heard in heaven, from the throne of God, "Lo, I come." "Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me. . . . Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God." (Hebrews 10:5-7.) In these words is announced the fulfillment of the purpose that had been hidden from eternal ages. Christ was about to visit our world, and to become incarnate. He says, "A body hast Thou prepared Me." Had He appeared with the glory that was His with the Father before the world was, we could not have endured the light of His presence. That we might behold it and not be destroyed, the manifestation of His glory was shrouded. His divinity was veiled with humanity--the invisible glory in the visible human form. . . .
HB	48	5	So Christ set up His tabernacle in the midst of our human encampment. He pitched His tent by the side of the tents of humanity, that He might dwell among us, and make us familiar with His divine character and life.--The Desire of Ages, 22, 23.
------------------------An Unbreakable Tie, February 2
HB	49	1	And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh.--1 Timothy 3:16.
HB	49	2	By His life and His death, Christ has achieved even more than recovery from the ruin wrought through sin. It was Satan's purpose to bring about an eternal separation between God and mankind; but in Christ we become more closely united to God than if we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." (John 3:16.) He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature. This is the pledge that God will fulfill His word. . . . God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven. It is the "Son of man" who shares the throne of the universe. . . . The I AM is the Daysman between God and humanity, laying His hand upon both. He who is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," is not ashamed to call us brethren. (Hebrews 7:26; 2:11.) In Christ the family of earth and the family of heaven are bound together. Christ glorified is our brother. Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love. . . .
HB	49	3	By love's self-sacrifice, the inhabitants of earth and heaven are bound to their Creator in bonds of indissoluble union.
HB	49	4	The work of redemption will be complete. In the place where sin abounded, God's grace much more abounds. The earth itself, the very field that Satan claims as his, is to be not only ransomed but exalted. Our little world, under the curse of sin the one dark blot in His glorious creation, will be honored above all other worlds in the universe of God. Here, where the Son of God tabernacled in humanity; where the King of glory lived and suffered and died--here, when He shall make all things new, the tabernacle of God shall be with men, "and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God." (Revelation 21:3.) And through endless ages as the redeemed walk in the light of the Lord, they will praise Him for His unspeakable Gift--Immanuel, "God with us. "--The Desire of Ages, 25, 26.
------------------------Greater Works, February 3
HB	50	1	Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.--John 14:11.
HB	50	2	As Christ was speaking these words, the glory of God was shining from His countenance, and all present felt a sacred awe as they listened with rapt attention to His words. Their hearts were more decidedly drawn to Him; and as they were drawn to Christ in greater love, they were drawn to one another. They felt that heaven was very near, and that the words to which they listened were a message to them from their heavenly Father.
HB	50	3	"Verily, verily, I say unto you," Christ continued, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also." (John 14:12.) The Saviour was deeply anxious for His disciples to understand for what purpose His divinity was united to humanity. He came to the world to display the glory of God, that we might be uplifted by its restoring power. God was manifested in Him that He might be manifested in us. Jesus revealed no qualities, and exercised no powers, that we may not have through faith in Him. His perfect humanity is that which all His followers may possess, if they will be in subjection to God as He was.
HB	50	4	"And greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father." (Verse 12.) By this Christ did not mean that the disciples' work would be of a more exalted character than His, but that it would have greater extent. He did not refer merely to miracle working, but to all that would take place under the working of the Holy Spirit.
HB	50	5	After the Lord's ascension, the disciples realized the fulfillment of His promise. The scenes of the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ were a living reality to them. They saw that the prophecies had been literally fulfilled. They searched the Scriptures, and accepted their teaching with a faith and assurance unknown before. They knew that the divine Teacher was all that He had claimed to be. As they told their experience, and exalted the love of God, hearts were melted and subdued, and multitudes believed on Jesus.
HB	50	6	The Saviour's promise to His disciples is a promise to His church to the end of time. God did not design that His wonderful plan to redeem humanity should achieve only insignificant results. All who will go to work, trusting not in what they themselves can do, but in what God can do for and through them, will certainly realize the fulfillment of His promise. "Greater works than these shall ye do," He declares; "because I go unto My Father."--The Desire of Ages, 664, 667.
------------------------Divinity Needed Humanity, February 4
HB	51	1	And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.--John 1:14.
HB	51	2	As His representatives among us, Christ does not choose angels who have never fallen, but human beings, of like passions with those they seek to save. Christ took upon Himself humanity, that He might reach humanity. Divinity needed humanity; for it required both the divine and the human to bring salvation to the world. Divinity needed humanity, that humanity might afford a channel of communication between God and mankind. So with the servants and messengers of Christ. We need a power outside of and beyond ourselves, to restore us to the likeness of God, and enable us to do the work of God; but this does not make the human agency unessential. Humanity lays hold upon divine power, Christ dwells in the heart by faith; and through cooperation with the divine, human power becomes efficient for good.
HB	51	3	He who called the fisherman of Galilee is still calling followers to His service. And He is just as willing to manifest His power through us as through the first disciples. However imperfect and sinful we may be, the Lord holds out to us the offer of partnership with Himself, of apprenticeship to Christ. He invites us to come under the divine instruction, that, uniting with Christ, we may work the works of God.
HB	51	4	"We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves." (2 Corinthians 4:7, R.V.) This is why the preaching of the gospel was committed to erring mortals rather than to the angels. It is manifest that the power which works through the weakness of humanity is the power of God; and thus we are encouraged to believe that the power which can help others as weak as ourselves can help us. And those who are themselves "compassed with infirmity" should be able to "have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way." (Hebrews 5:2.) Having been in peril themselves, they are acquainted with the dangers and difficulties of the way, and for this reason are called to reach out for others in like peril. There are souls perplexed with doubt, burdened with infirmities, weak in faith, and unable to grasp the Unseen; but a friend whom they can see, coming to them in Christ's stead, can be a connecting link to fasten their trembling faith upon Christ.
HB	51	5	We are to be laborers together with the heavenly angels in presenting Jesus to the world.--The Desire of Ages, 296, 297.
------------------------The Divine Teacher, February 5
HB	52	1	His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.--Isaiah 9:6.
HB	52	2	In the Teacher sent from God, heaven gave us its best and greatest. He who had stood in the councils of the Most High, who had dwelt in the innermost sanctuary of the Eternal, was the One chosen to reveal in person to humanity the knowledge of God.
HB	52	3	Through Christ had been communicated every ray of divine light that had ever reached our fallen world. It was He who had spoken through everyone that throughout the ages had declared God's word to mankind. Of Him all the excellences manifest in the earth's greatest and noblest souls were reflections. The purity and beneficence of Joseph, the faith and meekness and long-suffering of Moses, the steadfastness of Elisha, the noble integrity and firmness of Daniel, the ardor and self-sacrifice of Paul, the mental and spiritual power manifest in all these men, and in all others who had ever dwelt on the earth, were but gleams from the shining of His glory. In Him was found the perfect ideal.
HB	52	4	To reveal this ideal as the only true standard for attainment; to show what every human being might become; what, through the indwelling of humanity by divinity, all who received Him would become--for this, Christ came to the world. He came to show how we are to be trained as befits the sons and daughters of God; how on earth we are to practice the principles and to live the life of heaven.
HB	52	5	God's greatest gift was bestowed to meet our greatest need. The Light appeared when the world's darkness was deepest. Through false teaching people's minds had long been turned away from God. In the prevailing systems of education, human philosophy had taken the place of divine revelation. Instead of the heaven-given standard of truth, people had accepted a standard of their own devising. From the Light of life they had turned aside to walk in the sparks of the fire which they had kindled. . . .
HB	52	6	Anyone who seeks to transform humanity must himself understand humanity. Only through sympathy, faith, and love can people be reached and uplifted. Here Christ stands revealed as the master teacher; of all that ever dwelt on the earth, He alone has perfect understanding of the human soul.--Education, 73, 74, 78.
------------------------Self-Renouncing Love, February 6
HB	53	1	For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.--John 3:17.
HB	53	2	"The light of the knowledge of the glory of God" is seen "in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6.) From the days of eternity the Lord Jesus Christ was one with the Father; He was "the image of God," the image of His greatness and majesty, "the outshining of His glory." It was to manifest this glory that He came to our world. To this sin-darkened earth He came to reveal the light of God's love--to be "God with us." Therefore it was prophesied of Him, "His name shall be called Immanuel."
HB	53	3	By coming to dwell with us, Jesus was to reveal God both to humanity and to angels. He was the Word of God--God's thought made audible. In His prayer for His disciples He says, "I have declared unto them Thy name,"--"merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,"--"that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:26; Exodus 34:6.) But not alone for His earthborn children was this revelation given. Our little world is the lesson book of the universe. God's wonderful purpose of grace, the mystery of redeeming love, is the theme into which "angels desire to look," and it will be their study throughout endless ages. Both the redeemed and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their song. It will be seen that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is the glory of self-sacrificing love. In the light from Calvary it will be seen that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven; that the love which "seeketh not her own" has its source in the heart of God; and that in the meek and lowly One is manifested the character of Him who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto.
HB	53	4	In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of creation. It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field. "His strength setteth fast the mountains." "The sea is His, and He made it." (Psalm 65:6; 95:5.) It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song. And upon all things in earth, and air, and sky, He wrote the message of the Father's love.--The Desire of Ages, 19, 20.
------------------------Lucifer Exposed, February 7
HB	54	1	Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.--Colossians 2:15.
HB	54	2	In the banishment of Satan from heaven, God declared His justice and maintained the honor of His throne. But when mankind had sinned through yielding to the deceptions of this apostate spirit, God gave an evidence of His love by yielding up His only-begotten Son to die for the fallen race. In the atonement the character of God is revealed. The mighty argument of the cross demonstrates to the whole universe that the course of sin which Lucifer had chosen was in no wise chargeable upon the government of God.
HB	54	3	In the contest between Christ and Satan, during the Saviour's earthly ministry, the character of the great deceiver was unmasked. Nothing could so effectually have uprooted Satan from the affections of the heavenly angels and the whole loyal universe as did his cruel warfare upon the world's Redeemer. The daring blasphemy of his demand that Christ should pay him homage, his presumptuous boldness in bearing Him to the mountain summit and the pinnacle of the temple, the malicious intent betrayed in urging Him to cast Himself down from the dizzy height, the unsleeping malice that hunted Him from place to place, inspiring the hearts of priests and people to reject His love, and at the last to cry, "Crucify Him! crucify Him!"--all this excited the amazement and indignation of the universe.
HB	54	4	It was Satan that prompted the world's rejection of Christ. The prince of evil exerted all his power and cunning to destroy Jesus; for he saw that the Saviour's mercy and love, His compassion and pitying tenderness, were representing to the world the character of God. Satan contested every claim put forth by the Son of God and employed human beings as his agents to fill the Saviour's life with suffering and sorrow. The sophistry and falsehood by which he had sought to hinder the work of Jesus, the hatred manifested through the children of disobedience, his cruel accusations against Him whose life was one of unexampled goodness, all sprang from deep-seated revenge. The pent-up fires of envy and malice, hatred and revenge, burst forth on Calvary against the Son of God, while all heaven gazed upon the scene in silent horror. . . .
HB	54	5	Now the guilt of Satan stood forth without excuse. He had revealed his true character as a liar and a murderer.--The Great Controversy, 500-502.
------------------------Selfishness Cannot Understand Love, February 8
HB	55	1	I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;. . . I will be like the Most High.--Isaiah 14:13, 14.
HB	55	2	At the birth of Jesus, Satan knew that One had come with a divine commission to dispute his dominion. He trembled at the angel's message attesting the authority of the newborn King. Satan well knew the position that Christ had held in heaven as the Beloved of the Father. That the Son of God should come to this earth as a man filled him with amazement and with apprehension. He could not fathom the mystery of this great sacrifice. His selfish soul could not understand such love for the deceived race. The glory and peace of heaven, and the joy of communion with God, were but dimly comprehended by human beings; but they were well known to Lucifer, the covering cherub. Since he had lost heaven, he was determined to find revenge by causing others to share his fall. This he would do by causing them to undervalue heavenly things, and to set the heart upon things of earth. . . .
HB	55	3	The image of God was manifest in Christ, and in the councils of Satan it was determined that He should be overcome. No human being had come into the world and escaped the power of the deceiver. The forces of the confederacy of evil were set upon His track to engage in warfare against Him, and if possible to prevail over Him.
HB	55	4	At the Saviour's baptism, Satan was among the witnesses. He saw the Father's glory overshadowing His Son. He heard the voice of Jehovah testifying to the divinity of Jesus. Ever since Adam's sin, the human race had been cut off from direct communion with God; the communication between heaven and earth had been through Christ; but now that Jesus had come "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Romans 8:3), the Father Himself spoke. He had before communicated with humanity through Christ; now He communicated with humanity in Christ. Satan had hoped that God's abhorrence of evil would bring an eternal separation between heaven and earth. But now it was manifest that the connection between God and humanity had been restored.
HB	55	5	Satan saw that he must either conquer or be conquered. The issues of the conflict involved too much to be entrusted to his confederate angels. He must personally conduct the warfare. All the energies of apostasy were rallied against the Son of God. Christ was made the mark of every weapon of hell.--The Desire of Ages, 115, 116.
------------------------God Understands, February 9
HB	56	1	Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.--John 1:16.
HB	56	2	Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is acquainted with our trials, and sympathizes with our griefs. Every son and daughter of Adam may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners. For in every doctrine of grace, every promise of joy, every deed of love, every divine attraction presented in the Saviour's life on earth, we see "God with us." Satan represents God's law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts. The fall of our first parents, with all the woe that has resulted, he charges upon the Creator, leading people to look upon God as the author of sin, and suffering, and death. Jesus was to unveil this deception. As one of us He was to give an example of obedience. For this He took upon Himself our nature, and passed through our experiences. "In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren." (Hebrews 2:17.) If we had to bear anything which Jesus did not endure, then upon this point Satan would represent the power of God as insufficient for us. Therefore Jesus was "in all points tempted like as we are." (Hebrews 4:15.) He endured every trial to which we are subject. And He exercised in His own behalf no power that is not freely offered to us. As a human, He met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him from God. He says, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart." (Psalm 40:8.) As He went about doing good, and healing all who were afflicted by Satan, He made plain to all the character of God's law and the nature of His service. His life testifies that it is possible for us also to obey the law of God.
HB	56	3	By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey. It was Christ who from the bush on Mount Horeb spoke to Moses saying, "I AM THAT I AM." . . . And to us He says: "I AM the Good Shepherd." "I AM the living Bread." "I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life." "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." (John 10:11; 6:51; 14:6; Matthew 28:18.) I AM the assurance of every promise. I AM; be not afraid. "God with us" is the surety of our deliverance from sin, the assurance of our power to obey the law of heaven.--The Desire of Ages, 24, 25.
------------------------The Story of Bethlehem, February 10
HB	57	1	“For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."--Luke 2:11.
HB	57	2	Heaven and earth are no wider apart today than when shepherds listened to the angels' song. Humanity is still as much the object of heaven's solicitude as when common people of common occupations met angels at noonday, and talked with the heavenly messengers in the vineyards and the fields. To us in the common walks of life, heaven may be very near. Angels from the courts above will attend the steps of those who come and go at God's command.
HB	57	3	The story of Bethlehem is an exhaustless theme. In it is hidden "the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God." (Romans 11:33.) We marvel at the Saviour's sacrifice in exchanging the throne of heaven for the manger, and the companionship of adoring angels for the beasts of the stall. Human pride and self-sufficiency stand rebuked in His presence. Yet this was but the beginning of His wonderful condescension. It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take human nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life.
HB	57	4	Satan in heaven had hated Christ for His position in the courts of God. He hated Him the more when he himself was dethroned. He hated Him who pledged Himself to redeem a race of sinners. Yet into the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. He permitted Him to meet life's peril in common with every human soul, to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss. . . .
HB	57	5	God gave His only-begotten Son, that the path of life might be made sure for our little ones. "Herein is love." Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, O earth!--The Desire of Ages, 48, 49.
------------------------Understanding His Mission, February 11
HB	58	1	And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast.--Luke 2:42.
HB	58	2	The Passover was followed by the seven days' feast of unleavened bread. On the second day of the feast, the first fruits of the year's harvest, a sheaf of barley, was presented before the Lord. All the ceremonies of the feast were types of the work of Christ. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt was an object lesson of redemption, which the Passover was intended to keep in memory. The slain lamb, the unleavened bread, the sheaf of first fruits, represented the Saviour.
HB	58	3	With most of the people in the days of Christ, the observance of this feast had degenerated into formalism. But what was its significance to the Son of God!
HB	58	4	For the first time the child Jesus looked upon the temple. He saw the white-robed priests performing their solemn ministry. He beheld the bleeding victim upon the altar of sacrifice. With the worshipers He bowed in prayer, while the cloud of incense ascended before God. He witnessed the impressive rites of the paschal service. Day by day He saw their meaning more clearly. Every act seemed to be bound up with His own life. New impulses were awakening within Him. Silent and absorbed, He seemed to be studying out a great problem. The mystery of His mission was opening to the Saviour.
HB	58	5	Rapt in the contemplation of these scenes, He did not remain beside His parents. He sought to be alone. When the paschal services were ended, He still lingered in the temple courts; and when the worshipers departed from Jerusalem, He was left behind.
HB	58	6	In this visit to Jerusalem, the parents of Jesus wished to bring Him in connection with the great teachers in Israel. While He was obedient in every particular to the word of God, He did not conform to the rabbinical rites and usages. Joseph and Mary hoped that He might be led to reverence the learned rabbis, and give more diligent heed to their requirements. But Jesus in the temple had been taught by God. That which He had received, He began at once to impart. . . .
HB	58	7	If followed, the lines of truth He pointed out would have worked a reformation in the religion of the day. A deep interest in spiritual things would have been awakened; and when Jesus began His ministry, many would have been prepared to receive Him.--The Desire of Ages, 77-79.
------------------------"My Father's Business", February 12
HB	59	1	Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?--Luke 2:49.
HB	59	2	How is it that ye sought Me?" answered Jesus. "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" And as they seemed not to understand His words, He pointed upward. On His face was a light at which they wondered. Divinity was flashing through humanity. On finding Him in the temple, they had listened to what was passing between Him and the rabbis, and they were astonished at His questions and answers. His words started a train of thought that would never be forgotten. . . .
HB	59	3	It was natural for the parents of Jesus to look upon Him as their own child. He was daily with them, His life in many respects was like that of other children, and it was difficult for them to realize that He was the Son of God. They were in danger of failing to appreciate the blessing granted them in the presence of the world's Redeemer. The grief of their separation from Him, and the gentle reproof which His words conveyed, were designed to impress them with the sacredness of their trust.
HB	59	4	In the answer to His mother, Jesus showed for the first time that He understood His relation to God. Before His birth the angel had said to Mary, "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever." (Luke 1:32, 33.) These words Mary had pondered in her heart; yet while she believed that her child was to be Israel's Messiah, she did not comprehend His mission. Now she did not understand His words; but she knew that He had disclaimed kinship to Joseph, and had declared His Sonship to God.
HB	59	5	Jesus did not ignore His relation to His earthly parents. From Jerusalem He returned home with them, and aided them in their life of toil. He hid in His own heart the mystery of His mission, waiting submissively for the appointed time for Him to enter upon His work. For eighteen years after He had recognized that He was the Son of God, He acknowledged the tie that bound Him to the home at Nazareth, and performed the duties of a son, a brother, a friend, and a citizen.--The Desire of Ages, 81, 82.
------------------------Family Problems, February 13
HB	60	1	For even His brothers did not believe in Him.--John 7:5.
HB	60	2	At a very early age, Jesus had begun to act for Himself in the formation of His character, and not even respect and love for His parents could turn Him from obedience to God's word. "It is written" was His reason for every act that varied from the family customs. But the influence of the rabbis made His life a bitter one. Even in His youth He had to learn the hard lesson of silence and patient endurance.
HB	60	3	His brothers, as the sons of Joseph were called, sided with the rabbis. They insisted that the traditions must be heeded, as if they were the requirements of God. They even regarded the human precepts more highly than the word of God, and they were greatly annoyed at the clear penetration of Jesus in distinguishing between the false and the true. His strict obedience to the law of God they condemned as stubbornness. They were surprised at the knowledge and wisdom He showed in answering the rabbis. They knew that He had not received instruction from the wise men, yet they could not but see that He was an instructor to them. They recognized that His education was of a higher type than their own. But they did not discern that He had access to the tree of life, a source of knowledge of which they were ignorant. . . .
HB	60	4	At all times and in all places He manifested a loving interest in people, and shed about Him the light of a cheerful piety. All this was a rebuke to the Pharisees. It showed that religion does not consist in selfishness, and that their morbid devotion to personal interest was far from being true godliness. This had roused their enmity against Jesus, so that they tried to enforce His conformity to their regulations. . . .
HB	60	5	All this displeased His brothers. Being older than Jesus, they felt that He should be under their dictation. They charged Him with thinking Himself superior to them, and reproved Him for setting Himself above their teachers and the priests and rulers of the people. Often they threatened and tried to intimidate Him; but He passed on, making the Scriptures His guide.
HB	60	6	Jesus loved His brothers, and treated them with unfailing kindness; but they were jealous of Him, and manifested the most decided unbelief and contempt. They could not understand His conduct.--The Desire of Ages, 86, 87.
------------------------Patience, February 14
HB	61	1	Are You able to drink the cup that I drink?--Mark 10:38.
HB	61	2	Of the bitterness that falls to the lot of humanity, there was no part which Christ did not taste. There were those who tried to cast contempt upon Him because of His birth, and even in His childhood He had to meet their scornful looks and evil whisperings. If He had responded by an impatient word or look, if He had conceded to His brothers by even one wrong act, He would have failed of being a perfect example. Thus He would have failed of carrying out the plan for our redemption. Had He even admitted that there could be an excuse for sin, Satan would have triumphed, and the world would have been lost. This is why the tempter worked to make His life as trying as possible, that He might be led to sin.
HB	61	3	But to every temptation He had one answer, "It is written." He rarely rebuked any wrongdoing of His brothers, but He had a word from God to speak to them. Often He was accused of cowardice for refusing to unite with them in some forbidden act; but His answer was, It is written, "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." (Job 28:28.)
HB	61	4	There were some who sought His society, feeling at peace in His presence; but many avoided Him, because they were rebuked by His stainless life. . . .
HB	61	5	Often He was asked, Why are you bent on being so singular, so different from us all? It is written, He said, "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways." (Psalm 119:1-3.)
HB	61	6	When questioned why He did not join in the frolics of the youth of Nazareth, He said, It is written, "I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate in Thy precepts, and have respect unto Thy ways. I will delight myself in Thy statutes; I will not forget Thy word." (Psalm 119:14-16.)
HB	61	7	Jesus did not contend for His rights. Often His work was made unnecessarily severe because He was willing and uncomplaining. Yet He did not fail nor become discouraged. He lived above these difficulties, as if in the light of God's countenance. He did not retaliate when roughly used, but bore insult patiently.--The Desire of Ages, 88, 89.
------------------------Stay Focused On Christ, February 15
HB	62	1	Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.--2 Corinthians 5:17.
HB	62	2	When Christ took human nature upon Him, He bound humanity to Himself by a tie of love that can never be broken by any power save the choice of man himself. Satan will constantly present allurements to induce us to break this tie--to choose to separate ourselves from Christ. Here is where we need to watch, to strive, to pray, that nothing may entice us to choose another master; for we are always free to do this. But let us keep our eyes fixed upon Christ, and He will preserve us. Looking unto Jesus, we are safe. Nothing can pluck us out of His hand. In constantly beholding Him, we "are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18.)
HB	62	3	It was thus that the early disciples gained their likeness to the dear Saviour. When those disciples heard the words of Jesus, they felt their need of Him. They sought, they found, they followed Him. They were with Him in the house, at the table, in the closet, in the field. They were with Him as pupils with a teacher, daily receiving from His lips lessons of holy truth. They looked to Him, as servants to their master, to learn their duty. Those disciples were men "subject to like passions as we are." (James 5:17.) They had the same battle with sin to fight. They needed the same grace, in order to live a holy life.
HB	62	4	Even John, the beloved disciple, the one who most fully reflected the likeness of the Saviour, did not naturally possess that loveliness of character. He was not only self-assertive and ambitious for honor, but impetuous, and resentful under injuries. But as the character of the Divine One was manifested to him, he saw his own deficiency and was humbled by the knowledge. The strength and patience, the power and tenderness, the majesty and meekness, that he beheld in the daily life of the Son of God, filled his soul with admiration and love. Day by day his heart was drawn out toward Christ, until he lost sight of self in love for his Master. His resentful, ambitious temper was yielded to the molding power of Christ. The regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit renewed his heart. The power of the love of Christ wrought a transformation of character. This is the sure result of union with Jesus. When Christ abides in the heart, the whole nature is transformed. Christ's Spirit, His love, softens the heart, subdues the soul, and raises the thoughts and desires toward God and heaven.--Steps to Christ, 72, 73.
------------------------Love Stronger Than Death, February 16
HB	63	1	Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.--Romans 5:5.
HB	63	2	We must fall upon the Rock and be broken before we can be uplifted in Christ. Self must be dethroned, pride must be humbled, if we would know the glory of the spiritual kingdom. . . .
HB	63	3	In the light of the Saviour's life, the hearts of all, even from the Creator to the prince of darkness, are revealed. Satan has represented God as selfish and oppressive, as claiming all, and giving nothing, as requiring the service of His creatures for His own glory, and making no sacrifice for their good. But the gift of Christ reveals the Father's heart. It testifies that the thoughts of God toward us are "thoughts of peace, and not of evil." (Jeremiah 29:11.) It declares that while God's hatred of sin is as strong as death, His love for the sinner is stronger than death. Having undertaken our redemption, He will spare nothing, however dear, which is necessary to the completion of His work. No truth essential to our salvation is withheld, no miracle of mercy is neglected, no divine agency is left unemployed. Favor is heaped upon favor, gift upon gift. The whole treasury of heaven is open to those He seeks to save. Having collected the riches of the universe, and laid open the resources of infinite power, He gives them all into the hands of Christ, and says, All these are for mankind. Use these gifts to convince them that there is no love greater than Mine in earth or heaven. Their greatest happiness will be found in loving Me.
HB	63	4	At the cross of Calvary, love and selfishness stood face to face. Here was their crowning manifestation. Christ had lived only to comfort and bless, and in putting Him to death, Satan manifested the malignity of his hatred against God. He made it evident that the real purpose of his rebellion was to dethrone God, and to destroy Him through whom the love of God was shown.
HB	63	5	By the life and the death of Christ, the thoughts of men and women also are brought to view. From the manger to the cross, the life of Jesus was a call to self-surrender, and to fellowship in suffering. It unveiled the purposes of everyone. Jesus came with the truth of heaven, and all who were listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit were drawn to Him. The worshipers of self belonged to Satan's kingdom. In their attitude toward Christ, all would show on which side they stood. And thus all pass judgment on themselves.--The Desire of Ages, 57.
------------------------The Good Shepherd, February 17
HB	64	1	I am the good shepherd.--John 10:11.
HB	64	2	Every soul is as fully known to Jesus as if he or she were the only one for whom the Saviour died. The distress of every one touches His heart. The cry for aid reaches His ear. He came to draw all unto Himself. He bids them, "Follow Me," and His Spirit moves upon their hearts to draw them to come to Him. Many refuse to be drawn. Jesus knows who they are. He also knows who gladly hear His call, and are ready to come under His pastoral care. He says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." (John 10:27.) He cares for each one as if there were not another on the face of the earth. . . .
HB	64	3	It is not the fear of punishment, or the hope of everlasting reward, that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him. They behold the Saviour's matchless love, revealed throughout His pilgrimage on earth, from the manger of Bethlehem to Calvary's cross, and the sight of Him attracts, it softens and subdues the soul. Love awakens in the heart of the beholders. They hear His voice, and they follow Him.
HB	64	4	As the shepherd goes before his sheep, himself first encountering the perils of the way, so does Jesus with His people. "When He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them." (John 10:4.) The way to heaven is consecrated by the Saviour's footprints. The path may be steep and rugged, but Jesus has traveled that way; His feet have pressed down the cruel thorns, to make the pathway easier for us. Every burden that we are called to bear He Himself has borne.
HB	64	5	Though now He has ascended to the presence of God, and shares the throne of the universe, Jesus has lost none of His compassionate nature. Today the same tender, sympathizing heart is open to all the woes of humanity. Today the hand that was pierced is reached forth to bless more abundantly His people that are in the world. "And they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." (John 10:28.) The soul that has given himself to Christ is more precious in His sight than the whole world. The Saviour would have passed through the agony of Calvary that one might be saved in His kingdom. He will never abandon one for whom He has died. Unless His followers choose to leave Him, He will hold them fast.--The Desire of Ages, 480-483.
------------------------The Test Of Christ's Divinity, February 18
HB	65	1	Lazarus, come forth!--John 11:43.
HB	65	2	He felt every pang of anguish, as He said to His disciples, "Lazarus is dead." But Christ had not only the loved ones at Bethany to think of; He had the training of His disciples to consider. They were to be His representatives to the world, that the Father's blessing might embrace all. For their sake He permitted Lazarus to die. Had He restored him from illness to health, the miracle that is the most positive evidence of His divine character, would not have been performed. . . .
HB	65	3	In delaying to come to Lazarus, Christ had a purpose of mercy toward those who had not received Him. He tarried, that by raising Lazarus from the dead He might give to His stubborn, unbelieving people another evidence that He was indeed "the resurrection, and the life." . . . In His mercy He purposed to give them one more evidence that He was the Restorer, the One who alone could bring life and immortality to light. This was to be an evidence that the priests could not misinterpret. This was the reason of His delay in going to Bethany. This crowning miracle, the raising of Lazarus, was to set the seal of God on His work and on His claim to divinity. . . .
HB	65	4	Lazarus had been laid in a cave in a rock, and a massive stone had been placed before the entrance. "Take ye away the stone," Christ said. Thinking that He only wished to look upon the dead, Martha objected, saying that the body had been buried four days, and corruption had already begun its work. This statement, made before the raising of Lazarus, left no room for Christ's enemies to say that a deception had been practiced. . . .
HB	65	5	"And when He thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth." His voice, clear and penetrating, pierces the ear of the dead. As He speaks, divinity flashes through humanity. In His face, which is lighted up by the glory of God, the people see the assurance of His power. Every eye is fastened on the entrance to the cave. Every ear is bent to catch the slightest sound. With intense and painful interest all wait for the test of Christ's divinity, the evidence that is to substantiate His claim to be the Son of God, or to extinguish the hope forever.
HB	65	6	There is a stir in the silent tomb, and he who was dead stands at the door of the sepulcher.--The Desire of Ages, 528, 529, 534, 536.
------------------------Triumphal Entry, February 19
HB	66	1	Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.--Zechariah 9:9.
HB	66	2	Christ was following the Jewish custom for a royal entry. The animal on which He rode was that ridden by the kings of Israel, and prophecy had foretold that thus the Messiah should come to His kingdom. No sooner was He seated upon the colt than a loud shout of triumph rent the air. The multitude hailed Him as Messiah, their King. Jesus now accepted the homage which He had never before permitted, and the disciples received this as proof that their glad hopes were to be realized by seeing Him established on the throne. The multitude were convinced that the hour of their emancipation was at hand. In imagination they saw the Roman armies driven from Jerusalem, and Israel once more an independent nation. All were happy and excited; the people vied with one another in paying Him homage. They could not display outward pomp and splendor, but they gave Him the worship of happy hearts. They were unable to present Him with costly gifts, but they spread their outer garments as a carpet in His path, and they also strewed the leafy branches of the olive and the palm in the way. They could lead the triumphal procession with no royal standards, but they cut down the spreading palm boughs, Nature's emblem of victory, and waved them aloft with loud acclamations and hosannas.
HB	66	3	As they proceeded, the multitude was continually increased by those who had heard of the coming of Jesus and hastened to join the procession. . . . They had all heard of Jesus, and expected Him to go to Jerusalem; but they knew that He had heretofore discouraged all effort to place Him on the throne, and they were greatly astonished to learn that this was He. They wondered what could have wrought this change in Him who had declared that His kingdom was not of this world. . . .
HB	66	4	Never before in His earthly life had Jesus permitted such a demonstration. He clearly foresaw the result. It would bring Him to the cross. . . . It was necessary, then, that the eyes of all people should now be directed to Him; the events which preceded His great sacrifice must be such as to call attention to the sacrifice itself. After such a demonstration as that attending His entry into Jerusalem, all eyes would follow His rapid progress to the final scene.--The Desire of Ages, 570, 571.
------------------------Jesus Came To Glorify God, February 20
HB	67	1	For this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.--John 12:27, 28.
HB	67	2	The message of the Greeks, foreshadowing as it did the gathering in of the Gentiles, brought to the mind of Jesus His entire mission. The work of redemption passed before Him, from the time when in heaven the plan was laid, to the death that was now so near at hand. A mysterious cloud seemed to enshroud the Son of God. Its gloom was felt by those near Him. He sat rapt in thought. . . .
HB	67	3	Then came divine submission to His Father's will. "For this cause," He said, "came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name." Only through the death of Christ could Satan's kingdom be overthrown. Only thus could we be redeemed, and God be glorified. Jesus consented to the agony, He accepted the sacrifice. The Majesty of heaven consented to suffer as the Sin Bearer. "Father, glorify Thy name," He said. As Christ spoke these words, a response came from the cloud which hovered above His head: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." Christ's whole life, from the manger to the time when these words were spoken, had glorified God; and in the coming trial His divine-human sufferings would indeed glorify His Father's name.
HB	67	4	As the voice was heard, a light darted from the cloud, and encircled Christ, as if the arms of Infinite Power were thrown about Him like a wall of fire. The people beheld this scene with terror and amazement. No one dared to speak. With silent lips and bated breath all stood with eyes fixed upon Jesus. The testimony of the Father having been given, the cloud lifted, and scattered in the heavens. For the time the visible communion between the Father and the Son was ended.
HB	67	5	"The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to Him." But the inquiring Greeks saw the cloud, heard the voice, comprehended its meaning, and discerned Christ indeed; to them He was revealed as the Sent of God.
HB	67	6	The voice of God had been heard at the baptism of Jesus at the beginning of His ministry, and again at His transfiguration on the mount. Now at the close of His ministry it was heard for the third time, by a larger number of persons, and under peculiar circumstances.--The Desire of Ages, 624, 625.
------------------------The Gospel To The World, February 21
HB	68	1	And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.--Matthew 24:14.
HB	68	2	Christ has given signs of His coming. He declares that we may know when He is near, even at the doors. He says of those who see these signs, "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." These signs have appeared. Now we know of a surety that the Lord's coming is at hand. "Heaven and earth shall pass away," He says, "but My words shall not pass away." . . .
HB	68	3	The exact time of the second coming of the Son of man is God's mystery. . . .
HB	68	4	In the prophecy of Jerusalem's destruction Christ said, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." This prophecy will again be fulfilled. The abounding iniquity of that day finds its counterpart in this generation. So with the prediction in regard to the preaching of the gospel. Before the fall of Jerusalem, Paul, writing by the Holy Spirit, declared that the gospel was preached to "every creature which is under heaven." (Colossians 1:23.) So now, before the coming of the Son of man, the everlasting gospel is to be preached "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." (Revelation 14:6, 14.) God "hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world." (Acts 17:31.) Christ tells us when that day shall be ushered in. He does not say that all the world will be converted, but that "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." By giving the gospel to the world it is in our power to hasten our Lord's return. We are not only to look for but to hasten the coming of the day of God. (2 Peter 3:12, margin.) Had the church of Christ done her appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would before this have been warned, and the Lord Jesus would have come to our earth in power and great glory. . . .
HB	68	5	Those who watch for the Lord's coming are not waiting in idle expectancy. . . . With vigilant watching they combine earnest working. Because they know that the Lord is at the door, their zeal is quickened to co-operate with the divine intelligences in working for the salvation of souls.--The Desire of Ages, 632-634.
------------------------You Are Clean, February 22
HB	69	1	He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean.--John 13:10.
HB	69	2	These words mean more than bodily cleanliness. Christ is still speaking of the higher cleansing as illustrated by the lower. He who came from the bath was clean, but the sandaled feet soon became dusty, and again needed to be washed. So Peter and his brethren had been washed in the great fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. Christ acknowledged them as His. But temptation had led them into evil, and they still needed His cleansing grace. When Jesus girded Himself with a towel to wash the dust from their feet, He desired by that very act to wash the alienation, jealousy, and pride from their hearts. This was of far more consequence than the washing of their dusty feet. With the spirit they then had, not one of them was prepared for communion with Christ. Until brought into a state of humility and love, they were not prepared to partake of the paschal supper, or to share in the memorial service which Christ was about to institute. Their hearts must be cleansed. Pride and self-seeking create dissension and hatred, but all this Jesus washed away in washing their feet. A change of feeling was brought about. Looking upon them, Jesus could say, "Ye are clean." Now there was union of heart, love for one another. They had become humble and teachable. . . .
HB	69	3	When believers assemble to celebrate the ordinances, there are present messengers unseen by human eyes. There may be a Judas in the company, and if so, messengers from the prince of darkness are there, for they attend all who refuse to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. Heavenly angels also are present. These unseen visitants are present on every such occasion. There may come into the company persons who are not in heart servants of truth and holiness, but who may wish to take part in the service. They should not be forbidden. There are witnesses present who were present when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and of Judas. More than human eyes beheld the scene. . . .
HB	69	4	None should exclude themselves from the Communion because some who are unworthy may be present. Every disciple is called upon to participate publicly, and thus bear witness of accepting Christ as a personal Saviour. It is at these, His own appointments, that Christ meets His people, and energizes them by His presence.--The Desire of Ages, 646, 656.
------------------------The Penitent Thief, February 23
HB	70	1	Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.--Luke 23:42.
HB	70	2	To Jesus in His agony on the cross there came one gleam of comfort. It was the prayer of the penitent thief. Both the men who were crucified with Jesus had at first railed upon Him; and one under his suffering only became more desperate and defiant. But not so with his companion. This man was not a hardened criminal; he had been led astray by evil associations, but he was less guilty than many of those who stood beside the cross reviling the Saviour. He had seen and heard Jesus, and had been convicted by His teaching, but he had been turned away from Him by the priests and rulers. Seeking to stifle conviction, he had plunged deeper and deeper into sin, until he was arrested, tried as a criminal, and condemned to die on the cross. In the judgment hall and on the way to Calvary he had been in company with Jesus. He had heard Pilate declare, "I find no fault in Him." (John 19:4.) He had marked His godlike bearing, and His pitying forgiveness of His tormentors. On the cross he sees the many great religionists shoot out the tongue with scorn, and ridicule the Lord Jesus. . . . Among the passers-by he hears many defending Jesus. He hears them repeat His words, and tell of His works. The conviction comes back to him that this is the Christ. Turning to his fellow criminal he says, "Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?" The dying thieves have no longer anything to fear from man. But upon one of them presses the conviction that there is a God to fear, a future to cause him to tremble. And now, all sin-polluted as it is, his life history is about to close. "And we indeed justly," he moans; "for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this Man hath done nothing amiss."
HB	70	3	The Holy Spirit illuminates his mind, and little by little the chain of evidence is joined together. In Jesus, bruised, mocked, and hanging upon the cross, he sees the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Hope is mingled with anguish in his voice as the helpless, dying soul casts himself upon a dying Saviour. "Lord, remember me," he cries, "when Thou comest into Thy kingdom."
HB	70	4	Quickly the answer came. Soft and melodious the tone, full of love, com-passion, and power the words: Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with Me in paradise.--The Desire of Ages, 749, 750.
------------------------It Is Finished, February 24
HB	71	1	So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.--John 19:30.
HB	71	2	Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father's acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father's wrath upon Him as our substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God. . . .
HB	71	3	God and His holy angels were beside the cross. The Father was with His Son. Yet His presence was not revealed. Had His glory flashed forth from the cloud, every human beholder would have been destroyed. And in that dreadful hour Christ was not to be comforted with the Father's presence. He trod the wine press alone. . . .
HB	71	4	To the angels and the unfallen worlds the cry, "It is finished," had a deep significance. It was for them as well as for us that the great work of redemption had been accomplished. They with us share the fruits of Christ's victory.
HB	71	5	Not until the death of Christ was the character of Satan clearly revealed to the angels or to the unfallen worlds. The archapostate had so clothed himself with deception that even holy beings had not understood his principles. They had not clearly seen the nature of his rebellion. . . .
HB	71	6	It was God's purpose to place things on an eternal basis of security, and in the councils of heaven it was decided that time must be given for Satan to develop the principles which were the foundation of his system of government. He had claimed that these were superior to God's principles. Time was given for the working of Satan's principles, that they might be seen by the heavenly universe. . . .
HB	71	7	Well, then, might the angels rejoice as they looked upon the Saviour's cross; for though they did not then understand all, they knew that the destruction of sin and Satan was forever made certain, that the redemption of man was assured, and that the universe was made eternally secure.--The Desire of Ages, 753, 754, 758, 759, 764.
------------------------He Is Risen, February 25
HB	72	1	He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.--Matthew 28:6.
HB	72	2	An earthquake marked the hour when Christ laid down His life, and another earthquake witnessed the moment when He took it up in triumph. He who had vanquished death and the grave came forth from the tomb with the tread of a conqueror, amid the reeling of the earth, the flashing of lightning, and the roaring of thunder. . . .
HB	72	3	Christ came forth from the tomb glorified, and the Roman guard beheld Him. Their eyes were riveted upon the face of Him whom they had so recently mocked and derided. In this glorified Being they beheld the prisoner whom they had seen in the judgment hall, the one for whom they had plaited a crown of thorns. . . .
HB	72	4	At sight of the angels and the glorified Saviour the Roman guard had fainted and become as dead men. When the heavenly train was hidden from their view, they arose to their feet, and as quickly as their trembling limbs could carry them, made their way to the gate of the garden. Staggering like drunken men, they hurried on to the city, telling those whom they met the wonderful news. They were making their way to Pilate, but their report had been carried to the Jewish authorities, and the chief priests and rulers sent for them to be brought first into their presence. A strange appearance those soldiers presented. Trembling with fear, their faces colorless, they bore testimony to the resurrection of Christ. The soldiers told all, just as they had seen it; they had not had time to think or speak anything but the truth. With painful utterance they said, It was the Son of God who was crucified; we have heard an angel proclaiming Him as the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory.
HB	72	5	The faces of the priests were as those of the dead. Caiaphas tried to speak. His lips moved, but they uttered no sound. . . . A lying report was then given to the soldiers. . . .
HB	72	6	When Jesus was laid in the grave, Satan triumphed. He dared to hope that the Saviour would not take up His life again. He claimed the Lord's body, and set his guard about the tomb, seeking to hold Christ a prisoner. He was bitterly angry when his angels fled at the approach of the heavenly messenger. When he saw Christ come forth in triumph, he knew that his kingdom would have an end, and that he must finally die.--The Desire of Ages, 780-782.
------------------------He Is The King of Glory, February 26
HB	73	1	Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in.--Psalm 24:7.
HB	73	2	The time had come for Christ to ascend to His Father's throne. As a divine conqueror He was about to return with the trophies of victory to the heavenly courts. . . .
HB	73	3	Now with the eleven disciples Jesus made His way toward the mountain. As they passed through the gate of Jerusalem, many wondering eyes looked upon the little company, led by One whom a few weeks before the rulers had condemned and crucified. . . .
HB	73	4	With hands outstretched in blessing, and as if in assurance of His protecting care, He slowly ascended from among them, drawn heavenward by a power stronger than any earthly attraction. . . .
HB	73	5	While the disciples were still gazing upward, voices addressed them which sounded like richest music. They turned, and saw two angels in the form of men, who spoke to them, saying, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11.)
HB	73	6	These angels were of the company that had been waiting in a shining cloud to escort Jesus to His heavenly home. The most exalted of the angel throng, they were the two who had come to the tomb at Christ's resurrection, and they had been with Him throughout His life on earth. With eager desire all heaven had waited for the end of His tarrying in a world marred by the curse of sin. . . .
HB	73	7	All heaven was waiting to welcome the Saviour to the celestial courts. As He ascended, He led the way, and the multitude of captives set free at His resurrection followed. The heavenly host, with shouts and acclamations of praise and celestial song, attended the joyous train.
HB	73	8	As they drew near to the city of God, the challenge is given by the escorting angels,--
HB	73	9	"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; And be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; And the King of glory shall come in."--The Desire of Ages, 829-833.
------------------------Christ's Coronation And Its Results, February 27
HB	74	1	Jesus . . . has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.--Hebrews 12:2.
HB	74	2	Christ's ascension to heaven was the signal that His followers were to receive the promised blessing. For this they were to wait before they entered upon their work. When Christ passed within the heavenly gates, He was enthroned amidst the adoration of the angels. As soon as this ceremony was completed, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in rich currents, and Christ was indeed glorified, even with the glory which He had with the Father from all eternity. The Pentecostal outpouring was Heaven's communication that the Redeemer's inauguration was accomplished. According to His promise He had sent the Holy Spirit from heaven to His followers as a token that He had, as priest and king, received all authority in heaven and on earth, and was the Anointed One over His people. . . .
HB	74	3	During His life on this earth He had sown the seed of truth and had watered it with His blood. The conversions that took place on the Day of Pentecost were the result of this sowing, the harvest of Christ's work, revealing the power of His teaching.
HB	74	4	The arguments of the apostles alone, though clear and convincing, would not have removed the prejudice that had withstood so much evidence. But the Holy Spirit sent the arguments home to hearts with divine power. The words of the apostles were as sharp arrows of the Almighty, convicting the hearers of their terrible guilt in rejecting and crucifying the Lord of glory.
HB	74	5	Under the training of Christ the disciples had been led to feel their need of the Spirit. Under the Spirit's teaching they received the final qualification, and went forth to their lifework. No longer were they ignorant and uncultured. No longer were they a collection of independent units or discordant, conflicting elements. No longer were their hopes set on worldly greatness. They were of "one accord," "of one heart and of one soul." (Acts 2:46; 4:32.) Christ filled their thoughts; the advancement of His kingdom was their aim. In mind and character they had become like their Master. . . .
HB	74	6	Pentecost brought them the heavenly illumination. The truths they could not understand while Christ was with them were now unfolded. With a faith and assurance that they had never before known, they accepted the teachings of the Sacred Word.--The Acts of the Apostles, 38, 39, 45, 46.
------------------------The Intercession of Christ, February 28
HB	75	1	Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.--Hebrews 4:16.
HB	75	2	The sanctuary in heaven is the very center of Christ's work in our behalf. It concerns every soul living upon the earth. It opens to view the plan of redemption, bringing us down to the very close of time and revealing the triumphant issue of the contest between righteousness and sin. It is of the utmost importance that all should thoroughly investigate these subjects and be able to give an answer to everyone that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them.
HB	75	3	The intercession of Christ in our behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross. By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven. We must by faith enter within the veil, "whither the forerunner is for us entered." (Hebrews 6:20.) There the light from the cross of Calvary is reflected. There we may gain a clearer insight into the mysteries of redemption. The salvation of sinners is accomplished at an infinite expense to heaven; the sacrifice made is equal to the broadest demands of the broken law of God. Jesus has opened the way to the Father's throne, and through His mediation the sincere desire of all who come to Him in faith may be presented before God. . . .
HB	75	4	We are now living in the great day of atonement. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin and humiliation before the Lord, lest they be cut off from among the people. In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the book of life should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart. The light, frivolous spirit indulged by so many professed Christians must be put away. There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery. The work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another. Though all nations are to pass in judgment before God, yet He will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being upon the earth.--The Great Controversy, 488-490.
------------------------Christ's Heavenly Ministry, February 29
HB	76	1	Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.--Hebrews 8:1.
HB	76	2	For eighteen centuries this work of ministration continued in the first apartment of the sanctuary. The blood of Christ, pleaded in behalf of penitent believers, secured their pardon and acceptance with the Father, yet their sins still remained upon the books of record. As in the typical service there was a work of atonement at the close of the year, so before Christ's work for the redemption of sinners is completed there is a work of atonement for the removal of sin from the sanctuary. This is the service which began when the 2300 days ended. At that time, as foretold by Daniel the prophet, our High Priest entered the most holy, to perform the last division of His solemn work--to cleanse the sanctuary.
HB	76	3	As anciently the sins of the people were by faith placed upon the sin offering and through its blood transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary, so in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary. And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded. But before this can be accomplished, there must be an examination of the books of record to determine who, through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of His atonement. The cleansing of the sanctuary therefore involves a work of investigation--a work of judgment. This work must be performed prior to the coming of Christ to redeem His people; for when He comes, His reward is with Him to give to every man according to his works. (Revelation 22:12.)
HB	76	4	Thus those who followed in the light of the prophetic word saw that, instead of coming to the earth at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844, Christ then entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing work of atonement preparatory to His coming.
HB	76	5	It was seen, also, that while the sin offering pointed to Christ as a sacrifice, and the high priest represented Christ as a mediator, the scapegoat typified Satan, the author of sin, upon whom the sins of the truly penitent will finally be placed.--The Great Controversy, 421, 422.
------------------------Just As We Are, March 1
HB	78	1	Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.-- Matthew 11:28.
HB	78	2	Some seem to feel that they must be on probation, and must prove to the Lord that they are reformed, before they can claim His blessing. But they may claim the blessing of God even now. They must have His grace, the Spirit of Christ, to help their infirmities, or they cannot resist evil. Jesus loves to have us come to Him just as we are, sinful, helpless, dependent. We may come with all our weakness, our folly, our sinfulness, and fall at His feet in penitence. It is His glory to encircle us in the arms of His love and to bind up our wounds, to cleanse us from all impurity.
HB	78	3	Here is where thousands fail; they do not believe that Jesus pardons them personally, individually. They do not take God at His word. It is the privilege of all who comply with the conditions to know for themselves that pardon is freely extended for every sin. Put away the suspicion that God's promises are not meant for you. They are for every repentant transgressor. Strength and grace have been provided through Christ to be brought by ministering angels to every believing soul. None are so sinful that they cannot find strength, purity, and righteousness in Jesus, who died for them. He is waiting to strip them of their garments stained and polluted with sin, and to put upon them the white robes of righteousness; He bids them live and not die.
HB	78	4	God does not deal with us as finite human beings deal with one another. His thoughts are thoughts of mercy, love, and tenderest compassion. He says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins." (Isaiah 55:7; 44:22.)
HB	78	5	"I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." (Ezekiel 18:32.) Satan is ready to steal away the blessed assurances of God. He desires to take every glimmer of hope and every ray of light from the soul; but you must not permit him to do this. Do not give ear to the tempter, but say, "Jesus has died that I might live. He loves me, and wills not that I should perish. I have a compassionate heavenly Father."--Steps to Christ, 52, 53.
------------------------Perfection, March 2
HB	79	1	Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.--Matthew 5:48.
HB	79	2	The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been--just what it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents--perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness. If eternal life were granted on any condition short of this, then the happiness of the whole universe would be imperiled. The way would be open for sin, with all its train of woe and misery, to be immortalized.
HB	79	3	It was possible for Adam, before the fall, to form a righteous character by obedience to God's law. But he failed to do this, and because of his sin our natures are fallen and we cannot make ourselves righteous. Since we are sinful, unholy, we cannot perfectly obey the holy law. We have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God. But Christ has made a way of escape for us. He lived on earth amid trials and temptations such as we have to meet. He lived a sinless life. He died for us, and now He offers to take our sins and give us His righteousness. If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ's character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned.
HB	79	4	More than this, Christ changes the heart. He abides in your heart by faith. You are to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of your will to Him; and so long as you do this, He will work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. So you may say, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20.) So Jesus said to His disciples, "It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." (Matthew 10:20.) Then with Christ working in you, you will manifest the same spirit and do the same good works--works of righteousness, obedience.
HB	79	5	So we have nothing in ourselves of which to boast. We have no ground for self-exaltation. Our only ground of hope is in the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and in that wrought by His Spirit working in and through us.--Steps to Christ, 62, 63.
------------------------By Grace Alone, March 3
HB	80	1	My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.--2 Corinthians 12:9.
HB	80	2	It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to escape from the pit of sin in which we are sunken. Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Job 14:4; Romans 8:7.) Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart; they cannot purify the springs of life. There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before we can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness.
HB	80	3	The Saviour said, "Except a man be born from above," unless he shall receive a new heart, new desires, purposes, and motives, leading to a new life, "he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3, margin.) The idea that it is necessary only to develop the good that exists in us by nature, is a fatal deception. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." (1 Corinthians 2:14; John 3:7.) Of Christ it is written, "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men"--the only "name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (John 1:4; Acts 4:12.)
HB	80	4	It is not enough to perceive the loving-kindness of God, to see the benevolence, the fatherly tenderness, of His character. It is not enough to discern the wisdom and justice of His law, to see that it is founded upon the eternal principle of love. Paul the apostle saw all this when he exclaimed, "I consent unto the law that it is good." "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." But he added, in the bitterness of his soul-anguish and despair, "I am carnal, sold under sin." (Romans 7:16, 12, 14.) He longed for the purity, the righteousness, to which in himself he was powerless to attain, and cried out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24, margin.) Such is the cry that has gone up from burdened hearts in all lands and in all ages. To all, there is but one answer, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29.)--Steps to Christ, 18, 19.
------------------------It's Your Choice, March 4
HB	81	1	Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.--Joshua 24:15.
HB	81	2	All who refuse to give themselves to God are under the control of another power. They are not their own. They may talk of freedom, but they are in the most abject slavery. They are not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for their minds are under the control of Satan. While they flatter themselves that they are following the dictates of their own judgment, they obey the will of the prince of darkness. Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" sets us "free from the law of sin and death." (John 8:36; Romans 8:2.)
HB	81	3	In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, we are left free to choose whom we will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom. The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. True, we have no power to free ourselves from Satan's control; but when we desire to be set free from sin, and in our great need cry out for a power out of and above ourselves, the powers of the soul are imbued with the divine energy of the Holy Spirit, and they obey the dictates of the will in fulfilling the will of God.
HB	81	4	The only condition upon which our freedom is possible is that of becoming one with Christ. "The truth shall make you free" (John 8:32); and Christ is the truth. Sin can triumph only by enfeebling the mind, and destroying the liberty of the soul. Subjection to God is restoration to one's self--to the true glory and dignity of humanity. The divine law, to which we are brought into subjection, is "the law of liberty." (James 2:12.)
HB	81	5	The Pharisees had declared themselves the children of Abraham. Jesus told them that this claim could be established only by doing the works of Abraham. The true children of Abraham would live, as he did, a life of obedience to God. They would not try to kill One who was speaking the truth that was given Him from God. In plotting against Christ, the rabbis were not doing the works of Abraham. A mere lineal descent from Abraham was of no value. Without a spiritual connection with him, which would be manifested in possessing the same spirit, and doing the same works, they were not his children.--The Desire of Ages, 466, 467.
------------------------It's Either or, March 5
HB	82	1	He who is not with Me is against Me.--Matthew 12:30.
HB	82	2	Satan is continually seeking to overcome the people of God by breaking down the barriers which separate them from the world. Ancient Israel were enticed into sin when they ventured into forbidden association with the heathen. In a similar manner are modern Israel led astray. "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." (2 Corinthians 4:4.) All who are not decided followers of Christ are servants of Satan. In the unregenerate heart there is love of sin and a disposition to cherish and excuse it. In the renewed heart there is hatred of sin and determined resistance against it. When Christians choose the society of the ungodly and unbelieving, they expose themselves to temptation. Satan conceals himself from view and stealthily draws his deceptive covering over their eyes. They cannot see that such company is calculated to do them harm; and while all the time assimilating to the world in character, words, and actions, they are becoming more and more blinded.
HB	82	3	Conformity to worldly customs converts the church to the world; it never converts the world to Christ. Familiarity with sin will inevitably cause it to appear less repulsive. He who chooses to associate with the servants of Satan will soon cease to fear their master. When in the way of duty we are brought into trial, as was Daniel in the king's court, we may be sure that God will protect us; but if we place ourselves under temptation we shall fall sooner or later.
HB	82	4	The tempter often works most successfully through those who are least suspected of being under his control. The possessors of talent and education are admired and honored, as if these qualities could atone for the absence of the fear of God or entitle anyone to His favor. Talent and culture, considered in themselves, are gifts of God; but when these are made to supply the place of piety, when, instead of bringing the soul nearer to God, they lead away from Him, then they become a curse and a snare. The opinion prevails with many that all which appears like courtesy or refinement must, in some sense, pertain to Christ. Never was there a greater mistake. These qualities should grace the character of every Christian, for they would exert a powerful influence in favor of true religion; but they must be consecrated to God, or they also are a power for evil.--The Great Controversy, 508, 509.
------------------------No Excuse For Sinning, March 6
HB	83	1	Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.--John 8:11.
HB	83	2	God's ideal for His children is higher than the highest human thought can reach. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48.) This command is a promise. The plan of redemption contemplates our complete recovery from the power of Satan. Christ always separates the contrite soul from sin. He came to destroy the works of the devil, and He has made provision that the Holy Spirit shall be imparted to every repentant soul, to keep that one from sinning.
HB	83	3	The tempter's agency is not to be accounted an excuse for one wrong act. Satan is jubilant when he hears the professed followers of Christ making excuses for their deformity of character. It is these excuses that lead to sin. There is no excuse for sinning. A holy temper, a Christlike life, is accessible to every repenting, believing child of God.
HB	83	4	The ideal of Christian character is Christlikeness. As the Son of man was perfect in His life, so His followers are to be perfect in their life. Jesus was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh, even as we are. He was hungry and thirsty and weary. He was sustained by food and refreshed by sleep. He shared the lot of humanity; yet He was the blameless Son of God. He was God in the flesh. His character is to be ours. The Lord says of those who believe in Him, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." (2 Corinthians 6:16.)
HB	83	5	Christ is the ladder that Jacob saw, the base resting on the earth, and the topmost round reaching to the gate of heaven, to the very threshold of glory. If that ladder had failed by a single step of reaching the earth, we should have been lost. But Christ reaches us where we are. He took our nature and overcame, that we through taking His nature might overcome. Made "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Romans 8:3), He lived a sinless life. Now by His divinity He lays hold upon the throne of heaven, while by His humanity He reaches us. He bids us by faith in Him attain to the glory of the character of God. Therefore are we to be perfect, even as our "Father which is in heaven is perfect."--The Desire of Ages, 311, 312.
------------------------The Greatest Battle We Face, March 7
HB	84	1	Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.--2 Timothy 2:19.
HB	84	2	The whole heart must be yielded to God, or the change can never be wrought in us by which we are to be restored to His likeness. By nature we are alienated from God. The Holy Spirit describes our condition in such words as these: "Dead in trespasses and sins;" "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint;" "no soundness in it." We are held fast in the snare of Satan, "taken captive by him at his will." (Ephesians 2:1; Isaiah 1:5, 6; 2 Timothy 2:26.) God desires to heal us, to set us free. But since this requires an entire transformation, a renewing of our whole nature, we must yield ourselves wholly to Him.
HB	84	3	The warfare against self is the greatest battle that was ever fought. The yielding of self, surrendering all to the will of God, requires a struggle; but the soul must submit to God before it can be renewed in holiness.
HB	84	4	The government of God is not, as Satan would make it appear, founded upon a blind submission, an unreasoning control. It appeals to the intellect and the conscience. "Come now, and let us reason together" is the Creator's invitation to the beings He has made. (Isaiah 1:18.) God does not force the will of His creatures. He cannot accept an homage that is not willingly and intelligently given. A mere forced submission would prevent all real development of mind or character; it would make us mere automatons. Such is not the purpose of the Creator. He desires that human beings, the crowning work of His creative power, shall reach the highest possible development. He sets before us the height of blessing to which He desires to bring us through His grace. He invites us to give ourselves to Him, that He may work His will in us. It remains for us to choose whether we will be set free from the bondage of sin, to share the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
HB	84	5	In giving ourselves to God, we must necessarily give up all that would separate us from Him. Hence the Saviour says, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:33.) Whatever shall draw away the heart from God must be given up. . . .
HB	84	6	A profession of Christ without this deep love is mere talk, dry formality, and heavy drudgery.--Steps to Christ, 43, 44.
------------------------Preparation For The Time of Trouble, March 8
HB	85	1	The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.--Nahum 1:7.
HB	85	2	The "time of trouble, such as never was" (Daniel 12:1), is soon to open upon us; and we shall need an experience which we do not now possess and which many are too indolent to obtain. It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal. In that time of trial, every soul must stand individually before God. "Though Noah, Daniel, and Job" were in the land, "as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness." (Ezekiel 14:20.)
HB	85	3	Now, while our great High Priest is making the atonement for us, we should seek to become perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought could our Saviour be brought to yield to the power of temptation. Satan finds in human hearts some point where he can gain a foothold; some sinful desire is cherished, by means of which his temptations assert their power. But Christ declared of Himself: "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me." (John 14:30.) Satan could find nothing in the Son of God that would enable him to gain the victory. He had kept His Father's commandments, and there was no sin in Him that Satan could use to his advantage. This is the condition in which those must be found who shall stand in the time of trouble.
HB	85	4	It is in this life that we are to separate sin from us, through faith in the atoning blood of Christ. Our precious Saviour invites us to join ourselves to Him, to unite our weakness to His strength, our ignorance to His wisdom, our unworthiness to His merits. God's providence is the school in which we are to learn the meekness and lowliness of Jesus. The Lord is ever setting before us, not the way we would choose, which seems easier and pleasanter to us, but the true aims of life. It rests with us to cooperate with the agencies which Heaven employs in the work of conforming our characters to the divine model. None can neglect or defer this work but at the most fearful peril to their souls. . . .
HB	85	5	The wrath of Satan increases as his time grows short, and his work of deceit and destruction will reach its culmination in the time of trouble.--The Great Controversy, 622, 623.
------------------------The Self-Righteous, March 9
HB	86	1	There is none righteous, no, not one.--Romans 3:10.
HB	86	2	The claim to be without sin is, in itself, evidence that the one who makes this claim is far from holy. It is because people have no true conception of the infinite purity and holiness of God or of what they must become who shall be in harmony with His character; because they have no true conception of the purity and exalted loveliness of Jesus, and the malignity and evil of sin, that human beings can regard themselves as holy. The greater the distance between them and Christ, and the more inadequate their conceptions of the divine character and requirements, the more righteous they appear in their own eyes.
HB	86	3	The sanctification set forth in the Scriptures embraces the entire being-- spirit, soul, and body. Paul prayed for the Thessalonians that their "whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23.) Again he writes to believers: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." (Romans 12:1.) In the time of ancient Israel every offering brought as a sacrifice to God was carefully examined. If any defect was discovered in the animal presented, it was refused; for God had commanded that the offering be "without blemish." So Christians are bidden to present their bodies, "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." In order to do this, all their powers must be preserved in the best possible condition. Every practice that weakens physical or mental strength unfits us for the service of our Creator. And will God be pleased with anything less than the best we can offer? Said Christ: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." Those who do love God with all the heart will desire to give Him the best service of their life, and they will be constantly seeking to bring every power of their being into harmony with the laws that will promote their ability to do His will. They will not, by the indulgence of appetite or passion, enfeeble or defile the offering which they present to their heavenly Father. . . .
HB	86	4	Every sinful gratification tends to benumb the faculties and deaden the mental and spiritual perceptions, and the word or the Spirit of God can make but a feeble impression upon the heart.--The Great Controversy, 473, 474.
------------------------What God Can Do With You, March 10
HB	87	1	And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.--Acts 2:47.
HB	87	2	In the apostles of our Lord there was nothing to bring glory to themselves. It was evident that the success of their labors was due only to God. The lives of these men, the characters they developed, and the mighty work that God wrought through them, are a testimony to what He will do for all who are teachable and obedient.
HB	87	3	Those who love Christ the most will do the greatest amount of good. There is no limit to the usefulness of those who, by putting self aside, make room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts, and live their lives wholly consecrated to God. If men and women will endure the necessary discipline, without complaining or fainting by the way, God will teach them hour by hour, and day by day. He longs to reveal His grace. If His people will remove the obstructions, He will pour forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams through the human channels. If those in humble life were encouraged to do all the good they could do, if restraining hands were not laid upon them to repress their zeal, there would be a hundred workers for Christ where now there is one.
HB	87	4	God takes people as they are, and educates them for His service, if they will yield themselves to Him. The Spirit of God, received into the soul, will quicken all its faculties. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the mind that is devoted unreservedly to God develops harmoniously, and is strengthened to comprehend and fulfill the requirements of God. The weak, vacillating character becomes changed to one of strength and steadfastness. Continual devotion establishes so close a relation between Jesus and His disciple that the Christian becomes like Him in mind and character. Through a connection with Christ believers will have clearer and broader views. Their discernment will be more penetrative, their judgment better balanced. Those who long to be of service to Christ are so quickened by the life-giving power of the Sun of Righteousness that they are enabled to bear much fruit to the glory of God.
HB	87	5	People of the highest education in the arts and sciences have learned precious lessons from Christians in humble life who were designated by the world as unlearned. But these obscure disciples had obtained an education in the highest of all schools. They had sat at the feet of Him who spoke as "never man spake." (John 7:46.)--The Desire of Ages, 250, 251.
------------------------The Gospel Is For Everyone, March 11
HB	88	1	And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.--John 12:32.
HB	88	2	God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24.) Here is declared the same truth that Jesus had revealed to Nicodemus when He said, "Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3, margin.) Not by seeking a holy mountain or a sacred temple are people brought into communion with heaven. Religion is not to be confined to external forms and ceremonies. The religion that comes from God is the only religion that will lead to God. In order to serve Him aright, we must be born of the divine Spirit. This will purify the heart and renew the mind, giving us a new capacity for knowing and loving God. It will give us a willing obedience to all His requirements. This is true worship. It is the fruit of the working of the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit every sincere prayer is indited, and such prayer is acceptable to God. Wherever a soul reaches out after God, there the Spirit's working is manifest, and God will reveal Himself to that soul. For such worshipers He is seeking. He waits to receive them, and to make them His sons and daughters. . . .
HB	88	3	The gospel invitation is not to be narrowed down, and presented only to a select few, who, we suppose, will do us honor if they accept it. The message is to be given to all. Wherever hearts are open to receive the truth, Christ is ready to instruct them. He reveals to them the Father, and the worship acceptable to Him who reads the heart. For such He uses no parables. To them, as to the woman at the well, He says, "I that speak unto thee am He." (John 4:26.) . . .
HB	88	4	The Saviour did not wait for congregations to assemble. Often He began His lessons with only a few gathered about Him, but one by one the passers-by paused to listen, until a multitude heard with wonder and awe the words of God through the heaven-sent Teacher. Those who work for Christ should not feel that they cannot speak with the same earnestness to a few hearers as to a larger company. There may be only one to hear the message; but who can tell how far-reaching will be its influence? It seemed a small matter, even to His disciples, for the Saviour to spend His time upon a woman of Samaria. But He reasoned more earnestly and eloquently with her than with kings, councilors, or high priests. The lessons He gave to that woman have been repeated to the earth's remotest bounds.--The Desire of Ages, 189, 194, 195.
------------------------The Work of The Holy Spirit, March 12
HB	89	1	However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.--John 16:13.
HB	89	2	The office of the Holy Spirit is distinctly specified in the words of Christ: "When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." (John 16:8.) It is the Holy Spirit that convicts of sin. If sinners respond to the quickening influence of the Spirit, they will be brought to repentance and aroused to the importance of obeying the divine requirements.
HB	89	3	To the repentant sinner, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, the Holy Spirit reveals the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. "He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you," Christ said. "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 16:14; 14:26.)
HB	89	4	The Spirit is given as a regenerating agency, to make effectual the salvation wrought by the death of our Redeemer. The Spirit is constantly seeking to draw people's attention to the great offering that was made on the cross of Calvary, to unfold to the world the love of God, and to open to the convicted soul the precious things of the Scriptures.
HB	89	5	Having brought conviction of sin, and presented before the mind the standard of righteousness, the Holy Spirit withdraws the affections from the things of this earth and fills the soul with a desire for holiness. "He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13), the Saviour declared. If we are willing to be molded, there will be brought about a sanctification of the whole being. The Spirit will take the things of God and stamp them on the soul. By His power the way of life will be made so plain that none need err therein.
HB	89	6	From the beginning, God has been working by His Holy Spirit through human instrumentalities for the accomplishment of His purpose in behalf of the fallen race. . . .
HB	89	7	The Spirit of the Almighty is moving upon human hearts, and those who respond to its influence become witnesses for God and His truth. In many places consecrated men and women may be seen communicating to others the light that has made plain to them the way of salvation through Christ. And as they continue to let their light shine, as did those who were baptized with the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, they receive more and still more of the Spirit's power. Thus the earth is to be lightened with the glory of God.--The Acts of the Apostles, 52-54.
------------------------Spiritual Healing, March 13
HB	90	1	And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.--Ephesians 2:1.
HB	90	2	But the Saviour saw one case of supreme wretchedness. It was that of a man who had been a helpless cripple for thirty-eight years. His disease was in a great degree the result of his own sin, and was looked upon as a judgment from God. Alone and friendless, feeling that he was shut out from God's mercy, the sufferer had passed long years of misery. . . .
HB	90	3	Jesus does not ask this sufferer to exercise faith in Him. He simply says, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." (John 5:8.) But the man's faith takes hold upon that word. Every nerve and muscle thrills with new life, and healthful action comes to his crippled limbs. Without question he sets his will to obey the command of Christ, and all his muscles respond to his will. Springing to his feet, he finds himself an active man.
HB	90	4	Jesus had given him no assurance of divine help. The man might have stopped to doubt, and lost his one chance of healing. But he believed Christ's word, and in acting upon it he received strength.
HB	90	5	Through the same faith we may receive spiritual healing. By sin we have been severed from the life of God. Our souls are palsied. Of ourselves we are no more capable of living a holy life than was the impotent man capable of walking. There are many who realize their helplessness, and who long for that spiritual life which will bring them into harmony with God; they are vainly striving to obtain it. In despair they cry, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24, margin.) Let these desponding, struggling ones look up. The Saviour is bending over the purchase of His blood, saying with inexpressible tenderness and pity, "Wilt thou be made whole?" (John 5:6.) He bids you arise in health and peace. Do not wait to feel that you are made whole. Believe His word, and it will be fulfilled. Put your will on the side of Christ. Will to serve Him, and in acting upon His word you will receive strength. Whatever may be the evil practice, the master passion which through long indulgence binds both soul and body, Christ is able and longs to deliver. He will impart life to the soul that is "dead in trespasses." (Ephesians 2:1.) He will set free the captive that is held by weakness and misfortune and the chains of sin.--The Desire of Ages, 202, 203.
------------------------Cleansing The Temple, March 14
HB	91	1	Do you not know that you are the temple of God?--1 Corinthians 3:16.
HB	91	2	In the cleansing of the temple, Jesus was announcing His mission as the Messiah, and entering upon His work. That temple, erected for the abode of the divine Presence, was designed to be an object lesson for Israel and for the world. From eternal ages it was God's purpose that every created being, from the bright and holy seraph to individual men and women, should be a temple for the indwelling of the Creator. Because of sin, humanity ceased to be a temple for God. Darkened and defiled by evil, the human heart no longer revealed the glory of the Divine One. But by the incarnation of the Son of God, the purpose of Heaven is fulfilled. God dwells in humanity, and through saving grace people's hearts become again His temple. God designed that the temple at Jerusalem should be a continual witness to the high destiny open to every soul. But the Jews had not understood the significance of the building they regarded with so much pride. They did not yield themselves as holy temples for the Divine Spirit. The courts of the temple at Jerusalem, filled with the tumult of unholy traffic, represented all too truly the temple of the heart, defiled by the presence of sensual passion and unholy thoughts. In cleansing the temple from the world's buyers and sellers, Jesus announced His mission to cleanse the heart from the defilement of sin--from the earthly desires, the selfish lusts, the evil habits, that corrupt the soul. "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver." (Malachi 3:1-3.) . . .
HB	91	3	We cannot by ourselves cast out the evil throng that have taken possession of the heart. Only Christ can cleanse the soul temple. But He will not force an entrance. He comes not into the heart as to the temple of old; but He says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him." (Revelation 3:20.) . . . His presence will cleanse and sanctify the soul, so that it may be a holy temple unto the Lord, and "an habitation of God through the Spirit." (Ephesians 2:21, 22.)--The Desire of Ages, 161, 162.
------------------------Holiness Is. . . !, March 15
HB	92	1	Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.--2 Corinthians 7:1.
HB	92	2	Since this is the means by which we are to receive power, why do we not hunger and thirst for the gift of the Spirit? Why do we not talk of it, pray for it, and preach concerning it? The Lord is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who serve Him than parents are to give good gifts to their children. For the daily baptism of the Spirit every worker should offer petitions to God. Companies of Christian workers should gather to ask for special help, for heavenly wisdom, that they may know how to plan and execute wisely. Especially should they pray that God will baptize His chosen ambassadors in mission fields with a rich measure of His Spirit. The presence of the Spirit with God's workers will give the proclamation of truth a power that not all the honor or glory of the world could give.
HB	92	3	With the consecrated workers for God, in whatever place they may be, the Holy Spirit abides. The words spoken to the disciples are spoken also to us. The Comforter is ours as well as theirs. The Spirit furnishes the strength that sustains striving, wrestling souls in every emergency, amidst the hatred of the world, and the realization of their own failures and mistakes. In sorrow and affliction, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone--these are the times when, in answer to the prayer of faith, the Holy Spirit brings comfort to the heart.
HB	92	4	It is not a conclusive evidence that people are Christians because they manifest spiritual ecstasy under extraordinary circumstances. Holiness is not rapture: it is an entire surrender of the will to God; it is living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God; it is doing the will of our heavenly Father; it is trusting God in trial, in darkness as well as in the light; it is walking by faith and not by sight; it is relying on God with unquestioning confidence, and resting in His love.
HB	92	5	It is not essential for us to be able to define just what the Holy Spirit is. Christ tells us that the Spirit is the Comforter, "the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father." It is plainly declared regarding the Holy Spirit that, in His work of guiding us into all truth, "He shall not speak of Himself." (John 15:26; 16:13.)--The Acts of the Apostles, 50, 51.
------------------------Righteousness Is . . . !, March 16
HB	93	1	Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.--Matthew 5:6.
HB	93	2	Righteousness is holiness, likeness to God, and "God is love." (1 John 4:16.) It is conformity to the law of God, for "all Thy commandments are righteousness" (Psalm 119:172), and "love is the fulfilling of the law." (Romans 13:10.) Righteousness is love, and love is the light and the life of God. The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him.
HB	93	3	Not by painful struggles or wearisome toil, not by gift or sacrifice, is righteousness obtained; but it is freely given to every soul who hungers and thirsts to receive it. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat, . . . without money and without price." "Their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord," and, "This is His name whereby He shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness." (Isaiah 55:1; 54:17; Jeremiah 23:6.)
HB	93	4	No human agent can supply that which will satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul. But Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20.) . . .
HB	93	5	As we need food to sustain our physical strength, so do we need Christ, the Bread from heaven, to sustain spiritual life and impart strength to work the works of God. As the body is continually receiving the nourishment that sustains life and vigor, so the soul must be constantly communing with Christ, submitting to Him and depending wholly upon Him. . . .
HB	93	6	As we discern the perfection of our Saviour's character we shall desire to become wholly transformed and renewed in the image of His purity. The more we know of God, the higher will be our ideal of character and the more earnest our longing to reflect His likeness. A divine element combines with the human when the soul reaches out after God and the longing heart can say, "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him." (Psalm 62:5.)
HB	93	7	If you have a sense of need in your soul, if you hunger and thirst after righteousness, this is an evidence that Christ has wrought upon your heart.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 18, 19.
------------------------Sanctification Is . . . !, March 17
HB	94	1	For this is the will of God, your sanctification.--1 Thessalonians 4:3.
HB	94	2	As God is holy in His sphere, so fallen human beings, through faith in Christ, are to be holy in their sphere. . . .
HB	94	3	The sanctification of the church is God's object in all His dealings with His people. He has chosen them from eternity, that they might be holy. He gave His Son to die for them, that they might be sanctified through obedience to the truth, divested of all the littleness of self. From them He requires a personal work, a personal surrender. God can be honored by those who profess to believe in Him, only as they are conformed to His image and controlled by His Spirit. Then, as witnesses for the Saviour, they may make known what divine grace has done for them.
HB	94	4	True sanctification comes through the working out of the principle of love. "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:16.) The lives of those in whose hearts Christ abides, will reveal practical godliness. The character will be purified, elevated, ennobled, and glorified. Pure doctrine will blend with works of righteousness; heavenly precepts will mingle with holy practices.
HB	94	5	Those who would gain the blessing of sanctification must first learn the meaning of self-sacrifice. . . . It is the fragrance of our love for others that reveals our love for God. It is patience in service that brings rest to the soul. It is through humble, diligent, faithful toil that the welfare of Israel is promoted. God upholds and strengthens the one who is willing to follow in Christ's way.
HB	94	6	Sanctification is not the work of a moment, an hour, a day, but of a lifetime. It is not gained by a happy flight of feeling, but is the result of constantly dying to sin, and constantly living for Christ. Wrongs cannot be righted nor reformations wrought in the character by feeble, intermittent efforts. It is only by long, persevering effort, sore discipline, and stern conflict, that we shall overcome. We know not one day how strong will be our conflict the next. So long as Satan reigns, we shall have self to subdue, besetting sins to overcome; so long as life shall last, there will be no stopping place, no point which we can reach and say, I have fully attained. Sanctification is the result of lifelong obedience.--The Acts of the Apostles, 559-561.
------------------------Sanctification Is a Bible Doctrine, March 18
HB	95	1	Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.--John 17:17.
HB	95	2	Erroneous theories of sanctification, also, springing from neglect or rejection of the divine law, have a prominent place in the religious movements of the day. These theories are both false in doctrine and dangerous in practical results; and the fact that they are so generally finding favor, renders it doubly essential that all have a clear understanding of what the Scriptures teach upon this point.
HB	95	3	True sanctification is a Bible doctrine. The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonian church, declares: "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." And he prays: "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly." (1 Thessalonians 4:3; 5:23.) The Bible clearly teaches what sanctification is and how it is to be attained. The Saviour prayed for His disciples: "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth." (John 17:17.) And Paul teaches that believers are to be "sanctified by the Holy Ghost." (Romans 15:16.) What is the work of the Holy Spirit? Jesus told His disciples: "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." (John 16:13.) And the psalmist says: "Thy law is the truth." By the word and the Spirit of God are opened to us the great principles of righteousness embodied in His law. And since the law of God is "holy, and just, and good," a transcript of the divine perfection, it follows that a character formed by obedience to that law will be holy. Christ is a perfect example of such a character. He says: "I have kept My Father's commandments." "I do always those things that please Him." (John 15:10; 8:29.) The followers of Christ are to become like Him--by the grace of God to form characters in harmony with the principles of His holy law. This is Bible sanctification.
HB	95	4	This work can be accomplished only through faith in Christ, by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. Paul admonishes believers: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12, 13.) Christians will feel the promptings of sin, but they will maintain a constant warfare against it. Here is where Christ's help is needed. Human weakness becomes united to divine strength, and faith exclaims: "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:57.)--The Great Controversy, 469, 470.
------------------------Repentance Is . . . !, March 19
HB	96	1	For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation.--2 Corinthians 7:10.
HB	96	2	How shall anyone be just with God? How shall the sinner be made righteous? It is only through Christ that we can be brought into harmony with God, with holiness; but how are we to come to Christ? Many are asking the same question as did the multitude on the Day of Pentecost, when, convicted of sin, they cried out, "What shall we do?" The first word of Peter's answer was, "Repent." (Acts 2:37, 38.) At another time, shortly after, he said, "Repent, . . . and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." (Acts 3:19.)
HB	96	3	Repentance includes sorrow for sin and a turning away from it. We shall not renounce sin unless we see its sinfulness; until we turn away from it in heart, there will be no real change in the life.
HB	96	4	There are many who fail to understand the true nature of repentance. Multitudes sorrow that they have sinned and even make an outward reformation because they fear that their wrongdoing will bring suffering upon themselves. But this is not repentance in the Bible sense. They lament the suffering rather than the sin. Such was the grief of Esau when he saw that the birthright was lost to him forever. Balaam, terrified by the angel standing in his pathway with drawn sword, acknowledged his guilt lest he should lose his life; but there was no genuine repentance for sin, no conversion of purpose, no abhorrence of evil. Judas Iscariot, after betraying his Lord, exclaimed, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." (Matthew 27:4.)
HB	96	5	The confession was forced from his guilty soul by an awful sense of condemnation and a fearful looking for of judgment. The consequences that were to result to him filled him with terror, but there was no deep, heartbreaking grief in his soul, that he had betrayed the spotless Son of God and denied the Holy One of Israel. Pharaoh, when suffering under the judgments of God, acknowledged his sin in order to escape further punishment, but returned to his defiance of Heaven as soon as the plagues were stayed. These all lamented the results of sin, but did not sorrow for the sin itself.--Steps to Christ, 23, 24.
------------------------Reaching Out After God, March 20
HB	97	1	But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.--Matthew 6:33.
HB	97	2	None of the apostles and prophets ever claimed to be without sin. Men and women who have lived the nearest to God, who would sacrifice life itself rather than knowingly commit a wrong act, whom God has honored with divine light and power, have confessed the sinfulness of their nature. They have put no confidence in the flesh, have claimed no righteousness of their own, but have trusted wholly in the righteousness of Christ.
HB	97	3	So will it be with all who behold Christ. The nearer we come to Jesus, and the more clearly we discern the purity of His character, the more clearly shall we see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the less shall we feel like exalting ourselves. There will be a continual reaching out of the soul after God, a continual, earnest, heartbreaking confession of sin and humbling of the heart before Him. At every advance step in our Christian experience our repentance will deepen. We shall know that our sufficiency is in Christ alone and shall make the apostle's confession our own: "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing." "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (Romans 7:18; Galatians 6:14.)
HB	97	4	Let the recording angels write the history of the holy struggles and conflicts of the people of God; let them record their prayers and tears; but let not God be dishonored by the declaration from human lips, "I am sinless; I am holy." Sanctified lips will never give utterance to such presumptuous words. . . .
HB	97	5	Let those who feel inclined to make a high profession of holiness look into the mirror of God's law. As they see its far-reaching claims, and understand its work as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, they will not boast of sinlessness. "If we," says John, not separating himself from his brethren, "say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." (1 John 1:10.) . . .
HB	97	6	If we abide in Christ, if the love of God dwells in the heart, our feelings, our thoughts, our actions, will be in harmony with the will of God. The sanctified heart is in harmony with the precepts of God's law.--The Acts of the Apostles, 561-563.
------------------------An Example of Repentance, March 21
HB	98	1	Create in me a clean heart, O God.--Psalm 51:10.
HB	98	2	When the heart yields to the influence of the Spirit of God, the conscience will be quickened, and sinful human beings will discern something of the depth and sacredness of God's holy law, the foundation of His government in heaven and on earth. The "Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," illumines the secret chambers of the soul, and the hidden things of darkness are made manifest. (John 1:9.) Conviction takes hold upon the mind and heart. Sinners have a sense of the righteousness of Jehovah and feel the terror of appearing, in their own guilt and uncleanness, before the Searcher of hearts. They see the love of God, the beauty of holiness, the joy of purity; they long to be cleansed and to be restored to communion with Heaven.
HB	98	3	The prayer of David after his fall, illustrates the nature of true sorrow for sin. His repentance was sincere and deep. There was no effort to palliate his guilt; no desire to escape the judgment threatened, inspired his prayer. David saw the enormity of his transgression; he saw the defilement of his soul; he loathed his sin. It was not for pardon only that he prayed, but for purity of heart. He longed for the joy of holiness--to be restored to harmony and communion with God. . . .
HB	98	4	A repentance such as this, is beyond the reach of our own power to accomplish; it is obtained only from Christ, who ascended up on high and has given gifts unto men. . . .
HB	98	5	The Bible does not teach that sinners must repent before they can heed the invitation of Christ, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28.) It is the virtue that goes forth from Christ, that leads to genuine repentance. Peter made the matter clear in his statement to the Israelites when he said, "Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." (Acts 5:31.) We can no more repent without the Spirit of Christ to awaken the conscience than we can be pardoned without Christ.
HB	98	6	Christ is the source of every right impulse. He is the only one that can implant in the heart enmity against sin. Every desire for truth and purity, every conviction of our own sinfulness, is an evidence that His Spirit is moving upon our hearts.--Steps to Christ, 24-26.
------------------------The First Step In Acceptance, March 22
HB	99	1	He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.--Proverbs 28:13.
HB	99	2	Those who have not humbled their souls before God in acknowledging their guilt, have not yet fulfilled the first condition of acceptance. If we have not experienced that repentance which is not to be repented of, and have not with true humiliation of soul and brokenness of spirit confessed our sins, abhorring our iniquity, we have never truly sought for the forgiveness of sin; and if we have never sought, we have never found the peace of God. The only reason why we do not have remission of sins that are past is that we are not willing to humble our hearts and comply with the conditions of the word of truth. Explicit instruction is given concerning this matter. Confession of sin, whether public or private, should be heartfelt and freely expressed. It is not to be urged from the sinner. It is not to be made in a flippant and careless way, or forced from those who have no realizing sense of the abhorrent character of sin. The confession that is the outpouring of the inmost soul finds its way to the God of infinite pity. The psalmist says, "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." (Psalm 34:18.)
HB	99	3	True confession is always of a specific character, and acknowledges par-ticular sins. They may be of such a nature as to be brought before God only; they may be wrongs that should be confessed to individuals who have suffered injury through them; or they may be of a public character, and should then be as publicly confessed. But all confession should be definite and to the point, acknowledging the very sins of which you are guilty. . . .
HB	99	4	Confession will not be acceptable to God without sincere repentance and reformation. There must be decided changes in the life; everything offensive to God must be put away. This will be the result of genuine sorrow for sin. The work that we have to do on our part is plainly set before us: "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil." (Isaiah 1:16.) . . . Paul says, speaking of the work of repentance: "Ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves." (2 Corinthians 7:11.)--Steps to Christ, 37-39.
------------------------Ask For Repentance, March 23
HB	100	1	The goodness of God leads you to repentance.--Romans 2:4.
HB	100	2	The same divine mind that is working upon the things of nature is speaking to the hearts of men and women and creating an inexpressible craving for something they have not. The things of the world cannot satisfy their longing. The Spirit of God is pleading with them to seek for those things that alone can give peace and rest--the grace of Christ, the joy of holiness. Through influences seen and unseen, our Saviour is constantly at work to attract minds of people from the unsatisfying pleasures of sin to the infinite blessings that may be theirs in Him. To all these souls, who are vainly seeking to drink from the broken cisterns of this world, the divine message is addressed, "Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Revelation 22:17.)
HB	100	3	You who in heart long for something better than this world can give, recognize this longing as the voice of God to your soul. Ask Him to give you repentance, to reveal Christ to you in His infinite love, in His perfect purity. In the Saviour's life the principles of God's law--love to God and to others--were perfectly exemplified. Benevolence, unselfish love, was the life of His soul. It is as we behold Him, as the light from our Saviour falls upon us, that we see the sinfulness of our own hearts.
HB	100	4	We may have flattered ourselves, as did Nicodemus, that our life has been upright, that our moral character is correct, and think that we need not humble the heart before God, like the common sinner: but when the light from Christ shines into our souls, we shall see how impure we are; we shall discern the selfishness of motive, the enmity against God, that has defiled every act of life. Then we shall know that our own righteousness is indeed as filthy rags, and that the blood of Christ alone can cleanse us from the defilement of sin, and renew our hearts in His own likeness.
HB	100	5	One ray of the glory of God, one gleam of the purity of Christ, penetrating the soul, makes every spot of defilement painfully distinct. . . .
HB	100	6	The soul thus touched will hate its selfishness, abhor its self-love, and will seek, through Christ's righteousness, for the purity of heart that is in harmony with the law of God and the character of Christ.--Steps to Christ, 28, 29.
------------------------What's Wrong With Procrastination?, March 24
HB	101	1	Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.--Acts 24:25.
HB	101	2	Beware of procrastination. Do not put off the work of forsaking your sins and seeking purity of heart through Jesus. Here is where thousands upon thousands have erred to their eternal loss. I will not here dwell upon the shortness and uncertainty of life; but there is a terrible danger--a danger not sufficiently understood--in delaying to yield to the pleading voice of God's Holy Spirit, in choosing to live in sin; for such this delay really is. Sin, however small it may be esteemed, can be indulged in only at the peril of infinite loss. What we do not overcome, will overcome us and work out our destruction.
HB	101	3	Adam and Eve persuaded themselves that in so small a matter as eating of the forbidden fruit there could not result such terrible consequences as God had declared. But this small matter was the transgression of God's immutable and holy law, and it separated mankind from God and opened the floodgates of death and untold woe upon our world. Age after age there has gone up from our earth a continual cry of mourning, and the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain as a consequence of our first parents' disobedience. Heaven itself has felt the effects of human rebellion against God. Calvary stands as a memorial of the amazing sacrifice required to atone for the transgression of the divine law. Let us not regard sin as a trivial thing.
HB	101	4	Every act of transgression, every neglect or rejection of the grace of Christ, is reacting upon yourself; it is hardening the heart, depraving the will, benumbing the understanding, and not only making you less inclined to yield, but less capable of yielding, to the tender pleading of God's Holy Spirit. . . .
HB	101	5	Even one wrong trait of character, one sinful desire, persistently cherished, will eventually neutralize all the power of the gospel. Every sinful indulgence strengthens the soul's aversion to God. Those who manifest an infidel hardihood, or a stolid indifference to divine truth, are but reaping the harvest of that which they themselves have sown. In all the Bible there is not a more fearful warning against trifling with evil than the words of the wise man that the sinner "shall be holden with the cords of his sins." (Proverbs 5:22.)--Steps to Christ, 32-34.
------------------------The Power of The Will, March 25
HB	102	1	For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.--Philippians 2:13.
HB	102	2	The world's Redeemer accepts sinners as they are, with all their wants, imperfections, and weaknesses; and He will not only cleanse from sin and grant redemption through His blood, but will satisfy the heart-longing of all who consent to wear His yoke, to bear His burden. It is His purpose to impart peace and rest to all who come to Him for the bread of life. He requires us to perform only those duties that will lead our steps to heights of bliss to which the disobedient can never attain. The true, joyous life of the soul is to have Christ formed within, the hope of glory.
HB	102	3	Many are inquiring, "How am I to make the surrender of myself to God?" You desire to give yourself to Him, but you are weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits of your life of sin. Your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand. You cannot control your thoughts, your impulses, your affections. The knowledge of your broken promises and forfeited pledges weakens your confidence in your own sincerity, and causes you to feel that God cannot accept you; but you need not despair. What you need to understand is the true force of the will. This is the governing power in our nature, the power of decision, or of choice. Everything depends on the right action of the will. The power of choice God has given to us; it is ours to exercise. You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections; but you can choose to serve Him. You can give Him your will; He will then work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; your affections will be centered upon Him, your thoughts will be in harmony with Him.
HB	102	4	Desires for goodness and holiness are right as far as they go; but if you stop here, they will avail nothing. Many will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians. They do not come to the point of yielding the will to God. They do not now choose to be Christians.
HB	102	5	Through the right exercise of the will, an entire change may be made in your life. By yielding up your will to Christ, you ally yourself with the power that is above all principalities and powers. You will have strength from above to hold you steadfast, and thus through constant surrender to God you will be enabled to live the new life, even the life of faith.--Steps to Christ, 46-48.
------------------------The New Birth, March 26
HB	103	1	Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.--John 3:3.
HB	103	2	The claim that Christ by His death abolished His Father's law is without foundation. Had it been possible for the law to be changed or set aside, then Christ need not have died to save us from the penalty of sin. The death of Christ, so far from abolishing the law, proves that it is immutable.
HB	103	3	The law of God, from its very nature, is unchangeable. It is a revelation of the will and the character of its Author. God is love, and His law is love. Its two great principles are love to God and love to man. "Love is the fulfilling of the law." (Romans 13:10.) The character of God is righteousness and truth; such is the nature of His law. Says the psalmist: "Thy law is the truth:" "all Thy commandments are righteousness." (Psalm 119:142, 172.) And the apostle Paul declares: "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." (Romans 7:12.) Such a law, being an expression of the mind and will of God, must be as enduring as its Author.
HB	103	4	It is the work of conversion and sanctification to reconcile men and women to God by bringing them into accord with the principles of His law. In the beginning, human beings were created in the image of God. They were in perfect harmony with the nature and the law of God; the principles of righteousness were written upon their hearts. But sin alienated them from their Maker. They no longer reflected the divine image. Their hearts were at war with the principles of God's law. "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Romans 8:7.) But "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son," that we might be reconciled to God. Through the merits of Christ we can be restored to harmony with our Maker. Our hearts must be renewed by divine grace; we must have a new life from above. This change is the new birth, without which, says Jesus, we "cannot see the kingdom of God."
HB	103	5	The first step in reconciliation to God is the conviction of sin. "Sin is the transgression of the law." "By the law is the knowledge of sin." (1 John 3:4; Romans 3:20.) In order to see their guilt, sinners must test their character by God's great standard of righteousness. It is a mirror which shows the perfection of a righteous character and enables them to discern the defects in their own.--The Great Controversy, 466, 467.
------------------------Believe What God Says, March 27
HB	104	1	Do not be afraid; only believe.--Mark 5:36.
HB	104	2	You cannot atone for your past sins; you cannot change your heart and make yourself holy. But God promises to do all this for you through Christ. You believe that promise. You confess your sins and give yourself to God. You will to serve Him. Just as surely as you do this, God will fulfill His word to you. If you believe the promise--believe that you are forgiven and cleansed--God supplies the fact; you are made whole, just as Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man believed that he was healed. It is so if you believe it. Do not wait to feel that you are made whole, but say, "I believe it; it is so, not because I feel it, but because God has promised."--Steps to Christ, 51.
HB	104	3	The law reveals to us our sins, but it provides no remedy. While it promises life to the obedient, it declares that death is the portion of the transgressors. The gospel of Christ alone can free them from the condemnation or the defilement of sin. They must exercise repentance toward God, whose law has been transgressed; and faith in Christ, their atoning sacrifice. Thus they obtain "remission of sins that are past" and become partakers of the divine nature. They are children of God, having received the spirit of adoption, whereby they cry: "Abba, Father!" . . .
HB	104	4	In the new birth the heart is brought into harmony with God, as it is brought into accord with His law. When this mighty change has taken place in sinners, they have passed from death unto life, from sin unto holiness, from transgression and rebellion to obedience and loyalty. The old life of alienation from God has ended; the new life of reconciliation, of faith and love, has begun. Then "the righteousness of the law" will "be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:4.) And the language of the soul will be: "O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day." (Psalm 119:97.) . . .
HB	104	5	Without the law, people have no just conception of the purity and holiness of God or of their own guilt and uncleanness. They have no true conviction of sin and feel no need of repentance. Not seeing their lost condition as violators of God's law, they do not realize their need of the atoning blood of Christ. The hope of salvation is accepted without a radical change of heart or reformation of life. Thus superficial conversions abound, and multitudes are joined to the church who have never been united to Christ.--The Great Controversy, 467, 468.
------------------------In The Shadow of The Cross, March 28
HB	105	1	God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.--Galatians 6:14.
HB	105	2	There can be no self-exaltation, no boastful claim to freedom from sin, on the part of those who walk in the shadow of Calvary's cross. They feel that it was their sin which caused the agony that broke the heart of the Son of God, and this thought will lead them to self-abasement. Those who live nearest to Jesus discern most clearly the frailty and sinfulness of humanity, and their only hope is in the merit of a crucified and risen Saviour.
HB	105	3	The sanctification now gaining prominence in the religious world carries with it a spirit of self-exaltation and a disregard for the law of God that mark it as foreign to the religion of the Bible. Its advocates teach that sanctification is an instantaneous work, by which, through faith alone, they attain to perfect holiness. "Only believe," say they, "and the blessing is yours." No further effort on the part of the receiver is supposed to be required. At the same time they deny the authority of the law of God, urging that they are released from obligation to keep the commandments. But is it possible to be holy, in accord with the will and character of God, without coming into harmony with the principles which are an expression of His nature and will, and which show what is well pleasing to Him?
HB	105	4	The desire for an easy religion that requires no striving, no self-denial, no divorce from the follies of the world, has made the doctrine of faith, and faith only, a popular doctrine; but what saith the word of God? . . .
HB	105	5	The testimony of the word of God is against this ensnaring doctrine of faith without works. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions upon which mercy is to be granted, it is presumption; for genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures.
HB	105	6	Let none deceive themselves with the belief that they can become holy while willfully violating one of God's requirements. The commission of a known sin silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit and separates the soul from God. . . . We cannot accord holiness to any without bringing them to the measurement of God's only standard of holiness in heaven and in earth.--The Great Controversy, 471, 472.
------------------------Grace From The Saviour, March 29
HB	106	1	For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.--Ephesians 2:8.
HB	106	2	We must learn in the school of Christ. Nothing but His righteousness can entitle us to one of the blessings of the covenant of grace. We have long desired and tried to obtain these blessings, but have not received them because we have cherished the idea that we could do something to make ourselves worthy of them. We have not looked away from ourselves, believing that Jesus is a living Saviour. We must not think that our own grace and merits will save us; the grace of Christ is our only hope of salvation. Through His prophet the Lord promises, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:7.) We must believe the naked promise, and not accept feeling for faith. When we trust God fully, when we rely upon the merits of Jesus as a sin-pardoning Saviour, we shall receive all the help that we can desire.
HB	106	3	We look to self, as though we had power to save ourselves; but Jesus died for us because we are helpless to do this. In Him is our hope, our justification, our righteousness. We should not despond, and fear that we have no Saviour, or that He has no thoughts of mercy toward us. At this very time He is carrying on His work in our behalf, inviting us to come to Him in our helplessness and be saved. We dishonor Him by our unbelief. It is astonishing how we treat our very best Friend, how little confidence we repose in Him who is able to save to the uttermost, and who has given us every evidence of His great love. . . .
HB	106	4	Let none here feel that their case is hopeless; for it is not. You may see that you are sinful and undone; but it is just on this account that you need a Saviour. If you have sins to confess, lose no time. These moments are golden. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9.) Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled; for Jesus has promised it. Precious Saviour! His arms are open to receive us, and His great heart of love is waiting to bless us.
HB	106	5	Some seem to feel that they must be on probation and must prove to the Lord that they are reformed, before they can claim His blessing. But these dear souls may claim the blessing even now. They must have His grace, the Spirit of Christ, to help their infirmities, or they cannot form a Christian character. Jesus loves to have us come to Him, just as we are--sinful, helpless, dependent.--Selected Messages, book 1, 351-353.
------------------------An Example of True Sanctification, March 30
HB	107	1	Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.--1 John 3:3.
HB	107	2	In the life of the disciple John true sanctification is exemplified. During the years of his close association with Christ, he was often warned and cautioned by the Saviour; and these reproofs he accepted. As the character of the Divine One was manifested to him, John saw his own deficiencies, and was humbled by the revelation. Day by day, in contrast with his own violent spirit, he beheld the tenderness and forbearance of Jesus, and heard His lessons of humility and patience. Day by day his heart was drawn out to Christ, until he lost sight of self in love for his Master. The power and tenderness, the majesty and meekness, the strength and patience, that he saw in the daily life of the Son of God, filled his soul with admiration. He yielded his resentful, ambitious temper to the molding power of Christ, and divine love wrought in him a transformation of character. . . .
HB	107	3	Such transformation of character as is seen in the life of John is ever the result of communion with Christ. There may be marked defects in people's characters, yet when they become true disciples of Christ, the power of divine grace transforms and sanctifies them. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, they are changed from glory to glory, until they are like Him whom they adore.
HB	107	4	John was a teacher of holiness, and in his letters to the church he laid down unerring rules for the conduct of Christians. "Every man that hath this hope in him," he wrote, "purifieth himself, even as He is pure." "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." (1 John 3:3; 2:6.) He taught that Christians must be pure in heart and life. Never should they be satisfied with an empty profession. As God is holy in His sphere, so fallen human beings, through faith in Christ, are to be holy in their sphere.
HB	107	5	"This is the will of God," the apostle Paul wrote, "even your sanctification." (1 Thessalonians 4:3.) The sanctification of the church is God's object in all His dealings with His people. He has chosen them from eternity, that they might be holy. He gave His Son to die for them, that they might be sanctified through obedience to the truth, divested of all the littleness of self. From them He requires a personal work, a personal surrender.--The Acts of the Apostles, 557, 559.
------------------------Conformed To God's Will, March 31
HB	108	1	For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.--Romans 8:29.
HB	108	2	Many commit the error of trying to define minutely the fine points of distinction between justification and sanctification. Into the definitions of these two terms they often bring their own ideas and speculations. Why try to be more minute than is Inspiration on the vital question of righteousness by faith? Why try to work out every minute point, as if the salvation of the soul depended upon all having exactly your understanding of this matter? All cannot see in the same line of vision. You are in danger of making a world of an atom, and an atom of a world.
HB	108	3	As penitent sinners, contrite before God, discern Christ's atonement in their behalf, and accept this atonement as their only hope in this life and the future life, their sins are pardoned. This is justification by faith. Every believing soul is to conform his or her will entirely to God's will, and keep in a state of repentance and contrition, exercising faith in the atoning merits of the Redeemer, and advancing from strength to strength, from glory to glory.
HB	108	4	Pardon and justification are one and the same thing. . . .
HB	108	5	Justification is the opposite of condemnation. God's boundless mercy is exercised toward those who are wholly undeserving. He forgives transgressions and sins for the sake of Jesus, who has become the propitiation for our sins. Through faith in Christ the guilty transgressor is brought into favor with God and into the strong hope of life eternal.
HB	108	6	David was pardoned of his transgression because he humbled his heart before God in repentance and contrition of soul and believed that God's promise to forgive would be fulfilled. He confessed his sin, repented, and was reconverted. In the rapture of the assurance of forgiveness he exclaimed, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." The blessing comes because of pardon; pardon comes through faith that the sin, confessed and repented of, is borne by the great Sin-bearer. Thus from Christ cometh all our blessings. His death is an atoning sacrifice for our sins. He is the great medium through whom we receive the mercy and favor of God. He, then, is indeed the Originator, the Author, as well as the Finisher, of our faith.--Manuscript Releases, vol. 9, 300-302.
------------------------The Keynote of Victory, April 1
HB	110	1	But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control.--2 Peter 1:5, 6.
HB	110	2	These words are full of instruction, and strike the keynote of victory. The apostle presents before the believers the ladder of Christian progress, every step of which represents advancement in the knowledge of God, and in the climbing of which there is to be no standstill. Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity are the rounds of the ladder. We are saved by climbing round after round, mounting step after step, to the height of Christ's ideal for us. Thus He is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
HB	110	3	God has called His people to glory and virtue, and these will be manifest in the lives of all who are truly connected with Him. Having become partakers of the heavenly gift, they are to go on unto perfection, being "kept by the power of God through faith." (1 Peter 1:5.) It is the glory of God to give His virtue to His children. He desires to see men and women reaching the highest standard; and when by faith they lay hold of the power of Christ, when they plead His unfailing promises, and claim them as their own, when with an importunity that will not be denied they seek for the power of the Holy Spirit, they will be made complete in Him.
HB	110	4	Having received the faith of the gospel, the next work of the believers is to add to their character virtue, and thus cleanse the heart and prepare the mind for the reception of the knowledge of God. This knowledge is the foundation of all true education and of all true service. It is the only real safeguard against temptation; and it is this alone that can make one like God in character. Through the knowledge of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, are given to the believer "all things that pertain unto life and godliness." No good gift is withheld from anyone who sincerely desires to obtain the righteousness of God. . . .
HB	110	5	None of us need fail of attaining, in our sphere, to perfection of Christian character. By the sacrifice of Christ, provision has been made for the believer to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness.--The Acts of the Apostles, 530, 531.
------------------------Lowliness Gives Victory, April 2
HB	111	1	Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.--Matthew 5:5.
HB	111	2	"Blessed are the meek." The difficulties we have to encounter may be very much lessened by that meekness which hides itself in Christ. If we possess the humility of our Master, we shall rise above the slights, the rebuffs, the annoyances, to which we are daily exposed, and they will cease to cast a gloom over the spirit. The highest evidence of nobility in a Christian is self-control. Those who under abuse or cruelty fail to maintain a calm and trustful spirit rob God of His right to reveal in them His own perfection of character. Lowliness of heart is the strength that gives victory to the followers of Christ; it is the token of their connection with the courts above.
HB	111	3	"Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly." (Psalm 138:6.) Those who reveal the meek and lowly spirit of Christ are tenderly regarded by God. They may be looked upon with scorn by the world, but they are of great value in His sight. Not only the wise, the great, the beneficent, will gain a passport to the heavenly courts; not only the busy worker, full of zeal and restless activity. No; the poor in spirit, who crave the presence of an abiding Christ, the humble in heart, whose highest ambition is to do God's will--these will gain an abundant entrance. They will be among that number who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." (Revelation 7:15.) . . .
HB	111	4	The merciful shall find mercy, and the pure in heart shall see God. Every impure thought defiles the soul, impairs the moral sense, and tends to obliterate the impressions of the Holy Spirit. It dims the spiritual vision, so that we cannot behold God. The Lord may and does forgive the repenting sinner; but though forgiven, the soul is marred. All impurity of speech or of thought must be shunned by those who would have clear discernment of spiritual truth.
HB	111	5	But the words of Christ cover more than freedom from sensual impurity, more than freedom from that ceremonial defilement which the Jews so rigorously shunned. Selfishness prevents us from beholding God. . . . Only the unselfish heart, the humble and trustful spirit, shall see God as "merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." (Exodus 34:6.)--The Desire of Ages, 301, 302.
------------------------Victory In God Alone, April 3
HB	112	1	This is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.--1 John 5:4.
HB	112	2	The Christian life is a battle and a march. But the victory to be gained is not won by human power. The field of conflict is the domain of the heart. The battle which we have to fight--the greatest battle that was ever fought by human beings--is the surrender of self to the will of God, the yielding of the heart to the sovereignty of love. The old nature, born of blood and of the will of the flesh, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The hereditary tendencies, the former habits, must be given up.
HB	112	3	Those who determine to enter the spiritual kingdom will find that all the powers and passions of an unregenerate nature, backed by the forces of the kingdom of darkness, are arrayed against them. Selfishness and pride will make a stand against anything that would show them to be sinful. We cannot, of ourselves, conquer the evil desires and habits that strive for the mastery. We cannot overcome the mighty foe who holds us in his thrall. God alone can give us the victory. He desires us to have the mastery over ourselves, our own will and ways. But He cannot work in us without our consent and cooperation. The divine Spirit works through the faculties and powers given to us. Our energies are required to cooperate with God.
HB	112	4	The victory is not won without much earnest prayer, without the humbling of self at every step. Our will is not to be forced into cooperation with divine agencies, but it must be voluntarily submitted. Were it possible to force upon you with a hundredfold greater intensity the influence of the Spirit of God, it would not make you a Christian, a fit subject for heaven. The stronghold of Satan would not be broken. The will must be placed on the side of God's will. You are not able, of yourself, to bring your purposes and desires and inclinations into submission to the will of God; but if you are "willing to be made willing," God will accomplish the work for you, even "casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5.) Then you will "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12, 13.)--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 141-143.
------------------------Foundation For Victory, April 4
HB	113	1	Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.--1 Corinthians 15:57.
HB	113	2	To those who believe, Christ is the sure foundation. These are they who fall upon the Rock and are broken. Submission to Christ and faith in Him are here represented. To fall upon the Rock and be broken is to give up our self-righteousness and to go to Christ with the humility of a child, repenting of our transgressions, and believing in His forgiving love. And so also it is by faith and obedience that we build on Christ as our foundation.
HB	113	3	Upon this living stone, Jews and Gentiles alike may build. This is the only foundation upon which we may securely build. It is broad enough for all, and strong enough to sustain the weight and burden of the whole world. And by connection with Christ, the living stone, all who build upon this foundation become living stones. Many persons are by their own endeavors hewn, polished, and beautified; but they cannot become "living stones," because they are not connected with Christ. Without this connection, no one can be saved. Without the life of Christ in us, we cannot withstand the storms of temptation. Our eternal safety depends upon our building upon the sure foundation. Multitudes are today building upon foundations that have not been tested. When the rain falls, and the tempest rages, and the floods come, their house will fall, because it is not founded upon the eternal Rock, the chief cornerstone Christ Jesus.
HB	113	4	"To them which stumble at the word, being disobedient," Christ is a rock of offense. But "the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner." (1 Peter 2:7, 8.) Like the rejected stone, Christ in His earthly mission had borne neglect and abuse. He was "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: . . . He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." (Isaiah 53:3.) But the time was near when He would be glorified. By the resurrection from the dead He would be declared "the Son of God with power." (Romans 1:4.) At His second coming He would be revealed as Lord of heaven and earth. Those who were now about to crucify Him would recognize His greatness. Before the universe the rejected stone would become the head of the corner. . . .
HB	113	5	So it will be in the great final day, when judgment shall fall upon the rejecters of God's grace. Christ, their rock of offense, will then appear to them as an avenging mountain.--The Desire of Ages, 599, 600.
------------------------Temptation Can Result In Victory, April 5
HB	114	1	God is faithful, who will not allow you to be temped beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape.--1 Corinthians 10:13.
HB	114	2	We should not present our petitions to God to prove whether He will fulfill His word, but because He will fulfill it; not to prove that He loves us, but because He loves us.
HB	114	3	"Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain . . . and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."
HB	114	4	This was Satan's crowning effort. Into this effort he threw all his beguiling power. It was the charm of the serpent. He exerted the power of his fascination upon Christ, striving to make Him yield His will to him. In His weakness Christ laid hold of God. Divinity flashed through humanity. Christ stood revealed as the Commander of heaven, and His words were the words of one who has all power. "Get thee behind me, Satan," He said, "for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."
HB	114	5	Satan had questioned whether Jesus was the Son of God. In his summary dismissal he had proof that he could not gainsay. He had no power to resist the command. Writhing with humiliation and rage, he was forced to withdraw from the presence of the world's Redeemer. Christ's victory was as complete as had been the failure of Adam.
HB	114	6	Christ knew of the long years of conflict in the future between human beings and their subtle foe. He is the refuge of all who, beset by temptation, call upon Him. Temptation and trial will come to us all, but we need never be worsted by the enemy. Our Saviour has conquered in our behalf. Satan is not invincible. Day by day he meets those who are on trial, striving by his wiles to gain the mastery over them. His accusing power is great, and it is in this line that he wins more victories than in any other. Christ was tempted, that He might know how to help every soul that should afterward be tempted. Temptation is not sin; the sin lies in yielding. To the soul who trusts in Jesus, temptation means victory and greater strength.
HB	114	7	Christ is ready to pardon all who come to Him confessing their sins. . . . Thank God, we have a high priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities, for He was in all points tempted as we are.--Christ Triumphant, 218.
------------------------In Safe Paths, April 6
HB	115	1	The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do.--John 5:19.
HB	115	2	The words of Christ teach that we should regard ourselves as inseparably bound to our Father in heaven. Whatever our position, we are dependent upon God, who holds all destinies in His hands. He has appointed us our work, and has endowed us with faculties and means for that work. So long as we surrender the will to God, and trust in His strength and wisdom, we shall be guided in safe paths, to fulfill our appointed part in His great plan. But those who depend upon their own wisdom and power are separating themselves from God. Instead of working in unison with Christ, they are fulfilling the purpose of the enemy of God and mankind.
HB	115	3	The Saviour continued: "What things soever He [the Father] doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. . . . As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." The Sadducees held that there would be no resurrection of the body; but Jesus tells them that one of the greatest works of His Father is raising the dead, and that He Himself has power to do the same work. "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." The Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead. Christ declares that even now the power which gives life to the dead is among them, and they are to behold its manifestation. This same resurrection power is that which gives life to the soul "dead in trespasses and sins." (Ephesians 2:1.) That spirit of life in Christ Jesus, "the power of His resurrection," sets us "free from the law of sin and death." (Philippians 3:10; Romans 8:2.) The dominion of evil is broken, and through faith the soul is kept from sin. All who open their hearts to the Spirit of Christ become partakers of that mighty power which shall bring forth their bodies from the grave. . . .
HB	115	4	The priests and rulers had set themselves up as judges to condemn Christ's work, but He declared Himself their judge, and the judge of all the earth. The world has been committed to Christ, and through Him has come every blessing from God to the fallen race. He was the Redeemer before as after His incarnation. As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour. He has given light and life to all, and according to the measure of light given, each is to be judged. And He who has given the light, He who has followed the soul with tenderest entreaty, seeking to win it from sin to holiness, is in one its advocate and judge.--The Desire of Ages, 209, 210.
------------------------Satan Can't Make You Sin, April 7
HB	116	1	Away with you, Satan! For it is written, "You shall worship the LORD your God."--Matthew 4:10.
HB	116	2	The tempter can never compel us to do evil. He cannot control minds unless they are yielded to his control. The will must consent, faith must let go its hold upon Christ, before Satan can exercise his power upon us. But every sinful desire we cherish affords him a foothold. Every point in which we fail of meeting the divine standard is an open door by which he can enter to tempt and destroy us. And every failure or defeat on our part gives occasion for him to reproach Christ.
HB	116	3	When Satan quoted the promise, "He shall give His angels charge over Thee," he omitted the words, "to keep Thee in all Thy ways;" that is, in all the ways of God's choosing. Jesus refused to go outside the path of obedience. While manifesting perfect trust in His Father, He would not place Himself, unbidden, in a position that would necessitate the interposition of His Father to save Him from death. He would not force Providence to come to His rescue, and thus fail of giving us an example of trust and submission.
HB	116	4	Jesus declared to Satan, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." These words were spoken by Moses to the children of Israel when they thirsted in the desert, and demanded that Moses should give them water, exclaiming, "Is the Lord among us, or not?" (Exodus 17:7.) God had wrought marvelously for them; yet in trouble they doubted Him, and demanded evidence that He was with them. In their unbelief they sought to put Him to the test. And Satan was urging Christ to do the same thing. God had already testified that Jesus was His Son; and now to ask for proof that He was the Son of God would be putting God's word to the test--tempting Him. And the same would be true of asking for that which God had not promised. It would manifest distrust, and be really proving, or tempting, Him. We should not present our petitions to God to prove whether He will fulfill His word, but because He will fulfill it; not to prove that He loves us, but because He loves us. "Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6.)
HB	116	5	But faith is in no sense allied to presumption. Only those who have true faith are secure against presumption. For presumption is Satan's counterfeit of faith.--The Desire of Ages, 125, 126.
------------------------God Must Have Your Consent, April 8
HB	117	1	The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped.--Psalm 28:7.
HB	117	2	Side by side with the preaching of the gospel, agencies are at work which are but the medium of lying spirits. Many tamper with these merely from curiosity, but seeing evidence of the working of a more than human power, they are lured on and on, until they are controlled by a will stronger than their own. They cannot escape from its mysterious power.
HB	117	3	The defenses of their souls are broken down. They have no barrier against sin. When once the restraints of God's word and His Spirit are rejected, no one knows to what depths of degradation they may sink. Secret sin or master passion may hold them captives as helpless as was the demoniac of Capernaum. Yet their condition is not hopeless.
HB	117	4	The means by which we can overcome the wicked one is that by which Christ overcame--the power of the word. God does not control our minds without our consent; but if we desire to know and to do His will, His promises are ours: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching." (John 8:32; 7:17, R.V.) Through faith in these promises, everyone may be delivered from the snares of error and the control of sin.
HB	117	5	All of the human race are free to choose what power they will have to rule over them. None have fallen so low, none are so vile, but that they can find deliverance in Christ. The demoniac, in place of prayer, could utter only the words of Satan; yet the heart's unspoken appeal was heard. No cry from a soul in need, though it fail of utterance in words, will be unheeded. Those who will consent to enter into covenant relation with the God of heaven are not left to the power of Satan or to the infirmity of their own nature. They are invited by the Saviour, "Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me." (Isaiah 27:5.) The spirits of darkness will battle for the soul once under their dominion, but angels of God will contend for that soul with prevailing power. The Lord says, "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? . . . Thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children." (Isaiah 49:24, 25.)--The Desire of Ages, 258, 259.
------------------------Stepping Over The Line, April 9
HB	118	1	Do not love the world or the things in the world.--1 John 2:15.
HB	118	2	Christ does not say that people will not or shall not serve two masters, but that they cannot. The interests of God and the interests of mammon have no union or sympathy. Just where the conscience of Christians warn them to forbear, to deny self, to stop, just there the worldlings step over the line, to indulge their selfish propensities. On one side of the line are the self-denying followers of Christ; on the other side are the self-indulgent world lovers, pandering to fashion, engaging in frivolity, and pampering themselves in forbidden pleasure. On that side of the line the Christian cannot go.
HB	118	3	No one can occupy a neutral position; there is no middle class, who neither love God nor serve the enemy of righteousness. Christ is to live in His human agents and work through their faculties and act through their capabilities. Their will must be submitted to His will; they must act with His Spirit. Then it is no more they that live, but Christ that lives in them. Those who do not give themselves wholly to God are under the control of another power, listening to another voice, whose suggestions are of an entirely different character. Half-and-half service places the human agent on the side of the enemy as a successful ally of the hosts of darkness. When those who claim to be soldiers of Christ engage with the confederacy of Satan, and help along his side, they prove themselves enemies of Christ. They betray sacred trusts. They form a link between Satan and the true soldiers, so that through these agencies the enemy is constantly working to steal away the hearts of Christ's soldiers.
HB	118	4	The strongest bulwark of vice in our world is not the iniquitous life of the abandoned sinner or the degraded outcast; it is that life which otherwise appears virtuous, honorable, and noble, but in which one sin is fostered, one vice indulged. To the soul that is struggling in secret against some giant temptation, trembling upon the very verge of the precipice, such an example is one of the most powerful enticements to sin. Anyone who, endowed with high conceptions of life and truth and honor, does yet willfully transgress one precept of God's holy law, has perverted His noble gifts into a lure to sin. Genius, talent, sympathy, even generous and kindly deeds, may become decoys of Satan to entice other souls over the precipice of ruin for this life and the life to come.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 93, 94.
------------------------Learn To Distrust Self, April 10
HB	119	1	Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.--Matthew 18:4.
HB	119	2	The Saviour did not despise education; for when controlled by the love of God, and devoted to His service, intellectual culture is a blessing. But He passed by the wise men of His time, because they were so self-confident that they could not sympathize with suffering humanity, and become colaborers with the Man of Nazareth. . . . The first thing to be learned by all who would become workers together with God is the lesson of self-distrust; then they are prepared to have imparted to them the character of Christ. This is not to be gained through education in the most scientific schools. It is the fruit of wisdom that is obtained from the divine Teacher alone.
HB	119	3	Jesus chose unlearned fishermen because they had not been schooled in the traditions and erroneous customs of their time. They were men of native ability, and they were humble and teachable,--men whom He could educate for His work. In the common walks of life there are many people patiently treading the round of daily toil, unconscious that they possess powers which, if called into action, would raise them to an equality with the world's most honored leaders. The touch of a skillful hand is needed to arouse those dormant faculties. It was such men that Jesus called to be His colaborers; and He gave them the advantage of association with Himself. Never had the world's great minds such a teacher. When the disciples came forth from the Saviour's training, they were no longer ignorant and uncultured. They had become like Him in mind and character, and others took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.
HB	119	4	It is not the highest work of education to communicate knowledge merely, but to impart that vitalizing energy which is received through the contact of mind with mind, and soul with soul. It is only life that can beget life. What privilege, then, was theirs who for three years were in daily contact with that divine life from which has flowed every life-giving impulse that has blessed the world! Above all his companions, John the beloved disciple yielded himself to the power of that wondrous life. He says, "The life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." (1 John 1:2.)--The Desire of Ages, 249, 250.
------------------------Stay Focused On Jesus, April 11
HB	120	1	Blessed are your eyes for they see.--Matthew 13:16.
HB	120	2	Walking side by side, Peter's hand in that of his Master, they stepped into the boat together. But Peter was now subdued and silent. He had no reason to boast over his companions, for through unbelief and self-exaltation he had very nearly lost his life. When he turned his eyes from Jesus, his footing was lost, and he sank amid the waves.
HB	120	3	When trouble comes upon us, how often we are like Peter! We look upon the waves, instead of keeping our eyes fixed upon the Saviour. Our footsteps slide, and the proud waters go over our souls. Jesus did not bid Peter come to Him that he should perish; He does not call us to follow Him, and then forsake us. . . .
HB	120	4	Jesus read the character of His disciples. He knew how sorely their faith was to be tried. In this incident on the sea He desired to reveal to Peter his own weakness--to show that his safety was in constant dependence upon divine power. Amid the storms of temptation he could walk safely only as in utter self-distrust he should rely upon the Saviour. It was on the point where he thought himself strong that Peter was weak; and not until he discerned his weakness could he realize his need of dependence upon Christ. Had he learned the lesson that Jesus sought to teach him in that experience on the sea, he would not have failed when the great test came upon him.
HB	120	5	Day by day God instructs His children. By the circumstances of the daily life He is preparing them to act their part upon that wider stage to which His providence has appointed them. It is the issue of the daily test that determines their victory or defeat in life's great crisis.
HB	120	6	Those who fail to realize their constant dependence upon God will be overcome by temptation. We may now suppose that our feet stand secure, and that we shall never be moved. We may say with confidence, "I know in whom I have believed; nothing can shake my faith in God and in His word." But Satan is planning to take advantage of our hereditary and cultivated traits of character, and to blind our eyes to our own necessities and defects. Only through realizing our own weakness and looking steadfastly unto Jesus can we walk securely.--The Desire of Ages, 381, 382.
------------------------You Are Not Alone, April 12
HB	121	1	I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.--John 17:9.
HB	121	2	The only safeguard against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith in His righteousness. It is because selfishness exists in our hearts that temptation has power over us. But when we behold the great love of God, selfishness appears to us in its hideous and repulsive character, and we desire to have it expelled from the soul. As the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ, our hearts are softened and subdued, the temptation loses its power, and the grace of Christ transforms the character.
HB	121	3	Christ will never abandon the soul for whom He has died. The soul may leave Him and be overwhelmed with temptation, but Christ can never turn from one for whom He has paid the ransom of His own life. Could our spiritual vision be quickened, we should see souls bowed under oppression and burdened with grief, pressed as a cart beneath sheaves and ready to die in discouragement. We should see angels flying swiftly to aid these tempted ones, who are standing as on the brink of a precipice. The angels from heaven force back the hosts of evil that encompass these souls, and guide them to plant their feet on the sure foundation. The battles waging between the two armies are as real as those fought by the armies of this world, and on the issue of the spiritual conflict eternal destinies depend.
HB	121	4	To us, as to Peter, the word is spoken, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." (Luke 22:31, 32.) Thank God, we are not left alone. He who "so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16), will not desert us in the battle with the adversary of God and mankind. "Behold," He says, "I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." (Luke 10:19.)
HB	121	5	Live in contact with the living Christ, and He will hold you firmly by a hand that will never let go. Know and believe the love that God has to us, and you are secure; that love is a fortress impregnable to all the delusions and assaults of Satan.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 118, 119.
------------------------Fortresses For God, April 13
HB	122	1	Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.--Ephesians 6:10.
HB	122	2	There were many in Christ's day, as there are today, over whom the control of Satan for the time seemed broken; through the grace of God they were set free from the evil spirits that had held dominion over the soul. They rejoiced in the love of God; but, like the stony-ground hearers of the parable, they did not abide in His love. They did not surrender themselves to God daily, that Christ might dwell in the heart; and when the evil spirit returned, with "seven other spirits more wicked than himself," they were wholly dominated by the power of evil.
HB	122	3	When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart. A change is wrought which we can never accomplish for our-selves. It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature. The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan. But unless we do yield ourselves to the control of Christ, we shall be dominated by the wicked one. We must inevitably be under the control of the one or the other of the two great powers that are contending for the supremacy of the world. It is not necessary for us deliberately to choose the service of the kingdom of darkness in order to come under its dominion. We have only to neglect to ally ourselves with the kingdom of light. If we do not cooperate with the heavenly agencies, Satan will take possession of the heart, and will make it his abiding place. The only defense against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith in His righteousness. Unless we become vitally connected with God, we can never resist the unhallowed effects of self-love, self-indulgence, and temptation to sin. We may leave off many bad habits, for the time we may part company with Satan; but without a vital connection with God, through the surrender of ourselves to Him moment by moment, we shall be overcome. Without a personal acquaintance with Christ, and a continual communion, we are at the mercy of the enemy, and shall do his bidding in the end. . . .
HB	122	4	The most common manifestation of the sin against the Holy Spirit is in persistently slighting Heaven's invitation to repent. Every step in the rejection of Christ is a step toward the rejection of salvation.--The Desire of Ages, 323, 324.
------------------------Heart Obedience, April 14
HB	123	1	If you love Me, keep My commandments.--John 14:15.
HB	123	2	But to pray in Christ's name means much. It means that we are to accept His character, manifest His spirit, and work His works. The Saviour's promise is given on condition. "If ye love Me," He says, "keep My commandments." He saves people, not in sin, but from sin; and those who love Him will show their love by obedience.
HB	123	3	All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.
HB	123	4	As Christ lived the law in humanity, so we may do if we will take hold of the Strong for strength. But we are not to place the responsibility of our duty upon others, and wait for them to tell us what to do. We cannot depend for counsel upon humanity. The Lord will teach us our duty just as willingly as He will teach somebody else. If we come to Him in faith, He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Our hearts will often burn within us as One draws nigh to commune with us as He did with Enoch. Those who decide to do nothing in any line that will displease God, will know, after presenting their case before Him, just what course to pursue. And they will receive not only wisdom, but strength. Power for obedience, for service, will be imparted to them, as Christ has promised. Whatever was given to Christ--the "all things" to supply the need of fallen men and women--was given to Him as the head and representative of humanity. And "whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." (1 John 3:22.)
HB	123	5	Before offering Himself as the sacrificial victim, Christ sought for the most essential and complete gift to bestow upon His followers, a gift that would bring within their reach the boundless resources of grace. "I will pray the Father," He said, "and He shall give you another Comforter." (John 14:16.)--The Desire of Ages, 668, 669.
------------------------Be True to Principle, April 15
HB	124	1	I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime: I have sat at my post every night.--Isaiah 21:8.
HB	124	2	Jesus Himself never purchased peace by compromise. His heart overflowed with love for the whole human race, but He was never indulgent to their sins. He was too much their friend to remain silent while they were pursuing a course that would ruin their souls--the souls He had purchased with His own blood. He labored that human beings should be true to themselves, true to their higher and eternal interest. The servants of Christ are called to the same work, and they should beware lest, in seeking to prevent discord, they surrender the truth. They are to "follow after the things which make for peace" (Romans 14:19); but real peace can never be secured by compromising principle. And no one can be true to principle without exciting opposition. A Christianity that is spiritual will be opposed by the children of disobedience. But Jesus bade His disciples, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." Those who are true to God need not fear human power nor the enmity of Satan. In Christ their eternal life is secure. Their only fear should be lest they surrender the truth, and thus betray the trust with which God has honored them.
HB	124	3	It is Satan's work to fill people's hearts with doubt. He leads them to look upon God as a stern judge. He tempts them to sin, and then to regard themselves as too vile to approach their heavenly Father or to excite His pity. The Lord understands all this. Jesus assures His disciples of God's sympathy for them in their needs and weaknesses. Not a sigh is breathed, not a pain felt, not a grief pierces the soul, but the throb vibrates to the Father's heart.
HB	124	4	The Bible shows us God in His high and holy place, not in a state of in-activity, not in silence and solitude, but surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of holy intelligences, all waiting to do His will. Through channels which we cannot discern He is in active communication with every part of His dominion. But it is in this speck of a world, in the souls that He gave His only-begotten Son to save, that His interest and the interest of all heaven is centered. God is bending from His throne to hear the cry of the oppressed. To every sincere prayer He answers, "Here am I." He uplifts the distressed and downtrodden. In all our afflictions He is afflicted.--The Desire of Ages, 356.
------------------------How Do We Deny Jesus?, April 16
HB	125	1	But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.--Matthew 10:33.
HB	125	2	Jesus continues: As you confess Me before men, so I will confess you before God and the holy angels. You are to be My witnesses upon earth, channels through which My grace can flow for the healing of the world. So I will be your representative in heaven. The Father beholds not your faulty character, but He sees you as clothed in My perfection. I am the medium through which Heaven's blessings shall come to you. And everyone who confesses Me by sharing My sacrifice for the lost shall be confessed as a sharer in the glory and joy of the redeemed.
HB	125	3	All who would confess Christ must have Christ abiding in them. They cannot communicate that which they have not received. The disciples might speak fluently on doctrines, they might repeat the words of Christ Himself; but unless they possessed Christlike meekness and love, they were not confessing Him. A spirit contrary to the spirit of Christ would deny Him, whatever the profession. People may deny Christ by evil speaking, by foolish talking, by words that are untruthful or unkind. They may deny Him by shunning life's burdens, by the pursuit of sinful pleasure. They may deny Him by conforming to the world, by uncourteous behavior, by the love of their own opinions, by justifying self, by cherishing doubt, borrowing trouble, and dwelling in darkness. In all these ways they declare that Christ is not in them. . . .
HB	125	4	The Saviour bade His disciples not to hope that the world's enmity to the gospel would be overcome, and that after a time its opposition would cease. He said, "I came not to send peace, but a sword." This creating of strife is not the effect of the gospel, but the result of opposition to it. Of all persecution the hardest to bear is variance in the home, the estrangement of dearest earthly friends. But Jesus declares, "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." . . .
HB	125	5	The mission of Christ's servants is a high honor, and a sacred trust. . . . No act of kindness shown to them in His name will fail to be recognized and rewarded. And in the same tender recognition He includes the feeblest and lowliest of the family of God.--The Desire of Ages, 357, 358.
------------------------How Do We See Ourselves?, April 17
HB	126	1	And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.--Philippians 4:19.
HB	126	2	In the days of Christ the religious leaders of the people felt that they were rich in spiritual treasure. The prayer of the Pharisee, "God, I thank Thee, that I am not as the rest of men" (Luke 18:11, R.V.), expressed the feeling of his class and, to a great degree, of the whole nation. But in the throng that surrounded Jesus there were some who had a sense of their spiritual poverty. When in the miraculous draft of fishes the divine power of Christ was revealed, Peter fell at the Saviour's feet, exclaiming, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5:8); so in the multitude gathered upon the mount there were souls who, in the presence of His purity, felt that they were "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" (Revelation 3:17); and they longed for "the grace of God that bringeth salvation." (Titus 2:11.) In these souls, Christ's words of greeting awakened hope; they saw that their lives were under the benediction of God.
HB	126	3	Jesus had presented the cup of blessing to those who felt that they were "rich, and increased with goods" (Revelation 3:17), and had need of nothing, and they had turned with scorn from the gracious gift. Those who feel whole, who think that they are reasonably good, and are contented with their condition, do not seek to become partakers of the grace and righteousness of Christ. Pride feels no need, and so it closes the heart against Christ and the infinite blessings He came to give. There is no room for Jesus in the heart of such a person. Those who are rich and honorable in their own eyes do not ask in faith, and receive the blessing of God. They feel that they are full, therefore they go away empty. Those who know that they cannot possibly save themselves, or of themselves do any righteous action, are the ones who appreciate the help that Christ can bestow. They are the poor in spirit, whom He declares to be blessed.
HB	126	4	Whom Christ pardons, He first makes penitent, and it is the office of the Holy Spirit to convince of sin. Those whose hearts have been moved by the convicting Spirit of God see that there is nothing good in themselves. They see that all they have ever done is mingled with self and sin. Like the poor publican, they stand afar off, not daring to lift up so much as their eyes to heaven, and cry, "God, be merciful to me the sinner." (Luke 18:13, R.V., margin.) And they are blessed.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 6-8.
------------------------Do We Sense Our Need?, April 18
HB	127	1	He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense.--Psalm 62:6.
HB	127	2	As we need food to sustain our physical strength, so do we need Christ, the Bread from heaven, to sustain spiritual life and impart strength to work the works of God. As the body is continually receiving the nourishment that sustains life and vigor, so the soul must be constantly communing with Christ, submitting to Him and depending wholly upon Him.
HB	127	3	As the weary travelers seek the spring in the desert and, finding it, quench their burning thirst, so will the Christian thirst for and obtain the pure water of life, of which Christ is the fountain.
HB	127	4	As we discern the perfection of our Saviour's character we shall desire to become wholly transformed and renewed in the image of His purity. The more we know of God, the higher will be our ideal of character and the more earnest our longing to reflect His likeness. A divine element combines with the human when the soul reaches out after God and the longing heart can say, "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him." (Psalm 62:5.)
HB	127	5	If you have a sense of need in your soul, if you hunger and thirst after righteousness, this is an evidence that Christ has wrought upon your heart, in order that He may be sought unto to do for you, through the endowment of the Holy Spirit, those things which it is impossible for you to do for yourself. We need not seek to quench our thirst at shallow streams; for the great fountain is just above us, of whose abundant waters we may freely drink, if we will rise a little higher in the pathway of faith.
HB	127	6	The words of God are the wellsprings of life. As you seek unto those living springs you will, through the Holy Spirit, be brought into communion with Christ. Familiar truths will present themselves to your mind in a new aspect, texts of Scripture will burst upon you with a new meaning as a flash of light, you will see the relation of other truths to the work of redemption, and you will know that Christ is leading you, a divine Teacher is at your side. . . .
HB	127	7	As the Holy Spirit opens to you the truth you will treasure up the most precious experiences and will long to speak to others of the comforting things that have been revealed to you. When brought into association with them you will communicate some fresh thought in regard to the character or the work of Christ.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 19, 20.
------------------------A New Life, April 19
HB	128	1	You must be born again.--John 3:7.
HB	128	2	Like Nicodemus, we must be willing to enter into life in the same way as the chief of sinners. Than Christ, "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12.) Through faith we receive the grace of God; but faith is not our Saviour. It earns nothing. It is the hand by which we lay hold upon Christ, and appropriate His merits, the remedy for sin. And we cannot even repent without the aid of the Spirit of God. The Scripture says of Christ, "Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." (Acts 5:31.) Repentance comes from Christ as truly as does pardon.
HB	128	3	How, then, are we to be saved? "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," so the Son of man has been lifted up, and everyone who has been deceived and bitten by the serpent may look and live. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29.) The light shining from the cross reveals the love of God. His love is drawing us to Himself. If we do not resist this drawing, we shall be led to the foot of the cross in repentance for the sins that have crucified the Saviour. Then the Spirit of God through faith produces a new life in the soul. The thoughts and desires are brought into obedience to the will of Christ. The heart, the mind, are created anew in the image of Him who works in us to subdue all things to Himself. Then the law of God is written in the mind and heart, and we can say with Christ, "I delight to do Thy will, O my God." (Psalm 40:8.)
HB	128	4	In the interview with Nicodemus, Jesus unfolded the plan of salvation, and His mission to the world. In none of His subsequent discourses did He explain so fully, step by step, the work necessary to be done in the hearts of all who would inherit the kingdom of heaven. At the very beginning of His ministry He opened the truth to a member of the Sanhedrin, to the mind that was most receptive, and to an appointed teacher of the people. But the leaders of Israel did not welcome the light. Nicodemus hid the truth in his heart, and for three years there was little apparent fruit. . . .
HB	128	5	Nicodemus related to John the story of that interview, and by his pen it was recorded for the instruction of millions.--The Desire of Ages, 175-177.
------------------------From Victory To Victory, April 20
HB	129	1	This is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.--1 John 5:4.
HB	129	2	Through Christ, restoration as well as reconciliation is provided for us. The gulf that was made by sin has been spanned by the cross of Calvary. A full, complete ransom has been paid by Jesus, by virtue of which the sinner is pardoned and the justice of the law is maintained. All who believe that Christ is the atoning sacrifice may come and receive pardon for their sins; for through the merit of Christ, communication has been opened between God and mankind. God can accept me as His child, and I can claim Him and rejoice in Him as my loving Father.
HB	129	3	We must center our hopes of heaven upon Christ alone, because He is our Substitute and Surety. We have transgressed the law of God, and by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. The best efforts that we in our own strength can make are valueless to meet the holy and just law that we have transgressed; but through faith in Christ we may claim the righteousness of the Son of God as all-sufficient. Christ satisfied the demands of the law in His human nature. He bore the curse of the law for sinners, made an atonement for them, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Genuine faith appropriates the righteousness of Christ, and sinners are made overcomers with Christ; for they are made partakers of the divine nature, and thus divinity and humanity are combined.
HB	129	4	All who are trying to reach heaven by their own works in keeping the law are attempting an impossibility. We cannot be saved without obedience, but our works should not be of ourselves; Christ should work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. If we could save ourselves by our own works, we might have something in ourselves in which to rejoice. The effort that we make in our own strength to obtain salvation is represented by the offering of Cain. All that human beings can do without Christ is polluted with selfishness and sin; but that which is wrought through faith is acceptable to God. When we seek to gain heaven through the merits of Christ, the soul makes progress. "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith," we may go on from strength to strength, from victory to victory; for through Christ the grace of God has worked out our complete salvation.--Review and Herald, July 1, 1890 (Selected Messages, book 1, 363, 364)
------------------------Sin No Longer Attractive, April 21
HB	130	1	For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.--Romans 5:10.
HB	130	2	It is the righteousness of Christ that makes penitent sinners acceptable to God and works their justification. However sinful have been their lives, if they believe in Jesus as their personal Saviour, they stand before God in the spotless robes of Christ's imputed righteousness.
HB	130	3	The sinners so recently dead in trespasses and sins are quickened by faith in Christ. They see by faith that Jesus is their Saviour, and alive forevermore, able to save unto "the uttermost [all] that come unto God by Him." In the atonement made for them the believers see such breadth and length and height and depth of efficiency--see such completeness of salvation, purchased at such infinite cost, that their souls are filled with praise and thanksgiving. They see as in a glass the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same image as by the Spirit of the Lord. They see the robe of Christ's righteousness, woven in the loom of heaven, wrought by His obedience, and imputed to the repenting soul through faith in His name.
HB	130	4	When sinners have a view of the matchless charms of Jesus, sin no longer looks attractive to them; for they behold the Chiefest among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely. They realize by a personal experience the power of the gospel, whose vastness of design is equaled only by its preciousness of purpose.
HB	130	5	We have a living Saviour. He is not in Joseph's new tomb; He is risen from the dead and has ascended on high as a Substitute and Surety for every believing soul. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1.) We are justified through the merits of Jesus, and this is God's acknowledgment of the perfection of the ransom paid us. That Christ was obedient even unto the death of the cross is a pledge of the repenting sinner's acceptance with the Father. Then shall we permit ourselves to have a vacillating experience of doubting and believing, believing and doubting? Jesus is the pledge of our acceptance with God. We stand in favor before God, not because of any merit in ourselves, but because of our faith in "the Lord our righteousness." . . .
HB	130	6	We are complete in Him, accepted in the Beloved, only as we abide in Him by faith.--Signs of the Times, July 4, 1892 (Faith and Works, 106, 107)
------------------------Race For The Crown, April 22
HB	131	1	Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?--1 Corinthians 9:24.
HB	131	2	In the epistle to the Hebrews is pointed out the single-hearted purpose that should characterize the Christian's race for eternal life: "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." (Hebrews 12:1, 2.) Envy, malice, evil thinking, evil speaking, covetousness--these are weights that Christians must lay aside if they would run successfully the race for immortality. Every habit or practice that leads into sin and brings dishonor upon Christ must be put away, whatever the sacrifice. The blessing of heaven cannot attend anyone in violating the eternal principles of right. One sin cherished is sufficient to work degradation of character and to mislead others. . . .
HB	131	3	The competitors in the ancient games, after they had submitted to self-denial and rigid discipline, were not even then sure of the victory. "Know ye not," Paul asked, "that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?" However eagerly and earnestly the runners might strive, the prize could be awarded to but one. One hand only could grasp the coveted garland. Some might put forth the utmost effort to obtain the prize, but as they reached forth the hand to secure it, another, an instant before them, might grasp the coveted treasure.
HB	131	4	Such is not the case in the Christian warfare. Not one who complies with the conditions will be disappointed at the end of the race. Not one who is earnest and persevering will fail of success. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. The weakest saint, as well as the strongest, may wear the crown of immortal glory. All may win who, through the power of divine grace, bring their lives into conformity to the will of Christ. The practice, in the details of life, of the principles laid down in God's word, is too often looked upon as unimportant--a matter too trivial to demand attention. But in view of the issue at stake, nothing is small that will help or hinder. Every act casts its weight into the scale that determines life's victory or defeat. And the reward given to those who win will be in proportion to the energy and earnestness with which they have striven.--The Acts of the Apostles, 312-314.
------------------------Abiding Peace, April 23
HB	132	1	Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.--John 14:27.
HB	132	2	When we receive Christ as an abiding guest in the soul, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The Saviour's life on earth, though lived in the midst of conflict, was a life of peace. While angry enemies were constantly pursuing Him, He said, "He that sent Me is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those things that please Him." (John 8:29.) No storm of human or satanic wrath could disturb the calm of that perfect communion with God. And He says to us, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you." "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest." (John 14:27; Matthew 11:29.) Bear with Me the yoke of service for the glory of God and the uplifting of humanity, and you will find the yoke easy and the burden light.
HB	132	3	It is the love of self that destroys our peace. While self is all alive, we stand ready continually to guard it from mortification and insult; but when we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God, we shall not take neglects or slights to heart. We shall be deaf to reproach and blind to scorn and insult. . . .
HB	132	4	Happiness drawn from earthly sources is as changeable as varying circumstances can make it; but the peace of Christ is a constant and abiding peace. It does not depend upon any circumstances in life, on the amount of worldly goods or the number of earthly friends. Christ is the fountain of living water, and happiness drawn from Him can never fail.
HB	132	5	The meekness of Christ, manifested in the home, will make the inmates happy; it provokes no quarrel, gives back no angry answer, but soothes the irritated temper and diffuses a gentleness that is felt by all within its charmed circle. Wherever cherished, it makes the families of earth a part of the one great family above.
HB	132	6	Far better would it be for us to suffer under false accusation than to inflict upon ourselves the torture of retaliation upon our enemies. The spirit of hatred and revenge originated with Satan, and can bring only evil to him who cherishes it. Lowliness of heart, that meekness which is the fruit of abiding in Christ, is the true secret of blessing.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 15-17.
------------------------Share What You Receive, April 24
HB	133	1	God . . . comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.--2 Corinthians 1:3, 4.
HB	133	2	To repenting sinners, God is ever ready to show His mercy and truth; He is ready to bestow upon them forgiveness and love; and He requires that those who have been blessed by His compassion, shall reveal the same mercy and love toward others; for this is doing the works of Christ, this is keeping the commandments of God. Those who show true gratitude glorify God by loving Him supremely and their neighbors as themselves. They manifest the fact that they have received not the spirit which is of the world, but the Spirit which is of God. By an experimental knowledge they know what are the good things freely given them of God; for they are illuminated by the Holy Spirit. They work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who worketh in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. Christ abides in the soul of the believer, a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.
HB	133	3	When we look upon ourselves as the purchased possession of Christ, we shall more clearly realize our need of His constant presence in order that we may represent Him by manifesting sympathy and love to all who are brought within the sphere of our influence. Our life is charged with solemn responsibilities, and it is only when we are fully consecrated to God, only when He cleanses us, and puts His own life and spirit upon us, that we can rightly represent Him to others. Our accountability extends to our thoughts, words, and acts, as well as to our larger transactions among our fellow-men.
HB	133	4	In order to fulfill the law, we are to carry out the golden rule, and do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Our influence must be sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God, if it is to be a blessing to humanity. We are not to be anxious as to what we will do for weeks or months or years ahead; for the future does not belong to us. One day alone is ours, and during this day we are to live for God, beautify our characters by faith in the righteousness of Christ. This one day we are to place in the hands of Christ in solemn service, in all our purposes and plans to be guided by Him. This one day we are to do unto others exactly as we wish them to do unto us. We are to be ready to speak kind words from hearts full of sympathy and love.--Signs of the Times, July 11, 1892.
------------------------Victory Through The Merits of Christ, April 25
HB	134	1	For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.--1 Corinthians 15:22.
HB	134	2	It is at an immense cost that we have been placed on the high vantage ground where we can be liberated from the bondage of sin, which has been wrought by the fall of Adam. . . . Never can we understand the value of the human soul until we realize the great sacrifice made for the redemption of the soul upon Calvary. Adam's sin in Eden plunged the human race into hopeless misery. But in the scheme of salvation a way has been provided for all to escape if they comply with the requirements. A second probation has been granted by the sacrifice of the Son of God. We have a battle to fight, but we can come off victor through the merits of Christ's blood.
HB	134	3	God saw that it was impossible for us to overcome and gain the victory in our own strength. The race has ever been growing weaker in every succeeding generation since the fall, and without the help of Christ we cannot resist the evil of intemperance. How thankful we should be that we have a Saviour and that He consented to lay off His royal robes and leave the royal throne, and to clothe His divinity with humanity and become a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. . . .
HB	134	4	After His baptism, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and was tempted of the devil. Christ commenced the work of redemption just where the ruin began, and the future welfare of the world depended on that battle fought by the Prince of life in the wilderness. Thanks be to God that He came off victorious, passing over the same ground where Adam fell and redeeming Adam's disgraceful failure. Satan left the field of battle a conquered foe. This victory is an assurance to us that through divine help we may come off victorious in our behalf on our own account in the conflict with the enemy. . . .
HB	134	5	Satan felt that all the power of this fallen planet was in his possession, but when Christ came to measure strength with the prince of darkness, Satan found One who was able to resist his temptations. The words of Christ are, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." . . . All heaven was watching the result of the controversy between Christ and Satan. . . . Now the question is, Will we take advantage of the situation and come off more than conquerors through Him who loved us?--Christ Triumphant, 215.
------------------------Victorious Over Trials, April 26
HB	135	1	Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.--1 Peter 4:12.
HB	135	2	In this time of trial we need to be encouraged and comforted by one another. The temptations of Satan are greater now than ever before, for he knows that his time is short and that very soon every case will be decided, either for life or for death. It is no time now to sink down beneath discouragement and trial; we must bear up under all our afflictions and trust wholly in the Almighty God of Jacob. The Lord has shown me that His grace is sufficient for all our trials; and although they are greater than ever before, yet if we trust wholly in God, we can overcome every temptation and through His grace come off victorious.
HB	135	3	If we overcome our trials and get victory over the temptations of Satan, then we endure the trial of our faith, which is more precious than gold, and are stronger and better prepared to meet the next. But if we sink down and give way to the temptations of Satan, we shall grow weaker and get no reward for the trial and shall not be so well prepared for the next. In this way we shall grow weaker and weaker, until we are led captive by Satan at his will.
HB	135	4	We must have on the whole armor of God and be ready at any moment for a conflict with the powers of darkness. When temptations and trials rush in upon us, let us go to God and agonize with Him in prayer. He will not turn us away empty, but will give us grace and strength to overcome, and to break the power of the enemy. Oh, that all could see these things in their true light and endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus! Then would Israel move forward, strong in God, and in the power of His might.
HB	135	5	God has shown me that He gave His people a bitter cup to drink, to purify and cleanse them. It is a bitter draft, and they can make it still more bitter by murmuring, complaining, and repining. But those who receive it thus must have another draft, for the first does not have its designed effect upon the heart. And if the second does not effect the work, then they must have another, and another, until it does have its designed effect, or they will be left filthy, impure in heart. I saw that this bitter cup can be sweetened by patience, endurance, and prayer, and that it will have its designed effect upon the hearts of those who thus receive it, and God will be honored and glorified.--Early Writings, 46, 47.
------------------------Crowns and Robes, April 27
HB	136	1	He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments.--Revelation 3:5.
HB	136	2	Every one of us may know that there is a power working with our efforts to overcome. Why will not men and women lay hold upon the help that has been provided, that they may become elevated and ennobled? Why do they degrade themselves by the indulgence of perverted appetite? Why do they not rise in the strength of Jesus, and be victorious in His name? The very feeblest prayer that we can offer, Jesus will hear. He pities the weakness of every soul. Help for everyone has been laid upon Him who is mighty to save. I point you to Jesus Christ, the sinner's Saviour, who alone can give you power to overcome on every point.
HB	136	3	Heaven is worth everything to us. We must not run any risk in this matter. We must take no venture here. We must know that our steps are ordered by the Lord. May God help us in the great work of overcoming. He has crowns for those that overcome. He has white robes for the righteous. He has an eternal world of glory for those who seek for glory, honor, and immortality. All who enter the city of God will enter it as conquerors. They will not enter it as condemned criminals, but as sons and daughters of God. And the welcome given to everyone who enters there will be, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matthew 25:34.)
HB	136	4	Gladly would I speak words that would aid such trembling souls to fasten their grasp by faith upon the mighty Helper, that they might develop a character upon which God will be pleased to look. Heaven may invite them, and present its choicest blessings, and they may have every facility to develop a perfect character; but all will be in vain unless they are willing to help themselves. They must put forth their own God-given powers, or they will sink lower and lower, and be of no account for good, either in time or in eternity.
HB	136	5	All who are weakened, and even degraded by sinful indulgence, may become children of God. It is in their power to be constantly doing good to others, and helping them to overcome temptation; and in so doing they will reap benefit to themselves. They may be bright and shining lights in the world, and at last hear the benediction, "Well done, good and faithful servant," from the lips of the King of Glory.--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 148, 149.
------------------------Look Up, Not Down, April 28
HB	137	1	Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.--Hebrews 12:12.
HB	137	2	The church, endowed with the righteousness of Christ, is His depositary, in which the riches of His mercy, His grace, and His love, are to appear in full and final display. Christ looks upon His people in their purity and perfection, as the reward of His humiliation, and the supplement of His glory--Christ, the great Center, from whom radiates all glory.-- The Desire of Ages, 680.
HB	137	3	All heaven is interested in the work going on in this world, which is to prepare men and women for the future, immortal life. It is God's plan that human agencies shall have the high honor of acting as coworkers with Jesus Christ in the salvation of souls. . . . They should look upon the work of God as sacred and holy, and should bring to Him, every day, offerings of joy and gratitude, in return for the power of His grace, by which they are enabled to make advancement in the divine life. . . .
HB	137	4	It is not necessary that anyone should yield to the temptations of Satan and thus violate conscience and grieve the Holy Spirit. Every provision has been made in the Word of God whereby all may have divine help in their endeavors to overcome.
HB	137	5	In the religious life of all who are finally victorious there will be scenes of terrible perplexity and trial; but their knowledge of the Scriptures will enable them to bring to mind the encouraging promises of God, which will comfort their hearts and strengthen their faith in the power of the Mighty One. They read: . . . "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:7.) The trial of faith is more precious than gold. All should learn that this is a part of the discipline in the school of Christ. . . .
HB	137	6	Summon all your powers to look up, not down at your difficulties; then you will never faint by the way. You will soon see Jesus behind the cloud, reaching out His hand to help you; and all you have to do is to give Him your hand in simple faith and let Him lead you. . . . A great name in the world is as letters traced in sand, but a spotless character will endure to all eternity. God gives you intelligence and a reasoning mind, whereby you may grasp His promises; and Jesus is ready to help you in forming a strong, symmetrical character.--Testimonies for the Church 5:573, 574, 578, 579.
------------------------Talk About God's Blessings, April 29
HB	138	1	When you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.--Luke 22:32.
HB	138	2	Faith familiarizes the soul with the existence and presence of God, and, living with an eye single to the glory of God, more and more we discern the beauty of His character, the excellence of His grace. Our souls become strong in spiritual power; for we are breathing the atmosphere of heaven. . . . We are rising above the world, beholding Him who is the Chief among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely.--Selected Messages, book 1, 334.
HB	138	3	Everyone who loves God is to testify of the preciousness of His grace and truth. Those who receive the light of truth are to have lesson upon lesson to educate them not to keep silent, but to speak often one to another. They are to keep in mind the Sabbath meeting, when those who love and fear God, and who think upon His name, can have opportunity to express their thoughts in speaking one to another. . . .
HB	138	4	The Majesty of heaven identifies His interests with those of the believers, however humble may be their circumstances. And whenever they are privileged to meet together, it is appropriate that they speak often one to another, giving utterance to the gratitude and love that is a result of thinking upon the name of the Lord. Thus shall God be glorified as He hearkens and hears, and the testimony meeting will be considered the most precious of all meetings; for the words spoken are recorded in the book of remembrance. . . .
HB	138	5	Do not gratify the enemy by dwelling upon the dark side of your experience; trust Jesus more fully for help to resist temptation. If we thought and talked more of Jesus, and less of ourselves, we should have much more of His presence. If we abide in Him, we shall be so filled with peace, faith, and courage, and shall have so victorious an experience to relate when we come to meeting, that others will be refreshed by our clear, strong testimony for God. These precious acknowledgements to the praise of the glory of His grace, when supported by a Christlike life, have an irresistible power, which works for the salvation of souls. The bright and cheerful side of religion will be represented by all who are daily consecrated to God. We should not dishonor our Lord by a mournful relation of trials that appear grievous. All trials that are received as educators will produce joy. The whole religious life will be uplifting, elevating, ennobling, fragrant with good words and works.--The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4, 1183.
------------------------Finally: A Position Above Angels, April 30
HB	139	1	To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.--Revelation 3:21.
HB	139	2	For the joy that was set before Him, Christ endured the cross, despising the shame, and is forever set down at the right hand of God. He died on the cross as a sacrifice for the world, and through this sacrifice comes the greatest blessing that God could bestow--the gift of the Holy Spirit. This blessing is for all who will receive Christ. The fallen world is the battlefield for the greatest conflict the heavenly universe and earthly powers have ever witnessed. It was appointed as the theater on which would be fought out the grand struggle between good and evil, between heaven and hell. Every human being acts a part in this conflict. No one can stand on neutral ground. Everyone must either accept or reject the world's Redeemer. All are witnesses, either for or against Christ. Christ calls upon those who stand under His banner to engage in the conflict with Him as faithful soldiers, that they may inherit the crown of life. They have been adopted as sons and daughters of God. Christ has left them His assured promise that great will be the reward in the kingdom of heaven of those who partake of His humiliation and suffering for the truth's sake.
HB	139	3	The cross of Calvary challenges, and will finally vanquish, every earthly and hellish power. In the cross all influence centers, and from it all influence goes forth. It is the great center of attraction, for on it Christ gave up His life for the human race. This sacrifice was offered for the purpose of restoring humanity to its original perfection; yea, more. It was offered to give us an entire transformation of character, making us more than conquerors. Those who in the strength of Christ overcome the great enemy of God and mankind, will occupy a position in the heavenly courts above angels who have never fallen. . . .
HB	139	4	In the plan of God, we are to draw upon all the riches of heaven. Nothing in the treasury of divine resources is deemed too costly to accompany the great gift of the only begotten Son of God. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." Christ was empowered to breathe into fallen humanity the breath of life. Those who receive Him will never hunger, never thirst; for greater joy than that found in Christ there cannot be.--General Conference Bulletin, Second Quarter, 1899, 33.
------------------------What Do You Talk To God About?, May 1
HB	142	1	For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers.--1 Peter 3:12.
HB	142	2	Through nature and revelation, through His providence, and by the influence of His Spirit, God speaks to us. But these are not enough; we need also to pour out our hearts to Him. In order to have spiritual life and energy, we must have actual communication with our heavenly Father. Our minds may be drawn out toward Him; we may meditate upon His works, His mercies, His blessings; but this is not, in the fullest sense, communing with Him. In order to commune with God, we must have something to say to Him concerning our actual life.
HB	142	3	Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him.
HB	142	4	When Jesus was upon the earth, He taught His disciples how to pray. He directed them to present their daily needs before God, and to cast all their care upon Him. And the assurance He gave them that their petitions should be heard, is assurance also to us.
HB	142	5	Jesus Himself, while He dwelt among humanity, was often in prayer. Our Saviour identified Himself with our needs and weakness, in that He became a suppliant, a petitioner, seeking from His Father fresh supplies of strength, that He might come forth braced for duty and trial. He is our example in all things. He is a brother in our infirmities, "in all points tempted like as we are;" but as the sinless one His nature recoiled from evil; He endured struggles and torture of soul in a world of sin. His humanity made prayer a necessity and a privilege. He found comfort and joy in communion with His Father. And if the Saviour, the Son of God, felt the need of prayer, how much more should feeble, sinful mortals feel the necessity of fervent, constant prayer.
HB	142	6	Our heavenly Father waits to bestow upon us the fullness of His blessing. It is our privilege to drink largely at the fountain of boundless love. What a wonder it is that we pray so little! God is ready and willing to hear the sincere prayer of the humblest of His children, and yet there is much manifest reluctance on our part to make known our wants to God.--Steps to Christ, 93, 94.
------------------------The Key In The Hand of Faith, May 2
HB	143	1	And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.--Matthew 21:22.
HB	143	2	What can the angels of heaven think of poor helpless human beings, who are subject to temptation, when God's heart of infinite love yearns toward them, ready to give them more than they can ask or think, and yet they pray so little and have so little faith? . . .
HB	143	3	The darkness of the evil one encloses those who neglect to pray. The whispered temptations of the enemy entice them to sin; and it is all because they do not make use of the privileges that God has given them in the divine appointment of prayer. Why should the sons and daughters of God be reluctant to pray, when prayer is the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven's storehouse, where are treasured the boundless resources of Omnipotence? Without unceasing prayer and diligent watching we are in danger of growing careless and of deviating from the right path. The adversary seeks continually to obstruct the way to the mercy seat, that we may not by earnest supplication and faith obtain grace and power to resist temptation.
HB	143	4	There are certain conditions upon which we may expect that God will hear and answer our prayers. One of the first of these is that we feel our need of help from Him. He has promised, "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground." (Isaiah 44:3.) Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, who long after God, may be sure that they will be filled. The heart must be open to the Spirit's influence, or God's blessing cannot be received.
HB	143	5	Our great need is itself an argument and pleads most eloquently in our behalf. But the Lord is to be sought unto to do these things for us. He says, "Ask, and it shall be given you." And "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Matthew 7:7; Romans 8:32.)
HB	143	6	If we regard iniquity in our hearts, if we cling to any known sin, the Lord will not hear us; but the prayer of the penitent, contrite soul is always accepted. When all known wrongs are righted, we may believe that God will answer our petitions. Our own merit will never commend us to the favor of God; it is the worthiness of Jesus that will save us, His blood that will cleanse us; yet we have a work to do in complying with the conditions of acceptance.--Steps to Christ, 94, 95.
------------------------The Science of Prayer, May 3
HB	144	1	Pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.--1 Thessalonians 5:17, 18.
HB	144	2	Christ's lessons in regard to prayer should be carefully considered. There is a divine science in prayer, and His illustration [of the friend at midnight, Luke 11:5-8] brings to view principles that all need to understand. He shows what is the true spirit of prayer, He teaches the necessity of perseverance in presenting our requests to God, and assures us of His willingness to hear and answer prayer.
HB	144	3	Our prayers are not to be a selfish asking, merely for our own benefit. We are to ask that we may give. The principle of Christ's life must be the principle of our lives. "For their sakes," He said, speaking of His disciples, "I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified." (John 17:19.) The same devotion, the same self-sacrifice, the same subjection to the claims of the word of God, that were manifest in Christ, must be seen in His servants. Our mission to the world is not to serve or please ourselves; we are to glorify God by cooperating with Him to save sinners. We are to ask blessings from God that we may communicate to others. The capacity for receiving is preserved only by imparting. We cannot continue to receive heavenly treasure without communicating to those around us.
HB	144	4	In the parable the petitioner was again and again repulsed, but he did not relinquish his purpose. So our prayers do not always seem to receive an immediate answer; but Christ teaches that we should not cease to pray. Prayer is not to work any change in God; it is to bring us into harmony with God. When we make request of Him, He may see that it is necessary for us to search our hearts and repent of sin. Therefore He takes us through test and trial, He brings us through humiliation, that we may see what hinders the working of His Holy Spirit through us.
HB	144	5	There are conditions to the fulfillment of God's promises, and prayer can never take the place of duty. "If ye love Me," Christ says, "Keep My command-ments." "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him." (John 14:15, 21.) Those who bring their petitions to God, claiming His promise while they do not comply with the conditions, insult Jehovah. They bring the name of Christ as their authority for the fulfillment of the promise, but they do not those things that would show faith in Christ and love for Him.--Christ's Object Lessons, 142, 143.
------------------------Another Condition, May 4
HB	145	1	Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them.--Mark 11:24.
HB	145	2	Another element of prevailing prayer is faith. "He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6.) Jesus said to His disciples, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 11:24.) Do we take Him at His word?
HB	145	3	The assurance is broad and unlimited, and He is faithful who has promised. When we do not receive the very things we asked for, at the time we ask, we are still to believe that the Lord hears and that He will answer our prayers. We are so erring and short-sighted that we sometimes ask for things that would not be a blessing to us, and our heavenly Father in love answers our prayers by giving us that which will be for our highest good--that which we ourselves would desire if with vision divinely enlightened we could see all things as they really are. When our prayers seem not to be answered, we are to cling to the promise; for the time of answering will surely come, and we shall receive the blessing we need most. But to claim that prayer will always be answered in the very way and for the particular thing that we desire, is presumption. God is too wise to err, and too good to withhold any good thing from them that walk uprightly. Then do not fear to trust Him, even though you do not see the immediate answer to your prayers. Rely upon His sure promise, "Ask, and it shall be given you."
HB	145	4	If we take counsel with our doubts and fears, or try to solve everything that we cannot see clearly, before we have faith, perplexities will only increase and deepen. But if we come to God, feeling helpless and dependent, as we really are, and in humble, trusting faith make known our wants to Him whose knowledge is infinite, who sees everything in creation, and who governs everything by His will and word, He can and will attend to our cry, and will let light shine into our hearts. Through sincere prayer we are brought into connection with the mind of the Infinite. We may have no remarkable evidence at the time that the face of our Redeemer is bending over us in compassion and love, but this is even so. We may not feel His visible touch, but His hand is upon us in love and pitying tenderness.
HB	145	5	When we come to ask mercy and blessing from God we should have a spirit of love and forgiveness in our own hearts.--Steps to Christ, 96, 97.
------------------------Faith and Secret Prayer, May 5
HB	146	1	Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.--Psalm 55:17.
HB	146	2	True faith lays hold of and claims the promised blessing before it is realized and felt. We must send up our petitions in faith within the second veil and let our faith take hold of the promised blessing and claim it as ours. We are then to believe that we receive the blessing, because our faith has hold of it, and according to the Word it is ours. "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 11:24.) Here is faith, naked faith, to believe that we receive the blessing, even before we realize it. When the promised blessing is realized and enjoyed, faith is swallowed up. But many suppose they have much faith when sharing largely of the Holy Spirit and that they cannot have faith unless they feel the power of the Spirit. Such confound faith with the blessing that comes through faith. The very time to exercise faith is when we feel destitute of the Spirit. When thick clouds of darkness seem to hover over the mind, then is the time to let living faith pierce the darkness and scatter the clouds. True faith rests on the promises contained in the Word of God, and those only who obey that Word can claim its glorious promises. . . .
HB	146	3	We should be much in secret prayer. Christ is the vine, ye are the branches. And if we would grow and flourish, we must continually draw sap and nourishment from the Living Vine; for separated from the Vine we have no strength.
HB	146	4	I asked the angel why there was no more faith and power in Israel. He said, "Ye let go of the arm of the Lord too soon. Press your petitions to the throne, and hold on by strong faith. The promises are sure. Believe ye receive the things ye ask for, and ye shall have them." . . . I saw that we had doubted the sure promises, and wounded the Saviour by our lack of faith. . . . If the enemy can lead the desponding to take their eyes off from Jesus, and look to themselves, and dwell upon their own unworthiness, instead of dwelling upon the worthiness of Jesus, His love, His merits, and His great mercy, he will get away their shield of faith and gain his object; they will be exposed to his fiery temptations. The weak should therefore look to Jesus, and believe in Him; they then exercise faith.--Early Writings, 72, 73.
------------------------Your Very First Work, May 6
HB	147	1	My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD.--Psalm 5:3.
HB	147	2	By faith you became Christ's, and by faith you are to grow up in Him--by giving and taking. You are to give all--your heart, your will, your service--give yourself to Him to obey all His requirements; and you must take all--Christ, the fullness of all blessing, to abide in your heart, to be your strength, your righteousness, your everlasting helper--to give you power to obey.
HB	147	3	Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be, "Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee." This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ.
HB	147	4	A life in Christ is a life of restfulness. There may be no ecstasy of feeling, but there should be an abiding, peaceful trust. Your hope is not in yourself; it is in Christ. Your weakness is united to His strength, your ignorance to His wisdom, your frailty to His enduring might. So you are not to look to yourself, not to let the mind dwell upon self, but look to Christ. Let the mind dwell upon His love, upon the beauty, the perfection, of His character. Christ in His self-denial, Christ in His humiliation, Christ in His purity and holiness, Christ in His matchless love--this is the subject for the soul's contemplation. It is by loving Him, copying Him, depending wholly upon Him, that you are to be transformed into His likeness.
HB	147	5	Jesus says, "Abide in Me." These words convey the idea of rest, stability, confidence. Again He invites, "Come unto Me, . . . and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28.) The words of the psalmist express the same thought: "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." . . . (Psalm 37:7.) This rest is not found in inactivity; for in the Saviour's invitation the promise of rest is united with the call to labor: "Take My yoke upon you: . . . and ye shall find rest." (Matthew 11:29.) The heart that rests most fully upon Christ will be most earnest and active in labor for Him.--Steps to Christ, 70, 71.
------------------------Include Prayer Meeting, May 7
HB	148	1	These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.--Acts 1:14.
HB	148	2	Perseverance in prayer has been made a condition of receiving. We must pray always if we would grow in faith and experience. We are to be "instant in prayer," to "continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving." (Romans 12:12; Colossians 4:2.) Peter exhorts believers to be "sober, and watch unto prayer." (1 Peter 4:7.) Paul directs, "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." (Philippians 4:6.) "But ye, beloved," says Jude, "praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God." (Jude 20, 21.) Unceasing prayer is the unbroken union of the soul with God.
HB	148	3	There is necessity for diligence in prayer; let nothing hinder you. Make every effort to keep open the communion between Jesus and your own soul. Seek every opportunity to go where prayer is wont to be made. Those who are really seeking for communion with God will be seen in the prayer meeting, faithful to do their duty and earnest and anxious to reap all the benefits they can gain. They will improve every opportunity of placing themselves where they can receive the rays of light from heaven.
HB	148	4	We should pray in the family circle, and above all we must not neglect secret prayer, for this is the life of the soul. It is impossible for the soul to flourish while prayer is neglected. Family or public prayer alone is not sufficient. In solitude let the soul be laid open to the inspecting eye of God. Secret prayer is to be heard only by the prayer-hearing God. No curious ear is to receive the burden of such petitions. In secret prayer the soul is free from surrounding influences, free from excitement. Calmly, yet fervently, will it reach out after God. Sweet and abiding will be the influence emanating from Him who seeth in secret, whose ear is open to hear the prayer arising from the heart. By calm, simple faith the soul holds communion with God and gathers to itself rays of divine light to strengthen and sustain it in the conflict with Satan. God is our tower of strength.
HB	148	5	Pray in your closet, and as you go about your daily labor let your heart be often uplifted to God. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. These silent prayers rise like precious incense before the throne of grace. Satan cannot overcome anyone whose heart is thus stayed upon God.--Steps to Christ, 97-99.
------------------------Pray Like Jacob, May 8
HB	149	1	I will not let You go unless You bless me!--Genesis 32:26.
HB	149	2	The season of distress and anguish before us will require a faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger--a faith that will not faint though severely tried. The period of probation is granted to all to prepare for that time. Jacob prevailed because he was persevering and determined. His victory is an evidence of the power of importunate prayer. All who will lay hold of God's promises, as he did, and be as earnest and persevering as he was, will succeed as he succeeded. Those who are unwilling to deny self, to agonize before God, to pray long and earnestly for His blessing, will not obtain it. Wrestling with God--how few know what it is! How few have ever had their souls drawn out after God with intensity of desire until every power is on the stretch. When waves of despair which no language can express sweep over the suppliant, how few cling with unyielding faith to the promises of God.
HB	149	3	Those who exercise but little faith now, are in the greatest danger of falling under the power of satanic delusions and the decree to compel the conscience. And even if they endure the test they will be plunged into deeper distress and anguish in the time of trouble, because they have never made it a habit to trust in God. The lessons of faith which they have neglected they will be forced to learn under a terrible pressure of discouragement.
HB	149	4	We should now acquaint ourselves with God by proving His promises. Angels record every prayer that is earnest and sincere. We should rather dispense with selfish gratifications than neglect communion with God. The deepest poverty, the greatest self-denial, with His approval, is better than riches, honors, ease, and friendship without it. We must take time to pray. If we allow our minds to be absorbed by worldly interests, the Lord may give us time by removing from us our idols of gold, of houses, or of fertile lands.
HB	149	5	The young would not be seduced into sin if they would refuse to enter any path save that upon which they could ask God's blessing. If the messengers who bear the last solemn warning to the world would pray for the blessing of God, not in a cold, listless, lazy manner, but fervently and in faith, as did Jacob, they would find many places where they could say: "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." (Genesis 32:30.) They would be accounted of heaven as princes, having power to prevail with God and with men.--The Great Controversy, 621, 622.
------------------------You Cannot Wear God Out, May 9
HB	150	1	Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications!--Psalm 143:1.
HB	150	2	Let the soul be drawn out and upward, that God may grant us a breath of the heavenly atmosphere. We may keep so near to God that in every unexpected trial our thoughts will turn to Him as naturally as the flower turns to the sun.
HB	150	3	Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children. "The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." (James 5:11.) His heart of love is touched by our sorrows and even by our utterances of them. Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe. Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. No calamity can befall the least of His children, no anxiety harass the soul, no joy cheer, no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest. "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." (Psalm 147:3.) The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share His watchcare, not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son.
HB	150	4	Jesus said, "Ye shall ask in My name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you." "I have chosen you: . . . that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you." (John 16:26, 27; 15:16.) But to pray in the name of Jesus is something more than a mere mention of that name at the beginning and the ending of a prayer. It is to pray in the mind and spirit of Jesus, while we believe His promises, rely upon His grace, and work His works.
HB	150	5	God does not mean that any of us should become hermits or monks and retire from the world in order to devote ourselves to acts of worship. The life must be like Christ's life--between the mountain and the multitude. Those who do nothing but pray will soon cease to pray, or their prayers will become a formal routine.--Steps to Christ, 99-101.
------------------------Prayer Enhances Spiritual Growth, May 10
HB	151	1	Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.--Colossians 3:2.
HB	151	2	Those who have determined to enter the spiritual kingdom will find that all the powers and passions of unregenerate nature, backed by the forces of the kingdom of darkness, are arrayed against them. Each day they must renew their consecration, each day do battle with evil. Old habits, hereditary tendencies to wrong, will strive for the mastery, and against these they are to be ever on guard, striving in Christ's strength for victory. . . .
HB	151	3	The letter to the Colossians is filled with lessons of highest value to all who are engaged in the service of Christ, lessons that show the singleness of purpose and the loftiness of aim which will be seen in the life of those who rightly represent the Saviour. Renouncing all that would hinder them from making progress in the upward way or that would turn the feet of others from the narrow path, the believers will reveal in their daily life mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, forbearance, and the love of Christ.
HB	151	4	The power of a higher, purer, nobler life is our great need. The world has too much of our thought, and the kingdom of heaven too little.
HB	151	5	In their efforts to reach God's ideal for them, Christians are to despair of nothing. Moral and spiritual perfection, through the grace and power of Christ, is promised to all. Jesus is the source of power, the fountain of life. He brings us to His word, and from the tree of life presents to us leaves for the healing of sinsick souls. He leads us to the throne of God, and puts into our mouth a prayer through which we are brought into close contact with Himself. In our behalf He sets in operation the all-powerful agencies of heaven. At every step we touch His living power.
HB	151	6	God fixes no limit to the advancement of those who desire to be "filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Through prayer, through watchfulness, through growth in knowledge and understanding, they are to be "strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power." Thus they are prepared to work for others. It is the Saviour's purpose that human beings, purified and sanctified, shall be His helping hand. For this great privilege let us give thanks to Him who "hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son."--The Acts of the Apostles, 477, 478.
------------------------Study With Earnest Prayer, May 11
HB	152	1	For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.--Romans 15:4.
HB	152	2	Those who are unwilling to accept the plain, cutting truths of the Bible are continually seeking for pleasing fables that will quiet the conscience. The less spiritual, self-denying, and humiliating the doctrines presented, the greater the favor with which they are received. These persons degrade the intellectual powers to serve their carnal desires. Too wise in their own conceit to search the Scriptures with contrition of soul and earnest prayer for divine guidance, they have no shield from delusion. Satan is ready to supply the heart's desire, and he palms off his deceptions in the place of truth. It was thus that the papacy gained its power over the minds of people; and by rejection of the truth because it involves a cross, Protestants are following the same path. All who neglect the word of God to study convenience and policy, that they may not be at variance with the world, will be left to receive damnable heresy for religious truth. Every conceivable form of error will be accepted by those who willfully reject the truth. A person who looks with horror upon one deception will readily receive another. The apostle Paul, speaking of a class who "received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved," declares: "For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.) With such a warning before us it behooves us to be on our guard as to what doctrines we receive.
HB	152	3	Among the most successful agencies of the great deceiver are the delusive teachings and lying wonders of spiritualism. Disguised as an angel of light, he spreads his nets where least suspected. If people would but study the Book of God with earnest prayer that they might understand it, they would not be left in darkness to receive false doctrines. But as they reject the truth they fall a prey to deception.
HB	152	4	Another dangerous error is the doctrine that denies the deity of Christ, claiming that He had no existence before His advent to this world. This theory is received with favor by a large class who profess to believe the Bible; yet it directly contradicts the plainest statements of our Saviour concerning His relationship with the Father, His divine character, and His pre-existence.--The Great Controversy, 523, 524.
------------------------What We Need To Learn About Prayer, May 12
HB	153	1	And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.--John 4:46.
HB	153	2	He [the Saviour] knew also that the father had, in his own mind, made conditions concerning his belief in Jesus. Unless his petition should be granted, he would not receive Him as the Messiah. . . .
HB	153	3	Yet the nobleman had a degree of faith; for he had come to ask what seemed to him the most precious of all blessings. Jesus had a greater gift to bestow. He desired, not only to heal the child, but to make the officer and his household sharers in the blessings of salvation, and to kindle a light in Capernaum, which was so soon to be the field of His own labors. . . .
HB	153	4	The nobleman longed to know more of Christ. As he afterward heard His teaching, he and all his household became disciples. Their affliction was sanctified to the conversion of the entire family. Tidings of the miracle spread; and in Capernaum, where so many of His mighty works were performed, the way was prepared for Christ's personal ministry.
HB	153	5	He who blessed the nobleman at Capernaum is just as desirous of blessing us. But like the afflicted father, we are often led to seek Jesus by the desire for some earthly good; and upon the granting of our request we rest our confidence in His love. The Saviour longs to give us a greater blessing than we ask; and He delays the answer to our request that He may show us the evil of our own hearts, and our deep need of His grace. He desires us to renounce the selfishness that leads us to seek Him. Confessing our helplessness and bitter need, we are to trust ourselves wholly to His love.
HB	153	6	The nobleman wanted to see the fulfillment of his prayer before he should believe; but he had to accept the word of Jesus that his request was heard and the blessing granted. This lesson we also have to learn. Not because we see or feel that God hears us are we to believe. We are to trust in His promises. When we come to Him in faith, every petition enters the heart of God. When we have asked for His blessing, we should believe that we receive it, and thank Him that we have received it. Then we are to go about our duties, assured that the blessing will be realized when we need it most. When we have learned to do this, we shall know that our prayers are answered. God will do for us "exceeding abundantly," "according to the riches of His glory," and "the working of His mighty power." (Ephesians 3:20, 16; 1:19.)--The Desire of Ages, 198, 200.
------------------------Prayer Moves the Arm of Omnipotence, May 13
HB	154	1	Nor did their own arm save them; but it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, because You favored them.--Psalm 44:3.
HB	154	2	When trials arise that seem unexplainable, we should not allow our peace to be spoiled. However unjustly we may be treated, let not passion arise. . . .
HB	154	3	While the world is progressing in wickedness, none of us need flatter ourselves that we shall have no difficulties. But it is these very difficulties that bring us into the audience chamber of the Most High. We may seek counsel of One who is infinite in wisdom.
HB	154	4	The Lord says, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble." (Psalm 50:15.) He invites us to present to Him our perplexities and necessities, and our need of divine help. He bids us be instant in prayer. As soon as difficulties arise, we are to offer to Him our sincere, earnest petitions. By our importunate prayers we give evidence of our strong confidence in God. The sense of our need leads us to pray earnestly, and our heavenly Father is moved by our supplications.
HB	154	5	Often those who suffer reproach or persecution for their faith are tempted to think themselves forsaken by God. To human eyes they are in the minority. To all appearance their enemies triumph over them. But let them not violate their conscience. He who has suffered in their behalf, and has borne their sorrows and afflictions, has not forsaken them.
HB	154	6	The children of God are not left alone and defenseless. Prayer moves the arm of Omnipotence. Prayer has "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire"--we shall know what it means when we hear the reports of the martyrs who died for their faith--"turneth to flight the armies of the aliens." (Hebrews 11:33, 34.)
HB	154	7	If we surrender our lives to His service, we can never be placed in a position for which God has not made provision. Whatever may be our situation, we have a Guide to direct our way; whatever our perplexities, we have a sure Counselor; whatever our sorrow, bereavement, or loneliness, we have a sympathizing Friend. If in our ignorance we make missteps, Christ does not leave us. His voice, clear and distinct, is heard saying, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." (John 14:6.) "He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper." (Psalm 72:12.)--Christ's Object Lessons, 171-173.
------------------------No Prayer Lost, May 14
HB	155	1	O You who hear prayer, to You all flesh will come.--Psalm 65:2.
HB	155	2	The Lord declares that He will be honored by those who draw nigh to Him, who faithfully do His service. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee." (Isaiah 26:3.) The arm of Omnipotence is outstretched to lead us onward and still onward. Go forward, the Lord says; I will send you help. It is for My name's glory that you ask, and you shall receive. I will be honored before those who are watching for your failure. They shall see My word triumph gloriously. "All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." (Matthew 21:22.)
HB	155	3	Let all who are afflicted or unjustly used, cry to God. Turn away from those whose hearts are as steel, and make your requests known to your Maker. Never is one repulsed who comes to Him with a contrite heart. Not one sincere prayer is lost. Amid the anthems of the celestial choir, God hears the cries of the weakest human being. We pour out our heart's desire in our closets, we breathe a prayer as we walk by the way, and our words reach the throne of the Monarch of the universe. They may be inaudible to any human ear, but they cannot die away into silence, nor can they be lost through the activities of business that are going on. Nothing can drown the soul's desire. It rises above the din of the street, above the confusion of the multitude, to the heavenly courts. It is God to whom we are speaking, and our prayer is heard.
HB	155	4	You who feel the most unworthy, fear not to commit your case to God. When He gave Himself in Christ for the sin of the world, He undertook the case of every soul. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32.) Will He not fulfill the gracious word given for our encouragement and strength?
HB	155	5	Christ desires nothing so much as to redeem His heritage from the dominion of Satan. But before we are delivered from Satan's power without, we must be delivered from his power within. . . .
HB	155	6	There is no danger that the Lord will neglect the prayers of His people. The danger is that in temptation and trial they will become discouraged, and fail to persevere in prayer.--Christ's Object Lessons, 173-175.
------------------------Beautiful Prayers, May 15
HB	156	1	The twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.--Revelation 5:8.
HB	156	2	As yet the disciples were unacquainted with the Saviour's unlimited re- sources and power. He said to them, "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name." (John 16:24.) He explained that the secret of their success would be in asking for strength and grace in His name. He would be present before the Father to make request for them. The prayer of the humble suppliant He presents as His own desire in that soul's behalf. Every sincere prayer is heard in heaven. It may not be fluently expressed; but if the heart is in it, it will ascend to the sanctuary where Jesus ministers, and He will present it to the Father without one awkward, stammering word, beautiful and fragrant with the incense of His own perfection.
HB	156	3	The path of sincerity and integrity is not a path free from obstruction, but in every difficulty we are to see a call to prayer. There is no one living who has any power that has not come from God, and the source whence it comes is open to the weakest human being. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name," said Jesus, "that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it."
HB	156	4	"In My name," Christ bade His disciples pray. In Christ's name His followers are to stand before God. Through the value of the sacrifice made for them, they are of value in the Lord's sight. Because of the imputed righteousness of Christ they are accounted precious. For Christ's sake the Lord pardons those that fear Him. He does not see in them the vileness of the sinner. He recognizes in them the likeness of His Son, in whom they believe.
HB	156	5	The Lord is disappointed when His people place a low estimate upon themselves. He desires His chosen heritage to value themselves according to the price He has placed upon them. God wanted them, else He would not have sent His Son on such an expensive errand to redeem them. He has a use for them, and He is well pleased when they make the very highest demands upon Him, that they may glorify His name. They may expect large things if they have faith in His promises.--The Desire of Ages, 667, 668.
------------------------Christ's Remedy For Lifeless Prayers, May 16
HB	157	1	The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.--James 5:16.
HB	157	2	As believers in Christ we need greater faith. We need to be more fervent in prayer. Many wonder why their prayers are so lifeless, their faith so feeble and wavering, their Christian experience so dark and uncertain. Have we not fasted, they say, and "walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?" In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah Christ has shown how this condition of things may be changed. He says: "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?" (Verses 6, 7.) This is the recipe that Christ has prescribed for the fainthearted, doubting, trembling soul. Let the sorrowful ones, who walk mournfully before the Lord, arise and help someone who needs help.
HB	157	3	Every church is in need of the controlling power of the Holy Spirit, and now is the time to pray for it. But in all God's work for us He plans that we shall cooperate with Him. To this end the Lord calls upon the church to have a higher piety, a more just sense of duty, a clearer realization of their obligations to their Creator. He calls upon them to be a pure, sanctified, working people. And the Christian help work is one means of bringing this about, for the Holy Spirit communicates with all who are doing God's service. . . .
HB	157	4	All that heaven contains is awaiting the draft of every soul who will labor in Christ's lines. As the members of our churches individually take up their appointed work, they will be surrounded with an entirely different atmosphere. A blessing and a power will attend their labors. They will experience a higher culture of mind and heart. The selfishness that has bound up their souls will be overcome. Their faith will be a living principle. Their prayers will be more fervent. The quickening, sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon them, and they will be brought nearer to the kingdom of heaven.
HB	157	5	The Saviour ignores both rank and caste, worldly honor and riches. It is character and devotedness of purpose that are of high value with Him.--Testimonies for the Church 6:266-268.
------------------------Live Your Prayers, May 17
HB	158	1	Live according to God in the spirit.--1 Peter 4:6.
HB	158	2	Many have not a living faith. This is why they do not see more of the power of God. Their weakness is the result of their unbelief. They have more faith in their own working than in the working of God for them. They take themselves into their own keeping. They plan and devise, but pray little, and have little real trust in God. They think they have faith, but it is only the impulse of the moment. Failing to realize their own need, or God's willingness to give, they do not persevere in keeping their requests before the Lord.
HB	158	3	Our prayers are to be as earnest and persistent as was the petition of the needy friend who asked for the loaves at midnight. The more earnestly and steadfastly we ask, the closer will be our spiritual union with Christ. We shall receive increased blessings because we have increased faith.
HB	158	4	Our part is to pray and believe. Watch unto prayer. Watch, and cooperate with the prayer-hearing God. Bear in mind that "we are labourers together with God." (1 Corinthians 3:9.) Speak and act in harmony with your prayers. It will make an infinite difference with you whether trial shall prove your faith to be genuine, or show that your prayers are only a form.
HB	158	5	When perplexities arise, and difficulties confront you, look not for help to humanity. Trust all with God. The practice of telling our difficulties to others only makes us weak, and brings no strength to them. It lays upon them the burden of our spiritual infirmities, which they cannot relieve. We seek the strength of erring, finite human beings, when we might have the strength of the unerring, infinite God.
HB	158	6	You need not go to the ends of the earth for wisdom, for God is near. It is not the capabilities you now possess or ever will have that will give you success. It is that which the Lord can do for you. We need to have far less confidence in what human power can do and far more confidence in what God can do for every believing soul. He longs to have you reach after Him by faith. He longs to have you expect great things from Him. He longs to give you understanding in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. He can sharpen the intellect. He can give tact and skill. Put your talents into the work, ask God for wisdom, and it will be given you.--Christ's Object Lessons, 145, 146.
------------------------Promises and Prayer, May 18
HB	159	1	By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature.--2 Peter 1:4.
HB	159	2	When we beseech the Lord to pity us in our distress, and to guide us by His Holy Spirit, He will never turn away our prayer. It is possible even for parents to turn away from their hungry child, but God can never reject the cry of the needy and longing heart. With what wonderful tenderness He has described His love! To those who in days of darkness feel that God is unmindful of them, this is the message from the Father's heart: "Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands." (Isaiah 49:14-16.)
HB	159	3	Every promise in the word of God furnishes us with subject matter for prayer, presenting the pledged word of Jehovah as our assurance. Whatever spiritual blessing we need, it is our privilege to claim through Jesus. We may tell the Lord, with the simplicity of a child, exactly what we need. We may state to Him our temporal matters, asking Him for bread and raiment as well as for the bread of life and the robe of Christ's righteousness. Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things, and you are invited to ask Him concerning them. It is through the name of Jesus that every favor is received. . . .
HB	159	4	But do not forget that in coming to God as a father you acknowledge your relation to Him as a child. You not only trust His goodness, but in all things yield to His will, knowing that His love is changeless. You give yourself to do His work. It was to those whom He had bidden to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness that Jesus gave the promise, "Ask, and ye shall receive." (John 16:24.)
HB	159	5	The gifts of Him who has all power in heaven and earth are in store for the children of God. Gifts so precious that they come to us through the costly sacrifice of the Redeemer's blood; gifts that will satisfy the deepest craving of the heart, gifts lasting as eternity, will be received and enjoyed by all who will come to God as little children. Take God's promises as your own, plead them before Him as His own words, and you will receive fullness of joy.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 132-134.
------------------------Power of Secret Prayer, May 19
HB	160	1	When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.--Matthew 6:6.
HB	160	2	Have a place for secret prayer. Jesus had select places for communion with God, and so should we. We need often to retire to some spot, however humble, where we can be alone with God.
HB	160	3	"Pray to thy Father which is in secret." In the name of Jesus we may come into God's presence with the confidence of a child. No mortal is needed to act as a mediator. Through Jesus we may open our hearts to God as to one who knows and loves us.
HB	160	4	In the secret place of prayer, where no eye but God's can see, no ear but His can hear, we may pour out our most hidden desires and longings to the Father of infinite pity, and in the hush and silence of the soul that voice which never fails to answer the cry of human need will speak to our hearts. . . .
HB	160	5	Those who seek God in secret telling the Lord their needs and pleading for help, will not plead in vain. "Thy Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee openly." As we make Christ our daily companion we shall feel that the powers of an unseen world are all around us; and by looking unto Jesus we shall become assimilated to His image. By beholding we become changed. The character is softened, refined, and ennobled for the heavenly kingdom. The sure result of our communication and fellowship with our Lord will be to increase piety, purity, and fervor. There will be a growing intelligence in prayer. We are receiving a divine education, and this is illustrated in a life of diligence and zeal.
HB	160	6	The soul that turns to God for its help, its support, its power, by daily, earnest prayer, will have noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth and duty, lofty purposes of action, and a continual hungering and thirsting after righteousness. By maintaining a connection with God, we shall be enabled to diffuse to others, through our association with them, the light, the peace, the serenity, that rule in our hearts. The strength acquired in prayer to God, united with persevering effort in training the mind in thoughtfulness and care-taking, prepares one for daily duties and keeps the spirit in peace under all circumstances.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 84, 85.
------------------------God-Inspired Prayers, May 20
HB	161	1	Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths.--Psalm 25:4.
HB	161	2	But because this experience [of being a new creature in Christ] is theirs, Christians are not therefore to fold their hands, content with that which has been accomplished for them. Those who have determined to enter the spiritual kingdom will find that all the powers and passions of unregenerate nature, backed by the forces of the kingdom of darkness, are arrayed against them. Each day they must renew their consecration, each day do battle with evil. Old habits, hereditary tendencies to wrong, will strive for the mastery, and against these they are to be ever on guard, striving in Christ's strength for victory. . . .
HB	161	3	Renouncing all that would hinder them from making progress in the upward way or that would turn the feet of another from the narrow path, the believers will reveal in their daily life mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, forbearance, and the love of Christ.
HB	161	4	The power of a higher, purer, nobler life is our great need. The world has too much of our thought, and the kingdom of heaven too little.
HB	161	5	In their efforts to reach God's ideal for them, Christians are to despair of nothing. Moral and spiritual perfection, through the grace and power of Christ, is promised to all. Jesus is the source of power, the fountain of life. He brings us to His word, and from the tree of life presents to us leaves for the healing of sin-sick souls. He leads us to the throne of God, and puts into our mouth a prayer through which we are brought into close contact with Himself. In our behalf He sets in operation the all-powerful agencies of heaven. At every step we touch His living power.
HB	161	6	God fixes no limit to the advancement of those who desire to be "filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Through prayer, through watchfulness, through growth in knowledge and understanding, they are to be "strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power." Thus they are prepared to work for others. It is the Saviour's purpose that human beings, purified and sanctified, shall be His helping hand. For this great privilege let us give thanks to Him who "hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son."--The Acts of the Apostles, 476-478.
------------------------What Should We Pray For?, May 21
HB	162	1	We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.--Romans 8:26.
HB	162	2	There are many who, though striving to obey God's commandments, have little peace or joy. This lack in their experience is the result of a failure to exercise faith. They walk as it were in a salt land, a parched wilderness. They claim little, when they might claim much; for there is no limit to the promises of God. Such ones do not correctly represent the sanctification that comes through obedience to the truth. The Lord would have all His sons and daughters happy, peaceful, and obedient. Through the exercise of faith the believer comes into possession of these blessings. Through faith, every deficiency of character may be supplied, every defilement cleansed, every fault corrected, every excellence developed.
HB	162	3	Prayer is heaven's ordained means of success in the conflict with sin and the development of Christian character. The divine influences that come in answer to the prayer of faith will accomplish in the soul of the suppliant all for which he pleads. For the pardon of sin, for the Holy Spirit, for a Christlike temper, for wisdom and strength to do His work, for any gift He has promised, we may ask; and the promise is, "Ye shall receive."
HB	162	4	It was in the mount with God that Moses beheld the pattern of that wonderful building that was to be the abiding place of His glory. It is in the mount with God--in the secret place of communion--that we are to contemplate His glorious ideal for humanity. In all ages, through the medium of communion with heaven, God has worked out His purpose for His children, by unfolding gradually to their minds the doctrines of grace. His manner of imparting truth is illustrated in the words, "His going forth is prepared as the morning." (Hosea 6:3.) All who place themselves where God can enlighten them, advance, as it were, from the partial obscurity of dawn to the full radiance of noonday.
HB	162	5	True sanctification means perfect love, perfect obedience, perfect conformity to the will of God. We are to be sanctified to God through obedience to the truth. Our conscience must be purged from dead works to serve the living God. We are not yet perfect; but it is our privilege to cut away from the entanglements of self and sin, and advance to perfection.--The Acts of the Apostles, 563, 564.
------------------------The Importance of Family Worship, May 22
HB	163	1	For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice.--Genesis 18:19.
HB	163	2	In every family there should be a fixed time for morning and evening worship. How appropriate it is for parents to gather their children about them before the fast is broken, to thank the heavenly Father for His protection during the night, and to ask Him for His help and guidance and watch care during the day! How fitting, also, when evening comes, for parents and children to gather once more before Him and thank Him for the blessings of the day that is past!
HB	163	3	Family worship should not be governed by circumstances. You are not to pray occasionally and, when you have a large day's work to do, neglect it. In thus doing you lead your children to look upon prayer as of no special consequence. Prayer means very much to the children of God, and thank offerings should come up before God morning and evening. Says the psalmist, "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms." (Psalm 95:1, 2.)
HB	163	4	Fathers and mothers, however pressing your business, do not fail to gather your family around God's altar. Ask for the guardianship of holy angels in your home. Remember that your dear ones are exposed to temptations.
HB	163	5	In our efforts for the comfort and happiness of guests, let us not overlook our obligations to God. The hour of prayer should not be neglected for any consideration. Do not talk and amuse yourselves till all are too weary to enjoy the season of devotion. To do this is to present to God a lame offering. At an early hour of the evening, when we can pray unhurriedly and understandingly, we should present our supplications and raise our voices in happy, grateful praise.
HB	163	6	Let all who visit Christians see that the hour of prayer is the most precious, the most sacred, and the happiest hour of the day. These seasons of devotion exert a refining, elevating influence upon all who participate in them. They bring a peace and rest grateful to the spirit.--Child Guidance, 520, 521.
------------------------Prayer For The Sick, May 23
HB	164	1	Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.--James 5:14.
HB	164	2	Many who seek the Lord's healing mercy think that they must have a direct and immediate answer to their prayers or their faith is defective. For this reason, those who are weakened by disease need to be counseled wisely, that they may act with discretion. They should not disregard their duty to the friends who may survive them, or neglect to employ nature's agencies for the restoration of health.
HB	164	3	Often there is danger of error here. Believing that they will be healed in answer to prayer, some fear to do anything that might seem to indicate a lack of faith. But they should not neglect to set their affairs in order as they would desire to do if they expected to be removed by death. Nor should they fear to utter words of encouragement or counsel which at the parting hour they wish to speak to their loved ones.
HB	164	4	Those who seek healing by prayer should not neglect to make use of the remedial agencies within their reach. It is not a denial of faith to use such remedies as God has provided to alleviate pain and to aid nature in her work of restoration. It is no denial of faith to cooperate with God, and to place themselves in the condition most favorable to recovery. God has put it in our power to obtain a knowledge of the laws of life. This knowledge has been placed within our reach for use. We should employ every facility for the restoration of health, taking every advantage possible, working in harmony with natural laws. When we have prayed for the recovery of the sick, we can work with all the more energy, thanking God that we have the privilege of cooperating with Him, and asking His blessing on the means which He Himself has provided. . . .
HB	164	5	When we have prayed for the recovery of the sick, whatever the outcome of the case, let us not lose faith in God. If we are called upon to meet bereavement, let us accept the bitter cup, remembering that a Father's hand holds it to our lips. But should health be restored, it should not be forgotten that the recipient of healing mercy is placed under renewed obligation to the Creator.--The Ministry of Healing, 232-234.
------------------------May God's Will Be Done, May 24
HB	165	1	Your will be done.--Matthew 26:42.
HB	165	2	To those who desire prayer for their restoration to health, it should be made plain that the violation of God's law, either natural or spiritual, is sin, and that in order for them to receive His blessing, sin must be confessed and forsaken. . . .
HB	165	3	In prayer for the sick it should be remembered that "we know not what we should pray for as we ought." (Romans 8:26.) We do not know whether the blessing we desire will be best or not. . . .
HB	165	4	The consistent course is to commit our desires to our all-wise heavenly Father, and then, in perfect confidence, trust all to Him. We know that God hears us if we ask according to His will. But to press our petitions without a submissive spirit is not right; our prayers must take the form, not of command, but of intercession.
HB	165	5	There are cases where God works decidedly by His divine power in the restoration of health. But not all the sick are healed. Many are laid away to sleep in Jesus. John on the Isle of Patmos was bidden to write: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." (Revelation 14:13.) From this we see that if persons are not raised to health, they should not on this account be judged as wanting in faith.
HB	165	6	We all desire immediate and direct answers to our prayers, and are tempted to become discouraged when the answer is delayed or comes in an unlooked-for form. But God is too wise and good to answer our prayers always at just the time and in just the manner we desire. He will do more and better for us than to accomplish all our wishes. And because we can trust His wisdom and love, we should not ask Him to concede to our will, but should seek to enter into and accomplish His purpose. Our desires and interests should be lost in His will. These experiences that test faith are for our benefit. By them it is made manifest whether our faith is true and sincere, resting on the word of God alone, or whether depending on circumstances, it is uncertain and changeable. Faith is strengthened by exercise. We must let patience have its perfect work, remembering that there are precious promises in the Scriptures for those who wait upon the Lord.--The Ministry of Healing, 228-231.
------------------------No Prosy Prayer Meetings, May 25
HB	166	1	Beware of the scribes, who . . . for a pretense make long prayers.--Luke 20:46, 47.
HB	166	2	The prayer meetings should be the most interesting gatherings that are held, but these are frequently poorly managed. Many attend preaching, but neglect the prayer meeting. Here, again, thought is required. Wisdom should be sought of God, and plans should be laid to conduct the meetings so that they will be interesting and attractive. The people hunger for the bread of life. If they find it at the prayer meeting they will go there to receive it.
HB	166	3	Long, prosy talks and prayers are out of place anywhere, and especially in the social meeting. Those who are forward and ever ready to speak are allowed to crowd out the testimony of the timid and retiring. Those who are most superficial generally have the most to say. Their prayers are long and mechanical. They weary the angels and the people who listen to them. Our prayers should be short and right to the point. Let the long, tiresome petitions be left for the closet, if any have such to offer. Let the Spirit of God into your hearts, and it will sweep away all dry formality.
HB	166	4	Christ impressed upon His disciples the idea that their prayers should be short, expressing just what they wanted, and no more. He gives the length and substance of their prayers, expressing their desires for temporal and spiritual blessings, and their gratitude for the same. How comprehensive this sample prayer! It covers the actual need of all. One or two minutes is long enough for any ordinary prayer. There may be instances where prayer is in a special manner indited by the Spirit of God, where supplication is made in the Spirit. The yearning soul becomes agonized and groans after God. The spirit wrestles as did Jacob and will not be at rest without special manifestations of the power of God. This is as God would have it.
HB	166	5	But many offer prayer in a dry, sermonizing manner. These pray to other persons, not to God. If they were praying to God, and really understood what they were doing, they would be alarmed at their audacity; for they deliver a discourse to the Lord in the mode of prayer, as though the Creator of the universe needed special information upon general questions in relation to things transpiring in the world. All such prayers are as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. They are made no account of in heaven. Angels of God are wearied with them, as well as mortals who are compelled to listen to them.--Counsels for the Church, 292, 293.
------------------------Daniel's Example In Prayer, May 26
HB	167	1	Then I set my face toward the LORD God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.--Daniel 9:3.
HB	167	2	Daniel does not proclaim his own fidelity before the Lord. Instead of claiming to be pure and holy, this honored prophet humbly identifies himself with the really sinful of Israel. The wisdom which God had imparted to him was as far superior to the wisdom of the great men of the world as the light of the sun shining in the heavens at noonday is brighter than the feeblest star. Yet ponder the prayer from the lips of this man so highly favored of Heaven. With deep humiliation, with tears and rending of heart, he pleads for himself and for his people. He lays his soul open before God, confessing his own unworthiness and acknowledging the Lord's greatness and majesty. . . .
HB	167	3	As Daniel's prayer is going forth, the angel Gabriel comes sweeping down from the heavenly courts to tell him that his petitions are heard and answered. This mighty angel has been commissioned to give him skill and understanding--to open before him the mysteries of future ages. Thus, while earnestly seeking to know and understand the truth, Daniel was brought into communion with Heaven's delegated messenger.
HB	167	4	In answer to his petition, Daniel received not only the light and truth which he and his people most needed, but a view of the great events of the future, even to the advent of the world's Redeemer. Those who claim to be sanctified, while they have no desire to search the Scriptures or to wrestle with God in prayer for a clearer understanding of Bible truth, know not what true sanctification is.
HB	167	5	Daniel talked with God. Heaven was opened before him. But the high honors granted him were the result of humiliation and earnest seeking. All who believe with the heart the word of God will hunger and thirst for a knowledge of His will. God is the author of truth. He enlightens the darkened understanding and gives to the human mind power to grasp and comprehend the truths which He has revealed. . . .
HB	167	6	Daniel was a devoted servant of the Most High. His long life was filled up with noble deeds of service for his Master. His purity of character and un-wavering fidelity are equaled only by his humility of heart and his contrition before God.--The Sanctified Life, 46-49, 52.
------------------------Golden Moments, May 27
HB	168	1	To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in You.--Psalm 25:1, 2
HB	168	2	Several times each day precious, golden moments should be consecrated to prayer and the study of the Scriptures, if it is only to commit a text to memory, that spiritual life may exist in the soul. The varied interests of the cause furnish us with food for reflection and inspiration for our prayers. Communion with God is highly essential for spiritual health, and here only may be obtained that wisdom and correct judgment so necessary in the performance of every duty.
HB	168	3	Some, fearing they will suffer loss of earthly treasure, neglect prayer and the assembling of themselves together for the worship of God, that they may have more time to devote to their farms or their business. They show by their works which world they place the highest estimate upon. They sacrifice religious privileges, which are essential to their spiritual advancement, for the things of this life and fail to obtain a knowledge of the divine will. They come short of perfecting Christian character and do not meet the measurement of God. They make their temporal, worldly interests first, and rob God of the time which they should devote to His service. Such persons God marks, and they will receive a curse rather than a blessing. . . .
HB	168	4	Do not take your sorrows and difficulties to other persons. Present yourself to Him who is able to do "exceeding abundantly." He knows just how to help you. Do not turn from the loving, compassionate Redeemer to human friends, who, though they may give you the best they have, may lead you into wrong paths. Take all your troubles to Jesus.
HB	168	5	He will receive and strengthen and comfort you. He is the great Healer of all maladies. His great heart of infinite love yearns over you. He sends you the message that you may recover yourself from the snare of the enemy. You may regain your self-respect. You may stand where you regard yourself, not as a failure, but as a conqueror, in and through the uplifting influence of the Spirit of God.
HB	168	6	It is just as convenient, just as essential, for us to pray three times a day as it was for Daniel. Prayer is the life of the soul, the foundation of spiritual growth. In your home, before your family, and before your workmen, you should testify to this truth. And when you are privileged to meet with others in the church, tell them of the necessity of keeping open the channel of communication between God and the soul.--Daughters of God, 82-84.
------------------------Nights In Prayer, May 28
HB	169	1	Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.--Luke 6:12.
HB	169	2	The Majesty of heaven, while engaged in His earthly ministry, prayed much to His Father. He was frequently bowed all night in prayer. His spirit was often sorrowful as He felt the powers of the darkness of this world, and He left the busy city and the noisy throng, to seek a retired place to make His intercessions. The Mount of Olives was the favorite resort of the Son of God for His devotions. Frequently after the multitude had left Him for the retirement of the night, He rested not, though weary with the labors of the day. In the Gospel of John we read: "And every man went unto his own house. Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives." While the city was hushed in silence, and the disciples had returned to their homes to obtain refreshment in sleep, Jesus slept not. His divine pleadings were ascending to His Father from the Mount of Olives that His disciples might be kept from the evil influences which they would daily encounter in the world, and that His own soul might be strengthened and braced for the duties and trials of the coming day. All night, while His followers were sleeping, was their divine Teacher praying. The dew and frost of night fell upon His head bowed in prayer. His example is left for His followers.
HB	169	3	The Majesty of heaven, while engaged in His mission, was often in earnest prayer. He did not always visit Olivet, for His disciples had learned His favorite retreat, and often followed Him. He chose the stillness of night, when there would be no interruption. Jesus could heal the sick and raise the dead. He was Himself a source of blessing and strength. He commanded even the tempests, and they obeyed Him. He was unsullied with corruption, a stranger to sin; yet He prayed, and that often with strong crying and tears. He prayed for His disciples and for Himself, thus identifying Himself with our needs, our weaknesses, and our failings, which are so common with humanity. He was a mighty petitioner, not possessing the passions of our human, fallen natures, but compassed with like infirmities, tempted in all points even as we are. Jesus endured agony which required help and support from His Father.--Testimonies for the Church 2:508, 509.
------------------------Pray With Bible In Hand, May 29
HB	170	1	Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.--2 Timothy 2:15.
HB	170	2	Let everyone who claims to believe that the Lord is soon coming, search the Scriptures as never before; for Satan is determined to try every device possible to keep souls in darkness, and blind the mind to the perils of the times in which we are living. Let all the believers take up their Bibles with earnest prayer, that they may be enlightened by the Holy Spirit as to what is truth, that they may know more of God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Search for the truth as for hidden treasures, and disappoint the enemy. The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer. This is the beginning of the light of the angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth. For it is the work of every one to whom the message of warning has come, to lift up Jesus, to present Him to the world as revealed in types, as shadowed in symbols, as manifested in the revelations of the prophets, as unveiled in the lessons given to His disciples and in the wonderful miracles wrought for the sons of men. Search the Scriptures; for they are they that testify of Him.
HB	170	3	If you would stand through the time of trouble, you must know Christ, and appropriate the gift of His righteousness, which He imputes to the repentant sinner. Human wisdom will not avail to devise a plan of salvation. Human philosophy is vain, the fruits of the loftiest human powers are worthless, aside from the great plan of the divine Teacher. No glory is to redound to us; all human help and glory lies in the dust; for the truth as it is in Jesus is the only available agent by which we may be saved. We are privileged to connect with Christ, and then the divine and the human combine; and in this union our hope must rest alone; for it is as the Spirit of God touches the soul that the powers of the soul are quickened, and we become new creatures in Christ Jesus. He was manifested to bring life and immortality to light. He says, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." The psalmist declares, "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple."--Review and Herald, November 2, 1892.
------------------------Prayer and Moral Courage, May 30
HB	171	1	If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me.--Matthew 16:24.
HB	171	2	It requires moral courage to take a position to keep the commandments of the Lord. An opposer of the truth once said that it was only weak-minded people, foolish, ignorant persons, who would turn away from the churches to keep the seventh day as the Sabbath; but a minister who had embraced the truth, replied, "If you think it takes weak-minded persons, just try it." It takes moral courage, firmness, decision, perseverance, and very much prayer to step out on the unpopular side. We are thankful that we can come to Christ as the poor suffering ones came to Christ in the temple. We hope that this house will be a house of prayer, and that those who enter here will realize that they are coming to meet with God. Christ has said, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." We do not expect to be able to furnish you with a minister always; but you must have root in yourselves. You must learn to draw for yourselves from the fountain of life. You have not dared to trample under foot the commandments of God, and have stepped out on unpopular truth, let the result be what it may. Will the Saviour ever turn away to leave you to struggle alone?--No, never. But He never told His disciples that they should have no trials, no self-denial to endure, no sacrifices to make. The Master was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty, might be rich." We thank God that in your poverty, you can call God your Father. Poverty is coming upon this world, and there will be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. There will be wars and rumors of wars, and the faces of people will gather paleness. You may have to suffer distress, you may go hungry sometimes; but God will not forsake you in your suffering. He will test your faith. We are not to live to please ourselves. We are here to manifest Christ to the world, to represent Him and His power to mankind. . . .
HB	171	3	Christ is testing us today to see if we will be obedient to the law of God as He was, and be fitted up for the society of heavenly angels. God wants a loyal people.--Review and Herald, September 3, 1895.
------------------------Prayer and A Revived Church, May 31
HB	172	1	And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.--Acts 4:31.
HB	172	2	A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs. To seek this should be our first work. There must be earnest effort to obtain the blessing of the Lord, not because God is not willing to bestow His blessing upon us, but because we are unprepared to receive it. Our Heavenly Father is more willing to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, than are earthly parents to give good gifts to their children. But it is our work, by confession, humiliation, repentance, and earnest prayer, to fulfill the conditions upon which God has promised to grant us His blessing. A revival need be expected only in answer to prayer. While the people are so destitute of God's Holy Spirit, they cannot appreciate the preaching of the word; but when the Spirit's power touches their hearts, then the discourses given will not be without effect. Guided by the teachings of God's word, with the manifestation of His Spirit, in the exercise of sound discretion, those who attend our meetings will gain a precious experience, and returning home, will be prepared to exert a healthful influence.
HB	172	3	The old standard bearers knew what it was to wrestle with God in prayer, and to enjoy the outpouring of His Spirit. But these are passing off from the stage of action; and who are coming up to fill their places? How is it with the rising generation? Are they converted to God? Are we awake to the work that is going on in the heavenly sanctuary, or are we waiting for some compelling power to come upon the church before we shall arouse? Are we hoping to see the whole church revived? That time will never come.
HB	172	4	There are persons in the church who are not converted, and who will not unite in earnest, prevailing prayer. We must enter upon the work individually. We must pray more, and talk less. Iniquity abounds, and the people must be taught not to be satisfied with a form of godliness without the spirit and power. If we are intent upon searching our own hearts, putting away our sins, and correcting our evil tendencies, our souls will not be lifted up unto vanity; we shall be distrustful of ourselves, having an abiding sense that our sufficiency is of God. . . .
HB	172	5	The great deceiver has prepared his wiles for every soul that is not braced for trial and guarded by constant prayer and living faith.--Selected Messages, book 1, 121-123.
------------------------God's Law, June 1
HB	174	1	Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD!--Psalm 119:1.
HB	174	2	From the very beginning of the great controversy in heaven it has been Satan's purpose to overthrow the law of God. It was to accomplish this that he entered upon his rebellion against the Creator, and though he was cast out of heaven he has continued the same warfare upon the earth. To deceive men and women, and thus lead them to transgress God's law, is the object which he has steadfastly pursued. Whether this be accomplished by casting aside the law altogether, or by rejecting one of its precepts, the result will be ultimately the same. Those who offend "in one point," manifest contempt for the whole law; their influence and example are on the side of transgression; they become "guilty of all." (James 2:10.)
HB	174	3	In seeking to cast contempt upon the divine statutes, Satan has perverted the doctrines of the Bible, and errors have thus become incorporated into the faith of thousands who profess to believe the Scriptures. The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God. Upon this battle we are now entering--a battle between human laws and the precepts of Jehovah, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition.
HB	174	4	The agencies which will unite against truth and righteousness in this contest are now actively at work. God's holy word, which has been handed down to us at such a cost of suffering and blood, is but little valued. The Bible is within the reach of all, but there are few who really accept it as the guide of life. Infidelity prevails to an alarming extent, not in the world merely, but in the church. Many have come to deny doctrines which are the very pillars of the Christian faith. The great facts of creation as presented by the inspired writers, the fall of mankind, the atonement, and the perpetuity of the law of God, are practically rejected, either wholly or in part, by a large share of the professedly Christian world. Thousands who pride themselves upon their wisdom and independence regard it as an evidence of weakness to place implicit confidence in the Bible; they think it a proof of superior talent and learning to cavil at the Scriptures and to spiritualize and explain away their most important truths.--The Great Controversy, 582, 583.
------------------------The Sabbath A Test, June 2
HB	175	1	Hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.--Ezekiel 20:20.
HB	175	2	Not one is made to suffer the wrath of God until the truth has been brought home to the mind and conscience, and has been rejected. There are many who have never had an opportunity to hear the special truths for this time. The obligation of the fourth commandment has never been set before them in its true light. He who reads every heart and tries every motive will leave none who desire a knowledge of the truth, to be deceived as to the issues of the controversy. The decree is not to be urged upon the people blindly. All are to have sufficient light to make their decision intelligently.
HB	175	3	The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon humanity, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. While the observance of the false sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God's law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator. While one class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, receive the mark of the beast, the other choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, receive the seal of God.
HB	175	4	Heretofore those who presented the truths of the third angel's message have often been regarded as mere alarmists. Their predictions that religious intolerance would gain control in the United States, that church and state would unite to persecute those who keep the commandments of God, have been pronounced groundless and absurd. It has been confidently declared that this land could never become other than what it has been--the defender of religious freedom. But as the question of enforcing Sunday observance is widely agitated, the event so long doubted and disbelieved is seen to be approaching, and the third message will produce an effect which it could not have had before.
HB	175	5	In every generation God has sent His servants to rebuke sin, both in the world and in the church. But the people desire smooth things spoken to them, and the pure, unvarnished truth is not acceptable.--The Great Controversy, 605, 606.
------------------------Obedience, A Condition For Happiness, June 3
HB	176	1	Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.--Exodus 19:5.
HB	176	2	Our first parents, though created innocent and holy, were not placed beyond the possibility of wrongdoing. God made them free moral agents, capable of appreciating the wisdom and benevolence of His character and the justice of His requirements, and with full liberty to yield or to withhold obedience. . . . At the very beginning of mankind's existence a check was placed upon the desire for self-indulgence, the fatal passion that lay at the foundation of Satan's fall. The tree of knowledge, which stood near the tree of life in the midst of the garden, was to be a test of the obedience, faith, and love of our parents. While permitted to eat freely of every other tree, they were forbidden to taste of this, on pain of death. They were also to be exposed to the temptations of Satan; but if they endured the trial, they would finally be placed beyond his power, to enjoy perpetual favor with God.
HB	176	3	God placed human beings under law, as an indispensable condition of their very existence. They were subjects of the divine government, and there can be no government without law. God might have created them without the power to transgress His law; He might have withheld the hand of Adam from touching the forbidden fruit; but in that case human beings would have been, not free moral agents, but mere automatons. Without freedom of choice, their obedience would not have been voluntary, but forced. There could have been no development of character. Such a course would have been contrary to God's plan in dealing with the inhabitants of other worlds. It would have been unworthy of humanity as intelligent beings, and would have sustained Satan's charge of God's arbitrary rule.
HB	176	4	God made Adam and Eve upright; He gave them noble traits of character, with no bias toward evil. He endowed them with high intellectual powers, and presented before them the strongest possible inducements to be true to his allegiance. Obedience, perfect and perpetual, was the condition of eternal happiness. On this condition they were to have access to the tree of life.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 48, 49.
------------------------God's Shield, June 4
HB	177	1	Happy is he who keeps the law.--Proverbs 29:18.
HB	177	2	There was but one hope for the human race--that into this mass of discordant and corrupting elements might be cast a new leaven; that there might be brought to mankind the power of a new life; that the knowledge of God might be restored to the world.
HB	177	3	Christ came to restore this knowledge. He came to set aside the false teaching by which those who claimed to know God had misrepresented Him. He came to manifest the nature of His law, to reveal in His own character the beauty of holiness.
HB	177	4	Christ came to the world with the accumulated love of eternity. Sweeping away the exactions which had encumbered the law of God, He showed that the law is a law of love, an expression of the Divine Goodness. He showed that in obedience to its principles is involved the happiness of mankind, and with it the stability, the very foundation and framework, of human society.
HB	177	5	So far from making arbitrary requirements, God's law is given to us as a hedge, a shield. Whoever accepts its principles is preserved from evil. Fidelity to God involves fidelity to others. Thus the law guards the rights, the individuality, of every human being. It restrains the superior from oppression, and the subordinate from disobedience. It ensures our well-being, both for this world and for the world to come. To the obedient it is the pledge of eternal life, for it expresses the principles that endure forever.
HB	177	6	Christ came to demonstrate the value of the divine principles by revealing their power for the regeneration of humanity. He came to teach how these principles are to be developed and applied.
HB	177	7	With the people of that age the value of all things was determined by outward show. As religion had declined in power, it had increased in pomp. The educators of the time sought to command respect by display and ostentation. To all this the life of Jesus presented a marked contrast. His life demonstrated the worthlessness of those things that others regarded as life's great essentials. Born amidst surroundings the rudest, sharing a peasant's home, a peasant's fare, a craftsman's occupation, living a life of obscurity . . .--amidst these conditions and surroundings--Jesus followed the divine plan of education.--Education, 76, 77.
------------------------On Probation, June 5
HB	178	1	Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.--Genesis 2:17.
HB	178	2	The law of God is as sacred as God Himself. It is a revelation of His will, a transcript of His character, the expression of divine love and wisdom. The harmony of creation depends upon the perfect conformity of all beings, of everything, animate and inanimate, to the law of the Creator. God has ordained laws for the government, not only of living beings, but of all the operations of nature. . . . To human beings, the crowning work of creation, God has given power to understand His requirements, to comprehend the justice and beneficence of His law, and its sacred claims upon them; and of them unswerving obedience is required.
HB	178	3	Like the angels, the dwellers in Eden had been placed upon probation; their happy estate could be retained only on condition of fidelity to the Creator's law. They could obey and live, or disobey and perish. God had made them the recipients of rich blessings; but should they disregard His will, He who spared not the angels that sinned, could not spare them; transgression would forfeit His gifts and bring upon them misery and ruin.
HB	178	4	The angels warned them to be on their guard against the devices of Satan, for his efforts to ensnare them would be unwearied. While they were obedient to God the evil one could not harm them; for, if need be, every angel in heaven would be sent to their help. If they steadfastly repelled his first insinuations, they would be as secure as the heavenly messengers. But should they once yield to temptation, their nature would become so depraved that in themselves they would have no power and no disposition to resist Satan.
HB	178	5	The tree of knowledge had been made a test of their obedience and their love to God. The Lord had seen fit to lay upon them but one prohibition as to the use of all that was in the garden; but if they should disregard His will in this particular, they would incur the guilt of transgression. Satan was not to follow them with continual temptations; he could have access to them only at the forbidden tree. Should they attempt to investigate its nature, they would be exposed to his wiles. They were admonished to give careful heed to the warning which God had sent them and to be content with the instruction which He had seen fit to impart.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 52, 53.
------------------------The Law Is Holy, June 6
HB	179	1	The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.--Romans 7:12.
HB	179	2	Since "the law of the Lord is perfect," every variation from it must be evil. Those who disobey the commandments of God, and teach others to do so, are condemned by Christ. The Saviour's life of obedience maintained the claims of the law; it proved that the law could be kept in humanity, and showed the excellence of character that obedience would develop. All who obey as He did are likewise declaring that the law is "holy, and just, and good." (Romans 7:12.) On the other hand, all who break God's commandments are sustaining Satan's claim that the law is unjust, and cannot be obeyed. Thus they second the deceptions of the great adversary, and cast dishonor upon God. They are the children of the wicked one, who was the first rebel against God's law. To admit them into heaven would again bring in the elements of discord and rebellion, and imperil the well-being of the universe. No one who willfully disregards one principle of the law shall enter the kingdom of heaven.
HB	179	3	The rabbis counted their righteousness a passport to heaven; but Jesus declared it to be insufficient and unworthy. External ceremonies and a theoretical knowledge of truth constituted Pharisaical righteousness. The rabbis claimed to be holy through their own efforts in keeping the law; but their works had divorced righteousness from religion. While they were punctilious in ritual observances, their lives were immoral and debased. Their so-called righteousness could never enter the kingdom of heaven.
HB	179	4	The greatest deception of the human mind in Christ's day was that a mere assent to the truth constitutes righteousness. In all human experience a theoretical knowledge of the truth has been proved to be insufficient for the saving of the soul. It does not bring forth the fruits of righteousness. A jealous regard for what is termed theological truth often accompanies a hatred of genuine truth as made manifest in life. The darkest chapters of history are burdened with the record of crimes committed by bigoted religionists. The Pharisees claimed to be children of Abraham, and boasted of their possession of the oracles of God; yet these advantages did not preserve them from selfishness, malignity, greed for gain, and the basest hypocrisy. They thought themselves the greatest religionists of the world, but their so-called orthodoxy led them to crucify the Lord of glory.--The Desire of Ages, 308, 309.
------------------------Law of Love, June 7
HB	180	1	Love is the fulfillment of the law.--Romans 13:10.
HB	180	2	It was Christ who, amid thunder and flame, had proclaimed the law upon Mount Sinai. The glory of God, like devouring fire, rested upon its summit, and the mountain quaked at the presence of the Lord. The hosts of Israel, lying prostrate upon the earth, had listened in awe to the sacred precepts of the law. What a contrast to the scene upon the mount of the Beatitudes! Under the summer sky, with no sound to break the stillness but the song of birds, Jesus unfolded the principles of His kingdom. Yet He who spoke to the people that day in accents of love, was opening to them the principles of the law proclaimed upon Sinai. . . .
HB	180	3	The law given upon Sinai was the enunciation of the principle of love, a revelation to earth of the law of heaven. It was ordained in the hand of a Mediator--spoken by Him through whose power human hearts could be brought into harmony with its principles. God had revealed the purpose of the law when He declared to Israel, "Ye shall be holy men unto Me." (Exodus 22:31.)
HB	180	4	But Israel had not perceived the spiritual nature of the law, and too often their professed obedience was but an observance of forms and ceremonies, rather than a surrender of the heart to the sovereignty of love. As Jesus in His character and work represented to the people the holy, benevolent, and paternal attributes of God, and presented the worthlessness of mere ceremonial obedience, the Jewish leaders did not receive or understand His words. They thought that He dwelt too lightly upon the requirements of the law; and when He set before them the very truths that were the soul of their divinely appointed service, they, looking only at the external, accused Him of seeking to overthrow it.
HB	180	5	The words of Christ, though calmly spoken, were uttered with an earnestness and power that stirred the hearts of the people. They listened for a repetition of the lifeless traditions and exactions of the rabbis, but in vain. They "were astonished at His teaching: for He taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes." (Matthew 7:29, R.V.) The Pharisees noted the vast difference between their manner of instruction and that of Christ. They saw that the majesty and purity and beauty of the truth, with its deep and gentle influence, was taking firm hold upon many minds.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 45-47.
------------------------God's Law Is Eternal, June 8
HB	181	1	Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.--Matthew 5:17.
HB	181	2	It is our Creator, the Giver of the law, who declares that it is not His purpose to set aside its precepts. Everything in nature, from the mote in the sunbeam to the worlds on high, is under law. And upon obedience to these laws the order and harmony of the natural world depend. So there are great principles of righteousness to control the life of all intelligent beings, and upon conformity to these principles the well-being of the universe depends. Before this earth was called into being, God's law existed. Angels are governed by its principles, and in order for earth to be in harmony with heaven, humanity also must obey the divine statutes. To Adam and Eve in Eden Christ made known the precepts of the law "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." (Job 38:7.) The mission of Christ on earth was not to destroy the law, but by His grace to bring us back to obedience to its precepts.
HB	181	3	The beloved disciple, who listened to the words of Jesus on the mount, writing long afterward under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, speaks of the law as of perpetual obligation. He says that "sin is the transgression of the law" and that "whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law." (1 John 3:4.) He makes it plain that the law to which he refers is "an old commandment which ye had from the beginning." (1 John 2:7.) He is speaking of the law that existed at the creation and was reiterated upon Mount Sinai.
HB	181	4	Speaking of the law, Jesus said, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." He here used the word "fulfill" in the same sense as when He declared to John the Baptist His purpose to "fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15); that is, to fill up the measure of the law's requirement, to give an example of perfect conformity to the will of God.
HB	181	5	His mission was to "magnify the law, and make it honorable." (Isaiah 42:21.) He was to show the spiritual nature of the law, to present its farreaching principles, and to make plain its eternal obligation. . . .
HB	181	6	Jesus, the express image of the Father's person, the effulgence of His glory; the self-denying Redeemer, throughout His pilgrimage of love on earth, was a living representation of the character of the law of God.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 48, 49.
------------------------The Source of All Laws, June 9
HB	182	1	Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.--Psalm 119:97.
HB	182	2	Upon all created things is seen the impress of the Deity. Nature testifies of God. The susceptible mind, brought in contact with the miracle and mystery of the universe, cannot but recognize the working of infinite power. Not by its own inherent energy does the earth produce its bounties, and year by year continue its motion around the sun. An unseen hand guides the planets in their circuit of the heavens. A mysterious life pervades all nature--a life that sustains the unnumbered worlds throughout immensity, that lives in the insect atom which floats in the summer breeze, that wings the flight of the swallow and feeds the young ravens which cry, that brings the bud to blossom and the flower to fruit.
HB	182	3	The same power that upholds nature, is working also in us. The same great laws that guide alike the star and the atom control human life. The laws that govern the heart's action, regulating the flow of the current of life to the body, are the laws of the mighty Intelligence that has the jurisdiction of the soul. From Him all life proceeds. Only in harmony with Him can be found its true sphere of action. For all the objects of His creation the condition is the same--a life sustained by receiving the life of God, a life exercised in harmony with the Creator's will. To transgress His law, physical, mental, or moral, is to place one's self out of harmony with the universe, to introduce discord, anarchy, ruin.
HB	182	4	To those who learn thus to interpret its teachings, all nature becomes illuminated; the world is a lesson book, life a school. The unity of the human race with nature and with God, the universal dominion of law, the results of transgression, cannot fail of impressing the mind and molding the character.
HB	182	5	These are lessons that our children need to learn. To the little child, not yet capable of learning from the printed page or of being introduced to the routine of the schoolroom, nature presents an unfailing source of instruction and delight. The heart not yet hardened by contact with evil is quick to recognize the Presence that pervades all created things. The ear as yet undulled by the world's clamor is attentive to the Voice that speaks through nature's utterances.--Education, 99, 100.
------------------------Exalting The Law, June 10
HB	183	1	The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul.--Psalm 19:7.
HB	183	2	"Till heaven and earth pass," said Jesus, "one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." By His own obedience to the law, Christ testified to its immutable character and proved that through His grace it could be perfectly obeyed by every son and daughter of Adam. On the mount He declared that not the smallest iota should pass from the law till all things should be accomplished--all things that concern the human race, all that relates to the plan of redemption. He does not teach that the law is ever to be abrogated, but He fixes the eye upon the utmost verge of our horizon and assures us that until this point is reached the law will retain its authority so that none may suppose it was His mission to abolish the precepts of the law. So long as heaven and earth continue, the holy principles of God's law will remain. His righteousness, "like the great mountains" (Psalm 36:6), will continue, a source of blessing, sending forth streams to refresh the earth.
HB	183	3	Because the law of the Lord is perfect, and therefore changeless, it is impossible for sinful human beings, in themselves, to meet the standard of its requirement. This was why Jesus came as our Redeemer. It was His mission, by making us partakers of the divine nature, to bring us into harmony with the principles of the law of heaven. When we forsake our sins and receive Christ as our Saviour, the law is exalted. The apostle Paul asks, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." (Romans 3:31.)
HB	183	4	The new-covenant promise is, "I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them." (Hebrews 10:16.) While the system of types which pointed to Christ as the Lamb of God that should take away the sin of the world was to pass away at His death, the principles of righteousness embodied in the Decalogue are as immutable as the eternal throne. Not one command has been annulled, not a jot or tittle has been changed. Those principles that were made known to our first parents in Paradise as the great law of life will exist unchanged in Paradise restored. When Eden shall bloom on earth again, God's law of love will be obeyed by all beneath the sun.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 49, 50.
------------------------What Does It Mean To Keep God's Commandments?, June 11
HB	184	1	For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.--1 John 5:3.
HB	184	2	A legal religion is insufficient to bring the soul into harmony with God. The hard, rigid orthodoxy of the Pharisees, destitute of contrition, tenderness, or love, was only a stumbling block to sinners. They were like the salt that had lost its savor; for their influence had no power to preserve the world from corruption. The only true faith is that which "worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6) to purify the soul. It is as leaven that transforms the character. . . .
HB	184	3	The prophet Hosea had pointed out what constitutes the very essence of Pharisaism, in the words, "Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself." (Hosea 10:1.) In their professed service to God, the Jews were really working for self. Their righteousness was the fruit of their own efforts to keep the law according to their own ideas and for their own selfish benefit. Hence it could be no better than they were. In their endeavor to make themselves holy, they were trying to bring a clean thing out of an unclean. The law of God is as holy as He is holy, as perfect as He is perfect. It presents to us the righteousness of God. It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to keep this law; for our nature is depraved, deformed, and wholly unlike the character of God. The works of the selfish heart are "as an unclean thing;" and "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." (Isaiah 64:6.)
HB	184	4	While the law is holy, the Jews could not attain righteousness by their own efforts to keep the law. The disciples of Christ must obtain righteousness of a different character from that of the Pharisees, if they would enter the kingdom of heaven. God offered them, in His Son, the perfect righteousness of the law. If they would open their hearts fully to receive Christ, then the very life of God, His love, would dwell in them, transforming them into His own likeness; and thus through God's free gift they would possess the righteousness which the law requires. But the Pharisees rejected Christ; "being ignorant of God's righteous-ness, and going about to establish their own righteousness" (Romans 10:3), they would not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God.
HB	184	5	Jesus proceeded to show His hearers what it means to keep the commandments of God--that it is a reproduction in themselves of the character of Christ. For in Him, God was daily made manifest before them.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 53-55.
------------------------Obedience Is The Fruit Of Love, June 12
HB	185	1	He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.--John 14:21.
HB	185	2	Let those who feel inclined to make a high profession of holiness look into the mirror of God's law. As they see its far-reaching claims, and understand its work as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, they will not boast of sinlessness. . . .
HB	185	3	There are those who profess holiness, who declare that they are wholly the Lord's, who claim a right to the promises of God, while refusing to render obedience to His commandments. These transgressors of the law claim everything that is promised to the children of God; but this is presumption on their part, for John tells us that true love for God will be revealed in obedience to all His commandments. It is not enough to believe the theory of truth, to make a profession of faith in Christ, to believe that Jesus is no impostor, and that the religion of the Bible is no cunningly devised fable. "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments," John wrote, "is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him." (1 John 2:4, 5.) . . .
HB	185	4	John did not teach that salvation was to be earned by obedience; but that obedience was the fruit of faith and love. "Ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins," he said, "and in Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him." (1 John 3:5, 6.) If we abide in Christ, if the love of God dwells in the heart, our feelings, our thoughts, our actions, will be in harmony with the will of God. The sanctified heart is in harmony with the precepts of God's law.
HB	185	5	There are many who, though striving to obey God's commandments, have little peace or joy. This lack in their experience is the result of a failure to exercise faith. They walk as it were in a salt land, a parched wilderness. They claim little, when they might claim much; for there is no limit to the promises of God. Such ones do not correctly represent the sanctification that comes through obedience to the truth. The Lord would have all His sons and daughters happy, peaceful, and obedient. Through the exercise of faith the believer comes into possession of these blessings. Through faith, every deficiency of character may be supplied, every defilement cleansed, every fault corrected, every excellence developed.--The Acts of the Apostles, 562-564.
------------------------The Ten Commandments, With Sabbath At The Center, June 13
HB	186	1	And in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you.--Exodus 25:21.
HB	186	2	But the Lord gave me a view of the heavenly sanctuary. The temple of God was open in heaven, and I was shown the ark of God covered with the mercy seat. Two angels stood one at either end of the ark, with their wings spread over the mercy seat, and their faces turned toward it. This, my accompanying angel informed me, represented all the heavenly host looking with reverential awe toward the law of God, which had been written by the finger of God.
HB	186	3	Jesus raised the cover of the ark, and I beheld the tables of stone on which the ten commandments were written. I was amazed as I saw the fourth commandment in the very center of the ten precepts, with a soft halo of light encircling it. Said the angel, "It is the only one of the ten which defines the living God who created the heavens and the earth and all things that are therein."
HB	186	4	When the foundations of the earth were laid, then was also laid the foundation of the Sabbath. I was shown that if the true Sabbath had been kept, there would never have been an infidel or an atheist. The observance of the Sabbath would have preserved the world from idolatry.
HB	186	5	The fourth commandment has been trampled upon, therefore we are called upon to repair the breach in the law and plead for the desecrated Sabbath. The man of sin, who exalted himself above God, and thought to change times and laws, brought about the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. In doing this he made a breach in the law of God. Just prior to the great day of God, a message is sent forth to warn the people to come back to their allegiance to the law of God, which antichrist has broken down. Attention must be called to the breach in the law, by precept and example. . . .
HB	186	6	I was shown that the third angel proclaiming the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, represents the people who receive this message, and raise the voice of warning to the world to keep the commandments of God and His law as the apple of the eye; and that in response to this warning, many would embrace the Sabbath of the Lord.--Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 95, 96.
------------------------Sabbath, The Seal Of God's Law, June 14
HB	187	1	Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.--Isaiah 8:16.
HB	187	2	The Lord commands by the same prophet: "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples." (Isaiah 8:16.) The seal of God's law is found in the fourth commandment. This only, of all the ten, brings to view both the name and the title of the Lawgiver. It declares Him to be the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and thus shows His claim to reverence and worship above all others. Aside from this precept, there is nothing in the Decalogue to show by whose authority the law is given. When the Sabbath was changed by the papal power, the seal was taken from the law. The disciples of Jesus are called upon to restore it by exalting the Sabbath of the fourth commandment to its rightful position as the Creator's memorial and the sign of His authority.
HB	187	3	"To the law and to the testimony." While conflicting doctrines and theories abound, the law of God is the one unerring rule by which all opinions, doctrines, and theories are to be tested. Says the prophet: "If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." (Verse 20.) . . .
HB	187	4	Again, the command is given: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." It is not the wicked world, but those whom the Lord designates as "my people," that are to be reproved for their transgressions. He declares further: "Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteous-ness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God." (Isaiah 58:1, 2.) . . .
HB	187	5	The prophet thus points out the ordinance which has been forsaken: "Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." (Verses 12-14.) This prophecy also applies in our time. The breach was made in the law of God when the Sabbath was changed by the Roman power. But the time has come for that divine institution to be restored. The breach is to be repaired and the foundation of many generations to be raised up.--The Great Controversy, 452, 453.
------------------------The Sabbath Created By Christ, June 15
HB	188	1	For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible.--Colossians 1:16.
HB	188	2	The Sabbath was hallowed at the creation. As ordained for humanity, it had its origin when "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." (Job 38:7.) Peace brooded over the world; for earth was in harmony with heaven. "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good;" and He rested in the joy of His completed work. (Genesis 1:31.)
HB	188	3	Because He had rested upon the Sabbath, "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it"--set it apart to a holy use. He gave it to Adam as a day of rest. It was a memorial of the work of creation, and thus a sign of God's power and His love. The Scripture says, "He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered." "The things that are made," declare "the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world," "even His everlasting power and divinity." (Genesis 2:3; Psalm 111:4; Romans 1:20, R.V.)
HB	188	4	All things were created by the Son of God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. . . . All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." (John 1:1-3.) And since the Sabbath is a memorial of the work of creation, it is a token of the love and power of Christ. . . .
HB	188	5	The Sabbath was embodied in the law given from Sinai; but it was not then first made known as a day of rest. The people of Israel had a knowledge of it before they came to Sinai. On the way thither the Sabbath was kept. . . .
HB	188	6	The Sabbath was not for Israel merely, but for the world. It had been made known to the human race in Eden, and, like the other precepts of the Decalogue, it is of imperishable obligation. Of that law of which the fourth commandment forms a part, Christ declares, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law." So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creator's power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, God's holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. "From one Sabbath to another" the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall go up "to worship before Me, saith the Lord." (Matthew 5:18; Isaiah 66:23.)--The Desire of Ages, 281, 283.
------------------------Worship The Creator, June 16
HB	189	1	Worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.--Revelation 14:7.
HB	189	2	The duty to worship God is based upon the fact that He is the Creator and that to Him all other beings owe their existence. And wherever, in the Bible, His claim to reverence and worship, above the gods of the heathen, is presented, there is cited the evidence of His creative power. . . .
HB	189	3	In Revelation 14, we are called upon to worship the Creator; and the prophecy brings to view a class that, as the result of the threefold message, are keeping the commandments of God. One of these commandments points directly to God as the Creator. The fourth precept declares: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:10, 11.) Concerning the Sabbath, the Lord says, further, that it is "a sign, . . . that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." (Ezekiel 20:20.) . . .
HB	189	4	"The importance of the Sabbath as the memorial of creation is that it keeps ever present the true reason why worship is due to God"--because He is the Creator, and we are His creatures. "The Sabbath therefore lies at the very foundation of divine worship, for it teaches this great truth in the most impressive manner, and no other institution does this. The true ground of divine worship, not of that on the seventh day merely, but of all worship, is found in the distinction between the Creator and His creatures. This great fact can never become obsolete, and must never be forgotten." (J. N. Andrews, History of the Sabbath, chapter 27.) It was to keep this truth ever before our minds, that God instituted the Sabbath in Eden; and so long as the fact that He is our Creator continues to be a reason why we should worship Him, so long the Sabbath will continue as its sign and memorial. Had the Sabbath been universally kept, mankind's thoughts and affections would have been led to the Creator as the object of reverence and worship, and there would never have been an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel. The keeping of the Sabbath is a sign of loyalty to the true God, "Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." It follows that the message which commands us to worship God and keep His commandments will especially call upon us to keep the fourth commandment.--The Great Controversy, 436-438.
------------------------The Lord's Day, June 17
HB	190	1	The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.--Mark 2:27, 28.
HB	190	2	The Saviour had not come to set aside what patriarchs and prophets had spoken; for He Himself had spoken through these representative men. All the truths of God's word came from Him. But these priceless gems had been placed in false settings. Their precious light had been made to minister to error. God desired them to be removed from their settings of error and replaced in the framework of truth. This work only a divine hand could accomplish. By its connection with error, the truth had been serving the cause of the enemy of God and man. Christ had come to place it where it would glorify God, and work the salvation of humanity. . . .
HB	190	3	"Wherefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." These words are full of instruction and comfort. Because the Sabbath was made for mankind, it is the Lord's day. It belongs to Christ. For "all things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." (John 1:3.) Since He made all things, He made the Sabbath. By Him it was set apart as a memorial of the work of creation. It points to Him as both the Creator and the Sanctifier. It declares that He who created all things in heaven and in earth, and by whom all things hold together, is the head of the church, and that by His power we are reconciled to God. For, speaking of Israel, He said, "I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them"--make them holy. (Ezekiel 20:12.) Then the Sabbath is a sign of Christ's power to make us holy. And it is given to all whom Christ makes holy. As a sign of His sanctifying power, the Sabbath is given to all who through Christ become a part of the Israel of God.
HB	190	4	And the Lord says, "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; . . . then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." (Isaiah 58:13, 14.) To all who receive the Sabbath as a sign of Christ's creative and redeeming power, it will be a delight. Seeing Christ in it, they delight themselves in Him. The Sabbath points them to the works of creation as an evidence of His mighty power in redemption. While it calls to mind the lost peace of Eden, it tells of peace restored through the Saviour.--The Desire of Ages, 287-289.
------------------------Sabbath and The World of Nature, June 18
HB	191	1	The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.--Psalm 19:1.
HB	191	2	So through the creation we are to become acquainted with the Creator. The book of nature is a great lesson book, which in connection with the Scriptures we are to use in teaching others of His character, and guiding lost sheep back to the fold of God. As the works of God are studied, the Holy Spirit flashes conviction into the mind. It is not the conviction that logical reasoning produces; but unless the mind has become too dark to know God, the eye too dim to see Him, the ear too dull to hear His voice, a deeper meaning is grasped, and the sublime, spiritual truths of the written word are impressed on the heart. . . .
HB	191	3	Christ's purpose in parable teaching was in direct line with the purpose of the Sabbath. God gave us the memorial of His creative power, that we might discern Him in the works of His hand. The Sabbath bids us behold in His created works the glory of the Creator. And it was because He desired us to do this that Jesus bound up His precious lessons with the beauty of natural things. On the holy rest day, above all other days, we should study the messages that God has written for us in nature. We should study the Saviour's parables where He spoke them, in the fields and groves, under the open sky, among the grass and flowers. As we come close to the heart of nature, Christ makes His presence real to us, and speaks to our hearts of His peace and love.
HB	191	4	And Christ has linked His teaching, not only with the day of rest, but with the week of toil. He has wisdom for those who drive the plow and sow the seed. In the plowing and sowing, the tilling and reaping, He teaches us to see an illustration of His work of grace in the heart. So in every line of useful labor and every association of life, He desires us to find a lesson of divine truth. Then our daily toil will no longer absorb our attention and lead us to forget God; it will continually remind us of our Creator and Redeemer. The thought of God will run like a thread of gold through all our homely [common, domestic] cares and occupations. For us the glory of His face will again rest upon the face of nature. We shall ever be learning new lessons of heavenly truth, and growing into the image of His purity. Thus shall we "be taught of the Lord"; and in the lot wherein we are called, we shall "abide with God." (Isaiah 54:13; 1 Corinthians 7:24.)--Christ's Object Lessons, 24-27.
------------------------An Expression of Thanks, June 19
HB	192	1	Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.--Genesis 2:3.
HB	192	2	After resting upon the seventh day, God sanctified it, or set it apart, as a day of rest for the human family. Following the example of the Creator, they were to rest upon this sacred day, that as they should look upon the heavens and the earth, they might reflect upon God's great work of creation; and that as they should behold the evidences of God's wisdom and goodness, their hearts might be filled with love and reverence for their Maker.
HB	192	3	In Eden, God set up the memorial of His work of creation, in placing His blessing upon the seventh day. The Sabbath was committed to Adam, the father and representative of the whole human family. Its observance was to be an act of grateful acknowledgment, on the part of all who should dwell upon the earth, that God was their Creator and their rightful Sovereign; that they were the work of His hands and the subjects of His authority. Thus the institution was wholly commemorative, and given to all mankind. There was nothing in it shadowy or of restricted application to any people.
HB	192	4	God saw that a Sabbath was essential for mankind, even in Paradise. Human beings needed to lay aside their own interests and pursuits for one day of the seven, that they might more fully contemplate the works of God and meditate upon His power and goodness. They needed a Sabbath to remind them more vividly of God and to awaken gratitude because all that they enjoyed and possessed came from the beneficent hand of the Creator.
HB	192	5	God designs that the Sabbath shall direct our minds to the contemplation of His created works. Nature speaks to our senses, declaring that there is a living God, the Creator, the Supreme Ruler of all. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." (Psalm 19:1, 2.) The beauty that clothes the earth is a token of God's love. We may behold it in the everlasting hills, in the lofty trees, in the opening buds and the delicate flowers. All speak to us of God. The Sabbath, ever pointing to Him who made them all, bids us open the great book of nature and trace therein the wisdom, the power, and the love of the Creator.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 47, 48.
------------------------The Creation Week, June 20
HB	193	1	So the evening and the morning were the first day.--Genesis 1:5.
HB	193	2	Like the Sabbath, the week originated at creation, and it has been preserved and brought down to us through Bible history. God Himself measured off the first week as a sample for successive weeks to the close of time. Like every other, it consisted of seven literal days. Six days were employed in the work of creation; upon the seventh, God rested, and He then blessed this day and set it apart as a day of rest for us.
HB	193	3	In the law given from Sinai, God recognized the week, and the facts upon which it is based. After giving the command, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," and specifying what shall be done on the six days, and what shall not be done on the seventh, He states the reason for thus observing the week, by pointing back to His own example: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:8-11.) This reason appears beautiful and forcible when we understand the days of creation to be literal. The first six days of each week are given to us for labor, because God employed the same period of the first week in the work of creation. On the seventh day we are to refrain from labor, in commemoration of the Creator's rest.
HB	193	4	But the assumption that the events of the first week required thousands upon thousands of years, strikes directly at the foundation of the fourth commandment. It represents the Creator as commanding us to observe the week of literal days in commemoration of vast, indefinite periods. This is unlike His method of dealing with His creatures. It makes indefinite and obscure that which He has made very plain. It is infidelity in its most insidious and hence most dangerous form; its real character is so disguised that it is held and taught by many who profess to believe the Bible.
HB	193	5	The Bible recognizes no long ages in which the earth was slowly evolved from chaos. Of each successive day of creation, the sacred record declares that it consisted of the evening and the morning, like all other days that have followed. At the close of each day is given the result of the Creator's work.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 111, 112.
------------------------Faith In Inspired History, June 21
HB	194	1	This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.--Genesis 2:4.
HB	194	2	Geologists claim to find evidence from the earth itself that it is very much older than the Mosaic record teaches. Human and animal bones, as well as instruments of warfare, petrified trees, et cetera, much larger than any that now exist, or that have existed for thousands of years, have been discovered, and from this it is inferred that the earth was populated long before the time brought to view in the record of creation, and by a race of beings vastly superior in size to any persons now living. Such reasoning has led many professed Bible believers to adopt the position that the days of creation were vast, indefinite periods.
HB	194	3	But apart from Bible history, geology can prove nothing. Those who reason so confidently upon its discoveries have no adequate conception of the size of humans, animals, and trees before the Flood, or of the great changes which then took place. Relics found in the earth do give evidence of conditions differing in many respects from the present, but the time when these conditions existed can be learned only from the Inspired Record. In the history of the Flood, inspiration has explained that which geology alone could never fathom. In the days of Noah, people, animals, and trees, many times larger than now exist, were buried, and thus preserved as an evidence to later generations that the antediluvians perished by a flood. God designed that the discovery of these things should establish faith in inspired history; but men and women, with their vain reasoning, fall into the same error as did the people before the Flood--the things which God gave them as a benefit, they turn into a curse by making a wrong use of them.
HB	194	4	It is one of Satan's devices to lead the people to accept the fables of infidelity; for he can thus obscure the law of God, in itself very plain, and embolden them to rebel against the divine government. His efforts are especially directed against the fourth commandment, because it so clearly points to the living God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth.
HB	194	5	There is a constant effort made to explain the work of creation as the result of natural causes; and human reasoning is accepted even by professed Christians, in opposition to plain Scripture facts.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 112, 113.
------------------------Sabbath Preparations, June 22
HB	195	1	Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.--Exodus 20:8.
HB	195	2	At the very beginning of the fourth commandment the Lord said: "Remember." He knew that amid the multitude of cares and perplexities we would be tempted to excuse ourselves from meeting the full requirement of the law, or would forget its sacred importance. Therefore He said: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." (Exodus 20:8.)
HB	195	3	All through the week we are to have the Sabbath in mind and be making preparation to keep it according to the commandment. We are not merely to observe the Sabbath as a legal matter. We are to understand its spiritual bearing upon all the transactions of life. All who regard the Sabbath as a sign between them and God, showing that He is the God who sanctifies them, will represent the principles of His government. They will bring into daily practice the laws of His kingdom. Daily it will be their prayer that the sanctification of the Sabbath may rest upon them. Every day they will have the companionship of Christ and will exemplify the perfection of His character. Every day their light will shine forth to others in good works.
HB	195	4	In all that pertains to the success of God's work, the very first victories are to be won in the home life. Here the preparation for the Sabbath must begin. Throughout the week let parents remember that their home is to be a school in which their children shall be prepared for the courts above. Let their words be right words. No words which their children should not hear are to escape their lips. Let the spirit be kept free from irritation. Parents, during the week live as in the sight of a holy God, who has given you children to train for Him. Train for Him the little church in your home, that on the Sabbath all may be prepared to worship in the Lord's sanctuary. Each morning and evening present your children to God as His blood-bought heritage. Teach them that it is their highest duty and privilege to love and serve God. . . .
HB	195	5	When the Sabbath is thus remembered, the temporal will not be allowed to encroach upon the spiritual. No duty pertaining to the six working days will be left for the Sabbath. During the week our energies will not be so exhausted in temporal labor that on the day when the Lord rested and was refreshed we shall be too weary to engage in His service.--Testimonies for the Church 6:353, 354.
------------------------Double Manna, June 23
HB	196	1	And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread.--Exodus 16:22.
HB	196	2	"On the sixth day the people gathered two omers for every person. The rulers hastened to acquaint Moses with what had been done. His answer was, "This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord." . . .
HB	196	3	God requires that His holy day be as sacredly observed now as in the time of Israel. The command given to the Hebrews should be regarded by all Christians as an injunction from Jehovah to them. The day before the Sabbath should be made a day of preparation, that everything may be in readiness for its sacred hours. In no case should our own business be allowed to encroach upon holy time. God has directed that the sick and suffering be cared for; the labor required to make them comfortable is a work of mercy, and no violation of the Sabbath; but all unnecessary work should be avoided. Many carelessly put off till the beginning of the Sabbath little things that might have been done on the day of preparation. This should not be. Work that is neglected until the beginning of the Sabbath should remain undone until it is past. This course might help the memory of these thoughtless ones, and make them careful to do their own work on the six working days.
HB	196	4	Every week during their long sojourn in the wilderness the Israelites witnessed a threefold miracle, designed to impress their minds with the sacredness of the Sabbath: a double quantity of manna fell on the sixth day, none on the seventh, and the portion needed for the Sabbath was preserved sweet and pure, when if any were kept over at any other time it became unfit for use.
HB	196	5	In the circumstances connected with the giving of the manna, we have conclusive evidence that the Sabbath was not instituted, as many claim, when the law was given at Sinai. Before the Israelites came to Sinai they understood the Sabbath to be obligatory upon them. In being obliged to gather every Friday a double portion of manna in preparation for the Sabbath, when none would fall, the sacred nature of the day of rest was continually impressed upon them. And when some of the people went out on the Sabbath to gather manna, the Lord asked, "How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?"--Patriarchs and Prophets, 295-297.
------------------------A Perpetual Covenant, June 24
HB	197	1	You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.--1 Peter 2:9.
HB	197	2	When the Lord delivered His people Israel from Egypt and committed to them His law, He taught them that by the observance of the Sabbath they were to be distinguished from idolaters. It was this that made the distinction between those who acknowledge the sovereignty of God and those who refuse to accept Him as their Creator and King. . . .
HB	197	3	As the Sabbath was the sign that distinguished Israel when they came out of Egypt to enter the earthly Canaan, so it is the sign that now distinguishes God's people as they come out from the world to enter the heavenly rest. The Sabbath is a sign of the relationship existing between God and His people, a sign that they honor His law. It distinguishes between His loyal subjects and transgressors.
HB	197	4	From the pillar of cloud Christ declared concerning the Sabbath: "Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." (Exodus 31:13.) The Sabbath given to the world as the sign of God as the Creator is also the sign of Him as the Sanctifier. The power that created all things is the power that re-creates the soul in His own likeness. To those who keep holy the Sabbath day it is the sign of sanctification. True sanctification is harmony with God, oneness with Him in character. It is received through obedience to those principles that are the transcript of His character. And the Sabbath is the sign of obedience. Those who from the heart obey the fourth commandment will obey the whole law. They are sanctified through obedience.
HB	197	5	To us as to Israel the Sabbath is given "for a perpetual covenant." To those who reverence His holy day the Sabbath is a sign that God recognizes them as His chosen people. It is a pledge that He will fulfill to them His covenant. All who accept the sign of God's government place themselves under the divine, everlasting covenant. . . .
HB	197	6	The fourth commandment alone of all the ten contains the seal of the great Lawgiver, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Those who obey this commandment take upon themselves His name, and all the blessings it involves are theirs.--Testimonies for the Church 6:349, 350.
------------------------A Joyous Work, June 25
HB	198	1	Those who honor Me I will honor.--1 Samuel 2:30.
HB	198	2	When the Sabbath is thus remembered, the temporal will not be allowed to encroach upon the spiritual. No duty pertaining to the six working days will be left for the Sabbath. During the week our energies will not be so exhausted in temporal labor that on the day when the Lord rested and was refreshed we shall be too weary to engage in His service. . . .
HB	198	3	On Friday let the preparation for the Sabbath be completed. See that all the clothing is in readiness and that all the cooking is done. Let the boots be blacked and the baths be taken. It is possible to do this. If you make it a rule you can do it. The Sabbath is not to be given to the repairing of garments, to the cooking of food, to pleasure seeking, or to any other worldly employment. Before the setting of the sun let all secular work be laid aside and all secular papers be put out of sight. Parents, explain your work and its purpose to your children, and let them share in your preparation to keep the Sabbath according to the commandment.
HB	198	4	We should jealously guard the edges of the Sabbath. Remember that every moment is consecrated, holy time. Whenever it is possible, employers should give their workers the hours from Friday noon until the beginning of the Sabbath. Give them time for preparation, that they may welcome the Lord's day with quietness of mind. By such a course you will suffer no loss even in temporal things.
HB	198	5	There is another work that should receive attention on the preparation day. On this day all differences between God's children, whether in the family or in the church, should be put away. Let all bitterness and wrath and malice be expelled from the soul. In a humble spirit, "confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." (James 5:16.)
HB	198	6	Before the Sabbath begins, the mind as well as the body should be withdrawn from worldly business. God has set His Sabbath at the end of the six working days, that we may stop and consider what we have gained during the week in preparation for the pure kingdom which admits no transgressor. We should each Sabbath reckon with our souls to see whether the week that has ended has brought spiritual gain or loss.
HB	198	7	It means eternal salvation to keep the Sabbath holy unto the Lord.--Testimonies for the Church 6:354-356.
------------------------Satan's Attack On The Sabbath, June 26
HB	199	1	He. . . shall intend to change times and law.--Daniel 7:25.
HB	199	2	The spirit of concession to paganism opened the way for a still further disregard of Heaven's authority. Satan, working through unconsecrated leaders of the church, tampered with the fourth commandment also, and essayed [tried] to set aside the ancient Sabbath, the day which God had blessed and sanctified (Genesis 2:2, 3), and in its stead to exalt the festival observed by the heathen as "the venerable day of the sun." This change was not at first attempted openly. In the first centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by all Christians. They were jealous for the honor of God, and, believing that His law is immutable, they zealously guarded the sacredness of its precepts. But with great subtlety Satan worked through his agents to bring about his object. That the attention of the people might be called to the Sunday, it was made a festival in honor of the resurrection of Christ. Religious services were held upon it; yet it was regarded as a day of recreation, the Sabbath being still sacredly observed.
HB	199	3	To prepare the way for the work which he designed to accomplish, Satan had led the Jews, before the advent of Christ, to load down the Sabbath with the most rigorous exactions, making its observance a burden. Now, taking advantage of the false light in which he had thus caused it to be regarded, he cast contempt upon it as a Jewish institution. While Christians generally continued to observe the Sunday as a joyous festival, he led them, in order to show their hatred of Judaism, to make the Sabbath a fast, a day of sadness and gloom. . . .
HB	199	4	The archdeceiver had not completed his work. He was resolved to gather the Christian world under his banner and to exercise his power through his vicegerent, the proud pontiff who claimed to be the representative of Christ. Through half-converted pagans, ambitious prelates, and world-loving churchmen he accomplished his purpose. Vast councils were held from time to time, in which the dignitaries of the church were convened from all the world. In nearly every council the Sabbath which God had instituted was pressed down a little lower, while the Sunday was correspondingly exalted. Thus the pagan festival came finally to be honored as a divine institution, while the Bible Sabbath was pronounced a relic of Judaism, and its observers were declared to be accursed.--The Great Controversy, 52, 53.
------------------------Standing For God's Honor, June 27
HB	200	1	A judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High.--Daniel 7:22.
HB	200	2	Among the leading causes that had led to the separation of the true church from Rome was the hatred of the latter toward the Bible Sabbath. As foretold by prophecy, the papal power cast down the truth to the ground. The law of God was trampled in the dust, while human traditions and customs were exalted. The churches that were under the rule of the papacy were early compelled to honor the Sunday as a holy day. Amid the prevailing error and superstition, many, even of the true people of God, became so bewildered that while they observed the Sabbath, they refrained from labor also on the Sunday. But this did not satisfy the papal leaders. They demanded not only that Sunday be hallowed, but that the Sabbath be profaned; and they denounced in the strongest language those who dared to show it honor. It was only by fleeing from the power of Rome that any could obey God's law in peace.
HB	200	3	The Waldenses were among the first of the peoples of Europe to obtain a translation of the Holy Scriptures. . . . Hundreds of years before the Reformation they possessed the Bible in manuscript in their native tongue. They had the truth unadulterated, and this rendered them the special objects of hatred and persecution. They declared the Church of Rome to be the apostate Babylon of the Apocalypse, and at the peril of their lives they stood up to resist her corruptions. While, under the pressure of long-continued persecution, some compromised their faith, little by little yielding its distinctive principles, others held fast the truth. Through ages of darkness and apostasy there were Waldenses who denied the supremacy of Rome, who rejected image worship as idolatry, and who kept the true Sabbath. Under the fiercest tempests of opposition they maintained their faith. Though gashed by the Savoyard spear, and scorched by the Romish fagot, they stood unflinchingly for God's word and His honor.
HB	200	4	Behind the lofty bulwarks of the mountains--in all ages the refuge of the persecuted and oppressed--the Waldenses found a hiding place. Here the light of truth was kept burning amid the darkness of the Middle Ages. . . .
HB	200	5	God had provided for His people a sanctuary of awful grandeur, befitting the mighty truths committed to their trust. To those faithful exiles the mountains were an emblem of the immutable righteousness of Jehovah.--The Great Controversy, 65, 66.
------------------------The Line In The Sand, June 28
HB	201	1	Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.--1 John 3:24.
HB	201	2	After the warning against the worship of the beast and his image the prophecy declares: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." (Revelation 14:12.) Since those who keep God's commandments are thus placed in contrast with those that worship the beast and his image and receive his mark, it follows that the keeping of God's law, on the one hand, and its violation, on the other, will make the distinction between the worshipers of God and the worshipers of the beast.
HB	201	3	The special characteristic of the beast, and therefore of his image, is the breaking of God's commandments. Says Daniel, of the little horn, the papacy: "He shall think to change times and the law." (Daniel 7:25, R.V.) And Paul styled the same power the "man of sin," who was to exalt himself above God. One prophecy is a complement of the other. Only by changing God's law could the papacy exalt itself above God; whoever should understandingly keep the law as thus changed would be giving supreme honor to that power by which the change was made. Such an act of obedience to papal laws would be a mark of allegiance to the pope in the place of God.
HB	201	4	The papacy has attempted to change the law of God. The second commandment, forbidding image worship, has been dropped from the law, and the fourth commandment has been so changed as to authorize the observance of the first instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath. But papists urge, as a reason for omitting the second commandment, that it is unnecessary, being included in the first, and that they are giving the law exactly as God designed it to be understood. This cannot be the change foretold by the prophet. An intentional, deliberate change is presented: "He shall think to change the times and the law." The change in the fourth commandment exactly fulfills the prophecy. For this the only authority claimed is that of the church. Here the papal power openly sets itself above God.
HB	201	5	While the worshipers of God will be especially distinguished by their regard for the fourth commandment--since this is the sign of His creative power and the witness to His claim upon man's reverence and homage--the worshipers of the beast will be distinguished by their efforts to tear down the Creator's memorial, to exalt the institution of Rome.--The Great Controversy, 445, 446.
------------------------Sabbath Reform, June 29
HB	202	1	Blessed is the man . . . who keeps from defiling the Sabbath.--Isaiah 56:2.
HB	202	2	The work of Sabbath reform to be accomplished in the last days is foretold in the prophecy of Isaiah: "Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." (Isaiah 56:1, 2.) . . .
HB	202	3	These words apply in the Christian age, as shown by the context: "The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him." (Verse 8.) Here is foreshadowed the gathering in of the Gentiles by the gospel. And upon those who then honor the Sabbath, a blessing is pronounced. Thus the obligation of the fourth commandment extends past the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, to the time when His servants should preach to all nations the message of glad tidings. . . .
HB	202	4	Hallowed by the Creator's rest and blessing, the Sabbath was kept by Adam in his innocence in holy Eden; by Adam, fallen yet repentant, when he was driven from his happy estate. It was kept by all the patriarchs, from Abel to righteous Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob. When the chosen people were in bondage in Egypt, many, in the midst of prevailing idolatry, lost their knowledge of God's law; but when the Lord delivered Israel, He proclaimed His law in awful grandeur to the assembled multitude, that they might know His will and fear and obey Him forever.
HB	202	5	From that day to the present the knowledge of God's law has been preserved in the earth, and the Sabbath of the fourth commandment has been kept. Though the "man of sin" succeeded in trampling underfoot God's holy day, yet even in the period of his supremacy there were, hidden in secret places, faithful souls who paid it honor. Since the Reformation, there have been some in every generation to maintain its observance. Though often in the midst of reproach and persecution, a constant testimony has been borne to the perpetuity of the law of God and the sacred obligation of the creation Sabbath.--The Great Controversy, 451, 453.
------------------------God's Law and Sabbath Vindicated, June 30
HB	203	1	Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy.--Revelation 15:4.
HB	203	2	While these words of holy trust [Psalm 46:1-3] ascend to God, the clouds sweep back, and the starry heavens are seen, unspeakably glorious in contrast with the black and angry firmament on either side. The glory of the celestial city streams from the gates ajar. Then there appears against the sky a hand holding two tables of stone folded together. Says the prophet: "The heavens shall declare His righteousness: for God is judge Himself." (Psalm 50:6.) That holy law, God's righteousness, that amid thunder and flame was proclaimed from Sinai as the guide of life, is now revealed to the world as the rule of judgment. The hand opens the tables, and there are seen the precepts of the Decalogue, traced as with a pen of fire. The words are so plain that all can read them. Memory is aroused, the darkness of superstition and heresy is swept from every mind, and God's ten words, brief, comprehensive, and authoritative, are presented to the view of all the inhabitants of the earth.
HB	203	3	It is impossible to describe the horror and despair of those who have trampled upon God's holy requirements. The Lord gave them His law; they might have compared their characters with it and learned their defects while there was yet opportunity for repentance and reform; but in order to secure the favor of the world, they set aside its precepts and taught others to transgress. They have endeavored to compel God's people to profane His Sabbath. Now they are condemned by that law which they have despised. With awful distinctness they see that they are without excuse. They chose whom they would serve and worship. "Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not." (Malachi 3:18.)
HB	203	4	The enemies of God's law, from the ministers down to the least among them, have a new conception of truth and duty. Too late they see that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the seal of the living God. Too late they see the true nature of their spurious sabbath and the sandy foundation upon which they have been building. They find that they have been fighting against God.--The Great Controversy, 639, 640.
------------------------God Is Owner, July 1
HB	206	1	For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.--Psalm 50:10.
HB	206	2	That which lies at the foundation of business integrity and of true success is the recognition of God's ownership. The Creator of all things, He is the original proprietor. We are His stewards. All that we have is a trust from Him, to be used according to His direction.
HB	206	3	This is an obligation that rests upon every human being. It has to do with the whole sphere of human activity. Whether we recognize it or not, we are stewards, supplied from God with talents and facilities and placed in the world to do a work appointed by Him.
HB	206	4	Money is not ours; houses and grounds, pictures and furniture, garments and luxuries, do not belong to us. We are pilgrims, we are strangers. We have only a grant of those things that are necessary for health and life. . . . Our temporal blessings are given us in trust, to prove whether we can be entrusted with eternal riches. If we endure the proving of God, then we shall receive that purchased possession which is to be our own--glory, honor, and immortality.
HB	206	5	If our own people would only put into the cause of God the money that has been lent them in trust, that portion which they spend in selfish gratification, in idolatry, they would lay up treasure in heaven, and would be doing the very work God requires them to do. But like the rich man in the parable, they live sumptuously. The money God has lent them in trust, to be used to His name's glory, they spend extravagantly. They do not stop to consider their accountability to God. They do not stop to consider that there is to be a reckoning day not far hence, when they must give an account of their stewardship.
HB	206	6	We should ever remember that in the judgment we must meet the record of the way we use God's money. Much is spent in self-pleasing, self-gratification, that does us no real good, but positive injury. If we realize that God is the giver of all good things, that the money is His, then we shall exercise wisdom in its expenditure, conforming to His holy will. The world, its customs, its fashions, will not be our standard. We shall not have a desire to conform to its practices; we shall not permit our own inclinations to control us.--The Adventist Home, 367, 368.
------------------------How Does Money Impact You?, July 2
HB	207	1	But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession.--Acts 5:1.
HB	207	2	Money is not necessarily a curse; it is of high value because if rightly appropriated, it can do good in the salvation of souls, in blessing others who are poorer than ourselves. By an improvident or unwise use, . . . money will become a snare to the user. He who employs money to gratify pride and ambition makes it a curse rather than a blessing. Money is a constant test of the affections. Whoever acquires more than sufficient for his real needs should seek wisdom and grace to know his own heart and to keep his heart diligently, lest he have imaginary wants and become an unfaithful steward, using with prodigality his Lord's entrusted capital.
HB	207	3	When we love God supremely, temporal things will occupy their right place in our affections. If we humbly and earnestly seek for knowledge and ability in order to make a right use of our Lord's goods, we shall receive wisdom from above. When the heart leans to its own preferences and inclinations, when the thought is cherished that money can confer happiness without the favor of God, then the money becomes a tyrant, ruling us; it receives our confidence and esteem and is worshiped as a god. Honor, truth, righteousness, and justice are sacrificed upon its altar. The commands of God's word are set aside, and the world's customs and usages, which King Mammon has ordained, become a controlling power.
HB	207	4	If the laws given by God had continued to be carried out, how different would be the present condition of the world, morally, spiritually, and temporally. Selfishness and self-importance would not be manifested as now, but each would cherish a kind regard for the happiness and welfare of others. . . . Instead of the poorer classes being kept under the iron heel of oppression by the wealthy, instead of having other's brains to think and plan for them in temporal as well as in spiritual things, they would have some chance for independence of thought and action.
HB	207	5	The sense of being owners of their own homes would inspire them with a strong desire for improvement. They would soon acquire skill in planning and devising for themselves; their children would be educated to habits of industry and economy, and the intellect would be greatly strengthened. They would feel that they are men and women, not slaves, and would be able to regain to a great degree their lost self-respect and moral independence.--The Adventist Home, 372, 373.
------------------------An Education In Stewardship, July 3
HB	208	1	For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.--Luke 12:34.
HB	208	2	Oh, how much money we waste on useless articles in the house, on ruffles and fancy dress, and on candies and other articles we do not need! Parents, teach your children that it is wrong to use God's money in self-gratification. . . . Encourage them to save their pennies wherever possible, to be used in missionary work. They will gain rich experiences through the practice of self-denial, and such lessons will often keep them from acquiring habits of intemperance.
HB	208	3	The children may learn to show their love for Christ by denying themselves needless trifles, for the purchase of which much money slips through their fingers. In every family this work should be done. It requires tact and method, but it will be the best education the children can receive. And if all the little children would present their offerings to the Lord, their gifts would be as little rivulets which, when united and set flowing, would swell into a river.
HB	208	4	Keep a little money box on the mantel or in some safe place where it can be seen, in which the children can place their offerings for the Lord. . . . Thus they may be trained for God.
HB	208	5	Not only does the Lord claim the tithe as His own, but He tells us how it should be reserved for Him. He says, "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase." (Proverbs 3:9.) This does not teach that we are to spend our means on ourselves and bring to the Lord the remnant, even though it should be otherwise an honest tithe. Let God's portion be first set apart. The directions given by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul in regard to gifts present a principle that applies also to tithing. "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him." (1 Corinthians 16:2.) Parents and children are here included. . . .
HB	208	6	The very best legacy which parents can leave their children is a knowledge of useful labor and the example of a life characterized by disinterested benevolence. By such a life they show the true value of money, that it is only to be appreciated for the good that it will accomplish in relieving their own wants and the necessities of others, and in advancing the cause of God.--The Adventist Home, 388-390.
------------------------Avoid Debt, July 4
HB	209	1	Owe no one anything except to love one another.--Romans 13:8.
HB	209	2	The world has a right to expect strict integrity in those who profess to be Bible Christians. By one person's indifference in regard to paying his or her just dues all our people are in danger of being regarded as unreliable.
HB	209	3	Those who make any pretensions to godliness should adorn the doctrine they profess, and not give occasion for the truth to be reviled through their inconsiderate course of action. "Owe no man any thing," says the apostle.
HB	209	4	Be determined never to incur another debt. Deny yourself a thousand things rather than run in debt. This has been the curse of your life, getting into debt. Avoid it as you would the smallpox.
HB	209	5	Make a solemn covenant with God that by His blessing you will pay your debts and then owe no one anything if you live on porridge and bread. It is so easy in preparing your table to throw out of your pocket twenty-five cents for extras. Take care of the pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves. It is the mites here and the mites there that are spent for this, that, and the other that soon run up into dollars. Deny self at least while you are walled in with debts. . . . Do not falter, be discouraged, or turn back. Deny your taste, deny the indulgence of appetite, save your pence, and pay your debts. Work them off as fast as possible. When you can stand forth free again, owing no one anything, you will have achieved a great victory.
HB	209	6	If some are found to be in debt and really unable to meet their obligations, they should not be pressed to do that which is beyond their power. They should be given a favorable chance to discharge their indebtedness, and not be placed in a position where they are utterly unable to free themselves from debt. Though such a course might be considered justice, it is not mercy and the love of God.
HB	209	7	Some are not discreet and would incur debts that might be avoided. Others exercise a caution that savors of unbelief. By taking advantage of circumstances we may at times invest means to such advantage that the work of God will be strengthened and upbuilt, and yet keep strictly to right principles.--The Adventist Home, 393, 394.
------------------------Remember The Poor, July 5
HB	210	1	If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.--Matthew 19:21.
HB	210	2	If we represent the character of Christ, every particle of selfishness must be expelled from the soul. In carrying forward the work He gave to our hands, it will be necessary for us to give every jot and tittle of our means that we can spare. Poverty and distress in families will come to our knowledge, and afflicted and suffering ones will have to be relieved. We know very little of the human suffering that exists everywhere about us; but as we have opportunity, we should be ready to render immediate assistance to those who are under a severe pressure.
HB	210	3	The squandering of money in luxuries deprives the poor of the means necessary to supply them with food and clothing. That which is spent for the gratification of pride in dress, in buildings, in furniture, and in decorations would relieve the distress of many wretched, suffering families. God's stewards are to minister to the needy.
HB	210	4	The giving that is the fruit of self-denial is a wonderful help to the giver. It imparts an education that enables us more fully to comprehend the work of Him who went about doing good, relieving the suffering, and supplying the needs of the destitute.
HB	210	5	Constant, self-denying benevolence is God's remedy for the cankering sins of selfishness and covetousness. God has arranged systematic benevolence to sustain His cause and relieve the necessities of the suffering and needy. He has ordained that giving should become a habit, that it may counteract the dangerous and deceitful sin of covetousness. Continual giving starves covetousness to death. Systematic benevolence is designed in the order of God to tear away treasures from the covetous as fast as they are gained, and to consecrate them to the Lord, to whom they belong. . . .
HB	210	6	The constant practice of God's plan of systematic benevolence weakens covetousness and strengthens benevolence. If riches increase, people, even those professing godliness, set their hearts upon them; and the more they have, the less they give to the treasury of the Lord. Thus riches make people selfish, and hoarding feeds covetousness; and these evils strengthen by active exercise. God knows our danger and has hedged us about with means to prevent our own ruin. He requires the constant exercise of benevolence.--The Adventist Home, 370, 371.
------------------------Remember God In Your Will, July 6
HB	211	1	It is required in stewards that one be found faithful.--1 Corinthians 4:2.
HB	211	2	Those who are faithful stewards of the Lord's means will know just how their business stands, and, like the wise, they will be prepared for any emergency. Should their probation close suddenly, they would not leave such great perplexity upon those who are called to settle their estate.
HB	211	3	Many are not exercised upon the subject of making their wills while they are in apparent health. But this precaution should be taken. They should know their financial standing and should not allow their business to become entangled. They should arrange their property in such a manner that they may leave it at any time.
HB	211	4	Wills should be made in a manner to stand the test of law. After they are drawn, they may remain for years and do no harm, if donations continue to be made from time to time as the cause has need. Death will not come one day sooner, brethren, because you have made your will. In disposing of your property by will to your relatives, be sure that you do not forget God's cause. You are His agents, holding His property; and His claims should have your first consideration. Your wife and children, of course, should not be left destitute; provision should be made for them if they are needy. But do not, simply because it is customary, bring into your will a long line of relatives who are not needy.
HB	211	5	Let no one think that it will meet the mind of Christ to hoard up property through life and then at death make a bequest of a portion of it to some benevolent cause.
HB	211	6	Some selfishly retain their means during their lifetime, trusting to make up for their neglect by remembering the cause in their wills. But not half the means thus bestowed in legacies ever benefits the object specified. Brethren and sisters, invest in the bank of heaven yourselves, and do not leave your stewardship upon another.
HB	211	7	Parents should have great fear in entrusting children with the talents of means that God has placed in their hands, unless they have the surest evidence that their children have greater interest in, love for, and devotion to the cause of God than they themselves possess, and that these children will be more earnest and zealous in forwarding the work of God.--The Adventist Home, 396-398.
------------------------Stewards Of God's Grace, July 7
HB	212	1	Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.--Romans 12:6.
HB	212	2	Our Lord designed that His church should reflect to the world the fulness and sufficiency that we find in Him. We are constantly receiving of God's bounty, and by imparting of the same we are to represent to the world the love and beneficence of Christ. While all heaven is astir, dispatching messengers to all parts of the earth to carry forward the work of redemption, the church of the living God are also to be colaborers with Jesus Christ. We are members of His mystical body. He is the head, controlling all the members of the body. Jesus Himself, in His infinite mercy, is working on human hearts, effecting spiritual transformations so amazing that angels look on with astonishment and joy. The same unselfish love that characterizes the Master is seen in the character and life of His true followers. Christ expects that we will become partakers of His divine nature while in this world, thus not only reflecting His glory, to the praise of God, but illuminating the darkness of earth with the radiance of heaven. Thus will be fulfilled the words of Christ, "Ye are the light of the world."
HB	212	3	"We are laborers together with God"--"stewards of the manifold grace of God." The knowledge of God's grace, the truths of His Word, and temporal gifts as well--time and means, talent and influence--are all a trust from God to be employed to His glory and for the salvation of others.
HB	212	4	Wherever there is an impulse of love and sympathy, wherever the heart reaches out to uplift and bless others, there is revealed the working of God's Holy Spirit. In the depths of heathenism, those who have no knowledge of the written law of God, who have never even heard the name of Christ, have been kind to His servants, protecting them at the risk of their own lives. Their acts show the working of a divine power. The Holy Spirit has implanted the grace of Christ in the heart of the savages, quickening their sympathies contrary to their nature, contrary to their education. The "Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," is shining in their souls; and this light, if heeded, will guide their feet to the kingdom of God.--Review and Herald, December 24, 1908.
------------------------The World's Greatest Want, July 8
HB	213	1	Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart.--Psalm 24:3, 4.
HB	213	2	The same mighty truths that were revealed through these men [Joseph and Daniel], God desires to reveal through the youth and the children of today. The history of Joseph and Daniel is an illustration of what He will do for those who yield themselves to Him and with the whole heart seek to accomplish His purpose.
HB	213	3	The greatest want of the world is the want of those men and women who will not be bought or sold, those who in their inmost souls are true and honest, those who do not fear to call sin by its right name, those whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, those who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.
HB	213	4	But such a character is not the result of accident; it is not due to special favors or endowments of Providence. A noble character is the result of self-discipline, of the subjection of the lower to the higher nature--the surrender of self for the service of love to God and to others.
HB	213	5	The youth need to be impressed with the truth that their endowments are not their own. Strength, time, intellect, are but lent treasures. They belong to God, and it should be the resolve of every youth to put them to the highest use. The youth are branches, from which God expects fruit; stewards, whose capital must yield increase; lights, to illuminate the world's darkness.
HB	213	6	Every youth, every child, has a work to do for the honor of God and the uplifting of humanity.
HB	213	7	The early years of the prophet Elisha were passed in the quietude of country life, under the teaching of God and nature and the discipline of useful work. In a time of almost universal apostasy his father's household were among the number who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Theirs was a home where God was honored and where faithfulness to duty was the rule of daily life.
HB	213	8	The son of a wealthy farmer, Elisha had taken up the work that lay nearest. While possessing the capabilities of a leader among men, he received a training in life's common duties. In order to direct wisely, he must learn to obey. By faithfulness in little things, he was prepared for weightier trusts.--Education, 57, 58.
------------------------God is Speaking, July 9
HB	214	1	Be still, and know that I am God.--Psalm 46:10.
HB	214	2	It was in hours of solitary prayer that Jesus in His earth life received wisdom and power. Let the youth follow His example in finding at dawn and twilight a quiet season for communion with their Father in heaven. And throughout the day let them lift up their hearts to God. At every step of our way He says, "I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, . . . Fear not; I will help thee." (Isaiah 41:13.) Could our children learn these lessons in the morning of their years, what freshness and power, what joy and sweetness, would be brought into their lives!
HB	214	3	These are lessons that only those who themselves have learned can teach. It is because so many parents and teachers profess to believe the word of God while their lives deny its power, that the teaching of Scripture has no greater effect upon the youth. At times the youth are brought to feel the power of the word. They see the preciousness of the love of Christ. They see the beauty of His character, the possibilities of a life given to His service. But in contrast they see the life of those who profess to revere God's precepts. Of how many are the words true that were spoken to the prophet Ezekiel:
HB	214	4	Thy people "speak one to another, everyone to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as My people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them." (Ezekiel 33:30, 31.)
HB	214	5	It is one thing to treat the Bible as a book of good moral instruction, to be heeded so far as is consistent with the spirit of the times and our position in the world; it is another thing to regard it as it really is--the word of the living God, the word that is our life, the word that is to mold our actions, our words, and our thoughts. To hold God's word as anything less than this is to reject it. And this rejection by those who profess to believe it, is foremost among the causes of skepticism and infidelity in the youth. . . .
HB	214	6	Many, even in their seasons of devotion, fail of receiving the blessing of real communion with God. They are in too great haste. With hurried steps they press through the circle of Christ's loving presence, pausing perhaps a moment within the sacred precincts, but not waiting for counsel. They have no time to remain with the divine Teacher.--Education, 259, 260.
------------------------Help One Another To Grow, July 10
HB	215	1	Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.--Romans 12:10.
HB	215	2	I have a deep interest in the youth, and I greatly desire to see them striving to perfect Christian characters, seeking by diligent study and earnest prayer to gain the training essential for acceptable service in the cause of God. I long to see them helping one another to reach a higher plane of Christian experience.
HB	215	3	Christ came to teach the human family the way of salvation, and He made this way so plain that a little child can walk in it. He bids His disciples follow on to know the Lord; and as they daily follow His guidance, they learn that His going forth is prepared as the morning.
HB	215	4	You have watched the rising sun, and the gradual break of day over earth and sky. Little by little the dawn increases, till the sun appears; then the light grows constantly stronger and clearer until the full glory of noontide is reached. This is a beautiful illustration of what God desires to do for His children in perfecting their Christian experience. As we walk day by day in the light He sends us, in willing obedience to all His requirements, our experience grows and broadens until we reach the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.
HB	215	5	The youth need to keep ever before them the course that Christ followed. At every step it was a course of overcoming. Christ did not come to the earth as a king, to rule the nations. He came as a humble man, to be tempted, and to overcome temptation, to follow on, as we must, to know the Lord. In the study of His life we shall learn how much God through Him will do for His children. And we shall learn that, however great our trials may be, they cannot exceed what Christ endured that we might know the way, the truth, and the life. By a life of conformity to His example, we are to show our appreciation of His sacrifice in our behalf.
HB	215	6	The youth have been bought with an infinite price, even the blood of the Son of God. Consider the sacrifice of the Father in permitting His Son to make this sacrifice. Consider what Christ gave up when He left the courts of heaven and the royal throne, to give His life a daily sacrifice for us. He suffered reproach and abuse. He bore all the insult and mockery that wicked people could heap upon Him. And when His earthly ministry was accomplished, He suffered the death of the cross.--Messages to Young People, 15, 16.
------------------------Choose Wisely, July 11
HB	216	1	For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?--Matthew 16:26.
HB	216	2	God wants the youth to become people of earnest mind, to be prepared for action in His noble work, and fitted to bear responsibilities. God calls for young men with hearts uncorrupted, strong and brave, and determined to fight manfully in the struggle before them, that they may glorify God, and bless humanity. If the youth would but make the Bible their study, would but calm their impetuous desires, and listen to the voice of their Creator and Redeemer, they would not only be at peace with God, but would find themselves ennobled and elevated. It will be for your eternal interest, my young friend, to give heed to the instructions in the word of God, for they are of inestimable importance to you.
HB	216	3	I entreat you to be wise, and consider what will be the result of leading a wild life, uncontrolled by the Spirit of God. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption." For your soul's sake, for Christ's sake, who gave Himself to save you from ruin, pause on the threshold of your life, and weigh well your responsibilities, your opportunities, your possibilities. God has given you an opportunity to fill a high destiny. Your influence may tell for the truth of God; you may be a co-laborer with God in the great work of human redemption. . . .
HB	216	4	O that young men might appreciate the high destiny to which they are called! Ponder well the paths of your feet. Begin your work with high and holy purpose, and be determined that through the power of the grace of God, you will not diverge from the path of rectitude. If you begin to go in a wrong direction, every step will be fraught with peril and disaster, and you will go on straying from the path of truth, safety, and success. You need your intellect strengthened, your moral energies quickened, by divine power.
HB	216	5	The cause of God demands the highest powers of the being, and there is urgent need in many fields for young men of literary qualifications. There is need of men who can be trusted to labor in extensive fields that are now white to the harvest. Young men of ordinary ability, who give themselves wholly to God, who are uncorrupted by vice and impurity, will be successful, and will be enabled to do a great work for God.--Messages to Young People, 21, 22.
------------------------Prove Yourself, July 12
HB	217	1	Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.--2 Timothy 4:2.
HB	217	2	You have within your reach more than finite possibilities. A man, as God applies the term, is a son of God. "Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. . . . And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." It is your privilege to turn away from that which is cheap and inferior, and rise to a high standard--to be respected by others and beloved by God.
HB	217	3	The religious work which the Lord gives to young men, and to men of all ages, shows His respect for them as His children. He gives them the work of self-government. He calls them to be sharers with Him in the great work of redemption and uplifting. As a father takes his son into partnership in his business, so the Lord takes His children into partnership with Himself. We are made laborers together with God. Jesus says, "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." Would you not rather choose to be a child of God than a servant of Satan and sin, having your name registered as an enemy of Christ?
HB	217	4	Young men and women need more of the grace of Christ, that they may bring the principles of Christianity into the daily life. The preparation for Christ's coming is a preparation made through Christ for the exercise of our highest qualities. It is the privilege of the youth to make of their character a beautiful structure. But there is a positive need of keeping close to Jesus. He is our strength and efficiency and power. We cannot depend on self for one moment. . . .
HB	217	5	However large, however small, your talents, remember that what you have is yours only in trust. Thus God is testing you, giving you opportunity to prove yourself true. To Him you are indebted for all your capabilities. To Him belong your powers of body, mind, and soul, and for Him these powers are to be used. Your time, your influence, your capabilities, your skill--all must be accounted for to Him who gives all. Those use their gifts best who seek by earnest endeavor to carry out the Lord's great plan for the uplifting of humanity.
HB	217	6	Persevere in the work that you have begun, until you gain victory after victory. Educate yourselves for a purpose. Keep in view the highest standard, that you may accomplish greater and still greater good, thus reflecting the glory of God.--Messages to Young People, 47, 48.
------------------------God's Ideal, July 13
HB	218	1	For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.--Romans 8:14.
HB	218	2	A faithful obedience to God's requirements will have a surprising influence to elevate, develop, and strengthen all our faculties. Those who have in youth devoted themselves to the service of God, are found to be the people of sound judgment and keen discrimination. And why should it not be so? Communion with the greatest Teacher the world has ever known, strengthens the understanding, illuminates the mind, and purifies the heart--elevates, refines, and ennobles the whole person. "The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple." . . .
HB	218	3	God will do a great work for the youth, if they will by the aid of the Holy Spirit receive His word into the heart and obey it in the life. He is constantly seeking to attract them to Himself, the Source of all wisdom, the Fountain of goodness, purity, and truth. The mind which is occupied with exalted themes becomes itself ennobled.--Signs of the Times, December 1, 1881.
HB	218	4	When the grace of God takes possession of the heart, it is seen that the inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong must be crucified. A new life, under new control, must begin in the soul. All that is done must be done to the glory of God. This work includes the outward as well as the inward life. The entire being, body, soul, and spirit, must be brought into subjection to God, to be used by Him as an instrument of righteousness.
HB	218	5	The natural man or woman is not subject to the law of God; neither, indeed, of themselves, can such people be. But by faith those who have been renewed live day by day the life of Christ. Day by day they show that they realize that they are God's property.
HB	218	6	Body and soul belong to God. He gave His Son for the redemption of the world, and because of this we have been granted a new lease of life, a probation in which to develop characters of perfect loyalty. God has redeemed us from the slavery of sin, and has made it possible for us to live regenerated, transformed lives of service.
HB	218	7	God's stamp is upon us. He has bought us, and He desires us to remember that our physical, mental, and moral powers belong to Him. Time and influence, reason, affection, and conscience, all are God's, and are to be used only in harmony with His will. They are not to be used in accordance with the direction of the world.--The Youth's Instructor, November 8, 1900.
------------------------Enlist In Christ's Army, July 14
HB	219	1	After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands.--Revelation 7:9.
HB	219	2	As sons and daughters of God, Christians should strive to reach the high ideal set before them in the gospel. They should be content with nothing less than perfection. . . .
HB	219	3	Let us make God's holy word our study, bringing its holy principles into our lives. Let us walk before God in meekness and humility, daily correcting our faults. Let us not by selfish pride separate the soul from God. Cherish not a feeling of lofty supremacy, thinking yourself better than others. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Peace and rest will come to you as you bring your will into subjection to the will of Christ. Then the love of Christ will rule in the heart, bringing into captivity to the Saviour the secret springs of action. The hasty, easily roused temper will be soothed and subdued by the oil of Christ's grace. The sense of sins forgiven will bring that peace that passeth all understanding. There will be an earnest striving to overcome all that is opposed to Christian perfection. Variance will disappear. Those who once found fault with others around them will see that far greater faults exist in their own characters.
HB	219	4	There are those who listen to the truth, and are convinced that they have been living in opposition to Christ. They are condemned, and they repent of their transgressions. Relying upon the merits of Christ, exercising true faith in Him, they receive pardon for sin. As they cease to do evil and learn to do well, they grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. They see that they must sacrifice in order to separate from the world; and after counting the cost, they look upon all as loss if they may but win Christ. They have enlisted in Christ's army. The warfare is before them, and they enter it bravely and cheerfully, fighting against their natural inclinations and selfish desires, bringing the will into subjection to the will of Christ. Daily they seek the Lord for grace to obey Him, and they are strengthened and helped. This is true conversion. In humble, grateful dependence those who have been given a new heart rely upon the help of Christ. They reveal in their lives the fruit of righteousness. They once loved themselves. Worldly pleasure was their delight. Now their idol is dethroned, and God reigns supreme.--The Youth's Instructor, September 26, 1901.
------------------------Character Building, July 15
HB	220	1	There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.--Romans 8:1.
HB	220	2	True education does not ignore the value of scientific knowledge or literary acquirements; but above information it values power; above power, goodness; above intellectual acquirements, character. The world does not so much need people of great intellect as of noble character. It needs men and women in whom ability is controlled by steadfast principle.
HB	220	3	"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom." "The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright." (Proverbs 4:7; 15:2.) True education imparts this wisdom. It teaches the best use not only of one but of all our powers and acquirements. Thus it covers the whole circle of obligation--to ourselves, to the world, and to God.
HB	220	4	Character building is the most important work ever entrusted to human beings; and never before was its diligent study so important as now. Never was any previous generation called to meet issues so momentous; never before were young men and young women confronted by perils so great as confront them today.
HB	220	5	At such a time as this, what is the trend of the education given? To what motive is appeal most often made? To self-seeking. Much of the education given is a perversion of the name. In true education the selfish ambition, the greed for power, the disregard for the rights and needs of humanity, that are the curse of our world, find a counterinfluence. God's plan of life has a place for every human being. All are to improve their talents to the utmost; and faithfulness in doing this, be the gifts few or many, entitles one to honor. In God's plan there is no place for selfish rivalry. Those who measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves among themselves, are not wise. (2 Corinthians 10:12.) Whatever we do is to be done "as of the ability which God giveth." (1 Peter 4:11.) It is to be done "heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ." (Colossians 3:23, 24.) Precious the service done and the education gained in carrying out these principles. But how widely different is much of the education now given! From the child's earliest years it is an appeal to emulation and rivalry; it fosters selfishness, the root of all evil.--Education, 225, 226.
------------------------Lessons From The Rise and Fall of Nations, July 16
HB	221	1	He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him.--Daniel 2:22.
HB	221	2	The prophets to whom these great scenes were revealed longed to understand their import. They "inquired and searched diligently: . . . searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify. . . . Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you; . . . which things the angels desire to look into." (1 Peter 1:10-12.)
HB	221	3	To us who are standing on the very verge of their fulfillment, of what deep moment, what living interest, are these delineations of the things to come-- events for which, since our first parents turned their steps from Eden, God's children have watched and waited, longed and prayed! . . .
HB	221	4	From the rise and fall of nations as made plain in the pages of Holy Writ, they need to learn how worthless is mere outward and worldly glory. Babylon, with all its power and its magnificence, the like of which our world has never since beheld--power and magnificence which to the people of that day seemed so stable and enduring--how completely has it passed away! As "the flower of the grass" it has perished. So perishes all that has not God for its foundation. Only that which is bound up with His purpose and expresses His character can endure. His principles are the only steadfast things our world knows.
HB	221	5	It is these great truths that old and young need to learn. We need to study the working out of God's purpose in the history of nations and in the revelation of things to come, that we may estimate at their true value things seen and things unseen; that we may learn what is the true aim of life; that, viewing the things of time in the light of eternity, we may put them to their truest and noblest use. Thus, learning here the principles of His kingdom and becoming its subjects and citizens, we may be prepared at His coming to enter with Him into its possession.
HB	221	6	The day is at hand. For the lessons to be learned, the work to be done, the transformation of character to be effected, the time remaining is but too brief a span.--Education, 183, 184.
------------------------Gaining A Knowledge of God, July 17
HB	222	1	The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.--Proverbs 9:10.
HB	222	2	Like our Saviour, we are in this world to do service for God. We are here to become like God in character, and by a life of service to reveal Him to the world. In order to be co-workers with God, in order to become like Him and to reveal His character, we must know Him aright. We must know Him as He reveals Himself.
HB	222	3	A knowledge of God is the foundation of all true education and of all true service. It is the only real safeguard against temptation. It is this alone that can make us like God in character.
HB	222	4	This is the knowledge needed by all who are working for the uplifting of others. Transformation of character, purity of life, efficiency in service, adherence to correct principles, all depend upon a right knowledge of God. This knowledge is the essential preparation both for this life and for the life to come. . . .
HB	222	5	The things of nature that we now behold give us but a faint conception of Eden's glory. Sin has marred earth's beauty; on all things may be seen traces of the work of evil. Yet much that is beautiful remains. Nature testifies that One infinite in power, great in goodness, mercy, and love, created the earth, and filled it with life and gladness. Even in their blighted state, all things reveal the handiwork of the great Master Artist. Wherever we turn, we may hear the voice of God, and see evidences of His goodness.
HB	222	6	From the solemn roll of the deep-toned thunder and old ocean's ceaseless roar, to the glad songs that make the forests vocal with melody, nature's ten thousand voices speak His praise. In earth and sea and sky, with their marvelous tint and color, varying in gorgeous contrast or blended in harmony, we behold His glory. The everlasting hills tell us of His power. The trees that wave their green banners in the sunlight, and the flowers in their delicate beauty, point to their Creator. The living green that carpets the brown earth tells of God's care for the humblest of His creatures. The caves of the sea and the depths of the earth reveal His treasures. . . . All the brightness and beauty that adorn the earth and light up the heavens, speak of God.--The Ministry of Healing, 409, 411, 412.
------------------------Mind and Body, July 18
HB	223	1	Let your heart keep my commands; for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.--Proverbs 3:1, 2.
HB	223	2	As the foundation principle of all education in these lines, the youth should be taught that the laws of nature are the laws of God--as truly divine as are the precepts of the Decalogue. The laws that govern our physical organism, God has written upon every nerve, muscle, and fiber of the body. Every careless or willful violation of these laws is a sin against our Creator. . . .
HB	223	3	The influence of the mind on the body, as well as of the body on the mind, should be emphasized. The electric power of the brain, promoted by mental activity, vitalizes the whole system, and is thus an invaluable aid in resisting disease. This should be made plain. The power of the will and the importance of self-control, both in the preservation and in the recovery of health, the depressing and even ruinous effect of anger, discontent, selfishness, or impurity, and, on the other hand, the marvelous life-giving power to be found in cheerfulness, unselfishness, gratitude, should also be shown.
HB	223	4	There is a physiological truth--truth that we need to consider--in the scripture, "A merry [rejoicing] heart doeth good like a medicine." (Proverbs 17:22.) . . .
HB	223	5	The youth need to understand the deep truth underlying the Bible statement that with God "is the fountain of life." (Psalm 36:9.) Not only is He the originator of all, but He is the life of everything that lives. It is His life that we receive in the sunshine, in the pure, sweet air, in the food which builds up our bodies and sustains our strength. It is by His life that we exist, hour by hour, moment by moment. Except as perverted by sin, all His gifts tend to life, to health and joy.
HB	223	6	"He hath made everything beautiful in its time" (Ecclesiastes 3:11, R.V.); and true beauty will be secured, not in marring God's work, but in coming into harmony with the laws of Him who created all things, and who finds pleasure in their beauty and perfection.
HB	223	7	As the mechanism of the body is studied, attention should be directed to its wonderful adaptation of means to ends, the harmonious action and dependence of the various organs. As the interest of the students is thus awakened, and they are led to see the importance of physical culture, much can be done by the teacher to secure proper development and right habits.--Education, 196-198.
------------------------Our Influence Is Vital, July 19
HB	224	1	See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.--1 Thessalonians 5:15.
HB	224	2	There is an eloquence far more powerful than the eloquence of words in the quiet, consistent life of a pure, true Christian. What we are has more influence than what we say.
HB	224	3	The officers who were sent to Jesus came back with the report that never man spoke as He spoke. But the reason for this was that never man lived as He lived. Had His life been other than it was, He could not have spoken as He did. His words bore with them a convincing power, because they came from a heart pure and holy, full of love and sympathy, benevolence and truth.
HB	224	4	It is our own character and experience that determine our influence upon others. In order to convince others of the power of Christ's grace, we must know its power in our own hearts and lives. The gospel we present for the saving of souls must be the gospel by which our own souls are saved. Only through a living faith in Christ as a personal Saviour is it possible to make our influence felt in a skeptical world. If we would draw sinners out of the swift-running current, our own feet must be firmly set upon the Rock, Christ Jesus.
HB	224	5	The badge of Christianity is not an outward sign, not the wearing of a cross or a crown, but it is that which reveals our union with God. By the power of His grace manifested in the transformation of character the world is to be convinced that God has sent His Son as its Redeemer. No other influence that can surround the human soul has such power as the influence of an unselfish life. The strongest argument in favor of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian.
HB	224	6	To live such a life, to exert such an influence, costs at every step effort, self-sacrifice, discipline. It is because they do not understand this that many are so easily discouraged in the Christian life. Many who sincerely consecrate their lives to God's service are surprised and disappointed to find themselves, as never before, confronted by obstacles and beset by trials and perplexities. They pray for Christlikeness of character, for a fitness for the Lord's work, and they are placed in circumstances that seem to call forth all the evil of their nature. Faults are revealed of which they did not even suspect the existence.--The Ministry of Healing, 469, 470.
------------------------Power To Think and Do, July 20
HB	225	1	The price of wisdom is above rubies.--Job 28:18.
HB	225	2	The Holy Scriptures are the perfect standard of truth, and as such should be given the highest place in education. To obtain an education worthy of the name, we must receive a knowledge of God, the Creator, and of Christ, the Redeemer, as they are revealed in the sacred word.
HB	225	3	Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator--individuality, power to think and to do. The people in whom this power is developed are the ones who bear responsibilities, who are leaders in enterprise, and who influence character. It is the work of true education to develop this power, to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of the thought of others. Instead of confining their study to that which others have said or written, let students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen. Instead of educated weaklings, institutions of learning may send forth people strong to think and to act, who are masters and not slaves of circumstances, who possess breadth of mind, clearness of thought, and the courage of their convictions.
HB	225	4	Such an education provides more than mental discipline; it provides more than physical training. It strengthens the character, so that truth and uprightness are not sacrificed to selfish desire or worldly ambition. It fortifies the mind against evil. Instead of some master passion becoming a power to destroy, every motive and desire are brought into conformity to the great principles of right. As the perfection of His character is dwelt upon, the mind is renewed, and the soul is re-created in the image of God. . . .
HB	225	5	Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God's ideal for His children. Godliness--godlikeness--is the goal to be reached. Before the students there is opened a path of continual progress. They have an object to achieve, a standard to attain, that includes everything good, and pure, and noble. They will advance as fast and as far as possible in every branch of true knowledge. But their efforts will be directed to objects as much higher than mere selfish and temporal interests as the heavens are higher than the earth.--Education, 17-19.
------------------------The Power of Temperance, July 21
HB	226	1	You were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.--1 Corinthians 6:20.
HB	226	2	Temperance in all things of this life is to be taught and practiced. Temperance in eating, drinking, sleeping, and dressing is one of the grand principles of the religious life. Truth brought into the sanctuary of the soul will guide in the treatment of the body. Nothing that concerns the health of the human agent is to be regarded with indifference. Our eternal welfare depends upon the use we make during this life of our time, strength, and influence. Only one lease of life is granted us here; and the inquiry with everyone should be, How can I invest my life that it may yield the greatest profit?
HB	226	3	Our first duty toward God and our fellow beings is that of self-development. Every faculty with which the Creator has endowed us should be cultivated to the highest degree of perfection, that we may be able to do the greatest amount of good of which we are capable. Hence that time is spent to good account which is directed to the establishment and preservation of sound physical and mental health. We cannot afford to dwarf or cripple a single function of mind or body by overwork or by abuse of any part of the living machinery. As surely as we do this, we must suffer the consequences. . . .
HB	226	4	Every day people in positions of trust have decisions to make upon which depend results of great importance. Often they have to think rapidly, and this can be done successfully by those only who practice strict temperance. The mind strengthens under the correct treatment of the physical and mental powers. If the strain is not too great, new vigor comes with every taxation. . . .
HB	226	5	Those who, like Daniel, refuse to defile themselves will reap the reward of their temperate habits. With their greater physical stamina and increased power of endurance, they have a bank of deposit upon which to draw in case of emergency.
HB	226	6	Right physical habits promote mental superiority. Intellectual power, physical strength, and longevity depend upon immutable laws. There is no happen-so, no chance, about this matter. Nature's God will not interfere to preserve us from the consequences of violating nature's laws.--Child Guidance, 394-396.
------------------------The Example of John The Baptist, July 22
HB	227	1	For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.--Luke 1:15.
HB	227	2	As a prophet, John was "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." In preparing the way for Christ's first advent, he was a representative of those who are to prepare a people for our Lord's second coming. The world is given to self-indulgence. Errors and fables abound. Satan's snares for destroying souls are multiplied. All who would perfect holiness in the fear of God must learn the lessons of temperance and self-control. The appetites and passions must be held in subjection to the higher powers of the mind. This self-discipline is essential to that mental strength and spiritual insight which will enable us to understand and to practice the sacred truths of God's word. For this reason temperance finds its place in the work of preparation for Christ's second coming.
HB	227	3	In the natural order of things, the son of Zacharias would have been educated for the priesthood. But the training of the rabbinical schools would have unfitted him for his work. God did not send him to the teachers of theology to learn how to interpret the Scriptures. He called him to the desert, that he might learn of nature and nature's God.
HB	227	4	It was a lonely region where he found his home, in the midst of barren hills, wild ravines, and rocky caves. But it was his choice to forgo the enjoyments and luxuries of life for the stern discipline of the wilderness. Here his surroundings were favorable to habits of simplicity and self-denial. Uninterrupted by the clamor of the world, he could here study the lessons of nature, of revelation, and of Providence. The words of the angel to Zacharias had been often repeated to John by his God-fearing parents. From childhood his mission had been kept before him, and he had accepted the holy trust. To him the solitude of the desert was a welcome escape from society in which suspicion, unbelief, and impurity had become well-nigh all-pervading. He distrusted his own power to withstand temptation, and shrank from constant contact with sin, lest he should lose the sense of its exceeding sinfulness.
HB	227	5	Dedicated to God as a Nazarite from his birth, he made the vow his own in a life-long consecration.--The Desire of Ages, 101, 102.
------------------------Parental Commitment, July 23
HB	228	1	Walk as children of light.--Ephesians 5:8.
HB	228	2	A sacred trust is committed to parents, to guard the physical and moral constitutions of their children, so that the nervous system may be well balanced, and the soul not endangered. Fathers and mothers should understand the laws of life, that they may not, through ignorance, allow wrong tendencies to develop in their children. The diet affects both physical and moral health. How carefully, then, should mothers study to supply the table with the most simple, healthful food, in order that the digestive organs may not be weakened, the nerves unbalanced, or the instruction which they give their children counteracted.
HB	228	3	Satan sees that he cannot have so great power over minds when the appetite is kept under control as when it is indulged, and he is constantly working to lead us to indulgence. Under the influence of unhealthful food, the conscience becomes stupefied, the mind is darkened, and its susceptibility to impressions is impaired. But the guilt of the transgressor is not lessened because the conscience has been violated till it has become insensible.
HB	228	4	Since a healthy state of mind depends upon the normal condition of the vital forces, what care should be exercised that neither stimulants nor narcotics be used! Yet we see that a large number of those who profess to be Christians are using tobacco. They deplore the evils of intemperance; yet while speaking against the use of liquors, these very men will eject the juice of tobacco. There must be a change of sentiment with reference to tobacco using before the root of the evil will be reached. We press the subject still closer. Tea and coffee are fostering the appetite for stronger stimulants. And then we come still closer home, to the preparation of food, and ask, Is temperance practiced in all things? are the reforms which are essential to health and happiness carried out here?
HB	228	5	All true Christians will have control of their appetites and passions. Unless they are free from the bondage of appetite, they cannot be true, obedient servants of Christ. The indulgence of appetite and passion blunts the effect of truth upon the heart. It is impossible for the spirit and power of the truth to sanctify them, soul, body, and spirit, when they are controlled by sensual desires.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 143, 144.
------------------------Appetite Cannot Be Trusted, July 24
HB	229	1	Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.--1 Corinthians 10:31.
HB	229	2	Our bodies are built up from the food we eat. There is a constant breaking down of the tissues of the body; every movement of every organ involves waste, and this waste is repaired from our food. Each organ of the body requires its share of nutrition. The brain must be supplied with its portion; the bones, muscles, and nerves demand theirs. It is a wonderful process that transforms the food into blood and uses this blood to build up the varied parts of the body; but this process is going on continually, supplying with life and strength each nerve, muscle, and tissue.
HB	229	3	Those foods should be chosen that best supply the elements needed for building up the body. In this choice, appetite is not a safe guide. Through wrong habits of eating, the appetite has become perverted. Often it demands food that impairs health and causes weakness instead of strength. We cannot safely be guided by the customs of society. The disease and suffering that everywhere prevail are largely due to popular errors in regard to diet.
HB	229	4	In order to know what are the best foods, we must study God's original plan for our diet. He who created us and who understands our needs appointed Adam his food. "Behold," He said, "I have given you every herb yielding seed, . . . and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food." (Genesis 1:29, A.R.V.) Upon leaving Eden to gain their livelihood by tilling the earth under the curse of sin, mankind received permission to eat also "the herb of the field." (Genesis 3:18.)
HB	229	5	Grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables constitute the diet chosen for us by our Creator. These foods, prepared in as simple and natural a manner as possible, are the most healthful and nourishing. They impart a strength, a power of endurance, and a vigor of intellect that are not afforded by a more complex and stimulating diet. . . .
HB	229	6	Our bodies are Christ's purchased possession, and we are not at liberty to do with them as we please. All who understand the laws of health should realize their obligation to obey these laws which God has established in their being. Obedience to the laws of health is to be made a matter of personal duty.--The Ministry of Healing, 295, 296, 310.
------------------------Be Consistent, July 25
HB	230	1	Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.--3 John 2.
HB	230	2	In most cases two meals a day are preferable to three. Supper, when taken at an early hour, interferes with the digestion of the previous meal. When taken later, it is not itself digested before bedtime. Thus the stomach fails of securing proper rest. The sleep is disturbed, the brain and nerves are wearied, the appetite for breakfast is impaired, the whole system is unrefreshed and is unready for the day's duties.
HB	230	3	The importance of regularity in the time for eating and sleeping should not be overlooked. Since the work of building up the body takes place during the hours of rest, it is essential, especially in youth, that sleep should be regular and abundant.
HB	230	4	So far as possible we should avoid hurried eating. The shorter the time for a meal, the less should be eaten. It is better to omit a meal than to eat without proper mastication.
HB	230	5	Mealtime should be a season for social interaction and refreshment. Everything that can burden or irritate should be banished. Let trust and kindliness and gratitude to the Giver of all good be cherished, and the conversation will be cheerful, a pleasant flow of thought that will uplift without wearying.
HB	230	6	The observance of temperance and regularity in all things has a wonderful power. It will do more than circumstances or natural endowments in promoting that sweetness and serenity of disposition which count so much in smoothing life's pathway. At the same time the power of self-control thus acquired will be found one of the most valuable of equipments for grappling successfully with the stern duties and realities that await every human being.
HB	230	7	Wisdom's "ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." (Proverbs 3:17.) Let all the youth in our land, with the possibilities before them of a destiny higher than that of crowned kings, ponder the lesson conveyed in the words of the wise man, "Blessed art thou, O land, when . . . thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!" (Ecclesiastes 10:17.)--Education, 205, 206.
------------------------Touch Not, Taste Not, July 26
HB	231	1	Fear the LORD and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.--Proverbs 3:7, 8.
HB	231	2	There is work for mothers in helping their children to form correct habits and pure tastes. Educate the appetite; teach the children to abhor stimulants. Bring your children up to have moral stamina to resist the evil that surrounds them. Teach them that they are not to be swayed by others, that they are not to yield to strong influences, but to influence others for good.
HB	231	3	Great efforts are made to put down intemperance; but there is much effort that is not directed to the right point. The advocates of temperance reform should be awake to the evils resulting from the use of unwholesome food, condiments, tea, and coffee. We bid all temperance workers Godspeed; but we invite them to look more deeply into the cause of the evil they war against and to be sure that they are consistent in reform.
HB	231	4	It must be kept before the people that the right balance of the mental and moral powers depends in a great degree on the right condition of the physical system. All narcotics and unnatural stimulants that enfeeble and degrade the physical nature tend to lower the tone of the intellect and morals. Intemperance lies at the foundation of the moral depravity of the world. By the indulgence of perverted appetite, men and women lose their power to resist temptation.
HB	231	5	Temperance reformers have a work to do in educating the people in these lines. Teach them that health, character, and even life, are endangered by the use of stimulants, which excite the exhausted energies to unnatural, spasmodic action.
HB	231	6	In relation to tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcoholic drinks, the only safe course is to touch not, taste not, handle not. The tendency of tea, coffee, and similar drinks is in the same direction as that of alcoholic liquor and tobacco, and in some cases the habit is as difficult to break as it is for the drunkard to give up intoxicants. Those who attempt to leave off these stimulants will for a time feel a loss and will suffer without them. But by persistence they will overcome the craving and cease to feel the lack. Nature may require a little time to recover from the abuse she has suffered; but give her a chance, and she will again rally and perform her work nobly and well.--The Ministry of Healing, 334, 335.
------------------------The Highway To Drunkenness, July 27
HB	232	1	Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent.--Proverbs 23:31, 32.
HB	232	2	Intoxication is just as really produced by wine, beer, and cider as by stronger drinks. The use of these drinks awakens the taste for those that are stronger, and thus the liquor habit is established. Moderate drinking is the school in which people are educated for the drunkard's career. Yet so insidious is the work of these milder stimulants that the highway to drunkenness is entered before the victim suspects his danger.
HB	232	3	Some who are never considered really drunk are always under the influence of mild intoxicants. They are feverish, unstable in mind, unbalanced. Imagining themselves secure, they go on and on, until every barrier is broken down, every principle sacrificed. The strongest resolutions are undermined, the highest considerations are not sufficient to keep the debased appetite under the control of reason.
HB	232	4	The Bible nowhere sanctions the use of intoxicating wine. The wine that Christ made from water at the marriage feast of Cana was the pure juice of the grape. This is the "new wine . . . found in the cluster," of which the Scripture says, "Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it." (Isaiah 65:8.)
HB	232	5	It was Christ who, in the Old Testament, gave the warning to Israel, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." (Proverbs 20:1.) He Himself provided no such beverage. Satan tempts us to indulgence that will becloud reason and benumb the spiritual perceptions, but Christ teaches us to bring the lower nature into subjection. He never places before us that which would be a temptation. His whole life was an example of self-denial. It was to break the power of appetite that in the forty days' fast in the wilderness He suffered in our behalf the severest test that humanity could endure. It was Christ who directed that John the Baptist should drink neither wine nor strong drink. It was He who enjoined similar abstinence upon the wife of Manoah. Christ did not contradict His own teaching. The unfermented wine that He provided for the wedding guests was a wholesome and refreshing drink. This is the wine that was used by our Saviour and His disciples in the first Communion.--The Ministry of Healing, 332, 333.
------------------------Offensive To Others, July 28
HB	233	1	We give no offense in anything.--2 Corinthians 6:3.
HB	233	2	Tobacco is a slow, insidious, but most malignant poison. In whatever form it is used, it tells upon the constitution; it is all the more dangerous be- cause its effects are slow and at first hardly perceptible. It excites and then paralyzes the nerves. It weakens and clouds the brain. Often it affects the nerves in a more powerful manner than does intoxicating drink. It is more subtle, and its effects are difficult to eradicate from the system. Its use excites a thirst for strong drink and in many cases lays the foundation for the liquor habit.
HB	233	3	The use of tobacco is inconvenient, expensive, uncleanly, defiling to the user, and offensive to others. Its devotees are encountered everywhere. You rarely pass through a crowd but some smoker puffs his poisoned breath in your face. It is unpleasant and unhealthful to remain in a railway car or in a room where the atmosphere is laden with the fumes of liquor and tobacco. Though some persist in using these poisons themselves, what right have they to defile the air that others must breathe?
HB	233	4	Among children and youth the use of tobacco is working untold harm. The unhealthful practices of past generations affect the children and youth of today. Mental inability, physical weakness, disordered nerves, and unnatural cravings are transmitted as a legacy from parents to children. And the same practices, continued by the children, are increasing and perpetuating the evil results. To this cause in no small degree is owing the physical, mental, and moral deterioration which is becoming such a cause of alarm.
HB	233	5	Boys begin the use of tobacco at a very early age. The habit thus formed when body and mind are especially susceptible to its effects, undermines the physical strength, dwarfs the body, stupefies the mind, and corrupts the morals. . . .
HB	233	6	I appeal to those who profess to believe and obey the word of God: Can you as Christians indulge a habit that is paralyzing your intellect and robbing you of power rightly to estimate eternal realities? Can you consent daily to rob God of service which is His due, and to rob your fellow human beings, both of service you might render and of the power of example?
HB	233	7	Have you considered your responsibility as God's stewards, for the means in your hands? How much of the Lord's money do you spend for tobacco?--The Ministry of Healing, 327-330.
------------------------Dangerous Theories, July 29
HB	234	1	For You, LORD, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.--Psalm 86:5.
HB	234	2	Today there are coming into educational institutions and into the churches everywhere spiritualistic teachings that undermine faith in God and in His word. The theory that God is an essence pervading all nature is received by many who profess to believe the Scriptures; but, however beautifully clothed, this theory is a most dangerous deception. It misrepresents God and is a dishonor to His greatness and majesty. And it surely tends not only to mislead, but to debase men and women. Darkness is its element, sensuality its sphere. The result of accepting it is separation from God. And to fallen human nature this means ruin.
HB	234	3	Our condition through sin is unnatural, and the power that restores us must be supernatural, else it has no value. There is but one power that can break the hold of evil from human hearts, and that is the power of God in Jesus Christ. Only through the blood of the Crucified One is there cleansing from sin. His grace alone can enable us to resist and subdue the tendencies of our fallen nature. The spiritualistic theories concerning God make His grace of no effect. If God is an essence pervading all nature, then He dwells in everyone; and in order to attain holiness, we have only to develop the power within us.
HB	234	4	These theories, followed to their logical conclusion, sweep away the whole Christian economy. They do away with the necessity for the atonement and make us our own savior. These theories regarding God make His word of no effect, and those who accept them are in great danger of being led finally to look upon the whole Bible as a fiction. They may regard virtue as better than vice; but, having shut out God from His rightful position of sovereignty, they place their dependence upon human power, which, without God, is worthless. The unaided human will has no real power to resist and overcome evil. The defenses of the soul are broken down. Mankind has no barrier against sin. When once the restraints of God's word and His Spirit are rejected, we know not to what depths one may sink. . . .
HB	234	5	The revelation of Himself that God has given in His word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate.--The Ministry of Healing, 428, 429.
------------------------Effects of Gratitude and Praise, July 30
HB	235	1	The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life.--Proverbs 14:27.
HB	235	2	Nothing tends more to promote health of body and of soul than does a spirit of gratitude and praise. It is a positive duty to resist melancholy, discontented thoughts and feelings--as much a duty as it is to pray. If we are heaven-bound, how can we go as a band of mourners, groaning and complaining all along the way to our Father's house?
HB	235	3	Those professed Christians who are constantly complaining, and who seem to think cheerfulness and happiness a sin, have not genuine religion. Those who take a mournful pleasure in all that is melancholy in the natural world, who choose to look upon dead leaves rather than to gather the beautiful living flowers, who see no beauty in grand mountain heights and in valleys clothed with living green, who close their senses to the joyful voice which speaks to them in nature, and which is sweet and musical to the listening ear--these are not in Christ. They are gathering to themselves gloom and darkness, when they might have brightness, even the Sun of Righteousness arising in their hearts with healing in His beams.
HB	235	4	Often your mind may be clouded because of pain. Then do not try to think. You know that Jesus loves you. He understands your weakness. You may do His will by simply resting in His arms.
HB	235	5	It is a law of nature that our thoughts and feelings are encouraged and strengthened as we give them utterance. While words express thoughts, it is also true that thoughts follow words. If we would give more expression to our faith, rejoice more in the blessings that we know we have--the great mercy and love of God--we should have more faith and greater joy. No tongue can express, no finite mind can conceive, the blessing that results from appreciating the goodness and love of God. Even on earth we may have joy as a wellspring, never failing, because fed by the streams that flow from the throne of God.
HB	235	6	Then let us educate our hearts and lips to speak the praise of God for His matchless love. Let us educate our souls to be hopeful and to abide in the light shining from the cross of Calvary. Never should we forget that we are children of the heavenly King, sons and daughters of the Lord of hosts. It is our privilege to maintain a calm repose in God.--The Ministry of Healing, 251-253.
------------------------The Danger of Self-Trust, July 31
HB	236	1	Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.--2 Corinthians 1:9.
HB	236	2	The thoughts must be centered upon God. We must put forth earnest effort to overcome the evil tendencies of the natural heart. Our efforts, our self-denial and perseverance, must be proportionate to the infinite value of the object of which we are in pursuit. Only by overcoming as Christ overcame shall we win the crown of life.
HB	236	3	Our great danger is in being self-deceived, indulging self-sufficiency, and thus separating from God, the source of our strength. Our natural tendencies, unless corrected by the Holy Spirit of God, have in them the seeds of moral death. Unless we become vitally connected with God, we cannot resist the unhallowed effects of self-indulgence, self-love, and temptation to sin.
HB	236	4	In order to receive help from Christ, we must realize our need. We must have a true knowledge of ourselves. It is only those who know themselves to be sinners that Christ can save. Only as we see our utter helplessness and renounce all self-trust, shall we lay hold on divine power.
HB	236	5	It is not only at the beginning of the Christian life that this renunciation of self is to be made. At every advance step heavenward it is to be renewed. All our good works are dependent on a power outside of ourselves; therefore there needs to be a continual reaching out of the heart after God, a constant, earnest confession of sin and humbling of the soul before Him. Perils surround us; and we are safe only as we feel our weakness and cling with the grasp of faith to our mighty Deliverer.
HB	236	6	We must turn away from a thousand topics that invite attention. There are matters that consume time and arouse inquiry, but end in nothing. The highest interests demand the close attention and energy that are so often given to comparatively insignificant things. . . .
HB	236	7	The knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ expressed in character is an exaltation above everything else that is esteemed on earth or in heaven. It is the very highest education. It is the key that opens the portals of the heavenly city. This knowledge it is God's purpose that all who put on Christ shall possess.--The Ministry of Healing, 455-457.
------------------------God's Chosen, August 1
HB	238	1	Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.--Ephesians 5:25.
HB	238	2	God has a church upon the earth who are His chosen people, who keep His commandments. He is leading, not stray offshoots, not one here and one there, but a people. The truth is a sanctifying power; but the church militant is not the church triumphant. There are tares among the wheat. "Wilt thou then that we . . . gather them up?" was the question of the servant; but the master answered, "Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them." The gospel net draws not only good fish, but bad ones as well, and the Lord only knows who are His.
HB	238	3	It is our individual duty to walk humbly with God. We are not to seek any strange, new message. We are not to think that the chosen ones of God who are trying to walk in the light compose Babylon.
HB	238	4	Although there are evils existing in the church, and will be until the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin. The church, enfeebled and defective, needing to be reproved, warned, and counseled, is the only object upon earth upon which Christ bestows His supreme regard. The world is a workshop in which, through the cooperation of human and divine agencies, Jesus is making experiments by His grace and divine mercy upon human hearts.
HB	238	5	God has a distinct people, a church on earth, second to none, but superior to all in their facilities to teach the truth, to vindicate the law of God. God has divinely appointed agencies--people whom He is leading, who have borne the heat and burden of the day, who are cooperating with heavenly instrumentalities to advance the kingdom of Christ in our world. Let all unite with these chosen agents, and be found at last among those who have the patience of the saints, who keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus.
HB	238	6	The church of God below is one with the church of God above. Believers on the earth and the beings in heaven who have never fallen constitute one church.--Counsels for the Church, 240.
------------------------God's Fortress, August 2
HB	239	1	I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.--1 Timothy 3:15.
HB	239	2	The church is God's appointed agency for our salvation. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. From the beginning it has been God's plan that through His church shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency. The members of the church, those whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light, are to show forth His glory. The church is the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and through the church will eventually be made manifest, even to "the principalities and powers in heavenly places," the final and full display of the love of God. (Ephesians 3:10.)
HB	239	3	Many and wonderful are the promises recorded in the Scriptures regarding the church. "Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people." (Isaiah 56:7.) "I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing." (Ezekiel 34:26.) . . .
HB	239	4	The church is God's fortress, His city of refuge, which He holds in a revolted world. Any betrayal of the church is treachery to Him who has bought mankind with the blood of His only-begotten Son. From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His watchmen, who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which they lived. These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they were called to lay off their armor, others took up the work. God brought these witnesses into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His people.
HB	239	5	Through centuries of persecution, conflict, and darkness, God has sustained His church. Not one cloud has fallen upon it that He has not prepared for; not one opposing force has risen to counterwork His work, that He has not foreseen. All has taken place as He predicted. He has not left His church forsaken, but has traced in prophetic declarations what would occur, and that which His Spirit inspired the prophets to foretell has been brought about. All His purposes will be fulfilled. His law is linked with His throne, and no power of evil can destroy it. Truth is inspired and guarded by God; and it will triumph over all opposition.--The Acts of the Apostles, 9-12.
------------------------Unity of the Faith, August 3
HB	240	1	Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.--Revelation 14:12.
HB	240	2	God is leading a people out from the world upon the exalted platform of eternal truth, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. He will discipline and fit up His people. They will not be at variance, one believing one thing, and another having faith and views entirely opposite, each moving independently of the body. Through the diversity of the gifts and governments that He has placed in the church, they will all come to the unity of the faith. If one man takes his views of Bible truth without regard to the opinions of his brethren, and justifies his course, alleging that he has a right to his own peculiar views, and then presses them upon others, how can he be fulfilling the prayer of Christ? And if another and still another arises, each asserting his right to believe and talk what he pleases without reference to the faith of the body, where will be that harmony which existed between Christ and His Father, and which Christ prayed might exist among His brethren?
HB	240	3	God is leading out a people and establishing them upon the one great platform of faith, the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus. He has given His people a straight chain of Bible truth, clear and connected. This truth is of heavenly origin and has been searched for as for hidden treasure. It has been dug out through careful searching of the Scriptures and through much prayer. . . .
HB	240	4	The heart of God never yearned toward His earthly children with deeper love and more compassionate tenderness than now. There never was a time when God was ready and waiting to do more for His people than now. And He will instruct and save all who choose to be saved in His appointed way. Those who are spiritual can discern spiritual things and see tokens of the presence and work of God everywhere. Satan, by his skillful and wicked strategy, led our first parents from the Garden of Eden--from their innocence and purity into sin and unspeakable wretchedness. He has not ceased to destroy; all the forces which he can command are diligently employed by him in these last days to compass the ruin of souls. . . .
HB	240	5	But in order to be saved you must accept the yoke of Christ and lay off the yoke which you have fashioned for your neck. The victory that Jesus gained in the wilderness is a pledge to you of the victory that you may gain through His name. Your only hope and salvation is in overcoming as Christ overcame.--Testimonies for the Church 3:446, 447, 455-457.
------------------------A Channel of Light, August 4
HB	241	1	Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.--Acts 9:6.
HB	241	2	Ananias could scarcely credit the words of the angel; for the reports of Saul's bitter persecution of the saints at Jerusalem had spread far and wide. He presumed to expostulate: "Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on Thy name." But the command was imperative: "Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel."
HB	241	3	Obedient to the direction of the angel, Ananias sought out the man who had but recently breathed out threatenings against all who believed on the name of Jesus; and putting his hands on the head of the penitent sufferer, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." . . .
HB	241	4	Thus Jesus gave sanction to the authority of His organized church and placed Saul in connection with His appointed agencies on earth. Christ had now a church as His representative on earth, and to it belonged the work of directing the repentant sinner in the way of life.
HB	241	5	Many have an idea that they are responsible to Christ alone for their light and experience, independent of His recognized followers on earth. Jesus is the friend of sinners, and His heart is touched with their woe. He has all power, both in heaven and on earth; but He respects the means that He has ordained for our enlightenment and salvation; He directs sinners to the church, which He has made a channel of light to the world.
HB	241	6	When, in the midst of his blind error and prejudice, Saul was given a revelation of the Christ whom he was persecuting, he was placed in direct communication with the church, which is the light of the world. In this case Ananias represents Christ, and also represents Christ's ministers upon the earth, who are appointed to act in His stead. In Christ's stead Ananias touches the eyes of Saul, that they may receive sight. In Christ's stead he places his hands upon him, and, as he prays in Christ's name, Saul receives the Holy Ghost. All is done in the name and by the authority of Christ. Christ is the fountain; the church is the channel of communication.--The Acts of the Apostles, 121, 122.
------------------------Working Together, August 5
HB	242	1	Seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.--Acts 6:3.
HB	242	2	As disciples were multiplied, the enemy succeeded in arousing the suspicions of some who had formerly been in the habit of looking with jealousy on their brethren in the faith and of finding fault with their spiritual leaders, and so "there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews." The cause of complaint was an alleged neglect of the Greek widows in the daily distribution of assistance. . . .
HB	242	3	The disciples of Jesus had reached a crisis in their experience. Under the wise leadership of the apostles, who labored unitedly in the power of the Holy Spirit, the work committed to the gospel messengers was developing rapidly. The church was continually enlarging, and this growth in membership brought increasingly heavy burdens upon those in charge. No one person, or even one set of persons, could continue to bear these burdens alone, without imperiling the future prosperity of the church. . . . Summoning a meeting of the believers, the apostles were led by the Holy Spirit to outline a plan for the better organization of all the working forces of the church. . . .
HB	242	4	The appointment of the seven to take the oversight of special lines of work, proved a great blessing to the church. . . .
HB	242	5	The proclamation of the gospel was to be world-wide in its extent, and the messengers of the cross could not hope to fulfill their important mission unless they should remain united in the bonds of Christian unity, and thus reveal to the world that they were one with Christ in God. Had not their divine Leader prayed to the Father, "Keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We are"? . . .
HB	242	6	Only as they were united with Christ could the disciples hope to have the accompanying power of the Holy Spirit and the co-operation of angels of heaven. With the help of these divine agencies they would present before the world a united front and would be victorious in the conflict they were compelled to wage unceasingly against the powers of darkness.--The Acts of the Apostles, 88-91.
------------------------An Example of Church Unity, August 6
HB	243	1	The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.--Acts 2:47.
HB	243	2	To the early church had been entrusted a constantly enlarging work-- that of establishing centers of light and blessing wherever there were honest souls willing to give themselves to the service of Christ. The proclamation of the gospel was to be world-wide in its extent, and the messengers of the cross could not hope to fulfill their important mission unless they should remain united in the bonds of Christian unity, and thus reveal to the world that they were one with Christ in God. Had not their divine Leader prayed to the Father, "Keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We are"? And had He not declared of His disciples, "The world hath hated them, because they are not of the world"? Had He not pleaded with the Father that they might be "made perfect in one," "that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me"? (John 17:11, 14, 23, 21.) Their spiritual life and power was dependent on a close connection with the One by whom they had been commissioned to preach the gospel.
HB	243	3	Only as they were united with Christ could the disciples hope to have the accompanying power of the Holy Spirit and the cooperation of angels of heaven. With the help of these divine agencies they would present before the world a united front and would be victorious in the conflict they were compelled to wage unceasingly against the powers of darkness. As they should continue to labor unitedly, heavenly messengers would go before them, opening the way; hearts would be prepared for the reception of truth, and many would be won to Christ. So long as they remained united, the church would go forth "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." (Song of Solomon 6:10.) Nothing could withstand her onward progress. The church would advance from victory to victory, gloriously fulfilling her divine mission of proclaiming the gospel to the world.
HB	243	4	The organization of the church at Jerusalem was to serve as a model for the organization of churches in every other place where messengers of truth should win converts to the gospel. Those to whom was given the responsibility of the general oversight of the church were not to lord it over God's heritage, but, as wise shepherds, were to "feed the flock of God." (1 Peter 5:2.)--The Acts of the Apostles, 90, 91.
------------------------Church Order, August 7
HB	244	1	Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly.--Acts 6:7.
HB	244	2	The same principles of piety and justice that were to guide the rulers among God's people in the time of Moses and of David, were also to be followed by those given the oversight of the newly organized church of God in the gospel dispensation. In the work of setting things in order in all the churches, and ordaining suitable men to act as officers, the apostles held to the high standards of leadership outlined in the Old Testament Scriptures. They maintained that one who is called to stand in a position of leading responsibility in the church "must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." (Titus 1:7-9.)
HB	244	3	The order that was maintained in the early Christian church made it possible for them to move forward solidly as a well-disciplined army clad with the armor of God. The companies of believers, though scattered over a large territory, were all members of one body; all moved in concert and in harmony with one another. When dissension arose in a local church, as later it did arise in Antioch and elsewhere, and the believers were unable to come to an agreement among themselves, such matters were not permitted to create a division in the church, but were referred to a general council of the entire body of believers, made up of appointed delegates from the various local churches, with the apostles and elders in positions of leading responsibility. Thus the efforts of Satan to attack the church in isolated places, were met by concerted action on the part of all; and the plans of the enemy to disrupt and destroy were thwarted.
HB	244	4	"God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints." (1 Corinthians 14:33.) He requires that order and system be observed in the conduct of church affairs today no less than in the days of old. He desires His work to be carried forward with thoroughness and exactness so that He may place upon it the seal of His approval. Christian is to be united with Christian, church with church, the human instrumentality cooperating with the divine, every agency subordinate to the Holy Spirit, and all combined in giving to the world the good tidings of the grace of God.--The Acts of the Apostles, 95, 96.
------------------------The Mission of the Church, August 8
HB	245	1	The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.--Luke 19:10.
HB	245	2	The mission of the church of Christ is to save perishing sinners. It is to make known the love of God to men and women and to win them to Christ by the efficacy of that love. The truth for this time must be carried into the dark corners of the earth, and this work may begin at home. The followers of Christ should not live selfish lives; but, imbued with the Spirit of Christ, they should work in harmony with Him.
HB	245	3	There are causes for the present coldness and unbelief. The love of the world and the cares of life separate the soul from God. The water of life must be in us, and flowing out from us, springing up into everlasting life. We must work out what God works in. If Christians would enjoy the light of life, they must increase their efforts to bring others to the knowledge of the truth. Their lives must be characterized by exertion and sacrifices to do others good; and then there will be no complaints of lack of enjoyment.
HB	245	4	Angels are ever engaged in working for the happiness of others. This is their joy. That which selfish hearts would consider humiliating service, ministering to those who are wretched and in every way inferior in character and rank, is the work of the pure, sinless angels in the royal courts of heaven. The spirit of Christ's self-sacrificing love is the spirit which pervades heaven and is the very essence of its bliss.
HB	245	5	Those who feel no special pleasure in seeking to be a blessing to others, in working, even at a sacrifice, to do them good, cannot have the spirit of Christ or of heaven; for they have no union with the work of heavenly angels and cannot participate in the bliss that imparts elevated joy to them. . . . If the joy of angels is to see sinners repent, will it not be the joy of sinners, saved by the blood of Christ, to see others repent and turn to Christ through their instrumentality? In working in harmony with Christ and the holy angels we shall experience a joy that cannot be realized aside from this work.
HB	245	6	The principle of the cross of Christ brings all who believe under heavy ob-ligations to deny self, to impart light to others, and to give of their means to extend the light. If they are in connection with heaven they will be engaged in the work in harmony with the angels.--Testimonies for the Church 3:381, 382.
------------------------Power in the Church, August 9
HB	246	1	But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.--Acts 1:8.
HB	246	2	"When He [the Spirit of truth] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." The preaching of the word will be of no avail without the continual presence and aid of the Holy Spirit. This is the only effectual teacher of divine truth. Only when the truth is accompanied to the heart by the Spirit will it quicken the conscience or transform the life. We might be able to present the letter of the word of God, we might be familiar with all its commands and promises; but unless the Holy Spirit sets home the truth, no souls will fall on the Rock and be broken. No amount of education, no advantages, however great, can make one a channel of light without the cooperation of the Spirit of God. The sowing of the gospel seed will not be a success unless the seed is quickened into life by the dew of heaven. Before one book of the New Testament was written, before one gospel sermon had been preached after Christ's ascension, the Holy Spirit came upon the praying apostles. Then the testimony of their enemies was, "Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine." (Acts 5:28.)
HB	246	3	Christ has promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to His church, and the promise belongs to us as much as to the first disciples. But like every other promise, it is given on conditions. There are many who believe and profess to claim the Lord's promise; they talk about Christ and about the Holy Spirit, yet receive no benefit. They do not surrender the soul to be guided and controlled by the divine agencies. We cannot use the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit God works in His people "to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13.) But many will not submit to this. They want to manage themselves. This is why they do not receive the heavenly gift. Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. The power of God awaits their demand and reception. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive.
HB	246	4	In His discourse to the disciples, Jesus made no mournful allusion to His own sufferings and death. His last legacy to them was a legacy of peace. He said, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you." (John 14:27.)--The Desire of Ages, 671, 672.
------------------------Abide In Christ, August 10
HB	247	1	If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.--John 15:10.
HB	247	2	This union with Christ, once formed, must be maintained. Christ said, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me." This is no casual touch, no off-and-on connection. The branch becomes a part of the living vine. The communication of life, strength, and fruitfulness from the root to the branches is unobstructed and constant. Separated from the vine, the branch cannot live. No more, said Jesus, can you live apart from Me. The life you have received from Me can be preserved only by continual communion. Without Me you cannot overcome one sin, or resist one temptation.
HB	247	3	"Abide in Me, and I in you." Abiding in Christ means a constant receiving of His Spirit, a life of unreserved surrender to His service. The channel of communication must be open continually between us and our God. As the vine branch constantly draws the sap from the living vine, so are we to cling to Jesus, and receive from Him by faith the strength and perfection of His own character. . . .
HB	247	4	The life of the vine will be manifest in fragrant fruit on the branches. "He that abideth in Me," said Jesus, "and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing." When we live by faith on the Son of God, the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives; not one will be missing.
HB	247	5	"My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away." While the graft is outwardly united with the vine, there may be no vital connection. Then there will be no growth or fruitfulness. So there may be an apparent connection with Christ without a real union with Him by faith. A profession of religion places people in the church, but the character and conduct show whether they are in connection with Christ. If they bear no fruit, they are false branches. Their separation from Christ involves a ruin as complete as that represented by the dead branch. "If a man abide not in Me," said Christ, "he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."--The Desire of Ages, 676.
------------------------Emptied of Self, August 11
HB	248	1	He must increase, but I must decrease.--John 3:30.
HB	248	2	Looking in faith to the Redeemer, John had risen to the height of self-abnegation. He sought not to attract people to himself, but to lift their thoughts higher and still higher, until they should rest upon the Lamb of God. He himself had been only a voice, a cry in the wilderness. Now with joy he accepted silence and obscurity, that the eyes of all might be turned to the Light of life.
HB	248	3	Those who are true to their calling as messengers for God will not seek honor for themselves. Love for self will be swallowed up in love for Christ. No rivalry will mar the precious cause of the gospel. They will recognize that it is their work to proclaim, as did John the Baptist, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29.) They will lift up Jesus, and with Him humanity will be lifted up. "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." (Isaiah 57:15.)
HB	248	4	The soul of the prophet, emptied of self, was filled with the light of the divine. As he witnessed to the Saviour's glory, his words were almost a counterpart of those that Christ Himself had spoken in His interview with Nicodemus. John said, "He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that cometh from heaven is above all. . . . For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him." Christ could say, "I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me." (John 5:30.) To Him it is declared, "Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity." (Hebrews 1:9.) . . .
HB	248	5	So with the followers of Christ. We can receive of heaven's light only as we are willing to be emptied of self. We cannot discern the character of God, or accept Christ by faith, unless we consent to the bringing into captivity of every thought to the obedience of Christ. To all who do this the Holy Spirit is given without measure.--The Desire of Ages, 179-181.
------------------------Self-Sacrifice in the Church, August 12
HB	249	1	If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.--1 John 4:12.
HB	249	2	The lawyer's question to Jesus had been, "What shall I do?" And Jesus, recognizing love to God and mankind as the sum of righteousness, had said, "This do, and thou shalt live." The Samaritan had obeyed the dictates of a kind and loving heart, and in this had proved himself a doer of the law. Christ bade the lawyer, "Go, and do thou likewise." (Luke 10:25, 28, 37.) Doing, and not saying merely, is expected of the children of God. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." (1 John 2:6.)
HB	249	3	The lesson is no less needed in the world today than when it fell from the lips of Jesus. Selfishness and cold formality have well-nigh extinguished the fire of love, and dispelled the graces that should make fragrant the character. Many who profess His name have lost sight of the fact that Christians are to represent Christ. Unless there is practical self-sacrifice for the good of others, in the family circle, in the neighborhood, in the church, and wherever we may be, then whatever our profession, we are not Christians.
HB	249	4	Christ has linked His interest with that of humanity, and He asks us to become one with Him for the saving of humanity. "Freely ye have received," He says, "freely give." (Matthew 10:8.) Sin is the greatest of all evils, and it is ours to pity and help the sinner. There are many who err, and who feel their shame and their folly. They are hungry for words of encouragement. They look upon their mistakes and errors, until they are driven almost to desperation. These souls we are not to neglect. If we are Christians, we shall not pass by on the other side, keeping as far as possible from the very ones who most need our help. When we see human beings in distress, whether through affliction or through sin, we shall never say, This does not concern me.
HB	249	5	"Ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness." (Galatians 6:1.) By faith and prayer press back the power of the enemy. Speak words of faith and courage that will be as a healing balsam to the bruised and wounded one. Many, many, have fainted and become discouraged in the great struggle of life, when one word of kindly cheer would have strengthened them to overcome. Never should we pass by one suffering soul without seeking to impart to that one of the comfort wherewith we are comforted of God.--The Desire of Ages, 504, 505.
------------------------God Leads His People, August 13
HB	250	1	I will be their God, and they shall be My people.--Jeremiah 31:33.
HB	250	2	God is leading out a people to stand in perfect unity upon the platform of eternal truth. Christ gave Himself to the world that He might "purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." This refining process is designed to purge the church from all unrighteousness and the spirit of discord and contention, that they may build up instead of tear down, and concentrate their energies on the great work before them. God designs that His people should all come into the unity of the faith. The prayer of Christ just prior to His crucifixion was that His disciples might be one, even as He was one with the Father, that the world might believe that the Father had sent Him. This most touching and wonderful prayer reaches down the ages, even to our day; for His words were: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word."
HB	250	3	How earnestly should the professed followers of Christ seek to answer this prayer in their lives. Many do not realize the sacredness of church relationship and are loath to submit to restraint and discipline. Their course of action shows that they exalt their own judgment above that of the united church, and they are not careful to guard themselves lest they encourage a spirit of opposition to its voice. Those who hold responsible positions in the church may have faults in common with other people and may err in their decisions; but notwithstanding this, the church of Christ on earth has given to them an authority that cannot be lightly esteemed. Christ, after His resurrection, delegated power unto His church, saying: "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." . . .
HB	250	4	All believers should be wholehearted in their attachment to the church. Its prosperity should be their first interest, and unless they feel under sacred obligations to make their connection with the church a benefit to it in preference to themselves, it can do far better without them. It is in the power of all to do something for the cause of God. . . . The observance of external forms will never meet the great want of the human soul. A profession of Christ is not enough to enable one to stand the test of the day of judgment. There should be a perfect trust in God, a childlike dependence upon His promises, and an entire consecration to His will.--Testimonies for the Church 4:17, 18.
------------------------The Influence of Perfect Harmony, August 14
HB	251	1	I, therefore, . . . beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, . . . endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.--Ephesians 4:1, 3.
HB	251	2	There is nothing too precious for us to give to Jesus. If we return to Him the talents of means which He has entrusted to our keeping, He will give more into our hands. Every effort we make for Christ will be rewarded by Him, and every duty we perform in His name will minister to our own happiness. God surrendered His dearly beloved Son to the agonies of the crucifixion, that all who believe on Him might become one through the name of Jesus. When Christ made so great a sacrifice to save us and bring us into unity with one another, even as He was united with the Father, what sacrifice is too great for His followers to make in order to preserve that unity?
HB	251	3	If the world sees a perfect harmony existing in the church of God, it will be a powerful evidence to them in favor of the Christian religion. Dissensions, unhappy differences, and petty church trials dishonor our Redeemer. All these may be avoided if self is surrendered to God and the followers of Jesus obey the voice of the church. Unbelief suggests that individual independence increases our importance, that it is weak to yield our own ideas of what is right and proper to the verdict of the church; but to yield to such feelings and views is unsafe and will bring us into anarchy and confusion. Christ saw that unity and Christian fellowship were necessary to the cause of God, therefore He enjoined it upon His disciples. And the history of Christianity from that time until now proves conclusively that in union only is there strength. Let individual judgment submit to the authority of the church.
HB	251	4	The apostles felt the necessity of strict unity, and they labored earnestly to this end. Paul exhorted his brethren in these words: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."
HB	251	5	He also wrote to the Philippians: "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind."--Testimonies for the Church 4:19, 20.
------------------------Duty of the Church, August 15
HB	252	1	If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ.--1 Timothy 4:6.
HB	252	2	The Holy Spirit is the breath of spiritual life in the soul. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ. Only those who are thus taught of God, those who possess the inward working of the Spirit, and in whose life the Christ-life is manifested, are to stand as representatives, to minister in behalf of the church.
HB	252	3	"Whosesoever sins ye remit," said Christ, "they are remitted; . . . and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." Christ here gives no liberty for anyone to pass judgment upon others. In the Sermon on the Mount He forbade this. It is the prerogative of God. But on the church in its organized capacity He places a responsibility for the individual members. Toward those who fall into sin, the church has a duty, to warn, to instruct, and if possible to restore. "Reprove, rebuke, exhort," the Lord says, "with all long-suffering and doctrine." (2 Timothy 4:2.) Deal faithfully with wrongdoing. Warn every soul that is in danger. Leave none to deceive themselves. Call sin by its right name. Declare what God has said in regard to lying, Sabbathbreaking, stealing, idolatry, and every other evil. "They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Galatians 5:21.) If they persist in sin, the judgment you have declared from God's word is pronounced upon them in heaven. In choosing to sin, they disown Christ; the church must show that she does not sanction their deeds, or she herself dishonors her Lord. She must say about sin what God says about it. She must deal with it as God directs, and her action is ratified in heaven. Anyone who despises the authority of the church despises the authority of Christ Himself.
HB	252	4	But there is a brighter side to the picture. "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted." Let this thought be kept uppermost. In labor for the erring, let every eye be directed to Christ. . . .
HB	252	5	Let the repentance of the sinner be accepted by the church with grateful hearts. Let the repenting one be led out from the darkness of unbelief into the light of faith and righteousness. Let his trembling hand be placed in the loving hand of Jesus. Such a remission is ratified in heaven.--The Desire of Ages, 805, 806.
------------------------Dealing With Misunderstandings, August 16
HB	253	1	Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?--1 Corinthians 6:1.
HB	253	2	Whatever the character of the offense, this does not change the plan that God has made for the settlement of misunderstandings and personal injuries. Speaking alone and in the spirit of Christ to the one who is in fault will often remove the difficulty. Go to the erring one, with a heart filled with Christ's love and sympathy, and seek to adjust the matter. Reason with him calmly and quietly. Let no angry words escape your lips. Speak in a way that will appeal to his better judgment. Remember the words: "He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." (James 5:20.)
HB	253	3	Take to your brother the remedy that will cure the disease of disaffection. Do your part to help him. For the sake of the peace and unity of the church, feel it a privilege as well as a duty to do this. If he will hear you, you have gained him as a friend.
HB	253	4	All heaven is interested in the interview between the one who has been injured and the one who is in error. As the erring one accepts the reproof offered in the love of Christ, and acknowledges his wrong, asking forgiveness from God and from his brother, the sunshine of heaven fills his heart. The controversy is ended; friendship and confidence are restored. The oil of love removes the soreness caused by the wrong. The Spirit of God binds heart to heart, and there is music in heaven over the union brought about.
HB	253	5	As those thus united in Christian fellowship offer prayer to God and pledge themselves to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God, great blessing comes to them. If they have wronged others they continue the work of repentance, confession, and restitution, fully set to do good to one another. This is the fulfilling of the law of Christ.
HB	253	6	"But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." (Matthew 18:16.) Take with you those who are spiritually minded, and talk with the one in error in regard to the wrong. He may yield to the united appeals of his brethren. As he sees their agreement in the matter, his mind may be enlightened.--Testimonies for the Church 7:261, 262.
------------------------Dealing With an Offender, August 17
HB	254	1	I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.--Jeremiah 31:34.
HB	254	2	If he will not hear them [see Matthew 18:15, 16], then, and not till then, the matter is to be brought before the whole body of believers. Let the members of the church, as the representatives of Christ, unite in prayer and loving entreaty that the offender may be restored. The Holy Spirit will speak through His servants, pleading with the wanderer to return to God. Paul the apostle, speaking by inspiration, says, "As though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." (2 Corinthians 5:20.) Anyone who rejects this united overture has broken the tie that binds him to Christ, and thus has severed himself from the fellowship of the church. Henceforth, said Jesus, "let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican." But he is not to be regarded as cut off from the mercy of God. Let him not be despised or neglected by his former brothers and sisters in the church, but be treated with tenderness and compassion, as one of the lost sheep that Christ is still seeking to bring to His fold.
HB	254	3	Christ's instruction as to the treatment of the erring repeats in more specific form the teaching given to Israel through Moses: "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in anywise rebuke thy neighbor, that thou bear not sin for him." (Leviticus 19:17, margin.) That is, if others neglect the duty Christ has enjoined, of trying to restore those who are in error and sin, they become partakers in the sin. For evils that we might have checked, we are just as responsible as if we were guilty of the acts ourselves.
HB	254	4	But it is to the wrongdoer himself that we are to present the wrong. We are not to make it a matter of comment and criticism among ourselves; nor even after it is told to the church, are we at liberty to repeat it to others. A knowledge of the faults of Christians will be only a cause of stumbling to the unbelieving world; and by dwelling upon these things, we ourselves can receive only harm; for it is by beholding that we become changed. While we seek to correct the errors of others, the Spirit of Christ will lead us to shield them, as far as possible, from the criticism of even their own brethren, and how much more from the censure of the unbelieving world. We ourselves are erring, and need Christ's pity and forgiveness, and just as we wish Him to deal with us, He bids us deal with one another.--The Desire of Ages, 441.
------------------------Press Together, Now, August 18
HB	255	1	There should be no schism in the body, but. . . the members should have the same care for one another.--1 Corinthians 12:25.
HB	255	2	Union is strength; division is weakness. When those who believe present truth are united, they exert a telling influence. Satan well understands this. Never was he more determined than now to make of none effect the truth of God by causing bitterness and dissension among the Lord's people.
HB	255	3	The world is against us, the popular churches are against us, the laws of the land will soon be against us. If there was ever a time when the people of God should press together, it is now. God has committed to us the special truths for this time to make known to the world. The last message of mercy is now going forth. We are dealing with men and women who are judgment bound. How careful should we be in every word and act to follow closely the Pattern, that our example may lead people to Christ. With what care should we seek so to present the truth that others by beholding its beauty and simplicity may be led to receive it. If our characters testify of its sanctifying power, we shall be a continual light to others--living epistles, known and read of all men. We cannot afford now to give place to Satan by cherishing disunion, discord, and strife.
HB	255	4	That union and love might exist among His disciples was the burden of our Saviour's last prayer for them prior to His crucifixion. With the agony of the cross before Him, His solicitude was not for Himself, but for those whom He should leave to carry forward His work in the earth. The severest trials awaited them, but Jesus saw that their greatest danger would be from a spirit of bitterness and division. . . .
HB	255	5	All who have been benefited by the labors of God's servants should, ac-cording to their ability, unite with them in working for the salvation of souls. This is the work of all true believers, ministers and people. They should keep the grand object ever in view, all seeking to fill their proper position in the church, and all working together in order, harmony, and love. . . .
HB	255	6	They will not neglect to labor for the strength and unity of the church. They will watch carefully lest opportunity be given for diversity and division to creep in.--Testimonies for the Church 5:236, 238.
------------------------The Church is to Follow the Saviour's Rule, August 19
HB	256	1	First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.--Matthew 5:24.
HB	256	2	Those who are appointed to guard the spiritual interests of the church should be careful to set a right example, giving no occasion for envy, jealousy, or suspicion, ever manifesting that same spirit of love, respect, and courtesy which they desire to encourage in their fellow church members. Diligent heed should be given to the instructions of God's word. Let every manifestation of animosity or unkindness be checked; let every root of bitterness be removed. When trouble arises between church members, the Saviour's rule should be strictly followed. All possible effort should be made to effect a reconciliation; but if the parties stubbornly persist in remaining at variance, they should be suspended till they can harmonize.
HB	256	3	Upon the occurrence of trials in the church let all the members examine their own hearts to see if the cause of trouble does not exist within. By spiritual pride, a desire to dictate, an ambitious longing for honor or position, a lack of self-control, by the indulgence of passion or prejudice, by instability or lack of judgment, the church may be disturbed and her peace sacrificed.
HB	256	4	Difficulties are often caused by the vendors of gossip, whose whispered hints and suggestions poison unsuspecting minds and separate the closest friends. Mischief-makers are seconded in their evil work by the many who stand with open ears and evil heart, saying: "Report, . . . and we will report it." This sin should not be tolerated among the followers of Christ. No Christian parent should permit gossip to be repeated in the family circle or remarks to be made disparaging the members of the church.
HB	256	5	Christians should regard it as a religious duty to repress a spirit of envy or emulation. They should rejoice in the superior reputation or prosperity of their brethren, even when their own character or achievements seem to be cast in the shade. . . .
HB	256	6	We should seek for true goodness rather than greatness. Those who possess the mind of Christ will have humble views of themselves. They will labor for the purity and prosperity of the church, and be ready to sacrifice their own interests and desires rather than to cause dissension among their fellow members.--Testimonies for the Church 5:241, 242.
------------------------The Gospel Net, August 20
HB	257	1	Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind.--Matthew 13:47.
HB	257	2	The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind; which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
HB	257	3	The casting of the net is the preaching of the gospel. This gathers both good and evil into the church. When the mission of the gospel is completed, the judgment will accomplish the work of separation. Christ saw how the existence of false members in the church would cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of. The world would revile the gospel because of the inconsistent lives of false professors. Even Christians would be caused to stumble as they saw that many who bore Christ's name were not controlled by His Spirit. Because these sinners were in the church, many would be in danger of thinking that God excused their sins. Therefore Christ lifts the veil from the future and bids all to behold that it is character, not position, which decides a person's destiny.
HB	257	4	Both the parable of the tares and that of the net plainly teach that there is no time when all the wicked will turn to God. The wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest. The good and the bad fish are together drawn ashore for a final separation.
HB	257	5	Again, these parables teach that there is to be no probation after the judgment. When the work of the gospel is completed, there immediately follows the separation between the good and the evil, and the destiny of each class is forever fixed.
HB	257	6	God does not desire the destruction of any. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?" (Ezekiel 33:11.) Throughout the period of probationary time His Spirit is entreating men and women to accept the gift of life. It is only those who reject His pleading that will be left to perish. God has declared that sin must be destroyed as an evil ruinous to the universe. Those who cling to sin will perish in its destruction.--Christ's Object Lessons, 122, 123.
------------------------Christ's Love in the Church, August 21
HB	258	1	Not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another.--2 John 5.
HB	258	2	This love is the evidence of their discipleship. "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples," said Jesus, "if ye have love one to an- other." When people are bound together, not by force or self-interest, but by love, they show the working of an influence that is above every human influence. Where this oneness exists, it is evidence that the image of God is being restored in humanity, that a new principle of life has been implanted. It shows that there is power in the divine nature to withstand the supernatural agencies of evil, and that the grace of God subdues the selfishness inherent in the natural heart.
HB	258	3	This love, manifested in the church, will surely stir the wrath of Satan. Christ did not mark out for His disciples an easy path. "If the world hate you," He said, "ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for My name's sake, because they know not Him that sent Me." The gospel is to be carried forward by aggressive warfare, in the midst of opposition, peril, loss, and suffering. But those who do this work are only following in their Master's steps. . . .
HB	258	4	Christ rejoiced that He could do more for His followers than they could ask or think. He spoke with assurance, knowing that an almighty decree had been given before the world was made. He knew that truth, armed with the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, would conquer in the contest with evil; and that the bloodstained banner would wave triumphantly over His followers. He knew that the life of His trusting disciples would be like His, a series of uninterrupted victories, not seen to be such here, but recognized as such in the great hereafter. . . .
HB	258	5	Christ did not fail, neither was He discouraged, and His followers are to manifest a faith of the same enduring nature. They are to live as He lived, and work as He worked, because they depend on Him as the great Master Worker.--The Desire of Ages, 678, 679.
------------------------The Church is Not One Man's Opinion, August 22
HB	259	1	And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.--1 Corinthians 8:2.
HB	259	2	The world's Redeemer has invested great power with His church. He states the rules to be applied in cases of trial with its members. After He has given explicit directions as to the course to be pursued, He says: "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever [in church discipline] ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 18:18.) Thus even the heavenly authority ratifies the discipline of the church in regard to its members when the Bible rule has been followed.
HB	259	3	The word of God does not give license for lone individuals to set up their judgment in opposition to the judgment of the church, neither are they allowed to urge their opinions against the opinions of the church. If there were no church discipline and government, the church would go to fragments; it could not hold together as a body. There have ever been individuals of independent minds who have claimed that they were right, that God had especially taught, impressed, and led them. They each have a theory of their own, views peculiar to themselves, and they each claim that their views are in accordance with the word of God. Each one has a different theory and faith, yet each claims special light from God. These draw away from the body, and each one is a separate church individually. All these cannot be right, yet they all claim to be led of the Lord. The word of Inspiration is not Yea and Nay, but Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus.
HB	259	4	Our Saviour follows His lessons of instruction with a promise that if two or three should be united in asking anything of God it should be given them. Christ here shows that there must be union with others, even in our desires for a given object. Great importance is attached to the united prayer, the union of purpose. God hears the prayers of individuals, but on this occasion Jesus was giving especial and important lessons that were to have a special bearing upon His newly organized church on the earth. There must be an agreement in the things which they desire and for which they pray. It was not merely the thoughts and exercises of one mind, liable to deception; but the petition was to be the earnest desire of several minds centered on the same point.--Testimonies for the Church 3:428, 429.
------------------------God's Spirit and Unity in the Church, August 23
HB	260	1	Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common.--Acts 2:44.
HB	260	2	Christ declared that the divine influence of the Spirit was to be with His followers unto the end. But the promise is not appreciated as it should be; and therefore its fulfillment is not seen as it might be. The promise of the Spirit is a matter little thought of; and the result is only what might be expected--spiritual drought, spiritual darkness, spiritual declension and death. Minor matters occupy the attention, and the divine power which is necessary for the growth and prosperity of the church, and which would bring all other blessings in its train, is lacking, though offered in its infinite plenitude.
HB	260	3	It is the absence of the Spirit that makes the gospel ministry so powerless. Learning, talent, eloquence, every natural or acquired endowment, may be possessed; but, without the presence of the Spirit of God, no heart will be touched, no sinner won to Christ. On the other hand, if they are connected with Christ, if the gifts of the Spirit are theirs, the poorest and most ignorant of His disciples will have a power that will tell upon hearts. God makes them channels for the outflowing of the highest influence in the universe.
HB	260	4	Zeal for God moved the disciples to bear witness to the truth with mighty power. Should not this zeal fire our hearts with a determination to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ and Him crucified? Is not the Spirit of God to come today, in answer to earnest, persevering prayer, and fill us with power for service? Why, then, is the church so weak and spiritless?
HB	260	5	When the Holy Spirit controls the minds of our church members, there will be seen in our churches a much higher standard in speech, in ministry, in spirituality, than is now seen. The church members will be refreshed by the water of life, and the laborers, working under one Head, even Christ, will reveal their Master in spirit, in word, in deed, and will encourage one another to press forward in the grand, closing work in which we are engaged. There will be a healthy increase of unity and love, which will bear testimony to the world that God sent His Son to die for the redemption of sinners. Divine truth will be exalted; and as it shines forth as a lamp that burneth, we shall understand it more and still more clearly.--Counsels for the Church, 100.
------------------------Unity Begets Strength, August 24
HB	261	1	Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!--Psalm 133:1.
HB	261	2	Do we expect to meet our brethren and sisters in heaven? If we can live with them here in peace and harmony we could live with them there. But how could we live with them in heaven if we cannot live with them here without continued contention and strife? . . .
HB	261	3	Our hard hearts need to be broken. We need to come together in perfect unity, and we need to realize that we are the purchase of the blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Let each one say: "He gave His life for me, and He wants me, as I go through this world, to reveal the love that He revealed in giving Himself for me." Christ bore our sins in His own body on the cross, that God might be just and yet the justifier of those who believe in Him. There is life, eternal life, for all who will surrender to Christ.
HB	261	4	Strive earnestly for unity. Pray for it, work for it. It will bring spiritual health, elevation of thought, nobility of character, heavenly-mindedness, enabling you to overcome selfishness and evil surmisings, and to be more than conquerors through Him that loved you and gave Himself for you. Crucify self; esteem others better than yourselves. Thus you will be brought into oneness with Christ. Before the heavenly universe, and before the church and the world, you will bear unmistakable evidence that you are God's sons and daughters. God will be glorified in the example that you set.
HB	261	5	The world needs to see worked out before it the miracle that binds the hearts of God's people together in Christian love. It needs to see the Lord's people sitting together in heavenly places in Christ. Will you not give in your lives an evidence of what the truth of God can do for those who love and serve Him? God knows what you can be. He knows what divine grace can do for you if you will be partakers of the divine nature. . . .
HB	261	6	Union is strength; division is weakness. When those who believe present truth are united, they exert a telling influence. Satan well understands this. Never was he more determined than now to make of none effect the truth of God by causing bitterness and dissension among the Lord's people.--Counsels for the Church, 290, 291.
------------------------The Danger of Self-Confidence, August 25
HB	262	1	And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.--2 Corinthians 12:7.
HB	262	2	Self-confidence leads to neglect of watchfulness and of humble, penitential prayer. There are outward temptations to be shunned and inward foes and perplexities to be overcome, for Satan adapts his temptations to the different characters and temperaments of individuals.
HB	262	3	The church of Christ is in constant peril. Satan is seeking to destroy the people of God, and one person's mind, one individual's judgment, is not sufficient to be trusted. Christ would have His followers brought together in church capacity, observing order, having rules and discipline, and all subject one to another, esteeming others better than themselves. Union and confidence are essential to the prosperity of the church. If all the members of the church feel at liberty to move independently of the others, taking their own peculiar course, how can the church be in any safety in the hour of danger and peril? The prosperity and very existence of a church depend upon the prompt, united action and mutual confidence of its members. When, at a critical time, one sounds the alarm of danger, there is need of prompt and active work, without stopping to question and canvass the whole subject from end to end, thus letting the enemy gain every advantage by delay, when united action might save many souls from perdition.
HB	262	4	God wants His people to be united in the closest bonds of Christian fellowship; confidence in our fellow church members is essential to the prosperity of the church; union of action is important in a religious crisis. One imprudent step, one careless action, may plunge the church into difficulties and trials from which it may not recover for years. One member of the church filled with unbelief may give an advantage to the great foe that will affect the prosperity of the entire church, and many souls may be lost as the result. Jesus would have His followers subject one to another; then God can use them as instruments to save one another; for one may not discern the dangers which another's eye is quick to perceive; but if the undiscerning will in confidence obey the warning, they may be saved great perplexities and trials.--Testimonies for the Church 3:445, 446.
------------------------Warnings to the Church, August 26
HB	263	1	In the last days perilous times will come.--2 Timothy 3:1.
HB	263	2	Christ had foretold that deceivers would arise, through whose influence "iniquity" should "abound," and "the love of many" should "wax cold." (Matthew 24:12.) He had warned the disciples that the church would be in more danger from this evil than from the persecution of her enemies. Again and again Paul warned the believers against these false teachers. This peril, above all others, they must guard against; for by receiving false teachers, they would open the door to errors by which the enemy would dim the spiritual perceptions and shake the confidence of those newly come to the faith of the gospel. Christ was the standard by which they were to test the doctrines presented. All that was not in harmony with His teachings they were to reject. Christ crucified for sin, Christ risen from the dead, Christ ascended on high--this was the science of salvation that they were to learn and teach.
HB	263	3	The warnings of the word of God regarding the perils surrounding the Christian church belong to us today. As in the days of the apostles some tried by tradition and philosophy to destroy faith in the Scriptures, so today, by the pleasing sentiments of higher criticism, evolution, spiritualism, theosophy, and pantheism, the enemy of righteousness is seeking to lead souls into forbidden paths. To many the Bible is as a lamp without oil, because they have turned their minds into channels of speculative belief that bring misunderstanding and confusion. The work of higher criticism, in dissecting, conjecturing, reconstructing, is destroying faith in the Bible as a divine revelation. It is robbing God's word of power to control, uplift, and inspire human lives. By spiritualism, multitudes are taught to believe that desire is the highest law, that license is liberty, and that man is accountable only to himself.
HB	263	4	The followers of Christ will meet with the "enticing words" against which the apostle warned the Colossian believers. They will meet with spiritualistic interpretations of the Scriptures, but they are not to accept them. Their voices are to be heard in clear affirmation of the eternal truths of the Scriptures. Keeping their eyes fixed on Christ, they are to move steadily forward in the path marked out, discarding all ideas that are not in harmony with His teaching. The truth of God is to be the subject for their contemplation and meditation. They are to regard the Bible as the voice of God speaking directly to them. Thus they will find the wisdom which is divine.--The Acts of the Apostles, 473-475.
------------------------Set On a Hill, August 27
HB	264	1	You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.--Matthew 5:14.
HB	264	2	During ages of spiritual darkness the church of God has been as a city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive generations, the pure doctrines of heaven have been unfolding within its borders. Enfeebled and defective as it may appear, the church is the one object upon which God bestows in a special sense His supreme regard. It is the theater of His grace, in which He delights to reveal His power to transform hearts.
HB	264	3	"Whereunto," asked Christ, "shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?" (Mark 4:30.) He could not employ the kingdoms of the world as a similitude. In society He found nothing with which to compare it. Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendancy of physical power; but from Christ's kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished. This kingdom is to uplift and ennoble humanity. God's church is the court of holy life, filled with varied gifts and endowed with the Holy Spirit. The members are to find their happiness in the happiness of those whom they help and bless.
HB	264	4	Wonderful is the work which the Lord designs to accomplish through His church, that His name may be glorified. A picture of this work is given in Ezekiel's vision of the river of healing: "These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass, that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: . . . and by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months." (Ezekiel 47:8-12.) . . .
HB	264	5	Through the integrity of Joseph the life of that whole people was preserved. Through Daniel God saved the life of all the wise men of Babylon. And these deliverances are as object lessons; they illustrate the spiritual blessings offered to the world through connection with the God whom Joseph and Daniel worshiped. All in whose heart Christ abides, all who will show forth His love to the world, are workers together with God for the blessing of humanity. As they receive from the Saviour grace to impart to others, from their whole being flows forth the tide of spiritual life.--The Acts of the Apostles, 12, 13.
------------------------The Church Can Hasten Jesus' Return, August 28
HB	265	1	What manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God?--2 Peter 3:11, 12.
HB	265	2	Christ has given to the church a sacred charge. Every member should be a channel through which God can communicate to the world the treasures of His grace, the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is nothing that the Saviour desires so much as agents who will represent to the world His Spirit and His character. There is nothing that the world needs so much as the manifestation through humanity of the Saviour's love. All heaven is waiting for men and women through whom God can reveal the power of Christianity.
HB	265	3	The church is God's agency for the proclamation of truth, empowered by Him to do a special work; and if she is loyal to Him, obedient to all His commandments, there will dwell within her the excellency of divine grace. If she will be true to her allegiance, if she will honor the Lord God of Israel, there is no power that can stand against her.
HB	265	4	Zeal for God and His cause moved the disciples to bear witness to the gospel with mighty power. Should not a like zeal fire our hearts with a determination to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ and Him crucified? It is the privilege of every Christian, not only to look for, but to hasten the coming of the Saviour.
HB	265	5	If the church will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all allegiance with the world, there is before her the dawn of a bright and glorious day. God's promise to her will stand fast forever. He will make her an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Truth, passing by those who despise and reject it, will triumph. Although at times apparently retarded, its progress has never been checked. When the message of God meets with opposition, He gives it additional force, that it may exert greater influence. Endowed with divine energy, it will cut its way through the strongest barriers and triumph over every obstacle.
HB	265	6	What sustained the Son of God during His life of toil and sacrifice? He saw the results of the travail of His soul and was satisfied. Looking into eternity, He beheld the happiness of those who through His humiliation had received pardon and everlasting life. His ear caught the shout of the redeemed. He heard the ransomed ones singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.--The Acts of the Apostles, 600, 601.
------------------------A Stormy Future, August 29
HB	266	1	He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.--Revelation 13:12.
HB	266	2	Zechariah's vision of Joshua and the Angel applies with peculiar force to the experience of God's people in the closing up of the great day of atonement. The remnant church will be brought into great trial and distress. Those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will feel the ire of the dragon and his hosts. Satan numbers the world as his subjects, he has gained control of the apostate churches; but here is a little company that are resisting his supremacy. If he could blot them from the earth, his triumph would be complete. As he influenced the heathen nations to destroy Israel, so in the near future he will stir up the wicked powers of earth to destroy the people of God. All will be required to render obedience to human edicts in violation of the divine law. Those who will be true to God and to duty will be menaced, denounced, and proscribed. They will "be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends."
HB	266	3	Their only hope is in the mercy of God; their only defense will be prayer. As Joshua was pleading before the Angel, so the remnant church, with brokenness of heart and earnest faith, will plead for pardon and deliverance through Jesus their Advocate. They are fully conscious of the sinfulness of their lives, they see their weakness and unworthiness, and as they look upon themselves they are ready to despair. The tempter stands by to accuse them, as he stood by to resist Joshua. He points to their filthy garments, their defective characters. He presents their weakness and folly, their sins of ingratitude, their unlikeness to Christ, which has dishonored their Redeemer. He endeavors to affright the soul with the thought that their case is hopeless, that the stain of their defilement will never be washed away. He hopes to so destroy their faith that they will yield to his temptations, turn from their allegiance to God, and receive the mark of the beast.
HB	266	4	Satan urges before God his accusations against them, declaring that they have by their sins forfeited the divine protection, and claiming the right to destroy them as transgressors. He pronounces them just as deserving as himself of exclusion from the favor of God. "Are these," he says, "the people who are to take my place in heaven and the place of the angels who united with me?"--Testimonies for the Church 5:472, 473.
------------------------Robes for the Remnant, August 30
HB	267	1	Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?--Revelation 7:13.
HB	267	2	The people of God have been in many respects very faulty. Satan has an accurate knowledge of the sins which he has tempted them to commit, and he presents these in the most exaggerated light, declaring: "Will God banish me and my angels from His presence, and yet reward those who have been guilty of the same sins? Thou canst not do this, O Lord, in justice. Thy throne will not stand in righteousness and judgment. Justice demands that sentence be pronounced against them."
HB	267	3	But while the followers of Christ have sinned, they have not given themselves to the control of evil. They have put away their sins, and have sought the Lord in humility and contrition, and the divine Advocate pleads in their behalf. He who has been most abused by their ingratitude, who knows their sin, and also their repentance, declares: " 'The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.' I gave My life for these souls. They are graven upon the palms of My hands." . . .
HB	267	4	As the people of God afflict their souls before Him, pleading for purity of heart, the command is given, "Take away the filthy garments" from them, and the encouraging words are spoken, "Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment." The spotless robe of Christ's righteousness is placed upon the tried, tempted, yet faithful children of God. The despised remnant are clothed in glorious apparel, nevermore to be defiled by the corruptions of the world. Their names are retained in the Lamb's book of life, enrolled among the faithful of all ages. They have resisted the wiles of the deceiver; they have not been turned from their loyalty by the dragon's roar. Now they are eternally secure from the tempter's devices. Their sins are transferred to the originator of sin.
HB	267	5	And the remnant are not only pardoned and accepted, but honored. "A fair miter" is set upon their heads. They are to be as kings and priests unto God. While Satan was urging his accusations and seeking to destroy this company, holy angels, unseen, were passing to and fro, placing upon them the seal of the living God. These are they that stand upon Mount Zion with the Lamb, having the Father's name written in their foreheads. They sing the new song before the throne, that song which no one can learn save the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.--Testimonies for the Church 5:474-476.
------------------------Advance as a Church United, August 31
HB	268	1	Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.--2 Peter 3:14.
HB	268	2	The Lord desires to see the work of proclaiming the third angel's message carried forward with increasing efficiency. As He has worked in all ages to give victories to His people, so in this age He longs to carry to a triumphant fulfillment His purposes for His church. He bids His believing saints to advance unitedly, going from strength to greater strength, from faith to increased assurance and confidence in the truth and righteousness of His cause.
HB	268	3	We are to stand firm as a rock to the principles of the Word of God, remembering that God is with us to give us strength to meet each new experience. Let us ever maintain in our lives the principles of righteousness, that we may go forward from strength to strength in the name of the Lord. We are to hold as very sacred the faith that has been substantiated by the instruction and approval of the Spirit of God from our earliest experience until the present time. We are to cherish as very precious the work that the Lord has been carrying forward through His commandment-keeping people, and which, through the power of His grace, will grow stronger and more efficient as time advances. The enemy is seeking to becloud the discernment of God's people, and to weaken their efficiency, but if they will labor as the Spirit of God shall direct, He will open doors of opportunity before them for the work of building up the old waste places. Their experience will be one of constant growth, until the Lord shall descend from heaven with power and great glory to set His seal of final triumph upon His faithful ones.
HB	268	4	The work that lies before us is one that will put to the stretch every power of the human being. It will call for the exercise of strong faith and constant vigilance. At times the difficulties that we shall meet will be most disheartening. The very greatness of the task will appall us. And yet, with God's help, His servants will finally triumph.--Selected Messages, book 2, 407, 408.
HB	268	5	I have been deeply impressed by scenes that have recently passed before me in the night season. There seemed to be a great movement--a work of revival--going forward in many places. Our people were moving into line, responding to God's call.--Selected Messages, book 2, 402.
------------------------The Beginning of the Home, September 1
HB	270	1	Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.--Genesis 2:15.
HB	270	2	The Eden home of our first parents was prepared for them by God Himself. When He had furnished it with everything that they could desire, He said: "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." . . .
HB	270	3	The Lord was pleased with these last and noblest of all His creatures, and designed that they should be the perfect inhabitants of a perfect world. But it was not His purpose that any should live in solitude. He said: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." God Himself gave Adam a companion. He provided "an help meet for him"--a helper corresponding to him--one who was fitted to be his companion, and who could be one with him in love and sympathy. Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his feet as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected by him. A part of man, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, she was his second self; showing the close union and the affectionate attachment that should exist in this relation. "For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it." "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one." . . .
HB	270	4	Fathers and mothers who make God first in their households, who teach their children that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, glorify God before angels and before mankind by presenting to the world a well-ordered, well-disciplined family--a family that love and obey God instead of rebelling against Him. Christ is not a stranger in their homes; His name is a household name, revered and glorified. Angels delight in a home where God reigns supreme and the children are taught to reverence religion, the Bible, and their Creator. Such families can claim the promise, "Them that honour Me I will honour." As from such a home the father goes forth to his daily duties, it is with a spirit softened and subdued by converse with God.--The Adventist Home, 25, 27, 28.
------------------------A Little Heaven On Earth, September 2
HB	271	1	We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.--Titus 2:12.
HB	271	2	We must let Christ into our hearts and homes if we would walk in the light. Home should be made all that the word implies. It should be a little heaven upon earth, a place where the affections are cultivated instead of being studiously repressed. Our happiness depends upon this cultivation of love, sympathy, and true courtesy to one another. The reason there are so many hardhearted men and women in our world is that true affection has been regarded as weakness and has been discouraged and repressed. The better part of the nature of persons of this class was perverted and dwarfed in childhood, and unless rays of divine light can melt away their coldness and hardhearted selfishness, the happiness of such is buried forever. If we would have tender hearts, such as Jesus had when He was upon the earth, and sanctified sympathy, such as the angels have for sinful mortals, we must cultivate the sympathies of childhood, which are simplicity itself. Then we shall be refined, elevated, and directed by heavenly principles.
HB	271	3	A cultivated intellect is a great treasure; but without the softening influence of sympathy and sanctified love, it is not of the highest value. We should have words and deeds of tender consideration for others. We can manifest a thousand little attentions in friendly words and pleasant looks, which will be reflected upon us again. Thoughtless Christians manifest by their neglect of others that they are not in union with Christ. It is impossible to be in union with Christ and yet be unkind to others and forgetful of their rights. Many long intensely for friendly sympathy. God has given each of us an identity of our own, which cannot be merged in that of another; but our individual characteristics will be much less prominent if we are indeed Christ's and His will is ours. Our lives should be consecrated to the good and happiness of others, as was our Saviour's. We should be self-forgetful, ever looking out for opportunities, even in little things, to show gratitude for the favors we have received of others, and watching for opportunities to cheer others and lighten and relieve their sorrows and burdens by acts of tender kindness and little deeds of love. These thoughtful courtesies, that, commencing in our families, extend outside the family circle, help make up the sum of life's happiness; and the neglect of these little things makes up the sum of life's bitterness and sorrow.--Testimonies for the Church 3:539, 540.
------------------------The Family Circle, September 3
HB	272	1	Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.--Genesis 2:24.
HB	272	2	There is a sacred circle around every family which should be preserved. No other one has any right in that sacred circle. The husband and wife should be all to each other. The wife should have no secrets to keep from her husband and let others know, and the husband should have no secrets to keep from his wife to relate to others. The heart of his wife should be the grave for the faults of the husband, and the heart of the husband the grave for his wife's faults. Never should either party indulge in a joke at the expense of the other's feelings. Never should either the husband or wife in sport or in any other manner complain of each other to others, for frequently indulging in this foolish and what may seem perfectly harmless joking will end in trial with each other and perhaps estrangement. I have been shown that there should be a sacred shield around every family.
HB	272	3	The home circle should be regarded as a sacred place, a symbol of heaven, a mirror in which to reflect ourselves. Friends and acquaintances we may have, but in the home life they are not to meddle. A strong sense of proprietorship should be felt, giving a sense of ease, restfulness, trust.
HB	272	4	Let those composing the family circle pray that God will sanctify their tongues, their ears, their eyes, and every member of their body. When brought into contact with evil, it is not necessary to be overcome of evil. Christ has made it possible for the character to be fragrant with good. . . .
HB	272	5	How many dishonor Christ and misrepresent His character in the home circle! How many do not manifest patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and true love! Many have their likes and dislikes and feel at liberty to manifest their own perverse disposition rather than to reveal the will, the works, the character of Christ. The life of Jesus is full of kindness and love. Are we growing into His divine nature?
HB	272	6	Let fathers and mothers make a solemn promise to God, whom they profess to love and obey, that by His grace they will not disagree between themselves, but will in their own life and temper manifest the spirit that they wish their children to cherish.--The Adventist Home, 177, 178.
------------------------True Joy, September 4
HB	273	1	In Your presence is fullness of joy.--Psalm 16:11.
HB	273	2	Let each give love rather than exact it. Cultivate that which is noblest in yourselves, and be quick to recognize the good qualities in each other. The consciousness of being appreciated is a wonderful stimulus and satisfaction. Sympathy and respect encourage the striving after excellence, and love itself increases as it stimulates to nobler aims.
HB	273	3	Neither the husband nor the wife should merge his or her individuality in that of the other. Each has a personal relation to God. Of Him each is to ask, "What is right?" "What is wrong?" "How may I best fulfill life's purpose?" Let the wealth of your affection flow forth to Him who gave His life for you. Make Christ first and last and best in everything. As your love for Him becomes deeper and stronger, your love for each other will be purified and strengthened. . . .
HB	273	4	Neither the husband nor the wife should attempt to exercise over the other an arbitrary control. Do not try to compel each other to yield to your wishes. You cannot do this and retain each other's love. Be kind, patient, and forbearing, considerate, and courteous. By the grace of God you can succeed in making each other happy, as in your marriage vow you promised to do.
HB	273	5	But remember that happiness will not be found in shutting yourselves up to yourselves, satisfied to pour out all your affection upon each other. Seize upon every opportunity for contributing to the happiness of those around you. Remember that true joy can be found only in unselfish service.
HB	273	6	Forbearance and unselfishness mark the words and acts of all who live the new life in Christ. As you seek to live His life, striving to conquer self and selfishness and to minister to the needs of others, you will gain victory after victory. Thus your influence will bless the world.
HB	273	7	Men and women can reach God's ideal for them if they will take Christ as their helper. What human wisdom cannot do, His grace will accomplish for those who give themselves to Him in loving trust. His providence can unite hearts in bonds that are of heavenly origin. Love will not be a mere exchange of soft and flattering words. . . . Heart will be bound to heart in the golden bonds of a love that is enduring.--The Ministry of Healing, 361, 362.
------------------------The Role of the Christian Home, September 5
HB	274	1	Walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.--1 Thessalonians 2:12.
HB	274	2	The restoration and uplifting of humanity begins in the home. The work of parents underlies every other. Society is composed of families, and is what the heads of families make it. Out of the heart are "the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23); and the heart of the community, of the church, and of the nation is the household. The well-being of society, the success of the church, the prosperity of the nation, depend upon home influences.
HB	274	3	The importance and the opportunities of the home life are illustrated in the life of Jesus. He who came from heaven to be our example and teacher spent thirty years as a member of the household at Nazareth. Concerning these years the Bible record is very brief. No mighty miracles attracted the attention of the multitude. No eager throngs followed His steps or listened to His words. Yet during all these years He was fulfilling His divine mission. He lived as one of us, sharing the home life, submitting to its discipline, performing its duties, bearing its burdens. In the sheltering care of a humble home, participating in the experiences of our common lot, He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." (Luke 2:52.)
HB	274	4	During all these secluded years His life flowed out in currents of sympathy and helpfulness. His unselfishness and patient endurance, His courage and faithfulness, His resistance of temptation, His unfailing peace and quiet joyful-ness, were a constant inspiration. He brought a pure, sweet atmosphere into the home, and His life was as leaven working amidst the elements of society. None said that He had wrought a miracle; yet virtue--the healing, life-giving power of love--went out from Him to the tempted, the sick, and the disheartened. In an unobtrusive way, from His very childhood, He ministered to others, and because of this, when He began His public ministry, many heard Him gladly.
HB	274	5	The Saviour's early years are more than an example to the youth. They are a lesson, and should be an encouragement, to every parent. . . . There is no more important field of effort than that committed to the founders and guardians of the home. No work entrusted to human beings involves greater or more far-reaching results than does the work of fathers and mothers.
HB	274	6	It is by the youth and children of today that the future of society is to be determined, and what these youth and children shall be depends upon the home.--The Ministry of Healing, 349-351.
------------------------A Light In The Neighborhood, September 6
HB	275	1	Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.--Matthew 5:16.
HB	275	2	We need more sunshiny parents and more sunshiny Christians. We are too much shut up within ourselves. Too often the kindly, encouraging word, the cheery smile, are withheld from our children and from the oppressed and discouraged.
HB	275	3	Parents, upon you rests the responsibility of being light-bearers and light-givers. Shine as lights in the home, brightening the path that your children must travel. As you do this, your light will shine to those without.
HB	275	4	From every Christian home a holy light should shine forth. Love should be revealed in action. It should flow out in all home relationships, showing itself in thoughtful kindness, in gentle, unselfish courtesy. There are homes where this principle is carried out--homes where God is worshiped and truest love reigns. From these homes morning and evening prayer ascends to God as sweet incense, and His mercies and blessings descend upon the suppliants like the morning dew.
HB	275	5	The first work of Christians is to be united in the family. Then the work is to extend to their neighbors nigh and afar off. Those who have received light are to let the light shine forth in clear rays. Their words, fragrant with the love of Christ, are to be a savor of life unto life.
HB	275	6	The more closely the members of a family are united in their work in the home, the more uplifting and helpful will be the influence that father and mother and sons and daughters will exert outside the home.
HB	275	7	The happiness of families and churches depends upon home influences. Eternal interests depend upon the proper discharge of the duties of this life. The world is not so much in need of great minds as of good men and women who will be a blessing in their homes.
HB	275	8	When religion is manifested in the home, its influence will be felt in the church and in the neighborhood. . . .
HB	275	9	The truth lived at home makes itself felt in disinterested labor abroad. Those who live Christianity in the home will be a bright and shining light everywhere.--The Adventist Home, 37-39.
------------------------Members of the Royal Family, September 7
HB	276	1	For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.--Ephesians 3:14, 15.
HB	276	2	We are children of the Heavenly King, members of the royal family, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. The mansions Jesus has gone to prepare are to receive only those who are true, who are pure, who love and obey His words. In the mansions above we shall meet to part no more. We shall know each other in our heavenly home. But if we would enjoy eternal bliss, we must cultivate religion in the home; for the home is to be the center of the purest and most elevated affection. Peace, harmony, affection, and happiness should be perseveringly cherished every day, until these precious things abide in the hearts of those who compose the family. The plant of love must be carefully nourished, else it will die. Every good principle must be cherished if we would have it thrive in the soul. That which Satan plants in the heart--envy, jealousy, evil surmising, evil speaking, impatience, prejudice, selfishness, covetousness, and vanity--must be uprooted. If these evil things are allowed to remain in the soul, they will bear fruit by which many shall be defiled. Oh, how many cultivate the poisonous plants, that kill out the precious fruits of love and defile the soul! Some of these who cherish evil, think they have a burden for souls. They make public profession of their love to God, and yet see no necessity for weeding the garden of the heart, for uprooting every unsightly, unholy weed, for letting the beams of the Sun of Righteousness shine into the soul temple. They do not know Jesus. They have no knowledge of what it is to be a practical Christian, that is, to be Christlike.
HB	276	3	There is need of prayer, of genuine faith, of patient, untiring effort to war against every evil disposition, so that even our thoughts may be brought into subjection to Christ. That which will make the character lovely in the home is that which will make it lovely in the heavenly mansions. The measure of your Christianity is gauged by the character of your home life. The grace of Christ enables its possessors to make the home a happy place full of peace and rest. Unless you have the Spirit of Christ, you are none of His, and will never see the redeemed saints in His kingdom, who are to be one with Him in the heaven of bliss. God desires you to consecrate yourself wholly to Him, and represent His character in the home circle.--Signs of the Times, November 14, 1892.
------------------------Parents, Set The Right Example, September 8
HB	277	1	Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.--Ephesians 6:1.
HB	277	2	The best way to educate children to respect their father and mother, is to give them the opportunity of seeing the father offering kindly attentions to the mother, and the mother rendering respect and reverence to the father. It is by beholding love in their parents, that children are led to obey the fifth commandment and to heed the injunction, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and thy mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth."
HB	277	3	When children have unbelieving parents, and their commands contradict the requirements of Christ, then, painful though it may be, they must obey God and trust the consequences with Him. The Lord has expressly enjoined the duty upon children of honoring their father and their mother. As they have opportunity and ability, they are kindly to care for their parents. This commandment to children stands at the head of the last six precepts which show our duty to others. But while children are commanded to obey their parents, parents are also instructed to exercise their authority with wisdom. Paul writes, "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Great care should be exercised by parents lest they treat their children in such a way as to provoke obstinacy, disobedience, and rebellion. Parents often stir up the worst passions of the human heart, because of their lack of self-control. They correct them in a spirit of anger, and rather confirm them in their evil ways and defiant spirit, than influence them in the way of right. By their own arbitrary spirit they thrust their children under Satanic influences, instead of rescuing them from the snares of Satan by gentleness and love. How sad it is that many parents who profess to be Christians, are not converted! Christ does not abide in their hearts by faith. While professing to be followers of Jesus, they disgust their children, and, by their violent, unforgiving temper, make them averse to all religion. It is little wonder that the children become cold and rebellious toward their parents. And yet children are not excused for disobedience because of their parents' unsanctified ways.
HB	277	4	O that every family professing to be devoted to God, were so in deed and in truth! Then would Christ be represented in the home-life, and parents and children would represent Him in the church, and what happiness would exist!--Review and Herald, November 15, 1892.
------------------------Make Christianity Attractive, September 9
HB	278	1	Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives.--1 Peter 3:1.
HB	278	2	When Christ is in the heart, He is brought into the family. The father and mother feel the importance of living in obedience to the Holy Spirit so that the heavenly angels, who minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, will minister to them as teachers in the home, educating and training them for the work of teaching their children. In the home it is possible to have a little church which will honor and glorify the Redeemer.
HB	278	3	Make the Christian life an attractive one. Speak of the country in which the followers of Christ are to make their home. As you do this, God will guide your children into all truth, filling them with a desire to fit themselves for the mansions which Christ has gone to prepare for those that love Him.
HB	278	4	Parents are not to compel their children to have a form of religion, but they are to place eternal principles before them in an attractive light.
HB	278	5	Parents are to make the religion of Christ attractive by their cheerfulness, their Christian courtesy, and their tender, compassionate sympathy; but they are to be firm in requiring respect and obedience. Right principles must be established in the mind of the child.
HB	278	6	We need to present to the youth an inducement for right doing. Silver and gold is not sufficient for this. Let us reveal to them the love and mercy and grace of Christ, the preciousness of His word, and the joys of the overcomer. In efforts of this kind you will do a work that will last throughout eternity.
HB	278	7	Some parents, although they profess to be religious, do not keep before their children the fact that God is to be served and obeyed, that convenience, pleasure, or inclination should not interfere with His claims upon them. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." This fact should be woven into the very life and character. The right conception of God through the knowledge of Christ, who died that we might be saved, should be impressed upon their minds.--The Adventist Home, 323, 324.
------------------------Think Twice Before Marrying, September 10
HB	279	1	Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies.--Proverbs 31:10.
HB	279	2	Great care should be taken by Christian youth in the formation of friendships and in the choice of companions. Take heed, lest what you now think to be pure gold turns out to be base metal. Worldly associations tend to place obstructions in the way of your service to God, and many souls are ruined by unhappy unions, either business or matrimonial, with those who can never elevate or ennoble.
HB	279	3	Weigh every sentiment, and watch every development of character in the one with whom you think to link your life destiny. The step you are about to take is one of the most important in your life, and should not be taken hastily. While you may love, do not love blindly.
HB	279	4	Examine carefully to see if your married life would be happy or inharmonious and wretched. Let the questions be raised, Will this union help me heavenward? Will it increase my love for God? And will it enlarge my sphere of usefulness in this life? If these reflections present no drawback, then in the fear of God move forward.
HB	279	5	Most men and women have acted in entering the marriage relation as though the only question for them to settle was whether they loved each other. But they should realize that a responsibility rests upon them in the marriage relation farther than this. They should consider whether their offspring will possess physical health and mental and moral strength. But few have moved with high motives and with elevated considerations which they could not lightly throw off--that society had claims upon them, that the weight of their family's influence would tell in the upward or downward scale.
HB	279	6	The choice of a life companion should be such as best to secure physical, mental, and spiritual well-being for parents and for their children--such as will enable both parents and children to bless others and to honor their Creator.
HB	279	7	Let a young man seek one to stand by his side who is fitted to bear her share of life's burdens, one whose influence will ennoble and refine him, and who will make him happy in her love.--The Adventist Home, 44-46.
------------------------Like Parents, Like Children, September 11
HB	280	1	Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.--Psalm 34:11.
HB	280	2	What the parents are, that, to a great extent, the children will be. The physical conditions of the parents, their dispositions and appetites, their mental and moral tendencies, are, to a greater or less degree, reproduced in their children.
HB	280	3	The nobler the aims, the higher the mental and spiritual endowments, and the better developed the physical powers of the parents, the better will be the life equipment they give their children. In cultivating that which is best in themselves, parents are exerting an influence to mold society and to uplift future generations.
HB	280	4	Fathers and mothers need to understand their responsibility. The world is full of snares for the feet of the young. Multitudes are attracted by a life of selfish and sensual pleasure. They cannot discern the hidden dangers or the fearful ending of the path that seems to them the way of happiness. Through the indulgence of appetite and passion, their energies are wasted, and millions are ruined for this world and for the world to come. Parents should remember that their children must encounter these temptations. Even before the birth of the child, the preparation should begin that will enable it to fight successfully the battle against evil.
HB	280	5	Especially does responsibility rest upon the mother. She, by whose lifeblood the child is nourished and its physical frame built up, imparts to it also mental and spiritual influences that tend to the shaping of mind and character. It was Jochebed, the Hebrew mother, who, strong in faith, was "not afraid of the king's commandment" (Hebrews 11:23), of whom was born Moses, the deliverer of Israel. It was Hannah, the woman of prayer and self-sacrifice and heavenly inspiration, who gave birth to Samuel, the heaven-instructed child, the incorruptible judge, the founder of Israel's sacred schools. It was Elizabeth the kinswoman and kindred spirit of Mary of Nazareth, who was the mother of the Saviour's herald. . . .
HB	280	6	The effect of prenatal influences is by many parents looked upon as a matter of little moment; but heaven does not so regard it. The message sent by an angel of God, and twice given in the most solemn manner [see Judges 13:7, 13, 14], shows it to be deserving of our most careful thought.--The Ministry of Healing, 371, 372.
------------------------The Mother, September 12
HB	281	1	Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.--Proverbs 31:28.
HB	281	2	Happy are the parents whose lives are a true reflection of the divine, so that the promises and commands of God awaken in their children gratitude and reverence; the parents whose tenderness and justice and long-suffering interpret to the children the love and justice and long-suffering of God; and who, by teaching the children to love and trust and obey them, are teaching them to love and trust and obey their Father in heaven. Parents who impart to their children such a gift have endowed them with a treasure more precious than the wealth of all the ages--a treasure as enduring as eternity.
HB	281	3	In the children committed to her care, every mother has a sacred charge from God. "Take this son, this daughter," He says; "train it for Me; give it a character polished after the similitude of a palace, that it may shine in the courts of the Lord forever."
HB	281	4	The mother's work often seems to her an unimportant service. It is a work that is rarely appreciated. Others know little of her many cares and burdens. Her days are occupied with a round of little duties, all calling for patient effort, for self-control, for tact, wisdom, and self-sacrificing love; yet she cannot boast of what she has done as any great achievement. She has only kept things in the home running smoothly; often weary and perplexed, she has tried to speak kindly to the children, to keep them busy and happy, and to guide the little feet in the right path. She feels that she has accomplished nothing. But it is not so. Heavenly angels watch the care-worn mother, noting the burdens she carries day by day. Her name may not have been heard in the world, but it is written in the Lamb's book of life.
HB	281	5	There is a God above, and the light and glory from His throne rests upon the faithful mother as she tries to educate her children to resist the influence of evil. No other work can equal hers in importance. She has not, like the artist, to paint a form of beauty upon canvas, nor, like the sculptor, to chisel it from marble. She has not, like the author, to embody a noble thought in words of power, nor, like the musician, to express a beautiful sentiment in melody. It is hers, with the help of God, to develop in a human soul the likeness of the divine.--The Ministry of Healing, 375-378.
------------------------The Father, September 13
HB	282	1	And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.--Ephesians 6:4.
HB	282	2	The husband and father is the head of the household. The wife looks to him for love and sympathy, and for aid in the training of the children; and this is right. The children are his as well as hers, and he is equally interested in their welfare. The children look to their father for support and guidance; he needs to have a right conception of life and of the influences and associations that should surround his family; above all, he should be controlled by the love and fear of God and by the teaching of His word, that he may guide the feet of his children in the right way.
HB	282	3	The father is the lawmaker of the household; and, like Abraham, he should make the law of God the rule of his home. God said of Abraham, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household." (Genesis 18:19.) There would be no sinful neglect to restrain evil, no weak, unwise, indulgent favoritism; no yielding of his conviction of duty to the claims of mistaken affection. Abraham would not only give right instruction, but he would maintain the authority of just and righteous laws. God has given rules for our guidance. Children should not be left to wander away from the safe path marked out in God's word, into ways leading to danger, which are open on every side. Kindly, but firmly, with persevering, prayerful effort, their wrong desires should be restrained, their inclinations denied.
HB	282	4	The father should enforce in his family the sterner virtues--energy, integrity, honesty, patience, courage, diligence, and practical usefulness. And what he requires of his children he himself should practice, illustrating these virtues in his own manly bearing.
HB	282	5	But, fathers, do not discourage your children. Combine affection with authority, kindness and sympathy with firm restraint. Give some of your leisure hours to your children; become acquainted with them; associate with them in their work and in their sports, and win their confidence. Cultivate friendship with them, especially with your sons. In this way you will be a strong influence for good. . . .
HB	282	6	In a sense the father is the priest of the household, laying upon the family altar the morning and evening sacrifice. But the wife and children should unite in prayer and join in the song of praise.--The Ministry of Healing, 390-392.
------------------------The Family and Decisive Battles, September 14
HB	283	1	Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank.--Daniel 1:8.
HB	283	2	Parents, ask yourselves the solemn question, "Have we educated our children to yield to paternal authority, and thus trained them to obey God, to love Him, to hold His law as the supreme guide of conduct and life? Have we educated them to be missionaries for Christ? to go about doing good?" Believing parents, your children will have to fight decisive battles for the Lord in the day of conflict; and while they win victories for the Prince of Peace, they may be gaining triumphs for themselves. But if they have not been brought up in the fear of the Lord; if they have no knowledge of Christ, no connection with heaven, they will have no moral power, and they will yield to earthly potentates who have assumed to exalt themselves above the God of heaven in establishing a spurious sabbath to take the place of the Sabbath of Jehovah. The tender mercies of this power will be displayed in prison cells and dungeons. Already preparations are advancing, and movements are in progress, which will result in making an image to the beast. Events will be brought about in the earth's history that will fulfill the predictions of prophecy for these last days.
HB	283	3	Decisions will be called for and made; backsliders will either return decidedly to their allegiance to God, or they will be enrolled in the ranks of the enemy: Satan will have control of all who finally refuse to be controlled by the law of God. He will inspire parents to war against their children, and children to war against their parents--to betray and deliver those of their own household to enemies. Coming events are casting their shadows upon our pathway. Fathers, mothers, I appeal to you to make most earnest efforts now for your children. Give them daily religious instruction. Teach them to love God, and to be true to the principles of right. With lofty, earnest faith, directed by the divine influence of the Holy Spirit, work, work now. Do not put it off one day, one hour. Teach your children that the heart must be trained to self-control and self-denial. The motives of the life must be in harmony with the law of God. Never be satisfied to have your children grow up apart from Christ. Never feel at ease while they are cold and indifferent. Cry to God day and night. Pray and work for the salvation of the souls of your children.--Review and Herald, April 23, 1889.
------------------------Parents, It's Up To You, September 15
HB	284	1	Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.--Proverbs 22:6.
HB	284	2	Parents, you carry responsibilities that no one can bear for you. As long as you live, you are accountable to God to keep His way. . . . Parents who make the word of God their guide, and who realize how much their children depend upon them for the characters they form, will set an example that it will be safe for their children to follow.
HB	284	3	Fathers and mothers are responsible for the health, the constitution, the development of the character of their children. No one else should be left to see to this work. In becoming the parents of children, it devolves upon you to cooperate with the Lord in educating them in sound principles.
HB	284	4	How sad it is that many parents have cast off their God-given responsibility to their children, and are willing that strangers should bear it for them! They are willing that others should labor for their children and relieve them of all burden in the matter. . . .
HB	284	5	For some reason many parents dislike to give their children religious instruction. They leave them to pick up in Sabbath school the knowledge they should impart concerning their responsibility to God. Such parents need to understand that God desires them to educate, discipline, and train their children, ever keeping before them the fact that they are forming characters for the present and the future life.
HB	284	6	Do not depend upon the teachers of the Sabbath school to do your work of training your children in the way they should go. The Sabbath school is a great blessing; it may help you in your work, but it can never take your place. God has given to all fathers and mothers the responsibility of bringing their children to Jesus, teaching them how to pray and believe in the word of God.
HB	284	7	In the education of your children lay not the grand truths of the Bible to one side, supposing that the Sabbath school and the minister will do your neglected work. The Bible is not too sacred and sublime to be opened daily and studied diligently.--The Adventist Home, 187, 189.
------------------------What Is "Family Religion"?, September 16
HB	285	1	And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments."--Genesis 35:2.
HB	285	2	Family religion consists in bringing up the children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Everyone in the family is to be nourished by the lessons of Christ, and the interest of each soul is to be strictly guarded, in order that Satan shall not deceive and allure away from Christ. This is the standard every family should aim to reach, and they should determine not to fail or to be discouraged. When parents are diligent and vigilant in their instruction, and train their children with an eye single to the glory of God, they cooperate with God, and God cooperates with them in the saving of the souls of the children for whom Christ has died.
HB	285	3	Religious instruction means much more than ordinary instruction. It means that you are to pray with your children, teaching them how to approach Jesus and tell Him all their wants. It means that you are to show in your life that Jesus is everything to you, and that His love makes you patient, kind, forbearing, and yet firm in commanding your children after you, as did Abraham.
HB	285	4	Just as you conduct yourself in your home life, you are registered in the books of heaven. Those who would become saints in heaven must first become saints in their own families. If fathers and mothers are true Christians in the family, they will be useful members of the church and be able to conduct affairs in the church and in society after the same manner in which they conduct their family concerns. Parents, let not your religion be simply a profession, but let it become a reality. . . .
HB	285	5	In the home the foundation is laid for the prosperity of the church. The influences that rule in the home life are carried into the church life; therefore church duties should first begin in the home.
HB	285	6	When we have good home religion, we will have excellent meeting religion. Hold the fort at home. Consecrate your family to God, and then speak and act at home as a Christian. Be kind and forbearing and patient at home, knowing that you are teachers.--The Adventist Home, 317-319.
------------------------Home, The Base For Future Missionaries, September 17
HB	286	1	I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.--2 Timothy 1:5.
HB	286	2	The faithful performance of home duties has a reflex influence upon human beings. Our spiritual progress and perfection of Christian character in the home are carried into our missionary work abroad. Having on the whole armor of righteousness, we can fight as faithful soldiers of Christ. In the father's house the evidence is to be given of a preparedness for the work to be done abundantly in the church. With earnest, humble hearts the members of the family are to seek to know that Christ is abiding in the heart. Then they can go forth with the whole armor on, equipped for Christ's service. . . .
HB	286	3	Self-denial practiced in the home fits us to work for others. The cultivation of our faculties to do what needs to be done to make the home what it should be--a symbol of the home in heaven--prepares us to work in a larger vineyard. The church needs all the cultivated spiritual force that can be obtained, especially to guard the youth, the younger members of the Lord's family. The truth lived at home makes itself felt in disinterested labor abroad. Those who show a Christian character in the home will be bright and shining lights everywhere. The education received in the home in showing a tender regard for each other enables us to know how to reach hearts that need to be taught the principles of true religion. . . .
HB	286	4	Home duties should be performed with a realization that if they are done in the right spirit, they will give an experience that will enable us to work in spiritual lines in the most permanent and thorough manner. Oh, what might not a living Christian do in missionary lines by performing faithfully the daily duties, cheerfully lifting the cross, not neglecting that class of work that is not agreeable to the natural feelings. Missionaries for the Master are best prepared for work abroad in the Christian household, where God is feared, where God is loved, where God is worshiped, where faithfulness has become second nature, where haphazard, careless inattention to home duties is not permitted, where quiet communion with God is looked upon as essential to the faithful performance of daily duties.--Manuscript 140, 1897.
------------------------Homes Where Angels Will Linger, September 18
HB	287	1	Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.--Hebrews 13:2.
HB	287	2	We can have the salvation of God in our families; but we must believe for it, live for it, and have a continual, abiding faith and trust in God. The restraint which God's Word imposes upon us is for our own interest. It increases the happiness of our families, and of all around us. It refines our taste, sanctifies our judgment, and brings peace of mind, and in the end, everlasting life. Ministering angels will linger in our dwellings, and with joy carry heavenward the tidings of our advance in the divine life, and the recording angel will make a cheerful, happy record.
HB	287	3	The Spirit of Christ will be an abiding influence in the home life. If men and women will open their hearts to the heavenly influence of truth and love, these principles will flow forth again like streams in the desert, refreshing all and causing freshness to appear where now is barrenness and dearth.
HB	287	4	The neglect of home religion, the neglect to train your children, is most displeasing to God. If one of your children were in the river, battling with the waves and in imminent danger of drowning, what a stir there would be! What efforts would be made, what prayers offered, what enthusiasm manifested, to save the human life! But here are your children out of Christ, their souls unsaved. Perhaps they are even rude and uncourteous, a reproach to the Adventist name. They are perishing without hope and without God in the world, and you are careless and unconcerned. . . .
HB	287	5	Fathers and mothers, each morning and evening gather your children around you, and in humble supplication lift the heart to God for help. Your dear ones are exposed to temptation. Daily annoyances beset the path of young and old. Those who would live patient, loving, cheerful lives must pray. Only by receiving constant help from God can we gain the victory over self. . . .
HB	287	6	By sincere, earnest prayer parents should make a hedge about their children. They should pray with full faith that God will abide with them and that holy angels will guard them and their children from Satan's cruel power.--Counsels for the Church, 151, 152.
------------------------True Love Is A Holy Principle, September 19
HB	288	1	But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.--Matthew 5:44.
HB	288	2	Love is a precious gift, which we receive from Jesus. Pure and holy affection is not a feeling, but a principle. Those who are actuated by true love are neither unreasonable nor blind.
HB	288	3	There is but little real, genuine, devoted, pure love. This precious article is very rare. Passion is termed love.
HB	288	4	True love is a high and holy principle, altogether different in character from that love which is awakened by impulse, and which suddenly dies when severely tested.
HB	288	5	Love is a plant of heavenly growth, and it must be fostered and nourished. Affectionate hearts, truthful, loving words, will make happy families and exert an elevating influence upon all who come within the sphere of their influence. . . .
HB	288	6	While pure love will take God into all its plans, and will be in perfect harmony with the Spirit of God, passion will be headstrong, rash, unreasonable, defiant of all restraint, and will make the object of its choice an idol. In all the deportment of one who possesses true love, the grace of God will be shown. Modesty, simplicity, sincerity, morality, and religion will characterize every step toward an alliance in marriage. Those who are thus controlled will not be absorbed in each other's society, at a loss of interest in the prayer meeting and the religious service. Their fervor for the truth will not die on account of the neglect of the opportunities and privileges that God has graciously given to them.
HB	288	7	That love which has no better foundation than mere sensual gratification will be headstrong, blind, and uncontrollable. Honor, truth, and every noble, elevated power of the mind are brought under the slavery of passions. Those who are bound in the chains of this infatuation are too often deaf to the voice of reason and conscience; neither argument nor entreaty can lead them to see the folly of their course.
HB	288	8	True love is not a strong, fiery, impetuous passion. On the contrary, it is calm and deep in its nature. It looks beyond mere externals, and is attracted by qualities alone. It is wise and discriminating, and its devotion is real and abiding.--The Adventist Home, 50, 51.
------------------------The Power of Love, September 20
HB	289	1	My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.--1 John 3:18.
HB	289	2	Love's agencies have wonderful power, for they are divine. The soft answer that "turneth away wrath," the love that "suffereth long, and ikind," the charity that "covereth a multitude of sins"--would we learn the lesson, with what power for healing would our lives be gifted! How life would be transformed and the earth become a very likeness and foretaste of heaven!
HB	289	3	These precious lessons may be so simply taught as to be understood even by little children. The heart of the child is tender and easily impressed; and when we who are older become "as little children," when we learn the simplicity and gentleness and tender love of the Saviour, we shall not find it difficult to touch the hearts of the little ones and teach them love's ministry of healing.
HB	289	4	From a worldly point of view, money is power; but from the Christian standpoint, love is power. Intellectual and spiritual strength are involved in this principle. Pure love has special efficacy to do good, and can do nothing but good. It prevents discord and misery and brings the truest happiness. Wealth is often an influence to corrupt and destroy; force is strong to do hurt; but truth and goodness are the properties of pure love.
HB	289	5	Home is to be the center of the purest and most elevated affection. Peace, harmony, affection, and happiness should be perseveringly cherished every day, until these precious things abide in the hearts of those who compose the family. The plant of love must be carefully nourished, else it will die. Every good principle must be cherished if we would have it thrive in the soul. That which Satan plants in the heart--envy, jealousy, evil surmising, evil speaking, impatience, prejudice, selfishness, covetousness, and vanity--must be uprooted. If these evil things are allowed to remain in the soul, they will bear fruit by which many shall be defiled. Oh, how many cultivate the poisonous plants that kill out the precious fruits of love and defile the soul!
HB	289	6	In many families there is a great lack in expressing affection one for another. While there is no need of sentimentalism, there is need of expressing love and tenderness in a chaste, pure, dignified way.--The Adventist Home, 195, 196, 198.
------------------------The Honor Due Parents, September 21
HB	290	1	Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you.--Exodus 20:12.
HB	290	2	This is the first commandment with promise. It is binding upon childhood and youth, upon the middle-aged and the aged. There is no period in life when children are excused from honoring their parents. This solemn obligation is binding upon every son and daughter and is one of the conditions to their prolonging their lives upon the land which the Lord will give the faithful. This is not a subject unworthy of notice, but a matter of vital importance. The promise is upon condition of obedience. If you obey, you shall live long in the land which the Lord your God gives you. If you disobey, you shall not prolong your life in that land.
HB	290	3	Parents are entitled to a degree of love and respect which is due to no other person. God Himself, who has placed upon them a responsibility for the souls committed to their charge, has ordained that during the earlier years of life parents shall stand in the place of God to their children. And any who reject the rightful authority of their parents are rejecting the authority of God. The fifth commandment requires children not only to yield respect, submission, and obedience to their parents, but also to give them love and tenderness, to lighten their cares, to guard their reputation, and to succor and comfort them in old age.
HB	290	4	God cannot prosper those who go directly contrary to the plainest duty specified in His word, the duty of children to their parents. . . . If they disrespect and dishonor their earthly parents, they will not respect and love their Creator.
HB	290	5	When children have unbelieving parents, and their commands contradict the requirements of Christ, then, painful though it may be, they must obey God and trust the consequences with Him. . . .
HB	290	6	Bring all the rays of sunshine, of love, and of affection into the home circle. Your father and mother will appreciate these little attentions you can give. Your efforts to lighten the burdens, and to repress every word of fretfulness and ingratitude, show that you are not a thoughtless child, and that you do appreciate the care and love that has been bestowed upon you in the years of your helpless infancy and childhood.
HB	290	7	Children, it is necessary that your mothers love you, or else you would be very unhappy. And is it not also right that children love their parents?--The Adventist Home, 292, 293, 295.
------------------------Home Missions, September 22
HB	291	1	I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in.--Matthew 25:35.
HB	291	2	The mission of the home extends beyond its own members. The Christian home is to be an object lesson, illustrating the excellence of the true principles of life. Such an illustration will be a power for good in the world. Far more powerful than any sermon that can be preached is the influence of a true home upon human hearts and lives. . . .
HB	291	3	There are many others to whom we might make our homes a blessing. Our social entertainments should not be governed by the dictates of worldly custom, but by the Spirit of Christ and the teaching of His word. The Israelites, in all their festivities, included the poor, the stranger, and the Levite, who was both the assistant of the priest in the sanctuary, and a religious teacher and missionary. These were regarded as the guests of the people, to share their hospitality on all occasions of social and religious rejoicing, and to be tenderly cared for in sickness or in need. It is such as these whom we should make welcome to our homes. How much such a welcome might do to cheer and encourage the missionary nurse or the teacher, the care-burdened, hard-working mother, or the feeble and aged, so often without a home, and struggling with poverty and many discouragements.
HB	291	4	"When thou makest a dinner or a supper," Christ says, "call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." (Luke 14:12-14.)
HB	291	5	These are guests whom it will lay on you no great burden to receive. You will not need to provide for them elaborate or expensive entertainment. You will need to make no effort at display. The warmth of a genial welcome, a place at your fireside, a seat at your home table, the privilege of sharing the blessing of the hour of prayer, would to many of these be like a glimpse of heaven.
HB	291	6	Our sympathies are to overflow the boundaries of self and the enclosure of family walls. There are precious opportunities for those who will make their homes a blessing to others. Social influence is a wonderful power.--The Ministry of Healing, 352-354.
------------------------A Sympathetic Hand, September 23
HB	292	1	Everyone helped his neighbor, and said to his brother, "Be of good courage!"--Isaiah 41:6.
HB	292	2	Forbearance and unselfishness mark the words and acts of all who live the new life in Christ. As you seek to live His life, striving to conquer self and selfishness and to minister to the needs of others, you will gain victory after victory. Thus your influence will bless the world. . . .
HB	292	3	Our homes should be a place of refuge for the tempted youth. Many there are who stand at the parting of the ways. Every influence, every impression, is determining the choice that shapes their destiny both here and hereafter. Evil invites them. Its resorts are made bright and attractive. They have a welcome for every comer. All about us are youth who have no home, and many whose homes have no helpful, uplifting power, and the youth drift into evil. They are going down to ruin within the very shadow of our own doors.
HB	292	4	These youth need a hand stretched out to them in sympathy. Kind words simply spoken, little attentions simply bestowed, will sweep away the clouds of temptation which gather over the soul. The true expression of heaven-born sympathy has power to open the door of hearts that need the fragrance of Christlike words, and the simple, delicate touch of the spirit of Christ's love. If we would show an interest in the youth, invite them to our homes, and surround them with cheering, helpful influences, there are many who would gladly turn their steps into the upward path.
HB	292	5	Our time here is short. We can pass through this world but once; as we pass along, let us make the most of life. The work to which we are called does not require wealth or social position or great ability. It requires a kindly, self-sacrificing spirit and a steadfast purpose. A lamp, however small, if kept steadily burning, may be the means of lighting many other lamps. Our sphere of influence may seem narrow, our ability small, our opportunities few, our acquirements limited; yet wonderful possibilities are ours through a faithful use of the opportunities of our own homes. If we will open our hearts and homes to the divine principles of life we shall become channels for currents of life-giving power. From our homes will flow streams of healing, bringing life and beauty and fruitfulness where now are barrenness and dearth.--The Ministry of Healing, 362, 354, 355.
------------------------Refinement In The Home, September 24
HB	293	1	Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.--Isaiah 48:10.
HB	293	2	There is great need of the cultivation of true refinement in the home. This is a powerful witness in favor of the truth. In whomsoever they may appear, vulgarity of language and of demeanor indicate a vitiated heart. Truth of heavenly origin never degrades the receiver, never makes a person coarse or rough. Truth is softening and refining in its influence. When received into the heart, it makes the youth respectful and polite. Christian politeness is received only under the working of the Holy Spirit. It does not consist in affectation or artificial polish, in bowing and simpering. This is the class of politeness possessed by those of the world, but they are destitute of true Christian politeness. True polish, true politeness, is obtained only from a practical knowledge of the gospel of Christ. True politeness, true courtesy, is a kindness shown to all, high or low, rich or poor.
HB	293	3	The essence of true politeness is consideration for others. The essential, enduring education is that which broadens the sympathies and encourages universal kindliness. That so-called culture which does not make the youth deferential toward their parents, appreciative of their excellences, forbearing toward their defects, and helpful to their necessities; which does not make them considerate and tender, generous and helpful toward the young, the old, and the unfortunate, and courteous toward all is a failure.
HB	293	4	Christian courtesy is the golden clasp which unites the members of the family in bonds of love, becoming closer and stronger every day.
HB	293	5	The most valuable rules for social and family relationships are to be found in the Bible. There is not only the best and purest standard of morality but the most valuable code of politeness. Our Saviour's Sermon on the Mount contains instruction of priceless worth to old and young. It should be often read in the family circle and its precious teachings exemplified in the daily life. The golden rule, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," as well as the apostolic injunction, "In honour preferring one another," should be made the law of the family. Those who cherish the spirit of Christ will manifest politeness at home, a spirit of benevolence even in little things.--The Adventist Home, 422, 423.
------------------------Family Worship, September 25
HB	294	1	Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.--Philippians 4:6.
HB	294	2	In every family there should be a fixed time for morning and evening worship. How appropriate it is for parents to gather their children about them before the fast is broken, to thank the heavenly Father for His protection during the night, and to ask Him for His help and guidance and watchcare during the day! How fitting, also, when evening comes, for parents and children to gather once more before Him and thank Him for the blessings of the day that is past!
HB	294	3	The father, or, in his absence, the mother, should conduct the worship, selecting a portion of Scripture that is interesting and easily understood. The service should be short. When a long chapter is read and a long prayer offered, the service is made wearisome, and at its close a sense of relief is felt. God is dishonored when the hour of worship is made dry and irksome, when it is so tedious, so lacking in interest, that the children dread it.
HB	294	4	Fathers and mothers, make the hour of worship intensely interesting. There is no reason why this hour should not be the most pleasant and enjoyable of the day. A little thought given to preparation for it will enable you to make it full of interest and profit. From time to time let the service be varied. Questions may be asked on the portion of Scripture read, and a few earnest, timely remarks may be made. A song of praise may be sung. The prayer offered should be short and pointed. In simple, earnest words let the one who leads in prayer praise God for His goodness and ask Him for help. As circumstances permit, let the children join in the reading and the prayer. . . .
HB	294	5	Each morning consecrate yourselves and your children to God for that day. Make no calculation for months or years; these are not yours. One brief day is given you. As if it were your last on earth, work during its hours for the Master. Lay all your plans before God, to be carried out or given up, as His providence shall indicate. Accept His plans instead of your own, even though their acceptance requires the abandonment of cherished projects. Thus the life will be molded more and more after the divine example; "and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7.)--Testimonies for the Church 7:43, 44.
------------------------Family Recreation, September 26
HB	295	1	It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him: for it is his heritage.--Ecclesiastes 5:18.
HB	295	2	There is a distinction between recreation and amusement. Recreation, when true to its name, re-creation, tends to strengthen and build up. Calling us aside from our ordinary cares and occupations, it affords refreshment for mind and body and thus enables us to return with new vigor to the earnest work of life.
HB	295	3	Amusement, on the other hand, is sought for the sake of pleasure and is often carried to excess; it absorbs the energies that are required for useful work and thus proves a hindrance to life's true success. . . .
HB	295	4	Let us never lose sight of the fact that Jesus is a wellspring of joy. He does not delight in the misery of human beings, but loves to see them happy.
HB	295	5	Christians have many sources of happiness at their command, and they may tell with unerring accuracy what pleasures are lawful and right. They may enjoy such recreations as will not dissipate the mind or debase the soul, such as will not disappoint and leave a sad after-influence to destroy self-respect or bar the way to usefulness. If they can take Jesus with them and maintain a prayerful spirit, they are perfectly safe.
HB	295	6	Any amusement in which you can engage asking the blessing of God upon it in faith will not be dangerous. But any amusement which disqualifies you for secret prayer, for devotion at the altar of prayer, or for taking part in the prayer meeting is not safe, but dangerous.
HB	295	7	We are of that class who believe that it is our privilege every day of our lives to glorify God upon the earth, that we are not to live in this world merely for our own amusement, merely to please ourselves. We are here to benefit humanity and to be a blessing to society; and if we let our minds run in that low channel that many who are seeking only vanity and folly permit their minds to run in, how can we be a benefit to our race and generation? How can we be a blessing to society around us? We cannot innocently indulge in any amusement which will unfit us for the more faithful discharge of ordinary duties.--The Adventist Home, 512, 513.
------------------------Appeal To Unsaved Family Members, September 27
HB	296	1	Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God.--2 Corinthians 5:20.
HB	296	2	Part of a letter to Ellen White's twin sister, Elizabeth Bangs:] Don't you believe on Jesus, Lizzie? Do you not believe He is your Saviour--that He has evidenced His love for you in giving His own precious life that you might be saved? All that is required of you is to take Jesus as your own precious Saviour. I pray most earnestly that the Lord Jesus shall reveal Himself to you and to Reuben [Lizzie's husband]. Your life in this world is not one of pleasure but of pain; and if you will not doubt Jesus but believe that He died to save you, if you will come to Him just as you are, and give yourself to Jesus and grasp His promises by living faith, He will be to you all that you can desire.
HB	296	3	To everyone inquiring, "What must I do to be saved?" I answer, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not doubt for a moment but that He wants to save you just as you are. He says to the Jews, "Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life." Let not this be said of Reuben and you, and your helper in your household. Jesus wants to save you, to give you peace and rest and assurance while you live, and eternal life in His kingdom at last. No one will be compelled to be saved. The Lord Jesus forces the will of none. He says to all, Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. The mind and heart given to Jesus Christ will find rest in His love. . . .
HB	296	4	Then you, my dear sister, Reuben, and your attendant, have reason to hope in His mercy and to believe on Jesus Christ, that He can save you. Why? Because you are guiltless? No; because you are sinners, and Jesus says, "I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." When the devil whispers to you, There is no hope, tell him you know there is, for "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." What more could God do for you, more than He has done, to make you love Him? Lizzie, believe, simply believe that Jesus means just what He says. Take Him at His word and hang your helpless soul on Jesus Christ.
HB	296	5	The hands that were nailed to the cross for you are stretched out to save you. . . . Will you give yourself in trusting faith to Jesus? I long to take you in my arms and lay you on the bosom of Jesus Christ.
HB	296	6	You must accept of Jesus. He longs to give you His peace and the light of His countenance. Lizzie, my heart longs to see you trusting in Jesus, for He can give you His grace to bear all your acute sufferings. He loves you. He wants to save you.--Letter 61, 1891.
------------------------Introduce Jesus To Neighbors, September 28
HB	297	1	Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote."--John 1:45.
HB	297	2	With the calling of John and Andrew and Simon, of Philip and Nathanael, began the foundation of the Christian church. John directed two of his disciples to Christ. Then one of these, Andrew, found his brother, and called him to the Saviour. Philip was then called, and he went in search of Nathanael. These examples should teach us the importance of personal effort, of making direct appeals to our kindred, friends, and neighbors. There are those who for a lifetime have professed to be acquainted with Christ, yet who have never made a personal effort to bring even one soul to the Saviour. They leave all the work for the minister. He may be well qualified for his calling, but he cannot do that which God has left for the members of the church.
HB	297	3	There are many who need the ministration of loving Christian hearts. Many have gone down to ruin who might have been saved if their neighbors, common men and women, had put forth personal effort for them. Many are waiting to be personally addressed. In the very family, the neighborhood, the town, where we live, there is work for us to do as missionaries for Christ. If we are Christians, this work will be our delight. No sooner are we converted than there is born within us a desire to make known to others what a precious friend we have found in Jesus. The saving and sanctifying truth cannot be shut up in our hearts.
HB	297	4	All who are consecrated to God will be channels of light. God makes them His agents to communicate to others the riches of His grace. His promise is, "I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing." (Ezekiel 34:26.)
HB	297	5	Philip said to Nathanael, "Come and see." He did not ask him to accept another's testimony, but to behold Christ for himself. Now that Jesus has ascended to heaven, His disciples are His representatives among humanity, and one of the most effective ways of winning souls to Him is in exemplifying His character in our daily life. Our influence upon others depends not so much upon what we say as upon what we are. People may combat and defy our logic, they may resist our appeals; but a life of disinterested love is an argument they cannot gainsay. A consistent life, characterized by the meekness of Christ, is a power in the world.--The Desire of Ages, 141, 142.
------------------------The Influence of Jesus In The Home, September 29
HB	298	1	As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.--1 Peter 1:15.
HB	298	2	The truth as it is in Jesus does much for the receivers, and not only for them, but for all who are brought within the sphere of their influence. The truly converted souls are illuminated from on high, and Christ is in them "a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Their words, their motives, their actions, may be misinterpreted and falsified; but they do not mind it because they have greater interests at stake. They do not consider present convenience; they are not ambitious for display; they do not crave the praise of others. Their hope is in heaven, and they keep straight on, with their eyes fixed on Jesus. They do right because it is right, and because only those who do right will have an entrance into the kingdom of God. They are kind and humble, and thoughtful of others' happiness. They never say, "Am I my brother's keeper?" but they love their neighbor as themselves. Their manner is not harsh and dictatorial, like that of the godless; but they reflect light from heaven upon others. They are true, bold soldiers of the cross of Christ, holding forth the word of life. As they gain in influence, prejudice against them dies away, their piety is acknowledged, and their Bible principles are respected.
HB	298	3	Thus it is with all who are truly converted. They bear precious fruit, and in so doing walk as Christ walked, talk as He talked, work as He worked, and the truth as it is in Jesus, through them, makes an impression in their homes, in their neighborhoods, and in the church. They are building characters for eternity, while working out their own salvation with fear and trembling. They are exemplifying before the world the valuable principles of truth, showing what the truth will do for the life and character of the genuine believer. They are unconsciously acting their part in the sublime work of Christ in the redemption of the world, a work which, in its character and influence, is far-reaching, undermining the foundation of false religion and false science. . . .
HB	298	4	The Lord wants you and your family to be Christians in every sense of the word and to show in your characters the sanctifying power of the truth. If you had formed such characters, your works would stand the test of the judgment; should the fires of the last day kindle upon your works as they now are, they would prove to be only hay, wood, and stubble. Do not think this severe; it is true. Self has been mingled with all your labors. Will you come up to the high standard?--Testimonies for the Church 5:569, 570.
------------------------The Home's Only Safeguard, September 30
HB	299	1	For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.--Romans 2:13.
HB	299	2	Those who bear the last message of mercy to the world should feel it their duty to instruct parents in regard to home religion. The great reformatory movement must begin in presenting to fathers and mothers and children the principles of the law of God. As the claims of the law are presented, and men and women are convicted of their duty to render obedience, show them the responsibility of their decision, not only for themselves but for their children. Show that obedience to God's word is our only safeguard against the evils that are sweeping the world to destruction. Parents are giving to their children an example either of obedience or of transgression. By their example and teaching, the eternal destiny of their households will in most cases be decided. In the future life the children will be what their parents have made them.
HB	299	3	If parents could be led to trace the results of their action, and could see how by their example and teaching they perpetuate and increase the power of sin or the power of righteousness, a change would certainly be made. Many would break the spell of tradition and custom.
HB	299	4	Let ministers urge this matter upon their congregations. Press home upon the consciences of parents the conviction of their solemn duties, so long neglected. This will break up the spirit of pharisaism and resistance to the truth as nothing else can. Religion in the home is our great hope and makes the prospect bright for the conversion of the whole family to the truth of God. . . .
HB	299	5	Our life must be hid with Christ in God. We must know Christ personally. Then only can we rightly represent Him to the world. Let the prayer constantly ascend: "Lord, teach me how to do as Jesus would do were He in my place." Wherever we are we must let our light shine forth to the glory of God in good works. This is the great, important interest of our life. . . .
HB	299	6	Carry forward the work of God firmly and strongly, but in the meekness of Christ and as quietly as possible. Let no human boasting be heard. Let no sign of self-sufficiency be made. Let it be seen that God has called us to handle sacred trusts; preach the word, be diligent, earnest, and fervent.--Testimonies for the Church 6:119, 121, 122.
------------------------The Central Pillar of Adventism, October 1
HB	302	1	How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?--Daniel 8:13.
HB	302	2	The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith was the declaration: "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." (Daniel 8:14.) These had been familiar words to all believers in the Lord's soon coming. By the lips of thousands was this prophecy repeated as the watchword of their faith. All felt that upon the events therein foretold depended their brightest expectations and most cherished hopes. These prophetic days had been shown to terminate in the autumn of 1844. In common with the rest of the Christian world, Adventists then held that the earth, or some portion of it, was the sanctuary. They understood that the cleansing of the sanctuary was the purification of the earth by the fires of the last great day, and that this would take place at the Second Advent. Hence the conclusion that Christ would return to the earth in 1844.
HB	302	3	But the appointed time had passed, and the Lord had not appeared. The believers knew that God's word could not fail; their interpretation of the prophecy must be at fault; but where was the mistake? Many rashly cut the knot of difficulty by denying that the 2300 days ended in 1844. No reason could be given for this except that Christ had not come at the time they expected Him. They argued that if the prophetic days had ended in 1844, Christ would then have returned to cleanse the sanctuary by the purification of the earth by fire; and that since He had not come, the days could not have ended. . . .
HB	302	4	But God had led His people in the great advent movement; His power and glory had attended the work, and He would not permit it to end in darkness and disappointment, to be reproached as a false and fanatical excitement. He would not leave His word involved in doubt and uncertainty. . . .
HB	302	5	They found in the Bible a full explanation of the subject of the sanctuary, its nature, location, and services; the testimony of the sacred writers being so clear and ample as to place the matter beyond all question.--The Great Controversy, 409-411.
------------------------The Correct Understanding of The Heavenly Sanctuary, October 2
HB	303	1	But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.--Hebrews 9:11.
HB	303	2	The correct understanding of the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary is the foundation of our faith.--Evangelism, 221.
HB	303	3	The earthly sanctuary was built by Moses according to the pattern shown him in the mount. It was "a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices;" its two holy places were "patterns of things in the heavens;" Christ, our great High Priest, is "a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." (Hebrews 9:9, 23; 8:2.) As in vision the apostle John was granted a view of the temple of God in heaven, he beheld there "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne.". . . Here the prophet was permitted to behold the first apartment of the sanctuary in heaven; and he saw there the "seven lamps of fire" and the "golden altar" represented by the golden candlestick and the altar of incense in the sanctuary on earth. Again, "the temple of God was opened" (Revelation 11:19), and he looked within the inner veil, upon the holy of holies. Here he beheld "the ark of His testament" (Revelation 11:19), represented by the sacred chest constructed by Moses to contain the law of God. . . .
HB	303	4	John says that he saw the sanctuary in heaven. That sanctuary, in which Jesus ministers in our behalf, is the great original, of which the sanctuary built by Moses was a copy.
HB	303	5	The heavenly temple, the abiding place of the King of kings, where "thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him" (Daniel 7:10), that temple filled with the glory of the eternal throne, where seraphim, its shining guardians, veil their faces in adoration--no earthly structure could represent its vastness and its glory. Yet important truths concerning the heavenly sanctuary and the great work there carried forward for our redemption were to be taught by the earthly sanctuary and its services.
HB	303	6	After His ascension, our Saviour was to begin His work as our High Priest. Says Paul, "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." (Hebrews 9:24.)--Patriarchs and Prophets, 356, 357.
------------------------In The Holy of Holies, October 3
HB	304	1	But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.--Hebrews 10:12.
HB	304	2	The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked the mystery of the disappointment of 1844. It opened to view a complete system of truth, connected and harmonious, showing that God's hand had directed the great advent movement and revealing present duty as it brought to light the position and work of His people. As the disciples of Jesus after the terrible night of their anguish and disappointment were "glad when they saw the Lord," so did those now rejoice who had looked in faith for His second coming. They had expected Him to appear in glory to give reward to His servants. As their hopes were disappointed, they had lost sight of Jesus, and with Mary at the sepulcher they cried: "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." Now in the holy of holies they again beheld Him, their compassionate High Priest, soon to appear as their king and deliverer. Light from the sanctuary illumined the past, the present, and the future. They knew that God had led them by His unerring providence. Though, like the first disciples, they themselves had failed to understand the message which they bore, yet it had been in every respect correct. In proclaiming it they had fulfilled the purpose of God, and their labor had not been in vain in the Lord. Begotten "again unto a lively hope," they rejoiced "with joy unspeakable and full of glory."
HB	304	3	Both the prophecy of Daniel 8:14, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed," and the first angel's message, "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come," pointed to Christ's ministration in the most holy place, to the investigative judgment, and not to the coming of Christ for the redemption of His people and the destruction of the wicked. The mistake had not been in the reckoning of the prophetic periods, but in the event to take place at the end of the 2300 days. Through this error the believers had suffered disappointment, yet all that was foretold by the prophecy, and all that they had any Scripture warrant to expect, had been accomplished. At the very time when they were lamenting the failure of their hopes, the event had taken place which was foretold by the message, and which must be fulfilled before the Lord could appear to give reward to His servants.--The Great Controversy, 423, 424.
------------------------A Figure of the Heavenly, October 4
HB	305	1	Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary.--Hebrews 9:1.
HB	305	2	I was also shown a sanctuary upon the earth containing two apartments. It resembled the one in heaven, and I was told that it was a figure of the heavenly. The furniture of the first apartment of the earthly sanctuary was like that in the first apartment of the heavenly. The veil was lifted, and I looked into the holy of holies and saw that the furniture was the same as in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. The priest ministered in both apartments of the earthly. He went daily into the first apartment, but entered the most holy only once a year, to cleanse it from the sins which had been conveyed there. I saw that Jesus ministered in both apartments of the heavenly sanctuary. The priests entered into the earthly with the blood of an animal as an offering for sin. Christ entered into the heavenly sanctuary by the offering of His own blood. The earthly priests were removed by death; therefore they could not continue long; but Jesus was a priest forever. Through the sacrifices and offerings brought to the earthly sanctuary, the children of Israel were to lay hold of the merits of a Saviour to come. And in the wisdom of God the particulars of this work were given us that we might, by looking to them, understand the work of Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary.
HB	305	3	As Jesus died on Calvary, He cried, "It is finished," and the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom. This was to show that the services of the earthly sanctuary were forever finished, and that God would no more meet with the priests in their earthly temple, to accept their sacrifices. The blood of Jesus was then shed, which was to be offered by Himself in the heavenly sanctuary. As the priest entered the most holy once a year to cleanse the earthly sanctuary, so Jesus entered the most holy of the heavenly, at the end of the 2300 days of Daniel 8, in 1844, to make a final atonement for all who could be benefited by His mediation, and thus to cleanse the sanctuary. . . .
HB	305	4	Above the place where Jesus stood, before the ark, was exceedingly bright glory that I could not look upon; it appeared like the throne of God. As the incense ascended to the Father, the excellent glory came from the throne to Jesus, and from Him it was shed upon those whose prayers had come up like sweet incense.--Early Writings, 252-253, 252.
------------------------The Sanctuary and Judgment Must Be Clearly Understood, October 5
HB	306	1	Let us holdfast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.--Hebrews 10:23.
HB	306	2	Sad is the record which angels bear to heaven. Intelligent beings, professed followers of Christ, are absorbed in the acquirement of worldly possessions or the enjoyment of earthly pleasures. . . . But few are the moments devoted to prayer, to the searching of the Scriptures, to humiliation of soul and confession of sin.
HB	306	3	Satan invents unnumbered schemes to occupy our minds, that they may not dwell upon the very work with which we ought to be best acquainted. The arch deceiver hates the great truths that bring to view an atoning sacrifice and an all-powerful mediator. He knows that with him everything depends on his diverting minds from Jesus and His truth.
HB	306	4	Those who would share the benefits of the Saviour's mediation should permit nothing to interfere with their duty to perfect holiness in the fear of God. The precious hours, instead of being given to pleasure, to display, or to gain seeking, should be devoted to an earnest, prayerful study of the word of truth. The subject of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment should be clearly understood by the people of God. All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest. Otherwise it will be impossible for them to exercise the faith which is essential at this time or to occupy the position which God designs them to fill. Every individual has a soul to save or to lose. Each has a case pending at the bar of God. Each must meet the great Judge face to face. How important, then, that every mind contemplate often the solemn scene when the judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened, when, with Daniel, every individual must stand in his lot, at the end of the days.
HB	306	5	All who have received the light upon these subjects are to bear testimony of the great truths which God has committed to them. The sanctuary in heaven is the very center of Christ's work in our behalf. It concerns every soul living upon the earth. It opens to view the plan of redemption, bringing us down to the very close of time and revealing the triumphant issue of the contest between righteousness and sin. It is of the utmost importance that all should thoroughly investigate these subjects and be able to give an answer to everyone that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them.--The Great Controversy, 487-489.
------------------------Christ's Intercession Essential, October 6
HB	307	1	We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.--Hebrews 8:1, 2.
HB	307	2	The intercession of Christ in our behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross. By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven. We must by faith enter within the veil, "whither the forerunner is for us entered." (Hebrews 6:20.) There the light from the cross of Calvary is reflected. There we may gain a clearer insight into the mysteries of redemption. The salvation of humanity is accomplished at an infinite expense to heaven; the sacrifice made is equal to the broadest demands of the broken law of God. Jesus has opened the way to the Father's throne, and through His mediation the sincere desire of all who come to Him in faith may be presented before God.
HB	307	3	"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." (Proverbs 28:13.) If those who hide and excuse their faults could see how Satan exults over them, how he taunts Christ and holy angels with their course, they would make haste to confess their sins and to put them away. Through defects in the character, Satan works to gain control of the whole mind, and he knows that if these defects are cherished, he will succeed. Therefore he is constantly seeking to deceive the followers of Christ with his fatal sophistry that it is impossible for them to overcome. But Jesus pleads in their behalf His wounded hands, His bruised body; and He declares to all who would follow Him: "My grace is sufficient for thee." (2 Corinthians 12:9.) "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:29, 30.) Let none, then, regard their defects as incurable. God will give faith and grace to overcome them.
HB	307	4	We are now living in the great day of atonement. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin and humiliation before the Lord, lest they be cut off from among the people. In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the book of life should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance.--The Great Controversy, 489, 490.
------------------------Two Sanctuaries, October 7
HB	308	1	Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."--Hebrews 8:5.
HB	308	2	This is the only sanctuary that ever existed on the earth, of which the Bible gives any information. This was declared by Paul to be the sanctuary of the first covenant. But has the new covenant no sanctuary?
HB	308	3	Turning again to the book of Hebrews, the seekers for truth found that the existence of a second, or new-covenant sanctuary, was implied in the words of Paul already quoted: "Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary." And the use of the word "also" intimates that Paul has before made mention of this sanctuary. Turning back to the beginning of the previous chapter, they read: "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a Minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." (Hebrews 8:1, 2.)
HB	308	4	Here is revealed the sanctuary of the new covenant. The sanctuary of the first covenant was pitched by man, built by Moses; this is pitched by the Lord, not by man. In that sanctuary the earthly priests performed their service; in this, Christ, our great High Priest, ministers at God's right hand. One sanctuary was on earth, the other is in heaven.
HB	308	5	Further, the tabernacle built by Moses was made after a pattern. The Lord directed him: "According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tab-ernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it." And again the charge was given, "Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount." (Exodus 25:9, 40.) And Paul says that the first tabernacle "was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices;" that its holy places were "patterns of things in the heavens;" that the priests who offered gifts according to the law served "unto the example and shadow of heavenly things," and that "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." (Hebrews 9:9, 23; 8:5; 9:24.)--The Great Controversy, 412, 413.
------------------------The Meaning of the Sanctuary Services, October 8
HB	309	1	For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer.--Hebrews 8:3.
HB	309	2	After His ascension, our Saviour was to begin His work as our High Priest. Says Paul, "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." (Hebrews 9:24.) As Christ's ministration was to consist of two great divisions, each occupying a period of time and having a distinctive place in the heavenly sanctuary, so the typical ministration consisted of two divisions, the daily and the yearly service, and to each a department of the tabernacle was devoted.
HB	309	3	As Christ at His ascension appeared in the presence of God to plead His blood in behalf of penitent believers, so the priest in the daily ministration sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice in the holy place in the sinner's behalf.
HB	309	4	The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant sinner from the condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the sin; it would stand on record in the sanctuary until the final atonement; so in the type the blood of the sin offering removed the sin from the penitent, but it rested in the sanctuary until the Day of Atonement.
HB	309	5	In the great day of final award, the dead are to be "judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." (Revelation 20:12.) Then by virtue of the atoning blood of Christ, the sins of all the truly penitent will be blotted from the books of heaven. Thus the sanctuary will be freed, or cleansed, from the record of sin. In the type, this great work of atonement, or blotting out of sins, was represented by the services of the Day of Atonement--the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary, which was accomplished by the removal, by virtue of the blood of the sin offering, of the sins by which it had been polluted.
HB	309	6	As in the final atonement the sins of the truly penitent are to be blotted from the records of heaven, no more to be remembered or come into mind, so in the type they were borne away into the wilderness, forever separated from the congregation.
HB	309	7	Since Satan is the originator of sin, the direct instigator of all the sins that caused the death of the Son of God, justice demands that Satan shall suffer the final punishment.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 357, 358.
------------------------Access To God, October 9
HB	310	1	For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.--Hebrews 9:24.
HB	310	2	In the courts above, Christ is pleading for His church--pleading for those for whom He has paid the redemption price of His blood. Centuries, ages, can never lessen the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice. . . .
HB	310	3	The sin of Adam and Eve caused a fearful separation between God and humanity. And Christ steps in between fallen sinners and God, and says to them: "You may yet come to the Father; there is a plan devised through which God can be reconciled to humanity, and humanity to God; through a mediator you can approach God." And now He stands to mediate for you. He is the great High Priest who is pleading in your behalf; and you are to come and present your case to the Father through Jesus Christ. Thus you can find access to God.
HB	310	4	Christ Jesus is represented as continually standing at the altar, momentarily offering up the sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is a minister of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. The typical shadows of the Jewish tabernacle no longer possess any virtue. A daily and yearly typical atonement is no longer to be made, but the atoning sacrifice through a mediator is essential because of the constant commission of sin. Jesus is officiating in the presence of God, offering up His shed blood, as it had been a lamb slain. . . .
HB	310	5	The religious services, the prayers, the praise, the penitent confession of sin, ascend from true believers as incense to the heavenly sanctuary: but passing through the corrupt channels of humanity, they are so defiled that unless purified by blood, they can never be of value with God. . . . All incense from earthly tabernacles must be moist with the cleansing drops of the blood of Christ. He holds before the Father the censer of His own merits, in which there is no taint of earthly corruption. He gathers into this censer the prayers, the praise, and the confessions of His people, and with these He puts His own spotless righteousness. Then, perfumed with the merits of Christ's propitiation, the incense comes up before God wholly and entirely acceptable. . . .
HB	310	6	O, that all may see that everything in obedience, in penitence, in praise and thanksgiving must be placed upon the glowing fire of the righteousness of Christ.--God's Amazing Grace, 153, 154.
------------------------The True Mediator, October 10
HB	311	1	Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.--Hebrews 4:16.
HB	311	2	In the mediatorial work of Christ, the love of God was revealed in its perfection to mortals and angels. He stands to mediate for you. He is the great High Priest who is pleading in your behalf; and you are to come and present your case to the Father through Jesus Christ. Thus you can find access to God; and though you sin, your case is not hopeless. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (1 John 2:1.)
HB	311	3	Christ is your Redeemer; He will take no advantage of your humiliating confessions. If you have sin of a private character, confess it to Christ, who is the only mediator between God and man.
HB	311	4	He presents us to the Father clothed in the white raiment of His own character. He pleads before God in our behalf, saying: I have taken the sinner's place. Look not upon this wayward child, but look on Me. Does Satan plead loudly against our souls, . . . claiming us as his prey, the blood of Christ pleads with greater power.
HB	311	5	The work of Christ in the sanctuary above, presenting His own blood each moment before the mercy seat, as He makes intercession for us, should have its full impression upon the heart, that we may realize the worth of each moment. Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us; but one moment carelessly spent can never be recovered.
HB	311	6	Think of Jesus. He is in His holy place, not in a state of solitude, but surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand of heavenly angels who wait to do His bidding. And He bids them go and work for the weakest saints who put their trust in God. High and low, rich and poor, have the same help provided.
HB	311	7	Consider this great fact that Christ ceases not to engage in His solemn work in the heavenly sanctuary, and if you wear Christ's yoke, if you lift Christ's burden, you will be engaged in a work of like character with that of your living Head.--The Faith I Live By, 205.
------------------------The Work In The First Apartment, October 11
HB	312	1	Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services.--Hebrews 9:6.
HB	312	2	Important truths concerning the atonement are taught by the typical service. A substitute was accepted in the sinner's stead; but the sin was not canceled by the blood of the victim. A means was thus provided by which it was transferred to the sanctuary. By the offering of blood the sinners acknowledged the authority of the law, confessed their guilt in transgression, and expressed their desire for pardon through faith in a Redeemer to come; but they were not yet entirely released from the condemnation of the law. On the Day of Atonement the high priest, having taken an offering from the congregation, went into the most holy place with the blood of this offering, and sprinkled it upon the mercy seat, directly over the law, to make satisfaction for its claims. Then, in his character of mediator, he took the sins upon himself and bore them from the sanctuary. Placing his hands upon the head of the scapegoat, he confessed over him all these sins, thus in figure transferring them from himself to the goat. The goat then bore them away, and they were regarded as forever separated from the people.
HB	312	3	Such was the service performed "unto the example and shadow of heavenly things." And what was done in type in the ministration of the earthly sanctuary is done in reality in the ministration of the heavenly sanctuary. After His ascension our Saviour began His work as our high priest. Says Paul: "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." (Hebrews 9:24.)
HB	312	4	The ministration of the priest throughout the year in the first apartment of the sanctuary, "within the veil" which formed the door and separated the holy place from the outer court, represents the work of ministration upon which Christ entered at His ascension. It was the work of the priest in the daily ministration to present before God the blood of the sin offering, also the incense which ascended with the prayers of Israel. So did Christ plead His blood before the Father in behalf of sinners, and present before Him also, with the precious fragrance of His own righteousness, the prayers of penitent believers. Such was the work of ministration in the first apartment of the sanctuary in heaven.--The Great Controversy, 420, 421.
------------------------The Work In The Second Apartment, October 12
HB	313	1	But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance.--Hebrews 9:7.
HB	313	2	For eighteen centuries this work of ministration continued in the first apartment of the sanctuary. The blood of Christ, pleaded in behalf of penitent believers, secured their pardon and acceptance with the Father, yet their sins still remained upon the books of record. As in the typical service there was a work of atonement at the close of the year, so before Christ's work for our redemption is completed there is a work of atonement for the removal of sin from the sanctuary. This is the service which began when the 2300 days ended. At that time, as foretold by Daniel the prophet, our High Priest entered the most holy, to perform the last division of His solemn work--to cleanse the sanctuary.
HB	313	3	As anciently the sins of the people were by faith placed upon the sin offering and through its blood transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary, so in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary. And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded. But before this can be accomplished, there must be an examination of the books of record to determine who, through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of His atonement. The cleansing of the sanctuary therefore involves a work of investigation--a work of judgment. This work must be performed prior to the coming of Christ to redeem His people; for when He comes, His reward is with Him to give to every man according to his works. (Revelation 22:12.)
HB	313	4	Thus those who followed in the light of the prophetic word saw that, instead of coming to the earth at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844, Christ then entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing work of atonement preparatory to His coming.
HB	313	5	It was seen, also, that while the sin offering pointed to Christ as a sacrifice, and the high priest represented Christ as a mediator, the scapegoat typified Satan, the author of sin, upon whom the sins of the truly penitent will finally be placed.--The Great Controversy, 421, 422.
------------------------The Union of Justice and Mercy, October 13
HB	314	1	Behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant.--Hebrews 9:3, 4.
HB	314	2	Thus those who were studying the subject found indisputable proof of the existence of a sanctuary in heaven. Moses made the earthly sanctuary after a pattern which was shown him. Paul teaches that that pattern was the true sanctuary which is in heaven. And John testifies that he saw it in heaven.
HB	314	3	In the temple in heaven, the dwelling place of God, His throne is established in righteousness and judgment. In the most holy place is His law, the great rule of right by which all mankind are tested. The ark that enshrines the tables of the law is covered with the mercy seat, before which Christ pleads His blood in the sinner's behalf. Thus is represented the union of justice and mercy in the plan of human redemption. This union infinite wisdom alone could devise and infinite power accomplish; it is a union that fills all heaven with wonder and adoration. The cherubim of the earthly sanctuary, looking reverently down upon the mercy seat, represent the interest with which the heavenly host contemplate the work of redemption. This is the mystery of mercy into which angels desire to look--that God can be just while He justifies the repenting sinner and renews His relationship with the fallen race; that Christ could stoop to raise unnumbered multitudes from the abyss of ruin and clothe them with the spotless garments of His own righteousness to unite with angels who have never fallen and to dwell forever in the presence of God.
HB	314	4	The work of Christ as our intercessor is presented in that beautiful prophecy of Zechariah concerning Him "whose name is the Branch." Says the prophet: "He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His [the Father's] throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between Them both." (Zechariah 6:12, 13.)
HB	314	5	"He shall build the temple of the Lord." By His sacrifice and mediation Christ is both the foundation and the builder of the church of God. The apostle Paul points to Him as "the chief Cornerstone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy temple in the Lord." (Ephesians 2:20, 21.)--The Great Controversy, 415, 416.
------------------------Behold, The Bridegroom Cometh, October 14
HB	315	1	Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.--Matthew 25:13.
HB	315	2	The proclamation, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh," in the summer of 1844, led thousands to expect the immediate advent of the Lord. At the appointed time the Bridegroom came, not to the earth, as the people expected, but to the Ancient of Days in heaven, to the marriage, the reception of His kingdom. "They that were ready went in with Him to the marriage: and the door was shut." They were not to be present in person at the marriage; for it takes place in heaven, while they are upon the earth. The followers of Christ are to "wait for their Lord, when He will return from the wedding." (Luke 12:36.) But they are to understand His work, and to follow Him by faith as He goes in before God. It is in this sense that they are said to go in to the marriage.
HB	315	3	In the parable it was those that had oil in their vessels with their lamps that went in to the marriage. Those who, with a knowledge of the truth from the Scriptures, had also the Spirit and grace of God, and who, in the night of their bitter trial, had patiently waited, searching the Bible for clearer light-- these saw the truth concerning the sanctuary in heaven and the Saviour's change in ministration, and by faith they followed Him in His work in the sanctuary above. And all who through the testimony of the Scriptures accept the same truths, following Christ by faith as He enters in before God to perform the last work of mediation, and at its close to receive His kingdom--all these are represented as going in to the marriage.
HB	315	4	In the parable of Matthew 22 the same figure of the marriage is introduced, and the investigative judgment is clearly represented as taking place before the marriage. Previous to the wedding the king comes in to see the guests, to see if all are attired in the wedding garment, the spotless robe of character washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. (Matthew 22:11; Revelation 7:14.) The one who is found wanting is cast out, but all who upon examination are seen to have the wedding garment on are accepted of God and accounted worthy of a share in His kingdom and a seat upon His throne. This work of examination of character, of determining who are prepared for the kingdom of God, is that of the investigative judgment, the closing work in the sanctuary above.--The Great Controversy, 427, 428.
------------------------A Period of Trial, October 15
HB	316	1	Then I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.--Revelation 10:10.
HB	316	2	The condition of the unbelieving Jews illustrates the condition of the careless and unbelieving among professed Christians, who are willingly ignorant of the work of our merciful High Priest. In the typical service, when the high priest entered the most holy place, all Israel were required to gather about the sanctuary and in the most solemn manner humble their souls before God, that they might receive the pardon of their sins and not be cut off from the congregation. How much more essential in this antitypical Day of Atonement that we understand the work of our High Priest and know what duties are required of us.
HB	316	3	People cannot with impunity reject the warning which God in mercy sends them. A message was sent from heaven to the world in Noah's day, and their salvation depended upon the manner in which they treated that message. Because they rejected the warning, the Spirit of God was withdrawn from the sinful race, and they perished in the waters of the Flood. . . .
HB	316	4	But Christ still intercedes in humanity's behalf, and light will be given to those who seek it. Though this was not at first understood by Adventists, it was afterward made plain as the Scriptures which define their true position began to open before them.
HB	316	5	The passing of the time in 1844 was followed by a period of great trial to those who still held the advent faith. Their only relief, so far as ascertaining their true position was concerned, was the light which directed their minds to the sanctuary above. Some renounced their faith in their former reckoning of the prophetic periods and ascribed to human or satanic agencies the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit which had attended the advent movement. Another class firmly held that the Lord had led them in their past experience; and as they waited and watched and prayed to know the will of God they saw that their great High Priest had entered upon another work of ministration, and, following Him by faith, they were led to see also the closing work of the church. They had a clearer understanding of the first and second angels' messages, and were prepared to receive and give to the world the solemn warning of the third angel of Revelation 14.--The Great Controversy, 430-432.
------------------------Before The Ancient of Days, October 16
HB	317	1	Behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.--Daniel 7:13.
HB	317	2	Thus was presented to the prophet's vision the great and solemn day when the characters and the lives of all should pass in review before the Judge of all the earth, and to everyone should be rendered "according to his works." The Ancient of Days is God the Father. . . . It is He, the source of all being, and the fountain of all law, that is to preside in the judgment. And holy angels as ministers and witnesses, in number "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands," attend this great tribunal. . . .
HB	317	3	He [Christ] comes to the Ancient of Days in heaven to receive dominion and glory and a kingdom, which will be given Him at the close of His work as a mediator. It is this coming, and not His second advent to the earth, that was foretold in prophecy to take place at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844. Attended by heavenly angels, our great High Priest enters the holy of holies and there appears in the presence of God to engage in the last acts of His ministration in behalf of man--to perform the work of investigative judgment and to make an atonement for all who are shown to be entitled to its benefits. . .
HB	317	4	Thus those who followed in the light of the prophetic word saw that, instead of coming to the earth at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844, Christ then entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing work of atonement preparatory to His coming.
HB	317	5	It was seen, also, that while the sin offering pointed to Christ as a sacrifice, and the high priest represented Christ as a mediator, the scapegoat typified Satan, the author of sin, upon whom the sins of the truly penitent will finally be placed. When the high priest, by virtue of the blood of the sin offering, removed the sins from the sanctuary, he placed them upon the scapegoat. When Christ, by virtue of His own blood, removes the sins of His people from the heavenly sanctuary at the close of His ministration, He will place them upon Satan, who, in the execution of the judgment, must bear the final penalty. The scapegoat was sent away into a land not inhabited, never to come again into the congregation of Israel. So will Satan be forever banished from the presence of God and His people, and he will be blotted from existence in the final destruction of sin and sinners.--The Great Controversy, 479, 480, 422.
------------------------The Standard of Judgment, October 17
HB	318	1	So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.--James 2:12.
HB	318	2	Every individual's work passes in review before God and is registered for faithfulness or unfaithfulness. Opposite each name in the books of heaven is entered with terrible exactness every wrong word, every selfish act, every unfulfilled duty, and every secret sin, with every artful dissembling. Heaven-sent warnings or reproofs neglected, wasted moments, unimproved opportunities, the influence exerted for good or for evil, with its far-reaching results, all are chronicled by the recording angel.
HB	318	3	The law of God is the standard by which the characters and the lives of all will be tested in the judgment. Says the wise man: "Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment." (Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14.) The apostle James admonishes his fellow Christians: "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." (James 2:12.)
HB	318	4	Those who in the judgment are "accounted worthy" will have a part in the resurrection of the just. Jesus said: "They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, . . . are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." (Luke 20:35, 36.) And again He declares that "they that have done good" shall come forth "unto the resurrection of life." (John 5:29.) The righteous dead will not be raised until after the judgment at which they are accounted worthy of "the resurrection of life." Hence they will not be present in person at the tribunal when their records are examined and their cases decided.
HB	318	5	Jesus will appear as their advocate, to plead in their behalf before God. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (1 John 2:1.) "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." "Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." (Hebrews 9:24; 7:25.)--The Great Controversy, 482.
------------------------The Books of Record In Heaven, October 18
HB	319	1	The court was seated, and the books were opened.--Daniel 7:10.
HB	319	2	In the typical service only those who had come before God with confession and repentance, and whose sins, through the blood of the sin offering, were transferred to the sanctuary, had a part in the service of the Day of Atonement. So in the great day of final atonement and investigative judgment the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God. The judgment of the wicked is a distinct and separate work, and takes place at a later period. "Judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel?" (1 Peter 4:17.)
HB	319	3	The books of record in heaven, in which the names and the deeds of all are registered, are to determine the decisions of the judgment. Says the prophet Daniel: "The judgment was set, and the books were opened." The revelator, describing the same scene, adds: "Another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." (Revelation 20:12.)
HB	319	4	The book of life contains the names of all who have ever entered the service of God. Jesus bade His disciples: "Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." (Luke 10:20.) Paul speaks of his faithful fellow workers, "whose names are in the book of life." (Philippians 4:3.) Daniel, looking down to "a time of trouble, such as never was," declares that God's people shall be delivered, "everyone that shall be found written in the book." And the revelator says that those only shall enter the city of God whose names "are written in the Lamb's book of life." (Daniel 12:1; Revelation 21:27.)
HB	319	5	"A book of remembrance" is written before God, in which are recorded the good deeds of "them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name." (Malachi 3:16.) Their words of faith, their acts of love, are registered in heaven. Nehemiah refers to this when he says: "Remember me, O my God, . . . and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God." (Nehemiah 13:14.) In the book of God's remembrance every deed of righteousness is immortalized. There every temptation resisted, every evil overcome, every word of tender pity expressed, is faithfully chronicled. And every act of sacrifice, every suffering and sorrow endured for Christ's sake, is recorded.--The Great Controversy, 480, 481.
------------------------Pardoned, October 19
HB	320	1	I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned.--Jeremiah 33:8.
HB	320	2	As the books of record are opened in the judgment, the lives of all who have believed on Jesus come in review before God. Beginning with those who first lived upon the earth, our Advocate presents the cases of each successive generation, and closes with the living. Every name is mentioned, every case closely investigated. Names are accepted, names rejected. When any have sins remaining upon the books of record, unrepented of and unforgiven, their names will be blotted out of the book of life, and the record of their good deeds will be erased from the book of God's remembrance. The Lord declared to Moses: "Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book." (Exodus 32:33.) And says the prophet Ezekiel: "When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, . . . all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned." (Ezekiel 18:24.)
HB	320	3	All who have truly repented of sin, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice, have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven; as they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves will be accounted worthy of eternal life. The Lord declares, by the prophet Isaiah: "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." (Isaiah 43:25.) Said Jesus: "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels." "Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven." (Revelation 3:5; Matthew 10:32, 33.)
HB	320	4	The deepest interest manifested among people in the decisions of earthly tribunals but faintly represents the interest evinced in the heavenly courts when the names entered in the book of life come up in review before the Judge of all the earth. The divine Intercessor presents the plea that all who have overcome through faith in His blood be forgiven their transgressions, that they be restored to their Eden home, and crowned as joint heirs with Himself to "the first dominion." (Micah 4:8.)--The Great Controversy, 483, 484.
------------------------The Giving of Rewards, October 20
HB	321	1	For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.--Matthew 16:27.
HB	321	2	Jesus does not excuse their sins, but shows their penitence and faith, and, claiming for them forgiveness, He lifts His wounded hands before the Father and the holy angels, saying: I know them by name. I have graven them on the palms of My hands. . . .
HB	321	3	The work of the investigative judgment and the blotting out of sins is to be accomplished before the second advent of the Lord. Since the dead are to be judged out of the things written in the books, it is impossible that the sins of mortals should be blotted out until after the judgment at which their cases are to be investigated. But the apostle Peter distinctly states that the sins of believers will be blotted out "when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ." (Acts 3:19, 20.) When the investigative judgment closes, Christ will come, and His reward will be with Him to give to every man as his work shall be.
HB	321	4	In the typical service the high priest, having made the atonement for Israel, came forth and blessed the congregation. So Christ, at the close of His work as mediator, will appear, "without sin unto salvation" (Hebrews 9:28), to bless His waiting people with eternal life. As the priest, in removing the sins from the sanctuary, confessed them upon the head of the scapegoat, so Christ will place all these sins upon Satan, the originator and instigator of sin. The scapegoat, bearing the sins of Israel, was sent away "unto a land not inhabited" (Leviticus 16:22); so Satan, bearing the guilt of all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit, will be for a thousand years confined to the earth, which will then be desolate, without inhabitant, and he will at last suffer the full penalty of sin in the fires that shall destroy all the wicked. Thus the great plan of redemption will reach its accomplishment in the final eradication of sin and the deliverance of all who have been willing to renounce evil.
HB	321	5	At the time appointed for the judgment--the close of the 2300 days, in 1844--began the work of investigation and blotting out of sins. All who have ever taken upon themselves the name of Christ must pass its searching scrutiny. Both the living and the dead are to be judged "out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works."--The Great Controversy, 484-486.
------------------------End Of Jesus' Work As Priest And Mediator, October 21
HB	322	1	But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.--Hebrews 11:6.
HB	322	2	But the people were not yet ready to meet their Lord. There was still a work of preparation to be accomplished for them. Light was to be given, directing their minds to the temple of God in heaven; and as they should by faith follow their High Priest in His ministration there, new duties would be revealed. Another message of warning and instruction was to be given to the church.
HB	322	3	Says the prophet: "Who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." (Malachi 3:2, 3.) Those who are living upon the earth when the intercession of Christ shall cease in the sanctuary above are to stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediator. Their robes must be spotless, their characters must be purified from sin by the blood of sprinkling. Through the grace of God and their own diligent effort they must be conquerors in the battle with evil. While the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God's people upon earth. This work is more clearly presented in the messages of Revelation 14.
HB	322	4	When this work shall have been accomplished, the followers of Christ will be ready for His appearing. "Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years." (Malachi 3:4.) Then the church which our Lord at His coming is to receive to Himself will be a "glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." (Ephesians 5:27.) Then she will look "forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." (Song of Solomon 6:10.)
HB	322	5	Besides the coming of the Lord to His temple, Malachi also foretells His second advent, His coming for the execution of the judgment. (Malachi 3:5.)--The Great Controversy, 424, 425.
------------------------Words of Approval, October 22
HB	323	1	Well done, good and faithful servant;. . . Enter into the joy of your lord.--Matthew 25:23.
HB	323	2	All who have been born into the heavenly family are in a special sense the brothers and sisters of our Lord. The love of Christ binds together the members of His family, and wherever that love is made manifest there the divine relationship is revealed. "Everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." (1 John 4:7.)
HB	323	3	Those whom Christ commends in the judgment may have known little of theology, but they have cherished His principles. Through the influence of the divine Spirit they have been a blessing to those about them. Even among the heathen are those who have cherished the spirit of kindness; before the words of life had fallen upon their ears, they have befriended the missionaries, even ministering to them at the peril of their own lives. Among the heathen are those who worship God ignorantly, those to whom the light is never brought by human instrumentality, yet they will not perish. Though ignorant of the written law of God, they have heard His voice speaking to them in nature, and have done the things that the law required. Their works are evidence that the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts, and they are recognized as the children of God.
HB	323	4	How surprised and gladdened will be the lowly among the nations, and among the heathen, to hear from the lips of the Saviour, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me"! How glad will be the heart of Infinite Love as His followers look up with surprise and joy at His words of approval!
HB	323	5	But not to any class is Christ's love restricted. He identifies Himself with every child of humanity. That we might become members of the heavenly family, He became a member of the earthly family. He is the Son of man, and thus a brother to every son and daughter of Adam. His followers are not to feel themselves detached from the perishing world around them. They are a part of the great web of humanity; and Heaven looks upon them as kin to sinners as well as to saints. The fallen, the erring, and the sinful, Christ's love embraces; and every deed of kindness done to uplift a fallen soul, every act of mercy, is accepted as done to Him.--The Desire of Ages, 638.
------------------------Rescue Souls Before Jesus Ends His Ministry, October 23
HB	324	1	Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.--Luke 14:23.
HB	324	2	It is no small thing to be a Christian and to be owned and approved of God. The Lord has shown me some who profess the present truth, whose lives do not correspond with their profession. They have the standard of piety altogether too low, and they come far short of Bible holiness. Some engage in vain and unbecoming conversation, and others give way to the risings of self. We must not expect to please ourselves, live and act like the world, have its pleasures, and enjoy the company of those who are of the world, and reign with Christ in glory.
HB	324	3	We must be partakers of Christ's sufferings here if we would share in His glory hereafter. If we seek our own interest, how we can best please ourselves, instead of seeking to please God and advance His precious, suffering cause, we shall dishonor God and the holy cause we profess to love. We have but a little space of time left in which to work for God. Nothing should be too dear to sacrifice for the salvation of the scattered and torn flock of Jesus. Those who make a covenant with God by sacrifice now will soon be gathered home to share a rich reward and possess the new kingdom forever and ever.
HB	324	4	Oh, let us live wholly for the Lord and show by a well-ordered life and godly conversation that we have been with Jesus and are His meek and lowly followers. We must work while the day lasts, for when the dark night of trouble and anguish comes, it will be too late to work for God. Jesus is in His holy temple and will now accept our sacrifices, our prayers, and our confessions of faults and sins and will pardon all the transgressions of Israel, that they may be blotted out before He leaves the sanctuary. When Jesus leaves the sanctuary, then they who are holy and righteous will be holy and righteous still; for all their sins will then be blotted out, and they will be sealed with the seal of the living God. But those that are unjust and filthy will be unjust and filthy still; for then there will be no Priest in the sanctuary to offer their sacrifices, their confessions, and their prayers before the Father's throne. Therefore what is done to rescue souls from the coming storm of wrath must be done before Jesus leaves the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary.--Early Writings, 47, 48.
------------------------The Close of Probation, October 24
HB	325	1	In the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.--Revelation 10:7.
HB	325	2	There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery. The work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another. Though all nations are to pass in judgment before God, yet He will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being upon the earth. Everyone must be tested and found without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
HB	325	3	Solemn are the scenes connected with the closing work of the atonement. Momentous are the interests involved therein. The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above. For many years this work has been in progress. Soon--none know how soon--it will pass to the cases of the living. In the awful presence of God our lives are to come up in review. At this time above all others it behooves every soul to heed the Saviour's admonition: "Watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is." (Mark 13:33.) "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." (Revelation 3:3.)
HB	325	4	When the work of the investigative judgment closes, the destiny of all will have been decided for life or death. Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven. Christ in the Revelation, looking forward to that time, declares: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." (Revelation 22:11, 12.)
HB	325	5	The righteous and the wicked will still be living upon the earth in their mortal state--they will be planting and building, eating and drinking, all unconscious that the final, irrevocable decision has been pronounced in the sanctuary above. Before the Flood, after Noah entered the ark, God shut him in and shut the ungodly out; but for seven days the people, knowing not that their doom was fixed, continued their careless, pleasure-loving life and mocked the warnings of impending judgment. "So," says the Saviour, "shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:39.)--The Great Controversy, 490, 491.
------------------------Satan Fell Like Lightning, October 25
HB	326	1	I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.--Luke 10:18.
HB	326	2	With a great show of prudence the rabbis had warned the people against receiving the new doctrines taught by this new teacher [Jesus]; for His theories and practices were contrary to the teachings of the fathers. The people gave credence to what the priests and Pharisees taught, in place of seeking to understand the word of God for themselves. They honored the priests and rulers instead of honoring God, and rejected the truth that they might keep their own traditions. Many had been impressed and almost persuaded; but they did not act upon their convictions, and were not reckoned on the side of Christ. Satan presented his temptations, until the light appeared as darkness. Thus many rejected the truth that would have proved the saving of the soul.
HB	326	3	The True Witness says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." (Revelation 3:20.) Every warning, reproof, and entreaty in the word of God or through His messengers is a knock at the door of the heart. It is the voice of Jesus asking for entrance. With every knock unheeded, the disposition to open becomes weaker. The impressions of the Holy Spirit if disregarded today, will not be as strong tomorrow. The heart becomes less impressible, and lapses into a perilous unconsciousness of the shortness of life, and of the great eternity beyond. Our condemnation in the judgment will not result from the fact that we have been in error, but from the fact that we have neglected heaven-sent opportunities for learning what is truth.
HB	326	4	Like the apostles, the seventy [see Luke 10:1] had received supernatural endowments as a seal of their mission. When their work was completed, they returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name." Jesus answered, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." The scenes of the past and the future were presented to the mind of Jesus. He beheld Lucifer as he was first cast out from the heavenly places. He looked forward to the scenes of His own agony, when before all the worlds the character of the deceiver should be unveiled. . . .
HB	326	5	Beyond the cross of Calvary, with its agony and shame, Jesus looked forward to the great final day, when the prince of the power of the air will meet his destruction in the earth so long marred by his rebellion. Jesus beheld the work of evil forever ended, and the peace of God filling heaven and earth.--The Desire of Ages, 489, 490.
------------------------Jesus' Pleasure In His People, October 26
HB	327	1	The blameless in their ways are His delight.--Proverbs 11:20.
HB	327	2	He who dwells in the heavenly sanctuary judges righteously. His pleasure is more in His people, struggling with temptation in a world of sin, than in the host of angels that surround His throne.
HB	327	3	In this speck of a world the whole heavenly universe manifests the greatest interest, for Christ has paid an infinite price for the souls of its inhabitants. The world's Redeemer has bound earth to heaven by ties of intelligence, for the redeemed of the Lord are here. Heavenly beings still visit the earth as in the days when they walked and talked with Abraham and with Moses. Amid the busy activity of our great cities, amid the multitudes that crowd the thoroughfares and fill the marts of trade where from morning till evening the people act as if business and sport and pleasure were all there is to life, where there are so few to contemplate unseen realities--even here heaven has still its watchers and its holy ones. There are invisible agencies observing every word and deed of human beings. In every assembly for business or pleasure, in every gathering for worship, there are more listeners than can be seen with the natural sight. Sometimes the heavenly intelligences draw aside the curtain which hides the unseen world that our thoughts may be withdrawn from the hurry and rush of life to consider that there are unseen witnesses to all we do or say.
HB	327	4	We need to understand better than we do the mission of the angel visitants. It would be well to consider that in all our work we have the cooperation and care of heavenly beings. Invisible armies of light and power attend the meek and lowly ones who believe and claim the promises of God. Cherubim and seraphim and angels that excel in strength--ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands--stand at His right hand, "all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." (Hebrews 1:14.)
HB	327	5	By these angel messengers a faithful record is kept of the words and deeds of the children of humanity. Every act of cruelty or injustice toward God's people, all they are caused to suffer through the power of evil workers, is registered in heaven.--Christ's Object Lessons, 176, 177.
------------------------From The Earthly To The Heavenly Temple, October 27
HB	328	1	The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.--Matthew 27:51.
HB	328	2	By virtue of His death and resurrection He [Jesus] became the minister of the "true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." (Hebrews 8:2.) Human beings reared the Jewish tabernacle; mere mortals builded the Jewish temple; but the sanctuary above, of which the earthly was a type, was built by no human architect. "Behold the Man whose name is The Branch; . . . He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne." (Zechariah 6:12, 13.)
HB	328	3	The sacrificial service that had pointed to Christ passed away; but the eyes of humanity were turned to the true sacrifice for the sins of the world. The earthly priesthood ceased; but we look to Jesus, the minister of the new covenant, and "to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." "The way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: . . . but Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, . . . by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." (Hebrews 12:24; 9:8-12.)
HB	328	4	"Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." (Hebrews 7:25.) Though the ministration was to be removed from the earthly to the heavenly temple; though the sanctuary and our great high priest would be invisible to human sight, yet the disciples were to suffer no loss thereby. They would realize no break in their communion, and no diminution of power because of the Saviour's absence. While Jesus ministers in the sanctuary above, He is still by His Spirit the minister of the church on earth. He is withdrawn from the eye of sense, but His parting promise is fulfilled, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:20.) While He delegates His power to inferior ministers, His energizing presence is still with His church.
HB	328	5	"Seeing then that we have a great high priest, . . . Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. . . . Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16.)--The Desire of Ages, 165, 166.
------------------------Working With Our High Priest, October 28
HB	329	1	Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us holdfast our confession.--Hebrews 4:14.
HB	329	2	We are to fit ourselves with the self-same spirit that was in Christ Jesus. Christ is working for us; will we work for Christ in His lines? Children, cultivate patience and faith and hope. May the Lord increase our joy of faith in this ever-living Intercessor. Try to let no day pass in which you fail to realize your accountability to God through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. Jesus does not receive glory from anyone who is an accuser of the brethren. Let not a day pass that we are not healing and restoring old wounds. Cultivate love, and let no words of evil surmising escape our lips. Close this door quickly, and keep it closed; open the door where Christ presides, and keep it open, because we know the value of Christ's sacrifice and His unchangeable love. Drink in the ever-refreshing waters of life from the wells of Lebanon, but refuse the murky waters from the valley--the dark, suspicious feelings. There is much truthfulness in the cause, but shall we spoil our fragrance of spirit because others clothe themselves with bitterness? God forbid. There is not one tithe of the imaginings of evil that is worth the time we give to consider it and repeat it. Cut away from our speech all severity; talk sweetly; and hold our confidence in Jesus firmly.
HB	329	3	We have an ever-living Advocate who is making intercession for us. Then let us become advocates in principle in behalf of those who err. "And having an high priest over the house of God [here is His intercession in our behalf]; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience; and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering." He is a "faithful high priest in things pertaining to God." (Hebrews 10:22, 23; 2:17.)
HB	329	4	Then as He is working for us, let us work just as earnestly and interestedly to promote union with one another. Christ prayed that we might be of that same nature and oneness as that existing between Himself and His Father. Try in everything we do to secure confidence and love one for another, and thus we will answer the prayer of Christ Jesus. . . . Keep close on the side of Christ, and think of the rich encouragement He has given us, that we may in our turn give to others.--Lift Him Up, 321.
------------------------Jesus Does Not Forget His Church, October 29
HB	330	1	Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus.--Hebrews 3:1.
HB	330	2	Our crucified Lord is pleading for us in the presence of the Father at the throne of grace. His atoning sacrifice we may plead for our pardon, our justification, and our sanctification. The Lamb slain is our only hope. Our faith looks up to Him, grasps Him as the One who can save to the uttermost, and the fragrance of the all-sufficient offering is accepted of the Father. Unto Christ is committed all power in heaven and in earth, and all things are possible to him that believeth. Christ's glory is concerned in our success. He has a common interest in all humanity. He is our sympathizing Saviour. . . .
HB	330	3	Let us remember that our great High Priest is pleading before the mercy seat in behalf of His ransomed people. He ever liveth to make intercession for us. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
HB	330	4	The blood of Jesus is pleading with power and efficacy for those who are backslidden, for those who are rebellious, for those who sin against great light and love. Satan stands at our right hand to accuse us, and our Advocate stands at God's right hand to plead for us. He has never lost a case that has been committed to Him. We may trust in our Advocate; for He pleads His own merits in our behalf. Hear His prayer before His betrayal and trial. Listen to His prayer for us; for He had us in remembrance.
HB	330	5	He will not forget His church in the world of temptation. He looks upon His tried and suffering people, and prays for them. . . . Yes, He beholds His people in this world, which is a persecuting world, and all seared and marred with the curse, and [He] knows that they need all the divine resources of His sympathy and His love. Our Forerunner hath for us entered within the veil, and yet by the golden chain of love and truth, He is linked with His people in closest sympathy.
HB	330	6	He is making intercession for the most lowly, the most oppressed and suffering, for the most tried and tempted ones. With upraised hands He pleads, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." God loves to hear, and responds to the pleadings of His Son.--Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 948.
------------------------Jesus, A Righteous Judge, October 30
HB	331	1	Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.--Hebrews 2:17.
HB	331	2	Jesus clothed His divinity with humanity in order that He might reach humanity. The apostle says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same. . . . For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted." Jesus is the only one that has ever walked in the flesh who is able to judge righteously. Looking at outward acts, people may condemn and root up that which they think to be tares; but they may greatly mistake. Both ministers and laity should be Bible students, and understand how to act in regard to the erring. They are not to move rashly, to be actuated by prejudices or partiality, to be ready with an unfeeling heart, to uproot one and tear down another; for this is most solemn work. In criticising and condemning their brethren and sisters, the accusers wound and bruise the souls for whom Christ has died. Christ has purchased them with His own precious blood; and although others, judging from outward appearances, pronounce sentence against them, their judgment in the courts of heaven is more favorable than that of their accusers. Before any of you speak against other believers, or act decidedly to cut them off from church fellowship, follow the injunction of the apostle: "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"
HB	331	3	Let those who would dispose of their brethren and sisters, look well to the character of their own thoughts, their motives, their impulses, purposes, and deeds. . . . If upon careful, prayerful examination of ourselves, we discover that we are not able to bear the test of human investigation, then how shall we endure the test of the eyes of God, if we set ourselves up as judges of others?
HB	331	4	Before judging others, our first work is to watch and pray, to institute a warfare against the evils of our own hearts through the grace of Christ.--Review and Herald, January 3, 1893.
------------------------A Perfect Atonement, October 31
HB	332	1	If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.--1 John 2:1.
HB	332	2	Jesus is our Advocate, our High Priest, our Intercessor. Our position is like that of the Israelites on the Day of Atonement. When the high priest entered the most holy place, representing the place where our High Priest is now pleading, and sprinkled the atoning blood upon the mercy seat, no propitiatory sacrifices were offered without. While the priest was interceding with God, every heart was to be bowed in contrition, pleading for the pardon of transgression.
HB	332	3	Type met antitype in the death of Christ, the Lamb slain for the sins of the world. Our great High Priest has made the only sacrifice that is of any value in our salvation. When He offered Himself on the cross, a perfect atonement was made for the sins of the people. We are now standing in the outer court, waiting and looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. No sacrifices are to be offered without, for the great High Priest is performing His work in the most holy place. In His intercession as our advocate, Christ needs no one's virtue, no one's intercession. He is the only sin-bearer, the only sin-offering. Prayer and confession are to be offered only to Him who has entered once for all into the most holy place. He will save to the uttermost all who come to Him in faith. He ever liveth to make intercession for us. . . .
HB	332	4	Christ represented the Father to the world, and He represents before God the chosen ones in whom He has restored the moral image of God. They are His heritage. To them He says, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." No man "knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." No priest, no religionist, can reveal the Father to any son or daughter of Adam. We have only one Advocate, one Intercessor, who is able to pardon transgression. Shall not our hearts swell with gratitude to Him who gave Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins? Think deeply upon the love that the Father has manifested in our behalf, the love that He has expressed for us. We can not measure this love; for measurement there is none. Can we measure infinity? We can only point to Calvary, to the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.--Signs of the Times, June 28, 1899.
------------------------The Origin of Sin Is Unexplainable, November 1
HB	334	1	War broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought.--Revelation 12:7.
HB	334	2	To many minds the origin of sin and the reason for its existence are a source of great perplexity. They see the work of evil, with its terrible results of woe and desolation, and they question how all this can exist under the sovereignty of One who is infinite in wisdom, in power, and in love. Here is a mystery of which they find no explanation. And in their uncertainty and doubt they are blinded to truths plainly revealed in God's word and essential to salvation. There are those who, in their inquiries concerning the existence of sin, endeavor to search into that which God has never revealed; hence they find no solution of their difficulties; and such as are actuated by a disposition to doubt and cavil seize upon this as an excuse for rejecting the words of Holy Writ. Others, however, fail of a satisfactory understanding of the great problem of evil, from the fact that tradition and misinterpretation have obscured the teaching of the Bible concerning the character of God, the nature of His government, and the principles of His dealing with sin.
HB	334	3	It is impossible to explain the origin of sin so as to give a reason for its existence. Yet enough may be understood concerning both the origin and the final disposition of sin to make fully manifest the justice and benevolence of God in all His dealings with evil. Nothing is more plainly taught in Scripture than that God was in no wise responsible for the entrance of sin; that there was no arbitrary withdrawal of divine grace, no deficiency in the divine government, that gave occasion for the uprising of rebellion. Sin is an intruder, for whose presence no reason can be given. It is mysterious, unaccountable; to excuse it is to defend it. Could excuse for it be found, or cause be shown for its existence, it would cease to be sin. Our only definition of sin is that given in the word of God; it is "the transgression of the law;" it is the outworking of a principle at war with the great law of love which is the foundation of the divine government. . . .
HB	334	4	God desires from all His creatures the service of love--homage that springs from an intelligent appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced allegiance, and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.--The Great Controversy, 492, 493.
------------------------Selfishness, The Root of Sin, November 2
HB	335	1	I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.--Isaiah 14:14.
HB	335	2	But there was one that chose to pervert this freedom [of will]. Sin originated with him who, next to Christ, had been most honored of God and who stood highest in power and glory among the inhabitants of heaven. Before his fall, Lucifer was first of the covering cherubs, holy and undefiled. "Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering. . . . Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." (Ezekiel 28:12-15.)
HB	335	3	Lucifer might have remained in favor with God, beloved and honored by all the angelic host, exercising his noble powers to bless others and to glorify his Maker. But, says the prophet, "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness." (Verse 17.) Little by little, Lucifer came to indulge a desire for self-exaltation. . . . Instead of seeking to make God supreme in the affections and allegiance of His creatures, it was Lucifer's endeavor to win their service and homage to himself. And coveting the honor which the infinite Father had bestowed upon His Son, this prince of angels aspired to power which it was the prerogative of Christ alone to wield.
HB	335	4	All heaven had rejoiced to reflect the Creator's glory and to show forth His praise. And while God was thus honored, all had been peace and gladness. But a note of discord now marred the celestial harmonies. The service and exaltation of self, contrary to the Creator's plan, awakened forebodings of evil in minds to whom God's glory was supreme. The heavenly councils pleaded with Lucifer. The Son of God presented before him the greatness, the goodness, and the justice of the Creator, and the sacred, unchanging nature of His law. God Himself had established the order of heaven; and in departing from it, Lucifer would dishonor his Maker, and bring ruin upon himself. But the warning, given in infinite love and mercy, only aroused a spirit of resistance. Lucifer allowed jealousy of Christ to prevail, and he became the more determined.--The Great Controversy, 493-495.
------------------------Lucifer Ejected, November 3
HB	336	1	So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.--Revelation 12:9.
HB	336	2	All the heavenly host were summoned to appear before the Father, to have each case determined. Satan unblushingly made known his dissatisfaction that Christ should be preferred before him. He stood up proudly and urged that he should be equal with God, and should be taken into conference with the Father and understand His purposes. God informed Satan that to His Son alone He would reveal His secret purposes, and He required all the family in heaven, even Satan, to yield Him implicit, unquestioned obedience; but that he (Satan) had proved himself unworthy [of] a place in heaven. Then Satan exultingly pointed to his sympathizers, comprising nearly one half of all the angels, and exclaimed, These are with me! Will you expel these also, and make such a void in Heaven? He then declared that he was prepared to resist the authority of Christ and to defend his place in Heaven by force of might, strength against strength.
HB	336	3	Good angels wept to hear the words of Satan, and his exulting boasts. God declared that the rebellious should remain in Heaven no longer. Their high and happy state had been held upon condition of obedience to the law which God had given to govern the high order of intelligences. But no provision had been made to save those who should venture to transgress His law. Satan grew bold in his rebellion, and expressed his contempt of the Creator's law. This Satan could not bear. He claimed that angels needed no law but should be left free to follow their own will, which would ever guide them right; that law was a restriction of their liberty, and that to abolish law was one great object of his standing as he did. The condition of the angels he thought needed improvement. Not so the mind of God, who had made laws and exalted them equal to Himself. The happiness of the angelic host consisted in their perfect obedience to law. All had their special work assigned them; and until Satan rebelled, there had been perfect order and harmonious action in Heaven. . . .
HB	336	4	The Father consulted Jesus in regard to at once carrying out their purpose to make human beings to inhabit the earth. He would place them upon probation to test their loyalty, before they could be rendered eternally secure.--The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, 22, 23.
------------------------Hostilities, November 4
HB	337	1	They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.--Revelation 12:11.
HB	337	2	I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel." (Genesis 3:15.) The divine sentence pronounced against Satan after the fall of Adam and Eve was also a prophecy, embracing all the ages to the close of time and foreshadowing the great conflict to engage all the races of mankind who should live upon the earth.
HB	337	3	God declares: "I will put enmity." This enmity is not naturally entertained. When our first parents transgressed the divine law, their nature became evil, and they were in harmony, and not at variance, with Satan. There exists naturally no enmity between sinful humanity and the originator of sin. Both became evil through apostasy. Apostates are never at rest, except as they obtain sympathy and support by inducing others to follow their example. For this reason fallen angels and wicked human beings unite in desperate companionship. Had not God specially interposed, Satan and mankind would have entered into an alliance against Heaven; and instead of cherishing enmity against Satan, the whole human family would have been united in opposition to God.
HB	337	4	Satan tempted Adam and Eve to sin, as he had caused angels to rebel, that he might thus secure cooperation in his warfare against Heaven. There was no dissension between himself and the fallen angels as regards their hatred of Christ; while on all other points there was discord, they were firmly united in opposing the authority of the Ruler of the universe. But when Satan heard the declaration that enmity should exist between himself and the woman, and between his seed and her seed, he knew that his efforts to deprave human nature would be interrupted; that by some means mankind was to be enabled to resist his power.
HB	337	5	Satan's enmity against the human race is kindled because, through Christ, they are the objects of God's love and mercy. He desires to thwart the divine plan for our redemption, to cast dishonor upon God, by defacing and defiling His handiwork; he would cause grief in heaven and fill the earth with woe and desolation. And he points to all this evil as the result of God's work in creating mankind.--The Great Controversy, 505, 506.
------------------------Implanted Grace, November 5
HB	338	1	Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.--James 4:7.
HB	338	2	It is the grace that Christ implants in the soul which creates in us enmity against Satan. Without this converting grace and renewing power, we would continue the captive of Satan, servants ever ready to do his bidding. But the new principle in the soul creates conflict where hitherto had been peace. The power which Christ imparts enables us to resist the tyrant and usurper. Whoever is seen to abhor sin instead of loving it, whoever resists and conquers those passions that have held sway within, displays the operation of a principle wholly from above.
HB	338	3	The antagonism that exists between the spirit of Christ and the spirit of Satan was most strikingly displayed in the world's reception of Jesus. It was not so much because He appeared without worldly wealth, pomp, or grandeur that the Jews were led to reject Him. They saw that He possessed power which would more than compensate for the lack of these outward advantages. But the purity and holiness of Christ called forth against Him the hatred of the ungodly. His life of self-denial and sinless devotion was a perpetual reproof to a proud, sensual people. It was this that evoked enmity against the Son of God. Satan and evil angels joined with evil human beings. All the energies of apostasy conspired against the Champion of truth.
HB	338	4	The same enmity is manifested toward Christ's followers as was manifested toward their Master. Whoever sees the repulsive character of sin, and in strength from above resists temptation, will assuredly arouse the wrath of Satan and his subjects. Hatred of the pure principles of truth, and reproach and persecution of its advocates, will exist as long as sin and sinners remain. The followers of Christ and the servants of Satan cannot harmonize. The offense of the cross has not ceased. "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Timothy 3:12.) . . .
HB	338	5	As Satan endeavored to cast reproach upon God, so do his agents seek to malign God's people. The spirit which put Christ to death moves the wicked to destroy His followers. All this is foreshadowed in that first prophecy: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed." And this will continue to the close of time.--The Great Controversy, 506, 507.
------------------------No Sinful Act Without Consent, November 6
HB	339	1	Whoever abides in Him does not sin.--1 John 3:6.
HB	339	2	All who are not decided followers of Christ are servants of Satan. In the unregenerate heart there is love of sin and a disposition to cherish and excuse it. In the renewed heart there is hatred of sin and determined resistance against it. When Christians choose the society of the ungodly and unbelieving, they expose themselves to temptation. Satan conceals himself from view and stealthily draws his deceptive covering over their eyes. . . .
HB	339	3	While Satan is constantly seeking to blind their minds to the fact, let Christians never forget that they "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places." (Ephesians 6:12, margin.) The inspired warning is sounding down the centuries to our time: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8.) "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." (Ephesians 6:11.)
HB	339	4	From the days of Adam to our own time, our great enemy has been exercising his power to oppress and destroy. He is now preparing for his last campaign against the church. All who seek to follow Jesus will be brought into conflict with this relentless foe. The more nearly the Christian imitates the divine Pattern, the more surely will he make himself a mark for the attacks of Satan. All who are actively engaged in the cause of God, seeking to unveil the deceptions of the evil one and to present Christ before the people, will be able to join in the testimony of Paul, in which he speaks of serving the Lord with all humility of mind, with many tears and temptations.
HB	339	5	Satan assailed Christ with his fiercest and most subtle temptations, but he was repulsed in every conflict. Those battles were fought in our behalf; those victories make it possible for us to conquer. Christ will give strength to all who seek it. None without their own consent can be overcome by Satan. The tempter has no power to control the will or to force the soul to sin. He may distress, but he cannot contaminate. He can cause agony, but not defilement. The fact that Christ has conquered should inspire His followers with courage to fight manfully the battle against sin and Satan.--The Great Controversy, 508, 510.
------------------------Vindication of God's Character, November 7
HB	340	1	Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.--John 17:1.
HB	340	2	But the plan of redemption had a yet broader and deeper purpose than the salvation of humanity. It was not for this alone that Christ came to the earth; it was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world might regard the law of God as it should be regarded; but it was to vindicate the character of God before the universe. To this result of His great sacrifice--its influence upon the intelligences of other worlds, as well as upon man--the Saviour looked forward when just before His crucifixion He said: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto Me." (John 12:31, 32.) The act of Christ in dying for the salvation of mankind would not only make heaven accessible to men and women, but before all the universe it would justify God and His Son in their dealing with the rebellion of Satan. It would establish the perpetuity of the law of God and would reveal the nature and the results of sin.
HB	340	3	From the first the great controversy had been upon the law of God. Satan had sought to prove that God was unjust, that His law was faulty, and that the good of the universe required it to be changed. In attacking the law he aimed to overthrow the authority of its Author. In the controversy it was to be shown whether the divine statutes were defective and subject to change, or perfect and immutable.
HB	340	4	When Satan was thrust out of heaven, he determined to make the earth his kingdom. When he tempted and overcame Adam and Eve, he thought that he had gained possession of this world; "because," said he, "they have chosen me as their ruler." He claimed that it was impossible that forgiveness should be granted to the sinner, and therefore the fallen race were his rightful subjects, and the world was his. But God gave His own dear Son--one equal with Himself--to bear the penalty of transgression, and thus He provided a way by which they might be restored to His favor, and brought back to their Eden home. Christ undertook to redeem mankind and to rescue the world from the grasp of Satan. The great controversy begun in heaven was to be decided in the very world, on the very same field, that Satan claimed as his.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 68, 69.
------------------------Satan's Claim, November 8
HB	341	1	All this authority I will give you, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.--Luke 4:6.
HB	341	2	When Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted, He was led by the Spirit of God. He did not invite temptation. He went to the wilderness to be alone, to contemplate His mission and work. By fasting and prayer He was to brace Himself for the bloodstained path He must travel. But Satan knew that the Saviour had gone into the wilderness, and he thought this the best time to approach Him.
HB	341	3	Mighty issues for the world were at stake in the conflict between the Prince of light and the leader of the kingdom of darkness. After tempting Adam and Eve to sin, Satan claimed the earth as his, and styled himself the prince of this world. Having conformed to his own nature the father and mother of our race, he thought to establish here his empire. He declared that mankind had chosen him as their sovereign. Through his control of them, he held dominion over the world. Christ had come to disprove Satan's claim. As the Son of man, Christ would stand loyal to God. Thus it would be shown that Satan had not gained complete control of the human race, and that his claim to the world was false. All who desired deliverance from his power would be set free. The dominion that Adam had lost through sin would be recovered.
HB	341	4	Since the announcement to the serpent in Eden, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed" (Genesis 3:15), Satan had known that he did not hold absolute sway over the world. There was seen in humanity the working of a power that withstood his dominion. With intense interest he watched the sacrifices offered by Adam and his sons. In these ceremonies he discerned a symbol of communion between earth and heaven. He set himself to intercept this communion. He misrepresented God, and misinterpreted the rites that pointed to the Saviour. People were led to fear God as one who delighted in their destruction. The sacrifices that should have revealed His love were offered only to appease His wrath. Satan excited people's evil passions, in order to fasten his rule upon them. When God's written word was given, Satan studied the prophecies of the Saviour's advent. From generation to generation he worked to blind the people to these prophecies, that they might reject Christ at His coming.--The Desire of Ages, 114, 115.
------------------------A Perpetual Safeguard, November 9
HB	342	1	Affliction will not rise up a second time.--Nahum 1:9.
HB	342	2	Satan's rebellion was to be a lesson to the universe through all coming ages, a perpetual testimony to the nature and terrible results of sin. The working out of Satan's rule, its effects upon both men and angels, would show what must be the fruit of setting aside the divine authority. It would testify that with the existence of God's government and His law is bound up the well-being of all the creatures He has made. Thus the history of this terrible experiment of rebellion was to be a perpetual safeguard to all holy intelligences, to prevent them from being deceived as to the nature of transgression, to save them from committing sin and suffering its punishments.
HB	342	3	To the very close of the controversy in heaven the great usurper continued to justify himself. When it was announced that with all his sympathizers he must be expelled from the abodes of bliss, then the rebel leader boldly avowed his contempt for the Creator's law. He reiterated his claim that angels needed no control, but should be left to follow their own will, which would ever guide them right. He denounced the divine statutes as a restriction of their liberty and declared that it was his purpose to secure the abolition of law; that, freed from this restraint, the hosts of heaven might enter upon a more exalted, more glorious state of existence.
HB	342	4	With one accord, Satan and his host threw the blame of their rebellion wholly upon Christ, declaring that if they had not been reproved, they would never have rebelled. Thus stubborn and defiant in their disloyalty, seeking vainly to overthrow the government of God, yet blasphemously claiming to be themselves the innocent victims of oppressive power, the archrebel and all his sympathizers were at last banished from heaven.
HB	342	5	The same spirit that prompted rebellion in heaven still inspires rebellion on earth. Satan has continued with human beings the same policy which he pursued with the angels. His spirit now reigns in the children of disobedience. Like him they seek to break down the restraints of the law of God and promise liberty through transgression of its precepts. Reproof of sin still arouses the spirit of hatred and resistance. When God's messages of warning are brought home to the conscience, Satan leads people to justify themselves and to seek the sympathy of others in their course of sin.--The Great Controversy, 499, 500.
------------------------Satan&ssquo;s Plan of Attack, November 10
HB	343	1	And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.--Revelation 12:17.
HB	343	2	Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.
HB	343	3	As spiritualism more closely imitates the nominal Christianity of the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare. Satan himself is converted, after the modern order of things. He will appear in the character of an angel of light. Through the agency of spiritualism, miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and many undeniable wonders will be performed. And as the spirits will profess faith in the Bible, and manifest respect for the institutions of the church, their work will be accepted as a manifestation of divine power.
HB	343	4	The line of distinction between professed Christians and the ungodly is now hardly distinguishable. Church members love what the world loves and are ready to join with them, and Satan determines to unite them in one body and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of spiritualism. Papists, who boast of miracles as a certain sign of the true church, will be readily deceived by this wonder-working power; and Protestants, having cast away the shield of truth, will also be deluded. Papists, Protestants, and worldlings will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium.
HB	343	5	Through spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time he works as a destroyer.--The Great Controversy, 588, 589.
------------------------Satan Is A Destroyer, November 11
HB	344	1	Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.--Revelation 12:12.
HB	344	2	Satan delights in war, for it excites the worst passions of the soul and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the nations to war against one another, for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the work of preparation to stand in the day of God.
HB	344	3	Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields His creatures and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would--He will withdraw His blessings from the earth and remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper some in order to further his own designs, and he will bring trouble upon others and lead men to believe that it is God who is afflicting them.
HB	344	4	While appearing to the children of humanity as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. "The earth mourneth and fadeth away," "the haughty people . . . do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." (Isaiah 24:4, 5.)--The Great Controversy, 589, 590.
------------------------The Push For A Sunday Law, November 12
HB	345	1	He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads.--Revelation 13:16.
HB	345	2	While Satan seeks to destroy those who honor God's law, he will cause them to be accused as lawbreakers, as people who are dishonoring God and bringing judgments upon the world. . . .
HB	345	3	Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order, as breaking down the moral restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the judgments of God upon the earth. Their conscientious scruples will be pronounced obstinacy, stubbornness, and contempt of authority. They will be accused of disaffection toward the government. Ministers who deny the obligation of the divine law will present from the pulpit the duty of yielding obedience to the civil authorities as ordained of God. In legislative halls and courts of justice, commandment keepers will be misrepresented and condemned. A false coloring will be given to their words; the worst construction will be put upon their motives.
HB	345	4	As the Protestant churches reject the clear, Scriptural arguments in defense of God's law, they will long to silence those whose faith they cannot overthrow by the Bible. Though they blind their own eyes to the fact, they are now adopting a course which will lead to the persecution of those who conscientiously refuse to do what the rest of the Christian world are doing, and acknowledge the claims of the papal sabbath.
HB	345	5	The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet's words: "The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Revelation 12:17.)--The Great Controversy, 591, 592.
------------------------The Crowning Act of Deception, November 13
HB	346	1	For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.--Matthew 24:24.
HB	346	2	Fearful sights of a supernatural character will soon be revealed in the heavens, in token of the power of miracle-working demons. The spirits of devils will go forth to the kings of the earth and to the whole world, to fasten them in deception, and urge them on to unite with Satan in his last struggle against the government of heaven. By these agencies, rulers and subjects will be alike deceived. Persons will arise pretending to be Christ Himself, and claiming the title and worship which belong to the world's Redeemer. They will perform wonderful miracles of healing and will profess to have revelations from heaven contradicting the testimony of the Scriptures.
HB	346	3	As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Saviour's advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among the people as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. (Revelation 1:13-15.) The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal eyes have yet beheld. The shout of triumph rings out upon the air: "Christ has come! Christ has come!" The people prostrate themselves in adoration before him, while he lifts up his hands and pronounces a blessing upon them, as Christ blessed His disciples when He was upon the earth. His voice is soft and subdued, yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals the diseases of the people, and then, in his assumed character of Christ, he claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed. He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the seventh day are blaspheming his name by refusing to listen to his angels sent to them with light and truth. This is the strong, almost overmastering delusion. Like the Samaritans who were deceived by Simon Magus, the multitudes, from the least to the greatest, give heed to these sorceries, saying: This is "the great power of God." (Acts 8:10.)--The Great Controversy, 624, 625.
------------------------God's People Not Deceived, November 14
HB	347	1	Therefore if they say to you, "Look, He is in the desert!" do not go out; or "Look, He is in the inner rooms!"do not believe it.--Matthew 24:26.
HB	347	2	But the people of God will not be misled. The teachings of this false christ are not in accordance with the Scriptures. His blessing is pronounced upon the worshipers of the beast and his image, the very class upon whom the Bible declares that God's unmingled wrath shall be poured out.
HB	347	3	And, furthermore, Satan is not permitted to counterfeit the manner of Christ's advent. The Saviour has warned His people against deception upon this point, and has clearly foretold the manner of His second coming. . . . "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:24-27, 31.) This coming there is no possibility of counterfeiting. It will be universally known--witnessed by the whole world.
HB	347	4	Only those who have been diligent students of the Scriptures and who have received the love of the truth will be shielded from the powerful delusion that takes the world captive. By the Bible testimony these will detect the deceiver in his disguise. To all the testing time will come. By the sifting of temptation the genuine Christian will be revealed. Are the people of God now so firmly established upon His word that they would not yield to the evidence of their senses? Would they, in such a crisis, cling to the Bible and the Bible only? Satan will, if possible, prevent them from obtaining a preparation to stand in that day. He will so arrange affairs as to hedge up their way, entangle them with earthly treasures, cause them to carry a heavy, wearisome burden, that their hearts may be overcharged with the cares of this life and the day of trial may come upon them as a thief.
HB	347	5	As the decree issued by the various rulers of Christendom against commandment keepers shall withdraw the protection of government and abandon them to those who desire their destruction, the people of God will flee from the cities and villages and associate together in companies, dwelling in the most desolate and solitary places. Many will find refuge in the strongholds of the mountains. Like the Christians of the Piedmont valleys, they will make the high places of the earth their sanctuaries and will thank God for "the munitions of rocks." (Isaiah 33:16.) But many of all nations and of all classes, high and low, rich and poor, black and white, will be cast into the most unjust and cruel bondage.--The Great Controversy, 625, 626.
------------------------Troublers of The People, November 15
HB	348	1	Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, "Is that you, O troubler of Israel?"--1 Kings 18:17.
HB	348	2	Those who honor the law of God have been accused of bringing judgments upon the world, and they will be regarded as the cause of the fearful convulsions of nature and the strife and bloodshed among people that are filling the earth with woe. The power attending the last warning has enraged the wicked; their anger is kindled against all who have received the message, and Satan will excite to still greater intensity the spirit of hatred and persecution.
HB	348	3	When God's presence was finally withdrawn from the Jewish nation, priests and people knew it not. Though under the control of Satan, and swayed by the most horrible and malignant passions, they still regarded themselves as the chosen of God. The ministration in the temple continued; sacrifices were offered upon its polluted altars, and daily the divine blessing was invoked upon a people guilty of the blood of God's dear Son and seeking to slay His ministers and apostles. So when the irrevocable decision of the sanctuary has been pronounced and the destiny of the world has been forever fixed, the inhabitants of the earth will know it not. The forms of religion will be continued by a people from whom the Spirit of God has been finally withdrawn; and the satanic zeal with which the prince of evil will inspire them for the accomplishment of his malignant designs, will bear the semblance of zeal for God.
HB	348	4	As the Sabbath has become the special point of controversy throughout Christendom, and religious and secular authorities have combined to enforce the observance of the Sunday, the persistent refusal of a small minority to yield to the popular demand will make them objects of universal execration. It will be urged that the few who stand in opposition to an institution of the church and a law of the state ought not to be tolerated; that it is better for them to suffer than for whole nations to be thrown into confusion and lawlessness. . . . This argument will appear conclusive; and a decree will finally be issued against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, denouncing them as deserving of the severest punishment and giving the people liberty, after a certain time, to put them to death. Romanism in the Old World and apostate Protestantism in the New will pursue a similar course toward those who honor all the divine precepts.--The Great Controversy, 614-616.
------------------------The Gospel Commission, November 16
HB	349	1	Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.--Matthew 28:19.
HB	349	2	The events of Christ's life, His death and resurrection, the prophecies pointing to these events, the mysteries of the plan of salvation, the power of Jesus for the remission of sins--to all these things they [His disciples] had been witnesses, and they were to make them known to the world. They were to proclaim the gospel of peace and salvation through repentance and the power of the Saviour.
HB	349	3	Before ascending to heaven, Christ gave His disciples their commission. He told them that they were to be the executors of the will in which He bequeathed to the world the treasures of eternal life. You have been witnesses of My life of sacrifice in behalf of the world, He said to them. You have seen My labors for Israel. And although My people would not come to Me that they might have life, although priests and rulers have done unto Me as they listed, although they have rejected Me, they shall have still another opportunity of accepting the Son of God. You have seen that all who come to Me confessing their sins, I freely receive. Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. To you, My disciples, I commit this message of mercy. It is to be given to both Jews and Gentiles--to Israel, first, and then to all nations, tongues, and peoples. All who believe are to be gathered into one church.
HB	349	4	The gospel commission is the great missionary charter of Christ's kingdom. The disciples were to work earnestly for souls, giving to all the invitation of mercy. They were not to wait for the people to come to them; they were to go to the people with their message.
HB	349	5	The disciples were to carry their work forward in Christ's name. Their every word and act was to fasten attention on His name, as possessing that vital power by which sinners may be saved. Their faith was to center in Him who is the source of mercy and power. In His name they were to present their petitions to the Father, and they would receive answer. They were to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ's name was to be their watchword, their badge of distinction, their bond of union, the authority for their course of action, and the source of their success. Nothing was to be recognized in His kingdom that did not bear His name and superscription.--The Acts of the Apostles, 27, 28.
------------------------Truth Will Conquer The World, November 17
HB	350	1	As You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.--John 17:21.
HB	350	2	After the descent of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were so filled with love for Him and for those for whom He died, that hearts were melted by the words they spoke and the prayers they offered. They spoke in the power of the Spirit; and under the influence of that power, thousands were converted.
HB	350	3	As Christ's representatives the apostles were to make a decided impression on the world. The fact that they were humble men would not diminish their influence, but increase it; for the minds of their hearers would be carried from them to the Saviour, who, though unseen, was still working with them. The wonderful teaching of the apostles, their words of courage and trust, would assure all that it was not in their own power that they worked, but in the power of Christ. Humbling themselves, they would declare that He whom the Jews had crucified was the Prince of life, the Son of the living God, and that in His name they did the works that He had done.
HB	350	4	In His parting conversation with His disciples on the night before the crucifixion the Saviour made no reference to the suffering that He had endured and must yet endure. He did not speak of the humiliation that was before Him, but sought to bring to their minds that which would strengthen their faith, leading them to look forward to the joys that await the overcomer. He rejoiced in the consciousness that He could and would do more for His followers than He had promised; that from Him would flow forth love and compassion, cleansing the soul temple, and making sinners like Him in character; that His truth, armed with the power of the Spirit, would go forth conquering and to conquer.
HB	350	5	"These things I have spoken unto you," He said, "that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33.) Christ did not fail, neither was He discouraged; and the disciples were to show a faith of the same enduring nature. They were to work as He had worked, depending on Him for strength. Though their way would be obstructed by apparent impossibilities, yet by His grace they were to go forward, despairing of nothing and hoping for everything.--The Acts of the Apostles, 22, 23.
------------------------Help From The Holy Spirit, November 18
HB	351	1	John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.--Acts 1:5.
HB	351	2	Christ's sacrifice in our behalf was full and complete. The condition of the atonement had been fulfilled. The work for which He had come to this world had been accomplished. He had won the kingdom. He had wrested it from Satan and had become heir of all things. . . .
HB	351	3	Just before leaving His disciples, Christ once more plainly stated the nature of His kingdom. He recalled to their remembrance things He had previously told them regarding it. He declared that it was not His purpose to establish in this world a temporal kingdom. He was not appointed to reign as an earthly monarch on David's throne. When the disciples asked Him, "Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" He answered, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power." (Acts 1:6, 7.) It was not necessary for them to see farther into the future than the revelations He had made enabled them to see. Their work was to proclaim the gospel message.
HB	351	4	Christ's visible presence was about to be withdrawn from the disciples, but a new endowment of power was to be theirs. The Holy Spirit was to be given them in its fullness, sealing them for their work. "Behold," the Saviour said, "I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." (Luke 24:49.) . . . "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8.)
HB	351	5	The Saviour knew that no argument, however logical, would melt hard hearts or break through the crust of worldliness and selfishness. He knew that His disciples must receive the heavenly endowment; that the gospel would be effective only as it was proclaimed by hearts made warm and lips made eloquent by a living knowledge of Him who is the way, the truth, and the life. The work committed to the disciples would require great efficiency; for the tide of evil ran deep and strong against them. A vigilant, determined leader was in command of the forces of darkness, and the followers of Christ could battle for the right only through the help that God, by His Spirit, would give them.--The Acts of the Apostles, 29-31.
------------------------The Power of the Latter Rain, November 19
HB	352	1	Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth.--Hosea 6:3.
HB	352	2	And today God is still using His church to make known His purpose in the earth. Today the heralds of the cross are going from city to city, and from land to land, preparing the way for the second advent of Christ. The standard of God's law is being exalted. The Spirit of the Almighty is moving upon people's hearts, and those who respond to its influence become witnesses for God and His truth. In many places consecrated men and women may be seen communicating to others the light that has made plain to them the way of salvation through Christ. And as they continue to let their light shine, as did those who were baptized with the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, they receive more and still more of the Spirit's power. Thus the earth is to be lightened with the glory of God. . . .
HB	352	3	It is true that in the time of the end, when God's work in the earth is closing, the earnest efforts put forth by consecrated believers under the guidance of the Holy Spirit are to be accompanied by special tokens of divine favor. Under the figure of the early and the latter rain, that falls in Eastern lands at seedtime and harvest, the Hebrew prophets foretold the bestowal of spiritual grace in extraordinary measure upon God's church. The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was the beginning of the early, or former, rain, and glorious was the result. To the end of time the presence of the Spirit is to abide with the true church.
HB	352	4	But near the close of earth's harvest, a special bestowal of spiritual grace is promised to prepare the church for the coming of the Son of man. This outpouring of the Spirit is likened to the falling of the latter rain; and it is for this added power that Christians are to send their petitions to the Lord of the harvest "in the time of the latter rain." In response, "the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain." "He will cause to come down . . . the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain," (Zechariah 10:1; Joel 2:23.)
HB	352	5	But unless the members of God's church today have a living connection with the Source of all spiritual growth, they will not be ready for the time of reaping. Unless they keep their lamps trimmed and burning, they will fail of receiving added grace in times of special need.
HB	352	6	Those only who are constantly receiving fresh supplies of grace, will have power proportionate to their daily need and their ability to use that power.--The Acts of the Apostles, 53-55.
------------------------Come Out of Babylon, November 20
HB	353	1	Come out ofher, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive ofher plagues.--Revelation 18:4.
HB	353	2	I saw angels hurrying to and fro in heaven, descending to the earth, and again ascending to heaven, preparing for the fulfillment of some important event. Then I saw another mighty angel commissioned to descend to the earth, to unite his voice with the third angel, and give power and force to his message. Great power and glory were imparted to the angel, and as he descended, the earth was lightened with his glory. The light which attended this angel penetrated everywhere, as he cried mightily, with a strong voice, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." The message of the fall of Babylon, as given by the second angel, is repeated, with the additional mention of the corruptions which have been entering the churches since 1844. The work of this angel comes in at the right time to join in the last great work of the third angel's message as it swells to a loud cry. And the people of God are thus prepared to stand in the hour of temptation, which they are soon to meet. I saw a great light resting upon them, and they united to fearlessly proclaim the third angel's message.
HB	353	3	Angels were sent to aid the mighty angel from heaven, and I heard voices which seemed to sound everywhere, "Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." This message seemed to be an addition to the third message, joining it as the midnight cry joined the second angel's message in 1844. The glory of God rested upon the patient, waiting saints, and they fearlessly gave the last solemn warning, proclaiming the fall of Babylon and calling upon God's people to come out of her that they might escape her fearful doom.
HB	353	4	The light that was shed upon the waiting ones penetrated everywhere, and those in the churches who had any light, who had not heard and rejected the three messages, obeyed the call and left the fallen churches. Many had come to years of accountability since these messages had been given, and the light shone upon them, and they were privileged to choose life or death. Some chose life and took their stand with those who were looking for their Lord and keeping all His commandments.--Early Writings, 277, 278.
------------------------God's Answer To Satan's Charges, November 21
HB	354	1	If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God.--Revelation 14:9, 10.
HB	354	2	How is the world treating the law of God? Everywhere people are working against the divine precepts. In their desire to evade the cross bearing attendant on obedience, even the churches are taking sides with the great apostate in claiming that the law of God has been changed or abrogated. Many in their blindness boast of wonderful progress and enlightenment; but the heavenly watchers see the earth filled with corruption and violence. Because of sin the atmosphere of our world has become as the atmosphere of a pesthouse.
HB	354	3	A great work is to be accomplished in setting before the world the saving truths of the gospel. This is the means ordained by God to stem the tide of moral corruption. This is His means of restoring His moral image in humanity. It is His remedy for universal disorganization. It is the power that draws people together in unity. To present these truths is the work of the third angel's message. The Lord designs that the presentation of this message shall be the highest, greatest work carried on in the world at this time.
HB	354	4	Satan is constantly urging mankind to accept his principles. Thus he seeks to counterwork the work of God. He is constantly representing the chosen people of God as a deluded people. He is an accuser of the brethren, and his accusing power he is constantly using against those who work righteousness. The Lord desires through His people to answer Satan's charges by showing the result of obedience to right principles.
HB	354	5	All the light of the past, all the light which shines in the present and reaches forth into the future, as revealed in the word of God, is for every soul who will receive it. The glory of this light, which is the very glory of the character of Christ, is to be manifested in the individual Christian, in the family, in the church, in the ministry of the word, and in every institution established by God's people. All these the Lord designs shall be symbols of what can be done for the world. They are to be types of the saving power of the truths of the gospel. They are agencies in the fulfillment of God's great purpose for the human race.--Testimonies for the Church 6:10, 11.
------------------------Babylon's Sins Laid Open, November 22
HB	355	1	Therefore behold, the days are coming that I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon; her whole land shall be ashamed.--Jeremiah 51:47.
HB	355	2	Thus the message of the third angel will be proclaimed. As the time comes for it to be given with greatest power, the Lord will work through humble instruments, leading the minds of those who consecrate themselves to His service. The laborers will be qualified rather by the unction of His Spirit than by the training of literary institutions. People of faith and prayer will be constrained to go forth with holy zeal, declaring the words which God gives them. The sins of Babylon will be laid open. The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority, the inroads of spiritualism, the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power--all will be unmasked. By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred. Thousands upon thousands will listen who have never heard words like these. In amazement they hear the testimony that Babylon is the church, fallen because of her errors and sins, because of her rejection of the truth sent to her from heaven. As the people go to their former teachers with the eager inquiry, Are these things so? the ministers present fables, prophesy smooth things, to soothe their fears and quiet the awakened conscience. But since many refuse to be satisfied with mere human authority and demand a plain "Thus saith the Lord," the popular ministry, like the Pharisees of old, filled with anger as their authority is questioned, will denounce the message as of Satan and stir up the sin-loving multitudes to revile and persecute those who proclaim it.
HB	355	3	As the controversy extends into new fields and the minds of the people are called to God's downtrodden law, Satan is astir. The power attending the message will only madden those who oppose it. The clergy will put forth almost superhuman efforts to shut away the light lest it should shine upon their flocks. By every means at their command they will endeavor to suppress the discussion of these vital questions. The church appeals to the strong arm of civil power, and, in this work, papists and Protestants unite. As the movement for Sunday enforcement becomes more bold and decided, the law will be invoked against commandment keepers. They will be threatened with fines and imprisonment, and some will be offered positions of influence, and other rewards and advantages, as inducements to renounce their faith. But their steadfast answer is: "Show us from the word of God our error."--The Great Controversy, 606, 607.
------------------------Statesmen Won To Truth, November 23
HB	356	1	You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.--Matthew 10:18.
HB	356	2	As the opposition rises to a fiercer height, the servants of God are again perplexed; for it seems to them that they have brought the crisis. But conscience and the word of God assure them that their course is right; and although the trials continue, they are strengthened to bear them. The contest grows closer and sharper, but their faith and courage rise with the emergency. Their testimony is: "We dare not tamper with God's word, dividing his holy law; calling one portion essential and another non-essential, to gain the favor of the world. The Lord whom we serve is able to deliver us. Christ has conquered the powers of earth; and shall we be afraid of a world already conquered?"
HB	356	3	Persecution in its varied forms is the development of a principle which will exist as long as Satan exists and Christianity has vital power. No man can serve God without enlisting against himself the opposition of the hosts of darkness. Evil angels will assail him, alarmed that his influence is taking the prey from their hands. Evil men, rebuked by his example, will unite with them in seeking to separate him from God by alluring temptations. When these do not succeed, then a compelling power is employed to force the conscience.
HB	356	4	But as long as Jesus remains as intercessor in the sanctuary above, the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit is felt by rulers and people. It still controls to some extent the laws of the land. Were it not for these laws, the condition of the world would be much worse than it now is. While many of our rulers are active agents of Satan, God also has His agents among the leaders of the nation. The enemy moves upon his servants to propose measures that would greatly impede the work of God; but statesmen who fear the Lord are influenced by holy angels to oppose such propositions with unanswerable arguments. Thus a few people will hold in check a powerful current of evil. The opposition of the enemies of truth will be restrained that the third message may do its work. When the final warning shall be given, it will arrest the attention of these leaders through whom the Lord is now working, and some of them will accept it, and will stand with the people of God through the time of trouble.--The Great Controversy, 610, 611.
------------------------Know Why You Believe What You Believe, November 24
HB	357	1	I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of demons.--Revelation 16:13, 14.
HB	357	2	I saw that the saints must have a thorough understanding of present truth, which they will be obliged to maintain from the Scriptures. They must understand the state of the dead; for the spirits of devils will yet appear to them, professing to be beloved relatives or friends, who will declare to them unscriptural doctrines. They will do all in their power to excite sympathy and will work miracles before them to confirm what they declare. The people of God must be prepared to withstand these spirits with the Bible truth that the dead know not anything, and that they who thus appear are the spirits of devils.
HB	357	3	We must examine well the foundation of our hope; for we shall have to give a reason for it from the Scriptures. This delusion will spread, and we shall have to contend with it face to face; and unless we are prepared for it, we shall be ensnared and overcome. But if we do what we can on our part to be ready for the conflict that is just before us, God will do His part, and His all-powerful arm will protect us. He would sooner send every angel out of glory to make a hedge about faithful souls, than have them deceived and led away by the lying wonders of Satan.
HB	357	4	I saw the rapidity with which this delusion was spreading. A train of cars was shown me, going with the speed of lightning. The angel bade me look carefully. I fixed my eyes upon the train. It seemed that the whole world was on board. Then he showed me the conductor, a fair, stately person, whom all the passengers looked up to and reverenced. I was perplexed and asked my attending angel who it was. He said, "It is Satan. He is the conductor, in the form of an angel of light. He has taken the world captive. They are given over to strong delusions, to believe a lie that they may be damned. His agent, the highest in order next to him, is the engineer, and others of his agents are employed in different offices as he may need them, and they are all going with lightning speed to perdition."
HB	357	5	I asked the angel if there were none left. He bade me look in the opposite direction, and I saw a little company traveling a narrow pathway. All seemed to be firmly united by the truth.--Early Writings, 262, 263.
------------------------The Close of Probation, November 25
HB	358	1	Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.--Hebrews 12:28.
HB	358	2	When Jesus ceases to plead for mankind, the cases of all are forever decided. This is the time of reckoning with His servants. To those who have neglected the preparation of purity and holiness, which fits them to be waiting ones to welcome their Lord, the sun sets in gloom and darkness, and rises not again. Probation closes; Christ's intercessions cease in heaven. This time finally comes suddenly upon all, and those who have neglected to purify their souls by obeying the truth are found sleeping. They became weary of waiting and watching; they became indifferent in regard to the coming of their Master. They longed not for His appearing, and thought there was no need of such continued, persevering watching. They had been disappointed in their expectations and might be again. They concluded that there was time enough yet to arouse. They would be sure not to lose the opportunity of securing an earthly treasure. It would be safe to get all of this world they could. And in securing this object, they lost all anxiety and interest in the appearing of the Master. They became indifferent and careless, as though His coming were yet in the distance. But while their interest was buried up in their worldly gains, the work closed in the heavenly sanctuary, and they were unprepared.
HB	358	3	If such had only known that the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary would close so soon, how differently would they have conducted themselves, how earnestly would they have watched! The Master, anticipating all this, gives them timely warning in the command to watch. He distinctly states the suddenness of His coming. He does not measure the time, lest we shall neglect a momentary preparation, and in our indolence look ahead to the time when we think He will come, and defer the preparation. "Watch ye therefore: for ye know not." Yet this foretold uncertainty, and suddenness at last, fails to rouse us from stupidity to earnest wakefulness, and to quicken our watchfulness for our expected Master. Those not found waiting and watching are finally surprised in their unfaithfulness. The Master comes, and instead of their being ready to open unto Him immediately, they are locked in worldly slumber, and are lost at last.
HB	358	4	A company was presented before me in contrast to the one described. They were waiting and watching. Their eyes were directed heavenward, and the words of their Master were upon their lips: "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."--Testimonies for the Church 2:191, 192.
------------------------The Time of Jacob's Trouble, November 26
HB	359	1	Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.--Genesis 32:24.
HB	359	2	As Satan influenced Esau to march against Jacob, so he will stir up the wicked to destroy God's people in the time of trouble. And as he accused Jacob, he will urge his accusations against the people of God. He numbers the world as his subjects; but the little company who keep the commandments of God are resisting his supremacy. If he could blot them from the earth, his triumph would be complete. He sees that holy angels are guarding them, and he infers that their sins have been pardoned; but he does not know that their cases have been decided in the sanctuary above. He has an accurate knowledge of the sins which he has tempted them to commit, and he presents these before God in the most exaggerated light, representing this people to be just as deserving as himself of exclusion from the favor of God. He declares that the Lord cannot in justice forgive their sins and yet destroy him and his angels. He claims them as his prey and demands that they be given into his hands to destroy.
HB	359	3	As Satan accuses the people of God on account of their sins, the Lord permits him to try them to the uttermost. Their confidence in God, their faith and firmness, will be severely tested. As they review the past, their hopes sink; for in their whole lives they can see little good. They are fully conscious of their weakness and unworthiness. Satan endeavors to terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless, that the stain of their defilement will never be washed away. He hopes so to destroy their faith that they will yield to his temptations and turn from their allegiance to God.
HB	359	4	Though God's people will be surrounded by enemies who are bent upon their destruction, yet the anguish which they suffer is not a dread of persecution for the truth's sake; they fear that every sin has not been repented of, and that through some fault in themselves they will fail to realize the fulfillment of the Saviour's promise: I "will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world." (Revelation 3:10.) If they . . . should . . . prove unworthy, and lose their lives because of their own defects of character, then God's holy name would be reproached. . . .
HB	359	5	Though suffering the keenest anxiety, terror, and distress, they do not cease their intercessions. They lay hold of the strength of God as Jacob laid hold of the Angel; and the language of their souls is: "I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me."--The Great Controversy, 618-620.
------------------------God Is Our Defense, November 27
HB	360	1	At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble.--Daniel 12:1.
HB	360	2	When this time of trouble comes, every case is decided; there is no longer probation, no longer mercy for the impenitent. The seal of the living God is upon His people. This small remnant, unable to defend themselves in the deadly conflict with the powers of earth that are marshaled by the dragon host, make God their defense. The decree has been passed by the highest earthly authority that they shall worship the beast and receive his mark under pain of persecution and death. May God help His people now, for what can they then do in such a fearful conflict without His assistance!
HB	360	3	Courage, fortitude, faith, and implicit trust in God's power to save do not come in a moment. These heavenly graces are acquired by the experience of years. By a life of holy endeavor and firm adherence to the right the children of God were sealing their destiny. Beset with temptations without number, they knew they must resist firmly or be conquered. They felt that they had a great work to do, and at any hour they might be called to lay off their armor; and should they come to the close of life with their work undone, it would be an eternal loss. They eagerly accepted the light from heaven, as did the first disciples from the lips of Jesus. When those early Christians were exiled to mountains and deserts, when left in dungeons to die with hunger, cold, and torture, when martyrdom seemed the only way out of their distress, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ, who was crucified for them. Their worthy example will be a comfort and encouragement to the people of God who will be brought into the time of trouble such as never was.
HB	360	4	Not all who profess to keep the Sabbath will be sealed. There are many even among those who teach the truth to others who will not receive the seal of God in their foreheads. They had the light of truth, they knew their Master's will, they understood every point of our faith, but they had not corresponding works. These who were so familiar with prophecy and the treasures of divine wisdom should have acted their faith. They should have commanded their households after them, that by a well-ordered family they might present to the world the influence of the truth upon the human heart. . . .
HB	360	5	In this life we must meet fiery trials and make costly sacrifices, but the peace of Christ is the reward.--Testimonies for the Church 5:213-215.
------------------------Prayers Will Be Answered, November 28
HB	361	1	How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?--Revelation 6:10.
HB	361	2	The day of God is right upon us. The world has converted the church. Both are in harmony, and are acting on a short-sighted policy. Protestants will work upon the rulers of the land to make laws to restore the lost ascendancy of the man of sin, who sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Roman Catholic principles will be taken under the care and protection of the state. This national apostasy will speedily be followed by national ruin. The protest of Bible truth will be no longer tolerated by those who have not made the law of God their rule of life. Then will the voice be heard from the graves of martyrs, represented by the souls that John saw slain for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ which they held; then the prayer will ascend from every true child of God, "It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law." . . .
HB	361	3	From time to time the Lord has made known His manner of working. He is mindful of what is passing upon the earth; and when a crisis has come, He has revealed Himself, and has interposed to hinder the working of Satan's plans. He has often permitted matters with nations, with families, and with individuals, to come to a crisis, that His interference might become marked. Then He has let the fact be known that there was a God in Israel who would sustain and vindicate His people. When the defiance of the law of Jehovah shall be almost universal, when His people shall be pressed in affliction by their fellow mortals, God will interpose. The fervent prayers of His people will be answered; for He loves to have His people seek Him with all their heart, and depend upon Him as their deliverer. He will be sought unto to do these things for His people, and He will arise as the protector and avenger of His people. The promise is, "Shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him? . . . I tell you that He will avenge them speedily." . . .
HB	361	4	Their united prayers should ascend to heaven for the Lord to arise, and put an end to the violence and abuse which are practiced in our world. More prayer and less talk is what God desires, and it would make His people a tower of strength.--Review and Herald, June 15, 1897.
------------------------Under The Lord's Banner, November 29
HB	362	1	The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.--Revelation 22:17.
HB	362	2	As representatives for Christ we have no time to lose. Our efforts are not to be confined to a few places where the light has become so abundant that it is not appreciated. The gospel message is to be proclaimed to all nations and kindreds and tongues and peoples.
HB	362	3	In vision I saw two armies in terrible conflict. One army was led by banners bearing the world's insignia; the other was led by the bloodstained banner of Prince Immanuel. Standard after standard was left to trail in the dust as company after company from the Lord's army joined the foe and tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the commandment keeping people of God. An angel flying in the midst of heaven put the standard of Immanuel into many hands, while a mighty general cried out with a loud voice: "Come into line. Let those who are loyal to the commandments of God and the testimony of Christ now take their position. Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters. Let all who will come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty."
HB	362	4	The battle raged. Victory alternated from side to side. Now the soldiers of the cross gave way, "as when a standard-bearer fainteth." (Isaiah 10:18.) But their apparent retreat was but to gain a more advantageous position. Shouts of joy were heard. A song of praise to God went up, and angel voices united in the song, as Christ's soldiers planted His banner on the walls of fortresses till then held by the enemy. The Captain of our salvation was ordering the battle and sending support to His soldiers. His power was mightily displayed, encouraging them to press the battle to the gates. He taught them terrible things in righteousness as He led them on step by step, conquering and to conquer.
HB	362	5	At last the victory was gained. The army following the banner with the inscription, "The commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus," was gloriously triumphant. The soldiers of Christ were close beside the gates of the city, and with joy the city received her King. The kingdom of peace and joy and everlasting righteousness was established.--Testimonies for the Church 8:40-42.
------------------------Victory In The Great Controversy, November 30
HB	363	1	They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.--Revelation 22:4.
HB	363	2	But even here Christians may have the joy of communion with Christ; they may have the light of His love, the perpetual comfort of His presence. Every step in life may bring us closer to Jesus, may give us a deeper experience of His love, and may bring us one step nearer to the blessed home of peace. . . .
HB	363	3	We cannot but look forward to new perplexities in the coming conflict, but we may look on what is past as well as on what is to come, and say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." (1 Samuel 7:12; Deuteronomy 33:25.) The trial will not exceed the strength that shall be given us to bear it. Then let us take up our work just where we find it, believing that whatever may come, strength proportionate to the trial will be given.
HB	363	4	And by and by the gates of heaven will be thrown open to admit God's children, and from the lips of the King of glory the benediction will fall on their ears like richest music, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matthew 25:34.)
HB	363	5	Then the redeemed will be welcomed to the home that Jesus is preparing for them. There their companions will not be the vile of earth, liars, idolaters, the impure, and unbelieving; but they will associate with those who have overcome Satan and through divine grace have formed perfect characters. Every sinful tendency, every imperfection, that afflicts them here has been removed by the blood of Christ, and the excellence and brightness of His glory, far exceeding the brightness of the sun, is imparted to them. And the moral beauty, the perfection of His character, shines through them, in worth far exceeding this outward splendor. They are without fault before the great white throne, sharing the dignity and the privileges of the angels.
HB	363	6	In view of the glorious inheritance that may be his, "what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26.) He may be poor, yet he possesses in himself a wealth and dignity that the world could never bestow. The soul redeemed and cleansed from sin, with all its noble powers dedicated to the service of God, is of surpassing worth; and there is joy in heaven in the presence of God and the holy angels over one soul redeemed, a joy that is expressed in songs of holy triumph.--Steps to Christ, 125, 126.
------------------------Christ Could Have Come Before This, December 1
HB	366	1	Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?--Acts 1:6.
HB	366	2	If all who had labored unitedly in the work in 1844, had received the third angel's message and proclaimed it in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts. A flood of light would have been shed upon the world. Years ago the inhabitants of the earth would have been warned, the closing work completed, and Christ would have come for the redemption of His people.
HB	366	3	It was not the will of God that Israel should wander forty years in the wilderness; He desired to lead them directly to the land of Canaan and establish them there, a holy, happy people. But "they could not enter in because of unbelief." (Hebrews 3:19.) Because of their backsliding and apostasy they perished in the desert, and others were raised up to enter the Promised Land. In like manner, it was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be so long delayed and His people should remain so many years in this world of sin and sorrow. But unbelief separated them from God. As they refused to do the work which He had appointed them, others were raised up to proclaim the message. In mercy to the world, Jesus delays His coming, that sinners may have an opportunity to hear the warning and find in Him a shelter before the wrath of God shall be poured out.
HB	366	4	Now as in former ages, the presentation of a truth that reproves the sins and errors of the times will excite opposition. "Everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." (John 3:20.) As people see that they cannot maintain their position by the Scriptures, many determine to maintain it at all hazards, and with a malicious spirit they assail the character and motives of those who stand in defense of unpopular truth. It is the same policy which has been pursued in all ages. Elijah was declared to be a troubler in Israel, Jeremiah a traitor, Paul a polluter of the temple. From that day to this, those who would be loyal to truth have been denounced as seditious, heretical, or schismatic.
HB	366	5	In view of this, what is the duty of the messenger of truth? . . . Has God given light to His servants in this generation? Then they should let it shine forth to the world.--The Great Controversy, 458, 459.
------------------------God's Jewels, December 2
HB	367	1	I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.--Malachi 3:17.
HB	367	2	The eye of God, looking down the ages, was fixed upon the crisis which His people are to meet, when earthly powers shall be arrayed against them. Like the captive exile, they will be in fear of death by starvation or by violence. But the Holy One who divided the Red Sea before Israel, will manifest His mighty power and turn their captivity. "They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." (Malachi 3:17.) If the blood of Christ's faithful witnesses were shed at this time, it would not, like the blood of the martyrs, be as seed sown to yield a harvest for God. Their fidelity would not be a testimony to convince others of the truth; for the obdurate heart has beaten back the waves of mercy until they return no more. If the righteous were now left to fall a prey to their enemies, it would be a triumph for the prince of darkness. . . .
HB	367	3	When the protection of human laws shall be withdrawn from those who honor the law of God, there will be, in different lands, a simultaneous movement for their destruction. As the time appointed in the decree draws near, the people will conspire to root out the hated sect. It will be determined to strike in one night a decisive blow, which shall utterly silence the voice of dissent and reproof.
HB	367	4	The people of God--some in prison cells, some hidden in solitary retreats in the forests and the mountains--still plead for divine protection, while in every quarter companies of armed men, urged on by hosts of evil angels, are preparing for the work of death. It is now, in the hour of utmost extremity, that the God of Israel will interpose for the deliverance of His chosen. . . .
HB	367	5	With shouts of triumph, jeering, and imprecation, throngs of evil men are about to rush upon their prey, when, lo, a dense blackness, deeper than the darkness of the night, falls upon the earth. Then a rainbow, shining with the glory from the throne of God, spans the heavens and seems to encircle each praying company. The angry multitudes are suddenly arrested. Their mocking cries die away. The objects of their murderous rage are forgotten. With fearful forebodings they gaze upon the symbol of God's covenant and long to be shielded from its overpowering brightness.--The Great Controversy, 634-636.
------------------------The Shout of Victory, December 3
HB	368	1	Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us.--Isaiah 25:9.
HB	368	2	By the people of God a voice, clear and melodious, is heard, saying, "Look up," and lifting their eyes to the heavens, they behold the bow of promise. The black, angry clouds that covered the firmament are parted, and like Stephen they look up steadfastly into heaven and see the glory of God and the Son of man seated upon His throne. In His divine form they discern the marks of His humiliation; and from His lips they hear the request presented before His Father and the holy angels: "I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am." (John 17:24.) Again a voice, musical and triumphant, is heard, saying: "They come! they come! holy, harmless, and undefiled. They have kept the word of My patience; they shall walk among the angels;" and the pale, quivering lips of those who have held fast their faith utter a shout of victory.
HB	368	3	It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people. The sun appears, shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow in quick succession. The wicked look with terror and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance. Everything in nature seems turned out of its course. The streams cease to flow. Dark, heavy clouds come up and clash against each other. In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying: "It is done." (Revelation 16:17.)
HB	368	4	That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty earthquake, "such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." (Verses 17, 18.) The firmament appears to open and shut. The glory from the throne of God seems flashing through. The mountains shake like a reed in the wind, and ragged rocks are scattered on every side. There is a roar as of a coming tempest. The sea is lashed into fury. There is heard the shriek of a hurricane like the voice of demons upon a mission of destruction. The whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea. Its surface is breaking up. Its very foundations seem to be giving way. Mountain chains are sinking. Inhabited islands disappear. The seaports that have become like Sodom for wickedness are swallowed up by the angry waters.--The Great Controversy, 636, 637.
------------------------Two Special Resurrections, December 4
HB	369	1	Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.--Revelation 14:13.
HB	369	2	Babylon the great has come in remembrance before God, "to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath." Great hailstones, everyone "about the weight of a talent," are doing their work of destruction. (Revelation 16:19, 21.) The proudest cities of the earth are laid low. The lordly palaces, upon which the world's great men have lavished their wealth in order to glorify themselves, are crumbling to ruin before their eyes. Prison walls are rent asunder, and God's people, who have been held in bondage for their faith, are set free.
HB	369	3	Graves are opened, and "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth . . . awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Daniel 12:2.) All who have died in the faith of the third angel's message come forth from the tomb glorified, to hear God's covenant of peace with those who have kept His law. "They also which pierced Him" (Revelation 1:7), those that mocked and derided Christ's dying agonies, and the most violent opposers of His truth and His people, are raised to behold Him in His glory and to see the honor placed upon the loyal and obedient.
HB	369	4	Thick clouds still cover the sky; yet the sun now and then breaks through, appearing like the avenging eye of Jehovah. Fierce lightnings leap from the heavens, enveloping the earth in a sheet of flame. Above the terrific roar of thunder, voices, mysterious and awful, declare the doom of the wicked. The words spoken are not comprehended by all; but they are distinctly understood by the false teachers. Those who a little before were so reckless, so boastful and defiant, so exultant in their cruelty to God's commandment-keeping people, are now overwhelmed with consternation and shuddering in fear. Their wails are heard above the sound of the elements. Demons acknowledge the deity of Christ and tremble before His power, while people are supplicating for mercy and groveling in abject terror.
HB	369	5	Said the prophets of old, as they beheld in holy vision the day of God: "Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty." (Isaiah 13:6.) "Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty." (Isaiah 2:10.)--The Great Controversy, 637, 638.
------------------------Secure At Last, December 5
HB	370	1	And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great.--Revelation 11:18.
HB	370	2	Through a rift in the clouds there beams a star whose brilliancy is increased fourfold in contrast with the darkness. It speaks hope and joy to the faithful, but severity and wrath to the transgressors of God's law. Those who have sacrificed all for Christ are now secure, hidden as in the secret of the Lord's pavilion. They have been tested, and before the world and the despisers of truth they have evinced their fidelity to Him who died for them. A marvelous change has come over those who have held fast their integrity in the very face of death. They have been suddenly delivered from the dark and terrible tyranny of human beings transformed to demons. Their faces, so lately pale, anxious, and haggard, are now aglow with wonder, faith, and love. Their voices rise in triumphant song: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." (Psalm 46:1-3.) . . .
HB	370	3	The voice of God is heard from heaven, declaring the day and hour of Jesus' coming, and delivering the everlasting covenant to His people. Like peals of loudest thunder His words roll through the earth. The Israel of God stand listening, with their eyes fixed upward. Their countenances are lighted up with His glory, and shine as did the face of Moses when he came down from Sinai. The wicked cannot look upon them. And when the blessing is pronounced on those who have honored God by keeping His Sabbath holy, there is a mighty shout of victory.
HB	370	4	Soon there appears in the east a small black cloud, about half the size of a man's hand. It is the cloud which surrounds the Saviour and which seems in the distance to be shrouded in darkness. The people of God know this to be the sign of the Son of man. In solemn silence they gaze upon it as it draws nearer the earth, becoming lighter and more glorious, until it is a great white cloud, its base a glory like consuming fire, and above it the rainbow of the covenant. Jesus rides forth as a mighty conqueror. Not now a "Man of Sorrows," to drink the bitter cup of shame and woe, He comes, victor in heaven and earth, to judge the living and the dead.--The Great Controversy, 638-641.
------------------------God's Grace Is Sufficient, December 6
HB	371	1	God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.--James 4:6.
HB	371	2	The firmament seems filled with radiant forms--"ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." No human pen can portray the scene; no mortal mind is adequate to conceive its splendor. "His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. And His brightness was as the light." (Habakkuk 3:3, 4.) As the living cloud comes still nearer, every eye beholds the Prince of life. No crown of thorns now mars that sacred head; but a diadem of glory rests on His holy brow. His countenance outshines the dazzling brightness of the noonday sun. "And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords. " (Revelation 19:16.)
HB	371	3	Before His presence "all faces are turned into paleness;" upon the rejecters of God's mercy falls the terror of eternal despair. "The heart melteth, and the knees smite together, . . . and the faces of them all gather blackness." (Jeremiah 30:6; Nahum 2:10.) The righteous cry with trembling: "Who shall be able to stand?" The angels' song is hushed, and there is a period of awful silence. Then the voice of Jesus is heard, saying: "My grace is sufficient for you." The faces of the righteous are lighted up, and joy fills every heart. And the angels strike a note higher and sing again as they draw still nearer to the earth.
HB	371	4	The King of kings descends upon the cloud, wrapped in flaming fire. The heavens are rolled together as a scroll, the earth trembles before Him, and every mountain and island is moved out of its place. "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people." (Psalm 50:3, 4.) . . .
HB	371	5	The derisive jests have ceased. Lying lips are hushed into silence. The clash of arms, the tumult of battle, "with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood" (Isaiah 9:5), is stilled. Nought now is heard but the voice of prayer and the sound of weeping and lamentation. The cry bursts forth from lips so lately scoffing: "The great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" The wicked pray to be buried beneath the rocks of the mountains rather than meet the face of Him whom they have despised and rejected.--The Great Controversy, 641, 642.
------------------------The Special Resurrection of The Lost, December 7
HB	372	1	Hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.--Matthew 26:64.
HB	372	2	That voice which penetrates the ear of the dead, they know. How often have its plaintive, tender tones called them to repentance. How often has it been heard in the touching entreaties of a friend, a brother, a Redeemer. To the rejecters of His grace no other could be so full of condemnation, so burdened with denunciation, as that voice which has so long pleaded: "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?" (Ezekiel 33:11.) . . . That voice awakens memories which they would fain blot out--warnings despised, invitations refused, privileges slighted.
HB	372	3	There are those who mocked Christ in His humiliation. With thrilling power come to their minds the Sufferer's words, when, adjured by the high priest, He solemnly declared: "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." (Matthew 26:64.) Now they behold Him in His glory, and they are yet to see Him sitting on the right hand of power.
HB	372	4	Those who derided His claim to be the Son of God are speechless now. There is the haughty Herod who jeered at His royal title and bade the mocking soldiers crown Him king. There are the very men who with impious hands placed upon His form the purple robe, upon His sacred brow the thorny crown, and in His unresisting hand the mimic scepter, and bowed before Him in blasphemous mockery. The men who smote and spit upon the Prince of life now turn from His piercing gaze and seek to flee from the overpowering glory of His presence. Those who drove the nails through His hands and feet, the soldier who pierced His side, behold these marks with terror and remorse.
HB	372	5	With awful distinctness do priests and rulers recall the events of Calvary. With shuddering horror they remember how, wagging their heads in satanic exultation, they exclaimed: "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him." (Matthew 27:42, 43.)--The Great Controversy, 642, 643.
------------------------The Destiny of The False Shepherds, December 8
HB	373	1	Wail, shepherds, and cry! Roll about in the ashes, you leaders of the flock! For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions are fulfilled.--Jeremiah 25:34.
HB	373	2	The minister who has sacrificed truth to gain human favor now discerns the character and influence of his teachings. It is apparent that the omniscient eye was following him as he stood in the desk, as he walked the streets, as he mingled with others in the various scenes of life. Every emotion of the soul, every line written, every word uttered, every act that led people to rest in a refuge of falsehood, has been scattering seed; and now, in the wretched, lost souls around him, he beholds the harvest. . . .
HB	373	3	Ministers and people see that they have not sustained the right relation to God. They see that they have rebelled against the Author of all just and righteous law. The setting aside of the divine precepts gave rise to thousands of springs of evil, discord, hatred, iniquity, until the earth became one vast field of strife, one sink of corruption. This is the view that now appears to those who rejected truth and chose to cherish error. No language can express the longing which the disobedient and disloyal feel for that which they have lost forever--eternal life. Those whom the world has worshiped for their talents and eloquence now see these things in their true light. They realize what they have forfeited by transgression, and they fall at the feet of those whose fidelity they have despised and derided, and confess that God has loved them.
HB	373	4	The people see that they have been deluded. They accuse one another of having led them to destruction; but all unite in heaping their bitterest condemnation upon the ministers. Unfaithful pastors have prophesied smooth things; they have led their hearers to make void the law of God and to persecute those who would keep it holy. Now, in their despair, these teachers confess before the world their work of deception. The multitudes are filled with fury. "We are lost!" they cry, "and you are the cause of our ruin;" and they turn upon the false shepherds. The very ones that once admired them most will pronounce the most dreadful curses upon them. The very hands that once crowned them with laurels will be raised for their destruction. The swords which were to slay God's people are now employed to destroy their enemies. Everywhere there is strife and bloodshed.--The Great Controversy, 654-656.
------------------------The Resurrection of The Righteous, December 9
HB	374	1	For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.--1 Thessalonians 4:16.
HB	374	2	Those who would have destroyed Christ and His faithful people now witness the glory which rests upon them. . . .
HB	374	3	Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then, raising His hands to heaven, He cries: "Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!" Throughout the length and breadth of the earth the dead shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live. And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. From the prison house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory, crying: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:55.) And the living righteous and the risen saints unite their voices in a long, glad shout of victory.
HB	374	4	All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when they entered the tomb. Adam, who stands among the risen throng, is of lofty height and majestic form, in stature but little below the Son of God. He presents a marked contrast to the people of later generations; in this one respect is shown the great degeneracy of the race. But all arise with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth. In the beginning, mankind was created in the likeness of God, not only in character, but in form and feature. Sin defaced and almost obliterated the divine image; but Christ came to restore that which had been lost. He will change our vile bodies and fashion them like unto His glorious body. The mortal, corruptible form, devoid of comeliness, once polluted with sin, becomes perfect, beautiful, and immortal. All blemishes and deformities are left in the grave. Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will "grow up" (Malachi 4:2) to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory. The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be removed, and Christ's faithful ones will appear in "the beauty of the Lord our God," in mind and soul and body reflecting the perfect image of their Lord. Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood.--The Great Controversy, 644, 645.
------------------------The Translation of The Righteous Living, December 10
HB	375	1	We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.--1 Thessalonians 4:17.
HB	375	2	The living righteous are changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." At the voice of God they were glorified; now they are made immortal and with the risen saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air. Angels "gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Little children are borne by holy angels to their mothers' arms. Friends long separated by death are united, nevermore to part, and with songs of gladness ascend together to the City of God.
HB	375	3	On each side of the cloudy chariot are wings, and beneath it are living wheels; and as the chariot rolls upward, the wheels cry, "Holy," and the wings, as they move, cry, "Holy," and the retinue of angels cry, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." And the redeemed shout, "Alleluia!" as the chariot moves onward toward the New Jerusalem.
HB	375	4	Before entering the City of God, the Saviour bestows upon His followers the emblems of victory and invests them with the insignia of their royal state. The glittering ranks are drawn up in the form of a hollow square about their King, whose form rises in majesty high above saint and angel, whose countenance beams upon them full of benignant love. Throughout the unnumbered host of the redeemed every glance is fixed upon Him, every eye beholds His glory whose "visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men." Upon the heads of the overcomers, Jesus with His own right hand places the crown of glory. For each there is a crown, bearing his own "new name" (Revelation 2:17), and the inscription, "Holiness to the Lord." In every hand are placed the victor's palm and the shining harp. Then, as the commanding angels strike the note, every hand sweeps the harp strings with skillful touch, awaking sweet music in rich, melodious strains. Rapture unutterable thrills every heart, and each voice is raised in grateful praise: "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." (Revelation 1:5, 6.)--The Great Controversy, 645, 646.
------------------------The Restoration of Adam, December 11
HB	376	1	So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.--Genesis 5:5.
HB	376	2	As the ransomed ones are welcomed to the City of God, there rings out upon the air an exultant cry of adoration. The two Adams are about to meet. The Son of God is standing with outstretched arms to receive the father of our race--the being whom He created, who sinned against his Maker, and for whose sin the marks of the crucifixion are borne upon the Saviour's form. As Adam discerns the prints of the cruel nails, he does not fall upon the bosom of his Lord, but in humiliation casts himself at His feet, crying: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" Tenderly the Saviour lifts him up and bids him look once more upon the Eden home from which he has so long been exiled.
HB	376	3	After his expulsion from Eden, Adam's life on earth was filled with sorrow. Every dying leaf, every victim of sacrifice, every blight upon the fair face of nature, every stain upon mankind's purity, was a fresh reminder of his sin. Terrible was the agony of remorse as he beheld iniquity abounding, and, in answer to his warnings, met the reproaches cast upon himself as the cause of sin. With patient humility he bore, for nearly a thousand years, the penalty of transgression. Faithfully did he repent of his sin and trust in the merits of the promised Saviour, and he died in the hope of a resurrection. The Son of God redeemed humanity's failure and fall; and now, through the work of the atonement, Adam is reinstated in his first dominion.
HB	376	4	Transported with joy, he beholds the trees that were once his delight--the very trees whose fruit he himself had gathered in the days of his innocence and joy. He sees the vines that his own hands have trained, the very flowers that he once loved to care for. His mind grasps the reality of the scene; he comprehends that this is indeed Eden restored, more lovely now than when he was banished from it. The Saviour leads him to the tree of life and plucks the glorious fruit and bids him eat. He looks about him and beholds a multitude of his family redeemed, standing in the Paradise of God. Then he casts his glittering crown at the feet of Jesus and, falling upon His breast, embraces the Redeemer. He touches the golden harp, and the vaults of heaven echo the triumphant song: "Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again!" The family of Adam take up the strain and cast their crowns at the Saviour's feet as they bow before Him in adoration.--The Great Controversy, 647, 648.
------------------------The 144,000, December 12
HB	377	1	Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father's name written on their foreheads.--Revelation 14:1.
HB	377	2	Upon the crystal sea before the throne, that sea of glass as it were mingled with fire--so resplendent is it with the glory of God--are gathered the company that have "gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name." With the Lamb upon Mount Zion, "having the harps of God," they stand, the hundred and forty and four thousand that were redeemed from among men; and there is heard, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of a great thunder, "the voice of harpers harping with their harps." And they sing "a new song" before the throne, a song which no one can learn save the hundred and forty and four thousand. It is the song of Moses and the Lamb--a song of deliverance. None but the hundred and forty-four thousand can learn that song; for it is the song of their experience--an experience such as no other company have ever had. "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." These, having been translated from the earth, from among the living, are counted as "the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb." (Revelation 15:2, 3; 14:1-5.) "These are they which came out of great tribulation;" they have passed through the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation; they have endured the anguish of the time ofJacob's trouble; they have stood without an intercessor through the final outpouring of God's judgments. But they have been delivered, for they have "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." "In their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault" before God. "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." They have seen the earth wasted with famine and pestilence, the sun having power to scorch the inhabitants with great heat, and they themselves have endured suffering, hunger, and thirst. But "they shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (Revelation 7:14-17.) . . .
HB	377	3	By their own painful experience they learned the evil of sin, its power, its guilt, its woe; and they look upon it with abhorrence.--The Great Controversy, 648-650.
------------------------The Joy of the Heirs Of God, December 13
HB	378	1	Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!--Revelation 15:3.
HB	378	2	The heirs of God have come from garrets, from hovels, from dungeons, from scaffolds, from mountains, from deserts, from the caves of the earth, from the caverns of the sea. On earth they were "destitute, afflicted, tormented." Millions went down to the grave loaded with infamy because they steadfastly refused to yield to the deceptive claims of Satan. By human tribunals they were adjudged the vilest of criminals. But now "God is judge Himself." (Psalm 50:6.) Now the decisions of earth are reversed. "The rebuke of His people shall He take away." (Isaiah 25:8.) "They shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord." He hath appointed "to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." (Isaiah 62:12; 61:3.) They are no longer feeble, afflicted, scattered, and oppressed. Henceforth they are to be ever with the Lord. They stand before the throne clad in richer robes than the most honored of the earth have ever worn. They are crowned with diadems more glorious than were ever placed upon the brow of earthly monarchs. The days of pain and weeping are forever ended. The King of glory has wiped the tears from all faces; every cause of grief has been removed. Amid the waving of palm branches they pour forth a song of praise, clear, sweet, and harmonious; every voice takes up the strain, until the anthem swells through the vaults of heaven: "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." And all the inhabitants of heaven respond in the ascription: "Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever." (Revelation 7:10, 12.)
HB	378	3	In this life we can only begin to understand the wonderful theme of redemption. With our finite comprehension we may consider most earnestly the shame and the glory, the life and the death, the justice and the mercy, that meet in the cross; yet with the utmost stretch of our mental powers we fail to grasp its full significance. The length and the breadth, the depth and the height, of redeeming love are but dimly comprehended.--The Great Controversy, 650, 651.
------------------------A Study That Lasts Through Eternity, December 14
HB	379	1	And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.--John 17:3.
HB	379	2	The plan of redemption will not be fully understood, even when the ransomed see as they are seen and know as they are known; but through the eternal ages new truth will continually unfold to the wondering and delighted mind. Though the griefs and pains and temptations of earth are ended and the cause removed, the people of God will ever have a distinct, intelligent knowledge of what their salvation has cost.
HB	379	3	The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. In Christ glorified they will behold Christ crucified. Never will it be forgotten that He whose power created and upheld the unnumbered worlds through the vast realms of space, the Beloved of God, the Majesty of heaven, He whom cherub and shining seraph delighted to adore--humbled Himself to uplift fallen humanity; that He bore the guilt and shame of sin, and the hiding of His Father's face, till the woes of a lost world broke His heart and crushed out His life on Calvary's cross. That the Maker of all worlds, the Arbiter of all destinies, should lay aside His glory and humiliate Himself from love to mankind will ever excite the wonder and adoration of the universe. As the nations of the saved look upon their Redeemer and behold the eternal glory of the Father shining in His countenance; as they behold His throne, which is from everlasting to everlasting, and know that His kingdom is to have no end, they break forth in rapturous song: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His own most precious blood!" The mystery of the cross explains all other mysteries. In the light that streams from Calvary the attributes of God which had filled us with fear and awe appear beautiful and attractive. Mercy, tenderness, and parental love are seen to blend with holiness, justice, and power. While we behold the majesty of His throne, high and lifted up, we see His character in its gracious manifestations, and comprehend, as never before, the significance of that endearing title, "Our Father."
HB	379	4	It will be seen that He who is infinite in wisdom could devise no plan for our salvation except the sacrifice of His Son. . . . The result of the Saviour's conflict with the powers of darkness is joy to the redeemed, redounding to the glory of God throughout eternity.--The Great Controversy, 651, 652.
------------------------Angel Interventions Revealed, December 15
HB	380	1	Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?--Hebrews 1:14.
HB	380	2	Then will be opened before us the course of the great conflict that had its birth before time began, and that ends only when time shall cease. The history of the inception of sin; of fatal falsehood in its crooked working; of truth that, swerving not from its own straight lines, has met and conquered error--all will be made manifest. The veil that interposes between the visible and the invisible world will be drawn aside, and wonderful things will be revealed.
HB	380	3	Not until the providences of God are seen in the light of eternity shall we understand what we owe to the care and interposition of His angels. Celestial beings have taken an active part in human affairs. They have appeared in garments that shone as the lightning; they have come as men, in the garb of wayfarers. They have accepted the hospitalities of human homes; they have acted as guides to benighted travelers. They have thwarted the spoiler's purpose and turned aside the stroke of the destroyer.
HB	380	4	Though the rulers of this world know it not, yet often in their councils angels have been spokesmen. Human eyes have looked upon them. Human ears have listened to their appeals. In the council hall and the court of justice, heavenly messengers have pleaded the cause of the persecuted and oppressed. They have defeated purposes and arrested evils that would have brought wrong and suffering to God's children. To the students in the heavenly school, all this will be unfolded.
HB	380	5	Every redeemed one will understand the ministry of angels in his own life. The angel who was his guardian from his earliest moment; the angel who watched his steps, and covered his head in the day of peril; the angel who was with him in the valley of the shadow of death, who marked his resting place, who was the first to greet him in the resurrection morning--what will it be to hold converse with him, and to learn the history of divine interposition in the individual life, of heavenly cooperation in every work for humanity!
HB	380	6	All the perplexities of life's experience will then be made plain. Where to us have appeared only confusion and disappointment, broken purposes and thwarted plans, will be seen a grand, overruling, victorious purpose, a divine harmony.--Education, 304, 305.
------------------------Satan's Imprisonment, December 16
HB	381	1	He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.--Revelation 20:2.
HB	381	2	The revelator foretells the banishment of Satan and the condition of chaos and desolation to which the earth is to be reduced, and he declares that this condition will exist for a thousand years. After presenting the scenes of the Lord's second coming and the destruction of the wicked, the prophecy continues: "I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." (Revelation 20:1-3.)
HB	381	3	That the expression "bottomless pit" represents the earth in a state of confusion and darkness is evident from other scriptures. . . .
HB	381	4	Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years. Limited to the earth, he will not have access to other worlds to tempt and annoy those who have never fallen. It is in this sense that he is bound: there are none remaining, upon whom he can exercise his power. He is wholly cut off from the work of deception and ruin which for so many centuries has been his sole delight. . . .
HB	381	5	For six thousand years, Satan's work of rebellion has "made the earth to tremble." He had "made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof." And he "opened not the house of his prisoners." For six thousand years his prison house has received God's people, and he would have held them captive forever; but Christ had broken his bonds and set the prisoners free. . . .
HB	381	6	For a thousand years, Satan will wander to and fro in the desolate earth to behold the results of his rebellion against the law of God. During this time his sufferings are intense. Since his fall his life of unceasing activity has banished reflection; but he is now deprived of his power and left to contemplate the part which he has acted since first he rebelled against the government of heaven, and to look forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future.--The Great Controversy, 658-660.
------------------------Work of the Redeemed During the Millennium, December 17
HB	382	1	And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them.--Revelation 20:4.
HB	382	2	To God's people the captivity of Satan will bring gladness and rejoicing. Says the prophet: "It shall come to pass in the day that Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy trouble." (Isaiah 14:3, R.V.) . . .
HB	382	3	During the thousand years between the first and the second resurrection the judgment of the wicked takes place. The apostle Paul points to this judgment as an event that follows the Second Advent. "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." (1 Corinthians 4:5.) Daniel declares that when the Ancient of Days came, "judgment was given to the saints of the Most High." (Daniel 7:22.) At this time the righteous reign as kings and priests unto God. John in the Revelation says: "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them." "They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." (Revelation 20:4, 6.) It is at this time that, as foretold by Paul, "the saints shall judge the world." (1 Corinthians 6:2.) In union with Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute book, the Bible, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body. Then the portion which the wicked must suffer is meted out, according to their works; and it is recorded against their names in the book of death.
HB	382	4	Satan also and evil angels are judged by Christ and His people. Says Paul: "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" (Verse 3.) And Jude declares that "the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." (Jude 6.)
HB	382	5	At the close of the thousand years the second resurrection will take place. Then the wicked will be raised from the dead and appear before God for the execution of "the judgment written." Thus the revelator, after describing the resurrection of the righteous, says: "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." (Revelation 20:5.) And Isaiah declares, concerning the wicked: "They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.." (Isaiah 24:22.)--The Great Controversy, 660, 661.
------------------------The Ranks of the Redeemed, December 18
HB	383	1	Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.--Revelation 20:11.
HB	383	2	At the close of the thousand years, Christ again returns to the earth. He is accompanied by the host of the redeemed and attended by a retinue of angels. As He descends in terrific majesty He bids the wicked dead arise to receive their doom. They come forth, a mighty host, numberless as the sands of the sea. What a contrast to those who were raised at the first resurrection! The righteous were clothed with immortal youth and beauty. The wicked bear the traces of disease and death. . . .
HB	383	3	As the New Jerusalem, in its dazzling splendor, comes down out of heaven, it rests upon the place purified and made ready to receive it, and Christ, with His people and the angels, enters the Holy City. . . .
HB	383	4	Now Christ again appears to the view of His enemies. Far above the city, upon a foundation of burnished gold, is a throne, high and lifted up. Upon this throne sits the Son of God, and around Him are the subjects of His kingdom. The power and majesty of Christ no language can describe, no pen portray. The glory of the Eternal Father is enshrouding His Son. The brightness of His presence fills the City of God, and flows out beyond the gates, flooding the whole earth with its radiance.
HB	383	5	Nearest the throne are those who were once zealous in the cause of Satan, but who, plucked as brands from the burning, have followed their Saviour with deep, intense devotion. Next are those who perfected Christian characters in the midst of falsehood and infidelity, those who honored the law of God when the Christian world declared it void, and the millions, of all ages, who were martyred for their faith. And beyond is the "great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, . . . before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." (Revelation 7:9.) Their warfare is ended, their victory won. They have run the race and reached the prize. The palm branch in their hands is a symbol of their triumph, the white robe an emblem of the spotless righteousness of Christ which now is theirs.--The Great Controversy, 662, 663, 665.
------------------------The Cleansing of the Earth, December 19
HB	384	1	The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are.--Revelation 20:10.
HB	384	2	To our merciful God the act of punishment is a strange act. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live." Ezekiel 33:11. . . . While He does not delight in vengeance, He will execute judgment upon the transgressors of His law.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 628.
HB	384	3	Fire comes down from God out of heaven. The earth is broken up. The weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth. Devouring flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are on fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein are burned up. (Malachi 4:1; 2 Peter 3:10.) The earth's surface seems one molten mass--a vast, seething lake of fire. It is the time of the judgment and perdition of ungodly men. . . .
HB	384	4	The wicked receive their recompense in the earth. (Proverbs 11:31.) They "shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts." (Malachi 4:1.) Some are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many days. All are punished "according to their deeds." The sins of the righteous having been transferred to Satan, he is made to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit. His punishment is to be far greater than that of those whom he has deceived. After all have perished who fell by his deceptions, he is still to live and suffer on. In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch--Satan the root, his followers the branches. The full penalty of the law has been visited; the demands of justice have been met; and heaven and earth, beholding, declare the righteousness of Jehovah.
HB	384	5	Satan's work of ruin is forever ended. For six thousand years he has wrought his will, filling the earth with woe and causing grief throughout the universe. The whole creation has groaned and travailed together in pain. Now God's creatures are forever delivered from his presence and temptations. . . .
HB	384	6	While the earth was wrapped in the fire of destruction, the righteous abode safely in the Holy City. Upon those that had part in the first resurrection, the second death has no power. While God is to the wicked a consuming fire, He is to His people both a sun and a shield. (Revelation 20:6; Psalm 84:11.)--The Great Controversy, 672, 673.
------------------------Eden Restored, December 20
HB	385	1	Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.--Revelation 21:1.
HB	385	2	The garden of Eden remained upon the earth long after man had become an outcast from its pleasant paths. The fallen race were long permitted to gaze upon the home of innocence, their entrance barred only by the watching angels. At the cherubim-guarded gate of Paradise the divine glory was revealed. Hither came Adam and his sons to worship God. Here they renewed their vows of obedience to that law the transgression of which had banished them from Eden. When the tide of iniquity overspread the world, and the wickedness of men and women determined their destruction by a flood of waters, the hand that had planted Eden withdrew it from the earth. But in the final restitution, when there shall be "a new heaven and a new earth" (Revelation 21:1), it is to be restored more gloriously adorned than at the beginning.
HB	385	3	Then they that have kept God's commandments shall breathe in immortal vigor beneath the tree of life; and through unending ages the inhabitants of sinless worlds shall behold, in that garden of delight, a sample of the perfect work of God's creation, untouched by the curse of sin--a sample of what the whole earth would have become, had mankind but fulfilled the Creator's glorious plan. . . .
HB	385	4	Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of heaven. In the home of the redeemed there will be no tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity" (Isaiah 33:24). One rich tide of happiness will flow and deepen as eternity rolls on.
HB	385	5	The time has come to which God's people have looked with longing since the flaming sword barred the first pair from Eden, the time for the "redemption of the purchased possession" (Ephesians 1:14). The earth originally given to mankind as their kingdom, betrayed by them into the hands of Satan, and so long held by the mighty foe, has been brought back by the great plan of redemption. All that was lost by sin has been restored. . . . God's original purpose in the creation of the earth is fulfilled as it is made the eternal abode of the redeemed.--God's Amazing Grace, 360, 361.
------------------------Mansions For The Redeemed, December 21
HB	386	1	In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.--John 14:2.
HB	386	2	Christ, by His sacrifice paying the penalty of sin, would not only redeem mankind, but recover the dominion which they had forfeited. All that was lost by the first Adam will be restored by the second. The prophet says, "O Tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, to thee shall it come, even the first dominion." And Paul points forward to the "redemption of the purchased possession." God created the earth to be the abode of holy, happy beings. That purpose will be fulfilled when, renewed by the power of God, and freed from sin and sorrow, it shall become the eternal home of the redeemed.
HB	386	3	A fear of making the future inheritance seem too material has led many to spiritualize away the very truths which lead us to look upon it as our home. Christ assured His disciples that He went to prepare mansions for them in the Father's house. Those who accept the teachings of God's Word will not be wholly ignorant concerning the heavenly abode. And yet "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." Human language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous. It will be known only to those who behold it. No finite mind can comprehend the glory of the paradise of God.
HB	386	4	In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called a country. There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. There the wide-spreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God's people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home. . . .
HB	386	5	All the paternal love which has come down from generation to generation through the channel of human hearts, all the springs of tenderness which have opened in the souls of men and women, are but as a tiny rill to the boundless ocean, when compared with the infinite, exhaustless love of God.--Review and Herald, October 22, 1908.
------------------------A View of Other Worlds, December 22
HB	387	1	He made the Pleiades and Orion; He turns the shadow of death into morning.--Amos 5:8.
HB	387	2	Heaven is a good place. I long to be there and behold my lovely Jesus, who gave His life for me, and be changed into His glorious image. Oh, for language to express the glory of the bright world to come! I thirst for the living streams that make glad the city of our God.
HB	387	3	The Lord has given me a view of other worlds. Wings were given me, and an angel attended me from the city to a place that was bright and glorious. The grass of the place was living green, and the birds there warbled a sweet song. The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic, and lovely. They bore the express image of Jesus, and their countenances beamed with holy joy, expressive of the freedom and happiness of the place. I asked one of them why they were so much more lovely than those on the earth. The reply was, "We have lived in strict obedience to the commandments of God, and have not fallen by disobedience, like those on the earth." Then I saw two trees, one looked much like the tree of life in the city. The fruit of both looked beautiful, but of one they could not eat. They had power to eat of both, but were forbidden to eat of one. Then my attending angel said to me, "None in this place have tasted of the forbidden tree; but if they should eat, they would fall."
HB	387	4	Then I was taken to a world which had seven moons. There I saw good old Enoch, who had been translated. On his right arm he bore a glorious palm, and on each leaf was written "Victory." Around his head was a dazzling white wreath, and leaves on the wreath, and in the middle of each leaf was written "Purity," and around the wreath were stones of various colors, that shone brighter than the stars, and cast a reflection upon the letters and magnified them. On the back part of his head was a bow that confined the wreath, and upon the bow was written "Holiness." Above the wreath was a lovely crown that shone brighter than the sun. I asked him if this was the place he was taken to from the earth. He said, "It is not; the city is my home, and I have come to visit this place." He moved about the place as if perfectly at home. I begged of my attending angel to let me remain in that place. I could not bear the thought of coming back to this dark world again. Then the angel said, "You must go back, and if you are faithful, you, with the 144,000, shall have the privilege of visiting all the worlds and viewing the handiwork of God."--Early Writings, 39, 40.
------------------------Heaven-Granted Opportunities, December 23
HB	388	1	Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.--Isaiah 26:2.
HB	388	2	There we shall know even as also we are known. There the loves and sympathies that God has planted in the soul will find truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages, the sacred fellowship that binds together "the whole family in heaven and earth"--all are among the experiences of the hereafter.
HB	388	3	There will be music there, and song, such music and song as, save in the visions of God, no mortal ear has heard or mind conceived. . . .
HB	388	4	There every power will be developed, every capability increased. The grandest enterprises will be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations will be reached, the highest ambitions realized. And still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of body and mind and soul.
HB	388	5	All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's children. With unutterable delight we shall enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. We shall share the treasures gained through ages upon ages spent in contemplation of God's handiwork. And the years of eternity, as they roll, will continue to bring more glorious revelations. "Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20) will be, forever and forever, the impartation of the gifts of God.
HB	388	6	"His servants shall serve Him." (Revelation 22:3.) The life on earth is the beginning of the life in heaven; education on earth is an initiation into the principles of heaven; the lifework here is a training for the lifework there. What we now are, in character and holy service, is the sure foreshadowing of what we shall be. . . .
HB	388	7	In the plan of redemption there are heights and depths that eternity itself can never exhaust, marvels into which the angels desire to look. The redeemed only, of all created beings, have in their own experience known the actual conflict with sin; they have wrought with Christ, and, as even the angels could not do, have entered into the fellowship of His sufferings; will they have no testimony as to the science of redemption--nothing that will be of worth to unfallen beings?--Education, 306-308.
------------------------Beyond The Power of Evil, December 24
HB	389	1	Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.--1 Corinthians 2:9.
HB	389	2	Heaven is a school; its field of study, the universe; its teacher, the Infinite One. A branch of this school was established in Eden; and, the plan of redemption accomplished, education will again be taken up in the Eden school. . . .
HB	389	3	Between the school established in Eden at the beginning and the school of the hereafter there lies the whole compass of this world's history--the history of human transgression and suffering, of divine sacrifice, and of victory over death and sin. Not all the conditions of that first school of Eden will be found in the school of the future life. No tree of knowledge of good and evil will afford opportunity for temptation. No tempter is there, no possibility of wrong. Every character has withstood the testing of evil, and none are longer susceptible to its power.
HB	389	4	"To him that overcometh," Christ says, "will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." (Revelation 2:7.) The giving of the tree of life in Eden was conditional, and it was finally withdrawn. But the gifts of the future life are absolute and eternal. . . .
HB	389	5	There, when the veil that darkens our vision shall be removed, and our eyes shall behold that world of beauty of which we now catch glimpses through the microscope; when we look on the glories of the heavens, now scanned afar through the telescope; when, the blight of sin removed, the whole earth shall appear in "the beauty of the Lord our God," what a field will be open to our study! There the students of science may read the records of creation and discern no reminders of the law of evil. They may listen to the music of nature's voices and detect no note of wailing or undertone of sorrow. In all created things they may trace one handwriting--in the vast universe behold "God's name writ large," and not in earth or sea or sky one sign of ill remaining.
HB	389	6	There shall be nothing to "hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, saith the Lord." (Isaiah 65:25.) There humanity will be restored to its lost kingship, and the lower order of beings will again recognize its sway; the fierce will become gentle, and the timid trustful.--Education, 301-304.
------------------------The Crown of Life, December 25
HB	390	1	Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.--Revelation 2:10.
HB	390	2	It is the waiting ones who are to be crowned with glory, honor, and immortality. You need not talk to me of the honors of the world, or the praise of its great ones. They are all vanity. Let but the finger of God touch them, and they would soon go back to dust again. I want honor that is lasting, honor that is immortal, honor that will never perish; a crown that is richer than any crown that ever decked the brow of a monarch.--Review and Herald, August 17, 1869.
HB	390	3	I saw a very great number of angels bring from the city glorious crowns--a crown for every saint, with his or her name written thereon. As Jesus called for the crowns, angels presented them to Him, and with His own right hand, the lovely Jesus placed the crowns on the heads of the saints. In the same manner the angels brought the harps, and Jesus presented them also to the saints. The commanding angels first struck the note, and then every voice was raised in grateful, happy praise, and every hand skillfully swept over the strings of the harp, sending forth melodious music in rich and perfect strains. . . .
HB	390	4	Within the city there was everything to feast the eye. Rich glory they beheld everywhere. Then Jesus looked upon His redeemed saints; their countenances were radiant with glory; and as He fixed His loving eyes upon them, He said, with His rich, musical voice, "I behold the travail of My soul, and am satisfied. This rich glory is yours to enjoy eternally. Your sorrows are ended. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." . . .
HB	390	5	I then saw Jesus leading His people to the tree of life. . . . Upon the tree of life was most beautiful fruit, of which the saints could partake freely. In the city was a most glorious throne, from which proceeded a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal. On each side of this river was the tree of life, and on the banks of the river were other beautiful trees bearing fruit. . . .
HB	390	6	Language is altogether too feeble to attempt a description of heaven. As the scene rises before me, I am lost in amazement. Carried away with the surpassing splendor and excellent glory, I lay down the pen, and exclaim, "Oh, what love! what wondrous love!" The most exalted language fails to describe the glory of heaven or the matchless depths of a Saviour's love.--Early Writings, 288, 289.
------------------------Red Borders, December 26
HB	391	1	He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.--Revelation 2:11.
HB	391	2	With Jesus at our head, we all descended from the city down to this earth, on a great and mighty mountain, which could not bear Jesus up, and it parted asunder, and there was a mighty plain. Then we looked up and saw the great city, with twelve foundations, and twelve gates, three on each side, and an angel at each gate. We all cried out: "The city, the great city, it's coming, it's coming down from God out of heaven," and it came and settled on the place where we stood. Then we began to look at the glorious things outside of the city. There I saw most beautiful houses, that had the appearance of silver, supported by four pillars set with pearls, most glorious to behold, which were to be inhabited by the saints, and in which was a golden shelf. I saw many of the saints go into the houses, take off their glittering crowns and lay them on the shelf, then go out into the field by the houses to do something with the earth; not as we have to do with the earth here; no, no. A glorious light shone all about their heads, and they were continually offering praise to God.
HB	391	3	And I saw another field full of all kinds of flowers, and as I plucked them, I cried out: "They will never fade." Next I saw a field of tall grass, most glorious to behold; it was living green, and had a reflection of silver and gold, as it waved proudly to the glory of King Jesus. Then we entered a field full of all kinds of beasts--the lion, the lamb, the leopard, and the wolf, all together in perfect union. We passed through the midst of them, and they followed on peaceably after. Then we entered a wood, not like the dark woods we have here; no, no; but light, and all over glorious; the branches of the trees waved to and fro, and we all cried out: "We will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods." We passed through the woods, for we were on our way to Mount Zion.
HB	391	4	As we were traveling along, we met a company who were also gazing at the glories of the place. I noticed red as a border on their garments; their crowns were brilliant; their robes were pure white. As we greeted them, I asked Jesus who they were. He said they were martyrs that had been slain for Him. With them was an innumerable company of little ones; they had a hem of red on their garments also.--Testimonies for the Church 1:67-69.
------------------------Sharing Jesus' Glory, December 27
HB	392	1	Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me.--John 17:24.
HB	392	2	The resurrection and ascension of our Lord is a sure evidence of the triumph of the saints of God over death and the grave, and a pledge that heaven is open to those who wash their robes of character and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. Jesus ascended to the Father as a representative of the human race, and God will bring those who reflect His image to behold and share with Him His glory.
HB	392	3	There are homes for the pilgrims of earth. There are robes for the righteous, with crowns of glory and palms of victory. All that has perplexed us in the providences of God will in the world to come be made plain. The things hard to be understood will then find explanation. The mysteries of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken promises, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall know that infinite love ordered the experiences that seemed most trying. As we realize the tender care of Him who makes all things work together for our good, we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. . . .
HB	392	4	We are still amidst the shadows and turmoil of earthly activities. Let us consider most earnestly the blessed hereafter. Let our faith pierce through every cloud of darkness and behold Him who died for the sins of the world. He has opened the gates of paradise to all who receive and believe on Him. To them He gives power to become the sons and daughters of God. Let the afflictions which pain us so grievously become instructive lessons, teaching us to press forward toward the mark of the prize of our high calling in Christ. Let us be encouraged by the thought that the Lord is soon to come. Let this hope gladden our hearts. "Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." (Hebrews 10:37.) Blessed are those servants who, when their Lord comes, shall be found watching.
HB	392	5	We are homeward bound. He who loved us so much as to die for us hath builded for us a city. The New Jerusalem is our place of rest. There will be no sadness in the city of God. No wail of sorrow, no dirge of crushed hopes and buried affections, will evermore be heard.--Testimonies for the Church 9:286, 287.
------------------------Songs To Be Sung, December 28
HB	393	1	They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders.--Revelation 14:3.
HB	393	2	He that is to come says, "Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Every good deed done by the people of God as the fruit of their faith, will have its corresponding reward. As one star differeth from another star in glory, so will believers have their different spheres assigned them in the future life. . . .
HB	393	3	And the next scene is recorded, "After these things . . . I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." They sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.
HB	393	4	We must keep close to our great Leader, or we shall become bewildered, and lose sight of the Providence which presides over the church and the world, and over each individual. There will be profound mysteries in the divine dealings. We may lose the footsteps of God and follow our own bewilderment, and say, Thy judgments are not known; but if the heart is loyal to God everything will be made plain.
HB	393	5	There is a day just about to burst upon us when God's mysteries will be seen, and all His ways vindicated; when justice, mercy, and love will be the attributes of His throne. When the earthly warfare is accomplished, and the saints are all gathered home, our first theme will be the song of Moses, the servant of God. The second theme will be the song of the Lamb, the song of grace and redemption. This song will be louder, loftier, and in sublimer strains, echoing and re-echoing through the heavenly courts. Thus the song of God's providence is sung, connecting the varying dispensations; for all is now seen without a veil between the legal, the prophetical, and the gospel. The church history upon the earth and the church redeemed in heaven all center around the cross of Calvary. This is the theme, this is the song--Christ all and in all--in anthems of praise resounding through heaven from thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand and an innumerable company of the redeemed host. All unite in this song of Moses and of the Lamb. It is a new song, for it was never before sung in heaven.--Testimonies to Ministers, 428, 429, 432, 433.
------------------------Visions of Glory, December 29
HB	394	1	Holdfast what you have, that no one may take your crown.--Revelation 3:11.
HB	394	2	If the church will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all allegiance with the world, there is before her the dawn of a bright and glorious day. God's promise to her will stand fast forever. He will make her an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Truth, passing by those who despise and reject it, will triumph. Although at times apparently retarded, its progress has never been checked. When the message of God meets with opposition, He gives it additional force, that it may exert greater influence. Endowed with divine energy, it will cut its way through the strongest barriers and triumph over every obstacle.
HB	394	3	What sustained the Son of God during His life of toil and sacrifice? He saw the results of the travail of His soul and was satisfied. Looking into eternity, He beheld the happiness of those who through His humiliation had received pardon and everlasting life. His ear caught the shout of the redeemed. He heard the ransomed ones singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.
HB	394	4	We may have a vision of the future, the blessedness of heaven. In the Bible are revealed visions of the future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, and these are dear to His church. By faith we may stand on the threshold of the eternal city, and hear the gracious welcome given to those who in this life cooperate with Christ, regarding it as an honor to suffer for His sake. As the words are spoken, "Come, ye blessed of My Father," they cast their crowns at the feet of the Redeemer, exclaiming, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. . . . Honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." (Matthew 25:34; Revelation 5:12, 13.)
HB	394	5	There the redeemed greet those who led them to the Saviour, and all unite in praising Him who died that human beings might have the life that measures with the life of God. The conflict is over. Tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all heaven as the ransomed ones take up the joyful strain, Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again, a triumphant conqueror.--The Acts of the Apostles, 601, 602.
------------------------Heaven Begins In The Soul, December 30
HB	395	1	You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.--Matthew 22:37.
HB	395	2	Heaven begins in the soul, and as heavenly-mindedness increases, Christ is more and more appreciated, and finally becomes the Chiefest among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely. But as Satan is allowed to control the mind, his attributes become a part of the character of the one whom he controls, and sinners exercise themselves unto more and more ungodliness.
HB	395	3	If we would see heaven, we must have heaven below. We must have a heaven to go to heaven in. We must have heaven in our families, through Christ continually approaching unto God. Christ is the great center of attraction, and the child of God hid in Christ, meets with God, and is lost in the divine being. Prayer is the life of the soul; it is feeding on Christ; it is turning our faces fully toward the Sun of Righteousness. As we turn our faces toward Him, He turns His face toward us. He longs to give us divine grace; and as we draw nigh to God with full assurance of faith, our spiritual conceptions are quickened. We do not then walk in blindness, bemoaning our spiritual barrenness; for by diligent, prayerful searching of the word of God, we apply His rich promises unto our souls. Angels draw close to our side, and the enemy with his manifold devices is driven back.
HB	395	4	Prayer is the strength of the soul, and yet this exercise has been sadly neglected. By simple, earnest, contrite prayer, heavenly mindedness is greatly increased. No other means of grace can be substituted and healthiness of the soul be preserved. Prayer brings the soul into immediate contact with the wellspring of life, and strengthens the spiritual sinew and muscle of our religious experience; for we live by faith, seeing Him who is invisible. Neglect the exercise of prayer, or engage in prayer spasmodically, now and then, as it is deemed convenient, and you lose your connection with God. The Christian life becomes dry, and the spiritual faculties have no vitality. The religious experience lacks health and vigor. There is a growing tendency to substitute human writings and sayings for the word of God. . . .
HB	395	5	It is the grace of God alone which can vitalize and refresh the soul. The precious sure word of prophecy reveals to those who are searchers for truth, the riches of the grace of Christ.--Signs of the Times, July 31, 1893.
------------------------The Controversy Ended, December 31
HB	396	1	The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.--Revelation 22:21.
HB	396	2	The people of God are privileged to hold open communion with the Father and the Son. . . .
HB	396	3	All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar--worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of human woe and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul. With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. They share the treasures of knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon ages in contemplation of God's handiwork. With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation--suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. Upon all things, from the least to the greatest, the Creator's name is written, and in all are the riches of His power displayed.
HB	396	4	And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more people learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise.
HB	396	5	"And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." (Revelation 5:13.)
HB	396	6	The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.--The Great Controversy, 676-678.

------------------------In Heavenly Places
HP	7	1	"In Heavenly Places"--Our Exalted Privilege, January 1
HP	8	1	Getting Acquainted with God, January 2
HP	9	1	Learning of God Through His Works, January 3
HP	10	1	Love that is Measureless, January 4
HP	11	1	Gift of God's Love, January 5
HP	12	1	A Love Born of Mercy, January 6
HP	13	1	Only One Redeemer, January 7
HP	14	1	The Most Exalted Theme, January 8
HP	15	1	Righteousness Through Christ, January 9
HP	16	1	Not to Condemn But to Save, January 10
HP	17	1	Infinite Power, January 11
HP	18	1	Christ the Revelation of God, January 12
HP	19	1	A Mutual Contract, January 13
HP	20	1	A Change of Heart, January 14
HP	21	1	God's Grace Transforms the Life, January 15
HP	22	1	A Mighty Unseen Power, January 16
HP	23	1	Sure Remedy for Sin, January 17
HP	24	1	A New Creation, January 18
HP	25	1	The Shepherd's Tender Care, January 19
HP	26	1	God Has Chosen Me, January 20
HP	27	1	Cooperating With Heaven, January 21
HP	28	1	In the Hands of the Potter, January 22
HP	29	1	The Heavenly Election, January 23
HP	30	1	A Little Heaven Here, January 24
HP	31	1	Building for Eternity, January 25
HP	32	1	In Right Relation to God, January 26
HP	33	1	Fellowship With Christ, January 27
HP	34	1	Amazing Grace! January 28
HP	35	1	The Gift of Peace, January 29
HP	36	1	From Despair to Hope and Joy, January 30
HP	37	1	The Peril of Neglect, January 31
HP	38	1	Christ Exemplified God's Law, February 1
HP	39	1	Our Link with Heaven, February 2
HP	40	1	Wonderful Condescension! February 3
HP	41	1	Mystery of All Mysteries, February 4
HP	42	1	Christ Our Sacrifice and Surety, February 5
HP	43	1	A Voluntary Sacrifice, February 6
HP	44	1	Breaking the Power of Death, February 7
HP	45	1	A Friend in the Heavenly Court, February 8
HP	46	1	An Honored Guest, February 9
HP	47	1	Our Sure Foundation, February 10
HP	48	1	Under Which Standard? February 11
HP	49	1	Inestimable Treasure, February 12
HP	50	1	Abundantly Pardoned, February 13
HP	51	1	Robed in Christ's Righteousness, February 14
HP	52	1	In the Sunlight of the Cross, February 15
HP	53	1	Under Christ's Yoke, February 16
HP	54	1	Only One Pattern, February 17
HP	55	1	Abiding in Christ, February 18
HP	56	1	One with Christ, February 19
HP	57	1	True to Our Name, February 20
HP	58	1	How Much Does God Love Us? February 21
HP	59	1	"Partakers of the Divine Nature," February 22
HP	60	1	Living Abundantly, February 23
HP	61	1	"Without Offence", February 24
HP	62	1	The Happiest People, February 25
HP	63	1	Grace and Dignity in Daily Duties, February 26
HP	64	1	"More Than Conquerors," February 27
HP	65	1	The Christian's All in All, February 28
HP	66	1	"Complete in Him," February 29
HP	67	1	Let Us Ask of God, March 1
HP	68	1	Whom God Accepts, March 2
HP	69	1	Strength Through Prayer, March 3
HP	70	1	Standing in the Light of Heaven, March 4
HP	71	1	Letters to Heaven, March 5
HP	72	1	Sweet Communion with our Saviour, March 6
HP	73	1	Fervent Prayer, March 7
HP	74	1	Nothing Too Small, March 8
HP	75	1	Prayer Moves Heaven, March 9
HP	76	1	Jesus the Mighty Petitioner, March 10
HP	77	1	Asking In Christ's Name, March 11
HP	78	1	Our Access to the Father, March 12
HP	79	1	Our Personal Intercessor, March 13
HP	80	1	The Spirit's Intercession, March 14
HP	81	1	Ask in Faith, March 15
HP	82	1	According to God's Will, March 16
HP	83	1	The Secret of Spiritual Power, March 17
HP	84	1	The Silent Heart Cry, March 18
HP	85	1	Guard Jealously Your Hours for Prayer, March 19
HP	86	1	The Secret Place of Prayer, March 20
HP	87	1	"With All Your Heart", March 21
HP	88	1	Faith That Will Not Let Go, March 22
HP	89	1	The Spirit of Submission, March 23
HP	90	1	Prayer in the Home, March 24
HP	91	1	The Prayer Meeting a Precious Season, March 25
HP	92	1	The Blessings of Fellowship in Prayer, March 26
HP	93	1	A Chain of Earnest, Praying Believers, March 27
HP	94	1	Reflecting God's Love, March 28
HP	95	1	Songs of Praise, March 29
HP	96	1	Praising God Before the World, March 30
HP	97	1	Watch and Pray, March 31
HP	98	1	Angel Guards, April 1
HP	99	1	Angels in the Home, April 2
HP	100	1	Special Care for the Weak, April 3
HP	101	1	I Have a Guardian Angel, April 4
HP	102	1	Working with the Angels, April 5
HP	103	1	Angel Guidance, April 6
HP	104	1	The Act of Faith, April 7
HP	105	1	Faith Versus Sight, April 8
HP	106	1	The Dangerous Seeds of Doubt, April 9
HP	107	1	We Expect Too Little, April 10
HP	108	1	The Faith That Avails, April 11
HP	109	1	A Working Faith, April 12
HP	110	1	How Faith Works, April 13
HP	111	1	Trust Yourself with God, April 14
HP	112	1	A Test of Faith, April 15
HP	113	1	Shun Needless Worry, April 16
HP	114	1	God Cares for You, April 17
HP	115	1	Expressions of God's Love, April 18
HP	116	1	Take God's Word on Trust, April 19
HP	117	1	Battles to Fight, April 20
HP	118	1	A Nominal Faith Not Sufficient, April 21
HP	119	1	Abundant Mercy, April 22
HP	120	1	Trust in Time of Trial, April 23
HP	121	1	Trust in Times of Affliction, April 24
HP	122	1	Trust When You Have Failed, April 25
HP	123	1	Trust in Time of Difficulty, April 26
HP	124	1	Trust When You Make Mistakes, April 27
HP	125	1	The Garden of God's Promises, April 28
HP	126	1	Feelings Not a Test, April 29
HP	127	1	The Sure Anchor of Faith, April 30
HP	128	1	The Heavenly Father's Claim, May 1
HP	129	1	Our Example in Obedience, May 2
HP	130	1	Building on Christ, May 3
HP	131	1	Obedience the Test of True Religion, May 4
HP	132	1	God's Word Our Guide and Counselor, May 5
HP	133	1	The Great Standard of Right and Wrong, May 6
HP	134	1	An Audience with the Most High, May 7
HP	135	1	Joy and Consolation, May 8
HP	136	1	A Safeguard Against the Enemy, May 9
HP	137	1	The Source of Wisdom, May 10
HP	138	1	How to Study the Bible, May 11
HP	139	1	A Divine Helper, May 12
HP	140	1	Heart Work, May 13
HP	141	1	The Highest Culture, May 14
HP	142	1	The Royal Path, May 15
HP	143	1	In Touch with the Infinite, May 16
HP	144	1	The Witness of the Spirit, May 17
HP	145	1	Sanctifying Power, May 18
HP	146	1	Freedom Through Christ, May 19
HP	147	1	God's Way, Not Mine, May 20
HP	148	1	The Highest Standard, May 21
HP	149	1	Loyal to God or to Men? May 22
HP	150	1	God's Test of Loyalty, May 23
HP	151	1	"Remember the Sabbath Day", May 24
HP	152	1	Day of Delight and Blessing, May 25
HP	153	1	The Measure of Responsibility, May 26
HP	154	1	The Impress of Heaven, May 27
HP	155	1	Filled With His Fullness, May 28
HP	156	1	Weighed in Heaven's Balances, May 29
HP	157	1	A Divine-Human Partnership, May 30
HP	158	1	Blessings Unlimited, May 31
HP	159	1	Building with God, June 1
HP	160	1	The Battle for a Spiritual Mind, June 2
HP	161	1	Will Your Thoughts Bear Inspection? June 3
HP	162	1	Keeping the Heart, June 4
HP	163	1	Christ in All Our Thoughts, June 5
HP	164	1	Security in Right Thinking, June 6
HP	165	1	In Harmony with God's Mind, June 7
HP	166	1	Like Christ in Thought, June 8
HP	167	1	Dare to be Different, June 9
HP	168	1	No Partnership with the World, June 10
HP	169	1	Severed from Earthly Things, June 11
HP	170	1	Disentangled, June 12
HP	171	1	The Vital Threads of Influence, June 13
HP	172	1	A Network of Virtuous Influences, June 14
HP	173	1	The Gold of Christian Character, June 15
HP	174	1	The Gift of Speech, June 16
HP	175	1	Educating the Tongue, June 17
HP	176	1	Don't Retaliate! June 18
HP	177	1	Fragrant in Word, June 19
HP	178	1	Loyal to One Another, June 20
HP	179	1	The Power of Truthfulness, June 21
HP	180	1	Gracious Words, June 22
HP	181	1	Kind and Courteous Words, June 23
HP	182	1	No Sharp or Hasty Words, June 24
HP	183	1	Growing Up in Christ, June 25
HP	184	1	Don't be a Religious Dwarf, June 26
HP	185	1	"Unto a Perfect Man", June 27
HP	186	1	Perfect in Your Sphere, June 28
HP	187	1	Revealing Christ's Likeness, June 29
HP	188	1	Christ's Abiding Presence, June 30
HP	189	1	The Christian's Pledge of Allegiance, July 1
HP	190	1	Total Commitment to God, July 2
HP	191	1	A Temple for God, July 3
HP	192	1	Caring for the Body Temple, July 4
HP	193	1	"Our Reasonable Service", July 5
HP	194	1	The Test of Appetite, July 6
HP	195	1	The Battle for Purity, July 7
HP	196	1	Danger at Every Step, July 8
HP	197	1	Safeguarding the Moral Powers, July 9
HP	198	1	Crucifying the Flesh, July 10
HP	199	1	A Firm, Decisive "No", July 11
HP	200	1	Complete Sanctification, July 12
HP	201	1	Our Supreme Obligation, July 13
HP	202	1	Marriage a Sacred Institution, July 14
HP	203	1	The Bonds of Wedlock, July 15
HP	204	1	Counsel to a Bride and Groom, July 16
HP	205	1	Take Marriage Problems to God, July 17
HP	206	1	Keeping Love Alive, July 18
HP	207	1	The Widening Circle of Love, July 19
HP	208	1	A Message to Parents, July 20
HP	209	1	The Home a School, July 21
HP	210	1	Training Our Children for Christ, July 22
HP	211	1	Preparing for Heaven's School, July 23
HP	212	1	Influence of Godly Parents, July 24
HP	213	1	The Family Altar, July 25
HP	214	1	Pattern for Children and Youth, July 26
HP	215	1	Children the Objects of God's Special Care, July 27
HP	216	1	A Message to Children, July 28
HP	217	1	A Message to Youth, July 29
HP	218	1	On Guard Against Satan, July 30
HP	219	1	"Is My Family Prepared to Meet the Lord?", July 31
HP	220	1	We are God's Property, August 1
HP	221	1	All We Possess Comes From God, August 2
HP	222	1	The Debt We Owe, August 3
HP	223	1	A Time for Heart Searching, August 4
HP	224	1	Using Our Talents for God, August 5
HP	225	1	The Pathway of Sacrifice, August 6
HP	226	1	The Voice of Duty, August 7
HP	227	1	One Day at a Time, August 8
HP	228	1	Each in His Place, August 9
HP	229	1	Joy in Service, August 10
HP	230	1	Demonstrating Christ's Love, August 11
HP	231	1	Developing Self-Control, August 12
HP	232	1	Overcoming Selfishness, August 13
HP	233	1	Living for Others, August 14
HP	234	1	Love the Impelling Motive, August 15
HP	235	1	Self Hidden in Christ, August 16
HP	236	1	The Precious Attribute of Meekness, August 17
HP	237	1	The Measure of a Man's Worth, August 18
HP	238	1	Mercy for the Merciful, August 19
HP	239	1	Waves of Blessing, August 20
HP	240	1	Streams in the Desert, August 21
HP	241	1	God Honors the Humble, August 22
HP	242	1	Faithful in Little Things, August 23
HP	243	1	Unbending Integrity, August 24
HP	244	1	Graces to Cherish, August 25
HP	245	1	Cheerfulness Without Levity, August 26
HP	246	1	"Longsuffering with Joyfulness", August 27
HP	247	1	No Place for Discouragement, August 28
HP	248	1	Our Glorious Work, August 29
HP	249	1	Christ's Legacy of Peace, August 30
HP	250	1	Preparing to Meet Jesus, August 31
HP	251	1	The "Why" of Temptation, September 1
HP	252	1	Christ the Mighty Conqueror, September 2
HP	253	1	An Unseen Battle Over Every Soul, September 3
HP	254	1	Keep Off Satanic Ground, September 4
HP	255	1	Never Accept Satan's Dare, September 5
HP	256	1	Victory in the Mighty Name of Jesus, September 6
HP	257	1	No One Free from Temptation, September 7
HP	258	1	Perils on Life's Pathway, September 8
HP	259	1	Armed for the Conflict, September 9
HP	260	1	Resolute Will Essential for Victory, September 10
HP	261	1	As Steadfast As Daniel, September 11
HP	262	1	None Need Be Overcome, September 12
HP	263	1	Pressing Against the Current, September 13
HP	264	1	Jesus Our Advocate, September 14
HP	265	1	Under God's Discipline, September 15
HP	266	1	Tests All Along the Way, September 16
HP	267	1	The Polishing Process, September 17
HP	268	1	No Exemption from Sorrow, September 18
HP	269	1	Strength for Today, September 19
HP	270	1	When Faith is Tried, September 20
HP	271	1	Heaven's Honor Roll, September 21
HP	272	1	In the Hour of Grief, September 22
HP	273	1	Sweetness Through Affliction, September 23
HP	274	1	Clouds Will Pass, September 24
HP	275	1	Jesus Lights the Way, September 25
HP	276	1	I Press Toward the Mark, September 26
HP	277	1	"Be Strong", September 27
HP	278	1	Overcoming Power, September 28
HP	279	1	We May Triumph Gloriously, September 29
HP	280	1	The Overcomer's Reward, September 30
HP	281	1	God's Church on Earth, October 1
HP	282	1	Members of God's Household, October 2
HP	283	1	Object of God's Tenderest Care, October 3
HP	284	1	"The Apple of His Eye", October 4
HP	285	1	Fitting Up for Heaven's Mansions, October 5
HP	286	1	Loyal to the Family Name, October 6
HP	287	1	A Relationship of Interdependence, October 7
HP	288	1	One Brotherhood, October 8
HP	289	1	Helping One Another, October 9
HP	290	1	Living by the Golden Rule, October 10
HP	291	1	Help for the Erring, October 11
HP	292	1	Dealing with Evil Reports, October 12
HP	293	1	"Have Fervent Charity", October 13
HP	294	1	Strength for the Weak, October 14
HP	295	1	A Helping Hand for the Despairing, October 15
HP	296	1	Courtesy Toward All, October 16
HP	297	1	Deliverance for the Oppressed, October 17
HP	298	1	Followers of the Lamb, October 18
HP	299	1	Ever Remember Your High Calling, October 19
HP	300	1	Christlike Through Self-denial, October 20
HP	301	1	The Peril of Riches, October 21
HP	302	1	God's Prior Claims, October 22
HP	303	1	God's Plan for Support of His Work, October 23
HP	304	1	The Bible Rules for Giving, October 24
HP	305	1	Settle Your Accounts with Heaven, October 25
HP	306	1	"A Memorial Before God", October 26
HP	307	1	Where Are Your Affections? October 27
HP	308	1	Living Above the World, October 28
HP	309	1	The Church and the World, October 29
HP	310	1	"Be Not Conformed", October 30
HP	311	1	Kept From the Evil, October 31
HP	312	1	Our Mission to the World, November 1
HP	313	1	Battling Moral Darkness, November 2
HP	314	1	"Arise, Shine", November 3
HP	315	1	Light Revealed in the Life, November 4
HP	316	1	Light Bearers on the Way to Heaven, November 5
HP	317	1	Sowing the World with Truth, November 6
HP	318	1	The Most Powerful Argument, November 7
HP	319	1	No Boundary Lines, November 8
HP	320	1	Every Man Our Neighbor, November 9
HP	321	1	Before the Heavenly Universe, November 10
HP	322	1	Seekers for Truth, November 11
HP	323	1	A Work for Everyone, November 12
HP	324	1	Our Obligations to the Poor, November 13
HP	325	1	"Unto One of the Least of These", November 14
HP	326	1	To the Glory of God, November 15
HP	327	1	Undaunted Courage, November 16
HP	328	1	The Gracious Invitation, November 17
HP	329	1	Hope for Lost Sinners, November 18
HP	330	1	Where God Leads, November 19
HP	331	1	God Gives the Increase, November 20
HP	332	1	"What Manner of Persons?", November 21
HP	333	1	The Outpouring of the Spirit, November 22
HP	334	1	The Promise is For Us, November 23
HP	335	1	Deep Moving of the Spirit, November 24
HP	336	1	The Gift All May Possess, November 25
HP	337	1	Christ Accessible Through His Spirit, November 26
HP	338	1	The Latter Rain, November 27
HP	339	1	Echo the Message, November 28
HP	340	1	A World to be Warned, November 29
HP	341	1	Day of Triumph, November 30
HP	342	1	Crisis of the Ages, December 1
HP	343	1	Warning Messages, December 2
HP	344	1	A Time of Trouble, December 3
HP	345	1	"While He May Be Found", December 4
HP	346	1	Probation's Closing Hour, December 5
HP	347	1	A Work of Preparation, December 6
HP	348	1	Our Sure Defense, December 7
HP	349	1	Beware of Satan's Delusions, December 8
HP	350	1	Truth Our Safeguard, December 9
HP	351	1	A Moment of Respite, December 10
HP	352	1	The Blessed Hope, December 11
HP	353	1	Victory Over Death, December 12
HP	354	1	Children of the Heavenly King, December 13
HP	355	1	If Christ Should Come Today, December 14
HP	356	1	Would You Be Ready? December 15
HP	357	1	A Crown of Thorns--A Crown of Glory, December 16
HP	358	1	Glory Indescribable, December 17
HP	359	1	Judge of the Whole World, December 18
HP	360	1	Justice Triumphant, December 19
HP	361	1	Life or Death? December 20
HP	362	1	Too Late! December 21
HP	363	1	Confessing our Faith, December 22
HP	364	1	The Soul Winner's Reward, December 23
HP	365	1	To See the King, December 24
HP	366	1	Glories of the Future World, December 25
HP	367	1	"Come, Ye Blessed", December 26
HP	368	1	Longing for Heaven, December 27
HP	369	1	By the Tree of Life, December 28
HP	370	1	Breathing the Atmosphere of Heaven, December 29
HP	371	1	Joy Evermore, December 30
HP	372	1	Kingdom of Holy Love, December 31

------------------------"In Heavenly Places"--Our Exalted Privilege, January 1
HP	7	1	But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, ... and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-6.
HP	7	2	As God raised Christ from the dead, that He might bring life and immortality to light through the gospel, and thus save His people from their sins, so Christ has raised fallen human beings to spiritual life, quickening them with His life, filling their hearts with hope and joy.
HP	7	3	Christ gave Himself for the redemption of the race, that all who believe in Him may have everlasting life. Those who appreciate this great sacrifice receive from the Saviour that most precious of all gifts--a clean heart. They gain an experience that is more valuable than gold or silver or precious stones. They sit together in heavenly places in Christ, enjoying in communion with Him the joy and peace that He alone can give. They love Him with heart and mind and soul and strength, realizing that they are His blood-bought heritage. Their spiritual eyesight is not dimmed by worldly policy or worldly aims. They are one with Christ as He is one with the Father.
HP	7	4	Christ "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14). He made an offering so complete that through His grace every one may reach the standard of perfection. Of those who receive His grace and follow His example it will be written in the book of life, "Complete in Him--without spot or stain."
HP	7	5	"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," ... "who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3). What is there left for us to ask, that is not included in this merciful, abundant provision? Through the merits of Christ we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. It is our privilege to draw nigh to God, to breathe in the atmosphere of His presence.... Nothing short of abiding in the presence of Christ will bring peace, freedom, courage, and power.
------------------------Getting Acquainted with God, January 2
HP	8	1	Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto thee. Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart. Job 22:21, 22.
HP	8	2	From the beginning it has been Satan's studied plan to cause men to forget God, that he might secure them to himself. Therefore he has sought to misrepresent the character of God, to lead men to cherish a false conception of Him. The Creator has been presented to their minds as clothed with the attributes of the prince of evil himself--as arbitrary, severe, and unforgiving--that He might be feared, shunned, and even hated by men....
HP	8	3	Christ came to reveal God to the world as a God of love, a God of mercy, tenderness, and compassion. By the world's Redeemer the thick darkness with which Satan had enshrouded the throne of the Deity was swept away, and the Father was again manifest to men as the Light of life....
HP	8	4	Christ is saddened by the sight of men so absorbed in worldly cares and business perplexities that they have no time to become acquainted with God. To them heaven is a strange place; for they have lost it out of their reckoning. Not familiar with heavenly things, they tire of hearing about them. They dislike to have their minds disturbed in regard to their need of salvation. But the Lord desires to disturb their minds, that they may become acquainted with Him in time to accept His offer of salvation....
HP	8	5	The day will come when the awful denunciation of God's wrath will be uttered against those who have persisted in their disloyalty to Him.... But you need not be among those who will come under His wrath. We are living in the day of His salvation. The light from the cross of Calvary is shining forth in clear, bright rays, revealing Jesus, our sacrifice for sin. "We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Ephesians 1:7).
HP	8	6	God desires to restore His image in you. Believe that He is your Helper. Resolve to become acquainted with Him. As you draw nigh to Him with confession and repentance, He will draw nigh to you with mercy and forgiveness.
------------------------Learning of God Through His Works, January 3
HP	9	1	The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee. Psalm 145:9, 10.
HP	9	2	We love to contemplate the character and love of God in His created works. What evidences has He given the children of men of His power, as well as of His parental love! He has garnished the heavens and made grand and beautiful the earth.
HP	9	3	"O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! ... When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" "All thy works praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee" (Psalm 8:1, 3, 4; Psalm 145:10).
HP	9	4	Had our world been formed with a perfectly level surface the monotony would have fatigued the eye and wearied the senses. God has adorned our world with grand mountains, hills, valleys, and ranges of mountains. The rugged granite, bare mountains, also the mountains decorated with evergreens and verdure, and the valleys with their softened beauty make the world a mirror of loveliness. The goodness, wisdom, and power of God are manifest everywhere. In mountains, rocks, hills, and valleys, I see the works of divine power. I can never be lonely while viewing the grand scenery of nature. On the journey over the plains and mountains I have had feelings of the deepest reverence and awe while viewing the frowning precipice and snow-capped mountain heights.
HP	9	5	The mountains, hills, and valleys should be to us as schools in which to study the character of God in His created works. The works of God which we may view in the ever-varying scenes--in mountains, hills, and valleys, in trees, shrubs, and flowers, in every leaf, every spire of grass--should teach us lessons of the skill and love of God and of His infinite power.
HP	9	6	Those who study nature cannot be lonesome. They love the quiet hours of meditation, for they feel that they are brought in close communion with God while tracing His power in His created works.
------------------------Love that is Measureless, January 4
HP	10	1	The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Jeremiah 31:3.
HP	10	2	Those who know not God cannot by their learning or science find out God. Christ does not try to prove the great mystery, but reveals a love that is beyond measurement. He does not make God's power and greatness the chief theme of His discourses. He speaks of Him oftenest as our Father.... He desires our minds, weakened by sin, to be encouraged to grasp the idea that God is love....
HP	10	3	The father of the prodigal son is the type that Christ chooses as a representation of God. This father longs to see and receive once more the son who has left him. He waits and watches for him, yearning to see him, hoping that he will come. When he sees a stranger approaching, poor and clothed with rags, he goes out to meet him, if perchance it may be his son. And he feeds and clothes him as if he were indeed his son. By and by he has his reward, for his son comes home, on his lips the beseeching confession, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." And the father says to the servants, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry" (Luke 15:21-23).
HP	10	4	There is no taunting, no casting up to the prodigal of his evil course. The son feels that the past is forgiven and forgotten, blotted out forever. And so God says to the sinner, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins" (Isaiah 44:22). "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:34)....
HP	10	5	Heaven is waiting and yearning for the return of the prodigals who have wandered far from the fold. Many of those who have strayed away may be brought back by the loving service of God's children....
HP	10	6	Think of the Father subjecting Himself to sorrow, sparing not His own Son, but freely delivering Him up for us all.... O that we had a better understanding of His love!
------------------------Gift of God's Love, January 5
HP	11	1	For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
HP	11	2	How can we understand God? How are we to know our Father? We are to call Him by the endearing name of Father. And how are we to know Him and the power of His love? It is through diligent search of the Scriptures. We cannot appreciate God unless we take into our souls the great plan of redemption. We want to know all about these grand problems of the soul, of the redemption of the fallen race. It is a wonderful thing that after man had violated the law of God and separated himself from God, was divorced, as it were, from God--that after all this there was a plan made whereby man should not perish, but that he should have everlasting life.... God gave His only-begotten Son to die for us.... When our minds are constantly dwelling upon the matchless love of God to the fallen race, we begin to know God, to become acquainted with Him....
HP	11	3	Right here on this little atom of a world were enacted the grandest scenes that were ever known to humanity. All the universe of heaven was looking on with intense interest. Why? The great battle was to be fought between the power of darkness and the Prince of light. Satan's work was to magnify his power constantly.... He was all the time placing God in a false light. He was presenting Him as a God of injustice, and not a God of mercy. He was constantly stirring up their minds so that they would have an incorrect view of God.
HP	11	4	How was God to be rightly represented to the world? How was it to be known that He was a God of love, full of mercy, kindness, and pity? How was the world to know this? God sent His Son, and He was to represent to the world the character of God....
HP	11	5	We want to keep this perfect Pattern before us. God was so good as to send a representation of Himself in His Son Jesus Christ, and we want to get the mind and heart to unfold and reach upward.... Let yours be the prayer, Reveal Thyself to me, that in Thy matchless grace I may lay hold on the golden link, Christ, which has been let down from heaven to earth, that I may grasp it and be drawn upward.
------------------------A Love Born of Mercy, January 6
HP	12	1	I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 8:12.
HP	12	2	God's love for the fallen race is a peculiar manifestation of love--a love born of mercy; for human beings are all undeserving. Mercy implies the imperfection of the object toward which it is shown. It was because of sin that mercy was brought into active exercise.
HP	12	3	Sin is not the object of God's love, but of His hatred. But He loves and pities the sinner. The erring sons and daughters of Adam are the children of His redemption. Through the gift of His Son He has revealed toward them His infinite love and mercy.
HP	12	4	God proposes cooperation with His frail, erring creatures, whom He has placed on vantage ground. On the one side there are infinite wisdom, goodness, compassion, power; on the other, weakness, sinfulness, absolute helplessness, poverty, dependence.... Man is given the privilege of working with God in the saving of his own soul. He is to receive Christ as his personal Saviour and believe in Him. Receiving and believing is his part of the contract....
HP	12	5	The plan of redemption was arranged in the counsels between the Father and the Son. Then Christ pledged Himself to render an account for man if he proved disloyal. He pledged Himself to make an atonement which would unite every believing soul to God. He who lays his sins upon the substitute and surety ... can unite with the apostle in saying: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places." "That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 2:7).
HP	12	6	In His infinite love Christ devised the plan of salvation. This plan He stands ready to fulfill in behalf of all who will cooperate with Him. In their behalf He says to the Father, Do not impute their sins to them, but lay them on Me. Be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities remember no more. They have accepted My merits and made peace with Me.... My righteousness is theirs, and for My sake bless them with all spiritual blessings.
------------------------Only One Redeemer, January 7
HP	13	1	God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.
HP	13	2	As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour. Christ knew that He would have to suffer, yet He became man's substitute. As soon as Adam sinned, the Son of God presented Himself as surety for the human race.
HP	13	3	Think of how much it cost Christ to leave the heavenly courts, and take His position at the head of humanity. Why did He do this? Because He was the only one who could redeem the fallen race. There was not a human being in the world who was without sin. The Son of God stepped down from His heavenly throne, laid off His royal robe and kingly crown, and clothed His divinity with humanity. He came to die for us, to lie in the tomb as human beings must, and to be raised for our justification. He came to become acquainted with all the temptations wherewith man is beset. He rose from the grave and proclaimed over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, "I am the resurrection, and the life." One equal with God passed through death in our behalf. He tasted death for every man, that through Him every man might be a partaker of eternal life.
HP	13	4	Christ ascended to heaven, bearing a sanctified, holy humanity. He took this humanity with Him into the heavenly courts, and through the eternal ages He will bear it as the One who has redeemed every human being in the city of God, the One who has pleaded before the Father, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." The palms of His hands bear the marks of the wounds that He received. If we are wounded and bruised, if we meet with difficulties that are hard to manage, let us remember how much Christ suffered for us....
HP	13	5	Our Saviour bore all that we are called upon to bear, so that no human being could say, "He does not know my suffering and my trials." In all our afflictions He was afflicted....
HP	13	6	Satan declared that human beings could not live without sin. Christ passed over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell, and by a sinless life placed the human race on vantage ground, that every one might stand before the Father, accepted in the Beloved.
------------------------The Most Exalted Theme, January 8
HP	14	1	In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9.
HP	14	2	The plan of redemption, by which the merciful divine-human Redeemer rescued man from the thralldom of sin, is beyond the comprehension of men or of angels. It is indeed a mystery so surpassing, so grand, so sublime, that we can never hope fully to understand it.
HP	14	3	Christ's sacrifice for fallen man has no parallel. It is the most exalted, sacred theme on which we can meditate. Every heart that is enlightened by the grace of God is constrained to bow with inexpressible gratitude and adoration before the Redeemer for His infinite sacrifice.
HP	14	4	In His life Jesus of Nazareth differed from all other men.... He is the only true model of goodness and perfection. From the beginning of His ministry men began more clearly to comprehend the character of God.... Christ's mission on earth was to reveal to men that God was not a despot, but a heavenly Father, full of love and mercy for His children. He spoke of God by the endearing title of "My Father." ...
HP	14	5	In all the sufferings and afflictions of man there is an Eye to pity, a Heart to love. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him" (Psalm 103:13). God's tenderest care is exercised over us. He pities us in our weakness and in our sorrow. We may be despondent, even despairing; the heavy clouds of affliction may be over us; but there is light ahead. Beyond the gloom is a sympathetic, compassionate Friend, One who does not willingly grieve or afflict the children of men.
HP	14	6	In the gracious blessings which our heavenly Father has bestowed upon us we may discern innumerable evidences of a love that is infinite, and a tender pity surpassing a mother's yearning sympathy for her wayward child. When we study the divine character in the light of the cross we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness blended with equity and justice. In the language of John we exclaim: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1).
------------------------Righteousness Through Christ, January 9
HP	15	1	For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
HP	15	2	The God of justice did not spare His Son.... The whole debt for the transgression of God's law was demanded from our Mediator. A full atonement was required. How appropriate are the words of Isaiah, "It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief." His soul was made "an offering for sin." "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:10, 5).
HP	15	3	Jesus suffered the extreme penalty of the law for our transgression, and justice was fully satisfied. The law is not abrogated; it has not lost one jot of its force. Instead, it stands forth in holy dignity, Christ's death on the cross testifying to its immutability. Its demands have been met, its authority maintained.
HP	15	4	God spared not His only-begotten Son. To show the depth of His love for man, He delivered Him up for us all. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Behold Him dying on the cross. Behold Him who was equal with God, mocked and derided by the mob. Behold Him in Gethsemane, bowed under the burden of the sins of the whole world.
HP	15	5	Was the penalty remitted because He was the Son of God? Were the vials of wrath withheld from Him who was made sin for us? Without abatement the penalty fell upon our divine-human Substitute.
HP	15	6	Hear His cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34). He was treated as a sinner, that we might be treated as righteous, that God might be just, and yet the justifier of the sinner....
HP	15	7	The love existing between the Father and His Son cannot be portrayed. It is measureless. In Christ, God saw the beauty and perfection of excellence that dwells in Himself. Wonder, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth, for God spared not His own Son, but gave Him up to be made sin for us, that those who believe may be made the righteousness of God in Him....
HP	15	8	Language is too feeble for us to attempt to portray the love of God. We believe it, we rejoice in it, but we cannot comprehend it.
------------------------Not to Condemn But to Save, January 10
HP	16	1	For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:17.
HP	16	2	There are souls who are trembling in unbelief. They ask, "How can I know that God is reconciled to me? How can I be assured that He loves and pardons me?" It is not for you, dear youth, to make yourselves just with God. Jesus invites you to come to Him with all your burdens and perplexities.... Accept the promise and the provision that God has made.... Look away from self to Jesus; for in Christ the character of the Father is revealed.
HP	16	3	The blood of Christ in ever-abiding efficacy is our only hope, for through His merits alone we have pardon and peace.
HP	16	4	The character of God as revealed by Christ invites our faith and love, for we have a Father whose mercy and compassion fail not. At every step of our journey heavenward He will be with us to guide in every perplexity, to give us help in every temptation.
HP	16	5	Your reason and imagination should be touched with the life-giving power of Christ, that forms of beauty and truth may be impressed thereon. There are great and precious truths that demand your contemplation, in order that you may have a sound foundation for your faith by having a correct knowledge of God. O that the superficial, vain seeker for truth would learn that the world by wisdom, however much acquired, knew not God.
HP	16	6	It is proper to seek to learn all that is possible from nature, but do not fail to look from nature to Christ for the complete representation of the character of the living God. By contemplation of Christ, by conformity to the divine likeness, your conceptions of the divine character will expand, and your mind and heart will be elevated, refined, and ennobled. Let the youth aim high, not relying upon human wisdom, but living day by day as seeing Him who is invisible, doing their work as in the sight of the intelligences of heaven....
HP	16	7	He who constantly depends upon God through simple trust and prayerful confidence, will be surrounded by the angels of heaven. He who lives by faith in Christ, will be strengthened and upheld, able to fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold upon eternal life.
------------------------Infinite Power, January 11
HP	17	1	Who is this cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Isaiah 63:1.
HP	17	2	The only-begotten Son of God came to this world to redeem the fallen race. He has given us evidence of His great power. He will enable those who receive Him to build up characters free from all the tendencies that Satan reveals. We can resist the enemy and all his forces. The battle will be won, the victory gained, by him who chooses Christ as his leader, determined to do right because it is right.
HP	17	3	Our divine Lord is equal to any emergency. With Him nothing is impossible. He has shown His great love for us by living a life of self-denial and sacrifice and by dying a death of agony. Come to Christ just as you are.... Cast yourself wholly on His mercy. There is no difficulty within or without that cannot be surmounted in His strength.
HP	17	4	Some have stormy tempers; but He who calmed the stormy Sea of Galilee will say to the troubled heart, "Peace, be still." There is no nature so rebellious that Christ cannot subdue it, no temper so stormy that He cannot quell it, if the heart is surrendered to His keeping.
HP	17	5	He who commits his soul to Jesus need not despond. We have an all-powerful Saviour. Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, you can say, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea" (Psalm 46:1, 2)....
HP	17	6	Let us have more confidence in our Redeemer. Turn not from the waters of Lebanon to seek refreshment at broken cisterns, which can hold no water. Have faith in God. Trustful dependence on Jesus makes victory not only possible but certain. Though multitudes are pressing on in the wrong way, though the outlook be ever so discouraging, yet we may have full assurance in our Leader; for "I am God," He declares, "and there is none else" (Isaiah 45:22). He is infinite in power, and able to save all who come to Him. There is no other in whom we can safely trust.
------------------------Christ the Revelation of God, January 12
HP	18	1	For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. John 16:27.
HP	18	2	In viewing the holiness and glory of the God of the universe, we are terrified, for we know that His justice will not permit Him to clear the guilty. But we need not remain in terror; for Christ came to the world to reveal the character of God, to make plain to us His paternal love toward His adopted children. We are not to estimate the character of God by the stupendous works of nature alone, but by the simple, lovely life of Jesus, who presented Jehovah as more merciful, more compassionate, more tender, than our earthly parents.
HP	18	3	Jesus presented the Father as one to whom we could give our confidence and present our wants. When we are in terror of God, and overwhelmed with the thought of His glory and majesty, the Father points us to Christ as His representative. What you see revealed in Jesus, of tenderness, compassion, and love, is the reflection of the attributes of the Father. The cross of Calvary reveals to man the love of God. Christ represents the Sovereign of the universe as a God of love. By the mouth of the prophet He said, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee" (Jeremiah 31:3).
HP	18	4	We have access to God through the merits of the name of Christ, and God invites us to bring to Him our trials and temptations; for He understands them all. He would not have us pour out our woes to human ears. Through the blood of Christ we may come to the throne of grace and find grace to help in time of need. We may come with assurance, saying, "My acceptance is in the Beloved." "For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him" (Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 3:12).
HP	18	5	As an earthly parent encourages his child to come to him at all times, so the Lord encourages us to lay before Him our wants and perplexities, our gratitude and love. Every promise is sure. Jesus is our Surety and Mediator, and has placed at our command every resource, that we may have a perfect character.
------------------------A Mutual Contract, January 13
HP	19	1	But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.
HP	19	2	Salvation is secured by a mutual contract. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." Will you, with all your heart and mind and soul, enter into this contract?
HP	19	3	Look to your Redeemer in faith and loving trust, for power and wisdom to do the work of character building. He sits as a refiner, to purify the gold and silver from all dross. Then look continually unto Him, and no cheap or worthless material will be brought into the structure of your character building.
HP	19	4	By faith you may accept the merits of the blood of the Son of God, which He has shed that the sinner might not perish, but have everlasting life. God has laid upon Him all power, that He may impart help to every one who will break with Satan and acknowledge Christ as his only hope.... When you are ready to cooperate with Him who can keep you from falling, your resolutions will be of some value. Christ, the chief Healer, will make you whole. He works mightily with every one who is in earnest. He will give strength and victory. All the mean and wicked traits of character can be taken away by the One who has purchased you as His property....
HP	19	5	Make a break with the enemy. Cast yourselves loose from the prince of the power of the air and from the legion of his associates.
HP	19	6	Satan will resist the efforts of those who choose to stand on the Lord's side. He will resort to every kind of deception to frustrate their efforts. But God has given His Son to bear the sins of those who seek His truth and righteousness. He stands ready to impart grace to every one who looks to Him in faith....
HP	19	7	The exercise of faith and manly courage will enlarge the comprehension of what it means to be a Christian. We are to seek for that faith which works by love and purifies the soul. We shall have severe conflicts with our hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil. There must be a firm dependence upon the Captain of our salvation. He will not fail to do His part.
------------------------A Change of Heart, January 14
HP	20	1	Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 3:19.
HP	20	2	In order to be saved, we must know by experience the meaning of true conversion. It is a fearful mistake for men and women to go on day by day professing to be Christians yet having no right to the name. In God's sight profession is nothing, position is nothing. He asks, Is the life in harmony with My precepts? There are many who suppose that they are converted but who are not able to bear the test of character presented in the Word of God....
HP	20	3	Conversion is a change of heart, a turning from unrighteousness to righteousness. Relying upon the merits of Christ, exercising true faith in Him, the repentant sinner receives pardon for sin. As he ceases to do evil and learns to do well, he grows in grace and in the knowledge of God. He sees that in order to follow Jesus he must separate from the world, and after counting the cost, he looks upon all as loss if he may but win Christ. He enlists in His army and bravely and cheerfully engages in the warfare, fighting against natural inclinations and selfish desires and bringing the will into subjection to the will of Christ. Daily he seeks the Lord for grace, and he is strengthened and helped. Self once reigned in his heart, and worldly pleasure was his delight. Now self is dethroned, and God reigns supreme. His life reveals the fruit of righteousness. The sins he once loved he now hates. Firmly and resolutely he follows in the path of holiness. This is genuine conversion....
HP	20	4	Let us not forget that in his conversion and sanctification man must cooperate with God. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," the Word declares. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12, 13). Man cannot transform himself by the exercise of his will. He possesses no power by which this change may be affected. The renewing energy must come from God. The change can be made only by the Holy Spirit. He who would be saved, high or low, rich or poor, must submit to the working of this power.
------------------------God's Grace Transforms the Life, January 15
HP	21	1	Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. John 3:7.
HP	21	2	The great truth of the conversion of the heart by the Holy Spirit is presented in Christ's words to Nicodemus: "Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born from above [margin], he cannot see the kingdom of God.... That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:3-6).
HP	21	3	It is by the renewing of the heart that the grace of God works to transform the life. No mere external change is sufficient to bring us into harmony with God. There are many who try to reform by correcting this bad habit or that bad habit, and they hope in this way to become Christians, but they are beginning in the wrong place. Our first work is with the heart....
HP	21	4	The leaven of truth works secretly, silently, steadily, to transform the soul. The natural inclinations are softened and subdued. New thoughts, new feelings, new motives, are implanted. A new standard of character is set up--the life of Christ. The mind is changed; the faculties are aroused to action in new lines. Man is not endowed with new faculties, but the faculties he has are sanctified. The conscience is awakened.
HP	21	5	The Scriptures are the great agency in this transformation of character. Christ prayed, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17). If studied and obeyed, the Word of God works in the heart, subduing every unholy attribute. The Holy Spirit comes to convict of sin, and the faith that springs up in the heart works by love to Christ, conforming us, body, soul, and spirit, to His will.
HP	21	6	A man sees his danger. He sees that he needs a change of character, a change of heart. He is stirred; his fears are aroused. The Spirit of God is working in him, and with fear and trembling he works for himself, seeking to find out his defects of character and to see what he can do to bring about the needed change in his life.... He confesses his sins to God, and if he has injured anyone, he confesses the wrong to the one he has injured.... He acts in harmony with the Spirit's working, and his conversion is genuine.
------------------------A Mighty Unseen Power, January 16
HP	22	1	The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit. John 3:8.
HP	22	2	The Holy Spirit strives with every man. It is the voice of God speaking to the soul.
HP	22	3	No human reasoning of the most learned man can define the operations of the Holy Spirit upon human minds and characters, yet they can see the effects upon the life and actions....
HP	22	4	Though we cannot see the Spirit of God, we know that men who have been dead in trespasses and sins become convicted and converted under its operations. The thoughtless and wayward become serious. The hardened repent of their sins, and the faithless believe. The gambler, the drunkard, the licentious, become steady, sober, and pure. The rebellious and obstinate become meek and Christlike.
HP	22	5	When we see these changes in the character, we may be assured that the converting power of God has transformed the entire man. We saw not the Holy Spirit, but we saw the evidence of its work on the changed character of those who were hardened and obdurate sinners. As the wind moves in its force upon the lofty trees and brings them down, so the Holy Spirit can work upon human hearts, and no finite man can circumscribe the work of God....
HP	22	6	You cannot see the operating agency, but you can see its effects.
HP	22	7	Those who not only hear but do the words of Christ, make manifest in character the operation of the Holy Spirit. The result of the internal operation of the Holy Spirit is demonstrated in the outward conduct. The life of the Christian is hid with Christ in God, and God acknowledges those who are His, declaring, "Ye are my witnesses." They testify that divine power is influencing their hearts and shaping their conduct. Their works give evidence that the Spirit is moving upon the inward man; those who are associated with them are convinced that they are making Jesus Christ their pattern.
HP	22	8	Those who are in connection with God are channels for the power of the Holy Spirit.... The inner life of the soul will reveal itself in the outward conduct.
------------------------Sure Remedy for Sin, January 17
HP	23	1	Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isaiah 1:18.
HP	23	2	That which should cause us the deepest joy is the fact that God forgives sin. If we take Him at His word and forsake our sins, He is ready and willing to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He will give us a pure heart and the abiding presence of His Spirit, for Jesus lives to intercede for us. But ... spiritual things are spiritually discerned. It is a living, active, abiding faith that discerns the will of God, that appropriates the promises, and profits by the truths of His word. It is not because we are righteous, but because we are dependent, faulty, erring, and helpless ourselves, that we must rely upon Christ's righteousness, and not upon our own.
HP	23	3	When you receive the words of Christ as if they were addressed to you personally, when each applies the truth to himself as if he were the only sinner on the face of the earth for whom Christ died, you will learn to claim by faith the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour....
HP	23	4	Many feel that their faults of character make it impossible for them to meet the standard that Christ has erected, but all that such ones have to do is to humble themselves at every step under the mighty hand of God. Christ does not estimate the man by the amount of work he does, but by the spirit in which the work is performed.
HP	23	5	When He sees men lifting the burdens, trying to carry them in lowliness of mind, with distrust of self and with reliance upon Him, He adds to their work His perfection and sufficiency, and it is accepted of the Father. We are accepted in the Beloved. The sinner's defects are covered by the perfection and fullness of the Lord our Righteousness. Those who with sincere will, with contrite heart, are putting forth humble efforts to live up to the requirements of God, are looked upon by the Father with pitying, tender love; He regards such as obedient children, and the righteousness of Christ is imputed unto them.
------------------------A New Creation, January 18
HP	24	1	Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10.
HP	24	2	[From a letter of personal appeal.] Let your cry be to God, Convert my inmost soul. Plead with God for the transforming power of His grace. Hold fast to your Saviour as did Jacob, until God shall not only reveal to you yourself but shall reveal to you Himself and you shall see in Jesus a strength and support, a brightness and power, you have never sensed and realized. Your soul's salvation is in great peril, and now do not, I plead with you, deceive your own soul. If your faith perseveringly grasps the promises, you will prevail. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
HP	24	3	As long as you are true to yourself, no adverse power of earth or hell will be able to destroy your peace or interrupt your communion with God. If you fear God you need not walk in uncertainty. If you please Him you will secure everything which your soul requires. The language of an eminent Christian was, "There is nothing in the universe I fear but that I shall not know all my duty, or shall fail to do it." ...
HP	24	4	Stand up for Jesus, though it may require any sacrifice, any self-denial. Stand up for Jesus; anywhere, anywhere, stand up for Jesus. Do all your work as though you could see through the veil and God's eye were directed full upon you, taking cognizance of every action. He hath purchased you with His own blood, and when you need His help, call upon Him and you will have it. It is then Jesus will stand up for you.
HP	24	5	Let your short, uncertain life be a continual preparation for the future immortal life. Temptation is allowed to come upon us to discover the character we possess and to improve our defects. There are continual solicitations to sin which are disguised to deceive and allure the soul to ruin. Satan will transform himself into an angel of light, and he is constantly plotting to rob God of His glory in the destruction of souls. I beseech of you for your soul's sake to resist the devil that he may flee from you. Hang your helpless soul on God.
------------------------The Shepherd's Tender Care, January 19
HP	25	1	I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Luke 15:7.
HP	25	2	The beautiful parable that Christ gave of the one lost sheep, of the shepherd that left the ninety and nine to go in search of that which was lost, illustrates the care of the great Shepherd. He did not look carelessly over the sheep of the fold, and say, "I have ninety and nine, and it will cost me too much trouble to go in search of the straying one; let him come back, and I will open the door of the sheepfold and let him in; but I cannot go after him." No.... He counts and recounts the flock, and when he is certain that one sheep is lost, he slumbereth not. He leaves the ninety and nine within the fold; however dark and tempestuous the night, however perilous and unpleasant the way, however long and tedious the search, he does not weary, he does not falter, until the lost is found.
HP	25	3	But when it is found, does he act indifferently? Does he call the sheep, and command the straying one to follow him? Does he threaten and beat it, or drive it before him, recounting the bitterness and discomfiture and anxiety that he has had on its account? No; he lays the weary, exhausted, wandering sheep on his shoulder, and ... returns it to the fold. His gratitude finds expression in melodious songs of rejoicing, and heavenly choirs respond to the shepherd's note of joy.... For "joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance." Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine" (John 10:14). Just as a shepherd of earth knows his sheep, so does the chief Shepherd know His flock that are scattered throughout the whole world.... "And ye, my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God" (Ezekiel 34:31).
HP	25	4	However lowly, however elevated we may be, whether we are in the shadow of adversity or in the sunshine of prosperity, we are His sheep, the flock of His pasture, and under the care of the chief Shepherd.
------------------------God Has Chosen Me, January 20
HP	26	1	God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. 2 Thessalonians 2:13.
HP	26	2	In this text the two agencies in the salvation of man are revealed--the divine influence, the strong, living faith of those who follow Christ....
HP	26	3	Sanctification is the work, not of a day or of a year, but of a lifetime. The struggle for conquest over self, for holiness and heaven, is a lifelong struggle.... Paul's sanctification was the result of a constant conflict with self. He said, "I die daily" (1 Corinthians 15:31).... It is by unceasing endeavor that we maintain the victory over the temptations of Satan. Christian integrity must be sought with resistless energy, and maintained with a resolute fixedness of purpose.
HP	26	4	There is a science of Christianity to be mastered--a science as much deeper, broader, higher, than any human science as the heavens are higher than the earth. The mind is to be disciplined, educated, trained; for we are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination. There are hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil that must be overcome. Our hearts must be educated to become steadfast in God. We are to form habits of thought that will enable us to resist temptation. By a life of holy endeavor and firm adherence to the right the children of God are to seal their destiny....
HP	26	5	The word that was spoken to Jesus at the Jordan embraces humanity. God spoke to Jesus as our representative. With all our sins and weaknesses, we are not cast aside as worthless. "He hath made us accepted in the beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). The glory that rested upon Christ is a pledge of the love of God for us. It tells us of the power of prayer--how the human voice may reach the ear of God and our petitions find acceptance in the courts of heaven.... The light which fell from the open portals upon the head of our Saviour will fall upon us as we pray for help to resist temptation. The voice which spoke to Jesus says to every believing soul, "This is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased."
------------------------Cooperating With Heaven, January 21
HP	27	1	Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12, 13.
HP	27	2	Man, in the work of saving of the soul, is wholly dependent upon God. He cannot of himself move one step toward Christ unless the Spirit of God draws him, and this drawing is ever, and will continue until man grieves the Holy Ghost by his persistent refusal....
HP	27	3	The Spirit is constantly showing to the soul glimpses of the things of God, and then a divine presence seems to hover near, and if the mind responds, if the door of the heart is opened, Jesus abides with the human agent....
HP	27	4	The Spirit of God does not propose to do our part, either in the willing or the doing.... As soon as we incline our will to harmonize with God's will, the grace of Christ stands ready to cooperate with the human agent; but it will not be the substitute to do our work independent of our resolving and decidedly acting. Therefore it is not the abundance of light, and evidence piled upon evidence, that will convert the soul. It is only the human agent accepting the light, arousing the energies of the will, realizing and acknowledging that which he knows is righteousness and truth, and thus cooperating with the heavenly ministrations appointed of God in the saving of the soul.
HP	27	5	If the sinner or the backslider settles himself in disobedience and sin, the light may flash from heaven all about him, ... without breaking the bewitching power of falsehood and the spell of the world's deception....
HP	27	6	Obey not the voice of the deceiver, which is in harmony with the unsanctified will, but obey the impulse that God has given.... Everything is at stake. Will the human agent cooperate with the divine "to will and to do"? If man places his will on God's side, fully surrendering self to God's will, the high and holy endeavor of the human agent takes down the obstruction he himself has erected, the rubbish is cleared away from the door of the heart, the defiance barricading the soul is broken down. The door of the heart is opened and Jesus enters, to abide as a welcome guest.
------------------------In the Hands of the Potter, January 22
HP	28	1	But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Isaiah 64:8.
HP	28	2	In His Word God compares Himself to a potter and His people to the clay. His work is to mold and fashion them after His own similitude. The lesson they are to learn is the lesson of submission. Self is not to be made prominent. If due attention is given to the divine instruction, if self is surrendered to the divine will, the hand of the Potter will produce a shapely vessel.
HP	28	3	The excellence of a genuine connection with Christ comes with obedience to the words, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me...." The worker who has this experience has an intense longing to know the fullness of the love that passes knowledge. His capacity to enjoy the love of God constantly increases. Learning daily in the school of Christ he has a constantly increasing capacity to grasp the meaning of the sublime truths that are as far-reaching as eternity....
HP	28	4	He realizes that he is material with which God is working, and that he must be passive in the Master's hands. Trials come to him, for unless tested by trial and disappointment he would never know his lack of wisdom and experience.
HP	28	5	If he seeks the Lord with humility and trust, every trial will work for his good. He may sometimes seem to fail, but his supposed failure to reach the place where he hoped to stand may be God's way of bringing his advancement. He thinks that he has failed, but his supposed failure means a better knowledge of himself and a firmer trust in God.... He may make mistakes, but he learns not to repeat these mistakes. United with Christ, the True Vine, he is enabled to bear fruit to the glory of God....
HP	28	6	The Lord desires us to be meek and lowly and contrite, yet filled with the assurance that comes from a knowledge of the will of God. He "hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.... Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace ..." (2 Timothy 1:7-9).
------------------------The Heavenly Election, January 23
HP	29	1	Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. 2 Peter 1:10.
HP	29	2	This is the only election regarding which the Bible speaks. Fallen in sin, we may become partakers of the divine nature and attain to a knowledge far in advance of any scientific learning. By partaking of the flesh and the blood of our crucified Lord, we shall gain life eternal. In the sixth of John we read: "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life" (John 6:54). "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (verse 63).
HP	29	3	None need lose eternal life. Everyone who chooses daily to learn of the heavenly Teacher will make his calling and election sure. Let us humble our hearts before God and follow on to know Him whom to know aright is life eternal.
HP	29	4	"Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:10, 11).
HP	29	5	Here are your life-insurance papers. This is not an insurance policy the value of which someone else will receive after your death; it is a policy that assures you a life measuring with the life of God--even eternal life. O what an assurance! what a hope! Let us ever reveal to the world that we are seeking for a better country, even a heavenly. Heaven has been made for us, and we want a part in it. We cannot afford to allow anything to separate us from God and heaven. In this life we must be partakers of the divine nature. Brethren and sisters, you have only one life to live. O let it be a life of virtue, a life hid with Christ in God!
HP	29	6	Unitedly we are to help one another gain perfection of character. To this end, we are to cease all criticism. Onward and still onward we may advance toward perfection, until at last there will be ministered unto us an abundant entrance into the heavenly kingdom.
------------------------A Little Heaven Here, January 24
HP	30	1	Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Zephaniah 2:3.
HP	30	2	In view of what is soon to come upon the earth, I entreat you, brethren and sisters, to walk before God in all meekness and lowliness of mind, remembering the care that Jesus has for you. All the meek of the earth are exhorted to seek Him.... Let self break in pieces before God. It is hard to do this; but we are warned to fall upon the Rock and be broken, else it will fall upon us, and grind us to powder. It is to the humble in heart that Jesus speaks; His everlasting arms encircle them, and He will not leave them to perish by the hands of the wicked.
HP	30	3	What is it to be a Christian? It is to be Christlike; it is to do the works of Christ. Some fail on one point, some on another. Some are naturally impatient. Satan understands their weakness and manages to overcome them again and again. But let none be discouraged by this. Whenever little annoyances and trials arise, ask God in silent prayer to give you strength and grace to bear them patiently. There is a power in silence; do not speak a word until you have sent up your petition to the God of heaven. If you will always do this, you will soon overcome your hasty temper, and you will have a little heaven here to go to heaven in.
HP	30	4	God wants His people to cleanse their hands and purify their hearts. Will it make them unhappy to do this? Will it bring unhappiness into their families if they are kind and patient, courteous and forbearing? Far from it. The kindness they manifest toward their families will be reflected upon themselves. This is the work that should be carried forward in the home. If the members of a family are not prepared to dwell in peace here, they are not prepared to dwell in the family that shall gather around the great white throne....
HP	30	5	We must seek to separate sin from us, relying upon the merits of the blood of Christ; and then in the day of affliction, when the enemy presses us, we shall walk among the angels. They will be like a wall of fire about us, and we shall one day walk with them in the city of God.
------------------------Building for Eternity, January 25
HP	31	1	That ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Colossians 4:12.
HP	31	2	The Infinite One--He who alone was able to bring order and beauty out of the chaos and confusion of nature's darkness--is able to subdue the rebellious heart of man and bring his life into conformity to the divine will. His Spirit can quell man's rebellious temper....
HP	31	3	Day by day we are building characters, and we are building for eternity. God desires us in our lives to give the people of the world an example of what they should be and of what they can be through obedience to the gospel of Christ. Let us place ourselves in God's hands, to be dealt with as He sees best.... "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9). If we build in cooperation with Him, the structure that we rear will day by day grow more beautiful and more symmetrical under the hand of the Master Builder, and through all eternity it will endure.
HP	31	4	Sanctification is a progressive work. It is a continuous work, leading human beings higher and still higher. It does not leave love behind, but brings it into the life as the very essence of Christianity.
HP	31	5	Christ says to us, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). He is our example. During His life on earth He was ever kind and gentle. His influence was ever fragrant, for in Him dwelt perfect love. He was never sour and unapproachable, and He never compromised with wrong to obtain favor. If we have His righteousness, we shall be like Him in gentleness, in forbearance, in unselfish love. Shall we not, by dwelling in the sunshine of His presence, become mellowed by His grace?
HP	31	6	Let us honor our profession of faith. Let us adorn our lives with beautiful traits of character. Harshness of speech and action is not of Christ, but of Satan. Shall we, by clinging to our imperfections and deformities, make Christ ashamed of us? His grace is promised to us. If we will receive it, it will beautify our lives.... Deformity will be exchanged for goodness, perfection. Our lives will be adorned with the graces that made Christ's life so beautiful.
------------------------In Right Relation to God, January 26
HP	32	1	Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:23.
HP	32	2	Consider the familiar relation Christ here brings to view as existing between the Father and His children. His presence and guardianship are an abiding thing. While we trust in Christ's saving power, all the arts and wiles of the fallen host can do nothing to harm us. Heavenly angels are constantly with us, guiding and protecting. God has ordained that we shall have His saving power with us, to enable us to do all His will. Let us grasp the promises and cherish them moment by moment. Let us believe that God means just what He says.
HP	32	3	There is a possibility of the believer in Christ obtaining an experience that will be wholly sufficient to place him in right relation to God. Every promise that is in God's Book holds out to us the encouragement that we may be partakers of the divine nature. This is the possibility--to rely upon God, to believe His Word, to work His works; and this we can do when we lay hold of the divinity of Christ.
HP	32	4	This possibility is worth more to us than all the riches in the world. There is nothing on earth that can compare with it. As we lay hold of the power thus placed within our reach, we receive a hope so strong that we can rely wholly upon God's promises; and laying hold of the possibilities there are in Christ, we become the sons and daughters of God.
HP	32	5	There are high attainments for the Christian. He may ever be rising to higher attainments. John had an elevated idea of the privilege of a Christian. He says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1). It is not possible for humanity to rise to a higher dignity than is here implied. To man is granted the privilege of becoming an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. To those who have been thus exalted, are unfolded the unsearchable riches of Christ, which are of a thousandfold more value than the wealth of the world. Thus, through the merits of Jesus Christ, finite man is elevated to fellowship with God and with His dear Son.
------------------------Fellowship With Christ, January 27
HP	33	1	God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:9.
HP	33	2	The true Christian keeps the windows of the soul open heavenward. He lives in fellowship with Christ. His will is conformed to the will of Christ. His highest desire is to become more and more Christlike, that he may say with Paul: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me..." (Galatians 2:20).
HP	33	3	Earnestly and untiringly we are to strive to reach God's ideal for us. Not as a penance are we to do this, but as the only means of gaining true happiness. The only way to gain peace and joy is to have a living connection with Him who gave His life for us, who died that we might live, and who lives to unite His power with the efforts of those who are striving to overcome.
HP	33	4	Holiness is constant agreement with God. Shall we not strive to be that which Christ so greatly desires us to be--Christians in deed and in truth--that the world may see in our lives a revelation of the saving power of truth? This world is our preparatory school. While here we shall meet with trials and difficulties. Continually the enemy of God will seek to draw us away from our allegiance. But while we cleave to Him who gave Himself for us we are safe.
HP	33	5	The whole world was gathered into the embrace of Christ. He died on the cross to destroy him who had the power of death and to take away the sin of every believing soul. He calls upon us to offer ourselves on the altar of service, a living, consuming sacrifice. We are to make an unreserved consecration to God of all that we have and are.
HP	33	6	In this lower school of earth we are to learn the lessons that will prepare us to enter the higher school, where our education will continue under the personal instruction of Christ. Then He will open to us the meaning of His word. Shall we not, in the few days of probation remaining to us, act like men and women who are seeking for life in the kingdom of God, even an eternity of bliss? We cannot afford to miss the privilege of seeing Christ face to face and of hearing from His lips the story of redemption.
------------------------Amazing Grace! January 28
HP	34	1	Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:2.
HP	34	2	"Grace be to you." We owe everything to God's free grace. Grace in the covenant ordained our adoption. Grace in the Saviour effected our redemption, our regeneration, and our exaltation to heirship with Christ. Not because we first loved Him did God love us; but "while we were yet sinners," Christ died for us.... Although by our disobedience we have merited God's displeasure and condemnation, yet He has not forsaken us, leaving us to grapple with the power of the enemy. Heavenly angels fight our battles for us, and cooperating with them, we may be victorious over the powers of evil.
HP	34	3	We should never have learned the meaning of this word "grace" had we not fallen. God loves the sinless angels, who do His service and are obedient to all His commands, but He does not give them grace. These heavenly beings know nought of grace; they have never needed it, for they have never sinned. Grace is an attribute of God shown to undeserving human beings. We ourselves did not seek after it, but it was sent out in search of us. God rejoices to bestow this grace upon all who hunger for it, not because we are worthy, but because we are so utterly unworthy. Our need is the qualification which gives us the assurance that we shall receive this gift.
HP	34	4	God's supply of grace is waiting the demand of every sinsick soul. It will heal every spiritual disease. By it hearts may be cleansed from all defilement. It is the gospel remedy for everyone who believes.
HP	34	5	We may make daily progress in the upward path to holiness and yet we find still greater heights to be reached; but every stretch of the spiritual muscles, every taxation of heart and brain, brings to light the abundance of the supply of grace essential for us as we advance.
HP	34	6	The more we contemplate these riches, the more we will come into possession of them, and the more we shall reveal the merits of Christ's sacrifice, the protection of His righteousness, His inexpressible love, the fullness of His wisdom, and His power to present us before the Father without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
------------------------The Gift of Peace, January 29
HP	35	1	And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7.
HP	35	2	Sin has destroyed our peace. While self is unsubdued we can find no rest. The masterful passions of the heart no human power can control. We are as helpless here as were the disciples to control the raging storm. But He who spoke peace to the billows of Galilee has spoken the word of peace for every soul. However fierce the tempest, those who turn to Jesus with the cry, "Lord, save us," will find deliverance. His grace, which reconciles the soul to God, quiets the strife of human passion, and in His love the heart is at rest.... "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever" (Isaiah 32:17).
HP	35	3	Whoever consents to renounce sin and open his heart to the love of Christ, becomes a partaker of this heavenly peace. There is no other ground of peace than this. The grace of Christ, received into the heart, subdues enmity; it allays strife and fills the soul with love. He who is at peace with God and his fellow men cannot be made miserable. Envy will not be in his heart; evil surmisings will find no room there; hatred cannot exist. The heart that is in harmony with God is a partaker of the peace of heaven and will diffuse its blessed influence on all around. The spirit of peace will rest like dew upon hearts weary and troubled with worldly strife.
HP	35	4	Christ's followers are sent to the world with the message of peace. Whoever, by the quiet, unconscious influence of a holy life, shall reveal the love of Christ; whoever, by word or deed, shall lead another to renounce sin and yield his heart to God is a peacemaker.
HP	35	5	And "blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5:9). The spirit of peace is evidence of their connection with heaven. The sweet savor of Christ surrounds them. The fragrance of the life, the loveliness of the character, reveal to the world the fact that they are children of God. Men take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus.
------------------------From Despair to Hope and Joy, January 30
HP	36	1	Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Romans 15:13.
HP	36	2	If Jesus had not died our sacrifice and risen again, we should never have known peace, never have felt joy, but only experienced the horrors of darkness and the miseries of despair. Then let only praise and gratitude be the language of our hearts. All our lives we have been partakers of His heavenly benefits, recipients of the blessings of His priceless atonement. Therefore it is impossible for us to conceive the low and helpless state ... from which Christ has raised us. When we feel the pains, the sorrows and bereavements to which we are subject, let not one murmuring thought dishonor our Redeemer.... We cannot determine how much less we suffer than our sins deserve....
HP	36	3	Can we look upon Him whom our sins have pierced and not be willing also to drink of the cup of humiliation? Our sins mingled the bitter cup which He removed from our lips and drank Himself, that in its place He might put to our lips the cup of blessing....
HP	36	4	The language of the soul should be that of joy and gratitude. If any have dark chapters in their experience let them bury them. Let this history not be kept bright by repetition.... Cultivate only those thoughts and those feelings which will produce gratitude and praise....
HP	36	5	I entreat of you never to utter one word of complaint, but to cherish feelings of gratitude and thankfulness. By so doing you will be learning to make melody in your hearts. Weave into your experience the warp and woof, the golden threads, of gratitude. Contemplate the better land, where tears are never shed, where temptations and trials are never experienced, where losses and reproaches are never known, where all is peace and joy and happiness. Here your imagination may have full scope. These thoughts will make you more heavenly-minded, will endue you with heavenly vigor, will satisfy your thirsty soul with rivers of living waters, and will set upon your heart the seal of the divine image. They will fill you with joy and hope in believing and will abide with you as a comforter forever.
------------------------The Peril of Neglect, January 31
HP	37	1	How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? Hebrews 2:3.
HP	37	2	No greater gift can be bestowed upon man than that which is comprehended in Christ.... A neglect to lay hold of the priceless treasure of salvation means the eternal ruin of your soul. The peril of indifference to God and neglect of His gift is measured by the greatness of salvation. God has done to the uttermost of His almighty power. The resources of infinite love have been exhausted in devising and executing the plan of redemption for man. God has revealed His character in the goodness, the mercy, compassion, and love manifested to save a race of guilty rebels. What could be done that has not been done in the provisions of the plan of salvation? If the sinner remains indifferent to the manifestation of the goodness of God, if he neglects so great a salvation, ... what can be done to touch his hard heart?
HP	37	3	What importance, what magnitude, it gives to the theme of redemption, that He who has undertaken the salvation of man was the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His person! How, then, can Heaven regard those who neglect so great a salvation, wrought out for man at such infinite cost? To neglect to lay hold on the rich blessings of Heaven is to refuse, to set at nought, Him who was equal with the Father, the only One who could save fallen man. Oh, shall we through neglect of Christ throw away our one chance for eternal life? ...
HP	37	4	What love, what wonderful love, was displayed by the Son of God! The death we deserved was suffered to come upon Him that immortality might be given to us, who could never merit such a reward. Is not salvation great in its simplicity and wonderful in its comprehensiveness? ... Contemplating the fullness of the provision that God has made whereby every son and daughter of Adam may be saved, we are led to exclaim with John, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1).... The plan of redemption provides for every emergency and for every want of the soul.
------------------------Christ Exemplified God's Law, February 1
HP	38	1	Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. Psalm 40:7, 8.
HP	38	2	In the councils of heaven it was determined that there must be given to mankind a living exemplification of the law. Having decided to make this great sacrifice, God left nothing obscure, nothing indefinite, in regard to the salvation of the human race. He gave to mankind a standard by which to form character. With an audible voice and in awful grandeur He spoke His law from Mount Sinai. Distinctly He stated what we must do in order to render acceptable obedience to Him and ... remain loyal to His law. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).
HP	38	3	So deep was the Lord's interest in the beings He had created, so great His love for the world, that He "gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Christ came to bring moral power to man, to elevate, ennoble, and strengthen him, enabling him to be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. He proved to the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds and to human beings that the law can be kept. While possessing the nature of man, He obeyed the law of God, vindicating God's justice in demanding that it be obeyed. In the judgment His life will be an unanswerable argument in favor of God's law.
HP	38	4	All who possess the faculty of reason may learn the measure of their duty. Christ is our pattern. In humanity He lived a spotless life. He was merciful, compassionate, obedient--full of goodness and truth. By His life of obedience He gave a true representation of the law. By uniting with Christ, fallen, sinful human beings may conform the life to the divine precepts. By keeping the commandments of God, they become laborers together with Him who came to the world to represent the Father by keeping all His commandments.
------------------------Our Link with Heaven, February 2
HP	39	1	And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:17.
HP	39	2	After Christ was baptized of John in Jordan, He came up out of the water, and bowing upon the banks of the river He prayed with fervency to His heavenly Father for strength to endure the conflict with the prince of darkness in which He was about to engage. The heavens were opened to His prayer, and the light of God's glory, brighter than the sun at noonday, came from the throne of the Eternal, and assuming the form of a dove with the appearance of burnished gold, encircled the Son of God, while the clear voice from the excellent glory was heard in terrible majesty, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
HP	39	3	Here was the assurance to the Son of God that His Father accepted the fallen race through their representative and that He had granted them a second trial. The communication between heaven and earth, between God and man, which had been broken by the fall of Adam, was resumed. He who knew no sin became sin for the race, that His righteousness might be imputed to man. Through the perfection of Christ's character, man was elevated in the scale of moral value with God; and through the merits of Christ, finite man was linked to the Infinite. Thus the gulf which sin had made was bridged by the world's Redeemer.
HP	39	4	But few have a true sense of the great privileges which Christ gained for man by thus opening heaven before him. The Son of God was then the representative of our race; and the special power and glory which the Majesty of heaven conferred upon Him, and His words of approval, are the surest pledge of His love and good will to man. As Christ's intercessions in our behalf were heard, the evidence was given to man that God will accept our prayers in our own behalf through the name of Jesus. The continued, earnest prayer of faith will bring us light and strength to withstand the fiercest assaults of Satan.... The life of a living Christian is a life of living prayer.... Our great Leader points us to the open heavens as the only source of light and strength.
------------------------Wonderful Condescension! February 3
HP	40	1	For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9.
HP	40	2	We visited the buildings which were formerly the palaces of kings when France was under kingly rule.... My thoughts were first upon the kings who had once traversed these grand halls and figured in these galleries. Where is their human greatness now? ...
HP	40	3	Then we remember Jesus, who came to our world with His blessed purpose of love, divesting Himself of His royal robe, His royal crown, stepping down from the royal throne, clothing His divinity with humanity, and coming to our world to be a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We see Him among the poor, blessing the afflicted, healing the sick, soothing the infirmities of age, reaching with His divine pity the very depths of human woe and misery. He even noticed the sorrows and needs of little children....
HP	40	4	Angels have been sent as messengers of mercy to the distressed, to the suffering. These angels from the world of light, from the infinite glory of God before the throne, are on missions of love, of care, of mercy for the suffering ones of humanity. But there is a picture of greater condescension than this: the Lord, the Son of the Infinite Father, ... the Prince of the kings of the earth....
HP	40	5	What is the work of angels in comparison with His condescension? His throne is from everlasting. He has reared every arch and pillar in nature's great temple. Behold Him, the beginning of the creation of God, who numbers the stars, who created the worlds--among which this earth is but a small speck, and would scarcely be missed from the many worlds more than a tiny leaf from the forest trees. The nations before Him are but "as a drop of a bucket," and "as the small dust of the balance" ... (Isaiah 40:15).
HP	40	6	Contemplate Him, the Lord, the all-glorious Redeemer, an inhabitant of the world He has created, and yet unacknowledged by the very ones He manifested so great interest to bless and save.... What condescension to the fallen men of earth! What wondrous love!
------------------------Mystery of All Mysteries, February 4
HP	41	1	Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:6-8.
HP	41	2	Christ was Himself without spot or stain of sin, but having taken the nature of man, He was exposed to the fiercest assaults of the enemy, to his sharpest temptations, to the keenest of sorrow. He suffered being tempted. He was made like unto His brethren, that He might show that through the grace given, humanity could overcome the temptations of the enemy.... Listen to His words, "Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:7, 8). Who is it that thus announces His purpose of coming to this earth? Isaiah tells us: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).
HP	41	3	"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men." "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:1-3, 14)....
HP	41	4	"Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." "... Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature" (1 Timothy 3:16; Philippians 2:9-11; Colossians 1:14, 15).
HP	41	5	The incarnation of Christ is the mystery of all mysteries.
------------------------Christ Our Sacrifice and Surety, February 5
HP	42	1	Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 1 Peter 2:24.
HP	42	2	If for some crime that you had committed you were incarcerated within prison walls, with the sentence of death passed upon you, and a friend should come to you and say, "I will take your place, and you may go free," would not your heart be filled with gratitude for such unselfish love? Christ has done infinitely more than this for us. We were lost; the sentence of death had been passed upon us; and Christ died for us, and thus set us free. He said, "I will take upon Myself the guilt of the sinner, that he may have another trial. I will put within his reach power that will enable him to overcome in the struggle with evil."
HP	42	3	This is where human beings stand today. Christ has bought us with His life, and we belong to Him. All our powers, physical, mental, and spiritual, belong to Him; and to withhold from Him that which is His own is robbery.
HP	42	4	Imagine, if possible, the nature and degree of Christ's sufferings. This suffering in humanity was to prevent the outpouring of the wrath of God upon the whole of those for whom Christ died. Yea, for the church this great sacrifice will be efficacious throughout eternity. Can we compute the amount of her transgression in figures? Impossible. Then who can approach unto a conception of what Christ has endured when standing in the place of surety for His church ...? ... [He was] the only One who could bear the strokes in behalf of the sinner and because of His innocence not be consumed.... In the sacrifice of God's only-begotten Son is demonstrated the awful glory of divine justice and holiness.
HP	42	5	By pledging His own life Christ has made Himself responsible for every man and woman on the earth. He stands in the presence of God, saying, "Father, I take upon Myself the guilt of that soul. It means death to him if he is left to bear it. If he repents he shall be forgiven. My blood shall cleanse him from all sin. I gave My life for the sins of the world."
------------------------A Voluntary Sacrifice, February 6
HP	43	1	For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:20.
HP	43	2	How earnestly Christ prosecuted the work of our salvation! What devotion His life revealed as He sought to give value to fallen man by imputing to every repenting, believing sinner the merits of His spotless righteousness! How untiringly He worked! In the Temple and the synagogue, in the streets of the cities, in the market place, in the workshop, by the seaside, among the hills, He preached the gospel and healed the sick. He gave all there was of Himself, that He might work out the plan of redeeming grace.
HP	43	3	Christ was under no obligation to make this great sacrifice. Voluntarily He pledged Himself to bear the punishment due to the transgressor of His law. His love was His only obligation, and without a murmur He endured every pang and welcomed every indignity that was part of the plan of salvation.
HP	43	4	The life of Christ was one of unselfish service, and His life is our lesson book. The work that He began we are to carry forward. With His life of toil and sacrifice before them, can those who profess His name hesitate to deny self, to lift the cross and follow Him? He humbled Himself to the lowest depths that we might be lifted to the heights of purity and holiness and completeness. He became poor that He might pour into our poverty-stricken souls the fullness of His riches. He endured the cross of shame, that He might give us peace and rest and joy and make us partakers of the glories of His throne....
HP	43	5	Should we not give back to God all that He has redeemed, the affections He has purified, and the body that He has purchased, to be kept unto sanctification and holiness? ...
HP	43	6	True Christianity diffuses love through the whole being. It touches every vital part--the brain, the heart, the helping hands, the feet--enabling men to stand firmly where God requires them to stand.... We can, we can, reveal the likeness of our divine Lord. We can know the science of spiritual life. We can glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, which are His.
------------------------Breaking the Power of Death, February 7
HP	44	1	I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction. Hosea 13:14.
HP	44	2	Well might all heaven be astonished at the reception their loved Commander received in the world! ... He made the world, and yet the world knew Him not. Friends denied Him, forsook Him, and betrayed Him. He was assailed by temptation. Human agony convulsed His divine soul. He was lacerated with cruel scourgings. His hands were pierced with nails, His holy temples were crowned with thorns.... It was the working of Satan's machinations that made the life of Christ one dark series of afflictions and sadness; and at last he compassed Christ's death....
HP	44	3	In the act of dying, Christ was destroying him who had the power of death. He carried out the plan, finished the work which from Adam's fall He had covenanted to undertake. By dying for the guilt of a sinful world, He reinstated fallen man, on condition of obedience to God's commandments, in the position from which he had fallen in consequence of disobedience. And when He broke the fetters of the tomb and rose triumphant from the dead He answered the question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" (Job 14:14). Christ made it possible that every child of Adam might, through a life of obedience, overcome sin and rise also from the grave to his heritage of immortality purchased by the blood of Christ.
HP	44	4	Our salvation was wrought out by infinite suffering to the Son of God. His divine bosom received the anguish, the agony, the pain that the sinfulness of Adam brought upon the race. The heel of Christ was indeed bruised when His humanity suffered, and grief heavier than that which ever oppressed the beings He had created weighed down His soul as He was engaged in paying the vast debt which man owed to God.
HP	44	5	The question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" has been answered.... God in human form has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. In dying, Christ secured eternal life for all who believe in Him.
------------------------A Friend in the Heavenly Court, February 8
HP	45	1	Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:3, 4.
HP	45	2	Is there any reason why this lively hope should not give us as much confidence and joy at this time as it gave the disciples in the early church? Christ is not enclosed in Joseph's new tomb. He is risen, and has ascended up on high, and we are to act out our faith, that the world may see that we have a lively hope....
HP	45	3	Our hope is not without foundation; our inheritance is not corruptible. It is not the subject of imagination.
HP	45	4	We read in the Bible about the resurrection of Christ from the dead, but do we act as though we believed it? Do we believe that Jesus is a living Saviour, that He is not in Joseph's new tomb, with the great stone rolled before it, but that He has risen from the dead and ascended on high ...? He is there to plead our cases in the courts of heaven. He is there because we need a friend in the heavenly court, One who is to be our advocate and intercessor. Then let us rejoice in this. We have everything for which to praise God.
HP	45	5	Many judge of their religious state by their emotions, but these are not a safe criterion. Our Christian life does not depend upon our feelings, but upon our having a right hold from above. We must believe the words of God just as He has spoken them; we must take Christ at His word, believe that He came to represent the Father, and that the Father, as is represented in Christ, is our friend, and that He desires not that we should perish, or He would never have given His Son to die our sacrifice. The cross of Calvary is an eternal pledge to every one of us that God wants us to be happy, not only in the future life but in this life.
HP	45	6	The death of Christ brings to the rejector of His mercy the wrath and judgments of God, unmixed with mercy. This is the wrath of the Lamb. But the death of Christ is hope and eternal life to all who receive Him and believe in Him.
------------------------An Honored Guest, February 9
HP	46	1	Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20.
HP	46	2	All who will open their hearts to receive Him may have Jesus as an honored guest.
HP	46	3	Jesus is the perfect pattern. Instead of trying to please self and have our own way, let us seek to reflect His image. He was kind and courteous, compassionate and tender. Are we like Him in these respects? Do we seek to make our lives fragrant with good works? ...
HP	46	4	It is not enough that we merely profess the faith; something more than a nominal assent is wanted. There must be a real knowledge, a genuine experience in the principles of the truth as it is in Jesus. The Holy Spirit must work within, bringing these principles into the strong light of distinct consciousness, that we may know their power and make them a living reality....
HP	46	5	God has honored His Son by making Him the model after which He molds the characters of all who believe on Him. He takes of the things of Christ and reveals them to us, that we may catch His temper and bear His likeness....
HP	46	6	The obstacles, provocations, and hardships that we meet, may prove to us, not a curse, but the greatest blessings of our lives; for the grandest characters are built amid hardships and trials. But they must be received as practical lessons in the school of Christ. Every temptation resisted, every trial bravely borne, gives us a new experience and advances us in the work of character building. We have a better knowledge of the working of Satan, and of our own power to defeat him through divine grace.
HP	46	7	Jesus was the light of the world.... It is our privilege to walk in the sunshine of His presence and to weave into the characters we are forming the golden threads of cheerfulness, gratitude, forbearance, and love. We may thus show the power of divine grace and reflect light from Heaven amid all the frets and irritations that come to us day by day.
------------------------Our Sure Foundation, February 10
HP	47	1	For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 1 Corinthians 3:11-13.
HP	47	2	As fire reveals the difference between gold, silver, and precious stones, and wood, hay, and stubble, so the day of judgment will test characters, showing the difference between characters formed after Christ's likeness and characters formed after the likeness of the selfish heart. All selfishness, all false religion, will then appear as it is. The worthless material will be consumed; but the gold of true, simple, humble faith will never lose its value. It can never be consumed; for it is imperishable.
HP	47	3	Anyone can be just what he chooses to be. Character is not obtained by receiving an education. Character is not obtained by amassing wealth or by gaining worldly honor. Character is not obtained by having others fight the battle of life for us. It must be sought, worked for, fought for; and it requires a purpose, a will, a determination. To form a character which God will approve, requires persevering effort. It will take a continual resisting of the powers of darkness to ... have our names retained in the book of life. Is it not worth more to have our names registered in that book, have them immortalized among the heavenly angels, than to have them sounded in praise throughout the whole earth?
HP	47	4	In the probationary time granted us here we are each building a structure that is to have the inspection of the Judge of all the earth. This work is the molding of our characters. Every act of our lives is a stone in that building, every faculty is a worker, every blow that is struck is for good or for evil. The words of inspiration warn us to take heed how we build, to see that our foundation is sure. If we build upon the solid rock, pure, noble, upright deeds, the structure will go up beautiful and symmetrical, a fit temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
------------------------Under Which Standard? February 11
HP	48	1	No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24.
HP	48	2	Every individual in our world will be arrayed under one of two banners--the chosen and loyal under the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel, and all others under Satan's standard....
HP	48	3	There is to be no compromise with the powers of darkness. Individually we must take our stand. If we are not at enmity with the prince of darkness, the serpent, his folds encircle us and all our powers; his sting is in our hearts. All who range themselves under the blood-stained banner of the Prince of Life will henceforth count Satan as a foe, and will in God's strength oppose him as a deadly enemy. They will take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And what will they do in order to hold vantage ground? "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance" (Ephesians 6:18)....
HP	48	4	We should be quick to discern danger. We should see the hateful character of sin and should expel it from the soul. The doers of the Word know that in Jesus there is strength, which becomes their own by faith. They are clothed with righteousness that God will accept, for it is the righteousness of Christ. Clad in this armor of God, the panoply of heaven, they successfully resist the serpent's wiles. Not one soul has a moment to lose.... The concerns of eternity are of sufficient importance to take precedence over every other enterprise. "What must I do to be saved?" should be the great and solemn question with us now.
HP	48	5	I wish that all could appreciate the wonderful working of God in behalf of man. For fallen angels there has been no atonement; but for fallen man a full and ample offering has been made, to save to the uttermost all who shall come unto God by Him.
HP	48	6	God beholds in all His children the image of His only-begotten Son. He looks upon them with a love greater than any language can express. He enfolds them in the arms of His love. The Lord rejoices over His people.
------------------------Inestimable Treasure, February 12
HP	49	1	The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Matthew 13:45, 46.
HP	49	2	When Christ compared the kingdom of heaven to a pearl of great price He desired to lead every soul to appreciate that pearl above all else. The possession of the pearl, which means the possession of Christ as a personal Saviour, is a symbol of the highest riches. It is a treasure above every earthly treasure....
HP	49	3	There are some who are seeking, always seeking, for the goodly pearl. But they do not make an entire surrender of their wrong habits. They do not die to self that Christ may live in them. Therefore they do not find the precious pearl.... They never know what it is to have peace and harmony in the soul; for without entire self-surrender there is no rest, no joy. Almost Christians, yet not fully Christians, they seem near the kingdom of heaven, but they cannot enter there. Almost but not wholly saved means to be not almost but wholly lost....
HP	49	4	In the parable the merchantman is represented as selling all that he had to gain possession of one pearl of great price. This is a beautiful representation of those who appreciate the truth so highly that they give up all they have to come into possession of it. They lay hold by faith of the salvation provided for man at the sacrifice of the only-begotten Son of God. The righteousness of Christ, as a pure, white pearl, has no defect, no guilt, no stain. No work of man can improve the great and precious truths of God's Word. They are not a mixture of truth and error. They are without a flaw....
HP	49	5	Christ is ready to receive all who come to Him in sincerity. But He will not tolerate one particle of pretense or hypocrisy. He is our only hope. He is our Alpha and Omega. He is our sun and our shield, our wisdom, our sanctification, our righteousness. Only by His power can our hearts be kept daily in the love of God....
HP	49	6	Salvation, with its blood-bought, inestimable treasures, is the pearl of great price. It may be searched for and found. But all who really find it will sell all they have to buy it.
------------------------Abundantly Pardoned, February 13
HP	50	1	Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him: and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:7.
HP	50	2	Many do not move in the confidence of a living assurance that Christ is pleading before the Father as our Intercessor. Christ has identified Himself with our necessities, and is able to supply every peculiar need of our weakness. During His life on this earth He took the attitude of a suppliant, an earnest petitioner, seeking at the hand of the Father a fresh supply of strength, that He might be invigorated and refreshed and come forth with words of encouragement and lessons of consolation to impart to human beings. His words are to brace every soul for duty and strengthen every soul for trial.
HP	50	3	As Christ in His humanity sought strength from His Father, that He might be enabled to endure trial and temptation, so are we to do. We are to follow the example of the sinless Son of God. Daily we need help and grace and power from the Source of all power. We are to cast our helpless souls upon the One who is ready to help us in every time of need. Too often we forget the Lord. Self gives way to impulse, and we lose the victories that we should gain.
HP	50	4	If we are overcome let us not delay to repent, and to accept the pardon that will place us on vantage ground. If we repent and believe, the cleansing power from God will be ours. His saving grace is freely offered. His pardon is given to all who will receive it....
HP	50	5	God will always accept confession if the evil that has been done is repented of. Our heavenly Father makes the declaration, "As I live, ... I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked should turn from his way and live" (Ezekiel 33:11). Over every sinner that repents the angels of God rejoice with songs of joy. Not one sinner need be lost. Full and free is the gift of saving grace....
HP	50	6	We are living in the day of preparation. We must obtain a full supply of grace from the divine storehouse. The Lord has made provision for every day's demand.
------------------------Robed in Christ's Righteousness, February 14
HP	51	1	Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Romans 4:7, 8.
HP	51	2	Well may our hearts turn to our Redeemer with the most perfect trust when we think of what He has done for us, even when we were sinners. Through faith we may rest in His love. "Him that cometh to me," He says, "I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).
HP	51	3	It would be a terrible thing to stand before God clothed in sinful garments, with His eye reading every secret of our lives. But through the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice we may stand before God pure and spotless, our sins atoned for and pardoned. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). The redeemed sinner, clothed in the robes of Christ's righteousness, may stand in the presence of a sin-hating God, made perfect by the merits of the Saviour.
HP	51	4	Only through faith in Christ's name can the sinner be saved.... Faith in Christ is not the work of nature, but the work of God on human minds, wrought in the very soul by the Holy Spirit, who reveals Christ, as Christ revealed the Father. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. With its justifying, sanctifying power, it is above what men call science. It is the science of eternal realities. Human science is often deceptive and misleading, but this heavenly science never misleads. It is so simple that a child may understand it, and yet the most learned men cannot explain it. It is inexplainable and immeasurable, beyond all human expression.
HP	51	5	What inexpressible love has the Saviour manifested toward the children of men! Not only does He take off the brand of sin, but He cleanses and purifies the soul, clothing it in the robe of His own righteousness, which is without spot, woven in the loom of heaven. He not only lifts the curse from the sinner, but brings him into oneness with Himself, reflecting upon him the bright beams of His righteousness. He is welcomed by the heavenly universe, accepted in the beloved Son of God. What glory can fallen man, through repentance and faith, bring back to God!
------------------------In the Sunlight of the Cross, February 15
HP	52	1	Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2.
HP	52	2	The cross speaks life, and not death, to the soul that believes in Jesus. Welcome the precious life-giving rays that shine from the cross of Calvary. Reach up for the blessing, believe for the blessing....
HP	52	3	Walk not in the shadow of the cross. Do not give expression to weeping, lamentation, and woe; but encourage your soul to hope and joy. The cross points upward to a living Saviour, who is your advocate, and is pleading in your behalf.... When you are deeply shadowed it is because Satan has interposed himself between you and the bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness....
HP	52	4	I have indeed been halting under the shadow of the cross. It is not a common thing for me to be overpowered and to suffer so much depression of spirits as I have suffered for the last few months. I would not be found to trifle with my own soul and thus trifle with my Saviour. I would not teach that Jesus is risen from the tomb, and that He is ascended on high and lives to make intercession for us before the Father, unless I carry out my teachings by practice and believe in Him for His salvation, casting my helpless soul upon Jesus for His grace, for righteousness, for peace and love.
HP	52	5	I must trust in Him irrespective of the changes of my emotional atmosphere. I must show forth the praises of Him who has called me out of darkness into His marvelous light. My heart must be steadfast in Christ, my Saviour, beholding His love and gracious goodness. I must not trust Him now and then, but always, that I may manifest the results of abiding in Him who has bought me with His precious blood. We must learn to believe the promises, to have an abiding faith....
HP	52	6	Let us live in the sunlight of the cross of Calvary. Let us no longer dwell in the shadow, complaining of our sorrows, for this only deepens our trouble. Let us never forget, even when we walk in the valley, that Christ is as much with us when we walk trustingly there as when we are on the mountaintop.
------------------------Under Christ's Yoke, February 16
HP	53	1	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:28, 29.
HP	53	2	Our Saviour purchased the human race by humiliation of the very severest kind.... He points us to the only path that will lead to the strait gate, opening into the narrow way, beyond which lie broad and pleasant pastures. He has marked out every step of the way; and that no one may make a mistake, He tells us just what to do. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29, 30). This is the only way in which sinners can be saved. Knowing that no one can obey this command in his own strength, Christ tells us not to be worried nor afraid, but to remember what He can do if we come to Him, trusting in His strength. He says, If you yoke up with Me, your Redeemer, I will be your strength, your efficiency.
HP	53	3	The blessings connected with Christ's invitation can be realized and enjoyed by those only who wear Christ's yoke. Accepting this invitation, you withdraw your sympathy, your affections, from the world, and place them where you can enjoy the blessing of close fellowship and communion with God. By coming to Christ, you bind up your interests with His.
HP	53	4	The Lord has determined that every soul who obeys His word shall have His joy, His peace, His continual keeping power. Such men and women are brought near Him always, not only when they kneel before Him in prayer, but when they take up the duties of life. He has prepared for them an abiding place with Himself, where the life is purified from all grossness, all unloveliness. By this unbroken communion with Him, they are made colaborers with Him in their lifework....
HP	53	5	He invites us, Come unto Me. Take My yoke upon you. I require you to do nothing that I have not done before you. All I ask you to do is to follow My example. Walk in the path I have marked out. Place your feet in My footsteps.
------------------------Only One Pattern, February 17
HP	54	1	But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
HP	54	2	If we gaze even a moment upon the sun in its meridian glory, when we turn away our eyes, the image of the sun will appear in everything upon which we look. Thus it is when we behold Jesus; everything we look upon reflects His image, the Sun of Righteousness. We cannot see anything else, or talk of anything else. His image is imprinted upon the eye of the soul, and affects every portion of our daily life, softening and subduing our whole nature. By beholding, we are conformed to the divine similitude, even the likeness of Christ. To all with whom we associate we reflect the bright and cheerful beams of His righteousness.
HP	54	3	Jesus was a perfect pattern of what we should be. He was the strictest observer of His Father's law, yet He moved in perfect freedom. He had all the fervor of the enthusiast, yet He was calm, sober, and self-possessed. He was elevated above the common affairs of the world, yet He did not exclude Himself from society. He dined with publicans and sinners, played with little children, and took them in His arms and blessed them. He graced the wedding feast with His presence. He shed tears at the grave of Lazarus. He was a lover of the beautiful in nature and used the lilies to illustrate the value of natural simplicity in the sight of God, above artificial display. He used the occupation of the husbandman to illustrate the most sublime truths....
HP	54	4	His zeal never degenerated into passion nor His consistency into selfish obstinacy. His benevolence never savored of weakness nor His sympathy of sentimentalism. He combined the innocence and simplicity of the child with manly strength, all-absorbing devotion to God with tender love for man. He possessed commanding dignity combined with winning grace of humility. He manifested unyielding firmness with gentleness. May we live daily in close connection with this perfect, faultless character.
HP	54	5	We have not six patterns to follow, nor five; we have only one, and that is Christ Jesus.
------------------------Abiding in Christ, February 18
HP	55	1	Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John 15:4.
HP	55	2	It is not a casual touch with Christ that is needed, but it is to abide with Him. He called you to abide with Him. He does not propose to you a short-lived blessedness that is realized occasionally through earnest seeking of the Lord and passes away as you engage in the common duties of life. Your abiding with Christ makes every necessary duty light, for He bears the weight of every burden. He has prepared for you to abide with Him. This means that you are to be conscious of an abiding Christ, that you are continually with Christ, where your mind is encouraged and strengthened....
HP	55	3	Do not stand outside of Christ, as many professed Christians of today. To "abide in me, and I in you" is a possible thing to do, and the invitation would not be given if you could not do this. Jesus our Saviour is constantly drawing you by His Holy Spirit, working with your mind that you will abide with Christ.... The blessings He bestows are all connected with your own individual action. Shall Christ be refused? He says, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). Of another class He says, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life" (John 5:40)....
HP	55	4	Have you, have I, fully comprehended the gracious call, "Come unto me"? He says, "Abide in me," not Abide with Me. "Do understand My call. Come to Me to stay with Me." He will freely bestow all blessings connected with Himself upon all who come to Him for life. He has something better for you than a short-lived blessedness that you feel when you seek the Lord in earnest prayer. That is but as a drop in the bucket, to have a word with Christ. You are privileged with His abiding presence in the place of a short-lived privilege that is not lasting as you engage in the duties of life.... Will anxiety, perplexity, and cares drive you away from Christ? Are we less dependent upon God when in the workshop, in the field, in the market-place? ... The Lord Jesus will abide with you and you with Him in every place.
------------------------One with Christ, February 19
HP	56	1	I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5
HP	56	2	Christ's connection with His believing people is illustrated by this parable as by no other.
HP	56	3	All who receive Christ by faith become one with Him. The branches are not tied to the vine; they are not joined to it by any mechanical process of artificial fastening. They are united to the vine, so as to become part of it. They are nourished by the roots of the vine. So those who receive Christ by faith become one with Him in principle and action. They are united to Him, and the life they live is the life of the Son of God. They derive their life from Him who is life.
HP	56	4	Baptism may be repeated over and over again, but of itself it has no power to change the human heart. The heart must be united with Christ's heart, the will must be submerged in His will, the mind must become one with His mind, the thoughts must be brought into captivity to Him.... The regenerated man has a vital connection with Christ. As the branch derives its sustenance from the parent stock and, because of this, bears much fruit, so the true believer, united with Christ, reveals in his life the fruits of the Spirit. The branch becomes one with the vine; storm cannot carry it away; frost cannot destroy its vital properties. Nothing is able to separate it from the vine. It is a living branch, and it bears the fruit of the vine. So with the believer. By good words and good actions he reveals the character of Christ....
HP	56	5	Christ has provided means whereby our whole life may be an unbroken communion with Himself; but the sense of Christ's abiding presence can come only through living faith....
HP	56	6	Let all contemplate the completeness it is their privilege to have and ask themselves the question, Is my will submerged in Christ's will? Is the fullness and richness of the Living Vine--His goodness, His mercy, His compassion and love--seen in my life and character?
------------------------True to Our Name, February 20
HP	57	1	He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 1 John 2:6.
HP	57	2	We bear the name of Christian. Let us be true to this name. To be a Christian means to be Christlike. It means to follow Christ in self-denial, bearing aloft His banner of love, honoring Him by unselfish words and deeds. In the life of the true Christian there is nothing of self--self is dead. There was no selfishness in the life that Christ lived while on this earth. Bearing our nature, He lived a life wholly devoted to the good of others.... In word and deed Christ's followers are to be pure and true. In this world--a world of iniquity and corruption--Christians are to reveal the attributes of Christ. All they do and say is to be free from selfishness....
HP	57	3	Said the great apostle to the Gentiles, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). By faith Paul appropriated the grace of Christ, and this grace supplied the necessities of his soul. By faith he received the heavenly gift, and imparted it to souls longing for light. This is the experience we need.... Pray for this faith. Strive for it. Believe that God will give it to you....
HP	57	4	Learn of Him who has said, "I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29). Learning of Him, you will find rest. Day by day you will gain an experience in the things of God, day by day realize the greatness of His salvation and the glory of a union with Him. Constantly you will learn better how to live Christlike, and constantly you will grow more like the Saviour.
HP	57	5	If we will die to self, if we will enlarge our idea of what Christ can be to us and what we can be to Him, if we will unite with one another in the bonds of Christian fellowship, God will work through us with mighty power. Then we shall be sanctified through the truth. We shall indeed be chosen by God and controlled by His Spirit. Every day of life will be precious to us, because we shall see in it an opportunity to use our entrusted gifts for the blessing of others.
------------------------How Much Does God Love Us? February 21
HP	58	1	I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:23.
HP	58	2	It seems almost too good to believe that the Father can and does love any member of the human family as He loves His Son. But we have the assurance that He does, and this assurance should bring joy to every heart, awakening the highest reverence and calling forth unspeakable gratitude. God's love is not uncertain and unreal, but a living reality.
HP	58	3	The Creator of all worlds proposes to love those who believe in His only-begotten Son as their personal Saviour, even as He loves His Son. Even here and now His gracious favor is bestowed upon us to this marvelous extent.... Much as He has promised us for the life to come, He also bestows princely gifts upon us in this life, and as subjects of His grace, He would have us enjoy everything that will ennoble, expand, and elevate our characters. It is His design to fit us for the heavenly courts above.
HP	58	4	Those who live in close fellowship with Christ will be promoted by Him to positions of trust. The servant who does the best he can for his master is admitted to familiar intercourse with one whose commands he loves to obey. In the faithful discharge of duty we may become one with Christ, for those who are obeying God's commands may speak to Him freely. The one who talks most familiarly with his divine Leader has the most exalted conception of His greatness and is the most obedient to His commands.
HP	58	5	In the life of man things sacred and secular are to be done, some in business lines, some in the ministry of the Word, and some in various trades; but when a man gives himself to Christ and loves God with the whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, he serves with a devotion that takes his whole being.... He recognizes the ownership of his powers and the ownership of himself. This consecration invests his whole life with a sacredness which makes him gentle, kind, and courteous. His every act is a consecrated act.... He is under Christ, being trained for the higher grade above.
------------------------"Partakers of the Divine Nature," February 22
HP	59	1	Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
HP	59	2	"Partakers of the divine nature." Is this possible? Of ourselves we can do no good thing. How, then, can we be partakers of the divine nature? By coming to Christ just as we are, needy, helpless, dependent. He died to make it possible for us to be partakers of the divine nature. He took humanity upon Himself that He might reach humanity. With the golden chain of His matchless love He has bound us to the throne of God. We are to have power to overcome as He overcame.
HP	59	3	To all He gives the invitation: "Come unto me.... Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls ..." (Matthew 11:28-30).
HP	59	4	We have a part to act in this work. Let none think that men and women are going to be taken to heaven without engaging in the struggle here below. We have a battle to fight, a victory to gain. God says to us, "Work out your own salvation." How? "With fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12, 13). God works, and man works.... Thus only can we be partakers of the divine nature.
HP	59	5	Here is the consistency of true religion. We are to be "labourers together with God," working in harmony with Him. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9). This figure represents human character, which is to be wrought upon point by point. Each day God works on His building to perfect the structure, that it may become a holy temple for Him. Man is to cooperate with God, striving in His strength to make himself what God designs him to be, building his life with pure, noble deeds....
HP	59	6	God asks us to live only one day at a time. You need not look a week or a month ahead. Today do your best. Today speak and act in a way that will honor God. The promise is, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25).
------------------------Living Abundantly, February 23
HP	60	1	I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10.
HP	60	2	There can be no such thing as a narrow life for any soul connected with Christ. Those who love Jesus with heart and mind and soul and their neighbor as themselves have a broad field in which to use their ability and influence. There is no talent to be used for selfish gratification. Self must die, and our lives be hid with Christ in God....
HP	60	3	The Lord would have us value our souls according to the estimate--as far as we can comprehend it--that Christ has placed upon them.... Jesus died that He might redeem man from eternal ruin. Then we are to hold ourselves as property purchased. "Ye are not your own." "Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). All our powers of mind and soul and body are the Lord's. Our time belongs to Him. We are to place ourselves in the very best possible condition to do His service, keeping constantly in connection with Christ, and considering daily the costly sacrifice made for us that we should be made the righteousness of God in Him....
HP	60	4	Those who are emptied of self, the thoughtful and conscientious, cannot raise their eyes to Christ, the living Saviour, without feelings of awe and the deepest humility. To behold Jesus continually will make the soul alive unto God. We shall love Jesus, we shall love the Father who sent Him into the world, for we see Him in a wondrous light, full of grace and truth. Jesus declares, "All things are delivered unto me of my Father" (Matthew 11:27); ... "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18). What for? That He may give gifts unto men, that they may lay all their powers under tribute to make known the wondrous love wherewith He hath loved us....
HP	60	5	When we estimate all our talents in the light of the cross of Calvary, we shall so live for Christ and so let our light shine before men that our lives will never seem narrow. Who can estimate the value of the soul?
------------------------"Without Offence", February 24
HP	61	1	That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:10, 11.
HP	61	2	The Lord presents before His finite creatures no impossibilities.... The power of a higher, purer, nobler life is our great need. God's people are to be filled with holy joy, that its radiance may shine forth from them, brightening the pathway of others. What power, what peace, what joy the soul may have that is united with Christ! The divine splendor is revealed to those who commune with Him who is the source of power.
HP	61	3	We know little of the peace and happiness and joy of heaven. We need more efficiency. We need to receive from Christ the water of life, that it may be in us a well of water, refreshing all who come within the sphere of our influence....
HP	61	4	At our baptism we pledged ourselves to break all connection with Satan and his agencies, and to put heart and mind and soul into the work of extending the kingdom of God. All heaven is working for this object. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are pledged to cooperate with sanctified human instrumentalities. If we are true to our vow, there is opened to us a door of communication with heaven--a door that no human hand or satanic agency can close....
HP	61	5	Moral and spiritual perfection, through the grace and power of Christ, is promised to all who believe. At every step we are to ask for the help of Christ. He is the model we are to follow in character building. He calls for deeds, not words, saying, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16)....
HP	61	6	Christ is the source of light, the fountain of life.... It is His purpose that human beings, purified and sanctified, shall be His helping hand. He leads us to the throne of God and gives us a prayer to offer to Him. When we live this prayer we are brought into close contact with Christ; at every step we touch His living power. In our behalf He sets in operation the all-powerful agencies of heaven.
------------------------The Happiest People, February 25
HP	62	1	Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11.
HP	62	2	Do not think that when you walk with Jesus you must walk in the shadow. The happiest people in the world are those who trust in Jesus and gladly do His bidding. From the lives of those who follow Him, unrest and discontent are banished.... They may meet with trial and difficulty, but their lives are full of joy; for Christ walks beside them, and His presence makes the pathway bright....
HP	62	3	When you arise in the morning, rise with the praise of God on your lips, and when you go out to work, go with a prayer to God for help.... Wait for a leaf from the tree of life. This will soothe and refresh you, filling your heart with peace and joy. Fix your thoughts upon the Saviour. Go apart from the bustle of the world and sit under Christ's shadow. Then, amid the din of daily toil and conflict, your strength will be renewed. It is positively necessary for us to sit down sometimes and think of how the Saviour descended from heaven, from the throne of God, to show what human beings may become if they will unite their weakness to His strength. Having gained renewal of strength by communion with God, we may go on our way rejoicing, praising Him for the privilege of bringing the sunshine of Christ's love into the lives of those we meet....
HP	62	4	Heavenly intelligences are waiting to cooperate with human instrumentalities, that the world may see what human beings may become through a union with the divine. Those who consecrate body, soul, and spirit to God's service will constantly receive a new endowment of physical, mental, and spiritual power. The inexhaustible supplies of heaven are at their command. Christ gives them the life of His life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in mind and heart. Through the grace given us we may achieve victories which, because of our defects of character and the smallness of our faith, may have seemed to us impossible.
HP	62	5	To every one who offers himself to the Lord for service, withholding nothing, is given power for the attainment of measureless results.
------------------------Grace and Dignity in Daily Duties, February 26
HP	63	1	His speech [margin] is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. Song of Solomon 5:16.
HP	63	2	Study the life that Christ lived while on this earth. He did not neglect the smallest, simplest duty. Perfection marked all that He did. Look to Him for help, and you will be enabled to perform your daily duties with the grace and dignity of one who is seeking for the crown of immortal life.
HP	63	3	We dwell much on the grandeur of Christ's life. We speak of the great things that He accomplished, of the miracles He wrought, of how He spoke peace to the tempestuous waters, restored sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, and raised the dead to life. But His attention to small things is even higher proof of His greatness. Listen to Him speaking to Martha as she comes to Him with the request that He bid her sister help her with the serving. He tells her not to allow the cares of the household to disturb the peace of her soul. "Martha, Martha," He says, "thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:41, 42).
HP	63	4	Listen to the words that He spoke as the weary mothers brought their children to Him to be blessed. The disciples, unwilling that their Master should be disturbed, were sending the women away, but Christ said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:14). And taking them in His arms, He blessed them. Could the future of these children be opened before us we could see the mothers recalling to the minds of the children the scene of that day and repeating the loving words of the Saviour.... This same Jesus is your Saviour.
HP	63	5	The divine beauty of the character of Christ, of whom the noblest and most gentle among men are but a faint reflection; of whom Solomon by the Spirit of inspiration wrote, He is "the chiefest among ten thousand.... Yea, he is altogether lovely"; ... the self-denying Redeemer, throughout His pilgrimage of love on earth was a living representation of the character of the law of God.
------------------------"More Than Conquerors," February 27
HP	64	1	In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Romans 8:37.
HP	64	2	Through the power that Jesus gives, we can be "more than conquerors." But we cannot manufacture this power. Only through the Spirit of God can we receive it.
HP	64	3	We need a deep insight into the nature of Christ and into the mystery of His love, "which passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). We are to live in the warm, genial rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Nothing but Christ's loving compassion, His divine grace, His almighty power, can enable us to baffle the relentless foe and subdue the opposition of our own hearts. What is our strength? The joy of the Lord. Let the love of Christ fill our hearts, and then we shall be prepared to receive the power that He has for us.
HP	64	4	Let us thank God every day for the blessings that are ours. If the human agent will humble himself before God, . . realizing his utter inability to do the work that needs to be done in order that his soul may be purified; if he will cast away his own righteousness, Christ will abide in his heart. He will put His hand to the work of creating him anew, and will continue the work till he is complete in Him....
HP	64	5	Beholding Christ for the purpose of becoming like Him, the seeker after truth sees the perfection of the principles of God's law, and he becomes dissatisfied with everything but perfection.... But he knows that with the Redeemer there is saving power that will gain for him the victory in the conflict. The Saviour will strengthen and help him as he comes pleading for grace and efficiency.
HP	64	6	Christ will never neglect the work that has been placed in His hands. He will inspire the resolute disciple with a sense of the perversity, the sin-stained condition, the depravity, of the heart upon which He is working. The true penitent learns the uselessness of self-importance. Looking to Jesus, comparing his own defective character with the Saviour's perfect character, he says only--
HP	64	7	"In my hand no price I bring; Simply to Thy cross I cling."
------------------------The Christian's All in All, February 28
HP	65	1	But Christ is all, and in all. Colossians 3:11.
HP	65	2	Christ, the precious Saviour, is to be the Christian's all in all. Every holy thought, every pure desire, every godlike purpose, is from Him who is the light, the truth, and the way. Christ is to live in His representatives by the Spirit of truth.... Paul says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20)....
HP	65	3	Under the mighty impulse of His love He took our place in the universe and invited the Ruler of all things to treat Him as a representative of the human family. He identified Himself with our interests, bared His breast for the stroke of death, took man's guilt and its penalty, and offered in man's behalf a complete sacrifice to God. By virtue of this atonement He has power to offer to man perfect righteousness and full salvation. Whosoever shall believe on Him as a personal Saviour shall not perish but have everlasting life.
HP	65	4	Jesus identifies His interest with His chosen and tried people. He represents Himself as personally affected with all that concerns them.... After presenting His relation to His people in various lights, He finally declares that in the great day He will judge of every action as if it had been done unto Himself.
HP	65	5	His sympathy with His people is without a parallel. He will not simply remain a spectator, indifferent to what His people may suffer, but identifies Himself with their interests and sorrows. If His people are wronged, maligned, treated with contempt, their sufferings are registered in the books of heaven as done unto Him.
HP	65	6	The privileges, the blessings, of the child of God are represented by the apostle in the following language: "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). When we realize that our hope of glory is Christ, that we are complete in Him, we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
------------------------"Complete in Him," February 29
HP	66	1	And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. Colossians 2:10.
HP	66	2	Christ's likeness in us is a grand truth, a practical truth. I am not merely a thing that God loves, made to be left the sport of Satan's temptations; I am a child of God, begotten unto a lively hope, big with immortality and full of glory. We are to dwell in God, and God in us. Purity in us is like purity in God; love in my heart is a living principle, like the love in the heart of God; and all the treasures of heaven are at my command because I am redeemed by the blood of the Lamb....
HP	66	3	We are sons and daughters of God. Satan is the destroyer and Christ is the restorer. He will make us partakers of His holiness. God does not make light of sin, but He seeks to rescue us from sin. There is not in Jesus Christ harsh, stern repulsiveness or resentment; and if we have the character of Christ we shall have His mold. There is no forcing us to holiness, but ... He wishes us to imitate His character, to admire Him--true, pure, generous, and loving....
HP	66	4	Happiness is composed of little things and great things.... If we would become like Christ and receive His fashion of character, we must in little things train the soul to daily progressive sanctification. We have no time to lose. Would you impress the seal to obtain a clear impression upon the wax, you do not dash it on by a violent action, but you place the seal carefully and firmly and press it down until the wax receives the mold. Just so the Lord is dealing with our souls.... Not now and then, but constantly the new life is implanted by the Holy Spirit after Christ's likeness.
HP	66	5	Acts make habits and habits constitute character. There is no fear of overlooking great things, but there is peril in overlooking and undervaluing little things. God is the God of the whole man, and the little things are essential. God is a God of the whole man, and not a God of the part. He made all, He redeemed all, and He must be served in all, and then He will bless all, soul and body. Our entire life will then be glorified, and every breath, every sound, every touch will be peace and light and happiness.
------------------------Let Us Ask of God, March 1
HP	67	1	If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. James 1:5.
HP	67	2	It is the privilege of every believer first to talk with God in his closet, and then as God's mouthpiece to talk with others. In order that we may have something to impart, we must daily receive light and blessing. Men and women who commune with God, who have an abiding Christ, who, because they cooperate with holy angels, are surrounded with holy influences, are needed at this time. The cause needs those who have power to draw with Christ, power to express the love of God in words of encouragement and sympathy.
HP	67	3	As the believer bows in supplication before God, and in humility and contrition offers his petition from unfeigned lips, he loses all thought of self. His mind is filled with the thought of what he must have in order to build up a Christlike character. He prays, "Lord, if I am to be a channel through which Thy love is to flow day by day and hour by hour, I claim by faith the grace and power that Thou hast promised." He fastens his hold firmly on the promise, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, ... and it shall be given him."
HP	67	4	How this dependence pleases the Master! How He delights to hear the steady, earnest pleading! ... With wonderful and ennobling grace the Lord sanctifies the humble petitioner, giving him power to perform the most difficult duties. All that is undertaken is done unto the Lord, and this elevates and sanctifies the lowliest calling. It invests with new dignity every word, every act, and links the humblest worker ... with the highest of the angels in the heavenly courts....
HP	67	5	The sons and daughters of God have a great work to do in the world. They are to accept the Word of God as the man of their counsel and to impart it to others. They are to diffuse light. All who have received the engrafted word will be faithful in giving that word to others. They will speak the words of Christ. In conversation and in deportment they will give evidence of a daily conversion to the principles of truth. Such believers will be a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men, and God will be glorified in them.
------------------------Whom God Accepts, March 2
HP	68	1	To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isaiah 66:2.
HP	68	2	Those who search for worldly distinction and glory make a sad mistake. It is the one who denies self, giving to others the preference, who will sit nearest to Christ on His throne. He who reads the heart sees the true merit possessed by His lowly, self-sacrificing disciples, and because they are worthy He places them in positions of distinction, though they do not realize their worthiness and do not seek for honor....
HP	68	3	God places no value on outward display or boasting. Many who in this life are looked upon as superior to others will one day see that God values men according to their compassion and self-denial.... Those who follow the example of Him who went about doing good, who help and bless their fellow men, trying always to lift them up, are in God's sight infinitely higher than the selfish ones who exalt themselves.
HP	68	4	God does not accept men because of their capabilities, but because they seek His face, desiring His help. God sees not as man sees. He judges not from appearances. He searches the heart, and judges righteously. "To this man will I look," He declares, "even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." He accepts and communes with His lowly, unpretentious followers; for in them He sees the most precious material, which will stand the test of storm and tempest, heat and pressure.
HP	68	5	Our object in working for the Master should be that His name may be glorified in the conversion of sinners. Those who labor to gain applause are not approved of God....
HP	68	6	Humble workers, who do not trust in their great gifts, but who work in simplicity, trusting always in God, will share in the joy of the Saviour. Their persevering prayers will bring souls to the cross. Heavenly angels will respond to their self-sacrificing efforts....
HP	68	7	These workers are trees of the Lord's planting. In a peculiar sense they bear fruit equal to the fruit borne by the apostles. A rich reward awaits them in the future life.
------------------------Strength Through Prayer, March 3
HP	69	1	O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. Psalm 95:6.
HP	69	2	Christ has given His disciples assurance that special seasons for devotion are necessary. Prayer went before and sanctified every act of His ministry.... The night seasons of prayer which the Saviour spent in the mountain or in the desert were essential to prepare Him for the trials He must meet in the days to follow. He felt the need of the refreshing and invigorating of soul and body, that He might meet the temptations of Satan; and those who are striving to live His life will feel this same need....
HP	69	3	Christ has pledged Himself to be our substitute and surety, and He neglects no one. There is an inexhaustible fund of perfect obedience accruing from His obedience. In heaven His merits, His self-denial and self-sacrifice, are treasured up as incense to be offered up with the prayers of His people. As the sinner's sincere, humble prayers ascend to the throne of God, Christ mingles with them the merits of His life of perfect obedience. Our prayers are made fragrant by this incense....
HP	69	4	Let all remember that the mysteries of God's kingdom cannot be learned by reasoning. True faith, true prayer--how strong they are! The prayer of the Pharisee had no value, but the prayer of the publican was heard in the courts above, because it showed dependence reaching forth to lay hold of Omnipotence. Self was to the publican nothing but shame. Thus it must be with all who seek God. Faith and prayer are the two arms which the needy suppliant lays upon the neck of infinite Love....
HP	69	5	We speak with Jesus Christ as we walk by the way, and He says, "I am at thy right hand." We may walk in daily companionship with Christ. When we breathe out our desire, it may be inaudible to any human ear, but that word cannot die away into silence nor can it be lost, though the activities of business are going on. Nothing can drown the soul's desire. It rises above the din of the street, above the noise of machinery, to the heavenly courts. It is God to whom we are speaking, and the prayer is heard. Ask then; "Ask, and it shall be given you."
------------------------Standing in the Light of Heaven, March 4
HP	70	1	For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6.
HP	70	2	Provision has been made whereby the communication between heaven and our souls may be free and open. Finite man can place himself where rays of light and glory from the throne of God will be given him in abundance. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God which shines in the face of Jesus Christ may shine upon him. He may stand where it can be said of him, "Ye are the light of the world." Were it not for the communication between heaven and earth there would be no light in the world. Like Sodom and Gomorrah, all men would perish beneath the just judgment of God. But the world is not left in darkness. The long-suffering mercy of God is still extended to the children of men, and it is His design that the rays of light which emanate from the throne of God shall be reflected by the children of light....
HP	70	3	It is our privilege to stand with the light of heaven upon us. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. It was no easier for Enoch to live a righteous life than it is for us at the present time. The world in his time was no more favorable to growth in grace and holiness than it is now.
HP	70	4	It was by prayer and communion with God that Enoch was enabled to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. We are living in the perils of the last days, and we must receive our strength from the same Source. We must walk with God. A separation from the world is required of us, for we cannot remain free from its pollution unless we follow the example of the faithful Enoch....
HP	70	5	Those who profess the religion of Christ should understand the responsibility resting upon them. They should feel that this is an individual work, an individual preaching of Christ. If each would realize this and take hold of the work, we should be as mighty as an army with banners. The heavenly Dove would hover over us. The light of the glory of God would be no more shut away from us than it was from the devoted Enoch.
------------------------Letters to Heaven, March 5
HP	71	1	Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16.
HP	71	2	Prayer is not an expiation for sin. It is not a penance. We need not come to God as condemned criminals, for Christ has paid the penalty of our transgression. He has made an atonement for us. His blood cleanses from sin. Our prayers are as letters sent from earth, directed to our Father in heaven. The petitions that ascend from sincere, humble hearts will surely reach Him. He can discern the sincerity of His adopted children. He pities our weakness and strengthens our infirmities. He has said, "Ask, and ye shall receive."
HP	71	3	Many of the human family know not what they should ask for as they ought. But the Lord is kind and tender. He helps their infirmities by giving them words to speak. He who comes with sanctified desire has access through Christ to the Father. Christ is our intercessor. The prayers that are placed in the golden censer of the Saviour's merits are accepted by the Father.
HP	71	4	Every promise in the Word of God is for us. In your prayers, present the pledged word of Jehovah and by faith claim His promises. His word is the assurance that if you ask in faith, you will receive all spiritual blessings. Continue to ask, and you will receive exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think. Educate yourself to have unlimited confidence in God. Cast all your care upon Him. Wait patiently for Him, and He will bring it to pass.
HP	71	5	We are to come to God, not in a spirit of self-justification, but with humility, repenting of our sins. He is able to help us, willing to do for us more than we ask or think. He has the abundance of heaven wherewith to supply our necessities.... God is holy, and we must pray, "lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting" (1 Timothy 2:8)....
HP	71	6	We are to seek "first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). We are to be ready to receive the blessing which God will bestow upon those who seek Him with the whole heart, in sincerity and truth. We must keep the heart open if we would receive of the grace of Christ.
------------------------Sweet Communion with our Saviour, March 6
HP	72	1	That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3.
HP	72	2	It is our privilege to taste the sweetness of communion with a crucified and risen Saviour. But in order for this to be, self must be surrendered to God. Self-indulgence means that Christ is not followed in self-denial and cross bearing. When self strives for the highest place, the spiritual perceptions become dimmed. The eyes are turned from Christ to the poor picture of self. We cannot afford to become separated from Christ. We must keep looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith....
HP	72	3	It is as we commune with Christ that precious, holy light shines into our souls, until every chamber is lighted up and we become bright lights in the world, reflecting to others the glory of Christ. We are to keep Christ before us as the example of perfection.
HP	72	4	Communion with God is the life of the soul. It is not a something which we can interpret, a something which we can clothe with beautiful words, but which does not give us the genuine experience that makes our words of real value. Communion with God gives us a daily experience that does indeed make our joy full.
HP	72	5	Those who have this union with Christ will declare it in spirit and word and work. Profession is nothing unless, in word and work, good fruit is manifest. Unity, fellowship with one another and with Christ--this is the fruit borne on every branch of the living vine. The cleansed soul, born again, has a clear, distinct testimony to bear....
HP	72	6	To know God is, in the scriptural sense of the term, to be one with Him in heart and mind, having an experimental knowledge of Him, holding reverential communion with Him as the Redeemer. Only through sincere obedience can this communion be obtained....
HP	72	7	Following Christ's example of unselfish service, trusting like little children in His merits, and obeying His commands, we shall receive the approval of God. Christ will abide in our hearts, and our influence will be fragrant with His righteousness.
------------------------Fervent Prayer, March 7
HP	73	1	Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Psalm 62:8.
HP	73	2	Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. The eye of faith will discern God very near, and the suppliant may obtain precious evidence of the divine love and care for him. But why is it that so many prayers are never answered? ... The Lord gives us the promise: "Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13). Again, He speaks of some who "have not cried unto me with their heart" (Hosea 7:14). Such petitions are prayers of form, lip service only, which the Lord does not accept....
HP	73	3	There is need of prayer--most earnest, fervent, agonizing prayer--such prayer as David offered when he exclaimed: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." "I have longed after thy precepts"; "I have longed for thy salvation." "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God." "My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments" (Psalm 42:1; 119:40, 174; Psalm 84:2; 119:20). This is the spirit of wrestling prayer, such as was possessed by the royal psalmist....
HP	73	4	Of Christ it is said: "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly" (Luke 22:44). In what contrast to this intercession by the Majesty of heaven are the feeble, heartless prayers that are offered to God. Many are content with lip service, and but few have a sincere, earnest, affectionate longing after God.
HP	73	5	Communion with God imparts to the soul an intimate knowledge of His will.... True prayer engages the energies of the soul and affects the life. He who thus pours out his wants before God feels the emptiness of everything else under heaven. "All my desire is before thee," said David, "and my groaning is not hid from thee." "My soul thirsteth for God...." "When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me" (Psalm 38:9; 42:2, 4).
HP	73	6	Your prayers may rise with an importunity that will not accept denial. That is faith.
------------------------Nothing Too Small, March 8
HP	74	1	The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. Lamentations 3:25.
HP	74	2	There are few who rightly appreciate or improve the precious privilege of prayer. We should go to Jesus and tell Him all our needs. We may bring Him our little cares and perplexities as well as our greater troubles. Whatever arises to disturb or distress us, we should take it to the Lord in prayer.
HP	74	3	We lose many precious blessings by failing to bring our needs and cares and sorrows to our Saviour. He is the wonderful Counselor. He looks upon His church with intense interest and with a heart full of tender sympathy. He enters into the depth of our necessities. But our ways are not always His ways. He sees the result of every action, and He asks us to trust patiently in His wisdom, not in the supposedly wise plans of our own making.
HP	74	4	Do not cease to pray. If the answer tarry, wait for it. Lay all your plans at the feet of the Redeemer. Let your importunate prayers ascend to God. If it be for His name's glory, the soothing words will be spoken, "Be it unto thee according to thy word."
HP	74	5	We can never weary Christ by earnest supplications. We do not depend on God as we should. Let us leave unsaid every word of complaint. Talk faith and courage while waiting for God.... Be afraid to doubt, lest this become a habit that will destroy faith. The dealing of the heavenly Father may seem dark and mysterious and unexplainable; nevertheless we are to trust in Him.
HP	74	6	Oh, how precious is Jesus to the soul who trusts in Him! But many are walking in darkness because they bury their faith in the shadow of Satan.... Never for a moment should we allow Satan to think that his power to distress and annoy is greater than the power of Christ to uphold and strengthen....
HP	74	7	Every sincere prayer that is offered is mingled with the efficacy of Christ's blood. If the answer is deferred, it is because God desires us to show a holy boldness in claiming the pledged word of God. He is faithful who hath promised. He will never forsake the soul who is wholly surrendered to Him.
------------------------Prayer Moves Heaven, March 9
HP	75	1	Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Matthew 7:7.
HP	75	2	Why is it that we do not receive more from Him who is the source of light and power? We expect too little....
HP	75	3	We do not value as we should the power and efficacy of prayer. "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Romans 8:26). God desires us to come to Him in prayer, that He may enlighten our minds. He alone can give clear conceptions of truth. He alone can soften and subdue the heart. He can quicken the understanding to discern truth from error. He can establish the wavering mind and give it a knowledge and a faith that will endure the test. Pray, then; pray without ceasing. The Lord who heard Daniel's prayer will hear yours if you will approach Him as Daniel did.
HP	75	4	Let us live in close communion with God. The joy of the Christian arises from a sense of God's love and care for His children and the assurance that He will not leave them alone in their weakness.
HP	75	5	We need to know how to pray. It is not tame, spiritless prayers that take hold of the divine attributes. Prayer is heard by God when it comes from a heart broken by a sense of unworthiness. Prayer was instituted for our comfort and salvation, that through faith and hope we may lay hold on the rich promises of God. Prayer is the expression of the desires of a soul hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
HP	75	6	Prayer is a heaven-ordained means of success. Appeals, petitions, entreaties, between man and man, move men and act a part in controlling the affairs of nations. But prayer moves heaven. That power alone that comes in answer to prayer will make men wise in the wisdom of heaven and enable them to work in the unity of the Spirit, joined together by the bonds of peace. Prayer, faith, confidence in God, bring a divine power that sets human calculations at their real worth--nothingness.... He who places himself where God can enlighten him, advances, as it were, from the partial obscurity of dawn to the full radiance of noonday.
------------------------Jesus the Mighty Petitioner, March 10
HP	76	1	Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. John 17:20.
HP	76	2	Think of Christ, the adored of angels, in the attitude of a suppliant. He was a mighty petitioner, seeking at the hands of the Father fresh supplies of grace, and coming forth invigorated and refreshed, to impart His lessons of assurance and hope. Look at His kneeling form, as in the moonlit hours He pours forth His soul to the Father. Behold the angels watching the earnest suppliant. His prayer rises to all heaven in our behalf....
HP	76	3	The disciples often witnessed Christ kneeling in prayer, their hearts broken and humbled. As their Lord and Saviour arose from His knees, what did they read in His countenance and bearing? That He was braced for duty and prepared for trial. Prayer was a necessity of His humanity, and His petitions were often accompanied with strong crying and with agony of soul as He saw the necessities of His disciples, who, not understanding their own dangers, were often, under Satan's temptations, led away from duty into wrongdoing.
HP	76	4	Christ's life was pure and undefiled. He refused to yield to the temptations of the enemy. Had He yielded on one point, the human family would have been lost. Who can tell the agony that He endures as He sees Satan playing the game of life for the souls of those who claim to be His disciples, and sees them yielding point after point, allowing the soul's defenses to be broken down? We can form no conception of the agony that He endures at this sight. One soul lost, one soul given up to Satan's power, means more to Him than the whole world.... What an argument of power in the prayer, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one" (John 17:21, 22).
HP	76	5	Christ is represented as hunting, searching, for the sheep that was lost. It is His love that encircles us, bringing us back to the fold, giving us the privilege of sitting together with Him in heavenly places.
------------------------Asking In Christ's Name, March 11
HP	77	1	And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 14:13.
HP	77	2	I am so thankful that we can trust in God. And the Lord is honored when we trust in Him, bringing to Him all our perplexities.... The Lord Jehovah did not deem the principles of salvation complete while invested only with His own love. By His own appointment He has placed at His altar an Advocate clothed in our nature. As our Intercessor, His office work is to introduce us to God as His sons and daughters. Christ intercedes in behalf of those who have received Him. To them He gives power, by virtue of His own merits, to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. And the Father demonstrates His infinite love for Christ, who paid our ransom by His blood, by receiving and welcoming Christ's friends as His friends. He is satisfied with the atonement made. He is glorified by the incarnation, the life, death, and mediation of His Son.
HP	77	3	In Christ's name our petitions ascend to the Father. He intercedes in our behalf, and the Father lays open all the treasures of His grace for our appropriation, to enjoy and communicate to others. Ask in My name, Christ says. I do not say that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father Himself loveth you, because you have loved Me. Make use of My name. This will give your prayers efficiency, and the Father will give you the riches of His grace. Wherefore ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
HP	77	4	What condescension! What a privilege is granted us! Christ is the connecting link between God and man.... As we approach God through the virtue of Christ's merits, we are clothed with His priestly vestments. He places us close by His side, encircling us with His human arm, while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the Infinite. He puts His merits as sweet incense in a censer in our hands in order to encourage our petitions. He promises to hear and answer our supplications. Yes; Christ has become the medium of prayer between man and God. He also has become the medium of blessing between God and man. He has combined divinity and humanity.
------------------------Our Access to the Father, March 12
HP	78	1	Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. John 16:23.
HP	78	2	We are to pray in the name of Christ, our Mediator. Our petitions are of value only as they are offered in His name. He has bridged the gulf that sin has made. By His atoning sacrifice He has bound to Himself and His Father those who believe in Him. His is the only name under heaven whereby we may be saved....
HP	78	3	We are not to be so overwhelmed with the thought of our sins and errors that we shall cease to pray. Some realize their great weakness and sin, and become discouraged. Satan casts his dark shadow between them and the Lord Jesus, their atoning sacrifice. They say, It is useless for me to pray. My prayers are so mingled with evil thoughts that the Lord will not hear them.
HP	78	4	These suggestions are from Satan. In His humanity Christ met and resisted this temptation, and He knows how to succor those who are thus tempted. In our behalf, He "offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears" (Hebrews 5:7).
HP	78	5	Many, not understanding that their doubts come from Satan, become fainthearted and are defeated in the conflict. Do not, because your thoughts are evil, cease to pray. If we could in our own wisdom and strength pray aright, we could also live aright, and would need no atoning sacrifice. But imperfection is upon all humanity. Educate and train the mind that you may in simplicity tell the Lord what you need. As you offer your petitions to God, seeking for forgiveness for sin, a purer and holier atmosphere will surround your soul.
HP	78	6	The Lord desires us to improve in prayer and to offer our spiritual sacrifices with increased faith and power.... He has given His own Son for your redemption. If by living faith we accept Him as our Saviour, we are placed on vantage ground with God; for Christ stands before His Father, saying, "Lay their sins on me. I will bear their guilt. They are my property. I have graven them upon the palms of my hands." In our behalf He presents before His Father the marks of the crucifixion which He will bear throughout eternity.
------------------------Our Personal Intercessor, March 13
HP	79	1	Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Romans 8:34.
HP	79	2	The Lord Jesus is your personal intercessor.... Repeat over and over many times through the day, "Jesus has died for me. He saw me in peril, exposed to destruction, and poured out His life to save me. He does not behold the soul as a trembling suppliant prostrate at His feet without pity, and He will not fail to raise me up." He has become the advocate for man. He has lifted up those who believe in Him and placed a treasurehouse of blessing at their demand. Men cannot bestow one blessing upon their fellows, they cannot remove one stain of sin. It is only the merit and righteousness of Christ that will avail anything, but this is placed to our account in rich fullness. We may draw upon God every moment. As we turn to Him, He answers, "Here I am."
HP	79	3	Christ proclaims Himself our Intercessor. He would have us know that He has graciously engaged to be our Substitute. He places His merit in the golden censer to offer up with the prayers of His saints, so that the prayers of His dear children may be mingled with the fragrant merit of Christ as they ascend to the Father in the cloud of incense.
HP	79	4	The Father hears every prayer of His contrite children. The voice of supplication from the earth unites with the voice of our Intercessor, who pleads in heaven, whose voice the Father always hears. Let our prayers therefore continually ascend to God. Let them not come up in the name of any human being, but in the name of Him who is our Substitute and Surety. Christ has given us His name to use....
HP	79	5	Jesus receives and welcomes you as His own friend. He loves you; He has pledged Himself to open before you all the treasures of His grace for your appropriation. He says, "At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God" (John 16:26, 27). He virtually says, Make use of My name, and it will be your passport to the heart of My Father, and to all the riches of His grace.
------------------------The Spirit's Intercession, March 14
HP	80	1	Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Romans 8:26.
HP	80	2	We must not only pray in Christ's name, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This explains what is meant when it is said that the Spirit "maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered." Such prayer God delights to answer. When with earnestness and intensity we breathe a prayer in the name of Christ, there is in that very intensity a pledge from God that He is about to answer our prayer "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think."
HP	80	3	The Holy Spirit will be given to those who seek for its power and grace and will help our infirmities when we would have an audience with God. Heaven is open to our petitions, and we are invited to come "boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). We are to come in faith, believing that we shall obtain the very things we ask of Him.
HP	80	4	We may commit the keeping of our souls to God as unto a faithful Creator, not because we are sinless, but because Jesus died to save just such erring, faulty creatures as we are, thus expressing His estimate of the value of the human soul. We may rest upon God, not because of our own merit, but because the righteousness of Christ will be imputed to us....
HP	80	5	There are rich promises for us in the Word of God. The plan of salvation is ample. It is no narrow, limited provision that has been made for us. We are not obliged to trust in the evidence that we had a year or a month ago, but we may have the assurance today that Jesus lives and is making intercession for us.
HP	80	6	God does not leave His erring children who are weak in faith, and who make mistakes. The Lord hearkens and hears their prayer and their testimony. Those who look unto Jesus day by day and hour by hour, who watch unto prayer, are drawing nigh to Jesus. Angels with wings outspread wait to bear their contrite prayers to God, and to register them in the books of heaven.
------------------------Ask in Faith, March 15
HP	81	1	Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:24.
HP	81	2	"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matthew 7:11). These gifts are freely given to us by God. Oh, how weak is our faith, that we do not avail ourselves of the rich, glorious promises of God! It is His nature to bestow His gifts upon us. All-wise and all-powerful, He will give liberally to all who ask in faith. He is more merciful, more tender, more patient and loving than any earthly parent.
HP	81	3	The believer in Christ is consecrated to high and holy purpose.... Called according to God's purpose, set apart by grace divine, invested with Christ's righteousness, imbued with the Holy Spirit, offering up the sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart, the true believer is indeed a representative of the Redeemer.
HP	81	4	Upon such a worshiper, God looks with delight. He will let His light shine into the chambers of the mind and into the soul temple if men, when they lack wisdom, will go to their closets in prayer and ask wisdom from Him who gives to all men liberally and upbraids not. The promise is, "It shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed" (James 1:5, 6).... Show a firm, undeviating trust in God. Be ever true to principle. Waver not....
HP	81	5	All things are possible to those that believe. No one coming to the Lord in sincerity of heart will be disappointed. How wonderful it is that we can pray effectually, that unworthy, erring mortals possess the power of offering their requests to God!
HP	81	6	What higher power can man require than this--to be linked with the infinite God? Feeble, sinful man has the privilege of speaking to his Maker. We utter words that reach the throne of the Monarch of the universe. We pour out our heart's desire in our closets. Then we go forth to walk with God as did Enoch.
------------------------According to God's Will, March 16
HP	82	1	And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 1 John 5:14, 15.
HP	82	2	When you pray for temporal blessings, remember that the Lord may see that it is not for your good or for His glory to give you just what you desire. But He will answer your prayer, giving you just what is best for you.
HP	82	3	When Paul prayed that the thorn in his flesh might be removed, the Lord answered his prayer, not by removing the thorn, but by giving him grace to bear the trial. "My grace," He said, "is sufficient for thee." Paul rejoiced at this answer to his prayer, declaring, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Corinthians 12:9). When the sick pray for the recovery of health, the Lord does not always answer their prayer in just the way they desire. But even though they may not be immediately healed, He will give them that which is of far more value--grace to bear their sickness.
HP	82	4	Make your requests known to your Maker. Never is one repulsed who comes to Him with a contrite heart. Not one sincere prayer is lost. Amid the anthems of the celestial choir, God hears the cries of the weakest human being. We pour out our heart's desire in our closets, we breathe a prayer as we walk by the way, and our words reach the throne of the Monarch of the universe. They may be inaudible to any human ear, but they cannot die away into silence, nor can they be lost through the activities of business that are going on. Nothing can drown the soul's desire. It rises above the din of the street, above the confusion of the multitude, to the heavenly courts. It is God to whom we are speaking, and our prayer is heard. You who feel the most unworthy, fear not to commit your case to God.
HP	82	5	There is a mighty power in prayer. Our great adversary is constantly seeking to keep the troubled soul away from God. An appeal to Heaven by the humblest saint is more to be dreaded by Satan than the decrees of cabinets or the mandates of kings.
------------------------The Secret of Spiritual Power, March 17
HP	83	1	They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31.
HP	83	2	Much prayer is necessary to successful effort. Prayer brings power. Prayer has "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, ... turned to flight the armies of the aliens" (Hebrews 11:33, 34).
HP	83	3	Jesus lived in dependence upon God and communion with Him. To the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty, men now and then repair; they abide for a season, and the result is manifest in noble deeds; then their faith fails, the communion is interrupted, and the lifework marred. But the life of Jesus was a life of constant trust, sustained by continual communion; and His service for heaven and earth was without failure or faltering.
HP	83	4	Christian workers can never attain the highest success until they learn the secret of strength. They must give themselves time to think, to pray, to wait upon God for a renewal of physical, mental, and spiritual power. They need the uplifting of His Spirit. Receiving this, they will be quickened by fresh life. The wearied frame and tired brain will be refreshed, the burdened heart will be rested.
HP	83	5	Prayer is the breath of the soul. It is the secret of spiritual power. No other means of grace can be substituted, and the health of the soul be preserved. Prayer brings the heart into immediate contact with the Well-spring of life, and strengthens the sinew and muscle of the religious experience.
HP	83	6	Family prayer and public prayer have their place, but it is secret communion with God that sustains the soul-life. It was in the mount with God that Moses beheld the pattern of that wonderful building which was to be the abiding-place of His glory. It is in the mount with God--the secret place of communion--that we are to contemplate His glorious ideal for humanity. Thus we shall be enabled so to fashion our character-building that to us may be fulfilled the promise, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (2 Corinthians 6:16).
------------------------The Silent Heart Cry, March 18
HP	84	1	Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Psalm 31:20.
HP	84	2	When men and women are in the busy activities of life and are pressed with numerous cares, they cannot live upon their knees. But even in the market place there is a watcher constantly present to witness every transaction, and the books of heaven record every penny of unlawful gain as fraud. While men cannot live upon their knees in the market place, yet the silent heart's earnest desire presented to heaven finds access to the Father through the watchers. The way to the throne of God is open, and all who have the fear of God before them and desire to walk in His counsel will seek His strength to do His will in crowded companies as well as in the chapel....
HP	84	3	There is a chance for every man who loves and fears God, with every temptation that shall come in the business transactions of life, to know how to retreat into the secret place of the Most High's pavilion, so that he can remain there and be safe. Then he will honor God because he feels the strength and fullness of power of Him who is back of the promises. He communes with God where no eye sees and no ear hears but His.
HP	84	4	All the Lord requires is a willing mind to walk in the way of the Lord. If there be a pure heart he shall see God and will feel His keeping power even in the busiest, most excitable crowd, if duty requires him to be there.... In such places every true, genuine receiver of Christ... carries the lamp of life....
HP	84	5	We must not have a religion that is retained only in favorable circumstances. A religion dependent on circumstances will surely fail when it is most needed, in the most difficult surroundings. The religion of the Bible will require the gospel lamp to be kept burning brightly in unfavorable surroundings--in the market place, in the workshop--just as verily as in the place where prayer is wont to be made. Purest Christian principles may be preserved in every place. Loving and believing in Christ as our personal Saviour, we can claim His grace and His guardian care wherever we may be.
------------------------Guard Jealously Your Hours for Prayer, March 19
HP	85	1	As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Psalm 42:1.
HP	85	2	He who is a citizen of the heavenly kingdom will be constantly looking at things not seen. The power of earth over the mind and character is broken. He has the abiding presence of the heavenly Guest, in accordance with the promise, "I will love him, and will manifest myself to him" (John 14:21). He walks with God as did Enoch, in constant communion....
HP	85	3	Daily beset by temptation, constantly opposed by the leaders of the people, Christ knew that He must strengthen His humanity by prayer. In order to be a blessing to men He must commune with God, pleading for energy, perseverance, and steadfastness. Thus He showed His disciples where His strength lay. Without this daily communion with God no human being can gain power for service. It is the privilege of every one to commit himself, with all his trials and temptations, his sorrows and disappointments, to the loving heavenly Father. No one who does this, who makes God his confidant, will fall a prey to the enemy.
HP	85	4	"We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:15, 16)....
HP	85	5	Guard jealously your hours for prayer and self-examination. Set apart some portion of each day for a study of the Scriptures and communion with God. Thus you will obtain spiritual strength and grow in grace and favor with God. He alone can direct our thoughts aright. He alone can give us noble aspirations and fashion our characters after the divine similitude. If we draw near to Him in earnest prayer, He will fill our hearts with high and holy purposes and with deep, earnest longing for purity and cleanness of thought....
HP	85	6	He imparts the richest blessings to those who serve Him with a pure heart. He teaches each one who opens the heart to His instruction and obeys His voice.
------------------------The Secret Place of Prayer, March 20
HP	86	1	He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1.
HP	86	2	The way to the throne of God is always open. You cannot always be on your knees in prayer, but your silent petitions may constantly ascend to God for strength and guidance. When tempted, as you will be, you may flee to the secret place of the Most High. His everlasting arms will be underneath you.
HP	86	3	We come to God by special invitation, and He waits to welcome us to His audience chamber.... We may be admitted into closest intimacy and communion with God.
HP	86	4	Pray with humble hearts. Seek the Lord often in prayer. In the secret place, alone, the eye sees Jesus and the ear is opened to Jesus. You come forth from the secret place of prayer to abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Temptations come, but you press closer and still closer to the side of Jesus and place your hand in His hand. Then you gain a rich experience, resting in His love and rejoicing in His mercy. The worries and perplexities and cares are gone, and you rejoice in Jesus Christ. The soul is quick to hear the Father's voice, and you will commune with God. All criticism is banished, all judging of others has been expelled from the soul....
HP	86	5	In Jesus Christ there is fragrance of character. There is the developing of nobleness of character, of refinement and purity, for by beholding you reflect the image of Christ. Sons of God, daughters of God, we must be like Him, and in this close relationship to God we receive power and heavenly endowment that we may work the works of God....
HP	86	6	Oh, what joy we experience in the service of God! What peace, what contentment and rest! Members of the royal family, children of the heavenly king! "It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him..." (1 John 3:2). With such a hope, such a relationship, with all the great and precious possibilities, should not our faith grasp much more than it does? Should we not be inspired with hope and courage that will not fail nor be discouraged under any difficulties?
------------------------"With All Your Heart", March 21
HP	87	1	And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13.
HP	87	2	Many have not had that religious experience that is essential for them, that they may stand without fault before the throne of God. The furnace fires of affliction He permits to be kindled upon them to consume the dross, to refine, to purify and cleanse them from the defilement of sin, of self love, and to bring them to know God and to become acquainted with Jesus Christ by walking with Him as did Enoch....
HP	87	3	That which is called praying morning and evening, according to custom, is not always fervent and effectual. It is with many a sleepy, dull, and heartless repetition of words, and does not reach the ear of the Lord. God does not need or require your ceremonial compliments, but He will respect the broken heart, the confession of sins, the contrition of the soul. The cry of the humble, broken heart He will not despise....
HP	87	4	We must have such love for Jesus that we will consider it a privilege to suffer and even die for His sake. We may tell the Lord all our trials, tell Him all our weaknesses, tell Him all our dependence upon His might and His power. This is true prayer. If ever there was a time when the Spirit of grace and supplication was needed to be poured out upon us, God Himself inditing our prayers, it is now. And the promise is to be brought before every church, and the simplicity of truth dwelt upon. "Ask, and ye shall receive" (John 16:24). It is faith, living faith that we need....
HP	87	5	The Lord will lead His people and guide them. The commandment will go forth from God as to Daniel, to help those making earnest intercession to the throne of His grace in their time of need.
HP	87	6	We need to open the heart to Christ. We need much firmer faith and more fervent devotion. We need to die to self, and in mind and heart to cherish an adoring love for our Saviour. When we will seek the Lord with all the heart we shall find Him, and our hearts will be all aglow with His love. Self will sink into insignificance, and Jesus will be all and in all to the soul.
------------------------Faith That Will Not Let Go, March 22
HP	88	1	And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Genesis 32:26.
HP	88	2	You who love to speak of the faults of others, arouse, and look into your own hearts. Take your Bibles, and go to God in earnest prayer. Ask Him to teach you to know yourself, to understand your weakness, your sins and follies, in the light of eternity. Ask Him to show you yourself as you stand in the sight of Heaven. This is an individual work.... In humility send your petition to God, and do not rest day nor night until you can say, Hear what the Lord hath done for me--until you can bear a living testimony and tell of victories won.
HP	88	3	Jacob wrestled with the Angel all night before he gained the victory. When morning broke, the Angel said, "Let me go, for the day breaketh." But Jacob answered, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." Then his prayer was answered. "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob," said the Angel, "but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed" (Genesis 32:26-28).
HP	88	4	We need the perseverance of Jacob and the unyielding faith of Elijah. Time after time Elijah sent his servant to see if the cloud was rising, but no cloud was to be seen. At last, after seven times, the servant returned with the word, "There ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand" (1 Kings 18:44). Did Elijah stand back and say, I will not receive this evidence; I will wait till the heavens gather blackness? No. He said, It is time for us to be going. He ventured all upon that token from God and sent his messenger before him to tell Ahab that there was the sound of abundance of rain.
HP	88	5	It is such faith as this that we need, faith that will take hold and will not let go. Inspiration tells us that Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. Heaven heard his prayer. He prayed that rain might cease, and there was no rain. Again he prayed for rain, and rain was sent. And why should not the Lord be entreated in behalf of His people today? O that the Lord would imbue us with His Spirit! O that the curtain might be rolled back that we might understand the mystery of godliness!
------------------------The Spirit of Submission, March 23
HP	89	1	Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
HP	89	2	Pray often to your heavenly Father. The oftener you engage in prayer, the closer your soul will be drawn into a sacred nearness to God. The Holy Spirit will make intercession for the sincere petitioner with groanings which cannot be uttered, and the heart will be softened and subdued by the love of God. The clouds and shadows which Satan casts about the soul will be dispelled by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and the chambers of mind and heart will be illuminated by the light of Heaven.
HP	89	3	But be not discouraged if your prayers do not seem to obtain an immediate answer. The Lord sees that prayer is often mixed with earthliness. Men pray for that which will gratify their selfish desires, and the Lord does not fulfill their requests in the way which they expect. He takes them through tests and trials, He brings them through humiliations, until they see more clearly what their necessities are. He does not give to men those things which will gratify a debased appetite and which will prove an injury to the human agent and make him a dishonor to God. He does not give men that which will gratify their ambition and work simply for self-exaltation. When we come to God we must be submissive and contrite of heart, subordinating everything to His sacred will.
HP	89	4	In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ prayed to His Father, saying, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matthew 26:39). The cup which He prayed should be removed from Him, that looked so bitter to His soul, was the cup of separation from God in consequence of the sin of the world.... "Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39). The spirit of submission that Christ manifested in offering up His prayer before God is the spirit that is acceptable to God. Let the soul feel its need, its helplessness, its nothingness; let all its energies be called forth in an earnest desire for help, and help will come.... Let faith pierce the darkness. Walk with God in the dark as well as in the light, repeating the words, "He is faithful that promised" (Hebrews 10:23). Through the trial of our faith we shall be trained to trust in God.
------------------------Prayer in the Home, March 24
HP	90	1	Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Ephesians 6:18.
HP	90	2	If ever there was a time when every house should be a house of prayer, it is now. Infidelity and skepticism are prevailing. Iniquity abounds, and in consequence the love of many waxes cold....
HP	90	3	And yet in this time of fearful peril some who profess to be Christians have no family altar. They do not honor God in the home nor teach their children to love and fear Him....
HP	90	4	The idea that prayer is not essential is one of Satan's most successful devices to ruin souls. Prayer is addressing the mind to God, the Fountain of wisdom, the Source of strength and peace and happiness. Prayer includes acknowledgement of the divine perfections, gratitude for mercies received, penitential confession of sins, and earnest entreaty for the blessing of God, both for ourselves and for others.
HP	90	5	Jesus prayed to the Father with strong crying and tears. Paul exhorts believers to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). "In every thing, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6).... God has a right to command our devotions; His authority is sacred and unquestionable. We are under obligation to pray because He requires it; and in obeying His requirements we shall receive a gracious and precious reward....
HP	90	6	Parents should make a hedge about their children by prayer; they should pray with full faith that God will abide with them and that holy angels will guard themselves and their children from Satan's cruel power....
HP	90	7	Fathers and mothers, at least morning and evening lift up your hearts to God in humble supplication for yourselves and your children. Your dear ones are exposed to temptations and trials. There are frets and irritations that daily beset the path of old and young; and those who would live patient, loving, cheerful lives amid daily annoyances must pray. This victory can be gained only by a resolute and unwavering purpose, constant watchfulness, and continual help from God.
------------------------The Prayer Meeting a Precious Season, March 25
HP	91	1	Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:19, 20.
HP	91	2	The Lord has promised that where two or three are met together in His name, there will He be in the midst. Those who meet together for prayer will receive an unction from the Holy One. There is great need of secret prayer, but there is also need that several Christians meet together and unite with earnestness their petitions to God.
HP	91	3	Seek every opportunity to go where prayer is wont to be made. Those who are really seeking for communion with God will be seen in the prayer meeting, faithful to do their duty, and earnest and anxious to reap all the benefits they can gain. They will improve every opportunity of placing themselves where they can receive the rays of light from heaven.
HP	91	4	We meet together to edify one another by an interchange of thoughts and feelings, to gather strength, and light, and courage by becoming acquainted with one another's hopes and aspirations; and by our earnest, heartfelt prayers, offered up in faith, we receive refreshment and vigor from the Source of our strength. These meetings should be most precious seasons....
HP	91	5	All have not the same experience in their religious life. But those of diverse exercises come together and with simplicity and humbleness of mind talk out their experience. All who are pursuing the onward Christian course should have, and will have, an experience that is living, that is new and interesting. A living experience is made up of daily trials, conflicts, and temptations, strong efforts and victories, and great peace and joy gained through Jesus. A simple relation of such experiences gives light, strength, and knowledge that will aid others in their advancement in the divine life.
HP	91	6	Educate your mind to love the Bible, to love the prayer meeting, to love the hour of meditation, and, above all, the hour when the soul communes with God.
------------------------The Blessings of Fellowship in Prayer, March 26
HP	92	1	Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. Malachi 3:16.
HP	92	2	If Christians would associate together, speaking to each other of the love of God, and of the precious truths of redemption, their own hearts would be refreshed, and they would refresh one another. We may be daily learning more of our heavenly Father, gaining a fresh experience of His grace; then we shall desire to speak of His love; and as we do this, our own hearts will be warmed and encouraged. If we thought and talked more of Jesus and less of self, we should have far more of His presence.
HP	92	3	Let small companies assemble in the evening, at noon, or in the early morning to study the Bible. Let them have a season of prayer, that they may be strengthened, enlightened, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.... If you yourselves will open the door to receive it, a great blessing will come to you. Angels of God will be in your assembly. You will feed upon the leaves of the tree of life.
HP	92	4	The fact that the Lord has been represented as hearkening to the words spoken by His witnesses, tells us that Jesus is in our very midst. He says, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst." One person is not to do all the witnessing for Jesus, but every one who loves God is to testify of the preciousness of His grace and truth.
HP	92	5	Praying together will bind hearts to God in bonds that will endure; confessing Christ openly and bravely, exhibiting in our characters His meekness, humility, and love, will charm others with the beauty of holiness.
HP	92	6	God will remember those who have met together and thought upon His name, and He will spare them from the great conflagration. They will be as precious jewels in His sight.... It is not a vain thing to serve God. There is a priceless reward for those who devote their life to His service.
------------------------A Chain of Earnest, Praying Believers, March 27
HP	93	1	Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you. 2 Thessalonians 3:1.
HP	93	2	Among God's people there should be at this time frequent seasons of sincere, earnest prayer. The mind should constantly be in a prayerful attitude. In the home and in the church let earnest prayers be offered in behalf of those who have given themselves to the preaching of the Word. Let believers pray as did the disciples after the ascension of Christ.
HP	93	3	A chain of earnest, praying believers should encircle the world. Let all pray in humility. A few neighbors may meet together to pray for the Holy Spirit. Let those who cannot leave home, gather in their children, and unite in learning to pray together. They may claim the promise of the Saviour: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20).
HP	93	4	There is nothing more needed in the work than the practical results of communion with God. We should hold convocations for prayer, asking the Lord to open the way for the truth to enter the strongholds where Satan has set up his throne, and dispel the shadow he has cast athwart the pathway of those whom he is seeking to deceive and destroy. We have the assurance, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16).
HP	93	5	In the Lord's Prayer we have an example of a perfect petition. How simple, yet how comprehensive it is! This prayer should be taught to the children. Let all study carefully the principles contained in it. In response to the prayers of God's people, angels are sent with heavenly blessings.... Through daily prayer and consecration all may so relate themselves to their heavenly Father that He can bestow upon them rich blessings....
HP	93	6	Oh, how differently many would act were God to draw aside the veil that hides Him from our eyes, and reveal Himself seated on His throne in the high and holy place, not in silent grandeur, but surrounded with ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of holy, happy beings, waiting to do His bidding!
------------------------Reflecting God's Love, March 28
HP	94	1	Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Psalm 67:3.
HP	94	2	As Christians we ought to praise God more than we do. We ought to bring more of the brightness of His love into our lives. As by faith we look to Jesus His joy and peace are reflected from the countenances. How earnestly we should seek so to relate ourselves to God that our faces may reflect the sunshine of His love! When our own souls are vivified by the Holy Spirit, we shall exert an uplifting influence upon others who know not the joy of Christ's presence.
HP	94	3	The Lord is not pleased to have His people a band of mourners. He wants them to repent of their sins, that they may enjoy the liberty of the sons of God. Then they will be filled with the praises of God, and will be a blessing to others.
HP	94	4	The Lord Jesus was anointed also "to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified" (Isaiah 61:3).
HP	94	5	"That he," Christ Jesus, "might be glorified." O that this might be the purpose of our lives! Then we should have regard even to the expression of our countenance, to our words, and even to the tone of our voice when we speak.
HP	94	6	The melody of praise is the atmosphere of heaven; and when heaven comes in touch with the earth, there is music and song--"thanksgiving, and the voice of melody" (Isaiah 51:3).... Let there be singing in the home, of songs that are sweet and pure, and there will be fewer words of censure and more of cheerfulness and hope and joy....
HP	94	7	As our Redeemer leads us to the threshold of the Infinite, flushed with the glory of God, we may catch the themes of praise and thanksgiving from the heavenly choir round about the throne; and as the echo of the angel's song is awakened in our earthly homes, hearts will be drawn closer to the heavenly singers. Heaven's communion begins on earth. We learn here its keynote.
------------------------Songs of Praise, March 29
HP	95	1	And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God; many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:3.
HP	95	2	I have thought with what joy the angels would look down from heaven upon us if we were all praising God and abiding in Christ. If, indeed, there is joy to the full for the Christian, why should we not possess it, and manifest it to the world? ...
HP	95	3	In just a little time Christ will come in power and great glory, and what a terrible thing it would be if we should not be ready! Let us get ready at once. Separate evil from you, begin to sing the song of praise and rejoicing here below.... Let your lips be tuned to praise God.... Angels in heaven are praising God all the time, and here are mortals for whom Christ left the heavenly home and suffered mockery, insult, and death, that He might lift us up to sit in heavenly places, and they offer no song of praise.
HP	95	4	If you sit in heavenly places with Christ, you cannot refrain from praising God. Begin to educate your tongues to praise Him and train your hearts to make melody to God; and when the evil one begins to settle his gloom about you, sing praise to God. When things go crossways at your homes, strike up a song about the matchless charms of the Son of God, and I tell you, when you touch this strain, Satan will leave you. You can drive out the enemy with his gloom; ... and you can see, oh, so much clearer, the love and compassion of your heavenly Father.
HP	95	5	Those who come into sacred relation with the God of heaven are not left to the natural weakness and infirmity of their natures.... The world loses all attraction for them, for they seek a better country, an eternal world, a life that is to continue through never-ending ages. This is the theme of their thought and conversation. The Word of God becomes exceedingly precious. They discern spiritual things. They rejoice in "that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13). They long to see the King in His beauty, the angels that have never fallen, and the land of unfading bloom.
------------------------Praising God Before the World, March 30
HP	96	1	By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Hebrews 13:15.
HP	96	2	We need to offer praise and thanksgiving to God, not only in the congregation, but in the home life. Let the voices of His heritage be heard recounting the works of the Lord. Speak of His goodness, tell of His power....
HP	96	3	We feel depressed, greatly depressed, as we see the world and its wickedness. The professed Christian world is enveloped in the darkness that covers the earth. We sigh and cry for the abominations that are done in the land. Why is it that all this wickedness does not break forth in decided violence against righteousness and truth? It is because the four angels are holding the four winds, that they shall not blow upon the earth. But human passions are reaching a high pass, and the Spirit of the Lord is being withdrawn from the earth. Were it not that God has commanded angelic agencies to control the satanic agencies that are seeking to break loose and to destroy, there would be no hope. But the winds are to be held until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads....
HP	96	4	Amid the moral darkness light is to shine forth in clear, distinct rays.... But every soul needs to turn his face toward the light that he may reflect this light. We need to praise God much more than we do. We are to show that we have cause for rejoicing. "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9). Are we doing this as fully as we should? Are we revealing that love in the home that will honor and glorify our Redeemer?
HP	96	5	However black the clouds that roll upon the world at the present time, there is light beyond. Ignorance, superstition, darkness, unbelief strong and masterful, will meet us at every step we advance. But our faith must soar above all and see the bow of promise encircling the throne. We must reflect the light with pen and voice, praising God before the world.
------------------------Watch and Pray, March 31
HP	97	1	Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26:41.
HP	97	2	We are pilgrims and strangers in this world, traveling a path beset with dangers from those who have rejected the only One who could save them. Ingenious subterfuges and scientific problems will be held out before us, to tempt us to swerve from our allegiance, but we are not to heed them. Let every soul be on the alert. The adversary is on your track. Be vigilant, watching carefully lest some masterly snare shall take you unaware....
HP	97	3	The experience of the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane contains a lesson for the Lord's people today.... They did not realize the necessity of watchfulness and earnest prayer in order to withstand temptation. Many today are fast asleep, as were the disciples. They are not watching and praying lest they enter into temptation. Let us often read and give careful study to those portions of God's Word that have special reference to these last days, pointing out the dangers that will threaten God's people.
HP	97	4	We need keen, sanctified perception. This perception is not to be used in criticizing and condemning one another, but in discerning the signs of the times. We are to keep our hearts with all diligence that we may not make shipwreck of faith. Those who neglect to watch and pray in these days of peril; those who neglect to unite with their brethren in seeking the Lord, but who stand aloof from God's appointed agencies in the church, are in grave danger of strengthening themselves in their own way, following the impulses of their own minds, and of refusing to heed the admonitions of the Lord....
HP	97	5	Let every believer closely examine himself to ascertain what are his weak points. Let him cherish a spirit of humility and plead with the Lord for grace and wisdom and for the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Let him cast away all self-confidence.... Self-confidence leads to a lack of watchfulness.... Those who walk humbly before God, distrustful of their own wisdom, will realize their danger and will know the power of God's keeping care.
------------------------Angel Guards, April 1
HP	98	1	The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. Psalm 34:7.
HP	98	2	If the curtain could be rolled back, and each one could discern the constant activities of the heavenly family to preserve the inhabitants of the earth from Satan's seductive wiles, lest in their careless attitude they should be led astray through satanic strategy, they would lose a large degree of their self-confidence and self-assurance. They would see that the armies of heaven are in continual warfare with satanic agencies, to obtain victories in behalf of those who do not sense their danger, and who are passing on in unconscious indifference.
HP	98	3	Angels are belting the world, refusing Satan his claims to supremacy, made because of the vast multitude of his adherents. We hear not the voices, we see not with the natural sight the work of these angels, but their hands are linked about the world, and with sleepless vigilance they are keeping the armies of Satan at bay till the sealing of God's people shall be accomplished.
HP	98	4	The ministers of Jehovah, angels have skill and power and great strength, being commissioned to go forth from heaven to earth to minister to His people. They are given the work of keeping back the raging power of him who has come down like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
HP	98	5	When we surrender all we have and are to God, and are placed in trying and dangerous positions, coming in contact with Satan, we should remember that we shall have victory in meeting the enemy in the name and power of the Conqueror. Every angel would be commissioned to come to our rescue, when we thus depend upon Christ, rather than that we should be permitted to be overcome. But we need not expect to get the victory without suffering; for Jesus suffered in conquering for us.
HP	98	6	The angels of God are communicating with and guarding His people, and are pressing back the powers of darkness that they shall not have any control over those who shall be heirs of salvation. Are we working in harmony with the angels? This is the line of communication the Lord has established with the children of men.
------------------------Angels in the Home, April 2
HP	99	1	For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Psalm 91:11, 12.
HP	99	2	Angels of God are watching over us. Upon this earth there are thousands and tens of thousands of heavenly messengers commissioned by the Father to prevent Satan from obtaining any advantage over those who refuse to walk in the path of evil. And these angels who guard God's children on earth are in communication with the Father in heaven. "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones," Christ said; "for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 18:10).
HP	99	3	Scarcely any of us realize that angels are about us; and these precious angels, who minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, are saving from us many, many temptations and difficulties. The whole family of heaven is interested in the families here below; and how thankful we should be for this interest manifested for us day and night.
HP	99	4	Words spoken in our homes which are impatient and unkind, angels hear; and do you want to find in the books of heaven a record of the impatient and passionate words you have uttered in your family? Impatience brings the enemy of God and man into your family and drives out the angels of God. If you are abiding in Christ, and Christ in you, you cannot speak angry words.
HP	99	5	Fathers and mothers, I beseech you for Christ's sake, to be kind, tender, and patient in your homes. Then light and sunshine will enter your homes, and you will feel that bright beams from the Sun of Righteousness are indeed shining into your hearts.
HP	99	6	It is the absence of the graces of God's Spirit that leaves the home in a dark, unhappy condition. Your home should be a blessed sanctuary where God can come in, and where His holy angels can minister unto you. If impatience and unkindness are manifested one to another, angels cannot be attracted to your home; but where love and peace abide, these heavenly ones love to come and bring still more of the holy influence of the home above.
------------------------Special Care for the Weak, April 3
HP	100	1	Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 18:10.
HP	100	2	Man is God's property, and angels are looking with intense interest to see how man will deal with his fellow man. When heavenly intelligences see those who claim to be the sons and daughters of God putting forth Christlike efforts to help the erring, manifesting a tender, sympathetic spirit for the repentant and the fallen, angels press close to them and bring to their remembrance the very words that will soothe and uplift the soul. Holy angels are on the track of every one of us. We are not to despise the least of God's little ones....
HP	100	3	Jesus has given His precious life, His personal attention, to the least of God's little ones; and angels that excel in strength encamp round about them that fear God. Then let us be upon our guard, and never permit one contemptuous thought to occupy the mind in regard to one of the little ones of God. We should look after the erring with solicitude, and speak encouraging words to the fallen, and fear lest by some unwise action we shall turn them away from the pitying Saviour....
HP	100	4	All heaven is interested in the work of saving the lost. Angels watch with intense interest to see who will leave the ninety and nine and go out in tempest and storm and rain into the wild desert to seek the lost sheep. The lost are all around us, perishing and sadly neglected. But they are of value to God, the purchase of the blood of Christ.
HP	100	5	By all that has given us advantage over another--be it education and refinement, nobility of character, Christian training, religious experience--we are in debt to those less favored; and, so far as lies in our power, we are to minister unto them. If we are strong, we are to stay up the hands of the weak. Angels of glory, that do always behold the face of the Father in heaven, make such their special charge. Angels are ever present where they are most needed, with those who have the hardest battle with self to fight and whose surroundings are the most disagreeable. And in this ministry Christ's true followers will cooperate.
------------------------I Have a Guardian Angel, April 4
HP	101	1	Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Psalm 103:20.
HP	101	2	Today, as in the past, all heaven is watching to see the church develop in the true science of salvation. The Lord Jesus is among men. His angels walk among us unrecognized and unacknowledged. We are saved from many snares and unseen dangers that through the machinations and hostility of our foe are placed in our path to destroy us. O that our eyes might be open to discern the watchful solicitude and tender care of the messengers of light! If those who politely acknowledge the favors which they receive from earthly friends would realize how much they owe to God, their hearts would respond in grateful thanks for precious favors that are now unnoticed.
HP	101	3	We do not recount God's mercies often enough.... By our failure to express gratitude we are dishonoring our Maker. His angels, thousands upon thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand, are commissioned to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. They guard us against temporal evil and press back the powers of darkness, else we should be destroyed. Why do we not value God's watchcare? If Satan had his way and carried out his designs, destruction would be seen on every hand. Why do we not remember that we are mercifully shielded from peril? Have we not reason to be thankful every moment, thankful even when there are apparent difficulties in our pathway? Cannot we trust our heavenly Father?
HP	101	4	We shall never know what dangers, seen and unseen, we have been delivered from through the interposition of the angels until we shall see in the light of eternity the providences of God. Then we shall better understand what God has done for us all the days of our life. We shall know then that the whole heavenly family watched to see our course of action from day to day.
HP	101	5	Every believer who constantly realizes his dependence on God has his appointed angel, sent from heaven to minister to him. The ministry of these angels is especially essential now, for Satan is making his last desperate effort to secure the world.
------------------------Working with the Angels, April 5
HP	102	1	Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Hebrews 1:14.
HP	102	2	One part of the ministry of heavenly angels is to visit our world and oversee the work of the Lord which is in the hands of His stewards. In every time of necessity they minister to those who as co-workers with God are striving to carry forward His work in the earth.... The angelic hosts rejoice whenever any part of God's work prospers.
HP	102	3	Angels are interested in the spiritual welfare of all who are seeking to restore the moral image of God in man, and the human family are to connect with the heavenly family in binding up the wounds and bruises that sin has made. Angelic agencies, though invisible, are cooperating with visible human agencies, forming a relief association with men. The very angels who, when Satan was seeking the supremacy, fought the battle in the heavenly courts and triumphed on the side of God, the very angels who shouted for joy over the creation of our world and over the creation of our first parents to inhabit the earth, the angels who witnessed the fall of man and his expulsion from his Eden home--these very heavenly messengers are most intensely interested to work in union with the fallen, redeemed race for the salvation of human beings perishing in their sins.
HP	102	4	Human agencies are the hands of heavenly instrumentalities, for heavenly angels employ human hands in practical ministry.... By uniting with these powers that are omnipotent, we are benefited by their higher education and experience. Thus, as we become partakers of the divine nature and separate selfishness from our lives, special talents for helping one another are granted us....
HP	102	5	With what joy and delight Heaven looks upon these blended influences! All heaven is watching those agencies that are as the hand to work out the purposes of God in the earth, thus doing the will and purpose of God in heaven. Such cooperation accomplishes a work that brings honor and glory and majesty to God. Oh, if all would love as Christ has loved, that perishing men might be saved from ruin, what a change would come to our world!
------------------------Angel Guidance, April 6
HP	103	1	And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. Acts 8:26.
HP	103	2	God has recorded many narratives in His Inspired Word to teach us that the human family is the object of the special care of heavenly angels. Man is not left to become the sport of Satan's temptations. All heaven is actively engaged in the work of communicating light to the inhabitants of the world, that they may not be left without spiritual guidance. An eye that never slumbers nor sleeps is guarding the camp of Israel. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels are ministering to the needs of the children of men. Voices inspired by God are crying, This is the way, walk ye in it. If men will hear the voice of warning, if they will trust to God's guidance and not to finite judgment, they will be safe....
HP	103	3	Heavenly angels watch those who are seeking for enlightenment, and cooperate with those who try to win souls to Christ. This is shown in the experience of Philip and the Ethiopian.
HP	103	4	A heavenly messenger was sent to Philip to show him his work for the Ethiopian.... Angels of God were taking notice of this seeker for light.... Today, as then, angels are leading and guiding those who will be led and guided. The angel sent to Philip could himself have done the work for the Ethiopian, but this was not God's way of working. As God's instruments, men must work for others.
HP	103	5	When God pointed out to Philip his work, the disciple did not say, as many are saying today, God does not mean that. I will not be too confident, or I shall make a mistake. Philip that day learned a lesson of conformity to God's will that was worth everything to him. He learned that every soul is precious in the sight of God and that angels will bring light to those who are in need of it. Through the ministration of angels God sends light to His people, and through His people this light is to be given to the world....
HP	103	6	Faithful sentinels are on guard, to direct souls in right paths.
------------------------The Act of Faith, April 7
HP	104	1	Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.
HP	104	2	Faith is not the ground of our salvation, but it is the great blessing--the eye that sees, the ear that hears, the feet that run, the hand that grasps. It is the means, not the end. If Christ gave His life to save sinners, why shall I not take that blessing? My faith grasps it, and thus my faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. Thus resting and believing, I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
HP	104	3	Faith, saving faith ... is the act of the soul by which the whole man is given over to the guardianship and control of Jesus Christ. He abides in Christ and Christ abides in the soul by faith as supreme. The believer commits his soul and body to God, and with assurance may say, Christ is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. All who will do this will be saved unto life eternal. There will be an assurance that the soul is washed in the blood of Christ and clothed with His righteousness and precious in the sight of Jesus.
HP	104	4	Remember that the exercise of faith is the one means of preserving it. Should you sit always in one position, without moving, your muscles would become strengthless and your limbs would lose the power of motion. The same is true in regard to your religious experience. You must have faith in the promises of God.... Faith will perfect itself in exercise and activity.
HP	104	5	It is of the greatest importance to us that we surround the soul with the atmosphere of faith. Every day we are deciding our own eternal destiny in harmony with the atmosphere that surrounds the soul. We are individually accountable for the influence that we exert, and consequences that we do not see will result from our words and actions. If God would have saved Sodom for the sake of ten righteous persons, what would be the influence for good that might go out as the result of the faithfulness of the people of God if every one who professed the name of Christ were also clothed with His righteousness?
------------------------Faith Versus Sight, April 8
HP	105	1	For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? Romans 8:24.
HP	105	2	Our Saviour asks the question, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8), implying that true faith would be almost extinct. It is too true that the spirit of doubt, criticism, and faultfinding is destroying confidence in God's Word and in His work. It is impossible for the carnal mind to understand or appreciate the work of God. All who desire to doubt or cavil will find occasion.... Those who in humility of heart follow the light as it shines upon them will receive clearer light, while those who refuse to obey till they can see all occasion for doubt removed, will be left in darkness.
HP	105	3	God gives us sufficient evidence to enable us to accept the truth understandingly, but He does not propose to remove all occasion for doubt and unbelief. Should He do this, there would no longer be a necessity for the exercise of faith; for we would be able to walk by sight. All who with a teachable spirit study the Word of God may learn therefrom the way of salvation, yet they may not be able to understand every portion of the Sacred Record.... Whatever is clearly established by the Word of God we should accept, without attempting to meet every doubt which Satan may suggest, or with our finite understanding to fathom the counsels of the infinite One, or to criticize the manifestations of His grace or power....
HP	105	4	If we seek in humility to learn the will of God as revealed in His Word, and then obey that will as it is made plain to our understanding, we shall become rooted and grounded in the truth. Said Christ: "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine" (John 7:17)....
HP	105	5	Let us draw nearer and nearer to the pure light of Heaven, remembering that divine illumination will increase according to our onward movements, qualifying us to meet new responsibilities and emergencies. The path of the just is progressive, from strength to strength, from grace to grace, and from glory to glory.
------------------------The Dangerous Seeds of Doubt, April 9
HP	106	1	God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Numbers 23:19.
HP	106	2	Those who are perpetually talking doubts and demanding additional evidence to banish their cloud of unbelief do not build on the Word. Their faith rests on circumstances; it is founded in feeling. But feeling, be it ever so pleasing, is not faith. God's Word is the foundation upon which our hopes of heaven must be built.
HP	106	3	It is a great misfortune to be a chronic doubter, keeping the eye and thoughts on self. While you are beholding self, while this is the theme of thought and conversation, you cannot expect to be conformed to the image of Christ. Self is not your saviour. You have no redeeming qualities in yourself. "I" is a very leaky boat for your faith to embark in. Just as surely as you trust yourself in it, it will founder. The lifeboat, to the lifeboat! This is your only safety. Jesus is the captain of the lifeboat, and He has never lost a passenger.
HP	106	4	We need a more heavenly atmosphere to surround our souls. We need to have our lips touched with a live coal from off the altar. We need to hear the word from Christ, "Be thou clean." If we have scattered darkness, if we have accumulated rubbish and hoarded doubts, if we have planted seeds of doubt and discouragement in the minds of others, may God help us to see our sin. We cannot afford to drop a single word of doubt, for it will germinate and grow and bring forth a bitter harvest. We should take heed to the exhortation, "Be ye holy in all manner of conversation" (1 Peter 1:15). One seed of doubt sown, and it is beyond the power of man to kill it. God alone can pluck it from the soul....
HP	106	5	The great field of the promises of God has been presented before us, and by these we are to lay hold of faith, hope, and love. In these graces the church may shine forth and present to the world a living representation of the righteousness of Christ. Living faith grasps the hand of divine power, and faith is as an anchor to the soul, sure and steadfast.... John says, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4).
------------------------We Expect Too Little, April 10
HP	107	1	According to your faith be it unto you. Matthew 9:29.
HP	107	2	Faith is the medium of connection between human weakness and divine power.... We must seek to have our faith strengthened. The iniquity that abounds must not for one moment lessen our faith and love for God or weaken our trust in His sure promises, else some mighty storm of temptation will sweep us away from the true foundation. We have a great work to do, and we need greater faith.... Through communion with God our faith will be strengthened, and the trial of our faith may prove our signal triumph.
HP	107	3	There is a real work to be wrought in us. Constantly we must submit our will to God's will, our way to God's way.... By beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are actually changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. We expect too little, and we receive according to our faith. We are not to cling to our own ways, our own plans, our own ideas.... Besetting sins are to be conquered and evil habits overcome. Wrong dispositions and feelings are to be rooted out, and holy tempers and emotions begotten in us by the Spirit of God....
HP	107	4	Faith, living faith, we must have, a faith that works by love and purifies the soul. We must learn to take everything to the Lord with simplicity and earnest faith. The greatest burden we have to bear in this life is self. Unless we learn in the school of Christ to be meek and lowly, we shall miss precious opportunities and privileges for becoming acquainted with Jesus. Self is the most difficult thing we have to manage. In laying off burdens, let us not forget to lay self at the feet of Christ.
HP	107	5	Hand yourself over to Jesus, to be molded and fashioned by Him, that you may be made vessels unto honor. Your temptations, your ideas, your feelings, must all be laid at the foot of the cross. Then the soul is ready to listen to words of divine instruction. Jesus will give you to drink of the water which flows from the river of God. Under the softening and subduing influence of His Spirit your coldness and listlessness will disappear. Christ will be in you a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.
------------------------The Faith That Avails, April 11
HP	108	1	And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. Luke 8:46.
HP	108	2	There are two kinds of connection between the branches and the vine. The one is deceptive, superficial.
HP	108	3	The crowd pressing upon Christ had no living union with Him by genuine faith. But a poor woman who had been many years a great sufferer and had spent all her living upon physicians but was made no better, but rather worse, thought if she could get within reach of Him, if she could only touch the hem of His garment, she would be made whole. Christ understood all that was in her heart, and He placed Himself where she could have the opportunity she desired. He would use that act to distinguish the touch of genuine faith from the casual contact of those who were crowding about Him....
HP	108	4	When the woman reached forth her hand and touched the hem of His garment, she thought this stealthy touch would not be known by anyone; but Christ recognized that touch and responded to her faith by His healing power. She realized in a moment that she was made whole, and the Lord Jesus would not let such faith pass unnoticed. He turned Him about quickly and said, "Who touched me?" All the disciples were pressing close around Him, and Peter said, "The multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me" (Luke 8:45, 46).
HP	108	5	When the woman saw that she was not hid she came tremblingly and cast herself at His feet, telling the whole story. For twelve years she had been afflicted, but as soon as her finger touched the hem of His garment she was made whole. Jesus said to her, "Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace" (verse 48). The mere touch of faith brought its reward.
HP	108	6	The faith which avails to bring us in vital contact with Christ expresses on our part supreme preference, perfect reliance, entire consecration.... It works in the life of the follower of Christ true obedience to God's commandments, for love to God and love to man will be the result of vital connection with Christ.
------------------------A Working Faith, April 12
HP	109	1	And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Philippians 3:9.
HP	109	2	It is one thing to read and teach the Bible, and another thing to have by practice its life-giving, sanctifying principles engrafted on the soul.... "By grace are ye saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8). The mind should be educated to exercise faith rather than to cherish doubt, suspicion, and jealousy. We are too prone to regard obstacles as impossibilities. To have faith in the promises of God, to go forward by faith, pressing on without being governed by circumstances, is a lesson hard to learn. Yet it is a positive necessity that every child of God should learn this lesson. The grace of God through Christ is ever to be cherished, for it is given us as the only way of approaching God....
HP	109	3	The faith mentioned in God's Word calls for a life in which faith in Christ is an active, living principle. It is God's will that faith in Christ shall be made perfect by works; He connects the salvation and eternal life of those who believe, with these works, and through them provides for the light of truth to go to all countries and peoples. This is the fruit of the workings of God's Spirit.
HP	109	4	We show our faith in God by obeying His commands. Faith is always expressed in words and actions. It produces practical results, for it is a vital element in the life. The life that is molded by faith develops a determination to advance, to go forward, following in the footsteps of Christ.
HP	109	5	We have been taken as rough stones out of the quarry of the world by the cleaver of truth and placed in the workshop of God. He who has genuine faith in Christ as his personal Saviour will find that the truth accomplishes a definite work for him. His faith is a working faith.... We cannot create our faith, but we can be colaborers with Christ in promoting the growth and triumph of faith.
HP	109	6	The faith that works by love and purifies the soul produces the fruit of humility, patience, forbearance, long-suffering, peace, joy, and willing obedience.
------------------------How Faith Works, April 13
HP	110	1	For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. Galatians 5:6.
HP	110	2	Christ has shown His great love for us by giving His life that we should not perish in our sins, that He might clothe us with His salvation. If this divine love is cherished in our hearts, it cements and strengthens our union with those of like faith. "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). The strengthening of our love for our brethren and sisters strengthens our love for Christ. This principle of love for God and for those for whom Christ died, needs to be quickened by the Holy Spirit and cemented with brotherly kindness, tenderness; it needs to be strengthened by acts which testify that God is love. This union, which joins heart with heart, is not the result of sentimentalism, but the working of a healthful principle. Faith works by love, and purifies the soul from all selfishness. Thus the soul is perfected in love. And having found grace and mercy through Christ's precious blood, how can we fail to be tender and merciful? ...
HP	110	3	Faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, the One who pardons our sins and transgressions, the One who is able to keep us from sin and lead us in His footsteps, is set forth in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. Here are presented the fruits of a faith that works by love and purifies the soul from selfishness. Faith and works are here combined.
HP	110	4	"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward.... And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."
------------------------Trust Yourself with God, April 14
HP	111	1	But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil. 2 Thessalonians 3:3.
HP	111	2	How many there are who go through life under a cloud of condemnation! They do not believe God's word. They have no faith that He will do as He has said. Many who long to see others resting in the pardoning love of Christ do not rest in it for themselves. But how can they possibly lead others to show simple, childlike faith in the heavenly Father when they measure His love by their feelings?
HP	111	3	Let us trust God's word implicitly, remembering that we are His sons and daughters. Let us train ourselves to believe His word. We hurt the heart of Christ by doubting, when He has given such evidence of His love. He laid down His life to save us. He says to us: "Come unto me, ... and I will give you rest...." Do you believe He will do as He has said? Then, after you have complied with the conditions, carry no longer the burden of your sins. Let it roll upon the Saviour. Trust yourself with Him. Has He not promised to give you rest? But to many He is obliged to say sorrowfully, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life" (John 5:40).
HP	111	4	Behold Christ. Dwell upon His love and mercy. This will fill the soul with abhorrence for all that is sinful and will inspire it with an intense desire for the righteousness of Christ. The more clearly we see the Saviour, the more clearly shall we discern our defects of character. Confess your sins to Christ, and with true contrition of soul cooperate with Him by putting these sins away. Believe that they are pardoned. The promise is positive, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Be assured that the word of God will not fail. He who has promised is faithful. It is as much your duty to believe that God will fulfill His word and forgive you as it is to confess your sins....
HP	111	5	Look steadfastly to Jesus. Behold Him, full of grace and truth. He will make His goodness pass before you while He hides you in the cleft of the rock. You will be enabled to endure the seeing of Him who is invisible, and by beholding you will be transformed.
------------------------A Test of Faith, April 15
HP	112	1	By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. Hebrews 11:8.
HP	112	2	God selected Abraham as His messenger through whom to communicate light to the world. The word of God came to him, not with the presentation of flattering prospects in this life of large salary, of great appreciation and worldly honor. "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee" (Genesis 12:1), was the divine message to Abraham. The patriarch obeyed.... He forsook his country, his home, his relatives, and all pleasant associations connected with his early life, to become a pilgrim and a stranger.
HP	112	3	Abraham ... might have reasoned and questioned the purposes of God in this. But he showed that he had perfect confidence that God was leading him; he did not question whether it was a fertile, pleasant country or whether or not he should have ease. He went at God's bidding. This is a lesson to every one of us....
HP	112	4	There are those who may be in favorable positions ... in all the things of this life, but God may have a work for them to do elsewhere, a work that they could not do among their relatives and friends. The very position of ease and the relatives who surround them may prevent them from developing the very traits of character which God would have them develop. But God sees that to change their position and to send them where their surroundings will be entirely different will be the very best place for them to develop a character which will glorify Him....
HP	112	5	When we set ourselves where all is convenience and ease, we do not feel so much the necessity of depending moment by moment upon God. God in His providence brings us into positions where we shall feel our necessity of His help and strength....
HP	112	6	It is stated of Abraham that he looked for a city whose builder and maker is God.... So with every one of us. We are only pilgrims and strangers in this world. We are seeking the city which Abraham looked for, whose builder and maker is God.
------------------------Shun Needless Worry, April 16
HP	113	1	Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Matthew 6:25.
HP	113	2	While you do your best, weary not your body and mind with the cares of this life. Do not spoil your religious experience by worry, but trust the Lord to work for you and to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. The life is more than meat....
HP	113	3	There is much needless worrying, much trouble of mind, over things that cannot be helped. The Lord would have His children put their trust fully in Him. Our Lord is a just and righteous God; His children should acknowledge His goodness and His justice in the large and small things of life. Those who cherish the spirit of worry and complaint are refusing to recognize His guiding hand.
HP	113	4	Needless anxiety is a foolish thing, and it hinders us from standing in a true position before God. When the Holy Spirit comes into the soul, there will be no desire to complain and murmur because we do not have everything we want. Rather, we will thank God from a full heart for the blessings that we have....
HP	113	5	There is one blessing that all may have who seek for it in the right way. It is the Holy Spirit of God, and this is a blessing that brings all other blessings in its train. If we will come to God as little children, asking for His grace and power and salvation, not for our own uplifting, but that we may bring blessing to those around us, our petitions will not be denied. Then let us study the Word of God that we may know how to take hold of His promises and claim them as our own. Then we shall be happy....
HP	113	6	Christ came to earth and gave His life that we might have eternal salvation. He wants to encircle each of us with the atmosphere of heaven, that we may give to the world an example that will honor the religion of Christ.... In this life we are to be controlled by the spirit that rules in the heavenly courts. Righteousness and truth are to go before us. And the glory of the Lord will be the rereward of all who serve Him acceptably. They obtain Christ's righteousness.
------------------------God Cares for You, April 17
HP	114	1	Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Matthew 6:26.
HP	114	2	As we look upon the lofty trees waving with fresh, green foliage, and the earth covered with its green velvet carpet, and the flowers and shrubs springing from the earth, we should remember that all these beauties of nature have been used by Christ in teaching His grand lessons of truth. As we look upon the fields of waving grain, and listen to the merry songsters in their leafy homes, and view the boats upon the water of the lake, we should remember the words of Christ upon the lakeside, in the groves, and on the mountains, and the lessons there taught by Him should be repeated to us by the similar objects of nature which surround us.
HP	114	3	He made use of the lofty trees, the cultivated soil, the barren rocks, the flowers of beauty struggling through the clefts, the everlasting hills, the glowing flowers of the valley, the birds caroling their songs in the leafy branches, the spotless lily resting in purity upon the bosom of the water. All these objects that made up the living scene around them were made the medium by which His lessons were impressed upon the minds of His hearers. They were thus brought home to the hearts of all, ... leading them gently up from the contemplation of the Creator's works in nature to nature's God....
HP	114	4	In one of His most impressive lessons Christ says, "Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them...."
HP	114	5	The Great Teacher is here leading out minds to understand the parental care and love which God has for His children. He directs them to observe the birds flitting from tree to tree, or skimming upon the bosom of the lake, without a flutter of distrust or fear. God's eye is upon these little creatures; He provides them food; He answers all their simple wants. Jesus inquires, "Are ye not much better than they?" ...
HP	114	6	If God cares for and preserves the little birds, will He not have far greater love and care for the creatures formed in His image?
------------------------Expressions of God's Love, April 18
HP	115	1	And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6:28, 29.
HP	115	2	The courtly robes of the greatest king that ever sat upon an earthly throne could not compare, in their artificial splendor, with the spotless beauty of the lilies fashioned by the divine hand. This is an example of the estimate which the Creator of all that is beautiful places upon the artificial in comparison with the natural.
HP	115	3	God has given us these things of beauty as an expression of His love, that we may obtain correct views of His character. We are not to worship the things of nature, but in them we are to read the love of God. Nature is an open book, from the study of which we may gain a knowledge of the Creator and be attracted to Him by the things of use and beauty which He has provided....
HP	115	4	"Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" (verses 30, 31). Much unnecessary care and anxiety is felt in regard to our future, concerning what we shall eat and drink and wherewithal we shall be clothed. The labor and worry of needless display in apparel causes much fatigue and unhappiness and shortens our lives. Our Saviour would not only have us discern the love of God displayed in the beautiful flowers about us, but He would have us learn from them lessons of simplicity and of perfect faith and confidence in our heavenly Father.
HP	115	5	If God cares to make these inanimate things so beautiful, that will be cut down and perish in a day, how much more careful will He be to supply the needs of His obedient children, whose lives may be as enduring as eternity. How readily will He give them the adornment of His grace, the strength of wisdom, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. The love of God to man is incomprehensible, broad as the world, high as heaven, and as enduring as eternity.
------------------------Take God's Word on Trust, April 19
HP	116	1	I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins, Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified. Isaiah 43:25, 26.
HP	116	2	Satan will come to you saying, You are a sinner. But do not let him fill your mind with the thought that, because you are sinful, God has cast you off. Say to him, Yes; I am a sinner, and for that reason I need a Saviour. I need forgiveness and pardon, and Christ says that if I come to Him I shall not perish. In His letter to me I read, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). I will believe the word He has left for me....
HP	116	3	The moment you grasp God's promises by faith and say, I am the lost sheep that Jesus came to save, a new life will take possession of you, and you will receive strength to resist the tempter. But faith to grasp the promises does not come by feeling. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). You must not look for some great change to take place; you must not expect to feel some wonderful emotion....
HP	116	4	Take God's word on trust, saying, He loves me: He gave His life for me; and He will save me.... Look away from yourself to Jesus. Embrace Him as your Saviour. Cease to bemoan your helpless condition. Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, you will be inspired with hope and will see the salvation of God. When you feel tempted to mourn, force your lips to utter the praises of God. "Rejoice in the Lord alway" (Philippians 4:4). Is He not worthy of praise? Then educate your lips to talk of His glory and to magnify His name....
HP	116	5	Today the Lord says to you, Be not discouraged, but cast your burdens upon Me. You cannot carry your own sins. I will take them all.... If you will trust in Me, you will not want any good thing....
HP	116	6	Never has a soul that trusts in Jesus been left to perish. "I, even I, am he," the Lord declares, "that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."
------------------------Battles to Fight, April 20
HP	117	1	Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12.
HP	117	2	There are continuous battles to fight, and we are not safe a moment unless we place ourselves under the guardianship of One who gave His own precious life to make it possible for everyone who will believe in Him as the Son of God, while meeting the strain of Satan's varied science, to escape the corruptions that are in the world through lust. He is fully able, in response to our faith, to unite our human with His divine nature. We are, while trusting in and partaking of the divine nature and strengthening our own efforts, proclaiming Christ's mission on earth to be peace on earth and good will toward men. We are bound to speak of the dangers of the warfare with invisible foes, and to keep the armor on, for we war not merely against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places.... Therefore we need to keep under the constant guardianship of holy angels.
HP	117	3	To follow Christ is not freedom from conflict. It is not child's play. It is not spiritual idleness. All the enjoyment in Christ's service means sacred obligations in meeting oft stern conflicts. To follow Christ means stern battles, active labor, warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Our enjoyment is the victories gained for Christ in earnest, hard, warfare.... We are enlisted for labor, "not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life" (John 6:27)....
HP	117	4	Every soul must count the cost. Not one will succeed but by strenuous effort. We must spiritually exercise all our powers and crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. Crucifixion means much more than many suppose....
HP	117	5	It is a constant watchfulness to be faithful unto death, to fight the good fight of faith until the warfare is ended and as overcomers we shall receive the crown of life.
HP	117	6	I can see my Redeemer, in whom I have fresh encouragement to trust as a never-failing Source of strength.
------------------------A Nominal Faith Not Sufficient, April 21
HP	118	1	For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Isaiah 41:13.
HP	118	2	For a few weeks past I have had a deep sense of the promises of God and the hope of the Christian. The Bible never seemed to me so full of rich gems of promise as within the last few weeks. It seems that the dews of heaven are ready to fall upon us and refresh us, if we will only take the promises to ourselves. We can never overcome our own natural tendencies without the help of Heaven, and the precious Jesus places Himself right by our side to help us in this work. He says, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). We want to believe just what Christ has said. We want that our faith shall compass the promises....
HP	118	3	It is a great thing to believe in Jesus. We hear many say, "Believe, believe; all that you have to do is to believe in Jesus." But it is our privilege to inquire, What does this belief take in? and what does it comprehend? There are many of us who have a nominal faith but we do not bring that faith into our characters.... We must have that faith which works by love and purifies the soul, that this belief in Christ will lead us to put away everything that is offensive in His sight. Unless we have this faith that works, it is of no advantage to us. You may admit that Christ is the Saviour of the world, but is He your Saviour? Do you believe today that He will give you strength and power to overcome every defect in your character?....
HP	118	4	We have individually this lesson to learn of special trust in our Saviour. We are to trust our heavenly Father just as a child trusts its earthly parents, and believe that He is working for our good in all things; and that every struggling cry and every effort against the adversary of our soul enters into the ears of the God of Sabaoth, and that He will send us help every time we need it. He will help us over every temptation if we call upon Him in faith. Now this is the lesson we must learn.
HP	118	5	I can trust my Saviour; He saves me today; and while I am struggling to overcome the temptations of the enemy He will give me grace to conquer.
------------------------Abundant Mercy, April 22
HP	119	1	They that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. Psalm 9:10.
HP	119	2	A soul whom God had forsaken would never feel as you [from a letter of comfort to a troubled heart] have felt and would never love the truth and salvation as you have loved it. Oh, if God's Spirit ceases to strive with a soul it is left in an indifferent state, and all the time thinks that it is well enough off.... You must not gratify the enemy in the least by doubting and casting away your confidence. Said the angel, "God leaves not His people, even if they err. He turns not from them in wrath for any light thing. If they sin they have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
HP	119	3	This Advocate pleads for sinners and the Father accepts His prayer. He turns not away the request of His beloved Son. He who so loved you as to give His own life for you will not turn you off and forsake you unless you willfully, determinedly forsake Him to serve the world and Satan. Jesus loves to have you come to Him just as you are, hopeless and helpless, and cast yourself upon His all-abundant mercy and believe that He will receive you just as you are.
HP	119	4	You dwell upon the dark side. You must turn your mind away, and instead of thinking all the time upon the wrath of God, think of His abundant mercy, His willingness to save poor sinners, and then believe He saves you. You must in the name of God break this spell that is upon you. You must cry out, "I will, I do believe!" Jesus retains your name upon His breastplate and pleads for you before His Father, and if your eyes could be opened you would see heavenly angels ministering unto you, hovering about and driving back the evil angels that they should not utterly destroy....
HP	119	5	God calls upon you to believe. Heed His voice. Cease talking of the wrath of God and talk of His compassion and His abundant mercy. Jesus sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. The furnace in which you may be placed may be very hot, yet you will come forth as gold seven times purified, reflecting the image of Jesus. Have courage. Look up, believe, and you shall see of the salvation of God.
------------------------Trust in Time of Trial, April 23
HP	120	1	Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. Psalm 55:22.
HP	120	2	The Lord's care is over all His creatures. He loves them all, and makes no difference, except that He has the most tender pity for those who are called to bear life's heaviest burdens. God's children must meet trials and difficulties. But they should accept their lot with a cheerful spirit, remembering that for all that the world neglects to bestow, God Himself will make up to them in the best of favors.
HP	120	3	We are in danger, by worrying, of manufacturing yokes for our necks. Let us not worry, for thus we make the yoke more severe and the burden heavy. Let us do all we can without worrying, trusting in Christ.
HP	120	4	With the continual change of circumstances, changes come in our experience; and by these changes we are either elated or depressed. But the change of circumstances has no power to change God's relation to us. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and He asks us to have unquestioning confidence in His love.
HP	120	5	Satan watches his opportunity to bring about circumstances that will tend to arouse unbelief, hoping to lead us to doubt God. We cannot afford to cherish one thought of unbelief. When we are tempted to look on the dark side, let us open the windows of the soul heavenward, that the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness may shine in. Let us draw near to God. He has promised that as we do this He will draw near to us and lift up for us a standard against the enemy. The efficiency of His keeping power has in no wise decreased. Let faith stand its trial without wavering, for Christ is a perfect Saviour.
HP	120	6	You may look upon your plans as perfect, but God may see that it is essential for you to suffer disappointment in order that your plans may be brought into harmony with His plan. His way is always the right way. He seeth and knoweth all things. We do not always see as He sees....
HP	120	7	Take your stand on the word of God. Whatever may occur, hold fast the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end.
------------------------Trust in Times of Affliction, April 24
HP	121	1	My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Psalm 63:5, 6.
HP	121	2	[Written during a long period of illness and suffering, while the author was in australia.] Many hours I have passed in wakefulness and pain, but I have had the precious promises of God brought so fresh and with reviving power to my mind. The dear Saviour has been very near to me, and I love to meditate upon the love of Jesus. His tender compassion and the lessons which He gave to His disciples become clear and so full of meaning that they are the feeding of the soul upon heavenly manna.... When the Lord sees fit to say, "Lie there patiently, and reflect"; and when the Holy Spirit brings many things to my memory, precious beyond expression, I do not know what reason I have to complain.... I call to mind the verses which have been a comfort to me many times in my affliction:
HP	121	3	"I see not a step before me as I tread on another year; But the past is in God's keeping, the future His mercy shall clear, And what looks dark in the distance may brighten as I draw near.
HP	121	4	"O restful, blissful ignorance; 'tis blessed not to know; It stills me in those mighty arms, which will not let me go, And hushes my sad soul to rest on the bosom which loves me so.
HP	121	5	"So I go on, not knowing, I would not if I might. I would rather walk in the dark with God, than go alone in the light. I would rather walk with Him by faith, than walk alone by sight.
HP	121	6	"My heart shrinks back from trial which the future may disclose, Yet I never have a sorrow but what the dear Lord chose. So I send the coming teardrops back with the whispered word, ‘He knows,'"
------------------------Trust When You Have Failed, April 25
HP	122	1	Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12.
HP	122	2	In order to fight successfully in the battle against sin, you must keep close to Jesus. Do not talk unbelief; you have no excuse for doing this.... Unbelief always separates the soul from Christ.
HP	122	3	It is not praiseworthy to talk of our weakness and discouragement. Let each one say, "I am grieved that I yield to temptation, that my prayers are so feeble, my faith so weak. I have no excuse to plead for being dwarfed in my religious life. But I am seeking to obtain completeness of character in Christ. I have sinned, and yet I love Jesus. I have fallen many times, and yet He has reached out His hand to save me. I have told Him all about my mistakes. I have confessed with shame and sorrow that I have dishonored Him. I have looked to the cross, and have said, All this He suffered for me. The Holy Spirit has shown me my ingratitude, my sin in putting Christ to open shame. He who knows no sin has forgiven my sin. He calls me to a higher, nobler life, and I press on to the things that are before." ...
HP	122	4	The humility that bears fruit, filling the soul with a sense of the love of God, will speak for the one who has cherished it, in the great day when men will be rewarded according as their works have been. Happy will be the one of whom it can be said, "The Spirit of God never stirred this man's soul in vain. He went forward and upward from strength to strength. Self was not woven into his life. Each message of correction, warning, and counsel he received as a blessing from God. Thus the way was prepared for him to receive still greater blessings, because God did not speak to him in vain. Each step upward on the ladder of progress prepared him to climb still higher. From the top of the ladder the bright beams of God's glory shone upon him. He did not think of resting, but sought constantly to attain the wisdom and righteousness of Christ. Ever he pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
HP	122	5	This experience every one who is saved must have.
------------------------Trust in Time of Difficulty, April 26
HP	123	1	Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:17, 18.
HP	123	2	The children of God may rejoice in all things and at all times. When troubles and difficulties come, believing in the wise providence of God, you may rejoice. You need not wait for a happy flight of feeling, but by faith you may lay hold of the promises and lift up a hymn of thanksgiving to God....
HP	123	3	Memory's hall should be hung with sacred pictures, with views of Jesus, with lessons of His truth, with revealings of His matchless charms. If memory's hall were thus furnished, we would not look upon our lot as intolerable. We would not talk of the faults of others. Our souls would be full of Jesus and His love. We would not desire to dictate to the Lord the way that He should lead. We would love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves. When the joy of the Lord is in the soul, you will not be able to repress it; you will want to tell others of the treasure you have found; you will speak of Jesus and His matchless charms. We should devote all to Him. Our minds should be educated to dwell upon those things that will glorify God; and if our mental powers are dedicated to God, our talents will improve, and we shall have more and more ability to render to the Master. We shall become channels of light to others.
HP	123	4	We can have a close connection with God and with our Saviour; and when we are connected with God, we shall be all light in the Lord, for in Him is no darkness at all.
HP	123	5	As we learn of Christ, we shall understand how to keep our spiritual strength, we shall feed on the Word of God, and we shall have the blessed experience described by the apostle in these words: "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Peter 1:8).
------------------------Trust When You Make Mistakes, April 27
HP	124	1	My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. Psalm 62:5, 6.
HP	124	2	To each one of us has been given the inestimable privilege of being a child of God. Why, then, should we be unhappy? We are all sinful, but we have a Saviour who can take away our sins, for in Him is no sin. We all have many difficulties to meet, many perplexing problems to solve. But we have an all-powerful Helper, who will listen to our requests as willingly and gladly as He listened to the requests of those who, when He was on this earth in person, came to Him for help....
HP	124	3	Do you make mistakes? Do not let this discourage you. The Lord may permit you to make small mistakes in order to save you from making larger mistakes. Go to Jesus, and ask Him to forgive you, and then believe that He does. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
HP	124	4	When discouragement presses heavily upon you, read the following scriptures: ...
HP	124	5	"Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? ... Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God" (Psalm 42:7-11).
HP	124	6	"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." "For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death" (Psalm 46:1-3; 48:14).
------------------------The Garden of God's Promises, April 28
HP	125	1	For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Hebrews 10:36.
HP	125	2	The promises of God are like precious flowers scattered through a garden. The Lord would have us linger over them, looking closely into them, taking in their loveliness, and appreciating the favor that God has bestowed upon us by making such rich provisions for our needs. Were it not for contemplation of the promises of God, we could not understand the gracious love and compassion of God toward us or realize how rich were the treasures prepared for those who love Him. He would have the soul encouraged to repose in faith upon Him, the only sufficiency of the human agent.
HP	125	3	We are to send our petitions through the darkest clouds that Satan may cast over us, and let our faith pierce to the throne of God encircled by the rainbow of promise, the assurance that God is true, that in Him is no variableness neither shadow of turning. The answer may appear to be delayed, but it is not so. The petition is accepted, and the answer given when it is essential for the best good of the petitioner and when the fulfillment of the request will work most for our eternal interest. God scatters His blessings all along our path to brighten our heavenward journey....
HP	125	4	We are to come before the mercy seat with reverence, calling up to our mind the promises that God has given, contemplating the goodness of God, and offering up thankful praises for His unchangeable love. We are not to trust in our finite prayers, but in the word of our heavenly Father, in His assurance of His love for us. Believing the promise of His unchanging love, we press our petitions to the throne of grace. Our faith may be tested by delay, but the prophet has given instruction as to what we should do. He says, "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God" (Isaiah 50:10).
HP	125	5	Wait upon the Lord; He has made the promise and is back of the assurance.... He who hungers and thirsts after righteousness will be filled.
------------------------Feelings Not a Test, April 29
HP	126	1	Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised). Hebrews 10:23.
HP	126	2	The religion of Christ is not a religion of mere emotion. You cannot depend upon your feelings for an evidence of acceptance with God, for feelings are variable. You must plant your feet on the promises of God's Word ... and learn to live by faith.
HP	126	3	As soon as one begins to contemplate his feelings he is on dangerous ground. If he feels happy and joyous, then he is very confident and has very pleasing emotions. The change will come. There are circumstances that occur which bring depression and sad feelings; then the mind will naturally begin to doubt whether the Lord is with him or not.
HP	126	4	Now, the feelings must not be made the test of the spiritual state, be they good or be they discouraging. The word of God is to be our evidence of our true standing before Him. Many are bewildered on this point....
HP	126	5	If you confess your sins, believe they are pardoned, because the promise is positive. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Why, then, dishonor God by doubting His pardoning love? Having confessed your sins, believe that the word of God will not fail, but that He is faithful that hath promised. It is just as much your duty to believe that God will fulfill His word and forgive your sins as it is your duty to confess your sins. Your faith must be exercised in God as one who will do just as He has said He would do--pardon all your transgressions....
HP	126	6	Oh, how very many go mourning, sinning and repenting, but always under a cloud of condemnation! They do not believe the word of the Lord. They do not believe that He will do just as He said He would do.... You hurt the heart of Christ by doubting, when He has given us such evidences of His love in giving His own life to save us that we should not perish but have everlasting life.
HP	126	7	We must trust; we must educate and train our souls to believe the word of God implicitly.
------------------------The Sure Anchor of Faith, April 30
HP	127	1	Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 1 John 3:2, 3.
HP	127	2	Here the eye of faith is directed to God, to look to the unseen, not upon the things that are now apparent. Faith lives in expectation of a future good; it discerns inexpressible advantages in the heavenly gift. The hope of the future life is an essential part of our Christian faith. When we allow worldly attractions to come in between the soul and God, the world is all we can discern.... Look up higher, fix the eye of faith upon things unseen, and you will become strong in the divine strength.
HP	127	3	Our faith increases by beholding Jesus, who is the center of all that is attractive and lovely. The more we contemplate the heavenly, the less we see desirable and attractive in the earthly. The more continually we fix the eye of faith on Christ, in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered, the more our faith grows; our hope strengthens, our love becomes more intense and fervent, with the clearness of our spiritual insight, and our spiritual intelligence increases. More and more we realize the positive claim of God upon us to purify ourselves from the customs and practices of a world that knows not God, nor Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
HP	127	4	The more we behold Christ, talk of His merits, and tell of His power, the more fully we shall reflect His image in our own characters and the less we shall submit our minds and affections to the paralyzing influences of the world. The more our minds dwell upon Jesus, the less they will be enveloped in the fog of doubt, and the more easily shall we lay all our trials, all our burdens, upon the Burden Bearer....
HP	127	5	Let faith pierce through the hellish shadow of Satan and center in Jesus, our high priest, who hath entered for us within the veil. Whatever clouds overcast the sky, whatever storms surge around the soul, this anchor holds firm, and we may be sure of victory.
------------------------The Heavenly Father's Claim, May 1
HP	128	1	O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever! Deuteronomy 5:29.
HP	128	2	God stands toward His people in the relation of a father, and He has a father's claim to our faithful service. Consider the life of Christ. Standing at the head of humanity, serving His Father, He is an example of what every son should and may be. The obedience that Christ rendered, God requires from human beings today. He served His Father in love, with willingness and freedom. "I delight to do thy will, O my God," He declared: "yea, thy law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:8). Christ counted no sacrifice too great, no toil too hard, in order to accomplish the work which He came to do. At the age of twelve He said, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:49). He had heard the call, and had taken up the work. "My meat," He said, "is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work" (John 4:34).
HP	128	3	Thus we are to serve God. He only serves who acts up to the highest standard of obedience. All who would be sons and daughters of God must prove themselves co-workers with Christ and God and the heavenly angels. This is the test for every soul....
HP	128	4	God's great object in the working out of His providences is to try men, to give them opportunity to develop character. Thus He proves whether they are obedient or disobedient to His commands. Good works do not purchase the love of God, but they reveal that we possess that love. If we surrender the will to God, we shall not work in order to earn God's love. His love as a free gift will be received into the soul, and from love to Him we shall delight to obey His commandments.
HP	128	5	There are only two classes in the world today, and only two classes will be recognized in the judgment--those who violate God's law and those who obey it. Christ gives the test by which we prove our loyalty or disloyalty. "If ye love me," He says, "keep my commandments.... He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ..." (John 14:15-21).
------------------------Our Example in Obedience, May 2
HP	129	1	For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. 1 Peter 2:21, 22.
HP	129	2	Before us is held out the wonderful possibility of being like Christ--obedient to all the principles of the law of God. But of ourselves we are utterly powerless to attain to this condition. All that is good in man comes to him through Christ. The holiness that God's Word declares we must have before we can be saved is the result of the working of divine grace as we bow in submission to the discipline and restraining influence of the Spirit of truth.
HP	129	3	Man's obedience can be made perfect only by the incense of Christ's righteousness, which fills with divine fragrance every act of true obedience. The part of the Christian is to persevere in overcoming every fault. Constantly he is to pray to the Saviour to heal the disorders of his diseased soul. He has not the wisdom and strength without which he cannot overcome. They belong to the Lord, and He bestows them on those who in humiliation and contrition seek Him for help.
HP	129	4	The work of transformation from unholiness to holiness is a continuous work. Day by day God labors for man's sanctification, and man is to cooperate with Him by putting forth persevering efforts in the cultivation of right habits....
HP	129	5	God will more than fulfill the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him. He desires us to remember that when we are humble and contrite, we stand where He can and will manifest Himself to us. He is well pleased when we urge past mercies and blessings as a reason why He should bestow on us higher and greater blessings. He is honored when we love Him and bear testimony to the genuineness of our love by keeping His commandments. He is honored when we set apart the seventh day as sacred and holy. To those who do this, the Sabbath is a sign, ... God declares, "that I am the Lord that sanctify them" (Ezekiel 20:12). Sanctification means habitual communion with God. There is nothing so great and powerful as God's love for those who are His children.
------------------------Building on Christ, May 3
HP	130	1	Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Isaiah 28:16.
HP	130	2	"Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11). "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Christ the Word, the revelation of God--the manifestation of His character, His law, His love, His life--is the only foundation upon which we can build a character that will endure.
HP	130	3	We build on Christ by obeying His word. It is not he who merely enjoys righteousness, that is righteous, but he who does righteousness. Holiness is not rapture; it is the result of surrendering all to God; it is doing the will of our heavenly Father.
HP	130	4	Religion consists in doing the words of Christ; not doing to earn God's favor, but because, all undeserving, we have received the gift of His love. Christ places the salvation of man, not upon profession merely, but upon faith that is made manifest in works of righteousness. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:14). Not those whose hearts are touched by the Spirit, not those who now and then yield to its power, but they that are led by the Spirit, are the sons of God.
HP	130	5	We are to be sons and daughters of God, growing into a holy temple in the Lord. "No more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; ... built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone" (Ephesians 2:19, 20). This is our privilege....
HP	130	6	Every character is to be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary; if the moral character and spiritual advancement do not correspond with the opportunities and blessings, "wanting" is written against the name. The Light of the world is our leader, and the path has been growing brighter and brighter as we have advanced in the footsteps of Jesus. O that we may keep close to our Leader! ... Those who humbly study the character of Jesus will reflect His image more and more.
------------------------Obedience the Test of True Religion, May 4
HP	131	1	Every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. Luke 6:44.
HP	131	2	"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith" (2 Corinthians 13:5). Some conscientious souls, on reading this, immediately begin to criticize their every feeling and emotion. But this is not correct self-examination. It is not the petty feelings and emotions that are to be examined. The life, the character, is to be measured by the only standard of character, God's holy law. The fruit testifies to the character of the tree. Our works, not our feelings, bear witness of us.
HP	131	3	The feelings, whether encouraging or discouraging, should not be made the test of the spiritual condition. By God's Word we are to determine our true standing before Him. Many are bewildered on this point. When they are happy and joyous, they think that they are accepted of God. When a change comes, and they feel depressed, they think that God has forsaken them.... God does not desire us to go through life with a distrust of Him.... While we were yet sinners, God gave His Son to die for us. Can we doubt His goodness? ...
HP	131	4	But a faithful performance of duty goes hand in hand with a right estimate of the character of God. There is earnest work to do for the Master. Christ came to preach the gospel to the poor, and He sent His disciples forth to do the same work He came to do. So He sends forth His workers today. Sheaves are to be gathered for Him from the highways and hedges.
HP	131	5	The tremendous issues of eternity demand of us something besides an imaginary religion, a religion of words and forms, where the truth is kept in the outer court, to be admired as we admire a beautiful flower; they demand something more than a religion of feeling, which distrusts God when trials and difficulties come. Holiness does not consist in profession, but in lifting the cross, doing the will of God.... "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected" (1 John 2:4, 5).
------------------------God's Word Our Guide and Counselor, May 5
HP	132	1	For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. Psalm 18:28.
HP	132	2	God's Word is our light. It is Christ's message to His heritage, who have been bought with the price of His blood. It was written for our guidance, and if we make this Word our counselor, we shall never walk in strange paths. Our words, whether we are in the home or associating with those outside the home, will be kind, affectionate, and pure. If we study the Word and make it a part of our lives, we shall have a wholesome experience, which will always speak forth the truth. We shall search our hearts diligently, comparing our daily speech and tenor of life with the Word, that we may make no mistake.
HP	132	3	There are many in this age of the world who act as if they were at liberty to question the words of the Infinite, to review His decisions and statutes, endorsing, revising, reshaping, and annulling at their pleasure. We are never safe while we are guided by human opinions, but we are safe when we are guided by a "Thus saith the Lord." We cannot trust the salvation of our souls to any lower standard than the decisions of an infallible Judge.
HP	132	4	Those who make God their guide and His Word their counselor, behold the lamp of life. God's living oracles guide their feet in straight paths. Those who are thus led do not dare to judge the Word of God, but ever hold that His Word judges them. They get their faith and religion from the Word of the living God. It is the guide and counselor that directs their path. The Word is indeed a light to their feet and a lamp to their path. They walk under the direction of the Father of light, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He whose tender mercies are over all His works makes the path of the just as a shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
HP	132	5	The Bible is the voice of God to His people. As we study the living oracles, we are to remember that God is speaking to His people out of His Word.... If we realized the importance of searching the Scriptures, how much more diligently we would study them!
------------------------The Great Standard of Right and Wrong, May 6
HP	133	1	All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 3:16, 17.
HP	133	2	In the Word of God is contained everything essential to the perfecting of the man of God. It is like a treasure house, full of valuable and precious stores, but we do not appreciate its riches nor realize the necessity of equipping ourselves with the treasures of truth. We do not realize the great necessity of searching the Scriptures for ourselves. Many neglect the study of the Word of God in order to pursue some worldly interest or to indulge in some trifling pleasure.... Oh, we might better put off anything of an earthly character than the investigation of the Word of God, which is able to make us wise unto life eternal. "Given by inspiration of God," ... the Book of books has the highest claims to our reverent attention....
HP	133	3	In searching for Heaven-revealed truths, the Spirit of God is brought into close connection with the sincere searcher of the Scriptures. An understanding of the revealed will of God enlarges the mind, expands, elevates, and endows it with new vigor by bringing its faculties into contact with stupendous truth....
HP	133	4	The understanding takes the level of the things with which it becomes familiar. If all would make the Bible their study, we would see a people who were better developed, who were capable of thinking more deeply, who would manifest greater intelligence than those who have earnestly studied apart from the Bible the sciences and histories of the world. The Bible gives the true seeker for truth an advanced mental discipline, and he comes from contemplation of divine things with his faculties enriched; self is humbled, while God and His revealed truth are exalted.
HP	133	5	The Bible is the great standard of right and wrong, clearly defining sin and holiness. Its living principles, running through our lives like threads of gold, are our only safeguard in trial and temptation.
------------------------An Audience with the Most High, May 7
HP	134	1	For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. 1 Thessalonians 2:13.
HP	134	2	The Bible is God's voice speaking to us just as surely as though we could hear Him with our ears. The word of the living God is not merely written, but spoken. Do we receive the Bible as the oracle of God? If we realized the importance of this Word, with what awe would we open it, and with what earnestness would we search its precepts. The reading and contemplating of the Scriptures would be regarded as an audience with the Most High.
HP	134	3	God's Word is a message to us to be obeyed, a volume to be perused diligently, and with a spirit willing to take in the truths written for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come. It must not be neglected for any other book.... When we open the Bible, let us compare our lives with its requirements, measuring our character by the great moral standard of righteousness.
HP	134	4	The life of Christ, that gives life to the world, is in His Word. It was by His word that Jesus healed disease and cast out demons; by His word He stilled the sea, and raised the dead; and the people bore witness that His word was with power. He spoke the Word of God, as He had spoken to all the prophets and teachers of the Old Testament. The whole Bible is a manifestation of Christ. It is our source of power.
HP	134	5	As our physical life is sustained by food, so our spiritual life is sustained by the Word of God.... As we must eat for ourselves in order to receive nourishment, so we must receive the Word for ourselves. We are not to obtain it merely through the medium of another mind.
HP	134	6	Yes, the Word of God is the bread of life.... It gives immortal vigor to the soul, perfecting the experience, and bringing joys that will abide forever.
------------------------Joy and Consolation, May 8
HP	135	1	How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103.
HP	135	2	God has given us His Word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Its teachings have a vital bearing on our prosperity in all the relations of life. Even in our temporal affairs it will be a wiser guide than any other counselor....
HP	135	3	The appreciation of the Bible grows with its study. Whichever way the student may turn he will find displayed the infinite wisdom and love of God. To him who is truly converted the Word of God is the joy and consolation of the life. The Spirit of God speaks to him, and his heart becomes like a watered garden.
HP	135	4	There is nothing more calculated to strengthen the intellect than a study of the Bible. No other book is so potent to elevate the thoughts, to give vigor to the faculties, as the broad, ennobling truths of the Bible. If God's Word were studied as it should be, men would have a breadth of mind, a nobility of character, that is rarely seen in these times.
HP	135	5	No knowledge is so firm, so consistent, so far reaching, as that obtained from a study of the Word of God. If there were not another book in the wide world, the Word of God, lived out through the grace of Christ, would make man perfect in this world, with a character fitted for the future, immortal life. Those who study the Word, taking it in faith as the truth and receiving it into the character, will be complete in Him who is all in all. Thank God for the possibilities set before humanity.
HP	135	6	"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope" (Romans 15:4). "Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all" (1 Timothy 4:15). "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever" (1 Peter 1:24, 25).
HP	135	7	The time devoted to a study of God's Word and to prayer will bring a hundredfold return.
------------------------A Safeguard Against the Enemy, May 9
HP	136	1	The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide. Psalm 37:31.
HP	136	2	Many are surprised into the commission of sin because of a failure to study the Scriptures. They were off their guard, and Satan found them an easy prey.
HP	136	3	Wonderful possibilities are open to those who lay hold of the divine assurances of God's word. There are glorious truths to come before the people of God. Privileges and duties which they do not even suspect to be in the Bible will be laid open before them. As they follow on in the path of humble obedience, doing His will, they will know more and more of the oracles of God....
HP	136	4	The precious faith inspired of God imparts strength and nobility of character. As His goodness, His mercy, and His love are dwelt upon, clearer and still clearer will be the perception of truth; higher, holier, the desire for purity of heart and clearness of thought. The soul dwelling in the pure atmosphere of holy thought is transformed by intercourse with God through the study of His Word. Truth is so large, so far reaching, so deep, so broad, that self is lost sight of. The heart is softened and subdued into humility, kindness, and love. And the natural powers are enlarged because of holy obedience. From the study of the words of life students may come forth with minds expanded, elevated, ennobled.
HP	136	5	Youthful minds fail to reach their noblest development when they neglect the highest source of wisdom--the Word of God. That we are in God's world, in the presence of the Creator, that we are made in His likeness; that He watches over us and loves us and cares for us--these are wonderful themes for thought and lead the mind into broad, exalted fields of meditation. He who opens mind and heart to the contemplation of such themes as these will never be satisfied with trivial, sensational subjects....
HP	136	6	The Bible has the highest claim to our reverent attention. We should not be satisfied with a superficial knowledge, but should seek to learn the full meaning of the words of truth, to drink deep of the spirit of the Holy Oracles.
------------------------The Source of Wisdom, May 10
HP	137	1	The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever. Psalm 111:10.
HP	137	2	It is a great thing to be wise toward God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is heart education, and is of more importance than the education gained merely from books. It is well and essential to obtain a knowledge of the world in which we live, but if we leave eternity out of our reckoning, we shall make a failure from which we can never recover. It will be as the knowledge gained by eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree....
HP	137	3	What can the most learned in book lore know aright without a knowledge of the Word of God? Without the education found in the Bible, how shall we reach the next world, where we shall enter the presence of God and see His face? Nothing of this world's wisdom, the knowledge gained from books, presents a true and sure foundation upon which we can build for eternity. Nothing but the bread that comes down from heaven satisfies spiritual hunger. "For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world." ... The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:33, 63).... As we eat the words of Christ we are eating the bread of life, which gives spiritual vitality.
HP	137	4	The Word of the only true God is infallible. Infinite wisdom, holiness, power, and love are blended in pointing us to the standard by which God measures character. God's Word so plainly defines the laws of His kingdom that none need to walk in darkness. His law is the transcript of His character. It is the standard that all must reach if they would enter the kingdom of God. No one need walk in uncertainty.... The law of God is not abolished. It will live through the eternal ages. By Christ's death it was magnified, and sin was exposed in its true light.
HP	137	5	What a salvation is revealed in the covenant by which God promised to be our Father, His only-begotten Son our Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit our Comforter, Counselor, and Sanctifier! Upon no lower ground than this is it safe for us to place our feet.
------------------------How to Study the Bible, May 11
HP	138	1	Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. John 5:39.
HP	138	2	It is not enough to study the Bible as other books are studied. In order for it to be understood savingly, the Holy Spirit must move on the heart of the searcher. The same Spirit that inspired the Word must inspire the reader of the Word. Then will be heard the voice of heaven....
HP	138	3	The mere reading of the Word will not accomplish the result designed of heaven; it must be studied and cherished in the heart. The knowledge of God is not gained without mental effort. We should diligently study the Bible, asking God for the aid of the Holy Spirit, that we may understand His Word. We should take one verse and concentrate the mind on the task of ascertaining the thought which God has put in that verse for us. We should dwell on the thought till it becomes our own, and we know "what saith the Lord."
HP	138	4	There is but little benefit derived from a hasty reading of the Scriptures. One may read the Bible through and yet fail to see its beauty or to comprehend its deep and hidden meaning. One passage studied until its significance is clear to the mind and its relation to the plan of salvation is evident, is of more value than the perusal of many chapters with no definite purpose in view and no positive instruction gained. Keep your Bible with you. As you have opportunity, read it; fix the texts in your memory. Even while you are walking the streets you may read a passage and meditate upon it, thus fixing it in mind.
HP	138	5	Times that will try men's souls are just before us, and those who are weak in the faith will not stand the test of those days of peril. The great truths of revelation are to be carefully studied, for we shall all want an intelligent knowledge of the word of God. By Bible study and daily communion with Jesus we shall gain clear, well-defined views of individual responsibility and strength to stand in the day of trial and temptation. He whose life is united to Christ by hidden links will be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
------------------------A Divine Helper, May 12
HP	139	1	But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:10.
HP	139	2	The more closely we adhere to the simplicity of truth, the more surely do we comprehend its deep meaning. Then if the heart is under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, it can say, "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple" (Psalm 119:130). This means the word is interpreted by the Holy Spirit, not merely as perused by the student.
HP	139	3	It is not the mere letter of the words which gives the light and the understanding, but the Word is in a special manner written upon the heart, applied by the Holy Spirit. To the mind and heart consecrated to God, an increased measure of understanding is given as the light is communicated to others....
HP	139	4	The more room one shall give for the entrance of the Word of God, the more he is enriched intellectually as well as spiritually. He will have a clearer and less biased judgment and his views will be more comprehensive. His estimates of spiritual things will be more correct. His understanding, under the working power of the Holy Spirit, is exercised to digest the truth by making it a personal benefit by the strengthening of the soul to do self-denying works.
HP	139	5	Oh, I thank the Lord with heart and soul and voice that the Lord can, by the entrance of the Word into the heart, enlarge our faculties of understanding distinctly and clearly, not only spiritual things but the temporal things with which we are connected.
HP	139	6	The sanctifying grace of God upon the human mind sanctifies the reasoning powers. This will be kept before the mind, Will this action that I propose to enter into glorify God? There will be an humble spirit of deep humility, and less dependence will be placed upon human wisdom and far more confidence to reach out after God with the humble prayer, Teach me Thy way and Thy will. And the Lord will create a train of thought that will be safe to follow. Past experiences will be revived, and the safe way will be fastened in the mind.
HP	139	7	The divine power cooperates with the human.
------------------------Heart Work, May 13
HP	140	1	Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Psalm 51:6.
HP	140	2	Truth must become truth to the receiver, to all intents and purposes. It must be stamped on the heart. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10). "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength" (Mark 12:30). This is the service that God accepts.... The heart is the citadel of the being, and until that is wholly on the Lord's side the enemy will gain constant victories over us through his subtle temptations....
HP	140	3	Full and abundant is the provision that has been made that we may have mercy, grace, and peace. Why, then, do human beings act as if they entertained the idea that the truth is a yoke of bondage? It is because the heart has never tasted and seen that the Lord is good.
HP	140	4	The world is full of false teaching; and if we do not resolutely search the Scriptures for ourselves, we shall accept the world's errors for truth, adopt its customs, and deceive our own hearts. Its doctrines and customs are at variance with the truth of God....
HP	140	5	It is a matter of the highest importance and interest to us that we understand what truth is, and our petitions should go forth with intense earnestness that we may be guided into all truth.
HP	140	6	Truth is sacred, divine. It is stronger and more powerful than anything else in the formation of a character after the likeness of Christ. In it there is fullness of joy. When it is cherished in the heart the love of Christ is preferred to the love of any human being. This is Christianity. This is the love of God in the soul. Thus pure, unadulterated truth occupies the citadel of the being....
HP	140	7	When the truth as it is in Jesus molds our characters it will be seen to be truth indeed. As it is contemplated by the believer it will grow brighter, shining with its original beauty. It will increase in value, quickening and vivifying the mind and subduing selfish, unChristlike coarseness of character. It will elevate our aspirations, enabling us to reach the perfect standard of holiness.
------------------------The Highest Culture, May 14
HP	141	1	Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. Proverbs 3:13.
HP	141	2	The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the man who consents to be molded and fashioned after the divine similitude is the noblest specimen of the work of God....
HP	141	3	The experimental knowledge of true godliness, in daily consecration and service to God, ensures the highest culture of the mind, soul, and body.... The impartation of divine power honors our sincere striving after wisdom for the conscientious use of our highest faculties to honor God and bless our fellow men. As these faculties are derived from God, and not self-created, they should be appreciated as talents from God to be employed in His service.
HP	141	4	The Heaven-entrusted faculties of the mind are to be treated as the higher powers, to rule the kingdom of the body. The natural appetites and passions are to be brought under the control of the conscience and the spiritual affections....
HP	141	5	The religion of Jesus Christ never degrades the receiver; it never makes him coarse or rough, discourteous or self-important, passionate or hardhearted. On the contrary, it refines the taste, sanctifies the judgment, purifies and ennobles the thoughts by bringing them into captivity to Jesus Christ.
HP	141	6	God's ideal for His children is higher than the highest human thought can reach. The living God has given in His holy law a transcript of His character. The greatest Teacher the world has ever known is Jesus Christ. And what is the standard He has given for all who believe in Him to reach? "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). As God is perfect in His high sphere of action, so man may be perfect in his human sphere. The ideal of Christian character is Christlikeness. There is opened before us a path of continual advancement. We have an object to reach, a standard to gain which includes everything good and pure and noble and elevated. There should be continual striving and constant progress onward and upward toward perfection of character.
------------------------The Royal Path, May 15
HP	142	1	Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. Psalm 73:25.
HP	142	2	The soul that cherishes the love of Christ is full of freedom, light, and joy in Christ. In such a soul there are no divided thoughts. The whole man yearns after God. He goes not to men for counsel, to know what is duty, but to the Lord Jesus, the source of all wisdom. He searches the Word of God that he may find out what standard has been set up.
HP	142	3	Can we ever find a surer guide than the Lord Jesus? True religion is embodied in the Word of God and consists in being under the guidance of the Holy One in thought, word, and deed. He who is the way, the truth, and the life takes the humble, earnest, wholehearted seeker and says, Follow Me. He leads him in the narrow way to holiness and heaven. Christ has opened this way for us at great cost to Himself. We are not left to stumble our way along in darkness. Jesus is at our right hand, proclaiming, I am the way. And all who decide to follow the Lord fully will be led in the royal path, yea more, the divine path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in.
HP	142	4	The more we learn of Christ through His Word, the more we feel our need of Him in our experience. We should not rest until we can rest in wearing the yoke of Christ and lifting His burdens. The more faithful we are in service to Him, the more we shall love Him, the more we shall magnify Him. Every duty, large or small, that we perform, will be done with faithfulness, and as we follow on to know the Lord the greater will be our desire to glorify Him.
HP	142	5	We are individually now testifying to the world of the power of the grace of Christ in the transformation of human character from glory to glory, from character to character. In beholding Christ our pattern, who is pure and holy and undefiled, we are being prepared for the society of the heavenly angels. If Christ is to be our head and Prince in the heavenly courts, it becomes us to inquire, What is Christ to us now? Can we say as we contemplate our Redeemer, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee"?
------------------------In Touch with the Infinite, May 16
HP	143	1	Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23, 24.
HP	143	2	There is an education which is essentially worldly. Its aim is success in the world, the gratification of selfish ambition. To secure this education many students spend time and money in crowding their minds with unnecessary knowledge. The world accounts them learned; but God is not in their thoughts....
HP	143	3	There is another kind of education that is very different. Its fundamental principle, as stated by the greatest Teacher the world has ever known, is, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). Its aim is not selfish; its purpose is to honor God.... God is the source of all wisdom. He is infinitely wise and just and good. Apart from Christ, the wisest men that ever lived cannot comprehend Him. They may profess to be wise; they may glory in their attainments; but mere intellectual knowledge, aside from the great truths that center in Christ, is as nothingness....
HP	143	4	If men could see for a moment beyond the range of finite vision, if they could catch a glimpse of the Eternal, every mouth would be stopped in its boasting. Men living in this little atom of a world are finite; God has unnumbered worlds that are obedient to His laws, and are conducted with reference to His glory. When men have gone as far in scientific research as their limited powers will permit, there is still an infinity beyond what they can apprehend.
HP	143	5	Before men can be truly wise, they must realize their dependence upon God, and be filled with His wisdom. God is the source of intellectual as well as spiritual power. The greatest men who have reached what the world regards as wonderful heights in science are not to be compared with the beloved John or the apostle Paul. It is when intellectual and spiritual power are combined that the highest standard of manhood is attained.
------------------------The Witness of the Spirit, May 17
HP	144	1	The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. Romans 8:16.
HP	144	2	You may have the witness of the Spirit that your ways please God. This is obtained by believing in the Word of God, by appropriating that Word to your own soul. This is eating the bread of life, and this will bring eternal life. Compare scripture with scripture. Study the representation of the life of a true Christian as delineated in the Word of God.
HP	144	3	The law of God is the great standard of righteousness. This the apostle declares is holy, just, and good. David says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psalm 19:7). Christ says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." ... "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him" (John 14:15, 21). This is most assuredly the witness of the Spirit.... "If ye keep my commandments"--from the heart--"ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10).
HP	144	4	Those who are obedient to the will of God will not have a hard and miserable time in this life. Hear again the words of Christ: "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (verse 11). This is the witness which it is the privilege of all to have--the joy of Christ in the soul through appropriating the word of God ... and bringing the requirements of Christ into the practical life. There is full assurance of hope in believing every word of Christ, believing in Him, being united to Him by living faith. When this is his experience, the human being is no longer under the law, for the law no longer condemns his course of action....
HP	144	5	To them that believe, Christ is precious. His Spirit moving upon the mind and heart of the believer is in perfect agreement with that which is written in the Word. The Spirit and the Word agree perfectly. Thus the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are born of God.
------------------------Sanctifying Power, May 18
HP	145	1	Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:17.
HP	145	2	The truth which we profess will be of no avail to us unless we are sanctified through it.... While error is prevailing to such an extent in our land, we want to know what is truth, because we cannot be sanctified by error. The better we understand the truth as it is in God's Word, the better we shall know how to sanctify our lives through God's Word.
HP	145	3	We are in this world as probationers, and God is proving us by giving us an opportunity to obey His truth. It is a very solemn thing to live in this age of the world, and we should not be satisfied unless we have a living connection with the God of heaven, and we should have a sense of our accountability to Him every day of our lives....
HP	145	4	There are voices that we shall hear all around us to divert us away from the truth, but if we have an eye single to the glory of God and are striving to do His will, we shall hear His voice and know it is the voice of the Good Shepherd. It is very important that we understand the voice that speaks to us....
HP	145	5	There are temptations that will come to every one of us. We all have our different dispositions to overcome, and how are we to know that we are doing this work day by day? We must look into the mirror--God's holy law--and there discover the defects in our characters. It is a very difficult thing for one to understand himself. We must examine closely to see if there is not something that must be laid aside, and then as we make an effort to put away self, our precious Saviour will give us the help we need that we may be overcomers....
HP	145	6	This world is not heaven, it is the preparation place; it is the workshop of God where we are to be hewed and chiseled and fitted up for the heavenly mansions. Then do not be satisfied with a mere sense of the truth; God calls for a reformation at every step. It is to have a fitness for the mansions that Christ has gone to fit up for us. And if we can only be of the heavenly family in the kingdom of glory then we shall have the eternal reward. May God help us to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of His testimony.
------------------------Freedom Through Christ, May 19
HP	146	1	Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Galatians 5:1.
HP	146	2	In the beginning God placed man under law as an indispensable condition of his very existence. He was a subject of the divine government, and there can be no government without law....
HP	146	3	God is omnipotent, omniscient, immutable. He always pursues a straightforward course. His law is truth--immutable, eternal truth. His precepts are consistent with His attributes. But Satan makes them appear in a false light. By perverting them, he seeks to give human beings an unfavorable impression of the Lawgiver. Throughout his rebellion he has sought to represent God as an unjust, tyrannical being....
HP	146	4	As a result of Adam's disobedience every human being is a transgressor of the law, sold under sin. Unless he repents and is converted, he is under bondage to the law, serving Satan, falling into the deceptions of the enemy, and bearing witness against the precepts of Jehovah. But by perfect obedience to the requirements of the law, man is justified. Only through faith in Christ is such obedience possible. Men may comprehend the spirituality of the law, they may realize its power as a detector of sin, but they are helpless to withstand Satan's power and deceptions, unless they accept the atonement provided for them in the remedial sacrifice of Christ, who is our Atonement--our At-one-ment--with God.
HP	146	5	Those who believe on Christ and obey His commandments are not under bondage to God's law; for to those who believe and obey, His law is not a law of bondage, but of liberty. Everyone who believes on Christ, everyone who relies on the keeping power of a risen Saviour that has suffered the penalty pronounced upon the transgressor, everyone who resists temptation and in the midst of evil copies the pattern given in the Christ life, will through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Everyone who by faith obeys God's commandments will reach the condition of sinlessness in which Adam lived before his transgression.
------------------------God's Way, Not Mine, May 20
HP	147	1	Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. Psalm 25:4, 5.
HP	147	2	The direction given to Moses was, "See ... that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount" (Hebrews 8:5). Although Moses was full of zeal to do God's work, and he could have the most skillful, talented men to carry out any suggestions he should make, he must not make a single thing, a bell, a pomegranate, a tassel, or a fringe, or a curtain, or any vessel except according to the pattern showed to him as God's ideal.... Forty days the communications were given to him, and when he descended to the foot of the mount he was ready to give the exact pattern that was shown to him in the mount....
HP	147	3	Where many have erred, was in not being careful in following God's ideas, but their own. Christ Himself declared, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do" (John 5:19). So utterly was He emptied of Himself that He made no schemes and plans. He lived accepting God's plans for Him, and the Father day by day unfolded His plans. If Jesus was so wholly dependent, and declared, "Whatsoever I see the Father do, that I do," how much more should human agents depend upon God for constant instruction, so that their lives might be the simple working out of God's plans! ...
HP	147	4	Our own way must be overcome. Pride, self-sufficiency, must be crucified and the vacuum supplied with the Spirit and power of God.... Did Jesus Christ, the Majesty of heaven, have His way? Behold Him in travail of soul in Gethsemane, praying to His Father. What forces these blood drops of agony from His holy brow? Oh, the sins of the whole world are upon Him! It was separation from the Father's love that forced from His pale and quivering lips the cry, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matthew 26:39). Three times was the prayer offered, but followed by "Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). This must be our attitude--Not my will, but Thine, O God, be done. This is true conversion.
------------------------The Highest Standard, May 21
HP	148	1	For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. Romans 2:13.
HP	148	2	In the lives of many whose names are on the church books there has been no genuine change. The truth has been kept in the outer court. There has been no genuine conversion, no positive work of grace done in the heart....
HP	148	3	He who would build up a strong, symmetrical character must give all and do all for Christ. The Redeemer will not accept divided service. Daily he must learn the meaning of self-surrender. He must study the Word of God, getting its meaning and obeying its precepts. Thus he may reach the highest standard of Christian excellence. There is no limit to the spiritual advancement that he may make if he is a partaker of the divine nature. Day by day God works in him, perfecting the character that is to stand in the day of final test. Each day of his life he ministers to others. The light that is in him shines forth and stills the strife of tongues. Day by day he is working out before men and angels a vast, sublime experiment, showing what the gospel can do for fallen human beings.
HP	148	4	Let us not spare ourselves, but carry forward in earnest the work of reform that must be done in our lives. Let us crucify self. Unholy habits will clamor for the mastery, but in the name and through the power of Jesus we may conquer. To him who daily seeks to keep his heart with all diligence, the promise is given, "Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38, 39).... God Himself is "the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." And "whom he justified, them he also glorified" (verse 30).
HP	148	5	Great as is the shame and degradation through sin, even greater will be the honor and exaltation through redeeming love. To human beings, striving for conformity to the divine image, there is imparted an outlay of heaven's treasure, an excellency of power that will place them higher than even the angels who have never fallen.
------------------------Loyal to God or to Men? May 22
HP	149	1	We ought to obey God rather than men. Acts 5:29.
HP	149	2	Daniel and his companions had a conscience void of offense toward God. But this is not preserved without a struggle. What a test was brought on the three associates of Daniel when they were required to worship the great image set up by the King Nebuchadnezzar in the plains of Dura! Their principles forbade them to pay homage to the idol, for it was a rival to the God of heaven. They knew that they owed to God every faculty they possessed, and while their hearts were full of generous sympathy toward all men, they had a lofty aspiration to prove themselves entirely loyal to their God....
HP	149	3	The king declared to the three Hebrew youth, if "ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" The youth said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up...." (Daniel 3:15-19).... Those faithful youth were cast into the fire, but God manifested His power for the deliverance of His servants. One like unto the Son of God walked with them in the midst of the flame, and when they were brought forth, not even the smell of fire had passed on them....
HP	149	4	Thus these youth, imbued with the Holy Spirit, declared to the whole nation their faith, that He whom they worshiped was the only true and living God. This demonstration of their own faith was the most eloquent presentation of their principles. In order to impress idolaters with the power and greatness of the living God, His servants must reveal their own reverence for God. They must make it manifest that He is the only object of their honor and worship, and that no consideration, not even the preservation of life itself, can induce them to make the least concession to idolatry. These lessons have a direct and vital bearing upon our experience in these last days.
------------------------God's Test of Loyalty, May 23
HP	150	1	The Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments. Deuteronomy 26:18.
HP	150	2	God has a test for us, and if we come up to the standard we shall be a peculiar people. The Sabbath draws a separating line between us and the world, not faintly but in plain, distinct colors. To those who have received the light of this truth the Sabbath is a test; it is not a human requirement, but God's test. It is what will distinguish between those who serve God and those who serve Him not, and upon this point will come the last great conflict between truth and error. All who profess to keep God's law should stand united in the sacred observance of His holy Sabbath....
HP	150	3	When the destroying angel was about to pass through the land of Egypt and smite the first-born of both man and beast, the Israelites were directed to bring their children into the house with them and to strike the doorpost with blood; and none were to go out of the house, for all that were found among the Egyptians would be destroyed with them.
HP	150	4	We should take this lesson to ourselves. Again the destroying angel is to pass through the land. There is to be a mark placed upon God's people, and that mark is the keeping of His holy Sabbath. We are not to follow our own will and judgment and flatter ourselves that God will come to our terms.... That which looks unimportant to you may be of the highest consequence in God's special plans for the preservation of your life or the salvation of your soul. God tests our faith by giving us some part to act in connection with His interposition in our behalf. To those who comply with the conditions His promise will be fulfilled....
HP	150	5	We are faithfully to teach our children God's commandments; we should bring them into subjection to parental authority; and then by faith and prayer to commit them to God, and He will work with our efforts, for He has promised it. And when the overflowing scourge shall pass through the land, they, with us, may be hidden in the secret of the Lord's pavilion.
------------------------"Remember the Sabbath Day", May 24
HP	151	1	Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exodus 20:8-11.
HP	151	2	The fourth commandment is explicit. We are not to do our own work upon the Sabbath. God has given man six days for labor, but He has reserved the seventh to Himself, and He has pronounced a blessing upon those who keep it holy. On the sixth day all needful preparation for the Sabbath is to be made.... All purchases should be made and all our cooking should be done on Friday. Let baths be taken, shoes be blacked, and clothing be put in readiness. The sick require care upon the Sabbath, and whatever it may be necessary to do for their comfort is an act of mercy, and not a violation of the commandment.... But nothing of our own work should be permitted to encroach upon holy time.
HP	151	3	Sunday is generally made a day of feasting and pleasure seeking, but the Lord would have His people give the world a higher, holier example. Upon the Sabbath there should be a solemn dedication of the family to God.... Let all unite to honor God upon His holy day....
HP	151	4	If you go forward toward heaven, the world will rub hard against you.... Earthly authorities will interpose. You will meet tribulations, bruising of the spirit, hard speeches, ridicule, persecutions. Men will require your conformity to laws and customs that would render you disloyal to God. Here is where God's people find the cross in the way to life. But if the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is sacred, if it is indeed, as brought to view in the third angel's message, the sign between God and His people, we must be careful in every word and in every act to show God honor....
HP	151	5	The strong force of the downward current will sweep you off your feet unless you are united to Christ as the limpet to the rock.
------------------------Day of Delight and Blessing, May 25
HP	152	1	If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father. Isaiah 58:13, 14.
HP	152	2	The Sabbath ... is God's time, not ours; when we trespass upon it we are stealing from God.... God has given us the whole of six days in which to do our work, and has reserved only one to Himself. This should be a day of blessing to us--a day when we should lay aside all our secular matters and center our thoughts upon God and heaven.
HP	152	3	But while we worship God, we are not to consider this a drudgery. The Sabbath of the Lord is to be made a blessing to us and to our children. They are to look upon the Sabbath as a day of delight, a day which God has sanctified; and they will so consider it if they are properly instructed.... They can be pointed to the blooming flowers and the opening buds, the lofty trees and beautiful spires of grass, and taught that God made all these in six days and rested on the seventh day and hallowed it. Thus the parents may bind up their lessons of instruction to their children so that when these children look upon the things of nature they will call to mind the great Creator of them all....
HP	152	4	We are not to teach our children that they must not be happy on the Sabbath, that it is wrong to walk out of doors. Oh, no. Christ led His disciples out by the lakeside on the Sabbath day and taught them. His sermons on the Sabbath were not always preached within enclosed walls....
HP	152	5	Many say they would keep the Sabbath if it were convenient to do so. But this day is not yours; it is God's day, and you have no more right to take it than you have to steal my purse. God has reserved it, sanctified and blessed it; and it is your duty to devote this time to His service, to make it honorable, to call it a delight.
------------------------The Measure of Responsibility, May 26
HP	153	1	If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1 John 1:6, 7.
HP	153	2	The degree of light given is the measure of responsibility. The path to heaven will be made plain to all who are faithful in the use of the knowledge they may obtain in regard to the future life.... Look at the first act of transgression in the Garden of Eden. To Adam and Eve were plainly stated the laws of Paradise, with the penalty for willful disobedience. They disobeyed, and disobedience brought its sure result. Death entered the world.
HP	153	3	Transgression is disobedience to the commands of God. Had these commands always been obeyed, there would have been no sin. The penalty of transgression is always death. Christ averted the immediate execution of the death sentence by giving His life for man.... Justice requires that men shall have light, and it also requires that he who refuses to walk in the Heaven-given light, the giving of which cost the death of the Son of God, must receive punishment. It is a principle of justice that the guilt of the sinner shall be proportionate to the knowledge given, but not used, or used in a wrong way. God expects human beings to walk in the light, to testify before angels and before men that they acknowledge Christ as the great propitiation for sin and that they respect His sacrifice as their greatest blessing....
HP	153	4	For time and for eternity the sacrifice of the Son of God to save the fallen race will have a binding claim on man. If God had failed to act His part, if He had not fully revealed His will, if He had given human beings any reason for neglecting the great salvation, man might plead ignorance as a valid excuse. But He has made the way plain. He would have all men to be saved. To some is given greater light than to others. Each will be judged by the light given him.... God designed that you should cherish as sacred the light given you.
------------------------The Impress of Heaven, May 27
HP	154	1	See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. Hebrews 8:5.
HP	154	2	The Lord gave an important lesson to His people in all ages when to Moses on the mount He gave instruction regarding the building of the tabernacle. In that work He required perfection in every detail.
HP	154	3	As wickedness in the world becomes more pronounced and the teachings of evil are more fully developed and widely accepted, the teachings of Christ are to stand forth exemplified in the lives of converted men and women....
HP	154	4	Into all to which the Christian sets his hand should be woven the thought of the life eternal. If the work performed is agricultural or mechanical in its nature, it may still be after the pattern of the heavenly.... Through the grace of Christ every provision has been made for the perfecting of Christlike characters, and God is honored when His people in all their social and business dealings reveal the principles of heaven....
HP	154	5	The Lord demands uprightness in the smallest as well as the largest matters. Those who are accepted at last as members of the heavenly court will be men and women who here on earth have sought to carry out the Lord's will in every particular, who have sought to put the impress of heaven upon their earthly labors. In order that the earthly tabernacle might represent the heavenly, it must be perfect in all its parts, and it must be in the smallest detail like the pattern in the heavens. So it is with the characters of those who are finally accepted in the sight of Heaven.
HP	154	6	The Son of God came down to earth that in Him men and women might have a representation of the perfect characters which alone God could accept. Through the grace of Christ every provision has been made for the salvation of the human family. It is possible for every transaction entered into by those who claim to be Christians to be as pure as were the deeds of Christ. And the soul who accepts the virtues of Christ's character and appropriates the merits of His life is as precious in the sight of God as was His own beloved Son.
------------------------Filled With His Fullness, May 28
HP	155	1	And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:19.
HP	155	2	Only those will have a fitness for the mansions above who give to God full and implicit obedience. God knows that we would not appreciate His rarest gifts if we were not perfectly submissive to obey Him, and always keep His glory in view....
HP	155	3	Whatever your temperament may be, whatever your hereditary and cultivated tendencies may be, there is a character to be formed after the divine pattern. We have no excuse for retaining our own mold and superscription of nature, for Christ has died that we may have His mold and His superscription. We cannot retain our own self and be filled with the fullness of God. We must be emptied of self. If heaven is gained by us at last, it will be only through the renunciation of self and in receiving the mind, the spirit, and the will of Christ Jesus....
HP	155	4	Are we willing to pay the price for eternal life? Are we ready to sit down and count the cost, whether heaven is worth such a sacrifice as to die to self and let our will be bent and fashioned into perfect conformity with the will of God? Until this shall be, the transforming grace of God will not be experienced by us.
HP	155	5	Just as soon as we present our emptied nature to the Lord Jesus and His cause, He will supply the vacuum by His Holy Spirit. We can then believe He will give us of His fullness. He does not want us to perish. We do not want more of God any more urgently than He wants all that there is of us to be consecrated to His service....
HP	155	6	Eternity is endless. Our life here is a short period at best, and what and whom are we living and working for? And what will be the outcome of it all?
HP	155	7	The religion of Jesus Christ we need daily. Everything we do or say comes under the notice of God. We are a spectacle unto the world, to angels, and to men.... The church of Christ is to represent His character.... Though He had all the strength of passion of humanity, never did He yield to temptation to do one single act which was not pure and elevating and ennobling.
------------------------Weighed in Heaven's Balances, May 29
HP	156	1	The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. 1 Samuel 2:3.
HP	156	2	The Lord is a God of knowledge. In His Word He is represented as weighing men, their development of character and all their motives, whether they be good or evil....
HP	156	3	It is for the eternal interest of everyone to search his own heart and to improve every God-given faculty. Let all remember that there is not a motive in the heart of any man that the Lord does not clearly see. The motives of each one are weighed as carefully as if the destiny of the human agent depended upon this one result.... God in heaven is true, and there is not a design, however intricate, or a motive, however carefully hidden, that He does not clearly understand. He reads the secret devisings of every heart.
HP	156	4	Men may plan out crooked actions for the future, thinking that God does not understand; but in that great day when the books are opened, and every man is judged by the things written in the books, those actions will appear as they are....
HP	156	5	There are many who need now to consider the words, "TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting" (Daniel 5:27). God's holy, everlasting, immutable law is the standard by which man is to be tried. This law defines what we shall do and what we shall not do, saying, Thou shalt, and, Thou shalt not. This law is summed up in the two great principles, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself" (Luke 10:27).
HP	156	6	This means just what it says. O how few will be prepared to meet the law of God in the great day of judgment! ... Man, weighed against God's holy law, is found wanting.
HP	156	7	We are enlightened by the precepts of the law, but no man can by them be justified. Weighed and found wanting is our inscription by nature. But Christ is our mediator, and accepting Him as our Saviour, we may claim the promise, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).
------------------------A Divine-Human Partnership, May 30
HP	157	1	Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments. Psalm 119:73.
HP	157	2	The human organism is the handiwork of God. The organs employed in all the different functions of the body were made by Him. The Lord gives us food and drink, that the wants of the body may be supplied. He has given the earth different properties adapted to the growth of food for His children. He gives the sunshine and the showers, the early and the latter rain. He forms the clouds and sends the dew. All are His gifts....
HP	157	3	But all these blessings will not restore in us His moral image unless we cooperate with Him, making painstaking effort to know ourselves, to understand how to care for the delicate human machinery. Man must diligently help to keep himself in harmony with nature's laws. He who cooperates with God in the work of keeping this wonderful machinery in order, who consecrates all his powers to God, seeking intelligently to obey the laws of nature, stands in his God-given manhood, and is recorded in the books of heaven as a man.
HP	157	4	God has given man land to be cultivated. But in order that the harvest may be reaped, there must be harmonious action between divine and human agencies. The plow and other implements of labor must be used at the right time. The seed must be sown in its season. Man is not to fail of doing his part. If he is careless and negligent, his unfaithfulness testifies against him. The harvest is proportionate to the energy he has expended.
HP	157	5	So it is in spiritual things.... There is to be a copartnership, a divine relation between the Son of God and the repentant sinner. We are made sons and daughters of God. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God" (John 1:12). Christ provides the mercy and grace so abundantly given to all who believe in Him. He fulfills the terms upon which salvation rests. But we must act our part by accepting the blessing in faith. God works and man works. Resistance of temptation must come from man, who must draw his power from God. Thus he becomes a copartner with Christ.
------------------------Blessings Unlimited, May 31
HP	158	1	That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:10.
HP	158	2	Let us study Paul's prayer for his Colossian brethren. "For this cause we also," he wrote, "since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness" (Colossians 1:9-11).
HP	158	3	How complete this prayer is! There is no limit to the blessings that it is our privilege to receive. We may be "filled with the knowledge of his will." The Holy Ghost would never have inspired Paul to offer this prayer in behalf of his brethren if it had not been possible for them to receive an answer from God in accordance with the request....
HP	158	4	To the church at Ephesus Paul wrote: "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end" (Ephesians 3:14-21).
HP	158	5	Here are brought to view the possibilities of the Christian life. How far short of reaching this standard falls the church of today! ... Self, self, self--all this is manifest.... When shall we awake? When shall we meet the expectations of Christ?
------------------------Building with God, June 1
HP	159	1	For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
HP	159	2	This figure represents human character, which is to be wrought upon point by point. Each day God works on His building, stroke upon stroke, to perfect the structure, that it may become a holy temple for Him. Man is to cooperate with God, striving in His strength to make himself what God designs him to be, building his life with pure, noble deeds.
HP	159	3	Man works and God works. Man is called upon to strain every muscle and to exercise every faculty in the struggle for immortality, but it is God who supplies the efficiency. God has made amazing sacrifices for human beings. He has expended mighty energy to reclaim man from transgression and sin to loyalty and obedience, but He does nothing without the cooperation of humanity.... It is by unceasing endeavor that we maintain the victory over the temptations of Satan....
HP	159	4	No one is borne upward without stern, persevering effort in his own behalf. All must engage in the warfare for themselves. Individually we are responsible for the issue of the struggle; though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the land, they could deliver neither son nor daughter by their righteousness....
HP	159	5	Often the training and education of a lifetime must be discarded, that one may become a learner in the school of Christ. Our hearts must be educated to become steadfast in God. We are to form habits of thought that will enable us to resist temptation. We must learn to look upward. The principles of the Word of God--principles that are as high as heaven and that compass eternity--we are to understand in their bearing on our daily life. Every act, every word, every thought, is to be in accord with these principles.
HP	159	6	The precious graces of the Holy Spirit are not developed in a moment. Courage, fortitude, meekness, faith, unwavering trust in God's power to save, are acquired by the experience of years. By a life of holy endeavor and firm adherence to the right the children of God are to seal their destiny.
------------------------The Battle for a Spiritual Mind, June 2
HP	160	1	For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Romans 8:6, 7.
HP	160	2	The natural mind leans toward pleasure and self-gratification. It is Satan's policy to manufacture an abundance of this. He seeks to fill the minds of men with a desire for worldly amusement, that they may have no time to ask themselves the question, How is it with my soul? The love of pleasure is infectious. Given up to this, the mind hurries from one point to another, ever seeking for some amusement. Obedience to the law of God counteracts this inclination and builds barriers against ungodliness....
HP	160	3	The ability to enjoy the riches of glory will be developed in proportion to the desire we have for these riches. How shall an appreciation of God and heavenly things be developed unless it is in this life? If the claims and cares of the world are allowed to engross all our time and attention, our spiritual powers weaken and die for lack of exercise. In a mind wholly given up to earthly things every inlet through which light from heaven may enter is closed. God's transforming grace cannot be felt on mind or character.
HP	160	4	We are living amid the perils of the last days, and we should guard every avenue by which Satan can approach us with his temptation.... A mere assent to the truth will never save a soul from death. We must be sanctified through the truth; every defect of character must be overcome, or it will overcome us and become a controlling power for evil. Commence without a moment's delay to root out every pernicious weed from the garden of the heart; and through the grace of Christ allow no plants to flourish there but such as will bear fruit unto eternal life.
HP	160	5	Cultivate whatever in your character is in harmony with the character of Christ. Cherish those things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report; but put away whatever is unlike our Redeemer.... Every soul that gains eternal life must be like Christ, "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26).
------------------------Will Your Thoughts Bear Inspection? June 3
HP	161	1	The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. 1 Chronicles 28:9.
HP	161	2	You must give an account to God of your thoughts, of your words, of your time, and of your actions....
HP	161	3	You can never enter heaven unless you enjoy the communion of God here below, for this is our fitting-up place for heaven. God should be the object of the soul's highest reverence, love, and fear. This world is the only school in which you can receive a preparation for the higher grade. Those who do not love to retain God in their thoughts in this world, those who consider it irksome to be in subjection to God in this life, will never have enjoyment with Christ in the future life. The very things they choose and love here in self-pleasing are educating their tastes so that heavenly discipline will be a restraint. Let your soul be brought under discipline to God....
HP	161	4	He who created man, who paid such a price for his redemption, is greatly dishonored when man chooses a low, earthly level, a life of frivolity and cheapness.... All who are content to turn away from that knowledge which will make them wise unto salvation in this life and the future, who accept of earthly, frivolous things, are feeding their souls upon brackish water when Jesus Christ invites them, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7:37).
HP	161	5	Let your soul be absorbed in meditating upon the glorious truths contained in the Word of God, and you will have no constant craving for something which you have not. You will despise cheap, vain thoughts. You will be ever trying to meet the elevated standard of virtue and holiness which is kept before you in the gospel. You will seek for higher attainments in the divine life. Converse with God through the medium of His Word....
HP	161	6	By contemplating the lofty ideal He has placed before you, you will be uplifted into a pure and holy atmosphere, even the presence of God. When you abide here, there goes forth from you a light which irradiates all who are connected with you.
------------------------Keeping the Heart, June 4
HP	162	1	Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23.
HP	162	2	Why are there so many ... who are spiritual failures, who have unsymmetrical characters? It is because they did not, when they knew the truth, and do not now, begin to practice the truth as it is in Jesus. They do not let Him take away their faulty attributes of character.... He whose conversion is righteous carries righteous principles into all his life practices. He only is well grounded in the faith who lives by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.
HP	162	3	There are many who testify daily, I am not changed in character, only in theory.... All may through faith gain a conqueror's crown, but many are not willing to engage in hand to hand warfare with their own imperfect dispositions. They retain attributes which make them offensive to God. Daily they are transgressing the principles of His holy law. If all would only learn the simple lesson that they must take and wear the yoke of Christ and learn of the Great Teacher His meekness and lowliness of heart, they would better fulfill their covenant to love God supremely and their neighbor as themselves.... They must begin at the very beginning. Christ says, Take My yoke of restraint and obedience upon you, and learn of Me.... The heart will then be made right with God, through the creative power of Christ. Partakers of the divine nature, they are transformed....
HP	162	4	The renovating, transforming work must begin in the heart, out of which flow the issues of life. Oh, how then can lip service be regarded as sufficient? ... I entreat you, for Christ's sake, do not stop at any halfway place, but press on, press on. Advance to the perfection of Christian attainments. Leave nothing insecure. Watch thyself with all diligence. Remember that you are responsible not to misrepresent Christ in character. Let us not by our defects lead others to practice the same sins....
HP	162	5	Those who claim to have advanced light must reveal the influence of that light in their words, their deportment, their voice, their actions, at all times and in all places.
------------------------Christ in All Our Thoughts, June 5
HP	163	1	Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23, 24.
HP	163	2	Few realize that it is a duty to exercise control over the thoughts and imaginations. It is difficult to keep the undisciplined mind fixed upon profitable subjects. But if the thoughts are not properly employed, religion cannot flourish in the soul. The mind must be preoccupied with sacred and eternal things, or it will cherish trifling and superficial thoughts. Both the intellectual and the moral powers must be disciplined, and they will ... improve by exercise.
HP	163	3	In order to understand this matter aright, we must remember that our hearts are naturally depraved, and we are unable of ourselves to pursue a right course. It is only by the grace of God, combined with the most earnest effort on our part, that we can gain the victory. The intellect, as well as the heart, must be consecrated to the service of God. He has claims upon all there is of us.
HP	163	4	Few believe that humanity has sunk so low as it has or that it is so thoroughly bad, so desperately opposed to God, as it is.... When the mind is not under the direct influence of the Spirit of God, Satan can mold it as he chooses. All the rational powers which he controls he will carnalize. He is directly opposed to God in his tastes, views, preferences, likes and dislikes, choice of things and pursuits; there is no relish for what God loves or approves, but a delight in those things which He despises....
HP	163	5	If Christ is abiding in the heart, He will be in all our thoughts. Our deepest thoughts will be of Him, His love, His purity. He will fill all the chambers of the mind. Our affections will center about Jesus. All our hopes and expectations will be associated with Him. To live the life we now live by faith in the Son of God, looking forward to and loving His appearing, will be the soul's highest joy. He will be the crown of our rejoicing.
HP	163	6	Those who have trained the mind to delight in spiritual exercises are the ones who can be translated and not be overwhelmed with the purity and transcendent glory of heaven.
------------------------Security in Right Thinking, June 6
HP	164	1	Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5.
HP	164	2	Even the thoughts must be brought into subjection to the will of God, and the feelings under the control of reason and religion. Our imagination was not given us to be allowed to run riot and have its own way, without any effort at restraint and discipline. If the thoughts are wrong, the feelings will be wrong; and the thoughts and feelings combined make up the moral character.
HP	164	3	The power of right thought is more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir.... We need to place a high value upon the right control of our thoughts, for such control prepares the mind and soul to labor harmoniously for the Master. It is necessary for our peace and happiness in this life that our thoughts center in Christ. As a man thinketh, so is he. Our improvement in moral purity depends on right thinking and right acting.... Evil thoughts destroy the soul. The converting power of God changes the heart, refining and purifying the thoughts. Unless a determined effort is made to keep the thoughts centered on Christ, grace cannot reveal itself in the life. The mind must engage in the spiritual warfare. Every thought must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. All the habits must be brought under God's control.
HP	164	4	We need a constant sense of the ennobling power of pure thoughts and the damaging influence of evil thoughts. Let us place our thoughts upon holy things. Let them be pure and true, for the only security for any soul is right thinking. We are to use every means that God has placed within our reach for the government and cultivation of our thoughts. We are to bring our minds into harmony with His mind. His truth will sanctify us, body and soul and spirit, and we shall be enabled to rise above temptation.
HP	164	5	The control of the thoughts, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, will give control of the words. This is true wisdom, and will ensure quietness of mind, contentment, and peace. There will be joy in the contemplation of the riches of the grace of God.
------------------------In Harmony with God's Mind, June 7
HP	165	1	Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. James 4:8.
HP	165	2	Angels of God are drawn toward all who in their thoughts and devoted service draw nigh to God.... It is a great misfortune to be double-minded. "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:8).... Let us use to a purpose the mind the Lord has given us. Ambition, covetousness, the mania to follow the fashions, the customs, and practices of the world in order not to be thought singular, will soon obliterate all lines of distinction between the Christian's lines of pursuit and the practices of the world.
HP	165	3	The love of pleasure is not to be cherished and indulged. When the human being, formed to do service for God, finds his time absorbed with plans that the Lord has nought to do with, he may well inquire, What end do I have in view? Whose service do I really enjoy? What does this eager strife for distinction amount to?
HP	165	4	As stewards over the Lord's property, we are to keep the temple of the soul cleansed from all the rubbish and defilement of the world.... All our talents are to be used, every thought is to be enlisted, every power to be put forth to bring us into harmony with the mind of God. We are to adorn ourselves with all the graces of the Spirit, emulating all that is upright and pure and elevating and ennobling, copying the excellencies, and embodying the perfections of the heavenly family, obtaining an education that will fit us to unite with the royal family in the courts of heaven.
HP	165	5	We have the privilege of being trained under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. All the attributes that are excellent are to strengthen our moral powers, that they may have no mist or tarnish upon them. We are weaving our threads in the web of humanity; not a thread of self-glory must be woven into the fabric. All heaven is imparting its help that we may surmount every obstacle.... We are to build characters of a goodly fabric, spiritual, heavenly, perfect. God bids us work for time and for eternity that we may grow after the divine likeness.
------------------------Like Christ in Thought, June 8
HP	166	1	Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5.
HP	166	2	God expects those who bear the name of Christ to represent Him in thought, word, and deed. Their thoughts are to be pure and their words and deeds noble and uplifting, drawing those around them nearer to the Saviour.
HP	166	3	In the life of the true Christian there is nothing of self. Self is dead. There was no selfishness in the life that Christ lived while on this earth. Bearing our nature, He lived a life wholly devoted to the service of others.
HP	166	4	"Be ye therefore perfect" (Matthew 5:48) is God's word to us. And in order that we might obey this word, He sent His only-begotten Son to this earth to live in our behalf a perfect life. We have before us His example, and the strength by which He lived this life is at our disposal. In thought, word, and act Jesus was sinless. Perfection marked all that He did. He points us to the path that He trod, saying, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
HP	166	5	We are to copy no human being. There is no human being wise enough to be our criterion. We are to look to the man Christ Jesus, who is complete in the perfection of righteousness and holiness. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the pattern man. His experience is the measure of the experience that we are to gain. His character is our model. Let us, then, take our minds off the perplexities and the difficulties of this life and fix them on Him, that by beholding we may be changed into His likeness....
HP	166	6	We are to have an intense interest in Christ Jesus, for He is our Saviour. He came to this world to be tempted in all points as we are, to prove to the universe that in this world of sin human beings can live lives that God will approve.... Let us seek for the blessings that Christ has placed within our reach, that we may be made capable of receiving more and still more of His grace, and that we may be filled with a living, active, growing faith--a faith that believes the promise, "Lo, I am with you always, ..." (Matthew 28:20).
------------------------Dare to be Different, June 9
HP	167	1	Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15.
HP	167	2	Those who claim to know the truth and understand the great work to be done for this time are to consecrate themselves to God, soul, body, and spirit. In heart, in dress, in language, in every respect, they are to be separate from the fashions and practices of the world. They are to be a peculiar and holy people. It is not their dress that makes them peculiar; but because they are a peculiar and holy people, they cannot carry the marks of likeness to the world.
HP	167	3	As a people we are to prepare the way of the Lord. Every iota of ability God has given us must be put to use in preparing the people after God's fashion, after His spiritual mold, to stand in this great day of God's preparation.... Many who suppose they are going to heaven are blindfolded by the world. Their ideas of what constitutes a religious education and religious discipline are vague, resting only upon possibilities. There are many who have no intelligent hope, and are running great risk in practicing the very things which Jesus has taught that they should not do, in eating, drinking, and dressing, binding themselves up with the world in a variety of ways. They have yet to learn the serious lesson so essential to growth in spirituality, to come out from the world and be separate.
HP	167	4	The heart is divided, the carnal mind craves conformity, similarity to the world in so many ways, that the mark of distinction from the world is scarcely distinguishable. Money, God's money, is expended in order to make an appearance after the world's customs; the religious experience is contaminated with worldliness, and the evidence of discipleship--Christ's likeness in self-denial and cross bearing--is not discernible by the world or by the universe of heaven.
HP	167	5	The question to be settled is, "Are we willing to separate ourselves from the world, that we may become children of God?" This is not the work of a moment or of a day.... It is a lifelong work. Love to God must be a living principle, underlying every act and word and thought.
------------------------No Partnership with the World, June 10
HP	168	1	Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4.
HP	168	2	Christ and the world are not in partnership. The apostle says, "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" ... Conformity to the world will never be the means of converting the world to Christ. Christians must be entirely consecrated to God if the church is to be efficient in its influence for good upon unbelievers. The slightest diversion from Christ is so much influence, power, and efficiency given to the enemy.
HP	168	3	A Christian, as described by the Scriptures, is a person who is separated from the world in his aims and practices and is united with Christ--a possessor of the peace which Christ alone can bestow, finding that the joy of the Lord is his strength and that his joy is full. Christians will not leave the world to perish unwarned, and make no effort for the reclaiming of the lost.... Those who truly love Christ ... watch for every opportunity to employ the means at their command in doing good and in patterning after the works of Christ. They will not yield to temptations to make alliances with the world. They will not unite with secret orders and bind themselves by intimacies with unbelievers. But those who are not wholly on the side of Christ are to a large degree controlled by the maxims and customs of the world....
HP	168	4	Satan is rich in this world's goods, and he is full of cunning to deceive, and his most effective agents are those whom he can lead to take a form of godliness while they deny the power of God by their un-Christlike characters. The children of God are to stand firmly for the right under all circumstances. They are not to be deceived by those who have the mind and spirit of the world....
HP	168	5	God has His faithful witnesses who are not attempting to do that which Christ has pronounced impossible--that is, seeking to serve God and Mammon at the same time. They are burning and shining lights amid the moral darkness of the world and amid the gross darkness that covers the people like the pall of death.
------------------------Severed from Earthly Things, June 11
HP	169	1	And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Ephesians 5:11.
HP	169	2	Many professed Christians are well represented by the vine that is trailing upon the ground and entwining its tendrils about the roots and rubbish that lie in its path. To all such the message comes, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18).
HP	169	3	There are conditions to meet if we would be blessed and honored by God. We are to separate from the world and refuse to touch those things that will separate our affections from God. God has the first and highest claims upon His people. Set your affections upon Him and upon heavenly things. Your tendrils must be severed from everything earthly. You are exhorted to touch not the unclean thing, for in touching this you will yourself become unclean. It is impossible for you to unite with those who are corrupt, and still remain pure. "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?" (verses 14, 15). God and Christ and the heavenly host would have man know that if he unites with the corrupt, he will become corrupt....
HP	169	4	All our actions are affected by our religious experience. If our experience is founded in God; if we are daily tasting the power of the world to come, and have the fellowship of the Spirit; if each day we hold with a firmer grasp the higher life, principles that are holy and elevating will be inwrought in us, and it will be as natural for us to seek purity and holiness and separation from the world as it is for the angels of glory to execute the mission of love assigned them.
HP	169	5	Our consecration to God must be a living principle, interwoven with the life and leading to self-denial and self-sacrifice. It must underlie all our thoughts and be the spring of every action. This will elevate us above the world and separate us from its polluting influence.
------------------------Disentangled, June 12
HP	170	1	No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. 2 Timothy 2:4.
HP	170	2	The Lord Jesus would have His purchased possession disentangle themselves from everything that would expose them to temptation. We are the Lord's by creation; we are His by redemption. All our senses are to be kept sharp and keen that we may place ourselves in right relation to God.
HP	170	3	The company we choose will be a help or a hindrance to us. We are not to run any risk by placing ourselves where evil angels will surround us with their temptations and their snares. Satan ... puts his alluring temptations before the soul. He appears as an angel of light and clothes his temptations with apparent goodness. Our first work is to disentangle ourselves from everything that is in any way calculated to tarnish the soul.
HP	170	4	If the Bible is not made the rule of life, our hereditary and cultivated habits and tastes will ensnare the soul.... The soul is of value, and is regarded by God as more precious than gold, even the golden wedge of Ophir. Christ has given us the estimate He places upon the human soul. Look at His humiliation, His sufferings, His death. Had He studied His pleasure, His choice, His convenience, He would never have left the royal courts of heaven....
HP	170	5	After the human agent has spent his life in following his own impulses, placing his talents on the shrine of Satan, choosing his own interests, what has he gained? Cheap worldly applause. And what has he lost? An eternity of blessedness....
HP	170	6	God calls upon us, in the place of expending our powers, our talents, and the vigor of brain and muscle upon unimportant, frivolous things, merely to amuse and gratify self, to bring eternity to view and hold ourselves under the control of the Holy Spirit's guidance. Elevated, pure, ennobling themes are to be the subjects of contemplation. To us individually as His property God says, "Know ye not ... ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).
------------------------The Vital Threads of Influence, June 13
HP	171	1	That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. Proverbs 2:20.
HP	171	2	It is generally the case that in school associations there are developed two classes of persons--those who seek to do the right and those who solicit others to enter into evil....
HP	171	3	In associating with the careless and reckless it is an easy matter to come to view things as they do and to lose all sense of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Guard yourself on this one point in particular. Do not be influenced and led astray by those you have reason to know by their words and actions are not in connection with God. "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20)....
HP	171	4	Satan is seeking to imbue every soul that is not connected with Jesus Christ with his own spirit, and every soul who refuses to connect with Jesus Christ will be brought into connection with the enemy of Christ. There are threads of influence leading out from these souls to bind and draw other souls by human influence until they shall be placed under the control of Satan, and their feet be led into false paths.... This danger is common to all. You will be tempted to choose your own way and to have your own will, while disregarding the will of God....
HP	171	5	Let nothing draw you away from the work of character building, but do your work for time and for eternity.... Live a life of consistency, and fashion your character after the divine Pattern. If you live carelessly and do not watch unto prayer, you will surely fall a prey to the enemy and will yield to enticements to sin; thus you will lay upon the foundation stone, wood, hay, and stubble, which will be consumed in the last great day.
HP	171	6	Every heart is moved or drawn of Jesus Christ. As you become students of Scripture the Spirit of God takes the things of God and impresses them upon the soul. The golden threads that extend from the souls of those who make God their strength will fasten through the threads of influence to other souls and draw them to Christ. This is the work to be done by those who place on the foundation stone precious material, for they cooperate with Jesus Christ.
------------------------A Network of Virtuous Influences, June 14
HP	172	1	I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. Psalm 119:63.
HP	172	2	Young people desire companionship, and just in proportion to the strength with which their feelings and affections fasten upon those with whom they associate, will be the power of those friends to be either a blessing or a curse to them. Then let parents beware. Let them guard every influence of association. "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed" (Proverbs 13:20). The youth will have associates and will feel their influence....
HP	172	3	Wax does not more certainly retain the figure of the seal than does the mind the impressions produced by intercourse and association. The influence is often silent and unconscious, nevertheless it is strong and impressive. If wise and good men and women are the chosen companions, then you put yourself in the direct way of becoming sound in thought, in ideas, and correct in principles. And such intimacies are of highest value in the formation of character. A network of virtuous influences will be woven around you, which the evil one will not be able to break with his seductive wiles....
HP	172	4	But let the youth choose the influence of, and become associated with, men and women of bad principles and practices, ... and they are polluted. Silent and unconscious influences weave their sentiments into their lives, become a part of their very existence, and they walk on the very brink of a precipice and sense no danger. They learn to love the words of the smooth tongued, the honeyed words of the deceiver, and are restless, uneasy, and unhappy unless they are carried to the pinnacle of someone's flattery.... To walk in the counsel of the ungodly is the first step toward standing in the place of sinners and sitting in the seat of the scornful.
HP	172	5	The only safe course for the youth is to mingle with the pure, the holy, and thus natural tendencies to evil will be held in check. By choosing for their companions such as fear the Lord, they will seldom be found disbelieving God's Word, entertaining doubts and infidelity. The power of a truly consistent example is very great for good.
------------------------The Gold of Christian Character, June 15
HP	173	1	A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. Proverbs 22:1.
HP	173	2	Men may aspire to renown. They may desire to possess a great name. With some the possession of houses and lands and plenty of money, that which will make them great according to the measure of the world, is the height of their ambition. They desire to reach the place where they can look down with a sense of superiority upon those who are poor. All such are building on the sand, and their house will fall suddenly. Superiority of position is not true greatness. That which does not increase the value of the soul is of no real value in itself. That which alone is worth obtaining is greatness of soul in the sight of Heaven. The true and exalted nature of your work you may never know. The value of your own being you can only measure by the value of that Life given to save all who will receive it.
HP	173	3	Every man will have some estimate of his own worth when he becomes a laborer together with Christ, doing the work that Christ did, filling the world with Christ's righteousness, bearing a commission from the Most High.... The commission given to the disciples is given to all who are connected with Christ. They are to make any and every sacrifice for the joy of seeing souls saved who are perishing out of Christ....
HP	173	4	The highest honor that can be conferred upon human beings, be they young or old, rich or poor, is to be permitted to lift up the oppressed, to comfort the feeble-minded. The world is full of suffering. Go, and preach the gospel to the poor; heal the sick. This is the work to be connected with the gospel message. "The poor have the gospel preached to them" (Matthew 11:5). Colaborers with God are to fill the space they occupy in the world with the love of Jesus.... The love of Christ in the heart is expressed in the actions. If love for Christ is dull the love for those for whom Christ died will degenerate....
HP	173	5	True riches are genuine faith and genuine love. These make the character complete in Christ. If there were more faith, simple, trusting faith in Jesus, there would be love, pure love, which is the gold of Christian character.
------------------------The Gift of Speech, June 16
HP	174	1	Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Psalm 34:13.
HP	174	2	Speech is one of the great gifts of God. It is the means by which the thoughts of the heart are communicated. It is with the tongue that we offer prayer and praise to God. With the tongue we convince and persuade. With the tongue we comfort and bless, soothing the bruised, wounded soul. With the tongue we may make known the wonders of the grace of God. With the tongue also we may utter perverse things, speaking words that sting like an adder.
HP	174	3	The tongue is a little member, but the words it frames have great power. The Lord declares, "The tongue can no man tame" (James 3:8). It has set nation against nation and has caused war and bloodshed. Words have kindled fires that have been hard to quench....
HP	174	4	Satan puts into the mind thoughts which the Christian should never utter. The scornful retort, the bitter, passionate utterance, the cruel, suspicious charge, are from him. How many words are spoken that do only harm to those who utter them and to those who hear! Hard words beat upon the heart, awaking to life its worst passions. Those who do evil with their tongues ... grieve the Holy Spirit; for they are working at cross purposes with God....
HP	174	5	Guard well the talent of speech, for it is a mighty power for evil as well as for good. You cannot be too careful of what you say; for the words you utter show what power is controlling the heart. If Christ rules there, your words will reveal the beauty, purity, and fragrance of a character molded and fashioned by His will. But if you are under the guidance of the enemy of all good, your words will echo his sentiments....
HP	174	6	Only through Christ can we gain the victory over the desire to speak hasty, un-Christlike words. When in His strength we refuse to give utterance to Satan's suggestions, the plant of bitterness in our hearts withers and dies. The Holy Spirit can make the tongue a savor of life unto life.
HP	174	7	God wants us to be a help and strength to one another. He wants us to speak words of hope and courage.
------------------------Educating the Tongue, June 17
HP	175	1	Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Ephesians 4:29.
HP	175	2	The apostle, seeing the inclination to abuse the gift of speech, gives direction concerning its use. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth," he says, "but that which is good to the use of edifying." The word "corrupt" means here any word that would make an impression detrimental to holy principles and undefiled religion, any communication that would eclipse the view of Christ, and blot from the mind true sympathy and love. It includes impure hints, which, unless instantly resisted, lead to great sin. Upon everyone is laid the duty of barring the way against corrupt communications.
HP	175	3	It is God's purpose that the glory of Christ shall appear in His children. In all His teaching Christ presented pure, unadulterated principles. He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. Constantly there flowed from His lips holy, ennobling truths. He spoke as never man spoke, with a pathos that touched the heart.... The truth never languished on His lips. With fearlessness He exposed the hypocrisy of priest and ruler, Pharisee and Sadducee....
HP	175	4	The great responsibility bound up in the use of the gift of speech is plainly made known in the Word of God. "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matthew 12:37), Christ declared. And the psalmist asks, "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour" (Psalm 15:1-3).
HP	175	5	Cultivate a prayerful frame of mind and educate the tongue to speak right words, that will bless in the place of discouraging.... Talk of the goodness, the mercy, and the love of God. Put away all unbelieving words and all that is cheap and common. Let the words be sound words, that cannot be condemned, and the peace of God will surely come to the soul.
------------------------Don't Retaliate! June 18
HP	176	1	Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. 1 Peter 3:9.
HP	176	2	Be determined not to please the enemy by allowing words of unfavorable criticism to lead you to retaliate or to depress you. Make the enemy's efforts a failure so far as you are concerned. Then the Lord will draw near to you and will give you a rich measure of love and peace and joy so deep and full that even in the midst of the trial of your faith you can bear triumphant witness to the truth of the word of promise. You will have a sense of the divine presence. The eyes of your understanding will be enlightened, and the truth that at times you have seen but dimly you will then see clearly. You will be able to tell the story of the cross with a deep appreciation of the Saviour's love, for this love will have melted your heart. You will bear about with you in the daily life the witness that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory.
HP	176	3	Look constantly to Jesus. Take all your troubles to Him. He will never misunderstand you. He is the refuge of His people. Under the shadow of His protection they can pass unharmed. Believe in Him and trust in Him. He will not give you up to the spoiler.
HP	176	4	Let the atmosphere surrounding your soul be sweet and fragrant. If you will battle against selfish human nature, you will go steadily forward in the work of overcoming hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong. By patience, long-suffering, and forbearance you will accomplish much. Remember that you cannot be humiliated by the unwise speeches of someone else, but that when you speak unwisely you humiliate yourself and lose a victory that you might have gained....
HP	176	5	Keep yourselves where the three great powers of heaven--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit--can be your efficiency. These powers work with the one who gives himself unreservedly to God. The strength of heaven is at the command of God's believing ones. The man who makes God his trust is barricaded by an impregnable wall.
------------------------Fragrant in Word, June 19
HP	177	1	But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Matthew 12:36, 37.
HP	177	2	As the prophet Isaiah beheld the glory of the Lord, he was amazed, and overwhelmed with a sense of his own weakness and unworthiness, he cried, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (Isaiah 6:5).... Let every soul who claims to be a son or a daughter of God examine himself in the light of Heaven; let him consider the polluted lips that make him "undone." They are the medium of communication.... Then let them not be used in bringing from the treasure of the heart words that will dishonor God and discourage those around you, but use them for the praise and glory of God, who has formed them for this purpose.... When the love of Jesus is the theme of contemplation, the words coming from human lips will be full of praise and thanksgiving to God and to the Lamb.
HP	177	3	How many words are spoken in lightness and foolishness, in jesting and joking! This would not be so did the followers of Christ realize the truth of the words, "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." ...
HP	177	4	The vision given to Isaiah represents the condition of God's people in the last days.... As they look by faith into the holy of holies, and see the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, they perceive that they are a people of unclean lips--a people whose lips have often spoken vanity and whose talents have not been sanctified and employed to the glory of God.... If they will humble their souls before God, there is hope for them. The bow of promise is above the throne, and the work done for Isaiah will be performed in them.
HP	177	5	Be fragrant in your words. Remember that you are either a savor of life unto life or of death unto death. Let us be as fragrant flowers. Let the love of Christ pervade your lives. Let your words be such that they will be as apples of gold in pictures of silver.
------------------------Loyal to One Another, June 20
HP	178	1	Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice. Ephesians 4:31.
HP	178	2	There are those who think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. They speak evil of their brethren because after a thing is done they can look back and tell how differently they would have done it, but their forethought would not have been any better than that of their brethren had they been in their place....
HP	178	3	Keep yourselves off the judgment seat. All judgment is committed unto the Son of God.... Satan works zealously to cause men to offend on this point. Those whose tongues are so free to utter words of criticism, the adroit questioner who draws out expressions and opinions which have been put into minds by sowing seeds of alienation, are his missionaries. They may repeat the expressions they draw from others as originating with the ones they so slyly led on to forbidden ground. These persons seem always to see something to criticize and condemn.... Their tongues are ready to exaggerate everything evil. What a great matter a little fire kindleth!
HP	178	4	Never let your tongue and voice be employed in discovering and dilating upon the defects of your brethren, for the record of heaven identifies Christ's interests with those He has purchased with His own blood. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren," He says, "ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:40). We are to learn to be loyal to one another, to be true as steel in the defense of our brethren. Look to your own defects. You had better discover one of your own faults than ten of your brother's. Remember that Christ has prayed for these, His brethren, that they all might be one as He is one with the Father. Seek to the uttermost of your capabilities to be in harmony with your brethren to the extent of Christ's measurement, as He is one with the Father....
HP	178	5	"Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous" (1 Peter 3:8). True moral worth does not seek to have a place for itself by evil thinking and evil speaking, by demeriting others. All envy, all jealousy, all evil speaking, with all unbelief, must be put away from God's children.
------------------------The Power of Truthfulness, June 21
HP	179	1	The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Proverbs 12:19.
HP	179	2	There are those who have so closely identified themselves with the truth that nothing, not even martyrdom and death, could sever them from it. Those who would evade the truth by silence, fearing to offend someone else, testify to a lie. Playing fast and loose with truth and dissembling to suit the opinions of someone else, means the shipwreck of faith. Let us despise falsifying. Let us never by a word or act or by silence testify to a lie....
HP	179	3	All who make untruthful statements ... are serving him who has been a liar from the beginning. Let us be on our guard against untruthfulness, which grows upon him who practices it. I say to all, make truth your girdle. Be true to your faith. Put away all prevarication and exaggeration. Never make a false statement. For the sake of your own soul and the souls of others, be true in your utterances. Never speak or act a falsehood. The truth alone will bear to be repeated. A firm adherence to truth is essential to the formation of Christian character. "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness" (Ephesians 6:14).
HP	179	4	He who utters untruths sells his soul in a cheap market. His falsehoods may seem to serve in emergencies. He may make business advancement because he gains by falsehood what he could not gain by fair dealing. But he finally reaches the place where he can trust no one. Himself a falsifier, he has no confidence in the word of others.
HP	179	5	There is absolutely no safeguard against evil but truth. No man can stand firm for right in whose heart the truth does not abide. There is only one power that can make and keep us steadfast--the power of God, imparted to us through the grace of Christ.
HP	179	6	Connected with Christ, human nature becomes true and pure. Christ supplies the efficiency, and man becomes a power for good.... Truthfulness and integrity are attributes of God, and he who possesses these qualities possesses a power that is invincible.
------------------------Gracious Words, June 22
HP	180	1	Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Colossians 4:6.
HP	180	2	Courtesy is one of the graces of the Spirit. It is an attribute of Heaven. The angels never fly into a passion, never are envious or selfish. No harsh or unkind words escape their lips. If we are to be the companions of angels, we too must be refined and courteous.
HP	180	3	The truth of God is designed to elevate the receiver, to refine his taste and sanctify his judgment. No man can be a Christian without having the spirit of Christ; and if he has the spirit of Christ, it will be manifested in a refined, courteous disposition. His character will be holy, his manners comely, his words without guile. He will cherish the love that is not easily provoked, that suffers long and is kind, that hopes all things and endures all things....
HP	180	4	Those who profess to be followers of Christ and are at the same time rough, unkind, and uncourteous in words and deportment have not learned of Jesus.... The conduct of some professing Christians is so lacking in kindness and courtesy that their good is evil spoken of. Their sincerity may not be doubted, their uprightness may not be questioned; but sincerity and uprightness will not atone for a lack of kindness and courtesy. The Christian is to be sympathetic as well as true, pitiful and courteous as well as upright and honest....
HP	180	5	True courtesy blended with truth and justice makes the life not only useful but beautiful and fragrant. Kind words, pleasant looks, a cheerful countenance, throw a charm about the Christian that makes his influence almost irresistible. In forgetfulness of self, in the light and peace and happiness that he is constantly bestowing on others, he finds true joy.
HP	180	6	Let us be self-forgetful, ever on the watch to cheer others, to lighten their burdens by acts of tender kindness and deeds of unselfish love. Leave unspoken that unkind word; let that selfish disregard of the happiness of others give place to loving sympathy. These thoughtful courtesies, beginning in the home and extending far beyond the home circle, go far to make up the sum of life's happiness, and the neglect of them constitutes no small share of life's misery.
------------------------Kind and Courteous Words, June 23
HP	181	1	The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. Isaiah 50:4.
HP	181	2	What Christ was in His life on this earth, that every Christian is to be. He is our example, not only in His spotless purity, but in His patience, gentleness, and winsomeness of disposition. He was firm as a rock where truth and duty were concerned, but He was invariably kind and courteous. His life was a perfect illustration of true courtesy.... His presence brought a purer atmosphere into the home, and His life was as leaven working amid the elements of society. Harmless and undefiled, He walked among the thoughtless, the rude, the uncourteous; amid the unjust publicans, the unrighteous Samaritans, the heathen soldiers, the rough peasants, and the mixed multitude.
HP	181	3	He spoke a word of sympathy here and a word there as He saw men weary and compelled to bear heavy burdens. He shared their burdens and repeated to them the lessons He had learned from nature, of the love, the kindness, the goodness of God. He sought to inspire with hope the most rough and unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character as would make them manifest as children of God.... Jesus sat an honored guest at the table of the publicans, by His sympathy and social kindliness showing that He recognized the dignity of humanity; and men longed to become worthy of His confidence. Upon their thirsty souls His words fell with blessed, life-giving power. New impulses were awakened, and the possibility of a new life opened to these outcasts of society.
HP	181	4	The religion of Jesus softens whatever is hard and rough in the temper and smooths off whatever is rugged and sharp in the manners. It is this religion that makes the words gentle and the demeanor winning. Let us learn from Christ how to combine a high sense of purity and integrity with sunniness of disposition. A kind, courteous Christian is the most powerful argument that can be produced in favor of the gospel.
------------------------No Sharp or Hasty Words, June 24
HP	182	1	Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. 1 Peter 2:1, 2.
HP	182	2	We should study this instruction. It is our privilege to grow "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). We are not to be thoughtless or careless in speech, hurting one another by unkind words....
HP	182	3	Every human agency connected with the Lord's work needs to appreciate the work in which he is acting a part. The work in God's institutions is to be carried on without friction, without hasty speech, without dictatorial words. The workers are to be pure, clean, and holy in thought, in word, in act. They are to be Christ's witnesses, testifying that they are born again.
HP	182	4	There is to be no sharp speaking, no fretful scolding, for angels of God are walking up and down in every room. Christ loves to commend every faithful worker, and He will do it. Every good act is registered in the book. Little mistakes may be made, but words of censure arouse feelings of retaliation, and God is dishonored.... Any word spoken thoughtlessly or unadvisedly should be retracted on the spot.... We are to remember that as Christians professing to work in unity we must not act like sinners, whose sinful words and works, unless repented of, will condemn them....
HP	182	5	"Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die" (Revelation 3:2). This is our work. There are many ready to die spiritually, and the Lord calls upon us to strengthen them. God's people are to be firm to duty. They are to be bound together by the bonds of Christian fellowship and are to be strengthened in the faith by speaking often to one another about the precious truths entrusted to them. Never are they to quarrel and condemn. They are to unite upon the importance of obedience to God's law.
HP	182	6	In this life there is nothing of greater importance than preparation of character that we may at last enter with joy into the saints' abode on high. Why do we not improve our privilege of being saints here below?
------------------------Growing Up in Christ, June 25
HP	183	1	Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God. Hebrews 6:1.
HP	183	2	At the entrance gate of the path that leads to everlasting life God places faith, and He lines the whole way with the light and peace and joy of willing obedience. The traveler in this way keeps ever before him the mark of his high calling in Christ. The prize is ever in sight. To him God's commands are righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. The things that first appeared to be crosses are found by experience to be crowns.
HP	183	3	"Learn of me," is the Saviour's command. Yes, learn of Him how to live the Christ life--a life pure and holy, free from any taint of sin....
HP	183	4	Progression, not stagnation, is the law of heaven. Progression is the law of every faculty of mind and body. The things of nature obey this law. In the field there is seen first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. In the spiritual life, as in the physical life, there is to be growth. Step by step we are to advance, ever receiving and imparting, ever gaining a more complete knowledge of Christ, daily approaching more closely the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
HP	183	5	The Christian is first a babe in Christ. Then he becomes a child. Constantly he is to make advancement proportionate to the opportunities and privileges granted him. Ever he is to remember that he is not his own, that he has been bought with a price, and that he must make the best possible use of the talents entrusted to him. Even in the infancy of his spiritual understanding, the Christian is to do his best, making steady advancement toward the higher, holier life. He is to realize that he is a laborer together with God....
HP	183	6	He is never to become self-sufficient, but is to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. He is to walk and work in the Saviour's companionship. As he does this, his faith will increase. Constantly beholding Christ, he will be changed into the same image from character to character.
------------------------Don't be a Religious Dwarf, June 26
HP	184	1	But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18.
HP	184	2	A genuine Christian experience unfolds day by day, bringing to its possessor new strength and earnestness and leading to constant growth in spiritual life. But the Christian world abounds with professors of religion who are merely religious dwarfs. Many seem to have graduated as soon as they learned the rudiments of the Christian faith. They do not grow in grace or in the knowledge of the truth. They do nothing, either with their means or their influence, to build up the cause of God. They are drones in the hive. This class will not long stand where they are. They will be converted and advance, or they will retrograde....
HP	184	3	To meet the claims of God, you will have to make personal effort; and in this work you will need the resources of an ever-growing Christian experience. Your faith must be strong, your consecration complete, your love pure and sincere, your zeal ardent, tireless, your courage unshaken, your patience unwearied, your hopes bright. Upon every one, old or young, rests a responsibility in this matter.
HP	184	4	The perils of the last days will test the genuineness of our faith.... The mighty surges of temptation will beat upon all, and unless they are riveted to the eternal Rock they will be borne away. Do not think that you can safely drift with the current. If you do, you will surely become the helpless prey of Satan's devices. By diligent searching of the Scriptures and earnest prayer for divine help prepare the soul to resist temptation. The Lord will hear the sincere prayer of the contrite soul and will lift up a standard for you against the enemy. But you will be tried; your faith, your love, your patience, your constancy will be tested....
HP	184	5	Our duty, our safety, our happiness and usefulness, and our salvation call upon us each to use the greatest diligence to secure the grace of Christ, to be so closely connected with God that we may discern spiritual things, and not be ignorant of Satan's devices....
HP	184	6	"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
------------------------"Unto a Perfect Man", June 27
HP	185	1	Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Ephesians 4:13.
HP	185	2	As we advance step by step in the path of obedience, we shall know how true is the promise that they who follow on to know the Lord shall know that His going forth is prepared as the morning. Clearer light is ready to shine upon all who follow Him who is the Light of the world. Every one who takes upon him the yoke of Christ, with full determination to obey the word of God, will have a healthy, symmetrical experience. He will enjoy the blessings that come to him as a result of the hiding of his life with Christ in God.
HP	185	3	In business life he will work out the principles laid down in Christ's sermon on the mount. He will renounce the bag of deceitful weights and will despise the fraud of tricks in trade.... He has an abiding sense that he is a part of the heavenly firm and that it is his duty to trade upon the talents given him by God. He realizes that he is adopted into the family of God and that he must act toward all as Christ acted when He was upon this earth.
HP	185	4	What a diligent, constant work is the work of a true Christian. Ever he wears the yoke of Christ.... He has genuine modesty, and does not talk of his qualifications and accomplishments. Self-admiration is not a part of his experience. There is much to learn in regard to what comprises true Christian character. It certainly is not self-inflation.... The glory and majesty of God should ever fill our souls with a holy awe, humbling us in the dust before Him. His condescension, His wide, deep compassion, His tenderness and love, are given us to strengthen our confidence and remove that fear which tendeth unto bondage. The Lord wants us to give Him all there is of us in a steady, evenly balanced Christian life....
HP	185	5	Let us not endure the thought of being religious dwarfs.... We must ever be growing unto the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, till we are complete in Him. Christ will come and abide with every soul who will say from the heart, Come in. He loves every one who has a desire to follow Him.
------------------------Perfect in Your Sphere, June 28
HP	186	1	Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
HP	186	2	In order for our character building to be pleasing to God, we must constantly advance in spirituality. We must regard as worthless anything that lessens faith and confidence in our Redeemer. The more light there is shining into our souls, the greater the demand upon us to reflect that light to others. God desires you to let your light shine forth to the world. He will be glorified in our individual reflection of His character....
HP	186	3	Resting in the love of Christ, trusting the Redeemer and Life-giver to work out for you the salvation of your soul, you will know, as you draw nearer and still nearer to Him, what it means to endure the seeing of Him who is invisible. God desires us to rest content in His love. The contentment that Christ bestows is a gift worth infinitely more than gold and silver and precious stones....
HP	186	4	Your perceptive faculties will increase in power and soundness if your whole being, body, soul, and spirit, is consecrated to the accomplishment of a holy work. Make every effort in and through the grace of Christ to attain to the high standard set before you. You can be perfect in your sphere as God is perfect in His sphere. Has not Christ declared, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"?
HP	186	5	You are not to regard yourself as merely a passive recipient of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God has entrusted to you precious talents, and He requires the improvement of these talents. Interest from the principal lent is His due.... Submitting your will to His will, you will improve in speech and in spiritual conceptions....
HP	186	6	You are carefully to guard the powers of the mind. Your thoughts are to be kept under the control of the Holy Spirit.... It is your work to advance toward perfection, making constant improvement, until at last you are pronounced worthy to receive immortal life. And even then the work of progression will not cease, but will continue throughout eternity.
------------------------Revealing Christ's Likeness, June 29
HP	187	1	The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. Isaiah 32:17.
HP	187	2	Christ will be to His people all that these words express if they will heed the invitation to come to Him. He will be to them life and power, strength and efficiency, wisdom and holiness. God calls upon us to live the Christ life, to reveal this life to the world.
HP	187	3	We can, we can, reveal the likeness of our divine Lord. We can know the science of spiritual life. We can honor our Maker. But do we do it? Oh, what an illustrious example we have in the life that Christ lived on this earth! He has shown us what we can accomplish through cooperation with divinity. We are to seek for the union of which He speaks when He says, "Abide in me, and I in you" (John 15:4). This union is deeper, stronger, truer, than any other union and is productive of all good. Those who are thus united to the Saviour are controlled by His will and are moved by His love to suffer with those who suffer, to rejoice with those who rejoice, to feel a deep sympathy for every one in weakness, sorrow, or distress.
HP	187	4	Wherever I go I shall urge the people to keep Christ uplifted. He is always the same, yesterday, today, and forever, always seeking to do us good, always encouraging and guiding us, leading us onward step by step. What He is today--a faithful high priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities--He will be tomorrow and forevermore. He is our guide, our teacher, our counselor, our friend, ever bestowing His blessings upon us in response to our faith. He invites us to abide with Him. When we do this, when we make our home with Him, all friction, all ill temper, all irritation, will cease....
HP	187	5	I know that when I ask the Lord to be my helper He will not deny me, because it is my one desire to do His will and glorify His name. I am weak, but in depending wholly upon Him, I obtain strength. In laying my burden upon the Burden Bearer, I find comfort and strength and hope. This is my desire--to find abiding rest at His feet. While I keep firm hold of His hand, He leads me safely. The living God shall be the joy and rejoicing of my soul.
------------------------Christ's Abiding Presence, June 30
HP	188	1	And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Matthew 28:20.
HP	188	2	We have every encouragement that if we daily surrender our wills to God the promise will be fulfilled, "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace" (John 1:16). Every revealing of the grace of Christ in our behalf is for us. We are to reveal His grace in our lives, in thought, word, and deed.... We are to represent the mercy, the love, and the power of Christ--the power that He has given us....
HP	188	3	Were it not for the power received through Christ we would have no strength. But Christ has all power. "Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, ... and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Here is our power, our comfort. Of ourselves we have no strength. But He says, "I am with you alway," helping you to perform your duty, guiding, comforting, sanctifying, and sustaining you, giving you success in speaking words that will draw the attention of others to Christ and awaken in their minds the desire to understand the hope and meaning of the truth, turning them from darkness to light....
HP	188	4	It is a wonderful thought that human beings can speak the word of God, in simple words of comfort and encouragement. The humblest instruments will be used of God to sow the seeds of truth, which may spring up and bear fruit, because the one in whose heart they were sown needed help--a kind thought, a kind word, made effective by the One who has said, "Lo, I am with you alway."
HP	188	5	To us also the promise of Christ's abiding presence is given. The lapse of time has wrought no change in His parting promise. He is with us today as truly as He was with the disciples, and He will be with us "even unto the end." ...
HP	188	6	He finds His faithful ones, and holds communion with them, encouraging and strengthening them. And angels of God, that excel in strength, are sent forth by God to minister to His human workers who are speaking the truth to those who know it not.
------------------------The Christian's Pledge of Allegiance, July 1
HP	189	1	Ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. Leviticus 20:26.
HP	189	2	The character of the one who comes to God in faith will bear witness that the Saviour has entered into his life, directing all, pervading all. Such a one is continually asking, "Is this thy will and way, O my Saviour?" Constantly he looks to Jesus.... He consults the will of his divine Friend in reference to all his actions, for he knows that in this confidence is his strength. He has made it a habit to lift up the heart to God in every perplexity, every uncertainty.
HP	189	3	He who accepts God as his sovereign must take the oath of allegiance to Him. He must put on the Christian uniform and bear aloft the banner that shows to whose army he belongs. He must make an open avowal of his allegiance to Christ. Concealment is impossible. Christ's impress must appear on the life in sanctified works.
HP	189	4	"I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people." "Ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine." "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise." "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (Leviticus 20:24, 26; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Isaiah 43:21; 1 Peter 2:9)....
HP	189	5	Complete subjection through Christ to the will of God is our only safety. The selfish thoughts and impulses that sweep through the soul, producing discordant notes, can be separated from the life only as the whole being is under the control of Christ. The Saviour's words to all unruly elements is, "Peace, be still." Christ welcomes all who accept Him as their Saviour, and rules over them as their king.... Our zeal for the advancement of God's kingdom is to mark us as faithful subjects of the cross of Christ. God can trust as His representatives those who implicitly obey Him.
------------------------Total Commitment to God, July 2
HP	190	1	The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Matthew 6:22.
HP	190	2	The work of the Spirit of God in a man is not a work that unfits him for the common duties of ordinary life. There is not to be one religion for business and another religion for the church. The work of the Spirit of God embraces the whole man, soul, body, and spirit.
HP	190	3	If the Word of God is cherished as an abiding principle in the heart, and held fast under all and every circumstance, man is brought, with his entrusted capabilities, under [subjection] to the Lord Jesus Christ. His undivided powers, even his thoughts, are brought into captivity to Christ. This is true sanctification. All the parts of the experience blend in complete harmony. He is "wanting in nothing." He does not keep part to himself, to do with just as he pleases....
HP	190	4	"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, the whole body shall be full of light." This says, "thine eye," not some other person's eye. The rich experience that it is our privilege to have, we lose when we expect someone else to do our seeing for us and guide us in our spiritual experience as if we were blind. We must have a single eye to God's glory, a single and persistent purpose to leave self and the preferences of others out of the question....
HP	190	5	He who truly loves and fears God, striving with a singleness of purpose to do His will, will place his body, his mind, his heart, his soul, his strength, under service to God. Thus it was with Enoch. He walked with God. His mind was not defiled by an impure, defective eyesight. Those who are determined to make the will of God their own must serve and please God in everything. Then the character will be harmonious and well balanced, consistent, cheerful, and true....
HP	190	6	You are each living your probationary time day by day, obtaining your experience as the days pass; but you can go over the ground only once. Then let every precious moment be employed as you will wish it had been when the judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened. Our Lord will judge us according to the opportunities that we have had.
------------------------A Temple for God, July 3
HP	191	1	Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16.
HP	191	2	From eternal ages it was God's purpose that every created being, from the bright and holy seraph to man, should be a temple for the indwelling of the Creator. Because of sin, humanity ceased to be a temple for God....
HP	191	3	God designed that the temple at Jerusalem should be a continual witness to the high destiny open to every soul. But the Jews had not understood the significance of the building they regarded with so much pride.... The courts of the temple at Jerusalem, filled with the tumult of unholy traffic, represented all too truly the temple of the heart, defiled by the presence of sensual passion and unholy thoughts. In cleansing the Temple from the world's buyers and sellers, Jesus announced His mission to cleanse the heart from the defilement of sin--from the earthly desires, the selfish lusts, the evil habits that corrupt the soul.... Only Christ can cleanse the soul temple.... His presence will cleanse and sanctify the soul, so that it may be a holy temple unto the Lord, and "an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22).
HP	191	4	By this beautiful and impressive figure God's Word shows the regard He places on our physical organism and the responsibility resting upon us to preserve it in the best condition. Our bodies are Christ's purchased possession, and we are not at liberty to do with them as we please. Man has done this. He has treated his body as if its laws had no penalty. Through perverted appetite its organs and powers have become enfeebled, diseased, crippled....
HP	191	5	When men and women are truly converted they will conscientiously regard the laws of life that God has established in their being, thus seeking to avoid physical, mental, and moral feebleness. Obedience to these laws must be made a matter of personal duty. We ourselves must suffer the ills of violated law. We must answer to God for our habits and practices. Therefore the question for us is not, "What will the world say?" but, "How shall I, claiming to be a Christian, treat the habitation God has given me?"
------------------------Caring for the Body Temple, July 4
HP	192	1	I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psalm 139:14.
HP	192	2	Said the psalmist, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." God has given us faculties and powers of mind and body, which it is the duty of all to preserve in the best condition. If any weaken their powers through the indulgence of appetite, they decrease their power of influence, making themselves imperfect. Only by the expensive offering made upon the cross of Calvary can we understand the value of the human soul. We are placed on vantage ground by the redeeming power of Jesus Christ, to obtain freedom from the bondage of sin which was wrought by the fall of Adam.
HP	192	3	We are to make the most of the capabilities and talents lent us by God. All who are weakening and destroying the physical, mental, and moral powers by sinful eating, sinful dressing, and violation of the laws of health in any respect, will have to render an account to God for all the good they might have done had they observed the laws of health, rather than being self-indulgent, careless, and reckless of the house they live in.... God says, "Ye are not your own." You are God's property. Your ransom cost the life of the Son of God.... All are to consider the greatness of the sacrifice made. The Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, designs that men and women shall give to Him their wholehearted service.
HP	192	4	In the words of the apostle Paul there is a depth of meaning: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Romans 12:1, 2). No one can bring honor to God if he pursues a course of action that will bring blemish upon the body or the soul. Our sacrifice is to be holy and without blame. This is the reasonable service of everyone. We are God's workmanship, God's building....
HP	192	5	God wants us to honor Him with all there is of us.
------------------------"Our Reasonable Service", July 5
HP	193	1	I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1.
HP	193	2	The apostle entreats his brethren to consecrate their bodies to God.... When we pursue a course to lessen mental and physical vigor--in eating, drinking, or in any of our habits--we dishonor God, for we rob Him of the service He claims of us. When we indulge appetite at the expense of health, or when we indulge habits which lessen our vitality and mental vigor, we cannot have a high appreciation of the atonement and a right estimate of eternal things.
HP	193	3	When our minds are beclouded and partially paralyzed by disease we are easily overcome by the temptations of Satan. Eating of unhealthful food to gratify the appetite has a direct tendency to unbalance the circulation of the blood, cause nervous debility, and as the result there is great lack of patience and true, elevated affection. Constitutional strength, as well as the tone of the morals and the mental faculties, is enfeebled through the indulgence of perverted appetite....
HP	193	4	All the treasures of the world sink into insignificance when compared to the value of the mental and moral powers. And the healthful action of these faculties is dependent upon the physical health. Then how important that we know how to preserve health, that our duty to God and man may be performed according to His commandments. The laws of God are plain and distinct. No uncertainty beclouds any of them. None of them need ever be misunderstood. Those who cannot discern them are benumbed by their own wrong habits enfeebling their intellect.
HP	193	5	God designs to teach us the importance of temperance in all things. As intemperance caused the fall of our first parents from their holy and happy estate, by their transgressing the law of God, so temperance in all things will keep our faculties in as healthy a condition as possible, that no mist or uncertainty may becloud any of them, that intellect may guide to right actions in keeping His law.... We must work in harmony with natural laws if we would discern the binding claims of the law of God spoken from Sinai.
------------------------The Test of Appetite, July 6
HP	194	1	But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 1 Corinthians 9:27.
HP	194	2	After His baptism the Son of God entered the dreary wilderness, there to be tempted by the devil. For nearly six weeks He endured the agonies of hunger.... He realized the power of appetite upon man; and in behalf of sinful man, He bore the closest test possible upon that point. Here a victory was gained which few can appreciate. The controlling power of depraved appetite and the grievous sin of indulging it can only be understood by the length of the fast which our Saviour endured that He might break its power....
HP	194	3	Intemperance lies at the foundation of all the moral evils known to man. Christ began the work of redemption just where the ruin began. The fall of our first parents was caused by the indulgence of appetite. In redemption, the denial of appetite is the first work of Christ.
HP	194	4	The Son of God saw that man could not of himself overcome this powerful temptation.... He came to earth to unite His divine power with our human efforts, that through the strength and moral power which He imparts, we might overcome in our own behalf. Oh! what matchless condescension for the King of glory to come down to this world to endure the pangs of hunger and the fierce temptations of a wily foe, that He might gain an infinite victory for man. Here is love without a parallel. Yet this great condescension is but dimly comprehended by those for whom it was made.
HP	194	5	It was not the gnawing pangs of hunger alone which made the sufferings of our Redeemer so inexpressibly severe. It was the sense of guilt which had resulted from the indulgence of appetite that had brought such terrible woe into the world, which pressed so heavily upon His divine soul....
HP	194	6	With man's nature, and the terrible weight of his sins pressing upon Him, our Redeemer withstood the power of Satan upon this great leading temptation, which imperils the souls of men. If man should overcome this temptation, he could conquer on every other point.
------------------------The Battle for Purity, July 7
HP	195	1	Keep thyself pure. 1 Timothy 5:22.
HP	195	2	To know what constitutes purity of mind, soul, and body is an important part of education.
HP	195	3	When the character is lacking in purity, when sin has become a part of the character, it has a bewitching power that is equal to the intoxicating glass of liquor. The power of self-control and reason is overborne by practices that defile the whole being; and if these sinful practices are continued, the brain is enfeebled and diseased, and loses its balance. Such ones are a curse to themselves and to all who have any connection with them....
HP	195	4	Bad habits are more easily formed than good habits, and the bad habits are given up with more difficulty. The natural depravity of the heart accounts for this well-known fact--that it takes far less labor to demoralize the youth, to corrupt their ideas of moral and religious character, than to engraft upon their character the enduring, pure, and uncorrupted habits of righteousness and truth. Self-indulgence, love of pleasure, enmity, pride, self-esteem, envy, jealousy, will grow spontaneously, without example and teaching. In our present fallen state all that is needed is to give up the mind and character to its natural tendencies. In the natural world, give up a field to itself and you will see it covered with briers and thorns; but if it yields precious grain or beautiful flowers, care and unremitting labor must be applied.
HP	195	5	Now we present before you the necessity of constant resistance to evil. All heaven is interested in men and women whom God has valued so much as to give His beloved Son to die to redeem them. No other creature that God has made is capable of such improvement, such refinement, such nobility as man. Then when men become blunted by their own debasing passions, sunken in vice, what a specimen for God to look upon! Man cannot conceive what he may be and what he may become. Through the grace of Christ he is capable of constant mental progress. Let the light of truth shine into his mind and the love of God be shed abroad in his heart and he may, through the grace Christ has died to impart to him, be a man of power--a child of earth but an heir of immortality.
------------------------Danger at Every Step, July 8
HP	196	1	Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22.
HP	196	2	The moral dangers to which all, both old and young, are exposed are daily increasing. Moral derangement, which we call depravity, finds ample room to work, and an influence is exerted by men, women, and youth professing to be Christians that is low, sensual, devilish....
HP	196	3	Those who have learned the truth and do not have works corresponding with their profession of faith are subject to Satan's temptations. They encounter danger at every step they advance. They are brought into contact with evil, they see sights, they hear sounds, that will awaken their unsubdued passions; they are subjected to influences that lead them to choose the evil rather than the good, because they are not sound at heart. Just at the time when the power of the will is to be exercised, when firmness is required to resist the first approach of temptation, you find them easy subjects of Satan's devices, a mere plaything of the devil. Every temptation is now at work to lead those who claim to keep God's commandments, to break them....
HP	196	4	All must learn the lesson of what power there is in a good character. There is no training we need so much now as the preparing of young men and women to have moral rectitude and to cleanse their souls of every spot and stain of moral defilement. The standard of morality and holiness is trailing in the dust....
HP	196	5	We are near the close of probation, when every case is to pass in review before God. Now, in probation, is the time God has given us for the formation of pure and holy characters. If this time is not improved, if the thoughts are impure, if the heart is not sanctified, if unholy practices are indulged, be sure that the portion of such will be with the unholy, the debased, the abominable.
HP	196	6	It is now, in probationary time, that every soul must make his choice. This choice will be seen in the family, will be seen in the association with the church. Virtue and true, unselfish principles will bring their own reward, for they will be reproduced in others.... "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20).
------------------------Safeguarding the Moral Powers, July 9
HP	197	1	Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. 1 Peter 2:11.
HP	197	2	There is an alarming commonness in conversation at the present day, which shows a low state of thoughts and morals. True dignity of character is very rare. True modesty and reserve are seldom seen. There are but few who are pure and undefiled.... God looks upon these things with displeasure....
HP	197	3	Polluted thoughts harbored become habit, and the soul is scarred and defiled. Once do a wrong action and a blot is made which nothing can heal but the blood of Christ; and if the habit is not turned from with firm determination, the soul is corrupted and the streams flowing from this defiling fountain corrupt others.
HP	197	4	There are men and women who invite temptation; they place themselves in positions where they will be tempted, where they cannot but be tempted, when they place themselves in society that is objectionable. The best way to keep safe from sin is to move with due consideration at all times and under all circumstances, never to move or act from impulse. Move with the fear of God ever before you and you will be sure to act right; then leave your reputation with God. Slander cannot then sully your character one particle. No one can degrade our character but ourselves, by our own course of action....
HP	197	5	The mind must be kept meditating upon pure and holy subjects. An impure suggestion must be dismissed at once, and pure, elevating thoughts, holy contemplation, be entertained, thus obtaining more and more knowledge of God, by training the mind in the contemplation of heavenly things. God has simple means open to every individual case, sufficient to secure the great end, the salvation of the soul.
HP	197	6	Resolve to reach a high and holy standard; make your mark high; act with earnest purpose, as did Daniel, steadily, perseveringly, and nothing that the enemy can do will hinder your improvement. Notwithstanding inconveniences, changes, perplexities, you may constantly advance in mental vigor and moral power.
------------------------Crucifying the Flesh, July 10
HP	198	1	And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Galatians 5:24.
HP	198	2	We are not our own. We have been "bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:20), not "with corruptible things, as silver and gold, ... but with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18, 19); "that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again" (2 Corinthians 5:15).
HP	198	3	All men have been bought with this infinite price. By pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world, by giving us in Christ all heaven, God has purchased the will, the affections, the mind, the soul, of every human being.... All men are the Lord's property.
HP	198	4	This expression, "bought with a price," means everything to us. In consideration of the price paid for us, shall we not yield our bodies and souls up to Him who has bought us with His blood? Shall not that which He has redeemed be kept in as wholesome and pure and holy a condition as possible? ... Our very flesh He has saved at an infinite cost, giving His own flesh for the life of the world.
HP	198	5	The lower passions have their seat in the body, and work through it. The words "flesh" or "fleshly" or "carnal lusts" embrace the lower, corrupt nature; the flesh of itself cannot act contrary to the will of God. We are commanded to crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts. How shall we do it? Shall we inflict pain on the body? No; but put to death the temptation to sin. The corrupt thought is to be expelled.... All animal propensities are to be subjected to the higher powers of the soul. The love of God must reign supreme; Christ must occupy an undivided throne. Our bodies are to be regarded as His purchased possession. The members of the body are to become the instruments of righteousness.
HP	198	6	Jesus will be the helper of all who put their trust in Him. Those who are connected with Christ have happiness at their command. They follow the path where their Saviour leads, for His sake crucifying the flesh, with its affections and lusts. They have built their hopes on Christ, and the storms of earth are powerless to sweep them from the sure foundation.
------------------------A Firm, Decisive "No", July 11
HP	199	1	How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? Genesis 39:9.
HP	199	2	There are always those of pliant, accommodating dispositions who can with difficulty pronounce the word NO squarely, who are ready to be led away from God by a stronger, determined will. These have no interior strength to rely upon, no firm principle to save them from accepting evil suggestions and forming wrong habits....
HP	199	3	The moral dangers to which all, both old and young, are exposed are daily increasing.... Satan is making masterly efforts to involve married men and women and children and youth in impure practices. His temptations find acceptance in many hearts, because they have not been elevated, purified, refined, and ennobled by the sacred truth which they claim to believe. Not a few have been low and vile in thought and common in talk and deportment, so that when Satan's temptations come they have no moral power to resist them and fall an easy prey....
HP	199	4	We have need to be alarmed if we have not the fear of God constantly before us. We have need to fear if there is any departing from the living God, for He alone is our strength and fortress, into which we may run and be safe when the enemy makes a charge upon us with his temptations.
HP	199	5	It is a subject of interest to every soul of us, how we shall keep our vessels unto honor in the sight of a holy God.... There is no safety for us when we lie down, when we rise up, when we go out, and when we come in. Satan and evil angels have conspired with evil men and evil women, and the whole energies of the powers of darkness will gather themselves together to lead astray and destroy every soul that is not garrisoned with firm principles of eternal truths....
HP	199	6	The principles of righteousness must be implanted in the soul. Faith must grasp the power of Jesus Christ, else there is no safety. Licentious practices are getting to be as common as in the days before the Flood.... The weak moral powers of men and women in this age who claim to be commandment keepers alarm me. Everyone needs to arouse and lift up the standard of purity.
------------------------Complete Sanctification, July 12
HP	200	1	And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
HP	200	2	Sanctification--how many understand its full meaning? The mind is befogged by sensual malaria. The thoughts need purifying. What might not men and women have been had they realized that the treatment of the body has everything to do with the vigor and purity of mind and heart! ... Men and women have been bought with a price, and what a price! Even the life of the Son of God. What a terrible thing it is for them to place themselves in a position where their physical, mental, and moral powers are corrupted, where they lose their vigor and purity. Such men and women cannot offer an acceptable sacrifice to God.
HP	200	3	The true Christian obtains an experience which brings holiness. He is without a spot of guilt upon the conscience or a taint of corruption upon the soul. The spirituality of the law of God, with its limiting principles, is brought into his life. The light of truth irradiates his understanding. A glow of perfect love for the Redeemer clears away the miasma which has interposed between his soul and God. The will of God has become his will, pure, elevated, refined, and sanctified. His countenance reveals the light of heaven. His body is a fit temple for the Holy Spirit. Holiness adorns his character. God can commune with him, for soul and body are in harmony with God.
HP	200	4	There are many who, though striving to obey God's commandments, have little peace or joy. This lack in their experience is the result of a failure to exercise faith. They walk, as it were, in a salt land, a parched wilderness. They claim little, when they might claim much; for there is no limit to the promises of God. Such ones do not correctly represent the sanctification that comes through obedience to the truth. The Lord would have all His sons and daughters happy, peaceful, and obedient. Through the exercise of faith the believer comes into possession of these blessings. Through faith, every deficiency of character may be supplied, every defilement cleansed, every fault corrected, every excellence developed.
------------------------Our Supreme Obligation, July 13
HP	201	1	But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. 1 Peter 5:10.
HP	201	2	So perfect is the character represented which men must have in order to be Christ's disciples that the infidel has said that it is not possible for any human being to attain unto it. But no less a standard must be presented by all who claim to be children of God. Infidels know not that celestial aid is provided for all who seek for it by faith. Every provision has been made in behalf of every soul who shall seek to be a partaker of the divine nature and be complete in Jesus Christ. Every defect is to be discerned and cut away from the character with an unsparing decision.
HP	201	3	The people of God are to turn every action into devotion. They are to partake of every meal as if they knew it was a token of the love of the infinite God expressed to them. The termination of one duty is to be the commencement of the next that presents itself. Then the Christian character will be manifest in a life of continuous obedience and service to Jesus Christ.
HP	201	4	Whatever business engagements men may yoke up with, if Christians, they must wear the yoke of duty to Christ. This is their allegiance. They are to consider themselves bound by superior obligations. The Master, Jesus Christ, has placed His yoke upon the neck of every disciple. The life service is pledged to Him in accepting His yoke. Anything that will mar or hinder his perfect service to God is to be broken off, whatever its nature or character may be....
HP	201	5	The Lord has united His nature with humanity expressly that He might become a more distinguishable and definite object for our contemplation and love. He invites us to draw near and contemplate the great light, the invisible God invested in robes of humanity, emitting a glory so softened and subdued that our eyes can endure the sight. Christ is the light of heaven. In His face we shall see God. Bear in mind the prayer of Christ, that His people may be one with Him as He is one with the Father, that they may be with Him where He is and behold His glory.
------------------------Marriage a Sacred Institution, July 14
HP	202	1	Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord. Proverbs 18:22.
HP	202	2	Marriage has received Christ's sanction and blessing and is to be regarded as a sacred institution. True religion does not counterwork the Lord's plans. God ordained that woman should be united with man in holy wedlock, to raise up families that would be crowned with honor who would be symbols of the family in heaven.... Marriage, when joined with purity and holiness, truth and righteousness, is one of the greatest blessings ever given to the human family....
HP	202	3	The divine love emanating from Christ never destroys human love, but includes human love, refined and purified. By it human love is elevated and ennobled. Human love can never bear its precious fruit until it is united with the divine nature and trained to grow heavenward. Jesus wants to see happy marriages, happy firesides. The warmth of true friendship and the love that binds the hearts of husband and wife are a foretaste of heaven. God has ordained that there should be perfect love and perfect harmony between those who enter into the marriage relation. Let bride and bridegroom in the presence of the heavenly universe pledge themselves to love one another as God has ordained they should....
HP	202	4	God made from the man a woman, to be a companion and help-meet for him, to be one with him, to cheer, encourage, and bless him, he in turn to be her strong helper. All who enter into matrimonial relations with a holy purpose--the husband to obtain the pure affections of a woman's heart, the wife to soften and improve her husband's character and give it completeness--fulfill God's purpose for them.
HP	202	5	Christ came not to destroy this institution, but to restore it to its original sanctity and elevation. He came to restore the moral image of God in man, and He began His work by sanctioning the marriage relation. He who made the first holy pair and who created for them a paradise, has put His seal upon the marriage institution, first celebrated in Eden, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
------------------------The Bonds of Wedlock, July 15
HP	203	1	And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Genesis 2:18.
HP	203	2	I have often read these words: "Marriage is a lottery." Some act as if they believed the statement, and their married life testifies that it is such to them. But true marriage is not a lottery. Marriage was instituted in Eden. After the creation of Adam, the Lord said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet"--suitable--"for him." When the Lord presented Eve to Adam, angels of God were witnesses to the ceremony. But there are few couples who are completely united when the marriage ceremony is performed. The form of words spoken over the two who take the marriage vow does not make them a unit. In their future life is to be the blending of the two in wedlock. It may be made a really happy union, if each will give to the other true heart affection.
HP	203	3	But time strips marriage of the romance with which imagination had clothed it, and then the thought finds entrance into the mind through Satan's suggestions, "We do not love each other as we supposed." Expel it from the mind. Do not linger over it. Let each, forgetful of self, refuse to entertain the ideas that Satan would be glad to have you cherish. He will work to make you suspicious, jealous of every little thing that shall furnish the least occasion, in order to alienate your affections from each other.... When the romance is gone, let each think, not after a sentimental order, how he or she can make the married life what God would be pleased to have it.
HP	203	4	Life is a precious gift of God and is not to be wasted in selfish regrets or more open indifference and dislike. Let the husband and wife talk things all over together. Renew the early attentions to each other, acknowledge your faults to each other, but in this work be very careful that the husband does not take it upon himself to confess his wife's faults or the wife her husband's. Be determined that you will be all that it is possible for you to be to each other, and the bonds of wedlock will be the most desirable of ties.
HP	203	5	Your home may be a symbol of heaven.
------------------------Counsel to a Bride and Groom, July 16
HP	204	1	Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24.
HP	204	2	You, my children, [from a letter by Ellen White to her son Edson and wife, soon after their marriage] have given your hearts to one another; unitedly give them wholly, unreservedly to God. In your married life seek to elevate one another. Do not come down to common, cheap talk and actions. Show the high and elevating principles of your holy faith in your everyday conversations and in the most private walks of life. Be ever careful and tender of the feelings of one another. Do not, either of you, for even the first time, allow a playful, bantering, joking censuring of one another. These things are dangerous. They wound. The wound may be concealed, nevertheless the wound exists and peace is being sacrificed and happiness endangered....
HP	204	3	My son, guard yourself and in no case manifest the least disposition savoring of a dictatorial, overbearing spirit. It will pay to watch your words before speaking. This is easier than to take them back or efface their impression afterward.... Ever speak kindly; do not throw into the tones of your voice that which will be taken by others as irritability. Modulate even the tones of your voice. Let only love, gentleness, and mildness be expressed in your countenance and in your voice. Make it a business to shed rays of sunlight, but never leave a cloud. Emma will be all to you you can desire if you are watchful and give her no occasion to feel distressed and troubled and to doubt the genuineness of your love. You yourselves can make your happiness or lose it. You can by seeking to conform your life to the Word of God be true, noble, elevated, and smooth the pathway of life for each other....
HP	204	4	Yield to each other. Edson, yield your judgment sometimes. Do not be persistent, even if your course appears just right to yourself. You must be yielding, forbearing, kind, tenderhearted, pitiful, courteous, ever keeping fresh the little courtesies of life, the tender acts, the tender, cheerful, encouraging words. And may the best of heaven's blessings rest upon you both, my dear children, is the prayer of your mother.
------------------------Take Marriage Problems to God, July 17
HP	205	1	But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife. Mark 10:6, 7.
HP	205	2	Too often the marriage relation is entered into without proper consideration. None should marry in uncertainty. But if they have not been properly considerate in this matter, and after marriage find themselves dissimilar in character, and liable to reap unhappiness in the place of joy, let them not breathe into another's mind the fact that their marriage was unwise.... The evil is always increased when either the wife or the husband, finding some one who appears to be a congenial spirit, ventures to whisper to this trusted one the secrets of the married life. The very act of making known the secret confirms the existence of a condition of things that would not be at all necessary if the husband and wife loved God supremely....
HP	205	3	In many cases where these difficulties are thought to exist, the cause is imaginary.... If the husband and wife would freely talk over the matter with each other in the spirit of Christ, the difficulty would be healed.... If they loved God supremely, their hearts would be so filled, so satisfied, with His love, that they would not be consumed with longing for affection to be manifested in acts toward themselves.
HP	205	4	Many have mistaken the true duty of the wife to the husband and the husband to the wife. Self becomes all absorbing, and Satan ... has his net all ready to draw about the human soul, to get it so entangled by human imaginations that it seems impossible for human wisdom to disentangle the meshes of his finely woven snares.
HP	205	5	But what human wisdom cannot do the wisdom of God can do through the surrender of the will, the mind, the soul, the strength, the entire being, to God. His providence can unite hearts in bonds that are of heavenly origin. But the result will not be a mere external interchange of affection in soft and flattering words. There will be a new experience; the loom of heaven weaves with warp and woof finer, yet more firm, than those of earth. The material is not a mere tissue fabric, but a texture that will bear the wear and test of trial; heart is bound firmly to heart in the golden chain of a love that is genuine.
------------------------Keeping Love Alive, July 18
HP	206	1	Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Colossians 3:18, 19.
HP	206	2	How much trouble and what a tide of woe and unhappiness would be saved if men, and women also, would continue to cultivate the regard, attention, and kind words of appreciation and little courtesies of life which kept love alive and which they felt were necessary in gaining the companions of their choice. If the husband and wife would only continue to cultivate these attentions which nourish love, they would be happy in each other's society and would have a sanctifying influence upon their families. They would have in themselves a little world of happiness and would not desire to go outside this world for new attractions and new objects of love....
HP	206	3	Many women pine for words of love and kindness and the common attentions and courtesies due them from their husbands who have selected them as their life companions.... It is these little attentions and courtesies which make up the sum of life's happiness....
HP	206	4	If the hearts were kept tender in our families, if there were a noble, generous deference to each other's tastes and opinions, if the wife were seeking opportunities to express her love by actions in her courtesies to her husband, and the husband were manifesting the same consideration and kindly regard for the wife, the children would partake of the same spirit. The influence would pervade the household, and what a tide of misery would be saved in the families! ...
HP	206	5	Every couple who unite their life interest should seek to make the life of each as happy as possible. That which we prize we seek to preserve and make more valuable if we can. In the marriage contract men and women have made a trade, an investment for life, and they should do their utmost to control their words of impatience and fretfulness, even more carefully than they did before their marriage, for now their destinies are united for life as husband and wife, and each is valued in exact proportion to the amount of painstaking effort put forth to retain and keep fresh the love so eagerly sought for and prized before marriage.
------------------------The Widening Circle of Love, July 19
HP	207	1	Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. 1 Corinthians 7:3.
HP	207	2	Husbands and wives should feel it their privilege and their duty to reserve for the privacy of each other's society the interchange of love tokens between themselves. For while the manifestation of love for each other is right in its place, it may be made productive of harm to both the married and the unmarried. There are persons of an entirely different cast of mind and character, and of different education and training, who love each other just as devotedly and healthfully as do those who have educated themselves to manifest their affection freely; and there is danger that by contrast these persons who are more reserved will be misjudged, and placed at a disadvantage. While the wife should lean on her husband with respect and deference, she can, in a wholesome, healthful way, manifest her strong affection for and confidence in the man she has chosen as her life companion....
HP	207	3	It is the high privilege and the solemn duty of Christians to make each other happy in their married life; but there is positive danger in making self all absorbing, pouring out all the wealth of affection upon each other, and being too well satisfied with such a life. All this savors of selfishness.
HP	207	4	Instead of shutting up their love and sympathy to themselves, they should seize every opportunity of contributing to the good of others, distributing the abundance of affection in a chaste and sanctified love for souls that in the sight of God are just as precious as themselves, being purchased by the infinite sacrifice of His only-begotten Son. Kind words, looks of sympathy, expressions of appreciation, would be to many a struggling and lonely one as the cup of cold water to a thirsty soul. A word of sympathy, an act of kindness, would lift burdens that are resting heavily upon some shoulders. And words of counsel, admonitions, warnings from a heart sanctified by love, are just as essential as an effusion of loving sentiments and expressions of appreciation. Every word or deed of unselfish kindness to souls with whom we are brought in connection is an expression of the love that Jesus has manifested for the whole human family.
------------------------A Message to Parents, July 20
HP	208	1	And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Deuteronomy 6:6, 7.
HP	208	2	Parents should be united in their faith, that they may be united in their efforts to bring their children up in the belief of the truth. Upon the mother in a special sense rests the work of molding the minds of the young children.... Business matters often keep the father much from home and prevent him from taking an equal share in the training of the children, but whenever he can, he should unite with the mother in this work. Let parents work unitedly, instilling into their children's hearts the principles of righteousness.
HP	208	3	There has been too little definite work done in preparing our children for the tests that all must meet in their contact with the world and its influences. They have not been helped as they should to form characters strong enough to resist temptation and stand firm for the principles of right, in the terrible issues before all who remain faithful to the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
HP	208	4	Parents need to understand the temptations that the youth must daily meet, that they may teach them how to overcome them. There are influences in the school and in the world that parents need to guard against. God wants us to turn our eyes from the vanities and pleasures and ambitions of the world, and set them on the glorious and immortal reward of those who run with patience the race set before them in the gospel. He wants us to educate our children to avoid the influences that would draw them away from Christ. The Lord is soon coming, and we must prepare for this solemn event.... Let your daily life in the home reveal the living principles of the Word of God. Heavenly agencies will cooperate with you as you seek to reach the standard of perfection and as you seek to teach your children how to conform their lives to the principles of righteousness. Christ and heavenly agencies are waiting to quicken your spiritual sensibilities, to renew your activities, and to teach you of the deep things of God.
------------------------The Home a School, July 21
HP	209	1	Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6.
HP	209	2	The home is to be a school in which children are to be trained for the higher school. The father and mother should make the decision, "I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.... I will walk within my house with a perfect heart" (Psalm 101:2).... Parents are the first teachers of their children, and by the lessons that they give, they, as well as their children, are being educated. As parents consecrate themselves, body, soul, and spirit, to the doing of their God-given work, the Lord will teach them precious lessons, giving them wise words to speak and helping them to show patience and forbearance under provocation....
HP	209	3	We need homes that are surrounded by a sanctified atmosphere. Unconverted families are Satan's strongest allies. The members of them work counter to God. Some parents are harsh, denunciatory, overbearing, while others are careless and overindulgent, letting their children follow the course of disobedience until they do very wicked things.... Such parents need to feel the converting power of God. By giving way to anger and by selfish indifference they unfit their children for this world and the next....
HP	209	4	I am writing this to the parents among us because I greatly desire them to learn, and to teach to their children, the beautiful lessons that we must learn on earth before we can enter heaven. In everything you do ask yourselves, "How will this help my children to prepare for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him?" When the work in the home school is done as it should be, families will bring into the church such a noble unselfishness that heavenly angels will love to linger there.... Hearts will be refined and purified, made fit for the indwelling of the Lord Jesus.
HP	209	5	Keep Christ before your children by singing songs to His glory, by seeking Him in prayer, and by reading from His Word, so that He will seem to them an ever-present Guest. Then they will love Him, and will be brought so closely into unison with Him that they will breathe out His Spirit. They will feel a new relationship to one another in Christ.
------------------------Training Our Children for Christ, July 22
HP	210	1	And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. Isaiah 54:13.
HP	210	2	Children and youth are to be taught that their capabilities were given them for the honor and glory of God. To this end they must learn the lesson of obedience, for only by lives of willing obedience can they render to God the service He requires....
HP	210	3	Parents who truly love Christ will bear witness to this in a love for their children that will not indulge, but will work wisely for their highest good. These children have been bought with a price. Christ sacrificed His life that He might redeem them from wrongdoing. Parents who appreciate the sacrifice Christ and the Father have made in behalf of the race will cooperate with them, lending every sanctified energy and ability to the work of saving their children. Instead of treating them as playthings, they will regard them as the purchase of Christ, and will teach them that they are to become the children of God. Instead of allowing them to indulge evil temper and selfish desires, they will teach them lessons of self-restraint.
HP	210	4	As parents and children cooperate in seeking to reach God's ideal for them, strength and blessing will come into their lives; and joy and satisfaction will fill the hearts of parents when they see, as the fruit of their labors, their children growing up in the love of the truth and endeavoring to reach the fullness of God's purpose for them.
HP	210	5	He desires to see gathered out from the homes of our people a large company of youth who, because of the godly influences of their homes, have surrendered their hearts to Him and go forth to give Him the highest service of their lives. Directed and trained by the godly instruction of the home, the influence of the morning and evening season of worship, the consistent example of parents who love and fear God, they have learned to submit to God as their teacher and leader, and they are prepared to render Him acceptable service.... Such youth are prepared to represent to the world the grace and power of Christ....
HP	210	6	Would you help other families to use their God-given talents to His glory? Then reveal in your own lives conformity to the image of Christ.
------------------------Preparing for Heaven's School, July 23
HP	211	1	That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace. Psalm 144:12.
HP	211	2	Let not parents forget the great mission field that lies before them in the home. In the children committed to her, every mother has a sacred charge from God. "Take this son, this daughter," God says, "and train it for Me. Give it a character polished after the similitude of a palace, that it may shine in the courts of the Lord forever."
HP	211	3	Let the determination of each member of the family be, I will be a Christian, for in the school here below I must form a character that will give me entrance into the higher grade, even the school above. I must do unto others as I desire them to do to me.
HP	211	4	Make the home life as nearly as possible like heaven. Let the members of the family forget not, as they gather round the family altar, to pray for the men in positions of responsibility in God's work. The physicians in our sanitariums, the ministers of the gospel, those in charge of our publishing houses and schools, need your prayers. They are tempted and tried. As you plead with God to bless them, your own hearts will be subdued and softened by His grace. We are living amid the perils of the last days, and we are to cleanse ourselves from all defilement and put on the robe of Christ's righteousness.
HP	211	5	My brother, my sister, I urge you to prepare for the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven. Day by day cast the love of the world out of your hearts. Understand by experience what it means to have fellowship with Christ. Prepare for the judgment, that when Christ shall come, to be admired in all them that believe, you may be among those who will meet Him in peace. In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and the Son. The angels, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King and His trophies of victory--those who have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts, accompanied by His redeemed ones, the witnesses that His mission of suffering and sacrifice has not been in vain.
------------------------Influence of Godly Parents, July 24
HP	212	1	Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons. Deuteronomy 4:9.
HP	212	2	To all parents who profess to believe in the soon return of Christ there is given a solemn work of preparation, that they and their children may be ready to meet the Lord at His coming. God desires to see parents take their position wholeheartedly for Him, that there may be no perverting of the work He has given them to do and that our children and youth may understand clearly the will of God concerning them. They are to learn to resist evil and choose righteousness, to turn from sin and become the faithful servants of God, prepared to give Him their life's highest service.
HP	212	3	There are few parents who realize how important it is to give to their children the influence of a godly example. Yet this is far more potent than precept. No other means is so effective in training them in right lines. The children and youth must have a true copy in right-doing if they succeed in overcoming sin and perfecting a Christian character. This copy they should find in the lives of their parents. If they enter the city of God, ... someone must show them the way. By living before their children godly, consistent lives, parents may make the work before them clear and plain.
HP	212	4	It is God's desire that parents should be to their children the embodiment of the principles laid down in His Word.... To keep the feet of their children in the narrow path will call for faithful effort and constant prayer, but it is possible to train the children and youth to love and serve God.... It is possible to inculcate the principles of righteousness, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little, until the desires and inclinations of the heart are in harmony with the mind and will of God.
HP	212	5	When fathers and mothers realize the responsibility resting upon them, and respond to the appeals of God's Spirit in behalf of this neglected work, there will be seen in the homes of the people transformations that will cause the angels to rejoice.
------------------------The Family Altar, July 25
HP	213	1	And there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. Genesis 12:8.
HP	213	2	Abraham, the friend of God, set us a worthy example. His was a life of prayer and humble obedience, and he was as a light in the world. Wherever he pitched his tent, close beside it was set up his altar, calling for the morning and evening sacrifice of each member of his family.... From Christian homes a similar light should shine forth. Love should be revealed in action. It should flow out in all home intercourse, showing itself in thoughtful kindness, in gentle, unselfish courtesy. There are homes where these principles are carried out--homes where God is worshiped and truest love reigns. From these homes morning and evening prayer comes up before God as sweet incense, and His mercies and blessings descend upon the suppliants like the morning dew.
HP	213	3	We must have more religion. We need the strength and grace that are born of earnest prayer. This means of grace should be diligently used in order to gain spiritual muscle. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him. It makes us realize more and more our great needs, and hence our obligation to God and our dependence upon Him. It leads us to feel our own nothingness and the weakness of our judgment. God has made earnest prayer the condition of the bestowal of His richest blessings....
HP	213	4	This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself and your family to God for that day. Make no calculation for months or years, for they are not yours. One brief day is given you, and that one day work for yourself and your family as though it were your last. Surrender all your plans to God, to be carried out or given up, as His providence shall indicate. In this manner you may day by day be giving your life with its plans and purposes into the hands of God, accepting His plans instead of your own, no matter how much they may interfere with your arrangements nor how many pleasant projects may have to be abandoned. Thus the life will be molded more and more after the divine Model; and "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
------------------------Pattern for Children and Youth, July 26
HP	214	1	And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Luke 2:52.
HP	214	2	While on earth Christ lived in the home of a peasant. He wore the best garments His parents could provide, but they were the humble garments of the peasants. He walked the rough paths of Nazareth and climbed the steeps of its hillsides and mountains. In His home He was a constant worker, and left on record a life filled with useful deeds. Had Christ passed His life among the grand and the rich, the world of toilers would have been deprived of the inspiration that the Lord intended they should have.
HP	214	3	But Christ knew that His work must begin in consecrating the humble trade of the craftsmen who toil for their daily bread. He learned the trade of a carpenter that He might stamp honest labor as honorable and ennobling to all who work with an eye single to the glory of God. And angels were His attendants, for Christ was just as truly doing His Father's business when toiling at the carpenter's bench as when working miracles for the multitude. He held His commission and authority from the highest power, the Sovereign of heaven.
HP	214	4	Christ descended to poverty that He might teach how closely in our daily life we may walk with God.... He could engage in toil, bear His part in sustaining the family in their necessity, become accustomed to weariness, and yet show no impatience. His spirit was never so full of worldly cares as to leave no time nor thought for heavenly things. He often held communion with heaven in song. The men of Nazareth often heard His voice raised in prayer and thanksgiving to God.... A fragrant influence was diffused to those around Him, and they were blessed. His praises seemed to drive away the evil angels and fill the place with sweet fragrance....
HP	214	5	His life was in conformity to the life and character of God. His childhood and manhood ennobled and sanctified every phase of practical life.... He was a perfect pattern in every place.... He passed through the experience of infancy, childhood, and manhood without a stain upon His character.
------------------------Children the Objects of God's Special Care, July 27
HP	215	1	I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. Isaiah 49:25.
HP	215	2	The vows of David recorded in Psalm 101 should be the vows of all upon whom rest the responsibilities of guarding the influences of the home. David declared: "I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.... I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes" (Psalm 101:2, 3).
HP	215	3	The enemy of souls will invent many things to lead the minds of our youth from firm faith in God to the idolatrous practices of the world. Let the cautions given to ancient Israel be carefully studied. Satan's efforts to spoil the thoughts and confuse the judgment are unceasing, and we must be on our guard. We must be careful to maintain our allegiance to God as His peculiar people....
HP	215	4	We should endeavor to keep out of our homes every influence that is not productive of good. In this matter some parents have much to learn. To those who feel free to read story magazines and novels, I say: You are sowing seed, the harvest of which you will not care to gather. There is no spiritual strength to be gained from such reading. Rather it destroys the love for the pure truth of the Word. Through the agency of novels and story magazines Satan is working to fill with unreal and trivial thoughts the minds that should be diligently studying the Word of God. Thus he is robbing thousands upon thousands of the time and energy and self-discipline demanded by the stern problems of life.
HP	215	5	Let the youth be taught to give close study to the Word of God. Received into the soul, it will prove a mighty barricade against temptations. "Thy word," the psalmist declares, "have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." "By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer" (Psalm 119:11; 17:4).
HP	215	6	If the counsels of the Word of God are faithfully followed, the saving grace of Christ will be brought to our youth; for the children who are trained to love and obey God, and who yield themselves to the molding power of His Word, are the objects of God's special care and blessing.
------------------------A Message to Children, July 28
HP	216	1	Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. Ephesians 6:1, 2.
HP	216	2	Children are admonished by the apostle to obey their parents in the Lord, to be helpful and submissive. Those who truly love God will not strive for their own way and thus bring unhappiness to themselves and to others. They will strive to represent Christ in character. How precious is the thought that the youth who strive against sin, who believe, and wait and watch for Christ's appearing, who submit to parental authority, and who love the Lord Jesus, will be among those who love His appearing and who meet Him in peace.
HP	216	3	These will stand without spot or wrinkle before the throne of God and enjoy His favor forever. They have formed lovely characters; they have guarded their speech; they have not spoken falsely; they have guarded their actions that they should not do any evil thing, and they are crowned with everlasting life.
HP	216	4	It is the privilege of parents to take their children with them to the gates of the city of God, saying, I have tried to instruct my children to love the Lord, to do His will, and to glorify Him. To such the gates will be thrown open, and parents and children will enter in....
HP	216	5	Every family that finds entrance to the city of God will have been faithful workers in their earthly homes, fulfilling the responsibilities that Christ has laid on them. There Christ, the heavenly Teacher, will lead His people to the tree of life, and He will explain to them the truths they could not in this life understand. In that future life His people will gain the higher education in its completeness.
HP	216	6	Those who enter the city of God will have the golden crown placed upon their heads. That will be a joyful scene, which none of us can afford to miss. We shall cast our crowns at the feet of Jesus, and again and again we will give Him the glory, and praise His holy name. Angels will unite in the songs of triumph. Touching their golden harps, they will fill all heaven with rich music and songs to the Lamb.
HP	216	7	Eternal life in the city of God is the reward of obedience in the home life.
------------------------A Message to Youth, July 29
HP	217	1	I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. 1 John 2:14.
HP	217	2	The children and youth, with their fresh talent, energy, and courage, their quick susceptibilities, are loved of God, and He desires to bring them into harmony with divine agencies....
HP	217	3	Our children stand, as it were, at the parting of the ways. On every hand the world's enticements to self-seeking and self-indulgence call them away from the path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord. Whether their lives shall be a blessing or a curse depends upon the choice they make.... They belong to Christ. They are the purchase of His blood, the claim of His love. They live because He keeps them by His power. Their time, their strength, their capabilities, are His, to be developed, to be trained, to be used for Him....
HP	217	4	Young men and young women, gather a stock of knowledge.... Keep reaching higher and still higher. It is the ability to put to the tax the powers of mind and body, ever keeping eternal realities in view, that is of value now. Seek the Lord most earnestly, that you may become more and more refined, more spiritually cultured. Then you will have the very best diploma that any one can have--the endorsement of God.
HP	217	5	However large, however small, your talents, remember that what you have is yours only in trust. Thus God is testing you, giving you opportunity to prove yourself true.... To Him belong your powers of body, mind, and soul, and for Him these powers are to be used. Your time, your influence, your capabilities, your skill--all must be accounted for to Him who gives all....
HP	217	6	With such an army of workers as our youth rightly trained might furnish, how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world! How soon might the end come--the end of suffering and sorrow and sin! How soon, in place of a possession here, with its blight of sin and pain, our children might receive their inheritance where "the righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever" (Psalm 37:29).
------------------------On Guard Against Satan, July 30
HP	218	1	Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12.
HP	218	2	Those who decide to be on the Lord's side, and have made up their minds understandingly, have commenced a good work. Yet the work has but just begun. They have just enlisted in the army. The conflicts and battles are before them.
HP	218	3	I have been shown in regard to the temptations of the young. Satan is ever on their track seeking to lead their inexperienced feet astray, and the youth seem ignorant of his devices. They do not guard themselves against the snares of the devil as they should. This foe is ever watchful, ever vigilant, and when the young cease watching their own hearts, cease guarding themselves, then Satan controls them and employs his arts against them. Secret prayer is the strength of the Christian. He cannot live and flourish in the Lord without constant watchfulness and earnest prayer....
HP	218	4	Jesus should be the object of our affections, but Satan will try to tear the affections from heavenly things and place them upon objects that are undeserving of our affection and love.... The best affections of a great share of the world are bestowed upon worthless objects.
HP	218	5	The minds of the young left unrestrained are directed in a channel to suit their own corrupt nature. They relax their vigilance and watchfulness and bestow their affections upon each other, have special friends, special confidants, and when these friends are together, Jesus is not so much as named among them. Their conversation is not upon Christian experience, upon Christ, upon heaven, but upon frivolous things.... They are unacquainted with the wiles of the devil, and at twelve, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen think themselves young men and women and able to choose their own course and conduct themselves with propriety and caution.
HP	218	6	Jesus loves the youth. He died to save them.... Oh, if they could only know how God loves them! He wants to make them good and pure, noble and kind and courteous, that they may ever live with the pure, holy angels throughout eternity.
------------------------"Is My Family Prepared to Meet the Lord?", July 31
HP	219	1	For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:11.
HP	219	2	Let parents study the first chapter of the Second Epistle of Peter. Here is represented the exalted excellence of Bible truth. It teaches that the Christian's experience is to be one of steady growth, of constant gain in graces and virtues that will give strength to the character and fit the soul for eternal life....
HP	219	3	It is the privilege of parents and children to grow together in the grace of Christ. Those who comply with the conditions laid down in the Word will find full provision for their spiritual needs and for power to overcome.... The Lord expects parents to make earnest united efforts in the training of their children for Him. In the home they are to cultivate the graces of the Spirit, in all their ways acknowledging Him who through the sanctification of the Spirit has promised to make us perfect in every good work....
HP	219	4	Shall the people who have a solemn message to bear for the enlightenment and salvation of the world, make little or no effort for the members of their own family who are unconverted to the truth? Will parents allow their minds to be engrossed with trifling matters to the neglect of the all-important question, "Is my family prepared to meet the Lord?" Will they assent to the great truths that are present truth for these last days, and be interested to see this message going to other peoples and lands, while they allow their children, their most precious possession, to go on unwarned of their danger and unprepared for the future? Shall those who, from the Word of God and through the witness of His Spirit, have had clear light concerning their duty allow the years to pass without making definite efforts to save their children?
HP	219	5	Christ is waiting for the cooperation of human agencies, that He may impress the hearts of our children and youth. With intense desire heavenly beings long to see parents making that preparation which is essential if they and their children stand loyal to God in the coming conflict, and enter in through the gates to the city of God.
------------------------We are God's Property, August 1
HP	220	1	Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:3.
HP	220	2	God has created man and given him all his faculties of body, soul, and spirit. The Lord Jesus has bought him with a price so full, so ample, that there could be no competition. What can man offer to God that is not already the Lord's own? God gave the faculties, and every working of these faculties belongs to God. This means that your experience from first to last is to be yoked up with Christ. Learning the lessons of meekness and lowliness of heart makes you a partaker of Christ's sufferings and appreciative of the virtues of the life of Christ.
HP	220	3	There will be a constant prayer, Keep me by Thy power; let not my feet slide; let not my heart be filled with ambitious plans to exalt myself.... Teach me how to practice the art of self-emptying in order to be supplied with the grace of Christ and have that love Christ prayed that I might have, "as I have loved you" (John 13:34). I must receive grace that I may supply others with that grace. Oh, give my soul much nearness to God, that I may receive His disposition and love my brethren. Help me, O Lord, to realize that I am of myself unable to do anything in its true, pure bearings. Self, self, will be continually active for recognition, even in the very holiest of exercises....
HP	220	4	Our work individually is to copy the character of Christ, who gave His life to make it possible for us to do this. Shall we evidence to the world that we are children of God, bought with a price, and that we are bearing fruit in speech, in tone of voice, and in kindness of redeeming love, showing what it means to keep the commandments of God?....
HP	220	5	The grace given cost Heaven a price it is impossible for us to measure. That grace is our choicest treasure, and Christ means that it shall be communicated through us. It is sacred, in the name of Jesus, to the saving of the soul. It is the revealing of the honor of God, an unfolding of His glory. And shall any man or woman professing godliness misinterpret the gift, ignore the Giver, and present a substitute?
------------------------All We Possess Comes From God, August 2
HP	221	1	But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. 1 Chronicles 29:14.
HP	221	2	Those who live on this earth should unite with the heavenly host in ascribing all praise and glory to the Creator. No man has the least cause for boasting or self-exaltation....
HP	221	3	Constantly God is laboring to make up man's deficiencies. Even repentance is brought about through the application of grace. The natural heart feels no need of repentance. The tears that fall from the eyes of man because of sorrow for his sinfulness and because of sympathy for other sinners, start unbidden. They are as dew from eyes that belong to God.... The reformed life is but the better employment of a life that has been ransomed by the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. No credit should we take to ourselves for anything that we may do....
HP	221	4	Faith, too, is the gift of God. Faith is the assent of man's understanding to God's words, that binds the heart to God's service. And whose is man's understanding if it be not God's? Whose the heart if it be not God's? To have faith is to render to God the intellect, the energy, that we have received from Him; therefore those who exercise faith do not themselves deserve any credit. Those who believe so firmly in a heavenly Father that they can trust Him with unlimited confidence; those who by faith can reach beyond the grave to the eternal realities beyond, must pour forth to their Maker the confession, "All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee." ...
HP	221	5	Heavenly bestowed capabilities should not be made to serve selfish ends. Every energy, every endowment, is a talent that should contribute to God's glory by being used in His service....
HP	221	6	Let no one seek to exalt himself by talking of his deeds, extolling his abilities, displaying his knowledge, and cultivating self-conceit.... Christ was never self-confident or conceited.
HP	221	7	He to whom God has entrusted unusual gifts should return to the Lord's storehouse that which he has received, by freely giving to others the benefit of his blessings. Thus God will be honored and glorified.
------------------------The Debt We Owe, August 3
HP	222	1	How much owest thou unto my lord? Luke 16:5.
HP	222	2	"Know ye not that ... ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). What a price has been paid for us! Behold the cross, and the Victim uplifted upon it. Look at those hands, pierced with the cruel nails. Look at His feet, fastened with spikes to the tree. Christ bore our sins in His own body. That suffering, that agony, is the price of your redemption....
HP	222	3	The wonderful love of God, manifest in Christ, is the science and the song of all the heavenly universe. Should it not call forth from us gratitude and praise? ... When the blessed light of the Sun of Righteousness shines into our hearts, and we rest in peace and joy in the Lord, then let us praise the Lord.... Let us praise Him not in words only but by the consecration to Him of all that we are and all that we have.
HP	222	4	How much owest thou unto my Lord? Compute this you cannot. Is there any part of your being that He has not redeemed? or anything in your possession that is not already His? When He calls for it, will you selfishly grasp it as your own? Will you keep it back, and apply it to some other purpose than the salvation of souls? It is in this way that thousands of souls are lost. How can we better show that we appreciate God's sacrifice, His great donation to our world, than by sending forth gifts and offerings, with praise and thanksgiving from our lips, because of the great love wherewith He has loved us ...?
HP	222	5	Looking up to heaven in supplication, present yourself to God as His servants, and all that you have as His, saying, Lord, of thine own we freely give thee. Standing in view of the cross of Calvary and the Son of the infinite God crucified for you, realizing that matchless love, that wonderful display of grace, let your earnest inquiry be, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? He has told you. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). When you see souls in the kingdom of God saved through your gifts and your service, you will rejoice that you had the privilege of doing this work.... The same power that the apostles had is now for those who will do God's service.
------------------------A Time for Heart Searching, August 4
HP	223	1	Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. 2 Corinthians 13:5.
HP	223	2	One's claim to manhood is determined by the use he makes of the powers that God has given him. The members of the human family are entitled to the name of men and women only as they employ their talents for the good of others. It is when ministering to others that man is most closely allied to God. He who is true to his God-given manhood will not only promote the happiness of his fellow beings in this life but will aid them to secure the reward of the life to come....
HP	223	3	Man is required to love God supremely, with his might, mind, and strength, and his neighbor as himself. This he cannot possibly do unless he denies himself. To deny self means to rule the spirit when passion is striving for the mastery; to resist the temptation to censure and to speak words of faultfinding; to have patience with the child that is dull, and whose conduct is grievous and trying; to stand at the post of duty even though others may fail; to lift responsibilities wherever and whenever duty requires, not to gain applause, not for policy, but for the sake of the Master, who has given each of His followers a work that is to be done with unwavering fidelity. To deny self means to do good when inclination would lead us to serve and please ourselves. It means to work patiently and cheerfully for the good of others, even though our efforts may not seem to be appreciated....
HP	223	4	Fellow Christians, search carefully to see whether the Word of God is indeed the rule of your life. Do you take Christ with you when you leave the place of prayer? Does your religion stand guard at the door of your lips? Is your heart drawn out in interest and sympathy for those in need of help? Are you seeking earnestly for a clearer understanding of God's will, that you may let the light shine forth to others? Is your speech seasoned with grace? Does your demeanor show Christian nobility? ...
HP	223	5	Remember that you need to be braced by constant watchfulness and prayer. So long as you look to Christ you are safe, but the moment you trust in yourself you are in great peril. He who is in harmony with God will continually depend upon Him for help.
------------------------Using Our Talents for God, August 5
HP	224	1	For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Matthew 25:14, 15.
HP	224	2	The parable of the Talents... has a personal and individual application to every man, woman, and child possessed of the powers of reason.... When the master of the house called his servants he gave to every man his work. The whole family of God are included in the responsibility of using their Lord's goods. Every individual, from the lowliest and most obscure to the greatest and most exalted, is a moral agent endowed with abilities for which he is accountable to God.... The spiritual, mental, and physical ability, the influence, station, possessions, affections, sympathies, all are precious talents to be used in the cause of the Master for the salvation of souls for whom Christ died.
HP	224	3	How few appreciate these blessings! How few seek to improve their talent and increase their usefulness in the world! The Master has given to every man his work. He has given to every man according to his ability, and his trust is in proportion to his capacity.... Let the businessman do his business in a way that will glorify his Master because of his fidelity. Let him carry his religion into everything that is done and reveal to men the spirit of Christ. Let the mechanic be a diligent and faithful representative of Him who toiled in the lowly walks of life in the cities of Judea....
HP	224	4	Those who have been blessed with superior talents should not depreciate the value of the services of those who are less gifted than themselves. The smallest trust is a trust from God. With the blessing of God, the one talent through diligent use will be doubled, and the two used in the service of Christ will be increased to four; and thus the humblest instrument may grow in power and usefulness.
HP	224	5	The earnest purpose, the self-denying efforts, are all seen, appreciated, and accepted by the God of heaven.... Use your gift in meekness, in humility, in trusting faith, and wait till the day of reckoning, and you will have no cause for grief or shame.
------------------------The Pathway of Sacrifice, August 6
HP	225	1	And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23.
HP	225	2	Christ declares that as He lived so we are to live.... His footsteps lead along the pathway of sacrifice. As we pass through life there come to us many opportunities for service. All around us there are open doors for ministry. By the right use of the talent of speech we may do much for the Master. Words are a power for good when they are weighted with the tenderness and sympathy of Christ. Money, influence, tact, time, and strength--all these are gifts entrusted to us to make us more helpful to those around us and more of an honor to our Creator.
HP	225	3	Many feel that it would be a privilege to visit the scenes of Christ's life on earth, to walk where He trod, to look upon the lake where He loved to teach, and the valleys and hills where His eyes so often rested; but we need not go to Palestine in order to walk in the steps of Jesus. We shall find His footprints beside the sickbed, in the hovels of poverty, in the crowded alleys of the great city, and in every place where there are human hearts in need of consolation.
HP	225	4	Just as we trace the pathway of a stream of water by the line of living green it produces, so Christ could be seen in the deeds of mercy that marked His path at every step. Wherever He went, health sprang up, and happiness followed wherever He passed. The blind and deaf rejoiced in His presence. The face of Christ was the first that many eyes had ever looked upon; His words the first that had ever fallen upon their ears.... His words to the ignorant opened to them a fountain of life. He dispensed His blessings abundantly and continuously. They were the garnered treasures of eternity, the Lord's rich gift to man.
HP	225	5	Millions upon millions of souls ready to perish, bound in chains of ignorance and sin, have never so much as heard of Christ's love for them. Were our conditions and theirs reversed, what would we desire them to do for us? All this, as far as lies in our power, we are under the most solemn obligation to do for them. Christ's rule of life, by which every one must stand or fall in the judgment, is, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
------------------------The Voice of Duty, August 7
HP	226	1	Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Ecclesiastes 9:10.
HP	226	2	The voice of duty is the voice of God--an inborn, heaven-sent guide. Whether it be pleasing or unpleasing, we are to do the duty that lies directly in our pathway. If the Lord would have us bear a message to Nineveh, it will not be pleasing to Him for us to go to Joppa or Capernaum. God has reasons for sending us to the place to which our feet are directed....
HP	226	3	It is the little foxes that spoil the vines, the little neglects, the little deficiencies, the little dishonesties, the little departures from principle, that blind the soul and separate it from God.
HP	226	4	It is the little things of life that develop the spirit and determine the character. Those who neglect the little things will not be prepared to endure severe tests when they are brought to bear upon them. Remember that the character building is not finished till life ends. Every day a good or bad brick is placed in the structure. You are either building crookedly or with the exactness and correctness that will make a beautiful temple for God. Therefore, in looking for great things to do, neglect not the little opportunities that come to you day by day. He who neglects the little things, and yet flatters himself that he is ready to do wonderful things for the Master, is in danger of failing altogether. Life is made up, not of great sacrifices and of wonderful achievements, but of little things.
HP	226	5	Whatever your hands find to do, do it with your might. Make your work pleasant with songs of praise. If you would have a clean record in the books of heaven, never fret or scold. Let your daily prayer be, "Lord, help me to do my best.... Give me energy and cheerfulness. Help me to bring into my service the loving ministry of the Saviour."
HP	226	6	Look upon every duty, however humble, as sacred because it is part of God's service. Do not allow anything to make you forgetful of God. Bring Christ into all that you do. Then your lives will be filled with brightness and thanksgiving. You will do your best, moving forward cheerfully in the service of the Lord, your hearts filled with His joy.
------------------------One Day at a Time, August 8
HP	227	1	The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever. Psalm 37:18.
HP	227	2	The talent of time is precious. Every day it is given to us in trust, and we shall be called upon to give an account of it to God.
HP	227	3	Day by day we are all to be trained, disciplined, and educated for usefulness in this life. Only one day at a time--think of this. One day is mine. I will in this one day do my best. I will use my talent of speech to be a blessing to some other one, a helper, a comforter, an example which the Lord my Saviour shall approve. I will exercise myself in patience, kindness, forbearance, that the Christian virtues may be developed in me today.
HP	227	4	If you are right with God today, you are ready if Christ should come today. What we need is Christ formed within, the hope of glory. We want that you should have a deep and earnest longing for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Your old, tattered garments of self-righteousness will not give you an entrance into the kingdom of God, but the garment that is woven in the loom of heaven--the righteousness of Jesus Christ--will. It will give you an inheritance among the sanctified. That is what we want. It is worth more than all worldly gain; it is worth more than all your farms; it is worth more than all the honor that finite beings can bestow upon you....
HP	227	5	Are you individually daily preparing that you can unite with the family of heaven? Are you quarrelsome here? Are you finding fault with your household here? If you are, you will find fault with them in heaven. Your character is being tested and proved in this life, whether you will make a peaceable subject of God's kingdom in heaven.
HP	227	6	The Lord requires us to perform the duties of today and to endure its trials. We are today to watch that we offend not in word or deed. We must today praise and honor God. By the exercise of living faith today, we are to conquer the enemy. We must today seek God and be determined that we will not rest satisfied without His presence. We should watch and work and pray as though this were the last day that would be granted us. How intensely earnest, then, would be our life. How closely would we follow Jesus in all our words and deeds.
------------------------Each in His Place, August 9
HP	228	1	With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men. Ephesians 6:7.
HP	228	2	The Lord is acquainted with us individually. Every one born into the world is given his or her work to do for the purpose of making the world better.... Each one has his sphere, and if the human agent makes God his counselor then there will be no working at cross purposes with God. He allots to every one a place and a work, and if we individually submit ourselves to be worked by the Lord, however confused and tangled life may seem to our eyes, God has a purpose in it all, and the human machinery, obedient under the hand of divine wisdom, will accomplish the purposes of God. As in a well-disciplined army every soldier has his allotted position and is required to act his part in contributing to the strength and perfection of the whole, so the worker for God must do his allotted part in the great work of God.
HP	228	3	Life as it now appears is not what God designed it should be, and this is why there is so much that is perplexing; there is much wear and friction. The man or woman who leaves the place God has given him or her, in order to please inclination and act on his own devised plan, meets with disappointment, because he has chosen his way instead of God's way.
HP	228	4	There are those who accept positions of responsibility but fail to sense the responsibility, and thus do haphazard work without at all understanding its character. Others accept a work for which they have no fitness.... Other individuals study to have their own way and work out their own plans, and God erects His barriers and does not allow them to do as they would....
HP	228	5	Our heavenly Father is our ruler, and we must submit to His discipline. We are members of His family. He has a right to our service; and if one of the members of His family would persist in having his own way, persist in doing just that which he pleases, that spirit would bring about a disordered and perplexing state of things. We must not study to have our own way, but God's way and God's will....
HP	228	6	Let God speak, and we will say, "Not my will, but Thy will, O God, be done."
------------------------Joy in Service, August 10
HP	229	1	Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. Mark 10:43, 44.
HP	229	2	It is in a life of service only that true happiness is found. He who lives a useless, selfish life is miserable. He is dissatisfied with himself and with everyone else. The Lord disciplines His workers that they may be prepared to fill the places appointed them. Thus He desires to fit them to do more acceptable service....
HP	229	3	There are many who are not satisfied to serve God cheerfully in the place that He has marked out for them or to do uncomplainingly the work that He has placed in their hands. It is right for us to be dissatisfied with the way in which we perform duty, but we are not to be dissatisfied with the duty itself, because we would rather do something else. In His providence God places before human beings service that will be as medicine to their diseased minds. Thus He seeks to lead them to put aside the selfish preference, which if cherished would disqualify them for the work He has for them.
HP	229	4	There are those who desire to be a ruling power and who need the sanctification of submission. God brings about a change in their lives. Perhaps He places before them duties that they would not choose. If they are willing to be guided by Him, He will give them grace and strength to perform these duties in a spirit of submission and helpfulness. Thus they are being qualified to fill places where their disciplined abilities will make them of great service.
HP	229	5	Some, God trains by bringing to them disappointment and apparent failure. It is His purpose that they shall learn to master difficulty. He inspires them with a determination to make every apparent failure prove a success.
HP	229	6	Often men pray and weep because of the perplexities and obstacles that confront them. But if they will hold the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end He will make their way clear. Success will come to them as they struggle against apparently insurmountable difficulties, and with success will come the greatest joy.
------------------------Demonstrating Christ's Love, August 11
HP	230	1	Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another. Romans 12:10.
HP	230	2	We must not allow ourselves to become self-absorbed and so forget the claims of God and humanity upon us.... God would have us more kind, more lovable, less critical and suspicious. O that we all might have the Spirit of Christ, and know how to deal with our brethren and neighbors! ...
HP	230	3	We must forget self in loving service for others.... We may not remember some act of kindness which we do, it may fade from our memory; but eternity will bring out in all its brightness every act done for the salvation of souls, every word spoken for the comfort of God's children; and these deeds done for Christ's sake will be a part of our joy through all eternity.
HP	230	4	When we pursue toward our brethren any course save that of kindness and courtesy, we pursue an unchristian course. We should manifest courtesy at home, in the church, and in our intercourse with all men. But especially we should manifest compassion and respect for those who are giving their lives to the cause of God. We should exercise that precious love that suffereth long and is kind; that envieth not, that vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil.... Where Jesus reigns in the heart, there will be sweet love, and we shall be tender and true to one another....
HP	230	5	You should give no occasion for faultfinding. A moment's petulance, a single gruff answer, the want of Christian politeness and courtesy in some small matter, may result in the loss of friends, in the loss of influence. God would have you appear at your best under all circumstances--in the presence of those who are inferior to you as well as in the presence of equals and superiors. We are to be followers of Christ at all times, seeking His honor, seeking to rightly represent Him in every way....
HP	230	6	Let self drop out of sight, and let Jesus appear as the One altogether lovely. We should seek to live for His glory alone, not that men may praise us.
------------------------Developing Self-Control, August 12
HP	231	1	He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. Proverbs 16:32.
HP	231	2	It is by faithfulness in little things that we become trustworthy sentinels. Guard carefully against the little irritations, not allowing them to harass your soul, and you will gain many victories. And when greater troubles come you will be prepared to resist the enemy manfully and nobly.... Each soul inherits certain un-Christlike traits of character. It is the grand and noble work of a lifetime to keep under control these tendencies to wrong. It is the little things that cross our path that are likely to cause us to lose our power of self-control.
HP	231	3	So long as we are in the world, we shall meet with adverse influences. There will be provocations to test the temper; and it is by meeting these in the right spirit that the Christian graces are developed. If Christ dwells in us, we shall be patient, kind, and forbearing, cheerful amid frets and irritations. Day by day and year by year we shall conquer self, and grow into a noble heroism. This is our allotted task; but it cannot be accomplished without help from Jesus, resolute decision, unwavering purpose, continual watchfulness, and unceasing prayer. Each one has a personal battle to fight. Not even God can make our characters noble or our lives useful, unless we become co-workers with Him. Those who decline the struggle lose the strength and joy of victory.
HP	231	4	We need not keep our own record of trials and difficulties, griefs and sorrows. All these things are written in the books, and heaven will take care of them.
HP	231	5	God will understand you as you open your heart to Him. He knows what discipline each one needs. If you ask Him, He will surely give you power to resist evil. Your faith will be increased, and you will give evidence to others of the keeping power of God.
HP	231	6	Your strength and growth in grace come only from one Source. If when you are tempted and tried you stand bravely for the right, victory is yours. You are one step nearer to perfection of Christian character. A holy light from heaven fills the chambers of your soul, and you are surrounded by a pure, fragrant atmosphere.
------------------------Overcoming Selfishness, August 13
HP	232	1	Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. 1 Corinthians 10:33.
HP	232	2	There exists in the hearts of many an element of selfishness which clings to them like the leprosy. They have so long consulted their own wishes, their own pleasure and convenience, that they do not feel that others have claims upon them. Their thoughts, plans, and efforts are for themselves. They live for self, and do not cultivate disinterested benevolence, which if exercised, would increase and strengthen until it would be their delight to live for others' good. This selfishness must be seen and overcome, for it is a grievous sin in the sight of God. They need to exercise a more special interest for humanity; and in thus doing, they would bring their souls into closer connection with Christ, and would be imbued with His Spirit, so that they would cleave to Him with so firm a tenacity that nothing could separate them from His love.
HP	232	3	The man whose experience is least to be envied is the one who shuts up his sympathies within his own heart. Those who get the most good out of life, who feel the truest satisfaction, are those who receive to give. Those who live for self are always in want, for they are never satisfied. There is no Christianity in shutting our sympathies up in our own selfish hearts. We are to bring brightness and blessing into the lives of others. The Lord has chosen us as channels through which to communicate His blessings.
HP	232	4	The time is coming when the earth shall reel to and fro and shall be removed like a cottage. But the thoughts, the purposes, the acts of God's workers, although now unseen, will appear at the great day of final retribution and reward. Things now forgotten will then appear as witnesses, either to approve or to condemn.
HP	232	5	Love, courtesy, self-sacrifice--these are never lost. When God's chosen ones are changed from mortality to immortality, their words and deeds of goodness will be made manifest, and will be preserved through the eternal ages. No act of unselfish service, however small or simple, is ever lost. Through the merits of Christ's imputed righteousness, the fragrance of such words and deeds is forever preserved.
------------------------Living for Others, August 14
HP	233	1	Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28.
HP	233	2	We are not to live for ourselves. Christ came to this world to live for others--not to be ministered unto, but to minister. If you strive to live as He lived you are saying to the world, "Behold the Man of Calvary." By precept and example you are leading others in the way of righteousness.
HP	233	3	The sin which is indulged to the greatest extent, and which separates us from God and produces so many contagious spiritual disorders, is selfishness. There can be no returning to the Lord except by self-denial. Of ourselves we can do nothing; but through God strengthening us we can live to do good to others, and in this way shun the evil of selfishness. We need not go to heathen lands to manifest our desire to devote all to God in a useful, unselfish life. We should do this in the home circle, in the church, among those with whom we associate and with whom we do business. Right in the common walks of life is where self is to be denied and kept in subordination.
HP	233	4	Paul could say: "I die daily" (1 Corinthians 15:31). It is the daily dying to self in the little transactions of life that makes us overcomers. We should forget self in the desire to do good to others. With many there is a decided lack of love for others. Instead of faithfully performing their duty, they seek rather their own pleasure.
HP	233	5	God positively enjoins upon all His followers a duty to bless others with their influence and means.... In doing for others, a sweet satisfaction will be experienced, an inward peace which will be a sufficient reward. When actuated by a high and noble desire to do others good, they will find true happiness in a faithful discharge of life's manifold duties. This will bring more than an earthly reward; for every faithful, unselfish performance of duty is noticed by the angels and shines in the life record. In heaven none will think of self, nor seek their own pleasure; but all, from pure, genuine love, will seek the happiness of the heavenly beings around them. If we wish to enjoy heavenly society in the earth made new, we must be governed by heavenly principles here.
------------------------Love the Impelling Motive, August 15
HP	234	1	For the love of Christ constraineth us. 2 Corinthians 5:14.
HP	234	2	"But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13). In the life of Christ this love found perfect expression. He loved us in our sin and degradation. He reached to the very depths of woe to uplift the erring sons and daughters of earth. There was no wearying of His patience, no lessening of His zeal. The waves of mercy, beaten back by proud, impenitent, unthankful hearts, ever returned in a stronger tide of love.
HP	234	3	He who is constrained by the love of Christ goes forth among his fellow men to help the helpless and encourage the desponding, to point sinners to God's ideal for His children, and to lead them to Him who alone can enable them to reach this ideal....
HP	234	4	Never are we to be cold and unsympathetic, especially when dealing with the poor. Courtesy, sympathy, and compassion are to be shown to all. Partiality for the wealthy is displeasing to God. Jesus is slighted when His needy children are slighted. They are not rich in this world's goods, but they are dear to His heart of love. God recognizes no distinction of rank. With Him there is no caste. In His sight men are simply men, good or bad. In the day of final reckoning, position, rank, or wealth will not alter by a hairbreadth the case of any one. By the all-seeing God, men will be judged by what they are in purity, in nobility, in love for Christ....
HP	234	5	Christ declared that the gospel is to be preached to the poor. Never does God's truth put on an aspect of greater loveliness than when brought to the needy and destitute. Then it is that the light of the gospel shines forth in its most radiant clearness, lighting up the hut of the peasant and the rude cottage of the laborer. Angels of God are there, and their presence makes the crust of bread and the cup of water a banquet. Those who have been neglected and abandoned by the world are raised to be sons and daughters of the Most High. Lifted above any position that earth can give, they sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. They may have no earthly treasure, but they have found the pearl of great price.
------------------------Self Hidden in Christ, August 16
HP	235	1	My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. Psalm 34:2.
HP	235	2	Dr. John Cheyne, while he rose to a high point in his profession, did not forget his obligations to God. He once wrote to a friend, "You may wish to know the condition of my mind. I am humbled in the dust by the thought that there is not one action of my busy life which will bear the eye of a holy God. But when I reflect on the invitation of the Redeemer, 'Come unto me,' and that I have accepted this invitation; and, moreover, that my conscience testifies that I earnestly desire to have my will in all things conformed to the will of God, I have peace; I have the promised rest, promised by Him in whom was found no guile."
HP	235	3	Before his death this eminent physician ordered a column to be erected near the spot where his body was to lie, on which were to be inscribed these texts, as voices from eternity: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).
HP	235	4	And while Dr. Cheyne thus strove, even from the tomb, to beckon sinners to the Saviour and to glory, he concealed his own name, withholding it from the column entirely. He was not less careful to say, as speaking to the passer-by, "The name and profession and age of him whose body lies beneath are of little consequence, but it may be of great importance to you to know that by the grace of God he was brought to look to the Lord Jesus as the only Saviour of sinners, and that this looking unto Jesus gave peace to his soul." "Pray to God, pray to God," it says, "that you may be instructed in the gospel; and be assured that God will give the Holy Spirit, the only teacher of true wisdom, to them that ask Him."
HP	235	5	This memorial was designed to turn the attention of all to God, and cause them to lose sight of the man. This man brought no reproach upon the cause of Christ.
------------------------The Precious Attribute of Meekness, August 17
HP	236	1	Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5.
HP	236	2	Meekness is a precious, Christian attribute. The meekness and lowliness of Christ are only learned by wearing Christ's yoke.... That yoke signifies entire submission.
HP	236	3	The heavenly universe looks upon an absence of meekness and lowliness of heart. The self-exaltation, the feeling of swelling importance, makes the human agent so large in his own estimation that he feels that he has no need of a Saviour, no need to wear Christ's yoke. But the invitation to each soul is, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29).
HP	236	4	The power of God awaits our demand upon it.... Pure spiritual power is fresh every morning and new every evening. It lifts men above worldly ambition and expels all selfishness from the soul....
HP	236	5	Selfishness and covetousness have spoiled many lives.... Those who behold Jesus lose sight of self. By the eye of faith they behold Him who is invisible. They see the King in His beauty and the land that is very far off. They practice economy, and reveal justice and righteousness, mortifying self in the place of exalting self....
HP	236	6	The submission which Christ demands, the self-surrender of the will which admits truth in its sanctifying power, which trembles at the word of the Lord, are brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit. There must be a transformation of the entire being, heart, soul, and character.... Only at the altar of sacrifice, and from the hand of God, can the selfish, grasping man receive the celestial torch which reveals his own incompetence and leads him to submit to Christ's yoke, to learn His meekness and lowliness.
HP	236	7	As learners we need to meet with God at the appointed place. Then Christ puts us under the guidance of the Spirit, who leads us into all truth, placing our self-importance in submission to Christ. He takes the things of Christ as they fall from His lips and conveys them with living power to the obedient soul. Thus we may take a perfect impress of the Author of truth.
------------------------The Measure of a Man's Worth, August 18
HP	237	1	He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8.
HP	237	2	What a man is has greater influence than what he says. The quiet, consistent, godly life is a living epistle, known and read of all men. Holiness is not shaped from without or put on; it radiates from within. If goodness, purity, meekness, lowliness, and integrity dwell in the heart, they will shine forth in the character; and such a character is full of power. Not the instrument, but the great Worker in whose hand the instrument is used, receives the glory. The heart filled with the Saviour's love, daily receives grace to impart. The life reveals the redeeming power of the truth.
HP	237	3	The witness borne concerning Jesus was, "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46). The reason that Christ spoke as no other man spoke was that He lived as no other man lived. If He had not lived as He did, He could not have spoken as He did. His words bore with them convincing power, because they came from a heart pure and holy, burdened with love and sympathy, beneficence and truth....
HP	237	4	While the shepherds were watching their flocks on the hills of Bethlehem, angels from heaven visited them. So today, while the humble worker for God is following his employment, angels stand by his side, listening to his words, noting the manner in which he does his work.... If he trusts constantly in God, these angel watchers will not allow his work to deteriorate. They will not permit it to be warped into lines that will imperil the cause of God. The Lord is looking upon the work that comes from the hands of His people. He will judge every piece of work, to see of what sort it is.
HP	237	5	Pure and undefiled religion speaks for itself. It transforms the characters of all who receive it, improving their usefulness and beautifying all with which it is brought in contact.... A man's worth is not measured by the position of responsibility that he occupies but by the Christlike spirit that he reveals. When the Saviour abides in the heart the work bears the impress of the divine touch. Self does not appear. Christ is revealed as the One altogether lovely.
------------------------Mercy for the Merciful, August 19
HP	238	1	Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Luke 6:36.
HP	238	2	Mercy is an attribute that the human agent may share with God. As did Christ, so man may lay hold on the divine arm and be in communication with divine power. To us has been given a service of mercy to perform for our fellow man. In performing this service, we are laboring together with God. We do well, then, to be merciful, even as our Father in heaven is merciful.
HP	238	3	"I will have mercy," God says, "and not sacrifice" (Matthew 9:13). Mercy is kind, pitiful. Mercy and the love of God purify the soul, beautify the heart, and cleanse the life from selfishness. Mercy is a manifestation of divine love and is shown by those who, identified with God, serve Him by reflecting the light of heaven upon the pathway of their fellow creatures. The condition of many persons calls for the exercise of genuine mercy. Christians, in their dealing with one another, are to be controlled by principles of mercy and love. They are to improve every opportunity for helping fellow beings in distress....
HP	238	4	Let those who desire to perfect a Christlike character ever keep in view the cross on which Christ died a cruel death in order to redeem mankind. Let them ever cherish the same merciful spirit that led the Saviour to make an infinite sacrifice for our redemption....
HP	238	5	The merciful "shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7). "The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself" (Proverbs 11:25). There is sweet peace for the compassionate spirit, a blessed satisfaction in the life of self-forgetful service for the good of others.
HP	238	6	He who has given his life to God in ministry to His children is linked with Him who has all the resources of the universe at His command. By the golden chain of the immutable promises his life is bound up with the life of God. The Lord will not fail him in the hour of suffering and need. "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). And in the hour of final need the merciful shall find refuge in the mercy of the compassionate Saviour and by Him shall be received into everlasting habitations.
------------------------Waves of Blessing, August 20
HP	239	1	Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 5:13.
HP	239	2	These words were spoken to a few poor, humble fishermen. Priests and rabbis were in that congregation of hearers, but these were not the ones addressed.... By these words of Christ we gain some idea of what constitutes the value of human influence. It is to work with the influence of Christ, to lift where Christ lifts, to impart correct principles, and stay the progress of the world's corruption. It is to diffuse the grace which Christ alone can impart. It is to uplift, to sweeten, the lives and characters of others by the power of a pure example united with earnest faith and love. God's people are to exercise a reforming, preserving power in the world. They are to counterwork the destroying, corrupting influence of evil.
HP	239	3	As you go through life, you will meet with those whose lot is far from easy. Toil and deprivation, with no hope for better things in the future, make their burden very heavy.... Careworn and oppressed, they know not where to turn for relief. Put your whole heart into the work of helping them. It is not God's purpose that His children shall shut themselves up to themselves. Remember that for them, as well as for you, Christ died. Hold out to them a helping hand.... Make it a rule never to utter one word of doubt or discouragement. You can do much to brighten the lives of others ... by words of holy cheer.
HP	239	4	The humblest and poorest of the disciples of Jesus can be a blessing to others. They may not realize that they are doing any special good, but by their unconscious influence they may start waves of blessings that will widen and deepen, and the blessed results they may never know till the day of final reward. They are not required to weary themselves with anxiety about success. They have only to go forward quietly, doing faithfully the work God's providence assigns, and their life will not be in vain. Their own souls will be growing more and more into the likeness of Christ; they are workers together with God in this life and are thus fitting for the higher work and the unshadowed joy of the life to come.
------------------------Streams in the Desert, August 21
HP	240	1	The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Psalm 92:12.
HP	240	2	See the weary traveler toiling over the hot sand of the desert, with no shelter to protect him from the rays of the tropical sun. His water supply fails, and he has nothing with which to slake his burning thirst. His tongue becomes swollen; he staggers like a drunken man. Visions of home and friends pass before his mind as he believes himself ready to perish. Suddenly he sees in the distance, rising out of the dreary sandy waste, a palm tree, green and flourishing. Hope quickens his pulses; he presses on, knowing that that which gives vigor and freshness to the palm tree will cool his fevered blood and give him renewed life.
HP	240	3	As is the palm tree in the desert--a guide and consolation to the fainting traveler--so the Christian is to be in the world. He is to guide weary souls, full of unrest, and ready to perish in the desert of sin, to the living water. He is to point his fellow men to Him who gives to all the invitation, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink."
HP	240	4	The sky may be as brass, the burning sand may beat about the palm tree's roots and pile itself about its trunk; yet the tree lives on, fresh and vigorous. Remove the sand, and you discover the secret of its life; its roots strike down deep into waters hidden in the earth.
HP	240	5	Thus it is with the Christian. His life is hid with Christ in God. Jesus is to him a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life. His faith, like the rootlets of the palm tree, penetrates beneath the things that are seen, drawing life from the Fountain of life. And amid all the corruption of the world he is true and loyal to God. The sweet influence of Christ's righteousness surrounds him....
HP	240	6	The faces of men and women who walk and work with God express the peace of heaven. They are surrounded with the atmosphere of heaven. For these souls the kingdom of God has begun. They have Christ's joy, the joy of being a blessing to humanity. They have the honor of being accepted for the Master's use; they are trusted to do His work in His name.
------------------------God Honors the Humble, August 22
HP	241	1	For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Luke 14:11.
HP	241	2	God honors those who humble themselves before Him. Moses, disheartened by the discontent and murmuring of the people he was leading into the land of promise, pleaded with God for the assurance of His presence.... And the Lord said, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest" (Exodus 33:14).
HP	241	3	Encouraged by the assurance of God's presence, Moses drew still nearer, and ventured to ask for still further blessings. "I beseech thee," he said, "shew me thy glory" (verse 18). Think you that God reproved Moses for his presumption? No, indeed. Moses did not make this request from idle curiosity. He had an object in view. He saw that in his own strength he could not do the work of God acceptably. He knew that if he could obtain a clear view of the glory of God, he would be enabled to go forward in his important mission, not in his own strength, but in the strength of the Lord God Almighty. His whole soul was drawn out after God; he longed to know more of Him, that he might feel the divine presence near in every emergency or perplexity. It was not selfishness that led Moses to ask for a sight of the glory of God. His only object was a desire better to honor his Maker.
HP	241	4	God knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, and He understood the motives that prompted the request of His faithful servant.... "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth" (Exodus 34:6).
HP	241	5	Moses had genuine humility, and the Lord honored him by showing him His glory. Even so will He honor all who will serve Him, as did Moses, with a perfect heart. He does not require His servants to work in their own strength. He will impart His wisdom to those who have a humble and contrite spirit. The righteousness of Christ will go before them, and the glory of the Lord will be their rereward. Nothing in this world can harm those who are thus honored by a close connection with God. The earth may shake, the pillars of the world may tremble under them, but they need not fear.
------------------------Faithful in Little Things, August 23
HP	242	1	These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work. 1 Chronicles 4:23.
HP	242	2	The Lord designs that the mind of the youthful Christian should be trained and developed, that the young soldier may be capable of the highest effort; but this can be done only as you cooperate with the heavenly intelligences, appropriating to yourself every opportunity and privilege for your training and culture. The Lord desires that you should be faithful in little things, that you do the everyday duties which appear small and unimportant, thoroughly, and to the best of your ability. You are in danger the moment you are satisfied in doing carelessly the work committed to your hands. Remember that what is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
HP	242	3	Satan is ever near to tempt him who would be a worker for God, suggesting to him that it will matter little if the work is slighted, for no one will know that it has been done negligently. Let none of you be deceived with this suggestion; for you will know yourself that you have not done your duty, and will lose respect for yourself and confidence in yourself. You will know that you are not doing your best for God, and you will realize that God understands all your neglect. Do not be slack, for the habit will grow upon you and be made manifest not only in your outward affairs but in your spiritual life. In doing superficial work you will receive a training that will wholly unfit you for the duties of this life or the enjoyment of the next.
HP	242	4	In the plan that God has for every Christian there are no nonessentials. There are lessons for each one to learn in the daily experience. Be patient, and perform faithfully the work given you, however humble it may be. Go about your work calmly, relying upon God for strength. Look not anxiously into the morrow. Today employ your time to the very best account. Today let your light shine for Christ, even in the performance of little duties.... The faithful performance of today's duties will prepare you to take hold of tomorrow's work with fresh courage, saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped me" (1 Samuel 7:12)! Ever stand as minutemen before God.
------------------------Unbending Integrity, August 24
HP	243	1	And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever. Psalm 41:12.
HP	243	2	In every action of life the true Christian is just what he desires those around him to think he is. He is guided by truth and uprightness. He does not scheme; therefore he has nothing to gloss over. He may be criticized, he may be tested; but through all, his unbending integrity shines out like pure gold. He is a friend and benefactor to all connected with him, and his fellow men place confidence in him, for he is trustworthy. Does he employ laborers to gather in his harvest? He does not keep back their hard-earned money. Has he means for which he has no immediate use? He relieves the necessities of his less-fortunate brother. He does not seek to enlarge his possessions by taking advantage of the untoward circumstances of his neighbor. He accepts only a fair price for that which he sells. If there are defects in the articles sold, he frankly tells the buyer, even though by so doing he may seem to work against his own pecuniary interests....
HP	243	3	Satan knows full well what a power for good is the life of a man of unbending integrity, and he puts forth zealous efforts to prevent men from living such lives. He comes to them with alluring temptations, promising them wealth, position, worldly honor, if they will but yield the principles of righteousness. And he has much success.... From the sad history of many who have failed we learn the danger of prosperity. It is not those who have lost their property who are in greatest danger, but those who have obtained a fortune.... Prayer is often requested for men and women in affliction, and this is right. But those in prosperity are more in need of the prayers of God's servants, for they are in greater danger of losing salvation. In the valley of humiliation men walk securely while they reverence God and make Him their trust. On the lofty pinnacle, where praise is heard they need the help of special power from above....
HP	243	4	True religion is not an experiment. It is an actual imitation of Christ. God keeps a personal account with every man, testing him by the practical results of his work. Soon will be heard the call, "Give an account of thy stewardship."
------------------------Graces to Cherish, August 25
HP	244	1	But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22, 23.
HP	244	2	Here is held out the very thing for which we are to labor: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love." If we have the love of Christ in our souls it will be a natural consequence for us to have all the other graces--joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; and "against such there is no law." The law of God does not condemn and hold in bondage those who have these graces, because they are obeying the requirements of the law of God. They are law keepers, and ... are not under the bondage of the law....
HP	244	3	We are to have love, and connected with this are joy, peace, long-suffering, patience. We see the restlessness of the world, their dissatisfied condition. They want something they have not. They want something to keep up an excitement or something for amusement. But for the Christian there is joy, there is peace, there is long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, forbearance, and patience; and to these things we want to open the door of our heart, cherishing the heavenly graces of the Spirit of God.... One cannot do it for another. You may set to work and obtain the graces of the Spirit, but that will not answer for me.... Each one individually must do the work, and determine through personal efforts to have the grace of God in the heart. I cannot form a character for you nor can you for me. It is a burden that rests upon every one individually, young or old.
HP	244	4	Christ says: "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir" (Isaiah 13:12). How? By the cultivation of the graces of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith. We want the living faith that will grasp the strong arm of Jehovah.... We all need the graces of the Spirit of God in the heart.
HP	244	5	When the love of Christ is enshrined in the heart, like sweet fragrance it cannot be hidden. The holy influence it reflects through the character will be manifest to all. Christ will be formed within, "the hope of glory."
------------------------Cheerfulness Without Levity, August 26
HP	245	1	The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10:22.
HP	245	2	The cheerfulness of the Christian is created by the consideration of the great blessings we enjoy because we are children of God.... The cheerful enlightenment of the mind and the soul temple by the assurance that we have reconciliation with God, the hope we have of everlasting life through Christ, and the pleasure of blessing others are joys which bring no sorrow with them.
HP	245	3	Those who indulge in chaffing, mirth, levity, and vanity of spirit, which arise from a superficial, cheap experience, have no real, solid foundation for hope and joy in the love of God and belief of the truth. The giddy, the heedless, the gay, the jovial spirit is not the joy which Paul is anxious that Christ's followers shall have. This class spend their time in frivolity and excessive levity. Time is passing, the end is near; yet they have not laid up for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on everlasting life. We need not encourage that mirth which dissipates reflection, leaves no time for consideration, and establishes habits of lightness and cheap talk which grieve the Holy Spirit of God and unfit us for the contemplation of heaven and heavenly things. This is the class that will have cause to mourn and lament because they are not prepared for the elevated joys of heaven. They are banished from the presence of God.
HP	245	4	It is not what is around us, but what is in us; not what we have, but what we are, that makes us really happy. We want a cheerful fire on the altar of our own hearts; then we shall view everything in a happy, cheerful light. We may have the peace of Christ.... If we will be obedient, trustful in God, as a child in its simplicity trusts its earthly parents, we shall have peace--not the peace that the world gives, but that peace which Jesus gives.... Life, this life, has much brightness in it if we will gather the flowers and let the briers and thistles alone.
HP	245	5	Bring the joy of heaven into your lives. The light of heaven, reflected in its beauteous charm from those who are preparing for translation, brings joy to the heavenly family.
------------------------"Longsuffering with Joyfulness", August 27
HP	246	1	Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Colossians 1:11.
HP	246	2	"Strengthened with all might." This is not might to speak hasty words, which hurt and bruise others and which injure us more than anyone else, making us ashamed when we think afterward of what we have said.
HP	246	3	"Longsuffering with joyfulness." Wherever you are, you may be tantalized, and reproach may come upon you. If I were to undertake to hunt up a thousandth part of what has been said against me, I should have no time to do anything else. I have said, "God knows all about this, and I will let Him take care of it." I am not at all troubled by what other people say concerning me.... If I lose my self-control, and flash out in anger, I would in so doing give people some reason to say that the representation of my accusers is correct....
HP	246	4	Never should we lose control over ourselves. Let us ever keep before us the perfect Pattern. It is a sin to speak impatiently and fretfully or to feel angry--even though we do not speak. We are to walk worthy, giving a right representation of Christ. The speaking of an angry word is like flint striking flint: it at once kindles wrathful feelings. Never be like a chestnut bur....
HP	246	5	When others are impatient, fretful, and complaining, because self is not subdued, begin to sing some of the songs of Zion. While Christ was working at the carpenter's bench others would sometimes surround Him, trying to cause Him to be impatient; but He would begin singing some of the beautiful psalms, and before they realized what they were doing they had joined with Him in singing, influenced, as it were, by the power of the Holy Spirit, which was there.
HP	246	6	God desires us to be patient in tribulation and affliction, content to rest in His great arms of infinite love, believing that He is working for us all the time. It is our privilege to be joyful in the Lord. Let us praise Him more. By our joyfulness we reveal that our life is hid with Christ in God, that in Him we find the most blessed companionship, and that through His grace we have a living connection with heaven.
------------------------No Place for Discouragement, August 28
HP	247	1	Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Colossians 1:12, 13.
HP	247	2	How full is this language! If you attempted to measure it, you would find that in these words are measureless depths of meaning. We are now being fitted up to dwell in the mansions which Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him.
HP	247	3	"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness." If this is true, what excuse then have we for talking discouragement and unbelief and doubt--drawing darkness around us as a mantle? ...
HP	247	4	If I should look at the dark clouds--the troubles and perplexities that come to me in my work--I should have time to do nothing else. But I know that there is light and glory beyond the clouds. By faith I reach through the darkness to the glory. At times I am called to pass through financial perplexities. But I do not worry about money. God takes care of my affairs. I do all that I can, and when the Lord sees that it is best for me to have money, He sends it to me.
HP	247	5	The more you talk faith, the more faith you will have. The more you dwell upon discouragement, talking to others about your trials and enlarging upon them, to enlist the sympathy which you crave, the more discouragements and trials you will have. Why mourn over that which you cannot avoid? ...
HP	247	6	We are preparing for promotion from the school in this world, in which we are forming characters for the future, immortal life, to the higher grade, the school of heaven. But man is not to depend upon his own finite strength to wrestle with difficulty. In faith he is to look to God, believing that all the resources of heaven are at his command to help him overcome. Thousands upon thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand of heavenly angels are ministering unto those who shall be heirs of salvation.
HP	247	7	God is inviting us to close the windows of the soul earthward and open them heavenward, that He may flood our hearts with the glory which is shining across the threshold of heaven.
------------------------Our Glorious Work, August 29
HP	248	1	Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. Psalm 96:2, 3.
HP	248	2	The great and glorious work committed to us in acting a part in the plan of salvation is wonderfully high and exalted. We cannot weigh its merits. We are to walk by faith; and as we strive to appreciate the possibilities, and realize the immensity of the plan of salvation, it is our privilege to pray with the apostle Paul that we may be able to "comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:18). Lift Him up, the Man of Calvary. Let the mind dwell upon the beauties of His character until by beholding you become changed into the same image. A life of prayer and faith will lead us to speak of His praise and tell of His power....
HP	248	3	Genuine conversion will unite our hearts in faith and love. It will teach us to hold fast our confidence in Him who is our only hope. By conversion we join our weakness to God's strength, our ignorance to His wisdom, our unworthiness to His merits, our poverty to His boundless riches, our helplessness to His enduring might.
HP	248	4	We must search the Word of God, making it a part of ourselves. A spirit of humility, the spirit of Christ, will help us to know Him who has called us to glory and virtue.
HP	248	5	If we brought the truth into the daily life as we should we would advance higher and still higher, gaining a clearer and still clearer understanding of the revelation of God. We would lift Him up in songs of praise. Through the psalmist Christ declared, "In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee" (Psalm 22:22). His voice was the keynote of the universe. His unconfined power, His unsearchable understanding, His wonderful sacrifice for the human race, help us to comprehend the love of God. We need individually to have Christ abiding in the soul. We need to open our minds and hearts to the indwelling of the Spirit of truth. We need to appreciate our privileges as the possessors of sacred, elevating truth. Think of what this means to us--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ!
------------------------Christ's Legacy of Peace, August 30
HP	249	1	Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27.
HP	249	2	Before our Lord went to His agony on the cross He made His will. He had no silver or gold or houses to leave His disciples. He was a poor man, as far as earthly possessions were concerned. Few in Jerusalem were so poor as He. But He left His disciples a richer gift than any earthly monarch could bestow on his subjects. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," He said.... He left them the peace which had been His during His life on the earth, which had been with Him amid poverty, buffeting, and persecution, and which was to be with Him during His agony in Gethsemane and on the cruel cross.
HP	249	3	The Saviour's life on this earth, though lived in the midst of conflict, was a life of peace.... No storm of satanic wrath could disturb the calm of that perfect communion with God. And He says to us, "My peace I give unto you."
HP	249	4	Those who take Christ at His word and surrender their souls to His keeping, their lives to His ordering, will find peace and quietude. Nothing of the world can make them sad when Jesus makes them glad by His presence. In perfect acquiescence there is perfect rest. The Lord says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee" (Isaiah 26:3).
HP	249	5	It is the love of self that destroys our peace. While self is alive we stand ready continually to guard it from mortification and insult; but when self is dead, and our life hid with Christ in God, we shall not take neglects or slights to heart....
HP	249	6	When we receive Christ into the soul as an abiding guest, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep our hearts and minds. There is no other ground of peace than this. The grace of Christ, received into the heart, subdues enmity; it allays strife and fills the soul with love. He who is at peace with God and his fellow men cannot be made miserable.... The heart that is in harmony with God is a partaker of the peace of heaven and will diffuse its blessed influence all around.
------------------------Preparing to Meet Jesus, August 31
HP	250	1	And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. 1 John 2:28.
HP	250	2	Only by knowing God here can we prepare to meet Him at His coming.... In His lessons and His mighty works Christ is a perfect revelation of God. This Christ declares through the inspired evangelist. "No man hath seen God at any time," He says; "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him" (John 1:18). "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." These words show the importance of studying Christ's character. Only by knowing Christ can we know God.
HP	250	3	As our representative, Christ stands on the highest possible ground. When He came to the world as God's messenger, He held the salvation of God in His hand. All mankind was delivered to Him, for in Him was the fullness of the Godhead.... So fully did Christ reveal the Father that the messengers sent by the Pharisees to take Him were charmed by His presence.... As they beheld the soft light of the glory of God that enshrouded His person, as they heard the gracious words that fell from His lips, they loved Him. And when ... they were asked by the Pharisees, "Why have ye not brought him?" they answered, "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:45, 46).
HP	250	4	As we behold Christ we shall be changed into His image and made fit to meet Him at His coming. Now is the time to prepare for the coming of our Lord. Readiness to meet Him cannot be attained in a moment's time. Preparatory to that solemn scene there must be vigilant waiting combined with earnest work. The union of these two makes us complete in Christ. The active and devotional must be combined as were the human and divine in Christ. So God's children glorify Him. Amid the busy scenes of life their voices will be heard speaking words of encouragement, hope, and faith. The will and the affections will be consecrated to Christ. Thus they prepare to meet their Lord; and when He comes, they will say, with joy: "This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us."
------------------------The "Why" of Temptation, September 1
HP	251	1	There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13.
HP	251	2	What is temptation? It is the means by which those who claim to be the children of God are tested and tried. We read that God tempted Abraham, that He tempted the children of Israel. This means that He permitted circumstances to occur to test their faith and lead them to look to Him for help. God permits temptation to come to His people today that they may realize that He is their helper. If they draw nigh to Him when they are tempted, He strengthens them to meet the temptation....
HP	251	3	Temptations will pour in upon us, for by them we are to be tried during our probation. This is the proving of God, the revelation of our own hearts. There is no sin in having temptation, but sin comes in when temptation is yielded to....
HP	251	4	Abraham certified his obedience to God when, with Isaac by his side, he journeyed on his way in response to the command, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering ..." (Genesis 22:2). Job was permitted to suffer; he was severely tempted; but he would not speak one word against God. During Christ's life on earth the scribes and Pharisees, instigated by Satan, tempted Him in every possible way. But He never allowed these temptations to lead Him from the path of obedience....
HP	251	5	Christ's example shows us that our only hope of victory is in continual resistance of Satan's attacks. He who triumphed over the adversary of souls in the conflict with temptation understands Satan's power over the race, and has conquered in our behalf. As an overcomer, He has given us the advantage of His victory, that in our efforts to resist the temptations of Satan we may unite our weakness to His strength, our worthlessness to His merits. And sustained by His enduring might, under strong temptation, we may resist in His all-powerful name and overcome as He overcame.
------------------------Christ the Mighty Conqueror, September 2
HP	252	1	For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
HP	252	2	When Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted, He was led by the Spirit of God. By going into the wilderness, He did not invite temptation. But Satan knew that the Saviour had gone there, and he thought it the best time to approach Him. Christ went to the wilderness to be alone, to contemplate His mission and work. He had taken the steps which every sinner must take, in conversion, repentance, and baptism. He Himself had no sins of which to repent, and therefore He had no sins to wash away. But He was our example in all things, and therefore He must do that which He would have us do.
HP	252	3	Christ fasted and prayed, bracing Himself for the blood-stained path which He must travel. He was the Son of the eternal God, but as man's surety He must meet and resist every temptation with which man is assailed.... With the terrible weight of the sins of the world upon Him, He withstood the fearful test upon appetite, upon the love of the world, and upon that love of display that leads to presumption....
HP	252	4	If Christ's soldiers look faithfully to their Captain for their orders, success will attend their warfare against the enemy. No matter how they may be beset, in the end they will be triumphant. Their infirmities may be many, their sins great, their ignorance seemingly insurmountable; but if they realize their weakness, and look to Christ for aid, He will be their efficiency.... If they avail themselves of His power, their characters will be transformed; they will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and holiness. Through His merits and imparted power they will be "more than conquerors." Supernatural help will be given them, enabling them in their weakness to do the deeds of omnipotence....
HP	252	5	By faith they are to look calmly upon every foe, exclaiming: "We fight the good fight of faith, under the command of an omnipotent Power. Because He lives, we shall live also. Through Jesus ... we may withstand all the fiery darts of the enemy."
------------------------An Unseen Battle Over Every Soul, September 3
HP	253	1	For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12.
HP	253	2	We do not understand as we should the great conflict going on between invisible agencies, the controversy between loyal and disloyal angels. Over every man, good and evil angels strive. This is no make believe conflict. It is not mimic battles in which we are engaged. We have to meet most powerful adversaries, and it rests with us to determine which shall win.
HP	253	3	Could human beings know the number of the evil angels, could they know their devices and their activity, there would be far less pride and frivolity. Satan is the prince of demons. The evil angels over whom he rules do his bidding. Through them he multiplies his agencies.... He instigates all the evil that exists in our world.
HP	253	4	If Satan sees that he is in danger of losing one soul, he will exert himself to the utmost to keep that one. And when the individual is aroused to his danger, and, with distress and fervor, looks to Jesus for strength, Satan fears that he will lose a captive, and he calls a reinforcement of his angels to hedge in the poor soul, and form a wall of darkness around him, that heaven's light may not reach him.
HP	253	5	But if the one in danger perseveres, and in his helplessness casts himself upon the merits of the blood of Christ, our Saviour listens to the earnest prayer of faith, and sends a reinforcement of those angels that excel in strength to deliver him. Satan cannot endure to have his powerful rival appealed to, for he fears and trembles before His strength and majesty. At the sound of fervent prayer, Satan's whole host trembles.... And when angels, all-powerful, clothed with the armory of heaven, come to the help of the fainting, pursued soul, Satan and his host fall back.... The great Commander in heaven and earth has limited Satan's power.
HP	253	6	Around every tempted soul there are angels of God, ready to lift up the standard of righteousness, if the tempted one will only show a spirit of resistance to evil. Each may be an overcomer. Christ has in our behalf withstood the fiercest temptations of the enemy.
------------------------Keep Off Satanic Ground, September 4
HP	254	1	My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Proverbs 1:10.
HP	254	2	We must not put ourselves on the enemy's ground. We are only here as probationers. We must not act as though there were no tempting devil. There are temptations that come to us, and we cannot accept them and give them a place in the mind unless we peril our souls. We want to know that our feet are in safe paths.
HP	254	3	You who associate with the disobedient and worldly-minded, heed the injunction: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18). Is this not encouragement enough for us--to have living connection with the God of heaven?
HP	254	4	When you go where sin is, and place yourself on the enemy's ground, you place yourself where the angels of God do not preserve you from evil influence. We are to know that Christ is constantly by our side. We are to put all our trust in Christ.... What dependence can you place in human nature that is not under the control of the influence of God? The world knows Him not today. The line of demarcation is plain and distinct between those who keep His commandments and those who do not. We cannot serve the world and please God....
HP	254	5	Many seem to be sad because of their religion. We should not go about begging pardon of the world because we are Christians. I beg pardon of Jesus Christ only, because I am not complete in Him.... If we love Jesus we shall become heirs of God, and the Father will love us as He loves His Son Jesus Christ. We are members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King....
HP	254	6	It was the highest exaltation of Christ to obey His Father and keep His law as the apple of His eye. Let it have this effect upon our characters.... Let us exalt Jesus. Let us give Him our hearts' best service, and He will say, I will confess you before My Father, and before His angels.
------------------------Never Accept Satan's Dare, September 5
HP	255	1	Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Matthew 4:7.
HP	255	2	Let all remember how adroitly and cunningly did Satan command Christ to cast Himself from the Temple, quoting scripture to show Him that it was the very thing for Him to do, for in this way He could give evidence to all the people that He was what He claimed to be. "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone" (verse 6).
HP	255	3	In quoting the scripture Satan left out a very important point, ... "to keep thee in all thy ways" (Psalm 91:11). In consenting to do Satan's bidding, Christ would be venturing into Satan's ways, not in ways that God had devised for His Son. That was a dare, and Satan's agents are full of presumptuous dares to get a chance to work his will with those who will accept his dare. But Christ would not accept the dare of Satan. Christ would not enter into controversy with the arch deceiver and tempter. He said, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." ...
HP	255	4	Angels, as ministering spirits, are in the path where duty calls the heirs of salvation to travel, and God will protect them from all evil. But when Satan marked out a path of his own, ... Christ had no right to walk in that way. He was to keep His feet in the path which the Lord had marked out. Thus Christ in His humanity gave an example of what man should do when tempted by Satan's suggestions.
HP	255	5	We are ... never to accept a dare to prove the truth to men who are inspired by Satan to make proposals that God has not originated; for in this way Satan would lead us to step out of the path of God's providence and place ourselves in a position where we might be worsted by the enemy, and be overcome to our own hurt and to the injury of the cause of God.
HP	255	6	Our only safety every day and every hour is to be on watch. We cannot become indolent and careless. I tell you that God would have His people to be ever on guard.
------------------------Victory in the Mighty Name of Jesus, September 6
HP	256	1	The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. Proverbs 18:10.
HP	256	2	It was in the time of greatest weakness that Christ was assailed by the fiercest temptations. Thus Satan thought to prevail. By this policy he had gained the victory over man. When strength failed, and the will power weakened, and faith ceased to repose in God, then those who had stood long and valiantly for the right were overcome. Moses was wearied with the forty years' wandering of Israel, when for the moment his faith let go its hold upon infinite power. He failed just upon the borders of the Promised Land. So with Elijah, who had stood undaunted before King Ahab, who had faced the whole nation of Israel with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal at their head. After that terrible day upon Carmel, when the false prophets had been slain and the people had declared their allegiance to God, Elijah fled for his life before the threats of idolatrous Jezebel. Thus Satan had taken advantage of the weakness of humanity....
HP	256	3	Whenever one is encompassed with clouds, perplexed by circumstances, or afflicted by poverty or distress, Satan is at hand to tempt and annoy. He attacks our weak points of character. He seeks to shake our confidence in God, who suffers such a condition of things to exist. We are tempted to distrust God, to question His love. Often the tempter comes to us as he came to Christ, arraying before us our weakness and infirmities. He hopes to discourage the soul and to break our hold upon God. Then he is sure of his prey. If we would meet him as Jesus did, we should escape many a defeat. By parleying with the enemy we give him an advantage....
HP	256	4	Jesus gained the victory through submission and faith in God, and by the apostle He says to us, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). We cannot save ourselves from the tempter's power; he has conquered humanity, and when we try to stand in our own strength, we shall become a prey to his devices; but "the name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." Satan trembles and flees before the weakest soul who finds refuge in that mighty name.
------------------------No One Free from Temptation, September 7
HP	257	1	Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. 1 Peter 1:5, 6.
HP	257	2	Do not think that the Christian life is free from temptation. Temptations will come to every Christian. Both the Christian and the one who does not accept Christ as his leader will have trials. The difference is that the latter is serving a tyrant, doing his mean drudgery, while the Christian is serving the One who died to give him eternal life. Do not look upon trial as something strange, but as the means by which we are to be purified and strengthened. "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations," James admonishes; "knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience" (James 1:2, 3).
HP	257	3	In the future life we shall understand things that here greatly perplex us. We shall realize how strong a helper we had and how angels of God were commissioned to guard us as we followed the counsel of the Word of God.
HP	257	4	To all who receive Him, Christ will give power to become the sons of God. He is a present help in every time of need. Let us be ashamed of our wavering faith. Those who are overcome have only themselves to blame for their failure to resist the enemy. All who choose can come to Christ and find the help they need.
HP	257	5	There stands among you the mighty Counselor of the ages, inviting you to place your confidence in Him. Shall we turn away from Him to uncertain human beings, who are as wholly dependent on God as we ourselves are? Have we fallen so far below our privileges? Have we not been guilty of expecting so little that we have not asked for what God is longing to give?
HP	257	6	"I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel.... For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them" (Isaiah 63:7-9).
------------------------Perils on Life's Pathway, September 8
HP	258	1	Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. Psalm 17:5.
HP	258	2	At this time above all others the paths of life are beset with perils that I cannot find language to describe. In a single departure from the path of sanctified principle Satan obtains an advantage, and he leads on and on, farther and farther from right and truth....
HP	258	3	Not for any soul living, be he young or old, is there security from the temptations of Satan, and those who choose to bind up with unholy men will imbibe their spirit and bear similar fruit. The only safety for any one of us is in walking humbly with God, in going where the Master leads the way....
HP	258	4	We need to pray without ceasing. Let the heart long after God. Let the heart go out in daily, hourly prayer, believing, trusting, holding on to the promise, saying as did Jacob, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me" (Genesis 32:26). "Hold up my goings in thy paths," O God, "that my footsteps slip not" into the pitfalls which men have dug for my feet.
HP	258	5	The removal of one safeguard from the conscience, the failure to do the very thing that the Lord has marked out, one step in the path of wrong principle, often leads to an entire change of the life and action.... We are safe only in following where Christ leads the way. The path will grow clearer, brighter and brighter, unto the perfect day.
HP	258	6	Man's business is to work in cooperation with God. Alone, his feet will slip, in apparently the safest path. We cannot walk one step safely in mere human wisdom. If we would walk without fear, we must know that the hand of Jesus Christ holds our own firmly. And we can only know this by searching the Word of the living God....
HP	258	7	God desires that men shall feel their dependence upon Him and trust to that Hand that can save to the uttermost, that Heart that throbs in response to the appeals of suffering humanity. We must not trust in man or make flesh our arm. Our trust must be placed in a Hand that is warm with life and a Heart that throbs with love for the helpless.
------------------------Armed for the Conflict, September 9
HP	259	1	Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 6:13.
HP	259	2	There are many who do not understand the conflict that is going on between Christ and Satan over the souls of men. They do not realize that if they would stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel they must be willing to be partakers of His conflicts and wage a determined war against the powers of darkness.
HP	259	3	When thinking on the conflict, Paul writes to his Ephesian brethren exhorting them to "be strong," not feeble, not wavering, tossed to and fro like the waves of the sea. But in what are they to be strong? In their own might? No. "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." He says, "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places ..." (verses 10-13).
HP	259	4	The gaining of eternal life will ever involve a struggle, a conflict. We are continually to be found fighting the good fight of faith. We are soldiers of Christ; and those who enlist in His army are expected to do difficult work, work which will tax their energies to the utmost. We must understand that a soldier's life is one of aggressive warfare, of perseverance and endurance. For Christ's sake we are to endure trials.
HP	259	5	Victories are not gained by ceremonies or display but by simple obedience to the highest General, the Lord God of heaven. He who trusts in this Leader will never know defeat. Obedience to God is liberty from the thraldom of sin, deliverance from human passion and impulse. Man may stand conqueror of himself, conqueror of his own inclinations, conqueror of principalities and powers, and of the "rulers of the darkness of this world," and of "spiritual wickedness in high places." ...
HP	259	6	"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."
------------------------Resolute Will Essential for Victory, September 10
HP	260	1	Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Hebrews 12:4.
HP	260	2	In every age since the fall of Adam the opposition of evil agencies has made the lives of those who would be loyal and true to God's commandments a continual warfare. Those who would at last be victorious must meet and conquer the forces of Satan, who with fierce determination opposes every step of advance. They must meet a vigilant foe, a crafty enemy who never sleeps and who tries untiringly to undermine the faith of God's servants....
HP	260	3	Good and evil never harmonize. Between light and darkness there can be no compromise. Truth is light revealed; error is darkness. Light has no fellowship with darkness, righteousness no fellowship with unrighteousness....
HP	260	4	I wish that I could trace words which would present this matter as it is. God expects His soldiers to be ever on duty. Never are they to yield to temptation, never to be unjust. They are neither to yield nor flee. Relying on the strength of God, they are to maintain their integrity. With a firmness that will not yield an inch, they are to hold fast to the word, "It is written."
HP	260	5	Bear in mind that we are placed on vantage ground because Christ has overcome in our behalf. He has made every provision for us to overcome. Divine power stands behind every will resolutely set to do the right. God has provided the armor and the weapons with which each one is to fight. Let the soldiers of Christ put on the whole armor of God and flinch not at Satan's attacks.... Success in the Christian warfare means watchfulness and a daily crucifixion of self.
HP	260	6	He who is guided by clean, holy principles will be quick to discern the slightest taint of evil, because he keeps Christ before him as his pattern. His deep regret at the discovery of a wrong act means the prompt correction of every step wherein he has diverged from truth. It means a constant, earnest striving for higher and still higher attainments in the Christian life. It means helping others to climb heavenward. It means taking hold of Christ by living faith and resisting evil if need be unto blood, striving against sin.
------------------------As Steadfast As Daniel, September 11
HP	261	1	For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. Isaiah 50:7.
HP	261	2	The youth have an example in Daniel, and if they are true to principle and to duty they will be instructed as Daniel was. As the wisdom of the world viewed the matter, he and his three companions had every advantage secured to them. But here their first test was to come. Their principles must come into collision with the regulations and appointments of the king. They were to eat the food placed upon his table and drink his wine.... Daniel "purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself" (Daniel 1:8).
HP	261	3	This request was not preferred in a defiant spirit, but was solicited as a great favor.... Daniel and his companions ... were courteous, kind, respectful, possessing the grace of meekness and modesty. And now as Daniel and his fellows were brought to the test, they placed themselves fully on the side of righteousness and truth. They did not move capriciously, but intelligently. They decided that as flesh meat had not composed their diet in the past, neither should it come into their diet in the future. And as the use of wine had been prohibited to all those who should engage in the service of God, they determined that they would not partake of it....
HP	261	4	Daniel and his companions knew not what would be the result of their decision. They knew not but that it would cost them their lives, but they determined to keep the straight path of strict temperance, even in the courts of licentious Babylon.... The good behavior of these youth obtained for them favor. They rested their case in the hands of God, following a discipline of self-denial and temperance in all things. And the Lord cooperated with Daniel and his fellows....
HP	261	5	These particulars were placed on record in the history of the children of Israel as a warning to all youth to avoid all approach to customs and practices and indulgences that would dishonor God in any way.
------------------------None Need Be Overcome, September 12
HP	262	1	Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1:12.
HP	262	2	When trials come into our lives, when clouds darken the horizon, how ready we are to forget that Jesus is our Saviour, that behind the clouds the Sun of Righteousness is shining, that angels are close beside us, preserving us from harm. I would say to the despairing, Look and live. Hope thou in God, for on Calvary's cross a complete sacrifice was offered for you. Jesus is the sinner's Friend, the sinner's Redeemer. Eternal joy--a life of undimmed happiness--awaits the one who surrenders all to Christ. Look away from yourself to Jesus, who is pleading before the throne of God in your behalf. Listen to His words, "Come unto me, ... and I will give you rest." "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (Matthew 11:28; John 6:37). With the hand of faith grasp the promises of God. Appropriate these blessings to yourself, not at some future time, but today.
HP	262	3	The strongest temptation cannot excuse sin. However great the pressure brought to bear upon the soul, transgression is our own act. It is not in the power of earth or hell to compel anyone to do evil. Satan attacks us at our weakest points, but we need not be overcome. However severe or unexpected the attack, God has provided help for us, and in His strength we may conquer. In the hour of greatest need, when discouragement overwhelms the soul, then it is that Jesus comes very near. The hour of man's necessity is God's opportunity. He sees our danger and provides help for us....
HP	262	4	Do not think that when you walk with Jesus you must walk in the shadow. The happiest people in the world are those who trust in Jesus and gladly do His bidding. He is the light of life. From the lives of those who follow Him unrest and discontent are banished. With a full heart they echo the words of the wise man, Wisdom's "ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace" (Proverbs 3:17). Though they meet with trials and difficulties, their lives are full of joy; for Christ walks beside them, and His presence makes the pathway bright.
------------------------Pressing Against the Current, September 13
HP	263	1	Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. Luke 13:23, 24.
HP	263	2	When we read that many will seek to enter in and shall not be able, then we want to understand what we shall do in order to succeed. This to us is a mournful statement, that there are those who will fail to enter in at the strait gate because they only seek to enter in, and do not strive....
HP	263	3	We are in a world where sin and iniquity prevail, and we want to know what we shall do in order to inherit life. We cannot any of us afford to miss the great reward that is presented before the overcomer. We want to know that the steps that we are taking are heavenward instead of earthward....
HP	263	4	A great and solemn responsibility rests upon us who profess to obey God's commandments, to show to the world around us that we are bending our steps heavenward. And as we press against the current that is bearing all down, then we should know for what we should strive. We are to press toward the mark of the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus. We cannot remain in listless resistance and yet gain the prize....
HP	263	5	We are to grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, and we are thus growing up a precious temple unto the Lord. He says, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (2 Corinthians 6:16).... What we want is the Spirit of God in our souls. We want our faces set constantly heavenward. And when we see that sin in us is striving for the mastery, then we must strive....
HP	263	6	The pitying Saviour stands right by your side to help you. He would send every angel out of glory while you are struggling to overcome sin, so that Satan cannot have the victory over you. Christ ... took man's human nature upon Him that He might come right down to man in the temptation wherewith man is beset. The pitiful Redeemer knows just how to help us in every one of our strivings.
------------------------Jesus Our Advocate, September 14
HP	264	1	My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1.
HP	264	2	When tempted to sin let us remember that Jesus is pleading for us in the heavenly sanctuary. When we put away our sins and come to Him in faith, He takes our names on His lips and presents them to His Father, saying, "I have graven them upon the palms of my hands; I know them by name." And the command goes forth to the angels to protect them. Then in the day of fierce trial He will say, "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast" (Isaiah 26:20). What are the chambers in which they are to hide? They are the protection of Christ and holy angels. The people of God are not at this time all in one place. They are in different companies and in all parts of the earth, and they will be tried singly, not in groups. Everyone must stand the test for himself.
HP	264	3	There has never been a time when the people of God have had greater need to claim His promises than now. Let the hand of faith pass through the darkness and grasp the arm of infinite power. While we speak of the necessity of separating from sin, remember that Christ came to our world to save sinners, and that "he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him" (Hebrews 7:25). It is our privilege to believe that His blood is able to cleanse us from every spot and stain of sin. We must not limit the power of the Holy One of Israel. He wants us to come to Him just as we are, sinful and polluted. His blood is efficacious.... If you fall under temptation do not become discouraged. This promise comes ringing down along the line to our time: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." I feel that for this one promise a continual song of thanksgiving ought to go forth....
HP	264	4	Let us gather up these precious jewels of promise, and when Satan accuses us of our great sinfulness and tempts us to doubt the power of God to save, let us repeat the words of Christ, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).
------------------------Under God's Discipline, September 15
HP	265	1	Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: for he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole. Job 5:17, 18.
HP	265	2	Our heavenly Father does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. He has His purpose in the whirlwind and in the storm, in the fire and in the flood. The Lord permits calamities to come to His people to save them from greater dangers. He desires everyone to examine his own heart closely and carefully, and then draw near to God, that God may draw near to him.
HP	265	3	Our life is in the hands of God. He sees dangers threatening us that we cannot see. He is the giver of all our blessings; the provider of all our mercies; the orderer of all our experiences. He sees the perils that we cannot see. He may permit to come upon His people that which fills their hearts with sadness, because He sees that they need to make straight paths for their feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. He knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust. Even the very hairs of our head are numbered. He works through natural causes to lead His people to remember that He has not forgotten them, but that He desires them to forsake the way which, if they were permitted to follow unchecked and unreproved, would lead them into great peril. Trials come to us all to lead us to investigate our hearts, to see if they are purified from all that defiles. Constantly the Lord is working to our present and eternal good....
HP	265	4	Every soul that is saved must be a partaker with Christ of His sufferings, that he may be a partaker with Him of His glory. How few understand why God subjects them to trial. It is by the trial of our faith that we gain spiritual strength. The Lord seeks to educate His people to lean wholly upon Him....
HP	265	5	Let everyone examine his own course of action. Let everyone ask himself whether he is meeting the standard that God has placed before him. Can we say from the heart, I lay aside my own will? "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart"? Do we ask daily, "Lord, what is thy will concerning me?"
------------------------Tests All Along the Way, September 16
HP	266	1	My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Proverbs 3:11, 12.
HP	266	2	God brings men into trying places to see if they will trust in a power out of and above themselves. He sees not as man sees. He often has to break up human connections and change the order which man has mapped out, which is perfect in his estimation. What man thinks is for his spiritual and temporal interests may be altogether at variance with the experience he must have in order to be a follower of Christ. His idea of his own value may be far out of the way.
HP	266	3	Tests are placed all along the way from earth to heaven. It is because of this that the road to heaven is called the narrow way. Character must be tested, else there would be many spurious Christians who would keep up a fair semblance of religion until their inclinations, their desire to have their own way, their pride and ambition, were crossed. When by the Lord's permission sharp trials come to them, their lack of genuine religion, of the meekness and lowliness of Christ, shows them to be in need of the work of the Holy Spirit.
HP	266	4	Christ's command, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23), is the touchstone that discovers the quality of the experience. When a man's inclinations or ambitious hopes are crossed he reveals the spirit that governs him....
HP	266	5	He [Christ] invites all to wear His yoke and learn His meekness and lowliness. He knows that it is positively necessary for them to do this. But no human being can wear the yoke of submission and obedience who does not learn daily in the school of Christ.... No one, whatever his supposed abilities, can bear the test of trial unless he is a student in the school of Christ....
HP	266	6	The true Christian keeps his eyes fixed on Him who searches the heart and tries the reins, who requires truth in the inward parts. His constant prayer is, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23, 24).
------------------------The Polishing Process, September 17
HP	267	1	Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:12, 13.
HP	267	2	Not without a purpose does God send trial to His children. He never leads them otherwise than they would choose to be led if they could see the end from the beginning, and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as workers together with Him. He subjects them to discipline to humble them, to lead them, through trial and affliction, to see their weakness and draw near to Him....
HP	267	3	Christians are Christ's jewels. They are to shine brightly for Him, shedding forth the light of His loveliness. Their luster depends on the polishing they receive. They may choose to be polished or to remain unpolished. But everyone who is pronounced worthy of a place in the Lord's temple must submit to the polishing process. Without the polishing that the Lord gives, they can reflect no more light than a common pebble. Christ says to man, You are mine. I have bought you. You are now only a rough stone; but if you will place yourself in My hands, I will polish you, and the luster with which you shall shine will bring honor to My name. No man shall pluck you out of My hand. I will make you My peculiar treasure. On My coronation day, you will be a jewel in My crown of rejoicing.
HP	267	4	The Divine Worker spends little time on worthless material. Only the precious jewels does He polish after the similitude of a palace, cutting away all rough edges. This process is severe and trying; it hurts human pride. Christ cuts deep into the experience that man in his self-sufficiency has regarded as complete and takes away self-uplifting from the character. He cuts away the surplus surface, and putting the stone to the polishing wheel, presses it close, that all roughness may be worn away. Then, holding the jewel up to the light, the Master sees in it a reflection of Himself, and He pronounces it worthy of a place in His casket. Blessed be the experience, however severe, that gives new value to the stone.
------------------------No Exemption from Sorrow, September 18
HP	268	1	Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10.
HP	268	2	Christianity promises no exemption from sorrow. "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). Faith is needed, strong, trusting faith, which believes that God will bring His children into no temptation greater than they are able to bear. What such faith has power to do is told by Paul in his letter to the Hebrews. Speaking of those who in the face of persecution and death had maintained an unshaken trust in God, he says:
HP	268	3	"Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented" (Hebrews 11:33-37).
HP	268	4	In this world these heroes of faith were counted unworthy of life; but in heaven they are enrolled as sons of God, worthy of the highest honor. "They shall walk with me in white," Christ declares: "for they are worthy" (Revelation 3:4). In the courts of heaven there awaits them an "eternal weight of glory." "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:1). "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18).
------------------------Strength for Today, September 19
HP	269	1	And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. Zechariah 13:9.
HP	269	2	By trial the Lord proves the strength of His children. Is the heart strong to bear? Is the conscience void of offense? Does the Spirit bear witness with our spirit that we are the children of God? This the Lord ascertains by trying us. In the furnace of affliction He purifies us from all dross. He sends us trials, not to cause needless pain, but to lead us to look to Him, to strengthen our endurance, to teach us that if we do not rebel, but put our trust in Him, we shall see of His salvation....
HP	269	3	Christ's love for His children is as strong as it is tender. It is a love stronger than death, for He died for us. It is a love more true than that of a mother for her children. The mother's love may change, but Christ's love is changeless. "I am persuaded," Paul says, "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38, 39).
HP	269	4	In every trial we have strong consolation. Is not our Saviour touched with the feeling of our infirmities? Has He not been tempted in all points like as we are? And has He not invited us to take every trial and perplexity to Him? Then let us not make ourselves miserable over tomorrow's burdens. Bravely and cheerfully carry the burdens of today. Today's trust and faith we must have. But we are not asked to live more than a day at a time. He who gives strength for today will give strength for tomorrow....
HP	269	5	Nothing wounds the soul like the sharp darts of unbelief. When trial comes, as it will, do not worry or complain. Silence in the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. "Then are they glad because they be quiet" (Psalm 107:30). Remember that underneath you are the everlasting arms. "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him" (Psalm 37:7). He is guiding you into a harbor of gracious experience.
------------------------When Faith is Tried, September 20
HP	270	1	That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:7.
HP	270	2	When we are brought into adverse circumstances, when our natural feelings are stirred, and we want to give vent to them, then our faith is tried; then we are to manifest the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Not by one word are we to give expression to the feelings of the natural heart. "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body" (James 3:2)--the whole man. What we want is to be under the control of Jesus. We do not want our own way. I have heard some plead as an excuse for their wrong course, "You know that it is my temperament, it is my disposition, transmitted to me from my parents." Yes; and they have cultivated it and educated themselves in it and thus excused all their wrongdoing. Instead of yielding to temptation, they should lay hold upon the arm of Infinite Power, saying, "I will come to God just as I am, and plead with Christ to give me the victory. I shall be more than conqueror through Him that loved me."
HP	270	3	In order to understand how great the love of Jesus is for you, look to Calvary. You can then know something of the depth, the breadth, and the height of that love, and you can see something of the condescension of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, as step by step the Saviour descended into the valley of humiliation. He did not stoop to sin, to defilement, but He stood on this atom of a world to battle with Satan and his host, and here to win for us an immortal inheritance, an inheritance which ... fadeth not away.
HP	270	4	When He ascended on high, and led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men, He left the battle in our hands, but we are not to fight in our own strength; we should certainly fail if we attempted it. Christ is there present with the Father to bring to our help the unseen intelligences.... What we need is the simplicity of faith, the meekness and humility of Christ. Then we shall trust wholly in the Lord of heaven, and He will be at our right hand to help us.
------------------------Heaven's Honor Roll, September 21
HP	271	1	But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23:10.
HP	271	2	The Christian who loves his heavenly Father may not discern by outward providences or visible signs any heavenly favor above that given those with little or no consecration. Often he is sorely afflicted, distressed, perplexed, and hedged in on every side. Appearances seem to be against him....
HP	271	3	Joseph was virtuous and his character was marked for true goodness and strength of purpose, yet he was maligned, persecuted, and dealt with as a criminal; but God had signal victories for Joseph, even as he appeared to suffer because of his rightdoing.
HP	271	4	Daniel was cast into the lion's den because of his firm adherence to principle and his loyalty to God, but he triumphed in the end, and God was glorified through His servant whom He permitted to be humbled. Job was stripped of his earthly treasures, bereaved of his children, and made a spectacle of loathing to his friends, but in God's time He showed He had not forsaken His servant....
HP	271	5	A true and faithful Stephen was stoned to death by the enemies of Christ. Surely it did not appear that God was strengthening His cause in the earth by thus permitting wicked men to triumph, but from this very circumstance Paul was converted to the faith, and through his word thousands were brought to the light of the gospel.
HP	271	6	A precious, affectionate John was an exile on the lonely Isle of Patmos, but here Jesus met with him and revealed to him events ... stretching over the ages to the coming of Christ, and making known the counsel of the Lord for future ages.... He was permitted to look upon the throne of God and to behold the white-robed redeemed ones who had come out of great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
HP	271	7	If you are called to go through the fiery furnace for His sake, Jesus will be by your side even as He was with the faithful three in Babylon. Those who love their Redeemer will rejoice at every opportunity of sharing with Him humiliation and reproach. The love they bear their Lord makes suffering for His sake sweet.
------------------------In the Hour of Grief, September 22
HP	272	1	But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. Lamentations 3:32, 33.
HP	272	2	[From a letter of comfort to one bereaved of his only daughter.] We have drunk at the same cup of sorrow, but it was mingled with joy and rest and peace in Jesus. He doeth all things well. Our heavenly Father doth not willingly afflict and grieve the children of men....
HP	272	3	This world is the scene of our trials, our griefs, our sorrows. We are here to bear the test of God. The fire of the furnace is to kindle till our dross is consumed and we come forth as gold purified in the furnace of affliction.... Light will come out of this darkness which to you at times seems incomprehensible. "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21). Let this be the language of your heart. The cloud of mercy is hovering over your head even in the darkest hour. God's benefits to us are as numerous as the drops of rain falling from the clouds upon the parched earth to water and refresh it. The mercy of God is over you.
HP	272	4	Mary, dear precious child, is at rest. She was the companion of your sorrows and disappointed hopes. She will no more have grief or want or distress. Through faith's discerning eye you may anticipate, amid your sorrows and griefs and perplexities, your Mary with her mother and other members of your family answering the call of the Life-giver and coming forth from their prison house triumphing over death and the grave. Your faith may see the loved and the lost ones reunited among the redeemed of earth. You with them erelong, if faithful, will be walking in the streets of the New Jerusalem, singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, wearing the jeweled crown....
HP	272	5	"All things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28). Could your eyes be opened, you would see your heavenly Father bending over you in love; and could you hear His voice it would be in tones of compassion to you who are prostrate with suffering and affliction. Stand fast in His strength; there is rest for you.
------------------------Sweetness Through Affliction, September 23
HP	273	1	Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 2 Corinthians 1:4.
HP	273	2	Those who have borne the greatest sorrows are frequently the ones who carry the greatest comfort to others, bringing sunshine wherever they go. Such ones have been chastened and sweetened by their afflictions; they did not lose confidence in God when trouble assailed them, but clung closer to His protecting love. Such ones are living proof of the tender care of God, who makes the darkness as well as the light and chastens us for our good. Christ is the light of the world; in Him is no darkness. Precious light! Let us live in that light! Bid adieu to sadness and repining. Rejoice in the Lord always.
HP	273	3	It is selfish to devote our precious time to mourning over disappointed hopes, indulging in useless grief that clouds the family circle. We should be cheerful, if only for the benefit of those who depend more or less upon us for happiness.... It is our duty to make the best of everything, and to cultivate a habit of looking at the bright side of things. Let the cloud that shadows us pass over, while we wait patiently till the clear blue sky again appears and the blessed sunshine is revealed.... Let us all forget self as much as possible, cultivate cheerfulness, seek to brighten the lives of others, and we shall then have less desire to complain of our own lot.
HP	273	4	The afflicted may take courage, the desponding may hope, for they have a sympathizing friend in Jesus. All our troubles and griefs we may pour into His sympathizing ears. When we associate together let it not be to talk darkness and unbelief, to recount the gloomy chapters in our life experience. Let us talk of the love of God that has been manifested to us, that is seen in nature, in the firmament of the heavens, in all the wise arrangements of Providence. Let us search out the rays of sunshine that have brightened our pathway, and linger over their memory with grateful hearts. Let us dwell upon the matchless love of Christ, for in Him we have a constant theme of rejoicing. In Him is no darkness. He is the Light of life, the Chief among ten thousand, and the One altogether lovely.
------------------------Clouds Will Pass, September 24
HP	274	1	A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken. Proverbs 15:13.
HP	274	2	Sorrow comes and goes; it is the lot of man; we should not seek to magnify it, but rather dwell upon that which is bright and pleasant. When winter spreads its icy covering over the earth, we do not let our gladness freeze up with the flowers and brooks and continually mourn because of the dismal days and the chilling winds. On the other hand, we reach forward in imagination to the coming summer, with its warmth and life and beauty. Meanwhile we enjoy all the sunshine that comes to us, and find much comfort, in spite of the cold and snow, while we are waiting for nature to put on her fresh, bright garments of rejoicing.
HP	274	3	Just now a cloud has shut from our sight the bright rays of the sun, and we are left in the shadow. Should we fret and repine because of this, and forget everything else that is bright and lovely around us? No; we should forget the cloud and remember that the sun is not blotted out, but has only veiled its face for a moment, to shine forth again in greater apparent brightness and to be prized and enjoyed more highly than if it had never been hidden.
HP	274	4	God is not pleased to have us pass our lives in despondency and gloom, magnifying every trouble that visits us. By so doing we not only make ourselves miserable but cloud the happiness of those around us. We should not search out and linger over the dark shadows in our life experience, but rather open our eyes and arouse our senses to see and appreciate the many blessings surrounding us, which should make us not only grateful but very happy.
HP	274	5	It is God's will that we should be cheerful. He would have us open our hearts to the sunbeams of heaven; He would have our spirits mellowed by His love and goodness, apparent in our own lives and in the things of nature surrounding us. Those who are brought in contact with us are affected for good or evil by our words and actions. We are unconsciously diffusing the fragrance of our character upon the moral atmosphere surrounding us or we are poisoning that atmosphere by thoughts, words, and deeds which have a deleterious influence.
------------------------Jesus Lights the Way, September 25
HP	275	1	Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 1 Peter 5:7.
HP	275	2	Do not take your troubles to human beings. Take them to the Lord. You may think that others ought to sympathize with you in your trials, but you will sometimes be disappointed. Jesus never disappoints the one who comes to Him for help. He is saying to you today, "Come unto me, ... and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). He will give you rest in Him. No one who comes to Him goes away unhelped. Take your burdens to the divine Burden Bearer and leave them with Him, knowing that He will carry them for you....
HP	275	3	Act your part in helping yourselves, as all must do who would be blessed. Do not dwell upon the hardships of the Christian life. Do not talk of your trials.... Do not utter one despondent word, for such words please Satan. Talk of Christ's goodness and tell of His power. Words of hope and trust and courage are as easily spoken as words of complaint....
HP	275	4	When the enemy tells you that the Lord has forsaken you, tell him that you know He has not; for He declares, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). Dismiss the enemy. Tell him you will not dishonor the Lord by doubting His love....
HP	275	5	There is no limit to the help that the Saviour is willing to bestow on us. He asks us to bring into our lives the grace that will keep us from sin. From the cross of Calvary there comes to us liberty, hope, and strength. Do not dishonor your Redeemer by doubting His power. Trust Him all the time. Take hold of the riches of His grace, saying, "I will believe; I do believe that Jesus died for me." The way before you may seem dark, but Jesus can make it light.
HP	275	6	Be joyful in God. Christ is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Look toward the light. Accustom yourselves to speak the praise of God. Make others happy. This is your first work. It will strengthen the best traits of character. Throw the windows of the soul wide open heavenward and let the sunshine of Christ's righteousness in. Morning, noon, and night your hearts may be filled with the bright rays of heaven's light.
------------------------I Press Toward the Mark, September 26
HP	276	1	Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13, 14.
HP	276	2	In the heavenly race we can all run and all receive the prize. There is no uncertainty, no risk, in the matter. We must put on the heavenly graces, and with the eye directed upward to the crown of immortality, keep the Pattern ever before us.... The humble, self-denying life of our divine Lord we are to keep constantly in view. And then as we seek to imitate Him, keeping our eye upon the mark of the prize, we can run this race with certainty, knowing that if we do the very best we can we shall certainly secure the prize....
HP	276	3	When we have this great inducement before us cannot we "run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:1, 2)? He has pointed out the way for us, and marked it all along by His own footsteps.
HP	276	4	In order to fight successfully the battle against sin, you must keep close to Jesus. Do not talk unbelief; you have no excuse for doing this. Christ has made a complete sacrifice for you, that you might stand before God complete in Him. God is not pleased with our lack of faith. Unbelief always separates the soul from Christ.
HP	276	5	It is not praiseworthy to talk of our weakness and discouragement. Let each one say, "I am grieved that I yield to temptation, that my prayers are so feeble, my faith so weak. I have no excuse to plead for being dwarfed in my religious life. But I am seeking to obtain completeness of character in Christ. I have sinned, and yet I love Jesus. I have fallen many times, and yet He has reached out His hand to save me. I have told Him all about my mistakes. I have confessed with shame and sorrow that I have dishonored Him. I have looked to the cross, and have said, All this He suffered for me. The Holy Spirit has shown me my ingratitude, my sin, in putting Christ to open shame. He who knows no sin has forgiven me. He calls me to a higher, nobler life, and I press on to the things that are before.
------------------------"Be Strong", September 27
HP	277	1	Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13.
HP	277	2	Let all bear in mind that the Christian ministration is not a work for drones. God calls for men who will do and dare danger. Hold no parleying with Satan, but meet him with "It is written." "Quit you like men, be strong." Faith alone, unfeigned, can be the basis of our actions and prove by a clean, pure example that it is possible to be active, "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11), and then all commercial enterprises will be conducted on Bible principles....
HP	277	3	We wish to repeat over and over again, until it is indelibly imprinted upon the heart, the blessed invitation, Abide in Me. Read the Word, and in the light of a "Thus saith the Lord," meditate upon it. Pray until the lesson and meaning of abiding in is fully learned, accompanied with its claims and its promises. The Holy Spirit, Christ's representative, is now in our world to bring all things to our remembrance, that His claims shall not be forgotten or neglected. Read the Word and pray. Meditate on the Scriptures until the understanding, the gate to the door to the heart, is opened to comprehend its requirements and our dependence. Those who will wait to hear what the Spirit saith unto them shall not hear in vain. Fix the eye upon Christ alone in quiet waiting upon Him to hear His voice saying, "Abide in me, and I in you." ...
HP	277	4	There are many who come to the Saviour in a feeble way. They receive baptism and yet there is no apparent change in their character. We would invite all to come, all to abide in Christ, to advance daily in the perfection of character by abiding in Christ. As they do this, they find that rest that can come only through perfect obedience.
HP	277	5	But I warn you, be careful how you settle down in the middle walk between spirituality and worldliness. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). You will be wholly on one side or the other.... Christ draws to His side; Satan hangs out every attraction to draw on his side. Whom will you choose? Under whose banner will you stand?
------------------------Overcoming Power, September 28
HP	278	1	And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Revelation 12:11.
HP	278	2	The Saviour watches with a deep interest over the human family. When He ascended to the Father, He did not leave His followers without help. In His earthly life He overcame in their behalf, and they are to overcome in His strength. All have trials to meet. There are the old natural temperaments to contend with; but these temperaments are to be brought into subjection to Jesus Christ, that we may stand on vantage ground with God....
HP	278	3	The crown of glory will be placed on the brow of all who have overcome temptation by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. This word of our testimony means a great deal. It is before all the heavenly universe and before the world. The soul who dishonors God by his words and works, who does not acknowledge Christ as his Saviour, places himself on the losing side....
HP	278	4	Jesus is your helper. No one understands so well as He your peculiarities of character. He is watching over you, and if you are willing to be taught, He will throw around you influences for good that will enable you to accomplish all His will for you. We are preparing for the future eternal life. Soon there is to be a grand review, in which every soul who is seeking to perfect a Christian character must bear the test of God's searching questions: Have you set an example that others are safe in following? Have you watched for souls as they that must give an account? The heavenly host are ... intensely anxious that you should bear the test....
HP	278	5	The Lord looks with deepest interest upon each striving soul. He loves each one. Did He not, He never would have given His only-begotten Son to die for us....
HP	278	6	The Lord will help all who will do their best, walking humbly with God. Let us be encouraged in believing that we have a mighty arm to lean upon, and that so long as we rely upon Christ's strength we cannot dishonor God. We are on trial now, but under every test let us make it manifest to all around us that we are on the Lord's side.
------------------------We May Triumph Gloriously, September 29
HP	279	1	These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33.
HP	279	2	"These things have I spoken unto you," the Saviour said, "that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (John 15:11). The work of overcoming is not a joyless work; no, indeed. It means communication with Heaven. You can go to God in prayer; you can ask, and receive; you can believe, hanging your helpless soul on Christ. It means that humanity can work the will and ways of God. Humanity and divinity are combined for this very purpose.
HP	279	3	God sends trials to prove who will stand faithful under temptation. He brings us into trying positions to see if we will trust in a power out of and above ourselves. Everyone has undiscovered traits of character that must come to light through trial. God allows those who are self-sufficient to be sorely tempted that they may understand their helplessness. He suffers the deep waters of affliction to go over our souls, in order that we may know Him and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, in order that we may have deep heart longings to be cleansed from defilement, and may come forth from the trial purer, holier, happier. Often we enter the furnace of affliction with our souls darkened with selfishness; but if patient under the crucial test, we shall come forth reflecting the divine character. When His purpose in the affliction is accomplished "he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday" (Psalm 37:6).
HP	279	4	"Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation" (Mark 14:38). Watch against the stealthy approach of the enemy, watch against old habits and natural inclinations, lest they assert themselves; force them back, and watch. Watch the thoughts, watch the plans, lest they become self-centered. Watch over the souls that Christ has purchased with His own blood. Watch for opportunities to do them good.
HP	279	5	A great crisis is just before us. To meet its trials and temptations and to perform its duties will require persevering faith. But we may triumph gloriously; not one watching, praying, believing soul will be ensnared by the enemy.
------------------------The Overcomer's Reward, September 30
HP	280	1	He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Revelation 21:7.
HP	280	2	We do not realize how near is the end of all things. We do not sense as we should the need of being daily overcomers and of securing the eternal reward. It is those who overcome the temptations that are in the world through lust who are partakers of the divine nature. The sacrifice has been made for us. Will we accept it? ...
HP	280	3	It requires prayer, it requires faith, it requires understanding, to become a partaker of the divine nature. But as we obtain this experience we are not benefiting ourselves alone; we are giving to all around us an evidence that all may be partakers of the divine nature, all may be overcomers.
HP	280	4	Let us determine to be victorious. Let us seek for a large measure of divine grace.... Let us not be swayed by the elements of the world, but let us show that we are determined to become overcomers day by day and hour by hour.... Let us represent Christ and the truth wherever we go, that we may ... glorify God. My brethren and sisters, Jesus loves to make intercession for you. Cling to Jesus. Strive to be overcomers, that the Saviour may welcome you to the city of God, where you can sing the triumphs of redeeming grace.
HP	280	5	O what a scene of rejoicing it will be when the Lamb of God shall place upon the heads of the redeemed the victor's crown! Never, never more will you be led into temptation and sin. You will see the King in His beauty. And those whom you have helped heavenward will meet you there. They will throw their arms about you and acknowledge what you have done for them. "You watched over me," they will say; "you prayed for me; you helped me to gain heaven." ...
HP	280	6	Let us go forward in the strength of the Mighty One, considering the joy that is set before us of seeing His face in the kingdom of God and of going out no more forever. Let us remember that we are to be partakers of the divine nature, and that angels of God are right around us, that we need not be overcome by sin. Let us send our petitions to the throne of God in time of temptation, and in faith lay hold of His divine power.
------------------------God's Church on Earth, October 1
HP	281	1	Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5.
HP	281	2	The church on earth is God's temple, and it is to assume divine proportions before the world. This building is to be the light of the world. It is to be composed of living stones laid close together, stone fitting to stone, making a solid building. All these stones are not of the same shape or dimension. Some are large and some are small, but each one has its own place to fill. In the whole building there is not to be one misshapen stone. Each one is perfect. And each stone is a living stone, a stone that emits light. The value of the stones is determined by the light they reflect to the world.
HP	281	3	Now is the time for the stones to be taken from the quarry of the world and brought into God's workshop, to be hewed, squared, and polished, that they may shine. This is God's plan, and He desires all who profess to believe the truth to fill their respective places in the great, grand work for this time.
HP	281	4	The angelic architect has brought his golden measuring rod from heaven, that every stone may be hewed and squared by the divine measurement, and polished to shine as an emblem of heaven, radiating in all directions the bright, clear beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
HP	281	5	In this world we are to shine in good works. The Lord requires His people ... to reflect the light of God's character, God's love, as Christ reflected it. As we look unto Jesus, all our lives will be aglow with that wondrous light. Every part of us is to be light; then whichever way we turn, light will be reflected from us to others. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. In Him is no darkness at all; therefore, if we are in Christ, there will be no darkness in us.
HP	281	6	The church on earth is to become the court of holy love.... Christian fellowship is one means by which character is formed. Thus selfishness is purged from the life, and men and women are drawn to Christ, the great center. Thus is answered His prayer that His followers may be one as He is one with the Father.
------------------------Members of God's Household, October 2
HP	282	1	Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. Ephesians 2:19, 20.
HP	282	2	The Lord Jesus is making experiments on human hearts through the exhibition of His mercy and abundant grace. He is effecting transformations so amazing that Satan ... stands viewing them as a fortress impregnable to his sophistries and delusions. They are to him an incomprehensible mystery. The angels of God ... look on with astonishment and joy, that fallen men, once children of wrath, are through the training of Christ developing characters after the divine similitude, to be sons and daughters of God, to act an important part in the occupations and pleasures of heaven.
HP	282	3	The Lord has provided His church with capabilities and blessings, that they may present to the world an image of His own sufficiency, and that His church may be complete in Him, a continual representation of another, even the eternal world, of laws that are higher than earthly laws. His church is to be a temple built after the divine similitude....
HP	282	4	To His church, Christ has given ample facilities, that He may receive a large revenue of glory from His redeemed, purchased possession. The church, being endowed with the righteousness of Christ, is His depository, in which the wealth of His mercy, His love, His grace, is to appear in full and final display. The declaration in His intercessory prayer, that the Father's love is as great toward us as toward Himself, the only-begotten Son, and that we shall be with Him where He is, forever one with Christ and the Father, is a marvel to the heavenly host, and it is their great joy. The gift of His Holy Spirit, rich, full, and abundant, is to be to His church as an encompassing wall of fire, which the powers of hell shall not prevail against. In their untainted purity and spotless perfection, Christ looks upon His people as the reward of all His suffering, His humiliation, and His love, and the supplement of His glory--Christ, the great center from which radiates all glory.
------------------------Object of God's Tenderest Care, October 3
HP	283	1	In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Ephesians 2:21, 22.
HP	283	2	The living church of God is individually a habitation of God through the Spirit, that man may become a well-built temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God, that the Lord Jesus Christ may dwell in his innermost being, ennobling and sanctifying his human nature by His divine attributes.
HP	283	3	The church of Christ is to be in the world but not of the world. In calling His people together in church capacity, God designs that they shall form one Christian family and daily be fitting for membership in the family above.
HP	283	4	God thus forms the believers in His Word in one body, that their influence may be a blessing to one another and to the world. Each member converted reveals a transformation of character, and he is strengthened and sustained by the courage and faith of the whole. The weakest saint, if he believes in Christ, is a member of Christ's body; and if he lives in humble dependence upon God, he will become strong; for he has a right to all the privileges of a child of God.
HP	283	5	The church is the object of God's tenderest love and care. If the members will allow Him, He will reveal His character through them. He says to them, "Ye are the light of the world." Those who walk and talk with God practice the gentleness of Christ. In their lives, forbearance, meekness, and self-restraint are united with holy earnestness and diligence. As they advance heavenward, the sharp, rough edges of character are worn off, and godliness is seen. The Holy Spirit, full of grace and power, works upon mind and heart.
HP	283	6	Christ has made provision that His church shall be a transformed body illumined with the light of heaven, possessing the glory of Immanuel. It is His purpose that every Christian shall be surrounded with a spiritual atmosphere of light and peace.
HP	283	7	There is no limit to the usefulness of the one who, putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon the heart and lives a life wholly consecrated to God.
------------------------"The Apple of His Eye", October 4
HP	284	1	For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. Zechariah 2:8.
HP	284	2	The church of Christ, enfeebled and defective as it may be, is the only object on earth on which He bestows His supreme regard.... The Lord has a people, a chosen people, His church, to be His own, His own fortress, which He holds in a sin-stricken, revolted world.
HP	284	3	The church is the property of God, and God constantly remembers her as she stands in the world, subject to the temptations of Satan. Christ has never forgotten the days of His humiliation. In passing from the scenes of His humiliation, Jesus has lost none of His humanity. He has the same tender, pitying love, and is ever touched with human woe. He ever bears in mind that He was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. He forgets not His representative people who are striving to uphold His downtrodden law. He knows that the world that hated Him, hates them. Although Jesus Christ has passed into the heavens, there is still a living chain binding His believing ones to His own heart of infinite love. The most lowly and weak are bound by a chain of sympathy closely to His heart. He never forgets that He is our representative, that He bears our nature.
HP	284	4	Jesus sees His true church on the earth, whose greatest ambition is to cooperate with Him in the grand work of saving souls. He hears their prayers, presented in contrition and power, and Omnipotence cannot resist their plea for the salvation of any tried, tempted member of Christ's body.... Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us. Through our Redeemer what blessings may not the true believer receive? The church, soon to enter upon her most severe conflict, will be the object most dear to God upon earth.
HP	284	5	The confederacy of evil will be stirred with power from beneath, and Satan will cast all the reproach possible upon the chosen ones whom he cannot deceive and delude with his satanic inventions and falsehoods. But exalted "to be a Prince and a Saviour, ..." (Acts 5:31), will Christ, our representative and head, close His heart, or withdraw His hand, or falsify His promise? No; never, never.
------------------------Fitting Up for Heaven's Mansions, October 5
HP	285	1	That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:27
HP	285	2	Christ is soon coming in the clouds of heaven, and we must be prepared to meet Him, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.... The converting power of God must be upon our hearts. We must study the life of Christ, and imitate the divine Pattern. We must dwell upon the perfection of His character, and be changed into His image. No one will enter the kingdom of God unless his will is brought into captivity to the will of Christ.
HP	285	3	Professed Christians keep altogether too near the lowlands of earth. Their eyes are trained to see only commonplace things, and their minds dwell upon the things their eyes behold. Their religious experience is often shallow and unsatisfying, and their words are light and valueless. How can such reflect the image of Christ? How can they send forth the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness? ...
HP	285	4	Heaven is free from all sin, from all defilement and impurity; and if we would live in its atmosphere, if we would behold the glory of Christ, we must be pure in heart, perfect in character through His grace and righteousness. We must not be taken up with pleasure and amusement, but be fitting up for the glorious mansions Christ has gone to prepare for us....
HP	285	5	Christ is soon coming in glory; and when His majesty is revealed, the world will wish that they had His favor. At that time we shall all desire a place in the mansions of heaven; but those who do not confess Christ now in word, in life, in character, cannot expect that He will confess them then before His Father and the holy angels....
HP	285	6	Oh, how happy will those be who have made themselves ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb, who are robed in the righteousness of Christ, and reflect His lovely image! They will have on the pure white linen which is the righteousness of the saints, and Christ will lead them by the side of living waters; God will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and they will have the life that runs parallel with the life of God.
------------------------Loyal to the Family Name, October 6
HP	286	1	For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Galatians 3:27.
HP	286	2	Those who take the name of Christian pledge themselves to be true to God. They are bound up with Him and the heavenly angels in family relation.... Their actions in every respect are to be such as become saints. All that is unbecoming is to be discarded. They are to live a new and holy life....
HP	286	3	Like a brave soldier you are to obey your Captain's orders, even if in so doing you sacrifice your life.... Mind and body are now to be treated with the greatest respect, for they are Christ's. Day by day they are to be improved, that to the earnest gaze of the heavenly angels they may reveal that Christ has not died for you in vain.
HP	286	4	When you took the name of Christian you promised in this life to prepare for the higher life in the kingdom of God. To be a Christian means to be Christlike. Not a satanic feature is to remain on mind or body, which are to reveal comeliness, purity, integrity, and dignity. Take the Christlife as your pattern. Keep eternity before your view. Then you will in some degree approach Christ's appreciation of the heritage which cost Him so much.
HP	286	5	Let those who work for Christ keep their principles pure. Let the life be untainted by any polluting practice. All heaven is interested in the restoration of the moral image of God in man. All heaven is working to this end. God and the holy angels have an intense desire that human beings shall reach the standard of perfection which Christ died to make it possible for them to reach. It is His desire that we shall be one with Christ, complete in Christ, that we shall be heirs of heaven; but we are left free to choose. God calls upon us to make our choice on the right side, to connect with heavenly agencies, to adopt principles which have a reviving, restoring influence, which will restore in us the moral image lost through disobedience. As by faith we adopt the principles which characterize the life of Christ, they are in the soul as a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life. The soul overflows with the riches of the grace of Christ, and this overflow refreshes other souls.
------------------------A Relationship of Interdependence, October 7
HP	287	1	And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 1 Corinthians 12:26, 27.
HP	287	2	In the Lord's plan human beings have been made necessary to one another. To every one God has entrusted talents, to be used in helping others to walk in the path of right. It is by unselfish service for others that we improve and increase our talents.
HP	287	3	Like the different parts of a machine, all are closely related to one another, and all dependent upon one great Center. There is to be unity in diversity. No member of the Lord's firm can work successfully in independence. Each is to work under the supervision of God; all are to use their entrusted capabilities in His service, that each may minister to the perfection of the whole....
HP	287	4	He who claims to be a Christian should examine himself and see if he is as kind and considerate of his fellow beings as he desires his fellow beings to be of him.... Christ taught that rank or wealth should make no difference in our treatment of one another and that in the light of heaven all are brethren. Earthly possessions or worldly honor do not count in God's valuation of man. He created all men equal; He is no respecter of persons. He values a man according to the virtue of his character.
HP	287	5	To possess true godliness means to love one another, to help one another, to make apparent the religion of Jesus in our lives. We are to be consecrated channels through which the love of Christ flows to those who need help.... He who approaches nearest to obedience to the divine law will be of the most service to God. He who follows Christ, reaching out after His goodness, His compassion, His love for the human family, will be accepted by God as a worker together with Him....
HP	287	6	When the Lord's people are filled with meekness and tenderness for one another, they will realize that His banner over them is love and His fruit will be sweet to their taste. Heaven will begin on earth. They will make a heaven below in which to prepare for heaven above.
------------------------One Brotherhood, October 8
HP	288	1	Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest. Revelation 15:4.
HP	288	2	Christ would have us realize that our interests are one. A divine Saviour died for all, that all might find in Him their divine source. In Christ Jesus we are one. By the utterance of one name, "Our Father," we are lifted to the same rank. We become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. His principles of truth bind heart to heart, be they rich or poor, high or low.
HP	288	3	When the Holy Spirit moves upon human minds all petty complaints and accusations between man and his fellow man will be put away. The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness will shine into the chambers of the mind and heart. In our worship of God there will be no distinction between rich and poor, white and black. All prejudice will be melted away. When we approach God it will be as one brotherhood. We are pilgrims and strangers, bound for a better country, even a heavenly. There all pride, all accusation, all self-deception, will forever have an end. Every mask will be laid aside, and we shall "see him as he is."
HP	288	4	Our house of worship may be very humble, but it is none the less acknowledged by God. If we worship in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness, it will be to us the very gate of heaven. As lessons of the wondrous works of God are repeated, and as the heart's gratitude is expressed in prayer and song, angels from heaven take up the strain and unite in praise and thanksgiving to God. These exercises drive back the power of Satan. They expel murmurings and complainings, and Satan loses ground.
HP	288	5	God teaches us that we should assemble in His house to cultivate the attributes of perfect love. This will fit the dwellers of earth for the mansions Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him, where, from Sabbath to Sabbath, from one new moon to another, they will assemble in the sanctuary to unite in loftier strains of song, in thanksgiving and praise to Him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.
------------------------Helping One Another, October 9
HP	289	1	But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Ephesians 4:15.
HP	289	2	I wish we could have a pledge in our hearts that we would not utter any one word against a brother or a sister. Remember that they also are tempted, it may be more strongly than you.... Those who are really the most erring are in greatest need of your help. Do not gossip about them and make remarks about their character, but go to them in the love of Jesus and the love of the truth and try to help them....
HP	289	3	When you are troubled with doubts, and darkness compasses your own soul, the very best course you can pursue to get out of this darkness is to help someone else who is discouraged. As you try to lift others up, behold, you lift up yourself into close connection with God. As you show kindness to others you will help yourself, for the same will be reflected back upon you. The man who has the most of Christ in the soul will manifest the tenderest sympathy for the souls who need help....
HP	289	4	You will always have erring ones among you, and here is where you can show a Christian character. Do not push them away from you, but if you have light seek to let it shine upon them, and in this way you can help them toward heaven. Every soul that has the spirit of Christ will work the works of Christ. And if any see one wandering away from Christ, he will feel as Christ did about the lost sheep. There were ninety and nine in the fold, but He went out after the one that had strayed away. This is the spirit we should manifest. As children of God we should walk in the light, and as we follow in the light we shall lighten the path for others. Let us cultivate gratitude to God and then we shall not get our eyes upon little difficulties. And although our brethren and sisters may err, shall we err? We have faults, as well as they, and we want compassion, as well as they; we should have compassion for one another.
HP	289	5	"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Colossians 3:16). Here is the privilege of the Christian.
------------------------Living by the Golden Rule, October 10
HP	290	1	Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Luke 6:37.
HP	290	2	The duty of every Christian is plainly outlined in the words: "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over." "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise" (verses 37, 38, 31). These are the principles that we shall do well to cherish....
HP	290	3	Let not those who themselves have sinned against God refuse to forgive a repentant sinner. Just as they deal with a fellow being who in spirit or in action has done wrong and has afterward repented, so God will deal with them for their defects of character. He who does not show mercy to his fellow men cannot expect to be shielded by the mercy of God. He himself is dependent on the mercy that God has enjoined him to exercise in seeking to restore every unsaved soul brought within the sphere of his influence. If he refuses to cultivate this divine grace, he himself will suffer the result of his neglect....
HP	290	4	We should remember that all make mistakes; even men and women who have had years of experience sometimes err. But God does not cast them off because of their errors; to every erring son and daughter of Adam He gives the privilege of another trial. The true follower of Jesus manifests a Christlike spirit toward his erring brother. Instead of speaking in condemnation, he remembers the words, "He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins" (James 5:20).
HP	290	5	In the church militant men will be ever in need of restoration from the results of sin. The one who in some respects is superior to another is in other respects inferior to him. Every human being is subject to temptation and in need of brotherly interest and sympathy. The exercise of mercy in our daily relations with one another is one of the most effective means of attaining perfection of character, for only those who walk with Christ can be truly merciful.
------------------------Help for the Erring, October 11
HP	291	1	Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Galatians 6:1.
HP	291	2	God is love, God is life. It is the prerogative of God to redeem, reconstruct, and restore. Before the foundation of the world the Son of God was given to die, and redemption is the mystery that was "kept in silence through times eternal" (Romans 16:25, R.V.). Yet sin is unexplainable, and no reason can be found for its existence. No soul knows what God is until he sees himself a sinner in the light from the cross of Calvary; but when in his great need he cries out for a sin-pardoning Saviour, God is revealed to him as gracious and merciful, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. The work of Christ is to redeem, to restore, to seek and to save that which was lost. If we are connected with Christ, we also are partakers of the divine nature and are to be laborers together with God. We are to bind up the bruised and wounded soul; and if a brother or a sister has erred, we are not to join with the enemy in destroying and ruining, but to work with Christ to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.
HP	291	3	The foundation of our hope in Christ is the fact that we recognize ourselves as sinners in need of restoration and redemption. It is because we are sinners that we have courage to claim Him as our Saviour. Then let us take heed lest we deal with the erring in a way that would say to others that we have no need of redemption. Let us not denounce, condemn, and destroy as though we were faultless. It is the work of Christ to mend, to heal, to restore. God is love.... He ... gives Satan no occasion for triumphing by making the worst appear or by exposing our weaknesses to our enemies.
HP	291	4	Christ came to bring salvation within the reach of all.... The most erring, the most sinful, were not passed by; His labors were especially for those who most needed the salvation He came to bring. The greater their need of reform, the deeper was His interest, the greater His sympathy, and the more earnest His labors. His great heart of love was stirred to its depths for the ones whose condition was most hopeless and who most needed His transforming grace.
------------------------Dealing with Evil Reports, October 12
HP	292	1	Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Matthew 18:15.
HP	292	2	"Above all things," the apostle writes, "have fervent charity among yourselves" (1 Peter 4:8). Do not listen to reports against a brother or a sister. Be very cautious how you take up a reproach against your neighbor. Ask the one who brings the accusation if he has obeyed the word of God in regard to this matter. Christ has left explicit directions as to what should be done. Go to your brother and tell him his fault between him and you alone. Do not excuse yourself from this, saying, There is no personal grievance between the one who is accused and myself. The rules given by Christ are so definite, so explicit, that this excuse is not valid.
HP	292	3	Whether or not the grievance is between you and the one accused, the injunction of Christ is the same. Your brother needs help. Tell him, not someone else, that reports are being circulated about him. Give him opportunity to explain. It is possible that the reports are false and that the difficulties may be adjusted by some simple explanation. This treatment is due every one supposed to be in error.
HP	292	4	Paul says, "If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted" (Galatians 6:1).... These words are the injunction of Heaven, and they are to be brought into the daily practice. If one is at fault, instead of telling someone else of this, go to the one you think to be in error, and tenderly and respectfully, as you would wish to be treated were you in his place, tell him of his mistake. If he is not told of his fault, but instead there are surmisings among others, and no effort is made to save the erring one by telling him of his danger, how will God look upon those who do this cruel work?
HP	292	5	God declares, "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10). All have the same sinful nature. All are liable to make mistakes. No one is perfect. The Lord Jesus died for the erring that they might be forgiven. It is not our work to condemn. Christ did not come to condemn, but to save.
------------------------"Have Fervent Charity", October 13
HP	293	1	And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8.
HP	293	2	Followers of Christ will not exhibit characteristics that are cheap and selfish, but in word, spirit, and action they will reveal the tenderness of Christ.... A domineering, overbearing spirit is not of God and should not be exercised toward believers or unbelievers, however lowly may be their station. Christians are required to represent Christ in all their dealings with those for whom He has given His precious life....
HP	293	3	He who continually beholds Christ will make it manifest in his spirit, in his words, in his course of action. He will not crowd anyone, will not push tried souls into stronger temptation or indifferently leave them on Satan's battleground. He will reach out a hand to help and seek to draw souls upward and heavenward. As a laborer together with God he will see to it that the feet of the tempted ones are firmly planted on the Rock of Ages....
HP	293	4	There is no limit to the forgiving love of Christ.... We should let those who are in danger understand that we appreciate them, that we are not willing to give them up. Speak to them, pray with them, and exhort them in love....
HP	293	5	The religion of the Bible is to guide the conduct of everyone who sincerely believes in Christ. The Bible must guide us in our dealings in daily life. We may make a profession of being followers of Christ, and yet if we are not doers of His Word we shall be like the counterfeit coin. We shall not have the right ring. Everyone of us is a member of the human family. We owe it to God to love Him, to manifest affection for Him in our ways and words. We owe it to every member of the human family, whether black or white, high or low, to treat him with kindness and to manifest interest for his soul. As members of one family we are all brethren....
HP	293	6	Children of God are citizens of heaven. They are the purchase of the Son of God, His blood-bought family. Every soul is precious in His sight, more precious than fine gold, even the golden wedge of Ophir.
------------------------Strength for the Weak, October 14
HP	294	1	Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Revelation 3:2.
HP	294	2	There are many ready to die spiritually, and the Lord calls upon us to strengthen them. God's people are to be firmly united in the bonds of Christian fellowship and are to be strengthened in the faith by speaking often to one another about the precious truths entrusted to them....
HP	294	3	There is spiritual power for all who will seek for it with intensity of purpose. These will become partakers of the divine nature, for they have cooperated with God. Influence will be given them, to be increased by a right use. They will be given an enlargement of power proportionate to their desire to do the will of God....
HP	294	4	Jesus declares that the Father is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him than parents are to give good gifts to their children. The Holy Spirit understands man's every necessity. He will bestow upon the earnest seeker that for which he hungers and thirsts. The blessings that God has to bestow are unlimited. We cannot comprehend their height and depth and breadth. All heaven is at the command of those who, realizing their lack of wisdom, come directly to the source of wisdom. To such ones God gives liberally and upbraids not. But let them ask in faith, nothing wavering.... The one who receives wisdom from on high is the one who holds fast to the promise, the one who feels his need, and will not be turned aside....
HP	294	5	"Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy" (verse 4). Because of their faith this honor is bestowed on them. In this life they did not boast, nor lift up their souls unto vanity. With intensity of desire, with a pure, holy faith, they grasped the promise of eternal riches. Their one desire was to be like Christ. Ever they kept the standard of righteousness uplifted. To them is given an eternal weight of glory, because on the earth they walked with God, keeping themselves unspotted from the world, revealing to their fellow beings the righteousness of Christ.
------------------------A Helping Hand for the Despairing, October 15
HP	295	1	Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. James 5:19, 20.
HP	295	2	There are many who err and who feel their shame and folly. They look upon their mistakes and errors until they are driven almost to desperation. These souls we are not to neglect. When one has to swim against the stream, there is all the force of the current driving him back. Let a helping hand then be held out to him as was the Elder Brother's hand to the sinking Peter. Speak to him hopeful words....
HP	295	3	Thy brother, sick in spirit, needs thee as thou thyself has needed a brother's love. He needs the experience of one who has been as weak as he, one who can sympathize with him and help him. The knowledge of our own weakness should help us to help another in his need. Never should we pass by one suffering soul without seeking to impart to him the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
HP	295	4	It is fellowship with Christ, personal contact with a living Saviour, that enables the mind and heart and soul to triumph over the lower nature. Tell the wanderer of an almighty Hand that will hold him up, of an infinite humanity in Christ that pities him. It is not enough for him to believe in law and force, things that have no pity and never hear the call for help. He needs to clasp a hand that is warm, to trust in a heart full of tenderness. Keep his mind stayed on the thought of a divine presence ever beside him, ever looking upon him with pitying love. Bid him think of a Father's heart that ever grieves over sin, of a Father's hand stretched out still, of a Father's voice saying, "Let him take hold of my strength, and make peace with me ..." (Isaiah 27:5).
HP	295	5	As you engage in this work you have companions unseen by human eyes. Angels of heaven were beside the Samaritan who cared for the wounded stranger. Angels from the heavenly courts stand by the side of all who do God's service in ministering to their fellow men. And you have the cooperation of Christ Himself. He is the restorer, and as you work under His supervision you will see great results.
------------------------Courtesy Toward All, October 16
HP	296	1	Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. 1 Peter 3:8.
HP	296	2	"Be courteous," is a Bible injunction. We all have our peculiar temperaments. Some have very quick tempers; some are inclined to be morose, some stubborn, and others coarse and rough, unkind in words. Therefore we need to cultivate our tempers, take ourselves in hand....Soften whatever is harsh in your temper and burnish off the rough edges of your character.
HP	296	3	Never be sour and harsh at any time. Abstain from frowns and contempt, however much you may feel them. You should win respect by being respectful and courteous. Treat every one with civility; they are the purchase of the blood of Christ. If you seek to imitate Christ in your character, the impression upon the people will not be made by you, but by the angels of God that stand right by your side; they will touch the hearts of those to whom you speak.
HP	296	4	Those who hope to be the companions of holy angels should possess refined manners. If the principles of the Christian religion are carried out in the daily life, there will be a kind thoughtfulness for others, for this was characteristic of Christ. Then, although a man may be poor, he will have true dignity, for he is God's nobleman.
HP	296	5	Christianity will make a man a gentleman. We are the purchase of Christ's blood, and we are to represent Him, to pattern after Him. And He was courteous, even to His persecutors. The true follower of Jesus manifests the same mild, self-sacrificing spirit that marked the life of his Master. Look at Paul when brought before rulers. His speech before Agrippa is a model of dignified courtesy as well as persuasive eloquence. I would not encourage the formal politeness current with the world, which is destitute of the true spirit of courtesy, but the politeness that springs from real kindness of feeling.
HP	296	6	In Christ a greater example has been given us than that of either patriarch or apostle. Here we have genuine courtesy illustrated. This virtue ran parallel with His life, clothing it with a softened and refined beauty, and shedding its luster over every action.
------------------------Deliverance for the Oppressed, October 17
HP	297	1	As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. Deuteronomy 32:11, 12.
HP	297	2	The Captain of our salvation strengthens His followers, not with scientific falsehoods, but with genuine faith in the word of a personal God. This word is repeated over and over and over again with deeper affirmative power. Satan brings all his powers to the assault in the last close conflict, and the endurance of the follower of Christ is taxed to the utmost. At times it seems that he must yield. But a word of prayer to the Lord Jesus goes like an arrow to the throne of God, and angels of God are sent to the field of battle. The tide is turned. The wondrous light that shines in the face of Jesus Christ has stopped the mouth of the caviling opponents. Under the power of the spell that is upon them their lips are closed, and the oppressed are delivered. The believing, harassed souls are borne up as on eagles' wings, and the victory is gained.
HP	297	3	God calls upon His people to prepare themselves for scenes of severe conflict. Take up your duties in a meek and lowly spirit. Ever face your enemies in the strength of Jesus. Discharge with faithfulness every duty. Realize that you must now obtain by daily conversion and humility an unquestioning trust in the One who has all power and who will not leave you to be destroyed. You may know Christ by personal experience.... In the trials of these last days Christ will be made unto His people wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.... They are to develop an experience that will be a convincing power in the world....
HP	297	4	What wonderful lessons we shall learn as the result of depending constantly on the sufficiency of Christ. He who is learning these lessons need not depend on another's experience. He has the witness in himself, and his experience is the actual knowledge that Christ is all-sufficient, faithful, and powerful. He has the realization of the promise, "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9). "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able" (1 Corinthians 10:13).
------------------------Followers of the Lamb, October 18
HP	298	1	These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. Revelation 14:4, 5.
HP	298	2	The Lord has a people on the earth, who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. He has His thousands who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Such will stand with Him on Mount Zion. But they must stand on this earth, girded with the whole armor, ready to engage in the work of saving those who are ready to perish....
HP	298	3	We need not wait till we are translated to follow Christ. God's people may do this here below. We shall follow the Lamb of God in the courts above only if we follow Him here.... We are not to follow Christ fitfully or capriciously, only when it is for our advantage. We must choose to follow Him. In daily life we must follow His example, as a flock trustfully follows its shepherd. We are to follow Him by suffering for His sake, saying at every step, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15). His life practice must be our life practice. And as we thus seek to be like Him and to bring our wills into conformity to His will we shall reveal Him.
HP	298	4	We are not in a dreamland of inaction. We are soldiers of Christ, enlisted in the work of showing our loyalty to Him who has redeemed us. What we are in the heavenly home, when saved, eternally saved, will be the reflection of what we now are in character and holy service. Shall we not show our loyalty by keeping God's commandments here, in this our place of probation? ...
HP	298	5	Are we following Christ with unswerving loyalty, keeping His life of perfect obedience, of purity and self-sacrifice, ever before us that by beholding we may become changed into His image? Do we strive to imitate His fidelity? If we educate ourselves to say, Be Thou my Pattern; if by the eye of faith we see Him as a living Saviour, we shall be strengthened to follow Him. Then with the undefiled we shall follow Him in the future life. As eye- and heart-witnesses we can bear testimony to His majesty, for by faith we have been with Him in the holy mount.
------------------------Ever Remember Your High Calling, October 19
HP	299	1	Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. 2 Peter 1:12.
HP	299	2	No matter how long we may have been traveling in the way of life eternal we need often to recount the mercies of our heavenly Father toward us and gather hope and courage from the promises of His Word....Peter realized the value of constant vigilance in the Christian life, and he felt impelled by the Holy Spirit to urge upon the believers the importance of exercising great carefulness in the daily life....
HP	299	3	"Always in remembrance." Oh, if only we were to keep before our minds those things that pertain to our eternal welfare, we should not engage in any foolishness or idle speaking! Our lifework is before us. It is for us to give diligence to make our calling and election sure, by giving heed to the plain instruction contained in God's Holy Word....
HP	299	4	There are many wrong things which we allow to pass by unnoticed, when by our godly conversation we might set an example of rightdoing that would be a standing rebuke to the evildoers. We cannot afford by our example to seem to sanction wrongdoing. There is a heaven to win and a hell to shun. In large churches of believers... there is special danger of lowering the standard. Where many are gathered together some are more liable to grow careless and indifferent than they would be if isolated and made to stand alone. But even under adverse circumstances we may watch unto prayer and set an example in godly conversation that will be a powerful testimony for the right.... We cannot afford to speak words that would discourage our fellow pilgrims in the Christian pathway. Christ has given His life in order that we might live with Him in glory. Throughout eternity He will bear in His hands the prints of the cruel nails by which He was transfixed to the cross of Calvary....
HP	299	5	We are now fitting up for the future, eternal life; and soon, if faithful, we shall see the gates of the city of our God swing back on their glittering hinges that the nations who have kept the truth may enter in to their eternal inheritance.
------------------------Christlike Through Self-denial, October 20
HP	300	1	Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24.
HP	300	2	The most difficult sermon to preach and the hardest to practice is self-denial. The greedy sinner, self, closes the door to the good which might be done but which is not done because shillings and pounds [written in australia when these were standard monetary units] are invested in selfish purposes. We may never have opportunity to do great things; we may never be required to make sublime sacrifices. But the greatest victory we can gain is to follow Jesus.... Every day that Christ lived in our world was for Him a day of self-denial. If we would follow Him over the rugged path of self-denial ... this denial must be carried into the everyday occurrences and actions of our life....
HP	300	3	The world's policy is to acquire money and advantages in any way that they can be obtained. An accumulation of this world's treasure is the ambition of worldlings. The aim and object of the followers of our Lord Jesus Christ is to become Christlike by self-denial and self-sacrifice. They keep their eyes on the eternal riches which they can obtain by renouncing earthly treasure for heavenly treasure. Here are the conditions: He that will be My disciple, let him forsake all, and follow Me. Keep Christ in view, following where He leads the way....
HP	300	4	"It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).... Self-denial will bring into the treasury of God the means necessary to advance His work. Thus we may act in copartnership with Christ. Christ's followers consider that in giving back to the Lord His own they are receiving a blessing; for they are accumulating heavenly treasure, which will be given to them when they shall hear the "Well done, good and faithful servant; ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Matthew 25:23). What is that joy? "Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). The joy of seeing souls redeemed, souls eternally saved, is the privilege of those who have overcome obstacles in order to put their feet in the footprints of Him who said, "Follow me."
------------------------The Peril of Riches, October 21
HP	301	1	Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Mark 10:24, 25.
HP	301	2	It is God's plan that riches should be used properly, distributed to bless the needy and to advance the work of God. If men love their riches better than they love their fellow men, better than they love God or the truths of His Word, if their hearts are on their riches, they cannot have eternal life.... Here souls are proved; and like the rich young man, many go away sorrowful because they cannot have their riches and a treasure in heaven too....
HP	301	3	"With God all things are possible" (verse 27).... Truth, sent home to the heart by the Spirit of God, will crowd out the love of riches. The love of Jesus and the love of money cannot dwell in the same heart. The love of God so far surpasses the love of money that the possessor breaks away from his riches and transfers his affections to God. Through love he is then led to minister to the wants of the needy and to assist the cause of God. It is his highest pleasure to make a right disposition of his Lord's goods. He holds all that he has as not his own, and faithfully discharges his duty as God's steward.... In this way it is possible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God....
HP	301	4	Some give of their abundance, yet feel no lack. They do not practice self-denial for the cause of Christ. They give liberally and heartily, but they still have all that heart can wish. God regards it. The action and motive are strictly marked by Him, and they will not lose their reward.
HP	301	5	But those who have less means must not excuse themselves because they cannot do as much as some others. Do what you can. Deny yourself of some article you can do without and sacrifice for the cause of God. Like the poor widow, cast in your two mites. You will actually give more than all those who give of their abundance; and you will know how sweet it is to deny self, to give to the needy, to sacrifice for the truth, and to lay up treasure in heaven.
------------------------God's Prior Claims, October 22
HP	302	1	And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth. Deuteronomy 8:17, 18.
HP	302	2	Those who love God supremely will realize that they are rich beyond computation in the wealth that God gives them.... Man possesses nothing to which he has an exclusive right. He does not even own himself; for he has been bought with a price, even the blood of the Son of God. Christ has a claim on all the property in our world. He can set in operation a train of circumstances which will sweep away the accumulated gain of years. He can also call in needed help for His children....
HP	302	3	It is God who gives man the breath of life. We cannot originate; we can only collect that which God has originated. He is our guardian, our counsellor; and more than this, from His liberal supply we derive all the skill, tact, and ability that we possess.... All you possess is His gift, for you had nothing with which to create or purchase it. It is given you, not to become a wedge to separate you from Him, but to help you in doing His service.
HP	302	4	The moment a man loses sight of the fact that his capabilities and possessions are the Lord's, that moment he is embezzling his Lord's goods. He is acting the part of an unjust steward, provoking the Lord to transfer His goods to more faithful hands. God calls upon those to whom He has entrusted His goods to handle them faithfully, to show to the world that they are laboring for the salvation of sinners. He calls upon those who profess to be under His supervision not to misrepresent Him in character.... He daily loadeth us with benefits.... Let us glorify Him by imparting to others the abundance He has bestowed upon us.
HP	302	5	O for love, sacred, holy, unselfish love! Let us, as the Lord's representatives, realize what a terrible thing it is to misrepresent the Saviour by revealing selfishness. God calls upon His sons and daughters to show to the world that He is not selfish, but full of liberal, unselfish plans. He is waiting for channels through which to communicate the wealth of His love.
------------------------God's Plan for Support of His Work, October 23
HP	303	1	The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 11:25.
HP	303	2	The Lord has made the proclamation of the gospel dependent on the consecrated ability and the voluntary gifts and offerings of His people. While He has called men to preach the Word, He has made it the privilege of the whole church to share in the work by contributing of their means to its support. And He has bidden them also to care for the poor, as representatives of Himself. A tithe of all our income the Lord claims as His own, to be devoted solely to the support of those who give themselves to the preaching of the gospel. And besides this He asks of us gifts and offerings for His cause and also to supply the needs of the poor....
HP	303	3	The Lord is ever bestowing His blessings and mercies upon men. Should He withdraw these gifts we should perish. Every moment He has His human family in view. "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45). He gives us "fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17). It is God who gives men power to get wealth. The quick, sharp thought, the ability to plan and execute, are from Him. It is He who blesses us with health and opens ways for us to acquire means by diligent use of our powers. And he says to us, "A portion of the money I have enabled you to gain is Mine. Put it into the treasury in tithes, in gifts and offerings, that there may be meat in Mine house--that there may be something to sustain those who carry the gospel of My grace to the world."
HP	303	4	God might have carried forward His work in the world, and have provided for the poor, without the cooperation of man. He asks for our service and our gifts, not only that we may thus manifest our love for Him and our fellow men but because the service and sacrifice for the good of others will strengthen the spirit of beneficence in the giver's heart, allying us more closely to Him who was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. And it is only as we thus imitate the Saviour's example that our characters will be developed in His likeness.
------------------------The Bible Rules for Giving, October 24
HP	304	1	Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee. Deuteronomy 16:17.
HP	304	2	A beautiful illustration of that spirit of love and self-sacrifice which the grace of Christ implants in the heart is given in the experience of the Macedonian Christians. The apostle Paul writes of them: "In a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.... Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God" (2 Corinthians 8:2-5). And wherever the Spirit of Christ abides the same fruits will be manifested.
HP	304	3	In the Bible system of tithes and offerings the amounts paid by different persons will of course vary greatly, since they are proportioned to the income. With the poor man the tithe will be a comparatively small sum, and his gifts will be according to his ability. But it is not the greatness of the gift that makes the offering acceptable to God; it is the purpose of the heart, the spirit of gratitude and love that it expresses. Let not the poor feel that their gifts are so small as to be unworthy of notice. Let them give according to their ability, feeling that they are servants of God, and that He will accept their offering.
HP	304	4	The one to whom God has entrusted a large capital will not, if he loves and fears God, find it a burden to meet the demands of an enlightened conscience according to the claims of God. The rich will be tempted to indulge in selfishness and avarice, and to withhold from the Lord His own, but he who is true to God will, when tempted, answer to Satan, "It is written," "Will a man rob God?" ...
HP	304	5	Those who keep eternal realities in view, who love the Lord with all the heart and soul and strength, and their neighbor as themselves, will conscientiously do their whole duty, as if the curtain were rolled back and they could see that they were working in view of the heavenly universe.... All who possess ... the spirit of Christ will with cheerful alacrity press their gifts into the Lord's treasury.
------------------------Settle Your Accounts with Heaven, October 25
HP	305	1	Freely ye have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8.
HP	305	2	Jesus gave His life for you. Like a child who has full confidence in his parents, and who is not troubled for fear of being taken advantage of and misused, you may rest in God with perfect confidence that He will be to you a friend and a helper....
HP	305	3	It is not for you to expect every blessing of God and return nothing. Through Christ we possess all things; without Christ we should have had nothing but poverty, misery, and despair. Shall we respond to this love which Jesus has bestowed upon us? To be sons of God is to possess all things. What more can you want? If the Christian is not content with such an inheritance, nothing can give him contentment. We are indebted to the Lord for all we possess. Then let us return to the Giver all that He claims as His own. Let us not commit robbery toward God....
HP	305	4	He who so loved man that He came from the realms of bliss, from His royal throne, and humiliated Himself to clothe His divinity with humanity, has given us unmistakable tokens of His love and the value He places upon man. He who has made for us this infinite sacrifice summons us to estimate the value of the soul, to strike the balance between earthly gain and heavenly loss, between temporal success and everlasting failure....
HP	305	5	Christ points you away from the earthly to the heavenly. He invites you to lay up your treasures above.... Will you say as you present your offering to God, Of Thine own, O Lord, we freely give Thee? ... All the means you may give will not buy for you salvation. You must give yourself. In surrendering yourself to the claims and influences of the Saviour your life may be as a fruitful branch in a beautiful vine. The fruits of the Spirit may adorn it. Clusters of rich graces will appear, such as love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, and meekness, which will make it attractive....
HP	305	6	I entreat of you to send your treasure before you into heaven by using the Lord's goods to advance His cause in the earth.... Settle your accounts with high heaven.
------------------------"A Memorial Before God", October 26
HP	306	1	Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. Acts 10:4.
HP	306	2	It is a wonderful favor for any man in this life to be commended of God as was Cornelius. And what was the ground of this approval? "Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God."
HP	306	3	Neither prayer nor almsgiving has any virtue in itself to recommend the sinner to God; the grace of Christ, through His atoning sacrifice, can alone renew the heart and make our service acceptable to God. This grace had moved upon the heart of Cornelius. The Spirit of Christ had spoken to his soul; Jesus had drawn him, and he had yielded to the drawing. His prayer and alms were not urged or extorted from him; they were not a price he was seeking to pay in order to secure heaven, but they were the fruit of love and gratitude to God.
HP	306	4	Such prayer from a sincere heart ascends as incense before the Lord; and offerings to His cause and gifts to the needy and suffering are a sacrifice well pleasing to Him. Thus the gifts of the Philippian brethren, who ministered to the needs of the apostle Paul while a prisoner at Rome, are said to be "an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God" (Philippians 4:18).
HP	306	5	Prayer and almsgiving are closely linked together--the expression of love to God and to our fellow men. They are the outworking of the two great principles of the divine law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength": and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Mark 12:30, 31). Thus while our gifts cannot recommend us to God or earn His favor, they are an evidence that we have received the grace of Christ. They are a test of the sincerity of our profession of love.
HP	306	6	The offerings that are the fruit of self-denial prompted by love are represented by the words spoken by God to Cornelius [Acts 10:4 quoted].... Who does not desire such memorials--deeds which are before God as a voice speaking in behalf of the human agent, keeping our names fresh and fragrant in the heavenly sanctuary?
------------------------Where Are Your Affections? October 27
HP	307	1	If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:1, 2.
HP	307	2	We may have high anticipations in regard to the things of this life, but we shall meet with disappointment. We shall find that they fade away. But here is "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:4). We want our thoughts to be fixed on the things that will abide, not upon those that pass away with the using....
HP	307	3	When Christ came into this world He saw that men had left the future, eternal life out of their reckoning. He came to present that life before us, that by beholding it we might be led to change our relation to the things of this life, that our affections might be placed upon the things above, and not upon the things of the earth, so soon to pass away. The shadow that Satan has caused to intervene between our souls and God Christ seeks to roll back, that the view of God and eternity may become clear. While He does not despise this world, He places it in its proper position of subordination. And then He places the things of eternity in their relative importance before us, that we may fix the eye of faith upon the unseen. The things of temporal interest have power to engross the thoughts and affections, and it is important that we should be constantly educating and training our minds to dwell upon things of eternal interest. Will this make us unhappy? Will it cause us to have a hard time here? No, indeed.... The more of the Spirit of God, the more of His grace, is brought into our daily experience, the less friction there will be, the more happiness we shall have, and the more we shall impart to others.
HP	307	4	God does not design that eternity shall overwhelm us and unfit us for the duties of this life, and it will never do this if we accustom our minds to dwell upon the themes of eternity and mingle them with our life duties. The contemplation of eternal realities will not disqualify us for the duties of this life. All the useful pursuits and activities of life are to stand revealed to us as encircled with the hallowed rainbow of promise.
------------------------Living Above the World, October 28
HP	308	1	While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18.
HP	308	2	In His teaching, Christ sought to adjust the claims of heaven and earth.... He saw that men are in danger of cherishing an inordinate love for the world. The love of God is supplanted by a love for the world. Nothing but the power of the omnipotent God can dislodge this love. The things which are earthly and temporal lead men away from God, although the advantages to be gained are but an atom in comparison with eternal realities.... Turning away from heavenly attractions, from imperishable wealth, from peace, from nobility of soul, man pours out his affections on unworthy, unsatisfying things; and by constantly beholding this world, he becomes conformed to it. His mind, capable of elevation and privileged to grasp the eternal blessedness of the saints, turns away from an eternity of greatness and allows its powers to be chained like a slave to an atom of a world. It is humiliated and dwarfed by allegiance to worldly things.
HP	308	3	Jesus came to change this order of things, to correct this widespread evil. He lifts up His voice as the voice of God in warnings, reproofs, and entreaties, seeking to break the spell which infatuates, enslaves, and ensnares men. He ... says, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Matthew 16:26).
HP	308	4	God would have us lift ourselves above the world. Jesus, the world's Redeemer, presents before us the eternal inheritance, the immortal riches.... He takes the world from its position of boasted supremacy, placing it where it should be, subject to the spiritual and eternal world....
HP	308	5	Christ gave Himself a sacrifice for the world. He cheerfully gave His own life as a ransom for an apostate world, and he does not design that selfishness and worldliness shall exist in the hearts of His followers. Conformity to the world is expressly forbidden by the Word of God.... God's chosen ones are to be just what He meant they should be, and what the apostle declares they are--"a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men" (1 Corinthians 4:9).
------------------------The Church and the World, October 29
HP	309	1	For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2:16, 17.
HP	309	2	Many who profess to believe the Word of God do not seem to understand the deceptive working of the enemy. They do not realize that the end of time is near, but Satan knows it, and while men sleep he works. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life are controlling men and women. Satan is at work even among the people of God, to cause disunion. Selfishness, corruption, and evil of every kind are taking a firm hold upon hearts. With many the precious Word of God is neglected. A novel or a storybook engages the attention.... That which excites the imagination is eagerly devoured, while the Word of God is set aside.
HP	309	3	The world is the chief enemy of religion; for satanic forces are continually at work through the world, and it is the object of Satan to bring the church and the world into such close fellowship that their aims, their spirit, their principles, shall harmonize, and that it will be impossible to distinguish between him who professes to serve God and him who serveth Him not. The enemy works continually to push the world to the front.
HP	309	4	The command is given, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate." But it is not for you to say, I have nothing to do with my neighbor. He is buried in the world; I am not his keeper. For this very reason you should have something to say to him. The light given you, you are not to hide under a bushel.... It may be understood that you believe the seventh day is the Sabbath, that you believe in the Lord's soon return, but what good will this do your neighbor unless you carry your belief into your daily life? ... A pure example will do more to enlighten the world than all your profession....
HP	309	5	How many there are as weak as water who might have a never-failing source of strength. Heaven is ready to impart to us that we may be mighty in God and attain to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.
------------------------"Be Not Conformed", October 30
HP	310	1	And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2.
HP	310	2	Christ never leads His followers to take upon themselves vows that will unite them with those who have no connection with God....
HP	310	3	Between the worldly man and the one who is faithfully serving God there is a great gulf fixed. Upon the most momentous subjects--God and truth and eternity--their thoughts and sympathies and feelings are not in harmony. One class is ripening as wheat for the garner of God, the other as tares for the fires of destruction. How can there be unity of purpose or action between them? ...
HP	310	4	We are to beware of indulging a spirit of bigotry and intolerance. We are not to stand aside from others in a spirit that seems to say, "Come not near to me, for I am holier than thou." We are not to shut ourselves away from our fellow human beings, but are to seek to impart to them the precious truth that has blessed our own hearts.... But if we are Christians, having the spirit of Him who died to save men from their sins, we shall love the souls of our fellow men too well to countenance their sinful pleasures by our presence and our influence.... Such a course, so far from benefiting them, would only cause them to doubt the reality of our religion.... We should be firmly rooted in the conviction that whatever in any sense turns aside from truth and justice in our association and partnership with men, cannot benefit us and greatly dishonors God.
HP	310	5	The work of God for the salvation of the human family is the one work of supreme importance to be carried forward in our world. When men are willing to count all things but loss that they may win Christ, their eyes will be open to see things as they really are. Then they will turn away from the earthly attractions to the heavenly....
HP	310	6	"They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts," of the obedient, "in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not" (Malachi 3:17, 18).
------------------------Kept From the Evil, October 31
HP	311	1	I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. John 17:15.
HP	311	2	Those whose business makes it necessary for them to come in contact with worldly men should stand constantly on guard, keeping strict watch over themselves and praying always, lest the enemy take them unawares. To those of His followers who are of necessity compelled to deal with worldlings, God gives grace according to their need. If they stand ever on guard, special wisdom will be given them when they are obliged to be in the company of those who do not respect the Lord Jesus Christ. Their every transaction is to reveal the fact that they are Christians. They are to be kind and courteous in all that they say and do, showing that they are under the control and discipline of God, that they are serving the Lord Jesus Christ.
HP	311	3	The followers of Christ are to be separate from the world in principles and interests, but they are not to isolate themselves from the world. "As thou hast sent me into the world," Christ said, "even so have I also sent them into the world" (verse 18).... We are not to withdraw ourselves from the world in order to escape persecution. We are to abide among men, that the savor of divine love may be as salt to preserve the world from corruption.
HP	311	4	Hearts that respond to the influence of the Holy Spirit are the channels through which God's blessings flow. Were those who serve God removed from the earth, and His Spirit withdrawn from among men, this earth would be left to desolation and destruction. Though the wicked know it not, they owe even the blessings of this life to the presence in this world of God's people, whom they despise and oppress.... Following the instruction of Christ brings the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and this enables men and women to reveal ... the fragrance and the saving grace of the truth....
HP	311	5	Those who study the Word of God and day by day receive instruction from Christ bear the stamp of heaven's principles. A high, holy influence goes forth from them. A helpful atmosphere surrounds their souls. The pure, holy, elevated principles that they follow enable them to bear a living testimony to the power of divine grace.
------------------------Our Mission to the World, November 1
HP	312	1	As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. John 17:18.
HP	312	2	Will separation from the world, in obedience to the divine command, unfit us for the work the Lord has left us? Will it hinder us from doing good to those around us? No; the firmer hold we have on heaven, the greater will be our power of usefulness. We should study the Pattern, that the spirit which dwelt in Christ may dwell in us. The Saviour was not found among the exalted and honorable of the world. He did not spend His time among those who were seeking their ease and pleasure. He worked to help those who needed help, to save the lost and perishing, to lift up the bowed down, to break the yoke of oppression from those in bondage, to heal the afflicted, and to speak words of sympathy and consolation to the distressed and sorrowing. We are required to follow this example. The more we partake of the spirit of Christ, the more we shall seek to do for our fellow men. We shall bless the needy and comfort the distressed....
HP	312	3	Probation is about to close.... Soon the last prayer for sinners will have been offered, the last tear shed, the last warning given, the last entreaty made, and the sweet voice of mercy will be heard no more. This is why Satan is making such mighty efforts to secure men and women in his snare.... The enemy is playing the game of life for every soul. He is working to remove from us everything of a spiritual nature, and in the place of the precious graces of Christ to crowd our hearts with the evil traits of the carnal nature--hatred, evil surmising, jealousy, love of the world, love of self, love of pleasure, and the pride of life. We need to be fortified against the incoming foe, ... for unless we are watchful and prayerful these evils will enter the heart and crowd out all that is good.
HP	312	4	How great is the responsibility placed upon the disciple of Christ. How imperative the duty to reflect the light of heaven upon a world enshrouded in darkness. The deeper the surrounding gloom, the brighter should shine out the light of Christian faith and Christian example.
------------------------Battling Moral Darkness, November 2
HP	313	1	For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Isaiah 60:2.
HP	313	2	This age presents a sad picture to those whose eyes have been opened to discern the evils that prevail on every hand. The fear and love of God have almost left the world. This is the time prophesied of by Isaiah, when "darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people." Multitudes are led away by the delusions of a faithless generation and are living in the darkness of error....
HP	313	3	The baleful spirit of unbelief is found in every land and is permeating all ranks of society. It is taught freely in many of the universities, colleges, and high schools, and it comes even into the lessons taught in the common schools and the nurseries. Thousands who profess to be Christians give heed to lying spirits....
HP	313	4	The world today is in crying need of a revelation of Christ Jesus in the person of His saints. God desires that His people shall stand before the world a holy people. Why? Because there is a world to be saved by the light of gospel truth; and as the message of truth that is to call men out of darkness into God's marvelous light is given by the church, the lives of its members, sanctified by the Spirit of truth, are to bear witness to the verity of the messages proclaimed....
HP	313	5	The world is in need of a demonstration of practical Christianity. In view of the fact that those who claim to be followers of Christ are a spectacle to an unbelieving world, it behooves them to make sure that they are in right relation to God.... In order to stand as lights in the world, they need to have the clear light of the Sun of Righteousness constantly shining upon them....
HP	313	6	When God's people so fully separate themselves from evil that He can let the light of heaven rest upon them in rich measure, and shine forth from them to the world, then there will be fulfilled more fully than it has ever been fulfilled in the past the prophecy of Isaiah, ... "The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.... The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, and the force of the Gentiles shall come unto thee" (Isaiah 60:3-5).
------------------------"Arise, Shine", November 3
HP	314	1	Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1.
HP	314	2	In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light bearers. To them has been entrusted the last message of mercy for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the Word of God. What manner of persons, then, ought they to be? ...
HP	314	3	It is the purpose of God to glorify Himself in His people before the world. He longs to make them channels through which He can pour His boundless love and mercy.... Let us come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty powers of darkness. Satan is working with intensity of purpose to enslave and destroy souls. Let us take a firm stand against him. He who is fully consecrated to the service of God will be made strong for the battle. He will be strengthened with "all might." He who feels his weakness, and wrestles with God as did Jacob, saying, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me" (Genesis 32:26), will go forth with the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit. The atmosphere of heaven will surround him. He will go about doing good. His influence will be a positive force in favor of the religion of Christ.
HP	314	4	God calls for light bearers, who will fill the world with the light and peace and joy that come from Christ. He calls for humble men, men who cherish a sense of their weakness and who remember what the service of God demands of them--the propriety of speech and action which shows the power of the grace of Christ....
HP	314	5	Time is precious. The destiny of souls is in the balance. God is holding back His judgments, waiting for the message to be sounded to all. There are many who have not yet heard the testing message of truth for this time. The last call of mercy is to be proclaimed throughout the earth. Heavenly angels have long been waiting for human agents ... to cooperate with them in the great work to be done. They are waiting for you. So vast is the field, so comprehensive the design, that every sanctified heart will be pressed into service as an agent of divine power.
------------------------Light Revealed in the Life, November 4
HP	315	1	Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16.
HP	315	2	In bearing a light on a dark night, to direct the footsteps of others, frequently the light bearer becomes careless, permitting his own body to come between the light and those whom he is guiding. Thus those who follow lose the benefit of the light. This is the case with some who hold up the light of truth to others. They reveal their own selfish interests, their lack of consecration, their errors, their defects of character, all of which affect their actions and make their dark bodies conspicuous but benefit no one by the truth which they professedly believe.
HP	315	3	The light of truth should be allowed to shine so that men, by seeing the righteous course of those who know the truth, will acknowledge that there is power in the truth, because it has accomplished so great a work for those who have received it. They will fall in love with the principles of holiness that shine forth in the lives of the representatives of truth, and they will accept the truth and glorify God by consecrating themselves to Him to become lights to the world in their turn.
HP	315	4	As Abraham and other holy men of old were a light in their generation, so must God's people be a light in the world. The beams of heaven's attractive loveliness are to shine forth from us, showing the only good and right way, and ever showing the superiority of God's law above every human enactment. Bible religion is not to be hidden away in the dark. It delights to be examined. Every additional ray of light that shines upon our pathway is in God's plan a fresh element of strength, an added power by which to draw the world to God.
HP	315	5	Christ declares, "Ye are the light of the world." Christ is the source of light and power for His church. If the heart is pure and right, if godliness is dwelling there, it will be revealed in the life. It will pervade the conversation and all the relations of man to his fellow man. He will be a doer of the words of Christ.... His every action will shine with a holy luster. He will be invested with power, for the divine presence is with him.
------------------------Light Bearers on the Way to Heaven, November 5
HP	316	1	That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15.
HP	316	2	In all ages the "Spirit of Christ which was in them" has made God's true children the light of the people of their generation. Joseph was a light bearer in Egypt. In his purity and benevolence and filial love he represented Christ in the midst of a nation of idolaters. While the Israelites were on their way from Egypt to the promised land the truehearted among them were a light to the surrounding nations. Through them God was revealed to the world. From Daniel and his companions in Babylon, and from Mordecai in Persia, bright beams of light shone out amid the darkness of the kingly courts.
HP	316	3	In like manner the disciples of Christ are set as light bearers on the way to heaven; through them the Father's mercy and goodness are made manifest to a world enshrouded in the darkness of misapprehension of God. By seeing their good works, others are led to glorify the Father, who is above; for it is made manifest that there is a God on the throne of the universe whose character is worthy of praise and imitation. The divine love glowing in the heart, the Christlike harmony manifested in the life, are as a glimpse of heaven granted to men of the world.... The world watches to see what fruit is borne by professed Christians. It has a right to look for self-denial and self-sacrifice from those who claim to believe advanced truth....
HP	316	4	God has ordained that His work shall be presented to the world in distinct, holy lines. He desires His people to show by their lives the advantage of Christianity over worldliness. By His grace every provision has been made for us in all our transaction of business to demonstrate the superiority of heaven's principles over the principles of the world. We are to show that we are working upon a higher plane than that of worldliness. In all things we are to manifest purity of character, to show that the truth received and obeyed makes the receivers sons and daughters of God, children of the heavenly King, and that as such they are honest in their dealings, faithful, true, and upright in the small as well as the great things of life.
------------------------Sowing the World with Truth, November 6
HP	317	1	Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Matthew 28:19, 20.
HP	317	2	Christ's last act before leaving the earth was to commission His ambassadors to go to the world with His truth. His last words were spoken to impress the disciples with the thought that they held in trust the message of heaven for the world....
HP	317	3	If we but realized how earnestly Jesus worked to sow the world with the gospel seed, we, living at the very close of probation, would labor untiringly to give the bread of life to perishing souls....
HP	317	4	God calls upon every church member to enter His service. Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted to others, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Everyone must learn to work and to stand in his lot and place as a burden bearer. Every addition to the church should be one more agency for the carrying on of the great plan of redemption. The entire church, acting as one, blending in perfect union, is to be a living, active, missionary agency.
HP	317	5	It is a law of heaven that as we receive we are to impart. The Christian is to be a benefit to others; thus he himself is benefited. "He that watereth shall be watered also himself" (Proverbs 11:25). This is not merely a promise. It is a law of God's divine administration, a law by which He designs that the streams of beneficence shall be kept, like the waters of the great deep, in constant circulation, perpetually flowing back to their source. In the fulfilling of this law is the power of Christian missions....
HP	317	6	We have only a little longer time in which to prepare for eternity.... The whole body of believers needs to be vitalized by the Holy Spirit of God. We should study, plan, economize, and set in operation every means possible whereby we may reach and bless suffering and ignorant humanity. The light which God has given to us as a people is not given that we may treasure it among ourselves. We are to act in harmony with the great commission given to every disciple of Christ, to carry to all the world the light of truth.
------------------------The Most Powerful Argument, November 7
HP	318	1	I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.... Therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Isaiah 43:11, 12.
HP	318	2	Of His true followers the Lord says, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise" (verse 21). They are My witnesses, My chosen representatives, in an apostate world....
HP	318	3	God calls for our cooperation. His requirements are just and reasonable.... When we take the name of Christ we pledge ourselves to represent Him. In order for us to be true to our pledge, Christ must be formed within, the hope of glory. The daily life must become more and more like the Christ life. We must be Christians in deed and in truth. Christ will have nothing to do with pretense. He will welcome to the heavenly courts those only whose Christianity is genuine. The lives of professed Christians who do not live the life of Christ are a mockery to religion.
HP	318	4	God does not ask us to purchase His favor by any costly sacrifice. He asks only for the service of a humble, contrite heart, which has gladly and thankfully accepted His free gift. The one who receives Christ as his personal Saviour has in his possession the salvation provided by Christ. And he is never to forget that as he has freely received, so he is freely to impart.
HP	318	5	Do you realize your value in the sight of God? He says, Ye are laborers together with Me. Are you letting your light shine in clear rays to a fallen world? Are you seeking to exercise every faculty and every power which God has given you? You may not be a minister, but you can be a witness. You may not be an eloquent speaker, but you can be eloquent in living Christ, you can be eloquent in letting your light shine before men.
HP	318	6	A true, lovable Christian is the most powerful argument that can be advanced in favor of Bible truth. Such a man is Christ's representative. His life is the most convincing evidence that can be borne to the power of divine grace. When God's people bring the righteousness of Christ into the daily life, sinners will be converted and victories over the enemy will be gained.
------------------------No Boundary Lines, November 8
HP	319	1	Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12.
HP	319	2	Those who follow Jesus will be laborers together with God. They will not walk in darkness, but will find the true path where Jesus, the Light of the world, leads the way; and as they bend their steps Zionward, moving on in faith, they will attain unto a bright experience in the things of God. The mission of Christ, so dimly understood, so faintly comprehended, that called Him from the throne of God to the mystery of the altar of the cross of Calvary, will more and more unfold to the mind, and it will be seen that in the sacrifice of Christ are found the spring and principle of every other mission of love....
HP	319	3	Jesus taught His followers that they were debtors both to the Jews and the Greeks, to the wise and the unwise, and gave them to understand that race distinction, caste, and lines of division made by man were not approved of Heaven and were to have no influence in the work of disseminating the gospel. The disciples of Christ were not to make distinctions between their neighbors and their enemies, but they were to regard every man as a neighbor who needed help, and they were to look upon the world as their field of labor, seeking to save the lost. Jesus has given to every man his work, taking him from the narrow circle which his selfishness has prescribed, annihilating territorial lines and all artificial distinctions of society; He marks off no limited boundary for missionary zeal, but bids His followers extend their labors to the uttermost parts of the earth....
HP	319	4	The Lord Jesus is our efficiency in all things; His Spirit is to be our inspiration; and as we place ourselves in His hands to be channels of light, our means of doing good will never be exhausted, for the resources of the power of Jesus Christ are to be at our command. We may draw upon His fullness and receive of that grace which has no limit. The Captain of our salvation at every step would teach us that almighty power is at the demand of living faith. He says, "Without me ye can do nothing;" but again declares that "greater works than these shall ye do; because I go unto my Father."
------------------------Every Man Our Neighbor, November 9
HP	320	1	Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Ephesians 3:8.
HP	320	2	In the hearts of the majority of men there is little respect for truth and righteousness. Unbelief in God and His Word is everywhere manifest.... While such conditions prevail in the world, we are not to shut ourselves in our homes and think that assent to truth is all that is required of us. Christ gave Himself a sacrifice for the sins of the world.... If you have the riches of the grace of Christ in your heart, you will not keep them to yourselves while the salvation of souls depends upon a knowledge of the way of salvation that you can give. These may not come to you and tell you their heart longings, but many are hungry, unsatisfied, and Christ died that they might have the riches of His grace. What are you going to do that these souls may share the blessings that you enjoy?
HP	320	3	Are you seeking to become acquainted with those who need your help? Are you using your opportunities and advantages and means in winning souls to Christ? You may say, I am not a minister and therefore cannot preach the truth. You may not be a minister in the generally accepted sense of the word. You may never be called to stand in the desk. Nevertheless you can be a minister for Christ. If you will watch for the opportunities that present themselves for speaking a word to this soul and to that, God will speak through you to win hearts to Him.... Drop a word here and a word there that will lift up the Saviour before men and lead them to higher and holier purposes.
HP	320	4	Growth in grace is shown in an increasing ability to work for God. He who learns in the school of Christ will know how to pray and how to speak for the Master. Realizing that he lacks wisdom and experience, he will place himself under the training of the Great Teacher, knowing that only thus he can obtain perfection in God's service. And daily he becomes better able to comprehend spiritual things. Every day of diligent labor finds him at its close better fitted to help others. Abiding in Christ, he bears much fruit.
------------------------Before the Heavenly Universe, November 10
HP	321	1	For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 1 Corinthians 4:9.
HP	321	2	God desires His children to show the world what it means to sit together in heavenly places in Christ, "that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 3:7). This kindness He expects us to bring into our dealings with one another....
HP	321	3	The Lord desires His children to esteem one another as the purchase of the blood of Christ. When they do this they will know what it means to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. Our lips need to be sanctified with a live coal from the altar of God. Then we shall speak words that are elevating, refining, ennobling, words that are filled with the fragrance of Christ's righteousness, words that are a savor of life unto life.
HP	321	4	Christ wants His followers to be like Him, because He desires to be correctly represented in the family circle, in the church, and in the world. He wants us to attend to ourselves. When we do this we shall find that we have enough to keep us busy. We are to accept Christ as our efficiency, our strength, that we may reveal His character to the world. This is the work resting upon us as Christians. We are to witness to the power of heavenly grace.
HP	321	5	But are there not many who are ... like a chestnut bur, hurting those with whom they come in contact? ... Those who represent Christ will not speak harshly. Their words will be pleasant and helpful. "Speaking the truth in love," we "grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ ..." (Ephesians 4:15).
HP	321	6	God wants His sons and daughters to reveal before the synagogue of Satan, before the heavenly universe, before the world, the power of His grace, that men and angels may know that Christ has not died in vain. Let us show the world that we have power from on high.... May God help His people to get out of the rut into which they have fallen, and come to the place where they can walk and talk with God. Then, as they reflect the light and joy of heaven, God Himself will rejoice over them with singing.
------------------------Seekers for Truth, November 11
HP	322	1	For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. 2 Chronicles 16:9.
HP	322	2	In every place, in regions afar as well as nearer home, there are God-fearing men and women searching for truth. They know that there is a God; they offer their prayers to Him; they trust Him; they act just as Christians act. From the story of Cornelius [Acts 10] we learn that God will lead every one who is willing to be led. He led Cornelius. He drew out His servant's heart in prayer. He prepared him to receive the light of His truth, and He chose to enlighten the mind of Cornelius through the agency of one who had already received light from above.... The Lord noticed every act of Cornelius. All heaven observed the giving of alms and the praying of this devout centurion....
HP	322	3	Thus it is today. The Lord has His eye upon every soul that is seeking Him. He is interested in every soul needing help, and He will not leave one in the darkness of error, but step by step will lead him into the full light of the truth that is shining from every page of the Scriptures.... The Lord sees our every act. He knows just what progress we have made in the Christian pathway. How kind, how tender, our Great Shepherd is! With intense interest He looks down from His exalted throne upon the sheep of His pasture, and gives them grace and strength....
HP	322	4	Constantly the heavenly agencies are communicating with men and women on the earth. We cannot see personally the angels of God round about us; nevertheless they are with us, guiding and directing. We are to be so fully under the influence of the Spirit of God that we shall be susceptible to His leadings.
HP	322	5	Whenever we are impressed to say or do something to help a fellow being, we should be ready to respond at once to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We can be ready to do this only when we are living in close relation with God. The giving of alms, the earnest prayers offered, are but indications that we are doing the works of a Christian, and that we are submitting our minds to the molding influence of God's Spirit.
------------------------A Work for Everyone, November 12
HP	323	1	How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? Matthew 18:12.
HP	323	2	The parables of the Lost Piece of Silver and the Lost Sheep teach most precious lessons. They deal with the subject of man lost and man recovered. Many, many more would be recovered if they were labored for as represented in these parables....
HP	323	3	Church members, ask God to give you a burden to open the Scriptures to others and to do missionary work for those who need help. Some will be rescued in one way and some in another, but the work must always be done as the Lord shall lead.... Let the publications containing Bible truth be scattered like the leaves of autumn. Lift Him up, the Saviour of souls, lift Him up higher and still higher....
HP	323	4	Catch the spirit of the great Master Worker. Learn from the Friend of sinners how to minister to sin-sick souls. Remember that in the lives of His followers must be seen the same devotion, the same subjection to God's work of every social claim, every earthly affection, that was seen in His life. God's claims must always be made paramount. Christ's example is to inspire us to put forth unceasing effort for the good of others.
HP	323	5	You have neighbors. Will you give them the message? You may never have had the hands of ordination laid upon you, but you can humbly carry the message. You can testify that ... all for whom Christ died shall have everlasting life if they believe on Him.
HP	323	6	Let no one remain in idleness because he cannot do the same class of work that the most experienced servants of God are doing.... It is not alone by men in high places of responsibility in the ministry, not alone by men holding positions on boards or committees, not alone by the managers of our sanitariums and publishing houses, that the work is to be done which will cause the earth to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. This work can be accomplished only by the whole church acting their part under guidance and in the power of God.
------------------------Our Obligations to the Poor, November 13
HP	324	1	For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Matthew 25:35, 36.
HP	324	2	While the world needs sympathy, while it needs the prayers and assistance of God's people, while it needs to see Christ in the lives of His followers, the people of God are equally in need of opportunities that draw out their sympathies, give efficiency to their prayers, and develop in them a character like that of the divine pattern.
HP	324	3	It is to provide these opportunities that God has placed among us the poor, the unfortunate, the sick, and the suffering. They are Christ's legacy to His church, and they are to be cared for as He would care for them. In this way God takes away the dross and purifies the gold, giving us that culture of heart and character which we need.
HP	324	4	The Lord could carry forward His work without our cooperation. He is not dependent on us for our money, our time, or our labor. But the church is very precious in His sight. It is the case which contains His jewels, the fold which encloses His flock, and He longs to see it without spot or blemish or any such things. He yearns after it with unspeakable love. This is why He has given us opportunities to work for Him, and He accepts our labors as tokens of our love and loyalty.
HP	324	5	In placing among us the poor and the suffering, the Lord is testing us to reveal to us what is in our hearts.... The culture of the mind and heart is more easily accomplished when we feel such tender sympathy for others that we bestow our benefits and privileges to relieve their necessities....
HP	324	6	Good works cost us a sacrifice, but it is in this very sacrifice that they provide discipline. These obligations bring us into conflict with natural feelings and propensities, and in fulfilling them we gain victory after victory over the objectionable traits of our characters.
HP	324	7	The world will be convinced not so much by what the pulpit teaches as by what the church lives. The preacher announces the theory of the gospel, but the practical piety of the church demonstrates its power.
------------------------"Unto One of the Least of These", November 14
HP	325	1	And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40.
HP	325	2	Christ makes the necessities of His children His own personal interest. He regards any slight or neglect of His brethren as a slight to Himself, and a benefit conferred upon the humblest of them as if it were conferred upon Himself. He says, "I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in.... Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (verses 35-40).
HP	325	3	He whom Providence has blest with plenty but who padlocks the door of his heart to keep back all generous impulses that would find expression in deeds of charity and kindness, will hear from the lips of the Master the solemn words, "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me" (verse 45). Love of Christ cannot exist in the heart without a corresponding love for our fellow men....
HP	325	4	The physical and the spiritual health suffer from inaction. The idler in the vineyard, he who lives for self alone, is ever dissatisfied with himself and with others; the gloom and chill of discontent are mirrored upon his countenance. But he who is drawn out of and away from self, who, like his Master, identifies himself with suffering humanity, will be softened and refined by the exercise of sympathy for others. Courtesy, patience, and gentleness will characterize such a one and will make his presence a continual joy and blessing. His countenance will shine with the luster of true benevolence.
HP	325	5	Those who labor hardest to secure their own happiness are miserable. Those who forget self in their interest for others have reflected back upon their own hearts the light and blessings they dispense to them.... All that we have is given us on trust. Yet when He rewards us with His approval it is as though the merit were our own: "Well done, good and faithful servant." It is not the greatness of the work which we do, but the love and fidelity with which we do it, that wins the approval of the Saviour.
------------------------To the Glory of God, November 15
HP	326	1	That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:12.
HP	326	2	It is our duty to be very jealous of the glory of God, and bring no evil report even by the sadness of the countenance or by the ill advised words, as though the requirements of God were a restriction upon our liberty. The whole person is privileged to bear a decided testimony in every line--in features, in temper, in words, in character--that the service of the Lord is good....
HP	326	3	God loves His commandment-keeping people, because through their obedience they give honor to His holy name, testifying of their love for God.... Our faith and intensity of zeal should be proportionate to the great light which shines upon our pathway. Faith, humble, trusting faith in God--in our homes, in our neighborhood, in our churches--will reveal itself. The Holy Spirit's working will not, cannot be hindered. God delights to reveal Himself to His people as a Father, as a God in whom they can trust implicitly....
HP	326	4	When the farmers seek to recommend or exhibit their products, they do not gather up the poorest but the best specimens. The women possess a zeal to bring the very best golden lumps of butter, molded and prettily stamped. The men bring the best yield of vegetables of every kind. The very best and most attractive fruit is brought, and their appearance does the skillful workers credit. The variety of fruits--the apples, peaches, apricots, oranges, lemons, and plums--all these are very attractive.... No one would bring the most dwarfed specimens, but the very choicest which the land can produce.
HP	326	5	And why should not Christians living in these last days reveal the most attractive fruit in unselfish actions? Why should not the fruit of the commandment-keeping people of God appear in the very best representation of good works? Their words, their deportment, their dress should bear fruit of the very best quality. By their fruits, Christ said, ye shall know them.... Let the church members have the precious traits of the character of Christ.
------------------------Undaunted Courage, November 16
HP	327	1	Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24.
HP	327	2	Heaven's resources are limitless, and they are all at our command.... Are there not presented before Christ's followers the highest virtues to be cultivated, the greatest honors to be gained? God calls upon them to enter a race in which everyone may win. He calls upon them to enlist in a warfare in which everyone may be a conqueror. A robe of righteousness and a crown of everlasting life--this is the reward held out before the overcomer.
HP	327	3	The inhabitants of the heavenly universe expect the followers of Christ to shine as lights in the world. They are to show forth the power of the grace that Christ died to give to men. God expects those who profess to be Christians to reveal in their lives the highest development of Christianity. They are the recognized representatives of Christ. Their work is to show that Christianity is a reality. They are to be men of faith, men of constant growth, ... whole-souled men, who without questioning trust in God and His promises.
HP	327	4	God calls for men of undaunted courage, men full of hope and faith and trust, who rejoice in the thought of the final triumph, refusing to be hindered by obstacles. He who steadfastly adheres to the principles of truth has the assurance that his weakest points of character may become his strongest points. Heavenly angels are close by him who strives to bring his life into harmony with God and His holy law. God is with him as he declares, "I must overcome the temptations that surround me, else they will drive Christ from my heart." He combats all temptation and braves all opposition. By the strength obtained from on high, he holds in control the passions and tendencies which, uncontrolled, would lead him to defeat....
HP	327	5	Why, then, should not those who are fighting against the powers of darkness move forward with faith and courage? God and Christ and the Holy Spirit are on their side.... Let not those who stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel do anything that will dishonor the cause for which they are fighting. Christ expects His soldiers to be brave and loyal and true.
------------------------The Gracious Invitation, November 17
HP	328	1	Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually. 1 Chronicles 16:11.
HP	328	2	Those who become children of God are under obligation to Him to do all in their power to seek and to save the lost.... The gracious invitation first given by Christ is to be taken up by human voices and sounded throughout the world: "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17). The church is to say, Come. Every power in the church is to be actively engaged on the side of truth. The followers of Christ are to combine in a strong effort to call the attention of the world to the fast-fulfilling prophecies of the Word of God.
HP	328	3	Oh, how solemn and important is the work entrusted to us! How far reaching this work is in its results! How are we to obtain strength and wisdom necessary for its successful accomplishment? As Daniel sought the Lord, so we are to seek Him. Daniel declares, "I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes" (Daniel 9:3). We are to seek the Lord in humility and contrition, confessing our own sins and coming into close unity with one another....
HP	328	4	As surely as we seek the Lord earnestly, He will make the way plain before us. All around us are doors open for service. Let us prayerfully study the work to be done, and then enter upon it with full assurance of faith. We are to labor in quietness and humility, in the meekness and lowliness of Christ, realizing that there is a trying time before us and that we shall always need heavenly grace in order to understand how to deal with minds. It is the patient, humble, godlike worker who will have something to show for his labors. As a people and as individuals our success depends, not on numbers, on standing, nor on intellectual attainments, but on walking and working with Christ.
HP	328	5	It is time now to gather strength from the Source of all strength, to cry aloud and spare not, to press back the clouds of darkness, that the light of heaven may be revealed.
------------------------Hope for Lost Sinners, November 18
HP	329	1	Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Luke 5:31, 32.
HP	329	2	Sinners were the special objects of the mission of Christ--sinners of every race and clime.... All are dear to Him because they are the purchase of His blood. The home missions are to receive decided attention. Let every sinner within our households and within our own neighborhoods be sought for. Let personal efforts be bestowed upon them. The cases that seem the most hopeless are to be labored for the most earnestly, in faith and hope and earnest prayer....
HP	329	3	Those upon whom Satan exercises his power the most decidedly are the ones who awaken the sympathy of the Saviour's great heart of love. He is ever having the ones gathered into the fold to go out into the wilderness to seek and rescue the lost sheep. He feels the tenderest love for those who are entrapped through the deceiving power of Satan. And when the lost sheep are indeed found by Jesus, what joy and rejoicing there is in the whole universe of heaven....
HP	329	4	His voice is heard in tones of yearning tenderness, entreaty, and love! "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:6, 7)....
HP	329	5	Mortal man cannot read the heart of man, and is often misled by outward shallow appearances. But He who can read the hearts of men as an open book never misjudges.... He knows the atmosphere surrounding each soul. He knows how many and fierce are the struggles of the human soul to overcome the natural hereditary tendencies and the sins which have become common through habit of repetition.
HP	329	6	He says, He is mine; I have bought him with human agony and blood. Long have I borne with his manners, his uncourteous, ungrateful behavior toward Me, yet I forbear to cut him down, hoping, through my living colaborers, to bring him to repentance, that I might heal him, and wash and cleanse him in My own blood.
------------------------Where God Leads, November 19
HP	330	1	Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Hebrews 12:28.
HP	330	2	A life of monotony is not the most conducive to spiritual growth. Some can reach the highest standard of spirituality only through a change in the regular order of things. When in His providence God sees that changes are essential for the success of the character building, He disturbs the smooth current of the life....
HP	330	3	God sees that a worker needs to be more closely associated with Him; and to bring this about, He separates him from friends and acquaintances. When He was preparing Elijah for translation He moved him from place to place that he might not settle down at ease and thus fail of obtaining spiritual power. And it was God's design that Elijah's influence should be a power to help many....
HP	330	4	Let those who are not permitted to rest in quietude, who must be continually on the move, pitching their tent tonight in one place and tomorrow night in another place, remember that the Lord is leading them and that this is His way of helping them to form perfect characters. In all the changes that we are required to make, God is to be recognized as our companion, our guide, our dependence....
HP	330	5	Many are ignorant of how to work for God, not because they need to be ignorant, but because they are unwilling to submit to His training. Moab is spoken of as a failure because, the prophet declares, "Moab hath been at ease from his youth, ... and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed" (Jeremiah 48:11). Thus it is with those whose hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong are not purged from them....
HP	330	6	The Christian is to be prepared for the doing of a work that reveals kindness, forbearance, long-suffering, gentleness, patience. The cultivation of these precious gifts is to come into the life of the Christian, that, when called into service by the Master, he may be ready to use his highest powers in helping and blessing those around him.
------------------------God Gives the Increase, November 20
HP	331	1	He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Psalm 126:6.
HP	331	2	If our neighbors were perishing for bread, we would be thought very uncharitable if we did not supply their wants. There are those among us who have never had the Word of God brought to their minds or understanding; they are perishing for want of the Bread of Life, and is it not in us an expression of great selfishness when we keep these sacred truths to ourselves...?
HP	331	3	Our heavenly Father gives the rain, the dew, and the sunshine from heaven to refresh the flowers and to cause vegetation to spring up and flourish. But man has a part to act, to prepare the soil and to put the seeds into the ground in order to have a harvest. If he had folded his arms and said, "I will let things take their course.... God will give the harvest. He will give the sunshine and the rain from heaven, and I will take my ease," what kind of harvest would come? Man must cooperate with God and act his part in preparing the soil and in sowing the seed, and God will give the increase.
HP	331	4	Our heavenly Father has not sent angels from heaven to preach salvation to men. He has opened to us the precious truths of His Word and implanted the truth in our hearts that we may give it to those who are in darkness. If we have indeed tasted of the precious gifts of God in His promises, we are to impart this knowledge to others....
HP	331	5	We are individually to work as though a great responsibility rested upon us. We are to manifest untiring energy and tact and zeal in this work and take the burden, feeling the peril in which our neighbors and friends are placed. We are to work as Christ worked. We are to present the truth as it is in Jesus, that the blood of souls shall not be upon our garments. At the same time we are to feel entire dependence and trust in God, for we know we cannot do anything without His grace and power to help. A Paul may plant, and an Apollos water, but God alone can give the increase. Then we are indeed to go forward to the work, weeping, sowing the precious seeds of truth and trusting in God to give the increase.
------------------------"What Manner of Persons?", November 21
HP	332	1	Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God? 2 Peter 3:11, 12.
HP	332	2	God expects those who bear the name of Christ to represent Him in thought, word, and deed. Their thoughts are to be pure and their words and deeds noble and uplifting, drawing those around them nearer to the Saviour.... In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in this world as watchmen and light bearers. To them has been entrusted the last message of mercy for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the Word of God. What manner of persons, then, ought they to be?
HP	332	3	Our lives should show steady spiritual growth. But I have seen that which makes me tremble--men and women dwarfed in character, possessing the Word of God, which tells them what they must do in order to be saved, yet unsanctified and unholy....
HP	332	4	There needs to be a deeper work of grace in the hearts of God's people. Less of self, and more of Christ, must be seen. Tests, close and sharp, are coming to all. The religion of the Bible must be interwoven with all that we do and say. Every business transaction must be fragrant with the presence of God....
HP	332	5	My brother, my sister, I urge you to prepare for the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven. Day by day cast the love of the world out of your hearts. Understand by experience what it means to have fellowship with Christ. Prepare for the judgment, that when Christ shall come, to be admired in all them that believe, you may be among those who will meet Him in peace. In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and the Son. The angels, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King and His trophies of victory--those who have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts, accompanied by His redeemed ones, the witnesses that His mission of suffering and sacrifice has not been in vain.
------------------------The Outpouring of the Spirit, November 22
HP	333	1	But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8.
HP	333	2	The Christian church began its existence by praying for the Holy Spirit. It was in its infancy, without the personal presence of Christ. Just before His ascension Christ had commissioned the disciples to preach the gospel to the world....
HP	333	3	In obedience to the word of their Master the disciples returned to Jerusalem, and for ten days they prayed for the fulfillment of God's promise. These ten days were days of deep heart searching. The disciples put away all difference that had existed among them, and drew close together in Christian fellowship.... At the end of the ten days the Lord fulfilled His promise by a wonderful outpouring of His Spirit. When they were "all with one accord in one place" in prayer and supplication, the promised blessing came....
HP	333	4	What was the result of the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost? The glad tidings of a risen Saviour were carried to the utmost bounds of the inhabited world. The hearts of the disciples were surcharged with a benevolence so full, so deep, so far reaching, that it impelled them to go to the ends of the earth.
HP	333	5	By the grace of Christ the apostles were made what they were. It was sincere devotion and humble, earnest prayer that brought them into close communion with Him. They sat together with Him in heavenly places. They realized the greatness of their debt to Him. By earnest, persevering prayer they obtained the endowment of the Holy Spirit, and then they went forth, weighted with the burden of saving souls, filled with zeal to extend the triumphs of the cross....
HP	333	6	Shall we be less earnest than were the apostles? Shall we not by living faith claim the promises that moved them to the depths of their being to call upon the Lord Jesus for the fulfillment of His word: "Ask, and ye shall receive" (John 16:24)? Is not the Spirit of God to come today in answer to earnest, persevering prayer, and fill men with power?
------------------------The Promise is For Us, November 23
HP	334	1	If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13.
HP	334	2	We should pray as earnestly for the descent of the Holy Spirit as the disciples prayed on the day of Pentecost. If they needed the Spirit's power at that time, we need it more today. All manner of false doctrines, heresies, and deceptions are misleading the minds of men; and without the Spirit's aid, our efforts to present divine truth will be in vain.
HP	334	3	God desires to refresh His people by the gift of the Holy Spirit, baptizing them anew in His love. There is no need for a dearth of the Spirit in the church. After Christ's ascension the Holy Spirit came upon the waiting, praying, believing disciples with a fullness and power that reached every heart. In the future, the earth is to be lightened with the glory of God. A holy influence is to go forth to the world from those who are sanctified through the truth. The earth is to be encircled with an atmosphere of grace. The Holy Spirit is to work on human hearts, taking the things of God and showing them to men.
HP	334	4	Christ declared that the divine influence of the Spirit was to be with His followers to the end of time. But the promise is not appreciated as it should be, and therefore its fulfillment is not seen as it might be.... Minor matters occupy the attention, and the divine power which is necessary for the growth and prosperity of the church, and which would bring all other blessings in its train, is lacking, though offered in its infinite plenitude....
HP	334	5	My brethren and sisters, plead for the Holy Spirit. God stands back of every promise He has made. With your Bibles in your hands say, "I have done as Thou hast said. I present Thy promise, 'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you'" (Matthew 7:7). Christ declares, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24). "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do..." (John 14:13).
------------------------Deep Moving of the Spirit, November 24
HP	335	1	And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. John 14:16, 17.
HP	335	2	God's people seem to be incapable of comprehending and appropriating this promise. They seem to think that only the scantiest showers of grace are to fall on the thirsty soul.... They have not felt the need of reaching for the exalted privileges provided for them at infinite cost....
HP	335	3	It is not because of any restriction of God's part that the riches of His grace do not flow to men.... If all were willing to receive, all would be filled with the Spirit. By resting content with small blessings, we disqualify ourselves for receiving the Spirit in its unlimited fullness. We are too easily satisfied with a ripple on the surface, when it is our privilege to expect the deep moving of the Spirit of God. Expecting little, we receive little.
HP	335	4	The necessity of the Holy Spirit's working should be realized by all. Unless this Spirit is accepted and cherished as the representative of Christ, whose work it is to renew and sanctify the entire being, the momentous truths that have been entrusted to human beings will lose their power on the mind. It is not enough for us to have a knowledge of the truth. We are to walk and work in love, conforming our will to the will of God. Of those who do this the Lord declares, "I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts" (Hebrews 8:10).... Thus divine relationship is renewed between God and man. "'I will be to them a God,'" He says, "'and they shall be to me a people.' There is no attribute of My nature that I will not freely give in order that man may reveal My image." ...
HP	335	5	Are we seeking for His fullness, ever pressing toward the mark set before us--the perfection of His character? When the Lord's people reach this mark, they will be sealed in their foreheads. Filled with the Spirit, they will be complete in Christ, and the recording angel will declare, "It is finished."
------------------------The Gift All May Possess, November 25
HP	336	1	But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26.
HP	336	2	The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven is the Spirit in all the fullness of the Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour. There are three living persons of the heavenly trio; in the name of these three great powers--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit--those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized and these powers will cooperate with the obedient.
HP	336	3	Those who have been privileged to hear the truth, and have been impressed by the Holy Spirit to receive the Holy Scriptures as the voice of God, have no excuse for becoming dwarfs in the religious life. By exercising the ability which God has given, they are to be daily learning and daily receiving spiritual fervor and power....
HP	336	4	If we would be growing plants in the Lord's garden, we must have a constant supply of spiritual life and earnestness. Growth will then be seen in the faith and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no halfway house where we may throw off responsibility and rest by the way. We are to keep advancing heavenward, developing a solid religious character. The measure of the Holy Spirit we receive will be proportioned to the measure of our desire and the faith exercised for it....
HP	336	5	Christ says, "Every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth" (Matthew 7:8). He who truly seeks for the precious grace of Christ will be sure not to be disappointed. This promise has been given to us by Him who will not deceive us. It is not stated as a maxim or a theory, but as a fact, as a law of the divine government. We can be assured that we shall receive the Holy Spirit if we individually try the experiment of testing God's word. God is true; His order is perfect.... Light and truth will shine forth according to the desire of the soul. O that all would hunger and thirst after righteousness, that they might be filled!
------------------------Christ Accessible Through His Spirit, November 26
HP	337	1	Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. John 16:7.
HP	337	2	Christ said, "It is expedient for you that I go away." No one could then have any preference because of his location or personal contact with Christ. The Saviour would be accessible to all alike, spiritually, and in this sense He would be nearer to us all than if He had not ascended on high. Now all may be equally favored by beholding Him and reflecting His character. The eye of faith sees Him ever present, in all His goodness, grace, forbearance, courtesy, and love.... And as we behold, we are changed into His likeness.
HP	337	3	It is impossible for any of us by our own power or our own efforts to work this change in ourselves. It is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which Jesus said He would send into the world, that changes our character into the image of Christ; and when this is accomplished, we reflect as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. That is, the character of the one who thus beholds Christ is so like His that one looking at him sees Christ's own character shining out as from a mirror. Imperceptibly to ourselves, we are changed day by day from our ways and will into the ways and will of Christ, into the loveliness of His character. Thus we grow up into Christ, and unconsciously reflect His image....
HP	337	4	Enoch kept the Lord ever before him, and the Inspired Word says that he "walked with God." He made Christ his constant companion. He was in the world, and performed his duties to the world; but he was ever under the influence of Jesus. He reflected Christ's character, exhibiting the same qualities in goodness, mercy, tender compassion, sympathy, forbearance, meekness, humility, and love. His association with Christ day by day transformed him into the image of Him with whom he was so intimately connected. Day by day he was growing away from his own way into Christ's way, the heavenly, the divine, in his thoughts and feelings.... His was a constant growth and he had fellowship with the Father and the Son. This is genuine sanctification.
------------------------The Latter Rain, November 27
HP	338	1	Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. Zechariah 10:1.
HP	338	2	Our heavenly Father claims not at our hands that which we cannot perform. He desires His people to labor earnestly to carry out His purpose for them. They are to pray for power, expect power, and receive power, that they may grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.
HP	338	3	Not all members of the church are cultivating personal piety; therefore they do not understand their personal responsibility. They do not realize that it is their privilege and duty to reach the high standard of Christian perfection.... Are we looking forward to the latter rain, confidently hoping for a better day, when the church shall be endued with power from on high and thus fitted for work? The latter rain will never refresh and invigorate the indolent, who do not use the powers God has given them.
HP	338	4	We are in great need of the pure, life-giving atmosphere that nurtures and invigorates the spiritual life. We need greater earnestness. The solemn message given us to give to the world is to be proclaimed with greater fervency, even with an intensity that will impress unbelievers, leading them to see that the Most High is working with us, that He is the source of our efficiency and strength....
HP	338	5	God has given us talents to be used in the upbuilding of His kingdom.... Do we ask ourselves the question, How am I using the talents my Lord has given me? Have you given ... to God only a feeble, diseased service? ...
HP	338	6	Are you using all your powers in an effort to bring the lost sheep back to the fold? There are thousands upon thousands in ignorance who might be warned. Pray as you have never prayed before for the power of Christ. Pray for the inspiration of His Spirit, that you may be filled with a desire to save those who are perishing. Let the prayer ascend to heaven, "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations" (Psalm 67:1, 2).
------------------------Echo the Message, November 28
HP	339	1	And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Revelation 22:17.
HP	339	2	A short time before His ascension to His heavenly throne Christ commissioned His disciples to go into all the world as teachers of righteousness.... Among the believers to whom the commission was given, were many from the humbler walks of life--men and women who had learned to love their Lord and who had determined to follow His example of self-denying service. To these lowly ones of but limited talent, as well as to the disciples who had been with the Saviour during the years of His earthly ministry, was the commission given to go "into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15)....
HP	339	3	To the members of the early Christian church was given a sacred trust. They were to be executors of the will in which Christ had bequeathed to the world the treasure of life eternal.... In the trust given to the first disciples believers in every age have shared. God desires that every believer shall be an executor of the Saviour's will.... The unselfish labor of God's people in ages past is to His servants today an object lesson and an inspiration. Today God's chosen people are to be zealous of good works, separating from all worldly ambition and walking humbly in the footsteps of the lowly Nazarene....
HP	339	4	"The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come." This commission to bid others come, embraces the entire church, and applies to every one who has accepted Christ as his personal Saviour.... Every soul who has heard the divine invitation is to echo the message..., saying to those with whom he comes in contact, "Come." From the moment of conversion those who receive Christ are to become the light of the world....
HP	339	5	The Holy Spirit, Christ's representative, arms the weakest with might to press forward to victory.... The work that some are able to do may appear to be restricted by circumstances; but wherever it is, if performed with faith and diligence, it will be felt to the uttermost parts of the earth.
------------------------A World to be Warned, November 29
HP	340	1	And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Matthew 24:14.
HP	340	2	As the rays of the sun penetrate to the remotest corners of the globe, so God designs that the light of the gospel shall extend to every soul upon the earth.... At this time, when the enemy is working as never before to engross the minds of men and women, we should be laboring with increasing activity. Diligently, disinterestedly, we are to proclaim the last message of mercy in the cities--in the highways and byways. All classes are to be reached. As we labor we shall meet with different nationalities. None are to be passed by unwarned. The Lord Jesus was the gift of God to the entire world--not to the higher classes alone, and not to one nationality, to the exclusion of others. His saving grace encircles the world. Whosoever will, may drink of the water of life. A world is waiting to hear the message of present truth....
HP	340	3	The kingdom of grace is now being established as day by day hearts that have been full of sin and rebellion yield to the sovereignty of His love. But the full establishment of the kingdom of His glory will not take place till the second coming of Christ to this world. "The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven" is to "be given to the people of the saints of the most High" (Daniel 7:27)....
HP	340	4	The heavenly gates are again to be lifted up, and with ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of holy ones, our Saviour will come forth as "King of kings, and Lord of lords" (1 Timothy 6:15). Jehovah Immanuel "shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one" (Zechariah 14:9). "The tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, ... and be their God" (Revelation 21:3).
HP	340	5	But before that coming, Jesus said, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations." His kingdom will not come until the good tidings of His grace shall have been carried to all the earth.
------------------------Day of Triumph, November 30
HP	341	1	Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. Revelation 22:7.
HP	341	2	We are rapidly approaching the end of this earth's history; and as we realize that Jesus is indeed coming soon, we shall be aroused to labor as never before.... We are to raise the banner on which is inscribed, "The commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Obedience to God's law is the great issue. Let it not be put out of sight....
HP	341	3	The Lord desires to see the work of proclaiming the third angel's message carried forward with increasing efficiency. As He has worked in all ages to give victories to His people, so in this age He longs to carry to a triumphant fulfillment His purposes for His church. He bids His believing saints to advance unitedly, going from strength to greater strength, from faith to increased assurance and confidence in the truth and righteousness of His cause.
HP	341	4	We are to stand firm as a rock to the principles of the Word of God, remembering that God is with us to give us strength to meet each new experience. Let us ever maintain in our lives the principles of righteousness.... We are to hold as very sacred the faith that has been substantiated by the instruction and approval of the Spirit of God from our earliest experience until the present time. We are to cherish as very precious the work that the Lord has been carrying forward through His commandment-keeping people, and which, through the power of His grace, will grow stronger and more efficient as time advances. The enemy is seeking to becloud the discernment of God's people and to weaken their efficiency, but if they will labor as the Spirit of God shall direct, He will open doors of opportunity before them for the work of building up the old waste places. Their experience will be one of constant growth, until the Lord shall descend from heaven with power and great glory to set His seal of final triumph upon His faithful ones.
HP	341	5	The work that lies before us is one that will put to the stretch every power of the human being.... Jesus will be with you; ... and He will be your helper in every emergency.
------------------------Crisis of the Ages, December 1
HP	342	1	Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. Joel 2:1.
HP	342	2	Troublous times are right upon us. The fulfilling of the signs of the times gives evidence that the day of the Lord is near at hand. The daily papers are full of indications of a terrible conflict in the future. Bold robberies are of frequent occurrence. Strikes are common. Thefts and murders are committed on every hand. Men possessed of demons are taking the lives of men and women and little children. All these things testify that the coming of Christ is near at hand....
HP	342	3	In accidents and calamities by land and by sea, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power....
HP	342	4	The crisis is stealing gradually upon us. The sun shines in the heavens, passing over its usual round, and the heavens still declare the glory of God. Men are still eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage. Merchants are still buying and selling.... Pleasure lovers are still crowding to theaters, horse races, gambling hells. The highest excitement prevails, yet probation's hour is fast closing, and every case is about to be eternally decided. Satan sees that his time is short. He has set all his agents to work, that men may be deceived, deluded, occupied, and entranced, until the day of probation shall be ended and the door of mercy be forever shut. The time is right upon us when there will be sorrow that no human balm can heal. Sentinel angels are now restraining the four winds, that they shall not blow till the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads; but when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be a scene of strife such as no pen can picture....
HP	342	5	"Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence.... He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice" (Psalm 50:3-5).
------------------------Warning Messages, December 2
HP	343	1	And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Luke 17:26, 27.
HP	343	2	The Lord God of Israel is jealous for His honor. How then, I inquire, does He regard the inhabitants of this world, who live in His house and from His liberal treasury are provided by Him with food and clothing but who never so much as say, Thank You, to Him? They are unmindful of His goodness. They are like the inhabitants of the antediluvian world, who were destroyed because they worked continually in opposition to their Creator.
HP	343	3	Of the antediluvians we read, "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.... And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth" (Genesis 6:5, 13).
HP	343	4	God warned the inhabitants of the old world of what He purposed to do in cleansing the earth of its impurity. But they laughed to scorn what they regarded as a superstitious prediction. They mocked at Noah's warning of a coming flood. When Christ was upon the earth He gave warning of what was coming upon Jerusalem because the people had rejected truth, despising the messages that God had sent. But His warning was unheeded.
HP	343	5	The Lord has sent us, by His ambassadors, messages of warning, declaring that the end of all things is at hand. Some will listen to these warnings, but by the vast majority they will be disregarded.
HP	343	6	Thus will it be when Christ comes. Farmers, merchants, lawyers, tradesmen, will be wholly engrossed in business, and upon them the day of the Lord will come as a snare.
HP	343	7	"Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch" (Mark 13:35-37).
------------------------A Time of Trouble, December 3
HP	344	1	Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. Revelation 12:12.
HP	344	2	As we approach the perils of the last days, the temptations of the enemy become stronger and more determined. Satan has come down in great power, knowing that his time is short; and he is working "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish" (2 Thessalonians 2:10). The warning comes to us through God's Word that, if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect.
HP	344	3	Wonderful events are soon to open before the world. The end of all things is at hand. The time of trouble is about to come upon the people of God. Then it is that the decree will go forth forbidding those who keep the Sabbath of the Lord to buy or sell, and threatening them with punishment, and even death, if they do not observe the first day of the week as the Sabbath.
HP	344	4	"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book" (Daniel 12:1). By this we see the importance of having our names written in the book of life. All whose names are registered there will be delivered from Satan's power, and Christ will command that their filthy garments be removed, and that they be clothed with His righteousness. "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels ..." (Malachi 3:17).
HP	344	5	In the time of trouble Satan stirs up the wicked, and they encircle the people of God to destroy them. But he does not know that "pardon" has been written opposite their names in the books of heaven. He does not know that the command has been given, "Take away the filthy garments" from them, clothe them with "change of raiment," and set "a fair miter" upon their heads (Zechariah 3:4, 5)....
HP	344	6	How precious in the sight of God are His people!
------------------------"While He May Be Found", December 4
HP	345	1	Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Isaiah 55:6.
HP	345	2	There is coming, rapidly and surely, an almost universal guilt upon the inhabitants of the great cities because of the steady increase of determined wickedness. God has given life to man, in order that through a knowledge of the Word and by practicing its principles, the human agent may become one with God, obedient to the divine will. But Satan has been working constantly by many devisings to bring man into disfavor with God. In the antediluvian world, human agencies brought in all manner of devisings and ingenious practices to make of no effect the law of Jehovah. They cast aside His authority, because it interfered with their schemes. As in the days before the Flood, so now the time is right upon us when the Lord God must reveal His omnipotent power....
HP	345	3	For years Satan has been gaining control of human minds through subtle sophistries that he has devised to take the place of the truth. In this time of peril, rightdoers, in the fear of God, will glorify His name by repeating the words of David, "It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law."
HP	345	4	Our God is a God of compassion. With long-suffering and tender mercy He deals with the transgressors of His law. And yet in this our day, when men and women have so many opportunities for becoming familiar with the divine law as revealed in Holy Writ, the great Ruler of the universe cannot behold with any satisfaction the wicked cities, where reign violence and crime....
HP	345	5	The forbearance of God has been very great, so great that when we consider the continuous insult to His holy commandments we marvel. The Omnipotent One has been exerting a restraining power over His own attributes. But He will certainly arise to punish the wicked, who so boldly defy the just claims of the decalogue.
HP	345	6	Now is a time when there should be a humbling of the heart before God. Let us seek Him while He is to be found on the pardoning side, and not on the judgment side. Wake up, my brethren and sisters.... Call upon the Lord while He may be found.
------------------------Probation's Closing Hour, December 5
HP	346	1	For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee; behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2.
HP	346	2	Now, just now, is our time of probation, wherein we are to prepare for heaven. Christ gave His life that we might have this probation. But so long as time shall last, Satan will strive for the mastery over us. He works with power to lead men to become absorbed in money getting. He invents many kinds of amusement, so that their minds may be engrossed with worldly pleasure. He would have them forget all about the inward adorning--the adorning of a meek and quiet spirit--which in the sight of God is of great price. He is determined that every moment shall be filled with efforts to carry out ambitious projects or to amuse and gratify self....
HP	346	3	Satan uses his influence to drown the voice of God and the voice of conscience, and the world acts as if under his control. Men have chosen him as their leader.... Infatuated with schemes for pleasure and amusement, they are striving for that which will perish with the using....
HP	346	4	The fast-fulfilling signs of the times declare that the great day of the Lord is right upon us. In that day shall it be said of any of us: "This man was called by God, but he would not hear, he would not give heed. Again and again the Spirit moved upon his heart, but he said, 'Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.' This man saw the Saviour's sacrifice in a beautiful light, but some matter of minor importance came in, and his heart was captivated.... Every gracious, heavenly influence was dismissed."
HP	346	5	Christ is ready to set us free from sin, but He does not force the will, and if by persistent transgression the will itself is wholly bent on evil, and we do not desire to be set free, if we will not accept His grace, what more can He do? We have destroyed ourselves by our determined rejection of His love. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." "Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts" (2 Corinthians 6:2; Hebrews 3:7, 8)
------------------------A Work of Preparation, December 6
HP	347	1	Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6.
HP	347	2	There is an earnest work of preparation to be done by Seventh-day Adventists if they would stand firm in the trying experiences just before them. If they remain true to God in the confusion and temptation of the last days, they must seek the Lord in humility of heart for wisdom to resist the deceptions of the enemy....
HP	347	3	Ever are we to keep in mind the solemn thought of the Lord's soon return, and in view of this to recognize the individual work to be done. Through the aid of the Holy Spirit we are to resist natural inclinations and tendencies to wrong, and weed out of the life every un-Christlike element. Thus we shall prepare our hearts for the reception of God's blessing, which will impart to us grace and bring us into harmony with the faith of Jesus. For this work of preparation great advantages have been granted to this people in light bestowed, in messages of warning and instruction, sent through the agency of the Spirit of God.
HP	347	4	Because of the increasing power of Satan's temptations, the times in which we live are full of peril for the children of God, and we need to learn constantly of the Great Teacher, that we may take every step in surety and righteousness. Wonderful scenes are opening before us, and at this time a living testimony is to be borne in the lives of God's professing people, so that the world may see that in this age when evil reigns on every side, there is yet a people who are laying aside their will and are seeking to do God's will--a people in whose hearts and lives the law of God is written. There are strong temptations before us, sharp tests. The commandment-keeping people of God are to prepare for this time of trial by obtaining a deeper experience in the things of God and a practical knowledge of the righteousness of Christ.... Not to unbelievers only, but to church members the words are spoken, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near" (Isaiah 55:6)....
HP	347	5	Let your daily lives witness to the faith you profess.
------------------------Our Sure Defense, December 7
HP	348	1	Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Revelation 3:10.
HP	348	2	Satan is now more earnestly engaged in playing the game of life for souls than at any previous time; and unless we are constantly on our guard, he will establish in our hearts, pride, love of self, love of the world, and many other evil traits. He will also use every possible device to unsettle our faith in God and in the truths of His Word. If we have not a deep experience in the things of God, if we have not a thorough knowledge of His Word, we shall be beguiled to our ruin by the errors and sophistries of the enemy. False doctrines will sap the foundations of man, because they have not learned to discern truth from error. Our only safeguard against the wiles of Satan is to study the Scriptures diligently, to have an intelligent understanding of the reasons of our faith, and faithfully to perform every known duty. The indulgence of one known sin will cause weakness and darkness and subject us to fierce temptation....
HP	348	3	Are our supplications ascending to God in living faith? Are we opening the door of the heart to Jesus and closing every means of entrance to Satan? Are we daily obtaining clearer light and greater strength, that we may stand in Christ's righteousness? Are we emptying our hearts of all selfishness, and cleansing them, preparatory to receiving the latter rain from heaven?
HP	348	4	Now is the time when we are to confess and forsake our sins, that they may go beforehand to judgment and be blotted out. Now is the time to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1). It is dangerous to delay this work. Satan is even now seeking by disasters upon sea and land to seal the fate of as many as possible. What is the defense of the people of God at this time? It is a living connection with heaven. If we would dwell in safety from the noisome pestilence, if we would be preserved from dangers seen and unseen, we must hide in God; we must secure the protecting care of Jesus and holy angels.
------------------------Beware of Satan's Delusions, December 8
HP	349	1	Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Colossians 2:8.
HP	349	2	We need a firm reliance upon God if we would be saved from the power of satanic agencies. If we will keep close to the teachings of the Word, the truths of that Word will be our safeguard, saving us from the delusions of these last days. We need the truth. We need to believe in it. Its principles are adapted to all the circumstances of life. They prepare the soul for duty and brace it for trial. They bear the stamp of the divine Author....
HP	349	3	The natural stubbornness of the human heart resists the light of truth. Its natural pride of opinion leads to independence of judgment and a clinging to human ideas and philosophy. There is with some a constant danger of becoming unsettled in the faith by the desire for originality. They wish to find some new and strange truth to present, to have a new message to bring to the people; but such a desire is a snare of the enemy to captivate the mind and lead away from the truth.... The Lord would have those who understand the reasons for their faith rest in their belief of that which they have been convinced is truth, and not be turned from the faith by the presentation of human sophistries.... In these last days we need a large and increasing faith. We need to be established in the faith by a knowledge and wisdom not derived from any human source, but which is found only in the riches of the wisdom of God....
HP	349	4	Those who have accepted the truth of the third angel's message are to hold it fast by faith, and it will hold them from drifting into superstitions and theories that would separate them from one another and from God. Our reception of the truth we hold as Seventh-day Adventists was not a chance experience. It was reached by earnest prayer and careful research of the Inspired Word. The Lord would have us walk and work in perfect unity. His name, Christ Jesus, is to be our watchword, His example our badge of distinction, the principles of His Word the foundation of our piety. In unity of spirit and action will be our strength.
------------------------Truth Our Safeguard, December 9
HP	350	1	Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew 24:23, 24.
HP	350	2	In the wilderness of temptation Satan came to Christ as an angel from the courts of God. It was by his words, not by his appearance, that the Saviour recognized the enemy.
HP	350	3	The time is coming when Satan will work miracles right in your sight, claiming that he is Christ; and if your feet are not firmly established upon the truth of God, then you will be led away from your foundation. The only safety for you is to search for the truth as for hid treasures. Dig for the truth as you would for treasures in the earth, and present the Word of God, the Bible, before your heavenly Father, and say, Enlighten me; teach me what is truth. And when His Holy Spirit shall come into your hearts, to impress the truth into your souls, you will not let it go easily. You have gained such an experience in searching the Scriptures that every point is established.
HP	350	4	Without the enlightenment of the Spirit of God we shall not be able to discern truth from error and shall fall under the masterful temptations and deceptions that Satan will bring upon the world. We are near the close of the controversy between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness, and soon the delusions of the enemy will try our faith, of what sort it is.
HP	350	5	If ever there was a time when we needed faith and spiritual enlightenment, it is now. Those who are watching unto prayer and are searching the Scriptures daily with an earnest desire to know and do the will of God, will not be led astray by any of the deceptions of Satan.... We want the truth on every point. We want it unadulterated with error and unpolluted by the maxims, customs, and opinions of the world. We want the truth with all its inconvenience. The acceptance of truth ever involves a cross. But Jesus gave His life as a sacrifice for us, and shall we not give Him our best affections, our holiest aspirations, our fullest service?
------------------------A Moment of Respite, December 10
HP	351	1	Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Psalm 97:10.
HP	351	2	The Lord is soon to come. Wickedness and rebellion, violence and crime, are filling the world. The cries of the suffering and the oppressed rise to Him for justice. In the place of being softened by the patience and forbearance of God, the wicked are growing stronger in stubborn rebellion. The time in which we live is one of marked depravity. Religious restraint is thrown off, and men reject the law of God.... A more than common contempt is placed upon this holy law.
HP	351	3	A moment of respite has been graciously given us of God. Every power lent us of Heaven is to be used in doing the work assigned us by the Lord for those who are perishing in ignorance. The warning message is to be sounded in all parts of the world. There must be no delay. The truth must be proclaimed in the dark places of the earth. Obstacles must be met and surmounted. A great work is to be done, and this work is entrusted to those who know the truth for this time.
HP	351	4	Now is the time to lay hold of the arm of our strength. The prayer of David should be the prayer of pastors and laymen: "It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law" (Psalm 119:126). Let the servants of God weep between the porch and the altar, crying, "Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach" (Joel 2:17).
HP	351	5	God has always wrought in behalf of His truth. The designs of wicked men, the enemies of the church, are subject to His power and His overruling providence. He can move upon the hearts of statesmen; the wrath of the haters of His truth and His people can be turned aside, even as the waters of a river could be turned, if thus He ordered it. Prayer moves the arm of Omnipotence. He who marshals the stars in order in the heavens, whose word controls the waves of the great deep--the same infinite Creator will work in behalf of His people, if they will call upon Him in faith. He will restrain all the forces of darkness until the warning is given to the world and all who will heed it are prepared for His coming.
------------------------The Blessed Hope, December 11
HP	352	1	Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13.
HP	352	2	Jesus said He would go away and prepare mansions for us, that where He is there we may be also. We shall ever dwell with and enjoy the light of His precious countenance. My heart leaps with joy at the cheering prospect. We are almost home. Heaven, sweet heaven! It is our eternal home. I am glad every moment that Jesus lives, and because He lives we shall live also. My soul says, Praise the Lord. There is a fullness in Jesus, a supply for each, for all, and why should we die for bread or starve in foreign lands?
HP	352	3	I hunger, I thirst for salvation, for entire conformity to the will of God. We have a good hope through Jesus. It is sure and steadfast and entereth into that within the veil. It yields us consolation in affliction, it gives us joy amid anguish, disperses the gloom around us, and causes us to look through it all to immortality and eternal life.... Earthly treasures are no inducement to us, for while we have this hope it reaches clear above the treasures of earth that are passing away and takes hold of the immortal inheritance, the treasures that are durable, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fade not away....
HP	352	4	Our mortal bodies may die and be laid away in the grave. Yet the blessed hope lives on until the resurrection, when the voice of Jesus calls forth the sleeping dust. We shall then enjoy the fullness of the blessed, glorious hope. We know in whom we have believed. We have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. A rich, a glorious reward is before us; it is the prize for which we run, and if we persevere with courage we shall surely obtain it....
HP	352	5	There is salvation for us, and why do we stay away from the fountain? Why not come and drink that our souls may be refreshed, invigorated, and may flourish in God? Why do we cling so closely to earth? There is something better than earth for us to talk about and think of. We can be in a heavenly frame of mind. Oh, let us dwell upon Jesus' lovely, spotless character, and by beholding we shall become changed to the same image. Be of good courage. Have faith in God.
------------------------Victory Over Death, December 12
HP	353	1	So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 1 Corinthians 15:54.
HP	353	2	"And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you" (Luke 24:36).... Here we have before us the precious evidence that Christ is a living Saviour. A little while before, He was enclosed in Joseph's new tomb, but He had burst the bands of death and walked forth a triumphant conqueror.... The angel of God said, He is risen. Wonderful testimony! The hope of the world! Christ had risen and their Saviour was a risen Saviour! ... Christ had obtained the victory, and although man had fallen and was condemned to death, yet he could live again. Those who sleep in Jesus will be called from their prison house ... to a glorious immortality.... He has risen, dear friends, and in your despondency you may know ... that Jesus is by your side to give you peace.
HP	353	3	I know what I am talking about. I have seen the time when I thought the waves were going over my head; in that time I felt my Saviour precious to me. When my eldest son was taken from me I felt my grief was very great, but Jesus came to my side and I felt His peace in my soul. The cup of consolation was placed to my lips.
HP	353	4	And then he who had stood by my side for thirty-six years ... was taken. We had labored together side by side in the ministry, but we had to fold the hands of the warrior and lay him down to rest in the silent grave. Again my grief seemed very great, but after all came the cup of consolation. Jesus is precious to me. He walked by my side ... and He will walk by your side. When our friends go into the grave they are beautiful to us. It may be our father or mother that we lay away: when they come forth those wrinkles are all gone but the figure is there, and we know them....
HP	353	5	We want to be prepared to meet these dear friends as they come forth in the resurrection morning.... Shall we lay hold upon the hope set before us in the gospel that we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is?
------------------------Children of the Heavenly King, December 13
HP	354	1	In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:2, 3.
HP	354	2	The invitation is, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, ... and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18). Oh, what an exaltation is this--to be members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King! To have the Saviour of the universe, the King over all kings, know us by name, and to be heirs of God to the immortal inheritance, the eternal substance! This is our privilege; will we have the prize? Will we fight the battles of the Lord? Will we press the battle to the gate? Will we be victorious? I have decided that I must have heaven, and I want you to have it....
HP	354	3	Search the Bible, for it tells you of Jesus. I want you to read the Bible and see the matchless charms of Jesus. I want you to fall in love with the Man of Calvary, so that at every step you can say to the world, His "ways are ways of pleasantness, and all" His "paths are peace" (Proverbs 3:17). You want to represent Christ to the world. You want to show to the world you have a hope big with immortality. You want to drink of the waters of salvation. You want the heavenly angels to be in your dwelling. You want Christ to abide there....
HP	354	4	Praise the Lord, oh, my soul! He says He has gone to prepare mansions for me: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:1-3).
HP	354	5	Thank God! It is these mansions that I am looking to. It is not the earthly mansions here, for they are to be shaken down by the mighty earthquake erelong; but it is those heavenly mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for the faithful. We have no home here. We are only pilgrims and strangers here, passing to a better country, even an heavenly.... May God help us to win the boon of eternal life.
------------------------If Christ Should Come Today, December 14
HP	355	1	Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Luke 21:36.
HP	355	2	Christ bids us watch, that we may be accounted worthy to escape the things that are coming on the earth. It is of the greatest importance that we heed this warning. The enemy of all righteousness is on our track, seeking to lead us to forget God.
HP	355	3	We should be filled with joy at the thought of Christ's soon appearing. To those that love His appearing He will come without sin unto salvation. But if our minds are filled with thoughts of earthly things, we cannot look forward with joy to His appearing.
HP	355	4	"If I knew that Christ were coming in a few years," one says, "I should live very differently." But if we believe that He is coming at all, we should live just as faithfully as if we knew that He would appear in a few years. We cannot see the end from the beginning, but Christ has provided sufficient help for every day in the year.
HP	355	5	All we have to do with is this one day. Today we must be faithful to our trust. Today we must love God with all the heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Today we must resist the temptations of the enemy, and through the grace of Christ gain the victory. Thus we shall watch and wait for Christ's coming. Each day we should live as if we knew that this would be our last day on this earth. If we knew that Christ would come tomorrow, would we not crowd into today all the kind words, all the unselfish deeds, that we could? We should be patient and gentle, and intensely in earnest, doing all in our power to win souls to Christ....
HP	355	6	I urge you to turn your thoughts from worldly things and center them on the things of eternity. Christ has placed everlasting life within your reach, and He has promised to give you help in every time of need.... We should never rest satisfied with present attainments. If we put mind and heart into the work of reaching God's ideal for us, if we go to Christ, the mighty helper, for aid, He will give us the very assistance that we need. He will bestow on us the very power that will enable us to be victorious in the struggle against evil.
------------------------Would You Be Ready? December 15
HP	356	1	Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Matthew 24:44.
HP	356	2	Suppose that today Christ should appear in the clouds of heaven, who ... would be ready to meet Him? Suppose we should be translated into the kingdom of heaven just as we are. Would we be prepared to unite with the saints of God, to live in harmony with the royal family, the children of the heavenly King? What preparation have you made for the judgment? Have you made your peace with God? ... Are you seeking to help those around you, those in your home, those in your neighborhood, those with whom you come in contact that are not keeping the commandments of God? ... Remember that profession is worthless without a practice that enters into the daily life. God knows whether we are keeping His law in truth. He knows just what we are doing, just what we are thinking and saying. Are we getting ready to meet the King? When He comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, will you be able to say, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us" (Isaiah 25:9)? To those who can say this Christ will say, "Come up higher. Upon this earth you have loved Me. You have loved to do My will. You can now enter the Holy City and receive the crown of everlasting life."
HP	356	3	If it were possible for us to be admitted into heaven as we are, how many of us would be able to look upon God? How many of us have on the wedding garment? How many of us are without spot or wrinkle or any such thing? ...
HP	356	4	This is our washing and ironing time--the time when we are to cleanse our robes of character in the blood of the Lamb. John says, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).... Shall we not let our sins go? ...
HP	356	5	I entreat you, brethren and sisters, to labor earnestly to secure the crown of everlasting life. The reward will be worth the conflict, worth the effort.... In the race in which we are running, everyone may receive the reward offered--a crown of everlasting life. I want this crown; I mean by God's help to have it. I mean to hold fast to the truth, that I may see the King in His beauty.
------------------------A Crown of Thorns--A Crown of Glory, December 16
HP	357	1	And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Matthew 24:30.
HP	357	2	Christ is coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Who ... will meet Him in peace? Who will be among that number to whom the words apply, "He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe"?
HP	357	3	It is called the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. His coming surpasses in glory all that the eye has ever seen. Far exceeding anything the imagination has conceived will be His personal revelation in the clouds of heaven. Then there will be a perfect contrast to the humility which attended His first advent. Then He came as the Son of the infinite God, but His glory was concealed by the garb of humanity. Then He came without any worldly distinction of royalty, without any visible manifestation of glory; but at His second appearing He comes with His own glory and the glory of the Father and attended by the angelic host of heaven. In the place of that crown of thorns which marred His brow, He wears a crown within a crown. No longer is He clad with the garments of humility, with the old kingly robe placed upon Him by His mockers. No: He comes clad in a robe whiter than the whitest white. Upon His vesture and thigh a name is inscribed, "King of kings, and Lord of lords."
HP	357	4	As the representative of God, Christ appeared in human flesh. Though in the form of a man, He was the Son of God, and the world was given an opportunity to see how it would treat God. Christ declared, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). But when He comes the second time, divinity is no longer concealed. He comes as One equal with God, as His own beloved Son, Prince of heaven and earth. He is also the Redeemer of His people, the Life-giver. The glory of the Father and the Son are seen to be one.... Then shall He shine forth "before his ancients gloriously" (Isaiah 24:23).
------------------------Glory Indescribable, December 17
HP	358	1	Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11.
HP	358	2	The Father's wisdom and glory shine forth in His [Christ's] majesty. He is exalted and precious to all who believe. But His own personal glory, who can describe it? He comes with His divine nature plainly revealed--He who was denied and rejected by man, who stood at the bar of Pilate as a criminal....
HP	358	3	Christ is now acknowledged as the King of Glory. "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matthew 21:9). The question of His divinity is forever settled. Where are those who held the Saviour bound at Pilate's bar, who smote Him in the face, who scourged Him, who drove the nails through His hands and feet? those who mocked Him, saying, "He saved others; himself he cannot save...." (Matthew 27:42)? Where is the puny arm that will be lifted against Him now? The scene is changed. At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Christ, Lord of heaven and earth....
HP	358	4	The glory of Christ's humanity did not appear when He was upon the earth. He was regarded as a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. We hid as it were our faces from Him. But He was pursuing the path the plan of God had devised. That same humanity now appears as He descends from heaven, robed in glory, triumphant, exalted.... His believing people have made their calling and election sure. They come forth at the first resurrection, and the song is sung by innumerable voices, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Revelation 21:3, 4).
------------------------Judge of the Whole World, December 18
HP	359	1	When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations. Matthew 25:31, 32.
HP	359	2	In His teachings Christ sought to impress men with the certainty of the coming judgment and with its publicity. This is not the judgment of a few individuals, or even of a nation, but of a whole world of human intelligences, of accountable beings. It is to be held in the presence of other worlds, that the love, the integrity, the service, of man for God, may be honored to the highest degree. There will be no lack of glory and honor.... The law of God will be revealed in its majesty; and those who have stood in defiant rebellion against its holy precepts will understand that the law that they have discarded and despised ... is God's standard of character....
HP	359	3	In this speck of a world the heavenly universe will manifest the greatest interest, for Jesus paid an infinite price for the souls of its inhabitants....
HP	359	4	God designed that the Prince of sufferers in humanity should be judge of the whole world. He who came from the heavenly courts to save man from eternal death; ... He who submitted to be arraigned before an earthly tribunal, and who suffered the ignominious death of the cross--He alone is to pronounce the sentence of reward or of punishment. He who submitted to the suffering and humiliation of the cross here, in the counsel of God is to have the fullest compensation, and ascend the throne acknowledged by all the heavenly universe as the King of saints. He has undertaken the work of salvation, and shown before unfallen worlds and the heavenly family that the work He has begun He is able to complete.... In that day of final punishment and reward both saints and sinners will recognize in Him who was crucified the Judge of all living....
HP	359	5	Probationary time is granted us, opportunities and privileges are given us, to make our calling and election sure. How we should prize this precious time and improve every talent God has given, that we may be faithful stewards over ourselves!
HP	359	6	Solemn will be the day of final decision!
------------------------Justice Triumphant, December 19
HP	360	1	And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. Revelation 20:12.
HP	360	2	As the artist takes on the polished glass a true picture of the human face, so the angels of God daily place upon the books of heaven an exact representation of the character of every human being.
HP	360	3	When we become children of God, our names are written in the Lamb's book of life, and they remain there until the time of the investigative judgment. Then the name of every individual will be called, and his record examined.... If in that day it shall appear that all our wicked deeds have not been fully repented of, our names will be blotted from the book of life, and our sins will stand against us.
HP	360	4	Can we not understand that the most costly thing in the world is sin? It is at the expense of purity of conscience, at the cost of losing the favor of God and separating the soul from Him, and at last losing heaven.... What a scene will be presented when the judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened to testify the salvation or the loss of all souls! It will require the unerring decision of One who has lived in humanity, loved humanity, given His life for humanity, to make the final appropriation of the rewards to the loyal righteous, and the punishment of ... the disloyal, and the unrighteous.
HP	360	5	The work of our salvation lies between God and our own souls. Though all nations are to pass in judgment before Him, yet He will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being on earth....
HP	360	6	The Judge of all the earth will render a just decision. He will not be bribed; He cannot be deceived. He who made man, and whose are the worlds and all the treasures they contain--He it is who weighs character in the balance of eternal justice.... Every individual has a soul to save or to lose. Each has a case pending at the bar of God. Each must meet the great Judge face to face.
------------------------Life or Death? December 20
HP	361	1	For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23.
HP	361	2	"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). But Christ gave His life to save the sinner from the death sentence. He died that we might live.... By His death He brought salvation within the reach of all....
HP	361	3	The abundant evidence given by God that He desires the salvation of all, will be the condemnation of those who refuse the gift of heaven. At the last great day, when all will be rewarded or punished according to their obedience or disobedience, the cross of Calvary will appear plainly before those standing before the Judge of all the earth to receive sentence for eternity. They are made capable of comprehending something of the love that God has expressed for fallen human beings. They see how greatly He has been dishonored by those who have continued in transgression, choosing sides with Satan and showing contempt for the law of Jehovah....
HP	361	4	Today angels are sent to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, to help them to escape from the thralldom of Satan's power.... Each human being is given the freedom of choice. It is his to decide whether he will stand under the black banner of rebellion or under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. With deep solicitude Heaven watches the conflict between good and evil. None but the obedient can enter the gates of the city of God. Upon those who choose to continue in transgression the death sentence must at last be pronounced. The earth will be purified from their misdoings, their defiance of God....
HP	361	5	God's law is the transcript of His character, and those only who obey this law will be accepted by Him. Every departure from obedience to the law of God is rebellion. It is for the highest interest of man to obey the law of God, for conformity to the principles of this law is essential to the formation of a righteous character. The rules of life that the Lord has given will make men pure and happy and holy. Those only who obey these rules can hear from the lips of Christ the words, "Come up higher."
------------------------Too Late! December 21
HP	362	1	While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. Hebrews 3:15.
HP	362	2	Oh, who will describe to you the lamentations that will arise when at the boundary line which parts time and eternity the righteous Judge will lift up His voice and declare, "It is too late." Long have the wide gates of heaven stood open and the heavenly messengers have invited and entreated "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17). "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart." But at length the mandate goes forth, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still" (Revelation 22:11).
HP	362	3	The heavenly gate closes, the invitation of salvation ceases. In heaven it is said, "It is done." Such a time is not far distant. I plead with you to make sure work for eternity, to lay hold on the hope set before you in the gospel. Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for if you merely seek, you will not be able.
HP	362	4	The world is loaded down with the curse which sin brings. It is literally deluged with sin, with violence and corruption, as in the days of Noah. And yet at this fearful period of our world's history many are asleep. They cease to make efforts to become Christians....
HP	362	5	Honesty, nobility, purity of soul, fellowship with God and angels, the heavenly hope, the eternal inheritance, the joys unspeakable and the bliss immeasurable, are your birthright, and will you barter away these treasures for sinful pleasure? ... What shall worldly pleasures avail you when all the world shall be overwhelmed as was Sodom and destroyed like Gomorrah? ...
HP	362	6	Too late will sinners realize that they have sold their birthright. The crown that they might have had shines upon the brow of another. The inheritance which they might have had is lost. Beware how you trifle with temptation. Beware how you boast of your strength. Christ is your everlasting strength; confide in God, lay hold of His strength, and He will bring you off conqueror and you will wear the crown of victory.
------------------------Confessing our Faith, December 22
HP	363	1	Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 10:32.
HP	363	2	If ever there was a period of time when the words of Christ should be heard, it is now.... Through the sanctification of the truth, we may bear a decided testimony for righteousness both before believers and before unbelievers.
HP	363	3	We are far behind what we should be in our experience. We are backward in pronouncing the testimony that should flow from sanctified lips. Even when sitting at the table Christ taught truths that brought comfort and courage to the hearts of His hearers. Whenever it is possible we are to present the words of Christ. If His love is in the soul, abiding there as a living principle, there will come forth from the treasure house of the heart, words suitable to the occasion, not light, trifling words, but uplifting words, words of truth and spirituality.... Confessing Christ openly and bravely, exhibiting in the choice of words the simplicity of true godliness, will be more effective than many sermons. There are but few who give a true representation of the meekness of Christ. Oh, we need, and we must have, His meekness. Christ is to be formed within, the hope of glory.
HP	363	4	We are preparing for translation to the heavenly world. Our conversation should be in heaven, from whence we look for the Lord Jesus. He is to be acknowledged as the Giver of every good and perfect gift, the Author of all our blessings, in whom is centered our hope of eternal life.
HP	363	5	Never for one moment should the impression be given to anyone that it would be for his profit to hide his faith and doctrines from the unbelieving people of the world, fearing that he may not be so highly esteemed if his principles are known. Christ requires from all His followers open, manly confession of faith. Each must take his position and be what God designed he should be, a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. The whole universe is looking with inexpressible interest to see the closing work of the great controversy between Christ and Satan.... Never, from cowardice or worldly policy, let the truth of God be placed in the background.
------------------------The Soul Winner's Reward, December 23
HP	364	1	And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:3.
HP	364	2	When I think of those words of Daniel, I find myself waking up in the night and repeating them over and over: "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Look at the sun and the stars marshaled in the heavens, and known by their names. The Lord says, They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.
HP	364	3	In order to determine how important are the interests involved in the conversion of the soul from error to truth, we must appreciate the value of immortality; we must realize how terrible are the pains of the second death; we must comprehend the honor and glory awaiting the ransomed, and understand what it is to live in the presence of Him who died that He might elevate and ennoble man, and give to the overcomer a royal diadem.
HP	364	4	The worth of a soul cannot be fully estimated by finite minds. How gratefully will the ransomed and glorified ones remember those who were instrumental in their salvation! No one will then regret his self-denying efforts and persevering labors, his patience, forbearance, and earnest heart yearnings for souls that might have been lost had he neglected his duty or become weary in well-doing.
HP	364	5	Now these white-robed ones are gathered into the fold of the Great Shepherd. The faithful worker and the soul saved through his labor are greeted by the Lamb in the midst of the throne, and are led to the tree of life and to the fountain of living waters. With what joy does the servant of Christ behold these redeemed ones, who are made to share the glory of the Redeemer! How much more precious is heaven to those who have been faithful in the work of saving souls! "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars...."
HP	364	6	What is done through the cooperation of men with God is a work that shall never perish, but endure through the eternal ages.
------------------------To See the King, December 24
HP	365	1	Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off. Isaiah 33:17.
HP	365	2	If we desire to see the King in His beauty we must here behave worthily. We must outgrow our childishness. When provocation comes let us be silent. There are times when silence is eloquence. We are to reveal the patience and kindness and forbearance that will make us worthy of being called sons and daughters of God. We are to trust Him, and believe on Him, and rely upon Him. We are to follow in Christ's steps. "If any man will come after me," He says, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23).... It may be a heavy cross to keep silent when you ought to. It may be a painful discipline, but let me assure you that silence does much more to overcome evil than a storm of angry words.
HP	365	3	Here in this world we are to learn what we must be in order to have a place in the heavenly courts. We are to learn the lessons that Christ desires to teach us, that we may be prepared to be taken to the higher school in the courts above, where the Saviour will lead us beside the river of life, explaining to us many things that here we could not comprehend.... There we shall see the glory of God as we have never seen it here. We get but a glimpse of the glory now, because we do not follow on to know the Lord.
HP	365	4	Every right principle, every truth learned in an earthly school, will advance us just that much in the heavenly school. As Christ walked and talked with His disciples during His ministry on this earth, so will He teach us in the school above, leading us beside the river of living waters, and revealing to us truths that in this life must remain hidden mysteries because of the limitations of the human mind, so marred by sin. In the heavenly school we shall have opportunity to attain, step by step, to the greatest heights of learning. There, as children of the heavenly King, we shall ever dwell with the members of the royal family; there we shall see the King in His beauty, and behold His matchless charms.
HP	365	5	Long have we waited, but our hope is not to grow dim. If we can but see the King in His beauty we shall be forever blessed.
------------------------Glories of the Future World, December 25
HP	366	1	For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Isaiah 64:4.
HP	366	2	Many have longed to penetrate into the glories of the future world and to have the secrets of eternal mysteries disclosed to them, but they knock in vain. That which is revealed is for us and for our children.... The Great Revealer hath opened to our intelligence many things that are essential in order that we may understand the heavenly attractions and have respect to the recompense of the reward....
HP	366	3	The unfoldings of Jesus in reference to heavenly things are of a character that only the spiritual mind can appreciate. The imagination may summon its utmost powers in order to picture the glories of heaven, but "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). The heavenly intelligences are all around us.... Angels of light create a heavenly atmosphere about the soul, lifting us toward the unseen and eternal. We cannot behold their forms with our natural sight; only by the spiritual vision can we discern heavenly things. Our human powers would be extinguished by the inexpressible glory of the angels of light. The spiritual ear alone can distinguish the harmony of heavenly voices. It is not Christ's plan to excite the emotions by brilliant descriptions.... He has with sufficient distinctness presented Himself, the way, the truth, and the life, as the only means whereby salvation is to be obtained. No more than this is really required.
HP	366	4	He might bring the human soul to the threshold of heaven, and through the open door show us its inner glory flooding the heavenly sanctuary and shining out through its portals; but we must behold it by faith, not with the natural eyes. He does not forget that we are His human agents, to work the works of God in a world all seared and marred with the curse. It is in this world, that is clothed with moral darkness like the pall of death, where darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people, that we are to walk in the light of heaven.
------------------------"Come, Ye Blessed", December 26
HP	367	1	But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9.
HP	367	2	Those who truly love God will desire so to improve the talents that He has given them, that they may be a blessing to others. And by and by the gates of heaven will be thrown wide open to admit them, and from the lips of the King of Glory the benediction will fall upon their ear like richest music, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34). Thus the redeemed will be welcomed to the mansions that Jesus is preparing for them. There their companions will not be the vile of earth, but those who through divine aid have formed perfect characters. Every sinful tendency, every imperfection, has been removed by the blood of Christ; and the excellence and brightness of His glory, far exceeding the brightness of the sun in its meridian splendor, is imparted to them. And the moral beauty, the perfection of His character, shines through them in worth far exceeding this outward splendor. They are without fault before the great white throne, sharing the dignity and privileges of the angels.
HP	367	3	"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." In view of the glorious inheritance which may be his, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26). He may be poor; yet he possesses in himself a wealth and dignity that the world could never bestow. The soul, redeemed and cleansed from sin, with all its noble powers dedicated to the service of God, is of surpassing worth.
HP	367	4	To dwell forever in this home of the blest, to bear in soul, body, and spirit, not the dark traces of sin and the curse, but the perfect likeness of our Creator, and through ceaseless ages to advance in wisdom, in knowledge, and in holiness, ever exploring new fields of thought, ever finding new wonders and new glories, ever increasing in capacity to know and to enjoy and to love, and knowing that there is still beyond us joy and love and wisdom infinite--such is the object to which the Christian's hope is pointing.
------------------------Longing for Heaven, December 27
HP	368	1	My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Psalm 84:2.
HP	368	2	When God's people take their eyes off the things of this world and place them on heaven and heavenly things they will be a peculiar people, because they will see the mercy and goodness and compassion that God has shown to the children of men. His love will call forth a response from them, and their lives will show to those around them that the Spirit of God is controlling them, that they are setting their affections on things above, not on the things of the earth.
HP	368	3	In thinking of heaven, we may put our imagination to the utmost stretch and think the loftiest thoughts that we are capable of thinking, and our minds will grow weary in the effort to comprehend the breadth and depth and height of the subject. It is impossible for our minds to take in the great themes of eternity. It is impossible for us even to make an effort to understand these things without the effort affecting our whole character for good and having an uplifting influence on our minds. As we think of how Christ came to our world to die for fallen man, we understand something of the price that was paid for our redemption, and we realize that there is no true goodness or greatness apart from God.
HP	368	4	Only by the light shining from the cross of Calvary can we know to what depths of sin and degradation the human race has fallen through sin. Only by the length of the chain let down from heaven to draw us up can we know the depths to which we had sunk. And it is only by keeping the unseen realities in view that we can understand anything of the wonderful theme of redemption.
HP	368	5	We are almost home; we shall soon hear the voice of the Saviour richer than any music, saying, Your warfare is accomplished. Enter into the joy of thy Lord. Blessed, blessed benediction; I want to hear it from His immortal lips. I want to praise Him; I want to honor Him that sitteth on the throne. I want my voice to echo and re-echo through the courts of heaven. Will you be there? ... God help us, and fill us with all fullness and power, and then we can taste of the joys of the world to come.
------------------------By the Tree of Life, December 28
HP	369	1	And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. Revelation 5:9.
HP	369	2	Do we expect to get to heaven at last and join the heavenly choir? Just as we go into the grave we will come up, as far as the character is concerned.... Now is the time for washing and ironing....
HP	369	3	John saw the throne of God and around that throne a company, and he inquired, Who are these? The answer came, "These are they which ... have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14). Christ leads them to the fountains of living waters, and there is the tree of life and there is the precious Saviour. Here is presented to us a life that measures with the life of God. There is no pain, sorrow, sickness, or death there. All is peace and harmony and love....
HP	369	4	Now is the time to receive grace and strength and power to combine with our human efforts that we can form characters for everlasting life. When we do this we will find that the angels of God will minister unto us, and we shall be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And when the last trump shall sound, and the dead shall be called from their prison house and changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the crowns of immortal glory shall be placed upon the heads of the overcomers. The pearly gates will swing back for the nations that have kept the truth and they will enter in. The conflict is ended.
HP	369	5	"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34). Do we want this benediction? I do, and I believe you do. May God help you that you may fight the battles of this life and gain a victory day by day and at last be among the number that shall cast their crowns at Jesus' feet and touch the golden harps and fill all heaven with sweetest music. I want you to love my Jesus.... Do not reject my Saviour, for He has paid an infinite price for you. I see in Jesus matchless charms, and I want you to see these charms.
------------------------Breathing the Atmosphere of Heaven, December 29
HP	370	1	These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 7:14.
HP	370	2	John, while in vision, saw a company clothed in white robes.... They were seen in the temple of God. This will be the result for all who will lay hold of the merits of Christ and wash their robes in His blood. Every provision has been made so that we can sit with Christ upon His throne, but the condition is that we be in harmony with the law of God....
HP	370	3	We cannot afford to lose heaven. We ought to have our conversation on heavenly things. There there is no death nor pain. Why are we so reluctant to talk of these things? Why do we dwell upon earthly things? The apostle exhorts us to have our conversation in heaven. "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20).... Christ will soon return to gather those who are prepared, and take them to this glorious place. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (Hebrews 9:28).
HP	370	4	Do we love to think of this event or do we want to put it off? ... The more we talk of Jesus, the more we shall reflect His divine image. By beholding we become transformed. We need to bring Christ into our religious experience. When you assemble together, let the conversation be on Christ and His salvation.... The more we talk of Jesus the more of His matchless charms we shall behold.
HP	370	5	Those who take no pleasure in thinking and talking of God in this life, will not enjoy the life that is to come, where God is ever present, dwelling among His people. But those who love to think of God will be in their element, breathing in the atmosphere of heaven. Those who on earth love the thought of heaven will be happy in its holy associations and pleasures.... "And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads" (Revelation 22:3, 4).
------------------------Joy Evermore, December 30
HP	371	1	After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. Revelation 7:9.
HP	371	2	All classes, all nations and kindreds and people and tongues will stand before the throne of God and the Lamb with their spotless robes and jeweled crowns. Said the angel, These are they that have come up through great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white, while the lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, the self-indulgent and disobedient, have lost both worlds. They have neither the things of this life nor the immortal life.
HP	371	3	That triumphant throng, with songs of victory and with crowns and harps, have trodden in the fiery furnace of earthly affliction when it was heated and intensely hot. From destitution, from hunger and torture, they come, from deep self-denial and bitter disappointments. Look upon them now as conquerors, no longer poor, no longer in sorrow, in affliction and hatred of all men for Christ's sake. Behold their heavenly garments, white and shining, richer than any kingly robe. Look by faith upon their jeweled crowns; never did such a diadem deck the brow of any earthly monarch.
HP	371	4	Listen to their voices as they sing loud hosannas and as they wave the palm branches of victory. Rich music fills heaven as their voices sing forth these words: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain and rose again forevermore. Salvation unto our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." And the angelic host, angels and archangels, covering cherub and glorious seraph, echo back the refrain of that joyous, triumphant song saying, "Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever" (Revelation 7:12).
HP	371	5	Oh, in that day it will be discovered that the righteous were the wise ones, while the sinful and disobedient were fools.... Shame and everlasting contempt is their portion. Those who have been colaborers for Christ will then be near the throne of God, girt with purity and the garments of eternal righteousness.
------------------------Kingdom of Holy Love, December 31
HP	372	1	The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. Revelation 11:15.
HP	372	2	The government of the kingdom of Christ is like no earthly government. It is a representation of the characters of those who compose the kingdom.... His court is one where holy love presides and whose offices and appointments are graced by the exercise of charity. He charges His servants to bring pity and loving-kindness, His own attributes, into all their office work....
HP	372	3	The power of Christ alone can work the transformation in heart and mind that all must experience who would partake with Him of the new life in the kingdom of God.... In order to serve Him aright, we must be born of the divine Spirit. This will purify the heart and renew the mind and give us a new capacity for knowing and loving God. It will give us willing obedience to all His requirements. This is true worship.
HP	372	4	"Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams.... For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King; he will save us.... And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity" (Isaiah 33:20-24).
HP	372	5	"Be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create," the Lord exhorts; "for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.... And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.... They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 65:18-25).

------------------------Lift Him Up
LHU	15	1	Lift Him Up as the Son of God During the New Year, January 1
LHU	16	1	The Pre-Existence of the Son of God, January 2
LHU	17	1	The Self-Existent Son of God, January 3
LHU	18	1	Equal With the Father, January 4
LHU	19	1	Treason in Heaven, January 5
LHU	20	1	Jesus Adored by Adam and Eve, January 6
LHU	21	1	The Freedom of Choice, January 7
LHU	22	1	The Way to Salvation, January 8
LHU	23	1	A Door of Hope for Sinners, January 9
LHU	24	1	Christ Alone Satisfies the Claims of God's Law, January 10
LHU	25	1	A Perfect Sacrifice, January 11
LHU	26	1	Sacrifices and Ordinances Revealed God's Divine Love, January 12
LHU	27	1	The Hope of the Ages, January 13
LHU	28	1	The True Character of God in Christ, January 14
LHU	29	1	To be a Prophet, January 15
LHU	30	1	The Wise Men Welcome Him, January 16
LHU	31	1	Jesus Keeps His First Passover, January 17
LHU	32	1	An Obedient Son to Earthly Parents, January 18
LHU	33	1	A Spotless Example, January 19
LHU	34	1	One Superior to Angels, January 20
LHU	35	1	To Seek and Save the Lost, January 21
LHU	36	1	He Represents the Father, January 22
LHU	37	1	A Restorer, January 23
LHU	38	1	Our Defender, January 24
LHU	39	1	Assailed With the Fiercest Temptations, January 25
LHU	40	1	Clothed in Christ's Righteousness, January 26
LHU	41	1	Only One Unerring Pattern, January 27
LHU	42	1	Nature Sympathized with His Suffering, January 28
LHU	43	1	The Magnitude of His Sacrifice, January 29
LHU	44	1	A New and Living Way for All, January 30
LHU	45	1	Encircled With His Love, January 31
LHU	46	1	The Law of Life for the Universe, February 1
LHU	47	1	The Creation of the World, February 2
LHU	48	1	Created in God's Image, February 3
LHU	49	1	The Creator Planned for Our Happiness, February 4
LHU	50	1	God's Love Expressed in Creation, February 5
LHU	51	1	Worship the Creator, February 6
LHU	52	1	Earth's First Week, February 7
LHU	53	1	The Sabbath Points to the Creator, February 8
LHU	54	1	The Heavens Declare the Glory of God, February 9
LHU	55	1	His by Creation and Redemption, February 10
LHU	56	1	The Soul Re-Created in the Image of God, February 11
LHU	57	1	Power Over the Tempest, February 12
LHU	58	1	Created Anew, February 13
LHU	59	1	Creation Provides Evidence for Faith, February 14
LHU	60	1	All Truth Agrees, February 15
LHU	61	1	Unlimited in Power, February 16
LHU	62	1	Power to Multiply, February 17
LHU	63	1	Joseph Honored the Creator, February 18
LHU	64	1	Our Vital Force, February 19
LHU	65	1	Yielding to the Master Potter, February 20
LHU	66	1	God's Words Created His Works, February 21
LHU	67	1	God's Creative Energy Upholds the Universe, February 22
LHU	68	1	God's Power in Nature and Us, February 23
LHU	69	1	The Heavenly Sower, February 24
LHU	70	1	Growth Comes from God, February 25
LHU	71	1	Totally Dependent Upon the Creator, February 26
LHU	72	1	One Pulse of Life in All Creation, February 27
LHU	73	1	He Supplies Our Needs, February 28
LHU	74	1	Christ Took Upon Himself Human Nature, March 1
LHU	75	1	The Birth of Christ an Unfathomable Mystery, March 2
LHU	76	1	Two Natures Blended in One, March 3
LHU	77	1	The Spirit in Christ from Youth, March 4
LHU	78	1	Jesus Assured of His Sonship, March 5
LHU	79	1	Jesus, Our Example, March 6
LHU	80	1	He Showed Us How to Overcome, March 7
LHU	81	1	We Have Found the Messias, March 8
LHU	82	1	Brothers to Sinners and Saints, March 9
LHU	83	1	An Example of Obedience, March 10
LHU	84	1	Mercy Toward the Demoniacs, March 11
LHU	85	1	We Must Believe in Him, March 12
LHU	86	1	He is the Sun of Righteousness, March 13
LHU	87	1	He is Always Near, March 14
LHU	88	1	He Understands Our Motives, March 15
LHU	89	1	His Compassion, March 16
LHU	90	1	Sympathy to All, March 17
LHU	91	1	A Fountain of Pleasure and Joy, March 18
LHU	92	1	Always Presenting the Word of God, March 19
LHU	93	1	Seek Help from Jesus, Not Sinful Humans, March 20
LHU	94	1	Jesus the Prince of Peace, March 21
LHU	95	1	Christ's Matchless Tenderness, March 22
LHU	96	1	Reaching Forward to Perfection, March 23
LHU	97	1	Our Elder Brother Brings Us Rest, March 24
LHU	98	1	Choose Him as Our Trusted Friend, March 25
LHU	99	1	Order and Perfection Seen in All He Did, March 26
LHU	100	1	Lift Him Up the Risen Saviour, March 27
LHU	101	1	Ascended to Heaven in Human Form, March 28
LHU	102	1	Glorified Before the Universe, March 29
LHU	103	1	In the Father's Arms, March 30
LHU	104	1	At the Right Hand of God, March 31
LHU	105	1	The Bread of Life, April 1
LHU	106	1	The Word Our Spiritual Food, April 2
LHU	107	1	The Bread of Life and the Robe of Righteousness, April 3
LHU	108	1	Jesus Sowed the Seed of the Living Word, April 4
LHU	109	1	Feed on the Bread of Life, April 5
LHU	110	1	The Bread of Life Revives the Spiritual Nature, April 6
LHU	111	1	Bible Study Strengthens the Intellect, April 7
LHU	112	1	Treasures of Truth Revealed, April 8
LHU	113	1	The Truth in Christ is Measureless, April 9
LHU	114	1	Compare Scripture with Scripture, April 10
LHU	115	1	The Bible is its Own Expositor, April 11
LHU	116	1	Sound Doctrine, April 12
LHU	117	1	The Bible--A Perfect Whole, April 13
LHU	118	1	The Glory of a Divine Power, April 14
LHU	119	1	The Knowledge of the Lord, April 15
LHU	120	1	Spiritual Food for Growth and Strength, April 16
LHU	121	1	Constantly Increasing in Discernment, April 17
LHU	122	1	For This Life and the Life to Come, April 18
LHU	123	1	Sanctified by Truth, April 19
LHU	124	1	The Holy Spirit in the Life, April 20
LHU	125	1	The Word of God Our Safeguard, April 21
LHU	126	1	The Bread of Life for the Hungry, April 22
LHU	127	1	All Heaven is Watching, April 23
LHU	128	1	Seek for the Living Bread, April 24
LHU	129	1	Success for Your Efforts, April 25
LHU	130	1	Our Only Safeguard in Trial and Temptation, April 26
LHU	131	1	Daily Bread Assured, April 27
LHU	132	1	Lessons from Timothy, April 28
LHU	133	1	Sitting at the Feet of Jesus, April 29
LHU	134	1	Results from Eating the Bread of Life, April 30
LHU	135	1	The Claims of the Law of God, May 1
LHU	136	1	God's Law Stands for Ever, May 2
LHU	137	1	Keeping the Sabbath, May 3
LHU	138	1	The Center of the Law, May 4
LHU	139	1	A Special, Distinguishing Sign, May 5
LHU	140	1	The Law for Man's Happiness, May 6
LHU	141	1	God's Law Never Changes, May 7
LHU	142	1	The First Great Commandment, May 8
LHU	143	1	No Other Gods, May 9
LHU	144	1	Honor for Those Who Honor God, May 10
LHU	145	1	Obeying God's Law, May 11
LHU	146	1	Exalting God's Law, May 12
LHU	147	1	The Law and Gospel in Harmony, May 13
LHU	148	1	Christ's New Commandment, May 14
LHU	149	1	All May Wear the Crown, May 15
LHU	150	1	The Royal Law Measures Character, May 16
LHU	151	1	The Principle of Love in the Law, May 17
LHU	152	1	The Plan of Redemption, May 18
LHU	153	1	The Truth as it is in Jesus, May 19
LHU	154	1	What is Written in the Law? May 20
LHU	155	1	In Harmony With God's Law, May 21
LHU	156	1	The Complete Saviour, May 22
LHU	157	1	The Law is Complete in Itself, May 23
LHU	158	1	Christ Magnifies the Law, May 24
LHU	159	1	Obedience to Physical and Moral Laws, May 25
LHU	160	1	Results of Obedience to Physical Laws, May 26
LHU	161	1	Christ is the Center of the Law, May 27
LHU	162	1	In the School of Christ, May 28
LHU	163	1	The Robe of Christ's Own Righteousness, May 29
LHU	164	1	Transforming Power of Obedience to God's Law, May 30
LHU	165	1	Teachers to Uphold God's Law, May 31
LHU	166	1	The Great Teacher, June 1
LHU	167	1	The Teacher Sent By God, June 2
LHU	168	1	Disciples of the Heavenly Teacher, June 3
LHU	169	1	Christ Invites Our Confidence, June 4
LHU	170	1	Christ Teaches Heavenly Things, June 5
LHU	171	1	Daily Speak the Words of Christ, June 6
LHU	172	1	Jesus' Teaching--Simple, but With Authority, June 7
LHU	173	1	Important Spiritual Lessons Taught, June 8
LHU	174	1	Jesus Taught Industry By His Own Example, June 9
LHU	175	1	Christ Delegates Power to Us, June 10
LHU	176	1	Learning from the Divine Teacher, June 11
LHU	177	1	Christ's Teaching Embraced the World, June 12
LHU	178	1	To Know God is to Obey Him, June 13
LHU	179	1	The Holy Spirit Given to Teach Us, June 14
LHU	180	1	Christ's Method of Teaching, June 15
LHU	181	1	The Humble Searcher May Learn, June 16
LHU	182	1	Teaching Children, June 17
LHU	183	1	By the Ties of Human Sympathy, June 18
LHU	184	1	A Satisfying Fountain, June 19
LHU	185	1	True Higher Education, June 20
LHU	186	1	Beholding Christ, June 21
LHU	187	1	We Are Blessed As We Teach Others, June 22
LHU	188	1	Students in the School of Christ, June 23
LHU	189	1	Bear a Living Testimony, June 24
LHU	190	1	He Was All He Claimed, June 25
LHU	191	1	Christ's Favorite Subject, June 26
LHU	192	1	The Highest of All Education, June 27
LHU	193	1	God Himself Was Daniel's Teacher, June 28
LHU	194	1	Taught by the World's Greatest Educator, June 29
LHU	195	1	Putting the Word of God into Practice, June 30
LHU	196	1	Christ is the Chief Shepherd, July 1
LHU	197	1	Christ is the Door, July 2
LHU	198	1	The Deliverer a Humble Shepherd, July 3
LHU	199	1	A Shepherd's Crook for a Sceptre, July 4
LHU	200	1	A Connection with the Chief Shepherd, July 5
LHU	201	1	The Good Shepherd, July 6
LHU	202	1	The Divine Shepherd, July 7
LHU	203	1	The Shepherd Knows Every Sheep, July 8
LHU	204	1	The Shepherd Leads the Way, July 9
LHU	205	1	The Shepherd Gave His Life for the Sheep, July 10
LHU	206	1	The Lost Sheep, July 11
LHU	207	1	Estimate of a Lost Sheep, July 12
LHU	208	1	Christ Came to Seek the Lost Sheep, July 13
LHU	209	1	The Lost Sheep a Special Burden, July 14
LHU	210	1	Finding the Lost Sheep, July 15
LHU	211	1	True Sheep Hear the True Shepherd, July 16
LHU	212	1	Joy Over One Sinner that Repenteth, July 17
LHU	213	1	We are Undershepherds, July 18
LHU	214	1	Brought Back by the Shepherd, July 19
LHU	215	1	The Sheep of His Pasture, July 20
LHU	216	1	"What More Could I Have Done?", July 21
LHU	217	1	Feeding the Flock, July 22
LHU	218	1	Special Care of the Flock, July 23
LHU	219	1	The Gentle and Caring Shepherd, July 24
LHU	220	1	The Tenderness of the Shepherd, July 25
LHU	221	1	Christ is Everything to Those Who Receive Him, July 26
LHU	222	1	The Shepherd Calls His Sheep by Name, July 27
LHU	223	1	Undershepherds, July 28
LHU	224	1	The Converted Peter, an Undershepherd, July 29
LHU	225	1	In Meekness Feed the Lambs, July 30
LHU	226	1	The Voice of the True Shepherd, July 31
LHU	227	1	What Matchless Love! August 1
LHU	228	1	Hope and Salvation to the World, August 2
LHU	229	1	The Grand, Central Truth, August 3
LHU	230	1	The Cross is the Center, August 4
LHU	231	1	Lift Him Up, the Man of Calvary, August 5
LHU	232	1	His Crowning Work, August 6
LHU	233	1	Christ Died for Us, August 7
LHU	234	1	Souls Rescued from Satan's Power, August 8
LHU	235	1	Conqueror Over the Power of Darkness, August 9
LHU	236	1	By Faith, Christ was Victor, August 10
LHU	237	1	Look, Believe, and Live, August 11
LHU	238	1	Transformation Through Christ, August 12
LHU	239	1	The Graces of His Character, August 13
LHU	240	1	The Spotless Lamb of God, August 14
LHU	241	1	The Value of a Soul, August 15
LHU	242	1	A Person's True Worth, August 16
LHU	243	1	Christ Elevates Humanity, August 17
LHU	244	1	An Atmosphere of Hopefulness and Cheer, August 18
LHU	245	1	Surrender to Christ, August 19
LHU	246	1	The One Object of Supreme Regard, August 20
LHU	247	1	Glorify the Master, August 21
LHU	248	1	God's Workmen, August 22
LHU	249	1	"Live, Sinner, Live!", August 23
LHU	250	1	The Eternal Weight of Glory, August 24
LHU	251	1	By Beholding We Become Changed, August 25
LHU	252	1	Love and Justice Harmonized, August 26
LHU	253	1	This World a Battlefield, August 27
LHU	254	1	Gather About the Cross, August 28
LHU	255	1	Nature in the Light of Calvary, August 29
LHU	256	1	Lay Your Guilt at the Foot of the Cross, August 30
LHU	257	1	A Crucified and Risen Saviour, August 31
LHU	258	1	Spiritual and Physical Maladies Healed, September 1
LHU	259	1	Healing for Spiritual Blindness, September 2
LHU	260	1	Health to Body and Soul, September 3
LHU	261	1	Strong in the Strength of God, September 4
LHU	262	1	The Fruits of Self-Denial, September 5
LHU	263	1	Wait Upon the Lord for Strength, September 6
LHU	264	1	Moral and Spiritual Perfection Promised, September 7
LHU	265	1	Think of God Continually, September 8
LHU	266	1	Spiritual Power, September 9
LHU	267	1	Be Strong in His Grace, September 10
LHU	268	1	Conformity to the Will of God, September 11
LHU	269	1	Salvation of Children, September 12
LHU	270	1	Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Development, September 13
LHU	271	1	Moral Powers to be Tested, September 14
LHU	272	1	Body and Mind Inseparable, September 15
LHU	273	1	Minds Filled with God's Promises, September 16
LHU	274	1	Fruit Bearing, September 17
LHU	275	1	Spiritual Development Through Service, September 18
LHU	276	1	Hid with Christ in God, September 19
LHU	277	1	Christ Has Promised Us Rest, September 20
LHU	278	1	The Plan of Redemption a Gift, September 21
LHU	279	1	The Power of God's Love, September 22
LHU	280	1	Firm Reliance on Christ, September 23
LHU	281	1	The Sanctifying Power of the Truth, September 24
LHU	282	1	True Humility, September 25
LHU	283	1	In Harmony with Christ, September 26
LHU	284	1	Words are an Index, September 27
LHU	285	1	Hezekiah Humbled Himself, September 28
LHU	286	1	Personal Influence is a Power, September 29
LHU	287	1	The True, the Frank, the Honest, September 30
LHU	288	1	The Head of the Church, October 1
LHU	289	1	Laborers with Him, October 2
LHU	290	1	Christ Glorified in His People, October 3
LHU	291	1	A Royal Name, October 4
LHU	292	1	Let the Church Arise and Shine, October 5
LHU	293	1	Heaven Waiting to Cooperate, October 6
LHU	294	1	Church to be Added to Church, October 7
LHU	295	1	The Greatest Object, October 8
LHU	296	1	Unity in the Church, October 9
LHU	297	1	Purity, October 10
LHU	298	1	Love--The Evidence of Discipleship, October 11
LHU	299	1	Secret Prayer and Bible Study, October 12
LHU	300	1	The Truth Will Conquer, October 13
LHU	301	1	A Decided Reformation Needed, October 14
LHU	302	1	The Ordinance of Baptism, October 15
LHU	303	1	The Blessings of the Sabbath Services, October 16
LHU	304	1	Recognizing God's Ownership, October 17
LHU	305	1	Unfading Beauty, October 18
LHU	306	1	The Root and Fruit, October 19
LHU	307	1	Present Something Better, October 20
LHU	308	1	Waiting to be Gathered In, October 21
LHU	309	1	Third Angel's Message, October 22
LHU	310	1	Press Together! Press Together! October 23
LHU	311	1	Every Church a Training School, October 24
LHU	312	1	A Great Reformatory Movement, October 25
LHU	313	1	God's Chosen People, October 26
LHU	314	1	Always a Witness in the Church, October 27
LHU	315	1	The Church will Triumph, October 28
LHU	316	1	The Light of Truth, October 29
LHU	317	1	Power of God, Not Self, October 30
LHU	318	1	Christ's Eternal Vigilance, October 31
LHU	319	1	Jesus Our Advocate, November 1
LHU	320	1	In the Heavenly Courts, November 2
LHU	321	1	An Intercessor, November 3
LHU	322	1	The Present Mediatorial Work of Christ, November 4
LHU	323	1	Our Infallible Judge, November 5
LHU	324	1	The Great Atonement, November 6
LHU	325	1	The Record Books in Heaven, November 7
LHU	326	1	The Book of Life, November 8
LHU	327	1	The Judgment Set--The Books Opened, November 9
LHU	328	1	Enrolled in the Record Books of Heaven, November 10
LHU	329	1	The Sanctuary in Heaven, November 11
LHU	330	1	Living in the Great Day of Atonement, November 12
LHU	331	1	Faith in the Atonement, November 13
LHU	332	1	The Atonement--Our Foundation of Peace, November 14
LHU	333	1	Cling Closely to Jesus, November 15
LHU	334	1	Do Not Judge, November 16
LHU	335	1	The Only True Standard of Character, November 17
LHU	336	1	Truth the Basis of Character, November 18
LHU	337	1	Christ Spoke as a Judge, November 19
LHU	338	1	All Must Appear in the Judgment, November 20
LHU	339	1	Faithful Mothers Honored in the Judgment, November 21
LHU	340	1	Choose Christ for Yourself, November 22
LHU	341	1	To be a Christian is to be Christlike, November 23
LHU	342	1	The Standard of Character in the Judgment, November 24
LHU	343	1	The Crown of Life, November 25
LHU	344	1	When Christ Comes His Reward is with Him, November 26
LHU	345	1	Our Merciful and Faithful High Priest, November 27
LHU	346	1	At the Day of Judgment, November 28
LHU	347	1	Those Written in the Book of Life, November 29
LHU	348	1	All Judgment to the Son, November 30
LHU	349	1	The King is Coming, December 1
LHU	350	1	Enoch and the Second Coming of Christ, December 2
LHU	351	1	Arouse to Action, December 3
LHU	352	1	To All the World, December 4
LHU	353	1	We Are Capable of Better Things, December 5
LHU	354	1	Redeeming the Time, December 6
LHU	355	1	Steadfast Unto the End, December 7
LHU	356	1	The Last Crisis, December 8
LHU	357	1	Called to be Witnesses, December 9
LHU	358	1	Seek to Save the Lost, December 10
LHU	359	1	Radical Changes Are to Be Made, December 11
LHU	360	1	Nothing Between Us and God, December 12
LHU	361	1	Then We Shall Know, December 13
LHU	362	1	The Lord Will Come More Quickly Than Many Expect, December 14
LHU	363	1	A Lesson in Temperance, December 15
LHU	364	1	On the Edge of a Stupendous Crisis, December 16
LHU	365	1	Preparation for Christ's Coming, December 17
LHU	366	1	To Glorify God--Our Great Motive, December 18
LHU	367	1	The Transformation of Grace, December 19
LHU	368	1	Watch and Pray, December 20
LHU	369	1	Simple Faith Unites Us to God, December 21
LHU	370	1	An Invisible Struggle, December 22
LHU	371	1	Lessons from the Antediluvians, December 23
LHU	372	1	Waiting and Watching, December 24
LHU	373	1	The First and Second Advent, December 25
LHU	374	1	God Will Not Forget His Children, December 26
LHU	375	1	Fitted for Translation, December 27
LHU	376	1	The Finishing Touch of Immortality, December 28
LHU	377	1	The Robe of Christ's Righteousness, December 29
LHU	378	1	Learning for Eternity, December 30
LHU	379	1	Partakers With Christ of His Glory, December 31

------------------------Lift Him Up as the Son of God During the New Year, January 1
LHU	15	1	Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8.
LHU	15	2	Already has the new year been ushered in; yet before we greet its coming, we pause to ask, What has been the history of the year that with its burden of records has now passed into eternity? The admonition of the apostle comes down the lines to every one of us,"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves." God forbid that at this important hour we should be so engrossed with other matters as to give no time to serious, candid, critical self-examination! Let things of minor consequence be put in the background, and let us now bring to the front the things which concern our eternal interests....
LHU	15	3	No one of us can in our own strength represent the character of Christ; but if Jesus lives in the heart, the spirit dwelling in Him will be revealed in us; all our lack will be supplied. Who will seek at the beginning of this new year to obtain a new and genuine experience in the things of God? Make your wrongs right as far as possible. Confess your errors and sins one to another. Let all bitterness and wrath and malice be put away; let patience, long-suffering, kindness, and love become a part of your very being; then whatsoever things are pure and lovely and of good report will mature in your experience....
LHU	15	4	What fruit have we borne during the year that is now past? What has been our influence upon others? Whom have we gathered to the fold of Christ? The eyes of the world are upon us. Are we living epistles of Christ, known and read of all men? Do we follow the example of Jesus in self-denial, in meekness, in humility, in forbearance, in cross-bearing, in devotion? Will the world be compelled to acknowledge us to be the servants of Christ? ...
LHU	15	5	Shall we not in this new year seek to correct the errors of the past? It behooves us individually to cultivate the grace of Christ, to be meek and lowly of heart, to be firm, unwavering, steadfast in the truth; for thus only can we advance in holiness, and be made fit for the inheritance of the saints in light. Let us begin the year with an entire renunciation of self; let us pray for clear discernment, that we may understand our Saviour's claims upon us, and that we may always and everywhere be witnesses for Christ (The Signs of the Times, January 4, 1883).
LHU	15	6	Lift up Jesus, you that teach the people. Lift Him up in exhortations, in sermons, in songs, in prayer. Let all your efforts be directed to pointing souls, confused, bewildered, and lost, to "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Bid them look and live (The Review and Herald, April 12, 1892).
------------------------The Pre-Existence of the Son of God, January 2
LHU	16	1	And now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made. John 17:5, RSV.
LHU	16	2	While God's Word speaks of the humanity of Christ when upon this earth, it also speaks decidedly regarding His pre-existence. The Word existed as a divine being, even as the eternal Son of God, in union and oneness with His Father. From everlasting He was the Mediator of the covenant, the one in whom all nations of the earth, both Jews and Gentiles, if they accepted Him, were to be blessed. "The Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Before men or angels were created, the Word was with God, and was God.
LHU	16	3	The world was made by Him, "and without Him was not any thing made that was made" (verse 3). If Christ made all things, He existed before all things. The words spoken in regard to this are so decisive that no one need be left in doubt. Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense. He was with God from all eternity, God over all, blessed forevermore.
LHU	16	4	The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father. He was the surpassing glory of heaven. He was the commander of the heavenly intelligences, and the adoring homage of the angels was received by Him as His right. This was no robbery of God. "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way," He declares, "before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depths" (Proverbs 8:22-27).
LHU	16	5	There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was one with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory. This truth, infinitely mysterious in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable truths, while it is enshrined in light, unapproachable and incomprehensible....
LHU	16	6	"The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up" (Matthew 4:16). Here the preexistence of Christ and the purpose of His manifestation to our world are presented as living beams of light from the eternal throne (Selected Messages 1:247, 248).
LHU	16	7	[Christ] says, and let My glory shine forth--the glory which I had with Thee before the world was (The Signs of the Times, May 10, 1899).
------------------------The Self-Existent Son of God, January 3
LHU	17	1	Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. John 8:58.
LHU	17	2	"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am."
LHU	17	3	Here Christ shows them that, although they might reckon His life to be less than 50 years, yet His divine life could not be reckoned by human computation. The existence of Christ before His incarnation is not measured by figures (The Signs of the Times, May 3, 1899).
LHU	17	4	"Before Abraham was, I am." Christ is the preexistent, self-existent Son of God. The message He gave to Moses to give to the children of Israel was, "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."
LHU	17	5	The prophet Micah writes of Him, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."
LHU	17	6	Through Solomon Christ declared: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.... When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him."
LHU	17	7	In speaking of His preexistence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God. He to whose voice the Jews were then listening had been with God as one brought up with Him.
LHU	17	8	Christ's words were spoken with a quiet dignity and with an assurance and power that sent conviction to the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees. They felt the power of the message sent from heaven. God was knocking at the door of their hearts, entreating entrance (The Signs of the Times, August 29, 1900).
LHU	17	9	He was equal with God, infinite and omnipotent.... He is the eternal, self-existent Son (Manuscript 101, 1897).
LHU	17	10	In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. "He that hath the Son hath life" (1 John 5:12). The divinity of Christ is the believer's assurance of eternal life. "He that believeth in me," said Jesus, "though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die".... Christ here looks forward to the time of His second coming (The Desire of Ages, 530).
------------------------Equal With the Father, January 4
LHU	18	1	Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Philippians 2:5, 6.
LHU	18	2	Lucifer in heaven, before his rebellion, was a high and exalted angel, next in honor to God's dear Son. His countenance, like those of the other angels, was mild and expressive of happiness. His forehead was high and broad, showing a powerful intellect. His form was perfect; his bearing noble and majestic. A special light beamed in his countenance and shone around him brighter and more beautiful than around the other angels; yet Christ, God's dear Son, had the preeminence over all the angelic host. He was one with the Father before the angels were created. Lucifer was envious of Christ, and gradually assumed command which devolved on Christ alone.
LHU	18	3	The great Creator assembled the heavenly host, that He might in the presence of all the angels confer special honor upon His Son. The Son was seated on the throne with the Father, and the heavenly throng of holy angels was gathered around them. The Father then made known that it was ordained by Himself that Christ, His Son, should be equal with Himself; so that wherever was the presence of His Son, it was as His own presence. The word of the Son was to be obeyed as readily as the word of the Father. His Son He had invested with authority to command the heavenly host. Especially was His Son to work in union with Himself in the anticipated creation of the earth and every living thing that should exist upon the earth. His Son would carry out His will and His purposes but would do nothing of Himself alone. The Father's will would be fulfilled in Him.
LHU	18	4	Lucifer was envious and jealous of Jesus Christ. Yet when all the angels bowed to Jesus to acknowledge His supremacy and high authority and rightful rule, he bowed with them; but his heart was filled with envy and hatred....
LHU	18	5	Angels that were loyal and true sought to reconcile this mighty, rebellious angel to the will of his Creator. They justified the act of God in conferring honor upon Christ, and with forcible reasoning sought to convince Lucifer that no less honor was his now than before the Father had proclaimed the honor which He had conferred upon His Son. They clearly set forth that Christ was the Son of God, existing with Him before the angels were created; and that He had ever stood at the right hand of God, and His mild, loving authority had not heretofore been questioned; and that He had given no commands but what it was joy for the heavenly host to execute. They urged that Christ's receiving special honor from the Father, in the presence of the angels, did not detract from the honor that Lucifer had heretofore received. The angels wept. They anxiously sought to move him to renounce his wicked design and yield submission to their Creator; for all had heretofore been peace and harmony.... Lucifer refused to listen (The Story of Redemption, 13-16).
------------------------Treason in Heaven, January 5
LHU	19	1	Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? ... or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Job 38:4-7, RSV.
LHU	19	2	Many of Lucifer's sympathizers were inclined to heed the counsel of the loyal angels and repent of their dissatisfaction and be again received to the confidence of the Father and His dear Son. The mighty revolter then declared that he was acquainted with God's law, and if he should submit to servile obedience, his honor would be taken from him. No more would he be entrusted with his exalted mission. He told them that himself and they also had now gone too far to go back, and he would brave the consequences, for to bow in servile worship to the Son of God he never would; that God would not forgive, and now they must assert their liberty and gain by force the position and authority which was not willingly accorded to them.
LHU	19	3	The loyal angels hastened speedily to the Son of God and acquainted Him with what was taking place among the angels. They found the Father in conference with His beloved Son, to determine the means by which, for the best good of the loyal angels, the assumed authority of Satan could be forever put down. The great God could at once have hurled this archdeceiver from heaven; but this was not His purpose. He would give the rebellious an equal chance to measure strength and might with His own Son and His loyal angels. In this battle every angel would choose his own side and be manifested to all. It would not have been safe to suffer any who united with Satan in his rebellion to continue to occupy heaven. They had learned the lesson of genuine rebellion against the unchangeable law of God, and this is incurable....
LHU	19	4	Then there was war in heaven. The Son of God, the Prince of heaven, and His loyal angels engaged in conflict with the archrebel and those who united with him. The Son of God and true, loyal angels prevailed; and Satan and his sympathizers were expelled from heaven. All the heavenly host acknowledged and adored the God of justice. Not a taint of rebellion was left in heaven. All was again peaceful and harmonious as before....
LHU	19	5	The Father consulted His Son in regard to at once carrying out their purpose to make man to inhabit the earth (The Story of Redemption, 16-19).
LHU	19	6	Satan's rebellion was to be a lesson to the universe through all coming ages--a perpetual testimony to the nature of sin and its terrible results. The working out of Satan's rule, its effects upon both men and angels, would show what must be the fruit of setting aside the divine authority. It would testify that with the existence of God's government is bound up the well-being of all the creatures He has made (Patriarchs and Prophets, 42, 43).
------------------------Jesus Adored by Adam and Eve, January 6
LHU	20	1	And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree. Genesis 2:9.
LHU	20	2	In the midst of the garden, near the tree of life, stood the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This tree was especially designed of God to be the pledge of their obedience, faith, and love to Him. Of this tree the Lord commanded our first parents not to eat, neither to touch it, lest they die....
LHU	20	3	When Adam and Eve were placed in the beautiful garden they had everything for their happiness which they could desire. But God chose, in His all-wise arrangements, to test their loyalty before they could be rendered eternally secure. They were to have His favor, and He was to converse with them and they with Him. Yet He did not place evil out of their reach. Satan was permitted to tempt them. If they endured the trial they were to be in perpetual favor with God and the heavenly angels....
LHU	20	4	It was decided in heaven's council for angels to visit Eden and warn Adam that he was in danger from the foe. Two angels sped on their way to visit our first parents....
LHU	20	5	They told Adam and Eve that God would not compel them to obey--that He had not removed from them power to go contrary to His will; that they were moral agents, free to obey or disobey....
LHU	20	6	They told them that Satan purposed to do them harm, and it was necessary for them to be guarded, for they might come in contact with the fallen foe; but he could not harm them while they yielded obedience to God's command, for, if necessary, every angel from heaven would come to their help rather than that he should in any way do them harm....
LHU	20	7	The angels charged them to closely follow the instructions God had given them in reference to the tree of knowledge, for in perfect obedience they were safe, and this fallen foe could then have no power to deceive them. God would not permit Satan to follow the holy pair with continual temptations. He could have access to them only at the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
LHU	20	8	Adam and Eve assured the angels that they should never transgress the express command of God, for it was their highest pleasure to do His will. The angels united with Adam and Eve in holy strains of harmonious music, and as their songs pealed forth from blissful Eden, Satan heard the sound of their strains of joyful adoration to the Father and Son. And as Satan heard it his envy, hatred, and malignity increased, and he expressed his anxiety to his followers to incite them (Adam and Eve) to disobedience and at once bring down the wrath of God upon them and change their songs of praise to hatred and curses to their Maker (The Story of Redemption, 24-31).
------------------------The Freedom of Choice, January 7
LHU	21	1	Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning. 2 Corinthians 11:3, NIV.
LHU	21	2	Satan entered into the serpent and took his position in the tree of knowledge and commenced leisurely eating of the fruit.
LHU	21	3	Eve, unconsciously at first, separated from her husband in her employment. When she became aware of the fact she felt that there might be danger, but again she thought herself secure, even if she did not remain close by the side of her husband. She had wisdom and strength to know if evil came, and to meet it. This the angels had cautioned her not to do....
LHU	21	4	Satan would convey the idea that by eating of the forbidden tree they would receive a new and more noble kind of knowledge than they had hitherto attained. This has been his special work, with great success, ever since his fall--to lead men to pry into the secrets of the Almighty and not be satisfied with what God has revealed, and not careful to obey that which He has commanded. He would lead them to disobey God's commands, and then make them believe that they are entering a wonderful field of knowledge. This is purely supposition, and a miserable deception. They fail to understand what God has revealed, and disregard His explicit commandments and aspire after wisdom, independent of God, and seek to understand that which He has been pleased to withhold from mortals. They are elated with their ideas of progression and charmed with their own vain philosophy, but grope in midnight darkness relative to true knowledge. They are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
LHU	21	5	It was not the will of God that this sinless pair should have the knowledge of evil. He had freely given them the good but withheld the evil....
LHU	21	6	Eve had thought herself capable of deciding between right and wrong. The flattering hope of entering a higher state of knowledge had led her to think that the serpent was her especial friend, possessing a great interest in her welfare. Had she sought her husband, and they had related to their Maker the words of the serpent, they would have been delivered at once from his artful temptation (The Story of Redemption, 32-37).
LHU	21	7	Rebellion and apostasy are in the very air we breathe. We shall be affected by them unless we by faith hang our helpless souls upon Christ. If men are so easily misled now, how will they stand when Satan shall personate Christ, and work miracles? Who will be unmoved by his misrepresentations then--professing to be Christ when it is only Satan assuming the person of Christ, and apparently working the works of Christ? What will hold God's people from giving their allegiance to false christs? "Go not after them" (Luke 17:23) (Selected Messages 2:394, 395).
------------------------The Way to Salvation, January 8
LHU	22	1	I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me. John 14:6.
LHU	22	2	Sorrow filled heaven, as it was realized that man was lost....The whole family of Adam must die. I saw the lovely Jesus and beheld an expression of sympathy and sorrow upon His countenance. Soon I saw Him approach the exceeding bright light which enshrouded the Father. Said my accompanying angel, He is in close converse with His Father. The anxiety of the angels seemed to be intense while Jesus was communing with His Father. Three times He was shut in by the glorious light about the Father, and the third time He came out from the Father, His person could be seen. His countenance was calm, free from all perplexity and doubt, and shone with benevolence and loveliness, such as words cannot express.
LHU	22	3	He then made known to the angelic host that a way of escape had been made for lost man. He told them that He had been pleading with His Father, and had offered to give His life a ransom, to take the sentence of death upon Himself, that through Him man might find pardon; that through the merits of His blood, and obedience to the law of God, they could have the favor of God and be brought into the beautiful garden and eat of the fruit of the tree of life.
LHU	22	4	At first the angels could not rejoice, for their Commander concealed nothing from them, but opened to them the plan of salvation. Jesus told them that He would stand between the wrath of His Father and guilty man, that He would bear iniquity and scorn, and but few would receive Him as the Son of God. Nearly all would hate and reject Him. He would leave all His glory in heaven, appear upon earth as a man, humble Himself as a man, become acquainted by His own experience with the various temptations with which man would be beset, that He might know how to succor [help] those who should be tempted.... The weight of the sins of the whole world would be upon Him. He told them He would die and rise again the third day, and would ascend to His Father to intercede for wayward, guilty man (The Story of Redemption, 42, 43).
LHU	22	5	Obedience through Jesus Christ gives to man perfection of character and a right to that tree of life. The conditions of again partaking of the fruit of the tree are plainly stated in the testimony of Jesus Christ to John: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments 1:1086).
------------------------A Door of Hope for Sinners, January 9
LHU	23	1	We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be Saviour of the world. 1 John 4:14.
LHU	23	2	The angels of God were commissioned to visit the fallen pair and inform them that although they could no longer retain possession of their holy estate, their Eden home, because of their transgression of the law of God, yet their case was not altogether hopeless. They were then informed that the Son of God, who had conversed with them in Eden, had been moved with pity as He viewed their hopeless condition, and had volunteered to take upon Himself the punishment due to them, and die for them that man might yet live, through faith in the atonement Christ proposed to make for him.
LHU	23	3	Through Christ a door of hope was opened that man, notwithstanding his great sin, should not be under the absolute control of Satan. Faith in the merits of the Son of God would so elevate man that he could resist the devices of Satan. Probation would be granted him in which, through a life of repentance and faith in the atonement of the Son of God, he might be redeemed from his transgression of the Father's law, and thus be elevated to a position where his efforts to keep His law could be accepted.
LHU	23	4	The angels related to them the grief that was felt in heaven as it was announced that they had transgressed the law of God, which had made it expedient for Christ to make the great sacrifice of His own precious life.
LHU	23	5	When Adam and Eve realized how exalted and sacred was the law of God, the transgression of which made so costly a sacrifice necessary to save them and their posterity from utter ruin, they pleaded to die themselves, or to let them and their posterity endure the penalty of their transgression, rather than that the beloved Son of God should make this great sacrifice. The anguish of Adam was increased. He saw that his sins were of so great magnitude as to involve fearful consequences. And must it be that heaven's honored Commander, who had walked with him and talked with him while in his holy innocence, whom angels honored and worshiped, must be brought down from His exalted position to die because of his transgression?
LHU	23	6	Adam was informed that an angel's life could not pay the debt.... But the Son of God, who had in unison with the Father created man, could make an atonement for man acceptable to God, by giving His life a sacrifice and bearing the wrath of His Father. Angels informed Adam that, as his transgression had brought death and wretchedness, life and immortality would be brought to light through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (The Story of Redemption, 46-48).
------------------------Christ Alone Satisfies the Claims of God's Law, January 10
LHU	24	1	For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ; who gave himself a ransom for all. 1 Timothy 2:5, 6.
LHU	24	2	The Son of God was next in authority to the great Lawgiver. He knew that His life alone could be sufficient to ransom fallen man. He was of as much more value than man as His noble, spotless character, and exalted office as commander of all the heavenly host were above the work of man. He was in the express image of His Father, not in features alone, but in perfection of character.
LHU	24	3	The blood of beasts could not satisfy the demands of God as an atoning sacrifice for the transgression of His law. The life of a beast was of less value than the life of the offending sinner, therefore could not be a ransom for sin. It could only be acceptable with God as a figure of the offering of His Son.
LHU	24	4	Man could not atone for man. His sinful, fallen condition would constitute him an imperfect offering, and atoning sacrifice of less value than Adam before his fall. God made man perfect and upright, and after his transgression there could be no sacrifice acceptable to God for him, unless the offering made should in value be superior to man as he was in his state of perfection and innocency.
LHU	24	5	The divine Son of God was the only sacrifice of sufficient value to fully satisfy the claims of God's perfect law.... Upon Christ no requirements were laid. He had power to lay down His life, and to take it again. No obligation was laid upon Him to undertake the work of atonement. It was a voluntary sacrifice that He made. His life was of sufficient value to rescue man from his fallen condition.
LHU	24	6	The Son of God was in the form of God, and He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He was the only one, who as a man walked the earth, who could say to all men, Who of you convinceth me of sin? He had united with the Father in the creation of man, and He had power through His own divine perfection of character to atone for man's sin, and to elevate him, and bring him back to his first estate.
LHU	24	7	The sacrificial offerings, and the priesthood of the Jewish system, were instituted to represent the death and mediatorial work of Christ. All those ceremonies had no meaning, and no virtue, only as they related to Christ, who was Himself the foundation of, and who brought into existence the entire system. The Lord had made known to Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and the ancient worthies, especially Moses, that the ceremonial system of sacrifices and the priesthood, of themselves, were not sufficient to secure the salvation of one soul....
LHU	24	8	The infinite sacrifice that Christ voluntarily made for man remains a mystery that angels cannot fully fathom (The Review and Herald, December 17, 1872).
------------------------A Perfect Sacrifice, January 11
LHU	25	1	An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. Exodus 20:24, RSV.
LHU	25	2	When Adam, according to God's special directions, made an offering for sin, it was to him a most painful ceremony. His hand must be raised to take life, which God alone could give, and make an offering for sin. It was the first time he had witnessed death. As he looked upon the bleeding victim, writhing in the agonies of death, he was to look forward by faith to the Son of God, whom the victim prefigured, who was to die man's sacrifice.
LHU	25	3	This ceremonial offering, ordained of God, was to be a perpetual reminder to Adam of his guilt, and also a penitential acknowledgment of his sin. This act of taking life gave Adam a deeper and more perfect sense of his transgression, which nothing less than the death of God's dear Son could expiate. He marveled at the infinite goodness and matchless love which would give such a ransom to save the guilty.
LHU	25	4	As Adam was slaying the innocent victim, it seemed to him that he was shedding the blood of the Son of God by his own hand. He knew that if he had remained steadfast to God, and true to His holy law, there would have been no death of beast or of man. Yet in the sacrificial offerings, pointing to the great and perfect offering of God's dear Son, there appeared a star of hope to illuminate the dark and terrible future, and relieve it of its utter hopelessness and ruin.
LHU	25	5	In the beginning the head of each family was considered ruler and priest of his own household. Afterward, as the race multiplied upon the earth, men of divine appointment performed this solemn worship of sacrifice for the people. The blood of beasts was to be associated in the minds of sinners with the blood of the Son of God. The death of the victim was to evidence to all that the penalty of sin was death. By the act of sacrifice the sinner acknowledged his guilt and manifested his faith, looking forward to the great and perfect sacrifice of the Son of God, which the offering of beasts prefigured.
LHU	25	6	Without the atonement of the Son of God there could be no communication of blessing or salvation from God to man. God was jealous for the honor of His law. The transgression of that law caused a fearful separation between God and man. To Adam in his innocency was granted communion, direct, free, and happy, with his Maker. After his transgression God would communicate to man through Christ and angels (The Story of Redemption, 50, 51).
LHU	25	7	Such a sacrifice was of sufficient value to save the whole world.... This sacrifice was of such infinite value as to make a man who should avail himself of it more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir (The Story of Redemption, 48, 49).
------------------------Sacrifices and Ordinances Revealed God's Divine Love, January 12
LHU	26	1	Every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Hebrews 10:11, 12, RSV.
LHU	26	2	In patriarchal times the sacrificial offerings connected with divine worship constituted a perpetual reminder of the coming of a Saviour, and thus it was with the entire ritual of the sanctuary services throughout Israel's history. In the ministration of the tabernacle, and of the Temple that afterward took its place, the people were taught each day, by means of types and shadows, the great truths relative to the advent of Christ as Redeemer, Priest, and King; and once each year their minds were carried forward to the closing events of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, the final purification of the universe from sin and sinners.
LHU	26	3	The sacrifices and offerings of the Mosaic ritual were ever pointing toward a better service, even a heavenly. The earthly sanctuary was "a figure for the time then present," in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices; its two holy places were "patterns of things in the heavens"; for Christ, our great High Priest, is today "a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Hebrews 9:9, 23; 8:2).
LHU	26	4	From the day the Lord declared to the serpent in Eden, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed" (Genesis 3:15), Satan has known that he can never hold absolute sway over the inhabitants of this world. When Adam and his sons began to offer the ceremonial sacrifices ordained by God as a type of the coming Redeemer, Satan discerned in these a symbol of communion between earth and heaven. During the long centuries that have followed, it has been his constant effort to intercept this communion. Untiringly has he sought to misrepresent God and to misinterpret the rites pointing to the Saviour....
LHU	26	5	While God has desired to teach men that from His own love comes the Gift which reconciles them to Himself, the archenemy of mankind has endeavored to represent God as one who delights in their destruction. Thus the sacrifices and ordinances designed of Heaven to reveal divine love have been perverted (Prophets and Kings, 684-686).
LHU	26	6	In word and in deed the Messiah, during His earthly ministry, was to reveal to mankind the glory of God the Father. Every act of His life, every word spoken, every miracle wrought, was to make known to fallen humanity the infinite love of God....
LHU	26	7	Thus, through patriarchs and prophets, as well as through types and symbols, God spoke to the world concerning the coming of a Deliverer from sin (Prophets and Kings, 696, 697).
------------------------The Hope of the Ages, January 13
LHU	27	1	And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:5, 6.
LHU	27	2	Through the long centuries of "trouble and darkness" and "dimness of anguish" (Isaiah 8:22) marking the history of mankind from the day our first parents lost their Eden home, to the time the Son of God appeared as the Saviour of sinners, the hope of the fallen race was centered in the coming of a Deliverer to free men and women from the bondage of sin and the grave.
LHU	27	3	The first intimation of such a hope was given to Adam and Eve in the sentence pronounced upon the serpent in Eden when the Lord declared to Satan in their hearing, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15).
LHU	27	4	As the guilty pair listened to these words, they were inspired with hope; for in the prophecy concerning the breaking of Satan's power they discerned a promise of deliverance from the ruin wrought through transgression. Though they must suffer from the power of their adversary because they had fallen under his seductive influence and had chosen to disobey the plain command of Jehovah, yet they need not yield to utter despair. The Son of God was offering to atone with His own lifeblood for their transgression. To them was to be granted a period of probation, during which, through faith in the power of Christ to save, they might become once more the children of God.
LHU	27	5	Satan, by means of his success in turning man aside from the path of obedience, became "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4). The dominion that once was Adam's passed to the usurper. But the Son of God proposed to come to this earth to pay the penalty of sin, and thus not only redeem man, but recover the dominion forfeited. It is of this restoration that Micah prophesied when he said, "O Tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion" (Micah 4:8)....
LHU	27	6	This hope of redemption through the advent of the Son of God as Saviour and King has never become extinct in the hearts of men. From the beginning there have been some whose faith has reached out beyond the shadows of the present to the realities of the future. Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--through these and other worthies the Lord has preserved the precious revealings of His will. And it was thus that to the children of Israel ... God imparted a knowledge of the requirements of His law, and of the salvation to be accomplished through the atoning sacrifice of His beloved Son (Prophets and Kings, 681-683).
------------------------The True Character of God in Christ, January 14
LHU	28	1	I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15, RSV.
LHU	28	2	The enmity referred to in the prophecy in Eden was not to be confined merely to Satan and the Prince of life. It was to be universal. Satan and his angels were to feel the enmity of all mankind. "I will put enmity," said God, "between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed."
LHU	28	3	The enmity put between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman was supernatural. With Christ the enmity was in one sense natural; in another sense it was supernatural, as humanity and divinity were combined. And never was the enmity developed to such a marked degree as when Christ became an inhabitant of this earth. Never before had there been a being upon the earth who hated sin with so perfect a hatred as did Christ. He had seen its deceiving, infatuating power upon the holy angels, and all His powers were enlisted against it.
LHU	28	4	The purity and holiness of Christ, the spotless righteousness of Him who did no sin, was a perpetual reproach upon all sin in a world of sensuality and sin. In His life the light of truth was flashed amid the moral darkness with which Satan had enshrouded the world. Christ exposed Satan's falsehoods and deceiving character, and in many hearts destroyed his corrupting influence. It was this that stirred Satan with such intense hatred. With his hosts of fallen beings he determined to urge the warfare most vigorously; for there stood in the world One who was a perfect representative of the Father, One whose character and practices refuted Satan's misrepresentation of God. Satan had charged upon God the attribute he himself possessed. Now in Christ he saw God revealed in His true character--a compassionate, merciful Father, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to Him in repentance, and have eternal life.
LHU	28	5	Intense worldliness has been one of Satan's most successful temptations. He designs to keep the hearts and minds of men so engrossed with worldly attractions that there will be no room for heavenly things. He controls their minds in their love of the world. Earthly things eclipse the heavenly, and put the Lord out of their sight and understanding....
LHU	28	6	Satan reached only the heel; he could not touch the head. At the death of Christ, Satan saw that he was defeated. He saw that his true character was clearly revealed before all heaven, and that the heavenly beings and the worlds that God had created would be wholly on the side of God.... Christ's humanity would demonstrate for eternal ages the question which settled the controversy (Selected Messages 1:254, 255).
------------------------To be a Prophet, January 15
LHU	29	1	The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken. Deuteronomy 18:15.
LHU	29	2	The hope of Israel was embodied in the promise made at the time of the call of Abraham, and afterward repeated again and again to his posterity, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:3). As the purpose of God for the redemption of the race was unfolded to Abraham, the Sun of Righteousness shone upon his heart, and his darkness was scattered. And when, at last, the Saviour Himself walked and talked among the sons of men, He bore witness to the Jews of the patriarch's bright hope of deliverance through the coming of a Redeemer. "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day," Christ declared; "and he saw it, and was glad" (John 8:56).
LHU	29	3	The same blessed hope was foreshadowed in the benediction pronounced by the dying patriarch Jacob upon his son Judah....
LHU	29	4	Through Moses, God's purpose to send His Son as the Redeemer of the fallen race was kept before Israel. On one occasion, shortly before his death, Moses declared, "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken." Plainly had Moses been instructed for Israel concerning the work of the Messiah to come. "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee," was the word of Jehovah to His servant; "and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him" (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18) (Prophets and Kings, 683, 684).
LHU	29	5	About 40 days after the birth of Christ, Joseph and Mary took Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord, and to offer sacrifice....
LHU	29	6	The priest went through the ceremony of his official work. He took the child in his arms, and held it up before the altar. After handing it back to its mother, he inscribed the name "Jesus" on the roll of the firstborn. Little did he think, as the babe lay in his arms, that it was the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory. The priest did not think that this babe was the One of whom Moses had written, "A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you" (Acts 3:22). He did not think that this babe was He whose glory Moses had asked to see. But One greater than Moses lay in the priest's arms; and when he enrolled the child's name, he was enrolling the name of One who was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy (The Desire of Ages, 50-52).
------------------------The Wise Men Welcome Him, January 16
LHU	30	1	When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? Matthew 2:1, 2.
LHU	30	2	The King of glory stooped low to take humanity; and angels, who had witnessed His splendor in the heavenly courts, as He was worshiped by all the heavenly hosts, were disappointed to find their divine Commander in a position of so great humiliation.
LHU	30	3	The Jews had separated themselves so far from God ... that angels could not communicate to them the tidings of the advent of the infant Redeemer. God chooses the Wise Men of the East to do His will....
LHU	30	4	"There came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him." These men were not Jews; but they had been waiting for the predicted Messiah. They had studied prophecy, and knew the time was at hand when Christ would come; and they were anxiously watching for some sign of this great event, that they might be among the first to welcome the infant heavenly King, and worship Him.
LHU	30	5	These Wise Men were philosophers, and had studied the works of God in nature. In the wonders of the heavens, in the glories of the sun, moon, and stars, they traced the finger of God. They were not idolaters. They lived up to the dim light which shone upon them.... These Wise Men had seen the heavens illuminated with light, which enshrouded the heavenly host who heralded the advent of Christ to the humble shepherds. And after the angels returned to heaven, a luminous star appeared, and lingered in the heavens.
LHU	30	6	This light was a distant cluster of flaming angels, which appeared like a luminous star. The unusual appearance of the large, bright star which they had never seen before, hanging as a sign in the heavens, attracted their attention. They were not privileged to hear the proclamation of the angels to the shepherds. But the Spirit of God moved them out to seek this heavenly Visitor to a fallen world. The Wise Men directed their course where the star seemed to lead them. And as they drew nigh to the city of Jerusalem, the star was enshrouded in darkness, and no longer guided them....
LHU	30	7	The Wise Men are surprised to see no unusual interest upon the subject of the coming of the Messiah.... The Wise Men plainly stated their errand. They were in search of Jesus, the King of the Jews, for they had seen His star in the east and had come to worship Him....
LHU	30	8	The advent of Christ was the greatest event which had taken place since the creation of the world.... The eye of God was upon His Son every moment.... The gifts brought to them [Joseph and Mary] by the Wise Men sustained them while in the land of [Egypt] (The Review and Herald, December 24, 1872).
------------------------Jesus Keeps His First Passover, January 17
LHU	31	1	Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. Luke 2:41, 42.
LHU	31	2	Joseph and Mary went up to Jerusalem every year to the feast of the Passover, according to the requirements of the Jewish law. Christ's childhood days were ended. He had entered upon the period of youth. Joseph and Mary, as was their custom, prepared to take their long journey to Jerusalem. They took Jesus with them. They went in company with many others who were on their way to Jerusalem to observe this solemn festival.
LHU	31	3	It is impossible for human minds to understand the meditations of the Son of God as He looked with interest upon the Temple for the first time. As He walked its courts, and His eye discerned the work of the ministering priest, the altar with its bleeding victim, the holy incense arising to God, and the mysteries of the Holy of Holies behind the veil, and comprehended the reality which these ceremonies prefigured, what thoughts were awakened within His breast we cannot conjecture. Christ Himself was the key to unlock all these sacred mysteries which were indefinitely understood by Joseph and Mary. These were all instituted to represent Christ, and were fulfilled in His death.
LHU	31	4	The Passover was a name given to this ceremony in commemoration of the wonderful event of the Hebrews' leaving Egypt. The night they left Egypt, the destroying angel entered every house and slew from the firstborn of the king upon his throne down to the firstborn of the lowest slave....
LHU	31	5	The Lord gave special directions to the Hebrews, for each family to slay a lamb and sprinkle the blood upon their door posts, that when the destroying angel should go forth upon his errand of death, the blood upon the post of the door should be to them a sign that those who were within the house were the worshipers of the true God. The angel of death passed over the houses thus designated. Upon that eventful night the Hebrews were directed to be prepared for their journey....
LHU	31	6	According to the directions given them of God, they were all prepared for their journey, ready for the word of command to go forth from Egypt....
LHU	31	7	While the institution of the Passover was pointing backward to the miraculous deliverance of the Hebrews, it likewise pointed forward, showing the death of the Son of God before it transpired. In the last Passover our Lord observed with His disciples, He instituted the Lord's Supper in place of the Passover, to be observed in memory of His death. No longer had they need of the Passover, for He, the great antitypical Lamb, was ready to be sacrificed for the sins of the world. Type met antitype in the death of Christ (Youth's Instructor, May 1, 1873).
------------------------An Obedient Son to Earthly Parents, January 18
LHU	32	1	And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. Philippians 2:8.
LHU	32	2	How great must be the humiliation of the Son of God, that He should live in the despised and wicked town of Nazareth. The most holy place upon earth would have been greatly honored by the presence of the world's Redeemer a single year. The palaces of kings would have been exalted to receive Christ as a guest. But the Redeemer of the world passed by the courts of royalty and made His home in a humble mountain village for 30 years, thus conferring distinction upon despised Nazareth.
LHU	32	3	The Redeemer of the world passed up and down the hills and mountains, from the great plain to the mountain valley. He enjoyed nature's beautiful scenery. He was delighted with the fields glowing with the beautiful flowers, and in listening to the birds of the air, and uniting His voice with them in their happy songs of praise. The groves and mountains were His places of retreat for prayer, and frequently whole nights were spent in communion with His Father....
LHU	32	4	Notwithstanding the sacred mission of Christ, His exalted relationship with God, of which He was fully aware, He was not above performing the practical duties of life. He was the Creator of the world, and yet He acknowledged His obligation to His earthly parents, and at the call of duty, in compliance with the wishes of His parents, He returned with them from Jerusalem after the Passover, and was subject unto them.
LHU	32	5	He submitted to restraints of parental authority, and acknowledged the obligations of a son, a brother, friend, and citizen. He discharged His duties to His earthly parents with respectful courtesy. He was the Majesty of heaven. He had been the great commander in heaven. Angels loved to do His bidding. And now He was a willing servant, a cheerful, obedient son.
LHU	32	6	Jesus was not turned aside by any influence from the faithful service expected of a son. He did not aim to do anything remarkable to distinguish Himself from other youth, or to proclaim His heavenly birth. Even His friends and relatives, in all the years that Christ's life was passed among them, saw no special marks of His divinity. Christ was sedate, self-denying, gentle, cheerful, kind, and ever obedient. He avoided display, but was firm as a rock to principle....
LHU	32	7	In the little notice given of His childhood and youthful life is an example for parents as well as children, that the more quiet and unnoticed the period of childhood and youth is passed, and the more natural and free from artificial excitement, the more safe will it be for the children, and the more favorable for the formation of a character of purity, natural simplicity, and true moral worth (Youth's Instructor, February 1, 1873).
------------------------A Spotless Example, January 19
LHU	33	1	For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
LHU	33	2	The life of Christ had been so secluded at Nazareth that the world did not know Him as the Son of God--their Redeemer. He was regarded as nothing more than the son of Joseph and Mary. His life in childhood and youth was remarkable. His silence in regard to His exalted character and mission contains an instructive lesson to all youth. His faithful obedience to His parents until He was thirty years of age is a pattern for youth to imitate more than the Jesus in Gethsemane and upon Calvary.
LHU	33	3	We shall never be required to endure the agony of the Son of God which He bore for a guilty world; but His life of submission and faithful obedience to His parents is the pattern for all children and youth. Although they may never experience, as did the Redeemer, the agony of Gethsemane or Calvary, they are required to imitate the life of Christ in humility, self-denial, self-sacrifice, and in filial, respectful obedience to their parents....
LHU	33	4	The Lord had revealed to John that Jesus would be among the candidates who were to receive baptism at his hands, and that He would give him a special token whereby he might know the Lamb of God, and call the attention of the people to Him as the long-expected Messiah.
LHU	33	5	John had heard of the sinless character and spotless purity of the life of Christ, and that He claimed to be the Son of God. He had been informed of His wise questions and answers in the Temple, which astonished the grave doctors. He had listened to the recital of the Galilean youth silencing the doctors by His deep reasoning. He thought this must be the Son of God, the promised Messiah....
LHU	33	6	As soon as the discerning eye of John rested upon Jesus, his spirit was stirred with the deepest emotion. He knew that He was not like any other man that had received the ordinance at his hand. He had strong convictions that this was the Christ of whom Moses and the prophets had written. His heart went out to Christ with intense love and reverence that he had never felt before. The very atmosphere of His presence was holy and awe-inspiring.... His heart had never been stirred with such emotions as when in the presence of Christ....
LHU	33	7	Christ came to receive baptism, not with confession of sins to repentance, for He was without the taint of sin.... Through the perfection of His character He was accepted of the Father as a mediator for sinful man.... The Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering, and thus qualified to help fallen man just where he needed help (Youth's Instructor, January 1, 1874).
------------------------One Superior to Angels, January 20
LHU	34	1	Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he said, And let all the angels of God worship him. Hebrews 1:4-6.
LHU	34	2	Should the angel Gabriel be sent to this world to take upon himself human nature, and to teach the knowledge of God, how eagerly men would listen to his instruction. Supposing that he were able to set us a perfect example of purity and holiness, sympathizing with us in all our sorrows, bereavements, and afflictions, and suffering the punishment of our sins, how eagerly we would follow him. What exaltation he would receive. Men would desire to place him on the throne of David, and to gather the nations of earth under his banner.
LHU	34	3	If, when this heavenly being returned to his home, he should leave behind him a book containing the history of his mission, with revelations regarding the history of the world, how eagerly would its seal be broken! How anxiously men and women would seek to obtain a copy! Thinking people would store up the precious instruction for the benefit of future generations. Thousands from all parts of the world would copy the words of this book. With intense interest they would read and reread its pages. For a time all other interests would be subordinated to a study of its contents.
LHU	34	4	But One surpassing all that imagination can present came from heaven to this world. Nearly 2000 years ago a voice of strange and mysterious import was heard from the throne of God, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.... Lo, I come ... to do thy will, O God."
LHU	34	5	A prophet said: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."...
LHU	34	6	As Paul beheld Christ in His power, he broke out into exclamations of admiration and amazement: "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." "By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist" ... (The Signs of the Times, April 4, 1906).
------------------------To Seek and Save the Lost, January 21
LHU	35	1	For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke 19:10.
LHU	35	2	The heaven-appointed Teacher appears, and He is no less a personage than the Son of the Infinite God. Unroll the scroll, and read of Him. Moses declared to the children of Israel: "The Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." Here is the prediction announcing the distinguished arrival. His words were not to be disregarded; for His authority was supreme, and His power invincible.
LHU	35	3	Unroll the scroll still further, and read what Isaiah says of His work: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified"....
LHU	35	4	Again we read of Christ as the messenger of the covenant yet to come, and as the Sun of Righteousness yet to arise. The prophets made Him their earliest and their latest theme....
LHU	35	5	At His coming [the Jews] did not receive Him, because they had gathered a false idea as to the manner of His coming. This Jesus, a peasant and a carpenter, of obscure origin, the Son of God, the Messiah? It could not be.
LHU	35	6	But the peculiarity separating the Jews from other nations disappeared in Christ. He placed Himself where He could give instruction to all classes of people. Often He told them that He was related to the whole human family, Jew and Gentile. "I am not come to call the [self] righteous, but sinners to repentance," He declared. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. For this He left the ninety and nine; for this He laid off His royal robes, and veiled His divinity with humanity. The whole world is Christ's field of labor. A sphere narrower than this does not enter His thoughts (The Signs of the Times, June 24, 1897).
------------------------He Represents the Father, January 22
LHU	36	1	O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou has loved me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:25, 26.
LHU	36	2	Christ came into the world to represent the Father to man; for Satan had presented Him before the world in a false light. Because God is a God of justice, of terrible majesty, who has power to destroy as well as to preserve man, Satan caused men to regard Him with fear, to look upon Him as a tyrant. Jesus had been with the Father from the everlasting ages, before the creation of man, and He came to reveal the Father, declaring, "God is love." Jesus represented God as a kind Father, who careth for the subjects of His kingdom. He declared that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the notice of the Father, and that the children of men are of more value in His sight than many sparrows, that the very hairs of their head are all numbered.
LHU	36	3	The Lord is represented in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament not only as a God of justice but as a Father of infinite love. The psalmist says: "The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.... The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.... He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him"....
LHU	36	4	Satan had clothed the Father in his own attributes, but Christ represented Him in His true character of benevolence and love. In the character in which Christ presented Him to the world it was as if He gave a new gift to man....
LHU	36	5	The Son of God declared in positive terms that the world was destitute of the knowledge of God; but this knowledge was of the highest value, and it was His own peculiar gift, the inestimable treasure which He brought into the world. In the exercise of His sovereign prerogative He imparted to His disciples the knowledge of the character of God, in order that they might communicate it to the world.... Everyone who believes the message of God should lift up Jesus, point men to Christ, and say, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world"....
LHU	36	6	The soul imbued with the love of Christ is one with Him; he communes with Christ, Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, and the Christian goes forth to represent the Father and the Son to the world (The Signs of the Times, June 27, 1892).
------------------------A Restorer, January 23
LHU	37	1	Thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12.
LHU	37	2	The Son of God came to the world as a restorer. He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Every word He uttered was spirit and life. He spoke with authority, conscious of His power to bless humanity, and deliver the captives bound by Satan; conscious also that by His presence He could bring to the world fullness of joy. He longed to help every oppressed and suffering member of the human family, and show that it was His prerogative to bless, not to condemn.
LHU	37	3	It was no robbery for Christ to do the works of God; for this was the purpose He came from heaven to fulfill, and for this the treasures of eternity were at His command. In the disposal of His gifts He was to know no control. He passed by the self-exalted, the honored, and the rich, and mingled with the poor and oppressed, bringing into their lives a brightness, a hope, and an aspiration they had never before known. He pronounced a blessing on all who should suffer for His sake, declaring: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake"....
LHU	37	4	Christ distinctly appropriated to Himself the right to authority and allegiance. "Ye call me Master and Lord," He said, "and ye say well; for so I am." "One is your Master, even Christ." Thus He maintained the dignity that belonged to His name, and the authority and power He possessed in heaven.
LHU	37	5	There were occasions when He spoke with the dignity of His own true greatness. "He that hath ears to hear," He said, "let him hear." In these words He was only repeating the command of God, when from His excellent glory the Infinite One had declared, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." Standing amid the frowning Pharisees, who sought to make their own importance felt, Christ did not hesitate to compare Himself with the most distinguished representative men who had walked the earth, and to claim preeminence above them all.
LHU	37	6	Jonah was one of these men, held in high estimation by the Jewish nation.... As Christ recalled to the minds of His hearers, Jonah's message and his instrumentality in saving that people, He said: "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here."
LHU	37	7	Christ knew that the Israelites regarded Solomon as the greatest king that ever wielded a scepter over an earthly kingdom.... Yet Christ declared: ... "Behold, a greater than Solomon is here" (Youth's Instructor, September 23, 1897).
------------------------Our Defender, January 24
LHU	38	1	For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9.
LHU	38	2	If there are those who think that they are making large sacrifices for the work, let them consider the sacrifice that Christ made in their behalf. The human race was under sentence of death, but the Son of God clothed His divinity with humanity, and came to this world to live and die in our behalf. He came to stand against the host of fallen angels. We must have a Defender, and when our Defender came, He was clothed with humanity; for He must be subject to all the temptations wherewith man is beset, that He might understand how to deliver the godly out of temptation. He took His stand at the head of the fallen race, that men and women might be enabled to stand on vantage ground.
LHU	38	3	Christ did not come to this world with a legion of angels. Laying aside His royal robe and kingly crown, He stepped down from His high command, and for our sake became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. This was the plan laid in the heavenly courts. The Redeemer of mankind was to be born in poverty, and He was to be a worker with His hands. He labored with His father at the carpenter's trade, and into all that He did He brought perfection. His companions sometimes found fault with Him because He was so thorough. What is the use of being so particular? they said. But He would work until He had brought what He was doing as near to perfection as He could, and then He would look up with the light of heaven shining from His face, and those who had criticized Him would turn away ashamed of themselves. Instead of retaliating when found fault with, He would begin to sing one of the psalms, and before those who had found fault with Him realized it, they, too, were singing.
LHU	38	4	Never should botch work of any kind be allowed in our institutions. Every student should be taught that in order to attain to perfection in character building, he must be faithful in the smallest duties appointed him. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building," and your work is to be done as in the sight of a holy God. Do your best, and heavenly angels will help you to carry the work on to perfection.... Christ left the heavenly courts, and came to this world to make an atonement for us. All who come to Him in living faith will be enabled to stand on vantage ground....
LHU	38	5	Let us have characters so pure and holy that Christ can with joy present us to the Father. Let us be filled with the living principles of the truth for this time. Let us live lives that will lead sinners to the Saviour.... We may be made complete in Him. How? By becoming partakers of the divine nature (The Review and Herald, June 1, 1905).
------------------------Assailed With the Fiercest Temptations, January 25
LHU	39	1	Because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. Hebrews 2:18, RSV.
LHU	39	2	If, under trying circumstances, men of spiritual power, pressed beyond measure, become discouraged and desponding, if at times they see nothing desirable in life, that they should choose it, this is nothing strange or new. Let all such remember that one of the mightiest of the prophets fled for his life before the rage of an infuriated woman. A fugitive, weary and travel-worn, bitter disappointment crushing his spirits, he asked that he might die. But it was when hope was gone and his lifework seemed threatened with defeat, that he learned one of the most precious lessons of his life. In the hour of his greatest weakness he learned the need and the possibility of trusting God under circumstances the most forbidding.
LHU	39	3	Those who, while spending their life energies in self-sacrificing labor, are tempted to give way to despondency and distrust may gather courage from the experience of Elijah. God's watchful care, His love, His power, are especially manifest in behalf of His servants whose zeal is misunderstood or unappreciated, whose counsels and reproofs are slighted, and whose efforts toward reform are repaid with hatred and opposition.
LHU	39	4	It is at the time of greatest weakness that Satan assails the soul with the fiercest temptations. It was thus that he hoped to prevail over the Son of God; for by this policy he had gained many victories over man. When the willpower weakened and faith failed, then those who had stood long and valiantly for the right yielded to temptation. Moses, wearied with 40 years of wandering and unbelief, lost for a moment his hold on Infinite Power. He failed just on the borders of the Promised Land. So with Elijah. He who had maintained his trust in Jehovah during the years of drought and famine, he who had stood undaunted before Ahab, he who throughout that trying day on Carmel had stood before the whole nation of Israel the sole witness to the true God, in a moment of weariness allowed the fear of death to overcome his faith in God. And so it is today....
LHU	39	5	Those who, standing in the forefront of the conflict, are impelled by the Holy Spirit to do a special work will frequently feel a reaction when the pressure is removed. Despondency may shake the most heroic faith and weaken the most steadfast will. But God understands, and He still pities and loves. He reads the motives and the purposes of the heart.... Heaven will not fail them in their day of adversity. Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invincible, than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly on God (Prophets and Kings, 173-175).
------------------------Clothed in Christ's Righteousness, January 26
LHU	40	1	Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord. Psalm 4:5.
LHU	40	2	Paul realized his weakness, and well he might distrust his own strength. Referring to the law, he says, "The commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death." He had trusted in the deeds of the law. He says, concerning his own outward life, that as "touching the law" he was "blameless"; and he put his trust in his own righteousness. But when the mirror of the law was held up before him, and he saw himself as God saw him, full of mistakes, stained with sin, he cried out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
LHU	40	3	Paul beheld the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He heard the voice of Christ saying, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." He determined to avail himself of the benefits of saving grace, to become dead to trespasses and sins, to have his guilt washed away in the blood of Christ, to be clothed with Christ's righteousness, to become a branch of the Living Vine. He walked with Christ, and Jesus became to him--not a part of salvation, while his own good deeds were another part, but--his all in all, the first and last and best in everything. He had the faith that draws life from Christ, that enabled him to conform his life to that of the divine example. This faith claims nothing for its possessor because of his righteousness, but claims everything because of the righteousness of Christ.
LHU	40	4	In the gospel the character of Christ is portrayed. As He descended step by step from His throne, His divinity was veiled in humanity; but in His miracles, His doctrines, His sufferings, His betrayal, His mockery, His trial, His death by crucifixion, His grave among the rich, His resurrection, His 40 days upon earth, His ascension, His triumph, His priesthood, are inexhaustible treasures of wisdom, recorded for us by inspiration in the Word of God. The waters of life still flow in abundant streams of salvation. The mysteries of redemption, the blending of the divine and the human in Christ, His incarnation, sacrifice, mediation will be sufficient to supply minds, hearts, tongues, and pens with themes for thought and expression for all time; and time will not be sufficient to exhaust the wonders of salvation, but through everlasting ages, Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed soul. New developments of the perfection and glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ will be forever unfolding. And now there must be perfect reliance upon His merit and grace; there must be distrust of self, and living faith in Him (The Signs of the Times, November 24, 1890).
------------------------Only One Unerring Pattern, January 27
LHU	41	1	Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. 1 Peter 2:21.
LHU	41	2	Christ demands all. If He required less, His sacrifice was too dear, too great to make to bring us up to such a level.... "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." This is a self-denying way. And when you think that the way is too strait, that there is too much self-denial in this narrow path; when you say, How hard to give up all, ask yourselves the question, What did Christ give up for me? This question puts anything that we may call self-denial in the shade.
LHU	41	3	Behold Him in the garden sweating great drops of blood. A solitary angel is sent from heaven to strengthen the Son of God. Follow Him on His way to the judgment hall, while He is derided, mocked, and insulted by that infuriated mob. Behold Him clothed in that old purple kingly robe. Hear the coarse jest and cruel mocking. See them place upon that noble brow the crown of thorns, and then smite Him with a reed, causing the thorns to penetrate His temples, and the blood to flow from that holy brow. Hear that murderous throng eagerly crying for the blood of the Son of God. He is delivered into their hands, and they lead the noble sufferer away, pale, weak, and fainting, to His crucifixion. He is stretched upon the wooden cross, and the nails are driven through His tender hands and feet.
LHU	41	4	Behold Him hanging upon the cross those dreadful hours of agony until the angels veil their faces from the horrid scene, and the sun hides its light, refusing to behold. Think of these things, and then ask, Is the way too strait? ...
LHU	41	5	It is a blessed privilege to give up all for Christ. Look not at the lives of others and imitate them and rise no higher. You have only one true, unerring Pattern. It is safe to follow Jesus only....
LHU	41	6	The oftener and more diligently you peruse the Scriptures, the more beautiful will they appear, and the less relish you will have for light reading. The daily study of the Scriptures will have a sanctifying influence upon the mind. You will breathe a heavenly atmosphere. Bind this precious volume to your hearts. It will prove to you a friend and guide in perplexity.
LHU	41	7	You have had objects in view in your life, and how steadily and perseveringly have you labored to attain those objects! You have calculated and planned until your anticipations were realized. There is an object before you now worthy of a persevering, untiring, lifelong effort. It is the salvation of your soul--everlasting life. And this demands self-denial, sacrifice, and close study....
LHU	41	8	It is a great thing to be a child of God, and a joint heir with Christ (Testimonies For The Church 1:240-243).
------------------------Nature Sympathized with His Suffering, January 28
LHU	42	1	And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. Luke 23:44, 45.
LHU	42	2	Faith and hope trembled in the expiring agonies of Christ because God had removed the assurance He had heretofore given His beloved Son of His approbation and acceptance. The Redeemer of the world then relied upon the evidences which had hitherto strengthened Him, that His Father accepted His labors and was pleased with His work. In His dying agony, as He yields up His precious life, He has by faith alone to trust in Him whom it has ever been His joy to obey. He is not cheered with clear, bright rays of hope on the right hand nor on the left. All is enshrouded in oppressive gloom.
LHU	42	3	Amid the awful darkness which is felt by sympathizing nature, the Redeemer drains the mysterious cup even to its dregs. Denied even bright hope and confidence in the triumph which will be His in the future, He cries with a loud voice: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." He is acquainted with the character of His Father, with His justice, His mercy, and His great love, and in submission He drops into His hands. Amid the convulsions of nature are heard by the amazed spectators the dying words of the Man of Calvary.
LHU	42	4	Nature sympathized with the suffering of its Author. The heaving earth, the rent rocks, proclaimed that it was the Son of God who died. There was a mighty earthquake. The veil of the Temple was rent in twain. Terror seized the executioners and spectators as they beheld the sun veiled in darkness, and felt the earth shake beneath them, and saw and heard the rending of the rocks. The mocking and jeering of the chief priests and elders were hushed as Christ commended His spirit into the hands of His Father. The astonished throng began to withdraw and grope their way in the darkness to the city. They smote upon their breasts as they went and in terror, speaking scarcely above a whisper, said among themselves: "It is an innocent person that has been murdered. What if, indeed, He is, as He asserted, the Son of God?"
LHU	42	5	Jesus did not yield up His life till He had accomplished the work which He came to do, and exclaimed with His departing breath: "It is finished." Satan was then defeated. He knew that his kingdom was lost. Angels rejoiced as the words were uttered: "It is finished." The great plan of redemption, which was dependent on the death of Christ, had been thus far carried out. And there was joy in heaven that the sons of Adam could, through a life of obedience, be finally exalted to the throne of God. Oh, what love! What amazing love! that brought the Son of God to earth to be made sin for us, that we might be reconciled to God, and elevated to a life with Him in His mansions in glory (Testimonies For The Church 2:210-212).
------------------------The Magnitude of His Sacrifice, January 29
LHU	43	1	And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ... My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matthew 27:46.
LHU	43	2	When men and women can more fully comprehend the magnitude of the great sacrifice which was made by the Majesty of heaven in dying in man's stead, then will the plan of salvation be magnified, and reflections of Calvary will awaken tender, sacred, and lively emotions in the Christian's heart. Praises to God and the Lamb will be in their hearts and upon their lips. Pride and self-esteem cannot flourish in the hearts that keep fresh in memory the scenes of Calvary. This world will appear of but little value to those who appreciate the great price of man's redemption, the precious blood of God's dear Son. All the riches of the world are not of sufficient value to redeem one perishing soul. Who can measure the love Christ felt for a lost world as He hung upon the cross, suffering for the sins of guilty men? This love was immeasurable, infinite.
LHU	43	3	Christ has shown that His love was stronger than death. He was accomplishing man's salvation; and although He had the most fearful conflict with the powers of darkness, yet, amid it all, His love grew stronger and stronger. He endured the hiding of His Father's countenance, until He was led to exclaim in the bitterness of His soul: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" His arm brought salvation. The price was paid to purchase the redemption of man, when, in the last soul struggle, the blessed words were uttered which seemed to resound through creation: "It is finished"....
LHU	43	4	The length, the breadth, the height, the depth, of such amazing love we cannot fathom. The contemplation of the matchless depths of a Saviour's love should fill the mind, touch and melt the soul, refine and elevate the affections, and completely transform the whole character....
LHU	43	5	Christ yielded not in the least degree to the torturing foe, even in His bitterest anguish. Legions of evil angels were all about the Son of God, yet the holy angels were bidden not to break their ranks and engage in conflict with the taunting, reviling foe. Heavenly angels were not permitted to minister unto the anguished spirit of the Son of God. It was in this terrible hour of darkness, the face of His Father hidden, legions of evil angels enshrouding Him, the sins of the world upon Him, that the words were wrenched from His lips: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" ...
LHU	43	6	We should take broader and deeper views of the life, sufferings, and death of God's dear Son. When the atonement is viewed correctly, the salvation of souls will be felt to be of infinite value. In comparison with the enterprise of everlasting life, every other sinks into insignificance (Testimonies For The Church 2:212-215).
------------------------A New and Living Way for All, January 30
LHU	44	1	When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:30, NIV.
LHU	44	2	Never before had the earth witnessed such a scene. The multitude stood paralyzed, and with bated breath gazed upon the Saviour. Again darkness settled upon the earth, and a hoarse rumbling, like heavy thunder, was heard. There was a violent earthquake. The people were shaken together in heaps. The wildest confusion and consternation ensued. In the surrounding mountains, rocks were rent asunder, and went crashing down into the plains. Sepulchers were broken open, and the dead were cast out of their tombs. Creation seemed to be shivering to atoms. Priests, rulers, soldiers, executioners and people, mute with terror, lay prostrate upon the ground.
LHU	44	3	When the loud cry, "It is finished," came from the lips of Christ the priests were officiating in the Temple. It was the hour of the evening sacrifice. The lamb representing Christ had been brought to be slain. Clothed in his significant and beautiful dress, the priest stood with lifted knife, as did Abraham when he was about to slay his son. With intense interest the people were looking on. But the earth trembles and quakes; for the Lord Himself draws near. With a rending noise the inner veil of the Temple is torn from top to bottom by an unseen hand, throwing open to the gaze of the multitude a place once filled with the presence of God. In this place the Shekinah had dwelt. Here God had manifested His glory above the mercy seat. No one but the high priest ever lifted the veil separating this apartment from the rest of the Temple. He entered in once a year to make an atonement for the sins of the people. But lo, this veil is rent in twain. The Most Holy Place of the earthly sanctuary is no longer sacred.
LHU	44	4	All is terror and confusion. The priest is about to slay the victim, but the knife drops from his nerveless hand and the lamb escapes. Type has met antitype in the death of God's Son. The great sacrifice has been made. The way into the holiest is laid open. A new and living way is prepared for all. No longer need sinful, sorrowing humanity await the coming of the high priest. Henceforth the Saviour was to officiate as priest and advocate in the heaven of heavens. It was as if a living voice had spoken to the worshipers: There is now an end to all sacrifices and offerings for sin. The Son of God is come according to His word, "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God." "By his own blood" He entereth "in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Hebrews 10:7; 9:12) (The Desire of Ages, 756, 757).
------------------------Encircled With His Love, January 31
LHU	45	1	And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:2, RSV.
LHU	45	2	The world that Satan has claimed and has ruled over with cruel tyranny, the Son of God has, by one vast achievement, encircled in His love and connected again with the throne of Jehovah. Cherubim and seraphim, and the unnumbered hosts of all the unfallen worlds, sang anthems of praise to God and the Lamb when this triumph was assured. They rejoiced that the way of salvation had been opened to the fallen race and that the earth would be redeemed from the curse of sin. How much more should those rejoice who are the objects of such amazing love!
LHU	45	3	How can we ever be in doubt and uncertainty, and feel that we are orphans? It was in behalf of those who had transgressed the law that Jesus took upon Him human nature; He became like unto us, that we might have everlasting peace and assurance....
LHU	45	4	The very first step in approaching God is to know and believe the love that He has to us (1 John 4:16); for it is through the drawing of His love that we are led to come to Him.
LHU	45	5	The perception of God's love works the renunciation of selfishness. In calling God our Father, we recognize all His children as our brethren. We are all a part of the great web of humanity, all members of one family. In our petitions we are to include our neighbors as well as ourselves. No one prays aright who seeks a blessing for himself alone.
LHU	45	6	The infinite God, said Jesus, makes it your privilege to approach Him by the name of Father. Understand all that this implies. No earthly parents ever pleaded so earnestly with an erring child as He who made you pleads with the transgressor. No human, loving interest ever followed the impenitent with such tender invitations. God dwells in every abode; He hears every word that is spoken, listens to every prayer that is offered, tastes the sorrows and disappointments of every soul, regards the treatment that is given to father, mother, sister, friend, and neighbor. He cares for our necessities, and His love and mercy and grace are continually flowing to satisfy our need.
LHU	45	7	But if you call God your Father you acknowledge yourselves His children, to be guided by His wisdom and to be obedient in all things, knowing that His love is changeless. You will accept His plan for your life. As children of God, you will hold His honor, His character, His family, His work, as the objects of your highest interest. It will be your joy to recognize and honor your relation to your Father and to every member of His family. You will rejoice to do any act, however humble, that will tend to His glory or to the well-being of your kindred (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 104-106).
------------------------The Law of Life for the Universe, February 1
LHU	46	1	In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. Psalm 102:25, NIV.
LHU	46	2	In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of creation. It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field. "His strength setteth fast the mountains." "The sea is his, and he made it" (Psalm 65:6; 95:5). It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song. And upon all things in earth, and air, and sky, He wrote the messages of the Father's love.
LHU	46	3	Now sin has marred God's perfect work, yet that handwriting remains. Even now all created things declare the glory of His excellence. There is nothing, save the selfish heart of man, that lives unto itself. No bird that cleaves the air, no animal that moves upon the ground, but ministers to some other life. There is no leaf of the forest, or lowly blade of grass, but has its ministry. Every tree and shrub and leaf pours forth that element of life without which neither man nor animal could live; and man and animal, in turn, minister to the life of tree and shrub and leaf. The flowers breathe fragrance and unfold their beauty in blessing to the world. The sun sheds its light to gladden a thousand worlds. The ocean, itself the source of all our springs and fountains, receives the streams from every land, but takes to give. The mists ascending from its bosom fall in showers to water the earth, that it may bring forth and bud.
LHU	46	4	The angels of glory find their joy in giving--giving love and tireless watchcare to souls that are fallen and unholy. Heavenly beings woo the hearts of men; they bring to this dark world light from the courts above; by gentle and patient ministry they move upon the human spirit, to bring the lost into a fellowship with Christ which is even closer than they themselves can know.
LHU	46	5	But turning from all lesser representations, we behold God in Jesus. Looking unto Jesus we see that it is the glory of our God to give. "I do nothing of myself," said Christ; "the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father." "I seek not mine own glory," but the glory of Him that sent Me. In these words is set forth the great principle which is the law of life for the universe. All things Christ received from God, but He took to give. So in the heavenly courts, in His ministry for all created beings: through the beloved Son, the Father's life flows out to all; through the Son it returns, in praise and joyous service, a tide of love, to the great Source of all. And thus through Christ the circuit of beneficence is complete, representing the character of the great Giver, the law of life (The Desire of Ages, 20, 21).
------------------------The Creation of the World, February 2
LHU	47	1	In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1.
LHU	47	2	The Father and the Son engaged in the mighty, wondrous work they had contemplated--of creating the world. The earth came forth from the hand of the Creator exceedingly beautiful. There were mountains and hills and plains; and interspersed among them were rivers and bodies of water. The earth was not one extensive plain, but the monotony of the scenery was broken by hills and mountains, not high and ragged as they now are, but regular and beautiful in shape. The bare, high rocks were never seen upon them, but lay beneath the surface, answering as bones to the earth. The waters were regularly dispersed. The hills, mountains, and very beautiful plains were adorned with plants and flowers, and tall, majestic trees of every description, which were many times larger and much more beautiful than trees now are. The air was pure and healthful, and the earth seemed like a noble palace. Angels beheld and rejoiced at the wonderful and beautiful works of God.
LHU	47	3	After the earth was created, and the beasts upon it, the Father and Son carried out their purpose, which was designed before the fall of Satan, to make man in their own image. They had wrought together in the creation of the earth and every living thing upon it. And now God said to His Son, "Let us make man in our image." As Adam came forth from the hand of his Creator he was of noble height and of beautiful symmetry. He was more than twice as tall as men now living upon the earth, and was well proportioned. His features were perfect and beautiful.... Eve was not quite as tall as Adam. Her head reached a little above his shoulders. She, too, was noble, perfect in symmetry, and very beautiful.
LHU	47	4	This sinless pair wore no artificial garments. They were clothed with a covering of light and glory, such as the angels wear. While they lived in obedience to God, this circle of light enshrouded them. Although everything God had made was in the perfection of beauty, and there seemed nothing wanting upon the earth which God had created to make Adam and Eve happy, yet He manifested His great love to them by planting a garden especially for them. A portion of their time was to be occupied in the happy employment of dressing the garden, and a portion in receiving the visits of angels, listening to their instruction, and in happy meditation (The Story of Redemption, 20, 21).
LHU	47	5	Man came from the hand of God perfect in every faculty of mind and body; in perfect soundness, therefore in perfect health (My Life Today, 126).
------------------------Created in God's Image, February 3
LHU	48	1	And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Genesis 1:26.
LHU	48	2	The life of Christ is to be revealed in humanity. Man was the crowning act of the creation of God, made in the image of God, and designed to be a counterpart of God; but Satan has labored to obliterate the image of God in man, and to imprint upon him his own image. Man is very dear to God, because he was formed in His own image. This fact should impress us with the importance of teaching by precept and example the sin of defiling, by the indulgence of appetite, or by any other sinful practice, the body which is designed to represent God to the world....
LHU	48	3	In order to understand the value which God places upon man, we need to comprehend the plan of redemption, the costly sacrifice which our Saviour made to save the human race from eternal ruin. Jesus died to regain possession of the one pearl of great price.... The life of God's children is a life of self-denial, of self-sacrifice, a life of humility. Those who are not partakers of His sufferings cannot hope to share in His glory.... We are to be judged according to the manner in which we use the knowledge of the truth which has been presented to us.
LHU	48	4	The Lord gave His only begotten Son to ransom us from sin. We are His workmanship, we are His representatives in the world, and He expects that we shall reveal the true value of man by our purity of life, and the earnest efforts put forth to recover the pearl of great price. Our character is to be modeled after the divine similitude, and to be reformed by that faith that works by love and purifies the soul. The grace of God will beautify, ennoble, and sanctify the character. The servant of the Lord who works intelligently will be successful. Our Saviour said, "Greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."
LHU	48	5	What are these "greater works"? If our lips are touched with the living coal from off the altar, we shall reveal to the world the wonderful love manifested by God in giving Jesus, His only begotten Son, to the world, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
LHU	48	6	The mystery of the incarnation of Christ, the account of His sufferings, His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension, open to all humanity the marvelous love of God. This imparts a power to the truth. The attributes of God were made known through the life and works of Christ. He was the representative of the divine character (The Review and Herald, June 18, 1895).
LHU	48	7	God's creation is but a reservoir of means made ready for Him to employ instantly to do His pleasure (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen White Comments 1:1081).
------------------------The Creator Planned for Our Happiness, February 4
LHU	49	1	And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Genesis 2:8.
LHU	49	2	Notwithstanding all that has been said and written regarding the dignity of manual labor, the feeling prevails that it is degrading. Popular opinion has, in many minds, changed the order of things, and men have come to think that it is not fitting for a man who works with his hands to take his place among gentlemen. Men work hard to obtain money; and having gained wealth, they suppose that their money will make their sons gentlemen. But many such fail to train their sons as they themselves were trained, to hard, useful labor. Their sons spend the money earned by the labor of others, without understanding its value. Thus they misuse a talent that the Lord designed should accomplish much good.
LHU	49	3	The Lord's purposes are not the purposes of men. He did not design that men should live in idleness. In the beginning He created man a gentleman; but though rich in all that the Owner of the universe could supply, Adam was not to be idle. No sooner was he created than his work was given him. He was to find employment and happiness in tending the things that God had created, and in response to his labor his wants were to be abundantly supplied from the fruits of the Garden of Eden.
LHU	49	4	While our first parents obeyed God, their labor in the garden was a pleasure, and the earth yielded of its abundance for their wants. But when man departed from obedience, he was doomed to wrestle with the seeds of Satan's sowing and to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Henceforth he must battle in toil and hardship against the power to which he had yielded his will.
LHU	49	5	It was God's purpose to alleviate by toil the evil brought into the world by man's disobedience. By toil the temptations of Satan might be made ineffectual and the tide of evil stayed. And though attended with anxiety, weariness, and pain, labor is still a source of happiness and development, and a safeguard against temptation. Its discipline places a check on self-indulgence and promotes industry, purity, and firmness. Thus it becomes a part of God's great plan for our recovery from the Fall (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 273, 274).
LHU	49	6	The Creator of man has arranged the living machinery of our bodies.... Every law governing the human machinery is to be considered just as truly divine in origin, in character, and in importance as the Word of God. Every careless, inattentive action, any abuse put upon the Lord's wonderful mechanism by disregarding His specified laws in the human habitation, is a violation of God's law. We may behold and admire the work of God in the natural world, but the human habitation is the most wonderful (Medical Ministry, 221).
------------------------God's Love Expressed in Creation, February 5
LHU	50	1	For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him. Colossians 1:16.
LHU	50	2	"God is love" (1 John 4:16). His nature, His law, is love.... Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love. The sovereignty of God involves fullness of blessing to all created beings....
LHU	50	3	The history of the great conflict between good and evil, from the time it first began in heaven to the final overthrow of rebellion and the total eradication of sin, is also a demonstration of God's unchanging love.
LHU	50	4	The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate--a coworker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God" (John 1:1, 2). Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father--one in nature, in character, in purpose--the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6)....
LHU	50	5	The Father wrought by His Son in the creation of all heavenly beings. "By him were all things created, ... whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him" (Colossians 1:16). Angels are God's ministers, radiant with the light ever flowing from His presence and speeding on rapid wing to execute His will. But the Son, the anointed of God, the "express image of his person," "the brightness of his glory," "upholding all things by the word of his power," holds supremacy over them all (Hebrews 1:3)....
LHU	50	6	The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all intelligent beings depends upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. God desires from all His creatures the service of love--service that springs from an appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced obedience; and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.
LHU	50	7	So long as all created beings acknowledged the allegiance of love, there was perfect harmony throughout the universe of God. It was the joy of the heavenly host to fulfill the purpose of their Creator. They delighted in reflecting His glory and showing forth His praise. And while love to God was supreme, love for one another was confiding and unselfish. There was no note of discord to mar the celestial harmonies (Patriarchs and Prophets, 33-35).
------------------------Worship the Creator, February 6
LHU	51	1	Worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Revelation 14:7.
LHU	51	2	The duty to worship God is based upon the fact that He is the Creator and that to Him all other beings owe their existence. And wherever, in the Bible, His claim to reverence and worship, above the gods of the heathen, is presented, there is cited the evidence of His creative power. "All the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens" (Psalm 96:5). "To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things." "Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it: ... I am the Lord; and there is none else" (Isaiah 40:25, 26; 45:18).
LHU	51	3	Says the psalmist: "Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves." "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker" (Psalm 100:3; 95:6). And the holy beings who worship God in heaven state, as the reason why their homage is due to Him: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things" (Revelation 4:11).
LHU	51	4	In Revelation 14, men are called upon to worship the Creator; and the prophecy brings to view a class that, as the result of the threefold message, are keeping the commandments of God. One of these commandments points directly to God as the Creator. The fourth precept declares: "The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: ... for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it" (Exodus 20:10, 11). Concerning the Sabbath, the Lord says, further, that it is "a sign, ... that ye may know that I am the Lord your God" (Ezekiel 20:20). And the reason given is: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed" (Exodus 31:17)....
LHU	51	5	So long as the fact that He is our Creator continues to be a reason why we should worship Him, so long the Sabbath will continue as its sign and memorial. Had the Sabbath been universally kept, man's thoughts and affections would have been led to the Creator as an object of reverence and worship, and there would never have been an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel. The keeping of the Sabbath is a sign of loyalty to the true God, "him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." It follows that the message which commands men to worship God and keep His commandments will especially call upon them to keep the fourth commandment (The Great Controversy, 436-438).
------------------------Earth's First Week, February 7
LHU	52	1	For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exodus 20:11.
LHU	52	2	The weekly cycle of seven literal days, six for labor, and the seventh for rest, which has been preserved and brought down through Bible history, originated in the great facts of the first seven days.
LHU	52	3	When God spake His law with an audible voice from Sinai, He introduced the Sabbath by saying, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." He then declares definitely what shall be done on the six days, and what shall not be done on the seventh. He then, in giving the reason for thus observing the week, points them back to His example on the first seven days of time. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it."
LHU	52	4	This reason appears beautiful and forcible when we understand the record of Creation to mean literal days. The first six days of each week are given to man in which to labor, because God employed the same period of the first week in the work of creation. The seventh day God has reserved as a day of rest, in commemoration of His rest during the same period of time after He had performed the work of creation in six days.
LHU	52	5	But the infidel supposition, that the events of the first week required seven vast, indefinite periods for their accomplishment, strikes directly at the foundation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. It makes indefinite and obscure that which God has made very plain....
LHU	52	6	Infidel geologists claim that the world is very much older than the Bible record makes it. They reject the Bible record, because of those things which are to them evidences from the earth itself, that the world has existed tens of thousands of years. And many who profess to believe the Bible record are at a loss to account for wonderful things which are found in the earth, with the view that Creation week was only seven literal days, and the world is now only about 6000 years old....
LHU	52	7	Without Bible history, geology can prove nothing. Relics found in the earth do give evidence of a state of things differing in many respects from the present. But the time of their existence, and how long a period these things have been in the earth, are only to be understood by Bible history.... When men leave the Word of God in regard to the history of Creation, and seek to account for God's creative works upon natural principles, they are upon a boundless ocean of uncertainty. Just how God accomplished the work of Creation in six literal days He has never revealed to mortals. His creative works are just as incomprehensible as His existence (Spiritual Gifts 3:90-93).
------------------------The Sabbath Points to the Creator, February 8
LHU	53	1	Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Exodus 31:13.
LHU	53	2	The Sabbath was given to all mankind to commemorate the work of creation. The great Jehovah, when He had laid the foundations of the earth, when He had dressed the whole world in its garb of beauty, and created all the wonders of the land and the sea, instituted the Sabbath day and made it holy. When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, the Sabbath was set apart as God's memorial. God sanctified and blessed the day in which He has rested from all His wondrous work. And this Sabbath, sanctified of God, was to be kept for a perpetual covenant. It was a memorial that was to stand from age to age, till the close of earth's history.
LHU	53	3	God brought the Hebrews out of their Egyptian bondage, and commanded them to observe His Sabbath, and keep the law given in Eden. Every week He worked a miracle to establish in their minds the fact that in the beginning of the world He had instituted the Sabbath....
LHU	53	4	There are those who hold that the Sabbath was given only for the Jews; but God has never said this. He committed the Sabbath to His people Israel as a sacred trust; but the very fact that the desert of Sinai, and not Palestine, was the place selected by Him in which to proclaim His law, reveals that He intended it for all mankind. The law of ten commandments is as old as creation. Therefore the Sabbath institution has no special relation to the Jews, any more than to all other created beings. God has made the observance of the Sabbath obligatory upon all men. "The sabbath," it is plainly stated, "was made for man." Let every one, therefore, who is in danger of being deceived on this point give heed to the Word of God rather than the assertions of men.
LHU	53	5	In Eden, God said to Adam concerning the tree of knowledge, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Adam listened to the voice of Satan speaking through his wife; he believed another voice than that which spoke the law in Eden....
LHU	53	6	As the tree of knowledge was the test of Adam's obedience, so the fourth command is the test that God has given to prove the loyalty of all His people. The experience of Adam is to be a warning to us so long as time shall last. It warns us not to receive any assurance from the mouth of men or of angels that will detract one jot or tittle from the sacred law of Jehovah (The Review and Herald, August 30, 1898).
------------------------The Heavens Declare the Glory of God, February 9
LHU	54	1	The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Psalm 19:1.
LHU	54	2	The Creator has given abundant evidence that His power is unlimited, that He can establish kingdoms, and overturn kingdoms. He upholds the world by the word of His power. He made the night, marshaling the shining stars in the firmament. He calls them all by name. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork, showing men that this little world is but a jot in God's creation....
LHU	54	3	The inhabitants of the unfallen worlds look with pity and reproach on man's pride and self-importance. The wealthy and the honored of the world are not the only ones who glorify self. Many who profess to revere God talk of their wisdom and their might. They act as if God is under obligations to them, as if He cannot carry on His work without their aid. Let such gaze into the starry heavens, and with admiration and awe study the marvelous works of God. Let them think of the wisdom He displays in maintaining perfect order in the vast universe, and of the little reason that man has to boast of his attainments.
LHU	54	4	All that man has--life, the means of existence, happiness, and other blessings unnumbered that come to him day by day--is from the Father above. Man is a debtor for all he proudly claims as his own. God gives His precious gifts, that they may be used in His service. Every particle of the glory of man's success belongs to God. It is His manifold wisdom that is displayed in the works of men, and to Him belongs the praise (Youth's Instructor, April 4, 1905).
LHU	54	5	By and by the gates of heaven will be thrown open to admit God's children, and from the lips of the King of glory the benediction will fall on their ears like richest music, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34).
LHU	54	6	Then the redeemed will be welcomed to the home that Jesus is preparing for them. There their companions will not be the vile of earth, liars, idolaters, the impure, and unbelieving; but they will associate with those who have overcome Satan and through divine grace have formed perfect characters. Every sinful tendency, every imperfection, that afflicts them here has been removed by the blood of Christ, and the excellence and brightness of His glory, far exceeding the brightness of the sun, is imparted to them (Steps to Christ, 125, 126).
------------------------His by Creation and Redemption, February 10
LHU	55	1	Thy hands have made me and fashioned me. Psalm 119:73.
LHU	55	2	Let us take in the idea of the privilege we have. There are so many who, when they are in trouble, fall into temptation and lose their bearings. They forget the invitations God has abundantly given, and begin to look and plan for human help. They go to human beings for aid, and this is the way in which their experience becomes feeble, and confused. In all our trials we are directed to seek the Lord most earnestly, remembering that we are His property, His children by adoption. No human being can understand our necessities as Christ. We shall receive help if we ask Him in faith. We are His by creation, we are His by redemption. By the cords of divine love we are bound to the Source of all power and strength. If we will only make God our dependence, asking Him for what we want as a little child asks His father for what he wants, we shall obtain a rich experience. We shall learn that God is the source of all strength and power.
LHU	55	3	If when you ask, you do not immediately feel any special exercise of feeling, do not think that your prayer is not answered. The One who says, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened," will hear and answer you. Let then His Word be your trust, ask and seek, and have the privilege of finding. Christ has encouraged you. He says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you"--the yoke of restraint and obedience--"and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."
LHU	55	4	We are to find rest by wearing His yoke and bearing His burdens. In being coworkers with Christ in the great work for which He gave His life, we shall find true rest. When we were sinners He gave His life for us. He wants us to come to Him and learn of Him. Thus we are to find rest. He says He will give us rest. Then do not lay your burdens upon any human being. "Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart." In doing this you will find in your own experience the rest that Christ gives, the rest that comes from wearing His yoke and lifting His burdens.
LHU	55	5	God has been greatly dishonored by His people leaning upon human beings. He has not told us to do this. He has told us that He will teach us, He will guide us.... Think of how many promises He has given us, which we may grasp by the hand of faith.... He wants us to become acquainted with Him, to speak to Him, to tell Him of our difficulties, and obtain an experience in asking of One who never misjudges and never makes a mistake (Manuscript 144, 1901).
------------------------The Soul Re-Created in the Image of God, February 11
LHU	56	1	The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63.
LHU	56	2	The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other in the whole book clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God. From the first intimation of hope in the sentence pronounced in Eden to that last glorious promise of the Revelation, "They shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads" (Revelation 22:4), the burden of every book and every passage of the Bible is the unfolding of this wondrous theme--man's uplifting--the power of God, "which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
LHU	56	3	He who grasps this thought has before him an infinite field for study. He has the key that will unlock to him the whole treasure house of God's Word....
LHU	56	4	The creative energy that called the worlds into existence is in the Word of God. This word imparts power; it begets life. Every command is a promise; accepted by the will, received into the soul, it brings with it the life of the Infinite One. It transforms the nature, and re-creates the soul in the image of God.
LHU	56	5	The life thus imparted is in like manner sustained. "By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" shall man live.
LHU	56	6	The mind, the soul, is built up by that upon which it feeds; and it rests with us to determine upon what it shall be fed. It is within the power of everyone to choose the topics that shall occupy the thoughts and shape the character....
LHU	56	7	With the Word of God in his hands, every human being, wherever his lot in life may be cast, may have such companionship as he shall choose. In its pages he may hold converse with the noblest and best of the human race, and may listen to the voice of the Eternal as He speaks with men. As he studies and meditates upon the themes into which "the angels desire to look," he may have their companionship. He may follow the steps of the heavenly Teacher, and listen to His words as when He taught on mountain and plain and sea.
LHU	56	8	He may dwell in this world in the atmosphere of heaven, imparting to earth's sorrowing and tempted ones thoughts of hope and longings for holiness; himself coming closer and still closer into fellowship with the Unseen; like him of old who walked with God, drawing nearer and nearer the threshold of the eternal world, until the portals shall open, and he shall enter there. He will find himself no stranger. The voices that will greet him are the voices of the holy ones, who, unseen, were on earth his companions--voices that here he learned to distinguish and to love. He who through the Word of God has lived in fellowship with heaven will find himself at home in heaven's companionship (Education, 125-127).
------------------------Power Over the Tempest, February 12
LHU	57	1	And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? Mark 4:39, 40.
LHU	57	2	It had been an eventful day in the life of Jesus. Beside the Sea of Galilee He had spoken His first parables, by familiar illustrations again explaining to the people the nature of His kingdom....
LHU	57	3	All day He had been teaching and healing; and as evening came on the crowds still pressed upon Him.... Now the close of the day found Him so utterly wearied that He determined to seek retirement in some solitary place across the lake....
LHU	57	4	The Saviour was at last relieved from the pressure of the multitude, and, overcome with weariness and hunger, He lay down in the stern of the boat, and soon fell asleep. The evening had been calm and pleasant, and quiet rested upon the lake; but suddenly darkness overspread the sky, the wind swept wildly down the mountain gorges along the eastern shore, and a fierce tempest burst upon the lake....
LHU	57	5	The waves, lashed into fury by the howling winds, dashed fiercely over the disciples' boat, and threatened to engulf it. Those hardy fishermen had spent their lives upon the lake, and had guided their craft safely through many a storm; but now their strength and skill availed nothing. They were helpless in the grasp of the tempest, and hope failed them as they saw that their boat was filling.
LHU	57	6	Absorbed in their efforts to save themselves, they had forgotten that Jesus was on board. Now, seeing their labor vain and only death before them, they remembered at whose command they had set out to cross the sea. In Jesus was their only hope. In their helplessness and despair they cried, "Master, Master!" But the dense darkness hid Him from their sight. Their voices were drowned by the roaring of the tempest....
LHU	57	7	Suddenly a flash of lightning pierces the darkness, and they see Jesus lying asleep, undisturbed by the tumult. In amazement and despair they exclaim, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" ... As the lightning's glare reveals Him, they see the peace of heaven in His face; they read in His glance self-forgetful, tender love, and, their hearts turning to Him, cry, "Lord, save us: we perish."
LHU	57	8	Never did a soul utter that cry unheeded. As the disciples grasp their oars to make a last effort, Jesus rises. He stands in the midst of His disciples, while the tempest rages.... He lifts His hand, so often employed in deeds of mercy, and says to the angry sea, "Peace, be still".... As Jesus rested by faith in the Father's care, so we are to rest in the care of our Saviour (The Desire of Ages, 333-336).
------------------------Created Anew, February 13
LHU	58	1	Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2.
LHU	58	2	Christ died on the cross to save the world from perishing in sin. He asks your cooperation in this work. You are to be His helping hand. With earnest, unwearying effort you are to seek to save the lost. Remember that it was your sins that made the cross necessary. When you accepted Christ as your Saviour you pledged yourself to unite with Him in bearing the cross. For life and for death you are bound up with Him, a part of the great plan of redemption.
LHU	58	3	The transforming power of Christ's grace molds the one who gives himself to God's service. Imbued with the Spirit of the Redeemer, he is ready to deny self, ready to take up the cross, ready to make any sacrifice for the Master. No longer can he be indifferent to the souls perishing around him. He is lifted above self-serving. He has been created anew in Christ, and self-serving has no place in his life. He realizes that every part of his being belongs to Christ, who has redeemed him from the slavery of sin; that every moment of his future has been bought with the precious lifeblood of God's only-begotten Son.
LHU	58	4	Have you so deep an appreciation of the sacrifice made on Calvary that you are willing to make every other interest subordinate to the work of saving souls? The same intensity of desire to save sinners that marked the life of the Saviour marks the life of His true follower. The Christian has no desire to live for self. He delights to consecrate all that he has and is to the Master's service. He is moved by an inexpressible desire to win souls to Christ....
LHU	58	5	How can I best glorify Him whose I am by creation and by redemption? This is to be the question that we are to ask ourselves. With anxious solicitude the one who is truly converted seeks to rescue those who are still in Satan's power. He refuses to do anything that would hinder him in his work. If he has children he realizes that his work must begin in his own family. His children are exceedingly precious to him. Remembering that they are the younger members of the Lord's family, he strives with all his power to place them where they will stand on the Lord's side. He has pledged himself to serve, honor, and obey Christ; and he puts forth patient, untiring effort so to train his children that they will never be hostile to the Saviour.
LHU	58	6	On fathers and mothers, God has placed the responsibility of saving their children from the power of the enemy. This is their work, a work that they should on no account neglect. Those parents who have a living connection with Christ will not rest until they see their children safe in the fold. They will make this the burden of their life (Testimonies For The Church 7:9-11).
------------------------Creation Provides Evidence for Faith, February 14
LHU	59	1	The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever. Deuteronomy 29:29.
LHU	59	2	The Word of God is given as a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path. Those who cast His Word behind them, and seek by their own blind philosophy to trace out the wonderful mysteries of Jehovah will stumble in darkness. A guide has been given to mortals whereby they may trace Jehovah and His work as far as will be for their good. Inspiration, in giving us the history of the Flood, has explained wonderful mysteries, that geology, independent of inspiration, never could.
LHU	59	3	It has been the special work of Satan to lead fallen man to rebel against God's government, and he has succeeded too well in his efforts. He has tried to obscure the law of God, which in itself is very plain. He has manifested a special hate against the fourth precept of the Decalogue, because it defines the living God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth. The plainest precepts of Jehovah are turned from, to receive infidel fables.
LHU	59	4	Man will be left without excuse. God has given sufficient evidence upon which to base faith if he wish to believe. In the last days the earth will be almost destitute of true faith. Upon the merest pretense, the Word of God will be considered unreliable, while human reasoning will be received, though it be in opposition to plain Scripture facts. Men will endeavor to explain from natural causes the work of creation, which God has never revealed. But human science cannot search out the secrets of the God of heaven, and explain the stupendous works of creation, which were a miracle of Almighty power, any sooner than it can show how God came into existence.
LHU	59	5	"The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever".... God's ways are not as our ways, neither are His thoughts as our thoughts. Human science can never account for His wondrous works. God so ordered that men, beasts, and trees, many times larger than those now upon the earth, and other things, should be buried in the earth at the time of the Flood, and there be preserved to evidence to man that the inhabitants of the old world perished by a flood. God designed that the discovery of these things in the earth should establish the faith of men in inspired history. But men, with their vain reasoning, make a wrong use of these things which God designed should lead them to exalt Him (Spiritual Gifts 3:94-96).
------------------------All Truth Agrees, February 15
LHU	60	1	The Lord made the heavens.... Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. 1 Chronicles 16:26-29.
LHU	60	2	There are men who think they have made wonderful discoveries in science. They quote the opinions of learned men as though they considered them infallible, and teach the deductions of science as truths that cannot be controverted. And the Word of God, which is given as a lamp to the feet of the world-weary traveler, is judged by this standard, and pronounced wanting. The scientific research in which these men have indulged has proved a snare to them. It has clouded their minds, and they have drifted into skepticism. They have a consciousness of power; and instead of looking to the Source of all wisdom, they triumph in the smattering of knowledge they may have gained. They have exalted their human wisdom in opposition to the wisdom of the great and mighty God, and have dared to enter into controversy with Him.
LHU	60	3	God has permitted a flood of light to be poured upon the world in discoveries in science and art; but when professedly scientific men lecture and write upon these subjects from a merely human standpoint, they will assuredly come to wrong conclusions. The greatest minds, if not guided by the Word of God in their research, become bewildered in their attempts to investigate the relations of science and revelation. The Creator and His works are beyond their comprehension; and because they cannot explain these by natural laws, Bible history is considered unreliable. Those who doubt the reliability of the records of the Old and New Testaments will be led to go a step farther, and doubt the existence of God; and then, having let go their anchor, they are left to beat about upon the rocks of infidelity. Moses wrote under the guidance of the Spirit of God, and a correct theory of geology will never claim discoveries that cannot be reconciled with his statements. The idea that many stumble over, that God did not create matter when He brought the world into existence, limits the power of the Holy One of Israel.
LHU	60	4	Many, when they find themselves incapable of measuring the Creator and His works by their own imperfect knowledge of science, doubt the existence of God and attribute infinite power to nature. These persons have lost the simplicity of faith, and are removed far from God in mind and spirit. There should be a settled faith in the divinity of God's holy Word. The Bible is not to be tested by men's ideas of science, but science is to be brought to the test of this unerring standard. When the Bible makes statements of facts in nature, science may be compared with the written Word, and a correct understanding of both will always prove them to be in harmony. One does not contradict the other. All truth, whether in nature or revelation, agrees (The Signs of the Times, March 13, 1884).
------------------------Unlimited in Power, February 16
LHU	61	1	He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. Psalm 33:9.
LHU	61	2	Scientific research will open to the minds of the really wise vast fields of thought and information. They will see God in His works, and will praise Him. He will be to them first and best, and the mind will be centered upon Him. Skeptics, who read the Bible for the sake of caviling, through ignorance claim to find decided contradictions between science and revelation. But man's measurement of God will never be correct. The mind unenlightened by God's Spirit will ever be in darkness in regard to His power.
LHU	61	3	Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. Those who have no vital union with God are swayed one way and another; they put men's opinions in the front, and God's Word in the background. They grasp human assertions, that judgment against sin is contrary to God's benevolent character, and, while dwelling upon infinite benevolence, try to forget that there is such a thing as infinite justice.
LHU	61	4	When we have right views of the power, greatness, and majesty of God, and of the weakness of man, we shall despise the assumptions of wisdom made by earth's so-called great men, who have none of Heaven's nobility in their characters. There is nothing for which men should be praised or exalted. There is no reason why the opinions of the learned should be trusted, when they are disposed to measure divine things by their own perverted conceptions. Those who serve God are the only ones whose opinion and example it is safe to follow. A sanctified heart quickens and intensifies the mental powers. A living faith in God imparts energy; it gives calmness and repose of spirit, and strength and nobility of character.
LHU	61	5	Men of science think that with their enlarged conceptions they can comprehend the wisdom of God, that which He has done or can do. The idea largely prevails that He is bounded and restricted by His own laws. Men either deny and ignore His existence, or think to explain everything, even the operations of His Spirit upon the human heart, by natural laws; and they no longer reverence His name or fear His power. While they think they are gaining everything, they are chasing bubbles, and losing precious opportunities to become acquainted with God. They do not believe in the supernatural, not realizing that the Author of nature's laws can work above those laws. They deny the claims of God, and neglect the interests of their own souls; but His existence, His character, His laws, are facts that the reasoning of men of the highest attainments cannot overthrow....
LHU	61	6	Nature is a power, but the God of nature is unlimited in power. His works interpret His character (The Signs of the Times, March 13, 1884).
------------------------Power to Multiply, February 17
LHU	62	1	Elisha said, "Give to the men, that they may eat." But his servant said, "How am I to set this before a hundred men?" So he repeated, "Give them to the men, that they may eat." 2 Kings 4:42, 43, RSV.
LHU	62	2	"And there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.
LHU	62	3	"And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord" (2 Kings 4:42-44).
LHU	62	4	He who worked this miracle in behalf of 100 men in the Old Testament times wrought a similar wonder for 5000 when as a Man He preached the gospel to men. In the wilderness Christ supplied His people not only with bread but with clear flowing streams....
LHU	62	5	It is the grace of God on the small portion that makes it all-sufficient. God's hand can multiply it an hundredfold. From His resources He can spread a table in the wilderness for more than a million people. By the touch of His hand God can increase His scanty provision, and make it sufficient for all. It was His power that increased the loaves and corn in the hands of the sons of the prophets.
LHU	62	6	The Lord has given His life to the trees and vines of His creation. His word can increase or decrease the fruit of the land. If men would open their understanding to discern the relation between nature and nature's God, faithful acknowledgments of the Creator's power would be heard. Without the life of God, nature would die. His creative works are dependent upon Him. He bestows life-giving properties on all that nature produces. We are to regard the trees laden with fruit as the gift of God, just as much as though He placed the fruit in our hands (Manuscript 114, 1899).
LHU	62	7	In feeding the 5,000 Jesus lifts the veil from the world of nature, and reveals the power that is constantly exercised for our good. In the production of earth's harvests God is working a miracle every day. Through natural agencies the same work is accomplished that was wrought in the feeding of the multitude.... It is God who is every day feeding millions from earth's harvest fields. Men are called upon to cooperate with God in the care of the grain and the preparation of the loaf, and because of this they lose sight of the divine agency.... He desires us to recognize Him in His gifts, that they may be, as He intended, a blessing to us (The Desire of Ages, 367, 368).
------------------------Joseph Honored the Creator, February 18
LHU	63	1	The king ... made him master of his household, ruler over all he possessed, to discipline his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom. Psalm 105:20-22, NIV.
LHU	63	2	From the dungeon Joseph was exalted to be ruler over all the land of Egypt. It was a position of high honor, yet it was beset with difficulty and peril. One cannot stand upon a lofty height without danger. As the tempest leaves unharmed the lowly flower of the valley, while it uproots the stately tree upon the mountaintop, so those who have maintained their integrity in humble life may be dragged down to the pit by the temptations that assail worldly success and honor. But Joseph's character bore the test alike of adversity and prosperity. The same fidelity to God was manifest when he stood in the palace of the Pharaohs as when in a prisoner's cell. He was still a stranger in a heathen land, separated from his kindred, the worshipers of God; but he fully believed that the divine hand had directed his steps, and in constant reliance upon God he faithfully discharged the duties of his position....
LHU	63	3	In his early years he had consulted duty rather than inclination; and the integrity, the simple trust, the noble nature, of the youth bore fruit in the deeds of the man. A pure and simple life had favored the vigorous development of both physical and intellectual powers. Communion with God through His works and the contemplation of the grand truths entrusted to the inheritors of faith had elevated and ennobled his spiritual nature, broadening and strengthening the mind as no other study could do. Faithful attention to duty in every station, from the lowliest to the most exalted, had been training every power for its highest service. He who lives in accordance with the Creator's will is securing to himself the truest and noblest development of character....
LHU	63	4	There are few who realize the influence of the little things of life upon the development of character. Nothing with which we have to do is really small. The varied circumstances that we meet day by day are designed to test our faithfulness and to qualify us for greater trusts. By adherence to principle in the transactions of ordinary life, the mind becomes accustomed to hold the claims of duty above those of pleasure and inclination (Patriarchs and Prophets, 222, 223).
LHU	63	5	As a shield from temptation and an inspiration to purity and truth, no other influence can equal the sense of God's presence. "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." He is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." This thought was Joseph's shield amidst the corruptions of Egypt. To the allurements of temptation his answer was steadfast: "How ... can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" Such a shield, faith, if cherished, will bring to every soul (Education, 255).
------------------------Our Vital Force, February 19
LHU	64	1	And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. Genesis 5:5.
LHU	64	2	The book of Genesis gives quite a definite account of social and individual life, and yet we have no record of an infant's being born blind, deaf, crippled, deformed, or imbecile. There is not an instance upon record of a natural death in infancy, childhood, or early manhood. There is no account of men and women dying of disease. Obituary notices in the book of Genesis run thus: "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died." "And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died." Concerning others, the record states: He lived to a good old age; and he died. It was so rare for a son to die before the father that such an occurrence was considered worthy of record: "And Haran died before his father Terah." Haran was a father of children before his death.
LHU	64	3	God endowed man with so great vital force that he has withstood the accumulation of disease brought upon the race in consequence of perverted habits, and has continued for 6,000 years. This fact of itself is enough to evidence to us the strength and electrical energy that God gave to man at his creation. It took more than two thousand years of crime and indulgence of base passions to bring bodily disease upon the race to any great extent. If Adam, at his creation, had not been endowed with 20 times as much vital force as men now have, the race, with their present habits of living in violation of natural law, would have become extinct. At the time of Christ's first advent the race had degenerated so rapidly that an accumulation of disease pressed upon that generation, bringing in a tide of woe and a weight of misery inexpressible....
LHU	64	4	God did not create the race in its present feeble condition. This state of things is not the work of Providence, but the work of man; it has been brought about by wrong habits and abuses, by violating the laws that God had made to govern man's existence. Through the temptation to indulge appetite, Adam and Eve first fell from their high, holy, and happy estate. And it is through the same temptation that the race have become enfeebled. They have permitted appetite and passion to take the throne, and to bring into subjection reason and intellect....
LHU	64	5	The strange absence of principle which characterizes this generation, and which is shown in their disregard of the laws of life and health, is astonishing. Ignorance prevails upon this subject, while light is shining all around them. With the majority, their principal anxiety is, What shall I eat? what shall I drink? and wherewithal shall I be clothed? ... How great is the contrast between this generation and those who lived during the first 2,000 years! (Testimonies For The Church 3:138-141).
------------------------Yielding to the Master Potter, February 20
LHU	65	1	But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand. Isaiah 64:8.
LHU	65	2	While the human agent is devising and planning for himself something that God has withheld him from doing, he has a hard time. He complains and frets, and has still increased difficulties. But when he submits to be as clay in the hands of the potter, then God works the man into a vessel of honor. The clay submits to be worked. If God had His way, hundreds would be worked and made into vessels as He sees best.
LHU	65	3	Let the hand of God work the clay for His own service. He knows just what kind of vessel He wants. To every man He has given his work. God knows what place he is best fitted for. Many are working contrary to the will of God, and they spoil the web. The Lord wants everyone to be submissive under His divine guidance. He will place men where they will submit to be worked into oneness with Christ, bearing His divine similitude. If self will submit to be worked, if you will cooperate with God, if you will pray in unity, work in unity, all taking your place as threads in the web of life, you will grow into a beautiful fabric that will rejoice the universe of God.
LHU	65	4	The Potter cannot mold and fashion unto honor that which has never been placed in His hands. The Christian life is one of daily surrender, submission, and continual overcoming. Every day fresh victories will be gained. Self must be lost sight of, and the love of God must be constantly cultivated. Thus we grow up into Christ. Thus the life is fashioned according to the divine model.
LHU	65	5	Every child of God is to do his very best to uplift the standard of truth. He is to work in God's order. If self is exalted, Christ is not magnified. In His Word God compares Himself to a potter, and His people to the clay. His work is to mold and fashion them after His own similitude. The lesson they are to learn is the lesson of submission. Self is not to be made prominent. If due attention is given to the divine instruction, if self is surrendered to the divine will, the hand of the Potter will produce a shapely vessel (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 4, 1154).
LHU	65	6	The potter takes the clay in his hands and molds and fashions it according to his own will. He kneads it and works it. He tears it apart and then presses it together.... Thus it becomes a vessel fit for use. So the great Master Worker desires to mold and fashion us. And as the clay is in the hands of the potters, so are we to be in His hands. We are not to try to do the work of the potter. Our part is to yield ourselves to the molding of the Master Worker (Testimonies For The Church 8:186, 187).
------------------------God's Words Created His Works, February 21
LHU	66	1	By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Psalm 33:6.
LHU	66	2	The material world is under God's control. The laws that govern all nature are obeyed by nature. Everything speaks and acts the will of the Creator. The clouds, the rain, the dew, the sunshine, the showers, the wind, the storm, all are under the supervision of God, and yield implicit obedience to Him who employs them. The tiny spear of grass bursts its way through the earth, first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear. The Lord uses these, His obedient servants, to do His will. The fruit is first seen in the bud, enclosing the future pear, peach, or apple, and the Lord develops these in their proper season, because they do not resist His working. They do not oppose the order of His arrangements. His works, as seen in the natural world, are not one half comprehended or appreciated. These silent preachers will teach human beings their lessons, if they will only be attentive hearers.
LHU	66	3	Can it be that man, made after the image of God, endowed with the faculties of reason and speech, shall alone be unappreciative of the gifts God has bestowed upon him, and which, if improved, can be enlarged. Shall those who might be elevated and ennobled, fitted to be colaborers with the greatest Teacher the world ever knew, be content to remain imperfect and incomplete in character, producing disorder when they might become vessels unto honor? Shall the bodies and souls of God's purchased inheritance be so hampered with worldbound habits and unholy practices that they will never reflect the beauty of the character of Him who has done all things well in order that imperfect man, through the grace of Christ, might do all things well, and hear at last Christ's benediction, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy lord"?
LHU	66	4	God spoke, and His words created His works in the natural world. God's creation is but a reservoir of means made ready for Him to employ instantly to do His pleasure. Nothing is useless, but the curse has caused tares to be sown by the enemy. Shall rational beings alone cause confusion in our world? Shall we not live to God? Shall we not honor Him? Our God and Saviour is all-wise, all-sufficient. He came to our world that His perfection might be revealed in us....
LHU	66	5	Our faith must increase. We must be more like Jesus in conduct and disposition. The light that shines on our path, the truth that commends itself to our intelligence, if obeyed, will sanctify and transform the soul.... The knowledge of truth, the heavenly wisdom, spiritual endowments, are heaven's goods, committed to us for wise improvement (Letter 131, 1897).
------------------------God's Creative Energy Upholds the Universe, February 22
LHU	67	1	He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call. Psalm 147:8, 9, NIV.
LHU	67	2	While the Bible should hold the first place in the education of children and youth, the book of nature is next in importance. God's created works testify to His love and power. He has called the world into being, with all that it contains. God is a lover of the beautiful; and in the world which He has fitted up for us He has not only given us everything necessary for our comfort, but He has filled the heavens and the earth with beauty. We see His love and care in the rich fields of autumn, and His smile in the glad sunshine. His hand has made the castle-like rocks and the towering mountains. The lofty trees grow at His command; He has spread earth's green velvet carpet and dotted it with shrubs and flowers.
LHU	67	3	Why has He clothed the earth and trees with living green, instead of with dark, somber brown? Is it not that they may be more pleasing to the eye? And shall not our hearts be filled with gratitude as we read the evidences of His wisdom and love in the wonders of His creation?
LHU	67	4	The same creative energy that brought the world into existence is still exerted in upholding the universe and continuing the operations of nature. The hand of God guides the planets in their orderly march through the heavens. It is not because of inherent power that year by year the earth continues her motion round the sun and produces her bounties. The word of God controls the elements. He covers the heavens with clouds and prepares rain for the earth. He makes the valleys fruitful and "grass to grow upon the mountains" (Psalm 147:8). It is through His power that vegetation flourishes, that the leaves appear and the flowers bloom.
LHU	67	5	The whole natural world is designed to be an interpreter of the things of God. To Adam and Eve in their Eden home, nature was full of the knowledge of God, teeming with divine instruction. To their attentive ears it was vocal with the voice of wisdom. Wisdom spoke to the eye and was received into the heart, for they communed with God in His created works. As soon as the holy pair transgressed the law of the Most High, the brightness from the face of God departed from the face of nature. Nature is now marred and defiled by sin. But God's object lessons are not obliterated; even now, rightly studied and interpreted, she speaks of her Creator.... The children and youth, all classes of students, need the lessons to be derived from this source. In itself the beauty of nature leads the soul away from sin and worldly attractions, and toward purity, peace, and God. (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 185, 186).
------------------------God's Power in Nature and Us, February 23
LHU	68	1	For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:20, NIV.
LHU	68	2	In the cultivation of the soil the thoughtful worker will find that treasures little dreamed of are opening up before him. No one can succeed in agriculture or gardening without attention to the laws involved. The special needs of every variety of plant must be studied. Different varieties require different soil and cultivation, and compliance with the laws governing each is the condition of success.
LHU	68	3	The attention required in transplanting, that not even a root fiber shall be crowded or misplaced, the care of the young plants, the pruning and watering, the shielding from frost at night and sun by day, keeping out weeds, disease, and insect pests, the training and arranging, not only teach important lessons concerning the development of character, but the work itself is a means of development. In cultivating carefulness, patience, attention to detail, obedience to law, it imparts a most essential training.
LHU	68	4	The constant contact with the mystery of life and the loveliness of nature, as well as the tenderness called forth in ministering to these beautiful objects of God's creation, tends to quicken the mind and refine and elevate the character; and the lessons taught prepare the worker to deal more successfully with other minds (Education, 111, 112).
LHU	68	5	The same power that upholds nature is working also in man. The same great laws that guide alike the star and the atom control human life. The laws that govern the heart's action, regulating the flow of the current of life to the body, are the laws of the mighty Intelligence that has the jurisdiction of the soul. From Him all life proceeds. Only in harmony with Him can be found its true sphere of action. For all the objects of His creation the condition is the same--a life sustained by receiving the life of God, a life exercised in harmony with the Creator's will. To transgress His law, physical, mental, or moral, is to place one's self out of harmony with the universe, to introduce discord, anarchy, ruin.
LHU	68	6	To him who learns thus to interpret its teachings, all nature becomes illuminated; the world is a lesson book, life a school. The unity of man with nature and with God, the universal dominion of law, the results of transgression, cannot fail of impressing the mind and molding the character.
LHU	68	7	As the dwellers in Eden learned from nature's pages, as Moses discerned God's handwriting on the Arabian plains and mountains, and the Child Jesus on the hillsides of Nazareth, so the children of today may learn of Him. The unseen is illustrated by the seen. On everything upon the earth ... from the boundless ocean to the tiniest shell on the shore, they may behold the image and superscription of God (Education, 99, 100).
------------------------The Heavenly Sower, February 24
LHU	69	1	Behold, a sower went forth to sow. Matthew 13:3.
LHU	69	2	In the East the state of affairs was so unsettled, and there was so great danger from violence that the people dwelt chiefly in walled towns, and the husbandmen went forth daily to their labor outside the walls. So Christ, the heavenly Sower, went forth to sow. He left His home of security and peace, left the glory that He had with the Father before the world was, left His position upon the throne of the universe. He went forth, a suffering, tempted man; went forth in solitude, to sow in tears, to water with His blood, the seed of life for a world lost.
LHU	69	3	His servants in like manner must go forth to sow. When called to become a sower of the seed of truth, Abraham was bidden, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee" (Genesis 12:1). "And he went out, not knowing whither he went" (Hebrews 11:8).... In toil and tears, in solitude, and through sacrifice, must the seed be sown.
LHU	69	4	"The sower soweth the word." Christ came to sow the world with truth. Ever since the Fall of man, Satan has been sowing the seeds of error. It was by a lie that he first gained control over men, and thus he still works to overthrow God's kingdom in the earth and to bring men under his power. A sower from a higher world, Christ came to sow the seeds of truth. He who had stood in the councils of God, who had dwelt in the innermost sanctuary of the Eternal, could bring to men the pure principles of truth. Ever since the Fall of man, Christ had been the Revealer of truth to the world. By Him the incorruptible seed, "the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever," is communicated to men (1 Peter 1:23). In that first promise spoken to our fallen race in Eden, Christ was sowing the gospel seed. But it is to His personal ministry among men, and to the work which He thus established, that the parable of the sower especially applies.
LHU	69	5	The word of God is the seed. Every seed has in itself a germinating principle. In it the life of the plant is enfolded. So there is life in God's word. Christ says, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63).... In every command and in every promise of the word of God is the power, the very life of God, by which the command may be fulfilled and the promise realized. He who by faith receives the word is receiving the very life and character of God.
LHU	69	6	Every seed brings forth fruit after its kind. Sow the seed under right conditions, and it will develop its own life in the plant. Receive into the soul by faith the incorruptible seed of the word, and it will bring forth a character and a life after the similitude of the character and the life of God (Christ's Object Lessons, 36-38).
------------------------Growth Comes from God, February 25
LHU	70	1	They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine. Hosea 14:7.
LHU	70	2	The change of heart by which we become children of God is in the Bible spoken of as birth. Again, it is compared to the germination of the good seed sown by the husbandman. In like manner those who are just converted to Christ are, "as newborn babes," to "grow up" to the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus (1 Peter 2:2; Ephesians 4:15). Or like the good seed sown in the field, they are to grow up and bring forth fruit. Isaiah says that they shall "be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified" (Isaiah 61:3). So from natural life, illustrations are drawn, to help us better to understand the mysterious truths of spiritual life.
LHU	70	3	Not all the wisdom and skill of man can produce life in the smallest object in nature. It is only through the life which God Himself has imparted, that either plant or animal can live. So it is only through the life from God that spiritual life is begotten in the hearts of men. Unless a man is "born from above," he cannot become a partaker of the life which Christ came to give (John 3:3, margin).
LHU	70	4	As with life, so it is with growth. It is God who brings the bud to bloom and the flower to fruit. It is by His power that the seed develops, "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear" (Mark 4:28). And the prophet Hosea says of Israel, that "he shall grow as the lily" (Hosea 14:5). "They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine" (verse 7). And Jesus bids us "consider the lilies how they grow" (Luke 12:27). The plants and flowers grow not by their own care or anxiety or effort, but by receiving that which God has furnished to minister to their life. The child cannot, by any anxiety or power of its own, add to its stature. No more can you, by anxiety or effort of yourself, secure spiritual growth. The plant, the child, grows by receiving from its surroundings that which ministers to its life--air, sunshine, and food. What these gifts of nature are to animal and plant, such is Christ to those who trust in Him....
LHU	70	5	In the matchless gift of His Son, God has encircled the whole world with an atmosphere of grace as real as the air which circulates around the globe. All who choose to breathe this life-giving atmosphere will live and grow up to the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.
LHU	70	6	As the flower turns to the sun, that the bright beams may aid in perfecting its beauty and symmetry, so should we turn to the Sun of Righteousness, that heaven's light may shine upon us, that our character may be developed into the likeness of Christ (Steps to Christ, 67, 68).
------------------------Totally Dependent Upon the Creator, February 26
LHU	71	1	For in him we live, and move, and have our being. Acts 17:28.
LHU	71	2	"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Here the conditions are plainly stated by Jesus Christ, the Sinbearer. When you deliberately decide to go contrary to the word spoken by Jesus Christ, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you," how can you expect to be religiously inclined?
LHU	71	3	To enlarge our views of His condescension and beneficence, He presents the picture of the judgment--the separation of the just and the unjust--and shows us He identifies His interests with suffering humanity. He is teaching in the open field where the eye can take in the beauties of nature and the creatures of God's creation. "Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap: ... how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?" (Luke 12:24-26).
LHU	71	4	Here is presented definitely that man is dependent upon God for every breath he draws. The beating heart, the throbbing pulse, every nerve and muscle in the living organism, are kept in order and activity by the power of an infinite God. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:28-33).
LHU	71	5	Here Christ leads the mind abroad to contemplate the open fields of nature, and His power touches the eye and the senses, to discern the wonderful works of divine power. He directs attention first to nature, then up through nature to nature's God, who upholds the worlds by His power. He points to the opening bud.... He watches over little birds. Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without the notice of your heavenly Father....
LHU	71	6	Christ represents the divine attention given upon [various elements of] His creation that seem so insignificant, and to the objects of nature which His own hands have created. Every lofty tree, every shrub, every blooming flower, the lily of the field, and the earth clothed with its garment of living green are kept in order and occupy their time and season to bear testimony that God loves man (Manuscript 73, 1893).
------------------------One Pulse of Life in All Creation, February 27
LHU	72	1	Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. Matthew 6:28.
LHU	72	2	The hillsides and the fields were bright with flowers, and, pointing to them in the dewy freshness of the morning, Jesus said, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow." The graceful forms and delicate hues of the plants and flowers may be copied by human skill, but what touch can impart life to even one flower or blade of grass? Every wayside blossom owes its being to the same power that set the starry worlds on high. Through all created things thrills one pulse of life from the great heart of God. The flowers of the field are clothed by His hand in richer robes than have ever graced the forms of earthly kings....
LHU	72	3	It is He who made the flowers and who gave to the sparrow its song who says, "Consider the lilies," "Behold the birds." In the loveliness of the things of nature you may learn more of the wisdom of God than the schoolmen know. On the lily's petals, God has written a message for you, written in language that your heart can read only as it unlearns the lessons of distrust and selfishness and corroding care. Why has He given you the singing birds and the gentle blossoms, but from the overflowing love of a Father's heart, that would brighten and gladden your path of life? ... He has filled the earth and air and sky with glimpses of beauty to tell you of His loving thought for you. The beauty of all created things is but a gleam from the shining of His glory. If He has lavished such infinite skill upon the things of nature, for your happiness and joy, can you doubt that He will give you every needed blessing?
LHU	72	4	"Consider the lilies." Every flower that opens its petals to the sunshine obeys the same great laws that guide the stars, and how simple and beautiful and how sweet its life! Through the flowers, God would call our attention to the loveliness of Christlike character. He who has given such beauty to the blossoms desires far more that the soul should be clothed with the beauty of the character of Christ....
LHU	72	5	Who would dream of the possibilities of beauty in the rough brown bulb of the lily? But when the life of God, hidden therein, unfolds at His call in the rain and the sunshine, men marvel at the vision of grace and loveliness. Even so will the life of God unfold in every human soul that will yield itself to the ministry of His grace, which, free as the rain and the sunshine, comes with its benediction to all. It is the word of God that creates the flowers, and the same word will produce in you the graces of His Spirit (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 95-97).
------------------------He Supplies Our Needs, February 28
LHU	73	1	Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Matthew 6:25, RSV.
LHU	73	2	He who has given you life knows your need of food to sustain it. He who created the body is not unmindful of your need of raiment. Will not He who has bestowed the greater gift bestow also what is needed to make it complete?
LHU	73	3	Jesus pointed His hearers to the birds as they warbled their carols of praise, unencumbered with thoughts of care, for "they sow not, neither do they reap"; and yet the great Father provides for their needs. And He asks, "Are not ye of much more value than they?"
LHU	73	4	"No sparrow falls without His care, No soul bows low but Jesus knows; For He is with us everywhere, And marks each bitter tear that flows. And He will never, never, never Forsake the soul that trusts Him ever"....
LHU	73	5	God's law is the law of love. He has surrounded you with beauty to teach you that you are not placed on earth merely to delve for self, to dig and build, to toil and spin, but to make life bright and joyous and beautiful with the love of Christ--like the flowers, to gladden other lives by the ministry of love.
LHU	73	6	Fathers and mothers, let your children learn from the flowers. Take them with you into garden and field and under the leafy trees, and teach them to read in nature the message of God's love. Let the thoughts of Him be linked with bird and flower and tree. Lead the children to see in every pleasant and beautiful thing an expression of God's love for them. Recommend your religion to them by its pleasantness. Let the law of kindness be in your lips.
LHU	73	7	Teach the children that because of God's great love their natures may be changed and brought into harmony with His. Teach them that He would have their lives beautiful with the graces of the flowers. Teach them, as they gather the sweet blossoms, that He who made the flowers is more beautiful than they. Thus the tendrils of their hearts will be entwined about Him. He who is "altogether lovely" will become to them as a daily companion and familiar friend, and their lives will be transformed into the image of His purity (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 95-98).
LHU	73	8	[God] would adorn our characters with His own rich graces. He would have our words as fragrant as the flowers of the field (The Review and Herald, May 19, 1896).
------------------------Christ Took Upon Himself Human Nature, March 1
LHU	74	1	And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14.
LHU	74	2	As one who understands his subject, John ascribes all power to Christ, and speaks of His greatness and majesty. He flashes forth divine rays of precious truth, as light from the sun. He presents Christ as the only Mediator between God and humanity.
LHU	74	3	The doctrine of the incarnation of Christ in human flesh is a mystery, "even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations." It is the great and profound mystery of godliness. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Christ took upon Himself human nature, a nature inferior to His heavenly nature. Nothing so shows the wonderful condescension of God as this. He "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." John presents this wonderful subject with such simplicity that all may grasp the ideas set forth, and be enlightened.
LHU	74	4	Christ did not make-believe take human nature; He did verily take it. He did in reality possess human nature. "As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same." He was the son of Mary; He was of the seed of David according to human descent. He is declared to be a man, even the Man Christ Jesus. "This man," writes Paul, "was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house."
LHU	74	5	But while God's Word speaks of the humanity of Christ when upon this earth, it also speaks decidedly regarding His preexistence. The Word existed as a divine being, even as the eternal Son of God, in union and oneness with His Father. From everlasting He was the Mediator of the covenant, the One in whom all nations of the earth, both Jews and Gentiles, if they accepted Him, were to be blessed. "The Word was with God, and the Word was God." Before men or angels were created, the Word was with God, and was God....
LHU	74	6	God and Christ knew from the beginning of the apostasy of Satan and of the fall of Adam through the deceptive power of the apostate. The plan of salvation was designed to redeem the fallen race, to give them another trial. Christ was appointed to the office of Mediator from the creation of God, set up from everlasting to be our substitute and surety. Before the world was made, it was arranged that the divinity of Christ should be enshrouded in humanity. "A body," said Christ, "hast thou prepared me." But He did not come in human form until the fullness of time had expired. Then He came to our world, a babe in Bethlehem (The Review and Herald, April 5, 1906).
------------------------The Birth of Christ an Unfathomable Mystery, March 2
LHU	75	1	The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14, NIV.
LHU	75	2	We cannot understand how Christ became a little, helpless babe. He could have come to earth in such beauty that He would have been unlike the sons of men. His face could have been bright with light, and His form could have been tall and beautiful. He could have come in such a way as to charm those who looked upon Him; but this was not the way that God planned He should come among the sons of men.
LHU	75	3	He was to be like those who belonged to the human family and to the Jewish race. His features were to be like those of other human beings, and He was not to have such beauty of person as to make people point Him out as different from others. He was to come as one of the human family, and to stand as a man before heaven and earth. He had come to take man's place, to pledge Himself in man's behalf, to pay the debt that sinners owed. He was to live a pure life on the earth, and show that Satan had told a falsehood when he claimed that the human family belonged to him forever, and that God could not take men out of his hands.
LHU	75	4	Men first beheld Christ as a babe, as a child....
LHU	75	5	The more we think about Christ's becoming a babe here on earth, the more wonderful it appears. How can it be that the helpless babe in Bethlehem's manger is still the divine Son of God? Though we cannot understand it, we can believe that He who made the worlds, for our sakes became a helpless babe. Though higher than any of the angels, though as great as the Father on the throne of heaven, He became one with us. In Him God and man became one, and it is in this fact that we find the hope of our fallen race. Looking upon Christ in the flesh, we look upon God in humanity, and see in Him the brightness of divine glory, the express image of God the Father (Selected Messages 3:127, 128).
LHU	75	6	In contemplating the incarnation of Christ in humanity, we stand baffled before an unfathomable mystery, that the human mind cannot comprehend. The more we reflect upon it, the more amazing does it appear. How wide is the contrast between the divinity of Christ and the helpless infant in Bethlehem's manger! How can we span the distance between the mighty God and a helpless child? And yet the Creator of worlds, He in whom was the fullness of the Godhead bodily, was manifest in the helpless babe in the manger. Far higher than any of the angels, equal with the Father in dignity and glory, and yet wearing the garb of humanity! Divinity and humanity were mysteriously combined, and man and God became one. It is in this union that we find the hope of our fallen race (The Signs of the Times, July 30, 1896).
------------------------Two Natures Blended in One, March 3
LHU	76	1	For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren. Hebrews 2:16, 17.
LHU	76	2	Was the human nature of the Son of Mary changed into the divine nature of the Son of God? No; the two natures were mysteriously blended in one person--the man Christ Jesus. In Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When Christ was crucified, it was His human nature that died. Deity did not sink and die; that would have been impossible. Christ, the sinless One, will save every son and daughter of Adam who accepts the salvation proffered them, consenting to become the children of God. The Saviour has purchased the fallen race with His own blood.
LHU	76	3	This is a great mystery, a mystery that will not be fully, completely understood in all its greatness until the translation of the redeemed shall take place. Then the power and greatness and efficacy of the gift of God to man will be understood. But the enemy is determined that this gift shall be so mystified that it will become as nothingness (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 5, 1113).
LHU	76	4	We shall have false sentiments to meet. Never, never can we afford to place confidence in human greatness as some have done, looking to men as the angels in heaven looked to the rebellious Lucifer, and thus finally losing the sense of the presence of Christ and God.
LHU	76	5	Who by searching can find out God to perfection? The Gospels set forth the character of Christ as infinitely perfect. I wish I could speak of this so that the whole world could hear the object of Christ's mission and work....
LHU	76	6	"Search the scriptures," said Christ; "for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." The sufferings of the Redeemer, the humility of His human-divine character, are not understood, and therefore His virtues are not practiced. The treasures of knowledge to be obtained from God are inexhaustible.
LHU	76	7	The most gifted men on the earth could all find abundant employment, from now until the judgment, for all their God-given powers in exalting the character of Christ. But they would still fail to present Him as He is. The mysteries of redemption, embracing Christ's divine-human character, His incarnation, His atonement for sin, could employ the pens and the highest mental powers of the wisest men from now until Christ shall be revealed in the clouds of heaven in power and great glory. But though these men should seek with all their power to give a representation of Christ and His work, the representation would fall far short of the reality....
LHU	76	8	The theme of redemption will employ the minds and tongues of the redeemed through everlasting ages. The reflection of the glory of God will shine forth forever and ever from the Saviour's face (Letter 280, 1904).
------------------------The Spirit in Christ from Youth, March 4
LHU	77	1	And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. Luke 2:42.
LHU	77	2	At the age of 12 the Holy Spirit was abiding upon Jesus, and He felt something of the burden of the mission for which He had come to our world. His soul was stirred into action. As one who would learn, He asked questions of no ordinary character, by which He flashed light into the minds of His hearers, and brought them to an understanding of the prophecies and the true mission and work of the Messiah they were expecting.
LHU	77	3	The Jewish people were cherishing erroneous ideas. They were anticipating grand and wonderful things, hoping for their own personal exaltation above the nations of the earth at the Messiah's appearing. They were looking for the glory that will attend the second coming of Christ, and overlooking the humiliation that would attend His first advent.
LHU	77	4	But Jesus, in His questions about the prophecies of Isaiah that pointed to His first appearing, flashed light into the minds of those who were willing to receive the truth. He Himself had given these prophecies before His incarnation in humanity, and as the Holy Spirit brought these things to His mind, and impressed Him with regard to the great work that He was to accomplish, He imparted light and knowledge to those around Him.
LHU	77	5	Though He increased in knowledge, and the grace of God was upon Him, yet He did not become lifted up in pride, or feel that He was above doing the most humble toil. He took His share of the burden, together with His father, mother, and brethren....Though His wisdom had astonished the doctors, yet He meekly subjected Himself to His human guardians, bore His part in the family burdens, and worked with His own hands as any toiler would work. It is stated of Jesus that (as He advanced in years) He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man."
LHU	77	6	The knowledge He was daily obtaining of His wonderful mission did not disqualify Him for performing the most humble duties. He cheerfully took up the work that devolves upon youth who dwell in humble households pressed by poverty. He understood the temptations of children; for He bore their sorrows and trials. Firm and steadfast was His purpose to do the right. Though enticed to evil, He refused to depart in a single instance from the strictest truth and rectitude. He maintained perfect filial obedience; but His spotless life aroused the envy and jealousy of His brethren. His childhood and youth were anything but smooth and joyous. His brethren did not believe on Him, and were annoyed because He did not in all things act as they did, and become one of them in the practice of evil. In His home life He was cheerful, but never boisterous. He ever maintained the attitude of a learner. He took great delight in nature, and God was His teacher (The Signs of the Times, July 30, 1896).
------------------------Jesus Assured of His Sonship, March 5
LHU	78	1	Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while he prayed, the heaven was opened. Luke 3:21, NKJV.
LHU	78	2	When Jesus came to be baptized, John recognized in Him a purity of character that he had never before perceived in any man. The very atmosphere of His presence was holy and awe-inspiring. Among the multitudes that had gathered about him at the Jordan, John had heard dark tales of crime, and had met souls bowed down with the burden of myriad sins; but never had he come in contact with a human being from whom there breathed an influence so divine. All this was in harmony with what had been revealed to John regarding the Messiah....
LHU	78	3	Jesus did not receive baptism as a confession of guilt on His own account. He identified Himself with sinners, taking the steps that we are to take, and doing the work that we must do. His life of suffering and patient endurance after His baptism was also an example to us.
LHU	78	4	Upon coming up out of the water, Jesus bowed in prayer on the river bank. A new and important era was opening before Him (The Desire of Ages, 110, 111).
LHU	78	5	Never had angels listened to such a prayer. They were solicitous to bear to the praying Redeemer messages of assurance and love. But no; the Father Himself will minister to His Son. Direct from the throne proceeded the light of the glory of God. The heavens were opened, and beams of light and glory proceeded therefrom and assumed the form of a dove, in appearance like burnished gold. The dovelike form was emblematical of the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
LHU	78	6	The people stood spellbound with fear and amazement. Their eyes were fastened upon Christ, whose bowed form was bathed in the beautiful light and glory that ever surround the throne of God. His upturned face was glorified as they had never before seen the face of man. The thunders rolled and the lightnings flashed from the opening heavens, and a voice came therefrom in terrible majesty, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased".... Jehovah's voice assured Christ of His Sonship with the Eternal (Youth's Instructor, March 1, 1874).
LHU	78	7	The glory that rested upon Christ is a pledge of the love of God for us. It tells us of the power of prayer--how the human voice may reach the ear of God, and our petitions find acceptance in the courts of heaven.... The light which fell from the open portals upon the head of our Saviour will fall upon us as we pray for help to resist temptation. The voice which spoke to Jesus says to every believing soul, This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased (The Desire of Ages, 113).
------------------------Jesus, Our Example, March 6
LHU	79	1	For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
LHU	79	2	In the submission of Christ to the ordinance of baptism, He shows the sinner one of the important steps in true conversion. Christ had no sins to wash away, but in consenting to become a substitute for man, the sins of guilty man were imputed to Him.... While God accepts Christ as the sinner's substitute, He gives the sinner a chance, with Christ's divine power to help him, to stand the test which Adam failed to endure.
LHU	79	3	Christ came to John, repenting on the sinner's account, believing in behalf of the sinner, that through the plan He had devised, of taking humanity, and in suffering and dying for man, the sinner would, through repentance, faith, and baptism, be accepted of God. He was buried by John in the liquid grave, and came up out of the water to represent to man, in His holy life, the true pattern for him to copy.
LHU	79	4	The steps in conversion, plainly marked out, are repentance, faith in Christ as the world's Redeemer, faith in His death, burial, and resurrection, shown by baptism, and His ascension on high to plead in the sinner's behalf. At the very commencement of His public ministry, He presents Himself in the character He sustains to man throughout His mediatorial work. He identifies Himself with sinners as their substitute, taking upon Himself their sins, numbering Himself with the transgressors, and doing the work the sinner is required to do in repentance, faith, and willing obedience. What an example is here given in the life of Christ for sinners to imitate! If they will not follow the example given them, they will be without excuse.
LHU	79	5	Dear children and youth, your heavenly Father and the dear Saviour are your very best friends. You have every evidence that it is possible for you to have of their love for you. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"
LHU	79	6	God will not withhold anything from us that will really be for our good. Jesus would have us happy in this world, and enjoy with Him the glory of the next world. God has given to children and youth invitations to surrender to Him. "My son, give me thine heart." A promise is given--"Those that seek me early shall find me "....
LHU	79	7	All who live have sins to wash away.... True repentance of sin, faith in the merits of Jesus Christ, and baptism into His death, to be raised out of the water to live a new life, are the first steps in the new birth which Christ told Nicodemus he must experience in order to be saved. The words of Christ to Nicodemus are not only spoken to him, but to every man, woman, and child, that should live in the world.... We are safe in following the example of Christ (Youth's Instructor, February 1, 1874).
------------------------He Showed Us How to Overcome, March 7
LHU	80	1	It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Matthew 4:7.
LHU	80	2	In the wilderness of temptation Christ met the great leading temptations that would assail man. There He encountered, single handed, the wily, subtle foe, and overcame him. The first great temptation was upon appetite; the second, presumption; the third, love of the world. Satan has overcome his millions by tempting them to the indulgence of appetite. Through the gratification of the taste, the nervous system becomes excited and the brain power enfeebled, making it impossible to think calmly or rationally. The mind is unbalanced. Its higher, nobler faculties are perverted to serve animal lusts, and the sacred, eternal interests are not regarded. When this object is gained, Satan can come with his two other leading temptations and find ready access. His manifold temptations grow out of these three great leading points.
LHU	80	3	Presumption is a common temptation, and as Satan assails men with this, he obtains the victory nine times out of ten. Those who profess to be followers of Christ, and claim by their faith to be enlisted in the warfare against all evil in their nature, frequently plunge without thought into temptations from which it would require a miracle to bring them forth unsullied. Meditation and prayer would have preserved them and led them to shun the critical, dangerous position in which they placed themselves when they gave Satan the advantage over them. The promises of God are not for us rashly to claim while we rush on recklessly into danger, violating the laws of nature and disregarding prudence and the judgment with which God has endowed us. This is the most flagrant presumption.
LHU	80	4	The thrones and kingdoms of the world and the glory of them were offered to Christ if He would only bow down to Satan. Never will man be tried with temptations as powerful as those which assailed Christ. Satan came with worldly honor, wealth, and the pleasures of life, and presented them in the most attractive light to allure and deceive. "All these things," said he to Christ, "will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." Christ repelled the wily foe and came off victor....
LHU	80	5	Christ's example is before us. He overcame Satan, showing us how we may also overcome. Christ resisted Satan with Scripture. He might have had recourse to His own divine power, and used His own words; but He said: "It is written".... If the Sacred Scriptures were studied and followed, the Christian would be fortified to meet the wily foe....
LHU	80	6	When the religion of Christ rules in the heart, conscience approves, and peace and happiness reign; perplexity and trouble may surround, yet there is light in the soul. Submission, love, and gratitude to God keep sunshine in the heart, though the day maybe ever so cloudy (Testimonies For The Church 4:44-47).
------------------------We Have Found the Messias, March 8
LHU	81	1	We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write. John 1:45.
LHU	81	2	Philip called Nathanael. The latter had been among the throng when the Baptist pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God. As Nathanael looked upon Jesus, he was disappointed. Could this man, who bore the marks of toil and poverty, be the Messiah? Yet Nathanael could not decide to reject Jesus, for the message of John had brought conviction to his heart.
LHU	81	3	At the time when Philip called him, Nathanael had withdrawn to a quiet grove to meditate upon the announcement of John and the prophecies concerning the Messiah. He prayed that if the one announced by John was the deliverer, it might be made known to him, and the Holy Spirit rested upon him with assurance that God had visited His people and raised up a horn of salvation for them....
LHU	81	4	The message, "We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write," seemed to Nathanael a direct answer to his prayer. But Philip had yet a trembling faith. He added doubtfully, "Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Again prejudice arose in Nathanael's heart. He exclaimed, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?"
LHU	81	5	Philip entered into no controversy. He said, "Come and see." "Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" In surprise Nathanael exclaimed, "Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee."
LHU	81	6	It was enough. The divine Spirit that had borne witness to Nathanael in his solitary prayer under the fig tree now spoke to him in the words of Jesus. Though in doubt, and yielding somewhat to prejudice, Nathanael had come to Christ with an honest desire for truth, and now his desire was met. His faith went beyond that of the one who had brought him to Jesus. He answered and said, "Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel."
LHU	81	7	If Nathanael had trusted to the rabbis for guidance, he would never have found Jesus. It was by seeing and judging for himself that he became a disciple. So in the case of many today whom prejudice withholds from good. How different would be the result if they would "come and see"!
LHU	81	8	While they trust to the guidance of human authority, none will come to a saving knowledge of the truth. Like Nathanael, we need to study God's Word for ourselves, and pray for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. He who saw Nathanael under the fig tree will see us in the secret place of prayer. Angels from the world of light are near to those who in humility seek for divine guidance (The Desire of Ages, 139-141).
------------------------Brothers to Sinners and Saints, March 9
LHU	82	1	Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 1 John 4:7.
LHU	82	2	In all who suffer for My name, said Jesus, you are to recognize Me. As you would minister to Me, so you are to minister to them. This is the evidence that you are My disciples.
LHU	82	3	All who have been born into the heavenly family are in a special sense the brethren of our Lord. The love of Christ binds together the members of His family, and wherever that love is made manifest there the divine relationship is revealed. "Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God" (1 John 4:7).
LHU	82	4	Those whom Christ commends in the judgment may have known little of theology, but they have cherished His principles. Through the influence of the divine Spirit they have been a blessing to those about them. Even among the heathen are those who have cherished the spirit of kindness; before the words of life had fallen upon their ears, they have befriended the missionaries, even ministering to them at the peril of their own lives. Among the heathen are those who worship God ignorantly, those to whom the light is never brought by human instrumentality, yet they will not perish. Though ignorant of the written law of God, they have heard His voice speaking to them in nature, and have done the things that the law required. Their works are evidence that the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts, and they are recognized as the children of God.
LHU	82	5	How surprised and gladdened will be the lowly among the nations, and among the heathen, to hear from the lips of the Saviour, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me"! How glad will be the heart of Infinite Love as His followers look up with surprise and joy at His words of approval!
LHU	82	6	But not to any class is Christ's love restricted. He identifies Himself with every child of humanity. That we might become members of the heavenly family, He became a member of the earthly family. He is the Son of man, and thus a brother to every son and daughter of Adam. His followers are not to feel themselves detached from the perishing world around them. They are a part of the great web of humanity; and Heaven looks upon them as brothers to sinners as well as to saints. The fallen, the erring, and the sinful, Christ's love embraces; and every deed of kindness done to uplift a fallen soul, every act of mercy, is accepted as done to Him (The Desire of Ages, 638).
------------------------An Example of Obedience, March 10
LHU	83	1	Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death. Philippians 2:8.
LHU	83	2	Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is acquainted with our trials, and sympathizes with our griefs. Every son and daughter of Adam may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners. For in every doctrine of grace, every promise of joy, every deed of love, every divine attraction presented in the Saviour's life on earth, we see "God with us."
LHU	83	3	Satan represents God's law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts. The fall of our first parents, with all the woe that has resulted, he charges upon the Creator, leading men to look upon God as the author of sin, and suffering, and death. Jesus was to unveil this deception. As one of us He was to give an example of obedience. For this He took upon Himself our nature, and passed through our experiences. "In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren" (Hebrews 2:17).
LHU	83	4	If we had to bear anything which Jesus did not endure, then upon this point Satan would represent the power of God as insufficient for us. Therefore Jesus was "in all points tempted like as we are" (Hebrews 4:15). He endured every trial to which we are subject. And He exercised in His own behalf no power that is not freely offered to us. As man, He met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him from God. He says, "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:8). As He went about doing good, and healing all who were afflicted by Satan, He made plain to men the character of God's law and the nature of His service. His life testifies that it is possible for us also to obey the law of God.
LHU	83	5	By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey. It was Christ who from the bush on Mount Horeb spoke to Moses saying, "I AM THAT I AM.... Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you" (Exodus 3:14). This was the pledge of Israel's deliverance. So when He came "in the likeness of men," He declared Himself the I AM. The Child of Bethlehem, the meek and lowly Saviour, is God "manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16) (The Desire of Ages, 24).
------------------------Mercy Toward the Demoniacs, March 11
LHU	84	1	And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce. Matthew 8:28.
LHU	84	2	In the early morning the Saviour and His companions came to shore.... But no sooner had they stepped upon the beach than their eyes were greeted by a sight more terrible than the fury of the tempest. From some hiding place among the tombs, two madmen rushed upon them as if to tear them in pieces....
LHU	84	3	The disciples and their companions fled in terror; but presently they noticed that Jesus was not with them.... He was standing where they had left Him. He who had stilled the tempest ... did not flee before these demons....
LHU	84	4	With authority He bade the unclean spirits come out of them. His words penetrated the darkened minds of the unfortunate men.... A marvelous change had come over the demoniacs. Light had shone into their minds. Their eyes beamed with intelligence. The countenances, so long deformed into the image of Satan, became suddenly mild, the bloodstained hands were quiet, and with glad voices the men praised God for their deliverance....
LHU	84	5	The people of Gergesa had before them the living evidence of Christ's power and mercy. They saw the men who had been restored to reason; but they were so fearful of endangering their earthly interests that He who had vanquished the prince of darkness before their eyes was treated as an intruder, and the Gift of heaven was turned from their doors....
LHU	84	6	But far different was the feeling of the restored demoniacs. They desired the company of their deliverer. In His presence they felt secure from the demons that had tormented their lives and wasted their manhood. As Jesus was about to enter the boat, they kept close to His side, knelt at His feet, and begged Him to keep them near Him, where they might ever listen to His words. But Jesus bade them go home and tell what great things the Lord had done for them....
LHU	84	7	As soon as Jesus pointed out their duty they were ready to obey. Not only did they tell their own households and neighbors about Jesus, but they went throughout Decapolis, everywhere declaring His power to save.... In doing this work they could receive a greater blessing than if, merely for benefit to themselves, they had remained in His presence. It is in working to spread the good news of salvation that we are brought near to the Saviour.... They could not instruct the people as the disciples who had been daily with Christ were able to do. But they bore in their own persons the evidence that Jesus was the Messiah. They could tell what they knew; what they themselves had seen, and heard, and felt of the power of Christ (The Desire of Ages, 337-340).
------------------------We Must Believe in Him, March 12
LHU	85	1	Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. Luke 8:48.
LHU	85	2	On the way to the ruler's house, Jesus had met, in the crowd, a poor woman who for 12 years had suffered from a disease that made her life a burden. She had spent all her means upon physicians and remedies, only to be pronounced incurable. But her hopes revived when she heard of the cures that Christ performed. She felt assured that if she could only go to Him she would be healed.... She had begun to despair, when, in making His way through the multitude, He came near where she was.
LHU	85	3	The golden opportunity had come. She was in the presence of the Great Physician! But amid the confusion she could not speak to Him, nor catch more than a passing glimpse of His figure. Fearful of losing her one chance of relief, she pressed forward, saying to herself, "If I may but touch his clothes, I shall be whole." As He was passing, she reached forward, and succeeded in barely touching the border of His garment. But in that moment she knew that she was healed. In that one touch was concentrated the faith of her life, and instantly her pain and feebleness gave place to the vigor of perfect health....
LHU	85	4	Suddenly Jesus stopped, and the people halted with Him. He turned, and looking about asked in a voice distinctly heard above the confusion of the multitude, "Who touched Me"? ...
LHU	85	5	The Saviour could distinguish the touch of faith from the casual contact of the careless throng. Such trust should not be passed without comment. He would speak to the humble woman words of comfort that would be to her a wellspring of joy--words that would be a blessing to His followers to the close of time....
LHU	85	6	Jesus insisted on knowing who had touched Him. Finding concealment vain, she came forward tremblingly, and cast herself at His feet. With grateful tears she told the story of her suffering, and how she had found relief. Jesus gently said, "Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace"....It was not through the outward contact with Him, but through the faith which took hold on His divine power, that the cure was wrought....
LHU	85	7	It is not enough to believe about Christ; we must believe in Him. The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces Him as a personal Saviour; which appropriates His merits to ourselves. Many hold faith as an opinion. Saving faith is a transaction by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. Genuine faith is life. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power (The Desire of Ages, 343, 347).
------------------------He is the Sun of Righteousness, March 13
LHU	86	1	Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. Malachi 4:2.
LHU	86	2	In the fisherman's home at Capernaum the mother of Peter's wife is lying sick of "a great fever," and "they tell him of her." Jesus "touched her hand, and the fever left her," and she arose and ministered to the Saviour and His disciples (Luke 4:38; Mark 1:30; Matthew 8:15).
LHU	86	3	Rapidly the tidings spread. The miracle had been wrought upon the Sabbath, and for fear of the rabbis the people dared not come for healing until the sun was set. Then from the homes, the shops, the marketplaces, the inhabitants of the city pressed toward the humble dwelling that sheltered Jesus. The sick were brought upon litters, they came leaning upon staffs, or, supported by friends, they tottered feebly into the Saviour's presence....
LHU	86	4	Never before had Capernaum witnessed a day like this. The air was filled with the voice of triumph and shouts of deliverance.
LHU	86	5	Not until the last sufferer had been relieved did Jesus cease His work. It was far into the night when the multitude departed and silence settled down upon the home of Simon. The long, exciting day was past, and Jesus sought rest. But while the city was wrapped in slumber, the Saviour, "rising up a great while before day," "went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed" (Mark 1:35).
LHU	86	6	Early in the morning Peter and his companions came to Jesus, saying that already the people of Capernaum were seeking Him. With surprise they heard Christ's words, "I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also; for therefore am I sent" (Luke 4:43).
LHU	86	7	In the excitement which then pervaded Capernaum there was danger that the object of His mission would be lost sight of. Jesus was not satisfied to attract attention to Himself merely as a wonder-worker or as a healer of physical disease. He was seeking to draw men to Him as their Saviour. While the people were eager to believe that He had come as a king to establish an earthly reign, He desired to turn their minds from the earthly to the spiritual. Mere worldly success would interfere with His work....
LHU	86	8	No self-assertion mingled with His life.... None of the means that men employ to win allegiance or command homage did Jesus use....
LHU	86	9	The Sun of Righteousness did not burst upon the world in splendor, to dazzle the senses with His glory. It is written of Christ, "His going forth is prepared as the morning" (Hosea 6:3). Quietly and gently the daylight breaks upon the earth, dispelling the darkness and waking the world to life. So did the Sun of Righteousness arise, "with healing in his wings" (Malachi 4:2) (The Ministry of Healing, 29-32).
------------------------He is Always Near, March 14
LHU	87	1	But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. Matthew 9:6.
LHU	87	2	With a new hope the sick man looks upon Jesus. The expression of His countenance, the tones of His voice, are like no other. Love and power seem to breathe from His very presence. The cripple's faith takes hold upon Christ's word. Without question he sets his will to obey, and, as he does this, his whole body responds.
LHU	87	3	Every nerve and muscle thrills with new life, and healthful action comes to his crippled limbs. Springing to his feet, he goes on his way with firm, free step, praising God and rejoicing in his newfound strength..... Acting on the word of Christ, he was made whole.
LHU	87	4	By sin we have been severed from the life of God. Our souls are palsied. Of ourselves we are no more capable of living a holy life than was the impotent man capable of walking. Many realize their helplessness; they are longing for that spiritual life which will bring them into harmony with God, and are striving to obtain it. But in vain. In despair they cry, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24, margin). Let these desponding, struggling ones look up. The Saviour is bending over the purchase of His blood, saying with inexpressible tenderness and pity, "Wilt thou be made whole?" He bids you arise in health and peace. Do not wait to feel that you are made whole. Believe the Saviour's word. Put your will on the side of Christ. Will to serve Him, and in acting upon His word you will receive strength. Whatever may be the evil practice, the master passion which through long indulgence binds both soul and body, Christ is able and longs to deliver. He will impart life to the soul that is "dead in trespasses" (Ephesians 2:1)....
LHU	87	5	When temptations assail you, when care and perplexity surround you, when, depressed and discouraged, you are ready to yield to despair, look to Jesus, and the darkness that encompasses you will be dispelled by the bright shining of His presence. When sin struggles for the mastery in your soul, and burdens the conscience, look to the Saviour. His grace is sufficient to subdue sin. Let your grateful heart, trembling with uncertainty, turn to Him. Lay hold on the hope set before you. Christ waits to adopt you into His family. His strength will help your weakness; He will lead you step by step. Place your hand in His, and let Him guide you.
LHU	87	6	Never feel that Christ is far away. He is always near. His loving presence surrounds you. Seek Him as one who desires to be found of you. He desires you not only to touch His garments, but to walk with Him in constant communion (The Ministry of Healing, 84, 85).
------------------------He Understands Our Motives, March 15
LHU	88	1	And he called his disciples to him, and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. Mark 12:43, RSV.
LHU	88	2	Jesus was in the court where were the treasure chests, and He watched those who came to deposit their gifts. Many of the rich brought large sums, which they presented with great ostentation. Jesus looked upon them sadly, but made no comment on their liberal offerings. Presently His countenance lighted as He saw a poor widow approach hesitatingly, as though fearful of being observed. As the rich and haughty swept by, to deposit their offerings, she shrank back as if hardly daring to venture farther. And yet she longed to do something, little though it might be, for the cause she loved.
LHU	88	3	She looked at the gift in her hand. It was very small in comparison with the gifts of those around her, yet it was her all. Watching her opportunity, she hurriedly threw in her two mites, and turned to hasten away. But in doing this she caught the eye of Jesus, which was fastened earnestly upon her.
LHU	88	4	The Saviour called His disciples to Him, and bade them mark the widow's poverty. Then His words of commendation fell upon her ear: "Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all." Tears of joy filled her eyes as she felt that her act was understood and appreciated. Many would have advised her to keep her pittance for her own use; given into the hands of the well-fed priests, it would be lost sight of among the many costly gifts brought to the treasury. But Jesus understood her motive. She believed the service of the Temple to be of God's appointment, and she was anxious to do her utmost to sustain it. She did what she could, and her act was to be a monument to her memory through all time, and her joy in eternity. Her heart went with her gift; its value was estimated, not by the worth of the coin, but by the love to God and the interest in His work that had prompted the deed....
LHU	88	5	It is the motive that gives character to our acts, stamping them with ignominy or with high moral worth. Not the great things which every eye sees and every tongue praises does God account most precious. The little duties cheerfully done, the little gifts which make no show, and which to human eyes may appear worthless, often stand highest in His sight. A heart of faith and love is dearer to God than the most costly gift.... It was this unselfish spirit and childlike faith that won the Saviour's commendation.
LHU	88	6	Among the poor there are many who long to show their gratitude to God for His grace and truth.... Let them lay up their mites in the bank of heaven. If given from a heart filled with love for God, these seeming trifles become consecrated gifts, priceless offerings, which God smiles upon and blesses (The Desire of Ages, 614, 615).
------------------------His Compassion, March 16
LHU	89	1	He took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. Mark 10:16.
LHU	89	2	As Jesus ministers in the streets of the cities, mothers with their sick and dying little ones in their arms press through the throng, seeking to come within reach of His notice.
LHU	89	3	Behold these mothers, pale, weary, almost despairing, yet determined and persevering. Bearing their burden of suffering, they seek the Saviour. As they are crowded back by the surging throng, Christ makes His way to them step by step, until He is close by their side. Hope springs up in their hearts. Their tears of gladness fall as they catch His attention, and look into the eyes expressing such pity and love.
LHU	89	4	Singling out one of the group, the Saviour invites her confidence, saying, "What shall I do for thee?" She sobs out her great want, "Master, that thou wouldest heal my child." Christ takes the little one from her arms, and disease flees at His touch. The pallor of death is gone; the life-giving current flows through the veins; the muscles receive strength. Words of comfort and peace are spoken to the mother; and then another case, just as urgent, is presented. Again Christ exercises His life-giving power, and all give praise and honor to Him who doeth wonderful things.
LHU	89	5	We dwell much on the greatness of Christ's life. We speak of the wonderful things that He accomplished, of the miracles that He wrought. But His attention to things accounted small is even higher proof of His greatness.
LHU	89	6	Among the Jews it was customary for children to be brought to some rabbi, that he might lay his hands upon them in blessing; but the disciples thought the Saviour's work too important to be interrupted in this way. When the mothers came desiring Him to bless their little ones, the disciples looked on them with disfavor. They thought these children too young to be benefited by a visit to Jesus, and concluded that He would be displeased at their presence. But the Saviour understood the care and burden of the mothers who were seeking to train their children according to the Word of God. He had heard their prayers. He Himself had drawn them into His presence....
LHU	89	7	Christ is today the same compassionate Saviour as when He walked among men. He is as verily the helper of mothers now as when He gathered the little ones to His arms in Judea. The children of our hearths are as much a purchase of His blood as were the children of long ago....
LHU	89	8	Let mothers come to Jesus with their perplexities. They will find grace sufficient to aid them in the care of their children. The gates are open for every mother who would lay her burdens at the Saviour's feet. He who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not" (Mark 10:14), still invites mothers to bring their little ones to be blessed by Him (The Ministry of Healing, 38-42).
------------------------Sympathy to All, March 17
LHU	90	1	The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to ... give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Isaiah 61:1-3.
LHU	90	2	Christ was a close observer, noticing many things that others passed by. He was ever helpful, ever ready to speak words of hope and sympathy to the discouraged and the bereaved. He allowed the crowd to press round Him, and complained not, though sometimes almost lifted off His feet. When He met a funeral, He did not pass by indifferently. Sadness came over His face as He looked upon death, and He wept with the mourners.
LHU	90	3	As the children gathered the wildflowers growing so abundantly around them, and crowded up to present to Him their little offerings, He received them gladly, smiled upon them, and expressed His joy at seeing so many varieties of flowers.
LHU	90	4	These children were His heritage. He knew that He had come to ransom them from the enemy by dying on the cross of Calvary. He spoke words to them that ever after they carried in their hearts. They were delighted to think that He appreciated their gifts and spoke so lovingly to them.
LHU	90	5	Christ watched children at their play, and often expressed His approval when they gained an innocent victory over something they were determined to do. He sang to children in sweet and blessed words. They knew that He loved them. He never frowned on them. He shared childish joys and sorrows. Often He would gather flowers, and after pointing out their beauties to the children, would leave them with them as a gift. He had made the flowers, and He delighted to point out their beauties.
LHU	90	6	It has been said that Jesus never smiled. This is not correct. A child in its innocence and purity called forth from His lips joyous song.
LHU	90	7	To those who followed Him He explained the Word of God so clearly that they loved to be in His company. He led their minds from the inferior things of earth to the holy principles of truth and righteousness. He prepared them to understand what is comprehended in transformation of character after the divine similitude. His words encouraged faith. He carried the minds of His hearers from this world, with its busy cares, to the higher, nobler world, which so many had lost sight of. He showed that every moment of life is fraught with eternal significance. He declared that the things of this world are of minor importance in comparison with the things of the world to come (Manuscript 20, 1902).
------------------------A Fountain of Pleasure and Joy, March 18
LHU	91	1	Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11.
LHU	91	2	The beauty of the mind, the purity of the soul, revealed in the countenance, will have more power to attract and exert an influence upon hearts than any outward adorning....
LHU	91	3	A cultivated mind, adorned with the grace of meekness and humility, a pure and upright heart, will be reflected in the countenance, and command love and respect....
LHU	91	4	[Children and youth] can, through cultivation of the intellect, depending upon God for success, develop firm and beautiful characters. The fear of God, the contemplation of the glories of nature in His created works, will never dwarf the intellect, but will have a tendency to strengthen every faculty of the soul.
LHU	91	5	It is the precious privilege of children and youth to yield their minds to the control of the Spirit of God and become intellectual Christians. Their mental and moral powers may grow in harmonious proportions. Their understanding may be strong, their consciences, pure, and their characters, lovely....
LHU	91	6	If you would find happiness and peace in all you do, you must do everything in reference to the glory of God. If you would have peace in your hearts, you must seek earnestly to imitate the life of Christ. Then there will be no need of affecting cheerfulness, or of your seeking for pleasure in the indulgence of pride and the frivolities of the world. You will have a serenity and happiness in rightdoing that you can never realize in a course of wrong.
LHU	91	7	Jesus took human nature, passing through infancy, childhood, and youth, that He might know how to sympathize with all, and leave an example for all children and youth. He is acquainted with the temptations and weaknesses of children. He has, in His love, opened the fountain of pleasure and joy for the soul that trusts in Him. By seeking to honor Christ and to follow His example, children and youth can be truly happy. They may feel their accountability to labor with Jesus Christ in the great plan of saving souls.
LHU	91	8	If youth will feel their responsibility before God, they will be elevated above everything that is mean, selfish, and impure. Life to such will be full of importance. They will realize that they have something great and glorious to live for. This will have an influence upon youth to make them earnest, cheerful, and strong under all the burdens, discouragements, and difficulties of life, as was their divine Pattern.... The consciousness that you are doing those things which God can approve will make you strong in His strength; and by copying the Pattern, you may, like Him, increase in wisdom, and in favor with God and man (Youth's Instructor, September 1, 1873).
------------------------Always Presenting the Word of God, March 19
LHU	92	1	What is written in the law? How do you read it? Luke 10:26.
LHU	92	2	The Saviour made each work of healing an occasion of implanting divine principles in the mind and soul. This was the purpose of His work. He imparted earthly blessings, that He might incline the hearts of men to receive the gospel of His grace.
LHU	92	3	Christ might have occupied the highest place among the teachers of the Jewish nation, but He preferred rather to take the gospel to the poor. He went from place to place, that those in the highways and byways might hear the words of truth. By the sea, on the mountainside, in the streets of the city, in the synagogue, His voice was heard explaining the Scriptures. Often He taught in the outer court of the Temple, that the Gentiles might hear His words.
LHU	92	4	So unlike the explanations of Scripture given by the scribes and Pharisees was Christ's teaching, that the attention of the people was arrested. The rabbis dwelt upon tradition, upon human theory and speculation. Often that which men had taught and written about the Scripture was put in place of the Scripture itself. The subject of Christ's teaching was the Word of God. He met questioners with a plain, "It is written," "What saith the Scripture?" "How readest thou?" At every opportunity, when an interest was awakened by either friend or foe, He presented the Word. With clearness and power He proclaimed the gospel message. His words shed a flood of light on the teachings of patriarchs and prophets, and the Scriptures came to men as a new revelation. Never before had His hearers perceived in the Word of God such depth of meaning.
LHU	92	5	Never was there such an evangelist as Christ. He was the Majesty of heaven, but He humbled Himself to take our nature, that He might meet men where they were. To all people, rich and poor, free and bond, Christ, the Messenger of the covenant, brought the tidings of salvation. His fame as the great Healer spread throughout Palestine. The sick came to the places through which He would pass, that they might call on Him for help. Hither, too, came many anxious to hear His words and to receive a touch of His hand. Thus He went from city to city, from town to town, preaching the gospel and healing the sick--the King of glory in the lowly garb of humanity.
LHU	92	6	He attended the great yearly festivals of the nation, and to the multitude absorbed in outward ceremony He spoke of heavenly things, bringing eternity within their view. To all he brought treasures from the storehouse of wisdom. He spoke to them in language so simple that they could not fail of understanding....With tender, courteous grace, He ministered to the sin-sick soul, bringing healing and strength (Gospel Workers, 43-45).
------------------------Seek Help from Jesus, Not Sinful Humans, March 20
LHU	93	1	Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Matthew 28:20.
LHU	93	2	Christ took humanity upon Himself. He laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown, and stepped down from His high command in the heavenly courts. Clothing His divinity with humanity, Christ encircled the race with His long human arm. He stands at the head of humanity, not as a sinner but as a Saviour. It is because there is no spot or stain of sin upon His divine soul that He can stand there as the sinner's surety. Because He is sinless He can take away our sins and place us on vantage ground with God, if we will believe in Him and trust Him as the One that will be our sanctification and righteousness....
LHU	93	3	He has promised that if you ask wisdom from Him, He will give it to you. But it is not always essential for us to know all the whys and wherefores. We dishonor God by striving to get someone who we think understands our case to help us. Has He not given us His only begotten Son? Is not Christ close beside us, and will He not give us the help we need? "Lo, I am with you alway," He says,"even unto the end of the world." His Word repeats the promise over and over again....
LHU	93	4	It is no marvel to me that at the present time there is so much weakness where there should be strength. The reason of this is that instead of drinking of the pure water of Lebanon, we are seeking to quench our thirst from cisterns in the lowlands, which contain not the water of life. We trust in human beings and are disappointed and often misled....
LHU	93	5	We have done great dishonor to our Master in turning away from Christ to seek wisdom from finite human beings. Shall we continue to cherish the sin of unbelief, which doth so easily beset us, or shall we cast away this weight of unbelief, and go to the Source of strength believing that we shall receive pity and compassion from the One who knows our frame, who loves us so well that He gave His own life for us, who bore in His own body the strokes which fell because of our transgression of the law of God. All this He did that we might become prisoners of hope.
LHU	93	6	We are not polite to Christ. We do not recognize His presence. We do not realize that He is to be our honored guest, that we are encircled by His long human arm, while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the Infinite. We forget that the threshold of heaven is flooded with the glory proceeding from the throne of God, that the light may fall directly on those who are seeking the help that Christ alone can give. He said to the woman of Samaria, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water" (John 4:10) (Manuscript 144, 1901).
------------------------Jesus the Prince of Peace, March 21
LHU	94	1	Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. Matthew 7:12.
LHU	94	2	Wherever the power of intellect, of authority, or of force is employed, and love is not manifestly present, the affections and will of those whom we seek to reach assume a defensive, repelling position, and their strength of resistance is increased. Jesus was the Prince of Peace. He came into the world to bring resistance and authority into subjection to Himself. Wisdom and strength He could command, but the means He employed with which to overcome evil were the wisdom and strength of love....
LHU	94	3	"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Blessed results would appear as the fruit of such a course. "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Here are strong motives which should constrain us to love one another with a pure heart, fervently. Christ is our example. He went about doing good. He lived to bless others. Love beautified and ennobled all his actions. We are not commanded to do to ourselves what we wish others to do unto us; we are to do unto others what we wish them to do to us under like circumstances. The measure we mete is always measured to us again. Pure love is simple in its operations, and is distinct from any other principle of action.... Love should be cherished and cultivated, for its influence is divine (Testimonies For The Church 2:135, 136).
LHU	94	4	In Jesus you may love with fervor, with earnestness. This love may increase in depth and expand without limit.... Love to God will ensure love to your neighbor, and you will engage in the duties of life with a deep, unselfish interest. Pure principles should underlie your actions. Inward peace will bring even your thoughts into a healthful channel....
LHU	94	5	Peace of mind, which comes from pure and holy motives and actions, will give free and vigorous spring to all the organs of the body. Inward peace and a conscience void of offense toward God will quicken and invigorate the intellect like dew distilled upon the tender plants.... The meditations are pleasing because they are sanctified. The serenity of mind which you may possess will bless all with whom you associate. This peace and calmness will, in time, become natural, and will reflect its precious rays upon all around you, to be again reflected upon you.
LHU	94	6	The more you taste this heavenly peace and quietude of mind, the more it will increase. It is an animated, living pleasure which does not throw all the moral energies into a stupor, but awakens them to increased activity. Perfect peace is an attitude of heaven which angels possess (Testimonies for the Church 2:326, 327).
------------------------Christ's Matchless Tenderness, March 22
LHU	95	1	The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. Isaiah 50:4.
LHU	95	2	As the dew and the still showers fall upon the withering plants, so let words fall gently when seeking to win men from error. God's plan is first to reach the heart. We are to speak the truth in love, trusting in Him to give it power for the reforming of the life. The Holy Spirit will apply to the soul the word that is spoken in love.
LHU	95	3	Naturally we are self-centered and opinionated. But when we learn the lessons that Christ desires to teach us, we become partakers of His nature; henceforth we live His life. The wonderful example of Christ, the matchless tenderness with which He entered into the feelings of others, weeping with those who wept, rejoicing with those who rejoiced, must have a deep influence upon the character of all who follow Him in sincerity. By kindly words and acts they will try to make the path easy for weary feet....
LHU	95	4	All around us are afflicted souls. Here and there, everywhere, we may find them. Let us search out these suffering ones and speak a word in season to comfort their hearts. Let us ever be channels through which shall flow the refreshing waters of compassion.
LHU	95	5	In all our associations it should be remembered that in the experience of others there are chapters sealed from mortal sight. On the pages of memory are sad histories that are sacredly guarded from curious eyes. There stand registered long, hard battles with trying circumstances, perhaps troubles in the home life, that day by day weaken courage, confidence, and faith. Those who are fighting the battle of life at great odds may be strengthened and encouraged by little attentions that cost only a loving effort. To such the strong, helpful grasp of the hand by a true friend is worth more than gold or silver. Words of kindness are as welcome as the smile of angels.
LHU	95	6	There are multitudes struggling with poverty, compelled to labor hard for small wages, and able to secure but the barest necessities of life. Toil and deprivation, with no hope of better things, make their burden very heavy. When pain and sickness are added, the burden is almost insupportable. Careworn and oppressed, they know not where to turn for relief. Sympathize with them in their trials, their heartaches, and disappointments. This will open the way for you to help them. Speak to them of God's promises, pray with and for them, inspire them with hope.
LHU	95	7	Words of cheer and encouragement spoken when the soul is sick and the pulse of courage is low--these are regarded by the Saviour as if spoken to Himself. As hearts are cheered, the heavenly angels look on in pleased recognition (The Ministry of Healing, 157-159).
------------------------Reaching Forward to Perfection, March 23
LHU	96	1	Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
LHU	96	2	God intends that improvement shall be the lifework of all His followers and that it shall be guided and controlled by correct experience. The true man is one who is willing to sacrifice his own interest for the good of others and who exercises himself in binding up the brokenhearted. The true object of life has scarcely begun to be understood by many....
LHU	96	3	Intellect alone does not make the man, according to the divine standard. There is a power in intellect if sanctified and controlled by the Spirit of God. It is superior to riches and to physical power, yet it must be cultivated in order to make the man....
LHU	96	4	That which will bless humanity is spiritual life. If the man is in harmony with God, he will depend continually upon Him for strength. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." It is our lifework to be reaching forward to the perfection of Christian character, striving continually for conformity to the will of God. The efforts begun upon earth will continue through eternity. God's standard of man is elevated to the highest meaning of the term, and if he acts up to his God-given manhood he will promote happiness in this life, which will lead to glory and an eternal reward in the life to come.
LHU	96	5	The members of the human family are entitled to the name of men and women only when they employ their talents, in every possible way, for the good of others. The life of Christ is before us as a pattern, and it is when ministering, like angels of mercy, to the wants of others that man is closely allied to God. It is the nature of Christianity to make happy families and happy society. Discord, selfishness, and strife will be put away from every man and woman who possesses the true spirit of Christ.
LHU	96	6	Those who are partakers of Christ's love have no right to think that there is a limit to their influence and work in trying to benefit humanity. Did Christ become weary in His efforts to save fallen man? Our work is to be continuous and persevering. We shall find work to do until the Master shall bid us lay our armor at His feet. God is a moral governor, and we must wait, submissive to His will, ready and willing to spring to our duty whenever work needs to be done (Testimonies For The Church 4:519, 520).
LHU	96	7	Our Saviour took up the true relationship of a human being as the Son of God. We are sons and daughters of God.... We must follow where Christ leads the way. For 30 years He lived the life of a perfect man, meeting the highest standard of perfection (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 5, 1085, 1086).
------------------------Our Elder Brother Brings Us Rest, March 24
LHU	97	1	Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:29.
LHU	97	2	Jesus looked upon the distressed and heart-burdened, those whose hopes were blighted, and who with earthly joys were seeking to quiet the longing of the soul, and He invited all to find rest in Him.
LHU	97	3	Tenderly He bade the toiling people, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29).
LHU	97	4	In these words, Christ was speaking to every human being. Whether they know it or not, all are weary and heavy-laden. All are weighed down with burdens that only Christ can remove. The heaviest burden that we bear is the burden of sin. If we were left to bear this burden, it would crush us. But the Sinless One has taken our place. "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
LHU	97	5	He has born the burden of our guilt. He will take the load from our weary shoulders. He will give us rest. The burden of care and sorrow also He will bear. He invites us to cast all our care upon Him; for He carries us upon His heart.
LHU	97	6	The Elder Brother of our race is by the eternal throne. He looks upon every soul who is turning his face toward Him as the Saviour. He knows by experience what are the weaknesses of humanity, what are our wants, and where lies the strength of our temptations; for He was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). He is watching over you, trembling child of God. Are you tempted? He will deliver. Are you weak? He will strengthen. Are you ignorant? He will enlighten. Are you wounded? He will heal. The Lord "telleth the number of the stars"; and yet "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds" (Psalm 147:4, 3).
LHU	97	7	Whatever your anxieties and trials, spread out your case before the Lord. Your spirit will be braced for endurance. The way will be open for you to disentangle yourself from embarrassment and difficulty. The weaker and more helpless you know yourself to be, the stronger will you become in His strength. The heavier your burdens, the more blessed the rest in casting them upon your Burden Bearer.
LHU	97	8	Circumstances may separate friends; the restless waters of the wide sea may roll between us and them. But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the Saviour. Wherever we may be, He is at our right hand, to support, maintain, uphold, and cheer. Greater than the love of a mother for her child is Christ's love for His redeemed. It is our privilege to rest in His love, to say, "I will trust Him; for He gave His life for me." Human love may change, but Christ's love knows no change. When we cry to Him for help, His hand is stretched out to save (The Ministry of Healing, 71, 72).
------------------------Choose Him as Our Trusted Friend, March 25
LHU	98	1	Henceforth I call you not servants; ... but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. John 15:15.
LHU	98	2	Wickedness prevails at the present day. The perils of the last days thicken around us, and because iniquity abounds the love of many waxes cold. This need not be if all would come to Jesus, and in confiding faith trust in Him. His meekness and lowliness, cherished in the heart, will bring peace and rest, and give moral power to every soul.
LHU	98	3	The shortness of time is frequently urged as an incentive for seeking righteousness and making Christ our friend. This should not be the great motive with us; for it savors of selfishness. Is it necessary that the terrors of the day of God should be held before us, that we may be compelled to right action through fear? It ought not to be so. Jesus is attractive. He is full of love, mercy, and compassion. He proposes to be our friend, to walk with us through all the rough pathways of life. He says to us, I am the Lord thy God; walk with Me, and I will fill thy path with light. Jesus, the Majesty of heaven, proposes to elevate to companionship with Himself those who come to Him with their burdens, their weaknesses, and their cares. He will count them as His children, and finally give them an inheritance of more value than the empires of kings, a crown of glory richer than has ever decked the brow of the most exalted earthly monarch.
LHU	98	4	It is our duty to love Jesus as our Redeemer. He has a right to command our love, but He invites us to give Him our heart. He calls us to walk with Him in the path of humble, truthful obedience. His invitation to us is a call to a pure, holy, and happy life--a life of peace and rest, of liberty and love--and to a rich inheritance in the future, immortal life. Which will we choose--liberty in Christ, or bondage and tyranny in the service of Satan? ... If we choose to live with Christ through the ceaseless ages of eternity, why not choose Him now as our most loved and trusted friend, our best and wisest counselor.
LHU	98	5	It is our privilege to have daily a calm, close, happy walk with Jesus. We need not be alarmed if the path lies through conflicts and sufferings. We may have the peace which passeth understanding; but it will cost us battles with the powers of darkness, struggles severe against selfishness and inbred sin. The victories gained daily through persevering, untiring effort in well-doing will be precious through Christ who has loved us, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a "peculiar people, zealous of good works"....
LHU	98	6	The Son of the Highest suffered shame on the cross, that sinners might not suffer everlasting shame and contempt, but be ransomed, and crowned with eternal glory (The Signs of the Times, March 17, 1887).
------------------------Order and Perfection Seen in All He Did, March 26
LHU	99	1	Then cometh Simon Peter ... and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. John 20:6, 7.
LHU	99	2	A young man clothed in shining garments was sitting by the tomb. It was the angel who had rolled away the stone. He had taken the guise of humanity that he might not alarm these friends of Jesus. Yet about him the light of the heavenly glory was still shining, and the women were afraid. They turned to flee, but the angel's words stayed their steps. "Fear not ye," he said; "for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead."
LHU	99	3	Again they look into the tomb, and again they hear the wonderful news. Another angel in human form is there, and he says, "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again."
LHU	99	4	He is risen, He is risen! the women repeat the words again and again. No need now for the anointing spices. The Saviour is living, and not dead. They remember now that when speaking of His death He said that He would rise again. What a day is this to the world! Quickly the women departed from the sepulcher "with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word."
LHU	99	5	Mary had not heard the good news. She went to Peter and John with the sorrowful message, "They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him." The disciples hurried to the tomb, and found it as Mary had said. They saw the shroud and the napkin, but they did not find their Lord. Yet even here was testimony that He had risen. The graveclothes were not thrown heedlessly aside, but carefully folded, each in a place by itself. John "saw, and believed." He did not yet understand the scripture that Christ must rise from the dead; but he now remembered the Saviour's words foretelling His resurrection.
LHU	99	6	It was Christ Himself who had placed those graveclothes with such care. When the mighty angel came down to the tomb, he was joined by another, who with his company had been keeping guard over the Lord's body. As the angel from heaven rolled away the stone, the other entered the tomb, and unbound the wrappings from the body of Jesus. But it was the Saviour's hand that folded each, and laid it in its place. In His sight who guides alike the star and the atom, there is nothing unimportant. Order and perfection are seen in all His work (The Desire of Ages, 788, 789).
------------------------Lift Him Up the Risen Saviour, March 27
LHU	100	1	Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 1 Corinthians 15:20.
LHU	100	2	The time had come for Christ to ascend to His Father's throne. As a divine conqueror He was about to return with the trophies of victory to the heavenly courts. Before His death He had declared to His Father, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do" (John 17:4). After His resurrection He tarried on earth for a season, that His disciples might become familiar with Him in His risen and glorified body. Now He was ready for the leave-taking. He had authenticated the fact that He was a living Saviour. His disciples need no longer associate Him with the tomb. They could think of Him as glorified before the heavenly universe.
LHU	100	3	As the place of His ascension, Jesus chose the spot so often hallowed by His presence while He dwelt among men.... Christ stood upon Olivet, with yearning heart overlooking Jerusalem. The groves and glens of the mountain had been consecrated by His prayers and tears. Its steeps had echoed the triumphant shouts of the multitude that proclaimed Him king. On its sloping descent He had found a home with Lazarus at Bethany. In the Garden of Gethsemane at its foot He had prayed and agonized alone. From this mountain He was to ascend to heaven. Upon its summit His feet will rest when He shall come again. Not as a man of sorrows, but as a glorious and triumphant king He will stand upon Olivet, while Hebrew hallelujahs mingle with Gentile hosannas, and the voices of the redeemed as a mighty host shall swell the acclamation, Crown Him Lord of all! ...
LHU	100	4	Upon reaching the Mount of Olives, Jesus led the way across the summit, to the vicinity of Bethany. Here He paused, and the disciples gathered about Him. Beams of light seemed to radiate from His countenance as He looked lovingly upon them. He upbraided them not for their faults and failures; words of the deepest tenderness were the last that fell upon their ears from the lips of their Lord.
LHU	100	5	With hands outstretched in blessing, and as if in assurance of His protecting care, He slowly ascended from among them, drawn heavenward by a power stronger than any earthly attraction. As He passed upward, the awestricken disciples looked with straining eyes for the last glimpse of their ascending Lord. A cloud of glory hid Him from their sight; and the words came back to them as the cloudy chariot of angels received Him, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." At the same time there floated down to them the sweetest and most joyous music from the angel choir (The Desire of Ages, 829-831).
------------------------Ascended to Heaven in Human Form, March 28
LHU	101	1	Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Acts 1:11.
LHU	101	2	While the disciples were still gazing upward, voices addressed them which sounded like richest music. They turned, and saw two angels in the form of men, who spoke to them, saying, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus ... shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."
LHU	101	3	These angels were of the company that had been waiting in a shining cloud to escort Jesus to His heavenly home. The most exalted of the angel throng, they were the two who had come to the tomb at Christ's resurrection, and they had been with Him throughout His life on earth. With eager desire all heaven had waited for the end of His tarrying in a world marred by the curse of sin. The time had now come for the heavenly universe to receive their King....
LHU	101	4	Christ had ascended to heaven in the form of humanity. The disciples had beheld the cloud receive Him. The same Jesus who had walked and talked and prayed with them; who had broken bread with them; who had been with them in their boats on the lake; and who had that very day toiled with them up the ascent of Olivet--the same Jesus had now gone to share His Father's throne. And the angels had assured them that the very One whom they had seen go up into heaven would come again even as He had ascended. He will come "with clouds; and every eye shall see him".... Well might the disciples rejoice in the hope of their Lord's return.
LHU	101	5	When the disciples went back to Jerusalem, the people looked upon them with amazement. After the trial and crucifixion of Christ, it had been thought that they would appear downcast and ashamed. Their enemies expected to see upon their faces an expression of sorrow and defeat. Instead of this there was only gladness and triumph. Their faces were aglow with a happiness not born of earth. They did not mourn over disappointed hopes, but were full of praise and thanksgiving to God. With rejoicing they told the wonderful story of Christ's resurrection and His ascension to heaven, and their testimony was received by many.
LHU	101	6	The disciples no longer had any distrust of the future. They knew that Jesus was in heaven, and that His sympathies were with them still. They knew that they had a friend at the throne of God, and they were eager to present their requests to the Father in the name of Jesus.... They extended the hand of faith higher and higher, with the mighty argument, "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again ... who also maketh intercession for us" (Romans 8:34). And Pentecost brought them fullness of joy in the presence of the Comforter, even as Christ had promised (The Desire of Ages, 831-833).
------------------------Glorified Before the Universe, March 29
LHU	102	1	I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. John 17:4.
LHU	102	2	By raising Christ from the dead, the Father glorified His Son before the Roman guard, before the satanic host, and before the heavenly universe. A mighty angel, clothed with the panoply of heaven, descended, scattering the darkness from his track, and, breaking the Roman seal, rolled back the stone from the sepulcher as if it had been a pebble, undoing in a moment the work that the enemy had done. The voice of God was heard, calling Christ from His prison house. The Roman guard saw heavenly angels falling in reverence before Him whom they had crucified, and He proclaimed above the rent sepulcher of Joseph, "I am the resurrection, and the life." Can we be surprised that the soldiers fell as dead men to the earth?
LHU	102	3	Christ's ascension to heaven, amid the cloud of heavenly angels, glorified Him. His concealed glory shone forth with all the brightness that mortal man could endure and live. He came to our world as a man; He ascended to His heavenly home as God. His human life was full of sorrow and grief, because of His cruel rejection by those He came to save; but men were permitted to see Him strengthened, to behold Him ascending in glory and triumph, surrounded by a convoy of angels. The same holy beings that announced His advent to the world were permitted to attend Him at His ascension, and to demand a triumphal entrance for the royal and glorified Being. "Lift your heads, O ye gates," they cry as they near the heavenly portals.... "Who is this King of glory?" And from thousands and ten thousands of voices the answer comes: "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle"....
LHU	102	4	Thus the prayer of Christ was answered. He was glorified with the glory which He had with His Father before the world was. But amid this glory, Christ does not lose sight of His toiling, struggling ones upon earth. He has a request to make of His Father. He waves back the heavenly host until He is in the direct presence of Jehovah, and then He presents His petition in behalf of His chosen ones.
LHU	102	5	"Father," He says, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am." And then the Father declares, "Let all the angels of God worship him." The heavenly host prostrate themselves before Him, and raise their song of triumph and joy. Glory encircles the King of heaven, and was beheld by all the heavenly intelligences. No words can describe the scene which took place as the Son of God was publicly reinstated in the place of honor and glory which He voluntarily left when He became a man (The Signs of the Times, May 10, 1899).
------------------------In the Father's Arms, March 30
LHU	103	1	I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. John 20:17.
LHU	103	2	Before the foundations of the earth were laid, the Father and the Son had united in a covenant to redeem man if he should be overcome by Satan. They had clasped Their hands in a solemn pledge that Christ should become the surety for the human race. This pledge Christ has fulfilled. When upon the cross He cried out, "It is finished," He addressed the Father. The compact had been fully carried out. Now He declares: Father, it is finished. I have done Thy will, O My God. I have completed the work of redemption. If Thy justice is satisfied, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am" (John 19:30; 17:24).
LHU	103	3	The voice of God is heard proclaiming that justice is satisfied. Satan is vanquished. Christ's toiling, struggling ones on earth are "accepted in the beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). Before the heavenly angels and the representatives of unfallen worlds, they are declared justified. Where He is, there His church shall be. "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalm 85:10). The Father's arms encircle His Son, and the word is given, "Let all the angels of God worship him" (Hebrews 1:6).
LHU	103	4	With joy unutterable, rulers and principalities and powers acknowledge the supremacy of the Prince of life. The angel host prostrate themselves before Him, while the glad shout fills all the courts of heaven, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing" (Revelation 5:12).
LHU	103	5	Songs of triumph mingle with the music from angel harps, till heaven seems to overflow with joy and praise. Love has conquered. The lost is found. Heaven rings with voices in lofty strains proclaiming, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever" (verse 13).
LHU	103	6	From that scene of heavenly joy, there comes back to us on earth the echo of Christ's own wonderful words, "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God" (John 20:17). The family of heaven and the family of earth are one. For us our Lord ascended, and for us He lives. "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25) (The Desire of Ages, 832, 835).
------------------------At the Right Hand of God, March 31
LHU	104	1	I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Acts 7:56.
LHU	104	2	Stephen, the foremost of the seven deacons, was a man of deep piety and broad faith....
LHU	104	3	As the priests and rulers saw the power that attended the preaching of Stephen, they were filled with bitter hatred. Instead of yielding to the evidence that he presented, they determined to silence his voice by putting him to death....
LHU	104	4	The priests and rulers could not prevail against the clear, calm wisdom of Stephen. They determined to make an example of him, and while they thus satisfied their revengeful hatred, prevent others, through fear, from adopting his belief. Witnesses were hired to bear false testimony that they had heard him speak blasphemous words against the Temple and the law....
LHU	104	5	When Stephen was questioned as to the truth of the charges against him, he began his defense in a clear, thrilling voice, which rang through the council hall.... He saw the resistance that met his words, and knew that he was giving his last testimony. When he connected Christ with the prophecies, and spoke as he did of the Temple, the priest, pretending to be horror-stricken, rent his robe. To Stephen, this act was a signal that his voice would soon be silenced forever. Although in the midst of his sermon, he abruptly concluded it.... The prisoner read his fate in the cruel faces about him, but he did not waver. The fear of death was gone. The enraged priests and the excited mob had no terror for him. The scene before him faded from his vision. To him the gates of heaven were ajar, and looking in, he saw the glory of the courts of God, and Christ, as if just risen from His throne, standing ready to sustain His servant, who was about to suffer martyrdom for His sake. In words of triumph Stephen exclaimed, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God."
LHU	104	6	As he described the glorious scene opened before him, it was more than his persecutors could endure. Stopping their ears, that they might not hear his words, and uttering loud cries, they ran furiously upon him with one accord. "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep"....
LHU	104	7	The signet of God upon Stephen's face, and his words, which reached the very souls of those who heard them, remained in the minds of the beholders, and testified to the truth of that which he had proclaimed (The Review and Herald, February 23, 1911).
------------------------The Bread of Life, April 1
LHU	105	1	And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. John 6:35.
LHU	105	2	"I am the bread of life," the Author, Nourisher, and Supporter of eternal, spiritual life.... Christ represents Himself under the similitude of heavenly bread. To eat His flesh and to drink His blood means to receive Him as a heaven-sent teacher. Belief in Him is essential to spiritual life. Those who feast on the Word never hunger, never thirst, never desire any higher or more exalted good.
LHU	105	3	Christ exclaimed the meaning of His words so clearly that none need stumble over them. His statement regarding eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God is to be taken in a spiritual sense. We eat Christ's flesh and drink His blood when by faith we lay hold upon Him as our Saviour.
LHU	105	4	Christ used the figure of eating and drinking to represent that nearness to Him which all must have who are at last partakers with Him in His glory. The temporal food we eat is assimilated, giving strength and solidity to the body. In a similar manner, as we believe and receive the words of the Lord Jesus, they become a part of our spiritual life, bringing light and peace, hope and joy, and strengthening the soul as physical food strengthens the body.
LHU	105	5	It is not enough for us to know and respect the words of the Scriptures. We must enter into the understanding of them, studying them earnestly.... Christians will reveal the degree to which they do this by the healthiness of their spiritual character. We must know the practical application of the Word to our own individual character-building. We are to be holy temples, in which God can live and walk and work. Never must we strive to lift ourselves above the servants whom God has chosen to do His work and to honor His holy name. "All ye are brethren." Let us apply this Word to our individual selves, comparing scripture with scripture.
LHU	105	6	In our daily lives, before our brethren and before the world, we are to be living interpreters of the Scriptures, doing honor to Christ by revealing His meekness and His lowliness of heart. As we eat and digest the bread of life, we shall reveal a symmetrical character. By our unity, by esteeming others better than ourselves, we are to bear to the world a living testimony of the power of the truth....
LHU	105	7	When men submit entirely to God, eating the bread of life and drinking the water of salvation, they will grow up into Christ. Their characters are composed of that which the mind eats and drinks. Through the Word of life, which they receive and obey, they become partakers of the divine nature. Then ... Christ, not man, is exalted (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 5, 1135).
------------------------The Word Our Spiritual Food, April 2
LHU	106	1	He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. John 6:35.
LHU	106	2	There are many in this age of the world who act as if they were at liberty to question the words of the Infinite, to review His decisions and statutes, endorsing, revising, reshaping, and annulling at their pleasure. We are never safe while we are guided by human opinions, but we are safe when we are guided by a "Thus saith the Lord." We cannot trust the salvation of our souls to any lower standard than the decisions of an infallible Judge.
LHU	106	3	Those who make God their guide and His Word their counselor behold the lamp of life. God's living oracles guide their feet in straight paths. Those who are thus led do not dare to judge the Word of God, but ever hold that His Word judges them. They get their faith and religion from the Word of the living God. It is the guide and counselor that direct their path. The Word is indeed a light to their feet and a lamp to their path. They walk under the direction of the Father of light, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He whose tender mercies are over all His works makes the path of the just as a shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
LHU	106	4	The Word of God is to be our spiritual food. "I am the bread of life," Christ said; "he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." The world is perishing for pure, unadulterated truth. Christ is the truth. His words are truth, and they have a greater value and a deeper significance than appears on the surface.... Minds that are quickened by the Holy Spirit will discern the value of these sayings....
LHU	106	5	By his conscience every honest Jew was convinced that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, but the heart, in its pride and ambition, would not surrender. When the truth is held as the truth only by the conscience, when the heart is not stimulated and made receptive, the mind only is affected. But when the truth is received as truth by the heart, it has passed through the conscience, and captivated the soul by its pure principles. It is placed in the heart by the Holy Spirit, who reveals its beauty to the mind, that its transforming power may be seen in the character....
LHU	106	6	True religion is embodied in the Word of God, and consists in being under the guidance of the Holy One in thought, word, and deed. He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life takes the humble, earnest, wholehearted seeker, and says, Follow Me. He leads him in the narrow way to holiness and heaven.... And all who decide to follow the Lord fully will be led in the royal path (The Review and Herald, March 29, 1906).
------------------------The Bread of Life and the Robe of Righteousness, April 3
LHU	107	1	For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. John 6:33, NIV.
LHU	107	2	"If ye... know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" (Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit, the representative of Himself, is the greatest of all gifts. All "good things" are comprised in this. The Creator Himself can give us nothing greater, nothing better. When we beseech the Lord to pity us in our distress, and to guide us by His Holy Spirit, He will never turn away our prayer.
LHU	107	3	It is possible even for a parent to turn away from his hungry child, but God can never reject the cry of the needy and longing heart. With what wonderful tenderness He has described His love! To those who in days of darkness feel that God is unmindful of them, this is the message from the Father's heart: "Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:14-16).
LHU	107	4	Every promise in the Word of God furnishes us with subject matter for prayer, presenting the pledged word of Jehovah as our assurance. Whatever spiritual blessing we need, it is our privilege to claim through Jesus. We may tell the Lord, with the simplicity of a child, exactly what we need. We may state to Him our temporal matters, asking Him for bread and raiment as well as for the bread of life and the robe of Christ's righteousness. Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things, and you are invited to ask Him concerning them. It is through the name of Jesus that every favor is received. God will honor that name, and will supply your necessities from the riches of His liberality.
LHU	107	5	But do not forget that in coming to God as a father you acknowledge your relation to Him as a child. You not only trust His goodness, but in all things yield to His will, knowing that His love is changeless. You give yourself to do His work. It was to those whom He had bidden to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness that Jesus gave the promise, "Ask, and ye shall receive" (John 16:24).
LHU	107	6	The gifts of Him who has all power in heaven and earth are in store for the children of God. Gifts so precious that they come to us through the costly sacrifice of the Redeemer's blood; gifts that will satisfy the deepest craving of the heart, gifts lasting as eternity, will be received and enjoyed by all who will come to God as little children. Take God's promises as your own, plead them before Him as His own words, and you will receive fullness of joy (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 132-134).
------------------------Jesus Sowed the Seed of the Living Word, April 4
LHU	108	1	It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4.
LHU	108	2	The subject of Christ's teaching and preaching was the Word of God. He met questioners with a plain, "It is written." "What saith the Scriptures?" "How readest thou?" At every opportunity, when an interest was awakened by either friend or foe, He sowed the seed of the Word. He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Himself the living Word, points to the Scriptures, saying, "They are they which testify of Me"....
LHU	108	3	Christ's servants are to do the same work. In our day, as of old, the vital truths of God's Word are set aside for human theories and speculations. Many professed ministers of the gospel do not accept the whole Bible as the inspired word. One wise man rejects one portion; another questions another part. They set up their judgment as superior to the Word; and the Scripture which they do teach rests upon their own authority. Its divine authenticity is destroyed. Thus the seeds of infidelity are sown broadcast; for the people become confused and know not what to believe.
LHU	108	4	There are many beliefs that the mind has no right to entertain. In the days of Christ the rabbis put a forced, mystical construction upon many portions of Scripture. Because the plain teaching of God's Word condemned their practices, they tried to destroy its force. The same thing is done today. The Word of God is made to appear mysterious and obscure in order to excuse transgression of His law. Christ rebuked these practices in His day. He taught that the Word of God was to be understood by all. He pointed to the Scriptures as of unquestionable authority, and we should do the same. The Bible is to be presented as the word of the infinite God, as the end of all controversy and the foundation of all faith.
LHU	108	5	The Bible has been robbed of its power, and the results are seen in a lowering of the tone of spiritual life.... [Yet] there are many who are crying out for the living God, longing for the divine presence....
LHU	108	6	Christ's favorite theme was the paternal tenderness and abundant grace of God; He dwelt much upon the holiness of His character and His law; He presented Himself to the people as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Let these be the themes of Christ's ministers. Present the truth as it is in Jesus. Make plain the requirements of the law and the gospel. Tell the people of Christ's life of self-denial and sacrifice; of His humiliation and death; of His resurrection and ascension; of His intercession for them in the courts of God; of His promise, "I will come again, and receive you unto myself" (John 14:3) (Christ's Object Lessons, 39, 40).
------------------------Feed on the Bread of Life, April 5
LHU	109	1	My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. John 6:32.
LHU	109	2	We are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and these three great, infinite powers are unitedly pledged to work in our behalf if we will cooperate with them. We are buried with Christ in baptism as an emblem of His death.
LHU	109	3	We are raised from the water as an emblem of His resurrection. We are to live as newborn souls, that we may be raised at the last great day.... You are pledged to live in newness of life; for you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." This is where you are to place your treasure. Finite man cannot do your believing. Come to the great source of power for your strength.
LHU	109	4	Christ's prayer on the banks of the Jordan includes everyone who will believe in Him. The promise that you are accepted in the Beloved comes to you. Hold it with the grip of unyielding faith. God said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." This means that through the dark shadow which Satan has thrown athwart your pathway Christ has cleaved the way for you to the throne of the infinite God. He has laid hold of almighty power, and you are accepted in the Beloved.
LHU	109	5	In every respect you are to honor God by being partakers of His divine nature that you may have the assurance of sins pardoned which would testify of the love of God. But there is not in our experience that pleasantness and joyousness that there should be. Christ says that if He is in us, our joy will be full. Let us then be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Let us not, by living inconsistent, earthly, sensual lives, heap reproach upon Christ. Let us rise above the malarious atmosphere that pervades the world, and breathe the breath of God. Let us feed upon the bread of life.
LHU	109	6	Christ declares that if we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we shall have eternal life. His word will be to us as the leaves of the tree of life if we will believe in Christ as our personal Saviour. If we eat the bread that came down from heaven, we shall have a live connection with God. We shall bring eternity into our reckoning. We shall live as in the presence of the whole heavenly host. The angels are watching and guarding us.
LHU	109	7	God loves us, but we fail to cherish that love. We are losing in spirituality. God wants us to recognize His ownership in every human being. He has His claims. They are mine, He says. I have bought them with a price. "Ye are not your own.... Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." Will you do this? Will you pray in faith? Will you honor Christ by taking Him at His word? (Manuscript 144, 1901).
------------------------The Bread of Life Revives the Spiritual Nature, April 6
LHU	110	1	This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. John 6:50.
LHU	110	2	There is a great need of taking self in hand when we find ourselves watching to make capital out of the missteps of a brother, a sister, or a friend. Although we do not acknowledge that the object of defaming another is to exalt self, self-exaltation is behind the practice of noting the shortcomings of others. Let every soul remember it is best to be on guard, and to make straight paths for his own feet, lest the lame ... be turned out of the way. None of us are in danger of being too devotional, or of possessing too much Christlikeness of character. The remedy for unlikeness to Christ, for giving occasion for your good to be evil spoken of, is to live humbly, to keep looking unto Jesus in prayerful watchfulness, until changed into the likeness of His beautiful character.
LHU	110	3	The soul cannot be satisfied with forms, maxims, and traditions. The cry of the soul must be, give me the bread of life; lift up a full cup to my parched, spiritual nature, that I may be revived and refreshed; but do not intrude and interpose yourself between me and my Redeemer. Let me see Him as my helper, as the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Thou, O Lord, must be my helper. Thou wast wounded for my transgressions, bruised for my iniquities, ... and with Thy stripes I am healed.
LHU	110	4	Christ was crucified for our sins, and was raised from the rent sepulcher for our justification; and He proclaims in triumph, "I am the resurrection, and the life." Jesus lives as our intercessor to plead before the Father. He has carried the sins of the whole world, and has not made one mortal man a sin-bearer for others. No man can bear the weight of his own sins. The crucified One bore them all, and every soul who believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
LHU	110	5	The disciples of Christ will be fitted by His grace for every trial and test as he strives for perfection of character. By looking away from Jesus to some other one, or to something else, he may sometimes make mistakes; but as soon as he is warned of his danger, he again fastens his eyes upon Jesus, in whom his hope of eternal life is centered, and he plants his feet in the footprints of his Lord, and travels on securely. He rejoices, saying, "He is my living intercessor before God. He prays in my behalf. He is my advocate, and clothes me with the perfection of His own righteousness. This is all I require to enable me to bear shame and reproach for His dear name's sake. If he permits me to endure persecution, He will give me grace and the comfort of His presence, so that His name shall be thereby glorified" (The Review and Herald, May 12, 1896).
------------------------Bible Study Strengthens the Intellect, April 7
LHU	111	1	Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4.
LHU	111	2	There is nothing more calculated to strengthen the intellect than a study of the Bible. No other book is so potent to elevate the thoughts, to give vigor to the faculties, as the broad, ennobling truths of the Bible. If God's Word were studied as it should be, men would have a breadth of mind, a nobility of character, that is rarely seen in these times.
LHU	111	3	No knowledge is so firm, so consistent, so far-reaching, as that obtained from a study of the Word of God. If there were not another book in the wide world, the Word of God, lived out through the grace of Christ, would make man perfect in this world, with a character fitted for the future, immortal life. Those who study the Word, taking it in faith as the truth, and receiving it into the character, will be complete in Him who is all and in all. Thank God for the possibilities set before humanity....
LHU	111	4	The time devoted to a study of God's Word and to prayer will bring a hundredfold in return.
LHU	111	5	The Word of God is the living seed, and as this seed is sown in the mind, the human agent must give diligent care to the successive stages of its growth. How is this to be done? After the Word has been prayerfully received, it is to be cherished, and practiced in the daily life. It is to spring up and bear fruit, putting forth first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.
LHU	111	6	It is not enough to study the Bible as other books are studied. In order for it to be understood savingly, the Holy Spirit must move on the heart of the searcher. The same Spirit that inspired the Word must inspire the reader of the Word. Then will be heard the voice of heaven. "Thy Word, O God, is truth" will be the language of the soul.
LHU	111	7	The mere reading of the Word will not accomplish the result designed of Heaven; it must be studied, and cherished in the heart. The knowledge of God is not gained without mental effort. We should diligently study the Bible, asking God for the aid of the Holy Spirit, that we may understand His Word. We should take one verse, and concentrate the mind on the task of ascertaining the thought which God has put in that verse for us. We should dwell on the thought till it becomes our own, and we know "what saith the Lord"....
LHU	111	8	The Word of God is the bread of life. Those who eat and digest this Word, making it a part of every action and of every attribute of character, grow strong in the strength of God. It gives immortal vigor to the soul, perfecting the experience and bringing joys that will abide forever (The Signs of the Times, June 25, 1902).
------------------------Treasures of Truth Revealed, April 8
LHU	112	1	Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6.
LHU	112	2	All who receive the gospel message into the heart will long to proclaim it. The heaven-born love of Christ must find expression. Those who have put on Christ will relate their experience, tracing step by step the leadings of the Holy Spirit--their hungering and thirsting for the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, the results of their searching of the Scriptures, their prayers, their soul agony, and the words of Christ to them, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." It is unnatural for any to keep these things secret, and those who are filled with the love of Christ will not do so.
LHU	112	3	In proportion as the Lord has made them the depositaries of sacred truth will be their desire that others shall receive the same blessing. And as they make known the rich treasures of God's grace, more and still more of the grace of Christ will be imparted to them. They will have the heart of a little child in its simplicity and unreserved obedience. Their souls will pant after holiness, and more and more of the treasures of truth and grace will be revealed to them to be given to the world.
LHU	112	4	The great storehouse of truth is the Word of God--the written Word, the book of nature, and the book of experience in God's dealing with human life. Here are the treasures from which Christ's workers are to draw. In the search after truth they are to depend upon God, not upon human intelligences, the great men whose wisdom is foolishness with God. Through His own appointed channels the Lord will impart a knowledge of Himself to every seeker.
LHU	112	5	If the follower of Christ will believe His Word and practice it, there is no science in the natural world that he will not be able to grasp and appreciate. There is nothing but that will furnish him means for imparting the truth to others. Natural science is a treasure house of knowledge from which every student in the school of Christ may draw. As we contemplate the beauty of nature, as we study its lessons in the cultivation of the soil, in the growth of the trees, in all the wonders of earth and sea and sky, there will come to us a new perception of truth. And the mysteries connected with God's dealings with men, the depths of His wisdom and judgment as seen in human life--these are found to be a storehouse rich in treasure.
LHU	112	6	But it is in the written Word that a knowledge of God is most clearly revealed to fallen man. This is the treasure house of the unsearchable riches of Christ.... The truths of redemption are capable of constant development and expansion. Though old, they are ever new, constantly revealing to the seeker for truth a greater glory and a mightier power (Christ's Object Lessons, 125-127).
------------------------The Truth in Christ is Measureless, April 9
LHU	113	1	As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. John 6:57.
LHU	113	2	Truth in Christ and through Christ is measureless. The student of Scripture looks, as it were, into a fountain that deepens and broadens as he gazes into its depths.
LHU	113	3	Not in this life shall we comprehend the mystery of God's love in giving His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The work of our Redeemer on this earth is and ever will be a subject that will put to the stretch our highest imagination. Man may tax every mental power in the endeavor to fathom this mystery, but his mind will become faint and weary. The most diligent searcher will see before him a boundless, shoreless sea.
LHU	113	4	The truth as it is in Jesus can be experienced, but never explained. Its height and breadth and depth pass our knowledge. We may task our imagination to the utmost, and then we shall see only dimly the outlines of a love that is unexplainable, that is as high as heaven, but that stooped to the earth to stamp the image of God on all mankind.
LHU	113	5	Yet it is possible for us to see all that we can bear of the divine compassion. This is unfolded to the humble, contrite soul. We shall understand God's compassion just in proportion as we appreciate His sacrifice for us. As we search the Word of God in humility of heart, the grand theme of redemption will open to our research. It will increase in brightness as we behold it, and as we aspire to grasp it, its height and depth will ever increase.
LHU	113	6	Our life is to be bound up with the life of Christ; we are to draw constantly from Him, partaking of Him, the living Bread that came down from heaven, drawing from a fountain ever fresh, ever giving forth its abundant treasures. If we keep the Lord ever before us, allowing our hearts to go out in thanksgiving and praise to Him, we shall have a continual freshness in our religious life.
LHU	113	7	Our prayers will take the form of a conversation with God as we would talk with a friend. He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Often there will come to us a sweet joyful sense of the presence of Jesus. Often our hearts will burn within us as He draws nigh to commune with us as He did with Enoch. When this is in truth the experience of the Christian, there is seen in his life a simplicity, a humility, meekness, and lowliness of heart, that show to all with whom he associates that he has been with Jesus and learned of Him.
LHU	113	8	In those who possess it, the religion of Christ will reveal itself as a vitalizing, pervading principle, a living, working, spiritual energy. There will be manifest the freshness and power and joyousness of perpetual youth (Christ's Object Lessons, 128-130).
------------------------Compare Scripture with Scripture, April 10
LHU	114	1	For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little. Isaiah 28:10.
LHU	114	2	We are so thankful that we have a sure word of prophecy, so that none of us need be deceived. We know that there are heresies and fables in our world at the present time, and we want to know what is truth. It becomes us to search carefully for ourselves that we may gain this knowledge. We cannot do this with a mere reading of the Scriptures, but we must compare scripture with scripture. We must search the Scriptures for ourselves, so that we shall not be led astray; and while many may be led astray because there are all kinds of doctrines in our world, there is one truth. Many may come to you and tell you that they have the truth, but it is your privilege to search the Scriptures for yourself. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." We must be acquainted with the Scriptures ourselves, that we may understand the true reason of the hope that is within us.
LHU	114	3	The apostle tells us that we are to give to every man that asks us a reason of the hope that is within us, with meekness and fear. "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple." It is not enough to merely read, but the Word of God must enter into our hearts and our understanding, in order that we may be established in the blessed truth. If we should neglect to search the Scriptures for ourselves, that we may know what is truth, then if we are led astray, we are accountable for it. We must search the Scriptures carefully, so that we will know every condition that the Lord has given us; and if we have minds of limited capacity, by diligently searching the word of God we may become mighty in the Scriptures, and may explain them to others....
LHU	114	4	If you are established in the Scriptures, you will feel the responsibility and will search the Scriptures for yourselves, so that you may be a help to others. Now, the small churches, although they are but few, may be a power for the truth. Every one should feel that a solemn responsibility rests upon him to build up his little church in the most holy faith. The very fact that there are only a few, should cause every individual member to seek most earnestly for a living connection with God; because the giving of the truth to those around you depends upon the influences that you exert.
LHU	114	5	Christ has said, "Ye are the light of the world"; therefore you must put forth every effort to let that light shine. The only way for you to know that you have the true light from heaven, is to compare the light you have received with the Scriptures.... The word was given to Joshua, "Be strong and of a good courage"; for there is a great work before you (The Review and Herald, April 3, 1888).
------------------------The Bible is its Own Expositor, April 11
LHU	115	1	Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.
LHU	115	2	The Bible is its own expositor. Scripture is to be compared with scripture. The student should learn to view the Word as a whole and to see the relation of its parts. He should gain a knowledge of its grand central theme--of God's original purpose for the world, of the rise of the great controversy, and of the work of redemption. He should understand the nature of the two principles that are contending for the supremacy, and should learn to trace their working through the records of history and prophecy, to the great consummation. He should see how this controversy enters into every phase of human experience; how in every act of life he himself reveals the one or the other of the two antagonistic motives; and how, whether he will or not, he is even now deciding upon which side of the controversy he will be found.
LHU	115	3	Every part of the Bible is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable. The Old Testament, no less than the New, should receive attention. As we study the Old Testament, we shall find living springs bubbling up where the careless reader discerns only a desert.
LHU	115	4	The Old Testament sheds light upon the New, and the New upon the Old. Each is a revelation of the glory of God in Christ. Christ as manifested to the patriarchs, as symbolized in the sacrificial service, as portrayed in the law, and as revealed by the prophets is the riches of the Old Testament. Christ in His life, His death, and His resurrection; Christ as He is manifested by the Holy Spirit, is the treasure of the New. Both Old and New present truths that will continually reveal new depths of meaning to the earnest seeker (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 462, 463).
LHU	115	5	Christ reproached His disciples with their slowness of comprehension.... After His resurrection, as He was walking to Emmaus with two of the disciples, He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures, so explaining the Old Testament to them that they saw in its teachings a meaning that the writers themselves had not seen.
LHU	115	6	Christ's words are the bread of life. As the disciples ate the words of Christ, their understanding was quickened. They understood better the value of the Saviour's teachings. In their comprehension of these teachings they stepped from the obscurity of dawn to the radiance of noonday. So will it be with us as we study God's Word (The Signs of the Times, April 4, 1906).
LHU	115	7	The work of explaining the Bible by the Bible itself is the work that should be done by all our ministers who are fully awake to the times in which we live (Letter 376, 1906).
------------------------Sound Doctrine, April 12
LHU	116	1	The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. 2 Timothy 4:3-5.
LHU	116	2	"Sound doctrine" is Bible truth--truth that will promote piety and devotion, confirming God's people in the faith. Sound doctrine means much to the receiver; and it means much, too, to the teacher, the minister of righteousness; for wherever the gospel is preached, every laborer, whatever his line of service, is either true or untrue to his responsibility as the Lord's messenger.
LHU	116	3	Paul wrote again, "It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself. Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers" (2 Timothy 2:11-14).
LHU	116	4	Some who in Paul's day listened to the truth raised questions of no vital importance, presenting the ideas and opinions of men, and seeking to divert the mind of the teacher from the great truths of the gospel, to the discussions of nonessential theories and the settlement of unimportant disputes. Paul knew that the laborer for God must be wise enough to see the design of the enemy, and refuse to be misled or diverted. The conversion of souls must be the burden of his work; he must preach the Word of God, but avoid controversy....
LHU	116	5	The ministers of Christ today are in the same danger. Satan is constantly at work to divert the mind into wrong channels, so that the truth may lose its force upon the heart....
LHU	116	6	Men of ability have devoted a lifetime of study and prayer to the searching of the Scriptures, and yet there are many portions of the Bible that have not been fully explored. Some passages of Scripture will never be perfectly comprehended until in the future life Christ shall explain them. There are mysteries to be unraveled, statements that human minds cannot harmonize. And the enemy will seek to arouse argument upon these points, which might better remain undiscussed.
LHU	116	7	A devoted, spiritual worker will avoid bringing up minor theoretical differences, and will devote his energies to the proclamation of the great testing truths to be given to the world. He will point the people to the work of redemption, the commandments of God, the near coming of Christ; and it will be found that in these subjects there is food enough for thought (Gospel Workers, 311-313).
------------------------The Bible--A Perfect Whole, April 13
LHU	117	1	Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21.
LHU	117	2	Before the entrance of sin, Adam enjoyed open communion with his Maker; but since man separated himself from God by transgression, the human race has been cut off from this high privilege. By the plan of redemption, however, a way has been opened whereby the inhabitants of the earth may still have connection with heaven. God has communicated with men by His Spirit, and divine light has been imparted to the world by revelations to His chosen servants. "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter 1:21).
LHU	117	3	During the first 2,500 years of human history, there was no written revelation. Those who have been taught of God communicated their knowledge to others, and it was handed down from father to son, through successive generations. The preparation of the written word began in the time of Moses. Inspired revelations were then embodied in an inspired book. This work continued during the long period of 1,600 years--from Moses, the historian of Creation and the law, to John, the recorder of the most sublime truths of the gospel.
LHU	117	4	The Bible points to God as its author; yet it was written by human hands; and in the varied style of its different books it presents the characteristics of the several writers. The truths revealed are all "given by inspiration of God" (2 Timothy 3:16); yet they are expressed in the words of men. The Infinite One by His Holy Spirit has shed light into the minds and hearts of His servants. He has given dreams and visions, symbols and figures; and those to whom the truth was thus revealed have themselves embodied the thought in human language.
LHU	117	5	The Ten Commandments were spoken by God Himself, and were written by His own hand. They are of divine, and not of human composition. But the Bible, with its God-given truths expressed in the language of men, presents a union of the divine and the human. Such a union existed in the nature of Christ, who was the Son of God and the Son of man. Thus it is true of the Bible, as it was of Christ, that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).
LHU	117	6	Written in different ages by men who differed widely in rank and occupation, and in mental and spiritual endowments, the books of the Bible present a wide contrast in style, as well as a diversity in the nature of the subjects unfolded. Different forms of expression are employed by different writers; often the same truth is more strikingly presented by one than by another.... And the truths thus revealed unite to form a perfect whole, adapted to meet the wants of men in all the circumstances and experiences of life (The Great Controversy, v, vi).
------------------------The Glory of a Divine Power, April 14
LHU	118	1	Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16, 17, RV.
LHU	118	2	God has been pleased to communicate His truth to the world by human agencies, and He Himself, by His Holy Spirit, qualified men and enabled them to do this work. He guided the mind in the selection of what to speak and what to write. The treasure was entrusted to earthen vessels, yet it is, nonetheless, from Heaven. The testimony is conveyed through the imperfect expression of human language, yet it is the testimony of God; and the obedient, believing child of God beholds in it the glory of a divine power, full of grace and truth.
LHU	118	3	In His Word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the revealer of doctrines, and the test of experience....
LHU	118	4	Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His Word has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, the Spirit was promised by our Saviour, to open the Word to His servants, to illuminate and apply its teachings. And since it was the Spirit of God that inspired the Bible, it is impossible that the teaching of the Spirit should ever be contrary to that of the Word.
LHU	118	5	The Spirit was not given--nor can it ever be bestowed--to supersede the Bible; for the Scriptures explicitly state that the Word of God is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested. Says the apostle John, "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). And Isaiah declares, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20)....
LHU	118	6	In harmony with the Word of God, His Spirit was to continue its work throughout the period of the gospel dispensation. During the ages while the Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testament were being given, the Holy Spirit did not cease to communicate light to individual minds, apart from the revelations to be embodied in the Sacred Canon. The Bible itself relates how, through the Holy Spirit, men received warning, reproof, counsel, and instruction, in matters in no way relating to the giving of the Scriptures. And mention is made of prophets in different ages, of whose utterances nothing is recorded. In like manner, after the close of the canon of the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit was still to continue its work, to enlighten, warn, and comfort the children of God (The Great Controversy, vi-viii).
------------------------The Knowledge of the Lord, April 15
LHU	119	1	The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:9.
LHU	119	2	A failure to study and obey God's Word has brought confusion into the world. Men have left the guardianship of Christ for the guardianship of the great rebel, the prince of darkness. Strange fire has been mingled with the sacred. The accumulation of things that minister to lust and ambition has brought upon the world the judgment of heaven.
LHU	119	3	When in difficulty, philosophers and men of science try to satisfy their minds without appealing to God. They ventilate their philosophy in regard to the heavens and the earth, accounting for plagues, pestilences, epidemics, earthquakes, and famines, by their supposed science. Questions relating to creation and providence they attempt to solve by saying, This is a law of nature.
LHU	119	4	Disobedience has closed the door to a vast amount of knowledge that might have been gained from the Word of God. Had men been obedient, they would have understood the plan of God's government. The heavenly world would have opened its chambers of grace and glory for exploration. In form, in speech, in song, human beings would have been altogether superior to what they are now. The mystery of redemption, the incarnation of Christ, His atoning sacrifice, would not be vague in our minds. They would be not only better understood, but altogether more highly appreciated.
LHU	119	5	A failure to study God's Word is the great cause of mental weakness and inefficiency. In turning from this Word to feed on the writings of uninspired men, the mind becomes dwarfed and cheapened. It is not brought in contact with deep, broad principles of eternal truth. The understanding adapts itself to the comprehension of the things with which it is familiar, and in this devotion to finite things it is weakened, its power is contracted, and after a time it becomes unable to expand.
LHU	119	6	All this is false education. The work of every teacher should be to fasten the minds of the youth upon the grand truths of the Word of Inspiration. This is the education essential for this life and the life to come.
LHU	119	7	And let it not be thought that this will prevent the study of the sciences or cause a lower standard in education. The knowledge of God is as high as heaven and as broad as the universe. There is nothing so ennobling and invigorating as a study of the great themes which concern our eternal life. Let the youth seek to grasp these God-given truths, and their minds will expand and grow strong in the effort. It will bring every student who is a doer of the Word into a broader field of thought, and secure for him a wealth of knowledge that is imperishable (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 440-442).
------------------------Spiritual Food for Growth and Strength, April 16
LHU	120	1	And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe. 1 Thessalonians 2:13, NIV.
LHU	120	2	The Bible contains all that is needful for the saving of the soul, and at the same time it is adapted to strengthen and discipline the mind.... It will be found far more effective than any other book in guiding wisely in the affairs of this life, as well as in aiding the soul to climb the ladder that reaches to heaven. The Bible gives the true seeker an advanced mental drill; he comes from the contemplation of divine things with his faculties enriched. Self is humbled, while God and His truth are exalted. It is because men are unacquainted with the truths of the Bible that there is so much lifting up of man, and so little honor given to God.
LHU	120	3	In searching the pages of God's Word, we move through scenes majestic and eternal. We behold Jesus, the Son of God, coming to our world, and engaging in the mysterious conflict that discomfited the power of darkness. How wonderful, how almost incredible, it is that the infinite God would consent to the humiliation of His only-begotten Son! ...
LHU	120	4	God's Word is the spiritual food by which the Christian must grow strong in spirit and in intellect, that he may do battle for truth and righteousness. The Bible teaches that every besetting sin must be put away, that the warfare against evil must be waged until every wrong is overcome. The human agent must place himself as a willing student in the school of Christ. As he accepts the grace freely offered him, the presence of the Saviour in the thoughts and in the heart will give him decision of purpose to lay aside every weight, that the heart may be filled with all the fullness of God.
LHU	120	5	The simplicity of true godliness must be brought into the education of our young people, if they are to know how to escape the corruption that is in the world. They must be taught that the true followers of Christ will serve God not only when it is in accordance with their inclinations, but also when it involves self-denial and cross-bearing. Besetting sins must be battled with and overcome. Objectionable traits of character, whether hereditary or cultivated, must be compared with the great rule of righteousness, and then conquered in the strength of Christ. Day by day, hour by hour, a vigorous work of self-denial and of sanctification must go on within; then the works will bear witness that Jesus is abiding in the heart by faith. Sanctification does not close the avenues of the soul to knowledge, but expands the mind, and inspires it to search for truth as for hidden treasure (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 448, 449).
------------------------Constantly Increasing in Discernment, April 17
LHU	121	1	The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things. John 14:26.
LHU	121	2	The young man who makes the Bible his guide need not mistake the path of duty and of safety. That Book will teach him to preserve his integrity of character, to be truthful, to practice no deception. It will teach him that he must never transgress God's law in order to accomplish a desired object, even though to obey involves a sacrifice. It will teach him that the blessing of heaven will not rest upon him if he departs from the path of rightdoing; that although men may appear to prosper in disobedience, they will surely reap the fruit of their sowing.
LHU	121	3	Those only who read the Scriptures as the voice of God speaking to them are true learners. They tremble at the voice of God, for to them it is a living reality. They open their understanding to divine instruction, and pray for grace, that they may obtain a preparation for service. As the heavenly torch is placed in his hand, the seeker for truth sees his own frailty, his infirmity, the hopelessness of looking to himself for righteousness. He sees that there is in him nothing that can recommend him to God. He prays for the Holy Spirit, the representative of Christ, to be his constant guide, to lead him into all truth. He repeats the promise, "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things" (John 14:26)....
LHU	121	4	Those who receive into their hearts the holy principles of truth will work with increasing energy. No circumstances can alter their determination to attain to the highest possible standard. And that which they have received they will impart to others. As they themselves drink from the fountain of living water, from them will flow living streams to bless and refresh others.
LHU	121	5	The diligent Bible student will constantly increase in knowledge and discernment. His intellect will grasp elevated subjects and lay hold of the truth of eternal realities. His motives of action will be right. He will use his talent of influence to help others to understand more perfectly their God-given responsibilities. His heart will be a wellspring of joy as he sees success attend his efforts to impart to others the blessings he has received.
LHU	121	6	The talent of knowledge, sanctified and put to use in the Master's service, is never lost. A self-sacrificing effort to do good will be crowned with success. "We are labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9). The Lord will cooperate with the human worker. To Him is to be given the praise and the glory for what we are able to accomplish (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 449-451).
------------------------For This Life and the Life to Come, April 18
LHU	122	1	The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. Psalm 119:130.
LHU	122	2	For the mind and the soul, as well as for the body, it is God's law that strength is acquired by effort. It is exercise that develops. In harmony with this law, God has provided in His Word the means for mental and spiritual development.
LHU	122	3	The Bible contains all the principles that men need to understand in order to be fitted either for this life or for the life to come. And these principles may be understood by all....
LHU	122	4	And even greater is the power of the Bible in the development of the spiritual nature. Man, created for fellowship with God, can only in such fellowship find his real life and development. Created to find in God his highest joy, he can find in nothing else that which can quiet the cravings of the heart, can satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul. He who with sincere and teachable spirit studies God's Word, seeking to comprehend its truths, will be brought in touch with its Author; and, except by his own choice, there is no limit to the possibilities of his development.
LHU	122	5	In its wide range of style and subjects the Bible has something to interest every mind and appeal to every heart. In its pages are found history the most ancient; biography the truest to life; principles of government for the control of the state, for the regulation of the household--principles that human wisdom has never equaled. It contains philosophy the most profound, poetry the sweetest and the most sublime, the most impassioned and the most pathetic. Immeasurably superior in value to the productions of any human author are the Bible writings, even when thus considered; but of infinitely wider scope, of infinitely greater value, are they when viewed in their relation to the grand central thought. Viewed in the light of this thought, every topic has a new significance. In the most simply stated truths are involved principles that are as high as heaven and that compass eternity.
LHU	122	6	The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other in the whole book clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God. From the first intimation of hope in the sentence pronounced in Eden to that last glorious promise of the Revelation, "They shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads" (Revelation 22:4), the burden of every book and every passage of the Bible is the unfolding of this wondrous theme--man's uplifting--the power of God, "which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57).
LHU	122	7	He who grasps this thought has before him an infinite field for study. He has the key that will unlock to him the whole treasure house of God's Word (Education, 123-126).
------------------------Sanctified by Truth, April 19
LHU	123	1	Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth. John 17:17.
LHU	123	2	It is through the truth, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we are to be sanctified--transformed into the likeness of Christ. And in order for this change to be wrought in us, there must be an unconditional, wholehearted acceptance of the truth, an unreserved surrender of the soul to its transforming power....
LHU	123	3	Many persons cling tenaciously to their peculiarities. Even after they profess to accept the truth, to yield themselves to Christ, the same old habits are indulged, the same self-esteem is manifested, the same false notions entertained. Although such ones claim to be converted, it is evident that they have not yielded themselves to the transforming power of the truth....
LHU	123	4	The new birth consists in having new motives, new tastes, new tendencies. Those who are begotten unto a new life by the Holy Spirit have become partakers of the divine nature, and in all their habits and practices, they will give evidence of their relationship to Christ....
LHU	123	5	The command, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," would never have been given if every provision had not been made whereby we may become as perfect in our sphere as God is in His. We are to be ever advancing from light to a greater light, holding fast what we have already received, and praying for more. Thus we shall never be left in darkness (The Review and Herald, April 12, 1892).
LHU	123	6	The last message of mercy is to be given to the world by the proclamation of gospel truth. Truth, Bible truth--this is what the people need. On our knees we are to claim the promises of God's Word, asking that we may receive pure, unadulterated truth, and that we may realize the necessity of giving this truth to others. Then men and women will be converted. The hand of God will be recognized in the raising up of new churches. The Lord will baptize with the apostolic spirit many who will go forth to do missionary work in places where the people know not the truth.
LHU	123	7	True missionary work will furnish the churches with a sure foundation, a foundation having this seal, "The Lord knoweth them that are his." Then God will be glorified in His people. Christian missions will be built upon Jesus Christ. Under the supervision of God the work will go forward, and innumerable evidences will be given of the genuineness of the work. The workers will not seek to glorify self, but will praise God as the designer and organizer of every holy, ennobling work. They not only profess to be believers; they are believers. They are sanctified by the truth; for truth acted as well as preached has a purifying influence upon the character (The Signs of the Times, August 21, 1901).
------------------------The Holy Spirit in the Life, April 20
LHU	124	1	I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. John 14:16.
LHU	124	2	There are souls famishing for the bread of life, thirsting for the waters of salvation; and woe unto that man who by pen or voice shall turn them aside into false paths! The Spirit of God is appealing to men, presenting to them their moral obligation to love and serve Him with heart, might, mind, and strength, and to love their neighbors as themselves. The Holy Spirit moves upon the inner self until it becomes conscious of the divine power of God, and every spiritual faculty is quickened to decided action....
LHU	124	3	A deep, thorough work is to be wrought in the soul, which the world cannot see. Those who know not what it is to have an experience in the things of God, who ... have not the witness of the Spirit that they are accepted of Jesus Christ, are in need of being born again.... What can the world know of Christian experience? Verily, nothing. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." The Great Teacher explained this instruction, saying, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."
LHU	124	4	In this age, the Word of God is not considered reliable. The word of Christ, that cuts directly across human desires and indulgences, and condemns popular habits and practices--the Word which was made flesh and dwelt among us--is ignored and despised. The teachings and example of Christ are not made the criterion for the life of the professed follower of Christ. Many who name the name of Christ are walking in the light of the sparks of their own kindling, rather than following in the footsteps of their professed Master. They do not represent the same character that Christ represented in His pure, sincere love to God, and in His love for fallen man. They do not take God at His word, and identify their interests with Jesus Christ. They do not form the habit of communing with Jesus, of taking Him as a guide and counselor, and thus learn the trade of living a well-defined Christian life.
LHU	124	5	Those who not only hear but do the words of Christ make manifest in character the operation of the Holy Spirit. The result of the internal operation of the Holy Spirit is demonstrated in the outward conduct. The life of the Christian is hid with Christ in God, and God acknowledges those who are His, declaring, "Ye are My witnesses." They testify that divine power is influencing their hearts and shaping their conduct. Their works give evidence that the Spirit is moving upon the inward man; those who are associated with them are convinced that they are making Jesus Christ their pattern (The Review and Herald, May 12, 1896).
------------------------The Word of God Our Safeguard, April 21
LHU	125	1	To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:20.
LHU	125	2	Our watchword is to be "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." We have a Bible full of the most precious truth. It contains the alpha and the omega of knowledge. The Scriptures, given by inspiration of God, are "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16, 17). Take the Bible as your study book. All can understand its instruction.
LHU	125	3	Christ calls upon His people to believe and practice His Word. Those who receive and assimilate this Word, making it a part of every action, of every attribute of character, will grow strong in the strength of God. It will be seen that their faith is of heavenly origin. They will not wander into strange paths. Their minds will not turn to a religion of sentimentalism and excitement. Before angels and before men, they will stand as those who have strong, consistent Christian characters.
LHU	125	4	In the golden censer of truth, as presented in Christ's teachings, we have that which will convict and convert souls. Proclaim, in the simplicity of Christ, the truths that He came to this world to proclaim, and the power of your message will make itself felt. Do not advocate theories or tests that Christ has never mentioned, and that have no foundation in the Bible. We have grand, solemn truths for the people. "It is written" is the test that must be brought home to every soul.
LHU	125	5	Let us go to the Word of God for guidance. Let us seek for a "Thus saith the Lord." We have had enough of human methods. A mind trained only in worldly science will fail to understand the things of God; but the same mind, converted and sanctified, will see the divine power in the Word. Only the mind and heart cleansed by the sanctification of the Spirit can discern heavenly things....
LHU	125	6	In the name of the Lord I call upon you to awake to your duty. Let your hearts be yielded to the power of the Holy Spirit, and they will be made susceptible to the teachings of the Word. Then you will be able to discern the deep things of God.
LHU	125	7	May God bring His people under the deep movings of His Spirit! May He arouse them to see their peril, and to prepare for what is coming upon the earth! (Gospel Workers, 309, 310).
LHU	125	8	When questions arise upon which we are uncertain, let us ask, What saith the Scripture? ... Let those who wish for something new seek for that newness of life resulting from the new birth. Let them purify their souls by obeying the truth, and act in harmony with the instruction that Christ has given (Gospel Workers, 314, 315).
------------------------The Bread of Life for the Hungry, April 22
LHU	126	1	He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. John 6:56.
LHU	126	2	The Lord has made every provision that the uplifted Saviour may be revealed to sinners. Although they are dead in trespasses and sins, their attention must be aroused by the preaching of Christ and Him crucified....
LHU	126	3	The infinite value of the sacrifice required for our redemption reveals the fact that sin is a tremendous evil. God might have wiped out this foul blot from His creation by sweeping the sinner from the face of the earth. But He "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Why are not all who claim to love God seeking to enlighten their neighbors and their associates, that they may not longer neglect this great salvation? ...
LHU	126	4	Christ is able, Christ is willing, Christ is longing, to save all who will come unto Him! Talk to souls in peril and get them to behold Jesus upon the cross, dying to make it possible for Him to pardon. Talk to the sinner with your own heart overflowing with the tender, pitying love of Christ. Let there be deep earnestness; but not a harsh, loud note should be heard from the one who is trying to win the soul to look and live. First have your own soul consecrated to God. As you look upon our Intercessor in heaven, let your heart be broken. Then, softened and subdued, you can address repenting sinners as one who realizes the power of redeeming love. Pray with these souls, by faith bringing them to the foot of the cross; carry their minds up with your mind, and fix the eye of faith where you look, upon Jesus the Sin Bearer. Get them to look away from their poor, sinful selves to the Saviour, and the victory is won. They behold for themselves the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. They see the Way, the Truth, the Life. The Sun of Righteousness shed its bright beams into the heart. The strong tide of redeeming love pours into the parched and thirsty soul, and the sinner is saved to Jesus Christ.
LHU	126	5	Christ crucified--talk it, pray it, sing it, and it will break and win hearts. This is the power and wisdom of God to gather souls for Christ.... The melting love of God in the hearts of the workers will be recognized by those for whom they labor. Souls are thirsting for the waters of life. Do not be empty cisterns. If you reveal the love of Christ to them, you may lead the hungering, thirsting ones to Jesus, and He will give them the bread of life and the water of salvation (Testimonies For The Church 6:66, 67).
------------------------All Heaven is Watching, April 23
LHU	127	1	Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. John 5:39.
LHU	127	2	This is an age of unrest, and the youth drink deeply of its spirit. Would that they could be made to realize the importance and the peril of the position they occupy! Would that parents and Sabbath school teachers could be led to see their duty to guide them wisely! Never before have there been so many important interests at stake. Never were such momentous issues before any generation as await the one now coming upon the stage of action. Never were the youth of any age or country so earnestly observed by the angels of God as are the youth today. All heaven is watching with intense interest for every indication of the characters they are forming--whether, when brought to the test, they will stand firmly for God and the right, or be swayed by worldly influences.
LHU	127	3	God has a great work to be done in a short time. He has committed to the youth talents of intellect, time, and means, and He holds them responsible for the use they make of these good gifts. He calls upon them to come to the front, to resist the corrupting, bewitching influences of this fast age, and to become qualified to labor in His cause. They cannot become fitted for usefulness without putting heart and energy into the work of preparation. Christian principles must be developed by being cherished and brought into active exercise. Self-control must be gained by earnest effort aided by the grace of God....
LHU	127	4	When the young choose the service of Christ, and prove that through divine aid they have the moral principle to govern self, they are a power for good, and an influence goes out from them that leads others to glorify God....
LHU	127	5	It is a divine law that blessings come at some cost to the receiver. Those who would become wise in the sciences must study; and those who would become wise in regard to Bible truth, that they may impart that knowledge to others, must be diligent students of God's Holy Word. There is no other way; they must search the Scriptures diligently, interestedly, prayerfully. Precious words of promise and encouragement, of warning, reproof, and instruction, are there found. They will learn of Christ's love, the value of His blood, and the wonderful privileges afforded by His grace....
LHU	127	6	The Bible should ever be the Christian's textbook; of all books it should be made the most attractive to the young. If they drink deep of its spirit, they will be prepared to withstand the wiles of Satan, and to resist the temptations of this infidel age. By its simple beauty of language, its elevated sentiment, its unerring truthfulness, its tenderness and pathos, the word of God is well calculated to impress the mind and impart rich lessons (Youth's Instructor, May 7, 1884).
------------------------Seek for the Living Bread, April 24
LHU	128	1	If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:1, 2.
LHU	128	2	When temporal matters absorb the mind and engage the attention, the whole strength of the being is engaged in the service of man, and men look upon the worship due to God as a trifling matter. Religious interests are made subservient to the world. But Jesus, who has paid the ransom for the souls of the human family, requires that men shall subordinate temporal interests to the heavenly interests. He would have them cease to indulge in hoarding up earthly treasures, in spending money upon luxuries, and in surrounding themselves with all those things which they do not need. He would not have them destroy spiritual power, but directs their attention to heavenly things.
LHU	128	3	He urges that men should seek more earnestly and continually for the bread of life than for the bread which perishes. He says, "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed".... It is the Word of God that is essential for our spiritual growth. "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Those who are doers of the words of Christ will bring heaven into their life.
LHU	128	4	Christ is our Redeemer, our owner, and He is intensely interested that we shall have peace in this world. He seeks to present before us the attractions of heaven; for where the treasure is, there will the heart be also. To lay up treasure in heaven is to use our God-given capabilities in acquiring means and influence that may be used for the glory of God. Every dollar we earn is the Lord's property, and should be used in reference to the time when we shall be called to give an account of our stewardship. No one of us will be able to evade the future reckoning. By choosing to lay up treasure in heaven, our characters will be molded after the likeness of Christ. The world will see that our hopes and plans are made in reference to the advancement of the truth and the salvation of perishing souls. They will see that Christ is all in all to those who love Him....
LHU	128	5	In securing treasure in heaven, we place ourselves in living connection with God, who owns all the treasures of the earth, and supplies all temporal mercies that are essential for life. Every soul may secure the eternal inheritance. The Lord opens the fact before His people that there is full room for the exercise of their faculties, for the fulfillment of their loftiest aims, for the acquirements of the choicest and most enduring treasure. They may lay up treasures where neither fire nor flood nor any manner of adversity can touch (The Review and Herald, April 7, 1896).
------------------------Success for Your Efforts, April 25
LHU	129	1	For the Lord is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11.
LHU	129	2	Jesus has said: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened".... Be earnest; be resolute. Present the promise of God, and then believe without a doubt. Do not wait to feel special emotions before you think the Lord answers. Do not mark out some particular way that the Lord must work for you before you believe you receive the things you ask of Him; but trust His word, and leave the whole matter in the hands of the Lord, with full faith that your prayer will be honored, and the answer will come at the very time and in the very way your heavenly Father sees is for your good; and then live out your prayers. Walk humbly and keep moving forward.
LHU	129	3	"For the Lord is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." "O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him" ... "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." Here are promises, rich and abundant, upon condition that you cease to do evil and learn to do well. Then set your aim in life high, as did Joseph and Daniel and Moses; and take into consideration the cost of character-building, and then build for time and eternity.
LHU	129	4	Satan will oppose your efforts to advance. Your path will not always be smooth, but there are encouragements in God's rich promises. The Lord has pledged His word that in every effort toward righteousness He will help us. We are weak and without wisdom, but God has said: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." Only learn to be thorough, never to let go your hold upon God, to persevere in His service, and you will be an overcomer through the blood of the Lamb. In doing this work for yourself you are having an influence on many others whom you associate with.
LHU	129	5	Words spoken in season, how good are they! How much strength a word of hope, courage, and determination in a right course will give one who is inclined to slide into habits that are demoralizing! The firm purpose you may possess in carrying out good principles will have an influence to balance souls in the right direction. There is no limit to the good you may do. If you make the Word of God the rule of your life, and govern your actions by its precepts, making all your purposes and exertions in the fulfilling of your duty a blessing ... success will crown your efforts (Youth's Instructor, September 1, 1886).
------------------------Our Only Safeguard in Trial and Temptation, April 26
LHU	130	1	Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105.
LHU	130	2	God has given us His Word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Its teachings have a vital bearing on our prosperity in all the relations of life. Even in our temporal affairs it will be a wiser guide than any other counselor. Its divine instruction is the only way to success. There is no social position, no phase of human experience, for which the study of the Bible is not an essential preparation.
LHU	130	3	The Bible is the great standard of right and wrong, clearly defining sin and holiness. Its living principles, running through our lives like threads of gold, are our only safeguard in trial and temptation.
LHU	130	4	The Bible is a chart, showing us the waymarks of truth. Those who are acquainted with this chart will be enabled to tread with certainty in the path of duty, wherever they may be called to go.
LHU	130	5	The Bible contains a simple and complete system of theology and philosophy. It is the book that makes us wise unto salvation. It tells us how to reach the abodes of eternal happiness. It tells us of the love of God as shown in the plan of redemption, imparting the knowledge essential for all--the knowledge of Christ. He is the Sent of God; He is the Author of our salvation. But apart from the Word of God, we could have no knowledge that such a person as the Lord Jesus ever visited our world, nor any knowledge of His divinity, as indicated by His previous existence with the Father.
LHU	130	6	The Bible was not written for the scholar alone; on the contrary, it was designed for the common people. The great truths necessary for our salvation are made as clear as noonday, and none will mistake and lose their way except those who follow their own judgment instead of the plainly revealed will of God.
LHU	130	7	The Word of God strikes at every wrong trait of character, molding the whole man, internally and externally, abasing his pride and self-exaltation, leading him to bring the Spirit of Christ into the smaller as well as the larger duties of life. It teaches him to be unswerving in his allegiance to justice and purity, and at the same time always to be kind and compassionate.
LHU	130	8	The appreciation of the Bible grows with its study. Whichever way the student may turn, he will find displayed the infinite wisdom and love of God. To him who is truly converted, the Word of God is the joy and consolation of the life. The Spirit of God speaks to him, and his heart becomes like a watered garden (The Signs of the Times, June 25, 1902).
LHU	130	9	The heart that is stored with the precious truths of God's Word is fortified against the temptations of Satan, against impure thoughts and unholy actions (Youth's Instructor, July 28, 1892).
------------------------Daily Bread Assured, April 27
LHU	131	1	Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:11.
LHU	131	2	Like a child, you shall receive day by day what is required for the day's need. Every day you are to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Be not disturbed if you have not sufficient for tomorrow. You have the assurance of His promise, "Thou shalt dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." David says, "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."
LHU	131	3	That God who sent the ravens to feed Elijah by the brook Cherith will not pass by one of His faithful, self-sacrificing children. Of him that walketh righteously it is written, "Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure." "They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied." "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"
LHU	131	4	He who lightened the cares and anxieties of His widowed mother, and helped to provide for the household of Nazareth, sympathizes with every mother in her struggle to provide her children food. He who had compassion on the multitude because they "fainted, and were scattered abroad" still has compassion on the suffering poor. His hand is stretched out toward them in blessing and in the very prayer which He gave His disciples, He teaches us to remember the poor (The Signs of the Times, November 4, 1903).
LHU	131	5	The prayer for daily bread includes not only food to sustain the body, but that spiritual bread which will nourish the soul unto life everlasting. Jesus bids us, "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life" (John 6:27). He says, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever" (verse 51). Our Saviour is the bread of life, and it is by beholding His love, by receiving it into the soul, that we feed upon the bread which came down from heaven.
LHU	131	6	We receive Christ through His Word, and the Holy Spirit is given to open the Word of God to our understanding, and bring home its truths to our hearts. We are to pray day by day that as we read His Word, God will send His Spirit to reveal to us the truth that will strengthen our souls for the day's need.
LHU	131	7	In teaching us to ask every day for what we need--both temporal and spiritual blessings--God has a purpose to accomplish for our good. He would have us realize our dependence upon His constant care, for He is seeking to draw us into communion with Himself. In this communion with Christ, through prayer and the study of the great and precious truths of His Word, we shall as hungry souls be fed; as those that thirst, we shall be refreshed at the fountain of life (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 112, 113).
------------------------Lessons from Timothy, April 28
LHU	132	1	And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:15.
LHU	132	2	Silas, Paul's companion in labor, was a tried worker, gifted with the spirit of prophecy; but the work to be done was so great that there was need of training more laborers for active service. In Timothy, Paul saw one who appreciated the sacredness of the work of a minister; who was not appalled at the prospect of suffering and persecution; and who was willing to be taught. Yet the apostle did not venture to take the responsibility of giving Timothy, an untried youth, a training in the gospel ministry, without first fully satisfying himself in regard to his character and his past life.
LHU	132	3	Timothy's father was a Greek and his mother a Jewess. From a child he had known the Scriptures. The piety that he saw in his home life was sound and sensible. The faith of his mother and his grandmother in the sacred oracles was to him a constant reminder of the blessing in doing God's will. The Word of God was the rule by which these two godly women had guided Timothy. The spiritual power of the lessons that he had received from them kept him pure in speech and unsullied by the evil influences with which he was surrounded. Thus his home instructors had cooperated with God in preparing him to bear burdens.
LHU	132	4	Paul saw that Timothy was faithful, steadfast, and true, and he chose him as a companion in labor and travel. Those who had taught Timothy in his childhood were rewarded by seeing the son of their care linked in close fellowship with the great apostle. Timothy was a mere youth when he was chosen by God to be a teacher, but his principles had been so established by his early education that he was fitted to take his place as Paul's helper. And though young, he bore his responsibilities with Christian meekness....
LHU	132	5	Paul loved Timothy, his "own son in the faith" (1 Timothy 1:2). The great apostle often drew the younger disciple out, questioning him in regard to Scripture history, and as they traveled from place to place, he carefully taught him how to do successful work. Both Paul and Silas ... sought to deepen the impression ... of the sacred, serious nature of the work of the gospel minister.
LHU	132	6	In his work, Timothy constantly sought Paul's advice and instruction. He did not move from impulse, but exercised consideration and calm thought, inquiring at every step, Is this the way of the Lord? The Holy Spirit found in him one who could be molded and fashioned as a temple for the indwelling of the divine Presence.
LHU	132	7	As the lessons of the Bible are wrought into the daily life, they have a deep and lasting influence upon the character. These lessons Timothy learned and practiced (The Acts of the Apostles, 203-205).
------------------------Sitting at the Feet of Jesus, April 29
LHU	133	1	One thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Luke 10:42.
LHU	133	2	Our Saviour appreciated a quiet home and interested listeners. He longed for human tenderness, courtesy, and affection. Those who received the heavenly instruction He was always ready to impart were greatly blessed. As the multitudes followed Christ through the open fields, He unfolded to them the beauties of the natural world. He sought to open the eyes of their understanding, that they might see how the hand of God upholds the world.... But the multitudes were slow of hearing, and in the home at Bethany Christ found rest from the weary conflict of public life. Here He opened to an appreciative audience the volume of Providence. In these private interviews He unfolded to His hearers that which He did not attempt to tell to the mixed multitude. He needed not to speak to His friends in parables.
LHU	133	3	As Christ gave His wonderful lessons, Mary sat at His feet, a reverent and devoted listener. On one occasion, Martha, perplexed with the care of preparing the meal, went to Christ, saying, "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me." This was the time of Christ's first visit to Bethany. The Saviour and His disciples had just made the toilsome journey on foot from Jericho. Martha was anxious to provide for their comfort, and in her anxiety she forgot the courtesy due to her Guest. Jesus answered her with mild and patient words, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Mary was storing her mind with the precious words falling from the Saviour's lips, words that were more precious to her than earth's most costly jewels.
LHU	133	4	The "one thing" that Martha needed was a calm, devotional spirit, a deeper anxiety for knowledge concerning the future, immortal life, and the graces necessary for spiritual advancement. She needed less anxiety for the things which pass away, and more for those things which endure forever. Jesus would teach His children to seize every opportunity of gaining that knowledge which will make them wise unto salvation. The cause of Christ needs careful, energetic workers. There is a wide field for the Marthas, with their zeal in active religious work. But let them first sit with Mary at the feet of Jesus. Let diligence, promptness, and energy be sanctified by the grace of Christ; then the life will be an unconquerable power for good (The Desire of Ages, 524, 525).
------------------------Results from Eating the Bread of Life, April 30
LHU	134	1	So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13, RSV.
LHU	134	2	We have an abundance of sermonizing. What is most needed ... is love for perishing souls, that love which comes in rich currents from the throne of God. True Christianity diffuses love through the whole being. It touches every vital part, the brain, the heart, the helping hands, the feet, enabling men to stand firmly where God requires them to stand, so that they will not make crooked paths for their feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. The burning, consuming love of Christ for perishing souls is the life of the whole system of Christianity.
LHU	134	3	What is the Bible interpretation of God? "God is love." By giving Christ to our world, God manifested His love for mankind. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Yes, "everlasting life." This is the love which is the fulfilling of the law. Only he whose heart is filled with compassion for fallen man, who loves to a purpose, showing his love by the performance of Christlike deeds, will be able to endure the seeing of Him who is invisible. He only who loves his fellowmen to a purpose can know God. He who loves not those for whom the Father has done so much know not God. This is the reason there is so little genuine vitality in our churches. Theology is valueless unless it is saturated with the love of Christ.
LHU	134	4	God is supreme. His love in the human heart will lead to the doing of work that will bear fruit after the similitude of the character of God....
LHU	134	5	"Charity [love] suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." O blessed leaves of the tree of life! "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."
LHU	134	6	"Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name," because our Guidebook is so very plain and definite. Others may not follow the plain "It is written," which Christ used on every occasion to meet the fallen foe, but let us follow the Saviour's example. The less we give expression to our own human opinions, the purer and more marked with grace will be our conversation. The Lord calls for sanctified speech, because it is a savor of life unto life (Letter 156, 1900).
------------------------The Claims of the Law of God, May 1
LHU	135	1	Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Psalm 119:18.
LHU	135	2	Christ came to a people who were deceived and deluded by the demon of ambition. At that time they were under the Roman yoke, but they expected One to come who would establish a kingdom from which would be excluded every other people on the earth. He was to break the heathen yoke, to lift up His people, and set them with princes. All nations were to be summoned to appear before the One sent by God, and there called upon to surrender themselves or be consumed.
LHU	135	3	Prophets were continually arising and claiming to have special messages to this effect. Judah was to be honored as the place of power and glory. The kingdoms of the world and the riches of the Gentiles were to be placed at their feet, and they were to be exalted as priests and kings unto God. Those who did not believe in these great things for the Jewish nation were pronounced infidels. If their prayers did not abound in these glowing expectations, they were treated as worse than useless.... The people were so infatuated by the falsehoods of Satan that their minds were wholly unprepared for the real Christ.
LHU	135	4	Christ's work was to set before men the character of His kingdom, showing that names and positions and titles are nothing, but that pure virtue and a holy character is accounted as everything in the sight of heaven. In His sermon on the mount, the very first sentences that came from His lips were calculated to lay those ambitions low in the dust. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," He said, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
LHU	135	5	This whole sermon was an exposition of the law. Christ presented the far-reaching claims of the law of God. He tried to correct their high imaginings by exalting true sentiments, and proclaiming a blessing upon those traits of character that were entirely opposite to the attributes they were cherishing. He presented before them a kingdom where human ambitions and earthly passions cannot find an entrance....
LHU	135	6	Christ's work was ... that He might lift souls who were perishing in ignorance of true godliness into a pure and holy atmosphere (The Signs of the Times, January 10, 1900).
------------------------God's Law Stands for Ever, May 2
LHU	136	1	All his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever. Psalm 111:7, 8.
LHU	136	2	"The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of his testament" (Revelation 11:19). The ark of God's testament is in the Holy of Holies, the second apartment of the sanctuary. In the ministration of the earthly tabernacle, which served "unto the example and shadow of heavenly things," this apartment was opened only upon the great Day of Atonement for the cleansing of the sanctuary. Therefore the announcement that the temple of God was opened in heaven and the ark of His testament was seen points to the opening of the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary in 1844 as Christ entered there to perform the closing work of the atonement.
LHU	136	3	Those who by faith followed their great High Priest as He entered upon His ministry in the Most Holy Place beheld the ark of His testament. As they had studied the subject of the sanctuary they had come to understand the Saviour's change of ministration, and they saw that He was now officiating before the ark of God, pleading His blood in behalf of sinners.
LHU	136	4	The ark in the tabernacle on earth contained the two tables of stone, upon which were inscribed the precepts of the law of God. The ark was merely a receptacle for the tables of the law, and the presence of these divine precepts gave to it its value and sacredness. When the temple of God was opened in heaven, the ark of His testament was seen. Within the Holy of Holies, in the sanctuary in heaven, the divine law is sacredly enshrined--the law that was spoken by God Himself amid the thunders of Sinai and written with His own finger on the tables of stone.
LHU	136	5	The law of God in the sanctuary in heaven is the great original, of which the precepts inscribed upon the tables of stone and recorded by Moses in the Pentateuch were an unerring transcript. Those who arrived at an understanding of this important point were thus led to see the sacred, unchanging character of the divine law. They saw, as never before, the force of the Saviour's words: "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law" (Matthew 5:18).
LHU	136	6	The law of God, being a revelation of His will, a transcript of His character, must forever endure, "as a faithful witness in heaven." Not one command has been annulled; not a jot or tittle has been changed. Says the psalmist: "Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." "All his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever" (Psalm 111:7, 8) (The Great Controversy, 433, 434).
------------------------Keeping the Sabbath, May 3
LHU	137	1	I am the Lord your God; follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Keep my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God. Ezekiel 20:19, 20, NIV.
LHU	137	2	At the time of the Exodus from Egypt, the Sabbath institution was brought prominently before the people of God. While they were still in bondage, their taskmasters had attempted to force them to labor on the Sabbath by increasing the amount of work required each week.... But the Israelites were delivered from bondage and brought to a place where they might observe unmolested all the precepts of Jehovah.
LHU	137	3	At Sinai the law was spoken; and a copy of it, on two tables of stone, "written with the finger of God," was delivered to Moses (Exodus 31:18). And through nearly forty years of wandering the Israelites were constantly reminded of God's appointed rest day, by the withholding of the manna every seventh day and the miraculous preservation of the double portion that fell on the preparation day.
LHU	137	4	Before entering the Promised Land, the Israelites were admonished by Moses to "keep the sabbath day to sanctify it" (Deuteronomy 5:12). The Lord designed that by a faithful observance of the Sabbath command, Israel should continually be reminded of their accountability to Him as their Creator and their Redeemer. While they should keep the Sabbath in the proper spirit, idolatry could not exist; but should the claims of this precept of the Decalogue be set aside as no longer binding, the Creator would be forgotten and men would worship other gods.
LHU	137	5	"I gave them my sabbaths," God declared, "to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Yet "they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols." And in His appeal to them to return to Him, He called their attention anew to the importance of keeping the Sabbath holy. "I am the Lord your God," He said; "walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God" (Ezekiel 20:12, 16, 19, 20)....
LHU	137	6	Christ, during His earthly ministry, emphasized the binding claims of the Sabbath; in all His teaching He showed reverence for the institution He Himself had given. In His days the Sabbath had become so perverted that its observance reflected the character of selfish and arbitrary men rather than the character of God. Christ set aside the false teaching by which those who claimed to know God had misrepresented Him. Although followed with merciless hostility by the rabbis, He did not even appear to conform to their requirements, but went straight forward keeping the Sabbath according to the law of God (Prophets and Kings, 180-183).
------------------------The Center of the Law, May 4
LHU	138	1	Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8.
LHU	138	2	In the very bosom of the Decalogue is the fourth commandment, as it was first proclaimed: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it" (Exodus 20:8-11)....
LHU	138	3	Christ had opened the door, or ministration, of the Most Holy Place, light was shining from that open door of the sanctuary in heaven, and the fourth commandment was shown to be included in the law which is there enshrined; what God has established, no man could overthrow (The Great Controversy, 434, 435).
LHU	138	4	God has given us His commandments, not only to be believed in, but to be obeyed. The great Jehovah, when He had laid the foundations of the earth, had dressed the whole world in the garb of beauty, and had filled it with things useful to man--when He had created all the wonders of the land and the sea--instituted the Sabbath day and made it holy. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day, because He rested upon it from all His wondrous work of creation. The Sabbath was made for man, and God would have him put by his labor on that day, as He Himself rested after His six days' work of creation.
LHU	138	5	Those who reverence the commandments of Jehovah will, after light has been given them in reference to the fourth precept of the Decalogue, obey it without questioning the feasibility or convenience of such obedience. God made man in His own image and then gave him an example of observing the seventh day, which He sanctified and made holy. He designed that upon that day man should worship Him and engage in no secular pursuits. No one who disregards the fourth commandment, after becoming enlightened concerning the claims of the Sabbath, can be held guiltless in the sight of God....
LHU	138	6	At the very beginning of the fourth precept, God said, "Remember," knowing that man, in the multitude of his cares and perplexities, would be tempted to excuse himself from meeting the full requirements of the law, or in the press of worldly business, would forget its sacred importance.... But He claims one day, which He has set apart and sanctified. He gives it to man as a day in which he may rest from labor and devote himself to worship and the improvement of his spiritual condition (Testimonies For The Church 4:247-249).
------------------------A Special, Distinguishing Sign, May 5
LHU	139	1	The children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. Exodus 31:16, 17.
LHU	139	2	In this scripture the observance of the Sabbath is specified as a special, distinguishing sign between God's people and the people of the world. This gives to parents a most solemn work--the work of teaching their children to obey the Sabbath commandment, in order that they may be numbered among the people of God.
LHU	139	3	In Exodus 19 we read: "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel."
LHU	139	4	Wonderful condescension is this! God offers to make the Israelites His peculiar treasure, if they obey His law and glorify His name. Observe the response they made to these words:
LHU	139	5	"Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him." All this instruction was placed by the elders before the vast multitude assembled. "And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord" (Manuscript 152, 1901).
LHU	139	6	We cannot overestimate the value of simple faith and unquestioning obedience. It is by following in the path of obedience in simple faith that the character obtains perfection. Adam was required to render strict obedience to God's commandments, and no lower standard is presented to those who desire salvation [today].... [Christ] says, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive" (John 14:13-17).... The world is leagued against the truth, because it does not desire to obey the truth. Shall I who perceive the truth close my eyes and heart to its saving power because the world chooses darkness rather than light? (Letter 119, 1895).
LHU	139	7	The sacred statutes which Satan has hated and sought to destroy, will be honored throughout a sinless universe (Patriarchs and Prophets, 342).
------------------------The Law for Man's Happiness, May 6
LHU	140	1	The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Psalm 19:8.
LHU	140	2	In the beginning, God gave His law to mankind as a means of attaining happiness and eternal life. Satan's only hope of thwarting the purpose of God is to lead men and women to disobey this law, and his constant effort has been to misrepresent its teachings and belittle its importance. His master stroke has been an attempt to change the law itself, so as to lead men to violate its precepts while professing to obey it.
LHU	140	3	One writer has likened the attempt to change the law of God to an ancient mischievous practice of turning in a wrong direction a signpost erected at an important junction where two roads met. The perplexity and hardship which this practice often caused was great.
LHU	140	4	A signpost was erected by God for those journeying through this world. One arm of this signpost pointed out willing obedience to the Creator as the road to felicity and life, while the other arm indicated disobedience as the path to misery and death. The way to happiness was as clearly defined as was the way to the city of refuge under the Jewish dispensation. But in an evil hour for our race, the great enemy of all good turned the signpost around, and multitudes have mistaken the way.
LHU	140	5	Through Moses the Lord instructed the Israelites: "Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work ... in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed" (Exodus 31:13-17).
LHU	140	6	In these words the Lord clearly defined obedience as the way to the City of God; but the man of sin has changed the signpost, making it point in a wrong direction. He has set up a false sabbath and has caused men and women to think that by resting on it they were obeying the command of the Creator.
LHU	140	7	God has declared that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord. When "the heavens and the earth were finished," He exalted this day as a memorial of His creative work. Resting on the seventh day "from all his work which he had made, ... God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it" (Genesis 2:1-3) (Prophets and Kings, 178-180).
------------------------God's Law Never Changes, May 7
LHU	141	1	And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. Exodus 31:18.
LHU	141	2	During the Christian dispensation, the great enemy of man's happiness has made the Sabbath of the fourth commandment an object of special attack. Satan says, "I will work at cross purposes with God. I will empower my followers to set aside God's memorial, the seventh-day Sabbath. Thus I will show the world that the day sanctified and blessed by God has been changed. That day shall not live in the minds of the people. I will obliterate the memory of it. I will place in its stead a day that does not bear the credentials of God, a day that cannot be a sign between God and His people. I will lead those who accept this day to place upon it the sanctity that God placed upon the seventh day"....
LHU	141	3	Through the setting up of a false sabbath, the enemy thought to change times and laws. But has he really succeeded in changing God's law? The words of the thirty-first chapter of Exodus are the answer. He who is the same yesterday, today, and forever has declared of the seventh-day Sabbath: "It is a sign between me and you throughout your generations." "It is a sign ... for ever" (Exodus 31:13, 17). The changed signpost is pointing the wrong way, but God has not changed. He is still the mighty God of Israel. "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing" (Isaiah 40:15).... And He is just as jealous for His law now as He was in the days of Ahab and Elijah.
LHU	141	4	But how is that law disregarded! Behold the world today in open rebellion against God. This is in truth a froward generation, filled with ingratitude, formalism, insincerity, pride, and apostasy. Men neglect the Bible and hate truth. Jesus sees His law rejected, His love despised, his ambassadors treated with indifference. He has spoken by His mercies, but these have been unacknowledged; He has spoken by warnings, but these have been unheeded. The temple courts of the human soul have been turned into places of unholy traffic. Selfishness, envy, pride, malice--all are cherished....
LHU	141	5	Those who believe that word just as it reads are held up to ridicule. There is a growing contempt for law and order, directly traceable to a violation of the plain commands of Jehovah (Prophets and Kings, 183-185).
LHU	141	6	Jehovah engraved His ten commandments on tables of stone, that all the inhabitants of the earth might understand His eternal, unchangeable character (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 248).
------------------------The First Great Commandment, May 8
LHU	142	1	Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. Mark 12:30.
LHU	142	2	I saw that whatever divides the affections, or takes away from the heart supreme love for God, or prevents unlimited confidence and entire trust in Him, assumes the character and takes the form of an idol. I was pointed to the first great commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." There is allowed no separation of our affections from God. Nothing is to divide our supreme love for Him or our delight in Him. Your will, wishes, plans, desires, and pleasures must all be in subjection.
LHU	142	3	You have something to learn, to exalt the Lord God in your heart, in your conversation, in all your acts; and then Jesus can teach you, and help you, as you cast your net on the right side of the ship, to bring it to shore full of fishes. But without the help of Christ in casting your net, you may toil, weeks, months, and years without seeing much fruit of your labor....
LHU	142	4	Study yourself. Try every motive.... Seek to exhibit Christ (Testimonies For The Church 1:436, 437).
LHU	142	5	When one is fully emptied of self, when every false god is cast out of the soul, the vacuum is filled by the inflowing of the Spirit of Christ. Such a one has the faith that purifies the soul from defilement. He is conformed to the Spirit, and he minds the things of the Spirit. He has no confidence in self. Christ is all and in all. He receives with meekness the truth that is constantly being unfolded, and gives the Lord all the glory, saying, "God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" (Gospel Workers, 287).
LHU	142	6	The voice that spoke to Israel from Sinai is speaking in these last days to men and women, saying, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). The law of God was written with His own finger on tables of stone, thus showing that it could never be changed or abrogated. It is to be preserved through the eternal ages, immutable as the principles of His government. Men have set their will against the will of God, but this cannot silence His words of wisdom and command, though they may set their speculative theories in opposition to the teachings of revelation, and exalt human wisdom above a plain "Thus saith the Lord" (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 248).
LHU	142	7	The spirit of worldliness may contaminate the many and control the few, the cause of God may hold its ground only by great exertion and continual sacrifice, yet in the end the truth will triumph gloriously. (Prophets and Kings, 186).
------------------------No Other Gods, May 9
LHU	143	1	Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3.
LHU	143	2	Christ gave His life that all who would might be freed from sin and reinstated in the favor of the Creator.
LHU	143	3	It was the anticipation of a redeemed, holy universe that prompted Christ to make this great sacrifice.... Are we followers of God as dear children, or are we servants of the prince of darkness? Are we worshipers of Jehovah, or of Baal? of the living God, or of idols?
LHU	143	4	No outward shrines may be visible, there may be no image for the eye to rest upon, yet we may be practicing idolatry. It is as easy to make an idol of cherished ideas or objects as to fashion gods of wood or stone. Thousands have a false conception of God and His attributes. They are as verily serving a false god as were the servants of Baal. Are we worshiping the true God as He is revealed in His Word, in Christ, in nature, or are we adoring some philosophical idol enshrined in His place? God is a God of truth. Justice and mercy are the attributes of His throne. He is a God of love, of pity and tender compassion. Thus He is represented in His Son, our Saviour. He is a God of patience and long-suffering. If such is the being whom we adore and to whose character we are seeking to assimilate, we are worshiping the true God.
LHU	143	5	If we are following Christ, His merits, imputed to us, come up before the Father as sweet odor. And the graces of our Saviour's character, implanted in our hearts, will shed around us a precious fragrance. The spirit of love, meekness, and forbearing pervading our life will have power to soften and subdue hard hearts and win to Christ bitter opposers of the faith.
LHU	143	6	"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others"....
LHU	143	7	Vainglory, selfish ambition, is the rock upon which many souls have been wrecked and many churches rendered powerless. Those who know least of devotion, who are least connected with God, are the ones who will most eagerly seek the highest place. They have no sense of their weakness and their deficiencies of character.... The soul that is constantly looking unto Jesus will see His self-denying love and deep humility, and will copy His example. Pride, ambition, deceit, hatred, selfishness, must be cleansed from the heart. With many these evil traits are partially subdued, but not thoroughly uprooted from the heart. Under favorable circumstances they spring up anew and ripen into rebellion against God. Here lies a terrible danger. To spare any sin is to cherish a foe that only awaits an unguarded moment to cause our ruin.... Divine grace is our only hope (Testimonies For The Church 5:173-175).
------------------------Honor for Those Who Honor God, May 10
LHU	144	1	Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Romans 6:16.
LHU	144	2	When the mind has been long permitted to dwell only on earthly things, it is a difficult matter to change the habits of thought. That which the eye sees and the ear hears too often attracts the attention and absorbs the interest. But if we would enter the city of God, and look upon Jesus in His glory, we must become accustomed to beholding Him with the eye of faith here. The words and the character of Christ should be often the subject of our thoughts and of our conversation; and each day some time should be especially devoted to prayerful meditation upon these sacred themes.
LHU	144	3	Sanctification is a daily work. Let none deceive themselves with the belief that God will pardon and bless them while they are trampling upon one of His requirements. The willful commission of a known sin silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit, and separates the soul from God. Whatever may be the ecstasies of religious feeling, Jesus cannot abide in the heart that disregards the divine law. God will honor those only who honor Him.
LHU	144	4	"To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey." If we indulge anger, lust, covetousness, hatred, selfishness, or any other sin, we become servants of sin. "No man can serve two masters." If we serve sin, we cannot serve Christ. The Christian will feel the promptings of sin, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit; but the Spirit striveth against the flesh, keeping up a constant warfare. Here is where Christ's help is needed. Human weakness becomes united to divine strength, and faith exclaims, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!"
LHU	144	5	If we would develop a character which God can accept, we must form correct habits in our religious life. Daily prayer is as essential to growth in grace and even to spiritual life itself, as is temporal food to physical well-being. We should accustom ourselves to often lift the thoughts to God in prayer. If the mind wanders, we must bring it back; by persevering effort, habit will finally make it easy. We cannot for one moment separate ourselves from Christ with safety. We may have His presence to attend us at every step, but only by observing the conditions which He has Himself laid down.
LHU	144	6	Religion must be made the great business of life. Everything else should be held subordinate to this. All our powers of soul, body, and spirit must be engaged in the Christian warfare. We must look to Christ for strength and grace, and we shall gain the victory as surely as Jesus did for us (The Review and Herald, November 15, 1887).
------------------------Obeying God's Law, May 11
LHU	145	1	For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? Deuteronomy 4:7, 8.
LHU	145	2	Concerning His commandments God declared, through Moses, to His people: "Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations"....
LHU	145	3	The precious instruction that the Lord gave to His people from Mount Sinai was carried to them all through their wilderness wandering, and was repeated by them wheresoever they encamped. God designed that they should give to the surrounding nations a representation of Him and of His law, by the words they would speak, and in a variety of other ways. On many occasions, as they met the people who knew not God, they exalted their Leader as a great and holy Being whom all should always honor and respect and reverence....
LHU	145	4	The surrounding nations were to become acquainted with the exalted principles of the God-given laws that the leaders were educating the people to observe. Then, instead of demeriting the people thus instructed, they would regard the observance of these laws as a proof that this was a people peculiarly blessed indeed among the nations.
LHU	145	5	Another remarkable exhibition to the nations round about was the perfect order observed in the camp of the Israelites. They could see the cloud hovering over the place where the tabernacle was to be pitched; they observed the priests and other appointed agencies going about their special work, each one doing the part assigned him in the work of preparing the camp for the night. No one did anything that someone else should do. Whoever would have tried to do another man's work would have suffered the death penalty. Each one attended to his special duty. In the erecting of the tabernacle, part fitted to part, and the house of the Lord was set up with beautiful precision. Not a word was spoken, not an order given, excepting by the one in charge. No one was confused; everything was put together in accordance with the similitude shown to Moses in the mount.
LHU	145	6	Everything connected with the pitching of the camp was an object lesson to the children, schooling them in habits of precision and carefulness and order. The children that were old enough were required to learn how to pitch the tents in which they lived, and to observe perfect order in all that they did.... Constantly they were obtaining an education in regard to heavenly things. Constantly the parents were explaining to their children why the Israelites were traveling in the wilderness; why the law was given at Sinai; and what they expected to do and to be when they reached the Land of Promise (Manuscript 152, 1901).
------------------------Exalting God's Law, May 12
LHU	146	1	So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. Numbers 15:40, RSV.
LHU	146	2	All the instruction given to the Israelites of old in regard to teaching the commandments to their children is for us. If we become careless, and neglect to urge the necessity of observing these commandments, as I know that many have done, let us all humble our hearts before God, and make earnest, thorough work of repentance. Let us learn to deal mercifully with our children. In their tender years they are to be kindly, patiently, intelligently, lovingly taught in all religious service, the parents making these lessons simple and attractive, in order that they may make known to their little ones the way of the Lord. In the past, the failure of parents to do this work has been felt in future generations....
LHU	146	3	It requires constant, persevering effort to keep exalted the standard of righteousness; but none who are lax in principles are approved of God. Our religious experience is spoiled by allowing our principles to become perverted. Now, more than in any other period of the world's history, should we heed the admonition, "Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."
LHU	146	4	In ancient times cautions were continually given against idolatry. In this age of the world the same danger exists. We should guard our children against having fellowship with the world, and against imitating the works of those who are in darkness. So far as possible, let us keep them from the society of unbelievers. We know that those who do not serve the Lord Jesus serve another leader, and that this leader will make decided efforts to control the minds of those who know the truth.
LHU	146	5	Satan's deceptive workings are constantly being carried on in every place. Those who truly love God will reveal their love for Him in every and under every circumstance. They will not condescend to engage in the foolish amusements and the entertainments of worldlings. They will not be persuaded to forget the Lord at any time. Christians may and should feel a holy indignation against the lightness and the folly of those who love not God. "Consider thyself," and fall not into temptation by speaking idle, cheap, meaningless words. Speak words that reveal that you are a child of God, and that your heart is filled with His love.
LHU	146	6	We must be as decidedly a peculiar people, holy unto the Lord, as the Israelites were required to be, else we cannot properly represent our wise, compassionate, glorified Redeemer (Manuscript 152, 1901).
------------------------The Law and Gospel in Harmony, May 13
LHU	147	1	We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
LHU	147	2	After Christ died on the cross as a sin offering, the ceremonial law could have no force. Yet it was connected with the moral law, and was glorious. The whole bore the stamp of divinity, and expressed the holiness, justice, and righteousness of God. And if the ministration of the dispensation to be done away was glorious, how much more must the reality be glorious, when Christ was revealed, giving His life-giving sanctifying Spirit to all who believe?
LHU	147	3	The proclamation of the law of Ten Commandments was a wonderful exhibition of the glory and majesty of God....
LHU	147	4	"Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was" (Exodus 20:20, 21).
LHU	147	5	The pardon of sin, justification by faith in Jesus Christ, access to God only through a mediator because of their lost condition, their guilt and sin--of these truths the people had little conception. In a great measure they had lost a knowledge of God and of the only way to approach Him. They had lost nearly all sense of what constitutes sin and of what constitutes righteousness. The pardon of sin through Christ, the promised Messiah, whom their offerings typified, was but dimly understood....
LHU	147	6	The moral law was never a type or a shadow. It existed before man's creation, and will endure as long as God's throne remains. God could not change nor alter one precept of His law in order to save men; for the law is the foundation of His government. It is unchangeable, unalterable, infinite, and eternal. In order for man to be saved, and for the honor of the law to be maintained, it was necessary for the Son of God to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He died for us on Calvary. His death shows the wonderful love of God for man, and the immutability of His law....
LHU	147	7	Christ is the sinner's advocate. Those who accept His gospel behold Him with open face. They see the relation of His mission to the law, and they acknowledge God's wisdom and glory as revealed by the Saviour. The glory of Christ is revealed in the law, which is a transcript of His character, and His transforming efficacy is felt upon the soul until men become changed into His likeness. They are made partakers of the divine nature, and grow more and more like their Saviour, advancing step by step in conformity to the will of God, till they reach perfection. The law and the gospel are in perfect harmony (Selected Messages 1:238-240).
------------------------Christ's New Commandment, May 14
LHU	148	1	A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. John 13:34.
LHU	148	2	Do you in your words, in your spirit, in your actions, resemble Christ? If in word and spirit you represent the character of Christ, then you are Christians; for to be a Christian is to be Christlike. The tongue will testify of the principles that characterize the life; it is the sure test of what power controls the heart. We may judge our own spirit and principles by the words that proceed from our lips. The tongue is always to be under the control of the Holy Spirit.
LHU	148	3	When poor, wounded, bruised souls come to you for words of hope, you are to speak to them the words of Christ. Do you refuse to give them pleasant, courteous, kind words? Those who speak as Christ spoke will never plant bitter words like barbed arrows in the wounded soul. "The Lord hearkened, and heard." Will you bear in mind that the Lord hears the words we speak, and is acquainted with the spirit that prompts our action? Christ is the defense of all that are hidden in Him.
LHU	148	4	Bear in mind that every unkind word, every ruthless thrust, is recorded in the books of heaven as given to Christ in the person of His suffering ones. Is it not Christlike to speak kind words, comforting words, even though you feel inclined to do otherwise? Is it not Christlike to help lift the burdens when they press heavily upon souls whom God has valued so highly as to give His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life? ...
LHU	148	5	"Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" You are just as dependent upon Christ for all that you receive as is the weakest, poorest, and humblest soul. "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" A mere speculative belief amounts to nothing. Do you believe on the Son of God as your personal Saviour? Then if you believe with all your heart, God dwells in the soul, and the soul in God. You represent Jesus. Those who are in positions of trust are on test and trial, to see if they will be wise men in positions of trust, to reveal whether Christ is working in and through them, so that He can represent His character and express Himself in their words and actions toward His heritage, for whom He has given His own precious life....
LHU	148	6	Just in proportion as the human agent is a partaker of the divine nature, he will be in sympathy with Christ. Jesus says, "A new commandment I give unto you [That ye tolerate one another? No], That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you" (The Review and Herald, May 26, 1896).
------------------------All May Wear the Crown, May 15
LHU	149	1	Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 1 Corinthians 9:24.
LHU	149	2	The competitors in the ancient games, after they had submitted to self-denial and rigid discipline, were not even then sure of the victory. "Know ye not," Paul asked, "that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?" However eagerly and earnestly the runners might strive, the prize could be awarded to but one. One hand only could grasp the coveted garland. Some might put forth the utmost effort to obtain the prize, but as they reached forth the hand to secure it, another, an instant before them, might grasp the coveted treasure.
LHU	149	3	Such is not the case in the Christian warfare. Not one who complies with the conditions will be disappointed at the end of the race. Not one who is earnest and persevering will fail of success. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. The weakest saint, as well as the strongest, may wear the crown of immortal glory. All may win who, through the power of divine grace, bring their lives into conformity to the will of Christ. The practice, in the details of life, of the principles laid down in God's Word, is too often looked upon as unimportant--a matter too trivial to demand attention. But in view of the issue at stake, nothing is small that will help or hinder. Every act casts its weight into the scale that determines life's victory or defeat. And the reward given to those who win will be in proportion to the energy and earnestness with which they have striven....
LHU	149	4	Paul knew that his warfare against evil would not end so long as life should last. Ever he realized the need of putting a strict guard upon himself, that earthly desires might not overcome spiritual zeal. With all his power he continued to strive against natural inclinations. Ever he kept before him the ideal to be attained, and this ideal he strove to reach by willing obedience to the law of God. His words, his practices, his passions--all were brought under the control of the Spirit of God.
LHU	149	5	It was this singlehearted purpose to win the race for eternal life that Paul longed to see revealed in the lives of the Corinthian believers. He knew that in order to reach Christ's ideal for them, they had before them a life struggle from which there would be no release. He entreated them to strive lawfully, day by day seeking for piety and moral excellence. He pleaded with them to lay aside every weight and to press forward to the goal of perfection in Christ (The Acts of the Apostles, 313-315).
LHU	149	6	One goal he kept ever before him, and strove earnestly to reach--"the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Philippians 3:9) (The Acts of the Apostles, 314).
------------------------The Royal Law Measures Character, May 16
LHU	150	1	If you really fulfil the royal law, according to scripture, ... you do well. James 2:8, RSV.
LHU	150	2	The standard by which to measure character is the royal law. The law is the sin detector. By the law is the knowledge of sin. But the sinner is constantly being drawn to Jesus by the wonderful manifestation of His love in that He humiliated Himself to die a shameful death upon the cross. What a study is this! Angels have striven, earnestly longed, to look into this wonderful mystery. It is a study that can tax the highest human intelligence, that man, fallen, deceived by Satan, taking Satan's side of the question, can be conformed to the image of the Son of the infinite God--that man shall be like Him, that, because of the righteousness of Christ given to man, God will love man, fallen but redeemed, even as He loved His Son. Read it right out of the living oracles.
LHU	150	3	This is the mystery of godliness. This picture is of the highest value. It is to be meditated upon, placed in every discourse, hung in memory's hall, uttered by human lips, and traced by human beings who have tasted and known that the Lord is good. It is to be the groundwork of every discourse....
LHU	150	4	A Christian is the highest type of a man because he is Christlike.... He feels his weakness, he lays hold with earnest purpose and living faith upon the strength of God, and is an overcomer. Great becomes his peace, his joy, for it comes from the Lord, and there is nothing more acceptable in the sight of God than the continual humiliation of the soul before Him. These evidences are unmistakable proofs that the Lord has touched hearts by His Holy Spirit. More wonderful than miracles of physical healing is the miracle wrought in the child of God in wrestling with natural defects and overcoming them. The universe of God looks upon him with joy far greater than on any splendid outward display. The inward character is molded after the divine Pattern....
LHU	150	5	Holding up Christ as our only source of strength, presenting His matchless love in having the guilt of the sins of men charged to His account and His own righteousness imputed to man, in no case does away with the law or detracts from its dignity. Rather, it places it where the correct light shines upon and glorifies it. This is done only through the light reflected from the cross of Calvary. The law is complete and full in the great plan of salvation, only as it is presented in the light shining from the crucified and risen Saviour. This can be only spiritually discerned. It kindles in the heart of the beholder ardent faith, hope, and joy that Christ is his righteousness. This joy is only for those who love and keep the words of Jesus, which are the words of God (Manuscript 24, 1888).
------------------------The Principle of Love in the Law, May 17
LHU	151	1	We love him, because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19.
LHU	151	2	There is no evidence of genuine repentance unless it works reformation. If he restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, confess his sins, and love God and his fellowmen, the sinner may be sure that he has passed from death unto life.
LHU	151	3	When, as erring, sinful beings, we come to Christ and become partakers of His pardoning grace, love springs up in the heart. Every burden is light, for the yoke that Christ imposes is easy. Duty becomes a delight, and sacrifice a pleasure. The path that before seemed shrouded in darkness, becomes bright with beams from the Sun of Righteousness.
LHU	151	4	The loveliness of the character of Christ will be seen in His followers. It was His delight to do the will of God. Love to God, zeal for His glory, was the controlling power in our Saviour's life. Love beautified and ennobled all His actions. Love is of God. The unconsecrated heart cannot originate or produce it. It is found only in the heart where Jesus reigns. "We love, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19, RV). In the heart renewed by divine grace, love is the principle of action. It modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, subdues enmity, and ennobles the affections. This love, cherished in the soul, sweetens the life and sheds a refining influence on all around.
LHU	151	5	There are two errors against which the children of God--particularly those who have just come to trust in His grace--especially need to guard. The first ... is that of looking to their own works, trusting to anything they can do, to bring themselves into harmony with God. He who is trying to become holy by his own works in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility. All that man can do without Christ is polluted with selfishness and sin. It is the grace of Christ alone, through faith, that can make us holy.
LHU	151	6	The opposite and no less dangerous error is that belief in Christ releases men from keeping the law of God; that since by faith alone we become partakers of the grace of Christ, our works have nothing to do with our redemption.
LHU	151	7	But notice here that obedience is not a mere outward compliance, but the service of love. The law of God is an expression of His very nature; it is an embodiment of the great principle of love, and hence is the foundation of His government in heaven and earth. If our hearts are renewed in the likeness of God, if the divine love is implanted in the soul, will not the law of God be carried out in the life? When the principle of love is implanted in the heart, when man is renewed after the image of Him that created him, the new covenant promise is fulfilled.... Obedience--the service and allegiance of love--is the true sign of discipleship (Steps to Christ, 59, 60).
------------------------The Plan of Redemption, May 18
LHU	152	1	According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. 2 Peter 1:3.
LHU	152	2	The plan of salvation is but dimly comprehended by the Christian world. Man, as now taught by men who claim to have a knowledge of the Scriptures, can never know the extent of his fallen, degraded condition; but the mission of Christ will reveal the truth as it is in Jesus. Man can know the depths to which he has sunk only by beholding the wondrous chain of redemption employed to draw him up. The extent of our ruin can be discerned only in the light of the law of God exhibited in the cross of Calvary. The wonderful plan of redemption must be discerned in the death of Christ.
LHU	152	3	The world by its own wisdom cannot acquire a correct knowledge of the true and living God. When Christ came to this world, clothing His divinity with humanity, the treatment He received from the highest authorities of a nation that professed to know God, made fully manifest the strength of human wisdom and reason. Their reason could not form a correct idea of God through His way and works.
LHU	152	4	Only through faith in Christ is it possible for man to live the law. Man is not able to save himself, but the Son of God fights his battles for him, and places him on vantage ground by giving him His divine attributes. And as man accepts the righteousness of Christ, he is a partaker of the divine nature. He may keep the commandments of God, and live. Says Peter: ... "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
LHU	152	5	The truth as it is in Jesus is obedience to every precept of Jehovah. It is heart work. Bible sanctification is not the spurious sanctification which will not search the Scriptures, but will trust to good feeling and impulses rather than to the seeking for truth as for hidden treasure. Bible sanctification will lead its possessors to know the requirements of God and to obey them. There is a pure and holy heaven in store for those who keep God's commandments. It is worth lifelong, persevering, untiring effort. Satan is on your right hand and on your left; he is before you and behind. He supplies his falsehoods to every soul who is not cherishing the truth as it is in Jesus. He, the destroyer, is upon you to palsy your every effort. But there is a crown of life to be won, a life that measures with the life of God. And those who do not close their hearts and minds to conviction will learn what the love of a holy and righteous God is; for it is an amazing principle, which works in a mysterious and wonderful manner to secure the salvation of the race (The Review and Herald, February 8, 1898).
------------------------The Truth as it is in Jesus, May 19
LHU	153	1	If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. Ephesians 4:21.
LHU	153	2	When prophets stood in defense of the truth, it was the word of God that was given to them. They understood the work of salvation to be accomplished by the Messiah to come. But after Christ came, after He died as man's sacrifice, after the typical sacrifices were fulfilled by the Antitype, the old truth in the typical service was revealed more clearly. In Christ, the representative of the Father, a wonderful truth was revealed to the world. The light from the cross of Calvary, reflected back upon the Jewish age, gives character and significance to the whole Jewish economy; and on this side of the cross, in a special manner, we have the truth as it is in Jesus. Truth communicated through our Redeemer becomes indeed present truth.
LHU	153	3	What a truth is presented as we gaze upon Jesus in connection with the cross of Calvary, as we see this Wonderful, this Counselor, this mysterious Victim, stooping beneath the amazing burden of our race! That the transgressor might have another trial, that men might be brought into favor with God the Father, the eternal Son of God interposed Himself to bear the punishment of transgression. One clothed with humanity, who was yet one with the Deity, was our ransom. The very earth shook and reeled at the spectacle of God's dear Son suffering the wrath of God for man's transgression. The heavens were clothed in sackcloth to hide the sight of the Divine Sufferer.
LHU	153	4	It was the transgression of the law of God that made this suffering necessary. And yet men harbor the thought, and give expression to the suggestions of Satan through those who trample upon the law of God, that all this suffering was to make that law of none effect. Deceived and blinded by the great transgressor, they tell the people that there is no law, or that, if they keep the commandments of God in this dispensation, they have fallen from grace. What a delusion is this that Satan has fastened upon human minds!
LHU	153	5	When the theory that the law of Jehovah is not binding upon the human family is adopted and taught, man is blinded to his terrible ruin. He cannot discern it. Then God has no moral standard by which to measure character, and to govern the heavenly universe, the worlds unfallen, and this fallen world. Could God have abolished the law in order to meet man in his fallen condition, and yet have maintained His honor as Governor of the universe, Christ need not have died. But the death of Christ is the convincing, everlasting argument that the law of God is as unchanging as His throne (The Review and Herald, February 8, 1898).
------------------------What is Written in the Law? May 20
LHU	154	1	Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. Luke 10:27.
LHU	154	2	Among the Jews the question "Who is my neighbor?" caused endless dispute. They had no doubt as to the heathen and the Samaritans. These were strangers and enemies. But where should the distinction be made among the people of their own nation, and among the different classes of society? Whom should the priest, the rabbi, the elder, regard as neighbor? ...
LHU	154	3	This question Christ answered in the parable of the good Samaritan. He showed that our neighbor does not mean merely one of the church or faith to which we belong. It has no reference to race, color, or class distinction. Our neighbor is every person who needs our help. Our neighbor is every soul who is wounded and bruised by the adversary. Our neighbor is everyone who is the property of God.
LHU	154	4	The parable of the good Samaritan was called forth by a question put to Christ by a doctor of the law. As the Saviour was teaching, "a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" The Pharisees had suggested this question to the lawyer, in the hope that they might entrap Christ in His words, and they listened eagerly for His answer. But the Saviour entered into no controversy. He required the answer from the questioner himself. "What is written in the law?" He asked. "How readest thou?" The Jews still accused Jesus of lightly regarding the law given from Sinai, but He turned the question of salvation upon the keeping of God's commandments....
LHU	154	5	The lawyer was not satisfied with the position and works of the Pharisees. He had been studying the Scriptures with a desire to learn their real meaning. He had a vital interest in the matter, and he asked in sincerity, "What shall I do?" In his answer as to the requirements of the law, he passed by all the mass of ceremonial and ritualistic precepts. For these he claimed no value, but presented the two great principles on which hang all the law and the prophets. The Saviour's commendation of this answer placed Him on vantage ground with the rabbis. They could not condemn Him for sanctioning that which had been advanced by an expositor of the law.
LHU	154	6	"This do, and thou shalt live," Christ said. In His teaching He ever presented the law as a divine unity, showing that it is impossible to keep one precept and break another; for the same principle runs through all. Man's destiny will be determined by his obedience to the whole law (Christ's Object Lessons, 376-378).
------------------------In Harmony With God's Law, May 21
LHU	155	1	A certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, ... and took care of him. Luke 10:33, 34.
LHU	155	2	Christ knew that no one could obey the law in his own strength. He desired to lead the lawyer to clearer and more critical research, that he might find the truth. Only by accepting the virtue and grace of Christ can we keep the law. Belief in the propitiation for sin enables fallen man to love God with his whole heart and his neighbor as himself.
LHU	155	3	The lawyer knew that he had kept neither the first four nor the last six commandments. He was convicted under Christ's searching words, but instead of confessing his sin, he tried to excuse it. Rather than acknowledge the truth, he endeavored to show how difficult of fulfillment the commandment is. Thus he hoped both to parry conviction and to vindicate himself in the eyes of the people. The Saviour's words had shown that his question was needless, since he was able to answer it himself. Yet he put another question, saying, "Who is my neighbour?"
LHU	155	4	Again Christ refused to be drawn into controversy. He answered the question by relating an incident, the memory of which was fresh in the minds of His hearers. "A certain man," He said, "went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead"....
LHU	155	5	As he lay thus, a priest came that way; he saw the man lying wounded and bruised, weltering in his own blood; but he left him without rendering any assistance. He "passed by on the other side." Then a Levite appeared. Curious to know what had happened, he stopped and looked at the sufferer. He was convicted of what he ought to do, but it was not an agreeable duty. He wished that he had not come that way so that he would not have seen the wounded man. He persuaded himself that the case was no concern of his, and he too "passed by on the other side."
LHU	155	6	But a Samaritan, traveling the same road, saw the sufferer, and he did the work that others had refused to do. With gentleness and kindness he ministered to the wounded man. "When he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee." The priest and the Levite both professed piety, but the Samaritan showed that he was truly converted. It was no more agreeable for him to do the work than for the priest and the Levite, but in spirit and works he proved himself to be in harmony with God (Christ's Object Lessons, 378-380).
------------------------The Complete Saviour, May 22
LHU	156	1	For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8.
LHU	156	2	The thought that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, not because of any merit on our part, but as a free gift from God, is a precious thought. The enemy of God and man is not willing that this truth should be clearly presented; for he knows that if the people receive it fully, his power will be broken. If he can control minds so that doubt and unbelief and darkness shall compose the experience of those who claim to be the children of God, he can overcome them with temptation.
LHU	156	3	That simple faith which takes God at His word should be encouraged. God's people must have that faith which will lay hold of divine power; "for by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). Those who believe that God for Christ's sake has forgiven their sins, should not, through temptation, fail to press on to fight the good fight of faith. Their faith should grow stronger until their Christian life, as well as their words, shall declare, "The blood of Jesus Christ ... cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).
LHU	156	4	If we would have the spirit and power of the third angel's message, we must present the law and the gospel together, for they go hand in hand. As a power from beneath is stirring up the children of disobedience to make void the law of God, and to trample upon the truth that Christ is our righteousness, a power from above is moving upon the hearts of those who are loyal to exalt the law, and to lift up Jesus as a complete Saviour. Unless divine power is brought into the experience of the people of God, false theories and ideas will take minds captive, Christ and His righteousness will be dropped out of the experience of many, and their faith will be without power or life....
LHU	156	5	The people must be instructed that Christ is unto them salvation and righteousness. It is Satan's studied purpose to keep souls from believing in Christ as their only hope; for the blood of Christ that cleanseth from all sin is efficacious in behalf of those only who believe in its merit, and who present it before the Father as did Abel in his offering....
LHU	156	6	The burden of our message is not only the commandments of God, but the faith of Jesus. A bright light shines upon our pathway today, and it leads to increased faith in Jesus. We must receive every ray of light, and walk in it.... As increased light is given, men must be reformed, elevated, and refined by it (Gospel Workers, 161, 162).
LHU	156	7	Then you will have right to the tree of life, and eat of the leaves and immortal fruit ... and live for ever in perfect happiness (Youth's Instructor, August 1, 1852).
------------------------The Law is Complete in Itself, May 23
LHU	157	1	I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. Isaiah 45:19.
LHU	157	2	With the setting aside of the Bible has come a turning away from God's law. The doctrine that men are released from obedience to the divine precepts has weakened the force of moral obligation and opened the floodgates of iniquity upon the world. Lawlessness, dissipation, and corruption are sweeping in like an overwhelming flood. Everywhere are seen envy, evil surmising, hypocrisy, estrangement, emulation, strife, betrayal of sacred trusts, indulgence of lust. The whole system of religious principles and doctrines, which should form the foundation and framework of social life, seems to be a tottering mass, ready to fall in ruins....
LHU	157	3	There is no such thing as weakening or strengthening the law of Jehovah. As it has been, so it is. It always has been, and always will be, holy, just, and good, complete in itself. It cannot be repealed or changed. To "honor" or "dishonor" it is but the speech of men.
LHU	157	4	Between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah will come the last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error. Upon this battle we are now entering--a battle not between rival churches contending for the supremacy, but between the religion of the Bible and the religions of fable and tradition. The agencies which have united against truth are now actively at work. God's Holy Word, which has been handed down to us at so great a cost of suffering and bloodshed, is little valued. There are few who really accept it as the rule of life.
LHU	157	5	Infidelity prevails to an alarming extent, not in the world only, but in the church. Many have come to deny doctrines which are the very pillars of the Christian faith. The great facts of Creation as presented by the inspired writers, the fall of man, the atonement, the perpetuity of the law--these all are practically rejected by a large share of the professedly Christian world. Thousands who pride themselves in their knowledge regard it as an evidence of weakness to place implicit confidence in the Bible, and a proof of learning to cavil at the Scriptures and to spiritualize and explain away their most important truths.
LHU	157	6	Christians should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise, and this preparation they should make by diligently studying the Word of God and striving to conform their lives to its precepts. The tremendous issues of eternity demand of us something besides an imaginary religion, a religion of words and forms, where truth is kept in the outer court. God calls for a revival and a reformation. The words of the Bible, and the Bible alone, should be heard from the pulpit (Prophets and Kings, 624-626).
------------------------Christ Magnifies the Law, May 24
LHU	158	1	The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable. Isaiah 42:21.
LHU	158	2	Were the law understood apart from Christ, it would have a crushing power upon sinful men, blotting the sinner out of existence. But by understanding the law in connection with Christ, receiving Him by faith as his substitute and surety, man sees himself as a prisoner of hope. The truth as it is in Jesus is an acquaintance with the holy, just, and good law of God, as this law is elevated, and its immutability demonstrated, in Christ. He magnified the law, expanded its every precept, and in His obedience left man an example, that he also may meet its demands....
LHU	158	3	The agonies of the garden of Gethsemane, the insult, the mockery, the abuse, heaped upon God's dear Son, the horrors and ignominy of the Crucifixion, furnish sufficient and thrilling demonstrations that God's justice, when it punishes, does the work thoroughly. The fact that His own Son, the surety for man, was not spared is an argument that will stand to all eternity before saint and sinner, before the universe of God, to testify that He will not excuse the transgressor of His law.
LHU	158	4	God is love. He has shown that love in the gift of His only begotten Son. Yet the love of God does not excuse sin. God does not excuse sin in Satan, in Adam, or in Cain, nor will He excuse sin in any of the children of men. The perverted nature of man may distort the love of God into an attribute of weakness; but light is shining from the cross of Calvary, that man may have correct views and hold theories that are not perverted.
LHU	158	5	God has given His law for the regulation of the conduct of nations, of families, and of individuals. There is not one worker of wickedness, though his sin is the least and the most secret, that escapes the denunciation of that law. The whole work of the father of lies is recorded in the statute books of heaven; and those who lend themselves to the service of Satan, to present to men his lies by precept and practice, will receive according to their deeds. Every offense against God, however minute, is set down in the reckoning. And when the sword of justice is taken in hand, it will do the work that was done to the Divine Sufferer. Justice will strike; for God's hatred of sin is intense and overwhelming.
LHU	158	6	The truth as it is in Jesus will teach most important lessons. It will show that the love of God is broad and deep; that it is infinite; and that in awarding the penalty to the disobedient, those who have made void God's law, it will be uncompromising. This is the love and justice of God combined. It reaches to the very depth of human woe and degradation, to lift up the fallen and oppressed who lay hold of the truth by repentance and faith in Jesus (The Review and Herald, February 8, 1898).
------------------------Obedience to Physical and Moral Laws, May 25
LHU	159	1	I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1.
LHU	159	2	We should preserve our strength to labor in the cause of God when our labor is needed. We should be careful not to take upon ourselves burdens that others can and should bear. We should encourage a cheerful, hopeful, peaceful frame of mind; for our health depends upon our so doing. The work that God requires us to do will not prevent our caring for our health, that we may recover from the effect of overtaxing labor. The more perfect our health, the more perfect will be our labor. When we overtax our strength, and become exhausted, we are liable to take cold, and at such times there is danger of disease assuming a dangerous form. We must not leave the care of ourselves with God, when He has placed that responsibility with us (Testimonies For The Church 3:13).
LHU	159	3	God created man a little lower than the angels and bestowed upon him attributes that will, if properly used, make him a blessing to the world and cause him to reflect the glory to the Giver. But although made in the image of God, man has, through intemperance, violated principle and God's law in his physical nature. Intemperance of any kind benumbs the perceptive organs and so weakens the brain-nerve power that eternal things are not appreciated, but placed upon a level with the common. The higher powers of the mind, designed for elevated purposes, are brought into slavery to the baser passions. If our physical habits are not right, our mental and moral powers cannot be strong; for great sympathy exists between the physical and the moral. The apostle Peter understood this and raised his voice of warning to his brethren: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul."
LHU	159	4	There is but little moral power in the professed Christian world. Wrong habits have been indulged, and physical and moral laws have been disregarded, until the general standard of virtue and piety is exceedingly low. Habits which lower the standard of physical health enfeeble mental and moral strength....
LHU	159	5	Those who have had the light upon the subjects of eating and dressing with simplicity in obedience to physical and moral laws, and who turn from the light which points out their duty, will shun duty in other things. If they blunt their consciences to avoid the cross which they will have to take up to be in harmony with natural law, they will, in order to shun reproach, violate the Ten Commandments.... There are many among professed Sabbathkeepers ... who are more firmly wedded to worldly fashions and lusts than they are to healthy bodies, sound minds, or sanctified hearts (Testimonies for the Church 3:50, 51).
------------------------Results of Obedience to Physical Laws, May 26
LHU	160	1	These are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee ... all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Deuteronomy 6:1, 2.
LHU	160	2	In this scripture we are taught that obedience to God's requirements brings the obedient under the laws that control the physical being. Those who would preserve themselves in health must bring into subjection all appetites and passions. They must not indulge lustful passion and intemperate appetite, for they are to remain under control to God, and their physical, mental, and moral powers are to be so wisely employed that the bodily mechanism will remain in good working order.
LHU	160	3	Health, life, and happiness are the result of obedience to physical laws governing our bodies. If our will and way are in accordance with God's will and way; if we do the pleasure of our Creator, He will keep the human organism in good condition, and restore the moral, mental, and physical powers, in order that He may work through us to His glory. Constantly His restoring power is manifested in our bodies. If we cooperate with Him in this work, health and happiness, peace and usefulness, are the sure results (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments 1:1118).
LHU	160	4	"And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us." The fear here spoken of it not a servile fear, but a godly fear.
LHU	160	5	God gave these laws to Israel to preserve them in a happy, healthful state. If there had existed no Satan to tempt them, these special instructions would not have been needed; but unless the people had something to guide them, they would surely be led astray by the specious devisings of the enemy of all righteousness. Their only safety was to be found in hearkening with all diligence to the word of the Lord.
LHU	160	6	Parents who desire to train their children aright should heed the instruction given in these scriptures, and allow their little ones to do nothing in disregard of God's commandments so plainly given. Let fathers and mothers faithfully teach their children these precepts, and impress upon their tender minds that fact that in obedience there is life, health, happiness....
LHU	160	7	The great object we should always keep in view, when obtaining a knowledge of God's laws, is that we are to become acquainted with His will in order that we may obey Him (Manuscript 151, 1901).
------------------------Christ is the Center of the Law, May 27
LHU	161	1	Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. Romans 3:31.
LHU	161	2	Of all professing Christians, Seventh-day Adventists should be foremost in uplifting Christ before the world. The proclamation of the third angel's message calls for the presentation of the Sabbath truth. This truth, with others included in the message, is to be proclaimed; but the great center of attraction, Christ Jesus, must not be left out. It is at the cross of Christ that mercy and truth meet together, and righteousness and peace kiss each other. The sinner must be led to look to Calvary; with the simple faith of a little child he must trust in the merits of the Saviour, accepting His righteousness, believing in His mercy.
LHU	161	3	Through the love of God the treasures of the grace of Christ have been laid open before the church and the world. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). What marvelous, unfathomable love, which led Christ to die for us while we were yet sinners! And what a loss the soul suffers who, understanding the strong claims of the law, fails to acknowledge that where sin abounds, the grace of Christ does much more abound!
LHU	161	4	When the law is presented as it should be, it reveals the love of God. But it is no wonder that hearts are not melted even by truth when it is presented in a cold, lifeless manner; no wonder that faith staggers at the promises of God, when ministers and workers fail to present Jesus in His relation to the law....
LHU	161	5	Let the teacher of truth make known to the sinner what God really is--a Father waiting with yearning love to receive the returning prodigal, not hurling at him accusations of wrath, but preparing a feast to welcome his return. O that we might all learn the way of the Lord in winning souls!
LHU	161	6	God would draw minds from the conviction of logic to a conviction deeper, higher, purer, and more glorious. Often human logic has nearly quenched the light that God would have shine forth in clear rays to convince men that the Lord of nature is worthy of all praise and glory, because He is the Creator of all things (Gospel Workers, 156-158).
LHU	161	7	Lift up Jesus, you that teach the people, lift Him up in sermon, in song, in prayer. Let all your powers be directed to pointing souls, confused, bewildered, lost to "the Lamb of God." Lift Him up, the risen Saviour, and say to all who hear, Come to Him who "hath loved us, and hath given himself for us" (Ephesians 5:2). Let the science of salvation be the burden of every sermon, the theme of every song. Let it be poured forth in every supplication.... Show forth the grace and completeness of the Saviour (Gospel Workers, 160).
------------------------In the School of Christ, May 28
LHU	162	1	O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. Isaiah 48:18.
LHU	162	2	We are to enter the school of Christ, to learn from Him meekness and lowliness. Redemption is that process by which the soul is trained for heaven. This training means a knowledge of Christ. It means emancipation from ideas, habits, and practices that have been gained in the school of the prince of darkness. The soul must be delivered from all that is opposed to loyalty to God.
LHU	162	3	In the heart of Christ, where reigned perfect harmony with God, there was perfect peace. He was never elated by applause, nor dejected by censure or disappointment. Amid the greatest opposition and the most cruel treatment, He was still of good courage. But many who profess to be His followers have an anxious, troubled heart, because they are afraid to trust themselves with God. They do not make a complete surrender to Him; for they shrink from the consequences that such a surrender may involve. Unless they do make this surrender, they cannot find peace.
LHU	162	4	It is the love of self that brings unrest. When we are born from above, the same mind will be in us that was in Jesus, the mind that led Him to humble Himself that we might be saved. Then we shall not be seeking the highest place. We shall desire to sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him. We shall understand that the value of our work does not consist in making a show and noise in the world, and in being active and zealous in our own strength. The value of our work is in proportion to the impartation of the Holy Spirit. Trust in God brings holier qualities of mind, so that in patience we may possess our souls.
LHU	162	5	The yoke is placed upon the oxen to aid them in drawing the load, to lighten the burden. So with the yoke of Christ. When our will is swallowed up in the will of God, and we use His gifts to bless others, we shall find life's burden light. He who walks in the way of God's commandments is walking in company with Christ, and in His love the heart is at rest. When Moses prayed, "Shew me now thy way, that I may know thee," the Lord answered him, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." And through the prophets the message was given, "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest to your souls" (Exodus 33:13, 14; Jeremiah 6:16). And He says, "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea" (Isaiah 48:18) (The Desire of Ages, 330, 331).
------------------------The Robe of Christ's Own Righteousness, May 29
LHU	163	1	I counsel thee to buy of me ... white raiment, that you mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. Revelation 3:18.
LHU	163	2	The white robe of innocence was worn by our first parents when they were placed by God in holy Eden. They lived in perfect conformity to the will of God. All the strength of their affections was given to their heavenly Father. A beautiful soft light, the light of God, enshrouded the holy pair. This robe of light was a symbol of their spiritual garments of heavenly innocence. Had they remained true to God, it would ever have continued to enshroud them. But when sin entered, they severed their connection with God, and the light that had encircled them departed. Naked and ashamed, they tried to supply the place of the heavenly garments by sewing together fig leaves for a covering.
LHU	163	3	This is what the transgressors of God's law have done ever since the day of Adam and Eve's disobedience. They have sewed together fig leaves to cover the nakedness caused by transgression. They have worn the garments of their own devising, by works of their own they have tried to cover their sins, and make themselves acceptable with God.
LHU	163	4	But this they can never do. Nothing can man devise to supply the place of his lost robe of innocence. No fig-leaf garments, no worldly citizen dress, can be worn by those who sit down with Christ and angels at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
LHU	163	5	Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet to appear in God's presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul....
LHU	163	6	This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of human devising. Christ in His humanity wrought out a perfect character, and this character He offers to impart to us. "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Everything that we of ourselves can do is defiled by sin. But the Son of God "was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin"....
LHU	163	7	By His perfect obedience He has made it possible for every human being to obey God's commandments. When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then as the Lord looks upon us, He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the nakedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah (Christ's Object Lessons, 310-312).
------------------------Transforming Power of Obedience to God's Law, May 30
LHU	164	1	Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal. 1 Kings 19:18.
LHU	164	2	Today, as in the days of Elijah, the line of demarcation between God's commandment-keeping people and the worshipers of false gods is clearly drawn. "How long halt ye between two opinions?" Elijah cried; "if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him" (1 Kings 18:21). And the message for today is: "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.... Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities" (Revelation 18:2-5).
LHU	164	3	The time is not far distant when the test will come to every soul. The observance of the false sabbath will be urged upon us. The contest will be between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. Those who have yielded step by step to worldly demands and conformed to worldly customs will then yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. At that time the gold will be separated from the dross. True godliness will be clearly distinguished from the appearance and tinsel of it. Many a star that we have admired for its brilliance will then go out in darkness. Those who have assumed the ornaments of the sanctuary, but are not clothed with Christ's righteousness, will then appear in the shame of their own nakedness.
LHU	164	4	Among earth's inhabitants, scattered in every land, there are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Like the stars of heaven, which appear only at night, these faithful ones will shine forth when darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people. In heathen Africa, in the Catholic lands of Europe and of South America, in China, in India, in the islands of the sea, and in all the dark corners of the earth, God has in reserve a firmament of chosen ones that will yet shine forth amidst the darkness, revealing clearly to an apostate world the transforming power of obedience to His law. Even now they are appearing in every nation, among every tongue and people; and in the hour of deepest apostasy, when Satan's supreme effort is made to cause "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond," to receive, under penalty of death, the sign of allegiance to a false rest day, these faithful ones, "blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke," will "shine as lights in the world" (Revelation 13:16; Philippians 2:15). The darker the night, the more brilliantly will they shine (Prophets and Kings, 187-189).
------------------------Teachers to Uphold God's Law, May 31
LHU	165	1	The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Psalm 19:7.
LHU	165	2	Wherever Ezra labored, there sprang up a revival in the study of the Holy Scriptures. Teachers were appointed to instruct the people; the law of the Lord was exalted and made honorable. The books of the prophets were searched and the passages foretelling the coming of the Messiah brought hope and comfort to many a sad and weary heart.
LHU	165	3	More than 2,000 years have passed since Ezra "prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it" (Ezra 7:10), yet the lapse of time has not lessened the influence of his pious example. Through the centuries the record of his life of consecration has inspired many with the determination "to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it."
LHU	165	4	Ezra's motives were high and holy; in all that he did he was actuated by a deep love for souls. The compassion and tenderness that he revealed toward those who had sinned, either willfully or through ignorance, should be an object lesson to all who seek to bring about reforms. The servants of God are to be as firm as a rock where right principles are involved; and yet, withal, they are to manifest sympathy and forbearance. Like Ezra, they are to teach transgressors the way of life by inculcating principles that are the foundation of all rightdoing.
LHU	165	5	In this age of the world, when Satan is seeking, through manifold agencies, to blind the eyes of men and women to the binding claims of the law of God, there is need of men who can cause many to "tremble at the commandment of our God" (Ezra 10:3). There is need of true reformers, who will point transgressors to the great Lawgiver and teach them that "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psalm 19:7). There is need of men mighty in the Scriptures, men whose every word and act exalts the statutes of Jehovah, men who seek to strengthen faith. Teachers are needed, oh, so much, who will inspire hearts with reverence and love for the Scriptures.
LHU	165	6	The widespread iniquity prevalent today may in a great degree be attributed to a failure to study and obey the Scriptures, for when the Word of God is set aside, its power to restrain the evil passions of the natural heart is rejected....
LHU	165	7	In the last days of this earth's history the voice that spoke from Sinai is still declaring, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). Man has set his will against the will of God, but he cannot silence the word of command. The human mind cannot evade its obligation to a higher power. Theories and speculations may abound; men may try to set science in opposition to revelation, and thus do away with God's law; but stronger and still stronger comes the command, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10) (Prophets and Kings, 623-625).
------------------------The Great Teacher, June 1
LHU	166	1	For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. John 18:37.
LHU	166	2	Christ was the greatest teacher the world has ever known. He came to this earth to shed abroad the bright beams of truth, that men might gain a fitness for heaven. "For this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth." He came to reveal the character of the Father, that men might be led to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
LHU	166	3	Man's need for a divine teacher was known in heaven. The pity and sympathy of God were aroused in behalf of human beings, fallen and bound to Satan's chariot car; and when the fullness of time was come, He sent forth His Son. The One appointed in the councils of heaven came to this earth as man's instructor. The rich benevolence of God gave Him to our world, and to meet the necessities of human nature He took humanity upon Himself. To the astonishment of the heavenly host, the eternal Word came to this world as a helpless babe. Fully prepared, He left the royal courts and mysteriously allied Himself with fallen human beings. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).
LHU	166	4	When Christ left His high command, He might have taken upon Him any condition in life that He chose. But greatness and rank were nothing to Him, and He chose the most humble walk of life. No luxury, ease, or self-gratification came into His experience. The truth of heavenly origin was to be His theme; He was to sow the world with truth, and He lived in such a way as to be accessible to all.
LHU	166	5	That during His childhood Christ should grow in wisdom and in favor with God and man was not a matter of astonishment; for it was according to the laws of His divine appointment that His talents should develop and His faculties strengthen. He did not seek an education in the schools of the rabbis, for God was His instructor. As He grew older He continued to increase in wisdom. He applied Himself diligently to a study of the Scriptures, for He knew them to be full of invaluable instruction. He was faithful in the discharge of His home duties; and the early morning hours, instead of being spent in bed, often found Him in a retired place, searching the Scriptures and praying to His heavenly Father.
LHU	166	6	All the prophecies concerning His work and mediation were familiar to Him, especially those having reference to His humiliation, atonement, and intercession. The object of His life on earth was ever before Him, and He rejoiced to think that the gracious purpose of the Lord should prosper in His hands....
LHU	166	7	His words comforted, strengthened, and blessed those who were longing for the peace that He alone could give (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 259, 260).
------------------------The Teacher Sent By God, June 2
LHU	167	1	We know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. John 3:2.
LHU	167	2	Christ maintained an all-sided, firm self-possession in His remarkable sympathy for others. He did good with a tranquillity and patient continuance never equaled by any human being. The Pharisees and Sadducees were always on His track; and many of them, as they listened to His words, and noted His calmness, even when assailed by passionate, uncourteous men, believed on Him....
LHU	167	3	All the contempt and bitterness that Christ met day by day could not rob Him of His self-possession. When He was reviled, He reviled not again.... He never overstepped the bounds of decorum. Who was He? The Majesty of heaven, the King of glory. The storm raised by His opponents beat about Him, but He heeded it not. He could afford to be calm; for He was the living embodiment of truth.
LHU	167	4	And those today who bear the message of truth to the world should study the life of Christ, and practice His lessons. Never forget that you are children of the heavenly King, sons and daughters of the Lord of hosts. Maintain a calm repose in God, even when meeting with those who are moved by a power from beneath to uphold falsehood. Be sure that the best weapons they possess are not able to destroy the truth, however they may strive to blacken it by misrepresentation. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" ...
LHU	167	5	He was the teacher sent by God to instruct mankind. As one in whom all restorative power is found, Christ spoke of drawing all men unto Him, and of giving the life everlasting. In Him there is power to heal every physical and every spiritual disease.
LHU	167	6	Christ came to our world with a consciousness of more than human greatness, to accomplish a work that was to be infinite in its results. Where do you find Him when doing this work? In the house of Peter the fisherman. Resting by Jacob's well, telling the Samaritan woman of the living water. He generally taught in the open air, but sometimes in the Temple, for He attended the gatherings of the Jewish people. But oftenest He taught when sitting on a mountainside, or in a fisherman's boat. He entered into the lives of these humble fishermen. His sympathy was enlisted in behalf of the needy, the suffering, the despised; and many were attracted to Him.... And to those who are longing for rest and peace today just as truly as those who listened to His words in Judea, He is saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (The Signs of the Times, June 24, 1897).
------------------------Disciples of the Heavenly Teacher, June 3
LHU	168	1	We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. John 1:41.
LHU	168	2	While two disciples were standing near, John again saw Jesus among the people. Again the face of the prophet was lighted up with glory from the Unseen, as he cried, "Behold the Lamb of God!" The words thrilled the hearts of the disciples. They did not fully understand them. What meant the name that John had given Him--"the Lamb of God"? John himself had not explained it.
LHU	168	3	Leaving John, they went to seek Jesus. One of the two was Andrew, the brother of Simon; the other was John the evangelist. These were Christ's first disciples. Moved by an irresistible impulse, they followed Jesus--anxious to speak with Him, yet awed and silent, lost in the overwhelming significance of the thought, "Is this the Messiah?"
LHU	168	4	Jesus knew that the disciples were following Him. They were the first fruits of His ministry, and there was joy in the heart of the divine Teacher as these souls responded to His grace. Yet turning, He asked only, "What seek ye?" He would leave them free to turn back or to speak of their desire.
LHU	168	5	Of one purpose only were they conscious. One presence filled their thought. They exclaimed, "Rabbi, ... where dwellest thou?" In a brief interview by the wayside they could not receive that for which they longed. They desired to be alone with Jesus, to sit at His feet, and hear His words. "He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day."
LHU	168	6	If John and Andrew had possessed the unbelieving spirit of the priests and rulers they would not have been found as learners at the feet of Jesus. They would have come to Him as critics, to judge His words. Many thus close the door to the most precious opportunities. But not so did these first disciples. They had responded to the Holy Spirit's call in the preaching of John the Baptist. Now they recognized the voice of the heavenly Teacher. To them the words of Jesus were full of freshness and truth and beauty. A divine illumination was shed upon the teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures. The many-sided themes of truth stood out in new light.
LHU	168	7	It is contrition and faith and love that enable the soul to receive wisdom from heaven. Faith working by love is the key of knowledge, and everyone that loveth "knoweth God" (1 John 4:7)....
LHU	168	8	"The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me." Philip obeyed the command, and straightway he also became a worker for Christ (The Desire of Ages, 138, 139).
------------------------Christ Invites Our Confidence, June 4
LHU	169	1	[Jesus] said ..., follow me. Luke 9:58, 59.
LHU	169	2	The fall of our first parents broke the golden chain of implicit obedience of the human will to the divine. Obedience has no longer been deemed an absolute necessity. The human agents follow their own imaginations which the Lord said of the inhabitants of the old world was evil and that continually. The Lord Jesus declares, I have kept my Father's commandments. How? As a man! "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." To the accusations of the Jews He stood forth in His pure, virtuous, holy character and challenged them, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" The world's Redeemer came not only to be a sacrifice for sin, but to be an example to man in all things. He was a teacher, such an educator as the world never saw or heard before. He spoke as one having authority, and yet He invites the confidence of all....
LHU	169	3	The only begotten Son of the infinite God has, by His Word, His practical example, left us a plain pattern which we are to copy. By His words He has educated us to obey God, and by His own practice He has showed us how we can obey God. This is the very work He wants every man to do, to obey God intelligently and by precept and example teach others what they must do in order to be obedient children of God.
LHU	169	4	Jesus has helped the whole world to an intelligent knowledge of His divine mission and work. He came to represent the character of the Father to our world, and as we study the life, the words, and works of Jesus Christ, we are helped in every way in the education of obedience to God; and as we copy the example He has given us, we are living epistles known and read of all men. We are the living human agencies to represent in character Jesus Christ to the world. Not only did Christ give explicit rules showing how we may become obedient children, but He showed us in His own life and character just how to do those things which are right and acceptable with God, so there is no excuse why we should not do those things which are pleasing in His sight.
LHU	169	5	We are ever to be thankful that Jesus has proved to us by actual facts that man can keep the commandments of God, giving contradiction to Satan's falsehood that man cannot keep them. The Great Teacher came to our world to stand at the head of humanity, to thus elevate and sanctify humanity by His holy obedience to all of God's requirements showing it is possible to obey all the commandments of God. He has demonstrated that a lifelong obedience is possible. Thus He gives men to the world, as the Father gave the Son, to exemplify in their life the life of Jesus Christ....
LHU	169	6	Jesus says, "Follow me" (Manuscript 1, 1892).
------------------------Christ Teaches Heavenly Things, June 5
LHU	170	1	Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. Psalm 86:11.
LHU	170	2	That which in the counsels of heaven the Father and the Son deemed essential for man's salvation is clearly presented in the Holy Scriptures. The infinite truths of salvation are stated so plainly that finite beings who desire to know the truth cannot fail to understand. Divine revelations have been made for their instruction in righteousness, that they may glorify God and help their fellowmen.
LHU	170	3	These truths are found in the Word of God--the standard by which we are to judge between right and wrong. Obedience to this Word is the best shield for the youth against the temptations to which they are exposed while acquiring an education. From this Word they learn how to honor God, and how to be faithful to humanity, cheerfully performing the duties and meeting the trials that each day brings, and courageously bearing its burdens.
LHU	170	4	Christ, the Great Teacher, sought to win the minds of men from the contemplation of earthly things, that He might teach them of heavenly things. Had the teachers of His day been willing to be instructed by Him, had they united with Him in sowing the world with the seeds of truth, the world would be far different from what it now is. Had the scribes and Pharisees joined their forces with the Saviour, the knowledge of Christ would have restored the moral image of God in their souls.
LHU	170	5	But the leaders of Israel turned from the fountain of true knowledge. They studied the Scriptures only to sustain their traditions and enforce their man-made observances. By their interpretation they made them express sentiments that God had never given. Their mystical construction made indistinct that which He had made plain. They disputed over technicalities, and practically denied the most essential truths. God's Word was robbed of its power, and evil spirits worked their will.
LHU	170	6	Christ's words contain nothing that is nonessential. The Sermon on the Mount is a wonderful production, yet so simple that a child can study it without misunderstanding. The mount of beatitudes is a symbol of the spiritual elevation on which Christ ever stood. Every word He uttered came from God, and He spoke with the authority of heaven. "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). His teaching is full of ennobling, saving truth, to which men's highest ambitions and most profound investigations can bear no comparison. He was alive to the terrible ruin hanging over the race, and He came to save souls by His own righteousness, bringing to the world definite assurance of hope and complete relief (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 438, 439).
------------------------Daily Speak the Words of Christ, June 6
LHU	171	1	If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. John 8:31.
LHU	171	2	It is the will of God that each professing Christian shall perfect a character after the divine similitude. By studying the character of Christ revealed in the Bible, by practicing His virtues, the believer will be changed into the same likeness of goodness and mercy. Christ's work of self-denial and sacrifice brought into the daily life will develop the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. There are many who wish to evade the cross-bearing part, but the Lord speaks to all when He says, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
LHU	171	3	A great work is to be accomplished by the setting forth of the saving truths of the Bible. This is the means ordained of God to stem the tide of moral corruption in the earth. Christ gave His life to make it possible for man to be restored to the image of God. It is the power of His grace that draws men together in obedience to the truth. Those who would experience more of the sanctification of the truth in their own souls should present this truth to those who are ignorant of it. Never will they find a more elevating, ennobling work....
LHU	171	4	No man is qualified for this work unless he is daily learning to speak the words of the Teacher sent from God. Now is the time to sow the gospel seed. The seed we sow must be that which will produce the choicest fruit. We have no time to lose. The work of our schools is to become more and more in character like the work of Christ. Only the power of the grace of God working on human hearts and minds will make and keep the atmosphere of our schools and churches clean....
LHU	171	5	In the messages that have been sent us from time to time, we have truths that will accomplish a wonderful work of reform in our characters if we will give them place. They will prepare us for entrance into the city of God. It is our privilege to make continual advancement to a higher grade of Christian living....
LHU	171	6	We need to be converted from our faulty lives to the faith of the gospel. Christ's followers have no need to try to shine. If they will behold constantly the life of Christ they will be changed in mind and heart into the same image. Then they will shine without any superficial attempt. The Lord asks for no display of goodness. In the gift of His Son He has made provision that our inward lives may be imbued with the principles of heaven. It is the appropriation of this provision that will lead to a manifestation of Christ to the world. When the people of God experience the new birth, their honesty, their uprightness, their fidelity, their steadfast principles, will unfailingly reveal it (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 249-251).
------------------------Jesus' Teaching--Simple, but With Authority, June 7
LHU	172	1	He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Matthew 7:29.
LHU	172	2	At Capernaum Jesus dwelt in the intervals of His journeys to and fro, and it came to be known as "his own city"....
LHU	172	3	It was a great thoroughfare of travel. People from many lands passed through the city, and tarried for rest in their journeyings to and fro. Here Jesus could meet all nations and all ranks, the rich and great as well as the poor and lowly, and His lessons would be carried to other countries and into many households. Investigation of the prophecies would thus be excited, attention would be directed to the Saviour, and His mission would be brought before the world.
LHU	172	4	Notwithstanding the action of the Sanhedrin against Jesus, the people eagerly awaited the development of His mission. All heaven was astir with interest. Angels were preparing the way for His ministry, moving upon men's hearts, and drawing them to the Saviour.
LHU	172	5	In Capernaum the nobleman's son whom Christ had healed was a witness to His power. And the court official and his household joyfully testified of their faith. When it was known that the Teacher Himself was among them, the whole city was aroused. Multitudes flocked to His presence. On the Sabbath the people crowded the synagogue until great numbers had to turn away, unable to find entrance.
LHU	172	6	All who heard the Saviour "were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power" (Luke 4:32)....
LHU	172	7	Jesus had nothing to do with the various subjects of dissension among the Jews. It was His work to present the truth. His words shed a flood of light upon the teachings of the patriarchs and prophets, and the Scriptures came to men as a new revelation. Never before had His hearers perceived such a depth of meaning in the Word of God.
LHU	172	8	Jesus met the people on their own ground, as one who was acquainted with their perplexities. He made truth beautiful by presenting it in the most direct and simple way. His language was pure, refined, and clear as a running stream. His voice was as music to those who had listened to the monotonous tones of the rabbis. But while His teaching was simple, He spoke as one having authority. This characteristic set His teaching in contrast with that of all others. The rabbis spoke with doubt and hesitancy, as if the Scriptures might be interpreted to mean one thing or exactly the opposite. The hearers were daily involved in greater uncertainty. But Jesus taught the Scriptures as of unquestionable authority. Whatever His subject, it was presented with power, as if His words could not be controverted.... In every theme God was revealed (The Desire of Ages, 252-254).
------------------------Important Spiritual Lessons Taught, June 8
LHU	173	1	Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. Colossians 3:23.
LHU	173	2	The life of Christ from His earliest years was a life of earnest activity. He lived not to please Himself. He was the Son of the infinite God, yet He worked at the carpenter's trade with His father Joseph. His trade was significant. He had come into the world as the character builder, and as such all His work was perfect. Into all His secular labor He brought the same perfection as into the characters He was transforming by His divine power. He is our pattern.
LHU	173	3	Parents should teach their children the value and right use of time. Teach them that to do something which will honor God and bless humanity is worth striving for. Even in their early years they can be missionaries for God....
LHU	173	4	Whatever the line of work in which we engage, the Word of God teaches us to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11). "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might" (Ecclesiastes 9:10), "knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord" (Colossians 3:24) (Christ's Object Lessons, 345, 346).
LHU	173	5	The lessons given to the children regarding the common duties of the home may be presented in such a way that through them the Lord can make lasting impressions on their hearts. Make these common things of life texts on which to hang the lessons of the Word of God. Show your children that all their work in mechanical lines they must learn to work perfectly. By bringing exactness and skill into their everyday duties they will learn spiritual lessons that will remain with them through all their days. God requires that good judgment and skill shall be exercised in our planning and labors. In giving instruction for the building of the earthly sanctuary, the great Teacher laid down principles that were to be for the spiritual help of Israel through all their future experience. The wisdom and perfection brought into that work was typical of the work to be done in their lives in preparing their hearts for the indwelling of the Spirit of God.
LHU	173	6	Parents, do you ask what your work is? It is to take up your home responsibilities, doing the best you can, and seeking daily, hourly, to set before your children an example worthy of imitation.... Let your lessons be such as will bring joy and happiness into their lives, and will lead them to desire the service of Christ. Teach them to use their God-given powers in His service. Thus they will be following the example of the child Jesus (The Signs of the Times, November 14, 1911).
------------------------Jesus Taught Industry By His Own Example, June 9
LHU	174	1	Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Ecclesiastes 9:10.
LHU	174	2	In the simple garb of a common laborer [Jesus] walked the streets of the little town, going to and returning from His humble work. He did not employ His divine power to lessen His burdens or to lighten His toil.
LHU	174	3	As Jesus worked in childhood and youth, mind and body were developed. He did not use His physical powers recklessly, but in such a way as to keep them in health, that He might do the best work in every line. He was not willing to be defective, even in the handling of tools. He was perfect as a workman, as He was perfect in character. By His own example He taught that it is our duty to be industrious, that our work should be performed with exactness and thoroughness, and that such labor is honorable. The exercise that teaches the hands to be useful and trains the young to bear their share of life's burdens gives physical strength, and develops every faculty. All should find something to do that will be beneficial to themselves and helpful to others. God appointed work as a blessing, and only the diligent worker finds the true glory and joy of life. The approval of God rests with loving assurance upon children and youth who cheerfully take their part in the duties of the household, sharing the burdens of father and mother. Such children will go out from the home to be useful members of society.
LHU	174	4	Throughout His life on earth, Jesus was an earnest and constant worker. He expected much; therefore He attempted much.... Jesus did not shirk care and responsibility.... The positiveness and energy, the solidity and strength of character, manifested in Christ are to be developed in us, through the same discipline that He endured. And the grace that He received is for us....
LHU	174	5	Jesus carried into His labor cheerfulness and tact. It requires much patience and spirituality to bring Bible religion into the home life and into the workshop, to bear the strain of worldly business, and yet keep the eye single to the glory of God. This is where Christ was a helper. He was never so full of worldly care as to have no time or thought for heavenly things. Often He expressed the gladness of His heart by singing psalms and heavenly songs. Often the dwellers in Nazareth heard His voice raised in praise and thanksgiving to God. He held communion with heaven in song; and as His companions complained of weariness from labor, they were cheered by the sweet melody from His lips. His praise seemed to banish the evil angels, and, like incense, fill the place with fragrance. The minds of His hearers were carried away from their earthly exile, to the heavenly home (The Desire of Ages, 72, 73).
------------------------Christ Delegates Power to Us, June 10
LHU	175	1	And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. Luke 22:31, 32.
LHU	175	2	As the Prince of life, He had power with God and prevailed for His people. This Saviour, who prayed for those that felt no need of prayer, and wept for those that felt no need of tears, is now before the throne, to receive and present to His Father the petitions of those for whom He prayed on earth. The example of Christ is for us to follow. Prayer is a necessity in our labor for the salvation of souls. God alone can give the increase of the seed we sow.
LHU	175	3	We fail many times because we do not realize that Christ is with us by His Spirit as truly as when, in the days of His humiliation, He moved visibly upon the earth. The lapse of time has wrought no change in His parting promise to His apostles as He was taken up from them into heaven: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). He has ordained that there should be a succession of men who derive authority from the first teachers of the faith for the continual preaching of Christ and Him crucified. The Great Teacher has delegated power to His servants, who "have this treasure in earthen vessels." Christ will superintend the work of His ambassadors if they wait for His instruction and guidance....
LHU	175	4	With an earnestness and faith that will not be denied, they will plead with God that they may be strengthened and fortified for duty and for trial, and that their lips may be sanctified by a touch of the living coal from off the altar, to speak the words of God to the people. "The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned" (Isaiah 50:4).
LHU	175	5	Christ said to Peter: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke 22:31, 32). Who can estimate the result of the prayers of the world's Redeemer? When Christ shall see the travail of His soul and be satisfied, then will be seen and realized the value of His earnest prayers while His divinity was veiled with humanity.
LHU	175	6	Jesus pleaded, not for one only, but for all His disciples: "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am" (John 17:24). His eye pierced the dark veil of the future and read the life history of every son and daughter of Adam. He felt the burdens and sorrows of every tempest-tossed soul, and that earnest prayer included with His living disciples all His followers to the close of time.... That prayer ... embraces even us.... When all human support fails, then Jesus comes to our aid, and His presence scatters the darkness and lifts the cloud of gloom (Testimonies for the Church 4:528-530).
------------------------Learning from the Divine Teacher, June 11
LHU	176	1	And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Malachi 3:3.
LHU	176	2	Here is the process, the refining, purifying process, to be carried on by the Lord of hosts. The work is most trying to the soul, but it is only through this process that the rubbish and defiling impurities can be removed. Our trials are all necessary to bring us close to our heavenly Father, in obedience to His will, that we may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness. God has given each of us capabilities, talents to improve. We need a new and living experience in the divine life, in order to do the will of God. No amount of past experience will suffice for the present, or will strengthen us to overcome the difficulties in our path. We must have new grace and fresh strength daily in order to be victorious.
LHU	176	3	We are seldom, in all respects, placed in the same condition twice.... Each has his own experience, peculiar in its character and circumstances, to accomplish a certain work. God has a work, a purpose, in the life of each and all of us. Every act, however small, has its place in our life experience. We must have the continual light and experience that come from God. We all need them, and God is more than willing we should have them, if we will take them. He has not closed the windows of heaven to our prayers, but there are those who have felt satisfied to pass on without the divine help they so much need....
LHU	176	4	We need to learn of the divine Teacher as much now as at any period of our lives, and even more. And the more experience we gain, the nearer we draw toward the pure light of heaven, the more shall we discern in ourselves that needs reforming. We may all do a good work in blessing others, if we will seek counsel of God, and follow on in obedience and faith. The path of the just is a progressive one, from strength to strength, from grace to grace, and from glory to glory. The divine illumination will increase more and more, corresponding with our onward movements, qualifying us to meet the responsibilities and emergencies before us.
LHU	176	5	Real godliness is diffusive and communicative. The psalmist says, "I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation" (Psalm 40:10). Wherever the love of God is, there is always a desire to express it. It is hard for us to submit to the crucifixion of self....
LHU	176	6	We may be thoroughly converted and transformed, and be indeed children of God, enjoying not only the knowledge of His will, but leading others, by our example, in the same path of humble obedience and consecration (The Review and Herald, June 22, 1886).
------------------------Christ's Teaching Embraced the World, June 12
LHU	177	1	When Jesus finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. Matthew 7:28, NIV.
LHU	177	2	[Christ] did not deal in abstract theories, but in that which is essential to the development of character; that which will enlarge man's capacity for knowing God, and increase his power to do good. He spoke of those truths that relate to the conduct of life and that unite man with eternity.
LHU	177	3	Instead of directing the people to study men's theories about God, His Word, or His works, He taught them to behold Him, as manifested in His works, in His Word, and by His providences. He brought their minds in contact with the mind of the Infinite.
LHU	177	4	The people "were astonished at his teaching" (Matthew 7:28, ASV); "for his word was with power" (Luke 4:32). Never before spoke one who had such power to awaken thought, to kindle aspiration, to arouse every capability of body, mind, and soul.
LHU	177	5	Christ's teaching, like His sympathies, embraced the world. Never can there be a circumstance of life, a crisis in human experience, which has not been anticipated in His teaching, and for which its principles have not a lesson. The Prince of teachers, His words will be found a guide to His co-workers till the end of time.... Before His mind's eye was outspread every scene of human effort and achievement, of temptation and conflict, of perplexity and peril. All hearts, all homes, all pleasures and joys and aspirations, were known to Him.
LHU	177	6	He spoke not only for, but to, all mankind. To the little child, in the gladness of life's morning; to the eager, restless heart of youth; to men in the strength of their years, bearing the burden of responsibility and care; to the aged in their weakness and weariness--to all, His message was spoken--to every child of humanity, in every land and in every age.
LHU	177	7	In His teaching were embraced the things of time and the things of eternity--things seen, in their relation to things unseen, the passing incidents of common life and the solemn issues of the life to come.
LHU	177	8	The things of this life He placed in their true relation, as subordinate to those of eternal interest; but He did not ignore their importance. He taught that heaven and earth are linked together, and that a knowledge of divine truth prepares man better to perform the duties of daily life.
LHU	177	9	To Him nothing was without purpose. The sports of the child, the toils of the man, life's pleasures and cares and pains, all were means to the one end--the revelation of God for the uplifting of humanity (Education, 81, 82).
------------------------To Know God is to Obey Him, June 13
LHU	178	1	If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it. If ye love me keep my commandments. John 14:14, 15.
LHU	178	2	"In my name," Christ bade His disciples pray. In Christ's name His followers are to stand before God. Through the value of the sacrifice made for them, they are of value in the Lord's sight. Because of the imputed righteousness of Christ they are accounted precious. For Christ's sake the Lord pardons those that fear Him. He does not see in them the vileness of the sinner. He recognizes in them the likeness of His Son, in whom they believe.
LHU	178	3	The Lord is disappointed when His people place a low estimate upon themselves. He desires His chosen heritage to value themselves according to the price He has placed upon them. God wanted them, else He would not have sent His Son on such an expensive errand to redeem them. He has a use for them, and He is well pleased when they make the very highest demands upon Him, that they may glorify His name. They may expect larger things if they have faith in His promises.
LHU	178	4	But to pray in Christ's name means much. It means that we are to accept His character, manifest His spirit, and work His works. The Saviour's promise is given on condition. "If ye love me," He says, "keep my commandments." He saves men, not in sin, but from sin; and those who love Him will show their love by obedience.
LHU	178	5	All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.
LHU	178	6	As Christ lived the law in humanity, so we may do if we will take hold of the Strong for strength. But we are not to place the responsibility of our duty upon others, and wait for them to tell us what to do. We cannot depend for counsel upon humanity. The Lord will teach us our duty just as willingly as He will teach somebody else. If we come to Him in faith, He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Our hearts will often burn within us as One draws nigh to commune with us as He did with Enoch. Those who decide to do nothing in any line that will displease God will know, after presenting their case before Him, just what course to pursue. And they will receive not only wisdom, but strength. Power for obedience, for service, will be imparted to them, as Christ has promised (The Desire of Ages, 667, 668).
------------------------The Holy Spirit Given to Teach Us, June 14
LHU	179	1	When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. John 16:13.
LHU	179	2	Before offering Himself as the sacrificial victim, Christ sought for the most essential and complete gift to bestow upon His followers, a gift that would bring within their reach the boundless resources of grace. "I will pray the Father," He said, "and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you" (John 14:16-18, margin).
LHU	179	3	Before this the Spirit had been in the world; from the very beginning of the work of redemption He had been moving upon men's hearts. But while Christ was on earth, the disciples had desired no other helper. Not until they were deprived of His presence would they feel their need of the Spirit, and then He would come.
LHU	179	4	The Holy Spirit is Christ's representative, but divested of the personality of humanity, and independent thereof. Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally. Therefore it was for their interest that He should go to the Father, and send the Spirit to be His successor on earth. No one could then have any advantage because of his location or his personal contact with Christ. By the Spirit the Saviour would be accessible to all. In this sense He would be nearer to them if He had not ascended on high....
LHU	179	5	At all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all afflictions, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone, the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith. Circumstances may separate us from every earthly friend; but no circumstance, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always at our right hand to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer....
LHU	179	6	The Comforter is called "the Spirit of truth." His work is to define and maintain the truth. He first dwells in the heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus He becomes the Comforter. There is comfort and peace in the truth, but no real peace or comfort can be found in falsehood. It is through false theories and traditions that Satan gains his power over the mind. By directing men to false standards, he misshapes the character. Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart. Thus He exposes error, and expels it from the soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the Word of God, that Christ subdues His chosen people to Himself (The Desire of Ages, 668-671).
------------------------Christ's Method of Teaching, June 15
LHU	180	1	How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; ... that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. Isaiah 52:7.
LHU	180	2	In all the sermons and in all the Bible studies, let the people see that on every point a plain "Thus saith the Lord" is given for the faith and doctrines which we advocate.
LHU	180	3	This was the method of Christ's teaching. As He spoke to the people, they would question as to His meaning. To those who were humbly seeking for light, He was always ready to explain His words. But Christ did not encourage criticism or caviling, nor should we. When men try to provoke a discussion of controverted points of doctrine, tell them that the meeting was not appointed for that purpose. When you do answer a question, be sure to have the hearers see and acknowledge that it is answered. Do not let a question drop, telling them to ask it again. Feel your way step by step, and know how much you have gained (Testimonies for the Church 6:69).
LHU	180	4	We must talk the truth in private and in public, presenting every argument, urging every motive of infinite weight, to draw men to the Saviour uplifted on the cruel cross. God desires every man to attain unto eternal life. Mark how all through the Word of God there is manifest the spirit of urgency, of imploring men and women to come to Christ, to deny appetites and passions that corrupt the soul. With all our powers we must urge them to look unto Jesus and to accept His life of self-denial and sacrifice. We must show that we expect them to give joy to the heart of Christ by using every one of His gifts in honoring His name....
LHU	180	5	Let much time be spent in prayer and close searching of the Word. Let all obtain the real facts of faith in their own souls through belief that the Holy Spirit will be imparted to them because they have a real hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Teach them how to surrender themselves to God, how to believe, how to claim the promises. Let the deep love of God be expressed in words of encouragement, in words of intercession.
LHU	180	6	Let there be far more wrestling with God for the salvation of souls. Work disinterestedly, determinedly, with a spirit never to let go. Compel souls to come in to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let there be more praying, believing, and receiving, and more working together with God....
LHU	180	7	Men must be convicted of the evil of sin. The eyes of the transgressor must be enlightened. Let all who have been drawn to Christ tell the story of His love. Let everyone who has felt the converting power of Christ upon his own soul do what he can in the name of the Lord (Testimonies for the Church 6:65, 66).
------------------------The Humble Searcher May Learn, June 16
LHU	181	1	Shew me thy way, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Psalm 25:4.
LHU	181	2	Revelation is not the creation or invention of something new, but the manifestation of that which, until revealed, was unknown to human beings. The great and eternal truths contained in the gospel are revealed through diligent searching and humbling of ourselves before God. We have a divine Teacher who leads the mind of the humble searcher for truth; and by the Holy Spirit's guidance, the truths of the Word are revealed to him. And there can be no more certain and efficient knowledge of the truth than to be thus guided into all truth. Through the impartation of the Holy Spirit, we are to understand God's Word. We are admonished to seek the truth as if searching for hidden treasure.
LHU	181	3	The Lord opens the understanding of the true seeker. The Holy Spirit enables the human mind to grasp the facts of revelation, and divine light communicates with the soul. This is the opening of the eyes to behold the genuine treasure, and the mind lays hold upon the glories of a better world. The soul pants after the excellence of Christ Jesus (Manuscript 59, 1906).
LHU	181	4	Jesus was the greatest teacher the world ever knew. He presented truth in clear, forcible statements, and the illustrations He used were of the purest and highest order. He never mingled cheap symbols and figures with His divine instruction, or sought to pander to curiosity or to gratify the class that will listen simply to be amused. He did not bring sacred truth down to the level of the common.... His words were of the purest and most elevated.... He did not humble the truth to meet man in his fallen condition, and lower the standard of righteousness to suit his degradation; but He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, in order that He might save the race that had been degraded by transgression. It was not His purpose to abolish by His death the law of God, but rather to show the immutability of its sacred claims. It was His purpose to "magnify the law, and make it honourable," so that every one who should look upon the cross of Calvary with its uplifted Victim should see the unanswerable argument of the perfect truth of the law....
LHU	181	5	He rescued truth, eternal truth, from the base companionship of error, and commanded it to shine forth in all its brightness and heavenly luster. He set the truth on high, in order that like a light it might illuminate the moral darkness of the world.... Jesus restored truth that had been cast out, to its royal order, and invested it with its true importance and dignity. Christ Himself was the truth and the life (The Review and Herald, August 6, 1895).
------------------------Teaching Children, June 17
LHU	182	1	Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Mark 10:14.
LHU	182	2	Jesus knows the burdens of every mother's heart. He who had a mother that struggled with poverty and privation sympathizes with every mother in her labors. He who made a long journey in order to relieve the anxious heart of a Canaanite woman will do as much for the mothers of today. He who gave back to the widow of Nain her only son, and in His agony upon the cross remembered His own mother, is touched today by the mother's sorrow. In every grief and every need, He will comfort and help....
LHU	182	3	In the children who were brought in contact with Him, Jesus saw the men and women who should be heirs of His grace and subjects of His kingdom, and some of whom would become martyrs for His sake. He knew that these children would listen to Him and accept Him as their Redeemer far more readily than would grown-up people, many of whom were the worldly-wise and hard-hearted. In teaching, He came down to their level. He, the Majesty of heaven, answered their questions and simplified His important lessons to meet their childish understanding. He planted in their minds the seeds of truth, which in after years would spring up and bear fruit unto eternal life.
LHU	182	4	When Jesus told the disciples not to forbid the children to come to Him, He was speaking to His followers in all ages--to officers of the church, ministers, helpers, and all Christians. Jesus is drawing the children, and He bids us, "Suffer them to come"; as if He would say, They will come, if you do not hinder them....
LHU	182	5	As the Holy Spirit moves upon the hearts of the children, cooperate with His work. Teach them that the Saviour is calling them, that nothing can afford Him greater joy than for them to give themselves to Him in the bloom and freshness of their years.
LHU	182	6	The Saviour regards with infinite tenderness the souls whom He has purchased with His blood. They are the claim of His love. He looks upon them with unutterable longing. His heart is drawn out, not only to the best-trained and most attractive children, but to those who by inheritance and through neglect have objectionable traits of character. Many parents do not understand how much they are responsible for these traits in their children.... Jesus looks upon these children with pity. He traces from cause to effect.
LHU	182	7	The Christian worker may be Christ's agent in drawing these faulty and erring ones to the Saviour. By wisdom and tact he may bind them to his heart, he may give courage and hope, and through the grace of Christ may see them transformed in character, so that of them it may be said, "Of such is the kingdom of God" (The Ministry of Healing, 42-44).
------------------------By the Ties of Human Sympathy, June 18
LHU	183	1	There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. John 4:7.
LHU	183	2	He [Christ] passed by no human being as worthless, but sought to apply the healing remedy to every soul. In whatever company He found Himself He presented a lesson appropriate to the time and the circumstances. Every neglect or insult shown by men to their fellowmen only made Him more conscious of their need of His divine-human sympathy. He sought to inspire with hope the roughest and most unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character as would make them manifest as the children of God....
LHU	183	3	Though He was a Jew, Jesus mingled freely with the Samaritans, setting at nought the Pharisaic customs of His nation. In face of their prejudices He accepted the hospitality of this despised people. He slept with them under their roofs, ate with them at their tables--partaking of the food prepared and served by their hands--taught in their streets, and treated them with the utmost kindness and courtesy. And while He drew their hearts to Him by the tie of human sympathy, His divine grace brought to them the salvation which the Jews rejected.
LHU	183	4	Christ neglected no opportunity of proclaiming the gospel of salvation. Listen to His wonderful words to that one woman of Samaria. He was sitting by Jacob's well, as the woman came to draw water. To her surprise He asked a favor of her. "Give me to drink," He said. He wanted a cool draft, and He wished also to open the way whereby He might give to her the water of life. "How is it," said the woman, "that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." Jesus answered, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water" (John 4:7-10)....
LHU	183	5	How much interest Christ manifested in this one woman! How earnest and eloquent were His words! When the woman heard them, she left her waterpot, and went into the city, saying to her friends, "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" We read that "many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him" (verses 29, 39). And who can estimate the influence which these words have exerted for the saving of souls in the years that have passed since then?
LHU	183	6	Wherever hearts are open to receive the truth, Christ is ready to instruct them. He reveals to them the Father, and the service acceptable to Him who reads the heart. For such He uses no parables. To them, as to the woman at the well, He says, "I that speak unto thee am he" (The Ministry of Healing, 25-28).
------------------------A Satisfying Fountain, June 19
LHU	184	1	If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. John 4:10.
LHU	184	2	What said Christ to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well? ... "The water that I shall give ... shall be ... a well of water springing up into everlasting life." The water that Christ referred to was the revelation of His grace in His Word; His Spirit, His teaching, is as a satisfying fountain to every soul. Every other source to which they shall resort will prove unsatisfying. But the word of truth is as cool streams, represented as the waters of Lebanon, which are always satisfying. In Christ is fullness of joy forevermore. The desires and pleasures and amusements of the world are never satisfying nor healing to the soul. But Jesus says, "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life."
LHU	184	3	Christ's gracious presence in His Word is ever speaking to the soul, representing Him as the well of living water to refresh the thirsting soul. It is our privilege to have a living, abiding Saviour. He is the source of spiritual power implanted within us, and His influence will flow forth in words and actions, refreshing all within the sphere of our influence, begetting in them desires and aspirations for strength and purity, for holiness and peace, and for that joy which brings no sorrow with it. This is the result of an indwelling Saviour.
LHU	184	4	Jesus said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." He walked once a man on earth, His divinity clothed with humanity, a suffering, tempted man, beset with Satan's devices. He was tempted in all points like as we are, and He knows how to succor those that are tempted. Now He is at the right hand of God. He is in heaven as our advocate, to make intercession for us. We must always take comfort and hope as we think of this. He is thinking of those who are subject to temptations in this world. He thinks of us individually, and knows our every necessity. When tempted, just say, He cares for me, He makes intercession for me, He loves me, He has died for me. I will give myself unreservedly to Him.
LHU	184	5	We grieve the heart of Christ when we go mourning over ourselves as though we were our own savior. No; we must commit the keeping of our souls to God as unto a faithful Creator. He ever lives to make intercession for the tried, tempted ones. Open your heart to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and let not one breath of doubt, one word of unbelief, escape your lips, lest you sow the seeds of doubt. There are rich blessings for us; let us grasp them by faith. I entreat you to have courage in the Lord. Divine strength is ours; and let us talk courage and strength and faith.... Bear a living testimony for God under all circumstances (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 390, 391).
------------------------True Higher Education, June 20
LHU	185	1	Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God; thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness. Psalm 143:10.
LHU	185	2	"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." Those who do this have a joyous life. No unpleasantness comes from their lips or from the atmosphere surrounding the soul, for they do not feel that they are better than others. Hide in Jesus Christ; then all the time the truth of God will be fitting you up for the future, immortal life. When you have confidence in the Mighty One, your experience is not borrowed; it is your own. Whatever your disposition may be, God is able to so mold that disposition that it will be sweet and Christlike. By living faith you separate from everything not in accordance with the mind of God, and thus bring a heaven into your life here below. Will you do this? If you do, you will have sunshine at every step....
LHU	185	3	True higher education is that which is received by sitting at the feet of Jesus. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He will lift you up. You need not struggle to lift yourself. Commit your work to Him; do it in faithfulness, in sincerity, in truth, in righteousness; and you will find that every day it brings its reward, and that the light of heaven is shining upon you. His light, His grace, His salvation, are thus revealed....
LHU	185	4	We know so little of Jesus Christ that we can but dimly comprehend what He will do for us. God desires us to learn of Him.... Let your character-building be in accordance with the beautiful pattern revealed to men in the life of Christ.
LHU	185	5	In all your work you should do as the husbandman does in producing the fruits of the earth. Apparently he throws away the seed; but, buried in the soil, the seed, in dying, germinates. The power of the living God gives it life and vitality, and there is seen, "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." Study this wonderful process. Oh, there is so much to learn, so much to understand, that it seems as though we cannot learn everything during this life--and we cannot. But if we now improve our minds to the utmost of our ability, we shall through the eternal ages carry forward the study of God's ways and works, continually reaching higher and still higher.
LHU	185	6	We need now minds that can understand the simplicity of godliness. More than we desire anything else, we should desire to have Jesus Christ abiding in the soul-temple, because He cannot abide there without being revealed and shown forth in fruits and good works.... God wants every one of you to be His helping hand; and if you yield yourself to Him, He will teach and work through you, that you may be able to impart to others. Then you will be able to say, "O God, 'thy gentleness hath made me great'!" (Manuscript 91, 1901).
------------------------Beholding Christ, June 21
LHU	186	1	God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 2 Corinthians 6:16.
LHU	186	2	As the mind dwells upon Christ, the character is molded after the divine similitude. The thoughts are pervaded with a sense of His goodness, His love. We contemplate His character, and thus He is in all our thoughts. His love encloses us.
LHU	186	3	If we gaze even a moment upon the sun in its meridian glory, when we turn away our eyes, the image of the sun will appear in everything upon which we look. Thus it is when we behold Jesus; everything we look upon reflects His image, the Sun of righteousness. We cannot see anything else, or talk of anything else. His image is imprinted upon the eye of the soul and affects every portion of our daily life, softening and subduing our whole nature. By beholding, we are conformed to the divine similitude, even the likeness of Christ. To all with whom we associate we reflect the bright and cheerful beams of His righteousness. We have become transformed in character; for heart, soul, mind, are irradiated by the reflection of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Here again there is the realization of a personal, living influence dwelling in our hearts by faith.
LHU	186	4	When His words of instruction have been received, and have taken possession of us, Jesus is to us an abiding presence, controlling our thoughts and ideas and actions. We are imbued with the instruction of the greatest Teacher the world ever knew. A sense of human accountability and of human influence gives character to our views of life and of daily duties. Jesus Christ is everything to us--the first, the last, the best in everything. Jesus Christ, His Spirit, His character, colors everything; it is the warp and the woof, the very texture of our entire being. The words of Christ are spirit and life. We cannot, then, center our thoughts upon self; it is no more we that live, but Christ that liveth in us, and He is the hope of glory. Self is dead, but Christ is a living Saviour.
LHU	186	5	Continuing to look unto Jesus, we reflect His image to all around us. We cannot stop to consider our disappointments, or even to talk of them; for a more pleasant picture attracts our sight--the precious love of Jesus. He dwells in us by the word of truth (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 388-390).
LHU	186	6	We have a high calling in Christ Jesus; we are carrying forward a vast and holy work, and God calls upon each one to uplift His standard in the sight of this world and of the universe of heaven, by the power of the Lord Jehovah, in whom is "everlasting strength" (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 386).
------------------------We Are Blessed As We Teach Others, June 22
LHU	187	1	He that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 11:25.
LHU	187	2	The teaching of Christ was the expression of an inwrought conviction and experience, and those who learn of Him become teachers after the divine order. The Word of God, spoken by one who is himself sanctified through it, has a life-giving power that makes it attractive to the hearers, and convicts them that it is a living reality. When one has received the truth in the love of it, he will make this manifest in the persuasion of his manner and the tones of his voice. He makes known that which he himself has heard, seen, and handled of the Word of life, that others may have fellowship with him through the knowledge of Christ. His testimony, from lips touched with a live coal from off the altar, is truth to the receptive heart, and works sanctification upon the character.
LHU	187	3	And he who seeks to give light to others will himself be blessed. "There shall be showers of blessing." "He that watereth shall be watered also himself." God could have reached His object in saving sinners without our aid; but in order for us to develop a character like Christ's, we must share in His work. In order to enter into His joy--the joy of seeing souls redeemed by His sacrifice--we must participate in His labors for their redemption.
LHU	187	4	Nathanael's first expression of his faith, so full and earnest and sincere, fell like music on the ears of Jesus. And He "answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these." The Saviour looked forward with joy to His work in preaching good tidings to the meek, binding up the brokenhearted, and proclaiming liberty to the captives of Satan. At thought of the precious blessings He had brought to men, Jesus added, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."
LHU	187	5	Here Christ virtually says, On the bank of the Jordan the heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended like a dove upon Me. That scene was but a token that I am the Son of God. If you believe on Me as such, your faith shall be quickened. You shall see that the heavens are opened, and are never to be closed. I have opened them to you. The angels of God are ascending, bearing the prayers of the needy and distressed to the Father above, and descending, bringing blessing and hope, courage, help, and life, to the children of men.
LHU	187	6	The angels of God are ever passing from earth to heaven, and from heaven to earth.... And thus Christ is the medium of communication of men with God, and of God with men (The Desire of Ages, 142, 143).
------------------------Students in the School of Christ, June 23
LHU	188	1	His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Psalm 1:2.
LHU	188	2	The mind that dwells much on the revealed will of God to man will become strong in the truth. Those who read and study with an earnest desire for divine light, whether they are ministers or not, will soon discover in the Scriptures a beauty and harmony which will captivate their attention, elevate their thoughts, and give them an inspiration and an energy of argument that will be powerful to convict and convert souls....
LHU	188	3	The psalmist declares of the good man: "His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night." He refers to his own experience, and exclaims: "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day." "Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word"....
LHU	188	4	Said Jesus to His disciples: "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart." I would plead with those who have accepted the position of teachers, to first become humble learners, and ever to remain as pupils in the school of Christ to receive from the Master lessons of meekness and lowliness of heart. Humility of spirit, combined with earnest activity, will result in the salvation of souls so dearly purchased by the blood of Christ.... "Faith without works is dead." He needs that faith that works by love and purifies the soul. A living faith in Christ will bring every action of the life and every emotion of the soul into harmony with God's truth and righteousness.
LHU	188	5	Fretfulness, self-exaltation, pride, passion, and every other trait of character unlike our holy Pattern must be overcome; and then humility, meekness, and sincere gratitude to Jesus for His great salvation will continually flow out from the pure fountain of the heart. The voice of Jesus should be heard in the message coming from the lips of His ambassador....
LHU	188	6	If those who sound the solemn notes of warning for this time could realize their accountability to God they would see the necessity for fervent prayer. When the cities were hushed in midnight slumber, when every man had gone to his own house, Christ, our Example, would repair to the Mount of Olives, and there, amid the overshadowing trees, would spend the entire night in prayer. He who was Himself without the taint of sin--a treasure house of blessing; whose voice was heard in the fourth watch of the night by the terrified disciples upon the stormy sea, in heavenly benediction; and whose word could summon the dead from their graves--He it was who made supplication with strong crying and tears. He prayed not for Himself, but for those whom He came to save (Testimonies for the Church 4:526-528).
------------------------Bear a Living Testimony, June 24
LHU	189	1	As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. John 17:18.
LHU	189	2	Because of the increasing power of Satan's temptations, the times in which we live are full of peril for the children of God, and we need to learn constantly of the Great Teacher, that we may take every step in surety and righteousness. Wonderful scenes are opening before us; and at this time a living testimony is to be borne in the lives of God's professed people, so that the world may see that in this age, when evil reigns on every side, there is yet a people who are laying aside their will and are seeking to do God's will--a people in whose hearts and lives God's law is written.
LHU	189	3	God expects those who bear the name of Christ to represent Him. Their thoughts are to be pure, their words noble and uplifting. The religion of Christ is to be interwoven with all that they do and say. They are to be a sanctified, purified, holy people, communicating light to all with whom they come in contact. It is His purpose that by exemplifying the truth in their lives they shall be a praise in the earth. The grace of Christ is sufficient to bring this about. But let God's people remember that only as they believe and work out the principles of the gospel can they fulfill His purpose. Only as they yield their God-given capabilities to His service will they enjoy the fullness and the power of the promise whereon the church has been called to stand....
LHU	189	4	The followers of Christ are to be separate from the world in principles and interests; but they are not to isolate themselves from the world. The Saviour mingled constantly with men, not to encourage them in anything that was not in accordance with God's will, but to uplift and ennoble them.... So the Christian is to abide among men, that the savor of divine love may be as salt to preserve the world from corruption.
LHU	189	5	Daily beset by temptation, constantly opposed by the leaders of the people, Christ knew that He must strengthen His humanity by prayer. In order to be a blessing to men, He must commune with God, pleading for energy, perseverance, and steadfastness.... Without this daily communion with God, no human being can gain power for service. Christ alone can direct the thoughts aright. He alone can give noble aspirations and fashion the character after the divine similitude. If we draw near to Him in earnest prayer, He will fill our hearts with high and holy purposes, and with deep longings for purity and righteousness....
LHU	189	6	God desires His people to show by their lives the advantage of Christianity over worldliness; to show that they are working on a high, holy plane.... He longs to make them channels through which He can pour His boundless love and mercy (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 322-324).
------------------------He Was All He Claimed, June 25
LHU	190	1	He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. John 14:12.
LHU	190	2	After the Lord's ascension, the disciples realized the fulfillment of His promise. The scenes of the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ were a living reality to them. They saw that the prophecies had been literally fulfilled. They searched the Scriptures, and accepted their teaching with a faith and assurance unknown before. They knew that the divine Teacher was all that He had claimed to be. As they told their experience, and exalted the love of God, men's hearts were melted and subdued, and multitudes believed on Jesus.
LHU	190	3	The Saviour's promise to His disciples is a promise to His church to the end of time. God did not design that His wonderful plan to redeem men should achieve only insignificant results. All who will go to work, trusting not in what they themselves can do, but in what God can do for and through them, will certainly realize the fulfillment of His promise. "Greater works than these shall he do," He declares; "because I go unto my Father."
LHU	190	4	As yet the disciples were unacquainted with the Saviour's unlimited resources and power. He said to them, "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name" (John 16:24). He explained that the secret of their success would be in asking for strength and grace in His name. He would be present before the Father to make request for them. The prayer of the humble suppliant He presents as His own desire in that soul's behalf. Every sincere prayer is heard in heaven. It may not be fluently expressed; but if the heart is in it, it will ascend to the sanctuary where Jesus ministers, and He will present it to the Father without one awkward, stammering word, beautiful and fragrant with the incense of His own perfection.
LHU	190	5	The pathway of sincerity and integrity is not a path free from obstruction, but in every difficulty we are to see a call to prayer. There is no one living who has any power that he has not received from God, and the source whence it comes is open to the weakest human being. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name," said Jesus, "that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it" (John 14:13, 14) (The Desire of Ages, 667).
LHU	190	6	The Saviour was deeply anxious for His disciples to understand for what purpose His divinity was united to humanity. He came to the world to display the glory of God, that man might be uplifted by its restoring power. God was manifested in Him that He might be manifested in them. Jesus revealed no qualities, and exercised no powers, that men may not have through faith in Him. His perfect humanity is that which all His followers may possess, if they will be in subjection to God as He was (The Desire of Ages, 664).
------------------------Christ's Favorite Subject, June 26
LHU	191	1	It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. John 16:7, 8.
LHU	191	2	Christ, the Great Teacher, had an infinite variety of subjects from which to choose, but the one upon which He dwelt most largely was the endowment of the Holy Spirit (Selected Messages 1:156).
LHU	191	3	In describing to His disciples the office work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus sought to inspire them with the joy and hope that inspired His own heart. He rejoiced because of the abundant help He had provided for His church. The Holy Spirit was the highest of all gifts that He could solicit from His Father for the exaltation of His people. The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of men to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character upon His church.
LHU	191	4	Of the Spirit Jesus said, "He shall glorify Me." The Saviour came to glorify the Father by the demonstration of His love; so the Spirit was to glorify Christ by revealing His grace to the world. The very image of God is to be reproduced in humanity. The honor of God, the honor of Christ, is involved in the perfection of the character of His people.
LHU	191	5	"When He [the Spirit of truth] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." The preaching of the Word will be of no avail without the continual presence and aid of the Holy Spirit. This is the only effectual teacher of divine truth. Only when the truth is accompanied to the heart by the Spirit will it quicken the conscience or transform the life. One might be able to present the letter of the Word of God, he might be familiar with all its commands and promises; but unless the Holy Spirit sets home the truth, no souls will fall on the Rock and be broken. No amount of education, no advantages, however great, can make one a channel of light without the cooperation of the Spirit of God.... This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive (The Desire of Ages, 671, 672).
------------------------The Highest of All Education, June 27
LHU	192	1	And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:9.
LHU	192	2	Christ calls upon us to labor patiently and perseveringly for the thousands perishing in their sins, scattered in all lands, like wrecks on a desert shore. Those who share in Christ's glory must share also in His ministry, helping the weak, the wretched, and the despondent.
LHU	192	3	Let those who take up this work make the life of Christ their constant study. Let them be intensely in earnest, using every capability in the Lord's service. Precious results will follow sincere, unselfish effort. From the Great Teacher the workers will receive the highest of all education. But those who do not impart the light they have received will one day realize that they have sustained a fearful loss.
LHU	192	4	Human beings have no right to think that there is a limit to the efforts that they are to make in the work of soul saving. Did Christ ever become weary in His work? Did He ever draw back from sacrifice and hardship? Church members are to put forth the continuous, persevering efforts that He put forth. They are to be ever ready to spring into action in obedience to the Master's commands. Wherever we see work waiting to be done we are to take it up and do it, constantly looking unto Jesus. If our church members would heed this instruction, hundreds of souls would be won to Jesus. If every church member were a living missionary, the gospel would speedily be proclaimed in all countries, to all peoples, nations, and tongues.
LHU	192	5	Let sanctified ability be brought into the work of proclaiming the truth for this time. If the forces of the enemy gain the victory now, it will be because the churches neglect their God-given work. For years the work has been kept before us, but many have been asleep. If Seventh-day Adventists will now arouse and do the work assigned them, the truth will be presented to our neglected cities in clear, distinct lines and in the power of the Spirit.
LHU	192	6	When wholehearted work is done, the efficacy of the grace of Christ will be seen. The watchmen on the walls of Zion are to be wide awake, and they are to arouse others. God's people are to be so earnest and faithful in their work for Him that all selfishness will be separated from their lives. His workers will then see eye-to-eye, and the arm of the Lord, the power of which was seen in the life of Christ, will be revealed. Confidence will be restored, and there will be unity in the churches throughout our ranks.... To every worker Christ promises the divine efficiency that will make his labors a success (Testimonies for the Church 9:31-34).
------------------------God Himself Was Daniel's Teacher, June 28
LHU	193	1	Them that honour me I will honour. 1 Samuel 2:30.
LHU	193	2	In acquiring the wisdom of the Babylonians, Daniel and his companions were far more successful than their fellow students; but their learning did not come by chance. They obtained their knowledge by the faithful use of their powers, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They placed themselves in connection with the Source of all wisdom, making the knowledge of God the foundation of their education. In faith they prayed for wisdom, and they lived their prayers. They placed themselves where God could bless them. They avoided that which would weaken their powers, and improved every opportunity to become intelligent in all lines of learning. They followed the rules of life that could not fail to give them strength of intellect. They sought to acquire knowledge for one purpose--that they might honor God. They realized that in order to stand as representatives of true religion amid the false religions of heathenism they must have clearness of intellect and must perfect a Christian character. And God Himself was their teacher. Constantly praying, conscientiously studying, keeping in touch with the Unseen, they walked with God as did Enoch.
LHU	193	3	True success in any line of work is not the result of chance or accident or destiny. It is the outworking of God's providences, the reward of faith and discretion, of virtue and perseverance. Fine mental qualities and a high moral tone are not the result of accident. God gives opportunities; success depends upon the use made of them.
LHU	193	4	While God was working in Daniel and his companions "to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13), they were working out their own salvation. Herein is revealed the outworking of the divine principle of cooperation, without which no true success can be attained. Human effort avails nothing without divine power; and without human endeavor, divine effort is with many of no avail. To make God's grace our own, we must act our part. His grace is given to work in us to will and to do, but never as a substitute for our effort.
LHU	193	5	As the Lord cooperated with Daniel and his fellows, so He will cooperate with all who strive to do His will. And by the impartation of His Spirit He will strengthen every true purpose, every noble resolution. Those who walk in the path of obedience will encounter many hindrances. Strong, subtle influences may bind them to the world; but the Lord is able to render futile every agency that works for the defeat of His chosen ones; in His strength they may overcome every temptation, conquer every difficulty (Prophets and Kings, 486, 487).
------------------------Taught by the World's Greatest Educator, June 29
LHU	194	1	Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. John 21:6.
LHU	194	2	Seven of the disciples were in company. They were clad in the humble garb of fishermen; they were poor in worldly goods, but rich in the knowledge and practice of the truth, which in the sight of Heaven gave them the highest rank as teachers. They had not been students in the schools of the prophets, but for three years they had been taught by the greatest Educator the world has ever known. Under His instruction they had become elevated, intelligent, and refined, agents through whom men might be led to a knowledge of the truth....
LHU	194	3	The evening was pleasant, and Peter, who still had much of his old love for boats and fishing, proposed that they should go out upon the sea and cast their nets. In this plan all were ready to join; they were in need of food and clothing, which the proceeds of a successful night's fishing would supply. So they went out in their boat, but they caught nothing. All night they toiled, without success. Through the weary hours they talked of their absent Lord, and recalled the wonderful events they had witnessed in His ministry beside the sea. They questioned as to their own future, and grew sad at the prospect before them.
LHU	194	4	All the while a lone watcher upon the shore followed them with His eye, while He Himself was unseen. At length the morning dawned. The boat was but a little way from the shore, and the disciples saw a stranger standing upon the beach, who accosted them with the question, "Children, have ye any meat?" When they answered, "No," He said unto them, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes."
LHU	194	5	John recognized the stranger, and exclaimed to Peter, "It is the Lord".... Jesus had called them to leave their fishing boats, and had promised to make them fishers of men. It was to bring this scene to their minds, and to deepen its impression, that He had again performed the miracle. His act was a renewal of the commission to the disciples. It showed them that the death of their Master had not lessened their obligation to do the work He had assigned them. Though they were to be deprived of His personal companionship, and of the means of support by their former employment, the risen Saviour would still have a care for them. While they were doing His work, He would provide for their needs. And Jesus had a purpose in bidding them cast their net on the right side of the ship. On that side He stood upon the shore. That was the side of faith. If they labored in connection with Him--His divine power combining with their human effort--they could not fail of success (The Desire of Ages, 809-811).
------------------------Putting the Word of God into Practice, June 30
LHU	195	1	Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock ... and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. Matthew 7:24, 25.
LHU	195	2	Jesus ended his teaching on the mount with an illustration that presented with startling vividness the importance of putting in practice the words He had spoken. Among the crowds that thronged about the Saviour were many who had spent their lives about the Sea of Galilee. As they sat upon the hillside, listening to the words of Christ, they could see valleys and ravines through which the mountain streams found their way to the sea. In summer these streams often wholly disappeared, leaving only a dry and dusty channel. But when the wintry storms burst upon the hills, the rivers became fierce, raging torrents, at times overspreading the valleys and bearing everything away on their resistless flood.... But high upon the hills were houses built upon the rock. In some parts of the land were dwellings built wholly of rock, and many of them had withstood the tempests of a thousand years.... And wind and flood and tempest beat upon them in vain.
LHU	195	3	Like the builders of these houses on the rock, said Jesus, is he who shall receive the words that I have spoken to you, and make them the foundation of his character and life. Centuries before, the prophet Isaiah had written, "The word of our God shall stand for ever" (Isaiah 40:8); and Peter, long after the Sermon on the Mount was given, quoting these words of Isaiah, added, "This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you (1 Peter 1:25). The Word of God is the only steadfast thing our world knows. It is the sure foundation. "Heaven and earth shall pass away," said Jesus, "but my words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35).
LHU	195	4	The great principles of the law, of the very nature of God, are embodied in the words of Christ on the mount. Whoever builds upon them is building upon Christ, the Rock of Ages. In receiving the word, we receive Christ. And only those who thus receive His words are building upon Him. "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11). "There is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Christ, the Word, the revelation of God--the manifestation of His character, His law, His love, His life--is the only foundation upon which we can build a character that will endure....
LHU	195	5	As you give heed to the light you have, greater light will come. You are building on God's Word, and your character will be builded after the similitude of the character of Christ. Christ, the true foundation, is a living stone; His life is imparted to all that are built upon Him. "Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5, ASV).... That building no tempest can overthrow (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 147-150).
------------------------Christ is the Chief Shepherd, July 1
LHU	196	1	When the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. 1 Peter 5:4.
LHU	196	2	A shepherd's life was one of diligence. He was obliged to watch his flocks day and night. Wild beasts were common, and often bold, and would do great injury to flocks of sheep and cattle that were not guarded by a faithful shepherd. Although Jacob had a number of servants to aid him in tending the flocks owned by himself and Laban, yet the responsibility of the whole matter rested upon him. And in some seasons of the year he was obliged to be with the flocks himself, day and night, to protect them in the driest season of the year, that they should not perish with thirst; and in the coldest part of the season, to save them from becoming chilled with the heavy night frosts. Their flocks were also in danger of being stolen by unprincipled shepherds, who wished to enrich themselves by stealing their neighbor's cattle.
LHU	196	3	A shepherd's life was one of constant care. He was not qualified for a shepherd unless he was merciful, and possessed courage and perseverance. Jacob was chief shepherd, and had shepherds under him who were termed servants. The chief shepherd called these servants, to whom he intrusted the care of the flock, to a strict account if they were not found in a flourishing condition. If there were any of the cattle missing, the chief shepherd suffered the loss.
LHU	196	4	The relation of Christ to His people is compared to a shepherd. He saw, after the Fall, His sheep in a pitiable condition exposed to sure destruction. He left the honors and glory of His Father's house to become a shepherd, to save the ... wandering sheep who were ready to perish. His winning voice was heard calling them to His fold, a safe and sure retreat from the hand of robbers; also a shelter from the scorching heat, and a protection from the chilling blasts. His care was continually exercised for the good of His sheep. He strengthened the weak, nourished the suffering, and gathered the lambs of the flock in His arms, and carried them in His bosom. His sheep love Him. He goeth before His sheep, and they hear His voice and follow Him. "And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers." Christ says, "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep"....
LHU	196	5	Christ is the chief shepherd. He has intrusted the care of His flock to undershepherds. He requires these shepherds to have the same interest for His sheep which He has ever manifested, and to ever feel the responsibility of the charge He has intrusted to them.... If they imitate His self-denying example, the flock will prosper under their care.... They will be constantly laboring for the welfare of the flock (Spiritual Gifts 3:122-124).
------------------------Christ is the Door, July 2
LHU	197	1	Then said Jesus unto them ..., Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. John 10:7.
LHU	197	2	Satan took the field in person against Jesus Christ. Evil angels conspired with evil men to resist good, to trample upon righteousness, and all the energies of evil were confederated together to destroy the champion of God and truth. While success seems to attend the masterly activity of Satan, Jesus takes the field to contest his power. Jesus came "unto his own, and his own received him not." He was charged with an embassage of mercy, sent of the Father at a crisis when rebellion had overspread the world, in order that man should not perish, but have everlasting life through faith in the Son of God. Through Christ they were to bruise the serpent's head, and gain eternal life....
LHU	197	3	In the parable of the shepherd Jesus puts His own interpretation on His work and mission, and represents Himself as the good shepherd, feeding and taking charge of the sheep. He said, "He that entereth not by the door [by Himself] into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." Christ said that all who came before Him claiming to be the Messiah were deceivers. All the time of Christ's coming there was much agitation concerning the appearance of the world's Messiah. The Jewish nation expected that a great deliverer would come, and there were men who took advantage of this expectation, turning it to the service of themselves, that they might be thereby profited and glorified. Prophecy had foretold that these deceivers would arise. The deceivers did not come in the way in which it was prophesied that the world's Redeemer should come; but Christ came, answering every specification. Types and symbols had represented Him, and in Him type met antitype. In the life, mission, and death of Jesus every specification was fulfilled.
LHU	197	4	Jesus was the good shepherd to whom the porter openeth, who knows the sheep, calleth His own by name, and leadeth them out. He it is who is stronger than the thief and the robber, those who enter not in at the door, but climb up some other way. The Pharisees were not able to discern that this parable was spoken against them, the professed leaders of the people, pastors of the flock. Jesus presented Himself in contrast to them, and when they reasoned in their hearts as to what He could mean by the parable, He said, "I am the door [of the sheep]: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture".... Christ presented Himself as the only one in whom were qualifications for making a good shepherd.
LHU	197	5	He is represented as the "Chief Shepherd" (The Signs of the Times, December 4, 1893).
------------------------The Deliverer a Humble Shepherd, July 3
LHU	198	1	God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Exodus 3:4, 5.
LHU	198	2	The time for Israel's deliverance had come. But God's purpose was to be accomplished in a manner to pour contempt on human pride. The deliverer was to go forth as a humble shepherd, with only a rod in his hand; but God would make that rod the symbol of His power. Leading his flocks one day near Horeb, "the mountain of God," Moses saw a bush in flames.... A voice from out of the flame called him by name. With trembling lips he answered, "Here am I." He was warned not to approach irreverently....
LHU	198	3	Humility and reverence should characterize the deportment of all who come into the presence of God. In the name of Jesus we may come before Him with confidence, but we must not approach Him with the boldness of presumption, as though He were on a level with ourselves. There are those who address the great and all-powerful and holy God, who dwelleth in light unapproachable, as they would address an equal, or even an inferior. There are those who conduct themselves in His house as they would not presume to do in the audience chamber of an earthly ruler. These should remember that they are in His sight whom seraphim adore, before whom angels veil their faces. God is greatly to be reverenced; all who truly realize His presence will bow in humility before Him....
LHU	198	4	As Moses waited in reverent awe before God the words continued: "... Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt."
LHU	198	5	Amazed and terrified at the command, Moses drew back.... Moses saw before him difficulties that seemed insurmountable. What proof could he give his people that God had indeed sent him? ... Evidence that appealed to his own senses was now given. He was told to cast his rod upon the ground. As he did so, "it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it." He was commanded to seize it, and in his hand it became a rod.... The Lord assured Moses that His own people, as well as Pharaoh, should be convinced that One mightier than the king of Egypt was manifest among them....
LHU	198	6	God blessed his ready obedience, and he became eloquent, hopeful, self-possessed, and well fitted for the greatest work ever given to man. This is an example of what God does to strengthen the character of those who trust Him fully and give themselves unreservedly to His commands (Patriarchs and Prophets, 251-255).
------------------------A Shepherd's Crook for a Sceptre, July 4
LHU	199	1	Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. 1 Samuel 16:13.
LHU	199	2	As the sons of Jesse passed before Samuel, he would have selected Eliab, who was of high stature, and dignified appearance, but the angel of God stood by him to guide him in the important decision, and instructed him that he should not judge from appearance. Eliab did not fear the Lord. His heart was not right with God. He would make a proud, exacting ruler. None were found among the sons of Jesse but David, the youngest, whose humble occupation was that of tending sheep. He had filled the humble office of shepherd with such faithfulness and courage that God selected him to be captain of his people. In course of time, he was to change his shepherd's crook for the sceptre (Spiritual Gifts 4a:77, 78).
LHU	199	3	God selected David, a humble shepherd, to rule His people. He was strict in all the ceremonies connected with the Jewish religion, and he distinguished himself by his boldness and unwavering trust in God. He was remarkable for his fidelity and reverence. His firmness, humility, love of justice, and decision of character, qualified him to carry out the high purposes of God, to instruct Israel in their devotions, and to rule them as a generous and wise monarch.
LHU	199	4	His religious life was sincere and fervent. It was while David was thus true to God, and possessing these exalted traits of character, that God calls him a man after His own heart (Spiritual Gifts 4a:85, 86).
LHU	199	5	The great honor conferred upon David did not serve to elate him. Notwithstanding the high position which he was to occupy, he quietly continued his employment, content to await the development of the Lord's plan in His own time and way. As humble and modest as before his anointing, the shepherd boy returned to the hills and watched and guarded his flocks as tenderly as ever....
LHU	199	6	David, in the beauty and vigor of his young manhood, was preparing to take a high position with the noblest of the earth. His talents, as precious gifts from God, were employed to extol the glory of the divine Giver. His opportunities of contemplation and meditation served to enrich him with that wisdom and piety that made him beloved of God and angels.... The love that moved him, the sorrows that beset him, the triumphs that attended him, were all themes for his active thought; and as he beheld the love of God in all the providences of his life, his heart throbbed with more fervent adoration and gratitude, his voice rang out in richer melody, his harp was swept with more exultant joy; and the shepherd boy proceeded from strength to strength, from knowledge to knowledge; for the Spirit of the Lord was upon him (Patriarchs and Prophets, 641, 642).
------------------------A Connection with the Chief Shepherd, July 5
LHU	200	1	For we are laborers together with God. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
LHU	200	2	A vital connection with the Chief Shepherd will make the undershepherd a living representative of Christ, a light indeed to the world. An understanding of all points of our faith is essential, but it is of still greater importance that the minister be sanctified through the truth he presents.
LHU	200	3	The worker who knows the meaning of union with Christ, has a constantly increasing desire and capacity to grasp the meaning of service for God. His knowledge enlarges; for to grow in grace means to have an increased ability to understand the Scriptures. Such a one is indeed a laborer together with God. He realizes that he is but an instrument, and that he must be passive in the Master's hands. Trials come to him; for unless thus tested, he would never know his lack of wisdom and experience. But if he seeks the Lord with humility and trust, every trial will work for his good. He may sometimes seem to fail, but his apparent failure may be God's way of bringing him true advancement, and may mean a better knowledge of himself and a firmer trust in Heaven. He may still make mistakes, but he learns not to repeat these mistakes. He becomes stronger to resist evil, and others reap benefit from his example....
LHU	200	4	Those who have the deepest experience in the things of God are the farthest removed from pride and self-exaltation. Because they have an exalted conception of the glory of God, they feel that the lowest place in His service is too honorable for them.
LHU	200	5	When Moses came down from the mount after 40 days spent in communion with God, he did not know that his face shone with a brightness that was terrifying to those who beheld.
LHU	200	6	Paul had a very humble opinion of his advancement in the Christian life. He speaks of himself as the chief of sinners. And again he says, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect" (Philippians 3:12). Yet Paul had been highly honored by the Lord.
LHU	200	7	Our Saviour declared John the Baptist to be the greatest of prophets; yet when asked if he were the Christ, John declared himself unworthy even to unloose his Master's sandals. When His disciples came with the complaint that all men were turning to the new teacher, John reminded them that he was but the forerunner of the Coming One.
LHU	200	8	Workers with this spirit are needed today.... Our Lord calls for laborers, who feeling their own need of the atoning blood of Christ, enter upon their work ... with full assurance of faith, realizing that they will always need the help of Christ in order to know how to deal with minds (Gospel Workers, 142, 143).
------------------------The Good Shepherd, July 6
LHU	201	1	I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. John 10:11.
LHU	201	2	Christ ... likens Himself to a shepherd. "I am the good shepherd," He declares; "the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep" (John 10:11, 14, 15).
LHU	201	3	As an earthly shepherd knows his sheep, so does the divine Shepherd know His flock that are scattered throughout the world. "Ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God" (Ezekiel 34:31).
LHU	201	4	In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd goes out to search for one sheep--the very least that can be numbered. Discovering that one of his sheep is missing, he does not look carelessly upon the flock that is safely housed, and say, I have ninety and nine, and it will cost me too much trouble to go in search of the straying one. Let him come back, and I will open the door of the sheepfold and let him in. No; no sooner does the sheep go astray than the shepherd is filled with grief and anxiety. Leaving the ninety and nine in the fold, he goes in search of the straying one. However dark and tempestuous the night, however perilous and uncertain the way, however long and tedious the search, he does not falter until the lost is found.
LHU	201	5	With what relief does he hear in the distance its first faint cry! Following the sound, he climbs the steepest heights; he goes to the very edge of the precipice, at the risk of his own life. Thus he searches while the cry, growing fainter, tells him that his sheep is ready to die.
LHU	201	6	And when the straying one is found, does he command it to follow him? ... No; he lays the exhausted sheep on his shoulder, and with cheerful gratitude that his search has not been in vain, he returns to the fold. His gratitude finds expression in songs of rejoicing. And "when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost" (Luke 15:6).
LHU	201	7	So when the lost sinner is found by the Good Shepherd, heaven and earth unite in rejoicing and thanksgiving. For "joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance" (verse 7) (Gospel Workers, 181, 182).
LHU	201	8	In our work, individual effort will accomplish much more than can be estimated. It is for the want of this that souls are perishing. One soul is of infinite value; Calvary speaks its worth. One soul won to Christ will be instrumental in winning others, and there will be an ever-increasing result of blessing and salvation (Gospel Workers, 184).
------------------------The Divine Shepherd, July 7
LHU	202	1	I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them ... and he shall be their shepherd. Ezekiel 34:23.
LHU	202	2	Jesus found access to the minds of His hearers by the pathway of their familiar associations. He had likened the Spirit's influence to the cool, refreshing water. He had represented Himself as the light, the source of life and gladness to nature and to man. Now in a beautiful pastoral picture He represents His relation to those that believe on Him. No picture was more familiar to His hearers than this, and Christ's words linked it forever with Himself. Never could the disciples look on the shepherds tending their flocks without recalling the Saviour's lesson. They would see Christ in each faithful shepherd. They would see themselves in each helpless and dependent flock.
LHU	202	3	This figure the prophet Isaiah had applied to the Messiah's mission, in the comforting words, ... "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom" (Isaiah 40:11). David had sung, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want" (Psalm 23:1). And the Holy Spirit through Ezekiel had declared: "I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them." "I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick." "And I will make with them a covenant of peace." "And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen; ... but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid" (Ezekiel 32:23, 16, 25, 28)....
LHU	202	4	Christ is the door to the fold of God. Through this door all His children, from the earliest times, have found entrance. In Jesus, as shown in types, as shadowed in symbols, as manifested in the revelation of the prophets, as unveiled in the lessons given to His disciples, and in the miracles wrought for the sons of men, they have beheld "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), and through Him they are brought within the fold of His grace. Many have come presenting other objects for the faith of the world; ceremonies and systems have been devised by which men hope to receive justification and peace with God, and thus find entrance to His fold. But the only door is Christ, and all who have interposed something to take the place of Christ, all who have tried to enter the fold in some other way, are thieves and robbers....
LHU	202	5	"He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep." Christ is both the door and the shepherd. He enters in by Himself. It is through His own sacrifice that He becomes the shepherd of the sheep (The Desire of Ages, 476-478).
------------------------The Shepherd Knows Every Sheep, July 8
LHU	203	1	Fear not; for I have ... called thee by thy name; thou art mine. Isaiah 43:1.
LHU	203	2	Of all creatures the sheep is one of the most timid and helpless, and in the East the shepherd's care for his flock is untiring and incessant. Anciently as now there was little security outside of the walled towns. Marauders from the roving border tribes, or beasts of prey from their hiding places in the rocks, lay in wait to plunder the flocks. The shepherd watched his charge, knowing that it was at the peril of his own life. Jacob, who kept the flocks of Laban in the pasture grounds of Haran, describing his own unwearied labor, said, "In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from my eyes" (Genesis 31:40). And it was while guarding his father's sheep that the boy David, single-handed, encountered the lion and the bear, and rescued from their teeth the stolen lamb.
LHU	203	3	As the shepherd leads his flock over the rocky hills, through forest and wild ravines, to grassy nooks by the riverside; as he watches them on the mountains through the lonely night, shielding from robbers, caring tenderly for the sickly and feeble, his life comes to be one with theirs. A strong and tender attachment unites him to the objects of his care. However large the flock, the shepherd knows every sheep. Every one has its name, and responds to the name at the shepherd's call.
LHU	203	4	As an earthly shepherd knows his sheep, so does the divine shepherd know His flock that are scattered throughout the world. "Ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God." Jesus says, "I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine." "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands" (Ezekiel 34:31; Isaiah 43:1; 49:16).
LHU	203	5	Jesus knows us individually, and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows us all by name. He knows the very house in which we live, the name of each occupant. He has at times given directions to His servants to go to a certain street in a certain city, to such a house, to find one of His sheep.
LHU	203	6	Every soul is as fully known to Jesus as if he were the only one for whom the Saviour died. The distress of every one touches His heart. The cry for aid reaches His ear. He came to draw all men unto Himself. He bids them, "Follow me," and His Spirit moves upon their hearts to draw them to come to Him. Many refuse to be drawn. Jesus knows who they are. He also knows who gladly hear His call, and are ready to come under His pastoral care. He says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." He cares for each one as if there were not another on the face of the earth (The Desire of Ages, 478-480).
------------------------The Shepherd Leads the Way, July 9
LHU	204	1	When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. John 10:4.
LHU	204	2	The Eastern shepherd does not drive his sheep. He depends not upon force or fear; but going before, he calls them. They know his voice, and obey the call. So does the Saviour-Shepherd with His sheep. The Scripture says, "Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." Through the prophet, Jesus declares, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." He compels none to follow Him. "I drew them," He says, "with cords of a man, with bands of love" (Psalm 77:20; Jeremiah 31:3; Hosea 11:4).
LHU	204	3	It is not the fear of punishment, or the hope of everlasting reward, that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him. They behold the Saviour's matchless love, revealed throughout His pilgrimage on earth, from the manger of Bethlehem to Calvary's cross, and the sight of Him attracts, it softens and subdues the soul. Love awakens in the heart of the beholders. They hear His voice, and they follow Him.
LHU	204	4	As the shepherd goes before his sheep, himself first encountering the perils of the way, so does Jesus with His people. "When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them." The way to heaven is consecrated by the Saviour's footprints. The path may be steep and rugged, but Jesus has traveled that way; His feet have pressed down the cruel thorns, to make the pathway easier for us. Every burden that we are called to bear He Himself has borne.
LHU	204	5	Though now He has ascended to the presence of God, and shares the throne of the universe, Jesus has lost none of His compassionate nature. Today the same tender, sympathizing heart is open to all the woes of humanity. Today the hand that was pierced is reached for to bless more abundantly His people that are in the world. "And they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
LHU	204	6	The soul that has given himself to Christ is more precious in His sight than the whole world. The Saviour would have passed through the agony of Calvary that one might be saved in His kingdom. He will never abandon one for whom He has died. Unless His followers choose to leave Him, He will hold them fast.
LHU	204	7	Through all of our trials we have a never-failing Helper. He does not leave us alone to struggle with temptation, to battle with evil, and be finally crushed with burdens and sorrow. Though now He is hidden from mortal sight, the ear of faith can hear His voice saying, "Fear not; I am with you." "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore" (Revelation 1:18) (The Desire of Ages, 480-483).
------------------------The Shepherd Gave His Life for the Sheep, July 10
LHU	205	1	I know my sheep and my sheep know me--just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10:14, 15, NIV.
LHU	205	2	I have endured your sorrows, experienced your struggles, encountered your temptations. I know your tears; I also have wept. The griefs that lie too deep to be breathed into any human ear, I know. Think not that you are desolate and forsaken. Though your pain touch no responsive chord in any heart on earth, look unto Me, and live. "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee" (Isaiah 54:10).
LHU	205	3	However much a shepherd may love his sheep, he loves his sons and daughters more. Jesus is not only our shepherd; He is our "everlasting Father." And He says, "I know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father" (John 10:14, 15, RV). What a statement is this! The only-begotten Son, He who is in the bosom of the Father, He whom God has declared to be "the man that is my fellow" (Zechariah 13:7)--the communion between Him and the eternal God is taken to represent the communion between Christ and His children on the earth!
LHU	205	4	Because we are the gift of His Father, and the reward of His work, Jesus loves us. He loves us as His children. Reader, He loves you. Heaven itself can bestow nothing greater, nothing better. Therefore trust.
LHU	205	5	Jesus thought upon the souls all over the earth who were misled by false shepherds. Those whom He longed to gather as the sheep of His pasture were scattered among wolves, and He said, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall become one flock, one shepherd" (John 10:16, RV).
LHU	205	6	"Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." That is, My Father has so loved you, that He even loves Me more for giving My life to redeem you. In becoming your substitute and surety, by surrendering My life, by taking your liabilities, your transgressions, I am endeared to My Father....
LHU	205	7	While as a member of the human family He was mortal, as God He was the fountain of life for the world. He could have withstood the advances of death, and refused to come under its dominion; but voluntarily He laid down His life, that He might bring life and immortality to light. He bore the sin of the world, endured its curse, yielded up His life as a sacrifice, that men might not eternally die. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4) (The Desire of Ages, 483, 484).
------------------------The Lost Sheep, July 11
LHU	206	1	Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. Luke 15:6.
LHU	206	2	I was referred to the parable of the lost sheep. The ninety and nine sheep are left in the wilderness, and search is instituted for the one that has strayed. When the lost sheep is found, the shepherd elevates it to his shoulder and returns with rejoicing. He does not return murmuring and censuring the poor lost sheep for having made him so much trouble, but his return with the burden of the sheep is with rejoicing.
LHU	206	3	And a still greater demonstration of joy is demanded. Friends and neighbors are called to rejoice with the finder, "for I have found my sheep which was lost." The finding was the theme of rejoicing; the straying was not dwelt upon; for the joy of finding overbalanced the sorrow of the loss and the care, the perplexity and the peril, incurred in searching for the lost sheep and restoring it to safety. "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance" (Luke 15:7) (Testimonies for the Church 3:99).
LHU	206	4	Jesus has given the parable of the lost sheep for our study. The true Shepherd leaves the ninety and nine, and goes into the desert at any expense and suffering to Himself.... How many of the wandering and lost sheep have you sought for, and brought back to the fold with a heart full of pitying tenderness, forgiveness, and love? How many words of encouragement have you spoken to the wandering sheep, that have cost you pain, anxiety, and much inconvenience? ... Have you spoken soothing words of hope, courage, and pardon, bearing the wanderer home on your shoulders, rejoicing at every step, and saying, "Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost"? ...
LHU	206	5	Study the life and character of Christ, and seek to imitate His example. The unconsecrated course of some of those who claim to be believers in the third angel's message has resulted in driving some of the poor sheep into the desert; and who is it that has manifested a shepherd's care for the lost and wandering? Is it not time to be Christians in practice as well as profession? What benevolence, what compassion, what tender sympathy, Jesus has manifested toward suffering humanity! The heart that beats in unison with His great heart of infinite love will give sympathy to every needy soul, and will make it manifest that he has the mind of Christ.... Every suffering soul has a claim upon the sympathy of others, and those who are imbued with the love of Christ, filled with His pity, tenderness, and compassion, will respond to every appeal to their sympathy.... Every soul who attempts to retrace his wanderings and return to God needs the help of those who have a tender, pitying heart of Christlike love (The Review and Herald, October 16, 1894).
------------------------Estimate of a Lost Sheep, July 12
LHU	207	1	Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us. 1 John 4:10.
LHU	207	2	The Pharisees said that if Jesus were a true prophet, He would harmonize with them, and voice their precepts and maxims, and treat the wretched publicans and sinners as they treated them. In giving His Son to die for the sins of the world, the Lord God made manifest what was the estimate He placed upon men; for in giving Jesus to the world, He gave heaven's best gift. For this costly sacrifice the most profound gratitude is demanded from every soul. Whatever may be the nation, kindred, or tongue, whether a man is white or black, he still bears the image of God, and "the proper study of mankind is man," viewed from the fact that he is the purchase of the blood of Christ. To show contempt for, to manifest hatred toward any nation, is to reveal the characteristic of Satan.
LHU	207	3	God has placed His estimate upon man in giving Jesus to a life of humiliation, poverty, and self-sacrifice, to contempt, rejection, and death, in order that man, His lost sheep, might be saved. Is it then a remarkable thing that all heaven is interested in the ransom of man? Is it a wonderful fact that ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of angels are employed in ascending and descending on the mystic ladder to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation? Angels do not come to the earth to denounce and to destroy, to rule and to exact homage, but are messengers of mercy to cooperate with the Captain of the Lord's host, to cooperate with the human agents who shall go forth to seek and save the lost sheep. Angels are commanded to encamp round about those who fear and love God.
LHU	207	4	The sympathy of all heaven is enlisted on behalf of the sheep that is wandering far from the fold. If the Pharisees had been working in harmony with God, in place of uniting with the adversary of God and man, they would not have been found despising the purchase of the blood of Christ. As the delusions of Satan are broken from human minds, as the sinner looks to Calvary, and sees the costly offering that has been given to save an apostate and ruined race, he contemplates and is deeply moved by the love of God, and becomes repentant. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us."
LHU	207	5	Oh, that we might comprehend the love of God, and even to a faint degree take in the compassion that has been manifested toward fallen man! How would we look and live! By beholding Christ man becomes changed and transformed in character from glory to glory. The conflict between light and darkness is entered upon. Look, poor sinner, represented by the lost sheep after whom the shepherd is seeking, look to the cross! ... In the poor blind man restored to sight by the compassionate Shepherd was one whom the self-righteous Pharisees thought only worthy of ... hatred (The Signs of the Times, November 20, 1893).
------------------------Christ Came to Seek the Lost Sheep, July 13
LHU	208	1	I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Luke 5:32.
LHU	208	2	While on earth, Christ accomplished the work for which He left the throne of God in heaven. He worked for humanity, that through His work, humanity might be elevated in the scale of moral value with God. He assumed human nature, that He might elevate the human family, make them partakers of the divine nature, and place them on vantage ground with God. His every action had been in behalf of the fallen world--to seek the sheep that had strayed from the fold, and bring it back to God....
LHU	208	3	The Lord saw us in a sad condition, and sent to our world the only Messenger that He could trust with His great treasure of pardon and grace. Christ, the only begotten Son of God, was the delegated messenger. He was ordained to do a work that even the angels of heaven could not accomplish. He alone could be trusted to do the work required for the redemption of a world all seared and marred with the curse. And in this gift the Father gave all heaven to the world.
LHU	208	4	What a change was this for the Son of God, Him who was the adored of angels, the Light of heaven! He might have gone to the pleasant homes of the unfallen worlds, to the pure atmosphere where disloyalty and rebellion had never intruded; and there He would have been received with acclamations of praise and love. But it was a fallen world that needed the Redeemer. "I came not to call the righteous," said He, "but sinners to repentance." He came to represent the Father in bringing the message of hope and salvation to our world. He lived not for Himself; He did not consult His own ease and pleasure; He did not yield to temptation; and He condescended to die in order that sinful men might be redeemed, and live eternally in the mansions He was to prepare for them. His mission was to teach souls who were dying in their sins.
LHU	208	5	This work Christ has laid upon every one whom He has purchased. The Lord will give ample light to all who will be true and loyal to Him.... His mercy and the gracious influences of His Spirit remain the same for all who will receive them. His offer of salvation does not change. It is man who changes His relationship to God. Many place themselves where they cannot recognize His grace and His salvation....
LHU	208	6	God has left nothing undone that He could do for us. He gave a perfect example of His character in the character of His Son; and it is the work of Christ's followers, as they behold the incomparable excellency of His life and character, to grow in His likeness. As they look unto Jesus and respond to His love, they will reflect the image of Christ (The Review and Herald, February 15, 1898).
------------------------The Lost Sheep a Special Burden, July 14
LHU	209	1	What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? Luke 15:4.
LHU	209	2	It is important work to deal with human minds. Man is God's property, and angels are looking with intense interest to see how man will deal with his fellowman. When heavenly intelligences see those who claim to be the sons and daughters of God putting forth Christlike efforts to help the erring, manifesting a tender, sympathetic spirit for the repentant and the fallen, angels press close to them, and bring to their remembrance the very words that will soothe and uplift the soul. Holy angels are on the track of every one of us. We are not to despise the least of God's little ones, not to exact homage for anyone toward ourselves. The angels are all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. Shall we be privileged to cooperate with heavenly intelligences? Will God accept us as light bearers to the world?
LHU	209	3	Jesus Christ has taken the position of one who came to seek and to save that which is lost, and He has exalted the world inasmuch as He died to redeem it, to bring back the one lost sheep to the fold. Jesus has given His precious life, His personal attention, to the least of God's little ones; and angels that excel in strength encamp round about them that fear God. Then let us be upon our guard, and never permit one contemptuous thought to occupy the mind in regard to one of the little ones of God. We should look after the erring with solicitude, and speak encouraging words to the fallen, and fear lest by some unwise action we shall turn them away from the pitying Saviour.
LHU	209	4	Those who love Jesus will love those for whom Christ died. If many of the sinners that are around us had received the light which has blessed us, they would have rejoiced in the truth, and have been in advance of many that have had a long experience and great advantages. Take these lost sheep as your special burden, and watch for souls as they that must give an account. Draw not a glance to yourself, but cry with earnest, heartfelt interest, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." This is the Christian's message to the world. This is the effective argument. Encourage your heart to put forth earnest endeavors to induce perishing souls to fix their eyes upon Him who was uplifted upon the cross; and remember that as you do this, unseen angels are ... impressing it upon the heart, and leading the soul to believe in Jesus. The sinner is enabled to see Jesus as He is--full of compassion, pity, and love--and he exclaims, "Thy gentleness hath made me great" (Psalm 18:35) (The Review and Herald, June 30, 1896).
------------------------Finding the Lost Sheep, July 15
LHU	210	1	And if so be that he find [the lost sheep], verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Matthew 18:13.
LHU	210	2	Jesus would impress upon the hearts and minds of His disciples the value of the human soul. He demands cooperation on the part of His followers in rescuing lost sinners. There is one lost sheep, the very least that could be numbered; and yet He represents the shepherd as leaving the ninety and nine, and going into the mountains to seek that one lost wanderer. Then why is it that the sons and daughters of God are so cold of heart, so indifferent to the souls that are perishing around them? Why is it that the members of the church are so willing to let the whole burden rest upon the shoulders of the minister? How great a mistake is this, since every subject of grace is to have a part to act in saving those that are lost.
LHU	210	3	To every man Christ has given his work, and personal efforts must be put forth to save the perishing. The worker must be much in secret prayer; for this work requires great wisdom in the science of saving souls. Christ said, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." He said also to His disciples, "Ye are the light of the world." He made the church the depositary of sacred truth. He left His church a stewardship of sacred truth, and it is the work of the church to carry forward His mission of saving the world. He is the Sun of Righteousness, who is to impart bright rays to His followers; and they, in turn, are to shed His light upon others. They are to be His representatives to the world. Believing in Christ as their personal Saviour, they take up the work where He left it. "Without me ye can do nothing," said Christ; but with Him we can do all things. There is a large, a very large number of straying and lost sheep that have perished in the wild deserts of sin, simply because no one went after them, to search for them and to bring them back to the fold. Jesus uses the illustration of a lost sheep to show the need of seeking after those who have wandered from Him; for a sheep once lost will never find its way back to the fold without help. It must be sought for, it must be carried back to the fold.
LHU	210	4	All heaven is interested in the work of saving the lost. Angels watch with intense interest to see who will leave the ninety and nine, and go out in tempest and storm and rain into the wild desert to seek the lost sheep. The lost are all around us, perishing and sadly neglected. But they are of value to God, the purchase of the blood of Christ.... We are to seek to save those that are lost. We are to search for the one lost sheep, and bring him back to the fold; and this represents personal effort (The Review and Herald, June 30, 1896).
------------------------True Sheep Hear the True Shepherd, July 16
LHU	211	1	And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. John 10:16.
LHU	211	2	The truth should be presented with divine tact, gentleness, and tenderness. It should come from a heart that has been softened and made sympathetic.... Let our words be gentle as we seek to win souls. God will be wisdom to him who seeks for wisdom from a divine source. We are to seek opportunities on every hand, we are to watch unto prayer, and be ready always to give a reason for the hope that is in us, with meekness and fear. Lest we shall impress unfavorably one soul for whom Christ died we should keep our hearts uplifted to God, so that when the opportunity presents itself, we may have the right words to speak at the right time. If you thus undertake work for God, the Spirit of God will be your helper. The Holy Spirit will apply the word spoken in love for the soul. The truth will have quickening power when spoken under the influence of the grace of Christ.
LHU	211	3	God's plan is first to get at the heart. Speak the truth, and let Him carry forward the reformatory power and principle. Make no reference to what opponents say, but let the truth alone be advanced. The truth can cut to the quick. Plainly unfold the Word in all its impressiveness.
LHU	211	4	As trials thicken around us, both separation and unity will be seen in our ranks. Some who are now ready to take up weapons of warfare will in time of real peril make it manifest that they have not built upon the solid rock; they will yield to temptation. Those who have had great light and precious privileges, but have not improved them, will, under one pretext or another, go out from us. Not having received the love of the truth, they will be taken in the delusions of the enemy; they will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and will depart from the faith.
LHU	211	5	But, on the other hand, when the storm of persecution really breaks upon us, the true sheep will hear the true Shepherd's voice. Self-denying efforts will be put forth to save the lost, and many who have strayed from the fold will come back to follow the great Shepherd. The people of God will draw together and present to the enemy a united front. In view of the common peril, strife for supremacy will cease; there will be no disputing as to who shall be accounted greatest. No one of the true believers will say: "I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas." The testimony of one and all will be: "I cleave unto Christ; I rejoice in Him as my personal Saviour"....
LHU	211	6	The love of Christ, the love of our brethren, will testify to the world that we have been with Jesus and learned of Him. Then will the message of the third angel swell to a loud cry, and the whole earth will be lightened with the glory of the Lord (Testimonies for the Church 6:400, 401).
------------------------Joy Over One Sinner that Repenteth, July 17
LHU	212	1	I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Luke 15:7.
LHU	212	2	Jesus, the Son of the Highest, is combating the powers of Satan, who is laying every possible device whereby he may counteract the work of God. The prize for which the powers of light and darkness are contending is the soul of man. The Good Shepherd is seeking His sheep, and what self-denial, what hardships, what privations He endures! The undershepherds know something of the stern conflict, but little in comparison to what is endured by the Shepherd of the sheep. With what compassion, what sorrow, what persistence, He seeks the lost! How few realize what desperate efforts are put forth by Satan to defeat the Shepherd's purpose. When the Shepherd at last finds His lost sheep, He gathers it in His arms with rejoicing, and bears it back to the fold on His shoulders. And the harps of heaven are touched, and an anthem of rejoicing is sung over the ransom of the wandering and lost sheep. "Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance."...
LHU	212	3	The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. A lost sheep never finds its way back to the fold of itself. If it is not sought for and saved by the watchful shepherd, it wanders until it perishes. What a representation of the Saviour is this! Unless Jesus, the Good Shepherd, had come to seek and to save the wandering, we should have perished. The Pharisees had taught that none but the Jewish nation would be saved, and they treated all other nationalities with contempt. But Jesus attracted the attention of those that the Pharisees despised, and He treated them with consideration and courtesy....
LHU	212	4	"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This love on behalf of man, expressed in the gift of His only-begotten Son, called forth from Satan the most intense hatred, both toward the Giver and toward the priceless Gift. Satan had represented the Father to the world in a false light, and by this great Gift his representations were proved untrue, for here was love without a parallel, proving that man was to be redeemed by an inconceivable cost. Satan had tried to obliterate the image of God in man in order that as God looked upon him in his wretchedness, in his perverseness, in his degradation, He might be induced to give him up as hopelessly lost. But the Lord gave His only begotten Son in order that the most sinful, the most degraded, need not perish, but, by believing on Jesus Christ, may be reclaimed, regenerated, and restored to the image of God, and thus have eternal life (The Signs of the Times, November 20, 1893).
------------------------We are Undershepherds, July 18
LHU	213	1	Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Matthew 7:15.
LHU	213	2	The less you meditate upon Christ and His matchless love and the less you are assimilated to His image, the better will you appear in your own eyes, and the more self-confidence and self-complacency will you possess. A correct knowledge of Christ, a constant looking unto the Author and Finisher of our faith, will give you such a view of the character of a true Christian that you cannot fail to make a right estimate of your own life and character in contrast with those of the great Exemplar....
LHU	213	3	The fitting up for your work is a life business, a daily, laborious, hand-to-hand struggle with established habits, inclinations, and hereditary tendencies. It requires a constant, earnest, and vigilant effort to watch and control self, to keep Jesus prominent and self out of sight.
LHU	213	4	It is necessary for you to watch for the weak points in your character, to restrain wrong tendencies, and to strengthen and develop noble faculties that have not been properly exercised. The world will never know the work secretly going on between the soul and God, nor the inward bitterness of spirit, the self-loathing, and the constant efforts to control self; but many of the world will be able to appreciate the result of these efforts. They will see Christ revealed in your daily life. You will be a living epistle, known and read of all men, and will possess a symmetrical character, nobly developed.
LHU	213	5	"Learn of me," said Christ; "for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." He will instruct those who come to Him for knowledge. There are multitudes of false teachers in the world. The apostle declares that in the last days men will "heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears," because they desire to hear smooth things. Against these Christ has warned us: "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits." The class of religious teachers here described profess to be Christians. They have the form of godliness and appear to be laboring for the good of souls.... They are in conflict with Christ and His teachings, and are destitute of His meek and lowly spirit....
LHU	213	6	The Good Shepherd came to seek and to save that which was lost. He has manifested in His works His love for His sheep. All the shepherds who work under the Chief Shepherd will possess His characteristics; they will be meek and lowly of heart. Childlike faith brings rest to the soul and also works by love and is ever interested for others. If the Spirit of Christ dwells in them, they will be Christlike and do the works of Christ (Testimonies for the Church 4:375-377).
------------------------Brought Back by the Shepherd, July 19
LHU	214	1	As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. Ezekiel 34:12.
LHU	214	2	The sheep that has strayed from the fold is the most helpless of all creatures. It must be sought for by the shepherd, for it cannot find its way back. So with the soul that has wandered away from God; he is as helpless as the lost sheep, and unless divine love had come to his rescue he could never find his way to God.
LHU	214	3	The shepherd who discovers that one of his sheep is missing does not look carelessly upon the flock that is safely housed, and say, "I have ninety and nine, and it will cost me too much trouble to go in search of the straying one. Let him come back, and I will open the door of the sheepfold, and let him in." No; no sooner does the sheep go astray than the shepherd is filled with grief and anxiety. He counts and recounts the flock. When he is sure that one sheep is lost, he slumbers not. He leaves the ninety and nine within the fold, and goes in search of the straying sheep. The darker and more tempestuous the night and the more perilous the way, the greater is the shepherd's anxiety and the more earnest his search. He makes every effort to find that one lost sheep.
LHU	214	4	With what relief he hears in the distance its first faint cry. Following the sound, he climbs the steepest heights, he goes to the very edge of the precipice, at the risk of his own life. Thus he searches, while the cry, growing fainter, tells him that his sheep is ready to die. At last his effort is rewarded; the lost is found. Then he does not scold it because it has caused him so much trouble. He does not drive it with a whip. He does not even try to lead it home. In his joy he takes the trembling creature upon his shoulders; if it is bruised and wounded, he gathers it in his arms, pressing it close to his bosom, that the warmth of his own heart may give it life. With gratitude that his search has not been in vain, he bears it back to the fold.
LHU	214	5	Thank God, He has presented to our imagination no picture of a sorrowful shepherd returning without the sheep. The parable does not speak of failure but of success and joy in the recovery. Here is the divine guarantee that not even one of the straying sheep of God's fold is overlooked, not one is left unsuccored. Every one that will submit to be ransomed, Christ will rescue from the pit of corruption and from the briers of sin (Christ's Object Lessons, 187, 188).
------------------------The Sheep of His Pasture, July 20
LHU	215	1	The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. Psalm 23:1, 2.
LHU	215	2	As Jesus, the great Teacher, presents His lessons to be learned from the open book of nature, He opens the eye of their understanding to reveal the attention that is given to objects in proportion to the rank they occupy in the scale of creation. If the grass of the field, which today is so beautiful, delighting the senses, [and] is tomorrow cut down and burned, receives so great attention from God, how much more will He not bestow upon man formed in His image. We cannot form exaggerated ideas of the value of the human soul, and the attention given by Heaven to man. He then gives the comforting assurance, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
LHU	215	3	Jesus is the good Shepherd. His followers are the sheep of His pasture. A shepherd is always with his flock to defend them, to keep them from the wolves, to hunt up the lost sheep and carry them back to the fold, to lead them beside green pastures and beside living waters.
LHU	215	4	I cannot neglect the great salvation that has been brought to me at such an infinite cost to my heavenly Father, who "so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I will not dishonor my Redeemer to lightly esteem His sufferings, His trials, His condescension, His sacrifice, His death, because He so loves us, He would Himself become our sin-bearer. Oh, what love, what inexpressible love! He became a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He died on the cross [as if He were] a transgressor, that man might be justified through His merits....
LHU	215	5	The soul is through the Lifegiver capable of living through eternal ages, and man is to take special care of the soul which Christ has purchased with His own blood. With Christ is Omnipotence. He also is able to keep that which I have committed to His trust against that day. If the preciousness of the soul has not been appreciated, if its temple courts have been defiled with buyers and sellers, and with committing it to the rule and indwelling of Satan in thought or in feeling, I would in deep earnestness beseech you to make no delay, but come before God in sincere prayer without one moment's speculation or hesitation, and say, "O Lord, I have opened the door of my heart to Thy worst enemy, and the worst enemy of my soul. I have acted as though I could save my own soul, as if I could sin and then reform when I choose to do so; but I find a power holding me in his keeping. Thou alone can save me that my soul shall not be eternally ruined.... No longer will I withhold it from Thee. I dare not trust it with any power but Thine.... I lay it at Thy feet. Thou Lamb of God, wash my soul in the blood of the Lamb; clothe it with Thine own garments of purity and righteousness (Manuscript 73, 1893).
------------------------"What More Could I Have Done?", July 21
LHU	216	1	Last of all he sent unto them his son. Matthew 21:37.
LHU	216	2	Is there no power that can take hold of our sensibilities and show us that we are near the verge of the eternal world? Can we not get our minds on the other side? What can be done to arouse our people? Why, these light afflictions, how we talk about them. Hear what Paul says about them: "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17). Would you consider that to be beaten with rods, to be a night and a day in the deep, suffer with hunger, cold, nakedness, and all these things--and worst of all from false brethren--were light afflictions? But he says, These light afflictions....
LHU	216	3	There is too much self. We want self to die and be hid in Christ Jesus, then we will not talk of discouragement and difficulties and all these small things, but we will talk of the great plan of redemption and the matchless power of Jesus Christ to come to our world and take upon Him human nature that we through Him might be elevated and have a seat at His right hand. What could be more pleasant than that?
LHU	216	4	If this is not enough, what more could heaven do for the fallen race than has been done? "What more," says Christ, "could I do for My sheep than that I have done?" What more? Will He have to let us go? He will unless you change your attitude toward God, for He has done all He could to save us. According to the light that we have received, so is our accountability before God. Walk in the light as He is in the light....
LHU	216	5	Evil surmising and evil speaking will be put away. You will talk and we will not be thinking of ourselves and what others are doing, but what God and Jesus are doing.... What are they doing? They are cleansing the sanctuary.... We should be with Him in this work and be cleansing the sanctuary of our souls of all unrighteousness, that our names may be written in the Lamb's book of life, that our sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. It is the most solemn work that was ever given to mortals.
LHU	216	6	You have no time to be exalting self, but [only to] lift Jesus up. Oh, lift Him up! How can we do this? How can we [be] seeking all the time to be saving ourselves, and exalting ourselves? ... Says the shepherd of the flock, "Who does He mean--ministers? No. Everyone who has named the name of Christ, who has tasted and knows that the Lord is good....
LHU	216	7	God will put His power on you, and combine His divine with our human efforts, and we can work out our salvation with fear and trembling. That is a power that Satan cannot resist or overthrow (Manuscript 26, 1888).
------------------------Feeding the Flock, July 22
LHU	217	1	And they went ... unto the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks. And they found fat pasture and good, and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceable. 1 Chronicles 4:39, 40.
LHU	217	2	God's word is true philosophy, true science. Human opinions and sensational preaching amount to very little. Those who are imbued with the word of God will teach it in the same simple way that Christ taught it. The world's greatest Teacher used the simplest language and the plainest symbols.
LHU	217	3	The Lord calls upon His shepherds to feed the flock with pure provender. He would have them present the truth in its simplicity. When this work is faithfully done, many will be convicted and converted by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is need of Bible teachers who will come close to the unconverted, who will search for the lost sheep, who will do personal labor, and will give clear, definite instruction.
LHU	217	4	Never utter sentiments of doubt. Christ's teaching was always positive in its nature. With a tone of assurance bear an affirmative message. Lift up the Man of Calvary higher and still higher; there is power in the exaltation of the cross of Christ.
LHU	217	5	It is the student's privilege to have clear and accurate ideas of the truth of the Word, that he may be prepared to present these truths to other minds. He should be rooted and grounded in the faith. Students should be led to think for themselves, to see the force of truth for themselves, and to speak every word from a heart full of love and tenderness. Urge upon their minds the vital truths of the Bible. Let them repeat these truths in their own language, that you may be sure that they clearly comprehend them. Be sure that every point is fastened upon the mind. This may be a slow process, but it is of 10 times more value than rushing over important subjects without giving them due consideration. It is not enough that the student believe the truth for himself. He must be drawn out to state this truth clearly in his own words, that it may be evident that he sees the force of the lesson and makes its application....
LHU	217	6	Never forget that the greatest lesson to be taught and to be learned is the lesson of copartnership with Christ in the work of salvation. The education to be secured by searching the Scriptures is an experimental knowledge of the plan of salvation. Such an education will restore the image of God in the soul. It will strengthen and fortify the mind against temptation, and fit the learner to become a worker with Christ in His mission of mercy to the world. It will make him a member of the heavenly family, prepare him to share the inheritance of the saints in light.... The Bible becomes a lesson book such as God designed it to be, giving clear conceptions to those who strive to grasp its grand and glorious truths.... There is shed into the mind a flood of light (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 433-437).
------------------------Special Care of the Flock, July 23
LHU	218	1	Know ye that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:3.
LHU	218	2	[Jesus] knows the wants of each of His creatures and reads the hidden, unspoken grief of every heart. If one of the little ones for whom He died is injured, He sees it and calls the offender to account. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He cares for His feeble, sickly, wandering sheep. He knows them all by name. The distress of every sheep and every lamb of His flock touches His heart of sympathizing love, and the cry for aid reaches His ear. One of the greatest sins of the shepherds of Israel is thus pointed out by the prophet: "The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd.... None did search or seek after them"....
LHU	218	3	As Deity He exerts mighty power in our behalf, while as our Elder Brother He feels for all our woes. The Majesty of heaven held not Himself aloof from degraded, sinful humanity. We have not a high priest who is so high, so lifted up, that He cannot notice us or sympathize with us, but one who was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin....
LHU	218	4	You will have many perplexities to meet in your Christian life in connection with the church, but do not try too hard to mold your brethren. If you see that they do not meet the requirements of God's Word, do not condemn; if they provoke, do not retaliate. When things are said that would exasperate, quietly keep your soul from fretting.... You must labor for the erring with a heart subdued, softened by the Spirit of God, and let the Lord work through you, the agent. Roll your burden on Jesus. You feel that the Lord must take up the case where Satan is striving for the mastery over some soul; but you are to do what you can in humility and meekness, and put the tangled work, the complicated matters, into the hands of God. Follow the directions in His word, and leave the outcome of the matter to His wisdom. Having done all you can to save your brother, cease worrying, and go calmly about other pressing duties. It is no longer your matter, but God's.
LHU	218	5	Do not, through impatience, cut the knot of difficulty, making matters hopeless. Let God untangle the snarled-up threads for you. He is wise enough to manage the complications of our lives. He has skill and tact. We cannot always see His plans; we must wait patiently their unfolding and not mar and destroy them. He will reveal them to us in His own good time. Seek for unity; cultivate love and conformity to Christ in all things. He is the source of unity and strength.... If you do as God would have you, His blessing will come into the church (Testimonies for the Church 5:346-348).
------------------------The Gentle and Caring Shepherd, July 24
LHU	219	1	He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom. Isaiah 40:11.
LHU	219	2	True workers walk and work by faith. Sometimes they grow weary with watching the slow advance of the work when the battle wages strong between the powers of good and evil. But if they refuse to fail or be discouraged they will see the clouds breaking away and the promise of deliverance fulfilling. Through the mist with which Satan has surrounded them, they will see the shining of the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
LHU	219	3	Work in faith, and leave results with God. Pray in faith, and the mystery of His providence will bring its answer. At times it may seem that you cannot succeed. But work and believe, putting into your efforts faith, hope, and courage. After doing what you can, wait for the Lord, declaring His faithfulness, and He will bring His word to pass. Wait, not in fretful anxiety, but in undaunted faith and unshaken trust.
LHU	219	4	"If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:31, 32) (Testimonies for the Church 7:245).
LHU	219	5	Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing. Those who accept the one principle of making the service of God supreme will find perplexities vanish and a plain path before their feet.
LHU	219	6	The faithful discharge of today's duties is the best preparation for tomorrow's trials. Do not gather together all tomorrow's liabilities and cares and add them to the burden of today....
LHU	219	7	Let us be hopeful and courageous. Despondency in God's service is sinful and unreasonable. He knows our every necessity. To the omnipotence of the King of kings our covenant-keeping God unites the gentleness and care of the tender shepherd. His power is absolute, and it is the pledge of the sure fulfillment of His promises to all who trust in Him. He has means for the removal of every difficulty, that those who serve Him and respect the means He employs may be sustained. His love is as far above all other love as the heavens are above the earth. He watches over His children with a love that is measureless and everlasting.
LHU	219	8	In the darkest days, when appearances seem most forbidding, have faith in God. He is working out His will, doing all things well in behalf of His people. The strength of those who love and serve Him will be renewed day by day.
LHU	219	9	He is able and willing to bestow upon His servants all the help they need. He will give them the wisdom which their varied necessities demand (The Ministry of Healing, 481, 482).
------------------------The Tenderness of the Shepherd, July 25
LHU	220	1	And when he has found [the sheep], he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. Luke 15:5, RSV.
LHU	220	2	In the commission to His disciples, Christ not only outlined their work, but gave them their message. Teach the people, He said, "to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." The disciples were to teach what Christ had taught. That which He had spoken, not only in person, but through all the prophets and teachers of the Old Testament, is here included. Human teaching is shut out. There is no place for tradition, for man's theories and conclusions, or for church legislation. No laws ordained by ecclesiastical authority are included in the commission. None of these are Christ's servants to teach. "The law and the prophets," with the record of His own words and deeds, are the treasure committed to the disciples to be given to the world. Christ's name is their watchword, their badge of distinction, their bond of union, the authority for their course of action, and the source of their success. Nothing that does not bear His superscription is to be recognized in His kingdom.
LHU	220	3	The gospel is to be presented, not as a lifeless theory, but as a living force to change the life. God desires that the receivers of His grace shall be witnesses to its power. Those whose course has been most offensive to Him He freely accepts; when they repent, He imparts to them His divine Spirit, places them in the highest positions of trust, and sends them forth into the camp of the disloyal to proclaim His boundless mercy. He would have His servants bear testimony to the fact that through His grace men may possess Christlikeness of character, and may rejoice in the assurance of His great love. He would have us bear testimony to the fact that He cannot be satisfied until the human race are reclaimed and reinstated in their holy privileges as His sons and daughters.
LHU	220	4	In Christ is the tenderness of the shepherd, the affection of the parent, and the matchless grace of the compassionate Saviour. His blessings He presents in the most alluring terms. He is not content merely to announce these blessings; He presents them in the most attractive way, to excite a desire to possess them. So His servants are to present the riches of the glory of the unspeakable Gift. The wonderful love of Christ will melt and subdue hearts, when the mere reiteration of doctrines would accomplish nothing.... Christ is sitting for His portrait in every disciple. Every one God has predestinated to be "conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29). In every one Christ's long-suffering love, His holiness, meekness, mercy, and truth are to be manifested to the world (The Desire of Ages, 826, 827).
------------------------Christ is Everything to Those Who Receive Him, July 26
LHU	221	1	My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27.
LHU	221	2	The transformation of the human character makes the yoke of Christ easy, and His burden light. Through faith everyone can, if he will become one with Christ in his obedience and his service.
LHU	221	3	It is God's prerogative to command; it is the duty of man to obey. Nothing is forced upon any soul. The honor of duty is a thing conferred upon him as a Son of God, an heir of heaven. He is to labor for God in interested, truehearted, glad, honorable service. In obeying all His commandments, a spirit of love for God is revealed. In this very atmosphere of love Christ lived and worked.
LHU	221	4	Each word, each action, is a work for God. Here is faith in God, and faith in men. Christ would never have given His life for the human race if He had not faith in the souls for whom He died. He knew that a large number would respond to the love He had expressed for humanity. It is not every heart that responds, but every heart may, and can if it will, respond to that love that is without parallel. "My sheep hear my voice," Christ said. A heart yearning for God will recognize the voice of God. God cannot respond to one soul that does not respond to His grace offered, His love bestowed. He is waiting for a response from souls....
LHU	221	5	The issue rests wholly with themselves. He bids them to the marriage feast; He sets before them the banquet that will satisfy every want. His word is full of marrow and fatness. "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."... Then the Lord will give an outpouring of His Spirit as on the day of Pentecost....
LHU	221	6	Communion with God is for each one personal and direct. The heart under the guidance of the Holy Spirit will burn within them with the love of God. They are like trustful children. Christ looks not for merit. O if all would come just as they are, and let Him make the preparation in taking them as His. The Lord only wants them to receive Him and learn to wear His yoke, and lift His burdens, that heaven may behold that they are laborers together with God. Why cannot every soul that needs help and rest come to the burden bearer, that he may have light and life.
LHU	221	7	Christ could not help being bright and shining. His very work was to shine. I am come, He said, "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." In Me is no darkness at all.... Light means revelation, and the light is to shine amid moral darkness. Christ is everything to those who receive Him. He is their Comforter, their safety, their healthfulness. Apart from Christ there is no light at all. There need not be a cloud between the soul and Jesus.... His great heart of love is longing to flood the soul with the bright beams of His righteousness (Letter 153a, 1897).
------------------------The Shepherd Calls His Sheep by Name, July 27
LHU	222	1	He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.... The sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. John 10:2, 3.
LHU	222	2	The path of the upright is the path of peace. It is so plain that the humble, God-fearing man can walk in it without stumbling and without making crooked paths. It is a narrow path; but men of different temperaments can walk side by side if they but follow the Captain of their salvation. Those who wish to carry along all their evil traits and selfish habits cannot walk in this path, for it is too straight and narrow.
LHU	222	3	What pains the Great Shepherd takes to call His sheep by name and invite them to follow in His footsteps. He seeks the wandering. He flashes the light from His Word to show them their peril. He speaks to them from heaven in warning and reproofs, and in invitations to return to the right path. He seeks to help the erring by His presence and to lift them when they fall. But many have followed the path of sin so long that they will not hear the voice of Jesus. They leave all that can give them rest and security, yield themselves up to a false guide, and presumptuously hurry on in blind self-confidence, going further and further from light and peace, from happiness and rest....
LHU	222	4	The cross of Christ is our only hope. It reveals to us the greatness of our Father's love and the fact that the Majesty of heaven submitted to insult, mockery, humiliation, and suffering for the joy of seeing perishing souls saved in His kingdom. If you love your children, let it be your chief study to prepare them for the future, immortal life.... Work while it is day; redeem the time, and win the crown of immortal glory. Save yourself and your household, for the salvation of the soul is precious (Testimonies for the Church 4:502, 503).
LHU	222	5	Many a husband and father might learn a helpful lesson from the carefulness of the faithful shepherd. Jacob, when urged to undertake a rapid and difficult journey, made answer:
LHU	222	6	"The children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die.... I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure" (Genesis 33:13, 14).
LHU	222	7	In life's toilsome way let the husband and father "lead on softly," as the companion of his journey is able to endure. Amidst the world's eager rush for wealth and power, let him learn to stay his steps, to comfort and support the one who is called to walk by his side (The Ministry of Healing, 374).
------------------------Undershepherds, July 28
LHU	223	1	Feed the flock of God, ... taking the oversight thereof. 1 Peter 5:2.
LHU	223	2	The Great Shepherd has undershepherds, to whom He delegates the care of His sheep and lambs. The first work that Christ entrusted to Peter, on restoring him to the ministry, was to feed the lambs. This was a work in which Peter had had little experience. It would require great care and tenderness, much patience and perseverance. It called him to minister to the children and youth, and to those young in the faith, to teach the ignorant, to open the Scriptures to them, and to educate them for usefulness in Christ's service. Heretofore Peter had not been fitted to do this, or even to understand its importance.
LHU	223	3	The question that Christ put to Peter was significant. He mentioned only one condition of discipleship and service. "Lovest thou me?" He said. This is the essential qualification. Though Peter might possess every other, without the love of Christ he could not be a faithful shepherd over the Lord's flock. Knowledge, benevolence, eloquence, gratitude, and zeal are all aids in the good work; but without the love of Jesus in the heart, the work of the Christian minister will prove a failure.
LHU	223	4	The lesson which Christ taught him by the Sea of Galilee, Peter carried with him through his life. Writing by the Holy Spirit to the churches, he said:
LHU	223	5	"The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away" (1 Peter 5:1-4).
LHU	223	6	The sheep that has strayed from the fold is the most helpless of all creatures. It must be sought for; for it cannot find its way back. So with the soul that has wandered away from God; he is as helpless as the lost sheep; and unless divine love comes to his rescue, he can never find his way to God. Then with what compassion, what sorrow, what persistence, should the undershepherd seek for lost souls! ... This means the bearing of physical discomfort and the sacrifice of ease. It means a tender solicitude for the erring, a divine compassion and forbearance. It means an ear that can listen with sympathy to heartbreaking recitals of wrong, of degradation, of despair and misery.
LHU	223	7	The spirit of the true shepherd is one of self-forgetfulness. He loses sight of self (Gospel Workers, 182-184).
------------------------The Converted Peter, an Undershepherd, July 29
LHU	224	1	When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Luke 22:32.
LHU	224	2	Three times Peter had openly denied his Lord, and three times Jesus drew from him the assurance of his love and loyalty, pressing home that pointed question, like a barbed arrow to his wounded heart. Before the assembled disciples Jesus revealed the depth of Peter's repentance, and showed how thoroughly humbled was the once boasting disciple.
LHU	224	3	Peter was naturally forward and impulsive, and Satan had taken advantage of these characteristics to overthrow him. Just before the fall of Peter, Jesus had said to him, "Satan hath desired to have, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:31, 32). That time had now come, and the transformation in Peter was evident. The close, testing questions of the Lord had not called out one forward, self-sufficient reply; and because of his humiliation and repentance, Peter was better prepared than ever before to act as shepherd to the flock....
LHU	224	4	Before his fall, Peter was always speaking unadvisedly, from the impulse of the moment. He was always ready to correct others, and to express his mind, before he had a clear comprehension of himself or of what he had to say. But the converted Peter was very different. He retained his former fervor, but the grace of Christ regulated his zeal. He was no longer impetuous, self-confident, and self-exalted, but calm, self-possessed, and teachable. He could then feed the lambs as well as the sheep of Christ's flock.
LHU	224	5	The Saviour's manner of dealing with Peter had a lesson for him and for his brethren. It taught them to meet the transgressor with patience, sympathy, and forgiving love. Although Peter had denied his Lord, the love which Jesus bore him never faltered. Just such love should the undershepherd feel for the sheep and lambs committed to his care. Remembering his own weakness and failure, Peter was to deal with his flock as tenderly as Christ had dealt with him....
LHU	224	6	Jesus walked alone with Peter, for there was something which He wished to communicate to him only. Before His death, Jesus had said to him, "Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards." To this Peter had replied, "Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake" (John 13:36, 37).... Peter had failed when the test came, but again he was to have opportunity to prove his love for Christ.... Jesus thus made known to Peter the very manner of his death; He even foretold the stretching forth of his hands upon the cross.... He felt willing to suffer any death for his Lord (The Desire of Ages, 812-815).
------------------------In Meekness Feed the Lambs, July 30
LHU	225	1	And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. James 3:18.
LHU	225	2	The true minister of Christ should be encircled by an atmosphere of spiritual light, because he is connected with the world of light, and walks with Christ, who is the light of the world. Arguments may be resisted, persuasion and entreaty may be scorned, the most eloquent appeals, supported by the rigor of logic, may be disregarded; but a living character of righteousness, a daily piety in the walks of life, an anxiety for the sinner wherever found, the spirit of truth burning in the heart, beaming from the countenance, and breathing from the lips in every word, constitute a sermon which is hard to resist or to set aside, and which makes the strongholds of Satan tremble. Ministers who walk with God are clad with the panoply of heaven, and victory will attend their efforts.
LHU	225	3	Those who are engaged in the great and solemn work of warning the world should not only have an individual experience in the things of God, but they should cultivate love for one another, and should labor to be of one mind, of one judgment, to see eye-to-eye. The absence of this love greatly pleases our wily foe. He is the author of envy, jealousy, hatred, and dissension; and he rejoices to see these vile weeds choke out love, that tender plant of heavenly growth.
LHU	225	4	It does not please God to have His servants censure, criticize, and condemn one another. He has given them a special work, that of standing in defense of the truth. They are His workmen; all should respect them, and they should respect one another.
LHU	225	5	In the army, officers are required to respect their fellow officers, and the privates soon learn the lesson. When the leaders of the people in Christian warfare are kind and forbearing, and manifest a special love and regard for their colaborers, they teach others to do the same.
LHU	225	6	The reputation of a fellow laborer is to be sacredly guarded. If one sees faults in another, he is not to magnify them before others, and make them grievous sins. They may be errors of judgment, that God will give divine grace to overcome. If He had seen that angels, who are perfect, would have done the work for the fallen race better than men, He would have committed it to them. But instead of this He sent the needed assistance by poor, weak, erring mortals, who, having like infirmities as their fellowmen, are best prepared to help them.
LHU	225	7	There was Peter, who denied his Lord.... Before Peter's feet slipped, he had not the spirit of meekness required to feed the lambs; but after he became sensible of his own weakness ... he could come close to their side in tender sympathy, and could help them (Historical Sketches, 120, 121).
------------------------The Voice of the True Shepherd, July 31
LHU	226	1	Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? John 10:32.
LHU	226	2	Jesus declared Himself to be the true shepherd, because He gave His life for the sheep. He says: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."
LHU	226	3	Jesus spoke these words in the hearing of a large concourse of people, and a deep impression was made upon the hearts of many who listened. The scribes and Pharisees were filled with jealousy because He was regarded with favor by many.... While He represented Himself as the True Shepherd, the Pharisees said, "He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?" But others distinguished the voice of the True Shepherd, and said:
LHU	226	4	"These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? ... And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not.... My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.... I and my Father are one."
LHU	226	5	With what firmness and power He uttered these words. The Jews had never before heard such words from human lips, and a convicting influence attended them; for it seemed that divinity flashed through humanity as Jesus said, "I and my Father are one".... Jesus looked upon them calmly and unshrinkingly, and said, "Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me?"
LHU	226	6	The Majesty of heaven stood, calmly assured, as a god before His adversaries. Their scowling faces, their hands filled with stones, did not intimidate Him. He knew that unseen forces, legions of angels, were round about Him, and at one word from His lips they would strike with dismay the throng, should they offer to cast upon Him a single stone. He stood before them undaunted. Why did not the stones fly to the mark? It was because divinity flashed through humanity, and they received a revelation, and were convicted that His were no common claims. The hands relax and the stones fall to the ground. His words had asserted His divinity, but now His personal presence, the light of His eye, the majesty of His attitude, bore witness to the fact that He was the beloved Son of God (The Signs of the Times, November 27, 1893).
------------------------What Matchless Love! August 1
LHU	227	1	You have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Romans 8:15, 16, RSV.
LHU	227	2	While the law of God is maintained, and its justice vindicated, the sinner can be pardoned. The dearest gift that heaven itself had to bestow has been poured out that God "might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." By that gift men are uplifted from the ruin and degradation of sin to become children of God. Says Paul: "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father"....
LHU	227	3	With the beloved John I call upon you to "behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." What love, what matchless love, that, sinners and aliens as we are, we may be brought back to God and adopted into His family! We may address Him by the endearing name, "Our Father," which is a sign of our affection for Him and a pledge of His tender regard and relationship to us. And the Son of God, beholding the heirs of grace, "is not ashamed to call them brethren." They have even a more sacred relationship to God than have the angels who have never fallen.
LHU	227	4	All the paternal love which has come down from generation to generation through the channel of human hearts, all the springs of tenderness which have opened the souls of men, are but as a tiny rill to the boundless ocean when compared with the infinite, exhaustless love of God. Tongue cannot utter it; pen cannot portray it. You may meditate upon it every day of your life; you may search the Scriptures diligently in order to understand it; you may summon every power and capability that God has given you, in the endeavor to comprehend the love and compassion of the heavenly Father; and yet there is an infinity beyond. You may study that love for ages; yet you can never fully comprehend the length and breadth, the depth and the height, of the love of God in giving His Son to die for the world. Eternity itself can never fully reveal it. Yet as we study the Bible and meditate upon the life of Christ and the plan of redemption, these great themes will open to our understanding more and more. And it will be ours to realize the blessing which Paul desired for the Ephesian church when he prayed "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe" (Ephesians 1:17-19) (Testimonies for the Church 5:739, 740).
------------------------Hope and Salvation to the World, August 2
LHU	228	1	They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever. Psalm 125:1, 2.
LHU	228	2	It was the cross, that instrument of shame and torture, which brought hope and salvation to the world. The disciples were but humble men, without wealth, and with no weapon but the word of God; yet in Christ's strength they went forth to tell the wonderful story of the manger and the cross, and to triumph over all opposition. Without earthly honor or recognition, they were heroes of faith. From their lips came words of divine eloquence that shook the world.
LHU	228	3	In Jerusalem, where the deepest prejudice existed, and where the most confused ideas prevailed in regard to Him who had been crucified as a malefactor, the disciples continued to speak with boldness the words of life, setting before the Jews the work and mission of Christ, His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Priests and rulers heard with amazement the clear, bold testimony of the apostles. The power of the risen Saviour had indeed fallen on the disciples, and their work was accompanied by signs and miracles that daily increased the number of believers. Along the streets where the disciples were to pass, the people laid their sick "on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them." Here also were brought those vexed with unclean spirits. The crowds gathered round them, and those who were healed shouted the praises of God and glorified the name of the Redeemer....
LHU	228	4	Hitherto all the efforts made to suppress this new teaching had been in vain; but now both Sadducees and Pharisees determined that the work of the disciples should be stopped, for it was proving them guilty of the death of Jesus. Filled with indignation, the priests laid violent hands on Peter and John, and put them in the common prison....
LHU	228	5	The disciples were not intimidated or cast down by this treatment.... The God of heaven, the mighty Ruler of the universe, took the matter of the imprisonment of the disciples into His own hands.... By night the angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and said to the disciples, "Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life" (Acts 5:20) (The Acts of the Apostles, 77-80).
LHU	228	6	Shortly before His crucifixion Christ had bequeathed to His disciples a legacy of peace. "Peace I leave with you," He said, "my peace I give unto you".... This peace is not the peace that comes through conformity to the world. Christ never purchased peace by compromise with evil. The peace that Christ left His disciples is internal rather than external and was ever to remain with His witnesses through strife and contention (The Acts of the Apostles, 84).
------------------------The Grand, Central Truth, August 3
LHU	229	1	Forasmuch as ye know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1:18, 19.
LHU	229	2	The Word of God is the grand instrument which convicts the unconverted, convincing them of their need of the sin-pardoning Saviour.
LHU	229	3	The plan of salvation combines the holy influences of past and present light. These influences are bound together by the golden chain of loving obedience. Receiving Christ by faith and bowing in submission to God's will constitutes men and women sons and daughters of God. By the power which the Saviour alone can give they are made members of the royal family, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ....
LHU	229	4	To love God with all the heart, to be a partaker with Christ in His humiliation and suffering, means more than many understand. The atonement of Christ is the great central truth around which cluster all the truths that pertain to the great work of redemption. The mind of man is to blend with the mind of Christ. This union sanctifies the understanding, giving the thoughts clearness and force....
LHU	229	5	The world is our field of missionary toil, and we are to go forth to our labor surrounded with the atmosphere of Gethsemane and Calvary....
LHU	229	6	Even more than God abhors infidelity, He abhors indifference in religious matters, because religious pretention without genuine religion is a continual stumbling block to sinners. The more cold and formal men are in the religious life, the more they are filled with egotism, and egotism always works against Christ. You may have much knowledge, but unless you are the possessor of true, pure religion, your knowledge is worthless to Christ....
LHU	229	7	God forbid that of you should be spoken the words, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent" (Revelation 3:15-19).
LHU	229	8	Every soul may become rich in spiritual treasures. Amid the terrible iniquity of this world men may serve God so faithfully that He can bestow on them eternal riches. He will work for those who serve Him faithfully. He can humble the most bitter persecutors of His people, making them friends through a belief of the truth, or removing their power to harm (Letter 122, 1901).
------------------------The Cross is the Center, August 4
LHU	230	1	And I, if I be lifted up ..., will draw all men unto me. John 12:32.
LHU	230	2	The cross of Calvary challenges, and will finally vanquish every earthly and hellish power. In the cross all influence centers, and from it all influence goes forth. It is the great center of attraction; for on it Christ gave up His life for the human race. This sacrifice was offered for the purpose of restoring man to his original perfection. Yea, more, it was offered to give him an entire transformation of character, making him more than a conqueror. Those who in the strength of Christ overcome the great enemy of God and man will occupy a position in the heavenly courts above angels who have never fallen.
LHU	230	3	Christ declares, "I, if I be lifted up ..., will draw all men unto me." If the cross does not find an influence in its favor, it creates an influence. Through generation succeeding generation, the truth for this time is revealed as present truth. Christ on the cross was the medium whereby mercy and truth met together, and righteousness and peace kissed each other. This is the means that is to move the world.
LHU	230	4	In the plan of God, all the riches of heaven are to be drawn upon by men. Nothing in the treasury of divine resources is deemed too costly to accompany the great gift of the only begotten Son of God.... Christ was empowered to breathe into fallen humanity the breath of life. Those who receive Him will never hunger, never thirst; for greater joy than that found in Christ there cannot be. Study the words spoken by the Saviour from the Mount of Blessing. How the divine nature shone through His humanity as His lips uttered the benedictions upon those who were the objects of His mercy and love. He blessed them with a fullness that showed that He was drawing from the inexhaustible store of the richest treasures. The treasures of eternity were at His command. The Father committed the riches of heaven to Him, and in the disposal of them He knew no bound. Those who accept Him as their Saviour, their Redeemer, the Prince of life, he acknowledges before the heavenly host, before the worlds unfallen, and before the fallen world, as His peculiar treasure....
LHU	230	5	What is Christianity? God's instrumentality for the conversion of the sinner. Jesus will call to account everyone who is not brought under His control, who does not demonstrate in his life the influence of the cross of Calvary. Christ should be uplifted by those whom He has redeemed by dying on the cross a death of shame. He who has felt the power of the grace of Christ has a story to tell. He seeks to put in operation methods of work which will diffuse the gospel of Christ. Humanity, drawing its efficiency from the great source of wisdom, is made the instrumentality, the working agency, through which the gospel exercises its transforming power on mind and heart (Manuscript 56, 1899).
------------------------Lift Him Up, the Man of Calvary, August 5
LHU	231	1	Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29.
LHU	231	2	The principles that should actuate us as workers in God's cause are laid down by the apostle Paul. He says: "We are labourers together with God." "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." And Peter exhorts the believers: "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ."
LHU	231	3	When these principles control our hearts, we shall realize that the work is God's, not ours; that He has the same care for every part of the great whole. When Christ and His glory are made first and love of self is swallowed up in love for souls for whom Christ died, then no worker will be so entirely absorbed in one branch of the cause as to lose sight of the importance of every other....
LHU	231	4	We are taught in God's Word that this is the time, above all others, when we may look for light from heaven. It is now that we are to expect a refreshing from the presence of the Lord. We should watch for the movings of God's providence as the army of Israel watched for "the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees"--the appointed signal that heaven would work for them.
LHU	231	5	God cannot glorify His name through His people while they are leaning upon man and making flesh their arm. Their present state of weakness will continue until Christ alone shall be exalted; until, with John the Baptist, they shall say from a humble and reverent heart: "He must increase, but I must decrease." Words have been given me to speak to the people of God: "Lift Him up, the Man of Calvary. Let humanity stand back, that all may behold Him in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered. Says the prophet Isaiah: 'Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.' Let the church and the world look upon their Redeemer. Let every voice proclaim with John: 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.'"
LHU	231	6	It is to the thirsting soul that the fountain of living waters is open. God declares: "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground." To souls that are earnestly seeking for light and that accept with gladness every ray of divine illumination from His Holy Word, to such alone light will be given. It is through these souls that God will reveal that light and power which will lighten the whole earth with His glory (Testimonies for the Church 5:726-729).
------------------------His Crowning Work, August 6
LHU	232	1	The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. Exodus 34:6, 7.
LHU	232	2	Those who receive Christ by faith will be looked upon by Heaven as precious pearls for which the merchant man has paid an infinite price, and the human agents who find Christ will realize that they have found a heavenly treasure. They will be anxious to sell all that they have in order to buy the field which contains this treasure. As they contemplate the love of God, as the plan of salvation opens to their view, as the mystery of Christ's condescension becomes plainer to them, as they see the sacrifice that He made for them, they count nothing too dear to give up for His sake....
LHU	232	3	The Lord God of heaven collected all the riches of the universe, and laid them down in order to purchase the pearl of lost humanity. The Father gave all His divine resources into the hands of Christ in order that the richest blessings of heaven might be poured out upon a fallen race. God could not express greater love than He has expressed in giving the Son of His bosom to this world. This gift was given to man to convince him that God had left nothing undone that He could do, that there is nothing held in reserve, but that all heaven has been poured out in one vast gift. The present and eternal happiness of man consists in receiving God's love, and in keeping God's commandments. Christ is our Redeemer. He is the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. He is the fountain in which we may be washed and cleansed from all impurity. He is the costly sacrifice that has been given for the reconciliation of man. The universe of heaven, the worlds unfallen, the fallen world, and the confederacy of evil cannot say that God could do more for the salvation of man than He has done. Never can His gift be surpassed, never can He display a richer depth of love. Calvary represents His crowning work. It is man's part to respond to His great love, by appropriating the great salvation the blessing of the Lord has made it possible for man to obtain. We are to show our appreciation of the wonderful gift of God by becoming partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. We are to show our gratitude to God by becoming a coworker with Jesus Christ, by representing His character to the world.... The Lord looks upon souls as precious pearls....
LHU	232	4	As they lift Christ up, their eyes are anointed so that they can distinguish the relationship of Christ to the human family. They become wise, and in meekness and lowliness, as opportunity opens, they present to tried and tempted souls the sublime reality of the saving grace of God (Youth's Instructor, October 17, 1895).
------------------------Christ Died for Us, August 7
LHU	233	1	For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh. 1 Peter 3:18.
LHU	233	2	The cross of Calvary appeals to us in power, affording a reason why we should love our Saviour, and why we should make Him first and last and best in everything. We should take our fitting place in humble penitence at the foot of the cross. Here, as we see our Saviour in agony, the Son of God dying, the just for the unjust, we may learn lessons of meekness and lowliness of mind. Behold Him who with one word could summon legions of angels to His assistance, a subject of jest and merriment, of reviling and hatred. He gives Himself a sacrifice for sin. When reviled, He threatens not; when falsely accused, He opens not His mouth. He prays on the cross for His murderers. He is dying for them; He is paying an infinite price for every one of them. He bears the penalty of man's sins without a murmur. And this uncomplaining victim is the Son of God. His throne is from everlasting, and His kingdom shall have no end.
LHU	233	3	Come, you who are seeking your own pleasure in forbidden joys and sinful indulgences, you who are scattering from Christ, look upon the cross of Calvary; behold the royal victim suffering on your account, and while you have opportunity be wise, and seek the fountain of life and true happiness. Come, you who complain and murmur at the little inconveniences and the few trials you must meet in this life, look on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. He turned from His royal throne, His high command, and, laying aside His divinity, clothed Himself with humanity. For our sakes He was rejected and despised; He became poor that we through His poverty might be made rich. Can you, beholding by the eye of faith the sufferings of Christ, tell your trials, your tale of woe? Can you nurse revenge in your heart while you remember the prayer that came from the pale and quivering lips of Christ for His revilers, his murderers: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do"?
LHU	233	4	There is a work before us to subdue the pride and vanity that seek a place in our hearts, and through penitence and faith to bring ourselves into familiar and holy converse with Christ.... We must deny self, and fight continually against pride. We must hide self in Jesus, and let Him appear in our character and conversation. While we look constantly to Him whom our sins have pierced and our sorrows have burdened, we shall acquire strength to be like Him. Our lives, our deportment, will testify how highly we prize our Redeemer, and the salvation He has wrought out for us at such a cost to Himself. And our peace will be as a river while we bind ourselves in willing, happy captivity to Jesus (The Signs of the Times, March 17, 1887).
------------------------Souls Rescued from Satan's Power, August 8
LHU	234	1	And the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Zechariah 3:2.
LHU	234	2	Through the plan of salvation, Jesus is breaking Satan's hold upon the human family and rescuing souls from his power. All the hatred and malignity of the archrebel is stirred as he beholds the evidence of Christ's supremacy, and with fiendish power and cunning he works to wrest from Him the remnant of the children of men who have accepted His salvation.
LHU	234	3	He leads men into skepticism, causing them to lose confidence in God and to separate from His love; he tempts them to break His law, and then he claims them as his captives and contests the right of Christ to take them from him. He knows that those who seek God earnestly for pardon and grace will obtain it; therefore he presents their sins before them to discourage them. He is constantly seeking occasion against those who are trying to obey God. Even their best and most acceptable services he seeks to make appear corrupt. By countless devices, the most subtle and the most cruel, he endeavors to secure their condemnation. Man cannot meet these charges himself. In his sin-stained garments, confessing his guilt, he stands before God. But Jesus our Advocate presents an effectual plea in behalf of all who by repentance and faith have committed the keeping of their souls to Him. He pleads their cause and vanquishes their accuser by the mighty arguments of Calvary. His perfect obedience to God's law, even unto the death of the cross, has given Him all power in heaven and in earth, and He claims of His Father mercy and reconciliation for guilty man. To the accuser of His people He declares: "'The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.' These are the purchase of My blood, brands plucked from the burning." Those who rely upon Him in faith receive the comforting assurance: "Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment." All that have put on the robe of Christ's righteousness will stand before Him as chosen and faithful and true. Satan has no power to pluck them out of the hand of Christ. Not one soul that in penitence and faith has claimed His protection will Christ permit to pass under the enemy's power. His word is pledged: "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." The promise given to Joshua is made to all: "If thou wilt keep my charge, ... I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by." Angels of God will walk on either side of them, even in this world, and they will stand at last among the angels that surround the throne of God.... We cannot answer the charges of Satan against us. Christ alone can make an effectual plea in our behalf. He is able to silence the accuser with arguments founded not upon our merits, but on His own (Testimonies for the Church 5:470-472).
------------------------Conqueror Over the Power of Darkness, August 9
LHU	235	1	God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians 6:14.
LHU	235	2	Christ left His position in the heavenly courts, and came to this earth to live the life of human beings. This sacrifice He made in order to show that Satan's charge against God is false--that it is possible for man to obey the laws of God's kingdom. Equal with the Father, honored and adored by the angels, in our behalf Christ humbled Himself, and came to this earth to live a life of lowliness and poverty--to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Yet the stamp of divinity was upon His humanity. He came as a divine Teacher, to uplift human beings, to increase their physical, mental, and spiritual efficiency.
LHU	235	3	There is no one who can explain the mystery of the incarnation of Christ. Yet we know that He came to this earth and lived as a man among men. The man Christ Jesus was not the Lord God Almighty, yet Christ and the Father are one. The Deity did not sink under the agonizing torture of Calvary, yet it is nonetheless true that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
LHU	235	4	In every possible way Satan sought to prevent Jesus from developing a perfect childhood, a faultless manhood, a holy ministry, and an unblemished sacrifice. But he was defeated. He could not lead Jesus into sin. He could not discourage Him, or drive Him from the work He had come to this earth to do. From the desert to Calvary the storm of Satan's wrath beat upon Him, but the more merciless it fell, the more firmly did the Son of God cling to the hand of His Father, and press on in the bloodstained path (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 5, 1129, 1130).
LHU	235	5	Christ was crucified, and in His death the powers of hell seemed to prevail. But even when on the cross the Saviour cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He was conqueror over the power of darkness. When the words, "It is finished," came from His pale, trembling lips, darkness like the darkness of midnight hid His dying agony from the eyes of the spectators. Through long hours of agony He had been gazed upon by the jesting multitude. Now He was mercifully hidden by the mantle of God.
LHU	235	6	At His death, there was a violent earthquake. The people were shaken together in heaps. The wildest confusion and consternation ensued.... Creation seemed to be shivering to atoms. It was as if nature itself were protesting against the murder of the Son of God.
LHU	235	7	Christ's death on the cross paid the ransom for every human being. All may overcome, because Christ has made an atonement for the sins of the whole world. To all He offers the power of redeeming grace (Manuscript 140, 1903).
------------------------By Faith, Christ was Victor, August 10
LHU	236	1	Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Luke 23:46.
LHU	236	2	The spotless Son of God hung upon the cross, His flesh lacerated with stripes; those hands so often reached out in blessing, nailed to the wooden bars; those feet so tireless on ministries of love, spiked to the tree; that royal head pierced by the crown of thorns; those quivering lips shaped to the cry of woe. And all that He endured--the blood drops that flowed from His head, His hands, His feet, the agony that racked His frame, and the unutterable anguish that filled His soul at the hiding of His Father's face--speaks to each child of humanity, declaring, It is for thee that the Son of God consents to bear this burden of guilt; for thee He spoils the domain of death, and opens the gates of Paradise. He who stilled the angry waves and walked the foam-capped billows, who made devils tremble and disease flee, who opened blind eyes and called forth the dead to life--offers Himself upon the cross as a sacrifice, and this from love to thee. He, the Sinbearer, endures the wrath of divine justice, and for thy sake becomes sin itself.
LHU	236	3	In silence the beholders watched for the end of the fearful scene. The sun shone forth; but the cross was still enveloped in darkness. Priests and rulers looked toward Jerusalem; and lo, the dense cloud had settled over the city and the plains of Judea. The Sun of Righteousness, the Light of the world, was withdrawing His beams from the once favored city of Jerusalem. The fierce lightnings of God's wrath were directed against the fated city.
LHU	236	4	Suddenly the gloom lifted from the cross, and in clear, trumpetlike tones, that seemed to resound throughout creation, Jesus cried, "It is finished." "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." A light encircled the cross, and the face of the Saviour shone with a glory like the sun. He then bowed His head upon His breast, and died.
LHU	236	5	Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God, Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe. In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father's acceptance heretofore given Him. He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey. And as in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father's favor was withdrawn. By faith, Christ was victor (The Desire of Ages, 755, 756).
------------------------Look, Believe, and Live, August 11
LHU	237	1	[We] are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:5.
LHU	237	2	Those who depend upon their own righteousness instead of relying upon the righteousness of Christ will lose the prize; they will be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found wanting. Let everyone who is striving for the precious boon of eternal life distrust his own strength, and, in much prayer, cast his helpless soul upon Christ. There is too little searching of the Word of God for definite direction in the way of life. The larger number of those who profess to believe on Christ have only superficial ideas as to what constitutes Christian character.... Do not deceive yourself with the idea that your own inherent righteousness will bring you into harmony with God. Do not fail to look upon yourself as a sinner in the sight of God. Do not fail to look upon Jesus lifted up upon the cross; and as you look, believe and live; for by faith in the atoning sacrifice you may be justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Believe that you are forgiven, that you are justified, not in transgression and disobedience, but in submission to the will of God. If through faith you lay hold of the righteousness of Christ, then be not careless of your thoughts, your words, your works. Study much, and pray that as Christ has shown you the way, He may by His grace keep you in the way. For we are "kept by the power of God through faith"; and even faith is not of ourselves, but it also is the gift of God.
LHU	237	3	In order to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, it is essential that you meditate much upon the great themes of redemption. You should ask yourself why Christ has taken humanity upon Himself, why He suffered upon the cross, why He bore the sins of men, why He was made sin and righteousness for us. You should study to know why He ascended to heaven in the nature of man, and what is His work for us today....
LHU	237	4	If thoughts of Christ, His work and character, are cherished, you will be led to sink deep the shaft of truth, and you will be enabled to come into possession of precious jewels of truth. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to you. As you meditate upon heavenly things, and walk with God, as did Enoch, you will lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset, and will run with patience the race set before you.... Our building must be founded upon the Rock Christ Jesus or it will not stand the test of the tempest (The Signs of the Times, December 1, 1890).
------------------------Transformation Through Christ, August 12
LHU	238	1	Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17.
LHU	238	2	A great change takes place in the character of him who accepts Christ; for "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." When we see those who profess Christianity manifesting the old carnal desires in word and action, we may know that they are not in Christ, that the transforming grace of Christ has not touched the soul, molded the character, and cleansed the defilement of the heart....
LHU	238	3	Those who have an experimental knowledge of the grace of Christ will feel their obligation to Him to be representatives of His power to the world. They will realize that He who knew no sin was made to be sin for them, that they might be made the righteousness of God in Him. An appreciation of this fact will enable us to get correct views of the work of our Redeemer. True believers will realize that while they were separated from Him through impenitence and sin, He did not forsake them, but rather interceded for them, that they might have the benefits of the salvation which He had purchased for them at an infinite sacrifice. In accepting Christ they know that they must come out from the world, and be separate, and touch not the unclean, that they may be the children of God. They must love Christ supremely.
LHU	238	4	It is impossible for finite minds to make a just estimate of the love of God toward His fallen creatures. We are ever in danger of forgetting this great love, because we fail to meditate upon it, and allow ourselves to become absorbed in the things of this world. We permit our hearts to be divided by placing our affections on things below, and so separate from the true Source of happiness.
LHU	238	5	Christ should be the theme of our thoughts, the object of our tenderest affection. We should let our minds dwell upon the precious characteristics of our Lord; we should contemplate the rich promises of His Word; we should meditate upon the glories of heaven. We should not be satisfied with but occasional glimpses of our Redeemer, but our minds should be stayed upon God by continual trust in His Word. We should search the Scriptures diligently in order that we may have an understanding of the claims that Christ has upon us, and that we may have right views of the truth. Our wills must be subdued, and brought into harmony with the will of God.
LHU	238	6	Precious light has been permitted to shine upon our pathway, and around us are the angels of heaven, who are interested in our welfare.... The love of Christ manifested toward us in His life of humiliation and self-denial, in His death on Calvary, should call forth songs of gratitude from our lips. The hope of His soon coming should fill us with sacred joy (The Signs of the Times, December 8, 1890).
------------------------The Graces of His Character, August 13
LHU	239	1	And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. John 1:51.
LHU	239	2	God has given us a perfect standard of character, which we are ever to keep before us. Through the strength that Christ can impart, we may keep the law of God. We should be obedient children, whatever difficulty we may have to encounter. We must not expect to enter heaven without conflict and trial, but we have the assurance that if we will not consult our own pleasure, but the will of God, we shall not be left to fight the battle alone.
LHU	239	3	There is a great work to be done in the world, and every one of us should let his light shine upon the pathway of others. We need to gather divine rays of light from Christ. We need to search the Scriptures, and dig deep in the mines of truth; for the precious jewels do not always lie on the surface; we should search for them as for hidden treasure. There is a heaven of bliss to gain, for Christ has gone to prepare mansions for us; and now is the time for us to seek a preparation for that which He is preparing for us. In order to do this, we must bring Christ into our life daily; for those who dwell in the abodes of bliss must have hearts free from all envy, jealousy, hatred, malice, and selfishness. Jesus is waiting to do great things for us, to fill us with all the fullness of God. We should believe in His promises, for He "keepeth truth forever," "and there is no unrighteousness in him" (Psalm 146:6; 92:15) (The Signs of the Times, December 8, 1890).
LHU	239	4	There is a connection between earth and heaven through Christ, the mystic ladder that Jacob saw in his vision at Bethel. When we were separated from God, Christ came to reconcile us to the Father. In pitying love He placed His human arm about the fallen race, and with His divine arm He grasped the throne of the Infinite, thus connecting finite man with the infinite God; through the plan of salvation we are united with the agencies of heaven. Through the merits of a crucified and risen Redeemer, we may look up and see the glory of God shining from heaven to earth. We should be grateful to God for the plan of salvation. We have been blessed with many blessings, and in return we should give to God our undivided hearts.
LHU	239	5	How sad it is that through our indifference to our eternal interests we are far from Christ.... We do not see the glory of God shining upon every round of the ladder; we do not climb up by Christ, making advancement in the divine life. If we did this, we should reflect the image of Christ, have purity of character, and become like lights in the world. We should constantly behold Him, until we should be charmed with the graces of His character; then we would not fail to talk of Him and His love. We should then be in possession of rich blessings which the world cannot give or take away, and we should lose our relish for sin (The Signs of the Times, December 15, 1890).
------------------------The Spotless Lamb of God, August 14
LHU	240	1	He was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12.
LHU	240	2	While His disciples were contending as to who should be greatest in the promised kingdom, He girded Himself as a servant and washed the feet of those who called Him Lord and Master.
LHU	240	3	His ministry was nearly completed; He had only a few more lessons to impart. And that they might never forget the humility of the pure and spotless Lamb of God, the great and efficacious Sacrifice for man humbled Himself to wash the feet of His disciples. It will do you good ... to frequently review the closing scenes in the life of our Redeemer. Here, beset with temptations as He was, we may all learn lessons of the utmost importance to us. It would be well to spend a thoughtful hour each day reviewing the life of Christ from the manger to Calvary. We should take it point by point and let the imagination vividly grasp each scene, especially the closing ones of His earthly life. By thus contemplating His teachings and sufferings, and the infinite sacrifice made by Him for the redemption of the race, we may strengthen our faith, quicken our love, and become more deeply imbued with the spirit which sustained our Saviour.
LHU	240	4	If we would be saved at last we must all learn the lesson of penitence and faith at the foot of the cross. Christ suffered humiliation to save us from everlasting disgrace. He consented to have scorn, mockery, and abuse fall upon Him in order to shield us. It was our transgression that gathered the veil of darkness about His divine soul and extorted the cry from Him, as of one smitten and forsaken of God. He bore our sorrows; He was put to grief for our sins. He made Himself an offering for sin, that we might be justified before God through Him. Everything noble and generous in man will respond to the contemplation of Christ upon the cross....
LHU	240	5	The mighty argument of the cross will convict of sin. The divine love of God for sinners, expressed in the gift of His Son to suffer shame and death that they might be ennobled and endowed with everlasting life, is the study of a lifetime. I ask you to study anew the cross of Christ. If all the proud and vainglorious, whose hearts are panting for the applause of men and for distinction above their fellows, could rightly estimate the value of the highest earthly glory in contrast with the value of the Son of God, rejected, despised, spit upon, by the very ones whom He came to redeem, how insignificant would appear all the honor that finite man can bestow....
LHU	240	6	It requires a constant, earnest, and vigilant effort to watch and control self, to keep Jesus prominent and self out of sight (Testimonies for the Church 4:374-376).
------------------------The Value of a Soul, August 15
LHU	241	1	We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Romans 5:11.
LHU	241	2	Those who are finally victorious will have seasons of terrible perplexity and trial in their religious life; but they must not cast away their confidence, for this is a part of their discipline in the school of Christ, and it is essential in order that all dross may be purged away. The servant of God must endure with fortitude the attacks of the enemy, his grievous taunts, and must overcome the obstacles which Satan will place in his way.
LHU	241	3	Satan will seek to discourage the followers of Christ, so that they may not pray or study the Scriptures, and he will throw his hateful shadow athwart the path to hide Jesus from the view, to shut away the vision of His love, and the glories of the heavenly inheritance. It is his delight to cause the children of God to go shrinkingly, tremblingly, and painfully along, under continual doubt. He seeks to make the pathway as sorrowful as possible; but if you keep looking up, not down at your difficulties, you will not faint in the way, you will soon see Jesus reaching His hand to help you, and you will only have to give Him your hand in simple confidence, and let Him lead you. As you become trustful, you will become hopeful.
LHU	241	4	Jesus is the light of the world, and you are to fashion your life after His. You will find help in Christ to form a strong, symmetrical, beautiful character. Satan cannot make of none effect the light shining forth from such a character. The Lord has a work for each of us to do. He does not provide that we shall be sustained by the influence of human praise and petting; He means that every soul shall stand in the strength of the Lord. God has given us His best gift, even His only begotten Son, to uplift, ennoble, and fit us, by putting on us His own perfection of character, for a home in His kingdom. Jesus came to our world and lived as He expects His followers to live....
LHU	241	5	God designs that we shall work, not in a despairing manner, but with strong faith and hope. As we search the Scriptures, and are enlightened to behold the wonderful condescension of the Father in giving Jesus to the world, that all who believe on Him should not perish but have everlasting life, we should rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
LHU	241	6	Everything that can be gained by education, God means that we shall use for the advancement of the truth. True, vital godliness must be reflected from the life and character, that the cross of Christ may be lifted up before the world, and the value of the soul be revealed in the light of the cross. Our minds must be opened to understand the Scriptures, that we may gain spiritual power by feeding upon the bread of heaven (Messages to Young People, 63, 64).
------------------------A Person's True Worth, August 16
LHU	242	1	God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. Romans 5:8, 9, RSV.
LHU	242	2	Christ and Him crucified should become the theme of our thoughts and stir the deepest emotions of our souls. The true followers of Christ will appreciate the great salvation which He has wrought for them; and wherever He leads the way, they will follow. They will consider it a privilege to bear whatever burdens Christ may lay upon them. It is through the cross alone that we can estimate the worth of the human soul. Such is the value of men for whom Christ died that the Father is satisfied with the infinite price which He pays for the salvation of man in yielding up His own Son to die for their redemption. What wisdom, mercy, and love in its fullness are here manifested! The worth of man is known only by going to Calvary. In the mystery of the cross of Christ we can place an estimate upon man.
LHU	242	3	What a responsible position, to unite with the Redeemer of the world in the salvation of men! This work calls for self-denial, sacrifice, and benevolence, for perseverance, courage, and faith.... Persistent, prevailing faith is necessary (Testimonies for the Church 2:634, 635).
LHU	242	4	Self-denial and the cross lie directly in the pathway of every follower of Christ. The cross is that which crosses the natural affections and the will. If the heart is not wholly sanctified to God, if the will and affections and thoughts are not brought into subjection to the will of God, there will be a failure to carry out the principles of true religion and to exemplify in the life the life of Christ (Testimonies for the Church 2:651).
LHU	242	5	The followers of Christ should value souls as He valued them. Their sympathies should be with the work of their dear Redeemer, and they should labor to save the purchase of His blood, at any sacrifice. What are money, houses, and lands in comparison with even one soul?
LHU	242	6	Christ made a full and complete sacrifice, a sacrifice sufficient to save every son and daughter of Adam who should show repentance toward God for having transgressed His law, and manifest faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet notwithstanding the sacrifice was ample, but few consent to a life of obedience that they may have this great salvation. Few are willing to imitate His amazing privations, to endure His sufferings and persecutions, and to share His exhausting labor to bring others to the light.... Christ is the Captain of our salvation, and by His own sufferings and sacrifice He has given an example to all His followers that watchfulness and prayer, and persevering effort, were necessary on their part if they would rightly represent the love which dwelt in His bosom for the fallen race (Testimonies for the Church 2:664).
------------------------Christ Elevates Humanity, August 17
LHU	243	1	Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. Hebrews 2:11, NIV.
LHU	243	2	Jesus is "not ashamed to call them brethren" (Hebrews 2:11); He is our Sacrifice, our Advocate, our Brother, bearing our human form before the Father's throne, and through eternal ages one with the race He has redeemed--the Son of man. And all this that man might be uplifted from the ruin and degradation of sin that he might reflect the love of God and share the joy of holiness.
LHU	243	3	The price paid for our redemption, the infinite sacrifice of our heavenly Father in giving His Son to die for us, should give us exalted conceptions of what we may become through Christ. As the inspired apostle John beheld the height, the depth, the breadth of the Father's love toward the perishing race, he was filled with adoration and reverence; and, failing to find suitable language in which to express the greatness and tenderness of this love, he called upon the world to behold. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1). What a value this places upon man! Through transgression the sons of man become subjects of Satan. Through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ the sons of Adam may become the sons of God. By assuming human nature, Christ elevates humanity. Fallen men are placed where, through connection with Christ, they may indeed become worthy of the name "sons of God."
LHU	243	4	Such love is without a parallel. Children of the heavenly King! Precious promise! Theme for the most profound meditation! The matchless love of God for a world that did not love Him! The thought has a subduing power upon the soul and brings the mind into captivity to the will of God. The more we study the divine character in the light of the cross, the more we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness blended with equity and justice, and the more clearly we discern innumerable evidences of a love that is infinite and a tender pity surpassing a mother's yearning sympathy for her wayward child (Steps to Christ, 14, 15).
LHU	243	5	The heart of God yearns over His earthly children with a love stronger than death. In giving up His Son, He has poured out to us all heaven in one gift. The Saviour's life and death and intercession, the ministry of angels, the pleading of the Spirit, the Father working above and through all, the unceasing interest of heavenly beings--all are enlisted in behalf of man's redemption.
LHU	243	6	Oh, let us contemplate the amazing sacrifice that has been made for us! Let us try to appreciate the labor and energy that Heaven is expending to reclaim the lost, and bring them back to the Father's house.... Let us avail ourselves of the means provided for us that we may be transformed into His likeness (Steps to Christ, 21, 22).
------------------------An Atmosphere of Hopefulness and Cheer, August 18
LHU	244	1	Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4.
LHU	244	2	To the Christian is granted the joy of gathering rays of eternal light from the throne of glory, and of reflecting these rays not only on his own path, but on the paths of those with whom he associates. By speaking words of hope and encouragement, of grateful praise and kindly cheer, he may strive to make those around him better, to elevate them, to point them to heaven and glory, and to lead them to seek, above all earthly things, the eternal substance, the immortal inheritance, the riches that are imperishable.
LHU	244	3	"Rejoice in the Lord alway," says the apostle; "and again I say, Rejoice." Wherever we go, we should carry an atmosphere of Christian hopefulness and cheer; then those who are out of Christ will see attractiveness in the religion we profess; unbelievers will see the consistency of our faith. We need to have more distinct glimpses of heaven, the land where all is brightness and joy. We need to know more of the fullness of the blessed hope. If we are constantly "rejoicing in hope," we shall be able to speak words of encouragement to those whom we meet. "A word spoken in due season, how good is it!" Souls are perishing for the lack of personal labor.
LHU	244	4	Not alone in daily association with believers and unbelievers are we to glorify God by speaking often one to another in words of gratitude and rejoicing. As Christians, we are exhorted not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, for our own refreshing, and to impart the consolation we have received. In these meetings, held from week to week, we should dwell upon God's goodness and manifold mercies, upon His power to save from sin. In features, in temper, in words, in character, we are to witness that the service of God is good. Thus we proclaim that "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."
LHU	244	5	Our prayer and social meetings should be seasons of special help and encouragement. Each one has a work to do to make these gatherings as interesting and profitable as possible. This can best be done by having a fresh experience daily in the things of God, and by not hesitating to speak of His love in the assemblies of His people. If you allow no darkness or unbelief to enter your hearts, they will not be manifest in your meetings....
LHU	244	6	By the mystery and glory of the cross we can estimate the value of man, and then we shall see and feel the importance of working for our fellow men, that they may be exalted to the throne of God (The Southern Watchman, March, 7, 1905).
------------------------Surrender to Christ, August 19
LHU	245	1	If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23.
LHU	245	2	How often do we come in contact with people who are never happy. They fail of enjoying the contentment and peace that Jesus can give. They profess to be Christians, but they do not comply with the conditions upon which the promise of God is fulfilled. Jesus has said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The reason why many are in a state of unrest is that they are not learning in the school of the Master. The submissive, self-sacrificing child of God understands by experience what it is to have the peace of Christ. True followers of Christ know that they must take His yoke, share His trials, carry His burdens. But they do not feel like complaining; for the meekness and lowliness of Christ makes the yoke easy and the burden light.
LHU	245	3	It is love of selfish ease, love of pleasure, your self-esteem, self-exaltation, that prevents you from learning the precious life-lessons in the school of Christ. It is the Christian's duty not to permit surroundings and circumstances to mold him; but to live above surroundings, fashioning his character according to the divine Model. He is to be faithful in whatever place he is found. He is to do his duty with fidelity, improving the opportunities given him of God, making the most of his capabilities. With an eye single to the glory of God, he is to work for Jesus wherever he may be. We are to surrender the will, the heart, to God, and become acquainted with Christ. We must deny self, take up the cross, and follow Jesus. Not one of us can reach heaven, save by the narrow, cross-bearing way. But how many wear the cross as an ornament on the person, but fail to bear the cross in practical, everyday life.
LHU	245	4	How many profess to be servants of Christ; but how loath are they to bear reproach and shame, for His sake. The cross is not to please self; it lies directly across the path of the pleasure-lover, and cuts through our carnal desires and selfish inclinations....
LHU	245	5	The thing essential for successful work is a knowledge of Christ; for this knowledge will give sound principles of right, impart a noble, unselfish spirit, like that of our Saviour whom we profess to serve. Faithfulness, economy, care-taking, thoroughness, should characterize all our work, wherever we may be, whether in the kitchen, in the workshop, ... or wherever we may be stationed in the vineyard of the Lord (The Review and Herald, September 22, 1891).
------------------------The One Object of Supreme Regard, August 20
LHU	246	1	I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.... And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. 1 Corinthians 2:2-4.
LHU	246	2	To Paul the cross was the one object of supreme interest. Ever since he had been arrested in his career of persecution against the followers of the crucified Nazarene he had never ceased to glory in the cross. At that time there had been given him a revelation of the infinite love of God, as revealed in the death of Christ; and a marvelous transformation had been wrought in his life, bringing all his plans and purposes into harmony with heaven. From that hour he had been a new man in Christ. He knew by personal experience that when a sinner once beholds the love of the Father, as seen in the sacrifice of His Son, and yields to the divine influence, a change of heart takes place, and henceforth Christ is all and in all.
LHU	246	3	At the time of his conversion, Paul was inspired with a longing desire to help his fellow men to behold Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of the living God, mighty to transform and to save. Henceforth his life was wholly devoted to an effort to portray the love and power of the Crucified One. His great heart of sympathy took in all classes. "I am debtor," he declared, "both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise" (Romans 1:14). Love for the Lord of glory, whom he had so relentlessly persecuted in the person of His saints, was the actuating principle of his conduct, his motive power. If ever his ardor in the path of duty flagged, one glance at the cross and the amazing love there revealed was enough to cause him to gird up the loins of his mind and press forward in the path of self-denial....
LHU	246	4	In the power of the Spirit, Paul related the story of his own miraculous conversion and of his confidence in the Old Testament Scriptures.... His words were spoken with solemn earnestness ... that he loved with all his heart the crucified and risen Saviour. They saw that his mind was centered in Christ, that his whole life was bound up with his Lord....
LHU	246	5	Paul realized that his sufficiency was not in himself, but in the presence of the Holy Spirit, whose gracious influence filled his heart, bringing every thought into subjection of Christ. He spoke of himself as "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (2 Corinthians 4:10). In the apostle's teachings Christ was the central figure. "I live," he declared; "yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20). Self was hidden; Christ was revealed and exalted (The Acts of the Apostles, 245-251).
------------------------Glorify the Master, August 21
LHU	247	1	Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2:4, NIV.
LHU	247	2	How earnest, how touching, [Paul's] appeal: "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." You know the height from which He stooped, the depth of humiliation to which He descended. His feet entered upon the path of sacrifice, and turned not aside until He had given His life. There was no rest for Him between the throne in heaven and the cross. His love for man led Him to welcome every indignity and suffer every abuse.
LHU	247	3	Paul admonishes us to "look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." He bids us possess the mind "which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross"....
LHU	247	4	"Ye know," says Peter, "that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold" ... (1 Peter 1:18). Oh, had these been sufficient to purchase the salvation of man, how easily it might have been accomplished by Him who says, "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine"! (Haggai 2:8). But the sinner could be redeemed only by the precious blood of the Son of God. Those who, failing to appreciate this wonderful sacrifice, withhold themselves from Christ's service will perish in their selfishness....
LHU	247	5	Everyone who accepts Christ as his personal Saviour will long for the privilege of serving God. Contemplating what heaven has done for him, his heart is moved with boundless love and adoring gratitude. He is eager to signalize his gratitude by devoting his abilities to God's service. He longs to show his love for Christ and for his purchased possession. He covets toil, hardship, sacrifice.
LHU	247	6	The true worker for God will do his best, because in so doing he can glorify his Master. He will do right in order to regard the requirements of God. He will endeavor to improve all his faculties. He will perform every duty as unto God. His one desire will be that Christ may receive homage and perfect service.
LHU	247	7	There is a picture representing a bullock standing between a plow and an altar, with the inscription "Ready for either"--ready to toil in the furrow or to be offered on the altar of sacrifice. This is the position of the true child of God--willing to go where duty calls, to deny self, to sacrifice for the Redeemer's cause (The Ministry of Healing, 501, 502).
------------------------God's Workmen, August 22
LHU	248	1	For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2 Corinthians 4:17.
LHU	248	2	If Paul, troubled on every side, perplexed, persecuted, could call his trials light afflictions, of what has the Christian of today to complain? How trifling are our trials in comparison with Paul's many afflictions! They are not worthy to be compared with the eternal weight of glory awaiting the overcomer. They are God's workmen, ordained for the perfection of character. However great the deprivation and suffering of the Christian, however dark and inscrutable may seem the way of providence, he is to rejoice in the Lord, knowing that all is working for his good.
LHU	248	3	How many there are who grieve the Spirit of God by continual repining! This is because they have lost sight of Christ. If we behold Him who bore our sorrows and died as our sacrifice, that we might have an exceeding weight of glory, we shall regard our heaviest sorrows and trials as light afflictions. Think of the Saviour upon the cross, bruised, smitten, mocked, yet uncomplaining and unresisting, suffering without a murmur. This is the Lord of heaven, whose throne is from everlasting, All this suffering and shame He endured for the joy that was set before Him--the joy of bringing to men the gift of eternal life.
LHU	248	4	When the attention is fastened on the cross of Christ, the whole being is ennobled. The knowledge of the Saviour's love subdues the soul, and lifts the mind above the things of time and sense. Let us learn to estimate all temporal things in the light that shines from the cross. Let us strive to fathom the depths of humiliation to which our Saviour descended in order to make man the possessor of eternal riches. As we study the plan of redemption, the heart will feel the throb of the Saviour's love, and will be ravished by the charms of His character.
LHU	248	5	It is the love of Christ that makes our heaven. But when we seek to tell of this love, language fails us. We think of His life on earth, of His sacrifice for us; we think of His work in heaven as our advocate, of the mansions He is preparing for those who love Him; and we can but exclaim, "O the heights and depths of the love of Christ!" As we linger beneath the cross, we gain a faint conception of the love of God, and we say, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." But in our contemplation of Christ, we are only lingering round the edge of a love that is measureless. His love is like a vast ocean, without bottom or shore.
LHU	248	6	In all true disciples this love, like sacred fire, burns on the altar of the heart. It was on the earth that the love of God was revealed through Jesus. It is on the earth that His children are to let this love shine out through blameless lives. Thus sinners will be led to the cross, to behold the Lamb of God (The Review and Herald, May 6, 1902).
------------------------"Live, Sinner, Live!", August 23
LHU	249	1	Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. Psalm 30:4, NKJV.
LHU	249	2	If we thought and talked more of Jesus, and less of ourselves, we should have much more of His presence. If we abide in Him, we shall be so filled with peace, faith, and courage, and shall have so victorious an experience to relate when we come to meeting, that others will be refreshed by our clear, strong testimony for God. These precious acknowledgements to the praise of the glory of His grace, when supported by a Christlike life, have an irresistible power, which works for the salvation of souls.
LHU	249	3	The bright and cheerful side of religion will be represented by all who are daily consecrated to God. We should not dishonor our Lord by a mournful relation of trials that appear grievous. All trials that are received as educators will produce joy. The whole religious life will be uplifting, elevating, ennobling, fragrant with good words and works. The enemy is well pleased to have souls depressed, downcast; he desires unbelievers to gain wrong impressions regarding the effect of our faith. But God desires the mind to take a higher level. He desires every soul to triumph in the keeping power of the Redeemer....
LHU	249	4	In the gracious blessings which our heavenly Father has bestowed upon us, we may discern innumerable evidences of a love that is infinite, and a tender pity surpassing a mother's yearning sympathy for her wayward child. When we study the divine character in the light of the cross, we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness blended with equity and justice. In the language of John we exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." We see in the midst of the throne One bearing in hands, and feet, and side the marks of the suffering endured to reconcile man to God, and God to man. Matchless mercy reveals to us a Father, infinite, dwelling in light unapproachable, yet receiving us to Himself through the merits of His Son. The cloud of vengeance which threatened only misery and despair in the reflected light from the cross reveals the writing of God: "Live, sinner, live! ye penitent and believing souls, live! I have paid a ransom."
LHU	249	5	We must gather about the cross. Christ and Him crucified must be the theme of contemplation, of conversation, and of our most joyful emotion. We should have special praise services for the purpose of keeping fresh in our thoughts everything that we receive from God, and of expressing our gratitude for His great love, and our willingness to trust everything to the hand that was nailed to the cross for us.... We should learn to talk the language of Canaan, to sing the songs of Zion (The Southern Watchman, March 7, 1905).
------------------------The Eternal Weight of Glory, August 24
LHU	250	1	We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18, NIV.
LHU	250	2	The years of self-denial, of privation, of trial, affliction, and persecution that Paul endured, he called a moment. The things of the present time were not considered worth mentioning when compared with the eternal weight of glory that awaited them when the warfare should be over. These very afflictions were God's workmen, ordained for the perfection of Christian character. Whatever may be the circumstances of the Christian, however dark and mysterious may be the ways of Providence, however great his deprivation and suffering, he may look away from them all to the unseen and the eternal. He has the blessed assurance that all things are working for his good....
LHU	250	3	The Holy Spirit irradiated the soul of Paul with light from heaven, and he was assured that he had an interest in the purchased possession reserved for the faithful. Paul's language was strong. He was not able to find words of sufficient force to express the excellency of that glory, honor, and immortality which believers would receive when Christ should come. Compared with the scene upon which his mind's eye was dwelling, all temporal afflictions were but momentary, light afflictions, unworthy of thought. Viewed in the light of the cross, the things of this life were vanity and emptiness. The glory that attracted him was substantial, weighty, durable, beyond the power of language to describe.
LHU	250	4	Yet Paul comes as near to expressing it as he can, that the imagination may grasp the reality as far as is possible to finite minds. It was a weight of glory, a fullness of God, knowledge that was measureless. It was an eternal weight of glory. And yet Paul feels that his language is tame. It falls short of expressing the reality. He reaches out for words more expressive. The boldest figures of speech would fall far short of the truth. He seeks the broadest terms which human language can supply, that the imagination may grasp in some degree the superlative excellency of the glory to be given the final overcomer.
LHU	250	5	Holiness, dignity, honor, and felicity [happiness] in the presence of God are things now unseen except by the eye of faith. But the things which are seen, worldly honor, worldly pleasure, riches, and glory, are eclipsed by the excellency, the beauty, and resplendent glory of the things now unseen. The things of this world are temporal, enduring only for a time, while the things which are not seen are eternal, enduring through endless ages. To secure this infinite treasure is to gain everything and lose nothing (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 6, 1099, 1100).
LHU	250	6	In the future we shall see how closely all our trials were connected with our salvation, and how these light afflictions worked out for us "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17) (Letter 5, 1880).
------------------------By Beholding We Become Changed, August 25
LHU	251	1	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. 1 John 3:1.
LHU	251	2	Through the merits of Christ, through His righteousness, which by faith is imputed unto us, we are to attain to the perfection of Christian character. Our daily and hourly work is set forth in the words of the apostle: "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." While doing this our minds become clearer and our faith stronger, and our hope is confirmed; we are so engrossed with the view of His purity and loveliness, and the sacrifice He has made to bring us into agreement with God, that we have no disposition to speak of doubts and discouragements.
LHU	251	3	The manifestation of God's love, His mercy and His goodness, and the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart to enlighten and renew it, place us, through faith, in so close connection with Christ that, having a clear conception of His character, we are able to discern the masterly deceptions of Satan. Looking unto Jesus and trusting in His merits we appropriate the blessings of light, of peace, of joy in the Holy Ghost. And in view of the great things which Christ has done for us, we are ready to exclaim: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."
LHU	251	4	Brethren and sisters, it is by beholding that we become changed. By dwelling upon the love of God and our Saviour, by contemplating the perfection of the divine character and claiming the righteousness of Christ as ours by faith, we are to be transformed into the same image. Then let us not gather together all the unpleasant pictures--the iniquities and corruptions and disappointments, the evidences of Satan's power--to hang in the halls of our memory....
LHU	251	5	There are, thank God, brighter and more cheering pictures which the Lord has presented to us. Let us group together the blessed assurances of His love as precious treasures, that we may look upon them continually. The Son of God leaving His Father's throne, clothing His divinity with humanity, that He might rescue man from the power of Satan; His triumph in our behalf, opening heaven to man, revealing to human vision the presence chamber where Deity unveils His glory; the fallen race uplifted from the pit of ruin into which sin had plunged them, and brought again into connection with the infinite God, and, having endured the divine test through faith in our Redeemer, clothed in the righteousness of Christ and exalted to His throne--these are the pictures with which God bids us gladden the chambers of the soul.
LHU	251	6	And "while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen," we shall prove it true that "our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18) (Testimonies for the Church 5:744, 745).
------------------------Love and Justice Harmonized, August 26
LHU	252	1	Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Psalm 85:10.
LHU	252	2	God alone can lead you to so recognize His mercy, love, and forbearance that you will have the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. This is the gift of God. It is the opening of the heart to receive the word which is as the leaves of the tree of life. May God fill your heart with His love, so that it may be said that you ... have purified your soul by obeying the truth.
LHU	252	3	Believing in Christ and receiving His transforming grace is not guesswork, but a work which causes Christ's virtues to be reflected in mind and character. When you gain this experience, you will say, "I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. The Lord Jesus shall be my portion forever." The power of the cross will move in you the mysterious springs of hope and fear, adoration, and love. Angels are watching and waiting, and will witness to the fact that the world has you not. Jesus has found you sitting at His feet to learn from Him, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Henceforth, surrendering your will to the will of Christ, you are drawn into a region where the cross is the central object. The world fades from your view. The glory shining from the threshold of heaven is the all-attractive influence. The riches of the grace of Christ hold you in willing obedience.... You are only too glad to impart to others the gift you have received.
LHU	252	4	I long to see you improving the capabilities given you by God, so that you can respond to the inquiry, "What must I do to be saved?" Let the words fall from sanctified lips, "Be saved by accepting Christ by faith as your personal Saviour." God is love. The sinner need not perish if he will exercise faith in the wonderful efficacy of the cross of Christ. The cross is the stupendous expedient by which is harmonized the love and justice of God. It is the sinner's only means of salvation.... The image of His love may be so stamped upon the mind that it can never be effaced. Then Jesus Christ will be so evidently set forth crucified before you that you will be a partaker of the dignity of His suffering. I have such an intense longing that you may look into the heart of this great mystery, and find that its interpretation is love....
LHU	252	5	As you make a full surrender of your will to God's will, your way to God's way, you will learn of Him who is meek and lowly in heart, and will find rest unto your soul. A calm confidence will preside over you.... You will experience more and more clearly the sense of an ever-present, all-pervading Saviour. This will give the soul power ..., which the changing circumstances of earth cannot undermine. It plants the feet upon a solid rock (Letter 123, 1901).
------------------------This World a Battlefield, August 27
LHU	253	1	Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, ... who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2, NIV.
LHU	253	2	For the joy that was set before Him, Christ endured the cross.... He died on the cross as a sacrifice for the world, and through this sacrifice comes the greatest blessing that God could bestow--the gift of the Holy Spirit. This blessing is for all who will receive Christ. The fallen world is the battlefield for the greatest conflict the heavenly universe and earthly powers have ever witnessed. It was appointed as the theater on which would be fought out the grand struggle between good and evil, between heaven and hell. Every human being acts a part in this conflict. No one can stand on neutral ground. Men must either accept or reject the world's Redeemer. All are witnesses, either for or against Christ. Christ calls upon those who stand under His banner to engage in the conflict with Him as faithful soldiers, that they may inherit the crown of life. They have been adopted as sons and daughters of God....
LHU	253	3	The Lord Jesus has summoned the world to hear. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Let all listen with submissive, reverent attention. He repeats the words given Him by the One who said, "This is my beloved Son.... Hear ye him." Who is listening to the words which are light and life to all who receive them? Will men and women consider how God regards the creatures He has made? He formed man's mind. We do not think one noble thought that does not come from Him. He knows all the mysterious workings of the human mind, for did He not make it? God sees that sin has debased and degraded man, but He looks upon him with pity and compassion; for He sees that Satan has him in his power....
LHU	253	4	Some households have a little church in their home. Mutual love binds heart to heart, and the unity that exists among the members of the family preaches the most effectual sermon that could be preached on practical godliness. As parents faithfully do their duty in the family, restraining, correcting, advising, counseling, guiding, the father as a priest of the household, the mother as a home missionary, they are filling the sphere God would have them fill. By faithfully doing their duty in the home, they are multiplying agencies for doing good outside the home. They are becoming better fitted to labor in the church. By training their little flock discreetly, binding their children to themselves and to God, fathers and mothers become laborers together with God. The cross is erected in their home. The members of the family become members of the royal family above, children of the heavenly King (Manuscript 56, 1899).
------------------------Gather About the Cross, August 28
LHU	254	1	Ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. Deuteronomy 12:7.
LHU	254	2	Anciently the Lord bade Israel, when they met together for His service, "Ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee." That which is done for the glory of God should be done with cheerfulness, with songs of praise and thanksgiving, not with sadness and gloom.
LHU	254	3	Our God is a tender, merciful Father. His service should not be looked upon as a heart-saddening, distressing exercise. It should be a pleasure to worship the Lord and to take part in His work. God would not have His children, for whom so great salvation has been provided, act as if He were a hard, exacting taskmaster. He is their best friend; and when they worship Him, He expects to be with them, to bless and comfort them, filling their hearts with joy and love. The Lord desires His children to take comfort in His service and to find more pleasure than hardship in His work. He desires that those who come to worship Him shall carry away with them precious thoughts of His care and love, that they may be cheered in all the employments of daily life, that they may have grace to deal honestly and faithfully in all things.
LHU	254	4	We must gather about the cross. Christ and Him crucified should be the theme of contemplation, of conversation, and of our most joyful emotion. We should keep in our thoughts every blessing we receive from God, and when we realize His great love we should be willing to trust everything to the hand that was nailed to the cross for us.
LHU	254	5	The soul may ascend nearer heaven on the wings of praise. God is worshiped with song and music in the courts above, and as we express our gratitude we are approximating to the worship of the heavenly hosts. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth" God (Psalm 50:23). Let us with reverent joy come before our Creator, with "thanksgiving, and the voice of melody" (Isaiah 51:3) (Steps to Christ, 103, 104).
LHU	254	6	If you call God your Father you acknowledge yourselves His children to be guided by His wisdom and to be obedient in all things, knowing that His love is changeless. You will accept His plan for your life. As children of God, you will hold His honor, His character, His family, His work, as the objects of your highest interest. It will be your joy to recognize and honor your relation to your Father and to every member of His family. You will rejoice to do any act, however humble, that will tend to His glory or to the well-being of your kindred (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 105).
------------------------Nature in the Light of Calvary, August 29
LHU	255	1	Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. Matthew 13:27, 28.
LHU	255	2	So far as possible, let the child from his earliest years be placed where this wonderful lesson-book [of nature] shall be open before him. Let him behold the glorious scenes painted by the great Master Artist upon the shifting canvas of the heavens, let him become acquainted with the wonders of earth and sea, let him watch the unfolding mysteries of the changing seasons, and, in all His works, learn of the Creator.
LHU	255	3	In no other way can the foundation of a true education be so firmly and surely laid. Yet even the child, as he comes in contact with nature, will see cause for perplexity. He can not but recognize the working of antagonistic forces. It is here that nature needs an interpreter. Looking upon the evil manifest even in the natural world, all have the same sorrowful lesson to learn--"an enemy hath done this."
LHU	255	4	Only in the light that shines from Calvary can nature's teachings be read aright. Through the story of Bethlehem and the cross let it be shown how good is to conquer evil, and how every blessing that comes to us is a gift of redemption.
LHU	255	5	In brier and thorn, in thistle and tare, is represented the evil that blights and mars. In singing bird and opening blossom, in rain and sunshine, in summer breeze and gentle dew, in ten thousand objects in nature, from the oak of the forest to the violet that blossoms at its root, is seen the love that restores. And nature still speaks to us of God's goodness.
LHU	255	6	"I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil." This the message that, in the light from the cross, may be read upon all the face of nature. The heavens declare His glory, and the earth is full of His riches (Education, 100, 101).
LHU	255	7	When Adam and Eve in Eden lost the garments of holiness, they lost the light that had illuminated nature. No longer could they read it aright. But for those who receive the light of the life of Christ, nature is again illuminated. In the light shining from the cross, we can rightly interpret nature's teaching.
LHU	255	8	He who has a knowledge of God and His Word has a settled faith in the divinity of the Holy Scriptures. He does not test the Bible by man's ideas of science. He brings these ideas to the test of the unerring standard. He knows that God's Word is truth, and truth can never contradict itself.... The ways of God as revealed in the natural world and in His dealings with man constitute a treasury from which every student in the school of Christ may draw (Testimonies for the Church 8:324, 325).
------------------------Lay Your Guilt at the Foot of the Cross, August 30
LHU	256	1	Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7, NIV.
LHU	256	2	Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life forces and to invite decay and death (The Ministry of Healing, 241).
LHU	256	3	This feeling of guiltiness must be laid at the foot of the cross of Calvary. The sense of sinfulness has poisoned the springs of life and true happiness. Now Jesus says, Lay it all on Me; I will take your sin. I will give you peace. Destroy no longer your self-respect, for I have bought you with the price of My own blood. You are Mine; your weakened will I will strengthen; your remorse for sin I will remove.
LHU	256	4	Then turn your grateful heart, trembling with uncertainty, and lay hold upon the hope set before you. God accepts your broken, contrite heart. He offers you free pardon. He offers to adopt you into His family, with His grace to help your weakness, and the dear Jesus will lead you on step by step if you will only put your hand in His and let Him guide you.
LHU	256	5	Satan seeks to draw our minds away from the mighty Helper, to lead us to ponder over our degeneration of soul. But though Jesus sees the guilt of the past, He speaks pardon; and we should not dishonor Him by doubting His love....
LHU	256	6	If you feel yourself to be the greatest sinner, Christ is just what you need, the greatest Saviour. Lift up your head and look away from yourself, away from your sin, to the uplifted Saviour; away from the poisonous, venomous bite of the serpent to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.
LHU	256	7	He has borne the burden of our guilt. He will take the load from our weary shoulders. He will give us rest. The burden of care and sorrow also He will bear. He invites us to cast all our care upon Him, for He carries us upon His heart (Mind, Character, and Personality 2:451, 452).
LHU	256	8	When the gospel is received in its purity and power, it is a cure for the maladies that originated in sin. The Sun of Righteousness arises, "with healing in his wings" (Malachi 4:2)....
LHU	256	9	The love which Christ diffuses through the whole being is a vitalizing power. Every vital part--the brain, the heart, the nerves--it touches with healing. By it the highest energies of the being are roused to activity. It frees the soul from the guilt and sorrow, the anxiety and care, that crush the life forces. With it come serenity and composure. It implants in the soul joy that nothing earthly can destroy--joy in the Holy Spirit--health-giving, life-giving joy (The Ministry of Healing, 115).
------------------------A Crucified and Risen Saviour, August 31
LHU	257	1	I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain heights ... I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Ezekiel 17:22, 23, NIV.
LHU	257	2	It was in order that the heavenly universe might see the conditions of the covenant of redemption that Christ bore the penalty in behalf of the human race. The throne of Justice must be eternally and forever made secure.... By the sacrifice Christ was about to make, all doubts would be forever settled, and the human race would be saved if they would return to their allegiance. Christ alone could restore honor to God's government. The cross of Calvary would be looked upon by the unfallen worlds, by the heavenly universe, by Satanic agencies, by the fallen race, and every mouth would be stopped. In making His infinite sacrifice Christ would exalt and honor the law. He would make known the exalted character of God's government, which could not in any way be changed to meet man in his sinful condition.
LHU	257	3	Who is able to describe the last scenes of Christ's life on earth, His trial in the judgment hall, His crucifixion? Who witnessed these scenes? The heavenly universe, God the Father, Satan and his angels. Wonderful events took place in the betrayal of Christ. At His mock trial, His accusers found nothing by which He could be proved guilty. Three times Pilate declared, "I find no fault in Him at all." Nevertheless he ordered Him to be scourged, and then delivered Him up to suffer the most cruel death that could be devised....
LHU	257	4	The terrible scenes of the crucifixion revealed what humanity will do when under Satan's control. They revealed what the outcome would be if Satan was to control the world. Those who witnessed these scenes never lost the impressions made upon their minds. Many were converted, and told others of the awful scene they beheld. Many who heard the report of Christ's death were converted, and commenced searching the Scriptures. Thus were fulfilled the words, "So shall he sprinkle many nations."
LHU	257	5	"Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent: in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall ... be a goodly cedar; and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell."
LHU	257	6	Christ was this Branch, the highest branch of the highest cedar. He was the plant of the Lord's setting (The Signs of the Times, July 12, 1899).
------------------------Spiritual and Physical Maladies Healed, September 1
LHU	258	1	And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. Matthew 4:23.
LHU	258	2	This world is a vast lazar house, but Christ came to heal the sick, to proclaim deliverance to the captives of Satan. He was in Himself health and strength. He imparted His life to the sick, the afflicted, those possessed of demons. He turned away none who came to receive His healing power. He knew that those who petitioned Him for help had brought disease upon themselves; yet He did not refuse to heal them. And when virtue from Christ entered into these poor souls, they were convicted of sin, and many were healed of their spiritual disease, as well as of their physical maladies. The gospel still possesses the same power, and why should we not today witness the same results?
LHU	258	3	Christ feels the woes of every sufferer. When evil spirits rend a human frame, Christ feels the curse. When fever is burning up the life current, He feels the agony. And He is just as willing to heal the sick now as when He was personally on earth. Christ's servants are His representatives, the channels for His working. He desires through them to exercise His healing power.
LHU	258	4	In the Saviour's manner of healing there were lessons for His disciples. On one occasion He anointed the eyes of a blind man with clay, and bade him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.... He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing" (John 9:7). The cure could be wrought only by the power of the Great Healer, yet Christ made use of the simple agencies of nature....
LHU	258	5	To many of the afflicted ones who received healing, Christ said, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" (John 5:14). Thus He taught that disease is the result of violating God's laws, both natural and spiritual. The great misery in the world would not exist did men but live in harmony with the Creator's plan.
LHU	258	6	Christ had been the guide and teacher of ancient Israel, and He taught them that health is the reward of obedience to the laws of God. The Great Physician who healed the sick in Palestine had spoken to His people from the pillar of cloud, telling them what they must do, and what God would do for them. "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God," He said, "and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee" (Exodus 15:26).... When they fulfilled the conditions, the promise was verified to them. "There was not one feeble person among their tribes" (Psalm 105:37) (The Desire of Ages, 823, 824).
------------------------Healing for Spiritual Blindness, September 2
LHU	259	1	The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. Psalm 145:18.
LHU	259	2	In the scribes, Pharisees, and rulers, Jesus found not the bottles for His new wine. He was obliged to turn from them to humble men, whose hearts were not filled with envy, covetousness, and self-righteousness. The lowly fishermen obeyed the call of the divine Teacher, while the scribes and Pharisees refused to become converted.
LHU	259	3	The disciples that Jesus called were uneducated, and were far from being perfect in character when Jesus united them with Himself; but they were willing to learn from the greatest Teacher the world ever knew. They were truly converted men, and became the new bottles into which Jesus could pour the new wine of His kingdom. But though they were converted to Christ, yet, because of their limited earthly comprehension--the result of the teaching they had had from the Jews--they were unable fully to understand the spiritual nature of the truth He could impart. The burden of His instruction was the necessity of His followers having pure and holy hearts, for holiness alone would fit them to become subjects of His heavenly kingdom.
LHU	259	4	The divine Sower scattered grains of precious seed, which we cannot see until a skillful laborer, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, gathers them together and presents them to us as a complete system of truth, unfolding the depths of divine love. For all ages Jesus, the author of truth, through prophets and people, had presented truth upon truth to the Jews, from the pillar of cloud and fire. But the truth He had given had become mingled with error, and it was necessary to separate from the companionship of heresy and evil. It was necessary to readjust it in the framework of the gospel, in order that it might shine forth in its original luster and illuminate the moral darkness of the world. Wherever He found a gem of truth that had been lost from its setting, or had been marred with error, He reset it, and stamped upon it the signature of Jehovah. He proved Himself to be the word and the wisdom of God.
LHU	259	5	The commonplace matters of time and earth had engrossed the minds of the people at the time of Christ, just as Satan had designed that they should. Sin had expelled from the heart the love of God, and instead of the love of God there was found in the heart the love of the world, the love of sinful indulgence of evil passions. Christ alone could adjust the claims between heaven and earth. Man's vision had become blinded, because he did not keep in view the spiritual and eternal world.... In the person and work of Christ the holiness of God is revealed; for Christ came to reveal the Father (The Signs of the Times, December 11, 1893).
------------------------Health to Body and Soul, September 3
LHU	260	1	Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3 John 2.
LHU	260	2	There are conditions to be observed by all who would preserve health. All should learn what these conditions are. The Lord is not pleased with ignorance in regard to His laws, either natural or spiritual. We are to be workers together with God for the restoration of health to the body as well as to the soul.
LHU	260	3	And we should teach others how to preserve and to recover health. For the sick we should use the remedies which God has provided in nature, and we should point them to Him who alone can restore. It is our work to present the sick and suffering to Christ in the arms of our faith. We should teach them to believe in the Great Healer. We should lay hold on His promise, and pray for the manifestation of His power. The very essence of the gospel is restoration, and the Saviour would have us bid the sick, the hopeless, and the afflicted take hold upon His strength.
LHU	260	4	The power of love was in all Christ's healing, and only by partaking of that love, through faith, can we be instruments for His work. If we neglect to link ourselves in divine connection with Christ, the current of life-giving energy cannot flow in rich streams from us to the people. There were places where the Saviour Himself could not do many mighty works because of their unbelief (The Desire of Ages, 824, 825).
LHU	260	5	The body must be kept in a healthy condition in order that the soul may be in health. The condition of the body affects the condition of the soul. He who would have physical and spiritual strength must educate his appetite in right lines. He must be careful not to burden the soul by overtaxing his physical or spiritual powers. Faithful adherence to right principles in eating, drinking, and dressing is a duty that God has laid upon human beings.
LHU	260	6	The Lord desires us to obey the laws of health and life. He holds each one responsible to care properly for his body, that it may be kept in health (Evangelism, 261).
LHU	260	7	The Saviour in His miracles revealed the power that is continually at work in man's behalf to sustain and to heal him. Through the agencies of nature, God is working, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, to keep us alive, to build up and restore us....
LHU	260	8	The desire of God for every human being is expressed in the words, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth"....
LHU	260	9	True religion and the laws of health go hand in hand (My Life Today, 135).
------------------------Strong in the Strength of God, September 4
LHU	261	1	And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3.
LHU	261	2	There is but little benefit derived from a hasty reading of the Scriptures. One may read the Bible through, and yet fail to see its beauty or to comprehend its deep and hidden meaning. One passage studied until its significance is clear to the mind, and its relation to the plan of salvation is evident, is of more value than the perusal of many chapters with no definite purpose in view, and no positive instruction gained. Keep your Bible with you. As you have opportunity, read it; fix the texts in your memory. Even while you are walking the streets, you may read a passage, and meditate upon it, thus fixing it in the mind.
LHU	261	3	The life of Christ, that gives life to the world, is in His Word. It was by His word that Jesus healed disease and cast out demons; by His word He stilled the sea, and raised the dead; and the people bore witness that His word was with power. He spoke the word of God, as He had spoken to all the prophets and teachers of the Old Testament. The whole Bible is a manifestation of Christ. It is our source of power.
LHU	261	4	As our physical life is sustained by food, so our spiritual life is sustained by the Word of God. And every soul is to receive life from God's Word for himself. As we must eat for ourselves in order to receive nourishment, so we must receive the Word for ourselves. We are not to obtain it merely through the medium of another mind.
LHU	261	5	Yes, the Word of God is the bread of life. Those who eat and digest this Word, making it a part of every action and of every attribute of character, grow strong in the strength of God. It gives immortal vigor to the soul, perfecting the experience and bringing joys that will abide forever (The Signs of the Times, June 25, 1902).
LHU	261	6	"In him was life; and the life was the light of men." It is not physical life that is here specified, but eternal life, the life which is exclusively the property of God. The Word, who was with God, and who was God, had this life. Physical life is something which each individual received. It is not eternal or immortal; for God, the Lifegiver, takes it again.... But the life of Christ was unborrowed. No one can take this life from Him. "I lay it down of myself," He said.... This life is not inherent in man. He can possess it only through Christ. He cannot earn it; it is given him as a free gift if he will believe in Christ as his personal Saviour. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). This is the open fountain of life for the world (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 5, 1130).
------------------------The Fruits of Self-Denial, September 5
LHU	262	1	Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
LHU	262	2	You do not realize the claims that the Lord has upon you. You have not become acquainted with the sweet results of self-denial. Its fruits are sacred.... Instead of purchasing frivolous things, put your little into the bank of heaven, that when the Master comes you may receive both principal and interest....
LHU	262	3	Religion, pure and undefiled, with its strong principles, would prove to you an anchor. In order to answer life's great ends you must avoid the example of those who are seeking for their own pleasure and enjoyment, and who have not the fear of God before them. God has made provisions for you that are ample. He has provided that if you comply with the conditions laid down in His Word, and separate from the world, you may receive strength from Him to repress every debasing influence and develop that which is noble, good, and elevating. Christ will be in you "a well of water springing up into everlasting life." The will, the intellect, and every emotion, when controlled by religion, have a transforming power.
LHU	262	4	"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Here is a principle which lies at the foundation of every act, thought, and motive; the consecration of the entire being, both physical and mental, to the control of the Spirit of God. The unsanctified will and passions must be crucified. This may be regarded as a close and severe work. Yet it must be done, or you will hear the terrible sentence from the mouth of Jesus: "Depart." You can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth you. You are of that age when the will, the appetite, and the passions clamor for indulgence. God has implanted these in your nature for high and holy purposes. It is not necessary that they should become a curse to you by being debased. They will become this only when you refuse to submit to the control of reason and conscience. Restrain, deny, are words and works with which you are not familiar by experience. Temptations have swayed you. Unsanctified minds fail to receive that strength and comfort that God has provided for them. They are restless and possess a strong desire for something new, something to gratify, to please and excite the mind; and this is called pleasure. Satan has alluring charms to engage the interest and excite the imagination of the youth in particular, that he may fasten them to his snare.... You need to cry earnestly: "O Lord, my inmost soul convert." You can have an influence for good over other young people.... May the God of peace sanctify you wholly, soul, body, and spirit (Testimonies for the Church 3:83, 84).
------------------------Wait Upon the Lord for Strength, September 6
LHU	263	1	And ... [Jesus] said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. Mark 6:31.
LHU	263	2	Those who are connected with the work ... are to live so near the Lord that light will shine forth from them as from a lamp that burneth. When there is shown a deep, earnest determination to press together, the very oneness of the workers will proclaim the truth with power, making a deep impression on those not of our faith....
LHU	263	3	Workers for God will meet with turmoil, discomfort, and weariness. At times, uncertain and distracted, the heart is almost in despair. When this restless nervousness comes, the worker should stop and rest. Christ invites him, "Come ... apart, ... and rest a while" (Mark 6:31). "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.... They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint" (Isaiah 40:29-31)....
LHU	263	4	A worker cannot gain success while he hurries through his prayers to God, and rushes away to look after something that he fears may be neglected or forgotten. He takes time to give only a few hurried thoughts to God, that is all. He does not give himself time to think, to pray, to wait upon the Lord for a renewal of spiritual and physical strength. He soon becomes jaded. He does not feel the uplifting, inspiring influence of God's Spirit. He is not quickened by fresh life. His jaded frame and tired brain are not soothed by personal contact with Christ.
LHU	263	5	"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord" (Psalm 27:14). "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord" (Lamentations 3:26). There are those who work all day and far into the night to do what it seems to them needs to be done. The Lord looks pitifully upon these weary, heavy-laden burden-bearers, and says to them, "Come unto me, ... and I will give you rest.... For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30) (Letter 83, 1902).
LHU	263	6	Our life is to be hid with Christ in God; and if it is thus hidden, in His hands it will be converted into a lamp which will shed upon the world a bright and steady light.... But though time is short, and there is a great work to be done, the Lord is not pleased to have us so prolong our seasons of activity that there will not be time for periods of rest, for the study of the Bible, and for communion with God. All this is essential to fortify the soul, to place us in a position where we shall receive wisdom from God to employ our talents in the Master's service to the highest account (Youth's Instructor, February 3, 1898).
------------------------Moral and Spiritual Perfection Promised, September 7
LHU	264	1	And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Colossians 3:14, 15, RSV.
LHU	264	2	"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth," Paul wrote to the Colossians; "in the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.... Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye" (Colossians 3:5, 7-13)....
LHU	264	3	The letter to the Colossians is filled with lessons of highest value to all who are engaged in the service of Christ, lessons that show the singleness of purpose and the loftiness of aim which will be seen in the life of him who rightly represents the Saviour. Renouncing all that would hinder him from making progress in the upward way or that would turn the feet of another from the narrow path, the believer will reveal in his daily life mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, forbearance, and the love of Christ....
LHU	264	4	In his efforts to reach God's ideal for him, the Christian is to despair of nothing. Moral and spiritual perfection, through the grace and power of Christ, is promised to all. Jesus is the source of power, the fountain of life. He brings us to His word, and from the tree of life presents to us leaves for the healing of sin-sick souls. He leads us to the throne of God, and puts into our mouth a prayer through which we are brought into close contact with Himself. In our behalf He set in operation the all-powerful agencies of heaven. At every step we touch His living power.
LHU	264	5	God fixes no limit to the advancement of those who desire to be "filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" (Colossians 1:9). Through prayer, through watchfulness, through growth in knowledge and understanding, they are to be "strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power" (verse 11). Thus they are prepared to work for others. It is the Saviour's purpose that human beings, purified and sanctified, shall be His helping hand. For this great privilege let us give thanks to Him who "hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son" (verses 12, 13) (The Acts of the Apostles, 477, 478).
------------------------Think of God Continually, September 8
LHU	265	1	I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Ephesians 3:14-16.
LHU	265	2	The spiritual strength here spoken of is something that we may each obtain; but how shall we get it? Perhaps we are in darkness, feeling weak and discouraged and that God does not love us. If so, we are not to give way to feelings; feeling has nothing whatever to do with the matter. We are to take the Word of God as it reads, the words of Christ as He has spoken them.
LHU	265	3	Hear these words of our Saviour: "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock." It is the privilege of every one of us to build upon the Eternal Rock; then we shall not dishonor God, nor by our words and actions scatter away from Christ....
LHU	265	4	When you have thrown yourself upon the mercy of God, and taken Him at His word, and yet the enemy comes, and suggests your faults and failings, and tells you that you are no better than before you sought the Lord, you can point to Jesus, and repeat His promises, and tell what He has done for you.
LHU	265	5	The apostle continues: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." While this divine fullness has been placed within our reach, how easily we are satisfied. We have accustomed ourselves to think that it is enough to have a knowledge of the truth without its sanctifying power. Just a little sip at the fountain of life quenches our thirst. We do not come again and again to drink. But this is not in accordance with the mind of God. Our souls should be continually athirst for the water of life. Our hearts should ever go out after Christ, longing for communion with Him. It is hungering and thirsting after righteousness that will bring us the full measure of His grace.
LHU	265	6	Enoch "walked with God"; but how did he gain this sweet intimacy? It was by having thoughts of God continually before him. As he went out and as he came in, his meditations were upon the goodness, the perfection, and the loveliness of the divine character. And as he was thus engaged, he became changed in the glorious image of his Lord; for it is by beholding that we become changed (The Signs of the Times, August 18, 1887).
------------------------Spiritual Power, September 9
LHU	266	1	And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints. Ephesians 3:17, 18, NIV.
LHU	266	2	We are to reflect the character of Jesus. Everywhere, whether in the church, at our homes, or in social intercourse with our neighbors, we should let the lovely image of Jesus appear. This we cannot do unless we are filled with His fullness. If we would become better acquainted with Jesus, we should love Him for His goodness and excellence and we should desire to become so assimilated to His divine character that all would know that we had been with Jesus, and learned of Him.
LHU	266	3	It is by carrying out in our lives the pure principles of the gospel of Christ that we honor and glorify our Father, who is in heaven. When we are doing this, we are reflecting Heaven-given light upon the dark world around us. Sinners will be constrained to confess that we are not the children of darkness, but the children of light. How shall they know this? By the fruits we bear. Men may have their names upon the church book; but that does not make them children of light. They may hold honorable positions and receive the praise of men; but that does not make them children of light.... There must be a deep work of grace--the love of God in the heart, and this love is expressed by obedience.
LHU	266	4	It is Christ dwelling in the soul that gives us spiritual power, and makes us channels of light. The more light we have, the more we can impart to others around us. The more closely we live to Jesus, the clearer views shall we have of His loveliness. As we behold Him in His purity, we discern more clearly our own faults of character. We yearn after Him, and for that fullness that is in Him, and that shines out in the perfection of His heavenly character; and by beholding we become changed into His image....
LHU	266	5	Everyday we are sowing some kind of seed. If we sow the seeds of unbelief, we shall reap unbelief; if we sow pride, we shall reap pride; if we sow stubbornness, we shall reap stubbornness, "for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap"....
LHU	266	6	Our hearts may be filled with all the fullness of God; but there is something for us to do. We must not pet our faults and sins, but put them away, and make haste to set our hearts in order. When this is done, let us take the key of faith, and unlock the storehouse of God's rich blessings.... There is an infinite fullness to draw from; and we have the promise of our divine Lord, "According to your faith be it unto you." We may win the crown of life, a place at God's right hand, and as we enter the pearly gates, hear the words, sweeter than any music, "Well done, good and faithful servant: ... enter thou into the joy of thy lord" (Matthew 25:23) (The Signs of the Times, August 18, 1887).
------------------------Be Strong in His Grace, September 10
LHU	267	1	Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. 2 Timothy 2:1, 2.
LHU	267	2	The lessons contained in the words of Paul to Timothy are of the greatest importance to us today. He charges him to "be strong"--in his own wisdom? No, but "in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." He who would be a follower of Christ is not to rely upon his own capabilities, or to feel confident in himself. Neither is to be dwarfed in his religious efforts, to shun responsibilities, and remain inefficient in the cause of God. He is to draw strength from a sure and safe source, that never fails those who would have divine power. The exhortation to us is, "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." If the Christian feels his weakness, his inability, by putting his trust in God, he will find the grace of Christ sufficient for every emergency.
LHU	267	3	The soldier of Christ must meet many forms of temptation, and resist and overcome them. The fiercer the conflict, the greater the supply of grace to meet the need of the soul; and the very nature of the grace received will enlarge the capacity of the servant of Christ to know God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. The soul of the believer will go out in intense longing to know and understand more of the truth and righteousness of Christ. All who advance in the divine life will have increased ability to search for truth as for hid treasure, and will appropriate the truth to their own souls. The true Christian will understand what it means to pass through severe conflicts and trying experiences; but he will steadily increase in the grace of Christ to meet successfully the enemy of his soul, who works through human agency to cause the ruin of the servants of Christ. By passing through severe ordeals of trial, the follower of Christ will better understand the ways of God and the plan of redemption, and will not be ignorant of the devices of the enemy. The darkness will press upon his soul at times; but the true light will shine, the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness will dispel the gloom; and although Satan seeks in every way to discourage him by presenting obstacles before him, through the grace of Christ he will be enabled to be a faithful witness of the things which he has heard from the inspired messenger of God. He does not despise or neglect the message received, but commits his knowledge to faithful men, who in their turn are to be able to teach others also. In communicating the light to others, the Christian proves the truth of the word that "the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18) (The Review and Herald, June 16, 1896).
------------------------Conformity to the Will of God, September 11
LHU	268	1	A gracious woman retaineth honour. Proverbs 11:16.
LHU	268	2	You may never be called to do a work which will bring you before the public. But all the work we do that is necessary to be done, be it washing dishes, setting tables, waiting upon the sick, cooking, or washing, is of moral importance; and until you can cheerfully and happily take up these duties you are not fitted for greater and higher duties. The humble tasks before us are to be taken up by someone; and those who do them should feel that they are doing a necessary and honorable work, and that in their mission, humble though it may be, they are doing the work of God just as surely as was Gabriel when sent to the prophets. All are working in their order in their respective spheres. Woman in her home, doing the simple duties of life that must be done, can and should exhibit faithfulness, obedience, and love as sincere as angels in their sphere. Conformity to the will of God makes any work honorable that must be done....
LHU	268	3	We are not in heaven, but upon the earth. When we are in heaven, then we shall be qualified to do the lofty and elevating work of heaven. It is here in this world that we must be tested and proved....
LHU	268	4	The highest duty that devolves upon youth is their own homes, blessing father and mother, brothers and sisters, by affection and true interest. Here they can show self-denial and self-forgetfulness in caring and doing for others. Never will women be degraded by this work. It is the most sacred, elevated office that she can fill. What an influence a sister may have over brothers! If she is right she may determine the character of her brothers. Her prayers, her gentleness, and her affection may do much in a household.... These noble qualities can never be communicated to other minds unless they first exist in your own. That contentment of mind, that affection, gentleness, and sunniness of temper which will reach every heart, will reflect upon you what your heart gives forth to others. If Christ does not reign in the heart, there will be discontent and moral deformity. Selfishness will require of others that which we are unwilling to give them. If Christ is not in the heart, the character will be unlovely.
LHU	268	5	It is not the great work and great battles alone which try the soul and demand courage. Everyday life brings its perplexities, trials, and discouragements. It is the humble work which frequently draws upon the patience and the fortitude. Self-reliance and resolution will be necessary to meet and conquer all difficulties. Secure the Lord to stand with you, in every place to be your consolation and comfort (Testimonies for the Church 3:79-81).
------------------------Salvation of Children, September 12
LHU	269	1	Even a child makes himself known by his acts, whether what he does is pure and right. Proverbs 20:11, RSV.
LHU	269	2	Much study and earnest prayer for heavenly wisdom are needed to know how to deal with youthful minds, for very much depends upon the direction parents give to the minds and wills of their children. To balance their minds in the right direction and at the right time is a most important work, for their eternal destiny may depend on the decisions made at some critical moment. How important, then, that the minds of parents be as free as possible from perplexing, wearing care in temporal things, that they may think and act with calm consideration, wisdom, and love, and make the salvation of the souls of their children the first and highest consideration! The great object which parents should seek to attain for their dear children should be the inward adorning. Parents cannot afford to allow visitors and strangers to claim their attention, and by robbing them of time, which is life's great capital, make it impossible for them to give their children each day that patient instruction which they must have to give right direction to their developing minds.
LHU	269	3	This lifetime is too short to be squandered in vain and trifling diversion, in unprofitable visiting, in needless dressing for display, or in exciting amusements. We cannot afford to squander the time given us of God in which to bless others and in which to lay up for ourselves a treasure in heaven. We have none too much time for the discharge of necessary duties. We should give time to the culture of our own hearts and minds in order that we may be qualified for our lifework. By neglecting these essential duties and conforming to the habits and customs of fashionable, worldly society, we do ourselves and our children a great wrong....
LHU	269	4	It is the duty of mothers to cultivate their minds and keep their hearts pure. They should improve every means within their reach for their intellectual and moral improvement, that they may be qualified to improve the minds of their children. Those who indulge their disposition to be in company will soon feel restless unless visiting or entertaining visitors. Such have not the power of adaptation to circumstances. The necessary, sacred home duties seem commonplace and uninteresting to them. They have no love for self-examination or self-discipline. The mind hungers for the varying, exciting scenes of worldly life....
LHU	269	5	If parents would feel that it is a solemn duty enjoined upon them of God to educate their children for usefulness in this life; if they would adorn the inner temple of the souls of their sons and daughters for the immortal life, we should see a great change in society for the better (Testimonies for the Church 3:146, 147).
------------------------Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Development, September 13
LHU	270	1	Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6.
LHU	270	2	It is the nicest work ever assumed by men and women to deal with youthful minds. The greatest care should be taken in the education of youth to so vary the manner of instruction as to call forth the high and noble powers of the mind. Parents and schoolteachers are certainly disqualified to properly educate children if they have not first learned the lesson of self-control, patience, forbearance, gentleness, and love. What an important position for parents, guardians, and teachers! There are very few who realize the most essential wants of the mind and how to direct the developing intellect, the growing thoughts and feelings of youth....
LHU	270	3	The early education of youth shapes their characters both in their secular and in their religious life. Solomon says: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." This language is positive. The training which Solomon enjoins is to direct, educate, and develop. In order for parents and teachers to do this work, they must themselves understand "the way" the child should go. This embraces more than merely having a knowledge of books. It takes in everything that is good, virtuous, righteous, and holy. It comprehends the practice of temperance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love to God and to one another. In order to attain this object, the physical, mental, moral, and religious education of children must have attention.... Children should be taught to respect experienced judgment and be guided by their parents and teachers. They should be so educated that their minds will be united with the minds of their parents and teachers, and so instructed that they can see the propriety of heeding their counsel. Then when they go forth from the guiding hand of their parents and teachers, their characters will not be like the reed trembling in the wind....
LHU	270	4	Small children should be left as free as lambs to run out of doors, to be free and happy, and should be allowed the most favorable opportunities to lay the foundation for sound constitutions....
LHU	270	5	The mother should have less love for the artificial in her house ... and should find time to cultivate, in herself and in her children, a love for the beautiful buds and opening flowers.... She can lead their minds up to their Creator and awaken in their young hearts a love for their heavenly Father, who has manifested so great love for them. Parents can associate God with all His created works.... These lessons, imprinted upon the minds of young children amid the pleasant, attractive scenes of nature, will not be soon forgotten (Testimonies for the Church 3:131-137).
------------------------Moral Powers to be Tested, September 14
LHU	271	1	Our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. Psalm 144:12, NIV.
LHU	271	2	The disposition and habits of youth will be very likely to be manifested in mature manhood. You may bend a young tree into almost any shape that you choose, and if it remains and grows as you have bent it, it will be a deformed tree and will ever tell of the injury and abuse received at your hand. You may, after years of growth, try to straighten the tree, but all your efforts will prove unavailing. It will ever be a crooked tree. This is the case with the minds of youth. They should be carefully and tenderly trained in childhood. They may be trained in the right direction or in the wrong, and in their future lives they will pursue the course in which they were directed in youth. The habits formed in youth will grow with the growth and strengthen with the strength, and will generally be the same in afterlife, only continually growing stronger.
LHU	271	3	We are living in an age when almost everything is superficial. There is but little stability and firmness of character, because the training and education of children from their cradle is superficial. Their characters are built upon sliding sand. Self-denial and self-control have not been molded into their characters. They have been petted and indulged until they are spoiled for practical life. The love of pleasure controls minds, and children are flattered and indulged to their ruin. Children should be so trained and educated that they will expect temptations and calculate to meet difficulties and dangers. They should be taught to have control over themselves and to nobly overcome difficulties; and if they do not willfully rush into danger and needlessly place themselves in the way of temptation; if they shun evil influences and vicious society, and then are unavoidably compelled to be in dangerous company, they will have strength of character to stand for the right and preserve principle, and will come forth in the strength of God with their morals untainted. If youth who have been properly educated make God their trust, their moral powers will stand the most powerful test....
LHU	271	4	If parents could be aroused to a sense of the fearful responsibility which rests upon them in the work of educating their children, more of their time would be devoted to prayer and less to needless display. They would reflect and study and pray earnestly to God for wisdom and divine aid to so train their children that they may develop characters that God will approve. Their anxiety would not be to know how they can educate their children so that they will be praised and honored of the world, but how they can educate them to form beautiful characters that God can approve (Testimonies for the Church 3:143-145).
------------------------Body and Mind Inseparable, September 15
LHU	272	1	If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. 1 Corinthians 3:17.
LHU	272	2	One of the strongest temptations that man has to meet is upon the point of appetite. Between the mind and the body there is a mysterious and wonderful relation. They react upon each other. To keep the body in a healthy condition to develop its strength, that every part of the living machinery may act harmoniously, should be the first study of our life. To neglect the body is to neglect the mind. It cannot be to the glory of God for His children to have sickly bodies or dwarfed minds. To indulge the taste at the expense of health is a wicked abuse of the senses....
LHU	272	3	The Redeemer of the world knew that the indulgence of appetite would bring physical debility, and so deaden the perceptive organs that sacred and eternal things would not be discerned. Christ knew that the world was given up to gluttony and that this indulgence would pervert the moral powers. If the indulgence of appetite was so strong upon the race that, in order to break its power, the divine Son of God, in behalf of man, was required to fast nearly six weeks, what a work is before the Christian in order that he may overcome even as Christ overcame! The strength of the temptation to indulge perverted appetite can be measured only by the inexpressible anguish of Christ in that long fast in the wilderness.
LHU	272	4	Christ knew that in order to successfully carry forward the plan of salvation He must commence the work of redeeming man just where the ruin began. Adam fell by the indulgence of appetite. In order to impress upon man his obligations to obey the law of God, Christ began His work of redemption by reforming the physical habits of man....
LHU	272	5	Intemperance in eating, even of food of the right quality, will have a prostrating influence upon the system and will blunt the keener and holier emotions. Strict temperance in eating and drinking is highly essential for the healthy preservation and vigorous exercise of all the functions of the body....
LHU	272	6	The only safe course is to touch not, taste not, handle not, tea, coffee, wines, tobacco, opium, and alcoholic drinks. The necessity for the men of this generation to call to their aid the power of the will, strengthened by the grace of God, in order to withstand the temptations of Satan and resist the least indulgence of perverted appetite is twice as great as it was several generations ago.... The Redeemer of the world came from heaven to help man in his weakness, that, in the power which Jesus came to bring him, he might become strong to overcome appetite and passion, and might be victor on every point (Testimonies for the Church 3:485-488).
------------------------Minds Filled with God's Promises, September 16
LHU	273	1	With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:10.
LHU	273	2	According to this, there is something to believe, also something to confess. The heart must first accept the truth as it is in Jesus. This is the foundation of true religion. Conviction of sin then begins to be felt; the sin-sick soul, feeling his need of a physician, comes to Jesus of Nazareth for pardon. Taking up the warfare against the enemy, he looks to Jesus for strength to resist temptation. He watches unto prayer, and searches the Scriptures. The truths of the Bible are seen in a new and intensely interesting light, and the Spirit of God opens to him their solemn importance. He studies the life of Christ, and the more clearly he discerns the spotless purity of the Saviour's character, the less confidence he has in his own goodness; the more steadily and closely he views Jesus, the less he discovers of perfection in himself. His self-righteousness disappears, and he falls, all helpless and broken, upon the Rock, Christ Jesus. He will be sorely pressed by the tempter, and at times may have feelings of discouragement, and be tempted to think that God will not accept him; but, taking God at His word, and pleading His sure promises, he presses through the darkness into the clear sunlight of Christ's love.
LHU	273	3	"And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." If the heart is indeed the treasure house of grace and the love of Christ, these will be expressed in the words and deportment. There will be a constant attraction to Christ. All will be tested; hence the need of divine grace, and of sound religious faith and principles. The lips should be sanctified, that the words spoken may be few and well chosen.
LHU	273	4	Oftentimes professed Christians bring upon themselves great spiritual weakness by dwelling upon their trials and grievances. Not only does the matter become magnified by every repetition, but they as surely separate from Jesus as they allow themselves to transgress in this particular. Satan seeks to draw their attention to themselves, and to fasten upon them the idea that they are not appreciated. They begin to pity and sympathize with themselves, and to lose faith and confidence in Jesus; and as the result they walk apart from Him who asks them to cast their burdens upon Him.
LHU	273	5	To such we would say, Recount what God has done for you. Tell Satan that you do not trust in your own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Christ. Keep the mind filled with the precious promises found in the Bible, and when Satan comes in like a flood to overwhelm you, meet him with the weapon which the Word of God has provided, "It is written." This will break his power and give you the victory (Historical Sketches, 129, 130).
------------------------Fruit Bearing, September 17
LHU	274	1	For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. Isaiah 55:10.
LHU	274	2	Christ is seeking to reproduce Himself in the hearts of men; and He does this through those who believe in Him. The object of the Christian life is fruit bearing--the reproduction of Christ's character in the believer, that it may be reproduced in others.
LHU	274	3	The plant does not germinate, grow, or bring forth fruit for itself, but to "give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater." So no man is to live unto himself. The Christian is in the world as a representative of Christ, for salvation of other souls.
LHU	274	4	There can be no growth or fruitfulness in the life that is centered in self. If you have accepted Christ as a personal Saviour, you are to forget yourself, and try to help others. Talk of the love of Christ, tell of His goodness. Do every duty that presents itself. Carry the burden of souls upon your heart, and by every means in your power seek to save the lost. As you receive the Spirit of Christ--the Spirit of unselfish love and labor for others--you will grow and bring forth fruit. The graces of the Spirit will ripen in your character. Your faith will increase, your convictions deepen, your love be made perfect. More and more you will reflect the likeness of Christ in all that is pure, noble, and lovely.
LHU	274	5	"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22, 23). This fruit can never perish, but will produce after its kind a harvest unto eternal life.
LHU	274	6	"When the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come." Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim His own.
LHU	274	7	It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain (Christ's Object Lessons, 67-69).
LHU	274	8	As the plant takes root in the soil, so we are to take deep root in Christ. As the plant receives the sunshine, the dew, and the rain, we are to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit. The work is to be done "not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6) (Christ's Object Lessons, 67).
------------------------Spiritual Development Through Service, September 18
LHU	275	1	Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. Luke 6:38.
LHU	275	2	Those who give their lives to Christlike ministry know the meaning of true happiness. Their interests and their prayers reach far beyond self. They themselves are growing as they try to help others. They become familiar with the largest plans, the most stirring enterprises, and how can they but grow when they place themselves in the divine channel of light and blessing? Such ones receive wisdom from heaven. They become more and more identified with Christ in all His plans. There is no opportunity for spiritual stagnation. Selfish ambition and self-seeking are rebuked by constant contact with the absorbing interests, the elevated aspirations, which belong to high and holy activities (Testimonies for the Church 9:42).
LHU	275	3	Heavenly intelligences are waiting to cooperate with human instrumentalities, that they may reveal to the world what human beings may become and what, through their influence, they may accomplish for the saving of souls that are ready to perish. He who is truly converted will be so filled with the love of God that he will long to impart to others the joy that he himself possesses. The Lord desires His church to show forth to the world the beauty of holiness. She is to demonstrate the power of Christian religion. Heaven is to be reflected in the character of the Christian. The song of gratitude and praise is to be heard by those in darkness. For the good tidings of the gospel, for its promises and assurances, we are to express our gratitude by seeking to do others good. The doing of this work will bring rays of heavenly righteousness to wearied, perplexed, suffering souls. It is as a fountain opened for the wayworn, thirsty traveler. At every work of mercy, every work of love, angels of God are present.
LHU	275	4	Christ's work is to be our example. Constantly He went about doing good. In the Temple and the synagogues, in the streets of the cities, in the marketplace and the workshop, by the seaside and among the hills, He preached the gospel and healed the sick. His life was one of unselfish service, and it is to be our lesson book. His tender, pitying love rebukes our selfishness and heartlessness.
LHU	275	5	Wherever Christ went, He scattered blessings in His path. How many who claim to believe on Him have learned His lessons of kindness, of tender pity, of unselfish love? Hear His voice speaking to the weak, the weary, the helpless: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). There was no wearying of His patience, no repressing of His love (Testimonies for the Church 9:30, 31).
------------------------Hid with Christ in God, September 19
LHU	276	1	The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Psalm 92:12.
LHU	276	2	See the weary traveler toiling over the hot sand of the desert, with no shelter to protect him from the rays of the tropical sun. His water supply fails, and he has nothing with which to slake his burning thirst. His tongue becomes swollen; he staggers like a drunken man. Visions of home and friends pass before his mind as he believes himself ready to perish. Suddenly he sees in the distance, rising out of the dreary, sandy waste, a palm tree, green and flourishing. Hope quickens his pulses; he presses on, knowing that that which gives vigor and freshness to the palm tree will cool his fevered blood and give him renewed life.
LHU	276	3	As is the palm tree in the desert--a guide and a consolation to the fainting traveler--so the Christian is to be in the world. He is to guide weary souls, full of unrest, and ready to perish in the desert of sin, to the living water. He is to point his fellowmen to Him who gives to all the invitation, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink."
LHU	276	4	The sky may be as brass, the burning sand may beat about the palm tree's roots, and pile itself about its trunk; yet the tree lives on, fresh and vigorous. Remove the sand, and you discover the secret of its life; its roots strike down deep into the waters hidden in the earth.
LHU	276	5	Thus it is with the Christian. His life is hid with Christ in God. Jesus is to him a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life. His faith, like the rootlets of the palm tree, penetrates beneath the things that are seen, drawing life from the fountain of life. And, amid all the corruption of the world, he is true and loyal to God. The sweet influence of Christ's righteousness surrounds him. His influence elevates and blesses.
LHU	276	6	The humblest and poorest of the disciples of Jesus can be a blessing to others. They may not realize that they are doing any special good, but by their unconscious influence they may start waves of blessings that will widen and deepen, and the blessed results they may never know till the day of final reward. They are not required to weary themselves with anxiety about success. They have only to go forward quietly, doing faithfully the work God's providence assigns, and their life will not be in vain. Their own souls will be growing more and more into the likeness of Christ; they are workers together with God in this life, and are thus fitting for the higher work and the unshadowed joy of the life to come (The Signs of the Times, August 6, 1902).
------------------------Christ Has Promised Us Rest, September 20
LHU	277	1	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28.
LHU	277	2	Jesus invites the weary and care-laden sons and daughters of Adam to come to Him, and lay on Him their heavy burdens. But many who hear this invitation, while sighing for rest, yet press on the rugged path, hugging their burdens close to their heart. Jesus loves them, and longs to bear their burdens and themselves also in His strong arms. He would remove the fears and uncertainties that rob them of peace and rest; but they must first come to Him, and tell Him the secret woes of their heart. He invites the confidence of His people as the proof of their love for Him. The gift of the humble, trusting heart is more precious to Him than all the wealth that riches can bestow. If they would only come to Him in the simplicity and confidence with which a child would come to His parents, the divine touch of His hands would relieve them of their burdens.
LHU	277	3	Jesus, our compassionate Saviour, is the way, the truth, and the life. Why will we not accept His gracious offer of mercy, believe His words of promise, and not make the way of life so hard? ... The ways of Christ are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. If we have made rough paths for our feet, and taken heavy burdens of care in laying up for ourselves treasures upon the earth, let us now change, and follow the path Jesus has prepared for us.
LHU	277	4	We are not always willing to come to Jesus with our trials and difficulties. Sometimes we pour our troubles into human ears, and tell our afflictions to those who cannot help us, and neglect to confide all to Jesus, who is able to change the sorrowful way to paths of joy and peace.... Oh, that all, ministers and people, would take their burdens and perplexities to Jesus, who is waiting to receive them, and to give them peace and rest! (The Signs of the Times, March 17, 1887).
LHU	277	5	It is a terribly hard struggle to give up your own will and your own way. But this lesson learned, you will find rest and peace. Pride, selfishness, and ambition must be overcome; your will must be swallowed up in the will of Christ. The whole life may become one constant love sacrifice, every action a manifestation, and every word an utterance of love. As the life of the vine circulates through stem and cluster, descends into the lower fibers, and reaches to the topmost leaf, so will the grace and love of Christ burn and abound in the soul, sending its virtues to every part of the being, and pervading every exercise of body and mind (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 5, 1091, 1092).
------------------------The Plan of Redemption a Gift, September 21
LHU	278	1	Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians 1:3.
LHU	278	2	"God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, ... and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."
LHU	278	3	Such are the words in which "Paul the aged," "a prisoner of Jesus Christ," writing from his prison house at Rome, endeavored to set before his brethren that which he found language inadequate to express in its fullness--"the unsearchable riches of Christ," the treasure of grace freely offered to the fallen sons of men. The plan of redemption was laid by a sacrifice, a gift. Says the apostle: "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich".... And as the crowning blessing of redemption, "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord".... Surely there are none that, beholding the riches of grace, can forbear to exclaim with the apostle: "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."
LHU	278	4	As the plan of redemption begins and ends with a gift, so it is to be carried forward. The same spirit of sacrifice which purchased salvation for us will dwell in the hearts of all who become partakers of the heavenly gift. Says the apostle Peter: "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." Said Jesus to His disciples as He sent them forth: "Freely ye have received, freely give." In him who is fully in sympathy with Christ there can be nothing selfish or exclusive. He who drinks of the living water will find that it is "in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." The Spirit of Christ within him is like a spring welling up in the desert, flowing to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life. It was the same spirit of love and self-sacrifice which dwelt in Christ that impelled the apostle Paul to his manifold labors. "I am debtor," he says, "both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise" (Romans 1:14). "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8) (Testimonies for the Church 5:730, 731).
------------------------The Power of God's Love, September 22
LHU	279	1	Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. Job 22:21.
LHU	279	2	Said Jesus: "The Father himself loveth you." If our faith is fixed upon God, through Christ, it will prove "as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered." It is true that disappointments will come; tribulation we must expect; but we are to commit everything, great and small, to God. He does not become perplexed by the multiplicity of our grievances nor overpowered by the weight of our burdens. His watchcare extends to every household and enriches every individual; He is concerned in all our business and our sorrows. He marks every tear; He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. All the afflictions and trials that befall us here are permitted, to work out His purposes of love toward us, "that we might be partakers of his holiness," and thus become participants in that fullness of joy which is found in His presence....
LHU	279	3	The Bible in strongest terms sets before us the importance of obtaining a knowledge of God. Says Peter: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue." And the Scripture bids us: "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace."
LHU	279	4	God has commanded us, "Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy"; and an inspired apostle declares that without holiness "no man shall see the Lord." Holiness is agreement with God. By sin the image of God in man has been marred and well-nigh obliterated; it is the work of the gospel to restore that which has been lost; and we are to cooperate with the divine agency in this work. And how can we come into harmony with God, how shall we receive His likeness, unless we obtain a knowledge of Him? It is this knowledge that Christ came into the world to reveal unto us.
LHU	279	5	The meager views which so many have had of the exalted character and office of Christ have narrowed their religious experience and have greatly hindered their progress in the divine life. Personal religion among us as a people is at a low ebb. There is much form, much machinery, much tongue religion; but something deeper and more solid must be brought into our religious experience.... What we need is to know God and the power of His love, as revealed in Christ, by an experimental knowledge. We must search the Scriptures diligently, prayerfully; our understanding must be quickened by the Holy Spirit, and our hearts must be uplifted to God in faith and hope and continual praise (Testimonies for the Church 5:742-744).
------------------------Firm Reliance on Christ, September 23
LHU	280	1	Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Romans 15:13.
LHU	280	2	At times a deep sense of our unworthiness will send a thrill of terror through the soul; but this is no evidence that God has changed toward us, or we toward God.... We should by faith grasp the hand of Christ, and trust Him as fully in the darkness as in the light.
LHU	280	3	Satan may whisper, "You are too great a sinner for Christ to save." While you acknowledge that you are indeed sinful and unworthy, you may meet the tempter with the cry, "By virtue of the atonement, I claim Christ as my Saviour. I trust not to my own merits, but to the precious blood of Jesus, which cleanses me. This moment I hang my helpless soul on Christ." The Christian life must be a life of constant, living faith. An unyielding trust, a firm reliance upon Christ, will bring peace and assurance to the soul....
LHU	280	4	Every obstacle, every internal foe, only increases your need of Christ. He came to take away the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh. Look to Him for special grace to overcome your peculiar faults. When assailed by temptation, steadfastly resist the evil promptings; say to your soul, "How can I dishonor my Redeemer? I have given myself to Christ; I cannot do the works of Satan." Cry to the dear Saviour for help to sacrifice every idol, and to put away every darling sin. Let the eye of faith see Jesus standing before the Father's throne, presenting His wounded hands as He pleads for you. Believe that strength comes to you through your precious Saviour.
LHU	280	5	By faith look upon the crowns laid up for those who shall overcome; listen to the exultant song of the redeemed, Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain and hast redeemed us to God! Endeavor to regard these scenes as real. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, in his terrible conflict with principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places, exclaimed, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." The Saviour of the world was revealed to him as looking down from heaven upon him with the deepest interest; and the glorious light of Christ's countenance shone upon Stephen with such brightness that even his enemies saw his face shine like the face of an angel.
LHU	280	6	If we would permit our minds to dwell more upon Christ and the heavenly world, we should find a powerful stimulus and support in fighting the battles of the Lord. Pride and love of the world will lose their power as we contemplate the glories of that better land so soon to be our home. Beside the loveliness of Christ, all earthly attractions will seem of little worth (The Review and Herald, November 15, 1887).
------------------------The Sanctifying Power of the Truth, September 24
LHU	281	1	For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. John 17:19.
LHU	281	2	Continual application will accomplish for man what nothing else can. Those who are never content without the consciousness that they are growing every day will truly make a success of life....
LHU	281	3	Do not, then, continually dwell upon ... one point, concentrating all the energies of the mind upon it, constantly urging it upon the attention of others, but take another subject, and carefully examine that. Thus mystery after mystery will be unfolded to your comprehension. Two valuable victories will be gained by this course. You have not only secured useful knowledge, but the exercise of the mind has increased mental strength and power. The key found to unlock one mystery may develop also other precious gems of knowledge heretofore undiscovered....
LHU	281	4	The world is teeming with errors and fables. Novelties in the form of sensational dramas are continually arising to engross the mind, and absurd theories abound which are destructive to moral and spiritual advancement. The cause of God needs men of intellect, men of thought, men well versed in the Scriptures, to meet the inflowing tide of opposition. We should give no sanction to arrogance, narrow-mindedness, and inconsistencies, although the garment of professed piety may be thrown over them. Those who have the sanctifying power of the truth upon their hearts will exert a persuasive influence. Knowing that the advocates of error cannot create or destroy truth, they can afford to be calm and considerate....
LHU	281	5	The satanic delusions of the age must be met clearly and intelligently with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The same unseen Hand that guides the planets in their courses, and upholds the worlds by His power, has made provision for man formed in His image, that he may be little less than the angels of God while in the performance of his duties on earth. God's purposes have not been answered by men who have been entrusted with the most solemn truth ever given to man. He designs that we should rise higher and higher toward a state of perfection, seeing and realizing at every step the power and glory of God. Man does not know himself. Our responsibilities are exactly proportioned to our light, opportunities, and privileges....
LHU	281	6	The precious Book of God contains rules of life for men of every class and every vocation. Examples are here found which it would be well for all to study and imitate. "The Son of God came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." The true honor and glory of the servant of Christ consists, not in the number of sermons preached, nor in the amount of writing accomplished, but in the work of faithfully ministering to the wants of the people (Testimonies for the Church 4:413-416).
------------------------True Humility, September 25
LHU	282	1	God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty ... that no flesh should glory in his presence. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29.
LHU	282	2	After the ascension of Jesus, doctors, lawyers, priests, rulers, scribes, and theologians listened with astonishment to words of wisdom and power from unlearned and humble men. These wise men marveled at the success of the lowly disciples, and finally accounted for it to their own satisfaction from the fact that they had been with Jesus and learned of Him. Their character and the simplicity of their teachings were similar to the character and teachings of Christ....
LHU	282	3	Those who teach unpopular truth today must have power from on high to combine with their doctrine, or their efforts will be of little account. The precious grace of humility is sadly wanting in the ministry and the church. Men who preach the truth think too highly of their own abilities. True humility will lead a man to exalt Christ and the truth, and to realize his utter dependence upon the God of truth. It is painful to learn lessons of humility, yet nothing is more beneficial in the end. The pain attendant upon learning lessons of humility is in consequence of our being elated by a false estimate of ourselves, so that we are unable to see our great need. Vanity and pride fill the hearts of men. God's grace alone can work a reformation.
LHU	282	4	It is your work ... to humble yourself and not wait for God to humble you. God's hand at times bears heavily upon men to humble them and bring them into a proper position before Him; but how much better it is to keep the heart daily humbled before God. We can abase ourselves, or we can build ourselves up in pride and wait till God abases us....
LHU	282	5	In order to comprehend the truth, you should discipline and train the mind, and seek continually to possess the graces of genuine piety. You scarcely know what this is now. When Christ is in you, you will have something more than a theory of the truth. You will not only be repeating the lessons Christ gave when upon the earth, but you will be educating others by your life of self-denial and devotion to the cause of God. Your life will be a living sermon, possessing greater power than any discourse given in the desk.
LHU	282	6	You need to cultivate in yourself that unselfish spirit, that self-denying grace and pure devotion, which you wish to see others carry out in their lives. In order to continually increase in spiritual intelligence, and to become more and more efficient, you need to cultivate habits of usefulness in the minor duties lying in your pathway. You must not wait for opportunities to do a great work, but seize the first chance to prove yourself faithful in that which is least, and you may thus work your way up from one position of trust to another (Testimonies for the Church 4:378-380).
------------------------In Harmony with Christ, September 26
LHU	283	1	We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. 2 Corinthians 6:1.
LHU	283	2	All heaven is interested in the work going on in this world, which is to prepare men and women for the future, immortal life. It is God's plan that human agencies shall have the high honor of acting as coworkers with Jesus Christ in the salvation of souls. The Word of God plainly reveals that it is the privilege of the instrument in this great work to realize that there is One at his right hand ready to aid him in every sincere endeavor to reach the highest moral and spiritual excellence in the Master's work. This will be the case with all who feel their need of help. They should look upon the work of God as sacred and holy, and should bring to Him, every day, offerings of joy and gratitude, in return for the power of His grace, by which they are enabled to make advancement in the divine life. The worker should ever take humble views of himself, considering his many lost opportunities for want of diligence and appreciation of the work. He should not become discouraged, but should continually renew his efforts to redeem the time....
LHU	283	3	It is not necessary that anyone should yield to the temptations of Satan and thus violate his conscience and grieve the Holy Spirit. Every provision has been made in the Word of God whereby all may have divine help in their endeavors to overcome. If they keep Jesus before them they will become changed into His image. All who by faith have Christ abiding in them carry a power into their labor which makes them successful. They will be constantly growing more and more efficient in their work, and the blessing of God, shown in the prosperity of the work, will testify that they are indeed laborers together with Christ. But however much one may advance in spiritual life, he will never come to a point where he will not need diligently to search the Scriptures; for therein are found the evidences of our faith. All points of doctrine, even though they have been accepted as truth, should be brought to the law and to the testimony; if they cannot stand this test, "there is no light in them."
LHU	283	4	The great plan of redemption, as revealed in the closing work for these last days, should receive close examination. The scenes connected with the sanctuary above should make such an impression upon the minds and hearts of all that they may be able to impress others. All need to become more intelligent in regard to the work of the atonement, which is going on in the sanctuary above. When this grand truth is seen and understood, those who hold it will work in harmony with Christ to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God, and their efforts will be successful (Testimonies for the Church 5:573-575).
------------------------Words are an Index, September 27
LHU	284	1	A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. Matthew 12:35.
LHU	284	2	Your words are an index of your character.... Here we see the importance of carefulness in the employment of speech. This talent is a great power for good when it is used aright....
LHU	284	3	It is the privilege of all to fill the chambers of the soul with pure and holy treasures by making themselves thoroughly familiar with the precious words of Christ, spoken for our instruction....
LHU	284	4	By heeding the reproof and encouragement given in God's Word, we may "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness." Those who are thus strengthened will not walk with head bowed down....
LHU	284	5	"Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Then shall we not all, old and young, learn to converse in the language that is spoken by those who are translated into God's kingdom? Shall not our words be such as will be heard with pleasure by our heavenly Father?
LHU	284	6	As those who claim to be Christians, we are under solemn obligations to reveal the truth of our profession by our words. The tongue is a little member; but what an amount of good it can do if the heart is pure! If the heart is stored with good things, if it is stored with Christlike tenderness, sympathy, and politeness, this will be shown by the words spoken and the actions performed. The light shining from the Word of God is our guide. Nothing so weakens a church as a wrong use of the talent of speech....
LHU	284	7	The quality of our works is shown by our words. When our words and works harmonize in Christ, we show that we are consecrated to God, perfecting holiness in His fear. As we give ourselves, soul, body, and spirit, to Him, He works in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
LHU	284	8	The love of Christ in the heart is revealed by the expression of praise. Those who are consecrated to God will show this by their sanctified conversation. If their hearts are pure, their words will be pure, showing an elevated principle working in a sanctified direction. The mind will be absorbed in holy contemplation, and there will be a sense of the presence of God (The Review and Herald, January 18, 1898).
------------------------Hezekiah Humbled Himself, September 28
LHU	285	1	Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 32:26.
LHU	285	2	Filled with remorse, "Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart".... But the evil seed had been sown and in time was to spring up and yield a harvest of desolation and woe. During his remaining years the king of Judah was to have much prosperity because of his steadfast purpose to redeem the past and to bring honor to the name of the God whom he served; yet his faith was to be severely tried, and he was to learn that only by putting his trust fully in Jehovah could he hope to triumph over the powers of darkness that were plotting his ruin and the utter destruction of his people.
LHU	285	3	The story of Hezekiah's failure to prove true to his trust at the time of the visit of the ambassadors is fraught with an important lesson for all. Far more than we do, we need to speak of the precious chapters in our experience, of the mercy and loving-kindness of God, of the matchless depths of the Saviour's love. When mind and heart are filled with the love of God, it will not be difficult to impart that which enters into the spiritual life. Great thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, unselfish purposes, yearnings for piety and holiness, will find expression in words that reveal the character of the heart treasure.
LHU	285	4	Those with whom we associate day by day need our help, our guidance. They may be in such a condition of mind that a word spoken in season will be as a nail in a sure place. Tomorrow some of these souls may be where we can never reach them again. What is our influence over these fellow travelers?
LHU	285	5	Every day of life is freighted with responsibilities which we must bear. Every day, our words and acts are making impressions upon those with whom we associate. How great the need that we set a watch upon our lips and guard carefully our steps! One reckless movement, one imprudent step, and the surging waves of some strong temptation may sweep a soul into the downward path. We cannot gather up the thoughts we have planted in human minds....
LHU	285	6	On the other hand, if by our example we aid others in the development of good principles, we give them power to do good. In their turn they exert the same beneficial influence over others. Thus hundreds and thousands are helped by our unconscious influence. The true follower of Christ strengthens the good purposes of all with whom he comes in contact. Before an unbelieving, sin-loving world he reveals the power of God's grace and the perfection of His character (Prophets and Kings, 347, 348).
------------------------Personal Influence is a Power, September 29
LHU	286	1	You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon. Song of Solomon 4:15, NIV.
LHU	286	2	It is through personal contact and association that men are reached by the saving power of the gospel. They are not saved as masses, but as individuals. Personal influence is a power. It is to work with the influence of Christ, to lift where Christ lifts, to impart correct principles, and to stay the progress of the world's corruption. It is to diffuse that grace which Christ alone can impart. It is to uplift, to sweeten the lives and characters of others by the power of a pure example united with earnest faith and love....
LHU	286	3	Through sin, the whole human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination corrupted; the faculties of the soul are degraded. There is an absence of pure religion, of heart holiness. The converting power of God has not wrought in transforming the character. The soul is weak, and for want of moral force to overcome, is polluted and debased.
LHU	286	4	To the heart that has become purified, all is changed. Transformation of character is the testimony to the world of an indwelling Christ. The Spirit of God produces a new life in the soul, bringing the thoughts and desires into obedience to the will of Christ; and the inward man is renewed in the image of God. Weak and erring men and women show to the world that the redeeming power of grace can cause the faulty character to develop into symmetry and abundant fruitfulness.
LHU	286	5	The heart that receives the Word of God is not as a pool that evaporates, not like a broken cistern that loses its treasure. It is like the mountain stream, fed by unfailing springs, whose cool, sparkling waters leap from rock to rock, refreshing the weary, the thirsty, the heavy-laden. It is like a river constantly flowing and, as it advances, becoming deeper and wider, until its life-giving waters are spread over all the earth....
LHU	286	6	So it is with the true child of God. The religion of Christ reveals itself as a vitalizing, pervading principle, a living, working, spiritual energy. When the heart is opened to the heavenly influence of truth and love, these principles will flow forth again like streams in the desert, causing fruitfulness to appear where now are barrenness and dearth.
LHU	286	7	As those who have been cleansed and sanctified through a knowledge of Bible truth engage heartily in the work of soul saving, they will become indeed a savor of life unto life. And as daily they drink of the inexhaustible fountain of grace and knowledge, they will find that their own hearts are filled to overflowing with the Spirit of their Master, and that through their unselfish ministry many are benefited physically, mentally, and spiritually. The weary are refreshed, the sick restored to health, and the sin-burdened relieved (Prophets and Kings, 232-234).
------------------------The True, the Frank, the Honest, September 30
LHU	287	1	Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Revelation 2:10.
LHU	287	2	God's all-seeing eye notes the defects of all and the ruling passion of each, yet He bears with our mistakes and pities our weakness. He bids His people cherish the same spirit of tenderness and forbearance. True Christians will not exult in exposing the faults and deficiencies of others. They will ... fix the mind upon that which is attractive and lovely. To the Christian every act of faultfinding, every word of censure or condemnation, is painful....
LHU	287	3	Would all professed Christians use their investigative powers to see what evils needed to be corrected in themselves, instead of talking of others' wrongs, there would be a more healthy condition in the church today. Some will be honest when it costs nothing; but when policy will pay best, honesty is forgotten. Honesty and policy will not work together in the same mind. In time, either policy will be expelled, and truth and honesty reign supreme, or, if policy is cherished, honesty will be forgotten. They are never in agreement; they have nothing in common. One is the prophet of Baal, the other is the true prophet of God. When the Lord makes up His jewels, the true, the frank, the honest, will be looked upon with pleasure. Angels are employed in making crowns for such ones, and upon these star-gemmed crowns will be reflected, with splendor, the light which radiates from the throne of God....
LHU	287	4	The Lord is testing and proving His people. You may be just as severe and critical with your own defective character as you please; but be kind, pitiful, and courteous toward others. Inquire every day: Am I sound to the core, or am I false-hearted? Entreat the Lord to save you from all deception on this point. Eternal interests are involved. While so many are panting after honor and greedy of gain, do you, my beloved brethren, be eagerly seeking the assurance of the love of God and crying: Who will show me how to make my calling and election sure?
LHU	287	5	Satan carefully studies the constitutional sins of men, and then he begins his work of alluring and ensnaring them. We are in the thickest of temptations, but there is victory for us if we fight manfully the battles of the Lord. All are in danger. But if you walk humbly and prayerfully you will come forth from the proving process more precious than fine gold, even than the golden wedge of Ophir. If careless and prayerless, you will be as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
LHU	287	6	Some have become almost lost in the mazes of skepticism. To such I would say: Lift your mind out of that channel. Fasten it upon God. The more closely faith and holiness bind you to the Eternal One, the clearer and brighter will the justice of His dealings appear to you. Make life, eternal life, the object of your pursuit (Testimonies for the Church 5:95-98).
------------------------The Head of the Church, October 1
LHU	288	1	He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first born from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. Colossians 1:18.
LHU	288	2	Since His ascension Christ has carried forward His work on the earth by chosen ambassadors, through whom He speaks to the children of men and ministers to their needs. The great Head of the church superintends His work through the instrumentality of men ordained by God to act as His representatives.
LHU	288	3	The position of those who have been called of God to labor in word and doctrine for the upbuilding of His church is one of grave responsibility. In Christ's stead they are to beseech men and women to be reconciled to God, and they can fulfill their mission only as they receive wisdom and power from above.
LHU	288	4	Christ's ministers are the spiritual guardians of the people entrusted to their care. Their work has been likened to that of watchmen. In ancient times sentinels were often stationed on the walls of cities, where, from points of vantage, they could overlook important posts to be guarded, and give warning of the approach of an enemy. Upon their faithfulness depended the safety of all within. At stated intervals they were required to call to one another, to make sure that all were awake and that no harm had befallen any. The cry of good cheer or of warning was borne from one to another, each repeating the call till it echoed round the city....
LHU	288	5	It is the privilege of the watchmen on the walls of Zion to live so near to God, and to be so susceptible to the impressions of His Spirit, that He can work through them to tell men and women of their peril and point them to the place of safety. Faithfully are they to warn them of the sure result of transgression, and faithfully are they to safeguard the interests of the church. At no time may they relax their vigilance.... In trumpet tones their voices are to be lifted, and never are they to sound one wavering, uncertain note....
LHU	288	6	He who serves under the bloodstained banner of Immanuel will have that to do which will call for heroic effort and patient endurance. But the soldier of the cross stands unshrinkingly in the forefront of the battle.... He realizes his need of strength from above. The victories that he gains ... cause him to lean more and more heavily on the Mighty One. Relying upon that Power, he is enabled to present the message of salvation so forcibly that it vibrates in other minds....
LHU	288	7	It is by seeing Him who is invisible that strength and vigor of soul are gained and the power of earth over mind and character is broken (The Acts of the Apostles, 360-363).
------------------------Laborers with Him, October 2
LHU	289	1	Ye are the light of the world. Matthew 5:14.
LHU	289	2	Our Lord designed that His church should reflect to the world the fullness and sufficiency that we find in Him. We are constantly receiving of God's bounty, and by imparting of the same we are to represent to the world the love and beneficence of Christ. While all heaven is astir, dispatching messengers to every part of the earth to carry forward the work of redemption, the church of the living God are also to be colaborers with Christ. We are members of His mystical body. He is the head, controlling all the members of the body. Jesus Himself, in His infinite mercy, is working on human hearts, effecting spiritual transformations so amazing that angels look on with astonishment and joy. The same unselfish love that characterizes the Master is seen in the character and life of His true followers. Christ expects that men will become partakers of His divine nature while in this world, thus not only reflecting His glory to the praise of God, but illumining the darkness of the world with the radiance of heaven. Thus will be fulfilled the words of Christ: "Ye are the light of the world."
LHU	289	3	"We are labourers together with God," "stewards of the manifold grace of God." The knowledge of God's grace, the truths of His Word, and temporal gifts as well--time and means, talents and influence--are all a trust from God to be employed to His glory and the salvation of men. Nothing can be more offensive to God, who is constantly bestowing His gifts upon man, than to see him selfishly grasping these gifts and making no returns to the Giver. Jesus is today in heaven preparing mansions for those who love Him; yes, more than mansions, a kingdom which is to be ours. But all who shall inherit these blessings must be partakers of the self-denial and self-sacrifice of Christ for the good of others.
LHU	289	4	Never was there greater need of earnest, self-sacrificing labor in the cause of Christ than now, when the hours of probation are fast closing and the last message of mercy is to be given to the world. My soul is stirred within me as the Macedonian cry comes from every direction, from the cities and villages of our own land, from across the Atlantic and the broad Pacific, and from the islands of the sea: "Come over ..., and help us." Brethren and sisters, will you answer the cry? saying: "We will do our best, both in sending you missionaries and money. We will deny ourselves in the embellishment of our houses, in the adornment of our persons, and in the gratification of appetite. We will give the means entrusted to us into the cause of God, and we will devote ourselves also unreservedly to His work".... Let every dollar that you can spare be invested in the bank of heaven (Testimonies for the Church 5:731-733).
------------------------Christ Glorified in His People, October 3
LHU	290	1	These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33.
LHU	290	2	Christ did not fail, neither was He discouraged, and His followers are to manifest a faith of the same enduring nature. They are to live as He lived, and work as He worked, because they depend on Him as the great Master Worker. Courage, energy, and perseverance they must possess. Though apparent impossibilities obstruct their way, by His grace they are to go forward. Instead of deploring difficulties, they are called upon to surmount them. They are to despair of nothing, and to hope for everything. With the golden chain of His matchless love Christ has bound them to the throne of God. It is His purpose that the highest influence in the universe, emanating from the source of all power, shall be theirs. They are to have power to resist evil, power that neither earth, nor death, nor hell can master, power that will enable them to overcome as Christ overcame.
LHU	290	3	Christ designs that heaven's order, heaven's plan of government, heaven's divine harmony, shall be represented in His church on earth. Thus in His people He is glorified. Through them the Sun of righteousness will shine in undimmed luster to the world. Christ has given to His church ample facilities, that He may receive a large revenue of glory from His redeemed, purchased possession. He has bestowed upon His people capabilities and blessings that they may represent His own sufficiency. The church, endowed with the righteousness of Christ, is His depositary, in which the riches of His mercy, His grace, and His love are to appear in full and final display. Christ looks upon His people in their purity and perfection, as the reward of His humiliation, and the supplement of His glory--Christ, the great Center, from whom radiates all glory....
LHU	290	4	Christ had finished the work that was given Him to do. He had glorified God on the earth. He had manifested the Father's name. He had gathered out those who were to continue His work among men. And He said, "I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are"....
LHU	290	5	Thus in the language of one who has divine authority, Christ gives His elect church into the Father's arms. As a consecrated high priest He intercedes for His people. As a faithful shepherd He gathers His flock under the shadow of the Almighty, in the strong and sure refuge. For Him there awaits the last battle with Satan, and He goes forth to meet it (The Desire of Ages, 679, 680).
------------------------A Royal Name, October 4
LHU	291	1	If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. 1 Peter 4:16.
LHU	291	2	God has instructed me to say to His people, ministers and lay members, "Take your stand on higher ground. Move steadily onward and upward in the path that Jesus trod. Do not trust in your own opinions. Sanctification through the truth is your only safety." The Lord God of Israel would have His people stand in His strength, and in His might, receiving to impart. He will uphold and sustain those who serve Him with mind and heart and strength.
LHU	291	3	We need to understand what it means to put on Christ, what it means to have an experimental knowledge of the grace of Christ, and a continually increasing faith.
LHU	291	4	Speaking of the mystery "which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God," Paul says, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery ... : to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." Not only to those living in this world, but to the principalities and powers in heavenly places is the church on this earth to reveal the glory of God.
LHU	291	5	God chose from among the Gentiles a people for Himself, and gave to them the name of Christian. This is a royal name, given to those who join themselves to Christ.... Peter says: "If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf"....
LHU	291	6	O that God's people would take Him at His word, and lay hold of the wonderful treasure of knowledge opened to them! ...
LHU	291	7	We have before us the highest, holiest example. In thought, word, and deed Jesus was sinless. Perfection marked all that He did. He points us to the path that He trod, saying, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."
LHU	291	8	We have a perfect rule--the Word of the living God. This Word He has given us as our guide and counselor. The psalmist says, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee"....
LHU	291	9	Christians, those who are to represent God in the world, are not to seek for doctrines that are new and strange. They are not to pry into the mysteries of the future life. Their part is to make their life in this world such as God can approve (The Review and Herald, April 26, 1906).
------------------------Let the Church Arise and Shine, October 5
LHU	292	1	Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1, 2.
LHU	292	2	Jealousy caused the first death in our world.... All selfishness comes from Satan. Human beings belong to one great family, the family of God. They are to respect and love one another. They are not to speak words which wound and bruise. No one is to be unfair in his dealings, causing his fellow-beings to lose confidence in him. Selfishness and injustice bring unhappiness. Under their baleful influence men lose the sense of what it means to love one another as Christ loves us.
LHU	292	3	All are to work in love and unity, looking to God as the great center. Love for Christ is the principle which unites man to his fellowmen....
LHU	292	4	The opposite of allegiance to God is seen in the world today. Every kingdom, every province, every family, has a desire to make itself a center. Men long to rule over their fellowmen.... Self is the mainspring of action....
LHU	292	5	The Lord calls upon His people to put far from them every stumbling block. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. To unite man with God and with his fellowmen, to restore to human beings the benevolence lost through sin--this is the glory of the gospel. Let the church arise and shine; for her light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon her. Let the members strive earnestly to obtain the victory over self (Manuscript 78, 1901).
LHU	292	6	The religion of Christ means more than the forgiveness of sin; it means taking away our sins, and filling the vacuum with the graces of the Holy Spirit. It means divine illumination, rejoicing in God. It means a heart emptied of self, and blessed with the abiding presence of Christ. When Christ reigns in the soul, there is purity, freedom from sin. The glory, the fullness, the completeness of the gospel plan is fulfilled in the life. The acceptance of the Saviour brings a glow of perfect peace, perfect love, perfect assurance. The beauty and fragrance of the character of Christ revealed in the life testifies that God has indeed sent His Son into the world to be its Saviour....
LHU	292	7	The revelation of His own glory in the form of humanity will bring heaven so near to men that the beauty adorning the inner temple will be seen in every soul in whom the Saviour dwells. Men will be captivated by the glory of an abiding Christ. And in currents of praise and thanksgiving from the many souls thus won to God, glory will flow back to the great Giver (Christ's Object Lessons, 419, 420).
------------------------Heaven Waiting to Cooperate, October 6
LHU	293	1	Then shall thy light break forth as the morning ... and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Isaiah 58:8.
LHU	293	2	It is the constant realization of the preciousness of Christ's atoning sacrifice in our behalf that qualifies us to point others to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. We must become exponents of the efficacy of the blood of Christ, by which our own sins have been forgiven. Only thus can we reach the higher class....
LHU	293	3	Christ has said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. But all things are possible with God. He can and will work through human agencies upon the minds of rich men whose lives have been devoted to money getting.
LHU	293	4	The heavenly universe has long been waiting to cooperate with human agents in this work which they have shunned and neglected. Many who have attempted the work have given up in discouragement, when, had they persevered, they would have been largely successful. Those who faithfully do this work will be blessed of God. The righteousness of Christ will go before them, and the glory of the Lord will be their rearward.
LHU	293	5	There are miracles to be wrought in genuine conversion, miracles that are not now discerned. The greatest men of the earth are not beyond the power of a wonder-working God. If those who are workers together with Him will be men of opportunity, doing their duty bravely and faithfully, God will convert men who occupy responsible places, men of intellect and influence. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, many will accept the divine principles. Beholding Jesus in His loveliness, in His self-denial and self-sacrifice, the self-sufficient rich man will see himself in contrast as wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and will become so small in his own estimation that he will prefer Christ to himself, and will lay hold on eternal life.
LHU	293	6	Converted to the truth, he will become an agent in the hand of God to communicate the light. He will have a special burden for other souls of this neglected class. He will feel that a dispensation of the gospel is committed to him for those who have made this world their all. Time and money will be consecrated to God, means will be brought into His treasury, talent and influence will be converted to the truth, and new efficiency and power will be added to the church....
LHU	293	7	Pure, sanctified love, such love as was expressed in Christ's lifework, is as a sacred perfume. Like Mary's broken box of ointment, it fills the whole house with fragrance. Eloquence, knowledge of truth, rare talents, mingled with love, are all precious endowments ... Love for God and for those for whom Christ has died will do a work that we can scarcely comprehend (Testimonies for the Church 6:81-84).
------------------------Church to be Added to Church, October 7
LHU	294	1	Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Isaiah 55:6.
LHU	294	2	Church members are to arise and shine amid the moral darkness of the world. If we are connected with the Light of the world, we shall reflect light to others. If we partake of the Saviour's rich grace, we shall be a blessing to those around us....
LHU	294	3	It is because so many of Christ's professed followers seek to be first that He cannot trust them. Were they humble, willing to be taught by Him, they would be a power in showing to the world the influence of the truth upon human character. Those who work in Christ's lines, never seeking to exalt self, will reveal constant activity and steady progress in missionary enterprises. They will not be satisfied unless church is added to church.
LHU	294	4	God expects those in His service to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Our aggressive missionary work is to be more abundant than it has been in the past. More territory is to be annexed; the standard of truth is to be planted in new places; churches are to be established; all is to be done that can be done to fulfill the commission, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
LHU	294	5	The life of a church depends on the interest which its members manifest in those outside the fold. Let the church of God remember that Christ gave Himself as a sacrifice to save a world from destruction. For our sake He became poor, that we through His poverty might come into possession of eternal riches. Shall those whom God has blessed with a knowledge of the truth become narrow in their plans? Let them arouse to a sense of their vast obligations, cutting away every thread of selfishness, that the Lord may pour upon them His Holy Spirit. Let them seek the Lord while He may be found, and call upon Him while He is near. They have no reason for being faithless and complaining. Let them cease all fault-finding and murmuring, and encourage a spirit of gratitude for past mercies and blessings. Let them praise the Lord in unfeigned gratitude for the light of His Word, which shines upon their pathway, to be received into heart and mind, and reflected upon those in darkness. Thus they will be prepared to work to the praise and glory of Christ, and to inscribe upon their banners, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12) (The Signs of the Times, August 21, 1901).
------------------------The Greatest Object, October 8
LHU	295	1	If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1 John 1:7.
LHU	295	2	Union is strength, and the Lord desires that this truth should be ever revealed in all the members of the body of Christ. All are to be united in love, in meekness, in lowliness of mind. Organized into a society of believers for the purpose of combining and diffusing their influence, they are to work as Christ worked. They are ever to show courtesy and respect for one another. Every talent has its place and is to be kept under the control of the Holy Spirit.
LHU	295	3	The church is a Christian society formed for the members composing it, that each member may enjoy the assistance of all the graces and talents of the other members, and the working of God upon them, according to their several gifts and abilities. The church is united in the holy bonds of fellowship in order that each member may be benefited by the influence of the other. All are to bind themselves to the covenant of love and harmony. The Christian principles and graces of the whole society of believers are to gather strength and force in harmonious action. Each believer is to be benefited and improved by the refining and transforming influence of the varied capabilities of the other members, that the things lacking in one may be more abundantly displayed in another. All the members are to draw together, that the church may become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.
LHU	295	4	The covenant of agreement in church membership is that each member would walk in the footsteps of Christ, that all will take His yoke upon them, and learn of Him who is meek and lowly in heart. Doing this, "Ye shall," saith the dear Saviour, "find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29, 30).
LHU	295	5	Those who wear Christ's yoke will draw together. They will cultivate sympathy and forbearance, and in holy emulation will strive to show to others the tender sympathy and love of which they feel such great need themselves. He who is weak and inexperienced, although he is weak, may be strengthened by the more hopeful and by those of mature experience. Although the least of all, he is a stone that must shine in the building. He is a vital member of the organized body, united to Christ, the living head, and through Christ identified with all the excellencies of Christ's character so that the Saviour is not ashamed to call him brother.... A church, separate and distinct from the world, is in the estimation of heaven the greatest object in all the earth.... The church is to be as God designed it should be, a representative of God's family in another world (Selected Messages 3:15-17).
------------------------Unity in the Church, October 9
LHU	296	1	All the believers were one in heart and mind. Acts 4:32, NIV.
LHU	296	2	When the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the early church, "the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul" (Acts 4:32). The Spirit of Christ made them one. This is the fruit of abiding in Christ....
LHU	296	3	We have need of divine illumination. Every individual is striving to become a center of influence, and until God works for His people, they will not see that subordination to God is the only safety for any soul. His transforming grace upon human hearts will lead to unity that has not yet been realized, for all who are assimilated to Christ will be in harmony with one another. The Holy Spirit will create unity.
LHU	296	4	The prayer of Christ to His Father, contained in the seventeenth chapter of John, is to be our church creed. It shows us that our difference and disunion are dishonoring to God....
LHU	296	5	No advice or sanction is given in the Word of God to those who believe the third angel's message to lead them to suppose that they can draw apart. This you may settle with yourselves forever. It is the devising of unsanctified minds that would encourage a state of disunion. The sophistry of men may appear right in their own eyes, but it is not truth and righteousness. "For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; ... that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross" (Ephesians 2:14-16).
LHU	296	6	Christ is the uniting link in the golden chain which binds believers together in God. There must be no separating in this great testing time.... The children of God constitute one united whole in Christ, who presents His cross as the center of attraction. All who believe are one in Him.
LHU	296	7	Human feelings will lead men to take the work into their own hands, and the building thus becomes disproportionate. The Lord therefore employs a variety of gifts to make the building symmetrical. Not one feature of the truth is to be hidden or made of little account. God cannot be glorified unless the building, "fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord." A great subject is here comprehended, and those who understand the truth for this time must take heed how they hear and how they build and educate others to practice....
LHU	296	8	When every specification which Christ has given has been carried out in the true, Christian spirit, then, and then only, Heaven ratifies the decision of the church, because its members have the mind of Christ, and do as He would do were He upon the earth (Selected Messages 3:20-22).
------------------------Purity, October 10
LHU	297	1	Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12, NIV.
LHU	297	2	By accepting Christ as His personal Saviour, man is brought into the same close relation to God, and enjoys His special favor as does His own beloved Son. He is honored and glorified and intimately associated with God, his life being hid with Christ in God. O what love, what wondrous love!
LHU	297	3	This is my teaching of moral purity. The opening of the blackness of impurity will not be one half as efficacious in uprooting sin as will the presentation of these grand and ennobling themes.... The Bible and the Bible alone has given the true lessons upon purity. Then preach the Word.
LHU	297	4	Such is the grace of God, such the love wherewith He hath loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, enemies in our minds by wicked works, serving divers lusts and pleasures, the slaves of debase appetites and passion, servants of sin and Satan. What depth of love is manifested in Christ, as He becomes the propitiation for our sins. Through the ministration of the Holy Spirit souls are led to find forgiveness of sins.
LHU	297	5	The purity, the holiness, of the life of Jesus as presented from the Word of God possess more power to reform and transform the character than do all the efforts put forth in picturing sins and crimes of men and the sure results. One steadfast look to the Saviour uplifted upon the cross will do more to purify the mind and heart from every defilement than will all the scientific explanations by the ablest tongue.
LHU	297	6	Before the cross the sinner sees his unlikeness of character to Christ. He sees the terrible consequences of transgression; he hates the sin that he has practiced, and he lays hold upon Jesus by living faith. He has judged his position of uncleanness in the light of the presence of God and the heavenly intelligence. He has measured it by the standard of the cross. He has weighed it in the balances of the sanctuary. The purity of Christ has revealed to him his own impurity in its odious colors. He turns from the defiling sin; he looks to Jesus and lives.
LHU	297	7	He finds an all-absorbing, commanding, attractive character in Jesus Christ, the one who died to deliver him from the deformity of sin, and with quivering lip and tearful eye he declares, "He shall not have died for me in vain." "Thy gentleness hath made me great" (Letter 102, 1894).
LHU	297	8	As a shield from temptation and an inspiration to purity and truth, no other influence can equal the sense of God's presence (Education, 255).
------------------------Love--The Evidence of Discipleship, October 11
LHU	298	1	By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:35.
LHU	298	2	In this last meeting with His disciples, the great desire which Christ expressed for them was that they might love one another as He had loved them. Again and again He spoke of this. "These things I command you," He said repeatedly, "that ye love one another." His very first injunction when alone with them in the upper chamber was "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." To the disciples this commandment was new; for they had not loved one another as Christ had loved them. He saw that new ideas and impulses must control them; that new principles must be practiced by them; through His life and death they were to receive a new conception of love. The command to love one another had a new meaning in the light of His self-sacrifice. The whole work of grace is one continual service of love, of self-denying, self-sacrificing effort. During every hour of Christ's sojourn upon the earth, the love of God was flowing from Him in irrepressible streams. All who are imbued with His Spirit will love as He loved. The very principle that actuated Christ will actuate them in all their dealing one with another.
LHU	298	3	This love is the evidence of their discipleship. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples," said Jesus, "if ye have love one to another." When men are bound together, not by force or self-interest, but by love, they show the working of an influence that is above every human influence. Where this oneness exists, it is evidence that the image of God is being restored in humanity, that a new principle of life has been implanted. It shows that there is power in the divine nature to withstand the supernatural agencies of evil, and that the grace of God subdues the selfishness inherent in the natural heart.
LHU	298	4	This love, manifested in the church, will surely stir the wrath of Satan. Christ did not mark out for His disciples an easy path. "If the world hate you," He said, "ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me." The gospel is to be carried forward by aggressive warfare, in the midst of opposition, peril, loss, and suffering. But those who do this work are only following in their Master's steps (The Desire of Ages, 677, 678).
------------------------Secret Prayer and Bible Study, October 12
LHU	299	1	The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16.
LHU	299	2	The church of God is made up of vessels large and small.... He does not expect the smaller vessels to hold the contents of the larger ones. He looks for returns according to what a man has, not according to what he has not. Do your best, and God will accept your efforts. Take up the duty lying nearest you, and perform it with fidelity, and your work will be wholly acceptable to the Master. Do not, in your desire to do something great, overlook the smaller tasks awaiting you.
LHU	299	3	Beware how you neglect secret prayer and a study of God's Word. These are your weapons against him who is striving to hinder your progress heavenward. The first neglect of prayer and Bible study makes easier the second neglect. The first resistance to the Spirit's pleading prepares the way for the second resistance. Thus the heart is hardened, and the conscience seared.
LHU	299	4	On the other hand, every resistance of temptation makes resistance more easy. Every denial of self makes self-denial easier. Every victory gained prepares the way for a fresh victory. Each resistance of temptation, each self-denial, each triumph over sin, is a seed sown unto eternal life. Every unselfish action gives new strength to spirituality. No one can try to be like Christ without growing more noble and more true.
LHU	299	5	The Lord will recognize every effort you make to reach His ideal for you. When you make failures, when you are betrayed into sin, do not feel that you cannot pray, that you are not worthy to come before the Lord. "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." With outstretched arms He waits to welcome the prodigal. Go to Him, and tell Him about your mistakes and failures. Ask Him to strengthen you for fresh endeavor. He will never disappoint you, never abuse your confidence.
LHU	299	6	Trial will come to you. Thus the Lord polishes the roughness from your character. Do not murmur. You make the trial harder by repining. Honor God by cheerful submission. Patiently endure the pressure. Even though a wrong is done you, keep the love of God in the heart....
LHU	299	7	"In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." Christ knows the strength of your temptations and the strength of your power to resist. His hand is always stretched out in pitying tenderness to every suffering child. To the tempted, discouraged one He says, Child for whom I suffered and died, can not you trust me? "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25) (Youth's Instructor, June 26, 1902).
------------------------The Truth Will Conquer, October 13
LHU	300	1	The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. John 14:30.
LHU	300	2	As the world's Redeemer, Christ was constantly confronted with apparent failure. He, the messenger of mercy to our world, seemed to do little of the work He longed to do in uplifting and saving. Satanic influences were constantly working to oppose His way. But He would not be discouraged. Through the prophecy of Isaiah He declares, "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.... Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." It is to Christ that the promise is given, "Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth; ... thus saith the Lord: ... I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves.... They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them" (Isaiah 49:4, 5, 7-10).
LHU	300	3	Upon this word Jesus rested, and He gave Satan no advantage. When the last steps of Christ's humiliation were to be taken, when the deepest sorrow was closing about His soul, He said to His disciples, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." "The prince of this world is judged." Now shall he be cast out (John 14:30; 16:11; John 12:31). With prophetic eye Christ traced the scenes to take place in His last great conflict. He knew that when He should exclaim, "It is finished," all heaven would triumph. His ear caught the distant music and the shouts of victory in the heavenly courts. He knew that the knell of Satan's empire would then be sounded, and the name of Christ would be heralded from world to world throughout the universe.
LHU	300	4	Christ rejoiced that He could do more for His followers than they could ask or think. He spoke with assurance, knowing that an almighty decree had been given before the world was made. He knew that truth, armed with the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, would conquer in the contest with evil; and that the bloodstained banner would wave triumphantly over His followers. He knew that the life of His trusting disciples would be like His, a series of uninterrupted victories, not seen to be such here, but recognized as such in the great hereafter (The Desire of Ages, 678, 679).
------------------------A Decided Reformation Needed, October 14
LHU	301	1	Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. John 5:24.
LHU	301	2	Just as long as you allow pride to dwell in your hearts, so long will you lack power in your work. For years a wrong spirit has been cherished, a spirit of pride, a desire for preeminence. In this Satan is served, and God is dishonored. The Lord calls for a decided reformation.... Let [a truly reconverted soul] renew his covenant with God, and God will renew His covenant with him.... Let angels and men see that there is forgiveness of sin with God. Extraordinary power from God must take hold of Seventh-day Adventist churches. Reconversion must take place among the members, that as God's witnesses they may testify to the authoritative power of the truth that sanctifies the soul. Renewed, purified, sanctified, the church must be, else the wrath of God will fall upon them with much greater power than upon those who have never professed to be saints.
LHU	301	3	Those who are sanctified through the truth will show that the truth has worked a reformation in their lives, that it is preparing them for translation into the heavenly world. But as long as pride and envy and evil-surmising predominate in the life, Christ does not rule in the heart. His love is not in the soul. In the lives of those who are partakers of the divine nature there is a crucifixion of the haughty, self-sufficient spirit that leads to self-exaltation. In its place the Spirit of Christ abides, and in the life the fruits of the Spirit appear. Having the mind of Christ, His followers reveal the graces of His character.
LHU	301	4	Nothing short of this will make men acceptable to God. Nothing short of this will give them the pure, holy character that those must have who are admitted to heaven. As soon as a man puts on Christ, an evidence of the change wrought in him is seen in spirit and word and act. A heavenly atmosphere surrounds his soul; for Christ is abiding within.
LHU	301	5	"Verily, verily, I say unto you," Christ declared, "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (John 6:47). Oh, how few there are who reveal in their lives the principles of this life! They profess to believe the most sacred truth ever given to mortals, but in their lives they dishonor God. He that "eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him" (verses 54-56) ... It behooves us to live in the fear and love of God. God is supreme, and He cooperates with those who represent Christ in life and character, those who are kind, thoughtful, self-denying, and self-sacrificing. Christ says, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:14) (Letter 63, 1903).
------------------------The Ordinance of Baptism, October 15
LHU	302	1	Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4.
LHU	302	2	The ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper are two monumental pillars.... Upon these ordinances Christ has inscribed the name of the true God.
LHU	302	3	Christ has made baptism the sign of entrance to His spiritual kingdom. He has made this a positive condition with which all must comply who wish to be acknowledged as under the authority of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Before man can find a home in the church, before passing the threshold of God's spiritual kingdom, he is to receive the impress of the divine name "The Lord Our Righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6).
LHU	302	4	Baptism is a most solemn renunciation of the world. Those who are baptized in the threefold name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ... declare publicly that they have forsaken the service of Satan and have become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. They have obeyed the command: "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, ... and touch not the unclean thing." And to them is fulfilled the promise: "I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18)....
LHU	302	5	The principles of the Christian life should be made plain to those who have newly come to the truth. None can depend upon their profession of faith as proof that they have a saving connection with Christ. We are not only to say, "I believe," but to practice the truth. It is by conformity to the will of God in our words, our deportment, our character, that we prove our connection with Him. Whenever one renounces sin, which is the transgression of the law, his life will be brought into conformity to the law, into perfect obedience. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. The light of the Word carefully studied, the voice of conscience, the strivings of the Spirit, produce in the heart genuine love for Christ, who gave Himself a whole sacrifice to redeem the whole person, body, soul, and spirit. And love is manifested in obedience. The line of demarcation will be plain and distinct between those who love God and keep His commandments, and those who love Him not and disregard His precepts.
LHU	302	6	Faithful Christian men and women should have an intense interest to bring the convicted soul to a correct knowledge of righteousness in Christ Jesus.... They must not neglect the faithful, tender, loving instruction so essential to the young converts that there may be no half-hearted work. The very first experience should be right.... Through association with those who love and fear God they will receive strength (Testimonies for the Church 6:91-93).
------------------------The Blessings of the Sabbath Services, October 16
LHU	303	1	Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:25.
LHU	303	2	Bring your choicest gifts to God on His holy day. Let the precious life of the soul be given to Him in consecrated service....
LHU	303	3	Everyone should feel that he has a part to act in making the Sabbath meetings interesting. You are not to come together simply as a matter of form, but for the interchange of thought, for the relation of your daily experiences, for the expression of thanksgiving, for the utterance of your sincere desire for divine enlightenment, that you may know God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. Communing together in regard to Christ will strengthen the soul for life's trials and conflicts. Never think that you can be Christians and yet withdraw yourselves within yourselves. Each one is a part of the great web of humanity, and the experience of each will be largely determined by the experience of his associates.
LHU	303	4	Why do we not obtain a hundredth part of the blessing we should obtain from assembling together to worship God? Our perceptive faculties need sharpening. Fellowship with one another should make us glad. With such a hope as we have, why are not our hearts all aglow with the love of God?
LHU	303	5	We must carry to every religious gathering a quickened spiritual consciousness that God and His angels are there, cooperating with all true worshipers. As you enter the place of worship, ask the Lord to remove all evil from your heart. Bring to His house only that which He can bless. Kneel before God in His temple, and consecrate to Him His own, which He has purchased with the blood of Christ. Pray for the speaker or the leader of the meeting. Pray that great blessing may come through the one who is to hold forth the word of life. Strive earnestly to lay hold of a blessing for yourself.
LHU	303	6	God will bless all who thus prepare themselves for His service. They will understand what it means to have the assurance of the Spirit because they have received Christ by faith.
LHU	303	7	The place of worship may be very humble, but it is no less acknowledged by God. To those who worship God in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness it will be as the gate of heaven. The company of believers may be few in number, but in God's sight they are very precious. By the cleaver of truth they have been taken as rough stones from the quarry of the world and have been brought into the workshop of God to be hewed and shaped. But even in the rough they are precious in the sight of God. The ax, the hammer, and the chisel of trial are in the hands of One who is skillful; they are used, not to destroy, but to work out the perfection of every soul (Testimonies for the Church 6:361-363).
------------------------Recognizing God's Ownership, October 17
LHU	304	1	The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. Psalm 119:72.
LHU	304	2	The psalmist's words, "The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver," state that which is true from other than a religious point of view. They state an absolute truth, and one that is recognized in the business world. Even in this age of passion for money-getting, when competition is so sharp, and methods are so unscrupulous, it is still widely acknowledged that, for a young man starting in life, integrity, diligence, temperance, purity, and thrift constitute a better capital than any amount of mere money....
LHU	304	3	That which lies at the foundation of business integrity and of true success is the recognition of God's ownership. The Creator of all things, He is the original proprietor. We are His stewards. All that we have is a trust from Him, to be used according to His direction.
LHU	304	4	This is an obligation that rests upon every human being. It has to do with the whole sphere of human activity. Whether we recognize it or not, we are stewards, supplied from God with talents and facilities, and placed in the world to do a work appointed by Him.
LHU	304	5	To every man is given "his work" (Mark 13:34)--the work for which his capabilities adapt him--the work which will result in greatest good to himself and to his fellowmen, and in greatest honor to God.
LHU	304	6	Thus our business or calling is a part of God's great plan, and, so long as it is conducted in accordance with His will, He Himself is responsible for the results. "Labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9), our part is faithful compliance with His directions. Thus there is no place for anxious care. Diligence, fidelity, care-taking, thrift, and discretion are called for. Every faculty is to be exercised to its highest capacity. But the dependence will be, not on the successful outcome of our efforts, but on the promise of God. The word that fed Israel in the desert, and sustained Elijah through the time of famine, has the same power today. "Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink?" (Matthew 6:31, RV)....
LHU	304	7	He who gives men power to get wealth has with the gift bound up an obligation. Of all that we acquire He claims a specified portion. The tithe is the Lord's.... "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse" (Malachi 3:10) is God's command. No appeal is made to gratitude or to generosity. This is a matter of simple honesty. The tithe is the Lord's; and He bids us return to Him that which is His own.
LHU	304	8	"It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful" (1 Corinthians 4:2). If honesty is an essential principle of business life, must we not recognize our obligation to God--the obligation that underlies every other? (Education, 137-139).
------------------------Unfading Beauty, October 18
LHU	305	1	Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. 1 Peter 3:3, 4, NIV.
LHU	305	2	The pure religion of Jesus requires of its followers the simplicity of natural beauty and the polish of natural refinement and elevated purity, rather than the artificial and false....
LHU	305	3	The religion of the Bible has nothing in it which would jar upon the finest feelings. It is, in all its precepts and requirements, as pure as the character of God and as elevated as His throne.
LHU	305	4	The Redeemer of the world has warned us against the pride of life, but not against its grace and natural beauty. He pointed to all the glowing beauty of the flowers of the field and to the lily reposing in its spotless purity upon the bosom of the lake....
LHU	305	5	A disposition in you to dress according to the fashion, and to wear lace and gold and artificials for display, will not recommend to others your religion or the truth that you profess.... Simple, plain, unpretending dress will be a recommendation to my youthful sisters. In no better way can you let your light shine to others than in your simplicity of dress and deportment. You may show to all that, in comparison with eternal things, you place a proper estimate upon the things of this life.
LHU	305	6	Now is your golden opportunity to form pure and holy characters for heaven. You cannot afford to devote these precious moments to ... beautifying the external to the neglect of the inward adorning....
LHU	305	7	God, who created everything lovely and beautiful that the eye rests upon, is a lover of the beautiful. He shows you how He estimates true beauty. The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is in His sight of great price. Shall we not seek earnestly to gain that which God estimates as more valuable than costly dress or pearls or gold? The inward adorning, the grace of meekness, a spirit in harmony with the heavenly angels, will not lessen true dignity of character or make us less lovely here in this world.
LHU	305	8	Religion, pure and undefiled, ennobles its possessor. You will ever find with the true Christian a marked cheerfulness, a holy, happy confidence in God, a submission to His providences, that is refreshing to the soul. By the Christian, God's love and benevolence can be seen in every bounty he receives. The beauties in nature are a theme for contemplation. In studying the natural loveliness surrounding us, the mind is carried up through nature to the Author of all that is lovely. All the works of God are speaking to our senses, magnifying His power, exalting His wisdom. Every created thing has in it charms which interest the child of God and mold his taste to regard these precious evidences of God's love above the work of human skill (Testimonies for the Church 3:375-377).
------------------------The Root and Fruit, October 19
LHU	306	1	Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. John 5:46.
LHU	306	2	The Word of God includes the Scriptures of the Old Testament as well as of the New. One is not complete without the other. Christ declared that the truths of the Old Testament are as valuable as those of the New. Christ was as much man's Redeemer in the beginning of the world as He is today. Before He clothed His divinity with humanity and came to our world, the gospel message was given by Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, and Noah. Abraham in Canaan and Lot in Sodom bore the message, and from generation to generation faithful messengers proclaimed the Coming One....
LHU	306	3	Of Christ's life and death and intercession, which prophets had foretold, the apostles were to go forth as witnesses. Christ in His humiliation, in His purity and holiness, in His matchless love, was to be their theme. And in order to preach the gospel in its fullness, they must present the Saviour not only as revealed in His life and teachings, but as foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament and as symbolized by the sacrificial service....
LHU	306	4	In every age there is a new development of truth, a message of God to the people of that generation. The old truths are all essential; new truth is not independent of the old, but an unfolding of it. It is only as the old truths are understood that we can comprehend the new. When Christ desired to open to His disciples the truth of His resurrection, He began "at Moses and all the prophets," and "expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). But it is the light which shines in the fresh unfolding of truth that glorifies the old. He who rejects or neglects the new does not really possess the old. For him it loses its vital power and becomes but a lifeless form.
LHU	306	5	There are those who profess to believe and to teach the truths of the Old Testament, while they reject the New. But in refusing to receive the teachings of Christ, they show that they do not believe that which patriarchs and prophets have spoken....
LHU	306	6	In rejecting the Old, they virtually reject the New; for both are parts of an inseparable whole. No man can rightly present the law of God without the gospel, or the gospel without the law. The law is the gospel embodied, and the gospel is the law unfolded. The law is the root, the gospel is the fragrant blossom and fruit which it bears.
LHU	306	7	The Old Testament sheds light upon the New, and the New upon the Old. Each is a revelation of the glory of God in Christ. Both present truths that will continually reveal new depths of meaning to the earnest seeker (Christ's Object Lessons, 126-128).
------------------------Present Something Better, October 20
LHU	307	1	Behold the Lamb of God! John 1:36.
LHU	307	2	To reach the people, wherever they are, and whatever their position or condition, and to help them in every way possible--this is true ministry. By such effort you may win hearts and open a door of access to perishing souls.
LHU	307	3	In all your work remember that you are bound up with Christ, a part of the great plan of redemption. The love of Christ, in a healing, life-giving current, is to flow through your life. As you seek to draw others within the circle of His love, let the purity of your language, the unselfishness of your service, the joyfulness of your demeanor, bear witness to the power of His grace. Give to the world so pure and righteous a representation of Him, that men shall behold Him in His beauty.
LHU	307	4	It is of little use to try to reform others by attacking what we may regard as wrong habits. Such effort often results in more harm than good. In His talk with the Samaritan woman, instead of disparaging Jacob's well, Christ presented something better. "If thou knewest the gift of God," He said, "and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water" (John 4:10). He turned the conversation to the treasure He had to bestow, offering the woman something better than she possessed, even living water, the joy and hope of the gospel.
LHU	307	5	This is an illustration of the way in which we are to work. We must offer men something better than that which they possess, even the peace of Christ, which passeth all understanding. We must tell them of God's holy law, the transcript of His character, and an expression of that which He wishes them to become. Show them how infinitely superior to the fleeting joys and pleasures of the world is the imperishable glory of heaven. Tell them of the freedom and rest to be found in the Saviour. "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst," He declared.
LHU	307	6	Lift up Jesus, crying, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). He alone can satisfy the craving of the heart and give peace to the soul.
LHU	307	7	Of all people in the world, reformers should be the most unselfish, the most kind, the most courteous. In their lives should be seen the true goodness of unselfish deeds....
LHU	307	8	Christ's disciples are to reveal the spirit that reigns in heaven.... The humblest workers, in cooperation with Christ, may touch chords whose vibrations shall ring to the ends of the earth and make melody throughout eternal ages (The Ministry of Healing, 156-159).
------------------------Waiting to be Gathered In, October 21
LHU	308	1	Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Galatians 5:1.
LHU	308	2	The Lord has His representatives in all the churches. These persons have not had the special testing truths for these last days presented to them under circumstances that brought conviction to heart and mind; therefore they have not, by rejecting light, severed their connection with God. Many there are who have faithfully walked in the light that has shone upon their pathway. They hunger to know more of the ways and works of God. All over the world men and women are looking wistfully to heaven. Prayers and tears and inquiries go up from souls longing for light, for grace, for the Holy Spirit. Many are on the very verge of the kingdom, waiting only to be gathered in.
LHU	308	3	As the lessons of Christ, the truths of the Bible in their simplicity, are placed before these souls, they recognize the light and rejoice in it. Their perplexities vanish before the light of truth as dew before the morning sun. Their conceptions of Bible truth are expanded, and the revelation of God in Christ comes to them, showing them the depth, breadth, and height of divine, spiritual mystery that they did not before discern, that cannot be explained, but only exemplified in Christlike character.
LHU	308	4	Many who are not connected with any church, and who appear wholly unmindful of the claims of God, are not at heart as indifferent as they seem. Even the most irreligious have their hours of conviction, when there comes to them a longing for something they have not. In every town and city there are large numbers who do not attend any place of worship. Many of these are attracted to the camp meeting. Many come who are slaves of sin, the helpless victims of evil habits. Many are convicted and converted. As they by faith grasp the promise of God for the forgiveness of their sins, the bondage of habit is broken. Forsaking their sinful indulgences, they become freemen in Christ Jesus, and rejoice in the liberty of the sons of God (Testimonies for the Church 6:70, 71).
LHU	308	5	This work requires you to watch for souls as they that must give an account.... The fragrance of Christ's love will be revealed in your work. He who gave His own life for the life of the world will cooperate with the unselfish worker to make an impression upon human hearts....
LHU	308	6	Come close to the people by personal efforts. Teach them that the love of God must come into the sanctuary of the home life.... Keep self out of sight.... Work as seeing Him who is at your right hand, ready to give you His efficiency and omnipotent power in every emergency. The Lord is your Counselor, your Guide, the Captain of your salvation. He goes before your face, conquering and to conquer (Testimonies for the Church 6:75, 76).
------------------------Third Angel's Message, October 22
LHU	309	1	But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. James 3:17.
LHU	309	2	The third angel's message is infallible. Upon the grand, ennobling truths connected with that message you can dwell with perfect safety. Labor intelligently to encourage union of faith and union of judgment, that all may be united in the bonds of Christian fellowship and love....
LHU	309	3	"The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace" (James 3:17, 18).
LHU	309	4	The principle here laid down is the natural outgrowth of the Christian religion. Especially will those who are engaged in proclaiming the last solemn message to a dying world seek to fulfill this scripture. Although possessing different temperaments and dispositions, they will see eye to eye in all matters of religious belief. They will speak the same things; they will have the same judgment; they will be one in Christ Jesus....
LHU	309	5	No one should feel that his judgment is faultless, that his ideas are above criticism, and that he can pursue a course of his own, regardless of the opinions of others with whom he is united in labor. When we think we know all that is worth knowing, we are in a position where God cannot use us. The third angel's message is not a narrow message. It is worldwide; and we should be united, so far as possible, in the manner of presenting it to the world.
LHU	309	6	Man is fallible; but the message is infallible. With it all should be in harmony; it is the center of interest, in which all hearts should be united. We may get up points that are of no consequence, and seek to maintain them; but we shall gain no strength by so doing. The message is to prepare a people to stand in the last great day, and to be united in heaven above. None should feel that it is of no special importance whether they are in union with their brethren or not; for those who do not learn to live in harmony here will never be united in heaven....
LHU	309	7	Some have a natural independence which leads them to think more highly of their own judgment than of that of their brethren. In so doing they place themselves where they fail to obtain much knowledge that God would have them gain.... Doctrines and plans should be compared with the law and the testimony. We should never feel too independent to learn of one another (Historical Sketches, 122-125).
LHU	309	8	The great Center of attraction, Jesus Christ, must not be left out of the third angel's message.... The sinner must ever look toward Calvary; and with the simple faith of a little child, he must rest in the merits of Christ, accepting His righteousness and believing in His mercy (Evangelism, 184, 185).
------------------------Press Together! Press Together! October 23
LHU	310	1	Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Matthew 24:12, 13.
LHU	310	2	God has selected a people in these last days whom He has made the depositaries of His law, and this people will ever have disagreeable tasks to perform. "I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted." It will require much diligence and a continual struggle to keep evil out of our churches. There must be rigid, impartial discipline exercised; for some who have a semblance of religion will seek to undermine the faith of others and will privily work to exalt themselves.
LHU	310	3	The Lord Jesus, on the Mount of Olives, plainly stated that "because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." He speaks of a class who have fallen from a high state of spirituality. Let such utterances as these come home with solemn, searching power to our hearts. Where is the fervor, the devotion to God, that corresponds to the greatness of the truth which we claim to believe? The love of the world, the love of some darling sin, has weaned the heart from the love of prayer and of meditation on sacred things. A formal round of religious services is kept up; but where is the love of Jesus? Spirituality is dying. Is this torpor, this mournful deterioration, to be perpetuated? Is the lamp of truth to flicker and go out in darkness because it is not replenished by the oil of grace? ...
LHU	310	4	Self-esteem and self-sufficiency are killing spiritual life. Self is lifted up; self is talked about. Oh, that self might die! "I die daily," said the apostle Paul. When this proud, boasting self-sufficiency and this complacent self-righteousness permeate the soul, there is no room for Jesus. He is given an inferior place, while self swells into importance and fills the whole temple of the soul. This is the reason why the Lord can do so little for us. Should He work with our efforts, the instrument would appropriate all the glory to his own smartness, his wisdom, his ability, and he would congratulate himself, as did the Pharisee: "I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess." When self shall be hidden in Christ, it will not be brought to the surface so frequently....
LHU	310	5	It is only when we are careful to carry out the Master's orders without leaving our stamp and identity upon the work that we work efficiently and harmoniously. "Press together," said the angel, "press together" (Testimonies for the Church 5:538, 539).
------------------------Every Church a Training School, October 24
LHU	311	1	The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Luke 4:18.
LHU	311	2	In giving light to His people anciently, God did not work exclusively through any one class. Daniel was a prince of Judah. Isaiah also was of the royal line. David was a shepherd boy, Amos a herdsman, Zechariah a captive from Babylon, Elisha a tiller of the soil. The Lord raised up as His representatives prophets and princes, the noble and the lowly, and taught them the truths to be given to the world....
LHU	311	3	Every church should be a training school for Christian workers. Its members should be taught how to give Bible readings, how to conduct and teach Sabbath school classes, how best to help the poor and to care for the sick, how to work for the unconverted. There should be schools of health, cooking schools, and classes in various lines of Christian help work. There should not only be teaching, but actual work under experienced instructors. Let the teachers lead the way in working among the people, and others, uniting with them, will learn from their example. One example is worth more than many precepts....
LHU	311	4	If those to whom God has entrusted great talents of intellect put these gifts to a selfish use, they will be left, after a period of trial, to follow their own way. God will take men who do not appear to be so richly endowed, who have not large self-confidence, and He will make the weak strong, because they trust in Him to do for them that which they cannot do for themselves. God will accept the wholehearted service, and will Himself make up the deficiencies....
LHU	311	5	As His blessing came to the captives in the courts of Babylon, so does He give wisdom and knowledge to His workers today.
LHU	311	6	Men deficient in school education, lowly in social position, have, through the grace of Christ, sometimes been wonderfully successful in winning souls for Him. The secret of their success was their confidence in God. They learned daily of Him who is wonderful in counsel and mighty in power.
LHU	311	7	Such workers are to be encouraged. The Lord brings them into connection with those of more marked ability, to fill up the gaps that others leave. Their quickness to see what is to be done, their readiness to help those in need, their kind words and deeds, open doors of usefulness that otherwise would remain closed. They come close to those in trouble, and the persuasive influence of their words has power to draw many trembling souls to God. Their work shows what thousands of others might do (The Ministry of Healing, 148-151).
------------------------A Great Reformatory Movement, October 25
LHU	312	1	He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 2 Corinthians 9:6.
LHU	312	2	When we begin to comprehend what a sacrifice Christ made in order to save a perishing world, there will be seen a mighty wrestling to save souls. Oh, that all our churches might see and realize the infinite sacrifice of Christ!
LHU	312	3	In visions of the night, representations passed before me of a great reformatory movement among God's people. Many were praising God. The sick were healed, and other miracles were wrought. A spirit of intercession was seen, even as was manifested before the great Day of Pentecost. Hundreds and thousands were seen visiting families and opening before them the Word of God. Hearts were convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit, and a spirit of genuine conversion was manifest. On every side doors were thrown open to the proclamation of the truth. The world seemed to be lightened with the heavenly influence. Great blessings were received by the true and humble people of God. I heard voices of thanksgiving and praise....
LHU	312	4	The judgments of God are in the earth, and, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we must give the message of warning that He has entrusted to us. We must give this message quickly, line upon line, precept upon precept. Men will soon be forced to great decisions, and it is our duty to see that they are given an opportunity to understand the truth, that they may take their stand intelligently on the right side. The Lord calls upon His people to labor--labor earnestly and wisely--while probation lingers.
LHU	312	5	Among the members of our churches there should be more house-to-house labor in giving Bible readings and distributing literature. A Christian character can be symmetrically and completely formed only when the human agent regards it as a privilege to work disinterestedly in the proclamation of the truth and to sustain the cause of God with means. We must sow beside all waters, keeping our souls in the love of God, working while it is day, and using the means the Lord has given us to do whatever duty comes next. Whatever our hands find to do, we are to do with faithfulness; whatever sacrifice we are called upon to make, we are to make it cheerfully. As we sow beside all waters we shall realize that "he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (2 Corinthians 9:6)....
LHU	312	6	The Lord has presented before me the work that is to be done in our cities. The believers in these cities are to work for God in the neighborhood of their homes. They are to labor quietly and in humility, carrying with them wherever they go the atmosphere of heaven. If they keep self out of sight, pointing always to Christ, the power of their influence will be felt (Testimonies for the Church 9:125-128).
------------------------God's Chosen People, October 26
LHU	313	1	Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Colossians 3:12, 13, NIV.
LHU	313	2	Love "rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." He whose heart is imbued with love is filled with sorrow at the errors and weaknesses of others; but when truth triumphs, when the cloud that darkened the fair fame of another is removed, or when sins are confessed and wrongs corrected, he rejoices....
LHU	313	3	Love not only bears with others' faults, but cheerfully submits to whatever suffering or inconvenience such forbearance makes necessary. This love "never faileth." It can never lose its value; it is the attribute of heaven. As a precious treasure it will be carried by its possessor through the portals of the city of God.
LHU	313	4	The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace. Discord and strife are the work of Satan and the fruit of sin. If we would as a people enjoy peace and love, we must put away our sins; we must come into harmony with God, and we shall be in harmony with one another. Let each ask himself: Do I possess the grace of love? Have I learned to suffer long and to be kind? Talents, learning, and eloquence, without this heavenly attribute, will be as meaningless as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Alas that this precious treasure is so lightly valued and so little sought by many who profess the faith! ...
LHU	313	5	If we would not build our hopes of heaven upon a false foundation we must accept the Bible as it reads and believe that the Lord means what He says. He requires nothing of us that He will not give us grace to perform. We shall have no excuse to offer in the day of God if we fail to reach the standard set before us in His Word.
LHU	313	6	We are admonished by the apostle: "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another." Paul would have us distinguish between the pure, unselfish love which is prompted by the spirit of Christ, and the unmeaning, deceitful pretense with which the world abounds. This base counterfeit has misled many souls. It would blot out the distinction between right and wrong, by agreeing with the transgressor instead of faithfully showing him his errors. Such a course never springs from real friendship. The spirit by which it is prompted dwells only in the carnal heart. While the Christian will be ever kind, compassionate, and forgiving, he can feel no harmony with sin. He will abhor evil and cling to that which is good, at the sacrifice of association or friendship with the ungodly. The spirit of Christ will lead us to hate sin, while we are willing to make any sacrifice to save the sinner (Testimonies for the Church 5:169-171).
------------------------Always a Witness in the Church, October 27
LHU	314	1	The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire. Deuteronomy 5:4.
LHU	314	2	God has never left His church without a witness. In all the scenes of trial and proving, of opposition and persecution amidst moral darkness, through which the church has passed, God has had men of opportunity who have been prepared to take up His work at different stages and carry it forward and upward. Through patriarchs and prophets He revealed His truth to His people. Christ was the teacher of His ancient people as verily as He was when He came to the world clothed in the garments of humanity. Hiding His glory in human form, He often appeared to His people and talked with them "face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." He, their invisible Leader, was enshrouded in the pillar of fire and of cloud, and spoke to His people through Moses. The voice of God was heard by the prophets whom He had appointed to a special work and to bear a special message. He sent them to repeat the same words over and over again. He had a message prepared for them that was not after the ways and will of men, and this He put in their mouths and had them proclaim. He assured them the Holy Spirit would give them language and utterance. He who knew the heart would give them words with which to reach the people....
LHU	314	3	There never will be a time in the history of the church when God's worker can fold his hands and be at ease, saying, "All is peace and safety." Then it is that sudden destruction cometh. Everything may move forward amid apparent prosperity; but Satan is wide awake, and is studying and counseling with his evil angels another mode of attack where he can be successful. The contest will wax more and more fierce on the part of Satan; for he is moved by a power from beneath. As the work of God's people moves forward with sanctified, resistless energy, planting the standard of Christ's righteousness in the church, moved by a power from the throne of God, the great controversy will wax stronger and stronger, and will become more and more determined. Mind will be arrayed against mind, plans against plans, principles of heavenly origin against principles of Satan. Truth in its varied phases will be in conflict with error in its ever-varying, increasing forms, and which, if possible, will deceive the very elect.
LHU	314	4	Our work must be an earnest one. We are not to fight as those that beat the air. The ministry, the pulpit, and the press demand men like Caleb, who will do and dare, men whose eyes are single to detect the truth from error, whose ears are consecrated to catch the words from the faithful Watcher (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 404-407).
LHU	314	5	The world needs evidences of sincere Christianity (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 416).
------------------------The Church will Triumph, October 28
LHU	315	1	And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Revelation 15:3.
LHU	315	2	Christ has given to the church a sacred charge. Every member should be a channel through which God can communicate to the world the treasures of His grace, the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is nothing that the Saviour desires so much as agents who will represent to the world His Spirit and His character. There is nothing that the world needs so much as the manifestation through humanity of the Saviour's love. All heaven is waiting for men and women through whom God can reveal the power of Christianity.
LHU	315	3	The church is God's agency for the proclamation of truth, empowered by Him to do a special work; and if she is loyal to Him, obedient to all His commandments, there will dwell within her the excellency of divine grace. If she will be true to her allegiance, if she will honor the Lord God of Israel, there is no power that can stand against her.
LHU	315	4	Zeal for God and His cause moved the disciples to bear witness to the gospel with mighty power. Should not a like zeal fire our hearts with a determination to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ and Him crucified? It is the privilege of every Christian, not only to look for, but to hasten the coming of the Saviour.
LHU	315	5	If the church will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all allegiance with the world, there is before her the dawn of a bright and glorious day. God's promise to her will stand fast forever. He will make her an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Truth, passing by those who despise and reject it, will triumph. Although at times apparently retarded, its progress has never been checked. When the message of God meets with opposition, He gives it additional force, that it may exert greater influence. Endowed with divine energy, it will cut its way through the strongest barriers and triumph over every obstacle.
LHU	315	6	What sustained the Son of God during His life of toil and sacrifice? He saw the results of the travail of His soul and was satisfied. Looking into eternity, He beheld the happiness of those who through His humiliation had received pardon and everlasting life. His ear caught the shout of the redeemed. He heard the ransomed ones singing the song of Moses and the Lamb....
LHU	315	7	By faith we may stand on the threshold of the eternal city, and hear the gracious welcome given to those who in this life cooperate with Christ (The Acts of the Apostles, 600, 601).
------------------------The Light of Truth, October 29
LHU	316	1	Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. 2 Timothy 2:19.
LHU	316	2	God Himself will work for Israel. Every lying tongue will be silenced. Angels' hands will overthrow the deceptive schemes that are being formed. The bulwarks of Satan will never triumph. Victory will attend the third angel's message. As the Captain of the Lord's host tore down the walls of Jericho, so will the Lord's commandment-keeping people triumph, and all opposing elements be defeated. Let no soul complain of the servants of God who have come to them with a heaven-sent message. Do not any longer pick flaws in them, saying, "They are too positive; they talk too strongly." They may talk strongly; but is it not needed? God will make the ears of the hearers tingle if they will not heed His voice or His message. He will denounce those who resist the word of God....
LHU	316	3	The purging and cleansing will surely pass through every church in our land that has had great opportunities and privileges, and has passed them by unheeded. More evidence is not what they want. They need pure and sanctified hearts to gather up and retain all the light that God has given, and then they will walk in that light.
LHU	316	4	We need not say, "The perils of the last days are soon to come upon us." Already they have come. We need now the sword of the Lord to cut the very soul and marrow of fleshly lusts, appetites, and passions. May it pierce and divide in a far greater degree than it has ever yet done....
LHU	316	5	I address the people of God who today are holding fast their confidence, who will not depart from the faith once delivered unto the saints, who stand amid the moral darkness of these days of corruption. The word of the Lord to you is: "I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people." Can we not here see the paternal love of God expressed to those who hold fast to the faith in righteousness? The closest relationship exists between God and His people. Not only are we objects of His sparing mercy, His pardoning love; we are more than this. The Lord rejoices over His people. He delights in them. He is their surety. He will beautify all who are serving Him with a whole heart with the spirit of holiness. He clothes them with righteousness. He loves those who do His will, who express His image. All who are true and faithful are conformed to the image of His Son. In their mouth is found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 410-415).
------------------------Power of God, Not Self, October 30
LHU	317	1	I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him. 2 Timothy 1:12.
LHU	317	2	To some who witnessed [Paul's] martyrdom, his spirit of forgiveness toward his murderers and his unwavering confidence in Christ till the last, proved a savor of life unto life....
LHU	317	3	Until his latest hour the life of Paul testified to the truth of his words to the Corinthians: "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (2 Corinthians 4:6-10). His sufficiency was not in himself, but in the presence and agency of the divine Spirit that filled his soul and brought every thought into subjection to the will of Christ. The prophet declares, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee" (Isaiah 26:3). The heaven-born peace expressed on Paul's countenance won many a soul to the gospel.
LHU	317	4	Paul carried with him the atmosphere of heaven. All who associated with him felt the influence of his union with Christ. The fact that his own life exemplified the truth he proclaimed gave convincing power to his preaching. Here lies the power of truth. The unstudied, unconscious influence of a holy life is the most convincing sermon that can be given in favor of Christianity. Argument, even when unanswerable, may provoke only opposition; but a godly example has a power that is impossible wholly to resist.... The few Christians who accompanied him to the place of execution he endeavored to strengthen and encourage by repeating the promises given for those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. He assured them that nothing would fail of all that the Lord had spoken concerning His tried and faithful children.... Soon the night of trial and suffering would end, and then would dawn the glad morning of peace and perfect day.
LHU	317	5	The apostle was looking into the great beyond, not with uncertainty or dread, but with joyous hope and longing expectation....
LHU	317	6	Ransomed by the sacrifice of Christ, washed from sin in His blood, and clothed in His righteousness, Paul has the witness in himself that his soul is precious in the sight of his Redeemer (The Acts of the Apostles, 510-512).
------------------------Christ's Eternal Vigilance, October 31
LHU	318	1	Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience. Revelation 2:1, 2.
LHU	318	2	The picture reveals eternal vigilance. Christ is in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, walking from church to church, from congregation to congregation, from heart to heart. He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. If the candlesticks were left to the care of human beings, how often the light would flicker and go out! But God has not given His church into the hands of men. Christ, the One who gave His life for the world, that all who believe in Him may not perish but have everlasting life, is the Watchman of the house. He is the Warder, faithful and true, of the temple courts of the Lord.
LHU	318	3	"These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand." The words are spoken to the teachers in the church--those entrusted by God with weighty responsibilities. The sweet influences that are to be abundant in the church are bound up with God's ministers, who are to reveal the precious love of Christ. The stars of heaven are under His control. He fills them with light. He guides and directs their movements. If He did not do this, they would become fallen stars. So with His ministers. They are but instruments in His hands, and all the good they accomplish is done through His power. Through them His light is to shine forth. The Saviour is to be their efficiency. If they will look to Him as He looked to His Father, they will do His work. As they make God their dependence, He will give them His brightness to reflect to the world.
LHU	318	4	Christ walks in the midst of His churches through the length and breadth of the earth. He looks with intense interest to see whether His people are in such a condition spiritually that they can advance His kingdom. He is present in every assembly of the church. He knows those whose hearts He can fill with the holy oil, that they may impart it to others. Those who faithfully carry forward the work of Christ, representing in word and deed the character of God, fulfill the Lord's purpose for them, and Christ takes pleasure in them.
LHU	318	5	"I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience." Christ is acquainted with the history and experience of every one who has accepted Him. To His people He says, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." He cherishes carefully every act of love and endurance performed by them.... Christ holds the stars in His right hand, and it is His purpose to let His light shine forth through them to the world. Thus He desires to prepare His people for higher service in the church above.... Let us show forth in our lives what divine grace can do for humanity (The Review and Herald, May 26, 1903).
------------------------Jesus Our Advocate, November 1
LHU	319	1	And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1.
LHU	319	2	Jesus is our Advocate, our High Priest, our Intercessor. Our position is like that of the Israelites on the Day of Atonement. When the high priest entered the Most Holy Place, representing the place where our High Priest is now pleading, and sprinkled the atoning blood upon the mercy seat, no propitiatory sacrifices were offered without. While the priest was interceding with God, every heart was to be bowed in contrition, pleading for the pardon of transgression.
LHU	319	3	Type met antitype in the death of Christ, the Lamb slain for the sins of the world. Our great High Priest has made the only sacrifice that is of any value in our salvation. When He offered Himself on the cross, a perfect atonement was made for the sins of the people. We are now standing in the outer court, waiting and looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. No sacrifices are to be offered without, for the great High Priest is performing His work in the Most Holy Place. In His intercession as our advocate, Christ needs no man's virtue, no man's intercession. He is the only sin-bearer, the only sin-offering. Prayer and confession are to be offered only to Him who has entered once for all into the Most Holy Place. He will save to the uttermost all who come to Him in faith. He ever liveth to make intercession for us....
LHU	319	4	The mightiest created intellect cannot comprehend God; words from the most eloquent tongue fail to describe Him.... Men have only one Advocate, one Intercessor, who is able to pardon transgression. Shall not our hearts swell with gratitude to Him who gave Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins? Think deeply upon the love that the Father has manifested in our behalf, the love that He has expressed for us. We can not measure this love; for measurement there is none. Can we measure infinity? We can only point to Calvary, to the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world....
LHU	319	5	No middleman comes between the sinner and Christ.... Christ Himself is our Advocate. All that the Father is to His Son He is to those whom His Son in humanity represented. In every line of His work Christ acted as a representative of the Father. He lived as our substitute and surety. He labored as He would have His followers labor, unselfishly, appreciating the value of every human being for whom He suffered and died (The Signs of the Times, June 28, 1899).
------------------------In the Heavenly Courts, November 2
LHU	320	1	Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25.
LHU	320	2	The world's Redeemer possessed the power to draw men to Himself, to quiet their fears, to dispel their gloom, to inspire them with hope and courage, to enable them to believe in the willingness of God to receive them through the merits of the divine Substitute. As subjects of the love of God we ever should be grateful that we have a mediator, an advocate, an intercessor in the heavenly courts, who pleads in our behalf before the Father.
LHU	320	3	We have everything we could ask to inspire us with faith and trust in God. In earthly courts, when a king would make his greatest pledge to assure men of his truth, he gives his child as a hostage, to be redeemed on the fulfillment of his promise; and behold what a pledge of the Father's faithfulness, for when He would assure men of the immutability of His council, He gave His only-begotten Son to come to earth, to take the nature of man, not only for the brief years of life, but to retain his nature in the heavenly courts, an everlasting pledge of the faithfulness of God. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and love of God! ...
LHU	320	4	Through faith in Christ we become members of the royal family, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. In Christ we are one. As we come in sight of Calvary, and view the royal Sufferer who in man's nature bore the curse of the law in his behalf, all national distinctions, all sectarian differences are obliterated; all honor of rank, all pride of caste is lost.
LHU	320	5	The light shining from the throne of God upon the cross of Calvary forever puts an end to man-made separations between class and race. Men of every class become members of one family, children of the heavenly King, not through earthly power, but through the love of God who gave Jesus to a life of poverty, affliction, and humiliation, to a death of shame and agony, that He might bring many sons and daughters unto glory.
LHU	320	6	It is not the position, not the finite wisdom, not the qualifications, not the endowments of any person that makes him rank high in the esteem of God. The intellect, the reason, the talents of men, are the gifts of God to be employed to His glory, for the upbuilding of His eternal kingdom. It is the spiritual and moral character that is of value in the sight of Heaven, and that will survive the grave and be made glorious with immortality for the endless ages of eternity.... Only those who have appreciated the grace of Christ, which has made them heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus, will rise from the grave bearing the image of their Redeemer (Selected Messages 1:258, 259).
------------------------An Intercessor, November 3
LHU	321	1	Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Hebrews 4:14.
LHU	321	2	We are to fit ourselves with the self-same spirit that was in Christ Jesus. Christ is working for us; will we work for Christ in His lines? Children, cultivate patience and faith and hope. May the Lord increase our joy of faith in this ever-living Intercessor. Try to let no day pass in which you fail to realize your accountability to God through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. Jesus does not receive glory from any one who is an accuser of the brethren. Let not a day pass that we are not healing and restoring old wounds. Cultivate love, and let no words of evil surmising escape our lips. Close this door quickly, and keep it closed; open the door where Christ presides, and keep it open, because we know the value of Christ's sacrifice and His unchangeable love. Drink in the ever-refreshing waters of life from the wells of Lebanon, but refuse the murky waters from the valley--the dark, suspicious feelings. There is much truthfulness in the cause, but shall we spoil our fragrance of spirit because others clothe themselves with bitterness? God forbid. There is not one tithe of the imaginings of evil that is worth the time we give to consider it and repeat it. Cut away from our speech all severity; talk sweetly; and hold our confidence in Jesus firmly.
LHU	321	3	We have an ever-living Advocate who is making intercession for us. Then let us become advocates in principle in behalf of those who err. "And having an high priest over the house of God [here is His intercession in our behalf]; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience; and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering." He is a "faithful high priest in things pertaining to God."
LHU	321	4	Then as He is working for us, let us work just as earnestly and interestedly to promote union with one another. Christ prayed that we might be of that same nature and oneness as that existing between Himself and His Father. Try in everything we do to secure confidence and love one for another, and thus we will answer the prayer of Christ Jesus.... Not all your suppositions and your ideas of your brethren are correct.... Let us put away these ugly supposings and imaginings; keep close on the side of Christ, and think of the rich encouragement He has given us, that we may in our turn give to others.... Let envy and jealousy be quenched in the flow of love from the fountain of God's love. The cry of them that are ready to perish finds swift entrance into His ear. "He shall deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also and him that hath no helper" (Manuscript 129, 1901).
------------------------The Present Mediatorial Work of Christ, November 4
LHU	322	1	And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Matthew 28:18.
LHU	322	2	At the meeting on a mountain in Galilee, all the believers who could be called together were assembled. Of this meeting Christ Himself, before His death, had designed the time and place....
LHU	322	3	At the time appointed, about five hundred believers were collected in little knots on the mountainside, eager to learn all that could be learned from those who had seen Christ since His resurrection. From group to group the disciples passed, telling all they had seen and heard of Jesus, and reasoning from the Scriptures as He had done with them. Thomas recounted the story of his unbelief, and told how his doubts had been swept away. Suddenly Jesus stood among them. No one could tell whence or how He came. Many who were present had never before seen Him; but in His hands and feet they beheld the marks of the crucifixion; His countenance was as the face of God, and when they saw Him, they worshiped Him.
LHU	322	4	But some doubted. So it will always be. There are those who find it hard to exercise faith, and they place themselves on the doubting side. These lose much because of their unbelief.
LHU	322	5	This was the only interview that Jesus had with many of the believers after His resurrection. He came and spoke to them saying, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." The disciples had worshiped Him before He spoke, but His words, falling from lips that had been closed in death, thrilled them with peculiar power. He was now the risen Saviour. Many of them had seen Him exercise His power in healing the sick and controlling satanic agencies. They believed that He possessed power to set up His kingdom at Jerusalem, power to quell all opposition, power over the elements of nature. He had stilled the angry waters; He had walked upon the white-crested billows; He had raised the dead to life. Now He declared that "all power" was given to Him. His words carried the minds of His hearers above earthly and temporal things to the heavenly and eternal. They were lifted to the highest conception of His dignity and glory.
LHU	322	6	Christ's words on the mountainside were the announcement that His sacrifice in behalf of man was full and complete. The conditions of the atonement had been fulfilled; the work for which He came to this world had been accomplished. He was on His way to the throne of God, to be honored by angels, principalities, and powers. He had entered upon His mediatorial work. Clothed with boundless authority, He gave His commission to the disciples: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations" (The Desire of Ages, 818, 819).
------------------------Our Infallible Judge, November 5
LHU	323	1	Know the God of your father, and serve him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. 1 Chronicles 28:9, NKJV.
LHU	323	2	The Lord is exact and infallible in His comprehension. He understands the working of the human mind, the active principles of the human agents He has formed, just how they will be moved upon by the objects that come before them, and in what manner they will act under every temptation that can try them and in every circumstance in which they are placed. "The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He pondereth all his goings" (Proverbs 5:21). "The eyes of the Lord are in every place" (Proverbs 15:3). "He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven" (Job 28:24). "The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts" (1 Chronicles 28:9). He knows the things that come into our minds, every one of them.... God pities the poor, self-deceived souls who are trampling upon His truth. Let the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest. Pity and deplore the blindness of the minds that are under the dominion of Satan, but restrain your own wrath and passion, and do not pass your judgment upon them. Leave in God's hands the despisers of His truth. The right and liberty of passing judgment upon others is not given to you. It was not given to Moses to pronounce judgment against rebellious Israel. The glaring weakness of His agents, as displayed by Moses, will bring its reward....
LHU	323	3	God's workmen must continue to bear the blame of being troublers of Israel, but they are not at liberty to make such assertions true. Go not into the assembly of scoffers, sit not in the seat of the scorners, keep away from the gatherings of those who will make your presence an occasion to speak to you humiliating things, and will pour contempt upon your faith. Have no controversy with these men. You have not to do with men only, but with Satan and his synagogue. When compelled to meet them, remember the Saviour's words, "I send you forth as lambs among wolves." The Lord must be your dependence; He will clothe you with a divine panoply, and His Holy Spirit will influence your mind and heart so that your voice shall not catch the notes of the baying of the wolves.
LHU	323	4	We are never to forget that we are representatives of Christ. We are to use no carnal weapons when unbelieving and deluded souls come among us.... Not an unkind or discourteous word, defensive or offensive, should escape our lips or be traced by our pen. When reviled, we are not to revile again. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4) (Letter 18, 1895).
------------------------The Great Atonement, November 6
LHU	324	1	Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12.
LHU	324	2	Adam, in his innocence, had enjoyed open communion with his Maker; but sin brought separation between God and man, and the atonement of Christ alone could span the abyss and make possible the communication of blessing or salvation from heaven to earth. Man was still cut off from direct approach to his Creator, but God would communicate with him through Christ and angels.
LHU	324	3	Thus were revealed to Adam important events in the history of mankind, from the time when the divine sentence was pronounced in Eden, to the Flood, and onward to the first advent of the Son of God. He was shown that while the sacrifice of Christ would be of sufficient value to save the whole world, many would choose a life of sin rather than of repentance and obedience. Crime would increase through successive generations, and the curse of sin would rest more and more heavily upon the human race, upon the beasts, and upon the earth. The days of man would be shortened by his own course of sin; he would deteriorate in physical stature and endurance and in moral and intellectual power, until the world would be filled with misery of every type. Through the indulgence of appetite and passion men would become incapable of appreciating the great truths of the plan of redemption. Yet Christ, true to the purpose for which He left heaven, would continue His interest in men, and still invite them to hide their weakness and deficiencies in Him. He would supply the needs of all who would come unto Him in faith. And there would ever be a few who would preserve the knowledge of God and would remain unsullied amid the prevailing iniquity.
LHU	324	4	The sacrificial offerings were ordained by God to be to man a perpetual reminder and a penitential acknowledgment of his sin and a confession of his faith in the promised Redeemer. They were intended to impress upon the fallen race the solemn truth that it was sin that caused death. To Adam, the offering of the first sacrifice was a most painful ceremony. His hand must be raised to take life, which only God could give. It was the first time he had ever witnessed death, and he knew that had he been obedient to God, there would have been no death of man or beast. As he slew the innocent victim, he trembled at the thought that his sin must shed the blood of the spotless Lamb of God.... And he marveled at the infinite goodness that would give such a ransom to save the guilty. A star of hope illumined the dark and terrible future and relieved it of its utter desolation....
LHU	324	5	The act of Christ in dying for the salvation of man would not only make heaven accessible to men, but before all the universe it would justify God and His Son in their dealing with the rebellion of Satan (Patriarchs and Prophets, 57-69).
------------------------The Record Books in Heaven, November 7
LHU	325	1	For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Ecclesiastes 12:14.
LHU	325	2	Let us individually consider what is the record made in the books of heaven concerning our life and character, and our attitude toward God. Has our love for God been increasing during the past year? If Christ is indeed abiding in our hearts, we shall love God, we shall love to obey all His commandments, and this love will continually deepen and strengthen. If we represent Christ to the world, we shall be pure in heart, in life, in character; we shall be holy in conversation; there will be no guile in our hearts or upon our lips. Let us examine our past life and see if we have given evidence of our love for Jesus by seeking to be like Him, and by working, as He worked, to save those for whom He died.
LHU	325	3	Of the zealous, self-sacrificing disciples of Christ, it is written that Jesus was not ashamed to call them brethren, so fully did they manifest His Spirit, and bear His likeness. By their works they constantly testified that this world was not their home; their citizenship was above; they were seeking a better country, even a heavenly. Their conversation and affections were on heavenly things. They were in the world, but not of the world; in spirit and practice they were separate from its maxims and customs. Their daily example testified that they were living for the glory of God. Their great interest, like that of their Master, was for the salvation of souls. For this they toiled and sacrificed, counting not their lives dear unto themselves. By their life and character they made a bright track heavenward. Upon such disciples, Jesus can look with satisfaction as His representatives. His character will not be misrepresented through them....
LHU	325	4	God has made the advancement of His cause in the world dependent upon the labors and sacrifices of His followers. The salvation of our souls was purchased by the infinite gift of the Son of God. Jesus left heaven, laid aside His glory, left the communion and adoration of the sinless angels, and for our sake humbled Himself, even to the death of the cross. And now we, who have become partakers of His great gift, are to be partakers also of His sacrifice, extending to others the blessings of salvation.
LHU	325	5	There was not one trace of selfishness in the life of Christ. All who are laborers together with God will have the same spirit as their Master had. They will be continually growing away from selfishness, and renouncing self-indulgence, even in things that had once appeared innocent to them.... And when His glory shall be revealed, they will be glad also "with exceeding joy" (The Signs of the Times, December 22, 1890).
------------------------The Book of Life, November 8
LHU	326	1	He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Revelation 3:5.
LHU	326	2	If we would be overcomers, we must search our hearts to be sure that we are not cherishing anything that is offensive to God. If we are, we cannot wear the white raiment that is here promised. If we would stand before God in the white linen, which is the righteousness of the saints, we must now do the work of overcoming.
LHU	326	3	Christ says of the overcomer, "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life." The names of all those who have once given themselves to God are written in the book of life, and their characters are now passing in review before him. Angels of God are weighing moral worth. They are watching the development of character in those now living, to see if their names can be retained in the book of life. A probation is granted us in which to wash our robes of character and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. Who is doing this work? Who is separating from himself sin and selfishness? "Ye are dead," says the apostle Paul of the true followers of Christ, "and your life is hid with Christ in God." When we are alive to God, we are dead to self. May God help us to die to self. Whose names will not be blotted out of the book of life? Only the names of those who have loved God with all the powers of their being, and their neighbors as themselves.
LHU	326	4	There is a great work to be done for many of us. Our minds and characters must become as the mind and character of Christ. Selfishness is inwrought in our very being. It has come to us as an inheritance, and has been cherished by many as a precious treasure. No special work for God can be accomplished until self and selfishness are overcome. To many everything connected with themselves is of great importance. Self is a center, around which everything seems to revolve. Were Christ on the earth now, He would say to such, "Launch out into the deep." Be not so self-caring. There are thousands whose lives are just as precious as yours. Then why do you wrap your coat about you, and hug the shore? Awake to duty and to usefulness! If you will launch out into the deep and let down your nets, the Master will gather in the fishes, and you will see of the mighty working of God (Historical Sketches, 138, 139).
LHU	326	5	When our hearts are all aglow with love for Jesus and the souls for whom He died, success will attend our labors.... Let each one inquire, ... Can I not be the means of saving some soul in the kingdom of God? We want the deep movings of the Spirit of God in our hearts, that we may not only be able to secure for ourselves the white raiment, but that we may so influence others that their names may be entered in the book of life, never to be blotted out (Ibidem 140).
------------------------The Judgment Set--The Books Opened, November 9
LHU	327	1	A stream of fire issued and came forth from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. Daniel 7:10, RSV.
LHU	327	2	The books of record in heaven, in which the names and the deeds of men are registered, are to determine the decisions of the judgment. Says the prophet Daniel: "The judgment was set, and the books were opened." The revelator, describing the same scene, adds: "Another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works."
LHU	327	3	The book of life contains the names of all who have ever entered the service of God. Jesus bade His disciples: "Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). Paul speaks of his faithful fellow workers, "whose names are in the book of life" (Philippians 4:3). Daniel, looking down to "a time of trouble, such as never was," declares that God's people shall be delivered, "every one that shall be found written in the book." And the revelator says that those only shall enter the city of God whose names "are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Daniel 12:1; Revelation 21:27).
LHU	327	4	"A book of remembrance" is written before God, in which are recorded the good deeds of "them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name" (Malachi 3:16). Their words of faith, their acts of love, are registered in heaven. Nehemiah refers to this when he says: "Remember me, O my God, ... and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God" (Nehemiah 13:14). In the book of God's remembrance every deed of righteousness is immortalized. There every temptation resisted, every evil overcome, every word of tender pity expressed, is faithfully chronicled. And every act of sacrifice, every suffering and sorrow endured for Christ's sake, is recorded. Says the psalmist: "Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?" (Psalm 56:8)....
LHU	327	5	Every man's work passes in review before God and is registered for faithfulness or unfaithfulness. Opposite each name in the books of heaven is entered with terrible exactness every wrong word, every selfish act, every unfulfilled duty, and every secret sin....
LHU	327	6	The deepest interest manifested among men in the decisions of earthly tribunals but faintly represents the interest evinced in the heavenly courts when the names entered in the book of life come up in review before the Judge of all the earth. The divine Intercessor presents the plea that all who have overcome through faith in His blood be forgiven their transgressions, that they be restored to their Eden home, and crowned as joint heirs with Himself to "the first dominion" (Micah 4:8) (The Great Controversy, 480-484).
------------------------Enrolled in the Record Books of Heaven, November 10
LHU	328	1	Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints. Ephesians 2:19.
LHU	328	2	Those who closely connect with God may not be prosperous in the things of this life; they may often be sorely tried and afflicted. Joseph was maligned and persecuted because he preserved his virtue and integrity. David, that chosen messenger of God, was hunted like a beast of prey by his wicked enemies. Daniel was cast into a den of lions because he was true and unyielding in his allegiance to God. Job was deprived of his worldly possessions and so afflicted in body that he was abhorred by his relatives and friends, yet he preserved his integrity and faithfulness to God. Jeremiah would speak the words which God had put into his mouth, and his plain testimony so enraged the king and princes that he was cast into a loathsome pit. Stephen was stoned because he would preach Christ and Him crucified. Paul was imprisoned, beaten with rods, stoned, and finally put to death because he was a faithful messenger to carry the gospel to the Gentiles. The beloved John was banished to the Isle of Patmos "for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."
LHU	328	3	These examples of human steadfastness, in the might of divine power, are a witness to the world of the faithfulness of God's promises--of His abiding presence and sustaining grace. As the world looks upon these humble men, it cannot discern their moral value with God. It is a work of faith to calmly repose in God in the darkest hour--however severely tried and tempest-tossed, to feel that our Father is at the helm. The eye of faith alone can look beyond the things of time and sense to estimate the worth of eternal riches.
LHU	328	4	The great military commander conquers nations and shakes the armies of half the world, but he dies of disappointment and in exile. The philosopher who ranges through the universe, everywhere tracing the manifestations of God's power and delighting in their harmony, often fails to behold in these marvelous wonders the Hand that formed them all. "Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish." No hope of glorious immortality lights up the future of the enemies of God. But those heroes of faith have the promise of an inheritance of greater value than any earthly riches--an inheritance that will satisfy the longings of the soul. They may be unknown and unacknowledged of the world, but they are enrolled as citizens in the record books of heaven. An exalted greatness, an enduring, eternal weight of glory, will be the final reward of those whom God has made heirs of all things (Testimonies for the Church 4:525, 526).
------------------------The Sanctuary in Heaven, November 11
LHU	329	1	We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. Hebrews 8:1, 2, NIV.
LHU	329	2	The subject of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment should be clearly understood by the people of God. All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest. Otherwise it will be impossible for them to exercise the faith which is essential at this time or to occupy the position which God designs them to fill. Every individual has a soul to save or to lose. Each has a case pending at the bar of God. Each must meet the great Judge face-to-face....
LHU	329	3	The sanctuary in heaven is the very center of Christ's work in behalf of men. It concerns every soul living upon the earth. It opens to view the plan of redemption, bringing us down to the very close of time and revealing the triumphant issue of the contest between righteousness and sin. It is of the utmost importance that all should thoroughly investigate these subjects and be able to give an answer to everyone that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them.
LHU	329	4	The intercession of Christ in man's behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross. By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven. We must by faith enter within the veil, "whither the forerunner is for us entered" (Hebrews 6:20). There the light from the cross of Calvary is reflected. There we may gain a clearer insight into the mysteries of redemption. The salvation of man is accomplished at an infinite expense to heaven; the sacrifice made is equal to the broadest demands of the broken law of God. Jesus has opened the way to the Father's throne, and through His mediation the sincere desire of all who come to Him in faith may be presented before God.
LHU	329	5	"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). If those who hide and excuse their faults could see how Satan exults over them, how he taunts Christ and holy angels with their course, they would make haste to confess their sins and to put them away. Through defects in the character, Satan works to gain control of the whole mind, and he knows that if these defects are cherished, he will succeed. Therefore he is constantly seeking to deceive the followers of Christ with his fatal sophistry that it is impossible for them to overcome. But Jesus pleads in their behalf His wounded hands, His bruised body.... Let none, then, regard their defects as incurable. God will give faith and grace to overcome them (The Great Controversy, 488, 489).
------------------------Living in the Great Day of Atonement, November 12
LHU	330	1	On the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Leviticus 23:27.
LHU	330	2	We are now living in the great day of atonement. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin and humiliation before the Lord, lest they be cut off from among the people. In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the book of life should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart. The light, frivolous spirit indulged by so many professed Christians must be put away. There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery. The work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another. Though all nations are to pass in judgment before God, yet He will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being upon the earth. Everyone must be tested and found without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
LHU	330	3	Solemn are the scenes connected with the closing work of the atonement. Momentous are the interests involved therein. The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above. For many years this work has been in progress. Soon--none know how soon--it will pass to the cases of the living. In the awful presence of God our lives are to come up in review. At this time above all others it behooves every soul to heed the Saviour's admonition: "Watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is" (Mark 13:33). "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee" (Revelation 3:3).
LHU	330	4	When the work of the investigative judgment closes, the destiny of all will have been decided for life or death. Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven. Christ in the Revelation, looking forward to that time, declares: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Revelation 22:11, 12) (The Great Controversy, 489-491).
LHU	330	5	In the typical service the high priest, having made the atonement for Israel, came forth and blessed the congregation. So Christ, at the close of His work as mediator, will appear, "without sin unto salvation" (Hebrews 9:28), to bless His waiting people with eternal life (The Great Controversy, 485).
------------------------Faith in the Atonement, November 13
LHU	331	1	We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Hebrews 6:19, NIV.
LHU	331	2	When you begin to feel despondent, look unto Jesus, and commune with Him. When you think your brethren misunderstand you, remember that Jesus, your Elder Brother, never makes a mistake. He will judge righteously. The words of Christ uttered in the great day of the feast have a wonderful meaning and power. He lifted up His voice and said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." We are not to be driven to Christ. It is our part to come--to make our own choice, and come to the fountain of life. Why should we not come to Christ? for in Him our hope of eternal life is centered. The lessons that have come to us through Christ are not oft- repeated maxims; they are full of vital thought. But it is our part to appropriate divine truth. The apostle Paul exhorts us to lay hold on the hope set before us in the gospel. By faith we are to appropriate the promises of God, and to provide ourselves with the abundant blessings which have been secured for us through Christ Jesus. Hope has been set before us, even the hope of eternal life. Nothing short of this blessing for us will satisfy our Redeemer; but it is our part to lay hold upon this hope by faith in Him who has promised. We may expect to suffer; for it is those who are partakers with Him in His sufferings who shall be partakers with Him in His glory. He has purchased forgiveness and immortality for the sinful, perishing souls of men; but it is our part to receive these gifts by faith. Believing in Him, we have this hope as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast. We are to understand that we may confidently expect God's favor not only in this world, but in the heavenly world, since He paid such a price for our salvation. Faith in the atonement and intercession of Christ will keep us steadfast and immovable amid the temptations that press upon us in the church militant. Let us contemplate the glorious hope that is set before us, and by faith lay hold upon it....
LHU	331	3	We cannot find salvation in our own individual selves; we are to look unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith and as we look, we live.... How hard poor mortals strive to be sin-bearers for themselves and for others! but the only sin-bearer is Jesus Christ. He alone can be my substitute and sin-bearer. The forerunner of Christ exclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world".... Then take your eyes off yourself, and encourage hope and confidence in Christ. Let your hope not be centered in yourself, but in Him who has entered within the veil. Talk of the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ (The Review and Herald, June 9, 1896).
------------------------The Atonement--Our Foundation of Peace, November 14
LHU	332	1	Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27.
LHU	332	2	Jesus says, "My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." The peace spoken of by the great Teacher is larger and fuller than we have imagined. Christ is ready to do large things for us, to restore our natures by making us partakers of His divine nature. He waits to link our hearts with His heart of infinite love, in order that we may be fully reconciled to God; but it is our privilege to understand that God loves us as He loves His Son. When we believe in Christ as our personal Saviour, the peace of Christ is ours. The reconciliation provided for us in the atonement of Christ is the foundation of our peace; but gloomy feelings are no evidence that the promises of God are of no effect. You look at your feelings, and because your outlook is not all brightness, you begin to draw more closely the garment of heaviness about your soul. You look within yourself, and think that God is forsaking you. You are to look to Christ. In me, Christ says, ye shall have peace. Entering into communion with our Saviour, we enter the region of peace.
LHU	332	3	Satan is our destroyer, but Christ is our restorer. We must put faith into constant exercise, and trust in God, whatever our feelings may be. Isaiah says: "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." You can say with the psalmist, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." "Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord sent ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten." "Unto you therefore which believe He is precious." Consider the fact that the Lord has given His only begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (The Review and Herald, May 19, 1896).
------------------------Cling Closely to Jesus, November 15
LHU	333	1	If we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning. Hosea 6:3.
LHU	333	2	When Satan tells you that your sins are such that you need not expect any great victories in God, tell him the Bible teaches that those who love most are those who have been forgiven most. Do not try to lessen your guilt by excusing sin. You cannot come near to God by faith unless you realize your sinfulness. Then you can place yourselves right on the promises, and with unwavering faith can claim a share in the infinite sacrifice that has been made for the human race. Cling closely to Jesus, and His great heart of love will draw you unto Himself.
LHU	333	3	I cannot bear the thought that any should go away ... without having their faith greatly strengthened.... Every advance step they take must be a step of faith. If they have a religious experience that is rich in faith, one can chase a thousand, and two can put ten thousand to flight. But all the talents that they may possess, all the skill and eloquence that they may acquire, will effect nothing unless they are consecrated to God....
LHU	333	4	The apostle Paul desired that his brethren should be comforted with "the consolation wherewith he was comforted." The Christian finds constant comfort and strength in Jesus....
LHU	333	5	Let us have an eye single to the glory of God. Let us not allow anything to interpose between us and Him. "If we follow on to know the Lord," we shall know that "his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." If we are partakers of the divine nature, we shall reflect in life and character the image of our divine Lord. We cannot be indolent in seeking this perfection of character. We cannot yield passively to our surroundings, and think that others will do the work for us. "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." We must be workers together with God. Life must become to us a humble, earnest working out of salvation with fear and trembling; and then faith, hope, and love will abide in our hearts, giving us an earnest of the reward that awaits the overcomer.
LHU	333	6	A relentless and determined foe has prepared his wiles for every soul that is not braced for trial, and guarded by constant prayer and living faith. We cannot individually, or as a body, secure ourselves from his constant assaults; but in the strength of Jesus every temptation, every opposing influence, whether open or secret, may be successfully resisted. Remember that "your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." Therefore "be sober, be vigilant" (Historical Sketches, 135, 136).
------------------------Do Not Judge, November 16
LHU	334	1	Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Matthew 7:1, 2, NKJV.
LHU	334	2	I understand how the enemy is working, and I wish to say to every soul, "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." There are times when we have to take a decided stand, but in magnifying the Lord be sure that you do not condemn and make charges against others. It would cause all the powers of hell to rejoice if our people were to become divided.
LHU	334	3	The way has been preparing for contention and division. Some are in great danger of drifting into infidelity. Now let your study be to save these imperiled souls. I have sorrow, great sorrow, of heart, that they do not understand their bearings....
LHU	334	4	There is one thing you can do. You can see that you yourselves are in a condition of repentance. Your hearts need to be converted. The end is near; the time is short. Plead with God; clear the King's highway; and lift up the trailing standard on which is inscribed, "The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." As you advance step by step, proclaim, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
LHU	334	5	Moses declared, "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Sure this great nation is a wise and understanding people.... Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons and thy sons' sons" (Deuteronomy 4:5-9) (Letter 30, 1906).
LHU	334	6	And the Saviour has plainly said, "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged".... Who can stand before God and plead a faultless character, a blameless life? And how, then, dare any criticize and condemn their brethren? Those who themselves can hope for salvation only through the merits of Christ, who must seek forgiveness by virtue of His blood, are under the strongest obligation to exercise love, pity, and forgiveness toward their fellow sinners....
LHU	334	7	While you condemn others, the Lord condemns you.... May the Lord move upon the hearts of the individual members of the church, until His transforming grace shall be revealed in life and character. Then when you assemble together it will not be to criticize one another, but to talk of Jesus and His love (The Review and Herald, November 30, 1886).
------------------------The Only True Standard of Character, November 17
LHU	335	1	Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye? Matthew 7:3.
LHU	335	2	Even the sentence, "Thou that judgest does the same things," does not reach the magnitude of his sin who presumes to criticize and condemn his brother. Jesus said, "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"
LHU	335	3	His words describe one who is swift to discern a defect in others. When he thinks he has detected a flaw in the character of the life he is exceedingly zealous in trying to point it out; but Jesus declares that the very trait of character developed in doing this un-Christlike work is, in comparison with the fault criticized, as a beam in proportion to a mote. It is one's own lack of the spirit of forbearance and love that leads him to make a world of an atom. Those who have never experienced the contrition of an entire surrender to Christ do not in their life make manifest the softening influence of the Saviour's love. They misrepresent the gentle, courteous spirit of the gospel and wound precious souls, for whom Christ died....
LHU	335	4	Christ is the only true standard of character, and he who sets himself up as a standard for others is putting himself in the place of Christ. And since the Father "hath committed all judgment unto the Son" whoever presumes to judge the motives of others is again usurping the prerogative of the Son of God. These would-be judges and critics are placing themselves on the side of antichrist, "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."
LHU	335	5	The sin that leads to the most unhappy results is the cold, critical, unforgiving spirit that characterizes Pharisaism. When the religious experience is devoid of love, Jesus is not there; the sunshine of His presence is not there.... There may be a wonderful keenness of perception to discover the defects of others; but to everyone who indulges this spirit, Jesus says, "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye" (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 125, 126).
LHU	335	6	Not until you feel that you could sacrifice your own self-dignity, and even lay down your life in order to save an erring brother, have you cast the beam out of your own eye so that you are prepared to help your brother. Then you can approach him and touch his heart.... A tender spirit, a gentle, winning deportment, may save the erring and hide a multitude of sins. The revelation of Christ in your own character will have a transforming power upon all with whom you come in contact. Let Christ be daily made manifest in you, and He will reveal through you the creative energy of His word--a gentle, persuasive, yet mighty influence to re-create other souls in the beauty of the Lord our God (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 128, 129).
------------------------Truth the Basis of Character, November 18
LHU	336	1	Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11.
LHU	336	2	Those who study the Bible, counsel with God, and rely upon Christ will be enabled to act wisely at all times and under all circumstances. Good principles will be illustrated in actual life. Only let the truth for this time be cordially received and become the basis of character, and it will produce steadfastness of purpose, which the allurements of pleasure, the fickleness of custom, the contempt of the world-loving, and the heart's own clamors for self-indulgence are powerless to influence. Conscience must be first enlightened, the will must be brought into subjection. The love of truth and righteousness must reign in the soul, and a character will appear which heaven can approve.
LHU	336	3	We have marked illustrations of the sustaining power of firm, religious principle. Even the fear of death could not make the fainting David drink of the water of Bethlehem, to obtain which, valiant men had risked their lives. The gaping lions' den could not keep Daniel from his daily prayers, nor could the fiery furnace induce Shadrach and his companions to fall down before the idol which Nebuchadnezzar set up. Young men who have firm principles will eschew [shun] pleasure, defy pain, and brave even the lions' den and the heated fiery furnace rather than be found untrue to God. Mark the character of Joseph. Virtue was severely tested, but its triumph was complete.... The same lofty, unbending principle appeared at every trial. The Lord was with him, and His word was law.
LHU	336	4	Such firmness and untarnished principle shines brightest in contrast with the feebleness and inefficiency of the youth of this age....
LHU	336	5	The idea that we must submit to ways of perverse children is a mistake. Elisha, at the very commencement of his work, was mocked and derided by the youth of Bethel. He was a man of great mildness, but the Spirit of God impelled him to pronounce a curse upon those railers. They had heard of Elijah's ascension, and they made this solemn event the subject of jeers. Elisha evinced that he was not to be trifled with, by old or young, in his sacred calling. When they told him he had better go up, as Elijah had done before him, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. The awful judgment that came upon them was of God. After this, Elisha had no further trouble in his mission. For 50 years he passed in and out of the gate of Bethel, and went to and from city to city, passing through crowds of the worst and rudest of idle, dissolute youth, but no one ever mocked him or made light of his qualifications as the prophet of the Most High. This one instance of terrible severity in the commencement of his career was sufficient to command respect through his whole life (Testimonies for the Church 5:43, 44).
------------------------Christ Spoke as a Judge, November 19
LHU	337	1	O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Matthew 23:37.
LHU	337	2	Christ spoke as a judge to those before Him. His voice, that had so often been heard in gentleness and entreaty, was now heard in rebuke and condemnation. The listeners shuddered. Never was the impression made by His words and His look to be effaced.
LHU	337	3	Christ's indignation was directed against the hypocrisy, the gross sins, by which men were destroying their own souls, deceiving the people and dishonoring God. In the specious deceptive reasoning of the priests and rulers He discerned the working of satanic agencies. Keen and searching had been His denunciation of sin; but He spoke no words of retaliation. He had a holy wrath against the prince of darkness; but He manifested no irritated temper. So the Christian who lives in harmony with God, possessing the sweet attributes of love and mercy, will feel a righteous indignation against sin; but he will not be roused by passion to revile those who revile him. Even in meeting those who are moved by a power from beneath to maintain falsehood, in Christ he will still preserve calmness and self-possession.
LHU	337	4	Divine pity marked the countenance of the Son of God as He cast one lingering look upon the Temple and then upon His hearers. In a voice choked by deep anguish of heart and bitter tears He exclaimed, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" This is the separation struggle. In the lamentation of Christ the very heart of God is pouring itself forth....
LHU	337	5	Pharisees and Sadducees were alike silenced. Jesus summoned His disciples, and prepared to leave the Temple, not as one defeated and forced from the presence of His adversaries, but as one whose work was accomplished. He retired a victor from the contest.
LHU	337	6	The gems of truth that fell from Christ's lips on that eventful day were treasured in many hearts. For them new thoughts started into life, new aspirations were awakened, and a new history began. After the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, these persons came to the front, and fulfilled their divine commission with a wisdom and zeal corresponding to the greatness of the work. They bore a message that appealed to the hearts of men, weakening the old superstitions that had long dwarfed the lives of thousands. Before their testimony human theories and philosophies became as idle fables. Mighty were the results flowing from the words of the Saviour to that wondering, awestruck crowd in the Temple at Jerusalem (The Desire of Ages, 619, 620).
------------------------All Must Appear in the Judgment, November 20
LHU	338	1	But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Romans 14:10, NKJV.
LHU	338	2	We are nearing the end of time. Trials will be abundant from without, but let them not come from within the church. Let God's professed people deny self for the truth's sake, for Christ's sake. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ".... Everyone who truly loves God will have the spirit of Christ and a fervent love for his brethren. The more a person's heart is in communion with God, and the more his affections are centered in Christ, the less will he be disturbed by the roughness and hardships he meets in this life. Those who are growing up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus will become more and more like Christ in character, rising above the disposition to murmur and be discontented. They will despise to be faultfinders.
LHU	338	3	The church at this time should have the faith once delivered to the saints, which will enable them to say boldly: "God is mine helper"; "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." The Lord bids us arise and go forward. Whenever the church at any period have forsaken their sins, and believed and walked in the truth, they have been honored of God. There is in faith and humble obedience a power that the world cannot withstand. The order of God's providence in relation to His people is progression--continual advancement in the perfection of Christian character, in the way of holiness, rising higher and higher in the clear light and knowledge and love of God, to the very close of time. Oh! why are we ever learning only the first principles of the doctrine of Christ?
LHU	338	4	The Lord has rich blessings for the church if its members will seek earnestly to arouse from this perilous lukewarmness. A religion of vanity, words devoid of vitality, a character destitute of moral strength--these are pointed out in the solemn message addressed by the True Witness to the churches, warning them against pride, worldliness, formalism, and self- sufficiency.... But to the lowly, the suffering, the faithful, the patient, who are alive to their weakness and insufficiency, are given words of encouragement: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me"....
LHU	338	5	Our Lord delays because of His "longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." But when we, with all the redeemed, shall stand upon the sea of glass, with harps of gold and crowns of glory, and before us the immensity of eternity, then we shall see how short was the waiting period of probation. "Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching" (Luke 12:37) (Testimonies for the Church 5:483-485).
------------------------Faithful Mothers Honored in the Judgment, November 21
LHU	339	1	I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord. 1 Samuel 1:27, 28, NIV.
LHU	339	2	The fulfillment of Hannah's vow to dedicate her child to the Lord was not deferred until he could be presented at the tabernacle. From the earliest dawn of intellect she trained his infant mind to love and reverence God, and to regard himself as the Lord's. By every familiar object surrounding him she sought to lead his thoughts up to the Creator.
LHU	339	3	When separated from her child, the faithful mother's solicitude did not cease. He was the subject of her prayers....
LHU	339	4	Would that every mother could realize how great are her duties and her responsibilities, and how great will be the reward of faithfulness. The mother's daily influence upon her children is preparing them for everlasting life or eternal death. She exercises in her home a power more decisive than the minister in the desk, or even the king upon his throne. The day of God will reveal how much the world owes to godly mothers for men who have been unflinching advocates of truth and reform--men who have been bold to do and dare, who have stood unshaken amid trials and temptations; men who chose the high and holy interests of truth and the glory of God, before worldly honor or life itself.
LHU	339	5	When the judgment shall sit, and the books shall be opened; when the "well done" of the great Judge is pronounced, and the crown of immortal glory is placed upon the brow of the victor, many will raise their crowns in sight of the assembled universe, and pointing to their mother say, "She made me all I am through the grace of God. Her instruction, her prayers, have been blessed to my eternal salvation."...
LHU	339	6	God has ordained that with families and nations or with individuals, virtue is the basis of happiness....
LHU	339	7	By the thoughts and feelings cherished in early years, every youth is determining his own life history. Correct, virtuous, manly habits formed in youth will become a part of the character, and will usually mark the course of the individual through life. The youth may become vicious or virtuous, as they choose....
LHU	339	8	Young men of today may become as precious in the sight of the Lord as was Samuel. They may have their names enrolled in the book of life, to be looked upon with pleasure by the Monarch of the Universe and the angelic host. By faithfully maintaining their Christian integrity, the young may, like the noble Luther, exert a mighty influence in the work of reform. Such men are needed at this time. God has a position and a work for every one of them (The Signs of the Times, November 3, 1881).
------------------------Choose Christ for Yourself, November 22
LHU	340	1	Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Joshua 24:15, NIV.
LHU	340	2	To effect the salvation of men, God employs various agencies. He speaks to them by His Word and by His ministers, and He sends by the Holy Spirit messages of warning, reproof, and instruction. These means are designed to enlighten the understanding of the people, to reveal to them their duty and their sins, and the blessings which they may receive; to awaken in them a sense of spiritual want, that they may go to Christ and find in Him the grace they need. But many choose to follow their own way instead of God's way. They are not reconciled to God, neither can be, until self is crucified and Christ lives in the heart by faith.
LHU	340	3	Every individual, by his own act, either puts Christ from him by refusing to cherish His spirit and follow His example, or he enters into a personal union with Christ by self-renunciation, faith, and obedience. We must, each for himself, choose Christ, because He has first chosen us. This union with Christ is to be formed by those who are naturally at enmity with Him. It is a relation of utter dependence, to be entered into by a proud heart. This is close work, and many who profess to be followers of Christ know nothing of it. They nominally accept the Saviour, but not as the sole ruler of their hearts.
LHU	340	4	Some feel their need of the atonement, and with the recognition of this need, and the desire for a change of heart, a struggle begins. To renounce their own will, perhaps their chosen objects of affection or pursuit, requires an effort, at which many hesitate and falter and turn back. Yet this battle must be fought by every heart that is truly converted. We must war against temptations without and within. We must gain the victory over self, crucify the affections and lusts; and then begins the union of the soul with Christ. As the dry and apparently lifeless branch is grafted into the living tree, so may we become living branches of the True Vine. And the fruit which was borne by Christ will be borne by all His followers. After this union is formed, it can be preserved only by continual, earnest, painstaking effort. Christ exercises His power to preserve and guard this sacred tie, and the dependent, helpless sinner must act his part with untiring energy....
LHU	340	5	Every Christian must stand on guard continually, watching every avenue of the soul where Satan might find access. He must pray for divine help and at the same time resolutely resist every inclination to sin. By courage, by faith, by persevering toil, he can conquer. But let him remember that to gain the victory Christ must abide in him and he in Christ.... It is only by personal union with Christ, by communion with Him daily, hourly, that we can bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Testimonies for the Church 5:46-48).
------------------------To be a Christian is to be Christlike, November 23
LHU	341	1	Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; he who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Psalm 24:3, 4.
LHU	341	2	What is it to be a Christian? It is to be Christlike; it is to do the works of Christ. Some fail on one point, some on another. Some are naturally impatient. Satan understands their weakness, and manages to overcome them again and again. But let none be discouraged by this. Whenever little annoyances and trials arise, ask God in silent prayer to give you strength and grace to bear them patiently. There is a power in silence; do not speak a word until you have sent up your petition to the God of heaven. If you will always do this, you will soon overcome your hasty temper, and you will have a little heaven here to go to heaven in.
LHU	341	3	God wants His people to cleanse their hands and purify their hearts. Will it make them unhappy to do this? Will it bring unhappiness into their families if they are kind and patient, courteous and forbearing? Far from it. The kindness they manifest toward their families will be reflected upon themselves. This is the work that should be carried forward in the home. If the members of the family are not prepared to dwell in peace here, they are not prepared to dwell in the family that shall gather around the great white throne. Sin always brings darkness and bondage; but right-doing will bring peace and holy joy....
LHU	341	4	In the day of affliction, when the enemy presses us, we shall walk among the angels. They will be like a wall of fire about us; and we shall one day walk with them in the city of God....
LHU	341	5	There has never been a time when the people of God have had greater need to claim His promises than now. Let the hand of faith pass through the darkness, and grasp the arm of infinite power. While we speak of the necessity of separating from sin, remember that Christ came to our world to save sinners, and that "he is able to also save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him." It is our privilege to believe that His blood is able to cleanse us from every spot and stain of sin. We must not limit the power of the Holy One of Israel. He wants us to come to Him just as we are, sinful and polluted. His blood is efficacious. I entreat you not to grieve His Spirit by continuing in sin. If you fall under temptation, do not become discouraged. This promise comes ringing down along the line to our time: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." I feel that for this one promise a continual song of thanksgiving ought to go forth from the lips of mortals. Let us gather up these precious jewels of promise, and when Satan accuses us of our great sinfulness, and tempts us to doubt the power of God to save, let us repeat the words of Christ, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (Historical Sketches, 157, 158).
------------------------The Standard of Character in the Judgment, November 24
LHU	342	1	As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified). Romans 2:12, 13.
LHU	342	2	Those who had accepted the light concerning the mediation of Christ and the perpetuity of the law of God found that these were the truths presented in Revelation 14. The messages of this chapter constitute a threefold warning which is to prepare the inhabitants of the earth for the Lord's second coming. The announcement, "The hour of his judgment is come," points to the closing work of Christ's ministration for the salvation of men. It heralds a truth which must be proclaimed until the Saviour's intercession shall cease and He shall return to the earth to take His people to Himself. The work of judgment which began in 1844 must continue until the cases of all are decided, both of the living and the dead; hence it will extend to the close of human probation. That men may be prepared to stand in the judgment, the message commands them to "fear God, and give glory to him," "and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." The result of an acceptance of these messages is given in the Word: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." In order to be prepared for the judgment, it is necessary that men should keep the law of God. That law will be the standard of character in the judgment. The apostle Paul declares: "As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law, ... in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." And he says that "the doers of the law shall be justified" (Romans 2:12-16). Faith is essential in order to the keeping of the law of God; for "without faith it is impossible to please him." And "whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Hebrews 11:6; Romans 14:23).
LHU	342	3	By the first angel, men are called upon to "fear God, and give glory to him" and to worship Him as the Creator of the heavens and the earth. In order to do this, they must obey His law. Says the wise man: "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Without obedience to His commandments no worship can be pleasing to God. "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination" (The Great Controversy, 435, 436).
LHU	342	4	The question of deepest interest to each one should be, Am I meeting the requirements of the law of God? ... Only by a close examination of self in the light of God's Word can we discover our deviations from His holy rule of right.... In Him we may have pardon for past failures, and in His strength grow up to be perfect men and women in Christ Jesus (Youth's Instructor, June 10, 1897).
------------------------The Crown of Life, November 25
LHU	343	1	There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8.
LHU	343	2	Paul kept ever in view the crown of life which was to be given to him, and not to him only, but also to all those who love Christ's appearing. But it was victory through Jesus Christ that made the crown of life so desirable to him. Jesus would not have us ambitious to obtain reward, but ambitious to do God's will because it is His will, irrespective of the reward we are to receive.
LHU	343	3	The gift of God is eternal life. The Lord desires all who receive His grace to trust entirely in Him. He calls upon us to exercise pure, simple faith, trusting in Him, without a question as to what recompense we shall receive. We are to work heartily in His service, showing that we have perfect confidence that He will judge righteously.
LHU	343	4	In the account of the judgment scene, when the reward is given to the righteous, and sentence is passed on the wicked, the righteous are represented as wondering what they have done that they should receive such reward. But they cherished an abiding faith in Christ. They were imbued with His Spirit, and, without conscious effort, they performed for Christ, in the person of His saints, those services that bring a sure reward. But their motive in working was not to receive compensation. They regarded it as the highest honor to be allowed to work as Christ worked. What they did was done from love to Christ and to their fellowmen, and He who has identified Himself with suffering humanity accredited these acts of compassion and love as though done to Himself....
LHU	343	5	Our every endowment, our every talent, we owe to the Lord. Every victory gained is gained through His grace. Therefore, it is entirely out of place for us to boast....
LHU	343	6	If we would remember that we are on test and trial before the heavenly universe, that God is proving us, to see what spirit we are of, there would be more serious contemplation, more earnest prayer. Those who work in simplicity realize that of himself man can do no good thing. They are full of gratitude and thanksgiving for the privilege of holding communion with God. Interwoven with their service is a principle that makes their gifts and offerings wholly fragrant. They have the same confidence and trust in God that a child has in its earthly father.
LHU	343	7	It is not so much for our activity and zeal that we are rewarded, but for the tenderness, the graciousness, the love that we have mingled with our work for the sick, the oppressed, the afflicted (The Signs of the Times, August 9, 1899).
------------------------When Christ Comes His Reward is with Him, November 26
LHU	344	1	Judge me, O Lord my God, according to thy righteousness. Psalm 35:24.
LHU	344	2	When the king came in to view the guests, the real character of all was revealed. For every guest at the feast there had been provided a wedding garment. This garment was a gift from the king. By wearing it the guests showed their respect for the giver of the feast. But one man was clothed in his common citizen dress. He had refused to make the preparation required by the king. The garment provided for him at great cost he disdained to wear. Thus he insulted his lord. To the king's demand, "How camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?" he could answer nothing. He was self-condemned. Then the king said, "Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness."
LHU	344	3	By the king's examination of the guests at the feast is represented a work of judgment. The guests at the gospel feast are those who profess to serve God, those whose names are written in the book of life. But not all who profess to be Christians are true disciples. Before the final reward is given, it must be decided who are fitted to share the inheritance of the righteous. This decision must be made prior to the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven; for when He comes, His reward is with Him, "to give every man according as his work shall be." Before His coming, then, the character of every man's work will have been determined, and to every one of Christ's followers the reward will have been apportioned according to his deeds.
LHU	344	4	It is while men are still dwelling upon the earth that the work of investigative judgment takes place in the courts of heaven. The lives of all His professed followers pass in review before God. All are examined according to the record of the books of heaven, and according to his deeds the destiny of each is forever fixed.
LHU	344	5	By the wedding garment in the parable is represented the pure, spotless character which Christ's true followers will possess. To the church it is given "that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white," "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." The fine linen, says the Scripture, "is the righteousness of saints." It is the righteousness of Christ, His own unblemished character, that through faith is imparted to all who receive Him as their personal Saviour.... This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul (Christ's Object Lessons, 309-311).
------------------------Our Merciful and Faithful High Priest, November 27
LHU	345	1	Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Hebrews 9:12.
LHU	345	2	As the sin bearer, and priest and representative of man before God, He entered into the life of humanity, bearing our flesh and blood. The life is in the living, vital current of blood, which blood was given for the life of the world. Christ made a full atonement, giving His life as a ransom for us. He was born without a taint of sin, but came into the world in like manner as the human family. He did not have a mere semblance of a body, but He took human nature, participating in the life of humanity....
LHU	345	3	Jesus Christ laid off His royal robe, His kingly crown, and clothed His divinity with humanity, in order to become a substitute and surety for humanity, that dying in humanity He might by his death destroy him who had the power of death. He could not have done this as God, but by coming as man Christ could die. By death He overcame death. The death of Christ bore to the death him who had the power of death, and opened the gates of the tomb for all who receive Him as their personal Saviour.
LHU	345	4	Christ proclaimed over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, "I am the resurrection, and the life." He, the world's Redeemer, has bruised the serpent's head, depriving him of all power ever to make men feel his scorpion sting; for He has brought life and immortality to light. The gates of eternal life are thrown open to all who believe on Jesus Christ.... In dying, Jesus has made it impossible for those who believe on Him to die eternally....
LHU	345	5	Christ lived and died as a man, that He might be God both of the living and of the dead. It was to make it impossible for men to lose eternal life if they believe on Him. The life of men and women is precious in the sight of God; for Christ has purchased that life by being executed in their stead. Thus He made it possible for us to attain to immortality.
LHU	345	6	In Christ were united the divine and the human--the Creator and the creature. The nature of God, whose law had been transgressed, and the nature of Adam, the transgressor, meet in Jesus--the Son of God, and the Son of man. And having with His own blood paid the price of redemption, having passed through man's experience, having in man's behalf met and conquered temptation, having, though Himself sinless, borne the shame and guilt and burden of sin, He becomes man's Advocate and Intercessor. What an assurance here to the tempted and struggling soul, what an assurance to the witnessing universe, that Christ will be "a merciful and faithful high priest"! (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White comments, vol. 7, 925, 926).
------------------------At the Day of Judgment, November 28
LHU	346	1	He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. Luke 16:10.
LHU	346	2	It is conscientious attention to what the world terms "little things" that makes life a success. Little deeds of charity, little acts of self-denial, speaking simple words of helpfulness, watching against little sins--this is Christianity. A grateful acknowledgment of daily blessings, a wise improvement of daily opportunities, a diligent cultivation of intrusted talents--this is what the Master calls for.
LHU	346	3	He who faithfully performs small duties will be prepared to answer the demands of larger responsibilities. The man who is kind and courteous in the daily life, who is generous and forbearing in his family, whose constant aim it is to make home happy, will be the first to deny self and make sacrifices when the Master calls....
LHU	346	4	The longest journey is performed by taking one step at a time. A succession of steps brings us to the end of the road. The longest chain is composed of separate links. If one of these links is faulty, the chain is worthless. Thus it is with character. A well-balanced character is formed by single acts well performed. One defect, cultivated instead of being overcome, makes the man imperfect, and closes against him the gate of the Holy City. He who enters heaven must have a character that is without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Naught that defileth can ever enter there. In all the redeemed host not one defect will be seen.
LHU	346	5	God's work is perfect as a whole because it is perfect in every part, however minute. He fashions the tiny spear of grass with as much care as He would exercise in making a world....
LHU	346	6	That which is worth doing at all is worth doing well. Whatever your work may be, do it faithfully. Speak the truth in regard to the smallest matters. Each day do loving deeds and speak cheerful words. Scatter smiles along the pathway of life. As you work in this way, God will place His approval on you, and Christ will one day say to you, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
LHU	346	7	At the day of judgment, those who have been faithful in their everyday life, who have been quick to see their work and do it, not thinking of praise or profit, will hear the words, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Christ does not commend them for the eloquent orations they have made, the intellectual power they have displayed, or the liberal donations they have given. It is for doing little things which are generally overlooked that they are rewarded. "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat," He says. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Youth's Instructor, January 17, 1901).
------------------------Those Written in the Book of Life, November 29
LHU	347	1	There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. Daniel 12:1.
LHU	347	2	As we approach the perils of the last days, the temptations of the enemy become stronger and more determined. Satan has come down in great power, knowing that his time is short; and he is working "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." The warning comes to us through God's Word, that, if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect.
LHU	347	3	Wonderful events are soon to open before the world. The end of all things is at hand. The time of trouble is about to come upon the people of God. Then it is that the decree will go forth forbidding those who keep the Sabbath of the Lord to buy or sell, and threatening them with punishment, and even death, if they do not observe the first day of the week as the Sabbath.
LHU	347	4	"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." By this we see the importance of having our names written in the book of life. All whose names are registered there will be delivered from Satan's power, and Christ will command that their filthy garments be removed, and that they be clothed with His righteousness. "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."
LHU	347	5	In the time of trouble, Satan stirs up the wicked, and they encircle the people of God to destroy them. But he does not know that "pardon" has been written opposite their names in the books of heaven. He does not know that the command has been given, "Take away the filthy garments" from them, clothe them with "change of raiment," and set "a fair mitre" upon their heads.
LHU	347	6	The promise made to Joshua is made to all the remnant people of God: "if thou wilt walk in my ways [not in your own ways], and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by." Who are these that stand by? They are the angels of God. Could our eyes be opened, as were those of the servant of Elisha at Dothan, we should see evil angels all around us, urging their presence upon us, and watching for an opportunity to tempt and overthrow us; we should also see holy angels guarding us, and with their light and power pressing back the evil angels (Historical Sketches, 155, 156).
------------------------All Judgment to the Son, November 30
LHU	348	1	For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. John 5:26, 27.
LHU	348	2	To His Son the Father has committed all judgment. Christ will declare the reward of loyalty. "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.... And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." Christ accepted humanity and lived on this earth a pure, sanctified life. For this reason He has received the appointment of judge. He who occupies the position of judge is God manifest in the flesh. What a joy it will be to recognize in Him our Teacher and Redeemer, bearing still the marks of the crucifixion, from which shine beams of glory, giving additional value to the crowns which the redeemed receive from His hands, the very hands outstretched in blessing over His disciples as He ascended. The very voice which said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," bids His ransomed ones welcome to His presence. The very One who gave His precious life for them, who by His grace moved their hearts to repentance, who awakened them to their need of repentance, receives them now into His joy. Oh, how they love Him! The realization of their hope is infinitely greater than their expectation. Their joy is complete, and they take their glittering crowns and cast them at their Redeemer's feet....
LHU	348	3	The judgment will be conducted in accordance with the rules God has laid down. By the law which men are now called upon to obey, but which many refuse to accept, all will be judged. As by it character is tested, every man will find his proper place in one of two classes. He will either be holy to the Lord through obedience to His law, or be stained with sin through transgression.... He will place the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left. Then men and women will see that their course of action has decided their destiny (The Review and Herald, June 18, 1901).
LHU	348	4	To Christ has been committed all judgment, because He is the Son of man. Nothing escapes His knowledge. However high the rank and great the power of spiritual apostates, One higher and greater has borne the sin of the whole world. He is infinite in righteousness, in goodness, and in truth. He has power to withstand principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. Armed and equipped as the Captain of the Lord's host, He comes to the front in defense of His people. His righteousness covers all who love and trust Him. The General of armies, He leads out the heavenly host to stand as a wall of fire about His people. He alone is the judge of their righteousness, for He created them, and at infinite cost to Himself redeemed them. He will see that obedience to God's commandments is rewarded (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 5, 1134).
------------------------The King is Coming, December 1
LHU	349	1	And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Luke 21:28.
LHU	349	2	Christ had bidden His people watch for the signs of His advent and rejoice as they should behold the tokens of their coming King. "When these things begin to come to pass," He said, "then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." He pointed His followers to the budding trees of spring, and said: "When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand" (Luke 21:28, 30, 31).
LHU	349	3	But as the spirit of humility and devotion in the church had given place to pride and formalism, love for Christ and faith in His coming had grown cold. Absorbed in worldliness and pleasure seeking, the professed people of God were blinded to the Saviour's instructions concerning the signs of His appearing. The doctrine of the Second Advent had been neglected; the scriptures relating to it were obscured by misinterpretation, until it was, to a great extent, ignored and forgotten. Especially was this the case in the churches of America. The freedom and comfort enjoyed by all classes of society, the ambitious desire for wealth and luxury, begetting an absorbing devotion to money-making, the eager rush for popularity and power, which seemed to be within the reach of all, led men to center their interests and hopes on the things of this life, and to put far in the future that solemn day when the present order of things should pass away.
LHU	349	4	When the Saviour pointed out to His followers the signs of His return, He foretold the state of backsliding that would exist just prior to His second advent. There would be, as in the days of Noah, the activity and stir of worldly business and pleasure seeking--buying, selling, planting, building, marrying, and giving in marriage--with forgetfulness of God and the future life. For those living at this time, Christ's admonition is: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares." "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:34, 36) (The Great Controversy, 308, 309).
LHU	349	5	We are to contend most earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.... We are now to unify, and ... prepare the way for our coming King. Let us increase in a knowledge of the truth, and render all excellence and glory due to Him who is one with the Father. Let us seek most earnestly for the heavenly anointing, the Holy Spirit (Medical Ministry, 22).
------------------------Enoch and the Second Coming of Christ, December 2
LHU	350	1	And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied ... saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all. Jude 14, 15.
LHU	350	2	The pure and lovely Garden of Eden, from which our first parents were driven, remained until God purposed to destroy the earth by a flood. God had planted that garden and specially blessed it, and in His wonderful providence He withdrew it from the earth, and will return it to the earth again more gloriously adorned than before it was removed from the earth. God purposed to preserve a specimen of His perfect work of creation free from the curse wherewith He had cursed the earth.
LHU	350	3	The Lord opened more fully to Enoch the plan of salvation, and by the Spirit of prophecy carried him down through the generations which should live after the Flood, and showed him the great events connected with the second coming of Christ and the end of the world (Jude 14).
LHU	350	4	Enoch was troubled in regard to the dead. It seemed to him that the righteous and the wicked would go to the dust together, and that would be their end. He could not clearly see the life of the just beyond the grave. In prophetic vision he was instructed in regard to the Son of God, who was to die man's sacrifice, and was shown the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, attended by the angelic host, to give life to the righteous dead and ransom them from their graves. He also saw the corrupt state of the world at the time when Christ should appear the second time--that there would be a boastful, presumptuous, self-willed generation arrayed in rebellion against the law of God and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and trampling upon His blood and despising His atonement. He saw the righteous crowned with glory and honor while the wicked were separated from the presence of the Lord and consumed with fire....
LHU	350	5	Enoch continued to grow more heavenly while communing with God. His face was radiant with a holy light which would remain upon his countenance while instructing those who would hear his words of wisdom. His heavenly and dignified appearance struck the people with awe. The Lord loved Enoch because he steadfastly followed Him and abhorred iniquity and earnestly sought heavenly knowledge, that he might do His will perfectly. He yearned to unite himself still more closely to God, whom he feared, reverenced, and adored. God would not permit Enoch to die as other men, but sent His angels to take him to heaven without seeing death. In the presence of the righteous and the wicked, Enoch was removed from them. Those who loved him thought that God might have left him in some of his places of retirement, but after seeking him diligently, and being unable to find him, reported that he was not, for God took him (The Story of Redemption, 58, 59).
------------------------Arouse to Action, December 3
LHU	351	1	Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Luke 21:36.
LHU	351	2	I was shown our danger, as a people, of becoming assimilated to the world rather than to the image of Christ. We are now upon the very borders of the eternal world, but it is the purpose of the adversary of souls to lead us to put far off the close of time. Satan will in every conceivable manner assail those who profess to be the commandment-keeping people of God and to be waiting for the second appearing of our Saviour in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. He will lead as many as possible to put off the evil day and become in spirit like the world, imitating its customs. I felt alarmed as I saw that the spirit of the world was controlling the hearts and minds of many who make a high profession of the truth. Selfishness and self-indulgence are cherished by them, but true godliness and sterling integrity are not cultivated.
LHU	351	3	The angel of God pointed to those who profess the truth, and in a solemn voice repeated these words: "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man."
LHU	351	4	In consideration of the shortness of time we as a people should watch and pray, and in no case allow ourselves to be diverted from the solemn work of preparation for the great event before us. Because the time is apparently extended, many have become careless and indifferent in regard to their words and actions. They do not realize their danger and do not see and understand the mercy of our God in lengthening their probation, that they may have time to form characters for the future, immortal life. Every moment is of the highest value. Time is granted them, not to be employed in studying their own ease and becoming dwellers on the earth, but to be used in the work of overcoming every defect in their own characters and in helping others, by example and personal effort, to see the beauty of holiness. God has a people upon the earth who in faith and holy hope are tracing down the roll of fast-fulfilling prophecy and are seeking to purify their souls by obeying the truth, that they may not be found without the wedding garment when Christ shall appear.... The signs foretold in prophecy are fast fulfilling around us. This should arouse every true follower of Christ to zealous action (Testimonies for the Church 4:306, 307).
------------------------To All the World, December 4
LHU	352	1	And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15.
LHU	352	2	The light that God has given His people is not to be shut up within the churches that already know the truth. It is to be shed abroad into the dark places of the earth. Those who walk in the light as Christ is in the light will cooperate with the Saviour by revealing to others what He has revealed to them. It is God's purpose that the truth for this time shall be made known to every kindred and nation and tongue and people. In the world today men and women are absorbed in the search for worldly gain and worldly pleasure. There are thousands upon thousands who give no time or thought to the salvation of the soul. The time has come when the message of Christ's soon coming is to sound throughout the world.
LHU	352	3	Unmistakable evidences point to the nearness of the end. The warning is to be given in certain tones. The way must be prepared for the coming of the Prince of Peace in the clouds of heaven. There is much to be done in the cities that have not yet heard the truth for this time. We are not to establish institutions to rival in size and splendor the institutions of the world; but in the name of the Lord, with the untiring perseverance and unflagging zeal that Christ brought into His labors, we are to carry forward the work of the Lord.
LHU	352	4	As a people we greatly need to humble our hearts before God, pleading His forgiveness for our neglect to fulfill the gospel commission. We have made large centers in a few places, leaving unworked many important cities. Let us now take up the work appointed us and proclaim the message that is to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger....
LHU	352	5	Everything in the universe calls upon those who know the truth to consecrate themselves unreservedly to the proclamation of the truth as it has been made known to them in the third angel's message. That which we see and hear calls us to our duty. The working of satanic agencies calls every Christian to stand in his lot....
LHU	352	6	Men and women are needed whose hearts are touched with human suffering and whose lives give evidence that they are receiving and imparting light and life and grace.
LHU	352	7	The people of God are to come close to Christ in self-denial and sacrifice, their one aim being to give the message of mercy to all the world. Some will work in one way and some in another, as the Lord shall call and lead them. But they are all to strive together, seeking to make the work a perfect whole. With pen and voice they are to labor for Him. The printed word of truth is to be translated into different languages and carried to the ends of the earth.... Every believer, educated or uneducated, can bear the message (Testimonies for the Church 9:24-26).
------------------------We Are Capable of Better Things, December 5
LHU	353	1	For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6.
LHU	353	2	Society today is fast approaching the condition of the world before the Flood. As children grow up to youth, and youth to manhood and womanhood, they are becoming full of self-sufficiency, maturing rapidly in the knowledge of evil.... The youth of today are educated in crime by reading the stories which fill the popular publications. Having no regard for the right because it is right, as they read stories of theft, murder, and every other species of crime, they are led to devise means by which they could improve upon the criminals' methods, and escape detection. Foul publications assist in perfecting the education of the youth in the way that leads to perdition. The youth of our cities breathe in the tainted, polluted atmosphere of crime; the evil influence is then communicated to the country, and the whole community becomes contaminated. Some of the rulers of the earth are not men of moral worth. They have no desire to check the publication of this foul literature which is increasing year by year, and which feeds the passion for crime and evil. Stories of criminal life such as are found in the papers of the day, and so-called revelations of the future, are treated as realities.... Christ saw the conflict that is approaching, and has sent us word to watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation. He has warned us that "as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.... Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed."
LHU	353	3	We are not warned against properly participating in business transactions, but against carrying to excess that which is lawful in itself, against allowing our minds to be so absorbed in earthly things that we shall not discern the important things that concern our eternal interest. We are warned against indulging perverted appetite, against surfeiting and drunkenness....
LHU	353	4	But even in the corrupt condition in which the society of today is, there are souls capable of better things--souls represented by Christ under the symbol of "the lost pearl." Christ gave up everything, that he might seek and save that which was lost, that He might recover the pearl that He valued at infinite cost. What are we ready to do to cooperate with Him in this work? What sacrifice are we ready to make? ...
LHU	353	5	When we consider that Christ died for the ungodly while they were yet sinners, we are led to realize how willing and even anxious He is to bless us, that we may be a blessing to others (The Review and Herald, April 21, 1896).
------------------------Redeeming the Time, December 6
LHU	354	1	Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, ... redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:14-16.
LHU	354	2	We are living in the most solemn period of this world's history. The destiny of earth's teeming multitudes is about to be decided.... We need to be guided by the Spirit of truth....
LHU	354	3	Many are deceived as to their true condition before God. They congratulate themselves upon the wrong acts which they do not commit, and forget to enumerate the good and noble deeds which God requires of them, but which they have neglected to perform. It is not enough that they are trees in the garden of God. They are to answer His expectation by bearing fruit. He holds them accountable for their failure to accomplish all the good which they could have done, through His grace strengthening them. In the books of heaven they are registered as cumberers of the ground. Yet the case of even this class is not utterly hopeless. With those who have slighted God's mercy and abused His grace, the heart of long-suffering love yet pleads. "Wherefore ... awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, ... redeeming the time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:14-16).
LHU	354	4	When the testing time shall come, those who have made God's Word their rule of life will be revealed. In summer there is no noticeable difference between evergreens and other trees; but when the blasts of winter come, the evergreens remain unchanged, while other trees are stripped of their foliage. So the falsehearted professor may not now be distinguished from the real Christian, but the time is just upon us when the difference will be apparent. Let opposition arise, let bigotry and intolerance again bear sway, let persecution be kindled, and the halfhearted and hypocritical will waver and yield the faith; but the true Christian will stand firm as a rock, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, than in days of prosperity.
LHU	354	5	Says the psalmist: "Thy testimonies are my meditation." "Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way" (Psalm 119:99, 104).
LHU	354	6	"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom." "He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit" (Proverbs 3:13; Jeremiah 17:8) (The Great Controversy, 601, 602).
LHU	354	7	Not by its name, but by its fruit, is the value of a tree determined (The Desire of Ages, 107).
------------------------Steadfast Unto the End, December 7
LHU	355	1	Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. 2 Peter 3:14.
LHU	355	2	Looking down through the ages to the close of time, Peter was inspired to outline conditions that would exist in the world just prior to the second coming of Christ. "There shall come in the last days scoffers," he wrote, "walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." But "when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them" (1 Thessalonians 5:3). Not all, however, would be ensnared by the enemy's devices. As the end of all things earthly should approach, there would be faithful ones able to discern the signs of the times.... There would be a remnant who would endure to the end.
LHU	355	3	Peter kept alive in his heart the hope of Christ's return, and he assured the church of the certain fulfillment of the Saviour's promise, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself" (John 14:3). To the tried and faithful ones the coming might seem long delayed, but the apostle assured them: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
LHU	355	4	"Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
LHU	355	5	"Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you.... Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:9-18) (The Acts of the Apostles, 535-537).
------------------------The Last Crisis, December 8
LHU	356	1	Justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Isaiah 59:14.
LHU	356	2	We are living in the time of the end. The fast-fulfilling signs of the times declare that the coming of Christ is near at hand. The days in which we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth. Plagues and judgments are already falling upon the despisers of the grace of God. The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society, the alarms of war, are portentous. They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude.
LHU	356	3	The agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones.
LHU	356	4	The condition of things in the world shows that troublous times are right upon us. The daily papers are full of indications of a terrible conflict in the near future. Bold robberies are of frequent occurrence. Strikes are common. Thefts and murders are committed on every hand. Men possessed of demons are taking the lives of men, women, and little children. Men have become infatuated with vice, and every species of evil prevails.
LHU	356	5	The enemy has succeeded in perverting justice and in filling men's hearts with the desire for selfish gain. "Justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." In the great cities there are multitudes living in poverty and wretchedness, well-nigh destitute of food, shelter, and clothing; while in the same cities are those who have more than heart could wish, who live luxuriously, spending their money on richly furnished houses, on personal adornment, or worse still, upon the gratification of sensual appetites, upon liquor, tobacco, and other things that destroy the powers of the brain, unbalance the mind, and debase the soul. The cries of starving humanity are coming up before God, while by every species of oppression and extortion men are piling up colossal fortunes (Testimonies for the Church 9:11, 12).
LHU	356	6	The Scriptures describe the condition of the world just before Christ's second coming (Testimonies for the Church 9:13).
LHU	356	7	Fearful tests and trials await the people of God. The spirit of war is stirring the nations from one end of the earth to the other. But in the midst of the time of trouble that is coming--a time of trouble such as has not been since there was a nation--God's chosen people will stand unmoved. Satan and his host cannot destroy them, for angels that excel in strength will protect them (Testimonies for the Church 9:17).
------------------------Called to be Witnesses, December 9
LHU	357	1	Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16.
LHU	357	2	In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light bearers. To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the Word of God. They have been given a work of the most solemn import--the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels' messages. There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention.
LHU	357	3	The most solemn truths ever entrusted to mortals have been given us to proclaim to the world. The proclamation of these truths is to be our work. The world is to be warned, and God's people are to be true to the trust committed to them. They are not to engage in speculation, neither are they to enter into business enterprises with unbelievers; for this would hinder them in their God-given work.
LHU	357	4	Christ says of His people: "Ye are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14). It is not a small matter that the counsels and plans of God have been so clearly opened to us. It is a wonderful privilege to be able to understand the will of God as revealed in the sure word of prophecy. This places on us a heavy responsibility. God expects us to impart to others the knowledge that He has given us. It is His purpose that divine and human instrumentalities shall unite in the proclamation of the warning message.
LHU	357	5	So far as his opportunities extend, everyone who has received the light of truth is under the same responsibility as was the prophet of Israel to whom came the word: "Son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word of my mouth, and warn them from me" (Ezekiel 33:7)....
LHU	357	6	In clear, distinct rays light has come to us, showing us that the great day of the Lord is near at hand, "even at the doors." Let us read and understand before it is too late.
LHU	357	7	We are to be consecrated channels, through which the heavenly life is to flow to others. The Holy Spirit is to animate and pervade the whole church, purifying and cementing hearts. Those who have been buried with Christ in baptism are to rise to newness of life.... Upon us is laid a sacred charge. The commission has been given us: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19, RSV).... You are dedicated to the work of making known the gospel of salvation. Heaven's perfection is to be your power (Testimonies for the Church 9:19-21).
------------------------Seek to Save the Lost, December 10
LHU	358	1	Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. John 15:16.
LHU	358	2	This commission rests upon everyone who claim to believe in Jesus Christ. We are to seek to save those that are lost....
LHU	358	3	The true worker for God wrestles with God in prayer, and puts intense earnestness into the work of saving lost souls. He does not seek to exalt self by word or deed, but simply seeks to win souls. God pronounces the purest, the meekest, the most childlike Christian, the best worker for Him, the mightiest in labor for souls. Heavenly intelligences can work with the man or woman who will not absorb the glory to himself, but who will be willing that all the glory shall redound to the honor of God. It is the man who most feels his need of divine wisdom, the man who pleads for heavenly power, that will go forth from communion with Christ, to hold converse with souls perishing in their sins; and because he is anointed with the Spirit of the Lord, he will be successful where the learned minister may have failed. God has given lessons that are all-important in regard to the duty of every disciple. Not one need be in darkness; for it is evident that every Christian is to be a living epistle, known and read of all men.
LHU	358	4	Everyone who believes in Christ as a personal Saviour is under bonds to God to be pure and holy, to be a spiritual worker, seeking to save the lost, whether they are great or small, rich or poor, bond or free. The greatest work on earth is to seek and to save those who are lost, for whom Christ has paid the infinite price of His own blood. Everyone is to do active service.... The sheep unsought is not brought back to the fold.
LHU	358	5	God depends upon you, the human agent, to fulfill your duty to the best of your ability, and He Himself will give the increase. If human agents would but cooperate with the divine intelligences, thousands of souls would be rescued. The Holy Spirit would give devoted workers glimpses of Jesus that would brace them for every conflict, that would elevate and strengthen them, and make them more than conquerors.... The Lord has promised that where two or three are met together in His name, there will He be in the midst. Those who meet together for prayer will receive an unction from the Holy One. There is great need of secret prayer, but there is also need that several Christians meet together, and unite with earnestness their petitions to God. In these small companies Jesus is present, the love of souls is deepened in the heart, and the Spirit puts forth its mighty energies, that human agents may be exercised in regard to saving those who are lost. Jesus ever ... strove to impress upon His disciples that the Holy Spirit must enlighten, renew, and sanctify the soul (The Review and Herald, June 30, 1896).
------------------------Radical Changes Are to Be Made, December 11
LHU	359	1	That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15.
LHU	359	2	The inhabitants of the heavenly universe expect the followers of Christ to shine as lights in the world. They are to show forth the power of the grace that Christ died to give men. God expects those who profess to be Christians to reveal in their lives the highest development of Christianity. They are recognized representatives of Christ, and they are to show that Christianity is a reality. They are to be men of faith, men of courage, whole-souled men, who, without questioning, trust in God and His promises.
LHU	359	3	All who would enter the city of God must during their earthly life set forth Christ in their dealings. It is this that constitutes them the messengers of Christ, His witnesses. They are to bear a plain, decided testimony against all evil practices, pointing sinners to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. He gives to all who receive Him, power to become the sons of God. Regeneration is the only path by which we can enter the city of God. It is narrow, and the gate by which we enter is strait; but along it we are to lead men and women and children, teaching them that, in order to be saved, they must have a new heart and a new spirit. The old, hereditary traits of character must be overcome. The natural desires of the soul must be changed. All deception, all falsifying, all evilspeaking, must be put away. The new life, which makes men and women Christlike, is to be lived.
LHU	359	4	There must be no pretense in the lives of those who have so sacred and solemn a message as we have been called to bear....
LHU	359	5	Those who love Jesus will bring all in their lives into harmony with His will. They have chosen to be on the Lord's side, and their lives are to stand out in vivid contrast with the lives of worldlings. The tempter will come to them with his blandishments and bribes, saying: "All these things will I give thee if thou wilt ... worship me." But they know that he has nothing worth receiving, and they refuse to yield to his temptations. Through the grace of God they are enabled to keep their purity of principle unsullied. Holy angels are close beside them, and Christ is revealed in their steadfast adherence to the truth. They are Christ's minutemen, bearing, as true witnesses, a decided testimony in favor of the truth. They show that there is a spiritual power that can enable men and women not to swerve an inch from truth and justice for all the gifts that men can bestow. Such ones, wherever they may be, will be honored of heaven because they have conformed their lives to the will of God, caring not what sacrifices they are called upon to make (Testimonies for the Church 9:22-24).
------------------------Nothing Between Us and God, December 12
LHU	360	1	In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer ... all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith ... worth more than gold, ... may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6, 7, NIV.
LHU	360	2	When we are tempted to place our affections on any earthly object that has a tendency to absorb our love, we must seek grace to turn from it, and not allow it to come between us and our God. We want to keep before the mind's eye the mansions which Jesus has gone to prepare for us. We must not allow our houses and lands, our business transactions and worldly enterprises, to come between us and our God. We should keep before us the rich promises that He has left on record. We should study the great waymarks that point out the times in which we are living. We know that we are very near the close of this earth's history, and everything of a worldly nature should be secondary to the service of God. We should now pray most earnestly that we may be prepared for the struggles of the great day of God's preparation. We should rejoice in the prospect of soon being with Jesus in the mansions He has gone to prepare for us. Jesus can supply your every need, if you will look to Him and trust in Him. As you behold Him, you will be charmed with the riches of the glory of His divine love. The idolatrous love of things that are seen will be superseded by a higher and better love for things that are imperishable and precious. You may contemplate eternal riches until your affections are bound to things above, and you may be an instrument in directing others to set their affections on heavenly treasures. You can help them to see that money spent needlessly is wasted, and worse than wasted; for it might have been used in presenting the truth to souls who are ready to perish. If the spendthrift is redeemed, it will be by having an object placed before him that will show him the sin of wasting his Lord's goods. The Lord requires His servants to trade upon the goods that He has put in their charge. The talents which He has given to them are to be improved by exercise. The money placed in their hands is to be put out to the exchangers.... Those who rightly value money are those who see its availability in bringing the truth before those who have never heard it, and by this means rescuing them from the power of the enemy. The soul who accepts the truth will find his love for earthly things dislodged. He sees the surpassing glory of heavenly things, and appreciates the excellency of that which relates to everlasting life. He is charmed with the unseen and eternal. His grasp loosens from earthly things; he fastens his eye with admiration upon the invisible glories of the heavenly world. He realizes that his trials are working out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and in comparison to the riches that are his to enjoy, he counts them light afflictions which are but for a moment (The Review and Herald, June 23, 1896).
------------------------Then We Shall Know, December 13
LHU	361	1	O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! Romans 11:33.
LHU	361	2	It is Satan's settled purpose to cut off all communications between God and His people, that he may practice his deceptive wiles with no voice to warn them of their danger. If he can lead men to distrust the messenger, or to attach no sacredness to the message, he knows that they will feel under no obligation to heed the word of God to them. And when light is set aside as darkness, Satan has things his own way.
LHU	361	3	Our God is a jealous God; He is not to be trifled with. He who does all things according to the counsel of His own will has been pleased to place men under various circumstances, and to enjoin upon them duties and observances peculiar to the times in which they live and the conditions under which they are placed. If they would prize the light given them, their faculties would be greatly enlarged and ennobled, and broader views of truth would be opened before them. The mystery of eternal things, and especially the wonderful grace of God as manifested in the plan of redemption, would be unfolded to their minds; for spiritual things are spiritually discerned....
LHU	361	4	Jesus is waiting with longing desire to open before His people the glory that will attend His second advent, and to carry them forward to a contemplation of the landscape of bliss. There are wonders to be revealed. A long lifetime of prayer and research will leave much unexplored and unexplained. But what we know not now will be revealed hereafter. The work of instruction begun here will be carried on to all eternity. The Lamb, as He leads the hosts of the redeemed to the fountain of living waters, will impart rich stores of knowledge; He will unravel mysteries in the works and providence of God that have never before been understood.
LHU	361	5	We can never by searching find out God. He does not lay open His plans to prying, inquisitive minds. We must not attempt to lift with presumptuous hand the curtain behind which He veils His majesty. The apostle exclaims, "How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" It is a proof of His mercy that there is the hiding of His power, that He is enshrouded in the awful clouds of mystery and obscurity; for to lift the curtain that conceals the Divine Presence is death. No mortal mind can penetrate the secrecy in which the Mighty One dwells and works. We can comprehend no more of His dealings with us and the motives that actuate Him than He sees fit to reveal. He orders everything in righteousness, and we are not to be dissatisfied and distrustful, but to bow in reverent submission. He will reveal to us as much of His purposes as it is for our good to know; and beyond that we must trust the hand that is omnipotent, the heart that is full of love (The Review and Herald, April 7, 1885).
------------------------The Lord Will Come More Quickly Than Many Expect, December 14
LHU	362	1	And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. Luke 18:7, 8, NIV.
LHU	362	2	Could men see with heavenly vision, they would behold companies of angels that excel in strength stationed about those who have kept the word of Christ's patience. With sympathizing tenderness, angels have witnessed their distress and have heard their prayers. They are waiting the word of their Commander to snatch them from their peril. But they must wait yet a little longer. The people of God must drink of the cup and be baptized with the baptism. The very delay, so painful to them, is the best answer to their petitions. As they endeavor to wait trustingly for the Lord to work they are led to exercise faith, hope, and patience, which have been too little exercised during their religious experience. Yet for the elect's sake the time of trouble will be shortened....
LHU	362	3	Though a general decree has fixed the time when commandment keepers may be put to death, their enemies will in some cases anticipate the decree, and before the time specified, will endeavor to take their lives. But none can pass the mighty guardians stationed about every faithful soul. Some are assailed in their flight from the cities and villages; but the swords raised against them break and fall powerless as a straw. Others are defended by angels in the form of men of war.
LHU	362	4	In all ages, God has wrought through holy angels for the succor and deliverance of His people. Celestial beings have taken an active part in the affairs of men. They have appeared clothed in garments that shone as the lightning; they have come as men in the garb of wayfarers. Angels have appeared in human form to men of God. They have rested, as if weary, under the oaks at noon. They have accepted the hospitalities of human homes. They have acted as guides to benighted travelers. They have, with their own hands, kindled the fires at the altar. They have opened prison doors and set free the servants of the Lord. Clothed with the panoply of heaven, they came to roll away the stone from the Saviour's tomb.
LHU	362	5	In the form of men, angels are often in the assemblies of the righteous; and they visit the assemblies of the wicked, as they went to Sodom, to make a record of their deeds, to determine whether they have passed the boundary of God's forbearance. The Lord delights in mercy; and for the sake of a few who really serve Him, He restrains calamities and prolongs the tranquility of multitudes. Little do sinners against God realize that they are indebted for their own lives to the faithful few whom they delight to ridicule and oppress.... (The Great Controversy, 630-632).
------------------------A Lesson in Temperance, December 15
LHU	363	1	He shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost. Luke 1:15.
LHU	363	2	God had called the son of Zacharias to a great work, the greatest ever committed to men. In order to accomplish this work, he must have the Lord to work with him. And the Spirit of God would be with him if he heeded the instruction of the angel.
LHU	363	3	John was to go forth as Jehovah's messenger, to bring to men the light of God. He must give a new direction to their thoughts. He must impress them with the holiness of God's requirements, and their need of His perfect righteousness. Such a messenger must be holy. He must be a temple for the indwelling Spirit of God. In order to fulfill his mission, he must have a sound physical constitution, and mental and spiritual strength. Therefore it would be necessary for him to control the appetites and passions. He must be able so to control all his powers that he could stand among men as unmoved by surrounding circumstances as the rocks and mountains of the wilderness.
LHU	363	4	In the time of John the Baptist, greed for riches, and the love of luxury and display had become widespread. Sensuous pleasures, feasting and drinking, were causing physical disease and degeneracy, benumbing the spiritual perceptions, and lessening the sensibility to sin. John was to stand as a reformer. By his abstemious life and plain dress he was to rebuke the excesses of his time. Hence the directions given to the parents of John--a lesson of temperance by an angel from the throne of heaven.
LHU	363	5	In childhood and youth the character is most impressible. The power of self-control should then be acquired. By the fireside and at the family board influences are exerted whose results are as enduring as eternity.... The habits established in early years decide whether a man will be victorious or vanquished....
LHU	363	6	As a prophet, John was "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." In preparing the way for Christ's first advent, he was a representative of those who are to prepare a people for our Lord's second coming. The world is given to self-indulgence. Errors and fables abound. Satan's snares for destroying souls are multiplied. All who would perfect holiness in the fear of God must learn the lessons of temperance and self-control. The appetites and passions must be held in subjection to the higher powers of the mind. This self-discipline is essential to that mental strength and spiritual insight which will enable us to understand and to practice the sacred truths of God's Word. For this reason temperance finds its place in the work of preparation for Christ's second coming (The Desire of Ages, 100, 101).
------------------------On the Edge of a Stupendous Crisis, December 16
LHU	364	1	Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Joel 1:15.
LHU	364	2	Today the signs of the times declare that we are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Everything in our world is in agitation. Before our eyes is fulfilling the Saviour's prophecy of the events to precede His coming: "Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars.... Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places" (Matthew 24:6, 7).
LHU	364	3	The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place--that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.
LHU	364	4	The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of these things. Here are revealed the great final scenes in the history of our world, events that already are casting their shadows before, the sound of their approach causing the earth to tremble and men's hearts to fail them for fear.
LHU	364	5	"Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty.... The earth ... is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant" (Isaiah 24:1-5)....
LHU	364	6	"I am pained at my very heart; ... I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled" (Jeremiah 4:19, 20)....
LHU	364	7	"Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, Even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling" (Psalm 91:9, 10)....
LHU	364	8	God will not fail His church in the hour of her greatest peril. He has promised deliverance. "I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents," He has declared, "and have mercy on his dwelling places" (Jeremiah 30:18).
LHU	364	9	Then will the purpose of God be fulfilled; the principles of His kingdom will be honored by all beneath the sun (Prophets and Kings, 536-538).
------------------------Preparation for Christ's Coming, December 17
LHU	365	1	As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Matthew 24:37.
LHU	365	2	Noah preached to the people of his time that God would give them one hundred and twenty years in which to repent of their sins and find refuge in the ark, but they refused the gracious invitation. Abundant time was given them to turn from their sins, overcome their bad habits, and develop righteous characters. But inclination to sin, though weak at first with many, strengthened through repeated indulgence and hurried them on to irretrievable ruin. The merciful warning of God was rejected with sneers, with mockery and derision; and they were left in darkness to follow the course that their sinful hearts had chosen. But their unbelief did not hinder the predicted event. It came, and great was the wrath of God which was seen in the general ruin.
LHU	365	3	These words of Christ should sink into the hearts of all who believe present truth: "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares." Our danger is presented before us by Christ Himself. He knew the perils we should meet in these last days, and would have us prepare for them....
LHU	365	4	Belief in the near coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven will not cause the true Christian to become neglectful and careless of the ordinary business of life. The waiting ones who look for the soon appearing of Christ will not be idle, but diligent in business. Their work will not be done carelessly and dishonestly, but with fidelity, promptness, and thoroughness. Those who flatter themselves that careless inattention to the things of this life is an evidence of their spirituality and of their separation from the world are under a great deception. Their veracity, faithfulness, and integrity are tested and proved in temporal things. If they are faithful in that which is least they will be faithful in much.
LHU	365	5	I have been shown that here is where many will fail to bear the test. They develop their true character in the management of temporal concerns. They manifest unfaithfulness, scheming, dishonesty, in dealing with their fellowmen. They do not consider that their hold upon the future, immortal life depends upon how they conduct themselves in the concerns of this life, and that the strictest integrity is indispensable to the formation of a righteous character (Testimonies for the Church 4:308-310).
LHU	365	6	Those who believe present truth should show their faith by their works. They should be sanctified through the truth which they profess to believe, for they are a savor of life unto life or of death unto death (Testimonies for the Church 4:308).
------------------------To Glorify God--Our Great Motive, December 18
LHU	366	1	Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Psalm 29:2.
LHU	366	2	We are all living on probation. Those who have passed into their graves have been tested and tried, to see if they would realize their responsibility to serve God. A desire to glorify God should be to us the most powerful of all motives. It should lead us to make every exertion to improve the privileges and opportunities provided for us, to use wisely the Lord's goods. It should lead us to keep brain, bone, and muscle in the most healthful condition, that our physical strength and mental clearness may help us to be faithful stewards. Selfish interest must ever be held subordinate; for if given room to act, it contracts the intellect, hardens the heart, and weakens moral power....
LHU	366	3	Daniel was regarded by the Lord as a man, because he was a steward who traded faithfully on his Lord's goods. He did not forget God, but placed himself in the channel of light, where he could commune with God in prayer. And we read that God gave Daniel and his fellows knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom....
LHU	366	4	In every place let those around you see that you give God the glory. Let man be put in the shade; let God appear as the only hope of the human race. Every man must rivet his character-building to the eternal Rock, Christ Jesus; then it will stand amid storm and tempest.
LHU	366	5	God will prepare the mind to recognize Him who alone can help the striving, struggling soul. All who stand under His banner He will educate to be faithful stewards of His grace. God has given man immortal principles, to which every human power must one day bow. He has given us truth in trust. The precious beams of this light are not to be hidden under a bushel, but are to give light to all that are in the house. Truth, imperishable truth, is to be made prominent. Show those with whom you come in contact that the truth is of consequence to you. It means much to you to stand by the principles that will live through the eternal ages.
LHU	366	6	God has given every man talents, that His name may be exalted, not that man may be lauded and praised, honored and glorified, while the Giver is forgotten. All have been entrusted with God's gifts, from the lowest and most poverty stricken to the highest and wealthiest.... Let none waste their God-given time in regrets that they have only one talent. Spend every moment in using the talents that you have. They are the Lord's, to be returned to Him. It is not your own property you are handling, but the Lord's. One day He will come to receive His own with usury. Faithfully fulfill your appointed stewardship, that you may meet Him in peace (The Review and Herald, September 12, 1899).
------------------------The Transformation of Grace, December 19
LHU	367	1	The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 1 Peter 4:7.
LHU	367	2	[Christ] is pleased when His people manifest solidity, strength, and firmness of character, and when they have cheerful, happy, hopeful dispositions.
LHU	367	3	Says Peter, "Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Here is a lesson for us to learn; here is a work for us to do to control the mind, not letting it drift on forbidden themes, or spend its energies on trifling subjects. "The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." We are not only required to pray, but to guard the words and actions, and even the thoughts--to "watch unto prayer." If the mind is centered upon heavenly things, the conversation will run in the same channel. The heart will overflow at the contemplation of the Christian's hope, the exceeding great and precious promises left on record for our encouragement; and our rejoicing in view of the mercy and goodness of God need not be repressed; it is a joy that no man can take from us.
LHU	367	4	During the waking hours, the mind will be constantly employed.... There may be some spasmodic flashes of thought; but the mind is not disciplined to steady, sober reflection. There are themes that demand serious consideration. They are those connected with the great plan of redemption, which is soon to be finished. Jesus is about to be revealed in the clouds of heaven, and what manner of characters must we have to enable us to stand in that day? By dwelling upon these themes of eternal interest, the mind is strengthened, and the character developed. Here lies the foundation of that firm, unswerving principle which Joseph possessed. Here is the secret of growth in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.
LHU	367	5	The religion of Christ is not what many think it is, nor what their lives represent it to be. The love of God in the soul will have a direct influence upon the life, and will call the intellect and the affections into active, healthful exercise. The child of God will not rest satisfied until he is clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and sustained by His life-giving power. When he sees a weakness in his character, it is not enough to confess it again and again; he must go to work with determination and energy to overcome his defects by building up opposite traits of character. He will not shun this work because it is difficult. Untiring energy is required of the Christian; but he is not obliged to work in his own strength; divine power awaits his demand. Everyone who is sincerely striving for the victory over self will appropriate the promise, "My grace is sufficient for thee" (The Review and Herald, June 10, 1884).
------------------------Watch and Pray, December 20
LHU	368	1	Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. Mark 13:33.
LHU	368	2	"Take ye heed, watch and pray" were the words of our Saviour spoken in reference to the time of the end, and His second coming to take His faithful children home.
LHU	368	3	First, you are to watch. Watch, lest you should speak hastily, fretfully and impatiently. Watch, lest pride should find a place in your heart. Watch, lest evil passions should overcome you, instead of your subduing them. Watch, lest a careless, indifferent spirit comes upon you, and you neglect your duty and become light and trifling, and your influence savor of death, rather than life.
LHU	368	4	Second, you are to pray. Jesus would not have enjoined this upon you, unless there was actual necessity for it. It is well known to Him that of yourself you cannot overcome the many temptations of the enemy, and the many snares laid for your feet. He has not left you alone to do this; but has provided a way that you can obtain help. Therefore He has bid you to pray.
LHU	368	5	To pray aright is to ask God in faith for the very things you need. Go to your chamber, or in some retired place, and ask your Father for Jesus' sake to help you. There is power in that prayer that is sent up from a heart convinced of its own weakness, yet earnestly longing for that strength that comes from God. The earnest, fervent prayer will be heard and answered. Go to your God who is strong, and who loves to hear children pray, and, although you may feel very weak, and find yourself at times overcome by the enemy, because you have neglected the first command of our Saviour, to watch, yet do not give up the struggle. Make stronger efforts yourself than before. Faint not. Cast yourself at the feet of Jesus, who has been tempted, and knows how to help such as are tempted. Confess your faults, your weakness, and that you must have help to overcome, or you perish. And as you ask, you must believe that God hears you.... God will help you. Angels will watch over you.
LHU	368	6	But before you can expect this help, you must do what you can on your part. Watch and pray. Let your prayers be fervent. Let this be the language of your heart, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." Have a set time, a special season for prayer at least three times a day. Morning, noon, and at night Daniel prayed to his God, notwithstanding the king's decree, and the fearful den of lions. He was not ashamed or afraid to pray, but with his windows opened he prayed three times a day. Did God forget His faithful servant when he was cast into the lions' den? O, No. He was with him there all night. He closed the mouths of these hungry lions, and they could not hurt the praying man of God (Youth's Instructor, October 1, 1855).
------------------------Simple Faith Unites Us to God, December 21
LHU	369	1	Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11, NIV.
LHU	369	2	We are living in a most solemn period of this earth's history. There is never time to sin; it is always perilous to continue in transgression; but in a special sense is this true at the present time. We are now upon the very borders of the eternal world and stand in a more solemn relation to time and to eternity than ever before. Now let every person search his own heart, and plead for the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness to expel all spiritual darkness and cleanse from defilement. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Through faith, irrespective of feeling, Jesus, the Author of our salvation, the Finisher of our faith, will, by His precious grace, strengthen the moral powers, and the sinner may reckon himself "to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ." Simple faith, with the love of Christ in the soul, unites the believer to God. While toiling in battle as a faithful soldier of Christ, he has the sympathy of the whole loyal universe. The ministering angels are round about him to aid in the conflict, so that he may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper," "the Lord is my strength and my shield"; I shall not be overcome. "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."
LHU	369	3	The infinite wisdom and power of God are exerted in our behalf. The heavenly host are surely fighting our battles for us. They are always looking with intense interest upon the souls purchased by the Saviour's blood. They see, through the sacrifice of Christ, the value of the human soul. It is always safe to be on the Lord's side, not halfheartedly, but wholly. It is this halfhearted, indifferent, careless work that separates your souls from Jesus, the source of your strength. Let this be your prayer: "Take everything from me, let me lose property, worldly honor, everything, but let Thy presence be with me." It is safe to commit the keeping of the soul to God, who reigns over all heaven and earth (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 147, 148).
LHU	369	4	There must be thorough repentance, faith in our Saviour Jesus Christ, vigilant watchfulness, unceasing prayer, and diligent searching of the Scriptures. God holds us responsible for all that we might be if we would improve our talents.... All our influence belongs to God. All that we acquire is to be used to His glory. All the property that the Lord has entrusted to us is to be held on the altar of God, to be returned to Him again. We are working out our own destiny. May God help us all to be wise for eternity (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 147).
------------------------An Invisible Struggle, December 22
LHU	370	1	Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Daniel 10:12, 13, NIV.
LHU	370	2	We have before us in the Word of God instances of heavenly agencies working on the minds of kings and rulers, while at the same time satanic agencies were also at work on their minds. No human eloquence, in strongly set forth human opinions, can change the working of satanic agencies. Satan seeks continually to block the way, so that the truth shall be bound about by human devising; and those who have light and knowledge are in the greatest danger unless they constantly consecrate themselves to God, humiliating self, and realizing the peril of the times.
LHU	370	3	Heavenly beings are appointed to answer the prayers of those who are working unselfishly for the interests of the cause of God. The very highest angels in the heavenly courts are appointed to work out the prayers which ascend to God for the advancement of the cause of God. Each angel has his particular post of duty, which he is not permitted to leave for any other place. If he should leave, the powers of darkness would gain an advantage....
LHU	370	4	Day by day the conflict between good and evil is going on. Why is it that those who have had many opportunities and advantages do not realize the intensity of this work? They should be intelligent in regard to this. God is the Ruler. By His supreme power He holds in check and controls earthly potentates. Through His agencies He does the work which was ordained before the foundation of the world.
LHU	370	5	As a people we do not understand as we should the great conflict going on between invisible agencies, the controversy between loyal and disloyal angels. Evil angels are constantly at work, planning their line of attack, controlling as commanders, kings, and rulers, the disloyal human forces.... I call upon the ministers of Christ to press home upon the understanding of all who come within the reach of their voice, the truth of the ministration of angels. Do not indulge in fanciful speculations. The Written Word is our only safety. We must pray as did Daniel, that we may be guarded by heavenly intelligences. As ministering spirits angels are sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. Pray, my brethren, pray as you have never prayed before. We are not prepared for the Lord's coming. We need to make thorough work for eternity (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 4, 1173).
------------------------Lessons from the Antediluvians, December 23
LHU	371	1	Dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Jude 20, 21, NIV.
LHU	371	2	Look at the picture which the world presents today. Dishonesty, fraud, and bankruptcies, violence and bloodshed, exist on every hand. The widows and the fatherless are robbed of their all. Plays, horse races, and amusements of every kind occupy the mind. In the church, sins have become fashionable. They are glossed over and excused. The right hand of fellowship is given to the very men who bring in false theories and sentiments. Thus the discernment and sensibilities have become deadened as to what constitutes right principles. Conscience has become insensible to the counsel and reproofs which have been given. The light given, calling to repentance, has been shut out by the thick cloud of unbelief and opposition brought in by human plans and human inventions.
LHU	371	3	The inhabitants of the antediluvian world had the warning given them prior to their overthrow; but the warning was not heeded. They refused to listen to the words of Noah; they mocked at his message. Righteous men lived in that generation. Before the destruction of the antediluvian world, Enoch bore his testimony unflinchingly. And in prophetic vision he saw the condition of the world at the present time. He said, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lust; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage." Jude leaves the testimony for the believers: "But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit" (Jude 15-19) (The Review and Herald, November 1, 1906).
LHU	371	4	God determined to purify the world by a flood; but in mercy and love He gave the antediluvians a probation of one hundred and twenty years. During this time, while the ark was building, the voices of Noah, Methuselah, and many others were heard in warning and entreaty, and every blow struck on the ark was a warning message....
LHU	371	5	The sermon preached by Enoch, and his translation to heaven was a convincing argument to all living in Enoch's time. It was an argument that Methuselah and Noah could use with power to show that the righteous could be translated (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments 1:1088).
------------------------Waiting and Watching, December 24
LHU	372	1	Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. Hebrews 10:35.
LHU	372	2	Jesus is soon coming, and our position should be that of waiting and watching for His appearing. We should not allow anything to come in between us and Jesus. We must learn here to sing the song of heaven, so that when our warfare is over we can join in the song of the heavenly angels in the city of God. What is that song? It is praise, and honor, and glory unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. We shall meet opposition; we shall be hated of all men for Christ's sake, and by Satan, because he knows that there is with the followers of Christ a divine power, which will undermine his influence. We cannot escape reproach....
LHU	372	3	We should not allow our time to be so occupied with things of a temporal nature, or even with matters pertaining to the cause of God, that we shall pass on day after day without pressing close to the bleeding side of Jesus. We want to commune with Him daily. We are exhorted to fight the good fight of faith. It will be a hard battle to maintain a life of earnest faith; but if we cast ourselves wholly upon Christ, with a settled determination to cleave only to Him, we shall be able to repulse the enemy, and gain a glorious victory. The apostle Paul exhorts us, "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward." Again he says, "Now the just shall live by faith"....
LHU	372	4	When we feel the least inclined to commune with Jesus, let us pray the most. By so doing we shall break Satan's snare, the clouds of darkness will disappear, and we shall realize the sweet presence of Jesus (Historical Sketches, 145, 146).
LHU	372	5	Christians may have the joy of communion with Christ; they may have the light of His love, the perpetual comfort of His presence. Every step in life may bring us closer to Jesus, may give us a deeper experience of His love, and may bring us one step nearer to the blessed home of peace. Then let us not cast away our confidence, but have firm assurance, firmer than ever before. "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," and He will help us to the end. Let us look to the monumental pillars, reminders of what the Lord has done to comfort us and save us from the hand of the destroyer. Let us keep fresh in our memory all the tender mercies that God has shown us--the tears He has wiped away, the pains He has soothed, the anxieties removed, the fears dispelled, the wants supplied, the blessings bestowed--thus strengthening ourselves for all that is before us (Steps to Christ, 125).
LHU	372	6	So surely as there never was a time when God was not, so surely there never was a moment when it was not the delight of the eternal mind to manifest His grace to humanity (The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 7, 934).
------------------------The First and Second Advent, December 25
LHU	373	1	So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:28.
LHU	373	2	At the first advent of Christ ... the angels of heaven could scarcely be restrained from pouring forth their glories to grace the birth of the Son of God.... That birth, so little prepared for on earth, was celebrated in the heavenly courts with praise and thanksgiving in behalf of man.
LHU	373	3	While the shepherds on the hills of Bethlehem watched their flocks by night, "the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them"....
LHU	373	4	The leaders in Israel professed to understand the prophecies, but they had received false ideas in regard to the manner of Christ's coming. Satan had deceived them; and all the glories of Christ's second advent they applied to His first appearing. All the wonderful events clustering around His second coming, they looked for at His first. Therefore, when He came, they were not prepared to receive Him....
LHU	373	5	Between the first and the second advent of Christ a wonderful contrast will be seen. No human language can portray the scenes of the second coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. He is to come with His own glory, and with the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. He will come clad in the robe of light, which He has worn from the days of eternity. Angels will accompany Him. Ten thousand times ten thousand will escort Him on His way. The sound of the trumpet will be heard, calling the sleeping dead from the grave. The voice of Christ will penetrate the tomb, and pierce the ears of the dead, and "all that are in the graves ... shall come forth"....
LHU	373	6	We are now amid the perils of the last days. The scenes of conflict are hastening on, and the day of days is just upon us. Are we prepared for the issue? Every deed, small and great, is to be brought into recognition. That which has been considered trivial here will then appear as it is. The two mites of the widow will be recognized. The cup of cold water offered, the prison visited, the hungry fed--each will bring its own reward....
LHU	373	7	The serpent's head will soon be bruised and crushed. The glorious memorial of God's wonderful power is soon to be restored to its rightful place. Then paradise lost will be paradise restored. God's plan for the redemption of man will be complete. The Son of man will bestow upon the righteous the crown of everlasting life, and they shall "serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them" (Revelation 7:15) (The Review and Herald, September 5, 1899).
------------------------God Will Not Forget His Children, December 26
LHU	374	1	He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. Zechariah 2:8.
LHU	374	2	As the decree issued by the various rulers of Christendom against commandment keepers shall withdraw the protection of government and abandon them to those who desire their destruction, the people of God will flee from the cities and villages and associate together in companies, dwelling in the most desolate and solitary places. Many will find refuge in the strongholds of the mountains. Like the Christians of the Piedmont valleys, they will make the high places of the earth their sanctuaries and will thank God for "the munitions of rocks" (Isaiah 33:16). But many of all nations and of all classes, high and low, rich and poor, black and white, will be cast into the most unjust and cruel bondage. The beloved of God pass weary days, bound in chains, shut in by prison bars, sentenced to be slain, some apparently left to die of starvation in dark and loathsome dungeons. No human ear is open to hear their moans; no human hand is ready to lend them help.
LHU	374	3	Will the Lord forget His people in this trying hour? Did He forget faithful Noah when judgments were visited upon the antediluvian world? Did He forget Lot when the fire came down from heaven to consume the cities of the plain? Did He forget Joseph surrounded by idolaters in Egypt? Did He forget Elijah when the oath of Jezebel threatened him with the fate of the prophets of Baal? Did He forget Jeremiah in the dark and dismal pit of his prison house? Did He forget the three worthies in the fiery furnace? or Daniel in the den of lions? ...
LHU	374	4	Though enemies may thrust them into prison, yet dungeon walls cannot cut off the communication between their souls and Christ. One who sees their every weakness, who is acquainted with every trial, is above all earthly powers; and angels will come to them in lonely cells, bringing light and peace from heaven. The prison will be as a palace; for the rich in faith dwell there, and the gloomy walls will be lighted up with heavenly light as when Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises at midnight in the Philippian dungeon (The Great Controversy, 626, 627).
LHU	374	5	With earnest longing, God's people await the tokens of their coming King.... Light is gleaming upon the clouds above the mountaintops. Soon there will be a revealing of His glory.... The heavens glow with the dawning of eternal day, and like the melody of angel songs the words fall upon the ear; "Stand fast to your allegiance. Help is coming." Christ, the almighty Victor, holds out to His weary soldiers a crown of immortal glory; and His voice comes from the gates ajar: "... You are not warring against untried enemies. I have fought the battle in your behalf, and in My name you are more than conquerors" (The Great Controversy, 632, 633).
------------------------Fitted for Translation, December 27
LHU	375	1	For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John 5:4.
LHU	375	2	God leads His people on, step by step. He brings them up to different points calculated to manifest what is in the heart. Some endure at one point, but fall off at the next. At every advanced point the heart is tested and tried a little closer. If the professed people of God find their hearts opposed to this straight work, it should convince them that they have a work to do to overcome, if they would not be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Said the angel: "God will bring His work closer and closer to test and prove every one of His people." Some are willing to receive one point; but when God brings them to another testing point, they shrink from it and stand back, because they find that it strikes directly at some cherished idol. Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus. They prize something higher than the truth, and their hearts are not prepared to receive Jesus. Individuals are tested and proved a length of time to see if they will sacrifice their idols and heed the counsel of the True Witness.... Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation.
LHU	375	3	God proves His people in this world. This is the fitting-up place to appear in His presence. Here, in this world, in these last days, persons will show what power affects their hearts and controls their actions. If it is the power of divine truth, it will lead to good works. It will elevate the receiver, and make him noblehearted and generous, like His divine Lord. But if evil angels control the heart, it will be seen in various ways. The fruit will be selfishness, covetousness, pride, and evil passions.
LHU	375	4	The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Professors of religion are not willing to closely examine themselves to see whether they are in the faith; and it is a fearful fact that many are leaning on a false hope.... They seem to think that a profession of the truth will save them. When they subdue those sins which God hates, Jesus will come in and sup with them and they with Him. They will then draw divine strength from Jesus, and will grow up in Him, and be able with holy triumph to say: "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Testimonies for the Church 1:187, 188).
LHU	375	5	The third angel is leading up a people, step by step, higher and higher. At every step they will be tested (Testimonies for the Church 1:190).
------------------------The Finishing Touch of Immortality, December 28
LHU	376	1	Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 1 John 3:2, 3.
LHU	376	2	Through personal effort joined with the prayer of faith, the soul is trained. Day by day the character grows into the likeness of Christ; and finally, instead of being the sport of circumstances, instead of indulging selfishness and being carried away by light and trifling conversation, the man is master of his thoughts and words. It may cost a severe conflict to overcome habits which have been long indulged, but we may triumph through the grace of Christ. He invites us to learn of Him. He would have us practice self-control, and be perfect in character, working that which is well pleasing in His sight. "By their fruits ye shall know them" is His own standard of judging character.
LHU	376	3	If we are true to the promptings of the Spirit of God, we shall go on from grace to grace, and from glory to glory, until we shall receive the finishing touch of immortality.
LHU	376	4	"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is".... Can any earthly promotion confer honor equal to this--to be sons of God, children of the heavenly King, members of the royal family? Man may be ambitious of the honor that his finite fellowman can bestow; but what will it avail? The nobility of earth are but men; they die, and return to dust; and there is no lasting satisfaction in their praise and honor. But the honor that comes from God is lasting. To be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, is to be entitled to unsearchable riches--treasures of such value that in comparison with them the gold and silver, the gems and precious stones of earth, sink into insignificance. Through Christ we are offered joy unspeakable, an eternal weight of glory. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."
LHU	376	5	We are wanting in simple faith; we need to learn the art of trusting our very best friend. Although we see Him not, Jesus is watching over us with tender compassion; and He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. No one in his great need ever looked to Him by faith, and was disappointed.... The Christian is ... the happiest man in the world. He feels secure; for he trusts in Jesus, and enjoys His presence. His defense is "of God, which saveth the upright in heart." Do not defer this matter, but begin ... to fix your minds more firmly upon Jesus and heavenly things, remembering that by beholding we become changed into the same image. Have courage in God (The Review and Herald, June 10, 1884).
------------------------The Robe of Christ's Righteousness, December 29
LHU	377	1	And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Revelation 19:8.
LHU	377	2	The faithful, praying ones are, as it were, shut in with God. They themselves know not how securely they are shielded.... But could their eyes be opened, ... they would see the angels of God encamped about them, by their brightness and glory holding in check the hosts of darkness.
LHU	377	3	As the people of God afflict their souls before Him, pleading for purity of heart, the command is given, "Take away the filthy garments" from them, and the encouraging words are spoken, "Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment" (Zechariah 3:4). The spotless robe of Christ's righteousness is placed upon the tried, tempted, yet faithful children of God. The despised remnant are clothed in glorious apparel, nevermore to be defiled by the corruptions of the world. Their names are retained in the Lamb's book of life, enrolled among the faithful of all ages. They have resisted the wiles of the deceiver; they have not been turned from their loyalty by the dragon's roar. Now they are eternally secure from the tempter's devices. Their sins are transferred to the originator of sin. And the remnant are not only pardoned and accepted, but honored. "A fair miter" is set upon their heads. They are to be as kings and priests unto God. While Satan was urging his accusations and seeking to destroy this company, holy angels, unseen, were passing to and fro, placing upon them the seal of the living God. These are they that stand upon Mount Zion with the Lamb, having the Father's name written in their foreheads. They sing the new song before the throne, that song which no man can learn save the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God" (Revelation 14:4, 5).
LHU	377	4	Now is reached the complete fulfillment of those words of the Angel: "Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch" (Zechariah 3:8). Christ is revealed as the Redeemer and Deliverer of His people. Now indeed are the remnant "men wondered at," as the tears and humiliation of their pilgrimage give place to joy and honor in the presence of God and the Lamb. "In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely.... And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy" (Isaiah 4:2, 3) (Testimonies for the Church 5:475, 476).
------------------------Learning for Eternity, December 30
LHU	378	1	And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. Ephesians 1:9, 10, NIV.
LHU	378	2	As we near the close of this world's history, the prophecies relating to the last days especially demand our study. The last book of the New Testament scriptures is full of truth that we need to understand. Satan has blinded the minds of many, so that they have been glad of any excuse for not making the Revelation their study. But Christ through His servant John has here declared what shall be in the last days, and He says, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein."
LHU	378	3	"This is life eternal," Christ said, "that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Why is it that we do not realize the value of this knowledge? Why are not these glorious truths glowing in our hearts, trembling upon our lips, and pervading our whole being?
LHU	378	4	In giving us His Word, God has put us in possession of every truth essential for our salvation. Thousands have drawn water from these wells of life, yet there is no diminishing of the supply. Thousands have set the Lord before them, and by beholding have been changed into the same image. Their spirit burns within them as they speak of His character, telling what Christ is to them, and what they are to Christ. But these searchers have not exhausted these grand and holy themes. Thousands more may engage in the work of searching out the mysteries of salvation. As the life of Christ and the character of His mission are dwelt upon, rays of light will shine forth more distinctly at every attempt to discover truth. Each fresh search will reveal something more deeply interesting than has yet been unfolded. The subject is inexhaustible. The study of the incarnation of Christ, His atoning sacrifice and mediatorial work, will employ the mind of the diligent student as long as time shall last; and looking to heaven with its unnumbered years he will exclaim, "Great is the mystery of godliness."
LHU	378	5	In eternity we shall learn that which, had we received the enlightenment it was possible to obtain here, would have opened our understanding. The themes of redemption will employ the hearts and minds and tongues of the redeemed through the everlasting ages. They will understand the truths which Christ longed to open to His disciples, but which they did not have faith to grasp. Forever and forever new views of the perfection and glory of Christ will appear. Through endless ages will the faithful Householder bring forth from His treasure things new and old (Christ's Object Lessons, 133, 134).
------------------------Partakers With Christ of His Glory, December 31
LHU	379	1	Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us.... We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Isaiah 25:9.
LHU	379	2	Jesus is coming! But not to listen to the woes of mankind, and to hear the guilty sinner confess his sins, and to speak pardon to him; for everyone's case will then be decided for life or death. Those who have lived in sin will remain sinners forever. Those who have confessed their sins to Jesus in the sanctuary, have made Him their friend, and have loved His appearing will have pardon written for all their sins, and they, having purified their souls "in obeying the truth," will remain pure and holy forever.
LHU	379	3	Jesus is coming as He ascended into heaven, only with additional splendor. He is coming with the glory of His Father, and all the holy angels with Him, to escort Him on His way. Instead of the cruel crown of thorns to pierce His holy temples, a crown of dazzling glory will deck His sacred brow. He will not then appear, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; but His countenance will shine brighter than the noonday sun. He will not wear a plain seamless coat, but a garment whiter than snow--of dazzling brightness.
LHU	379	4	Jesus is coming! But not to reign as a temporal prince. He will raise the righteous dead, change the living saints to a glorious immortality, and, with the saints, take the kingdom under the whole heaven. This kingdom will never end. Then those who have patiently waited for Jesus will be made like Him.
LHU	379	5	If one angel from heaven caused the Roman guard to fall as dead men, how can those who are unprepared, unholy, bear the sight and live, of seeing Jesus in the glory of His Father and ten thousand angels accompanying Him. O how can sinners bear this sight! They will cry for rocks and mountains to fall on them, and hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb....
LHU	379	6	Seek a thorough preparation to meet Jesus, that when He appears you may exclaim with joy, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us." Eternal life will then be yours, and you will be a partaker with Christ of His glory, ever to hear His glorious approving voice, and behold His lovely person (Youth's Instructor, April 1, 1854).
LHU	379	7	None who truly love Jesus will be sorry that He is coming again. And as they approach nearer to the coming of the Son of man, the true lovers of Jesus will look forward with joyous hope, and will seek to get all ready to behold Him whom their souls loveth, who died to redeem them (Youth's Instructor, April 1, 1854).

------------------------Maranatha
Mar	9	1	The First Coming of Jesus, January 1
Mar	10	1	The Lesson of Bethlehem, January 2
Mar	11	1	When Jesus was Born, January 3
Mar	12	1	The Hope of the Second Coming, January 4
Mar	13	1	The Keynote of Scripture, January 5
Mar	14	1	Faith of the Reformers, January 6
Mar	15	1	The Key to History, January 7
Mar	16	1	Parallel Disappointments, January 8
Mar	17	1	Humble Men Proclaim the Message, January 9
Mar	18	1	The Truth will Triumph, January 10
Mar	19	1	Hastening Our Lord's Return, January 11
Mar	20	1	Last Warnings of the Third Angel, January 12
Mar	21	1	He shall Reign Forever, January 13
Mar	22	1	The Elijah Prophecy, January 14
Mar	23	1	Uplift Jesus as the Center, January 15
Mar	24	1	The Field is the World, January 16
Mar	25	1	God's Judgments in the Land, January 17
Mar	26	1	A Better and Nobler Way, January 18
Mar	27	1	When the Loud Cry Sounds, January 19
Mar	28	1	The Faithful Ones will not Fail, January 20
Mar	29	1	Labor to Win Even One Soul, January 21
Mar	30	1	Study Daniel and the Revelation, January 22
Mar	31	1	Intolerance and Persecution, January 23
Mar	32	1	The Church Will Not Fall, January 24
Mar	33	1	The Counterfeit Revival, January 25
Mar	34	1	Presumptuous, Careless Delay, January 26
Mar	35	1	A Heaven to Win, January 27
Mar	36	1	Blessings Upon the Watchful Ones, January 28
Mar	37	1	Troubles on All Sides, January 29
Mar	38	1	Intercessory Prayers for Souls, January 30
Mar	39	1	To Weep or to Rejoice? January 31
Mar	40	1	Climactic Moment, February 1
Mar	41	1	A High Standard, February 2
Mar	42	1	Weighing Time, February 3
Mar	43	1	Will You Stand the Test? February 4
Mar	44	1	An Infallible Guide, February 5
Mar	45	1	Ready to Answer, February 6
Mar	46	1	The Feast that Satisfies, February 7
Mar	47	1	Moral Independence, February 8
Mar	48	1	Any Idols Here? February 9
Mar	49	1	Search Your Own Heart, February 10
Mar	50	1	Searching Questions, February 11
Mar	51	1	Dare you be Different? February 12
Mar	52	1	Uproot Every Seed of Doubt, February 13
Mar	53	1	Spiritual Giant or Dwarf? February 14
Mar	54	1	Wise or Foolish? February 15
Mar	55	1	Now--Always Now, February 16
Mar	56	1	The Last Watch, February 17
Mar	57	1	Only One Safe Course, February 18
Mar	58	1	The Faith that Works, February 19
Mar	59	1	Beware of Satan's Agents, February 20
Mar	60	1	Temptations in Disguise, February 21
Mar	61	1	Why Christ Delays His Coming, February 22
Mar	62	1	A Goal to Reach, February 23
Mar	63	1	No Time to Do the Devil's Work, February 24
Mar	64	1	Satan's Last Campaign, February 25
Mar	65	1	Through Heaven's Gates, February 26
Mar	66	1	The Vision is Sure, February 27
Mar	67	1	A Safe Refuge, February 28
Mar	68	1	A Crisis Ahead, March 1
Mar	69	1	Healing for Sin-Sick Souls, March 2
Mar	70	1	A New Life, March 3
Mar	71	1	Life's Top Priority, March 4
Mar	72	1	Heaven's Flawless Pearl, March 5
Mar	73	1	Christ the Only Saviour, March 6
Mar	74	1	Taste for Yourself, March 7
Mar	75	1	Citizens of Heaven, March 8
Mar	76	1	A Fuller Knowledge of God, March 9
Mar	77	1	The Highest Kind of Meditation, March 10
Mar	78	1	White Raiment Required, March 11
Mar	79	1	Joy in Obedience, March 12
Mar	80	1	Shaping Up in God's Workshop, March 13
Mar	81	1	Physical Health and Noble Thinking, March 14
Mar	82	1	The Sowing and Reaping of Life, March 15
Mar	83	1	The Character Heaven Approves, March 16
Mar	84	1	Climbing Peter's Ladder, March 17
Mar	85	1	The Breath of the Soul, March 18
Mar	86	1	The Secret of Progress, March 19
Mar	87	1	Unwavering Faith, March 20
Mar	88	1	Pure in Heart and Life, March 21
Mar	89	1	Bible Sanctification Defined, March 22
Mar	90	1	Be Alert for Satan's Devices, March 23
Mar	91	1	Proof Against Every Temptation, March 24
Mar	92	1	Why Probation Lingers, March 25
Mar	93	1	Your Case Coming Up! March 26
Mar	94	1	A Standard You Can Trust, March 27
Mar	95	1	The Scriptures Our Safeguard, March 28
Mar	96	1	God's Pledge of Security, March 29
Mar	97	1	A Deep and Living Experience, March 30
Mar	98	1	"Get Ready, Get Ready, Get Ready", March 31
Mar	99	1	Greatest Work in the World, April 1
Mar	100	1	The Message of the Cross, April 2
Mar	101	1	Motivated by Love, April 3
Mar	102	1	The Place to Begin Witnessing, April 4
Mar	103	1	A World in Need, April 5
Mar	104	1	Teaching from House to House, April 6
Mar	105	1	One-to-One Witnessing, April 7
Mar	106	1	Sound an Alarm! April 8
Mar	107	1	God's Special Message for Today, April 9
Mar	108	1	A Time for Decision! April 10
Mar	109	1	Living to Save Others, April 11
Mar	110	1	Pathway to Life, April 12
Mar	111	1	In Partnership with Christ, April 13
Mar	112	1	Representatives of the Saviour, April 14
Mar	113	1	A Character the World Will Recognize, April 15
Mar	114	1	The Testimony the World Needs, April 16
Mar	115	1	When God Makes Up Deficiencies, April 17
Mar	116	1	Preaching with Power, April 18
Mar	117	1	"Behold the Lamb of God", April 19
Mar	118	1	God's Call to Reform, April 20
Mar	119	1	Promote Healthful Living, April 21
Mar	120	1	Virtue of Self-Forgetfulness, April 22
Mar	121	1	The Youth, God's Instruments, April 23
Mar	122	1	A Work for All Ages, April 24
Mar	123	1	Why so Many Idlers? April 25
Mar	124	1	All Our Treasures for God, April 26
Mar	125	1	A Twofold Life, April 27
Mar	126	1	Mistaken Zeal, April 28
Mar	127	1	A Sure Foundation, April 29
Mar	128	1	Heaven is Waiting for You, April 30
Mar	129	1	God Will Guide His People, May 1
Mar	130	1	Satan Redoubles His Efforts, May 2
Mar	131	1	Momentous Struggle Before Us, May 3
Mar	132	1	Wresting the Scriptures, May 4
Mar	133	1	False Theories About God, May 5
Mar	134	1	The Perils of False Science, May 6
Mar	135	1	A Masterpiece of Satan's Deceptions, May 7
Mar	136	1	The Times and Seasons, May 8
Mar	137	1	"As it was in the Days of Noe", May 9
Mar	138	1	A Great Terror Soon to Come, May 10
Mar	139	1	Youth and the Drug Syndrome, May 11
Mar	140	1	External Parade of Heathen Power, May 12
Mar	141	1	Turmoil in the Cities, May 13
Mar	142	1	Prejudice on the Increase, May 14
Mar	143	1	The Lust for Nakedness, May 15
Mar	144	1	The Criers of Peace, May 16
Mar	145	1	Sights and Sounds and Criminality, May 17
Mar	146	1	Spiritism and Revolution, May 18
Mar	147	1	Beware of Man-Made Tests, May 19
Mar	148	1	Healing can be from the Devil, May 20
Mar	149	1	The Violent Earth, May 21
Mar	150	1	Signs in the Heavens, May 22
Mar	151	1	The Stars of Heaven Fall, May 23
Mar	152	1	Ottoman Empire in Prophecy, May 24
Mar	153	1	Low State of Morals, May 25
Mar	154	1	Fanaticism and Tongues Speaking, May 26
Mar	155	1	Prove All Things, May 27
Mar	156	1	Counterfeits! May 28
Mar	157	1	Watch Out for the Dividers! May 29
Mar	158	1	The Results of False Visions, May 30
Mar	159	1	Moving into Line, May 31
Mar	160	1	Coming Events Clearly Revealed, June 1
Mar	161	1	Preparation for What Lies Ahead, June 2
Mar	162	1	Satan's Groundwork for the Final Conflict, June 3
Mar	163	1	The Devil's Strategy Against Sabbathkeepers, June 4
Mar	164	1	The Image to the Beast Set Up, June 5
Mar	165	1	Apostasy Prepares the Way, June 6
Mar	166	1	Spiritualism's Role in Deception, June 7
Mar	167	1	The Spirits and the Sunday Law Issue, June 8
Mar	168	1	The False Revival, June 9
Mar	169	1	How the Image to the Beast Evolves, June 10
Mar	170	1	The Sabbath Proclaimed More Fully, June 11
Mar	171	1	Second Angel's Message to be Repeated, June 12
Mar	172	1	Sabbath vs Sunday Issue Joins, June 13
Mar	173	1	Symbolism of the Three Angels' Messages, June 14
Mar	174	1	Armed Conflict in the Last Days, June 15
Mar	175	1	Troublous Times Right Upon Us, June 16
Mar	176	1	Calamities Blamed on God's People, June 17
Mar	177	1	Wisdom Needed by Sabbathkeepers, June 18
Mar	178	1	Sunday Missionary Work, June 19
Mar	179	1	God's Law Made Void in America, June 20
Mar	180	1	The Sign to Leave Large Cities, June 21
Mar	181	1	Food and Lands in the Last Days, June 22
Mar	182	1	Labor Unions and Trusts, June 23
Mar	183	1	Forbidden to Buy or Sell, June 24
Mar	184	1	Work the Cities from Outposts, June 25
Mar	185	1	Relief of Physical Suffering, June 26
Mar	186	1	The Sunday Law is Invoked, June 27
Mar	187	1	Protestantism Unites with the Papacy, June 28
Mar	188	1	Two Great Classes of Christians, June 29
Mar	189	1	Confusion of Many Voices, June 30
Mar	190	1	The Threefold Union of Religion, July 1
Mar	191	1	Satan and the Threefold Union, July 2
Mar	192	1	The Corruption of Truth, July 3
Mar	193	1	The United States in Prophecy, July 4
Mar	194	1	Persecution by Protestants and Catholics, July 5
Mar	195	1	Persecuted for Christ's Sake, July 6
Mar	196	1	Former Brethren Worst Persecutors, July 7
Mar	197	1	Betrayed by Friends and Relatives, July 8
Mar	198	1	Under Threat of Death, July 9
Mar	199	1	Martyrs in the Last Days, July 10
Mar	200	1	The Shaking Time, July 11
Mar	201	1	A View of the Shaking, July 12
Mar	202	1	Unity and Separation Under the Loud Cry, July 13
Mar	203	1	The Church Appears About to Fall, July 14
Mar	204	1	The Purification of the Church, July 15
Mar	205	1	Satan Personates Christ--1, July 16
Mar	206	1	Satan Personates Christ--2, July 17
Mar	207	1	Satanic Miracles--1, July 18
Mar	208	1	Satanic Miracles--2, July 19
Mar	209	1	God's People Brought to the Test, July 20
Mar	210	1	Sights of a Supernatural Character, July 21
Mar	211	1	The Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast, July 22
Mar	212	1	The Sealing and the Latter Rain, July 23
Mar	213	1	The Remnant and the Sealing, July 24
Mar	214	1	All Nations Follow America's Lead, July 25
Mar	215	1	The Beginning of the End, July 26
Mar	216	1	National Ruin Follows National Apostasy, July 27
Mar	217	1	The World Against God's People, July 28
Mar	218	1	The Angel of Revelation 18, July 29
Mar	219	1	The Early and the Latter Rain, July 30
Mar	220	1	High Time to Awake! July 31
Mar	221	1	"In These Hours of Probation," August 1
Mar	222	1	The Substance of Moral Character, August 2
Mar	223	1	Character a Quality of the Soul, August 3
Mar	224	1	Christ Our Helper and Redeemer, August 4
Mar	225	1	High Spiritual State Attainable, August 5
Mar	226	1	Reaching the Height of Christian Perfection, August 6
Mar	227	1	Perfection in the Human Sphere, August 7
Mar	228	1	Honorable in Motive and Action, August 8
Mar	229	1	Overcoming Bad Habits, August 9
Mar	230	1	Sanctification of the Whole Man, August 10
Mar	231	1	In Harmony with His Law, August 11
Mar	232	1	Counterfeit Sanctification, August 12
Mar	233	1	Impressions, Feelings, and Drugs, August 13
Mar	234	1	Drums, Dancing and Noise, August 14
Mar	235	1	No Room for Boasting, August 15
Mar	236	1	Salvation Day by Day, August 16
Mar	237	1	The Meaning of Conversion, August 17
Mar	238	1	Sanctification is for Sabbathkeepers, August 18
Mar	239	1	Sound the Note of Alarm, August 19
Mar	240	1	The Pure Mark of Truth, August 20
Mar	241	1	Who Receive the Seal? August 21
Mar	242	1	Time of Sealing Soon Over, August 22
Mar	243	1	Angels Can Read God's Mark, August 23
Mar	244	1	A Sign that Distinguishes God's People, August 24
Mar	245	1	Importance and Glory of the Sabbath, August 25
Mar	246	1	The Sabbath is God's Mark, August 26
Mar	247	1	Study the Subject of the Sanctuary, August 27
Mar	248	1	Cleansing of the Sanctuary, August 28
Mar	249	1	Instruction from the Sanctuary in Heaven, August 29
Mar	250	1	Judging the Cases of the Living, August 30
Mar	251	1	The Investigative Judgment, August 31
Mar	252	1	Standing Before Courts and Councils, September 1
Mar	253	1	Witnessing Before the Great Men of the Earth, September 2
Mar	254	1	Prepare to Meet Thy God, September 3
Mar	255	1	Promise of Divine Help, September 4
Mar	256	1	Another Pentecost Coming! September 5
Mar	257	1	The Battle of Armageddon Joins, September 6
Mar	258	1	Future Events Come in Order, September 7
Mar	259	1	A Little Time of Peace, September 8
Mar	260	1	The Peace and Safety Cry, September 9
Mar	261	1	God's Work is Finished, September 10
Mar	262	1	God Intervenes on Behalf of His People, September 11
Mar	263	1	Human Probation Closes, September 12
Mar	264	1	Close of Probation Passes Unnoticed, September 13
Mar	265	1	A Time of Trouble Such as Never Was, September 14
Mar	266	1	The Four Winds Loosed, September 15
Mar	267	1	Seven Last Plagues Begin to Fall, September 16
Mar	268	1	The Death Decree Issued, September 17
Mar	269	1	Marked for Death, September 18
Mar	270	1	Angelic Protection in the Time of Trouble, September 19
Mar	271	1	The Wicked During the Plagues, September 20
Mar	272	1	The Time of Jacob's Trouble, September 21
Mar	273	1	Why the Time of Trouble, September 22
Mar	274	1	God's Eye is Upon His People, September 23
Mar	275	1	The Great Time of Trouble, September 24
Mar	276	1	The Crowning Act of Deception, September 25
Mar	277	1	No Martyrs After Probation Closes, September 26
Mar	278	1	God's People Delivered, September 27
Mar	279	1	Midnight Deliverance, September 28
Mar	280	1	God Overturns Nature, September 29
Mar	281	1	The Special Resurrection, September 30
Mar	282	1	The Special Resurrection of the Unjust, October 1
Mar	283	1	The Elements Melt with Fervent Heat, October 2
Mar	284	1	A Graphic Illustration of the Seventh Plague, October 3
Mar	285	1	The Earth Flees from its Maker, October 4
Mar	286	1	God's Law Appears in the Heavens, October 5
Mar	287	1	The Day and Hour of Christ's Coming Announced, October 6
Mar	288	1	Gleams of the Golden Morning, October 7
Mar	289	1	The Second Coming of Christ, October 8
Mar	290	1	In the Dens and Caves of the Earth, October 9
Mar	291	1	Christ's Appearance at His Second Coming, October 10
Mar	292	1	Judgment at the Second Advent, October 11
Mar	293	1	They that Pierced Him, October 12
Mar	294	1	The Wicked Slay Each Other, October 13
Mar	295	1	The Wrath of the Lamb, October 14
Mar	296	1	God Intervenes in Armageddon, October 15
Mar	297	1	The Nature of the Final Battle, October 16
Mar	298	1	Be Ye Also Ready, October 17
Mar	299	1	The General Resurrection of the Righteous, October 18
Mar	300	1	Victory of the Sleeping Saints, October 19
Mar	301	1	Mysteries of the Resurrection, October 20
Mar	302	1	Life Eternal Begins Now, October 21
Mar	303	1	We shall Recognize Each Other, October 22
Mar	304	1	The Blessed Hope, October 23
Mar	305	1	Translation of the Righteous, October 24
Mar	306	1	The Earth Depopulated, October 25
Mar	307	1	Satan is Bound, October 26
Mar	308	1	Families will be Reunited, October 27
Mar	309	1	Crowns Being Prepared for the Faithful, October 28
Mar	310	1	A Crown for Every Child of God, October 29
Mar	311	1	Our Redemption Draweth Nigh, October 30
Mar	312	1	His Reward is with Him, October 31
Mar	313	1	The Captivity of Satan and His Angels, November 1
Mar	314	1	We Shall Meet Our Guardian Angels, November 2
Mar	315	1	Welcome to the City of God, November 3
Mar	316	1	Unspeakable Gladness, November 4
Mar	317	1	The Gratitude of the Redeemed, November 5
Mar	318	1	Heaven is Cheap Enough, November 6
Mar	319	1	Home at Last! November 7
Mar	320	1	Surprises When We Get to Heaven, November 8
Mar	321	1	Satisfying Answers, November 9
Mar	322	1	Set Your Affections on Things Above, November 10
Mar	323	1	The Reward of the Redeemed, November 11
Mar	324	1	Eye Hath Not Seen, Nor Ear Heard, November 12
Mar	325	1	Life-Giving Fruit, November 13
Mar	326	1	The Bow-Circled Throne, November 14
Mar	327	1	We Shall See the King, November 15
Mar	328	1	The One Hundred Forty-Four Thousand, November 16
Mar	329	1	The Great Multitude of the Redeemed, November 17
Mar	330	1	The Soul Winner's Reward, November 18
Mar	331	1	Think on Heavenly Things, November 19
Mar	332	1	The Glories of the Heavenly World, November 20
Mar	333	1	Look at Things Eternal, November 21
Mar	334	1	Blessed are they that Wash their Robes, November 22
Mar	335	1	The Millennial Judgment, November 23
Mar	336	1	Christ Again Returns to the Earth, November 24
Mar	337	1	Satan Loosed from His Prison, November 25
Mar	338	1	The Wicked Prepare to Attack the New Jerusalem, November 26
Mar	339	1	The Last Judgment, November 27
Mar	340	1	Every Work will be Brought into Judgment, November 28
Mar	341	1	Christ is Judge, November 29
Mar	342	1	Rewards and Punishments, November 30
Mar	343	1	The Panoramic Scene Above the Holy City, December 1
Mar	344	1	Historical Persons Present at the Judgment, December 2
Mar	345	1	The Wicked Acknowledge God's Justice, December 3
Mar	346	1	God's Character Vindicated, December 4
Mar	347	1	Sin and Sinners Destroyed, December 5
Mar	348	1	Only One Reminder of Sin, December 6
Mar	349	1	We Belong to the Royal Family, December 7
Mar	350	1	Satisfying Employment, December 8
Mar	351	1	The New Heavens and the New Earth, December 9
Mar	352	1	No More Death--Ever! December 10
Mar	353	1	Inheritance of the Saved, December 11
Mar	354	1	Garden of Eden Restored, December 12
Mar	355	1	Glories of the Eternal World, December 13
Mar	356	1	At Home in the New Jerusalem, December 14
Mar	357	1	The Immortal Inheritance, December 15
Mar	358	1	The Church Triumphant, December 16
Mar	359	1	Unexpected Recompense, December 17
Mar	360	1	New Earth Activities, December 18
Mar	361	1	Incomparable Music, December 19
Mar	362	1	Our Saviour's Highest Honor, December 20
Mar	363	1	The School of the Hereafter, December 21
Mar	364	1	Christ will be Our Teacher, December 22
Mar	365	1	Our Study in Ages to Come, December 23
Mar	366	1	Inexhaustible Themes, December 24
Mar	367	1	The Universe Our Field of Study, December 25
Mar	368	1	Worlds Upon Worlds to be Visited, December 26
Mar	369	1	Speculations Concerning the New Earth, December 27
Mar	370	1	Christ's Kingdom of Love, December 28
Mar	371	1	The Sabbath in the Hereafter, December 29
Mar	372	1	Eternal Security, December 30
Mar	373	1	What Eternity Holds for the Redeemed, December 31

------------------------The First Coming of Jesus, January 1
Mar	9	1	When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,...to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Galatians 4:4, 5.
Mar	9	2	The Saviour's coming was foretold in Eden. When Adam and Eve first heard the promise, they looked for its speedy fulfillment. They joyfully welcomed their first-born son, hoping that he might be the Deliverer. But the fulfillment of the promise tarried. Those who first received it died without the sight. From the days of Enoch the promise was repeated through patriarchs and prophets, keeping alive the hope of His appearing, and yet He came not. The prophecy of Daniel revealed the time of His advent, but not all rightly interpreted the message. Century after century passed away; the voices of the prophets ceased. The hand of the oppressor was heavy upon Israel, and many were ready to exclaim, "The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth." Ezekiel 12:22.
Mar	9	3	But like the stars in the vast circuit of their appointed path, God's purposes know no haste and no delay. Through the symbols of the great darkness and the smoking furnace, God had revealed to Abraham the bondage of Israel in Egypt, and had declared that the time of their sojourning should be four hundred years. "Afterward," He said, "shall they come out with great substance." Genesis 15:14. Against that word, all the power of Pharaoh's proud empire battled in vain. On "the self-same day" appointed in the divine promise, "it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt." Exodus 12:41. So in heaven's council the hour for the coming of Christ had been determined. When the great clock of time pointed to that hour, Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
Mar	9	4	"When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son." Providence had directed the movements of nations, and the tide of human impulse and influence, until the world was ripe for the coming of the Deliverer....
Mar	9	5	Then Jesus came to restore in man the image of his Maker. None but Christ can fashion anew the character that has been ruined by sin. He came to expel the demons that had controlled the will. He came to lift us up from the dust, to reshape the marred character after the pattern of His divine character, and to make it beautiful with His own glory.
------------------------The Lesson of Bethlehem, January 2
Mar	10	1	Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Hebrews 9:28.
Mar	10	2	At the time of Christ's first advent the priests and scribes of the Holy City, to whom were entrusted the oracles of God, might have discerned the signs of the times and proclaimed the coming of the Promised One. The prophecy of Micah designated His birthplace; Daniel specified the time of His advent. God committed these prophecies to the Jewish leaders; they were without excuse if they did not know and declare to the people that the Messiah's coming was at hand. Their ignorance was the result of sinful neglect....
Mar	10	3	All the people should have been watching and waiting that they might be among the first to welcome the world's Redeemer. But, lo, at Bethlehem two weary travelers from the hills of Nazareth traverse the whole length of the narrow street to the eastern extremity of the town, vainly seeking a place of rest and shelter for the night. No doors are open to receive them. In a wretched hovel prepared for cattle, they at last find refuge, and there the Saviour of the world is born....
Mar	10	4	There is no evidence that Christ is expected, and no preparation for the Prince of life. In amazement the celestial messenger is about to return to heaven with the shameful tidings, when he discovers a group of shepherds who are watching their flocks by night, and as they gaze into the starry heavens, are contemplating the prophecy of a Messiah to come to earth, and longing for the advent of the world's Redeemer. Here is a company that is prepared to receive the heavenly message. And suddenly the angel of the Lord appears, declaring the good tidings of great joy....
Mar	10	5	Oh, what a lesson is this wonderful story of Bethlehem! How it rebukes our unbelief, our pride and self-sufficiency. How it warns us to beware, lest by our criminal indifference we also fail to discern the signs of the times, and therefore know not the day of our visitation.
------------------------When Jesus was Born, January 3
Mar	11	1	When Jesus was born in Bethlehem...there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? Matthew 2:1, 2.
Mar	11	2	The King of glory stooped low to take humanity; and angels, who had witnessed His splendor in the heavenly courts, as He was worshiped by all the heavenly hosts, were disappointed to find their divine Commander in a position of so great humiliation.
Mar	11	3	The Jews had separated themselves so far from God by their wicked works, that angels could not communicate to them the tidings of the advent of the infant Redeemer. God chooses the wise men of the East to do His will....
Mar	11	4	These wise men had seen the heavens illuminated with light, which enshrouded the heavenly host who heralded the advent of Christ to the humble shepherds....
Mar	11	5	This light was a distant cluster of flaming angels, which appeared like a luminous star. The unusual appearance of the large bright star, which they had never seen before, hanging as a sign in the heavens, attracted their attention....The wise men directed their course where the star seemed to lead them. And as they drew nigh to the city of Jerusalem, the star was enshrouded in darkness, and no longer guided them. They reasoned that the Jews could not be ignorant of the great event of the advent of the Messiah, and they made inquiries in the vicinity of Jerusalem.
Mar	11	6	The wise men are surprised to see no unusual interest upon the subject of the coming of the Messiah....They marvel that the Jews are not interested and joyful in prospect of this great event of the advent of Christ.
Mar	11	7	The churches of our time are seeking worldly aggrandizement, and are as unwilling to see the light of the prophecies, and receive the evidences of their fulfillment which show that Christ is soon to come, as were the Jews in reference to His first appearing. They were looking for the temporal and triumphant reign of Messiah in Jerusalem. Professed Christians of our time are expecting the temporal prosperity of the church, in the conversion of the world, and the enjoyment of the temporal millennium.
------------------------The Hope of the Second Coming, January 4
Mar	12	1	He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Revelation 22:20.
Mar	12	2	The [second] coming of the Lord has been in all ages the hope of His true followers. The Saviour's parting promise upon Olivet, that He would come again, lighted up the future for His disciples, filling their hearts with joy and hope that sorrow could not quench nor trials dim. Amid suffering and persecution, "the appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" was the "blessed hope." When the Thessalonian Christians were filled with grief as they buried their loved ones, who had hoped to live to witness the coming of the Lord, Paul, their teacher, pointed them to the resurrection, to take place at the Saviour's advent. Then the dead in Christ should rise, and together with the living be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. "And so," he said, "shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. ...
Mar	12	3	From the dungeon, the stake, the scaffold, where saints and martyrs witnessed for the truth, comes down the centuries the utterance of their faith and hope. Being "assured of His personal resurrection, and consequently of their own at His coming, for this cause," says one of these Christians, "they despised death, and were found to be above it."--Daniel T. Taylor, The Reign of Christ on Earth: or, The Voice of the Church in All Ages, p. 33. They were willing to go down to the grave, that they might "rise free." They looked for the "Lord to come from heaven in the clouds with the glory of His Father," "bringing to the just the times of the kingdom." The Waldenses cherished the same faith. Wycliffe looked forward to the Redeemer's appearing as the hope of the church.
Mar	12	4	On rocky Patmos the beloved disciple hears the promise, "Surely I come quickly," and his longing response voices the prayer of the church in all her pilgrimage, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Revelation 22:20.
------------------------The Keynote of Scripture, January 5
Mar	13	1	I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. Job 19:25.
Mar	13	2	One of the most solemn and yet most glorious truths revealed in the Bible is that of Christ's second coming, to complete the great work of redemption. To God's pilgrim people, so long left to sojourn in "the region and shadow of death," a precious, joy-inspiring hope is given in the promise of His appearing, who is "the resurrection and the life," to "bring home again His banished." The doctrine of the second advent is the very key-note of the Sacred Scriptures. From the day when the first pair turned their sorrowing steps from Eden, the children of faith have waited the coming of the Promised One to break the destroyer's power and bring them again to the lost Paradise. ... Enoch, only the seventh in descent from them that dwelt in Eden, he who for three centuries on earth walked with his God, was permitted to behold from afar the coming of the Deliverer. "Behold," he declared, "the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all." The patriarch Job in the night of his affliction exclaimed with unshaken trust: "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:... in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another."
Mar	13	3	May the God of all grace so enlighten your understanding that you may discern eternal things, that by the light of truth your own errors, which are many, may be discovered to you just as they are, that you may make the necessary effort to put them away, and in the place of this evil, bitter fruit may bring forth fruit which is precious unto eternal life.
Mar	13	4	Humble your poor, proud, self-righteous heart before God; get low, very low, all broken in your sinfulness at His feet. Devote yourself to the work of preparation. Rest not until you can truly say: My Redeemer liveth, and, because He lives, I shall live also.
Mar	13	5	If you lose heaven, you lose everything; if you gain heaven, you gain everything. Do not make a mistake in this matter, I implore you. Eternal interests are here involved.
------------------------Faith of the Reformers, January 6
Mar	14	1	The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 1 Corinthians 15:26.
Mar	14	2	Luther declared: "I persuade myself verily, that the day of judgment will not be absent full three hundred years. God will not, cannot, suffer this wicked world much longer." "The great day is drawing near in which the kingdom of abominations shall be overthrown."--Daniel T. Taylor, The Reign of Christ on Earth: or, The Voice of the Church in All Ages, p. 33.
Mar	14	3	"This aged world is not far from its end," said Melanchthon. Calvin bids Christians "not to hesitate, ardently desiring the day of Christ's coming as of all events most auspicious;" and declares that "the whole family of the faithful will keep in view that day." "We must hunger after Christ, we must seek, contemplate," he says, "till the dawning of that great day, when our Lord will fully manifest the glory of His kingdom."--The Great Controversy, 158, 134.
Mar	14	4	"Has not the Lord Jesus carried up our flesh into heaven?" said Knox, the Scotch Reformer, "and shall He not return? We know that He shall return, and that with expedition." Ridley and Latimer, who laid down their lives for the truth, looked in faith for the Lord's coming. Ridley wrote: "The world without doubt--this I do believe, and therefore I say it--draws to an end. Let us with John, the servant of God, cry in our hearts unto our Saviour Christ, Come, Lord Jesus, come."--The Great Controversy, 151, 145.
Mar	14	5	"The thoughts of the coming of the Lord," said Baxter, "are most sweet and joyful to me."--Richard Baxter, Works, vol. 17, p. 555. "It is the work of faith and the character of His saints to love His appearing and to look for that blessed hope." "If death be the last enemy to be destroyed at the resurrection, we may learn how earnestly believers should long and pray for the second coming of Christ, when this full and final conquest shall be made."--The Great Controversy, 17, 500. "This is the day that all believers should long, and hope, and wait for, as being the accomplishment of all the work of their redemption, and all the desires and endeavors of their souls." "Hasten, O Lord, this blessed day!"--The Great Controversy, 17, 182, 183. Such was the hope of the apostolic church, of the "church in the wilderness," and of the Reformers.
------------------------The Key to History, January 7
Mar	15	1	Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come. Isaiah 21:11 (last part), 12.
Mar	15	2	An understanding of the hope of Christ's second coming is the key that unlocks all the history that follows, and explains all the future lessons.
Mar	15	3	The voice of the true watchman needs now to be heard all along the line, "The morning cometh, and also the night." The trumpet must give a certain sound, for we are in the great day of the Lord's preparation.
Mar	15	4	The truths of prophecy are bound up together, and as we study them, they form a beautiful cluster of practical Christian truth. All the discourses that we give are plainly to reveal that we are waiting, working, and praying for the coming of the Son of God. His coming is our hope. This hope is to be bound up with all our words and works, with all our associations and relationships....
Mar	15	5	The second coming of the Son of man is to be the wonderful theme kept before the people. Here is a subject that should not be left out of our discourses. Eternal realities must be kept before the mind's eye, and the attractions of the world will appear as they are, altogether profitless as vanity. What are we to do with the world's vanities, its praises, its riches, its honors, or its enjoyments?
Mar	15	6	We are pilgrims and strangers who are waiting, hoping, and praying for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If we believe this and bring it into our practical life, what vigorous action would this faith and hope inspire; what fervent love one for another; what careful holy living for the glory of God; and in our respect for the recompense of the reward, what distinct lines of demarcation would be evidenced between us and the world....
Mar	15	7	The truth that Christ is coming should be kept before every mind.
------------------------Parallel Disappointments, January 8
Mar	16	1	Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. James 5:11.
Mar	16	2	Not infrequently the minds of the people, and even of God's servants, are so blinded by human opinions, the traditions and false teaching of men, that they are able only partially to grasp the great things which He has revealed in His word. Thus it was with the disciples of Christ, even when the Saviour was with them in person. Their minds had become imbued with the popular conception of the Messiah as a temporal prince, who was to exalt Israel to the throne of the universal empire, and they could not understand the meaning of His words foretelling His sufferings and death....
Mar	16	3	From their very birth their hearts had been set upon the anticipated glory of an earthly empire, and this blinded their understanding....
Mar	16	4	The experience of the disciples who preached the "gospel of the kingdom" at the first advent of Christ, had its counterpart in the experience of those who proclaimed the message of His second advent....
Mar	16	5	Like the first disciples, William Miller and his associates did not, themselves, fully comprehend the import of the message which they bore. Errors that had been long established in the church prevented them from arriving at a correct interpretation of an important point in the prophecy. Therefore, though they proclaimed the message which God had committed to them to be given to the world, yet through a misapprehension of its meaning they suffered disappointment....
Mar	16	6	With these believers, as with the first disciples, that which in the hour of trial seemed dark to their understanding would afterward be made plain. When they should see the "end of the Lord" they would know that, notwithstanding the trial resulting from their errors, His purposes of love toward them had been steadily fulfilling. They would learn by a blessed experience that He is "very pitiful, and of tender mercy;" that all His paths "are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies."
------------------------Humble Men Proclaim the Message, January 9
Mar	17	1	We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts. 2 Peter 1:19.
Mar	17	2	This message [Revelation 14:6, 7] is declared to be a part of "the everlasting gospel." The work of preaching the gospel has not been committed to angels, but has been entrusted to men. Holy angels have been employed in directing this work, they have in charge the great movements for the salvation of men; but the actual proclamation of the gospel is performed by the servants of Christ upon the earth.
Mar	17	3	Faithful men, who were obedient to the promptings of God's Spirit and the teachings of His word, were to proclaim this warning to the world. They were those who had taken heed to the "sure word of prophecy," the "light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise." 2 Peter 1:19. They had been seeking the knowledge of God more than all hid treasures, counting it "better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold." Proverbs 3:14. And the Lord revealed to them the great things of the kingdom. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant." Psalm 25:14.
Mar	17	4	It was not the scholarly theologians who had an understanding of this truth, and engaged in its proclamation. Had these been faithful watchmen, diligently and prayerfully searching the Scriptures, they would have known the time of night; the prophecies would have opened to them the events about to take place. But they did not occupy this position, and the message was given by humbler men. Said Jesus: "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you." John 12:35. Those who turn away from the light which God has given, or who neglect to seek it when it is within their reach, are left in darkness. But the Saviour declares: "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8:12. Whoever is with singleness of purpose seeking to do God's will, earnestly heeding the light already given, will receive greater light; to that soul some star of heavenly radiance will be sent to guide him into all truth.
------------------------The Truth will Triumph, January 10
Mar	18	1	The angel ... sware by him that liveth for ever ... that there should be time no longer. Revelation 10:5, 6.
Mar	18	2	The message of Revelation 14, proclaiming that the hour of God's judgment is come, is given in the time of the end; and the angel of Revelation 10 is represented as having one foot on the sea and one foot on the land, showing that the message will be carried to distant lands, the ocean will be crossed, and the islands of the sea will hear the proclamation of the last message of warning....
Mar	18	3	"And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer" (Revelation 10:5, 6). This message announces the end of the prophetic periods. The disappointment of those who expected to see our Lord in 1844 was indeed bitter to those who had so ardently looked for His appearing. It was in the Lord's order that this disappointment should come....
Mar	18	4	Not one cloud has fallen upon the church that God has not prepared for; not one opposing force has risen to counterwork the work of God but He has foreseen. All has taken place as He has predicted through His prophets. He has not left His church in darkness, forsaken, but has traced in prophetic declarations what would occur, and through His providence, acting in its appointed place in the world's history, He has brought about that which His Holy Spirit inspired the prophets to foretell. All His purposes will be fulfilled and established. His law is linked with His throne, and satanic agencies combined with human agencies cannot destroy it. Truth is inspired and guarded by God; it will live, and will succeed, although it may appear at times to be overshadowed. The gospel of Christ is the law exemplified in character. The deceptions practiced against it, every device for vindicating falsehood, every error forged by satanic agencies, will eventually be eternally broken, and the triumph of truth will be like the appearing of the sun at noonday. The Sun of Righteousness shall shine forth with healing in His wings, and the whole earth shall be filled with His glory.
------------------------Hastening Our Lord's Return, January 11
Mar	19	1	He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. Romans 9:28.
Mar	19	2	In the prophecy of Jerusalem's destruction Christ said, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." This prophecy will again be fulfilled. The abounding iniquity of that day finds its counterpart in this generation. So with the prediction in regard to the preaching of the gospel. Before the fall of Jerusalem, Paul, writing by the Holy Spirit, declared that the gospel was preached to "every creature which is under heaven." Colossians 1:23. So now, before the coming of the Son of man, the everlasting gospel is to be preached "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." Revelation 14:6, 14. God "hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world." Acts 17:31. Christ tells us when that day shall be ushered in. He does not say that all the world will be converted, but that "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." By giving the gospel to the world it is in our power to hasten our Lord's return. We are not only to look for but to hasten the coming of the day of God. 2 Peter 3:12, margin. Had the church of Christ done her appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would before this have been warned, and the Lord Jesus would have come to our earth in power and great glory.
Mar	19	3	It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife among the Lord's professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years....
Mar	19	4	We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years, as did the children of Israel; but for Christ's sake, His people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequence of their own wrong course of action.
------------------------Last Warnings of the Third Angel, January 12
Mar	20	1	After these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. Revelation 18:1.
Mar	20	2	The angel who unites in the proclamation of the third angel's message is to lighten the whole earth with his glory. A work of world-wide extent and unwonted power is here foretold. The advent movement of 1840-44 was a glorious manifestation of the power of God; the first angel's message was carried to every missionary station in the world, and in some countries there was the greatest religious interest which has been witnessed in any land since the Reformation of the sixteenth century; but these are to be exceeded by the mighty movement under the last warning of the third angel....
Mar	20	3	The great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening. The prophecies which were fulfilled in the outpouring of the former rain at the opening of the gospel are again to be fulfilled in the latter rain at its close....
Mar	20	4	Servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven. By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given. Miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers. Satan also works with lying wonders, even bringing down fire from heaven in the sight of men. Revelation 13:13. Thus the inhabitants of the earth will be brought to take their stand....
Mar	20	5	The publications distributed by missionary workers have exerted their influence, yet many whose minds were impressed have been prevented from fully comprehending the truth or from yielding obedience. Now the rays of light penetrate everywhere, the truth is seen in its clearness, and the honest children of God sever the bands which have held them. Family connections, church relations, are powerless to stay them now. Truth is more precious than all besides. Notwithstanding the agencies combined against the truth, a large number take their stand upon the Lord's side.
------------------------He shall Reign Forever, January 13
Mar	21	1	The seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. Revelation 11:15.
Mar	21	2	The coming of Christ to usher in the reign of righteousness has inspired the most sublime ... utterances of the sacred writers.... The psalmist sang of the power and majesty of Israel's King: ... "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ... before the Lord: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth." Psalm 96:11-13.
Mar	21	3	Said the prophet Isaiah:... "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it...." Isaiah 25:8....
Mar	21	4	When the Saviour was about to be separated from His disciples, He comforted them in their sorrow with the assurance that He would come again: "Let not your heart be troubled....In my Father's house are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself." John 14:1-3....
Mar	21	5	The angels who lingered upon Olivet after Christ's ascension repeated to the disciples the promise of His return: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1:11. And the apostle Paul, speaking by the Spirit of Inspiration, testified: "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Says the prophet of Patmos: "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him." Revelation 1:7.
Mar	21	6	About His coming cluster the glories of that "restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." Acts 3:21. Then the long-continued rule of evil shall be broken; "the kingdoms of this world" will become "the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." Revelation 11:15.
------------------------The Elijah Prophecy, January 14
Mar	22	1	Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Malachi 4:5, 6.
Mar	22	2	Those who are to prepare the way for the second coming of Christ are represented by faithful Elijah, as John came in the spirit of Elijah to prepare the way for Christ's first advent.
Mar	22	3	The work of John the Baptist, and the work of those who in the last days go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah to arouse the people from their apathy, are in many respects the same. His work is a type of the work that must be done in this age. Christ is to come the second time to judge the world in righteousness.
Mar	22	4	John separated himself from friends and from the luxuries of life. The simplicity of his dress, a garment woven of camel's hair, was a standing rebuke to the extravagance and display of the Jewish priests, and of the people generally. His diet, purely vegetable, of locusts and wild honey, was a rebuke to the indulgence of appetite and the gluttony that everywhere prevailed. ... The great subject of reform is to be agitated, and the public mind is to be stirred. Temperance in all things is to be connected with the message, to turn the people of God from their idolatry, their gluttony, and their extravagance in dress and other things.
Mar	22	5	The self-denial, humility, and temperance required of the righteous, whom God especially leads and blesses, is to be presented to the people in contrast to the extravagant, health-destroying habits of those who live in this degenerate age. God has shown that health reform is as closely connected with the third angel's message as the hand is with the body.
Mar	22	6	As John the Baptist ... called their attention to the Ten Commandments, so we are to give, with no uncertain sound, the message: "Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come." With the earnestness that characterized Elijah the prophet and John the Baptist, we are to strive to prepare the way for Christ's second advent.
------------------------Uplift Jesus as the Center, January 15
Mar	23	1	I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. Revelation 22:16.
Mar	23	2	The perils of the last days are upon us, and in our work we are to warn the people of the danger they are in. Let not the solemn scenes which prophecy has revealed be left untouched. If our people were half awake, if they realized the nearness of the events portrayed in the Revelation, a reformation would be wrought in our churches, and many more would believe the message. We have no time to lose.... Advance new principles, and crowd in the clear-cut truth. It will be as a sword cutting both ways. But be not too ready to take a controversial attitude. There will be times when we must stand still and see the salvation of God. Let Daniel speak, let the Revelation speak, and tell what is truth. But whatever phase of the subject is presented, uplift Jesus as the center of all hope, "the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."
Mar	23	3	We do not go deep enough in our search for truth. Every soul who believes present truth will be brought where he will be required to give a reason of the hope that is in him. The people of God will be called upon to stand before kings, princes, rulers, and great men of the earth, and they must know that they do know what is truth. They must be converted men and women. God can teach you more in one moment by His Holy Spirit than you could learn from the great men of the earth. The universe is looking upon the controversy that is going on upon the earth. At an infinite cost, God has provided for every man an opportunity to know that which will make him wise unto salvation. How eagerly do angels look to see who will avail himself of this opportunity! When a message is presented to God's people, they should not rise up in opposition to it; they should go to the Bible, comparing it with the law and the testimony, and if it does not bear this test, it is not true. God wants our minds to expand. He desires to put His grace upon us. We may have a feast of good things every day, for God can open the whole treasure of heaven to us.
------------------------The Field is the World, January 16
Mar	24	1	Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Matthew 28:19.
Mar	24	2	While in California in the year 1874, I was given an impressive dream....
Mar	24	3	I dreamed that several of the brethren in California were in council, considering the best plan for labor during the coming season....
Mar	24	4	A young man whom I had frequently seen in my dreams, came into the council. He listened with deep interest to the words that were spoken, and then, speaking with deliberation and authoritative confidence, said:
Mar	24	5	"The cities and villages constitute a part of the Lord's vineyard. They must hear the messages of warning. The enemy of truth is making desperate efforts to turn the people from the truth of God to falsehood.... You are to sow beside all waters.
Mar	24	6	"It may be that you will not at once see the result of your labor, but this should not discourage you. Take Christ as your example. He had many hearers, but few followers." ...
Mar	24	7	The messenger continued: "You are entertaining too limited ideas of the work for this time. You are trying to plan the work so that you can embrace it in your arms. You must take broader views. Your light must not be put under a bushel or under a bed, but on a candlestick, that it may give light to all that are in the house. Your house is the world....
Mar	24	8	"Many countries are waiting for the advanced light the Lord has for them; and your faith is limited, it is very small. Your conception of the work needs to be greatly enlarged.... Go forward. God will work with great power if you will walk in all humility of mind before Him. It is not faith to talk of impossibilities. Nothing is impossible with God. The light of the binding claims of the law of God is to test...the world."...
Mar	24	9	Time is short; and all who believe this message, should feel a solemn obligation resting upon them to be disinterested workers, exerting their influence on the right side, and never by word or action be found arrayed against those who are seeking to advance the interests of God's cause....The light God has given us isn't worth much to the world unless it can be seen by being presented before them.
------------------------God's Judgments in the Land, January 17
Mar	25	1	Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. Luke 21:26.
Mar	25	2	O that God's people had a sense of the impending destruction of thousands of cities, now almost given to idolatry! ...
Mar	25	3	Not long ago a very impressive scene passed before me. I saw an immense ball of fire falling among some beautiful mansions, causing their instant destruction. I heard someone say, "We knew that the judgments of God were coming upon the earth, but we did not know that they would come so soon." Others said, "You knew? Why then did you not tell us? We did not know." On every side I heard such words spoken....
Mar	25	4	Soon grievous troubles will arise among the nations--trouble that will not cease until Jesus comes. As never before we need to press together, serving Him who has prepared His throne in the heavens and whose kingdom ruleth over all. God has not forsaken His people, and our strength lies in not forsaking Him.
Mar	25	5	The judgments of God are in the land. The wars and rumors of wars, the destruction by fire and flood, say clearly that the time of trouble, which is to increase until the end, is very near at hand. We have no time to lose. The world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecies of the eleventh of Daniel have almost reached their final fulfillment....
Mar	25	6	Last Friday morning, just before I awoke, a very impressive scene was presented before me. I seemed to awake from sleep but was not in my home. From the windows I could behold a terrible conflagration. Great balls of fire were falling upon houses, and from these balls fiery arrows were flying in every direction. It was impossible to check the fires that were kindled, and many places were being destroyed. The terror of the people was indescribable.
Mar	25	7	Strictly will the cities of the nations be dealt with, and yet they will not be visited in the extreme of God's indignation, because some souls will yet break away from the delusions of the enemy, and will repent and be converted, while the mass will be treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.
------------------------A Better and Nobler Way, January 18
Mar	26	1	Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well. Isaiah 1:16, 17.
Mar	26	2	Ignorance, pleasure loving, and sinful habits, corrupting soul, body, and spirit, make the world full of moral leprosy; a deadly moral malaria is destroying thousands and tens of thousands.
Mar	26	3	Many are sunken in sin. Many are in distress. They are pressed with suffering, want, unbelief, despondency. Disease of every type afflicts them, both in body and in soul. They long to find a solace for their troubles, and Satan tempts them to seek it in lusts and pleasures that lead to ruin and death. He is offering them the apples of Sodom, that will turn to ashes upon their lips.
Mar	26	4	A terrible picture of the condition of the world has been presented before me. Immorality abounds everywhere. Licentiousness is the special sin of this age. Never did vice lift its deformed head with such boldness as now.... The iniquity which abounds is not merely confined to the unbeliever and the scoffer. Would that this were the case, but it is not. Many men and women who profess the religion of Christ are guilty. Even some who profess to be looking for His appearing are no more prepared for that event than Satan himself. They are not cleansing themselves from all pollution. They have so long served their lust that it is natural for their thoughts to be impure and their imaginations corrupt. It is as impossible to cause their minds to dwell upon pure and holy things as it would be to turn the course of Niagara and send its waters pouring up the falls.... Every Christian will have to learn to restrain his passions and be controlled by principle....
Mar	26	5	If lasciviousness, pollution, adultery, crime, and murder are the order of the day among those who know not the truth, and who refuse to be controlled by the principles of God's word, how important that the class professing to be followers of Christ, closely allied to God and angels, should show them a better and nobler way! How important that by their chastity and virtue they stand in marked contrast to that class who are controlled by brute passions!
------------------------When the Loud Cry Sounds, January 19
Mar	27	1	And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Romans 13:11.
Mar	27	2	The end is near, stealing upon us stealthily, imperceptibly, like the noiseless approach of a thief in the night. May the Lord grant that we shall no longer sleep as do others, but that we shall watch and be sober. The truth is soon to triumph gloriously, and all who now choose to be laborers together with God, will triumph with it. The time is short; the night soon cometh when no man can work....
Mar	27	3	The time is coming when there will be as many converted in a day as there were on the day of Pentecost, after the disciples had received the Holy Spirit....
Mar	27	4	Many have let the gospel invitation go unheeded; they have been tested and tried; but mountainous obstacles have seemed to loom up before their faces, blocking their onward march. Through faith, perseverance, and courage, many will surmount these obstructions and walk out into the glorious light.
Mar	27	5	Almost unconsciously barriers have been erected in the strait and narrow way; stones of stumbling have been placed in the path; these will all be rolled away. The safeguards which false shepherds have thrown around their flocks will become as nought; thousands will step out into the light, and work to spread the light. Heavenly intelligences will combine with the human agencies. Thus encouraged, the church will indeed arise and shine, throwing all her sanctified energies into the contest; thus the design of God is accomplished; the lost pearls are recovered....
Mar	27	6	During the loud cry, the church, aided by the providential interpositions of her exalted Lord, will diffuse the knowledge of salvation so abundantly that light will be communicated to every city and town. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of salvation. So abundantly will the renewing Spirit of God have crowned with success the intensely active agencies, that the light of present truth will be seen flashing everywhere.
------------------------The Faithful Ones will not Fail, January 20
Mar	28	1	Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:12.
Mar	28	2	We have need now for more than human wisdom in reading and searching the Scriptures; and if we come to God's Word with humble hearts, He will raise up a standard for us against the lawless element.
Mar	28	3	It is difficult to hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end; and the difficulty increases when there are hidden influences constantly at work to bring in another spirit, a counterworking element, on Satan's side of the question. In the absence of persecution, there have drifted into our ranks some who appear sound, and their Christianity unquestionable, but who, if persecution should arise, would go out from us. In the crisis, they would see force in specious reasoning that has had an influence on their minds. Satan has prepared various snares to meet varied minds. When the law of God is made void the church will be sifted by fiery trials, and a larger proportion than we now anticipate, will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Instead of being strengthened when brought into strait places, many prove that they are not living branches of the True Vine....
Mar	28	4	But when the world makes void the law of God, what will be the effect upon the truly obedient and righteous? Will they be carried away by the strong current of evil? Because so many rank themselves under the banner of the prince of darkness, will God's commandment-keeping people swerve from their allegiance? Never! Not one who is abiding in Christ will fail or fall. His followers will bow in obedience to a higher authority than that of any earthly potentate. While the contempt placed upon God's commandments leads many to suppress the truth and show less reverence for it, the faithful ones will with greater earnestness hold aloft its distinguishing truths. We are not left to our own direction.... We should consult His Word with humble hearts, ask His counsel, and give up our will to His. We can do nothing without God.
------------------------Labor to Win Even One Soul, January 21
Mar	29	1	What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? Luke 15:4.
Mar	29	2	For the conversion of one soul we should tax our resources to the utmost. One soul won to Christ will flash heaven's light all around him, penetrating the moral darkness and saving other souls.
Mar	29	3	If Christ left the ninety and nine, that He might seek and save the one lost sheep, can we be justified in doing less? Is not a neglect to work even as Christ worked, to sacrifice as He sacrificed, a betrayal of sacred trusts, an insult to God?
Mar	29	4	Sound an alarm throughout the length and breadth of the earth. Tell the people that the day of the Lord is near and hasteth greatly. Let none be left unwarned. We might have been in the place of the poor souls that are in error. We might have been placed among barbarians. According to the truth we have received above others, we are debtors to impart the same to them.
Mar	29	5	We have no time to lose. The end is near. The passage from place to place to spread the truth will soon be hedged with dangers on the right hand and on the left. Everything will be placed to obstruct the way of the Lord's messengers, so that they will not be able to do that which it is possible for them to do now. We must look our work fairly in the face and advance as fast as possible in aggressive warfare. From the light given me of God I know that the powers of darkness are working with intense energy from beneath, and with stealthy tread Satan is advancing to take those who are now asleep, as a wolf taking his prey. We have warnings now which we may give, a work now which we may do; but soon it will be more difficult than we can imagine. God help us to keep in the channel of light, to work with our eyes fastened on Jesus our Leader, and patiently, perseveringly press on to gain the victory.
Mar	29	6	In our life here, earthly, sin-restricted though it is, the greatest joy and the highest education are in service. And in the future state, untrammeled by the limitations of sinful humanity, it is in service that our greatest joy and our highest education will be found.
------------------------Study Daniel and the Revelation, January 22
Mar	30	1	Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. Revelation 1:3.
Mar	30	2	A message that will arouse the churches is to be proclaimed. Every effort is to be made to give the light, not only to our people, but to the world. I have been instructed that the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation should be printed in small books, with the necessary explanations, and should be sent all over the world. Our own people need to have the light placed before them in clearer lines.
Mar	30	3	Those who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God will bring from the books of Daniel and Revelation truth that is inspired by the Holy Spirit. They will start into action forces that cannot be repressed. The lips of children will be opened to proclaim the mysteries that have been hidden from the minds of men....
Mar	30	4	Many of the prophecies are about to be fulfilled in quick succession. Every element of power is about to be set to work. Past history will be repeated; old controversies will arouse to new life, and peril will beset God's people on every side. Intensity is taking hold of the human family. It is permeating everything upon the earth....
Mar	30	5	Study Revelation in connection with Daniel, for history will be repeated.... We, with all our religious advantages, ought to know far more today than we do know.
Mar	30	6	Angels desire to look into the truths that are revealed to the people who with contrite hearts are searching the word of God and praying for greater lengths and breadths and depths and heights of the knowledge which He alone can give.
Mar	30	7	As we near the close of this world's history, the prophecies relating to the last days especially demand our study. The last book of the New Testament Scriptures is full of truth that we need to understand. Satan has blinded the minds of many so that they have been glad of any excuse for not making the Revelation their study. But Christ through His servant John has here declared what shall be in the last days; and He says, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein."
------------------------Intolerance and Persecution, January 23
Mar	31	1	If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. John 15:20.
Mar	31	2	Persecution in its varied forms is the development of a principle which will exist as long as Satan exists and Christianity has vital power. No man can serve God without enlisting against himself the opposition of the hosts of darkness. Evil angels will assail him, alarmed that his influence is taking the prey from their hands. Evil men, rebuked by his example, will unite with them in seeking to separate him from God by alluring temptations. When these do not succeed, then a compelling power is employed to force the conscience.
Mar	31	3	But so long as Jesus remains man's intercessor in the sanctuary above, the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit is felt by rulers and people. It still controls to some extent the laws of the land. Were it not for these laws, the condition of the world would be much worse than it now is. While many of our rulers are active agents of Satan, God also has His agents among the leading men of the nation. The enemy moves upon his servants to propose measures that would greatly impede the work of God; but statesmen who fear the Lord are influenced by holy angels to oppose such propositions with unanswerable arguments. Thus a few men will hold in check a powerful current of evil. The opposition of the enemies of truth will be restrained that the third angel's message may do its work. When the final warning shall be given, it will arrest the attention of these leading men through whom the Lord is now working, and some of them will accept it, and will stand with the people of God through the time of trouble....
Mar	31	4	"Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God...." Joel 2:23. "In the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Acts 2:17, 21.
Mar	31	5	The great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening.
------------------------The Church Will Not Fall, January 24
Mar	32	1	Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18.
Mar	32	2	Those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will feel the ire of the dragon and his hosts. Satan numbers the world as his subjects, he has gained control of the apostate churches; but here is a little company that are resisting his supremacy. If he could blot them from the earth, his triumph would be complete. As he influenced the heathen nations to destroy Israel, so in the near future he will stir up the wicked powers of earth to destroy the people of God.... Their only hope is in the mercy of God; their only defense will be prayer.
Mar	32	3	The trying experiences that came to God's people in the days of Esther were not peculiar to that age alone. The revelator, looking down the ages to the close of time, has declared, "The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Revelation 12:17. Some who today are living on the earth will see these words fulfilled.
Mar	32	4	The wrath of Satan increases as his time grows short, and his work of deceit and destruction will reach its culmination in the time of trouble.
Mar	32	5	Satan will work his miracles to deceive; he will set up his power as supreme. The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out--the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place. None but those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin, without guile in their mouths.
Mar	32	6	God declares that even a mother may forget her child, "yet will I not forget thee." ... God thinks of His children with the tenderest solicitude and keeps a book of remembrance before Him, that He may never forget the children of His care.
------------------------The Counterfeit Revival, January 25
Mar	33	1	This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ... having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 2 Timothy 3:1, 2, 5.
Mar	33	2	Before the final visitation of God's judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. At that time many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and His word. Many, both of ministers and people, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at this time to prepare a people for the Lord's second coming. The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power he will make it appear that God's special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world.
Mar	33	3	In many of the revivals which have occurred during the last half century, the same influences have been at work, to a greater or less degree, that will be manifest in the more extensive movements of the future. There is an emotional excitement, a mingling of the true with the false, that is well adapted to mislead. Yet none need be deceived. In the light of God's word it is not difficult to determine the nature of these movements. Wherever men neglect the testimony of the Bible, turning away from those plain, soul-testing truths which require self-denial and renunciation of the world, there we may be sure that God's blessing is not bestowed. And by the rule which Christ Himself has given, "Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16), it is evident that these movements are not the work of the Spirit of God.
------------------------Presumptuous, Careless Delay, January 26
Mar	34	1	Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. Revelation 16:15.
Mar	34	2	The evil servant says in his heart, "My lord delayeth his coming." He does not say that Christ will not come. He does not scoff at the idea of His second coming. But in his heart and by his actions and words he declares that the Lord's coming is delayed. He banishes from the mind of others the conviction that the Lord is coming quickly. His influence leads men to presumptuous, careless delay.... He mingles with the world....It is a fearful assimilation. With the world he is taken in the snare....
Mar	34	3	"If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." Revelation 3:3. The advent of Christ will surprise the false teachers. They are saying, "Peace and safety." Like the priests and teachers before the fall of Jerusalem, they look for the church to enjoy earthly prosperity and glory. The signs of the times they interpret as foreshadowing this. But what saith the word of Inspiration? "Sudden destruction cometh upon them." 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth, upon all who make this world their home, the day of God will come as a snare....
Mar	34	4	The world, full of rioting, full of godless pleasure, is asleep, asleep in carnal security. Men are putting afar off the coming of the Lord. They laugh at warnings. The proud boast is made, "All things continue as they were from the beginning." "Tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant." 2 Peter 3:4; Isaiah 56:12. We will go deeper into pleasure loving. But Christ says, "Behold, I come as a thief." Revelation 16:15. At the very time when the world is asking in scorn, "Where is the promise of his coming?" the signs are fulfilling. While they cry, "Peace and safety," sudden destruction is coming. When the scorner, the rejecter of truth, has become presumptuous; when the routine of work in the various money-making lines is carried on without regard to principle; when the student is eagerly seeking knowledge of everything but his Bible, Christ comes as a thief.
------------------------A Heaven to Win, January 27
Mar	35	1	Watch ye therefore, and pray always. Luke 21:36.
Mar	35	2	The days in which we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth....
Mar	35	3	The condition of things in the world shows that troublous times are right upon us. The daily papers are full of indications of a terrible conflict in the near future. Bold robberies are of frequent occurrence. Strikes are common. Thefts and murders are committed on every hand. Men possessed of demons are taking the lives of men, women, and little children. Men have become infatuated with vice, and every species of evil prevails.
Mar	35	4	Everything in the world is in agitation. The signs of the times are ominous. Coming events cast their shadows before. The Spirit of God is withdrawing from the earth, and calamity follows calamity by sea and by land. There are tempests, earthquakes, fires, floods, murders of every grade.... Rapidly are men ranging themselves under the banner they have chosen. Restlessly are they waiting and watching the movements of their leaders. There are those who are waiting and watching and working for our Lord's appearing. Another class are falling into line under the generalship of the first great apostate. Few believe with heart and soul that we have a hell to shun and a heaven to win.
Mar	35	5	The crisis is stealing gradually upon us. The sun shines in the heavens, passing over its usual round.... Men are still eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying, and giving in marriage. Merchants are still buying and selling. Men are jostling one against another, contending for the highest place. Pleasure lovers are still crowding to theaters, horse races, gambling hells. The highest excitement prevails, yet probation's hour is fast closing, and every case is about to be eternally decided....
Mar	35	6	Solemnly there come to us down through the centuries the warning words of our Lord from the Mount of Olives: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares."
------------------------Blessings Upon the Watchful Ones, January 28
Mar	36	1	Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. Luke 12:37.
Mar	36	2	God has always given men warning of coming judgments. Those who had faith in His message for their time, and who acted out their faith, in obedience to His commandments, escaped the judgments that fell upon the disobedient and unbelieving. The word came to Noah, "Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me." Noah obeyed and was saved. The message came to Lot, "Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city." Genesis 7:1; 19:14. Lot placed himself under the guardianship of the heavenly messengers, and was saved. So Christ's disciples were given warning of the destruction of Jerusalem. Those who watched for the sign of the coming ruin, and fled from the city, escaped the destruction. So now we are given warning of Christ's second coming and of the destruction to fall upon the world. Those who heed the warning will be saved.
Mar	36	3	Because we know not the exact time of His coming, we are commanded to watch. "Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching." Luke 12:37. Those who watch for the Lord's coming are not waiting in idle expectancy. The expectation of Christ's coming is to make men fear the Lord, and fear His judgments upon transgression. It is to awaken them to the great sin of rejecting His offers of mercy. Those who are watching for the Lord are purifying their souls by obedience to the truth. With vigilant watching they combine earnest working. Because they know that the Lord is at the door, their zeal is quickened to co-operate with the divine intelligences in working for the salvation of souls. These are the faithful and wise servants who give to the Lord's household "their portion of meat in due season." Luke 12:42. They are declaring the truth that is now specially applicable. As Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses each declared the truth for his time, so will Christ's servants now give the special warning for their generation.
------------------------Troubles on All Sides, January 29
Mar	37	1	Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Zephaniah 2:3.
Mar	37	2	There is no sadder spectacle than that of those who have been purchased by the blood of Christ ... turning to jest the messages graciously sent to them in the gospel, denying the divinity of Christ, and trusting to their own finite reasoning, and to arguments that have no foundation. When tested with affliction, when brought face to face with death, all these fallacies they have cherished will be melted away like frost before the sun.
Mar	37	3	How terrible it is to stand by the coffin of one who has rejected the appeals of divine mercy! How terrible to say: Here is a life lost! Here is one who might have reached the highest standard, and gained immortal life, but he surrendered his life to Satan, became ensnared by the vain philosophies of men, and was a plaything of the evil one! The Christian's hope is an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast, and entereth into that which is within the veil, whither Christ the forerunner is for us entered. We have an individual work to do to prepare for the great events that are before us.
Mar	37	4	The youth should seek God more earnestly. The tempest is coming, and we must get ready for its fury by having repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord will arise to shake terribly the earth. We shall see troubles on all sides. Thousands of ships will be hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by millions. Fires will break out unexpectedly, and no human effort will be able to quench them. The palaces of earth will be swept away in the fury of the flames. Disasters by rail will become more and more frequent; confusion, collision, and death without a moment's warning will occur on the great lines of travel. The end is near, probation is closing. Oh, let us seek God while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near! The prophet says: "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger."
------------------------Intercessory Prayers for Souls, January 30
Mar	38	1	Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 18:19.
Mar	38	2	I remember in Battle Creek when there were those who felt the burden for the unconverted, and those who were in darkness and saw no light; then prayer meetings were appointed that they might make the strength of God their strength. In every case the heavenly intelligences worked with these efforts, and souls were saved.
Mar	38	3	If there is a large number in the church, let the members be formed into small companies, to work not only for the church members, but for unbelievers. If in one place there are only two or three who know the truth, let them form themselves into a band of workers. Let them keep their bond of union unbroken, pressing together in love and unity, encouraging one another to advance, each gaining courage and strength from the assistance of the others. Let them reveal Christlike forbearance and patience, speaking no hasty words, using the talent of speech to build one another up in the most holy faith. Let them labor in Christlike love for those outside the fold.... As they work and pray in Christ's name, their numbers will increase.
Mar	38	4	There is home missionary work that is to be done, and we hear the plea, So long as there is so much sin and such need of labor in our own country, why manifest such zeal for foreign countries? I answer, Our field is the world.... The Saviour directed His disciples to begin their work in Jerusalem, and then pass on through Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Only a small proportion of the people accepted the doctrine; but the messengers bore the message rapidly from place to place, passing from country to country, lifting the standard of the gospel in all the near and far-off places of the earth. But there was a preparatory work. The Saviour's promise was, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me." Those who will not follow their own will and desires, but seek counsel of the Lord, will not be dull scholars for the Lord will teach them.
------------------------To Weep or to Rejoice? January 31
Mar	39	1	The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. Jeremiah 8:20.
Mar	39	2	I appeal to the members of our churches not to disregard the fulfilling of the signs of the times, which say so plainly that the end is near. O, how many who have not cared for the salvation of their souls will soon make the bitter lamentation, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!"
Mar	39	3	O, that we would remember that it is court week with us, and that our cases are pending! Now is the time to watch and pray, to put away all self-indulgence, all pride, all selfishness. The precious moments that are now by many worse than wasted should be spent in meditation and prayer. Many of those who profess to be keeping the commandments of God are following inclination instead of duty. As they are now, they are unworthy of eternal life. To these careless, indifferent ones, I would say, Your vain thoughts, your unkind words, your selfish acts, are recorded in the book of heaven. The angels that were present at Belshazzar's idolatrous revelry stand beside you as you dishonor your Redeemer. Sadly they turn away, grieved that you should thus crucify Him afresh, and put Him to open shame....
Mar	39	4	On Christ's coronation day He will not acknowledge as His any who bear spot or wrinkle or any such thing. But to His faithful ones He will give crowns of immortal glory. Those who would not that He should reign over them will see Him surrounded by the army of the redeemed, each of whom bears the sign, The Lord Our Righteousness. They will see the head once crowned with thorns crowned with a diadem of glory.
Mar	39	5	In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and His Son. The angels of heaven, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King, and those who are the trophies of His victory--those who have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts accompanied by His redeemed ones, the witnesses that His mission of suffering and self-sacrifice has not been in vain.
------------------------Climactic Moment, February 1
Mar	40	1	Who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap. Malachi 3:2.
Mar	40	2	The people of Israel, because of their sinfulness, were forbidden to approach the mount when God was about to descend upon it to proclaim His law, lest they should be consumed by the burning glory of His presence. If such manifestations of His power marked the place chosen for the proclamation of God's law, how terrible must be His tribunal when He comes for the execution of these sacred statutes. How will those who have trampled upon His authority endure His glory in the great day of final retribution? ...
Mar	40	3	When the divine Presence was manifested upon Sinai, the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire.... But when Christ shall come in glory with His holy angels the whole earth shall be ablaze with the terrible light of His presence....
Mar	40	4	Never since man was created had there been witnessed such a manifestation of divine power as when the law was proclaimed from Sinai.... Amid the most terrific convulsions of nature the voice of God, like a trumpet, was heard from the cloud. The mountain was shaken from base to summit, and the hosts of Israel, pale and trembling with terror, lay upon their faces upon the earth. He whose voice then shook the earth has declared, "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." ...
Mar	40	5	When Moses came from the divine Presence in the mount, where he had received the tables of the testimony, guilty Israel could not endure the light that glorified his countenance. How much less can transgressors look upon the Son of God when He shall appear in the glory of His Father, surrounded by all the heavenly host, to execute judgment upon the transgressors of His law and the rejecters of His atonement....
Mar	40	6	But amid the tempest of divine judgment the children of God will have no cause for fear. "The Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." The day that brings terror and destruction to the transgressors of God's law, will bring to the obedient, "joy unspeakable, and full of glory."
------------------------A High Standard, February 2
Mar	41	1	And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. Leviticus 20:26.
Mar	41	2	I also saw many do not realize what they must be in order to live in the sight of the Lord without a high priest in the sanctuary through the time of trouble. Those who receive the seal of the living God and are protected in the time of trouble must reflect the image of Jesus fully.
Mar	41	3	I saw that many were neglecting the preparation so needful and were looking to the time of "refreshing" and the "latter rain" to fit them to stand in the day of the Lord and to live in His sight. Oh, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter! They had neglected the needful preparation; therefore they could not receive the refreshing that all must have to fit them to live in the sight of a holy God. Those who ... fail to purify their souls in obeying the whole truth ... will come up to the time of the falling of the plagues, and then see that they needed to be hewed and squared for the building. But there will be ... no Mediator to plead their cause before the Father. Before this time the awfully solemn declaration has gone forth, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still."
Mar	41	4	I saw that none could share the "refreshing" unless they obtain the victory over every besetment, over pride, selfishness, love of the world, and over every wrong word and action. We should, therefore, be drawing nearer and nearer to the Lord and be earnestly seeking that preparation necessary to enable us to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. Let all remember that God is holy and that none but holy beings can ever dwell in His presence.
Mar	41	5	We are today to watch that we offend not in word or deed.... We must today seek God and be determined that we will not rest satisfied without His presence. We should watch and work and pray as though this were the last day that would be granted us. How intensely earnest, then, would be our life. How closely would we follow Jesus in all our words and deeds.
------------------------Weighing Time, February 3
Mar	42	1	The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. 1 Samuel 2:3.
Mar	42	2	I have seen an angel standing with scales in his hands weighing the thoughts and interest of the people of God, especially the young. In one scale were the thoughts and interest tending heavenward; in the other were the thoughts and interest tending to earth. And in this scale were thrown all the reading of storybooks, thoughts of dress and show, vanity, pride, et cetera. Oh, what a solemn moment! the angels of God standing with scales, weighing the thoughts of His professed children--those who claim to be dead to the world and alive to God. The scale filled with thoughts of earth, vanity, and pride quickly went down, notwithstanding weight after weight rolled from the scale. The one with the thoughts and interest tending to heaven went quickly up as the other went down, and oh, how light it was! I can relate this as I saw it; but never can I give the solemn and vivid impression stamped upon my mind, as I saw the angel with the scales weighing the thoughts and interest of the people of God. Said the angel: "Can such enter heaven? No, no, never. Tell them the hope they now possess is vain, and unless they speedily repent, and obtain salvation, they must perish." ...
Mar	42	3	I saw that many measure themselves among themselves, and compare their lives with the lives of others. This should not be. No one but Christ is given us as an example. He is our true Pattern, and each should strive to excel in imitating Him....
Mar	42	4	I saw that some hardly know as yet what self-denial or sacrifice is, or what it is to suffer for the truth's sake. But none will enter heaven without making a sacrifice. A spirit of self-denial and sacrifice should be cherished. Some have not sacrificed themselves, their own bodies, on the altar of God. They indulge in hasty, fitful temper, gratify their appetites, and attend to their own self-interest, regardless of the cause of God. Those who are willing to make any sacrifice for eternal life, will have it; and it will be worth suffering for, worth crucifying self for, and sacrificing every idol for. The far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory swallows up everything and eclipses every earthly pleasure.
------------------------Will You Stand the Test? February 4
Mar	43	1	Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. Deuteronomy 8:2.
Mar	43	2	God will prove His people.... If the message [the 1844 proclamation] had been of as short duration as many of us supposed, there would have been no time for them to develop character. Many moved from feeling, not from principle and faith, and this solemn, fearful message stirred them. It wrought upon their feelings, and excited their fears, but did not accomplish the work which God designed that it should....
Mar	43	3	God leads His people on, step by step. He brings them up to different points calculated to manifest what is in the heart. Some endure at one point, but fall off at the next. At every advanced point the heart is tested and tried a little closer. If the professed people of God find their hearts opposed to this straight work, it should convince them that they have a work to do to overcome.... Some are willing to receive one point; but when God brings them to another testing point, they shrink from it and stand back, because they find that it strikes directly at some cherished idol. Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus. They prize something higher than the truth, and their hearts are not prepared to receive Jesus. Individuals are tested and proved a length of time to see if they will sacrifice their idols.... Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation.
Mar	43	4	God proves His people in this world.... Here, in this world, in these last days, persons will show what power affects their hearts and controls their actions. If it is the power of divine truth, it will lead to good works. It will elevate the receiver, and make him noblehearted and generous, like his divine Lord....
Mar	43	5	Young and old, God is now testing you. You are deciding your own eternal destiny.
------------------------An Infallible Guide, February 5
Mar	44	1	Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22.
Mar	44	2	God calls upon those who know His will to be doers of His word. Weakness, halfheartedness, and indecision provoke the assaults of Satan; and those who permit these traits to grow will be borne helplessly down by the surging waves of temptation. Everyone who professes the name of Christ is required to grow up to the full stature of Christ, the Christian's living head.
Mar	44	3	We all need a guide through the many strait places in life as much as the sailor needs a pilot over the sandy bar or up the rocky river, and where is this guide to be found? We point you ... to the Bible. Inspired of God, written by holy men, it points out with great clearness and precision the duties of both old and young. It elevates the mind, softens the heart, and imparts gladness and holy joy to the spirit. The Bible presents a perfect standard of character; it is an infallible guide under all circumstances, even to the end of the journey of life. Take it as the man of your counsel, the rule of your daily life....
Mar	44	4	In the Scriptures thousands of gems of truth lie hidden from the surface seeker. The mine of truth is never exhausted. The more you search the Scriptures with humble hearts, the greater will be your interest, and the more you will feel like exclaiming with Paul: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"
Mar	44	5	Every day you should learn something new from the Scriptures. Search them as for hid treasures, for they contain the words of eternal life. Pray for wisdom and understanding to comprehend these holy writings. If you would do this you would find new glories in the word of God; you would feel that you had received new and precious light on subjects connected with the truth, and the Scriptures would be constantly receiving a new value in your estimation....
Mar	44	6	Be diligent in the use of every means of grace, that you may be transformed in character and may grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.
------------------------Ready to Answer, February 6
Mar	45	1	Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. 1 Peter 3:15.
Mar	45	2	I have been shown that many who profess to have a knowledge of present truth know not what they believe. They do not understand the evidences of their faith. They have no just appreciation of the work for the present time. When the time of trial shall come, there are men now preaching to others who will find, upon examining the positions they hold, that there are many things for which they can give no satisfactory reason. Until thus tested they know not their great ignorance. And there are many in the church who take it for granted that they understand what they believe; but, until controversy arises, they do not know their own weakness. When separated from those of like faith and compelled to stand singly and alone to explain their belief, they will be surprised to see how confused are their ideas of what they had accepted as truth....
Mar	45	3	God will arouse His people; if other means fail, heresies will come in among them, which will sift them, separating the chaff from the wheat. The Lord calls upon all who believe His word to awake out of sleep. Precious light has come, appropriate for this time.... Believers are not to rest in suppositions and ill-defined ideas of what constitutes truth. Their faith must be firmly founded upon the word of God so that when the testing time shall come and they are brought before councils to answer for their faith they may be able to give a reason for the hope that is in them, with meekness and fear.
Mar	45	4	The servants of Christ are to prepare no set speech to present when brought to trial for their faith. Their preparation is to be made day by day, in treasuring up in their hearts the precious truths of God's word, in feeding upon the teaching of Christ, and through prayer strengthening their faith; then, when brought into trial, the Holy Spirit will bring to their remembrance the very truths that will reach the hearts of those who shall come to hear.
Mar	45	5	God will flash the knowledge obtained by diligent searching of the Scriptures, into their memory at the very time when it is needed.
------------------------The Feast that Satisfies, February 7
Mar	46	1	Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6.
Mar	46	2	Let those men and women who are satisfied with their dwarfed, crippled condition in divine things be suddenly transported to heaven and for an instant witness the high, the holy state of perfection that ever abides there--every soul filled with love; every countenance beaming with joy; ... could such persons, I ask, mingle with the heavenly throng, participate in their songs, and endure the pure, exalted, transporting glory that emanates from God and the Lamb? Oh, no! ...
Mar	46	3	Those who have trained the mind to delight in spiritual exercises are the ones who can be translated and not be overwhelmed with the purity and transcendent glory of heaven. You may have a good knowledge of the arts, you may have an acquaintance with the sciences, you may excel in music and in penmanship, your manners may please your associates, but what have these things to do with a preparation for heaven? What have they to do to prepare you to stand before the tribunal of God?
Mar	46	4	Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Nothing but holiness will prepare you for heaven. It is sincere, experimental piety alone that can give you a pure, elevated character and enable you to enter into the presence of God, who dwelleth in light unapproachable. The heavenly character must be acquired on earth, or it can never be acquired at all.
Mar	46	5	Desires for goodness and true holiness are right so far as they go; but if you stop here, they will avail nothing. Good purposes are right, but will prove of no avail unless resolutely carried out. Many will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians; but they made no earnest effort, therefore they will be weighed in the balances and found wanting. The will must be exercised in the right direction. I will be a wholehearted Christian. I will know the length and breadth, the height and depth, of perfect love.
Mar	46	6	Listen to the words of Jesus: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Ample provisions are made by Christ to satisfy the soul that hungers and thirsts for righteousness.
------------------------Moral Independence, February 8
Mar	47	1	Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18.
Mar	47	2	Many today have veils upon their faces. These veils are sympathy with the customs and practices of the world, which hide from them the glory of the Lord. God desires us to keep our eyes fixed upon Him, that we may lose sight of the things of this world.
Mar	47	3	As the truth is brought into practical life, the standard is to be elevated higher and higher to meet the requirements of the Bible. This will necessitate opposition to the fashions, customs, practices, and maxims of the world. Worldly influences, like the waves of the sea, beat against the followers of Christ to sweep them away from the true principles of His meekness and grace; but we are to stand as firm as a rock to principle. It will require moral courage to do this, and those whose souls are not riveted to the eternal Rock will be swept away by the worldly current. We can stand firm only as our life is hid with Christ in God. Moral independence is wholly in place when opposing the world. By conforming entirely to the will of God, we shall be placed upon vantage ground, and shall see the necessity of decided separation from the customs and practices of the world. We are not to elevate our standard just a little above the world's standard, but we are to make the distinction decidedly apparent....
Mar	47	4	It is no easy matter to gain the priceless treasure of eternal life. No one can do this and drift with the current of the world. He must come out from the world and be separate and touch not the unclean. No one can act like a worldling without being carried down by the current of the world. No one will make any upward progress without persevering effort. He who would overcome must hold fast to Christ. He must not look back, but keep the eye ever upward, gaining one grace after another. Individual vigilance is the price of safety....
Mar	47	5	The end of all things is at hand. There is need now of men armed and equipped to battle for God.
------------------------Any Idols Here? February 9
Mar	48	1	Little children, keep yourselves from idols. 1 John 5:21.
Mar	48	2	Every true child of God will be sifted as wheat, and in the sifting process every cherished pleasure which diverts the mind from God must be sacrificed. In many families the mantel shelves, stands, and tables are filled with ornaments and pictures.... Thus the thoughts, which should be upon God and heavenly interests, are brought down to common things. Is not this a species of idolatry? Should not the money thus spent have been used to bless humanity, to relieve the suffering, to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry? Should it not be placed in the Lord's treasury to advance His cause and build up His kingdom in the earth?
Mar	48	3	This matter is of great importance, and it is urged upon you to save you from the sin of idolatry. Blessing would come to your souls if you would obey the word spoken by the Holy One of Israel, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Many are creating unnecessary cares and anxieties for themselves by devoting time and thought to the unnecessary ornaments with which their houses are filled. The power of God is needed to arouse them from this devotion; for to all intents and purposes it is idolatry.
Mar	48	4	He who searches the heart, desires to win His people from every species of idolatry. Let the Word of God, the blessed book of life, occupy the tables now filled with useless ornaments. Spend your money in buying books that will be the means of enlightening the mind in regard to present truth.... Grasp the Word of the Lord as the treasure of infinite wisdom and love; this is the Guidebook that points out the path to heaven....
Mar	48	5	O that you would search the Scriptures with prayerful hearts, and a spirit of surrender to God! O that you would search your hearts as with a lighted candle, and discover and break the finest thread that binds you to worldly habits, which divert the mind from God! Plead with God to show you every practice that draws your thoughts and affections from Him. God has given His holy law to man as His measure of character. By this law you may see and overcome every defect in your character. You may sever yourself from every idol, and link yourself to the throne of God by the golden chain of grace and truth.
------------------------Search Your Own Heart, February 10
Mar	49	1	Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 2 Corinthians 13:5, R.S.V.
Mar	49	2	Nothing is more treacherous than the deceitfulness of sin. It is the god of this world that deludes, and blinds, and leads to destruction. Satan does not enter with his array of temptations at once. He disguises these temptations with a semblance of good.... Beguiled souls take one step, then are prepared for the next.... Oh, how Satan watches to see his bait taken so readily, and to see souls walking in the very path he has prepared! ...
Mar	49	3	There is a necessity for close self-examination, and to closely investigate in the light of God's word, Am I sound, or am I rotten, at heart? Am I renewed in Christ, or am I still carnal at heart, with an outside, new dress put on? Rein yourself up to the tribunal of God, and see as in the light of God if there is any secret sin, any iniquity, any idol you have not sacrificed. Pray ... as you have never prayed before, that you may not be deluded by Satan's devices; that you may not be given up to a heedless, careless, and vain spirit....
Mar	49	4	One of the sins that constitute one of the signs of the last days, is that professed Christians are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Deal truly with your own souls. Search carefully. How few, after a faithful examination, can look up to Heaven and say, "... I am not a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God." How few can say, "I am dead to the world, ... and when He who is my life shall appear, then shall I also appear with Him in glory."
Mar	49	5	The love and grace of God! Oh precious grace! more valuable than fine gold. It elevates and ennobles the spirit beyond all other principles. It sets the heart and affections upon Heaven. While those around us may be engaged in worldly vanity, pleasure-seeking, and folly, the conversation is in heaven, whence we look for the Saviour; the soul is reaching out after God for pardon and peace, for righteousness and true holiness. Converse with God and contemplation of things above transform the soul into the likeness of Christ.
------------------------Searching Questions, February 11
Mar	50	1	Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Psalm 24:3, 4.
Mar	50	2	A soul united with Christ ... will war against all transgression and every approach of sin. He becomes every day more like a bright and shining light, and more victorious. He goes on from strength to strength, not from weakness to weakness.
Mar	50	3	Let no one deceive his own soul in this matter. If you harbor pride, self-esteem, a love for the supremacy, vainglory, unholy ambition, murmuring, discontent, bitterness, evil-speaking, lying, deception, slandering, you have not Christ abiding in your heart.... You must have a Christian character that will stand....
Mar	50	4	There must be thorough conversions among those who claim to believe the truth, or they will fall in the day of trial. God's people must reach a high standard. They must be a holy nation, a peculiar people, a chosen generation--zealous of good works. Christ has not died for you that you may possess the passions, tastes, and habits of men of the world....
Mar	50	5	No man enters the portals of glory but he who sets his heart thitherward. Then let the questions come home, Do you mind earthly things? Are your thoughts pure? Are you breathing the atmosphere of heaven? Do you carry with you the miasma of pollution? ... Are you earnest and devoted, serving God with purity and in the beauty of holiness? Ask sincerely, Am I a child of God, or am I not? ...
Mar	50	6	We need a thorough reformation in all our churches. The converting power of God must come into the church.... Put not off the day of preparation. Slumber not in a state of unpreparedness, having no oil in your vessels with your lamps.... Let not the question remain in perilous uncertainty. Ask yourselves earnestly, Am I among the saved, or the unsaved? Shall I stand, or shall I not stand? He only that hath clean hands and a pure heart shall stand in that day.
Mar	50	7	It is the privilege of every son of God to be a true Christian moment by moment; then he has all heaven enlisted on his side.
------------------------Dare you be Different? February 12
Mar	51	1	Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9.
Mar	51	2	The warning that the Son of man is soon to come in the clouds of heaven has become to many a familiar tale. They have left the waiting, watching position. The selfish, worldly spirit manifested in the life reveals the sentiment of the heart, "My lord delayeth his coming." ...
Mar	51	3	The same spirit of selfishness, of conformity to the practices of the world, exists in our day as in Noah's. Many who profess to be children of God follow their worldly pursuits with an intensity that gives the lie to their profession. They will be planting and building, buying and selling, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the last moment of their probation. This is the condition of a large number of our own people....
Mar	51	4	My soul is burdened as I see the great want of spirituality among us. The fashions and customs of the world, pride, love of amusement, love of display, extravagance in dress, in houses, in lands--these are robbing the treasury of God, turning to the gratification of self the means which should be used to send forth the light of truth to the world....
Mar	51	5	The children of the light and of the day are not to gather about them the shades of night and darkness which encompass the workers of iniquity. On the contrary, they are to stand faithfully at their post of duty as light bearers, gathering light from God to shed upon those in darkness. The Lord requires His people to maintain their integrity, touching not--that is, imitating not--the practices of the ungodly.
Mar	51	6	Christians will be in this world "an holy nation, a peculiar people," showing forth the praises of Him who hath called them "out of darkness into his marvellous light." This light is not to grow dim, but to shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.... The thrilling truth that has been sounding in our ears for many years, "The Lord is at hand; be ye also ready," is no less the truth today than when we first heard the message.
------------------------Uproot Every Seed of Doubt, February 13
Mar	52	1	Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.... We are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Hebrews 10:35-39.
Mar	52	2	I saw that we are now in the shaking time. Satan is working with all his power to wrest souls from the hand of Christ and cause them to trample underfoot the Son of God....
Mar	52	3	Character is being developed. Angels of God are weighing moral worth. God is testing and proving His people. These words were presented to me by the angel: "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end."
Mar	52	4	God is displeased that any of His people who have known the power of His grace should talk their doubts, and by thus doing make themselves a channel for Satan to transmit his suggestions to other minds. A seed of unbelief and evil sown is not readily rooted up. Satan nourishes it every hour, and it flourishes and becomes strong. A good seed sown needs to be nourished, watered, and tenderly cared for; because every poisonous influence is thrown about it to hinder its growth and cause it to die. Satan's efforts are more powerful now than ever before, for he knows that his time to deceive is short....
Mar	52	5	God's people will be sifted, even as corn is sifted in a sieve, until all the chaff is separated from the pure kernels of grain. We are to look to Christ for an example and imitate the humble pattern....
Mar	52	6	I was shown the saints' reward, the immortal inheritance. Then I was shown how much God's people had endured for the truth's sake, and that they would count heaven cheap enough. They reckoned that the sufferings of this present time were not worthy to be compared with the glory which should be revealed in them. The people of God in these last days will be tried. But soon their last trial will come, and then they will receive the gift of eternal life.
------------------------Spiritual Giant or Dwarf? February 14
Mar	53	1	Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1.
Mar	53	2	The Lord reproves and corrects the people who profess to keep His law. He points out their sins and lays open their iniquity because He wishes to separate all sin and wickedness from them, that they may perfect holiness in His fear and be prepared to die in the Lord or to be translated to heaven....
Mar	53	3	God will accept nothing but purity and holiness; one spot, one wrinkle, one defect in the character, will forever debar them from heaven, with all its glories and treasures.
Mar	53	4	Most professed Christians have no sense of the spiritual strength they might obtain were they as ambitious, zealous, and persevering to gain a knowledge of divine things as they are to obtain the paltry, perishable things of this life. The masses professing to be Christians have been satisfied to be spiritual dwarfs. They have no disposition to make it their object to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; hence godliness is a hidden mystery to them, they cannot understand it. They know not Christ by experimental knowledge.
Mar	53	5	Ample provisions have been made for all who sincerely, earnestly, and thoughtfully set about the work of perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Strength, grace, and glory have been provided through Christ, to be brought by ministering angels to the heirs of salvation. None are so low, so corrupt and vile, that they cannot find in Jesus, who died for them, strength, purity, and righteousness, if they will put away their sins, cease their course of iniquity, and turn with full purpose of heart to the living God. He is waiting to strip them of their garments, stained and polluted by sin, and to put upon them the white, bright robes of righteousness; and He bids them live and not die. In Him they may flourish. Their branches will not wither nor be fruitless. If they abide in Him, they can draw sap and nourishment from Him, be imbued with His Spirit, walk even as He walked, overcome as He overcame, and be exalted to His own right hand.
------------------------Wise or Foolish? February 15
Mar	54	1	Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Matthew 25:1, 2.
Mar	54	2	We are not to rest in the idea that because we are church-members we are saved, while we give no evidence that we are conformed to the image of Christ, while we cling to our old habits, and weave our fabric with the threads of worldly ideas and customs....
Mar	54	3	The ten virgins are watching in the evening of this earth's history. All claim to be Christians. All have a call, a name, a lamp, and all claim to be doing God's service. All apparently watch for His appearing. But five are wanting. Five will be found surprised, dismayed, outside the banquet hall.
Mar	54	4	We are represented either by the wise or by the foolish virgins. There are many who will not remain at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him. They have not a knowledge of His ways; they are not prepared for His coming. They have made a pretense of waiting for their Lord. They have not watched and prayed with that faith which works by love and purifies the soul. They have lived a life of carelessness. They have heard and assented to the truth, but they have never brought it into their practical life. The oil of grace is not feeding their lamps, and they are not prepared to enter into the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Mar	54	5	Be not like the foolish virgins, who take for granted that the promises of God are theirs, while they do not follow the injunctions of Christ. Christ teaches us that profession is nothing. "If any man will come after me," He says, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." ...
Mar	54	6	When we stand the test of God in the refining, purifying process; when the furnace fire consumes the dross, and the true gold of a purified character appears, we may still say, with Paul, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after.... This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
------------------------Now--Always Now, February 16
Mar	55	1	Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. Matthew 25:13.
Mar	55	2	The coming of Christ will be as it were at midnight, when all are sleeping. It will be well for every one to have his accounts all straightened up before sunset. All his works should be right, all his dealings just, between himself and his fellow-men. All dishonesty, all sinful practices should be put far away. The oil of grace should be in our vessels with our lamps.... Sad indeed will be the condition of the soul who has had a form of godliness but has denied the power thereof; who has called Christ, Lord, Lord, and yet who has not His image and superscription....
Mar	55	3	God graciously grants a day of probation, a time of test and trial. He gives the invitation: "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near." ...
Mar	55	4	Today the voice of mercy is calling, and Jesus is drawing men by the cords of His love; but the day will come when Jesus will put on the garments of vengeance.... The wickedness of the world is increasing every day, and when a certain line is reached, the register will be closed, and the account settled. There will be no more a sacrifice for sin. The Lord cometh. Long has mercy extended a hand of love, of patience and forbearance, toward a guilty world. The invitation has been given, "Let him take hold of my strength...." But men have presumed upon His mercy and refused His grace.
Mar	55	5	Why has the Lord so long delayed His coming? The whole host of heaven is waiting to fulfil the last work for this lost world, and yet the work waits. It is because the few who profess to have the oil of grace in their vessels with their lamps, have not become burning and shining lights in the world. It is because missionaries are few....
Mar	55	6	Every week counts one week less, every day one day nearer to the appointed time of the judgment. Alas that so many have only a spasmodic religion--a religion dependent upon feeling and governed by emotion. "He that endureth to the end shall be saved." Then see that you have the oil of grace in your hearts. The possession of this will make every difference with you in the judgment.
------------------------The Last Watch, February 17
Mar	56	1	Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. Mark 13:35, 36.
Mar	56	2	A company was presented before me.... Their eyes were directed heavenward, and the words of their Master were upon their lips: "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." ... The Lord intimates a delay before the morning finally dawns. But He would not have them give way to weariness, nor relax their earnest watchfulness, because the morning does not open upon them as soon as they expected....
Mar	56	3	I saw that it was impossible to have the affections and interests engrossed in worldly cares, to be increasing earthly possessions, and yet be in a waiting, watching position, as our Saviour has commanded. Said the angel: "They can secure but one world. In order to acquire the heavenly treasure, they must sacrifice the earthly. They cannot have both worlds." ...
Mar	56	4	I saw that watch after watch was in the past. Because of this, should there be a lack of vigilance? Oh, no! There is the greater necessity of unceasing watchfulness, for now the moments are fewer than before the passing of the first watch.... If we watched with unabated vigilance then, how much more need of double watchfulness in the second watch. The passing of the second watch has brought us to the third, and now it is inexcusable to abate our watchfulness. The third watch calls for threefold earnestness. To become impatient now would be to lose all our earnest, persevering watching heretofore. The long night of gloom is trying; but the morning is deferred in mercy, because if the Master should come, so many would be found unready. God's unwillingness to have His people perish has been the reason for so long delay....
Mar	56	5	The difference between those who love the world and those who love Christ is so plain as to be unmistakable. While worldlings are all earnestness and ambition to secure earthly treasure, God's people are not conformed to the world, but show by their earnest, watching, waiting position that they are transformed; that their home is not in this world, but that they are seeking a better country, even a heavenly.
------------------------Only One Safe Course, February 18
Mar	57	1	Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. Matthew 26:41.
Mar	57	2	What shall I say to arouse the remnant people of God? ... I warn all who profess the name of Christ to closely examine themselves and make full and thorough confession of all their wrongs, that they may go beforehand to judgment, and that the recording angel may write pardon opposite their names. My brother, my sister, if these precious moments of mercy are not improved, you will be left without excuse. If you make no special effort to arouse, if you will not manifest zeal in repenting, these golden moments will soon pass, and you will be weighed in the balance and found wanting.
Mar	57	3	In the warning to "watch and pray," Jesus has indicated the only safe course. There is need of watchfulness. Our own hearts are deceitful; we are compassed with the weaknesses and frailties of humanity, and Satan is intent to destroy. We may be off our guard, but our adversary is never idle. Knowing his tireless vigilance, let us not sleep, as do others, but "watch and be sober." The spirit and influence of the world must be met, but they must not be allowed to take possession of the mind and heart.
Mar	57	4	Closely examine your own heart as in the light of eternity. Hide nothing from your examination. Search, oh! search, as for your life, and condemn yourself, pass judgment upon yourself, and then by faith claim the cleansing blood of Christ to remove the stains from your Christian character. Do not flatter or excuse yourself. Deal truly with your own soul. And then as you view yourself a sinner, fall, all broken, at the foot of the cross. Jesus will receive you, all polluted as you are, and will wash you in His blood, and cleanse you from all pollution, and make you fit for the society of heavenly angels, in a pure, harmonious heaven. There is no jar, no discord, there. All is health, happiness, and joy.
Mar	57	5	This world is a training school for the higher school, this life a preparation for the life to come. Here we are to be prepared for entrance into the heavenly courts. Here we are to receive and believe and practice the truth until we are made ready for a home with the saints in light.
------------------------The Faith that Works, February 19
Mar	58	1	The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 1 Peter 4:7.
Mar	58	2	Do you believe that the end of all things is at hand, that the scenes of this earth's history are fast closing? If so, show your faith by your works. A man will show all the faith he has. Some think they have a good degree of faith, when if they have any, it is dead, for it is not sustained by works. "Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." Few have that genuine faith which works by love and purifies the soul. But all who are accounted worthy of everlasting life must obtain a moral fitness for the same. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." This is the work before you....
Mar	58	3	You must experience a death to self, and must live unto God. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Self is not to be consulted. Pride, self-love, selfishness, avarice, covetousness, love of the world, hatred, suspicion, jealousy, evil surmisings, must all be subdued and sacrificed forever. When Christ shall appear, it will not be to correct these evils and then give a moral fitness for His coming. This preparation must all be made before He comes. It should be a subject of thought, of study, and earnest inquiry, What shall we do to be saved? What shall be our conduct that we may show ourselves approved of God?
Mar	58	4	When tempted to murmur, censure, and indulge in fretfulness, wounding those around you, and in so doing wounding your own soul, oh! let the deep, earnest, anxious inquiry come from your soul, Shall I stand without fault before the throne of God? Only the faultless will be there. None will be translated to heaven while their hearts are filled with the rubbish of earth. Every defect in the moral character must first be remedied, every stain removed by the cleansing blood of Christ, and all the unlovely, unlovable traits of character overcome.
------------------------Beware of Satan's Agents, February 20
Mar	59	1	Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. 1 Timothy 4:1.
Mar	59	2	After the passing of the time in 1844, we had fanaticism of every kind to meet.... The experience of the past will be repeated. In the future Satan's superstitions will assume new forms. Errors will be presented in a pleasing and flattering manner. False theories, clothed with garments of light, will be presented to God's people. Thus Satan will try to deceive, if possible, the very elect. Most seducing influences will be exerted; minds will be hypnotized.
Mar	59	3	Corruptions of every type, similar to those existing among the antediluvians, will be brought in to take minds captive. The exaltation of nature as God, the unrestrained license of the human will, the counsel of the ungodly--these Satan uses as his agencies to bring about certain ends. He will employ the power of mind over mind to carry out his designs. The most sorrowful thought of all is that under his deceptive influence men will have a form of godliness, without having a real connection with God. Like Adam and Eve, who ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, many are even now feeding upon the deceptive morsels of error.
Mar	59	4	Satanic agencies are clothing false theories in an attractive garb, even as Satan in the Garden of Eden concealed his identity from our first parents by speaking through the serpent. These agencies are instilling into human minds that which in reality is deadly error. The hypnotic influence of Satan will rest upon those who turn from the plain word of God to pleasing fables.
Mar	59	5	It is those who have had the most light that Satan most assiduously seeks to ensnare. He knows that if he can deceive them, they will, under his control, clothe sin with garments of righteousness, and lead many astray.
Mar	59	6	I say to all: Be on your guard; for as an angel of light Satan is walking in every assembly of Christian workers, and in every church, trying to win the members to his side. I am bidden to give to the people of God the warning: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked." Galatians 6:7.
------------------------Temptations in Disguise, February 21
Mar	60	1	I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Acts 20:29, 30.
Mar	60	2	God has not passed His people by and chosen one solitary man here and another there as the only ones worthy to be entrusted with His truth. He does not give one man new light contrary to the established faith of the body. In every reform men have arisen making this claim....
Mar	60	3	One accepts some new and original idea which does not seem to conflict with the truth. He ... dwells upon it until it seems to him to be clothed with beauty and importance, for Satan has power to give this false appearance. At last it becomes the all-absorbing theme, the one great point around which everything centers; and the truth is uprooted from the heart....
Mar	60	4	I warn you to beware of these side issues, whose tendency is to divert the mind from the truth. Error is never harmless. It never sanctifies, but always brings confusion and dissension....
Mar	60	5	There are a thousand temptations in disguise prepared for those who have the light of truth; and the only safety for any of us is in receiving no new doctrine, no new interpretation of the Scriptures, without first submitting it to brethren of experience. Lay it before them in a humble, teachable spirit, with earnest prayer; and if they see no light in it, yield to their judgment....
Mar	60	6	Satan is constantly at work; but few have any idea of his activity and subtlety. The people of God must be prepared to withstand the wily foe. It is this resistance that Satan dreads. He knows better than we do the limit of his power and how easily he can be overcome if we resist and face him. Through divine strength the weakest saint is more than a match for him and all his angels, and if brought to the test he would be able to prove his superior power. Therefore Satan's step is noiseless, his movements stealthy, and his batteries masked. He does not venture to show himself openly, lest he arouse the Christian's dormant energies and send him to God in prayer.
------------------------Why Christ Delays His Coming, February 22
Mar	61	1	But this I do say, brothers. The appointed time has grown very short. 1 Corinthians 7:29, Goodspeed.
Mar	61	2	The angels of God in their messages to men represent time as very short. Thus it has always been presented to me. It is true that time has continued longer than we expected in the early days of this message. Our Saviour did not appear as soon as we hoped. But has the word of the Lord failed? Never! It should be remembered that the promises and threatenings of God are alike conditional.
Mar	61	3	God had committed to His people a work to be accomplished on earth. The third angel's message was to be given, the minds of believers were to be directed to the heavenly sanctuary, where Christ had entered to make atonement for His people. The Sabbath reform was to be carried forward. The breach in the law of God must be made up. The message must be proclaimed with a loud voice, that all the inhabitants of earth might receive the warning. The people of God must purify their souls through obedience to the truth, and be prepared to stand without fault before Him at His coming.
Mar	61	4	Had Adventists, after the great disappointment in 1844, held fast their faith, and followed on unitedly in the opening providence of God, receiving the message of the third angel and in the power of the Holy Spirit proclaiming it to the world, ...the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts, the work would have been completed, and Christ would have come ere this to receive His people to their reward.
Mar	61	5	But in the period of doubt and uncertainty that followed the disappointment, many of the advent believers yielded their faith.... Thus the work was hindered, and the world was left in darkness....
Mar	61	6	For forty years did unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion shut out ancient Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises of God at fault. It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife among the Lord's professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years.
------------------------A Goal to Reach, February 23
Mar	62	1	The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
Mar	62	2	When Paul wrote, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly," he did not exhort his brethren to aim at a standard which it was impossible for them to reach; he did not pray that they might have blessings which it was not the will of God to give. He knew that all who would be fitted to meet Christ in peace, must possess a pure and holy character.
Mar	62	3	If Seventh-day Adventists practiced what they profess to believe, if they were sincere health reformers, they would indeed be a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. And they would show a far greater zeal for the salvation of those who are ignorant of the truth.
Mar	62	4	Greater reforms should be seen among the people who claim to be looking for the soon appearing of Christ. Health reform is to do among our people a work which it has not yet done. There are those who ought to be awake to the danger of meat-eating, who are still eating the flesh of animals, thus endangering the physical, mental, and spiritual health. Many who are now only half converted on the question of meat-eating will go from God's people, to walk no more with them.
Mar	62	5	The controlling power of appetite will prove the ruin of thousands, when, if they had conquered on this point, they would have had moral power to gain the victory over every other temptation of Satan. But those who are slaves to appetite will fail in perfecting Christian character. The continual transgression of man for six thousand years has brought sickness, pain, and death as its fruits. And as we near the close of time, Satan's temptation to indulge appetite will be more powerful and more difficult to overcome.
Mar	62	6	Again and again I have been shown that God is trying to lead us back, step by step, to His original design--that man should subsist upon the natural products of the earth. Among those who are waiting for the coming of the Lord, meat-eating will eventually be done away; flesh will cease to form a part of their diet. We should ever keep this end in view, and endeavor to work steadily toward it.
------------------------No Time to Do the Devil's Work, February 24
Mar	63	1	Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. 2 Peter 3:11, 12.
Mar	63	2	It is essential that all shall know what atmosphere surrounds their own souls, whether they are in co-partnership with the enemy of righteousness, and unconsciously doing his work, or whether they are yoked up with Christ, doing His work....
Mar	63	3	Satan would be pleased to have anyone and everyone become his allies in the work of weakening the confidence of brother in brother, and sowing discord among those who profess to believe the truth. Satan can accomplish his purpose most successfully through professed friends of Christ who are not walking and working in Christ's lines....
Mar	63	4	This is the day of the Lord's preparation. We have no time now to talk unbelief or ... to do the devil's work. Let everyone beware of unsettling the faith of others by sowing seeds of envy, jealousy, disunion; for God hears the words, and He judges, not by assertions which are yea and nay, but by the fruit of one's course of action....
Mar	63	5	As yet the four winds are held until the servants of God shall be sealed in their foreheads. Then the powers of earth will marshal their forces for the last great battle. How carefully we should improve the little remaining period of our probation! How earnestly we should examine ourselves! ...
Mar	63	6	It is discipline of spirit, cleanness of heart and thought that is needed. This is of more value than brilliant talent, tact, or knowledge. An ordinary mind, trained to obey a "Thus saith the Lord," is better qualified for God's work than are those who have capabilities, but do not employ them rightly.... Men may take pride of their knowledge of worldly things; but if they have not a knowledge of the true God, of Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, they are deplorably ignorant, and their knowledge will perish with them. Secular knowledge is power; but the knowledge of the Word, which has a transforming influence upon the human mind, is imperishable.
------------------------Satan's Last Campaign, February 25
Mar	64	1	Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. 1 John 2:18.
Mar	64	2	The enemy is preparing for his last campaign against the church. He has so concealed himself from view that many can hardly believe that he exists, much less can they be convinced of his amazing activity and power....
Mar	64	3	Man is Satan's captive and is naturally inclined to follow his suggestions and do his bidding. He has in himself no power to oppose effectual resistance to evil. It is only as Christ abides in him by living faith ... that man may venture to face so terrible a foe. Every other means of defense is utterly vain. It is only through Christ that Satan's power is limited. This is a momentous truth that all should understand. Satan is busy every moment, going to and fro, walking up and down in the earth, seeking whom he may devour. But the earnest prayer of faith will baffle his strongest efforts....
Mar	64	4	Satan hopes to involve the remnant people of God in the general ruin that is coming upon the earth. As the coming of Christ draws nigh, he will be more determined and decisive in his efforts to overthrow them. Men and women will arise professing to have some new light or some new revelation whose tendency is to unsettle faith in the old landmarks. Their doctrines will not bear the test of God's word, yet souls will be deceived. False reports will be circulated, and some will be taken in this snare.... We cannot be too watchful against every form of error, for Satan is constantly seeking to draw men from the truth....
Mar	64	5	Some men have no firmness of character. They are like a ball of putty and can be pressed into any conceivable shape.... This weakness, indecision, and inefficiency must be overcome. There is an indomitableness about true Christian character which cannot be molded or subdued by adverse circumstances. Men must have moral backbone, an integrity which cannot be flattered, bribed, or terrified....
Mar	64	6	God has set bounds that Satan cannot pass. Our most holy faith is this barrier; and if we build ourselves up in the faith, we shall be safe in the keeping of the Mighty One.
------------------------Through Heaven's Gates, February 26
Mar	65	1	By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; ... for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Hebrews 11:5.
Mar	65	2	We are living in an evil age.... Because iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold. Enoch walked with God three hundred years. Now the shortness of time seems to be urged as a motive to seek righteousness. Should it be necessary that the terrors of the day of God be held before us in order to compel us to right action? Enoch's case is before us. Hundreds of years he walked with God. He lived in a corrupt age, when moral pollution was teeming all around him; yet he trained his mind to devotion, to love purity. His conversation was upon heavenly things. He educated his mind to run in this channel, and he bore the impress of the divine....
Mar	65	3	Enoch had temptations as well as we. He was surrounded with society no more friendly to righteousness than is that which surrounds us. The atmosphere he breathed was tainted with sin and corruption, the same as ours; yet he lived a life of holiness. He was unsullied with the prevailing sins of the age in which he lived. So may we remain pure and uncorrupted. He was a representative of the saints who live amid the perils and corruptions of the last days. For his faithful obedience to God he was translated. So, also, the faithful, who are alive and remain, will be translated.
Mar	65	4	"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." For three hundred years Enoch had been seeking purity of heart, that he might be in harmony with heaven. For three centuries he had walked with God. Day by day he had longed for a closer union; nearer and nearer had grown the communion, until God took him to Himself. He had stood at the threshold of the eternal world, only a step between him and the land of the blest; and now the portals opened, the walk with God, so long pursued on earth, continued, and he passed through the gates of the holy city, the first from among men to enter there....
Mar	65	5	To such communion God is calling us. As was Enoch's must be their holiness of character who shall be redeemed from among men at the Lord's second coming.
------------------------The Vision is Sure, February 27
Mar	66	1	The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Habakkuk 2:3.
Mar	66	2	The faith that strengthened Habakkuk and all the holy and the just in those days of deep trial was the same faith that sustains God's people today. In the darkest hours, under circumstances the most forbidding, the Christian believer may keep his soul stayed upon the source of all light and power. Day by day, through faith in God, his hope and courage may be renewed.... In the service of God there need be no despondency, no wavering, no fear. The Lord will more than fulfill the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him. He will give them the wisdom their varied necessities demand.
Mar	66	3	Of the abundant provision made for every tempted soul, the apostle Paul bears eloquent testimony. To him was given the divine assurance, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." In gratitude and confidence the tried servant of God responded: "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9, 10.
Mar	66	4	We must cherish and cultivate the faith of which prophets and apostles have testified--the faith that lays hold on the promises of God and waits for deliverance in His appointed time and way. The sure word of prophecy will meet its final fulfillment in the glorious advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as King of kings and Lord of lords. The time of waiting may seem long, the soul may be oppressed by discouraging circumstances, many in whom confidence has been placed may fall by the way; but with the prophet who endeavored to encourage Judah in a time of unparalleled apostasy, let us confidently declare, "The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him."
Mar	66	5	Let us ever hold in remembrance the cheering message, "The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.... The just shall live by his faith."
------------------------A Safe Refuge, February 28
Mar	67	1	Behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. Isaiah 26:21.
Mar	67	2	There is coming rapidly and surely an almost universal guilt upon the inhabitants of the cities, because of the steady increase of determined wickedness. The corruption that prevails, is beyond the power of the human pen to describe. Every day brings fresh revelations of strife, bribery, and fraud; every day brings its heart-sickening record of violence and lawlessness, of indifference to human suffering, of brutal, fiendish destruction of human life....
Mar	67	3	Our God is a God of mercy. With long-sufferance and tender compassion He deals with the transgressors of His law.... The Lord bears long with men, and with cities, mercifully giving warnings to save them from divine wrath; but a time will come when pleadings for mercy will no longer be heard....
Mar	67	4	The conditions prevailing in society, and especially in the great cities of the nations, proclaim in thunder tones that the hour of God's judgment is come and that the end of all things earthly is at hand. We are standing on the threshold of the crisis of the ages. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another--fire, and flood, and earthquake, with war and bloodshed....
Mar	67	5	The storm of God's wrath is gathering; and those only will stand who respond to the invitations of mercy, ... and become sanctified through obedience to the laws of the divine Ruler. The righteous alone will be hid with Christ in God till the desolation be overpast. Let the language of the soul be:
Mar	67	6	"Other refuge have I none; Hangs my helpless soul on Thee; Leave, Oh leave me not alone! Still support and comfort me. "Hide me, O my Saviour, hide, Till the storm of life is past; Safe into the haven guide; Oh, receive my soul at last!"
------------------------A Crisis Ahead, March 1
Mar	68	1	Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Joel 1:15.
Mar	68	2	The prophecies which the great I AM has given in His word, uniting link after link in the chain of events, from eternity in the past to eternity in the future, tell us where we are today in the procession of the ages, and what may be expected in the time to come. All that prophecy has foretold as coming to pass, until the present time, has been traced on the pages of history, and we may be assured that all which is yet to come will be fulfilled in its order.
Mar	68	3	Today the signs of the times declare that we are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Everything in our world is in agitation. Before our eyes is fulfilling the Saviour's prophecy of the events to precede His coming: "Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars.... Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places."
Mar	68	4	The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place--that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.
Mar	68	5	The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of these things. Here are revealed the great final scenes in the history of our world, ... the sound of their approach causing the earth to tremble and men's hearts to fail them for fear.
Mar	68	6	Today men and nations are being tested by the plummet in the hand of Him who makes no mistake. All are by their own choice deciding their destiny, and God is overruling all for the accomplishment of His purposes.
Mar	68	7	Christians should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise, and this preparation they should make by diligently studying the word of God and striving to conform their lives to its precepts.
------------------------Healing for Sin-Sick Souls, March 2
Mar	69	1	The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Isaiah 1:5, 6.
Mar	69	2	There is a remedy for the sin-sick soul. That remedy is in Jesus. Precious Saviour! His grace is sufficient for the weakest; and the strongest must also have His grace or perish.
Mar	69	3	I saw how this grace could be obtained. Go to your closet, and there alone plead with God: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Be in earnest, be sincere.... Jacoblike, wrestle in prayer. Agonize.... You must make an effort....
Mar	69	4	Seek the Lord with all your heart. Come with zeal, and when you sincerely feel that without the help of God you perish, when you pant after Him as the hart panteth after the water brooks, then will the Lord strengthen you speedily. Then will your peace pass all understanding. If you expect salvation, you must pray. Take time. Be not hurried and careless in your prayers. Beg of God to work in you a thorough reformation, that the fruits of His Spirit may dwell in you, and you shine as lights in the world. Be not a hindrance or curse to the cause of God; you can be a help, a blessing. Does Satan tell you that you cannot enjoy salvation full and free? Believe him not.
Mar	69	5	I saw that it is the privilege of every Christian to enjoy the deep movings of the Spirit of God. A sweet, heavenly peace will pervade the mind, and you will love to meditate upon God and heaven. You will feast upon the glorious promises of His word....
Mar	69	6	If professed Christians love Jesus better than the world, they will love to speak of Him, their best Friend, in whom their highest affections are centered. He came to their aid when they felt their lost and perishing condition. When weary and heavy-laden with sin, they turned unto Him. He removed their burden of guilt and sin, ... and turned the whole current of their affections. The things they once loved, they now hate; and the things they hated, they now love.
Mar	69	7	Has this great change taken place in you?
------------------------A New Life, March 3
Mar	70	1	Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.... You must be born anew. John 3:5-7, R.S.V.
Mar	70	2	He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility. There is no safety for one who has merely a legal religion, a form of godliness. The Christian's life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit....
Mar	70	3	A person may not be able to tell the exact time or place, or to trace all the circumstances in the process of conversion; but this does not prove him to be unconverted. By an agency as unseen as the wind, Christ is constantly working upon the heart. Little by little, perhaps unconsciously to the receiver, impressions are made that tend to draw the soul to Christ.... Suddenly, as the Spirit comes with more direct appeal, the soul gladly surrenders itself to Jesus. By many this is called sudden conversion; but it is the result of long wooing by the Spirit of God,--a patient, protracted process.
Mar	70	4	While the wind is itself invisible, it produces effects that are seen and felt. So the work of the Spirit upon the soul will reveal itself in every act of him who has felt its saving power. When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the light of heaven. No one sees the hand that lifts the burden, or beholds the light descend from the courts above. The blessing comes when by faith the soul surrenders itself to God. Then that power which no human eye can see creates a new being in the image of God.
Mar	70	5	It is impossible for finite minds to comprehend the work of redemption. Its mystery exceeds human knowledge; yet he who passes from death to life realizes that it is a divine reality. The beginning of redemption we may know here through a personal experience. Its results reach through the eternal ages.
------------------------Life's Top Priority, March 4
Mar	71	1	Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33.
Mar	71	2	This is the first great object--the kingdom of heaven, the righteousness of Christ. Other objects to be attained should be secondary to these.
Mar	71	3	Satan will present the path of holiness as difficult while the paths of worldly pleasure are strewed with flowers. In false and flattering colors will the tempter array the world with its pleasures before you. Vanity is one of the strongest traits of our depraved natures, and he knows that he can appeal to it successfully. He will flatter you through his agents. You may receive praise which will gratify your vanity and foster in you pride and self-esteem, and you may think that with such advantages and attractions it really is a great pity for you to come out from the world and be separate, and become a Christian.... But consider that the pleasures of earth will have an end, and that which you sow you must also reap. Are personal attractions, ability, or talents too valuable to devote to God, the Author of your being, He who watches over you every moment? Are your qualifications too precious to devote to God?
Mar	71	4	The young urge that they need something to enliven and divert the mind. I saw that there is pleasure in industry, a satisfaction in pursuing a life of usefulness. Some still urge that they must have something ... to which the mind can turn for relief and refreshment amid cares and wearing labor. The Christian's hope is just what is needed. Religion will prove to the believer a comforter, a sure guide to the Fountain of true happiness. The young should study the word of God and give themselves to meditation and prayer, and they will find that their spare moments cannot be better employed.
Mar	71	5	Young friends, you should take time to prove your own selves, whether you are in the love of God. Be diligent to make your calling and election sure.
Mar	71	6	Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Make this first and last. Seek most earnestly to know Him whom to know aright is life eternal. Christ and His righteousness is the salvation of the soul.
------------------------Heaven's Flawless Pearl, March 5
Mar	72	1	The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Matthew 13:45, 46.
Mar	72	2	Christ Himself is the pearl of great price.... The righteousness of Christ, as a pure, white pearl, has no defect, no stain. No work of man can improve the great and precious gift of God. It is without a flaw. In Christ are "hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Colossians 2:3. He is "made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." 1 Corinthians 1:30. All that can satisfy the needs and longings of the human soul, for this world and for the world to come, is found in Christ. Our Redeemer is the pearl so precious that in comparison all things else may be accounted loss....
Mar	72	3	In the parable the pearl is not represented as a gift. The merchantman bought it at the price of all that he had. Many question the meaning of this, since Christ is represented in the Scriptures as a gift. He is a gift, but only to those who give themselves, soul, body, and spirit, to Him without reserve. We are to give ourselves to Christ, to live a life of willing obedience to all His requirements. All that we are, all the talents and capabilities we possess, are the Lord's, to be consecrated to His service. When we thus give ourselves wholly to Him, Christ, with all the treasures of heaven, gives Himself to us. We obtain the pearl of great price....
Mar	72	4	In the market of which divine mercy has the management, the precious pearl is represented as being bought without money and without price. In this market all may obtain the goods of heaven. The treasury of the jewels of truth is open to all.... The Saviour's voice earnestly and lovingly invites us: "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich." ... The poorest are as well able as the richest to purchase salvation; for no amount of worldly wealth can secure it. It is obtained by willing obedience, by giving ourselves to Christ as His own purchased possession....
Mar	72	5	We cannot earn salvation, but we are to seek for it with as much interest and perseverance as though we would abandon everything in the world for it.
------------------------Christ the Only Saviour, March 6
Mar	73	1	Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood. Colossians 1:13, 14.
Mar	73	2	No matter who you are or what your life has been, you can be saved only in God's appointed way. You must repent; you must fall helpless on the Rock, Christ Jesus. You must feel your need of a physician and of the only remedy for sin, the blood of Christ. This remedy can be secured only by repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.... The blood of Christ will avail for none but those who feel their need of its cleansing power.
Mar	73	3	What surpassing love and condescension, that when we had no claim upon divine mercy, Christ was willing to undertake our redemption! But our great Physician requires of every soul unquestioning submission. We are never to prescribe for our own case. Christ must have the entire management of will and action....
Mar	73	4	We may flatter ourselves ... that our moral character has been correct and we need not humble ourselves before God like the common sinner. But we must be content to enter into life in the very same way as the chief of sinners. We must renounce our own righteousness and plead for the righteousness of Christ to be imputed to us. We must depend wholly upon Christ for our strength. Self must die. We must acknowledge that all we have is from the exceeding riches of divine grace. Let this be the language of our hearts: "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake."
Mar	73	5	Genuine faith is followed by love, and love by obedience. All the powers and passions of the converted man are brought under the control of Christ. His Spirit is a renewing power, transforming to the divine image all who will receive it....
Mar	73	6	"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." He feels that he is the purchase of the blood of Christ and bound by the most solemn vows to glorify God in his body and in his spirit, which are God's. The love of sin and the love of self are subdued in him. He daily asks: "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?" "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"
------------------------Taste for Yourself, March 7
Mar	74	1	O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Psalm 34:8.
Mar	74	2	How shall we know for ourselves God's goodness and His love? The psalmist tells us--not, hear and know, read and know, or believe and know; but--"Taste and see that the Lord is good." Instead of relying upon the word of another, taste for yourself.
Mar	74	3	Experience is knowledge derived from experiment. Experimental religion is what is needed now.... Some--yes, a large number--have a theoretical knowledge of religious truth, but have never felt the renewing power of divine grace upon their own hearts.... They believe in the wrath of God, but put forth no earnest efforts to escape it. They believe in heaven, but make no sacrifice to obtain it.... They know a remedy for sin, but do not use it. They know the right, but have no relish for it. All their knowledge will but increase their condemnation. They have never tasted and learned by experience that the Lord is good.
Mar	74	4	To become a disciple of Christ is to deny self and follow Jesus through evil as well as good report.... Every darling indulgence that hinders our religious life must be cut off.... Will we put forth efforts and make sacrifices proportionate to the worth of the object to be attained?
Mar	74	5	Every association we form, however limited, exerts some influence upon us. The extent to which we yield to that influence will be determined by the degree of intimacy, the constancy of the intercourse, and our love and veneration for the one with whom we associate. Thus by acquaintance and association with Christ we may become like Him, the one faultless Example.
Mar	74	6	Communion with Christ--how unspeakably precious! Such communion it is our privilege to enjoy if we will seek it, if we will make any sacrifice to secure it.
Mar	74	7	So everyone may be able, through his own experience, to "set his seal to this, that God is true." John 3:33, A.R.V.... He can testify: "I needed help, and I found it in Jesus. Every want was supplied, the hunger of my soul was satisfied.... I believe in Jesus because He is to me a divine Saviour. I believe the Bible because I have found it to be the voice of God to my soul."
------------------------Citizens of Heaven, March 8
Mar	75	1	Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. Ephesians 2:19.
Mar	75	2	Jesus says: "Behold, I come quickly." We should keep these words ever in mind, and act as though we do indeed believe that the coming of the Lord is nigh, and that we are pilgrims and strangers upon the earth.
Mar	75	3	Every means of grace should be diligently improved that the love of God may abound in the soul more and more, "that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness." Your Christian life must take on vigorous and stalwart forms. You can attain to the high standard set before you in the Scriptures, and you must if you would be children of God. You cannot stand still; you must either advance or retrograde....
Mar	75	4	Will you have a stinted Christian growth, or will you make healthy progress in the divine life? Where there is spiritual health there is growth. The child of God grows up to the full stature of a man or woman in Christ. There is no limit to his improvement....
Mar	75	5	Some who ought to be strong and established in Christ are as babes in understanding and experimental knowledge of the workings of the Spirit of God. After years of experience they are able to comprehend only the first principles of that grand system of faith and doctrine that constitutes the Christian religion. They do not comprehend that perfection of character which will receive the commendation: "Well done." ...
Mar	75	6	We have great victories to gain, and a heaven to lose if we do not gain them. The carnal heart must be crucified; for its tendency is to moral corruption, and the end thereof is death.... Pray that the mighty energies of the Holy Spirit ... may fall like an electric shock on the palsy-stricken soul, causing every nerve to thrill with new life, restoring the whole man from his dead, earthly, sensual state to spiritual soundness. You will thus become partakers of the divine nature, ... and in your souls will be reflected the image of Him by whose stripes you are healed.
------------------------A Fuller Knowledge of God, March 9
Mar	76	1	This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3.
Mar	76	2	Only by knowing God here can we prepare to meet Him at His coming.... But many of those who profess to believe in Christ do not know God. They have only a surface religion. They do not love God; they do not study His character; therefore they do not know how to trust, how to look and live. They do not know what restful love is, or what it means to walk by faith.... They fail of understanding that it is their duty to receive, in order that they may enrich others.
Mar	76	3	The world by wisdom knows not God. Many have talked eloquently about Him, but their reasoning brings men no nearer to Him, because they themselves are not in vital connection with Him. Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. Their knowledge of God is imperfect.
Mar	76	4	We cannot by searching find out God, but He has revealed Himself in His Son, who is the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person. If we desire a knowledge of God we must be Christlike.... Living a pure life through faith in Christ as a personal Saviour will bring to the believer a clearer, higher conception of God.
Mar	76	5	Christ is a perfect revelation of God. "No man hath seen God at any time," He says; "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Only by knowing Christ can we know God. And as we behold Him, we shall be changed into His image, prepared to meet Him at His coming....
Mar	76	6	Now is the time to prepare for the coming of our Lord. Readiness to meet Him cannot be attained in a moment's time. Preparatory to that solemn scene there must be vigilant waiting and watching, combined with earnest work. So God's children glorify Him. Amid the busy scenes of life their voices will be heard speaking words of encouragement, hope, and faith. All they have and are is consecrated to the Master's service. Thus they prepare to meet their Lord; and when He comes, they will say, with joy, "This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us.... We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."
------------------------The Highest Kind of Meditation, March 10
Mar	77	1	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. 1 John 3:1.
Mar	77	2	What love, what matchless love, that, sinners and aliens as we are, we may be brought back to God and adopted into His family! We may address Him by the endearing name, "Our Father." ...
Mar	77	3	All the paternal love which has come down from generation to generation through the channel of human hearts, all the springs of tenderness which have opened in the souls of men, are but as a tiny rill to the boundless ocean when compared with the infinite, exhaustless love of God. Tongue cannot utter it; pen cannot portray it. You may meditate upon it every day of your life; you may search the Scriptures diligently in order to understand it; you may summon every power and capability that God has given you, in the endeavor to comprehend the love and compassion of the heavenly Father; and yet there is an infinity beyond. You may study that love for ages; yet you can never fully comprehend the length and the breadth, the depth and the height, of the love of God in giving His Son to die for the world. Eternity itself can never fully reveal it. Yet as we study the Bible and meditate upon the life of Christ and the plan of redemption, these great themes will open to our understanding more and more.
Mar	77	4	Christ came to reveal God to the world as a God of love, full of mercy, tenderness, and compassion.
Mar	77	5	It would be well to spend a thoughtful hour each day reviewing the life of Christ from the manger to Calvary. We should take it point by point and let the imagination vividly grasp each scene, especially the closing ones of His earthly life. By thus contemplating His teachings and sufferings, and the infinite sacrifice made by Him for the redemption of the race, we may strengthen our faith, quicken our love, and become more deeply imbued with the spirit which sustained our Saviour. If we would be saved at last we must all learn the lesson of penitence and faith at the foot of the cross.... Everything noble and generous in man will respond to the contemplation of Christ upon the cross.
------------------------White Raiment Required, March 11
Mar	78	1	When the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? Matthew 22:11, 12.
Mar	78	2	By the wedding garment in the parable is represented the pure, spotless character which Christ's true followers will possess. To the church it is given "that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white," "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." Revelation 19:8; Ephesians 5:27. The fine linen, says the Scripture, "is the righteousness of saints." Revelation 19:8. It is the righteousness of Christ, His own unblemished character, that through faith is imparted to all who receive Him as their personal Saviour.
Mar	78	3	The white robe of innocence was worn by our first parents when they were placed by God in holy Eden.... But when sin entered, they severed their connection with God, and the light that had encircled them departed.... Nothing can man devise to supply the place of his lost robe of innocence.... Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet to appear in God's presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul.... This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of human devising. Christ in His humanity wrought out a perfect character, and this character He offers to impart to us. "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Isaiah 64:6. Everything that we of ourselves can do is defiled by sin. But the Son of God "was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin." 1 John 3:5....
Mar	78	4	By His perfect obedience He has made it possible for every human being to obey God's commandments. When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then as the Lord looks upon us He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the nakedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah.
------------------------Joy in Obedience, March 12
Mar	79	1	I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; and thy law is my delight. Psalm 119:174.
Mar	79	2	The true Christian will never complain that the yoke of Christ is galling to the neck. He accounts the service of Jesus as the truest freedom. The law of God is his delight. Instead of seeking to bring down the divine commands, to accord with his deficiencies, he is constantly striving to rise to the level of their perfection.
Mar	79	3	Such an experience must be ours if we would be prepared to stand in the day of God. Now, while probation lingers, while mercy's voice is still heard, is the time for us to put away our sins....
Mar	79	4	God has made ample provision that we may stand perfect in His grace, wanting in nothing, waiting for the appearing of our Lord. Are you ready? Have you the wedding garment on? That garment will never cover deceit, impurity, corruption, or hypocrisy. The eye of God is upon you.... We may conceal our sins from the eyes of men, but we can hide nothing from our Maker.
Mar	79	5	God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him to death for our offenses and raised Him again for our justification. Through Christ we may present our petitions at the throne of Grace. Through Him, unworthy as we are, we may obtain all spiritual blessings. Do we come to Him, that we may have life?
Mar	79	6	The will of God is expressed in the precepts of His holy law, and the principles of this law are the principles of heaven. The angels of heaven attain unto no higher knowledge than to know the will of God, and to do His will is the highest service that can engage their powers.
Mar	79	7	But in heaven, service is not rendered in the spirit of legality. When Satan rebelled against the law of Jehovah, the thought that there was a law came to the angels almost as an awakening to something unthought of. In their ministry the angels are not as servants, but as sons.... Obedience is to them no drudgery. Love for God makes their service a joy. So in every soul wherein Christ, the hope of glory, dwells, His words are re-echoed, "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart."
------------------------Shaping Up in God's Workshop, March 13
Mar	80	1	Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20, R.S.V.
Mar	80	2	We are not our own. We have been purchased with a dear price, even the sufferings and death of the Son of God. If we could understand this, and fully realize it, we would feel a great responsibility resting upon us to keep ourselves in the very best condition of health, that we might render to God perfect service....
Mar	80	3	We believe without a doubt that Christ is soon coming.... We have no doubt, neither have we had a doubt for years, that the doctrines we hold today are present truth, and that we are nearing the judgment. We are preparing to meet Him who, escorted by a retinue of holy angels, is to appear in the clouds of heaven to give the faithful and the just the finishing touch of immortality. When He comes He is not to cleanse us of our sins, to remove from us the defects in our characters, or to cure us of the infirmities of our tempers and dispositions. If wrought for us at all, this work will all be accomplished before that time.
Mar	80	4	When the Lord comes, those who are holy will be holy still. Those who have preserved their bodies and spirits in holiness, in sanctification and honor, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. But those who are unjust, unsanctified, and filthy will remain so forever. No work will then be done for them to remove their defects and give them holy characters.... This is all to be done in these hours of probation. It is now that this work is to be accomplished for us....
Mar	80	5	We are now in God's workshop. Many of us are rough stones from the quarry. But as we lay hold upon the truth of God, its influence affects us. It elevates us and removes from us every imperfection and sin, of whatever nature. Thus we are prepared to see the King in His beauty and finally to unite with the pure and heavenly angels in the kingdom of glory. It is here that this work is to be accomplished for us, here that our bodies and spirits are to be fitted for immortality.
------------------------Physical Health and Noble Thinking, March 14
Mar	81	1	Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. 1 Peter 2:11.
Mar	81	2	Many regard this text as a warning against licentiousness only; but it has a broader meaning. It forbids every injurious gratification of appetite or passion. Every perverted appetite becomes a warring lust. Appetite was given us for a good purpose, not to become the minister of death by being perverted, and thus degenerating into "lusts, which war against the soul." Peter's admonition is a most direct and forcible warning against the use of all stimulants and narcotics. These indulgences may well be classed among the lusts that exert a pernicious influence upon moral character.
Mar	81	3	Let none who profess godliness regard with indifference the health of the body, and flatter themselves that intemperance is no sin and will not affect their spirituality. A close sympathy exists between the physical and the moral nature. The standard of virtue is elevated or degraded by the physical habits. Excessive eating of the best of food will produce a morbid condition of the moral feelings. And if the food is not the most healthful, the effects will be still more injurious. Any habit which does not promote healthful action in the human system degrades the higher and nobler faculties....Indulgence of appetite strengthens the animal propensities, giving them the ascendancy over the mental and spiritual powers.
Mar	81	4	The strength of the temptation to indulge appetite can be measured only by the inexpressible anguish of our Redeemer in that long fast in the wilderness. He knew that the indulgence of perverted appetite would so deaden man's perceptions that sacred things could not be discerned.... If the power of indulged appetite was so strong upon the race, that, in order to break its hold, the divine Son of God, in man's behalf, had to endure a fast of nearly six weeks, what a work is before the Christian! Yet, however great the struggle, he may overcome. By the help of that divine power which withstood the fiercest temptations that Satan could invent, he, too, may be entirely successful in his warfare with evil, and at last may wear the victor's crown in the kingdom of God.
------------------------The Sowing and Reaping of Life, March 15
Mar	82	1	Flee also youthful lusts: but follow after righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22.
Mar	82	2	A little time spent in sowing your wild oats, dear young friends, will produce a crop that will embitter your whole life; an hour of thoughtlessness, once yielding to temptation, may turn the whole current of your life in the wrong direction. You can have but one youth; make that useful. When once you have passed over the ground you can never return to rectify your mistakes....
Mar	82	3	Satan...transforms himself into an angel of light and comes to the youth with his specious temptations and succeeds in winning them, step by step, from the path of duty. He is described as an accuser, a deceiver, a liar, a tormentor, and a murderer. ...It is Satan's act to tempt you, but your own act to yield. It is not in the power of all the host of Satan to force the tempted to transgress. There is no excuse for sin.
Mar	82	4	Temptation is not sin. Jesus was holy and pure; yet He was tempted in all points as we are, but with a strength and power that man will never be called upon to endure. In His successful resistance He has left us a bright example, that we should follow in His steps. If we are self-confident or self-righteous we shall be left to fall under the power of temptation; but if we look to Jesus and trust in Him we call to our aid a power that has conquered the foe on the field of battle, and with every temptation He will make a way of escape. When Satan comes in like a flood, we must meet his temptations with the sword of the Spirit, and Jesus will be our helper and will lift up for us a standard against him.
Mar	82	5	One wrong trait of character, one sinful desire cherished, will eventually neutralize all the power of the gospel.... The pains of duty and the pleasures of sin are the cords with which Satan binds men in his snares. Those who would rather die than perform a wrong act are the only ones who will be found faithful.
Mar	82	6	The youth may have principles so firm that the most powerful temptations of Satan will not draw them away from their allegiance.
------------------------The Character Heaven Approves, March 16
Mar	83	1	Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12.
Mar	83	2	Jesus, the Majesty of heaven, has left an example for the youth. He toiled in the workshop at Nazareth for His daily bread. He was subject to His parents, and sought not to control His own time or to follow His own will. By a life of easy indulgence a youth can never attain to real excellence as a man or as a Christian. God does not promise us ease, honor, or wealth in His service; but He assures us that all needed blessings will be ours, "with persecutions," and in the world to come "life everlasting." Nothing less than entire consecration to His service will Christ accept. This is the lesson which every one of us must learn....
Mar	83	3	We have marked illustrations of the sustaining power of firm, religious principle.... The gaping lions' den could not keep Daniel from his daily prayers, nor could the fiery furnace induce Shadrach and his companions to fall down before the idol which Nebuchadnezzar set up. Young men who have firm principles will eschew pleasure, defy pain, and brave even the lions' den and the heated fiery furnace rather than be found untrue to God. Mark the character of Joseph. Virtue was severely tested, but its triumph was complete. At every point the noble youth endured the test. The same lofty, unbending principle appeared at every trial. The Lord was with him, and His word was law.
Mar	83	4	Those who study the Bible, counsel with God, and rely upon Christ will be enabled to act wisely at all times and under all circumstances. Good principles will be illustrated in actual life. Only let the truth for this time be cordially received and become the basis of character, and it will produce steadfastness of purpose, which the allurements of pleasure, the fickleness of custom, the contempt of the world-loving, and the heart's own clamors for self-indulgence are powerless to influence. Conscience must be first enlightened, the will must be brought into subjection. The love of truth and righteousness must reign in the soul, and a character will appear which heaven can approve.
------------------------Climbing Peter's Ladder, March 17
Mar	84	1	Beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 2 Peter 1:5-7.
Mar	84	2	Point the youth to Peter's ladder of eight rounds, and place their feet, not on the highest round, but on the lowest, and with earnest solicitation urge them to climb to the very top.
Mar	84	3	Christ ... is the ladder. The base is planted firmly on the earth in His humanity; the topmost round reaches to the throne of God in His divinity. The humanity of Christ embraces fallen humanity, while His divinity lays hold upon the throne of God. We are saved by climbing round after round of the ladder, looking to Christ, clinging to Christ, mounting step by step to the height of Christ, so that He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity are the rounds of this ladder. All these graces are to be manifested in the Christian character; and "if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
Mar	84	4	You are not to think that you must wait until you have perfected one grace before cultivating another. No; they are to grow up together...; every day that you live, you can be perfecting the blessed attributes fully revealed in the character of Christ....
Mar	84	5	Do not become overwhelmed with the great amount of work you must do in your lifetime, for you are not required to do it all at once. Let every power of your being go to each day's work, improve each precious opportunity, appreciate the helps that God gives you, and make advancement up the ladder of progress step by step. Remember that you are to live but one day at a time, that God has given you one day, and heavenly records will show how you have valued its privileges and opportunities. May you so improve every day given you of God, that at last you may hear the Master say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
------------------------The Breath of the Soul, March 18
Mar	85	1	Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
Mar	85	2	Prayer is the breath of the soul, the channel of all blessings. As ... the repentant soul offers its prayer, God sees its struggles, watches its conflicts, and marks its sincerity. He has His finger upon its pulse, and He takes note of every throb. Not a feeling thrills it, not an emotion agitates it, not a sorrow shades it, not a sin stains it, not a thought or purpose moves it, of which He is not cognizant. That soul was purchased at an infinite cost, and is loved with a devotion that is unalterable.
Mar	85	3	Prayer to the Great Physician for the healing of the soul brings the blessing of God. Prayer unites us one to another and to God. Prayer brings Jesus to our side, and gives new strength and fresh grace to the fainting, perplexed soul....
Mar	85	4	Christ our Saviour was tempted in all points like as we are, yet He was without sin. He took human nature, being made in fashion as a man, and his necessities were the necessities of a man. He had bodily wants to be supplied, bodily weariness to be relieved. It was by prayer to His Father that He was braced for duty and for trial. Day by day He followed His round of duty, seeking to save souls.... And He spent whole nights in prayer in behalf of the tempted ones....
Mar	85	5	The night seasons of prayer which the Saviour spent in the mountain or in the desert were essential to prepare Him for the trials He must meet in the days to follow. He felt the need of the refreshing and invigorating of soul and body, that He might meet the temptations of Satan; and those who are striving to live His life will feel this same need....
Mar	85	6	He says to us, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Christ alone can make us capable of responding when He says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart." This means that every day self must be denied. Christ can give us the noble resolve, the will to suffer, and to fight the battles of the Lord with persevering energy. The weakest, aided by divine grace, may have strength to be more than conqueror.
------------------------The Secret of Progress, March 19
Mar	86	1	Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Psalm 62:8.
Mar	86	2	We must be much in prayer if we would make progress in the divine life. When the message of truth was first proclaimed, how much we prayed. How often was the voice of intercession heard in the chamber, in the barn, in the orchard, or the grove. Frequently we spent hours in earnest prayer, two or three together claiming the promise; often the sound of weeping was heard and then the voice of thanksgiving and the song of praise. Now the day of God is nearer than when we first believed, and we should be more earnest, more zealous, and fervent than in those early days. Our perils are greater now than then.
Mar	86	3	It was in hours of solitary prayer that Jesus in His earth-life received wisdom and power. Let the youth follow His example in finding at dawn and twilight a quiet season for communion with their Father in heaven. And throughout the day let them lift up their hearts to God. At every step of our way He says, "I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand; ... fear not; I will help thee." Isaiah 41:13. Could our children learn this lesson in the morning of their years, what freshness and power, what joy and sweetness, would be brought into their lives!
Mar	86	4	Let your heart break for the longing it has for God, for the living God. The life of Christ has shown what humanity can do by being partaker of the divine nature. All that Christ received from God we too may have. Then ask and receive. With the persevering faith of Jacob, with the unyielding persistence of Elijah, claim for yourself all that God has promised.
Mar	86	5	Let the glorious conceptions of God possess your mind. Let your life be knit by hidden links to the life of Jesus. He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness is willing to shine in your heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit will take the things of God and show them unto you.... Christ will lead you to the threshold of the Infinite. You may behold the glory beyond the veil, and reveal to men the sufficiency of Him who ever liveth to make intercession for us.
------------------------Unwavering Faith, March 20
Mar	87	1	Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. James 1:6.
Mar	87	2	Prayer and faith are closely allied, and they need to be studied together. In the prayer of faith there is a divine science; it is a science that everyone who would make his life-work a success must understand. Christ says, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Mark 11:24. He makes it plain that our asking must be according to God's will; we must ask for the things that He has promised, and whatever we receive must be used in doing His will. The conditions met, the promise is unequivocal.
Mar	87	3	For the pardon of sin, for the Holy Spirit, for a Christlike temper, for wisdom and strength to do His work, for any gift He has promised, we may ask; then we are to believe that we receive, and return thanks to God that we have received. We need look for no outward evidence of the blessing. The gift is in the promise, and we may go about our work assured that what God has promised He is able to perform, and that the gift, which we already possess, will be realized when we need it most.
Mar	87	4	To live thus by the word of God means the surrender to Him of the whole life. There will be felt a continual sense of need and dependence, a drawing out of the heart after God. Prayer is a necessity; for it is the life of the soul. Family prayer, public prayer, have their place; but it is secret communion with God that sustains the soul life....
Mar	87	5	An intensity such as never before was seen is taking possession of the world. In amusement, in money-making, in the contest for power, in the very struggle for existence, there is a terrible force that engrosses body and mind and soul. In the midst of this maddening rush, God is speaking. He bids us come apart and commune with Him. "Be still, and know that I am God." ...
Mar	87	6	Not a pause for a moment in His presence, but personal contact with Christ, to sit down in companionship with Him--this is our need.
------------------------Pure in Heart and Life, March 21
Mar	88	1	Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8.
Mar	88	2	Into the city of God there will enter nothing that defiles. All who are to be dwellers there will here have become pure in heart. In one who is learning of Jesus, there will be manifest a growing distaste for careless manners, unseemly language, and coarse thought. When Christ abides in the heart, there will be purity and refinement of thought and manner.
Mar	88	3	But the words of Jesus ... have a deeper meaning--not merely pure in the sense in which the world understands purity, free from that which is sensual, pure from lust, but true in the hidden purposes and motives of the soul, free from pride and self-seeking, humble, unselfish, childlike.
Mar	88	4	Only like can appreciate like. Unless you accept in your own life the principle of self-sacrificing love, which is the principle of His character, you cannot know God....
Mar	88	5	When Christ shall come in His glory, the wicked cannot endure to behold Him. The light of His presence, which is life to those who love Him, is death to the ungodly.... When He shall appear, they will pray to be hidden from the face of Him who died to redeem them.
Mar	88	6	But to hearts that have become purified through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, all is changed. These can know God. Moses was hid in the cleft of the rock when the glory of the Lord was revealed to him; and it is when we are hid in Christ that we behold the love of God....
Mar	88	7	By faith we behold Him here and now. In our daily experience we discern His goodness and compassion in the manifestation of His providence. We recognize Him in the character of His Son.... The pure in heart see God in a new and endearing relation, as their Redeemer; and while they discern the purity and loveliness of His character, they long to reflect His image. They see Him as a Father longing to embrace a repenting son, and their hearts are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory....
Mar	88	8	The pure in heart live as in the visible presence of God during the time He apportions them in this world. And they will also see Him face to face in the future, immortal state, as did Adam when he walked and talked with God in Eden.
------------------------Bible Sanctification Defined, March 22
Mar	89	1	Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:17.
Mar	89	2	Those who are sanctified through the truth are living recommendations of its power, and representatives of their risen Lord. The religion of Christ will refine the taste, sanctify the judgment, elevate, purify, and ennoble the soul, making the Christian more and more fit for the society of the heavenly angels.
Mar	89	3	"And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." John 17:19. "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." 1 Peter 1:22. "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2 Corinthians 7:1....
Mar	89	4	Here is Bible sanctification. It is not merely a show or outside work. It is sanctification received through the channel of truth. It is truth received in the heart, and practically carried out in the life.
Mar	89	5	There is no Bible sanctification for those who cast a part of the truth behind them. There is light enough given in the word of God, so that none need err.... Jesus, considered as a man, was perfect, yet He grew in grace. "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." Luke 2:52. Even the most perfect Christian may increase continually in the knowledge and love of God....
Mar	89	6	Sanctification is not the work of a moment, an hour, or a day. It is a continual growth in grace.... Satan lives, and is active, and every day we need to cry earnestly to God for help and strength to resist him. As long as Satan reigns we shall have self to subdue, besetments to overcome, and there is no stopping place, there is no point to which we can come and say we have fully attained....
Mar	89	7	The Christian life is constantly an onward march. Jesus sits as a refiner and purifier of His people; and when His image is perfectly reflected in them, they are perfect and holy, and prepared for translation.
------------------------Be Alert for Satan's Devices, March 23
Mar	90	1	Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith. 1 Peter 5:8, 9.
Mar	90	2	Let every soul be on the alert. The adversary is on your track. Be vigilant, watching diligently lest some carefully concealed and masterly snare shall take you unawares. Let the careless and indifferent beware lest the day of the Lord come upon them as a thief in the night. Many will wander from the path of humility, and, casting aside the yoke of Christ, will walk in strange paths. Blinded and bewildered, they will leave the narrow path that leads to the city of God....
Mar	90	3	He who overcomes must watch; for, with worldly entanglements, error, and superstition, Satan strives to win Christ's followers from Him. It is not enough that we avoid glaring dangers and perilous, inconsistent moves. We are to keep close to the side of Christ, walking in the path of self-denial and sacrifice. We are in an enemy's country. He who was cast out of heaven has come down with great power. With every conceivable artifice and device he is seeking to take souls captive. Unless we are constantly on guard we shall fall an easy prey to his unnumbered deceptions.
Mar	90	4	Everything is now clothed with a solemnity that all who believe the truth for this time should realize. They should act in reference to the day of God. The judgments of God are about to fall upon the world, and we need to be preparing for that great day.
Mar	90	5	Our time is precious. We have but few, very few days of probation in which to make ready for the future, immortal life. We have no time to spend in haphazard movements. We should fear to skim the surface of the word of God.
Mar	90	6	If your whole interest is in the truth and the preparatory work for this time you will be sanctified through the truth and receive a fitness for immortality.... The thorough work of preparation must go on with all who profess the truth, until we stand before the throne of God without fault, without a spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. God will cleanse you if you will submit to the purifying process.
------------------------Proof Against Every Temptation, March 24
Mar	91	1	Yield yourselves unto God, ... and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you. Romans 6:13, 14.
Mar	91	2	There is but one power that can break the hold of evil from the hearts of men, and that is the power of God in Jesus Christ.... His grace alone can enable us to resist and subdue the tendencies of our fallen nature.
Mar	91	3	The infinite value of the sacrifice required for our redemption reveals the fact that sin is a tremendous evil. Through sin the whole human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination corrupted. Sin has degraded the faculties of the soul. Temptations from without find an answering chord within the heart, and the feet turn imperceptibly toward evil. As the sacrifice in our behalf was complete, so our restoration from the defilement of sin is to be complete. There is no act of wickedness that the law will excuse; there is no unrighteousness that will escape its condemnation. The life of Christ was a perfect fulfillment of every precept of the law. He said; "I have kept my Father's commandments." John 15:10. His life is our standard of obedience and service.
Mar	91	4	Today Satan presents the same temptations that he presented to Christ, offering us the kingdoms of the world in return for our allegiance. But upon him who looks to Jesus as the author and finisher of his faith, Satan's temptations have no power. He cannot cause to sin the one who will accept by faith the virtues of Him who was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.
Mar	91	5	The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. True, we have no power to free ourselves from Satan's control; but when we desire to be set free from sin, and in our great need cry out for a power out of and above ourselves, the powers of the soul are imbued with the divine energy of the Holy Spirit, and they obey the dictates of the will in fulfilling the will of God.
Mar	91	6	God will have a people zealous of good works, standing firm amid the pollutions of this degenerate age. There will be a people who hold so fast to the divine strength that they will be proof against every temptation.
------------------------Why Probation Lingers, March 25
Mar	92	1	The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9.
Mar	92	2	I was shown our danger, as a people, of becoming assimilated to the world rather than to the image of Christ. We are now upon the very borders of the eternal world, but it is the purpose of the adversary of souls to lead us to put far off the close of time. Satan will in every conceivable manner assail those who profess to be the commandment-keeping people of God and to be waiting for the second appearing of our Saviour in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. He will lead as many as possible to put off the evil day and become in spirit like the world, imitating its customs. I felt alarmed as I saw that the spirit of the world was controlling the hearts and minds of many who make a high profession of the truth....
Mar	92	3	In consideration of the shortness of time we as a people should watch and pray, and in no case allow ourselves to be diverted from the solemn work of preparation for the great event before us. Because the time is apparently extended, many have become careless and indifferent in regard to their words and actions. They do not realize their danger and do not see and understand the mercy of our God in lengthening their probation, that they may have time to form characters for the future, immortal life. Every moment is of the highest value. Time is granted them, not to be employed in studying their own ease and becoming dwellers on the earth, but to be used in the work of overcoming every defect in their own characters and in helping others, by example and personal effort, to see the beauty of holiness. God has a people upon the earth who in faith and holy hope are tracing down the roll of fast-fulfilling prophecy and are seeking to purify their souls by obeying the truth, that they may not be found without the wedding garment when Christ shall appear....
Mar	92	4	The signs foretold in prophecy are fast fulfilling around us. This should arouse every true follower of Christ to zealous action.
------------------------Your Case Coming Up! March 26
Mar	93	1	Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come. Revelation 14:7.
Mar	93	2	In 1844 our great High Priest entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, to begin the work of the investigative judgment.
Mar	93	3	As the books of record are opened in the judgment, the lives of all who have believed on Jesus come in review before God. Beginning with those who first lived upon the earth, our Advocate presents the cases of each successive generation, and closes with the living. Every name is mentioned, every case closely investigated. Names are accepted, names rejected. When any have sins remaining upon the books of record, unrepented of and unforgiven, their names will be blotted out of the book of life....
Mar	93	4	We are now living in the great day of atonement. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin and humiliation before the Lord, lest they be cut off from among the people. In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the book of life, should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart.... There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery. The work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another.... Every one must be tested, and found without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
Mar	93	5	All who have truly repented of sin, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice, have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven; as they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves will be accounted worthy of eternal life. The Lord declares, ... "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." Isaiah 43:25.
------------------------A Standard You Can Trust, March 27
Mar	94	1	Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:11.
Mar	94	2	At every revival of God's work, the prince of evil is aroused to more intense activity; he is now putting forth his utmost efforts for a final struggle against Christ and His followers. The last great delusion is soon to open before us. Antichrist is to perform his marvelous works in our sight. So closely will the counterfeit resemble the true, that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures. By their testimony every statement and every miracle must be tested....
Mar	94	3	None but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict. To every soul will come the searching test: Shall I obey God rather than men? The decisive hour is even now at hand. Are our feet planted on the rock of God's immutable word? Are we prepared to stand firm in defense of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus? ...
Mar	94	4	It is the first and highest duty of every rational being to learn from the Scriptures what is truth, and then to walk in the light, and encourage others to follow his example. We should day by day study the Bible diligently, weighing every thought, and comparing scripture with scripture. With divine help we are to form our opinions for ourselves as we are to answer for ourselves before God....
Mar	94	5	Jesus promised His disciples: "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14:26. But the teachings of Christ must previously have been stored in the mind, in order for the Spirit of God to bring them to our remembrance in the time of peril....
Mar	94	6	When the testing time shall come, those who have made God's word their rule of life will be revealed.... Let persecution be kindled, and the halfhearted and hypocritical will waver and yield the faith; but the true Christian will stand firm as a rock, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, than in days of prosperity.
------------------------The Scriptures Our Safeguard, March 28
Mar	95	1	Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Hebrews 1:14.
Mar	95	2	So long as the people of God preserve their fidelity to Him, so long as they cling by living faith to Jesus, they are under the protection of heavenly angels, and Satan will not be permitted to exercise his hellish arts upon them to their destruction. But those who separate themselves from Christ by sin are in great peril....
Mar	95	3	Satan is now more earnestly engaged in playing the game of life for souls than at any previous time; and unless we are constantly on our guard, he will establish in our hearts, pride, love of self, love of the world, and many other evil traits. He will also use every possible device to unsettle our faith in God and in the truths of His Word. If we have not a deep experience in the things of God, if we have not a thorough knowledge of His Word, we shall be beguiled to our ruin by the errors and sophistries of the enemy. False doctrines will sap the foundations of many, because they have not learned to discern truth from error. Our only safeguard against the wiles of Satan is to study the Scriptures diligently, to have an intelligent understanding of the reasons of our faith, and faithfully to perform every known duty. The indulgence of one known sin will cause weakness and darkness, and subject us to fierce temptation....
Mar	95	4	Are we opening the door of the heart to Jesus, and closing every means of entrance to Satan? Are we daily obtaining clearer light, and greater strength, that we may stand in Christ's righteousness? Are we emptying our hearts of all selfishness, and cleansing them, preparatory to receiving the latter rain from heaven? ...
Mar	95	5	The work of overcoming is a great work. Shall we take hold of it with energy and perseverance? Unless we do, our "filthy garments" will not be taken from us. We need never expect that these will be torn from us violently; we must first show a desire to rid ourselves of them. We must seek to separate sin from us, relying upon the merits of the blood of Christ; and then in the day of affliction, when the enemy presses us, we shall walk among the angels.
------------------------God's Pledge of Security, March 29
Mar	96	1	The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. 2 Peter 2:9.
Mar	96	2	In the time of trial before us God's pledge of security will be placed upon those who have kept the word of His patience.... The pillar of cloud which speaks wrath and terror to the transgressor of God's law is light and mercy and deliverance to those who have kept His commandments. The arm strong to smite the rebellious will be strong to deliver the loyal. Every faithful one will surely be gathered....
Mar	96	3	What part will you act in the closing scenes of this world's history? ... Do you realize the grand work of preparation that is going on in heaven and on earth? ... Let none now tamper with sin, the source of every misery in our world.... Let not the destiny of your soul hang upon an uncertainty. Know that you are fully on the Lord's side. Let the inquiry go forth from sincere hearts and trembling lips, "Who shall be able to stand?" Have you, in these last precious hours of probation, been putting the very best material into your character building? Have you been purifying your souls from every stain? Have you followed the light? Have you works corresponding to your profession of faith?
Mar	96	4	Is the softening, subduing influence of the grace of God working upon you? ... Are you letting your light shine to illumine the nations that are perishing in their sins? Do you realize that you are to stand in defense of God's commandments before those who are treading them underfoot?
Mar	96	5	It is possible to be a partial, formal believer, and yet be found wanting and lose eternal life. It is possible to practice some of the Bible injunctions and be regarded as a Christian, and yet perish because you lack qualifications essential to Christian character.... While mercy lingers, while the Saviour is making intercession, let us make thorough work for eternity.
Mar	96	6	The great crisis is just before us. To meet its trials and temptations, and to perform its duties, will require persevering faith. But we may triumph gloriously; not one watching, praying, believing soul will be ensnared by the enemy.
------------------------A Deep and Living Experience, March 30
Mar	97	1	How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him. Hebrews 2:3, R.S.V.
Mar	97	2	I saw that we should not put off the coming of the Lord. Said the angel: "Prepare, prepare, for what is coming upon the earth. Let your works correspond with your faith." I saw that the mind must be stayed upon God, and that our influence should tell for God and His truth. We cannot honor the Lord when we are careless and indifferent.... We must be in earnest to secure our own soul's salvation, and to save others. All importance should be attached to this, and everything besides should come in secondary.
Mar	97	3	I saw the beauty of heaven. I heard the angels sing their rapturous songs, ascribing praise, honor, and glory to Jesus. I could then realize something of the wondrous love of the Son of God. He left all the glory, all the honor which He had in heaven, and was so interested for our salvation that He patiently and meekly bore every indignity and slight which man could heap upon Him. He was wounded, smitten, and bruised; He was stretched on Calvary's cross and suffered the most agonizing death to save us from death, that we might be washed in His blood and be raised up to live with Him in the mansions He is preparing for us, to enjoy the light and glory of heaven, to hear the angels sing, and to sing with them.
Mar	97	4	I saw that all heaven is interested in our salvation; and shall we be indifferent? Shall we be careless, as though it were a small matter whether we are saved or lost? Shall we slight the sacrifice that has been made for us? ...
Mar	97	5	A Book has been given us to guide our feet through the perils of this dark world to heaven. It tells us how we can escape the wrath of God, and also tells of the sufferings of Christ for us, the great sacrifice that has been made that we might be saved and enjoy the presence of God forever.
Mar	97	6	A form of godliness will not save any. All must have a deep and living experience. This alone will save them in the time of trouble. Then their work will be tried of what sort it is; and if it is gold, silver, and precious stones, they will be hid in the secret of the Lord's pavilion.
------------------------"Get Ready, Get Ready, Get Ready", March 31
Mar	98	1	Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Amos 4:12.
Mar	98	2	Suppose that today Christ should appear in the clouds of heaven, who ... would be ready to meet Him? Suppose we should be translated into the kingdom of heaven just as we are. Would we be prepared to unite with the saints of God, to live in harmony with the royal family, the children of the heavenly King? What preparation have you made for the judgment? Have you made your peace with God? Are you laboring together with God? Are you seeking to help those around you, those in your home, those in your neighborhood, those with whom you come in contact that are not keeping the commandments of God? ... Are we getting ready to meet the King? ...
Mar	98	3	If it were possible for us to be admitted into heaven as we are, how many of us would be able to look upon God? How many of us have on the wedding-garment? How many of us are without spot or wrinkle or any such thing? How many of us are worthy to receive the crown of life? ... Position does not make the man. It is Christ formed within that makes a man worthy of receiving the crown of life, that fadeth not away.
Mar	98	4	I was pointed to the remnant on the earth. The angel said to them, "Will ye shun the seven last plagues? ... If so, ye must die that ye may live. Get ready, get ready, get ready. Ye must have a greater preparation than ye now have.... Sacrifice all to God. Lay all upon His altar--self, property, and all, a living sacrifice. It will take all to enter glory."
Mar	98	5	Christ is coming with power and great glory. He is coming with His own glory and with the glory of the Father.... While the wicked flee from His presence, Christ's followers will rejoice.... To His faithful followers Christ has been a daily companion and familiar friend. They have lived in close contact, in constant communion with God. Upon them the glory of the Lord has risen.... Now they rejoice in the undimmed rays of the brightness and glory of the King in His majesty. They are prepared for the communion of heaven; for they have heaven in their hearts.
Mar	98	6	If you are right with God today, you are ready if Christ should come today.
------------------------Greatest Work in the World, April 1
Mar	99	1	Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15.
Mar	99	2	"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," is Christ's command to His followers. Not that all are called to be ministers or missionaries in the ordinary sense of the term; but all may be workers with Him in giving the "glad tidings" to their fellow men. To all, great or small, learned or ignorant, old or young, the command is given.
Mar	99	3	Upon every one who knows the truth for this time rests the responsibility of making it known to others. The servants of Christ are in a large measure responsible for the well-being and the salvation of the world. They are to be co-laborers with God in the work of winning souls to Christ.
Mar	99	4	The theme that attracts the heart of the sinner is Christ, and Him crucified. On the cross of Calvary, Jesus stands revealed to the world in unparalleled love. Present Him thus to the hungering multitudes, and the light of His love will win men from darkness to light, from transgression to obedience and true holiness. Beholding Jesus upon the cross of Calvary arouses the conscience to the heinous character of sin as nothing else can do.
Mar	99	5	Will not our church members keep their eyes fixed on a crucified and risen Saviour, in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered? This is our message, our argument, our doctrine, our warning to the impenitent, our encouragement for the sorrowing, the hope for every believer. If we can awaken an interest in men's minds that will cause them to fix their eyes on Christ, we may step aside, and ask them only to continue to fix their eyes upon the Lamb of God.... He whose eyes are fixed on Jesus will leave all. He will die to selfishness. He will believe in all the Word of God, which is so gloriously and wonderfully exalted in Christ.
Mar	99	6	It is the privilege of every Christian, not only to look for, but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain.
------------------------The Message of the Cross, April 2
Mar	100	1	God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Galatians 6:14.
Mar	100	2	God has given me a message for His people.... You have been bought with a price, and all that you have and are is to be used to the glory of God and for the good of your fellow men. Christ died on the cross to save the world from perishing in sin. He asks your co-operation in this work. You are to be His helping hand. With earnest, unwearying effort you are to seek to save the lost....
Mar	100	3	The transforming power of Christ's grace molds the one who gives himself to God's service.... No longer can he be indifferent to the souls perishing around him.... He realizes that every part of his being belongs to Christ, who has redeemed him from the slavery of sin; that every moment of his future has been bought with the precious lifeblood of God's only-begotten Son.
Mar	100	4	Have you so deep an appreciation of the sacrifice made on Calvary that you are willing to make every other interest subordinate to the work of saving souls? The same intensity of desire to save sinners that marked the life of the Saviour marks the life of His true follower. The Christian has no desire to live for self. He delights to consecrate all that he has and is to the Master's service. He is moved by an inexpressible desire to win souls to Christ....
Mar	100	5	How can I best glorify Him whose I am by creation and by redemption? This is to be the question that we are to ask ourselves. With anxious solicitude the one who is truly converted seeks to rescue those who are still in Satan's power....
Mar	100	6	We have now only a little time in which to prepare for eternity.... People need the truth, and by earnest, faithful effort it is to be communicated to them. Souls are to be sought for, prayed for, labored for....
Mar	100	7	Upon us rests the weighty responsibility of warning the world of its coming doom.... God calls upon His church to arise and clothe herself with power. Immortal crowns are to be won; the kingdom of heaven is to be gained; the world, perishing in ignorance, is to be enlightened.
------------------------Motivated by Love, April 3
Mar	101	1	And this commandment we have from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. 1 John 4:21.
Mar	101	2	Love is the basis of godliness. Whatever the profession, no man has pure love to God unless he has unselfish love for his brother.... When self is merged in Christ, love springs forth spontaneously. The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within--when the sunshine of heaven fills the heart and is revealed in the countenance....
Mar	101	3	Connected with Christ, we are connected with our fellow men by the golden links of the chain of love. Then the pity and compassion of Christ will be manifest in our life. We shall not wait to have the needy and unfortunate brought to us. We shall not need to be entreated to feel for the woes of others. It will be as natural for us to minister to the needy and suffering as it was for Christ to go about doing good....
Mar	101	4	The glory of heaven is in lifting up the fallen, comforting the distressed.... No distinction on account of nationality, race, or caste is recognized by God.... All men are of one family by creation, and all are one through redemption. Christ came to demolish every wall of partition, to throw open every compartment of the temple, that every soul may have free access to God. His love is so broad, so deep, so full, that it penetrates everywhere. It lifts out of Satan's circle the poor souls who have been deluded by his deceptions. It places them within reach of the throne of God, the throne encircled by the rainbow of promise....
Mar	101	5	Christ is seeking to uplift all who will be lifted to companionship with Himself, that we may be one with Him as He is one with the Father. He permits us to come in contact with suffering and calamity in order to call us out of our selfishness; He seeks to develop in us the attributes of His character--compassion, tenderness, and love....
Mar	101	6	"If thou wilt keep my charge," the Lord declares, "I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by"--even among the angels that surround His throne. (Zechariah 3:7.) By cooperating with heavenly beings in their work on earth, we are preparing for their companionship in heaven.
------------------------The Place to Begin Witnessing, April 4
Mar	102	1	That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace. Psalm 144:12.
Mar	102	2	Our work for Christ is to begin with the family in the home.... There is no missionary field more important than this.
Mar	102	3	Happy are the parents whose lives are a true reflection of the divine, so that the promises and commands of God awaken in the child gratitude and reverence; the parents whose tenderness and justice and long-suffering interpret to the child the love and justice and long-suffering of God; and who, by teaching the child to love and trust and obey them, are teaching him to love and trust and obey his Father in heaven. Parents who impart to a child such a gift have endowed him with a treasure more precious than the wealth of all the ages--a treasure as enduring as eternity.
Mar	102	4	God wants every child of tender age to be His child, to be adopted into His family. Young though they may be, the youth may be members of the household of faith and have a most precious experience. They may have hearts that are tender and ready to receive impressions that will be lasting. They may have their hearts drawn out in confidence and love for Jesus, and live for the Saviour. Christ will make them little missionaries. The whole current of their thought may be changed, so that sin will not appear a thing to be enjoyed, but to be shunned and hated.
Mar	102	5	By precept and example parents are to teach their children to labor for the unconverted. The children should be so educated that they will sympathize with the aged and afflicted and will seek to alleviate the sufferings of the poor and distressed.... From their earliest years self-denial and sacrifice for the good of others and the advancement of Christ's cause should be inculcated, that they may be laborers together with God....
Mar	102	6	God designs that the families of earth shall be a symbol of the family in heaven. Christian homes, established and conducted in accordance with God's plan, are among His most effective agencies for the formation of Christian character and for the advancement of His work.
------------------------A World in Need, April 5
Mar	103	1	We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. Isaiah 59:9.
Mar	103	2	There are many who are reading the Scriptures who cannot understand their true import. All over the world men and women are looking wistfully to heaven. Prayers and tears and inquiries go up from souls longing for light, for grace, for the Holy Spirit. Many are on the verge of the kingdom, waiting only to be gathered in.
Mar	103	3	Everywhere there are hearts crying out for something which they have not. They long for a power that will give them mastery over sin, a power that will deliver them from the bondage of evil, a power that will give health and life and peace. Many who once knew the power of God's word have dwelt where there is no recognition of God, and they long for the divine presence.
Mar	103	4	The world needs today what it needed nineteen hundred years ago--a revelation of Christ. A great work of reform is demanded, and it is only through the grace of Christ that the work of restoration, physical, mental, and spiritual, can be accomplished.
Mar	103	5	Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, "Follow me."
Mar	103	6	There is need of coming close to the people by personal effort.... We are to weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice. Accompanied by the power of persuasion, the power of prayer, the power of the love of God, this work will not, cannot, be without fruit.
Mar	103	7	Heavenly intelligences are waiting to cooperate with human instrumentalities, that they may reveal to the world what human beings may become, and what, through union with the Divine, may be accomplished for the saving of souls that are ready to perish. There is no limit to the usefulness of one who, putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart and lives a life wholly consecrated to God.
------------------------Teaching from House to House, April 6
Mar	104	1	I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house. Acts 20:20.
Mar	104	2	Among the members of our churches there should be more house-to-house labor in giving Bible readings and distributing literature.... As we sow beside all waters we shall realize that "he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully."
Mar	104	3	Christ's example must be followed by those who claim to be His children. Relieve the physical necessities of your fellow men, and their gratitude will break down the barriers and enable you to reach their hearts.... Women as well as men can engage in the work.... They can do in families a work that men cannot do, a work that reaches the inner life. They can come close to the hearts of those whom men cannot reach. Their work is needed. Discreet and humble women can do a good work in explaining the truth to the people in their homes. The word of God thus explained will do its leavening work, and ... whole families will be converted....
Mar	104	4	In the home circle, at your neighbor's fireside, at the bedside of the sick, in a quiet way you may read the Scriptures and speak a word for Jesus and the truth. Precious seed may thus be sown that will spring up and bring forth fruit....
Mar	104	5	There is missionary work to be done in many unpromising places. The missionary spirit needs to take hold of our souls, inspiring us to reach classes for whom we had not planned to labor and in ways and places that we had no idea of working. The Lord has His plan for the sowing of the gospel seed. In sowing according to His will, we shall so multiply the seed that His word may reach thousands who have never heard the truth.
Mar	104	6	Thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand angels are waiting to co-operate with members of our churches in communicating the light that God has generously given, that a people may be prepared for the coming of Christ.
Mar	104	7	Our sisters, the youth, the middle-aged, and those of advanced years, may act a part in the closing work for this time; and in doing this as they have opportunity, they will obtain an experience of the highest value to themselves. In forgetfulness of self, they will grow in grace.
------------------------One-to-One Witnessing, April 7
Mar	105	1	For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
Mar	105	2	Why are not all who claim to love God seeking to enlighten their neighbors and their associates, that they may not longer neglect this great salvation? Christ gave Himself to a shameful, agonizing death, showing His great travail of soul to save the perishing. Oh, Christ is able, Christ is willing, Christ is longing, to save all who will come unto Him!
Mar	105	3	Talk to souls in peril and get them to behold Jesus upon the cross, dying to make it possible for Him to pardon. Talk to the sinner with your own heart overflowing with the tender, pitying love of Christ. Let there be deep earnestness; but not a harsh, loud note should be heard from the one who is trying to win the soul to look and live.
Mar	105	4	First have your own soul consecrated to God. As you look upon our Intercessor in heaven, let your heart be broken. Then, softened and subdued, you can address repenting sinners as one who realizes the power of redeeming love. Pray with these souls, by faith bringing them to the foot of the cross; carry their minds up with your mind, and fix the eye of faith where you look, upon Jesus the Sin Bearer. Get them to look away from their poor, sinful selves to the Saviour, and the victory is won. They behold for themselves the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. They see the Way, the Truth, the Life. The Sun of Righteousness sheds its bright beams into the heart. The strong tide of redeeming love pours into the parched and thirsty soul, and the sinner is saved to Jesus Christ.
Mar	105	5	Christ crucified--talk it, pray it, sing it, and it will break and win hearts. This is the power and wisdom of God to gather souls for Christ. Formal, set phrases, the presentation of merely argumentative subjects, is productive of little good. The melting love of God in the hearts of the workers will be recognized by those for whom they labor. Souls are thirsting for the waters of life. Do not be empty cisterns. If you reveal the love of Christ to them, you may lead the hungering, thirsting ones to Jesus, and He will give them the bread of life and the water of salvation.
------------------------Sound an Alarm! April 8
Mar	106	1	Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. Joel 2:1.
Mar	106	2	The things that concern our eternal welfare are now to absorb our attention. We cannot afford to give heavenly things the second place.... The judgments of God are in the land. They speak in solemn warning, saying, "Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."
Mar	106	3	There are many, many in our churches who know little of the real meaning of the truth for this time. I appeal to them not to disregard the fulfilling of the signs of the times, which say so plainly that the end is near. O how many who have not sought their soul's salvation will soon make the bitter lamentation, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved"!
Mar	106	4	We are living in the closing scenes of this earth's history. Prophecy is rapidly fulfilling. The hours of probation are fast passing. We have no time--not a moment--to lose. Let us not be found sleeping on guard. Let no one say in his heart or by his works, "My lord delayeth his coming." Let the message of Christ's soon return sound forth in earnest words of warning. Let us persuade men and women everywhere to repent, and flee from the wrath to come. Let us arouse them to immediate preparation; for we little know what is before us. Let ministers and lay members go forth into the ripening fields....
Mar	106	5	The Lord is soon to come, and we must be prepared to meet Him in peace. Let us be determined to do all in our power to impart light to those around us. We are not to be sad, but cheerful, and we are to keep the Lord Jesus ever before us.... We must be ready and waiting for His appearing. O how glorious it will be to see Him, and be welcomed as His redeemed ones! Long have we waited, but our faith is not to become weak. If we can but see the King in His beauty, we shall be forever and forever blessed. I feel as if I must cry aloud, "Homeward bound." We are nearing the time when Christ will come with power and great glory, to take His ransomed ones to their eternal home.
------------------------God's Special Message for Today, April 9
Mar	107	1	The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Romans 13:12.
Mar	107	2	In a time like this, we should have but one object in view--the employing of every means that God has provided by which the truth may be planted in the hearts of men.... It is the duty of every Christian to strive to the utmost of his ability to spread abroad the knowledge of the truth.
Mar	107	3	God has waited long, and He is waiting still, to have the beings that are His by both creation and redemption, listen to His voice, and obey Him as loving, submissive children, whose desire is to be near His side, and to have the light of His countenance shining upon them. We are to bear the third angel's message to the world, warning men against the worship of the beast and his image, and directing them to take their places in the ranks of those who "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." God has not revealed to us the time when this message will close, or when probation will have an end.... It is our duty to watch and work and wait, to labor every moment for the souls of men that are ready to perish....
Mar	107	4	Now, just now, is the time for us to be watching, working, and waiting.... The end of all things is at hand.... The Spirit of the Lord is working to take the truth of the inspired word and stamp it upon the soul so that the professed followers of Christ will have a holy, sacred joy that they will be able to impart to others....
Mar	107	5	There is need of a deeper, stronger, more constraining testimony on the power of the truth as seen in the practical godliness of those who profess to believe it.
Mar	107	6	We are to have the truth planted in the heart, and teach it to others as it is in Jesus. The world is in a very solemn period; for souls are deciding what will be their eternal destiny. Satan and his angels are continually plotting to make void the law of God, and thus to enslave the souls of men in the toils of sin. The darkness which is covering the earth is deepening, but those who walk humbly with God have nothing to fear.
------------------------A Time for Decision! April 10
Mar	108	1	Choose you this day whom ye will serve. Joshua 24:15.
Mar	108	2	Today the world is mad: an insanity is upon men and women, and is hurrying them on to eternal ruin. Every species of indulgence prevails, and men have become so infatuated with vice that they will not listen to warnings or appeals.
Mar	108	3	The Lord says to the people of the earth, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve." All are now deciding their eternal destiny. Men need to be aroused to realize the solemnity of the time, the nearness of the day when human probation shall be ended. God gives no man a message that it will be five years or ten years or twenty years before this earth's history shall close. He would not give any living being an excuse for delaying the preparation for His appearing. He would have no one say, as did the unfaithful servant, "My lord delayeth his coming;" for this leads to reckless neglect of the opportunities and privileges given to prepare us for that great day. Everyone who claims to be a servant of God is called to do His service as if each day might be the last....
Mar	108	4	Talk of the speedy appearing of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Put not off that day....
Mar	108	5	Here is the great burden to be carried by each one. Are my sins forgiven? Has Christ, the burden-bearer, taken away my guilt? Have I a clean heart, purified by the righteousness of Jesus Christ? Woe be to any soul who is not seeking a refuge in Christ. Woe be to all who shall in any way divert the mind from the work, and cause any soul to be less vigilant now....
Mar	108	6	The great work from which the mind should not be diverted is the consideration of our personal standing in the sight of God. Are our feet on the Rock of Ages? Are we hiding ourselves in the only Refuge? The storm is coming, relentless in its fury. Are we prepared to meet it? Are we one with Christ as He is one with the Father? Are we heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ? ...
Mar	108	7	The character of Christ is to be our character. We are to be transformed by the renewing of our hearts. Here is our only safety. Nothing can separate a living Christian from God.
------------------------Living to Save Others, April 11
Mar	109	1	If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23.
Mar	109	2	The sin which is indulged to the greatest extent, and which separates us from God and produces so many contagious spiritual disorders, is selfishness. There can be no returning to the Lord except by self-denial. Of ourselves we can do nothing; but, through God strengthening us, we can live to do good to others, and in this way shun the evil of selfishness. We need not go to heathen lands to manifest our desire to devote all to God in a useful, unselfish life. We should do this in the home circle, in the church, among those with whom we associate and with whom we do business. Right in the common walks of life is where self is to be denied and kept in subordination.
Mar	109	3	Paul could say: "I die daily." It is the daily dying to self in the little transactions of life that makes us overcomers. We should forget self in the desire to do good to others. With many there is a decided lack of love for others. Instead of faithfully performing their duty, they seek rather their own pleasure.
Mar	109	4	God positively enjoins upon all His followers a duty to bless others with their influence and means, and to seek that wisdom of Him which will enable them to do all in their power to elevate the thoughts and affections of those who come within their influence. In doing for others, a sweet satisfaction will be experienced, an inward peace which will be a sufficient reward. When actuated by a high and noble desire to do others good, they will find true happiness in a faithful discharge of life's manifold duties. This will bring more than an earthly reward; for every faithful, unselfish performance of duty is noticed by the angels and shines in the life record.
Mar	109	5	In heaven none will think of self, nor seek their own pleasure; but all, from pure, genuine love, will seek the happiness of the heavenly beings around them. If we wish to enjoy heavenly society in the earth made new, we must be governed by heavenly principles here.
Mar	109	6	The greatest work that can be done in our world is to glorify God by living the character of Christ.
------------------------Pathway to Life, April 12
Mar	110	1	Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:13, 14.
Mar	110	2	Christ calls upon us to enter the narrow pathway, where every step means a denial of self. He calls upon us to stand upon the platform of eternal truth, and contend, yes, contend earnestly, for the faith once delivered to the saints....
Mar	110	3	As we near the time when principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places will be fully brought into the warfare against the truth, when Satan's deceptive power will be so great that, if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect, our discernment must be sharpened by divine enlightenment, that we may not be ignorant of Satan's devices.... By giving us the cooperation of the holy angels, God has made it possible for our work to be ... a glorious success. But success will seldom result from scattered effort. The united influence of all the members of the church is required.
Mar	110	4	The church today needs men who, like Enoch, walk with God, revealing Christ to the world. Church-members need to reach a higher standard. Heavenly messengers are waiting to communicate with those who have sunk self out of sight, whose lives are a fulfilling of the words, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Of such men and women must the church be composed before her light can shine forth to the world in clear, distinct rays. Our views of the Sun of Righteousness are clouded by self-seeking. Christ is crucified afresh by many who through self-indulgence allow Satan to gain control over them....
Mar	110	5	It is God's purpose that all shall be tested and tried, that He may see whether they are loyal or disloyal to the laws that govern the kingdom of heaven. To the last, God permits Satan to reveal himself as a liar, an accuser, and a murderer. Thus the final triumph of His people is made more marked, more glorious, more full and complete.
------------------------In Partnership with Christ, April 13
Mar	111	1	I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5.
Mar	111	2	The end is near! God calls upon the church to set in order the things that remain. Workers together with God, you are empowered by the Lord to take others with you into the kingdom. You are to be God's living agents, channels of light to the world, and round about you are angels of heaven with their commission from Christ to sustain, strengthen, and uphold you in working for the salvation of souls....
Mar	111	3	Stand out separate and distinct from the world--in the world, but not of it, reflecting the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, being pure, holy, and undefiled, and in faith carrying light into all the highways and byways of the earth.
Mar	111	4	Let the churches awake before it is everlastingly too late. Let every member take up his individual work and vindicate the name of the Lord by which he is called. Let sound faith and earnest piety take the place of slothfulness and unbelief. When faith lays hold upon Christ, the truth will bring delight to the soul, and the services of religion will not be dull and uninteresting.... Daily you will have a rich experience as you practice the Christianity you profess. Sinners will be converted....
Mar	111	5	Oh, that all may arouse and manifest to the world that theirs is a living faith, that a vital issue is before the world, that Jesus will soon come. Let men see that we believe that we are on the borders of the eternal world.
Mar	111	6	The upbuilding of the kingdom of God is retarded or urged forward according to the unfaithfulness or fidelity of human agencies. The work is hindered by the failure of the human to cooperate with the divine. Men may pray, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven"; but if they fail of acting out this prayer in their lives, their petitions will be fruitless. But though you may be weak, erring, and sinful, the Lord holds out to you the offer of partnership with Himself. He invites you to come under divine instruction. Uniting with Christ, you may work the works of God. "Without me," Christ said, "ye can do nothing."
------------------------Representatives of the Saviour, April 14
Mar	112	1	Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that in case they speak against you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:12, R.S.V.
Mar	112	2	God expects those who bear the name of Christ to represent Him.... They are to be a sanctified, purified, holy people, communicating light to all with whom they come in contact....
Mar	112	3	The followers of Christ are to be separate from the world in principles and interests, but they are not to isolate themselves from the world. The Saviour mingled constantly with men, not to encourage them in anything that was not in accordance with God's will, but to uplift and ennoble them. "I sanctify myself," He declared, "that they also might be sanctified." John 17:19. So the Christian is to abide among men, that the savor of divine love may be as salt to preserve the world from corruption....
Mar	112	4	The power of a higher, purer, nobler life is our great need. The world is watching to see what fruit is borne by professed Christians.... Impressions favorable or unfavorable to Bible religion are constantly being made on the minds of all with whom we have to do.
Mar	112	5	And God and the angels are watching. God desires His people to show by their lives the advantage of Christianity over worldliness, to show that they are working on a high, holy plane. He longs to see them showing that the truth they have received has made them children of the heavenly King. He longs to make them channels through which He can pour His boundless love and mercy.
Mar	112	6	Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of the Saviour shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim His own. It is the privilege of every Christian, not only to look for, but to hasten, the coming of our Lord. Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel! Quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come.
------------------------A Character the World Will Recognize, April 15
Mar	113	1	That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15.
Mar	113	2	It is God's purpose to manifest through His people the principles of His kingdom. That in life and character they may reveal these principles, He desires to separate them from the customs, habits, and practices of the world.... By beholding the goodness, the mercy, the justice, and the love of God revealed in His church, the world is to have a representation of His character. And when the law of God is thus exemplified in the life, even the world will recognize the superiority of those who love and fear and serve God above every other people in the world.
Mar	113	3	Seventh-day Adventists, above all people, should be patterns of piety, holy in heart and in conversation. To them have been entrusted the most solemn truths ever committed to mortals. Every endowment of grace and power and efficiency has been liberally provided. They look for the near return of Christ in the clouds of heaven. For them to give to the world the impression that their faith is not a dominating power in their lives is greatly to dishonor God.
Mar	113	4	Because of the increasing power of Satan's temptations, the times in which we live are full of peril for the children of God, and we need to learn constantly of the Great Teacher, that we may take every step in surety and righteousness. Wonderful scenes are opening before us; and at this time a living testimony is to be borne in the lives of God's professed people, so that the world may see that in this age, when evil reigns on every side, there is yet a people who are laying aside their will and are seeking to do God's will--a people in whose hearts and lives God's law is written....
Mar	113	5	Their thoughts are to be pure, their words noble and uplifting. The religion of Christ is to be interwoven with all that they do and say. They are to be a sanctified, purified, holy people, communicating light to all with whom they come in contact. It is His purpose that by exemplifying the truth in their lives, they shall be a praise in the earth. The grace of Christ is sufficient to bring this about.
------------------------The Testimony the World Needs, April 16
Mar	114	1	You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men. 2 Corinthians 3:2, R.S.V.
Mar	114	2	Transformation of character is to be the testimony to the world of the indwelling love of Christ. The Lord expects His people to show that the redeeming power of grace can work upon the faulty character and cause it to develop in symmetry and abundant fruitfulness.
Mar	114	3	But in order for us to fulfill God's purpose, there is a preparatory work to be done. The Lord bids us empty our hearts of the selfishness which is the root of alienation. He longs to pour upon us His Holy Spirit in rich measure, and He bids us clear the way by self-renunciation. When self is surrendered to God, our eyes will be opened to see the stumbling stones which our un-Christlikeness has placed in the way of others. All these God bids us remove. He says: "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." James 5:16. Then we may have the assurance that David had when, after confession of his sin, he prayed: "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee." Psalm 51:12, 13.
Mar	114	4	When the grace of God reigns within, the soul will be surrounded with an atmosphere of faith and courage and Christlike love, an atmosphere invigorating to the spiritual life of all who inhale it.... Everyone who is a partaker of Christ's pardoning love, everyone who has been enlightened by the Spirit of God and converted to the truth, will feel that for these precious blessings he owes a debt to every soul with whom he comes in contact. Those who are humble in heart the Lord will use to reach souls whom the ordained ministers cannot approach. They will be moved to speak words which reveal the saving grace of Christ.
Mar	114	5	And in blessing others they will themselves be blessed. God gives us opportunity to impart grace, that He may refill us with increased grace. Hope and faith will strengthen as the agent for God works with the talents and facilities that God has provided. He will have a divine agency to work with him.
------------------------When God Makes Up Deficiencies, April 17
Mar	115	1	We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. 2 Corinthians 6:1.
Mar	115	2	We are to be partners in the work of God throughout the world; wherever there are souls to be saved, we are to lend our help, that many sons and daughters may be brought to God. The end is near, and for this reason we are to make the most of every entrusted ability and every agency that shall offer help to the work....
Mar	115	3	How the angels must feel as they see the end approaching, and see so many of those entrusted with the last message of mercy huddling together, attending meetings for the sake of benefit to their own souls, and feeling dissatisfied if there is not much preaching, while they have little burden and are doing little for the salvation of others. All who are indeed united to Christ by living faith will be partakers of the divine nature. They will be constantly receiving from Him spiritual life, and they cannot be silent.
Mar	115	4	Life always shows itself in action. If the heart is living, it will send the lifeblood to every part of the body. Those whose hearts are filled with spiritual life will not need to be urged to reveal it. The divine life will flow forth from them in rich currents of grace. As they pray, as they speak, and as they labor, God is glorified....
Mar	115	5	It is not the most brilliant or the most talented whose work produces the greatest and most lasting results. Who are the most efficient laborers? Those who will respond to the invitation: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart."
Mar	115	6	If men to whom God has entrusted talents of intellect refuse to use these gifts to His glory, after test and trial He will leave them to their own imaginings and will take men who do not appear to be so richly endowed, who have not large self-confidence, and He will make the weak strong because they trust in God to do for them those things which they cannot do for themselves. God will accept the wholehearted service, and will Himself make up the deficiencies.
Mar	115	7	Angels are listening to hear what kind of report you are bearing to the world about your heavenly Master.
------------------------Preaching with Power, April 18
Mar	116	1	In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 3:1, 2, R.S.V.
Mar	116	2	John the Baptist in his desert life was taught of God. He studied the revelations of God in nature. Under the guiding of the Divine Spirit, he studied the scrolls of the prophets. By day and by night, Christ was his study, his meditation, until mind and heart and soul were filled with the glorious vision.
Mar	116	3	He looked upon the King in His beauty, and self was lost sight of. He beheld the majesty of holiness and knew himself to be inefficient and unworthy. It was God's message that he was to declare. It was in God's power and His righteousness that he was to stand. He was ready to go forth as Heaven's messenger, unawed by the human, because he had looked upon the Divine. He could stand fearless in the presence of earthly monarchs because with trembling he had bowed before the King of kings.
Mar	116	4	With no elaborate arguments or finespun theories did John declare his message. Startling and stern, yet full of hope, his voice was heard from the wilderness: "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 3:2. With a new, strange power it moved the people. The whole nation was stirred. Multitudes flocked to the wilderness....
Mar	116	5	In this age, just prior to the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, such a work as that of John is to be done. God calls for men who will prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord.... As a people who believe in Christ's soon appearing, we have a message to bear--"Prepare to meet thy God." Amos 4:12. Our message must be as direct as was the message of John. He rebuked kings for their iniquity. Notwithstanding that his life was imperiled, he did not hesitate to declare God's word. And our work in this age must be done as faithfully.
Mar	116	6	In order to give such a message as John gave, we must have a spiritual experience like his. The same work must be wrought in us. We must behold God, and in beholding Him lose sight of self.
------------------------"Behold the Lamb of God", April 19
Mar	117	1	Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29.
Mar	117	2	John had by nature the faults and weaknesses common to humanity; but the touch of divine love had transformed him. When, after Christ's ministry began, the disciples of John came to him with the complaint that all men were following the new Teacher, John showed how clearly he understood his relation to the Messiah, and how gladly he welcomed the One for whom he had prepared the way.
Mar	117	3	"A man can receive nothing," he said, "except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.... This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease." John 3:27-30.
Mar	117	4	Looking in faith to the Redeemer, John had risen to the height of self-abnegation. He sought not to attract men to himself, but to lift their thoughts higher and still higher, until they should rest upon the Lamb of God. He himself had been only a voice, a cry in the wilderness. Now with joy he accepted silence and obscurity, that the eyes of all might be turned to the Light of life.
Mar	117	5	Those who are true to their calling as messengers for God will not seek honor for themselves. Love for self will be swallowed up in love for Christ. They will recognize that it is their work to proclaim, as did John the Baptist: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29. They will lift up Jesus, and with Him humanity will be lifted up....
Mar	117	6	The soul of the prophet, emptied of self, was filled with the light of the Divine.... He bore witness to the Saviour's glory.... In this glory of Christ, all His followers are to share.... We can receive of heaven's light only as we are willing to be emptied of self. We can discern the character of God, and accept Christ by faith, only as we consent to the bringing into captivity of every thought to the obedience of Christ. To all who do this, the Holy Spirit is given without measure. In Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him." Colossians 2:9, 10.
------------------------God's Call to Reform, April 20
Mar	118	1	He shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Luke 1:17.
Mar	118	2	John the Baptist went forth in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord and to turn the people to the wisdom of the just. He was a representative of those living in these last days to whom God has entrusted sacred truths to present before the people to prepare the way for the second appearing of Christ....
Mar	118	3	Those who are to prepare the way for the second coming of Christ are represented by faithful Elijah, as John came in the spirit of Elijah to prepare the way for Christ's first advent. The great subject of reform is to be agitated, and the public mind is to be stirred. Temperance in all things is to be connected with the message, to turn the people of God from their idolatry, their gluttony, and their extravagance in dress and other things.
Mar	118	4	The self-denial, humility, and temperance required of the righteous, whom God especially leads and blesses, is to be presented to the people in contrast to the extravagant, health-destroying habits of those who live in this degenerate age. God has shown that health reform is as closely connected with the third angel's message as the hand is with the body. There is nowhere to be found so great a cause of physical and moral degeneracy as a neglect of this important subject. Those who indulge appetite and passion, and close their eyes to the light for fear they will see sinful indulgences which they are unwilling to forsake, are guilty before God....
Mar	118	5	Providence has been leading the people of God out from the extravagant habits of the world, away from the indulgence of appetite and passion, to take their stand upon the platform of self-denial and temperance in all things. The people whom God is leading will be peculiar. They will not be like the world. But if they follow the leadings of God they will accomplish His purposes, and will yield their will to His will. Christ will dwell in the heart.... Your body, says the apostle, is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
------------------------Promote Healthful Living, April 21
Mar	119	1	I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1.
Mar	119	2	It is impossible for a man to present his body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, while continuing to indulge habits that are depriving him of physical, mental, and moral vigor. Again the apostle says, "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12:2.
Mar	119	3	We are in a world that is opposed to righteousness or purity of character, and especially to growth in grace. Wherever we look, we see defilement and corruption, deformity and sin. How opposed is all this to the work that must be accomplished in us just previous to receiving the gift of immortality! God's elect must stand untainted amid the corruptions teeming around them in these last days. Their bodies must be made holy, their spirits pure. If this work is to be accomplished, it must be undertaken at once, earnestly and understandingly. The Spirit of God should have perfect control, influencing every action.
Mar	119	4	The health reform is one branch of the great work which is to fit a people for the coming of the Lord.... Men and women cannot violate natural law by indulging depraved appetites and lustful passions, without violating the law of God. Therefore He has permitted the light of health reform to shine upon us, that we may realize the sinfulness of breaking the laws which He has established in our very being....
Mar	119	5	To make natural law plain, and to urge obedience to it, is a work that accompanies the third angel's message.... He [God] designs that the subject shall be agitated, and the public mind deeply stirred to investigate it; for it is impossible for men and women, while under the power of sinful, health-destroying, brain-enervating habits, to appreciate sacred truth....
Mar	119	6	He who cherishes the light which God has given him upon health reform, has an important aid in the work of becoming sanctified through the truth, and fitted for immortality.
------------------------Virtue of Self-Forgetfulness, April 22
Mar	120	1	I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20.
Mar	120	2	By faith Paul appropriated the grace of Christ, and this grace supplied the necessities of his soul. By faith he received the heavenly gift, and imparted it to souls longing for light. This is the experience we need.... Pray for this faith. Strive for it. Believe that God will give it to you.
Mar	120	3	There is a great work to be done in our world. This is no dreamland. Before us are living realities. On every hand are to be seen the manifestations of Satan's power. Let us co-operate with Him who works to restore and uplift. And let us not forget that he who works for Christ must recruit his strength at the source of all strength.... Christians need power of thought, firmness of will, and knowledge that comes from the study of God's Word. They cannot afford to fill their minds with trifles. Every day they must be renewed in spiritual power.
Mar	120	4	Learn of Him who has said, "I am meek and lowly in heart." Learning of Him, you will find rest. Day by day you will gain an experience in the things of God, day by day realize the greatness of His salvation and the glory of a union with Him. Constantly you will learn better how to live Christlike, and constantly you will grow more like the Saviour.
Mar	120	5	If we will die to self, if we will enlarge our idea of what Christ can be to us and what we can be to Him, if we will unite with one another in the bonds of Christian fellowship, God will work through us with mighty power. Then we shall be sanctified through the truth. We shall indeed be chosen by God and controlled by His Spirit. Every day of life will be precious to us, because we shall see in it an opportunity to use our entrusted gifts for the blessing of others.
Mar	120	6	We must forget self in loving service for others.... We may not remember some act of kindness which we do, ... but eternity will bring out in all its brightness every act done for the salvation of souls, every word spoken for the comfort of God's children; and these deeds done for Christ's sake will be a part of our joy through all eternity.
------------------------The Youth, God's Instruments, April 23
Mar	121	1	It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Lamentations 3:27.
Mar	121	2	God calls young men in the vigor and strength of their youth to share with Him self-denial, sacrifice, and suffering. If they accept the call, He will make them His instruments to save souls for whom He died. But He would have them count the cost and enter upon their work with a full knowledge of the conditions upon which they serve a crucified Redeemer....
Mar	121	3	Our first work should be to bring our own hearts into harmony with God, and then we are prepared to labor for others. In former days there was great searching of heart among our earnest workers. They counseled together and united in humble, fervent prayer for divine guidance.... Christ's coming is nearer than when we believed. Every passing day leaves us one less to proclaim the message of warning to the world. Would that there were today more earnest intercession with God, greater humility, greater purity, and greater faith.
Mar	121	4	We have a grand work to do for the Master, to open the word of God to those who are in the darkness of error. Young friends, act as though you had a sacred charge. You should be Bible students, ever ready to give to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you. By your true Christian dignity give evidence that you know you have a truth that it is for the interest of the people to hear. If this truth is inwrought in the soul, it will manifest itself in the countenance and demeanor, in a calm, noble self-possession and peace which the Christian alone can possess. Those who have genuine humility, and whose minds have been expanded by the truths unfolded in the gospel, will have an influence that will be felt. They will make an impression upon minds and hearts.
Mar	121	5	I have no higher wish than to see our youth imbued with the spirit of pure religion which will lead them to take up the cross and follow Jesus. Go forth, young disciples of Christ, controlled by principle, clad in the robes of purity and righteousness. Your Saviour will guide you into the position best suited to your talents and where you can be most useful. In the path of duty you may be sure of receiving grace sufficient for your day.
------------------------A Work for All Ages, April 24
Mar	122	1	I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. 1 John 2:14, R.S.V.
Mar	122	2	There are many lines in which the youth can find opportunity for helpful effort.... In this closing work of the gospel there is a vast field to be occupied; and, more than ever before, the work is to enlist helpers from the common people. Both the youth and those older in years will be called from the field, from the vineyard, and from the workshop, and sent forth by the Master to give His message. Many of these may have had little opportunity for education, but Christ sees in them qualifications that will enable them to fulfill His purpose. If they put their hearts into the work and continue to be learners, He will fit them to labor for Him....
Mar	122	3	However large, however small, your talents, remember that what you have is yours only in trust. Thus God is testing you, giving you an opportunity to prove yourself true. To Him you are indebted for all your capabilities. To Him belong your powers of body, mind, and soul, and for Him these powers are to be used. Your time, your influence, your capabilities, your skill--all must be accounted for to Him who gives all.
Mar	122	4	The youth who finds joy and happiness in reading the word of God and in the hour of prayer is constantly refreshed by drafts from the Fountain of life. He will attain a height of moral excellence and a breadth of thought of which others cannot conceive.... Those who thus connect their souls with God are acknowledged by Him as His sons and daughters. They are constantly reaching higher and still higher, obtaining clearer views of God and of eternity, until the Lord makes them channels of light and wisdom to the world.
Mar	122	5	With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world! How soon might the end come--the end of suffering and sorrow and sin!
------------------------Why so Many Idlers? April 25
Mar	123	1	You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Acts 1:8, R.S.V.
Mar	123	2	In the trust given to the first disciples, believers in every age have shared. Everyone who has received the gospel has been given sacred truth to impart to the world. God's faithful people have always been aggressive missionaries, consecrating their resources to the honor of His name, and wisely using their talents in His service....
Mar	123	3	The members of God's church are to be zealous of good works, separating from worldly ambition, and walking in the footsteps of Him who went about doing good. With hearts filled with sympathy and compassion, they are to minister to those in need of help, bringing to sinners a knowledge of the Saviour's love. Such work calls for laborious effort, but it brings a rich reward. Those who engage in it with sincerity of purpose will see souls won to the Saviour....
Mar	123	4	"The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come." Revelation 22:17. The charge to give this invitation includes the entire church. Everyone who has heard the invitation is to echo the message from hill and valley, saying, "Come."...
Mar	123	5	Hundreds, yea, thousands, who have heard the message of salvation, are still idlers in the market place, when they might be engaged in some line of active service. To these Christ is saying, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" and He adds, "Go ye also into the vineyard." Matthew 20:6, 7. Why is it that many more do not respond to the call? Is it because they think themselves excused in that they do not stand in the pulpit? Let them understand that there is a large work to be done outside the pulpit by thousands of consecrated lay members.
Mar	123	6	Long has God waited for the spirit of service to take possession of the whole church so that everyone shall be working for Him according to his ability. When the members of the church of God do their appointed work in the needy fields at home and abroad, in fulfillment of the gospel commission, the whole world will soon be warned, and the Lord Jesus will return to this earth with power and great glory. "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matthew 24:14.
------------------------All Our Treasures for God, April 26
Mar	124	1	Freely ye have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8.
Mar	124	2	All that men receive of God's bounty still belongs to God. Whatever He has bestowed in the valuable and beautiful things of earth is placed in our hands to test us, to sound the depths of our love for Him and our appreciation of His favors. Whether it be the treasures of wealth or of intellect, they are to be laid, a willing offering, at the feet of Jesus.
Mar	124	3	In commissioning His disciples to go "into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," Christ assigned to men the work of extending the knowledge of His grace. But while some go forth to preach, He calls upon others ... for offerings with which to support His cause in the earth.
Mar	124	4	Not all can make large offerings, not all can do great works, magnificent deeds; but all can practice self-denial, all can reveal the unselfishness of the Saviour. Some can bring large gifts to the Lord's treasury; others can bring only mites; but every gift brought in sincerity is accepted by the Lord.
Mar	124	5	Many would be surprised to see how much could be saved for the cause of God by acts of self-denial. The small sums saved by deeds of sacrifice will do more for the upbuilding of the cause of God than larger gifts will accomplish that have not called for denial of self.
Mar	124	6	The spirit of liberality is the spirit of heaven. Christ's self-sacrificing love is revealed upon the cross. That man might be saved, He gave all that He had and then gave Himself. The cross of Christ appeals to the benevolence of every follower of the blessed Saviour. The principle there illustrated is to give, give.... The principle of worldlings is to get, get....
Mar	124	7	The light of the gospel shining from the cross of Christ rebukes selfishness.... Many of God's people are in danger of being ensnared by worldliness and covetousness. They should understand that it is His mercy that multiplies the demands for their means.... He thus makes man the medium through which to distribute His blessings on earth. God planned the system of beneficence in order that man might become like his Creator, benevolent and unselfish in character, and finally be a partaker with Christ of the eternal, glorious reward.
------------------------A Twofold Life, April 27
Mar	125	1	Our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3.
Mar	125	2	Nothing is more needed in our work than the practical results of communion with God. We should show by our daily lives that we have peace and rest in the Saviour. His peace in the heart will shine forth in the countenance.... Communion with God will ennoble the character and the life. Men will take knowledge of us, as of the first disciples, that we have been with Jesus. This will impart to the worker a power that nothing else can give. Of this power he must not allow himself to be deprived. We must live a twofold life--a life of thought and action, of silent prayer and earnest work.
Mar	125	3	All who are under the training of God need the quiet hour for communion with their own hearts, with nature, and with God.... We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. He bids us, "Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10. This is the effectual preparation for all labor for God. Amidst the hurrying throng, and the strain of life's intense activities, he who is thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. He will receive a new endowment of both physical and mental strength. His life will breathe out a fragrance, and will reveal a divine power that will reach men's hearts.
Mar	125	4	Many, even in their seasons of devotion, fail of receiving the blessing of real communion with God. They are in too great haste. With hurried steps they press through the circle of Christ's loving presence, pausing perhaps a moment within the sacred precincts, but not waiting for counsel. They have no time to remain with the divine Teacher. With their burdens they return to their work.
Mar	125	5	These workers can never attain the highest success until they learn the secret of strength. They must give themselves time to think, to pray, to wait upon God for a renewal of physical, mental, and spiritual power. They need the uplifting influence of His Spirit. Receiving this, they will be quickened by fresh life.
------------------------Mistaken Zeal, April 28
Mar	126	1	For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Romans 10:2.
Mar	126	2	There is a noisy zeal, without aim or purpose, which is not according to knowledge, which is blind in its operations and destructive in its results. This is not Christian zeal. Christian zeal is controlled by principle and is not spasmodic. It is earnest, deep, and strong, engaging the whole soul and arousing to exercise the moral sensibilities.
Mar	126	3	The salvation of souls and the interests of the kingdom of God are matters of the highest importance. What object is there that calls for greater earnestness than the salvation of souls and the glory of God? There are considerations here which cannot be lightly regarded. They are as weighty as eternity. Eternal destinies are at stake. Men and women are deciding for weal or woe. Christian zeal will not exhaust itself in talk, but will feel and act with vigor and efficiency. Yet Christian zeal will not act for the sake of being seen. Humility will characterize every effort and be seen in every work. Christian zeal will lead to earnest prayer and humiliation, and to faithfulness in home duties. In the family circle will be seen the gentleness and love, benevolence and compassion, which are ever the fruits of Christian zeal....
Mar	126	4	Oh, how few feel the worth of souls! How few are willing to sacrifice to bring souls to the knowledge of Christ! There is much talking, much professed love for perishing souls; but talk is cheap stuff. It is earnest Christian zeal that is wanted--a zeal that will be manifested by doing something. All must now work for themselves, and when they have Jesus in their hearts they will confess Him to others. No more could a soul who possesses Christ be hindered from confessing Him than could the waters of Niagara be stopped from flowing over the falls.
Mar	126	5	Eternal life should engage the deepest interest of every Christian. To be a co-worker with Christ and the heavenly angels in the great plan of salvation! What work can bear any comparison with this! From every soul saved there comes to God a revenue of glory to be reflected upon the one saved and also upon the one instrumental in his salvation.
------------------------A Sure Foundation, April 29
Mar	127	1	Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. 2 Timothy 2:19.
Mar	127	2	The Lord will have a people as true as steel, and with faith as firm as the granite rock. They are to be His witnesses in the world, His instrumentalities to do a special, a glorious work in the day of His preparation....
Mar	127	3	Ministers who have preached the truth with all zeal and earnestness may apostatize and join the ranks of our enemies, but does this turn the truth of God into a lie? "Nevertheless," says the apostle, "the foundation of God standeth sure." The faith and feelings of men may change; but the truth of God, never....
Mar	127	4	It is as certain that we have the truth as that God lives; and Satan, with all his arts and hellish power, cannot change the truth of God into a lie. While the great adversary will try his utmost to make of none effect the word of God, truth must go forth as a lamp that burneth.
Mar	127	5	The Lord has singled us out and made us subjects of His marvelous mercy. Shall we be charmed with the pratings of the apostate? Shall we choose to take our stand with Satan and his host? Shall we join with the transgressors of God's law? Rather let it be our prayer: "Lord, put enmity between me and the serpent." If we are not at enmity with his works of darkness, his powerful folds encircle us, and his sting is ready at any moment to be driven to our hearts. We should count him a deadly foe. We should oppose him in the name of Christ. Our work is still onward.... Let all who name the name of Christ clothe themselves with the armor of righteousness....
Mar	127	6	The time has come when we must know for ourselves why we believe as we do.... Let us lay up for ourselves a good foundation against the time to come, that we may lay hold on eternal life. We must labor, not in our own strength, but in the strength of our risen Lord. What will we do and dare for Jesus?
------------------------Heaven is Waiting for You, April 30
Mar	128	1	As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. John 20:21.
Mar	128	2	Of the apostles it is written, "They went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." Mark 16:20. As Christ sent forth His disciples, so today He sends forth the members of His church. The same power that the apostles had is for them. If they will make God their strength, He will work with them, and they shall not labor in vain. Let them realize that the work in which they are engaged is one upon which the Lord has placed His signet. God said to Jeremiah, "Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee." Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched His servant's mouth, saying, "Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth." Jeremiah 1:7-9. And He bids us go forth to speak the words He gives us, feeling His holy touch upon our lips.
Mar	128	3	Christ has given to the church a sacred charge. Every member should be a channel through which God can communicate to the world the treasures of His grace, the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is nothing that the Saviour desires so much as agents who will represent to the world His Spirit and His character. There is nothing that the world needs so much as the manifestation through humanity of the Saviour's love. All heaven is waiting for men and women through whom God can reveal the power of Christianity.
Mar	128	4	The church is God's agency for the proclamation of truth, empowered by Him to do a special work; and if she is loyal to Him, obedient to all His commandments, there will dwell within her the excellency of divine grace. If she will be true to her allegiance, if she will honor the Lord God of Israel, there is no power that can stand against her.
Mar	128	5	Zeal for God and His cause moved the disciples to bear witness to the gospel with mighty power. Should not a like zeal fire our hearts with a determination to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ and Him crucified? It is the privilege of every Christian, not only to look for, but to hasten the coming of the Saviour.
------------------------God Will Guide His People, May 1
Mar	129	1	When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Isaiah 43:2.
Mar	129	2	God has a church upon the earth, who are His chosen people, who keep His commandments. He is leading, not stray offshoots, not one here and one there, but a people.
Mar	129	3	There is no need to doubt, to be fearful that the work will not succeed. God is at the head of the work, and He will set everything in order. If matters need adjusting at the head of the work, God will attend to that, and work to right every wrong. Let us have faith that God is going to carry the noble ship which bears the people of God safely into port.
Mar	129	4	When I voyaged from Portland, Maine, to Boston, many years ago, a storm came upon us, and the great waves dashed us to and fro. The chandeliers fell, and the trunks were rolled from side to side, like balls. The passengers were frightened, and many were screaming, waiting in expectation of death.
Mar	129	5	After a while the pilot came on board. The captain stood near the pilot as he took the wheel, and expressed fear about the course in which the ship was directed. "Will you take the wheel?" asked the pilot. The captain was not ready to do that, for he knew that he lacked experience. Then some of the passengers grew uneasy, and said they feared the pilot would dash them upon the rocks. "Will you take the wheel?" asked the pilot; but they knew that they could not manage the wheel.
Mar	129	6	When you think that the work is in danger, pray, "Lord, stand at the wheel. Carry us through the perplexity. Bring us safely into port." Have we not reason to believe that the Lord will bring us through triumphantly? ...
Mar	129	7	You cannot with your finite minds understand the working of all the providences of God. Let God take care of His own work.
------------------------Satan Redoubles His Efforts, May 2
Mar	130	1	The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. Psalm 34:7.
Mar	130	2	The power and malice of Satan and his host might justly alarm us were it not that we may find shelter and deliverance in the superior power of our Redeemer. We carefully secure our houses with bolts and locks to protect our property and our lives from evil men; but we seldom think of the evil angels who are constantly seeking access to us, and against whose attacks we have, in our own strength, no method of defense. If permitted, they can distract our minds, disorder and torment our bodies, destroy our possessions and our lives. Their only delight is in misery and destruction. Fearful is the condition of those who resist the divine claims and yield to Satan's temptations, until God gives them up to the control of evil spirits. But those who follow Christ are ever safe under His watchcare. Angels that excel in strength are sent from heaven to protect them. The wicked one cannot break through the guard which God has stationed about His people.
Mar	130	3	The great controversy between Christ and Satan, that has been carried forward for nearly six thousand years, is soon to close; and the wicked one redoubles his efforts to defeat the work of Christ in man's behalf and to fasten souls in his snares. To hold the people in darkness and impenitence till the Saviour's mediation is ended, and there is no longer a sacrifice for sin, is the object which he seeks to accomplish.
Mar	130	4	When there is no special effort made to resist his power, when indifference prevails in the church and the world, Satan is not concerned; for he is in no danger of losing those whom he is leading captive at his will. But when the attention is called to eternal things, and souls are inquiring, "What must I do to be saved?" he is on the ground, seeking to match his power against the power of Christ.... He is in attendance when men assemble for the worship of God. Though hidden from sight, he is working with all diligence to control the minds of the worshipers.
------------------------Momentous Struggle Before Us, May 3
Mar	131	1	We ought to obey God rather than men. Acts 5:29.
Mar	131	2	A great crisis awaits the people of God. A crisis awaits the world. The most momentous struggle of all the ages is just before us.... The question of enforcing Sunday observance has become one of national interest and importance. We well know what the result of this movement will be. But are we ready for the issue? Have we faithfully discharged the duty which God has committed to us of giving the people warning of the danger before them? ...
Mar	131	3	There are many who have never understood the claims of the Bible Sabbath and the false foundation upon which the Sunday institution rests. Any movement in favor of religious legislation is really an act of concession to the papacy, which for so many ages has steadily warred against liberty of conscience. Sunday observance owes its existence as a so-called Christian institution to "the mystery of iniquity"; and its enforcement will be a virtual recognition of the principles which are the very cornerstone of Romanism. When our nation shall so abjure the principles of its government as to enact a Sunday law, Protestantism will in this act join hands with popery; it will be nothing else than giving life to the tyranny which has long been eagerly watching its opportunity to spring again into active despotism....
Mar	131	4	If popery or its principles shall again be legislated into power, the fires of persecution will be rekindled against those who will not sacrifice conscience and the truth in deference to popular errors. This evil is on the point of realization.
Mar	131	5	When God has given us light showing the dangers before us, how can we stand clear in His sight if we neglect to put forth every effort in our power to bring it before the people? Can we be content to leave them to meet this momentous issue unwarned? ...
Mar	131	6	When the laws of earthly rulers are brought into opposition to the laws of the Supreme Ruler of the universe, then those who are God's loyal subjects will be true to Him.
------------------------Wresting the Scriptures, May 4
Mar	132	1	They that are unlearned and unstable wrest... the ... scriptures, unto their own destruction. 2 Peter 3:16.
Mar	132	2	The position that it is of no consequence what men believe is one of Satan's most successful deceptions. He knows that the truth, received in the love of it, sanctifies the soul of the receiver; therefore he is constantly seeking to substitute false theories, fables, another gospel....
Mar	132	3	The vague and fanciful interpretations of Scripture, and the many conflicting theories concerning religious faith, that are found in the Christian world are the work of our great adversary to confuse minds so that they shall not discern the truth. And the discord and division which exist among the churches of Christendom are in a great measure due to the prevailing custom of wresting the Scriptures to support a favorite theory. Instead of carefully studying God's word with humility of heart to obtain a knowledge of His will, many seek only to discover something odd or original.
Mar	132	4	In order to sustain erroneous doctrines or unchristian practices, some will seize upon passages of Scripture separated from the context, perhaps quoting half of a single verse as proving their point, when the remaining portion would show the meaning to be quite the opposite. With the cunning of the serpent they entrench themselves behind disconnected utterances construed to suit their carnal desires. Thus do many willfully pervert the word of God. Others, who have an active imagination, seize upon the figures and symbols of Holy Writ, interpret them to suit their fancy, with little regard to the testimony of Scripture as its own interpreter, and then they present their vagaries as the teachings of the Bible.
Mar	132	5	Whenever the study of the Scriptures is entered upon without a prayerful, humble, teachable spirit, the plainest and simplest as well as the most difficult passages will be wrested from their true meaning.... The Word of God is plain to all who study it with a prayerful heart. Every truly honest soul will come to the light of truth. "Light is sown for the righteous." Psalm 97:11. And no church can advance in holiness unless its members are earnestly seeking for truth as for hid treasure.
------------------------False Theories About God, May 5
Mar	133	1	Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21.
Mar	133	2	The theory that God is an essence pervading all nature, is one of Satan's most subtle devices. It misrepresents God, and is a dishonor to His greatness and majesty.
Mar	133	3	Pantheistic theories are not sustained by the Word of God. The light of His truth shows that these theories are soul-destroying agencies. Darkness is their element, sensuality their sphere. They gratify the natural heart, and give license to inclination. Separation from God is the result of accepting them....
Mar	133	4	There is but one power that can break the hold of evil from the hearts of men, and that is the power of God in Jesus Christ. Only through the blood of the Crucified One is there cleansing from sin. His grace alone can enable us to resist and subdue the tendencies of our fallen nature. This power the spiritualistic theories concerning God make of no effect. If God is an essence pervading all nature, then He dwells in all men; and in order to attain holiness, man has only to develop the power that is within him.
Mar	133	5	These theories, followed to their logical conclusion, sweep away the whole Christian economy. They do away with the necessity for the atonement, and make man his own savior. These theories regarding God make His Word of no effect, and those who accept them are in great danger of being led finally to look upon the whole Bible as a fiction. They may regard virtue as better than vice; but God being removed from His position of sovereignty, they place their dependence upon human power, which, without God, is worthless. The unaided human will has no real power to resist and overcome evil. The defenses of the soul are broken down. Man has no barrier against sin. When once the restraints of God's Word and His Spirit are rejected, we know not to what depths one may sink.
Mar	133	6	Those who continue to hold these spiritualistic theories will surely spoil their Christian experience, sever their connection with God, and lose eternal life.
------------------------The Perils of False Science, May 6
Mar	134	1	O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called. 1 Timothy 6:20.
Mar	134	2	In New Hampshire there were those who were active in disseminating false ideas in regard to God. Light was given me that these men were making the truth of no effect by their ideas, some of which led to free-lovism. I was shown that these men were seducing souls by presenting speculative theories regarding God....
Mar	134	3	Among other views, they held that those once sanctified could not sin, and this they were presenting as gospel food. Their false theories, with their burden of deceptive influence, were working great harm to themselves and to others. They were gaining a spiritualistic power over those who could not see the evil of these beautifully clothed theories. Great evils had already resulted. The doctrine that all were holy had led to the belief that the affections of the sanctified were never in danger of leading astray. The result of this belief was the fulfillment of the evil desires of hearts which, though professedly sanctified, were far from purity of thought and practice.
Mar	134	4	This is only one of the instances in which I was called upon to rebuke those who were presenting the doctrine of an impersonal god diffused through nature, and the doctrine of holy flesh.
Mar	134	5	In the future, truth will be counterfeited by the precepts of men. Deceptive theories will be presented as safe doctrines. False science is one of the agencies that Satan used in the heavenly courts, and it is used by him today....
Mar	134	6	I beseech those who are laboring for God not to accept the spurious for the genuine. We have a whole Bible full of the most precious truth. We have no need for supposition or false excitement. In the golden censer of truth, as presented in Christ's teachings, we have that which will convict and convert souls. Present in the simplicity of Christ the truths that He came to this world to proclaim, and the power of your message will make itself felt. Do not present theories or tests that have no foundation in the Bible.
------------------------A Masterpiece of Satan's Deceptions, May 7
Mar	135	1	The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29.
Mar	135	2	Human knowledge of both material and spiritual things is partial and imperfect; therefore many are unable to harmonize their views of science with Scripture statements. Many accept mere theories and speculations as scientific facts, and they think that God's word is to be tested by the teachings of "science falsely so called." 1 Timothy 6:20. The Creator and His works are beyond their comprehension; and because they cannot explain these by natural laws, Bible history is regarded as unreliable. Those who doubt the reliability of the records of the Old and New Testaments too often go a step further and doubt the existence of God and attribute infinite power to nature. Having let go their anchor, they are left to beat about upon the rocks of infidelity.
Mar	135	3	Thus many err from the faith and are seduced by the devil.... Human philosophy has attempted to search out and explain mysteries which will never be revealed through the eternal ages. If men would but search and understand what God has made known of Himself and His purposes, they would obtain such a view of the glory, majesty, and power of Jehovah that they would realize their own littleness and would be content with that which has been revealed....
Mar	135	4	It is a masterpiece of Satan's deceptions to keep the minds of men searching and conjecturing in regard to that which God has not made known and which He does not intend that we shall understand. It was thus that Lucifer lost his place in heaven. He became dissatisfied because all the secrets of God's purposes were not confided to him, and he entirely disregarded that which was revealed concerning his own work in the lofty position assigned him. By arousing the same discontent in the angels under his command, he caused their fall. Now he seeks to imbue the minds of men with the same spirit and to lead them also to disregard the direct commands of God.
------------------------The Times and Seasons, May 8
Mar	136	1	He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. Acts 1:7.
Mar	136	2	The times and seasons God has put in His own power. And why has not God given us this knowledge?--Because we would not make a right use of it if He did. A condition of things would result from this knowledge among our people that would greatly retard the work of God in preparing a people to stand in the great day that is to come.... Jesus has told His disciples to "watch," but not for definite time. His followers are to be in the position of those who are listening for the orders of their Captain; they are to watch, wait, pray, and work, as they approach the time for the coming of the Lord; but no one will be able to predict just when that time will come; for "of that day and hour knoweth no man." You will not be able to say that He will come in one, two, or five years, neither are you to put off His coming by stating that it may not be for ten or twenty years.... We are not to know the definite time either for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit or for the coming of Christ.
Mar	136	3	I was pointed to some who are in the great error of believing that it is their duty to go to Old Jerusalem, [Written in the early 1850's when "the age-to-come" advocates taught that Old Jerusalem would be built up as a center of Christian witness fulfilling certain prophecies of the O.T.] and think they have a work to do there before the Lord comes. Such a view is calculated to take the mind and interest from the present work of the Lord, under the message of the third angel; for those who think that they are yet to go to Jerusalem will have their minds there, and their means will be withheld from the cause of present truth to get themselves and others there. I saw that such a mission would accomplish no real good, that it would take a long while to make a very few of the Jews believe even in the first advent of Christ, much more to believe in His second advent.
------------------------"As it was in the Days of Noe", May 9
Mar	137	1	As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. Luke 17:26.
Mar	137	2	I was shown that a terrible condition of things exists in our world. The angel of mercy is folding her wings, ready to depart.... The law of God is made void. We see and hear of confusion and perplexity, want and famine, earthquakes and floods; terrible outrages will be committed by men; passion, not reason, bears sway. The wrath of God is upon the inhabitants of the world, who are fast becoming as corrupt as were the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. Already fire and flood are destroying thousands of lives and the property that has been selfishly accumulated by the oppression of the poor. The Lord is soon to cut short His work and put an end to sin. Oh, that the scenes which have come before me of the iniquities practiced in these last days, might make a deep impression on the minds of God's professing people.
Mar	137	3	As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of man shall be revealed. The Lord is removing His restrictions from the earth, and soon there will be death and destruction, increasing crime, and cruel, evil working against the rich who have exalted themselves against the poor. Those who are without God's protection will find no safety in any place or position. Human agents are being trained and are using their inventive power to put in operation the most powerful machinery to wound and to kill....
Mar	137	4	My brethren and sisters ..., I make my appeal to you.... The lives of many are too delicate and dainty.... They think themselves Christians, but they do not know what practical Christian life signifies. What does it mean to be a Christian? It means to be Christlike.... Co-operate with God by working in harmony with Him. Expel from the soul-temple everything that assumes the form of an idol. Now is God's time, and His time is your time. Fight the good fight of faith, refusing to think or to talk unbelief. The world is to hear the last warning message.
------------------------A Great Terror Soon to Come, May 10
Mar	138	1	We are put on view to the world, and to angels, and to men. 1 Corinthians 4:9, Bible in Basic English.
Mar	138	2	The world is a theater; the actors, its inhabitants, are preparing to act their part in the last great drama. With the great masses of mankind there is no unity, except as men confederate to accomplish their selfish purposes. God is looking on. His purposes in regard to His rebellious subjects will be fulfilled. The world has not been given into the hands of men, though God is permitting the elements of confusion and disorder to bear sway for a season. A power from beneath is working to bring about the last great scenes in the drama--Satan coming as Christ, and working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who are binding themselves together in secret societies. Those who are yielding to the passion for confederation are working out the plans of the enemy. The cause will be followed by the effect.
Mar	138	3	Transgression has almost reached its limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise....
Mar	138	4	Are we as a people asleep? Oh, if the young men and young women in our institutions who are now unready for the Lord's appearing, unfitted to become members of the Lord's family, could only discern the signs of the times, what a change would be seen in them! The Lord Jesus is calling for self-denying workers to follow in His footsteps, to walk and work for Him, to lift the cross, and to follow where He leads the way.
Mar	138	5	Many are readily satisfied with offering the Lord trifling acts of service. Their Christianity is feeble. Christ gave Himself for sinners. With what anxiety for the salvation of souls we should be filled as we see human beings perishing in sin! These souls have been bought at an infinite price. The death of the Son of God on Calvary's cross is the measure of their value. Day by day they are deciding whether they will have eternal life or eternal death.
------------------------Youth and the Drug Syndrome, May 11
Mar	139	1	Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Ecclesiastes 11:9.
Mar	139	2	Satan was the first rebel in the universe, and ever since his expulsion from heaven he has been seeking to make every member of the human family an apostate from God, even as he is himself. He laid his plans to ruin man, and through the unlawful indulgence of appetite, led him to transgress the commandments of God. He tempted Adam and Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit, and so accomplished their fall, and their expulsion from Eden. How many say, "If I had been in Adam's place, I would never have transgressed on so simple a test." But you who make this boast have a grand opportunity of showing your strength of purpose, your fidelity to principle under trial.... Does God see no sin in your life? ...
Mar	139	3	On every side, Satan seeks to entice the youth into the path of perdition; and if he can once get their feet set in the way, he hurries them on in their downward course, leading them from one dissipation to another, until his victims lose their tenderness of conscience, and have no more the fear of God before their eyes. They exercise less and less self-restraint. They become addicted to the use of wine and alcohol, tobacco and opium, and go from one stage of debasement to another. They are slaves to appetite. Counsel which they once respected, they learn to despise. They put on swaggering airs, and boast of liberty when they are the servants of corruption. They mean by liberty that they are slaves to selfishness, debased appetite, and licentiousness....
Mar	139	4	Satan is determined to have the human race as his subjects, but Christ has paid an infinite price that man may be redeemed from the enemy, and that the moral image of God may be restored to the fallen race.... Fallen men may through Christ find access to the Father, may have grace to enable them to be overcomers through the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour.
------------------------External Parade of Heathen Power, May 12
Mar	140	1	The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. 2 Timothy 4:3.
Mar	140	2	Rapidly are men ranging themselves under the banner they have chosen, restlessly waiting and watching the movements of their leaders. There are those who are watching and waiting and working for our Lord's appearing; while the other party are rapidly falling into line under the generalship of the first great apostate. They look for a God in humanity, and Satan personifies the one they seek. Multitudes will be so deluded through their rejection of truth, that they will accept the counterfeit. Humanity is hailed as God.
Mar	140	3	As we near the close of time, there will be greater and still greater external parade of heathen power; heathen deities will manifest their signal power, and will exhibit themselves before the cities of the world; and this delineation has already begun to be fulfilled. By a variety of images the Lord Jesus represented to John the wicked character and seductive influence of those who have been distinguished for their persecution of God's people. All need wisdom carefully to search out the mystery of iniquity that figures so largely in the winding up of this earth's history.... In the very time in which we live, the Lord has called His people and has given them a message to bear. He has called them to expose the wickedness of the man of sin who has made the Sunday law a distinctive power, who has thought to change times and laws, and to oppress the people of God who stand firmly to honor Him by keeping the only true Sabbath, the Sabbath of creation....
Mar	140	4	The perils of the last days are upon us, and in our work we are to warn the people of the danger they are in. Let not the solemn scenes which prophecy has revealed be left untouched. If our people were half awake, if they realized the nearness of the events portrayed in the Revelation, a reformation would be wrought in our churches, and many more would believe the message. We have no time to lose; God calls upon us to watch for souls as they that must give an account.
------------------------Turmoil in the Cities, May 13
Mar	141	1	Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 2 Timothy 3:13.
Mar	141	2	It was not God's purpose that His people should be crowded into cities, huddled together in terraces and tenements. In the beginning He placed our first parents in a garden amidst the beautiful sights and attractive sounds of nature, and these sights and sounds He desires men to rejoice in today.
Mar	141	3	Light has been given me that the cities will be filled with confusion, violence, and crime, and that these things will increase till the end of this earth's history.
Mar	141	4	It is time for our people to take their families from the cities into more retired localities, else many of the youth, and many also of those older in years, will be ensnared and taken by the enemy.
Mar	141	5	"Out of the cities; out of the cities!"--this is the message the Lord has been giving me.
Mar	141	6	The turmoil and confusion that fill these cities, the conditions brought about by the labor unions and the strikes, would prove a great hindrance to our work. Men are seeking to bring those engaged in the different trades under bondage to certain unions. This is not God's planning, but the planning of a power that we should in no wise acknowledge. God's word is fulfilling; the wicked are binding themselves up in bundles ready to be burned.
Mar	141	7	We are now to use all our entrusted capabilities in giving the last warning message to the world. In this work we are to preserve our individuality. We are not to unite with secret societies or with trade-unions. We are to stand free in God, looking constantly to Christ.
Mar	141	8	The ungodly cities of our world are to be swept away by the besom of destruction. In the calamities that are now befalling immense buildings and large portions of cities God is showing us what will come upon the whole earth. He has told us: "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it [the coming of the Son of man] is near, even at the doors." Matthew 24:32, 33.
------------------------Prejudice on the Increase, May 14
Mar	142	1	Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 1 John 3:13, 14.
Mar	142	2	He who is closely connected with Christ is lifted above the prejudice of color or caste. His faith takes hold of eternal realities. The divine Author of truth is to be uplifted. Our hearts are to be filled with the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. The work of the good Samaritan is the example that we are to follow.
Mar	142	3	It will be impossible to adjust all matters regarding the color question in accordance with the Lord's order until those who believe the truth are so closely united with Christ that they are one with Him. Both the white and the colored members of our churches need to be converted. There are some of both classes who are unreasonable, and when the color question is agitated, they manifest unsanctified, unconverted traits of character. Quarrelsome elements are easily aroused in those who, because they have never learned to wear the yoke of Christ, are opinionated and obstinate. In such, self clamors with an unsanctified determination for the supremacy.
Mar	142	4	As time advances, and race prejudices increase, it will become almost impossible, in many places, for white workers to labor for the colored people. Sometimes the white people who are not in sympathy with our work will unite with colored people to oppose it, claiming that our teaching is an effort to break up churches and bring in trouble over the Sabbath question. White ministers and colored ministers will make false statements, arousing in the minds of the people such a feeling of antagonism that they will be ready to destroy and to kill.
Mar	142	5	The powers of hell are working with all their ingenuity to prevent the proclamation of the last message of mercy among the colored people. Satan is working to make it most difficult for the gospel minister and teacher to ignore the prejudice that exists between the white and the colored people.
Mar	142	6	Let us follow the course of wisdom. Let us do nothing that will unnecessarily arouse opposition--nothing that will hinder the proclamation of the gospel message.
------------------------The Lust for Nakedness, May 15
Mar	143	1	Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Matthew 5:28.
Mar	143	2	Many of the young are eager for books. They read everything they can obtain. Exciting love stories and impure pictures have a corrupting influence. Novels are eagerly perused by many, and, as the result, their imagination becomes defiled. In the cars, photographs of females in a state of nudity are frequently circulated for sale. These disgusting pictures are ... hung upon the walls of those who deal in engravings. This is an age when corruption is teeming everywhere. The lust of the eye and corrupt passions are aroused by beholding and by reading. The heart is corrupted through the imagination. The mind takes pleasure in contemplating scenes which awaken the lower and baser passions. These vile images, seen through defiled imagination, corrupt the morals and prepare the deluded, infatuated beings to give loose rein to lustful passions. Then follow sins and crimes which drag beings formed in the image of God down to a level with the beasts, sinking them at last in perdition. Avoid reading and seeing things which will suggest impure thoughts. Cultivate the moral and intellectual powers. Let not these noble powers become enfeebled and perverted by much reading of even storybooks....
Mar	143	3	It is impossible for the youth to possess a healthy tone of mind and correct religious principles unless they enjoy the perusal of the word of God. This book contains the most interesting history, points out the way of salvation through Christ, and is their guide to a higher and better life. They would all pronounce it the most interesting book they ever perused, if their imagination had not become perverted by exciting stories of a fictitious character. You who are looking for your Lord to come the second time to change your mortal bodies, and to fashion them like unto His most glorious body, must come up upon a higher plane of action. You must work from a higher standpoint than you have hitherto done, or you will not be of that number who will receive the finishing touch of immortality.
------------------------The Criers of Peace, May 16
Mar	144	1	Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant. Isaiah 56:12.
Mar	144	2	The evil servant says in his heart, "My lord delayeth his coming." He does not say that Christ will not come. He does not scoff at the idea of His second coming. But in his heart and by his actions and words he declares that the Lord's coming is delayed. He banishes from the minds of others the conviction that the Lord is coming quickly. His influence leads men to presumptuous, careless delay. They are confirmed in their worldliness and stupor. Earthly passions, corrupt thoughts, take possession of the mind. The evil servant eats and drinks with the drunken, unites with the world in pleasure seeking. He smites his fellow servants, accusing and condemning those who are faithful to their Master....
Mar	144	3	The advent of Christ will surprise the false teachers. They are saying, "Peace and safety." Like the priests and teachers before the fall of Jerusalem, they look for the church to enjoy earthly prosperity and glory. The signs of the times they interpret as foreshadowing this. But what saith the Word of Inspiration? "Sudden destruction cometh upon them." ...
Mar	144	4	Men are putting afar off the coming of the Lord. They laugh at warnings. The proud boast is made, "All things continue as they were from the beginning." "Tomorrow shall be as this day and much more abundant." 2 Peter 3:4; Isaiah 56:12. We will go deeper into pleasure loving. But Christ says, "Behold, I come as a thief." Revelation 16:15. At the very time when the world is asking in scorn, "Where is the promise of his coming?" the signs are fulfilling. While they cry, "Peace and safety," sudden destruction is coming. When the scorner, the rejecter of truth, has become presumptuous; when the routine of work in the various money-making lines is carried on without regard to principle; when the student is eagerly seeking knowledge of everything but his Bible, Christ comes as a thief.
------------------------Sights and Sounds and Criminality, May 17
Mar	145	1	I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person. Psalm 101:3, 4.
Mar	145	2	There is reason for deep solicitude on your part for your children, who have temptations to encounter at every advance step. It is impossible for them to avoid contact with evil associates.... They will see sights, hear sounds, and be subjected to influences which are demoralizing and which, unless they are thoroughly guarded, will imperceptibly but surely corrupt the heart and deform the character....
Mar	145	3	Some fathers and mothers are so indifferent, so careless, that they think it makes no difference whether their children attend a church school or a public school. "We are in the world," they say, "and we cannot get out of it." But, parents, we can get a good way out of the world, if we choose to do so. We can avoid seeing many of the evils that are multiplying so fast in these last days....
Mar	145	4	To the active minds of children and youth the scenes pictured in imaginary revelations of the future are realities. As revolutions are predicted and all manner of proceedings described that break down the barriers of law and self-restraint, many catch the spirit of these representations. They are led to the commission of crimes even worse, if possible, than these sensational writers depict. Through such influences as these society is becoming demoralized. The seeds of lawlessness are sown broadcast. None need marvel that a harvest of crime is the result...
Mar	145	5	Say firmly: "I will not spend precious moments in reading that which will be of no profit to me, and which only unfits me to be of service to others. I will devote my time and my thoughts to acquiring a fitness for God's service. I will close my eyes to frivolous and sinful things. My ears are the Lord's, and I will not listen to the subtle reasoning of the enemy. My voice shall not in any way be subject to a will that is not under the influence of the Spirit of God. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and every power of my being shall be consecrated to worthy pursuits."
------------------------Spiritism and Revolution, May 18
Mar	146	1	He answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, ... and thy neighbour as thyself. Luke 10:27.
Mar	146	2	As the youth go out into the world to encounter its allurements to sin--the passion for money getting, for amusement and indulgence, for display, luxury, and extravagance, the overreaching, fraud, robbery, and ruin--what are the teachings there to be met?
Mar	146	3	Spiritualism asserts that men are unfallen demigods; that "each mind will judge itself"; that "true knowledge places men above all law"; that "all sins committed are innocent"; for "whatever is, is right," and "God doth not condemn." The basest of human beings it represents as in heaven, and highly exalted there. Thus it declares to all men, "It matters not what you do; live as you please, heaven is your home." Multitudes are thus led to believe that desire is the highest law, that license is liberty, and that man is accountable only to himself.
Mar	146	4	With such teaching given at the very outset of life, when impulse is strongest, and the demand for self-restraint and purity is most urgent, where are the safeguards of virtue? what is to prevent the world from becoming a second Sodom?
Mar	146	5	All the same time anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law, not only divine, but human. The centralizing of wealth and power; the vast combinations for the enriching of the few at the expense of the many; the combinations of the poorer classes for the defense of their interests and claims; ... the world-wide dissemination of the same teachings that led to the French Revolution--all are tending to involve the whole world in a struggle similar to that which convulsed France.
Mar	146	6	Such are the influences to be met by the youth of today. To stand amidst such upheavals they are now to lay the foundations of character.
Mar	146	7	In every generation and in every land the true foundation and pattern for character building have been the same. The divine law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, ... and thy neighbour as thyself" (Luke 10:27), the great principle made manifest in the character and life of our Saviour, is the only secure foundation and the only sure guide.
------------------------Beware of Man-Made Tests, May 19
Mar	147	1	Beware ... of evil workers.... For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Philippians 3:2, 3.
Mar	147	2	There are those who need in their hearts the touch of the divine Spirit. Then the message for this time will be their burden. They will not search for human tests, for something new and strange. The Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the test for this time.
Mar	147	3	The commandment of God that has been almost universally made void, is the testing truth for this time.... The time is coming when all those who worship God will be distinguished by this sign. They will be known as the servants of God, by this mark of their allegiance to Heaven. But all man-made tests will divert the mind from the great and important doctrines that constitute the present truth.
Mar	147	4	It is the desire and plan of Satan to bring in among us those who will go to great extremes--people of narrow minds, who are critical and sharp, and very tenacious in holding their own conceptions of what the truth means. They will be exacting, and will seek to enforce rigorous duties, and go to great lengths in matters of minor importance, while they neglect the weightier matters of the law--judgment and mercy and the love of God. Through the work of a few of this class of persons, the whole body of Sabbathkeepers will be designated as bigoted ... and fanatical....
Mar	147	5	God has a special work for the men of experience to do. They are to guard the cause of God. They are to see that the work of God is not committed to men who feel it their privilege to move out on their own independent judgment, to preach whatever they please, and to be responsible to no one for their instructions or work. Let this spirit of self-sufficiency once rule in our midst, and there will be no harmony of action, no unity of spirit, no safety for the work, and no healthful growth in the cause....Christ prayed that His followers might be one as He and the Father were one. Those who desire to see this prayer answered, should seek to discourage the slightest tendency to division, and try to keep the spirit of unity and love among brethren.
------------------------Healing can be from the Devil, May 20
Mar	148	1	Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8.
Mar	148	2	The fallacies of Satan are now being multiplied, and those who swerve from the path of truth will lose their bearings. Having nothing to which to anchor, they will drift from one delusion to another, blown about by the winds of strange doctrines. Satan has come down with great power. Many will be deceived by his miracles.
Mar	148	3	I am instructed to say that in the future great watchfulness will be needed. There is to be among God's people no spiritual stupidity. Evil spirits are actively engaged in seeking to control the minds of human beings. Men are binding up in bundles, ready to be consumed by the fires of the last days. Those who discard Christ and His righteousness will accept the sophistry that is flooding the world. Christians are to be sober and vigilant, steadfastly resisting their adversary the devil, who is going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Men under the influence of evil spirits will work miracles....
Mar	148	4	We need not be deceived. Wonderful scenes, with which Satan will be closely connected, will soon take place. God's Word declares that Satan will work miracles. He will make people sick, and then will suddenly remove from them his satanic power. They will then be regarded as healed. These works of apparent healing will bring Seventh-day Adventists to the test....
Mar	148	5	If those through whom cures are performed, are disposed, on account of these manifestations, to excuse their neglect of the law of God, and continue in disobedience, though they have power to any and every extent, it does not follow that they have the great power of God. On the contrary, it is the miracle-working power of the great deceiver. He is a transgressor of the moral law, and employs every device that he can master to blind men to its true character. We are warned that in the last days he will work with signs and lying wonders. And he will continue these wonders until the close of probation, that he may point to them as evidence that he is an angel of light and not of darkness.
------------------------The Violent Earth, May 21
Mar	149	1	I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake. Revelation 6:12.
Mar	149	2	Prophecy not only foretells the manner and object of Christ's coming, but presents tokens by which men are to know when it is near.... The revelator thus describes the first of the signs to precede the second advent: "There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood."
Mar	149	3	These signs were witnessed before the opening of the nineteenth century. In fulfilment of this prophecy there occurred, in the year 1755, the most terrible earthquake that has ever been recorded. Though commonly known as the earthquake of Lisbon, it extended to the greater part of Europe, Africa, and America. It was felt in Greenland, in the West Indies, in the island of Madeira, in Norway and Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland. It pervaded an extent of not less than four million square miles. In Africa the shock was almost as severe as in Europe. A great part of Algiers was destroyed; and a short distance from Morocco, a village containing eight or ten thousand inhabitants was swallowed up. A vast wave swept over the coast of Spain and Africa, engulfing cities, and causing great destruction.
Mar	149	4	It was in Spain and Portugal that the shock manifested its extreme violence. At Cadiz the inflowing wave was said to be sixty feet high. Mountains, "some of the largest in Portugal, were impetuously shaken, as it were, from their very foundations." ...--Sir Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, p. 495.... "The earthquake happened on a holy day, when the churches and convents were full of people, very few of whom escaped."--Encyclopedia Americana, art. "Lisbon," note (ed. 1831)... It has been estimated that ninety thousand persons lost their lives on that fatal day.
Mar	149	5	How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property! Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of disorganized, unregulated forces of nature, wholly beyond the control of man; but in them all, God's purpose may be read. They are among the agencies by which He seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger.
------------------------Signs in the Heavens, May 22
Mar	150	1	The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. Joel 2:31.
Mar	150	2	In the Saviour's conversation with His disciples upon Olivet, after describing the long period of trial for the church--the 1260 years of papal persecution, concerning which He had promised that the tribulation should be shortened--He thus mentioned certain events to precede His coming, and fixed the time when the first of these should be witnessed: "In those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light." The 1260 days, or years, terminated in 1798. A quarter of a century earlier, persecution had almost wholly ceased. Following this persecution, according to the words of Christ, the sun was to be darkened. On the 19th of May, 1780, this prophecy was fulfilled.
Mar	150	3	"Almost if not altogether alone, as the most mysterious and as yet unexplained phenomenon of its kind, ... stands the dark day of May 19, 1780--a most unaccountable darkening of the whole visible heavens and atmosphere in New England."--R. M. Devens, Our First Century, 89....
Mar	150	4	The intense darkness of the day was succeeded, an hour or two before evening, by a partially clear sky, and the sun appeared, though it was still obscured by the black, heavy mist. "After sundown, the clouds came again overhead, and it grew dark very fast." "Nor was the darkness of the night less uncommon and terrifying than that of the day; notwithstanding there was almost a full moon, no object was discernible but by the help of some artificial light...."--Isaiah Thomas, Massachusetts Spy: or, American Oracle of Liberty, vol. 10, No. 472 (May 25, 1780)....
Mar	150	5	The description of this event, as given by eyewitnesses, is but an echo of the words of the Lord, recorded by the prophet Joel, twenty-five hundred years previous to their fulfilment: "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come."
Mar	150	6	Christ had bidden His people watch for the signs of His advent, and rejoice as they should behold the tokens of their coming King.
------------------------The Stars of Heaven Fall, May 23
Mar	151	1	The stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Matthew 24:29.
Mar	151	2	In 1833, ... the last of the signs appeared which were promised by the Saviour as tokens of His second advent. Said Jesus, "The stars shall fall from heaven." And John in the Revelation declared, as he beheld in vision the scenes that should herald the day of God, "The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." This prophecy received a striking and impressive fulfilment in the great meteoric shower of November 13, 1833. That was the most extensive and wonderful display of falling stars which has ever been recorded; "the whole firmament, over all the United States, being then, for hours, in fiery commotion! No celestial phenomenon has ever occurred in this country, since its first settlement, which was viewed with such intense admiration by one class in the community, or with so much dread and alarm by another." "Its sublimity and awful beauty still linger in many minds.... Never did rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell toward the earth; east, west, north, and south, it was the same. In a word, the whole heavens seemed in motion.... The display, as described in Professor Silliman's Journal, was seen all over North America.... From two o'clock until broad daylight, ... an incessant play of dazzlingly brilliant luminosities was kept up in the whole heavens."--R. M. Devens, American Progress; or, The Great Events of the Greatest Century, ch. 28, pars. 1-5....
Mar	151	3	Thus was displayed the last of those signs of His coming, concerning which Jesus bade His disciples, "When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." After these signs, John beheld, as the great event next impending, the heavens departing as a scroll, while the earth quaked, mountains and islands removed out of their places, and the wicked in terror sought to flee from the presence of the Son of man.
Mar	151	4	But the day and the hour of His coming Christ has not revealed.... The exact time of the second coming of the Son of man is God's mystery.
------------------------Ottoman Empire in Prophecy, May 24
Mar	152	1	Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. Revelation 9:14, 15.
Mar	152	2	The history of nations that one after another have occupied their allotted time and place, unconsciously witnessing to the truth of which they themselves knew not the meaning, speaks to us. To every nation and to every individual of today God has assigned a place in His great plan. Today men and nations are being measured by the plummet in the hand of Him who makes no mistake. All are by their own choice deciding their destiny, and God is overruling all for the accomplishment of His purposes....
Mar	152	3	All that prophecy has foretold as coming to pass, until the present time, has been traced on the pages of history, and we may be assured that all which is yet to come will be fulfilled in its order.
Mar	152	4	In the year 1840, another remarkable fulfilment of prophecy excited widespread interest. Two years before, Josiah Litch, one of the leading ministers preaching the second advent, published an exposition of Revelation 9, predicting the fall of the Ottoman empire. According to his calculations, this power was to be overthrown "in A.D. 1840, sometime in the month of August;" and only a few days previous to its accomplishment he wrote: "Allowing the first period, 150 years, to have been exactly fulfilled before Deacozes ascended the throne by permission of the Turks, and that the 391 years, fifteen days, commenced at the close of the first period, it will end on the 11th of August, 1840, when the Ottoman power in Constantinople may be expected to be broken. And this, I believe, will be found to be the case."--Josiah Litch, in Signs of the Times, and Expositor of Prophecy, August 1, 1840.
Mar	152	5	At the very time specified, Turkey, through her ambassadors, accepted the protection of the allied powers of Europe, and thus placed herself under the control of Christian nations. The event exactly fulfilled the prediction.... A wonderful impetus was given to the advent movement.
------------------------Low State of Morals, May 25
Mar	153	1	Fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints. Ephesians 5:3.
Mar	153	2	There is an alarming commonness in conversation at the present day, which shows a low state of thoughts and morals. True dignity of character is very rare. True modesty and reserve are seldom seen. There are but few who are pure and undefiled....
Mar	153	3	Polluted thoughts harbored become habit, and the soul is scarred and defiled. Once do a wrong action and a blot is made which nothing can heal but the blood of Christ; and if the habit is not turned from with firm determination, the soul is corrupted and the streams flowing from this defiling fountain corrupt others.
Mar	153	4	There are men and women who invite temptation; they place themselves in positions where they will be tempted, where they cannot but be tempted, when they place themselves in society that is objectionable. The best way to keep safe from sin is to move with due consideration at all times and under all circumstances, never to move or act from impulse. Move with the fear of God ever before you and you will be sure to act right.
Mar	153	5	The moral dangers to which all, both old and young, are exposed are daily increasing. Moral derangement, which we call depravity, finds ample room to work, and an influence is exerted by men, women, and youth professing to be Christians that is low, sensual, devilish....
Mar	153	6	Those who have learned the truth and do not have works corresponding with their profession of faith are subject to Satan's temptations. They encounter danger at every step they advance. They are brought into contact with evil, they see sights, they hear sounds, that will awaken their unsubdued passions; they are subjected to influences that lead them to choose the evil rather than the good, because they are not sound at heart....
Mar	153	7	There is no training we need so much now as the preparing of young men and women to have moral rectitude and to cleanse their souls of every spot and stain of moral defilement.
------------------------Fanaticism and Tongues Speaking, May 26
Mar	154	1	The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. 1 Corinthians 14:32, 33.
Mar	154	2	A spirit of fanaticism has ruled a certain class of Sabbathkeepers.... They have sipped but lightly at the fountain of truth and are unacquainted with the spirit of the message of the third angel. Nothing can be done for this class until their fanatical views are corrected....
Mar	154	3	Some of these persons have exercises which they call gifts and say that the Lord has placed them in the church. They have an unmeaning gibberish which they call the unknown tongue, which is unknown not only by man but by the Lord and all heaven. Such gifts are manufactured by men and women, aided by the great deceiver. Fanaticism, false excitement, false talking in tongues, and noisy exercises have been considered gifts which God has placed in the Church. Some have been deceived here. The fruits of all this have not been good....
Mar	154	4	There are many restless spirits who will not submit to discipline, system, and order. They think that their liberties would be abridged were they to lay aside their own judgment and submit to the judgment of those of experience. The work of God will not progress unless there is a disposition to submit to order and expel the reckless, disorderly spirit of fanaticism from their meetings. Impressions and feelings are no sure evidence that a person is led by the Lord. Satan will, if he is unsuspected, give feelings and impressions. These are not safe guides. All should thoroughly acquaint themselves with the evidences of our faith, and the great study should be how they can adorn their profession and bear fruit to the glory of God.... A trifling, joking, reckless spirit should be rebuked. It is no evidence of the grace of God upon the heart for persons to talk and pray with talent in meeting, and then give up to a rough, careless manner of talking and acting when out of meeting....
Mar	154	5	The truth of God will never degrade, but will elevate the receiver, refine his taste, sanctify his judgment, and perfect him for the company of the pure and holy angels in the kingdom of God.
------------------------Prove All Things, May 27
Mar	155	1	Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Matthew 7:15.
Mar	155	2	In the work in which my husband and I were called by the providence of God to act a part, even from its very beginning in 1843 and 1844, we have had the Lord to devise and plan for us, and He has worked out His plans through His living agents. False paths have been so often pointed out to us, and the true and safe paths so clearly defined in all the enterprises connected with the work given us to do, that I can say of a truth I am not ignorant of Satan's devices, nor of the ways and works of God. We have had to tax every power of mind, relying upon wisdom from God to guide us in our investigations, as we have had to review the different theories brought to our attention, weighing their merits and defects in the light shining from the Word of God and the things God has revealed to me through His Word and the testimonies, in order that we might not be deceived nor deceive others. We surrendered our will and way to God, and most earnestly supplicated His aid; and we never sought in vain. Many years of painful experience in connection with the work of God have made me acquainted with all kinds of false movements. Many times I have been sent to different places with the message, "I have a work for you to do in that place; I will be with you." When the occasion came, the Lord gave me a message for those who were having false dreams and visions, and in the strength of Christ I bore my testimony at the Lord's bidding....
Mar	155	3	During the past forty-five years, I have had to meet persons claiming to have from God messages of reproof to others. This phase of religious fanaticism has sprung up again and again since 1844. Satan has worked in many ways to establish error. Some things spoken in these visions came to pass; but many things--in regard to the time of Christ's coming, the end of probation, and the events to take place--proved utterly false....
Mar	155	4	"Take heed therefore how ye hear" (Luke 8:18), is an admonition of Christ.... Examine closely, "prove all things" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).... This is the counsel of God; shall we heed it?
------------------------Counterfeits! May 28
Mar	156	1	To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:20.
Mar	156	2	The people of God are directed to the Scriptures as their safeguard against the influence of false teachers and the delusive power of spirits of darkness. Satan employs every possible device to prevent men from obtaining a knowledge of the Bible; for its plain utterances reveal his deceptions. At every revival of God's work the prince of evil is aroused to more intense activity; he is now putting forth his utmost efforts for a final struggle against Christ and His followers. The last great delusion is soon to open before us. Antichrist is to perform his marvelous works in our sight. So closely will the counterfeit resemble the true that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures. By their testimony every statement and every miracle must be tested....
Mar	156	3	The man who makes the working of miracles the test of his faith will find that Satan can, through a species of deceptions, perform wonders that will appears to be genuine miracles.
Mar	156	4	Satan is a cunning worker, and he will bring in subtle fallacies to darken and confuse the mind and root out the doctrines of salvation. Those who do not accept the Word of God just as it reads, will be snared in his trap.
Mar	156	5	Evil angels are upon our track every moment.... They assume new ground and work marvels and miracles in our sight....
Mar	156	6	Some will be tempted to receive these wonders as from God. The sick will be healed before us. Miracles will be performed in our sight. Are we prepared for the trial which awaits us when the lying wonders of Satan shall be more fully exhibited? Will not many souls be ensnared and taken? By departing from the plain precepts and commandments of God, and giving heed to fables, the minds of many are preparing to receive these lying wonders. We must all now seek to arm ourselves for the contest in which we must soon engage. Faith in God's word, prayerfully studied and practically applied, will be our shield from Satan's power and will bring us off conquerors through the blood of Christ.
------------------------Watch Out for the Dividers! May 29
Mar	157	1	It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! Luke 17:1.
Mar	157	2	God is bringing out a people and preparing them to stand as one, united, to speak the same things, and carry out the prayer of Christ for his disciples.... "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us...."
Mar	157	3	There are little companies continually arising who believe that God is only with the very few, the very scattered, and their influence is to tear down and scatter that which God's servants build up.... The people who are putting forth every effort in accordance with God's word to be one, who are established in the message of the third angel, they look upon with suspicion, for the reason that they are extending their labor, and are gathering souls into the truth. They look upon them as being worldly, because they have influence in the world....
Mar	157	4	One man arises, claiming to be led of God, who advocates the heresy of the non-resurrection of the wicked.... Another cherishes erroneous views in regard to the future age.... They all want full religious liberty, and each one goes independent of the others, and yet claims that God is especially at work among them.... These people are not sane; they are carried away with a false excitement, and we know that they do not have the truth.... Would to God they would be reformed or give up the Sabbath. They would not then stand in the way of unbelievers....
Mar	157	5	God is angry with those who pursue a course to make the world hate them. If a Christian is hated because of his good works, and for following Christ, he will have a reward. But if he is hated because he does not take a course to be loved, hated because of his uncultivated manners, and because he makes the truth a matter of quarrel with his neighbors, and because he has taken a course to make the Sabbath as annoying as possible to them, he is a stumbling-block to sinners, a reproach to the sacred truth, and unless he repents it were better for him that a millstone were hung about his neck, and he cast into the sea.
------------------------The Results of False Visions, May 30
Mar	158	1	Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Matthew 7:19, 20.
Mar	158	2	Several now living [1890] are skeptics, have no belief in the gifts of the church, no faith in the truth, no religion at all. Such, I have been shown, is the sure result of spurious visions....
Mar	158	3	Satan is ... constantly pressing in the spurious--to lead away from the truth.
Mar	158	4	The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God. "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18). Satan will work ingeniously, in different ways and through different agencies, to unsettle the confidence of God's remnant people in the true testimony. He will bring in spurious visions to mislead, and will mingle the false with the true, and so disgust people that they will regard everything that bears the name of visions as a species of fanaticism; but honest souls, by contrasting false and true, will be enabled to distinguish between them....
Mar	158	5	There is nothing more detrimental to the soul's interest, its purity, its true and holy conceptions of God, and of sacred and eternal things, than constantly giving heed to and exalting that which is not from God. It poisons the heart, and degrades the understanding. Pure truth can be traced to its divine Source, by its elevating, refining, sanctifying influence upon the character of the receiver. The Author of all truth prayed to His Father, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (John 17:20, 21).
Mar	158	6	Things will be constantly arising to cause disunion, to draw away from the truth. This questioning, criticizing, denouncing, passing judgment on others, is not an evidence of the grace of Christ in the heart. It does not produce unity. Such work has been carried on in the past by persons claiming to have wonderful light, when they were deep in sin.
------------------------Moving into Line, May 31
Mar	159	1	The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God. Psalm 69:32.
Mar	159	2	It is your privilege to be glad in the Lord, and to rejoice in the knowledge of His sustaining grace. Let His love take possession of mind and heart. Guard against becoming overwearied, careworn, depressed. Bear an uplifting testimony. Turn your eyes away from that which is dark and discouraging, and behold Jesus, our great Leader, under whose watchful supervision the cause of present truth, to which we are giving our lives and our all, is destined to triumph gloriously....
Mar	159	3	Oh, let it be seen ... that Jesus is abiding in the heart, sustaining, strengthening, comforting. It is your privilege to be endowed, from day to day, with a rich measure of His Holy Spirit, and to have broadened views of the importance and scope of the message we are proclaiming to the world. The Lord is willing to reveal to you wondrous things out of His law. Wait before Him with humility of heart. Pray most earnestly for an understanding of the times in which we live, for a fuller conception of His purpose, and for increased efficiency in soulsaving....
Mar	159	4	It will be well for us to consider what is soon to come upon the earth. This is no time for trifling or self-seeking. If the times in which we are living fail to impress our minds seriously, what can reach us? ...
Mar	159	5	Men of clear understanding are needed now. God calls upon those who are willing to be controlled by the Holy Spirit to lead out in a work of thorough reformation. I see a crisis before us, and the Lord calls for His laborers to come into line. Every soul should now stand in a position of deeper, truer consecration to God than during the years that have passed....
Mar	159	6	I have been deeply impressed by scenes that have recently passed before me in the night season. There seemed to be a great movement--a work of revival--going forward in many places. Our people were moving into line, responding to God's call.... Shall we not heed His voice? Shall we not trim our lamps, and act like men who look for their Lord to come? The time is one that calls for light bearing, for action.
------------------------Coming Events Clearly Revealed, June 1
Mar	160	1	The Lord God does nothing without giving to his servants the prophets knowledge of his plans. Amos 3:7, N.E.B.
Mar	160	2	The events connected with the close of probation and the work of preparation for the time of trouble, are clearly presented. But multitudes have no more understanding of these important truths than if they had never been revealed. Satan watches to catch away every impression that would make them wise unto salvation, and the time of trouble will find them unready.
Mar	160	3	As we near the close of this world's history, the prophecies relating to the last days especially demand our study. The last book of the New Testament scriptures is full of truth that we need to understand.
Mar	160	4	The solemn messages that have been given in their order in the Revelation are to occupy the first place in the minds of God's people....
Mar	160	5	Precious time is rapidly passing, and there is danger that many will be robbed of the time which should be given to the proclamation of the messages that God has sent to a fallen world. Satan is pleased to see the diversion of minds that should be engaged in a study of the truths which have to do with eternal realities.
Mar	160	6	The testimony of Christ, a testimony of the most solemn character, is to be borne to the world. All through the book of Revelation there are the most precious, elevating promises, and there are also warnings of the most fearfully solemn import. Will not those who profess to have a knowledge of the truth read the testimony given to John by Christ? Here is no guesswork, no scientific deception. Here are the truths that concern our present and future welfare. What is the chaff to the wheat?
Mar	160	7	Only those who have been diligent students of the Scriptures and who have received the love of the truth will be shielded from the powerful delusion that takes the world captive. By the Bible testimony these will detect the deceiver in his disguise. To all the testing time will come. By the sifting of temptation the genuine Christian will be revealed. Are the people of God now so firmly established upon His word that they would not yield to the evidence of their senses? Would they, in such a crisis, cling to the Bible and the Bible only?
------------------------Preparation for What Lies Ahead, June 2
Mar	161	1	Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Zephaniah 2:3.
Mar	161	2	Transgression has almost reached its limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. God's people should be preparing for what is to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise.
Mar	161	3	The "time of trouble, such as never was," is soon to open upon us; and we shall need an experience which we do not now possess and which many are too indolent to obtain. It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal. In that time of trial, every soul must stand for himself before God. "Though Noah, Daniel, and Job" were in the land, "as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness." Ezekiel 14:20.
Mar	161	4	The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God. Upon this battle we are now entering--a battle between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition.
Mar	161	5	We should study the great waymarks that point out the times in which we are living.... We should now pray most earnestly that we may be prepared for the struggles of the great day of God's preparation.
Mar	161	6	Those who place themselves under God's control, to be led and guided by Him, will catch the steady tread of the events ordained by Him to take place. Inspired with the Spirit of Him who gave His life for the life of the world, they will no longer stand still in impotency, pointing to what they cannot do. Putting on the armor of heaven, they will go forth to the warfare, willing to do and dare for God, knowing that His omnipotence will supply their need.
------------------------Satan's Groundwork for the Final Conflict, June 3
Mar	162	1	He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time. Daniel 7:25, R.V.
Mar	162	2	During the Christian dispensation, the great enemy of man's happiness has made the Sabbath of the fourth commandment an object of special attack. Satan says, "I will work at cross purposes with God. I will empower my followers to set aside God's memorial, the seventh-day Sabbath. Thus I will show the world that the day sanctified and blessed by God has been changed. That day shall not live in the minds of the people. I will obliterate the memory of it. I will place in its stead a day that does not bear the credentials of God, a day that cannot be a sign between God and His people. I will lead those who accept this day to place upon it the sanctity that God placed upon the seventh day.
Mar	162	3	"Through my vicegerent, I will exalt myself. The first day will be extolled, and the Protestant world will receive this spurious sabbath as genuine. Through the nonobservance of the Sabbath that God instituted, I will bring His law into contempt. The words, "A sign between me and you throughout your generations,' I will make to serve on the side of my sabbath.
Mar	162	4	"Thus the world will become mine. I will be the ruler of the earth, the prince of the world. I will so control the minds under my power that God's Sabbath shall be a special object of contempt. A sign? I will make the observance of the seventh day a sign of disloyalty to the authorities of earth. Human laws will be made so stringent that men and women will not dare to observe the seventh-day Sabbath. For fear of wanting food and clothing, they will join with the world in transgressing God's law. The earth will be wholly under my dominion."
Mar	162	5	The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not.
------------------------The Devil's Strategy Against Sabbathkeepers, June 4
Mar	163	1	Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. Psalm 94:20, 21.
Mar	163	2	As the people of God approach the perils of the last days, Satan holds earnest consultation with his angels as to the most successful plan of overthrowing their faith....
Mar	163	3	Says the great deceiver: "... The Sabbath is the great question which is to decide the destiny of souls. We must exalt the sabbath of our creating. We have caused it to be accepted by both worldlings and church members; now the church must be led to unite with the world in its support. We must work by signs and wonders to blind their eyes to the truth, and lead them to lay aside reason and the fear of God and follow custom and tradition.
Mar	163	4	"I will influence popular ministers to turn the attention of their hearers from the commandments of God....
Mar	163	5	"But our principal concern is to silence this sect of Sabbathkeepers. We must excite popular indignation against them. We will enlist great men and worldly-wise men upon our side, and induce those in authority to carry out our purposes. Then the sabbath which I have set up shall be enforced by laws the most severe and exacting. Those who disregard them shall be driven out from the cities and villages, and made to suffer hunger and privation. When once we have the power, we will show what we can do with those who will not swerve from their allegiance to God.... Now that we are bringing the Protestant churches and the world into harmony with this right arm of our strength, we will finally have a law to exterminate all who will not submit to our authority. When death shall be made the penalty of violating our sabbath, then many who are now ranked with commandment keepers will come over to our side.
Mar	163	6	"But before proceeding to these extreme measures, we must ... ensnare those who honor the true Sabbath. We can separate many from Christ by worldliness, lust, and pride. They may think themselves safe because they believe the truth, but indulgence of appetite or the lower passions, which will confuse judgment and destroy discrimination, will cause their fall."
------------------------The Image to the Beast Set Up, June 5
Mar	164	1	[He] deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast. Revelation 13:14.
Mar	164	2	The image of the beast will be formed before probation closes; for it is to be the great test for the people of God, by which their eternal destiny will be decided....
Mar	164	3	In Revelation 13 this subject is plainly presented: "I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." Then the miracle-working power is revealed: "And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."
Mar	164	4	This is the test that the people of God must have before they are sealed. All who prove their loyalty to God by observing His law, and refusing to accept a spurious sabbath, will rank under the banner of the Lord God Jehovah, and will receive the seal of the living God. Those who yield the truth of heavenly origin, and accept the Sunday sabbath, will receive the mark of the beast....
Mar	164	5	While John was shown the last great struggles of the church with earthly powers, he was also permitted to behold the final victory and deliverance of the faithful.... Looking beyond the smoke and din of the battle, he beheld a company upon Mount Zion with the Lamb, having, instead of the mark of the beast, the "Father's name written in their foreheads."
------------------------Apostasy Prepares the Way, June 6
Mar	165	1	Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
Mar	165	2	When the early church became corrupted by departing from the simplicity of the gospel and accepting heathen rites and customs, she lost the Spirit and power of God; and in order to control the consciences of the people, she sought the support of the secular power. The result was the papacy, a church that controlled the power of the state and employed it to further her own ends, especially for the punishment of "heresy."...
Mar	165	3	Whenever the church has obtained secular power, she has employed it to punish dissent from her doctrines. Protestant churches that have followed in the steps of Rome by forming alliance with worldly powers have manifested a similar desire to restrict liberty of conscience. An example of this is given in the long-continued persecution of dissenters by the Church of England. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, thousands of nonconformist ministers were forced to flee from their churches, and many, both of pastors and people, were subjected to fine, imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom.
Mar	165	4	It was apostasy that led the early church to seek the aid of the civil government, and this prepared the way for the development of the papacy--the beast. Said Paul: "There" shall "come a falling away..., and that man of sin be revealed." 2 Thessalonians 2:3. So apostasy in the church will prepare the way for the image to the beast.
Mar	165	5	Satan will work with all power and "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness." 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10. His working is plainly revealed by the rapidly increasing darkness, the multitudinous errors, heresies, and delusions of these last days. Not only is Satan leading the world captive, but his deceptions are leavening the professed churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. The great apostasy will develop into darkness deep as midnight. To God's people it will be a night of trial, a night of weeping, a night of persecution for the truth's sake. But out of that night of darkness God's light will shine.
------------------------Spiritualism's Role in Deception, June 7
Mar	166	1	Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1.
Mar	166	2	Many will be ensnared through the belief that spiritualism is a merely human imposture; when brought face to face with manifestations which they cannot but regard as supernatural, they will be deceived, and will be led to accept them as the great power of God.
Mar	166	3	As the teachings of spiritualism are accepted by the churches, the restraint imposed upon the carnal heart is removed, and the profession of religion will become a cloak to conceal the basest iniquity. A belief in spiritual manifestations opens the door to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and thus the influence of evil angels will be felt in the churches.
Mar	166	4	The popular ministry cannot successfully resist spiritualism. They have nothing wherewith to shield their flocks from its baleful influence. Much of the sad result of spiritualism will rest upon ministers of this age; for they have trampled the truth under their feet, and in its stead have preferred fables.
Mar	166	5	Satan has long been preparing for his final effort to deceive the world. The foundation of his work was laid by the assurance given to Eve in Eden: "Ye shall not surely die." "In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:4, 5. Little by little he has prepared the way for his masterpiece of deception in the development of spiritualism. He has not yet reached the full accomplishment of his designs; but it will be reached in the last remnant of time. Says the prophet: "I saw three unclean spirits like frogs....They are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Revelation 16:13, 14. Except those who are kept by the power of God, through faith in His word, the whole world will be swept into the ranks of this delusion. The people are fast being lulled to a fatal security, to be awakened only by the outpouring of the wrath of God.
------------------------The Spirits and the Sunday Law Issue, June 8
Mar	167	1	To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:20.
Mar	167	2	The miracle-working power manifested through spiritualism will exert its influence against those who choose to obey God rather than men. Communications from the spirits will declare that God has sent them to convince the rejecters of Sunday of their error, affirming that the laws of the land should be obeyed as the law of God. They will lament the great wickedness in the world and second the testimony of religious teachers that the degraded state of morals is caused by the desecration of Sunday. Great will be the indignation excited against all who refuse to accept their testimony.
Mar	167	3	Those who oppose the teachings of spiritualism are assailing, not men alone, but Satan and his angels. They have entered upon a contest against principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high places. Satan will not yield one inch of ground except as he is driven back by the power of heavenly messengers. The people of God should be able to meet him, as did our Saviour, with the words: "It is written." Satan can quote Scripture now as in the days of Christ, and he will pervert its teachings to sustain his delusions. Those who would stand in this time of peril must understand for themselves the testimony of the Scriptures.
Mar	167	4	Many will be confronted by the spirits of devils personating beloved relatives or friends and declaring the most dangerous heresies. These visitants will appeal to our tenderest sympathies and will work miracles to sustain their pretensions. We must be prepared to withstand them with the Bible truth that the dead know not anything and that they who thus appear are the spirits of devils.
Mar	167	5	Satanic agencies in human form will take part in this last great conflict to oppose the building up of the kingdom of God. And heavenly angels in human guise will be on the field of action. The two opposing parties will continue to exist till the closing up of the last great chapter in this world's history.
------------------------The False Revival, June 9
Mar	168	1	Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. 2 Thessalonians 2:8, 9.
Mar	168	2	Paul, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, points to the special working of Satan in spiritualism as an event to take place immediately before the second advent of Christ. Speaking of Christ's second coming, he declares that it is "after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders." 2 Thessalonians 2:9.
Mar	168	3	Before the final visitation of God's judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. At that time many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and His word. Many, both of ministers and people, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at this time to prepare a people for the Lord's second coming. The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power he will make it appear that God's special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world.
Mar	168	4	Young men and women will be lifted up, and will regard themselves as wonderfully favored, called to do some great thing. There will be conversions many, after a peculiar order, but they will not bear the divine signature. Immorality will come in, and extravagance, and many will make shipwreck of faith.
------------------------How the Image to the Beast Evolves, June 10
Mar	169	1	He exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. Revelation 13:12.
Mar	169	2	In order for the United States to form an image of the beast, the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the state will also be employed by the church to accomplish her own ends....
Mar	169	3	The "image to the beast" represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas....
Mar	169	4	When Sunday observance shall be enforced by law, and the world shall be enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress the command of God, to obey a precept which has no higher authority than that of Rome, will thereby honor popery above God. He is paying homage to Rome and to the power which enforces the institution ordained by Rome. He is worshiping the beast and his image. As men then reject the institution which God has declared to be the sign of His authority, and honor in its stead that which Rome has chosen as the token of her supremacy, they will thereby accept the sign of allegiance to Rome--"the mark of the beast." And it is not until the issue is thus plainly set before the people, and they are brought to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men, that those who continue in transgression will receive "the mark of the beast."...
Mar	169	5	In the issue of the contest all Christendom will be divided into two great classes--those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark. Although church and state will unite their power to compel "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond" (Revelation 13:16), to receive "the mark of the beast," yet the people of God will not receive it. The prophet of Patmos beholds "them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God" and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Revelation 15:2, 3.
------------------------The Sabbath Proclaimed More Fully, June 11
Mar	170	1	I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Revelation 14:6, 7.
Mar	170	2	At the commencement of the time of trouble, we were filled with the Holy Ghost as we went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully.
Mar	170	3	"The commencement of that time of trouble," here mentioned, does not refer to the time when the plagues shall begin to be poured out, but to a short period just before they are poured out, while Christ is in the sanctuary. At that time, while the work of salvation is closing, trouble will be coming on the earth, and the nations will be angry, yet held in check so as not to prevent the work of the third angel. At that time the "latter rain," or refreshing from the presence of the Lord, will come, to give power to the loud voice of the third angel, and prepare the saints to stand in the period when the seven last plagues shall be poured out.
Mar	170	4	[The angel of Revelation 14] presents a message that is to be proclaimed to the world just before Christ comes in the clouds of heaven.... Just prior to this time, then, the attention of the people is to be called to the down-trodden law of God, which is contained in the ark of the testament....
Mar	170	5	They see that instead of observing the seventh day, the day that God sanctified, and commanded to be observed as the Sabbath, they are keeping the first day of the week. But they honestly desire to do God's will, and they begin to search the Scriptures to find the reason for the change. Failing to find any scriptural authority for the custom, the question arises, Shall we accept a truth that has become unpopular, and obey the commandments of God, or shall we continue with the world, and obey the commandments of men? With open Bibles they weep, and pray, and compare scripture with scripture, until, convinced of the truth, they conscientiously take their stand as keepers of the commandments of God.
------------------------Second Angel's Message to be Repeated, June 12
Mar	171	1	There followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Revelation 14:8.
Mar	171	2	The second angel's message of Revelation 14 was first preached in the summer of 1844, and it then had a more direct application to the churches of the United States, where the warning of the judgment had been most widely proclaimed and most generally rejected, and where the declension in the churches had been most rapid. But the message of the second angel did not reach its complete fulfillment in 1844. The churches then experienced a moral fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the advent message; but that fall was not complete. As they have continued to reject the special truths for this time they have fallen lower and lower. Not yet, however, can it be said that "Babylon is fallen,... because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." She has not yet made all nations do this.
Mar	171	3	God still has a people in Babylon; and before the visitation of His judgments these faithful ones must be called out, that they partake not of her sins and "receive not of her plagues."
Mar	171	4	This is the same message that was given by the second angel. Babylon is fallen, "because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." What is that wine?--her false doctrines. She has given to the world a false sabbath instead of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and has repeated the falsehood that Satan first told to Eve in Eden--the natural immortality of the soul. Many kindred errors she has spread far and wide, "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."...
Mar	171	5	In the last work for the warning of the world, two distinct calls are made to the churches. The second angel's message is, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." And in the loud cry of the third angel's message a voice is heard from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities."
------------------------Sabbath vs Sunday Issue Joins, June 13
Mar	172	1	The third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. Revelation 14:9, 10.
Mar	172	2	Heretofore those who presented the truths of the third angel's message have often been regarded as mere alarmists. Their predictions that religious intolerance would gain control in the United States, that church and state would unite to persecute those who keep the commandments of God, have been pronounced groundless and absurd.... But as the question of enforcing Sunday observance is widely agitated, the event so long doubted and disbelieved is seen to be approaching, and the third message will produce an effect which it could not have had before....
Mar	172	3	Men of faith and prayer will be constrained to go forth with holy zeal, declaring the words which God gives them. The sins of Babylon will be laid open. The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority, the inroads of spiritualism, the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power--all will be unmasked. By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred.... As the people go to their former teachers with the eager inquiry, Are these things so? the ministers present fables, prophesy smooth things, to soothe their fears and quiet the awakened conscience. But since many refuse to be satisfied with the mere authority of men and demand a plain "Thus saith the Lord," the popular ministry, like the Pharisees of old, filled with anger as their authority is questioned, will denounce the message as of Satan and stir up the sin-loving multitudes to revile and persecute those who proclaim it.
Mar	172	4	As the controversy extends into new fields and the minds of the people are called to God's downtrodden law, Satan is astir. The power attending the message will only madden those who oppose it. The clergy will put forth almost superhuman efforts to shut away the light lest it should shine upon their flocks. By every means at their command they will endeavor to suppress the discussion of these vital questions. The church appeals to the strong arm of civil power, and, in this work, papists and Protestants unite.
------------------------Symbolism of the Three Angels' Messages, June 14
Mar	173	1	Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Malachi 4:5.
Mar	173	2	To prepare a people to stand in the day of God, a great work of reform was to be accomplished [by the Advent Movement]. God saw that many of His professed people were not building for eternity, and in His mercy He was about to send a message of warning to arouse them from their stupor and lead them to make ready for the coming of the Lord.
Mar	173	3	This warning is brought to view in Revelation 14. Here is a threefold message represented as proclaimed by heavenly beings and immediately followed by the coming of the Son of man to reap "the harvest of the earth."
Mar	173	4	The angels are represented as flying in the midst of heaven, proclaiming to the world a message of warning, and having a direct bearing upon the people living in the last days of this earth's history. No one hears the voice of these angels, for they are a symbol to represent the people of God who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven.
Mar	173	5	The three angels' messages are to be combined, giving their threefold light to the world. In the Revelation, John says, "I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory."... This represents the giving of the last and threefold message of warning to the world.
Mar	173	6	Revelation 18 points to the time when, as the result of rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12, the church will have fully reached the condition foretold by the second angel, and the people of God still in Babylon will be called upon to separate from her communion. This message is the last that will ever be given to the world; and it will accomplish its work. When those that "believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thessalonians 2:12), shall be left to receive strong delusion and to believe a lie, then the light of truth will shine upon all whose hearts are open to receive it, and all the children of the Lord that remain in Babylon will heed the call: "Come out of her, my people" (Revelation 18:4).
------------------------Armed Conflict in the Last Days, June 15
Mar	174	1	Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. Jeremiah 25:32.
Mar	174	2	Soon grievous troubles will rise among the nations--trouble that will not cease until Jesus comes. As never before we need to press together, serving Him who has prepared His throne in the heavens and whose kingdom ruleth over all. God has not forsaken His people, and our strength lies in not forsaking Him.
Mar	174	3	The judgments of God are in the land. The wars and rumors of wars, the destruction by fire and flood, say clearly that the time of trouble, which is to increase until the end, is very near at hand. We have no time to lose. The world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecies of the eleventh of Daniel have almost reached their final fulfillment.
Mar	174	4	Soon strife among the nations will break out with an intensity that we do not now anticipate. The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the strained, restless relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they realize that something great and decisive is about to take place, that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.
Mar	174	5	A moment of respite has been graciously given us of God. Every power lent us of Heaven is now to be used in working for those perishing in ignorance. There must be no delay. The truth must be proclaimed in the dark places of the earth.... A great work is to be done, and to those who know the truth for this time, this work has been entrusted.
Mar	174	6	In the last scenes of this earth's history, war will rage. There will be pestilence, plague, and famine. The waters of the deep will overflow their boundaries. Property and life will be destroyed by fire and flood. We should be preparing for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for them that love Him. There is a rest from earth's conflict.
------------------------Troublous Times Right Upon Us, June 16
Mar	175	1	After these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. Revelation 7:1.
Mar	175	2	Four mighty angels are still holding the four winds of the earth. Terrible destruction is forbidden to come in full. The ... winds will be the stirring up of the nations to one deadly combat, while the angels hold the four winds, forbidding the terrible power of Satan to be exercised in its fury until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.
Mar	175	3	The signs of the times give evidence that the judgments of heaven are being poured out, that the day of the Lord is at hand. The daily papers are full of indications of an intense conflict in the future. Bold robberies are of frequent occurrence. Strikes are common. Thefts and murders are committed on every hand. Men possessed by demons are taking the lives of men, women, and little children. All these things testify that the Lord's coming is near.
Mar	175	4	The restraining Spirit of God is even now being withdrawn from the world. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, disasters by sea and by land, follow one another in quick succession. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause....
Mar	175	5	The time is right upon us when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. Even before the last great destruction comes upon the world, the flattering monuments of man's greatness will be crumbled in the dust. God's retributive judgments will fall on those who in the face of great light have continued in sin. Costly buildings, supposed to be fireproof, are erected. But as Sodom perished in the flames of God's vengeance, so will these proud structures become ashes. I have seen vessels which cost immense sums of money wrestling with the mighty ocean, seeking to breast the angry billows. But with all their treasures of gold and silver, and with all their human freight, they sank into a watery grave.... But amid the tumult of excitement, with confusion in every place, there is a work to be done for God in the world.
------------------------Calamities Blamed on God's People, June 17
Mar	176	1	Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. Revelation 12:12.
Mar	176	2	As men depart further and further from God, Satan is permitted to have power over the children of disobedience. He hurls destruction among men. There is calamity by land and sea. Property and life are destroyed by fire and flood. Satan resolves to charge this upon those who refuse to bow to the idol which he has set up. His agents point to Seventh-day Adventists as the cause of the trouble. "These people stand out in defiance of law," they say. "They desecrate Sunday. Were they compelled to obey the law for Sunday observance, there would be a cessation of these terrible judgments."
Mar	176	3	Calamities will come--calamities most awful, most unexpected; and these destructions will follow one after another. If there will be a heeding of the warnings that God has given, and if churches will repent, returning to their allegiance, then other cities may be spared for a time. But if men who have been deceived continue in the same way in which they have been walking, disregarding the law of God and presenting falsehoods before the people, God allows them to suffer calamity, that their senses may be awakened.
Mar	176	4	The judgments will be according to the wickedness of the people and the light of truth that they have had. If they have had the truth, according to that light will be the punishment.
Mar	176	5	Satan puts his interpretation upon events, and they [leading men] think, as he would have them, that the calamities which fill the land are a result of Sunday-breaking. Thinking to appease the wrath of God, these influential men make laws enforcing Sunday observance. They think that by exalting this false rest-day higher, and still higher, compelling obedience to the Sunday law, the spurious sabbath, they are doing God service. Those who honor God by observing the true Sabbath are looked upon as disloyal to God, when it is really those who thus regard them who are themselves disloyal, because they are trampling under foot the Sabbath originated in Eden.
------------------------Wisdom Needed by Sabbathkeepers, June 18
Mar	177	1	Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Matthew 10:16.
Mar	177	2	When the practices of the people do not come in conflict with the law of God, you may conform to them. If the workers fail to do this, they will not only hinder their own work, but they will place stumbling blocks in the way of those for whom they labor, and hinder them from accepting the truth. On Sunday there is the very best opportunity for those who are missionaries to hold Sunday schools, and come to the people in the simplest manner possible, telling them of the love of Jesus for sinners, and educating them in the Scriptures....
Mar	177	3	At present Sunday-keeping is not the test. The time will come when men will not only forbid Sunday work, but they will try to force men to labor on the Sabbath, and to subscribe to Sunday observance or forfeit their freedom and their lives. But the time for this has not yet come, for the truth must be presented more fully before the people as a witness....
Mar	177	4	The light that I have is that God's servants should go quietly to work, preaching the grand, precious truths of the Bible--Christ and Him crucified. His love and infinite sacrifice--showing that the reason why Christ died is because the law of God is immutable, unchangeable, eternal. The Sabbath must be taught in a decided manner, but be cautious how you deal with the idol Sunday. A word to the wise is sufficient....
Mar	177	5	Refraining from work on Sunday is not receiving the mark of the beast; and where this will advance the interests of the work, it should be done. We should not go out of our way to work on Sunday....
Mar	177	6	When those who hear and see the light on the Sabbath take their stand upon the truth to keep God's holy day, difficulties will arise; for efforts will be brought to bear against them to compel men and women to transgress the law of God. Here they must stand firm, that they will not violate the law of God; and if the opposition and persecution are determinedly kept up, let them heed the words of Christ: "When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another.
------------------------Sunday Missionary Work, June 19
Mar	178	1	Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2, R.S.V.
Mar	178	2	To defy the Sunday laws will but strengthen in their persecution the religious zealots who are seeking to enforce them. Give them no occasion to call you lawbreakers. If they are left to rein up men who fear neither God nor man, the reining up will soon lose its novelty for them, and they will see that it is not consistent nor convenient for them to be strict in regard to the observance of Sunday. Keep right on with your missionary work, with your Bibles in your hands, and the enemy will see that he has worsted his own cause. One does not receive the mark of the beast because he shows that he realizes the wisdom of keeping the peace by refraining from work that gives offense, doing at the same time a work of the highest importance.
Mar	178	3	When we devote Sunday to missionary work, the whip will be taken out of the hands of the arbitrary zealots who would be well pleased to humiliate Seventh-day Adventists....
Mar	178	4	Sunday can be used for carrying forward various lines of work that will accomplish much for the Lord. On this day open- air meetings and cottage meetings can be held. House-to-house work can be done. Those who write can devote this day to writing their articles. Whenever it is possible, let religious services be held on Sunday. Make these meetings intensely interesting. Sing genuine revival hymns, and speak with power and assurance of the Saviour's love. Speak on temperance and on true religious experience. You will thus learn much about how to work, and will reach many souls....
Mar	178	5	The law for the observance of the first day of the week is the production of an apostate Christendom. Sunday is a child of the Papacy, exalted by the Christian world above the sacred day of God's rest. In no case are God's people to pay it homage. But I wish them to understand that they are not doing God's will by braving opposition when He wishes them to avoid it.
Mar	178	6	Wonderful scenes are opening before us; and at this time a living testimony is to be borne in the lives of God's professed people, so that the world may see that in this age, when evil reigns on every side, there is yet a people who are laying aside their will and are seeking to do God's will--a people in whose hearts and lives God's law is written.
------------------------God's Law Made Void in America, June 20
Mar	179	1	It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law. Psalm 119:126.
Mar	179	2	A time is coming when the law of God is, in a special sense, to be made void in our land [the United States]. The rulers of our nation will, by legislative enactments, enforce the Sunday law, and thus God's people will be brought into great peril. When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land.
Mar	179	3	When the land which the Lord provided as an asylum for His people, that they might worship Him according to the dictates of their own consciences, the land over which for long years the shield of Omnipotence has been spread, the land which God has favored by making it the depository of the pure religion of Christ--when that land shall, through its legislators, abjure the principles of Protestantism, and give countenance to Romish apostasy in tampering with God's law--it is then that the final work of the man of sin will be revealed. Protestants will throw their whole influence and strength on the side of the Papacy; by a national act enforcing the false sabbath, they will give life and vigor to the corrupt faith of Rome, reviving her tyranny and oppression of conscience. Then it will be time for God to work in mighty power for the vindication of His truth.
Mar	179	4	The prophet says: "I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.... And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." When do her sins reach unto heaven? When the law of God is finally made void by legislation. Then the extremity of God's people is His opportunity to show who is the governor of heaven and earth. As a Satanic power is stirring up the elements from beneath, God will send light and power to His people, that the message of truth may be proclaimed to all the world.
------------------------The Sign to Leave Large Cities, June 21
Mar	180	1	When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains. Matthew 24:15, 16.
Mar	180	2	The time is not far distant, when, like the early disciples, we shall be forced to seek a refuge in desolate and solitary places. As the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies was the signal for flight to the Judean Christians, so the assumption of power on the part of our nation [the United States] in the decree enforcing the papal sabbath will be a warning to us. It will then be time to leave the large cities, preparatory to leaving the smaller ones for retired homes in secluded places among the mountains.
Mar	180	3	For years I have been given special light that we are not to center our work in the cities. The turmoil and confusion that fill these cities, the conditions brought about by the labor unions and the strikes, would prove a great hindrance to our work. Men are seeking to bring those engaged in the different trades under bondage to certain unions. This is not God's planning, but the planning of a power that we should in no wise acknowledge. God's Word is fulfilling; the wicked are binding themselves up in bundles ready to be burned.
Mar	180	4	The trades unions and confederacies of the world are a snare. Keep out of them, and away from them, brethren. Have nothing to do with them. Because of these unions and confederacies, it will soon be very difficult for our institutions to carry on their work in the cities.... Educate our people to get out of the cities into the country, where they can obtain a small piece of land, and make a home for themselves and their children....
Mar	180	5	Erelong there will be such strife and confusion in the cities, that those who wish to leave them will not be able.
Mar	180	6	We are not to locate ourselves where we will be forced into close relations with those who do not honor God.... A crisis is soon to come in regard to the observance of Sunday....
Mar	180	7	The Sunday party is strengthening itself in its false claims, and this will mean oppression to those who determine to keep the Sabbath of the Lord....
Mar	180	8	If in the providence of God we can secure places away from the cities, the Lord would have us do this. There are troublous times before us.
------------------------Food and Lands in the Last Days, June 22
Mar	181	1	Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is evil thereof. Matthew 6:34.
Mar	181	2	The Lord has shown me in vision, repeatedly, that it is contrary to the Bible to make any provision for our temporal wants in the time of trouble. I saw that if the saints have food laid up by them, or in the fields, in the time of trouble when sword, famine, and pestilence are in the land, it will be taken from them by violent hands, and strangers would reap their fields. Then will be the time for us to trust wholly in God, and He will sustain us. I saw that our bread and water would be sure at that time, and we should not lack, or suffer hunger. The Lord has shown me that some of His children would fear when they see the price of food rising, and they would buy food and lay it by for the time of trouble. Then in a time of need, I saw them go to their food and look at it, and it had bred worms, and was full of living creatures, and not fit for use.
Mar	181	3	Houses and lands will be of no use to the saints in the time of trouble, for they will then have to flee before infuriated mobs, and at that time their possessions cannot be disposed of to advance the cause of present truth....
Mar	181	4	I saw that if any held on to their property and did not inquire of the Lord as to their duty, He would not make duty known, and they would be permitted to keep their property, and in the time of trouble it would come up before them like a mountain to crush them, and they would try to dispose of it, but would not be able.... But if they desired to be taught, He would teach them, in a time of need, when to sell and how much to sell.
Mar	181	5	In the last great conflict of the controversy with Satan those who are loyal to God will see every earthly support cut off. Because they refuse to break His law in obedience to earthly powers, they will be forbidden to buy or sell. It will finally be decreed that they shall be put to death.... But to the obedient is given the promise, "He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure." Isaiah 33:16. By this promise the children of God will live.
------------------------Labor Unions and Trusts, June 23
Mar	182	1	Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. James 5:7.
Mar	182	2	The trades unions will be one of the agencies that will bring upon this earth a time of trouble such as has not been since the world began.
Mar	182	3	In all our great cities there will be a binding up in bundles by the confederacies and unions formed. Men will rule other men and demand much of them. The lives of those who refuse to unite with these unions, will be in peril.
Mar	182	4	The work of the people of God is to prepare for the events of the future, which will soon come upon them with blinding force. In the world gigantic monopolies will be formed. Men will bind themselves together in unions that will wrap them in the folds of the enemy. A few men will combine to grasp all the means to be obtained in certain lines of business. Trades unions will be formed, and those who refuse to join these unions will be marked men....
Mar	182	5	These unions are one of the signs of the last days. Men are binding up in bundles ready to be burned. They may be church members, but while they belong to these unions, they cannot possibly keep the commandments of God; for to belong to these unions means to disregard the entire Decalogue.
Mar	182	6	"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." ... How can men obey these words, and form combinations that rob the poorer classes of the advantages which justly belong to them, preventing them from buying or selling, except under certain conditions.
Mar	182	7	Those who claim to be the children of God are in no case to bind up with the labor unions that are formed or that shall be formed. This the Lord forbids. Cannot those who study the prophecies see and understand what is before us?
Mar	182	8	Important issues must soon be met, and we wish to be hid in the cleft of the rock, that we may see Jesus, and be quickened by His Holy Spirit. We have no time to lose, not a moment.
------------------------Forbidden to Buy or Sell, June 24
Mar	183	1	And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Revelation 13:17.
Mar	183	2	The time is coming when we cannot sell at any price. The decree will soon go forth prohibiting men to buy or sell of any man save him that hath the mark of the beast.
Mar	183	3	In the last great conflict of the controversy with Satan those who are loyal to God will see every earthly support cut off. Because they refuse to break His law in obedience to earthly powers, they will be forbidden to buy or sell.
Mar	183	4	Religious powers, allied to heaven by profession, and claiming to have the characteristics of a lamb, will show by their acts that they have the heart of a dragon and that they are instigated and controlled by Satan. The time is coming when God's people will feel the hand of persecution because they keep holy the seventh day.
Mar	183	5	There is a time coming when commandment-keepers can neither buy nor sell. Make haste to dig out your buried talents. If God has intrusted you with money, show yourselves faithful to your trust; unwrap your napkin, and send your talents to the exchangers, that when Christ shall come, He may receive His own with interest. In the last extremity, before this work shall close, thousands will be cheerfully laid upon the altar. Men and women will feel it a blessed privilege to share in the work of preparing souls to stand in the great day of God, and they will give hundreds as readily as dollars are given now. If the love of Christ were burning in the hearts of His professed people, we would see the same spirit manifested today. Did they but realize how near is the end of all work for the salvation of souls, they would sacrifice their possessions as freely as did the members of the early church. They would work for the advancement of God's cause as earnestly as worldly men labor to acquire riches. Tact and skill would be exercised, and earnest and unselfish labor put forth to acquire means, not to hoard, but to pour into the treasury of the Lord.
------------------------Work the Cities from Outposts, June 25
Mar	184	1	Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 2 Corinthians 6:17.
Mar	184	2	As God's commandment-keeping people, we must leave the cities. As did Enoch, we must work in the cities but not dwell in them.
Mar	184	3	As far as possible, our institutions should be located away from the cities.... It is not God's will that His people shall settle in the cities, where there is constant turmoil and confusion. Their children should be spared this; for the whole system is demoralized by the hurry and rush and noise. The Lord desires His people to move into the country, where they can settle on the land, and raise their own fruit and vegetables, and where their children can be brought in direct contact with the works of God in nature. Take your families away from the cities is my message.
Mar	184	4	The truth must be spoken, whether men will hear, or whether men will forbear. The cities are filled with temptation. We should plan our work in such a way as to keep our young people as far as possible from this contamination.
Mar	184	5	The cities are to be worked from outposts. Said the messenger of God, "Shall not the cities be warned? Yes; not by God's people living in them, but by their visiting them, to warn them of what is coming upon the earth."
Mar	184	6	When iniquity abounds in a nation, there is always to be heard some voice giving warning and instruction, as the voice of Lot was heard in Sodom. Yet Lot could have preserved his family from many evils had he not made his home in this wicked, polluted city. All that Lot and his family did in Sodom could have been done by them, even if they had lived in a place some distance away from the city. Enoch walked with God, and yet he did not live in the midst of any city polluted with every kind of violence and wickedness, as did Lot in Sodom.
Mar	184	7	He [Enoch] did not make his abode with the wicked.... He placed himself and his family where the atmosphere would be as pure as possible. Then at times he went forth to the inhabitants of the world with his God-given message.... After proclaiming his message, he always took back with him to his place of retirement some who had received the warning.
------------------------Relief of Physical Suffering, June 26
Mar	185	1	And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Matthew 10:7, 8.
Mar	185	2	Perilous times are before us. The whole world will be involved in perplexity and distress, disease of every kind will be upon the human family, and such ignorance as now prevails concerning the laws of health would result in great suffering and the loss of many lives that might be saved....
Mar	185	3	As religious aggression subverts the liberties of our nation, those who would stand for freedom of conscience will be placed in unfavorable positions. For their own sake, they should, while they have opportunity, become intelligent in regard to disease, its causes, prevention, and cure. And those who do this will find a field of labor anywhere. There will be suffering ones, plenty of them, who will need help, not only among those of our own faith, but largely among those who know not the truth.
Mar	185	4	The medical work done in connection with the giving of the third angel's message, is to accomplish wonderful results. It is to be a sanctifying, unifying work, corresponding to the work which the great Head of the church sent forth the first disciples to do.
Mar	185	5	Calling these disciples together, Christ gave them their commission: ... "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Matthew 10:7, 8, 16.
Mar	185	6	It is well for us to read this chapter and let its instruction prepare us for our labors. The early disciples were going forth on Christ's errands, under His commission. His spirit was to prepare the way before them. They were to feel that with such a message to give, such blessings to impart, they should receive a welcome in the homes of the people.
Mar	185	7	God reaches hearts through the relief of physical suffering. A seed of truth is dropped into the mind, and is watered by God. Much patience may be required before this seed shows signs of life, but at last it springs up, and bears fruit unto eternal life.
Mar	185	8	How slow men are to understand God's preparation for the day of His power!
------------------------The Sunday Law is Invoked, June 27
Mar	186	1	Ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. Matthew 24:9.
Mar	186	2	As the movement for Sunday enforcement becomes more bold and decided, the law will be invoked against commandment keepers. They will be threatened with fines and imprisonment, and some will be offered positions of influence, and other rewards and advantages, as inducements to renounce their faith. But their steadfast answer is: "Show us from the word of God our error." ... Those who are arraigned before the courts make a strong vindication of the truth, and some who hear them are led to take their stand to keep all the commandments of God. Thus light will be brought before thousands who otherwise would know nothing of these truths.
Mar	186	3	Conscientious obedience to the word of God will be treated as rebellion. Blinded by Satan, the parent will exercise harshness and severity toward the believing child; the master or mistress will oppress the commandment-keeping servant. Affection will be alienated; children will be disinherited and driven from home. The words of Paul will be literally fulfilled: "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Timothy 3:12. As the defenders of truth refuse to honor the Sunday-sabbath, some of them will be thrust into prison, some will be exiled, some will be treated as slaves....
Mar	186	4	In this time of persecution the faith of the Lord's servants will be tried. They have faithfully given the warning, looking to God and to His word alone. God's Spirit, moving upon their hearts, has constrained them to speak.... Yet when the storm of opposition and reproach bursts upon them, some, overwhelmed with consternation, will be ready to exclaim: "Had we foreseen the consequences of our words, we would have held our peace." They are hedged in with difficulties. Satan assails them with fierce temptations. The work which they have undertaken seems far beyond their ability to accomplish. They are threatened with destruction. The enthusiasm which animated them is gone; yet they cannot turn back. Then, feeling their utter helplessness, they flee to the Mighty One for strength.
------------------------Protestantism Unites with the Papacy, June 28
Mar	187	1	And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. Revelation 17:12, 13.
Mar	187	2	As we approach the last crisis, it is of vital moment that harmony and unity exist among the Lord's instrumentalities. The world is filled with storm and war and variance. Yet under one head--the papal power--the people will unite to oppose God in the person of His witnesses.
Mar	187	3	What is it that gives its kingdom to this power? Protestantism, a power which, while professing to have the temper and spirit of a lamb and to be allied to Heaven, speaks with the voice of a dragon. It is moved by a power from beneath.
Mar	187	4	"These have one mind." There will be a universal bond of union, one great harmony, a confederacy of Satan's forces. "And shall give their power and strength unto the beast." Thus is manifested the same arbitrary, oppressive power against religious liberty, freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, as was manifested by the papacy, when in the past it persecuted those who dared to refuse to conform with the religious rites and ceremonies of Romanism.
Mar	187	5	In the warfare to be waged in the last days there will be united, in opposition to God's people, all the corrupt powers that have apostatized from allegiance to the law of Jehovah. In this warfare the Sabbath of the fourth commandment will be the great point at issue; for in the Sabbath commandment the great Lawgiver identifies Himself as the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
Mar	187	6	Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.
------------------------Two Great Classes of Christians, June 29
Mar	188	1	I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. Revelation 13:3.
Mar	188	2	In homage to the Papacy the United States will not be alone. The influence of Rome in the countries that once acknowledged her dominion, is still far from being destroyed.
Mar	188	3	In the last conflict the Sabbath will be the special point of controversy throughout all Christendom. Secular rulers and religious leaders will unite to enforce the observance of the Sunday; and as milder measures fail, the most oppressive laws will be enacted. It will be urged that the few who stand in opposition to an institution of the church and a law of the land ought not to be tolerated.... Romanism in the Old World, and apostate Protestantism in the New, will pursue a similar course toward those who honor the divine precepts.
Mar	188	4	The so-called Christian world is to be the theater of great and decisive actions. Men in authority will enact laws controlling the conscience, after the example of the Papacy. Babylon will make all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Every nation will be involved. [Revelation 18:3-7 quoted.]
Mar	188	5	The warning of the third angel [of Revelation 14] ... is represented in the prophecy as being proclaimed with a loud voice, by an angel flying in the midst of heaven; and it will command the attention of the world.
Mar	188	6	In the issue of the contest all Christendom will be divided into two great classes--those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark. Although church and state will unite their power to compel "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond" (Revelation 13:16), to receive "the mark of the beast," yet the people of God will not receive it. The prophet of Patmos beholds "them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God" and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Revelation 15:2, 3.
------------------------Confusion of Many Voices, June 30
Mar	189	1	And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Revelation 18:4.
Mar	189	2	In the last work for the warning of the world, two distinct calls are made to the churches. The second angel's message is, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." And in the loud cry of the third angel's message a voice is heard from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities."
Mar	189	3	As God called the children of Israel out of Egypt, that they might keep His Sabbath, so He calls His people out of Babylon, that they may not worship the beast or his image....
Mar	189	4	After the truth has been proclaimed as a witness to all nations, every conceivable power of evil will be set in operation, and minds will be confused by many voices crying, "Lo, here is Christ, Lo, He is there. This is the truth, I have the message from God, He has sent me with great light." Then there will be a removing of the landmarks, and an attempt to tear down the pillars of our faith. A more decided effort will be made to exalt the false sabbath, and to cast contempt upon God Himself by supplanting the day He has blessed and sanctified. This false sabbath is to be enforced by an oppressive law.... But while Satan works with his lying wonders, the time will be fulfilled foretold in the Revelation, and the mighty angel that shall lighten the earth with his glory, will proclaim the fall of Babylon, and call upon God's people to forsake her.
Mar	189	5	When do her sins reach unto heaven? When the law of God is finally made void by legislation. Then the extremity of God's people is His opportunity to show who is the governor of heaven and earth. As a Satanic power is stirring up the elements from beneath, God will send light and power to His people, that the message of truth may be proclaimed to all the world.
------------------------The Threefold Union of Religion, July 1
Mar	190	1	And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Revelation 16:13, 14.
Mar	190	2	By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation [the United States] will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.
Mar	190	3	Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience....
Mar	190	4	Papists, Protestants, and worldling will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium.
Mar	190	5	When our nation [the United States] shall so abjure the principles of its government as to enact a Sunday law, Protestantism will in this act join hands with popery; it will be nothing else than giving life to the tyranny which has long been eagerly watching its opportunity to spring again into active despotism.
------------------------Satan and the Threefold Union, July 2
Mar	191	1	And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast. Revelation 13:4.
Mar	191	2	"He had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." Though professing to be followers of the Lamb of God, men become imbued with the spirit of the dragon. They profess to be meek and humble but they speak and legislate with the spirit of Satan, showing by their actions that they are the opposite of what they profess to be. This lamb-like power unites with the dragon in making war upon those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And Satan unites with Protestants and Papists, acting in consort with them as the god of this world, dictating to men as if they were the subjects of his kingdom, to be handled and governed and controlled as he pleases. If men will not agree to trample under foot the commandments of God, the spirit of the dragon is revealed. They are imprisoned, brought before councils, and fined. "He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads." "He had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." Thus Satan usurps the prerogatives of Jehovah. The man of sin sits in the seat of God, proclaiming himself to be God, and acting above God.
Mar	191	3	There is a marked contrast between those who bear the seal of God and those who worship the beast and his image. The Lord's faithful servants will receive the bitterest persecution from false teachers, who will not hear the word of God, and who prepare stumbling blocks to put in the way of those who would hear. But God's people are not to fear. Satan cannot go beyond his limit. The Lord will be the defense of His people. He regards the injury done to His servants for the truth's sake as done to Himself. When the last decision has been made, when all have taken sides, either for Christ and the commandments or for the great apostate, God will arise in His power, and the mouths of those who have blasphemed against Him will be forever stopped. Every opposing power will receive its punishment.
------------------------The Corruption of Truth, July 3
Mar	192	1	Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. Matthew 24:23.
Mar	192	2	Before the last developments of the work of apostasy there will be a confusion of faith. There will not be clear and definite ideas concerning the mystery of God. One truth after another will be corrupted.
Mar	192	3	After the truth has been proclaimed as a witness to all nations, every conceivable power of evil will be set in operation, and minds will be confused by many voices crying. "Lo, here is Christ; lo, He is there. This is the truth, I have the message from God, He has sent me with great light." Then there will be a removing of the landmarks, and an attempt to tear down the pillars of our faith. A more decided effort will be made to exalt the false sabbath, and to cast contempt upon God Himself by supplanting the day He has blessed and sanctified. This false sabbath is to be enforced by an oppressive law.
Mar	192	4	In the future, deception of every kind is to arise, and we want solid ground for our feet. We want solid pillars for the building. Not one pin is to be removed from that which the Lord has established. The enemy will bring in false theories, such as the doctrine that there is no sanctuary. This is one of the points on which there will be a departing from the faith.
Mar	192	5	There will be false dreams and false visions, which have some truth, but lead away from the original faith. The Lord has given men a rule by which to detect them: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20).
Mar	192	6	As we near the end of time, falsehood will be so mingled with truth, that only those who have the guidance of the Holy Spirit will be able to distinguish truth from error. We need to make every effort to keep the way of the Lord. We must in no case turn from His guidance to put our trust in man. The Lord's angels are appointed to keep strict watch over those who put their faith in the Lord, and these angels are to be our special help in every time of need. Every day we are to come to the Lord with full assurance of faith, and to look to Him for wisdom.... Those who are guided by the Word of the Lord will discern with certainty between falsehood and truth, between sin and righteousness.
------------------------The United States in Prophecy, July 4
Mar	193	1	I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. Revelation 13:11.
Mar	193	2	One nation, and only one, meets the specifications of this prophecy; it points unmistakably to the United States of America.
Mar	193	3	Here is a striking figure of the rise and growth of our own nation. And the lamb-like horns, emblems or innocence and gentleness, well represent the character of our government, as expressed in its two fundamental principles, Republicanism and Protestantism.
Mar	193	4	The Lord has done more for the United States than for any other country upon which the sun shines. Here He provided an asylum for His people, where they could worship Him according to the dictates of conscience. Here Christianity has progressed in its purity. The life-giving doctrine of the one Mediator between God and man has been freely taught. God designed that this country should ever remain free for all people to worship Him in accordance with the dictates of conscience. He designed that its civil institutions, in their expansive productions, should represent the freedom of gospel privileges.
Mar	193	5	But the enemy of all righteousness has designs upon God's purpose for this country. He will bring in enterprises that will lead men to forget that there is a God. Worldliness and covetousness, which is idolatry, will prevail through the working of the archdeceiver, till the law of God, in all its bearings, shall be made void.
Mar	193	6	I have been shown that Satan is stealing a march upon us. The law of God, through the agency of Satan, is to be made void. In our land of boasted freedom, religious liberty will come to an end.
Mar	193	7	When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land; and national apostasy will be followed by national ruin.
------------------------Persecution by Protestants and Catholics, July 5
Mar	194	1	Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Matthew 10:22.
Mar	194	2	There is no necessity for thinking that we cannot endure persecution; we shall have to go through terrible times.
Mar	194	3	The persecutions of Protestants by Romanism, by which the religion of Jesus Christ was almost annihilated, will be more than rivaled when Protestantism and popery are combined.
Mar	194	4	The commandment-keeping people of God erelong will be placed in a most trying position; but all those who have walked in the light, and diffused the light, will realize that God interposes in their behalf. When everything looks most forbidding, then the Lord will reveal His power to His faithful ones. When the nation for which God has worked in such a marvelous manner, and over which He has spread the shield of Omnipotence, abandons Protestant principles, and through its legislature gives countenance and support to Romanism in limiting religious liberty, then God will work in His own power for His people that are true. The tyranny of Rome will be exercised, but Christ is our refuge.
Mar	194	5	When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result.
Mar	194	6	The Scriptures teach that popery is to regain its lost supremacy, and that the fires of persecution will be rekindled through the time-serving concessions of the so-called Protestant world. In this time of peril we can stand only as we have the truth and the power of God.... The prospect of being brought into personal danger and distress, need not cause despondency, but should quicken the vigor and hopes of God's people; for the time of their peril is the season for God to grant them clearer manifestations of his power.
------------------------Persecuted for Christ's Sake, July 6
Mar	195	1	All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Timothy 3:12.
Mar	195	2	As Christ was hated without cause, so will His people be hated because they are obedient to the commandments of God. If He who was pure, holy, and undefiled, who did good and only good in our world, was treated as a base criminal and condemned to death, His disciples must expect but similar treatment, however faultless may be their life and blameless their character.
Mar	195	3	Human enactments, laws manufactured by satanic agencies under a plea of goodness and restriction of evil, will be exalted, while God's holy commandments are despised and trampled underfoot. And all who prove their loyalty by obedience to the law of Jehovah must be prepared to be arrested, to be brought before councils that have not for their standard the high and holy law of God.
Mar	195	4	Those who live during the last days of this earth's history will know what it means to be persecuted for the truth's sake. In the courts injustice will prevail. The judges will refuse to listen to the reasons of those who are loyal to the commandments of God, because they know that arguments in favor of the fourth commandment are unanswerable. They will say, "We have a law, and by our law he ought to die." God's law is nothing to them. "Our law" with them is supreme. Those who respect this human law will be favored, but those who will not bow to the idol sabbath will have no favors shown them.
Mar	195	5	In summer there is no noticeable difference between evergreens and other trees; but when the blasts of winter come, the evergreens remain unchanged, while other trees are stripped of their foliage. So the falsehearted professor may not now be distinguished from the real Christian, but the time is just upon us when the difference will be apparent. Let opposition arise, let bigotry and intolerance again bear sway, let persecution be kindled, and the halfhearted and hypocritical will waver and yield the faith; but the true Christian will stand firm as a rock, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, than in days of prosperity.
------------------------Former Brethren Worst Persecutors, July 7
Mar	196	1	Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. Matthew 24:10.
Mar	196	2	As the storm approaches, a large class who have professed faith in the third angel's message, but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth, abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit, they have come to view matters in nearly the same light; and when the test is brought, they are prepared to choose the easy, popular side. Men of talent and pleasing address, who once rejoiced in the truth, employ their powers to deceive and mislead souls. They become the most bitter enemies of their former brethren. When Sabbathkeepers are brought before the courts to answer for their faith, these apostates are the most efficient agents of Satan to misrepresent and accuse them, and by false reports and insinuations to stir up the rulers against them.
Mar	196	3	The season of distress before God's people will call for a faith that will not falter. His children must make it manifest that He is the only object of their worship, and that no consideration, not even that of life itself, can induce them to make the least concession to false worship.
Mar	196	4	At that time the gold will be separated from the dross.... Many a star that we have admired for its brilliance will then go out in darkness. Those who have assumed the ornaments of the sanctuary, but are not clothed with Christ's righteousness, will then appear in the shame of their own nakedness.
Mar	196	5	Among earth's inhabitants, scattered in every land, there are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Like the stars of heaven, which appear only at night, these faithful ones will shine forth when darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people.... In the hour of deepest apostasy, when Satan's supreme effort is made to cause "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond," to receive, under penalty of death, the sign of allegiance to a false rest day, these faithful ones ... will "shine as lights in the world." ... Philippians 2:15. The darker the night, the more brilliantly will they shine.
------------------------Betrayed by Friends and Relatives, July 8
Mar	197	1	A man's foes shall be they of his own household. Matthew 10:36.
Mar	197	2	When the law of God is made void, and the church is sifted by the fiery trials that are to try all that live upon the earth, a great proportion of those who are supposed to be genuine will give heed to seducing spirits, and will turn traitors and betray sacred trusts. They will prove our very worst persecutors. "Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them;" and many will give heed to seducing spirits.
Mar	197	3	Those who apostatize in time of trial will bear false witness and betray their brethren, to secure their own safety. They will tell where their brethren are concealed, putting the wolves on their track. Christ has warned us of this, that we may not be surprised at the cruel, unnatural course pursued by friends and relatives.
Mar	197	4	We shall find that we must let loose of all hands except the hand of Jesus Christ. Friends will prove treacherous, and will betray us. Relatives, deceived by the enemy, will think they do God service in opposing us and putting forth the utmost efforts to bring us into hard places, hoping we will deny our faith. But we may trust our hand in the hand of Christ amid darkness and peril.
Mar	197	5	The followers of Christ must expect to encounter sneers. They will be reviled; their words and their faith will be misrepresented. Coldness and contempt may be harder to endure than martyrdom....
Mar	197	6	Parents will turn harshly against their children who accept unpopular truth. Those who conscientiously serve God will be accused of rebellion. Property that was willed to children or other relatives who believe the present truth will be given into other hands. Guardians will rob orphans and widows of their just dues. Those who depart from evil will make themselves a prey through laws enacted to compel the conscience. Men will take to themselves property to which they have no right. The words of the apostle will be verified in the near future: "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
------------------------Under Threat of Death, July 9
Mar	198	1	For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther 4:14.
Mar	198	2	Wonderful events are soon to open before the world. The end of all things is at hand. The time of trouble is about to come upon the people of God. Then it is that the decree will go forth forbidding those who keep the Sabbath of the Lord to buy or sell, threatening them with punishment, and even death, if they do not observe the first day of the week as the Sabbath.
Mar	198	3	The decree which is to go forth against the people of God will be very similar to that issued by Ahasuerus against the Jews in the time of Esther.... Satan instigated the scheme in order to rid the earth of those who preserved the knowledge of the true God. But his plots were defeated by a counterpower that reigns among the children of men....
Mar	198	4	The Protestant world today see in the little company keeping the Sabbath a Mordecai in the gate. His character and conduct, expressing reverence for the law of God, are a constant rebuke to those who have cast off the fear of the Lord and are trampling upon His Sabbath; the unwelcome intruder must by some means be put out of the way.
Mar	198	5	The same masterful mind that plotted against the faithful in ages past is still seeking to rid the earth of those who fear God and obey His law. Satan will excite indignation against the humble minority who conscientiously refuse to accept popular customs and traditions. Men of position and reputation will join with the lawless and the vile to take counsel against the people of God.... Not having a "Thus saith the Scriptures" to bring against the advocates of the Bible Sabbath, they will resort to oppressive enactments to supply the lack.... On this battlefield comes the last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error. And we are not left in doubt as to the issue. Now, as in the days of Mordecai, the Lord will vindicate His truth and His people.
------------------------Martyrs in the Last Days, July 10
Mar	199	1	They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. John 16:2.
Mar	199	2	Every individual in our world will be arrayed under one of two banners.
Mar	199	3	The two armies will stand distinct and separate, and this distinction will be so marked that many who shall be convinced of truth will come on the side of God's commandment-keeping people. When this grand work is to take place in the battle, prior to the last closing conflict, many will be imprisoned, many will flee for their lives from cities and towns, and many will be martyrs for Christ's sake in standing in defense of the truth.
Mar	199	4	By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation [the United States] will disconnect herself fully from righteousness....
Mar	199	5	As the approach of the Roman armies was a sign to the disciples of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, so may this apostasy be a sign to us that the limit of God's forbearance is reached, that the measure of our nation's iniquity is full, and that the angel of mercy is about to take her flight, never to return. The people of God will then be plunged into those scenes of affliction and distress which prophets have described as the time of Jacob's trouble. The cries of the faithful, persecuted ones ascend to heaven. And as the blood of Abel cried from the ground, there are voices also crying to God from martyrs' graves, from the sepulchers of the sea, from mountain caverns, from convents vaults: "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
Mar	199	6	When the fifth seal was opened, John the Revelator in vision saw beneath the altar the company that were slain for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. After this came the scenes described in the eighteenth of Revelation, when those who are faithful and true are called out from Babylon.
Mar	199	7	Christ will restore the life taken; for He is the Life-giver: He will beautify the righteous with immortal life.
------------------------The Shaking Time, July 11
Mar	200	1	And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Matthew 24:12.
Mar	200	2	Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads--it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved--just as soon as God's people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come. Indeed, it has begun already; the judgments of God are now upon the land, to give us warning, that we may know what is coming.
Mar	200	3	The days are fast approaching when there will be great perplexity and confusion. Satan, clothed in angel robes, will deceive, if possible, the very elect. There will be gods many and lords many. Every wind of doctrine will be blowing....
Mar	200	4	The mark of the beast will be urged upon us. Those who have step by step yielded to worldly demands and conformed to worldly customs will not find it a hard matter to yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. The contest is between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church. True godliness will be clearly distinguished from the appearance and tinsel of it. Many a star that we have admired for its brilliancy will then go out in darkness. Chaff like a cloud will be borne away on the wind, even from places where we see only floors of rich wheat. All who assume the ornaments of the sanctuary, but are not clothed with Christ's righteousness, will appear in the shame of their own nakedness.
Mar	200	5	But there are men who will receive the truth, and these will take the places made vacant by those who become offended and leave the truth....
Mar	200	6	Men of true Christian principle will take their place, and will become faithful, trustworthy householders, to advocate the word of God in its true bearings, and in its simplicity. The Lord will work so that the disaffected ones will be separated from the true and loyal ones.... The ranks will not be diminished. Those who are firm and true will close up the vacancies that are made by those who become offended and apostatize.
------------------------A View of the Shaking, July 12
Mar	201	1	For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel. Ezekiel 38:19.
Mar	201	2	I saw some, with strong faith and agonizing cries, pleading with God. Their countenances were pale and marked with deep anxiety, expressive of their internal struggle. Firmness and great earnestness was expressed in their countenances; large drops of perspiration fell from their foreheads....
Mar	201	3	Evil angels crowded around, pressing darkness upon them to shut out Jesus from their view, that their eyes might be drawn to the darkness that surrounded them, and thus they be led to distrust God and murmur against Him. Their only safety was in keeping their eyes directed upward. Angels of God had charge over His people, and as the poisonous atmosphere of evil angels was pressed around these anxious ones, the heavenly angels were continually wafting their wings over them to scatter the thick darkness.
Mar	201	4	As the praying ones continued their earnest cries, at times a ray of light from Jesus came to them, to encourage their hearts and light up their countenances. Some, I saw, did not participate in this work of agonizing and pleading. They seemed indifferent and careless.... The angels of God... went to the aid of the earnest, praying ones.... But His angels left those who made no effort to help themselves, and I lost sight of them.
Mar	201	5	I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness of the Laodiceans....
Mar	201	6	My attention was then turned to the company I had seen, who were mightily shaken.... The company of guardian angels around them had been doubled, and they were clothed with an armor from their head to their feet....
Mar	201	7	I heard those clothed with the armor speak forth the truth with great power. It had effect....I asked what had made this great change. An angel answered, "It is the latter rain, the refreshing from the presence of the Lord, the loud cry of the third angel."
------------------------Unity and Separation Under the Loud Cry, July 13
Mar	202	1	Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1, 2.
Mar	202	2	As trials thicken around us, both separation and unity will be seen in our ranks. Some who are now ready to take up weapons of warfare will in times of real peril make it manifest that they have not built upon the solid rock; they will yield to temptation. Those who have had great light and precious privileges, but have not improved them, will, under one pretext or another, go out from us. Not having received the love of the truth, they will be taken in the delusions of the enemy; they will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and will depart from the faith. But, on the other hand, when the storm of persecution really breaks upon us, the true sheep will hear the true Shepherd's voice. Self-denying efforts will be put forth to save the lost, and many who have strayed from the fold will come back to follow the great Shepherd. The people of God will draw together and present to the enemy a united front. In view of the common peril, strife for supremacy will cease; there will be no disputing as to who shall be accounted greatest. No one of the true believers will say: "I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas." The testimony of one and all will be: "I cleave unto Christ; I rejoice in Him as my personal Saviour."
Mar	202	3	As the third angel's message swells into a loud cry, great power and glory will attend its proclamation. The faces of God's people will shine with the light of heaven.
Mar	202	4	Many of the rulers are those whom Satan controls; but... God has His agents, even among the rulers. And some of them will yet be converted to the truth....A few of God's agents will have power to bear down a great mass of evil. Thus the work will go on until the third message has done its work, and at the loud cry of the third angel, these agents will have an opportunity to receive the truth, and some of them will be converted, and endure with the saints through the time of trouble.
------------------------The Church Appears About to Fall, July 14
Mar	203	1	But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Isaiah 49:14, 15.
Mar	203	2	Satan will work his miracles to deceive; he will set up his power as supreme. The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out--the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place. None but those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin, without guile in their mouths.... The remnant that purify their souls by obeying the truth gather strength from the trying process, exhibiting the beauty of holiness amid the surrounding apostasy.
Mar	203	3	I know that the Lord loves His church. It is not to be disorganized or broken up into independent atoms. There is not the least consistency in this; there is not the least evidence that such a thing will be. Those who shall heed this false message and try to leaven others will be deceived and prepared to receive advanced delusions, and they will come to nought.
Mar	203	4	I am encouraged and blessed as I realize that the God of Israel is still guiding His people, and that He will continue to be with them, even to the end.
Mar	203	5	We cannot now step off the foundation that God has established. We cannot now enter into any new organization; for this would mean apostasy from the truth.
Mar	203	6	The church, soon to enter upon her most severe conflict, will be the object most dear to God upon earth. The confederacy of evil will be stirred with power from beneath, and Satan will cast all the reproach possible upon the chosen ones whom he cannot deceive and delude with his satanic inventions and falsehoods. But exalted "to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins," will Christ, our representative and head, close His heart, or withdraw His hand, or falsify His promise? No; never, never.
------------------------The Purification of the Church, July 15
Mar	204	1	And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Malachi 3:3.
Mar	204	2	The time is upon us when the miracle-working power of the archdeceiver will be more decidedly revealed. And his deceptions will increase in their delusive attraction, so that they will perplex, and if possible, deceive, the very elect. The prince of darkness with his evil angels is working upon the Christian world, inducing those who profess the name of Christ to stand under the banner of darkness, to make war with those who keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus.
Mar	204	3	An apostate church will unite with the powers of earth and hell to place upon the forehead or in the hand, the mark of the beast, and prevail upon the children of God to worship the beast and his image. They will seek to compel them to renounce their allegiance to God's law, and yield homage to the papacy. Then will come the times which will try men's souls; for the confederacy of apostasy will demand that the loyal subjects of God shall renounce the law of Jehovah, and repudiate the truth of His word. Then will the gold be separated from the dross, and it will be made apparent who are the godly, who are the loyal and true, and who are the disloyal, the dross and the tinsel. What clouds of chaff will then be borne away by the fan of God! Where now our eyes can discover only rich floors of wheat, will be chaff blown away with the fan of God. Every one who is not centered in Christ will fail to stand the test and ordeal of that day. While those who are clothed with Christ's righteousness will stand firm to truth and duty, those who have trusted in their own righteousness will be ranged under the black banner of the prince of darkness. Then it will be seen whether the choice is for Christ or Belial.
Mar	204	4	Those who have been self-distrustful, who have been so circumstanced that they have not dared to face stigma and reproach, will at last openly declare themselves for Christ and His law; while many who have appeared to be flourishing trees, but who have borne no fruit, will go with the multitude to do evil, and will receive the mark of apostasy in the forehead or in the hand.
------------------------Satan Personates Christ--1, July 16
Mar	205	1	Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. Luke 21:8.
Mar	205	2	"In this age antichrist will appear as the true Christ, and then the law of God will be fully made void in the nations of our world. Rebellion against God's holy law will be fully ripe. But the true leader of all this rebellion is Satan clothed as an angel of light. Men will be deceived and will exalt him to the place of God, and deify him. But Omnipotence will interpose, and to the apostate churches that unite in the exaltation of Satan, the sentence will go forth, `Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.'"
Mar	205	3	Disguised as an angel of light, he [Satan] will walk the earth as a wonder-worker. In beautiful language he will present lofty sentiments. Good words will be spoken by him, and good deeds performed. Christ will be personified, but on one point there will be a marked distinction. Satan will turn the people from the law of God.
Mar	205	4	He will declare that the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week; and as lord of the first day of the week he will present this spurious sabbath as a test of loyalty to him.
Mar	205	5	It is impossible to give any idea of the experience of the people of God who shall be alive upon the earth when celestial glory and a repetition of the persecutions of the past are blended. They will walk in the light proceeding from the throne of God. By means of the angels there will be constant communication between heaven and earth. And Satan, surrounded by evil angels, and claiming to be God, will work miracles of all kinds, to deceive, if possible, the very elect. God's people will not find their safety in working miracles, for Satan will counterfeit the miracles that will be wrought. God's tried and tested people will find their power in the sign spoken of in Exodus 31:12-18. They are to take their stand on the living word: "It is written." This is the only foundation upon which they can stand securely.
------------------------Satan Personates Christ--2, July 17
Mar	206	1	And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11:14.
Mar	206	2	Satan is preparing his deceptions that in his last campaign against the people of God, they may not understand that it is he. "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." ... Satan will go to the extent of his power to harass, tempt, and mislead God's people.
Mar	206	3	He who dared to face, and tempt, and taunt our Lord, and who had power to take Him in his arms and carry Him to a pinnacle of the temple, and up into an exceeding high mountain, will exercise his power to a wonderful degree upon the present generation, who are far inferior in wisdom to their Lord, and who are almost wholly ignorant of his subtlety and strength.
Mar	206	4	In a marvelous manner will he affect the bodies of those who are naturally inclined to do his bidding.
Mar	206	5	He will come personating Jesus Christ, working mighty miracles; and men will fall down and worship him as Jesus Christ.
Mar	206	6	We shall be commanded to worship this being, whom the world will glorify as Christ. What shall we do?--Tell them that Christ has warned us against just such a foe, who is man's worst enemy, yet who claims to be God; and that when Christ shall make His appearance, it will be with power and great glory, accompanied by ten thousand times ten thousand angels and thousands of thousands; and that when He shall come, we shall know His voice.
Mar	206	7	The time is coming when Satan will work miracles right in your sight, claiming that he is Christ; and if your feet are not firmly established upon the truth of God, then you will be led away from your foundation.
Mar	206	8	Satan is determined to keep up the warfare to the end. Coming as an angel of light, claiming to be the Christ, he will deceive the world. But his triumph will be short. No storm or tempest can move those whose feet are planted on the principles of eternal truth. They will be able to stand in this time of almost universal apostasy.
------------------------Satanic Miracles--1, July 18
Mar	207	1	There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew 24:24.
Mar	207	2	The enemy is preparing to deceive the whole world by his miracle-working power. He will assume to personate the angels of light, to personate Jesus Christ.
Mar	207	3	So far as his power extends, he will perform actual miracles. Says the Scripture: "He ... deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do," not merely those which he pretends to do. Something more than mere impostures is brought to view in this scripture. But there is a limit beyond which Satan cannot go, and here he calls deception to his aid and counterfeits the work which he has not power actually to perform. In the last days he will appear in such a manner as to make men believe him to be Christ come the second time into the world. He will indeed transform himself into an angel of light.
Mar	207	4	He will come personating Jesus Christ, working mighty miracles; and men will fall down and worship him as Jesus Christ. We shall be commanded to worship this being, whom the world will glorify as Christ.
Mar	207	5	Just before us is "the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." Revelation 3:10. All whose faith is not firmly established upon the word of God will be deceived and overcome. Satan works "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness" to gain control of the children of men, and his deceptions will continually increase. But he can gain his object only as men voluntarily yield to his temptations. Those who are earnestly seeking a knowledge of the truth and are striving to purify their souls through obedience, thus doing what they can to prepare for the conflict, will find, in the God of truth, a sure defense. "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee" (verse 10), is the Saviour's promise. He would sooner send every angel out of heaven to protect His people than leave one soul that trusts in Him to be overcome by Satan.
------------------------Satanic Miracles--2, July 19
Mar	208	1	And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. Revelation 13:13.
Mar	208	2	As the people of God approach the perils of the last days, Satan holds earnest consultation with his angels as to the most successful plan of overthrowing their faith. He sees that the popular churches are already lulled to sleep by his deceptive power. By pleasing sophistry and lying wonders he can continue to hold them under his control. Therefore he directs his angels to lay their snares especially for those who are looking for the second advent of Christ and endeavoring to keep all the commandments of God.
Mar	208	3	We are warned that in the last days he will work with signs and lying wonders. And he will continue these wonders until the close of probation, that he may point to them as evidence that he is an angel of light and not of darkness.
Mar	208	4	Satan will come in to deceive if possible the very elect. He claims to be Christ, and he is coming in, pretending to be the great medical missionary. He will cause fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men to prove that he is God.
Mar	208	5	It is the lying wonders of the devil that will take the world captive, and he will cause fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men. He is to work miracles; and this wonderful, miracle-working power is to sweep in the whole world.
Mar	208	6	Some will be tempted to receive these wonders as from God. The sick will be healed before us. Miracles will be performed in our sight. Are we prepared for the trial which awaits us when the lying wonders of Satan shall be more fully exhibited? Will not many souls be ensnared and taken? By departing from the plain precepts and commandments of God, and giving heed to fables, the minds of many are preparing to receive these lying wonders. We must all now seek to arm ourselves for the contest in which we must soon engage. Faith in God's word, prayerfully studied and practically applied, will be our shield from Satan's power and will bring us off conquerors through the blood of Christ.
------------------------God's People Brought to the Test, July 20
Mar	209	1	Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:22, 23.
Mar	209	2	We need not be deceived. Wonderful scenes, with which Satan will be closely connected, will soon take place. God's Word declares that Satan will work miracles. He will make people sick, and then will suddenly remove from them his satanic power. They will then be regarded as healed. These works of apparent healing will bring Seventh-day Adventists to the test. Many who have had great light will fail to walk in the light, because they have not become one with Christ.
Mar	209	3	I saw our people in great distress, weeping, and praying, pleading the sure promises of God, while the wicked were all around us, mocking us, and threatening to destroy us. They ridiculed our feebleness, they mocked at the smallness of our numbers, and taunted us with words calculated to cut deep. They charged us with taking an independent position from all the rest of the world. They had cut off our resources so that we could not buy nor sell, and referred to our abject poverty and stricken condition. They could not see how we could live without the world; we were dependent upon the world, and we must concede to the customs, practices, and laws of the world, or go out of it. If we were the only people in the world whom the Lord favored the appearances were awfully against us. They declared that they had the truth, that miracles were among them, that angels from heaven talked with them, and walked with them, that great power, and signs and wonders were performed among them, and this was the Temporal Millennium, which they had been expecting so long. The whole world was converted and in harmony with the Sunday law, and this little feeble people stood out in defiance of the laws of the land, and the laws of God, and claimed to be the only ones right on the earth.
Mar	209	4	God's people will not find their safety in working miracles, for Satan would counterfeit any miracle that might be worked.... They are to take their stand on the living Word--"It is written."
------------------------Sights of a Supernatural Character, July 21
Mar	210	1	Great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. Luke 21:11.
Mar	210	2	As we near the close of time, there will be greater and still greater external parade of heathen power; heathen deities will manifest their signal power, and will exhibit themselves before the cities of the world; and this delineation has already begun to be fulfilled.
Mar	210	3	The Saviour's prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom of a world that has rejected God's mercy and trampled upon His law.
Mar	210	4	Signs and wonders appeared, foreboding disaster and doom. In the midst of the night an unnatural light shone over the temple and the altar. Upon the clouds at sunset were pictured chariots and men of war gathering for battle.
Mar	210	5	Last Friday morning [August 24, 1906], just before I awoke, a very impressive scene was presented before me. I seemed to awake from sleep but was not in my home. From the windows I could behold a terrible conflagration. Great balls of fire were falling upon houses, and from these balls fiery arrows were flying in every direction. It was impossible to check the fires that were kindled, and many places were being destroyed. The terror of the people was indescribable.
Mar	210	6	Fearful sights of a supernatural character will soon be revealed in the heavens, in token of the power of miracle-working demons. The spirits of devils will go forth to the kings of the earth and to the whole world, to fasten them in deception, and urge them on to unite with Satan in his last struggle against the government of heaven. By these agencies, rulers and subjects will be alike deceived. Persons will arise pretending to be Christ Himself, and claiming the title and worship which belong to the world's Redeemer. They will perform wonderful miracles of healing and will profess to have revelations from heaven contradicting the testimony of the Scriptures.
------------------------The Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast, July 22
Mar	211	1	Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. Isaiah 8:16.
Mar	211	2	The living righteous will receive the seal of God prior to the close of probation.
Mar	211	3	The sign, or seal, of God is revealed in the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, the Lord's memorial of creation.... The mark of the beast is the opposite of this--the observance of the first day of the week.
Mar	211	4	Sundaykeeping is not yet the mark of the beast, and will not be until the decree goes forth causing men to worship this idol sabbath. The time will come when this day will be the test, but that time has not come yet.
Mar	211	5	No one has yet received the mark of the beast. The testing time has not yet come. There are true Christians in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic communion. None are condemned until they have had the light and have seen the obligation of the fourth commandment. But when the decree shall go forth enforcing the counterfeit sabbath, and the loud cry of the third angel shall warn men against the worship of the beast and his image, the line will be clearly drawn between the false and the true. Then those who still continue in transgression will receive the mark of the beast.
Mar	211	6	If the light of truth has been presented to you, revealing the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and showing that there is no foundation in the Word of God for Sunday observance, and yet you still cling to the false sabbath, refusing to keep holy the Sabbath which God calls "my holy day," you receive the mark of the beast. When does this take place? When you obey the decree that commands you to cease from labor on Sunday and worship God, while you know that there is not a word in the Bible showing Sunday to be other than a common working day, you consent to receive the mark of the beast, and refuse the seal of God.
Mar	211	7	In a little while every one who is a child of God will have His seal placed upon him. O that it may be placed upon our foreheads! Who can endure the thought of being passed by when the angel goes forth to seal the servants of God in their foreheads?
------------------------The Sealing and the Latter Rain, July 23
Mar	212	1	Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. 2 Timothy 2:19.
Mar	212	2	Before the work is closed up and the sealing of God's people is finished, we shall receive the outpouring of the Spirit of God. Angels from heaven will be in our midst.
Mar	212	3	Our heavenly Father claims not at our hands that which we cannot perform. He desires His people to labor earnestly to carry out His purpose for them. They are to pray for power, expect power, and receive power, that they may grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.
Mar	212	4	Not all members of the church are cultivating personal piety; therefore they do not understand their personal responsibility. They do not realize that it is their privilege and duty to reach the high standard of Christian perfection.... Are we looking forward to the latter rain, confidently hoping for a better day, when the church shall be endued with power from on high and thus fitted for work? The latter rain will never refresh and invigorate the indolent, who do not use the powers God has given them.
Mar	212	5	We are in great need of the pure, life-giving atmosphere that nurtures and invigorates the spiritual life. We need greater earnestness. The solemn message given us to give to the world is to be proclaimed with greater fervency, even with an intensity that will impress unbelievers, leading them to see that the Most High is working with us, that He is the source of our efficiency and strength....
Mar	212	6	Are you using all your powers in an effort to bring the lost sheep back to the fold? There are thousands upon thousands in ignorance who might be warned. Pray as you have never prayed before for the power of Christ. Pray for the inspiration of His Spirit, that you may be filled with a desire to save those who are perishing. Let the prayer ascend to heaven, "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations" (Psalm 67:1, 2).
------------------------The Remnant and the Sealing, July 24
Mar	213	1	And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Zechariah 3:2.
Mar	213	2	The remnant church will be brought into great trial and distress. Those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, will feel the ire of the dragon and his hosts. Satan numbers the world as his subjects; he has gained control of the apostate churches. But here is a little company that are resisting his supremacy. If he could blot them from the earth, his triumph would be complete. As he influenced the heathen nations to destroy Israel, so in the near future he will stir up the wicked powers of earth to destroy the people of God. All will be required to render obedience to human edicts in violation of the divine law. Those who will be true to God and to duty will be menaced, denounced, and proscribed. They will be betrayed "both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends."
Mar	213	3	Their only hope is in the mercy of God; their only defense will be prayer. As Joshua was pleading before the Angel, so the remnant church, with brokenness of heart and earnest faith, will plead for pardon and deliverance through Jesus their Advocate....
Mar	213	4	Satan urges before God his accusations against them, declaring that they have by their sins forfeited the divine protection, and claiming the right to destroy them as transgressors....
Mar	213	5	But while the followers of Christ have sinned, they have not given themselves to the control of evil. They have put away their sins, and have sought the Lord in humility and contrition, and the divine Advocate pleads in their behalf....
Mar	213	6	The people of God are sighing and crying for the abominations done in the land. With tears they warn the wicked of their danger in trampling upon the divine law, and with unutterable sorrow they humble themselves before the Lord on account of their own transgressions. The wicked mock their sorrow, ridicule their solemn appeals, and sneer at what they term their weakness. But the anguish and humiliation of God's people is unmistakable evidence that they are regaining the strength and nobility of character lost in consequence of sin....
Mar	213	7	While Satan was urging his accusations, holy angels, unseen, were passing to and fro, placing upon them the seal of the living God.
------------------------All Nations Follow America's Lead, July 25
Mar	214	1	When all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Daniel 3:7.
Mar	214	2	History will be repeated. False religion will be exalted. The first day of the week, a common working day, possessing no sanctity whatever, will be set up as was the image at Babylon. All nations and tongues and peoples will be commanded to worship this spurious sabbath. This is Satan's plan to make of no account the day instituted by God, and given to the world as a memorial of creation.
Mar	214	3	The decree enforcing the worship of this day is to go forth to all the world.
Mar	214	4	As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example.
Mar	214	5	Foreign nations will follow the example of the United States. Though she leads out, yet the same crisis will come upon our people in all parts of the world.
Mar	214	6	Nations will be stirred to their very center. Support will be withdrawn from those who proclaim God's only standard of righteousness, the only sure test of character. And all who will not bow to the decree of the national councils and obey the national laws to exalt the sabbath instituted by the man of sin, to the disregard of God's holy day, will feel, not the oppressive power of popery alone, but of the Protestant world, the image of the beast.
Mar	214	7	The season of distress before God's people will call for a faith that will not falter. His children must make it manifest that He is the only object of their worship, and that no consideration, not even that of life itself, can induce them to make the least concession to false worship. To the loyal heart the commands of sinful, finite men will sink into insignificance beside the word of the eternal God. Truth will be obeyed though the result be imprisonment or exile or death.
------------------------The Beginning of the End, July 26
Mar	215	1	Evil on evil! says the Lord the Eternal--it is coming, the hour has come, the hour is striking, and striking at you, the hour and the end! Ezekiel 7:5, 6, Moffatt.
Mar	215	2	Fearful is the issue to which the world is to be brought. The powers of earth, uniting to war against the commandments of God, will decree that all, "both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond," shall conform to the customs of the church by observance of the false sabbath. All who refuse compliance will be visited with civil penalties, and it will finally be declared that they are deserving of death. On the other hand, the law of God enjoining the Creator's rest day demands obedience, and threatens wrath against all who transgress its precepts.
Mar	215	3	With the issue thus clearly brought before him, whosoever shall trample upon God's law to obey a human enactment, receives the mark of the beast; he accepts the sign of allegiance to the power which he chooses to obey instead of God....
Mar	215	4	The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty; for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. While the observance of the false sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of an allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God's law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator. While one class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, receive the mark of the beast, the other, choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, receive the seal of God.
Mar	215	5	Heretofore those who presented the truths of the third angel's message have been often regarded as mere alarmists.... But as the question of enforcing Sunday observance is widely agitated, the event so long doubted and disbelieved is seen to be approaching, and the third message will produce an effect which it could not have had before.
------------------------National Ruin Follows National Apostasy, July 27
Mar	216	1	The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Isaiah 24:5.
Mar	216	2	The people of the United States have been a favored people; but when they restrict religious liberty, surrender Protestantism, and give countenance to popery, the measure of their guilt will be full, and "national apostasy" will be registered in the books of heaven. The result of this apostasy will be national ruin.
Mar	216	3	By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.
Mar	216	4	Through spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time he works as a destroyer....
Mar	216	5	While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation....
Mar	216	6	And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils.
Mar	216	7	As men depart further and further from God, Satan is permitted to have power over the children of disobedience. He hurls destruction among men. There is calamity by land and sea. Property and life are destroyed by fire and flood. Satan resolves to charge this upon those who refuse to bow to the idol which he has set up. His agents point to Seventh-day Adventists as the cause of the trouble. "These people stand out in defiance of law," they say. "They desecrate Sunday. Were they compelled to obey the law for Sunday observance, there would be a cessation of these terrible judgments."
------------------------The World Against God's People, July 28
Mar	217	1	The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 12:17.
Mar	217	2	Our people have been regarded as too insignificant to be worthy of notice, but a change will come. The Christian world is now making movements which will necessarily bring commandment-keeping people into prominence.
Mar	217	3	The whole world is to be stirred with enmity against Seventh-day Adventists, because they will not yield homage to the papacy, by honoring Sunday, the institution of this antichristian power. It is the purpose of Satan to cause them to be blotted from the earth, in order that his supremacy of the world may not be disputed.
Mar	217	4	Every position of truth taken by our people will bear the criticism of the greatest minds; the highest of the world's great men will be brought in contact with truth, and therefore every position we take should be critically examined and tested by the Scriptures. Now we seem to be unnoticed, but this will not always be. Movements are at work to bring us to the front, and if our theories of truth can be picked to pieces by historians or the world's greatest men, it will be done.
Mar	217	5	We must individually know for ourselves what is truth, and be prepared to give a reason of the hope that we have with meekness and fear, not in a proud, boasting, self-sufficiency, but with the spirit of Christ. We are nearing the time when we shall stand individually alone to answer for our belief.
Mar	217	6	We shall be attacked on every point; we shall be tried to the utmost. We do not want to hold our faith simply because it was handed down to us by our fathers. Such a faith will not stand the terrible test that is before us. We want to know why we are Seventh-day Adventists, what real reason we have for coming out from the world as a separate and distinct people....
Mar	217	7	The powers of darkness will open their batteries upon us; and all who are indifferent and careless, who have set their affections on their earthly treasure, and who have not cared to understand God's dealings with His people, will be ready victims. No power but a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, will ever make us steadfast; but with this, one may chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.
------------------------The Angel of Revelation 18, July 29
Mar	218	1	And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. Revelation 18:1.
Mar	218	2	The prophecies in the eighteenth of Revelation will soon be fulfilled. During the proclamation of the third angel's message, "another angel" is to "come down from heaven, having great power," and the earth is to be "lightened with his glory." The Spirit of the Lord will so graciously bless consecrated human instrumentalities that men, women, and children will open their lips in praise and thanksgiving, filling the earth with the knowledge of God, and with His unsurpassed glory, as the waters cover the sea.
Mar	218	3	Those who have held the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end will be wide-awake during the time that the third angel's message is proclaimed with great power. During the loud cry, the church, aided by the providential interpositions of her exalted Lord, will diffuse the knowledge of salvation so abundantly that light will be communicated to every city and town. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of salvation. So abundantly will the renewing Spirit of God have crowned with success the intensely active agencies, that the light of present truth will be seen flashing everywhere.
Mar	218	4	There is to be, at this period, a series of events which will reveal that God is Master of the situation. The truth will be proclaimed in clear, unmistakable language. As a people, we must prepare the way of the Lord, under the overruling guidance of the Holy Spirit. The gospel is to be given in its purity. The stream of living water is to deepen and widen in its course. In all fields, nigh and afar off, men will be called from the plow and from the more common commercial business vocations that largely occupy the mind, and will be educated in connection with men of experience. As they learn to labor effectively, they will proclaim the truth with power. Through most wonderful workings of divine providence, mountains of difficulties will be removed, and cast into the sea. The message that means so much to the dwellers upon the earth will be heard and understood. Men will know what is truth. Onward, and still onward the work will advance, until the whole earth shall have been warned. And then shall the end come.
------------------------The Early and the Latter Rain, July 30
Mar	219	1	Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. Joel 2:23.
Mar	219	2	There is to be in the churches a wonderful manifestation of the power of God, but it will not move upon those who have not humbled themselves before the Lord, and opened the door of their heart by confession and repentance. In the manifestation of that power which lightens the earth with the glory of God, they will see only something which in their blindness they think dangerous, something which will arouse their fears, and they will brace themselves to resist it. Because the Lord does not work according to their expectations and ideal, they will oppose the work. "Why," they say, "should we not know the Spirit of God, when we have been in the work so many years?" Because they did not respond to the warnings, the entreaties, of the messages of God, but persistently said, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing."
Mar	219	3	Talent, long experience, will not make men channels of light unless they place themselves under the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and are called, and chosen, and prepared by the endowment of the Holy Spirit. When men who handle sacred things will humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, the Lord will lift them up. He will make them men of discernment--men rich in the grace of His Spirit. Their strong, selfish traits of character and their stubbornness will be seen in the light shining from the Light of the world. "I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." If you seek the Lord with all your heart, He will be found of you.
Mar	219	4	There must be no neglect of the grace represented by the former rain. Only those who are living up to the light they have will receive greater light. Unless we are daily advancing in the exemplification of the active Christian virtues, we shall not recognize the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain. It may be falling on hearts all around us, but we shall not discern or receive it.
------------------------High Time to Awake! July 31
Mar	220	1	And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Romans 13:11, 12.
Mar	220	2	The great controversy is nearing its end. Every report of calamity by sea or land is a testimony to the fact that the end of all things is at hand. Wars and rumors of wars declare it. Is there a Christian whose pulse does not beat with quickened action as he anticipates the great events opening before us? The Lord is coming. We hear the footsteps of an approaching God.
Mar	220	3	This knowledge of the nearness of Christ's coming should not be allowed to lose its force, and we become careless and inattentive, and fall into slumber--into an insensibility and indifference to realities. In slumber we are in an unreal world, and not sensible of the things which are taking place around us....
Mar	220	4	There are those who have the blazing light of truth shining all around them, and yet are insensible to it. They are enchanted by the enemy, held under a spell by his bewitching power. They are not preparing for that great day which is soon to come to our world. They seem utterly insensible to religious truth.
Mar	220	5	Are there not some youth who are awake? Those who see that the night cometh, and also the morning, should work with untiring energy to arouse their sleeping associates. Can they not feel their peril, pray for them, and show them by their own life and character that they believe themselves that Christ is soon to come? ... The rapidly diminishing space of time between us and eternity should more deeply impress us. Every day that passes makes one less left us to complete our work of perfecting character....
Mar	220	6	As long as there are many asleep, many sporting away the precious hours in careless indifference, as it were, upon the very brink of the eternal world, those who do believe must be sober, must be awake, must be earnest and diligent, and watch unto prayer....
Mar	220	7	Have you, dear youth, your lamps trimmed and burning?
------------------------"In These Hours of Probation," August 1
Mar	221	1	I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2.
Mar	221	2	We believe without a doubt that Christ is soon coming. This is not a fable to us; it is a reality. We have no doubt, neither have we had a doubt for years, that the doctrines we hold today are present truth, and that we are nearing the judgment. We are preparing to meet Him who, escorted by a retinue of holy angels, is to appear in the clouds of heaven to give the faithful and the just the finishing touch of immortality. When He comes He is not to cleanse us of our sins, to remove from us the defects in our characters, or to cure us of the infirmities of our tempers and dispositions. If wrought for us at all, this work will all be accomplished before that time. When the Lord comes, those who are holy will be holy still. Those who have preserved their bodies and spirits in holiness, in sanctification and honor, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. But those who are unjust, unsanctified, and filthy will remain so forever. No work will then be done for them to remove their defects and give them holy characters. The Refiner does not then sit to pursue His refining process and remove their sins and their corruption. This is all to be done in these hours of probation. It is now that this work is to be accomplished for us.
Mar	221	3	We embrace the truth of God with our different faculties, and as we come under the influence of that truth, it will accomplish the work for us which is necessary to give us a moral fitness for the kingdom of glory and for the society of the heavenly angels. We are now in God's workshop. Many of us are rough stones from the quarry. But as we lay hold upon the truth of God, its influence affects us. It elevates us and removes from us every imperfection and sin, of whatever nature. Thus we are prepared to see the King in His beauty and finally to unite with the pure and heavenly angels in the kingdom of glory. It is here that this work is to be accomplished for us, here that our bodies and spirits are to be fitted for immortality.
------------------------The Substance of Moral Character, August 2
Mar	222	1	Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you. 2 Corinthians 10:15.
Mar	222	2	You should keep off from Satan's enchanted ground and not allow your minds to be swayed from allegiance to God. Through Christ you may and should be happy and should acquire habits of self-control. Even your thoughts must be brought into subjection to the will of God and your feelings under the control of reason and religion. Your imagination was not given you to be allowed to run riot and have its own way without any effort at restraint or discipline. If the thoughts are wrong the feelings will be wrong, and the thoughts and feelings combined make up the moral character.... If you yield to your impressions and allow your thoughts to run in a channel of suspicion, doubt, and repining you will be among the most unhappy of mortals....
Mar	222	3	Dear Sister F, you have a diseased imagination; and you dishonor God by allowing your feelings to have complete control of your reason and judgment. You have a determined will, which causes the mind to react upon the body, unbalancing the circulation and producing congestion in certain organs; and you are sacrificing health to your feelings.
Mar	222	4	You are making a mistake, which, if not corrected, will not end with wrecking your own happiness merely. You are doing positive injury, not only to yourself, but to the other members of your family.... You have ... let your highly wrought imagination control reason.... Had you no power over your feelings, this would not be sin; but it will not answer thus to yield to the enemy. Your will needs to be sanctified and subdued instead of being arrayed in opposition to that of God....
Mar	222	5	Man has been placed in a world of sorrow, care, and perplexity. He is placed here to be tested and proved, as were Adam and Eve, that he may develop a right character and bring harmony out of discord and confusion. There is much for us to do that is essential.... And there is much for us to enjoy. Through Christ we are brought into connection with God. His mercies place us under continual obligation; feeling unworthy of His favors, we are to appreciate even the least of them.
------------------------Character a Quality of the Soul, August 3
Mar	223	1	No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies. Job 28:18.
Mar	223	2	A character formed according to the divine likeness is the only treasure that we can take from this world to the next. Those who are under the instruction of Christ in this world will take every divine attainment with them to the heavenly mansions. And in heaven we are continually to improve....
Mar	223	3	Mental ability and genius are not character, for these are often possessed by those who have the very opposite of a good character. Reputation is not character. True character is a quality of the soul, revealing itself in the conduct.
Mar	223	4	A good character is a capital of more value than gold or silver. It is unaffected by panics or failures, and in that day when earthly possessions shall be swept away, it will bring rich returns. Integrity, firmness, and perseverance are qualities that all should seek earnestly to cultivate; for they clothe the possessor with a power which is irresistible--a power which makes him strong to do good, strong to resist evil, strong to bear adversity.
Mar	223	5	Strength of character consists of two things--power of will and power of self-control. Many youth mistake strong, uncontrolled passion for strength of character; but the truth is that he who is mastered by his passions is a weak man. The real greatness and nobility of the man is measured by his powers to subdue his feelings, not by the power of his feelings to subdue him. The strongest man is he who, while sensitive to abuse, will yet restrain passion and forgive his enemies.
Mar	223	6	If it were considered as important that the young possess a beautiful character and amiable disposition as it is that they imitate the fashions of the world in dress and deportment, we would see hundreds where there is one today coming upon the stage of active life prepared to exert an ennobling influence upon society.
------------------------Christ Our Helper and Redeemer, August 4
Mar	224	1	As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Romans 5:19.
Mar	224	2	Because man fallen could not overcome Satan with his human strength, Christ came from the royal courts of heaven to help him with His human and divine strength combined. Christ knew that Adam in Eden, with his superior advantages, might have withstood the temptations of Satan, and conquered him. He also knew that it was not possible for man, out of Eden, separated from the light and love of God since the Fall, to resist the temptations of Satan in his own strength. In order to bring hope to man, and save him from complete ruin, He humbled Himself to take man's nature, that, with His divine power combined with the human, He might reach man where he is. He obtains for the fallen sons and daughters of Adam that strength which it is impossible for them to gain for themselves, that in His name they may overcome the temptations of Satan....
Mar	224	3	Adam and Eve in Eden were placed under most favorable circumstances.... They were without the condemnation of sin.... The Author of their existence was their teacher. But they fell beneath the power and temptations of the artful foe. Four thousand years had Satan been at work against the government of God, and he had obtained strength and experience from determined practice. Fallen men had not the advantages of Adam in Eden. They had been separating from God for four thousand years. The wisdom to understand, and power to resist, the temptations of Satan had become less and less, until Satan seemed to reign triumphant in the earth. Appetite and passion, the love of the world and presumptuous sins, were the great branches of evil out of which every species of ... corruption grew.
Mar	224	4	Our lives may seem a tangle; but as we commit ourselves to the wise Master Worker, He will bring out the pattern of life and character that will be to His own glory. And that character which expresses the glory--character--of Christ, will be received into the Paradise of God.
Mar	224	5	Everyone who by faith obeys God's commandments, will reach the condition of sinlessness in which Adam lived before his transgression.
------------------------High Spiritual State Attainable, August 5
Mar	225	1	Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Jude 24.
Mar	225	2	Christ was obedient to every requirement of the law....
Mar	225	3	By His perfect obedience He has made it possible for every human being to obey God's commandments. When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then as the Lord looks upon us He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the nakedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah.
Mar	225	4	Through the plan of redemption, God has provided means for subduing every sinful trait, and resisting every temptation, however strong.
Mar	225	5	The strongest temptation is no excuse for sin. However great the pressure brought to bear upon the soul, transgression is our own act. It is not in the power of earth or hell to compel any one to sin. The will must consent, the heart must yield, or passion cannot overbear reason, nor iniquity triumph over righteousness.
Mar	225	6	If you will stand under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel, faithfully doing His service, you need never yield to temptation; for One stands by your side who is able to keep you from falling.
Mar	225	7	We need not retain one sinful propensity.... [Ephesians 2:1-6 quoted.] ...
Mar	225	8	As we partake of the divine nature, hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong are cut away from the character, and we are made a living power for good. Ever learning of the divine Teacher, daily partaking of His nature, we cooperate with God in overcoming Satan's temptations. God works, and man works, that man may be one with Christ as Christ is one with God. Then we sit together with Christ in heavenly places. The mind rests with peace and assurance in Jesus.
------------------------Reaching the Height of Christian Perfection, August 6
Mar	226	1	Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Ephesians 3:20.
Mar	226	2	If you make God your strength, you may, under the most discouraging circumstances, attain a height and breadth of Christian perfection which you hardly think it possible to reach. Your thoughts may be elevated, you may have noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, and purposes of action which shall raise you above all sordid motives.
Mar	226	3	Both thought and action will be necessary if you would attain to perfection of character. While brought in contact with the world, you should be on your guard that you do not seek too ardently for the applause of men and live for their opinion.... Cultivate the grace of humility, and hang your helpless souls upon Christ.... In the midst of confusion and temptation in the worldly crowd you may, with perfect sweetness, keep the independence of the soul.
Mar	226	4	If you are in daily communion with God you will learn to place His estimate upon men, and the obligations resting upon you to bless suffering humanity will meet with a willing response. You are not your own; your Lord has sacred claims upon your supreme affections and the very highest services of your life. He has a right to use you, in your body and in your spirit, to the fullest extent of your capabilities, for His own honor and glory. Whatever crosses you may be required to bear, ... you are to accept without a murmur....
Mar	226	5	Many are without God and without hope in the world. They are guilty, corrupt, and degraded, enslaved by Satan's devices. Yet these are the ones whom Christ came from heaven to redeem. They are subjects for tenderest pity, sympathy, and tireless effort; for they are on the verge of ruin. They suffer from ungratified desires, disordered passions, and the condemnation of their own consciences; they are miserable in every sense of the word, for they are losing their hold on this life and have no prospect for the life to come.
Mar	226	6	You have an important field of labor, and you should be active and vigilant, rendering cheerful and unqualified obedience to the Master's calls.
------------------------Perfection in the Human Sphere, August 7
Mar	227	1	Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
Mar	227	2	Our Saviour understood all about human nature, and He says to every human being. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." As God is perfect in His sphere, so man is to be perfect in his sphere. Those who receive Christ are among the number to whom the words so full of hope are spoken. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." These words declare to us that we should be content with nothing less than the best and highest character, a character formed after the divine similitude. When such a character is possessed, the life, the faith, the purity of the religion, is an instructive example to others.
Mar	227	3	But those who are waiting to behold a magical change in their characters without determined effort on their part to overcome sin, will be disappointed. We have no reason to fear while looking to Jesus, no reason to doubt but that He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto Him; but we may constantly fear lest our old nature will again obtain the supremacy, that the enemy shall devise some snare whereby we shall again become his captives. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. With our limited powers we are to be as holy in our sphere as God is holy in His sphere. To the extent of our ability, we are to make manifest the truth and love and excellence of the divine character. As wax takes the impression of the seal, so the soul is to take the impression of the Spirit of God and retain the image of Christ.
Mar	227	4	We are to grow daily in spiritual loveliness. We shall fail often in our efforts to copy the divine pattern. We shall often have to bow down to weep at the feet of Jesus, because of our shortcomings and mistakes; but we are not to be discouraged; we are to pray more fervently, believe more fully, and try again with more steadfastness to grow into the likeness of our Lord. As we distrust our own power, we shall trust the power of our Redeemer, and render praise to God, who is the health of our countenance, and our God.
------------------------Honorable in Motive and Action, August 8
Mar	228	1	Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32.
Mar	228	2	Principle, right, honesty, should ever be cherished. Honesty will not tarry where policy is harbored. They will never agree; one is of Baal, the other of God. The Master requires His servants to be honorable in motive and action.... Those who choose honesty as their companion will embody it in all their acts. To a large class, these men are not pleasing, but to God they are beautiful.
Mar	228	3	Satan is working to crowd himself in everywhere. He would put asunder very friends. There are men who are ever talking and gossiping and bearing false witness, who sow the seeds of discord and engender strife. Heaven looks upon this class as Satan's most efficient servants. But the man who is injured is in a far less dangerous position than when fawned upon and extolled for a few of his efforts which appear successful. The commendation of apparent friends is more dangerous than reproach.
Mar	228	4	Every man who praises himself brushes the luster from his best efforts. A truly noble character will not stoop to resent the false accusations of enemies; every word spoken falls harmless, for it strengthens that which it cannot overthrow. The Lord would have His people closely united with Himself, the God of patience and love. All should manifest in their lives the love of Christ. Let none venture to belittle the reputation or the position of another; this is egotism....
Mar	228	5	Never speak disparagingly of any man, for he may be great in the sight of the Lord, while those who feel great may be lightly esteemed of God because of the perversity of their hearts. Our only safety is to lie low at the foot of the cross, be little in our own eyes, and trust in God; for He alone has power to make us great....
Mar	228	6	The judgment and ability of all are needed now. Every man's work is of sufficient importance to demand that it be performed with care and fidelity. One man cannot do the work of all. Each has his respective place and his special work, and each should realize that the manner in which his work is done must stand the test of the judgment.
------------------------Overcoming Bad Habits, August 9
Mar	229	1	Keep thyself pure. 1 Timothy 5:22.
Mar	229	2	To know what constitutes purity of mind, soul, and body is an important part of education.
Mar	229	3	When the character is lacking in purity, when sin has become a part of the character, it has a bewitching power that is equal to the intoxicating glass of liquor. The power of self-control and reason is overborne by practices that defile the whole being; and if these sinful practices are continued, the brain is enfeebled and diseased, and loses its balance. Such ones are a curse to themselves and to all who have any connection with them....
Mar	229	4	Bad habits are more easily formed than good habits, and the bad habits are given up with more difficulty. The natural depravity of the heart accounts for this well-known fact--that it takes far less labor to demoralize the youth, to corrupt their ideas of moral and religious character, than to engraft upon their character the enduring, pure, and uncorrupted habits of righteousness and truth. Self-indulgence, love of pleasure, enmity, pride, self-esteem, envy, jealousy, will grow spontaneously, without example and teaching. In our present fallen state all that is needed is to give up the mind and character to its natural tendencies. In the natural world, give up a field to itself and you will see it covered with briers and thorns; but if it yields precious grain or beautiful flowers, care and unremitting labor must be applied.
Mar	229	5	Now we present before you the necessity of constant resistance to evil. All heaven is interested in men and women whom God has valued so much as to give His beloved Son to die to redeem them. No other creature that God has made is capable of such improvement, such refinement, such nobility as man. Then when men become blunted by their own debasing passions, sunken in vice, what a specimen for God to look upon! Man cannot conceive what he may be and what he may become. Through the grace of Christ he is capable of constant mental progress. Let the light of truth shine into his mind and the love of God be shed abroad in his heart and he may, through the grace Christ has died to impart to him, be a man of power--a child of earth but an heir of immortality.
------------------------Sanctification of the Whole Man, August 10
Mar	230	1	Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:23, 24.
Mar	230	2	The truth must sanctify the whole man--his mind, his thoughts, his heart, his strength. His vital powers will not be consumed upon his own lustful practices. These must be overcome, or they will overcome him.... The thoughts need purifying. What might not men and women have been had they realized that the treatment of the body has everything to do with the vigor and purity of mind and heart.
Mar	230	3	The true Christian obtains an experience which brings holiness. He is without a spot of guilt upon the conscience, or a taint of corruption upon the soul. The spirituality of the law of God, with its limiting principles, is brought into his life. The light of truth irradiates his understanding. A glow of perfect love for the Redeemer clears away the miasma which has interposed between his soul and God. The will of God has become his will, pure, elevated, refined, and sanctified. His countenance reveals the light of heaven. His body is a fit temple for the Holy Spirit. Holiness adorns his character. God can commune with him; for soul and body are in harmony with God....
Mar	230	4	God would have us realize that He has a right to mind, soul, body, and spirit--to all that we possess. We are His by creation and by redemption. As our Creator, He claims our entire service. As our Redeemer, He has a claim of love as well as of right--of love without a parallel. This claim we should realize every moment of our existence.... Our bodies, our souls, our lives, are His, not only because they are His free gift, but because He constantly supplies us with His benefits, and gives us strength to use our faculties.... He says, "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."...
Mar	230	5	Those who are sons of God will represent Christ in character. Their works will be perfumed by the infinite tenderness, compassion, love, and purity of the Son of God. And the more completely mind and body are yielded to the Holy Spirit, the greater will be the fragrance of our offering to Him.
------------------------In Harmony with His Law, August 11
Mar	231	1	Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Psalm 119:34.
Mar	231	2	In the new birth the heart is brought into harmony with God, as it is brought into accord with His law. When this mighty change has taken place in the sinner, he has passed from death unto life, from sin unto holiness, from transgression and rebellion to obedience and loyalty....
Mar	231	3	Erroneous theories of sanctification, ... springing from neglect or rejection of the divine law, have a prominent place in the religious movements of the day. These theories are both false in doctrine and dangerous in practical results; and the fact that they are so generally finding favor, renders it doubly essential that all have a clear understanding of what the Scriptures teach upon this point.
Mar	231	4	True sanctification is a Bible doctrine. The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonian church, declares: "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." And he prays: "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly" (1 Thessalonians 4:3; 5:23). The Bible clearly teaches what sanctification is and how it is to be attained. The Saviour prayed for His disciples: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17, 19). And Paul teaches that believers are to be "sanctified by the Holy Ghost" (Romans 15:16). What is the work of the Holy Spirit? Jesus told His disciples: "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13). And the psalmist says: "Thy law is the truth." By the Word and the Spirit of God are opened to men the great principles of righteousness embodied in His law. And since the law of God is "holy, and just, and good," a transcript of the divine perfection, it follows that a character formed by obedience to that law will be holy. Christ is a perfect example of such a character. He says: "I have kept my Father's commandments." "I do always those things that please him" (John 15:10; 8:29). The followers of Christ are to become like Him--by the grace of God to form characters in harmony with the principles of His holy law. This is Bible sanctification.
Mar	231	5	This work can be accomplished only through faith in Christ, by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God.
------------------------Counterfeit Sanctification, August 12
Mar	232	1	He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 1 John 2:4, 5.
Mar	232	2	The sanctification now gaining prominence in the religious world carries with it a spirit of self-exaltation and a disregard for the law of God that mark it as foreign to the religion of the Bible. Its advocates teach that sanctification is an instantaneous work, by which, through faith alone, they attain to perfect holiness. "Only believe," say they, "and the blessing is yours." No further effort on the part of the receiver is supposed to be required. At the same time they deny the authority of the law of God, urging that they are released from obligation to keep the commandments. But is it possible for men to be holy, in accord with the will and character of God, without coming into harmony with the principles which are an expression of His nature and will ...?
Mar	232	3	The desire for an easy religion that requires no striving, no self-denial, no divorce from the follies of the world, has made the doctrine of faith, and faith only, a popular doctrine; but what saith the word of God? Says the apostle James: "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? ... Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? ..."
Mar	232	4	The testimony of the word of God is against this ensnaring doctrine of faith without works. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions upon which mercy is to be granted, it is presumption; for genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures.
Mar	232	5	Let none deceive themselves with the belief that they can become holy while willfully violating one of God's requirements. The commission of a known sin silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit and separates the soul from God.... "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected" (1 John 2:4, 5).
------------------------Impressions, Feelings, and Drugs, August 13
Mar	233	1	Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Psalm 119:104.
Mar	233	2	There are many restless spirits who will not submit to discipline, system, and order. They think that their liberties would be abridged were they to lay aside their own judgment and submit to the judgment of those of experience. The work of God will not progress unless there is a disposition to submit to order and expel the reckless, disorderly spirit of fanaticism from their meetings.
Mar	233	3	Impressions and feelings are no sure evidence that a person is led by the Lord. Satan will, if he is unsuspected, give feelings and impressions. These are not safe guides. All should thoroughly acquaint themselves with the evidences of our faith, and the great study should be how they can adorn their profession and bear fruit to the glory of God....
Mar	233	4	For some time he [a patient at the Battle Creek Sanitarium] had thought he was obtaining new light. He was very ill, and must soon die.... Those to whom he presented his views listened to him eagerly, and some thought him inspired.... To many his reasoning seemed to be without a flaw. They told of his powerful exhortations in his sickroom. Most wonderful views passed before him. But what was the source of his inspiration? It was the morphine given him to relieve his pain.
Mar	233	5	The poisons contained in many so-called remedies create habits and appetites that mean ruin to both soul and body. Many of the popular nostrums called patent medicines, and even some of the drugs dispensed by physicians, act a part in laying the foundation of the liquor habit, the opium habit, the morphine habit, that are so terrible a curse to society.
Mar	233	6	If the blessing that those who claim to be sanctified have received, leads them to rely upon some particular emotion, and they declare there is no need of searching the Scriptures that they may know God's revealed will, then the supposed blessing is a counterfeit, for it leads its possessors to place value on their own unsanctified emotions and fancies, and to close their ears to the voice of God in His word.
------------------------Drums, Dancing and Noise, August 14
Mar	234	1	Let all things be done decently and in order. 1 Corinthians 14:40.
Mar	234	2	The things you have described ... the Lord has shown me would take place just before the close of probation. Every uncouth thing will be demonstrated. There will be shouting, with drums, music, and dancing. The senses of rational beings will become so confused that they cannot be trusted to make right decisions. And this is called the moving of the Holy Spirit.
Mar	234	3	The Holy Spirit never reveals itself in such methods, in such a bedlam of noise. This is an invention of Satan to cover up his ingenious methods for making of none effect the pure, sincere, elevating, ennobling, sanctifying truth for this time.... A bedlam of noise shocks the senses and perverts that which if conducted aright might be a blessing. The powers of Satanic agencies blend with the din and noise, to have a carnival, and this is termed the Holy Spirit's working.... Those participating in the supposed revival receive impressions which lead them adrift. They cannot tell what they formerly knew regarding Bible principles.
Mar	234	4	No encouragement should be given to this kind of worship. The same kind of influence came in after the passing of the time in 1844. The same kind of representations were made. Men became excited, and were worked by a power thought to be the power of God....
Mar	234	5	Men and women, supposed to be guided by the Holy Spirit, held meetings in a state of nudity. They talked about holy flesh. They said they were beyond the power of temptation, and they sang, and shouted, and made all manner of noisy demonstrations.... Satan was moulding the work, and sensuality was the result. The cause of God was dishonored. Truth, sacred truth, was leveled in the dust by human agencies....
Mar	234	6	I bore my testimony, declaring that these fanatical movements, this din and noise, were inspired by the spirit of Satan, who was working miracles to deceive if possible the very elect.
Mar	234	7	We need to be on our guard, to maintain a close connection with Christ, that we be not deceived by Satan's devices. The Lord desires to have in His service order and discipline, not excitement and confusion.
------------------------No Room for Boasting, August 15
Mar	235	1	Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Isaiah 6:5.
Mar	235	2	Those who experience the sanctification of the Bible will manifest a spirit of humility. Like Moses, they have had a view of the awful majesty of holiness, and they see their own unworthiness in contrast with the purity and exalted perfection of the Infinite One.
Mar	235	3	The prophet Daniel was an example of true sanctification. His long life was filled up with noble service for his Master. He was a man "greatly beloved" (Daniel 10:11) of Heaven. Yet instead of claiming to be pure and holy, this honored prophet identified himself with the really sinful of Israel as he pleaded before God in behalf of his people: "We do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies." "We have sinned, we have done wickedly." He declares: "I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people.... "(Daniel 9:18, 15, 20).
Mar	235	4	When Job heard the voice of the Lord out of the whirlwind, he exclaimed: "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). It was when Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord, and heard the cherubim crying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts," that he cried out, "Woe is me! for I am undone" (Isaiah 6:3, 5). Paul, after he was caught up into the third heaven and heard things which it was not possible for a man to utter, speaks of himself as "less than the least of all saints" (2 Corinthians 12:2-4, margin; Ephesians 3:8). It was the beloved John, who leaned on Jesus' breast and beheld His glory, that fell as one dead before the feet of the angel (Revelation 1:17).
Mar	235	5	There can be no self-exaltation, no boastful claim to freedom from sin, on the part of those who walk in the shadow of Calvary's cross. They feel that it was their sin which caused the agony that broke the heart of the Son of God, and this thought will lead them to self-abasement. Those who live nearest to Jesus discern most clearly the frailty and sinfulness of humanity, and their only hope is in the merit of a crucified and risen Saviour.
------------------------Salvation Day by Day, August 16
Mar	236	1	Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 Corinthians 10:12.
Mar	236	2	Peter's fall was not instantaneous, but gradual. Self-confidence led him to the belief that he was saved, and step after step was taken in the downward path, until he could deny his Master. Never can we safely put confidence in self or feel, this side of heaven, that we are secure against temptation. Those who accept the Saviour, however sincere their conversion, should never be taught to say or to feel that they are saved. This is misleading. Every one should be taught to cherish hope and faith; but even when we give ourselves to Christ and know that He accepts us, we are not beyond the reach of temptation.... Only he who endures the trial will receive the crown of life (James 1:12).
Mar	236	3	Those who accept Christ, and in their first confidence say, I am saved, are in danger of trusting to themselves.... We are admonished, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). Our only safety is in constant distrust of self, and dependence on Christ.
Mar	236	4	There are many who profess Christ, but who never become mature Christians. They admit that man is fallen, that his faculties are weakened, that he is unfitted for moral achievement, but they say that Christ has borne all the burden, all the suffering, all the self-denial, and they are willing to let Him bear it. They say that there is nothing for them to do but to believe; but Christ said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24)....
Mar	236	5	We are never to rest in a satisfied condition, and cease to make advancement, saying, "I am saved." When this idea is entertained, the motives for watchfulness, for prayer, for earnest endeavor to press onward to higher attainments, cease to exist. No sanctified tongue will be found uttering these words till Christ shall come, and we enter in through the gates into the city of God. Then, with the utmost propriety, we may give glory to God and to the Lamb for eternal deliverance.
------------------------The Meaning of Conversion, August 17
Mar	237	1	If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Mar	237	2	The old nature, born of blood and the will of the flesh, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The old ways, the hereditary tendencies, the former habits, must be given up; for grace is not inherited. The new birth consists in having new motives, new tastes, new tendencies. Those who are begotten unto a new life by the Holy Spirit, have become partakers of the divine nature, and in all their habits and practices they will give evidence of their relationship to Christ. When men who claim to be Christians retain all their natural defects of character and disposition, in what does their position differ from that of the worldling? They do not appreciate the truth as a sanctifier, a refiner. They have not been born again....
Mar	237	3	A genuine conversion changes hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong. The religion of God is a firm fabric, composed of innumerable threads, and woven together with tact and skill. Only the wisdom which comes from God can make this fabric complete. There are a great many kinds of cloth which at first have a fine appearance, but they cannot endure the test. They wash out. The colors are not fast. Under the heat of summer they fade away and are lost. The cloth cannot endure rough handling.
Mar	237	4	So it is with the religion of many. When the warp and woof of character will not stand the test of trial, the material of which it is composed is worthless. The efforts made to patch the old with a new piece do not better the condition of things; for the old, flimsy material breaks away from the new, leaving the rent much larger than before. Patching will not do. The only way is to discard the old garment altogether, and procure one entirely new.
Mar	237	5	Christ's plan is the only safe one. He declares, "Behold, I make all things new." "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." ... The patchwork religion is not of the least value with God. He requires the whole heart.
Mar	237	6	Jesus gave His life ... for us, and shall we not give Him our best affections, our holiest aspirations, our fullest service?
------------------------Sanctification is for Sabbathkeepers, August 18
Mar	238	1	Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.... The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work. Exodus 20:8-10.
Mar	238	2	God has declared in His Word that the seventh day is a sign between Him and His chosen people--a sign of their loyalty....
Mar	238	3	The seventh day is God's chosen day. He has not left this matter to be remodeled by priest or ruler. It is of too great importance to be left to human judgment. God saw that men would study their own convenience, and choose a day best suited to their inclinations, a day bearing no divine authority; and He has stated plainly that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord.
Mar	238	4	Every man in God's world is under the laws of His government. God has placed the Sabbath in the bosom of the Decalogue, and has made it the criterion of obedience. Through it we may learn of His power, as displayed in His works and His Word....
Mar	238	5	Men could not place themselves more decidedly in opposition to God's work and to His law than by upholding a day that is without one evidence of sanctity, and professing to worship Him on that day. Those who have corrupted the law by substituting a false sabbath for the holy Sabbath of God, and who compel the observance of this false sabbath, exalt themselves above God, and honor the spurious above the genuine.
Mar	238	6	Sanctification is claimed by professed Christians who ignore God's holy rest day for a spurious sabbath. But God declares that the sanctification coming from Him is bestowed on those only who honor Him by obeying His commands. The sanctification claimed by those who continue in transgression is a spurious sanctification. Thus the religious world is deceived by the enemy of God and man....
Mar	238	7	Men have sought out many inventions. They have taken a common day, upon which God has placed no sanctity, and have clothed it with sacred prerogatives. They have declared it to be a holy day, but this does not give it a vestige of sanctity. They dishonor God by accepting human institutions and presenting to the world as the Christian Sabbath a day which has no "Thus saith the Lord" for its authority.
------------------------Sound the Note of Alarm, August 19
Mar	239	1	In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:6.
Mar	239	2	In all our ways we should acknowledge God, and He will direct our paths. We should consult His Word with humble hearts, ask His counsel, and give up our will to His. We can do nothing without God.
Mar	239	3	There is the highest reason for us to prize the true Sabbath and stand in its defense, for it is the sign which distinguishes the people of God from the world. The commandment that the world makes void is the one to which, for this very reason, God's people will give greater honor. It is when the unbelieving cast contempt upon the Word of God that the faithful Calebs are called for. It is then that they will stand firm at the post of duty, without parade, and without swerving because of reproach. The unbelieving spies stood ready to destroy Caleb. He saw the stones in the hands of those who had brought a false report, but this did not deter him; he had a message, and he would bear it. The same spirit will be manifested today by those who are true to God.
Mar	239	4	The psalmist says, "They have made void thy law. Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold" (Psalm 119:126, 127). When men press close to the side of Jesus, when Christ is abiding in their hearts by faith, their love for the commandments of God grows stronger in proportion to the contempt which the world heaps upon His holy precepts. It is at this time that the true Sabbath must be brought before the people by both pen and voice. As the fourth commandment and those who observe it are ignored and despised, the faithful feel that it is the time not to hide their faith but to exalt the law of Jehovah by unfurling the banner on which is inscribed the message of the third angel, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Mar	239	5	Let not those who have the truth as it is in Jesus give sanction, even by their silence, to the work of the mystery of iniquity. Let them never cease to sound the note of alarm.... The truth must not be hid, it must not be denied or disguised, but fully avowed, and boldly proclaimed.
------------------------The Pure Mark of Truth, August 20
Mar	240	1	The Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. Ezekiel 9:4.
Mar	240	2	Mark this point with care: Those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the man in linen, are those "that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done" in the church.
Mar	240	3	The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God....
Mar	240	4	Not all who profess to keep the Sabbath will be sealed. There are many even among those who teach the truth to others who will not receive the seal of God in their foreheads. They had the light of truth, they knew their Master's will, they understood every point of our faith, but they had not corresponding works....
Mar	240	5	Not one of us will ever receive the seal of God while our characters have one spot or stain upon them. It is left with us to remedy the defects in our characters, to cleanse the soul temple of every defilement. Then the latter rain will fall upon us as the early rain fell upon the disciples....
Mar	240	6	What are you doing, brethren, in the great work of preparation? Those who are uniting with the world are receiving the worldly mold and preparing for the mark of the beast. Those who are distrustful of self, who are humbling themselves before God and purifying their souls by obeying the truth--these are receiving the heavenly mold and preparing for the seal of God in their foreheads. When the decree goes forth and the stamp is impressed, their character will remain pure and spotless for eternity.
Mar	240	7	Now is the time to prepare. The seal of God will never be placed upon the forehead of an impure man or woman. It will never be placed upon the forehead of the ambitious, world-loving man or woman. It will never be placed upon the forehead of men or women of false tongues or deceitful hearts. All who receive the seal must be without spot before God--candidates for heaven.
------------------------Who Receive the Seal? August 21
Mar	241	1	And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. Revelation 14:5.
Mar	241	2	Only those who receive the seal of the living God will have the passport through the gates of the Holy City....
Mar	241	3	The seal of the living God will be placed upon those only who bear a likeness to Christ in character.
Mar	241	4	As wax takes the impression of the seal, so the soul is to take the impression of the Spirit of God and retain the image of Christ.
Mar	241	5	Many will not receive the seal of God because they do not keep His commandments or bear the fruits of righteousness.
Mar	241	6	The great mass of professing Christians will meet with bitter disappointment in the day of God. They have not upon their foreheads the seal of the living God. Lukewarm and halfhearted, they dishonor God far more than the avowed unbeliever. They grope in darkness, when they might be walking in the noonday light of the Word, under the guidance of One who never errs....
Mar	241	7	Those whom the Lamb shall lead by the fountains of living waters, and from whose eyes He shall wipe away all tears, will be those now receiving the knowledge and understanding revealed in the Bible, the Word of God....
Mar	241	8	We are to copy no human being. There is no human being wise enough to be our criterion. We are to look to the man Christ Jesus, who is complete in the perfection of righteousness and holiness. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the pattern man. His experience is the measure of the experience that we are to gain. His character is our model. Let us, then, take our minds off the perplexities and the difficulties of this life, and fix them on Him, that by beholding we may be changed into His likeness. We may behold Christ to good purpose. We may safely look to Him; for He is all-wise. As we look to Him and think of Him, He will be formed within, the hope of glory.
Mar	241	9	Let us strive with all the power that God has given us to be among the hundred and forty-four thousand.
------------------------Time of Sealing Soon Over, August 22
Mar	242	1	I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. John 9:4.
Mar	242	2	The sealing time is very short, and will soon be over. Now is the time, while the four angels are holding the four winds, to make our calling and election sure.
Mar	242	3	I was pointed down to the time when the third angel's message was closing. The power of God had rested upon His people; they had accomplished their work and were prepared for the trying hour before them.
Mar	242	4	They had received the latter rain, or refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and the living testimony had been revived. The last great warning had sounded everywhere, and it had stirred up and enraged the inhabitants of the earth who would not receive the message.
Mar	242	5	I saw angels hurrying to and fro in heaven. An angel with a writer's inkhorn by his side returned from the earth and reported to Jesus that his work was done, and the saints were numbered and sealed. Then I saw Jesus ... throw down the censer. He raised His hands, and with a loud voice said, "It is done.";
Mar	242	6	I also saw that many do not realize what they must be in order to live in the sight of the Lord without a high priest in the sanctuary through the time of trouble. Those who receive the seal of the living God and are protected in the time of trouble must reflect the image of Jesus fully.
Mar	242	7	I saw that many were neglecting the preparation so needful and were looking to the time of "refreshing" and the "latter rain" to fit them to stand in the day of the Lord and to live in His sight. Oh, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter!
Mar	242	8	When Jesus leaves the sanctuary, then they who are holy and righteous will be holy and righteous still; for all their sins will then be blotted out, and they will be sealed with the seal of the living God. But those that are unjust and filthy will be unjust and filthy still; for then there will be no Priest in the sanctuary to offer their sacrifices, their confessions, and their prayers before the Father's throne. Therefore what is done to rescue souls from the coming storm of wrath must be done before Jesus leaves the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary.
------------------------Angels Can Read God's Mark, August 23
Mar	243	1	I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Revelation 7:2, 3.
Mar	243	2	Everything in the world is in an unsettled state. The nations are angry, and great preparations for war are being made. Nation is plotting against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. The great day of God is hasting greatly. But although the nations are mustering their forces for war and bloodshed, the command to the angels is still in force, that they hold the four winds until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.
Mar	243	3	As yet the four winds are held until the servants of God shall be sealed in their foreheads. Then the powers of earth will marshal their forces for the last great battle. How carefully we should improve the little remaining period of our probation!
Mar	243	4	Minds that have been given up to loose thought need to change.... The thoughts must be centered upon God. Now is the time to put forth earnest effort to overcome the natural tendencies of the carnal heart.
Mar	243	5	Just before we entered it [the time of trouble], we all received the seal of the living God. Then I saw the four angels cease to hold the four winds. And I saw famine, pestilence and sword, nation rose against nation, and the whole world was in confusion.
Mar	243	6	What is the seal of the living God, which is placed in the foreheads of His people? It is a mark which angels, but not human eyes, can read; for the destroying angel must see this mark of redemption. The intelligent mind has seen the sign of the cross of Calvary in the Lord's adopted sons and daughters. The sin of the transgression of the law of God is taken away. They have on the wedding garment, and are obedient and faithful to all God's commands.
Mar	243	7	The Lord will not excuse those who know the truth if they do not in word and deed obey His commands.
------------------------A Sign that Distinguishes God's People, August 24
Mar	244	1	Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. Ezekiel 20:12.
Mar	244	2	As the Sabbath was the sign that distinguished Israel when they came out of Egypt to enter the earthly Canaan, so it is the sign that now distinguishes God's people as they come out from the world to enter the heavenly rest.
Mar	244	3	The observance of the Sabbath is the means ordained by God of preserving a knowledge of Himself and of distinguishing between His loyal subjects and the transgressors of His law.
Mar	244	4	It [the Sabbath] belongs to Christ.... Since He made all things, He made the Sabbath. By Him it was set apart as a memorial of the work of creation. It points to Him as both the Creator and the Sanctifier. It declares that He who created all things in heaven and in earth, and by whom all things hold together, is the head of the church, and that by His power we are reconciled to God. For, speaking of Israel, He said, "I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them"--make them holy. Then the Sabbath is a sign of Christ's power to make us holy. And it is given to all whom Christ makes holy. As a sign of His sanctifying power, the Sabbath is given to all who through Christ become a part of the Israel of God....
Mar	244	5	To all who receive the Sabbath as a sign of Christ's creative and redeeming power, it will be a delight. Seeing Christ in it, they delight themselves in Him. The Sabbath points them to the works of creation as an evidence of His mighty power in redemption. While it calls to mind the lost peace of Eden, it tells of peace restored through the Saviour. And every object in nature repeats His invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28.
Mar	244	6	The Sabbath is a golden clasp that unites God and His people.
------------------------Importance and Glory of the Sabbath, August 25
Mar	245	1	I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Isaiah 58:14.
Mar	245	2	Sabbath we had a sweet, glorious time.... We were made to rejoice and glorify God for His exceeding goodness unto us.... I was taken off in vision....
Mar	245	3	I saw that we sensed and realized but little of the importance of the Sabbath, to what we yet should realize and know of its importance and glory. I saw we knew not what it was yet to ride upon the high places of the earth and to be fed with the heritage of Jacob. But when the refreshing and latter rain shall come from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power we shall know what it is to be fed with the heritage of Jacob and ride upon the high places of the earth. Then shall we see the Sabbath more in its importance and glory. But we shall not see it in all its glory and importance until the covenant of peace is made with us at the voice of God, and the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem are thrown open and swing back on their glittering hinges and the glad and joyful voice of the lovely Jesus is heard richer than any music that ever fell on mortal ear bidding us enter. [I saw] that we had a perfect right in the city for we had kept the commandments of God, and heaven, sweet heaven is our home.
Mar	245	4	I saw the ten commandments written on them [the tables of stone] with the finger of God. On one table were four, and on the other six. The four on the first table shone brighter than the other six. But the fourth, the Sabbath commandment, shone above them all; for the Sabbath was set apart to be kept in honor of God's holy name. The holy Sabbath looked glorious--a halo of glory was all around it. I saw that the Sabbath commandment was not nailed to the cross. If it was, the other nine commandments were; and we are at liberty to break them all, as well as to break the fourth....
Mar	245	5	I saw that the holy Sabbath is, and will be, the separating wall between the true Israel of God and unbelievers; and that the Sabbath is the great question to unite the hearts of God's dear, waiting saints.
------------------------The Sabbath is God's Mark, August 26
Mar	246	1	Hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Ezekiel 20:20.
Mar	246	2	The Israelites placed over their doors a signature of blood, to show that they were God's property. So the children of God in this age will bear the signature God has appointed. They will place themselves in harmony with God's holy law. A mark is placed upon every one of God's people just as verily as a mark was placed over the doors of the Hebrew dwellings, to preserve the people from the general ruin. God declares, "I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them."
Mar	246	3	Every soul in our world is the Lord's property, by creation and by redemption. Each individual soul is on trial for his life. Has he given to God that which belongs to Him? Has he surrendered to God all that is His as His purchased possession? All who cherish the Lord as their portion in this life will be under His control, and will receive the sign, the mark of God, which shows them to be God's special possession. Christ's righteousness will go before them, and the glory of the Lord will be their rereward. The Lord protects every human being who bears His sign.
Mar	246	4	"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.... Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
Mar	246	5	This recognition of God is of the highest value to every human being. All who love and serve Him are very precious in His sight. He would have them stand where they are worthy representatives of the truth as it is in Jesus.
------------------------Study the Subject of the Sanctuary, August 27
Mar	247	1	And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Daniel 8:14.
Mar	247	2	We should be earnest students of prophecy; we should not rest until we become intelligent in regard to the subject of the sanctuary, which is brought out in the visions of Daniel and John. This subject sheds great light on our present position and work, and gives us unmistakable proof that God has led us in our past experience. It explains our disappointment in 1844, showing us that the sanctuary to be cleansed was not the earth, as we had supposed, but that Christ then entered into the most holy apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, and is there performing the closing work of His priestly office, in fulfillment of the words of the angel to the prophet Daniel.
Mar	247	3	The 2300 days had been found to begin when the commandment of Artaxerxes for the restoration and building of Jerusalem, went into effect, in the autumn of 457 B.C. Taking this as the starting point, there was perfect harmony in the application of all the events foretold in the explanation of that period in Daniel 9:25-27.... The seventy weeks, or 490 years, were to pertain especially to the Jews. At the expiration of this period, the nation sealed its rejection of Christ by the persecution of His disciples, and the apostles turned to the Gentiles, A.D. 34. The first 490 years of the 2300 having then ended, 1810 years would remain. From A.D. 34, 1810 years extend to 1844. "Then," said the angel, "shall the sanctuary be cleansed."
Mar	247	4	Our faith in reference to the messages of the first, second, and third angels was correct. The great waymarks we have passed are immovable. Although the hosts of hell may try to tear them from their foundation, and triumph in the thought that they have succeeded, yet they do not succeed. These pillars of truth stand firm as the eternal hills, unmoved by all the efforts of men combined with those of Satan and his host. We can learn much, and should be constantly searching the Scriptures to see if these things are so.
------------------------Cleansing of the Sanctuary, August 28
Mar	248	1	I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. Daniel 7:13.
Mar	248	2	After His ascension, our Saviour began His work as our high priest. Says Paul, "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Hebrews 9:24....
Mar	248	3	For eighteen centuries this work of ministration continued in the first apartment of the sanctuary. The blood of Christ, pleaded in behalf of penitent believers, secured their pardon and acceptance with the Father, yet their sins still remained upon the books of record. As in the typical service there was a work of atonement at the close of the year, so before Christ's work for the redemption of men is completed, there is a work of atonement for the removal of sin from the sanctuary. This is the service which began when the 2300 days ended. At that time ... our High Priest entered the most holy, to perform the last division of His solemn work--to cleanse the sanctuary....
Mar	248	4	The coming of Christ as our high priest to the most holy place, for the cleansing of the sanctuary, brought to view in Daniel 8:14; the coming of the Son of man to the Ancient of days, as presented in Daniel 7:13; and the coming of the Lord to His temple, foretold by Malachi, are descriptions of the same event; and this is also represented by the coming of the bridegroom to the marriage, described by Christ in the parable of the ten virgins, of Matthew 25.
Mar	248	5	The cleansing of the sanctuary ... involves a work of investigation--a work of judgment. This work must be performed prior to the coming of Christ to redeem His people; for when He comes, His reward is with Him to give to every man according to his works.
Mar	248	6	In the day of final reckoning, position, rank, or wealth will not alter by a hair's breadth the case of any one. By the all-seeing God, men will be judged by what they are in purity, in nobility, in love for Christ.
------------------------Instruction from the Sanctuary in Heaven, August 29
Mar	249	1	Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Hebrews 10:22.
Mar	249	2	"And, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him." Daniel 7:13.... The coming of Christ here described is not His second coming to the earth. He comes to the Ancient of days in heaven to receive dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, which will be given Him at the close of His work as a mediator. It is this coming, and not His second advent to the earth, that was foretold in prophecy to take place at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844. Attended by heavenly angels, our great High Priest enters the holy of holies, and there appears in the presence of God ... to perform the work of investigative judgment, and to make an atonement for all who are shown to be entitled to its benefits.
Mar	249	3	May the Lord give us to see the need of drinking from the living fountain of the water of life. Its pure streams will refresh and heal us and refresh all connected with us. Oh, if the hearts were only subdued by the Spirit of God! If the eye were single to God's glory, what a flood of heavenly light would pour upon the soul. He who spake as never man spake was an educator upon earth. After His resurrection He was an educator to the lonely, disappointed disciples traveling to Emmaus, and to those assembled in the upper chamber. He opened to them the Scriptures concerning Himself and caused their hearts to bound with a holy, new and sacred hope and joy.
Mar	249	4	From the Holy of Holies, there goes on the grand work of instruction. The angels of God are communicating to men. Christ officiates in the sanctuary. We do not follow Him into the sanctuary as we should. Christ and angels work in the hearts of the children of men. The church above united with the church below is warring the good warfare upon the earth. There must be a purifying of the soul here upon the earth, in harmony with Christ's cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven.
Mar	249	5	God's people are now to have their eyes fixed on the heavenly sanctuary, where ... our great High Priest ... is interceding for His people.
------------------------Judging the Cases of the Living, August 30
Mar	250	1	Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Revelation 3:3.
Mar	250	2	At the time appointed for the judgment--the close of the 2300 days, in 1844--began the work of investigation and blotting out of sins. All who have ever taken upon themselves the name of Christ must pass its searching scrutiny. Both the living and the dead are to be judged "out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." Revelation 20:12.
Mar	250	3	Said the Judge: "All will be justified by their faith and judged by their works."
Mar	250	4	Sins that have not been repented of and forsaken will not be pardoned, and blotted out of the books of record, but will stand to witness against the sinner in the day of God....
Mar	250	5	There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery. The work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another. Though all nations are to pass in judgment before God, yet He will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being upon the earth. Every one must be tested, and found without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
Mar	250	6	The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above. For many years this work has been in progress. Soon--none know how soon--it will pass to the cases of the living. In the awful presence of God our lives are to come up in review. At this time above all others it behooves every soul to heed the Saviour's admonition, "Watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is." Mark 13:33. "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." Revelation 3:3.
------------------------The Investigative Judgment, August 31
Mar	251	1	Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. 1 Timothy 5:24.
Mar	251	2	The work of the investigative judgment and the blotting out of sins is to be accomplished before the second advent of the Lord. Since the dead are to be judged out of the things written in the books, it is impossible that the sins of men should be blotted out until after the judgment at which their cases are to be investigated.... When the investigative judgment closes, Christ will come, and His reward will be with Him to give to every man as his work shall be.
Mar	251	3	All are to be judged according to the things written in the books, and to be rewarded as their works have been. This judgment does not take place at death.
Mar	251	4	In the typical service the high priest, having made the atonement for Israel, came forth and blessed the congregation. So Christ, at the close of His work as mediator, will appear, "without sin unto salvation," to bless His waiting people with eternal life. As the priest, in removing the sins from the sanctuary, confessed them upon the head of the scapegoat, so Christ will place all these sins upon Satan, the originator and instigator of sin. The scapegoat, bearing the sins of Israel, was sent away "unto a land not inhabited;" so Satan, bearing the guilt of all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit, will be for a thousand years confined to the earth, which will then be desolate, without inhabitant, and he will at last suffer the full penalty of sin in the fires that shall destroy all the wicked.
Mar	251	5	A few, yes, only a few, of the vast number who people the earth will be saved unto life eternal, while the masses who have not perfected their souls in obeying the truth will be appointed to the second death.
Mar	251	6	While the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God's people upon earth.
------------------------Standing Before Courts and Councils, September 1
Mar	252	1	I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. Psalm 119:46.
Mar	252	2	In the great closing work we shall meet with perplexities that we know not how to deal with, but let us not forget that the three great powers of heaven are working, that a divine hand is on the wheel, and that God will bring His purposes to pass.
Mar	252	3	The time will come when we shall be brought before councils and before thousands for His name's sake, and each one will have to give the reason of his faith.
Mar	252	4	Every position of truth taken by our people will bear the criticism of the greatest minds; the highest of the world's great men will be brought in contact with truth, and therefore every position we take should be critically examined and tested by the Scriptures. Now we seem to be unnoticed, but this will not always be. Movements are at work to bring us to the front, and if our theories of truth can be picked to pieces by historians or the world's greatest men, it will be done.
Mar	252	5	The Lord Jesus will give the disciples a tongue and wisdom that their adversaries can neither gainsay nor resist. Those who could not by reasoning overcome satanic delusions, will bear an affirmative testimony that will baffle supposedly learned men. Words will come from the lips of the unlearned with such convincing power and wisdom that conversions will be made to the truth. Thousands will be converted under their testimony.
Mar	252	6	Why should the illiterate man have this power, which the learned man has not? The illiterate one, through faith in Christ, has come into the atmosphere of pure, clear truth, while the learned man has turned away from the truth. The poor man is Christ's witness. He cannot appeal to histories or to so-called high science, but he gathers from the Word of God powerful evidence. The truth that he speaks under the inspiration of the Spirit, is so pure and remarkable and carries with it a power so indisputable, that his testimony cannot be gainsaid.
------------------------Witnessing Before the Great Men of the Earth, September 2
Mar	253	1	And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. Matthew 10:18.
Mar	253	2	The time is not far off when the people of God will be called upon to give their testimony before the rulers of the earth. Not one in twenty has a realization of what rapid strides we are making toward the great crisis in our history.... There is no time for vanity, for trifling, for engaging the mind in unimportant matters.
Mar	253	3	Kings, governors, and great men will hear of you through the reports of those who are at enmity with you, and your faith and character will be misrepresented before them. But those who are falsely accused will have an opportunity to appear in the presence of their accusers to answer for themselves. They will have the privilege of bringing the light before those who are called the great men of the earth, and if you have studied the Bible, if you are ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, your enemies will not be able to gainsay your wisdom.
Mar	253	4	You now have an opportunity to attain to the greatest intellectual power through the study of the Word of God. But if you are indolent, and fail to dig deep in the mines of truth, you will not be ready for the crisis that is soon to come upon us. O that you would realize that each moment is golden. If you live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, you will not be found unprepared.
Mar	253	5	You know not where you may be called upon to give your witness of truth. Many will have to stand in the legislative courts; some will have to stand before kings and before the learned of the earth, to answer for their faith. Those who have only a superficial understanding of truth will not be able clearly to expound the Scriptures, and give definite reasons for their faith. They will become confused, and will not be workmen that need not to be ashamed. Let no one imagine that he has no need to study, because he is not to preach in the sacred desk. You know not what God may require of you.
------------------------Prepare to Meet Thy God, September 3
Mar	254	1	Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Amos 4:12.
Mar	254	2	Many do not realize what they must be in order to live in the sight of the Lord without a high priest in the sanctuary through the time of trouble. Those who receive the seal of the living God and are protected in the time of trouble must reflect the image of Jesus fully.
Mar	254	3	Their robes must be spotless, their characters must be purified from sin by the blood of sprinkling. Through the grace of God and their own diligent effort, they must be conquerors in the battle with evil. While the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God's people upon earth.
Mar	254	4	I saw that many were neglecting the preparation so needful and were looking to the time of "refreshing" and the "latter rain" to fit them to stand in the day of the Lord and to live in His sight. Oh, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter! They had neglected the needful preparation; therefore they could not receive the refreshing that all must have to fit them to live in the sight of a holy God.
Mar	254	5	Those who refuse to be hewed by the prophets and fail to purify their souls in obeying the whole truth, and who are willing to believe that their condition is far better than it really is, will come up to the time of the falling of the plagues, and then see that they needed to be hewed and squared for the building....
Mar	254	6	I saw that none could share the "refreshing" unless they obtain the victory over every besetment, over pride, selfishness, love of the world, and over every wrong word and action. We should, therefore, be drawing nearer and nearer to the Lord and be earnestly seeking that preparation necessary to enable us to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. Let all remember that God is holy and that none but holy beings can ever dwell in His presence.
------------------------Promise of Divine Help, September 4
Mar	255	1	But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. Matthew 10:19.
Mar	255	2	The servants of Christ are to prepare no set speech to present when brought to trial for their faith. Their preparation is to be made day by day, in treasuring up in their hearts the precious truths of God's Word, in feeding upon the teaching of Christ, and through prayer strengthening their faith; then, when brought into trial, the Holy Spirit will bring to their remembrance the very truths that will reach the hearts of those who shall come to hear. God will flash the knowledge obtained by diligent searching of the Scriptures, into their memory at the very time when it is needed.
Mar	255	3	You are now to get ready for the time of trial. Now you are to know whether your feet are planted on the Eternal Rock. You must have an individual experience, and not depend upon others for your light. When you are brought to the test, how do you know that you will not be alone, with no earthly friend at your side? Will you then be able to realize that Christ is your support? Will you be able to recall the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world"? There will be invisible ones all about you bent upon your destruction. Satan and his agents will seek in every way to make you waver from your steadfastness to God and His truth. But if you have an eye single to His glory, you need not take thought as to how you shall witness for His truth.
Mar	255	4	Young men and women, are you growing up to the full stature of men and women in Christ, so that when the crisis comes, you cannot be separated from the Source of your strength? If we would stand during the time of test, we must now, in the time of peace, be gaining a living experience in the things of God. We must now learn to understand what are the deep movings of the Spirit of God. Christ must be our all and in all, the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
------------------------Another Pentecost Coming! September 5
Mar	256	1	I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. Ezekiel 34:26.
Mar	256	2	Under the figure of the early and the latter rain, that falls in Eastern lands at seedtime and harvest, the Hebrew prophets foretold the bestowal of spiritual grace in extraordinary measure upon God's church. The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was the beginning of the early, or former, rain, and glorious was the result.... But near the close of earth's harvest, a special bestowal of spiritual grace is promised to prepare the church for the coming of the Son of man. This outpouring of the Spirit is likened to the falling of the latter rain.
Mar	256	3	The great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening. The prophecies which were fulfilled in the outpouring of the former rain at the opening of the gospel are again to be fulfilled in the latter rain at its close....
Mar	256	4	Servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven. By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given. Miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers. Satan also works with lying wonders, even bringing down fire from heaven in the sight of men. Revelation 13:13. Thus the inhabitants of the earth will be brought to take their stand.
Mar	256	5	The message will be carried not so much by argument as by the deep conviction of the Spirit of God. The arguments have been presented. The seed has been sown, and now it will spring up and bear fruit.... Now the rays of light penetrate everywhere, the truth is seen in its clearness, and the honest children of God sever the bands which have held them. Family connections, church relations, are powerless to stay them now. Truth is more precious than all besides. Notwithstanding the agencies combined against the truth, a large number take their stand upon the Lord's side.
------------------------The Battle of Armageddon Joins, September 6
Mar	257	1	These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. Revelation 17:14.
Mar	257	2	We need to study the pouring out of the seventh vial. The powers of evil will not yield up the conflict without a struggle. But Providence has a part to act in the battle of Armageddon. When the earth is lighted with the glory of the angel of Revelation eighteen, the religious elements, good and evil, will awake from slumber, and the armies of the living God will take the field.
Mar	257	3	Four mighty angels hold back the powers of this earth till the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads. The nations of the world are eager for conflict; but they are held in check by the angels. When this restraining power is removed, there will come a time of trouble and anguish. Deadly instruments of warfare will be invented. Vessels, with their living cargo, will be entombed in the great deep. All who have not the spirit of truth will unite under the leadership of satanic agencies. But they are to be kept under control till the time shall come for the great battle of Armageddon.
Mar	257	4	Every form of evil is to spring into intense activity. Evil angels unite their powers with evil men, and as they have been in constant conflict and attained an experience in the best modes of deception and battle, and have been strengthening for centuries, they will not yield the last great final contest without a desperate struggle. All the world will be on one side or the other of the question. The battle of Armageddon will be fought, and that day must find none of us sleeping. Wide awake we must be, as wise virgins having oil in our vessels with our lamps....
Mar	257	5	The power of the Holy Ghost must be upon us, and the Captain of the Lord's host will stand at the head of the angels of heaven to direct the battle. Solemn events before us are yet to transpire. Trumpet after trumpet is to be sounded, vial after vial poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth. Scenes of stupendous interest are right upon us.
------------------------Future Events Come in Order, September 7
Mar	258	1	But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 1 Thessalonians 5:4.
Mar	258	2	I saw that Jesus would not leave the most holy place until every case was decided either for salvation or destruction, and that the wrath of God could not come until Jesus had finished His work in the most holy place, laid off His priestly attire, and clothed Himself with the garments of vengeance. Then Jesus will step out from between the Father and man, and God will keep silence no longer, but pour out His wrath on those who have rejected His truth. I saw that the anger of the nations, the wrath of God, and the time to judge the dead were separate and distinct, one following the other, also that Michael had not stood up, and that the time of trouble, such as never was, had not yet commenced. The nations are now getting angry, but when our High Priest has finished His work in the sanctuary, He will stand up, put on the garments of vengeance, and then the seven last plagues will be poured out.
Mar	258	3	I saw that the four angels would hold the four winds until Jesus' work was done in the sanctuary, and then will come the seven last plagues. These plagues enraged the wicked against the righteous; they thought that we had brought the judgments of God upon them, and that if they could rid the earth of us, the plagues would then be stayed. A decree went forth to slay the saints, which caused them to cry day and night for deliverance. This was the time of Jacob's trouble. Then all the saints cried out with anguish of spirit, and were delivered by the voice of God.
Mar	258	4	Before His crucifixion the Saviour explained to His disciples that He was to be put to death and to rise again from the tomb.... But the disciples were looking for temporal deliverance from the Roman yoke, and they could not tolerate the thought that He in whom all their hopes centered should suffer an ignominious death.... So in the prophecies the future is opened before us as plainly as it was opened to the disciples by the words of Christ. The events connected with the close of probation and the work of preparation for the time of trouble, are clearly presented. But multitudes have no more understanding of these important truths than if they had never been revealed.
------------------------A Little Time of Peace, September 8
Mar	259	1	For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 1 Thessalonians 5:3.
Mar	259	2	While the work of salvation is closing, trouble will be coming on the earth, and the nations will be angry, yet held in check so as not to prevent the work of the third angel. At that time the "latter rain," or refreshing from the presence of the Lord, will come, to give power to the loud voice of the third angel, and prepare the saints to stand in the period when the seven last plagues shall be poured out.
Mar	259	3	I was shown the inhabitants of the earth in the utmost confusion. War, bloodshed, privation, want, famine, and pestilence were abroad in the land. As these things surrounded God's people, they began to press together, and to cast aside their little difficulties. Self-dignity no longer controlled them; deep humility took its place. Suffering, perplexity, and privation caused reason to resume its throne, and the passionate and unreasonable man became sane, and acted with discretion and wisdom.
Mar	259	4	My attention was then called from the scene. There seemed to be a little time of peace. Once more the inhabitants of the earth were presented before me; and again everything was in the utmost confusion. Strife, war, and bloodshed, with famine and pestilence, raged everywhere. Other nations were engaged in this war and confusion. War caused famine. Want and bloodshed caused pestilence. And then men's hearts failed them for fear, "and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth."
Mar	259	5	Angels are now restraining the winds of strife, until the world shall be warned of its coming doom; but a storm is gathering, ready to burst upon the earth, and when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture....
Mar	259	6	A moment of respite has been graciously given us of God. Every power lent us of heaven is to be used in doing the work assigned us by the Lord for those who are perishing in ignorance.
------------------------The Peace and Safety Cry, September 9
Mar	260	1	They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Jeremiah 6:14.
Mar	260	2	Papists, Protestants, and worldlings will ... see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium.
Mar	260	3	"The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Peter 3:10. When the reasoning of philosophy has banished the fear of God's judgments; when religious teachers are pointing forward to long ages of peace and prosperity, and the world are absorbed in their rounds of business and pleasure, planting and building, feasting and merrymaking, rejecting God's warnings and mocking His messengers--then it is that sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape. 1 Thessalonians 5:3.
Mar	260	4	Like the dwellers in the vale of Siddim, the people are dreaming of prosperity and peace. "Escape for thy life," is the warning from the angels of God; but other voices are heard saying, "Be not excited; there is no cause for alarm." The multitudes cry, "Peace and safety," while Heaven declares that swift destruction is about to come upon the transgressor. On the night prior to their destruction, the cities of the plain rioted in pleasure and derided the fears and warnings of the messenger of God; but those scoffers perished in the flames; that very night the door of mercy was forever closed to the wicked, careless inhabitants of Sodom. God will not always be mocked; He will not long be trifled with. "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." Isaiah 13:9. The great mass of the world will reject God's mercy, and will be overwhelmed in swift and irretrievable ruin. But those who heed the warning shall dwell "in the secret place of the most High," and "abide under the shadow of the Almighty." His truth shall be their shield and buckler.
------------------------God's Work is Finished, September 10
Mar	261	1	And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Matthew 24:14.
Mar	261	2	The solemn, sacred message of warning must be proclaimed in the most difficult fields and in the most sinful cities, in every place where the light of the great threefold gospel message has not yet dawned. Every one is to hear the last call to the marriage supper of the Lamb. From town to town, from city to city, from country to country, the message of present truth is to be proclaimed, not with outward display, but in the power of the Spirit.
Mar	261	3	The message of the renewing power of God's grace will be carried to every country and clime, until the truth shall belt the world. Of the number of them that shall be sealed will be those who have come from every nation and kindred and tongue and people. From every country will be gathered men and women who will stand before the throne of God and before the Lamb, crying, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." Revelation 7:10.
Mar	261	4	The whole earth is to be illuminated with the glory of God's truth. The light is to shine to all lands and all peoples. And it is from those who have received the light that it is to shine forth. The daystar has risen upon us, and we are to flash its light upon the pathway of those in darkness.
Mar	261	5	A crisis is right upon us. We must now by the Holy Spirit's power proclaim the great truths for these last days. It will not be long before everyone will have heard the warning and made his decision. Then shall the end come.
Mar	261	6	The truth contained in the first, second, and third angel's messages must go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people; it must lighten the darkness of every continent, and extend to the islands of the sea. There must be no delay in this work.
Mar	261	7	Our watchword is to be, Onward, ever onward! Angels of heaven will go before us to prepare the way. Our burden for the regions beyond can never be laid down till the whole earth is lightened with the glory of the Lord.
------------------------God Intervenes on Behalf of His People, September 11
Mar	262	1	Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. Micah 1:2, 3.
Mar	262	2	It is in a crisis that character is revealed.... The great final test comes at the close of human probation, when it will be too late for the soul's need to be supplied.
Mar	262	3	God keeps a reckoning with the nations. Through every century of this world's history evil workers have been treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath; and when the time fully comes that iniquity shall have reached the stated boundary of God's mercy, His forbearance will cease. When the accumulated figures in heaven's record books shall mark the sum of transgression complete, wrath will come, unmixed with mercy, and then it will be seen what a tremendous thing it is to have worn out the divine patience. This crisis will be reached when the nations shall unite in making void God's law.
Mar	262	4	The days will come when the righteous will be stirred to zeal for God because of the abounding iniquity. None but divine power can stay the arrogance of Satan united with evil men; but in the hour of the church's greatest danger most fervent prayer will be offered in her behalf by the faithful remnant, and God will hear and answer at the very time when the guilt of the transgressor has reached its height. He will "avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them.
Mar	262	5	The substitution of the false for the true is the last act in the drama. When this substitution becomes universal, God will reveal Himself. When the laws of men are exalted above the laws of God, when the powers of this earth try to force men to keep the first day of the week, know that the time has come for God to work. He will arise in His majesty, and will shake terribly the earth. He will come out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity. The earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
------------------------Human Probation Closes, September 12
Mar	263	1	He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. Revelation 22:11.
Mar	263	2	When the work of the investigative judgment closes, the destiny of all will have been decided for life or death. Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven.
Mar	263	3	Scoffers pointed to the things of nature--to the unvarying succession of the seasons, to the blue skies that had never poured out rain, to the green fields refreshed by the soft dews of night--and they cried out: "Doth he not speak parables?" In contempt they declared the preacher of righteousness to be a wild enthusiast; and they went on, more eager in their pursuit of pleasure, more intent upon their evil ways, than before. But their unbelief did not hinder the predicted event. God bore long with their wickedness, giving them ample opportunity for repentance; but at the appointed time His judgments were visited upon the rejecters of His mercy.
Mar	263	4	Christ declares that there will exist similar unbelief concerning His second coming. As the people of Noah's day "knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so," in the words of our Saviour, "shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matthew 24:39. When the professed people of God are uniting with the world, living as they live, and joining with them in forbidden pleasures; when the luxury of the world becomes the luxury of the church; when the marriage bells are chiming, and all are looking forward to many years of worldly prosperity--then, suddenly as the lightning flashes from the heavens, will come the end of their bright visions and delusive hopes.
Mar	263	5	The events connected with the close of probation and the work of preparation for the time of trouble, are clearly presented. But multitudes have no more understanding of these important truths than if they had never been revealed. Satan watches to catch away every impression that would make them wise unto salvation, and the time of trouble will find them unready.
------------------------Close of Probation Passes Unnoticed, September 13
Mar	264	1	But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 1 Thessalonians 5:1, 2.
Mar	264	2	The righteous and the wicked will still be living upon the earth in their mortal state--men will be planting and building, eating and drinking, all unconscious that the final, irrevocable decision has been pronounced in the sanctuary above. Before the flood, after Noah entered the ark, God shut him in, and shut the ungodly out; but for seven days the people, knowing not that their doom was fixed, continued their careless, pleasure-loving life, and mocked the warnings of impending judgment. "So," says the Saviour, "shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Silently, unnoticed as the midnight thief, will come the decisive hour which marks the fixing of every man's destiny, the final withdrawal of mercy's offer to guilty men.
Mar	264	3	The people are fast being lulled to a fatal security, to be awakened only by the outpouring of the wrath of God.
Mar	264	4	The Lord in judgment will at the close of time walk through the earth, the fearful plagues will begin to fall. Then those who have despised God's word, those who have lightly esteemed it, shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it.... The ministers of God will have done their last work, offered their last prayers, shed their last bitter tear for a rebellious church and an ungodly people.
Mar	264	5	The eye of Jesus, looking down the ages, was fixed upon our time when He said, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!" It is still thy day, O church of God, whom He has made the depositary of His law. This day of trust and probation is drawing to a close. The sun is fast westering. Can it be that it will set and thou wilt not know "the things which belong unto thy peace!"? Must the irrevocable sentence be passed, "But now they are hid from thine eyes" (Luke 19:42)?
------------------------A Time of Trouble Such as Never Was, September 14
Mar	265	1	And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. Daniel 12:1.
Mar	265	2	When the third angel's message closes, mercy no longer pleads for the guilty inhabitants of the earth. The people of God have accomplished their work. They have received "the latter rain," "the ... refreshing ... from the presence of the Lord," and they are prepared for the trying hour before them. Angels are hastening to and fro in heaven. An angel returning from the earth announces that his work is done; the final test has been brought upon the world, and all who have proved themselves loyal to the divine precepts have received "the seal of the living God." Then Jesus ceases His intercession in the sanctuary above. He lifts His hands and with a loud voice says, "It is done." ...
Mar	265	3	When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth. In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. God's long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one. Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old.
Mar	265	4	Those only who have clean hands and pure hearts will stand in that trying time.... Now is the time, while the four angels are holding the four winds, to make our calling and election sure.
------------------------The Four Winds Loosed, September 15
Mar	266	1	Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Revelation 7:3.
Mar	266	2	Angels are belting the world, refusing Satan his claims to supremacy, made because of the vast multitude of his adherents. We hear not the voices, we see not with the natural sight the work of these angels, but their hands are linked about the world, and with sleepless vigilance they are keeping the armies of Satan at bay till the sealing of God's people shall be accomplished.
Mar	266	3	John sees the elements of nature--earthquake, tempest, and political strife--represented as being held by four angels. These winds are under control until God gives the word to let them go. There is the safety of God's church. The angels of God do His bidding, holding back the winds of the earth, that the winds should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree, until the servants of God should be sealed in their foreheads.
Mar	266	4	The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the strained, restless relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they realize that something great and decisive is about to take place--that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.
Mar	266	5	Angels are now restraining the winds of strife, until the world shall be warned of its coming doom; but a storm is gathering, ready to burst upon the earth, and when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture....
Mar	266	6	A moment of respite has been graciously given us of God. Every power lent us of heaven is to be used in doing the work assigned us by the Lord for those who are perishing in ignorance. The warning message is to be sounded in all parts of the world.... A great work is to be done, and this work has been entrusted to those who know the truth for this time.
------------------------Seven Last Plagues Begin to Fall, September 16
Mar	267	1	And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. Revelation 16:1.
Mar	267	2	When Christ ceases His intercession in the sanctuary, the unmingled wrath threatened against those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark (Revelation 14:9, 10), will be poured out. The plagues upon Egypt when God was about to deliver Israel were similar in character to those more terrible and extensive judgments which are to fall upon the world just before the final deliverance of God's people. Says the revelator, in describing those terrific scourges: "There fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image." The sea "became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea." And "the rivers and fountains of waters ...became blood." Terrible as these inflictions are, God's justice stands fully vindicated. The angel of God declares: "Thou art righteous, O Lord, ... because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy." Revelation 16:2-6. By condemning the people of God to death, they have as truly incurred the guilt of their blood as if it had been shed by their hands....
Mar	267	3	In the plague that follows, power is given to the sun "to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat." Verse 8, 9....
Mar	267	4	These plagues are not universal, or the inhabitants of the earth would be wholly cut off. Yet they will be the most awful scourges that have ever been known to mortals. All the judgments upon men, prior to the close of probation, have been mingled with mercy. The pleading blood of Christ has shielded the sinner from receiving the full measure of his guilt; but in the final judgment, wrath is poured out unmixed with mercy.
Mar	267	5	The bolts of God's wrath are soon to fall, and when He shall begin to punish the transgressors, there will be no period of respite until the end. The storm of God's wrath is gathering, and those only will stand who are sanctified through the truth in the love of God. They shall be hid with Christ in God till the desolation shall be overpast.
------------------------The Death Decree Issued, September 17
Mar	268	1	And he had power to ... cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. Revelation 13:15.
Mar	268	2	When Jesus leaves the most holy, His restraining Spirit is withdrawn from rulers and people. They are left to the control of evil angels. Then such laws will be made by the counsel and direction of Satan, that unless time should be very short, no flesh could be saved.
Mar	268	3	I saw that the four angels would hold the four winds until Jesus' work was done in the sanctuary, and then will come the seven last plagues. These plagues enraged the wicked against the righteous; they thought that we had brought the judgments of God upon them, and that if they could rid the earth of us, the plagues would then be stayed. A decree went forth to slay the saints, which caused them to cry day and night for deliverance. This was the time of Jacob's trouble.
Mar	268	4	I saw the leading men of the earth consulting together, and Satan and his angels busy around them. I saw a writing, copies of which were scattered in different parts of the land, giving orders that unless the saints should yield their peculiar faith, give up the Sabbath, and observe the first day of the week, the people were at liberty after a certain time to put them to death.
Mar	268	5	Though a general decree has fixed the time when commandment keepers may be put to death, their enemies will in some cases anticipate the decree, and before the time specified, will endeavor to take their lives. But none can pass the mighty guardians stationed about every faithful soul. Some are assailed in their flight from the cities and villages; but the swords raised against them break and fall powerless as a straw. Others are defended by angels in the form of men of war.
Mar	268	6	Could men see with heavenly vision, they would behold companies of angels that excel in strength stationed about those who have kept the word of Christ's patience. With sympathizing tenderness, angels have witnessed their distress and have heard their prayers. They are waiting the word of their Commander to snatch them from their peril. But they must wait yet a little longer. The people of God must drink of the cup and be baptized with the baptism.
------------------------Marked for Death, September 18
Mar	269	1	The letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day. Esther 3:13.
Mar	269	2	The decree that will finally go forth against the remnant people of God will be very similar to that issued by Ahasuerus against the Jews.
Mar	269	3	When the protection of human laws shall be withdrawn from those who honor the law of God, there will be, in different lands, a simultaneous movement for their destruction. As the time appointed in the decree draws near, the people will conspire to root out the hated sect. It will be determined to strike in one night a decisive blow, which shall utterly silence the voice of dissent and reproof.
Mar	269	4	The decree will go forth that they must disregard the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and honor the first day, or lose their lives; but they will not yield, and trample under their feet the Sabbath of the Lord, and honor an institution of papacy. Satan's host and wicked men will surround them, and exult over them, because there will seem to be no way of escape for them.
Mar	269	5	When this time of trouble comes, every case is decided; there is no longer probation, no longer mercy for the impenitent. The seal of the living God is upon His people. This small remnant, unable to defend themselves in the deadly conflict with the powers of earth that are marshaled by the dragon host, make God their defense. The decree has been passed by the highest earthly authority that they shall worship the beast and receive his mark under pain of persecution and death.
Mar	269	6	I saw the saints suffering great mental anguish. They seemed to be surrounded by the wicked inhabitants of the earth. Every appearance was against them. Some began to fear that God had at last left them to perish by the hand of the wicked....
Mar	269	7	It was an hour of fearful, terrible agony to the saints. Day and night they cried unto God for deliverance. To outward appearance, there was no possibility of their escape. The wicked had already begun to triumph, crying out, "Why doesn't your God deliver you out of our hands? Why don't you go up and save your lives?" But the saints heeded them not.
------------------------Angelic Protection in the Time of Trouble, September 19
Mar	270	1	Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. Isaiah 26:20.
Mar	270	2	In the day of fierce trial He [Christ] will say, "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast." What are the chambers in which they are to hide? They are the protection of Christ and holy angels. The people of God are not at this time all in one place. They are in different companies, and in all parts of the earth.
Mar	270	3	I saw the saints leaving the cities and villages, and associating together in companies, and living in the most solitary places. Angels provided them food and water, while the wicked were suffering from hunger and thirst.
Mar	270	4	During the night a very impressive scene passed before me. There seemed to be great confusion and the conflict of armies. A messenger from the Lord stood before me, and said, "Call your household. I will lead you; follow me." He led me down a dark passage, through a forest, then through the clefts of mountains, and said, "Here you are safe." There were others who had been led to this retreat. The heavenly messenger said. "The time of trouble has come as a thief in the night, as the Lord warned you it would come."
Mar	270	5	In the time of trouble just before the coming of Christ, the righteous will be preserved through the ministration of heavenly angels; but there will be no security for the transgressor of God's law. Angels cannot then protect those who are disregarding one of the divine precepts.
Mar	270	6	In the closing period of earth's history the Lord will work mightily in behalf of those who stand steadfastly for the right.... In the midst of the time of trouble--trouble such as has not been since there was a nation--His chosen ones will stand unmoved. Satan with all the hosts of evil cannot destroy the weakest of God's saints. Angels that excel in strength will protect them, and in their behalf Jehovah will reveal Himself as a "God of gods," able to save to the uttermost those who have put their trust in Him.
------------------------The Wicked During the Plagues, September 20
Mar	271	1	Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. Amos 8:11, 12.
Mar	271	2	And as mercy's sweet voice died away, fear and horror seized the wicked. With terrible distinctness they heard the words, "Too late! too late!"
Mar	271	3	Christ [on the cross] felt much as sinners will feel when the vials of God's wrath shall be poured out upon them. Black despair like the pall of death will gather about their guilty souls, and then they will realize to the fullest extent the sinfulness of sin.
Mar	271	4	Those who had not prized God's Word were hurrying to and fro, wandering from sea to sea, and from the north to the east, to seek the Word of the Lord. Said the angel, "They shall not find it. There is a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord. What would they not give for one word of approval from God! ...
Mar	271	5	Many of the wicked were greatly enraged as they suffered the effects of the plagues. It was a scene of fearful agony. Parents were bitterly reproaching their children, and children their parents, brothers their sisters, and sisters their brothers.... The people turned upon their ministers with bitter hate and reproached them, saying, "You have not warned us. You told us that all the world was to be converted, and cried, Peace, peace, to quiet every fear that was aroused. You have not told us of this hour; and those who warned us of it you declared to be fanatics and evil men, who would ruin us." But I saw that the ministers did not escape the wrath of God. Their suffering was tenfold greater than that of their people.
Mar	271	6	In the time when God's judgments are falling without mercy, oh, how enviable to the wicked will be the position of those who abide "in the secret place of the most High"--the pavilion in which the Lord hides all who have loved Him and have obeyed His commandments!
------------------------The Time of Jacob's Trouble, September 21
Mar	272	1	Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. Jeremiah 30:7.
Mar	272	2	I saw that the four angels would hold the four winds until Jesus' work was done in the sanctuary, and then will come the seven last plagues. These plagues enraged the wicked against the righteous; they thought that we had brought the judgments of God upon them, and that if they could rid the earth of us, the plagues would then be stayed. A decree went forth to slay the saints, which caused them to cry day and night for deliverance. This was the time of Jacob's trouble.
Mar	272	3	As Satan influenced Esau to march against Jacob, so he will stir up the wicked to destroy God's people in the time of trouble. And as he accused Jacob, he will urge his accusations against the people of God. He numbers the world as his subjects; but the little company who keep the commandments of God are resisting his supremacy. If he could blot them from the earth, his triumph would be complete. He sees that holy angels are guarding them, and he infers that their sins have been pardoned; but he does not know that their cases have been decided in the sanctuary above. He has an accurate knowledge of the sins which he has tempted them to commit, and he presents these before God in the most exaggerated light, representing this people to be just as deserving as himself of exclusion from the favor of God. He declares that the Lord cannot in justice forgive their sins and yet destroy him and his angels. He claims them as his prey and demands that they be given into his hands to destroy.
Mar	272	4	As Satan accuses the people of God on account of their sins, the Lord permits him to try them to the uttermost. Their confidence in God, their faith and firmness, will be severely tested. As they review the past, their hopes sink; for in their whole lives they can see little good. They are fully conscious of their weakness and unworthiness. Satan endeavors to terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless, that the stain of their defilement will never be washed away. He hopes so to destroy their faith that they will yield to his temptations and turn from their allegiance to God.
------------------------Why the Time of Trouble, September 22
Mar	273	1	God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1.
Mar	273	2	Though God's people will be surrounded by enemies who are bent upon their destruction, yet the anguish which they suffer is not a dread of persecution for the truth's sake; they fear that every sin has not been repented of, and that through some fault in themselves they will fail to realize the fulfillment of the Saviour's promise: I "will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world." Revelation 3:10. If they could have the assurance of pardon they would not shrink from torture or death; but should they prove unworthy, and lose their lives because of their own defects of character, then God's holy name would be reproached.
Mar	273	3	On every hand they hear the plottings of treason and see the active working of rebellion; and there is aroused within them an intense desire, an earnest yearning of soul, that this great apostasy may be terminated and the wickedness of the wicked may come to an end. But while they plead with God to stay the work of rebellion, it is with a keen sense of self-reproach that they themselves have no more power to resist and urge back the mighty tide of evil. They feel that had they always employed all their ability in the service of Christ, going forward from strength to strength, Satan's forces would have less power to prevail against them.
Mar	273	4	They afflict their souls before God, pointing to their past repentance of their many sins, and pleading the Saviour's promise: "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." Isaiah 27:5. Their faith does not fail because their prayers are not immediately answered. Though suffering the keenest anxiety, terror, and distress, they do not cease their intercessions. They lay hold of the strength of God as Jacob laid hold of the Angel; and the language of their souls is: "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me."
Mar	273	5	The time of trouble is the crucible that is to bring out Christlike characters. It is designed to lead the people of God to renounce Satan and his temptations.
------------------------God's Eye is Upon His People, September 23
Mar	274	1	Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Luke 18:7, 8.
Mar	274	2	In the time of trouble, if the people of God had unconfessed sins to appear before them while tortured with fear and anguish, they would be overwhelmed; despair would cut off their faith, and they could not have confidence to plead with God for deliverance. But while they have a deep sense of their unworthiness, they have no concealed wrongs to reveal. Their sins have gone beforehand to judgment and have been blotted out, and they cannot bring them to remembrance....
Mar	274	3	Those professed Christians who come up to that last fearful conflict unprepared will, in their despair, confess their sins in words of burning anguish, while the wicked exult over their distress....
Mar	274	4	Jacob's history is also an assurance that God will not cast off those who have been deceived and tempted and betrayed into sin, but who have returned unto Him with true repentance. While Satan seeks to destroy this class, God will send His angels to comfort and protect them in the time of peril. The assaults of Satan are fierce and determined, his delusions are terrible; but the Lord's eye is upon His people, and His ear listens to their cries. Their affliction is great, the flames of the furnace seem about to consume them; but the Refiner will bring them forth as gold tried in the fire. God's love for His children during the period of their severest trial is as strong and tender as in the days of their sunniest prosperity; but it is needful for them to be placed in the furnace of fire; their earthliness must be consumed, that the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected.
Mar	274	5	The season of distress and anguish before us will require a faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger--a faith that will not faint though severely tried. The period of probation is granted to all to prepare for that time.... All who will lay hold of God's promises, as he [Jacob] did, and be as earnest and persevering as he was, will succeed as he succeeded.
------------------------The Great Time of Trouble, September 24
Mar	275	1	In those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be. Mark 13:19.
Mar	275	2	The time of trouble such as never was, is soon to open upon us; and we shall need an experience which we do not now possess, and which many are too indolent to obtain. It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal. And now, while the precious Saviour is making an atonement for us, we should seek to become perfect in Christ. God's providence is the school in which we are to learn the meekness and lowliness of Jesus. The Lord is ever setting before us, not the way we would choose, which is easier and pleasanter to us, but the true aims of life. None can neglect or defer this work but at the most fearful peril to their souls.
Mar	275	3	The apostle John in vision heard a loud voice in Heaven exclaiming, "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Fearful are the scenes which call forth this exclamation from the heavenly voice. The wrath of Satan increases as his time grows short, and his work of deceit and destruction reaches its culmination in the time of trouble. God's long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation, and the Lord withdraws His protection, and leaves them to the mercy of the leader they have chosen. Satan will have power over those who have yielded themselves to his control, and he will plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old.
Mar	275	4	In the midst of the time of trouble--trouble such as has not been since there was a nation--His [God's] chosen ones will stand unmoved. Satan with all the hosts of evil cannot destroy the weakest of God's saints.
------------------------The Crowning Act of Deception, September 25
Mar	276	1	Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Revelation 3:10.
Mar	276	2	As the second appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ draws near, satanic agencies are moved from beneath. Satan will not only appear as a human being, but he will personate Jesus Christ; and the world who has rejected the truth will receive him as the Lord of lords and King of kings.
Mar	276	3	The wrath of Satan increases as his time grows short, and his work of deceit and destruction will reach its culmination in the time of trouble....
Mar	276	4	As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Saviour's advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. Revelation 1:13-15. The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal eyes have yet beheld. The shout of triumph rings out upon the air: "Christ has come! Christ has come!" The people prostrate themselves in adoration before him, while he lifts up his hands and pronounces a blessing upon them, as Christ blessed His disciples when He was upon the earth. His voice is soft and subdued, yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals the diseases of the people, and then, in his assumed character of Christ, he claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed. He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the seventh day are blaspheming his name by refusing to listen to his angels sent to them with light and truth. This is the strong, almost overmastering delusion. Like the Samaritans who were deceived by Simon Magus, the multitudes, from the least to the greatest, give heed to these sorceries, saying: This is "the great power of God." Acts 8:10.
Mar	276	5	But the people of God will not be misled. The teachings of this false Christ are not in accordance with the Scriptures.
------------------------No Martyrs After Probation Closes, September 26
Mar	277	1	He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. Psalm 91:15.
Mar	277	2	The people of God will not be free from suffering; but while persecuted and distressed, while they endure privation and suffer for want of food they will not be left to perish....
Mar	277	3	Yet to human sight it will appear that the people of God must soon seal their testimony with their blood as did the martyrs before them. They themselves begin to fear that the Lord has left them to fall by the hand of their enemies. It is a time of fearful agony. Day and night they cry unto God for deliverance....
Mar	277	4	The eye of God, looking down the ages, was fixed upon the crisis which His people are to meet, when earthly powers shall be arrayed against them. Like the captive exile, they will be in fear of death by starvation or by violence. But the Holy One who divided the Red Sea before Israel, will manifest His mighty power and turn their captivity. "They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." Malachi 3:17. If the blood of Christ's faithful witnesses were shed at this time, it would not, like the blood of the martyrs, be as seed sown to yield a harvest for God. Their fidelity would not be a testimony to convince others of the truth; for the obdurate heart has beaten back the waves of mercy until they return no more. If the righteous were now left to fall a prey to their enemies, it would be a triumph for the prince of darkness. Says the psalmist: "In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me." Psalm 27:5. Christ has spoken: "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity." Isaiah 26:20, 21. Glorious will be the deliverance of those who have patiently waited for His coming and whose names are written in the book of life.
------------------------God's People Delivered, September 27
Mar	278	1	Thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. Isaiah 49:25.
Mar	278	2	When the protection of human laws shall be withdrawn from those who honor the law of God, there will be, in different lands, a simultaneous movement for their destruction. As the time appointed in the decree draws near, the people will conspire to root out the hated sect. It will be determined to strike in one night a decisive blow, which shall utterly silence the voice of dissent and reproof.
Mar	278	3	The people of God--some in prison cells, some hidden in solitary retreats in the forests and the mountains--still plead for divine protection, while in every quarter companies of armed men, urged on by hosts of evil angels, are preparing for the work of death. It is now, in the hour of utmost extremity, that the God of Israel will interpose for the deliverance of His chosen....
Mar	278	4	With shouts of triumph, jeering, and imprecation, throngs of evil men are about to rush upon their prey, when, lo, a dense blackness, deeper than the darkness of the night, falls upon the earth. Then a rainbow, shining with the glory from the throne of God, spans the heavens and seems to encircle each praying company. The angry multitudes are suddenly arrested. Their mocking cries die away. The objects of their murderous rage are forgotten. With fearful forebodings they gaze upon the symbol of God's covenant and long to be shielded from its overpowering brightness.
Mar	278	5	By the people of God a voice, clear and melodious, is heard saying, "Look up," and lifting their eyes to the heavens, they behold the bow of promise. The black, angry clouds that covered the firmament are parted, and like Stephen they look up steadfastly into heaven and see the glory of God and the Son of man seated upon His throne.
Mar	278	6	While all the world is plunged in darkness, there will be light in every dwelling of the saints. They will catch the first light of His second appearing.
------------------------Midnight Deliverance, September 28
Mar	279	1	In a moment shall they [the wicked] die, and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without hand. Job 34:20.
Mar	279	2	He [God] has always chosen extremities, when there seemed no possible chance for deliverance from Satan's workings, for the manifestation of His power.
Mar	279	3	It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people. The sun appears, shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow in quick succession. The wicked look with terror and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance. Everything in nature seems turned out of its course. The streams cease to flow. Dark, heavy clouds come up and clash against each other. In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying: "It is done." Revelation 16:17.
Mar	279	4	The powers of heaven will be shaken at the voice of God. Then the sun, moon, and stars will be moved out of their places. They will not pass away, but be shaken by the voice of God.
Mar	279	5	Dark, heavy clouds came up and clashed against each other. The atmosphere parted and rolled back; then we could look up through the open space in Orion, whence came the voice of God.
Mar	279	6	Now in regard to the coming of the Son of man, this will not take place until after the mighty earthquake shakes the earth after the people have heard the voice of God. They are in despair and trouble such as never was since there was a nation, and in this the people of God will suffer affliction. The clouds of heaven will clash and there will be darkness. Then that voice comes from heaven and the clouds begin to roll back like a scroll, and there is the bright, clear sign of the Son of man. The children of God know what that cloud means.
Mar	279	7	The 144,000 triumphed. Their faces were lighted up with the glory of God.
Mar	279	8	When the voice of God turns the captivity of His people, there is a terrible awakening of those who have lost all in the great conflict of life.
Mar	279	9	The day of wrath to the enemies of God is the day of final deliverance to His church.
------------------------God Overturns Nature, September 29
Mar	280	1	And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. Revelation 16:17, 18.
Mar	280	2	We need to study the pouring out of the seventh vial. The powers of evil will not yield up the conflict without a struggle.
Mar	280	3	In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying: "It is done." Revelation 16:17.
Mar	280	4	That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty earthquake, "such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." Verses 17, 18. The firmament appears to open and shut. The glory from the throne of God seems flashing through. The mountains shake like a reed in the wind, and ragged rocks are scattered on every side. There is a roar as of a coming tempest. The sea is lashed into fury. There is heard the shriek of a hurricane like the voice of demons upon a mission of destruction. The whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea. Its surface is breaking up. Its very foundations seem to be giving away. Mountain chains are sinking. Inhabited islands disappear. The seaports that have become like Sodom for wickedness are swallowed up by the angry waters. Babylon the great has come in remembrance before God, "to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath." Great hailstones, every one "about the weight of a talent," are doing their work of destruction. Verses 19, 21. The proudest cities of the earth are laid low. The lordly palaces, upon which the world's great men have lavished their wealth in order to glorify themselves, are crumbling to ruin before their eyes. Prison walls are rent asunder, and God's people, who have been held in bondage for their faith, are set free.
------------------------The Special Resurrection, September 30
Mar	281	1	And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Daniel 12:2.
Mar	281	2	It was at midnight that God chose to deliver His people. As the wicked were mocking around them, suddenly the sun appeared, shining in his strength, and the moon stood still.... Dark, heavy clouds came up and clashed against each other. But there was one clear place of settled glory, whence came the voice of God like many waters, shaking the heavens and the earth. There was a mighty earthquake. The graves were opened, and those who had died in faith under the third angel's message, keeping the Sabbath, came forth from their dusty beds, glorified, to hear the covenant of peace that God was to make with those who had kept His law.
Mar	281	3	Those who sleep in Jesus will be called from their prison house ... to a glorious immortality.... He has risen, dear friends, and in your despondency you may know ... that Jesus is by your side to give you peace.
Mar	281	4	I know what I am talking about. I have seen the time when I thought the waves were going over my head; in that time I felt my Saviour precious to me. When my eldest son was taken from me I felt my grief was very great, but Jesus came to my side and I felt His peace in my soul. The cup of consolation was placed to my lips.
Mar	281	5	And then he who had stood by my side for thirty-six years ... was taken. We had labored together side by side in the ministry, but we had to fold the hands of the warrior and lay him down to rest in the silent grave. Again my grief seemed very great, but after all came the cup of consolation. Jesus is precious to me. He walked by my side ... and He will walk by your side. When our friends go into the grave they are beautiful to us. It may be our father or mother that we lay away: when they come forth those wrinkles are all gone but the figure is there, and we know them....
Mar	281	6	We want to be prepared to meet these dear friends as they come forth in the resurrection morning.... Shall we lay hold upon the hope set before us in the gospel that we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is?
------------------------The Special Resurrection of the Unjust, October 1
Mar	282	1	Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. Revelation 1:7.
Mar	282	2	"They also which pierced him" (Revelation 1:7), those that mocked and derided Christ's dying agonies, and the most violent opposers of His truth and His people, are raised to behold Him in His glory and to see the honor placed upon the loyal and obedient.
Mar	282	3	[At His trial], Caiaphas, raising his right hand toward heaven, addressed Jesus in the form of a solemn oath: "I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God." ...
Mar	282	4	Every ear was bent to listen, and every eye was fixed on His face as He answered, "Thou hast said." A heavenly light seemed to illuminate His pale countenance as He added, "Nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."
Mar	282	5	For a moment the divinity of Christ flashed through His guise of humanity. The high priest quailed before the penetrating eyes of the Saviour.... For a moment he felt as if standing before the eternal Judge, whose eye, which sees all things, was reading his soul, bringing to light mysteries supposed to be hidden with the dead.
Mar	282	6	The scene passed from the priest's vision.... Rending his robe, ... he demanded that ... the prisoner be condemned for blasphemy. "What further need have we of witnesses?" he said; "behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye?" And they all condemned Him.
Mar	282	7	Thus the Jewish leaders made their choice. Their decision was registered in the book which John saw in the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, the book which no man could open. In all its vindictiveness this decision will appear before them in the day when this book is unsealed by the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
Mar	282	8	When Christ comes the second time, not as a prisoner surrounded by a rabble will they see Him. They will see Him as heaven's King.... Then the priests and rulers will remember distinctly the scene in the judgment hall. Every circumstance will appear before them as if written in letters of fire.
------------------------The Elements Melt with Fervent Heat, October 2
Mar	283	1	The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 2 Peter 3:10.
Mar	283	2	In the day of the Lord, just before the coming of Christ, God will send lightnings from Heaven in His wrath, which will unite with fire in the earth. The mountains will burn like a furnace, and will pour forth terrible streams of lava, destroying gardens and fields, villages and cities; and as they pour their melted ore, rocks and heated mud into the rivers, will cause them to boil like a pot, and send forth massive rocks and scatter their broken fragments upon the land with indescribable violence. Whole rivers will be dried up. The earth will be convulsed, and there will be dreadful eruptions and earthquakes everywhere. God will plague the wicked inhabitants of the earth until they are destroyed from off it.
Mar	283	3	The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and be removed as a cottage. The elements shall be in flames, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll.
Mar	283	4	The earth's crust will be rent by the outbursts of the elements concealed in the bowels of the earth. These elements, once broken loose, will sweep away the treasures of those who for years have been adding to their wealth by securing large possessions at starvation prices from those in their employ.
Mar	283	5	The great general conflagration is but just ahead, when all this wasted labor of life will be swept away in a night and day.
Mar	283	6	There will be ... great destruction of human life. But as in the days of the great deluge Noah was preserved in the ark that God had prepared for him, so in these days of destruction and calamity, God will be the refuge of His believing ones. Through the psalmist He declares, "Because thou has made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." "For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion...." Then shall we not make the Lord our surety and our defense?
Mar	283	7	We should be preparing for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for them that love Him. There is a rest from earth's conflict.
------------------------A Graphic Illustration of the Seventh Plague, October 3
Mar	284	1	Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble? Job 38:22, 23.
Mar	284	2	Byron Belden, Sarah Belden, and Sister May Lacey accompanied me to my appointment at Prospect [Australia]. As we left the [meeting] house we saw a storm coming ... so portentous that we drove fast with our colts as we dared. When we were almost home the fury of the gale struck. Large hailstones began to fall--as large as a hen's egg.... [They] frightened the young horse, for they were striking her with terrible force.
Mar	284	3	I said, "Byron, get out at once.... Go to her head; talk to her. Let the horses know it is not you that are beating them." He jumped out at this suggestion. I said, "May Lacey and Sarah, get out." They did.... I got out next, May and Sarah helping me.... The wind was blowing with such force that hats were taken from our heads and cushions were blown from the wagon. The heavy carriage cushions, umbrellas, and heavy carriage robes were blown into the field, and were flying in every direction....
Mar	284	4	What a scene! Sister Belden, May Lacey, and I reached the house hatless.... Byron was with the poor terror-stricken new horse.... We could only lift up our hearts to God for His help....
Mar	284	5	This is the sharpest experience I have ever had in a carriage in a storm.... I thought of the day when the judgment of God would be poured out upon the world, when blackness and horrible darkness would clothe the heavens as sackcloth of hair.... My imagination anticipated what it must be in that period when the Lord's mighty voice shall give commission to His angels, "Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." ...
Mar	284	6	Revelation 6 and 7 are full of meaning. Terrible are the judgments of God revealed. The seven angels stood before God to receive their commission. To them were given seven trumpets. The Lord was going forth to punish the inhabitants of the earth....
Mar	284	7	When the plagues of God shall come upon the earth hail will fall upon the wicked about the weight of a talent.
------------------------The Earth Flees from its Maker, October 4
Mar	285	1	Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up. Isaiah 13:13, 14.
Mar	285	2	Thick clouds still cover the sky; yet the sun now and then breaks through, appearing like the avenging eye of Jehovah. Fierce lightnings leap from the heavens, enveloping the earth in a sheet of flame. Above the terrific roar of thunder, voices, mysterious and awful, declare the doom of the wicked. The words spoken are not comprehended by all; but they are distinctly understood by the false teachers. Those who a little before were so reckless, so boastful and defiant, so exultant in their cruelty to God's commandment-keeping people, are now overwhelmed with consternation and shuddering in fear. Their wails are heard above the sound of the elements. Demons acknowledge the deity of Christ and tremble before His power, while men are supplicating for mercy and groveling in abject terror....
Mar	285	3	Through a rift in the clouds there beams a star whose brilliancy is increased fourfold in contrast with the darkness. It speaks hope and joy to the faithful, but severity and wrath to the transgressors of God's law. Those who have sacrificed all for Christ are now secure, hidden as in the secret of the Lord's pavilion. They have been tested, and before the world and the despisers of truth they have evinced their fidelity to Him who died for them. A marvelous change has come over those who have held fast their integrity in the very face of death. They have been suddenly delivered from the dark and terrible tyranny of men transformed to demons. Their faces, so lately pale, anxious, and haggard, are now aglow with wonder, faith, and love. Their voices rise in triumphant song: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." Psalm 46:1-3.
------------------------God's Law Appears in the Heavens, October 5
Mar	286	1	The heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Psalm 50:6.
Mar	286	2	The clouds sweep back, and the starry heavens are seen, unspeakably glorious in contrast with the black and angry firmament on either side. The glory of the celestial city streams from the gates ajar.
Mar	286	3	In the temple will be seen the ark of the testament in which were placed the two tables of stone, on which are written God's law. These tables of stone will be brought forth from their hiding place, and on them will be seen the Ten Commandments engraved by the finger of God. These tables of stone now lying in the ark of the testament will be a convincing testimony to the truth and binding claims of God's law.
Mar	286	4	Sacrilegious minds and hearts have thought they were mighty enough to change the times and laws of Jehovah; but, safe in the archives of heaven, in the ark of God, are the original commandments, written upon the two tables of stone. No potentate of earth has power to draw forth those tables from their sacred hiding place beneath the mercy seat.
Mar	286	5	There appears against the sky a hand holding two tables of stone folded together. Says the prophet: "The heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself." Psalm 50:6. That holy law, God's righteousness, that amid thunder and flame was proclaimed from Sinai as the guide of life, is now revealed to men as the rule of judgment. The hand opens the tables, and there are seen the precepts of the Decalogue, traced as with a pen of fire. The words are so plain that all can read them. Memory is aroused, the darkness of superstition and heresy is swept from every mind, and God's ten words, brief, comprehensive, and authoritative, are presented to the view of all the inhabitants of the earth.
Mar	286	6	It is impossible to describe the horror and despair of those who have trampled upon God's holy requirements....
Mar	286	7	The enemies of God's law, from the ministers down to the least among them, have a new conception of truth and duty. Too late they see that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the seal of the living God.
------------------------The Day and Hour of Christ's Coming Announced, October 6
Mar	287	1	But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Matthew 24:36.
Mar	287	2	The voice of God is heard from heaven, declaring the day and hour of Jesus' coming, and delivering everlasting covenant to His people. Like peals of loudest thunder His words roll through the earth.
Mar	287	3	He spoke one sentence, and then paused, while the words were rolling through the earth. The Israel of God stood with their eyes fixed upward, listening to the words as they came from the mouth of Jehovah and rolled through the earth like peals of loudest thunder. It was awfully solemn. At the end of every sentence the saints shouted, "Glory! Hallelujah!"
Mar	287	4	The living saints, 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake.
Mar	287	5	The Israel of God stand listening, with their eyes fixed upward. Their countenances are lighted up with His glory, and shine as did the face of Moses when he came down from Sinai. The wicked cannot look upon them. And when the blessing is pronounced on those who have honored God by keeping His Sabbath holy, there is a mighty shout of victory.
Mar	287	6	Then commenced the jubilee, when the land should rest.
Mar	287	7	A glorious light shone upon them [the saints]. How beautiful they then looked! All marks of care and weariness were gone, and health and beauty were seen in every countenance. Their enemies, the heathen around them, fell like dead men; they could not endure the light that shone upon the delivered, holy ones. This light and glory remained upon them, until Jesus was seen in the clouds of heaven.
Mar	287	8	And I saw a flaming cloud come where Jesus stood. Then Jesus ... took His place on the cloud which carried Him to the East, where it first appeared to the saints on earth--a small black cloud which was the sign of the Son of man. While the cloud was passing from the Holiest to the East, which took a number of days, the synagogue of Satan worshipped at the saints' feet.
------------------------Gleams of the Golden Morning, October 7
Mar	288	1	For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Matthew 24:27.
Mar	288	2	While all the world is plunged in darkness, there will be light in every dwelling of the saints. They will catch the first light of His second appearing.
Mar	288	3	Soon there appears in the east a small black cloud, about half the size of a man's hand. It is the cloud which surrounds the Saviour and which seems in the distance to be shrouded in darkness. The people of God know this to be the sign of the Son of man. In solemn silence they gaze upon it as it draws nearer the earth, becoming lighter and more glorious, until it is a great white cloud, its base a glory like consuming fire, and above it the rainbow of the covenant. Jesus rides forth as a mighty conqueror. Not now a "man of sorrows," to drink the bitter cup of shame and woe, He comes, victor in heaven and earth, to judge the living and the dead. "Faithful and True," "in righteousness he doth judge and make war." And "the armies which were in heaven" (Revelation 19:11, 14) follow Him. With anthems of celestial melody the holy angels, a vast, unnumbered throng, attend Him on His way. The firmament seems filled with radiant forms--"ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." No human pen can portray the scene; no mortal mind is adequate to conceive its splendor. "His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light." Habakkuk 3:3, 4. As the living cloud comes still nearer, every eye beholds the Prince of life. No crown of thorns now mars that sacred head; but a diadem of glory rests on His holy brow. His countenance outshines the dazzling brightness of the noonday sun. "And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." Revelation 19:16.
Mar	288	4	With uplifted heads, with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining upon them, with rejoicing that their redemption draweth nigh, they [the living saints], go forth to meet the Bridegroom, saying. "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us."
------------------------The Second Coming of Christ, October 8
Mar	289	1	Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Psalm 50:3, 4.
Mar	289	2	Soon our eyes were drawn to the east, for a small black cloud had appeared, about half as large as a man's hand, which we all knew was the sign of the Son of man. We all in solemn silence gazed on the cloud as it drew nearer and became lighter, glorious, and still more glorious, till it was a great white cloud. The bottom appeared like fire; a rainbow was over the cloud, while around it were ten thousand angels, singing a most lovely song; and upon it sat the Son of man.
Mar	289	3	When it first appeared in the distance, this cloud looked very small. The angel said that it was the sign of the Son of man. As it drew nearer the earth, we could behold the excellent glory and majesty of Jesus as He rode forth to conquer.
Mar	289	4	His hair was white and curly and lay on His shoulders; and upon his head were many crowns. His feet had the appearance of fire; in His right hand was a sharp sickle; in His left, a silver trumpet. His eyes were as a flame of fire, which searched His children through and through. Then all faces gathered paleness, and those that God had rejected gathered blackness. Then we all cried out, "Who shall be able to stand? Is my robe spotless?" Then the angels ceased to sing, and there was some time of awful silence, when Jesus spoke: "Those who have clean hands and pure hearts shall be able to stand; My grace is sufficient for you." At this our faces lighted up, and joy filled every heart. And the angels struck a note higher and sang again, while the cloud drew still nearer the earth.
Mar	289	5	The earth trembled before Him, the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains."
------------------------In the Dens and Caves of the Earth, October 9
Mar	290	1	And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Isaiah 2:19.
Mar	290	2	The hidden ones have been scattered because of man's enmity against the law of Jehovah. They have been oppressed by all the powers of the earth. They have been scattered in the dens and caves of the earth through the violence of their adversaries, because they are true and obedient to Jehovah's laws. But deliverance comes to the people of God. To their enemies God will show Himself a God of just retribution....
Mar	290	3	From the dens and the caves of the earth, that have been the secret hiding places of God's people, they are called forth as His witnesses, true and faithful.
Mar	290	4	The people who have braved out their rebellion will fulfill the description given in Revelation 6:15-17. In these very caves and dens they find the very statement of truth in the letters and in the publications as witness against them. The shepherds who lead the sheep in false paths will hear the charge made against them, "It was you who made light of truth. It was you who told us that God's law was abrogated, that it was a yoke of bondage. It was you who voiced the false doctrines when I was convicted that these Seventh-day Adventists had the truth. The blood of our souls is upon your priestly garments.... Now will you pay the ransom for my soul? ... What shall we do who listened to your garbling of the Scriptures and your turning into a lie the truth which if obeyed would have saved us?"
Mar	290	5	When Christ comes to take vengeance on those who have educated and trained the people to trample on God's Sabbath, to tear down His memorial, and tread down with their feet the feed of His pastures, lamentations will be in vain. Those who trusted in the false shepherds had the word of God to search for themselves, and they find that God will judge every man who has had the truth and turned from the light because it involved self-denial and the cross. Rocks and mountains cannot screen them from the indignation of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
------------------------Christ's Appearance at His Second Coming, October 10
Mar	291	1	We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Philippians 3:20, 21.
Mar	291	2	Christ had ascended to heaven in the form of humanity. The disciples had beheld the cloud receive Him. The same Jesus who had walked and talked and prayed with them; who had broken bread with them; who had been with them in their boats on the lake; and who had that very day toiled with them up the ascent of Olivet--the same Jesus had now gone to share His Father's throne. And the angels had assured them that the very One whom they had seen go up into heaven, would come again even as He had ascended.
Mar	291	3	The glory of Christ's humanity did not appear when He was upon the earth.... That same humanity now appears as He descends from heaven, robed in glory, triumphant, exalted.
Mar	291	4	Christ will come in His own glory, in the glory of His Father, and in the glory of the holy angels. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels, the beautiful, triumphant sons of God, possessing surpassing loveliness and glory, will escort Him on His way. In the place of a crown of thorns, He will wear a crown of glory--a crown within a crown. In the place of that old purple robe, He will be clothed in a garment of whitest white, "so as no fuller on earth can white" (Mark 9:3) it. And on His vesture and on His thigh a name will be written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." Revelation 19:16.
Mar	291	5	All heaven will be emptied of the angels, while the waiting saints will be looking for Him and gazing into heaven, as were the men of Galilee when He ascended from the Mount of Olivet. Then only those who are holy, those who have followed fully the meek Pattern, will with rapturous joy exclaim as they behold Him, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us." And they will be changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump"--that trump which wakes the sleeping saints, and calls them forth from their dusty beds, clothed with glorious immortality, and shouting, "Victory! Victory over death and the grave!"
------------------------Judgment at the Second Advent, October 11
Mar	292	1	I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. 2 Timothy 4:1.
Mar	292	2	The judgment scene will take place in the presence of all the worlds; for in this judgment the government of God will be vindicated, and His law will stand forth as "holy, and just, and good." Then every case will be decided, and sentence will be passed upon all. Sin will not then appear attractive, but will be seen in all its hideous magnitude.
Mar	292	3	No human language can portray the scenes of the second coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. He is to come with His own glory, and with the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. He will come clad in the robe of light, which He has worn from the days of eternity. Angels will accompany Him. Ten thousand times ten thousand will escort Him on His way. The sound of the trumpet will be heard, calling the sleeping dead from the grave. The voice of Christ will penetrate the tomb, and pierce the ears of the dead, "and all that are in the graves ... shall come forth."
Mar	292	4	"And before him shall be gathered all nations." The very One who died for man is to judge him in the last day: for the Father "hath committed all judgment unto the Son: ... and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." What a day that will be, when those who rejected Christ will look upon Him whom their sins have pierced.
Mar	292	5	At His second coming, conviction will be brought to every heart. Those who have turned from Him to the trivial things of this earth, seeking selfish interests and worldly honor, will in the day of His coming acknowledge their mistake. These are the ones spoken of by the Revelator as "all kindreds of the earth," who "shall wail because of him." ...
Mar	292	6	"And they also which pierced him." These words apply not only to the men who pierced Christ when He hung on the cross of Calvary, but to those who by evil-speaking and wrong-doing are piercing Him today.
------------------------They that Pierced Him, October 12
Mar	293	1	Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Mark 14:62.
Mar	293	2	As they [the Jewish rulers] gaze upon His glory, there flashes before their minds the memory of the Son of Man clad in the garb of humanity. They remember how they treated Him, how they refused Him, and pressed close to the side of the great apostate. The scenes of Christ's life appear before them in all their clearness. All He did, all He said, the humiliation to which He descended to save them from the taint of sin, rises before them in condemnation.
Mar	293	3	They behold Him riding into Jerusalem, and see Him break into an agony of tears over the impenitent city that would not receive His message. His voice, which was heard in invitation, in entreaty, in tones of tender solicitude, seems again to fall upon their ears. The scene in the garden of Gethsemane rises before them, and they hear Christ's amazing prayer, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me."
Mar	293	4	Again they hear the voice of Pilate, saying, "I find in him no fault at all." They see the shameful scene in the judgment hall, when Barabbas stood by the side of Christ, and they had the privilege of choosing the guiltless One. They hear again the words of Pilate, "Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?" They hear the response, "Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas." To the question of Pilate, "What shall I do then with Jesus?" the answer comes, "Let him be crucified."
Mar	293	5	Again they see their Sacrifice bearing the reproach of the cross. They hear the loud, triumphant tones tauntingly exclaim, "If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." "He saved others; himself he cannot save."
Mar	293	6	Now they behold Him not in the garden of Gethsemane, not in the judgment hall, not on the cross of Calvary. The signs of His humiliation have passed away, and they look upon the face of God--the face they spit upon, the face which priests and rulers struck with the palms of their hands. Now the truth in all its vividness is revealed to them.
------------------------The Wicked Slay Each Other, October 13
Mar	294	1	I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God: every man's sword shall be against his brother. Ezekiel 38:21.
Mar	294	2	The wicked are filled with regret, not because of their sinful neglect of God and their fellow men, but because God has conquered. They lament that the result is what it is; but they do not repent of their wickedness. They would leave no means untried to conquer if they could....
Mar	294	3	Ministers and people see that they have not sustained the right relation to God. They see that they have rebelled against the Author of all just and righteous law. The setting aside of the divine precepts gave rise to thousands of springs of evil, discord, hatred, iniquity, until the earth became one vast field of strife, one sink of corruption. This is the view that now appears to those who rejected truth and chose to cherish error. No language can express the longing which the disobedient and disloyal feel for that which they have lost forever--eternal life. Men whom the world has worshiped for their talents and eloquence now see these things in their true light. They realize what they have forfeited by transgression, and they fall at the feet of those whose fidelity they have despised and derided, and confess that God has loved them.
Mar	294	4	The people see that they have been deluded. They accuse one another of having led them to destruction; but all unite in heaping their bitterest condemnation upon the ministers. Unfaithful pastors have prophesied smooth things; they have led their hearers to make void the law of God and to persecute those who would keep it holy. Now, in their despair, these teachers confess before the world their work of deception. The multitudes are filled with fury. "We are lost!" they cry, "and you are the cause of our ruin"; and they turn upon the false shepherds. The very ones that once admired them most will pronounce the most dreadful curses upon them. The very hands that once crowned them with laurels will be raised for their destruction. The swords which were to slay God's people are now employed to destroy their enemies. Everywhere there is strife and bloodshed.
------------------------The Wrath of the Lamb, October 14
Mar	295	1	The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. Revelation 6:15, 16.
Mar	295	2	The derisive jests have ceased. Lying lips are hushed into silence. The clash of arms, the tumult of battle, "with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood" (Isaiah 9:5), is stilled. Nought now is heard but the voice of prayer and the sound of weeping and lamentation. The cry bursts forth from lips so lately scoffing: "The great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" The wicked pray to be buried beneath the rocks of the mountains rather than meet the face of Him whom they have despised and rejected.
Mar	295	3	That voice which penetrates the ear of the dead, they know. How often have its plaintive, tender tones called them to repentance. How often has it been heard in the touching entreaties of a friend, a brother, a Redeemer. To the rejecters of His grace no other could be so full of condemnation, so burdened with denunciation, as that voice which has so long pleaded: "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?" Ezekiel 33:11. Oh, that it were to them the voice of a stranger! Says Jesus: "I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof." Proverbs 1:24, 25. That voice awakens memories which they would fain blot out--warnings despised, invitations refused, privileges slighted....
Mar	295	4	In the lives of all who reject truth there are moments when conscience awakens, when memory presents the torturing recollection of a life of hypocrisy and the soul is harassed with vain regrets. But what are these compared with the remorse of that day ... when "destruction cometh as a whirlwind"! Proverbs 1:27. Those who would have destroyed Christ and His faithful people now witness the glory which rests upon them.
------------------------God Intervenes in Armageddon, October 15
Mar	296	1	A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 25:31.
Mar	296	2	For six thousand years the great controversy has been in progress; the Son of God and His heavenly messengers have been in conflict with the power of the evil one, to warn, enlighten, and save the children of men. Now all have made their decisions; the wicked have fully united with Satan in his warfare against God. The time has come for God to vindicate the authority of His downtrodden law. Now the controversy is not alone with Satan, but with men. "The Lord hath a controversy with the nations"; "He will give them that are wicked to the sword."
Mar	296	3	The mark of deliverance has been set upon those "that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done." Now the angel of death goes forth, represented in Ezekiel's vision by the men with the slaughtering weapons, to whom the command is given: "Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary." Says the prophet: "They began at the ancient men which were before the house." Ezekiel 9:1-6. The work of destruction begins among those who have professed to be the spiritual guardians of the people. The false watchmen are the first to fall. There are none to pity or to spare. Men, women, maidens, and little children perish together.
Mar	296	4	"The Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain." Isaiah 26:21.... In the mad strife of their own fierce passions, and by the awful outpouring of God's unmingled wrath, fall the wicked inhabitants of the earth--priests, rulers, and people, rich and poor, high and low. "And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried." Jeremiah 25:33.
------------------------The Nature of the Final Battle, October 16
Mar	297	1	The Lord hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation. Jeremiah 50:25.
Mar	297	2	At His own will God summons the forces of nature to overthrow the might of His enemies--"fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word." Psalm 148:8. When the heathen Amorites had set themselves to resist His purposes, God interposed, casting down "great stones from heaven" upon the enemies of Israel. We are told of a greater battle to take place in the closing scenes of earth's history, when Jehovah "hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation." Jeremiah 50:25. "Hast thou," he inquires, "entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?" Job 38:22, 23.
Mar	297	3	The revelator describes the destruction that is to take place when the "great voice out of the temple of heaven" announces, "It is done." He says, "There fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent." Revelation 16:17, 21.
Mar	297	4	In the last scenes of this earth's history, war will rage.
Mar	297	5	The powers of evil will not yield up the conflict without a struggle. But Providence has a part to act in the battle of Armageddon.
Mar	297	6	The Captain of the Lord's host will stand at the head of the angels of heaven to direct the battle.
Mar	297	7	He on whose vesture is written the name, King of kings and Lord of lords, leads forth the armies of heaven on white horses, clothed in fine linen, clean and white.
Mar	297	8	When He shall come to the earth again, He will shake "not the earth only, but also heaven." "The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage." "The heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll"; "the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." But "the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." Hebrews 12:26; Isaiah 24:20; 34:4; 2 Peter 3:10; Joel 3:16.
------------------------Be Ye Also Ready, October 17
Mar	298	1	Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Matthew 24:44.
Mar	298	2	Suppose that today Christ should appear in the clouds of heaven, who ... would be ready to meet Him? Suppose we should be translated into the kingdom of heaven just as we are. Would we be prepared to unite with the saints of God, to live in harmony with the royal family, the children of the heavenly King? What preparation have you made for the judgment? Have you made your peace with God? ... Are you seeking to help those around you, those in your home, those in your neighborhood, those with whom you come in contact that are not keeping the commandments of God? ... Remember that profession is worthless without a practice that enters into the daily life. God knows whether we are keeping His law in truth. He knows just what we are doing, just what we are thinking and saying. Are we getting ready to meet the King? When He comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, will you be able to say, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us" (Isaiah 25:9)? To those who can say this Christ will say, "Come up higher. Upon this earth you have loved Me. You have loved to do My will. You can now enter the Holy City and receive the crown of everlasting life."
Mar	298	3	If it were possible for us to be admitted into heaven as we are, how many of us would be able to look upon God? How many of us have on the wedding garment? How many of us are without spot or wrinkle or any such thing? ...
Mar	298	4	This is our washing and ironing time--the time when we are to cleanse our robes of character in the blood of the Lamb. John says, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).... Shall we not let our sins go? ...
Mar	298	5	I entreat you, brethren and sisters, to labor earnestly to secure the crown of everlasting life. The reward will be worth the conflict, worth the effort.... In the race in which we are running, everyone may receive the reward offered--a crown of everlasting life. I want this crown; I mean by God's help to have it. I mean to hold fast to the truth, that I may see the King in His beauty.
------------------------The General Resurrection of the Righteous, October 18
Mar	299	1	Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Isaiah 26:19.
Mar	299	2	The King of kings descends upon the cloud, wrapped in flaming fire. The heavens are rolled together as a scroll, the earth trembles before Him, and every mountain and island is moved out of its place....
Mar	299	3	Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then, raising His hands to heaven, He cries: "Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!" Throughout the length and breadth of the earth the dead shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live. And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. From the prison house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory, crying: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" 1 Corinthians 15:55. And the living righteous and the risen saints unite their voices in a long, glad shout of victory.
Mar	299	4	All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when they entered the tomb.... But all arise with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth.... The mortal, corruptible form, devoid of comeliness, once polluted with sin, becomes perfect, beautiful, and immortal. All blemishes and deformities are left in the grave....
Mar	299	5	The living righteous are changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." At the voice of God they were glorified; now they are made immortal and with the risen saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air. Angels "gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
Mar	299	6	As the little infants come forth immortal from their dusty beds, they immediately wing their way to their mothers' arms.
Mar	299	7	Friends long separated by death are united, nevermore to part, and with songs of gladness ascend together to the City of God.
------------------------Victory of the Sleeping Saints, October 19
Mar	300	1	Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation John 5:28, 29.
Mar	300	2	The Life-giver will call up His purchased possession in the first resurrection, and until that triumphant hour, when the last trump shall sound and the vast army shall come forth to eternal victory, every sleeping saint will be kept in safety and will be guarded as a precious jewel, who is known to God by name. By the power of the Saviour that dwelt in them while living and because they were partakers of the divine nature, they are brought forth from the dead.
Mar	300	3	"The hour is coming," Christ said, "in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth." That voice is to resound through all the habitations of the dead; and every saint who sleeps in Jesus will awake and leave his prisonhouse. Then the virtue of character we have received from Christ's righteousness will ally us to true greatness of the highest order.
Mar	300	4	The victory of the sleeping saints will be glorious on the morning of the resurrection.... The Life-giver will crown with immortality all who come forth from the grave.
Mar	300	5	There stands the risen host. The last thought was of death and its pangs. The last thoughts they had were of the grave and the tomb, but now they proclaim, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" ... Here they stand and the finishing touch of immortality is put upon them and they go up to meet their Lord in the air.... There are the columns of angels on either side; ... then the angelic choir strike the note of victory and the angels in the two columns take up the song and the redeemed host join as though they had been singing the song on the earth, and they have been. Oh, what music! There is not an inharmonious note. Every voice proclaims, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." He sees the travail of His soul, and is satisfied.
------------------------Mysteries of the Resurrection, October 20
Mar	301	1	For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. Job 19:25-27.
Mar	301	2	Our personal identity is preserved in the resurrection, though not the same particles of matter or material substance as went into the grave. The wondrous works of God are a mystery to man. The spirit, the character of man, is returned to God, there to be preserved. In the resurrection every man will have his own character. God in His own time will call forth the dead, giving again the breath of life, and bidding the dry bones live. The same form will come forth, but it will be free from disease and every defect. It lives again bearing the same individuality of features, so that friend will recognize friend. There is no law of God in nature which shows that God gives back the same identical particles of matter which composed the body before death. God shall give the righteous dead a body that will please Him.
Mar	301	3	Paul illustrates this subject by the kernel of grain sown in the field. The planted kernel decays, but there comes forth a new kernel. The natural substance in the grain that decays is never raised as before, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him. A much finer material will compose the human body, for it is a new creation, a new birth. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
Mar	301	4	He [the believer] may die, as Christ died, but the life of the Saviour is in him. His life is hid with Christ in God. "I am come that they might have life," Jesus said, "and that they might have it more abundantly." He carries on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life, to be one with Him throughout all eternity....
Mar	301	5	At the last day He will raise them as a part of Himself.... Christ became one with us in order that we might become one with Him in divinity.
------------------------Life Eternal Begins Now, October 21
Mar	302	1	This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 1 John 5:11.
Mar	302	2	The resurrection of Jesus was a sample of the final resurrection of all who sleep in Him.
Mar	302	3	He [the Christian] may die; but the life of Christ is in him, and at the resurrection of the just he will rise to newness of life.
Mar	302	4	"In him [Christ] was life; and the life was the light of men." It is not physical life that is here specified, but immortality, the life which is exclusively the property of God. The Word, who was with God, and who was God, had this life. Physical life is something which each individual receives. It is not eternal or immortal; for God, the Life-giver, takes it again. Man has no control over his life. But the life of Christ was unborrowed. No one can take this life from Him. "I lay it down of myself," He said. In Him was life, original, unborrowed, underived. This life is not inherent in man. He can possess it only through Christ.
Mar	302	5	While bearing human nature, He [Christ] was dependent upon the Omnipotent for His life. In His humanity, He laid hold of the divinity of God; and this every member of the human family has the privilege of doing....
Mar	302	6	If we repent of our transgression, and receive Christ as the Life-giver, ... we become one with Him, and our will is brought into harmony with the divine will. We become partakers of the life of Christ, which is eternal. We derive immortality from God by receiving the life of Christ, for in Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. This life is the mystical union and cooperation of the divine with the human.
Mar	302	7	Christ became one flesh with us, in order that we might become one spirit with Him. It is by virtue of this union that we are to come forth from the grave--not merely as a manifestation of the power of Christ, but because, through faith, His life has become ours. Those who see Christ in His true character, and receive Him into the heart, have everlasting life. It is through the Spirit that Christ dwells in us; and the Spirit of God, received into the heart by faith, is the beginning of the life eternal.
------------------------We shall Recognize Each Other, October 22
Mar	303	1	Then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12.
Mar	303	2	We shall know our friends, even as the disciples knew Jesus. They may have been deformed, diseased, or disfigured, in this mortal life, and they rise in perfect health and symmetry; yet in the glorified body their identity will be perfectly preserved.... In the face radiant with the light shining from the face of Jesus, we shall recognize the lineaments of those we love.
Mar	303	3	The redeemed will meet and recognize those whose attention they have directed to the uplifted Saviour. What blessed converse they have with these souls! "I was a sinner," it will be said, "without God and without hope in the world, and you came to me and drew my attention to the precious Saviour as my only hope...." Others will say, "I was a heathen in heathen lands. You left your friends and comfortable home and came to teach me how to find Jesus and believe in Him as the only true God. I demolished my idols and worshiped God, and now I see Him face to face. I am saved, eternally saved, ever to behold Him whom I love...."
Mar	303	4	Others will express their gratitude to those who fed the hungry and clothed the naked. "When despair bound my soul in unbelief, the Lord sent you to me," they say, "to speak words of hope and comfort. You brought me food for my physical necessities, and you opened to me the Word of God, awakening me to my spiritual needs. You treated me as a brother. You sympathized with me in my sorrows, and restored my bruised and wounded soul, so that I could grasp the hand of Christ that was reached out to save me. In my ignorance you taught me patiently that I had a Father in heaven who cared for me. You read to me the precious promises of God's Word. You inspired in me the faith that He would save me. My heart was softened, subdued, broken, as I contemplated the sacrifice which Christ had made for me.... I am here, saved, eternally saved, ever to live in His presence and to praise Him who gave His life for me."
Mar	303	5	What rejoicing there will be as these redeemed ones meet and greet those who have had a burden in their behalf! And those who have lived, not to please themselves, but to be a blessing to the unfortunate who have so few blessings--how their hearts will thrill with satisfaction!
------------------------The Blessed Hope, October 23
Mar	304	1	Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13.
Mar	304	2	Jesus said He would go away and prepare mansions for us, that where He is there we may be also. We shall ever dwell with and enjoy the light of His precious countenance. My heart leaps with joy at the cheering prospect. We are almost home. Heaven, sweet heaven! It is our eternal home. I am glad every moment that Jesus lives, and because He lives we shall live also. My soul says, Praise the Lord. There is a fullness in Jesus, a supply for each, for all, and why should we die for bread or starve in foreign lands?
Mar	304	3	I hunger, I thirst for salvation, for entire conformity to the will of God. We have a good hope through Jesus. It is sure and steadfast and entereth into that within the veil. It yields us consolation in affliction, it gives us joy amid anguish, disperses the gloom around us, and causes us to look through it all to immortality and eternal life.... Earthly treasures are no inducement to us, for while we have this hope it reaches clear above the treasures of earth that are passing away and takes hold of the immortal inheritance, the treasures that are durable, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fade not away....
Mar	304	4	Our mortal bodies may die and be laid away in the grave. Yet the blessed hope lives on until the resurrection, when the voice of Jesus calls forth the sleeping dust. We shall then enjoy the fullness of the blessed, glorious hope. We know in whom we have believed. We have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. A rich, a glorious reward is before us; it is the prize for which we run, and if we persevere with courage we shall surely obtain it....
Mar	304	5	There is salvation for us, and why do we stay away from the fountain? Why not come and drink that our souls may be refreshed, invigorated, and may flourish in God? Why do we cling so closely to earth? There is something better than earth for us to talk about and think of. We can be in a heavenly frame of mind. Oh, let us dwell upon Jesus' lovely, spotless character, and by beholding we shall become changed to the same image. Be of good courage. Have faith in God.
------------------------Translation of the Righteous, October 24
Mar	305	1	For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.
Mar	305	2	Soon appeared the great white cloud. It looked more lovely than ever before. On it sat the Son of man. At first we did not see Jesus on the cloud, but as it drew near the earth we could behold His lovely person.... The voice of the Son of God called forth the sleeping saints, clothed with glorious immortality. The living saints were changed in a moment and were caught up with them into the cloudy chariot. It looked all over glorious as it rolled upward. On either side of the chariot were wings, and beneath it wheels. And as the chariot rolled upward, the wheels cried, "Holy," and the wings, as they moved, cried, "Holy," and the retinue of holy angels around the cloud cried, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!" And the saints in the cloud cried, "Glory! Alleluia!"
Mar	305	3	We all entered the cloud together, and were seven days ascending to the sea of glass, when Jesus brought the crowns, and with His own right hand placed them on our heads. He gave us harps of gold and palms of victory. Here on the sea of glass the 144,000 stood in a perfect square. Some of them had very bright crowns, others not so bright. Some crowns appeared heavy with stars, while others had but few. All were perfectly satisfied with their crowns. And they were all clothed with a glorious white mantle from their shoulders to their feet. Angels were all about us as we marched over the sea of glass to the gate of the city. Jesus raised His mighty, glorious arm, laid hold of the pearly gate, swung it back on its glittering hinges, and said to us, "You have washed your robes in My blood, stood stiffly for My truth, enter in." We all marched in and felt that we had a perfect right in the city.
Mar	305	4	A voice, richer than any music that ever fell on mortal ear, will be heard saying, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
------------------------The Earth Depopulated, October 25
Mar	306	1	I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. Jeremiah 4:23-25.
Mar	306	2	At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face of the whole earth--consumed with the spirit of His mouth and destroyed by the brightness of His glory. Christ takes His people to the City of God, and the earth is emptied of its inhabitants. "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof." "The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word." "Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned." Isaiah 24:1, 3, 5, 6.
Mar	306	3	The whole earth appears like a desolate wilderness. The ruins of cities and villages destroyed by the earthquake, uprooted trees, ragged rocks thrown out by the sea or torn out of the earth itself, are scattered over its surface, while vast caverns mark the spot where the mountains have been rent from their foundations.
Mar	306	4	Now the event takes place foreshadowed in the last solemn service of the Day of Atonement. When the ministration in the holy of holies had been completed, and the sins of Israel had been removed from the sanctuary by virtue of the blood of the sin offering, then the scapegoat was presented alive before the Lord; and in the presence of the congregation the high priest confessed over him "all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat." Leviticus 16:21. In like manner when the work of atonement in the heavenly sanctuary has been completed then in the presence of God and heavenly angels and the host of the redeemed the sins of God's people will be placed upon Satan; he will be declared guilty of all the evil which he has caused them to commit.
------------------------Satan is Bound, October 26
Mar	307	1	And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. Revelation 20:1, 2.
Mar	307	2	The revelator foretells the banishment of Satan and the condition of chaos and desolation to which the earth is to be reduced, and he declares that this condition will exist for a thousand years. After presenting the scenes of the Lord's second coming and the destruction of the wicked, the prophecy continues: "I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." Revelation 20:1-3.
Mar	307	3	That the expression "bottomless pit" represents the earth in a state of confusion and darkness is evident from other scriptures. Concerning the condition of the earth "in the beginning," the Bible record says that it "was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Genesis 1:2. Prophecy teaches that it will be brought back, partially at least, to this condition. Looking forward to the great day of God, the prophet Jeremiah declares: "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down." Jeremiah 4:23-26.
Mar	307	4	Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years. Limited to the earth, he will not have access to other worlds to tempt and annoy those who have never fallen. It is in this sense that he is bound: there are none remaining, upon whom he can exercise his power. He is wholly cut off from the work of deception and ruin which for so many centuries has been his sole delight.
------------------------Families will be Reunited, October 27
Mar	308	1	Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. Jeremiah 31:16, 17.
Mar	308	2	Christ is coming with clouds and with great glory. A multitude of shining angels will attend Him. He will come to raise the dead, and to change the living saints from glory to glory. He will come to honor those who have loved Him, and kept His commandments, and to take them to Himself. He has not forgotten them nor His promise. There will be a relinking of the family chain.
Mar	308	3	The day of God will reveal how much the world owes to godly mothers....
Mar	308	4	When the judgment shall sit, and the books shall be opened; when the "well done" of the great Judge is pronounced, and the crown of immortal glory is placed upon the brow of the victor, many will raise their crowns in sight of the assembled universe, and pointing to their mother say: "She made me all I am through the grace of God. Her instruction, her prayers, have been blessed to my eternal salvation."
Mar	308	5	With joy unutterable, parents see the crown, the robe, the harp, given to their children. The days of hope and fear are ended. The seed sown with tears and prayers may have seemed to be sown in vain, but their harvest is reaped with joy at last. Their children have been redeemed.
Mar	308	6	Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood.
Mar	308	7	To His faithful followers Christ has been a daily companion and familiar friend. They have lived in close contact, in constant communion with God. Upon them the glory of the Lord has risen. In them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has been reflected. Now they rejoice in the undimmed rays of the brightness and glory of the King in His majesty. They are prepared for the communion of heaven; for they have heaven in their hearts.
------------------------Crowns Being Prepared for the Faithful, October 28
Mar	309	1	I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:7, 8.
Mar	309	2	When the Lord makes up His jewels, the true, the frank, the honest, will be looked upon with pleasure. Angels are employed in making crowns for such ones, and upon these star-gemmed crowns will be reflected, with splendor, the light which radiates from the throne of God.
Mar	309	3	Talk of heavenly things. Talk of Jesus, His loveliness and glory, and of His undying love for you, and let your heart flow out in love and gratitude to Him, who died to save you. O, get ready to meet your Lord in peace. Those who are ready will soon receive an unfading crown of life, and will dwell forever in the kingdom of God, with Christ, with angels, and with those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.
Mar	309	4	A crown of glory ... is laid up for us who wait, and love, and long for, the appearing of the Saviour.
Mar	309	5	It is the waiting ones who are to be crowned with glory, honor, and immortality. You need not talk ... of the honors of the world, or the praise of its great ones. They are all vanity. Let but the finger of God touch them, and they would soon go back to dust again. I want honor that is lasting, honor that is immortal, honor that will never perish; a crown that is richer than any crown that ever decked the brow of a monarch.
Mar	309	6	In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and His Son. The angels of heaven, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King, and those who are the trophies of His victory--those who have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts accompanied by His redeemed ones, the witnesses that His mission of suffering and self-sacrifice has not been in vain.
------------------------A Crown for Every Child of God, October 29
Mar	310	1	Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1:12.
Mar	310	2	I saw a very great number of angels bring from the city glorious crowns--a crown for every saint, with his name written thereon. As Jesus called for the crowns, angels presented them to Him, and with His own right hand the lovely Jesus placed the crowns on the heads of the saints. In the same manner the angels brought the harps, and Jesus presented them also to the saints. The commanding angels first struck the note, and then every voice was raised in grateful, happy praise, and every hand skillfully swept over the strings of the harp, sending forth melodious music in rich and perfect strains....
Mar	310	3	Within the city there was everything to feast the eye. Rich glory they beheld everywhere. Then Jesus looked upon His redeemed saints; their countenances were radiant with glory; and as He fixed His loving eyes upon them, He said, with His rich, musical voice, "I behold the travail of My soul, and am satisfied. This rich glory is yours to enjoy eternally. Your sorrows are ended. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." ...
Mar	310	4	I then saw Jesus leading His people to the tree of life.... Upon the tree of life was most beautiful fruit, of which the saints could partake freely; in the city was a most glorious throne, from which proceeded a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal. On each side of this river was the tree of life, and on the banks of the river were other beautiful trees bearing fruit....
Mar	310	5	Language is altogether too feeble to attempt a description of heaven. As the scene rises before me, I am lost in amazement. Carried away with the surpassing splendor and excellent glory, I lay down the pen, and exclaim, "Oh, what love! what wondrous love!" The most exalted language fails to describe the glory of heaven or the matchless depths of a Saviour's love.
------------------------Our Redemption Draweth Nigh, October 30
Mar	311	1	When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Luke 21:28.
Mar	311	2	The coming of Christ is nearer than when we first believed. The great controversy is nearing its end. The judgments of God are in the land. They speak in solemn warning, saying: "Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." Matthew 24:44....
Mar	311	3	We are living in the closing scenes of this earth's history. Prophecy is fast fulfilling. The hours of probation are fast passing. We have no time--not a moment--to lose. Let us not be found sleeping on guard. Let no one say in his heart or by his works: "My lord delayeth his coming." Let the message of Christ's soon return sound forth in earnest words of warning. Let us persuade men and women everywhere to repent and flee from the wrath to come....
Mar	311	4	The Lord is soon to come, and we must be prepared to meet Him in peace. Let us be determined to do all in our power to impart light to those around us. We are not to be sad, but cheerful, and we are to keep the Lord Jesus ever before us. He is soon coming, and we must be ready and waiting for His appearing. Oh, how glorious it will be to see Him and be welcomed as His redeemed ones! Long have we waited, but our hope is not to grow dim. If we can but see the King in His beauty we shall be forever blessed. I feel as if I must cry aloud: "Homeward bound!" We are nearing the time when Christ will come in power and great glory to take His ransomed ones to their eternal home....
Mar	311	5	Long have we waited for our Saviour's return. But nonetheless sure is the promise. Soon we shall be in our promised home. There Jesus will lead us beside the living stream flowing from the throne of God and will explain to us the dark providences through which on this earth He brought us in order to perfect our characters. There we shall behold with undimmed vision the beauties of Eden restored. Casting at the feet of the Redeemer the crowns that He has placed on our heads, and touching our golden harps, we shall fill all heaven with praise to Him that sitteth on the throne.
------------------------His Reward is with Him, October 31
Mar	312	1	Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Revelation 22:12.
Mar	312	2	Our work here is soon to close, and every man will receive his reward according to his own labor. I was shown the saints' reward, the immortal inheritance, and saw that those who had endured the most for the truth's sake will not think they have had a hard time, but will count heaven cheap enough.
Mar	312	3	Every day bears its burden of record of unfulfilled duties, of neglect, of selfishness, of deception, of fraud, of overreaching. What an amount of evil works is accumulating for the final judgment! When Christ shall come, "His reward is with him, and his work before him," to render to every man according as his works have been. What a revelation will then be made! What confusion of face to some as the acts of their lives are revealed upon the pages of history.
Mar	312	4	Every good and every wrong act, and its influence upon others, is traced out by the Searcher of hearts, to whom every secret is revealed. And the reward will be according to the motives which prompted the action.
Mar	312	5	The coming of Christ is near and hasteth greatly. The time in which to labor is short, and men and women are perishing....
Mar	312	6	We need the converting power of God to take hold of us, that we may understand the needs of a perishing world. The burden of my message to you is: Get ready, get ready to meet the Lord. Trim your lamps, and let the light of truth shine forth into the byways and the hedges. There is a world to be warned of the near approach of the end of all things....
Mar	312	7	Let us seek a new conversion. We need the presence of the Holy Spirit of God with us, that our hearts may be softened and that we may not bring a harsh spirit into the work. I pray that the Holy Spirit may take full possession of our hearts. Let us act like children of God who are looking to Him for counsel, ready to work out His plans wherever presented. God will be glorified by such a people, and those who witness our zeal will say: Amen and amen.
------------------------The Captivity of Satan and His Angels, November 1
Mar	313	1	The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Jude 6.
Mar	313	2	The earth looked like a desolate wilderness. Cities and villages, shaken down by the earthquake, lay in heaps. Mountains had been moved out of their places, leaving large caverns. Ragged rocks, thrown out by the sea, or torn out of the earth itself, were scattered all over its surface. Large trees had been uprooted and were strewn over the land. Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years.
Mar	313	3	Here he will be confined, to wander up and down over the broken surface of the earth and see the effects of his rebellion against God's law. For a thousand years he can enjoy the fruit of the curse which he has caused. Limited alone to the earth, he will not have the privilege of ranging to other planets, to tempt and annoy those who have not fallen. During this time, Satan suffers extremely. Since his fall his evil traits have been in constant exercise. But he is then to be deprived of his power, and left to reflect upon the part which he has acted since his fall, and to look forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future, when he must suffer for all the evil that he has done and be punished for all the sins that he has caused to be committed.
Mar	313	4	I heard shouts of triumph from the angels and from the redeemed saints, which sounded like ten thousand musical instruments, because they were to be no more annoyed and tempted by Satan and because the inhabitants of other worlds were delivered from his presence and his temptations.
Mar	313	5	To God's people the captivity of Satan will bring gladness and rejoicing. Says the prophet: "It shall come to pass in the day that Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy trouble, and from the hard service wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon [here representing Satan], and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! ... Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers; that smote the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, that ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained." Verses 3-6, R.V.
------------------------We Shall Meet Our Guardian Angels, November 2
Mar	314	1	He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Psalm 91:11.
Mar	314	2	Not until the providences of God are seen in the light of eternity shall we understand what we owe to the care and interposition of His angels. Celestial beings have taken an active part in the affairs of men. They have appeared in garments that shone as the lightning; they have come as men, in the garb of wayfarers. They have accepted the hospitalities of human homes; they acted as guides to benighted travelers. They have thwarted the spoiler's purpose and turned aside the stroke of the destroyer.
Mar	314	3	Though the rulers of this world know it not, yet often in their councils angels have been spokesmen. Human eyes have looked upon them. Human ears have listened to their appeals. In the council hall and the court of justice, heavenly messengers have pleaded the cause of the persecuted and oppressed. They have defeated purposes and arrested evils that would have brought wrong and suffering to God's children. To the students in the heavenly school, all this will be unfolded.
Mar	314	4	Every redeemed one will understand the ministry of angels in his own life. The angel who was his guardian from his earliest moment; the angel who watched his steps, and covered his head in the day of peril; the angel who was with him in the valley of the shadow of death, who marked his resting place, who was the first to greet him in the resurrection morning--what will it be to hold converse with him, and to learn the history of divine interposition in the individual life, of heavenly co-operation in every work for humanity!
Mar	314	5	With the word of God in his hands, every human being, wherever his lot in life may be cast, may have such companionship as he shall choose. In its pages he may hold converse with the noblest and best of the human race, and may listen to the voice of the Eternal as He speaks with men. As he studies and meditates upon the themes into which "the angels desire to look" (1 Peter 1:12), he may have their companionship.
------------------------Welcome to the City of God, November 3
Mar	315	1	His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:23.
Mar	315	2	With unutterable love, Jesus welcomes His faithful ones to the joy of their Lord. The Saviour's joy is in seeing, in the kingdom of glory, the souls that have been saved by His agony and humiliation. And the redeemed will be sharers in His joy, as they behold, among the blessed, those who have been won to Christ through their prayers, their labors, and their loving sacrifice. As they gather about the great white throne, gladness unspeakable will fill their hearts, when they behold those whom they have won for Christ, and see that one has gained others, and these still others, all brought into the haven of rest, there to lay their crowns at Jesus' feet and praise Him through the endless cycles of eternity.
Mar	315	3	As the ransomed ones are welcomed to the City of God, there rings out upon the air an exultant cry of adoration. The two Adams are about to meet. The Son of God is standing with outstretched arms to receive the father of our race--the being whom He created, who sinned against his Maker, and for whose sin the marks of the crucifixion are borne upon the Saviour's form. As Adam discerns the prints of the cruel nails, he does not fall upon the bosom of his Lord, but in humiliation casts himself at His feet, crying: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" Tenderly the Saviour lifts him up and bids him look once more upon the Eden home from which he has so long been exiled.
Mar	315	4	After his expulsion from Eden, Adam's life on earth was filled with sorrow. Every dying leaf, every victim of sacrifice, every blight upon the fair face of nature, every stain upon man's purity, was a fresh reminder of his sin.... With patient humility he bore, for nearly a thousand years, the penalty of transgression. Faithfully did he repent of his sin and trust in the merits of the promised Saviour, and he died in the hope of a resurrection. The Son of God redeemed man's failure and fall; and now, through the work of the atonement, Adam is reinstated in his first dominion.
------------------------Unspeakable Gladness, November 4
Mar	316	1	Jesus ... for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2, R.S.V.
Mar	316	2	"These things have I spoken unto you," said Christ, "that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." John 15:11.
Mar	316	3	Ever before Him, Christ saw the result of His mission. His earthly life, so full of toil and self-sacrifice, was cheered by the thought that He would not have all this travail for nought. By giving His life for the life of men, He would restore in humanity the image of God. He would lift us up from the dust, reshape the character after the pattern of His own character, and make it beautiful with His own glory.
Mar	316	4	Christ saw of the travail of His soul and was satisfied. He viewed the expanse of eternity and saw the happiness of those who through His humiliation should receive pardon and everlasting life. He was wounded for their transgressions, bruised for their iniquities. The chastisement of their peace was upon Him, and with His stripes they were healed. He heard the shout of the redeemed. He heard the ransomed ones singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Although the baptism of blood must first be received, although the sins of the world were to weigh upon His innocent soul, although the shadow of an unspeakable woe was upon Him; yet for the joy that was set before Him He chose to endure the cross and despised the shame.
Mar	316	5	This joy all His followers are to share. However great and glorious hereafter, our reward is not all to be reserved for the time of final deliverance. Even here we are by faith to enter into the Saviour's joy.
Mar	316	6	To those who receive Him, He gives power to become the sons of God, that at last God may receive them as His, to dwell with Him throughout eternity. If, during this life, they are loyal to God, they will at last "see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads." Revelation 22:4. And what is the happiness of heaven but to see God? What greater joy could come to the sinner saved by the grace of Christ than to look upon the face of God and know Him as Father?
------------------------The Gratitude of the Redeemed, November 5
Mar	317	1	The King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40.
Mar	317	2	Every action of ours in befriending God's people will be rewarded as done unto Himself.
Mar	317	3	What satisfaction will every reaper have, when the clear, musical voice of Jesus shall be heard, saying, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." "Enter thou into the joy of thy lord."
Mar	317	4	The Redeemer is glorified because He has not died in vain. With glad, rejoicing hearts, those who have been colaborers with God see of the travail of their soul for perishing, dying sinners, and are satisfied. The anxious hours they have spent, the perplexing circumstances they have had to meet, the sorrow of heart because some refused to see and receive the things which make for their peace, are forgotten. The self-denial they have practiced in order to support the work, is remembered no more. As they look upon the souls they sought to win to Jesus, and see them saved, eternally saved--monuments of God's mercy and of a Redeemer's love--there ring through the arches of heaven shouts of praise and thanksgiving.
Mar	317	5	There is a heaven before us, and among its inhabitants there will be no strife....
Mar	317	6	We shall greet the holy family of the redeemed, and hear the words of Christ, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." We shall touch our golden harps, and heaven will ring with rich music. We shall cast our glittering crowns at His feet, and give glory to Him who has overcome in our behalf.
Mar	317	7	There may be some things here that we do not understand. Some things in the Bible may appear to us mysterious, because they are beyond our finite comprehension. But as our Saviour leads us by the living waters, He will make clear to our minds that which was not before clearly understood.
------------------------Heaven is Cheap Enough, November 6
Mar	318	1	He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. Isaiah 53:10, 11.
Mar	318	2	The love of God is without measure, without comparison! It is infinite.... When we contemplate the dignity and glory of Christ we see how great was that love that prompted the sacrifice made upon the cross of Calvary for the redemption of a lost world. This theme will fill the saints with wonder and amazement through eternal ages, and why should we not meditate upon it here in this world? ...
Mar	318	3	O the mystery of godliness--God manifest in the flesh! This mystery increases as we try to comprehend it. It is incomprehensible, and yet human beings will allow worldly, earthly things to intercept the faint view it is possible for mortals to have of Jesus and His matchless love.... How can we be enthusiastic over earthly, common things and not be stirred with this picture--the cross of Calvary, the love that is revealed in the death of God's dear Son ...?
Mar	318	4	All this humiliation and anguish were endured to bring back the wanderers, guilty and thankless, to the Father's house. O the home of the blest--I cannot afford to lose it! I shall, if saved in the kingdom of God, be constantly discerning new depths in the plan of salvation. All the redeemed saints will see and appreciate as never before the love of the Father and the Son, and songs of praise will burst forth from immortal tongues. He loved us, He gave His life for us. With glorified bodies, with enlarged capacities, with hearts made pure, with lips undefiled, we shall sing the riches of redeeming love. There will be no suffering ones in heaven, no skeptics whom we must labor to convince of the reality of eternal things, no prejudices to uproot, but all will be susceptible to that love which passeth knowledge. Rest, thank God, there is a rest for the people of God, where Jesus will lead the redeemed into green pastures, by the streams of living waters which make glad the city of our God. Then the prayer of Jesus to His Father will be answered: "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am."
------------------------Home at Last! November 7
Mar	319	1	Well done, thou good and faithful servant: ... enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:21.
Mar	319	2	As your senses delight in the attractive loveliness of the earth, think of the world that is to come, that shall never know the blight of sin and death; where the face of nature will no more wear the shadow of the curse. Let your imagination picture the home of the saved, and remember that it will be more glorious than your brightest imagination can portray. In the varied gifts of God in nature we see but the faintest gleaming of His glory. It is written, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9.
Mar	319	3	By and by the gates of heaven will be thrown open to admit God's children, and from the lips of the King of glory the benediction will fall on their ears like richest music, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matthew 25:34.
Mar	319	4	Then the redeemed will be welcomed to the home that Jesus is preparing for them.
Mar	319	5	Then I saw Jesus lead the redeemed company to the gate of the city. He laid hold of the gate and swung it back on its glittering hinges and bade the nations that had kept the truth enter in. Within the city there was everything to feast the eye. Rich glory they beheld everywhere. Then Jesus looked upon His redeemed saints; their countenances were radiant with glory; and as He fixed His loving eyes upon them. He said, with His rich, musical voice, "I behold the travail of My soul, and am satisfied. This rich glory is yours to enjoy eternally. Your sorrows are ended. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." ...
Mar	319	6	Language is altogether too feeble to attempt a description of heaven. As the scene rises before me, I am lost in amazement. Carried away with the surpassing splendor and excellent glory, I lay down the pen, and exclaim, "Oh, what love! what wondrous love!" The most exalted language fails to describe the glory of heaven or the matchless depths of a Saviour's love.
------------------------Surprises When We Get to Heaven, November 8
Mar	320	1	The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7.
Mar	320	2	Often we regard as hopeless subjects the very ones whom Christ is drawing to Himself.... Many will be in heaven who their neighbors supposed would never enter there. Man judges from appearance, but God judges the heart.
Mar	320	3	Some among the redeemed will have laid hold of Christ in the last hours of life, and in heaven instruction will be given to these, who, when they died, did not understand perfectly the plan of salvation.
Mar	320	4	To Jesus in His agony on the cross there came one gleam of comfort. It was the prayer of the penitent thief.... In Jesus, bruised, mocked, and hanging upon the cross, he sees the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Hope is mingled with anguish in his voice as the helpless, dying soul casts himself upon a dying Saviour. "Lord, remember me," he cries, "when thou comest into thy kingdom." Quickly the answer came.... Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with Me in paradise.
Mar	320	5	Such faith may be represented by the eleventh hour laborers who receive as much reward as do those who have labored for many hours. The thief asked in faith, in penitence, in contrition. He asked in earnestness, as if he fully realized that Jesus could save him if He would.
Mar	320	6	Those whom Christ commends in the judgment may have known little of theology, but they have cherished His principles.... Among the heathen are those who worship God ignorantly, those to whom the light is never brought by human instrumentality, yet they will not perish. Though ignorant of the written law of God, they have heard His voice speaking to them in nature, and have done the things that the law required. Their works are evidence that the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts, and they are recognized as the children of God.
Mar	320	7	How surprised and gladdened will be the lowly among the nations, and among the heathen, to hear from the lips of the Saviour, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me"! How glad will be the heart of Infinite Love as His followers look up with surprise and joy at His words of approval!
------------------------Satisfying Answers, November 9
Mar	321	1	As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9.
Mar	321	2	Our plans are not always God's plans....
Mar	321	3	In His loving care and interest for us, often He who understands us better than we understand ourselves refuses to permit us selfishly to seek the gratification of our own ambition.... Often our plans fail that God's plans for us may succeed....
Mar	321	4	In the future life the mysteries that here have annoyed and disappointed us will be made plain. We shall see that our seemingly unanswered prayers and disappointed hopes have been among our greatest blessings.
Mar	321	5	We are not now sufficiently advanced in spiritual attainments to comprehend the mysteries of God. But when we shall compose the family of heaven, these mysteries will be unfolded before us....
Mar	321	6	Then much will be revealed in explanation of matters upon which God now keeps silence because we have not gathered up and appreciated that which has been made known of the eternal mysteries. The ways of Providence will be made clear; the mysteries of grace through Christ will be unfolded. That which the mind cannot now grasp, which is hard to be understood, will be explained. We shall see order in that which has seemed unexplainable; wisdom in everything withheld; goodness and gracious mercy in everything imparted. Truth will be unfolded to the mind, free from obscurity, in a single line, and its brightness will be endurable. The heart will be made to sing for joy. Controversies will be forever ended, and all difficulties will be solved.
Mar	321	7	All that has perplexed us in the providences of God will in the world to come be made plain. The things hard to be understood will then find explanation. The mysteries of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken promises, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall know that infinite love ordered the experiences that seemed most trying. As we realize the tender care of Him who makes all things work together for our good, we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
------------------------Set Your Affections on Things Above, November 10
Mar	322	1	Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2.
Mar	322	2	When God's people take their eyes off the things of this world and place them on heaven and heavenly things they will be a peculiar people, because they will see the mercy and goodness and compassion that God has shown to the children of men. His love will call forth a response from them, and their lives will show to those around them that the Spirit of God is controlling them, that they are setting their affections on things above, not on the things of the earth.
Mar	322	3	In thinking of heaven, we may put our imagination to the utmost stretch and think the loftiest thoughts that we are capable of thinking, and our minds will grow weary in the effort to comprehend the breadth and depth and height of the subject. It is impossible for our minds to take in the great themes of eternity. It is impossible for us even to make an effort to understand these things without the effort affecting our whole character for good and having an uplifting influence on our minds. As we think of how Christ came to our world to die for fallen man, we understand something of the price that was paid for our redemption, and we realize that there is no true goodness or greatness apart from God.
Mar	322	4	Only by the light shining from the cross of Calvary can we know to what depths of sin and degradation the human race has fallen through sin. Only by the length of the chain let down from heaven to draw us up can we know the depths to which we had sunk. And it is only by keeping the unseen realities in view that we can understand anything of the wonderful theme of redemption.
Mar	322	5	We are almost home; we shall soon hear the voice of the Saviour richer than any music, saying, Your warfare is accomplished. Enter into the joy of thy Lord. Blessed, blessed benediction; I want to hear it from His immortal lips. I want to praise Him; I want to honor Him that sitteth on the throne. I want my voice to echo and re-echo through the courts of heaven. Will you be there? ... God help us, and fill us with all fullness and power, and then we can taste of the joys of the world to come.
------------------------The Reward of the Redeemed, November 11
Mar	323	1	If any man's work abide..., he shall receive a reward.1 Corinthians 3:14.
Mar	323	2	Glorious will be the reward bestowed when the faithful workers gather about the throne of God and of the Lamb. When John in his mortal state beheld the glory of God, he fell as one dead; he was not able to endure the sight. But when the children of God shall have put on immortality, they will "see him as he is." 1 John 3:2. They will stand before the throne, accepted in the Beloved. All their sins have been blotted out, all their transgressions borne away. Now they can look upon the undimmed glory of the throne of God. They have been partakers with Christ in His sufferings, they have been workers together with Him in the plan of redemption, and they are partakers with Him in the joy of seeing souls saved in the kingdom of God, there to praise God through all eternity.
Mar	323	3	In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and the Son. The angels, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King and His trophies of victory....A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts, accompanied by His redeemed ones, the witnesses that His mission of suffering and sacrifice has not been in vain....
Mar	323	4	There are homes for the pilgrims of earth. There are robes for the righteous, with crowns of glory and palms of victory. All that has perplexed us in the providences of God will in the world to come be made plain. The things hard to be understood will then find explanation. The mysteries of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken promises, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall know that infinite love ordered the experiences that seemed most trying. As we realize the tender care of Him who makes all things work together for our good, we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Mar	323	5	I urge you to prepare for the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven.... Prepare for the judgment, that when Christ shall come, to be admired in all them that believe, you may be among those who will meet Him in peace.
------------------------Eye Hath Not Seen, Nor Ear Heard, November 12
Mar	324	1	Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9.
Mar	324	2	Those who truly love God will desire so to improve the talents that He has given them, that they may be a blessing to others. And by and by the gates of heaven will be thrown wide open to admit them, and from the lips of the King of Glory the benediction will fall upon their ear like richest music, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34). Thus the redeemed will be welcomed to the mansions that Jesus is preparing for them. There their companions will not be the vile of earth, but those who through divine aid have formed perfect characters. Every sinful tendency, every imperfection, has been removed by the blood of Christ; and the excellence and brightness of His glory, far exceeding the brightness of the sun in its meridian splendor, is imparted to them. And the moral beauty, the perfection of His character, shines through them in worth far exceeding this outward splendor. They are without fault before the great white throne, sharing the dignity and privileges of the angels.
Mar	324	3	"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." In view of the glorious inheritance which may be his, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26). He may be poor; yet he possesses in himself a wealth and dignity that the world could never bestow. The soul, redeemed and cleansed from sin, with all its noble powers dedicated to the service of God, is of surpassing worth.
Mar	324	4	To dwell forever in this home of the blest, to bear in soul, body, and spirit, not the dark traces of sin and curse, but the perfect likeness of our Creator, and through ceaseless ages to advance in wisdom, in knowledge, and in holiness, ever exploring new fields of thought, ever finding new wonders and new glories, ever increasing in capacity to know and to enjoy and to love, and knowing that there is still beyond us joy and love and wisdom infinite--such is the object to which the Christian's hope is pointing.
------------------------Life-Giving Fruit, November 13
Mar	325	1	In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2.
Mar	325	2	The fruit of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden possessed supernatural virtue. To eat of it was to live forever. Its fruit was the antidote of death....
Mar	325	3	After the entrance of sin the heavenly Husbandman transplanted the tree of life to the Paradise above.
Mar	325	4	The redeemed saints, who have loved God and kept His commandments here, will enter in through the gates of the city, and have right to the tree of life. They will eat freely of it as our first parents did before their fall. The leaves of that immortal widespread tree will be for the healing of the nations. All their woes will then be gone. Sickness, sorrow, and death they will never again feel, for the leaves of the tree of life have healed them. Jesus will then see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, when the redeemed, who have been subject to sorrow, toil, and afflictions, who have groaned beneath the curse, are gathered up around that tree of life to eat of its immortal fruit, that our first parents forfeited all right to, by breaking God's commands. There will be no danger of their ever losing right to the tree of life again, for he that tempted our first parents to sin will be destroyed by the second death.
Mar	325	5	Obedience to all the commandments of God was the condition of eating of the tree of life. Adam fell by disobedience....
Mar	325	6	Obedience through Jesus Christ gives to man perfection of character and a right to that tree of life. The conditions of again partaking of the fruit of the tree are plainly stated in the testimony of Jesus Christ to John: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."
Mar	325	7	Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will "grow up" to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory. The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be removed, and Christ's faithful ones will appear in "the beauty of the Lord our God," in mind and soul and body reflecting the perfect image of their Lord. Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood.
------------------------The Bow-Circled Throne, November 14
Mar	326	1	Behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. Revelation 4:2, 3.
Mar	326	2	In the rainbow above the throne is an everlasting testimony that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." ...
Mar	326	3	As the bow in the cloud is formed by the union of the sunlight and the shower, so the rainbow encircling the throne represents the combined power of mercy and justice. It is not justice alone that is to be maintained; for this would eclipse the glory of the rainbow of promise above the throne; men could see only the penalty of the law. Were there no justice, no penalty, there would be no stability to the government of God. It is the mingling of judgment and mercy that makes salvation complete....
Mar	326	4	Mercy invites us to enter through the gates into the city of God, and justice is satisfied to accord to every obedient soul full privileges as a member of the royal family, a child of the heavenly King. If we were defective in character, we could not pass the gates that mercy has opened to the obedient; for justice stands at the entrance, and demands holiness in all who would see God.
Mar	326	5	Were justice extinct, and were it possible for divine mercy to open the gates to the whole race, irrespective of character, there would be a worse condition of disaffection and rebellion in heaven than before Satan was expelled. The peace, happiness, and harmony of heaven would be broken. The change from earth to heaven will not change men's character; the happiness of the redeemed in heaven results from the character formed in this life after the image of Christ. The saints in heaven will first have been saints on earth.
Mar	326	6	The salvation that Christ made such a sacrifice to gain for man is that which is alone of value; for it is that which saves from sin.... Thus the law of God is not weakened by the gospel, but the power of sin is broken, and the scepter of mercy is extended to the penitent sinner.... God will never forget His people in their struggle against evil. Let Jesus be our theme.
------------------------We Shall See the King, November 15
Mar	327	1	Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off. Isaiah 33:17.
Mar	327	2	If we desire to see the King in His beauty we must here behave worthily. We must outgrow our childishness. When provocation comes let us be silent. There are times when silence is eloquence. We are to reveal the patience and kindness and forbearance that will make us worthy of being called sons and daughters of God. We are to trust Him, and believe on Him, and rely upon Him. We are to follow in Christ's steps. "If any man will come after me," He says, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23).... It may be a heavy cross to keep silent when you ought to. It may be a painful discipline, but let me assure you that silence does much more to overcome evil than a storm of angry words.
Mar	327	3	Here in this world we are to learn what we must be in order to have a place in the heavenly courts. We are to learn the lessons that Christ desires to teach us, that we may be prepared to be taken to the higher school in the courts above, where the Saviour will lead us beside the river of life, explaining to us many things that here we could not comprehend.... There we shall see the glory of God as we have never seen it here. We get but a glimpse of the glory now, because we do not follow on to know the Lord.
Mar	327	4	Every right principle, every truth learned in an earthly school, will advance us just that much in the heavenly school. As Christ walked and talked with His disciples during His ministry on this earth, so will He teach us in the school above, leading us beside the river of living waters, and revealing to us truths that in this life must remain hidden mysteries because of the limitations of the human mind, so marred by sin. In the heavenly school we shall have opportunity to attain, step by step, to the greatest heights of learning. There, as children of the heavenly King, we shall ever dwell with the members of the royal family; there we shall see the King in His beauty, and behold His matchless charms.
Mar	327	5	Long have we waited, but our hope is not to grow dim. If we can but see the King in His beauty we shall be forever blessed.
------------------------The One Hundred Forty-Four Thousand, November 16
Mar	328	1	I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. Revelation 14:1.
Mar	328	2	Upon the crystal sea before the throne, that sea of glass as it were mingled with fire--so resplendent is it with the glory of God--are gathered the company that have "gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name." With the Lamb upon Mount Zion, "having the harps of God," they stand, the hundred and forty and four thousand that were redeemed from among men; and there is heard, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of a great thunder, "the voice of harpers harping with their harps." And they sing "a new song" before the throne, a song which no man can learn save the hundred and forty and four thousand. It is the song of Moses and the Lamb--a song of deliverance.
Mar	328	3	None but the hundred and forty-four thousand can learn that song; for it is the song of their experience--an experience such as no other company have ever had. "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." These, having been translated from the earth, from among the living, are counted as "the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb." Revelation 15:2, 3; 14:1-5. "These are they which came out of great tribulation;" they have passed through the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation; they have endured the anguish of the time of Jacob's trouble; they have stood without an intercessor through the final outpouring of God's judgments. But they have been delivered, for they have "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." "In their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault" before God. "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them."
Mar	328	4	They have seen the earth wasted with famine and pestilence, the sun having power to scorch men with great heat, and they themselves have endured suffering, hunger, and thirst. But "they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." Revelation 7:14-16.
------------------------The Great Multitude of the Redeemed, November 17
Mar	329	1	After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. Revelation 7:9.
Mar	329	2	All classes, all nations and kindreds and people and tongues will stand before the throne of God and the Lamb with their spotless robes and jeweled crowns. Said the angel, These are they that have come up through great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white, while the lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, the self-indulgent and disobedient, have lost both worlds. They have neither the things of this life nor the immortal life.
Mar	329	3	That triumphant throng, with songs of victory and with crowns and harps, have trodden in the fiery furnace of earthly affliction when it was heated and intensely hot. From destitution, from hunger and torture, they come, from deep self-denial and bitter disappointments. Look upon them now as conquerors, no longer poor, no longer in sorrow, in affliction and hated of all men for Christ's sake. Behold their heavenly garments, white and shining, richer than any kingly robe. Look by faith upon their jeweled crowns; never did such a diadem deck the brow of any earthly monarch.
Mar	329	4	Listen to their voices as they sing loud hosannas and as they wave the palm branches of victory. Rich music fills heaven as their voices sing forth these words: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain and rose again forevermore. Salvation unto our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." And the angelic host, angels and archangels, covering cherub and glorious seraph, echo back the refrain of that joyous, triumphant song saying, "Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever" (Revelation 7:12).
Mar	329	5	Oh, in that day it will be discovered that the righteous were the wise ones, while the sinful and disobedient were fools.... Shame and everlasting contempt is their portion. Those who have been colaborers for Christ will then be near the throne of God, girt with purity and the garments of eternal righteousness.
------------------------The Soul Winner's Reward, November 18
Mar	330	1	They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:3.
Mar	330	2	When I think of those words of Daniel, I find myself waking up in the night and repeating them over and over: "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Look at the sun and the stars marshaled in the heavens, and known by their names. The Lord says, They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.
Mar	330	3	In order to determine how important are the interests involved in the conversion of the soul from error to truth, we must appreciate the value of immortality; we must realize how terrible are the pains of the second death; we must comprehend the honor and glory awaiting the ransomed, and understand what it is to live in the presence of Him who died that He might elevate and ennoble man, and give to the overcomer a royal diadem.
Mar	330	4	The worth of a soul cannot be fully estimated by finite minds. How gratefully will the ransomed and glorified ones remember those who were instrumental in their salvation! No one will then regret his self-denying efforts and persevering labors, his patience, forbearance, and earnest heart yearnings for souls that might have been lost had he neglected his duty or become weary in well-doing.
Mar	330	5	Now these white-robed ones are gathered into the fold of the Great Shepherd. The faithful worker and the soul saved through his labor are greeted by the Lamb in the midst of the throne, and are led to the tree of life and to the fountain of living waters. With what joy does the servant of Christ behold these redeemed ones, who are made to share the glory of the Redeemer! How much more precious is heaven to those who have been faithful in the work of saving souls! "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars."
Mar	330	6	What is done through the cooperation of men with God is a work that shall never perish, but endure through the eternal ages.
------------------------Think on Heavenly Things, November 19
Mar	331	1	These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 7:14.
Mar	331	2	John, while in vision, saw a company clothed in white robes.... They were seen in the temple of God. This will be the result for all who will lay hold of the merits of Christ and wash their robes in His blood. Every provision has been made so that we can sit with Christ upon His throne, but the condition is that we be in harmony with the law of God....
Mar	331	3	We cannot afford to lose heaven. We ought to have our conversation on heavenly things. There there is no death nor pain. Why are we so reluctant to talk of these things? Why do we dwell upon earthly things? The apostle exhorts us to have our conversation in heaven. "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20).... Christ will soon return to gather those who are prepared, and take them to this glorious place. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (Hebrews 9:28).
Mar	331	4	Do we love to think of this event or do we want to put it off? ... The more we talk of Jesus, the more we shall reflect His divine image. By beholding we become transformed. We need to bring Christ into our religious experience. When you assemble together, let the conversation be on Christ and His salvation.... The more we talk of Jesus the more of His matchless charms we shall behold.
Mar	331	5	Those who take no pleasure in thinking and talking of God in this life, will not enjoy the life that is to come, where God is ever present, dwelling among His people. But those who love to think of God will be in their element, breathing in the atmosphere of heaven. Those who on earth love the thought of heaven will be happy in its holy associations and pleasures.... "And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads" (Revelation 22:3, 4).
------------------------The Glories of the Heavenly World, November 20
Mar	332	1	Since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Isaiah 64:4.
Mar	332	2	Many have longed to penetrate into the glories of the future world and to have the secrets of eternal mysteries disclosed to them, but they knock in vain. That which is revealed is for us and for our children.... The Great Revealer hath opened to our intelligence many things that are essential in order that we may understand the heavenly attractions and have respect to the recompense of the reward....
Mar	332	3	The unfoldings of Jesus in reference to heavenly things are of a character that only the spiritual mind can appreciate. The imagination may summon its utmost powers in order to picture the glories of heaven, but "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). The heavenly intelligences are all around us.... Angels of light create a heavenly atmosphere about the soul, lifting us toward the unseen and eternal. We cannot behold their forms with our natural sight; only by the spiritual vision can we discern heavenly things. Our human powers would be extinguished by the inexpressible glory of the angels of light. The spiritual ear alone can distinguish the harmony of heavenly voices. It is not Christ's plan to excite the emotions by brilliant descriptions.... He has with sufficient distinctness presented Himself, the way, the truth, and the life, as the only means whereby salvation is to be obtained. No more than this is really required.
Mar	332	4	He might bring the human soul to the threshold of heaven, and through the open door show us its inner glory flooding the heavenly sanctuary and shining out through its portals; but we must behold it by faith, not with the natural eyes. He does not forget that we are His human agents, to work the works of God in a world all seared and marred with the curse. It is in this world, that is clothed with moral darkness like the pall of death, where darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people, that we are to walk in the light of heaven.
------------------------Look at Things Eternal, November 21
Mar	333	1	We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18.
Mar	333	2	If the church will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all allegiance with the world, there is before her the dawn of a bright and glorious day. God's promise to her will stand fast forever.... Truth, passing by those who despise and reject it, will triumph. Although at times apparently retarded, its progress has never been checked.... Endowed with divine energy, it will cut its way through the strongest barriers and triumph over every obstacle.
Mar	333	3	What sustained the Son of God during His life of toil and sacrifice? He saw the results of the travail of His soul and was satisfied. Looking into eternity, He beheld the happiness of those who through His humiliation had received pardon and everlasting life. His ear caught the shout of the redeemed. He heard the ransomed ones singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.
Mar	333	4	We may have a vision of the future, the blessedness of heaven. In the Bible are revealed visions of the future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, and these are dear to His church. By faith we may stand on the threshold of the eternal city, and hear the gracious welcome given to those who in this life co-operate with Christ, regarding it as an honor to suffer for His sake. As the words are spoken, "Come, ye blessed of my Father," they cast their crowns at the feet of the Redeemer, exclaiming, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.... Honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Matthew 25:34; Revelation 5:12, 13.
Mar	333	5	There the redeemed greet those who led them to the Saviour, and all unite in praising Him who died that human beings might have the life that measures with the life of God. The conflict is over. Tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all heaven as the ransomed ones take up the joyful strain, Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again, a triumphant conqueror.
------------------------Blessed are they that Wash their Robes, November 22
Mar	334	1	Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14, R.V.
Mar	334	2	Do we expect to get to heaven at last and join the heavenly choir? Just as we go into the grave we will come up, as far as the character is concerned.... Now is the time for washing and ironing....
Mar	334	3	John saw the throne of God and around that throne a company, and he inquired, Who are these? The answer came, "These are they which ... have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14). Christ leads them to the fountains of living waters, and there is the tree of life and there is the precious Saviour. Here is presented to us a life that measures with the life of God. There is no pain, sorrow, sickness, or death there. All is peace and harmony and love....
Mar	334	4	Now is the time to receive grace and strength and power to combine with our human efforts that we can form characters for everlasting life. When we do this we will find that the angels of God will minister unto us, and we shall be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And when the last trump shall sound, and the dead shall be called from their prison house and changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the crowns of immortal glory shall be placed upon the heads of the overcomers. The pearly gates will swing back for the nations that have kept the truth and they will enter in. The conflict is ended.
Mar	334	5	"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34). Do we want this benediction? I do, and I believe you do. May God help you that you may fight the battles of this life and gain a victory day by day and at last be among the number that shall cast their crowns at Jesus' feet and touch the golden harps and fill all heaven with sweetest music. I want you to love my Jesus.... Do not reject my Saviour, for He has paid an infinite price for you. I see in Jesus matchless charms, and I want you to see these charms.
------------------------The Millennial Judgment, November 23
Mar	335	1	Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? 1 Corinthians 6:3.
Mar	335	2	During the thousand years between the first and the second resurrection the judgment of the wicked takes place. The apostle Paul points to this judgment as an event that follows the second advent. "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." 1 Corinthians 4:5. Daniel declares that when the Ancient of Days came, "judgment was given to the saints of the most High." Daniel 7:22. At this time the righteous reign as kings and priests unto God. John in the Revelation says: "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them." "They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." Revelation 20:4, 6. It is at this time that, as foretold by Paul, "the saints shall judge the world." 1 Corinthians 6:2. In union with Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute book, the Bible, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body. Then the portion which the wicked must suffer is meted out, according to their works; and it is recorded against their names in the book of death.
Mar	335	3	Satan also and evil angels are judged by Christ and His people. Says Paul: "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" Verse 3. And Jude declares that "the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Jude 6.
Mar	335	4	At the close of the thousand years the second resurrection will take place. Then the wicked will be raised from the dead and appear before God for the execution of "the judgment written." Thus the revelator, after describing the resurrection of the righteous, says: "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Revelation 20:5. And Isaiah declares, concerning the wicked: "They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited."; Isaiah 24:22.
------------------------Christ Again Returns to the Earth, November 24
Mar	336	1	Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all. Jude 14, 15.
Mar	336	2	At the close of the thousand years, Christ again returns to the earth. He is accompanied by the host of the redeemed and attended by a retinue of angels. As He descends in terrific majesty He bids the wicked dead arise to receive their doom. They come forth, a mighty host, numberless as the sands of the sea. What a contrast to those who were raised at the first resurrection! The righteous were clothed with immortal youth and beauty. The wicked bear the traces of disease and death.
Mar	336	3	Every eye in that vast multitude is turned to behold the glory of the Son of God. With one voice the wicked hosts exclaim: "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!" It is not love to Jesus that inspires this utterance. The force of truth urges the words from unwilling lips. As the wicked went into their graves, so they come forth with the same enmity to Christ and the same spirit of rebellion. They are to have no new probation in which to remedy the defects of their past lives. Nothing would be gained by this. A lifetime of transgression has not softened their hearts. A second probation, were it given them, would be occupied as was the first in evading the requirements of God and exciting rebellion against Him.
Mar	336	4	Christ descends upon the Mount of Olives, whence, after His resurrection, He ascended, and where angels repeated the promise of His return. Says the prophet: "The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee." "And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof, ... and there shall be a very great valley." "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." Zechariah 14:5, 4, 9. As the New Jerusalem, in its dazzling splendor, comes down out of heaven, it rests upon the place purified and made ready to receive it, and Christ, with His people and the angels, enters the Holy City.
------------------------Satan Loosed from His Prison, November 25
Mar	337	1	When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth. Revelation 20:7, 8.
Mar	337	2	At the close of the thousand years the second resurrection will take place. Then the wicked will be raised from the dead and appear before God for the execution of "the judgment written." Thus the revelator, after describing the resurrection of the righteous, says: "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Revelation 20:5. And Isaiah declares, concerning the wicked: "They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited."; Isaiah 24:22.
Mar	337	3	Now Satan prepares for a last mighty struggle for the supremacy. While deprived of his power and cut off from his work of deception, the prince of evil was miserable and dejected; but as the wicked dead are raised and he sees the vast multitudes upon his side, his hopes revive, and he determines not to yield the great controversy. He will marshal all the armies of the lost under his banner and through them endeavor to execute his plans. The wicked are Satan's captives. In rejecting Christ they have accepted the rule of the rebel leader. They are ready to receive his suggestions and to do his bidding. Yet, true to his early cunning, he does not acknowledge himself to be Satan. He claims to be the prince who is the rightful owner of the world and whose inheritance has been unlawfully wrested from him. He represents himself to his deluded subjects as a redeemer, assuring them that his power has brought them forth from their graves and that he is about to rescue them from the most cruel tyranny. The presence of Christ having been removed, Satan works wonders to support his claims. He makes the weak strong and inspires all with his own spirit and energy. He proposes to lead them against the camp of the saints and to take possession of the City of God. With fiendish exultation he points to the unnumbered millions who have been raised from the dead and declares that as their leader he is well able to overthrow the city and regain his throne and his kingdom.
------------------------The Wicked Prepare to Attack the New Jerusalem, November 26
Mar	338	1	Satan ... shall go out to deceive the nations ... to gather them together to battle. Revelation 20:7, 8.
Mar	338	2	In that vast throng are multitudes of the long-lived race that existed before the Flood; men of lofty stature and giant intellect, who, yielding to the control of fallen angels, devoted all their skill and knowledge to the exaltation of themselves; men whose wonderful works of art led the world to idolize their genius, but whose cruelty and evil inventions, defiling the earth and defacing the image of God, caused Him to blot them from the face of His creation. There are kings and generals who conquered nations, valiant men who never lost a battle, proud, ambitious warriors whose approach made kingdoms tremble. In death these experienced no change. As they come up from the grave, they resume the current of their thoughts just where it ceased. They are actuated by the same desire to conquer that ruled them when they fell.
Mar	338	3	Satan consults with his angels, and then with these kings and conquerors and mighty men. They look upon the strength and numbers on their side, and declare that the army within the city is small in comparison with theirs, and that it can be overcome. They lay their plans to take possession of the riches and glory of the New Jerusalem. All immediately begin to prepare for battle. Skillful artisans construct implements of war. Military leaders, famed for their success, marshal the throngs of warlike men into companies and divisions.
Mar	338	4	At last the order to advance is given, and the countless host moves on--an army such as was never summoned by earthly conquerors, such as the combined forces of all ages since war began on earth could never equal. Satan, the mightiest of warriors, leads the van, and his angels unite their forces for this final struggle. Kings and warriors are in his train, and the multitudes follow in vast companies, each under its appointed leader. With military precision the serried ranks advance over the earth's broken and uneven surface to the City of God. By command of Jesus, the gates of the New Jerusalem are closed, and the armies of Satan surround the city and make ready for the onset.
------------------------The Last Judgment, November 27
Mar	339	1	I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: ... and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. Revelation 20:12.
Mar	339	2	Now Christ again appears to the view of His enemies. Far above the city, upon a foundation of burnished gold, is a throne, high and lifted up. Upon this throne sits the Son of God, and around Him are the subjects of His kingdom. The power and majesty of Christ no language can describe, no pen portray. The glory of the Eternal Father is enshrouding His Son. The brightness of His presence fills the City of God, and flows out beyond the gates, flooding the whole earth with its radiance.
Mar	339	3	Nearest the throne are those who were once zealous in the cause of Satan, but who, plucked as brands from the burning, have followed their Saviour with deep, intense devotion. Next are those who perfected Christian characters in the midst of falsehood and infidelity, those who honored the law of God when the Christian world declared it void, and the millions, of all ages, who were martyred for their faith. And beyond is the "great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, ... before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." Revelation 7:9....
Mar	339	4	The redeemed raise a song of praise that echoes and reechoes through the vaults of heaven: "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." Verse 10. And angel and seraph unite their voices in adoration....
Mar	339	5	In the presence of the assembled inhabitants of earth and heaven the final coronation of the Son of God takes place. And now, invested with supreme majesty and power, the King of kings pronounces sentence upon the rebels against His government and executes justice upon those who have transgressed His law and oppressed His people....
Mar	339	6	As soon as the books of record are opened, and the eye of Jesus looks upon the wicked, they are conscious of every sin which they have ever committed.
------------------------Every Work will be Brought into Judgment, November 28
Mar	340	1	God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Ecclesiastes 12:14.
Mar	340	2	In the case of each individual there is a process going forward which is far more wonderful than that which transfers the features to the polished plate of the artist. The art of the photographer merely imprints the likeness on perishable substance; but in the life-record the character is faithfully delineated, and this record, however dark, can never be effaced except by the blood of the atoning Sacrifice.
Mar	340	3	Angels of God are taking a daguerreotype of the character just as accurately as the artist takes the likeness of the human features; and ... it is from this that we are to be judged!
Mar	340	4	When the Judgment shall sit, and the books shall be opened, there will be many astonishing disclosures. Men will not then appear as they appear to the human eyes and finite judgments. Secret sins will then be laid open to the view of all. Motives and intentions which have been hidden in the dark chambers of the heart will be revealed.
Mar	340	5	All will appear as a real life-picture.
Mar	340	6	In that solemn and awful hour the unfaithfulness of the husband will be opened to the wife, and the unfaithfulness of the wife, to the husband. Parents will then learn, for the first time, what was the real character of their children, and children will see the errors and mistakes that marked the lives of their parents. The man who robbed his neighbor through false representations, is not to escape with his ill-gotten gains. God has an exact record in His books, of every unjust account and every unfair dealing.
Mar	340	7	Memory will be true and vivid in condemnation of the guilty one, who in that day is found wanting. The mind will recall all the thoughts and acts of the past; the whole life will come in review like the scenes in a panorama.
------------------------Christ is Judge, November 29
Mar	341	1	The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. John 5:22.
Mar	341	2	In His teachings, Christ sought to impress men with the certainty of the coming judgment, and with its publicity. This is not the judgment of a few individuals, or even of a nation, but of a whole world of human intelligences, of accountable beings. It is to be held in the presence of other worlds, that the love, the integrity, the service, of man for God, may be honored to the highest degree. There will be no lack of glory and honor.... The law of God will be revealed in its majesty; and those who have stood in defiant rebellion against its holy precepts will understand that the law that they have discarded, and despised, and trampled underfoot is God's standard of character....
Mar	341	3	In this speck of a world, the heavenly universe manifests the greatest interest; for Jesus paid an infinite price for the souls of its inhabitants....
Mar	341	4	God has committed all judgment unto the Son, for without controversy He is God manifest in the flesh.
Mar	341	5	God designed that the Prince of sufferers in humanity should be judge of the whole world. He who came from the heavenly courts to save man from eternal death; ... He who submitted to be arraigned before an earthly tribunal, and who suffered the ignominious death of the cross--He alone is to pronounce the sentence of reward or of punishment. He who submitted to the suffering and humiliation of the cross here, in the counsel of God is to have the fullest compensation, and ascend the throne acknowledged by all the heavenly universe as the King of saints. He has undertaken the work of salvation, and shown before unfallen worlds and the heavenly family that the work He has begun He is able to complete....
Mar	341	6	In the day of final punishment and reward, both saints and sinners will recognize in Him who was crucified the Judge of all living.... Solemn will be the day of final decision.... Probationary time is granted us, opportunities and privileges are given us, to make our calling and election sure. How we should prize this precious time, and improve every talent God has given, that we may be faithful stewards over ourselves.
------------------------Rewards and Punishments, November 30
Mar	342	1	Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Matthew 25:34.
Mar	342	2	The Saviour presents before us the scene of the last judgment when the reward is given to those upon His right hand, and the sentence of condemnation to those upon His left hand. The righteous are represented as wondering what they have done for which they are to be so liberally rewarded. They had had the abiding presence of Christ in their hearts; they had been imbued with His Spirit, and without conscious effort on their part; they had been serving Christ in the person of His saints, and had thereby gained the sure reward. But they had not had in view the reward they were to receive, and the expectation of it had been no part of the motive that had actuated their service. What they did was done from love to Christ and to their fellow-men, and Christ identifies Himself with suffering humanity, and accounts that all deeds done in sympathy and compassion and love to men, are done to Him....
Mar	342	3	In a subordinate sense we should all have respect unto the recompense of the reward. But while we appreciate the promise of blessing, we should have perfect confidence in Jesus Christ, believing that He will do right, and give us reward according as our works have been. The gift of God is eternal life, but Jesus would have us not so anxious concerning rewards, as that we may do the will of God because it is right to do it, irrespective of all gain....
Mar	342	4	Those who will receive the most abundant reward will be those who have mingled with their activity and zeal, gracious, tender pity for the poor, the orphan, the oppressed, and the afflicted.... There are about us those who have a meek and lowly spirit, the spirit of Christ, who do many little things to help those around them, and who think nothing of it; they will be astonished at last to find that Christ has noticed the kind word spoken to the disheartened, and taken account of the smallest gift given for the relief of the poor, that cost the giver some self-denial. The Lord measures the spirit, and rewards accordingly, and the pure, humble, childlike spirit of love makes the offering precious in His sight.
------------------------The Panoramic Scene Above the Holy City, December 1
Mar	343	1	We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10.
Mar	343	2	Above the throne is revealed the cross; and like a panoramic view appear the scenes of Adam's temptation and fall, and the successive steps in the great plan of redemption. The Saviour's lowly birth; His early life of simplicity and obedience; His baptism in Jordan; the fast and temptation in the wilderness; His public ministry, unfolding to men heaven's most precious blessings; the days crowded with deeds of love and mercy, the nights of prayer and watching in the solitude of the mountains; the plottings of envy, hate, and malice which repaid His benefits; the awful, mysterious agony in Gethsemane beneath the crushing weight of the sins of the whole world; His betrayal into the hands of the murderous mob; the fearful events of that night of horror--the unresisting prisoner, forsaken by His best-loved disciples, rudely hurried through the streets of Jerusalem; the Son of God exultingly displayed before Annas, arraigned in the high priest's palace, in the judgment hall of Pilate, before the cowardly and cruel Herod, mocked, insulted, tortured, and condemned to die--all are vividly portrayed.
Mar	343	3	And now before the swaying multitude are revealed the final scenes--the patient Sufferer treading the path to Calvary; the Prince of heaven hanging upon the cross; the haughty priests and the jeering rabble deriding His expiring agony; the supernatural darkness; the heaving earth, the rent rocks, the open graves, marking the moment when the world's Redeemer yielded up His life.
Mar	343	4	The awful spectacle appears just as it was. Satan, his angels, and his subjects have no power to turn from the picture of their own work. Each actor recalls the part which he performed.... All behold the enormity of their guilt. They vainly seek to hide from the divine majesty of His countenance, outshining the glory of the sun, while the redeemed cast their crowns at the Saviour's feet, exclaiming: "He died for me!"
------------------------Historical Persons Present at the Judgment, December 2
Mar	344	1	I have sworn by myself, ... That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. Isaiah 45:23, 24.
Mar	344	2	Amid the ransomed throng are the apostles of Christ, the heroic Paul, the ardent Peter, the loved and loving John, and their truehearted brethren, and with them the vast host of martyrs; while outside the walls, with every vile and abominable thing, are those by whom they were persecuted, imprisoned, and slain. There is Nero, that monster of cruelty and vice, beholding the joy and exaltation of those whom he once tortured, and in whose extremest anguish he found satanic delight. His mother is there to witness the result of her own work; to see how the evil stamp of character transmitted to her son, the passions encouraged and developed by her influence and example, have borne fruit in crimes that caused the world to shudder.
Mar	344	3	There ... [is] the proud, ambitious Napoleon, whose approach had caused kingdoms to tremble.
Mar	344	4	There are papist priests and prelates, who claimed to be Christ's ambassadors, yet employed the rack, the dungeon, and the stake to control the consciences of His people. There are the proud pontiffs who exalted themselves above God and presumed to change the law of the Most High. Those pretended fathers of the church have an account to render to God from which they would fain be excused. Too late they are made to see that the Omniscient One is jealous of His law and that He will in no wise clear the guilty. They learn now that Christ identifies His interest with that of His suffering people; and they feel the force of His own words; "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matthew 25:40.
Mar	344	5	The whole wicked world stand arraigned at the bar of God on the charge of high treason against the government of heaven. They have none to plead their cause; they are without excuse; and the sentence of eternal death is pronounced against them.
------------------------The Wicked Acknowledge God's Justice, December 3
Mar	345	1	We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. Romans 14:10, 11.
Mar	345	2	As if entranced, the wicked have looked upon the coronation of the Son of God. They see in His hands the tables of the divine law, the statutes which they have despised and transgressed. They witness the outburst of wonder, rapture, and adoration from the saved; and as the wave of melody sweeps over the multitudes without the city, all with one voice exclaim, "Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints" (Revelation 15:3); and, falling prostrate, they worship the Prince of life.
Mar	345	3	Satan seems paralyzed as he beholds the glory and majesty of Christ. He who was once a covering cherub remembers whence he has fallen. A shining seraph, "son of the morning;" how changed, how degraded! From the council where once he was honored, he is forever excluded. He sees another now standing near to the Father, veiling His glory. He has seen the crown placed upon the head of Christ by an angel of lofty stature and majestic presence, and he knows that the exalted position of this angel might have been his.
Mar	345	4	Memory recalls the home of his innocence and purity.... As Satan looks upon his kingdom, the fruit of his toil, he sees only failure and ruin....
Mar	345	5	The time has now come when the rebellion is to be finally defeated and the history and character of Satan disclosed. In his last great effort to dethrone Christ, destroy His people, and take possession of the City of God, the archdeceiver has been fully unmasked. Those who have united with him see the total failure of his cause.... He is the object of universal abhorrence.
Mar	345	6	Satan sees that his voluntary rebellion has unfitted him for heaven. He has trained his powers to war against God; the purity, peace, and harmony of heaven would be to him supreme torture. His accusations against the mercy and justice of God are now silenced. The reproach which he has endeavored to cast upon Jehovah rests wholly upon himself. And now Satan bows down and confesses the justice of his sentence.
------------------------God's Character Vindicated, December 4
Mar	346	1	Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Revelation 15:3.
Mar	346	2	Every question of truth and error in the long-standing controversy has now been made plain. The results of rebellion, the fruits of setting aside the divine statutes, have been laid open to the view of all created intelligences. The working out of Satan's rule in contrast with the government of God has been presented to the whole universe. Satan's own works have condemned him. God's wisdom, His justice, and His goodness stand fully vindicated. It is seen that all His dealings in the great controversy have been conducted with respect to the eternal good of His people and the good of all the worlds that He has created.... The history of sin will stand to all eternity as a witness that with the existence of God's law is bound up the happiness of all the beings He has created. With all the facts of the great controversy in view, the whole universe, both loyal and rebellious, with one accord declare: "Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints."
Mar	346	3	Before the universe has been clearly presented the great sacrifice made by the Father and the Son in man's behalf. The hour has come when Christ occupies His rightful position and is glorified above principalities and powers and every name that is named. It was for the joy that was set before Him--that He might bring many sons unto glory--that He endured the cross and despised the shame. And inconceivably great as was the sorrow and the shame, yet greater is the joy and the glory. He looks upon the redeemed, renewed in His own image, every heart bearing the perfect impress of the divine, every face reflecting the likeness of their King. He beholds in them the result of the travail of His soul, and He is satisfied. Then, in a voice that reaches the assembled multitudes of the righteous and the wicked, He declares: "Behold the purchase of My blood! For these I suffered, for these I died, that they might dwell in My presence throughout eternal ages." And the song of praise ascends from the white-robed ones about the throne: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." Revelation 5:12.
------------------------Sin and Sinners Destroyed, December 5
Mar	347	1	Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. Malachi 4:1.
Mar	347	2	Notwithstanding that Satan has been constrained to acknowledge God's justice and to bow to the supremacy of Christ, his character remains unchanged. The spirit of rebellion, like a mighty torrent, again bursts forth. Filled with frenzy, he determines not to yield the great controversy. The time has come for a last desperate struggle against the King of heaven. He rushes into the midst of his subjects and endeavors to inspire them with his own fury and arouse them to instant battle. But of all the countless millions whom he has allured into rebellion, there are none now to acknowledge his supremacy. His power is at an end. The wicked are filled with the same hatred of God that inspires Satan; but they see that their case is hopeless, that they cannot prevail against Jehovah. Their rage is kindled against Satan and those who have been his agents in deception, and with the fury of demons they turn upon them.
Mar	347	3	Saith the Lord: "Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit." "I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.... I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.... I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.... Thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more." Ezekiel 28:6-8, 16-19....
Mar	347	4	Fire comes down from God out of heaven. The earth is broken up. The weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth. Devouring flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are on fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein are burned up.
------------------------Only One Reminder of Sin, December 6
Mar	348	1	Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner. Proverbs 11:31.
Mar	348	2	The wicked receive their recompense in the earth. Proverbs 11:31. They "shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts." Malachi 4:1. Some are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many days. All are punished "according to their deeds." The sins of the righteous having been transferred to Satan, he is made to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit. His punishment is to be far greater than that of those whom he has deceived. After all have perished who fell by his deceptions, he is still to live and suffer on. In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch--Satan the root, his followers the branches.
Mar	348	3	Satan and all who have joined him in rebellion will be cut off.... Then "the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be"; "they shall be as though they had not been." Psalm 37:10; Obadiah 16.
Mar	348	4	The justice of God is satisfied, and the saints and all the angelic host say with a loud voice, Amen.
Mar	348	5	While the earth is wrapped in the fire of God's vengeance, the righteous abide safely in the Holy City. Upon those that had part in the first resurrection, the second death has no power. (Revelation 20:6.) While God is to the wicked a consuming fire, He is to His people both a sun and a shield. (Psalm 84:11.)
Mar	348	6	The fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away. No eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful consequences of sin.
Mar	348	7	One reminder alone remains: our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion....
Mar	348	8	All that was lost by sin has been restored.... God's original purpose in the creation of the earth is fulfilled as it is made the eternal abode of the redeemed. "The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever." Psalm 37:29.
------------------------We Belong to the Royal Family, December 7
Mar	349	1	Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2.
Mar	349	2	Can any earthly promotion confer honor equal to this--to be sons of God, children of the heavenly King, members of the royal family? ... The nobility of earth are but men; they die, and return to dust; and there is no lasting satisfaction in their praise and honor. But the honor that comes from God is lasting. To be heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, is to be entitled to unsearchable riches--treasures of such value that in comparison with them the gold and silver, the gems and precious stones of earth, sink into insignificance.
Mar	349	3	To have fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ is to be ennobled and elevated, and made a partaker of joys unspeakable and full of glory. Food, clothing, station, and wealth may have their value; but to have a connection with God and to be a partaker of His divine nature is of priceless value. Our lives should be hid with Christ in God; and although it "doth not yet appear what we shall be," "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear," "we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." The princely dignity of the Christian character will shine forth as the sun, and the beams of light from the face of Christ will be reflected upon those who have purified themselves even as He is pure. The privilege of becoming sons of God is cheaply purchased, even at the sacrifice of everything we possess, be it life itself.
Mar	349	4	When John in his mortal state beheld the glory of God, he fell as one dead; he was not able to endure the sight. But when the children of God shall have put on immortality, they will "see him as he is." They will stand before the throne, accepted in the Beloved. All their sins have been blotted out, all their transgressions borne away. Now they can look upon the undimmed glory of the throne of God. They have been partakers with Christ in His sufferings, they have been workers together with Him in the plan of redemption, and they are partakers with Him in the joy of seeing souls saved in the kingdom of God, there to praise God through all eternity.
------------------------Satisfying Employment, December 8
Mar	350	1	My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. John 5:17.
Mar	350	2	Heaven is a place of interested activity; yet to the weary and heavy laden, to those who have fought the good fight of faith, it will be a glorious rest; for the youth and vigor of immortality will be theirs, and against sin and Satan they will no longer have to contend. To these energetic workers a state of eternal indolence would be irksome. It would be no heaven to them.
Mar	350	3	To the dwellers in Eden was committed the care of the garden, "to dress it and to keep it." Their occupation was not wearisome, but pleasant and invigorating. God appointed labor as a blessing to man, to occupy his mind, to strengthen his body, and to develop his faculties. In mental and physical activity Adam found one of the highest pleasures of his holy existence....
Mar	350	4	Those who regard work as a curse, attended though it be with weariness and pain, are cherishing an error. The rich often look down with contempt upon the working classes, but this is wholly at variance with God's purpose in creating man. What are the possessions of even the most wealthy in comparison with the heritage given to the lordly Adam? Yet Adam was not to be idle. Our Creator, who understands what is for man's happiness, appointed Adam his work. The true joy of life is found only by the working men and women.
Mar	350	5	Work is constantly being done in heaven. There are no idlers there. "My Father worketh hitherto," said Christ, "and I work." We cannot suppose that when the final triumph shall come, and we have the mansions prepared for us, idleness will be our portion--that we shall rest in a blissful, do-nothing state.
Mar	350	6	God designs that all shall be workers. The toiling beast of burden answers the purpose of its creation better than does the indolent man. God is a constant worker. The angels are workers; they are ministers of God to the children of men. Those who look forward to a heaven of inactivity will be disappointed, for the economy of heaven provides no place for the gratification of indolence. But to the weary and heavy-laden rest is promised. It is the faithful servant who will be welcomed from his labors to the joy of his Lord.
------------------------The New Heavens and the New Earth, December 9
Mar	351	1	What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 2 Peter 3:11-13.
Mar	351	2	The feet of the wicked will never desecrate the earth made new. Fire will come down from God out of heaven and devour them--burn them up root and branch. Satan is the root, and his children are the branches.
Mar	351	3	The same fire from God that consumed the wicked purified the whole earth. The broken, ragged mountains melted with fervent heat, the atmosphere also, and all the stubble was consumed. Then our inheritance opened before us, glorious and beautiful, and we inherited the whole earth made new.
Mar	351	4	"I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." Revelation 21:1. The fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away. No eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful consequences of sin.
Mar	351	5	The sea divides friends. It is a barrier between us and those whom we love. Our associations are broken up by the broad, fathomless ocean. In the new earth there will be no more sea, and there shall pass there "no galley with oars." In the past many who have loved and served God have been bound by chains to their seats in galleys, compelled to serve the purpose of cruel, hardhearted men. The Lord has looked upon their suffering in sympathy and compassion. Thank God, in the earth made new there will be no fierce torrents, no engulfing ocean, no restless, murmuring waves.
Mar	351	6	Let all that is beautiful in our earthly home remind us of the crystal river and green fields, the waving trees and the living fountains, the shining city and the white-robed singers, of our heavenly home--that world of beauty which no artist can picture, no mortal tongue describe. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."
------------------------No More Death--Ever! December 10
Mar	352	1	God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4.
Mar	352	2	As we enter the kingdom of God, there to spend eternity, the trials and the difficulties and the perplexities that we have had here will sink into insignificance.
Mar	352	3	In the home of the redeemed there will be no tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning, "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." Isaiah 33:24. One rich tide of happiness will flow and deepen as eternity rolls on....
Mar	352	4	Let us consider most earnestly the blessed hereafter. Let our faith pierce through every cloud of darkness and behold Him who died for the sins of the world. He has opened the gates of paradise to all who receive and believe on Him. To them He gives power to become the sons and daughters of God. Let the afflictions which pain us so grievously become instructive lessons, teaching us to press forward toward the mark of the prize of our high calling in Christ. Let us be encouraged by the thought that the Lord is soon to come. Let this hope gladden our hearts....
Mar	352	5	We are homeward bound. He who loved us so much as to die for us hath builded for us a city. The New Jerusalem is our place of rest. There will be no sadness in the city of God. No wail of sorrow, no dirge of crushed hopes and buried affections, will evermore be heard. Soon the garments of heaviness will be changed for the wedding garment. Soon we shall witness the coronation of our King. Those whose lives have been hidden with Christ, those who on this earth have fought the good fight of faith, will shine forth with the Redeemer's glory in the kingdom of God.
Mar	352	6	It will not be long till we shall see Him in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. And in His presence, all the trials and sufferings of this life will be as nothingness.... Look up, look up, and let your faith continually increase. Let this faith guide you along the narrow path that leads through the gates of the city of God into the great beyond, the wide, unbounded future of glory that is for the redeemed.
------------------------Inheritance of the Saved, December 11
Mar	353	1	My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. Isaiah 32:18.
Mar	353	2	In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called "a country." Hebrews 11:14-16. There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. There the wide-spreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God's people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home....
Mar	353	3	There, "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose." "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree." "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; ... and a little child shall lead them." "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain," saith the Lord. Isaiah 35:1; 55:13; Isaiah 11:6, 9. There man will be restored to his lost kingship, and the lower order of beings will again recognize his sway; the fierce will become gentle, and the timid trustful.
Mar	353	4	Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of heaven. There will be no more tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. "There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying: ... for the former things are passed away." "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." Revelation 21:4; Isaiah 33:24.
Mar	353	5	There the Eden life will be lived, the life in garden and field. "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." Isaiah 65:21, 22.
------------------------Garden of Eden Restored, December 12
Mar	354	1	To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7.
Mar	354	2	The Garden of Eden remained upon the earth long after man had become an outcast from its pleasant paths. The fallen race were long permitted to gaze upon the home of innocence, their entrance barred only by the watching angels. At the cherubim-guarded gate of Paradise the divine glory was revealed. Hither came Adam and his sons to worship God. Here they renewed their vows of obedience to that law the transgression of which had banished them from Eden. When the tide of iniquity overspread the world, and the wickedness of men determined their destruction by a flood of waters, the hand that had planted Eden withdrew it from the earth. But in the final restitution, when there shall be "a new heaven and a new earth" (Revelation 21:1), it is to be restored more gloriously adorned than at the beginning.
Mar	354	3	Then they that have kept God's commandments shall breathe in immortal vigor beneath the tree of life; and through unending ages the inhabitants of sinless worlds shall behold, in that garden of delight, a sample of the perfect work of God's creation, untouched by the curse of sin--a sample of what the whole earth would have become, had man but fulfilled the Creator's glorious plan.
Mar	354	4	Adam is reinstated in his first dominion. Transported with joy, he beholds the trees that were once his delight--the very trees whose fruit he himself had gathered in the days of his innocence and joy. He sees the vines that his own hands have trained, the very flowers that he once loved to care for. His mind grasps the reality of the scene; he comprehends that this is indeed Eden restored.
Mar	354	5	Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will "grow up" (Malachi 4:2) to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory. The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be removed, and Christ's faithful ones will appear in "the beauty of the Lord our God," in mind and soul and body reflecting the perfect image of their Lord. Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood.
------------------------Glories of the Eternal World, December 13
Mar	355	1	Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11.
Mar	355	2	The glory of the eternal world has been opened before me. I want to tell you that Heaven is worth winning. It should be the aim of your life to fit yourself for association with the redeemed, with holy angels, and with Jesus, the world's Redeemer. If we could have but one view of the celestial city, we would never wish to dwell on earth again. There are beautiful landscapes on earth, and I enjoy all these prospects of loveliness in nature. I associate them with the Creator. But I know that if I love God, and keep His commandments, there is a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory reserved in Heaven for me.
Mar	355	3	This earth,... purified with fire, then ... will be much more beautiful. The grass will be living green, and will never wither. There will be roses and lilies, and all kinds of flowers there. They will never blight or fade, or lose their beauty and fragrance.
Mar	355	4	The lion, we should much dread and fear here, will then lie down with the lamb, and everything in the New Earth will be peace and harmony. The trees of the New Earth will be straight and lofty, without deformity.
Mar	355	5	The saints will have crowns of glory upon their heads, and harps of gold in their hands. They will play upon the golden harp, and sing redeeming love, and make melody unto God. Their former trials and suffering in this world will be forgotten and lost amid the glories of the New Earth.
Mar	355	6	Let all that is beautiful in our earthly home remind us of the crystal river and green fields, the waving trees and the living fountains, the shining city and the white-robed singers, of our heavenly home--that world of beauty which no artist can picture and no mortal tongue describe. Let your imagination picture the home of the saved, and remember that it will be more glorious than your brightest imagination can portray.
Mar	355	7	Human language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous. It will be known only to those who behold it.
------------------------At Home in the New Jerusalem, December 14
Mar	356	1	Be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. Isaiah 65:18.
Mar	356	2	There is the New Jerusalem, the metropolis of the glorified new earth, "a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God." "Her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." "The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it." Saith the Lord: "I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people." ...
Mar	356	3	In the City of God "there shall be no night." None will need or desire repose. There will be no weariness in doing the will of God and offering praise to His name. We shall ever feel the freshness of the morning and shall ever be far from its close. "And they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light." The light of the sun will be superseded by a radiance which is not painfully dazzling, yet which immeasurably surpasses the brightness of our noontide. The glory of God and the Lamb floods the Holy City with unfading light. The redeemed walk in the sunless glory of perpetual day.
Mar	356	4	"I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." The people of God are privileged to hold open communion with the Father and the Son. "Now we see through a glass, darkly." We behold the image of God reflected, as in a mirror, in the works of nature and in His dealings with men; but then we shall see Him face to face, without a dimming veil between. We shall stand in His presence and behold the glory of His countenance.
Mar	356	5	There we shall know even as also we are known. There the loves and sympathies that God has planted in the soul will find truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages, the sacred fellowship that binds together "the whole family in heaven and earth"--all are among the experiences of the hereafter.
------------------------The Immortal Inheritance, December 15
Mar	357	1	Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Colossians 1:12, R.S.V.
Mar	357	2	The ransom has been paid, and it is possible for all to come to God, and through a life of obedience to attain unto everlasting life. Then how sad it is that men turn from the immortal inheritance, and live for the gratification of pride, for selfishness and display, and ... lose the blessing which they might have both in this life and in the life to come. They might enter into the palaces of heaven, and associate on terms of freedom and equality with Christ and heavenly angels, and with the princes of God; and yet, incredible as it may seem, they turn from heavenly attractions.
Mar	357	3	The Creator of all worlds proposes to love those who believe in His only-begotten Son as their personal Saviour, even as He loves His Son. Even here and now His gracious favor is bestowed upon us to this marvelous extent. He has given to men the gift of the Light and Majesty of heaven, and with Him He has bestowed all the treasures of heaven. Much as He has promised us for the life to come, He also bestows princely gifts upon us in this life, and as subjects of His grace, He would have us enjoy everything that will ennoble, expand, and elevate our characters. It is His design to fit us for the heavenly courts above.
Mar	357	4	But Satan is contending for the souls of men.... He would not have them catch a glimpse of the future honor, the eternal glories, laid up for those who shall be inhabitants of heaven, or have a taste of the experience that gives a foretaste of the happiness of heaven....
Mar	357	5	Those who accept Christ as their Saviour have the promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come.... The lowliest disciple of Christ may become an inhabitant of heaven, an heir of God to an inheritance incorruptible, and that fadeth not away. O that every one might make choice of the heavenly gift, become an heir of God to that inheritance whose title is secure from any destroyer, world without end! O, choose not the world, but choose the better inheritance! Press, urge your way toward the mark for the prize of your high calling in Christ Jesus.
------------------------The Church Triumphant, December 16
Mar	358	1	I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. Revelation 15:2.
Mar	358	2	Now the church is militant. Now we are confronted with a world in darkness, almost wholly given over to idolatry. But the day is coming when the battle will have been fought, the victory won. The will of God is to be done on earth as it is done in heaven. The nations of the saved will know no other law than the law of heaven. All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving--the robe of Christ's righteousness. All nature, in its surpassing loveliness, will offer to God a tribute of praise and adoration. The world will be bathed in the light of heaven. The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold greater than it is now. The years will move on in gladness. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite in proclaiming, "There shall be no more sin, neither shall there be any more death."...
Mar	358	3	Stand on the threshold of eternity and hear the gracious welcome given to those who in this life have co-operated with Christ, regarding it as a privilege and an honor to suffer for His sake. With the angels, they cast their crowns at the feet of the Redeemer, exclaiming, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.... Honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Revelation 5:12, 13.
Mar	358	4	There the redeemed ones greet those who directed them to the uplifted Saviour. They unite in praising Him who died that human beings might have the life that measures with the life of God. The conflict is over. All tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all heaven, as the redeemed stand around the throne of God. All take up the joyful strain, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain" and hath redeemed us to God.
------------------------Unexpected Recompense, December 17
Mar	359	1	Whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord. Ephesians 6:8.
Mar	359	2	In this life our work for God often seems to be almost fruitless. Our efforts to do good may be earnest and persevering, yet we may not be permitted to witness their results. To us the effort may seem to be lost. But the Saviour assures us that our work is noted in heaven, and that the recompense cannot fail.
Mar	359	3	The poor widow who cast her two mites into the Lord's treasury little knew what she was doing. Her example of self-sacrifice has acted and reacted upon thousands of hearts in every land and in every age. It has brought to the treasury of God gifts from the high and the low, the rich and the poor. It has helped to sustain missions, to establish hospitals, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, and preach the gospel to the poor. Multitudes have been blessed through her unselfish deed. And the outworking of all these lines of influence she, in the day of God, will be permitted to see. So with Mary's precious gift to the Saviour. How many have been inspired to loving service by the memory of that broken alabaster box! And how she will rejoice as she beholds all this!
Mar	359	4	"Verily I say unto you," Christ declared, "Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." Looking into the future, the Saviour spoke with certainty concerning His gospel. It was to be preached throughout the world. And as far as the gospel extended, Mary's gift would shed its fragrance, and hearts would be blessed through her unstudied act. Kingdoms would rise and fall; the names of monarchs and conquerors would be forgotten; but this woman's deed would be immortalized upon the pages of sacred history. Until time should be no more, that broken alabaster box would tell the story of the abundant love of God for a fallen race.
Mar	359	5	Every impulse of the Holy Spirit leading men to goodness and to God is noted in the books of heaven, and in the day of God everyone who has given himself as an instrument for the Holy Spirit's working will be permitted to behold what his life has wrought.
------------------------New Earth Activities, December 18
Mar	360	1	They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Isaiah 65:21, 22.
Mar	360	2	We cannot suppose that when the final triumph shall come, and we have the mansions prepared for us, idleness will be our portion--that we shall rest in a blissful, do-nothing state.
Mar	360	3	In the earth made new, the redeemed will engage in the occupations and pleasures that brought happiness to Adam and Eve in the beginning. The Eden life will be lived, the life in garden and field. "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." Isaiah 65:21, 22.
Mar	360	4	There I saw most glorious houses, that had the appearance of silver, supported by four pillars set with pearls most glorious to behold. These were to be inhabited by the saints. In each was a golden shelf. I saw many of the saints go into the houses, take off their glittering crowns and lay them on the shelf, then go out into the field by the houses to do something with the earth; not as we have to do with the earth here; no, no. A glorious light shone all about their heads, and they were continually shouting and offering praises to God.
Mar	360	5	Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body.
------------------------Incomparable Music, December 19
Mar	361	1	The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35:10.
Mar	361	2	There will be music there, and song, such music and song as, save in the visions of God, no mortal ear has heard or mind conceived.
Mar	361	3	"As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there." "They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord." "For the Lord shall comfort Zion: ... He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord: joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody."
Mar	361	4	I have been shown the order, the perfect order, of heaven, and have been enraptured as I listened to the perfect music there. After coming out of vision, the singing here has sounded very harsh and discordant. I have seen companies of angels, who stood in a hollow square, everyone having a harp of gold. At the end of the harp was an instrument to turn to set the harp or change the tunes. Their fingers did not sweep over the strings carelessly, but they touched different strings to produce different sounds. There is one angel who always leads, who first touches the harp and strikes the note, then all join in the rich, perfect music of heaven. It cannot be described. It is melody, heavenly, divine, while from every countenance beams the image of Jesus, shining with glory unspeakable.
Mar	361	5	What a song that will be when the ransomed of the Lord meet ...! All heaven is filled with rich music, and with songs of praise to the Lamb. Saved, everlastingly saved, in the kingdom of glory! To have a life that measures with the life of God--that is the reward.
Mar	361	6	Language is altogether too feeble to attempt a description of heaven. As the scene rises before me, I am lost in amazement. Carried away with the surpassing splendor and excellent glory, I lay down the pen, and exclaim, "Oh, what love! what wondrous love!" The most exalted language fails to describe the glory of heaven or the matchless depths of a Saviour's love.
------------------------Our Saviour's Highest Honor, December 20
Mar	362	1	And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Zechariah 13:6.
Mar	362	2	"I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." Revelation 21:1. The fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away....
Mar	362	3	One reminder alone remains: Our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in His glory: "He had bright beams coming out of his side: and there was the hiding of his power." Habakkuk 3:4, margin. That pierced side whence flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God--there is the Saviour's glory, there "the hiding of his power." ... And the tokens of His humiliation are His highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show forth His praise and declare His power.
Mar	362	4	The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. In Christ glorified they will behold Christ crucified. Never will it be forgotten that He whose power created and upheld the unnumbered worlds through the vast realms of space, the Beloved of God, the Majesty of heaven, He whom cherub and shining seraph delighted to adore--humbled Himself to uplift fallen man; that He bore the guilt and shame of sin, and the hiding of His Father's face, till the woes of a lost world broke His heart and crushed out His life on Calvary's cross. That the Maker of all worlds, the Arbiter of all destinies, should lay aside His glory and humiliate Himself from love to man will ever excite the wonder and adoration of the universe. As the nations of the saved look upon their Redeemer and behold the eternal glory of the Father shining in His countenance; as they behold His throne, which is from everlasting to everlasting, and know that His kingdom is to have no end, they break forth in rapturous song: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His own most precious blood!"
------------------------The School of the Hereafter, December 21
Mar	363	1	Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them. Revelation 21:3, R.S.V.
Mar	363	2	Between the school established in Eden at the beginning and the school of the hereafter there lies the whole compass of this world's history--the history of human transgression and suffering, of divine sacrifice, and of victory over death and sin. Not all the conditions of that first school of Eden will be found in the school of the future life. No tree of knowledge of good and evil will afford opportunity for temptation. No tempter is there, no possibility of wrong. Every character has withstood the testing of evil, and none are longer susceptible to its power.... Restored to His presence, man will again, as at the beginning, be taught of God.
Mar	363	3	Our lifework here is a preparation for the life eternal. The education begun here will not be completed in this life; it will be going forward through all eternity--ever progressing, never completed.
Mar	363	4	Every right principle, every truth learned in an earthly school, will advance us just that much in the heavenly school. As Christ walked and talked with His disciples during His ministry on this earth, so will He teach us in the school above, leading us beside the river of living waters and revealing to us truths that in this life must remain hidden mysteries because of the limitations of the human mind, so marred by sin.
Mar	363	5	The history of the inception of sin; of fatal falsehood in its crooked working; of truth that ... has met and conquered error--all will be made manifest. The veil that interposes between the visible and the invisible world will be drawn aside, and wonderful things will be revealed.
Mar	363	6	Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body.
------------------------Christ will be Our Teacher, December 22
Mar	364	1	My people shall know my name: ... they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I. Isaiah 52:6.
Mar	364	2	Restored to His presence, man will again, as at the beginning, be taught of God.
Mar	364	3	We have not the slightest idea of what will then be opened before us. With Christ we shall walk beside the living waters. He will unfold to us the beauty and glory of nature. He will reveal what He is to us, and what we are to Him. Truth we cannot know now, because of finite limitations, we shall know hereafter.
Mar	364	4	In the world to come Christ will lead the redeemed beside the river of life and will teach them wonderful lessons of truth. He will unfold to them the mysteries of nature. They will see that a master hand holds the world in position. They will behold the skill displayed by the great Artist in coloring the flowers of the field, and will learn of the purposes of the merciful Father, who dispenses every ray of light, and with the holy angels the redeemed will acknowledge in songs of grateful praise God's supreme love to an unthankful world.
Mar	364	5	There will be open to the student, history of infinite scope and of wealth inexpressible.... The history of the inception of sin; of fatal falsehood in its crooked working; of truth that, swerving not from its own straight lines, has met and conquered error--all will be made manifest. The veil that interposes between the visible and the invisible world will be drawn aside, and wonderful things will be revealed.
Mar	364	6	With unutterable delight we shall enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. We shall share the treasures gained through ages upon ages spent in contemplation of God's handiwork. And the years of eternity, as they roll, will continue to bring more glorious revelations. "Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20) will be, forever and forever, the impartation of the gifts of God.
Mar	364	7	We must get an education here that will enable us to live with God through the eternal ages. The education we begin here will be perfected in heaven. We will only just enter a higher grade.
------------------------Our Study in Ages to Come, December 23
Mar	365	1	That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:7.
Mar	365	2	The science of redemption is the science of all sciences; the science that is the study of the angels, and of all the intelligences of the unfallen worlds; the science that engages the attention of our Lord and Saviour; the science that enters into the purpose brooded in the mind of the Infinite--"kept in silence through times eternal"; the science that will be the study of God's redeemed throughout the endless ages. This is the highest study in which it is possible for man to engage. As no other study can, it will quicken the mind, and uplift the soul....
Mar	365	3	The theme of redemption is one that angels desire to look into; it will be the science and the song of the redeemed throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. Is it not worthy of careful thought and study now?...
Mar	365	4	The study of the incarnation of Christ, His atoning sacrifice and mediatorial work, will employ the mind of the diligent student as long as time shall last; and, looking to heaven with its unnumbered years, he will exclaim, "Great is the mystery of godliness."
Mar	365	5	In eternity we shall learn that which, had we received the enlightenment that it was possible to obtain here, would have opened our understanding. The themes of redemption will employ the hearts and minds and tongues of the redeemed through the everlasting ages. They will understand the truths which Christ longed to open to His disciples, but which they did not have faith to grasp. Forever and forever new views of the perfection and glory of Christ will appear. Through endless ages the faithful Householder will bring forth from His treasures things new and old.
Mar	365	6	If it were possible for us to attain to a full understanding of God and His truth, there would be for us no further discovery of truth, no greater knowledge, no further development.... Thank God, it is not so. Since God is infinite, and in Him are all the treasures of wisdom, we may to all eternity be ever searching, ever learning, yet never exhaust the riches of His wisdom, His goodness, or His power.
------------------------Inexhaustible Themes, December 24
Mar	366	1	Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.... Which things the angels desire to look into. 1 Peter 1:10-12.
Mar	366	2	In this life we can only begin to understand the wonderful theme of redemption. With our finite comprehension we may consider most earnestly the shame and the glory, the life and the death, the justice and the mercy, that meet in the cross; yet with the utmost stretch of our mental powers we fail to grasp its full significance. The length and the breadth, the depth and the height, of redeeming love are but dimly comprehended. The plan of redemption will not be fully understood, even when the ransomed see as they are seen and know as they are known; but through the eternal ages new truth will continually unfold to the wondering and delighted mind. Though the griefs and pains and temptations of earth are ended and the cause removed, the people of God will ever have a distinct, intelligent knowledge of what their salvation has cost....
Mar	366	3	The mystery of the cross explains all other mysteries. In the light that streams from Calvary the attributes of God which had filled us with fear and awe appear beautiful and attractive. Mercy, tenderness, and parental love are seen to blend with holiness, justice, and power. While we behold the majesty of His throne, high and lifted up, we see His character in its gracious manifestations, and comprehend, as never before, the significance of that endearing title, "Our Father."
Mar	366	4	It will be seen that He who is infinite in wisdom could devise no plan for our salvation except the sacrifice of His son. The compensation for this sacrifice is the joy of peopling the earth with ransomed beings, holy, happy, and immortal. The result of the Saviour's conflict with the powers of darkness is joy to the redeemed, redounding to the glory of God throughout eternity. And such is the value of the soul that the Father is satisfied with the price paid; and Christ Himself, beholding the fruits of His great sacrifice, is satisfied.
Mar	366	5	Through all eternity the ransomed host will be His chief glory.
------------------------The Universe Our Field of Study, December 25
Mar	367	1	O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. Psalm 104:24.
Mar	367	2	The knowledge of God's works and ways we can only begin to obtain in this world; the study will be continued throughout eternity. God has provided for man subjects of thought which will bring into activity every faculty of the mind. We may read the character of the Creator in the heavens above and the earth beneath, filling the heart with gratitude and thanksgiving. Every nerve and sense will respond to the expressions of God's love in His marvelous works.
Mar	367	3	There, when the veil that darkens our vision shall be removed, and our eyes shall behold that world of beauty of which we now catch glimpses through the microscope; when we look on the glories of the heavens, now scanned afar through the telescope; when, the blight of sin removed, the whole earth shall appear in "the beauty of the Lord our God," what a field will be open to our study! There the student of science may read the records of creation and discern no reminders of the law of evil. He may listen to the music of nature's voices and detect no note of wailing or undertone of sorrow. In all created things he may trace one handwriting--in the vast universe behold "God's name writ large," and not in earth or sea or sky one sign of ill remaining.
Mar	367	4	The redeemed throng will range from world to world, and much of their time will be employed in searching out the mysteries of redemption. And throughout the whole stretch of eternity, this subject will be continually opening to their minds. The privileges of those who overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony are beyond comprehension.
Mar	367	5	All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's children. With unutterable delight we shall enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. We shall share the treasures gained through ages upon ages spent in contemplation of God's handiwork. And the years of eternity, as they roll, will continue to bring more glorious revelations. "Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" will be, forever and forever, the impartation of the gifts of God.
------------------------Worlds Upon Worlds to be Visited, December 26
Mar	368	1	Thus saith the Lord.... I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. Isaiah 45:11, 12.
Mar	368	2	Many seem to have the idea that this world and the heavenly mansions constitute the universe of God. Not so.
Mar	368	3	God has worlds upon worlds that are obedient to His law. These worlds are conducted with reference to the glory of the Creator. As the inhabitants of these worlds see the great price that has been paid to ransom man, they are filled with amazement.
Mar	368	4	The Lord has given me a view of other worlds. Wings were given me, and an angel attended me from the city to a place that was bright and glorious. The grass of the place was living green, and the birds there warbled a sweet song. The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic, and lovely. They bore the express image of Jesus, and their countenances beamed with holy joy, expressive of the freedom and happiness of the place.
Mar	368	5	I asked one of them why they were so much more lovely than those on the earth. The reply was, "We have lived in strict obedience to the commandments of God, and have not fallen by disobedience, like those on the earth." Then I saw two trees, one looked much like the tree of life in the city. The fruit of both looked beautiful, but of one they could not eat. They had power to eat of both, but were forbidden to eat of one. Then my attending angel said to me, "None in this place have tasted of the forbidden tree; but if they should eat, they would fall."
Mar	368	6	Then I was taken to a world which had seven moons. There I saw good old Enoch, who had been translated.... I asked him if this was the place he was taken to from the earth. He said, "It is not; the city is my home, and I have come to visit this place." He moved about the place as if perfectly at home.
Mar	368	7	I begged of my attending angel to let me remain in that place. I could not bear the thought of coming back to this dark world again. Then the angel said, "You must go back, and if you are faithful, you, with the 144,000, shall have the privilege of visiting all the worlds and viewing the handiwork of God."
------------------------Speculations Concerning the New Earth, December 27
Mar	369	1	When they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. Mark 12:25.
Mar	369	2	There are men today who express their belief that there will be marriages and births in the new earth, but those who believe the Scriptures cannot accept such doctrines. The doctrine that children will be born in the new earth is not a part of the "sure word of prophecy." The words of Christ are too plain to be misunderstood. They should forever settle the question of marriages and births in the new earth. Neither those who shall be raised from the dead, nor those who shall be translated without seeing death, will marry or be given in marriage. They will be as the angels of God, members of the royal family.
Mar	369	3	I would say to those who hold views contrary to this plain declaration of Christ: Upon such matters silence is eloquence. It is presumption to indulge in suppositions and theories regarding matters that God has not made known to us in His word. We need not enter into speculation regarding our future state....
Mar	369	4	"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season." Do not bring to the foundation wood, and hay, and stubble--your own surmisings and speculations, which can benefit no one.
Mar	369	5	Christ withheld no truths essential to our salvation. Those things that are revealed are for us and our children, but we are not to allow our imagination to frame doctrines concerning things not revealed.
Mar	369	6	It is presented to me that spiritual fables are taking many captive.... To all who are indulging these unholy fancies I would say, Stop; for Christ's sake, stop right where you are. You are on forbidden ground.
Mar	369	7	The Lord has made every provision for our happiness in the future life. But He has made no revelations regarding these plans, and we are not to speculate concerning them. Neither are we to measure the conditions of the future life by the conditions of this life.
------------------------Christ's Kingdom of Love, December 28
Mar	370	1	The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High. Daniel 7:27.
Mar	370	2	The government of the kingdom of Christ is like no earthly government. It is a representation of the characters of those who compose the kingdom.... His court is one where holy love presides and whose offices and appointments are graced by the exercise of charity. He charges His servants to bring pity and loving-kindness, His own attributes, into all their office work....
Mar	370	3	The power of Christ alone can work the transformation in heart and mind that all must experience who would partake with Him of the new life in the kingdom of God.... In order to serve Him aright, we must be born of the divine Spirit. This will purify the heart and renew the mind and give us a new capacity for knowing and loving God. It will give us willing obedience to all His requirements. This is true worship.
Mar	370	4	"Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams.... For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.... And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity" (Isaiah 33:20-24).
Mar	370	5	"Be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create," the Lord exhorts; "for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.... And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.... They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 65:18-25).
------------------------The Sabbath in the Hereafter, December 29
Mar	371	1	For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. Isaiah 66:22, 23.
Mar	371	2	In the beginning the Father and the Son had rested upon the Sabbath after Their work of creation. When "the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them" (Genesis 2:1), the Creator and all heavenly beings rejoiced in contemplation of the glorious scene. "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job 38:7.... When there shall be a "restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:21), the creation Sabbath, the day on which Jesus lay at rest in Joseph's tomb, will still be a day of rest and rejoicing. Heaven and earth will unite in praise, as "from one sabbath to another" (Isaiah 66:23) the nations of the saved shall bow in joyful worship to God and the Lamb.
Mar	371	3	The nations of the saved will know no other law than the law of heaven. All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy....
Mar	371	4	"And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." "The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." "In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people."
Mar	371	5	So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creator's power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, God's holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. "From one sabbath to another" the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall go up "to worship before me, saith the Lord." Isaiah 66:23.
------------------------Eternal Security, December 30
Mar	372	1	The Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. Zechariah 14:9.
Mar	372	2	The great plan of redemption results in fully bringing back the world into God's favor. All that was lost by sin is restored. Not only man but the earth is redeemed, to be the eternal abode of the obedient. For six thousand years Satan has struggled to maintain possession of the earth. Now God's original purpose in its creation is accomplished. "The saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever" (Daniel 7:18).
Mar	372	3	"From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised" (Psalm 113:3). "In that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth" (Zechariah 14:9).... "All His commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever" (Psalm 111:7, 8). The sacred statutes which Satan has hated and sought to destroy, will be honored throughout a sinless universe.
Mar	372	4	Through Christ's redeeming work the government of God stands justified. The Omnipotent One is made known as the God of love. Satan's charges are refuted, and his character unveiled. Rebellion can never again arise. Sin can never again enter the universe. Through eternal ages all are secure from apostasy. By love's self-sacrifice, the inhabitants of earth and heaven are bound to their Creator in bonds of indissoluble union....
Mar	372	5	In the place where sin abounded, God's grace much more abounds. The earth itself, the very field that Satan claims as his, is to be not only ransomed but exalted. Our little world, under the curse of sin the one dark blot in His glorious creation, will be honored above all other worlds in the universe of God. Here, where the Son of God tabernacled in humanity; where the King of glory lived and suffered and died--here, when He shall make all things new, the tabernacle of God shall be with men, "and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." And through endless ages as the redeemed walk in the light of the Lord, they will praise Him for His unspeakable Gift--Immanuel, "God with us.";
------------------------What Eternity Holds for the Redeemed, December 31
Mar	373	1	With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation. Psalm 91:16.
Mar	373	2	All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar--worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of human woe and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul. With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. They share the treasures of knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon ages in contemplation of God's handiwork. With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation--suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. Upon all things, from the least to the greatest, the Creator's name is written, and in all are the riches of His power displayed.
Mar	373	3	And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise.
Mar	373	4	"And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Revelation 5:13.
Mar	373	5	The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.

------------------------My Life Today
ML	5	1	The Way of Righteousness Is Life, January 1
ML	6	1	I Consecrate My All, January 2
ML	7	1	I Give My Heart, January 3
ML	8	1	Ask in Faith, January 4
ML	9	1	All Things Are Possible, January 5
ML	10	1	Have Faith in God, January 6
ML	11	1	One with God Through Faith, January 7
ML	12	1	Doubting Nothing, January 8
ML	13	1	The Touch of Faith, January 9
ML	14	1	God Shall Supply My Need, January 10
ML	15	1	Pray in the Morning, January 11
ML	16	1	Prayer Never Out of Place, January 12
ML	17	1	Pray Always, January 13
ML	18	1	Power in Prayer, January 14
ML	19	1	Find God Through Prayer, January 15
ML	20	1	Examples of Prayer Life, January 16
ML	21	1	Mother's Prayers, January 17
ML	22	1	Search the Scriptures, January 18
ML	23	1	The Bible Stands without a Peer, January 19
ML	24	1	The Bible Begets New Life, January 20
ML	25	1	My Counsellor and Guide, January 21
ML	26	1	Food for My Soul, January 22
ML	27	1	My Light, January 23
ML	28	1	A Treasure in My Heart, January 24
ML	29	1	Morning and Evening Worship, January 25
ML	30	1	Teach Them Diligently, January 26
ML	31	1	Bow Before God, January 27
ML	32	1	Confess Your Faults One to Another, January 28
ML	33	1	Worship God and Be at Peace, January 29
ML	34	1	Timothy's Life a Result of Family Religion, January 30
ML	35	1	Abraham Built an Altar Wherever He Went, January 31
ML	36	1	God's Gift of the Spirit, February 1
ML	37	1	To Every One Is Given a Gift, February 2
ML	38	1	For the Perfecting of the Saints, February 3
ML	39	1	For the Unity of the Saints, February 4
ML	40	1	Truth Revealed by God's Prophets, February 5
ML	41	1	The Spirit of Prophecy--A Gift for Me, February 6
ML	42	1	Believe and Prosper, February 7
ML	43	1	To Convict Me of Sin, February 8
ML	44	1	To Enlighten My Understanding, February 9
ML	45	1	To Bring All Things to My Remembrance, February 10
ML	46	1	To Transform My Character, February 11
ML	47	1	To Endow Me with Power from Above, February 12
ML	48	1	To Raise a Standard Against the Enemy, February 13
ML	49	1	To Glorify Christ in Me, February 14
ML	50	1	Love, February 15
ML	51	1	Joy and Peace, February 16
ML	52	1	Long-Suffering, February 17
ML	53	1	Gentleness, February 18
ML	54	1	Goodness, February 19
ML	55	1	Faith, February 20
ML	56	1	Meekness, February 21
ML	57	1	The Promise of Power, February 22
ML	58	1	Preparing for Power, February 23
ML	59	1	Tarrying for Power, February 24
ML	60	1	Receiving the Power, February 25
ML	61	1	Witnessing With Power, February 26
ML	62	1	I Want That Power, February 27
ML	63	1	The Whole Earth Will Be Lightened, February 28
ML	64	1	Esther, March 1
ML	65	1	Paul, March 2
ML	66	1	Joseph, March 3
ML	67	1	Stephen, the First Martyr, March 4
ML	68	1	Three Hebrew Worthies, March 5
ML	69	1	Youth Today, March 6
ML	70	1	Modern Heroes, March 7
ML	71	1	Love Not the World, March 8
ML	72	1	Purity in This Corrupt Age, March 9
ML	73	1	Choose the Way of Truth, March 10
ML	74	1	Christ's Adherence to Principle, March 11
ML	75	1	Daniel Lived by Principle, March 12
ML	76	1	Joseph, a Man of Principle, March 13
ML	77	1	Principle Not to Be Sacrificed for Peace, March 14
ML	78	1	I Keep My Body in Subjection, March 15
ML	79	1	I Live by God's Rules, March 16
ML	80	1	I Will Love as Christ Loved, March 17
ML	81	1	I Will Set a Watch Over My Lips, March 18
ML	82	1	I Will Use Self-Control in Eating, March 19
ML	83	1	I Will Be Master of My Mind, March 20
ML	84	1	I Will Be a Christian at Home, March 21
ML	85	1	I Will Keep the Door of My Heart, March 22
ML	86	1	I Will Set No Wicked Thing Before Mine Eyes, March 23
ML	87	1	I Will Seek the Good, That I May Live, March 24
ML	88	1	I Will Tune My Ear to Heaven, March 25
ML	89	1	I Will Love Good Books, March 26
ML	90	1	I Will Keep a Song in My Heart, March 27
ML	91	1	I Will Sing Unto the Lord, March 28
ML	92	1	God Permits Trial and Affliction to Purify Me, March 29
ML	93	1	God Has a Purpose in Every Affliction, March 30
ML	94	1	God Gives Power to Bear Every Trial, March 31
ML	95	1	The Ladder of Christian Progress, April 1
ML	96	1	Add to Your Faith Virtue: and to Virtue Knowledge, April 2
ML	97	1	Add to Temperance Patience, April 3
ML	98	1	Add to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and Charity, April 4
ML	99	1	The Grace of God is for Me, April 5
ML	100	1	The Exceeding Riches of His Grace, April 6
ML	101	1	I Must Grow in Grace, April 7
ML	102	1	Growth in Grace Begins at Home, April 8
ML	103	1	How to Grow in Grace, April 9
ML	104	1	The Path of the Christian Leads to Heaven, April 10
ML	105	1	O God! Help Me to Higher Levels, April 11
ML	106	1	The Beginning of Wisdom, April 12
ML	107	1	Wisdom Giveth Life, April 13
ML	108	1	How to Gain Knowledge, April 14
ML	109	1	Keep Sound Wisdom and Discretion, April 15
ML	110	1	Wisdom for My Work, April 16
ML	111	1	Wisdom Shown by My Conversation, April 17
ML	112	1	Nature, the Key to Unlock Treasure House of God's Word, April 18
ML	113	1	He Multiplies My Talents, April 19
ML	114	1	The Talent of Speech, April 20
ML	115	1	The Talent of Time, April 21
ML	116	1	The Talent of Money, April 22
ML	117	1	Strength is a Talent, April 23
ML	118	1	God Gives Me Power to Do Good, April 24
ML	119	1	Affections and Impulses Are Precious Talents, April 25
ML	120	1	Be Strong and Courageous, April 26
ML	121	1	Be an Example to Fellow Believers, April 27
ML	122	1	A Saving Influence Over Associates and Unbelievers, April 28
ML	123	1	The Influence of a Meek and Quiet Spirit, April 29
ML	124	1	The Influence of a Christian Family, April 30
ML	125	1	My Body Belongs to God, May 1
ML	126	1	Man Created in God's Image, May 2
ML	127	1	My Wonderful Body, May 3
ML	128	1	God Made Man Upright, May 4
ML	129	1	Cleanliness, May 5
ML	130	1	Exercise, May 6
ML	131	1	Industry, May 7
ML	132	1	A Nutritious Diet, May 8
ML	133	1	Rest, May 9
ML	134	1	Preserve the Body Temple, May 10
ML	135	1	Prosper and Be in Health, May 11
ML	135	1	Life in the open air is good for body and mind. It is God's medicine for the restoration of health.
ML	136	1	Outdoor Activity, May 12
ML	137	1	The Air We Breath, May 13
ML	138	1	Sunlight, May 14
ML	139	1	Water, May 15
ML	140	1	Enjoy God's Created Works, May 16
ML	141	1	Do All to the Glory of God, May 17
ML	142	1	Temperate in Labor, May 18
ML	143	1	Do Not Turn Day Into Night, May 19
ML	144	1	Temperate in Study, May 20
ML	145	1	Appropriate Attire, May 21
ML	146	1	Regularity in Eating, May 22
ML	147	1	Daniel an Example in Temperance, May 23
ML	148	1	The Body Is to be Servant of the Mind, May 24
ML	149	1	Security in Christ Improves Health, May 25
ML	150	1	Peace Through a Consciousness of Rightdoing, May 26
ML	151	1	A Merry Heart Is Good Medicine, May 27
ML	152	1	Kind Acts and Pleasant Words Promote Health, May 28
ML	153	1	Health and Happiness, May 29
ML	154	1	Forgiveness of Sin Brings Healing, May 30
ML	155	1	A Prescription for Healing of All Ills, May 31
ML	156	1	Remember Your Creator in Your Youth, June 1
ML	157	1	Christ Within the Source of Happiness, June 2
ML	158	1	No Real Joy Apart From Christ, June 3
ML	159	1	Wisdom and Understanding Bring Happiness, June 4
ML	160	1	The Bible Shows the Way to True Happiness, June 5
ML	161	1	The Happiest People in the World, June 6
ML	162	1	Obedience, June 7
ML	163	1	Delight to Do God's Will, June 8
ML	164	1	Willing and Obedient, June 9
ML	165	1	The Golden Rule, June 10
ML	166	1	Rejoice and Do Good, June 11
ML	167	1	Patient Continuance in Well-Doing, June 12
ML	168	1	Being Good and Doing Good, June 13
ML	169	1	Contentment, June 14
ML	170	1	Gratitude, June 15
ML	171	1	Thanksgiving and Praise, June 16
ML	172	1	Faithful in the Little Things of Life, June 17
ML	173	1	Loving Thoughtfulness in the Home, June 18
ML	174	1	Sing and the World Sings with You, June 19
ML	175	1	The Beauties of Nature, June 20
ML	176	1	Peace and Assurance, June 21
ML	177	1	A Merry Heart Makes a Cheerful Countenance, June 22
ML	178	1	Kindness the Mark of a Christian, June 23
ML	179	1	Love Heals Many Wounds, June 24
ML	180	1	Say Nothing That Will Wound or Grieve, June 25
ML	181	1	Perfect Peace, June 26
ML	182	1	Trust Means Security, June 27
ML	183	1	Weep Not, June 28
ML	184	1	Fear Not, June 29
ML	185	1	Doubt Not, June 30
ML	186	1	Jesus an Example in Social Relationships, July 1
ML	187	1	Love People as Christ Loved Them, July 2
ML	188	1	Love Friend and Foe Alike, July 3
ML	189	1	Be Sympathetic to All Men, July 4
ML	190	1	How Pleasant Are Words Fitly Spoken, July 5
ML	191	1	True Refinement, July 6
ML	192	1	Christian Courtesy, July 7
ML	193	1	Thoughtful of Others, July 8
ML	194	1	Hospitality, July 9
ML	195	1	Cheerfulness, July 10
ML	196	1	Kind Speech, July 11
ML	197	1	Children Love Mother's Companionship, July 12
ML	198	1	Father's Heart Turned to His Children, July 13
ML	199	1	Happy Companionship Together, July 14
ML	200	1	Hold the Family Together by Affection, July 15
ML	201	1	Make the Home a Blessing to Others, July 16
ML	202	1	The Home Should Be a Refuge for the Youth, July 17
ML	203	1	Let Visitors Join in Family Worship, July 18
ML	204	1	To Have Friends We Must Be Friendly, July 19
ML	205	1	Righteousness Enriches Life, July 20
ML	206	1	Take a Day in the Country, July 21
ML	207	1	Visiting with One Another, July 22
ML	208	1	Jesus and His Friends at Bethany, July 23
ML	209	1	The Friendship Between Paul and Timothy, July 24
ML	210	1	Jonathan and David, July 25
ML	211	1	Recreation Refreshes and Invigorates, July 26
ML	212	1	No One Lives to Himself, July 27
ML	213	1	God Gives Us the Good, July 28
ML	214	1	Walk in the Way of Good Men, July 29
ML	215	1	Walk Not in the Way With Sinners, July 30
ML	216	1	Associate With Those Who Love God, July 31
ML	217	1	God Makes Me Perfect in Every Good Work, August 1
ML	218	1	Be Zealous of Good Works, August 2
ML	219	1	Work Diligently for God, August 3
ML	220	1	Let Your Light Shine, August 4
ML	221	1	Abound in Love at Home and Abroad, August 5
ML	222	1	A Little Maid Witnesses for God, August 6
ML	223	1	God Supplies the Resources, August 7
ML	224	1	Restore the Old Paths, August 8
ML	225	1	Jesus Came to Serve, August 9
ML	226	1	Relieve Suffering Humanity, August 10
ML	227	1	Give Men and Women the Water of Life, August 11
ML	228	1	Work for the Children, August 12
ML	229	1	Work for Prominent Men and Women, August 13
ML	230	1	Work for the Needy, August 14
ML	231	1	Do Good on the Sabbath, August 15
ML	232	1	Who is My Neighbor? August 16
ML	233	1	Speak the Truth to My Neighbor, August 17
ML	234	1	Save Myself by Saving Others, August 18
ML	235	1	Be Kind and Tenderhearted, August 19
ML	236	1	Have an Understanding Heart, August 20
ML	237	1	Be Full of Compassion, August 21
ML	238	1	Sing and Pray With My Neighbors, August 22
ML	239	1	Visit Fatherless and Widows, August 23
ML	240	1	Deal My Bread to the Hungry, August 24
ML	241	1	Clothe the Naked, August 25
ML	242	1	Relieve the Oppressed, August 26
ML	243	1	Be Eyes to the Blind; Feet to the Lame, August 27
ML	244	1	A Father to the Poor, August 28
ML	245	1	Remember Especially Needy Church Members, August 29
ML	246	1	My Spirituality Strengthened and Health Improves, August 30
ML	247	1	I May Shine as the Stars for Ever and Ever, August 31
ML	248	1	Wholly Sanctified: Body, Soul, and Spirit, September 1
ML	249	1	A Practical Example of Sanctification, September 2
ML	250	1	Sanctified Through Obedience, September 3
ML	251	1	The Fruits of Sanctification, September 4
ML	252	1	Christ Sanctified Himself for Me, September 5
ML	253	1	Meek Men and Women, September 6
ML	254	1	Daniel's Life of Temperance, September 7
ML	255	1	Enoch's Life of Holiness, September 8
ML	256	1	Steadfast Integrity of the Three Hebrews, September 9
ML	257	1	John's Love and Loyalty, September 10
ML	258	1	Lives of John and Judas Contrasted, September 11
ML	259	1	The Lord Sanctifies Sabbathkeepers, September 12
ML	260	1	Christ is the Truth, September 13
ML	261	1	Truth Sanctifies, September 14
ML	262	1	Truth Elevates, September 15
ML	263	1	Truth Purifies, September 16
ML	264	1	Truth Enlightens, September 17
ML	266	1	Truth Will Triumph Gloriously, September 19
ML	267	1	The Work of a Lifetime, September 20
ML	268	1	Characters Polished After the Similitude of a Palace, September 21
ML	269	1	Righteous Shall Live Forever, September 22
ML	270	1	God Loves Most a Beautiful Character, September 23
ML	271	1	Perfection, the Goal to Be Gained, September 24
ML	272	1	Clothed in the Robe of Righteousness, September 25
ML	273	1	Saints Shall Possess the Kingdom, September 26
ML	274	1	Partakers Through God's Promises, September 27
ML	275	1	Christ Dwells in Me, September 28
ML	276	1	Dwell Together in Unity, September 29
ML	277	1	Strength From Above, September 30
ML	278	1	Respect For Parents, October 1
ML	279	1	Respect for the Aged, October 2
ML	280	1	Respect for Authority, October 3
ML	281	1	Reverence for God, October 4
ML	282	1	Reverence for God's Name, October 5
ML	283	1	Reverence for the Word of God, October 6
ML	284	1	Reverence in the Home, October 7
ML	285	1	Reverence for God's Representatives, October 8
ML	286	1	Reverence for the House of God, October 9
ML	287	1	Reverence for the Sabbath, October 10
ML	288	1	He Is a Living God, October 11
ML	289	1	God Is My Father, October 12
ML	290	1	God Is With Me, October 13
ML	291	1	God Sees Me, October 14
ML	292	1	God Cares for Me, October 15
ML	294	1	God in Nature, October 17
ML	295	1	Abundant Life in Christ, October 18
ML	296	1	Christ Is My Perfect Example, October 19
ML	297	1	Christ My Elder Brother, October 20
ML	298	1	Jesus as a Youth, October 21
ML	299	1	Christ Was Obedient, October 22
ML	300	1	Christ Tempted as We Are, October 23
ML	301	1	Christ in Me the Hope of Glory, October 24
ML	302	1	My Guardian Angel, October 25
ML	303	1	Angels in My Daily Life, October 26
ML	304	1	Angels Join Me in Soul Winning, October 27
ML	305	1	Angels Employ My Hands to Do His Work, October 28
ML	306	1	Peter Delivered by an Angel, October 29
ML	307	1	Angels Are Preparing Me for Eternity, October 30
ML	308	1	Angels Holding the Four Winds, October 31
ML	309	1	Put on the Whole Armor of God, November 1
ML	310	1	Loins Girt About with Truth, November 2
ML	311	1	The Breastplate of Righteousness, November 3
ML	312	1	Feet Shod with Gospel of Peace, November 4
ML	313	1	The Shield of Faith, November 5
ML	314	1	The Helmet of Salvation, November 6
ML	315	1	The Sword of the Spirit, November 7
ML	316	1	In Christ There is Strength, November 8
ML	317	1	Through Christ There is Victory, November 9
ML	318	1	The Will is the Deciding Power, November 10
ML	319	1	First Victories Won in the Home, November 11
ML	320	1	Be Steadfast, Unmovable, November 12
ML	321	1	Walk in the Light, November 13
ML	322	1	Hold Fast, November 14
ML	323	1	Christ's Victory as Complete as Adam's Failure, November 15
ML	324	1	Christ Overcame the World, November 16
ML	325	1	Christians in All Ages Have Overcome, November 17
ML	326	1	Paul's Shout of Victory, November 18
ML	327	1	Jeremiah's Declaration of Thanksgiving, November 19
ML	328	1	Job Knew That His Redeemer Lived, November 20
ML	329	1	None Greater Than John the Baptist, November 21
ML	330	1	With Honesty, November 22
ML	331	1	With Truthfulness, November 23
ML	333	1	With Liberality, November 25
ML	334	1	With Love, November 26
ML	335	1	With Christlike Words and Deeds, November 27
ML	336	1	With Peace, November 28
ML	337	1	Not One Word of His Promise Has Failed, November 29
ML	338	1	God's Promises Are for Me, November 30
ML	339	1	Make Your Calling and Election Sure, December 1
ML	340	1	Keep the Commandments, December 2
ML	341	1	Walk With God Continually, December 3
ML	342	1	Walk by Faith, December 4
ML	344	1	God's People Delivered, December 6
ML	345	1	Christ Himself Comes for Us, December 7
ML	346	1	Christ's Coronation Day, December 8
ML	347	1	Christ Presents Me With a Crown and Harp, December 9
ML	348	1	Given a White Robe of Righteousness, December 10
ML	349	1	Victory Over Death, December 11
ML	350	1	No More Sin, December 12
ML	351	1	As Heirs, We Inherit the Kingdom, December 13
ML	352	1	Families Will Be Reunited, December 14
ML	353	1	We Shall Recognize Each Other, December 15
ML	354	1	A Beautiful Country, December 16
ML	355	1	Eat of the Tree of Life, December 17
ML	356	1	At the Marriage Supper, December 18
ML	357	1	The Glories of Our Heavenly Home, December 19
ML	358	1	Labor for Pleasure and Enjoyment, December 20
ML	359	1	Harmonious Social Life, December 21
ML	360	1	Study God's Wisdom Throughout Eternity, December 22
ML	361	1	Christ Will Teach the Redeemed, December 23
ML	362	1	Travel to Worlds Afar, December 24
ML	363	1	Listen to the Angel Choir, December 25
ML	364	1	Worship Together, December 26
ML	365	1	Privilege of Open Communion With God, December 27
ML	366	1	The Veil Will Be Drawn Aside, December 28
ML	367	1	I Shall Meet My Guardian Angel, December 29
ML	368	1	Why the Great Controversy Was Permitted, December 30
ML	369	1	I Press Toward the Mark, December 31

------------------------The Way of Righteousness Is Life, January 1
			My Consecration Today
ML	5	1	In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death. Proverbs 12:28
ML	5	2	Another year now opens its fair unwritten pages before you. The recording angel stands ready to write. Your course of action will determine what shall be traced by him. You may make your future life good or evil; and this will determine for you whether the year upon which you have just entered will be to you a happy new year. It is in your power to make it such for yourself and for those around you.
ML	5	3	Let patience, long-suffering, kindness, and love become a part of your very being; then whatsoever things are pure and lovely and of good report will mature in your experience.
ML	5	4	Angels of God are waiting to show you the path of life.... Decide now, at the commencement of the new year, that you will choose the path of righteousness, that you will be earnest and true-hearted, and that life with you shall not prove a mistake. Go forward, guided by the heavenly angels; be courageous; be enterprising; let your light shine; and may the words of inspiration be applicable to you--"I write unto you, young men, because you are strong and have overcome the wicked one."
ML	5	5	If you have ... given yourself to Christ, you are a member of the family of God, and everything in the Father's house is for you. All the treasures of God are open to you, both the world that now is and that which is to come. The ministry of angels, the gift of His Spirit, the labors of His servants--all are for you. The world, with everything in it, is yours so far as it can do you good. Even the enmity of the wicked will prove a blessing, by disciplining you for heaven. If "ye are Christ's" "all things are yours."
------------------------I Consecrate My All, January 2
			My Consecration Today
ML	6	1	I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1
ML	6	2	God calls for whole-souled consecration to His ways. Our highest powers are to be carefully cultivated. Our talents are lent us by God for use, not to be perverted or abused. They are to be improved by use, that they may do the work of God.
ML	6	3	We are to give ourselves to the service of God, and we should seek to make the offering as nearly perfect as possible. God will not be pleased with anything less than the best we can offer. Those who love Him with all the heart will desire to give Him the best service of the life, and they will be constantly seeking to bring every power of their being into harmony with the laws that will promote their ability to do His will.
ML	6	4	Personal consecration is necessary, and we cannot have this unless heart holiness is cultivated and cherished.
ML	6	5	Let your prayer be, "Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee." This is a daily matter.
ML	6	6	The surrender of all our powers to God greatly simplifies the problem of life. It weakens and cuts short a thousand struggles with the passions of the natural heart. Religion is as a golden cord that binds the souls of both youth and aged to Christ. Through it the willing and obedient are brought safely through dark and intricate paths to the city of God....
ML	6	7	How many times have the deep things of God been unfolded before us, and how highly should we prize these precious privileges.... The bright beams of Heaven's light are shining upon your pathway.... Receive and cherish every Heaven-sent ray, and your path will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.
------------------------I Give My Heart, January 3
			Consecration in My Life
ML	7	1	My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. Proverbs 23:26
ML	7	2	The Lord says to every one of you, "My son, give Me thine heart." He sees your disorders. He knows that your soul is diseased with sin, and He desires to say to you, "Thy sins are forgiven." The Great Physician has a remedy for every ill. He understands your case. Whatever may have been your errors, He knows how to deal with them. Will you not trust yourself to Him?
ML	7	3	The blessing of God will rest upon every soul that makes a full consecration to Him. When we seek for God with all the heart, we shall find Him. God is in earnest with us, and He wants us to make thorough work for eternity. He has poured out all heaven in one gift, and there is no reason why we should doubt His love. Look to Calvary....
ML	7	4	God asks you to give Him your heart. Your powers, your talents, your affections, should all be surrendered to Him, that He may work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure, and fit you for eternal life.
ML	7	5	When Christ dwells in the heart, the soul will be so filled with His love, with the joy of communion with Him, that it will cleave to Him; and in the contemplation of Him, self will be forgotten. Love to Christ will be the spring of action. Those who feel the constraining love of God, do not ask how little may be given to meet the requirements of God; they do not ask for the lowest standard, but aim at perfect conformity to the will of their Redeemer. With earnest desire they yield all, and manifest an interest proportionate to the value of the object which they seek.
ML	7	6	It is the submissive, teachable spirit that God wants. That which gives to prayer its excellence is the fact that it is breathed from a loving, obedient heart.
------------------------Ask in Faith, January 4
			Faith in My Life
ML	8	1	Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. James 1:6
ML	8	2	It is our privilege, our duty, to receive light from heaven, that we may perceive the wiles of Satan, and obtain strength to resist his power. Provision has been made for us to come into close connection with Christ and to enjoy the constant protection of the angels of God. Our faith must reach within the veil, where Jesus has entered for us. We must lay hold with firmer grasp on the unfailing promises of God. We must have faith that will not be denied, faith that will take hold of the unseen, faith that is steadfast, immovable. Such faith will bring the blessing of heaven to our souls. The light of the glory of God that shines in the face of Christ may shine upon us, and be reflected upon all around, so that it can be truly said of us, "Ye are the light of the world." And it is this connection of the soul with Christ, and this alone, that can bring light to the world. Were it not for this connection, the earth would be left in utter darkness.... The deeper the surrounding gloom, the brighter should shine out the light of Christian faith and Christian example.
ML	8	3	The fact that unbelief prevails, that iniquity is increasing all around us, should not cause our faith to grow dim or our courage to waver.... If we will but seek God with all our hearts, if we will work with that same determined zeal, and believe with that unyielding faith, the light of heaven will shine upon us, even as it shone upon the devoted Enoch.
ML	8	4	Oh that I could impress upon all the importance of exercising faith moment by moment, and hour by hour! We are to live the life of faith; for "without faith it is impossible to please God." Our spiritual strength depends upon our faith.
------------------------All Things Are Possible, January 5
			Faith in My Life
ML	9	1	All things are possible to him that believeth. Mark 9:23
ML	9	2	It is faith that connects us with heaven, and brings us strength for coping with the powers of darkness. In Christ, God has provided means for subduing every evil trait, and resisting every temptation, however strong.
ML	9	3	The righteous have ever obtained help from above. How often have the enemies of God united their strength and wisdom to destroy the character and influence of a few simple persons who trusted in God. But because the Lord was for them, none could prevail against them.... Let them be separated from their idols and from the world, and the world will not separate them from God. Christ is our present, all-sufficient Saviour. In Him all fullness dwells. It is the privilege of Christians to know indeed that Christ is in them of a truth. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." All things are possible to him that believeth; and whatsoever things we desire when we pray, if we believe that we receive them we shall have them. This faith will penetrate the darkest cloud and bring rays of light and hope to the drooping, desponding soul. It is the absence of this faith and trust which brings perplexity, distressing fears, and surmisings of evil. God will do great things for His people when they put their entire trust in Him.
ML	9	4	Through faith God's children have "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." And through faith we today are to reach the heights of God's purpose for us.
------------------------Have Faith in God, January 6
			Faith in My Life
ML	10	1	Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Isaiah 26:4
ML	10	2	His is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory and the majesty. Let us not limit the Holy One of Israel....
ML	10	3	What a source to which we can look in all times of trouble; the heart can have no misgivings! Man is erring, stubborn, rebellious, and defiant even against God; but the Lord is kind and patient and of tender compassion. He has heaven and earth at His command, and He knows just what we need even before we present our necessities and desires before Him.
ML	10	4	We can see only a little way before us; "but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." He never becomes confused. He sits above the confusion and distractions of the earth, and all things are opened to His divine survey; and from His great and calm eternity He can order that which His providence sees is best.
ML	10	5	If we were left to ourselves to plan, we should make mistakes. Our prejudices, our weaknesses, our self-deceptions, and our ignorances would be manifest in many ways. But the work is the Lord's, the cause is His; He never leaves His workmen without divine directions....
ML	10	6	Whatever burdens lay heavily, cast them on the Lord. He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. Repose in God. He is kept in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on God.
ML	10	7	At times it will seem that you cannot take another step. Well, wait and know that "I am God." "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." ... We need to cherish faith.
ML	10	8	You must learn the simple art of taking God at His word; then you have solid ground beneath your feet.
------------------------One with God Through Faith, January 7
			Faith in My Life
ML	11	1	That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. John 17:21
ML	11	2	"I am the vine, ye are the branches." Can we conceive of a more intimate relation to Christ than this? The fibers of the branch are almost identical with those of the vine. The communication of life, strength, and fruitfulness from the trunk to the branches is unobstructed and constant. The root sends its nourishment through the branch. Such is the true believer's relation to Christ. He abides in Christ, and draws his nourishment from Him.
ML	11	3	This spiritual relation can be established only by the exercise of personal faith. This faith must express on our part supreme preference, perfect reliance, entire consecration. Our will must be wholly yielded to the divine will; our feelings, desires, interests, and honor, identified with the prosperity of Christ's kingdom and the honor of His cause, we constantly receiving grace from Him, and Christ accepting gratitude from us.
ML	11	4	When the intimacy of connection and communion is formed, our sins are laid upon Christ, His righteousness is imputed to us. He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. We have access to God through Him; we are accepted through the Beloved. Whoever by word or deed injures a believer, thereby wounds Jesus. Whoever gives a cup of cold water to a disciple because he is a child of God, will be regarded by Christ as giving to Himself.
ML	11	5	It was when Christ was about to take leave of His disciples that He gave them the beautiful emblem of His relation to believers.... A union with Christ by living faith is enduring; every other union must perish.... The true believer chooses Christ as first and last, and best in everything.
------------------------Doubting Nothing, January 8
			Faith in my Life
ML	12	1	O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Matthew 14:31
ML	12	2	Life is not all made up of pleasant pastures and cooling streams. Trial and disappointment overtake us; privation comes; we are brought into trying places. Conscience-stricken, we reason that we must have walked far away from God, that if we had walked with Him, we should not have suffered so. Doubt and despondency crowd into our hearts, and we say, The Lord has failed us, and we are ill-used. Why does He permit us to suffer thus? He cannot love us; if He did He would remove the difficulties from our path....
ML	12	3	He does not always bring us to pleasant places. If He did, in our self-sufficiency we should forget that He is our helper. He longs to manifest Himself to us, and to reveal the abundant supplies at our disposal, and He permits trial and disappointment to come to us that we may realize our helplessness, and learn to call upon Him for aid. He can cause cooling streams to flow from the flinty rock.
ML	12	4	We shall never know until we are face to face with God, when we shall see as we are seen and know as we are known, how many burdens He has borne for us, and how many burdens He would have been glad to bear, if with childlike faith we had brought them to Him....
ML	12	5	God's love is revealed in all His dealings with His people; and with clear, unclouded eyes, in adversity, in sickness, in disappointment, and in trial we are to behold the light of His glory in the face of Christ and trust to His guiding hand. But too often we grieve His heart by our unbelief....
ML	12	6	God loves His children, and He longs to see them overcoming the discouragement with which Satan would overpower them. Do not give way to unbelief. Do not magnify your difficulties. Remember the love and power that God has shown in times past.
------------------------The Touch of Faith, January 9
			Faith in My Life
ML	13	1	For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. Matthew 9:21, 22
ML	13	2	To talk of religious things in a casual way, to pray for spiritual blessings without real soul hunger and living faith, avails little. The wondering crowd that pressed close about Christ realized no vital power from the contact. But when the poor, suffering woman, in her great need, put forth her hand and touched the hem of Jesus' garment, she felt the healing virtue. Hers was the touch of faith. Christ recognized that touch, and He determined there to give a lesson for all His followers to the close of time. He knew that virtue had gone out of Him, and turning about in the throng He said, "Who touched My clothes?" Surprised at such a question, His disciples answered, "Thou seest the multitude thronging Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me?"
ML	13	3	Jesus fixed His eyes upon her who had done this. She was filled with fear. Great joy was hers; but had she overstepped her duty? Knowing what was done in her, she came trembling, and fell at His feet, and told Him all the truth. Christ did not reproach her. He gently said, "Go in peace, and be whole of thy plague."
ML	13	4	Here was distinguished the casual contact from the touch of faith. Prayer and preaching, without the exercise of living faith in God, will be in vain. But the touch of faith opens to us the divine treasure house of power and wisdom; and thus, through instruments of clay, God accomplishes the wonders of His grace.
ML	13	5	This living faith is our great need today. We must know that Jesus is indeed ours; that His Spirit is purifying and refining our hearts. If the followers of Christ had genuine faith, with meekness and love, what a work they might accomplish! What fruit would be seen to the glory of God!
------------------------God Shall Supply My Need, January 10
			Faith in My Life
ML	14	1	My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
ML	14	2	It is difficult to exercise living faith when we are in darkness and discouragement. But this of all others is the very time when we should exercise faith. "But," says one, "I do not feel at such times like praying in faith." Well, then, will you allow Satan to gain the victory, simply because you do not feel like resisting him? When he sees that you have the greatest need of divine aid, he will try the hardest to beat you back from God. If he can keep you away from the Source of strength, he knows that you will walk in darkness and sin. There is no sin greater than unbelief. And when there is unbelief in the heart, there is danger that it will be expressed. The lips should be kept in as with bit and bridle, lest by giving expression to this unbelief you not only exert an injurious influence over others, but place yourselves upon the enemy's ground.
ML	14	3	If we believe in God, we are armed with the righteousness of Christ; we have taken hold of His strength.... We want to talk with our Saviour as though He were right by our side....
ML	14	4	It is our privilege to carry with us the credentials of our faith,--love, joy, and peace. When we do this, we shall be able to present the mighty arguments of the cross of Christ. When we learn to walk by faith and not by feeling, we shall have help from God just when we need it, and His peace will come into our hearts. It was this simple life of obedience and trust that Enoch lived. If we learn this lesson of simple trust, ours may be the testimony that he received, that he pleased God.
ML	14	5	If we commit the keeping of our souls to God in the exercise of living faith, His promises will not fail us; for they have no limit but our faith.
------------------------Pray in the Morning, January 11
			Prayer in My Life
ML	15	1	My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. Psalm 5:3
ML	15	2	The very first outbreathing of the soul in the morning should be for the presence of Jesus. "Without Me," He says, "ye can do nothing." It is Jesus that we need; His light, His life, His spirit, must be ours continually. We need Him every hour. And we should pray in the morning that as the sun illuminates the landscape, and fills the world with light, so the Sun of Righteousness may shine into the chambers of mind and heart, and make us all light in the Lord. We cannot do without His presence one moment. The enemy knows when we undertake to do without our Lord, and he is there, ready to fill our minds with his evil suggestions that we may fall from our steadfastness; but it is the desire of the Lord that from moment to moment we should abide in Him, and thus be complete in Him....
ML	15	3	God designs that every one of us shall be perfect in Him, so that we may represent to the world the perfection of His character. He wants us to be set free from sin, that we may not disappoint Heaven, that we may not grieve our divine Redeemer. He does not desire us to profess Christianity, and yet not avail ourselves of that grace which is able to make us perfect, that we may be found wanting in nothing.
ML	15	4	Prayer and faith will do what no power on earth can accomplish. We are seldom, in all respects, placed in the same position twice. We continually have new scenes and new trials to pass through, where past experience cannot be a sufficient guide. We must have the continual light that comes from God. Christ is ever sending messages to those who listen for His voice.
ML	15	5	It is a part of God's plan to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, that which He would not bestow did we not thus ask.
------------------------Prayer Never Out of Place, January 12
			Prayer in My Life
ML	16	1	Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2
ML	16	2	There is no time or place in which it is inappropriate to offer up a petition to God. There is nothing that can prevent us from lifting up our hearts in the spirit of earnest prayer. In the crowds of the street, in the midst of a business engagement, we may send up a petition to God, and plead for divine guidance.
ML	16	3	We may speak with Jesus as we walk by the way, and He says, I am at thy right hand. We may commune with God in our hearts; we may walk in companionship with Christ. When engaged in our daily labor, we may breathe out our heart's desire, inaudible to any human ear; but that word cannot die away into silence, nor can it be lost. Nothing can drown the soul's desire. It rises above the din of the street, above the noise of machinery. It is God to whom we are speaking, and our prayer is heard.
ML	16	4	Every earnest petition for grace and strength will be answered.... Ask God to do for you those things that you cannot do for yourselves. Tell Jesus everything. Lay open before Him the secrets of your heart; for His eye searches the inmost recesses of the soul, and He reads your thoughts as an open book. When you have asked for the things that are necessary for your soul's good, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. Accept His gifts with your whole heart; for Jesus has died that you might have the precious things of heaven as your own, and at last find a home with the heavenly angels in the kingdom of God.
ML	16	5	If you will find voice and time to pray, God will find time and voice to answer.
------------------------Pray Always, January 13
			Prayer in My Life
ML	17	1	Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Luke 21:36
ML	17	2	Remember that He was often in prayer, and His life was constantly sustained by fresh inspirations of the Holy Spirit. Let your thoughts, your inner life, be such that you will not be ashamed to meet its record in the day of God.
ML	17	3	Heaven is not closed against the fervent prayers of the righteous. Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, yet the Lord heard, and in a most striking manner answered his petitions. The only reason for our lack of power with God is to be found in ourselves. If the inner life of many who profess the truth were presented before them, they would not claim to be Christians. They are not growing in grace. A hurried prayer is offered now and then, but there is no real communion with God.
ML	17	4	We must be much in prayer if we would make progress in the divine life. When the message of truth was first proclaimed, how much we prayed. How often was the voice of intercession heard in the chamber, in the barn, in the orchard, or the grove. Frequently we spent hours in earnest prayer, two or three together claiming the promise; often the sound of weeping was heard and then the voice of thanksgiving and the song of praise. Now the day of God is nearer than when we first believed, and we should be more earnest, more zealous, and fervent than in those early days. Our perils are greater now than then. Souls are more hardened. We need now to be imbued with the Spirit of Christ, and we should not rest until we receive it.
ML	17	5	Cultivate the habit of talking with the Saviour.... Let the heart be continually uplifted in silent petition for help, for light, for strength, for knowledge. Let every breath be a prayer.
------------------------Power in Prayer, January 14
			Prayer in My Life
ML	18	1	And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. John 14:13
ML	18	2	The petitions of a humble heart and contrite spirit he will not despise. The opening of our hearts to our heavenly Father, the acknowledgment of our entire dependence, the expression of our wants, the homage of grateful love--this is true prayer.
ML	18	3	Angels record every prayer that is earnest and sincere. We should rather dispense with selfish gratifications than neglect communion with God. The deepest poverty, the greatest self-denial, with His approval, is better than riches, honors, ease, and friendship without it. We must take time to pray. If we allow our minds to be absorbed by worldly interests, the Lord may give us time by removing from us our idols of gold, of houses, or of fertile lands.
ML	18	4	The young would not be seduced into sin if they would refuse to enter any path save that upon which they could ask God's blessing. If the messengers who bear the last solemn warning to the world would pray for the blessing of God, not in a cold, listless, lazy manner, but fervently and in faith, as did Jacob, they would find many places where they could say, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." They would be accounted of heaven as princes, having power to prevail with God and with men.
ML	18	5	True prayer, offered in faith, is a power to the petitioner. Prayer, whether offered in the public assembly, at the family altar, or in secret, places man directly in the presence of God. By constant prayer the youth may obtain principles so firm that the most powerful temptations will not draw them from their allegiance to God.
ML	18	6	The greatest victories to the church of Christ or to the individual Christian ... are those victories that are gained in the audience chamber with God, when earnest, agonizing faith lays hold upon the mighty arm of power.
------------------------Find God Through Prayer, January 15
			Prayer in My Life
ML	19	1	Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:12, 13
ML	19	2	There are two kinds of prayer--the prayer of form and the prayer of faith. The repetition of set, customary phrases when the heart feels no need of God, is formal prayer.... We should be extremely careful in all our prayers to speak the wants of the heart and to say only what we mean. All the flowery words at our command are not equivalent to one holy desire. The most eloquent prayers are but vain repetitions if they do not express the true sentiments of the heart. But the prayer that comes from an earnest heart, when the simple wants of the soul are expressed just as we would ask an earthly friend for a favor, expecting that it would be granted--this is the prayer of faith. The publican who went up to the temple to pray is a good example of a sincere, devoted worshiper. He felt that he was a sinner, and his great need led to an outburst of passionate desire, "God be merciful to me a sinner." ....
ML	19	3	After we have offered our petitions, we are to answer them ourselves as far as possible, and not wait for God to do for us what we can do for ourselves. The help of God is held in reserve for all who demand it. Divine help is to be combined with human effort, aspiration, and energy. But we cannot reach the battlements of heaven without climbing for ourselves. We cannot be borne up by the prayers of others when we ourselves neglect to pray; for God has made no such provision for us.... The unlovely traits in our characters are not removed, and replaced by traits that are pure and lovely, without some effort on our part....
ML	19	4	In our efforts to follow the copy set us by our Lord, we shall make crooked lines.... Yet let us not cease our efforts.... Temporary failure should make us lean more heavily on Christ.
------------------------Examples of Prayer Life, January 16
			Prayer in My Life
ML	20	1	If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7
ML	20	2	The patriarchs were men of prayer, and God did great things for them. When Jacob left his father's house for a strange land, he prayed in humble contrition, and in the night season the Lord answered him through vision.... The Lord comforted the lonely wanderer with precious promises; and protecting angels were represented as stationed on each side of his path....
ML	20	3	Joseph prayed, and he was preserved from sin amid influences that were calculated to lead him away from God. When tempted to leave the path of purity and uprightness, he rejected the suggestion with, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"
ML	20	4	Moses, who was much in prayer, was known as the meekest man on the face of the earth.... While he was leading the children of Israel through the wilderness, again and again it seemed that they must be exterminated on account of their murmuring and rebellion. But Moses went to the true Source of power; he laid the case before the Lord.... And the Lord said, "I have pardoned according to thy word." ...
ML	20	5	Daniel was a man of prayer, and God gave him wisdom and firmness to resist every influence that conspired to draw him into the snare of intemperance. Even in his youth he was a moral giant in the strength of the Mighty One....
ML	20	6	In the prison at Philippi, while suffering from the cruel stripes they had received, their feet fast in the stocks, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praise to God; and angels were sent from heaven to deliver them. The earth shook under the tread of these heavenly messengers, and the prison doors flew open, setting the prisoners free.
ML	20	7	Prayer takes hold upon Omnipotence, and gains us the victory.
------------------------Mother's Prayers, January 17
			Prayer in My Life
ML	21	1	For I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. Isaiah 49:25
ML	21	2	Those who keep the law of God look upon their children with indefinable feelings of hope and fear, wondering what part they will act in the great conflict that is just before them. The anxious mother questions, "What stand will they take? What can I do to prepare them to act well their part, so that they will be the recipients of eternal glory?"
ML	21	3	Great responsibilities rest upon you, mothers.... You may aid them to develop characters that will not be swayed or influenced to do evil, but will sway and influence others to do right. By your fervent prayers of faith you can move the arm that moves the world....
ML	21	4	The prayers of Christian mothers are not disregarded by the Father of all.... He will not turn away your petitions, and leave you and yours to the buffetings of Satan in the great day of final conflict. It is for you to work with simplicity and faithfulness, and God will establish the work of your hands.
ML	21	5	The lifework performed on earth is acknowledged in the heavenly courts as a work well done. With joy unutterable, parents see the crown, the robe, the harp, given to their children.... The seed sown with tears and prayers may have seemed to be sown in vain, but their harvest is reaped with joy at last. Their children have been redeemed.
ML	21	6	When the "well done" of the great Judge is pronounced, and the crown of immortal glory is placed upon the brow of the victor, many will raise their crowns in sight of the assembled universe and, pointing to their mothers, say, "She made me all I am through the grace of God. Her instruction, her prayers, have been blessed to my eternal salvation."
------------------------Search the Scriptures, January 18
			The Bible in My Life
ML	22	1	O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. Romans 11:33
ML	22	2	In the Scriptures thousands of gems of truth lie hidden from the surface seeker. The mine of truth is never exhausted. The more you search the Scriptures with humble hearts, the greater will be your interest, and the more you will feel like exclaiming with Paul: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! ..."
ML	22	3	Every day you should learn something new from the Scriptures. Search them as for hid treasures, for they contain the words of eternal life. Pray for wisdom and understanding to comprehend these holy writings. If you would do this, you would find new glories in the Word of God; you would feel that you had received new and precious light on subjects connected with the truth, and the Scriptures would be constantly receiving a new value in your estimation.
ML	22	4	The great truths necessary for salvation are made as clear as noonday.... A single text has proved in the past, and will prove in the future, to be a savor of life unto life to many a soul. As men diligently search, the Bible opens new treasures of truth, which are as bright jewels to the mind.
ML	22	5	You must dig deep in the mine of truth if you would find its richest treasures. Comparing scripture with scripture, you may find the true meaning of the text; but if you do not make the sacred teachings of God's Word the rule and guide of your life, the truth will be nothing to you.... If any part of God's Word condemns any habit you have cherished, any feeling you have indulged, any spirit you have manifested, turn not from the Word of God; but turn away from the evil of your doings, and let Jesus cleanse and sanctify your heart.
------------------------The Bible Stands without a Peer, January 19
			The Bible in My Life
ML	23	1	Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33:3
ML	23	2	No other study will so ennoble every thought, feeling, and aspiration as the study of the Scriptures. No other book can satisfy the questionings of the mind and the craving of the heart. By obtaining a knowledge of God's Word, and giving heed thereto, men may rise from the lowest depths of ignorance and degradation to become the sons of God, the associates of sinless angels....
ML	23	3	As an educating power, the Bible is without a rival. Nothing will so impart vigor to all the faculties as an effort to grasp the stupendous truths of revelation. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell. If occupied with commonplace matters only, it will become dwarfed and enfeebled....
ML	23	4	In its wide range of style and subjects the Bible has something to interest every mind and appeal to every heart.... In it the most simply stated truths are involved--principles that are as high as heaven and that encompass eternity.
ML	23	5	There is no position in life, no phase of human experience, for which the Bible does not contain valuable instruction. Ruler and subject, master and servant, buyer and seller, borrower and lender, parent and child, teacher and student--all may here find lessons of priceless worth.
ML	23	6	But above all else, the Word of God sets forth the plan of salvation: shows how sinful man may be reconciled to God, lays down the great principles of truth and duty which should govern our lives, and promises us divine aid in their observance. It reaches beyond this fleeting life, beyond the brief and troubled history of our race. It opens to our view the long vista of eternal ages--ages undarkened by sin, undimmed by sorrow.
------------------------The Bible Begets New Life, January 20
			The Bible in My Life
ML	24	1	Being born again ... by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 1 Peter 1:23
ML	24	2	In the Bible the will of God is revealed. The truths of the Word of God are the utterances of the Most High. He who makes these truths a part of his life becomes in every sense a new creature. He is not given new mental powers, but the darkness that through ignorance and sin has clouded the understanding is removed. The words, "A new heart also will I give you," mean, "A new mind will I give you." A change of heart is always attended by a clear conviction of Christian duty, an understanding of truth. He who gives the Scriptures close, prayerful attention will gain clear comprehension and sound judgment, as if in turning to God he had reached a higher plane of intelligence.
ML	24	3	The Bible contains the principles that lie at the foundation of all true greatness, all true prosperity, whether for the individual or for the nation. The nation that gives free room for the circulation of the Scriptures opens the way for the minds of the people to develop and expand. The reading of the Scriptures causes light to shine into the darkness. As the Word of God is searched, life-giving truths are found. In the lives of those who heed its teachings there will be an undercurrent of happiness that will bless all with whom they are brought in contact.
ML	24	4	Thousands have drawn water from these wells of life, yet there is no diminishing of the supply. Thousands have set the Lord before them, and by beholding have been changed into the same image. Their spirit burns within them as they speak of His character, telling what Christ is to them and what they are to Christ.... Thousands more may engage in the work of searching out the mysteries of salvation.... Each fresh search will reveal something more deeply interesting than has yet been unfolded.
------------------------My Counsellor and Guide, January 21
			The Bible in My Life
ML	25	1	Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Psalm 73:24
ML	25	2	The Christian evidence that we need, is found not in the experience of men, but in our Bibles. The Word of God is the man of our counsel; for it brings us down from age to age, bearing its testimony to the unchangeableness of the truth. Not one of the ancient defenses of the word of God, appropriate for special times, has become worn out. No part of the Bible has died from old age. All the past history of the people of God is to be studied by us today, that we may benefit by the experiences recorded.
ML	25	3	Men break their word, and prove themselves untrustworthy, but God changes not. His word will abide the same forever.
ML	25	4	Give the Word its honored position as a guide in the home. Let it be regarded as the Counsellor in every difficulty, the standard of every practice.... There can never be true prosperity to any soul in the family circle unless the truth of God, the wisdom of righteousness, presides.
ML	25	5	We all need a guide through the many straight places of life, as much as the sailor needs a pilot over the sandy bar or up the rocky river....
ML	25	6	The sailor who has in his possession chart and compass, and yet neglects to use them, is responsible for placing the lives of those on board his vessel in peril. The vessel may be lost by his neglect. We have a Guidebook, the Word of God, and we are inexcusable if we miss the way to heaven, for plain directions have been given us.
ML	25	7	The Bible presents a perfect standard of character; it is an infallible guide under all circumstances, even to the end of the journey of life.
------------------------Food for My Soul, January 22
			The Bible in My Life
ML	26	1	Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart. Jeremiah 15:16
ML	26	2	It is impossible for any human mind to exhaust one truth or promise of the Bible. One catches the glory from one point of view, another from another point; yet we can discern only gleamings. The full radiance is beyond our vision. As we contemplate the great things of God's Word, we look into a fountain that broadens and deepens beneath our gaze. Its breadth and depth pass our knowledge. As we gaze, the vision widens; stretched out before us, we behold a boundless, shoreless sea. Such study has vivifying power. The mind and heart acquire new strength, new life.
ML	26	3	This experience is the highest evidence of the divine authorship of the Bible. We receive God's Word as food for the soul through the same evidence by which we receive bread as food for the body. Bread supplies the need of our nature; we know by experience that it produces blood, bone, and brain. Apply the same test to the Bible; when its principles have actually become the elements of character, what has been the result? what changes have been made in the life?--"Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." In its power men and women have broken the chains of sinful habit. They have renounced selfishness. The profane have become reverent, the drunken sober, the profligate pure. Souls that have borne the likeness of Satan have been transformed into the image of God. The change is itself the miracle of miracles. A change wrought by the Word, it is one of the deepest mysteries of the Word. We cannot understand it; we can only believe, that, as declared by the Scriptures, it is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." A knowledge of this mystery furnishes a key to every other. It opens to the soul the treasures of the universe, the possibilities of infinite development.
------------------------My Light, January 23
			The Bible in My Life
ML	27	1	The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. Psalm 119:130
ML	27	2	It [the Word of God] is a light shining in a dark place. As we search its pages, light enters the heart, illuminating the mind. By this light we see what we ought to be.
ML	27	3	We see in the Word, warnings and promises, with God behind them all. We are invited to search this Word for aid when brought into difficult places. If we do not consult the Guidebook at every step, inquiring, Is this the way of the Lord? our words and acts will be tainted by selfishness. We shall forget God, and walk in paths that He has not chosen for us.
ML	27	4	God's Word is full of precious promises and helpful counsel. It is infallible; for God cannot err. It has help for every circumstance and condition of life, and God looks on with sadness when His children turn from it to human aid.
ML	27	5	He who through the Scriptures holds communion with God will be ennobled and sanctified. As he reads the inspired record of the Saviour's love, his heart will melt in tenderness and contrition. He will be filled with a desire to be like his Master, to live a life of loving service.... By a miracle of His power He has preserved His Written Word through the ages.
ML	27	6	This book is God's great director.... It flashes its light ahead, that we may see the path by which we are traveling; and its rays are thrown back on past history, showing the most perfect harmony in that which, to the mind in darkness, appears like error and discord. In that which seems to the worldling an inexplicable mystery, God's children see light and beauty.
ML	27	7	Happy is the man who has discovered for himself that the Word of God is a light to his feet and a lamp to his path--a light shining in a dark place. It is heaven's directory for men.
------------------------A Treasure in My Heart, January 24
			The Bible in My Life
ML	28	1	Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart. Job 22:22
ML	28	2	It is of the greatest importance that you continually search the Scriptures, storing the mind with the truths of God. You may be separated from the companionship of Christians and placed where you will not have the privilege of meeting with the children of God. You need the treasures of God's Word hidden in your heart.
ML	28	3	All over the field of revelation are scattered grains of gold--the sayings of the wisdom of God. If you are wise, you will gather up these precious grains of truth. Make the promises of God your own. Then when test and trial come, these promises will be to you glad springs of heavenly comfort.
ML	28	4	Temptations often appear irresistible because, through neglect of prayer and the study of the Bible, the tempted one cannot readily remember God's promises and meet Satan with the Scripture weapons. But angels are round about those who are willing to be taught in divine things; and in the time of great necessity they will bring to their remembrance the very truths which are needed. Thus "when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."
ML	28	5	The heart that is stored with the precious truths of God's Word is fortified against the temptation of Satan, against impure thoughts and unholy actions.
ML	28	6	Keep close to the Scriptures. The more you search and explain the Word, the more your mind and heart will be fortified with the blessed words of encouragement and promise.
ML	28	7	Let us commit its precious promises to memory, so that, when we are deprived of our Bibles, we may still be in possession of the Word of God.
------------------------Morning and Evening Worship, January 25
			Family Worship in My Life
ML	29	1	O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. Psalm 95:6
ML	29	2	The Lord has a special interest in the families of His children here below. Angels offer the smoke of the fragrant incense for the praying saints. Then in every family let prayer ascend to heaven both at morning and at the cool sunset hour, in our behalf presenting before God the Saviour's merits. Morning and evening the heavenly universe takes notice of every praying household.
ML	29	3	Come in humility with a heart full of tenderness and with a sense of the temptations and dangers before yourselves and your children; by faith bind them upon the altar, entreating for them the care of the Lord. Ministering angels will guard children who are thus dedicated to God.
ML	29	4	Family worship should not be governed by circumstances. You are not to pray occasionally, and when you have a large day's work, neglect it. In thus doing you lead your children to look upon prayer as of no special consequence. Prayer means very much to the children of God, and thank offerings should come up before God morning and evening. Says the Psalmist, "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation."
ML	29	5	It should be a pleasure to worship the Lord.... He desires that those who come to worship Him shall carry away with them precious thoughts of His care and love, that they may be cheered in all the employments of daily life, that they may have grace to deal honestly and faithfully in all things.
ML	29	6	In the home it is possible to have a little church which will honor and glorify the Redeemer.
ML	29	7	When we have good home religion we will have excellent meeting religion.
------------------------Teach Them Diligently, January 26
			Family Worship in My Life
ML	30	1	And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. Deuteronomy 6:6, 7
ML	30	2	In his childhood, Joseph had been taught the love and fear of God. Often in his father's tent, under the Syrian stars, he had been told the story of the night vision at Bethel, of the ladder from heaven to earth, and the descending and ascending angels, and of Him who from the throne above revealed Himself to Jacob. He had been told the story of the conflict beside the Jabbok, when, renouncing cherished sins, Jacob stood conqueror, and received the title of a prince with God.
ML	30	3	A shepherd boy, tending his father's flocks, Joseph's pure and simple life had favored the development of both physical and mental power. By communion with God through nature and the study of the great truths handed down as a sacred trust from father to son, he had gained strength of mind and firmness of principle.
ML	30	4	Younger than Joseph or Daniel was Moses when removed from the sheltering care of his childhood's home; yet already the same agencies that shaped their lives had molded his. Only twelve years did he spend with his Hebrew kindred; but during these years was laid the foundation of his greatness; it was laid by the hand of one little known to fame....
ML	30	5	Through no other woman, save Mary of Nazareth, has the world received greater blessing. Knowing that her child must soon pass beyond her care, ... she sought to implant in his heart love and loyalty to God. And faithfully was the work accomplished.
ML	30	6	In arousing and strengthening a love for Bible study, much depends on the use of the hour of worship. The hours of morning and evening worship should be the sweetest and most helpful in the day. Let it be understood that into these hours no troubled, unkind thoughts are to intrude; that parents and children assemble to meet with Jesus and to invite into the home the presence of holy angels.
------------------------Bow Before God, January 27
			Family Worship in My Life
ML	31	1	Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. James 4:10.
ML	31	2	If ever there was a time when every house should be a house of prayer, it is now. Infidelity and skepticism prevail. Iniquity abounds. Corruption flows in the vital currents of the soul, and rebellion against God breaks out in the life. Enslaved by sin, the moral powers are under the tyranny of Satan. The soul is made the sport of his temptation; and unless some mighty arm is stretched out to rescue him, man goes where the arch rebel leads the way.
ML	31	3	And yet in this time of fearful peril some who profess to be Christians have no family prayer....
ML	31	4	The idea that prayer is not essential is one of Satan's most successful devices to ruin souls. Prayer is communion with God, the fountain of wisdom, the source of strength and peace and happiness. Jesus prayed to the Father "with strong crying and tears." ... "Pray one for another," James says; "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
ML	31	5	By sincere, earnest prayer parents should make a hedge about their children. They should pray with full faith that God will abide with them, and that holy angels will guard them and their children from Satan's cruel power....
ML	31	6	How appropriate it is for parents to gather their children about them before the fast is broken and point them to the heavenly Father, who so liberally gives them the bounties of His providence! How fitting for them to thank Him for His protection during the night and to ask for His help and grace and the watchcare of His angels during the day! How fitting, also, when evening comes, to gather once more before Him and praise Him for the mercies and blessings of the day that is past!
------------------------Confess Your Faults One to Another, January 28
			Family Worship in My Life
ML	32	1	Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16
ML	32	2	I am instructed to urge upon our people most earnestly the necessity of religion in the home. Among the members of the household there is ever to be a kind, thoughtful consideration. Morning and evening let all hearts be united in reverent worship. At the season of evening worship let every member of the family search well his own heart. Let every wrong that has been committed be made right. If during the day, one has wronged another or spoken unkindly, let the transgressor seek pardon of the one he has injured. Often grievances are cherished in the mind, and misunderstandings and heartaches are created that need not be. If the one who is suspected of wrong be given an opportunity, he might be able to make explanations that would bring relief to other members of the family.
ML	32	3	"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another," that ye may be healed of all spiritual infirmities, that sinful dispositions may be changed. Make diligent work for eternity. Pray most earnestly to the Lord and hold fast to the faith. Trust not in the arm of flesh, but trust implicitly in the Lord's guidance. Let each one now say, "As for me, I will come out, and be separate from the world. I will serve the Lord with full purpose of heart." ...
ML	32	4	The Lord will show His loving favor to those who will keep His commandments. The Word, the living Word, received and obeyed, will be a savor of life unto life. The reception of the truth will regenerate and cleanse the sinful heart.
ML	32	5	This work of individual purification of character cannot be safely delayed.... With confession and prayer, take your stand to be wholly the Lord's henceforth and forever.... We cannot afford to delay this work of confession and humbling of soul, that our offerings may be acceptable unto God. Fullness of joy is to be found in an entire surrender to God.
------------------------Worship God and Be at Peace, January 29
			Family Worship in My Life
ML	33	1	And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. Isaiah 54:13
ML	33	2	Your home is a little world of itself.... You are the ones who must decide whether your children shall choose the service of God or the service of mammon, eternal life or eternal death....
ML	33	3	Like the patriarchs of old, those who profess to love God should erect an altar to Him wherever they pitch their tent.... Let the father, as priest of the household, lay upon the altar of God the morning and evening sacrifice, while the wife and children unite in prayer and praise. In such a household Jesus will love to abide.
ML	33	4	From every Christian home a holy light should shine forth. Love should be revealed in every act. It should flow out in all home intercourse, showing itself in thoughtful kindness, in gentle, unselfish courtesy. There are homes where this principle is carried out--homes where God is worshiped and truest love reigns. From these homes morning and evening prayer ascends to God as sweet incense, and His mercies and blessings descend upon the suppliants like morning dew.
ML	33	5	Let us raise our eyes to the open door of the sanctuary above, where the light of the glory of God shines in the face of Christ, who "is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." ...
ML	33	6	The soul may ascend nearer heaven on the wings of praise. God is worshiped with song and music in the courts above, and as we express our gratitude, we are approximating to the worship of the heavenly hosts. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth" God. Let us with reverent joy come before our Creator, with "thanksgiving, and the voice of melody."
------------------------Timothy's Life a Result of Family Religion, January 30
			Family Worship in My Life
ML	34	1	Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:14, 15
ML	34	2	Those who profess the name of Christ should not neglect to establish the family altar, where they can seek God daily with all the earnestness with which they would seek Him in a religious assembly.
ML	34	3	We may learn precious lessons in this respect from the life and character of Timothy. From a child Timothy had known the Scriptures. Religion was the atmosphere of his home. The piety of his home life was ... pure, sensible, and uncorrupted by false sentiments.... The Word of God was the rule which guided Timothy. He received his instruction, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little. And the spiritual power of these lessons kept him pure in speech and free from all corrupting sentiments. His home instructors cooperated with God in educating this young man to bear the burdens that were to come upon him at an early age....
ML	34	4	The lessons of the Bible have a moral and a religious influence upon the character as they are wrought into the practical life. Timothy learned and practiced these lessons. He had no specially wonderful talents, but his work was valuable because he used his God-given abilities as consecrated gifts in the service of God. His intelligent knowledge of the truth and of experimental piety gave him distinction and influence. The Holy Spirit found in Timothy a mind that could be molded and fashioned to become a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit....
ML	34	5	The youth should place themselves under the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and weave them into their daily thoughts and practical life. Then they will possess the attributes classed as highest in the heavenly courts. They will hide themselves in God, and their lives will tell to His glory.
------------------------Abraham Built an Altar Wherever He Went, January 31
			Family Worship in My Life
ML	35	1	And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, ... and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. Genesis 12:7, 8
ML	35	2	The life of Abraham, the friend of God, was a life of prayer. Wherever he pitched his tent, close beside it was built an altar, upon which was offered the morning and evening sacrifice. When his tent was removed, the altar remained. And the roving Canaanite, as he came to that altar, knew who had been there; and when he had pitched his tent, he repaired the altar and worshiped the living God.
ML	35	3	So the homes of Christians should be lights in the world.... Fathers and mothers, each morning and evening gather your children round you, and in humble supplication lift your hearts to God for help. Your dear ones are exposed to temptation and trial. Daily annoyances beset the path of young and old. Those who would live patient, loving, cheerful lives must pray. Victory can be gained only by resolute and unwavering purpose, constant watchfulness, and continual help from God.
ML	35	4	Parents, each morning consecrate yourselves and your family to God for that day. Make no calculation for months or years; these are not yours. One brief day is given you. As if it were your last on earth, work during its hours for the Master. Lay all your plans before God, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Accept His plans instead of your own, even though their acceptance requires the abandonment of cherished projects. Thus the life will be molded more and more after the divine Example.
ML	35	5	Eternity alone will reveal the good results with which such seasons of worship are fraught.
------------------------God's Gift of the Spirit, February 1
			Gifts of the Holy Spirit
ML	36	1	And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. John 14:16, 17
ML	36	2	During the Jewish economy the influence of God's Spirit had been seen in a marked manner, but not in full. For ages prayers had been offered for the fulfillment of God's promise to impart His Spirit, and not one of these earnest supplications had been forgotten.
ML	36	3	Christ determined that when He ascended from this earth He would bestow a gift on those who had believed on Him and those who should believe on Him. What gift could He bestow rich enough to signalize and grace His ascension to the mediatorial throne? It must be worthy of His greatness and His royalty. He determined to give His representative, the third person of the Godhead. This gift could not be excelled. He would give all gifts in one, and therefore the divine Spirit, that converting, enlightening, and sanctifying power, would be His donation.... It came with a fullness and power, as if for ages it had been restrained, but was now being poured forth upon the church....
ML	36	4	Believers were reconverted. Sinners united with Christians seeking the pearl of great price.... Every Christian saw in his brother the divine similitude of benevolence and love. One interest prevailed. One object swallowed up all others. Every pulse beat in healthy concert. The only ambition of the believers was to see who could reveal most perfectly the likeness of Christ's character, who could do the most for the enlargement of His kingdom.
ML	36	5	The Holy Spirit was sent as the most priceless treasure man could receive.
------------------------To Every One Is Given a Gift, February 2
			Gifts of the Holy Spirit
ML	37	1	Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Ephesians 4:7
ML	37	2	The talents that Christ entrusts to His church represent especially the gifts and blessings imparted by the Holy Spirit. "To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will." All men do not receive the same gifts, but to every servant of the Master some gift of the Spirit is promised.
ML	37	3	Before He left His disciples, Christ "breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Again he said, "Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you." ... "Unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ," the Spirit "dividing to every man severally as He will." The gifts are already ours in Christ, but their actual possession depends upon our reception of the Spirit of God.
ML	37	4	God does not ask us to do in our own strength the work before us. He has provided divine assistance for all the emergencies to which our human resources are unequal. He gives the Holy Spirit to help in every strait, to strengthen our hope and assurance, to illuminate our minds and purify our hearts.... There is no limit to the usefulness of the one who, putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart and lives a life wholly consecrated to God.... Christ declared that the divine influence of the Spirit was to be with His followers unto the end.
------------------------For the Perfecting of the Saints, February 3
			Gifts of the Holy Spirit
ML	38	1	And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13
ML	38	2	All these gifts are to be in exercise. Every faithful worker will minister for the perfecting of the saints.... There is something for everyone to do. Every soul that believes the truth is to stand in his lot and place, saying: "Here am I; send me." ... Give each one something to do for others. Help all to see that as receivers of the grace of Christ they are under obligation to work for Him. And let all be taught how to work. Especially should those who are newly come to the faith be educated to become laborers together with God. If set to work, the despondent will soon forget their despondency; the weak will become strong, the ignorant intelligent, and all will be prepared to present the truth as it is in Jesus. They will find an unfailing helper in Him who has promised to save all that come unto Him.
ML	38	3	The influence of the Holy Spirit is needed that the work may be properly balanced and that it may move forward solidly in every line.
ML	38	4	The truth for this time embraces the whole gospel. Rightly presented, it will work in man the very changes that will make evident the power of God's grace upon the heart. It will do a complete work and develop a complete man.
ML	38	5	He [God] tells us to be perfect as He is--in the same manner. We are to be centers of light and blessing to our little circle, even as He is to the universe. We have nothing of ourselves, but the light of His love shines upon us, and we are to reflect its brightness.... We may be perfect in our sphere, even as God is perfect in His.
------------------------For the Unity of the Saints, February 4
			Gifts of the Holy Spirit
ML	39	1	I ... beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3
ML	39	2	The stars of heaven are all under law, each influencing the other to do the will of God, yielding their common obedience to the law that controls their action. And, in order that the Lord's work may advance healthfully and solidly, His people must draw together.
ML	39	3	The spasmodic, fitful movements of some who claim to be Christians are well represented by the work of strong but untrained horses. When one pulls forward, another pulls back, and at the voice of their master, one plunges ahead, and the other stands immovable. If men will not move in concert in the great and grand work for this time, there will be confusion.... If men wear the yoke of Christ, they cannot pull apart; they will draw with Christ....
ML	39	4	To the prophet, the wheel within a wheel, the appearance of living creatures connected with them, all seemed intricate and unexplainable. But the hand of infinite wisdom is seen among the wheels, and perfect order is the result of its work. Every wheel, directed by the hand of God, works in perfect harmony with every other wheel.
ML	39	5	By the influence of the Spirit, the most discordant may be brought into harmony. Unselfishness is to bind God's people together with firm, tender bonds. There is a vast power in the church when the energies of the members are under the control of the Spirit, gathering good from every source, educating, training, and disciplining self. Thus is presented to God a powerful organization, through which He can work for the conversion of sinners. Thus heaven and earth are connected, and all divine agencies cooperate with human instrumentalities.
------------------------Truth Revealed by God's Prophets, February 5
			Gifts of the Holy Spirit
ML	40	1	Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. Amos 3:7
ML	40	2	Before the entrance of sin, Adam enjoyed open communion with his Maker; but since man separated himself from God by transgression, the human race has been cut off from this high privilege. By the plan of redemption, however, a way has been opened whereby the inhabitants of the earth may still have connection with heaven. God has communicated with men by His Spirit, and divine light has been imparted to the world by revelations to His chosen servants. "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1:21....
ML	40	3	The Infinite One by His Holy Spirit has shed light into the minds and hearts of His servants. He has given dreams and visions, symbols and figures; and those to whom the truth was thus revealed, have themselves embodied the thought in human language.
ML	40	4	"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets." Amos 3:7.
ML	40	5	In His providence the Lord has seen fit to teach and warn His people in various ways. By direct command, by the sacred writings, and by the spirit of prophecy has He made known unto them His will.
ML	40	6	In ancient times God spoke to men by the mouth of prophets and apostles. In these days He speaks to them by the Testimonies of His Spirit. There was never a time when God instructed His people more earnestly than He instructs them now concerning His will and the course that He would have them pursue.
ML	40	7	Of special value to God's church on earth today--the keepers of His vineyard--are the messages of counsel and admonition given through the prophets who have made plain His eternal purpose in behalf of mankind. In the teachings of the prophets His love for the lost race and His plan for their salvation are clearly revealed.
------------------------The Spirit of Prophecy--A Gift for Me, February 6
			Gifts of the Holy Spirit
ML	41	1	The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19:10
ML	41	2	God has been pleased to communicate His truth to the world by human agencies, and He Himself, by His Holy Spirit, qualified men and enabled them to do this work. He guided the mind in the selection of what to speak and what to write. The treasure was entrusted to earthen vessels, yet it is, nonetheless, from Heaven. The testimony is conveyed through the imperfect expression of human language, yet it is the testimony of God; and the obedient, believing child of God beholds in it the glory of a divine power, full of grace and truth.
ML	41	3	In His Word God has committed to men the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of His will....
ML	41	4	As presented through different individuals, the truth is brought out in its varied aspects. One writer is more strongly impressed with one phase of the subject; he grasps those points that harmonize with his experience or with his power of perception and appreciation; another seizes upon a different phase; and each, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, presents what is most forcibly impressed upon his own mind--a different aspect of the truth in each, but a perfect harmony through all. And the truths thus revealed unite to form a perfect whole, adapted to meet the wants of men in all the circumstances and experiences of life....
ML	41	5	Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His Word has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, the Spirit was promised by our Saviour, to open the Word to His servants, to illuminate and apply its teachings. And since it was the Spirit of God that inspired the Bible, it is impossible that the teaching of the Spirit should ever be contrary to that of the Word.
------------------------Believe and Prosper, February 7
			Gifts of the Holy Spirit
ML	42	1	Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. 2 Chronicles 20:20
ML	42	2	The light of prophecy still burns for the guidance of souls, saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it." It shines on the pathway of the just to commend, and on the way of the unjust to lead to repentance and conversion. Through its agency sin will be rebuked and iniquity unmasked. It is progressive in the performance of its duty to reflect light on the past, the present, and the future.
ML	42	3	If those who have received the light will appreciate and respect the testimonies of the Lord, they will see the religious life in a new light. They will be convicted. They will see the key that unlocks the mysteries that they have never understood. They will lay hold of the precious things that God has given them to profit withal and will be translated from the kingdom of darkness into God's marvelous light.
ML	42	4	Those who despise the warning will be left in blindness to become self-deceived. But those who heed it, and zealously go about the work of separating their sins from them in order to have the needed graces, will be opening the door of their hearts that the dear Saviour may come in and dwell with them.
ML	42	5	He [God] has made provision that all may be holy and happy if they choose. Sufficient light has been given to this generation, that we may learn what our duties and privileges are and enjoy the precious and solemn truths in their simplicity and power.
ML	42	6	We are accountable only for the light that shines upon us. The commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus are testing us. If we are faithful and obedient, God will delight in us, and bless us as His own chosen, peculiar people. When perfect faith and perfect love and obedience abound, working in the hearts of those who are Christ's followers, they will have a powerful influence.
------------------------To Convict Me of Sin, February 8
			The Work of the Holy Spirit
ML	43	1	And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me. John 16:8, 9
ML	43	2	The office of the Holy Spirit is distinctly specified in the words of Christ: "When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." It is the Holy Spirit that convicts of sin. If the sinner responds to the quickening influence of the Spirit, he will be brought to repentance, and aroused to the importance of obeying the divine requirements.
ML	43	3	As Saul yielded himself fully to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, he saw the mistakes of his life, and recognized the far-reaching claims of the law of God. He who had been a proud Pharisee, confident that he was justified by his good works, now bowed before God with the humility and simplicity of a little child, confessing his own unworthiness and pleading the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour. Saul longed to come into full harmony and communion with the Father and the Son; and in the intensity of his desire for pardon and acceptance, he offered up fervent supplications to the throne of grace.
ML	43	4	The prayers of the penitent Pharisee were not in vain. The inmost thoughts and emotions of his heart were transformed by divine grace, and his nobler faculties were brought into harmony with the eternal purposes of God. Christ and His righteousness became to Saul more than the whole world. The conversion of Saul is a striking evidence of the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit to convict men of sin.
ML	43	5	It is through the mighty agency of the Holy Spirit that the government of Satan is to be subdued and subjected. It is the Holy Spirit that convinces of sin and expels it from the soul by the consent of the human agent.... Through the merits of Christ man may be able to exercise the noblest powers of his being and expel sin from his soul.
------------------------To Enlighten My Understanding, February 9
			The Work of the Holy Spirit
ML	44	1	The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Ephesians 1:17, 18
ML	44	2	For the mind renewed by the Holy Spirit, divine beauty and celestial light shine from the sacred page. That which is to the earthly mind a desolate wilderness, to the spiritual mind becomes a land of living streams.
ML	44	3	The Holy Spirit alone can cause us to feel the importance of those things easy to be understood, or prevent us from wresting truths difficult of comprehension. It is the office of heavenly angels to prepare the heart so to comprehend God's Word that we shall be charmed with its beauty, admonished by its warnings, or animated and strengthened by its promises. We should make the psalmist's petition our own, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law."
ML	44	4	God's holy, educating Spirit is in His Word. A light, a new and precious light, shines forth from every page. Truth is there revealed, and words and sentences are made bright and appropriate for the occasion, as the voice of God speaking to them.
ML	44	5	We need to recognize the Holy Spirit as our enlightener. That Spirit loves to address the children, and discover to them the treasures and beauties of the Word. The promises spoken by our Great Teacher will captivate the senses and animate the soul of the child with a spiritual power that is divine. There will grow in the receptive mind a familiarity with divine things which will be as a barricade against the temptations of the enemy.... The sparks of heavenly love will fall upon the hearts of the children as an inspiration.
------------------------To Bring All Things to My Remembrance, February 10
			The Work of the Holy Spirit
ML	45	1	The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26
ML	45	2	Christ has risen from the dead, proclaiming over the rent sepulcher, "I am the resurrection and the life." He has sent His Spirit into our world to bring all things to our remembrance. By a miracle of His power He has preserved His Written Word through the ages. Shall we not, then, make this Word our constant study, learning from it God's purpose for us.
ML	45	3	The servants of Christ were to prepare no set speech to present when brought to trial. Their preparation was to be made day by day in treasuring up the precious truths of God's Word, and through prayer strengthening their faith. When they were brought into trial, the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance the very truths that would be needed....
ML	45	4	A daily, earnest striving to know God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, would bring power and efficiency to the soul. The knowledge obtained by diligent searching of the Scriptures, would be flashed into the memory at the right time. But if any had neglected to acquaint themselves with the words of Christ, if they had never tested the power of His grace in trial, they could not expect that the Holy Spirit would bring His words to their remembrance.
ML	45	5	Christ has made every provision for us to be strong. He has given us His Holy Spirit, whose office is to bring to our remembrance all the promises that Christ has made, that we may have peace and a sweet sense of forgiveness. If we will but keep our eyes fixed on the Saviour and trust in His power, we shall be filled with a sense of security; for the righteousness of Christ will become our righteousness.
------------------------To Transform My Character, February 11
			The Work of the Holy Spirit
ML	46	1	But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18
ML	46	2	It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil and to impress His own character on His church....
ML	46	3	When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the joy of heaven. No one sees the hand that lifts the burden or beholds the light descend from the courts above. The blessing comes when by faith the soul surrenders itself to God. Then that power which no human eye can see, creates a new being in the image of God.
ML	46	4	The Holy Spirit is the breath of spiritual life in the soul. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ....
ML	46	5	The religion that comes from God is the only religion that will lead to God. In order to serve Him aright, we must be born of the divine Spirit. This will purify the heart and renew the mind, giving us a new capacity for knowing and loving God. It will give us a willing obedience to all His requirements. This is true worship. It is the fruit of the working of the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit every sincere prayer is indited, and such prayer is acceptable to God. Wherever a soul reaches out after God, there the Spirit's working is manifest, and God will reveal Himself to that soul. For such worshipers He is seeking. He waits to receive them and to make them His sons and daughters.
------------------------To Endow Me with Power from Above, February 12
			The Work of the Holy Spirit
ML	47	1	But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8
ML	47	2	The Holy Spirit was to descend on those who love Christ. By this they would be qualified, in and through the glorification of their Head, to receive every endowment necessary for the fulfilling of their mission. The Life-giver held in His hand not only the keys of death but a whole heaven of rich blessings. All power in heaven and earth was given to Him, and having taken His place in the heavenly courts, He could dispense these blessings to all who receive Him. The church was baptized with the Spirit's power. The disciples were fitted to go forth and proclaim Christ, first in Jerusalem, where the shameful work of dishonoring the rightful King had been done, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. The evidence of the enthronement of Christ in His mediatorial kingdom was given.
ML	47	3	God desires that the receivers of His grace shall be witnesses to its power. Those whose course has been most offensive to Him He freely accepts; when they repent, He imparts to them His divine Spirit, places them in the highest positions of trust, and sends them forth into the camp of the disloyal to proclaim His boundless mercy.
ML	47	4	Provision is made by God Himself for every soul that turns to the Lord, to receive His immediate cooperation. The Holy Spirit becomes His efficiency.
ML	47	5	It is the Spirit's power that we need. This can do more for us in one minute than we can ever accomplish by talking.
ML	47	6	Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. The power of God awaits their demand and reception. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train.
------------------------To Raise a Standard Against the Enemy, February 13
			The Work of the Holy Spirit
ML	48	1	When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Isaiah 59:19
ML	48	2	Jesus gives the Holy Spirit in large measure for great emergencies, to help our infirmities, to give us strong consolation.
ML	48	3	Those who are continually learning in the school of Christ will be able to pursue the even tenor of their way, and Satan's efforts to throw them off their balance will be signally defeated. Temptation is not sin. Jesus was holy and pure, yet He was tempted in all points as we are, but with a strength and power that man will never be called upon to endure. In His successful resistance He has left us a bright example, that we should follow His steps. If we are self-confident or self-righteous we shall be left to fall under the power of temptation; but if we look to Jesus and trust in Him we call to our aid a power that has conquered the foe on the field of battle, and with every temptation He will make a way of escape. When Satan comes in like a flood, we must meet his temptations with the sword of the Spirit, and Jesus will be our helper and will lift up for us a standard against him.
ML	48	4	The Holy Spirit was promised to be with those who were wrestling for victory, in demonstration of all mightiness, endowing the human agent with supernatural powers and instructing the ignorant in the mysteries of the kingdom of God. That the Holy Spirit is to be the grand helper is a wonderful promise.... The imparted Holy Spirit enabled His disciples, the apostles, to stand firmly against every species of idolatry and to exalt the Lord and Him alone.
ML	48	5	By His Spirit He is everywhere present. Through the agency of His Spirit and His angels He ministers to the children of men.
------------------------To Glorify Christ in Me, February 14
			The Work of the Holy Spirit
ML	49	1	He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. John 16:14
ML	49	2	In these words Christ declares the crowning work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit glorifies Christ by making Him the object of supreme regard, and the Saviour becomes the delight, the rejoicing, of the human agent in whose heart is wrought this transformation....
ML	49	3	Repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ are the fruits of the renewing power of the grace of the Spirit. Repentance represents the process by which the soul seeks to reflect the image of Christ to the world.
ML	49	4	Christ gives them the breath of His own Spirit, the life of His own life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in heart and mind. The grace of God enlarges and multiplies their faculties, and every perfection of the divine nature comes to their assistance in the work of saving souls. Through cooperation with Christ they are complete in Him, and in their human weakness they are enabled to do the deeds of Omnipotence.
ML	49	5	It should be the work of the Christian's life to put on Christ and to bring himself to a more perfect likeness of Christ. The sons and daughters of God are to advance in their resemblance to Christ, our pattern. Daily they are to behold His glory and contemplate His incomparable excellence.
ML	49	6	O that the baptism of the Holy Spirit might come upon you, that you might be imbued with the Spirit of God! Then day by day you will become more and more conformed to the image of Christ, and in every action of your life the question would be, "Will it glorify my Master?" By patient continuance in well-doing you would seek for glory and honor, and would receive the gift of immortality.
------------------------Love, February 15
			The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
ML	50	1	The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22, 23
ML	50	2	To all who believe, He is as the tree of life in the Paradise of God. His branches reach to this world, that the blessings which He has purchased for us may be brought within our reach.... He has given us a Comforter, the Holy Spirit, which will present to us the precious fruit from the tree of life. From this tree we may pluck and eat, and we may then guide others to it, that they also may eat.
ML	50	3	The man who loves God meditates on the law of God day and night. He is instant in season and out of season. He bears the fruit of a branch vitally connected with the Vine. As he has opportunity, he does good; and everywhere, at all times and in all places, he finds opportunity to work for God. He is one of the Lord's evergreen trees; and he carries fragrance with him wherever he goes. A wholesome atmosphere surrounds his soul. The beauty of his well-ordered life and godly conversation inspires faith and hope and courage in others. This is Christianity in practice. Seek to be an evergreen tree. Wear the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. Cherish the grace of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness. This is the fruit of the Christian tree. Planted by the rivers of water, it always brings forth its fruit in due season.
ML	50	4	If we have the love of Christ in our souls, it will be a natural consequence for us to have all the other graces--joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance....
ML	50	5	When the love of Christ is enshrined in the heart, ... His presence will be felt.
------------------------Joy and Peace, February 16
			The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
ML	51	1	Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Romans 15:13
ML	51	2	The Lord has determined that every soul who obeys His word shall have His joy, His peace, His continual keeping power. Such men and women are brought near Him always, not only when they kneel before Him in prayer, but when they take up the duties of life. He has prepared for them an abiding place with Himself, where the life is purified from all grossness, all unloveliness. By this unbroken communion with Him, they are made colaborers with Him in their lifework.
ML	51	3	Words cannot describe the peace and joy possessed by him who takes God at His word. Trials do not disturb him, slights do not vex him. Self is crucified. Day by day his duties may become more taxing, his temptations stronger, his trials more severe; but he does not falter; for he receives strength equal to his need.
ML	51	4	Those who are learning at the feet of Jesus will surely exemplify by their deportment and conversation the character of Christ.... Their experience is marked less with bustle and excitement than with a subdued and reverent joy. Their love for Christ is a quiet, peaceful, yet all-controlling power. The light and love of an indwelling Saviour are revealed in every word and every act.
ML	51	5	There have been times when the blessing of God has been bestowed in answer to prayer, so that when others have come into the room, no sooner did they step over the threshold than they exclaimed, "The Lord is here!" Not a word had been uttered, but the blessed influence of God's holy presence was sensibly felt. The joy that comes from Jesus Christ was there; and in this sense the Lord had been in the room just as verily as He walked through the streets of Jerusalem, or appeared to the disciples when they were in the upper chamber, and said, "Peace be unto you."
------------------------Long-Suffering, February 17
			The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
ML	52	1	Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Colossians 1:11
ML	52	2	Love is the law of Christ's kingdom. The Lord calls upon every one to reach a high standard. The lives of His people are to reveal love, meekness, long-suffering. Long-suffering bears something, yea, many things, without seeking to be avenged by word or act.
ML	52	3	"Long-suffering" is patience with offence; long endurance. If you are long-suffering, you will not impart to others your supposed knowledge of your brother's mistakes and errors. You will seek to help and save him, because he has been purchased with the blood of Christ. "Tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." To be long-suffering is not to be gloomy and sad, sour and hardhearted; it is to be exactly the opposite.
ML	52	4	Try to live peaceably with all men, and let the atmosphere surrounding your soul be sweet and fragrant. The Lord hears every unwise word that is spoken. If you will battle against selfish human nature, you will go forward steadily in the work of overcoming hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong. By patience, long-suffering, and forbearance you will accomplish much. Remember that you cannot be humiliated by the unwise speeches of someone else, but that when you answer unwisely, you lose a victory that you might have gained. Be very careful of your words.
ML	52	5	Forbearance and unselfishness mark the words and deeds of those who are born again to live the new life in Christ.
------------------------Gentleness, February 18
			The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
ML	53	1	Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy gentleness hath made me great. 2 Samuel 22:36
ML	53	2	You are to represent Christ in His meekness and gentleness and love.
ML	53	3	True gentleness is a gem of great value in the sight of God.
ML	53	4	We want a spirit of gentleness. We cannot live right in the family circle without it. In order to have the proper control of our children, we must manifest a spirit of gentleness and of meekness and of long-suffering. We do not want to have a faultfinding, fretful, scolding spirit. If we teach them to have a spirit of gentleness, we must have a spirit of gentleness ourselves; ... if we would have them manifest a spirit of love toward us, we must manifest a gentle, loving spirit toward them. But at the same time there need be no weakness or unwise indulgence on the part of parents. The mother must have firmness and decision. She must be as firm as a rock, and not swerve from the right. Her laws and rules should be carried out at all times and under all hazards, but she can do this with all gentleness and meekness.... The children will grow up God-fearing men and women.
ML	53	5	No member of the family can enclose himself within himself, where other members of the family shall not feel his influence and spirit. The very expression of the countenance has an influence for good or evil. His spirit, his words, his actions, his attitude toward others, are unmistakable.... If he is filled with the love of Christ, he will manifest courtesy, kindness, tender regard for the feelings of others, and will communicate to his associates, by his acts of love, a tender, grateful, happy feeling. It will be made manifest that he is living for Jesus.... He will be able to say to the Lord, "Thy gentleness hath made me great."
------------------------Goodness, February 19
			The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
ML	54	1	A good man obtaineth favour of the Lord. Proverbs 12:2
ML	54	2	True goodness is accounted of Heaven as true greatness. The condition of the moral affections determines the worth of the man. A person may have property and intellect, and yet be valueless, because the glowing fire of goodness has never burned upon the altar of his heart.
ML	54	3	Goodness is the result of divine power transforming human nature. By believing in Christ, the fallen race he has redeemed may obtain that faith which works by love and purifies the soul from all defilement. Then Christlike attributes appear: for by beholding Christ men become changed into the same image from glory to glory, from character to character. Good fruit is produced. The character is fashioned after the divine similitude, and integrity, uprightness, and true benevolence are manifested toward the sinful race.
ML	54	4	The Lord has placed every human being on test and trial. He desires to prove and to try us, to see if we will be good and do good in this life, to see if he can trust us with eternal riches, and make us members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King.
ML	54	5	There is no limit to the good you may do. If you make the Word of God the rule of your life, and govern your actions by its precepts, making all your purposes and exertions in the fulfilling of your duty a blessing and not a curse to others, success will crown your efforts. You have placed yourself in connection with God; you have become a channel of light to others. You are honored by becoming co-laborers with Jesus; and no higher honor can you receive than the blessed benediction from the lips of the Saviour: "Well done, good and faithful servant."
------------------------Faith, February 20
			The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
ML	55	1	The just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4
ML	55	2	On one occasion, when meditating concerning the future, he [Habakkuk] said, "I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me." Graciously the Lord answered him: "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.... The just shall live by his faith."
ML	55	3	The faith that strengthened Habakkuk and all the holy and the just in those days of deep trial was the same faith that sustains God's people today. In the darkest hours, under circumstances the most forbidding, the Christian believer may keep his soul stayed upon the source of all light and power. Day by day, through faith in God, his hope and courage may be renewed. "The just shall live by his faith." In the service of God there need be no despondency, no wavering, no fear. The Lord will more than fulfill the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him. He will give them the wisdom their varied necessities demand....
ML	55	4	We must cherish and cultivate the faith of which prophets and apostles have testified--the faith that lays hold on the promises of God and waits for deliverance in His appointed time and way. The sure word of prophecy will meet its final fulfillment in the glorious Advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as King of kings and Lord of lords. The time of waiting may seem long, the soul may be oppressed by discouraging circumstances, many in whom confidence has been placed may fall by the way; but with the prophet who endeavored to encourage Judah in a time of unparalleled apostasy, let us confidently declare, "The Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him." Let us ever hold in remembrance the cheering message, "The vision is yet for an appointed time ... : though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.... The just shall live by his faith."
------------------------Meekness, February 21
			The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
ML	56	1	The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way. Psalm 25:9
ML	56	2	Jesus loves the young.... He bids them learn of him meekness and lowliness of heart. This precious grace is rarely seen in the youth of the present day, even in those who profess to be Christians. Their own ways seem right in their eyes. In accepting the name of Christ they do not accept His character or submit to wear His yoke; therefore they know nothing of the joy and peace to be found in His service.
ML	56	3	Meekness is a precious grace, willing to suffer silently, willing to endure trials. Meekness is patient and labors to be happy under all circumstances. Meekness is always thankful and makes its own songs of happiness, making melody in the heart of God. Meekness will suffer disappointment and wrong and will not retaliate.
ML	56	4	A meek and quiet spirit will not be ever looking out for happiness for itself, but will seek for self-forgetfulness and find sweet content and true satisfaction in making others happy.
ML	56	5	It is not the seeking to climb to eminence that will make you great in God's sight, but it is the humble life of goodness, of fidelity that will make you the object of the heavenly angels' special guardianship. The Pattern Man ... lived nearly thirty years in an obscure Galilean town, hidden away among the hills. All the angel host was at His command, yet He did not claim to be anything great or exalted.... He was a carpenter, working for wages, a servant to those for whom He labored, showing that heaven may be very near to us in the common walks of life, and that angels from the heavenly courts will take charge of the steps of those who come and go at God's command.
ML	56	6	The perfect fruit of faith, meekness, and love often matures best amid storm clouds and darkness.
------------------------The Promise of Power, February 22
			The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
ML	57	1	For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Acts 1:5
ML	57	2	It is not because of any restriction on God's part that the riches of His grace do not flow to men. His gift is godlike. He gave with a liberality that men do not appreciate because they do not love to receive. If all were willing to receive, all would be filled with the Spirit.... We are too easily satisfied with a ripple on the surface, when it is our privilege to expect the deep moving of the Spirit of God.
ML	57	3	With the reception of this gift, all other gifts would be ours; for we are to have this gift according to the plentitude of the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive. Then let us not be satisfied with only a little of this blessing, only that amount which will keep us from the slumber of death, but let us diligently seek for the abundance of the grace of God.
ML	57	4	Promise after promise is given, assuring us of the fullness of power that God has, and yet we are so weak in faith that we do not grasp the power. O how much we need a living, earnest faith in the truths of God's Word! This great need of God's people is constantly before me.... What can we do to arouse them to see that we are living in the very evening of this earth's history? ... We need to seek for a faith that will lay hold of the arm of Jehovah.
ML	57	5	Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. The power of God awaits their demand and reception. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive.
------------------------Preparing for Power, February 23
			The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
ML	58	1	Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 3:19
ML	58	2	Instead of being worked by the Holy Spirit, many, even among those engaged in the solemn work of God, are barring the way against its holy, life-giving influences. They freely criticize and judge their brethren, and yet they do not realize the necessity of earnestly looking into the divine mirror to see what spirit they themselves are manifesting. Their defects of character they regard as virtues, and cling to them....
ML	58	3	Let there be a work of reformation and repentance. Let all seek for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. As with the disciples after the ascension of Christ, it may require several days of earnestly seeking God and putting away of sin.
ML	58	4	When God's people are worked by the Holy Spirit, they will manifest a zeal that is according to knowledge.... They will reflect the light that God has been giving for years. The spirit of criticism will be put away. Filled with the spirit of humility, they will be of one mind, united with one another and with Christ.
ML	58	5	When a man is filled with the Spirit, the more severely he is tested and tried, the more clearly he proves that he is a representative of Christ. The peace that dwells in the soul is seen on the countenance. The words and actions express the love of the Saviour. There is no striving for the highest place. Self is renounced. The name of Jesus is written on all that is said and done.
ML	58	6	When the truth in its simplicity is lived in every place, then God will work through His angels as He worked on the day of Pentecost, and hearts will be changed so decidedly that there will be a manifestation of the influence of genuine truth, as is represented in the descent of the Holy Spirit.
------------------------Tarrying for Power, February 24
			The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
ML	59	1	Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. Luke 24:49
ML	59	2	Every truly converted soul will be intensely desirous to bring others from the darkness of error into the marvelous light of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The great outpouring of the Spirit of God, which lightens the whole earth with His glory, will not come until we have an enlightened people, that know by experience what it means to be laborers together with God. When we have entire, wholehearted consecration to the service of Christ, God will recognize the fact by an outpouring of His Spirit without measure; but this will not be while the largest portion of the church are not laborers together with God. God cannot pour out His Spirit when selfishness and self-indulgence are so manifest; when a spirit prevails that, if put into words, would express that answer of Cain--"Am I my brother's keeper?" ...
ML	59	3	When the hearts of the believers are warm with the love for God, they will do a continual work for Jesus. They will manifest the meekness of Christ and display a steadfast purpose that will not fail nor be discouraged. God will use humble men to do His work, for there is a large vineyard calling for laborers.
ML	59	4	The promise of the Holy Spirit is not limited to any age or to any race. Christ declared that the divine influence of His Spirit was to be with His followers unto the end. From the day of Pentecost to the present time, the Comforter has been sent to all who have yielded themselves fully to the Lord and to His service.... The more closely believers have walked with God, the more clearly and powerfully have they testified of their Redeemer's love and of His saving grace. The men and women who through the long centuries of persecution and trial enjoyed a large measure of the presence of the Spirit in their lives, have stood as signs and wonders in the world.
------------------------Receiving the Power, February 25
			The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
ML	60	1	And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.... And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Acts 2:2-4
ML	60	2	The Spirit came upon the waiting, praying disciples with a fullness that reached every heart. The Infinite One revealed Himself in power to His church. It was as if for ages this influence had been held in restraint, and now Heaven rejoiced in being able to pour out upon the church the riches of the Spirit's grace.
ML	60	3	The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was the "former rain," and glorious was the result. But the latter rain will be more abundant.
ML	60	4	To the end of time the presence of the Spirit is to abide with the true church.
ML	60	5	But near the end of earth's harvest a special bestowal of the spiritual grace is promised, to prepare the church for the coming of the Son of men. This outpouring of the Spirit is likened to the falling of the latter rain; and it is for this added power that the Christians are to send their petitions to the Lord of the harvest "in the time of the latter rain." In response, "The Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain." ...
ML	60	6	Those only who are constantly receiving fresh supplies of grace will have power proportionate to their daily need and their ability to use that power. Instead of looking forward to some future time when, through a special endowment of spiritual power, they will receive a miraculous fitting up for soul winning, they are yielding themselves daily to God, that He may make them vessels meet for His use. Daily they are improving the opportunities for service that lie within their reach. Daily they are witnessing for the Master wherever they may be, whether in some humble sphere of labor in the home or in a public field of usefulness.
------------------------Witnessing With Power, February 26
			The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
ML	61	1	With great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Acts 4:33
ML	61	2	What was the result of the outpouring of the Spirit? Thousands were converted in a day. The sword of the Spirit, newly edged with power and bathed in the lightnings of heaven, cut its way through unbelief, overcoming Satanic agencies and magnifying the Lord as possessing supreme power.
ML	61	3	Everywhere the gospel was proclaimed. Those who proclaimed it had no grievous complaints to make. The hearts of the disciples were surcharged with a benevolence so full, so deep, so far reaching, that it impelled them to go to the ends of the earth, testifying, God forbid that we should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. As they proclaimed the gospel as the power of God unto salvation, hearts yielded to the power of the Holy Spirit. New territory was daily added to the church. In every place converts confessed Christ. Those who had been the bitterest opponents of the truth became her champions....
ML	61	4	The disciples ... were weighted with the burden for the salvation of souls. The gospel was to be carried to the uttermost parts of the earth, and they claimed the endowment of the power that Christ had promised. Then it was that the Holy Spirit was poured out, and thousands were converted in a day.
ML	61	5	So may it be now. Instead of man's speculations, let the Word of God be preached. Let Christians put away their dissensions and give themselves to God for the saving of the lost. Let them ask in faith for the blessing, and it will come.
ML	61	6	Zeal for God moved the disciples to bear witness to the truth with mighty power. Should not this zeal fire our hearts with a determination to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ, and Him crucified?
------------------------I Want That Power, February 27
			The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
ML	62	1	And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Joel 2:28, 29
ML	62	2	We are living in the last days, in a time when we may expect much from the Lord. These words should bring us to the throne of grace to claim great things of Him. Here the promise is given that on the men and women and on our sons and daughters the Holy Spirit is to come; and "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." This brings to view a wonderful work to be done, for which we need the converting power of God in our hearts every day. It is our privilege to experience this. Heaven is full of blessings, and it is our privilege to claim the rich promises of God for our individual selves. We need to seek the Lord day and night that we may know just what steps to take and just what we ought to do.
ML	62	3	The Lord has a special work to do for us individually. As we see the wickedness of the world brought to light in the courts of justice and published in the daily papers, let us draw near to God, and by living faith lay hold of His promises, that the grace of Christ may be manifest in us. We may have an influence, a powerful influence, in the world. If the convicting power of God is in us, we shall be enabled to lead souls that are in sin to conversion.
ML	62	4	In the closing scenes of this earth's history, many ... children and youth [who receive a true Christian education] will astonish people by their witness to the truth, which will be borne in simplicity, yet with spirit and power. They have been taught the fear of the Lord, and their hearts have been softened by a careful and prayerful study of the Bible. In the near future many children will be endued with the Spirit of God, and will do a work proclaiming the truth to the world.... They will do a work in the world that not all the powers of evil can counteract.
------------------------The Whole Earth Will Be Lightened, February 28
			The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
ML	63	1	And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. Revelation 18:1
ML	63	2	The end of all things is at hand. God is moving upon every mind that is open to receive the impressions of His Holy Spirit. He is sending our messengers that they may give the warning in every locality. God is testing the devotion of His churches and their willingness to render obedience to the Spirit's guidance. Knowledge is to be increased. The messengers of Heaven are to be seen running to and fro, seeking in every possible way to warn the people of the coming judgments and presenting the glad tidings of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. The standard of righteousness is to be exalted. The Spirit of God is moving upon men's hearts, and those who respond to its influence will become lights in the world. Everywhere they are seen going forth to communicate to others the light they have received as they did after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And as they let their light shine, they receive more and more of the Spirit's power. The earth is lighted with the glory of God.
ML	63	3	This message will close with power and strength far exceeding the midnight cry. Servants of God, endowed with power from on high, with their faces lighted up, and shining with holy consecration, went forth to proclaim the message from heaven.
ML	63	4	Many were praising God. The sick were healed, and other miracles were wrought. A spirit of intercession was seen, even as was manifested before the great Day of Pentecost. Hundreds and thousands were seen visiting families and opening before them the Word of God. Hearts were convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit, and a spirit of genuine conversion was manifest. On every side doors were thrown open to the proclamation of the truth. The world seemed to be lightened with the heavenly influence.
------------------------Esther, March 1
			Heroes for God
ML	64	1	And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther 4:14
ML	64	2	A certain day was appointed on which the Jews were to be destroyed and their property confiscated. Little did the king realize the far-reaching results that would have accompanied the complete carrying out of this decree. Satan himself, the hidden instigator of the scheme, was trying to rid the earth of those who preserved the knowledge of the true God....
ML	64	3	But the plots of the enemy were defeated by a Power that reigns among the children of men. In the providence of God, Esther, a Jewess who feared the Most High, had been made queen of the Medo-Persian kingdom. Mordecai was a near relative of hers. In their extremity they decided to appeal to Xerxes in behalf of their people. Esther was to venture into his presence as an intercessor. "Who knoweth," said Mordecai, "whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
ML	64	4	The crisis that Esther faced demanded quick, earnest action; but both she and Mordecai realized that unless God should work mightily in their behalf, their own efforts would be unavailing. So Esther took time for communion with God, the source of her strength. "Go," she directed Mordecai, "gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish."
ML	64	5	To every household and every school, to every parent, teacher, and child upon whom has shone the light of the gospel, comes at this crisis the question put to Esther the queen at that momentous crisis in Israel's history, "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
------------------------Paul, March 2
			Heroes for God
ML	65	1	At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.... Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear. 2 Timothy 4:16, 17
ML	65	2	Paul before Nero--how striking the contrast! ... In power and greatness Nero stood unrivaled.... Without money, without friends, without counsel, Paul had been brought forth from a dungeon to be tried for his life....
ML	65	3	The countenance of the monarch bearing the shameful record of the passions that raged within; the countenance of the prisoner telling the story of a heart at peace with God and man. The results of opposite systems of education stood that day contrasted--a life of unbounded self-indulgence and a life of entire self-sacrifice. Here were the representatives of two theories of life--all-absorbing selfishness, which counts nothing too valuable to be sacrificed for momentary gratification, and self-denying endurance, ready to give up life itself, if need be, for the good of others....
ML	65	4	The people and the judges ... had been present at many trials, and had looked upon many a criminal; but never had they seen a man wear a look of such holy calmness.... His words struck a chord that vibrated in the hearts even of the most hardened. Truth, clear and convincing, overthrew error. Light shone into the minds of many who afterward gladly followed its rays.... He pointed his hearers to the sacrifice made for the fallen race....
ML	65	5	Thus pleads the advocate of truth; faithful among the faithless, loyal among the disloyal, he stands as God's representative, and his voice is as a voice from heaven. There is no fear, no sadness, no discouragement, in word or look.... His words are as a shout of victory above the roar of battle.
ML	65	6	Let this hero of faith speak for himself. He says, "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, in distresses for Christ's sake."
------------------------Joseph, March 3
			Heroes for God
ML	66	1	And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou. Genesis 41:38-40
ML	66	2	From the dungeon Joseph was exalted to be ruler over all the land of Egypt. It was a position of high honor, yet it was beset with difficulty and peril. One cannot stand upon a lofty height without danger. As the tempest leaves unharmed the lowly flower of the valley, while it uproots the stately tree upon the mountaintop, so those who have maintained their integrity in humble life may be dragged down to the pit by the temptations that assail worldly success and honor. But Joseph's character bore the test alike of adversity and prosperity. The same fidelity to God was manifested when he stood in the palace of the Pharaohs as when in a prisoner's cell. He was still a stranger in a heathen land, separated from his kindred, the worshipers of God; but he fully believed that the divine hand had directed his steps, and in constant reliance upon God he faithfully discharged the duties of his position. Through Joseph the attention of the king and great men of Egypt was directed to the true God; and ... they learned to respect the principles revealed in the life and character of the worshiper of Jehovah.
ML	66	3	How was Joseph enabled to make such a record of firmness of character, uprightness, and wisdom?--In his early years he had consulted duty rather than inclination; and the integrity, the simple trust, the noble nature, of the youth, bore fruit in the deeds of the man.... Faithful attention to duty in every station, from the lowliest to the most exalted, had been training every power for its highest service. He who lives in accordance with the Creator's will is securing to himself the truest and noblest development of character.
------------------------Stephen, the First Martyr, March 4
			Heroes for God
ML	67	1	And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Acts 7:59, 60
ML	67	2	Stephen, a man loved by God, and one who was laboring to win souls to Christ, lost his life because he bore a triumphant testimony of the crucified and risen Saviour.... The hatred which the enemies of truth had shown for the Son of God, they revealed in their hatred for His followers. They could not bear to hear of the One whom they had crucified, and that Stephen should bear so bold a testimony filled them with rage....
ML	67	3	In the light which they saw in the face of Stephen, the men in authority had evidence from God. But they despised the evidence. O that they would heed! O that they would repent! But they would not.
ML	67	4	When Stephen was called upon to suffer for Christ's sake, he did not waver. He read his fate in the cruel faces of his persecutors, and he did not hesitate to give to them the last message which he was to bear to men. He looked up and said, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." All heaven was interested in this case. Jesus, rising from the throne of His Father, was leaning over, looking upon the face of His servant, and imparting to his countenance the beams of His own glory, and men were astonished as they saw Stephen's face lighted up as if it had been the face of an angel. The glory of God shone upon him, and while he was beholding the face of his Lord, the enemies of Christ stoned him to death. Would we not think that a hard death to die? But the fear of death was gone, and his last breath was spent in petitioning the Lord to forgive his persecutors.
ML	67	5	Jesus has made it as easy as He possibly can for His children, and He wants us to follow in His footsteps; for if we do, we shall be partakers of Christ and His glory.
------------------------Three Hebrew Worthies, March 5
			Heroes for God
ML	68	1	If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Daniel 3:17, 18
ML	68	2	A severe test came to ... these youth when Nebuchadnezzar issued a proclamation, calling upon all the officers of the kingdom to assemble at the dedication of the great image, and at the sound of the musical instruments, to bow down and worship it. Should any fail of doing this, they were immediately to be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. The worship of this image had been brought about by the wise men of Babylon in order to make the Hebrew youth join in their idolatrous worship. They were beautiful singers, and the Chaldeans wanted them to forget their God and accept the worship of the Babylonian idols.
ML	68	3	The appointed day came, and at the sound of the music, the vast company that had assembled at the king's command "fell down and worshiped the golden image." But these faithful young men would not bow down ....
ML	68	4	Then the king commanded the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than it was wont to be heated; and when this was done, the three Hebrews were cast in. So furious were the flames that the men who cast the Hebrews in were burned to death.
ML	68	5	Suddenly the countenance of the king paled with terror.... His voice trembling with excitement, the monarch exclaimed, "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."
ML	68	6	From age to age the heroes of faith have been marked by their fidelity to God, and they have been brought conspicuously before the world that their light might shine to those in darkness. Daniel and his three companions are illustrious examples of Christian heroism.... From their experience in the court of Babylon we may learn what God will do for those who serve Him with full purpose of heart.
------------------------Youth Today, March 6
			Heroes for God
ML	69	1	Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13
ML	69	2	Christ told His disciples that in the world they should have tribulation. They would be brought before kings and rulers for His sake; all manner of evil would be spoken against them falsely, and those who destroyed their lives would think they did God service. And all, in every age, who have lived godly lives have suffered persecution in some form.... They have suffered every indignity, outrage, and cruelty which Satan could move upon minds to invent.
ML	69	3	The world is as much opposed to genuine religion today as it ever has been....
ML	69	4	The spirit of persecution will ... be aroused against the faithful ones, who make no concessions to the world, and will not be swayed by its opinions, its favor, or its opposition. A religion that bears a living testimony in favor of holiness and that rebukes pride, selfishness, avarice, and fashionable sins will be hated by the world and by superficial Christians. Marvel not, then, my youthful Christian friends, if the world hates you; for it hated your Master before you. When you suffer reproach and persecution, you are in excellent company; for Jesus endured it all, and much more. If you are faithful sentinels for God, these things are a compliment to you. It is the heroic souls, who will be true if they stand alone, who will win the imperishable crown....
ML	69	5	The way to eternal life is straight and narrow, and you will have to press through many difficulties; but by persevering effort you may win eternal life--the future, immortal inheritance. And the rest, the peace, the glory at the end of the journey, will a thousand times repay every exertion and sacrifice that you can make.
------------------------Modern Heroes, March 7
			Heroes for God
ML	70	1	He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. Proverbs 16:32
ML	70	2	He has conquered self--the strongest foe man has to meet. The highest evidence of nobility in a Christian is self-control. He who can stand unmoved amid a storm of abuse is one of God's heroes....
ML	70	3	He who has learned to rule his spirit will rise above the slights, the rebuffs, the annoyances to which we are daily exposed, and these will cease to cast a gloom over his spirit.
ML	70	4	It is God's purpose that the kingly power of sanctified reason, controlled by divine grace, shall bear sway in the lives of human beings. He who rules his spirit is in possession of this power.
ML	70	5	The man or woman who preserves the balance of the mind when tempted to indulge passion, stands higher in the sight of God and heavenly angels than the most renowned general that ever led an army to battle and to victory.
ML	70	6	What young men and women need is Christian heroism. God's Word declares that he that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city. To rule the spirit means to keep self under discipline.... They need to seek earnestly to bring into their lives the perfection that is seen in the life of the Saviour, so that when Christ shall come, they will be prepared to enter in through the gates into the city of God. God's abounding love and presence in the heart will give the power of self-control and will mold and fashion the mind and character. The grace of Christ in the life will direct the aims and purposes and capabilities into channels that will give moral and spiritual power--power which the youth will not have to leave in this world, but which they can carry with them into the future life and retain through the eternal ages.
------------------------Love Not the World, March 8
			Living by Principle Not Inclination
ML	71	1	Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 1 John 2:15, 16
ML	71	2	The youth living in this age will have a stern battle to fight if they make right principles their rule of action. It is the highest effort of a large class in society to do as others do, to shape their course according to the world's standard. Like the empty bubble or the worthless weed, they drift with the current. They have no individuality, no moral independence. The approval of the world is of more value to them than the approval of God or the esteem of those whom He esteems. Their only motive or rule of action is policy. As they do not value truth or act from principle, no dependence can be placed upon them. They are the sport of Satan's temptations. They have no true respect for themselves and no real happiness in life. This class are to be pitied for their weakness and folly, and their example should be shunned by all who desire to be truly worthy of respect. But instead of this, their society is too often courted, and they seem to exert a fascinating power, well-nigh impossible to break....
ML	71	3	In forming your opinions and choosing your associates let reason and the fear of God be your guide. Be firm in your purpose here, regardless of the opinions which others may entertain concerning you. When God's requirements lead you to an opposite course from that which your associates are pursuing, go resolutely forward, whether you follow many or few. Whatever God's Word condemns, that reject even though the whole world adopt and advocate it....
ML	71	4	Those who are drifting with the tide, who love pleasure and self-indulgence, and choose the easier way, regardless of principle so long as their desires are gratified--these will never stand with the overcomers around the great white throne.
------------------------Purity in This Corrupt Age, March 9
			Living by Principle Not Inclination
ML	72	1	Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Psalm 24:3, 4
ML	72	2	The safeguards of our purity must be watchfulness and prayer.
ML	72	3	We are living in an atmosphere of satanic witchery. The enemy will weave a spell of licentiousness around every soul that is not barricaded by the grace of Christ. Temptations will come; but if we watch against the enemy, and maintain the balance of self-control and purity, the seducing spirits will have no influence over us. Those who do nothing to encourage temptation will have strength to withstand it when it comes.
ML	72	4	If they [the youth] do not willfully rush into danger, and needlessly place themselves in the way of temptation, if they shun evil influences and vicious society, and then are unavoidably compelled to be in dangerous company, they will have strength of character to stand for the right and to preserve principle, and come forth in the strength of God with their morals untainted. If youth who have been properly educated make God their trust, their moral powers will stand the most powerful test.
ML	72	5	God's elect must stand untainted amid the corruptions teeming around them in these last days.... The Spirit of God should have perfect control, influencing every action.
ML	72	6	Those who enter upon active life with firm principles will be prepared to stand unsullied amid the moral pollutions of this corrupt age.
ML	72	7	"Who, O Lord, shall stand when thou appearest?" Only those who have clean hands and a pure heart shall abide in the day of His coming.... As you hope to be finally exalted to join the society of sinless angels and to live in an atmosphere where there is not the least taint of sin, seek purity; for nothing else will abide the searching test of the day of God and be received into a pure and holy heaven.
------------------------Choose the Way of Truth, March 10
			Living by Principle Not Inclination
ML	73	1	I have chosen the way of truth; thy judgments have I laid before me. I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Lord, put me not to shame. Psalm 119:30, 31
ML	73	2	There are two great principles, one of loyalty, the other of disloyalty. We all need greater Christian courage, that we may uplift the standard on which is inscribed the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.... The line of demarcation between the obedient and the disobedient must be plain and distinct. We must have a firm determination to do the Lord's will at all times and in all places....
ML	73	3	Christian strength is obtained by serving the Lord faithfully. Young men and young women should realize that to be one with Christ is the highest honor to which they can attain. By the strictest fidelity they should strive for moral independence, and this independence they should maintain against every influence that may try to turn them from righteous principles. Stronger minds may, yes, they will, make assertions that have no foundation in truth. Let the heavenly eyesalve be applied to the eyes of your understanding, that you may distinguish between truth and error. Search the Word; and when you find a "Thus saith the Lord," take your stand....
ML	73	4	In Pilgrim's Progress there is a character called Pliable. Youth, shun this character. Those represented by it are very accommodating, but they are as a reed shaken by the wind. They possess no will power. Every youth needs to cultivate decision. A divided state of the will is a snare, and will be the ruin of many youth. Be firm, else you will be left with your house, or character, built upon a sandy foundation.
ML	73	5	The Lord's philosophy is the rule of the Christian's life. The entire being should be imbued with the life-giving principles of heaven. The busy nothings which consume the time of so many shrink into their proper position before a healthy, sanctifying Bible piety.
------------------------Christ's Adherence to Principle, March 11
			Living by Principle Not Inclination
ML	74	1	In the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. Psalm 40:7, 8
ML	74	2	The life of Christ was distinguished from the generality of children. His strength of moral character and His firmness ever led Him to be true to His sense of duty and to adhere to the principles of right, from which no motive, however powerful, could move Him. Money or pleasure, applause or censure, could not purchase or flatter Him to consent to a wrong action. He was strong to resist temptation, wise to discover evil, and firm to abide faithful to His convictions.
ML	74	3	The wicked and unprincipled would flatter and portray the pleasures of sinful indulgences, but His strength of principle was strong to resist the suggestions of Satan. His penetration had been cultivated, that He could discern the voice of the tempter. He would not swerve from duty to obtain the favor of any. He would not sell His principles for human praise or to avoid reproach and the envy and hatred of those who were enemies of righteousness and true goodness.
ML	74	4	He took pleasure in discharging His obligations to His parents and to society, without yielding His principles or being contaminated with the impure influence surrounding Him at Nazareth.
ML	74	5	Never did Christ deviate from loyalty to the principles of God's law. Never did He do anything contrary to the will of His Father.
ML	74	6	Jesus does not, after giving us general directions, leave us to guess the way amid bypaths and dangerous passes. He leads us in a straight path, and while we follow Him our footsteps will not slide.
ML	74	7	Each soul must live in hourly communion with Christ; for he says, "Without me ye can do nothing." His principles are to be our principles; for these principles are the everlasting truth, proclaimed in righteousness, goodness, mercy, and love.
ML	74	8	His principles are the only steadfast things our world knows.
------------------------Daniel Lived by Principle, March 12
			Living by Principle Not Inclination
ML	75	1	Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Daniel 6:4
ML	75	2	Daniel was subjected to the severest temptations that can assail the youth today, yet he was true to the religious instruction received in early life. He was surrounded with influences calculated to subvert those who would vacillate between principle and inclination, yet the Word of God presents him as a faultless character. Daniel dared not trust to his own moral power. Prayer was to him a necessity. He made God his strength, and the fear of God was continually before him in all the transactions of his life.... He sought to live in peace with all, while he was unbending as the lofty cedar wherever principle was involved. In everything that did not come in collision with his allegiance to God, he was respectful and obedient to those who had authority over him....
ML	75	3	In the experience of Daniel and his companions we have an instance of the triumph of principle over temptation to indulge the appetite. It shows us that through religious principle young men may triumph over the lusts of the flesh, and remain true to God's requirements.... What if Daniel and his companions had made a compromise with those heathen officers, and had yielded to the pressure of the occasion, by eating and drinking as was customary with the Babylonians? That single instance of departure from principle would have weakened their sense of right and their abhorrence of wrong. Indulgence of appetite would have involved the sacrifice of physical vigor, clearness of intellect, and spiritual power. One wrong step would probably have led to others, until, their connection with Heaven being severed, they would have been swept away by temptation.
------------------------Joseph, a Man of Principle, March 13
			Living by Principle Not Inclination
ML	76	1	How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? Genesis 39:9
ML	76	2	Joseph's gentleness and fidelity won the heart of the chief captain, who came to regard him as a son rather than a slave.... But Joseph's faith and integrity were to be tested by fiery trials. His master's wife endeavored to entice the young man to transgress the law of God. Heretofore he had remained untainted by the corruption teeming in that heathen land; but this temptation, so sudden, so strong, so seductive--how should it be met? Joseph knew well what would be the consequence of resistance. On the one hand were concealment, favor, and rewards; on the other, disgrace, imprisonment, perhaps death. His whole future life depended upon the decision of the moment. Would principle triumph? Would Joseph still be true to God? With inexpressible anxiety, the angels looked upon the scene.
ML	76	3	Joseph's answer reveals the power of religious principle. He would not betray the confidence of his master on earth, and, whatever the consequences, he would be true to his Master in heaven....
ML	76	4	Joseph suffered for his integrity; for his tempter revenged herself by accusing him of a foul crime, and causing him to be thrust into prison. Had Potiphar believed his wife's charge against Joseph, the young Hebrew would have lost his life; but the modesty and uprightness that had uniformly characterized his conduct were proof of his innocence; and yet, to save the reputation of his master's house, he was abandoned to disgrace and bondage....
ML	76	5	But Joseph's real character shines out, even in the darkness of the dungeon. He held fast his faith and patience; his years of faithful service had been most cruelly repaid, yet this did not render him morose or distrustful. He had the peace that comes from conscious innocence, and he trusted his case with God.
------------------------Principle Not to Be Sacrificed for Peace, March 14
			Living by Principle Not Inclination
ML	77	1	Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27
ML	77	2	There always have been and always will be two classes on the earth to the end of time--the believers in Jesus, and those who reject Him. Sinners, however wicked, abominable, and corrupt, by faith in Him will be purified, made clean, through the doing of His word.... Those who reject Christ and refuse to believe the truth will be filled with bitterness against those who accept Jesus as a personal Saviour. But those who receive Christ are melted and subdued by the manifestation of His love and His humiliation, suffering, and death in their behalf....
ML	77	3	The peace that Christ gave to His disciples, and for which we pray, is the peace that is born of truth, a peace that is not to be quenched because of division. Without may be wars and fightings, jealousies, envies, hatred, strife; but the peace of Christ is not that which the world giveth or taketh away. It could endure amid the hunting of spies and the fiercest opposition of His enemies.... Christ did not for an instant seek to purchase peace by a betrayal of sacred trusts. Peace could not be made by a compromise of principles.... It is a grave mistake on the part of those who are children of God to seek to bridge the gulf that separates the children of light from the children of darkness by yielding principle, by compromising the truth. It would be surrendering the peace of Christ in order to make peace or fraternize with the world. The sacrifice is too costly to be made by the children of God to make peace with the world by giving up the principles of truth.... Then let the followers of Christ settle it in their minds that they will never compromise truth, never yield one iota of principle for the favor of the world. Let them hold to the peace of Christ.
------------------------I Keep My Body in Subjection, March 15
			Exercising Self-control
ML	78	1	But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 1 Corinthians 9:27
ML	78	2	The body is the only medium through which the mind and the soul are developed for the upbuilding of character. Hence it is that the adversary of souls directs his temptations to the enfeebling and degrading of the physical powers. His success here means the surrender to evil of the whole being. The tendencies of our physical nature, unless under the dominion of a higher power, will surely work ruin and death.
ML	78	3	The body is to be brought into subjection. The higher powers of the being are to rule. The passions are to be controlled by the will, which is itself to be under the control of God....
ML	78	4	The requirements of God must be brought home to the conscience. Men and women must be awakened to the duty of self-mastery, the need of purity, freedom from every depraving appetite and defiling habit. They need to be impressed with the fact that all their powers of mind and body are the gift of God, and are to be preserved in the best possible condition for His service....
ML	78	5	Human barriers against natural and cultivated tendencies are but as the sandbank against the torrent. Not until the life of Christ becomes a vitalizing power in our lives can we resist the temptations that assail us from within and from without.... By becoming one with Christ, man is free. Subjection to the will of Christ means restoration to perfect manhood.
ML	78	6	Obedience to God is liberty from the thraldom of sin, deliverance from human passion and impulse. Man may stand conqueror of himself, conqueror of his own inclinations, conqueror of principalities and powers, and of "the rulers of the darkness of this world," and of "spiritual wickedness in high places."
------------------------I Live by God's Rules, March 16
			Exercising Self-control
ML	79	1	Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. Psalm 119:35, 36
ML	79	2	Youth is the time to lay up knowledge in those lines that can be put into daily practice throughout the life. Youth is the time to establish good habits, to correct wrong ones, to gain and hold the power of self-control, to accustom oneself to ordering all the acts of life with reference to the will of God and the welfare of one's fellow creatures. Youth is the sowing time that determines the harvest of this life and the life beyond the grave. The habits formed in childhood and youth, the tastes acquired, the self-control gained, are almost certain to determine the future of the man or woman.
ML	79	3	One selfish thought indulged, one duty neglected, prepares the way for another. What we venture to do once, we are more apt to do again. Habits of sobriety, of self-control, of economy, of close application, of sound, sensible conversation, of patience and true courtesy, are not gained without diligent, close watching over self. It is much easier to become demoralized and depraved than to conquer defects, keeping self in control and cherishing true virtues. Persevering efforts will be required if the Christian graces are ever perfected in our lives.
ML	79	4	Let the habit of self-control be early established. Let the youth be impressed with the thought that they are to be masters, and not slaves. Of the kingdom within them God has made them rulers, and they are to exercise their Heaven-appointed kingship. When such instruction is faithfully given, the results will extend far beyond the youth themselves. Influences will reach out that will save thousands of men and women who are on the very brink of ruin.
------------------------I Will Love as Christ Loved, March 17
			Exercising Self-control
ML	80	1	By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:35
ML	80	2	If we would be true lights in the world, we must manifest the loving, compassionate spirit of Christ. To love as Christ loved means that we must practice self-control. It means that we must show unselfishness at all times and in all places. It means that we must scatter round us kind words and pleasant looks. These cost the giver nothing, but they leave behind a precious fragrance. Their influence for good cannot be estimated. Not only to the receiver, but to the giver, they are a blessing; for they react upon him. Genuine love is a precious attribute of heavenly origin, which increases in fragrance in proportion as it is dispensed to others....
ML	80	3	God desires His children to remember that in order to glorify Him, they must bestow their affection on those who need it most. None with whom we come in contact are to be neglected. No selfishness in look, word, or deed is to be manifested to our fellow beings, whatever their position, whether they be high or low, rich or poor. The love that gives kind words to only a few, while others are treated with coldness and indifference, is not love, but selfishness. It will not in any way work for the good of souls or the glory of God. We are not to confine our love to one or two objects.
ML	80	4	Those who gather the sunshine of Christ's righteousness, and refuse to let it shine into the lives of others, will soon lose the sweet, bright rays of heavenly grace, selfishly reserved to be lavished upon a few.... Self should not be allowed to gather to itself a select few, giving nothing to those who need help the most. Our love is not to be sealed up for special ones. Break the bottle, and the fragrance will fill the house.
------------------------I Will Set a Watch Over My Lips, March 18
			Exercising Self-control
ML	81	1	Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. Psalm 141:3
ML	81	2	In the use of language there is perhaps no error that old and young are more ready to pass over lightly in themselves than hasty, impatient speech. They think it is a sufficient excuse to plead, "I was off my guard, and did not really mean what I said." But God's Word does not treat it lightly....
ML	81	3	The largest share of life's annoyances, its heartaches, its irritations, is due to uncontrolled temper. In one moment, by hasty, passionate, careless words, may be wrought evil that a whole lifetime's repentance cannot undo. Oh, the hearts that are broken, the friends estranged, the lives wrecked, by the harsh, hasty words of those who might have brought help and healing! ... In his own strength man cannot rule his spirit. But through Christ he may gain self-control.
ML	81	4	Uniform firmness and unimpassioned control are necessary to the discipline of every family. Say what you mean calmly, move with consideration, and carry out what you say without deviation.... Never let a frown gather upon your brow or a harsh word escape your lips. God writes all these words in His book of records.
ML	81	5	Overwork sometimes causes a loss of self-control. But the Lord never compels hurried, complicated movements. Many gather to themselves burdens that the merciful heavenly Father did not place on them. Duties He never designed them to perform chase one another wildly. God desires us to realize that we do not glorify His name when we take so many burdens that we are overtasked and, becoming heart weary and brain weary, chafe and fret and scold. We are to bear only the responsibilities that the Lord gives us, trusting in Him, and thus keeping our hearts pure and sweet and sympathetic.
------------------------I Will Use Self-Control in Eating, March 19
			Exercising Self-control
ML	82	1	Blessed art thou, O land, when ... thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness! Ecclesiastes 10:17
ML	82	2	The observance of temperance and regularity in all things has a wonderful power. It will do more than circumstances or natural endowments in promoting that sweetness and serenity of disposition which count so much in smoothing life's pathway. At the same time the power of self-control thus acquired will be found one of the most valuable equipments for grappling successfully with the stern duties and realities that await every human being.
ML	82	3	We urge that the principles of temperance be carried into all the details of home life; ... that self-denial and self-control should be taught to the children, and enforced upon them, so far as consistent, from babyhood.
ML	82	4	Children should be taught that they must not have their own way, but that the will of their parents must guide them. One of the most important lessons in this connection is the control of appetite. They should learn to eat at regular periods and to allow nothing to pass their lips between these stated meals....
ML	82	5	Children reared in this way are much more easily controlled than those who are indulged in eating everything their appetite craves, and at all times. They are usually cheerful, contented, and healthy. Even the most stubborn, passionate, and wayward have become submissive, patient, and possessed of self-control by persistently following up this order of diet, united with a firm but kind management in regard to other matters.
ML	82	6	Let every youth in our land, with the possibilities before him of a destiny higher than that of crowned kings, ponder the lesson conveyed in the words of the wise man, "Blessed art thou, O land, when ... thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!"
------------------------I Will Be Master of My Mind, March 20
			Exercising Self-control
ML	83	1	Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13
ML	83	2	We have each of us an individual work to do, to gird up the loins of our minds, to be sober, to watch unto prayer. The mind must be firmly controlled to dwell upon subjects that will strengthen the moral powers.... The thoughts must be pure, the meditations of the heart must be clean, if the words of the mouth are to be words acceptable to Heaven and helpful to your associates.
ML	83	3	The mind should be guarded carefully. Nothing should be allowed to enter that will harm or destroy its healthy vigor. But to prevent this, it should be preoccupied with good seed, which, springing to life, will bring forth fruit-bearing branches.... A field left uncultivated speedily produces a rank growth of thistles and tangled vines, which exhaust the soil and are worthless to the owner. The ground is full of seeds blown and carried by the wind from every quarter; and if it is left uncultivated, they spring up to life spontaneously, choking every precious fruit-bearing plant that is struggling for existence. If the field were tilled and sown to grain, these valueless weeds would be extinguished, and could not flourish.
ML	83	4	The youth who finds joy and happiness in reading the Word of God and in the hour of prayer is constantly refreshed by drafts from the Fountain of life. He will attain a height of moral excellence and a breadth of thought of which others cannot conceive. Communion with God encourages good thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, and lofty purposes of action. Those who thus connect their souls with God are acknowledged by Him as His sons and daughters. They are constantly reaching higher and still higher, obtaining clear views of God and of eternity, until the Lord makes them channels of light and wisdom to the world.
------------------------I Will Be a Christian at Home, March 21
			Exercising Self-control
ML	84	1	[Love] doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. 1 Corinthians 13:5
ML	84	2	Much may be gained by self discipline in the home.... Let each make life as pleasant as possible for the other. Cultivate respect in the speech. Preserve unity and love. Satan will have no power over those who fully control themselves in the home.
ML	84	3	We must have the Spirit of God, or we can never have harmony in the home.... We cannot cherish home affection with too much care; for the home, if the Spirit of the Lord dwells there, is a type of heaven.... Everything that would tend to mar the peace and unity of the family circle must be repressed. Kindness and love, the spirit of tenderness and forbearance, will be cherished. If one errs, the other will exercise Christlike forbearance.
ML	84	4	He who manifests the spirit of tenderness, forbearance, and love will find that the same spirit will be reflected upon him.... If Christ indeed is formed within, the hope of glory, there will be union and love in the home. Christ abiding in the heart of the wife will be at agreement with Christ abiding in the heart of the husband. They will be striving together for the mansions Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him.... Tender affection should ever be cherished between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters.... It is the duty of everyone in the family to be pleasant, to speak kindly.
ML	84	5	A house with love in it, where love is expressed in words and looks and deeds, is a place where angels love to manifest their presence and hallow the scene by rays of light from glory.... Love should be seen in the looks and manners and heard in the tones of the voice.
ML	84	6	Self-control on the part of all the members of the family will make home almost a paradise.
------------------------I Will Keep the Door of My Heart, March 22
			Guarding the Avenues to the Soul
ML	85	1	Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23
ML	85	2	"Keep thy heart with all diligence," is the counsel of the wise man; "for out of it are the issues of life." As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he." The heart must be renewed by divine grace, or it will be in vain to seek for purity of life. He who attempts to build up a noble, virtuous character independent of the grace of Christ is building his house upon the shifting sand. In the fierce storms of temptation it will surely be overthrown. David's prayer should be the petition of every soul: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." And having become partakers of the heavenly gift, we are to go on unto perfection, being "kept by the power of God, through faith."
ML	85	3	Yet we have a work to do to resist temptation. Those who would not fall a prey to Satan's devices must guard well the avenues of the soul; they must avoid reading, seeing, or hearing that which will suggest impure thoughts. The mind should not be left to wander at random upon every subject that the adversary of souls may suggest.... This will require earnest prayer and unceasing watchfulness. We must be aided by the abiding influence of the Holy Spirit, which will attract the mind upward and habituate it to dwell on pure and holy things. And we must give diligent study to the Word of God. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word." "Thy word," says the psalmist, "have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee."
ML	85	4	You will have to become a faithful sentinel over your eyes, ears, and all your senses, if you would control your mind and prevent vain and corrupt thoughts from staining your soul. The power of grace alone can accomplish this most desirable work.
------------------------I Will Set No Wicked Thing Before Mine Eyes, March 23
			Guarding the Avenues to the Soul
ML	86	1	“I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. Psalm 101:3
ML	86	2	All should guard the senses, lest Satan gain victory over them; for these are the avenues to the soul.
ML	86	3	Avoid reading and seeing things which will suggest impure thoughts. Cultivate the moral and intellectual powers.
ML	86	4	Among the most dangerous resorts of pleasure is the theater. Instead of being a school of morality and virtue, as is so often claimed, it is the very hotbed of immorality. Vicious habits and sinful propensities are strengthened and confirmed by these entertainments. Low songs, lewd gestures, expressions, and attitudes deprave the imagination and debase the morals. Every youth who habitually attends such exhibitions will be corrupted in principle. There is no influence in our land more powerful to poison the imagination, to destroy religious impressions, and to blunt the relish for the tranquil pleasures and sober realities of life than theatrical amusements.
ML	86	5	The love for these scenes increases with every indulgence, as the desire for intoxicating drink strengthens with its use. The only safe course is to shun the theater, the circus, and every other questionable place of amusement.
ML	86	6	There are modes of recreation which are highly beneficial to both mind and body. An enlightened, discriminating mind will find abundant means for entertainment and diversion, from sources not only innocent, but instructive.... The great God whose glory shines from the heavens, and whose divine hand upholds millions of worlds, is our Father. We have only to love Him, trust in Him, as little children in faith and confidence, and He will accept us as His sons and daughters, and we shall be heirs to all the inexpressible glory of the eternal world.
------------------------I Will Seek the Good, That I May Live, March 24
			Guarding the Avenues to the Soul
ML	87	1	Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you. Amos 5:14
ML	87	2	Satan is using every means to make crime and debasing vice popular. We cannot walk the streets of our cities without encountering flaring notices of crime presented in some novel or to be acted at some theater. The mind is educated to familiarity with sin. The course pursued by the base and vile is kept before the people in the periodicals of the day, and everything that can excite passion is brought before them in exciting stories. They hear and read so much of debasing crime that the once tender conscience, which would have recoiled with horror from such scenes, becomes hardened, and they dwell upon these things with greedy interest.
ML	87	3	Many of the amusements popular in the world today, even with those who claim to be Christians, tend to the same end as did those of the heathen. There are indeed few among them that Satan does not turn to account in destroying souls. Through the drama he has worked for ages to excite passion and glorify vice. The opera, with its fascinating display and bewildering music, the masquerade, the dance, the card table, Satan employs to break down the barriers of principle and open the door to sensual indulgence. In every gathering for pleasure where pride is fostered or appetite indulged, where one is led to forget God and lose sight of eternal interests, there Satan is binding his chains about the soul.
ML	87	4	Our only safety is to be shielded by the grace of God every moment, and not put out our own spiritual eyesight so that we will call evil, good, and good, evil. Without hesitation or argument, we must close and guard the avenues of the soul against evil.
------------------------I Will Tune My Ear to Heaven, March 25
			Guarding the Avenues to the Soul
ML	88	1	And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye shall turn to the right hand, and when ye shall turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21
ML	88	2	Many narratives of the Inspired Word are given to teach us that the human family is the object of the special care of God and heavenly beings. Man is not left to become the sport of Satan's temptations. All heaven is actively engaged in the work of communicating light to the inhabitants of the world, that they may not be left in the darkness of midnight without spiritual guidance. An Eye that never slumbers or sleeps is guarding the camp of Israel. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels are ministering to the needs of the children of men. Voices inspired by God are crying, This is the way, walk ye in it.
ML	88	3	We can avoid seeing many of the evils that are multiplying so fast in these last days. We can avoid hearing about much of the wickedness and crime that exist.
ML	88	4	To the active minds of children and youth, the scenes pictured in imaginary revelations of the future are realities. As revolutions are predicted, and all manner of proceedings described that break down the barriers of law and self-restraint, many catch the spirit of these representations. They are led to the commission of crimes even worse, if possible, than these sensational writers depict. Through such influences as these society is becoming demoralized. The seeds of lawlessness are sown broadcast. None need marvel that a harvest of crime is the result.
ML	88	5	Say firmly: "... I will close my eyes to frivolous and sinful things. My ears are the Lord's and I will not listen to the subtle reasoning of the enemy. My voice shall not in any way be subject to a will that is not under the influence of the Spirit of God. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and every power of my being shall be consecrated to worthy pursuits."
------------------------I Will Love Good Books, March 26
			Guarding the Avenues to the Soul
ML	89	1	Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 1 Timothy 4:13
ML	89	2	God has given to His people the choicest reading matter. Let the Word of God find a place in every room in the house. Keep the Bible, the bread of life, in plain sight. Let the money spent for magazines be spent instead for publications containing present truth, and let them be given a prominent place in the home. With all safety these may be placed before the children and youth. Novels should not find a place in the homes of those who believe in Christ. Do not keep before the youth that which is represented as wood, hay, and stubble, for it will poison the appetite for that which is represented as gold, silver, and precious stones. The inclination for light, trashy reading is to be strictly denied.
ML	89	3	Keep choice, elevating literature ever before the members of the family. Read our books and papers. Study them. Become familiar with the truths they contain. As you do this, you will feel the influence of the Holy Spirit. Every moment of life is precious, and should be spent in preparing for the future immortal life. Let the mind be stored with the elevating, ennobling themes of the Word of God, that you may be ready to speak a word in season to those who come within the sphere of your influence. The reading of our publications will not make us mental dyspeptics. None of us will receive the bread of life to our injury, but as these books are read, the mind will be furnished with that which will establish the heart in the truth.
ML	89	4	We must prepare ourselves for most solemn duties. A world is to be saved.... In view of the great work to be done, how can anyone afford to waste precious time and God-given means in doing those things that are not for his best good or for the glory of God?
------------------------I Will Keep a Song in My Heart, March 27
			Guarding the Avenues to the Soul
ML	90	1	Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Ephesians 5:18, 19
ML	90	2	God is glorified by songs of praise from a pure heart filled with love and devotion to Him.... The gratitude which they [Christians] feel and the peace of God ruling within cause them to make melody in their hearts unto the Lord and by words to make mention of the debt of love and thankfulness due the dear Saviour, who so loved them as to die that they might have life.
ML	90	3	The history of the songs of the Bible is full of suggestion as to the uses and benefits of music and song. Music is often perverted to serve purposes of evil, and thus becomes one of the most alluring agencies of temptation. But, rightly employed, it is a precious gift of God, designed to uplift the thoughts to high and noble themes, to inspire and elevate the soul.
ML	90	4	As the children of Israel, journeying through the wilderness, cheered their way by the music of sacred song, so God bids His children today gladden their pilgrim life. There are few means more effective for fixing His words in the memory than repeating them in song. And such song has wonderful power. It has power to subdue rude and uncultivated natures; power to quicken thought and to awaken sympathy, to promote harmony of action, and to banish the gloom and foreboding that destroy courage and weaken effort.
ML	90	5	It is one of the most effective means of impressing the heart with spiritual truth. How often to the soul hard pressed and ready to despair, memory recalls some word of God's--the long-forgotten burden of a childhood song--and temptations lose their power, life takes on new meaning and new purpose, and courage and gladness are imparted to other souls!
------------------------I Will Sing Unto the Lord, March 28
			Guarding the Avenues to the Soul
ML	91	1	Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God. Psalm 50:23
ML	91	2	Come to Jesus just as you are, sinful, weak, and needy, and He will give you the water of life. You want a faith that reaches through the hellish shadow that Satan casts athwart your pathway. He is busily inventing amusements and fashions which will so take up men's minds that they shall not be able to spare any time for meditation. Teach your children to glorify God, not to please themselves. They are His children--His by creation and by redemption. Teach them to shun the amusements and follies of this degenerate age. Keep their minds clean and pure in the sight of God.... Praise God. Let your conversation, your music, your songs all praise Him who has done so much for us. Praise God here, and then you will be fitted to join the heavenly choir when you enter the city of God. Then you can cast your glittering crowns at the feet of Jesus, take your golden harps, and fill all heaven with melody. We shall praise Him with an immortal tongue.
ML	91	3	As our Redeemer leads us to the threshold of the Infinite, flushed with the glory of God, we may catch the themes of praise and thanksgiving from the heavenly choir round about the throne; and as the echo of the angels' song is awakened in our earthly homes, hearts will be drawn closer to the heavenly singers. Heaven's communion begins on earth. We learn here the keynote of its praise.
ML	91	4	Praise the Lord; talk of His goodness; tell of His power. Sweeten the atmosphere that surrounds your soul.... Praise, with heart and soul and voice, Him who is the health of your countenance, your Saviour, and your God.
------------------------God Permits Trial and Affliction to Purify Me, March 29
			Enduring Trials
ML	92	1	But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Malachi 3:2, 3
ML	92	2	A refining, purifying process is going on among the people of God, and the Lord of hosts has set His hand to this work. This process is most trying to the soul, but it is necessary in order that defilement may be removed. Trials are essential in order that we may be brought close to our heavenly Father, in submission to His will, that we may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.... The Lord brings His children over the same ground again and again, increasing the pressure until perfect humility fills the mind, and the character is transformed; then they are victorious over self, and in harmony with Christ and the Spirit of heaven. The purification of God's people cannot be accomplished without suffering.... He passes us from one fire to another, testing our true worth. True grace is willing to be tried. If we are loath to be searched by the Lord, our condition is one of peril....
ML	92	3	It is in mercy that the Lord reveals to men their hidden defects. He would have them critically examine the complicated emotions and motives of their own hearts, and detect that which is wrong, and modify their dispositions and refine their manners. God would have His servants become acquainted with their own hearts. In order to bring to them a true knowledge of their condition, He permits the fire of affliction to assail them, so that they may be purified. The trials of life are God's workmen to remove the impurities, infirmities, and roughness from our characters, and fit them for the society of pure, heavenly angels in glory.... The fire will not consume us, but only remove the dross, and we shall come forth seven times purified, bearing the impress of the Divine.
------------------------God Has a Purpose in Every Affliction, March 30
			Enduring Trials
ML	93	1	Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:12, 13
ML	93	2	One evening a gentleman who was much depressed because of deep affliction was walking in a garden, where he observed a pomegranate tree nearly cut through the stem. Greatly wondering, he asked the gardener why the tree was in this condition, and he received an answer that explained to his satisfaction the wounds of his own bleeding heart. "Sir," said the gardener, "this tree used to shoot out so strong that it bore nothing but leaves. I was obliged to cut it in this manner; and when it was almost cut through, it began to bear fruit."
ML	93	3	Our sorrows do not spring out of the ground. In every affliction God has a purpose to work out for our good. Every blow that destroys an idol, every providence that weakens our hold upon earth and fastens our affections more firmly upon God, is a blessing. The pruning may be painful for a time, but afterward it "yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness." We should receive with gratitude whatever will quicken the conscience, elevate the thoughts, and ennoble the life. The fruitless branches are cut off and cast into the fire. Let us be thankful that through painful pruning we may retain a connection with the living Vine; for if we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with Him. The very trial that taxes our faith the most severely and makes it seem as though God had forsaken us is to lead us more closely to Him, that we may lay all our burdens at the feet of Christ and experience the peace which He will give us in exchange.... God loves and cares for the feeblest of His creatures, and we cannot dishonor Him more than by doubting His love to us. O let us cultivate that living faith that will trust Him in the hour of darkness and trial!
------------------------God Gives Power to Bear Every Trial, March 31
			Enduring Trials
ML	94	1	There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13
ML	94	2	Christ will never abandon the soul for whom He has died. The soul may leave Him, and be overwhelmed with temptation; but Christ can never turn from one for whom He has paid the ransom of His own life. Could our spiritual vision be quickened, we should see souls bowed under oppression and burdened with grief, pressed as a cart beneath sheaves, and ready to die in discouragement. We should see angels flying swiftly to aid these tempted ones, who are standing as on the brink of a precipice. The angels from heaven force back the hosts of evil that encompass these souls, and guide them to plant their feet on the sure foundation. The battles waging between the two armies are as real as those fought by the armies of this world, and on the issue of the spiritual conflict eternal destinies depend.
ML	94	3	To us, as to Peter, the word is spoken, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." Thank God, we are not left alone.
ML	94	4	We are coming to the crisis. Let us stand the test manfully, grasping the hand of Infinite Power. God will work for us. We have only to live one day at a time, and if we get acquainted with God, He will give us strength for what is coming tomorrow, grace sufficient for each day, and every day will find its own victories, just as it finds its trials. We shall have the power of the Highest with us, for we shall be clad with the armor of Christ's righteousness. We have the same God that has worked for His people in ages past. Jesus stands by our side, and shall we falter?--No, as the trials come, the power of God will come with them. God will help us to stand in faith on His Word, and when we are united, He will work with special power in our behalf.
------------------------The Ladder of Christian Progress, April 1
			Christian Growth
ML	95	1	Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8
ML	95	2	These words are full of instruction, and strike the keynote of victory. The apostle presents before the believers the ladder of Christian progress, every step of which represents advancement in the knowledge of God, and in the climbing of which there is to be no standstill. Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity are the rounds of the ladder. We are saved by climbing round after round, mounting step after step, to the height of Christ's ideal for us. Thus He is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
ML	95	3	All these successive steps are not to be kept before the mind's eye, and counted as you start; but fixing the eye upon Jesus, with an eye single to the glory of God, you will make advancement....
ML	95	4	By taking one step after another, the highest ascent may be climbed, and the summit of the mount may be reached at last. Do not become overwhelmed with the great amount of work you must do in your lifetime, for you are not required to do it all at once. Let every power of your being go to each day's work, improve each precious opportunity, appreciate the helps that God gives you, and make advancement up the ladder of progress step by step. Remember that you are to live but one day at a time, that God has given you one day, and heavenly records will show how you have valued its privileges and opportunities. May you so improve every day given you of God that at last you may hear the Master say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
------------------------Add to Your Faith Virtue: and to Virtue Knowledge, April 2
			Christian Growth
ML	96	1	His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. 2 Peter 1:3
ML	96	2	After receiving the faith of the gospel, our first work is to seek to add virtuous and pure principles, and thus cleanse the mind and heart for the reception of true knowledge.
ML	96	3	The apostle has presented before us the importance of making continual advancement in the Christian life. There is no excuse for our lack of spiritual understanding....
ML	96	4	Faith is the first round in the ladder of advancement. Without faith it is impossible to please God. But many stop on this round and never ascend higher. They seem to think that when they have professed Christ, when their names are on the church record, their work is completed. Faith is essential; but the Inspired Word says, "Add to your faith, virtue." Those who are seeking for eternal life and a home in the kingdom of God must lay for their character building the foundation of virtue. Jesus must be the chief cornerstone. The things that defile the soul must be banished from the mind and life. When temptations are presented, they must be resisted in the strength of Christ. The virtue of the spotless Lamb of God must be woven into the character till the soul can stand in its integrity.... Joseph is an example of how the youth may stand unspotted, amid the evil of the world, and add to their faith, virtue....
ML	96	5	Every moment of our lives is intensely real, and charged with solemn responsibilities. Ignorance will be no excuse for lack of spiritual understanding and attainment; for we are exhorted to add to virtue, knowledge.... The uncultured fishermen became men of refinement and ability; and the lessons that they were privileged to learn are written for our admonition and instruction. We are invited to become learners in the school of Christ. We need to acquire all the knowledge possible.
------------------------Add to Temperance Patience, April 3
			Christian Growth
ML	97	1	Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:4
ML	97	2	"And to knowledge, temperance." This is the third step in the path toward perfection of character. On every side there is indulgence and dissipation, and the result is degeneration and corruption. The inhabitants of our earth are depreciating in mental, moral, and physical power, because of the intemperate habits of society. Appetite, passion, and love of display are carrying the multitudes into the greatest excesses and extravagance.... The people of God must take an opposite course from the world. They must take up the warfare against these sinful practices, deny appetite, and keep the lower nature in subjection.... It is for us to "search the Scriptures," and bring our habits into harmony with the instruction of the Bible....
ML	97	3	"And to temperance, patience." The need of becoming temperate is made manifest as we try to take this step. It is next to an impossibility for an intemperate person to be patient.
ML	97	4	Some of us have a nervous temperament, and are naturally as quick as a flash to think and to act; but let no one think that he cannot learn to become patient. Patience is a plant that will make rapid growth if carefully cultivated. By becoming thoroughly acquainted with ourselves, and then combining with the grace of God a firm determination on our part, we may be conquerors, and become perfect in all things, wanting in nothing.
ML	97	5	Patience pours the balm of peace and love into the experiences of the home life.... Patience will seek for unity in the church, in the family, and in the community. This grace must be woven into our lives.
------------------------Add to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and Charity, April 4
			Christian Growth
ML	98	1	But thou, O man of God, ... follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 1 Timothy 6:11
ML	98	2	We must have a close and intimate connection with heaven, if we bear the grace of godliness. Jesus must be a guest in our homes, a member of our households, if we reflect His image and show that we are sons and daughters of the Most High. Religion is a beautiful thing in the home. If the Lord abides with us, we shall feel that we are members of Christ's family in heaven. We shall realize that angels are watching us, and our manners will be gentle and forbearing. We shall be fitting up for an entrance into the courts of heaven by cultivating courtesy and godliness....
ML	98	3	Enoch walked with God. He honored God in every affair of life. In his home and in his business he inquired, "Will this be acceptable to the Lord?" And by remembering God and following His counsel, he was transformed in character, and became a godly man, whose ways pleased the Lord. We are exhorted to add to godliness, brotherly kindness. O how much we need to take this step, to add this quality to our characters! ... We should have that love for others that Christ has had for us. A man is estimated at his true value by the Lord of heaven. If he is unkind in his earthly home, he is unfit for the heavenly home. If he will have his own way, no matter whom it grieves, he would not be content in heaven, unless he could rule there. The love of Christ must control our hearts.... Seek God with a broken and contrite spirit, and you will be melted with compassion toward your brethren. You will be prepared to add to brotherly kindness, charity, or love....
ML	98	4	It will bring heaven nearer to us. We may have the sweet peace and consolation of God in doing this work. These steps will take us into the atmosphere of heaven.
------------------------The Grace of God is for Me, April 5
			Growing in Grace
ML	99	1	By the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 1 Corinthians 15:10
ML	99	2	There are those who attempt to ascend the ladder of Christian progress; but as they advance, they begin to put their trust in the power of man, and soon lose sight of Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith. The result is failure--the loss of all that has been gained. Sad indeed is the condition of those who, becoming weary of the way, allow the enemy of souls to rob them of the Christian graces.
ML	99	3	The love of God in the soul will have a direct influence upon the life and will call the intellect and the affections into active, healthful exercise. The child of God will not rest satisfied until he is clothed with the righteousness of Christ and sustained by His life-giving power. When he sees a weakness in his character, it is not enough to confess it again and again; he must go to work with determination and energy to overcome his defects by building up opposite traits of character. He will not shun this work because it is difficult. Untiring energy is required of the Christian; but he is not obliged to work in his own strength; divine power awaits his demand. Everyone who is sincerely striving for the victory over self will appropriate the promise, "My grace is sufficient for thee."
ML	99	4	Through personal effort joined with the prayer of faith the soul is trained. Day by day the character grows into the likeness of Christ.... It may cost a severe conflict to overcome habits which have been long indulged, but we may triumph through the grace of Christ....
ML	99	5	If we are true to the promptings of the Spirit of God, we shall go on from grace to grace and from glory to glory until we shall receive the finishing touch of immortality.
------------------------The Exceeding Riches of His Grace, April 6
			Growing in Grace
ML	100	1	But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, ... and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7
ML	100	2	We would never have learned the meaning of this word "grace" had we not fallen. God loves the sinless angels who do His service and are obedient to all His commands, but He does not give them grace. These heavenly beings know naught of grace; they have never needed it, for they have never sinned. Grace is an attribute of God shown to undeserving human beings. We did not seek after it, but it was sent in search of us. God rejoices to bestow this grace on everyone who hungers for it, not because we are worthy, but because we are so utterly unworthy. Our need is the qualification which gives us the assurance that we will receive this gift.
ML	100	3	But God does not use this grace to make His law of none effect or to take the place of His law. "The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness' sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honorable." His law is truth....
ML	100	4	God's grace and the law of His kingdom are in perfect harmony; they walk hand in hand. His grace makes it possible for us to draw nigh to Him by faith. By receiving it, and letting it work in our lives, we testify to the validity of the law; we exalt the law and make in honorable by carrying out its living principles....
ML	100	5	How may we witness for God? ... By rendering pure, wholehearted obedience to God's law. If we will let Him, He will manifest Himself in us, and we shall be witnesses, before the universe of heaven and before an apostate world who are making void the law of God, to the power of redemption.
ML	100	6	There is but one power that can bring us into conformity to the likeness of Christ, that can make us steadfast and keep us constant. It is the grace of God that comes to us through obedience to the law of God.
------------------------I Must Grow in Grace, April 7
			Growing in Grace
ML	101	1	Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18
ML	101	2	God requires that every human agent shall improve all the means of grace Heaven has provided, and become more and more efficient in the work of God. Every provision has been made that the piety, purity, and love of the Christian shall ever increase, that his talents may double and his ability increase in the service of his divine Master. But though this provision has been made, many who profess to believe in Jesus do not make it manifest by growth that testifies to the sanctifying power of the truth upon life and character. When we first receive Jesus into our hearts, we are as babes in religion; but we are not to remain babes in experience. We are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; we are to attain to the full measure of the stature of men and women in Him. We are to make advances, to gain new and rich experiences through faith, growing in trust and confidence and love, knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.
ML	101	3	The work of transformation from unholiness to holiness is a continuous one. Day by day God labors for man's sanctification, and man is to cooperate with Him, putting forth persevering efforts in the cultivation of right habits. He is to add grace to grace; and as he thus works on the plan of addition, God works for him on the plan of multiplication. Our Saviour is always ready to hear and answer the prayer of the contrite heart, and grace and peace are multiplied to His faithful ones. Gladly He grants them the blessings they need in their struggle against the evils that beset them.... Glorious is the hope before the believer as he advances by faith toward the heights of Christian perfection!
------------------------Growth in Grace Begins at Home, April 8
			Growing in Grace
ML	102	1	The Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11
ML	102	2	There are many who do not grow in grace because they fail of cultivating home religion.
ML	102	3	The members of the family are to show that they are in constant possession of a power received from Christ. They are to improve in every habit and practice, thus showing that they keep constantly before them what it means to be a Christian.
ML	102	4	Those who are Christians in the home will be Christians in the church and in the world.
ML	102	5	Grace can thrive only in the heart that is being constantly prepared for the precious seeds of truth. The thorns of sin will grow in any soil; they need no cultivation; but grace must be carefully cultivated. The briers and thorns are always ready to spring up, and the work of purification must advance continually.
ML	102	6	That which will make the character lovely in the home is that which will make it lovely in the heavenly mansions. If you are ... to be the light of the world, that light is to shine in your home. Here you are to exemplify the Christian graces, to be lovable, patient, kind, yet firm.... You need to seek constantly the highest culture of mind and soul.... As a humble child of God, learn in the school of Christ; seek constantly to improve your powers, that you may do the most perfect, thorough work at home, by both precept and example.... Let the light of heavenly grace irradiate your character, that there may be sunlight in the home.
ML	102	7	The measure of your Christianity is gauged by the character of your home life. The grace of Christ enables its possessors to make the home a happy place, full of peace and rest.
------------------------How to Grow in Grace, April 9
			Growing in Grace
ML	103	1	God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever.) 2 Corinthians 9:8, 9
ML	103	2	Many are longing to grow in grace; they pray over the matter, and are surprised that their prayers are not answered. The Master has given them a work to do whereby they shall grow. Of what value is it to pray when there is need of work? The question is, Are they seeking to save souls for whom Christ died? Spiritual growth depends upon giving to others the light that God has given to you. You are to put forth your best thoughts in active labor to do good, and only good, in your family, in your church, and in your neighborhood.
ML	103	3	In place of growing anxious with the thought that you are not growing in grace, just do every duty that presents itself, carry the burden of souls on your heart, and by every conceivable means seek to save the lost. Be kind, be courteous, be pitiful; speak in humility of the blessed hope; talk of the love of Jesus; tell of His goodness, His mercy, and His righteousness; and cease to worry as to whether or not you are growing. Plants do not grow through any conscious effort.... The plant is not in continual worriment about its growth; it just grows under the supervision of God.
ML	103	4	The only way to grow in grace is to be interestedly doing the very work Christ has enjoined upon us to do--interestedly engaged to the very extent of our ability to be helping and blessing those who need the help we can give them.... Christians who are constantly growing in earnestness, in zeal, in fervor, in love--such Christians never backslide.... Their wisdom is increasing, [and] their ability [in] how to work. They seem to comprehend the largest plans. They are ready to engage in the most stirring enterprises, and they have no room for slothfulness; they cannot find a place for stagnation.
ML	103	5	The treasures of grace are absolutely unlimited.
------------------------The Path of the Christian Leads to Heaven, April 10
			Growing in Grace
ML	104	1	The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Proverbs 4:18
ML	104	2	The youth may receive grace from Christ daily, and find their light growing brighter and brighter as they follow in the path of holiness....
ML	104	3	Growth in grace will not lead you to be proud, self-confident, and boastful, but will make you more conscious of your own nothingness, of your entire dependence upon the Lord. He who is growing in grace will be ever reaching heavenward, obtaining clear views of the fullness of the provisions of the gospel.
ML	104	4	The youth may be free in Christ; they may be the children of light, and not of darkness. God calls upon every young man and young woman to renounce every evil habit, to be diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Jesus will help you, so that you need not remain in indolence, making no effort to correct your wrongs or improve your conduct. The sincerity of your prayers will be proved by the vigor of the effort you make to obey all of God's commandments. You may move intelligently, and at every step renounce evil habits and associations, believing that the Lord will renovate your heart by the power of His Spirit....
ML	104	5	Do not excuse your defects of character, but in the grace of Christ overcome them. Wrestle with the evil passions which the Word of God condemns; for in yielding to them, you abase yourself. Repent of sin while Mercy's sweet voice invites you; for it is the first step in the noblest work you can do. Strive for the mastery with all the powers God hath given you.
ML	104	6	The path of the just is a progressive one, from strength to strength, from grace to grace, and from glory to glory. The divine illumination will increase more and more, corresponding with our onward movements, qualifying us to meet the responsibilities and emergencies before us.
------------------------O God! Help Me to Higher Levels, April 11
			Growing in Grace
ML	105	1	Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. Psalm 61:1-3
ML	105	2	Have you ever watched a hawk in pursuit of a timid dove? Instinct has taught the dove that in order for the hawk to seize his prey, he must gain a loftier flight than his victim. So she rises higher and still higher into the blue dome of heaven, ever pursued by the hawk, which is seeking to obtain the advantage. But in vain. The dove is safe as long as she allows nothing to stop her in her flight, or draw her earthward; but let her once falter, and take a lower flight, and her watchful enemy will swoop down upon his victim. Again and again have we watched this scene with almost breathless interest, all our sympathies with the little dove. How sad we should have felt to see it fall a victim to the cruel hawk!
ML	105	3	We have before us a warfare--a lifelong conflict with Satan and his seductive temptations. The enemy will use every argument, every deception, to entangle the soul; and in order to win the crown of life, we must put forth earnest, persevering effort. We must not lay off the armor or leave the battlefield until we have gained the victory, and can triumph in our Redeemer.
ML	105	4	As long as we continue to keep our eyes fixed upon the Author and Finisher of our faith we shall be safe. But our affections must be placed upon things above, not on things on the earth. By faith we must rise higher and still higher in the attainments of the graces of Christ. By daily contemplating His matchless charms, we must grow more and more into His glorious image. While we thus live in communion with Heaven, Satan will lay his nets for us in vain.
------------------------The Beginning of Wisdom, April 12
			Growing in Wisdom and Knowledge
ML	106	1	The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10
ML	106	2	Christ was the greatest teacher the world ever saw. He brought to man knowledge direct from heaven. The lessons which He has given us are what we need for both the present and the future state. He sets before us the true aims of life and how we may secure them.
ML	106	3	In the school of Christ students are never graduated. Among the pupils are both old and young. Those who give heed to the instructions of the divine Teacher constantly advance in wisdom, refinement, and nobility of soul, and thus they are prepared to enter that higher school where advancement will continue throughout eternity.
ML	106	4	Infinite Wisdom sets before us the great lessons of life--lessons of duty and happiness. These are often hard to learn, but without them we can make no real progress. They may cost us effort and tears, and even agony, but we must not falter or grow weary. We shall at last hear the Master's call, "Child, come up higher." ...
ML	106	5	Every faculty, every attribute, with which the Creator has endowed the children of men is to be employed for His glory; and in this employment is found its purest, holiest, happiest exercise. While religious principle is held paramount, every advance step taken in the acquirement of knowledge or in the culture of the intellect is a step toward the assimilation of the human with the Divine, the finite with the Infinite.
ML	106	6	If the youth will but learn of the heavenly Teacher, ... they will know for themselves that the fear of the Lord is indeed the beginning of wisdom. Having thus laid a sure foundation, they ... turn every privilege and opportunity to the very best account, and may rise to any height in intellectual attainments.
------------------------Wisdom Giveth Life, April 13
			Growing in Wisdom and Knowledge
ML	107	1	The excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. Ecclesiastes 7:12
ML	107	2	Pointing out the way of salvation, the Bible is our guide to a higher, better life.
ML	107	3	In turning from God's Word to feed on the writings of uninspired men, the mind becomes dwarfed and cheapened. It is not brought in contact with deep, broad principles of eternal truth....
ML	107	4	The work of every teacher, every parent, should be to fasten the minds of the children and youth upon the grand truths of the Word of inspiration. This is the education essential for this life and for the life to come. And let it not be thought that this will prevent the study of the sciences or cause a lower standard in education. The knowledge of God is as high as heaven and as broad as the universe. There is nothing so ennobling and invigorating as the study of the great themes which concern our eternal life. Let the youth seek to grasp these God-given truths, and their minds will expand and grow strong in the effort. It will bring every student who is a doer of the Word into a broader field of thought and secure for him a wealth of knowledge that is imperishable.
ML	107	5	In God's Word only we find an authentic account of creation.... In this Word only can we find a history of our race unsullied by human prejudice or human pride... Here we may hold communion with patriarchs and prophets and listen to the voice of the Eternal as He speaks with men. Here we behold the Majesty of Heaven, as He humbled Himself to become our substitute and surety, to cope single-handed with the powers of darkness and to gain the victory in our behalf. A reverent contemplation of such themes as these cannot fail to soften, purify, and ennoble the heart and at the same time to inspire the mind with new strength and vigor.
------------------------How to Gain Knowledge, April 14
			Growing in Wisdom and Knowledge
ML	108	1	If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:3-5
ML	108	2	Let none think that there is no more knowledge for them to gain. The depth of human intellect may be measured; the works of human authors may be mastered; but the highest, deepest, broadest flight of the imagination cannot find out God. There is infinity beyond all that we can comprehend. We have seen only the glimmering of divine glory and of the infinitude of knowledge and wisdom; we have, as it were, been working on the surface of the mine, when rich, golden ore is beneath the surface, to reward the one who will dig for it. The shaft must be sunk deeper and yet deeper in the mine, and the result will be glorious treasure. Through a correct faith divine knowledge will become human knowledge.
ML	108	3	No one can search the Scriptures in the Spirit of Christ without being rewarded. When a man is willing to be instructed as a little child, when he submits wholly to Christ, he will find the truth in His Word. If men would be obedient, they would understand the plan of God's government. The heavenly world would open its treasures of grace and glory for exploration. Human beings would be altogether different from what they are now; for by exploring the mines of truth, men would be ennobled. The mystery of redemption, the incarnation of Christ, His atoning sacrifice, would not be, as they are now, vague in our minds. They would be, not only better understood, but altogether more highly appreciated....
ML	108	4	The experimental knowledge of God and of Christ transforms man into the image of God. It gives man the mastery of himself, bringing every impulse and passion ... under the control of the higher powers of the mind. It makes its possessor a son of God and an heir of heaven. It brings him into communion with the mind of the Infinite and opens to him the rich treasures of the universe.
------------------------Keep Sound Wisdom and Discretion, April 15
			Growing in Wisdom and Knowledge
ML	109	1	My son, ... keep sound wisdom and discretion: so shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. Proverbs 3:21-23
ML	109	2	As little children we are to sit at the feet of Christ, learning of Him how to work successfully. We are to ask God for sound judgment and for light to impart to others. There is need of knowledge that is the fruit of experience. We should not allow a day to pass without gaining an increase of knowledge in temporal and spiritual things. We are to plant no stakes that we are not willing to take up and plant further on, nearer the heights we hope to ascend. The highest education is to be found in training the mind to advance day by day. The close of each day should find us a day's march nearer the overcomer's reward. Day by day our understanding is to ripen. Day by day we are to work out conclusions that will bring a rich reward in this life and in the life to come. Looking daily to Jesus, instead of to what we ourselves have done, we shall make decided advancement in temporal as well as spiritual knowledge.
ML	109	3	The end of all things is at hand. What we have done must not be allowed to place the period to our work. The Captain of our salvation says, "Advance. The night cometh, in which no man can work." Constantly we are to increase in usefulness. Our lives are always to be under the power of Christ. Our lamps are to be kept burning brightly....
ML	109	4	In all ages God has given human beings divine revelations, that thus He may fulfill His purpose of unfolding gradually to the mind the doctrines of grace. His manner of imparting the truth is illustrated by the words, "His going forth is prepared as the morning." He who places himself where God can enlighten him, advances, as it were, from the partial obscurity of dawn to the full radiance of noonday.
------------------------Wisdom for My Work, April 16
			Growing in Wisdom and Knowledge
ML	110	1	I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. Exodus 31:3
ML	110	2	You need not go to the end of the earth for wisdom, for God is near.... He longs to have you reach after Him by faith. He longs to have you expect great things from Him. He longs to give you understanding in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. He can sharpen the intellect. He can give tact and skill. Put your talents into the work, ask God for wisdom, and it will be given you.
ML	110	3	To every one who constantly yields his will to the will of the Infinite, to be led and taught of God, there is promised an ever-increasing development of spiritual things. God fixes no limit to the advancement of those who are "filled with the knowledge of His will and in all wisdom and spiritual understanding."
ML	110	4	Those who make God their efficiency realize their own weakness, and the Lord supplies them with His wisdom. As day by day they depend upon God, carrying out His will with humility and wholeheartedness and strictest integrity, they increase in knowledge and ability. By willing obedience they show reverence and honor to God, and are honored by Him.
ML	110	5	The case of Daniel reveals to us the fact that the Lord is always ready to hear the prayers of the contrite soul, and when we seek the Lord with all our hearts, He will answer our petitions. Here is revealed where Daniel obtained his skill and understanding; and if we will only ask of God wisdom, we may be blessed with increased ability and with power from heaven.
------------------------Wisdom Shown by My Conversation, April 17
			Growing in Wisdom and Knowledge
ML	111	1	Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. James 3:13
ML	111	2	How many sins this consistent conduct would prevent! How many souls it would turn from crooked paths into paths of righteousness. By a well-ordered life and godly conversation God's people are to demonstrate the power of the great truths which He has given them....
ML	111	3	A contrast is drawn between those who think themselves to be wise and those whom God has gifted with wisdom because they will not use their powers to hurt or destroy. A man may speak fair words, but unless his life reveals good works, his wisdom is human. Genuine wisdom is full of gentleness, mercy, and love. The worldly policy which men call wisdom is by God called foolishness. Many in the church have become spiritual bankrupts because they have been satisfied with this wisdom. They have lost the opportunity to obtain knowledge and to use knowledge aright, because they have not realized that the efficiency of Christ is essential to make a successful merchant for God, one who can trade wisely on his entrusted goods. They have failed to supply themselves with heavenly merchandise, and the value of their stock in trade has continually decreased.
ML	111	4	It is not enough to have knowledge. We must have the ability to use knowledge aright. God calls upon us to show a good conversation, free from all roughness and vanity. Speak no words of vanity, no words of harsh command; for they will gender strife. Speak instead words that will give light, knowledge, information, words that will restore and build up. A man shows that he has true wisdom by using the talent of speech to produce music in the souls of those who are trying to do their appointed work and who are in need of encouragement.
ML	111	5	When the heart is pure, rich treasures of wisdom will flow forth.
------------------------Nature, the Key to Unlock Treasure House of God's Word, April 18
			Growing in Wisdom and Knowledge
ML	112	1	Consider the wondrous works of God ... the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge. Job 37:14-16
ML	112	2	The whole natural world is designed to be an interpreter of the things of God. To Adam and Eve in their Eden home nature was full of the knowledge of God, teeming with divine instruction. To their attentive ears it was vocal with the voice of wisdom. Wisdom spoke to the eye, and was received into the heart; for they communed with God in His created works.... In the natural world God has placed in the hands of the children of men the key to unlock the treasure house of His Word. The unseen is illustrated by the seen; divine wisdom, eternal truth, infinite grace, are understood by the things that God has made.
ML	112	3	As the dwellers of Eden learned from nature's pages, as Moses discerned God's handwriting on the Arabian plains and mountains, and the Child Jesus on the hillsides of Nazareth, so the children of today may learn of Him.... On everything upon the earth, from the loftiest tree of the forest to the lichen that clings to the rock, from the boundless ocean to the tiniest shell on the shore, they may behold the image and superscription of God.
ML	112	4	Here are mysteries that the mind will become strong in searching out.... All may find themes for study in ... the spires of grass covering the earth with their green velvet carpet, the plants and flowers, ... the lofty mountains, the granite rocks, ... the precious gems of light studding the heavens to make the night beautiful, the exhaustless riches of the sunlight, the solemn glories of the moon, the winter's cold, the summer's heat, the changing, recurring seasons, in perfect order and harmony, controlled by infinite power; here are subjects which call for deep thought, for the stretch of the imagination.
------------------------He Multiplies My Talents, April 19
			Improving My Talents
ML	113	1	Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:21
ML	113	2	God has given us talents to use for Him. To one He gives five talents, to another two, and to another one. Let not him who has but one talent think to hide it from God. The Lord knows where it is hidden. He knows that it is doing nothing for Him. When the Lord comes, He will ask His servants, What have you done with the talents I entrusted to you? And as he who received five and he who received two tell Him that by trading they have doubled their talents, He will say to them, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.... Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Thus He will say also to him who has improved the one talent lent him....
ML	113	3	To him who has but one talent I would say, Do you know that one talent, rightly used and improved, will bring to the Lord one hundred talents? How? you ask. Use your gift in the conversion of one man of intellect, who sees what God is to him, and what he should be to God. Let him place himself on the side of the Lord, and as he imparts the light to others, he will be the means of bringing many souls to the Saviour. Through the right use of one talent one hundred souls may receive the truth. It is not to those who have the greatest number of talents to whom the "Well done" is spoken, but to those who in sincerity and faithfulness have used their gifts for the Master....
ML	113	4	There is a great work to be done in our world, and we are accountable for every ray of light that shines upon our pathway. Impart that light, and you will receive more light to impart. Great blessing will come to those who use their talents aright.
------------------------The Talent of Speech, April 20
			Improving My Talents
ML	114	1	Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Colossians 4:6
ML	114	2	The voice is an entrusted talent, and it should be used to help and encourage and strengthen our fellowmen. If parents will love God and keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, their language ... will be of a sound, pure, edifying character. Whether they are at home or abroad, their words will be well chosen.
ML	114	3	The very best school for voice culture is in the home life. Study in every way, not to annoy, but to cultivate a soft voice, distinct and plain.... Mothers should themselves act like Christ, speaking tender, loving words in the home.
ML	114	4	The right culture and use of the power of speech has to do with every line of Christian work; it enters into the home life and into all our intercourse with one another. We should accustom ourselves to speak in pleasant tones, to use pure and correct language, and words that are kind and courteous. Sweet, kind words are as dew and gentle showers to the soul. The Scripture says of Christ that grace was poured into His lips, that He might "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." And the Lord bids us, "Let your speech be alway with grace," "that it may minister grace unto the hearers." ... If we follow Christ's example in doing good, hearts will open to us as they did to Him.
ML	114	5	Not abruptly, but with tact born of divine love, we can tell them of Him who is the "Chiefest among ten thousand," and the One "altogether lovely." This is the very highest work in which we can employ the talent of speech.
ML	114	6	Righteous words and deeds have a more powerful influence for good than all the sermons that can be preached.
------------------------The Talent of Time, April 21
			Improving My Talents
ML	115	1	See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15, 16
ML	115	2	God bestows talents upon men, not that these talents may lie unused or be employed in self-gratification, but that they may be used to bless others. God grants men the gift of time for the purpose of promoting His glory. When this time is used in selfish pleasure, the hours thus spent are lost for all eternity.
ML	115	3	Our time belongs to God. Every moment is His, and we are under the most solemn obligation to improve it to His glory. Of no talent He has given will He require a more strict account than of our time.
ML	115	4	The value of time is beyond computation. Christ regarded every moment as precious, and it is thus that we should regard it. Life is too short to be trifled away. We have but a few days of probation in which to prepare for eternity....
ML	115	5	The human family have scarcely begun to live when they begin to die, and the world's incessant labor ends in nothingness unless a true knowledge in regard to eternal life is gained. The man who appreciates time as his working day will fit himself for a mansion and for a life that is immortal. It is well that he was born....
ML	115	6	Life is too solemn to be absorbed in temporal and earthly matters, in a treadmill of care and anxiety for the things that are but an atom in comparison with the things of eternal interest. Yet God has called us to serve Him in the temporal affairs of life. Diligence in this work is as much a part of true religion as is devotion. The Bible gives no endorsement to idleness. It is the greatest curse that afflicts our world. Every man and woman who is truly converted will be a diligent worker.
ML	115	7	The moments are freighted with eternal consequences.
------------------------The Talent of Money, April 22
			Improving My Talents
ML	116	1	He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:6, 7
ML	116	2	In the parable of the talents we have two classes brought to view. One class is represented by the diligent servant, and the other by the wicked and slothful servant. They had both been entrusted with their Lord's money. One went to work with earnestness, seeking opportunities to use his entrusted gift in such a way that others would be blessed and benefited. He does not live simply to please himself, to gratify selfish desires, to delight in pleasure parties and in places of amusement, seeking for gratification of his fleshly lusts, as though this were the object of life; but he thinks soberly, and remembers that his religious life is short.
ML	116	3	It is God who gives men power to get wealth, and He has bestowed this ability, not as a means of gratifying self, but as a means of returning to God His own. With this object it is not a sin to acquire means. Money is to be earned by labor. Every youth should be trained to habits of industry. The Bible condemns no man for being rich if he has acquired his riches honestly.... Wealth will prove a blessing if we regard it as the Lord's, to be received with thankfulness and with thankfulness returned to the Giver.
ML	116	4	Money has great value, because it can do great good. In the hands of God's children it is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, and clothing for the naked. It is a defense for the oppressed and a means of help to the sick. But money is of no more value than sand, only as it is put to use in providing for the necessities of life, in blessing others, and advancing the cause of Christ.
------------------------Strength is a Talent, April 23
			Improving My Talents
ML	117	1	A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength. Proverbs 24:5
ML	117	2	We are to love God, not only with all the heart, mind, and soul, but with all the strength. This covers the full, intelligent use of the physical powers....
ML	117	3	It was Christ who planned ... every specification in regard to the building of Solomon's temple. The One who in His earthly life worked as a carpenter in the village of Nazareth was the heavenly architect who marked out the plan for the sacred building where His name was to be honored....
ML	117	4	All right inventions and improvements have their source in Him who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. The skillful touch of the physician's hand, his power over nerve and muscle, his knowledge of the delicate organism of the body, is the wisdom of divine power, to be used in behalf of the suffering. The skill with which the carpenter uses the hammer, the strength with which the blacksmith makes the anvil ring, comes from God. He has entrusted men with talents, and He expects them to look to Him for counsel....
ML	117	5	Bible religion is to be interwoven with all we do or say.... They are to be united in all human pursuits, in mechanical and agricultural labors, in mercantile and scientific enterprises.... It is just as essential to do the will of God when erecting a building as when taking part in a religious service....
ML	117	6	Of Daniel we learn that in all his business transactions, when subjected to the closest scrutiny, not one fault or error could be found. He was a sample of what every businessman may be. His history shows what may be accomplished by one who consecrates the strength of brain and bone and muscle, of heart and life, to the service of God.
------------------------God Gives Me Power to Do Good, April 24
			Improving My Talents
ML	118	1	He that doeth good is of God. 3 John 11
ML	118	2	There are many ways in which the youth can be putting to usury the talents entrusted to them of God, to build up the work and cause of God, not to please themselves but to glorify God. The Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, made the infinite sacrifice in coming to our world in order that He might elevate and ennoble humanity.... We read, "He went about doing good." ...
ML	118	3	He has a vineyard in which everyone can perform good work. Suffering humanity needs help everywhere. The students may win their way to hearts by speaking words in season, by doing favors for those who need even physical labor. This will not degrade any of you, but it will bring a consciousness of the approval of God. It will be putting the talents entrusted to you for wise improvement to the exchangers. It will increase them by trading upon them....
ML	118	4	It is our duty ever to seek to do good in the use of the muscles and brain God has given to youth, that they may be useful to others, making their labors lighter, soothing the sorrowing, lifting up the discouraged, speaking words of comfort to the hopeless, turning the minds of the students from fun and frolic which often carries them beyond the dignity of manhood and womanhood to shame and disgrace. The Lord would have the mind elevated, seeking higher, nobler channels of usefulness.
ML	118	5	The true man is one who is willing to sacrifice his own interest for the good of others, and who exercises himself in binding up the brokenhearted.
ML	118	6	All power to do good is God-given.... To God belongs all the glory for the wise and good deeds of human agents.
------------------------Affections and Impulses Are Precious Talents, April 25
			Improving My Talents
ML	119	1	Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another. Romans 12:10
ML	119	2	Kindly affections, generous impulses, and a quick apprehension of spiritual things are precious talents and lay their possessor under a weighty responsibility. All are to be used in God's service. But here many err. Satisfied with the possession of these qualities, they fail to bring them into active service for others.... Those who possess large affections are under obligation to God to bestow them, not merely on their friends, but on all who need their help. Social advantages are talents, and are to be used for the benefit of all within reach of our influence....
ML	119	3	Talents used are talents multiplied. Success is not the result of chance or of destiny; it is the outworking of God's own providence, the reward of faith and discretion, of virtue and persevering effort. The Lord desires us to use every gift we have; and if we do this, we shall have greater gifts to use. He does not supernaturally endow us with the qualifications we lack; but while we use that which we have, He will work with us to increase and strengthen every faculty. By every wholehearted, earnest sacrifice for the Master's service, our powers will increase.... As we cherish and obey the promptings of the Spirit, our hearts are enlarged to receive more and more of His power and to do more and better work. Dormant energies are aroused and palsied faculties receive new life....
ML	119	4	As we seek to win others to Christ, bearing the burdens of souls in our prayers, our own hearts will throb with the quickening influence of God's grace; our own affections will glow with more divine fervor; our whole Christian life will be more of a reality, more earnest, more prayerful.
------------------------Be Strong and Courageous, April 26
			Exerting a Right Influence
ML	120	1	Be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. Joshua 1:7
ML	120	2	In the history of Joseph, Daniel, and his fellows we see how the golden chain of truth may bind the youth to the throne of God. They could not be tempted to turn aside from their course of integrity. They valued the favor of God far above the favor and praise of princes, and God loved them, and spread His shield over them. Because of their faithful integrity, because of their determination to honor God above every human power, the Lord signally honored them before men. They were honored by the Lord God of hosts, whose power is over all the works of His hand in heaven above and the earth beneath. These youth were not ashamed to display their true colors. Even in the court of the king, in their words, their habits, their practices, they confessed their faith in the Lord God of heaven. They refused to bow to any earthly mandate that detracted from the honor of God. They had strength from heaven to confess their allegiance to God....
ML	120	3	Never be ashamed of your colors; put them up, unfurl them to the gaze of men and angels.... The world has a right to know just what may be expected from every intelligent human being. He who is a living embodiment of firm, decided, righteous principles will be a living power upon his associates; and he will influence others by his Christianity. Many do not discern and appreciate how great is the influence of each one for good or evil....
ML	120	4	Your happiness for this life and for the future, immortal life lies with yourself.... How important it is that everyone shall consider where he is leading souls. We are in view of the eternal world, and how diligently we should count the cost of our influence.
------------------------Be an Example to Fellow Believers, April 27
			Exerting a Right Influence
ML	121	1	Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12
ML	121	2	By the atmosphere surrounding us, every person with whom we come in contact is consciously or unconsciously affected.... Our words, our acts, our dress, our deportment, even the expression of the countenance, has an influence.... Every impulse thus imparted is seed sown which will produce its harvest. It is a link in the long chain of human events, extending we know not whither. If by our example we aid others in the development of good principles, we give them power to do good. In their turn they exert the same influence upon others, and they upon still others. Thus by our unconscious influence thousands may be blessed.
ML	121	3	Throw a pebble into the lake, and a wave is formed; and another and another; and as they increase, the circle widens, until it reaches the very shore. So with our influence. Beyond our knowledge or control it tells upon others in blessing or in cursing....
ML	121	4	And the wider the sphere of our influence the more good we may do. When those who profess to serve God follow Christ's example, practicing the principles of the law in their daily life; when every act bears witness that they love God supremely and their neighbor as themselves, then will the church have power to move the world.
ML	121	5	If young men make their model an exalted one, having pure morals and firm principles, and if blended with this are affability and true Christian courtesy, there is a refined perfection to the character which will win its way anywhere, and a powerful influence will be wielded in favor of virtue, temperance, and righteousness. Such characters will be of the highest value to society, more precious than gold. Their influence is for time and for eternity.
------------------------A Saving Influence Over Associates and Unbelievers, April 28
			Exerting a Right Influence
ML	122	1	Ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing. 1 Thessalonians 1:7, 8
ML	122	2	If you can exert a saving influence over one soul, remember there is joy in heaven over the one that repented.... You may, by judicious effort, be the means of bringing back the lost sheep to Jesus' fold. Although you may be young, you must work with Christ; with His spirit in your heart you can do much more than it now seems possible for you to do.
ML	122	3	If your example is Christlike, that alone, if you do not say a word, will be a help to many. Patient continuance in well-doing will help others to place their feet in the path of truth and righteousness.... Be careful to start right, and then keep quietly on.
ML	122	4	The firm purposes you may possess in carrying out good principles will have an influence to balance souls in the right direction. There is no limit to the good you may do. If you make the Word of God the rule of your life, and govern your actions by its precepts, making all your purposes and exertions in the fulfilling of your duty a blessing ... , success will crown your efforts.
ML	122	5	The youth who are consecrated to God sway a mighty influence for good. Preachers or laymen advanced in years cannot have one half the influence for good upon the young that the youth, if devoted to God, can have upon their associates.
ML	122	6	The silent witness of a true, unselfish, godly life carries an almost irresistible influence.
ML	122	7	The unstudied, unconscious influence of a holy life is the most convincing sermon that can be given in favor of Christianity.
------------------------The Influence of a Meek and Quiet Spirit, April 29
			Exerting a Right Influence
ML	123	1	Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Peter 3:3, 4
ML	123	2	The apostle presents the inward adorning, in contrast with the outward, and tells us what the great God values. The outward is corruptible. But the meek and quiet spirit, the development of a beautifully symmetrical character, will never decay. It is an adornment which is not perishable. In the sight of the Creator of everything that is valuable, lovely, and beautiful it is declared to be of great price.
ML	123	3	Shall we not seek earnestly to gain that which God estimates as more valuable than costly dress, or pearls, or gold? The inward adorning, the grace of meekness, a spirit in harmony with the heavenly angels, will not lessen true dignity of character or make us less lovely here in this world. The Redeemer has warned us against the pride of life, but not against its grace and natural beauty.
ML	123	4	Self-denial in dress is a part of our Christian duty. To dress plainly and abstain from display of jewelry and ornaments of every kind is in keeping with our faith.
ML	123	5	It is of the greatest importance that we ... show by precept and example that we are cultivating that which the Monarch of the universe estimates of great value. In doing this what an influence for good can we have.
ML	123	6	Children and youth who devote time and means to make themselves objects of attraction by outward display and affected manners are not working in the right direction. They need to cultivate true, Christian politeness and nobility of soul.... The beauty of mind, the purity of the soul, revealed in the countenance, will have more power to attract and exert an influence upon hearts than any outward adorning.
------------------------The Influence of a Christian Family, April 30
			Exerting a Right Influence
ML	124	1	For I know him, that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. Genesis 18:19
ML	124	2	Every Christian family should illustrate to the world the power and excellence of Christian influences.
ML	124	3	The home in which the members are kindly, courteous Christians exerts a far-reaching influence for good. Other families mark the results attained by such a home and follow the example set, in their turn guarding their homes against evil influences. Angels of heaven often visit the home in which the will of God bears sway. Under the power of divine grace such a home becomes a place of refreshing to worn, weary pilgrims. Self is kept from asserting itself. Right habits are formed. There is a careful recognition of the rights of others. The faith that works by love and purifies the soul stands at the helm, presiding over the entire household.
ML	124	4	One well-ordered, well-disciplined family tells more in behalf of Christianity than all the sermons that can be preached.
ML	124	5	A lamp, however small, if kept steadily burning, may be the means of lighting many other lamps. Our sphere of influence may seem narrow, our ability small, our opportunities few, our acquirements limited; yet wonderful possibilities are ours through a faithful use of the opportunities of our own homes. If we will open our hearts and home to the divine principles of life, we shall become channels for currents of life-giving power. From our homes will flow streams of healing, bringing life, and beauty, and fruitfulness.
ML	124	6	The influence of a carefully guarded Christian home in the years of childhood and youth is the surest safeguard against the corruptions of the world.
------------------------My Body Belongs to God, May 1
			Perfect Health
ML	125	1	What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20
ML	125	2	Life is a gift of God. Our bodies have been given us to use in God's service, and He desires that we shall care for and appreciate them. Our bodies must be kept in the best possible condition physically, and under the most spiritual influences....
ML	125	3	A pure, healthy life is most favorable for the perfection of Christian character and for the development of the powers of mind and body.
ML	125	4	The law of temperance must control the life of every Christian. God is to be in all our thoughts; His glory is ever to be kept in view. We must break away from every influence that would captivate our thoughts and lead us from God. We are under sacred obligations to God so to govern our bodies and rule our appetites and passions that they will not lead us away from purity and holiness, or take our minds from the work God requires us to do.
ML	125	5	Those who serve God in sincerity and truth will be a peculiar people, unlike the world, separate from the world. Their food will be prepared, not to encourage gluttony or gratify a perverted taste, but to secure to themselves the greatest physical strength, and consequently the best mental conditions....
ML	125	6	Our heavenly Father has bestowed upon us the great blessing of health reform, that we may glorify Him by obeying the claims He has upon us.... The harmonious, healthy action of all the powers of body and mind results in happiness; the more elevated and refined the powers, the more pure and unalloyed the happiness.
------------------------Man Created in God's Image, May 2
			Perfect Health
ML	126	1	And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Genesis 1:26
ML	126	2	Man was the crowning act of the creation of God, made in the image of God, and designed to be a counterpart of God.... Man is very dear to God, because he was formed in His own image.
ML	126	3	As Adam came forth from the hand of his Creator he was of noble height and of beautiful symmetry. He was more than twice as tall as men now living upon the earth, and was well proportioned. His features were perfect and beautiful. His complexion was neither white nor sallow, but ruddy, glowing with the rich tint of health. Eve was not quite as tall as Adam. Her head reached a little above his shoulders. She too was noble, perfect in symmetry, and very beautiful.
ML	126	4	Man came from the hand of God perfect in every faculty of mind and body; in perfect soundness, therefore in perfect health.
ML	126	5	God endowed man with so great vital force that he has withstood the accumulation of disease brought upon the race in consequence of perverted habits, and has continued for six thousand years....
ML	126	6	If Adam, at his creation, had not been endowed with twenty times as much vital force as men now have, the race, with their present habits of living in violation of natural law, would have become extinct.
ML	126	7	Created to be "the image and glory of God," Adam and Eve had received endowments not unworthy of their high destiny. Graceful and symmetrical in form, regular and beautiful in feature, their countenances glowing with the tint of health and the light of joy and hope, they bore in outward resemblance the likeness of their Maker.
------------------------My Wonderful Body, May 3
			Keeping Physically Fit
ML	127	1	I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psalm 139:14
ML	127	2	The mechanism of the human body cannot be fully understood; it presents mysteries that baffle the most intelligent. It is not as the result of a mechanism, which, once set in motion, continues its work, that the pulse beats, and breath follows breath.... The beating heart, the throbbing pulse, every nerve and muscle in the living organism, is kept in order and activity by the power of an ever-present God.
ML	127	3	The Creator of man has arranged the living machinery of our bodies. Every function is wonderfully and wisely made. And God has pledged Himself to keep this human machinery in healthful action if the human agent will obey His laws and cooperate with God. Every law governing the human machinery is to be considered just as truly divine in origin, in character, and in importance as the Word of God. Every careless, inattentive action, any abuse put upon the Lord's wonderful mechanism, by disregarding His specified laws in the human habitation, is a violation of God's law. We may behold and admire the work of God in the natural world, but the human habitation is the most wonderful.
ML	127	4	This living machinery is to be understood. Every part of its wonderful mechanism is to be carefully studied.
ML	127	5	As in the study of physiology they see that they are indeed "fearfully and wonderfully made," they will be inspired with reverence. Instead of marring God's handiwork, they will have an ambition to make all that is possible of themselves, in order to fulfill the Creator's glorious plan. Thus they will come to regard obedience to the laws of health, not as a matter of sacrifice or self-denial, but as it really is, an inestimable privilege and blessing.
------------------------God Made Man Upright, May 4
			Keeping Physically Fit
ML	128	1	God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. Ecclesiastes 7:29
ML	128	2	The health reform is an important part of the third angel's message; and as a people professing this reform, we should not retrograde, but make continual advancement. It is a great thing to ensure health by placing ourselves in right relations to the laws of life.
ML	128	3	Among the first things to be aimed at should be a correct position, both in sitting and in standing. God made man upright, and He desires him to possess not only the physical but the mental and moral benefit, the grace and dignity and self-possession, the courage and self-reliance, which an erect bearing so greatly tends to promote.
ML	128	4	The lungs should be allowed the greatest freedom possible. Their capacity is developed by free action; it diminishes if they are cramped and compressed. Hence the ill effects of the practice so common, especially in sedentary pursuits of stooping at one's work. In this position it is impossible to breathe deeply. Superficial breathing soon becomes a habit, and the lungs lose their power to expand.... Thus an insufficient supply of oxygen is received. The blood moves sluggishly.
ML	128	5	Next in importance to right position are respiration and vocal culture. The one who sits and stands erect is more likely than others to breathe properly.... To ensure correct delivery in reading and speaking, see that the abdominal muscles have full play in breathing, and that the respiratory organs are unrestricted. Let the strain come on the muscles of the abdomen rather than on those of the throat. Great weariness and serious disease of the throat and lungs may thus be prevented.
ML	128	6	In order to enjoy good health, we must ask the Lord to bless us, and then do what we can to place ourselves under conditions the most favorable to health.
------------------------Cleanliness, May 5
			Keeping Physically Fit
ML	129	1	Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22
ML	129	2	Scrupulous cleanliness is essential to both physical and mental health. Impurities are constantly thrown off from the body through the skin. Its millions of pores are quickly clogged unless kept clean by frequent bathing, and the impurities which should pass off through the skin become an additional burden to the other eliminating organs.... A bath, properly taken, fortifies against cold, because it improves the circulation; the blood is brought to the surface, and a more easy and regular flow is obtained. The mind and the body are alike invigorated. The muscles become more flexible, the intellect is made brighter. The bath is a soother of the nerves.
ML	129	3	Teach the little ones that God is not pleased to see them with unclean bodies and untidy, torn garments.... Having the clothing neat and clean will be one means of keeping the thoughts pure and sweet.... Especially should every article which comes in contact with the skin be kept clean.
ML	129	4	Truth never places her delicate feet in a path of uncleanness or impurity.... He who was so particular that the children of Israel should cherish habits of cleanliness will not sanction any impurity in the homes of His people today. God looks with disfavor on uncleanness of any kind.
ML	129	5	Unclean, neglected corners in the house will tend to make impure, neglected corners in the soul.
ML	129	6	Perfect cleanliness, plenty of sunlight, careful attention to sanitation in every detail of the home life, are essential to freedom from disease and to the cheerfulness and vigor of the inmates of the home.
ML	129	7	Heaven is pure and holy, and those who pass through the gates of the city of God must here be clothed with inward and outward purity.
------------------------Exercise, May 6
			Keeping Physically Fit
ML	130	1	The glory of young men is their strength. Proverbs 20:29
ML	130	2	Another precious blessing is proper exercise. Each organ and muscle has its work to do in the living organism. Every wheel in the machinery must be a living, active, working wheel. Nature's fine and wonderful works need to be kept in active motion in order to accomplish the object for which they were designed.
ML	130	3	Bind up an arm, even for a few weeks, then free it from its bands, and you will see that it is weaker than the one you have been using moderately during the same time. Inactivity produces the same effect upon the whole muscular system.
ML	130	4	Inactivity is a fruitful cause of disease. Exercise quickens and equalizes the circulation of the blood.
ML	130	5	For a healthy young man, stern, severe exercise is strengthening to the whole system.... Without such exercise the mind cannot be kept in working order. It becomes inactive, unable to put forth the sharp, quick action that will give scope to its powers....
ML	130	6	All the heavenly beings are in constant activity, and the Lord Jesus, in His lifework, has given an example for every one. He went about "doing good." God has established the law of obedient action. Silent but ceaseless, the objects of His creation do their appointed work. The ocean is in constant motion. The springing grass, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, does its errand, clothing the fields with beauty. The leaves are stirred to motion, and yet no hand is seen to touch them. The sun, moon, and stars are useful and glorious in fulfilling their mission.... And man, his mind and body created in God's own similitude, must be active in order to fill his appointed place.
ML	130	7	Action gives power.
------------------------Industry, May 7
			Keeping Physically Fit
ML	131	1	Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Ecclesiastes 9:10
ML	131	2	The life of Jesus was filled with industry, and He took exercise in performing varied tasks in harmony with His developing physical strength. In doing the work that was marked out for Him, He had no time for indulgence in exciting, useless amusements. He ... was trained in useful labor, and even for the endurance of hardship....
ML	131	3	Christ presents before us a pattern for youth and children. His early life was lived under conditions favorable to the obtaining of physical development and to the acquisition of moral power to resist temptation, so that He might remain untainted amid the corruption of wicked Nazareth....
ML	131	4	The education of Christ, during the time He was subject to His parents, was of the most valuable kind.... The physical and mental exercise that was necessary to the performance of His tasks developed both physical and mental strength. His life of industry and retirement closed the avenues through which Satan could enter to tempt Him to the love of vanity and display. He waxed strong in body and spirit, thus gaining a preparation for the duties of manhood and for the performance of the important duties that afterward devolved upon Him.
ML	131	5	Jesus was an earnest, constant worker. Never lived there among men another so weighted with responsibilities. Never another carried so heavy a burden of the world's sorrow and sin. Never another toiled with such self-consuming zeal for the good of men. Yet His life was a life of health. Physically as well as spiritually He was represented by the sacrificial lamb, "without blemish and without spot." In body as in soul He was an example of what God designed all humanity to be through obedience to His laws.
------------------------A Nutritious Diet, May 8
			Keeping Physically Fit
ML	132	1	Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Isaiah 55:2
ML	132	2	Health reform is an intelligent selection of the most healthful article of food prepared in the most healthful, simplest form.
ML	132	3	Our bodies are built up from the food we eat. There is a constant breaking down of the tissues of the body; every movement of every organ involves waste, and this waste is repaired from our food. Each organ of the body requires its share of nutrition. The brain must be supplied with its portion; the bones, muscles, and nerves demand theirs. It is a wonderful process that transforms the food into blood and uses this blood to build up the varied parts of the body; but this process is going on continually, supplying with life and strength each nerve, muscle, and tissue.
ML	132	4	God has furnished man with abundant means for the gratification of an unperverted appetite. He has spread before him the products of the earth--a bountiful variety of food that is palatable to the taste and nutritious to the system. Of these our benevolent heavenly Father says we may freely eat. Fruits, grains, and vegetables, prepared in a simple way, free from spice and grease of all kinds, make, with milk or cream, the most healthful diet. They impart nourishment to the body and give a power of endurance and a vigor of intellect that are not produced by a stimulating diet.
ML	132	5	Let the table be made inviting and attractive, as it is supplied with the good things which God has so bountifully bestowed. Let mealtime be a cheerful, happy time. As we enjoy the gifts of God, let us respond by grateful praise to the Giver.
ML	132	6	God has given us the fruits and grains of the earth for food, that we might have unfevered blood, calm nerves, and clear minds.
------------------------Rest, May 9
			Keeping Physically Fit
ML	133	1	And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. Mark 6:31
ML	133	2	Though time is short, and there is a great work to be done, the Lord is not pleased to have us so prolong our seasons of activity that there will not be time for periods of rest, for the study of the Bible, and for communion with God. All this is essential to fortify the soul, to place us in a position where we shall receive wisdom from God to employ our talents in the Master's service to the highest account.
ML	133	3	When Jesus said the harvest was great and the laborers were few, He did not urge upon His disciples the necessity of ceaseless toil.... He tells His disciples that their strength has been severely tried, that they will be unfitted for future labor unless they rest awhile.... In the name of Jesus, economize your powers, that after being refreshed with rest, you may do more and better work.
ML	133	4	When the disciples related all their experience to Jesus, He understood their need. Their labor had greatly elated and encouraged them, but it had also worn upon them.... A desert place did not mean a waste and solitary wilderness, but a place of retirement and quiet, pleasant to the eyes and invigorating to the body. They sought such a place near a favorite resort on the sea of Galilee.... The Christian life is not made up of unceasing activity or of continual meditation.... He knew that a season of rest and recreation, apart from the multitude and the scene of their labors, would invigorate them, and He sought to withdraw them from the busy cities to a quiet resort where they might have a season of precious fellowship with Him and with each other.... The disciples of Jesus needed to be educated as to how they should labor and how they should rest. Today there is need that God's chosen workmen should listen to the command of Christ to go apart and rest awhile.
------------------------Preserve the Body Temple, May 10
			Elements of Good Health
ML	134	1	Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16
ML	134	2	God has given you a habitation to care for and preserve in the best condition for His service and glory. Your bodies are not your own.... "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
ML	134	3	Health is a blessing of which few appreciate the value.... Life is a holy trust, which God alone can enable us to keep, and to use to His glory. But He who formed the wonderful structure of the body will take special care to keep it in order if men do not work at cross-purposes with Him. Every talent entrusted to us He will help us to improve and use in accordance to the will of the Giver.
ML	134	4	Youth is the time to establish good habits, to correct wrong ones already contracted, to gain and to hold the power of self-control, and to lay the plan, and accustom one's self to the practice of ordering all the acts of life with reference to the will of God.
ML	134	5	The sacred temple of the body must be kept pure and uncontaminated, that God's Holy Spirit may dwell therein. We need to guard faithfully the Lord's property, for any abuse of our powers shortens the time that our lives could be used for the glory of God. Bear in mind that we must consecrate all--soul, body, and spirit--to God. All is His purchased possession, and must be used intelligently, to the end that we may preserve the talent of life. By properly using our powers to their fullest extent in the most useful employment, by keeping every organ in health, by so preserving every organ that mind, sinew, and muscle shall work harmoniously, we may do the most precious service for God.
ML	134	6	When we do all we can on our part to have health, then may we expect that the blessed results will follow, and we can ask God in faith to bless our efforts for the preservation of health.
------------------------Prosper and Be in Health, May 11
			Elements of Good Health
ML	135	1	Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3 John 2
ML	135	2	The Saviour in His miracles revealed the power that is continually at work in man's behalf to sustain and to heal him. Through the agencies of nature, God is working, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, to keep us alive, to build up and restore us. When any part of the body sustains injury, a healing process is at once begun; nature's agencies are set at work to restore soundness. But the power working through these agencies is the power of God. All life-giving power is from Him. When one recovers from disease, it is God who restores him....
ML	135	3	The words spoken to Israel are true today of those who recover health of body or health of soul. "I am the Lord that healeth thee."
ML	135	4	The desire of God for every human being is expressed in the words, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
ML	135	5	Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power--these are the true remedies.
ML	135	6	The things of nature are God's blessings, provided to give health to body, mind, and soul. They are given to the well to keep them well and to the sick to make them well....
ML	135	7	Nature is God's physician. The pure air, the glad sunshine, the beautiful flowers and trees, the orchards and vineyards, and outdoor exercise amid these surroundings are health giving--the elixir of life.
ML	135	8	Nothing so tends to restore health and happiness as living amid attractive country surroundings.
ML	135	9	Life in the open air is good for body and mind. It is God's medicine for the restoration of health.
ML	135	10	True religion and the laws of health go hand in hand.
------------------------Outdoor Activity, May 12
			Elements of Good Health
ML	136	1	The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.... And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Genesis 2:8-15
ML	136	2	To Adam and Eve was committed the care of the garden, "to dress it and to keep it." Though rich in all that the Owner of the universe could supply, they were not to be idle. Useful occupation was appointed them as a blessing, to strengthen the body, to expand the mind, and to develop the character.
ML	136	3	Let men and women work in field and orchard and garden. This will bring health and strength to nerve and muscle.... Every part of the human organism should be equally taxed. This is necessary for the harmonious development and action of every part.... God made nerve and muscle in order that they might be used. It is the inaction of the human machinery that brings suffering and disease.
ML	136	4	More people die for want of exercise than through overfatigue; very many more rust out than wear out. Those who accustom themselves to proper exercise in the open air will generally have a good and vigorous circulation.
ML	136	5	Morning exercise, in walking in the free, invigorating air of heaven, or cultivating flowers, small fruits, and vegetables, is necessary to a healthful circulation of the blood. It is the surest safeguard against colds, coughs, congestions of brain and lungs, inflammation of the liver, the kidneys, and the lungs, and a hundred other diseases.
ML	136	6	Go out and exercise every day, even though some things indoors have to be neglected.
ML	136	7	The more nearly we come into harmony with God's original plan, the more favorable will be our position for the recovery and preservation of health.
------------------------The Air We Breath, May 13
			Elements of Good Health
ML	137	1	He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things. Acts 17:25
ML	137	2	Air is the free blessing of heaven, calculated to electrify the whole system.
ML	137	3	The lungs are constantly throwing off impurities, and they need to be constantly supplied with fresh air.
ML	137	4	We are more dependent upon the air we breathe than upon the food we eat. Men and women, young and old, who desire health, and who would enjoy active life, should remember that they cannot have these without a good circulation. Whatever their business and inclinations, they should make up their minds to exercise in the open air as much as they can. They should feel it a religious duty to overcome the conditions of health which have kept them confined indoors, deprived of exercise in the open air.
ML	137	5	Air, the precious boon of heaven, which all may have, will bless you with its invigorating influence if you will not refuse it entrance. Welcome it, cultivate a love for it, and it will prove a precious soother of the nerves.... The influence of pure, fresh air is to cause the blood to circulate healthfully through the system. It refreshes the body and tends to render it strong and healthy, while at the same time its influence is decidedly felt upon the mind, imparting a degree of composure and serenity. It excites the appetite and renders the digestion of food more perfect, and induces sound, sweet sleep.
ML	137	6	The pure, invigorating air of heaven is God's free gift to men and women, and it is impossible for them to be cheerful, healthful, and happy unless they appreciate these rich bounties and allow them to answer the purpose for which they were designed.
ML	137	7	The free, pure air of heaven is one of the richest blessings we can enjoy.
------------------------Sunlight, May 14
			Elements of Good Health
ML	138	1	Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun. Ecclesiastes 11:7
ML	138	2	There are but few who realize that, in order to enjoy health and cheerfulness, they must have an abundance of sunlight, pure air, and physical exercise. We pity little children who are kept confined indoors when the sun is shining gloriously without.
ML	138	3	Clothe your boys and girls comfortably and properly.... Then let them go out and exercise in the open air, and live to enjoy health and happiness.
ML	138	4	The pale and sickly grain-blade that has struggled up out of the cold of early spring puts out the natural and healthy deep green after enjoying for a few days the health-and-life-giving rays of the sun. Go out into the light and warmth of the glorious sun, ... and share with vegetation its life-giving, healing power.
ML	138	5	No room in the house should be considered furnished and adorned without the cheering, enlivening light and sunshine, which are Heaven's own free gift to man....
ML	138	6	When God had made our world, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, he said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good. Shall we close our houses, and exclude from them the light which God has pronounced good?
ML	138	7	If you would have your homes sweet and inviting, make them bright with air and sunshine.... The precious sunlight may fade your carpets, but it will give a healthful color to the cheeks of your children. If you have God's presence, and possess earnest, loving hearts, a humble home, made bright with air and sunlight ... will be to your family ... a heaven below.
ML	138	8	Exercise and a free abundant use of the air and sunlight--blessings which Heaven has freely bestowed upon all--would give life and strength.
------------------------Water, May 15
			Elements of Good Health
ML	139	1	Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:13, 14
ML	139	2	In health and in sickness pure water is one of Heaven's choicest blessings. Its proper use promotes health. It is the beverage which God provided to quench the thirst of animals and man. Drunk freely, it helps to supply the necessities of the system and assists nature to resist disease. The external application of water is one of the easiest and most satisfactory ways of regulating the circulation of the blood.
ML	139	3	Pure water to drink and fresh air to breathe invigorate the vital organs, purify the blood, and help nature in her task of overcoming the bad conditions of the system.
ML	139	4	Water is the best liquid possible to cleanse the tissues.
ML	139	5	If those who are afflicted would assist nature in her efforts by the use of pure, soft water, much suffering would be prevented.
ML	139	6	Water treatments, wisely and skillfully given, may be the means of saving many lives. Let diligent study be united with careful treatments. Let prayers of faith be offered by the bedside of the sick. Let the sick be encouraged to claim the promises of God for themselves.
ML	139	7	The refreshing water, welling up in a parched and barren land, causing the desert place to blossom and flowing out to give life to the perishing, is an emblem of the divine grace which Christ alone can bestow, and which is as the living water, purifying, refreshing, and invigorating the soul.
ML	139	8	In the East water was called the "gift of God."
------------------------Enjoy God's Created Works, May 16
			Elements of Good Health
ML	140	1	On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. Genesis 2:2, 3
ML	140	2	God reserved the seventh day as a period of rest for man, for the good of man as well as for His own glory. He saw that the wants of man required a day of rest from toil and care, that his health and life would be endangered without a period of relaxation from the labor and anxiety of the six days.
ML	140	3	The Sabbath of the Lord is to be made a blessing to us and to our children.... They can be pointed to the blooming flowers and the opening buds, the lofty trees and beautiful spires of grass, and taught that God made all these in six days, and rested on the seventh day, and hallowed it. Thus the parents may bind up their lessons of instruction to their children, so that when these children look upon the things of nature, they will call to mind the great Creator of them all. Their thoughts will be carried up to nature's God--back to the creation of our world, when the foundation of the Sabbath was laid, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
ML	140	4	Happy is the family who can go to the place of worship on the Sabbath as Jesus and His disciples went to the synagogue--across the fields, along the shores of the lake, or through the groves.
ML	140	5	The Sabbath bids us behold in His created works the glory of the Creator. And it is because He desired us to do this that Jesus bound up His precious lessons with the beauty of natural things. On the holy rest day, above all other days, we should study the messages that God has written for us in nature. We should study the Saviour's parables where He spoke them, in the fields and groves, under the open sky, among the grass and flowers. As we come close to the heart of nature, Christ makes His presence real to us and speaks to our hearts of His peace and love.
------------------------Do All to the Glory of God, May 17
			Temperate in All Things
ML	141	1	Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31
ML	141	2	In order to preserve health, temperance in all things is necessary--temperance in labor, temperance in eating and drinking. Our heavenly Father sent the light of health reform ... that those who love purity and holiness may know how to use with discretion the good things He has provided for them, and that by exercising temperance in daily life they may be sanctified through the truth.
ML	141	3	Great care should be taken to form right habits of eating and drinking. The food eaten should be that which will make the best blood. The delicate organs of digestion should be respected. God requires us, by being temperate in all things, to act our part toward keeping ourselves in health.... The spiritual experience is greatly affected by the way in which the stomach is treated. Eating and drinking in accordance with the laws of health promote virtuous actions.
ML	141	4	Principle should rule instead of appetite or fancy.... It means much to be true to God. He has claims upon all who are engaged in His service. He desires that mind and body be preserved in the best condition of health, every power and endowment under the divine control, and as vigorous as careful, strictly temperate habits can make them.... Temperance in eating, drinking, sleeping, and dressing is one of the grand principles of the religious life. Truth brought into the sanctuary of the soul will guide in the treatment of the body.
ML	141	5	The better you observe the laws of health, the more clearly can you discern temptations, and resist them, and the more clearly can you discern the value of eternal things. May the Lord help you to make the most of your present opportunities and privileges, that you may daily gain new victories, and finally enter the city of God, as those who have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
------------------------Temperate in Labor, May 18
			Temperate in All Things
ML	142	1	Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. Ecclesiastes 5:18
ML	142	2	That time is spent to the very best account which is directed to the establishment and preservation of sound physical and mental health.... It is an easy matter to lose the health, but it is difficult to regain it.... We cannot afford to dwarf or cripple a single function of the mind or body by overwork or abuse of any part of the living machinery.
ML	142	3	Those who make great exertions to accomplish just so much work in a given time, and continue to labor when their judgment tells them they should rest, are never gainers. They are living on borrowed capital. They are expending the vital force which they will need at a future time. And when the energy they have so recklessly used is demanded, they fail for want of it.... Their time of need has come, but their physical resources are exhausted. Everyone who violates the laws of health must sometime be a sufferer to a greater or less degree.
ML	142	4	Much of the fatigue and labor under which they are wearing and growing old are not burdens that God has bound upon them, but which they have brought upon themselves by doing the very things the Word of God has told them not to do.
ML	142	5	It is not our duty to place ourselves where we shall be overworked. Some may at times be placed where this is necessary, but it should be the exception, not the rule.... If we honor the Lord by acting our part, He will on His part preserve our health.... By practicing temperance in eating, in drinking, in dressing, in labor, and in all things, we can do for ourselves what no physician can for us.
ML	142	6	Do not try to crowd into one day the work of two.
------------------------Do Not Turn Day Into Night, May 19
			Temperate in All Things
ML	143	1	How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Proverbs 6:9
ML	143	2	Health is a great treasure. It is the richest possession mortals can have. Wealth, honor, or learning is dearly purchased if it be at the loss of the vigor of health. None of these attainments can secure happiness if health is wanting. It is a terrible sin to abuse the health that God has given us; for every abuse of health enfeebles us for life, and makes us losers.
ML	143	3	How prevalent is the habit of turning day into night and night into day. Many youth sleep soundly in the morning, when they should be up with the early singing birds, and be stirring when all nature is awake. Let youth practice regularity in the hours for going to bed and for rising, ... Let them purpose in their hearts that they will bring themselves under discipline, and practice orderly rules. God is a God of order, and it is the duty of the youth to observe strict rules, for such practices will work for their advantage.
ML	143	4	Since the work of building up the body takes place during the hours of rest, it is essential, especially in youth, that sleep should be regular and abundant.
ML	143	5	The majority of pleasure lovers attend the fashionable night gatherings, and spend in exciting amusements the hours God has given them for quiet rest and sleep in order to invigorate the body.... They are robbing the cheeks of the glow of health, and then to supply the deficiency use cosmetics.
ML	143	6	Would it not be better, therefore, to break up this habit of turning night into day, and the fresh hours of morning into night? If the youth would form habits of regularity and order, they would improve in health, in spirits, in memory, and in disposition.
------------------------Temperate in Study, May 20
			Temperate in All Things
ML	144	1	And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. Ecclesiastes 12:12
ML	144	2	Mental effort without corresponding physical exercise calls an undue proportion of blood to the brain, and thus the circulation is unbalanced. The brain has too much blood, while the extremities have too little. The hours of study and recreation should be carefully regulated, and a portion of the time should be spent in physical labor....
ML	144	3	The health cannot be preserved unless some portion of each day is given to muscular exertion in the open air. Stated hours should be devoted to manual labor of some kind, anything which will call into action all parts of the body. Equalize the taxation of the mental and the physical power, and the mind ... will be refreshed.
ML	144	4	The minds of thinking men labor too hard. They frequently use their mental powers prodigally, while there is another class whose highest aim in life is physical labor. The latter class do not exercise the mind. Their muscles are exercised, but their brains are robbed of intellectual strength; just as the minds of thinking men are worked, but their bodies are robbed of strength and vigor by their neglect to exercise the muscles.... Health should be a sufficient inducement to lead them to unite physical with mental labor.
ML	144	5	Moral, intellectual, and physical culture should be combined in order to have well-developed, well-balanced men and women. Some are qualified to exercise great intellectual strength, while others are inclined to love and enjoy physical labor. Both of these classes should seek to improve where they are deficient, that they may present to God their entire being, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him, which is their reasonable service.
ML	144	6	The health should be as carefully guarded as the character.
------------------------Appropriate Attire, May 21
			Temperate in All Things
ML	145	1	She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet [double garments, margin]. Proverbs 31:21
ML	145	2	Our clothing, while modest and simple, should be of good quality, of becoming colors, and suited for service. It should be chosen for durability rather than display. It should provide warmth and proper protection. The wise woman described in the Proverbs "is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with double garments."
ML	145	3	Our dress should be cleanly. Uncleanliness in dress is unhealthful, and thus defiling to the body and to the soul....
ML	145	4	In all respects the dress should be healthful. "Above all things" God desires us to be "in health"--health of body and of soul. And we are to be workers together with Him for the health of both soul and body. Both are promoted by healthful dress.
ML	145	5	It should have the grace, the beauty, the appropriateness of natural simplicity. Christ has warned us against the pride of life, but not against its grace and natural beauty. He pointed to the flowers of the field, to the lily unfolding in its purity, and said, "Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Thus by the things of nature Christ illustrates the beauty that Heaven values, the modest grace, the simplicity, the purity, the appropriateness, that would make our attire pleasing to Him.
ML	145	6	Perfect health depends upon perfect circulation. Special attention should be given to the extremities, that they may be as thoroughly clothed as the chest and region over the heart.
ML	145	7	Let our sisters dress plainly, as many do, having the dress of good material, durable, modest, appropriate for this age, and let not the dress question fill the mind.
------------------------Regularity in Eating, May 22
			Temperate in All Things
ML	146	1	Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Philippians 4:5
ML	146	2	Regularity in eating is very important for health of body and serenity of mind.
ML	146	3	Children are generally untaught in regard to the importance of when, how, and what they should eat. They are permitted to indulge their tastes freely, to eat at all hours, to help themselves to fruit when it tempts their eyes, and this, with the pie, cake, bread and butter, and sweetmeats eaten almost constantly, makes them gormands and dyspeptics. The digestive organs, like a mill which is continually kept running, become enfeebled, vital force is called from the brain to aid the stomach in its overwork, and thus the mental powers are weakened. The unnatural stimulation and wear of the vital forces make them nervous, impatient of restraint, self-willed, and irritable.... It is difficult to arouse them to a sense of the shame and grievous nature of sin.
ML	146	4	Nothing should be eaten between meals, no confectionery, nuts, fruits, or food of any kind. Irregularities in eating destroy the healthful tone of the digestive organs, to the detriment of health and cheerfulness.
ML	146	5	Another pernicious habit is that of eating just before bedtime.... The sleep is often disturbed with unpleasant dreams, and in the morning the persons awake unrefreshed and with little relish for breakfast. When we lie down to rest, the stomach should have its work all done, that it, as well as the other organs of the body, may enjoy rest.
ML	146	6	Every prohibition of God is for the health and eternal well-being of man.
ML	146	7	When they [God's people] break away from all health-destroying indulgences, they will have a clearer perception of what constitutes true godliness. A wonderful change will be seen in the religious experience.
------------------------Daniel an Example in Temperance, May 23
			Temperate in All Things
ML	147	1	And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.... And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. Daniel 1:19, 20
ML	147	2	During their three years of training, Daniel and his associates maintained their abstemious habits, their allegiance to God, and their constant dependence upon His power. When the time came for their abilities and acquirements to be tested by the king, they were examined with other candidates for the service of the kingdom.... Their keen apprehension, their choice and exact language, their extensive knowledge, testified to the unimpaired strength and vigor of their mental power....
ML	147	3	God always honors the right. The most promising youths from all the lands subdued by the great conqueror had been gathered at Babylon, yet amid them all the Hebrew captives were without a rival. The erect form, the firm, elastic step, the fair countenance, the undimmed senses, the untainted breath--all these were insignia of the nobility with which nature honors those who are obedient to her laws....
ML	147	4	Amid the seductive influences of the luxurious courts of Babylon they stood firm. The youth of today are surrounded with allurements to self-indulgence. Especially in our large cities, every form of sensual gratification is made easy and inviting. Those who, like Daniel, refuse to defile themselves will reap the reward of temperate habits....
ML	147	5	Daniel's clearness of mind and firmness of purpose, his power in acquiring knowledge and in resisting temptation, were due in a great degree to the plainness of his diet, in connection with his life of prayer....
ML	147	6	Stand forth in your God-given manhood and womanhood.... God will reward you with calm nerves, a clear brain, an unimpaired judgment, keen perceptions. The youth of today whose principles are firm and unwavering will be blessed with health of body, mind, and soul.
------------------------The Body Is to be Servant of the Mind, May 24
			A Sound Mind in a Sound Body
ML	148	1	For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7
ML	148	2	Every organ of the body was made to be servant of the mind. The brain is the capital of the body, the seat of all the nervous forces and of mental action. The nerves proceeding from the brain control the body. By the brain nerves, mental impressions are conveyed to all the nerves of the body as by telegraph wires; and they control the vital action of every part of the system. All the organs of motion are governed by the communications they receive from the brain.
ML	148	3	The brain nerves which communicate with the entire system are the only medium through which Heaven can communicate with man and affect his inmost life. Whatever disturbs the circulation of the electric currents in the nervous system lessens the strength of the vital powers, and the result is a deadening of the sensibilities of the mind.
ML	148	4	Any part of the body that is not treated with consideration will telegraph its injury to the brain.
ML	148	5	It is not only the privilege, but the sacred duty, of all to understand the laws God has established in their beings.... And as they more fully understand the human body, ... they will seek to bring their bodies into subjection to the noble powers of the mind. The body will be regarded by them as a wonderful structure, formed by the Infinite Designer, and given in their charge to keep this harp of a thousand strings in harmonious action.
ML	148	6	To make a success of Christian life, the development of sound minds in sound bodies is of the greatest importance.
ML	148	7	The harmonious, healthy action of all the powers of body and mind results in happiness; the more elevated and refined the powers, the more pure and unalloyed the happiness.
------------------------Security in Christ Improves Health, May 25
			A Sound Mind in a Sound Body
ML	149	1	The fear of the Lord prolongeth days. Proverbs 10:27
ML	149	2	All who are under the training of God need the quiet hour for communion with their own hearts, with nature, and with God.... We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. He bids us, "Be still, and know that I am God." ... Amidst the hurrying throngs and the strain of life's intense activities, he who is thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. He will receive a new endowment of both physical and mental strength.
ML	149	3	Let the mind become intelligent and the will be placed on the Lord's side, and there will be a wonderful improvement in the physical health.
ML	149	4	Sickness of the mind prevails everywhere. Nine tenths of the diseases from which men suffer have their foundation here.... The religion of Christ ... is one of its most effectual remedies, for it is a potent soother of the nerves.
ML	149	5	Heaven is all health; and the more deeply heavenly influences are realized, the more sure will be the recovery....
ML	149	6	Godliness does not conflict with the laws of health, but is in harmony with them. The fear of the Lord is the foundation of all real prosperity.
ML	149	7	We should cooperate with God in the care of our bodies. Love for God is essential for life and health. Faith in God is essential for health. In order to have perfect health, our hearts must be filled with love and hope and joy in the Lord.
------------------------Peace Through a Consciousness of Rightdoing, May 26
			A Sound Mind in a Sound Body
ML	150	1	Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. Psalm 119:165
ML	150	2	If the mind is free and happy, from a consciousness of rightdoing and a sense of satisfaction in causing happiness to others, it creates a cheerfulness that will react upon the whole system, causing a freer circulation of the blood and a toning up of the entire body. The blessing of God is a healing power, and those who are abundant in benefiting others will realize that wondrous blessing in both heart and life.
ML	150	3	Those who follow the path of wisdom and holiness will not be troubled with vain regrets over misspent hours, neither will they be troubled with gloom or horror of mind, as some are, unless engaged in vain, trifling amusements....
ML	150	4	Amusements excite the mind, but depression is sure to follow. Useful labor and physical exercise will have a more healthful influence upon the mind and will strengthen the muscles, improve the circulation, and will prove a powerful agent in the recovery of health....
ML	150	5	The consciousness of rightdoing is the best medicine for diseased bodies and minds. The special blessing of God resting upon the receiver is health and strength.
ML	150	6	Doing good is a work that benefits both giver and receiver. If you forget self in your interest for others, you gain a victory over your infirmities. The satisfaction you will realize in doing good will greatly aid you in the recovery of the healthy tone of the imagination. The pleasure of doing good animates the mind and vibrates through the whole body.
ML	150	7	A person whose mind is quiet and satisfied in God is in the pathway to health.
------------------------A Merry Heart Is Good Medicine, May 27
			A Sound Mind in a Sound Body
ML	151	1	A merry [rejoicing] heart doeth good like a medicine. Proverbs 17:22
ML	151	2	The relation that exists between the mind and the body is very intimate. When one is affected the other sympathizes. The condition of the mind affects the health to a far greater degree than many realize. Many of the diseases from which men suffer are the result of mental depression. Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life forces and to invite decay and death.
ML	151	3	Disease is sometimes produced, and is often greatly aggravated, by the imagination. Many are lifelong invalids who might be well if they only thought so....
ML	151	4	Courage, hope, faith, sympathy, love, promote health and prolong life. A contented mind, a cheerful spirit, is health to the body and strength to the soul.
ML	151	5	Gratitude, rejoicing, benevolence, trust in God's love and care--these are health's greatest safeguard.
ML	151	6	The power of the will and the importance of self-control, both in the preservation and in the recovery of health, the depressing and even ruinous effect of anger, discontent, selfishness, or impurity, and, on the other hand, the marvelous life-giving power to be found in cheerfulness, unselfishness, gratitude, should also be shown.
ML	151	7	There is a physiological truth--truth that we need to consider--in the scripture, "A merry [rejoicing] heart doeth good like a medicine."
ML	151	8	The true principles of Christianity open before all a source of inestimable happiness.
ML	151	9	We should encourage a cheerful, hopeful, peaceful frame of mind; for our health depends upon our so doing.
------------------------Kind Acts and Pleasant Words Promote Health, May 28
			A Sound Mind in a Sound Body
ML	152	1	Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. Proverbs 16:24
ML	152	2	Kind, cheerful, encouraging words will prove more effective than the most healing medicines. These will bring courage to the heart of the desponding and discouraged, and the happiness and sunshine brought into the family by kind acts and encouraging words will repay the effort tenfold. The husband should remember that much of the burden of training his children rests upon the mother, that she has much to do with molding their minds. This should call into exercise his tenderest feelings, and with care should he lighten her burdens. He should encourage her to lean upon his large affections and direct her mind to heaven, where there is strength and peace and a final rest for the weary.
ML	152	3	His kindness and loving courtesy will be to her a precious encouragement, and the happiness he imparts will bring joy and peace to his own heart.
ML	152	4	The sweetest type of heaven is a home where the Spirit of the Lord presides.... Anything that would mar the peace and unity of the family should be firmly repressed, and kindness and love should be cherished.
ML	152	5	Home should be a place where cheerfulness, courtesy, and love abide; and where these graces dwell, there will abide happiness and peace.
ML	152	6	Those who are fighting the battle of life at great odds may be refreshed and strengthened and encouraged by little attentions which cost nothing. Kindly words simply spoken, little attentions simply bestowed, will sweep away the clouds of temptation which gather over the horizon of the soul.
ML	152	7	Under the influence of meekness, kindness, and gentleness, an atmosphere is created that will heal and not destroy.
------------------------Health and Happiness, May 29
			A Sound Mind in a Sound Body
ML	153	1	I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. Psalm 16:8, 9
ML	153	2	The Christian should live so near to God that he may approve things that are excellent, "being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." His heart should be attuned to gratitude and praise. He should be ever ready to acknowledge the blessings he is receiving, remembering who it is that has said, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me." ...
ML	153	3	It is the duty of every one to cultivate cheerfulness instead of brooding over sorrow and troubles. Many not only make themselves wretched in this way, but they sacrifice health and happiness to a morbid imagination. There are things in their surroundings that are not agreeable, and their countenances wear a continual frown that, more plainly than words, expresses discontent. These depressing emotions are a great injury to them healthwise, for by hindering the process of digestion they interfere with nutrition. While grief and anxiety cannot remedy a single evil, they can do great harm; but cheerfulness and hope, while they brighten the pathway of others, "are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh."
ML	153	4	Christ came to restore to its original loveliness a world ruined by sin.... In the new earth there will be no sin nor disease.... And the body will be restored to its original perfection. We shall wear the spotless image of our Lord....
ML	153	5	The development of Christian character, tending toward this state of perfection, is a growth toward beauty.... As the heart becomes transformed by the renewing of the mind, the graces of the Spirit leave their impress on the face, and it expresses the refinement, delicacy, peace, benevolence, and pure and tender love that reign in the heart....
ML	153	6	Give "thanks always for all things unto God."
------------------------Forgiveness of Sin Brings Healing, May 30
			A Sound Mind in a Sound Body
ML	154	1	Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases. Psalm 103:2, 3
ML	154	2	The Saviour ministered to both the soul and the body. The gospel which He taught was a message of spiritual life and of physical restoration. Deliverance from sin and healing of disease were linked together. The same ministry is committed to the Christian physician. He is to unite with Christ in relieving both the physical and spiritual needs of his fellow men. He is to be to the sick a messenger of mercy, bringing to them a remedy for the diseased body and for the sin-sick soul.
ML	154	3	When the poor paralytic was brought to the house where Jesus was teaching, a dense crowd surrounded the door, barring every way of access to the Saviour. But faith and hope had been kindled in the heart of the poor sufferer, and he proposed that his friends take him to the rear of the house, break up the roof, and let him down into the presence of Christ. The suggestion was acted upon; as the afflicted one lay at the feet of the mighty Healer, all that man could do for his restoration had been done. Jesus knew that the sufferer had been tortured with a sense of his sins, and that he must first find relief from this burden. With a look of tenderest compassion, the Saviour addressed him, not as a stranger, or even a friend, but as one who had even then been received into the family of God: "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee."
ML	154	4	Many are suffering from maladies of the soul far more than from diseases of the body, and they will find no relief until they shall come to Christ, the wellspring of life. Complaints of weariness, loneliness, and dissatisfaction will then cease. Satisfying joys will give vigor to the mind and health and vital energy to the body.
ML	154	5	Today Christ is feeling the woes of every sufferer.... He knows how to speak the word, "Be whole," and bid the sufferer, "Go, and sin no more."
------------------------A Prescription for Healing of All Ills, May 31
			A Sound Mind in a Sound Body
ML	155	1	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
ML	155	2	God's healing power runs all through nature. If a tree is cut, if a human being is wounded or breaks a bone, nature begins at once to repair the injury. Even before the need exists, the healing agencies are in readiness; and as soon as a part is wounded, every energy is bent to the work of restoration. So it is in the spiritual realm. Before sin created the need, God had provided the remedy. Every soul that yields to temptation is wounded, bruised, by the adversary; but wherever there is sin, there is the Saviour.
ML	155	3	When the gospel is received in its purity and power, it is a cure for the maladies that originated in sin. The Sun of Righteousness arises, "with healing in His wings." ...
ML	155	4	The love which Christ diffuses through the whole being is a vitalizing power. Every vital part--the brain, the heart, the nerves--it touches with healing. By it the highest energies of the being are roused to activity. It frees the soul from the guilt and sorrow, the anxiety and care, that crush the life forces. With it come serenity and composure. It implants in the soul joy that nothing earthly can destroy--joy in the Holy Spirit--health-giving, life-giving joy.
ML	155	5	Our Saviour's words, "Come unto Me, ... and I will give you rest," are a prescription for the healing of physical, mental, and spiritual ills. Though men have brought suffering upon themselves by their own wrongdoing He regards them with pity. In Him they may find help. He will do great things for those who trust in Him....
ML	155	6	If human beings would open the windows of the soul heavenward, in appreciation of the divine gifts, a flood of healing virtue would flow in.
------------------------Remember Your Creator in Your Youth, June 1
			Christians Are Truly Happy
ML	156	1	Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Ecclesiastes 12:1
ML	156	2	I wish I could portray the beauty of the Christian life. Beginning in the morning of life, controlled by the laws of nature and of God, the Christian moves steadily onward and upward, daily drawing nearer his heavenly home, where await for him a crown of life, and a new name, "which no man knoweth saving him that receiveth it." Constantly he grows in happiness, in holiness, in usefulness. The progress of each year exceeds that of the past year.
ML	156	3	God has given the youth a ladder to climb, a ladder that reaches from earth to heaven. Above this ladder is God, and on every round fall the bright beams of his glory. He is watching those who are climbing, ready, when the grasp relaxes and the steps falter, to send help. Yes, tell it in words full of cheer, that no one who perseveringly climbs the ladder will fail of gaining an entrance into the heavenly city.
ML	156	4	Angels of God, that ascend and descend the ladder that Jacob saw in vision, will help every soul who will to climb even to the highest heaven. They are guarding the people of God and watching how every step is taken. Those who climb the shining way will be rewarded; they will enter into the joy of their Lord.
ML	156	5	Early piety ensures to its possessor the full enjoyment of all that makes life happy.... Those who wait until the span of life is almost ended before they seek God, lose a life of pure, elevated happiness--happiness that never comes in pursuit of the pleasures that this life affords. Those who have been long acquainted with God, who from their youth have drawn their happiness from the pure fountain of heaven, are prepared to enter the family of God.
------------------------Christ Within the Source of Happiness, June 2
			Christians Are Truly Happy
ML	157	1	Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. 1 Chronicles 16:10
ML	157	2	Multitudes ... crave something which they do not have. They are spending their money for that which is not bread and their labor for that which satisfieth not. The hungering, thirsting soul will continue to hunger and thirst as long as it partakes of these unsatisfying pleasures. O that every such one would listen to the voice of Jesus, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink." Those who drink of the living water will thirst no more.... Christ, the wellspring of life, is the fountain of peace and happiness....
ML	157	3	Let the youth magnify the name of the Lord for His great goodness, His loving mercy, His tender compassion. They can magnify His name by revealing His grace through a well-ordered life and a godly conversation. And as they do this the disposition is sweetened; irritability passes away.
ML	157	4	That heart is the happiest that has Christ as an abiding guest. That home is the most blessed where godliness is a controlling principle.... In the workshop where the peace and heavenly presence of Christ dwells, the workers will be the most trustworthy, the most faithful, and the most efficient. The fear and love of God are seen.
ML	157	5	In this world there is neither comfort nor happiness without Jesus. Let us acknowledge Him as our Friend and Saviour.... In Him are matchless charms. O may we all so live during this brief period of probationary time that we shall reign with Him throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity!
ML	157	6	If Christ abides in the heart by faith, ... you will be happy, full of praise and joy.
------------------------No Real Joy Apart From Christ, June 3
			Christians Are Truly Happy
ML	158	1	Enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:23
ML	158	2	The reason why some are restless is that they do not go to the only true source of happiness. They are ever trying to find out of Christ that enjoyment which is found alone in Him. In Him are no disappointed hopes. Oh, how is the precious privilege of prayer neglected! ... Prayer is the strength of the Christian. When alone, he is not alone; he feels the presence of the One who said, "Lo, I am with you alway."
ML	158	3	The young want just what they have not, namely, religion. Nothing can take the place of it.
ML	158	4	The Christian's hope is just what is needed. Religion will prove to the believer a comforter, a sure guide to the Fountain of true happiness.
ML	158	5	There is no true joy except Christ's joy. All the supposed happiness a man fancies he can gain without Christ will prove to be as ashes, a disappointment. Do not suppose for a moment that an irreligious man can be a happy man.
ML	158	6	No man can really enjoy life without religion. Love to God purifies and ennobles every taste and every desire, intensifies every affection, and brightens every worthy pleasure. It enables men to appreciate and enjoy all that is true, and good, and beautiful.
ML	158	7	You will ever find with the true Christian a marked cheerfulness, a holy, happy confidence in God, a submission to His providences, that is refreshing to the soul.
ML	158	8	Faith in God's love and overruling providence lightens the burdens of anxiety and care. It fills the heart with joy and contentment in the highest or the lowliest lot. Religion tends directly to promote health, to lengthen life, and to heighten our enjoyment of all its blessings. It opens to the soul a never-failing fountain of happiness.
------------------------Wisdom and Understanding Bring Happiness, June 4
			Christians Are Truly Happy
ML	159	1	Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. Proverbs 3:13
ML	159	2	The ceremony of anointing David ... was an intimation to the youth of the high destiny awaiting him....
ML	159	3	Notwithstanding the high position which he was to occupy, he quietly continued his employment, content to await the development of the Lord's plans in His own time and way. As humble and modest as before his anointing, the shepherd boy returned to the hills, and watched and guarded his flocks as tenderly as ever. But with new inspiration he composed his melodies and played upon his harp. Before him spread a landscape of rich and varied beauty....
ML	159	4	David, in the beauty and vigor of his young manhood, was preparing to take a high position with the noblest of the earth. His talents, as precious gifts from God, were employed to extol the glory of the divine Giver. His opportunities of contemplation and meditation served to enrich him with that wisdom and piety that made him beloved of God and angels. As he contemplated the perfections of his Creator, clearer conceptions of God opened before his soul. Obscure themes were illuminated, difficulties were made plain, perplexities were harmonized, and each ray of new light called forth fresh bursts of rapture and sweeter anthems of devotion, to the glory of God and the Redeemer. The love that moved him, the sorrows that beset him, the triumphs that attended him, were all themes for his active thought; and as he beheld the love of God in all the providences of his life, his heart throbbed with more fervent adoration and gratitude, his voice rang out in a richer melody, his harp was swept with more exultant joy; and the shepherd boy proceeded from strength to strength, from knowledge to knowledge; for the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.
------------------------The Bible Shows the Way to True Happiness, June 5
			Christians Are Truly Happy
ML	160	1	I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.... I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. Psalm 119:14-16
ML	160	2	The Bible presents to our view the unsearchable riches and immortal treasures of heaven. Man's strongest impulse urges him to seek his own happiness, and the Bible recognizes this desire and shows us that all heaven will unite with man in his efforts to gain true happiness. It reveals the condition upon which the peace of Christ is given to men. It describes a home of everlasting happiness and sunshine, where no tears nor want shall ever be known.
ML	160	3	That blessed book will teach you to be honest, temperate in all things, frugal, industrious, truthful, and upright. Its counsels heeded will make you a faithful companion of youth, giving you an influence that will ever lead upward, to purity of character; an influence that will lead away from sin, into paths of righteousness.
ML	160	4	Will such a life be without enjoyment? Ah, no! It will be full of comfort, full of satisfaction, because you are bringing heaven into your life, peace into your soul, and leaving a testimony that "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."...
ML	160	5	I would that all the young could understand how precious is the offering of a youthful heart to God. How lovingly the angels guard the steps of God-fearing, God-loving youth. Jesus knows them by name, and their example is helping other youth to do right. The youth who has hidden within the heart and mind a store of God's words of caution and encouragement, of His precious pearls of promise, from which he can draw at any time, will be a living channel of light. He has connection with the Source of all light. The Sun of Righteousness sends its light and healing beams into his soul, irradiating rays of light to all around him.
------------------------The Happiest People in the World, June 6
			Christians Are Truly Happy
ML	161	1	Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144:15
ML	161	2	If you would find happiness and peace in all you do, you must do everything in reference to the glory of God. If you would have peace in your hearts, you must seek earnestly to imitate the life of Christ. Then there will be no need of affecting cheerfulness or of your seeking for pleasure in the indulgence of pride and the frivolities of the world. You will have a serenity and happiness in rightdoing that you can never realize in a course of wrong. Jesus took human nature, passing through infancy, childhood, and youth, that He might know how to sympathize with all and leave an example for all children and youth. He is acquainted with the temptations and weaknesses of children. He has, in His love, opened a fountain of pleasure and joy for the soul that trusts in Him. By seeking to honor Christ and to follow His example, children and youth can be truly happy. They may feel their accountability to labor with Jesus Christ in the great plan of saving souls. If youth will feel their responsibility before God, they will be elevated above everything that is mean, selfish, and impure. Life to such will be full of importance. They will realize that they have something great and glorious to live for. This will have an influence upon youth to make them earnest, cheerful, and strong under all the burdens, discouragements, and difficulties of life, as was their divine Pattern.... I entreat of you to ever cultivate thoughtful responsibility to God. The consciousness that you are doing those things which God can approve, will make you strong in His strength; and by copying the Pattern, you may, like Him, increase in wisdom and in favor with God and man."
ML	161	3	Those who in everything make God first and last and best are the happiest people in the world.
------------------------Obedience, June 7
			Highways to Happiness
ML	162	1	The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments. Deuteronomy 6:24, 25
ML	162	2	Happiness must be sought in the right way and from the right source. Some think they may surely find happiness in a course of indulgence in sinful pleasures or in deceptive worldly attractions. And some sacrifice physical and moral obligations, thinking to find happiness, and they lose both soul and body. Others will seek their happiness in the indulgence of an unnatural appetite, and consider the indulgence of taste more desirable than health and life. Many suffer themselves to be enchained by sensual passions, and will sacrifice physical strength, intellect, and moral powers to the gratification of lust. They will bring themselves to untimely graves, and in the judgment will be charged with self-murder.
ML	162	3	Is this the happiness desirable which is to be found in the path of disobedience and transgression of physical and moral law? Christ's life points out the true source of happiness and how it is to be attained.... If they would be happy indeed, they should cheerfully seek to be found at the post of duty, doing the work which devolves upon them with fidelity, conforming their hearts and lives to the perfect pattern.
ML	162	4	Upon obedience depends life and happiness, health and joy, of men, women, and children. Obedience is for their well-being in this life and in the life to come.
ML	162	5	Where can we find a surer guide than the only true God? ... Where is a safer path than that in which the Eternal leads the way? When we follow Him we are in no cheap, tangled bush path.
ML	162	6	The path of obedience to God is the path of virtue, of health, and happiness.
------------------------Delight to Do God's Will, June 8
			Highways to Happiness
ML	163	1	Where there is no vision the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Proverbs 29:18
ML	163	2	To those who love God it will be the highest delight to keep His commandments and to do those things that are pleasing in His sight....
ML	163	3	Says the psalmist, "The law of the Lord is perfect." How wonderful in its simplicity, its comprehensiveness and perfection, is the law of Jehovah! It is so brief that we can easily commit every precept to memory, and yet so far-reaching as to express the whole will of God and to take cognizance, not only of the outward actions, but of the thoughts and intents, the desires and emotions, of the heart. Human laws cannot do this, They can deal with the outward actions only.... The law of God takes note of the jealousy, envy, hatred, malignity, revenge, lust, and ambition that surge through the soul, but have not found expression in the outward action; ... and these sinful emotions will be brought into account in the day when "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." ...
ML	163	4	There is no mystery in the law of God. All can comprehend the great truths which it embodies. The feeblest intellect can grasp these rules....
ML	163	5	Obedience to the law is essential, not only to our salvation, but to our own happiness and the happiness of all with whom we are connected.
ML	163	6	Man's happiness must always be guarded by the law of God.... The law is the hedge which God has placed about His vineyard. By it those who obey are protected from evil.
ML	163	7	We owe to Him all that makes life desirable, and He asks of us the affections of the heart and the obedience of the life. His precepts, if obeyed, will bring happiness into the home life, happiness to every individual.
ML	163	8	Rightdoing will bring peace and holy joy.
------------------------Willing and Obedient, June 9
			Highways to Happiness
ML	164	1	If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. Isaiah 1:19
ML	164	2	In requiring obedience to the laws of His kingdom, God gives His people health and happiness, peace and joy.
ML	164	3	To the great principle of love and loyalty to God, the Father of all, the principle of filial love and obedience is closely related. Contempt for parental authority will soon lead to contempt for the authority of God.
ML	164	4	At a very early age children can comprehend what is plainly and simply told them, and by kind and judicious management can be taught to obey.... The mother should not allow her child to gain an advantage over her in a single instance. And in order to maintain this authority it is not necessary to resort to harsh measures; a firm, steady hand and a kindness which convinces the child of your love will accomplish the purpose.
ML	164	5	When children love and repose confidence in their mother, and have become obedient to her, they have been taught the first lessons in becoming Christians. They must be obedient to and love and trust Jesus as they are obedient to and love and trust their parents.
ML	164	6	Prompt and continual obedience to wise parental rule will promote the happiness of the children themselves as well as the honor of God and the good of society. Children should learn that in submission to the laws of the household is their perfect liberty. Christians will learn the same lesson--that in their obedience to God's law is their perfect freedom.
ML	164	7	Children will be happier, far happier, under proper discipline than if left to do as their untrained impulses shall suggest.
------------------------The Golden Rule, June 10
			Highways to Happiness
ML	165	1	All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12
ML	165	2	The Saviour taught this principle [the golden rule] to make mankind happy, not unhappy; for in no other way can happiness come. God desires men and women to live the higher life. He gives them the boon of life, not to enable them merely to gain wealth, but to improve their higher powers by doing the work He has entrusted to mankind--the work of searching out and relieving the necessities of their fellow men. Man should not work for his own selfish interest, but for the interest of every one about him, blessing others by his influence and kindly deeds. This purpose of God is exemplified in Christ's life.
ML	165	3	Seize every opportunity to contribute to the happiness of those around you, sharing with them your affection. Words of kindness, looks of sympathy, expression of appreciation, would to many a struggling, lonely one be as a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul. A word of cheer, an act of kindness, would go far to lighten the burdens that are resting heavily upon weary shoulders. It is in unselfish ministry that true happiness is found. And every word and deed of such service is recorded in the books of heaven as done to Christ.... Live in the sunshine of Christ's love. Then your influence will bless the world.
ML	165	4	The spirit of unselfish labor for others gives depth, stability, and Christlike loveliness to the character and brings peace and happiness to its possessor.
ML	165	5	Every duty performed, every sacrifice made in the name of Jesus brings an exceeding great reward. In the very act of duty, God speaks and gives His blessing.
------------------------Rejoice and Do Good, June 11
			Highways to Happiness
ML	166	1	I know that there is no good ... but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. Ecclesiastes 3:12
ML	166	2	The youth may think to find happiness by seeking their own pleasure, but true happiness will never be theirs while they pursue this course. The Saviour lived not to please Himself. We read of Him that He went about "doing good." He spent His life in loving service, comforting the sorrowing, ministering to the needy, lifting up the bowed down, He had no home in this world, only as the kindness of His friends provided one for Him as a wayfarer. Yet it was heaven to be in His presence. Day by day He met trials and temptations, yet He did not fail or become discouraged.... He was always patient and cheerful, and the afflicted hailed Him as a messenger of life and peace and health....
ML	166	3	What a wonderful example Christ has left for us in His lifework. Who of His children are living, as He did, for the glory of God? He is the Light of the world, and the one who works successfully for the Master must kindle his taper from that divine life.
ML	166	4	To His disciples Christ said, "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." How careful, then, we should be to follow the example of Christ. Unless we do this we are worthless--salt which has lost its savor.
ML	166	5	Only by following Christ's example can we find true happiness. When He is accepted the heart is subdued and its purposes are changed.
ML	166	6	His service will place upon you no restriction that will not increase your happiness. In complying with His requirements, you will find a peace, contentment, and enjoyment that you can never have in the path of ... sin.
------------------------Patient Continuance in Well-Doing, June 12
			Highways to Happiness
ML	167	1	Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13
ML	167	2	He [Solomon] gives us the history of his search for happiness. He engaged in intellectual pursuits; he gratified his love for pleasure; he carried out his schemes of commercial enterprise. He was surrounded by the fascinating splendor of court life....
ML	167	3	Solomon sat upon a throne of ivory, the steps of which were of solid gold, flanked by six golden lions. His eyes rested upon highly cultivated and beautiful gardens just before him. These grounds were visions of loveliness, arranged to resemble, as far as possible, the Garden of Eden. Choice trees and shrubs and flowers of every variety had been brought from foreign lands to beautify them. Birds of every variety of brilliant plumage flitted from tree to tree, making the air vocal with sweet songs. Youthful attendants, gorgeously dressed and decorated, waited to obey his slightest wish. Scenes of revelry, music, sports, and games were arranged for his diversion at an extravagant expenditure of money.
ML	167	4	But all this did not bring happiness to the king.... Dissipation had left its impress upon his once fair and intellectual face. He was sadly changed from the youthful Solomon. His brow was furrowed with care and unhappiness.... His lips were prepared to break forth into reproaches at the slightest deviation from his wishes.
ML	167	5	His shattered nerves and wasted frame showed the result of violating Nature's laws. He confessed to a wasted life, an unsuccessful chase after happiness.
ML	167	6	The way to true happiness remains the same in all ages. Patient continuance in well-doing will lead to honor, happiness, and eternal life.
------------------------Being Good and Doing Good, June 13
			Highways to Happiness
ML	168	1	Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Psalm 37:3
ML	168	2	Real happiness is found only in being good and doing good. The purest, highest enjoyment comes to those who faithfully fulfill their appointed duties....
ML	168	3	To all Christ has given the work of ministry. He is the King of glory, yet He declared, "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." He is the Majesty of heaven, yet He willingly consented to come to this earth to do the work laid upon Him by His Father. He has ennobled labor. That He might set us an example of industry, He worked with His hands at the carpenter's trade. From a very early age He acted His part in sustaining the family. He realized that He was a part of the family firm, and willingly bore His share of the burdens.
ML	168	4	Children and youth should take pleasure in making lighter the cares of father and mother, showing an unselfish interest in the home. As they cheerfully lift the burdens that fall to their share, they are receiving a training which will fit them for positions of trust and usefulness. Each year they are to make steady advancement, gradually but surely laying aside the inexperience of boyhood and girlhood for the experience of manhood and womanhood. In the faithful performance of the simple duties of the home, boys and girls lay the foundation for mental, moral, and spiritual excellence.
ML	168	5	Riches and idleness are thought by some to be blessings indeed; but those who are always busy, and who cheerfully go about their daily tasks, are the most happy and enjoy the best health. The healthful weariness which results from well-regulated labor secures to them the benefits of refreshing sleep. The sentence that man must toil for his daily bread, and the promise of future happiness and glory, both came from the same throne, and both are blessings.
------------------------Contentment, June 14
			Roads to Happiness That Are Never Closed
ML	169	1	Godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Timothy 6:6
ML	169	2	Too many cares and burdens are brought into our families, and too little of natural simplicity and peace and happiness is cherished. There should be less care for what the outside world will say and more thoughtful attention to the members of the family circle. There should be less display and affectation of worldly politeness, and much more tenderness and love, cheerfulness and Christian courtesy, among the members of the household. Many need to learn how to make home attractive, a place of enjoyment. Thankful hearts and kind looks are more valuable than wealth and luxury, and contentment with simple things will make home happy if love be there.
ML	169	3	Jesus, our Redeemer, walked the earth with the dignity of a king; yet He was meek and lowly of heart. He was a light and blessing in every home because He carried cheerfulness, hope, and courage with Him. Oh, that we could be satisfied with less heart longings, less striving for things difficult to obtain wherewith to beautify our homes, while that which God values above jewels, the meek and quiet spirit, is not cherished. The grace of simplicity, meekness, and true affection would make a paradise of the humblest home. It is better to endure cheerfully every inconvenience than to part with peace and contentment.
ML	169	4	Here is the secret of content and peace and happiness.... The true Christian ... seeks to live a life of usefulness and conform his habits to the example of Jesus. Such a one will find the truest happiness, the reward of well-doing. Such a one will be lifted above the slavery of an artificial life into the freedom and grace of Christlike simplicity.
------------------------Gratitude, June 15
			Roads to Happiness That Are Never Closed
ML	170	1	I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Psalm 13:6
ML	170	2	Every earthly wish may be gratified, and yet men pass on as did the ungrateful lepers who had been cleansed and healed of their obnoxious disease. These lepers had been restored to health by Christ, and the parts that had been destroyed by the disease were re-created; but only one, on finding himself made whole, returned to give God glory....
ML	170	3	The lesson which is recorded concerning the ten lepers should awaken in every heart a most earnest desire to change the existing order of ingratitude into one of praise and thanksgiving. Let the professed people of God stop murmuring and complaining. Let us remember who is the first great Giver of all our blessings. We are fed and clothed and sustained in life, and should we not educate ourselves and our children to respond with gratitude to our heavenly Father?
ML	170	4	Have we not reason to talk of God's goodness and to tell of His power? When friends are kind to us we esteem it a privilege to thank them for their kindness. How much more should we count it a joy to return thanks to the Friend who has given us every good and perfect gift. Then let us, in every church, cultivate thanksgiving to God. Let us educate our lips to praise God in the family circle.... Let our gifts and offerings declare our gratitude for the favors we daily receive. In everything we should show forth the joy of the Lord and make known the message of God's saving grace.
ML	170	5	The hearts of those who reveal the attributes of Christ glow with divine love. They are imbued with the spirit of gratitude.... Lift up Jesus. Lift Him up, the man of Calvary, with the voice of song and prayer. Seek earnestly to spread the gospel. Tell the precious story of God's love for man. In this work you will find a satisfaction that will last through the eternal ages.
------------------------Thanksgiving and Praise, June 16
			Roads to Happiness That Are Never Closed
ML	171	1	Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalm 100:4
ML	171	2	If we will consecrate heart and mind to the service of God, doing the work He has for us to do and walking in the footsteps of Jesus, our hearts will become sacred harps, every chord of which will send forth praise and thanksgiving to the Lamb sent by God to take away the sins of the world....
ML	171	3	Christ would have our thoughts center upon Him.... Look away from self to Jesus Christ, the life of every blessing, every grace, the life of all that is precious and valuable to the children of God....
ML	171	4	The Lord Jesus is our strength and happiness, the great storehouse from which, on every occasion, men may draw strength. As we study Him, talk of Him, become more and more able to behold Him--as we avail ourselves of His grace and receive the blessings He proffers us, we have something with which to help others. Filled with gratitude, we communicate to others the blessings that have been freely given us. Thus receiving and imparting, we grow in grace; and a rich current of praise and gratitude constantly flows from our lips; the sweet spirit of Jesus kindles thanksgiving in our hearts, and our souls are uplifted with a sense of security. The unfailing, inexhaustible righteousness of Christ becomes our righteousness by faith.
ML	171	5	Let the fresh blessings of each new day awaken praise in our hearts for these tokens of His loving care.
ML	171	6	When you open your eyes in the morning, thank God that He has kept you through the night. Thank Him for His peace in your heart. Morning, noon, and night let gratitude as a sweet perfume ascend to heaven....
ML	171	7	The angels of God, thousands upon thousands, ... guard us against evil and press back the powers of darkness that are seeking our destruction. Have we not reason to be thankful every moment, thankful even when there are apparent difficulties in our pathway?
------------------------Faithful in the Little Things of Life, June 17
			Roads to Happiness That Are Never Closed
ML	172	1	Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines. Song of Solomon 2:15
ML	172	2	In many ways life's happiness is bound up with the faithfulness of common duties.
ML	172	3	It is the neglect of the littles, the trifles, that poisons life's happiness. A faithful performance of the littles composes the sum of happiness to be realized in this life. He that is faithful in little is faithful also in much. He that is unfaithful or unjust in small matters will be in greater matters.
ML	172	4	Until you can cheerfully and happily take up these duties you are not fitted for greater and higher duties. The humble tasks before us are to be taken up by someone; and those who do them should feel that they are doing a necessary and honorable work, and that in their mission, humble though it may be, they are doing the work of God just as surely as was Gabriel when sent to the prophets.
ML	172	5	It is the little things of life that develop the spirit in men and women and determine the character.... In words, in tones, in gestures, in looks, you can represent the spirit of Jesus. He who neglects these little things, and yet flatters himself that he is ready to do wonderful things for the Master, will be in danger of failing altogether. Life is not made up of great sacrifices and wonderful achievements, but of little things.
ML	172	6	Examine under the microscope the smallest and commonest of wayside blossoms, and note in all its parts the exquisite beauty and completeness. So in the humblest lot true excellence may be found; the commonest tasks, wrought with loving faithfulness, are beautiful in God's sight.
ML	172	7	The little attentions, the small acts of love and self-sacrifice, that flow out from the life as quietly as the fragrance from a flower--these constitute no small share of the blessings and happiness of life.
------------------------Loving Thoughtfulness in the Home, June 18
			Roads to Happiness That Are Never Closed
ML	173	1	If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:12
ML	173	2	Make your home atmosphere fragrant with tender thoughtfulness.
ML	173	3	Home is to be the center of the purest and most elevated affection. Peace, harmony, affection, and happiness should be perseveringly cherished every day, until these precious things abide in the hearts of those who compose the family.
ML	173	4	The reason there are so many hardhearted men and women in our world is that true affection has been regarded as weakness and has been discouraged and repressed. The better part of the nature of persons of this class was perverted and dwarfed in childhood, and unless rays of divine light can melt away their coldness and hardhearted selfishness, the happiness of such is buried forever. If we would have tender hearts, such as Jesus had when He was upon the earth, and sanctified sympathy, such as the angels have for sinful mortals, we must cultivate the sympathies of childhood, which are simplicity itself.
ML	173	5	Commend your children whenever you can. Make their lives as happy as possible.... Keep the soil of the heart mellow by the manifestation of love and affection, thus preparing it for the seed of truth.... The Lord gives the earth not only clouds and rain but the beautiful, smiling sunshine, causing the seed to germinate and the blossoms to appear.
ML	173	6	An approving glance, a word of encouragement or commendation, will be like sunshine in their hearts, often making the whole day happy.
ML	173	7	The happiness of husband and children should be more sacred to every wife and mother than that of all others.
------------------------Sing and the World Sings with You, June 19
			Roads to Happiness That Are Never Closed
ML	174	1	He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:3
ML	174	2	God wants us to be happy. He desires to put a new song on our lips, even praise to our God. He wants us to believe that He forgives our sins and takes away our unrighteousness. He wants us to make melody in our hearts to Him....
ML	174	3	Let every word we utter, every line we write, be fraught with encouragement and unwavering faith.... Think not that Jesus is the Saviour of your brother only. He is your personal Saviour. If you entertain this precious thought, you will ... make melody to God in your soul. It is our privilege to triumph in God. It is our privilege to lead others to see that their only hope is in God, and to flee to Him for refuge.
ML	174	4	Every act of consecration to God brings joy; for as we appreciate the light He has given us, more and greater light will come. We must ... open the heart to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. There is peace in perfect submission....
ML	174	5	Let the peace of God reign in your soul. Then you will have strength to bear all suffering, and you will rejoice that you have grace to endure. Praise the Lord; talk of His goodness; tell of His power. Sweeten the atmosphere that surrounds your soul.... Praise, with heart and soul and voice, Him who is the health of your countenance, your Saviour, and your God.
ML	174	6	Let praise and thanksgiving be expressed in song. When tempted, instead of giving utterance to our feelings, let us by faith lift up a song of thanksgiving to God. Song is a weapon that we can always use against discouragement. As we thus open the heart to the sunlight of the Saviour's presence, we shall have ... His blessing.
------------------------The Beauties of Nature, June 20
			Roads to Happiness That Are Never Closed
ML	175	1	The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.... He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered. Psalm 111:2-4
ML	175	2	God, who made the Eden home of our first parents so surpassingly lovely, has also given the noble trees, the beautiful flowers, and everything lovely in nature for our happiness.
ML	175	3	Wherever we turn are traces of primal loveliness. Wherever we may turn we hear the voice of God and behold His handiwork....
ML	175	4	Nature's ten thousand voices speak His praise. In earth, and air, and sky, with their marvelous tint and color, varying in gorgeous contrast or softly blended in harmony, we behold His glory. The everlasting hills tell us of His power. The trees wave their green banners in the sunlight, and point us upward to their Creator. The flowers that gem the earth with their beauty whisper to us of Eden and fill us with longings for its unfading loveliness. The living green that carpets the brown earth tells us of God's care for the humblest of His creatures. The caves of the sea and the depths of the earth reveal His treasures. He who placed the pearls in the ocean and the amethyst and the chrysolite among the rocks is a lover of the beautiful. The sun rising in the heavens is the representative of Him who is the light and life of all that He has made. All the brightness and beauty that adorn the earth and light up the heavens speak of God.
ML	175	5	Shall we, in the enjoyment of the gifts, forget the Giver? Let them rather lead us to contemplate His goodness and His love. Let all that is beautiful in our earthly home remind us of the crystal river and green fields, the waving trees and the living fountains, the shining city and the white-robed singers, of our heavenly home--that world of beauty that no artist can picture and no mortal tongue describe.
------------------------Peace and Assurance, June 21
			Emotional Maturity Brings Happiness
ML	176	1	And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. Isaiah 32:17
ML	176	2	The true principles of psychology are found in the Holy Scriptures. Man knows not his own value. He acts according to his unconverted temperament of character, because he does not look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of his faith. He who comes to Jesus, he who believes on Him and makes Him his Example, realizes the meaning of the words, "To them gave He power to become the sons of God." ...
ML	176	3	Those who pass through the experience of true conversion will realize, with keenness of perception, their responsibility to God to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, their responsibility to make complete their recovery from the leprosy of sin. Such an experience will lead them humbly and trustfully to place their dependence upon God.
ML	176	4	To have a consciousness that the eyes of the Lord are upon us and His ears open to hear our prayers is a satisfaction indeed. To know that we have a never-failing Friend in whom we can confide all the secrets of the soul is a privilege which words can never express.
ML	176	5	Men and women enjoying the religion of Jesus Christ will not be uneasy, restless, discontented, changeable; the peace of Christ in the heart will give solidity to character.
ML	176	6	You must not let anything rob your soul of peace, of restfulness, of the assurance that you are accepted just now. Appropriate every promise; all are yours on condition of your complying with the Lord's prescribed terms. Entire surrender of your ways, which seem so very wise, and taking Christ's ways, is the secret of perfect rest in His love.
ML	176	7	The soul consecrated to the service of Christ has a peace that the world cannot give or take away.
------------------------A Merry Heart Makes a Cheerful Countenance, June 22
			Emotional Maturity Brings Happiness
ML	177	1	A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. Proverbs 15:13
ML	177	2	If you are burdened and weary, you need not curl up like leaves upon a withered branch. Cheerfulness and a clear conscience are better than drugs, and will be an effective agent in your restoration to health....
ML	177	3	You will be benefited with the effort you make to be cheerful.... Get out of doors as much as possible, and be benefited with the breezes and the blessed sunshine. Let the songs of the birds and the beauties of nature awaken holy and grateful feelings in your hearts and lead you to adore your Creator who has anticipated your wants and surrounded you with unnumbered tokens of His love and constant care....
ML	177	4	Have an aim in life while you do live. Gather sunshine about you instead of clouds. Seek to be a fresh, beautiful flower in God's garden, imparting fragrance to all around you. Do this, and you will not die a whit sooner; but you will surely shorten your days by unhappy complainings....
ML	177	5	Prune off every decaying leaf and withered branch from your life and manifest only freshness and vigor.
ML	177	6	The cheerfulness of the Christian is created by the consideration of the great blessings we enjoy because we are the children of God. "Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved," he says, "and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved." The cheerful enlightenment of the mind and the soul temple by the assurance that we have reconciliation with God, the hope we have of everlasting life through Christ, and the pleasure of blessing others, are joys which bring no sorrow with them.
ML	177	7	Christians should be the most cheerful and happy people that live.
------------------------Kindness the Mark of a Christian, June 23
			Emotional Maturity Brings Happiness
ML	178	1	She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. Proverbs 31:26
ML	178	2	Your influence reaches the soul; you touch not a wire but that vibrates back to God.... It is your duty to be Christians in the highest sense of the word--"Christlike." It is through the unseen lines that attract you to other minds with which you are brought in contact that may, if you are in constant connection with God, leave impressions that will make you a savor of life unto life. Otherwise, if you are selfish, if you are self-exalted, if you are worldly-minded, no matter what your position, no matter what your experience has been, or how much you know, if you are not having the law of kindness on your lips, sweet fragrance of love springing from your heart, you can do nothing as it ought to be done.
ML	178	3	Kindness and love and courtesy are the marks of the Christian.... In our association with each other let it be ever remembered that there are chapters in the experience of others that are sealed from mortal eyes; there are sad histories that are written in the books of heaven but are sacredly guarded from prying eyes. There stand registered long, hard battles with trying circumstances, arising in the very homes, that day by day sap the courage, the faith, the confidence, until the very manhood seems to fall to ruins. But Jesus knows it all, and He never forgets. To such, words of kindness and of affection are welcome as the smile of angels; a strong, helpful grasp of the hand of a true friend is worth more than gold and silver.
ML	178	4	The true, honest expression of a sister, or brother, or friend, given in genuine simplicity, has power to open the door of hearts which need the fragrance of Christlike words and the simple, delicate touch of the spirit of Christ's love.
------------------------Love Heals Many Wounds, June 24
			Emotional Maturity Brings Happiness
ML	179	1	Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 1 John 4:7
ML	179	2	From the Christian standpoint, love is power. Intellectual and spiritual strength are involved in this principle. Pure love has special efficacy to do good, and can do nothing but good. It prevents discord and misery and brings the truest happiness. Wealth is often an influence to corrupt and destroy; force is strong to do hurt; but truth and goodness are the properties of pure love.
ML	179	3	A man at peace with God and his fellow men cannot be made miserable. Envy will not be in his heart; evil surmising will find no room there; hatred cannot exist. The heart in harmony with God is lifted above the annoyances and trials of this life.
ML	179	4	That which Satan plants in the heart--envy, jealousy, evil surmising, evil speaking, impatience, prejudice, selfishness, covetousness, and vanity--must be uprooted. If these evil things are allowed to remain in the soul, they will bear fruit by which many shall be defiled. Oh, how many cultivate the poisonous plants, that kill out the precious fruits of love and defile the soul!
ML	179	5	Only the love that flows from the heart of Christ can heal. Only He in whom that love flows, even as the sap in the tree or the blood in the body, can restore the wounded soul.
ML	179	6	Love's agencies have wonderful power, for they are divine. The soft answer that "turneth away wrath," the love that "suffereth long, and is kind," the charity that "covereth a multitude of sins"--would we learn the lesson, with what power for healing would our lives be gifted! How life would be transformed, and the earth become a very likeness and foretaste of heaven!
------------------------Say Nothing That Will Wound or Grieve, June 25
			Emotional Maturity Brings Happiness
ML	180	1	For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. 1 Peter 3:10, 11
ML	180	2	If the lips were constantly guarded so that no guile could corrupt them, what an amount of suffering, degradation, and misery might be prevented. If we would say nothing to wound or grieve, except in necessary reproof of sin, that God might not be dishonored, how much misunderstanding, bitterness, and anguish would be prevented. If we would speak words of good cheer, words of hope and faith in God, how much light we might shed upon the pathway of others, to be reflected in still brighter beams upon our own souls.... The plan of salvation, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, opens up a way whereby man may secure happiness and prolong his days upon the earth, as well as enjoy the favor of Heaven and secure that future life which measures with the life of God.
ML	180	3	Many persons complain of Providence because of the discomfort and inconvenience which they suffer, when this is the sure result of their own course. They seem to feel that they are ill-treated of God, when they themselves are alone responsible for the ills which they endure. Our kind and merciful heavenly Father has established laws, which, obeyed, would promote physical, mental, and moral health....
ML	180	4	God requires us to yield our own will to His; but He does not ask us to give up anything that it would be for our good to retain. No one can be happy while he devotes his life to selfish gratification. A course of obedience to God is the wisest course for us to pursue; for it brings peace, content, and happiness as a sure result....
ML	180	5	If men would place themselves in right relation to God by heeding the counsel of His Word, they would escape innumerable dangers and experience a peace and content that would render life a joy rather than a burden.
------------------------Perfect Peace, June 26
			Emotional Maturity Brings Happiness
ML	181	1	Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3
ML	181	2	There are many whose hearts are aching under a load of care because they seek to reach the world's standard. They have chosen its service, accepted its perplexities, adopted its customs. Thus their character is marred and their life made a weariness. In order to gratify ambition and worldly desires, they wound the conscience and bring upon themselves an additional burden of remorse. The continual worry is wearing out the life forces. Our Lord desires them to lay aside this yoke of bondage. He invites them to accept His yoke; He says, "My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." He bids them seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and His promise is that all things needful to them for this life shall be added. Worry is blind, and cannot discern the future; but Jesus sees the end from the beginning. In every difficulty He has His way prepared to bring relief. Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us, of which we know nothing. Those who accept the one principle of making the service and honor of God supreme will find perplexities vanish, and a plain path before their feet....
ML	181	3	In the heart of Christ, where reigned perfect harmony with God, there was perfect peace. He was never elated by applause or dejected by censure or disappointment. Amid the greatest opposition and the most cruel treatment He was still of good courage.
ML	181	4	True happiness is found ... in learning of Christ.... Those who take Christ at His Word and surrender the soul to His keeping, their lives to His ordering, will find peace and quietude. Nothing of the world can make them sad when Jesus makes them glad by His presence.
ML	181	5	It is the love of self that brings unrest.
------------------------Trust Means Security, June 27
			Emotional Maturity Brings Happiness
ML	182	1	Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. Psalm 112:6, 7
ML	182	2	God has given in His Word sufficient evidence of its divine character. The great truths which concern our redemption are clearly presented. By the aid of the Holy Spirit, which is promised to all who seek it in sincerity, every man may understand these truths for himself. God has granted to men a strong foundation upon which to rest their faith.
ML	182	3	Yet the finite minds of men are inadequate fully to comprehend the plans and purposes of the Infinite One. We can never by searching find out God. We must not attempt to lift with presumptuous hand the curtain behind which He veils His majesty. The apostle exclaims, "How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" We can so far comprehend His dealings with us and the motives by which He is actuated that we may discern boundless love and mercy united to infinite power. Our Father in heaven orders everything in wisdom and righteousness, and we are not to be dissatisfied and distrustful, but to bow in reverent submission. He will reveal to us as much of His purposes as it is for our good to know, and beyond that we must trust the Hand that is omnipotent, the Heart that is full of love.
ML	182	4	While God has given ample evidence for faith, He will never remove all excuse for unbelief. All who look for hooks to hang their doubts upon will find them....
ML	182	5	Distrust of God is the natural outgrowth of the unrenewed heart, which is at enmity with Him. But faith is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and it will flourish only as it is cherished. No man can become strong in faith without a determined effort.... Only in humble reliance upon God and obedience to all His commandments can we be secure.
------------------------Weep Not, June 28
			Christ Is Close Beside You
ML	183	1	Why weepest thou? John 20:15
ML	183	2	Often they [the disciples] repeated the words, "We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel." Lonely and sick at heart they remembered His words, "If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" They met together in the upper chamber, and closed and fastened the doors, knowing that the fate of their beloved Teacher might at any time be theirs.
ML	183	3	And all the time they might have been rejoicing in the knowledge of a risen Saviour. In the garden Mary had stood weeping, when Jesus was close beside her. Her eyes were so blinded by tears that she did not discern Him. And the hearts of the disciples were so full of grief that they did not believe the angels' message or the words of Christ Himself.
ML	183	4	How many are still doing what these disciples did. How many echo Mary's despairing cry, "They have taken away the Lord, ... and we know not where they have laid Him." To how many might the Saviour's words be spoken, "Why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?" He is close beside them, but their tear-blinded eyes do not discern Him. He speaks to them, but they do not understand.
ML	183	5	O that the bowed head might be lifted, that the eyes might be opened to behold Him, that the ears might listen to His voice! "Go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen." ... Mourn not as those who are hopeless and helpless. Jesus lives, and because He lives we shall live also. From grateful hearts, from lips touched with holy fire, let the glad song ring out, Christ is risen! He lives to make intercession for us. Grasp this hope, and it will hold the soul like a sure, tried anchor. Believe, and thou shalt see the glory of God.
------------------------Fear Not, June 29
			Christ Is Close Beside You
ML	184	1	Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. Isaiah 43:1
ML	184	2	Often our trials are such that they seem almost unbearable, and without help from God they are indeed unbearable. Unless we rely upon Him we shall sink under the burden of responsibilities that bring only sadness and grief. But if we make Christ our dependence, we shall not sink under trial. When all seems dark and unexplainable we are to trust in His love; we must repeat the words that Christ has spoken to our souls, "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter." ...
ML	184	3	Do not go about as if Jesus were in Joseph's tomb, and a great stone were rolled before the door.... In the trial of your faith show that you know you have a risen Saviour, One who is making intercession for you and your loved ones....
ML	184	4	The Bible places the responsibility of our happiness upon ourselves. We are to look to the light of life. Our usefulness depends on our own course of action.
ML	184	5	We are so anxious, all of us, for happiness, but many rarely find it because of their faulty methods of seeking, in the place of striving. We must strive most earnestly and mingle all our desires with faith. Then happiness steals in upon us almost unsought.... When we can, notwithstanding disagreeable circumstances, rest confidingly in His love and shut ourselves in with Him, resting peacefully in His love, the sense of His presence will inspire a deep, tranquil joy. This experience gains for us a faith that enables us not to fret, not to worry, but to depend upon a power that is infinite.
ML	184	6	We shall have the power of the Highest with us.... Jesus stands by our side.... As the trials come, the power of God will come with them.
------------------------Doubt Not, June 30
			Christ Is Close Beside You
ML	185	1	And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
ML	185	2	When trials come, remember that they are sent for your good.... When trials and tribulations come to you know that they are sent in order that you may receive from the Lord of glory renewed strength and increased humility, so that He may safely bless and support and uphold you. In faith and with the hope that "maketh not ashamed," lay hold of the promises of God.
ML	185	3	O how good the Lord is to us all, and how safely we may trust Him! He calls us His little children. Then let us come to Him as to a loving Father. It is His desire that the bright beams of His righteousness shall shine forth from our faces and in our words and deeds. If we will love one another as Christ has loved us, the barriers that separate us from God and from one another will be broken down, and many obstacles that hinder the Holy Spirit's flowing from heart to heart will be removed.... Trust Him with all your heart. He will carry you and your burdens.
ML	185	4	The Lord designs that His people shall be happy, and He opens before us one source of consolation after another, that we may be filled with joy and peace in the midst of our present experience. We are not to wait until we shall get into heaven for brightness and comfort and joy. We are to have them right here in this life.... We miss very much because we do not grasp the blessings that may be ours in our afflictions. All our sufferings and sorrows, all our temptations and trials, all our sadness and griefs, all our persecutions and privations, and in short all things, work together for our good.... All experiences and circumstances are God's workmen whereby good is brought to us. Let us look at the light behind the cloud.
ML	185	5	Our happiness comes not from what is around us, but from what is within us; not from what we have, but from what we are.
------------------------Jesus an Example in Social Relationships, July 1
			Social to Save
ML	186	1	And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: and both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. John 2:1, 2
ML	186	2	There was to be a marriage in Cana of Galilee. The parties were relatives of Joseph and Mary. Christ knew of this family gathering, and that many influential persons would be brought together there, so, in company with his newly made disciples, He made His way to Cana. As soon as it was known that Jesus had come to the place, a special invitation was sent to Him and His friends....
ML	186	3	He had joined the mixed assembly of a festal gathering, and, while no shadow of worldly levity marred His conduct, He had sanctioned the social gathering with His presence.
ML	186	4	Here is a lesson for the disciples of Christ through all time, not to exclude themselves from society, renouncing all social communion and seeking a strict seclusion from their fellow beings. In order to reach all classes, we must meet them where they are; for they will seldom seek us of their own accord. Not alone from the pulpit are the hearts of men and women touched by divine truth. Christ awakened their interest by going among them as one who desired their good. He sought them at their daily avocations and manifested an unfeigned interest in their temporal affairs. He carried His instructions into the household of the people, bringing whole families in their own homes under the influence of His divine presence....
ML	186	5	Jesus rebuked intemperance, self-indulgence, and folly; yet He was social in His nature. He accepted invitations to dine with the learned and noble, as well as the poor and afflicted.... He gave no license to scenes of dissipation and revelry, yet innocent happiness was pleasing to Him. A Jewish marriage was a solemn and impressive occasion, the pleasure and joy of which were not displeasing to the Son of man.
------------------------Love People as Christ Loved Them, July 2
			Social to Save
ML	187	1	This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. John 15:12
ML	187	2	Christ carried out in His life His own divine teachings. His zeal never led Him to become passionate. He manifested consistency without obstinacy, benevolence without weakness, tenderness and sympathy without sentimentalism. He was highly social, yet He possessed a reserved dignity that did not encourage undue familiarity. His temperance never led to bigotry or austerity. He was not conformed to this world, yet He was not indifferent to the wants of the least among men. He was awake to the needs of all.
ML	187	3	From earliest years to manhood Christ lived a life that was a perfect pattern of humility and industry and obedience. He was always thoughtful and considerate of others, always self-denying. He came bearing the signature of heaven, not to be ministered unto, but to minister....
ML	187	4	The unselfish life of Christ is an example to all. His character is a pattern of the characters we may form if we follow on in His footsteps.
ML	187	5	Tact and good judgment increase the usefulness of the laborer a hundredfold. If he will speak the right words at the right time and show the right spirit, this will exert a melting power on the heart of the one he is trying to help.
ML	187	6	Those who differ with us in faith and doctrine should be treated kindly. They are the property of Christ, and we must meet them in the great day of final account. We shall have to face one another in the judgment, and behold the record of our thoughts, words, and deeds, not as we have viewed them, but as they were in truth. God has enjoined upon us the duty of loving one another as Christ has loved us.
------------------------Love Friend and Foe Alike, July 3
			Social to Save
ML	188	1	Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. Luke 10:36, 37
ML	188	2	Christ came to break down every wall of partition. He came to show that His gift of mercy and love is as unconfined as the air, the light, or the showers of rain that refresh the earth.... He made no difference between neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies....
ML	188	3	He passed by no human being as worthless.... In whatever company He found Himself, He presented a lesson appropriate to the time and the circumstances. Every neglect or insult shown by men to their fellow men only made Him more conscious of their need of His divine-human sympathy. He sought to inspire with hope the roughest and most unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character as would make them manifest as the children of God.
ML	188	4	Often He met those who had drifted under Satan's control and who had no power to break from his snare. To such a one, discouraged, sick, tempted, fallen, Jesus would speak words of tenderest pity, words that were needed and could be understood. Others He met who were fighting a hand-to-hand battle with the adversary of souls. These He encouraged to persevere, assuring them that they would win....
ML	188	5	At the table of the publicans He sat as an honored guest, by His sympathy and social kindliness showing that He recognized the dignity of humanity; and men longed to become worthy of His confidence....
ML	188	6	Though He was a Jew, Jesus mingled freely with the Samaritans.... He slept with them under their roofs, ate with them at their tables--partaking of the food prepared and served by their hands--taught in their streets and treated them with the utmost kindness and courtesy. And while He drew their hearts to Him by the tie of human sympathy, His divine grace brought to them the salvation which the Jews rejected.
------------------------Be Sympathetic to All Men, July 4
			Social to Save
ML	189	1	To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 1 Corinthians 9:22
ML	189	2	All should study carefully how they can themselves become most useful and how they can themselves be a blessing to those with whom they associate.
ML	189	3	All who profess to be children of God should unceasingly bear in mind that they are missionaries, in their labors brought in connection with all classes of minds. There will be men who are untrue in their dealing with their fellow men; there will be the aristocrat, the vain, the proud, the frivolous, the independent, the complaining, the desponding, the discouraged, the fanatical, the egotistical, the timid, and the sensitive ones, the elevated in mind, and the courteous in manner, the dissipated, the uncourteous, and the superficial.... These varied minds cannot be treated alike; yet all whether they be rich or poor, high or low, dependent or independent, need kindness, sympathy, truth, and love. By mutual contact our minds should receive polish and refinement. We are dependent upon one another, closely bound together by the ties of human brotherhood.
ML	189	4	It is through the social relations that Christianity comes in contact with the world. Every man and woman who has tasted of the love of Christ and has received into the heart the divine illumination is required of God to shed light on the pathway of those who are unacquainted with the better way....
ML	189	5	We must confess Christ openly and bravely, exhibiting in our characters His meekness, humility, and love, till men shall be charmed with the beauty of holiness.
ML	189	6	Social power, sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, must be improved in bringing souls to the Saviour.... We are to have Christ in us as a wellspring of water, springing up into everlasting life, refreshing all who come in contact with us.
------------------------How Pleasant Are Words Fitly Spoken, July 5
			Social to Save
ML	190	1	A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Proverbs 25:11
ML	190	2	When at a feast, Christ controlled the conversation, and gave many precious lessons. Those present listened to Him; for had He not healed their sick, comforted their sorrowing, and taken their children in His arms? Publicans and sinners were drawn to Him; and when He spoke, their attention was riveted on Him.
ML	190	3	Christ taught His disciples how to conduct themselves when in the company of others. He instructed them in regard to the duties and regulations of true social life, which are the same as the laws of the kingdom of God. He taught the disciples, by example, that when attending any public gathering, they need not want for something to say. His conversation when at a feast differed most decidedly from that which had been listened to at feasts in the past. Every word He uttered was a savor of life unto life. He spoke with clearness and simplicity. His words were as apples of gold in pictures of silver.
ML	190	4	Communion with Christ--how unspeakably precious! Such communion it is our privilege to enjoy.... When the early disciples heard the words of Christ, they felt their need of Him. They sought, they found, they followed Him. They were with Him in the house, at the table, in the closet, in the field. They were with Him as pupils with a teacher, daily receiving from His lips lessons of holy truth. They looked to Him as servants to their master.... They served Him cheerfully, gladly.
ML	190	5	Great importance is attached to our associations. We may form many that are pleasant and helpful, but none are so precious as that by which finite man is brought into connection with the infinite God. When thus united, the words of Christ abide in us.... The result will be a purified heart, a circumspect life, and a faultless character. But it is only by acquaintance and association with Christ that we can become like Him, the one faultless example.
------------------------True Refinement, July 6
			Social to Save
ML	191	1	To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men. Titus 3:2
ML	191	2	The essence of true politeness is consideration for others. The essential, enduring education is that which broadens the sympathies and encourages universal kindliness. That so-called culture which does not make a youth deferential toward his parents, appreciative of their excellences, forbearing toward their defects, and helpful to their necessities; which does not make him considerate and tender, generous and helpful toward the young, the old, and the unfortunate, and courteous toward all, is a failure.
ML	191	3	Real refinement of thought and manner is better learned in the school of the divine Teacher than by any observance of set rules. His love pervading the heart gives to the character those refining touches that fashion it in the semblance of His own. This education imparts a heaven-born dignity and sense of propriety. It gives a sweetness of disposition and a gentleness of manner that can never be equaled by the superficial polish of fashionable society.
ML	191	4	The Bible enjoins courtesy, and it presents many illustrations of the unselfish spirit, the gentle grace, the winsome temper, that characterize true politeness. These are but reflections of the character of Christ. All the real tenderness and courtesy in the world, even among those who do not acknowledge His name, is from Him. And He desires these characteristics to be perfectly reflected in His children. It is His purpose that in us men shall behold His beauty.
ML	191	5	What rays of softness and beauty shone forth in the daily life of our Saviour! What sweetness flowed from His very presence! ... Those with whom Christ dwells will be surrounded with a divine atmosphere. Their white robes of purity will be fragrant with perfume from the garden of the Lord.
------------------------Christian Courtesy, July 7
			Social to Save
ML	192	1	As I have loved you, that ye also love one another. John 13:34
ML	192	2	The value of courtesy is too little appreciated. Many who are kind at heart lack kindliness of manner. Many who command respect by their sincerity and uprightness are sadly deficient in geniality. This lack mars their own happiness and detracts from their service to others. Many of life's sweetest and most helpful experiences are, often for mere want of thought, sacrificed by the uncourteous.
ML	192	3	The Holy Scriptures give us marked examples of the exercise of true courtesy. Abraham was a man of God. When he pitched his tent he at once erected his altar for sacrifice and invited God to abide with him. Abraham was a courteous man. His life is not marred with selfishness, so hateful in any character and so offensive in the sight of God. Witness his conduct when about to separate from Lot. Though Lot was his nephew, and much younger than himself, and the first choice of the land belonged to Abraham, courtesy led him to forgo his right, and permit Lot to select for himself that part of the country which seemed to him most desirable. Behold him as he welcomes the three travelers in the heat of the day and hastens to provide for their necessities. Again observe him as he engages in a business transaction with the sons of Heth, to purchase a burying place for Sarah. In his grief he does not forget to be courteous. He bows before them, although he is God's nobleman. Abraham knew what genuine politeness was and what was due from man to his fellow men.
ML	192	4	We should be self-forgetful, ever ... watching for opportunities to cheer others and lighten and relieve their sorrows and burdens by acts of tender kindness and little deeds of love. These thoughtful courtesies, that, commencing in our families, extend outside the family circle, help make up the sum of life's happiness.
------------------------Thoughtful of Others, July 8
			Social to Save
ML	193	1	Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. 1 Peter 3:8
ML	193	2	The great apostle Paul was firm where duty and principle were at stake; he preached Christ with great boldness; but he was never harsh and impolite. He had a tender heart, and was ever kind and thoughtful of others. Courtesy was a marked trait of his character, and this gave him access to the better class of society....
ML	193	3	He was zealous for the truth, bold in advocating Christ; but propriety of deportment, the grace of true politeness, marked all his conduct....
ML	193	4	Paul attracted warm hearts wherever he went; his soul was linked to the soul of his brethren. When he parted with them, knowing and assuring them that they would never see his face again, they were filled with sorrow, and so earnestly besought him to still remain with them that he exclaimed, "What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart?" His sympathetic heart was breaking as he witnessed and felt their grief at this final separation. They loved him, and felt that they could not give him up. What Christian does not admire the character of Paul? Firm as a rock when standing in defense of the truth, he was affectionate and gentle as a child when surrounded by his friends....
ML	193	5	The most Christlike professors are those who are the most kind, pitiful, and courteous; their convictions are firm and their characters strong; nothing can swerve them from their faith or allure them from their duty.
ML	193	6	A Christian will cultivate a meek and quiet spirit; he will be calm, considerate of others, and will have a happy temper that sickness will not make irritable or the weather or circumstances disturb.... The children of God never forget to do good.... Good works are spontaneous with them, for God has transformed their natures by His grace.
------------------------Hospitality, July 9
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ML	194	1	Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 1 Peter 4:9, 10
ML	194	2	When the spirit of hospitality dies, the heart becomes palsied with selfishness.
ML	194	3	"A lover of hospitality" is among the specifications given by the Holy Spirit as marking one who is to bear responsibility in the church. And to the whole church is given the injunction: "Use hospitality one to another without grudging...." 1 Peter 4:9, 10.
ML	194	4	These admonitions have been strangely neglected. Even among those who profess to be Christians, true hospitality is little exercised. Among our own people the opportunity of showing hospitality is not regarded as it should be, as a privilege and blessing. There is altogether too little sociability, too little of a disposition to make room for two or three more at the family board, without embarrassment or parade. Some plead that "it is too much trouble." It would not be if you would say: "We have made no special preparation, but you are welcome to what we have." By the unexpected guest a welcome is appreciated far more than is the most elaborate preparation....
ML	194	5	Christ keeps an account of every expense incurred in entertaining for His sake. He supplies all that is necessary for this work. Those who for Christ's sake entertain their brethren, doing their best to make the visit profitable both to their guests and to themselves, are recorded in heaven as worthy of special blessings.
ML	194	6	As you open your door to Christ's needy and suffering ones, you are welcoming unseen angels. You invite the companionship of heavenly beings. They bring a sacred atmosphere of joy and peace. They come with praises upon their lips, and an answering strain is heard in heaven. Every deed of mercy makes music there.
------------------------Cheerfulness, July 10
			Social to Save
ML	195	1	He sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Romans 12:8
ML	195	2	You have a duty to perform, which is to make yourself cheerful and to cultivate unselfishness in your feelings until it will be your greatest pleasure to make all around you happy....
ML	195	3	Cheerfulness without levity is one of the Christian graces.
ML	195	4	Do not allow the perplexities and worries of everyday life to fret your mind and cloud your brow. If you do, you will always have something to vex and annoy. Life is what we make it, and we shall find what we look for. If we look for sadness and trouble, if we are in a frame of mind to magnify little difficulties, we shall find plenty of them to engross our thoughts and our conversation. But if we look on the bright side of things, we shall find enough to make us cheerful and happy. If we give smiles, they will be returned to us; if we speak pleasant, cheerful words, they will be spoken to us again.
ML	195	5	It is Satan's studied plan to push persons from one extreme to the other. As children of the light, God would have us cultivate a cheerful, happy spirit, that we may show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.
ML	195	6	Go into a cellar, and you may well talk of darkness, and say, "I cannot see; I cannot see." But come up into the upper chamber, where the light shines, and you need not be in darkness. Come up where Christ is, and you will have light.
ML	195	7	Earnest Christians seek to imitate Jesus, for to be Christians is to be Christlike.... A hearty, willing service to Jesus produces a sunny religion.... In Christ is light and peace and joy forevermore.
------------------------Kind Speech, July 11
			Social to Save
ML	196	1	The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. Isaiah 50:4
ML	196	2	If we have Christ abiding with us, we shall be Christians at home as well as abroad. He who is a Christian will have kind words for his relatives and associates. He will be kind, courteous, loving, sympathetic, and will be educating himself for an abode with the family above. If he is a member of the royal family, he will represent the kingdom to which he is going. He will speak with gentleness to his children, for he will realize that they too are heirs of God, members of the heavenly court. Among the children of God no spirit of harshness dwells.
ML	196	3	Some pride themselves on being outspoken, blunt, and rough, and they call this frankness; but it is not rightly named, it is selfishness of the deepest dye.
ML	196	4	Christ is always calm and dignified, and those who labor with Him will use in their work the oil of grace. Their words and actions will be soothing.
ML	196	5	We must educate the soul to be pitiful, gentle, tender, full of forgiveness and compassion. While we lay aside all vanity, all foolish talking, jesting, and joking, we are not to become cold, unsympathetic, and unsocial. The Spirit of the Lord is to rest upon you until you shall be like a fragrant flower from the garden of God. You are to keep talking of the light, of Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, until you shall change from glory to glory, from character to character, going on from strength to strength, and reflecting more and more of the precious image of Jesus.
ML	196	6	Christ is ever ready to impart of His riches, and we should gather the jewels that come from Him, that, when we speak, these jewels may drop from our lips.
------------------------Children Love Mother's Companionship, July 12
			Family Companionship
ML	197	1	Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Proverbs 31:28
ML	197	2	The home should be to the children the most attractive place in the world, and the mother's presence should be its greatest attraction. Children have sensitive, loving natures. They are easily pleased and easily made unhappy....
ML	197	3	Young children love companionship, and can seldom enjoy themselves alone. They yearn for sympathy and tenderness. That which they enjoy, they think will please mother also....
ML	197	4	Instead of sending her children from her, that she may not be annoyed by their noise or troubled by their little wants, let the mother plan amusement or light work to employ the active hands and minds. By entering into their feelings and directing their amusements and employments, the mother will gain the confidence of her children.... By patient, watchful love she can turn the minds of the children in the right direction, cultivating in them beautiful and attractive traits of character.
ML	197	5	Mothers should guard against training their children to be dependent and self-absorbed. Never lead them to think that they are the center, and that everything must revolve around them. Some parents give much time and attention to amusing their children, but children should be trained to amuse themselves, to exercise their own ingenuity and skill. Thus they will learn to be content with very simple pleasures. They should be taught to bear bravely their little disappointments and trials.... Study to suggest ways by which the children may learn to be thoughtful for others.
ML	197	6	In the Word of God we find a beautiful description of a happy home and the woman who presides over it: "Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her."
------------------------Father's Heart Turned to His Children, July 13
			Family Companionship
ML	198	1	He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers. Malachi 4:6
ML	198	2	The father when he returns from his daily labor will not bring his perplexities to his home. He will feel that home and the family circle are too sacred to be marred with unhappy perplexities. When he left his home he did not leave his Saviour and his religion behind. Both were his companions. The sweet influence of his home, the blessing of his wife, and the love of his children make his burdens light; and he returns with peace in his heart and cheerful, encouraging words for his wife and children, who are waiting joyfully to welcome his coming.
ML	198	3	He should find it a pleasant change to spend some time with his children. He may take them into the garden and show them the opening buds and the varied tints of the blooming flowers.... He may impress upon their minds the fact that if God cares so much for the trees and flowers, he will care much more for the creatures formed in his image. He may lead them early to understand that God wants children to be lovely, not with artificial adornment, but with beauty of character, the charms of kindness and affection, which will make their hearts bound with joy and happiness.
ML	198	4	If the frivolous and pleasure seeking will allow their minds to dwell upon the real and the true, the heart cannot but be filled with reverence, and they will adore the God of nature.
ML	198	5	If you would draw your children to Jesus, you must not enter your home with cross words, with a frown upon your brow. If you come from your business weary and worn, just plead with God for His grace, for His restful Spirit, that your heart may be melted with tenderness, that your lips may be filled with words of kindness and comfort. Bind your children to your heart. Recommend your religion to them by its pleasantness.
------------------------Happy Companionship Together, July 14
			Family Companionship
ML	199	1	We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. Psalm 55:14
ML	199	2	Throw around your children the charms of home and of your society. If you do this, they will not have so much desire for the society of young associates.... Because of the evils now in the world and the restrictions necessary to be placed upon the children, parents should have double care to bind them to their hearts and let them see that they wish to make them happy.
ML	199	3	Let parents devote the evenings to their families. Lay off care and perplexity with the labors of the day.... Let the evenings be spent as happily as possible.
ML	199	4	Form a home reading circle, in which every member of the family shall lay aside the busy cares of the day and unite in study. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, take up this work heartily, and see if the home church will not be greatly improved.... Read the literature that will give you true knowledge and that will be a help to the entire family.
ML	199	5	If they would gather the children close to them, and show that they love them, and would manifest an interest in all their efforts, and even in their sports, sometimes even being a child among children, they would make the children very happy and would gain their love and win their confidence.
ML	199	6	Brought up under the wise and loving guidance of a true home, children will have no desire to wander away in search of pleasure and companionship. Evil will not attract them. The spirit that prevails in the home will mold their characters; they will form habits and principles that will be a strong defense against temptation when they shall leave the home shelter and take their place in the world.
ML	199	7	The young heart is quick to respond to the touch of sympathy.
------------------------Hold the Family Together by Affection, July 15
			Family Companionship
ML	200	1	Shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night. Psalm 92:2
ML	200	2	The religion of Christ will lead us to do all the good possible, to both high and low, rich and poor, happy and oppressed. But especially will it lead to the manifestation of kindness in our own family. It will be manifested by acts of courtesy and love to father and mother, husband, wife, and child. We are to look to Jesus, to catch His Spirit, to live in the light of His goodness and love, and to reflect His glory upon others.
ML	200	3	Those who are united by the ties of nature have the strongest claims upon one another. In their dealings with each other they should manifest kindness and the tenderest love.
ML	200	4	Gentle manners, cheerful conversation, and loving acts will bind the hearts of children to their parents by the silken cords of affection and will do more to make home attractive than the rarest ornaments that can be bought for gold.
ML	200	5	Mutual kindness and forbearance will make home a paradise and attract holy angels into the family circle; but they will flee from a house where there are unpleasant words, fretfulness, and strife.
ML	200	6	The most valuable rules for social and family intercourse are to be found in the Bible.... Our Saviour's sermon on the mount contains instruction of priceless worth to old and young. It should be often read in the family circle, and its precious teachings exemplified in the daily life. The golden rule, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," ... should be made the law of the family. Those who cherish the spirit of Christ will manifest politeness at home.... They will be constantly seeking to make all around them happy, forgetting self in their kind attention to others.
ML	200	7	Christian courtesy is the golden clasp which unites the members of the family in bonds of love, becoming closer and stronger every day.
------------------------Make the Home a Blessing to Others, July 16
			Family Companionship
ML	201	1	When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: ... for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. Luke 14:13, 14
ML	201	2	God is displeased with the selfish interest so often manifested for "me and my family." Every family that cherishes this spirit needs to be converted by the pure principles exemplified in the life of Christ. Those who shut themselves up within themselves, who are unwilling to be drawn upon to entertain visitors, lose many blessings.
ML	201	3	There are many others to whom we might make our homes a blessing. Our social entertainments should not be governed by the dictates of worldly custom, but by the Spirit of Christ and the teaching of His Word. The Israelites, in all their festivities, included the poor, the stranger, and the Levite, who was both the assistant of the priest in the sanctuary and a religious teacher and missionary. These were regarded as the guests of the people, to share their hospitality on all occasions of social and religious rejoicing and to be tenderly cared for in sickness or in need. It is such as these whom we should make welcome to our homes. How much such a welcome might do to cheer and encourage the missionary nurse or the teacher, the care-burdened, hard-working mother, or the feeble and aged, so often without a home, and struggling with poverty and many discouragements....
ML	201	4	The warmth of a genial welcome, a place at your fireside, a seat at your home table, the privilege of sharing the blessing of the hour of prayer, would to many of these be like a glimpse of heaven.
ML	201	5	Our sympathies are to overflow the boundaries of self and the enclosure of family walls. There are precious opportunities for those who will make their homes a blessing to others. Social influence is a wonderful power. We can use it if we will as a means of helping those about us....
ML	201	6	Our time here is short. We can pass through this world but once; as we pass along, let us make the most of life.
------------------------The Home Should Be a Refuge for the Youth, July 17
			Family Companionship
ML	202	1	Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me. Mark 9:37
ML	202	2	Our homes should be a place of refuge for the tempted youth. Many there are who stand at the parting of the ways. Every influence, every impression, is determining the choice that shapes their destiny both here and hereafter.
ML	202	3	Do not hold yourselves aloof from them, but come close to them. Bring them to your firesides; invite them to your family altars. There is work that thousands need to have done for them. Every tree in Satan's garden is hung with tempting, poisonous fruit, and a woe is pronounced upon every one who plucks and eats.
ML	202	4	Evil invites them. Its resorts are made bright and attractive. They have a welcome for every comer. All about us are youth who have no home and many whose homes have no helpful, uplifting power, and the youth drift into evil. They are going down to ruin within the very shadow of our own doors.
ML	202	5	These youth need a hand stretched out to them in sympathy. Kind words simply spoken, little attentions simply bestowed, will sweep away the clouds of temptation which gather over the soul. The true expression of heaven-born sympathy has power to open the door of hearts that need the fragrance of Christlike words and the simple, delicate touch of the spirit of Christ's love. If we would show an interest in the youth, invite them to our homes, and surround them with cheering, helpful influences, there are many who would gladly turn their steps into the upward path.
ML	202	6	Remember that happiness will not be found in shutting yourselves up to yourselves, satisfied to pour out all your affection upon each other. Seize upon every opportunity for contributing to the happiness of those around you.... True joy can be found only in unselfish service.
------------------------Let Visitors Join in Family Worship, July 18
			Family Companionship
ML	203	1	But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9
ML	203	2	In a sense the father is the priest of the household, laying upon the family altar the morning and evening sacrifice. But the wife and children should unite in prayer and join in the song of praise. In the morning before he leaves home for his daily labor let the father gather his children about him and, bowing before God, commit them to the care of the Father in heaven. When the cares of the day are past, let the family unite in offering grateful prayer and raising the song of praise, in acknowledgment of divine care during the day.... Do not fail to gather your family around God's altar.
ML	203	3	In our efforts for the comfort and happiness of guests let us not overlook our obligations to God. The hour of prayer should not be neglected for any consideration. Do not talk and amuse yourselves till all are too weary to enjoy the season of devotion. To do this is to present to God a lame offering. At an early hour of the evening, when we can pray unhurriedly and understandingly, we should present our supplications and raise our voices in happy, grateful praise.
ML	203	4	Let all who visit Christians see that the hour of prayer is the most precious, the most sacred, and the happiest hour of the day. These seasons of devotion exert a refining, elevating influence upon all who participate in them. They bring a peace and rest grateful to the spirit.
ML	203	5	A lamp, however small, if kept steadily burning, may be the means of lighting many other lamps.... Wonderful opportunities are ours through a faithful use of the opportunities of our own homes. If we will open our hearts and homes to the divine principles of life, we shall become channels for currents of life-giving power. From our homes will flow streams of healing, bringing life, and beauty, and fruitfulness where now are barrenness and dearth.
------------------------To Have Friends We Must Be Friendly, July 19
			Friendly Sociability
ML	204	1	A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly. Proverbs 18:24
ML	204	2	In the arrangements for the education of the chosen people it is made manifest that a life centered in God is a life of completeness. Every want He has implanted, He provides to satisfy; every faculty imparted, He seeks to develop.
ML	204	3	The Author of all beauty, Himself a lover of the beautiful, God provided to gratify in His children the love of beauty. He made provision also for their social needs, for the kindly and helpful associations that do so much to cultivate sympathy and to brighten and sweeten life.
ML	204	4	Christian sociability is altogether too little cultivated by God's people.... By social intercourse acquaintances are formed and friendships contracted which result in a unity of heart and an atmosphere of love which is pleasing in the sight of heaven.
ML	204	5	Everyone will find companions or make them. And just in proportion to the strength of the friendship, will be the amount of influence which friends will exert over one another for good or for evil. All will have associates, and will influence and be influenced in their turn.
ML	204	6	The link is a mysterious one which binds human hearts together, so that the feelings, tastes, and principles of two individuals are closely blended. One catches the spirit and copies the ways and acts of the other. As wax retains the figure of the seal, so the mind retains the impression produced by intercourse and association. The influence may be unconscious, yet it is no less powerful.... If choice is made of companions who fear the Lord, the influence will lead to truth, to duty, and to holiness. A truly Christian life is a power for God.
ML	204	7	The warmth of true friendship ... is a foretaste of the joys of heaven.
------------------------Righteousness Enriches Life, July 20
			Family Companionship
ML	205	1	He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour. Proverbs 21:21
ML	205	2	Gatherings for social intercourse are made in the highest degree profitable and instructive when those who meet together have the love of God glowing in their hearts; when they meet to exchange thoughts in regard to the Word of God or to consider methods for advancing His work and doing good to their fellow men. When the Holy Spirit is regarded as a welcome guest at these gatherings, when nothing is said or done to grieve it away, God is honored, and those who meet together are refreshed and strengthened....
ML	205	3	Christ rejoices when the thoughts of the young are occupied by the grand and ennobling themes of salvation. He enters the hearts of all such as an abiding guest, filling them with joy and peace.... Those who possess this love will delight to talk of the things that God has prepared for them that love Him.
ML	205	4	Young men and young women should not think that their sports, their evening parties, and musical entertainments, as usually conducted, are acceptable to Christ.
ML	205	5	Light has been given me, again and again, that all our gatherings should be characterized by a decided religious influence. If our young people would assemble to read and understand the Scriptures, asking, "What shall I do that I may have eternal life?" and then place themselves unitedly upon the side of truth, the Lord would let His blessing come into their hearts....
ML	205	6	To all, old and young, the word of the Lord is: Let the truth of God be inwrought in mind and soul. Let your prayer be, "O Lord, preserve my soul, that I shall not dishonor Thee."
------------------------Take a Day in the Country, July 21
			Family Companionship
ML	206	1	He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Psalm 23:2, 3
ML	206	2	Let several families living in a city or village unite and leave the occupations which have taxed them physically and mentally, and make an excursion into the country to the side of a fine lake or to a nice grove where the scenery of nature is beautiful. They should provide themselves with plain, hygienic food, the very best fruits and grains, and spread their table under the shade of some tree or under the canopy of heaven. The ride, the exercise, and the scenery will quicken the appetite, and they can enjoy a repast which kings might envy.
ML	206	3	On such occasions parents and children should feel free from care, labor, and perplexity. Parents should become children with their children, making everything as pleasant for them as possible. Let the whole day be given to recreation. Exercise in the open air for those whose employment has been withindoors and sedentary will be beneficial to health. All who can, should feel it a duty to pursue this course. Nothing will be lost, but much gained. They can return to their occupations with new life and new courage to engage in their labor with zeal, and they are better prepared to resist disease....
ML	206	4	But few realize the constant, wearing labor of those who are bearing the responsibilities of the work in the office. They are confined withindoors day after day and week after week, while a constant strain upon the mental powers is surely undermining their constitutions and lessening their hold on life....
ML	206	5	They should have a change frequently, should often devote a day wholly to recreation with their families, who are almost entirely deprived of their society.
------------------------Visiting with One Another, July 22
			Family Companionship
ML	207	1	Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Malachi 3:16, 17
ML	207	2	We have an individual accountability to God, an individual work which no one can do for us. It is to make the world better by precept, personal effort, and example. While we should cultivate sociability, let it not be merely for amusement, but for a purpose. There are souls to save.... Our intercourse with others should be characterized by sobriety and heavenly-mindedness. Our conversation should be upon heavenly things....
ML	207	3	What is more worthy to engross the mind than the plan of redemption? It is a subject that is exhaustless. The love of Jesus, the salvation offered to fallen man through His infinite love, holiness of heart, the precious, saving truth for these last days, the grace of Jesus Christ--these are subjects which may animate the soul and cause the pure in heart to feel that joy that the disciples felt when Jesus came and walked with them as they traveled toward Emmaus. He who has centered his affections upon Christ will relish this kind of hallowed association and will gather divine strength by such intercourse.... When the truth of God is an abiding principle in the heart, it will be like a living spring. Attempts may be made to repress it, but it will gush forth in another place; it is there, and cannot be headed off. The truth in the heart is a wellspring of life. It refreshes the weary, restrains the vile thought and utterance, and makes all flourishing.... Their happiness will ... be ... in Jesus and His love.
------------------------Jesus and His Friends at Bethany, July 23
			Family Companionship
ML	208	1	Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. John 11:5
ML	208	2	There was one home that He loved to visit--the home of Lazarus, and Mary, and Martha; for in the atmosphere of faith and love His spirit had rest.
ML	208	3	Among the most steadfast of Christ's disciples was Lazarus of Bethany. From their first meeting his faith in Christ had been strong; his love for Him was deep, and he was greatly beloved by the Saviour. It was for Lazarus that the greatest of Christ's miracles was performed. The Saviour blessed all who sought His help; He loves all the human family; but to some He is bound by peculiarly tender associations. His heart was knit by a strong bond of affection to the family at Bethany, and for one of them His most wonderful work was wrought.
ML	208	4	At the home of Lazarus, Jesus had often found rest. The Saviour had no home of His own; He was dependent on the hospitality of His friends and disciples; and often, when weary, thirsting for human fellowship, He had been glad to escape to this peaceful household, away from the suspicion and jealousy of the angry Pharisees. Here He found a sincere welcome, a pure, holy friendship. Here He could speak with simplicity and perfect freedom, knowing that His words would be understood and treasured.
ML	208	5	Our Saviour appreciated a quiet home and interested listeners. He longed for human tenderness, courtesy, and affection. Those who received the heavenly instruction He was always ready to impart were greatly blessed.... The multitudes were slow of hearing, and in the home at Bethany Christ found rest from the weary conflict of public life. Here He opened to an appreciative audience the volume of Providence. In these private interviews He unfolded to His hearers that which He did not attempt to tell to the mixed multitude. He needed not to speak to His friends in parables.
------------------------The Friendship Between Paul and Timothy, July 24
			Family Companionship
ML	209	1	To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.... Greatly desiring to see thee, ... that I may be filled with joy. 2 Timothy 1:2-4
ML	209	2	From the judgment hall of Caesar, Paul returned to his cell, realizing that he had gained for himself only a brief respite. He knew that his enemies would not rest until they had compassed his death. But he knew also that for a time truth had triumphed....
ML	209	3	Sitting day after day in his gloomy cell, knowing that at a word or a nod from Nero his life might be sacrificed, Paul thought of Timothy, and determined to send for him. To Timothy had been committed the care of the church at Ephesus, and he had therefore been left behind when Paul made his last journey to Rome. Paul and Timothy were bound together by an affection unusually deep and strong. Since his conversion Timothy had shared Paul's labors and sufferings, and the friendship between the two had grown stronger, deeper, and more sacred, until all that a son could be to a loved and honored father, Timothy was to the aged, toil-worn apostle. It is little wonder that in his loneliness and solitude Paul longed to see him.
ML	209	4	Under the most favorable circumstances several months must pass before Timothy could reach Rome from Asia Minor. Paul knew that his life was uncertain, and he feared that Timothy might arrive too late to see him. He had important counsel and instruction for the young man, to whom so great responsibility had been entrusted; and while urging him to come without delay, he dictated the dying testimony that he might not be spared to utter. His soul filled with loving solicitude for his son in the gospel and for the church under his care, Paul sought to impress Timothy with the importance of fidelity to his sacred trust.... Paul closed his letter by commending his beloved Timothy to the guardianship of the Chief Shepherd, who, though the undershepherds might be stricken down, would still care for His flock.
------------------------Jonathan and David, July 25
			Family Companionship
ML	210	1	How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. 2 Samuel 1:25, 26
ML	210	2	The friendship of Jonathan for David was ... of God's providence, to preserve the life of the future ruler of Israel.
ML	210	3	At this time, when there were so few bright spots in the path of David, he was rejoiced to receive an unexpected visit from Jonathan, who had learned the place of his refuge. Precious were the moments which these two friends passed in each other's society. They related their varied experiences, and Jonathan strengthened the heart of David, saying, "Fear not! for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth." As they talked of the wonderful dealings of God with David, the hunted fugitive was greatly encouraged. "And they two made a covenant before the Lord: and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house."
ML	210	4	After the visit of Jonathan, David encouraged his soul with songs of praise, accompanying his voice with his harp.
ML	210	5	Jonathan, by birth heir to the throne, yet knowing himself set aside by the divine decree; to his rival the most tender and faithful of friends, shielding David's life at the peril of his own; steadfast at his father's side through the dark days of his declining power, and at his side falling at the last--the name of Jonathan is treasured in heaven, and it stands on earth a witness to the existence and the power of unselfish love.
ML	210	6	Connected with Christ, we are connected with our fellow men by the golden links of the chain of love.
------------------------Recreation Refreshes and Invigorates, July 26
			Recreation and Amusements
ML	211	1	Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11
ML	211	2	It is the privilege and duty of Christians to seek to refresh their spirits and invigorate their bodies by innocent recreation, with the purpose of using their physical and mental powers to the glory of God. Our recreation should not be scenes of senseless mirth, taking the form of the nonsensical. We can conduct them in such a manner as will benefit and elevate those with whom we associate and better qualify us and them to more successfully attend to the duties devolving upon us as Christians.... The religion of Christ is cheering and elevating in its influence. It is above everything like foolish jesting and joking, vain and frivolous chitchat. In all our seasons of recreation we may gather from the Divine Source of strength fresh courage and power, that we may the more successfully elevate our lives to purity, true goodness, and holiness.
ML	211	3	There are persons with a diseased imagination to whom religion is a tyrant, ruling them as with a rod of iron. Such are constantly mourning over their depravity and groaning over supposed evil. Love does not exist in their hearts; a frown is ever upon their countenances. They are chilled by the innocent laugh from the youth or from anyone. They consider all recreation or amusement a sin and think that the mind must be constantly wrought up to just such a stern, severe pitch. This is one extreme. Others think that the mind must be ever on the stretch to invent new amusements and diversions in order to gain health. They learn to depend on excitement, and are uneasy without it. Such are not true Christians. They go to another extreme. The true principles of Christianity open before all a source of happiness, the height and depth, the length and breadth of which are immeasurable.
------------------------No One Lives to Himself, July 27
			Recreation and Amusements
ML	212	1	For none of us liveth to himself. Romans 14:7
ML	212	2	The young generally conduct themselves as though the precious hours of probation, while mercy lingers, were one grand holiday, and they were placed in this world merely for their own amusement, to be gratified with a continual round of excitement. Satan has been making special efforts to lead them to find happiness in worldly amusements and to justify themselves by endeavoring to show that these amusements are harmless, innocent, and even important to health.
ML	212	3	The desire for excitement and pleasing entertainment is a temptation and a snare to God's people, and especially to the young. Satan is constantly preparing inducements to attract minds from the solemn work of preparation for scenes just in the future. Through the agency of worldlings he keeps up a continual excitement to induce the unwary to join in worldly pleasures. There are shows, lectures, and an endless variety of entertainments that are calculated to lead to a love of the world; and through this union with the world faith is weakened.
ML	212	4	Worldly pleasures are infatuating; and for their momentary enjoyment many sacrifice the friendship of Heaven, with the peace, love, and joy that it affords.
ML	212	5	Christians have many sources of happiness at their command, and they may tell with unerring accuracy what pleasures are lawful and right. They may enjoy such recreations as will not dissipate the mind or debase the soul, such as will not disappoint, and leave a sad after-influence to destroy self-respect or bar the way to usefulness. If they can take Jesus with them, and maintain a prayerful spirit, they are perfectly safe.
ML	212	6	In view of their high calling the youth among us should ... ponder well the paths of their feet, remembering that where they lead the way others will follow.
------------------------God Gives Us the Good, July 28
			Recreation and Amusements
ML	213	1	For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy. Ecclesiastes 2:26
ML	213	2	Youth cannot be made as sedate and grave as old age, the child as sober as the sire. While sinful amusements are condemned, ... provide in their stead innocent pleasures, which will not taint or corrupt the morals.
ML	213	3	There is a distinction between recreation and amusement. Recreation, when true to its name, re-creation, tends to strengthen and build up. Calling us aside from our ordinary cares and occupations, it affords refreshment for mind and body, and thus enables us to return with new vigor to the earnest work of life. Amusement, on the other hand, is sought for the sake of pleasure, and is often carried to excess; it absorbs the energies that are required for useful work, and thus proves a hindrance to life's true success.
ML	213	4	While we shun the false and artificial ... we must supply sources of pleasure that are pure and noble and elevating.
ML	213	5	Our holidays should not be spent in patterning after the world, yet they should not be passed by unnoticed.... On these days ... get something to take the place of more dangerous amusements.
ML	213	6	No recreation helpful only to themselves will prove so great a blessing to the children and youth as that which makes them helpful to others.
ML	213	7	Would it not be well for us to observe holidays unto God, when we could revive in our minds the memory of His dealing with us? ...
ML	213	8	The world has many holidays, and men become engrossed with games, with horse races, with gambling, smoking, and drunkenness. They show plainly under what banner they are standing.... Shall not the people of God more frequently have holy convocations in which to thank God for His rich blessings?
------------------------Walk in the Way of Good Men, July 29
			Recreation and Amusements
ML	214	1	Walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. Proverbs 2:20
ML	214	2	There are modes of recreation which are highly beneficial to both mind and body. An enlightened, discriminating mind will find abundant means for entertainment and diversion, from sources not only innocent, but instructive. Recreation in the open air, the contemplation of the works of God in nature, will be of the highest benefit.
ML	214	3	While we are seeking to refresh our spirits and invigorate our bodies, we are required of God to use all our powers at all times to the best purpose. We may associate together as we do here today, [From an address given at an outdoor recreational gathering at Goguac Lake, Michigan.] and do all to the glory of God. We can and should conduct our recreations in such a manner that we shall be fitted for the more successful discharge of the duties devolving upon us, and that our influence shall be more beneficial upon those with whom we associate. Especially should it be the case upon an occasion like this, which should be of good cheer to us all. We can return to our homes improved in mind and refreshed in body, and prepared to engage in the work anew, with better hope and better courage.
ML	214	4	We believe that it is our privilege every day of our lives to glorify God upon the earth; that we are not to live in this world merely for our own amusement, merely to please ourselves. We are here to benefit humanity, to be a blessing to society....
ML	214	5	We here behold the beauties of nature.... As we behold these works of nature we should let the mind be carried up higher, to nature's God; let it be elevated to the Creator of the universe, and then adore the Creator who has made all these beautiful things for our benefit and happiness.
ML	214	6	We must take periods of rest, periods of recreation, periods for contemplation.
------------------------Walk Not in the Way With Sinners, July 30
			Recreation and Amusements
ML	215	1	My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.... My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path. Proverbs 1:10-15
ML	215	2	Amusements are doing more to counteract the working of the Holy Spirit than anything else, and the Lord is grieved.
ML	215	3	Those who are artificial in character and religious experience too readily gather for pleasure and amusement, and their influence attracts others. Sometimes young men and women who are trying to be Bible Christians are persuaded to join the party. Unwilling to be thought singular, and naturally inclined to follow the example of others, they place themselves under the influence of those who, perhaps, have never felt the divine touch on mind and heart. Had they prayerfully consulted the divine standard, to learn what Christ has said in regard to the fruit to be borne on the Christian tree, they would have discerned that these entertainments were really banquets prepared to keep souls from accepting the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
ML	215	4	It sometimes happens that by frequenting places of amusement, youth who have been carefully instructed in the way of the Lord are carried away by the glamor of human influence, and form attachments for those whose education and training have been of a worldly character. They sell themselves into lifelong bondage by uniting with persons who have not the ornament of a Christlike spirit.
ML	215	5	You will be invited to attend places of amusement.... If you are true to Christ then, you will not try to form excuses for your nonattendance, but will plainly and modestly declare that you are a child of God, and your principles would not allow you to be in a place, even for one occasion, where you could not invite the presence of your Lord.
ML	215	6	God desires His people to show by their lives the advantage of Christianity over worldliness; to show that they are working on a high, holy plane.
------------------------Associate With Those Who Love God, July 31
			Recreation and Amusements
ML	216	1	I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. Psalm 119:63
ML	216	2	Between the associations of the followers of Christ for Christian recreation and worldly gatherings for pleasure and amusement, will exist a marked contrast. Instead of prayer and the mentioning of Christ and sacred things, will be heard from the lips of worldlings the silly laugh and the trifling conversation. Their idea is to have a general high time. Their amusements commence in folly and end in vanity. We want in our gatherings to have them so conducted, and to so conduct ourselves, that when we return to our homes we can have a conscience void of offense toward God and man; a consciousness that we have not wounded or injured in any manner those with whom we have associated or had an injurious influence over them.
ML	216	3	We are of that class who believe that it is our privilege every day of our lives to glorify God upon the earth; that we are not to live in this world merely for our own amusement, merely to please ourselves. We are here to benefit humanity and to be a blessing to society.
ML	216	4	Those who truly love God will not cultivate the society of those who do not love Jesus. They will find that Christian society and conversation is food to the soul, that in the society of those who love God they breathe in the atmosphere of heaven. Christians will exercise love and sympathy one for another. The encouragement given one to another, the esteem manifested one for another, the helps, the instruction, the reproofs, warnings, the Christian counsel that should be found among the followers of Christ will further them in the spiritual life; for Christian fellowship is according to God's plan.... They will have tender consideration for all of like precious faith, and will draw toward those who love God. There will be fellowship such as the world knows not of.
------------------------God Makes Me Perfect in Every Good Work, August 1
			God Works Through Me
ML	217	1	Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Hebrews 13:20, 21
ML	217	2	The religion of Jesus Christ means something more than talk. The righteousness of Christ consists in right actions and good works from pure, unselfish motives.... Christ came to do His Father's will. Are we following in His steps? All who have named the name of Christ should be constantly seeking for a more intimate acquaintance with Him, that they may walk even as He walked, and do the works of Christ....
ML	217	3	It is the work we do, or do not do, that tells with tremendous power upon our lives and destinies. God requires us to improve every opportunity for usefulness that is offered us. Neglect in doing this is perilous to our spiritual growth. We have a great work to do.
ML	217	4	The duties that the Lord places in our way we are to perform, not as a cold, dreary exercise, but as a service of love. Bring into your work your highest powers and sympathies, and you will find that Christ is in it. His presence will make the work light, and your heart will be filled with joy. You will work in harmony with God, and in loyalty and love and fidelity. We are to be sincere, earnest Christians, doing faithfully the work placed in our hands.
ML	217	5	Every one who kindles his taper from the divine altar holds his lamp firmly. He does not use common fire upon his censer, but the holy fire, kept burning by the power of God day and night. Those who walk in the footsteps of Jesus, who will surrender their lives to His guidance and to His service, have the golden oil in their vessels with their lamps. They will never be placed in a position for which God has not made provision. The lamp of life is always trimmed by the very hand that lit it.
------------------------Be Zealous of Good Works, August 2
			Saved to Serve
ML	218	1	Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Titus 2:14
ML	218	2	Christ's followers have been redeemed for service. Our Lord teaches that the true object of life is ministry. Christ Himself was a worker, and to all His followers He gives the law of service--service to God and to their fellow men. Here Christ has presented to the world a higher conception of life than they had ever known. By living to minister for others man is brought into connection with Christ. The law of service becomes the connecting link which binds us to God and to our fellow men.
ML	218	3	To His servants Christ commits "His goods"--something to be put to use for Him. He gives "to every man his work." Each has his place in the eternal plan of Heaven. Each is to work in cooperation with Christ for the salvation of souls. Not more surely is the place prepared for us in the heavenly mansions than is the special place designated on earth where we are to work for God....
ML	218	4	And those who would be workers together with God must strive for perfection of every organ of the body and quality of the mind. True education is the preparation of the physical, mental, and moral powers for the performance of every duty; it is the training of body, mind, and soul for divine service....
ML	218	5	Of every Christian the Lord requires growth in efficiency and capability in every line. Christ has paid us our wages, even His own blood and suffering, to secure our willing service. He came to our world to give us an example of how we should work and what spirit we should bring into our labor. He desires us to show how we can best advance His work and glorify His name in the world, crowning with honor, with the greatest love and devotion, the Father who "so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
------------------------Work Diligently for God, August 3
			Saved to Serve
ML	219	1	Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. Colossians 3:23
ML	219	2	There is a great work to be done in our world. Men and women are to be converted, not by the gift of tongues nor by the working of miracles, but by the preaching of Christ crucified. Why delay the effort to make the world better? Why wait for some wonderful thing to be done, some costly apparatus to be provided? ... Into all that we do, whether our work be in the shop, on the farm, or in the office, we are to bring the endeavor to save souls.
ML	219	3	This life is full of gracious opportunities, which you can improve in the exercise of your God-given abilities to bless others, and in so doing bless yourself, without considering self in the matter. Trivial circumstances oftentimes prove a decided blessing to the one who acts from principle and has formed the habit of doing right because it is right. Seek for a perfect character, and let all you do, whether seen and appreciated by human eyes or not, be done with an eye single to God's glory, because you belong to God and He has redeemed you at the price of His own life. Be faithful in the least as well as in the greatest; learn to speak the truth, to act all times the truth. Let the heart be fully submitted to God. If controlled by His grace, you will do little deeds of kindness, take up the duties lying next to you, and bring all the sunshine into your life and character that it is possible to bring, scattering the gifts of love and blessing along the pathway of life. Your works will be far-reaching as eternity. Your lifework will be seen in heaven, and there it will live, through ceaseless ages, because it is found precious in the sight of God.
ML	219	4	Remember that what is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
------------------------Let Your Light Shine, August 4
			Saved to Serve
ML	220	1	Ye are the light of the world.... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16
ML	220	2	If you walk in the light, you can every one be light bearers to the world. Do not seek to accomplish some great work and neglect the little opportunities close at hand. We can do very much by exemplifying the truth in our daily life. The influence which we may thus exert cannot be easily withstood. Men may combat and defy our logic; they may resist our appeals; but a life of holy purpose, of disinterested love in their behalf, is an argument in favor of the truth that they cannot gainsay. Far more can be accomplished by humble, devoted, virtuous lives than can be effected by preaching when a godly example is lacking. You can labor to build up the church, to encourage your brethren, and to make the social meetings interesting; and you can let your prayers go out, like sharp sickles, with the laborers into the harvest field. Each should have a personal interest, a burden of soul, to watch and pray for the success of the work.
ML	220	3	You can also in meekness call the attention of others to the precious truths of God's Word. Young men... may never be able to present the truth from the desk, but they could go from house to house and point the people to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. The dust and rubbish of error have buried the precious jewels of truth; but the Lord's workers can uncover these treasures, so that many will look upon them with delight and awe.
ML	220	4	There is a great variety of work, adapted to different minds and varied capabilities. In the day of God not one will be excused for being shut up to his own selfish interests. And it is by working for others that you will keep your own souls alive.... Earnest, unselfish effort will garner sheaves for Jesus.... The Lord is a mighty helper.
------------------------Abound in Love at Home and Abroad, August 5
			Saved to Serve
ML	221	1	Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you.1 Thessalonians 3:11, 12
ML	221	2	Missionary work is to be done in the home. Here those who have received Christ are to show what grace has done for them. A divine influence controls the true believer in Christ, and this influence makes itself felt throughout the home and is favorable for the perfection of the characters of all in the home.
ML	221	3	The faithful performance of home duties has an influence upon those not in the home. Our spiritual progress in the home is carried into our missionary work abroad. In the father's house is to be given the evidence of a fitness to work for the church. With earnest, humble hearts the members of the family are to seek to know that Christ is abiding in the heart. Then they can go forth fully armed and equipped for service....
ML	221	4	The effort to make the home what it should be--a symbol of the home in heaven--prepares us for work in a larger sphere. The education received by showing a tender regard for each other enables us to know how to reach hearts that need to be taught the principles of true religion. The church needs all the cultivated spiritual force which can be obtained, that all, and especially the younger members of the Lord's family, may be carefully guarded. The truth lived at home makes itself felt in disinterested labor abroad. He who lives Christianity in the home will be a bright and shining light everywhere.
ML	221	5	The more closely the members of the family are united in their work in the home, the more uplifting and helpful will be the influence that father and mother and sons and daughters will exert outside the home.
------------------------A Little Maid Witnesses for God, August 6
			Saved to Serve
ML	222	1	Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master ... : he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. 2 Kings 5:1-3.
ML	222	2	A slave, far from her home, this little maid was nevertheless one of God's witnesses, unconsciously fulfilling the purpose for which God had chosen Israel as His people. As she ministered in that heathen home, her sympathies were aroused in behalf of her master; and, remembering the wonderful miracles of healing wrought through Elisha, she said to her mistress, "Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy." She knew that the power of Heaven was with Elisha, and she believed that by this power Naaman could be healed.
ML	222	3	The conduct of the captive maid, the way that she bore herself in that heathen home, is a strong witness to the power of early home training. There is no higher trust than that committed to fathers and mothers in the care and training of their children....
ML	222	4	We know not in what line our children may be called to serve. They may spend their lives within the circle of the home; they may engage in life's common vocations, or go as teachers of the gospel to heathen lands; but all are alike called to be missionaries for God, ministers of mercy to the world....
ML	222	5	The parents of that Hebrew maid, as they taught her of God, did not know the destiny that would be hers. But they were faithful to their trust; and in the home of the captain of the Syrian host, their child bore witness to the God whom she had learned to honor.
------------------------God Supplies the Resources, August 7
			Saved to Serve
ML	223	1	His disciples came to him, saying, ... Send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, ... Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me.... And looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.... And they took up of fragments that remained twelve baskets full. Matthew 14:15-20
ML	223	2	In this parable is wrapped up a deep, spiritual lesson for God's workers.... In full reliance upon God, Jesus took the small store of loaves; and although there was but a small supply for His own family of disciples, He did not invite them to eat, but began to distribute to them, bidding them serve the people. The food multiplied in His hands; and the hands of the disciples, reaching out to Christ, Himself the Bread of Life, were never empty. The little store was sufficient for all. After the wants of the people had been supplied, the fragments were gathered up, and Christ and His disciples ate of the precious, Heaven-supplied food.
ML	223	3	The disciples were the channel of communication between Christ and the people. This should be a great encouragement to His disciples today. Christ is the great Center, the Source of all strength. His disciples are to receive their supplies from Him.... As we continue to impart, we shall continue to receive; and the more we impart, the more we shall receive....
ML	223	4	Mark that pool which receives the showers of heaven but has no outlet. It is a blessing to no one, but in stagnant selfishness poisons the air around. Now look at the stream flowing from the mountainside, refreshing the thirsty land through which it passes. What blessing it brings! One would think that in giving so liberally it would exhaust its resources. But not so. It is a part of God's great plan that the stream that gives shall never lack; and day by day and year by year it flows on its way, ever receiving and ever giving.
------------------------Restore the Old Paths, August 8
			Saved to Serve
ML	224	1	And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12
ML	224	2	The work specified in these words is the work God requires His people to do. It is a work of God's own appointment. With the work of advocating the commandments of God and repairing the breach that has been made in the law of God, we are to mingle compassion for suffering humanity. We are to show supreme love to God; we are to exalt His memorial, which has been trodden down by unholy feet; and with this, we are to manifest mercy, benevolence, and the tenderest pity for the fallen race. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." As a people we must take hold of this work. Love revealed for suffering humanity gives significance and power to the truth.
ML	224	3	The evangelization of the world is the work that God has given to those who go forth in His name. They are to be co-laborers with Christ, revealing to those ready to perish His tender, pitying love. God calls for thousands to work for Him, not by preaching to those who know the truth, going over and over the same ground, but by warning those who have never heard the last message of mercy. Work, with a heart filled with an earnest longing for souls. Do medical missionary work. Thus you will gain access to the hearts of the people. The way will be prepared for more decided proclamation of the truth. You will find that relieving their physical suffering gives you opportunity to minister to their spiritual needs.
ML	224	4	The Lord will give you success in this work; for the gospel is the power of God unto salvation when it is interwoven with the practical life, when it is lived and practiced. The union of Christlike work for the body and Christlike work for the soul is the true interpretation of the gospel.
------------------------Jesus Came to Serve, August 9
			Walking Where Jesus Walked
ML	225	1	Even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Mark 10:45
ML	225	2	Many feel that it would be a great privilege to visit the scenes of Christ's life on earth, to walk where He trod, to look upon the lake beside which He loved to teach, and the hills and valleys on which His eyes so often rested. But we need not go to Nazareth, to Capernaum, or to Bethany, in order to walk in the steps of Jesus. We shall find His footprints beside the sickbed, in the hovels of poverty, in the crowded alleys of the great city, and in every place where there are human hearts in need of consolation. In doing as Jesus did when on earth, we shall walk in His steps....
ML	225	3	Millions upon millions of human souls ready to perish, bound in chains of ignorance and sin, have never so much as heard of Christ's love for them. Were our condition and theirs to be reversed, what would we desire them to do for us? All this, so far as lies in our power, we are under the most solemn obligation to do for them." Christ's rule of life, by which every one of us must stand or fall in the judgment, is, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
ML	225	4	The Saviour has given His precious life in order to establish a church capable of caring for sorrowful, tempted souls. A company of believers may be poor, uneducated, and unknown; yet in Christ they may do a work in the home, the neighborhood, the church, and even in "the regions beyond," whose results shall be as far reaching as eternity.
ML	225	5	It is because this work is neglected that so many young disciples never advance beyond the mere alphabet of Christian experience. The light which was glowing in their own hearts when Jesus spoke to them, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," they might have kept alive by helping those in need. The restless energy that is so often a source of danger to the young might be directed into channels through which it would flow out in streams of blessing. Self would be forgotten in earnest work to do others good.
------------------------Relieve Suffering Humanity, August 10
			Walking Where Jesus Walked
ML	226	1	And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. Luke 9:2
ML	226	2	Christ established His temporary hospital on the green hill slopes of Galilee and in every other place where the sick and the suffering could be brought to Him. In every city, every town, every village through which He passed, with the tender compassion of a loving Father He laid His hand upon the afflicted ones, and made them whole. This same work Christ has empowered His church to do.
ML	226	3	At the close of His earthly ministry, when He charged His disciples with a solemn commission to go "into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," He declared that their ministry would receive confirmation through the restoration of the sick to health. Ye "shall lay hands on the sick," He said, "and they shall recover." Mark 16:15, 18. By healing in His name the diseases of the body, they would testify to His power for the healing of the soul.
ML	226	4	The Saviour's commission to the disciples includes all believers to the end of time.... Never has the world's need for teaching and healing been greater than it is today. The world is full of those who need to be ministered unto--the weak, the helpless, the ignorant, the degraded.
ML	226	5	God's people are to be genuine medical missionaries. They are to learn to minister to the needs of soul and body. They should know how to give the simple treatments that do so much to relieve pain and remove disease. They should be familiar with the principles of health reform, that they may show others how, by right habits of eating, drinking, and dressing, disease may be prevented and health regained. ... The Great Physician ... will bless every one who will go forward humbly and trustfully, seeking to impart the truth for this time.
ML	226	6	In a special sense the healing of the sick is our work.
------------------------Give Men and Women the Water of Life, August 11
			Walking Where Jesus Walked
ML	227	1	Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14
ML	227	2	In His talk with the Samaritan woman, instead of disparaging Jacob's well, Christ presented something better.... He turned the conversation to the treasure He had to bestow, offering the woman something better than she possessed, even living water, the joy and hope of the gospel.
ML	227	3	How much interest Christ manifested in this one woman! How earnest and eloquent were His words! When the woman heard them, she left her waterpot and went into the city, saying to those she met, "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" We read that many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him. And who can estimate the influence that these words have exerted for the saving of souls in the years that have passed since then!
ML	227	4	Jesus came in personal contact with men. He did not stand aloof and apart from those who needed His help. He entered the homes of men, comforted the mourner, healed the sick, aroused the careless, and went about doing good. And if we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we must do as He did. We must give men the same kind of help that He did.
ML	227	5	The Lord desires that His word of grace shall be brought home to every soul. To a great degree this must be accomplished by personal labor. This was Christ's method. His work was largely made up of personal interviews. He had a faithful regard for the one-soul audience. Through that one soul the message was often extended to thousands.... There are multitudes who will never be reached by the gospel unless it is carried to them.
------------------------Work for the Children, August 12
			Walking Where Jesus Walked
ML	228	1	But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19:14
ML	228	2	Wherever the Saviour went, the benignity of His countenance and His gentle, kindly manner won the love and confidence of children....
ML	228	3	One mother with her child had left her home to find Jesus. On the way she told a neighbor her errand, and the neighbor wanted to have Jesus bless her children. Thus several mothers came together, with their little ones. Some of the children had passed beyond the years of infancy to childhood and youth.... But He waited to see how the disciples would treat them. When He saw them send the mothers away, thinking to do Him a favor, He showed them their error, saying, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God." He took the children in His arms, He laid His hands upon them, and gave them the blessing for which they came.
ML	228	4	God wants every child of tender age to be His child, to be adopted into His family. Young though they may be, the youth may be members of the household of faith, and have a most precious experience.... Christ will make them little missionaries. The whole current of their thoughts may be changed, so that sin will not appear a thing to be enjoyed but to be hated and shunned.... The Lord will give an experience to these children in missionary lines.
ML	228	5	We may bring hundreds and thousands of children to Christ if we will work for them.
ML	228	6	The children should be so educated that they will sympathize with the aged and afflicted and will seek to alleviate the sufferings of the poor and distressed. They should be taught to be diligent in missionary work; and from their earliest years self-denial and sacrifice for the good of others and the advancement of Christ's cause should be inculcated, that they may be laborers together with God.
------------------------Work for Prominent Men and Women, August 13
			Walking Where Jesus Walked
ML	229	1	While he spake ... unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. Matthew 9:18, 19
ML	229	2	He [Christ] worked for all who would hear His word--not only the publican and the outcasts, but the rich and cultivated Pharisee, the Jewish nobleman, the centurion, and the Roman ruler. This is the kind of work I have ever seen should be done.
ML	229	3	The higher classes have been strangely neglected. In the higher walks of life will be found many who will respond to the truth because it is consistent, because it bears the stamp of the high character of the gospel. Not a few of the men of ability thus won to the cause will enter energetically into the Lord's work.
ML	229	4	Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the strained, restless relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place--that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.
ML	229	5	We are not to forget the ... lawyers, ministers, senators, and judges, many of whom are slaves to intemperate habits. We are to leave no effort untried to show them that their souls are worth saving, that eternal life is worth striving for.
ML	229	6	The greatest men of the earth are not beyond the power of a wonder-working God.... When converted to Christ, many will become agencies in the hand of God to work for others of their own class.... Only eternity will reveal what has been accomplished by this kind of ministry--how many souls, sick with doubt and tired of worldliness and unrest, have been brought to the great Restorer.
------------------------Work for the Needy, August 14
			Walking Where Jesus Walked
ML	230	1	And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. Matthew 9:35
ML	230	2	What a busy life Christ led! Day by day He might be seen entering the humble abodes of want and sorrow, speaking hope to the downcast and peace to the distressed. The poor and suffering received the greatest share of His attention. Children loved Him. They were drawn to Him by His ready sympathy. By His simple, loving words He settled many a difficulty arising among them. Often He took them on His knee and talked with them in a way that won their hearts....
ML	230	3	Humble, gracious, tenderhearted, pitiful, He went about doing good, feeding the hungry, lifting up the bowed down, comforting the sorrowing. None who came to Him for aid went away unrelieved. Not a thread of selfishness was woven into the pattern He has left for His children to follow. He lived the life that He would have all live who believe on Him. It was His meat and drink to do the will of His Father. To all who came to Him for help He brought faith and hope and life. Wherever He went He carried blessing.
ML	230	4	The tender sympathies of our Saviour were aroused for fallen and suffering humanity. If you would be His followers, you must cultivate compassion and sympathy. Indifference to human woes must give place to lively interest in the sufferings of others. The widow, the orphan, the sick and the dying, will always need help. Here is an opportunity to proclaim the gospel--to hold up Jesus, the hope and consolation of all men. When the suffering body has been relieved, and you have shown a lively interest in the afflicted, the heart is opened, and you can pour in the heavenly balm. If you are looking to Jesus, and drawing from Him knowledge and strength and grace, you can impart His consolation to others, because the Comforter is with you.
------------------------Do Good on the Sabbath, August 15
			Walking Where Jesus Walked
ML	231	1	It is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. Matthew 12:12
ML	231	2	According to the fourth commandment the Sabbath was dedicated to rest and religious worship. All secular employment was to be suspended, but works of mercy and benevolence were in accordance with the purpose of the Lord. They were not to be limited by time or place. To relieve the afflicted, to comfort the sorrowing, is a labor of love that does honor to God's holy day.
ML	231	3	The necessities of life must be attended to, the sick must be cared for, the wants of the needy must be supplied. He will not be held guiltless who neglects to relieve suffering on the Sabbath. God's holy rest day was made for man, and acts of mercy are in perfect harmony with its intent. God does not desire His creatures to suffer an hour's pain that may be relieved upon the Sabbath or any other day....
ML	231	4	The Sabbath is not intended to be a period of useless inactivity. The law forbids secular labor on the rest day of the Lord; the toil that gains a livelihood must cease; no labor for worldly pleasure or profit is lawful upon that day; but as God ceased His labor of creating, and rested upon the Sabbath and blessed it, so man is to leave the occupations of his daily life and devote those sacred hours to healthful rest, to worship, and to holy deeds. The work of Christ in healing the sick was in perfect accord with the law. It honored the Sabbath.
ML	231	5	Labor to relieve the suffering was pronounced by our Saviour a work of mercy and no violation of the Sabbath.
ML	231	6	The needs of suffering humanity are never to be neglected. The Saviour, by His example, has shown us that it is right to relieve suffering on the Sabbath.
------------------------Who is My Neighbor? August 16
			Being a Good Neighbor
ML	232	1	But he ... said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? Luke 10:29
ML	232	2	Among the Jews the question, "Who is my neighbor?" caused endless dispute. They had no doubt as to the heathen and the Samaritans. These were strangers and enemies. But where should the distinction be made among the people of their own nation, and among the different classes of society? ... This question Christ answered in the parable of the good Samaritan. He showed that our neighbor does not mean merely one of the church or faith to which we belong. It has no reference to race, color, or class distinction. Our neighbor is every person who needs our help. Our neighbor is every soul who is wounded and bruised by the adversary. Our neighbor is every one who is the property of God.
ML	232	3	Every one who is in suffering need is our neighbor. Every straying son and daughter of Adam, who has been ensnared by the enemy of souls and bound in the slavery of wrong habits that blight the God-given manhood or womanhood, is my neighbor.
ML	232	4	Our neighbors are not merely our associates and special friends; they are not simply those who belong to our church, or who think as we do. Our neighbors are the whole human family. We are to do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. We are to give to the world an exhibition of what it means to carry out the law of God. We are to love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves.
ML	232	5	Today God gives men opportunity to show whether they love their neighbor. He who truly loves God and his fellow man is he who shows mercy to the destitute, the suffering, the wounded, those who are ready to die. God calls upon every man to take up his neglected work, to seek to restore the moral image of the Creator in humanity.
------------------------Speak the Truth to My Neighbor, August 17
			Being a Good Neighbor
ML	233	1	These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates. Zechariah 8:16
ML	233	2	To all who are working with Christ I would say, Wherever you can gain access to the people by the fireside, improve your opportunity. Take your Bible, and open before them its great truths. Your success will not depend so much upon your knowledge and accomplishments as upon your ability to find your way to the heart. By being social and coming close to the people, you may turn the current of their thoughts more readily than by the most able discourse.
ML	233	3	Take along the publications and ask them to read. When they see that you are sincere they will not despise any of your efforts. There is a way to reach the hardest hearts. Approach in the simplicity and sincerity and humility that will help us to reach the souls of them for whom Christ died.
ML	233	4	Allow no opportunity to pass unimproved. Visit those who live near you, and by sympathy and kindness try to reach their hearts. Visit the sick and suffering and show a kindly interest in them. If possible, do something to make them more comfortable. Through this means you can reach their hearts and speak a word for Christ. Eternity alone will reveal how far reaching such a line of labor can be.
ML	233	5	Those who do not take up this work, those who act with the indifference that some have manifested, will soon lose their first love and will begin to censure, criticize, and condemn their own brethren.
ML	233	6	Those who go forth in the spirit of the Master, seeking to reach souls with the truth, will ... become more and more vitalized as they give themselves to the service of God. It is a joyous work to open the Scriptures to others.
------------------------Save Myself by Saving Others, August 18
			Being a Good Neighbor
ML	234	1	Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. 1 Timothy 4:16
ML	234	2	I have read of a man who, journeying on a winter's day through deep drifts of snow, became benumbed by the cold, which was almost imperceptibly freezing his vital powers. He was nearly chilled to death, and was about to give up the struggle for life, when he heard the moans of a fellow traveler who was also perishing with cold. His sympathy was aroused, and he determined to rescue him. He chafed the ice-cold limbs of the unfortunate man, and after considerable effort raised him to his feet. As the sufferer could not stand, he bore him in sympathizing arms through the very drifts he had thought he could never get through alone.
ML	234	3	When he had carried his fellow traveler to a place of safety, the truth flashed home to him that in saving his neighbor he had also saved himself. His earnest efforts to help another had quickened the blood that was freezing in his own veins and sent a healthy warmth to the extremities of his body.
ML	234	4	The lesson that in helping others we ourselves receive help must be urged upon young believers continually, by precept and example, that in their Christian experience they may gain the best results. Let the desponding ones, those disposed to think that the way to eternal life is trying and difficult, go to work to help others. Such efforts, united with prayer for divine light, will cause their own hearts to throb with the quickening influence of the grace of God, their own affections to glow with more divine fervor. Their whole Christian life will be more of a reality, more earnest, more prayerful.... The testimonies borne by them in the Sabbath services will be filled with power. With joy they will bear witness to the preciousness of the experience they have gained in working for others.
------------------------Be Kind and Tenderhearted, August 19
			Being a Good Neighbor
ML	235	1	Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32
ML	235	2	Let the tenderness and mercy that Jesus has revealed in His own precious life be an example to us of the manner in which we should treat our fellow beings.... Many have fainted and become discouraged in the great struggle of life, whom one word of kindly cheer and courage would have strengthened to overcome.... We cannot tell how far reaching may be our tender words of kindness, our Christ-like efforts to lighten some burden. The erring can be restored in no other way than in the spirit of meekness, gentleness, and tender love.
ML	235	3	In all your transactions with your fellow men never forget that you are dealing with God's property. Be kind; be pitiful; be courteous. Respect God's purchased possession. Treat one another with tenderness and courtesy.
ML	235	4	If you have enmity, suspicion, envy, and jealousy in your hearts, you have a work to do to make these things right. Confess your sins; come into harmony with your brethren. Speak well of them. Throw out no unfavorable hints, no suggestions that will awaken distrust in the minds of others. Guard their reputation as sacredly as you would have them guard yours; love them as you would be loved of Jesus.
ML	235	5	The grace of God leads men to place themselves in all their business transactions in the place of those with whom they are dealing. It leads men to look not only on their own things but also on the things of others. It leads them to reveal tenderness, sympathy, and kindness. Cherishing a right spirit, living a holy life--this is what being Christlike means....
ML	235	6	Let your life be controlled by the wide, generous principles of the Bible, the principles of good will, kindness, and courtesy.
------------------------Have an Understanding Heart, August 20
			Being a Good Neighbor
ML	236	1	I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart. 1 Kings 3:12
ML	236	2	Solomon in his youth made David's choice his own. Above every earthly good he asked of God a wise and understanding heart.... The power of his understanding, the extent of his knowledge, the glory of his reign, became the wonder of the world.
ML	236	3	The name of Jehovah was greatly honored during the first part of Solomon's reign. The wisdom and righteousness revealed by the king bore witness to all nations of the excellency of the attributes of the God whom he served. For a time Israel was as the light of the world, showing forth the greatness of Jehovah. Not in the surpassing wisdom, the fabulous riches, the far-reaching power and fame that were his, lay the real glory of Solomon's early reign; but in the honor that he brought to the name of the God of Israel through a wise use of the gifts of Heaven.
ML	236	4	As the years went by and Solomon's fame increased, he sought to honor God by adding to his mental and spiritual strength and by continuing to impart to others the blessings he received. None understood better than he that it was through the favor of Jehovah that he had come into possession of power and wisdom and understanding, and that these gifts were bestowed that he might give to the world a knowledge of the King of kings.
ML	236	5	As the man is converted by the truth, the work of transformation of character goes on. He has an increased measure of understanding, in becoming a man of obedience to God. The mind and will of God become His will, and by constantly looking to God for counsel, he becomes a man of increased understanding. There is a general development of the mind that is unreservedly placed under the guidance of the Spirit of God.
------------------------Be Full of Compassion, August 21
			Being a Good Neighbor
ML	237	1	Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. Psalm 112:4
ML	237	2	Wherever there is an impulse of love and sympathy, wherever the heart reaches out to bless and uplift others, there is revealed the working of God's Holy Spirit. In the depths of heathenism men who have had no knowledge of the written law of God, who have never even heard the name of Christ, have been kind to His servants, protecting them at the risk of their own lives. Their acts show the working of a divine power. The Holy Spirit has implanted the grace of Christ in the heart of the savage, quickening his sympathies contrary to his nature, contrary to his education....
ML	237	3	Christ is seeking to uplift all who will be lifted to companionship with Himself, that we may be one with Him as He is one with the Father. He permits us to come in contact with suffering and calamity in order to call us out of our selfishness; He seeks to develop in us the attributes of His character--compassion, tenderness, and love. By accepting this work of ministry we place ourselves in His school, to be fitted for the courts of God....
ML	237	4	By cooperating with heavenly beings in their work on earth, we are preparing for their companionship in heaven. "Ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation," angels in heaven will welcome those who on earth have lived "not to be ministered unto, but to minister." In this blessed companionship we shall learn, to our eternal joy, all that is wrapped up in the question, "Who is my neighbor?"
ML	237	5	Every act of love, every word of kindness, every prayer in behalf of the suffering and oppressed, is reported before the eternal throne and placed on heaven's imperishable record.
------------------------Sing and Pray With My Neighbors, August 22
			Being a Good Neighbor
ML	238	1	They sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped. 2 Chronicles 29:30
ML	238	2	The presentation of the truth in love and sympathy, from house to house, is in harmony with the instruction that Christ gave to His disciples when He sent them out on their first missionary tour. By songs of praise to God, by humble, heartfelt prayers, by a simple presentation of Bible truth in the family circle, many will be reached. The divine [Worker] will be present to send conviction to hearts. "I am with you alway" is His promise. With the assurance of the abiding presence of such a Helper, we may labor with hope and faith and courage.
ML	238	3	Those who have the gift of song are needed. Song is one of the most effective means of impressing spiritual truth upon the heart. Often by the words of sacred songs the springs of penitence and faith have been unsealed.... Church members, young and old, should be educated to go forth to proclaim this last message to the world. If they go in humility, angels of God will go with them, teaching them how to lift up the voice in prayer, how to raise the voice in song, and how to proclaim the gospel message for this time.
ML	238	4	Learn to sing the simplest of songs. These will help you in house-to-house labor, and hearts will be touched by the influence of the Holy Spirit. Christ was often heard singing hymns of praise.... There was joy in His heart. We learn from the Word that there is joy among the angels of heaven over one repentant sinner and that the Lord rejoices over His church with singing.
ML	238	5	As, like the disciples, you go from place to place telling the story of the Saviour's love, you will make friends and will see the fruit of your labor.
------------------------Visit Fatherless and Widows, August 23
			Pure Religion Defined
ML	239	1	Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27
ML	239	2	Among all whose needs demand our interest, the widow and the fatherless have the strongest claims upon our tender sympathy and care....
ML	239	3	The father who has died in the faith, resting upon the eternal promise of God, left his loved ones in full trust that the Lord would care for them. And how does the Lord provide for these bereaved ones? He does not work a miracle in sending manna from heaven, He does not send ravens to bring them food; but He works a miracle upon human hearts, He expels selfishness from the soul, He unseals the fountain of benevolence. He tests the love of His professed followers by committing to their tender mercies the afflicted and bereaved ones, the poor and the orphan.
ML	239	4	Many a widowed mother with her fatherless children is bravely striving to bear her double burden, often toiling far beyond her strength in order to keep her little ones with her and to provide for their needs. Little time has she for their training and instruction, little opportunity to surround them with influences that would brighten their lives. She needs encouragement, sympathy, and tangible help. God calls upon us to supply to these children, so far as we can, the want of a father's care.... Seek to aid the careworn mother.
ML	239	5	In homes supplied with life's comforts, in bins and granaries filled with the yield of abundant harvests, in warehouses stocked with the products of the loom, and vaults stored with gold and silver, God has supplied means for the sustenance of these needy ones.
ML	239	6	Those who have pity for the ... widows, the orphans, and the needy, Christ represents as commandment keepers, who shall have eternal life.
------------------------Deal My Bread to the Hungry, August 24
			Pure Religion Defined
ML	240	1	Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? Isaiah 58:7
ML	240	2	What is pure religion? Christ has told us that pure religion is the exercise of pity, sympathy, and love, in the home, in the church, and in the world....
ML	240	3	We are to think and care for others who need our love, our tenderness, and care. We should ever remember that we are representatives of Christ, and that we are to share the blessings that He gives, not with those who can recompense us again, but with those who will appreciate the gifts that will supply their temporal and spiritual necessities. Those who give feasts for the purpose of helping those who have but little pleasure, for the purpose of bringing brightness into their dreary lives, for the purpose of relieving their poverty and distress, are acting unselfishly and in harmony with the instruction of Christ.
ML	240	4	All around us we see want and suffering. Families are in need of food; little ones are crying for bread. The houses of the poor lack proper furniture and bedding. Many live in mere hovels which are almost destitute of conveniences. The cry of the poor reaches to heaven. God sees; God hears.
ML	240	5	The work of gathering in the needy ... is the very work which every church that believes the truth for this time should long since have been doing. We are to show the tender sympathy of the Samaritan in supplying physical necessities, feeding the hungry, bringing the poor that are cast out to our homes, gathering from God every day grace and strength that will enable us to reach to the very depths of human misery and help those who cannot possibly help themselves. In doing this work we have a favorable opportunity to set forth Christ the crucified One.
------------------------Clothe the Naked, August 25
			Pure Religion Defined
ML	241	1	I was ... naked, and ye clothed me. Matthew 25:35, 36
ML	241	2	Christ ... says, It was I who was hungry and thirsty. It was I who was a stranger. It was I who was sick. It was I who was in prison.... While you crowded your wardrobe with rich apparel, I was destitute. While you pursued your pleasures, I languished in prison.
ML	241	3	When you doled out the pittance of bread to the starving poor, when you gave those flimsy garments to shield them from the biting frost, did you remember that you were giving to the Lord of glory? All the days of your life I was near you in the person of these afflicted ones, but you did not seek Me. You would not enter into fellowship with Me.
ML	241	4	In the professed Christian world there is enough expended in extravagant display, for jewels and ornaments, to supply the wants of all the hungry and clothe the naked in our towns and cities; and yet these professed followers of the meek and lowly Jesus need not deprive themselves of suitable food or comfortable clothing. What will these church members say when confronted in the day of God by the worthy poor, the afflicted, the widows and fatherless, who have known pinching want for the meager necessities of life, while there was expended by these professed followers of Christ, for superfluous clothing, and needless ornaments expressly forbidden in the Word of God, enough to supply all their wants?
ML	241	5	In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah the work that the people of God are to do in Christ's lines is clearly set forth. They are to break every yoke, they are to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked.... If they carry out the principles of the law of God in acts of mercy and love, they will represent the character of God to the world, and receive the richest blessings of Heaven.
------------------------Relieve the Oppressed, August 26
			Pure Religion Defined
ML	242	1	Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17
ML	242	2	Jesus, the precious Saviour, the pattern man, was firm as a rock where truth and duty were concerned. And His life was a perfect illustration of true courtesy. Kindness and gentleness gave fragrance to His character. He had ever a kind look and a word of comfort and consolation for the needy and oppressed....
ML	242	3	When you meet those who are careworn and oppressed, who know not which way to turn to find relief, put your hearts into the work of helping them. It is not God's purpose that His children shall shut themselves up to themselves, taking no interest in the welfare of those less fortunate than themselves. Remember that for them as well as for you Christ has died. Conciliation and kindness will open the way for you to help them, to win their confidence, to inspire them with hope and courage.
ML	242	4	Let not men allow their business dealing to rob them of their humaneness.... Kind words, pleasant looks, a condescending demeanor, are of great value. There is a charm in the intercourse of men who are truly courteous.... How restoring and uplifting the influence of such dealing upon men who are poor and depressed, borne down to the earth by sickness and poverty! Shall we withhold from them the balm that such dealing brings?
ML	242	5	Every act of justice, mercy, and benevolence makes melody in heaven. The Father from His throne beholds those who do these acts of mercy, and numbers them with His most precious treasures. "And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels." Every merciful act to the needy, the suffering, is regarded as though done to Jesus. When you succor the poor, sympathize with the afflicted and oppressed, and befriend the orphan, you bring yourselves into a closer relationship to Jesus.
------------------------Be Eyes to the Blind; Feet to the Lame, August 27
			Pure Religion Defined
ML	243	1	I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. Job 29:15
ML	243	2	Watch carefully, prayerfully, conscientiously, lest the mind become so engrossed with many important business transactions that true godliness is overlooked and love is quenched from the soul, notwithstanding the great and pitiful need of your being God's helping hand to the blind and to all others who are unfortunate. The most friendless demand the most attention. Use your time and strength in learning to be "fervent in spirit," to deal justly, and to love mercy, "serving the Lord." Remember that Christ says, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me."
ML	243	3	God requires His people to be far more pitiful and considerate of the unfortunate than they are.... God requires that the same consideration which should be given to the widow and fatherless be given to the blind and to those suffering under the affliction of other physical infirmities. Disinterested benevolence is very rare in this age of the world.... It is strange that professed Christian men should disregard the plain, positive teachings of the Word of God and feel no compunction of conscience. God places upon them the responsibility of caring for the unfortunate, the blind, the lame, the widow, and the fatherless; but many make no effort to regard it.
ML	243	4	There is a great work to be done in our world, and as we approach the close of earth's history, it does not lessen in the least degree; but when the perfect love of God is in the heart, wonderful things will be done.
------------------------A Father to the Poor, August 28
			Pure Religion Defined
ML	244	1	I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out. Job 29:16
ML	244	2	This was an evidence that Job had righteousness that was after Christ's order. Through Jesus men may possess a spirit of tender pity toward the needy and distressed.... He descended to the lowest humiliation and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, that He might exalt us to be joint heirs with Himself. The whole world was in need of that which Christ alone could give them. He did not withdraw Himself from those who called upon Him for help. He did not do as many now do, say, "I wish they would not trouble me with their affairs. I want to hoard up my means, to invest it in houses and lands." Jesus, the Majesty of heaven, turned from the splendor of His heavenly home, and in the gracious purpose of His heart He demonstrated the character of God to men throughout the world.
ML	244	3	Take away poverty, and we should have no way of understanding the mercy and love of God, no way of knowing the compassionate and sympathetic heavenly Father.
ML	244	4	First meet the temporal necessities of the needy and relieve their physical wants and sufferings, and you will then find an open avenue to the heart, where you may plant the good seeds of virtue and religion.
ML	244	5	Never does the gospel put on an aspect of greater loveliness than when it is brought to the most needy and destitute regions.... Truth from the Word of God enters the hovel of the peasant and lights up the rude cottages of the poor.... Rays from the Sun of Righteousness bring gladness to the sick and suffering. Angels of God are there.... Those who have been loathed and abandoned are raised through faith and pardon to the dignity of sons and daughters of God.
ML	244	6	Christianity is the solace of the poor.
------------------------Remember Especially Needy Church Members, August 29
			Pure Religion Defined
ML	245	1	As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:10
ML	245	2	In a special sense Christ has laid upon His church the duty of caring for the needy among its own members. He suffers His poor to be in the borders of every church. They are always to be among us, and He places upon the members of the church a personal responsibility to care for them. As the members of a true family care for one another, ministering to the sick, supporting the weak, teaching the ignorant, training the inexperienced, so is the "household of faith" to care for its needy and helpless ones.
ML	245	3	It is the duty of each church to make careful, judicious arrangements for the care of its poor and sick.
ML	245	4	Any neglect on the part of those who claim to be followers of Christ, a failure to relieve the necessities of a brother or a sister who is bearing the yoke of poverty and oppression, is registered in the books of heaven as shown to Christ in the person of His saints. What a reckoning the Lord will have with many, very many, who present the words of Christ to others but fail to manifest tender sympathy and regard for a brother in the faith who is less fortunate and successful than themselves.
ML	245	5	A true Christian is the poor man's friend. He deals with his perplexed and unfortunate brother as one would deal with a delicate, tender, sensitive plant. God wants His workers to move among the sick and suffering as messengers of His love and mercy. He is looking upon us, to see how we are treating one another, whether we are Christlike in our dealing with all, high or low, rich or poor, free or bond.
ML	245	6	There is no question in regard to the Lord's poor. They are to be helped in every case where it will be for their benefit.
------------------------My Spirituality Strengthened and Health Improves, August 30
			Rewards of Service
ML	246	1	Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Isaiah 58:8
ML	246	2	Is not this what we all crave? Oh, there is health and peace in doing the will of our Heavenly Father. "Thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday; and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."
ML	246	3	If thou clothe the naked, and bring the poor ... to thy house, and deal thy bread to the hungry, "then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily." Doing good is an excellent remedy for disease.
ML	246	4	The pleasure of doing good to others imparts a glow to the feelings which flashes through the nerves, quickens the circulation of the blood, and induces mental and physical health.
ML	246	5	Pure and undefiled religion is not a sentiment, but the doing of works of mercy and love. This religion is necessary to health and happiness. It enters the polluted soul temple, and with a scourge drives out the sinful intruders. Taking the throne, it consecrates all by its presence, illuminating the heart....It opens the windows of the soul heavenward, letting in the sunshine of God's love. With it comes serenity and composure. Physical, mental, and moral strength increase, because the atmosphere of heaven, as a living, active agency, fills the soul.
------------------------I May Shine as the Stars for Ever and Ever, August 31
			Rewards of Service
ML	247	1	And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:3
ML	247	2	He who has appointed "to every man his work," according to his ability, will never let the faithful performance of duty go unrewarded. Every act of loyalty and faith will be crowned with special tokens of God's favor and approbation. To every worker is given the promise: "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."
ML	247	3	However short our service or humble our work, if in simple faith we follow Christ, we shall not be disappointed of the reward. That which even the greatest and wisest cannot earn, the weakest and most humble may receive. Heaven's golden gate opens not to the self-exalted. It is not lifted up to the proud in spirit. But the everlasting portals will open wide to the trembling touch of a little child. Blessed will be the recompense of grace to those who have wrought for God in the simplicity of faith and love.
ML	247	4	The brows of those who do this work will wear the crown of sacrifice. But they will receive their reward.
ML	247	5	To every worker for God this thought should be a stimulus and an encouragement. In this life our work for God often seems to be almost fruitless. Our efforts to do good may be earnest and persevering, yet we may not be permitted to witness their results. To us the effort may seem to be lost. But the Saviour assures us that our work is noted in heaven, and that the recompense cannot fail.
ML	247	6	Though his life may be hard and self-denying,...in the sight of heaven it will be a success, and he will be ranked as one of God's noblemen. "They that be wise shall shine as the brightest of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."
------------------------Wholly Sanctified: Body, Soul, and Spirit, September 1
			Sanctification
ML	248	1	The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23
ML	248	2	The sanctification set forth in the Sacred Scriptures has to do with the entire being--spirit, soul, and body. Here is the true idea of entire consecration. Paul prays that the church at Thessalonica may enjoy this great blessing. "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thessalonians 5:23....
ML	248	3	True sanctification is an entire conformity to the will of God. Rebellious thoughts and feelings are overcome, and the voice of Jesus awakens a new life, which pervades the entire being. Those who are truly sanctified will not set up their own opinion as a standard of right and wrong. They are not bigoted or self-righteous; but they are jealous of self, ever fearing, lest a promise being left them, they should come short of complying with the conditions upon which the promises are based....
ML	248	4	Bible sanctification does not consist in strong emotion. Here is where many are led into error. They make feelings their criterion. When they feel elated or happy, they claim that they are sanctified. Happy feelings or the absence of joy is no evidence that a person is or is not sanctified. There is no such thing as instantaneous sanctification. True sanctification is a daily work, continuing as long as life shall last. Those who are battling with daily temptations, over-coming their own sinful tendencies, and seeking for holiness of heart and life make no boastful claims of holiness. They are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Sin appears to them exceedingly sinful.
ML	248	5	Genuine sanctification ... is nothing less than a daily dying to self and daily conformity to the will of God.
------------------------A Practical Example of Sanctification, September 2
			Sanctification
ML	249	1	Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:25-27
ML	249	2	Here is Bible sanctification. It is not merely a show or outside work. It is sanctification received through the channel of truth. It is truth received in the heart and practically carried out in the life.
ML	249	3	Jesus, considered as a man, was perfect, yet He grew in grace. Luke 2:52: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." Even the most perfect Christian may increase continually in the knowledge and love of God....
ML	249	4	"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen."
ML	249	5	Sanctification is not the work of a moment, an hour, or a day. It is a continual growth in grace. We know not one day how strong will be our conflict the next. Satan lives, and is active, and every day we need to cry earnestly to God for help and strength to resist him. As long as Satan reigns we shall have self to subdue, besetments to overcome, and there is no stopping place, there is no point to which we can come and say we have fully attained....
ML	249	6	The Christian life is constantly an onward march. Jesus sits as a refiner and purifier of His people; and when His image is perfectly reflected in them, they are perfect and holy, and prepared for translation.
ML	249	7	Every living Christian will advance daily in the divine life. As he advances toward perfection, he experiences a conversion to God every day; and this conversion is not completed until he attains to perfection of Christian character, a full preparation for the finishing touch of immortality.
------------------------Sanctified Through Obedience, September 3
			Sanctification
ML	250	1	Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the Lord which sanctify you. Leviticus 20:7, 8
ML	250	2	Adam and Eve dared to transgress the Lord's requirements, and the terrible result of their sin should be a warning to us not to follow their example of disobedience....There is no genuine sanctification except through obedience to the truth. Those who love God with all the heart will love all His commandments also. The sanctified heart is in harmony with the precepts of God's law; for they are holy, just, and good.
ML	250	3	No one who truly loves and fears God will continue to transgress the law in any particular. When man transgresses he is under the condemnation of the law, and it becomes to him a yoke of bondage. Whatever his profession may be he is not justified, which means pardoned.
ML	250	4	"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Through obedience comes sanctification of body, soul, and spirit. This sanctification is a progressive work, and an advance from one stage of perfection to another.
ML	250	5	Let a living faith run like threads of gold through the performance of even the smallest duties. Then all the daily work will promote Christian growth. There will be a continual looking unto Jesus. Love for Him will give vital force to everything that is undertaken. Thus through the right use of our talents we may link ourselves by a golden chain to the higher world. This is true sanctification, for sanctification consists in the cheerful performance of daily duties in perfect obedience to the will of God.
ML	250	6	When it is in the heart to obey God, when efforts are put forth to this end, Jesus accepts this disposition and effort as man's best service, and He makes up for the deficiency with His own divine merit.
------------------------The Fruits of Sanctification, September 4
			Sanctification
ML	251	1	Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4
ML	251	2	Through Jesus the fallen sons of Adam become "sons of God." "Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." The Christian's life should be one of faith, of victory, and joy in God. "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." Truly spake God's servant Nehemiah, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." And Paul says: "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." "Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
ML	251	3	Such are the fruits of Bible conversion and sanctification.
ML	251	4	His [the truly righteous man's] nature is so thoroughly imbued with love for God and his fellow men that he works the works of Christ with a willing heart.
ML	251	5	All who come within the sphere of his influence perceive the beauty and fragrance of his Christian life, while he himself is unconscious of it, for it is in harmony with his habits and inclinations. He prays for divine light, and loves to walk in that light. It is his meat and drink to do the will of his heavenly Father. His life is hid with Christ in God; yet he does not boast of this, nor seem conscious of it. God smiles upon the humble and lowly ones who follow closely in the footsteps of the Master. Angels are attracted to them and love to linger about their path. They may be passed by as unworthy of notice by those who claim exalted attainments and who delight in making prominent their good works: but heavenly angels bend lovingly over them and are as a wall of fire round about them.... To man is granted the privilege of becoming an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ.
------------------------Christ Sanctified Himself for Me, September 5
			Sanctification
ML	252	1	As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. John 17:18, 19
ML	252	2	Christ declared He sanctified Himself, that we also might be sanctified. He took upon Himself our nature, and became a faultless pattern for men. He made no mistake, that we also might become victors, and enter into His kingdom as overcomers. He prayed that we might be sanctified through the truth. What is truth? He declared, "Thy word is truth." His disciples were to be sanctified through obedience to the truth. He says, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word." That prayer was for us; we have believed in the testimony of the disciples of Christ. He prays that His disciples may be one, even as He and the Father are one; and this unity of believers is to be as testimony to the world that He has sent us, and that we bear the evidence of His grace.
ML	252	3	We are to be brought into a sacred nearness with the world's Redeemer. We are to be one with Christ as He is one with the Father. What a wonderful change the people of God experience in coming into unity with the Son of God! We are to have our tastes, inclinations, ambitions, and passions all subdued, and brought into harmony with the mind and spirit of Christ. This is the very work that the Lord is willing to do for those who believe in Him. Our life and deportment are to have a molding power in the world. The spirit of Christ is to have a controlling influence over the life of His followers, so that they will speak and act like Jesus. Christ says, "The glory which thou gavest Me I have given them." ...
ML	252	4	The grace of Christ is to work a wonderful transformation in the life and character of its receiver; and if we are truly the disciples of Christ, the world will see that divine power has done something for us; for while we are in the world, we shall not be of it.
------------------------Meek Men and Women, September 6
			Examples of Sanctified Lives
ML	253	1	He will beautify the meek with salvation. Psalm 149:4
ML	253	2	The most precious fruit of sanctification is the grace of meekness. When this grace presides in the soul the disposition is molded by its influence. There is a continual waiting upon God and a submission of the will to His. The understanding grasps every divine truth and the will bows to every divine precept, without doubting or murmuring. True meekness softens and subdues the heart and gives the mind a fitness for the engrafted word. It brings the thoughts into obedience to Jesus Christ. It opens the heart to the Word of God, as Lydia's was opened. It places us with Mary, as learners at the feet of Jesus. "The meek will He guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach His way."
ML	253	3	The language of the meek is never that of boasting. Like the child Samuel, they pray, "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." When Joshua was placed in the highest position of honor, as commander of Israel, he bade defiance to all the enemies of God. His heart was filled with noble thoughts of his great mission. Yet upon the intimation of a message from Heaven, he placed himself in the position of a little child to be directed. "What saith my Lord unto His servant?" was his response....
ML	253	4	Meekness in the school of Christ is one of the marked fruits of the Spirit. It is a grace wrought by the Holy Spirit as a sanctifier, and enables its possessor at all times to control a rash and impetuous temper....
ML	253	5	Meekness is the inward adorning, which God estimates as of great price.... He who garnished the heavens with the orbs of light has by the same Spirit promised that "He will beautify the meek with salvation." Angels of heaven will register as best adorned those who put on the Lord Jesus Christ and walk with Him in meekness and lowliness of mind.
------------------------Daniel's Life of Temperance, September 7
			Examples of Sanctified Lives
ML	254	1	But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Daniel 1:8
ML	254	2	The life of Daniel is an inspired illustration of what constitutes a sanctified character. It presents a lesson for all, and especially for the young. A strict compliance with the requirements of God is beneficial to the health of body and mind. In order to reach the highest standard of moral and intellectual attainments, it is necessary to seek wisdom and strength from God and to observe strict temperance in all the habits of life. In the experience of Daniel and his companions we have an instance of the triumph of principle over temptation to indulge the appetite. It shows us that through religious principle young men may triumph over the lusts of the flesh, and remain true to God's requirements, even though it cost them a great sacrifice.
ML	254	3	Daniel was a devoted servant of the Most High. His long life was filled with noble deeds of service for his Master. His purity of character and unwavering fidelity are equaled only by his humility of heart and his contrition before God. We repeat, The life of Daniel is an inspired illustration of true sanctification.
ML	254	4	Wherever they may be, those who are truly sanctified will elevate the moral standards by preserving correct physical habits and, like Daniel, presenting to others an example of temperance and self-denial....
ML	254	5	With what care should Christians regulate their habits, that they may preserve the full vigor of every faculty to give to the service of Christ.
ML	254	6	He who cherishes the light which God has given him upon health reform has an important aid in the work of becoming sanctified through the truth and fitted for immortality.
------------------------Enoch's Life of Holiness, September 8
			Examples of Sanctified Lives
ML	255	1	Enoch walked with God ... three hundred years. Genesis 5:22
ML	255	2	There was a line of holy men who, elevated and ennobled by communion with God, lived as in the companionship of Heaven. They were men of massive intellect, of wonderful attainments. They had a great and holy mission--to develop a character of righteousness, to teach a lesson of godliness, not only to the men of their time, but for future generations....
ML	255	3	Of Enoch it is written that he lived sixty-five years, and begat a son. After that he walked with God three hundred years. During these earlier years Enoch had loved and feared God and had kept His commandments.... From the lips of Adam he had learned the dark story of the fall and the cheering one of God's grace as seen in the promise, and he relied upon the Redeemer to come. But after the birth of his first son Enoch reached a higher experience; he was drawn into a closer relationship with God. He realized more fully his own obligations and responsibility as a son of God. And as he saw the child's love for its father, its simple trust in his protection; as he felt the deep, yearning tenderness of his own heart for that first-born son, he learned a precious lesson of the wonderful love of God to men in the gift of His Son and the confidence which the children of God may repose in their heavenly Father. The infinite, unfathomable love of God through Christ became the subject of his meditations day and night, and with all the fervor of his soul he sought to reveal that love to the people among whom he dwelt.
ML	255	4	Enoch's walk with God was not in a trance or a vision, but in all the duties of his daily life.... In the family and in his intercourse with men, as a husband and father, a friend, a citizen, he was the steadfast, unwavering servant of the Lord.
------------------------Steadfast Integrity of the Three Hebrews, September 9
			Examples of Sanctified Lives
ML	256	1	Nebuchadnezzar ... said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said ... , True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Daniel 3:24, 25
ML	256	2	These three Hebrews possessed genuine sanctification. True Christian principle will not stop to weigh consequences. It does not ask, What will people think of me if I do this? or how will it affect my worldly prospects if I do that? With the most intense longing the children of God desire to know what He would have them do, that their works may glorify Him. The Lord has made ample provision that the hearts and lives of all His followers may be controlled by divine grace, that they may be as burning and shining lights in the world.
ML	256	3	These faithful Hebrews possessed great natural ability; they had enjoyed the highest intellectual culture, and now occupied a position of honor; but all this did not lead them to forget God. Their powers were yielded to the sanctifying influence of divine grace. By their steadfast integrity they showed forth the praises of Him who had called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. In their wonderful deliverance were displayed, before that vast assembly, the power and majesty of God. Jesus placed Himself by their side in the fiery furnace, and by the glory of His presence convinced the proud king of Babylon that it could be no other than the Son of God. The light of Heaven had been shining forth from Daniel and his companions, until all their associates understood the faith which ennobled their lives and beautified their characters....
ML	256	4	What a lesson is here given to the fainthearted, the vacillating, the cowardly in the cause of God! ... These faithful, steadfast characters exemplify sanctification, while they have no thought of claiming the high honor.
ML	256	5	Every Christian may enjoy the blessing of sanctification.
------------------------John's Love and Loyalty, September 10
			Examples of Sanctified Lives
ML	257	1	And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16
ML	257	2	The confiding love and unselfish devotion manifested in the life and character of John present lessons of untold value to the Christian church. Some may present him as possessing this love independent of divine grace; but John had, by nature, serious defects of character: he was proud and ambitious and quick to resent slight and injury....
ML	257	3	John desired to become like Jesus, and under the transforming influence of the love of Christ, he became meek and lowly of heart. Self was hid in Jesus. He was closely united to the Living Vine, and thus became a partaker of the divine nature. Such will ever be the result of communion with Christ. This is true sanctification.
ML	257	4	There may be marked defects in the character of an individual, yet when he becomes a true disciple of Jesus, the power of divine grace makes him a new creature. Christ's love transforms, sanctifies him. But when persons profess to be Christians, and their religion does not make them better men and better women in all the relations of life--living representatives of Christ in disposition and character--they are none of His.
ML	257	5	John enjoyed the blessing of true sanctification. But mark, the apostle does not claim to be sinless; he is seeking perfection by walking in the light of God's countenance. He testifies that the man who professes to know God, and yet breaks the divine law, gives the lie to his profession.... While we are to love the souls for whom Christ died, and labor for their salvation, we should not make a compromise with sin. We are not to unite with the rebellious, and call this charity. God requires His people in this age of the world to stand, as did John in his time, unflinchingly for the right, in opposition to soul-destroying errors.
------------------------Lives of John and Judas Contrasted, September 11
			Examples of Sanctified Lives
ML	258	1	The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2:17
ML	258	2	John and his fellow disciples were in a school in which Christ was teacher.... John treasured every lesson and constantly sought to bring his life into harmony with the Divine Pattern. The lessons of Jesus, setting forth meekness, humility, and love as essential to growth in grace and a fitness for his work, were of the highest value to John....
ML	258	3	An instructive lesson may be drawn from the striking contrast between the character of John and that of Judas. John was a living illustration of sanctification. On the other hand, Judas possessed a form of godliness, while his character was more satanic than divine. He professed to be a disciple of Christ, but in words and in works denied Him.
ML	258	4	Judas had the same precious opportunities as had John to study and to imitate the Pattern. He listened to the lessons of Christ, and his character might have been transformed by divine grace. But while John was earnestly warring against his own faults and seeking to assimilate to Christ, Judas was violating his conscience, yielding to temptation, and fastening upon himself habits of dishonesty that would transform him into the image of Satan.
ML	258	5	These two disciples represent the Christian world. All profess to be Christ's followers; but while one class walk in humility and meekness, learning of Jesus, the other show that they are not doers of the Word, but hearers only. One class are sanctified through the truth; the other know nothing of the transforming power of divine grace. The former are daily dying to self, and are overcoming sin. The latter are indulging their own lusts, and becoming the servants of Satan.
------------------------The Lord Sanctifies Sabbathkeepers, September 12
			Examples of Sanctified Lives
ML	259	1	Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. Ezekiel 20:12
ML	259	2	The Lord's day mentioned by John was the Sabbath, the day on which Jehovah rested after the great work of creation, and which He blessed and sanctified because He had rested upon it. The Sabbath was as sacredly observed by John upon the Isle of Patmos as when he was among the people, preaching upon that day. By the barren rocks surrounding him, John was reminded of rocky Horeb, and how, when God spoke His law to the people there, He said, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."
ML	259	3	The Son of God spoke to Moses from the mountaintop. God made the rocks His sanctuary. His temple was the everlasting hills. The Divine Legislator descended upon the rocky mountain to speak His law in the hearing of all the people, that they might be impressed by the grand and awful exhibition of His power and glory, and fear to transgress His commandments.... The law of Jehovah was unchangeable, and the tablets upon which He wrote that law were solid rock, signifying the immutability of His precepts. Rocky Horeb became a sacred spot to all who loved and revered the law of God.
ML	259	4	While John was contemplating the scenes of Horeb, the Spirit of Him who sanctified the seventh day, came upon him. He contemplated the sin of Adam in transgressing the divine law, and the fearful results of that transgression. The infinite love of God, in giving His Son to redeem a lost race, seemed too great for language to express. As he presents it in his epistle, he calls upon the church and the world to behold it.
ML	259	5	All who regard the Sabbath as a sign between them and God ... will represent the principles of His government. They will bring into daily practice the laws of His kingdom. Daily it will be their prayer that the sanctification of the Sabbath may rest upon them.
------------------------Christ is the Truth, September 13
			Sanctifying Power of the Truth
ML	260	1	Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6
ML	260	2	When Christ bowed on the banks of Jordan, after His baptism, the heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended in the form of a dove, like burnished gold, and encircled Him with its glory; and the voice of God from the highest heaven was heard, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The prayer of Christ in man's behalf opened the gates of heaven, and the Father had responded, accepting the petition for the fallen race. Jesus prayed as our substitute and surety, and now the human family may find access to the Father through the merits of His well-beloved Son. This earth, because of transgression, had been struck off from the continent of heaven. Communication had ceased between man and his Maker; but the way has been opened so that he may return to the Father's house. Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life." The gate of heaven has been left ajar, and the radiance from the throne of God shines into the hearts of those who love Him, even though they dwell in this sin-cursed earth. The light that encircled the divine Son of God will fall upon the pathway of all who follow in His footsteps. There is no reason for discouragement. The promises of God are sure and steadfast.
ML	260	3	"Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Do you desire to become the sons and daughters of the Most High? ... You may come unto the Father in the name of His Son, and, no matter how broken and feeble your petitions, Jesus will present them before the throne of infinite power, and the light that was shed upon Him will be reflected upon you. You will be "accepted in the Beloved."
------------------------Truth Sanctifies, September 14
			Sanctifying Power of the Truth
ML	261	1	Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:17
ML	261	2	The truth of God is to sanctify the soul. "A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." The sanctifying power of truth is to abide in the soul and be carried with us to our business, there to apply its continual tests to every transaction of life, especially to our dealings with our fellow men. It is to abide in our households, having a subduing power upon the life and character of all its inmates.
ML	261	3	I must ever urge upon those who profess to believe the truth the necessity of practicing the truth. This means sanctification, and sanctification means the culture and training of every capability for the Lord's service.
ML	261	4	Teach your children to love the truth because it is the truth and because they are to be sanctified through the truth and fitted to stand in the grand review that shall erelong determine whether they are qualified to enter into higher work, and become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King.
ML	261	5	The truth, the precious truth of God's Word, will have a sanctifying effect upon the heart and character. There is work to be done for ourselves and for our children. The natural heart is full of hatred to the truth, as it is to Jesus. Unless parents shall make it the first business of their lives to guide their children's feet into the path of righteousness from their earliest years, the wrong path will be chosen before the right.
ML	261	6	The work of sanctification begins in the home. Those who are Christians in the home will be Christians in the church and in the world.
------------------------Truth Elevates, September 15
			Sanctifying Power of the Truth
ML	262	1	And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Acts 20:32
ML	262	2	The precious faith inspired of God imparts strength and nobility of character. As His goodness, His mercy, and His love are dwelt upon, clearer and still clearer will be the perception of truth; higher, holier the desire for purity of heart and clearness of thought. The soul dwelling in the atmosphere of holy thought is transformed by intercourse with God through the study of His Word. Truth is so large, so far reaching, so deep, so broad, that self is lost sight of. The heart is softened and subdued into humility, kindness, and love.
ML	262	3	The natural powers are enlarged because of holy obedience. From the study of the words of life, students may come forth with minds expanded, elevated, ennobled.... Being pure-minded, they will become strong-minded. Every intellectual faculty will be quickened. They may so educate and discipline themselves that all within the sphere of their influence may see what man can be, and what he can do, when connected with the God of wisdom and power.
ML	262	4	The truth of God never degrades the receiver. The influence of the truth upon him who accepts it will tend constantly to his elevation....
ML	262	5	Those who are sanctified through the truth are living recommendations of its power and representatives of their risen Lord. The religion of Christ will refine the taste, sanctify the judgment, elevate, purify, and ennoble the soul, making the Christian more and more fit for the society of the heavenly angels.
ML	262	6	God bids us fill our minds with great thoughts, pure thoughts.... No one with a spirit to appreciate its teachings can read a single passage from the Bible without gaining from it some helpful thought.
------------------------Truth Purifies, September 16
			Sanctifying Power of the Truth
ML	263	1	Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. 1 Peter 1:22
ML	263	2	The lily on the lake strikes its roots down deep beneath the surface of rubbish and slime, and through its porous stem draws those properties that will aid its development and bring to light its spotless blossom to repose in purity on the bosom of the lake.
ML	263	3	It refuses all that would tarnish and mar its spotless beauty.... Let the youth be found in association with those who fear and love God; for these noble, firm characters are represented by the lily that opens its pure blossom on the bosom of the lake. They refuse to be molded by the influences that would demoralize, and gather to themselves only that which will aid the development of a pure and noble character. They are seeking to be conformed to the divine model.
ML	263	4	In the estimation of God a pure heart is more precious than the gold of Ophir. A pure heart is the temple where God dwells, the sanctuary where Christ takes up his abode. A pure heart is above everything that is cheap or low; it is a shining light, a treasure house from which come uplifting, sanctified words. It is a place where the imagery of God is recognized, and where the highest delight is to behold his image. It is a heart that finds its whole and only pleasure and satisfaction in God, and whose thoughts and intents and purposes are alive with godliness. Such a heart is a sacred place; it is a treasury of all virtue....
ML	263	5	The very thoughts of those whose hearts are pure are brought into captivity to Christ. They are occupied with thinking how they can best glorify God.
ML	263	6	It will then be as natural for us to seek purity and holiness... as it is for the angels of glory to execute the mission of love assigned to them.
------------------------Truth Enlightens, September 17
			Sanctifying Power of the Truth
ML	264	1	The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Ephesians 1:18
ML	264	2	In a knowledge of God, all true knowledge and real development have their source. Wherever we turn, in the physical, the mental, or the spiritual realm; in whatever we behold, apart from the blight of sin, this knowledge is revealed. Whatever line of investigation we pursue with a sincere purpose to arrive at truth, we are brought in touch with the unseen, mighty Intelligence that is working in and through all. The mind of man is brought into communion with the mind of God, the finite with the Infinite. The effect of such communion on body and mind and soul is beyond estimate.
ML	264	3	In this communion is found the highest education. It is God's own method of development. "Acquaint now thyself with Him," is His message to mankind.
ML	264	4	As he studies and meditates upon the themes into which "the angels desire to look," he may have their companionship.... He may dwell in this world in the atmosphere of heaven, imparting to earth's sorrowing and tempted ones thoughts of hope and longings for holiness; himself coming closer and still closer into fellowship with the Unseen; like him of old who walked with God, drawing nearer and nearer the threshold of the eternal world, until the portals shall open, and he shall enter there. He will find himself no stranger. The voices that will greet him are the voices of the holy ones, who, unseen, were on earth his companions--voices that here he learned to distinguish and to love. He who through the word of God has lived in fellowship with Heaven will find himself at home in heaven's companionship.
ML	264	5	Guided by "the Spirit of truth," he will be led into all truth.... He will be precious in the sight of heaven.
------------------------Truth Transforms, September 18
			Sanctifying Power of the Truth
ML	265	1	Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. Psalm 15:1, 2
ML	265	2	We must present the principles of truth, and let them work upon the hearts of the people. We may pick the leaves from a tree as often as we please, but this will not cause the tree to die; the next season the leaves will come out again as thick as before. But strike the ax at the root of the tree, and not only will the leaves fall off of themselves, but the tree will die. Those who accept the truth, in the love of it, will die to the world, and will become meek and lowly in heart like their divine Lord. Just as soon as the heart is right, the dress, the conversation, the life, will be in harmony with the Word of God. We all need to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. May He help us to plant our feet firmly upon the platform of eternal truth.
ML	265	3	The transforming influence of truth sanctifies the soul. He loves the commandments of God. His fear and condemnation are gone. The love of Christ, expressed in His great sacrifice to save man, has broken every barrier down. The love of God flows into the soul, and gratitude springs up in the heart that was as cold as a stone. Christ crucified, Christ our righteousness, wins the heart and brings it to repentance. This theme is so simple that children can grasp it, the wise and learned are charmed with it, while they behold it in its depths of wisdom, love, and power which they can never fathom. We want to present this precious truth to the people who are bound in sin. Let all see that Christ was slain for their transgressions, that He desires to save them.
ML	265	4	Let us remember that there is need of sanctified pens and sanctified tongues. When we as a people live as God would be pleased to have us live, we shall see the deep movings of His Spirit. Much will then be done for those who have never heard the truth.
ML	265	5	We should be pervaded with a deep, abiding sense of the value, sanctity, and the authority of the truth.
------------------------Truth Will Triumph Gloriously, September 19
			Sanctifying Power of the Truth
ML	266	1	Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Isaiah 26:2
ML	266	2	The truth of God must be enshrined in the heart, and we must be determined to fight the battles of the Lord, if we would come off conquerors with the final triumph of the truth; for the truth will triumph gloriously.... If you are seeking to be a blessing to others, God will bless you. We should bring all the good possible into our lives, that we may glorify God and be a blessing to humanity.
ML	266	3	The church is God's agency for the proclamation of truth, empowered by Him to do a special work; and if she is loyal to Him, obedient to all His commandments, there will dwell within her the excellency of divine grace. If she will be true to her allegiance, if she will honor the Lord God of Israel, there is no power that can stand against her.
ML	266	4	Zeal for God and His cause moved the disciples to bear witness to the gospel with mighty power. Should not a like zeal fire our hearts with a determination to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ and Him crucified? It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of the Saviour.
ML	266	5	If the church will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all allegiance with the world, there is before her the dawn of a bright and glorious day. God's promise to her will stand fast forever. He will make her an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Truth, passing by those who despise and reject it, will triumph. Although at times apparently retarded, its progress has never been checked. When the message of God meets with opposition, He gives it additional force, that it may exert greater influence. Endowed with divine energy, it will cut its way through the strongest barriers, and triumph over every obstacle.
------------------------The Work of a Lifetime, September 20
			Perfection of Character
ML	267	1	Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1
ML	267	2	The formation of a right character is the work of a lifetime, and is the outgrowth of prayerful meditation united with a grand purpose. The excellence of character that you possess must be the result of your own effort. Friends may encourage you, but they cannot do the work for you. Wishing, sighing, dreaming, will never make you great or good. You must climb.
ML	267	3	The conversation we have by the fireside, the books we read, the business we transact, are all agents in forming our characters, and day by day decide our eternal destiny.
ML	267	4	Mental ability and genius are not character, for these are often possessed by those who have the very opposite of a good character. Reputation is not character. True character is a quality of the soul, revealing itself in the conduct.
ML	267	5	A character formed according to the divine likeness is the only treasure that we can take from this world to the next. Those who are under the instruction of Christ in this world will take every divine attainment with them to the heavenly mansions. And in heaven we are continually to improve.
ML	267	6	A good character is a capital of more value than gold or silver. It is unaffected by panics or failures, and in that day when earthly possessions shall be swept away, it will bring rich returns. Integrity, firmness, and perseverance are qualities that all should seek earnestly to cultivate; for they clothe the possessor with a power which is irresistible--a power which makes him strong to do good, strong to resist evil, strong to bear adversity.
------------------------Characters Polished After the Similitude of a Palace, September 21
			Perfection of Character
ML	268	1	That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace. Psalm 144:12
ML	268	2	If the youth rightly appreciate this important matter of character-building, they will see the necessity of doing their work so that it will stand the test of investigation before God. The humblest and weakest, by persevering effort in resisting temptation and seeking wisdom from above, may reach heights that now seem impossible. These attainments cannot come without a determined purpose to be faithful in the fulfillment of little duties. It requires constant watchfulness that crooked traits shall not be left to strengthen. The young may have moral power; for Jesus came into the world that He might be our example, and give to all youth and those of every age divine help.
ML	268	3	This world is God's workshop, and every stone that can be used in the heavenly temple must be hewed and polished until it is a tried and precious stone, fitted for its place in the Lord's building. But if we refuse to be trained and disciplined, we shall be as stones that will not be hewed and polished, and that are cast aside at last as useless.
ML	268	4	It may be that much work needs to be done ... , that you are a rough stone, which must be squared and polished before it can fill a place in God's temple. You need not be surprised if with hammer and chisel God cuts away the sharp corners of your character until you are prepared to fill the place He has for you. No human being can accomplish this work. Only by God can it be done. And be assured that He will not strike one useless blow. His every blow is struck in love, for your eternal happiness. He knows your infirmities and works to restore, not to destroy.
ML	268	5	A character polished after the similitude of a palace ... may shine in the courts of the Lord forever.
------------------------Righteous Shall Live Forever, September 22
			Perfection of Character
ML	269	1	For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation. Isaiah 51:8
ML	269	2	I found, among the articles of clothing I needed, some woolen goods which at first appeared all right, but when brought to the light and shaken thoroughly, revealed the destructive work of moths. Had we not made close inspection, we should not have discovered their depredations. The moth is so small a creature as to be scarcely observable; but the traces of its existence are apparent, and the destruction that it makes with fur and woolen goods shows that it is a practical worker, although out of sight and unsuspected.
ML	269	3	Thinking of the secret but destructive work of these moths reminded us of some human beings we had known. How often our hearts have been pained by some sudden revelation in the outward actions of those for whom we had hoped better things, bringing to light their true character, that had heretofore been hidden from the sight of all! When held up before the light of God's Word, the character is found to be like the moth-eaten garment, which, when shaken out and examined, reveals the destructive work that has been going on secretly for years....
ML	269	4	It took time for the moth to do its work of destruction so quietly in the dark; and it takes time, little by little, for a child or youth to be easy and happy and feel secure in a course of prevarication, a course of sin hidden from human eyes. Any one act, either good or evil, does not form the character, but thoughts and feelings indulged prepare the way for acts and deeds of the same kind.... Be careful not to let your feet take the first step in any evil way. If you will lay the foundation for your character in a pure, virtuous life, seeking help and strength from God, your character will not be like the moth-eaten garment, but it will be firm and solid.
------------------------God Loves Most a Beautiful Character, September 23
			Perfection of Character
ML	270	1	Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Psalm 90:17
ML	270	2	God is a lover of the beautiful, but that which He most loves is a beautiful character.... It is beauty of character that shall not perish, but last through the ceaseless ages of eternity.
ML	270	3	The great Master-Artist has taken thought for the lilies, making them so beautiful that they outshine the glory of Solomon. How much more does He care for man, who is the image and glory of God. He longs to see His children reveal a character after His similitude. As the sunbeam imparts to the flowers their varied and delicate tints, so does God impart to the soul the beauty of His own character.
ML	270	4	All who choose Christ's kingdom of love and righteousness and peace, making its interest paramount to all other, are linked to the world above, and every blessing needed for this life is theirs. In the book of God's providence, the volume of life, we are each given a page. That page contains every particular of our history; even the hairs of the head are numbered. God's children are never absent from His mind.
ML	270	5	Worldly display, however imposing, is of no value in God's sight. Above the seen and temporal He values the unseen and eternal. The former is of worth only as it expresses the latter. The choicest productions of art possess no beauty that can compare with the beauty of character, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit's working in the soul....
ML	270	6	Christ came to the earth and stood before the children of men with the hoarded love of eternity, and this is the treasure that, through our connection with Him, we are to receive, to reveal, and to impart....
ML	270	7	We are to be distinguished from the world because God has placed His seal upon us, because He manifests in us His own character of love.
------------------------Perfection, the Goal to Be Gained, September 24
			Perfection of Character
ML	271	1	Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48
ML	271	2	God will accept only those who are determined to aim high. He places every human agent under obligation to do his best. Moral perfection is required of all. Never should we lower the standard of righteousness in order to accommodate inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrongdoing. We need to understand that imperfection of character is sin. All righteous attributes of character dwell in God as a perfect, harmonious whole, and every one who receives Christ as a personal Saviour is privileged to possess these attributes.
ML	271	3	And those who would be workers together with God must strive for perfection of every organ of the body and quality of the mind. True education is the preparation of the physical, mental, and moral powers for the performance of every duty; it is the training of body, mind, and soul for divine service. This is the education that will endure unto eternal life....
ML	271	4	But Christ has given us no assurance that to attain perfection of character is an easy matter. A noble, all-around character is not inherited. It does not come to us by accident. A noble character is earned by individual effort through the merits and grace of Christ. God gives the talents, the powers of the mind; we form the character. It is formed by hard, stern battles with self. Conflict after conflict must be waged against hereditary tendencies. We shall have to criticize ourselves closely, and allow not one unfavorable trait to remain uncorrected.
ML	271	5	Let no one say, I cannot remedy my defects of character.... The real difficulty arises from the corruption of an unsanctified heart and an unwillingness to submit to the control of God.
ML	271	6	Subjection to the will of Christ means restoration to perfect manhood.
------------------------Clothed in the Robe of Righteousness, September 25
			Perfection of Character
ML	272	1	And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Revelation 19:8
ML	272	2	By the wedding garment ... is represented the pure, spotless character which Christ's true followers will possess. To the church it is given "that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white," "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." The fine linen, says the Scripture, "is the righteousness of saints." It is the righteousness of Christ, His own unblemished character, that through faith is imparted to all who receive Him as their personal Saviour....
ML	272	3	This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of human devising. Christ in His humanity wrought out a perfect character, and this character He offers to impart to us....
ML	272	4	When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness....
ML	272	5	Righteousness is rightdoing, and it is by their deeds that all will be judged. Our characters are revealed by what we do.
ML	272	6	Let the youth and the little children be taught to choose for themselves that royal robe woven in heaven's loom--the "fine linen, clean and white," which all the holy ones of earth will wear. This robe, Christ's own spotless character, is freely offered to every human being. But all who receive it will receive and wear it here.
ML	272	7	Clothed in the glorious apparel of Christ's righteousness, they have a place at the King's feast. They have a right to join the blood-washed throng.
------------------------Saints Shall Possess the Kingdom, September 26
			Perfection of Character
ML	273	1	The saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. Daniel 7:18
ML	273	2	God takes none to heaven but those who are first made saints in this world through the grace of Christ, those in whom He can see Christ exemplified. When the love of Christ is an abiding principle in the soul, we shall realize that we are hid with Christ in God....
ML	273	3	These only who, by prayer and watchfulness and love, work the works of Christ, can God rejoice over with singing. The more fully the Lord sees the character of His beloved Son revealed in His people, the greater is His satisfaction and delight in them. God Himself and the heavenly angels rejoice over them with singing. The believing sinner is pronounced innocent, while the guilt is placed on Christ. The righteousness of Christ is placed on the debtor's account, and against his name on the balance sheet is written: Pardoned. Eternal Life....
ML	273	4	"Ye are God's husbandry." As one takes pleasure in the cultivation of a garden, so God takes pleasure in His believing sons and daughters. A garden demands constant labor. The weeds must be removed; new plants must be set out; branches that are making too rapid development must be pruned back. So the Lord works for His garden, so He tends His plants. He cannot take pleasure in any development that does not reveal the graces of the character of Christ. The blood of Christ has made men and women God's precious charge.... Some plants are so feeble that they have hardly any life, and for these the Lord has a special care.
ML	273	5	Only those will enter heaven who in probationary time have formed a character that breathes a heavenly influence. The saint in heaven must first be a saint upon earth.
------------------------Partakers Through God's Promises, September 27
			Partakers of the Divine Nature
ML	274	1	Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4
ML	274	2	Every promise that is in God's book holds out to us the encouragement that we may be partakers of the divine nature. This is the possibility--to rely upon God, to believe His Word, to work His works, and this we can do when we lay hold of the divinity of Christ. This possibility is worth more to us than all the riches in the world. There is nothing on earth that can compare with it. As we lay hold of the power thus placed within our reach, we receive a hope so strong that we can rely wholly upon God's promise; and laying hold of the possibilities there are in Christ, we become the sons and daughters of God....
ML	274	3	He who truly believes in Christ is made partaker of the divine nature, and has power that he can appropriate under every temptation. He will not fall under temptation or be left to defeat. In time of trial he will claim the promises, and by these escape the corruptions that are in the world through lust....
ML	274	4	To make us partakers of the divine nature, heaven gave its most costly treasure. The Son of God laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown and came to our earth as a little child. He pledged Himself to live from infancy to manhood a perfect life. He engaged to stand in a fallen world as the representative of the Father. And He would die in behalf of a lost race. What a work was this! ... I hardly know how to present these points; they are so wonderful, wonderful....
ML	274	5	By His life of sacrifice and death of shame He has made it possible for us to take hold of His divinity, and to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.... If you are partakers of the divine nature, you will day by day be obtaining a fitting for that life that measures with the life of God. Day by day you will purify your trust in Jesus and follow His example and grow into His likeness until you shall stand before Him perfected.
------------------------Christ Dwells in Me, September 28
			Partakers of the Divine Nature
ML	275	1	Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. John 6:53-56
ML	275	2	To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ is to receive Him as a personal Saviour, believing that He forgives our sins and that we are complete in Him. It is by beholding His love, by dwelling upon it, by drinking it in, that we are to become partakers of His nature. What food is to the body, Christ must be to the soul. Food cannot benefit us unless we eat it, unless it becomes a part of our being. So Christ is of no value to us if we do not know Him as a personal Saviour. A theoretical knowledge will do us no good. We must feed upon Him, receive Him into the heart, so that His life becomes our life. His love, His grace, must be assimilated.
ML	275	3	It is not enough even that we believe on Christ for the forgiveness of sin; we must by faith be constantly receiving spiritual strength and nourishment from Him through His word.... "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Jesus accepted His Father's law, wrought out its principles in His life, manifested its spirit, and showed its beneficent power in the heart.... The followers of Christ must be partakers of His experience. They must receive and assimilate the Word of God so that it shall become the motive power of life and action. By the power of Christ they must be changed into His likeness, and reflect the divine attributes.
ML	275	4	It is by receiving the life for us poured out on Calvary's cross that we can live the life of holiness. And this life we receive by receiving His word, by doing those things which He has commanded. Thus we become one with Him.
------------------------Dwell Together in Unity, September 29
			Partakers of the Divine Nature
ML	276	1	Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Psalm 133:1
ML	276	2	Christian unity is a mighty agency. It tells in a powerful manner that those who possess it are children of God. It has an irresistible influence upon the world, showing that man in his humanity may be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. We are to be one with our fellow men and with Christ, and in Christ one with God. Then of us can be spoken the words, "Ye are complete in Him."
ML	276	3	In the plan of redemption a place is allotted to every soul. To each man is given his work. No one can be a member of Christ's body and yet be inactive.... The work of God's people may and will be varied, but one Spirit is the mover in it all. All the work done for the Master is to be connected with the great whole. The workers are to labor together in concert, each one controlled by divine power, putting forth undivided effort to draw those around them to Christ. All must move like parts of a well-adjusted machinery, each part dependent on the other part, yet standing distinct in action. And each one is to take the place assigned him and do the work appointed him. God calls upon the members of His church to receive the Holy Spirit, to come together in unity and brotherly sympathy, to bind their interests together in love.
ML	276	4	Nothing so manifestly weakens a church as disunion and strife. Nothing so wars against Christ and the truth as this spirit....
ML	276	5	He in whose heart Christ abides recognizes Christ abiding in the heart of his brother. Christ never wars against Christ. Christ never exerts an influence against Christ. Christians are to do their work, whatever it may be, in the unity of the Spirit, for the perfecting of the whole body.
------------------------Strength From Above, September 30
			Partakers of the Divine Nature
ML	277	1	But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
ML	277	2	Wonderful are the possibilities before the youth to grasp the assurances of God's Word. Scarcely can the human mind comprehend the spiritual attainments which can be reached by them as they become partakers of the divine nature. Daily correcting mistakes and gaining victories, they grow into wise, strong men and women in Christ.
ML	277	3	He who has become a partaker of the divine nature knows that his citizenship is above. He catches the inspiration from the Spirit of Christ. His soul is hid with Christ in God. Such a man Satan can no longer employ as his instrumentality to insinuate himself into the very sanctuary of God, to defile the temple of God. He gains victories at every step. He is filled with ennobling thoughts. He regards every human being as precious, because Christ has died for every soul.
ML	277	4	"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles." The man who waits upon the Lord is strong in his strength, strong enough to hold firm under great pressure. Yet he is easy to be entreated on the side of mercy and compassion, which is the side of Christ. The soul that is submissive to God is ready to do the will of God; he diligently and humbly seeks to know that will. He accepts discipline, and is afraid to walk according to his own finite judgment. He communes with God, and his conversation is in heaven.
ML	277	5	Linked to the Infinite One, man is made partaker of the divine nature. Upon him the shafts of evil have no effect; for he is clothed with the panoply of Christ's righteousness.
------------------------Respect For Parents, October 1
			Respect in My Life
ML	278	1	Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Exodus 20:12
ML	278	2	The best way to educate children to respect their father and mother is to give them the opportunity of seeing the father offering kindly attentions to the mother, and the mother rendering respect and reverence to the father. It is by beholding love in their parents that children are led to obey the fifth commandment....
ML	278	3	Our obligation to our parents never ceases. Our love for them, and theirs for us, is not measured by years or distance, and our responsibility can never be set aside. When the nations are gathered before the judgment seat of Christ, but two classes will be represented--those who have identified their interest with Christ and suffering humanity; those who have ignored their God-given obligations, done injury to their fellow men, and dishonor to God. Their eternal destiny will be decided on the ground of what they did and what they did not do to Christ in the person of His saints.
ML	278	4	Parents are entitled to a degree of love and respect which is due to no other person.... The fifth commandment requires children not only to yield respect, submission, and obedience to their parents, but also to give them love and tenderness, to lighten their cares, to guard their reputation, and to succor and comfort them in old age.
ML	278	5	While the parents live it should be the children's joy to honor and respect them. They should bring all the cheerfulness and sunshine into the life of the aged parents that they possibly can. They should smooth their pathway to the grave. There is no better recommendation in this world than that a child has honored his parents, no better record in the books of heaven than that he has loved and honored father and mother.
------------------------Respect for the Aged, October 2
			Respect in My Life
ML	279	1	Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:32
ML	279	2	There are services due to others which we cannot ignore and yet keep the commandments of God. To live, think, and act for self only is to become useless as servants of God....
ML	279	3	We have in our ranks too many who are restless, talkative, self-commending, and who take the liberty to put themselves forward, having no reverence for age, experience, or office. The church is suffering today for help of an opposite character--modest, quiet, God-fearing men, who will bear disagreeable burdens when laid upon them, not for the name, but to render service to their Master, who died for them. Persons of this character do not think it detracts from their dignity to rise up before the ancient and to treat gray hairs with respect....
ML	279	4	Those who fear and reverence God, He will delight to honor. Man may be so elevated as to form the connecting link between heaven and earth. He came from the hand of his Creator with a symmetrical character, endowed with such capacities for improvement that, combining divine influence with human efforts, he might elevate himself almost to an angel's sphere. Yet, when thus elevated, he will be unconscious of his goodness and greatness.
ML	279	5	And God has especially enjoined tender respect toward the aged. He says, "The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness." It tells of battles fought, and victories gained; of burdens borne, and temptations resisted. It tells of weary feet nearing their rest, of places soon to be vacant. Help the children to think of this, and they will smooth the path of the aged by their courtesy and respect and will bring grace and beauty into their young lives as they heed the command to "rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man."
------------------------Respect for Authority, October 3
			Respect in My Life
ML	280	1	Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward. 1 Peter 2:17, 18
ML	280	2	The apostle plainly outlined the attitude that believers should sustain toward the civil authorities: "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with welldoing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
ML	280	3	It is our duty in every case to obey the laws of our land, unless they conflict with the higher law which God spoke with an audible voice from Sinai and afterward engraved on stone with His own finger.... The ten precepts of Jehovah are the foundation of all righteous and good laws. Those who love God's commandments will conform to every good law of the land.
ML	280	4	We are to recognize human government as an ordinance of divine appointment and teach obedience to it as a sacred duty, within its legitimate sphere. But when its claims conflict with the claims of God, we must obey God rather than men. God's Word must be recognized as above all human legislation. A "Thus saith the Lord" is not to be set aside for a "Thus saith the church" or a "Thus saith the state." The crown of Christ is to be lifted above the diadems of earthly potentates.
ML	280	5	We are not required to defy authorities. Our words, whether spoken or written, should be carefully considered.
ML	280	6	Teach the people to conform in all things to the laws of their state when they can do so without conflicting with the law of God.
------------------------Reverence for God, October 4
			Reverence in My Life
ML	281	1	God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. Psalm 89:7
ML	281	2	Another precious grace that should be carefully cherished is reverence. True reverence for God is inspired by a sense of His infinite greatness and a realization of His presence. With this sense of the Unseen the heart of every child should be deeply impressed. The hour and place of prayer and the services of public worship the child should be taught to regard as sacred because God is there. And as reverence is manifested in attitude and demeanor, the feeling that inspires it will be deepened.
ML	281	3	Well would it be for young and old to study and ponder and often repeat those words of Holy Writ that show how the place marked by God's special presence should be regarded.
ML	281	4	"Put off thy shoes from off thy feet," He commanded Moses at the burning bush; "for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."
ML	281	5	Jacob, after beholding the vision of the angels, exclaimed, "The Lord is in this place; and I knew it not."
ML	281	6	Humility and reverence should characterize the deportment of all who come into the presence of God. In the name of Jesus we may come before Him with confidence, but we must not approach Him with the boldness of presumption, as though He were on a level with ourselves. There are those who address the great and all-powerful and holy God, who dwelleth in light unapproachable, as they would address an equal, or even an inferior. There are those who conduct themselves in His house as they would not presume to do in the audience chamber of an earthly ruler. These should remember that they are in His sight whom seraphim adore, before whom angels veil their faces. God is greatly to be reverenced; all who truly realize His presence will bow in humility before Him.
------------------------Reverence for God's Name, October 5
			Reverence in My Life
ML	282	1	Holy and reverend is his name. Psalm 111:9
ML	282	2	Reverence should be shown also for the name of God. Never should that name be spoken lightly or thoughtlessly. Even in prayer its frequent or needless repetition should be avoided.
ML	282	3	Those who are brought into covenant relation with God are pledged to speak of Him in the most respectful, reverential manner....
ML	282	4	Swearing, and all words spoken in the form of an oath, are dishonoring to God. The Lord sees, the Lord hears, and He will not hold the transgressor guiltless. He will not be mocked. Those who take the name of the Lord in vain will find it a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
ML	282	5	By the thoughtless mention of God in common conversation, by appeals to Him in trivial matters, and by the frequent and thoughtless repetition of His name, we dishonor Him.
ML	282	6	What faint views some have of the holiness of God, and how much they take His holy and reverend name in vain, without realizing that it is God, the great and terrible God, of whom they are speaking. While praying, many use careless and irreverent expressions, which grieve the tender Spirit of the Lord and cause their petitions to be shut out of heaven.
ML	282	7	"Holy and reverend is His name." We are never in any manner to treat lightly the titles or appellations of the Deity. In prayer we enter the audience chamber of the Most High, and we should come before Him with holy awe. The angels veil their faces in His presence. The cherubim and the bright and holy seraphim approach His throne with solemn reverence. How much more should we, finite, sinful beings, come in a reverent manner before the Lord, our Maker!
------------------------Reverence for the Word of God, October 6
			Reverence in My Life
ML	283	1	Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. Jeremiah 7:23
ML	283	2	You need and I need that the spiritual vision shall be cleared and intensified to behold the scheme of redemption as we have never viewed it before. We want that our hearts should feel the mighty throbs of a Saviour's love. In searching the Scriptures, in feeding upon the words of life, O consider it is the voice of God to the soul. We may be confused sometimes over the voice of our friends; but in the Bible we have the counsel of God upon all important subjects which concern our eternal interests, and in temporal matters we may learn a great deal. Its teaching will be always suited to our peculiar circumstances and calculated to prepare us to endure trial and fit us for our God-given work.
ML	283	3	The Bible is God's voice speaking to us, just as surely as if we could hear it with our ears. If we realized this, with what awe we would open God's Word and with what earnestness we would search its precepts. The reading and contemplation of the Scriptures would be regarded as an audience with the Infinite One.
ML	283	4	We are to open the Word of God with reverence and with a sincere desire to know the will of God concerning us. The heavenly angels will direct our search. God speaks to us in His Word. We are in the audience chamber of the Most High, in the very presence of God. Christ enters the heart.
ML	283	5	Show that you reverence your faith, speaking reverently of sacred things. Never allow one expression of lightness and trifling to escape your lips when quoting Scripture. As you take the Bible in your hands, remember that you are on holy ground.
------------------------Reverence in the Home, October 7
			Reverence in My Life
ML	284	1	Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. 1 Samuel 2:30
ML	284	2	Make the home life as nearly as possible like heaven.
ML	284	3	In the home the foundation is laid for the prosperity of the church. The influences that rule in the home life are carried into the church life; therefore, church duties should first begin in the home.
ML	284	4	Those who govern their families in the right way will bring into the church an influence of order and reverence.
ML	284	5	Fathers and mothers who make God first in their households, who teach their children that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, glorify God before angels and before men.... Christ is not a stranger in their homes; His name is a household name, revered and glorified. Angels delight in a home where God reigns supreme and the children are taught to reverence religion, the Bible, and their Creator. Such families can claim the promise, "Them that honour Me, I will honour."
ML	284	6	The sacred privilege of communing with God makes distinct and clear the sight of the glorious things prepared for those who love God and reverence His commandments. We need to bring reverence into our daily lives....
ML	284	7	We bring too much that is little and common into the daily duties of life, and the result is that we fail to see Him who is invisible. Thus we lose many rich blessings in our religious experience.
ML	284	8	True reverence is revealed by obedience. God has commanded nothing that is unessential, and there is no other way of manifesting reverence so pleasing to Him as by obedience to that which He has spoken.
------------------------Reverence for God's Representatives, October 8
			Reverence in My Life
ML	285	1	And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. 2 Chronicles 36:15, 16
ML	285	2	Reverence should be shown for God's representatives--for ministers, teachers, and parents who are called to speak and act in His stead. In the respect shown to them He is honored.
ML	285	3	The education and training of the youth should be of a character that would exalt sacred things and encourage pure devotion for God in His house. Many who profess to be children of the heavenly King have no true appreciation of the sacredness of eternal things....
ML	285	4	They are seldom instructed that the minister is God's ambassador, that the message he brings is one of God's appointed agencies in the salvation of souls, and that to all who have the privilege brought within their reach it will be a savor of life unto life or of death unto death....
ML	285	5	Many ... make the service a subject of criticism at home, approving a few things and condemning others.... In regard to the service of the sanctuary, if the speaker has a blemish, be afraid to mention it. Talk only of the good work he is doing, of the good ideas he presented, which you should heed as coming through God's agent....
ML	285	6	Unless correct ideas of true worship and true reverence are impressed upon the people, there will be a growing tendency to place the sacred and eternal on a level with common things, and those professing the truth will be an offense to God and a disgrace to religion. They can never, with their uncultivated ideas, appreciate a pure and holy heaven, and be prepared to join with the worshipers in the heavenly courts above, where all is purity and perfection, where every being has perfect reverence for God and His holiness.
ML	285	7	Paul describes the work of God's ambassadors as that by which every man shall be presented perfect in Christ Jesus.
------------------------Reverence for the House of God, October 9
			Reverence in My Life
ML	286	1	Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:30
ML	286	2	God is high and holy; and to the humble, believing soul, His house on earth, the place where His people meet for worship, is as the gate of heaven. The song of praise, the words spoken by Christ's ministers, are God's appointed agencies to prepare a people for the church above, for that loftier worship.
ML	286	3	When the worshipers enter the place of meeting, they should do so with decorum, passing quietly to their seats.... Common talking, whispering, and laughing should not be permitted in the house of worship, either before or after the service. Ardent, active piety should characterize the worshipers.
ML	286	4	If some have to wait a few minutes before the meeting begins, let them maintain a true spirit of devotion by silent meditation, keeping the heart uplifted to God in prayer that the service may be of special benefit to their own hearts and lead to the conviction and conversion of other souls. They should remember that heavenly messengers are in the house. We all lose much sweet communion with God by our restlessness, by not encouraging moments of reflection and prayer....
ML	286	5	Elevate the standard of Christianity in the minds of your children; help them to weave Jesus into their experience; teach them to have the highest reverence for the house of God and to understand that when they enter the Lord's house it should be with hearts that are softened and subdued by such thoughts as these: "God is here; this is His house. I must have pure thoughts and holiest motives.... This is the place where God meets with and blesses His people." ...
ML	286	6	Parents should not only teach, but command, their children to enter the sanctuary with sobriety and reverence.
ML	286	7	Practice reverence until it becomes a part of yourself.
------------------------Reverence for the Sabbath, October 10
			Reverence in My Life
ML	287	1	Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8
ML	287	2	"Remember" is placed at the very first of the fourth commandment. Parents, you need to remember the Sabbath day yourselves to keep it holy. And if you do this, you are giving the proper instruction to your children; they will reverence God's holy day.... All through the week keep the Lord's holy Sabbath in view, for that day is to be devoted to the service of God. It is a day when the hands are to rest from worldly employment, when the soul's needs are to receive especial attention.
ML	287	3	The Sabbath--oh! make it the sweetest, the most blessed day of the whole week.... Parents can and should give attention to their children, reading to them the most attractive portions of Bible history, educating them to reverence the Sabbath day, keeping it according to the commandment.... They can make the Sabbath a delight if they will take the proper course. The children can be interested in good reading or in conversation about the salvation of their souls.
ML	287	4	During a portion of the day all should have an opportunity to be out of doors.... Let their young minds be associated with God in the beautiful scenery of nature, let their attention be called to the tokens of His love to man in His created works.... As they view the beautiful things which He has created for the happiness of man, they will be led to regard Him as a tender, loving Father.... As the character of God puts on the aspect of love, benevolence, beauty, and attraction, they are drawn to love Him.
ML	287	5	The Sabbath is the golden clasp that unites God and His people.
ML	287	6	It means eternal salvation to keep the Sabbath holy unto the Lord.
------------------------He Is a Living God, October 11
			God in My Life
ML	288	1	The Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king. Jeremiah 10:10
ML	288	2	"My presence shall go with thee" (Exodus 33:14), was the promise given during the journey through the wilderness. This assurance was accompanied by a marvelous revelation of Jehovah's character, which enabled Moses to proclaim to all Israel the goodness of God and to instruct them fully concerning the attributes of their invisible King....
ML	288	3	Till the close of his long life of patient ministry Moses continued his exhortations to Israel to keep their eyes fixed on their divine Ruler....
ML	288	4	With what confidence had Moses assured the Israelites of the merciful attributes of Jehovah! Often during the wilderness sojourn he had pleaded with God in behalf of erring Israel, and the Lord had spared them....
ML	288	5	The prophet pleaded the marvelous providences and promises of God in behalf of the chosen nation. And then, as the strongest of all pleas, he urged the love of God for fallen man.... "Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of Thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now." ...
ML	288	6	Graciously the Lord responded, "I have pardoned according to thy word." And then He imparted to Moses, in the form of a prophecy, a knowledge of His purpose concerning the final triumph of His chosen people. "As truly as I live," He declared, "all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." ... God's glory, His character, His merciful kindness and tender love--all that Moses had pleaded in behalf of Israel was to be revealed to all mankind. And this promise of Jehovah was made doubly sure; it was confirmed by an oath. As surely as God lives and reigns, His glory shall be declared "among the heathen, His wonders among all people."
------------------------God Is My Father, October 12
			God in My Life
ML	289	1	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. 1 John 3:1
ML	289	2	What love, what matchless love, that, sinners and aliens as we are, we may be brought back to God and adopted into His family! We may address Him by the endearing name, "Our Father," which is a sign of our affection for Him and a pledge of His tender regard and relationship to us. And the Son of God, beholding the heirs of grace, "is not ashamed to call them brethren." They have even a more sacred relationship to God than have the angels who have never fallen.
ML	289	3	All the paternal love which has come down from generation to generation through the channel of human hearts, all the springs of tenderness which have opened in the souls of men, are but as a tiny rill to the boundless ocean, when compared with the infinite, exhaustless love of God. Tongue cannot utter it; pen cannot portray it. You may meditate upon it every day of your life; you may search the Scriptures diligently in order to understand it; you may summon every power and capability that God has given you, in the endeavor to comprehend the love and compassion of the heavenly Father; and yet there is an infinity beyond.
ML	289	4	In all His children God beholds the image of His only-begotten Son. He looks upon them with a love greater than any language can express. He enfolds them in the arms of His love. The Lord rejoices over His people.
ML	289	5	He has redeemed us out of the careless world and has chosen us to become members of the royal family, sons and daughters of the heavenly King. He invites us to trust in Him with a trust deeper and stronger than that of a child in his earthly father.
ML	289	6	God is to us a tender, compassionate, heavenly Father.
------------------------God Is With Me, October 13
			God in My Life
ML	290	1	The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Psalm 46:7
ML	290	2	"Emmanuel, God with us," this means everything to us. What a broad foundation does it lay for our faith. What a hope big with immortality does it place before the believing soul. God with us in Christ Jesus to accompany us every step of the journey to heaven. The Holy Spirit with us as a comforter, a guide in our perplexities, to soothe our sorrows, and shield us in temptation. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"
ML	290	3	God commanded Moses for Israel, "Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them," and He abode in the sanctuary, in the midst of His people. Through all their weary wandering in the desert, the symbol of His presence was with them. So Christ set up His tabernacle in the midst of our human encampment. He pitched His tent by the side of the tents of men, that He might dwell among us and make us familiar with His divine character and life....
ML	290	4	Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is acquainted with our trials and sympathizes with our griefs. Every son and daughter of Adam may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners....
ML	290	5	"God with us" is the surety of our deliverance from sin, the assurance of our power to obey the law of heaven.
ML	290	6	Christ sought to teach the grand truth so needful for us to learn, that God is always with us, an inmate of every dwelling, that He is acquainted with every action performed on earth. He knows the thoughts that are framed in the mind and endorsed by the soul. He hears every word that falls from the lips of human beings. He is walking and working in the midst of all our transactions in life. He knows every plan, and He measures every method.
------------------------God Sees Me, October 14
			God in My Life
ML	291	1	Thou God seest me. Genesis 16:13
ML	291	2	God is a vigilant observer of the actions of the children of men. Nothing occurs in earth or heaven without the knowledge of the Creator. Nothing can happen without His permission. He on whom the fate of an empire may depend is watched over with a vigilance which knows no relaxation by Him who "giveth salvation unto kings," to whom belong "the shields of the earth." And the poor man is as tenderly watched over as the monarch upon his throne.
ML	291	3	God is constantly at work for the good of His creatures.... Times without number God has interposed to avert death, to keep men, women, and children in safety when Satan purposed a result wholly disastrous....
ML	291	4	This world has been signally blessed by God. Human beings are the recipients of countless mercies. Providence watches over and shields them. Upon them are poured the choicest gifts in heaven's treasury.
ML	291	5	God knows you by name. He knows every action of your life.
ML	291	6	God knows every thought, every purpose, every plan, every motive.... As the artist transfers to the canvas the features of the face, so the features of each individual character are transferred to the books of heaven. God has a perfect photograph of every man's character.
ML	291	7	God wants you to recognize the divine presence. His peace and comfort and grace and joy will change the shadow of death into bright morning and blessed sunshine.... A reverential spirit realizes that the heart must be kept by the power of God. Ministering angels open the eyes of the mind and heart to see wonderful things in the divine law, in the natural world, and in the eternal things revealed by the Holy Spirit.
------------------------God Cares for Me, October 15
			God in My Life
ML	292	1	Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10
ML	292	2	The Lord is in active communication with every part of His vast dominions. He is represented as bending toward the earth and its inhabitants. He is listening to every word that is uttered. He hears every groan; He listens to every prayer; He observes the movements of every one....
ML	292	3	God has always had a care for His people.... Christ taught His disciples that the amount of divine attention given to any object is proportionate to the rank assigned to it in the creation of God. He called their attention to the birds of the air. Not a sparrow, He said, falls to the ground without the notice of our heavenly Father. And if the little sparrow is regarded by Him, surely the souls of those for whom Christ has died are precious in His sight. The value of man, the estimate God places upon him, is revealed in the cross of Calvary....
ML	292	4	God's mercy and love for the fallen race have not ceased to accumulate, nor lost their earthward direction.
ML	292	5	It is true that disappointments will come; tribulation we must expect; but we are to commit everything, great and small, to God. He does not become perplexed by the multiplicity of our grievances, nor overpowered by the weight of our burdens. His watchcare extends to every household, and encircles every individual; He is concerned in all our business and our sorrows. He marks every tear; He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. All the afflictions and trials that befall us here are permitted, to work out His purposes of love toward us--"that we might be partakers of His holiness," and thus become participants in that fullness of joy which is found in His presence.
------------------------God is All in All, October 16
			God in My Life
ML	293	1	Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me. Isaiah 46:9
ML	293	2	In heaven God is all in all. There, holiness reigns supreme; there is nothing to mar the perfect harmony with God. If we are indeed journeying thither, the spirit of heaven will dwell in our hearts here. But if we find no pleasure now in the contemplation of heavenly things; if we have no interest in seeking the knowledge of God, no delight in beholding the character of Christ; if holiness has no attractions for us--then we may be sure that our hope of heaven is vain. Perfect conformity to the will of God is the high aim to be constantly before the Christian. He will love to talk of God, of Jesus, of the home of bliss and purity which Christ has prepared for them that love Him. The contemplation of these themes, when the soul feasts upon the blessed assurances of God, the apostle represents as tasting "the powers of the world to come."
ML	293	3	The knowledge of God as revealed in Christ is the knowledge that all who are saved must have. It is the knowledge that works transformation of character. This knowledge, received, will re-create the soul in the image of God. It will impart to the whole being a spiritual power that is divine....
ML	293	4	"For this cause," Paul says, "I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
------------------------God in Nature, October 17
			God in My Life
ML	294	1	The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Psalm 19:1
ML	294	2	God has surrounded us with nature's beautiful scenery to attract and interest the mind. It is His design that we should associate the glories of nature with His character. If we faithfully study the book of nature, we shall find it a fruitful source for contemplating the infinite love and power of God....
ML	294	3	The great Master Artist has painted upon heaven's shifting, changing canvas the glories of the setting sun. He has tinted and gilded the heavens with gold, silver, and crimson, as though the portals of high heaven were thrown open, that we might view its gleamings and our imagination take hold of the glory within. Many turn carelessly from this heavenly wrought picture. They fail to trace the infinite love and power of God in the surpassing beauties seen in the heavens, but are almost entranced as they view the imperfect paintings, in imitation of the Master Artist.
ML	294	4	The Redeemer of the world chose the open air in which to give His lessons of instruction.... He chose the groves and the seaside, where He could have a commanding view of landscape and varied scenery, that He might illustrate important truths of the kingdom of God by the works of God in nature.
ML	294	5	Look at the wonderful and beautiful things of nature. Think of their marvelous adaptation to the needs and happiness, not only of man, but of all living creatures. The sunshine and the rain, that gladden and refresh the earth, the hills and seas and plains, all speak to us of the Creator's love. It is God who brings the bud to bloom, the flower to fruit. It is He who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures.
ML	294	6	The heart is quickened, and throbs with new and deeper love, mingled with awe and reverence, as we contemplate God in nature.
------------------------Abundant Life in Christ, October 18
			Christ in My Life
ML	295	1	I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10
ML	295	2	All created beings live by the will and power of God. They are recipients of the life of the Son of God. However able and talented, however large their capacities, they are replenished with life from the source of all life. He is the spring, the fountain, of life. Only He who alone hath immortality, dwelling in light and life, could say, "I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again." ...
ML	295	3	Christ was invested with the right to give immortality. The life which He had laid down in humanity, He again took up and gave to humanity. "I am come," He says, "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." ...
ML	295	4	All who are one with Christ through faith in Him gain an experience which is life unto eternal life.... "Because I live, ye shall live also."
ML	295	5	Christ became one with humanity, that humanity might become one in Spirit and life with Him. By virtue of this union in obedience to the Word of God, His life becomes their life. He says to the penitent, "I am the resurrection, and the life." Death is looked upon by Christ as sleep--silence, darkness, sleep. He speaks of it as if it were of little moment. "Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me," He says, "shall never die." ... And to the believing one, death is but a small matter. With him to die is but to sleep.
ML	295	6	The same power that raised Christ from the dead will raise His church, and glorify it with Christ, as His bride, above all principalities, above all powers, above every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the heavenly courts, the world above. The victory of the sleeping saints will be glorious on the morning of the resurrection.
------------------------Christ Is My Perfect Example, October 19
			Christ in My Life
ML	296	1	For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. 1 Peter 2:21, 22
ML	296	2	Christ is our example in all things. In the providence of God, His early life was passed in Nazareth, where the inhabitants were of that character that He was continually exposed to temptations, and it was necessary for Him to be guarded in order to remain pure and spotless amid so much sin and wickedness. Christ did not select this place Himself. His heavenly Father chose this place for Him, where His character would be tested and tried in a variety of ways. The early life of Christ was subjected to severe trials, hardships, and conflicts, that He might develop the perfect character which makes Him a perfect example for children, youth, and manhood....
ML	296	3	The life of Christ was designed to show that purity, stability, and firmness of principle are not dependent upon a life freed from hardships, poverty, and adversity. The trials and privations of which so many youth complain, Christ endured without murmuring. And this discipline is the very experience the youth need, which will give firmness to their character and make them like Christ, strong in spirit to resist temptation. They will not, if they separate from the influence of those who would lead them astray and corrupt their morals, be overcome by the devices of Satan. Through daily prayer to God they will have wisdom and grace from Him to bear the conflicts and stern realities of life, and come off victorious. Fidelity and serenity of mind can only be retained by watchfulness and prayer. Christ's life was an example of persevering energy, which was not allowed to become weakened by reproach, ridicule, privation, or hardships.... And in just that degree that they maintain their integrity of character under discouragements will their fortitude, stability, and power of endurance increase, and they wax strong in spirit.
------------------------Christ My Elder Brother, October 20
			Christ in My Life
ML	297	1	Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2:17
ML	297	2	The Elder Brother of our race is by the eternal throne. He looks upon every soul who is turning his face toward Him as the Saviour. He knows by experience what are the weaknesses of humanity, what are our wants, and where lies the strength of our temptations.... He is watching over you, trembling child of God. Are you tempted? He will deliver. Are you weak? He will strengthen. Are you ignorant? He will enlighten. Are you wounded? He will heal. The Lord "telleth the number of the stars"; and yet "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds."
ML	297	3	Whatever your anxieties and trials, spread out your case before the Lord. Your spirit will be braced for endurance. The way will be open for you to disentangle yourself from embarrassment and difficulty. The weaker and more helpless you know yourself to be, the stronger will you become in His strength. The heavier your burdens, the more blessed the rest in casting them upon your Burden Bearer.
ML	297	4	Circumstances may separate friends; the restless waters of the wide sea may roll between us and them. But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the Saviour. Wherever we may be, He is at our right hand, to support, maintain, uphold, and cheer. Greater than the love of a mother for her child is Christ's love for His redeemed. It is our privilege to rest in His love; to say, "I will trust Him; for He gave His life for me."
ML	297	5	Human love may change, but Christ's love knows no change. When we cry to Him for help, His hand is stretched out to save.
ML	297	6	He desires us to realize that He has returned to heaven as our Elder Brother and that the measureless power given Him has been placed at our disposal.
------------------------Jesus as a Youth, October 21
			Christ in My Life
ML	298	1	And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Luke 2:40
ML	298	2	Wonderful in its significance is the brief record of His early life: "The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him." In the sunlight of His Father's countenance Jesus "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." His mind was active and penetrating, with a thoughtfulness and wisdom beyond His years. Yet His character was beautiful in its symmetry. The powers of mind and body developed gradually, in keeping with the laws of childhood.
ML	298	3	As a child, Jesus manifested a peculiar loveliness of disposition. His willing hands were ever ready to serve others. He manifested a patience that nothing could disturb and a truthfulness that would never sacrifice integrity. In principle firm as a rock, His life revealed the grace of unselfish courtesy.
ML	298	4	With deep earnestness the mother of Jesus watched the unfolding of His powers and beheld the impress of perfection upon His character. With delight she sought to encourage that bright, receptive mind....
ML	298	5	From her lips and from the scrolls of the prophets He learned of heavenly things. The very words which He Himself had spoken to Moses for Israel He was now taught at His mother's knee. As He advanced from childhood to youth, he did not seek the schools of the rabbis. He needed not the education to be obtained from such sources; for God was His instructor....
ML	298	6	Since He gained knowledge as we may do, His intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures shows how diligently His early years were given to the study of God's Word.... From the first dawning of intelligence He was constantly growing in spiritual grace and knowledge of truth.
------------------------Christ Was Obedient, October 22
			Christ in My Life
ML	299	1	And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them.... And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Luke 2:51, 52
ML	299	2	Notwithstanding the sacred mission of Christ, His exalted relationship with God, of which He was fully aware, He was not above performing the practical duties of life. He was the Creator of the world, and yet He acknowledged His obligation to His earthly parents, and at the call of duty, in compliance with the wishes of His parents, He returned with them from Jerusalem after the Passover, and was subject unto them.
ML	299	3	He submitted to restraints of parental authority and acknowledged the obligations of a son, a brother, a friend, and a citizen. He discharged His duties to His earthly parents with respectful courtesy. He was the Majesty of heaven. He had been the great commander in heaven. Angels loved to do His bidding. And now He was a willing servant, a cheerful, obedient son.
ML	299	4	Jesus was not turned aside by an influence from the faithful service expected of a son. He did not aim to do anything remarkable to distinguish Himself from other youth or to proclaim His heavenly birth. Even His friends and relatives, in all the years that Christ's life was passed among them, saw no special marks of His divinity. Christ was sedate, self-denying, gentle, cheerful, kind, and ever obedient....
ML	299	5	There is an important lesson for parents and children to learn in the silence of the Scriptures in reference to the childhood and youth of Christ. He was our example in all things. In the little notice given of His childhood and youthful life is an example for parents as well as children, that the more quiet and unnoticed the period of childhood and youth is passed, and the more natural and free from artificial excitement, the more safe will it be for the children and the more favorable for the formation of a character of purity, natural simplicity, and true moral worth.
------------------------Christ Tempted as We Are, October 23
			Christ in My Life
ML	300	1	For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15
ML	300	2	The coming of Christ to our world was a great event, not only to this world, but to all the worlds in the universe of God. He came to take upon Him our nature, to be tempted in all points like as we are, and yet to leave before us an example of perfect purity and unblemished character. In that He was tempted in all points like as we are, He knows how to sympathize with us. He knows how to pity and how to aid the children and youth; for He too was a child, and He understands every trial and temptation with which children are beset....
ML	300	3	His eyes shone with an expression of that love which led Him to leave the heavenly courts and come to earth to die in the sinner's place.... He pitied and loved not only those who sought to be obedient and loving, but those also who were wayward and perverse. Jesus has not changed; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He still loves and pities the erring, seeking to draw them to Himself, that He may give them divine aid. He knows that a demon power is struggling in every soul, striving for the mastery; but Jesus came to break the power of Satan and to set the captives free.
ML	300	4	In Christ the character of the Father was revealed. As children looked upon His countenance, they saw purity and goodness shining forth from His eyes. In His countenance gentleness, meekness, love, and conscious power were combined. But though every word, every gesture, every expression of His face, betokened His divine supremacy, humility marked His deportment and bearing. He came but for one purpose, and that was the salvation of the lost.
------------------------Christ in Me the Hope of Glory, October 24
			Christ in My Life
ML	301	1	To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27
ML	301	2	"Christ in you, the hope of glory." A knowledge of this mystery furnishes a key to every other. It opens to the soul the treasures of the universe, the possibilities of infinite development.
ML	301	3	And this development is gained through the constant unfolding to us of the character of God--the glory and the mystery of the written Word. If it were possible for us to attain to a full understanding of God and His Word, there would be for us no further discovery of truth, no greater knowledge, no further development. God would cease to be supreme, and man would cease to advance. Thank God, it is not so. Since God is infinite, and in Him are all the treasures of wisdom, we may to all eternity be ever searching, ever learning, yet never exhaust the riches of His wisdom, His goodness, or His power.
ML	301	4	Let the seeker for the salvation of God possess the same energy and earnestness that he would have for worldly treasure, and the object would be gained....
ML	301	5	All who are made partakers of His salvation here, and who hope to share the glories of the kingdom hereafter, must gather with Christ. Each must feel that he is responsible for his own case.... If these maintain their Christian walk, Jesus will be in them the hope of glory, and they will love to speak forth His praise that they may be refreshed. The cause of their Master will be near and dear to them.... Every Christian must go on from strength to strength, and employ all his powers in the cause of God.
ML	301	6	The life of the true believer reveals an indwelling Saviour.... His whole life is a testimony to the power of the grace of Christ.
------------------------My Guardian Angel, October 25
			Angel Guidance in My Life
ML	302	1	For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Psalm 91:11
ML	302	2	A guardian angel is appointed to every follower of Christ. These heavenly watchers shield the righteous from the power of the wicked one. This Satan himself recognized when he said, "Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not Thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?" The agency by which God protects His people is presented in the words of the psalmist, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them."
ML	302	3	I have seen the tender love that God has for His people, and it is very great. I saw angels over the saints with their wings spread about them. Each saint had an attending angel. If the saints wept through discouragement, or were in danger, the angels that ever attended them would fly quickly upward to carry the tidings, and the angels in the city would cease to sing.... They would bear the tidings upward, and all the angels in the city would weep, and then with a loud voice say, "Amen." But if the saints fixed their eyes upon the prize before them, and glorified God by praising Him, then the angels would bear the glad tidings to the city, and the angels in the city would touch their golden harps and sing with a loud voice, "Alleluia!" and the heavenly arches would ring with their lovely songs.
ML	302	4	His angels are appointed to watch over us, and if we put ourselves under their guardianship, then in every time of danger they will be at our right hand. When unconsciously we are in danger of exerting a wrong influence, the angels will be by our side, prompting us to a better course, choosing words for us, and influencing our actions. Thus our influence may be a silent, unconscious, but mighty power in drawing others to Christ and the heavenly world.
------------------------Angels in My Daily Life, October 26
			Angel Guidance in My Life
ML	303	1	The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. Psalm 34:7
ML	303	2	Today ... heavenly messengers are passing through the length and breadth of the land, seeking to comfort the sorrowing, to protect the impenitent, to win the hearts of men to Christ. We cannot see them personally; nevertheless they are with us, guiding, directing, protecting....
ML	303	3	These angels of light create a heavenly atmosphere about the soul, lifting us toward the unseen and the eternal. We cannot behold their forms with our natural sight; only by spiritual vision can we discern heavenly things. The spiritual ear alone can hear the harmony of heavenly voices....
ML	303	4	Again and again have angels talked with men as a man speaketh with a friend, and led them to places of security. Again and again have the encouraging words of angels renewed the drooping spirits of the faithful, and carrying their minds above the things of earth, caused them to behold by faith the white robes, the crowns, the palm branches of victory, which overcomers will receive when they surround the great white throne.
ML	303	5	It is the work of the angels to come close to the tried, the suffering, the tempted. They labor untiringly in behalf of those for whom Christ died.
ML	303	6	Angels are ever present where they are most needed. They are with those who have the hardest battles to fight, with those who must battle against inclination and hereditary tendencies, whose home surroundings are the most discouraging.
ML	303	7	Heavenly beings are appointed to do their work of ministry--to guide, guard, and control those who shall be heirs of salvation.... Faithful sentinels are on guard to direct souls in right paths.
------------------------Angels Join Me in Soul Winning, October 27
			Angel Guidance in My Life
ML	304	1	Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Hebrews 1:14
ML	304	2	The glad message of Hebrews 1:14 is for all. The entire chapter is a wonderful encouragement for every tried and tempted soul. "But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" These messages are coming down along the line to our time, to them that shall be heirs of salvation. Angels actually come to our world. Nor are they always invisible. They sometimes veil their angelic appearance, and appearing as men, they converse with and enlighten human beings....
ML	304	3	While some are in the valley of decision, angels are uniting with true, wholehearted servants of Christ to help these needy souls.
ML	304	4	If angels occupied the place of man in the administration of the gospel, there would not be whole regions left in darkness and the shadow of death. The work would have been as is represented by the angel flying through the midst of heaven proclaiming the everlasting gospel to them that dwell on the earth. But the Lord does nothing without the cooperation of man. Could the intense interest which the angels have for man be put into voice that would be heard by the human agent, what appeals would be heard in burning words to communicate to others that which heaven had communicated to them.
ML	304	5	God has manifested His love to men by making them partakers with Himself in the work of salvation. All to whom the heavenly inspiration has come are put in trust with the gospel. "We are labourers together with God," called to represent Him as ambassadors of love. We are to cooperate with the work of the delegates of heaven....
ML	304	6	Through the ministration of angels, God sends light to His people, and through His people the light is to be given to the world.
------------------------Angels Employ My Hands to Do His Work, October 28
			Angel Guidance in My Life
ML	305	1	Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Psalm 103:20, 21
ML	305	2	Angelic agencies, though invisible, are cooperating with visible human agencies, forming a relief association with men. Is there not something stimulating and inspiring in this thought that the human agent stands as the visible instrument to confer the blessings of angelic agencies? As we are thus laborers together with God, the work bears the inscription of the divine. With what joy and delight all heaven looks upon these blended influences, influences which are acknowledged in the heavenly courts! Human agencies are the hands of heavenly instrumentalities, for heavenly angels employ human hands in practical ministry. Their acts of unselfish ministry make them partakers in the success which is a result of the relief offered. This is Heaven's way of administering saving power. The knowledge and actions of the heavenly order of workers, united with the knowledge and power which are imparted to human agencies, relieve the oppressed and distressed.
ML	305	3	The very angels who when Satan was seeking the supremacy fought the battle in the heavenly courts, and triumphed on the side of God; the very angels who from their exalted position shouted for joy over the creation of our world, and over the creation of our first parents, who were to inhabit the earth ... are most intensely interested to work in union with the fallen, redeemed race in the development of that power which God gives to help every man who will unite with heavenly intelligences to seek and save human beings who are perishing in their sins....
ML	305	4	Human agencies are called to be hand helpers, to work out the knowledge and use the facilities of heavenly angels. By uniting with these powers that are omnipotent, we shall be benefited by their higher education and experience.... Such a cooperation will accomplish a work which will give honor and glory and majesty to God.
------------------------Peter Delivered by an Angel, October 29
			Angel Guidance in My Life
ML	306	1	And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod. Acts 12:11
ML	306	2	Peter was confined in a rock-hewn cell, the doors of which were strongly bolted and barred.... But the bolts and bars and the Roman guard, which effectually cut off all possibility of human aid, were but to make more complete the triumph of God in the deliverance of Peter....
ML	306	3	It is the last night before the proposed execution. A mighty angel is sent from heaven to rescue Peter.... He enters the cell, and there lies Peter, sleeping the peaceful sleep of perfect trust....
ML	306	4	Not until he feels the touch of the angel's hand and hears a voice saying, "Arise up quickly," does he awaken sufficiently to see his cell illuminated by the light of heaven and an angel of great glory standing before him. Mechanically he obeys the word spoken to him, and as in rising he lifts his hands, he is dimly conscious that the chains have fallen from his wrists....
ML	306	5	He [the angel] moves toward the door, followed by the usually talkative Peter, now dumb from amazement. They step over the guard, and reach the heavily bolted door, which of its own accord swings open, and closes again immediately....
ML	306	6	The second door ... is reached. It opens ... with no creaking of hinges or rattling of iron bolts.... In the same way they pass through the third gateway, and find themselves in the open street.... The angel glides on in front, encircled by a light of dazzling brightness.... Thus they pass on through one street, and then, the mission of the angel being accomplished, he suddenly disappears.
ML	306	7	Today, as verily as in the days of the apostles, heavenly messengers are passing through the length and breadth of the land.... We cannot see them personally; nevertheless they are with us, guiding, directing, protecting.
------------------------Angels Are Preparing Me for Eternity, October 30
			Angel Guidance in My Life
ML	307	1	Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Exodus 23:20
ML	307	2	All heaven is engaged in the work of preparing a people to stand in the day of the Lord's preparation. The connection of heaven with earth seems very close....
ML	307	3	The heavenly intelligences are waiting with almost impatient earnestness to make Him known to the human agents, that they may be laborers together with these heavenly angels in presenting Jesus--the world's Redeemer, full of grace and truth....
ML	307	4	The first tear of penitence for sins creates joy among the heavenly angels in the courts of heaven. The heavenly messengers are ready to be on the wing to minister to the soul who is seeking Jesus....
ML	307	5	Grand and glorious things hath God prepared for those who love Him. Angels are looking forward with earnest expectation to the final triumph of the people of God, when seraphim and cherubim and the "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" shall swell the anthems of the blessed and celebrate the triumphs of the mediatorial achievements in the recovery of man.
ML	307	6	Jesus counted the cost of the salvation of every son and daughter of Adam. He provided abundant means that, if they would but comply with the conditions, none need perish, but might have everlasting life.... Every heavenly intelligence works as His agent to win man to God.
ML	307	7	The angels of glory find their joy in ... giving love and tireless watchcare to souls that are fallen and unholy. Heavenly beings woo the hearts of men; they bring to this dark world light from the courts above; by gentle and patient ministry they move upon the human spirit, to bring the lost into a fellowship with Christ which is even closer than they themselves can know.
------------------------Angels Holding the Four Winds, October 31
			Angel Guidance in My Life
ML	308	1	I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, ... saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Revelation 7:2, 3
ML	308	2	Four mighty angels are still holding the four winds of the earth. Terrible destruction is forbidden to come in full. The accidents by land and by sea; the loss of life, steadily increasing, by storm, by tempest, by railroad disaster, by conflagration; the terrible floods, the earthquakes, and the winds will be the stirring up of the nations to one deadly combat, while the angels hold the four winds, forbidding the terrible power of Satan to be exercised in its fury until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.
ML	308	3	Angels are holding the four winds, which are represented as an angry horse seeking to break loose and rush over the face of the whole earth, bearing destruction and death in its path.
ML	308	4	A terrible conflict is before us. We are nearing the battle of the great day of God Almighty. That which has been held in control is to be let loose. The angel of mercy is folding her wings, preparing to step down from the throne and leave the world to the control of Satan. The principalities and powers of earth are in bitter revolt against the God of heaven. They are filled with hatred against those who serve Him, and soon, very soon, will be fought the last great battle between good and evil. The earth is to be the battlefield--the scene of the final contest and the final victory.
ML	308	5	While their hands were loosening, and the four winds were about to blow, the merciful eye of Jesus gazed on the remnant that were not sealed, and He raised His hands to the Father and pleaded with Him that He had spilled His blood for them. Then another angel was commissioned to fly swiftly to the four angels and bid them hold until the servants of God were sealed with the seal of the living God in their foreheads.
------------------------Put on the Whole Armor of God, November 1
			Equipped for Victory
ML	309	1	Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:11, 12
ML	309	2	It is not safe for us, when going into battle, to cast away our weapons. It is then that we need to be equipped with the whole armor of God. Every piece is essential.
ML	309	3	While Satan is constantly seeking to blind their minds to the fact, let Christians never forget that they "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits [margin] in high places." The inspired warning is sounding down the centuries to our time: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." ...
ML	309	4	From the days of Adam to our own time our great enemy has been exercising his power to oppress and destroy. He is now preparing for his last campaign against the church. All who seek to follow Jesus will be brought into conflict with this relentless foe. The more nearly the Christian imitates the divine Pattern, the more surely will he make himself a mark for the attacks of Satan.
ML	309	5	We must have on the whole armor of God, and be ready at any moment for a conflict with the powers of darkness. When temptations and trials rush in upon us, let us go to God, and agonize with Him in prayer. He will not turn us away empty, but will give us grace and strength to overcome, and to break the power of the enemy. Oh, that all could see these things in their true light, and endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus! Then would Israel move forward, strong in God, and in the power of His might.
------------------------Loins Girt About with Truth, November 2
			Equipped for Victory
ML	310	1	Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand, Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. Ephesians 6:13, 14
ML	310	2	It is when we walk in the light that shines upon us, obeying the truth that is open to our understanding, that we receive greater light. We cannot be excusable in accepting only the light which our fathers had one hundred years ago.... We want the truth on every point, and we are to put it in practice daily.
ML	310	3	The whole mind and soul should become imbued with the truth, that you may be a living representation of Christ.... God would have you filled with His Holy Spirit, endowed with power from on high. Labor not to become great men; but labor rather to become good and perfect men, showing forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. God calls for Calebs and Joshuas, fearless, singlehearted men, who will work with faith and courage.
ML	310	4	If the truth of God be not deep rooted in the heart, you cannot stand the test of temptation. There is only one power that can keep us steadfast under the most trying circumstances--the grace of God in truth. The ungodly are lynx-eyed to mark every inconsistency, and prompt to pour contempt on the weak and halting ones. Let the youth make their mark high. Let them seek in humble prayer for that help which Christ has promised, that they may exert an influence upon others that they will not be ashamed to meet in the great day of final settlement and rewards. Those who have exemplified the loftiest Christian principles in every department of business and religious life will have the inexpressible advantage, for they will enter the Paradise of God as conquerors.
------------------------The Breastplate of Righteousness, November 3
			Equipped for Victory
ML	311	1	Having on the breastplate of righteousness. Ephesians 6:14
ML	311	2	Clad in the armor of Christ's righteousness, the church is to enter upon her final conflict. "Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners," she is to go forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer.
ML	311	3	Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet to appear in God's presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul. "I counsel thee," He says, "to buy of Me ... white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." ...
ML	311	4	"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Everything that we of ourselves can do is defiled by sin. But the Son of God was "manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin." Sin is defined to be "the transgression of the law." But Christ was obedient to every requirement of the law.... When on earth He said to His disciples, "I have kept My Father's commandments." By His perfect obedience He has made it possible for every human being to obey God's commandments. When we submit ourselves to Christ ... we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then, as the Lord looks upon us, He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the nakedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah.
ML	311	5	To every one God has made an offer that will help to brace every nerve and spiritual muscle for the time of test that is to come to us all. I am charged with the message, Clothe yourself with the whole armor of Christ's righteousness.... And, having done all you can do on your part, you have the assurance of victory. To every soul is granted the gracious opportunity of standing on the Rock of Ages.
------------------------Feet Shod with Gospel of Peace, November 4
			Equipped for Victory
ML	312	1	And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Ephesians 6:15
ML	312	2	The Lord is soon coming. Talk it, pray it, believe it. Make it a part of the life. You will have to meet a doubting, objecting spirit, but this will give way before firm, consistent trust in God. When perplexities or hindrances present themselves, lift the soul to God in songs of thanksgiving. Gird on the Christian armor, and be sure that your feet are "shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace."
ML	312	3	We are living in the midst of an "epidemic of crime," at which thoughtful, God-fearing men everywhere stand aghast. The corruption that prevails, it is beyond the power of the human pen to describe. Every day brings fresh revelations of political strife, bribery, and fraud. Every day brings its heart-sickening record of violence and lawlessness, of indifference to human suffering, of brutal, fiendish destruction of human life. Every day testifies to the increase of insanity, murder, and suicide. Who can doubt that satanic agencies are at work among men with increasing activity to distract and corrupt the mind and defile and destroy the body? ...
ML	312	4	Everywhere there are hearts crying out for something which they have not. They long for a power that will give them mastery over sin, a power that will deliver them from the bondage of evil, a power that will give health and life and peace. Many who once knew the power of God's Word have dwelt where there is no recognition of God, and they long for the divine presence.
ML	312	5	The world needs today what it needed nineteen hundred years ago--a revelation of Christ.
ML	312	6	For earth's sin and misery the gospel is the only antidote.
------------------------The Shield of Faith, November 5
			Equipped for Victory
ML	313	1	Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Ephesians 6:16
ML	313	2	Faith in God's Word, prayerfully studied and practically applied, will be our shield from Satan's power and will bring us off conquerors through the blood of Christ.
ML	313	3	When souls are converted their salvation is not yet accomplished. They then have the race to run; the arduous struggle is before them to do, what? "To fight the good fight of faith," to press forward to the mark for the prize of the high calling which is in Christ Jesus. There is no release in this warfare; the battle is lifelong, and must be carried forward with determined energy proportionate to the value of the object you are in pursuit of, which is eternal life. Immense interests are here involved. We are made partakers of Christ's self-sacrifice here in this life, and then we are assured that we shall be partakers of all its benefits in the future immortal life, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Think of this.
ML	313	4	The promise is, "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape." Maintain to the last your Christian integrity, and do not murmur against God.... Consider that eternal interests are here involved. You cannot afford to become discouraged and cast away your confidence. The Lord loves you, trust in the Lord. The Lord Jesus is your only hope. Make sure work for eternity. You must not murmur or complain or condemn yourself. Neglect no means of grace. Encourage your soul to believe and to trust in God.
ML	313	5	In the Lord we have righteousness and strength. Lean upon Him, and through His power you may quench all the fiery darts of the adversary and come off more than conqueror.
------------------------The Helmet of Salvation, November 6
			Equipped for Victory
ML	314	1	For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke. Isaiah 59:17
ML	314	2	Many have confused ideas in regard to conversion. They have often heard the words repeated from the pulpit, "Ye must be born again." "You must have a new heart." These expressions have perplexed them. They could not comprehend the plan of salvation.
ML	314	3	Many have stumbled to ruin because of the erroneous doctrines taught by some ministers concerning the change that takes place at conversion. Some have lived in sadness for years, waiting for some marked evidence that they were accepted by God. They have separated themselves in a large measure from the world, and find pleasure in associating with the people of God; yet they dare not profess Christ, because they fear it would be presumption to say that they are children of God. They are waiting for that peculiar change that they have been led to believe is connected with conversion.
ML	314	4	After a time some of these do receive evidence of their acceptance with God, and are then led to identify themselves with His people. And they date their conversion from this time. But ... they were adopted into the family of God before that time. God accepted them when they became weary of sin, and having lost their desire for worldly pleasures, resolved to seek God earnestly. But, failing to understand the simplicity of the plan of salvation, they lost many privileges and blessings which they might have claimed had they only believed, when they first turned to God, that He had accepted them.
ML	314	5	Others fall into a more dangerous error. They are governed by impulse. Their sympathies are stirred, and they regard this flight of feeling as an evidence that they are accepted by God and are converted. But the principles of their life are not changed. The evidences of a genuine work of grace on the heart are to be found not in feeling, but in the life.
------------------------The Sword of the Spirit, November 7
			Equipped for Victory
ML	315	1	And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:17
ML	315	2	We know the dangers and temptations that beset the youth at the present time are not few or small.... We live in an age when to resist evil calls for constant watchfulness and prayer. God's precious Word is the standard for youth who would be loyal to the King of heaven. Let them study the Scriptures. Let them commit text after text to memory, and acquire a knowledge of what the Lord has said.... And in trial let the youth spread out the Word of God before them, and with humble hearts, and in faith, seek the Lord for wisdom to find out His way, and for strength to walk in it....
ML	315	3	Let our young men institute a warfare against every habit that has the least danger of leading the soul from duty and devotion. Let them have stated seasons for prayer, never neglecting them if it can possibly be avoided. If they go out to battle with their vicious habits indulged as before they professed fellowship with Christ, they will soon fall an easy prey to Satan's devices. But armed with the Word of God, having it treasured in heart and mind, they will come forth unharmed by all the assaults of the foes of God or man....
ML	315	4	In the name of God lift your banner for truth and righteousness--the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. You need the perfect armor of truth now, the sword of the Spirit, whose edge will never be blunted, but will cut its way through sin and unrighteousness.
ML	315	5	Let them take the Word of truth as the man of their counsel, and become skillful in the use of "the sword of the Spirit." Satan is a wise general; but the humble, devoted soldier of Jesus Christ may overcome him.
------------------------In Christ There is Strength, November 8
			Victory in the Conflict
ML	316	1	Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. Isaiah 27:5
ML	316	2	The enemy cannot overcome the humble learner of Christ, the one who walks prayerfully before the Lord. Christ interposes Himself as a shelter, a retreat, from the assaults of the wicked one. The promise is given, "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." ...
ML	316	3	Satan was permitted to tempt the too-confident Peter, as he had been permitted to tempt Job; but when that work was done he had to retire. Had Satan been suffered to have his way, there would have been no hope for Peter. He would have made complete shipwreck of faith. But the enemy dare not go one hairbreadth beyond his appointed sphere. There is no power in the whole satanic force that can disable the soul that trusts, in simple confidence, in the wisdom that comes from God.
ML	316	4	Christ is our tower of strength, and Satan can have no power over the soul that walks with God in humility of mind. The promise, "Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me." In Christ there is perfect and complete help for every tempted soul. Dangers beset every path, but the whole universe of heaven is standing on guard, that none may be tempted above that which he is able to bear. Some have strong traits of character, that will need to be constantly repressed. If kept under the control of the Spirit of God, these traits will be a blessing; but if not, they will prove a curse.... If we will give ourselves unselfishly to the work, never swerving in the least from principle, the Lord will throw about us the everlasting arms, and will prove a mighty helper. If we will look to Jesus as the One in whom we may trust, He will never fail us in any emergency.
------------------------Through Christ There is Victory, November 9
			Victory in the Conflict
ML	317	1	Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57
ML	317	2	Christ has power from His Father to give His divine grace and strength to man, making it possible for him through His name to overcome....
ML	317	3	All are personally exposed to the temptations that Christ overcame, but strength is provided for them in the all-powerful name of the great Conqueror. And all must, for themselves, individually overcome.
ML	317	4	He knows every trial and sorrow of childhood and youth. He was once just your age. The temptations and trials which come to you came also to Him. The sorrows which come to you came to Him. But He was never overcome by temptation. His life held nothing that was not pure and noble. He is your helper, your Redeemer.
ML	317	5	His heart of divine love and sympathy is drawn out most of all for the one who is the most hopelessly entangled in the snares of the enemy. With His own blood He has signed the emancipation papers of the race.
ML	317	6	Jesus does not desire those who have been purchased at such a cost to become the sport of the enemy's temptations. He does not desire us to be overcome and perish. He who curbed the lions in their den and walked with His faithful witnesses amid the fiery flames is just as ready to work in our behalf, to subdue every evil in our nature. Today He is standing at the altar of mercy, presenting before God the prayers of those who desire His help. He turns no weeping, contrite one away.... The souls that turn to Him for refuge, Jesus lifts above the accusing and the strife of tongues. No man or evil angel can impeach these souls. Christ unites them to His own divine-human nature.
------------------------The Will is the Deciding Power, November 10
			Victory in the Conflict
ML	318	1	Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2
ML	318	2	There is nothing that can keep you away from God but a rebellious will.
ML	318	3	The will is the governing power in the nature of man. If the will is set right, all the rest of the being will come under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the choice, the deciding power, the kingly power, which works in the children of men unto obedience to God or to disobedience.
ML	318	4	You will be in constant peril until you understand the true force of the will. You may believe and promise all things, but your promises and your faith are of no account until you put your will on the right side. If you will fight the fight of faith with your will power, there is no doubt that you will conquer.
ML	318	5	Your part is to put your will on the side of Christ. When you yield your will to His, He immediately takes possession of you, and works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Your nature is brought under the control of His Spirit. Even your thoughts are subject to Him. If you cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire, you can control the will, and thus an entire change will be wrought in your life. When you yield up your will to Christ, your life is hid with Christ in God. It is allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You have a strength from God that holds you fast to His strength; and a new life, even the life of faith, is possible to you.
ML	318	6	You can never be successful in elevating yourself, unless your will is on the side of Christ, cooperating with the Spirit of God. Do not feel that you cannot; but say, "I can, I will." And God has pledged His Holy Spirit to help you in every decided effort.
------------------------First Victories Won in the Home, November 11
			Victory in the Conflict
ML	319	1	Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.... Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 2:1-3
ML	319	2	In all that pertains to the success of God's work, the very first victories are to be won in the home life.
ML	319	3	Beyond the discipline of the home and the school, all have to meet the stern discipline of life. How to meet this wisely is a lesson that should be made plain to every child and to every youth. It is true that God loves us, that He is working for our happiness, and that, if His law had always been obeyed, we should never have known suffering; and it is no less true that, in this world, as the result of sin, suffering, trouble, burdens, come to every life. We may do the children and the youth a lifelong good by teaching them to meet bravely these troubles and burdens. While we should give them sympathy, let it never be such as to foster self-pity. What they need is that which stimulates and strengthens rather than weakens.
ML	319	4	They should be taught that this world is not a parade ground, but a battlefield. All are called to endure hardness, as good soldiers. They are to be strong, and quit themselves like men. Let them be taught that the true test of character is found in the willingness to bear burdens, to take the hard place, to do the work that needs to be done, though it bring no earthly recognition or reward.
ML	319	5	There is no greater curse upon households than to allow the youth to have their own way.
ML	319	6	Temptation once resisted will give power to more firmly resist the second time; every new victory gained over self will smooth the way for higher and nobler triumphs. Every victory is a seed sown to eternal life.
------------------------Be Steadfast, Unmovable, November 12
			Victory in the Conflict
ML	320	1	Therefore, my beloved brethren, be stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58
ML	320	2	Those who stand in defense of the honor of God, and maintain the purity of truth at any cost, will have manifold trials, as did our Saviour in the wilderness of temptation. The yielding temperaments, who have not courage to condemn wrong, but keep silent when their influence is needed to stand in the defense of right against any pressure, may avoid many heartaches and escape many perplexities, and lose a very rich reward, if not their own souls.
ML	320	3	Those who in harmony with God, and through faith in Him, receive strength to resist wrong, and stand in defense of the right, will always have severe conflicts and will frequently have to stand almost alone. But precious victories will be theirs while they make God their dependence. His grace will be their strength. Their moral sense will be keen, clear, and sensitive. Their moral powers will be equal to withstand wrong influences. Their integrity, like that of Moses, of the purest character.
ML	320	4	It will require moral courage to do God's work unflinchingly. Those who do this can give no place to self-love, to selfish considerations, ambition, love of ease, or desire to shun the cross.... Shall we obey His voice, or shall we listen to the soothing voice of the evil one, and be rocked to a fatal slumber just on the eve of eternal realities?
ML	320	5	Our Saviour longs to save the young.... He is waiting to place upon their heads the crown of life and hear their happy voices join in ascribing honor and glory and majesty to God and the Lamb in the song of victory that shall echo and re-echo throughout the courts of heaven.
------------------------Walk in the Light, November 13
			Victory in the Conflict
ML	321	1	O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Psalm 43:3
ML	321	2	In these days of peril we should be exceedingly careful not to reject the rays of light which Heaven in mercy sends us, for it is by these that we are to discern the devices of the enemy. We need light from Heaven every hour, that we may distinguish between the sacred and the common, the eternal and the temporal. If left to ourselves, we shall blunder at every step; we shall incline to the world, we shall shun self-denial, and see no necessity for constant watchfulness and prayer, and we shall be taken captive by Satan at his will. Some are today in this position. Having refused the light which God has sent them, they know not at what they stumble.
ML	321	3	All whose names shall at last be found written in the Lamb's book of life will fight manfully the battles of the Lord. They will labor most earnestly to discern and put away temptations and every evil thing. They will feel that the eye of God is upon them and that the strictest fidelity is required. As faithful sentinels they will keep the passage barred, that Satan may not pass them disguised as an angel of light to work his work of death in their midst....
ML	321	4	The white-robed ones who surround the throne of God are not composed of that company who were lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, and who choose to drift with the current rather than to breast the waves of opposition. All who remain pure and uncorrupted from the spirit and influence prevailing at this time will have stern conflicts. They will come through great tribulation; they will wash their robes of character and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. These will sing the song of triumph in the kingdom of glory.
------------------------Hold Fast, November 14
			Victory in the Conflict
ML	322	1	Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Revelation 3:11
ML	322	2	Decisions may be made in a moment that fix one's condition forever.... But remember, it would take the work of a lifetime to recover what a moment of yielding to temptation and thoughtlessness throws away....
ML	322	3	By a momentary act of will you may place yourself in the power of Satan, but it will require more than a momentary act of will to break his fetters and reach for a higher, holier life. The purpose may be formed, the work begun, but its accomplishment will require toil, time, and perseverance, patience, and sacrifice. The man who deliberately wanders from God in the full blaze of light will find, when he wishes to set his face to return, that briars and thorns have grown up in his path, and he must not be surprised or discouraged if he is compelled to travel long with torn and bleeding feet. The most fearful and most to be dreaded evidence of man's fall from a better state is the fact that it costs so much to get back. The way of return can be gained only by hard fighting, inch by inch, every hour....
ML	322	4	Those who win heaven will put forth their noblest efforts and will labor with all long-suffering, that they may reap the fruit of toil. There is a hand that will open wide the gates of Paradise to those who have stood the test of temptation and kept a good conscience by giving up the world, its honors, its applause, for the love of Christ, thus confessing Him before men and waiting with all patience for Him to confess them before His Father and the holy angels.
ML	322	5	Keep the conscience tender, that you may hear the faintest whisper of the voice that spake as never man spake.
------------------------Christ's Victory as Complete as Adam's Failure, November 15
			Those Who Have Conquered
ML	323	1	For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Romans 5:19
ML	323	2	Christ is called the second Adam. In purity and holiness, connected with God and beloved by God, He began where the first Adam began. Willingly He passed over the ground where Adam fell, and redeemed Adam's failure.
ML	323	3	But the first Adam was in every way more favorably situated than was Christ. The wonderful provision made for man in Eden was made by a God who loved him. Everything in nature was pure and undefiled.... Not a shadow interposed between them [Adam and Eve] and their Creator. They knew God as their beneficent Father, and in all things their will was conformed to the will of God....
ML	323	4	But Satan came to the dwellers in Eden and insinuated doubts of God's wisdom. He accused Him, their Heavenly Father and Sovereign, of selfishness, because, to test their loyalty, He had prohibited them from eating of the tree of knowledge....
ML	323	5	Christ was tempted by Satan in a hundredfold severer manner than was Adam, and under circumstances in every way more trying. The deceiver presented himself as an angel of light, but Christ withstood his temptations. He redeemed Adam's disgraceful fall, and saved the world....
ML	323	6	In His human nature He maintained the purity of His divine character. He lived the law of God, and honored it in a world of transgression, revealing to the heavenly universe, to Satan, and to all the fallen sons and daughters of Adam that through His grace humanity can keep the law of God. He came to impart His own divine nature, His own image, to the repentant, believing soul.
ML	323	7	Christ's victory was as complete as had been Adam's failure. So we may resist temptation, and force Satan to depart from us.
------------------------Christ Overcame the World, November 16
			Those Who Have Conquered
ML	324	1	These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33
ML	324	2	When the last steps of Christ's humiliation were to be taken, when the deepest sorrow was closing about His soul, He said to His disciples, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me." "The prince of this world is judged." Now shall he be cast out. With prophetic eye Christ traced the scenes to take place in His last great conflict. He knew that when He should exclaim, "It is finished," all heaven would triumph. His ear caught the distant music and the shouts of victory in the heavenly courts. He knew that the knell of Satan's empire would then be sounded, and the name of Christ would be heralded from world to world throughout the universe.
ML	324	3	Christ rejoiced that He could do more for His followers than they could ask or think. He spoke with assurance, knowing that an almighty decree had been given before the world was made. He knew that truth, armed with the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, would conquer in the contest with evil; and that the bloodstained banner would wave triumphantly over His followers. He knew that the life of His trusting disciples would be like His, a series of uninterrupted victories, not seen to be such here, but recognized as such in the great hereafter....
ML	324	4	"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Christ did not fail, neither was He discouraged, and His followers are to manifest a faith of the same enduring nature.... Though apparent impossibilities obstruct their way, by His grace they are to go forward.... They are to have power to resist evil, power that neither earth, nor death, nor hell can master, power that will enable them to overcome as Christ overcame.
ML	324	5	Satan trembles and flees before the weakest soul who finds refuge in that mighty name.
------------------------Christians in All Ages Have Overcome, November 17
			Those Who Have Conquered
ML	325	1	For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John 5:4
ML	325	2	The apostles built upon a sure foundation, even the Rock of Ages. To this foundation they brought the stones that they quarried from the world. Not without hindrance did the builders labor. Their work was made exceedingly difficult by the opposition of the enemies of Christ. They had to contend against the bigotry, prejudice, and hatred of those who were building upon a false foundation....
ML	325	3	Kings and governors, priests and rulers, sought to destroy the temple of God. But in the face of imprisonment, torture, and death, faithful men carried the work forward; and the structure grew, beautiful and symmetrical....
ML	325	4	Centuries of fierce persecution followed the establishment of the Christian church, but there were never wanting men who counted the work of building God's temple dearer than life itself....
ML	325	5	The enemy of righteousness left nothing undone in his effort to stop the work committed to the Lord's builders. But God "left not Himself without witness." Workers were raised up who ably defended the faith once delivered to the saints. History bears record to the fortitude and heroism of these men. Like the apostles, many of them fell at their post, but the building of the temple went steadily forward. The workmen were slain, but the work advanced. The Waldenses, John Wycliffe, Huss and Jerome, Martin Luther and Zwingle, Cranmer, Latimer, and Knox, the Huguenots, John and Charles Wesley, and a host of others brought to the foundation material that will endure throughout eternity.... We may look back through the centuries and see the living stones of which it is composed gleaming like jets of light through the darkness of error and superstition. Throughout eternity these precious jewels will shine with increasing luster, testifying to the power of the truth of God.
------------------------Paul's Shout of Victory, November 18
			Those Who Have Conquered
ML	326	1	Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Romans 8:35-37
ML	326	2	Paul suffered for the truth's sake, and yet we hear no complaints from his lips. As he reviews his life of toil and care and sacrifice, he says, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." The shout of victory from God's faithful servant comes down the line to our time: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
ML	326	3	Though Paul was at last confined in a Roman prison--shut away from the light and air of heaven, cut off from his active labors in the gospel, and momentarily expecting to be condemned to death--yet he did not yield to doubt or despondency. From that gloomy dungeon came his dying testimony, full of sublime faith and courage that has inspired the hearts of saints and martyrs in all succeeding ages. His words fitly describe the results of ... sanctification.... "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing."
ML	326	4	The wounds and scars of our warfare will be to us, as to Paul, the trophies of victory.
------------------------Jeremiah's Declaration of Thanksgiving, November 19
			Those Who Have Conquered
ML	327	1	It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22, 23
ML	327	2	The faithful prophet was daily strengthened to endure. "The Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one," he declared in faith; "therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten." "Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord: for He hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of the evildoers." The experiences through which Jeremiah passed in the days of his youth and also in the later years of his ministry taught him the lesson that "the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." He learned to pray, "O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in Thine anger, lest Thou bring me to nothing."
ML	327	3	When called to drink of the cup of tribulation and sorrow, and when tempted in his misery to say, "My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord," he recalled the providences of God in his behalf, and triumphantly exclaimed, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness."
ML	327	4	Many professed Christians dwell too much on the dark side of life, when they might rejoice in the sunshine; they repine when they should be glad; they talk of trials when they should offer praise for the rich blessings they enjoy. They look at the unpleasant things, hoard up the disappointments, and sigh over the griefs, and, as a consequence, grow heavyhearted and sad, when, should they count up their blessings, they would find them so numerous that they would forget to mention their annoyances. If they would every day take note of the favors that are done them; if they would store their minds with the precious memory of kindnesses received, how much occasion they would find to render thanks and praise to the Giver of all good.
------------------------Job Knew That His Redeemer Lived, November 20
			Those Who Have Conquered
ML	328	1	I know that my redeemer liveth, that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Job 19:25, 26
ML	328	2	Into the experience of all there come times of keen disappointment and utter discouragement--days when sorrow is the portion, and it is hard to believe that God is still the kind benefactor of His earth-born children; days when troubles harass the soul, till death seems preferable to life. It is then that many lose their hold on God and are brought into the slavery of doubt, the bondage of unbelief. Could we at such times discern with spiritual insight the meaning of God's providences, we should see angels seeking to save us from ourselves, striving to plant our feet upon a foundation more firm than the everlasting hills; and new faith, new life, would spring into being.
ML	328	3	The faithful Job, in the day of his affliction and darkness, declared: ...
ML	328	4	"My soul chooseth ... death rather than my life. I loathe it; I would not live alway: Let me alone; For my days are vanity."
ML	328	5	But though weary of life, Job was not allowed to die. To him were pointed out the possibilities of the future, and there was given him the message of hope:
			"Thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear:
			Because thou shalt forget thy misery,
ML	328	6	And remember it as waters that pass away...."
ML	328	7	From the depths of discouragement and despondency Job rose to the heights of implicit trust in the mercy and the saving power of God. Triumphantly he declared: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."
------------------------None Greater Than John the Baptist, November 21
			Those Who Have Conquered
ML	329	1	Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Matthew 11:11
ML	329	2	The tall reeds that grew beside the Jordan, bending before every breeze, were fitting representatives of the rabbis who had stood as critics and judges of the Baptist's mission. They were swayed this way and that by the winds of popular opinion. They would not humble themselves to receive the heart-searching message of the Baptist, yet for fear of the people they dared not openly oppose his work. But God's messenger was of no such craven spirit. The multitudes who were gathered about Christ had been witnesses to the work of John. They had heard his fearless rebuke of sin. To the self-righteous Pharisees, the priestly Sadducees, King Herod and his court, princes and soldiers, publicans and peasants, John had spoken with equal plainness. He was no trembling reed, swayed by the winds of human praise or prejudice. In the prison he was the same in his loyalty to God and his zeal for righteousness as when he preached God's message in the wilderness. In his faithfulness to principle he was as firm as a rock....
ML	329	3	In the announcement to Zacharias before the birth of John, the angel had declared, "He shall be great in the sight of the Lord." In the estimation of Heaven, what is it that constitutes greatness?--Not that which the world accounts greatness.... It is moral worth that God values. Love and purity are the attributes He prizes most. John was great in the sight of the Lord, when before the messengers from the Sanhedrim, before the people, and before his own disciples he refrained from seeking honor for himself, but pointed all to Jesus as the Promised One. His unselfish joy in the ministry of Christ presents the highest type of nobility ever revealed in man.
------------------------With Honesty, November 22
			I Too May Conquer
ML	330	1	Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. Romans 12:17
ML	330	2	In every business transaction a Christian will be just what he wants his brethren to think he is. His course of action is guided by underlying principles. He does not scheme; therefore he has nothing to conceal, nothing to gloss over. He may be criticized, he may be tested, but his unbending integrity will shine forth like pure gold. He is a blessing to all connected with him, for his word is trustworthy. He is a man who will not take an advantage of his neighbor. He is a friend and benefactor to all, and his fellow men put confidence in his counsel.... A truly honest man will never take advantage of weakness or incompetency in order to fill his own purse. He accepts a fair equivalent for that which he sells. If there are defects in the articles sold, he frankly tells his brother or his neighbor, although by so doing he may work against his own pecuniary interests.
ML	330	3	In all the details of life the strictest principles of honesty are to be maintained. These are not the principles which govern our world, for Satan, deceiver, liar, and oppressor is the master, and his subjects follow him and carry out his purposes. But Christians serve under a different Master, and their actions must be wrought in God, irrespective of all selfish gain. Deviation from perfect fairness in business deal may appear as a small thing in the estimation of some, but our Saviour did not thus regard it....
ML	330	4	A man may not have a pleasant exterior, he may be deficient in many respects, but if he has a reputation for straightforward honesty, he will be respected.... A man who steadfastly adheres to truth will win the confidence of all. Not only will his brethren in the faith trust him, but unbelievers will be constrained to acknowledge him as a man of honor.
------------------------With Truthfulness, November 23
			I Too May Conquer
ML	331	1	The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. Zephaniah 3:13
ML	331	2	Truthfulness and integrity are attributes of God, and he who possesses these qualities possesses a power that is invincible.
ML	331	3	Never prevaricate; never tell an untruth in precept or in example.... Be straight and undeviating. Even a slight prevarication should not be allowed.
ML	331	4	The Saviour has a deep contempt for all deception. The stern punishment meted out to Ananias and Sapphira shows this.
ML	331	5	Lying lips are an abomination to Him. He declares that into the holy city "there shall in no wise enter ... any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." Let truth telling be held with no loose hand or uncertain grasp. Let it become a part of the life. Playing fast and loose with truth, and dissembling to suit one's own selfish plans, means shipwreck of faith.... He who utters untruths sells his soul in a cheap market. His falsehoods may seem to serve in emergencies; he may thus seem to make business advancement that he could not gain by fair dealing; but he finally reaches the place where he can trust no one. Himself a falsifier, he has no confidence in the word of others.
ML	331	6	No man can pride himself on his truthfulness, for unless he has overcome he does not know what truthfulness is. No one can know the strength of his truthfulness and honesty until he has passed the fiery ordeal of the temptation to acquire means in questionable ways.
ML	331	7	He whose heart is filled with the love that proceeds from God does not allow self-exaltation or dishonesty to find place in his life. He who is "born again," of the Spirit, reveals Christ in the daily life. He is upright in all his dealings. He does no sly, cunning, underhand work. The good fruit that appears in his life testifies to the condition of his heart.
------------------------With Humility, November 24
			I Too May Conquer
ML	332	1	A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. Proverbs 29:23
ML	332	2	Man may lift himself up in pride and boast of his power, but in an instant God can bring him to nothingness. It is Satan's work to lead men to glorify themselves with their entrusted talents. Every man through whom God works will have to learn that the living, ever-present, ever-acting God is supreme, and has lent him talents to use--an intellect to originate; a heart to be the seat of his throne; affections to flow out in blessing to all with whom he shall come in contact, a conscience through which the Holy Spirit can convict him of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
ML	332	3	Pride, ignorance, and folly are constant companions. The Lord is displeased with the pride manifested among His professed people.
ML	332	4	Parents, ... it is easier for you to teach your children a lesson of pride than a lesson of humility.
ML	332	5	Before honor is humility. To fill a high place before men, Heaven chooses the worker who ... takes a lowly place before God. The most childlike disciple is the most efficient in labor for God. The heavenly intelligences can cooperate with him who is seeking, not to exalt self, but to save souls.... From communion with Christ he will go forth to work for those who are perishing in their sins. He is anointed for his mission, and he succeeds where many of the learned and intellectually wise would fail....
ML	332	6	The simplicity, the self-forgetfulness, and the confiding love of a little child are the attributes that Heaven values. These are the characteristics of real greatness.
ML	332	7	Solomon was never so rich or so wise or so truly great as when he confessed, "I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in."
------------------------With Liberality, November 25
			I Too May Conquer
ML	333	1	There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 11:24, 25
ML	333	2	It is God who blesses men with property, and He does this that they may be able to give toward the advancement of His cause. He sends the sunshine and the rain. He causes vegetation to flourish. He gives health and the ability to acquire means. All our blessings come from His bountiful hand. In turn, He would have men and women show their gratitude by returning Him a portion in tithes and offerings--in thank offerings, in freewill offerings, in trespass offerings. Should means flow into the treasury in accordance with this divinely appointed plan--a tenth of all the increase, and liberal offerings--there would be an abundance for the advancement of the Lord's work.
ML	333	3	But the hearts of men become hardened through selfishness, and like Ananias and Sapphira, they are tempted to withhold part of the price, while pretending to fulfill God's requirements. Many spend money lavishly in self-gratification. Men and women consult their pleasure and gratify their taste, while they bring to God, almost unwillingly, a stinted offering. They forget that God will one day demand a strict account of how His goods have been used.
ML	333	4	Constant, self-denying benevolence is God's remedy for the cankering sins of selfishness and covetousness. God has arranged systematic benevolence to sustain His cause and relieve the necessities of the suffering and needy. He has ordained that giving should become a habit, that it may counteract the dangerous and deceitful sin of covetousness. Continual giving starves covetousness to death.... He requires the constant exercise of benevolence, that the force of habit in good works may break the force of habit in an opposite direction.
------------------------With Love, November 26
			I Too May Conquer
ML	334	1	Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. 1 Corinthians 13:4
ML	334	2	Those who open their hearts and homes to invite Jesus to abide with them should keep the moral atmosphere unclouded by strife, bitterness, wrath, malice, or even an unkind word. Jesus will not abide in a home where are contention, envy, and bitterness....
ML	334	3	Paul had a healthful religious experience. The love of Christ was his grand theme and the constraining power that governed him.
ML	334	4	When in most discouraging circumstances, which would have had a depressing influence upon halfway Christians, he is firm of heart, full of courage and hope and cheer, exclaiming, "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Rejoice." The same hope and cheerfulness is seen when he is upon the deck of the ship, the tempest beating about him, the ship going to pieces. He gives orders to the commander of the ship and preserves the lives of all on board. Although a prisoner, he is really the master of the ship, the freest and happiest man on board. When wrecked and driven to a barbarous island, he is the most self-possessed, the most helpful in saving his fellow men from a watery grave. His hands brought the wood to kindle the fire for the benefit of the chilled, shipwrecked passengers. When they saw the deadly viper fasten upon his hand, they were filled with terror; but Paul calmly shook it into the fire, knowing it could not harm him; for he implicitly trusted in God.
ML	334	5	When before kings and dignitaries of the earth, who held his life in their hands, he quailed not; for he had given his life to God.... Grace, like an angel of mercy, makes his voice heard sweet and clear, repeating the story of the cross, the matchless love of Jesus.
ML	334	6	Love's agencies have wonderful power, for they are divine.
------------------------With Christlike Words and Deeds, November 27
			I Too May Conquer
ML	335	1	By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Matthew 12:37
ML	335	2	When you do your appointed work without contention or criticism of others, a freedom, a light, and a power will attend it that will give character and influence to the institutions and enterprises with which you are connected.
ML	335	3	Remember that you are never on vantage ground when you are ruffled and when you carry the burden of setting right every soul who comes near you. If you yield to the temptation to criticize others, to point out their faults, to tear down what they are doing, you may be sure that you will fail to act your own part nobly and well.
ML	335	4	This is a time when every man in a responsible position and every member of the church should bring every feature of his work into close accord with the teachings of the Word of God. By untiring vigilance, by fervent prayer, by Christlike words and deeds, we are to show the world what God desires His church to be....
ML	335	5	Christ humbled Himself to stand at the head of humanity, to meet the temptations and endure the trials that humanity must meet and endure. He must know what humanity has to meet from the fallen foe, that He might know how to succor those who are tempted.
ML	335	6	And Christ has been made our judge. The Father is not the judge. The angels are not. He who took humanity upon Himself, and in this world lived a perfect life, is to judge us. He only can be our judge.... No one of you has been appointed to be judge of others. It is all that you can do to discipline yourselves....
ML	335	7	We have a character to maintain, but it is the character of Christ.... May the Lord help us to die to self, and be born again, that Christ may live in us, a living, active principle, a power that will keep us holy.
------------------------With Peace, November 28
			I Too May Conquer
ML	336	1	Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. Job 22:21
ML	336	2	We embarked in a small boat which was to convey us across the channel to the coast of Denmark. Here I was provided with a stateroom containing two sofas, and shut in by heavy curtains--accommodations which we then thought hardly necessary for a day journey of only six hours. We had occasion, however, to change this opinion before reaching land. The first hour we spent on deck in the cheerful and well-furnished ladies' cabin. The weather was pleasant, the sea smooth, and we anticipated an enjoyable trip. But soon the captain, passing through the cabin, advised us to go below and lie down at once, for we were coming into rough water. We complied, though rather unwillingly. In a short time the boat began to rock violently; we could hardly keep our position upon the sofas. I became very ill, now in a profuse perspiration, as if every organ was struggling against the terrible malady, and then overcome by deathly seasickness....
ML	336	3	Death seemed very near; but I felt that I could cling, with the firm grasp of faith, to the hand of Jesus. He who holds the waters in the hollow of His hand could keep us in the tempest. The waves of the great deep obey His voice, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." I thought how Jesus calmed the fears of His disciples as He stilled the stormy Galilee; and should I be afraid to trust to His protection who had given me my work? My heart was kept in perfect peace because it was stayed on Him. The lesson of trust I learned during these few hours was very precious. I have found that every trial of life is given to teach me a new lesson of my own dependence, and of trust in my heavenly Father. We may believe that God is with us in every place, and in every trying hour we may hold fast that hand which has all power.
------------------------Not One Word of His Promise Has Failed, November 29
			Promises of Victory
ML	337	1	Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant. 1 Kings 8:56
ML	337	2	We were favored with a sight of the most glorious sunset it was ever my privilege to behold. Language is inadequate to picture its beauty. The last beams of the setting sun, silver and gold, purple, amber, and crimson, shed their glories athwart the sky, growing brighter and brighter, rising higher and higher in the heavens, until it seemed that the gates of the city of God had been left ajar and gleams of the inner glory were flashing through. For two hours the wondrous splendor continued to light up the cold northern sky--a picture painted by the great Master-Artist upon the shifting canvas of the heavens. Like the smile of God it seemed, above all earthly homes, above the rock-bound plains, the rugged mountains, the lonely forests, through which our journey lay.
ML	337	3	Angels of mercy seemed whispering, "Look up. This glory is but a gleam of the light which flows from the throne of God. Live not for earth alone. Look up, and behold by faith the mansions of the heavenly home." This scene was to me as the bow of promise to Noah, enabling me to grasp the assurance of God's unfailing care and to look forward to the haven of rest awaiting the faithful worker. Ever since that time I have felt that God granted us this token of His love for our encouragement. Never while memory lingers can I forget that vision of beauty and the comfort and peace it brought.
ML	337	4	It is impossible for any mind to comprehend all the richness and greatness of even one promise of God. One catches the glory of one point of view, another the beauty and grace from another point, and the soul is filled with heavenly light.
ML	337	5	In them He is speaking to us individually.... It is in these promises that Christ communicates to us His grace and power.
------------------------God's Promises Are for Me, November 30
			Promises of Victory
ML	338	1	Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Psalm 30:4, 5
ML	338	2	To blot the promises of God from the Word would be like blotting the sun from the sky. There would then be nothing to gladden our experience. God has placed the promises in His Word to lead us to have faith in Him. In these promises He draws back the veil from eternity, giving us a glimpse of the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory which awaits the overcomer. Let us, then, rest in God. Let us praise Him for giving us such a glorious revelation of His purposes.
ML	338	3	All along our pathway God places the flowers of promise to brighten our journey. But many refuse to gather these flowers, choosing instead the thorns and thistles. At every step they weep and mourn, when they might rejoice in the Lord because He has made the road to heaven so pleasant.
ML	338	4	As we look at the promises of God we find comfort and hope and joy, for they speak to us the words of the Infinite One. Properly to appreciate these precious promises we should study them carefully, examining them in detail. How much joy we might bring into life, how much goodness into the character, if we would but make these promises our own! As we journey in the upward way, let us talk of the blessings strewn along the path. As we think of the mansions Christ is preparing for us, we forget the petty annoyances which we meet day by day. We seem to breathe the atmosphere of the heavenly country to which we are journeying, and we are soothed and comforted.... Let us honor God by weaving more of Jesus and heaven into our lives.
ML	338	5	The unfailing promises of God will keep your heart in perfect peace.
------------------------Make Your Calling and Election Sure, December 1
			Prepering for Eternal Life
ML	339	1	Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:10, 11
ML	339	2	Here a life insurance policy is offered us which insures for us eternal life in the kingdom of God. I ask you to study these words of the apostle Peter. There is understanding and intelligence in every sentence. By taking hold upon the Lifegiver, who gave His life for us, we receive eternal life.
ML	339	3	We are each deciding our eternal destiny, and it rests wholly with us whether we shall gain eternal life. Will we live the lessons given in the Word of God, Christ's great lesson book? It is the grandest, and yet the most simply arranged and easily understood book ever prepared for giving an education in proper behaviour, in speech, in manners, in affection. It is the only book that will prepare human beings for the life that measures with the life of God. And those who make this Word their daily study are the only ones who are worthy of receiving a diploma entitling them to educate and train the children for entrance into the higher school, to be crowned as victorious overcomers.
ML	339	4	Christ Jesus is the only judge of the fitness of human agents to receive eternal life. The gates of the holy city will open to those who have been humble, meek, lowly followers of His, having learned their lessons from Him, and received from Him their life insurance policy, forming characters after the divine similitude.
ML	339	5	When the ransomed are redeemed from the earth, the city of God will be opened to you.... Then the harp will be placed in your hand, and your voice will be raised in songs of praise to God and to the Lamb, by whose great sacrifice you are made partakers of His nature and given an immortal inheritance in the kingdom of God.
------------------------Keep the Commandments, December 2
			Prepering for Eternal Life
ML	340	1	Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14
ML	340	2	The conflict is before us. The only safety for any one of us now is to be one with Christ in God. We are to strive to enter in at the strait gate. But this gate does not swing loosely on its hinges. It will not admit doubtful characters. We must now strive for eternal life with an intensity that is proportionate to the value of the prize before us. It is not money or lands or position, but the possession of a Christlike character, that will open to us the gates of Paradise. It is not dignity, it is not intellectual attainments, that will win for us the crown of immortality. Only the meek and lowly ones, who have made God their sufficiency, will receive this gift....
ML	340	3	To create the soul anew, to bring light out of darkness, love out of enmity, holiness out of impurity, is the work of Omnipotence alone. The work of the Infinite, as He engages, by the consent of the human being, to make the life complete in Christ, to bring perfection to the character, is the science of eternity.
ML	340	4	What is the honor conferred upon Christ? Without employing any compulsion, without using any violence, He blends the will of the human subject to the will of God. This is the science of all true science; for by it a mighty change is wrought in mind and character--the change that must be wrought in the life of every one who passes through the gates of the city of God.
ML	340	5	Then they that have kept God's commandments shall breathe in immortal vigor beneath the tree of life; and through unending ages the inhabitants of sinless worlds shall behold, in that garden [Eden] of delight, a sample of the perfect work of God's creation, untouched by the curse of sin--a sample of what the whole earth would have become, had man but fulfilled the Creator's glorious plan.
------------------------Walk With God Continually, December 3
			Prepering for Eternal Life
ML	341	1	And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Genesis 5:24
ML	341	2	When God takes the members of His church to heaven, it will be because they have walked with Him here on this earth, receiving from above strength and wisdom which enables them to serve Him aright. Those who are taken to God will be men and women who now pray in humility and contrition, whose hearts are not lifted up unto vanity. In their dealing with believers and unbelievers they represent Christ.
ML	341	3	Those who have no pleasure in thinking and talking of God in this life will not enjoy the life that is to come, where God is ever present, dwelling among His people. But those who love to think of God will be in their element, breathing in the atmosphere of heaven. Those who on earth love the thought of heaven will be happy in its holy associations and pleasures....
ML	341	4	When in the world they did not claim to be their own, and God set to His seal that they were His. Heaven will be for those who desire it with intense desire, who put forth efforts in proportion to the value of the object which they seek. The thoughts of those who will obtain heaven will be upon heavenly things.
ML	341	5	"Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God." For three hundred years Enoch had been seeking purity of soul, that he might be in harmony with Heaven. For three centuries he had walked with God. Day by day he had longed for a closer union; nearer and nearer had grown the communion, until God took him to Himself. He had stood at the threshold of the eternal world, only a step between him and the land of the blest; and now the portals opened, the walk with God, so long pursued on earth, continued, and he passed through the gates of the Holy City--the first from among men to enter there.
------------------------Walk by Faith, December 4
			Prepering for Eternal Life
ML	342	1	For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7
ML	342	2	We are to live, not to elevate ourselves, but that we may, as God's little children, do to the very best of our ability the work that He has committed to us. It is our business to give a right impression to others. We are preparing for eternity, for the sanitarium above, where the Great Physician shall wipe away the tears from every eye, and where the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nation.
ML	342	3	Let us all take hold of Christ Jesus by a living faith, and walk in humility of mind. Then the grace of God will be revealed in us, and we shall see of His salvation. We shall greet the holy family of the redeemed.... We shall touch our golden harps, and heaven will ring with rich music. We shall cast our glittering crowns at His feet and give glory to Him who has overcome in our behalf.
ML	342	4	There may be some things here that we do not understand. Some things in the Bible may appear to us mysterious, because they are beyond our finite comprehension. But as our Saviour leads us by the living waters, He will make clear to our minds that which was not before clearly understood.
ML	342	5	As I think of the future glory of heaven, I feel an intense desire that every living soul may know about it.... I long to hold Him up as the mighty Healer....
ML	342	6	It means much to us whether we are in pursuit of the heavenly things or of the earthly. The earthly will soon pass away. In these days there is great destruction of earthly treasures. There are "earthquakes in divers places," and trouble and difficulties are seen on every hand. But it is our privilege to be preparing to become members of the heavenly family, children of the heavenly King.
------------------------Be Ready and Waiting, December 5
			Preparing for Eternal Life
ML	343	1	And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Isaiah 25:9
ML	343	2	As I hear of the terrible calamities that from week to week are taking place, I ask myself: What do these things mean? The most awful disasters are following one another in quick succession. How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property! Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of seemingly disorganized, unregulated forces, but in them God's purpose may be read. They are one of the means by which He seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger....
ML	343	3	The judgments of God are in the land. They speak in solemn warning, saying: "Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." ...
ML	343	4	We are living in the closing scenes of this earth's history.... We have no time--not a moment--to lose. Let us not be found sleeping on guard.... Let us persuade men and women everywhere to repent and flee from the wrath to come. Let us arouse them to immediate preparation, for we little know what is before us....
ML	343	5	He [the Lord] is soon coming, and we must be ready and waiting for His appearing. Oh, how glorious it will be to see Him and be welcomed as His redeemed ones! ... If we can but see the King in His beauty we shall be forever blessed. I feel as if I must cry aloud: "Homeward bound!" We are nearing the time when Christ will come in power and great glory to take His ransomed ones to their eternal home....
ML	343	6	In the great closing work we shall meet with perplexities that we know not how to deal with; but let us not forget that the three great powers of heaven are working, that a divine hand is on the wheel, and that God will bring His promises to pass. He will gather from the world a people who will serve Him in righteousness.
------------------------God's People Delivered, December 6
			Christ Redeems Me Unto Eternal Life
ML	344	1	And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35:10
ML	344	2	It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people. The sun appears, shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow in quick succession. The wicked look with terror and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance. Everything in nature seems turned out of its course.... Dark, heavy clouds come up, and clash against each other. In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying, "It is done."
ML	344	3	That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty earthquake, "such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." The firmament appears to open and shut. The glory from the throne of God seems flashing through. The mountains shake like a reed in the wind, and ragged rocks are scattered on every side....
ML	344	4	Graves are opened, and "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth ... awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." All who have died in the faith of the third angel's message come forth from the tomb glorified, to hear God's covenant of peace with those who have kept His law....
ML	344	5	The voice of God is heard from heaven, declaring the day and hour of Jesus' coming and delivering the everlasting covenant to His people. Like peals of loudest thunder, His words roll through the earth. The Israel of God stand listening, with their eyes fixed upward. Their countenances are lighted up with His glory, and shine as did the face of Moses when he came down from Sinai. The wicked cannot look upon them. And when the blessing is pronounced on those who have honored God by keeping His Sabbath holy, there is a mighty shout of victory.
------------------------Christ Himself Comes for Us, December 7
			Christ Redeems Me Unto Eternal Life
ML	345	1	For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
ML	345	2	Jesus is coming, coming with clouds and great glory. A multitude of shining angels will attend Him. He will come to honor those who have loved Him and kept His commandments, and to take them to Himself. He has not forgotten them or His promise.
ML	345	3	There appears in the East a small black cloud.... The people of God know this to be the sign of the Son of man. In solemn silence they gaze upon it as it draws nearer the earth, ... until it is a great white cloud, its base a glory like consuming fire, and above it the rainbow of the covenant. Jesus rides forth as a mighty conqueror....
ML	345	4	As the living cloud comes still nearer, every eye beholds the Prince of life. No crown of thorns now mars that sacred head, but a diadem of glory rests on His holy brow. His countenance outshines the dazzling brightness of the noonday sun. "And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords." ... The heavens are rolled together as a scroll, the earth trembles before Him, and every mountain and island is moved out of its place....
ML	345	5	Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints.... Throughout the length and breadth of the earth the dead shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live.... All arise with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth....
ML	345	6	The living righteous are changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." At the voice of God they were glorified; now they are made immortal, and with the risen saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air. Oh, what a glorious meeting!
------------------------Christ's Coronation Day, December 8
			Christ Redeems Me Unto Eternal Life
ML	346	1	Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Revelation 15:3
ML	346	2	In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and His Son. The angels of heaven, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King, and those who are the trophies of His victory--those who have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts accompanied by His redeemed ones, the witnesses that His mission of suffering and sacrifice has not been in vain.
ML	346	3	Far above the city, upon a foundation of burnished gold, is a throne, high and lifted up. Upon this throne sits the Son of God, and around Him are the subjects of His kingdom. The power and majesty of Christ no language can describe, no pen portray. The glory of the Eternal Father is enshrouding His Son. The brightness of His presence fills the city of God and flows out beyond the gates, flooding the whole earth with its radiance.
ML	346	4	Nearest the throne are those who were once zealous in the cause of Satan, but who, plucked as brands from the burning, have followed their Saviour with deep, intense devotion. Next are those who perfected Christian characters in the midst of falsehood and infidelity, those who honored the law of God when the Christian world declared it void, and the millions of all ages who were martyred for their faith. And beyond is the "great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, ... before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." Their warfare is ended, their victory won. They have run the race and reached the prize....
ML	346	5	In the presence of the assembled inhabitants of earth and heaven the final coronation of the Son of God takes place.
------------------------Christ Presents Me With a Crown and Harp, December 9
			Christ Redeems Me Unto Eternal Life
ML	347	1	Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8
ML	347	2	Before entering the city of God the Saviour bestows upon His followers the emblems of victory and invests them with the insignia of their royal state. The glittering ranks are drawn up in the form of a hollow square about their King, whose form rises in majesty high above saint and angel, whose countenance beams upon them full of benignant love. Throughout the unnumbered host of the redeemed every glance is fixed upon Him, every eye beholds His glory whose "visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men." Upon the heads of the overcomers Jesus with His own right hand places the crown of glory. For each there is a crown, bearing his own "new name," and the inscription, "Holiness to the Lord." In every hand are placed the victor's palm and the shining harp. Then, as the commanding angels strike the note, every hand sweeps the harp strings with skillful touch, awaking sweet music in rich, melodious strains. Rapture unutterable thrills every heart, and each voice is raised in grateful praise: "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever."
ML	347	3	Oh, what joy unspeakable, to see Him whom we loved--to see Him in His glory who so loved us that He gave Himself for us--to behold those hands once pierced for our redemption stretched out to us in blessing and welcome!
ML	347	4	Those who ... place themselves in God's hands ... will see the King in His beauty. They will behold His matchless charms, and touching their golden harps, they will fill all heaven with rich music and with songs to the Lamb.
------------------------Given a White Robe of Righteousness, December 10
			Christ Redeems Me Unto Eternal Life
ML	348	1	These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 7:14
ML	348	2	Glorious will be the reward bestowed when the faithful workers gather about the throne of God and of the Lamb.... They will stand before the throne, accepted in the Beloved. All their sins have been blotted out, all their transgressions borne away. Now they can look upon the undimmed glory of the throne of God.... In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and the Son. The angels, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King and His trophies of victory--those who have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.
ML	348	3	All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving--the robe of Christ's righteousness. All nature in its surpassing loveliness will offer to God a constant tribute of praise and adoration. The world will be bathed in the light of heaven. The years will move on in gladness. The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold greater than it is now. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite in proclaiming, "There shall be no more sin, neither shall there be any more death." ...
ML	348	4	The conflict is over. All tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all heaven as the redeemed stand around the throne of God. All take up the joyful strain, "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again, a triumphant conqueror."
ML	348	5	"I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."
------------------------Victory Over Death, December 11
			Christ Redeems Me Unto Eternal Life
ML	349	1	And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4
ML	349	2	We have a living, risen Saviour. He burst the fetters of the tomb after He had lain there three days, and in triumph He proclaimed over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, "I am the resurrection, and the life." And He is coming. Are we getting ready for Him? Are we ready so that if we shall fall asleep, we can do so with hope in Jesus Christ? ...
ML	349	3	The Life-giver is soon to come ... to break the fetters of the tomb. He is to bring forth the captives.... The last thoughts they had were of the grave and the tomb, but now they proclaim, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" The pangs of death were the last things they felt.... When they awake the pain is all gone. "O grave, where is thy victory?" Here they stand, and the finishing touch of immortality is put upon them, and they go up to meet their Lord in the air. The gates of the city of God swing back upon their hinges, ... and the ransomed of God walk in through the cherubims and seraphims. Christ bids them welcome and puts upon them His benediction. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." What is that joy? He sees of the travail of his soul, and is satisfied.... Here is one who in the night season we pleaded with God on his behalf. There is one that we talked with on his dying bed, and he hung his helpless soul upon Jesus. Here is one who was a poor drunkard. We tried to get his eyes fixed upon Him who is mighty to save, and we told him that Christ could give him the victory. There are the crowns of immortal glory upon their heads.
ML	349	4	There, there is no disappointment, no sorrow, no sin, no one who shall say, "I am sick." There, there is no burial train, no mourning, no death, no parting, no broken hearts; and Jesus is there, peace is there.... In His presence is fullness of joy, at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore!
------------------------No More Sin, December 12
			Christ Redeems Me Unto Eternal Life
ML	350	1	And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. Revelation 22:3, 4
ML	350	2	Every trace of the curse is swept away.... One reminder alone remains: our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in His glory, "He had bright beams [margin] coming out of His side: and there was the hiding of His power." That pierced side whence flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God--there is the Saviour's glory, there "the hiding of His power." "Mighty to save," through the sacrifice of redemption, He was therefore strong to execute justice upon them that despised God's mercy. And the tokens of His humiliation are His highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show forth His praise and declare His power....
ML	350	3	The time has come to which holy men have looked with longing since the flaming sword barred the first pair from Eden--the time for "the redemption of the purchased possession." The earth originally given to man as his kingdom, betrayed by him into the hands of Satan, and so long held by the mighty foe, has been brought back by the great plan of redemption. All that was lost by sin has been restored.... God's original purpose in the creation of the earth is fulfilled as it is made the eternal abode of the redeemed. "The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever."
ML	350	4	Then we shall enjoy with Him all the glories of the world to come throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity.... There is nothing in the kingdom of God to disturb or annoy. This is the life that is promised to the overcomer--a life of happiness and peace, a life of love and beauty.... There is no sin, no distracting care, nothing to mar the peace of the inhabitant.
------------------------As Heirs, We Inherit the Kingdom, December 13
			Heavens Is a Real and Wonderful Place
ML	351	1	Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Matthew 25:34
ML	351	2	Before the ransomed throng is the holy city. Jesus opens wide the pearly gates, and the nations that have kept the truth enter in. There they behold the Paradise of God, the home of Adam in his innocency. Then that voice, richer than any music that ever fell on mortal ear, is heard, saying, "Your conflict is ended." "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
ML	351	3	Now is fulfilled the Saviour's prayer for His disciples, "I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am." "Faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy," Christ presents to the Father the purchase of His blood, declaring, "Here am I, and the children whom Thou hast given Me." "Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept." Oh, the wonders of redeeming love! the rapture of that hour when the infinite Father, looking upon the ransomed, shall behold His image, sin's discord banished, its blight removed, the human once more in harmony with the divine!
ML	351	4	Then the redeemed will be welcomed to the home that Jesus is preparing for them.... They will associate with those who have overcome Satan and through divine grace have formed perfect characters. Every sinful tendency, every imperfection, that afflicts them here, has been removed by the blood of Christ, and the excellence and brightness of His glory, far exceeding the brightness of the sun, is imparted to them. And the moral beauty, the perfection of His character, shines through them in worth far exceeding this outward splendor. They are without fault before the great white throne, sharing the dignity and the privileges of the angels.
------------------------Families Will Be Reunited, December 14
			Heavens Is a Real and Wonderful Place
ML	352	1	Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. Jeremiah 31:16, 17
ML	352	2	Christ is coming with clouds and with great glory.... He will come to raise the dead, and to change the living saints from glory to glory.... There will be a re-linking of the family chain.
ML	352	3	Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation....
ML	352	4	The living righteous are changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." At the voice of God they were glorified; now they are made immortal, and with the risen saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air. Angels "gather together the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Little children are borne by holy angels to their mothers' arms. Friends long separated by death are united, nevermore to part, and with songs of gladness ascend together to the city of God.
ML	352	5	With joy unutterable parents see the crown, the robe, the harp, given to their children. The days of hope and fear are ended.... Their children have been redeemed.
ML	352	6	There we shall see on every hand the beautiful trees of Paradise, in the midst of them the tree of life. There we shall behold with undimmed vision the beauties of Eden restored. There we shall cast at the feet of our Redeemer the crowns that He has placed on our heads, and touching our golden harps, we shall offer praise and thanksgiving to Him that sitteth on the throne.... May you all be among those who shall enter through the gates of pearl into the city of our God. May you, as unbroken families, dwell forever in that haven of rest. To this end may God help you now to strive for the crown of life.
------------------------We Shall Recognize Each Other, December 15
			Heavens Is a Real and Wonderful Place
ML	353	1	Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12
ML	353	2	In the mansions above we shall meet to part no more. We shall know each other in our heavenly home.
ML	353	3	The redeemed will meet and recognize those whose attention they have directed to the uplifted Saviour. What blessed converse they have with these souls! "I was a sinner," it will be said, "without God and without hope in the world, and you came to me and drew my attention to the precious Saviour as my only hope.... Others will say, "I was a heathen in heathen lands. You left your friends and comfortable home and came to teach me how to find Jesus and believe in Him as the only true God. I demolished my idols and worshiped God, and now I see Him face to face. I am saved, eternally saved, ever to behold Him whom I love...."
ML	353	4	Others will express their gratitude to those who fed the hungry and clothed the naked. "When despair bound my soul in unbelief, the Lord sent you to me," they say, "to speak words of hope and comfort. You brought me food for my physical necessities, and you opened to me the Word of God, awakening me to my spiritual needs. You treated me as a brother. You sympathized with me in my sorrows, and restored my bruised and wounded soul, so that I could grasp the hand of Christ that was reached out to save me. In my ignorance you taught me patiently that I had a Father in heaven who cared for me. You read to me the precious promises of God's Word. You inspired in me the faith that He would save me. My heart was softened, subdued, broken, as I contemplated the sacrifice which Christ had made for me.... I am here, saved, eternally saved, ever to live in His presence and to praise Him who gave His life for me."
ML	353	5	What rejoicing there will be as these redeemed ones meet and greet those who have had a burden in their behalf! And those who have lived, not to please themselves, but to be a blessing to the unfortunate who have so few blessings--how their hearts will thrill with satisfaction!
------------------------A Beautiful Country, December 16
			Heavens Is a Real and Wonderful Place
ML	354	1	And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:15, 16
ML	354	2	A fear of making the future inheritance seem too material has led many to spiritualize away the very truths which lead us to look upon it as our home. Christ assured His disciples that He went to prepare mansions for them in the Father's house. Those who accept the teachings of God's Word will not be wholly ignorant concerning the heavenly abode. And yet "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." Human language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous. It will be known only to those who behold it. No finite mind can comprehend the glory of the Paradise of God.
ML	354	3	In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called a country. There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord.
ML	354	4	The grass will be a living green, and will never wither. There will be roses and lilies and all kinds of flowers there. They will never blight or fade or lose their beauty and fragrance.
ML	354	5	The lion, we should much dread and fear here, will then lie down with the lamb, and everything in the New Earth will be peace and harmony. The trees of the New Earth will be straight and lofty, without deformity.
ML	354	6	In the New Earth there are no chilling winds, no disagreeable changes. The atmosphere is ever right and healthful.
------------------------Eat of the Tree of Life, December 17
			Heavens Is a Real and Wonderful Place
ML	355	1	In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2
ML	355	2	Out of the throne came a pure river of water, and on either side of the river was the tree of life.... The fruit was glorious; it looked like gold mixed with silver.
ML	355	3	The fruit of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden possessed supernatural virtue. To eat of it was to live forever. Its fruit was the antidote of death. Its leaves were for the sustaining of life and immortality.... After the entrance of sin the heavenly Husbandman transplanted the tree of life to the Paradise above.
ML	355	4	The redeemed saints, who have loved God and kept His commandments here, will enter in through the gates of the city, and have right to the tree of life. They will eat freely of it as our first parents did before their fall. The leaves of that immortal widespread tree will be for the healing of the nations. All their woes will then be gone. Sickness, sorrow, and death they will never again feel, for the leaves of the tree of life have healed them. Jesus will then see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, when the redeemed, who have been subject to sorrow, toil, and afflictions, who have groaned beneath the curse, are gathered up around that tree of life to eat of its immortal fruit, that our first parents forfeited all right to, by breaking God's commands. There will be no danger of their ever losing right to the tree of life again, for he that tempted our first parents to sin will be destroyed by the second death.
ML	355	5	Upon the tree of life was most beautiful fruit, of which the saints could partake freely.... The most exalted language fails to describe the glory of heaven or the matchless depths of a Saviour's love.
------------------------At the Marriage Supper, December 18
			Heavens Is a Real and Wonderful Place
ML	356	1	Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. Revelation 19:9
ML	356	2	In both the Old and New Testament the marriage relation is employed to represent the tender and sacred union that exists between Christ and His people. To the mind of Jesus the gladness of the wedding festivities pointed forward to the rejoicing of that day when He shall bring home His bride to the Father's house, and the redeemed with the Redeemer shall sit down to the marriage supper of the Lamb. He says, "As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." "Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; ...but thou shalt be called My Delight [margin]; ... for the Lord delighteth in thee." "He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing." When the vision of heavenly things was granted to John the apostle, he wrote: "I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready." "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb."
ML	356	3	Jesus saw in every soul one to whom must be given the call to His kingdom.
ML	356	4	Having received the kingdom, He will come in His glory, as King of kings and Lord of lords, for the redemption of His people, who are to "sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob" at His table in His kingdom, to partake of the marriage supper of the Lamb.
------------------------The Glories of Our Heavenly Home, December 19
			Heavens Is a Real and Wonderful Place
ML	357	1	And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. Revelation 21:18, 19
ML	357	2	The glorious city of God has twelve gates, set with pearls most glorious. It also has twelve foundations of various colors. The streets of the city are of pure gold. In this city is the throne of God, and a pure, beautiful river proceeding out of it, as clear as crystal. Its sparkling purity and beauty make glad the city of God. The saints will drink freely of the healing waters of the river of life....
ML	357	3	All faces will reflect the image of their Redeemer. There will then be no anxious, troubled countenances, but all will be bright, and smiling in spotless purity. The angels will be there, also the resurrected saints with the martyrs, and the best of all, and what will cause us the most joy, our lovely Saviour, who suffered and died that we might enjoy that happiness and freedom, will be there.--His glorious face will shine brighter than the sun, and light up the beautiful city and reflect glory all around.
ML	357	4	Children will be there. They will never be engaged in strife or discord. Their love will be fervent and holy. They will also have a crown of gold upon their heads and a harp in their hands. And their little countenances, that we here see so often troubled and perplexed, will beam with holy joy, expressive of their perfect freedom and happiness....
ML	357	5	The saints will have crowns of glory upon their heads and harps of gold in their hands. They will play upon the golden harp and sing redeeming love, and make melody unto God. Their former trials and suffering in this world will be forgotten and lost amid the glories of the New Earth. And they will ever have the approving smiles of Jesus upon them, and their happiness will be complete.... The future abode of the saints will be all glorious.
------------------------Labor for Pleasure and Enjoyment, December 20
			Activities in Heaven
ML	358	1	And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Isaiah 65:21, 22
ML	358	2	There the wide-spreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God's people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home.
ML	358	3	"My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places."
ML	358	4	In the earth made new the redeemed will engage in the occupations and pleasure that brought happiness to Adam and Eve in the beginning. The Eden life will be lived, the life in garden and field. "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them...."
ML	358	5	There every power will be developed, every capability increased. The grandest enterprises will be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations will be reached, the highest ambitions realized. And there will appear new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects of study to call forth the powers of body and mind and soul.
ML	358	6	There certainly is and ever will be employment in heaven. The whole family of the redeemed will not live in a state of dreamy idleness. There remaineth a rest to the people of God. In heaven activity will not be wearing and burdensome; it will be rest. The whole family of the redeemed will find their delight in serving Him whose they are by creation and by redemption.
ML	358	7	To the weary and heavy laden, to those who have fought the good fight of faith, it will be a glorious rest; for the youth and vigor of immortality will be theirs, and against sin and Satan they will no longer have to contend.
------------------------Harmonious Social Life, December 21
			Activities in Heaven
ML	359	1	The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. Psalm 16:6
ML	359	2	The loves and sympathies which God Himself has planted in the soul shall there find truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, the sacred ties that bind together "the whole family in heaven and earth"--these help to constitute the happiness of the redeemed.
ML	359	3	Amid the ransomed throng are the apostles of Christ, the heroic Paul, the ardent Peter, the loved and loving John, and their true-hearted brethren, and with them the vast host of martyrs.
ML	359	4	Heaven is full of joy. It resounds with the praise of Him who made so wonderful a sacrifice for the redemption of the human race. Should not the church on earth be full of praise? Should not Christians publish throughout the world the joy of serving Christ? Those who in heaven join with the angelic choir in their anthem of praise must learn on earth the song of heaven, the keynote of which is thanksgiving.
ML	359	5	Everything in heaven is noble and elevated. All seek the interest and happiness of others. No one devotes himself to looking out and caring for self. It is the chief joy of all holy beings to witness the joy and happiness of those around them.
ML	359	6	If you have trials here, and feel lonesome, look away from this dark world to the bright glories of heaven. Set your affections upon heavenly joys, and then you will not feel so deeply the trials and disappointments of this life, for you will feel that you have a home in glory, a crown, a harp, and a lovely Saviour there. Strive for that blest inheritance which God has promised to those that love Him and keep His commandments.
------------------------Study God's Wisdom Throughout Eternity, December 22
			Activities in Heaven
ML	360	1	The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Ephesians 1:17, 18
ML	360	2	The science of redemption is the science of all sciences, the science that is the study of the angels and of all the intelligences of the unfallen worlds, the science that engages the attention of our Lord and Saviour, the science that enters into the purpose brooded in the mind of the Infinite--"kept in silence through times eternal," the science that will be the study of God's redeemed throughout the endless ages. This is the highest study in which it is possible for man to engage. As no other study can, it will quicken the mind and uplift the soul....
ML	360	3	The theme of redemption is one that angels desire to look into; it will be the science and the song of the redeemed throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. Is it not worthy of careful thought and study now? ...
ML	360	4	The subject is inexhaustible. The study of the incarnation of Christ, His atoning sacrifice, and mediatorial work will employ the mind of the diligent student as long as time shall last; and looking to heaven with its unnumbered years, he will exclaim, "Great is the mystery of godliness."
ML	360	5	In eternity we shall learn that which, had we received the enlightenment that it was possible to obtain here, would have opened our understanding. The themes of redemption will employ the hearts and minds and tongues of the redeemed through the everlasting ages. They will understand the truths which Christ longed to open to His disciples, but which they did not have faith to grasp. Forever and forever new views of the perfection and glory of Christ will appear. Through endless ages the faithful Householder will bring forth from His treasures things new and old.
ML	360	6	Since God is infinite, and in Him are all the treasures of wisdom, we may to all eternity be ever searching, ever learning, yet never exhaust the riches of His wisdom, His goodness, or His power.
------------------------Christ Will Teach the Redeemed, December 23
			Activities in Heaven
ML	361	1	And they shall be all taught of God. John 6:45
ML	361	2	In the school of Christ students never graduate. Among the pupils are both the old and the young. Those who give heed to the instructions of the Divine Teacher constantly advance in wisdom, refinement, and nobility of soul, and thus they are prepared to enter that higher school, where advancement will continue throughout eternity....
ML	361	3	To dwell forever in this home of the blest, to bear in soul, body, and spirit, not the dark traces of sin and the curse, but the perfect likeness of our Creator, and through ceaseless ages to advance in wisdom, in knowledge and holiness, ever exploring new fields of thought, ever finding new wonders and new glories, ever increasing in capacity to know and to enjoy and to love, and knowing that there is still beyond us joy and love and wisdom infinite--such is the object to which the Christian hope is pointing.
ML	361	4	In the world to come Christ will lead the redeemed beside the river of life and will teach them wonderful lessons of truth. He will unfold to them the mysteries of nature. They will see that a master hand holds the world in position. They will behold the skill displayed by the great Artist in coloring the flowers of the field, and will learn of the purposes of the merciful Father, who dispenses every ray of light, and with the holy angels the redeemed will acknowledge in songs of grateful praise God's supreme love to an unthankful world. Then it will be understood that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
ML	361	5	He [Christ] will impart rich stores of knowledge. He will unravel mysteries in the providences of God which in this life we are unable to understand.
ML	361	6	We must get an education here that will enable us to live with God through the eternal ages. The education we begin here will be perfected in heaven. We will only just enter a higher grade.
------------------------Travel to Worlds Afar, December 24
			Activities in Heaven
ML	362	1	These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. Revelation 14:4
ML	362	2	All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar--worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of human woe and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul. With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. They share the treasures of knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon ages in contemplation of God's handiwork. With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation--suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. Upon all things, from the least to the greatest, the Creator's name is written, and in all are the riches of His power displayed.
ML	362	3	And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption, and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise....
ML	362	4	The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, ... in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy declare that God is love.
------------------------Listen to the Angel Choir, December 25
			Activities in Heaven
ML	363	1	And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:13, 14
ML	363	2	No one born into the world, not even the most gifted of God's children, has ever been accorded such demonstration of joy as greeted the Babe born in Bethlehem.
ML	363	3	The angels ... appeared to the humble shepherds, guarding their flocks by night, upon Bethlehem's plains.... The angel of the Lord came to them, and said, "Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." No sooner had their eyes become accustomed to the glorious presence of the one angel than, lo! the whole plain was lighted up with the wondrous glory of the multitude of angels that peopled the plains of Bethlehem ... , all praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth, peace, good will toward men."
ML	363	4	Then was the melody of heaven heard by mortal ears, and the heavenly choir swept back to heaven as they closed their ever memorable anthem. The light faded away... ; but there remained in the hearts of the shepherds the brightest picture mortal man had ever looked upon, and the blessed promise and assurance of the advent to our world of the Saviour of men, which filled their hearts with joy and gladness, mingled with faith and wondrous love to God.
ML	363	5	O that today the human family could recognize that song! The declaration then made, the note then struck, will swell to the close of time and resound to the ends of the earth. When the Sun of Righteousness shall arise, with healing in His wings, that song will be re-echoed by the voice of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters, saying, "Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."
------------------------Worship Together, December 26
			Activities in Heaven
ML	364	1	For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. Isaiah 66:22, 23
ML	364	2	In the beginning the Father and the Son had rested upon the Sabbath after their work of creation. When "the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them," the Creator and all heavenly beings rejoiced in contemplation of the glorious scene. "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." ...
ML	364	3	When there shall be a "restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began," the creation Sabbath, the day on which Jesus lay at rest in Joseph's tomb, will still be a day of rest and rejoicing. Heaven and earth will unite in praise, as "from one sabbath to another" the nations of the saved shall bow in joyful worship to God and the Lamb.
ML	364	4	The nations of the saved will know no other law than the law of heaven. All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy....
ML	364	5	"And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." "The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." "In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue His people."
ML	364	6	So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creator's power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, God's holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun.
------------------------Privilege of Open Communion With God, December 27
			All Life's Experiences Will Be Made Plain
ML	365	1	I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Revelation 21:22
ML	365	2	The people of God are privileged to hold open communion with the Father and the Son. "Now we see through a glass, darkly." We behold the image of God reflected, as in a mirror, in the works of nature and in His dealings with men; but then we shall see Him face to face, without a dimming veil between. We shall stand in His presence and behold the glory of His countenance.
ML	365	3	We may address Him by the endearing name, "Our Father," which is a sign of our affection for Him and a pledge of His tender regard and relationship to us. And the Son of God, beholding the heirs of grace, "is not ashamed to call them brethren." They have even a more sacred relationship to God than have the angels who have never fallen.
ML	365	4	All the paternal love which has come down from generation to generation through the channel of human hearts, all the springs of tenderness which have opened in the souls of men, are but as a tiny rill to the boundless ocean when compared with the infinite, exhaustless love of God.
ML	365	5	Heaven is a ceaseless approaching to God through Christ. The longer we are in the heaven of bliss, the more and still more of glory will be opened to us; and the more we know of God, the more intense will be our happiness.
ML	365	6	And what is the happiness of heaven but to see God? What greater joy could come to the sinner saved by the grace of Christ than to look upon the face of God and know Him as Father?
ML	365	7	How much comfort it gives to behold Him here by the eye of faith, that we may by beholding be made like Him, but what will it be to behold Him as He is, without one dimming veil between?
------------------------The Veil Will Be Drawn Aside, December 28
			All Life's Experiences Will Be Made Plain
ML	366	1	Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12
ML	366	2	There, when the veil that darkens our vision shall be removed, and our eyes shall behold that world of beauty of which we now catch glimpses through the microscope; when we look on the glories of the heavens, now scanned afar through the telescope; when, the blight of sin removed, the whole earth shall appear "in the beauty of the Lord our God," what a field will be open to our study! There the student of science may read the records of creation, and discern no reminders of the law of evil. He may listen to the music of nature's voices, and detect no note of wailing or undertone of sorrow. In all created things he may trace one handwriting--in the vast universe behold "God's name writ large," and not in earth or sea or sky one sign of ill remaining....
ML	366	3	There will be open to the student history of infinite scope and of wealth inexpressible. Here, from the vantage ground of God's Word, the student is afforded a view of the vast field of history, and may gain some knowledge of the principles that govern the course of human events. But his vision is still clouded and his knowledge incomplete. Not until he stands in the light of eternity will he see all things clearly....
ML	366	4	The veil that interposes between the visible and the invisible world will be drawn aside, and wonderful things will be revealed....
ML	366	5	There all who have wrought with unselfish spirit will behold the fruit of their labors. The outworking of every right principle and noble deed will be seen.... How little of the result of the world's noblest work is in this life manifest to the doer! ... Parents and teachers lie down in their last sleep, their lifework seeming to have been wrought in vain; they know not that their faithfulness has unsealed springs of blessing that can never cease to flow ... , and the influence repeat itself a thousandfold.... In the hereafter the action and reaction of all these will be seen.
------------------------I Shall Meet My Guardian Angel, December 29
			All Life's Experiences Will Be Made Plain
ML	367	1	Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 18:10
ML	367	2	Not until the providences of God are seen in the light of eternity shall we understand what we owe to the care and interposition of His angels. Celestial beings have taken an active part in the affairs of men. They have appeared in garments that shone as the lightning; they have come as men, in the garb of wayfarers. They have accepted the hospitalities of human homes; they have acted as guides to benighted travelers. They have thwarted the spoiler's purpose, and turned aside the stroke of the destroyer.
ML	367	3	Though the rulers of this world know it not, yet often in their councils angels have been spokesmen. Human eyes have looked upon them. Human ears have listened to their appeals. In the council hall and the court of justice heavenly messengers have pleaded the cause of the persecuted and oppressed. They have defeated purposes and arrested evils that would have brought wrong and suffering to God's children....
ML	367	4	Every redeemed one will understand the ministry of angels in his own life. The angel who was his guardian from his earliest moment; the angel who watched his steps, and covered his head in the day of peril; the angel who was with him in the valley of the shadow of death; who marked his resting place, who was the first to greet him in the resurrection morning--what will it be to hold converse with him, and to learn the history of divine interposition in the individual life, of heavenly cooperation in every work for humanity!
ML	367	5	All the perplexities of life's experience will then be made plain. Where to us have appeared only confusion and disappointment, broken purposes and thwarted plans, will be seen a grand, overruling, victorious purpose, a divine harmony.
------------------------Why the Great Controversy Was Permitted, December 30
			All Life's Experiences Will Be Made Plain
ML	368	1	And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. Ephesians 3:9, 10
ML	368	2	For what was the great controversy permitted to continue throughout the ages? Why was it that Satan's existence was not cut short at the outset of his rebellion?--It was that the universe might be convinced of God's justice in His dealing with evil, that sin might receive eternal condemnation. In the plan of redemption there are heights and depths that eternity itself can never exhaust, marvels into which the angels desire to look. The redeemed only, of all created beings, have in their own experience known the actual conflict with sin; they have wrought with Christ, and, as even the angels could not do, have entered into the fellowship of His sufferings....
ML	368	3	He "hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places: ... that in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."
ML	368	4	As the nations of the saved look upon their Redeemer, and behold the eternal glory of the Father shining in His countenance; as they behold His throne, which is from everlasting to everlasting, and know that His kingdom is to have no end, they break forth in rapturous song....
ML	368	5	Mercy, tenderness, and parental love are seen to blend with holiness, justice, and power. While we behold the majesty of His throne, high and lifted up, we see His character in its gracious manifestations, and comprehend, as never before, the significance of that endearing title, "Our Father." ...
ML	368	6	The result of the Saviour's conflict with the powers of darkness is joy to the redeemed, redounding to the glory of God throughout eternity.
------------------------I Press Toward the Mark, December 31
			All Life's Experiences Will Be Made Plain
ML	369	1	This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13, 14
ML	369	2	Another year of your life closes today. How can you look back upon it? Have you made advancement in the divine life? Have you increased in spirituality? Have you crucified self, with the affections and lusts? Have you an increased interest in the study of God's Word? Have you gained decided victories over your own feelings and waywardness? Oh, what has been the record of your life for the year which has now passed into eternity, never to be recalled?
ML	369	3	As you enter upon a new year, let it be with an earnest resolve to have your course onward and upward. Let your life be more elevated and exalted than it has hitherto been. Make it your aim not to seek your own interest and pleasure, but to advance the cause of your Redeemer. Remain not in a position where you ever need help yourself, and where others have to guard you to keep you in the narrow way. You may be strong to exert a sanctifying influence upon others. You may be where your soul's interest will be awakened to do good to others, to comfort the sorrowful, strengthen the weak, and to bear your testimony for Christ whenever opportunity offers. Aim to honor God in everything, always and everywhere. Carry your religion into everything.
ML	369	4	Prepare for eternity with such a zeal as you have not yet manifested. Educate your mind to love the Bible, to love the prayer meeting, to love the hour of meditation, and, above all, the hour when the soul communes with God. Become heavenly-minded if you would unite with the heavenly choir in the mansions above....
ML	369	5	A new page is turned in the book of the recording angel.... Let a record be stamped there which you will not be ashamed to have revealed to the gaze of men and angels.

------------------------Our Father Cares
OFC	15	1	We Are Called The Sons Of God, January 1
OFC	15	8	We Are Purified As Christ Is Pure, January 2
OFC	16	7	Power Is Given Us To Become The Sons Of God, January 3
OFC	17	6	God Is Near To All That Call Upon Him, January 4
OFC	18	3	Belief In Christ Means Everlasting Life, January 5
OFC	19	1	The Spirit Brings Wisdom And Understanding, January 6
OFC	20	1	Angels Minister To The Heirs Of Salvation, January 7
OFC	20	5	We Receive A Faith That Works By Love, January 8
OFC	21	4	Dependence Upon God, January 9
OFC	22	2	The Renewed Heart Loves As Christ Loved, January 10
OFC	23	1	We Are to Take Time To Think About God, January 11
OFC	24	1	Let Us Come Boldly To The Throne of Grace, January 12
OFC	24	7	Rejoice In The Rich Treasures of Grace, January 13
OFC	25	4	We Have Received Of God's Fullness, January 14
OFC	26	3	We Are Changed From Glory To Glory, January 15
OFC	27	2	Love For Others, January 16
OFC	28	1	We Are To Overcome As Christ Overcame, January 17
OFC	28	5	Jesus Is A Friend That Is Closer Than A Brother, January 18
OFC	29	6	Careful Habits Ensure Good Health, January 19
OFC	30	4	Divine Wisdom, January 20
OFC	31	2	Study The Scriptures, January 21
OFC	32	1	To Walk In His Way, January 22
OFC	32	6	All Men Are Drawn To The Uplifted Saviour, January 23
OFC	33	5	Reconciled To God By Christ's Death, January 24
OFC	34	2	True Missionary Effort Begins In The Home, January 25
OFC	35	2	We Are To Do Good To Our Neighbors, January 26
OFC	36	1	Being United As Children Of God, January 27
OFC	36	8	Glad In The Lord, January 28
OFC	37	1	Store The Mind With Divine Truth, January 29
OFC	38	2	Trees Planted By Rivers Of Water, January 30
OFC	39	1	We Shall Inherit All Things, January 31
OFC	40	1	I Give My Heart, February 1
OFC	40	7	Pray In The Morning, February 2
OFC	41	4	The Bible Begets New Life, February 3
OFC	42	2	The Spirit To Glorify Christ In Me, February 4
OFC	43	1	The Whole Earth Will Be Lightened, February 5
OFC	44	1	Principle Not To Be Sacrificed For Peace, February 6
OFC	44	4	I Will Love As Christ Loved, February 7
OFC	45	3	I Will Sing Unto The Lord, February 8
OFC	46	3	Growth In Grace Begins At Home, February 9
OFC	47	1	God Multiplies My Talents, February 10
OFC	48	1	Preserve The Body Temple, February 11
OFC	48	7	A Merry Heart Is Good Medicine, February 12
OFC	49	8	Thanksgiving And Praise, February 13
OFC	50	4	Love Heals Many Wounds, February 14
OFC	51	1	How Pleasant Are Words Fitly Spoken, February 15
OFC	52	1	Jesus And His Friends At Bethany, February 16
OFC	52	6	Give Others The Water Of Life, February 17
OFC	53	5	Remember Especially Needy Church Members, February 18
OFC	54	3	What God Loves Most Is A Beautiful Character, February 19
OFC	55	2	Partakers Through God's Promises, February 20
OFC	56	1	Reverence For The House Of God, February 21
OFC	56	8	God Cares For Me, February 22
OFC	57	4	Christ My Elder Brother, February 23
OFC	58	4	Angels Are Preparing Me For Eternity, February 24
OFC	59	2	In Christ There Is Strength, February 25
OFC	60	1	The Will Is The Deciding Power, February 26
OFC	60	7	Make Your Calling And Election Sure, February 27
OFC	61	5	Christ Presents Me With A Crown And Harp, February 28
OFC	62	3	Privilege Of Open Communion With God, February 29
OFC	63	3	A Table Set Before Me, March 1
OFC	64	1	Preparing For The Holy Day, March 2
OFC	65	1	God's Gift To The Human Race, March 3
OFC	65	6	The Creator Incarnate, March 4
OFC	66	8	The Saving Providences Of God, March 5
OFC	67	7	A Saviour From Eternity, March 6
OFC	68	3	Does Faith Cancel Obedience? March 7
OFC	69	3	The Saving Power Of Jesus, March 8
OFC	70	1	Peace Through The Cross, March 9
OFC	71	1	Filled With His Righteousness, March 10
OFC	72	1	The Just Shall Live By Faith, March 11
OFC	72	5	Sincere Confession Essential, March 12
OFC	73	4	A Change Of Heart Needed, March 13
OFC	74	4	Holiness Of Life, March 14
OFC	75	2	The Arrow Of Death, March 15
OFC	76	2	Sorrow With Hope, March 16
OFC	77	1	Uttermost Salvation For God's Children, March 17
OFC	77	7	The Blotting Out Of Sins, March 18
OFC	78	7	Schemes Of Satan, March 19
OFC	79	5	Deposits In The Bank Of Heaven, March 20
OFC	80	4	What Kind Of Inheritance? March 21
OFC	81	1	Day Of Days, March 22
OFC	82	1	A Welcome To The Heavenly Home, March 23
OFC	82	9	Who Shall Receive God's Seal? March 24
OFC	83	7	Jesus' Example In Humility, March 25
OFC	84	5	Builders, Not Destroyers, March 26
OFC	85	3	Tears And Conflict, March 27
OFC	86	2	Safety Only In Obedience, March 28
OFC	87	1	A Crown For Every Saint, March 29
OFC	88	1	The Eternal Weight Of Glory, March 30
OFC	88	6	No More Death--Ever! March 31
OFC	89	5	Compassed With God's Mercy, April 1
OFC	90	3	Hope For The Hopeless, April 2
OFC	91	3	Enjoyment Of The Truth, April 3
OFC	92	2	Let Jesus Lead, April 4
OFC	93	1	In Love With Christ, April 5
OFC	93	6	The Privilege Of Assurance, April 6
OFC	94	4	God Calls For Our Best Affections, April 7
OFC	95	4	Above The Fog Of Doubt, April 8
OFC	96	3	How To Maintain Integrity! April 9
OFC	97	3	"Come Unto Me", April 10
OFC	98	2	Time For Meditation, April 11
OFC	99	1	Seeking God With All The Heart, April 12
OFC	99	6	Humble, Persevering Prayer, April 13
OFC	100	5	The Work Of Heart-Keeping, April 14
OFC	101	4	The Court Of Holy Life, April 15
OFC	102	2	The Smiles Of God, April 16
OFC	103	5	With Eyes Of Faith, April 17
OFC	104	1	How To Grow In Grace, April 18
OFC	105	1	Great In God's Sight, April 19
OFC	106	1	Hold High The Standard, April 20
OFC	107	1	Reminders Of Our Heavenly Home, April 21
OFC	108	1	The Sacred Temple Of The Body, April 22
OFC	108	5	The Beauty Of Christlikeness, April 23
OFC	109	5	Heaven Cheap At Any Price, April 24
OFC	110	4	Let Your Light Shine, April 25
OFC	111	3	A Jewel Or A Pebble? April 26
OFC	112	2	Rooted In Christ, April 27
OFC	113	1	No Patchwork Religion! April 28
OFC	114	1	The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ, April 29
OFC	115	1	Almost Home! April 30
OFC	116	1	Superficial Knowledge Not Enough, May 1
OFC	116	5	Our Divine Redeemer, May 2
OFC	117	3	Tender, Loving, Compassionate, May 3
OFC	118	3	The Holy Spirit Our Helper, May 4
OFC	119	3	"Despised And Rejected", May 5
OFC	120	1	An Advocate Clothed In Our Nature, May 6
OFC	121	1	The Priceless Pearl, May 7
OFC	121	6	Provision For Every Emergency, May 8
OFC	122	5	A Faith That Purifies The Life, May 9
OFC	123	4	Children, Not Slaves, May 10
OFC	124	2	Abiding In Christ, May 11
OFC	125	1	A Life Of Strength, May 12
OFC	126	1	Jesus Our All, May 13
OFC	126	5	The Coming Of The Comforter, May 14
OFC	127	5	Building Up One Another, May 15
OFC	128	3	Opening The Mysteries Of Redemption, May 16
OFC	129	3	Truths That Transform, May 17
OFC	130	1	A Never-Failing Refuge, May 18
OFC	131	1	A Progressive Faith, May 19
OFC	132	1	The Mighty Deliverer, May 20
OFC	132	6	How To Get Rid Of Guilt, May 21
OFC	133	5	The Only Path Of Safety, May 22
OFC	134	4	The March To Victory, May 23
OFC	135	3	"Come Ye Yourselves Apart", May 24
OFC	136	1	The Preciousness Of Secret Prayer, May 25
OFC	137	1	The Motive For Obedience, May 26
OFC	138	1	Filled With His Fullness, May 27
OFC	139	1	An Example Of The Believers, May 28
OFC	140	1	Putting Our Gifts To Work, May 29
OFC	140	6	Exalting The Man Of Calvary, May 30
OFC	141	5	We Shall See His Face, May 31
OFC	142	3	Learning Of God Through His Works, June 1
OFC	143	3	Not To Condemn But To Save, June 2
OFC	144	3	The Heavenly Election, June 3
OFC	145	2	Our Sure Foundation, June 4
OFC	146	1	The Happiest People, June 5
OFC	147	1	Let Us Ask Of God, June 6
OFC	148	1	Nothing Too Small, June 7
OFC	149	1	Our Personal Intercessor, June 8
OFC	150	1	Angels In The Home, June 9
OFC	151	1	The Act Of Faith, June 10
OFC	151	6	A Working Faith, June 11
OFC	152	6	Our Example In Obedience, June 12
OFC	153	4	The Highest Culture, June 13
OFC	154	3	Christ In All Our Thoughts, June 14
OFC	155	3	The Gold Of Christian Character, June 15
OFC	156	2	Kind And Courteous Words, June 16
OFC	157	1	The Test Of Appetite, June 17
OFC	158	1	Keeping Love Alive, June 18
OFC	159	1	The Voice Of Duty, June 19
OFC	159	7	Living For Others, June 20
OFC	160	4	No One Free From Temptation, June 21
OFC	161	5	Strength For Today, June 22
OFC	162	3	Members Of God's Household, June 23
OFC	163	2	Remember Your High Calling, June 24
OFC	164	2	Our Mission To The World, June 25
OFC	165	1	The Most Powerful Argument, June 26
OFC	166	1	Our Obligations To The Poor, June 27
OFC	167	1	A Work Of Preparation, June 28
OFC	168	1	If Christ Should Come Today, June 29
OFC	169	1	By The Tree Of Life, June 30
OFC	169	6	One Expensive Mistake, July 1
OFC	170	6	Adam Home Again! July 2
OFC	171	4	An Open Door, July 3
OFC	172	2	Safe Inside, July 4
OFC	173	1	A Home God Can Bless, July 5
OFC	174	1	How Can I Do It? July 6
OFC	175	1	Power Guaranteed, July 7
OFC	176	1	Seeing The Invisible, July 8
OFC	176	5	Cloud And Fire, July 9
OFC	177	4	Why Wait? July 10
OFC	178	4	The Only Way To Win, July 11
OFC	179	3	Too Many Soldiers, July 12
OFC	180	3	No Generation Gap, July 13
OFC	181	1	Preparing To Lead, July 14
OFC	182	1	Satan's Stealthy Work, July 15
OFC	183	1	A Late Awakening, July 16
OFC	183	6	A Voice In The Wilderness, July 17
OFC	184	4	The Battle Song, July 18
OFC	185	5	All On The Altar, July 19
OFC	186	3	Reluctant Prophet, July 20
OFC	187	2	Jeremiah, God's Mouthpiece, July 21
OFC	188	1	Faith And God's Promises, July 22
OFC	189	1	Daniel, God's Ambassador, July 23
OFC	190	1	Knowledge Requires Action, July 24
OFC	190	8	None Were Perfect, July 25
OFC	191	6	It Has To Be Personal, July 26
OFC	192	3	Nothing Too Costly, July 27
OFC	193	3	Just For One Man, July 28
OFC	194	3	Saul To Paul, July 29
OFC	195	1	Toward The Mark, July 30
OFC	196	1	Hitherto Hath The Lord Helped Us, July 31
OFC	197	1	God's Kingdom In The Heart, August 1
OFC	198	1	Like Yeast, August 2
OFC	199	1	The Royal Robe, August 3
OFC	200	1	God With Us, August 4
OFC	200	6	Adopted Sons And Daughters, August 5
OFC	201	6	Blessings Through Obedience, August 6
OFC	202	4	In The Most Holy Place, August 7
OFC	203	3	Source Of Compassion And Mercy, August 8
OFC	204	3	To Draw Us To God, August 9
OFC	205	1	Terms Of The Covenant, August 10
OFC	206	1	Written On The Heart, August 11
OFC	207	1	God's Eternal Pledge, August 12
OFC	207	7	Unutterable Loneliness, August 13
OFC	208	5	The Sins Of The World, August 14
OFC	209	3	So Costly--and Yet Free, August 15
OFC	210	3	A Comforter Like Christ, August 16
OFC	211	2	Purifying, Vitalizing Power, August 17
OFC	212	2	The Latter Rain, August 18
OFC	213	1	It Takes Time, August 19
OFC	214	1	Perfection Now? August 20
OFC	214	8	Awaiting Our Demand, August 21
OFC	215	4	Angel Reinforcements, August 22
OFC	216	4	The Christian's Badge, August 23
OFC	217	3	Conditions Of Christian Growth, August 24
OFC	218	3	In Kindness, August 25
OFC	219	3	A Divine Prescription, August 26
OFC	220	1	Union With Christ, August 27
OFC	221	1	Praise God! August 28
OFC	222	1	While We Wait, August 29
OFC	222	6	What A Reward! August 30
OFC	223	4	Look Up! August 31
OFC	224	4	The Conflict Over, September 1
OFC	225	4	Agents For Heaven, September 2
OFC	226	3	How To Make An Impact, September 3
OFC	227	3	For The Fearful, Faint, And Feeble, September 4
OFC	228	2	The Only Security, September 5
OFC	229	1	Open The Top Windows! September 6
OFC	230	1	Assurance Of Victory, September 7
OFC	231	1	Heavenly Guarantee, September 8
OFC	232	1	Living The New Life, September 9
OFC	232	7	Essentials Of Salvation, September 10
OFC	233	7	Being Alive Unto God, September 11
OFC	234	4	The Compassionate Christian, September 12
OFC	235	3	Unreserved Surrender, September 13
OFC	236	4	Without Spot, September 14
OFC	237	3	Truth Will Triumph, September 15
OFC	238	3	Matchless Love, September 16
OFC	239	2	An Ever Present Help, September 17
OFC	240	2	The Divine Substitute, September 18
OFC	241	1	Cultivate Tenderness In The Home, September 19
OFC	242	1	Take Hold Of Divine Strength, September 20
OFC	243	1	In The World, But Not Of It, September 21
OFC	244	1	Divine Grace, Our Greatest Need, September 22
OFC	245	1	The Banquet Of God's Word, September 23
OFC	246	1	The Final Battle, September 24
OFC	247	1	Things Wrought By Prayer, September 25
OFC	248	1	Present Advantages And Future Benefits, September 26
OFC	249	1	The Holy Spirit--The Gift Of Gifts, September 27
OFC	250	1	The Lord's Philosophy, September 28
OFC	251	1	When Truth Controls The Life, September 29
OFC	252	1	Walk In The Footsteps Of Jesus, September 30
OFC	253	1	The Need For A Reformation, October 1
OFC	254	1	I Am A Child Of God, October 2
OFC	255	1	Infallible Assurance, October 3
OFC	256	1	God's Plans Are Perfect, October 4
OFC	257	1	Christ Lived A Life Of Humble Obedience, October 5
OFC	258	1	The Ministry Of Angels, October 6
OFC	259	1	We May Overcome As Christ Overcame, October 7
OFC	260	1	Our Christian Experience Must Be Animated, October 8
OFC	261	1	Christlike Love Blends Heart With Heart, October 9
OFC	262	1	Things Thou Knowest Not, October 10
OFC	263	1	The Word Of God Your Guide, October 11
OFC	264	1	Christ Calls For Unity, October 12
OFC	265	1	Are You Preparing For Heaven? October 13
OFC	266	1	Christ Intercedes For You, October 14
OFC	267	1	God's Hand Is On The Wheel, October 15
OFC	268	1	Let God Work His Will In You, October 16
OFC	269	1	Christ's Love Cannot Be Measured, October 17
OFC	270	1	Standing By Principle, October 18
OFC	271	1	Our Sanctuary Doctrine, October 19
OFC	272	1	Eating The Leaves Of The Tree Of Life, October 20
OFC	273	1	Only One Light To Illuminate The Way, October 21
OFC	274	1	Christ Has Power For Us, October 22
OFC	275	1	Help For The Conflict Promised, October 23
OFC	276	1	Service To God Begins On Earth, October 24
OFC	277	1	The Meaning Of Communion With God, October 25
OFC	278	1	Heaven, The Christian's Summer, October 26
OFC	279	1	We Have The Blessed Assurance, October 27
OFC	280	1	Drop Self Into God's Hands, October 28
OFC	281	1	The Meaning Of Christian Perfection, October 29
OFC	282	1	Shine With Living Brightness, October 30
OFC	283	1	We Are Objects Of Infinite Love, October 31
OFC	284	1	Christ's Compassion Knew No Limit, November 1
OFC	285	2	Christ A Perfect Example For All, November 2
OFC	286	1	Jesus Provided A Model Of Character, November 3
OFC	287	1	True Followers Obey God's Law, November 4
OFC	288	2	How We May Keep God's Law, November 5
OFC	289	1	The Repentant Sinner Accepted In Christ, November 6
OFC	290	2	Justified Souls Walk In The Light, November 7
OFC	291	2	Sanctified By Faith And Obedience, November 8
OFC	292	4	A Faith That Works, November 9
OFC	293	3	True Religion Promotes Health, November 10
OFC	294	2	Enlightened To Full Radiance, November 11
OFC	295	3	The Temple Of God, November 12
OFC	296	3	An Argument Infidels Cannot Resist, November 13
OFC	297	2	Family Worship Not To Be Neglected, November 14
OFC	298	3	Families To Reflect The Goodness Of God, November 15
OFC	299	5	Be One, As Christ And The Father Are One, November 16
OFC	300	3	The Route To Greater Spiritual Life In The Church, November 17
OFC	301	4	Reflecting Light From The Sun Of Righteousness, November 18
OFC	302	4	Praise To God Has Irresistible Power, November 19
OFC	303	5	Jesus Was A Friend To Every Human Being, November 20
OFC	304	4	Encourage A Spirit Of Kindliness, November 21
OFC	305	7	The Eternal Reward Of Reaching Out, November 22
OFC	306	6	Strict Integrity To Mark The Christian, November 23
OFC	307	6	We Are To Reflect Christ's Love, November 24
OFC	308	5	Character Is Power, November 25
OFC	309	6	Jesus Showed Us How To Live, November 26
OFC	310	6	The Value Of Pain, November 27
OFC	311	5	Those Who Return To The Old Paths, November 28
OFC	313	1	God Has A Tender Care For His People, November 29
OFC	314	1	Christians To Reflect The Light Of Heaven, November 30
OFC	315	1	The Keynote Of Scripture, December 1
OFC	316	1	He Shall Reign Forever, December 2
OFC	317	1	Uplift Jesus As The Center, December 3
OFC	317	4	God's Judgments In The Land, December 4
OFC	318	6	A High Standard, December 5
OFC	319	3	Spiritual Giant Or Dwarf? December 6
OFC	320	2	A Crisis Ahead, December 7
OFC	321	4	Teaching From House To House, December 8
OFC	322	3	A Character The World Will Recognize, December 9
OFC	323	1	Prove All Things, December 10
OFC	324	1	Moving Into Line, December 11
OFC	325	1	Preparation For What Lies Ahead, December 12
OFC	326	1	Relief Of Physical Suffering, December 13
OFC	327	1	The Corruption Of Truth, December 14
OFC	328	1	The Shaking Time, December 15
OFC	329	1	The Sealing And The Latter Rain, December 16
OFC	330	1	"In These Hours Of Probation", December 17
OFC	331	1	High Spiritual State Attainable, December 18
OFC	331	9	Who Receive The Seal? December 19
OFC	332	8	A Time Of Trouble Such As Never Was, December 20
OFC	333	3	Angelic Protection In The Time Of Trouble, December 21
OFC	334	3	God's People Delivered, December 22
OFC	335	3	The Day And Hour Of Christ's Coming Announced, December 23
OFC	336	1	The General Resurrection Of The Righteous, December 24
OFC	337	1	We Shall Recognize Each Other, December 25
OFC	338	1	Families Will Be Reunited, December 26
OFC	338	8	Welcome To The City Of God, December 27
OFC	339	4	Think On Heavenly Things, December 28
OFC	340	3	Only One Reminder Of Sin, December 29
OFC	341	6	The Immortal Inheritance, December 30
OFC	342	2	Our Saviour's Highest Honor, December 31

------------------------We Are Called The Sons Of God, January 1
OFC	15	1	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not; because it knew him not. 1 John 3:1.
OFC	15	2	As John thought of the love of Christ, he was led to exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."
OFC	15	3	People think it a privilege to see a royal personage, and thousands go great distances to see one. How much greater privilege it is to be sons and daughters of the Most High. What greater privilege could be conferred on us than to be given entrance into the royal family?
OFC	15	4	In order to become the sons and daughters of God, we must separate from the world. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate," the Lord says, "and I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." ...
OFC	15	5	There is a heaven before us, a crown of life to win. But to the overcomer only is the reward given. He who gains heaven must be clothed with the robe of righteousness. "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." In the character of Christ there was no discord of any kind. And this must be our experience. Our lives must be controlled by the principles that controlled His life.
OFC	15	6	Through the perfection of the sacrifice given for the guilty race, those who believe in Christ, coming unto Him, may be saved from eternal ruin....
OFC	15	7	Let no one be so deluded by the enemy as to think that it is a condescension for any man, however talented or learned or honored, to accept Christ. Every human being should look to heaven with reverence and gratitude, and exclaim with amazement, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."
------------------------We Are Purified As Christ Is Pure, January 2
OFC	15	8	And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 1 John 3:3.
OFC	16	1	Christ would elevate and refine man's mind, purifying it from all dross, that he may appreciate the love that is without a parallel.
OFC	16	2	Through repentance, faith, and good works he may perfect a righteous character, and claim, through the merits of Christ, the privileges of the sons of God. The principles of divine truth, received and cherished in the heart, will carry us to a height of moral excellence that we had not deemed it possible for us to reach.... "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."
OFC	16	3	Holiness of heart and purity of life were the great subjects of the teachings of Christ. In His sermon on the mount, after specifying what must be done in order to be blessed, and what must not be done, He says, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Perfection, holiness,--nothing short of this would give them success in carrying out the principles He had given them. Without this holiness, the human heart is selfish, sinful, and vicious. Holiness will lead its possessor to be fruitful, and abound in all good works. He will never become weary in well-doing; neither look for promotion in this world; but he will look forward to be promoted by the Majesty of heaven when He shall exalt His sanctified and holy ones to His throne.... Holiness of heart will produce right actions.
OFC	16	4	As God is pure in His sphere, so man is to be pure in his. And he will be pure if Christ is formed within, the hope of glory; for he will imitate Christ's life and reflect His character
OFC	16	5	The princely dignity of the Christian character will shine forth as the sun, and the beams of light from the face of Christ will be reflected upon those who have purified themselves even as He is pure
OFC	16	6	Purity of heart will lead to purity of life
------------------------Power Is Given Us To Become The Sons Of God, January 3
OFC	16	7	But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.
OFC	16	8	Divine sonship is not something that we gain of ourselves. Only to those who receive Christ as their Saviour is given the power to become sons and daughters of God. The sinner cannot, by any power of his own, rid himself of sin. For the accomplishment of this result, he must look to a higher Power. John exclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Christ alone has power to cleanse the heart. He who is seeking for forgiveness and acceptance can say only,-- "Nothing in my hand I bring;
OFC	17	1	Simply to Thy cross I cling."
OFC	17	2	But the promise of sonship is made to all who "believe on his name." Every one who comes to Jesus in faith will receive pardon
OFC	17	3	The religion of Christ transforms the heart. It makes the worldly-minded man heavenly-minded. Under its influence the selfish man becomes unselfish, because this is the character of Christ. The dishonest, scheming man becomes upright, so that it is second nature to him to do to others as he would have others do to him. The profligate is changed from impurity to purity. He forms correct habits; for the gospel of Christ has become to him a savor of life unto life.
OFC	17	4	God was to be manifest in Christ, "reconciling the world unto himself." Man had become so degraded by sin that it was impossible for him, in himself, to come into harmony with Him whose nature is purity and goodness. But Christ, after having redeemed man from the condemnation of the law, could impart divine power, to unite with human effort. Thus by repentance toward God and faith in Christ, the fallen children of Adam might once more become "sons of God."
OFC	17	5	When a soul receives Christ, he receives power to live the life of Christ.
------------------------God Is Near To All That Call Upon Him, January 4
OFC	17	6	The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. Psalm 145:18.
OFC	17	7	God is pleased when we keep our faces turned toward the Sun of Righteousness.... When we are in trouble and pressed down with anxieties, the Lord is near, and He bids us cast all our care upon Him, because He cares for us....
OFC	17	8	He comes to all His children in their affliction. In time of danger He is their refuge. In sorrow, He offers them joy and consolation. Shall we turn from the Redeemer, the fountain of living water, to hew out for ourselves broken cisterns, which can hold no water? When danger approaches, shall we seek for help from those as weak as ourselves, or shall we flee to Him who is mighty to save? His arms are open wide, and He utters the gracious invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
OFC	17	9	It is not the manifestation of His great and awful majesty and unparalleled power that will leave us without excuse if we refuse Him our love and obedience. It is the love, the compassion, the patience, the long-suffering that He has shown which will witness against those who do not offer Him the willing service of their lives. Those who turn to God with heart and soul and mind will find in Him peaceful security....
OFC	18	1	He knows just what we need, just what we can bear, and He will give us grace to endure every trial and test that He brings upon us. My constant prayer is for a greater nearness to God.
OFC	18	2	Every provision has been made to meet the needs of our spiritual and our moral nature....Light and immortality are brought to light through the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has said that He has set before us an open door, and no man can shut it. The open door is before us, and through the grace of Christ, beams of merciful light stream forth from the gates ajar.
------------------------Belief In Christ Means Everlasting Life, January 5
OFC	18	3	He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. John 3:36.
OFC	18	4	When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart. A change is wrought which man can never accomplish for himself. It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature. The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan.
OFC	18	5	Christ is ready to impart all heavenly influences. He knows every temptation that comes to man, and the capabilities of every human agent. He weighs his strength. He sees the present and the future, and presents before the mind the obligations that should be met, and urges that common, earthly things shall not be permitted to be so absorbing that eternal things shall be lost out of reckoning.
OFC	18	6	The gifts of His grace through Christ are free to all. There is no election but one's own by which any may perish. God has set forth in His Word the conditions upon which every soul will be elected to eternal life--obedience to His commandments, through faith in Christ. God has elected a character in harmony with His law, and any one who shall reach the standard of His requirement, will have an entrance into the kingdom of glory. Christ Himself said, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."
OFC	18	7	What an exalted position to be identified with one in whom is all perfection centered, who is indeed the Majesty of heaven, but who loved us, although fallen, so much that language cannot express it! He for our sakes laid aside His royal robe, stepped down from the throne of heaven, and condescended to clothe His divinity with humility, and became like one of us except in sin, that His life and character should be a pattern for all to copy, that they might have the precious gift of eternal life.
------------------------The Spirit Brings Wisdom And Understanding, January 6
OFC	19	1	And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Isaiah 11:2.
OFC	19	2	As the Holy Spirit opens to you the truth, you will treasure up the most precious experiences, and will long to speak to others of the comforting things that have been revealed to you. When brought into association with them, you will communicate some fresh thought in regard to the character or the work of Christ. You will have some fresh revelation of His pitying love to impart to those who love Him and to those who love Him not.
OFC	19	3	"Give, and it shall be given unto you;" for the word of God is "a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon." The heart that has once tasted the love of Christ, cries out continually for a deeper draught, and as you impart, you will receive in richer and more abundant measure. Every revelation of God to the soul increases the capacity to know and to love. The continual cry of the heart is, "More of Thee," and ever the Spirit's answer is, "Much more." For our God delights to do "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." To Jesus, who emptied Himself for the salvation of lost humanity, the Holy Spirit was given without measure. So it will be given to every follower of Christ when the whole heart is surrendered for His indwelling. Our Lord Himself has given the command, "Be filled with the Spirit," and this command is also a promise of its fulfillment. It was the good pleasure of the Father that in Christ should "all the fullness dwell;" and "in him ye are made full."
OFC	19	4	God has poured out His love unstintedly, as the showers that refresh the earth. He says: "Let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together." ... "Of his fulness have we received, and grace for grace."
------------------------Angels Minister To The Heirs Of Salvation, January 7
OFC	20	1	Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Hebrews 1:14.
OFC	20	2	God has angels whose whole work is to draw those who shall be heirs of salvation... The angels' work is to keep back the powers of Satan.
OFC	20	3	The work of these heavenly beings is to prepare the inhabitants of this world to become children of God, pure, holy, undefiled. But men, though professing to be followers of Christ, do not place themselves in a position where they can understand this ministry, and thus the work of the heavenly messengers is made hard. The angels, who do always behold the face of the Father in heaven, would prefer to remain close by the side of God, in the pure and holy atmosphere of heaven; but a work must be done in bringing this heavenly atmosphere to the souls who are tempted and tried, that Satan may not disqualify them for the place the Lord would have them fill in the heavenly courts. Principalities and powers in heavenly places combine with these angels in their ministration for those who shall be heirs of salvation.
OFC	20	4	Angels, who will do for you what you can not do for yourselves, are waiting for your co-operation. They are waiting for you to respond to the drawing of Christ. Draw nigh to God and to one another. By desire, by silent prayer, by resistance of satanic agencies, put your will on the side of God's will. While you have one desire to resist the devil, and sincerely pray, Deliver me from temptation, you will have strength for your day. It is the work of the heavenly angels to come close to the tried, the tempted, the suffering ones. They labor long and untiringly to save the souls for whom Christ has died. And when souls appreciate their advantages, appreciate the heavenly assistance sent them, respond to the Holy Spirit's working in their behalf; when they put their will on the side of Christ's will, angels bear the tidings heavenward.... And there is rejoicing among the heavenly host.
------------------------We Receive A Faith That Works By Love, January 8
OFC	20	5	For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. Galatians 5:6.
OFC	21	1	When you present your petitions to the Lord, it should be in humility, without boasting of superior attainments, but with real soul hunger for the blessing of God. Christ always knows what is cherished in the heart. We must come in faith that the Lord will hear and answer our prayers; for "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Genuine faith is the faith that works by love, and purifies the soul. A living faith will be a working faith. Should we go into the garden and find that there was no sap in the plants, no freshness in the leaves, no bursting buds or blooming flowers, no signs of life in stalk or branches, we would say, "The plants are dead. Uproot them from the garden; for they are a deformity to the beds." So it is with those who profess Christianity, and have no spirituality. If there are no signs of religious vigor, if there is no doing of the commandments of the Lord, it is evident that there is no abiding in Christ, the living vine.
OFC	21	2	Faith and love are the essential, powerful, working elements of Christian character. Those who possess them are one with Christ, and are carrying forward His mission.... We are to sit at Christ's feet as continual learners, and to work with His gifts of faith and love. We shall then wear Christ's yoke, and lift His burdens, and Christ will recognize us as one with Him; in heaven it will be said, "Ye are labourers together with God." Will our youth remember that without faith it is impossible to please God? and it must be faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
OFC	21	3	We cannot overestimate the value of simple faith and unquestioning obedience. It is by following in the path of obedience in simple faith that the character obtains perfection.
------------------------Dependence Upon God, January 9
OFC	21	4	For without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5, last part.
OFC	21	5	The first lesson to be taught ... is the lesson of dependence upon God.... As a flower of the field has its root in the soil; as it must receive air, dew, showers, and sunshine, so must we receive from God that which ministers to the life of the soul.
OFC	21	6	The presence of God is guaranteed to the Christian. This Rock of faith is the living presence of God. The weakest may depend upon it. Those who think themselves the strongest may become the weakest unless they depend on Christ as their efficiency, their worthiness. This is the Rock upon which we may build successfully. God is near in Christ's atoning sacrifice, in His intercession, His loving, tender ruling power over the church. Seated by the eternal throne, He watches them with intense interest. As long as the members of the church shall through faith draw sap and nourishment from Jesus Christ, and not from man's opinions and devisings, and methods; if having a conviction of the nearness of God in Christ, they put their entire trust in Him, they will have a vital connection with Christ as the branch has connection with the parent stock. The church is established not on theories of men, on long-drawn-out plans and forms. It depends upon Christ their righteousness. It is built on faith in Christ, "and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." ...
OFC	22	1	The strength of every soul is in God and not in man. Quietness and confidence is to be the strength of all who give their hearts to God. Christ has not a casual interest in us but an interest stronger than a mother for her child.... Our Saviour has purchased us by human suffering and sorrow, by insult, reproach, abuse, mockery, rejection and death. He is watching over you, trembling child of God. He will make you secure under His protection.... Our weakness in human nature will not bar our access to the heavenly Father, for He [Christ] died to make intercession for us.
------------------------The Renewed Heart Loves As Christ Loved, January 10
OFC	22	2	A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. John 13:34.
OFC	22	3	Jesus says, "Love one another as I have loved you." Love is not simply an impulse, a transitory emotion, dependent upon circumstances; it is a living principle, a permanent power. The soul is fed by the streams of pure love that flow from the heart of Christ, as a well-spring that never fails. O, how is the heart quickened, how are its motives ennobled, its affections deepened, by this communion! Under the education and discipline of the Holy Spirit, the children of God love one another, truly, sincerely, unaffectedly,--"without partiality, and without hypocrisy." And this because the heart is in love with Jesus. Our affection for one another springs from our common relation to God. We are one family, we love one another as He loved us. When compared with this true, sanctified, disciplined affection, the shallow courtesy of the world, the meaningless expression of effusive friendship, are as chaff to the wheat.
OFC	22	4	To love as Christ loved means to manifest unselfishness at all times and in all places, by kind words and pleasant looks.... Genuine love is a precious attribute of heavenly origin, which increases its fragrance in proportion as it is dispensed to others...
OFC	22	5	Christ's love is deep and earnest, flowing like an irrepressible stream to all who will accept it. There is no selfishness in His love. If this heaven-born love is an abiding principle in the heart, it will make itself known, not only to those we hold most dear in sacred relationship, but to all with whom we come in contact. It will lead us to bestow little acts of attention, to make concessions, to perform deeds of kindness, to speak tender, true, encouraging words. It will lead us to sympathize with those whose hearts hunger for sympathy.
------------------------We Are to Take Time To Think About God, January 11
OFC	23	1	Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10.
OFC	23	2	Christians should ... cultivate a love for meditation, and cherish a spirit of devotion. Many seem to begrudge moments spent in meditation, and the searching of the Scriptures, and prayer, as though the time thus occupied was lost. I wish you could all view these things in the light God would have you; for you would then make the kingdom of Heaven of the first importance. To keep your heart in Heaven, will give vigor to all your graces, and put life into all your duties. To discipline the mind to dwell upon heavenly things, will put life and earnestness into all our endeavors.
OFC	23	3	Let every one who desires to be a partaker of the divine nature appreciate the fact that he must escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. There must be a constant, earnest struggling of the soul against the evil imaginings of the mind. There must be a steadfast resistance of temptation to sin in thought or act. The soul must be kept from every stain, through faith in Him who is able to keep you from falling. We should meditate upon the Scriptures, thinking soberly and candidly upon the things that pertain to our eternal salvation. The infinite mercy and love of Jesus, the sacrifice made in our behalf, call for most serious and solemn reflection. We should dwell upon the character of our dear Redeemer and Intercessor. We should seek to comprehend the meaning of the plan of salvation. We should meditate upon the mission of Him who came to save His people from their sins. By constantly contemplating heavenly themes, our faith and love will grow stronger. Our prayers will be more and more acceptable to God, because they will be more and more mixed with faith and love. They will be more intelligent and fervent.
OFC	23	4	When the mind is thus filled ... the believer in Christ will be able to bring forth good things from the treasure of the heart
------------------------Let Us Come Boldly To The Throne of Grace, January 12
OFC	24	1	Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16.
OFC	24	2	Jesus knows the needs of His children, and He loves to listen to their prayers. Let the children shut out the world and everything that would attract the thoughts from God, and let them feel that they are alone with God, that His eye looks into the inmost heart, and reads the desire of the soul, and that they may talk with God. In humble faith you may claim His promises, and feel that although you have nothing in yourself whereby you may claim the favor of God, because of the merits and righteousness of Christ, you may come boldly to the throne of grace, and find help in time of need. There is nothing that can make the soul so strong to resist the temptations of Satan in the great conflict of life, as to seek God in humility, laying before Him your soul in all its helplessness, expecting that He will be your helper and your defender.
OFC	24	3	With the trusting faith of a little child, we are to come to our heavenly Father, telling Him of all our needs. He is always ready to pardon and help. The supply of divine wisdom is inexhaustible, and the Lord encourages us to draw largely from it. The longing that we should have for spiritual blessings is described in the words, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." We need a deeper soul-hunger for the rich gifts that heaven has to bestow.
OFC	24	4	We are to hunger and thirst after righteousness.
OFC	24	5	O that we might have a consuming desire to know God by an experimental knowledge, to come into the audience chamber of the Most High, reaching up the hand of faith, and casting our helpless souls upon the One mighty to save. His loving kindness is better than life.
OFC	24	6	He desires to bestow on the children of men the riches of an eternal inheritance. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
------------------------Rejoice In The Rich Treasures of Grace, January 13
OFC	24	7	And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you. Deuteronomy 26:11.
OFC	25	1	Thanksgiving and praise should be expressed to God for temporal blessings and for whatever comforts He bestows upon us. God would have every family that He is preparing to inhabit the eternal mansions above, give glory to Him for the rich treasures of His grace. Were children, in the home life, educated and trained to be grateful to the Giver of all good things, we would see an element of heavenly grace manifest in our families. Cheerfulness would be seen in the home life, and coming from such homes, the youth would bring a spirit of respect and reverence with them into the schoolroom, and into the church. There would be an attendance in the sanctuary where God meets with His people, a reverence for all the ordinances of His worship, and grateful praise and thanksgiving would be offered for all the gifts of His providence....
OFC	25	2	Every temporal blessing would be received with gratitude, and every spiritual blessing become doubly precious because the perception of each member of the household had become sanctified by the Word of truth. The Lord Jesus is very near to those who thus appreciate His gracious gifts, tracing all their good things back to the benevolent, loving, care-taking God, and recognizing Him as the great Fountain of all comfort and consolation, the inexhaustible Source of grace.
OFC	25	3	If we would give more expression to our faith, rejoice more in the blessings that we know we have,--the great mercy and love of God,--we should have more faith and greater joy. No tongue can express, no finite mind can conceive, the blessing that results from appreciating the goodness and love of God. Even on earth we may have joy as a wellspring, never failing, because fed by the streams that flow from the throne of God.
------------------------We Have Received Of God's Fullness, January 14
OFC	25	4	And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. John 1:16.
OFC	25	5	Christ sought to save the world, not by conformity to it, but by revealing to the world the transforming power of the grace of God to mold and fashion the human character after the likeness of the character of Christ.
OFC	25	6	Satan has represented God as selfish and oppressive, as claiming all, and giving nothing, as requiring the service of His creatures for His own glory, and making no sacrifice for their good. But the gift of Christ reveals the Father's heart.... It declares that while God's hatred of sin is as strong as death, His love for the sinner is stronger than death. Having undertaken our redemption, He will spare nothing, however dear, which is necessary to the completion of His work. No truth essential to our salvation is withheld, no miracle of mercy is neglected, no divine agency is left unemployed. Favor is heaped upon favor, gift upon gift. The whole treasury of heaven is open to those He seeks to save. Having collected the riches of the universe, and laid open the resources of infinite power, He gives them all into the hands of Christ, and says, All these are for man. Use these gifts to convince him that there is no love greater than Mine in earth or heaven. His greatest happiness will be found in loving Me.
OFC	26	1	The Father appreciates every soul whom His Son has purchased by the gift of His life. Every provision has been made for us to receive divine power, which will enable us to overcome temptations. Through obedience to all God's requirements the soul is preserved unto eternal life.
OFC	26	2	God has a heaven full of blessings that He wants to bestow on those who are earnestly seeking for that help which the Lord alone can give.
------------------------We Are Changed From Glory To Glory, January 15
OFC	26	3	But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
OFC	26	4	When enlightened by the Spirit of God, the believer beholds the perfection of Jesus, and beholding this perfection, he rejoices with joy unspeakable. In self he sees sin and helplessness; in the Redeemer sinlessness and infinite power. The sacrifice that Christ made in order that He might impart to us His righteousness--this is a theme upon which we may dwell with deeper and still deeper enthusiasm. Self is nothing; Jesus is everything....
OFC	26	5	The transforming power of grace can make me a partaker of the divine nature. On Christ the glory of God has shone, and by looking upon Christ, contemplating His self-sacrifice, remembering that in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, the believer is drawn closer and closer to the Source of power....
OFC	26	6	How essential that we have the enlightenment of the Spirit of God; for thus only can we see the glory of Christ, and by beholding become changed from character to character in and through faith in Christ.... He has grace and pardon for every soul. As by faith we look to Jesus, our faith pierces the shadow, and we adore God for His wondrous love in giving us Jesus the Comforter....
OFC	26	7	The sinner may become a child of God, an heir of heaven. He may rise from the dust, and stand forth arrayed in garments of light.... At every step of advance, he sees new beauties in Christ, and becomes more like Him in character.
OFC	27	1	The love that was manifested toward him in the death of Christ, awakens a response of thankful love, and in answer to sincere prayer, the believer is brought from grace to grace, from glory to glory, until by beholding Christ, he is changed into the same image.
------------------------Love For Others, January 16
OFC	27	2	Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. Ephesians 5:1, 2.
OFC	27	3	You are to follow God as dear children, to be obedient to all His requirements, walking in love as Christ also hath loved us.... Love was the element in which Christ moved and walked and worked. He came to embrace the world in the arms of His love...
OFC	27	4	We are to follow the example set by Christ, and make Him our pattern, until we shall have the same love for others as He has manifested for us. He seeks to impress us with this profound lesson of love.... If your hearts have been given to selfishness, let Christ imbue you with His love. He desires that we shall love Him fully, and encourages, yes, even commands, that we shall love others as He has given us an example. He has made love the badge of our discipleship.... This is the measurement to which you are to reach,--"Love one another; as I have loved you." What height, what depth and breadth of love! This love is not simply to embrace a few favorites, it is to reach to the lowliest and humblest of God's creatures. Jesus says, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." ...
OFC	27	5	The love and sympathy which Jesus would have us give to others does not savor of sentimentalism, which is a snare to the soul; it is a love that is of heavenly extraction, which Jesus exemplifies by both precept and example. But instead of manifesting this love, how often we are alienated and estranged one from another.... The result is estrangement from God, a dwarfed experience, a blighting of Christian growth....
OFC	27	6	The love of Jesus is an active principle, uniting heart with heart in bonds of Christian fellowship. Every one who enters heaven will on earth have been perfected in love; for in heaven the Redeemer and the redeemed will be objects of our interest.
------------------------We Are To Overcome As Christ Overcame, January 17
OFC	28	1	These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33.
OFC	28	2	Satan made stronger attacks upon Christ than he will ever make upon us. There was much at stake with him, whether Christ or himself should be conqueror. If Christ resisted his most powerful temptations, and Satan did not succeed in leading Him to sin, he knew that he must lose his power, and finally be punished with everlasting destruction. Therefore Satan worked with mighty power to lead Christ to do a wrong action, for then he would gain advantage over Him.... You can never be tempted in so determined and cruel manner as was our Saviour. Satan was upon His path every moment.
OFC	28	3	Will man take hold of divine power, and with determination and perseverance resist Satan, as Christ has given him example in His conflict with the foe in the wilderness of temptation? God cannot save man against his will from the power of Satan's artifices. Man must work with his human power, aided by the divine power of Christ, to resist and to conquer at any cost to himself. In short, man must overcome as Christ overcame. And then, through the victory that it is his privilege to gain by the all-powerful name of Jesus, he may become an heir of God and joint-heir with Jesus Christ. This could not be the case if Christ alone did all the overcoming. Man must do his part; he must be victor on his own account, through the strength and grace that Christ gives him. Man must be a co-worker with Christ in the labor of overcoming, and then he will be partaker with Christ in His glory.
OFC	28	4	The Saviour overcame to show man how he may overcome. All the temptations of Satan, Christ met with the Word of God. By trusting in God's promises, He received power to obey God's commandments, and the tempter could gain no advantage.
------------------------Jesus Is A Friend That Is Closer Than A Brother, January 18
OFC	28	5	There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24.
OFC	28	6	Disappointments you will have, but ever bear in mind that Jesus, the living, risen Saviour, is your Redeemer, your Restorer. He loves you, and it is better to share His love than to sit with princes and be separated from Him....
OFC	29	1	Come daily to Jesus, who loves you. Open your heart to Him freely. In Him there is no disappointment. You will never find a better counselor, a safer guide, a more sure defense.
OFC	29	2	Through all your trials ... you have had a never-failing Friend, who has said, "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
OFC	29	3	But how often is the Lord neglected for the society of others, and for things of no value! ... We dare not let His name languish on our lips, and His love and memory die out of our hearts. "Well," says the cold, formal professor, "this is making Christ too much like a human being;" but the Word of God warrants us to have these very ideas. It is the want of these practical, definite views of Christ, that hinders so many from having a genuine experience in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is the reason that many are fearing and doubting and mourning. Their ideas of Christ and the plan of salvation are vague, dreary, and confused.... If ever there was a time when men needed the presence of Christ at their right hand, it is now, so that when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.
OFC	29	4	Communion with Christ--how unspeakably precious! Such communion it is our privilege to enjoy, if we will seek it.
OFC	29	5	The everlasting assurance shall be yours that you have a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
------------------------Careful Habits Ensure Good Health, January 19
OFC	29	6	I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 30:17.
OFC	29	7	The mind does not wear out nor break down so often on account of diligent employment and hard study, as on account of eating improper food at improper times, and of careless inattention to the laws of health.... Irregular hours for eating and sleeping sap the brain forces. The apostle Paul declares that he who would be successful in reaching a high standard of godliness must be temperate in all things. Eating, drinking, and dressing all have a direct bearing upon our spiritual advancement.
OFC	29	8	Health is a blessing which few appreciate.... Many eat at all hours, regardless of the laws of health. Then gloom covers the mind. How can men be honored with divine enlightenment when they are so reckless in their habits, so inattentive to the light which God has given in regard to these things.... Life is a holy trust, which God alone can enable us to keep, and to use to His glory. But He who formed the wonderful structure of the body will take special care to keep it in order if men do not work at cross-purposes with Him.
OFC	30	1	Health, life, and happiness are the result of obedience to physical laws governing our bodies. If our will and way are in accordance with God's will and way; if we do the pleasure of our Creator, He will keep the human organism in good condition, and restore the moral, mental, and physical powers, in order that He may work through us to His glory.... If we co-operate with Him in this work, health and happiness, peace and usefulness, are the sure result.
OFC	30	2	He did not die for us in order that we might become slaves to evil habits, but that we might become the sons and daughters of God, serving Him with every power of the being.
OFC	30	3	My dear young friends, advance step by step, until all your habits shall be in harmony with the laws of life and health.
------------------------Divine Wisdom, January 20
OFC	30	4	For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. Proverbs 8:11.
OFC	30	5	If Adam and Eve had never touched the forbidden tree, the Lord would have imparted to them knowledge,--knowledge upon which rested no curse of sin, knowledge that would have brought them everlasting joy. The only knowledge they gained by their disobedience was a knowledge of sin and its results....
OFC	30	6	Age after age, the curiosity of men has led them to seek for the tree of knowledge; and often they think they are plucking fruit most essential, when, like Solomon's research, they find it altogether vanity and nothingness in comparison with that science of true holiness which will open to them the gates of the city of God. The human ambition has been seeking for that kind of knowledge that will bring to them glory and self-exaltation and supremacy. Thus Adam and Eve were worked upon by Satan until God's restraint was snapped asunder, and their education under the teacher of lies began in order that they might have the knowledge which God had refused them.
OFC	30	7	True wisdom is a treasure as lasting as eternity. Many of the world's so-called wise men are wise only in their own estimation. Content with the acquisition of worldly wisdom, they never enter the garden of God, to become acquainted with the treasures of knowledge contained in His holy Word. Supposing themselves to be wise, they are ignorant concerning the wisdom which all must have who gain eternal life....The unlearned man, if he knows God and Jesus Christ, has a more enduring wisdom than has the most learned man who despises the instruction of God.
OFC	31	1	Divine wisdom is to be a lamp to your feet....Everything that can be shaken will be shaken; but rooted and grounded in the truth, you will abide with those things that cannot be shaken.
------------------------Study The Scriptures, January 21
OFC	31	2	For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4.
OFC	31	3	This Holy Book has withstood the assaults of Satan, who has united with evil men to make everything of divine character shrouded in clouds and darkness. But the Lord has preserved this Holy Book by His own miraculous power in its present shape,--a chart or guidebook to the human family to show them the way to heaven.... This Word ... is the guidebook to the inhabitants of a fallen world, bequeathed to them, that by studying and obeying the directions, not one soul would lose its way.
OFC	31	4	There never was a time when it was so important that followers of Christ should study the Bible as now. Deceptive influences are upon all sides, and it is essential that you counsel with Jesus, your best friend.... David declares, "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee." How many are betrayed into sin, because they have not, through prayerful study of the Word of God, realized the sinfulness of sin, and found out how they may steadfastly resist it. When temptation comes upon them, they seem to be off guard, and ignorant of the devices of the enemy. We are living in perilous times, and as we draw near the close of earth's history, there will be no safety for those who do not become familiar with the Word of God.... Everything that can be shaken, will be shaken.... The children of God have reached the most critical part of their pilgrimage; for the nets and pitfalls of the enemy are on every side. And yet with the guidance of the Lord, with that which is plainly revealed in His Word, we may walk securely and not stumble.... A voice from heaven is addressing us in its pages.
OFC	31	5	Obedience to God's Word is our only safeguard against the evils that are sweeping the world to destruction.
------------------------To Walk In His Way, January 22
OFC	32	1	The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. Proverbs 10:29.
OFC	32	2	If from the beginning we had walked in the counsel of God, thousands more would have been converted to the present truth. But many have made crooked paths for their feet. My brethren, make straight paths, lest the lame be turned out of the way. Let no one follow a crooked path that some one else has made, for thus you would not only go astray yourself, but would make this crooked path plainer for some one else to follow. Determine that as for yourself, you will walk in the path of obedience. Know for a certainty that you are standing under the broad shield of Omnipotence. Realize that the characteristics of Jehovah must be revealed in your life, and that in you a work must be accomplished that will mold your character after the divine similitude. Yield yourself to the guidance of Him who is the Head over all.
OFC	32	3	We are doing our work for the judgment. Let us be learners of Jesus. We need His guidance every moment. At every step we should inquire, "Is this the way of the Lord?" not, "Is this the way of the man who is over me?" We are to be concerned only as to whether we are walking in the way of the Lord.
OFC	32	4	God will honor and uphold every true-hearted, earnest soul who is seeking to walk before Him in the perfection of Christ's grace. He will never leave nor forsake one humble, trembling soul. Shall we believe that He will work in our hearts? that if we allow Him to do so, He will make us pure and holy, by His rich grace qualifying us to be laborers together with Him? Can we with keen, sanctified perception appreciate the strength of His promises, and appropriate them, not because we are worthy, but because by living faith we claim the righteousness of Christ?
OFC	32	5	There is nothing so great and powerful as God's love for those who are His children.
------------------------All Men Are Drawn To The Uplifted Saviour, January 23
OFC	32	6	And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. John 12:32.
OFC	32	7	Never before was there such a general knowledge of Jesus as when He hung upon the cross. He was lifted up from the earth, to draw all to Him. Into the hearts of many who beheld that crucifixion scene, and who heard Christ's words, was the light of truth to shine. With John they would proclaim, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." There were those who never rested until, searching the Scriptures and comparing passage with passage, they saw the meaning of Christ's mission. They saw that free forgiveness was provided by Him whose tender mercy embraced the whole world. They read the prophecies regarding Christ, and the promises so free and full, pointing to a fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem.
OFC	33	1	The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths cluster. In order to be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light which streams from the cross of Calvary, and in connection with the wondrous, central truth of the Saviour's atonement. Those who study the Redeemer's wonderful sacrifice grow in grace and knowledge.
OFC	33	2	I present before you the great, grand monument of mercy and regeneration, salvation and redemption,--the Son of God uplifted on the cross of Calvary. This is to be the theme of every discourse.
OFC	33	3	Jesus is inviting and drawing by His Holy Spirit the hearts of young and old to Himself.... When Christ crucified is preached, the power of the gospel is demonstrated by the influence it exerts over the believer. In place of remaining dead in trespasses and sins, he is awakened.
OFC	33	4	Lift up the Man of Calvary higher and still higher; there is power in the exaltation of the cross of Christ.
------------------------Reconciled To God By Christ's Death, January 24
OFC	33	5	For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Romans 5:10.
OFC	33	6	The cross is invested with a power that language cannot express. Christ's sacrifice in behalf of the human race puts to shame our meager efforts and methods to meet and uplift humanity, to help sinful men and women to find Jesus.
OFC	33	7	The work of the sons and daughters of God must be of a different character than has yet been manifested by a large number. If they love Jesus, they will have enlarged ideas of the love that has been expressed for fallen man, which required the provision of so expensive an offering to save the human race. Our Saviour asks the cooperation of every son and daughter of Adam who has become a son or daughter of God.... Our Saviour declares that He brought from heaven as a donation eternal life. He was to be lifted up upon the cross of Calvary to draw all men unto Him. How then shall we treat the purchased inheritance of Christ? Tenderness, appreciation, kindness, sympathy, and love should be shown to them. Then we may work to help and bless one another. In this work we have more than human brotherhood. We have the exalted companionship of heavenly angels. They cooperate with us in the work of enlightening high and low.
OFC	34	1	Having engaged in the work, the amazing work of our redemption, Christ determined in council with His Father to spare nothing, however costly, to withhold nothing however highly it might be estimated, that would rescue the poor sinner. He would give all heaven to this work of salvation, of restoring the moral image of God in man.... To be a child of God is to be one with Christ in God, and to put forth our hands in earnest, self-sacrificing love to strengthen and bless the souls that are perishing in their sins.
------------------------True Missionary Effort Begins In The Home, January 25
OFC	34	2	And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Luke 1:6.
OFC	34	3	In forming a relationship with Christ, the renewed man is but coming back to his appointed relationship with God.... His first duty is to his children and his nearest relatives. Nothing can excuse him from neglecting the inner circle for the larger circle outside. In the day of final reckoning fathers and mothers ... will be asked what they did and said to secure the salvation of the souls they took upon themselves the responsibility of bringing into the world. Did they neglect their lambs, leaving them to the care of strangers? ... A great good done for others will not cancel the debt you owe to God to care for your children. The spiritual welfare of your family comes first.
OFC	34	4	In rightly training and molding the minds of her children, mothers are entrusted with the greatest mission ever given to mortals.
OFC	34	5	Whenever you take up the duty that lies nearest you, then God will bless you, and hear your prayers. There are too many doing outside missionary work, while their own households are left destitute of any such efforts,--going to ruin through neglect.... The first missionary work is to see that love, light, and joy come into the home circle. Let us not be looking for some great temperance or missionary work to do until we have first done the duties at home. Every morning we should think, What kind act can I do today? What tender word can I speak? Kind words at home are blessed sunshine. The husband needs them, the wife needs them, the children need them.... It ought to be the desire of every heart to make as much heaven below as possible.
OFC	35	1	A soul saved in your own family circle or in your own neighborhood, by your patient, painstaking labor, will bring as much honor to the name of Christ, and will shine as brightly in your crown as if you had found that soul in China or India.
------------------------We Are To Do Good To Our Neighbors, January 26
OFC	35	2	Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it Proverbs 3:27.
OFC	35	3	So ready, so eager is the Saviour's heart to welcome us as members of the family of God, that in the very first words we are to use in approaching God, He places the assurance of our divine relationship,--"Our Father." ... In calling God our Father, we recognize all His children as our brethren. We are all a part of the great web of humanity, all members of one family. In our petitions we are to include our neighbors as well as ourselves. No one prays aright who seeks a blessing for himself alone.
OFC	35	4	We are bound to the Lord by the strongest ties, and the manifestation of our Father's love should call forth the most filial affection and the most ardent gratitude. The laws of God have their foundation in the most immutable rectitude, and are so framed that they will promote the happiness of those who keep them.
OFC	35	5	In the lesson of faith that Christ taught on the mount, are revealed the principles of true religion. Religion brings man into personal relation with God, but not exclusively; for the principles of heaven are to be lived out, that they may help and bless humanity. A true child of God will love Him with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself. He will have an interest for his fellow-men. True religion is the work of grace upon the heart, that causes the life to flow out in good works, like a fountain fed from living streams. Religion does not consist merely in meditation and prayer. The Christian's light is displayed in good works, and is thus recognized by others. Religion is not to be divorced from the business life. It is to pervade and sanctify its engagements and enterprises. If a man is truly connected with God and heaven, the spirit that dwells in heaven will influence all his words and actions. He will glorify God in his works, and will lead others to honor Him.
------------------------Being United As Children Of God, January 27
OFC	36	1	For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26.
OFC	36	2	We seldom find two persons exactly alike. Among human beings as well as among the things of the natural world, there is diversity. Unity in diversity among God's children--the manifestation of love and forbearance in spite of difference of disposition--this is the testimony that God sent His Son into the world to save sinners.
OFC	36	3	The unity that exists between Christ and His disciples does not destroy the personality of either. In mind, in purpose, in character, they are one, but not in person. By partaking of the Spirit of God, conforming to the law of God, man becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ brings His disciples into a living union with Himself and with the Father. Through the working of the Holy Spirit upon the human mind, man is made complete in Christ Jesus. Unity with Christ establishes a bond of unity with one another. This unity is the most convincing proof to the world of the majesty and virtue of Christ, and of His power to take away sin.
OFC	36	4	The powers of darkness stand a poor chance against believers who love one another as Christ has loved them, who refuse to create alienation and strife, who stand together, who are kind, courteous, and tender-hearted, cherishing the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. We must have the Spirit of Christ, or we are none of His.
OFC	36	5	In unity there is strength; in division there is weakness.
OFC	36	6	The closer our union with Christ, the closer will be our union with one another. Variance and disaffection, selfishness and conceit, are striving for supremacy. These are the fruits of a divided heart, open to the suggestions of the enemy of souls. Satan exults when he can sow seeds of dissension.
OFC	36	7	In unity there is a life, a power, that can be obtained in no other way.
------------------------Glad In The Lord, January 28
OFC	36	8	My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord . Psalm 104:34.
OFC	36	9	Rest yourself wholly in the hands of Jesus. Contemplate His great love, and while you meditate upon His self-denial, His infinite sacrifice made in our behalf in order that we should believe in Him, your heart will be filled with holy joy, calm peace, and indescribable love. As we talk of Jesus, as we call upon Him in prayer, our confidence that He is our personal, loving Saviour will strengthen, and His character will appear more and more lovely.... We may enjoy rich feasts of love, and as we fully believe that we are His by adoption, we may have a foretaste of heaven. Wait upon the Lord in faith. The Lord draws out the soul in prayer, and gives us to feel His precious love. We have a nearness to Him, and can hold sweet communion with Him. We obtain distinct views of His tenderness and compassion, and our hearts are broken and melted with contemplation of the love that is given to us. We feel indeed an abiding Christ in the soul.... Our peace is like a river, wave after wave of glory rolls into the heart, and indeed we sup with Jesus and He with us. We have a realizing sense of the love of God, and we rest in His love. No language can describe it, it is beyond knowledge. We are one with Christ, our life is hid with Christ in God. We have the assurance that when He who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. With strong confidence, we can call God our Father. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. His Spirit makes us like Jesus Christ in temper, and disposition, and we represent Christ to others. When Christ is abiding in the soul the fact cannot be hid; for He is like a well of water springing up into everlasting life. We can but represent the likeness of Christ in our character, and our words, our deportment, produces in others a deep, abiding, increasing love for Jesus, and we make manifest ... that we are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
------------------------Store The Mind With Divine Truth, January 29
OFC	37	1	Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
OFC	37	2	It is the duty of every child of God to store his mind with divine truth; and the more he does this, the more strength and clearness of mind he will have to fathom the deep things of God. And he will be more and more earnest and vigorous, as the principles of truth are carried out in his daily life.
OFC	37	3	That which will bless humanity is spiritual life. He who is in harmony with God, will constantly depend upon Him for strength. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." It should be our life work to be constantly reaching forward to the perfection of Christian character, ever striving for conformity to the will of God. The efforts begun here will continue through eternity. The advancement made here will be ours when we enter upon the future life.
OFC	38	1	Those who are partakers of Christ's meekness, purity, and love, will be joyful in God, and will shed light and gladness upon all around them. The thought that Christ died to obtain for us the gift of everlasting life, is enough to call forth from our hearts the most sincere and fervent gratitude, and from our lips the most enthusiastic praise. God's promises are rich, and full, and free. Whoever will, in the strength of Christ, comply with the conditions, may claim these promises, with all their wealth of blessing, as his own. And being thus abundantly supplied from the treasure-house of God, he may, in the journey of life, "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing;" by a godly example blessing his fellow-men, and honoring his Creator. While our Saviour would guard His followers from self-confidence by the reminder, "Without me, ye can do nothing," He has coupled with it for our encouragement the gracious assurance, "He that abideth in me ... bringeth forth much fruit."
------------------------Trees Planted By Rivers Of Water, January 30
OFC	38	2	He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Psalm 1:3.
OFC	38	3	Dangers beset every path, and he who comes off conqueror will indeed have a triumphant song to sing in the city of God. Some have strong traits of character that will need to be constantly repressed. If kept under the control of the Spirit of God, these traits will be a blessing; but if not, they will prove a curse. If those who are now riding upon the wave of popularity do not become giddy, it will be a miracle of mercy. If they lean to their own wisdom, as so many thus situated have done, their wisdom will prove to be foolishness. But while they shall give themselves unselfishly to the work of God, never swerving in the least from principle, the Lord will throw about them the everlasting arm and will prove to them a mighty helper....
OFC	38	4	This is a dangerous age for any man who has talents which can be of value in the work of God; for Satan is constantly plying his temptations upon such a person, ever trying to fill him with pride and ambition; and when God would use him, it is too often the case that he becomes independent and self-sufficient, and feels capable of standing alone....
OFC	38	5	Prayer and effort, effort and prayer, will be the business of your life. You must pray as though the efficiency and praise were all due to God, and labor as though duty were all your own. If you want power you may have it; it is waiting your draft upon it. Only believe in God, take Him at His word, act by faith, and blessings will come.... Those who have a humble, trusting, contrite heart, God accepts, and hears their prayer; and when God helps, all obstacles will be overcome.... The blessing of heaven, obtained by daily supplication, will be as the bread of life to the soul and will cause them to increase in moral and spiritual strength, like a tree planted by the river of waters.
------------------------We Shall Inherit All Things, January 31
OFC	39	1	He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son (daughter). Revelation 21:7.
OFC	39	2	In order to inherit all things, we must resist and overcome sin.
OFC	39	3	We may have joy in the Lord if we will keep His commandments. If we indeed have our citizenship above, and a title to an immortal inheritance, an eternal substance, we have that faith which works by love and purifies the soul.... We are members of the heavenly family, children of the heavenly King, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. At His coming we shall have the crown of life that fadeth not away.
OFC	39	4	The Monarch of heaven would have you possess and enjoy all that can ennoble, expand, and exalt your being and fit you to dwell with Him forever, your existence measuring with the life of God. What a prospect is the life which is to come! What charms it possesses! How broad and deep and measureless is the love of God manifested to man!
OFC	39	5	The privileges granted to the children of God are without limit,--to be connected with Jesus Christ, who, throughout the universe of heaven and worlds that have not fallen, is adored by every heart, and His praises sung by every tongue; to be children of God, to bear His name, to become a member of the royal family; to be ranged under the banner of Prince Immanuel, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
OFC	39	6	The Son of God was the heir of all things, and the dominion and glory of the kingdoms of this world were promised to Him.... Even as Christ was in the world, so are His followers. They are the sons of God, and joint heirs with Christ; and the kingdom and dominion belong to them.
OFC	39	7	In place of the world, He will give you, for a life of obedience, the kingdom under the whole heavens. He will give you an eternal weight of glory and a life that is as enduring as eternity.
------------------------I Give My Heart, February 1
OFC	40	1	My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. Proverbs 23:26.
OFC	40	2	The Lord says to every one of you, "My son, give Me thine heart." He sees your disorders. He knows that your soul is diseased with sin, and He desires to say to you, "Thy sins are forgiven." The Great Physician has a remedy for every ill. He understands your case. Whatever may have been your errors, He knows how to deal with them. Will you not trust yourself to Him?
OFC	40	3	The blessing of God will rest upon every soul that makes a full consecration to Him. When we seek for God with all the heart, we shall find Him. God is in earnest with us, and He wants us to make thorough work for eternity. He has poured out all heaven in one gift, and there is no reason why we should doubt His love. Look to Calvary....
OFC	40	4	God asks you to give Him your heart. Your powers, your talents, your affections, should all be surrendered to Him, that He may work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure, and fit you for eternal life.
OFC	40	5	When Christ dwells in the heart, the soul will be so filled with His love, with the joy of communion with Him, that it will cleave to Him; and in the contemplation of Him, self will be forgotten. Love to Christ will be the spring of action. Those who feel the constraining love of God, do not ask how little may be given to meet the requirements of God; they do not ask for the lowest standard, but aim at perfect conformity to the will of their Redeemer. With earnest desire they yield all, and manifest an interest proportionate to the value of the object which they seek
OFC	40	6	It is the submissive, teachable spirit that God wants. That which gives to prayer its excellence is the fact that it is breathed from a loving, obedient heart.
------------------------Pray In The Morning, February 2
OFC	40	7	My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. Psalm 5:3.
OFC	40	8	The very first outbreathing of the soul in the morning should be for the presence of Jesus. "Without Me," He says, "ye can do nothing." It is Jesus that we need; His light, His life, His spirit, must be ours continually. We need Him every hour. And we should pray in the morning that as the sun illuminates the landscape, and fills the world with light, so the Sun of Righteousness may shine into the chambers of mind and heart, and make us all light in the Lord. We cannot do without His presence one moment. The enemy knows when we undertake to do without our Lord, and he is there, ready to fill our minds with his evil suggestions that we may fall from our steadfastness; but it is the desire of the Lord that from moment to moment we should abide in Him, and thus be complete in Him....
OFC	41	1	God designs that every one of us shall be perfect in Him, so that we may represent to the world the perfection of His character. He wants us to be set free from sin, that we may not disappoint Heaven, that we may not grieve our divine Redeemer. He does not desire us to profess Christianity, and yet not avail ourselves of that grace which is able to make us perfect, that we may be found wanting in nothing.
OFC	41	2	Prayer and faith will do what no power on earth can accomplish. We are seldom, in all respects, placed in the same position twice. We continually have new scenes and new trials to pass through, where past experience cannot be a sufficient guide. We must have the continual light that comes from God. Christ is ever sending messages to those who listen for His voice.
OFC	41	3	It is a part of God's plan to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, that which He would not bestow did we not thus ask.
------------------------The Bible Begets New Life, February 3
OFC	41	4	Being born again ... by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 1 Peter 1:23.
OFC	41	5	In the Bible the will of God is revealed. The truths of the Word of God are the utterances of the Most High. He who makes these truths a part of his life becomes in every sense a new creature. He is not given new mental powers, but the darkness that through ignorance and sin has clouded the understanding is removed. The words, "A new heart also will I give you," mean, "A new mind will I give you." A change of heart is always attended by a clear conviction of Christian duty, an understanding of truth. He who gives the Scriptures close, prayerful attention will gain clear comprehension and sound judgment, as if in turning to God he had reached a higher plane of intelligence.
OFC	41	6	The Bible contains the principles that lie at the foundation of all true greatness, all true prosperity, whether for the individual or for the nation. The nation that gives free room for the circulation of the Scriptures opens the way for the minds of the people to develop and expand. The reading of the Scriptures causes light to shine into the darkness. As the Word of God is searched, life-giving truths are found. In the lives of those who heed its teachings there will be an undercurrent of happiness that will bless all with whom they are brought in contact.
OFC	42	1	Thousands have drawn water from these wells of life, yet there is no diminishing of the supply. Thousands have set the Lord before them, and by beholding have been changed into the same image. Their spirit burns within them as they speak of His character, telling what Christ is to them and what they are to Christ.... Thousands more may engage in the work of searching out the mysteries of salvation.... Each fresh search will reveal something more deeply interesting than has yet been unfolded.
------------------------The Spirit To Glorify Christ In Me, February 4
OFC	42	2	He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. John 16:14.
OFC	42	3	In these words Christ declares the crowning work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit glorifies Christ by making Him the object of supreme regard, and the Saviour becomes the delight, the rejoicing, of the human agent in whose heart is wrought this transformation....
OFC	42	4	Repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ are the fruits of the renewing power of the grace of the Spirit. Repentance represents the process by which the soul seeks to reflect the image of Christ to the world.
OFC	42	5	Christ gives them the breath of His own Spirit, the life of His own life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in heart and mind. The grace of God enlarges and multiplies their faculties, and every perfection of the divine nature comes to their assistance in the work of saving souls. Through cooperation with Christ they are complete in Him, and in their human weakness they are enabled to do the deeds of Omnipotence.
OFC	42	6	It should be the work of the Christian's life to put on Christ and to bring himself to a more perfect likeness of Christ. The sons and daughters of God are to advance in their resemblance to Christ, our pattern. Daily they are to behold His glory and contemplate His incomparable excellence.
OFC	42	7	O that the baptism of the Holy Spirit might come upon you, that you might be imbued with the Spirit of God! Then day by day you will become more and more conformed to the image of Christ, and in every action of your life the question would be, "Will it glorify my Master?" By patient continuance in well-doing you would seek for glory and honor, and would receive the gift of immortality.
------------------------The Whole Earth Will Be Lightened, February 5
OFC	43	1	And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. Revelation 18:1.
OFC	43	2	The end of all things is at hand. God is moving upon every mind that is open to receive the impressions of His Holy Spirit. He is sending our messengers that they may give the warning in every locality. God is testing the devotion of His churches and their willingness to render obedience to the Spirit's guidance. Knowledge is to be increased. The messengers of Heaven are to be seen running to and fro, seeking in every possible way to warn the people of the coming judgments and presenting the glad tidings of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. The standard of righteousness is to be exalted. The Spirit of God is moving upon men's hearts, and those who respond to its influence will become lights in the world. Everywhere they are seen going forth to communicate to others the light they have received as they did after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And as they let their light shine, they receive more and more of the Spirit's power. The earth is lighted with the glory of God.
OFC	43	3	This message will close with power and strength far exceeding the midnight cry. Servants of God, endowed with power from on high, with their faces lighted up, and shining with holy consecration, went forth to proclaim the message from heaven.
OFC	43	4	Many were praising God. The sick were healed, and other miracles were wrought. A spirit of intercession was seen, even as was manifested before the great Day of Pentecost. Hundreds and thousands were seen visiting families and opening before them the Word of God. Hearts were convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit, and a spirit of genuine conversion was manifest. On every side doors were thrown open to the proclamation of the truth. The world seemed to be lightened with the heavenly influence.
------------------------Principle Not To Be Sacrificed For Peace, February 6
OFC	44	1	Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27.
OFC	44	2	There always have been and always will be two classes on the earth to the end of time--the believers in Jesus, and those who reject Him. Sinners, however wicked, abominable, and corrupt, by faith in Him will be purified, made clean, through the doing of His word.... Those who reject Christ and refuse to believe the truth will be filled with bitterness against those who accept Jesus as a personal Saviour. But those who receive Christ are melted and subdued by the manifestation of His love and His humiliation, suffering, and death in their behalf....
OFC	44	3	The peace that Christ gave to His disciples, and for which we pray, is the peace that is born of truth, a peace that is not to be quenched because of division. Without may be wars and fightings, jealousies, envies, hatred, strife; but the peace of Christ is not that which the world giveth or taketh away. It could endure amid the hunting of spies and the fiercest opposition of His enemies.... Christ did not for an instant seek to purchase peace by a betrayal of sacred trusts. Peace could not be made by a compromise of principles.... It is a grave mistake on the part of those who are children of God to seek to bridge the gulf that separates the children of light from the children of darkness by yielding principle, by compromising the truth. It would be surrendering the peace of Christ in order to make peace or fraternize with the world. The sacrifice is too costly to be made by the children of God to make peace with the world by giving up the principles of truth.... Then let the followers of Christ settle it in their minds that they will never compromise truth, never yield one iota of principle for the favor of the world. Let them hold to the peace of Christ.
------------------------I Will Love As Christ Loved, February 7
OFC	44	4	By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:35.
OFC	44	5	If we would be true lights in the world, we must manifest the loving, compassionate spirit of Christ. To love as Christ loved means that we must practice self-control. It means that we must show unselfishness at all times and in all places. It means that we must scatter round us kind words and pleasant looks. These cost the giver nothing, but they leave behind a precious fragrance. Their influence for good cannot be estimated. Not only to the receiver, but to the giver, they are a blessing; for they react upon him. Genuine love is a precious attribute of heavenly origin, which increases in fragrance in proportion as it is dispensed to others....
OFC	45	1	God desires His children to remember that in order to glorify Him, they must bestow their affection on those who need it most. None with whom we come in contact are to be neglected. No selfishness in look, word, or deed is to be manifested to our fellow beings, whatever their position, whether they be high or low, rich or poor. The love that gives kind words to only a few, while others are treated with coldness and indifference, is not love, but selfishness. It will not in any way work for the good of souls or the glory of God. We are not to confine our love to one or two objects.
OFC	45	2	Those who gather the sunshine of Christ's righteousness, and refuse to let it shine into the lives of others, will soon lose the sweet, bright rays of heavenly grace, selfishly reserved to be lavished upon a few.... Self should not be allowed to gather to itself a select few, giving nothing to those who need help the most. Our love is not to be sealed up for special ones. Break the bottle, and the fragrance will fill the house.
------------------------I Will Sing Unto The Lord, February 8
OFC	45	3	Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God. Psalm 50:23.
OFC	45	4	Come to Jesus just as you are, sinful, weak, and needy, and He will give you the water of life. You want a faith that reaches through the hellish shadow that Satan casts athwart your pathway. He is busily inventing amusements and fashions which will so take up men's minds that they shall not be able to spare any time for meditation. Teach your children to glorify God, not to please themselves. They are His children--His by creation and by redemption. Teach them to shun the amusements and follies of this degenerate age. Keep their minds clean and pure in the sight of God.... Praise God. Let your conversation, your music, your songs all praise Him who has done so much for us. Praise God here, and then you will be fitted to join the heavenly choir when you enter the city of God. Then you can cast your glittering crowns at the feet of Jesus, take your golden harps, and fill all heaven with melody. We shall praise Him with an immortal tongue.
OFC	46	1	As our Redeemer leads us to the threshold of the Infinite, flushed with the glory of God, we may catch the themes of praise and thanksgiving from the heavenly choir round about the throne; and as the echo of the angels' song is awakened in our earthly homes, hearts will be drawn closer to the heavenly singers. Heaven's communion begins on earth. We learn here the keynote of its praise.
OFC	46	2	Praise the Lord; talk of His goodness; tell of His power. Sweeten the atmosphere that surrounds your soul.... Praise, with heart and soul and voice, Him who is the health of your countenance, your Saviour, and your God.
------------------------Growth In Grace Begins At Home, February 9
OFC	46	3	The Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11.
OFC	46	4	There are many who do not grow in grace because they fail of cultivating home religion.
OFC	46	5	The members of the family are to show that they are in constant possession of a power received from Christ. They are to improve in every habit and practice, thus showing that they keep constantly before them what it means to be a Christian.
OFC	46	6	Those who are Christians in the home will be Christians in the church and in the world.
OFC	46	7	Grace can thrive only in the heart that is being constantly prepared for the precious seeds of truth. The thorns of sin will grow in any soil; they need no cultivation; but grace must be carefully cultivated. The briers and thorns are always ready to spring up, and the work of purification must advance continually.
OFC	46	8	That which will make the character lovely in the home is that which will make it lovely in the heavenly mansions. If you are ... to be the light of the world, that light is to shine in your home. Here you are to exemplify the Christian graces, to be lovable, patient, kind, yet firm.... You need to seek constantly the highest culture of mind and soul.... As a humble child of God, learn in the school of Christ; seek constantly to improve your powers, that you may do the most perfect, thorough work at home, by both precept and example.... Let the light of heavenly grace irradiate your character, that there may be sunlight in the home.
OFC	46	9	The measure of your Christianity is gauged by the character of your home life. The grace of Christ enables its possessors to make the home a happy place, full of peace and rest.
------------------------God Multiplies My Talents, February 10
OFC	47	1	Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:21.
OFC	47	2	God has given us talents to use for Him. To one He gives five talents, to another two, and to another one. Let not him who has but one talent think to hide it from God. The Lord knows where it is hidden. He knows that it is doing nothing for Him. When the Lord comes, He will ask His servants, What have you done with the talents I entrusted to you? And as he who received five and he who received two tell Him that by trading they have doubled their talents, He will say to them, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.... Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Thus He will say also to him who has improved the one talent lent him....
OFC	47	3	To him who has but one talent I would say, Do you know that one talent, rightly used and improved, will bring to the Lord one hundred talents? How? you ask. Use your gift in the conversion of one man of intellect, who sees what God is to him, and what he should be to God. Let him place himself on the side of the Lord, and as he imparts the light to others, he will be the means of bringing many souls to the Saviour. Through the right use of one talent one hundred souls may receive the truth. It is not to those who have the greatest number of talents to whom the "Well done" is spoken, but to those who in sincerity and faithfulness have used their gifts for the Master....
OFC	47	4	There is a great work to be done in our world, and we are accountable for every ray of light that shines upon our pathway. Impart that light, and you will receive more light to impart. Great blessing will come to those who use their talents aright.
------------------------Preserve The Body Temple, February 11
OFC	48	1	Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16.
OFC	48	2	God has given you a habitation to care for and preserve in the best condition for His service and glory. Your bodies are not your own.... "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
OFC	48	3	Health is a blessing of which few appreciate the value.... Life is a holy trust, which God alone can enable us to keep, and to use to His glory. But He who formed the wonderful structure of the body will take special care to keep it in order if men do not work at cross-purposes with Him. Every talent entrusted to us He will help us to improve and use in accordance to the will of the Giver.
OFC	48	4	Youth is the time to establish good habits, to correct wrong ones already contracted, to gain and to hold the power of self-control, and to lay the plan, and accustom one's self to the practice of ordering all the acts of life with reference to the will of God.
OFC	48	5	The sacred temple of the body must be kept pure and uncontaminated, that God's Holy Spirit may dwell therein. We need to guard faithfully the Lord's property, for any abuse of our powers shortens the time that our lives could be used for the glory of God. Bear in mind that we must consecrate all--soul, body, and spirit--to God. All is His purchased possession, and must be used intelligently, to the end that we may preserve the talent of life. By properly using our powers to their fullest extent in the most useful employment, by keeping every organ in health, by so preserving every organ that mind, sinew, and muscle shall work harmoniously, we may do the most precious service for God.
OFC	48	6	When we do all we can on our part to have health, then may we expect that the blessed results will follow, and we can ask God in faith to bless our efforts for the preservation of health.
------------------------A Merry Heart Is Good Medicine, February 12
OFC	48	7	A merry [rejoicing] heart doeth good like a medicine. Proverbs 17:22.
OFC	48	8	The relation that exists between the mind and the body is very intimate. When one is affected the other sympathizes. The condition of the mind affects the health to a far greater degree than many realize. Many of the diseases from which men suffer are the result of mental depression. Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life forces and to invite decay and death.
OFC	49	1	Disease is sometimes produced, and is often greatly aggravated, by the imagination. Many are lifelong invalids who might be well if they only thought so....
OFC	49	2	Courage, hope, faith, sympathy, love, promote health and prolong life. A contented mind, a cheerful spirit, is health to the body and strength to the soul.
OFC	49	3	Gratitude, rejoicing, benevolence, trust in God's love and care--these are health's greatest safeguard.
OFC	49	4	The power of the will and the importance of self-control, both in the preservation and in the recovery of health, the depressing and even ruinous effect of anger, discontent, selfishness, or impurity, and, on the other hand, the marvelous life-giving power to be found in cheerfulness, unselfishness, gratitude, should also be shown.
OFC	49	5	There is a physiological truth--truth that we need to consider--in the scripture, "A merry [rejoicing] heart doeth good like a medicine."
OFC	49	6	The true principles of Christianity open before all a source of inestimable happiness.
OFC	49	7	We should encourage a cheerful, hopeful, peaceful frame of mind; for our health depends upon our so doing.
------------------------Thanksgiving And Praise, February 13
OFC	49	8	Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalm 100:4.
OFC	49	9	If we will consecrate heart and mind to the service of God, doing the work He has for us to do and walking in the footsteps of Jesus, our hearts will become sacred harps, every chord of which will send forth praise and thanksgiving to the Lamb sent by God to take away the sins of the world....
OFC	49	10	Christ would have our thoughts center upon Him.... Look away from self to Jesus Christ, the life of every blessing, every grace, the life of all that is precious and valuable to the children of God....
OFC	49	11	The Lord Jesus is our strength and happiness, the great storehouse from which, on every occasion, men may draw strength. As we study Him, talk of Him, become more and more able to behold Him--as we avail ourselves of His grace and receive the blessings He proffers us, we have something with which to help others. Filled with gratitude, we communicate to others the blessings that have been freely given us. Thus receiving and imparting, we grow in grace; and a rich current of praise and gratitude constantly flows from our lips; the sweet spirit of Jesus kindles thanksgiving in our hearts, and our souls are uplifted with a sense of security. The unfailing, inexhaustible righteousness of Christ becomes our righteousness by faith.
OFC	50	1	Let the fresh blessings of each new day awaken praise in our hearts for these tokens of His loving care.
OFC	50	2	When you open your eyes in the morning, thank God that He has kept you through the night. Thank Him for His peace in your heart. Morning, noon, and night let gratitude as a sweet perfume ascend to heaven....
OFC	50	3	The angels of God, thousands upon thousands, ... guard us against evil and press back the powers of darkness that are seeking our destruction. Have we not reason to be thankful every moment, thankful even when there are apparent difficulties in our pathway?
------------------------Love Heals Many Wounds, February 14
OFC	50	4	Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 1 John 4:7.
OFC	50	5	From the Christian standpoint, love is power. Intellectual and spiritual strength are involved in this principle. Pure love has special efficacy to do good, and can do nothing but good. It prevents discord and misery and brings the truest happiness. Wealth is often an influence to corrupt and destroy; force is strong to do hurt; but truth and goodness are the properties of pure love.
OFC	50	6	A man at peace with God and his fellow men cannot be made miserable. Envy will not be in his heart; evil surmising will find no room there; hatred cannot exist. The heart in harmony with God is lifted above the annoyances and trials of this life.
OFC	50	7	That which Satan plants in the heart--envy, jealousy, evil surmising, evil speaking, impatience, prejudice, selfishness, covetousness, and vanity--must be uprooted. If these evil things are allowed to remain in the soul, they will bear fruit by which many shall be defiled. Oh, how many cultivate the poisonous plants, that kill out the precious fruits of love and defile the soul!
OFC	50	8	Only the love that flows from the heart of Christ can heal. Only He in whom that love flows, even as the sap in the tree or the blood in the body, can restore the wounded soul.
OFC	50	9	Love's agencies have wonderful power, for they are divine. The soft answer that "turneth away wrath," the love that "suffereth long, and is kind," the charity that "covereth a multitude of sins"--would we learn the lesson, with what power for healing would our lives be gifted! How life would be transformed, and the earth become a very likeness and foretaste of heaven!
------------------------How Pleasant Are Words Fitly Spoken, February 15
OFC	51	1	A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Proverbs 25:11.
OFC	51	2	When at a feast, Christ controlled the conversation, and gave many precious lessons. Those present listened to Him; for had He not healed their sick, comforted their sorrowing, and taken their children in His arms? Publicans and sinners were drawn to Him; and when He spoke, their attention was riveted on Him.
OFC	51	3	Christ taught His disciples how to conduct themselves when in the company of others. He instructed them in regard to the duties and regulations of true social life, which are the same as the laws of the kingdom of God. He taught the disciples, by example, that when attending any public gathering, they need not want for something to say. His conversation when at a feast differed most decidedly from that which had been listened to at feasts in the past. Every word He uttered was a savor of life unto life. He spoke with clearness and simplicity. His words were as apples of gold in pictures of silver.
OFC	51	4	Communion with Christ--how unspeakably precious! Such communion it is our privilege to enjoy.... When the early disciples heard the words of Christ, they felt their need of Him. They sought, they found, they followed Him. They were with Him in the house, at the table, in the closet, in the field. They were with Him as pupils with a teacher, daily receiving from His lips lessons of holy truth. They looked to Him as servants to their master.... They served Him cheerfully, gladly.
OFC	51	5	Great importance is attached to our associations. We may form many that are pleasant and helpful, but none are so precious as that by which finite man is brought into connection with the infinite God. When thus united, the words of Christ abide in us.... The result will be a purified heart, a circumspect life, and a faultless character. But it is only by acquaintance and association with Christ that we can become like Him, the one faultless example.
------------------------Jesus And His Friends At Bethany, February 16
OFC	52	1	Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. John 11:5.
OFC	52	2	There was one home that He loved to visit--the home of Lazarus, and Mary, and Martha; for in the atmosphere of faith and love His spirit had rest.
OFC	52	3	Among the most steadfast of Christ's disciples was Lazarus of Bethany. From their first meeting his faith in Christ had been strong; his love for Him was deep, and he was greatly beloved by the Saviour. It was for Lazarus that the greatest of Christ's miracles was performed. The Saviour blessed all who sought His help; He loves all the human family; but to some He is bound by peculiarly tender associations. His heart was knit by a strong bond of affection to the family at Bethany, and for one of them His most wonderful work was wrought.
OFC	52	4	At the home of Lazarus, Jesus had often found rest. The Saviour had no home of His own; He was dependent on the hospitality of His friends and disciples; and often, when weary, thirsting for human fellowship, He had been glad to escape to this peaceful household, away from the suspicion and jealousy of the angry Pharisees. Here He found a sincere welcome, a pure, holy friendship. Here He could speak with simplicity and perfect freedom, knowing that His words would be understood and treasured.
OFC	52	5	Our Saviour appreciated a quiet home and interested listeners. He longed for human tenderness, courtesy, and affection. Those who received the heavenly instruction He was always ready to impart were greatly blessed.... The multitudes were slow of hearing, and in the home at Bethany Christ found rest from the weary conflict of public life. Here He opened to an appreciative audience the volume of Providence. In these private interviews He unfolded to His hearers that which He did not attempt to tell to the mixed multitude. He needed not to speak to His friends in parables.
------------------------Give Others The Water Of Life, February 17
OFC	52	6	Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14.
OFC	53	1	In His talk with the Samaritan woman, instead of disparaging Jacob's well, Christ presented something better.... He turned the conversation to the treasure He had to bestow, offering the woman something better than she possessed, even living water, the joy and hope of the gospel.
OFC	53	2	How much interest Christ manifested in this one woman! How earnest and eloquent were His words! When the woman heard them, she left her waterpot and went into the city, saying to those she met, "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" We read that many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him. And who can estimate the influence that these words have exerted for the saving of souls in the years that have passed since then!
OFC	53	3	Jesus came in personal contact with men. He did not stand aloof and apart from those who needed His help. He entered the homes of men, comforted the mourner, healed the sick, aroused the careless, and went about doing good. And if we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we must do as He did. We must give men the same kind of help that He did.
OFC	53	4	The Lord desires that His word of grace shall be brought home to every soul. To a great degree this must be accomplished by personal labor. This was Christ's method. His work was largely made up of personal interviews. He had a faithful regard for the one-soul audience. Through that one soul the message was often extended to thousands.... There are multitudes who will never be reached by the gospel unless it is carried to them.
------------------------Remember Especially Needy Church Members, February 18
OFC	53	5	As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:10.
OFC	53	6	In a special sense Christ has laid upon His church the duty of caring for the needy among its own members. He suffers His poor to be in the borders of every church. They are always to be among us, and He places upon the members of the church a personal responsibility to care for them. As the members of a true family care for one another, ministering to the sick, supporting the weak, teaching the ignorant, training the inexperienced, so is the "household of faith" to care for its needy and helpless ones.
OFC	53	7	It is the duty of each church to make careful, judicious arrangements for the care of its poor and sick.
OFC	53	8	Any neglect on the part of those who claim to be followers of Christ, a failure to relieve the necessities of a brother or a sister who is bearing the yoke of poverty and oppression, is registered in the books of heaven as shown to Christ in the person of His saints. What a reckoning the Lord will have with many, very many, who present the words of Christ to others but fail to manifest tender sympathy and regard for a brother in the faith who is less fortunate and successful than themselves.
OFC	54	1	A true Christian is the poor man's friend. He deals with his perplexed and unfortunate brother as one would deal with a delicate, tender, sensitive plant. God wants His workers to move among the sick and suffering as messengers of His love and mercy. He is looking upon us, to see how we are treating one another, whether we are Christlike in our dealing with all, high or low, rich or poor, free or bond.
OFC	54	2	There is no question in regard to the Lord's poor. They are to be helped in every case where it will be for their benefit.
------------------------What God Loves Most Is A Beautiful Character, February 19
OFC	54	3	Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Psalm 90:17.
OFC	54	4	God is a lover of the beautiful, but that which He most loves is a beautiful character....It is beauty of character that shall not perish, but last through the ceaseless ages of eternity.
OFC	54	5	The great Master-Artist has taken thought for the lilies, making them so beautiful that they outshine the glory of Solomon. How much more does He care for man, who is the image and glory of God. He longs to see His children reveal a character after His similitude. As the sunbeam imparts to the flowers their varied and delicate tints, so does God impart to the soul the beauty of His own character.
OFC	54	6	All who choose Christ's kingdom of love and righteousness and peace, making its interest paramount to all other, are linked to the world above, and every blessing needed for this life is theirs. In the book of God's providence, the volume of life, we are each given a page. That page contains every particular of our history; even the hairs of the head are numbered. God's children are never absent from His mind.
OFC	54	7	Worldly display, however imposing, is of no value in God's sight. Above the seen and temporal He values the unseen and eternal. The former is of worth only as it expresses the latter. The choicest productions of art possess no beauty that can compare with the beauty of character, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit's working in the soul...
OFC	54	8	Christ came to the earth and stood before the children of men with the hoarded love of eternity, and this is the treasure that, through our connection with Him, we are to receive, to reveal, and to impart....
OFC	55	1	We are to be distinguished from the world because God has placed His seal upon us, because He manifests in us His own character of love.
------------------------Partakers Through God's Promises, February 20
OFC	55	2	Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 1 Peter 1:4.
OFC	55	3	Every promise that is in God's book holds out to us the encouragement that we may be partakers of the divine nature. This is the possibility--to rely upon God, to believe His Word, to work His works, and this we can do when we lay hold of the divinity of Christ. This possibility is worth more to us than all the riches in the world. There is nothing on earth that can compare with it. As we lay hold of the power thus placed within our reach, we receive a hope so strong that we can rely wholly upon God's promise; and laying hold of the possibilities there are in Christ, we become the sons and daughters of God....
OFC	55	4	He who truly believes in Christ is made partaker of the divine nature, and has power that he can appropriate under every temptation. He will not fall under temptation or be left to defeat. In time of trial he will claim the promises, and by these escape the corruptions that are in the world through lust....
OFC	55	5	To make us partakers of the divine nature, heaven gave its most costly treasure. The Son of God laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown and came to our earth as a little child. He pledged Himself to live from infancy to manhood a perfect life. He engaged to stand in a fallen world as the representative of the Father. And He would die in behalf of a lost race. What a work was this! ... I hardly know how to present these points; they are so wonderful, wonderful....
OFC	55	6	By His life of sacrifice and death of shame He has made it possible for us to take hold of His divinity, and to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.... If you are partakers of the divine nature, you will day by day be obtaining a fitting for that life that measures with the life of God. Day by day you will purify your trust in Jesus and follow His example and grow into His likeness until you shall stand before Him perfected.
------------------------Reverence For The House Of God, February 21
OFC	56	1	Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:30.
OFC	56	2	God is high and holy; and to the humble, believing soul, His house on earth, the place where His people meet for worship, is as the gate of heaven. The song of praise, the words spoken by Christ's ministers, are God's appointed agencies to prepare a people for the church above, for that loftier worship.
OFC	56	3	When the worshipers enter the place of meeting, they should do so with decorum, passing quietly to their seats.... Common talking, whispering, and laughing should not be permitted in the house of worship, either before or after the service. Ardent, active piety should characterize the worshipers.
OFC	56	4	If some have to wait a few minutes before the meeting begins, let them maintain a true spirit of devotion by silent meditation, keeping the heart uplifted to God in prayer that the service may be of special benefit to their own hearts and lead to the conviction and conversion of other souls. They should remember that heavenly messengers are in the house. We all lose much sweet communion with God by our restlessness, by not encouraging moments of reflection and prayer....
OFC	56	5	Elevate the standard of Christianity in the minds of your children; help them to weave Jesus into their experience; teach them to have the highest reverence for the house of God and to understand that when they enter the Lord's house it should be with hearts that are softened and subdued by such thoughts as these: "God is here; this is His house. I must have pure thoughts and holiest motives.... This is the place where God meets with and blesses His people." ...
OFC	56	6	Parents should not only teach, but command, their children to enter the sanctuary with sobriety and reverence.
OFC	56	7	Practice reverence until it becomes a part of yourself.
------------------------God Cares For Me, February 22
OFC	56	8	Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10.
OFC	56	9	The Lord is in active communication with every part of His vast dominions. He is represented as bending toward the earth and its inhabitants. He is listening to every word that is uttered. He hears every groan; He listens to every prayer; He observes the movements of every one....
OFC	57	1	God has always had a care for His people.... Christ taught His disciples that the amount of divine attention given to any object is proportionate to the rank assigned to it in the creation of God. He called their attention to the birds of the air. Not a sparrow, He said, falls to the ground without the notice of our heavenly Father. And if the little sparrow is regarded by Him, surely the souls of those for whom Christ has died are precious in His sight. The value of man, the estimate God places upon him, is revealed in the cross of Calvary....
OFC	57	2	God's mercy and love for the fallen race have not ceased to accumulate, nor lost their earthward direction.
OFC	57	3	It is true that disappointments will come; tribulation we must expect; but we are to commit everything, great and small, to God. He does not become perplexed by the multiplicity of our grievances, nor overpowered by the weight of our burdens. His watchcare extends to every household, and encircles every individual; He is concerned in all our business and our sorrows. He marks every tear; He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. All the afflictions and trials that befall us here are permitted, to work out His purposes of love toward us--"that we might be partakers of His holiness," and thus become participants in that fullness of joy which is found in His presence.
------------------------Christ My Elder Brother, February 23
OFC	57	4	Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2:17.
OFC	57	5	The Elder Brother of our race is by the eternal throne. He looks upon every soul who is turning his face toward Him as the Saviour. He knows by experience what are the weaknesses of humanity, what are our wants, and where lies the strength of our temptations.... He is watching over you, trembling child of God. Are you tempted? He will deliver. Are you weak? He will strengthen. Are you ignorant? He will enlighten. Are you wounded? He will heal. The Lord "telleth the number of the stars"; and yet "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds."
OFC	57	6	Whatever your anxieties and trials, spread out your case before the Lord. Your spirit will be braced for endurance. The way will be open for you to disentangle yourself from embarrassment and difficulty. The weaker and more helpless you know yourself to be, the stronger will you become in His strength. The heavier your burdens, the more blessed the rest in casting them upon your Burden Bearer.
OFC	58	1	Circumstances may separate friends; the restless waters of the wide sea may roll between us and them. But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the Saviour. Wherever we may be, He is at our right hand, to support, maintain, uphold, and cheer. Greater than the love of a mother for her child is Christ's love for His redeemed. It is our privilege to rest in His love; to say, "I will trust Him; for He gave His life for me."
OFC	58	2	Human love may change, but Christ's love knows no change. When we cry to Him for help, His hand is stretched out to save.
OFC	58	3	He desires us to realize that He has returned to heaven as our Elder Brother and that the measureless power given Him has been placed at our disposal.
------------------------Angels Are Preparing Me For Eternity, February 24
OFC	58	4	Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Exodus 23:20.
OFC	58	5	All heaven is engaged in the work of preparing a people to stand in the day of the Lord's preparation. The connection of heaven with earth seems very close....
OFC	58	6	The heavenly intelligences are waiting with almost impatient earnestness to make Him known to the human agents, that they may be laborers together with these heavenly angels in presenting Jesus--the world's Redeemer, full of grace and truth....
OFC	58	7	The first tear of penitence for sins creates joy among the heavenly angels in the courts of heaven. The heavenly messengers are ready to be on the wing to minister to the soul who is seeking Jesus....
OFC	58	8	Grand and glorious things hath God prepared for those who love Him. Angels are looking forward with earnest expectation to the final triumph of the people of God, when seraphim and cherubim and the "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" shall swell the anthems of the blessed and celebrate the triumphs of the mediatorial achievements in the recovery of man.
OFC	58	9	Jesus counted the cost of the salvation of every son and daughter of Adam. He provided abundant means that, if they would but comply with the conditions, none need perish, but might have everlasting life.... Every heavenly intelligence works as His agent to win man to God.
OFC	59	1	The angels of glory find their joy in ... giving love and tireless watchcare to souls that are fallen and unholy. Heavenly beings woo the hearts of men; they bring to this dark world light from the courts above; by gentle and patient ministry they move upon the human spirit, to bring the lost into a fellowship with Christ which is even closer than they themselves can know.
------------------------In Christ There Is Strength, February 25
OFC	59	2	Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. Isaiah 27:5.
OFC	59	3	The enemy cannot overcome the humble learner of Christ, the one who walks prayerfully before the Lord. Christ interposes Himself as a shelter, a retreat, from the assaults of the wicked one. The promise is given, "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." ...
OFC	59	4	Satan was permitted to tempt the too-confident Peter, as he had been permitted to tempt Job; but when that work was done he had to retire. Had Satan been suffered to have his way, there would have been no hope for Peter. He would have made complete shipwreck of faith. But the enemy dare not go one hairbreadth beyond his appointed sphere. There is no power in the whole satanic force that can disable the soul that trusts, in simple confidence, in the wisdom that comes from God.
OFC	59	5	Christ is our tower of strength, and Satan can have no power over the soul that walks with God in humility of mind. The promise, "Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me." In Christ there is perfect and complete help for every tempted soul. Dangers beset every path, but the whole universe of heaven is standing on guard, that none may be tempted above that which he is able to bear. Some have strong traits of character, that will need to be constantly repressed. If kept under the control of the Spirit of God, these traits will be a blessing; but if not, they will prove a curse.... If we will give ourselves unselfishly to the work, never swerving in the least from principle, the Lord will throw about us the everlasting arms, and will prove a mighty helper. If we will look to Jesus as the One in whom we may trust, He will never fail us in any emergency.
------------------------The Will Is The Deciding Power, February 26
OFC	60	1	Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2.
OFC	60	2	There is nothing that can keep you away from God but a rebellious will.
OFC	60	3	The will is the governing power in the nature of man. If the will is set right, all the rest of the being will come under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the choice, the deciding power, the kingly power, which works in the children of men unto obedience to God or to disobedience.
OFC	60	4	You will be in constant peril until you understand the true force of the will. You may believe and promise all things, but your promises and your faith are of no account until you put your will on the right side. If you will fight the fight of faith with your will power, there is no doubt that you will conquer.
OFC	60	5	Your part is to put your will on the side of Christ. When you yield your will to His, He immediately takes possession of you, and works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Your nature is brought under the control of His Spirit. Even your thoughts are subject to Him. If you cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire, you can control the will, and thus an entire change will be wrought in your life. When you yield up your will to Christ, your life is hid with Christ in God. It is allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You have a strength from God that holds you fast to His strength; and a new life, even the life of faith, is possible to you.
OFC	60	6	You can never be successful in elevating yourself, unless your will is on the side of Christ, cooperating with the Spirit of God. Do not feel that you cannot; but say, "I can, I will." And God has pledged His Holy Spirit to help you in every decided effort.
------------------------Make Your Calling And Election Sure, February 27
OFC	60	7	Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:10, 11.
OFC	61	1	Here a life insurance policy is offered us which insures for us eternal life in the kingdom of God. I ask you to study these words of the apostle Peter. There is understanding and intelligence in every sentence. By taking hold upon the Lifegiver, who gave His life for us, we receive eternal life.
OFC	61	2	We are each deciding our eternal destiny, and it rests wholly with us whether we shall gain eternal life. Will we live the lessons given in the Word of God, Christ's great lesson book? It is the grandest, and yet the most simply arranged and easily understood book ever prepared for giving an education in proper behaviour, in speech, in manners, in affection. It is the only book that will prepare human beings for the life that measures with the life of God. And those who make this Word their daily study are the only ones who are worthy of receiving a diploma entitling them to educate and train the children for entrance into the higher school, to be crowned as victorious overcomers.
OFC	61	3	Christ Jesus is the only judge of the fitness of human agents to receive eternal life. The gates of the holy city will open to those who have been humble, meek, lowly followers of His, having learned their lessons from Him, and received from Him their life insurance policy, forming characters after the divine similitude.
OFC	61	4	When the ransomed are redeemed from the earth, the city of God will be opened to you.... Then the harp will be placed in your hand, and your voice will be raised in songs of praise to God and to the Lamb, by whose great sacrifice you are made partakers of His nature and given an immortal inheritance in the kingdom of God.
------------------------Christ Presents Me With A Crown And Harp, February 28
OFC	61	5	Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8.
OFC	61	6	Before entering the city of God the Saviour bestows upon His followers the emblems of victory and invests them with the insignia of their royal state. The glittering ranks are drawn up in the form of a hollow square about their King, whose form rises in majesty high above saint and angel, whose countenance beams upon them full of benignant love. Throughout the unnumbered host of the redeemed every glance is fixed upon Him, every eye beholds His glory whose "visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men." Upon the heads of the overcomers Jesus with His own right hand places the crown of glory. For each there is a crown, bearing his own "new name," and the inscription, "Holiness to the Lord." In every hand are placed the victor's palm and the shining harp. Then, as the commanding angels strike the note, every hand sweeps the harp strings with skillful touch, awaking sweet music in rich, melodious strains. Rapture unutterable thrills every heart, and each voice is raised in grateful praise: "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever."
OFC	62	1	Oh, what joy unspeakable, to see Him whom we loved--to see Him in His glory who so loved us that He gave Himself for us--to behold those hands once pierced for our redemption stretched out to us in blessing and welcome!
OFC	62	2	Those who ... place themselves in God's hands ... will see the King in His beauty. They will behold His matchless charms, and touching their golden harps, they will fill all heaven with rich music and with songs to the Lamb
------------------------Privilege Of Open Communion With God, February 29
OFC	62	3	I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Revelation 21:22.
OFC	62	4	The people of God are privileged to hold open communion with the Father and the Son. "Now we see through a glass, darkly." We behold the image of God reflected, as in a mirror, in the works of nature and in His dealings with men; but then we shall see Him face to face, without a dimming veil between. We shall stand in His presence and behold the glory of His countenance.
OFC	62	5	We may address Him by the endearing name, "Our Father," which is a sign of our affection for Him and a pledge of His tender regard and relationship to us. And the Son of God, beholding the heirs of grace, "is not ashamed to call them brethren." They have even a more sacred relationship to God than have the angels who have never fallen.
OFC	62	6	All the paternal love which has come down from generation to generation through the channel of human hearts, all the springs of tenderness which have opened in the souls of men, are but as a tiny rill to the boundless ocean when compared with the infinite, exhaustless love of God.
OFC	62	7	Heaven is a ceaseless approaching to God through Christ. The longer we are in the heaven of bliss, the more and still more of glory will be opened to us; and the more we know of God, the more intense will be our happiness.
OFC	63	1	And what is the happiness of heaven but to see God? What greater joy could come to the sinner saved by the grace of Christ than to look upon the face of God and know Him as Father?
OFC	63	2	How much comfort it gives to behold Him here by the eye of faith, that we may by beholding be made like Him, but what will it be to behold Him as He is, without one dimming veil between?
------------------------A Table Set Before Me, March 1
OFC	63	3	Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. John 6:54, 55.
OFC	63	4	Eternal life is the receiving of the living elements in the Scriptures, the doing of the will of God. This is what is meant by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. It is the privilege of all to partake of the bread of heaven by studying the Word, and thus gain spiritual sinew and muscle.
OFC	63	5	Each one must appropriate the blessing to his own soul, or he will not be fed.... You know you would not be nourished by seeing a well-spread table, and by others eating. We would starve if we did not partake of physical nourishment, and we shall lose our spiritual strength and vitality if we do not feed on spiritual bread....
OFC	63	6	The table has been spread, and Christ invites you to the feast. Shall we stand back, refusing bounties, and declaring, "He does not mean this for me?" We used to sing a hymn that described a feast where a happy household gathered to partake of the bounties of the board at a kind father's invitation. While the happy children gathered at the table, there stood a hungry beggar child at the threshold. She was invited to come in; but sadly she turned away, exclaiming, "I have no father there." Will you take this position as Jesus invites you in? Oh! if you have a Father in the courts above, I entreat you to reveal the fact. He wants to make you a partaker of His rich bounties and blessings. All who come with the confiding love of a little child will find a Father there.
OFC	63	7	Come to the water of life, and drink. Do not stay away and complain of thirst. The water of life is free to all.
OFC	63	8	Those who eat and digest this Word, making it a part of every action and of every attribute of character, grow strong in the strength of God. It gives immortal vigor to the soul, perfecting the experience, and bringing joys that will abide forever.
------------------------Preparing For The Holy Day, March 2
OFC	64	1	Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8.
OFC	64	2	At the very beginning of the fourth commandment the Lord said, "Remember." He knew that amid the multitude of cares and perplexities man would be tempted to excuse himself from meeting the full requirement of the law, or would forget its sacred importance. Therefore He said: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."
OFC	64	3	All through the week we are to have the Sabbath in mind and be making preparation to keep it according to the commandment....
OFC	64	4	When the Sabbath is thus remembered, the temporal will not be allowed to encroach upon the spiritual. No duty pertaining to the six working days will be left for the Sabbath. During the week our energies will not be so exhausted in temporal labor that on the day when the Lord rested and was refreshed we shall be too weary to engage in His service....
OFC	64	5	On Friday let the preparation for the Sabbath be completed. See that all the clothing is in readiness and that all the cooking is done.... The Sabbath is not to be given to the repairing of garments, to the cooking of food, to pleasure seeking, or to any other worldly employment. Before the setting of the sun let all secular work be laid aside and all secular papers be put out of sight. Parents, explain your work and its purpose to your children, and let them share in your preparation to keep the Sabbath according to the commandment.
OFC	64	6	There is another work that should receive attention on the preparation day. On this day all differences between brethren, whether in the family or in the church, should be put away. Let all bitterness and wrath and malice be expelled from the soul. In a humble spirit, "confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another."
OFC	64	7	Before the setting of the sun let the members of the family assemble to read God's Word, to sing and pray.
OFC	64	8	We should jealously guard the edges of the Sabbath. Remember that every moment is consecrated, holy time.
------------------------God's Gift To The Human Race, March 3
OFC	65	1	For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
OFC	65	2	The heart of God yearns over His earthly children with a love stronger than death. In giving up His Son, He has poured out to us all heaven in one gift.
OFC	65	3	Through that gift there comes to us day by day the unfailing flow of Jehovah's goodness. Every flower, with its delicate tints and sweet fragrance, is given for our enjoyment through that one Gift. The sun and moon were made by Him; there is not a star that beautifies the heavens which He did not make. There is not an article of food upon our tables that He has not provided for our sustenance. The superscription of Christ is upon it all. Everything is supplied to man through the one unspeakable Gift, the only-begotten Son of God. He was nailed to the cross that all these bounties might flow to God's workmanship.
OFC	65	4	In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature. This is the pledge that God will fulfill His word. "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder." Isaiah 9:6. God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven.... Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love.
OFC	65	5	Christ bowed down in unparalleled humility, that in His exaltation to the throne of God, He might also exalt those who believe in Him, to a seat with Him upon His throne.
------------------------The Creator Incarnate, March 4
OFC	65	6	And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. 1 Timothy 3:16.
OFC	66	1	The incarnation of Christ is the mystery of all mysteries.
OFC	66	2	Christ was one with the Father, yet ... He was willing to step down from the exaltation of one who was equal with God.
OFC	66	3	That He might accomplish His purpose of love for the fallen race, He became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.
OFC	66	4	How wide is the contrast between the divinity of Christ and the helpless infant in Bethlehem's manger! How can we span the distance between the mighty God and a helpless child? And yet the Creator of worlds, He in whom was the fullness of the Godhead bodily, was manifest in the helpless babe in the manger. Far higher than any of the angels, equal with the Father in dignity and glory, and yet wearing the garb of humanity! Divinity and humanity were mysteriously combined, and man and God became one.
OFC	66	5	It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life.
OFC	66	6	Those who claim that it was not possible for Christ to sin, cannot believe that He really took upon Himself human nature. But was not Christ actually tempted, not only by Satan in the wilderness, but all through His life, from childhood to manhood?
OFC	66	7	Our Saviour took humanity, with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding to temptation. We have nothing to bear which He has not endured.
------------------------The Saving Providences Of God, March 5
OFC	66	8	And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28.
OFC	66	9	The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. He does not cast worthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines.
OFC	67	1	God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as co-workers with Him.
OFC	67	2	All that has perplexed us in the providences of God will in the world to come be made plain. The things hard to be understood will then find explanation. The mysteries of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken promises, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall know that infinite love ordered the experiences that seemed most trying.
OFC	67	3	He who is imbued with the Spirit of Christ abides in Christ. The blow that is aimed at him falls upon the Saviour, who surrounds him with His presence. Whatever comes to him comes from Christ. He has no need to resist evil, for Christ is his defense. Nothing can touch him except by our Lord's permission, and "all things" that are permitted "work together for good to them that love God."
OFC	67	4	Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing. Those who accept the one principle of making the service of God supreme, will find perplexities vanish and a plain path before their feet.
OFC	67	5	As a little child, trust to the guidance of Him who will "keep the feet of his saints." 1 Samuel 2:9.
OFC	67	6	As we commit our ways to Him, He will direct our steps.
------------------------A Saviour From Eternity, March 6
OFC	67	7	Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Ephesians 1:3, 4.
OFC	67	8	Since the Fall the Lord has wrought out His will in the plan of redemption, a plan by which He is seeking to restore man to his original perfection. Christ's death on the cross has made it possible for God to receive and pardon every repentant soul.
OFC	67	9	As the divine Sufferer hung upon the cross, angels gathered about Him, and as they looked upon Him, and heard His cry, they asked, with intense emotion, "Will not the Lord Jehovah save Him?" ... Then were the words spoken: "The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent. Father and Son are pledged to fulfill the terms of the everlasting covenant. God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Christ was not alone in making His great sacrifice. It was the fulfillment of the covenant made between Him and His Father before the foundation of the world was laid. With clasped hands they had entered into the solemn pledge that Christ would become the surety for the human race if they were overcome by Satan's sophistry.
OFC	68	1	The salvation of the human race has ever been the object of the councils of heaven. The covenant of mercy was made before the foundation of the world. It has existed from all eternity, and is called the everlasting covenant. So surely as there never was a time when God was not, so surely there never was a moment when it was not the delight of the eternal mind to manifest His grace to humanity.
OFC	68	2	The more we consider this subject, the greater depths we find, and yet there are depths that we do not reach as we study the Redeemer's glory. It is the glory of the Prince of life, and the mightiest powers of man cannot reach it. The angels themselves desire to look into this mysterious and wonderful theme, the redemption of the human race.
------------------------Does Faith Cancel Obedience? March 7
OFC	68	3	Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. Romans 3:31.
OFC	68	4	Faith is not an opiate, but a stimulant. Looking to Calvary will not quiet your soul into nonperformance of duty, but will create faith that will work, purifying the soul from all selfishness.
OFC	68	5	The faith in Christ which saves the soul is not what it is represented to be by many. "Believe, believe," is their cry; "only believe in Christ, and you will be saved. It is all you have to do." While true faith trusts wholly in Christ for salvation, it will lead to perfect conformity to the law of God.
OFC	68	6	There are two errors against which the children of God--particularly those who have just come to trust in His grace--especially need to guard. The first ... is that of looking to their own works, trusting to anything they can do, to bring themselves into harmony with God. He who is trying to become holy by his own works in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility.... It is the grace of Christ alone, through faith, that can make us holy.
OFC	68	7	The opposite and no less dangerous error is that belief in Christ releases men from keeping the law of God; that since by faith alone we become partakers of the grace of Christ, our works have nothing to do with our redemption.
OFC	69	1	But notice here that obedience is not a mere outward compliance, but the service of love. The law of God is an expression of His very nature; it is an embodiment of the great principle of love, and hence is the foundation of His government in heaven and earth.... Instead of releasing man from obedience, it is faith, and faith only, that makes us partakers of the grace of Christ, which enables us to render obedience.
OFC	69	2	As Jesus was in human nature, so God means His followers to be. In His strength we are to live the life of purity and nobility which the Saviour lived.
------------------------The Saving Power Of Jesus, March 8
OFC	69	3	And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.
OFC	69	4	Our precious Saviour has invited us to join ourselves to Him and unite our weakness with His strength, our ignorance with His wisdom, our unworthiness with His merit.
OFC	69	5	Rigid precision in obeying the law would entitle no man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
OFC	69	6	There must be a new birth, a new mind through the operation of the Spirit of God, which purifies the life and ennobles the character. This connection with God fits man for the glorious kingdom of heaven. No human invention can ever find a remedy for the sinning soul.
OFC	69	7	There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness.... The idea that it is necessary only to develop the good that exists in man by nature, is a fatal deception. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14.... Of Christ it is written, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men"--the only "name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." John 1:4; Acts 4:12....
OFC	69	8	Paul the apostle ... longed for the purity, the righteousness, to which in himself he was powerless to attain, and he cried out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?" Romans 7:24, margin. Such is the cry that has gone up from burdened hearts in all lands and in all ages. To all, there is but one answer, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29.
------------------------Peace Through The Cross, March 9
OFC	70	1	There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1.
OFC	70	2	If sinners can be led to give one earnest look at the cross, if they can obtain a full view of the crucified Saviour, they will realize the depth of God's compassion and the sinfulness of sin.
OFC	70	3	As your conscience has been quickened by the Holy Spirit, you have seen something of the evil of sin, of its power, its guilt, its woe; and you look upon it with abhorrence.... You long to be forgiven, to be cleansed, to be set free. Harmony with God, likeness to Him--what can you do to obtain it?
OFC	70	4	It is peace that you need--Heaven's forgiveness and peace and love in the soul. Money cannot buy it, intellect cannot procure it, wisdom cannot attain to it; you can never hope, by your own efforts, to secure it. But God offers it to you as a gift, "without money and without price." Isaiah 55:1....
OFC	70	5	Go to Him, and ask that He will wash away your sins, and give you a new heart. Then believe that He does this because He has promised .... It is our privilege to go to Jesus and be cleansed, and to stand before the law without shame or remorse.
OFC	70	6	When at the foot of the cross the sinner looks up to the One who died to save him, he may rejoice with fullness of joy; for his sins are pardoned. Kneeling in faith at the cross, he has reached the highest place to which man can attain.
OFC	70	7	Thank God for the gift of His dear Son, and pray that He may not have died for you in vain. The spirit invites you today. Come with your whole heart to Jesus, and you may claim His blessing.
OFC	70	8	As you read the promises, remember they are the expression of unutterable love and pity.... Yes, only believe that God is your helper. He wants to restore His moral image in man. As you draw near to Him with confession and repentance, He will draw near to you with mercy and forgiveness.
------------------------Filled With His Righteousness, March 10
OFC	71	1	Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6.
OFC	71	2	Righteousness is holiness, likeness to God, and "God is love." 1 John 4:16. It is conformity to the law of God, for "all thy commandments are righteousness" (Psalm 119:172), and "love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:10). Righteousness is love, and love is the light and the life of God. The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him.
OFC	71	3	Not by painful struggles or wearisome toil, not by gift or sacrifice, is righteousness obtained; but it is freely given to every soul who hungers and thirsts to receive it. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat;... without money and without price." Isaiah 55:1. "Their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord," and, "This is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our righteousness." Isaiah 54:17; Jeremiah 23:6.
OFC	71	4	No human agent can supply that which will satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul. But Jesus says, . . "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." John 6:35....
OFC	71	5	The more we know of God, the higher will be our ideal of character and the more earnest our longing to reflect His likeness. A divine element combines with the human when the soul reaches out after God and the longing heart can say, "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him." Psalm 62:5....
OFC	71	6	The continual cry of the heart is, "More of Thee," and ever the Spirit's answer is, "Much more." Romans 5:9, 10.... It was the good pleasure of the Father that in Christ should "all the fulness dwell," and "in him ye are made full." Colossians 1:19, R.V.; 2:10, R.V.
OFC	71	7	Christ is the great depository of justifying righteousness and sanctifying grace.
OFC	71	8	All may come to Him, and receive of His fullness.
------------------------The Just Shall Live By Faith, March 11
OFC	72	1	As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Colossians 2:6.
OFC	72	2	Our growth in grace, our joy, our usefulness--all depend upon our union with Christ. It is by communion with Him, daily, hourly--by abiding in Him--that we are to grow in grace. He is not only the author, but the finisher of our faith. It is Christ first and last and always. He is to be with us, not only at the beginning and the end of our course, but at every step of the way....
OFC	72	3	Do you ask, "How am I to abide in Christ?" In the same way as you received Him at first. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." Colossians 2:6. "The just shall live by faith." Hebrews 10:38. You gave yourself to God, to be His wholly, to serve and obey Him, and you took Christ as your Saviour. You could not yourself atone for your sins or change your heart; but having given yourself to God, you believe that He for Christ's sake did all this for you. By faith you became Christ's, and by faith you are to grow up in Him--by giving and taking. You are to give all--your heart, your will, your service--give yourself to Him to obey all His requirements; and you must take all--Christ, the fullness of all blessing, to abide in your heart, to be your strength, your righteousness, your everlasting helper--to give you power to obey.
OFC	72	4	Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be, "Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee." This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ.
------------------------Sincere Confession Essential, March 12
OFC	72	5	If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9.
OFC	72	6	The apostle says, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." James 5:16. Confess your sins to God, who only can forgive them, and your faults to one another. If you have given offense to your friend or neighbor, you are to acknowledge your wrong, and it is his duty freely to forgive you. Then you are to seek the forgiveness of God, because the brother you have wounded is the property of God, and in injuring him you have sinned against his Creator.... True confession is always of a specific character, and acknowledges particular sins. They may be of such a nature as to be brought before God only; they may be wrongs that should be confessed to individuals who have suffered injury through them; or they may be of a public character, and should then be as publicly confessed. But all confession should be definite and to the point, acknowledging the very sins of which you are guilty.
OFC	73	1	Many, many confessions should never be spoken in the hearing of mortals; for the result is that which the limited judgment of finite beings does not anticipate.... God will be better glorified if we confess the secret, inbred corruption of the heart to Jesus alone than if we open its recesses to finite, erring man, who cannot judge righteously unless his heart is constantly imbued with the Spirit of God.... Do not pour into human ears the story which God alone should hear.
OFC	73	2	The confession that is the outpouring of the inmost soul finds its way to the God of infinite pity.
OFC	73	3	Your sins may be as mountains before you; but if you humble your heart, and confess your sins, trusting in the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour, He will forgive, and will cleanse you from all unrighteousness.... Desire the fullness of the grace of Christ. Let your heart be filled with an intense longing for His righteousness.
------------------------A Change Of Heart Needed, March 13
OFC	73	4	Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.
OFC	73	5	Nicodemus held a high position of trust in the Jewish nation.... With others, he had been stirred by the teaching of Jesus....The lessons that had fallen from the Saviour's lips had greatly impressed him, and he desired to learn more of these wonderful truths...
OFC	73	6	Nicodemus had come to the Lord thinking to enter into a discussion with Him, but Jesus laid bare the foundation principles of truth. He said to Nicodemus, It is not theoretical knowledge you need so much as spiritual regeneration. You need not to have your curiosity satisfied, but to have a new heart. You must receive a new life from above before you can appreciate heavenly things.
OFC	74	1	The change of heart represented by the new birth can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit.... Pride and self-love resist the Spirit of God; every natural inclination of the soul opposes the change from self-importance and pride to the meekness and lowliness of Christ. But if we would travel in the pathway to eternal life, we must not listen to the whispering of self. In humility and contrition we must beseech our heavenly Father, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10. As we receive divine light, and cooperate with the heavenly intelligences, we are "born again," freed from the defilement of sin by the power of Christ.
OFC	74	2	The mighty power of the Holy Spirit works an entire transformation in the character of the human agent, making him a new creature in Christ Jesus.... The words and actions express the love of the Saviour. There is no striving for the highest place. Self is renounced. The name of Jesus is written on all that is said and done.
OFC	74	3	Is not this, the renewal of man, the greatest miracle that can be performed? What cannot the human agent do who by faith takes hold of the divine power?
------------------------Holiness Of Life, March 14
OFC	74	4	Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14.
OFC	74	5	No one who claims holiness is really holy. Those who are registered as holy in the books of heaven are not aware of the fact, and are the last ones to boast of their own goodness.
OFC	74	6	It is not a conclusive evidence that a man is a Christian because he manifests spiritual ecstasy under extraordinary circumstances. Holiness is not rapture: it is an entire surrender of the will to God; it is living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God; it is doing the will of our heavenly Father; it is trusting God in trial, in darkness as well as in the light; it is walking by faith and not by sight; it is relying on God with unquestioning confidence, and resting in His love.
OFC	74	7	No one can be omnipotent, but all can cleanse themselves from filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. God requires every soul to be pure and holy. We have hereditary tendencies to wrong. This is a part of self that no one need carry about. It is a weakness of humanity to pet selfishness, because it is a natural trait of character. But unless all selfishness is put away, unless self is crucified, we can never be holy as God is holy. There is in humanity a tendency to suspicious imagining, which circumstances quicken into lively growth. If this trait is indulged, it spoils the character and ruins the soul.
OFC	75	1	God requires moral perfection in all. Those who have been given light and opportunities should, as God's stewards, aim for perfection, and never, never lower the standard of righteousness to accommodate inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong. Christ took upon Him our human nature, and lived our life, to show us that we may be like Him.... We ought to be holy even as God is holy; and when we comprehend the full significance of this statement, and set our heart to do the work of God, to be holy as He is holy, we shall approach the standard set for each individual in Christ Jesus.
------------------------The Arrow Of Death, March 15
OFC	75	2	O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! Deuteronomy 32:29.
OFC	75	3	The Lord "doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." Lamentations 3:33. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." Psalm 103:13, 14. He knows our heart, for He reads every secret of the soul.... He knows the end from the beginning. Many will be laid away to sleep before the fiery ordeal of the time of trouble shall come upon our world....
OFC	75	4	If Jesus, the world's Redeemer, prayed, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," and added, "nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39), how very appropriate it is for finite mortals to make the same surrender to the wisdom and will of God.
OFC	75	5	We have but a brief lifetime here, and we know not how soon the arrow of death may strike our hearts. We know not how soon we may be called to give up the world and all its interests. Eternity stretches before us. The curtain is about to be lifted. But a few short years, and for everyone now numbered with the living the mandate will go forth: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: ... and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Revelation 22:11.
OFC	75	6	Are we prepared? Have we become acquainted with God, the Governor of heaven, the Lawgiver, and with Jesus Christ whom He sent into the world as His representative? When our lifework is ended, shall we be able to say, as did Christ our example:
OFC	75	7	"I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.... I have manifested thy name"? John 17:4-6.
OFC	76	1	The angels of God are seeking to attract us from ourselves and from earthly things. Let them not labor in vain.
------------------------Sorrow With Hope, March 16
OFC	76	2	But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13.
OFC	76	3	To the afflicted ones I would say, be of good comfort in the hope of the resurrection morning. The waters of which you have been drinking are as bitter to your taste as were the waters of Marah to the children of Israel in the wilderness, but Jesus can make them so sweet with His love....
OFC	76	4	God has provided a balm for every wound. There is a balm in Gilead, there is a Physician there. Will you not now as never before study the Scriptures? Seek the Lord for wisdom in every emergency. In every trial plead with Jesus to show you a way out of your troubles, then your eyes will be opened to behold the remedy and to apply to your case the healing promises that have been recorded in His Word. In this way the enemy will find no place to lead you into mourning and unbelief, but instead you will have faith and hope and courage in the Lord. The Holy Spirit will give you clear discernment that you may see and appropriate every blessing that will act as an antidote to grief, as a branch of healing to every draught of bitterness that is placed to your lips. Every draught of bitterness will be mingled with the love of Jesus, and in place of complaining of the bitterness, you will realize that Jesus' love and grace are so mingled with sorrow that it has been turned into subdued, holy, sanctified joy.
OFC	76	5	When Henry White, our eldest son, lay dying, he said, "A bed of pain is a precious place when we have the presence of Jesus." When we are obliged to drink of the bitter waters, turn away from the bitter to the precious and the bright. In trial grace can give the human soul assurance, and when we stand at the deathbed and see how the Christian can bear suffering and go through the valley of death, we gather strength ... and we fail not, neither are we discouraged in leading souls to Jesus.
------------------------Uttermost Salvation For God's Children, March 17
OFC	77	1	But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:24, 25.
OFC	77	2	Every provision has been made for our infirmities, every encouragement offered us to come to Christ.
OFC	77	3	Christ offered up His broken body to purchase back God's heritage, to give man another trial.... By His spotless life, His obedience, His death on the cross of Calvary, Christ interceded for the lost race. And now, not as a mere petitioner does the Captain of our salvation intercede for us, but as a Conqueror claiming His victory. His offering is complete, and as our Intercessor He executes His self-appointed work, holding before God the censer containing His own spotless merits and the prayers, confessions, and thanksgiving of His people. Perfumed with the fragrance of His righteousness, these ascend to God as a sweet savor. The offering is wholly acceptable, and pardon covers all transgression.
OFC	77	4	Christ has pledged Himself to be our substitute and surety, and He neglects no one. He who could not see human beings exposed to eternal ruin without pouring out His soul unto death in their behalf, will look with pity and compassion upon every soul who realizes that he cannot save himself.
OFC	77	5	He will look upon no trembling suppliant without raising him up. He who through His own atonement provided for man an infinite fund of moral power, will not fail to employ this power in our behalf. We may take our sins and sorrows to His feet; for He loves us. His every look and word invites our confidence. He will shape and mold our characters according to His own will.
OFC	77	6	In the whole satanic force there is not power to overcome one soul who in simple trust casts himself on Christ. "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." Isaiah 40:29.
------------------------The Blotting Out Of Sins, March 18
OFC	77	7	He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Revelation 3:5.
OFC	78	1	As the books of record are opened in the judgment, the lives of all who have believed on Jesus come in review before God. Beginning with those who first lived upon the earth, our Advocate presents the cases of each successive generation, and closes with the living. Every name is mentioned, every case closely investigated. Names are accepted, names rejected. When any have sins remaining upon the books of record, unrepented of and unforgiven, their names will be blotted out of the book of life, and the record of their good deeds will be erased from the book of God's remembrance....
OFC	78	2	All who have truly repented of sin, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice, have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven; as they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves will be accounted worthy of eternal life....
OFC	78	3	The divine Intercessor presents the plea that all who have overcome through faith in His blood be forgiven their transgressions, that they be restored to their Eden home, and crowned as joint heirs with Himself to the "first dominion." ...
OFC	78	4	While Jesus is pleading for the subjects of His grace, Satan accuses them before God as transgressors....
OFC	78	5	Jesus does not excuse their sins, but shows their penitence and faith, and, claiming for them forgiveness, He lifts His wounded hands before the Father and the holy angels, saying, "I know them by name." ... Their names stand enrolled in the book of life, and concerning them it is written, "They shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy." Revelation 3:4.
OFC	78	6	Christians may daily cultivate faith by contemplating the One who has undertaken their cause, their "merciful and faithful high priest."
------------------------Schemes Of Satan, March 19
OFC	78	7	Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8.
OFC	78	8	It is unsafe to trust to feelings or impressions; these are unreliable guides. God's law is the only correct standard of holiness. It is by this law that character is to be judged. If an inquirer after salvation were to ask, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" the modern teachers of sanctification would answer, "Only believe that Jesus saves you." But when Christ was asked this question He said, "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" And when the questioner replied, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, ... and thy neighbour as thyself," Jesus said, "Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live." Luke 10:26-28.
OFC	79	1	No value is attached to a mere profession of faith in Christ; only the love which is shown by works is counted genuine. Yet it is love alone which in the sight of Heaven makes any act of value....
OFC	79	2	The hidden selfishness of men stands revealed in the books of heaven.... Sad is the record which angels bear to heaven. Intelligent beings, professed followers of Christ, are absorbed in the acquirement of worldly possessions or the enjoyment of earthly pleasures. Money, time, and strength are sacrificed for display and self-indulgence; but few are the moments devoted to prayer, to the searching of the Scriptures, to humiliation of soul and confession of sin.
OFC	79	3	Satan invents unnumbered schemes to occupy our minds, that they may not dwell upon the very work with which we ought to be best acquainted. The archdeceiver hates the great truths that bring to view an atoning sacrifice and an all-powerful Mediator. He knows that with him everything depends on his diverting minds from Jesus and His truth.
OFC	79	4	Those who would share the benefits of the Saviour's mediation should permit nothing to interfere with their duty to perfect holiness in the fear of God.
------------------------Deposits In The Bank Of Heaven, March 20
OFC	79	5	Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27.
OFC	79	6	The tender sympathies of our Saviour were aroused for fallen and suffering humanity. If you would be His followers, you must cultivate compassion and sympathy.... The widow, the orphan, the sick, and the dying will always need help. Here is an opportunity to proclaim the gospel--to hold up Jesus, the hope and consolation of all men. When the suffering body has been relieved, ... the heart is opened, and you can pour in the heavenly balm.
OFC	79	7	A company of believers may be poor, uneducated, and unknown; yet in Christ they may do a work in the home, the neighborhood, the church, and even in "the regions beyond," whose results will be as far-reaching as eternity. It is because this work is neglected that so many young disciples never advance beyond the mere alphabet of Christian experience. The light which was glowing in their own hearts when Jesus spoke to them, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," they might have kept alive by helping those in need. The restless energy that is so often a source of danger to the young might be directed into channels through which it would flow out in streams of blessing.
OFC	80	1	The hours so often spent in amusement that refreshes neither body nor soul should be spent in ... seeking to help someone who is in need.
OFC	80	2	Every opportunity to help a brother in need, or to aid the cause of God in the spread of the truth, is a pearl that you can send beforehand, and deposit in the bank of heaven for safe-keeping.
OFC	80	3	Love, courtesy, self-sacrifice--these are never lost. When God's chosen ones are changed from mortality to immortality, their words and deeds of goodness will be made manifest, and will be preserved through the eternal ages.... Through the merits of Christ's imputed righteousness, the fragrance of such words and deeds is forever preserved.
------------------------What Kind Of Inheritance? March 21
OFC	80	4	And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him? Judges 13:12.
OFC	80	5	The words spoken to the wife of Manoah contain a truth that the mothers of today would do well to study.
OFC	80	6	The child will be affected for good or for evil by the habits of the mother. She must herself be controlled by principle, and must practice temperance and self-denial, if she would seek the welfare of her child.
OFC	80	7	If before the birth of her child she is unstable, if she is selfish, peevish, and exacting, the disposition of her child will bear the marks of her wrong course.... But if she unswervingly adheres to the right, if she is kind, gentle, and unselfish, she will give her child these traits of character.
OFC	80	8	And fathers as well as mothers are involved in this responsibility. Both parents transmit their own characteristics, mental and physical, their dispositions and appetites, to their children.... The inquiry of every father and mother should be, "What shall we do unto the child that shall be born unto us?" The effect of prenatal influences has been by many lightly regarded; but the instruction sent from heaven to those Hebrew parents ... shows how the matter is looked upon by our Creator.
OFC	80	9	The mother who is a fit teacher for her children must, before their birth, form habits of self-denial and self-control; for she transmits to them her own qualities, her own strong or weak traits of character. The enemy of souls understands this matter much better than do many parents. He will bring temptations upon the mother, knowing that if she does not resist him, he can through her affect her child. The mother's only hope is in God. She may flee to Him for grace and strength. She will not seek help in vain. He will enable her to transmit to her offspring qualities that will help them to gain success in this life and to win eternal life.
------------------------Day Of Days, March 22
OFC	81	1	And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Ezekiel 20:20.
OFC	81	2	The Sabbath should be made so interesting to our families that its weekly return will be hailed with joy.
OFC	81	3	The Sabbath school and the meeting for worship occupy only a part of the Sabbath. The portion remaining to the family may be made the most sacred and precious season of all the Sabbath hours.
OFC	81	4	In the minds of the children the very thought of the Sabbath should be bound up with the beauty of natural things.... Happy the father and mother who can teach their children God's written word with illustrations from the open pages of the book of nature; who can gather under the green trees, in the fresh, pure air, to study the Word and to sing the praise of the Father above.
OFC	81	5	In pleasant weather let parents walk with their children in the fields and groves. Amid the beautiful things of nature tell them the reason for the institution of the Sabbath. Describe to them God's great work of creation. Tell them that when the earth came from His hand, it was holy and beautiful. Every flower, every shrub, every tree, answered the purpose of its Creator.... Show that it was sin which marred God's perfect work; that thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death, are all the result of disobedience to God. Bid them see how the earth, though marred with the curse of sin, still reveals God's goodness.
OFC	81	6	If we can cultivate within us a beauty of soul corresponding to the beauty of nature around us, there will be a blending of the divine and human agencies.
OFC	81	7	As the sun goes down, let the voice of prayer and the hymn of praise mark the close of the sacred hours and invite God's presence through the cares of the week of labor.
OFC	81	8	Thus parents can make the Sabbath, as it should be, the most joyful day of the week. They can lead their children to regard it as a delight, the day of days, the holy of the Lord, honorable.
------------------------A Welcome To The Heavenly Home, March 23
OFC	82	1	Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Isaiah 26:2.
OFC	82	2	The life on earth is the beginning of the life in heaven.
OFC	82	3	We are children of the heavenly King, members of the royal family, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. The mansions Jesus has gone to prepare are to receive only those who are true, who are pure, who love and obey His words.... If we would enjoy eternal bliss, we must cultivate religion in the home.... Peace, harmony, affection, and happiness should be perseveringly cherished every day, until these precious things abide in the hearts of those who compose the family.
OFC	82	4	That which will make the character lovely in the home is that which will make it lovely in the heavenly mansions.
OFC	82	5	If we manifest the character of Christ here, keeping all the commandments of God, we shall be cheered and blessed with glimpses of the pleasant home in the mansions Jesus has gone to prepare.
OFC	82	6	Let all that is beautiful in our earthly home remind us of the crystal river and green fields, the waving trees and the living fountains, the shining city and the white-robed singers, of our heavenly home--that world of beauty which no artist can picture, no mortal tongue describe.
OFC	82	7	There the loves and sympathies that God has planted in the soul will find truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages, the sacred fellowship that binds together "the whole family in heaven and earth"--all are among the experiences of the hereafter.... With unutterable delight we shall enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings.
OFC	82	8	It is the privilege of parents to take their children with them to the gates of the city of God, saying, "I have tried to instruct my children to love the Lord, to do His will, and to glorify Him." To such the gate will be thrown open, and parents and children will enter in.
------------------------Who Shall Receive God's Seal? March 24
OFC	82	9	And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Revelation 7:2, 3.
OFC	83	1	The seal of the living God will be placed upon those only who bear a likeness to Christ in character.
OFC	83	2	As wax takes the impression of the seal, so the soul is to take the impression of the Spirit of God and retain the image of Christ.
OFC	83	3	It is obedience to the principles of the commandments of God, that molds the character after the divine similitude.
OFC	83	4	The seal of God's law is found in the fourth commandment. This only, of all the ten, brings to view both the name and the title of the Lawgiver. It declares Him to be the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and thus shows His claim to reverence and worship above all others. Aside from this precept, there is nothing in the Decalogue to show by whose authority the law is given.
OFC	83	5	The Israelites placed over their doors a signature of blood, to show that they were God's property. So the children of God in this age will bear the signature God has appointed. They will place themselves in harmony with God's holy law. A mark is placed upon every one of God's people just as verily as a mark was placed over the doors of the Hebrew dwellings, to preserve the people from the general ruin. God declares, "I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Ezekiel 20:12.
OFC	83	6	Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads--it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved--just as soon as God's people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come. Indeed, it has begun already; the judgments of God are now upon the land, ... that we may know what is coming.
------------------------Jesus' Example In Humility, March 25
OFC	83	7	If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. John 13:14, 15.
OFC	83	8	There is in man a disposition to esteem himself more highly than his brother, to work for self, to seek the highest place; and often this results in evil surmisings and bitterness of spirit. The ordinance preceding the Lord's Supper is to clear away these misunderstandings, to bring man out of his selfishness, down from his stilts of self-exaltation, to the humility of heart that will lead him to serve his brother.
OFC	84	1	The ordinance of feet washing most forcibly illustrates the necessity of true humility. While the disciples were contending for the highest place, in the promised kingdom, Christ girded Himself, and performed the office of a servant by washing the feet of those who called Him Lord.
OFC	84	2	Reconciliation one with another is the work for which the ordinance of feet washing was instituted.... Whenever it is celebrated, Christ is present by His Holy Spirit. It is this Spirit that brings conviction to hearts.
OFC	84	3	As Christ celebrated this ordinance with His disciples, conviction came to the hearts of all save Judas. So we shall be convicted as Christ speaks to our hearts. The fountains of the soul will be broken up. The mind will be energized, and, springing into activity and life, will break down every barrier that has caused disunion and alienation. Sins that have been committed will appear with more distinctness than ever before; for the Holy Spirit will bring them to our remembrance.
OFC	84	4	Having washed the disciples' feet, He [Jesus] said, "I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." ... Christ was here instituting a religious service. By the act of our Lord this humiliating ceremony was made a consecrated ordinance. It was to be observed by the disciples, that they might ever keep in mind His lessons of humility and service.
------------------------Builders, Not Destroyers, March 26
OFC	84	5	And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12.
OFC	84	6	Has God no living church? He has a church, but it is the church militant, not the church triumphant. We are sorry that there are defective members....While the Lord brings into the church those who are truly converted, Satan at the same time brings persons who are not converted into its fellowship. While Christ is sowing the good seed, Satan is sowing the tares. There are two opposing influences continually exerted on the members of the church. One influence is working for the purification of the church, and the other for the corrupting of the people of God....
OFC	84	7	Although there are evils existing in the church, and will be until the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin....
OFC	85	1	There is but one church in the world who are at the present time standing in the breach, and making up the hedge, building up the old waste places; and for any man to call the attention of the world and other churches to this church, denouncing her as Babylon, is to do a work in harmony with him who is the accuser of the brethren....The whole world is filled with hatred of those who proclaim the binding claims of the law of God, and the church who are loyal to Jehovah must engage in no ordinary conflict... Those who have any realization of what this warfare means, will not turn their weapons against the church militant, but with all their powers will wrestle with the people of God against the confederacy of evil.
OFC	85	2	Those who start up to proclaim a message on their own individual responsibility, who, while claiming to be taught and led of God, still make it their special work to tear down that which God has been for years building up, are not doing the will of God. Be it known that these men are on the side of the great deceiver. Believe them not.
------------------------Tears And Conflict, March 27
OFC	85	3	Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews. Acts 20:19.
OFC	85	4	From the days of Adam to our own time, our great enemy has been exercising his power to oppress and destroy. He is now preparing for his last campaign against the church.
OFC	85	5	The better to disguise his real character and purposes, he has caused himself to be so represented as to excite no stronger emotion than ridicule or contempt. He is well pleased to be painted as a ludicrous or loathsome object, misshapen, half animal and half human.
OFC	85	6	If Satan was so cunning at first, what must he be now, after gaining an experience of many thousands of years? Yet God and holy angels, and all those who abide in obedience to all the Lord's will, are wiser than he.
OFC	85	7	All who are actively engaged in the cause of God, seeking to unveil the deceptions of the evil one and to present Christ before the people, will be able to join in the testimony of Paul, in which he speaks of serving the Lord with all humility of mind, with many tears and temptations....
OFC	85	8	The tempter has no power to control the will or to force the soul to sin. He may distress, but he cannot contaminate. He can cause agony, but not defilement.
OFC	85	9	Satan cannot read our thoughts, but he can see our actions, hear our words; and from his long knowledge of the human family, he can shape his temptations to take advantage of our weak points of character. And how often do we let him into the secret of how he may obtain the victory over us. Oh, that we might control our words and actions!
OFC	86	1	Satan assailed Christ with his fiercest and most subtle temptations; but he was repulsed in every conflict. Those battles were fought in our behalf; those victories make it possible for us to conquer. Christ will give strength to all who seek it.
------------------------Safety Only In Obedience, March 28
OFC	86	2	For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. 1 Peter 3:12.
OFC	86	3	No man is safe for a day or an hour without prayer. Especially should we entreat the Lord for wisdom to understand His Word. Here are revealed the wiles of the tempter, and the means by which he may be successfully resisted. Satan is an expert in quoting Scripture, placing his own interpretation upon passages, by which he hopes to cause us to stumble. We should study the Bible with humility of heart, never losing sight of our dependence upon God. While we must constantly guard against the devices of Satan, we should pray in faith continually, "Lead us not into temptation."
OFC	86	4	When Balaam, allured by the promise of rich rewards, practiced enchantments against Israel, and by sacrifices to the Lord sought to invoke a curse upon His people, the Spirit of God forbade the evil which he longed to pronounce, and Balaam was forced to exclaim: "How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed?" Numbers 23:8....
OFC	86	5	The people of Israel were at this time loyal to God; and so long as they continued in obedience to His law, no power in earth or hell could prevail against them. But the curse which Balaam had not been permitted to pronounce against God's people, he finally succeeded in bringing upon them by seducing them into sin. When they transgressed God's commandments, then they separated themselves from Him, and they were left to feel the power of the destroyer.
OFC	86	6	Satan is well aware that the weakest soul who abides in Christ is more than a match for the hosts of darkness.... Only in humble reliance upon God, and obedience to all His commandments, can we be secure.
OFC	86	7	Let none deceive themselves with the belief that God will pardon and bless them while they are trampling upon one of His requirements. The willful commission of a known sin silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit, and separates the soul from God.
------------------------A Crown For Every Saint, March 29
OFC	87	1	Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1:12.
OFC	87	2	I saw a very great number of angels bring from the city glorious crowns--a crown for every saint, with his name written thereon. As Jesus called for the crowns, angels presented them to Him, and with His own right hand the lovely Jesus placed the crowns on the heads of the saints. In the same manner the angels brought the harps, and Jesus presented them also to the saints. The commanding angels first struck the note, and then every voice was raised in grateful, happy praise, and every hand skillfully swept over the strings of the harp, sending forth melodious music in rich and perfect strains....
OFC	87	3	Within the city there was everything to feast the eye. Rich glory they beheld everywhere. Then Jesus looked upon His redeemed saints; their countenances were radiant with glory; and as He fixed His loving eyes upon them, He said, with His rich, musical voice, "I behold the travail of My soul, and am satisfied. This rich glory is yours to enjoy eternally. Your sorrows are ended. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." ...
OFC	87	4	I then saw Jesus leading His people to the tree of life.... Upon the tree of life was most beautiful fruit, of which the saints could partake freely, in the city was a most glorious throne, from which proceeded a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal. On each side of this river was the tree of life, and on the banks of the river were other beautiful trees bearing fruit....
OFC	87	5	Language is altogether too feeble to attempt a description of heaven. As the scene rises before me, I am lost in amazement. Carried away with the surpassing splendor and excellent glory, I lay down the pen, and exclaim, "Oh, what love! what wondrous love!" The most exalted language fails to describe the glory of heaven or the matchless depths of a Saviour's love.
------------------------The Eternal Weight Of Glory, March 30
OFC	88	1	For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2 Corinthians 4:17.
OFC	88	2	I was pointed to the glory of heaven, to the treasure laid up for the faithful. Everything was lovely and glorious. The angels would sing a lovely song, then they would cease singing and take their crowns from their heads and cast them glittering at the feet of the lovely Jesus, and with melodious voices cry, "Glory, Alleluia!" I joined with them in their songs of praise and honor to the Lamb, and every time I opened my mouth to praise Him, I felt an unutterable sense of the glory that surrounded me. It was a far more, an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Said the angel, "The little remnant who love God and keep His commandments and are faithful to the end will enjoy this glory and ever be in the presence of Jesus and sing with the holy angels."
OFC	88	3	Then my eyes were taken from the glory, and I was pointed to the remnant on the earth. The angel said to them, "... Get ready, get ready, get ready. Ye must have a greater preparation than ye now have, for the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. Sacrifice all to God. Lay all upon His altar--self, property, and all, a living sacrifice. It will take all to enter glory. Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where no thief can approach or rust corrupt. Ye must be partakers of Christ's sufferings here if ye would be partakers with Him of His glory hereafter."
OFC	88	4	Heaven will be cheap enough, if we obtain it through suffering. We must deny self all along the way, die to self daily, let Jesus alone appear, and keep His glory continually in view.
OFC	88	5	The work of salvation is not child's play, to be taken hold of at will and let alone at pleasure. It is the steady purpose, the untiring effort, that will gain the victory at last. It is he who endureth to the end that shall be saved. It is they who patiently continue in well-doing that shall have eternal life and the immortal reward.
------------------------No More Death--Ever! March 31
OFC	88	6	And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4.
OFC	89	1	In the home of the redeemed there will be no tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." Isaiah 33:24. One rich tide of happiness will flow and deepen as eternity rolls on....
OFC	89	2	Let us consider most earnestly the blessed hereafter. Let our faith pierce through every cloud of darkness and behold him who died for the sins of the world. He has opened the gates of Paradise to all who receive and believe on Him.... Let the afflictions which pain us so grievously become instructive lessons, teaching us to press forward toward the mark of the prize of our high calling in Christ. Let us be encouraged by the thought that the Lord is soon to come. Let this hope gladden our hearts....
OFC	89	3	We are homeward bound. He who loved us so much as to die for us hath builded for us a city. The New Jerusalem is our place of rest. There will be no sadness in the city of God. No wail of sorrow, no dirge of crushed hopes and buried affections, will evermore be heard. Soon the garments of heaviness will be changed for the wedding garment. Soon we shall witness the coronation of our King. Those whose lives have been hidden with Christ, those who on this earth have fought the good fight of faith, will shine forth with the Redeemer's glory in the kingdom of God.
OFC	89	4	It will not be long till we shall see Him in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. And in His presence, all the trials and sufferings of this life will be as nothingness.... Look up, look up, and let your faith continually increase. Let this faith guide you along the narrow path that leads through the gates of the city of God into the great beyond, the wide, unbounded future of glory that is for the redeemed.
------------------------Compassed With God's Mercy, April 1
OFC	89	5	Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Psalm 32:10.
OFC	89	6	We often think that those who serve God have more trials than the unbeliever, and that the path marked out for them to travel in is rugged.... But does the sinner enjoy his worldly pleasure and enjoyment unalloyed? Oh, no. There are times when the sinner is fearfully troubled. He fears God but does not love Him .
OFC	89	7	Are the wicked free from disappointment, perplexity, earthly losses, poverty, and distress? Many of them suffer a lingering sickness, yet have no strong and mighty One to lean upon, no strengthening grace from a higher power to support them in their weakness. They lean upon their own strength. They obtain no consolation by looking forward to the future, but a fearful uncertainty torments them; and thus they close their eyes in death, not finding any pleasure in looking forward to the resurrection morn, for they have no cheering hope that they shall have part in the first resurrection....
OFC	90	1	The Christian is subject to sickness, disappointment, poverty, reproach, and distress. Yet amid all this he loves God, he chooses to do His will, and prizes nothing so highly as His approbation. In the conflicting trials and changing scenes of this life, he knows that there is One who knows it all, One who will bend His ear low to the cry of the sorrowful and distressed, One who can sympathize with every sorrow and soothe the keen anguish of every heart....
OFC	90	2	Amid all his affliction, the Christian has strong consolation. And if God permits him to suffer a lingering, distressing sickness before he closes his eyes in death, he can with cheerfulness bear it all.... He contemplates the future with heavenly satisfaction. A short rest in the grave, and then the Life-giver will break the fetters of the tomb, release the captive, and bring him from his dusty bed immortal, never more to know pain, sorrow, or death. Oh, what a hope is the Christian's! Let this hope of the Christian be mine. Let it be yours
------------------------Hope For The Hopeless, April 2
OFC	90	3	Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Isaiah 55:7, 8.
OFC	90	4	It is your thought that your mistakes and transgressions have been so grievous that the Lord will not have respect unto your prayers, and will bless and save you.... The closer you come to Jesus, the more faulty you will appear in your own eyes; for your vision will be clearer, and your imperfections will be seen in broad and distinct contrast to His perfect nature. But do not be discouraged. This is evidence that Satan's delusions have lost their power; that the vivifying influence of the Spirit of God is arousing you, and your indifference and unconcern are passing away.
OFC	90	5	No deep-seated love for Jesus can dwell in the heart that does not see and realize its own sinfulness. The soul that is transformed by grace will admire His divine character; but if we do not see our own moral deformity, it is unmistakable evidence that we have not had a view of the beauty and excellence of Christ. The less we see to esteem in ourselves, the more we shall see to esteem in the infinite purity and loveliness of our Saviour. A view of our own sinfulness drives us to Him who can pardon....
OFC	91	1	God does not deal with us as finite men deal with one another. His thoughts are thoughts of mercy, love, and tenderest compassion. "He will abundantly pardon." He says, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions." ...
OFC	91	2	Look up, you who are tried, tempted, and discouraged, look up.... It is ever safe to look up; it is fatal to look down. If you look down, the earth reels and sways beneath you; nothing is sure. But heaven above you is calm and steady, and there is divine aid for every climber. The hand of the Infinite is reaching over the battlements of heaven to grasp yours in its strong embrace. The mighty Helper is nigh to bless, lift up, and encourage the most erring, the most sinful, if they will look to Him by faith. But the sinner must look up. 
------------------------Enjoyment Of The Truth, April 3
OFC	91	3	Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. Psalm 86:11.
OFC	91	4	Say with your whole heart, "I will walk in Thy truth." Every resolution expressed in the fear of God will give strength to purpose and to faith. It will tend to stimulate and to humble, to strengthen and confirm. "I will walk in thy truth." Truth deserves our confidence none the less because the world is flooded with fables. Because error and counterfeit are in circulation it only evidences the fact that there is truth, genuine truth, somewhere....
OFC	91	5	It is not enough for us to hear the truth only. God requires of us obedience. "Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." Luke 11:28. "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." John 13:17.
OFC	91	6	We may walk in the enjoyment of the truth. It need not be to us a yoke of bondage, but a consolation, a message to us of glad tidings of great joy, animating our hearts and causing us to make melody in our hearts unto God. Through patience and comfort of the Scriptures we have hope. The Christian hope is not gloomy, comfortless. Oh, no, no. It does not shut us up in a prison of doubts and fears. The truth makes free those who love and are sanctified through it. They walk in the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
OFC	91	7	We who claim to believe the truth should reveal its fruits in our words and character. We are to be far advanced in a knowledge of Jesus Christ, in the reception of His love for God and for our neighbor, in order to have the sunlight of heaven shining in our daily life. Truth must reach down to the deepest recesses of the soul, and cleanse away everything unlike the spirit of Christ, and the vacuum be supplied by the attributes of His character who was pure and holy and undefiled, that all the springs of the heart may be as flowers, fragrant with perfume, a sweet-smelling savor, a savor of life unto life.
OFC	92	1	It is truth enshrined in the soul that makes one a man of God.
------------------------Let Jesus Lead, April 4
OFC	92	2	Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6.
OFC	92	3	Oh, that we who are pilgrims and strangers in this foreign country ... might comprehend Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. He says, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." The path He has marked out is so plain and distinct that the veriest sinner, loaded with guilt, need not miss his way. Not one trembling seeker need fail of finding the true path, and of walking in pure and holy light, for Jesus leads the way.
OFC	92	4	The path is so narrow, so holy, that sin cannot be tolerated therein, yet access to the path has been made for all, and not one desponding, doubting, trembling soul needs to say, "God cares nought for me." Every soul is precious in His sight.... When Satan was triumphing as the prince of the world, when he claimed the world as his kingdom, when we were all marred and corrupted with sin, God sent His messenger from heaven, even His only begotten Son, to proclaim to all the inhabitants of the world, "I have found a ransom. I have made a way of escape for all the perishing. I have your emancipation papers provided for you, sealed by the Lord of heaven and earth." ...
OFC	92	5	It is not because there is any flaw in the title which has been purchased for you that you do not accept it. It is not because the mercy, the grace, the love of the Father and the Son is not ample, and has not been freely bestowed, that you do not rejoice in pardoning love.... If you are lost, it will be because you will not come unto Christ that you might have life.
OFC	92	6	God waits to bestow the blessing of forgiveness of sins, of pardon for iniquity, of the gift of righteousness upon all who will believe in His love, and accept of His salvation. Christ is ready to say to the repenting sinner, "... Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee...." Zechariah 3:4-7. Christ is the connecting link between God and man. The blood of Jesus Christ is the eloquent plea that speaks in behalf of sinners.
------------------------In Love With Christ, April 5
OFC	93	1	For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Hebrews 7:26.
OFC	93	2	The character of Christ was one of unexampled excellence, embracing everything pure, true, lovely, and of good report. We have no knowledge of His ever visiting a party of pleasure or a dance hall, and yet He was the perfection of grace and courtly bearing. Christ was no novice; He was distinguished for the high intellectual powers He possessed even in the morning of His life. His youth was not wasted in indolence, neither was it wasted in sensual pleasure, self-indulgence, or frittered away in things of no profit. Not one of His hours from childhood to manhood was misspent, none were misappropriated....
OFC	93	3	Jesus was sinless and had no dread of the consequences of sin. With this exception His condition was as yours. You have not a difficulty that did not press with equal weight upon Him, not a sorrow that His heart has not experienced. His feelings could be hurt with neglect, with indifference of professed friends, as easily as yours. Is your path thorny? Christ's was so in a tenfold sense. Are you distressed? So was He. How well fitted was Christ to be an example! ...
OFC	93	4	The Inspired Record says of Him: "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." Luke 2:52. As He grew in years He grew in knowledge. He lived temperately; His precious hours were not wasted in dissipating pleasures. He had a truly healthy body and true powers of mind. The physical and mental powers could be expanded and developed as yours or any other youth's. The Word of God was His study, as it should be yours.
OFC	93	5	Take Jesus as your standard. Imitate His life. Fall in love with His character. Walk as Christ walked. A new spring will be given to your intellectual faculties, a large scope to your thoughts, when you bring your powers into vigorous contact with eternal things which are intrinsically grand and great.
------------------------The Privilege Of Assurance, April 6
OFC	93	6	And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. 1 John 3:19.
OFC	93	7	I would impress upon our young men and young women the necessity of making their calling and election sure. I would beseech you to do no haphazard or uncertain work where your eternal interests are involved. By so doing you lose happiness, peace, comfort, and hope in this life, and you lose also your immortal inheritance.
OFC	94	1	My young friends, you are judgment bound, and through the grace of Christ you may render obedience to the commands of God, and daily gain fortitude and strength of character, so that you need not fail or be discouraged. Divine grace has been abundantly provided for every soul, so that each one may engage in the conflict and come off victorious. Do not become sluggish; do not flatter yourselves that you may be saved in walking in accordance with the natural traits of your character--that you may drift with the current of the world, and indulge and please self, and yet be able to withstand the forces of evil in a time of crisis, and come off victorious when the battle waxes hot.... You must learn every day to obey the orders of the Captain of the Lord's host.
OFC	94	2	My young friends, do you pray? Are you educating yourselves to offer petitions for pure thoughts, for holy aspirations, for a pure heart and clean hands? Are you educating your lips to sing the praises of God, and are you seeking to do the will of God? This is the kind of education that will be of the greatest value to you; for it will aid you in the formation of Christlike character.
OFC	94	3	Do not settle down in Satan's easy chair, and say that there is no use, you cannot cease to sin, that there is no power in you to overcome. There is no power in you apart from Christ, but it is your privilege to have Christ abiding in your heart by faith, and He can overcome sin in you, when you cooperate with His efforts.... You may be living epistles, known and read of all men. You are not to be a dead letter, but a living one, testifying to the world that Jesus is able to save.
------------------------God Calls For Our Best Affections, April 7
OFC	94	4	No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24.
OFC	94	5	Many are on the enchanted ground of the enemy. Things of the least importance--foolish social parties, singing, jesting, joking--engross their minds and they serve God with a divided heart.... The declaration of Christ, "No man can serve two masters," is unheeded.
OFC	94	6	One of the most marked features of the earth's inhabitants in the days of Noah was their intense worldliness. They made eating and drinking, buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage, the supreme objects of life. It is not sinful, but the fulfillment of a duty, to eat and drink, if that which is lawful is not carried to excess.... God Himself instituted marriage when He gave Eve to Adam. All God's laws are marvelously adapted to meet the nature of man. The sin of the antediluvians was in perverting that which in itself was lawful. They corrupted God's gifts by using them to minister to their selfish desires....
OFC	95	1	Excessive love and devotion to that which in itself is lawful, proves the ruination of thousands upon thousands of souls. To matters of minor importance is often given the strength of intellect that should be wholly devoted to God. We need always to be guarded against carrying to excess that which, rightly used, is lawful. Many, many souls are lost by engaging in those things which, properly managed, are harmless, but which, perverted and misapplied, become sinful and demoralizing.
OFC	95	2	If we are constantly thinking of and struggling for the things that pertain to this life, we cannot keep our thoughts fixed on the things of heaven. Satan is seeking to lead our minds away from God, and to center them on the fashions, the customs, and the demands of the world, which bring disease and death....
OFC	95	3	In this world we are to obtain a fitness for the higher world. God has left a trust with us, and He expects us to use all our faculties in helping and blessing our fellow men. He calls for our best affections, our highest powers.
------------------------Above The Fog Of Doubt, April 8
OFC	95	4	Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24.
OFC	95	5	Even Christians of long experience are often assaulted with the most terrible doubts and waverings.... You must not consider that for these temptations your case is hopeless.... Hope in God, trust in Him and rest in His promises.
OFC	95	6	When the devil comes with his doubts and unbeliefs, shut the door of your heart. Shut your eyes so that you will not dwell upon his hellish shadow. Lift them up where they can behold the things which are eternal, and you will have strength every hour. The trial of your faith is much more precious than gold.... It makes you valiant to fight the battle of the Lord....
OFC	95	7	Satan connects with everyone that will connect with him. If he can get those that have had an experience in religion, they are his most effectual agents to reach just such men and compass their souls with unbelief. You cannot afford to let any doubts come into your mind. Do not please the devil enough to tell about the terrible burdens you are carrying. Every time you do it, Satan laughs that his soul can control you and that you have lost sight of Jesus Christ your Redeemer....
OFC	96	1	We are to show forth Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. It is by living faith that we rest in that light. It is by living faith that we rejoice in that light every day. We are not to talk our doubts and trials, because they grow bigger every time we talk them. Every time we talk them, Satan has gained the victory; but when we say, "I will commit the keeping of my soul unto Him, as unto a faithful witness," then we testify that we have given ourselves to Jesus Christ without any reservation, and then God gives us light and we rejoice in Him.
OFC	96	2	The soul that loves God, rises above the fog of doubt; he gains a bright, broad, deep, living experience, and becomes meek and Christ-like. His soul is committed to God, hid with Christ in God.
------------------------How To Maintain Integrity! April 9
OFC	96	3	Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Romans 6:11, 12.
OFC	96	4	Some regard sin as altogether so light a matter that they have no defense against its indulgence or its consequence....
OFC	96	5	If you suppose for a moment that God will treat sin lightly, or make provisions or exemptions so that you can go on in committing sin, and the soul suffer no penalty from so doing, you are under a terrible delusion of Satan. Any willful violation of the righteous law of Jehovah exposes your soul to the full assaults of Satan.
OFC	96	6	When you lose your conscious integrity, your soul becomes a battlefield for Satan; you have doubts and fears enough to paralyze your energies and drive you to discouragement....
OFC	96	7	Remember that temptation is not sin. Remember that however trying the circumstances in which a man may be placed, nothing can really weaken his soul so long as he does not yield to temptation but maintains his own integrity. The interests most vital to you individually are in your own keeping. No one can damage them without your consent. All the satanic legions cannot injure you unless you open your soul to the arts and arrows of Satan. Your ruin can never take place until your will consents. If there is not pollution of mind in yourself, all the surrounding pollution cannot taint or defile you.
OFC	97	1	Eternal life is worth everything to us or it is worth nothing. Those only who put forth persevering effort and untiring zeal with intense desire proportionate to the value of the object they are in pursuit of, will gain that life which measures with the life of God....
OFC	97	2	We have the example of Adam and Eve before us, and the result of their transgression should lead every soul of us to avoid sin, to abhor sin as the hateful thing it is, and to feel, in view of the sufferings which sin is sure to inflict, that it is better to suffer loss of all things than to depart from the least of God's commandments.
------------------------"Come Unto Me", April 10
OFC	97	3	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28.
OFC	97	4	Many who hear this invitation, while sighing for rest, yet press on the rugged path, hugging their burdens close to their heart. Jesus loves them, and longs to bear their burdens and themselves also in His strong arms. He would remove the fears and uncertainties that rob them of peace and rest; but they must first come to Him, and tell Him the secret woes of their heart....
OFC	97	5	Sometimes we pour our troubles into human ears, and tell our afflictions to those who cannot help us, and neglect to confide all to Jesus, who is able to change the sorrowful way to paths of joy and peace....
OFC	97	6	He proposes to be our friend, to walk with us through all the rough pathways of life. He says to us, I am the Lord thy God; walk with me, and I will fill thy path with light. Jesus, the Majesty of Heaven, proposes to elevate to companionship with Himself those who come to Him with their burdens, their weaknesses, and their cares....
OFC	97	7	His invitation to us is a call to a pure, holy, and happy life--a life of peace and rest, of liberty and love--and to a rich inheritance in the future, immortal life.... It is our privilege to have daily a calm, close, happy walk with Jesus.
OFC	97	8	Rest is found when all self-justification, all reasoning from a selfish standpoint, is put away. Entire self-surrender, an acceptance of His ways, is the secret of perfect rest in His love.... Do just what He has told you to do, and be assured that God will do all that He has said He would do.... Have you come to Him, renouncing all your makeshifts, all your unbelief, all your self-righteousness? Come just as you are, weak, helpless, and ready to die.
OFC	98	1	What is the "rest" promised?--It is the consciousness that God is true, that He never disappoints the one who comes to Him. His pardon is full and free, and His acceptance means rest to the soul, rest in His love.
------------------------Time For Meditation, April 11
OFC	98	2	But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Psalm 1:2.
OFC	98	3	Your last thought at night, your first thought in the morning, should be of Him in whom is centered your hope of eternal life.
OFC	98	4	Many seem to begrudge moments spent in meditation, and the searching of the Scriptures, and prayer, as though the time thus occupied was lost. I wish you could all view these things in the light God would have you; for you would then make the kingdom of heaven of the first importance.... As exercise increases the appetite, and gives strength and healthy vigor to the body, so will devotional exercises bring an increase of grace and spiritual vigor.
OFC	98	5	The affections should center upon God. Contemplate His greatness, His mercy and excellences. Let His goodness and love and perfection of character captivate your heart. Converse upon His divine charms, and the heavenly mansions He is preparing for the faithful. He whose conversation is in heaven, is the most profitable Christian to all around him. His words are useful and refreshing. They have a transforming power upon those who hear them.
OFC	98	6	There is constant need of private communion with God. We must take in the spirit of Christ if we would impart it to others. We cannot meet satanic and human agencies combined unless we spend much time in intercourse with the Source of all strength. There are times when we should get away from the sounds of earthly toil and human voices, and in retired places listen to the voice of Jesus. Thus we may taste of His love and imbibe His spirit. Thus we shall learn to crucify self. This course of action may seem impossible to the human mind. "I have not time," you may say. But when you consider the matter as it really is, you lose no time; for when you secure the power and grace that come alone from God, you do not accomplish the work. It is Jesus who is the real worker. "Without me," says Christ, "ye can do nothing." John 15:5.... Reflection and earnest prayer will inspire to holy endeavor.
------------------------Seeking God With All The Heart, April 12
OFC	99	1	Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee. Zechariah 9:12.
OFC	99	2	We need to educate the soul to lay hold, and hold fast the rich promises of Christ. The Lord Jesus knows that it is not possible for us to resist the many temptations of Satan, only as we shall have divine power given us from God. He well knows that in our own human strength we should surely fail. Therefore every provision has been made, that in every emergency and trial we shall flee to the Stronghold.... We have the word of promise from lips that will not lie.... We must individually cherish the faith that we receive of Him the things He hath promised.
OFC	99	3	God will be to us everything we will let Him be. Our languid, half-hearted prayers will not bring us returns from heaven. Oh, we need to press our petitions! Ask in faith, wait in faith, receive in faith, rejoice in hope, for everyone that seeketh findeth. Be in earnest in the matter. Seek God with all the heart. People put soul and earnestness into everything they undertake in temporal things, until their efforts are crowned with success. With intense earnestness learn the trade of seeking the rich blessings that God has promised, and with persevering, determined effort you shall have His light and His truth and His rich grace.
OFC	99	4	In sincerity, in soul hunger, cry after God. Wrestle with the heavenly agencies until you have the victory. Put your whole being into the Lord's hands, soul, body, and spirit, and resolve to be His loving, consecrated agency, moved by His will, controlled by His mind, infused by His Spirit.
OFC	99	5	Tell Jesus your wants in the sincerity of your soul. You are not required to hold a long controversy with, or preach a sermon to, God, but with a heart of sorrow for your sins, say, "Save me, Lord, or I perish." There is hope for such souls. They will seek, they will ask, they will knock, and they will find. When Jesus has taken away the burden of sin that is crushing the soul, you will experience the blessedness of the peace of Christ.
------------------------Humble, Persevering Prayer, April 13
OFC	99	6	Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. James 5:17, 18.
OFC	100	1	Important lessons are presented to us in the experience of Elijah. When upon Mount Carmel he offered the prayer for rain, his faith was tested, but he persevered in making known his request unto God.
OFC	100	2	The servant watched while Elijah prayed. Six times he returned from the watch, saying, There is nothing, no cloud, no sign of rain. But the prophet did not give up in discouragement. He kept reviewing his life, to see where he had failed to honor God.... As he searched his heart, he seemed to be less and less, both in his own estimation and in the sight of God. It seemed to him that he was nothing, and that God was everything; and when he reached the point of renouncing self, while he clung to the Saviour as his only strength and righteousness, the answer came. The servant appeared, and said, "Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand." 1 Kings 18:44.
OFC	100	3	We have a God whose ear is not closed to our petitions; and if we prove His word, He will honor our faith. He wants us to have all our interests interwoven with His interests, and then He can safely bless us; for we shall not then take glory to self when the blessing is ours, but shall render all the praise to God. God does not always answer our prayers the first time we call upon Him; for should He do this, we might take it for granted that we had a right to all the blessings and favors He bestowed upon us. Instead of searching our hearts to see if any evil was entertained by us, any sin indulged, we should become careless, and fail to realize our dependence upon Him....
OFC	100	4	Elijah humbled himself until he was in a condition where he would not take the glory to himself. This is the condition upon which the Lord hears prayer, for then we shall give the praise to Him.... God alone is worthy to be glorified.
------------------------The Work Of Heart-Keeping, April 14
OFC	100	5	Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23.
OFC	100	6	Diligent heart-keeping is essential to a healthy growth in grace. The heart in its natural state is a habitation for unholy thoughts and sinful passions. When brought into subjection to Christ, it must be cleansed by the Spirit from all defilement. This can not be done without the consent of the individual.
OFC	101	1	When the soul has been cleansed, it is the duty of the Christian to keep it undefiled. Many seem to think that the religion of Christ does not call for the abandonment of daily sins, the breaking loose from habits which have held the soul in bondage. They renounce some things condemned by the conscience, but they fail to represent Christ in the daily life. They do not bring Christlikeness into the home. They do not show a thoughtful care in their choice of words. Too often, fretful, impatient words are spoken, words which stir the worst passions of the human heart. Such ones need the abiding presence of Christ in the soul. Only in His strength can they keep guard over the words and actions.
OFC	101	2	In the work of heart-keeping we must be instant in prayer, unwearied in petitioning the throne of grace for assistance. Those who take the name of Christian should come to God in earnestness and humility, pleading for help.... The Christian cannot always be in the position of prayer, but his thoughts and desires can always be upward.
OFC	101	3	To keep your heart in heaven will give vigor to all your graces and put life into all your duties. To discipline the mind to dwell upon heavenly things will put life and earnestness into all our endeavors. Our efforts are languid, and we run the Christian race slowly, and manifest indolence and sloth, because we so little value the heavenly prize. We are dwarfs in spiritual attainments. It is the privilege and duty of the Christian to be increasing in the knowledge of the Son of God, "unto a perfect man."
------------------------The Court Of Holy Life, April 15
OFC	101	4	But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9.
OFC	101	5	The church of Christ on earth is amid the moral darkness of a disloyal world, which is trampling upon the law of Jehovah. But their Redeemer, who has purchased their ransom with the price of His own precious blood, has made every provision that His church shall be a transformed body, illumined with Light of the world, possessing the glory of Emmanuel. The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, shining through His church, will gather into His fold every lost, straying sheep who will come unto Him and find refuge in Him. They will find peace and light and joy in Him who is peace and righteousness forever.
OFC	101	6	The members of the church should individually keep the light of God's love burning brightly in their own souls, that it may also shine forth to others. We have too much at stake to allow spiritual lethargy to creep over us. Let us beware of indulging a disrelish for religious services and religious duties. Let us resolutely battle against that sluggishness of soul which is so fatal to the growth and even the life of the Christian. That church will be healthy and prosperous whose members are putting forth active, personal effort to do good to others, to save souls. This will be a constant incentive to every good work. Such Christians will labor with greater earnestness to secure their own salvation. The dormant energies will be aroused, the whole soul inspired with an unconquerable determination to win the Saviour's plaudit of "Well done," and to wear the victor's crown.
OFC	102	1	Christ makes His church a beautiful temple for God. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name," He declared, "there am I in the midst of them," Matthew 18:20. His church is the court of holy life, filled with varied gifts, and endowed with the Holy Spirit. Appropriate duties are assigned by Heaven to each member of the church on earth, and all are to find their happiness in the happiness of those whom they help and bless.
------------------------The Smiles Of God, April 16
OFC	102	2	The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10:22.
OFC	102	3	Nothing can do us real good without the blessing of God. What God blesses is blessed. Therefore "a little that a righteous man hath is better that the riches of many wicked." Psalm 37:16. The little with the blessing of God is more efficient, and it will extend farther. The grace of God will make a little go a great ways. When we devote ourselves to the affairs of the kingdom of God, He will mind our affairs.
OFC	102	4	The Lord has given us precious blessings in the simple flowers of the field, in the fragrance so grateful to our senses. He has tinted every flower with beauty; for He is the great Master Artist. He who has created the beautiful things in nature will do far greater things for the soul. God is a lover of the beautiful, and He would adorn our characters with His own rich graces. He would have our words as fragrant as the flowers of the field. He has given us blessings in daily provision for our physical needs. The very bread we eat has upon it the image and superscription of the cross.
OFC	102	5	They only are truly blessed whose chief concern is to secure those blessings which will nourish the soul and endure forever. Our Saviour says to us, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 6:33. God has a care for us, even to bestow His temporal blessings upon us. Our earthly good is not beneath the notice of our heavenly Father. He knoweth that we have need of these things.... When God smiles upon our efforts it is worth more than any earthly income.
OFC	103	1	"How sweet our daily comforts prove
OFC	103	2	When they are seasoned with His love."
OFC	103	3	Every deliverance, every blessing, that God in the past has granted to His people, should be kept fresh in memory's hall as a sure pledge of further and richer, increasing blessings that He will bestow.
OFC	103	4	There is no limit to the blessings that it is our privilege to receive.
------------------------With Eyes Of Faith, April 17
OFC	103	5	The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Ephesians 1:18.
OFC	103	6	The highest qualification of the mind will not, cannot, supply the place of true simplicity, of genuine piety. The Bible may be studied as a branch of human science would be; but its beauty, the evidence of its power to save the soul that believes, is a lesson that is never thus learned. If the practice of the Word is not brought into the life, then the sword of the Spirit has not wounded the natural heart. It has been shielded in poetic fancy. Sentimentalism has so wrapped it about that the heart has not sufficiently felt the keenness of its edge, piercing and cutting away the sinful shrines where self is worshipped....
OFC	103	7	The eyes of the understanding must be enlightened, and the heart and mind brought into harmony with God, who is truth. He who beholds Jesus with the eye of faith sees no glory in himself, for the glory of the Redeemer is reflected into the mind and heart. The atonement of His blood is realized, and the taking away of sin stirs the heart with gratitude.
OFC	103	8	Being justified by Christ, the receiver of truth is constrained to make an entire surrender to God, and is admitted into the school of Christ, that he may learn of Him who is meek and lowly of heart. A knowledge of the love of God is shed abroad in his heart. He exclaims, Oh, what love! What condescension! Grasping the rich promises by faith, he becomes a partaker of the divine nature. His heart being emptied of self, the waters of life flow in; the glory of the Lord shines forth. Perpetually looking unto Jesus, the human is assimilated by the divine. The believer is changed into His likeness.... The human character is changed into the divine.
OFC	103	9	Christ looks upon His people in their purity and perfection as the reward of all His sufferings, His humiliation, and His love, and the supplement of His glory--Christ the great center, from whom radiates all glory.
------------------------How To Grow In Grace, April 18
OFC	104	1	But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18.
OFC	104	2	How is it possible that we may grow in grace? It is possible to us only as we empty our hearts of self, and present them to Heaven, to be molded after the Divine Pattern. We may have a connection with the living channel of light; we may be refreshed with the heavenly dew, and have the showers of heaven descend upon us. As we appropriate the blessing of God, we shall be able to receive greater measures of His grace.
OFC	104	3	As little children we are to sit at the feet of Christ, learning of Him.... We should not allow a day to pass without gaining an increase of knowledge in temporal and spiritual things. We are to plant no stakes that we are not willing to take up and plant further on, nearer the heights we hope to ascend. The highest education is to be found in training the mind to advance day by day. The close of each day should find us a day's march nearer the overcomer's reward. Day by day our understanding is to ripen. Day by day we are to work out conclusions that will bring a rich reward in this life and in the life to come. Looking daily to Jesus, instead of to what we ourselves have done, we shall make decided advancement in temporal as well as spiritual knowledge.
OFC	104	4	The end of all things is at hand. What we have done must not be allowed to place the period to our work. The Captain of our salvation says, "Advance. The night cometh, in which no man can work." Constantly we are to increase in usefulness. Our lives are always to be under the power of Christ. Our lamps are to be kept burning brightly.... He who places himself where God can enlighten him, advances, as it were, from the partial obscurity of dawn to the full radiance of noonday.
OFC	104	5	We must put to the stretch every spiritual nerve and muscle.... God ... does not desire you to remain novices. He wants you to reach the very highest round of the ladder, and then step from it into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
------------------------Great In God's Sight, April 19
OFC	105	1	He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. Luke 16:10.
OFC	105	2	Life is not made up of great things alone; it is the little things that make the sum of life's happiness or miseries. It is the little things in life that reveal a person's real character. Oh, if all youth and those of mature age could see as I have seen the mirror of person's lives presented before them, they would look more gravely upon even the little duties of life. Every mistake, every error, unimportant though it may be regarded, leaves a scar in this life and a blot on the heavenly records.
OFC	105	3	Life is full of duties that are not agreeable, but all these unpleasant duties will be made agreeable by a cheerful performance of them because it is right. Taking an interest in the duties which someone must do, and striving to do them with the heart, will make the most disagreeable duties pleasant.
OFC	105	4	There are many who undervalue the small events of life, the little deeds that are to be performed day by day; but these are not to be estimated as small, as every action tells either for the blessing or the injuring of someone. Every action tells its own story, it bears its own history to the throne of God. It is known whether it is on the side of right or on the side of wrong. It is only by acting in accordance with the principles of God's Word in the small transactions of life, that we place ourselves on the right side. We are tried and tested by these small occurrences, and our character will be estimated according as our work shall be.
OFC	105	5	It is the conscientious attention to what the world calls little things that makes the great beauty and success of life.
OFC	105	6	Little deeds of charity, Little words of kindness, Little acts of self-denial, A wise improvement of opportunities, A diligent cultivation of little talents, Make great men in God's sight.
------------------------Hold High The Standard, April 20
OFC	106	1	Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Isaiah 62:10.
OFC	106	2	The Word of God not only sets forth the great principles of truth and duty which should govern our lives, but it presents also, for our encouragement, the history of many who have exemplified these principles....Except the one perfect Pattern, there is not described in the Sacred Pages a single character more worthy of emulation than that of the prophet Daniel. Exposed in youth to all the allurements of a royal court, he became a man of unbending integrity and fervent devotion to God. He was subjected to the fierce temptations of Satan, yet his character was not vacillating, nor his course changeable. He was firm where many would be yielding; he was true where they would be false; he was strong where they would be weak. Daniel was a lofty cedar of Lebanon....Would that the faith, integrity, and devotion of the prophet Daniel might live in the hearts of God's people of today. Never were these noble qualities more needed in the world than now....
OFC	106	3	In the records of those who have done and suffered for the name of Jesus, there is no name that shines with a brighter or purer luster than the name of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. The love of Jesus, glowing in his heart, made him self-forgetful, self-denying. He had seen the risen Christ, and the Saviour's image was impressed upon his soul, and shone forth in his life. With faith, courage, and fortitude, that would not be daunted by danger or stayed by obstacles, he pressed his way from land to land to spread the knowledge of the cross....
OFC	106	4	Are the professed followers of Christ thus exemplifying the principles of their faith? Where are the deep, living, holy experiences which men of God were wont to recount? Has the standard of Christianity been lowered?...No; that standard remains just where God placed it. Holy men of ages past were required to give up all for Christ, to cherish His spirit, and to imitate His example. Nothing less than this will He accept now....When called to give up all for Christ, who will stand the test?
------------------------Reminders Of Our Heavenly Home, April 21
OFC	107	1	Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. Nehemiah 9:6.
OFC	107	2	There is beauty in the valley's awful grandeur, in the solemn, massive, cleft rocks; there is majesty in the towering mountains that look as if they touched the heavens. There are the lofty trees with their delicately formed leaves; the spires of grass, the opening bud and blossoming flower, the forest trees, and every living thing. They all point the mind to the great and living God. Every faculty of our being testifies that there is a living God, and we may learn from the open book of nature the most precious lessons in regard to the Lord of heaven.
OFC	107	3	In this study the mind expands, is elevated and uplifted, and becomes hungry to know more of God and His majesty. We have awakened in our hearts feelings not only of reverence and awe but of love, of faith, of trust and entire dependence upon One who is the giver of all good. And as I look at His marvelous works and see the evidences of His power I instinctively inquire, "What is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Psalm 8:4.
OFC	107	4	All the greatness and glory of these wonderful things in God's house can only be appreciated as they are, in the mind, associated with God and the future home of bliss He is preparing for those who love Him....While we talk freely of other countries, why should we be reticent in regard to the heavenly country, and the house not built with hands, eternal in the heavens? This heavenly country is of more consequence to us than any other city or country on the globe, therefore we should think and talk of this better--even an heavenly--country. And why should we not converse more earnestly, and in a heavenly frame of mind, in regard to God's gifts in nature? He has made all these things, and designs that we shall see God in His created works. These things are to keep God in our remembrance and to lift our hearts from sensual things and bind them in bonds of love and gratitude to our Creator.
------------------------The Sacred Temple Of The Body, April 22
OFC	108	1	What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.
OFC	108	2	That perfection of character which the Lord requires is the fitting up of the whole being as a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God will accept of nothing less than the service of the entire human organism. It is not enough to bring into action certain parts of the living machinery. All parts must work in perfect harmony, or the service will be deficient. It is thus that man is qualified to cooperate with God in representing Christ to the world. Thus God desires to prepare a people to stand before Him pure and holy, that He may introduce them into the society of heavenly angels.
OFC	108	3	We have been entrusted with the most solemn message ever given to our world, and the object to be kept plainly and distinctly before our minds is the glory of God. Let us take care that we do nothing which will weaken physical, mental, or spiritual healthfulness, for God will not accept a tainted, diseased, corrupted sacrifice. Care must be exercised in eating, in drinking, in dressing, and in working, lest we detract from our efficiency and fail of doing our most exalted work in the best manner, in order that the results of our labor may be as lasting as eternity.
OFC	108	4	It is our duty to train and discipline the body in order that we shall render to the Master the highest possible service. Inclination must not control us. We are not to pamper the appetite and indulge in the use of that which is not for our good, simply because it gratifies the palate; neither are we to seek to live by the starvation plan, with the idea that we shall become spiritually-minded, and that God shall be glorified. We must use the intelligence that God has given in order that we may be perfect in body, soul, and spirit, that we may have a symmetrical character, a well-balanced mind, and do perfect work for the Master.
------------------------The Beauty Of Christlikeness, April 23
OFC	108	5	Shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. Titus 2:10.
OFC	109	1	Everyone who names the name of Christ is to adorn the doctrine of Christ our Saviour by a well-ordered life and a godly conversation, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit....Possessing this, you will have favor both with God and with men.
OFC	109	2	Words spoken hastily wound and bruise souls, and the deepest wound is made upon the soul of the speaker. Christ's gift, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, is authoritatively declared by Him who can make no mistake to be of great price. We must each find out its worth for ourselves by seeking it from God. However men may estimate us, if we wear this ornament, we bear the sign of our discipleship with Christ. We are esteemed by the Most High; for the ornament we wear is in His sight of great price. This precious gem is to be sought for....
OFC	109	3	To every soul things will come to provoke, to stir up anger, and if you are not under the full control of God, you will be provoked when these things come. But the meekness of Christ calms the ruffled spirit, controls the tongue, and brings the whole being into subjection to God. Thus we learn how to bear with the censure of others. We shall be misjudged, but the precious ornament of a meek and quiet spirit teaches us how to bear, how to have pity for those who utter hasty, unadvised words. Any unpleasant spirit displayed is sure to arouse the demon of passion in unguarded hearts. Unholy anger need not to be strengthened, but bridled. It is a spark which will set on fire untamed human nature. Avoid speaking words which will stir up strife. Rather suffer wrong than do wrong. God requires every one of His followers, as far as is possible, to live peaceably with all men....
OFC	109	4	We must be Christlike. Let us strive to make our lives what Christ designs them to be, full of the fragrance of love to God and our fellow men, full of Christ's own divine Spirit, full of holy aspirations toward God, rich in the beauty of Christlikeness.
------------------------Heaven Cheap At Any Price, April 24
OFC	109	5	And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:27.
OFC	109	6	It is too true that the great mass who possess ability and talent do not choose to travel the Christian road. Are their talent and ability too precious to devote to the Giver, the Lord of heaven and earth? ...
OFC	109	7	Many would be followers of Christ if He would come down from the cross and appear to them in such a manner as they desire. If He would come with riches and pleasure, many would receive Him gladly and would be in haste to crown Him Lord of all. If He would only lay aside His humiliation and sufferings and cry, "If any man will come after Me, let him please himself and enjoy the world and he shall be My disciple," multitudes would believe on Him.
OFC	110	1	But the blessed Jesus will come to us in no other character than the meek and lowly Crucified One. We must partake of His self-denial and suffering here if we would take the crown hereafter....
OFC	110	2	The Word of God has not widened the narrow way, and if the multitude have found a path where they can wear a form of godliness and not bear the cross or suffer tribulation, they have found a way where our Saviour did not walk and they follow another example than that which Christ set before us. Is it not enough that Jesus left the felicity and glory of heaven, endured a life of poverty and deep affliction, and died a cruel, shameful death to provide for us the joys of holiness and heaven? And can it be that we, the worthless objects of so great a condescension and love, will seek after a better portion in this life than was given to our Redeemer?
OFC	110	3	How easy would be the way to heaven if there was no self-denial or cross! How worldlings would rush in the way, and hypocrites would travel in it without number! Thank God for the cross, the self-denial. The ignominy and shame our Saviour endured for us is none too humiliating for those saved by the purchase of His blood. Heaven will indeed be cheap enough.
------------------------Let Your Light Shine, April 25
OFC	110	4	Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16.
OFC	110	5	To every soul born into Christ's kingdom is given a solemn charge, Let your light so shine before men that they, by seeing your good works, shall glorify your Father which is in heaven. Pour forth upon your neighbors the rich rays of light received from the Sun of Righteousness; flash upon your friends in the world the bright gems of light and truth imparted to you abundantly from the throne of God. This is trading upon the talents entrusted. Go on from light to a greater light, catching more and more the bright beams from the Sun of Righteousness, and shine more and more unto the perfect day.
OFC	110	6	Jesus does not bid the Christian to strive to shine, but just to let his light shine in clear and distinct rays to the world. Do not blanket your light. Do not sinfully withhold your light. Do not let the mist and fog and malaria of the world put out your light. Do not hide it under a bed or under a bushel, but set it on a candlestick, that it may give light to all that are in the house....God bids you shine, penetrating the moral darkness of the world.
OFC	111	1	Many do not know what is the matter with them. They want light and see no ray. They are calling for help and they hear no response. Shall doubt and unbelief be perpetuated because I do not gather the divine rays of light from Jesus Christ and let them shine forth to others? ...
OFC	111	2	The deep struggles of my own soul against temptations, the earnest longings of my mind and heart to know God and Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour, and to have assurance, peace, and rest in their love, lead me to desire every day to be where the beams of the Sun of Righteousness can shine upon me. Without this experience, I shall indeed meet with great loss, and all with whom I associate will be affected by the loss of the light I ought to be receiving from the Source of all light and comfort, and to be flashing into their pathway. Shall I be indeed a light unto the world, or a shadow of darkness?
------------------------A Jewel Or A Pebble? April 26
OFC	111	3	In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts. Haggai 2:23.
OFC	111	4	Christians are Christ's jewels. They are to shine brightly for Him, shedding forth the light of His loveliness. Their luster depends on the polishing they receive. They may choose to be polished or to remain unpolished. But everyone who is pronounced worthy of a place in the Lord's temple must submit to the polishing process. Without the polishing that the Lord gives they can reflect no more light than a common pebble.
OFC	111	5	Christ says to man, "You are mine. I have bought you. You are now only a rough stone, but if you will place yourself in my hands, I will polish you, and the luster with which you shall shine will bring honor to My name. No man shall pluck you out of My hand. I will make you My peculiar treasure. On My coronation day, you will be a jewel in My crown of rejoicing."
OFC	111	6	The divine Worker spends little time on worthless material. Only the precious jewels does He polish after the similitude of a palace, cutting away all the rough edges. This process is severe and trying; it hurts human pride. Christ cuts deep into the experience that man in his self-sufficiency has regarded as complete, and takes away self-uplifting from the character. He cuts away the surplus surface, and putting the stone to the polishing wheel, presses it close, that all roughness may be worn away. Then, holding the jewel up to the light, the Master sees in it a reflection of Himself, and He pronounces it worthy of a place in His casket. "In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee,... and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts." Blessed be the experience, however severe, that gives new value to the stone, and causes it to shine with living brightness.
OFC	112	1	God will not suffer one of His truehearted workers to be left alone to struggle against great odds and be overcome. He preserves as a precious jewel every one whose life is hid with Christ in God.
------------------------Rooted In Christ, April 27
OFC	112	2	The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Psalm 92:12.
OFC	112	3	The Christian is likened to the cedar of Lebanon. I have read that this tree does more than send down a few short roots into the yielding loam. It sends strong roots deep down into the earth, and strikes down farther and still farther in search of a still stronger hold. And in the fierce blast of the tempest, it stands firm, held by its network of cables beneath.
OFC	112	4	So the Christian strikes root deep into Christ. He has faith in his Redeemer. He knows in whom he believes. He is fully persuaded that Jesus is the Son of God and the Saviour of sinners.... The roots of faith strike deep down. Genuine Christians, like the cedar of Lebanon, do not grow in the soft surface soil, but are rooted in God, riveted in the clefts of the mountain rocks.
OFC	112	5	If the Christian thrives and progresses at all, he must do so amid strangers to God, amid scoffing, subject to ridicule. He must stand upright like the palm tree in the desert. The sky may be as brass, the desert sand may beat about the palm tree's roots, and pile itself in heaps about its trunk. Yet the tree lives as an evergreen, fresh and vigorous amid the burning desert sands. Remove the sand till you reach the rootlets of the palm tree, and you discover the secret of its life; it strikes down deep beneath the surface, to the secret waters hidden in the earth.
OFC	112	6	As the palm tree, drawing nourishment from fountains of living water, is green and flourishing in the midst of the desert, so the Christian may draw rich supplies of grace from the fountain of God's love, and may guide weary souls, that are full of unrest and ready to perish in the desert of sin, to those waters of which they may drink, and live. The Christian is ever pointing his fellow men to Jesus, who invites, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." John 7:37. This fountain never fails us; we may draw, and draw again.
------------------------No Patchwork Religion! April 28
OFC	113	1	But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Matthew 24:13.
OFC	113	2	The religion that is built on self is worthless; for God makes no compromise with selfishness....
OFC	113	3	The religion of Christ is a firm fabric, composed of innumerable threads, woven together with tact and skill. Only by the wisdom that God gives can we weave this fabric. Trusting to ourselves, we draw into it threads of selfishness, and the pattern is spoiled.
OFC	113	4	There are many kinds of cloth which at first have a fine appearance, but they do not endure test. The colors are not fast. They wash out. Under the heat of summer they fade, and are lost. Such a fabric cannot endure rough handling, and is worth very little.
OFC	113	5	So it is with religion. When the warp and woof of religion will not stand the test of trial, the material of which it is composed is worthless. And an effort to patch the old cloth with a new piece does not better the condition of things; for the worn-out, flimsy material breaks away from the new, leaving the rent much larger than before. Patching will not do. The only way is to discard the old garment and procure a new one. The religion of self, composed of threads that fade and give way under the stress of temptation, must be cast aside, to be replaced by the religion woven by Him in whose life no selfishness found place.
OFC	113	6	Christ's plan is the only safe one. He declares, "Behold, I make all things new." Revelation 21:5. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 2 Corinthians 5:17. The Saviour gives no encouragement to any to think that He will accept a patchwork religion. Such a religion is of no value in His sight. There may at first seem to be some of self and some of Christ; but it is soon seen that there is none of Christ. The patches of selfishness increase till the entire garment is covered with them....
OFC	113	7	A religion formed after the divine pattern is the only one that will endure. Only by striving to live the life of Christ here can we prepare ourselves to live with Him through the eternal ages.
------------------------The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ, April 29
OFC	114	1	That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Ephesians 3:16.
OFC	114	2	The themes of redemption are momentous themes, and only those who are spiritually-minded can discern their depth and significance. It is our safety, our joy, to dwell upon the truths of the plan of salvation. Faith and prayer are necessary in order that we may behold the deep things of God. Our minds are so bound about by narrow ideas that we catch but limited views of the experience it is our privilege to have...
OFC	114	3	Why is it that many who profess to have faith in Christ have no strength to stand against the temptations of the enemy?--It is because they are not strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. The apostle prays "that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Ephesians 3:17-19. If we had this experience, we should know something of the cross of Calvary. We would know what it means to be partakers with Christ in His sufferings. The love of Christ would constrain us, and though we would not be able to explain how the love of Christ warmed our hearts, we would manifest His love in fervent devotion to His cause.
OFC	114	4	Paul opens before the Ephesian church, in the most comprehensive language, the marvelous power and knowledge they might possess as sons and daughters of the Most High. It was theirs "to be strengthened with might...," to be "rooted and grounded in love,"..."to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge."...
OFC	114	5	Jehovah Emmanuel--He in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge--to be brought into sympathy with Him, to possess Him, as the heart opens more and more to receive His attributes: to know His love and power, to possess the unsearchable riches of Christ...this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and "their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord." Isaiah 54:17.
------------------------Almost Home! April 30
OFC	115	1	And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:3.
OFC	115	2	More than eighteen hundred years have passed since the Saviour gave the promise of His coming. Throughout the centuries His words have filled with courage the hearts of His faithful ones. The promise has not yet been fulfilled;...but none the less sure is the word that has been spoken.
OFC	115	3	Christ will come in His own glory, in the glory of His Father, and in the glory of the holy angels. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels, the beautiful, triumphant sons of God, possessing surpassing loveliness and glory, will escort Him on His way. In the place of a crown of thorns, He will wear a crown of glory--a crown within a crown. In the place of that old purple robe, He will be clothed in a garment of whitest white, "so as no fuller on earth can white" (Mark 9:3) it. And on His vesture and on His thigh a name will be written, "King of kings, and Lord of lords." Revelation 19:16....
OFC	115	4	To His faithful followers Christ has been a daily companion, a familiar friend. They have lived in close, constant communion with God. Upon them the glory of the Lord has risen. In them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has been reflected. Now they rejoice in the undimmed rays of the brightness and glory of the King in His majesty. They are prepared for the communion of heaven, for they have heaven in their hearts.
OFC	115	5	With uplifted heads, with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining upon them, with rejoicing that their redemption draweth nigh, they go forth to meet the Bridegroom, saying, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us."
OFC	115	6	The time of tarrying is almost ended. The pilgrims and strangers who have so long been seeking a better country are almost home. I feel as if I must cry aloud, Homeward bound! ... "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless." 2 Peter 3:14.
------------------------Superficial Knowledge Not Enough, May 1
OFC	116	1	To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27.
OFC	116	2	There are many mysteries in the Word of God that we do not comprehend, and many of us are content to stop our investigation when we have just begun to receive a little knowledge concerning Christ. When there begins to be a little unfolding of the divine purposes to the mind, and we begin to obtain a slight knowledge of the character of God, we become satisfied and think that we have received about all the light that there is for us in the Word of God. But the truth of God is infinite. With painstaking effort we should work in the mines of truth, discovering the precious jewels that have been hidden.... Jesus meant just what He said when He directed His disciples to "search the Scriptures" (John 5:39). Searching means to compare scripture with scripture, and spiritual things with spiritual. We should not be satisfied with a superficial knowledge.
OFC	116	3	We do not half realize what the Lord is willing to do for His people.... Our petitions, mingled with faith and contrition, should go up to God for an understanding of the mysteries that God would make known to His saints.... An angel's pen could not portray all the glory of the revealed plan of redemption. The Bible tells how Christ bore our sins and carried our sorrows. Here is revealed how mercy and truth have met together at the cross of Calvary, how righteousness and peace have kissed each other, how the righteousness of Christ may be imparted to fallen man. There infinite wisdom, infinite justice, infinite mercy, and infinite love were displayed. Depths, heights, lengths, and breadths of love and wisdom, all passing knowledge, are made known in the plan of salvation.
OFC	116	4	He who desires the truth in his heart, who longs for the working of its powers upon the life and character, will be sure to have it. Says the Saviour, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).
------------------------Our Divine Redeemer, May 2
OFC	116	5	Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Philippians 2:6.
OFC	116	6	Jesus Christ "counted it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God." Because divinity alone could be efficacious in the restoration of man from the poisonous bruise of the serpent, God Himself, in His only begotten Son, assumed human nature, and in the weakness of human nature sustained the character of God, vindicated His holy law in every particular, and accepted the sentence of wrath and death for the sons of men. What a thought is this! He who was one with the Father before the world was made had such compassion for a world lost and ruined by transgression that He gave His life a ransom for it. He who was the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His person, bore our sins in His own body on the tree, suffering the penalty of man's transgression until justice was satisfied and required no more. How great is the redemption that has been worked out for us! So great that the Son of God died the cruel death of the cross to bring to us life and immortality through faith in Him.
OFC	117	1	This wonderful problem--how God could be just and yet the justifier of sinners--is beyond human ken. As we attempt to fathom it, it broadens and deepens beyond our comprehension. When we look with the eye of faith upon the cross of Calvary, and see our sins laid upon the victim hanging in weakness and ignominy there--when we grasp the fact that this is God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace--we are led to exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us" (1 John 3:1)! ...
OFC	117	2	When man can measure the exalted character of the Lord of hosts, and distinguish between the eternal God and finite humanity, he will know how great has been the sacrifice of Heaven to bring man from where he has fallen through disobedience to become part of the family of God.... The divinity of Christ is our assurance of eternal life.... He, the Sin Bearer of the world, is our only medium of reconciliation with a holy God.
------------------------Tender, Loving, Compassionate, May 3
OFC	117	3	But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. Psalm 86:15.
OFC	117	4	God has ordained according to the law of ministry that we should comfort one another in tenderness and love when great sorrows come upon us. No man liveth unto himself. No one dieth unto himself. Life and death both mean something to every human being.... God has enjoined the duty upon His human agents to communicate the character of God, testifying to His grace, His wisdom, and His benevolence, by manifesting His refined, tender, merciful love.... Jesus ... was ever touched with human woe, and our hearts should be softened and subdued by His Holy Spirit, that we may be like Him....
OFC	118	1	Our work is to restore the moral image of God in man through the abundant grace given us of God by Jesus Christ. Everywhere we shall find souls ready to die, and how essential it is that the compassion of Christ shall be given us of Him, in order that we may never place one soul in defiance by not manifesting long forbearance and pitying tenderness.... I inquire, Will we ever learn the gentleness of Christ? Oh, how much we need to know Jesus and our heavenly Father that we may represent Him in character! ...
OFC	118	2	Jesus calls us to Himself not simply to refresh us with His grace and presence for a few hours, and then to send us forth from His light to walk apart from Him in sadness and gloom. No, no. He tells us that we must abide with Him and He with us. Wherever His work is to be done He is present--tender, loving, and compassionate. He has prepared for you and me an abiding dwelling place in Himself. He is our refuge. Our experience should broaden and deepen. Jesus has opened up all the divine fullness of His inexpressible love, and He declares to you, Ye "are labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9). O what meaning these words have--"Abide in me" (John 15:4), "Take my yoke upon you" (Matthew 11:29). Will we take it? for the promise is, "Ye shall find rest unto your souls." There is rest, complete rest in abiding in Christ.
------------------------The Holy Spirit Our Helper, May 4
OFC	118	3	For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Romans 8:14.
OFC	118	4	Through the ministry of the angels the Holy Spirit is enabled to work upon the mind and heart of the human agent and draw him to Christ.... But the Spirit of God does not interfere with the freedom of the human agent. The Holy Spirit is given to be a helper, so that man may cooperate with the Divine, and it is given to Him to draw the soul but never to force obedience.
OFC	118	5	Christ is ready to impart all heavenly influences. He knows every temptation that comes to man, and the capabilities of each. He weighs his strength. He sees the present and the future, and presents before the mind the obligations that should be met, and urges that common, earthly things shall not be permitted to be so absorbing that eternal things shall be lost out of the reckoning. The Lord has fullness of grace to bestow on every one that will receive of the heavenly gift. The Holy Spirit will bring the God-entrusted capabilities into Christ's service, and will mold and fashion the human agent according to the divine Pattern.
OFC	119	1	The Holy Spirit is our efficiency in the work of character building, in forming characters after the divine similitude. When we think ourselves capable of molding our own experience, we make a great mistake. We can never of ourselves obtain the victory over temptation. But those who have genuine faith in Christ will be worked by the Holy Spirit. The soul in whose heart faith abides will grow into a beautiful temple for the Lord. He is directed by the grace of Christ. Just in proportion as he depends on the Holy Spirit's teaching he will grow.
OFC	119	2	The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the soul. We do not now see Christ and speak to Him, but His Holy Spirit is just as near us in one place as another. It works in and through every one who receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of the Spirit reveal the fruit of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.
------------------------"Despised And Rejected", May 5
OFC	119	3	He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:3.
OFC	119	4	How few have any conception of the anguish which rent the heart of the Son of God during His thirty years of life upon earth. The path from the manger to Calvary was shadowed by sorrow and grief. He was the Man of Sorrows, and endured such heartache as no human language can portray. He could have said in truth, "Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow" (Lamentations 1:12). His suffering was the deepest anguish of the soul; and what man could have sympathy with the soul anguish of the Son of the infinite God? Hating sin with a perfect hatred, He yet gathered to His soul the sins of the whole world, as He trod the path to Calvary, suffering the penalty of the transgressor. Guiltless, He bore the punishment of the guilty; innocent, yet offering Himself to bear the penalty of the transgression of the law of God. The punishment of the sins of every soul was borne by the Son of the infinite God. The guilt of every sin pressed its weight upon the divine soul of the world's Redeemer. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. In assuming the nature of man, He placed Himself where He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, that by His stripes we might be healed.
OFC	119	5	In His humanity Christ was tried with as much greater temptation, with as much more persevering energy than man is tried by the evil one, as His nature was greater than man's. This is a deep mysterious truth, that Christ is bound to humanity by the most sensitive sympathies. The evil works, the evil thoughts, the evil words of every son and daughter of Adam press upon His divine soul. The sins of men called for retribution upon Himself, for He had become man's substitute, and took upon Him the sins of the world. He bore the sins of every sinner, for all transgressions were imputed unto Him.... "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3).
------------------------An Advocate Clothed In Our Nature, May 6
OFC	120	1	My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1.
OFC	120	2	God's appointments and grants in our behalf are without limit. The throne of grace itself is occupied by One who permits us to call Him Father.... He has placed at His altar an Advocate clothed in our nature. As our Intercessor, Christ's office work is to introduce us to God as His sons and daughters. He intercedes in behalf of those who receive Him. With His own blood He has paid their ransom. By virtue of His merits He gives them power to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. And the Father demonstrates His infinite love for Christ by receiving and welcoming Christ's friends as His friends. He is satisfied with the atonement made. He is glorified by the incarnation, the life, death, and mediation of His son.
OFC	120	3	In Christ's name our petitions ascend to the Father. He intercedes in our behalf, and the Father lays open all the treasures of His grace for our appropriation, for us to enjoy and impart to others....
OFC	120	4	Christ is the connecting link between God and man.... He places the whole virtue of His righteousness on the side of the suppliant. He pleads for man, and man, in need of divine help, pleads for himself in the presence of God, using the influence of the One who gave His life for the life of the world. As we acknowledge before God our appreciation of Christ's merits, fragrance is given to our intercessions. As we approach God through the virtue of the Redeemer's merits, Christ places us close by His side, encircling us with His human arm, while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the Infinite. He puts His merits, as sweet incense, in the censer in our hands, in order to encourage our petitions....
OFC	120	5	Yes, Christ has become the medium of prayer between man and God. He has also become the medium of blessing between God and man.
------------------------The Priceless Pearl, May 7
OFC	121	1	Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Matthew 13:45, 46.
OFC	121	2	This goodly pearl represents the priceless treasure of Christ, as does the gold hid in the field. In Christ we have everything that is needful for us in this life, and that which will make up the joy of the world to come. All the money in the world will not buy the gift of peace and rest and love. These gifts are provided for us through faith in Christ. We cannot purchase these gifts from God; we have nothing with which to buy them. We are the property of God, for mind, soul, and body have been purchased by the ransom of the life of the Son of God....
OFC	121	3	Then what is it to buy the eternal treasure? It is simply to give back to Jesus His own, to receive Him into the heart by faith. It is cooperation with God; it is bearing the yoke with Christ; it is lifting His burdens.... The Lord Jesus laid aside His royal crown, He left His high command, He clothed His divinity with humanity, in order that through humanity He might uplift the human race. He so appreciated the possibility of the human race that He became man's substitute and surety. He places upon man His own merit, and thus elevates him in the scale of moral value with God.
OFC	121	4	Christ is the atoning sacrifice. He left the glory of heaven, He parted with His riches, He laid aside His honor, not in order to create love and interest for man in the heart of God, but to be an exponent of the love that existed in the heart of the Father.... Jesus paid the price of all His riches, He assumed humanity, He condescended to a life of poverty and humiliation, in order that He might seek and save that which was lost.
OFC	121	5	Through the grace of Christ we may be strengthened and matured, so that though now imperfect we may become complete in Him. We have mortgaged ourselves to Satan, but Christ came to ransom and redeem us. We cannot purchase anything from God. It is only by grace, the free gift of God in Christ, that we are saved.
------------------------Provision For Every Emergency, May 8
OFC	121	6	How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. Hebrews 2:3.
OFC	122	1	The divine Author of salvation left nothing incomplete in the plan; every phase of it is perfect. The sin of the whole world was laid upon Jesus, and divinity gave its highest value to the suffering of humanity in Jesus that the whole world might be pardoned through faith in the Substitute. The most guilty need have no fear but that God will pardon, for because of the efficacy of the divine sacrifice the penalty of the law will be remitted. Through Christ the sinner may return to allegiance to God.
OFC	122	2	How wonderful is the plan of redemption in its simplicity and fullness. It not only provides for the full pardon of the sinner but also for the restoration of the transgressor, making a way whereby he may be accepted as a son of God. Through obedience he may be the possessor of love and peace and joy. His faith may unite him in his weakness to Christ, the source of divine strength, and through the merits of Christ he may find the approval of God, because Christ has satisfied the demands of the law, and He imputes His righteousness to the penitent, believing soul....
OFC	122	3	What love, what wonderful love, was displayed by the Son of God....Christ takes the sinner from the lowest degradation, and purifies, refines, and ennobles him. By beholding Jesus as He is, the sinner is transformed and elevated to the very summit of dignity, even to a seat with Christ upon his throne....
OFC	122	4	The plan of redemption provides for every emergency and for every want of the soul. If it were deficient in any way, the sinner might find some excuse to plead for neglect of its terms, but the infinite God had a knowledge of every human necessity, and ample provision has been made to supply every need.... What, then, can the sinner say in the great day of final judgment as to why he refused to give attention, the most thorough and earnest, to the salvation proffered him?
------------------------A Faith That Purifies The Life, May 9
OFC	122	5	But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:11, 12.
OFC	122	6	Many teach that all that is necessary to salvation is to believe in Jesus, but what saith the word of truth?--"Faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). We are to "fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life," take up the cross, deny self, war against the flesh, and follow daily in the footsteps of the Redeemer....
OFC	123	1	It is a fatal mistake to think that there is nothing for you to do in obtaining salvation. You are to cooperate with the agencies of heaven....There is a cross to be lifted in the pathway, a wall to be scaled before you enter the eternal city, a ladder to be climbed before the gate of pearl is reached, and as you realize your inability and weakness and cry for help, a divine voice will come to you from the battlements of heaven saying, "Take hold of my strength" (Isaiah 27:5)....
OFC	123	2	The controversy that was waged between Christ and Satan is renewed over every soul that leaves the black banner of the prince of darkness to march under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. The evil one will present the most subtle allurements to draw those away from their allegiance who would be true to Heaven, but we must yield all the powers of our being into the service of God, and then we shall be kept from falling into the snares of the enemy....
OFC	123	3	Any course of action that weakens your physical or mental power unfits you for the service of your Creator. We are to love God with all our hearts, and if we have an eye single to His glory we shall eat, drink, and clothe ourselves with reference to His divine will. Every one who has a realizing sense of what it means to be a Christian will purify himself from everything that weakens and defiles. All the habits of his life will be brought into harmony with the requirements of the Word of truth, and he will not only believe, but will work out his own salvation with fear and trembling, while submitting to the molding of the Holy Spirit.
------------------------Children, Not Slaves, May 10
OFC	123	4	Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Hebrews 12:28.
OFC	123	5	There are many who profess to be Christ's followers and yet are not doers of His Word. They do not relish this Word because it presents service which is not agreeable to them. They do not relish the wholesome reproofs and close, earnest appeals. They do not love righteousness, but are mastered and tyrannized over by their own erratic, human impulses.
OFC	123	6	It makes every difference how we do service for God. The boy who drudges through his lessons because he must learn will never become a real student. The man who claims to keep the commandments of God because he thinks he must do it will never enter into the enjoyment of obedience.
OFC	123	7	The essence and flavor of all obedience is the outworking of a principle within--the love of righteousness, the love of the law of God. The essence of all righteousness is loyalty to our Redeemer, doing right because it is right. When the Word of God is a burden because it cuts directly across human inclinations, then the religious life is not a Christian life, but a tug and a strain, an enforced obedience. All the purity and godliness of religion are set aside.
OFC	124	1	But adoption into the family of God makes us children, not slaves. When the love of Christ enters the heart we strive to imitate the character of Christ.... The more we study the life of Christ with a heart to learn, the more Christlike we become. Into the heart of every true doer of the Word the Holy Spirit infuses clear understanding. The more we crucify selfish practices by imparting our blessings to others and by exercising our God-given ability, the more the heavenly graces will be strengthened and increased in us. We will grow in spirituality, in patience, in fortitude, in meekness, in gentleness.... A train of cars is not merely attached to the engine; they follow on the same track as the engine. Whom are we following?
------------------------Abiding In Christ, May 11
OFC	124	2	Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John 15:4.
OFC	124	3	"Abide in me" are words of great significance. Abiding in Christ means a living, earnest, refreshing faith that works by love and purifies the soul. It means a constant receiving of the spirit of Christ, a life of unreserved surrender to His service. Where this union exists, good works will appear. The life of the vine will manifest itself in fragrant fruit on the branches. The continual supply of the grace of Christ will bless you and make you a blessing, till you can say with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).
OFC	124	4	The sacred union with Christ will unite the brethren in the most endearing bonds of Christian fellowship. Their hearts will be touched with divine compassion one for another.... Coldness, variance, strife, are entirely out of place among the disciples of Christ. They have accepted the one faith. They have joined to serve the one Lord, to endure in the same warfare, to strive for the same object, and to triumph in the same cause. They have been bought with the same precious blood, and have gone forth to preach the same message of salvation....
OFC	124	5	Those who are constantly drawing strength from Christ will possess His spirit. They will not be careless in word or deportment. An abiding sense of how much their salvation has cost in the sacrifice of the beloved Son of God will rest upon their souls. Like a fresh and vivid transaction the scenes of Calvary will present themselves to their minds and their hearts will be subdued and made tender by this wonderful manifestation of the love of Christ to them. They will look upon others as the purchase of His precious blood, and those who are united with Him will seem noble and elevated and sacred because of this connection. The death of Christ on Calvary should lead us to estimate souls as He did. His love has magnified the value of every man, woman, and child.
------------------------A Life Of Strength, May 12
OFC	125	1	I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. John 9:4.
OFC	125	2	The Christian life does not consist merely in the exercise of meekness, patience, humility, and kindness. One may possess these precious and amiable traits and yet be nerveless and spiritless, and almost useless when the work goes hard. Such persons lack the positiveness and energy, the solidity and strength of character, which would enable them to resist evil, and would make them a power in the cause of God.
OFC	125	3	Jesus was our example in all things, and He was an earnest and constant worker. He commenced His life of usefulness in childhood. At the age of twelve He was "about his Father's business." Between the ages of twelve and thirty, before entering upon His public ministry, He led a life of active industry. In His ministry Jesus was never idle. Said He, "I must work the works of him that sent me...." The suffering who came to Him were not turned away unrelieved. He was acquainted with each heart and knew how to minister to its needs. Loving words fell from His lips to comfort, encourage, and bless, and the great principles of the kingdom of heaven were set before the multitudes in words so simple as to be understood by all.
OFC	125	4	Jesus was a silent and unselfish worker. He did not seek fame, riches, or applause, neither did He consult His own ease and pleasure....He did not shirk care and responsibility, as many do who profess to be His followers....
OFC	125	5	The claims of Christ upon our service are new every day. However complete may have been our consecration at conversion, it will avail us nothing unless it be renewed daily, but a consecration that embraces the actual present is fresh, genuine, and acceptable to God. We have not weeks and months to lay at His feet; tomorrow is not ours, for we have not yet received it, but today we may work for Jesus. Today we may lay our plans and purposes before Him for His inspection and approval....This is God's day, and you are His hired servant.
------------------------Jesus Our All, May 13
OFC	126	1	But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30.
OFC	126	2	It is growth in knowledge of the character of Christ that sanctifies the soul. To discern and appreciate the wonderful work of the atonement transforms him who contemplates the plan of salvation. By beholding Christ he becomes changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. The beholding of Jesus becomes an ennobling, refining process.... The perfection of Christ's character is the Christian's inspiration... Christ should never be out of the mind. The angels said concerning Him, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Jesus, precious Saviour! assurance, helpfulness, security, and peace are all in Him. He is the dispeller of all our doubts, the earnest of all our hopes. How precious is the thought that we may indeed become partakers of the divine nature, whereby we may overcome as Christ overcame! Jesus is the fullness of our expectation. He is the melody of our songs, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. He is living water to the thirsty soul. He is our refuge in the storm. He is our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption.
OFC	126	3	The power of Christ is to be the comfort, the hope, the crown of rejoicing, of every one that follows Jesus in his conflict, in his struggles in life. He who truly follows the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, can shout as he advances, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4).
OFC	126	4	What kind of faith is it that overcomes the world? It is that faith which makes Christ your own personal Saviour--that faith which, recognizing your helplessness, your utter inability to save yourself, takes hold of the helper who is mighty to save, as your only hope. It is faith that will not be discouraged, that hears the voice of Christ saying, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, and my divine strength is yours." ... "Lo, I am with you alway."
------------------------The Coming Of The Comforter, May 14
OFC	126	5	And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. John 14:16, 17.
OFC	127	1	Christ was about to depart to His home in the heavenly courts, but He assured His disciples that He would send them the Comforter, who would abide with them forever. To the guidance of this Comforter all may implicitly trust. He is the Spirit of truth; but this truth the world can neither see nor receive....
OFC	127	2	Christ desired His disciples to understand that He would not leave them orphans. "I will not leave you comfortless," He declared: "I will come to you" (John 14:18, 19).... Precious, glorious assurance of eternal life! Even though He was to be absent, their relation to Him was to be that of a child to its parent....
OFC	127	3	The words spoken to the disciples come to us through their words. The Comforter is ours as well as theirs, at all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all affliction, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing and we feel helpless and alone. These are times when the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith.
OFC	127	4	There is no comforter like Christ, so tender and so true. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. His Spirit speaks to the heart. Circumstances may separate us from our friends; the broad, restless ocean may roll between us and them. Though their sincere friendship may still exist, they may be unable to demonstrate it by doing for us that which would be gratefully received. But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always there, one given in Christ's place, to act in His stead. He is always at our right hand, to speak soothing, gentle words, to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer. The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the soul. This Spirit works in and through every one who receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of this Spirit reveal its fruit--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.
------------------------Building Up One Another, May 15
OFC	127	5	We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Romans 15:1.
OFC	127	6	God does not want us to place ourselves upon the judgment seat and judge each other.... When we see errors in others, let us remember that we have faults graver, perhaps, in the sight of God than the fault we condemn in our brother. Instead of publishing his defects, ask God to bless him and to help him to overcome his error. Christ will approve of this spirit and action, and will open the way for you to speak a word of wisdom that will impart strength and help to him who is weak in the faith.
OFC	128	1	The work of building one another up in the most holy faith is a blessed work, but the work of tearing down is a work full of bitterness and sorrow. Christ identifies Himself with His suffering children, for He says, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:40).... Every heart has its own sorrows and disappointments, and we should seek to lighten one another's burdens by manifesting the love of Jesus to those around us. If our conversation were upon heaven and heavenly things, evil speaking would soon cease to have any attraction for us....
OFC	128	2	Instead of finding fault with others, let us be critical with ourselves. The question with each one of us should be, Is my heart right before God? Will this course of action glorify my Father which is in heaven? If you have cherished a wrong spirit, let it be banished from the soul. It is your duty to eradicate from your heart everything that is of a defiling nature. Every root of bitterness should be plucked up, lest others be contaminated by its baleful influence. Do not allow one poisonous plant to remain in the soil of your heart. Root it out this very hour, and plant in its stead the plant of love. Let Jesus be enshrined in the soul. Christ is our example. He went about doing good. He lived to bless others. Love beautified and ennobled all His actions, and we are commanded to follow in His steps.
------------------------Opening The Mysteries Of Redemption, May 16
OFC	128	3	Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. Luke 24:45.
OFC	128	4	The Lord wants every one of us to have a deeper, richer experience in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He desires that we shall grow in knowledge--not earthward, but heaven-ward, upward to Christ our living Head. How high, how great, is this knowledge to be? To the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. We cannot grow too much, we cannot gather up too many of the precious rays of light that God sends us....
OFC	128	5	We know falsehoods are coming in like a swift current, and that is just the reason why we want every ray of light that God has for us, that we may be able to stand amid the perils of the last days....
OFC	128	6	O how Christ longs to open before us the mysteries of redemption! He longed to do this for His disciples when He was among them on earth, but they were not far enough advanced in spiritual knowledge to comprehend His words. He had to say to them, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John 16:12). O how much better could they have borne the terrible ordeal through which they had to pass at His trial and crucifixion if they had advanced and been able to bear the instruction of Christ! Shall we not let Jesus open our understanding? ...
OFC	129	1	We are on the borders of the eternal world, and we must have a testimony with which all heaven shall be in harmony.
OFC	129	2	The Lord is coming, and we must be ready! Every moment I want His grace--I want the robe of Christ's righteousness. We must humble our souls before God as never before, come low to the foot of the cross, and He will put a word in our mouths to speak for Him, even praise unto our God. He will teach us a strain from the song of the angels, even thanksgiving to our heavenly Father. We can do nothing of ourselves, but God wants to touch our lips with a living coal from off the altar. He wants to sanctify our tongues--to sanctify our whole being.
------------------------Truths That Transform, May 17
OFC	129	3	The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12.
OFC	129	4	The truths of the Bible, treasured in the heart and mind and obeyed in the life, convince and convert the soul, transform the character, and comfort and uplift the heart.... The Word makes the proud humble, the perverse meek and contrite, the disobedient obedient. The sinful habits natural to man are interwoven with the daily practice. But the Word cuts away the fleshly lusts. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the mind. It divides the joints and marrow, cutting away the lusts of the flesh, making men willing to suffer for their Lord.
OFC	129	5	The service of Christ is a heavenly and holy and blessed thing. The Word is to be diligently searched, for the ministry of the Word discovers the imperfections in our characters and teaches us that the sanctification of the Spirit is a work of heavenly devising, presenting in Christ Jesus the true perfection that if maintained will become a perfect whole in behalf of every soul. We are educated in Bible lines to become complete in Christlikeness and to see His Father's face in Him who gave His own life for the saving of the soul.
OFC	129	6	If you are an intelligent Christian you will maintain religious vitality and will not be deterred by difficulties.... You will work the works of God in gloom as well as in glory, in shade as well as in sunshine, in trial as well as in peace. The truth must be treasured up in your heart as well as incorporated in your being, so that no temptation and no argument can induce you to yield to Satan's suggestions or devices. The truth is precious. It has wrought important changes upon the life and upon the character, exerting a masterly influence over words, deportment, thoughts, and experience. The soul who appreciates the truth lives under its influence and senses the tremendous realities of eternal things. He lives not to himself, but to Jesus Christ who died for him. To him, God lives and is very cognizant of all his words and actions.
------------------------A Never-Failing Refuge, May 18
OFC	130	1	Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6.
OFC	130	2	It is not the will of God that His people should be weighed down with care. But our Lord does not deceive us. He does not say to us, "Do not fear; there are no dangers in your path." He knows there are trials and dangers, and He deals with us plainly. He does not propose to take His people out of a world of sin and evil, but He points them to a never-failing refuge....
OFC	130	3	How can we remain in doubt, questioning whether Jesus loves us, sinful though we be and compassed with infirmities? He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. He came to our world in the humble guise of a man, that He might become acquainted with the griefs and temptations that beset man's pathway, and that He might know how to help the weary with His offer of rest and peace. But thousands upon thousands refuse His assistance and only cling more firmly to their burden of care. He comes to the afflicted, and offers to soothe their grief and heal their sorrow.... To the disappointed, the unbelieving, and the unhappy He offers contentment, while pointing to mansions that He is preparing for them.... Jesus, our precious Saviour, should be first in our thoughts and affections, and we should trust Him with entire confidence....
OFC	130	4	As each day comes we must in the strength of Jesus meet its trials and temptations. If we fail one day we add to the burdens of the next, and have less strength. We should not cloud the future by our carelessness in the present, but by thoughtful and careful performance of today's duties be preparing to meet the emergencies of tomorrow.
OFC	130	5	We need to cultivate a spirit of cheerfulness.... Let us ever look on the bright side of life and be hopeful, full of love and good works, rejoicing in the Lord always. "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts," and "be ye thankful" (Colossians 3:15).
------------------------A Progressive Faith, May 19
OFC	131	1	But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6.
OFC	131	2	The time has come when we are to expect large blessings from the Lord. We must rise to a higher standard on the subject of faith. We have too little faith. The Word of God is our endorsement. We must take it, simply believing every word. With this assurance we may claim large things, and according to our faith it will be unto us....
OFC	131	3	The work of faith means more than we think. It means genuine reliance upon the naked word of God. By our actions we are to show that we believe that God will do just as He has said. The wheels of nature and of providence are not appointed to roll backward nor to stand still. We must have an advancing, working faith, a faith that works by love and purifies the soul from every vestige of selfishness. It is not self, but God, that we must depend upon. We must not cherish unbelief. We must have that faith that takes God at His word....
OFC	131	4	True faith consists in doing just what God has enjoined, not manufacturing things He has not enjoined. Justice, truth, mercy, are the fruit of faith. We need to walk in the light of God's law; then good works will be the fruit of our faith, the proceeds of a heart renewed every day. The tree must be made good before the fruit can be good. We must be wholly consecrated to God. Our will must be made right before the fruit can be good. We must have no fitful religion. "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).
OFC	131	5	O what a field is opened before me! Our people must have the deep working of the Spirit of God every day. They must have a faith that works by love, a faith that emanates from God. There must not be a thread of selfishness drawn into the fabric. When our faith works by love, just such a love as Christ revealed in His life, it will be of a firm texture; it will be the fruit of a will subdued. But not until self dies can Christ live in us. Not until self dies can we possess a faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
------------------------The Mighty Deliverer, May 20
OFC	132	1	I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts. Isaiah 65:2.
OFC	132	2	The Lord God through Christ holds out His hand all the day long in invitations to the needy. He will receive all. He welcomes all. He rejects none. It is His glory to pardon the chief of sinners. He will take the prey from the mighty, He will deliver the captive, He will pluck the brand from the burning. He will lower the golden chain of His mercy to the greatest depths of human wretchedness and guilt and lift up the debased soul contaminated with sin. But man must will to come, and cooperate in the work of saving his soul by availing himself of opportunities given him of God. The Lord forces no one. The spotless wedding robe of Christ's righteousness is prepared to clothe the sinner, but if he refuses it he must perish.
OFC	132	3	The record of the past can be blotted out with His [Christ's] blood, the page made clean and white. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18)....
OFC	132	4	The words falling from the lips of Jesus, "Thy sins be forgiven thee" (Matthew 9:2), are worth everything to us. He saith, I have borne your sins in My own body on Calvary's cross. He sees your sorrows. His hand is laid upon the head of every contrite soul, and Jesus becomes our Advocate before the Father, and our Saviour. The lowly, contrite heart will make very much of forgiveness and pardon....
OFC	132	5	We may repeat His tender compassion for us to others who are wandering in the mazes of sin. The grace of Christ revealed to us must be tenderly revealed to others. A great tenderness and compassion will fill the soul for human beings who are still under the control of Satan. Christ is to be multiplied in every man and woman who believes in Him, for they are to live over the life of Christ in blessing and enlightening and bringing hope and peace and joy to other hearts.
------------------------How To Get Rid Of Guilt, May 21
OFC	132	6	Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. Micah 7:18.
OFC	133	1	I am glad indeed that our feelings are no evidence that we are not children of God. The enemy will tempt you to think that you have done things that have separated you from God, and that He no longer loves you, but our Lord loves us still....
OFC	133	2	Look away from yourself to the perfection of Christ. We cannot manufacture a righteousness for ourselves. Christ has in His hands the pure robes of righteousness, and He will put them upon us. He will speak sweet words of forgiveness and promise. He presents to our thirsty souls fountains of living water whereby we may be refreshed. He bids us come unto Him with all our burdens, all our griefs, and He says we shall find rest....
OFC	133	3	Jesus sees the guilt of the past, and speaks pardon, and we must not dishonor Him by doubting His love. This feeling of guiltiness must be laid at the foot of the cross of Calvary. The sense of sinfulness has poisoned the springs of life and of true happiness. Now Jesus says, "Lay it all on Me. I will take your sins; I will give you peace. Banish no longer your self-respect, for I have bought you with the price of My own blood. You are Mine. Your weakened will I will strengthen; your remorse for sin I will remove." Then turn your grateful heart, trembling with uncertainty, to Him and lay hold on the hope set before you. God accepts your broken, contrite heart, and extends to you free pardon. He offers to adopt you into His family, with His grace to help your weakness, and the dear Saviour will lead you on step by step, you placing your hand in His and letting Him guide you.
OFC	133	4	Search for the precious promises of God. If Satan thrusts threatenings before your mind, turn from them and cling to the promises, and let your soul be comforted by their brightness. The cloud is dark in itself, but when filled with the light it is turned to the brightness of gold, for the glory of God is upon it.
------------------------The Only Path Of Safety, May 22
OFC	133	5	And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21.
OFC	133	6	I know that human beings suffer much because they step out of the path that God has chosen for them to follow. They walk in the sparks of the fire they have kindled themselves, and the sure result is affliction, unrest, and sorrow, which they might have avoided if they had submitted their will to God and had permitted Him to control their ways. God sees that it is necessary to oppose our will and our way, and bring our human will into subjection.
OFC	134	1	Whatever path God chooses for us, whatever way He ordains for our feet, that is the only path of safety. We are daily to cherish a spirit of childlike submission, and pray that our eyes may be anointed with the heavenly eyesalve in order that we may discern the indications of the divine will, lest we become confused in our ideas, because our will seems to be all-controlling. With the eye of faith, with childlike submission as obedient children, we must look to God, to follow His guidance, and difficulties will clear away. The promise is, "I will instruct thee and teach thee ... : I will guide thee with mine eye" (Psalm 32:8)....
OFC	134	2	If we come to God in a humble and teachable spirit, not with our plans all formed before we ask Him, and shaped according to our own will, but in submission, in willingness to be taught, in faith, it is our privilege to claim the promise every hour of the day. We may distrust ourselves, and we need to guard against our own inclinations and strong tendencies lest we shall follow our mind and plans and think it is the way of the Lord....
OFC	134	3	Our heavenly Father is our Ruler, and we must submit to His discipline. We are members of His family. He has a right to our service, and if one of the members of His family would persist in having his own way, persist in doing just that which he pleased, that spirit would bring about a disordered and perplexing state of things. We must not study to have our own way, but God's way and God's will.
------------------------The March To Victory, May 23
OFC	134	4	But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57.
OFC	134	5	Nothing can be more helpless, nothing can be more dependent, than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly upon the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour. The Christian life is a life of warfare, of continual conflict. It is a battle and a march. But every act of obedience to Christ, every act of self-denial for His sake, every trial well endured, every victory gained over temptation, is a step in the march to the glory of final victory.
OFC	134	6	If we take Christ for our guide, He will lead us safely along the narrow way. The road may be rough and thorny; the ascent may be steep and dangerous; there may be pitfalls upon the right hand and upon the left; we may have to endure toil in our journey; when weary, when longing for rest, we may have to toil on; when faint, we may have to fight; when discouraged, we may be called upon to hope; but with Christ as our Guide we shall not lose the path to immortal life, we shall not fail to reach the desired haven at last.
OFC	135	1	Christ Himself has trod the rough pathway before us and has smoothed the path for our feet. The narrow path of holiness, the way cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in, is illuminated by Him who is the light of the world. As we follow in His steps, His light will shine upon us, and as we reflect the light borrowed from the glory of Christ, the path will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.
OFC	135	2	We may think it pleasant at first to follow pride and worldly ambition, but the end is pain and sorrow. Selfish plans may present flattering promises and hold out the hope of enjoyment, but we shall find that our happiness is poisoned and our life embittered by hopes that center in self. In following Christ we are safe, for He will not suffer the powers of darkness to hurt one hair of our heads. He will keep that which is committed to His trust, and we shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
------------------------"Come Ye Yourselves Apart", May 24
OFC	135	3	Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. Psalm 27:14.
OFC	135	4	No other life was ever so crowded with labor and responsibility as was that of Jesus, yet how often He was found in prayer! How constant was His communion with God! ... As one with us, a sharer in our needs and weaknesses, He was wholly dependent upon God, and in the secret place of prayer He sought divine strength that He might go forth braced for duty and trial. In a world of sin Jesus endured struggles and torture of soul. In communion with God He could unburden the sorrows that were crushing Him....
OFC	135	5	In Christ the cry of humanity reached the Father of infinite pity. As a man He supplicated the throne of God till His humanity was charged with a heavenly current that should connect humanity with divinity. Through continual communion He received life from God, that He might impart life to the world. His experience is to be ours. "Come ye yourselves apart" (Mark 6:31), He bids us. If we would give heed to His Word we should be stronger and more useful.... If today we would take time to go to Jesus and tell Him our needs we should not be disappointed; He would be at our right hand to help us....
OFC	135	6	In all who are under the training of God is to be revealed a life that is not in harmony with the world, its customs, or its practices, and everyone needs to have a personal experience in obtaining a knowledge of the will of God. We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. He bids us, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). Here alone can true rest be found. And this is the effectual preparation for all who labor for God. Amid the hurrying throng and the strain of life's intense activities, the soul that is thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. The life will breathe out fragrance and will reveal a divine power that will reach men's hearts.
------------------------The Preciousness Of Secret Prayer, May 25
OFC	136	1	Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Psalm 62:8.
OFC	136	2	A deep sense of our need and a great desire for the things for which we ask must characterize our prayers, else they will not be heard. But we are not to become weary and cease our petitions because the answer is not immediately received. "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matthew 11:12). The violence here meant is a holy earnestness, such as Jacob manifested. We need not try to work ourselves up into an intense feeling, but calmly, persistently, we are to press our petitions at the throne of grace. Our work is to humble our souls before God, confessing our sins, and in faith drawing nigh unto God.... It is the design of God to reveal Himself in His providence and in His grace. The object of our prayers must be the glory of God, not the glorification of ourselves....
OFC	136	3	God has honored us by showing how greatly He values us. We are bought with a price, even the precious blood of the Son of God. When His heritage shall conscientiously follow the Word of the Lord, His blessing will rest upon them in answer to their prayers. "Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness" (Joel 2:12, 13).
OFC	136	4	In secret prayer the soul should be laid bare to the inspecting eye of God.... How precious is secret prayer--the soul communing with God! Secret prayer is to be heard only by the prayer-hearing God. No curious ear is to receive the burden of petitions. Calmly, yet fervently, the soul is to reach out after God; and sweet and abiding will be the influence emanating from Him who sees in secret, whose ear is open to the prayer arising from the heart. He who in simple faith holds communion with God will gather to himself divine rays of light to strengthen and sustain him in the conflict with Satan.
------------------------The Motive For Obedience, May 26
OFC	137	1	For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 1 John 5:3.
OFC	137	2	It is the keeping of the commandments of God that honors and glorifies Him in His chosen. Wherefore every soul to whom God has given reasoning faculties is under obligation to God to search the Word and ascertain all that is enjoined upon us as God's purchased possession. We should seek to understand all that the Word requires of us.... We cannot show greater honor to our God, whose we are by creation and redemption, than to give evidence to the beings of heaven, to the worlds unfallen, and to fallen men, that we diligently hearken unto all His commandments, which are the laws that govern His kingdom.
OFC	137	3	We need to study diligently that we may gain a knowledge of the laws of God. How can we be obedient subjects if we fail to understand the laws that govern the kingdom of God? Then open your Bibles and search for everything that will enlighten you in regard to the precepts of God; and when you discern a Thus saith the Lord, ask not the opinion of men, but whatever the cost to yourself, obey cheerfully. Then the blessing of God will rest upon you....
OFC	137	4	Often ask prayerfully, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Am I in any way disregarding the divine precepts? Am I in any way placing my influence on the enemy's side? Am I showing a careless disregard of God's commandments? Am I willing to yoke up with Christ, to lift the burdens, and to be a co-laborer with Him? Am I studying out possible excuses for neglecting obedience to a Thus saith the Lord? Am I risking the consequences of neglect to obey the clearly revealed precepts of Jehovah because I am not willing to come out from the world and be separate? Shall the fear of man have a greater influence over me than the fear of God?"
OFC	137	5	Surrender yourself to God, saying, "Here, Lord, I give myself away; 'tis all that I can do.' I will not be found in disobedience to Thy law, for that would place me in the enemy's ranks."
------------------------Filled With His Fullness, May 27
OFC	138	1	And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:19.
OFC	138	2	There are many who think that it is impossible to escape from the power of sin, but the promise is that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. We aim too low. The mark is much higher. Our minds need expansion, that we may comprehend the significance of the provision of God. We are to reflect the highest attributes of the character of God. We should be thankful that we are not to be left to ourselves. The law of God is the exalted standard to which we are to attain.... We are not to walk according to our own ideas..., but we are to follow in the footsteps of Christ.
OFC	138	3	The work of overcoming is in our hands, but we are not to overcome in our own name or strength, for of ourselves we cannot keep the commandments of God. The Spirit of God must help our infirmities. Christ has become our sacrifice and surety. He has become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Through faith in His name He imputes unto us His righteousness, and it becomes a living principle in our life.... Christ imputes to us His sinless character and presents us to the Father in His own purity.
OFC	138	4	We cannot provide a robe of righteousness for ourselves, for the prophet says, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). There is nothing in us from which we can clothe the soul so that its nakedness shall not appear. We are to receive the robe of righteousness woven in the loom of heaven, even the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness. We are to say, "He died for me. He bore my soul's disgrace, that in His name I might be an overcomer and be exalted to His throne."
OFC	138	5	It is the privilege of the children of God to be filled with all the fullness of God. "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end" (Ephesians 3:20, 21).
------------------------An Example Of The Believers, May 28
OFC	139	1	For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Titus 2:11, 12.
OFC	139	2	There is a great work for us to do if we would inherit eternal life. We are to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live a life of righteousness.... There is no salvation for us except in Jesus, for it is through faith in Him that we receive power to become the sons of God. But it is not merely a passing faith, it is faith that works the works of Christ.... Living faith makes itself manifest by exhibiting a spirit of sacrifice and devotion toward the cause of God. Those who possess it stand under the banner of Prince Emmanuel and wage a successful warfare against the powers of darkness. They stand ready to do whatsoever their Captain commands. Each one is exhorted to be "an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12), for we are to "live soberly, righteously, and godly" in this present evil world, representing the character of Christ, and manifesting His spirit....
OFC	139	3	Those who are connected with Jesus are in union with the Maker and Upholder of all things. They have a power that the world cannot give nor take away. But while great and exalted privileges are given to them, they are not simply to rejoice in their blessings. As stewards of the manifold grace of God they are to become a blessing to others. They are entrusted with great truth, and "unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required" (Luke 12:48). There are weighty responsibilities resting upon all who have received the message for this time. They are to exert an influence that will draw others to the light of God's Word.... We are our brother's keeper....
OFC	139	4	If we are true believers in Jesus we shall be gathering rays from glory, and we shall shed light on the darkened pathway of those around us. We shall reveal the gracious character of our Redeemer, and many will be drawn by our influence to "behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
------------------------Putting Our Gifts To Work, May 29
OFC	140	1	But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. 1 Corinthians 7:7.
OFC	140	2	God gives more than money to His stewards. Your talent of imparting is a gift. What are you communicating of the gifts of God, in your words, in your tender sympathy? ... The knowledge of truth is a talent. There are many souls in darkness that might be enlightened by true, faithful words from you. There are hearts that are hungering for sympathy, perishing away from God. Your sympathy may help them. The Lord has need of your words, dictated by His Holy Spirit....
OFC	140	3	The first work for all Christians to do is to search the Scriptures with most earnest prayer, that they may have that faith that works by love and purifies the soul from every thread of selfishness. If the truth is received into the heart, it works like good leaven, until every power is brought into subjection to the will of God. Then you can no more help shining than can the sun....
OFC	140	4	All natural gifts are to be sanctified as precious endowments. They are to be consecrated to God, that they may minister for the Master. All social advantages are talents. They are not to be devoted to self-pleasing, amusement, or self-gratification.... The gift of correct example is a great thing. But many gather about the soul an atmosphere that is malarious....
OFC	140	5	The gifts of speech, of knowledge, of sympathy and love, communicate a knowledge of Christ. All these gifts are to be converted to God. The Lord stands in need of them, He calls for them. All are to act a part in preparing their own souls and the souls of others to rededicate their talents to God. Every soul, every gift, is to be laid under contribution to God. All are to cooperate with God in the work of saving souls. The talents you possess are given you of God to make you efficient colaborers with Christ. There are hearts hungering for sympathy, perishing for the help and assistance God has given you to give to them.
------------------------Exalting The Man Of Calvary, May 30
OFC	140	6	And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:14, 15.
OFC	141	1	I point you to the cross of Calvary. I ask you to consider the infinite sacrifice made in your behalf that through faith in Jesus Christ you may not perish but have everlasting life.... I point you to Jesus. You are safe in committing to Him the innermost working of your mind. The Lord Jesus hath purchased you with an infinite price. You may commit the keeping of your soul to Jesus. You may trust Him as your Counselor.... Constantly draw nigh unto God. He will help you.
OFC	141	2	O be sure you receive your illumination from the Source of all light. He is the great central Light of the universe of heaven and the great Light of the world. He will enlighten every man that cometh into the world. Reach no cheap, low standard. Cultivate the gentleness of Christ. Secure the highest attainments, and draw your inspiration from Jesus Christ. He is your Friend. You may always depend upon Him and find Him faithful and true. When you need His sympathy in your greatest perplexity, wounded and bruised, He will not pass you by on the other side. To Him you may come in the simplicity of children. To Him you may come with joy and rejoicing. With everything that is flattering to your hopes, every success which attends your labors in the Lord, look up to Jesus and lay every honor at His feet. Everything depends upon your walking in all humility of mind. Write the name of Christ upon your banner and never dishonor your colors.
OFC	141	3	All heaven was given to us in Christ Jesus.... O honor Jesus by giving to Him the heart's best and holiest services! He has given His life for you. Who is He that hath done this? The only begotten Son of God, He that was One with the Father before the world was.
OFC	141	4	Lift up your banner, lift it up higher. Never, never let it trail in the dust of the earth. Exalt Jesus. Lift Him up, the Man of Calvary, higher and still higher.
------------------------We Shall See His Face, May 31
OFC	141	5	And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. Revelation 22:4.
OFC	141	6	We cannot now see the glory of God, but it is only by receiving Him here that we shall be able by and by to see Him face to face. God would have us keep our eyes fixed on Him, that we may lose sight of the things of this world. We have ... no time for any of us to delay that preparation which will enable us to see the face of God....
OFC	141	7	Only by looking to Jesus, the Lamb of God, and following in His steps, can you prepare to meet God. Follow Him, and you will one day walk the golden streets of the city of God. You will see Him who laid aside His royal garments and His kingly crown, and disguising Himself with humanity, came to our world and bore our sins, that He might lift us up and give us a revelation of His glory and majesty. We shall see Him face to face if we now give ourselves up to be molded and fashioned by Him and prepared for a place in the kingdom of God.
OFC	142	1	Those who consecrate their lives to the service of God will live with Him through the ceaseless ages of eternity. "God himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Revelation 21:3)....
OFC	142	2	Their minds were given to God in this world; they served Him with their heart and intellect, and now He can put His name in their foreheads. "And there shall no night there; ... for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever" (Revelation 22:5). They do not go in as those that beg a place there, for Christ says to them, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34). He takes them as His children, saying, Enter ye into the joy of your Lord. The crown of immortality is placed on the brow of the overcomers. They take their crowns and cast them at the feet of Jesus, and touching their golden harps, they fill all heaven with rich music in songs of praise to the Lamb. Then "they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads."
------------------------Learning Of God Through His Works, June 1
OFC	142	3	The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee. Psalm 145:9, 10.
OFC	142	4	We love to contemplate the character and love of God in His created works. What evidences has He given the children of men of His power, as well as of His parental love! He has garnished the heavens and made grand and beautiful the earth.
OFC	142	5	"O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! ... When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" "All thy works praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee" (Psalm 8:1, 3, 4; 145:10).
OFC	142	6	Had our world been formed with a perfectly level surface the monotony would have fatigued the eye and wearied the senses. God has adorned our world with grand mountains, hills, valleys, and ranges of mountains. The rugged granite, bare mountains, also the mountains decorated with evergreens and verdure, and the valleys with their softened beauty make the world a mirror of loveliness. The goodness, wisdom, and power of God are manifest everywhere. In mountains, rocks, hills, and valleys, I see the works of divine power. I can never be lonely while viewing the grand scenery of nature. On the journey over the plains and mountains I have had feelings of the deepest reverence and awe while viewing the frowning precipice and snow-capped mountain heights.
OFC	143	1	The mountains, hills, and valleys should be to us as schools in which to study the character of God in His created works. The works of God which we may view in the ever-varying scenes--in mountains, hills, and valleys, in trees, shrubs, and flowers, in every leaf, every spire of grass--should teach us lessons of the skill and love of God and of His infinite power.
OFC	143	2	Those who study nature cannot be lonesome. They love the quiet hours of meditation, for they feel that they are brought in close communion with God while tracing His power in His created works.
------------------------Not To Condemn But To Save, June 2
OFC	143	3	For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:17.
OFC	143	4	There are souls who are trembling in unbelief. They ask, "How can I know that God is reconciled to me? How can I be assured that He loves and pardons me?" It is not for you, dear youth, to make yourselves just with God. Jesus invites you to come to Him with all your burdens and perplexities.... Accept the promise and the provision that God has made.... Look away from self to Jesus; for in Christ the character of the Father is revealed.
OFC	143	5	The blood of Christ in ever-abiding efficacy is our only hope, for through His merits alone we have pardon and peace.
OFC	143	6	The character of God as revealed by Christ invites our faith and love, for we have a Father whose mercy and compassion fail not. At every step of our journey heavenward He will be with us to guide in every perplexity, to give us help in every temptation.
OFC	143	7	Your reason and imagination should be touched with the life-giving power of Christ, that forms of beauty and truth may be impressed thereon. There are great and precious truths that demand your contemplation, in order that you may have a sound foundation for your faith by having a correct knowledge of God. O that the superficial, vain seeker for truth would learn that the world by wisdom, however much acquired, knew not God.
OFC	144	1	It is proper to seek to learn all that is possible from nature, but do not fail to look from nature to Christ for the complete representation of the character of the living God. By contemplation of Christ, by conformity to the divine likeness, your conceptions of the divine character will expand, and your mind and heart will be elevated, refined, and ennobled. Let the youth aim high, not relying upon human wisdom, but living day by day as seeing Him who is invisible, doing their work as in the sight of the intelligences of heaven....
OFC	144	2	He who constantly depends upon God through simple trust and prayerful confidence, will be surrounded by the angels of heaven. He who lives by faith in Christ, will be strengthened and upheld, able to fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold upon eternal life.
------------------------The Heavenly Election, June 3
OFC	144	3	Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. 2 Peter 1:10.
OFC	144	4	This is the only election regarding which the Bible speaks. Fallen in sin, we may become partakers of the divine nature and attain to a knowledge far in advance of any scientific learning. By partaking of the flesh and the blood of our crucified Lord, we shall gain life eternal. In the sixth of John we read: "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life" (John 6:54). "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (verse 63).
OFC	144	5	None need lose eternal life. Everyone who chooses daily to learn of the heavenly Teacher will make his calling and election sure. Let us humble our hearts before God and follow on to know Him whom to know aright is life eternal.
OFC	144	6	"Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:10, 11).
OFC	144	7	Here are your life-insurance papers. This is not an insurance policy the value of which someone else will receive after your death; it is a policy that assures you a life measuring with the life of God--even eternal life. O what an assurance! what a hope! Let us ever reveal to the world that we are seeking for a better country, even a heavenly. Heaven has been made for us, and we want a part in it. We cannot afford to allow anything to separate us from God and heaven. In this life we must be partakers of the divine nature. Brethren and sisters, you have only one life to live. O let it be a life of virtue, a life hid with Christ in God!
OFC	145	1	Unitedly we are to help one another gain perfection of character. To this end, we are to cease all criticism. Onward and still onward we may advance toward perfection, until at last there will be ministered unto us an abundant entrance into the heavenly kingdom.
------------------------Our Sure Foundation, June 4
OFC	145	2	For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 1 Corinthians 3:11-13.
OFC	145	3	As fire reveals the difference between gold, silver, and precious stones, and wood, hay, and stubble, so the day of judgment will test characters, showing the difference between characters formed after Christ's likeness and characters formed after the likeness of the selfish heart. All selfishness, all false religion, will then appear as it is. The worthless material will be consumed; but the gold of true, simple, humble faith will never lose its value. It can never be consumed; for it is imperishable.
OFC	145	4	Character is not obtained by receiving an education. Character is not obtained by amassing wealth or by gaining worldly honor. Character is not obtained by having others fight the battle of life for us. It must be sought, worked for, fought for; and it requires a purpose, a will, a determination. To form a character which God will approve, requires persevering effort. It will take a continual resisting of the powers of darkness to ... have our names retained in the book of life. Is it not worth more to have our names registered in that book, have them immortalized among the heavenly angels, than to have them sounded in praise throughout the whole earth?
OFC	145	5	In the probationary time granted us here we are each building a structure that is to have the inspection of the Judge of all the earth. This work is the molding of our characters. Every act of our lives is a stone in that building, every faculty is a worker, every blow that is struck is for good or for evil. The words of inspiration warn us to take heed how we build, to see that our foundation is sure. If we build upon the solid rock, pure, noble, upright deeds, the structure will go up beautiful and symmetrical, a fit temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
------------------------The Happiest People, June 5
OFC	146	1	Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11.
OFC	146	2	Do not think that when you walk with Jesus you must walk in the shadow. The happiest people in the world are those who trust in Jesus and gladly do His bidding. From the lives of those who follow Him, unrest and discontent are banished.... They may meet with trial and difficulty, but their lives are full of joy; for Christ walks beside them, and His presence makes the pathway bright....
OFC	146	3	When you arise in the morning, rise with the praise of God on your lips, and when you go out to work, go with a prayer to God for help.... Wait for a leaf from the tree of life. This will soothe and refresh you, filling your heart with peace and joy. Fix your thoughts upon the Saviour. Go apart from the bustle of the world and sit under Christ's shadow. Then, amid the din of daily toil and conflict, your strength will be renewed. It is positively necessary for us to sit down sometimes and think of how the Saviour descended from heaven, from the throne of God, to show what human beings may become if they will unite their weakness to His strength. Having gained renewal of strength by communion with God, we may go on our way rejoicing, praising Him for the privilege of bringing the sunshine of Christ's love into the lives of those we meet....
OFC	146	4	Heavenly intelligences are waiting to cooperate with human instrumentalities, that the world may see what human beings may become through a union with the divine. Those who consecrate body, soul, and spirit to God's service will constantly receive a new endowment of physical, mental, and spiritual power. The inexhaustible supplies of heaven are at their command. Christ gives them the life of His life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in mind and heart. Through the grace given us we may achieve victories which, because of our defects of character and the smallness of our faith, may have seemed to us impossible.
OFC	146	5	To every one who offers himself to the Lord for service, withholding nothing, is given power for the attainment of measureless results.
------------------------Let Us Ask Of God, June 6
OFC	147	1	If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. James 1:5.
OFC	147	2	It is the privilege of every believer first to talk with God in his closet, and then as God's mouthpiece to talk with others. In order that we may have something to impart, we must daily receive light and blessing. Men and women who commune with God, who have an abiding Christ, who, because they cooperate with holy angels, are surrounded with holy influences, are needed at this time. The cause needs those who have power to draw with Christ, power to express the love of God in words of encouragement and sympathy.
OFC	147	3	As the believer bows in supplication before God, and in humility and contrition offers his petition from unfeigned lips, he loses all thought of self. His mind is filled with the thought of what he must have in order to build up a Christlike character. He prays, "Lord, if I am to be a channel through which Thy love is to flow day by day and hour by hour, I claim by faith the grace and power that Thou hast promised." He fastens his hold firmly on the promise, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, ... and it shall be given him."
OFC	147	4	How this dependence pleases the Master! How He delights to hear the steady, earnest pleading! ... With wonderful and ennobling grace the Lord sanctifies the humble petitioner, giving him power to perform the most difficult duties. All that is undertaken is done unto the Lord, and this elevates and sanctifies the lowliest calling. It invests with new dignity every word, every act, and links the humblest worker ... with the highest of the angels in the heavenly courts....
OFC	147	5	The sons and daughters of God have a great work to do in the world. They are to accept the Word of God as the man of their counsel and to impart it to others. They are to diffuse light. All who have received the engrafted word will be faithful in giving that word to others. They will speak the words of Christ. In conversation and in deportment they will give evidence of a daily conversion to the principles of truth. Such believers will be a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men, and God will be glorified in them.
------------------------Nothing Too Small, June 7
OFC	148	1	The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. Lamentations 3:25.
OFC	148	2	There are few who rightly appreciate or improve the precious privilege of prayer. We should go to Jesus and tell Him all our needs. We may bring Him our little cares and perplexities as well as our greater troubles. Whatever arises to disturb or distress us, we should take it to the Lord in prayer.
OFC	148	3	We lose many precious blessings by failing to bring our needs and cares and sorrows to our Saviour. He is the wonderful Counselor. He looks upon His church with intense interest and with a heart full of tender sympathy. He enters into the depth of our necessities. But our ways are not always His ways. He sees the result of every action, and He asks us to trust patiently in His wisdom, not in the supposedly wise plans of our own making.
OFC	148	4	Do not cease to pray. If the answer tarry, wait for it. Lay all your plans at the feet of the Redeemer. Let your importunate prayers ascend to God. If it be for His name's glory, the soothing words will be spoken, "Be it unto thee according to thy word."
OFC	148	5	We can never weary Christ by earnest supplications. We do not depend on God as we should. Let us leave unsaid every word of complaint. Talk faith and courage while waiting for God.... Be afraid to doubt, lest this become a habit that will destroy faith. The dealing of the heavenly Father may seem dark and mysterious and unexplainable; nevertheless we are to trust in Him.
OFC	148	6	Oh, how precious is Jesus to the soul who trusts in Him! But many are walking in darkness because they bury their faith in the shadow of Satan.... Never for a moment should we allow Satan to think that his power to distress and annoy is greater than the power of Christ to uphold and strengthen....
OFC	148	7	Every sincere prayer that is offered is mingled with the efficacy of Christ's blood. If the answer is deferred, it is because God desires us to show a holy boldness in claiming the pledged word of God. He is faithful who hath promised. He will never forsake the soul who is wholly surrendered to Him.
------------------------Our Personal Intercessor, June 8
OFC	149	1	Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Romans 8:34.
OFC	149	2	The Lord Jesus is your personal intercessor.... Repeat over and over many times through the day, "Jesus has died for me. He saw me in peril, exposed to destruction, and poured out His life to save me. He does not behold the soul as a trembling suppliant prostrate at His feet without pity, and He will not fail to raise me up." He has become the advocate for man. He has lifted up those who believe in Him and placed a treasurehouse of blessing at their demand. Men cannot bestow one blessing upon their fellows, they cannot remove one stain of sin. It is only the merit and righteousness of Christ that will avail anything, but this is placed to our account in rich fullness. We may draw upon God every moment. As we turn to Him, He answers, "Here I am."
OFC	149	3	Christ proclaims Himself our Intercessor. He would have us know that He has graciously engaged to be our Substitute. He places His merit in the golden censer to offer up with the prayers of His saints, so that the prayers of His dear children may be mingled with the fragrant merit of Christ as they ascend to the Father in the cloud of incense.
OFC	149	4	The Father hears every prayer of His contrite children. The voice of supplication from the earth unites with the voice of our Intercessor, who pleads in heaven, whose voice the Father always hears. Let our prayers therefore continually ascend to God. Let them not come up in the name of any human being, but in the name of Him who is our Substitute and Surety. Christ has given us His name to use....
OFC	149	5	Jesus receives and welcomes you as His own friend. He loves you; He has pledged Himself to open before you all the treasures of His grace for your appropriation. He says, "At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God" (John 16:26, 27). He virtually says, Make use of My name, and it will be your passport to the heart of My Father, and to all the riches of His grace.
------------------------Angels In The Home, June 9
OFC	150	1	For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Psalm 91:11, 12.
OFC	150	2	Angels of God are watching over us. Upon this earth there are thousands and tens of thousands of heavenly messengers commissioned by the Father to prevent Satan from obtaining any advantage over those who refuse to walk in the path of evil. And these angels who guard God's children on earth are in communication with the Father in heaven. "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones," Christ said; "for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 18:10).
OFC	150	3	Scarcely any of us realize that angels are about us; and these precious angels, who minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, are saving from us many, many temptations and difficulties. The whole family of heaven is interested in the families here below; and how thankful we should be for this interest manifested for us day and night.
OFC	150	4	Words spoken in our homes which are impatient and unkind, angels hear; and do you want to find in the books of heaven a record of the impatient and passionate words you have uttered in your family? Impatience brings the enemy of God and man into your family and drives out the angels of God. If you are abiding in Christ, and Christ in you, you cannot speak angry words.
OFC	150	5	Fathers and mothers, I beseech you for Christ's sake, to be kind, tender, and patient in your homes. Then light and sunshine will enter your homes, and you will feel that bright beams from the Sun of Righteousness are indeed shining into your hearts.
OFC	150	6	It is the absence of the graces of God's Spirit that leaves the home in a dark, unhappy condition. Your home should be a blessed sanctuary where God can come in, and where His holy angels can minister unto you. If impatience and unkindness are manifested one to another, angels cannot be attracted to your home; but where love and peace abide, these heavenly ones love to come and bring still more of the holy influence of the home above.
------------------------The Act Of Faith, June 10
OFC	151	1	Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.
OFC	151	2	Faith is not the ground of our salvation, but it is the great blessing--the eye that sees, the ear that hears, the feet that run, the hand that grasps. It is the means, not the end. If Christ gave His life to save sinners, why shall I not take that blessing? My faith grasps it, and thus my faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. Thus resting and believing, I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
OFC	151	3	Faith, saving faith ... is the act of the soul by which the whole man is given over to the guardianship and control of Jesus Christ. He abides in Christ and Christ abides in the soul by faith as supreme. The believer commits his soul and body to God, and with assurance may say, Christ is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. All who will do this will be saved unto life eternal. There will be an assurance that the soul is washed in the blood of Christ and clothed with His righteousness and precious in the sight of Jesus.
OFC	151	4	Remember that the exercise of faith is the one means of preserving it. Should you sit always in one position, without moving, your muscles would become strengthless and your limbs would lose the power of motion. The same is true in regard to your religious experience. You must have faith in the promises of God.... Faith will perfect itself in exercise and activity.
OFC	151	5	It is of the greatest importance to us that we surround the soul with the atmosphere of faith. Every day we are deciding our own eternal destiny in harmony with the atmosphere that surrounds the soul. We are individually accountable for the influence that we exert, and consequences that we do not see will result from our words and actions. If God would have saved Sodom for the sake of ten righteous persons, what would be the influence for good that might go out as the result of the faithfulness of the people of God if every one who professed the name of Christ were also clothed with His righteousness?
------------------------A Working Faith, June 11
OFC	151	6	And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Philippians 3:9.
OFC	152	1	It is one thing to read and teach the Bible, and another thing to have by practice its life-giving, sanctifying principles engrafted on the soul.... "By grace are ye saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8). The mind should be educated to exercise faith rather than to cherish doubt, suspicion, and jealousy. We are too prone to regard obstacles as impossibilities. To have faith in the promises of God, to go forward by faith, pressing on without being governed by circumstances, is a lesson hard to learn. Yet it is a positive necessity that every child of God should learn this lesson. The grace of God through Christ is ever to be cherished, for it is given us as the only way of approaching God....
OFC	152	2	The faith mentioned in God's Word calls for a life in which faith in Christ is an active, living principle. It is God's will that faith in Christ shall be made perfect by works; He connects the salvation and eternal life of those who believe, with these works, and through them provides for the light of truth to go to all countries and peoples. This is the fruit of the workings of God's Spirit.
OFC	152	3	We show our faith in God by obeying His commands. Faith is always expressed in words and actions. It produces practical results, for it is a vital element in the life. The life that is molded by faith develops a determination to advance, to go forward, following in the footsteps of Christ.
OFC	152	4	We have been taken as rough stones out of the quarry of the world by the cleaver of truth and placed in the workshop of God. He who has genuine faith in Christ as his personal Saviour will find that the truth accomplishes a definite work for him. His faith is a working faith.... We cannot create our faith, but we can be colaborers with Christ in promoting the growth and triumph of faith.
OFC	152	5	The faith that works by love and purifies the soul produces the fruit of humility, patience, forbearance, long-suffering, peace, joy, and willing obedience.
------------------------Our Example In Obedience, June 12
OFC	152	6	For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. 1 Peter 2:21, 22.
OFC	152	7	Before us is held out the wonderful possibility of being like Christ--obedient to all the principles of the law of God. But of ourselves we are utterly powerless to attain to this condition. All that is good in man comes to him through Christ. The holiness that God's Word declares we must have before we can be saved is the result of the working of divine grace as we bow in submission to the discipline and restraining influence of the Spirit of truth.
OFC	153	1	Man's obedience can be made perfect only by the incense of Christ's righteousness, which fills with divine fragrance every act of true obedience. The part of the Christian is to persevere in overcoming every fault. Constantly he is to pray to the Saviour to heal the disorders of his diseased soul. He has not the wisdom and strength without which he cannot overcome. They belong to the Lord, and He bestows them on those who in humiliation and contrition seek Him for help.
OFC	153	2	The work of transformation from unholiness to holiness is a continuous work. Day by day God labors for man's sanctification, and man is to cooperate with Him by putting forth persevering efforts in the cultivation of right habits....
OFC	153	3	God will more than fulfill the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him. He desires us to remember that when we are humble and contrite, we stand where He can and will manifest Himself to us. He is well pleased when we urge past mercies and blessings as a reason why He should bestow on us higher and greater blessings. He is honored when we love Him and bear testimony to the genuineness of our love by keeping His commandments. He is honored when we set apart the seventh day as sacred and holy. To those who do this, the Sabbath is a sign, ... God declares, "that I am the Lord that sanctify them" (Ezekiel 20:12). Sanctification means habitual communion with God. There is nothing so great and powerful as God's love for those who are His children.
------------------------The Highest Culture, June 13
OFC	153	4	Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. Proverbs 3:13.
OFC	153	5	The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the man who consents to be molded and fashioned after the divine similitude is the noblest specimen of the work of God....
OFC	153	6	The experimental knowledge of true godliness, in daily consecration and service to God, ensures the highest culture of the mind, soul, and body.... The impartation of divine power honors our sincere striving after wisdom for the conscientious use of our highest faculties to honor God and bless our fellow men. As these faculties are derived from God, and not self-created, they should be appreciated as talents from God to be employed in His service.
OFC	153	7	The Heaven-entrusted faculties of the mind are to be treated as the higher powers, to rule the kingdom of the body. The natural appetites and passions are to be brought under the control of the conscience and the spiritual affections....
OFC	154	1	The religion of Jesus Christ never degrades the receiver; it never makes him coarse or rough, discourteous or self-important, passionate or hardhearted. On the contrary, it refines the taste, sanctifies the judgment, purifies and ennobles the thoughts by bringing them into captivity to Jesus Christ.
OFC	154	2	God's ideal for His children is higher than the highest human thought can reach. The living God has given in His holy law a transcript of His character. The greatest Teacher the world has ever known is Jesus Christ. And what is the standard He has given for all who believe in Him to reach? "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). As God is perfect in His high sphere of action, so man may be perfect in his human sphere. The ideal of Christian character is Christlikeness. There is opened before us a path of continual advancement. We have an object to reach, a standard to gain which includes everything good and pure and noble and elevated. There should be continual striving and constant progress onward and upward toward perfection of character.
------------------------Christ In All Our Thoughts, June 14
OFC	154	3	Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23, 24.
OFC	154	4	Few realize that it is a duty to exercise control over the thoughts and imaginations. It is difficult to keep the undisciplined mind fixed upon profitable subjects. But if the thoughts are not properly employed, religion cannot flourish in the soul. The mind must be preoccupied with sacred and eternal things, or it will cherish trifling and superficial thoughts. Both the intellectual and the moral powers must be disciplined, and they will … improve by exercise.
OFC	154	5	In order to understand this matter aright, we must remember that our hearts are naturally depraved, and we are unable of ourselves to pursue a right course. It is only by the grace of God, combined with the most earnest effort on our part, that we can gain the victory. The intellect, as well as the heart, must be consecrated to the service of God. He has claims upon all there is of us.
OFC	154	6	Few believe that humanity has sunk so low as it has or that it is so thoroughly bad, so desperately opposed to God, as it is.... When the mind is not under the direct influence of the Spirit of God, Satan can mold it as he chooses. All the rational powers which he controls he will carnalize. He is directly opposed to God in his tastes, views, preferences, likes and dislikes, choice of things and pursuits; there is no relish for what God loves or approves, but a delight in those things which He despises....
OFC	155	1	If Christ is abiding in the heart, He will be in all our thoughts. Our deepest thoughts will be of Him, His love, His purity. He will fill all the chambers of the mind. Our affections will center about Jesus. All our hopes and expectations will be associated with Him. To live the life we now live by faith in the Son of God, looking forward to and loving His appearing, will be the soul's highest joy. He will be the crown of our rejoicing.
OFC	155	2	Those who have trained the mind to delight in spiritual exercises are the ones who can be translated and not be overwhelmed with the purity and transcendent glory of heaven.
------------------------The Gold Of Christian Character, June 15
OFC	155	3	A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. Proverbs 22:1.
OFC	155	4	Men may aspire to renown. They may desire to possess a great name. With some the possession of houses and lands and plenty of money, that which will make them great according to the measure of the world, is the height of their ambition. They desire to reach the place where they can look down with a sense of superiority upon those who are poor. All such are building on the sand, and their house will fall suddenly. Superiority of position is not true greatness. That which does not increase the value of the soul is of no real value in itself. That which alone is worth obtaining is greatness of soul in the sight of Heaven. The true and exalted nature of your work you may never know. The value of your own being you can only measure by the value of that Life given to save all who will receive it.
OFC	155	5	Every man will have some estimate of his own worth when he becomes a laborer together with Christ, doing the work that Christ did, filling the world with Christ's righteousness, bearing a commission from the Most High.... The commission given to the disciples is given to all who are connected with Christ. They are to make any and every sacrifice for the joy of seeing souls saved who are perishing out of Christ....
OFC	155	6	The highest honor that can be conferred upon human beings, be they young or old, rich or poor, is to be permitted to lift up the oppressed, to comfort the feeble-minded. The world is full of suffering. Go, and preach the gospel to the poor; heal the sick. This is the work to be connected with the gospel message. "The poor have the gospel preached to them" (Matthew 11:5). Colaborers with God are to fill the space they occupy in the world with the love of Jesus.... The love of Christ in the heart is expressed in the actions. If love for Christ is dull the love for those for whom Christ died will degenerate....
OFC	156	1	True riches are genuine faith and genuine love. These make the character complete in Christ. If there were more faith, simple, trusting faith in Jesus, there would be love, pure love, which is the gold of Christian character.
------------------------Kind And Courteous Words, June 16
OFC	156	2	The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. Isaiah 50:4.
OFC	156	3	What Christ was in His life on this earth, that every Christian is to be. He is our example, not only in His spotless purity, but in His patience, gentleness, and winsomeness of disposition. He was firm as a rock where truth and duty were concerned, but He was invariably kind and courteous. His life was a perfect illustration of true courtesy.... His presence brought a purer atmosphere into the home, and His life was as leaven working amid the elements of society. Harmless and undefiled, He walked among the thoughtless, the rude, the uncourteous; amid the unjust publicans, the unrighteous Samaritans, the heathen soldiers, the rough peasants, and the mixed multitude.
OFC	156	4	He spoke a word of sympathy here and a word there as He saw men weary and compelled to bear heavy burdens. He shared their burdens and repeated to them the lessons He had learned from nature, of the love, the kindness, the goodness of God. He sought to inspire with hope the most rough and unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character as would make them manifest as children of God.... Jesus sat an honored guest at the table of the publicans, by His sympathy and social kindliness showing that He recognized the dignity of humanity; and men longed to become worthy of His confidence. Upon their thirsty souls His words fell with blessed, life-giving power. New impulses were awakened, and the possibility of a new life opened to these outcasts of society.
OFC	156	5	The religion of Jesus softens whatever is hard and rough in the temper and smooths off whatever is rugged and sharp in the manners. It is this religion that makes the words gentle and the demeanor winning. Let us learn from Christ how to combine a high sense of purity and integrity with sunniness of disposition. A kind, courteous Christian is the most powerful argument that can be produced in favor of the gospel.
------------------------The Test Of Appetite, June 17
OFC	157	1	But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 1 Corinthians 9:27.
OFC	157	2	After His baptism the Son of God entered the dreary wilderness, there to be tempted by the devil. For nearly six weeks He endured the agonies of hunger.... He realized the power of appetite upon man; and in behalf of sinful man, He bore the closest test possible upon that point. Here a victory was gained which few can appreciate. The controlling power of depraved appetite and the grievous sin of indulging it can only be understood by the length of the fast which our Saviour endured that He might break its power....
OFC	157	3	Intemperance lies at the foundation of all the moral evils known to man. Christ began the work of redemption just where the ruin began. The fall of our first parents was caused by the indulgence of appetite. In redemption, the denial of appetite is the first work of Christ.
OFC	157	4	The Son of God saw that man could not of himself overcome this powerful temptation.... He came to earth to unite His divine power with our human efforts, that through the strength and moral power which He imparts, we might overcome in our own behalf. Oh! what matchless condescension for the King of glory to come down to this world to endure the pangs of hunger and the fierce temptations of a wily foe, that He might gain an infinite victory for man. Here is love without a parallel. Yet this great condescension is but dimly comprehended by those for whom it was made.
OFC	157	5	It was not the gnawing pangs of hunger alone which made the sufferings of our Redeemer so inexpressibly severe. It was the sense of guilt which had resulted from the indulgence of appetite that had brought such terrible woe into the world, which pressed so heavily upon His divine soul....
OFC	157	6	With man's nature, and the terrible weight of his sins pressing upon Him, our Redeemer withstood the power of Satan upon this great leading temptation, which imperils the souls of men. If man should overcome this temptation, he could conquer on every other point.
------------------------Keeping Love Alive, June 18
OFC	158	1	Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Colossians 3:18, 19.
OFC	158	2	How much trouble and what a tide of woe and unhappiness would be saved if men, and women also, would continue to cultivate the regard, attention, and kind words of appreciation and little courtesies of life which kept love alive and which they felt were necessary in gaining the companions of their choice. If the husband and wife would only continue to cultivate these attentions which nourish love, they would be happy in each other's society and would have a sanctifying influence upon their families. They would have in themselves a little world of happiness and would not desire to go outside this world for new attractions and new objects of love....
OFC	158	3	Many women pine for words of love and kindness and the common attentions and courtesies due them from their husbands who have selected them as their life companions.... It is these little attentions and courtesies which make up the sum of life's happiness....
OFC	158	4	If the hearts were kept tender in our families, if there were a noble, generous deference to each other's tastes and opinions, if the wife were seeking opportunities to express her love by actions in her courtesies to her husband, and the husband were manifesting the same consideration and kindly regard for the wife, the children would partake of the same spirit. The influence would pervade the household, and what a tide of misery would be saved in the families! ...
OFC	158	5	Every couple who unite their life interest should seek to make the life of each as happy as possible. That which we prize we seek to preserve and make more valuable if we can. In the marriage contract men and women have made a trade, an investment for life, and they should do their utmost to control their words of impatience and fretfulness, even more carefully than they did before their marriage, for now their destinies are united for life as husband and wife, and each is valued in exact proportion to the amount of painstaking effort put forth to retain and keep fresh the love so eagerly sought for and prized before marriage.
------------------------The Voice Of Duty, June 19
OFC	159	1	Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Ecclesiastes 9:10.
OFC	159	2	The voice of duty is the voice of God--an inborn, heaven-sent guide. Whether it be pleasing or unpleasing, we are to do the duty that lies directly in our pathway. If the Lord would have us bear a message to Nineveh, it will not be pleasing to Him for us to go to Joppa or Capernaum. God has reasons for sending us to the place to which our feet are directed....
OFC	159	3	It is the little foxes that spoil the vines, the little neglects, the little deficiencies, the little dishonesties, the little departures from principle, that blind the soul and separate it from God.
OFC	159	4	It is the little things of life that develop the spirit and determine the character. Those who neglect the little things will not be prepared to endure severe tests when they are brought to bear upon them. Remember that the character building is not finished till life ends. Every day a good or bad brick is placed in the structure. You are either building crookedly or with the exactness and correctness that will make a beautiful temple for God. Therefore, in looking for great things to do, neglect not the little opportunities that come to you day by day. He who neglects the little things, and yet flatters himself that he is ready to do wonderful things for the Master, is in danger of failing altogether, Life is made up, not of great sacrifices and of wonderful achievements, but of little things.
OFC	159	5	Whatever your hands find to do, do it with your might. Make your work pleasant with songs of praise. If you would have a clean record in the books of heaven, never fret or scold. Let your daily prayer be, "Lord, help me to do my best.... Give me energy and cheerfulness. Help me to bring into my service the loving ministry of the Saviour."
OFC	159	6	Look upon every duty, however humble, as sacred because it is part of God's service. Do not allow anything to make you forgetful of God. Bring Christ into all that you do. Then your lives will be filled with brightness and thanksgiving. You will do your best, moving forward cheerfully in the service of the Lord, your hearts filled with His joy.
------------------------Living For Others, June 20
OFC	159	7	Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28.
OFC	159	8	We are not to live for ourselves. Christ came to this world to live for others--not to be ministered unto, but to minister. If you strive to live as He lived you are saying to the world, "Behold the Man of Calvary." By precept and example you are leading others in the way of righteousness.
OFC	160	1	The sin which is indulged to the greatest extent, and which separates us from God and produces so many contagious spiritual disorders, is selfishness. There can be no returning to the Lord except by self-denial. Of ourselves we can do nothing; but through God strengthening us we can live to do good to others, and in this way shun the evil of selfishness. We need not go to heathen lands to manifest our desire to devote all to God in a useful, unselfish life. We should do this in the home circle, in the church, among those with whom we associate and with whom we do business. Right in the common walks of life is where self is to be denied and kept in subordination.
OFC	160	2	Paul could say: "I die daily" (1 Corinthians 15:31). It is the daily dying to self in the little transactions of life that makes us overcomers. We should forget self in the desire to do good to others. With many there is a decided lack of love for others. Instead of faithfully performing their duty, they seek rather their own pleasure.
OFC	160	3	God positively enjoins upon all His followers a duty to bless others with their influence and means.... In doing for others, a sweet satisfaction will be experienced, an inward peace which will be a sufficient reward. When actuated by a high and noble desire to do others good, they will find true happiness in a faithful discharge of life's manifold duties. This will bring more than an earthly reward; for every faithful, unselfish performance of duty is noticed by the angels and shines in the life record. In heaven none will think of self, nor seek their own pleasure; but all, from pure, genuine love, will seek the happiness of the heavenly beings around them. If we wish to enjoy heavenly society in the earth made new, we must be governed by heavenly principles here.
------------------------No One Free From Temptation, June 21
OFC	160	4	Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. 1 Peter 1:5, 6.
OFC	160	5	Do not think that the Christian life is free from temptation. Temptations will come to every Christian. Both the Christian and the one who does not accept Christ as his leader will have trials. The difference is that the latter is serving a tyrant, doing his mean drudgery, while the Christian is serving the One who died to give him eternal life. Do not look upon trial as something strange, but as the means by which we are to be purified and strengthened. "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations," James admonishes; "knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience" (James 1:2, 3).
OFC	161	1	In the future life we shall understand things that here greatly perplex us. We shall realize how strong a helper we had and how angels of God were commissioned to guard us as we followed the counsel of the Word of God.
OFC	161	2	To all who receive Him, Christ will give power to become the sons of God. He is a present help in every time of need. Let us be ashamed of our wavering faith. Those who are overcome have only themselves to blame for their failure to resist the enemy. All who choose can come to Christ and find the help they need.
OFC	161	3	There stands among you the mighty Counselor of the ages, inviting you to place your confidence in Him. Shall we turn away from Him to uncertain human beings, who are as wholly dependent on God as we ourselves are? Have we fallen so far below our privileges? Have we not been guilty of expecting so little that we have not asked for what God is longing to give?
OFC	161	4	"I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel.... For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them" (Isaiah 63:7-9).
------------------------Strength For Today, June 22
OFC	161	5	And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. Zechariah 13:9.
OFC	161	6	By trial the Lord proves the strength of His children. Is the heart strong to bear? Is the conscience void of offense? Does the Spirit bear witness with our spirit that we are the children of God? This the Lord ascertains by trying us. In the furnace of affliction He purifies us from all dross. He sends us trials, not to cause needless pain, but to lead us to look to Him, to strengthen our endurance, to teach us that if we do not rebel, but put our trust in Him, we shall see of His salvation....
OFC	161	7	Christ's love for His children is as strong as it is tender. It is a love stronger than death, for He died for us. It is a love more true than that of a mother for her children. The mother's love may change, but Christ's love is changeless. "I am persuaded," Paul says, "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38, 39).
OFC	162	1	In every trial we have strong consolation. Is not our Saviour touched with the feeling of our infirmities? Has He not been tempted in all points like as we are? And has He not invited us to take every trial and perplexity to Him? Then let us not make ourselves miserable over tomorrow's burdens. Bravely and cheerfully carry the burdens of today. Today's trust and faith we must have. But we are not asked to live more than a day at a time. He who gives strength for today will give strength for tomorrow....
OFC	162	2	Nothing wounds the soul like the sharp darts of unbelief. When trial comes, as it will, do not worry or complain. Silence in the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. "Then are they glad because they be quiet" (Psalm 107:30). Remember that underneath you are the everlasting arms. "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him" (Psalm 37:7). He is guiding you into a harbor of gracious experience.
------------------------Members Of God's Household, June 23
OFC	162	3	Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. Ephesians 2:19, 20.
OFC	162	4	The Lord Jesus is making experiments on human hearts through the exhibition of His mercy and abundant grace. He is effecting transformations so amazing that Satan ... stands viewing them as a fortress impregnable to his sophistries and delusions. They are to him an incomprehensible mystery. The angels of God ... look on with astonishment and joy, that fallen men, once children of wrath, are through the training of Christ developing characters after the divine similitude, to be sons and daughters of God, to act an important part in the occupations and pleasures of heaven.
OFC	162	5	The Lord has provided His church with capabilities and blessings, that they may present to the world an image of His own sufficiency, and that His church may be complete in Him, a continual representation of another, even the eternal world, of laws that are higher than earthly laws. His church is to be a temple built after the divine similitude....
OFC	163	1	To His church, Christ has given ample facilities, that He may receive a large revenue of glory from His redeemed, purchased possession. The church, being endowed with the righteousness of Christ, is His depository, in which the wealth of His mercy, His love, His grace, is to appear in full and final display. The declaration in His intercessory prayer, that the Father's love is as great toward us as toward Himself, the only-begotten Son, and that we shall be with Him where He is, forever one with Christ and the Father, is a marvel to the heavenly host, and it is their great joy. The gift of His Holy Spirit, rich, full, and abundant, is to be to His church as an encompassing wall of fire, which the powers of hell shall not prevail against. In their untainted purity and spotless perfection, Christ looks upon His people as the reward of all His suffering, His humiliation, and His love, and the supplement of His glory--Christ, the great center from which radiates all glory.
------------------------Remember Your High Calling, June 24
OFC	163	2	Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. 2 Peter 1:12.
OFC	163	3	No matter how long we may have been traveling in the way of life eternal we need often to recount the mercies of our heavenly Father toward us and gather hope and courage from the promises of His Word....Peter realized the value of constant vigilance in the Christian life, and he felt impelled by the Holy Spirit to urge upon the believers the importance of exercising great carefulness in the daily life....
OFC	163	4	"Always in remembrance." Oh, if only we were to keep before our minds those things that pertain to our eternal welfare, we should not engage in any foolishness or idle speaking! Our lifework is before us. It is for us to give diligence to make our calling and election sure, by giving heed to the plain instruction contained in God's Holy Word....
OFC	163	5	There are many wrong things which we allow to pass by unnoticed, when by our godly conversation we might set an example of rightdoing that would be a standing rebuke to the evildoers. We cannot afford by our example to seem to sanction wrongdoing. There is a heaven to win and a hell to shun. In large churches of believers... there is special danger of lowering the standard. Where many are gathered together some are more liable to grow careless and indifferent than they would be if isolated and made to stand alone. But even under adverse circumstances we may watch unto prayer and set an example in godly conversation that will be a powerful testimony for the right.... We cannot afford to speak words that would discourage our fellow pilgrims in the Christian pathway. Christ has given His life in order that we might live with Him in glory. Throughout eternity He will bear in His hands the prints of the cruel nails by which He was transfixed to the cross of Calvary....
OFC	164	1	We are now fitting up for the future, eternal life; and soon, if faithful, we shall see the gates of the city of our God swing back on their glittering hinges that the nations who have kept the truth may enter in to their eternal inheritance.
------------------------Our Mission To The World, June 25
OFC	164	2	As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. John 17:18.
OFC	164	3	Will separation from the world, in obedience to the divine command, unfit us for the work the Lord has left us? Will it hinder us from doing good to those around us? No; the firmer hold we have on heaven, the greater will be our power of usefulness. We should study the Pattern, that the spirit which dwelt in Christ may dwell in us. The Saviour was not found among the exalted and honorable of the world. He did not spend His time among those who were seeking their ease and pleasure. He worked to help those who needed help, to save the lost and perishing, to lift up the bowed down, to break the yoke of oppression from those in bondage, to heal the afflicted, and to speak words of sympathy and consolation to the distressed and sorrowing. We are required to follow this example. The more we partake of the spirit of Christ, the more we shall seek to do for our fellow men. We shall bless the needy and comfort the distressed....
OFC	164	4	Probation is about to close.... Soon the last prayer for sinners will have been offered, the last tear shed, the last warning given, the last entreaty made, and the sweet voice of mercy will be heard no more. This is why Satan is making such mighty efforts to secure men and women in his snare.... The enemy is playing the game of life for every soul. He is working to remove from us everything of a spiritual nature, and in the place of the precious graces of Christ to crowd our hearts with the evil traits of the carnal nature--hatred, evil surmising, jealousy, love of the world, love of self, love of pleasure, and the pride of life. We need to be fortified against the incoming foe, ... for unless we are watchful and prayerful these evils will enter the heart and crowd out all that is good.
OFC	164	5	How great is the responsibility placed upon the disciple of Christ. How imperative the duty to reflect the light of heaven upon a world enshrouded in darkness. The deeper the surrounding gloom, the brighter should shine out the light of Christian faith and Christian example.
------------------------The Most Powerful Argument, June 26
OFC	165	1	I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.... Therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Isaiah 43:11, 12.
OFC	165	2	Of His true followers the Lord says, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise" (verse 21). They are My witnesses, My chosen representatives, in an apostate world....
OFC	165	3	God calls for our cooperation. His requirements are just and reasonable.... When we take the name of Christ we pledge ourselves to represent Him. In order for us to be true to our pledge, Christ must be formed within, the hope of glory. The daily life must become more and more like the Christ life. We must be Christians in deed and in truth. Christ will have nothing to do with pretense. He will welcome to the heavenly courts those only whose Christianity is genuine. The lives of professed Christians who do not live the life of Christ are a mockery to religion.
OFC	165	4	God does not ask us to purchase His favor by any costly sacrifice. He asks only for the service of a humble, contrite heart, which has gladly and thankfully accepted His free gift. The one who receives Christ as his personal Saviour has in his possession the salvation provided by Christ. And he is never to forget that as he has freely received, so he is freely to impart.
OFC	165	5	Do you realize your value in the sight of God? He says, Ye are laborers together with Me. Are you letting your light shine in clear rays to a fallen world? Are you seeking to exercise every faculty and every power which God has given you? You may not be a minister, but you can be a witness. You may not be an eloquent speaker, but you can be eloquent in living Christ, you can be eloquent in letting your light shine before men.
OFC	165	6	A true, lovable Christian is the most powerful argument that can be advanced in favor of Bible truth. Such a man is Christ's representative. His life is the most convincing evidence that can be borne to the power of divine grace. When God's people bring the righteousness of Christ into the daily life, sinners will be converted and victories over the enemy will be gained.
------------------------Our Obligations To The Poor, June 27
OFC	166	1	For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Matthew 25:35, 36.
OFC	166	2	While the world needs sympathy, while it needs the prayers and assistance of God's people, while it needs to see Christ in the lives of His followers, the people of God are equally in need of opportunities that draw out their sympathies, give efficiency to their prayers, and develop in them a character like that of the divine pattern.
OFC	166	3	It is to provide these opportunities that God has placed among us the poor, the unfortunate, the sick, and the suffering. They are Christ's legacy to His church, and they are to be cared for as He would care for them. In this way God takes away the dross and purifies the gold, giving us that culture of heart and character which we need.
OFC	166	4	The Lord could carry forward His work without our cooperation. He is not dependent on us for our money, our time, or our labor. But the church is very precious in His sight. It is the case which contains His jewels, the fold which encloses His flock, and He longs to see it without spot or blemish or any such things. He yearns after it with unspeakable love. This is why He has given us opportunities to work for Him, and He accepts our labors as tokens of our love and loyalty.
OFC	166	5	In placing among us the poor and the suffering, the Lord is testing us to reveal to us what is in our hearts.... The culture of the mind and heart is more easily accomplished when we feel such tender sympathy for others that we bestow our benefits and privileges to relieve their necessities....
OFC	166	6	Good works cost us a sacrifice, but it is in this very sacrifice that they provide discipline. These obligations bring us into conflict with natural feelings and propensities, and in fulfilling them we gain victory after victory over the objectionable traits of our characters.
OFC	166	7	The world will be convinced not so much by what the pulpit teaches as by what the church lives. The preacher announces the theory of the gospel, but the practical piety of the church demonstrates its power.
------------------------A Work Of Preparation, June 28
OFC	167	1	Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6.
OFC	167	2	There is an earnest work of preparation to be done by Seventh-day Adventists if they would stand firm in the trying experiences just before them. If they remain true to God in the confusion and temptation of the last days, they must seek the Lord in humility of heart for wisdom to resist the deceptions of the enemy....
OFC	167	3	Ever are we to keep in mind the solemn thought of the Lord's soon return, and in view of this to recognize the individual work to be done. Through the aid of the Holy Spirit we are to resist natural inclinations and tendencies to wrong, and weed out of the life every un-Christlike element. Thus we shall prepare our hearts for the reception of God's blessing, which will impart to us grace and bring us into harmony with the faith of Jesus. For this work of preparation great advantages have been granted to this people in light bestowed, in messages of warning and instruction, sent through the agency of the Spirit of God.
OFC	167	4	Because of the increasing power of Satan's temptations, the times in which we live are full of peril for the children of God, and we need to learn constantly of the Great Teacher, that we may take every step in surety and righteousness. Wonderful scenes are opening before us, and at this time a living testimony is to be borne in the lives of God's professing people, so that the world may see that in this age when evil reigns on every side, there is yet a people who are laying aside their will and are seeking to do God's will--a people in whose hearts and lives the law of God is written. There are strong temptations before us, sharp tests. The commandment-keeping people of God are to prepare for this time of trial by obtaining a deeper experience in the things of God and a practical knowledge of the righteousness of Christ.... Not to unbelievers only, but to church members the words are spoken, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near" (Isaiah 55:6)....
OFC	167	5	Let your daily lives witness to the faith you profess.
------------------------If Christ Should Come Today, June 29
OFC	168	1	Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Luke 21:36.
OFC	168	2	Christ bids us watch, that we may be accounted worthy to escape the things that are coming on the earth. It is of the greatest importance that we heed this warning. The enemy of all righteousness is on our track, seeking to lead us to forget God.
OFC	168	3	We should be filled with joy at the thought of Christ's soon appearing. To those that love His appearing He will come without sin unto salvation. But if our minds are filled with thoughts of earthly things, we cannot look forward with joy to His appearing.
OFC	168	4	"If I knew that Christ were coming in a few years," one says, "I should live very differently." But if we believe that He is coming at all, we should live just as faithfully as if we knew that He would appear in a few years. We cannot see the end from the beginning, but Christ has provided sufficient help for every day in the year.
OFC	168	5	All we have to do with is this one day. Today we must be faithful to our trust. Today we must love God with all the heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Today we must resist the temptations of the enemy, and through the grace of Christ gain the victory. Thus we shall watch and wait for Christ's coming. Each day we should live as if we knew that this would be our last day on this earth. If we knew that Christ would come tomorrow, would we not crowd into today all the kind words, all the unselfish deeds, that we could? We should be patient and gentle, and intensely in earnest, doing all in our power to win souls to Christ....
OFC	168	6	I urge you to turn your thoughts from worldly things and center them on the things of eternity. Christ has placed everlasting life within your reach, and He has promised to give you help in every time of need.... We should never rest satisfied with present attainments. If we put mind and heart into the work of reaching God's ideal for us, if we go to Christ, the mighty helper, for aid, He will give us the very assistance that we need. He will bestow on us the very power that will enable us to be victorious in the struggle against evil.
------------------------By The Tree Of Life, June 30
OFC	169	1	And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. Revelation 5:9.
OFC	169	2	Do we expect to get to heaven at last and join the heavenly choir? Just as we go into the grave we will come up, as far as the character is concerned....Now is the time for washing and ironing....
OFC	169	3	John saw the throne of God and around that throne a company, and he inquired, Who are these? The answer came, "These are they which ... have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14). Christ leads them to the fountains of living waters, and there is the tree of life and there is the precious Saviour. Here is presented to us a life that measures with the life of God. There is no pain, sorrow, sickness, or death there. All is peace and harmony and love....
OFC	169	4	Now is the time to receive grace and strength and power to combine with our human efforts that we can form characters for everlasting life. When we do this we will find that the angels of God will minister unto us, and we shall be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And when the last trump shall sound, and the dead shall be called from their prison house and changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the crowns of immortal glory shall be placed upon the heads of the overcomers. The pearly gates will swing back for the nations that have kept the truth and they will enter in. The conflict is ended.
OFC	169	5	"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34). Do we want this benediction? I do, and I believe you do. May God help you that you may fight the battles of this life and gain a victory day by day and at last be among the number that shall cast their crowns at Jesus' feet and touch the golden harps and fill all heaven with sweetest music. I want you to love my Jesus....Do not reject my Saviour, for He has paid an infinite price for you. I see in Jesus matchless charms, and I want you to see these charms.
------------------------One Expensive Mistake, July 1
OFC	169	6	God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. Ecclesiastes 7:29.
OFC	170	1	The book of Genesis gives quite a definite account of social and individual life, and yet we have no record of an infant's being born blind, deaf, crippled, deformed, or imbecile. There is not an instance upon record of a natural death in infancy, childhood, or early manhood. There is no account of men and women dying of disease. Obituary notices in the book of Genesis run thus: "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died." "And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died." ...
OFC	170	2	God endowed man with so great vital force that he has withstood the accumulation of disease brought upon the race in consequence of perverted habits, and has continued for six thousand years. This fact of itself is enough to evidence to us the strength and electrical energy that God gave to man at his creation.... If Adam, at his creation, had not been endowed with twenty times as much vital force as men now have, the race, with their present habits of living in violation of natural law, would have become extinct....
OFC	170	3	God did not create the race in its present feeble condition. This state of things is not the work of Providence, but the work of man; it has been brought about by wrong habits and abuses, by violating the laws that God has made to govern man's existence.
OFC	170	4	God created man for His own glory, that after test and trial the human family might become one with the heavenly family, if they would show themselves obedient to His every word.
OFC	170	5	To Eve it seemed a small thing to disobey God by tasting the fruit of the forbidden tree, and to tempt her husband also to transgress; but their sin opened the floodgates of woe upon the world. Who can know, in the moment of temptation, the terrible consequences that will result from one wrong step?
------------------------Adam Home Again! July 2
OFC	170	6	For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23.
OFC	170	7	Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints.... The dead shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live. And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people....
OFC	170	8	All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when they entered the tomb. Adam, who stands among the risen throng, is of lofty height and majestic form, in stature but little below the Son of God. He presents a marked contrast to the people of later generations; in this one respect is shown the great degeneracy of the race. But all arise with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth....
OFC	171	1	All blemishes and deformities are left in the grave. Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will "grow up" to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory....
OFC	171	2	As the ransomed ones are welcomed to the City of God, there rings out upon the air an exultant cry of adoration. The two Adams are about to meet. The Son of God is standing with outstretched arms to receive the father of our race--the being whom He created, who sinned against his Maker, and for whose sin the marks of the crucifixion are borne upon the Saviour's form. As Adam discerns the prints of the cruel nails, he does not fall upon the bosom of his Lord, but in humiliation casts himself at His feet, crying: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" Tenderly the Saviour lifts him up and bids him look once more upon the Eden home from which he has so long been exiled....
OFC	171	3	This reunion is witnessed by the angels who wept at the fall of Adam and rejoiced when Jesus, after His resurrection, ascended to heaven, having opened the grave for all who should believe on His name. Now they behold the work of redemption accomplished, and they unite their voices in the song of praise.
------------------------An Open Door, July 3
OFC	171	4	By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Hebrews 11:5.
OFC	171	5	When we learn to walk by faith and not by feeling, we shall have help from God just when we need it, and His peace will come into our hearts. It was this simple life of obedience and trust that Enoch lived. If we learn this lesson of simple trust, ours may be the testimony that he received, that he pleased God.
OFC	171	6	In every phase of your character building you are to please God. This you may do; for Enoch pleased Him though living in a degenerate age. And there are Enochs in this our day.
OFC	171	7	For three hundred years Enoch had been seeking purity of heart, that he might be in harmony with heaven. For three centuries he had walked with God. Day by day he had longed for a closer union; nearer and nearer had grown the communion, until God took him to Himself. He had stood at the threshold of the eternal world, only a step between him and the land of the blest; and now the portals opened, the walk with God, so long pursued on earth, continued, and he passed through the gates of the holy city,--the first from among men to enter there.
OFC	172	1	With the word of God in his hands, every human being, wherever his lot in life may be cast, may have such companionship as he shall choose. In its pages he may hold converse with the noblest and best of the human race, and may listen to the voice of the Eternal as He speaks with men.... He may dwell in this world in the atmosphere of heaven, imparting to earth's sorrowing and tempted ones thoughts of hope and longings for holiness; ... like him of old who walked with God, drawing nearer and nearer the threshold of the eternal world, until the portals shall open, and he shall enter there. He will find himself no stranger. The voices that will greet him are the voices of the holy ones, who, unseen, were on earth his companions--voices that here he learned to distinguish and to love. He who through the word of God has lived in fellowship with heaven, will find himself at home in heaven's companionship.
------------------------Safe Inside, July 4
OFC	172	2	And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Genesis 7:1.
OFC	172	3	Noah had faithfully followed the instructions which he had received from God. The ark was finished in every part as the Lord had directed, and was stored with food for man and beast. And now the servant of God made his last solemn appeal to the people. With an agony of desire that words cannot express, he entreated them to seek a refuge while it might be found. Again they rejected his words, and raised their voices in jest and scoffing. Suddenly a silence fell upon the mocking throng. Beasts of every description, the fiercest as well as the most gentle, were seen coming from mountain and forest and quietly making their way toward the ark. A noise as of a rushing wind was heard, and lo, birds were flocking from all directions, their numbers darkening the heavens, and in perfect order they passed to the ark. Animals obeyed the command of God, while men were disobedient.
OFC	172	4	When they saw the beasts come from the forests to the door of the ark, and Noah take them in, they had so long resisted, so long denied the message that God had given them, that ... conscience had become unimpressible.
OFC	172	5	Mercy had ceased its pleadings for the guilty race. The beasts of the field and the birds of the air had entered the place of refuge. Noah and his household were within the ark, "and the Lord shut him in." ... The massive door, which it was impossible for those within to close, was slowly swung to its place by unseen hands. Noah was shut in, and the rejecters of God's mercy were shut out. The seal of Heaven was on that door; God had shut it, and God alone could open it. So when Christ shall cease His intercession for guilty men, before His coming in the clouds of heaven, the door of mercy will be shut. Then divine grace will no longer restrain the wicked, and Satan will have full control of those who have rejected mercy. They will endeavor to destroy God's people; but as Noah was shut into the ark, so the righteous will be shielded by divine power.
------------------------A Home God Can Bless, July 5
OFC	173	1	For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. Genesis 18:19.
OFC	173	2	In God's sight, a man is just what he is in his family. The life of Abraham, the friend of God, was signalized by a strict regard for the word of the Lord. He cultivated home religion. The fear of God pervaded his household. He was the priest of his home. He looked upon his family as a sacred trust. His household numbered more than a thousand souls, and he directed them all, parents and children, to the divine Sovereign. He suffered no parental oppression on the one hand or filial disobedience on the other. By the combined influence of love and justice, he ruled his household in the fear of God, and the Lord bore witness to his faithfulness.
OFC	173	3	He "will command ... his household." There would be no sinful neglect to restrain the evil propensities of his children, no weak, unwise, indulgent favoritism, no yielding of his conviction of duty to the claims of mistaken affection. Abraham would not only give right instruction, but he would maintain the authority of just and righteous laws.
OFC	173	4	How few there are in our day who follow this example. On the part of too many parents there is a blind and selfish sentimentalism, which is manifested in leaving children with their unformed judgment and undisciplined passions, to the control of their own will. This is the worst cruelty to the youth and a great wrong to the world. Parental indulgence causes disorder in families and in society. It confirms in the young the desire to follow inclination, instead of submitting to the divine requirements.
OFC	173	5	Parents and children alike belong to God to be ruled by Him. By affection and authority combined, Abraham ruled his house. God's word has given us rules for our guidance. These rules form the standard from which we cannot swerve if we would keep the way of the Lord. God's will must be paramount. The question for us to ask is not: What have others done? What will my relatives think? or, What will they say of me if I pursue this course? but, What has God said? Neither parent nor child can truly prosper in any course excepting in the way of the Lord.
------------------------How Can I Do It? July 6
OFC	174	1	How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? Genesis 39:9.
OFC	174	2	It is always a critical period in a young man's life when he is separated from home influences and wise counsels and enters upon new scenes and trying tests. But if he does not of his own accord place himself in these positions of danger and remove himself from parental restraint; if, without will or choice of his own, he is placed in dangerous positions and relies upon God for strength--cherishing the love of God in his heart--he will be kept from yielding to temptation by the power of God who placed him in that trying position. God will protect him from being corrupted by the fierce temptation. God was with Joseph in his new home. He was in the path of duty, suffering wrong but not doing wrong. He therefore had the love and protection of God for he carried his religious principle into everything he undertook.
OFC	174	3	Joseph's faith and integrity were to be tested by fiery trials. His master's wife endeavored to entice the young man to transgress the law of God. Heretofore he had remained untainted by the corruption teeming in that heathen land; but this temptation, so sudden, so strong, so seductive--how should it be met? Joseph knew well what would be the consequence of resistance. On the one hand were concealment, favor, and rewards; on the other, disgrace, imprisonment, perhaps death. His whole future life depended upon the decision of the moment. Would principle triumph? Would Joseph still be true to God? With inexpressible anxiety, angels looked upon the scene.
OFC	174	4	Joseph's answer reveals the power of religious principle. He would not betray the confidence of his master on earth, and, whatever the consequences, he would be true to his Master in heaven. Under the inspecting eye of God and holy angels many take liberties of which they would not be guilty in the presence of their fellow men, but Joseph's first thought was of God. "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" he said.
OFC	174	5	If we were to cherish an habitual impression that God sees and hears all that we do and say and keeps a faithful record of our words and actions, and that we must meet it all, we would fear to sin.
------------------------Power Guaranteed, July 7
OFC	175	1	As a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. Genesis 32:28.
OFC	175	2	Had not Jacob previously repented of his sin in obtaining the birthright by fraud, God could not have heard his prayer and mercifully preserved his life. So in the time of trouble, if the people of God had unconfessed sins to appear before them while tortured with fear and anguish, they would be overwhelmed; despair would cut off their faith, and they could not have confidence to plead with God for deliverance. But while they have a deep sense of their unworthiness, they will have no concealed wrongs to reveal. Their sins will have been blotted out by the atoning blood of Christ, and they cannot bring them to remembrance....
OFC	175	3	All who endeavor to excuse or conceal their sins, and permit them to remain upon the books of heaven, unconfessed and unforgiven, will be overcome by Satan. The more exalted their profession, and the more honorable the position which they hold, the more grievous is their course in the sight of God, and the more certain the triumph of the great adversary.
OFC	175	4	Yet Jacob's history is an assurance that God will not cast off those who have been betrayed into sin, but who have returned unto Him with true repentance. It was by self-surrender and confiding faith that Jacob gained what he had failed to gain by conflict in his own strength. God thus taught His servant that divine power and grace alone could give him the blessing he craved. Thus it will be with those who live in the last days. As dangers surround them, and despair seizes upon the soul, they must depend solely upon the merits of the atonement.... None will ever perish while they do this....
OFC	175	5	Jacob prevailed because he was persevering and determined.... It is now that we are to learn this lesson of prevailing prayer, of unyielding faith. The greatest victories to the church of Christ or to the individual Christian are not those that are gained by talent or education, by wealth or the favor of men. They are those victories that are gained in the audience chamber with God, when earnest, agonizing faith lays hold upon the mighty arm of power.
------------------------Seeing The Invisible, July 8
OFC	176	1	By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Hebrews 11:27.
OFC	176	2	Moses had a deep sense of the personal presence of God. He was not only looking down through the ages for Christ to be made manifest in the flesh, but he saw Christ in a special manner accompanying the children of Israel in all their travels. God was real to him, ever present in his thoughts. When misunderstood, when called upon to face danger and to bear insult for Christ's sake, he endured without retaliation. Moses believed in God as one whom he needed and who would help him because of his need. God was to him a present help.
OFC	176	3	Much of the faith which we see is merely nominal; the real, trusting, persevering faith is rare. Moses realized in his own experience the promise that God will be a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him. He had respect unto the recompense of the reward. Here is another point in regard to faith which we wish to study; God will reward the man of faith and obedience. If this faith is brought into the life experience, it will enable everyone who fears and loves God to endure trials. Moses was full of confidence in God because he had appropriating faith. He needed help, and he prayed for it, grasped it by faith, and wove into his experience the belief that God cared for him. He believed that God ruled his life in particular. He saw and acknowledged God in every detail of his life and felt that he was under the eye of the All-seeing One, who weighs motives, who tries the heart. He looked to God and trusted in Him for strength to carry him uncorrupted through every form of temptation.... The presence of God was sufficient to carry him through the most trying situations in which a man could be placed.
OFC	176	4	Moses did not merely think of God; he saw Him. God was the constant vision before him; he never lost sight of His face. He saw Jesus as his Saviour, and he believed that the Saviour's merits would be imputed to him. This faith was to Moses no guesswork; it was a reality. This is the kind of faith we need, faith that will endure the test. Oh, how often we yield to temptation because we do not keep our eye upon Jesus!
------------------------Cloud And Fire, July 9
OFC	176	5	He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night. Psalm 105:39.
OFC	177	1	"And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light." ... The standard of their invisible Leader was ever with them. By day the cloud directed their journeyings or spread as a canopy above the host. It served as a protection from the burning heat, and by its coolness and moisture afforded grateful refreshment in the parched, thirsty desert. By night it became a pillar of fire, illuminating their encampment and constantly assuring them of the divine presence.
OFC	177	2	In one of the most beautiful and comforting passages of Isaiah's prophecy, reference is made to the pillar of cloud and of fire to represent God's care for His people in the great final struggle with the powers of evil: "The Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for above all the glory shall be a covering. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain" (Isaiah 4:5, 6, margin).
OFC	177	3	In the time of trial before us God's pledge of security will be placed upon those who have kept the word of His patience. Christ will say to His faithful ones: "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast" (Isaiah 26:20). The Lion of Judah, so terrible to the rejectors of His grace, will be the Lamb of God to the obedient and faithful. The pillar of cloud which speaks wrath and terror to the transgressor of God's law is light and mercy and deliverance to those who have kept His commandments. The arm strong to smite the rebellious will be strong to deliver the loyal. Every faithful one will surely be gathered. "He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24:31).
------------------------Why Wait? July 10
OFC	177	4	Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. Numbers 13:30.
OFC	177	5	It was Caleb's faith in God that gave him courage; that ... enabled him to stand boldly and unflinchingly in defense of the right. From the same exalted source, the mighty General of the armies of heaven, every true soldier of the cross of Christ must receive strength and courage to overcome obstacles that often seem insurmountable.... Those who would do their duty must be ever ready to speak the words that God gives them, and not the words of doubt, discouragement, and despair....
OFC	178	1	While the doubting ones talk of impossibilities, while they tremble at the thought of high walls and strong giants, let the faithful Calebs, who have "another spirit," come to the front. The truth of God, which bringeth salvation, will go forth to the people if ministers and professed believers will not hedge up its way, as did the unfaithful spies...
OFC	178	2	Human agencies are to be employed in this work. Zeal and energy must be intensified; talents that are rusting from inaction must be pressed into service. The voice that would say, "Wait; do not allow yourself to have burdens imposed upon you," is the voice of the cowardly spies. We want Calebs now who will press to the front--chieftains in Israel who with courageous words will make a strong report in favor of immediate action. When the selfish, ease-loving, panic-stricken people, fearing tall giants and inaccessible walls, clamor for retreat, let the voice of the Calebs be heard, even though the cowardly ones stand with stones in their hands, ready to beat them down for their faithful testimony.
OFC	178	3	It is when the unbelieving cast contempt upon the Word of God that the faithful Calebs are called for. It is then that they will stand firm at the post of duty, without parade, and without swerving because of reproach. The unbelieving spies stood ready to destroy Caleb. He saw the stones in the hands of those who had brought a false report, but this did not deter him; he had a message, and he would bear it. The same spirit will be manifested today by those who are true to God.
------------------------The Only Way To Win, July 11
OFC	178	4	This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein; for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Joshua 1:8.
OFC	178	5	If men will walk in the path that God has marked out for them, they will have a counselor whose wisdom is far above any human wisdom. Joshua was a wise general because God was his guide. The first sword that Joshua used was the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God....
OFC	178	6	It was because the strongest influences were to be brought to bear against his principles of righteousness that the Lord in mercy charged him not to turn to the right hand or to the left. He was to follow a course of strictest integrity.... If there had been no peril before Joshua, God would not over and over again have charged him to be of good courage. But amid all his cares, Joshua had his God to guide Him.
OFC	178	7	There is no greater deception than for man to suppose that in any difficulty he can find a better guide than God, a wiser counselor in any emergency, a stronger defense under any circumstance....
OFC	179	1	The Lord has a great work to be done in our world. To every man He has given His work for man to do. But man is not to make man his guide, lest he be led astray; this is always unsafe. While Bible religion embodies the principles of activity in service, at the same time there is the necessity of asking for wisdom daily from the Source of all wisdom. What was Joshua's victory? Thou shalt meditate upon the Word of God day and night. The word of the Lord came to Joshua just before he passed over Jordan.... This was the secret of Joshua's victory. He made God his Guide.
OFC	179	2	Those holding the positions of counselors should be unselfish men, men of faith, men of prayer, men that will not dare to rely upon their own human wisdom, but will seek earnestly for light and intelligence as to what is the best manner of conducting their business. Joshua, the commander of Israel, searched the books diligently in which Moses had faithfully chronicled the directions given by God,--His requirements, reproofs, and restrictions,--lest he should move unadvisedly.
------------------------Too Many Soldiers, July 12
OFC	179	3	And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Judges 7:2.
OFC	179	4	It had been made a law in Israel that before they went to battle the following proclamation should be made throughout the army: "What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her." And the officers were to speak further to the people, saying, "What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart" (Deuteronomy 20:5-8).
OFC	179	5	Because his numbers were so few compared with those of the enemy, Gideon had refrained from making the usual proclamation. He was filled with astonishment at the declaration that his army was too large. But the Lord saw the pride and unbelief existing in the hearts of His people. Aroused by the stirring appeals of Gideon, they had readily enlisted; but many were filled with fear when they saw the multitudes of the Midianites. Yet, had Israel triumphed, those very ones would have taken the glory to themselves instead of ascribing the victory to God.
OFC	180	1	Gideon obeyed the Lord's direction, and with a heavy heart he saw twenty-two thousand, or more than two thirds of his entire force, depart for their homes.
OFC	180	2	The Lord is willing to do great things for us. We shall not gain the victory through numbers, but through the full surrender of the soul to Jesus. We are to go forward in His strength, trusting in the mighty God of Israel. There is a lesson for us in the story of Gideon's army.... The Lord is just as willing to work through human efforts now, and to accomplish great things through weak instrumentalities.
------------------------No Generation Gap, July 13
OFC	180	3	And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. 1 Samuel 3:1.
OFC	180	4	Young as he was when brought to minister in the tabernacle, Samuel had even then duties to perform in the service of God, according to his capacity. These were at first very humble, and not always pleasant; but they were performed to the best of his ability, and with a willing heart....
OFC	180	5	If children were taught to regard the humble round of everyday duties as the course marked out for them by the Lord, as a school in which they were to be trained to render faithful and efficient service, how much more pleasant and honorable would their work appear. To perform every duty as unto the Lord, throws a charm around the humblest employment and links the workers on earth with the holy beings who do God's will in heaven.
OFC	180	6	The life of Samuel from early childhood had been a life of piety and devotion. He had been placed under the care of Eli in his youth, and the loveliness of his character drew forth the warm affection of the aged priest. He was kind, generous, diligent, obedient, and respectful. The contrast between the course of the youth Samuel and that of the priest's own sons was very marked, and Eli found rest and comfort and blessing in the presence of his charge. It was a singular thing that between Eli, the chief magistrate of the nation, and the simple child so warm a friendship should exist. Samuel was helpful and affectionate, and no father ever loved his child more tenderly than did Eli this youth. As the infirmities of age came upon Eli, he felt more keenly the disheartening, reckless, profligate course of his own sons, and he turned to Samuel for comfort and support.
OFC	180	7	How touching to see youth and old age relying one upon the other, the youth looking up to the aged for counsel and wisdom, the aged looking to the youth for help and sympathy. This is as it should be. God would have the young possess such qualifications of character that they shall find delight in the friendship of the old, that they may be united in the endearing bonds of affection to those who are approaching the borders of the grave.
------------------------Preparing To Lead, July 14
OFC	181	1	When there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. 1 Samuel 17:34, 35, R.V.
OFC	181	2	David was growing in favor with God and man. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he now set his heart more fully to do the will of God than ever before. He had new themes for thought. He had been in the court of the king and had seen the responsibilities of royalty. He had discovered some of the temptations that beset the soul of Saul and had penetrated some of the mysteries in the character and dealings of Israel's first king. He had seen the glory of royalty shadowed with a dark cloud of sorrow, and he knew that the household of Saul, in their private life, were far from happy. All these things served to bring troubled thoughts to him who had been anointed to be king over Israel. But while he was absorbed in deep meditation, and harassed by thoughts of anxiety, he turned to his harp, and called forth strains that elevated his mind to the Author of every good, and the dark clouds that seemed to shadow the horizon of the future were dispelled.
OFC	181	3	God was teaching David lessons of trust. As Moses was trained for his work, so the Lord was fitting the son of Jesse to become the guide of His chosen people. In his watchcare for his flocks, he was gaining an appreciation of the care that the Great Shepherd has for the sheep of His pasture.
OFC	181	4	The lonely hills and the wild ravines where David wandered with his flocks were the lurking place of beasts of prey. Not infrequently the lion from the thickets by the Jordan, or the bear from his lair among the hills, came, fierce with hunger, to attack the flocks. According to the custom of his time, David was armed only with his sling and shepherd's staff; yet he early gave proof of his strength and courage in protecting his charge....
OFC	181	5	His experience in these matters proved the heart of David and developed in him courage and fortitude and faith.
------------------------Satan's Stealthy Work, July 15
OFC	182	1	For our fight is not against any physical enemy: it is against organizations and powers that are spiritual. We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil. Ephesians 6:12, Phillips.
OFC	182	2	The Bible has little to say in praise of men. Little space is given to recounting the virtues of even the best men who have ever lived. This silence is not without purpose; it is not without a lesson. All the good qualities that men possess are the gift of God; their good deeds are performed by the grace of God through Christ. Since they owe all to God the glory of whatever they are or do belongs to Him alone; they are but instruments in His hands. More than this--as all the lessons of Bible history teach--it is a perilous thing to praise or exalt men; for if one comes to lose sight of his entire dependence on God, and to trust to his own strength, he is sure to fall....
OFC	182	3	It is impossible for us in our own strength to maintain the conflict; and whatever diverts the mind from God, whatever leads to self-exaltation or to self-dependence, is surely preparing the way for our overthrow. The tenor of the Bible is to inculcate distrust of human power and to encourage trust in divine power.
OFC	182	4	It was the spirit of self-confidence and self-exaltation that prepared the way for David's fall. Flattery and the subtle allurements of power and luxury were not without effect upon him. Intercourse with surrounding nations also exerted an influence for evil. According to the customs prevailing among Eastern rulers, crimes not to be tolerated in subjects were uncondemned in the king; the monarch was not under obligation to exercise the same self-restraint as the subject. All this tended to lessen David's sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And instead of relying in humility upon the power of Jehovah, he began to trust to his own wisdom and might.
OFC	182	5	As soon as Satan can separate the soul from God, the only Source of strength, he will seek to arouse the unholy desires of man's carnal nature. The work of the enemy is not abrupt; it is not, at the outset, sudden and startling; it is a secret undermining of the strongholds of principle.
------------------------A Late Awakening, July 16
OFC	183	1	Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. Ecclesiastes 2:11.
OFC	183	2	By his own bitter experience, Solomon learned the emptiness of a life that seeks in earthly things its highest good. He erected altars to heathen gods, only to learn how vain is their promise of rest to the spirit. Gloomy and soul-harassing thoughts troubled him night and day. For him there was no longer any joy of life or peace of mind, and the future was dark with despair.
OFC	183	3	Yet the Lord forsook him not. By messages of reproof and by severe judgments, He sought to arouse the king to a realization of the sinfulness of his course.... At last the Lord, through a prophet, delivered to Solomon the startling message: ... "I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son."
OFC	183	4	Awakened as from a dream by this sentence of judgment pronounced against him and his house, Solomon with quickened conscience began to see his folly in its true light. Chastened in spirit, with mind and body enfeebled, he turned wearied and thirsting from earth's broken cisterns, to drink once more at the fountain of life.... He could never hope to escape the blasting results of sin; he could never free his mind from all remembrance of the self-indulgent course he had been pursuing; but he would endeavor earnestly to dissuade others from following after folly....
OFC	183	5	The true penitent does not put his past sins from his remembrance. He does not, as soon as he has obtained peace, grow unconcerned in regard to the mistakes he has made. He thinks of those who have been led into evil by his course, and tries in every possible way to lead them back into the true path. The clearer the light that he has entered into, the stronger is his desire to set the feet of others in the right way.
------------------------A Voice In The Wilderness, July 17
OFC	183	6	And Elijah the Tishbite, ... said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. 1 Kings 17:1.
OFC	184	1	Among the mountains of Gilead, east of the Jordan, there dwelt in the days of Ahab a man of faith and prayer whose fearless ministry was destined to check the rapid spread of apostasy in Israel. Far removed from any city of renown, and occupying no high station in life, Elijah the Tishbite nevertheless entered upon his mission confident in God's purpose to prepare the way before him and to give him abundant success. The word of faith and power was upon his lips, and his whole life was devoted to the work of reform. His was the voice of one crying in the wilderness to rebuke sin and press back the tide of evil. And while he came to the people as a reprover of sin, his message offered the balm of Gilead to the sin-sick souls of all who desired to be healed....
OFC	184	2	To Elijah was entrusted the mission of delivering to Ahab Heaven's message of judgment. He did not seek to be the Lord's messenger; the word of the Lord came to him. And jealous for the honor of God's cause, he did not hesitate to obey the divine summons, though to obey seemed to invite swift destruction at the hand of the wicked king....
OFC	184	3	It was only by the exercise of strong faith in the unfailing power of God's word that Elijah delivered his message. Had he not possessed implicit confidence in the One whom he served, he would never have appeared before Ahab. On his way to Samaria, Elijah had passed by ever-flowing streams, hills covered with verdure, and stately forests that seemed beyond the reach of drought. Everything on which the eye rested was clothed with beauty. The prophet might have wondered how the streams that had never ceased their flow could become dry, or how those hills and valleys could be burned with drought. But he gave no place to unbelief. He fully believed that God would humble apostate Israel, and that through judgments they would be brought to repentance. The fiat of Heaven had gone forth; God's word could not fail; and at the peril of his life Elijah fearlessly fulfilled his commission.
------------------------The Battle Song, July 18
OFC	184	4	And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever. 2 Chronicles 20:21.
OFC	184	5	It was a singular way of going to battle against the enemy's army--praising the Lord with singing, and exalting the God of Israel. This was their battle song. They possessed the beauty of holiness. If more praising of God were engaged in now, hope and courage and faith would steadily increase. And would not this strengthen the hands of the valiant soldiers who today are standing in defense of truth?
OFC	185	1	They praised God for the victory, and four days thereafter the army returned to Jerusalem, laden with the spoils of their enemies, singing praise for the victory won.
OFC	185	2	When we have a deeper appreciation of the mercy and loving-kindness of God, we shall praise Him, instead of complaining. We shall talk of the loving watchcare of the Lord, of the tender compassion of the Good Shepherd. The language of the heart will not be selfish murmuring and repining. Praise, like a clear, flowing stream, will come from God's truly believing ones....
OFC	185	3	Why not awake the voice of spiritual song in the days of our pilgrimage? ... We need to study God's Word, to meditate and pray. Then we shall have spiritual eyesight to discern the inner courts of the celestial temple. We shall catch the notes of thanksgiving sung by the heavenly choir around the throne. When Zion shall arise and shine, her light will be most penetrating, and songs of praise and thanksgiving will be heard in the assembly of the saints. Little disappointments and difficulties will be lost sight of.
OFC	185	4	The Lord is our helper.... No one ever trusted God in vain. He never disappoints those who put their dependence on Him. If we would only do the work that the Lord would have us do, walking in the footsteps of Jesus, our hearts would become sacred harps, every chord of which would send forth praise and thanksgiving to the One sent by God to take away the sin of the world.
------------------------All On The Altar, July 19
OFC	185	5	No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62.
OFC	185	6	We are not all asked to serve as Elisha served, nor are we all bidden to sell everything we have; but God asks us to give His service the first place in our lives, to allow no day to pass without doing something to advance His work in the earth. He does not expect from all the same kind of service. One may be called to ministry in a foreign land; another may be asked to give of his means for the support of gospel work. God accepts the offering of each. It is the consecration of the life and all its interests, that is necessary. Those who make this consecration will hear and obey the call of Heaven....
OFC	185	7	It was no great work that was at first required of Elisha; commonplace duties still constituted his discipline. He is spoken of as pouring water on the hands of Elijah, his master. He was willing to do anything that the Lord directed, and at every step he learned lessons of humility and service.... Elisha's life after uniting with Elijah was not without temptations. Trials he had in abundance; but in every emergency he relied on God. He was tempted to think of the home that he had left, but to this temptation he gave no heed. Having put his hand to the plow, he was resolved not to turn back, and through test and trial he proved true to this trust....
OFC	186	1	As Elisha accompanied the prophet ... his faith and resolution were once more tested. At Gilgal, and again at Bethel and Jericho, he was invited by the prophet to turn back.... But ... he would not be diverted from his purpose.... "And ... Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee."
OFC	186	2	Elisha asked not for worldly honor, or for a high place among the great men of earth. That which he craved was a large measure of the Spirit that God had bestowed so freely upon the one about to be honored with translation. He knew that nothing but the Spirit which had rested upon Elijah, could fit him to fill the place in Israel to which God had called him; and so he asked, "I pray thee, let a double portion of thy Spirit be upon me."
------------------------Reluctant Prophet, July 20
OFC	186	3	Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. Jonah 1:2.
OFC	186	4	Nineveh, wicked though it had become, was not wholly given over to evil. He who "beholdeth all the sons of men" (Psalm 33:13) ... perceived in that city many who were reaching out after something better and higher.... God revealed Himself to them in an unmistakable manner, to lead them, if possible, to repentance.
OFC	186	5	The instrument chosen for this work was the prophet Jonah.... Had the prophet obeyed unquestioningly, he would have been spared many bitter experiences, and would have been blessed abundantly. Yet in the hour of Jonah's despair the Lord did not desert him. Through a series of trials and strange providences, the prophet's confidence in God and in His infinite power to save was to be revived....
OFC	186	6	Once more the servant of God was commissioned to warn Nineveh.... As Jonah entered the city, he began at once to "cry against" it the message, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." From street to street he went, sounding the note of warning.
OFC	186	7	The message was not in vain. The cry that rang through the streets of the godless city was passed from lip to lip until all the inhabitants had heard the startling announcement. The Spirit of God pressed the message home to every heart and caused multitudes to tremble because of their sins and to repent in deep humiliation.... Their doom was averted, the God of Israel was exalted and honored throughout the heathen world, and His law was revered. Not until many years later was Nineveh to fall a prey to the surrounding nations through forgetfulness of God and through boastful pride....
OFC	187	1	The lesson is for God's messengers today, when the cities of the nations are as verily in need of a knowledge of the attributes and purposes of the true God as were the Ninevites of old.... The only city that will endure is the city whose builder and maker is God.... The Lord Jesus is calling upon men to strive with sanctified ambition to secure the immortal inheritance.
------------------------Jeremiah, God's Mouthpiece, July 21
OFC	187	2	It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:26.
OFC	187	3	Among those who had hoped for a permanent spiritual revival as the result of the reformation under Josiah was Jeremiah, called of God to the prophetic office while still a youth....
OFC	187	4	In the youthful Jeremiah, God saw one who would be true to his trust and who would stand for the right against great opposition.... "Say not, I am a child," the Lord bade His chosen messenger; "for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee." ...
OFC	187	5	For forty years Jeremiah was to stand before the nation as a witness for truth and righteousness. In a time of unparalleled apostasy he was to exemplify in life and character the worship of the only true God. During the terrible sieges of Jerusalem he was to be the mouthpiece of Jehovah.
OFC	187	6	Naturally of a timid and shrinking disposition, Jeremiah longed for the peace and quiet of a life of retirement, where he need not witness the continued impenitence of his beloved nation. His heart was wrung with anguish over the ruin wrought by sin....
OFC	187	7	The experiences through which Jeremiah passed in the days of his youth and also in the later years of his ministry, taught him the lesson that "the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." He learned to pray, "O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing" (Jeremiah 10:23, 24).
OFC	187	8	When called to drink of the cup of tribulation and sorrow, and when tempted in his misery to say, "My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord," he recalled the providences of God in his behalf and triumphantly exclaimed, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.... The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
------------------------Faith And God's Promises, July 22
OFC	188	1	Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4.
OFC	188	2	At the time Josiah began to rule, and for many years before, the truehearted in Judah were questioning whether God's promises to ancient Israel could ever be fulfilled....
OFC	188	3	These anxious questionings were voiced by the prophet Habakkuk. Viewing the situation of the faithful in his day, he expressed the burden of his heart in the inquiry: "O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!" ... And then, his faith reaching out beyond the forbidding prospect of the immediate future, and laying fast hold on the precious promises that reveal God's love for His trusting children, the prophet added, "We shall not die." With this declaration of faith he rested his case, and that of every believing Israelite, in the hands of a compassionate God....
OFC	188	4	The faith that strengthened Habakkuk and all the holy and the just in those days of deep trial was the same faith that sustains God's people today. In the darkest hours, under circumstances the most forbidding, the Christian believer may keep his soul stayed upon the source of all light and power. Day by day, through faith in God, his hope and courage may be renewed. "The just shall live by his faith." ...
OFC	188	5	We must cherish and cultivate the faith of which prophets and apostles have testified--the faith that lays hold on the promises of God and waits for deliverance in His appointed time and way. The sure word of prophecy will meet its final fulfillment in the glorious advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as King of kings and Lord of lords.... With the prophet who endeavored to encourage Judah in a time of unparalleled apostasy, let us confidently declare, "The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." Let us ever hold in remembrance the cheering message, "The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come."
------------------------Daniel, God's Ambassador, July 23
OFC	189	1	Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Daniel 6:4.
OFC	189	2	Daniel, the prime minister of the greatest of earthly kingdoms, was at the same time a prophet of God, receiving the light of heavenly inspiration. A man of like passions as ourselves, the pen of inspiration describes him as without fault. His business transactions, when subjected to the closest scrutiny of his enemies, were found to be without one flaw. He was an example of what every businessman may become when his heart is converted and consecrated, and when his motives are right in the sight of God....
OFC	189	3	Unwavering in his allegiance to God, unyielding in his mastery of self, Daniel, by his noble dignity and unswerving integrity, while yet a young man, won the "favor and tender love" of the heathen officer in whose charge he had been placed.... He rose speedily to the position of prime minister of the kingdom of Babylon. Through the reign of successive monarchs, the downfall of the nation, and the establishment of another world empire, such were his wisdom and statesmanship, so perfect his tact, his courtesy, his genuine goodness of heart, his fidelity to principle, that even his enemies were forced to the confession that "they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful."
OFC	189	4	Honored by men with the responsibilities of state and with the secrets of kingdoms bearing universal sway, Daniel was honored by God as His ambassador, and was given many revelations of the mysteries of ages to come. His wonderful prophecies, as recorded by him in chapters 7 to 12 of the book bearing his name, were not fully understood even by the prophet himself; but before his life labors closed, he was given the blessed assurance that "at the end of the days"--in the closing period of this world's history--he would again be permitted to stand in his lot and place....
OFC	189	5	We may, like Daniel and his fellows, live for that which is true and noble and enduring. And learning in this life the principles of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, ... we may be prepared at His coming to enter with Him into its possession.
------------------------Knowledge Requires Action, July 24
OFC	190	1	Ezra...was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given. Ezra 7:6.
OFC	190	2	More than two thousand years have passed since Ezra "prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it," yet the lapse of time has not lessened the influence of his pious example. Through the centuries the record of his life of consecration has inspired many with the determination "to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it."
OFC	190	3	Ezra's motives were high and holy; in all that he did he was actuated by a deep love for souls. The compassion and tenderness that he revealed toward those who had sinned, either willfully or through ignorance, should be an object lesson to all who seek to bring about reforms....
OFC	190	4	There is no such thing as weakening or strengthening the law of Jehovah. As it has been, so it is. It always has been, and always will be, holy, just, and good, complete in itself. It cannot be repealed or changed. To "honor" or "dishonor" it is but the speech of men....
OFC	190	5	Christians should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise, and this preparation they should make by diligently studying the word of God and striving to conform their lives to its precepts. The tremendous issues of eternity demand of us something besides an imaginary religion, a religion of words and forms, where truth is kept in the outer court....
OFC	190	6	If the saints of the Old Testament bore so bright a testimony of loyalty, should not those upon whom is shining the accumulated light of centuries, bear a still more signal witness to the power of truth?
OFC	190	7	Shall we let the example of Ezra teach us the use we should make of our knowledge of the Scriptures? The life of this servant of God should be an inspiration to us to serve the Lord with heart and mind and strength. We each have an appointed work to do, and this can be accomplished only by consecrated effort. We need first to set ourselves to know the requirements of God, and then to practice them. Then we can sow seeds of truth that will bear fruit unto eternal life.
------------------------None Were Perfect, July 25
OFC	190	8	This priceless treasure we hold, so to speak, in a common earthenware jar--to show that the splendid power of it belongs to God and not to us. 2 Corinthians 4:7, Phillips.
OFC	191	1	All the disciples had serious faults when Jesus called them to His service. Even John, who came into closest association with the meek and lowly One, was not himself naturally meek and yielding. He and his brother were called "the sons of thunder." While they were with Jesus, any slight shown to Him aroused their indignation and combativeness. Evil temper, revenge, the spirit of criticism, were all in the beloved disciple. He was proud, and ambitious to be first in the kingdom of God. But day by day, in contrast with his own violent spirit, he beheld the tenderness and forbearance of Jesus, and heard His lessons of humility and patience. He opened his heart to the divine influence, and became not only a hearer but a doer of the Saviour's words. Self was hid in Christ. He learned to wear the yoke of Christ and to bear His burden.
OFC	191	2	Jesus reproved His disciples, He warned and cautioned them; but John and his brethren did not leave Him; they chose Jesus, notwithstanding the reproofs. The Saviour did not withdraw from them because of their weakness and errors. They continued to the end to share His trials and to learn the lessons of His life. By beholding Christ, they became transformed in character....
OFC	191	3	As His representatives among men, Christ does not choose angels who have never fallen, but human beings, men of like passions with those they seek to save....
OFC	191	4	Having been in peril themselves, they are acquainted with the dangers and difficulties of the way, and for this reason are called to reach out for others in like peril. There are souls perplexed with doubt, burdened with infirmities, weak in faith, and unable to grasp the Unseen; but a friend whom they can see, coming to them in Christ's stead, can be a connecting link to fasten their trembling faith upon Christ.
OFC	191	5	We are to be laborers together with the heavenly angels in presenting Jesus to the world.
------------------------It Has To Be Personal, July 26
OFC	191	6	If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. Matthew 9:21.
OFC	191	7	It was a poor woman who spoke these words--a woman who for twelve years had suffered from a disease that made her life a burden. She had spent all her means upon physicians and remedies, only to be pronounced incurable. But as she heard of the Great Healer, her hopes revived.... Again and again she had tried in vain to get near Him.
OFC	191	8	She had begun to despair, when, in making His way through the multitude, He came near where she was.... But amid the confusion she could not speak to Him, nor catch more than a passing glimpse of His figure.... As He was passing, she reached forward, and succeeded in barely touching the border of His garment. But in that moment she knew that she was healed. In that one touch was concentrated the faith of her life, and instantly her pain and feebleness gave place to the vigor of perfect health.
OFC	192	1	With a grateful heart she then tried to withdraw from the crowd; but suddenly Jesus stopped.... The Saviour could distinguish the touch of faith from the casual contact of the careless throng. Such trust should not be passed without comment.... Finding concealment vain, she came forward tremblingly, and cast herself at His feet. With grateful tears she told the story of her suffering, and how she had found relief. Jesus gently said, "Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." He gave no opportunity for superstition to claim healing virtue for the mere act of touching His garments. It was not through the outward contact with Him, but through the faith which took hold on His divine power, that the cure was wrought....
OFC	192	2	So in spiritual things. To talk of religion in a casual way, to pray without soul hunger and living faith, avails nothing. A nominal faith in Christ, which accepts Him merely as the Saviour of the world, can never bring healing to the soul.... It is not enough to believe about Christ; we must believe in Him. The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces Him as a personal Saviour; which appropriates His merits to ourselves.
------------------------Nothing Too Costly, July 27
OFC	192	3	For the love of Christ constraineth us. 2 Corinthians 5:14.
OFC	192	4	Christ delighted in the earnest desire of Mary to do the will of her Lord. He accepted the wealth of pure affection which His disciples did not, would not, understand. The desire that Mary had to do this service for her Lord was of more value to Christ than all the precious ointment in the world, because it expressed her appreciation of the world's Redeemer. It was the love of Christ that constrained her. The matchless excellence of the character of Christ filled her soul. That ointment was a symbol of the heart of the giver. It was the outward demonstration of a love fed by heavenly streams until it overflowed.
OFC	192	5	The work of Mary was just the lesson the disciples needed to show them that the expression of their love for Him would be pleasing to Christ. He had been everything to them, and they did not realize that soon they would be deprived of His presence, that soon they could offer Him no token of their gratitude for His great love. The loneliness of Christ, separated from the heavenly courts, living the life of humanity, was never understood or appreciated by the disciples as it should have been....
OFC	193	1	Their afterknowledge gave them a true sense of the many things they might have done for Jesus expressive of the love and gratitude of their hearts.... When Jesus was no longer with them, ... they began to see how they might have shown Him attentions that would have brought gladness to His heart. They no longer cast blame upon Mary, but upon themselves. Oh, if they could have taken back their censuring, their presenting the poor as more worthy of the gift than was Christ! They felt the reproof keenly as they took from the cross the bruised body of their Lord.
OFC	193	2	The same want is evident in our world today. But few appreciate all that Christ is to them. If they did, the great love of Mary would be expressed, the anointing would be freely bestowed. The expensive ointment would not be called a waste. Nothing would be thought too costly to give for Christ, no self-denial or self-sacrifice too great to be endured for His sake.
------------------------Just For One Man, July 28
OFC	193	3	And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went. Acts 8:26, 27.
OFC	193	4	Notice how much effort was put forth for just one man, an Ethiopian.
OFC	193	5	This Ethiopian was a man of good standing and of wide influence. God saw that when converted he would give others the light he had received and would exert a strong influence in favor of the gospel. Angels of God were attending this seeker for light, and he was being drawn to the Saviour. By the ministration of the Holy Spirit the Lord brought him into touch with one who could lead him to the light.
OFC	193	6	Philip was directed to go to the Ethiopian and explain to him the prophecy that he was reading. "Go near," the Spirit said, "and join thyself to this chariot." ... The man's heart thrilled with interest as the Scriptures were explained to him; and when the disciple had finished, he was ready to accept the light given. He did not make his high worldly position an excuse for refusing the gospel....
OFC	193	7	This Ethiopian represented a large class who need to be taught by such missionaries as Philip--men who will hear the voice of God and go where He sends them. There are many who are reading the Scriptures who cannot understand their true import. All over the world men and women are looking wistfully to heaven. Prayers and tears and inquiries go up from souls longing for light, for grace, for the Holy Spirit. Many are on the verge of the kingdom, waiting only to be gathered in.
OFC	194	1	An angel guided Philip to the one who was seeking for light and who was ready to receive the gospel, and today angels will guide the footsteps of those workers who will allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify their tongues and refine and ennoble their hearts.
OFC	194	2	He who sent Philip to the Ethiopian councilor, Peter to the Roman centurion, and the little Israelitish maiden to the help of Naaman, the Syrian captain, sends men and women and youth today as His representatives to those in need of divine help and guidance.
------------------------Saul To Paul, July 29
OFC	194	3	And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. Acts 9:6.
OFC	194	4	In the wonderful conversion of Paul we see the miraculous power of God.... Jesus, whose name of all others he most hated and despised, revealed Himself to Paul for the purpose of arresting his mad yet honest career, that He might make this most unpromising instrument a chosen vessel to bear the gospel to the Gentiles.... The light of heavenly illumination had taken away Paul's eyesight; but Jesus, the Great Healer of the blind, does not restore it. He answers the question of Paul in these words: "Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." Jesus could not only have healed Paul of his blindness, but He could have forgiven his sins and told him his duty by marking out his future course. From Christ all power and mercies were to flow; but He did not give Paul an experience, in his conversion to truth, independent of His church recently organized upon the earth.
OFC	194	5	The marvelous light given Paul upon that occasion astonished and confounded him. He was wholly subdued. This part of the work man could not do for Paul, but there was a work still to be accomplished which the servants of Christ could do. Jesus directs him to His agents in the church for a further knowledge of duty. Thus He gives authority and sanction to His organized church. Christ had done the work of revelation and conviction, and now Paul was in a condition to learn of those whom God had ordained to teach the truth. Christ directs Paul to His chosen servants, thus placing him in connection with His church. The very men whom Paul was purposing to destroy were to be his instructors in the very religion that he had despised and persecuted....
OFC	194	6	An angel is sent to Ananias, directing him to go to a certain house where Saul is praying to be instructed in what he is to do next.... In Christ's stead Ananias touches his eyes that they may receive sight; in Christ's stead he lays his hands upon him, prays in Christ's name, and Saul receives the Holy Ghost.
------------------------Toward The Mark, July 30
OFC	195	1	This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13, 14.
OFC	195	2	Paul did many things. He was a wise teacher. His many letters are full of instructive lessons setting forth correct principles. He worked with his hands, for he was a tent-maker, and in this way earned his daily bread.... He carried a heavy burden for the churches. He strove most earnestly to present their errors before them, that they might correct them, and not be deceived and led away from God. He was always seeking to help them in their difficulties; and yet he declares, "One thing I do." ... The responsibilities of his life were many, yet he kept always before him this "one thing." The constant sense of the presence of God constrained him to keep his eye ever looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of his faith.
OFC	195	3	The great purpose that constrained Paul to press forward in the face of hardship and difficulty should lead every Christian worker to consecrate himself wholly to God's service. Worldly attractions will be presented to draw his attention from the Saviour, but he is to press on toward the goal, showing to the world, to angels, and to men that the hope of seeing the face of God is worth all the effort and sacrifice that the attainment of this hope demands.
OFC	195	4	The lowliest disciple of Christ may become an inhabitant of heaven, an heir of God to an inheritance incorruptible, and that fadeth not away. O that every one might make choice of the heavenly gift, become an heir of God to that inheritance whose title is secure from any destroyer, world without end! O, choose not the world, but choose the better inheritance! Press, urge your way toward the mark for the prize of your high calling in Christ Jesus.
OFC	195	5	Soon we shall witness the coronation of our King. Those whose lives have been hidden with Christ, those who on this earth have fought the good fight of faith, will shine forth with the Redeemer's glory in the kingdom of God.
------------------------Hitherto Hath The Lord Helped Us, July 31
OFC	196	1	O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works. Psalm 105:1, 2.
OFC	196	2	The dealings of God with His people should be often repeated. How frequently were the waymarks set up by the Lord in His dealings with ancient Israel! Lest they should forget the history of the past, He commanded Moses to frame these events into song, that parents might teach them to their children. They were to gather up memorials and to lay them up in sight. Special pains were taken to preserve them, that when the children should inquire concerning these things, the whole story might be repeated. Thus the providential dealings and the marked goodness and mercy of God in His care and deliverance of His people were kept in mind. We are exhorted to "call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions" (Hebrews 10:32). For His people in this generation the Lord has wrought as a wonder-working God.... We need often to recount God's goodness and to praise Him for His wonderful works.
OFC	196	3	Let us not cast away our confidence, but have firm assurance, firmer than ever before. "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," and He will help us to the end (1 Samuel 7:12). Let us look to the monumental pillars, reminders of what the Lord has done to comfort us and to save us from the hand of the destroyer. Let us keep fresh in our memory all the tender mercies that God has shown us--the tears He has wiped away, the pains He has soothed, the anxieties removed, the fears dispelled, the wants supplied, the blessings bestowed--thus strengthening ourselves for all that is before us through the remainder of our pilgrimage.
OFC	196	4	We cannot but look forward to new perplexities in the coming conflict, but we may look on what is past as well as on what is to come, and say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25). The trial will not exceed the strength that shall be given us to bear it. Then let us take up our work just where we find it, believing that whatever may come, strength proportionate to the trial will be given.
------------------------God's Kingdom In The Heart, August 1
OFC	197	1	Behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21.
OFC	197	2	The government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive; on every hand were crying abuses--extortion, intolerance, and grinding cruelty. Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms. He attacked no national abuses, nor condemned the national enemies. He did not interfere with the authority or administration of those in power. He who was our example kept aloof from earthly governments. Not because He was indifferent to the woes of men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely human and external measures. To be efficient, the cure must reach men individually, and must regenerate the heart.
OFC	197	3	Some of the Pharisees had come to Jesus demanding "when the kingdom of God should come" (Luke 17:20). More than three years had passed since John the Baptist gave the message that like a trumpet call had sounded through the land, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). And as yet these Pharisees saw no indication of the establishment of the kingdom....
OFC	197	4	Jesus answered, "The kingdom of God cometh not with outward show [margin]: neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." The kingdom of God begins at the heart. Look not here or there for manifestations of earthly power to mark its coming.
OFC	197	5	The works of Christ not only declared Him to be the Messiah, but showed in what manner His kingdom was to be established.... It comes through the gentleness of the inspiration of His word, through the inward working of His Spirit, the fellowship of the soul with Him who is its life. The greatest manifestation of its power is seen in human nature brought to the perfection of the character of Christ....
OFC	197	6	When God gave His Son to our world, He endowed human beings with imperishable riches--riches compared with which the treasured wealth of men since the world began is nothingness. Christ came to the earth and stood before the children of men with the hoarded love of eternity, and this is the treasure that, through our connection with Him, we are to receive, to reveal, and to impart.
------------------------Like Yeast, August 2
OFC	198	1	The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Matthew 13:33.
OFC	198	2	In the Saviour's parable, leaven is used to represent the kingdom of heaven. It illustrates the quickening, assimilating power of the grace of God....
OFC	198	3	The grace of God must be received by the sinner before he can be fitted for the kingdom of glory. All the culture and education which the world can give will fail of making a degraded child of sin a child of heaven. The renewing energy must come from God.... As the leaven, when mingled with the meal, works from within outward, so it is by the renewing of the heart that the grace of God works to transform the life....
OFC	198	4	The leaven hidden in the flour works invisibly to bring the whole mass under its leavening process; so the leaven of truth works secretly, silently, steadily, to transform the soul. The natural inclinations are softened and subdued. New thoughts, new feelings, new motives, are implanted. A new standard of character is set up--the life of Christ. The mind is changed; the faculties are roused to action in new lines.... The conscience is awakened....
OFC	198	5	The heart of him who receives the grace of God overflows with love for God and for those for whom Christ died. Self is not struggling for recognition.... He is kind and thoughtful, humble in his opinion of himself, yet full of hope, always trusting in the mercy and love of God....
OFC	198	6	The grace of Christ is to control the temper and the voice. Its working will be seen in politeness and tender regard shown by brother for brother, in kind, encouraging words. An angel presence is in the home. The life breathes a sweet perfume, which ascends to God as holy incense. Love is manifested in kindness, gentleness, forbearance, and long-suffering. The countenance is changed. Christ abiding in the heart shines out in the faces of those who love Him and keep His commandments.... As these changes are effected, angels break forth in rapturous song, and God and Christ rejoice over souls fashioned after the divine similitude.
------------------------The Royal Robe, August 3
OFC	199	1	And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Revelation 19:8.
OFC	199	2	The parable of the wedding garment [Matthew 22:1-14] opens before us a lesson of the highest consequence.... By the wedding garment in the parable is represented the pure, spotless character which Christ's true followers will possess.... The fine linen, says the Scripture, "is the righteousness of saints." It is the righteousness of Christ, His own unblemished character, that through faith is imparted to all who receive Him as their personal Saviour.
OFC	199	3	The white robe of innocence was worn by our first parents when they were placed by God in holy Eden. They lived in perfect conformity to the will of God.... A beautiful soft light, the light of God, enshrouded the holy pair.... But when sin entered, they severed their connection with God, and the light that had encircled them departed. Naked and ashamed, they tried to supply the place of the heavenly garments by sewing together fig leaves for a covering.
OFC	199	4	We cannot provide a robe of righteousness for ourselves, for the prophet says, "All our righteousness are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). There is nothing in us from which we can clothe the soul so that its nakedness shall not appear. We are to receive the robe of righteousness woven in the loom of heaven, even the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness.
OFC	199	5	God has made ample provision that we may stand perfect in His grace, wanting in nothing, waiting for the appearing of our Lord. Are you ready? Have you the wedding garment on? That garment will never cover deceit, impurity, corruption, or hypocrisy. The eye of God is upon you. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. We may conceal our sins from the eyes of men, but we can hide nothing from our Maker.
OFC	199	6	Let the youth and the little children be taught to choose for themselves that royal robe woven in heaven's loom--the "fine linen, clean and white," which all the holy ones of earth will wear. This robe, Christ's own spotless character, is freely offered to every human being. But all who receive it will receive and wear it here.
------------------------God With Us, August 4
OFC	200	1	They shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Matthew 1:23.
OFC	200	2	From the days of eternity the Lord Jesus Christ was one with the Father; He was "the image of God," the image of His greatness and majesty, "the outshining of his glory." It was to manifest this glory that He came to our world. To this sin-darkened earth He came to reveal the light of God's love--to be "God with us."...
OFC	200	3	Our little world is the lesson book of the universe. God's wonderful purpose of grace, the mystery of redeeming love, is the theme into which "angels desire to look," and it will be their study throughout endless ages. Both the redeemed and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their song. It will be seen that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is the glory of self-sacrificing love. In the light from Calvary it will be seen that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven; that the love which "seeketh not her own" has its source in the heart of God....
OFC	200	4	Jesus might have remained at the Father's side. He might have retained the glory of heaven, and the homage of the angels. But He chose to give back the scepter into the Father's hands, and to step down from the throne of the universe, that He might bring light to the benighted, and life to the perishing....
OFC	200	5	This great purpose had been shadowed forth in types and symbols. The burning bush, in which Christ appeared to Moses, revealed God.... The all-merciful God shrouded His glory in a most humble type, that Moses could look upon it and live. So in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, God communicated with Israel, revealing to men His will, and imparting to them His grace. God's glory was subdued, and His majesty veiled, that the weak vision of finite men might behold it. So Christ was to come in "the body of our humiliation" (Philippians 3:21, R.V.), "in the likeness of men."... His glory was veiled, His greatness and majesty were hidden, that He might draw near to sorrowful, tempted men.
------------------------Adopted Sons And Daughters, August 5
OFC	200	6	Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Ephesians 1:5, 6.
OFC	201	1	Before the foundations of the earth were laid the covenant was made that all who were obedient, all who should through the abundant grace provided become holy in character and without blame before God by appropriating that grace, should be children of God.
OFC	201	2	We owe everything to grace, free grace, sovereign grace. Grace in the covenant ordained our adoption. Grace in the Saviour effected our redemption, our regeneration, and our adoption to heirship with Christ.
OFC	201	3	As we fully believe that we are His by adoption, we may have a foretaste of heaven.... We have a nearness to Him, and can hold sweet communion with Him. We obtain distinct views of His tenderness and compassion, and our hearts are broken and melted with contemplation of the love that is given to us. We feel indeed an abiding Christ in the soul. We abide in Him, and feel at home with Jesus.... We have a realizing sense of the love of God, and we rest in His love. No language can describe it, it is beyond knowledge. We are one with Christ, our life is hid with Christ in God. We have the assurance that when He who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. With strong confidence we can call God our Father.
OFC	201	4	All who have been born into the heavenly family are in a special sense the brethren of our Lord. The love of Christ binds together the members of His family, and wherever that love is manifest there the divine relationship is revealed....
OFC	201	5	Love to man is the earthward manifestation of the love of God. It was to implant this love, to make us children of one family, that the King of glory became one with us. And when His parting words are fulfilled, "Love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12); when we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven; for we have heaven in our hearts.
------------------------Blessings Through Obedience, August 6
OFC	201	6	I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. Psalm 40:8.
OFC	201	7	What a God is our God! He rules over His kingdom with diligence and care, and He has built a hedge--the Ten Commandments--about His subjects to preserve them from the results of transgression. In requiring obedience to the laws of His kingdom, God gives His people health and happiness, peace and joy. He teaches them that the perfection of character He requires can be attained only by becoming familiar with His Word.
OFC	202	1	The true seeker, who is striving to be like Jesus in word, life, and character, will contemplate his Redeemer and, by beholding, become changed into His image, because he longs and prays for the same disposition and mind that was in Christ Jesus.... He longs after God. The history of his Redeemer, the immeasurable sacrifice that He made, becomes full of meaning to him. Christ, the Majesty of heaven, became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich; not rich merely in endowments, but rich in attainments.
OFC	202	2	These are the riches that Christ earnestly longs that His followers shall possess. As the true seeker after the truth reads the Word and opens his mind to receive the Word, he longs after truth with his whole heart. The love, the pity, the tenderness, the courtesy, the Christian politeness, which will be the elements in the heavenly mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those that love Him, take possession of his soul. His purpose is steadfast. He is determined to stand on the side of righteousness. Truth has found its way into the heart, and is planted there by the Holy Spirit, who is the truth. When truth takes hold of the heart, the man gives sure evidence of this by becoming a steward of the grace of Christ.
OFC	202	3	Each steward has his own special work to do for the advancement of God's kingdom.... The talents of speech, memory, influence, property, are to accumulate for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom. He will bless the right use of His gifts.
------------------------In The Most Holy Place, August 7
OFC	202	4	The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. Habakkuk 2:20.
OFC	202	5	I saw a throne, and on it sat the Father and the Son. I gazed on Jesus' countenance and admired His lovely person. The Father's person I could not behold, for a cloud of glorious light covered Him. I asked Jesus if His Father had a form like Himself. He said He had, but I could not behold it, for said He, "If you should once behold the glory of His person, you would cease to exist." ...
OFC	202	6	I saw the Father rise from the throne, and in a flaming chariot go into the holy of holies within the veil, and sit down.... Then a cloudy chariot, with wheels like flaming fire, surrounded by angels, came to where Jesus was. He stepped into the chariot and was borne to the holiest, where the Father sat. There I beheld Jesus, a great High Priest, standing before the Father.
OFC	203	1	Two lovely cherubs, one on each side of the ark, stood with their wings outstretched above it, and touching each other above the head of Jesus as He stood before the mercy seat. Their faces were turned toward each other, and they looked downward to the ark, representing all the angelic host looking with interest at the law of God. Between the cherubim was a golden censer, and as the prayers of the saints, offered in faith, came up to Jesus, and He presented them to His Father, a cloud of fragrance arose from the incense, looking like smoke of most beautiful colors. Above the place where Jesus stood, before the ark, was exceedingly bright glory that I could not look upon; it appeared like the throne of God.
OFC	203	2	Our crucified Lord is pleading for us in the presence of the Father at the throne of grace. His atoning sacrifice we may plead for our pardon, our justification, and our sanctification. The lamb slain is our only hope. Our faith looks up to Him, grasps Him as the One who can save to the uttermost, and the fragrance of the all-sufficient offering is accepted of the Father.... Christ's glory is concerned in our success. He has a common interest in all humanity. He is our sympathizing Saviour.
------------------------Source Of Compassion And Mercy, August 8
OFC	203	3	Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Psalm 45:6.
OFC	203	4	Though now He has ascended to the presence of God, and shares the throne of the universe, Jesus has lost none of His compassionate nature. Today, the same tender, sympathizing heart is open to all the woes of humanity. Today the hand that was pierced is reached forth to bless more abundantly His people that are in the world....
OFC	203	5	Through all our trials we have a never-failing Helper. He does not leave us alone to struggle with temptation, to battle with evil, and be finally crushed with burdens and sorrow. Though now He is hidden from mortal sight, the ear of faith can hear His voice saying, Fear not; I am with you. "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore" (Revelation 1:18).
OFC	203	6	Those who put away iniquity from their hearts and stretch out their hands in earnest supplication unto God will have that help which God alone can give them. A ransom has been paid for the souls of men, that they may have an opportunity to escape from the thralldom of sin and obtain pardon, purity, and heaven.... Those who frequent the throne of grace, offering up sincere, earnest petitions for divine wisdom and power, will not fail to become active, useful servants of Christ. They may not possess great talents, but with humility of heart and firm reliance upon Jesus they may do a good work in bringing souls to Christ....
OFC	204	1	Thousands have a false conception of God and His attributes.... God is a God of truth. Justice and mercy are the attributes of His throne. He is a God of love, of pity and tender compassion. Thus He is represented in His Son, our Saviour. He is a God of patience and long-suffering. If such is the being whom we adore and to whose character we are seeking to assimilate, we are worshiping the true God.
OFC	204	2	If we are following Christ, His merits, imputed to us, come up before the Father as sweet odor. And the graces of our Saviour's character, implanted in our hearts, will shed around us a precious fragrance.
------------------------To Draw Us To God, August 9
OFC	204	3	I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Jeremiah 31:3.
OFC	204	4	The Lord of life and glory clothed His divinity with humanity to demonstrate to man that God through the gift of Christ would connect us with Him. Without a connection with God no one can possibly be happy. Fallen man is to learn that our Heavenly Father cannot be satisfied until His love embraces the repentant sinner, transformed through the merits of the spotless Lamb of God.
OFC	204	5	The work of all the heavenly intelligences is to this end. Under the command of their General they are to work for the reclaiming of those who by transgression have separated themselves from their Heavenly Father. A plan has been devised whereby the wondrous grace and love of Christ shall stand revealed to the world. In the infinite price paid by the Son of God to ransom man, the love of God is revealed. This glorious plan of redemption is ample in its provisions to save the whole world. Sinful and fallen man may be made complete in Jesus through the forgiveness of sin and the imputed righteousness of Christ.
OFC	204	6	In all the gracious deeds that Jesus did, He sought to impress upon men the parental, benevolent attributes of God.... Jesus would have us understand the love of the Father, and He seeks to draw us to Him by presenting His parental grace. He would have the whole field of our vision filled with the perfection of God's character.... It was only by living among men that He could reveal the mercy, compassion, and love of His heavenly Father; for it was only by actions of benevolence that He could set forth the grace of God.
OFC	204	7	Christ came to manifest the love of God to the world, to draw the hearts of all men to Himself.... The first step toward salvation is to respond to the drawing of the love of Christ.... It is that men may understand the joy of forgiveness, the peace of God, that Christ draws them through the manifestation of His love. If they respond to His drawing, yielding their hearts to His grace, He will lead them on step by step, to a full knowledge of Himself, and this is life eternal.
------------------------Terms Of The Covenant, August 10
OFC	205	1	If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. Exodus 19:5.
OFC	205	2	In the beginning, God gave His law to mankind as a means of attaining happiness and eternal life.
OFC	205	3	The ten commandments, Thou shalt, and Thou shalt not, are ten promises, assured to us if we render obedience to the law governing the universe. "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Here is the sum and substance of the law of God. The terms of salvation for every son and daughter of Adam are here outlined....
OFC	205	4	That law of ten precepts of the greatest love that can be presented to man is the voice of God from heaven speaking to the soul in promise, "This do, and you will not come under the dominion and control of Satan." There is not a negative in that law, although it may appear thus. It is DO and Live.
OFC	205	5	The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been--just what it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents--perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness. If eternal life were granted on any condition short of this, then the happiness of the whole universe would be imperiled. The way would be open for sin, with all its train of woe and misery, to be immortalized.
OFC	205	6	Christ does not lessen the claims of the law. In unmistakable language He presents obedience to it as the condition of eternal life--the same condition that was required of Adam before his fall.... The requirement under the covenant of grace is just as broad as the requirement made in Eden--harmony with God's law, which is holy, just, and good.
OFC	205	7	The standard of character presented in the Old Testament is the same that is presented in the New Testament. This standard is not one to which we cannot attain. In every command or injunction that God gives there is a promise, the most positive, underlying the command. God has made provision that we may become like unto Him, and He will accomplish this for all who do not interpose a perverse will and thus frustrate His grace.
------------------------Written On The Heart, August 11
OFC	206	1	After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.... I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:33, 34.
OFC	206	2	The same law that was engraved upon the tables of stone, is written by the Holy Spirit upon the tables of the heart. Instead of going about to establish our own righteousness we accept the righteousness of Christ. His blood atones for our sins. His obedience is accepted for us. Then the heart renewed by the Holy Spirit will bring forth "the fruits of the Spirit." Through the grace of Christ we shall live in obedience to the law of God written upon our hearts. Having the Spirit of Christ, we shall walk even as He walked.
OFC	206	3	There are two errors against which the children of God--particularly those who have just come to trust in His grace--especially need to guard. The first ... is that of looking to their own works, trusting to anything they can do, to bring themselves into harmony with God. He who is trying to become holy by his own works in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility....
OFC	206	4	The opposite and no less dangerous error is, that belief in Christ releases men from keeping the law of God; that since by faith alone we become partakers of the grace of Christ, our works have nothing to do with our redemption.... If the law is written in the heart, will it not shape the life? ... Instead of releasing man from obedience, it is faith, and faith only, that makes us partakers of the grace of Christ, which enables us to render obedience....
OFC	206	5	Where there is not only a belief in God's Word, but a submission of the will to Him; where the heart is yielded to Him, the affections fixed upon Him, there is faith--faith that works by love, and purifies the soul. Through this faith the heart is renewed in the image of God. And the heart that in its unrenewed state is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, now delights in its holy precepts, exclaiming with the psalmist, "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97). And the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).
------------------------God's Eternal Pledge, August 12
OFC	207	1	He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Psalm 105:8.
OFC	207	2	God stands back of every promise He has made. With your Bibles in your hands, say: "I have done as Thou hast said. I present Thy promise, 'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you' (Matthew 7:7)." ...
OFC	207	3	The rainbow about the throne is an assurance that God is true; that in Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. We have sinned against Him and are undeserving of His favor; yet He Himself has put into our lips that most wonderful of pleas: "Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us" (Jeremiah 14:21). He has pledged Himself to give heed to our cry when we come to Him confessing our unworthiness and sin. The honor of His throne is staked for the fulfillment of His word to us.
OFC	207	4	To everyone who offers himself to the Lord for service, withholding nothing, is given power for the attainment of measureless results. The Lord God is bound by an eternal pledge to supply power and grace to everyone who is sanctified through obedience to the truth.
OFC	207	5	Nehemiah pressed into the presence of the King of kings and won to his side a power that can turn hearts as rivers of waters are turned. [See Nehemiah 1 and 2.]
OFC	207	6	To pray as Nehemiah prayed in his hour of need is a resource at the command of the Christian under circumstances when other forms of prayer may be impossible. Toilers in the busy walks of life, crowded and almost overwhelmed with perplexity, can send up a petition to God for divine guidance.... In times of sudden difficulty or peril the heart may send up its cry for help to One who has pledged Himself to come to the aid of His faithful, believing ones whenever they call upon Him. In every circumstance, under every condition, the soul weighed down with grief and care, or fiercely assailed by temptation, may find assurance, support, and succor in the unfailing love and power of a covenant-keeping God.
------------------------Unutterable Loneliness, August 13
OFC	207	7	I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me. Isaiah 63:3.
OFC	207	8	Through childhood, youth, and manhood, Jesus walked alone. In His purity and His faithfulness, He trod the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Him. He carried the awful weight of responsibility for the salvation of men. He knew that unless there was a decided change in the principles and purposes of the human race, all would be lost. This was the burden of His soul, and none could appreciate the weight that rested upon Him.
OFC	208	1	Throughout His life His mother and His brothers did not comprehend His mission. Even His disciples did not understand Him. He had dwelt in eternal light, as one with God, but His life on earth must be spent in solitude. As one with us, He must bear the burden of our guilt and woe. The Sinless One must feel the shame of sin. The peace lover must dwell with strife, the truth must abide with falsehood, purity with vileness. Every sin, every discord, every defiling lust that transgression had brought, was torture to His spirit.
OFC	208	2	Alone He must tread the path; alone He must bear the burden. Upon Him who had laid off His glory and accepted the weakness of humanity the redemption of the world must rest. He saw and felt it all, but His purpose remained steadfast. Upon His arm depended the salvation of the fallen race, and He reached out His hand to grasp the hand of Omnipotent love.
OFC	208	3	The loneliness of Christ, separated from the heavenly courts, living the life of humanity, was never understood or appreciated by the disciples as it should have been... When Jesus was no longer with them, ... they began to see how they might have shown Him attentions that would have brought gladness to His heart....
OFC	208	4	The same want is evident in our world today. But few appreciate all that Christ is to them. If they did, the great love of Mary [Matthew 26:6-13] would be expressed, the anointing would be freely bestowed.... Nothing would be thought too costly to give for Christ, no self-denial or self-sacrifice too great to be endured for His sake.
------------------------The Sins Of The World, August 14
OFC	208	5	He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5.
OFC	208	6	Some have limited views of the atonement. They think that Christ suffered only a small portion of the penalty of the law of God; they suppose that, while the wrath of God was felt by His dear Son, He had, through all His painful sufferings, the evidence of His Father's love and acceptance; that the portals of the tomb before Him were illuminated with bright hope, and that He had the abiding evidence of His future glory. Here is a great mistake. Christ's keenest anguish was a sense of His Father's displeasure. His mental agony because of this was of such intensity that man can have but faint conception of it.
OFC	209	1	With many the story of the condescension, humiliation, and sacrifice of our divine Lord awakens no deeper interest ... than does the history of the death of the martyrs of Jesus. Many have suffered death by slow tortures; others have suffered death by crucifixion. In what does the death of God's dear Son differ from these? ... If the sufferings of Christ consisted in physical pain alone, then His death was no more painful than that of some of the martyrs. But bodily pain was but a small part of the agony of God's dear Son. The sins of the world were upon Him, also the sense of His Father's wrath as He suffered the penalty of the law transgressed. It was these that crushed His divine soul.... The separation that sin makes between God and man was fully realized and keenly felt by the innocent, suffering Man of Calvary. He was oppressed by the powers of darkness. He had not one ray of light to brighten the future.... It was in this terrible hour of darkness, the face of His Father hidden, legions of evil angels enshrouding Him, the sins of the world upon Him, that the words were wrenched from His lips: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" ...
OFC	209	2	In comparison with the enterprise of everlasting life, every other sinks into insignificance.
------------------------So Costly--and Yet Free, August 15
OFC	209	3	By the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. Romans 5:18.
OFC	209	4	Money cannot buy it, intellect cannot grasp it, power cannot command it; but to all who will accept it, God's glorious grace is freely given. But men may feel their need, and, renouncing all self-dependence, accept salvation as a gift. Those who enter heaven will not scale its walls by their own righteousness, nor will its gates be opened to them for costly offerings of gold or silver, but they will gain an entrance to the many mansions of the Father's house through the merits of the cross of Christ.
OFC	209	5	For sinful men, the highest consolation, the greatest cause of rejoicing, is that Heaven has given Jesus to be the sinner's Saviour.... He offered to go over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell; to meet the tempter on the field of battle, and conquer him in man's behalf. Behold Him in the wilderness of temptation. Forty days and forty nights He fasted, enduring the fiercest assaults of the powers of darkness. He trod the "winepress alone; and of the people there was none with" Him (Isaiah 63:3). It was not for Himself, but that He might break the chain that held the human race in slavery to Satan.
OFC	210	1	As Christ in His humanity sought strength from His Father, that He might be enabled to endure trial and temptation, so are we to do. We are to follow the example of the sinless Son of God. Daily we need help and grace and power from the Source of all power. We are to cast our helpless souls upon the One who is ready to help us in every time of need. Too often we forget the Lord. Self gives way to impulse, and we lose the victories that we should gain.
OFC	210	2	If we are overcome let us not delay to repent, and to accept the pardon that will place us on vantage ground. If we repent and believe, the cleansing power from God will be ours. His saving grace is freely offered. His pardon is given to all who will receive it.... Over every sinner that repents the angels of God rejoice with songs of joy. Not one sinner need be lost. Full and free is the gift of saving grace.
------------------------A Comforter Like Christ, August 16
OFC	210	3	Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. John 16:7.
OFC	210	4	The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fullness of the Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour.
OFC	210	5	With the consecrated worker for God, in whatever place he may be, the Holy Spirit abides. The words spoken to the disciples are spoken also to us. The Comforter is ours as well as theirs.
OFC	210	6	There is no comforter like Christ, so tender and so true. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. His Spirit speaks to the heart. Circumstances may separate us from our friends; the broad, restless ocean may roll between us and them. Though their sincere friendship may still exist, they may be unable to demonstrate it.... But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always there, one given in Christ's place, to act in His stead. He is always at our right hand, to speak soothing, gentle words; to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer. The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the soul. This Spirit works in and through every one who receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of this Spirit reveal its fruit--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.
OFC	211	1	The Holy Spirit ever abides with him who is seeking for perfection of Christian character. The Holy Spirit furnishes the pure motive, the living, active principle, that sustains striving, wrestling, believing souls in every emergency and under every temptation. The Holy Spirit sustains the believer amid the world's hatred, amid the unfriendliness of relatives, amid disappointment, amid the realization of imperfection, and amid the mistakes of life. Depending upon the matchless purity and perfection of Christ, the victory is sure to him who looks unto the Author and Finisher of our faith.... He has borne our sins, in order that through Him we might have moral excellence, and attain unto the perfection of Christian character.
------------------------Purifying, Vitalizing Power, August 17
OFC	211	2	Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10.
OFC	211	3	The Lord purifies the heart very much as we air a room. We do not close the doors and windows, and throw in some purifying substance; but we open the doors and throw wide the windows, and let heaven's purifying atmosphere flow in.... The windows of impulse, of feeling must be opened up toward heaven, and the dust of selfishness and earthliness must be expelled. The grace of God must sweep through the chambers of the mind, the imagination must have heavenly themes for contemplation, and every element of the nature must be purified and vitalized by the Spirit of God.
OFC	211	4	He who lives the principles of Bible religion, will not be found weak in moral power. Under the ennobling influence of the Holy Spirit, the tastes and inclinations become pure and holy. Nothing takes so strong a hold upon the affections, nothing reaches so fully down to the deepest motives of action, nothing exerts so potent an influence upon the life, and gives so great firmness and stability to the character, as the religion of Christ. It leads its possessor ever upward, inspiring him with noble purposes, teaching him propriety of deportment, and imparting a becoming dignity to every action.
OFC	211	5	The church is the object of God's tenderest love and care. If the members will allow Him, He will reveal His character through them. He says to them, "Ye are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14). Those who walk and talk with God practice the gentleness of Christ. In their lives, forbearance, meekness, and self-restraint are united with holy earnestness and diligence. As they advance heavenward, the sharp, rough edges of character are worn off, and godliness is seen. The Holy Spirit, full of grace and power, works upon mind and heart.
OFC	212	1	The heart in which Jesus makes his abode will be quickened, purified, guided, and ruled by the Holy Spirit, and the human agent will make strenuous efforts to bring his character into harmony with God. He will avoid everything that is contrary to the revealed will and mind of God.
------------------------The Latter Rain, August 18
OFC	212	2	Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. Zechariah 10:1.
OFC	212	3	Under the figure of the early and the latter rain, that falls in Eastern lands at seedtime and harvest, the Hebrew prophets foretold the bestowal of spiritual grace in extraordinary measure upon God's church. The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was the beginning of the early, or former rain, and glorious was the result.... But near the close of earth's harvest, a special bestowal of spiritual grace is promised to prepare the church for the coming of the Son of man. This outpouring of the Spirit is likened to the falling of the latter rain; and it is for this added power that Christians are to send their petitions to the Lord of the harvest "in the time of the latter rain."
OFC	212	4	As Christ was glorified on the day of Pentecost so will He again be glorified in the closing work of the gospel, when He shall prepare a people to stand the final test, in the closing conflict of the great controversy.
OFC	212	5	Many ... will be seen hurrying hither and thither, constrained by the Spirit of God to bring the light to others. The truth, the Word of God, is as a fire in their bones, filling them with a burning desire to enlighten those who sit in darkness. Many, even among the uneducated, now proclaim the words of the Lord. Children are impelled by the Spirit to go forth and declare the message from heaven. The Spirit is poured out upon all who will yield to its promptings, and ... they will declare the truth with the might of the Spirit's power.
OFC	212	6	But unless the members of God's church today have a living connection with the Source of all spiritual growth, they will not be ready for the time of reaping. Unless they keep their lamps trimmed and burning, they will fail of receiving added grace in times of special need.
OFC	212	7	Divine grace is needed at the beginning, divine grace at every step of advance, and divine grace alone can complete the work. There is no place for us to rest in a careless attitude....By prayer and faith we are continually to seek more of the Spirit.
------------------------It Takes Time, August 19
OFC	213	1	I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. Isaiah 27:3.
OFC	213	2	The mind of a man or a woman does not come down in a moment from purity and holiness to depravity, corruption, and crime. It takes time to transform the human to the divine, or to degrade those formed in the image of God to the brutal or the satanic. By beholding we become changed. Though formed in the image of his Maker, man can so educate his mind that sin which he once loathed will become pleasant to him. As he ceases to watch and pray, he ceases to guard the citadel, the heart....Constant war against the carnal mind must be maintained; and we must be aided by the refining influence of the grace of God, which will attract the mind upward and habituate it to meditate upon pure and holy things.
OFC	213	3	Character does not come by chance. It is not determined by one outburst of temper, one step in the wrong direction. It is the repetition of the act that causes it to become habit, and molds the character either for good or for evil. Right characters can be formed only by persevering, untiring effort, by improving every entrusted talent and capability to the glory of God.
OFC	213	4	God expects us to build characters in accordance with the pattern set before us. We are to lay brick by brick, adding grace to grace, finding our weak points and correcting them in accordance with the directions given.
OFC	213	5	God gives us strength, reasoning power, time, in order that we may build characters on which He can place His stamp of approval. He desires each child of His to build a noble character, by the doing of pure, noble deeds, that in the end he may present a symmetrical structure, a fair temple, honored by man and God....
OFC	213	6	He who would grow into a beautiful building for the Lord must cultivate every power of the being. It is only by the right use of the talents that the character can be developed harmoniously. Thus we bring to the foundation that which is represented in the Word as gold, silver, precious stones--material that will stand the test of God's purifying fires.
------------------------Perfection Now? August 20
OFC	214	1	Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
OFC	214	2	When God gave His Son to the world, He made it possible for men and women to be perfect by the use of every capability of their beings to the glory of God. In Christ He gave to them the riches of His grace, and a knowledge of His will. As they would empty themselves of self, and learn to walk in humility, leaning on God for guidance, men would be enabled to fulfill God's high purpose for them.
OFC	214	3	Perfection of character is based upon that which Christ is to us. If we have constant dependence on the merits of our Saviour, and walk in His footsteps, we shall be like Him, pure and undefiled.
OFC	214	4	Our Saviour does not require impossibilities of any soul. He expects nothing of His disciples that He is not willing to give them grace and strength to perform. He would not call upon them to be perfect if He had not at His command every perfection of grace to bestow on the ones upon whom He would confer so high and holy a privilege....
OFC	214	5	Our work is to strive to attain in our sphere of action the perfection that Christ in His life on the earth attained in every phase of character. He is our example. In all things we are to strive to honor God in character.... We are to be wholly dependent on the power that He has promised to give us.
OFC	214	6	Jesus revealed no qualities, and exercised no powers, that men may not have through faith in Him. His perfect humanity is that which all His followers may possess, if they will be in subjection to God as He was.
OFC	214	7	Our Saviour is a Saviour for the perfection of the whole man. He is not the God of part of the being only. The grace of Christ works to the disciplining of the whole human fabric. He made all. He has redeemed all. He has made the mind, the strength, the body as well as the soul, partaker of the divine nature, and all is His purchased possession. He must be served with the whole mind, heart, soul, and strength. Then the Lord will be glorified in His saints in even the common, temporal things with which they are connected. "Holiness unto the Lord" will be in the inscription placed upon them.
------------------------Awaiting Our Demand, August 21
OFC	214	8	Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. John 16:24.
OFC	214	9	Prayer is heaven's ordained means of success in the conflict with sin and the development of Christian character. The divine influences that come in answer to the prayer of faith will accomplish in the soul of the suppliant all for which he pleads. For the pardon of sin, for the Holy Spirit, for a Christlike temper, for wisdom and strength to do His work, for any gift He has promised, we may ask; and the promise is, "Ye shall receive."
OFC	215	1	Jesus is our helper; in Him and through Him we must conquer.... The grace of Christ is waiting your demand upon it. He will give you grace and strength as you need it if you ask Him.... The religion of Christ will bind and restrain every unholy passion, will stimulate to energy, to self-discipline, and industry, even in the matters of homely, everyday life, leading us to learn economy, tact, and self-denial, and to endure even privation without a murmur. The Spirit of Christ in the heart will be revealed in the character, will develop noble qualities and powers. "My grace is sufficient" (2 Corinthians 12:9) says Christ.
OFC	215	2	Make every effort to keep open the communion between Jesus and your own soul.... We should pray in the family circle, and above all we must not neglect secret prayer; for this is the life of the soul. It is impossible for the soul to flourish while prayer is neglected. Family or public prayer alone is not sufficient. In solitude let the soul be laid open to the inspecting eye of God. Secret prayer is to be heard only by the prayer-hearing God. No curious ear is to receive the burden of such petitions. In secret prayer the soul is free from surrounding influences, free from excitement.... By calm, simple faith, the soul holds communion with God, and gathers to itself rays of divine light to strengthen and sustain it in the conflict with Satan....
OFC	215	3	Pray in your closet, and as you go about your daily labor, let your heart be often uplifted to God. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. These silent prayers rise like precious incense before the throne of grace. Satan cannot overcome him whose heart is thus stayed upon God.
------------------------Angel Reinforcements, August 22
OFC	215	4	Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Luke 10:19.
OFC	215	5	Fallen man is Satan's lawful captive. The mission of Christ was to rescue him from the power of his great adversary. Man is naturally inclined to follow Satan's suggestions, and he cannot successfully resist so terrible a foe unless Christ, the mighty Conqueror, dwells in him, guiding his desires, and giving him strength. God alone can limit the power of Satan.... Satan knows better than God's people the power that they can have over him when their strength is in Christ. When they humbly entreat the mighty Conqueror for help, the weakest believer in the truth, relying firmly upon Christ, can successfully repulse Satan and all his host....
OFC	216	1	Satan will call to his aid legions of his angels to oppose the advance of even one soul, and, if possible, wrest it from the hand of Christ.... But if the one in danger perseveres, and in his helplessness casts himself upon the merits of the blood of Christ, our Saviour listens to the earnest prayer of faith, and sends a reinforcement of those angels that excel in strength to deliver him. Satan cannot endure to have his powerful rival appealed to, for he fears and trembles before His strength and majesty. At the sound of fervent prayer, Satan's whole host trembles.
OFC	216	2	Nothing but Christ's loving compassion, His divine grace, His almighty power, can enable us to baffle the relentless foe, and subdue the opposition of our own hearts. What is our strength? The joy of the Lord. Let the love of Christ fill our hearts, and then we shall be prepared to receive the power that He has for us....
OFC	216	3	Beholding Christ for the purpose of becoming like Him, the seeker after truth sees the perfection of the principles of God's law, and he becomes dissatisfied with everything but perfection.... A battle must be fought with the attributes that Satan has been strengthening for his own use.... But he knows that with the Redeemer there is saving power that will gain for him the victory in the conflict. The Saviour will strengthen and help him as he comes pleading for grace and efficiency.
------------------------The Christian's Badge, August 23
OFC	216	4	Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Ephesians 3:20.
OFC	216	5	The Lord is waiting to manifest through His people His grace and power. But He requires that those who engage in His service shall keep their minds ever directed to Him. Every day they should have time for reading the Word of God and for prayer....
OFC	216	6	Individually we are to walk and talk with God; then the sacred influence of the gospel of Christ in all its preciousness will appear in our lives.
OFC	216	7	There is an eloquence far more powerful than the eloquence of words in the quiet, consistent life of a pure, true Christian. What a man is has more influence than what he says.
OFC	216	8	The officers who were sent to Jesus came back with the report that never man spoke as He spoke. But the reason for this was that never man lived as He lived. Had His life been other than it was, He could not have spoken as He did. His words bore with them a convincing power, because they came from a heart pure and holy, full of love and sympathy, benevolence and truth.
OFC	217	1	It is our own character and experience that determine our influence upon others. In order to convince others of the power of Christ's grace, we must know its power in our own hearts and lives. The gospel we present for the saving of souls must be the gospel by which our own souls are saved. Only through a living faith in Christ as a personal Saviour is it possible to make our influence felt in a skeptical world. If we would draw sinners out of the swift-running current, our own feet must be firmly set upon the Rock, Christ Jesus.
OFC	217	2	The badge of Christianity is not an outward sign, not the wearing of a cross or a crown, but it is that which reveals the union of man with God. By the power of His grace manifested in the transformation of character the world is to be convinced that God has sent His Son as its Redeemer. No other influence that can surround the human soul has such power as the influence of an unselfish life. The strongest argument in favor of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian.
------------------------Conditions Of Christian Growth, August 24
OFC	217	3	And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; ... being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11.
OFC	217	4	Where there is life, there will be growth and fruit-bearing; but unless we grow in grace, our spirituality will be dwarfed, sickly, fruitless. It is only by growing, by bearing fruit, that we can fulfill God's purpose for us. "Herein is my Father glorified," Christ said, "that ye bear much fruit" (John 15:8). In order to bear much fruit, we must make the most of our privileges. We must use every opportunity granted us for obtaining strength.
OFC	217	5	A pure, noble character, with all its grand possibilities, has been provided for every human being. But there are many who have not an earnest longing for such a character. They are not willing to part with the evil that they may have the good.... They neglect to grasp the blessings that would place them in harmony with God.... They cannot grow.
OFC	217	6	One of the divine plans for growth is impartation. The Christian is to gain strength by strengthening others. "He that watereth shall be watered also himself" (Proverbs 11:25). This is not merely a promise; it is a divine law, a law by which God designs that the streams of benevolence, like the waters of the great deep, shall be kept in constant circulation, continually flowing back to their source. In the fulfilling of this law is the secret of spiritual growth....
OFC	218	1	If we come to God in faith, He will receive us and give us strength to climb upward to perfection. If we watch every word and action, that we may do nothing to dishonor the One who has trusted us, if we improve every opportunity granted us, we shall grow into the full stature of men and women in Christ....
OFC	218	2	Christians, is Christ revealed in us? Are we doing all in our power to gain a body that is not easily enfeebled, a mind that looks beyond self to the cause and effect of every movement, that can wrestle with hard problems and conquer them, a will that is firm to resist evil and defend the right? Are we crucifying self? Are we growing up into the full stature of men and women in Christ, preparing to endure hardness as good soldiers of the cross?
------------------------In Kindness, August 25
OFC	218	3	Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. Colossians 3:12.
OFC	218	4	Let the law of kindness be upon your lips and the oil of grace in your heart. This will produce wonderful results. You will be tender, sympathetic, courteous. You need all these graces. The Holy Spirit must be received and brought into your character; then it will be as holy fire, giving forth incense which will rise up to God, not from lips that condemn, but as a healer of the souls of men. Your countenance will express the image of the divine.... By beholding the character of Christ you will become changed into His likeness. The grace of Christ alone can change your heart and then you will reflect the image of the Lord Jesus. God calls upon us to be like Him--pure, holy, and undefiled. We are to bear the divine image....
OFC	218	5	The Lord Jesus is our only helper. Through His grace we shall learn to cultivate love, to educate ourselves to speak kindly and tenderly. Through His grace our cold, harsh manners will be transformed. The law of kindness will be upon our lips, and those who are under the precious influences of the Holy Spirit, will not feel that it is an evidence of weakness to weep with those who weep, to rejoice with them that rejoice. We are to cultivate heavenly excellences of character. We are to learn what it means to have good-will toward all men, a sincere desire to be as sunshine and not as shadow in the lives of others.
OFC	219	1	Seize every opportunity to contribute to the happiness of those around you, sharing with them your affection. Words of kindness, looks of sympathy, expressions of appreciation, would to many a struggling, lonely one be as a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul....
OFC	219	2	Live in the sunshine of the Saviour's love. Then your influence will bless the world. Let the Spirit of Christ control you. Let the law of kindness be ever on your lips. Forbearance and unselfishness mark the words and actions of those who are born again, to live the new life in Christ.
------------------------A Divine Prescription, August 26
OFC	219	3	That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:12.
OFC	219	4	Many are longing to grow in grace; they pray over the matter, and are surprised that their prayers are not answered. The Master has given them a work to do whereby they shall grow. Of what value is it to pray when there is need of work? The question is, Are they seeking to save souls for whom Christ died? Spiritual growth depends upon giving to others the light that God has given to you. You are to put forth your best thoughts in active labor to do good, and only good, in your family, in your church, and in your neighborhood.
OFC	219	5	In place of growing anxious with the thought that you are not growing in grace, just do every duty that presents itself, carry the burden of souls on your heart, and by every conceivable means seek to save the lost. Be kind, be courteous, be pitiful; speak in humility of the blessed hope; talk of the love of Jesus; tell of His goodness, His mercy, and His righteousness; and cease to worry as to whether or not you are growing. Plants do not grow through any conscious effort.... The plant is not in continual worriment about its growth; it just grows under the supervision of God.
OFC	219	6	If we will consecrate heart and mind to the service of God, doing the work He has for us to do and walking in the footsteps of Jesus, our hearts will become sacred harps, every chord of which will send forth praise and thanksgiving to the Lamb sent by God to take away the sins of the world....
OFC	219	7	The Lord Jesus is our strength and happiness, the great storehouse from which, on every occasion, men may draw strength. As we study Him, talk of Him, become more and more able to behold Him--as we avail ourselves of His grace and receive the blessings He proffers us, we have something with which to help others. Filled with gratitude, we communicate to others the blessings that have been freely given us. Thus receiving and imparting, we grow in grace.
------------------------Union With Christ, August 27
OFC	220	1	But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. Romans 13:14.
OFC	220	2	To effect the salvation of men, God employs various agencies. He speaks to them by His word and by His ministers, and He sends by the Holy Spirit messages of warning, reproof, and instruction. These means are designed to enlighten the understanding of the people, to reveal to them their duty and their sins, and the blessings which they may receive; to awaken in them a sense of spiritual want, that they may go to Christ and find in Him the grace they need....
OFC	220	3	Every individual, by his own act, either puts Christ from him by refusing to cherish His spirit and follow His example, or he enters into a personal union with Christ by self-renunciation, faith, and obedience. We must, each for himself, choose Christ, because He has first chosen us. This union with Christ is to be formed by those who are naturally at enmity with Him. It is a relation of utter dependence, to be entered into by a proud heart. This is close work, and many who profess to be followers of Christ know nothing of it. They nominally accept the Saviour, but not as the sole ruler of their hearts....
OFC	220	4	To renounce their own will, perhaps their chosen object of affection or pursuit, requires an effort, at which many hesitate and falter and turn back. Yet this battle must be fought by every heart that is truly converted. We must war against temptations without and within. We must gain the victory over self, crucify the affections and lusts; and then begins the union of the soul with Christ.... After this union is formed, it can be preserved only by continual, earnest, painstaking effort. Christ exercises His power to preserve and guard this sacred tie, and the dependent, helpless sinner must act his part with untiring energy, or Satan by his cruel, cunning power will separate him from Christ....
OFC	220	5	Your birth, your reputation, your wealth, your talents, your virtues, your piety, your philanthropy, … will not form a bond of union between your soul and Christ. Your connection with the church ... will be of no avail unless you believe in Christ. It is not enough to believe about Him. You must believe in Him. You must rely wholly upon His saving grace.
------------------------Praise God! August 28
OFC	221	1	I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel. Isaiah 63:7.
OFC	221	2	When a sense of the loving-kindness of God is constantly refreshing the soul, it will be revealed in the countenance by an expression of peace and joy. It will be manifest in the words and works. And the generous, holy Spirit of Christ, working upon the heart, will yield in the life a converting influence upon others....
OFC	221	3	Have we not reason to talk of God's goodness and to tell of His power? When friends are kind to us we esteem it a privilege to thank them for their kindness. How much more should we count it a joy to return thanks to the Friend who has given us every good and perfect gift. Then let us, in every church, cultivate thanksgiving to God. Let us educate our lips to praise God in the family circle.... Let our gifts and offerings declare our gratitude for the favors we daily receive. In everything we should show forth the joy of the Lord....
OFC	221	4	David declares, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live" (Psalm 116:1, 2). God's goodness in hearing and answering prayer places us under heavy obligation to express our thanksgiving for the favors bestowed upon us. We should praise God much more than we do. The blessings received in answer to prayer should be promptly acknowledged....
OFC	221	5	We grieve the Spirit of Christ by our complaints and murmurings and repinings. We should not dishonor God by the mournful relation of trials that appear grievous. All trials that are received as educators will produce joy. The whole religious life will be uplifting, elevating, ennobling, fragrant with good words and works.
OFC	221	6	Let the peace of God reign in your soul. Then you will have strength to bear all suffering, and you will rejoice that you have grace to endure. Praise the Lord; talk of His goodness; tell of His power. Sweeten the atmosphere that surrounds your soul.... Praise with heart and soul and voice, Him who is the health of your countenance, your Saviour, and your God.
------------------------While We Wait, August 29
OFC	222	1	Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord. Luke 12:35, 36.
OFC	222	2	Now is the time to prepare for the coming of our Lord. Readiness to meet Him cannot be attained in a moment's time. Preparatory to that solemn scene there must be vigilant waiting and watching, combined with earnest work. So God's children glorify Him. Amid the busy scenes of life their voices will be heard speaking words of encouragement, faith, and hope. All they have and are is consecrated to the Master's service....
OFC	222	3	Christ tells us when the day of His kingdom shall be ushered in. He does not say that all the world will be converted, but that "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matthew 24:14). By giving the gospel to the world, it is in our power to hasten the coming of the day of God. Had the church of Christ done her appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would before this have been warned, and the Lord Jesus would have come to the earth in power and great glory.
OFC	222	4	Living power must attend the message of Christ's second appearing. We must not rest until we see many souls converted to the blessed hope of the Lord's return. In the days of the apostles the message that they bore wrought a real work, turning souls from idols to serve the living God. The work to be done today is just as real, and the truth is just as much truth; only we are to give the message with as much more earnestness as the coming of the Lord is nearer. The message for this time is positive, simple, and of the deepest importance. We must act like men and women who believe it. Waiting, watching, working, praying, warning the world--this is our work.
OFC	222	5	I have been deeply impressed by scenes that have recently passed before me in the night season. There seemed to be a great movement--a work of revival--going forward in many places. Our people were moving into line, responding to God's call. My brethren, the Lord is speaking to us. Shall we not heed His call? Shall we not trim our lamps, and act like men who look for their Lord to come?
------------------------What A Reward! August 30
OFC	222	6	If any man's work abide ..., he shall receive a reward. 1 Corinthians 3:14.
OFC	222	7	Glorious will be the reward bestowed when the faithful workers gather about the throne of God and of the Lamb. When John in his mortal state beheld the glory of God, he fell as one dead; he was not able to endure the sight. But when the children of God shall have put on immortality, they will "see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). They will stand before the throne, accepted in the Beloved. All their sins have been blotted out, all their transgressions borne away. Now they can look upon the undimmed glory of the throne of God. They have been partakers with Christ in His sufferings, they have been workers together with Him in the plan of redemption, and they are partakers with Him in the joy of seeing souls saved in the kingdom of God, there to praise God through all eternity....
OFC	223	1	In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and the Son. The angels, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King and His trophies of victory... A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts, accompanied by His redeemed ones, the witnesses that His mission of suffering and sacrifice has not been in vain....
OFC	223	2	There are homes for the pilgrims of earth. There are robes for the righteous, with crowns of glory and palms of victory. All that has perplexed us in the providences of God will in the world to come be made plain. The things hard to be understood will then find explanation. The mysteries of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken promises, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall know that infinite love ordered the experiences that seemed most trying. As we realize the tender care of Him who makes all things work together for our good, we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
OFC	223	3	I urge you to prepare for the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven.... Prepare for the judgment, that when Christ shall come, to be admired in all them that believe, you may be among those who will meet Him in peace.
------------------------Look Up! August 31
OFC	223	4	Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. Isaiah 40:1, 2.
OFC	223	5	In the darkest days of her long conflict with evil, the church of God has been given revelations of the eternal purpose of Jehovah. His people have been permitted to look beyond the trials of the present to the triumphs of the future, when, the warfare having been accomplished, the redeemed will enter into possession of the promised land. These visions of future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, should be dear to His church today, when the controversy of the ages is rapidly closing and the promised blessings are soon to be realized in all their fullness.
OFC	224	1	To us who are standing on the very verge of their fulfillment, of what deep moment, what living interest, are these delineations of the things to come--events for which, since our first parents turned their steps from Eden, God's children have watched and waited, longed and prayed!
OFC	224	2	Fellow pilgrim, we are still amid the shadows and turmoil of earthly activities; but soon our Saviour is to appear to bring deliverance and rest. Let us by faith behold the blessed hereafter as pictured by the hand of God. He who died for the sins of the world is opening wide the gates of Paradise to all who believe on Him. Soon the battle will have been fought, the victory won. Soon we shall see Him in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. And in His presence the trials and sufferings of this life will seem as nothingness. The former things "shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." "Israel shall be saved ... with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end."
OFC	224	3	Look up, look up, and let your faith continually increase. Let this faith guide you along the narrow path that leads through the gates of the city into the great beyond, the wide, unbounded future of glory that is for the redeemed.
------------------------The Conflict Over, September 1
OFC	224	4	For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matthew 5:18.
OFC	224	5	When Christ entered upon His campaign, Satan met Him and contested every inch of ground, exerting his utmost powers to conquer Him. Much was involved in this controversy. Intense interests were at stake. The questions to be answered were: "Is God's law imperfect, in need of being amended or abrogated? or is it immutable? Is God's government stable? or is it in need of changes?" Not only before those living in the city of God, but before the inhabitants of all the heavenly universe, were these questions to be answered....
OFC	224	6	From the manger to the cross Satan followed the Son of God. Temptations beat upon Him like a tempest. But the more fierce the conflict, the more familiar He became with the temptations wherewith man is beset, and the better prepared He was to succor the tempted.
OFC	225	1	The severity of the trial through which Christ passed was proportionate to the value of the object to be gained or lost by His success or failure. Not merely the interests of one world were involved. This world was the battlefield, but all the worlds that God has created were affected by the result of the conflict....Satan sought to make it appear that he was working for the liberty of the universe. Even while Christ was on the cross, the enemy was determined to make his arguments so varied, so deceptive, so insidious, that all would be convinced that God's law was tyrannical. He himself laid every scheme, planned every evil, inflamed every mind to bring affliction on Christ. He himself instigated the false accusations against One who had done only good. He himself inspired the cruel deeds that added to the suffering of the Son of God--the pure, the holy, the innocent.
OFC	225	2	By this course of action Satan has forged a chain by which he himself will be bound. The heavenly universe will bear witness to the justice of God in punishing him. Heaven itself saw what heaven would be, if he were in it....
OFC	225	3	Not merely in the minds of a few finite creatures in this world, but in the minds of all the inhabitants of the heavenly universe, has the immutability of God's law been established.... With one voice they extolled God as righteous, merciful, self-denying, just.
------------------------Agents For Heaven, September 2
OFC	225	4	Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. 1 Peter 3:8.
OFC	225	5	What great need there is of cultivating tenderness and gentleness. None should be ashamed to manifest a tender, compassionate spirit for those who err; for those who think they make no mistakes and far from being without fault before God. No one need to think that the manifestation of compassion is something for which he need be ashamed....
OFC	225	6	When a crisis comes in the life of any soul, and another attempts to give advice, that advice and counsel will have only the weight of influence for good that their example and spirit of the adviser has accumulated for him. It is the consistent life, the revelation of a sincere, Christlike interest for the soul in peril, that will make counsel effectual to persuade and win into safe paths. Those who are quick to censure others, who speak words that cut and bruise the already wounded soul, are doing Satan's work, and are laborers with the prince of darkness....
OFC	225	7	Let the tempted and tried souls remember that when chastisement comes upon them, it is the Lord who would save them from death. Let the souls to whom reproof comes, remember that "as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten" (Revelation 3:19).
OFC	226	1	The human agent, imbued with the Spirit of Christ, will watch for souls as they that must give an account. The claims of Christ are upon us, and we must understand our duty, and do it in the fear of God, with an eye single to His glory, and not prove unfaithful. Let no thought of self or of natural feelings be cherished to keep the lips silent. Speak, and be not afraid. With the heart full of tenderness and love for souls, warn, exhort, and entreat.
OFC	226	2	Never cease to labor for a soul while there is one ray of hope. Your words may cut to the soul. Oh, then be cautious, and clothe them with the love and tenderness of Jesus. Soften every accent with love and sympathy.... As you deal with others, as you judge others, so the Lord will judge and deal with you. Let the agent who claims to be a child of God, practice the lessons of Christ. If he is compelled to wound, let him feel the duty of healing as compulsory upon him. The truth is ever to be spoken in love, with the Spirit of Christ abiding in the soul.
------------------------How To Make An Impact, September 3
OFC	226	3	Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13.
OFC	226	4	When Christ was upon this earth, He did not direct fishermen to leave their nets and boats, and go to the Jewish teachers to gain a preparation for the gospel ministry. Walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw "two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him" (Matthew 4:18-22).
OFC	226	5	This prompt obedience, without any question, without one promise of wages, seems remarkable. But the words of Christ were an invitation that implied all that He meant it should. There was an impelling influence in His words. There was no long explanation, but what He said had a drawing power....
OFC	226	6	Christ would make these humble fishermen, in connection with Himself, the means of taking men out of the service of Satan, and making them believers in Christ, teaching them in regard to the kingdom of God. In this work they would become His ministers, fishers of men....
OFC	227	1	Christ chose the foolish things of the world--those whom the world pronounced unlearned and ignorant--to confound the wise men of the world. The disciples were unlearned in the traditions of the rabbis, but with Christ as their example and teacher, they were gaining an education of the highest order; for they had before them a divine Example. Christ was presenting to them truths of the highest character.
OFC	227	2	Those whom God employs to do service for Him, He would have fitted in His way for that service. Those who preach Christ must learn of Christ daily, in order to understand the mystery of saving and serving the souls for whom He has died.... They must pattern after Him in all things, sharing His tender compassion and His sternness against all evil working.
------------------------For The Fearful, Faint, And Feeble, September 4
OFC	227	3	Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Psalm 37:3.
OFC	227	4	"Trust in the Lord." Each day has its burdens, its cares, and perplexities; and when we meet, how ready we are to talk of our difficulties and trials. So many borrowed troubles intrude, so many fears are indulged, such a weight of anxiety is expressed, that one might almost suppose that we had no pitying, loving Saviour, ready to hear all our requests, and to be to us a present help in every time of need.
OFC	227	5	Some are always fearing and borrowing trouble. Every day they are surrounded by the tokens of God's love, every day they are enjoying the bounties of His providence; but they overlook these present blessings. Their minds are continually dwelling upon something disagreeable which they fear may come: or some difficulty may really exist, which, though small, blinds their eyes to the many things which demand gratitude. The difficulties which they encounter, instead of driving them to God, the only source of help, separate them from Him, because they awaken unrest and repining.
OFC	227	6	Brethren and sisters, do we well to be thus unbelieving? Why should we be ungrateful and distrustful? Jesus is our friend. All heaven is interested in our welfare; and our anxiety and fear grieve the Holy Spirit of God. We should not indulge in a solicitude which only frets and wears us, but does not help us to bear trials. No place should be given to that distrust of God which leads us to make a preparation against future want the chief pursuit of life, as though our happiness consisted in these earthly things, and we could gain them while ignoring the fact that God controls all things.
OFC	228	1	You may be perplexed in business; your prospects may grow darker and darker, and you may be threatened with loss. But do not become discouraged; cast your care upon God, and remain calm and cheerful. Begin every day with earnest prayer, not omitting to offer praise and thanksgiving. Ask for wisdom to manage your affairs with discretion, and thus prevent loss and disaster. Do all you can on your part to bring about favorable results. Jesus has promised divine aid, but not aside from human efforts.
------------------------The Only Security, September 5
OFC	228	2	Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Exodus 31:13.
OFC	228	3	Let every one seek the Lord for himself. Eternity is before us. You cannot afford to let another day pass without taking your position on the Lord's side. Will you not act the part that God has appointed you to act in the closing scenes of this earth's history?
OFC	228	4	It is impossible to give any idea of the experience of the people of God who will be alive on the earth when past woes and celestial glory will be blended. They will walk in the light proceeding from the throne of God. By the means of the angels there will be constant communication between heaven and earth. And Satan, surrounded by evil angels, and claiming to be God, will work miracles of all kinds, to deceive, if possible, the very elect. God's people will not find their safety in working miracles; for Satan would counterfeit any miracle that might be worked. God's tried and tested people will find their power in the sign spoken of in Exodus 31:12-18. They are to take their stand on the living Word--"It is written." This is the only foundation upon which they can stand securely. Those who have broken their covenant with God will in that day be without hope and without God in the world.
OFC	228	5	The worshipers of God will be especially distinguished by their regard for the fourth commandment--since this is the sign of His creative power, and the witness to His claim upon man's reverence and homage. The wicked will be distinguished by their efforts to tear down the Creator's memorial, to exalt the institution of Rome. In the issue of the contest, all Christendom will be divided into two great classes--those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark....
OFC	228	6	Fearful tests and trials await the people of God. The spirit of war is stirring the nations from one end of the earth to the other. But in the midst of the time of trouble that is coming--a time of trouble such as has not been since there was a nation--God's chosen people will stand unmoved. Satan and his angels cannot destroy them; for angels that excel in strength will protect them.
------------------------Open The Top Windows! September 6
OFC	229	1	Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually. 1 Chronicles 16:11.
OFC	229	2	Now just now is our opportunity to open the windows of the soul heavenward and to close the windows earthward. Now is the time for every church member to say, I will close my heart to everything that would hinder my communion with Christ; I will open the windows of my soul heavenward that I may understand spiritual things.
OFC	229	3	Believers need to talk with God in regard to their individual need of the Holy Spirit. The Word of God must be their assurance. All heaven is inviting us to receive the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness into our lives. If we will talk faith and hope and courage, our souls will be strengthened, and our hope and courage and faith will increase. Let us seek this great gift of the Sun of Righteousness, that it may shine forth in our lives to others. Let us seek the Lord that we may learn how to work His works in the world. This will make us successful missionaries, able to help others to a hopeful, courageous experience.
OFC	229	4	In our service for the Master, let not the little things be overlooked. Every human being has a life web to weave, and if the pattern is complete and perfected at last, every thread of the pattern must be carefully and faithfully worked. The grace of Christ will enable us to weave skillfully and well. Day by day we are to put forth personal diligent effort to improve. Every day we are to use our Christian intelligence in the work of strengthening the weak, and encouraging the desponding. A great test is coming to every soul. Shall we not then work and watch and pray and praise the Lord? This will give us a most precious experience. Very much has been lost to many believers because they have neglected to seek the Lord with earnestness and with a faith that will not be denied.
OFC	229	5	Words spoken and works performed in a simple, humble, encouraging way will inspire faith in other hearts. The Lord is soon to come, and the natural heart must be daily converted. We must learn to speak words in the meekness of Christ; our works and our spirit must testify that we are serving the Lord.
------------------------Assurance Of Victory, September 7
OFC	230	1	Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father. Galatians 1:4.
OFC	230	2	By giving His life for the life of the world, Christ bridged the gulf that sin had made, joining this sin-cursed earth to the universe of heaven as a province. God chose this world to be the theater of His mighty works of grace. While the sentence of condemnation was suspended over it because of the rebellion of its inhabitants, while the clouds of wrath were accumulating because of the transgression of the law of God, a mysterious voice was heard in heaven, "Lo, I come... to do thy will, O God" (Psalm 40:7, 8). Our substitute and surety came from heaven declaring that He had brought with Him the vast and inestimable donation of eternal life. Pardon is offered to all who will return their allegiance to the law of God. But there are those who refuse to accept a "thus saith the Lord." They will not reverence and respect His law. They make rigorous human enactments in opposition to a "thus saith the Lord," and by precept and example lead men, women, and children into sin. They exalt human enactments above the divine law. But the condemnation and wrath of God are suspended over the disobedient. The clouds of God's justice are gathering. The material of destruction has been piled up for ages; and still apostasy, rebellion, and disloyalty against God is continually increasing. The remnant people of God, who keep His commandments, will understand the word spoken by Daniel, "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (Daniel 12:10).
OFC	230	3	Satan has called this world his territory. Here his seat is, and he holds in allegiance to himself all who refuse to keep God's commandments, who reject a plain, "thus saith the Lord." They stand under the enemy's banner; for there are but two parties in the world. All rank either under the banner of the obedient or under the banner of the disobedient.
OFC	230	4	Jesus is now sending His message to a fallen world. He delights to take apparently hopeless material, those through whom Satan has worked, and make them the subjects of His grace. He rejoices to deliver them from the wrath which is to fall upon the disobedient.
------------------------Heavenly Guarantee, September 8
OFC	231	1	Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Matthew 7:7.
OFC	231	2	Oh, if every one would only know by personal experience how much of heaven's promised rest can be secured to the soul, even now, by sincere prayer. If one has not learned this lesson, every other lesson of life [had] better not be learned till he shall learn in the school of Christ how to master this lesson.
OFC	231	3	As Christians we want a new and living experience every day. We want to learn how to trust Jesus, to believe in Him and confide everything to Him. Jacob was raised from a man of feebleness and defects, through faith in God in prayer, to be a prince with God. He prevailed through faith. God is omnipotent. Man is finite. In converse with God, we may lay the most secret thing of the soul open to Him--for He knows it all--but not to man....
OFC	231	4	Do not become careless and separate from the Source of your strength. Watch your thoughts, watch your words, and in all things you seek to do, seek to glorify God. The more closely you lie at the foot of the cross, the more clearly will you see the matchless charms of Jesus and the unparalleled love He has evidenced for fallen man....
OFC	231	5	Let not the pressure of business separate you from God, for if you ever need counsel and clear forethought and sharp ideas, it is when you have much work on your hands. It is then that you need to take time to pray, to have increased faith and implicit trust in the counsel of the Physician in Chief. Ask Him to help you. Pray the oftener the more critical the work you have to do....
OFC	231	6	Oh what a theme to contemplate that man, depraved and lost in his natural condition, may be renewed and saved by the gracious help that Christ gives him in the gospel. The love of Jesus in the soul will drive out the enemy who is seeking to take possession of man. Every trial patiently borne, every blessing thankfully received, every temptation faithfully resisted, will make you a strong man in Jesus Christ. All this grace may be gained in the prayer of faith....
OFC	231	7	Lay hold upon strength from above. Even Jesus, when preparing for some great trial, would resort to the solitude of the mountains and spend the night in prayer to His Father.
------------------------Living The New Life, September 9
OFC	232	1	Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12.
OFC	232	2	Christ came to teach us, not only what we ought to know and believe, but also what we ought to do in our relations with God and with our fellow men. The golden rule of equity demands that we do unto others as we would they should do unto us. We are to keep their eternal interests in view, saying to ourselves, "They are the purchase of the Saviour's blood, bought with a price."
OFC	232	3	In all our dealing with our fellow men, whether they be believers or unbelievers, we are to treat them as Christ would treat them were He in our place. If it is for our present and eternal good to obey the law of God, it will be for their present and eternal good also to do this. Our highest aim is to be to them medical missionary workers after Christ's order....
OFC	232	4	All who enter through the pearly gates into the city of God must have set forth Christ in all their dealings. It is this that constitutes them the messengers of Christ, His witnesses. They are to bear a plain, decided testimony against all evil practices, pointing them to the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He gives to all who receive Him, power to become the sons of God.
OFC	232	5	Regeneration is the only path by which we can reach the holy city. It is narrow and the gate by which we enter is strait, but along it we are to lead men and women and children, teaching them that in order to be saved, they must have a new heart and a new spirit. The old hereditary traits of character are to be overcome. The natural desires of the soul must be changed. All deception, all falsifying, all evil-speaking must be put away. The new life, which makes men and women Christlike, is to be lived. We are, as it were, to swim against the current of evil.
OFC	232	6	The way to heaven is narrow, hedged in by the divine law of Jehovah. Those who follow this way must constantly deny self. They must obey the teachings of Christ.... Let us not trust in man, but in Jesus Christ, who died that He might win us to righteousness.
------------------------Essentials Of Salvation, September 10
OFC	232	7	For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light. Ephesians 5:8.
OFC	233	1	He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness sheds light into the mind of every one who will properly behold Him, loving Him supremely, showing unswerving faith and trust in Him. His light shines into the chambers of the mind and into the soul temple. The heart is filled with the light of the knowledge of the glory that shines in the face of Jesus Christ. And with this light comes spiritual discernment....
OFC	233	2	Yielding willingly to the evidence of truth, and walking in the light that shines in our pathway, we receive still greater light. Through the power of the manifestation of divine glory, we constantly advance in spiritual understanding.
OFC	233	3	Christ's knowledge of truth was direct, positive, without a shadow. The closer the acquaintance a man has with Jesus Christ, the more careful he will be to treat his fellow men respectfully, courteously, righteously. He has learned of Christ, and he follows His example in word and action. By faith he is united with Christ. "We are labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9)....
OFC	233	4	Christ's prayer was for unity among His followers. This unity is the evidence that is to convince the world that God sent His Son to save sinners. We serve Christ by revealing true, pure, holy love for one another. Those who are chosen to connect with the Lord's institutions are to be devoted, self-denying, self-sacrificing men, living not to please themselves, but to please the Master. These are the men who will do honor to the Lord's institutions.
OFC	233	5	A knowledge of God and of Christ is positively essential to salvation. We lose much every day that we do not learn more of the meekness and lowliness of Christ. Those who learn of Christ obtain the very highest class of education. Through faith and dependence on the saving grace of Christ, they increase in knowledge and wisdom. They love and praise the Saviour....
OFC	233	6	Those who are saved must in this life make it their daily business to receive grace from God, not to hoard in selfishness, but to impart for the blessing of those connected with them, to aid them in obtaining an education in spiritual things.
------------------------Being Alive Unto God, September 11
OFC	233	7	Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 10:32, 33.
OFC	233	8	How is it? Are we confessing Christ in our daily life? Do we confess Him in our dress, adorning ourselves with plain and modest apparel? Is our adorning that of the meek and quiet spirit which is of so great price in the sight of God? Are we seeking to advance the cause of the Master? Is the line of demarcation between you and the world distinct, or are you seeking to follow the fashions of this degenerate age? Is there no difference between you and the worldling? Does the same spirit work in you that works in the children of disobedience?
OFC	234	1	If we are Christians, we shall follow Christ, even though the path in which we are to walk cuts right across our natural inclinations. There is no use in telling you that you must not wear this or that, for if the love of these vain things is in your heart, your laying off your adornments will only be like cutting the foliage off a tree. The inclinations of the natural heart would again assert themselves. You must have a conscience of your own.
OFC	234	2	O, did we remember that Christ became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich, would we not seek to honor His name, and advance His cause? We are to abide in Him as the branch abides in the vine. Jesus says, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.... Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples" (John 15:5-8).
OFC	234	3	If we fulfilled this command of our Lord, there would be a different state of affairs in our churches, and we should know what it is to have the deep movings of the Spirit of God. What we want is to have the ax laid at the root of the tree. We want to be dead to the world, dead to self, and alive unto God. Our life must be hid with Christ in God, that when He shall appear, we also may appear with Him in glory. We need to come close to Christ, that men may know that we have been with Christ and learned of Him.... Keep your eye fixed upon Christ. With humility of mind seek for a nearness to God. In words, in conduct, in life, confess Christ.
------------------------The Compassionate Christian, September 12
OFC	234	4	The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. John 14:30.
OFC	234	5	In all His habits of life, the Saviour gave an example of what God designs His church on earth to be. Tell this to the people. Christ desires to present His church before the Father without spot or blemish.
OFC	234	6	From His earliest years the Saviour's life was one of poverty. His childhood days were spent in toil. Working at the carpenter's bench, bearing the burdens that came to Him as a member of the family, He often became weary. He lived in a corrupt age. Yet He was uncorrupted by the evil that surrounded Him, uninfluenced by the characters of those who were artificial and wicked. In the open fields and amid the scenes of nature He found rest from toil and food for spiritual life. Looking beneath the surface, He gathered knowledge from the mysteries of nature that filled Him with peace and joy.
OFC	235	1	During the years of His public ministry, the Saviour was continually watched by crafty and hypocritical men. Spies were continually upon His track to catch something from His lips which they could use to create prejudice against Him. Again and again they tried to make Him appear guilty of wrong. There were occasions when they laid traps for Him by presenting to Him questions, the answers to which they hoped to use to cause His condemnation by the people. But at every attempt they were compelled to retire from the field confounded; their actions were revealed in their true light by the answers of Christ. The Saviour's discourses presented a power of truth to the multitudes who listened. Even the men who were sent to spy upon His actions were forced to return with the report to those who sent them, "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46)....
OFC	235	2	Let your conversation be with grace, for Christ is listening to the words you speak. Let compassion for one another be blended with all you say, then you will reveal the character of Christ. The manners of Christ were gentle and unassuming. As His followers we are to partake of His nature. We need to be daily learners of the great Teacher, that the atmosphere surrounding the soul may be filled with spiritual life.
------------------------Unreserved Surrender, September 13
OFC	235	3	I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20.
OFC	235	4	God will accept nothing less than unreserved surrender. Half-hearted, sinful Christians can never enter heaven. There they would find no happiness; for they know nothing of the high, holy principles that govern the members of the royal family.
OFC	235	5	The true Christian keeps the windows of the soul open heavenward. He lives in fellowship with Christ. His will is conformed to the will of Christ. His highest desire is to become more and more Christlike....
OFC	235	6	Earnestly and untiringly we are to strive to reach God's ideal for us. Not as a penance are we to do this, but as the only means of gaining true happiness. The only way to gain peace and joy is to have a living connection with Him who gave His life for us, who died that we might live, and who lives to unite His power with the efforts of those who are striving to overcome.
OFC	236	1	Holiness is constant agreement with God. Shall we not strive to be that which Christ so greatly desires us to be--Christians in deed and in truth--that the world may see in our lives a revelation of the saving power of truth? This world is our preparatory school. While here we shall meet with trials and difficulties. Continually the enemy of God will seek to draw us away from our allegiance. But while we cleave to Him who gave Himself for us, we are safe.
OFC	236	2	The whole world was gathered into the embrace of Christ. He died on the cross to destroy him who had the power of death, and to take away the sin of every believing soul. He calls upon us to offer ourselves on the altar of service, a living, consuming sacrifice. We are to make an unreserved consecration to God of all that we have and are.
OFC	236	3	In this lower school of earth we are to learn the lessons that will prepare us to enter the higher school, where our education will continue under the personal instruction of Christ. Then He will open to us the meaning of His Word. Shall we not, in the few days of probation remaining to us, act like men and women who are seeking for life in the kingdom of God, even an eternity of bliss?
------------------------Without Spot, September 14
OFC	236	4	Even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; ... that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:25-27.
OFC	236	5	We bear the name of Christian. Let us be true to this name. To be a Christian means to be Christlike. It means to follow Christ in self-denial, bearing aloft His banner of love, honoring Him by unselfish words and deeds. In the life of the true Christian there is nothing of self--self is dead. There was no selfishness in the life that Christ lived while on this earth. Bearing our nature, He lived a life wholly devoted to the good of others....
OFC	236	6	In word and deed Christ's followers are to be pure and true. In this world--a world of iniquity and corruption--Christians are to reveal the attributes of Christ. All they do and say is to be free from selfishness. Christ desires to present them to the Father "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," purified through His grace, bearing His likeness.
OFC	236	7	In His great love, Christ surrendered Himself for us. He gave Himself for us to meet the necessities of the striving, struggling soul. We are to surrender ourselves to Him. When this surrender is entire, Christ can finish the work He began for us by the surrender of Himself. Then He can bring to us complete restoration.
OFC	237	1	Christ gave Himself for the redemption of the race, that all who believe in Him may have everlasting life. Those who appreciate this great sacrifice receive from the Saviour that most precious of all gifts--a clean heart. They gain an experience that is more valuable than gold or silver or precious stones. They sit together in heavenly places in Christ, enjoying in communion with Him the joy and peace that He alone can give. They love Him with heart and mind and soul and strength, realizing that they are His blood-bought heritage. Their spiritual eyesight is not dimmed by worldly policy or worldly aims. They are one with Christ as He is one with the Father.
OFC	237	2	Think you not that Christ values those who live wholly for Him? Think you not that He visits those who, like the beloved John, are for His sake in hard and trying places? He finds His faithful ones, and holds communion with them, encouraging and strengthening them.
------------------------Truth Will Triumph, September 15
OFC	237	3	Not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 2 Corinthians 4:2.
OFC	237	4	There is to be no undermining of the fundamental truths that the Lord has submitted by many miraculous evidences. A voice is to be heard in clear affirmation of the truth, in contradiction to the skepticism and fallacies that have been coming in from the enemy of truth. Reformations will take place, and the working out of the principles of divine truth will reveal growth in grace, for the divine agencies are efficient to enlighten and sanctify the human understanding.
OFC	237	5	The truth as it is in Jesus, as it was proclaimed by Him when He was enshrouded by the billowy cloud, is verity and truth in this our day, and will just as surely renovate the mind of the receiver as it has renovated minds in the past. Christ has declared, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead" (Luke 16:31).
OFC	237	6	As a people, we must prepare the way of the Lord, under the overruling guidance of the Holy Spirit, for the spread of the gospel in its purity. The stream of living water is to deepen and widen in its course. In all fields, nigh and afar off, men will be called from the plow and from the more common commercial business vocations that largely occupy the mind, and will become educated in connection with men who have had experience--men who understand the truth. Through most wonderful workings of God, mountains of difficulty will be removed and cast into the sea....
OFC	238	1	Those who preach the truth will strive to demonstrate the truth by a well-ordered life and godly conversation. And as they do this, they will become powerful in advocating the truth and in giving it the sure application that God has given it....
OFC	238	2	The call is to go forth, "Son, go labor today in My vineyard." As this call is obeyed, the message that means so much to the dwellers on the earth, will be heard and understood. Men will know what is truth. Onward, and still onward, will the work advance. And marked events of Providence will be seen and recognized, in judgments and in blessings. The truth will bear away the victory.
------------------------Matchless Love, September 16
OFC	238	3	And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:22, 23.
OFC	238	4	O what love, what matchless love! Fallen human beings may become so closely united with Christ that they are glorified with Him. On this earth they have followed in His footsteps, laboring as He labored for the souls for whom He died, and when He comes to claim His own, they enter in to His joy, sitting with Him at His table in His kingdom. "Where I am," He says, "there shall also my servant be" (John 12:26)....
OFC	238	5	What a wonderful thought it is that we, poor, fallen sinners, can become one with Christ, partakers of His divine nature, through His grace refined, purified, glorified. We may overcome, and sit down with ... Christ. We are to be conformed to His image. He loves, and He will help us. We are to be passive in His hands.
OFC	238	6	We have His promise. We hold the title deeds to real estate in the kingdom of glory. Never were title deeds drawn up more strictly according to law, or signed more legibly, than those that give God's people a right to the heavenly mansions. "Let not your heart be troubled," Christ says: "ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (chap. 14:1-3)....
OFC	239	1	All who will may come under the covenant promise. Precious is the price paid for our redemption--the blood of the only begotten Son of God. Christ was tried by the sharp proving of affliction. His human nature was tried to the uttermost. He bore the death penalty of man's transgression. He became the sinner's substitute and surety. He is able to show the fruit of His sufferings and death, in His resurrection from the dead. From the rent sepulcher of Joseph rings forth the proclamation, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in Me, and do the works of righteousness that I do, are justified, sanctified, made white and tried. They have obtained godliness and eternal life."
------------------------An Ever Present Help, September 17
OFC	239	2	The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. Nahum 1:7.
OFC	239	3	We have rich promises in the Word of God, if we only believe and trust in Him. We are in danger of trusting to our own poor human efforts, and not putting our trust in God. Everyone who has any part to act in this great preparation of the work of God for these last days should come close to God. When God sends out His workers to do a special errand for Him, He has pledged Himself to be one with them, if they will be one with God. But if they draw apart from God, and try to do this work in their own strength, they will find difficulties and discouragements at every step. Here we have the promise that in working for the Lord He is by our right hand to help us and work with us.
OFC	239	4	It would be the greatest folly in the world for any of us to take any of the credit to ourselves for any success we may have. The more humbly we walk with God, the more will He manifest Himself to us to help us. The Lord never designed to send out His servants to do a work for Him with all the opposition of Satan and evil angels against them unless He gives them divine help. The reason that we do not have greater success in the work is because we depend on our own efforts rather than upon the help God will give us. It is our privilege to feel our weakness, our unworthiness, and then claim the help that God has provided for us. We can take the Word in our distress, and while we feel the burden of souls upon us, and say, "Here, Lord, Thou hast promised, and I believe Thy word."
OFC	239	5	We must learn to go to our heavenly Father just as a child goes to its earthly parents. He says, "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matthew 7:9-11)....
OFC	240	1	While every one of God's workmen should cultivate his powers to the best of his ability, yet he should not trust in these powers. Make of yourselves everything that it is possible for you to make and then trust the rest to God.
------------------------The Divine Substitute, September 18
OFC	240	2	For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
OFC	240	3	"He saved others; himself he cannot save" (Mark 15:31). It is because Christ would not save Himself that the sinner has any hope of pardon or favor with God. If, in His undertaking to save the sinner, Christ had failed or become discouraged, the last hope of every son and daughter of Adam would have been at an end. The entire life of Christ was one of self-denial and self-sacrifice; and the reason that there are so few stalwart Christians is because of their self-indulgence and self-pleasing in the place of self-denial and self-sacrifice.
OFC	240	4	Oh, what soul hunger and longing had Christ to save that which was lost! The body crucified upon the cross did not detract from His divinity, His power of God to save through the human sacrifice, all who would accept His righteousness. In dying upon the cross, He transferred the guilt from the person of the transgressor to that of the divine Substitute through faith in Him as his personal Redeemer. The sins of a guilty world, which in figure are represented as "red as crimson," were imputed to the divine Surety...
OFC	240	5	Divinity was doing its work while humanity was suffering from the hatred and revenge of a God-hating people, because Christ had acknowledged Himself the Son of God. He alone could respond to the poor suffering thief. He alone was free to undertake the suretyship of the guilty criminal. The dying Redeemer saw him to be far less guilty than the ones who had condemned Him to death, far less guilty than the priests, the scribes, and rulers who had taken an active part in demanding the death of the Son of God.
OFC	240	6	What a faith had that dying thief upon the cross! He accepted Christ when apparently it was an utter impossibility that He should be the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world. In the prayer of the poor thief, there was a note different from that which was sounding on every side; it was a note of faith, and it reached to Christ. The faith of the dying man in Him was as sweetest music in the ears of Christ. The glad note of redemption and salvation was heard amid His dying agonies. God was glorified in and through His Son.
------------------------Cultivate Tenderness In The Home, September 19
OFC	241	1	And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8.
OFC	241	2	The young man who came to Jesus asked what he should do that he might inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to keep the commandments, and enumerated several of the precepts of the law. The young man said, "All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" (Matthew 19:20). The first four commandments enjoin upon man the duty of loving God supremely and the last six present the requirement of loving our neighbors as ourselves. How many are truly, sincerely, and wholeheartedly doing this?
OFC	241	3	The Lord is coming in a little while, and are we performing the duties that result from righteousness? Love is the basis of godliness. No man has love to God, no matter what his profession may be, unless he has unselfish love for his brother. As we love God because He first loved us, we shall love all for whom Christ died. We shall not feel like letting the soul who is in the greatest peril, and in the greatest need, go unwarned, unlabored for, and uncared for. We shall not feel like holding the erring off, and being critical and exacting, or letting them alone to plunge into further unhappiness and discouragement, and to fall on Satan's battleground, for God will deal with us as He deals with our brethren or the younger members of the Lord's family.
OFC	241	4	Cultivate tenderness of heart; surround yourselves in your home life with the atmosphere of love. But the spirit that has largely pervaded the church is an offense to God. Everyone who has been free to condemn, to dishearten, and to discourage, who has failed to give tender kindness, sympathy, and compassion to the tempted and the tried, will in his own experience be brought over the ground which others have passed over, and suffered with their hardheartedness, and will feel what others have suffered because of his want of sympathy, until he shall abhor his hardness of heart and open the door for Jesus to come in.
OFC	241	5	The converting power of God must come to every soul who has any connection with the work and cause of God that each one may be filled with the love and compassion of Christ or many will never see the kingdom of heaven.
------------------------Take Hold Of Divine Strength, September 20
OFC	242	1	Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty. Psalm 89:19.
OFC	242	2	The Lord loves you. The Lord is of tender compassion. His promise is, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you" (James 4:8). When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up for you a standard against him. Bear in mind that Jesus Christ is your hope. In the sad, discouraging things that shall come to you at any time, Christ says to you, "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me" (Isaiah 27:5).
OFC	242	3	Your work is to take hold of the strength that is as firm as is the eternal throne. Believe in God. Trust in Him. Be cheerful under all circumstances. Although you may have trials, know that Christ suffered these afflicting things in behalf of His heritage. Nothing is as dear to the Lord as His church. The Lord looks at the heart. He knows who are His. The Lord will test and prove every soul that lives. "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (Daniel 12:10)....
OFC	242	4	Let those who love God and are doers of His word sing praise and thanksgiving rather than speak words of accusing and faultfinding and murmuring. The Lord will bless those who make for peace....
OFC	242	5	Trust in the Lord. Let not the feelings, the speeches, or the attitude of any human agent depress you. Be careful that in words or act you do not give others any opportunity to obtain the advantage in hurting you. Keep looking unto Jesus. He is your strength. By beholding Jesus you will become changed into His likeness. He will be the health of your countenance and your God....
OFC	242	6	The church needs you, and you need to soften and subdue your own feelings for Christ's sake. He wants you to have His Holy Spirit to work you. Then you may impart life and comfort to the church. Let your words be well chosen that you may be a real blessing to the church. Do not afflict your souls over the inconsistencies of others. Take yourselves in hand, and be consistent in all things.
------------------------In The World, But Not Of It, September 21
OFC	243	1	Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4.
OFC	243	2	The great day of the Lord is near at hand. When Christ appears in the clouds of heaven, those who have not sought Him with all the heart, those who have allowed themselves to be deceived, will surely perish. Our only safety is to be found through repentance and conversion, and the blotting out of sins. Those who will now seek the Lord earnestly, humbling their hearts before Him, and forsaking their sins, will, through the sanctification of the truth, be fitted to unite with the members of the royal family, and will see the King in His beauty....
OFC	243	3	Whatever his educational attainments, only he who realizes his accountability to God, and who is led by the Holy Spirit, can be an effectual teacher, or be successful in winning to God those who are brought under his influence. Shall those who do not heed the divine counsel be acknowledged as leaders in the Lord's institutions?--God forbid. How can we regard as safe guides those who manifest a spirit of unbelief, and who, in words and character, fail of revealing true godliness?
OFC	243	4	"Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children [in learning the way of the Lord], ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3).
OFC	243	5	Self needs to be brought into submission to the yoke of Christ. The great Teacher invites all to learn of Him.... "The Son of man is come to save that which was lost" (verse 11). But those who desire to be saved must be willing to be saved in the Lord's appointed way, and not in a way of their own choosing. The free grace of God is man's only hope. God is in earnest with every one of us....
OFC	243	6	We are called to be the Lord's special people in a much higher sense than many have realized. The world lies in wickedness, and God's people are to come out of the world, and be separate. They are to be free from worldly customs and worldly habits. They are not to accord with worldly sentiments, but are to stand out distinct, as the Lord's peculiar people, earnest in all their service. They are to have no fellowship with the works of darkness.
------------------------Divine Grace, Our Greatest Need, September 22
OFC	244	1	Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. 1 Corinthians 9:16.
OFC	244	2	Genuine conversion brings us daily into communion with God. There will be temptations to meet, and a strong undercurrent drawing us from God to our former state of indifference and sinful forgetfulness of God. No human heart can remain strong without divine grace. No man can remain converted unless he takes care of himself and the Master has a care for him. Unless the heart holds fast to God, and God holds fast to him, he will become self-confident and exalted and will surely stumble and fall. The power of God through faith was Paul's dependence. "I live; yet not I," he exclaims in his humility, "but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20). "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Corinthians 9:26, 27).
OFC	244	3	Paul was in such constant dread, lest his evil propensities should get the better of him, that he was constantly battling, with firm resistance, unruly appetites and passions. If the great apostle felt like trembling in view of his weakness, who has a right to feel self-confident and boastful? The moment we begin to feel self-sufficient and confident then we are in danger of a disgraceful failure.
OFC	244	4	Our only sure defense against besetting sins is prayer, daily and hourly prayer. Not one day zealous and the next careless, but through watchfulness and earnestness becoming vitalized by intercourse with God. Prayer is necessary, and we should not wait for feeling, but pray, earnestly pray, whether we feel like it or not. Heaven is open to our prayers. Prayer is the channel that conducts our gratitude and yearnings of soul for the divine blessing to the throne of God, to be returned to us in refreshing showers of divine grace. With very many, this channel is allowed to freeze up, and then the connection with heaven is interrupted.... Oh, that we would spend more time upon our knees and less time in planning for ourselves and in thinking we may do some great thing.
------------------------The Banquet Of God's Word, September 23
OFC	245	1	I am the living bread which came down from heaven: ... and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. John 6:51.
OFC	245	2	The only safety for any of us is to plant our feet upon the Word of God and study the Scriptures, making God's Word our constant meditation. Tell the people to take no man's word regarding the Testimonies, but to read them and study them for themselves, and then they will know that they are in harmony with the truth. The Word of God is the truth. Of a good man the psalmist declares, "His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night" (Psalm 1:2). He who puts mind and heart into this work gains a solid, valuable experience. The Holy Spirit is in the Word of God. Here is the living, undying element so distinctly represented in the sixth chapter of John....
OFC	245	3	Let us believe the Word. He who thus eats the bread of heaven is nourished every day and will know what these words mean, "Needeth not that any man teach you." We have lessons pure from the lips of Him who owns us, who has bought us with the price of His own blood. The precious Word of God is a solid foundation upon which to build. When men come to you with their suppositions, tell them that the Great Teacher has left you His Word, which is of incalculable value, that He has sent a Comforter in His own name, even the Holy Ghost. "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26)....
OFC	245	4	Here is presented before us a rich banquet, of which all who believe in Christ as a personal Saviour may eat. He is the Tree of life to all who continue to feed on Him....
OFC	245	5	All who study these precious utterances may have strong consolation. If they will feed upon the banquet of God's Word, they will gain an experience of the highest value. They will see that in comparison with the word of God, the word of man is as chaff to the wheat.
OFC	245	6	I am instructed by the Word of God that His promises are for me and for every child of God. The banquet is spread before us; we are invited to eat the Word of God, which will strengthen spiritual muscle and sinew.
------------------------The Final Battle, September 24
OFC	246	1	Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. Revelation 16:15.
OFC	246	2	A terrible contest is before us. We are nearing the battle of the great day of God Almighty. That which has been held in control is to be let loose. The angel of mercy is folding its wings, preparing to step down from the golden throne and leave the world to the control of Satan, the king it has chosen, a murderer and a destroyer from the beginning.
OFC	246	3	The principalities and powers of earth are in bitter revolt against the God of heaven. They are filled with hatred against all who serve Him, and soon, very soon, is to be fought the last great battle between good and evil. The earth is to be the battlefield--the scene of the final contest and the final victory. Here, where for so long Satan has led men against God, rebellion is to be forever suppressed.
OFC	246	4	Christ came to this earth in human form that He might stand as the Captain of our salvation, so that we should not be overcome by Satan's power. And when the enemy has seemed to be gaining a signal victory over righteousness, God has been working in mercy and power to counteract his designs.
OFC	246	5	Determined to efface the image of God in man, Satan works with an intensity of effort to hide God from view. Not openly does he work, but secretly, mingling the human and the divine, the spurious and the genuine, so seeking to bring confusion and distress. But in proportionate power divine mercy is revealed to counteract this wicked working, and bring to light the enemy's hidden purposes.
OFC	246	6	God's people are to bear a bold, decided testimony for the truth, unfolding the purposes of God by the witness of pen and voice. In place after place they are to proclaim the message of God's Word, arousing men and women to comprehend the truth....
OFC	246	7	There is a reality in sound doctrine. It is not as a vapor, which passes away. Light is to shine forth from the Word of God. God calls upon His people to draw near to Him. Let no one interpose between Him and His people. Christ is knocking at the door of the heart, seeking for entrance. Will you let Him in?
------------------------Things Wrought By Prayer, September 25
OFC	247	1	Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Hebrews 10:22.
OFC	247	2	There can be no true prayer without true faith. "Without faith it is impossible to please him" (Hebrews 11:6). Prayer and faith are the arms by which the soul hangs upon the neck of infinite love, and grasps the hand of infinite power. God does not recognize dumb children, as far as experience in His truth is concerned. Faith is an active, working power. The newborn faith in Christ is revealed by prayer and praise. Prayer is a relief and a comfort to the troubled soul. The sincere, humble suppliant at the throne of grace may know that he is communing with God, through the divinely appointed means, and that it is his privilege to understand what God is to the believing soul. We must have a realization of our needs. We must hunger and thirst after life in Christ and through Christ. Then we shall come to Him in humility and sincerity, and He will give us the faith that works by love and purifies the soul....
OFC	247	3	Christ gave Himself willingly and cheerfully to the carrying out the will of God. "He ... became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:8). In view of all that He has done, should we feel it a hardship to deny ourselves? Shall we draw back from being partakers of Christ's sufferings? His death ought to stir every fiber of our beings, making us willing to consecrate to His work all that we have and are.
OFC	247	4	As we think of what He has done for us, our hearts should be filled with gratitude and love, and we should renounce all selfishness and sin. What duty could the heart refuse to perform, under the constraining influence of the love of God and Christ? "I am crucified with Christ," the apostle Paul declared: "nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).
OFC	247	5	Let us relate ourselves to God in self-denying, self-sacrificing obedience. Faith in Christ always leads to willing, cheerful obedience. He died to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. There is to be perfect conformity, in thought, word, and deed, to the will of God. Heaven is only for those who have purified their souls through obedience to the truth.
------------------------Present Advantages And Future Benefits, September 26
OFC	248	1	Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2.
OFC	248	2	We should ever cherish feelings of gratitude to those who have shown us favors in times of need. But these feelings that are so readily called into exercise by the kindness and disinterestedness of our friends should respond to the love and compassion of our benevolent heavenly Friend.... The friendship expressed by nearest and dearest relatives and friends is so far surpassed by the revelation of Jesus Christ that the former is dumb and expressionless when compared with the latter. It is natural that the heart should entertain sentiments of the warmest affection toward those who have done or suffered something for us.
OFC	248	3	Let me lead you to the scene of the crucifixion and show you the Son of God dying in your stead. Will not the spectacle of the cross of Christ awaken every feeling of gratitude? Will it not sweep away the coldness and indifference which steels the senses to the great sacrifice made in our behalf? ...
OFC	248	4	Satan, the adversary of souls, is constantly at work with his devices and enchantments, stealing away the senses and deadening the feelings to our highest interest. To all the little matters of life the affections are given free play, but in eternal interest the affections are trammeled, bound as by magical cords....
OFC	248	5	There are so many who endure privation and pursue at considerable sacrifice a course which promises advantages in the future. They forego present comfort for a future inducement as an equivalent, but here Jesus presents eternal life as the reward of obedience, and if paltry things of earthly gain will be sacrificed for some future good, how much more should ease, pleasure, and present worldly advantages be sacrificed for the incomparable riches and glory of the future immortal life. Let not the sorcery of earthly enchantments steal the affections from God and harden the heart to eternal interest. Look at the things that are unseen. Enshrine Jesus in the heart. Love Him with your whole soul.
------------------------The Holy Spirit--The Gift Of Gifts, September 27
OFC	249	1	And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:8.
OFC	249	2	In proportion to Christ's humiliation and suffering is His exaltation. He could have become the Saviour, the Redeemer, only by first being the Sacrifice. What a mystery there is in the godliness of Christ. Having magnified the law and made it honorable by accepting its conditions in saving a world from ruin, Christ hastened to heaven to perfect His work, and to accomplish His mission by sending the Holy Spirit to His disciples. Thus He would assure His believing ones that He had not forgotten them, though now in the presence of God, where there is fullness of joy forevermore.
OFC	249	3	The Holy Spirit was to descend on those in this world who loved Christ. By this they would be qualified, in and through the glorification of their Head, to receive every endowment necessary for the fulfilling of their mission. The Life-giver held in His hands, not only the keys of death, but a whole heaven of rich blessings. All power in heaven and earth was given to Him, and having taken His place in the heavenly courts, He could dispense these blessings to all who receive Him.
OFC	249	4	Christ has said to His disciples, "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you" (John 16:7). This was the gift of gifts. The Holy Spirit was sent as the most priceless treasure man could receive. The church was baptized with the Spirit's power. The disciples were fitted to go forth and proclaim Christ, first in Jerusalem, where the shameful work of dishonoring the rightful King had been done, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth....
OFC	249	5	How full and free are the blessings to be bestowed on all who come to God in the name of His Son. If they will observe the conditions laid down in His Word, He will open to them the windows of heaven, and pour them down a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.... If God's people will sanctify themselves by obedience to His precepts, the Lord will work in their midst. He will renew humble, contrite souls, making their characters pure and holy.
------------------------The Lord's Philosophy, September 28
OFC	250	1	To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:20.
OFC	250	2	The Lord's philosophy, plainly outlined in His Word, is to be our rule of life. The entire being is to be under the control of the One who knows the end from the beginning. The Bible, and the Bible only is to be our guide. We must follow and obey the life-giving principles of heaven, not only for our inclinations. The wisdom and the power of God, working upon the receptive heart, brings mind and character into harmony with the laws and rules of heaven. Individually we must have the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in order to communicate to the world the great facts of truth and righteousness....
OFC	250	3	We are bidden to sound an alarm to the people. The watchmen must not fail now. They must watch unto prayer, that they may have a clear perception of their obligation to Him who, though the only begotten Son of God, came to our world to lead men and women away from the guidance of Satan.
OFC	250	4	We are to instruct and guide souls to look to Christ's example, to realize their obligation to Him, whose they are by creation and by redemption. He is the owner of every man and woman and child who comes into the world. This He became by paying the redemption price. If fallen human beings will consent to become sons and daughters of God in willing obedience, they will become one with Christ. The Saviour has bought them by giving His life to pay the penalty of sin.... Those who are truly converted will reveal the saving grace of Christ by laboring for these souls blinded by Satan. In their own lives God's workers are to show forth the power of truth and righteousness. The world is soon to meet the great Lawgiver over His broken law. Those only can hope for pardon who turn from transgression to obedience.
OFC	250	5	We are to raise the banner on which is inscribed, "The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." This is the great issue. Let it not be put out of sight. We must strive to arouse church members and those who make no profession, to see and obey the claims of the law of heaven. We are to magnify this law and make it honorable. We are to arouse those who are sunk in spiritual slumber.
------------------------When Truth Controls The Life, September 29
OFC	251	1	He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12.
OFC	251	2	The Lord Jesus took upon Him the form of sinful man, clothing His divinity with humanity. But He was holy, even as God is holy. If He had not been without spot or stain of sin, He could not have been the Saviour of mankind. He was a Sinbearer, needing no atonement. One with God in purity and holiness of character, He could make a propitiation for the sins of the whole world.
OFC	251	3	Christ is the light of the world. Through Him light is shining amid the moral darkness. If He were not light, the darkness would not be apparent, because light reveals darkness. The clearer the light, the more manifest the contrast between light and darkness. Let the light be removed, and there is nought but darkness.
OFC	251	4	Christ has declared our position. "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). He is Himself the bright and morning Star. He is the Sun of Righteousness, the brightness of His Father's glory. He is the "true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (chap. 1:9). A Physician, a Healer, He came to restore the moral image of God that was lost by transgression.
OFC	251	5	When Christ abides in the soul by faith, He makes the one who loves Him all light in the Lord. It is true that many who say they believe the truth have only a nominal faith. They are not doers of the Word. They profess to believe, but their profession will not convert them....
OFC	251	6	When Christ dwells in the heart, His presence is apparent. Good and pleasant words and actions reveal the Spirit of Christ. Sweetness of temper is manifested. There is no angry passion, no obstinacy, no evil-surmising. There is no hatred in the heart, because . . ideas and methods ... are not accepted and appreciated by others....
OFC	251	7	When the truth controls the life, there is purity and freedom from sin. The glory, the fullness, the completeness of the gospel plan is fulfilled in the life. The light of truth irradiates the soul temple. The understanding takes hold of Christ.
------------------------Walk In The Footsteps Of Jesus, September 30
OFC	252	1	And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability. Matthew 25:15.
OFC	252	2	Study the instruction found in Matthew 25:14-46. Compare this instruction with your life record. Let every man put away his boasting.... Let us walk in the footsteps of Christ in all the humility of true faith. Let us put away all self-trust, committing ourselves, day by day and hour by hour, to the Saviour, constantly receiving and imparting His grace. I beg those who profess to believe in Christ to walk humbly before God. Pride and self-exaltation are an offense to Him. "If any man will come after me," Christ declares, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). Those only who obey this word will He recognize as His believing ones. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12, 13).
OFC	252	3	"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (verse 14). O wonderful condescension! The Prince of heaven, the Commander of the heavenly hosts, stepped down from His high position, laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown, and clothed His divinity with humanity, that He might become the divine Teacher of all classes of men, and live before human beings a life free from all selfishness and sin, setting them an example of what, through His grace, they may become.
OFC	252	4	"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (verse 14). Praise God for this wonderful statement. The possibilities that it presents seem almost too great for us to grasp, and put to shame our weakness and our unbelief. I praise God that I can see my Saviour by faith. My soul grasps the great gift. Our only hope in this life is to reach forth the hand of faith, and grasp the hand outstretched to save. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (verse 29). If we would look away from self to Jesus, making Him our Guide, the world would see in our churches a power that it does not now see.
------------------------The Need For A Reformation, October 1
OFC	253	1	But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:22, 23.
OFC	253	2	Paul felt that the Lord's requirements must be obeyed, His judgments avoided. Like Paul, we must make every effort to obtain the crown of life, which brings eternal honor to every victor. We must not be content to live useless lives.
OFC	253	3	What is humility? That sense of sin and unworthiness which leads to repentance. But we must be assured of the malignity of a disease before we feel our need of a cure. Those who do not realize the sinfulness of sin are not able to appreciate the value of the atonement and the necessity of being cleansed from all sin. The sinner measures himself by himself and by those who like himself are sinners. He does not look at the purity and holiness of Christ. But when the law of God brings conviction to his heart, he says with Paul, "I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Romans 7:9)....
OFC	253	4	God created man for His glory. He will not, cannot endure the presence of sin in His dominion. If there are in the church those who are willfully sinning against God, every possible means should be used to bring them to repentance. If this is not done, God's name is dishonored. He is too pure to look upon iniquity with favor....
OFC	253	5	Adam's sin would be regarded by the churches of today as a simple mistake, to be at once forgiven and no more thought of. But God's standard is high and His word immutable, and all selfish, covetous practices are an abomination in His sight. The hearts of believers need to be purified, sanctified, refined, ennobled....
OFC	253	6	Look up, my brethren. Has the gospel lost its power to impress hearts? Is it because the regenerating influence of the Spirit of Christ has died away that hearts are not purified, sanctified, and prepared for the Holy Spirit? No; the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of the living God, is with us yet; but it must be wielded with earnestness. Let us use it as did God's sanctified ones of old. By its living, quickening power it will cut its way to hearts....
OFC	253	7	The Lord calls for a reformation all through our ranks.... When the church is awakened, decided changes will be made. Men and women will be converted, and so filled will they be by the Spirit of God that they will pass from country to country, from city to city, proclaiming the message of truth. With hearts filled with earnest love for souls, they will open their Bibles and present the Word.
------------------------I Am A Child Of God, October 2
OFC	254	1	And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Romans 8:17.
OFC	254	2	The influence of grace is to soften the heart, to refine and purify the feelings, giving a heaven-born delicacy and sense of propriety. A Christian cannot be self-exalted, for this is not Christlike. The world's Redeemer, the sinner's substitute and surety, says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28)...
OFC	254	3	But let us continually bear in mind that the meek and lowly Jesus has the spirit and the ambition of a conqueror. The vast dominions over which earthly potentates hold sway form no adequate theater for the exercise of His grace, the expression of His love, and the manifestation of His glory. He who loves the Lord Jesus Christ in truth and sincerity will love those whom Christ died to save, and will eagerly embrace every opportunity to minister to Christ in the person of His disciples.
OFC	254	4	We must look at our lives as sons and daughters of God, as laborers with Jesus Christ, living for a noble purpose. We are representatives of Jesus Christ in character, and are to serve Him with our undivided affections. Not only will we reveal the fact that we love God, but will, in accordance with His holy character, live a pure, perfect life. We must live perfection, because in looking at Jesus we see in Him the embodiment of perfection; and the great Center upon whom our hope of eternal life and happiness is centered will lead us to unity and harmony....
OFC	254	5	The life we now live must be by faith in Jesus Christ. If we are Christ's followers our lives will not be as pieced out by little cheap spasmodic actions according to circumstances and surroundings--jerking actions, revealing feelings to be our master, indulging in little frettings, envious faultfindings, jealousies, and selfish vanity. These put us all out of harmony with the harmonious life of Jesus Christ, and we cannot be overcomers if we retain these defects....
OFC	254	6	When exposed to varied scenes in life, and words are spoken that are calculated to cut and bruise the soul, speak to yourself: "I am a child of God, an heir with Jesus Christ, a colaborer with God. I must not therefore have a cheap mind, easily to take offense, always thinking of myself, for this will naturally produce an inharmonious character. It is unworthy of my noble calling. The heavenly Father has given me my work to do; let me be worthy of the trust."
------------------------Infallible Assurance, October 3
OFC	255	1	And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:3.
OFC	255	2	Many, very many, will be terribly surprised when the Lord shall come suddenly as a thief in the night. Let us watch and pray, lest coming suddenly He find us sleeping. My soul is deeply stirred as I consider how much we ought to do for perishing souls. The prediction of Daniel, "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (Daniel 12:4), is to be fulfilled in our giving of the warning message; many are to be enlightened regarding the sure word of prophecy....
OFC	255	3	The salvation of souls should be our first consideration. I am troubled when I see many rejoicing in temporal prosperity, for those who possess worldly treasure seldom seek earnestly to secure the heavenly. They are in danger of falling into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown man in destruction....
OFC	255	4	We need a more firm reliance upon a "Thus saith the Lord." If we have this, we shall not trust to feeling, and be ruled by feeling. God asks us to rest in His love. It is our privilege to know the Word of God as a sure and tried guide, an infallible assurance. Let us work on the faith side of the question. Let us believe and trust, and talk faith and hope and courage. Let the praise of God be in our hearts and on our lips oftener than it is. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me" (Psalm 50:23). Keep the mind stayed upon God, and know the love of Christ as the Word of God reveals it. This Word is life. Talk of Christ; call others to behold Him as your Redeemer.
OFC	255	5	It is our privilege to rest in an active, living faith in Christ as the Life-giver. It is our privilege to comprehend with all saints, what is the length and depth and height, and to know the love of God which passeth knowledge, and be filled with all the fullness of God. Let us contemplate Christ as the One in whom all fullness dwells. Beholding Him as our personal Saviour, we shall appreciate the value of His saving grace. We should think about Jesus more than we do. We should let His praise be in our hearts. We should speak of the love that has been so abundantly expressed for us. We certainly have every reason to praise God with heart and soul and voice, saying, I will praise the Lord for His great love wherewith He hath loved me....
OFC	255	6	Lift Him up, the Christ of Calvary; lift Him up, that the world may behold Him. Talk of His goodness, sing of His love, and give Him the grateful thanks of your hearts.
------------------------God's Plans Are Perfect, October 4
OFC	256	1	By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 11:9, 10.
OFC	256	2	Jesus ascended to the Father as a representative of the human race, and God will bring those who reflect His image to behold and share with Him His glory. There are homes for the pilgrims of earth. There are robes for the righteous, with crowns of glory and palms of victory. All that perplexed us in the providences of God will then be made plain. The things hard to be understood will then find an explanation. The mysteries of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken purposes, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall know that infinite love ordered the experiences that seemed most trying and hard to bear. As we realize the tender care of Him who makes all things work together for our good, we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
OFC	256	3	Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of heaven. In the home of the redeemed there will be no tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity" (Isaiah 33:24). One rich tide of happiness will flow and deepen as eternity rolls on. Think of this; tell it to the children of suffering and sorrow, and bid them rejoice in hope.
OFC	256	4	The nearer we come to Jesus, the more clearly we behold the purity and greatness of His character, the less we shall feel like exalting self. The contrast between our characters and His will lead to humiliation of soul and deep heart searching. The more we love Jesus, the more entirely will self be humbled and forgotten....
OFC	256	5	He who is meek in spirit, he who is purest and most childlike, will be made strong for the battle. He will be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. He who feels his weakness, and wrestles with God as did Jacob, and like this servant of old cries, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me," will go forth with the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit. The atmosphere of heaven will surround him. He will go about doing good. His influence will be a positive force in favor of the religion of Christ....
OFC	256	6	Our God is a very present help in time of need. He is acquainted with the most secret thoughts of our hearts, with all the intents and purposes of our souls. When we are in perplexity, even before we open to Him our distresses, He is making arrangements for our deliverance.
------------------------Christ Lived A Life Of Humble Obedience, October 5
OFC	257	1	Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Hebrews 5:8, 9.
OFC	257	2	Christ came to our world, and lived in the home of a peasant. He wore the best garments His parents could provide, but they were the humble garments of the peasants. He walked the rough paths, and climbed the steeps of the hillsides and mountains. When He walked the streets He was apparently alone, for human eyes did not behold His heavenly attendants. He learned the trade of a carpenter, that He might stamp all honest labor as honorable and ennobling to all who work with an eye single to the glory of God....
OFC	257	3	Christ, the Lord of the whole earth, was a humble artisan. He was unrecognized, neglected, and despised. But He held His commission and authority from the highest power, the Sovereign of heaven. Angels were His attendants, for Christ was doing His Father's business just as much when toiling at the bench as a carpenter, as when working miracles for the multitude. But He concealed the secret from the world. He attached no high titles to His name, to make His position understood, but He lived the royal law of God. His work must begin in consecrating the humble trade of the craftsmen who have toiled for their daily bread. Had Christ passed His life among the grand and the rich, the world of toilers would have been deprived of the inspiration which the Lord intended they should have.
OFC	257	4	Meek and lowly was the life of Christ. He chose this life that He might help the human family. He did not take His place upon a throne as Commander of the whole earth. He laid aside His royal robe, He laid off His kingly crown, that He might be made one of the human family. He took not on Him the nature of angels. His work was not the priestly office after the appointments of men. It was impossible for man to understand His exalted position, unless the Holy Spirit should make it known. For our sake, He clothed His divinity with humanity, and stepped down from the royal throne. He resigned His position as Commander in the heavenly courts, and for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. Thus, He hid His glory under the guise of humanity, that He might touch humanity with His divine, transforming power....
OFC	257	5	Those to whom Christ has given a probation in which to form characters for the mansions He has gone to prepare are to enter into His life example.
------------------------The Ministry Of Angels, October 6
OFC	258	1	And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 2 Kings 6:17.
OFC	258	2	How few contemplate the unseen agencies. Men are acting their part either for God or for Satan, the Prince of light, or the prince of darkness. All heaven is intensely interested in human beings who seem to be so full of activity, and yet have no thought for the unseen. Their thoughts are not on the Word of God and its instruction. If they would appropriate the Word of God, they would be astonished that there are agencies, good and evil, observing every word and deed. They are in every assembly for business transactions, in councils, and in meetings for the worship of God. There are more listeners in these public assemblies than can be seen with the natural sight, and every man has his work to do. Those unseen agencies are co-laborers with God or with Satan, and they work more mightily and more constantly than do men. Sometimes the heavenly intelligences draw aside the curtain that hides the unseen world, that we may have our minds withdrawn from the hurry and rush, and consider that there are witnesses to all we do and say when we [are] engaged in business, or when we think ourselves alone.
OFC	258	3	The Lord would have our perceptions keen to understand that these mighty ones who visit our world have borne an active part in all the work which we have called our own. These heavenly beings are ministering angels, and they frequently disguise themselves in the form of human beings. As strangers they converse with those who are engaged in the work of God. In lonely places they have been the companions of the traveler in peril. In tempest-tossed ships angels in human form have spoken words of encouragement to allay fear and inspire hope in the hour of danger, and the passengers have thought that it was one of their number to whom they had never before spoken.
OFC	258	4	Many, under different circumstances, have listened to the voices of the inhabitants of other worlds. They have come to act a part in this life. They have spoken in assemblies, and opened before assemblies human histories, and have done works which it was impossible for human agencies to do. Time and again have they been the generals of armies. They have been sent forth to cleanse away pestilence. They have eaten at the humble board of families. Often they have appeared as weary travelers in need of shelter for the night.
OFC	258	5	We need to understand better than we do the work of these angel visitants.
------------------------We May Overcome As Christ Overcame, October 7
OFC	259	1	[He] was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
OFC	259	2	Christ, at an infinite cost, by a painful process, mysterious to angels as well as to men, assumed humanity. Hiding His divinity, laying aside His glory, He was born a babe in Bethlehem. In human flesh He lived the law of God, that He might condemn sin in the flesh, and bear witness to heavenly intelligences that the law was ordained to life and to ensure the happiness, peace, and eternal good of all who obey....
OFC	259	3	This is the mystery of godliness, that One equal with the Father should clothe His divinity with humanity, and laying aside all the glory of His office as Commander in heaven, [should] descend step after step in the path of humiliation, enduring severe and still more severe abasement. Sinless and undefiled, He stood in the judgment hall, to be tried, to have His case investigated and pronounced upon by the very nation He had delivered from slavery. The Lord of glory was rejected and condemned, yea, spat upon. With contempt for what they regarded as His pretentious claims, men smote Him in the face....
OFC	259	4	Pilate pronounced Christ innocent, declaring that he found no fault in Him. Yet to please the Jews, he commanded Him to be scourged and then delivered Him up, bruised and bleeding, to suffer the cruel death of crucifixion. The Majesty of heaven was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and amid scoffing and jeers, ridicule and false accusation, He was nailed to the cross. The crowd, in whose hearts humanity seemed to be dead, sought to aggravate the cruel sufferings of the Son of God by their revilings. But as a sheep before His shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. He was giving His life for the life of the world, that all who believed in Him should not perish....
OFC	259	5	Christ bore the sins of the whole world. He endured our punishment--the wrath of God against transgression. His trial involved the fierce temptation of thinking that He was forsaken by God. His soul was tortured by the pressure of a horror of great darkness.... He could not have been tempted in all points like as man is tempted had there been no possibility of His failing. He was a free agent, placed on probation, as was Adam and as is man. Unless there is a possibility of yielding, temptation is no temptation. Temptation comes and is resisted when man is powerfully influenced to do a wrong action, and knowing that he can do it, resists by faith, with a firm hold upon divine power.
------------------------Our Christian Experience Must Be Animated, October 8
OFC	260	1	I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Revelation 3:18, 19.
OFC	260	2	Our conscience must be purged from dead works to serve the living God. Sanctification means perfect love, perfect obedience, entire conformity to the will of God. If our lives are conformed to the life of Christ through the sanctification of mind, soul, and body, our example will have a powerful influence on the world. We are not perfect, but it is our privilege to cut away from the entanglements of self and sin, and go on unto perfection....
OFC	260	3	Great possibilities, high and holy attainments, are placed within the reach of all who have true faith. Shall we not anoint our eyes with eyesalve, that we may discern the wondrous things here brought before us? Why do we not with persevering earnestness, work out this prayer, advancing onward and upward, reaching the standard of holiness? We are laborers together with God, and we must work in harmony with one another and with God, "for it is God which worketh in ... [us] both to will and to do of his good pleasure." ...
OFC	260	4	The Lord takes no pleasure in seeing us spiritually weak. "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." We have conflicts and trials to meet, but we need not fail or be discouraged....
OFC	260	5	God can only be honored when we who profess to believe in Him are conformed to His image. We are to represent to the world the beauty of holiness, and we shall never enter the gates of the city of God until we perfect a Christlike character. If we, with trust in God, strive for sanctification, we shall receive it. Then as witnesses for Christ, we are to make known what the grace of God has wrought in us.
OFC	260	6	The greatest disquietude we can have is uncertainty. The acceptance of the blessings of God brings righteousness and peace. The fruit of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. We must have simplicity and Godlike sincerity. We must have that wisdom which cometh from above. Our Christian experience must be animated by piety, and instinct with the divine life.
------------------------Christlike Love Blends Heart With Heart, October 9
OFC	261	1	With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. Ephesians 4:12.
OFC	261	2	God is love. The love of the Father and the Son is an attribute of every believer. The Word of God is the channel through which divine love is communicated to man. God's truth is the medium by which the intellect is reached. The Holy Spirit is given to the human agent who works in cooperation with divine agencies. It transforms mind and character, enabling man to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. Perfect love can be enjoyed only through the belief of the truth and the reception of the Holy Spirit....
OFC	261	3	Christ prayed that His disciples might realize the importance of the love that He expressed by giving His life for the world. He desired them to understand something in regard to His infinite sacrifice. If they had more fully understood His self-sacrificing love, they would never have engaged in alienation and strife.
OFC	261	4	I urge all who claim to believe present truth to practice that truth. If they do this, they will have a stronger and more powerful influence for good. The world will see that the love expressed by believers is the central and controlling principle of Christ's followers. Christlike love blends heart with heart. The truth draws men together. It brings into harmony and unity all who have an earnest, living faith in the Saviour. Christ designs those who believe in Him to develop and become strong by association with one another. All who work unselfishly in the Master's service bear credentials to the world that God has sent His Son to this earth.
OFC	261	5	Although a company of Christians united in church capacity have not all the same talents, yet it is the duty of everyone to work. Talents differ, but to every man is given his work. All are dependent upon Christ in God. He is the glorious Head of all grades and classes of people associated through faith in the Word of God. Bound together by a common belief in heavenly principles, they are all dependent on Him who is the Author and Finisher of their faith. He has created the principles that produce universal oneness, universal love. His followers should meditate upon His love. They should not stop short of reaching the standard set before them. If the principles of Christianity are lived, they will produce universal harmony and perfect peace. When the heart is imbued with the Spirit of Christ, there is no quarreling, no seeking for the supremacy, no striving to be reigning lords.
------------------------Things Thou Knowest Not, October 10
OFC	262	1	Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33:3.
OFC	262	2	We do not always consider that the sanctification we so earnestly desire and for which we pray so earnestly is brought about through the truth and, by the providence of God, in a manner we least expect. When we look for joy, behold there is sorrow. When we expect peace, we frequently have distrust and doubt because we find ourselves plunged into trials we cannot avoid. In these trials we are having the answers to our prayers. In order for us to be purified, the fire of affliction must kindle upon us, and our will must be brought into conformity to the will of God. In order to be conformed to the image of our Saviour, we pass through a most painful process of refining. The very ones that we regard the most dear upon the earth may cause us the greatest sorrow and trial. They may view us in the wrong light. They may think us in error, and that we are deceiving and degrading ourselves because we follow the dictates of enlightened conscience in seeking for the truth as for hid treasures....
OFC	262	3	Our prayers for conformity to the image of Christ may not be answered exactly as we desire. We may be tested and proved, for God sees it best to put us under a course of discipline which is essential for us before we are fit subjects for the blessing we crave. We should not become discouraged and give way to doubt, and think that our prayers are not noticed. We should rely more securely upon Christ and leave our case with God to answer our prayers in His own way. God has not promised to bestow His blessings through the channels we have marked out. God is too wise to err and too regardful of our good to allow us to choose for ourselves.
OFC	262	4	The plans of God are always the best, although we may not always discern them. Perfection of Christian character can be obtained only through labor, conflict, and self-denial....
OFC	262	5	How inestimably precious are the gifts of God--the graces of His Spirit--and we shall not shrink from the trying, testing process, be it ever so painful or humiliating to us. How easy would be the way to heaven if there were no self-denial or cross! How worldlings would rush in the way, and hypocrites would travel in it without number! Thank God for the cross, the self-denial. The ignominy and shame our Saviour endured for us is none too humiliating for those saved by the purchase of His blood. Heaven will indeed be cheap enough.
------------------------The Word Of God Your Guide, October 11
OFC	263	1	Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105.
OFC	263	2	If we would work wisely and intelligently, our human passions, our hereditary and cultivated tendencies, must be brought under the control of a higher and more commanding generalship than human ability....
OFC	263	3	"Cease to do evil; learn to do well." This is the lesson everyone should learn day by day. The training due to one's self comes first. The influence exerted by a life of strict integrity will be a continual education to others. Those who are restrained and guided by the moral and religious principles plainly laid down in God's Word walk in accordance with the mind and will of God, who is too wise to err and too good to do us harm.
OFC	263	4	If you would walk wisely, walk in the way of God's commandments. The Word of God you have in your keeping, right at hand. This Word is so plain that none need go astray unless they allow themselves to be led by their hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong. Your Redeemer met Satan's treacherous advances with the words, "It is written," and with the imperative command, "Get thee behind me, Satan." I counsel you to receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your soul. The Word of God is your haven. It is a tower of strength, into which you may run and be safe....
OFC	263	5	The earnest, sincere searcher for truth will not mistake truth for error. The Word of God is the bread of life, of which all may partake and obtain eternal life. Error is falsehood and deception. Those who partake of it must suffer in consequence, as did Adam and Eve in Eden. It is the privilege of all to search with prayerful, eager interest for the truth. Truth is the tree of life, the leaves of which the human family are to eat and live.
OFC	263	6	Those who try to interpret the Word according to their own ideas, who read it in accordance with their opinions, will never see the truth, and will die in their sins. Those who eat of the forbidden tree accept Satan's fallacies in the place of "Thus saith the Lord," and unless they repent, they will never gain that life which measures with the life of God. As did Adam and Eve, they exclude themselves from the tree of life, the fruit of which perpetuates immortality....
OFC	263	7	We are living amid the solemnities of the judgment. Our souls should be filled with awe, for we are in God's presence continually. Each one must decide for himself whether he will obey and live or disobey and perish.
OFC	263	8	To those who obey, the Word of God is the tree of life. It is the word of salvation, received unto eternal life.
------------------------Christ Calls For Unity, October 12
OFC	264	1	That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21.
OFC	264	2	We each need the help we can receive from other minds. God will work in other minds than ours. The various gifts given to different ones are to blend for the "perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12)....
OFC	264	3	The Lord Jesus Christ will heal our infirmities and our weaknesses. He owns us. We are His by creation and by redemption. We must all be united in Him. He is the only source of healing. All restoring power comes from Him. He has opened a fountain "to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." He gives each one an invitation to come and be healed, and to drink of the water of life. Let us not trust in ourselves, but in Jesus.
OFC	264	4	There will always be obstacles before us, but we are to follow our Leader, and meet our difficulties unitedly, hand in hand. There is only one way to heaven. We must walk in the footsteps of Jesus, doing His works, even as He did the works of His Father. We must study His ways, not man's ways; we must obey His will, not our own. Walk carefully. Do not go ahead of Christ. Make no move without consulting your Leader. Ask in humble prayer, and "ye shall receive." He is the Way, the Truth, the Life.
OFC	264	5	Read and study carefully the prayer that Christ offered just before His trial, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John. Follow its teachings, and you will be brought into unity. Our only hope of reaching heaven is to be one with Christ, and then, in and through Christ, we shall be one with one another. No one is called to walk alone. In Christ life and immortality are brought to light. He has opened the way to the kingdom of heaven to those who believe in Him, but He assigns to no one a path different to that which all must travel. He calls for unity, and unity we must have. God asks us to sink self in Christ. For the natural man this is not easy. But through the power of the incarnation of Christ, God manifest in the flesh, the strength of God is revealed in gentleness and beauty. To "as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." By this power we may overcome our evil tendencies and so modify our imperfect dispositions that the will of God may be fulfilled in us.
------------------------Are You Preparing For Heaven? October 13
OFC	265	1	Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9.
OFC	265	2	What a work is before us. We need greater faith in Christ and the Father, for this we must certainly have, else we shall be counted with the unbelievers. We see great opportunities and a great amount of work to do. We want the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. We cannot afford to miss the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. The sanctification of the truth, confirming man's steadfastness in the faith, will constitute men laborers together with God.
OFC	265	3	United with the Source of all power, persevering in duty, enlarging the apprehension of the love of God in Christ Jesus, they become one with Christ, until they are complete with Christ in God.
OFC	265	4	The glories that await the faithful overcomer are beyond any description. The Lord will greatly honor and exalt His faithful ones. They shall grow like the cedar, and their comprehension will be certainly increasing. And at every advanced stage of knowledge their anticipation will fall far beneath the reality. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). Our work now is to prepare for those mansions that God is preparing for those who love Him and keep His commandments.... The Lord Jesus will enlarge every mind and heart for the reception of the Holy Spirit....
OFC	265	5	Time is short. Let the little time you have be employed for your own present and eternal good by active Christian service, doing all the good possible. Redeem the time that has been lost; seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then you will have something to impart in good works, in cheerful, consecrated influence....
OFC	265	6	What preparation have you made for the future, eternal world? ... You want something higher and better than you now have. You may exert a conscious and unconscious influence in right doing. God deserves something better from you as His subject than that which you have given Him. Carefully consider: Are you standing under the banner of Prince Emmanuel, or under the black banner of the prince of darkness? There is an obligation resting upon you to return the influence and money that is lent you of the Lord to advance His cause and glorify His name.
OFC	265	7	The Lord calls upon you, "My son, give me thine heart."
------------------------Christ Intercedes For You, October 14
OFC	266	1	We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. Hebrews 8:1, 2.
OFC	266	2	The natural eye can never behold the comeliness and beauty of Christ. The inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, revealing to the soul its true hopeless, helpless condition without the mercy and pardon of the Sin-bearer--the all-sufficiency of Christ--can alone enable man to discern His infinite mercy, His immeasurable love, benevolence, and glory.
OFC	266	3	No one ever came to our world on such an errand of grace, infinite compassion, and unspeakable love, as our Saviour; and none ever received such treatment at the hands of fallen man. "Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price" (see 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). We are Christ's by creation, His by redemption. He is the only sinless Being who endured suffering, shameful humiliation, and rejection in our behalf....
OFC	266	4	Then, how should those who become new creatures in Christ Jesus, saved by His merits, conduct themselves before the universe of heaven? Shall they complain? Shall they accuse one another? Would not a meek and submissive spirit be more becoming? "Learn of me," said the great Teacher, "for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Shall we reveal this spirit in our characters? Shall we wear His yoke, and lift His burdens? ...
OFC	266	5	Could all see Christ before the throne, waiting for their prayers, waiting for them to surrender their will, to cease their rebellion and come back to their allegiance to God, in deep penitence they would pray the Father to forgive their transgression of His law, and forgive them for the influence they have exercised in causing others to disregard the law of Jehovah. The confederacies of the enemy's army are triumphing in their delay. Will they longer remain under the condemnation of the law? Or, will they stand on the side of Christ, and with their influence help the betrayed, rebellious race by their own experimental knowledge? Will they now become co-workers with Jesus Christ, who is making personal intercession for them before the Father? Angels are keeping back the destroying agencies, for they have an intense interest for these rebellious sons, and they want to help them to return to the fold in safety and peace, that they may finally be overcomers, and be saved, eternally saved with the family of God in heaven.
------------------------God's Hand Is On The Wheel, October 15
OFC	267	1	Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Ephesians 6:10.
OFC	267	2	The future is before us, and unforeseen events will surely take place, changing the present aspect of things in the world. Lust and greed are striving for the supremacy. Oppression and hatred will be exercised to destroy. Inspired by a power from beneath, Satan's instrumentalities will work with intensity to carry out his will. "The wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (Daniel 12:10). Every truly converted soul will put on the whole armor of God, and will bravely face the unseen foe. God's servants will realize the necessity of partaking of the divine nature....
OFC	267	3	Now is our time of peril. Our only safety is in walking in the footsteps of Christ, and wearing His yoke. Troublous times are before us. In many instances, friends will become alienated. Without cause, men will become our enemies. The motives of the people of God will be misinterpreted, not only by the world, but by their own brethren. The Lord's servants will be put in hard places. A mountain will be made out of a molehill to justify men in pursuing a selfish, unrighteous course.
OFC	267	4	The work that men have done faithfully will be disparaged and underrated, because apparent prosperity did not attend their efforts. By misrepresentation, these men will be clothed in the dark vestments of dishonesty, because circumstances beyond their control made their work perplexing. They will be pointed to as men that cannot be trusted. And this will be done by the members of the church. God's servants must arm themselves with the mind of Christ. They must not expect to escape insult and misjudgment. They will be called enthusiasts and fanatics. But let them not become discouraged. God's hand is on the wheel of His providence, guiding His work to the glory of His name.
OFC	267	5	God calls upon His people to be bright lights in the world shining amid the darkness of sin. Living the life of the Life-giver brings its reward. He went about doing good. This, every true follower of His will do, filled with a sacred sense of his loyalty to God and his duty to his fellow beings. Through the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, Christians are to grow in grace, constantly drawing nearer perfection of character.
------------------------Let God Work His Will In You, October 16
OFC	268	1	The God of peace ... make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Hebrews 13:20, 21.
OFC	268	2	By studying the Word of God, and carrying out its precepts in all their business transactions, men may carefully discern the spirit that controls the actions. In the place of following human impulse and natural inclination, they may learn, by diligent study, the principles that should control the sons and daughters of Adam.
OFC	268	3	The Bible is the guidebook that is to decide the many difficult problems that rise in minds that are selfishly inclined. It is a reflection of the wisdom of God, and not only furnishes great and important principles, but supplies practical lessons for the life and conduct of man toward his fellow man. It gives minute particulars that decide our relation to God and to each other. It is a complete revelation of the attributes and will of God in the person of Jesus Christ, and in it is set forth the obligation of the human agent to render wholehearted service to God, and to inquire at every step of the way, "Is this the way of the Lord?" ...
OFC	268	4	A deceiving crookedness is discernible in the minds of those whose eyes are not anointed with the heavenly eyesalve that they may see all things in the light of God's Word. The will becomes enslaved, bound to pursue a course which the Word of God will not justify. The will of the human agent is not to be given into the control of any other man. When merged into the will of other men, it is misleading....
OFC	268	5	If the human agent consents, God can and will so identify His will with all our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His Word, that when obeying His will, we are only carrying out the impulses of our minds. All such will not possess an unsanctified, selfish disposition, ready to carry out their own wills, but will have a jealous, earnest, determined zeal for the glory of God. They will not want to do anything in their own strength, and will guard strictly against the danger of promoting self.
OFC	268	6	All who would perfect a Christian character must wear the yoke of Christ. If they would sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, they must learn of Him while on this earth. Our natures are in need of discipline. They must be conformed to the nature of Jesus Christ, that He may accomplish the good He designs to do for all who will submit to be molded by yielding their natures to His authority. The great Teacher will yoke up with every soul who will bear His yoke.
------------------------Christ's Love Cannot Be Measured, October 17
OFC	269	1	For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38, 39.
OFC	269	2	Christ might, because of our guilt, have moved far from us. But instead of moving farther away from us, He came and dwelt among us, filled with all the fullness of the Godhead, to be one with us, that through His grace we might attain to perfection. By a death of shame and suffering He paid man's ransom. What self-sacrificing love is this! From the highest excellency He came, His divinity clothed with humanity, descending step by step to the very depths of humiliation. No line can measure the depth of this love. Christ has shown us how much God can love and our Redeemer suffer in order to secure our complete restoration. He desires His children to reveal His character, to exert His influence, that other minds may be drawn into harmony with His mind.
OFC	269	3	Christ, our Saviour, in whom dwelt absolute perfection, became sin for the fallen race. He did not know sin by the experience of sinning, but He bore the terrible weight of the guilt of the whole world. He became our propitiation, that all who receive Him may become sons of God. The cross was erected to save man. Christ lifted on the cross was the means devised in heaven for awakening in the repenting soul a sense of the sinfulness of sin. By the cross Christ sought to draw all to Himself. He died as the only hope of saving those who, because of sin, were in the gall of bitterness. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, a new principle of mental and spiritual power was to be brought to man, who, through association with divinity, was to become one with God.
OFC	269	4	To break down the barriers that Satan had erected between God and man, Christ made a full and complete sacrifice, revealing unexampled self-denial. He revealed to the world the amazing spectacle of God living in human flesh, and sacrificing Himself to save fallen man. What wonderful love! As I consider it, I weep to think that so many of those who claim to believe the truth are encrusted with selfishness....
OFC	269	5	I marvel that professing Christians do not grasp the divine resources; that they do not see the cross more clearly as the medium of forgiveness and pardon, the means of bringing the proud, selfish heart of man into direct contact with the Holy Spirit, that the riches of Christ may be poured into the mind, and the human agent be adorned with the graces of the Spirit, that Christ may be commended to those who know Him not.
------------------------Standing By Principle, October 18
OFC	270	1	O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Psalm 119:97.
OFC	270	2	Let those who talk of principle as if they would not on any account depart from it be sure that they understand the principles laid down in the Word of God for our guidance. There are some who follow false principles. Their idea of principle is misleading. Following right principle means the faithful doing of the first four and the last six commandments. In obedience to these divine commands, we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, appropriating all that is embraced in the atonement made on Calvary. Christ will stand by the side of all who receive Him as their Saviour. To them He will give power to become the sons of God. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).
OFC	270	3	The One here referred to as the Word is the Son of God, who was the Commander in the heavenly courts, and who came to this world to open heavenly things to fallen human beings. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Word that was with God before the world was. In clothing His divinity with humanity, He became possessed of two natures, the divine and the human. And because of this, He was fully able to accomplish for the human race their complete redemption, and their restoration to the privileges of the higher life.
OFC	270	4	He began His earthly life as human beings begin theirs, coming to this world as a helpless babe. And while here, He lived the life that every human being may live who will receive the great gift that the Lord made to our world in sending His Son to work out the plan of salvation.
OFC	270	5	Christ bore the penalty of sin, the stroke of divine justice, that human beings might not be left to perish. He bore in His body the sentence pronounced against sinners. This is the science of salvation, which can safely be searched into, and which it is profitable to strive to understand....
OFC	270	6	Those who continue in transgression will be judged according to their refusal of light. They choose to stand on the side of the prince of darkness, to become the helping hand of him who, if it were possible, would deceive the very elect. They refuse the wonderful gift of heaven, and though they may profess righteousness, and talk of "adherence to principle," they are at the same time following principles opposed to the noble principles of heaven, and they teach others to follow the same corrupting principles.
------------------------Our Sanctuary Doctrine, October 19
OFC	271	1	Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Daniel 8:14.
OFC	271	2	God bids us give our time and strength to the work of preaching to the people the messages that stirred men and women in 1843 and 1844....
OFC	271	3	My brethren, take your position where God bids you. Leave alone those who, after light has been repeatedly given them, have taken a stand on the opposite side.... Take up the work which has been given us. With the Word of God as your message, stand on the platform of truth and proclaim the soon coming of Christ. Truth, eternal truth, will prevail.
OFC	271	4	For more than half a century [i.e., since 1844] the different points of present truth have been questioned and opposed. New theories have been advanced as truth, which were not truth, and the Spirit of God revealed their error. As the great pillars of our faith have been presented, the Holy Spirit has borne witness to them, and especially is this so regarding the truths of the sanctuary question. Over and over again the Holy Spirit has in a marked manner endorsed the preaching of this doctrine. But today, as in the past, some will be led to form new theories and to deny the truths upon which the Spirit of God has placed His approval.
OFC	271	5	Any man who seeks to present theories which would lead us from the light that has come to us on the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary should not be accepted as a teacher. A true understanding of the sanctuary question means much to us as a people. When we were earnestly seeking the Lord for light on that question, light came. In vision I was given such a view of the heavenly sanctuary, and the ministration connected with the holy place, that for many days I could not speak of it.
OFC	271	6	I know from the light that God has given me that there should be a revival of the messages that have been given in the past, because men will seek to bring in new theories, and will try to prove that these theories are scriptural, whereas they are error, which, if allowed a place, will undermine faith in the truth. We are not to accept these suppositions and pass them along as truth. No, no; we must not move from the platform of truth on which we have been established.
OFC	271	7	There will always be those who are seeking for something new, and who stretch and strain the Word of God to make it support their ideas and theories. Let us, brethren, take the things that God has given us, and which His Spirit has taught us is truth, and believe them, leaving alone those theories which His Spirit has not endorsed.
------------------------Eating The Leaves Of The Tree Of Life, October 20
OFC	272	1	In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2.
OFC	272	2	Must we wait until we are translated before we eat of the leaves of the tree of life? He who receives into his heart the words of Christ knows what it means to eat the leaves of the tree of life....
OFC	272	3	The knowledge that comes from God is the bread of life. It is the leaves of the tree of life which are for the healing of the nations. The current of spiritual life thrills the soul as the words of Christ are believed and practiced. Thus it is that we are made one with Christ. The experience that was weak and feeble becomes strong. It is eternal life to us if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.
OFC	272	4	All truth is to be received as the life of Jesus. Truth cleanses us from all impurity, and prepares the soul for Christ's presence. Christ is formed within, the hope of glory....
OFC	272	5	It is essential that those who pledge themselves to keep God's commandments have an intelligent knowledge of the Scriptures. Thus we learn to deny self and to be strictly honest with God in using His goods. It was in order that we might understand the divine will that God gave us the Bible. We cannot obey His commandments until we know what these commandments are.
OFC	272	6	Parents are without excuse if they fail to obtain a clear understanding of God's will, that they may obey the laws of His kingdom. Only thus can they lead their children to heaven. My brethren and sisters, it is your duty to understand God's requirements. How can you educate your children in the things of God unless you first know yourselves what is right and what is wrong, unless you realize that obedience means eternal life and disobedience eternal death?
OFC	272	7	We must make it our lifework to understand the will of God. Only as we do this can we train our children aright. Your every word and action is to be in accordance with the will of God, irrespective of the opinions and practices of those who refuse to obey God....
OFC	272	8	"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psalm 19:7). The Lord has kept back nothing that is necessary for the enlightenment of His children. No one can plead in excuse for transgression that he was left in ignorance, that the way to heaven was not clearly marked out. We have not been left to serve God in a vague, uncertain way.
------------------------Only One Light To Illuminate The Way, October 21
OFC	273	1	But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Proverbs 4:18.
OFC	273	2	Christ's love in the heart, revealing through the life its wondrous power--this is the greatest miracle that can be performed before a fallen, quarreling world. Let us try to work this miracle, not in our own power, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose we are and whom we serve. Let us put on Christ, and the miracle-working power of His grace will be so plainly revealed in the transformation of character that the world will be convinced that God has sent His Son into the world to make men as angels in character and life.
OFC	273	3	Those who truly believe in Christ sit together with Him in heavenly places. Let us accept the badge of Christianity. This is not an outward sign, not the wearing of a cross or a crown, but it is something that reveals the union of man with God. Let us "put off the old man with his deeds; and ... put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Colossians 3:9, 10). The beauty of holiness is revealed as Christians draw near together, blending in Christlike love.
OFC	273	4	"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching" (Hebrews 10:19-25).
OFC	273	5	There is only one true religion, only one way to heaven; only one light to illuminate the way as the pilgrims press on. As we follow on to know the Lord, we shall acknowledge at every step that Christ is the Light of the world, that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and we shall find that the path that He bids us follow is "as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18)....
OFC	273	6	The Lord is good and greatly to be praised.... How blest, how doubly blest, is the home in which father, mother, and children are consecrated to the service of Christ.
------------------------Christ Has Power For Us, October 22
OFC	274	1	And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. Colossians 2:10.
OFC	274	2	We are to live in the warm, genial rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Nothing but His loving compassion, His divine grace, His almighty power, can enable us to baffle the relentless foe and subdue the opposition of the human heart. What is our strength? The joy of the Lord. Let the melting love of Christ fill the heart, and we are softened and subdued, prepared to receive the power that He has for us.
OFC	274	3	Let us thank God every day for the blessings that are ours. If the human agent will humble himself before God, realizing how inappropriate it is for him to cherish a feeling of self-sufficiency; realizing his utter inability to do the work that needs to be done in order for his soul to be purified, casting away, making of no account, his own righteousness, Christ will engrave His own image upon his soul....
OFC	274	4	Christ will never neglect the work that has been placed in His hands. He will inspire the resolute disciple with a sense of the perversity, the sin-stained condition, the depravity, of the heart upon which He is working. The true penitent has learned the uselessness of self-importance. Looking to Jesus, comparing his own defective character with the Saviour's perfect character, he can say,
OFC	274	5	In my hand no price I bring;
OFC	274	6	Simply to Thy cross I cling.
OFC	274	7	With Isaiah he declares, "Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name" (Isaiah 26:12, 13).
OFC	274	8	Beholding Christ for the purpose of becoming like Him, the seeker after truth sees the perfection of the principles of God's law, and he becomes dissatisfied with everything but perfection. Hiding his life in the life of Christ, he sees that the holiness of the divine law is revealed in the character of Christ, and more and more earnestly he strives to be like Him. A warfare may be expected at any time, for the tempter sees that he is losing one of his subjects. A battle must be fought with the attributes which Satan has been strengthening for his own use.
OFC	274	9	The human agent sees what he has to contend with--a strange power opposed to the idea of attaining the perfection that Christ holds out. But with Christ there is saving power that will gain for him victory in the conflict. The Saviour will strengthen and help him as he comes pleading for grace and efficiency.
------------------------Help For The Conflict Promised, October 23
OFC	275	1	Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. Isaiah 43:1.
OFC	275	2	Every obstacle to the redemption of the people of God is to be removed by the opening of the Word of God and the presentation of a plain "Thus saith the Lord." The true light is to shine forth, for darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people. The truth of the living God is to appear in contrast with error. Proclaim the glad tidings: We have a Saviour who has given His life that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
OFC	275	3	Obstacles to the advancement of the work of the Lord will appear, but fear not. To the omnipotence of the King of kings, our covenant-keeping God unites the gentleness and care of a tender shepherd. Nothing can stand in His way. His power is absolute, and is the pledge of the sure fulfillment of His promises to His people. He can remove all obstructions to the advancement of His work....
OFC	275	4	The church of Christ is God's agency for the proclamation of truth, empowered by Him to do a special work, and if she is loyal to God, obedient to all His commandments, there will dwell within her the excellency of divine power. If she will honor the Lord God of Israel, there is no power that can stand against her. If she will be true to her allegiance, the forces of the enemy will be no more able to overpower her than is the chaff to resist the whirlwind.
OFC	275	5	There is before the church the dawn of a bright, glorious day, if she will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all alliance with the world. The members of the church need now to confess their backslidings, and press together. My brethren and sisters, allow nothing to come in that will separate you from one another and from God. Talk not of differences of opinion, but unite in the love of the truth as it is in Jesus. Come before God and plead the shed blood of the Saviour as a reason that you should receive help in the warfare against evil. I assure you that you will not plead in vain. As you draw near to God, with heartfelt contrition and in full assurance of faith, the enemy who seeks to destroy you will be overcome.
OFC	275	6	Turn to the Lord, ye prisoners of hope. Seek strength from God, the living God. Show an unwavering, humble faith in His power and willingness to save. From Christ is flowing the living stream of salvation. He is the Fountain of life and the Source of all power.
------------------------Service To God Begins On Earth, October 24
OFC	276	1	That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:17.
OFC	276	2	Those who work against the natural laws of the being must suffer the penalty of transgression. But the Saviour pities us, even when we suffer from infirmities caused by our own wrong course of action. In Him there is a healing power for us. Let us praise God for the tree of life, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations....
OFC	276	3	Everywhere the effects of the curse are seen. Let us praise God that in the earth made new "there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him" (Revelation 22:3). Some little know what true service means. Those who expect to sing in an entertainment spend time in practicing, to familiarize themselves with the music and the words. That we may learn how to serve the Lord in heaven, we must enter His service now, becoming acquainted with Him and learning to be faithful servants....
OFC	276	4	It is our privilege to understand the blessed Word of God. We have fallen, it is true, but we are not always to remain in sin. We have been placed on vantage ground. The Lord God of heaven "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). What a precious hope we have in Christ! ...
OFC	276	5	Temptations will come. But when Satan throws his hellish shadow before us, we should reach in faith through the shadow to the light of life--to Him who has not only created man but who by His own blood has redeemed him. We are Christ's cherished heritage. In living faith we must cooperate with Him in working out our own salvation. Amid trials and temptations His hand upholds and sustains us. Those who rest in Christ Jesus are never restless or uneasy. He means just what He says when He bids us commit the keeping of our souls unto Him, as to a faithful Creator.
OFC	276	6	Those who hold fast their faith unto the end will come forth from the furnace of trial as fine gold seven times purified. Of this work the prophet Isaiah says, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir" (Isaiah 13:12). When in trouble, remember that faith tried in the furnace of affliction is more precious than gold tried with fire. Remember that there is One watching every movement, to see when the last particle of dross is taken away from your character.
------------------------The Meaning Of Communion With God, October 25
OFC	277	1	That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3.
OFC	277	2	Communion with God is the life of the soul. It is not something that we cannot interpret, something that we can clothe with beautiful words but which does not give us the genuine experience that makes our words of real value. Communion with God gives a daily experience that does indeed make our joy full.
OFC	277	3	Those who have this union with Christ will declare it in spirit and word and work. Profession is nothing unless in word and work good fruit is manifest. Unity, fellowship with one another and with Christ--this is the fruit borne on every branch of the living vine. The cleansed soul, born again, has a clear, distinct testimony to bear....
OFC	277	4	To know God is, in the scriptural sense of the term, to be one with Him in heart and mind, having an experimental knowledge of Him, holding reverential communion with Him as the Redeemer. Only through sincere obedience can this communion be obtained. Where this communion is lacking, the heart is not in any sense a temple of God, but is controlled by the foe, who is working out his own purposes through the human agency. Such a man, whatever his profession or claims, is not a temple of the Holy Spirit.
OFC	277	5	The experience is perfected by fruit bearing. He who does not bear good fruit in words and deeds, in the strength of elevated, ennobling principle, is a bad tree. The fruit that he bears is unpalatable to God. His professed knowledge of Christ is a falsehood, a deception....
OFC	277	6	In the light of the love of Christ, the gospel is an open book. This is the true light, which Christ came to bring to the world. The Saviour's true disciples have received this love....
OFC	277	7	From the light that God has given me, I know that men's great danger is in being self-deceived. Satan is watching his chance. He will come to men in human form, and will speak to them most entrancing words. He will bring against them the same temptations that he brought against Christ. Unless their minds and hearts are filled with the pure, unselfish, sanctified love that Christ revealed, they will fall under Satan's power, and will do and say and write strange things, to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect....
OFC	277	8	Following Christ's example of unselfish service, trusting like little children in His merits, and obeying His commands, we shall receive the approval of God.
------------------------Heaven, The Christian's Summer, October 26
OFC	278	1	Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13.
OFC	278	2	Christ is soon to come the second time. Of this we should often talk. It should be the uppermost thought in our minds. He is coming, with power and great glory, and every eye shall see Him. All the holy angels will accompany Him. Of this company John writes, "I beheld, and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beast and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" (Revelation 5:11).
OFC	278	3	The trumpet has not yet sounded. Those who have gone down into the grave have not yet cried, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:55). The righteous dead have not yet been caught up with the living saints to meet their Lord in the air. But the time is near when the words spoken by the apostle Paul will have their fulfillment, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
OFC	278	4	In order for us to be like the Saviour, we must be changed (see Philippians 3:20, 21). Now is the time for us to bring into the daily life the virtues of Christ's life. We have no time to lose. Should we fail in our character building, we shall lose eternal life. We must build on the true foundation.... We must do the work of Christ, and be constantly watching and praying. Then we shall be ready for His appearing, prepared to receive eternal life.
OFC	278	5	All who will can be overcomers. Let us strive earnestly to reach the standard set before us. Christ knows our weakness, and to Him we can go daily for help. It is not necessary for us to gain strength a month ahead. We are to conquer from day to day.
OFC	278	6	This earth is the place of preparation for heaven. The time spent here is the Christian's winter. Here the chilly winds of affliction blow upon us, and the waves of trouble roll against us. But in the near future, when Christ comes, sorrow and sighing will be forever ended. Then will be the Christian's summer. All trials will be over, and there will be no more sickness or death. "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Revelation 21:4).
------------------------We Have The Blessed Assurance, October 27
OFC	279	1	I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5.
OFC	279	2	We have but one life to live, and through our daily connection with God we have, in and through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, a constant sustenance in doing the things that will represent Christ to the world. We may not have all the conveniences that some have in ease and comfort and in earthly goods, but we have the blessed assurance which Christ gave to His believing disciples.... To them He said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:1-3)....
OFC	279	3	Blessed words! We may receive Him into our hearts, and He will be unto us hope and courage and sustaining grace. The Lord would have us trust fully and entirely in Him. Then we will, in the simplicity of our faith, believe that Christ will do for us all that He has promised. Let all come to the Saviour in the full assurance that He will do all that He has promised.
OFC	279	4	We cannot please our Saviour more than by having faith in His promises. His mercies can come to you, and your prayers can come to Him. Nothing can break this line of communication. We must learn to bring all perplexities to Jesus Christ, for He will help us. He will listen to our requests. We may come to Him in full assurance of faith, nothing doubting, for He is the living Way....
OFC	279	5	The more we press our petitions to His throne, the more sure we are of constantly receiving the great grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You do not give strength to the road you are traveling by [having] faith. But you increase in strength and in assurance because you have a Guide right by your side, and you can ask Him with perfect faith to guide your steps aright.
OFC	279	6	Then trust in the Lord Jesus to lead you step by step into the right path. You can derive assurance and strength at every step you advance, for you can be assured that your hand is in His hand. You can "run and not be weary"; you can "walk and not faint," for you can realize by faith that you have your hand in the hand of Christ. You will not sink under discouragement, for as you follow on to know the Lord, trusting in Him, you will have the assurance that the One who never forsakes those who fully trust Him is your constant Helper.
------------------------Drop Self Into God's Hands, October 28
OFC	280	1	My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. John 10:29.
OFC	280	2	We must rise to a higher standard on the subject of faith. We have too little faith. The Word of God is our endorsement. We must take it, simply believing every word. With this assurance, we may claim large things, and according to our faith it will be unto us... If we humble our hearts before God, if we seek to abide in Christ, we shall have a higher, holier experience....
OFC	280	3	True faith consists in doing just what God has enjoined, not manufacturing things He has not enjoined. Justice, truth, mercy, are the fruit of faith. We need to walk in the light of God's law; then good works will be the fruit of our faith, the proceeds of a heart renewed every day.
OFC	280	4	We must not in any way make self our god. God has given Himself to die for us, that He might purify us from all iniquity. The Lord will carry on this work of perfection for us if we will allow ourselves to be controlled by Him....
OFC	280	5	The work of righteousness cannot be carried forward unless we exercise implicit faith. Move every day under God's mighty working power. The fruit of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. If we had exercised more faith in God and had trusted less to our own ideas and wisdom, God would have manifested His power in a marked manner on human hearts. By a union with Him, by living faith, we are privileged to enjoy the virtue and efficacy of His mediation. Hence we are crucified with Christ, dead with Christ, risen with Christ, to walk in newness of life with Him.
OFC	280	6	We are not to hold ourselves in our own hands. We are to drop self into the hands of God.... Our lack of faith is the reason that we have not seen more of the power of God. We exercise more faith in our own working than in God's working for us. God designs that everything possible shall be done to enable us to stand heart to heart, mind to mind, shoulder to shoulder. This lack of love and confidence in one another weakens our faith in God.
OFC	280	7	We need to pray as we never have prayed before for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, for if there was ever a time when we needed this baptism, it is now. There is nothing the Lord has more frequently told us He would bestow upon us, and nothing by which His name would be more glorified in bestowing, than the Holy Spirit. When we partake of this Spirit, men and women will be born again.... Souls once lost will be found, and brought back.
------------------------The Meaning Of Christian Perfection, October 29
OFC	281	1	I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13.
OFC	281	2	What does God require? Perfection; nothing less than perfection. But if we would be perfect, we must put no confidence in self. Daily we must know and understand that self is not to be trusted. We need to grasp God's promises with firm faith. We need to ask for the Holy Spirit with a full realization of our own helplessness. Then when the Holy Spirit works, we shall not give self the glory. The Holy Spirit will graciously take the heart into His keeping, bringing to it all the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. We shall be kept by the power of God through faith.
OFC	281	3	When we are daily under the control of God's Spirit, we shall be commandment-keeping people. We may show to the world that obedience to God's commands brings its own reward, even in this life, and in the future life eternal blessedness. Notwithstanding our profession of faith, the Lord by whom our actions are weighed sees but an imperfect representation of Christ. He has declared that such a condition of things cannot glorify Him.
OFC	281	4	It means much to commit the keeping of the soul to God. It means that we are to live and walk by faith, not trusting in or glorifying self, but looking to Jesus our Advocate as the Author and Finisher of our faith. The Holy Spirit will do its work upon a heart that is contrite, but never can He work upon a self-important, self-righteous soul. In his own wisdom such a one would mend himself. He interposes between his soul and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will work if self will not interpose....
OFC	281	5	The Holy Spirit is ready to cooperate with all who will receive Him and be taught by Him. All who lay hold on the truth and are sanctified through the truth are so united with Christ that they can represent Him in word and action.... May the Holy Spirit speak to the hearts of God's chosen people, that their words may be as choice as gold as they give the bread of life to those in transgression and sin....
OFC	281	6	It is God's pleasure and will that the blessings bestowed on man shall be given in perfect completeness. He has made provision that every difficulty may be overcome, every want supplied through the Holy Spirit. Thus He designs that man shall perfect a Christian character. God would have us contemplate His love, His promises, given so freely to those who have no merit in themselves, He would have us depend fully, gratefully, rejoicingly in the righteousness provided for us in Christ. To all who come to God in His appointed way, He freely listens.
------------------------Shine With Living Brightness, October 30
OFC	282	1	And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Malachi 3:17.
OFC	282	2	Christians are Christ's jewels, bought with an infinite price. They are to shine brightly for Him, shedding forth the light of His loveliness. And ever they are to remember that all the luster that Christian character possesses is received from the Sun of Righteousness.
OFC	282	3	The luster of Christ's jewels depends on the polishing that they receive. God does not compel us to be polished. We are left free to choose to be polished or to remain unpolished. But everyone who is pronounced worthy of a place in the Lord's temple must submit to the polishing process. He must consent to have the sharp edges cut away from his character, that it may be shapely and beautiful, fitted to represent the perfection of Christ's character....
OFC	282	4	The divine Worker spends little time on worthless material. Only the precious jewels does He polish after the similitude of a palace. With hammer and chisel He cuts away the rough edges, preparing us for a place in God's temple. The process is severe and trying. It hurts human pride. Christ cuts deep into the experience that man in his self-sufficiency regarded as complete, and takes away self-uplifting from the character. He cuts away the surplus surface, and putting the stone to the polishing wheel, presses it close, that all roughness may be worn off. Then holding the jewel up to the light the Master sees in it a reflection of His own image, and it is pronounced worthy of a place in His temple.
OFC	282	5	Blessed be the experience, however severe, that gives new value to the stone, enabling it to shine with living brightness! ...
OFC	282	6	[The Lord] has workers whom He will call forth from poverty and obscurity. Engaged in the common duties of life, and clothed with coarse raiment, they are looked upon by men as of little value. But Christ sees in them infinite possibilities, and in His hands they will become precious jewels, to shine brightly in the kingdom of God. "They shall be mine, saith the Lord of Host, in that day when I make up my jewels." (Malachi 3:17).
OFC	282	7	Christ's perfect knowledge of human character fits Him to deal with minds. God knows just how to treat each soul. He judges not as man judges. He knows the real value of the material upon which He is working in fitting men and women for positions of trust.
------------------------We Are Objects Of Infinite Love, October 31
OFC	283	1	But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. Ephesians 2:4, 5.
OFC	283	2	The heart surrendered to God's wise discipline will trust every working out of His providence.... Temptation will come to discourage, but what is gained by yielding to any such temptations? Is the soul made any better by murmuring and complaining of its only source of strength? Is the anchor cast within the vail. Will it hold in sickness? Will it be the testimony borne in the last closing scenes of life when the lips are becoming palsied with death? The anchor holds! I know that my Redeemer liveth....
OFC	283	3	O Precious, loving, long-suffering, long-forbearing Jesus, how my soul adores Thee! That a poor, unworthy, sin-polluted soul can stand before the Holy God, complete in the righteousness of our Substitute and Surety! Wonder, O Heavens, and be astonished, O earth, that fallen man is the object of His infinite love and delight. He rejoices over them with celestial songs, and man defiled with sin, having become cleansed through the righteousness of Christ, is presented to the Father free from every spot and stain of sin, "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27). "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth" (Romans 8:33).
OFC	283	4	Let every weak, tempest-tossed soul find anchorage in Jesus Christ and not become so self-centered that he can think only of his little disappointments and the interruption of his plans and hopes. Is not the subject of the plan of salvation all-absorbing? If the infinite God justifies me, "who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died" (verse 34). He has in His dying for man revealed how much He loves man--enough to die for Him! The law condemns the sinner and drives him to Christ. It is God that justifies and pardons.
OFC	283	5	Satan will accuse and seek permission to destroy, but it is God that opens the door of refuge. It is God that justifieth him that entereth that door. Then if God be for us, who can be against us? Oh, the bright glorious truth. Why do not men discern it? Why not walk in its bright beams? Why do not all who believe talk of Christ's matchless love? ...
OFC	283	6	God lives and reigns. All who are saved must fight manfully as soldiers of Jesus Christ; then they will be registered in heaven's books as true and faithful. They are to work the works of Jesus Christ, fight the good fight of faith.
------------------------Christ's Compassion Knew No Limit, November 1
OFC	284	1	This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, "He took our infirmities and bore our diseases." Matthew 8:17, R.S.V.
OFC	284	2	Our Lord Jesus Christ came to this world as the unwearied servant of man's necessity. He "took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses," that He might minister to every need of humanity. The burden of disease and wretchedness and sin He came to remove. It was His mission to bring to men complete restoration; He came to give them health and peace and perfection of character.
OFC	284	3	Varied were the circumstances and needs of those who besought His aid, and none who came to Him went away unhelped. From Him flowed a stream of healing power, and in body and mind and soul men were made whole.
OFC	284	4	The Saviour's work was not restricted to any time or place. His compassion knew no limit. On so large a scale did He conduct His work of healing and teaching that there was no building in Palestine large enough to receive the multitudes that thronged to Him. On the green hillslopes of Galilee, in the thoroughfares of travel, by the seashore, in the synagogues, and in every place where the sick could be brought to Him was to be found His hospital. In every city, every town, every village through which He passed, He laid His hands upon the afflicted ones, and healed them. Wherever there were hearts ready to receive His message, He comforted them with the assurance of their heavenly Father's love. All day He ministered to those who came to Him; in the evening He gave attention to such as through the day must toil to earn a pittance for the support of their families.
OFC	284	5	Jesus carried the awful weight of responsibility for the salvation of men. He knew that unless there was a decided change in the principles and purposes of the human race, all would be lost. This was the burden of His soul, and none could appreciate the weight that rested upon Him. Through childhood, youth, and manhood, He walked alone....
OFC	284	6	Day by day He met trials and temptations; day by day He was brought into contact with evil, and witnessed its power upon those whom He was seeking to bless and to save. Yet He did not fail nor become discouraged....
OFC	284	7	He was always patient and cheerful, and the afflicted hailed Him as a messenger of life and peace. He saw the needs of men and women, children and youth, and to all He gave the invitation, "Come unto me." ...
OFC	285	1	As He passed through the towns and cities, He was like a vital current, diffusing life and joy.
------------------------Christ A Perfect Example For All, November 2
OFC	285	2	And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Luke 2:52.
OFC	285	3	Man has fallen. God's image in him is defaced. By disobedience he is depraved in inclination and weakened in power, unable, apparently, to look forward to anything but tribulation and wrath. But God, through Christ, has wrought out a way of escape, and He says to everyone, "Be ye therefore perfect." It is His purpose that man shall stand before Him upright and noble, and He will not be defeated. He sent His Son to this world to bear the penalty of sin, and to show man how to live a sinless life.
OFC	285	4	Christ is our ideal. He has left a perfect example for childhood, youth, and manhood. He came to this earth, and passed through the different phases of human experience. In His life sin found no place. From the beginning to the close of His earthly life, He preserved unsullied His loyalty to God. The Word says of Him, "The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him." He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man."
OFC	285	5	The Saviour lived not to please Himself.... He had no home in this world, only as the kindness of His friends provided Him one, yet it was heaven to be in His presence. Day by day He met trials and temptations, yet He did not fail or become discouraged. He was always patient and cheerful, and the afflicted hailed Him as a messenger of life and peace and health. His life held nothing that was not pure and noble....
OFC	285	6	God's promise is, "Ye shall be holy; for I am holy." Holiness is the reflection of God's glory. But in order to reflect this glory, we must cooperate with God. Heart and mind must be emptied of all that leads to wrong. The Word of God must be read and studied with a sincere desire to gain from it spiritual strength. This Word is the Bread of heaven. Those who receive it, and make it a part of their lives, grow strong in the strength of God. Our sanctification is God's object in all His dealing with us. He has chosen us from eternity, that we may be holy. Christ declares, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." Is it your will, also, that your desires and inclinations shall be brought into conformity to the divine will? ...
OFC	285	7	Living the life of the Saviour, overcoming every selfish desire, fulfilling bravely and cheerfully our duty to God and to those around us--this makes us more than conquerors. This prepares us to stand before the great white throne free from spot or wrinkle, having washed our robes of character, and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
------------------------Jesus Provided A Model Of Character, November 3
OFC	286	1	For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:3, 4.
OFC	286	2	Let your light shine forth in good works. Said Christ, "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." I fear that there are many who are in this condition. All have not the same work to do; different circumstances and talents qualify individuals for different kinds of work in God's vineyard. There are some who fill more responsible positions than do others; but to each one is given his work, and if he does his work with fidelity and zeal, he is a faithful steward of the grace of God.
OFC	286	3	God does not intend that your light shall so shine that your good words or works shall bring the praise of men to yourself; but that the Author of all good shall be glorified and exalted. Jesus, in His life, gave to men a model of character. How little power did the world have over Him to mold Him according to its standard! All its influence was thrown off. He declared, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work!" If we had this devotion to the work of God, doing it with an eye single to His glory, we should be able to say with Christ, "I seek not mine own glory." His life was full of good works, and it is our duty to live as our great Example lived. Our life must be hid with Christ in God, and then the light will be reflected from Jesus to us, and we shall reflect it upon those around us, not in mere talk and profession, but in good works, and by manifesting the character of Christ. Those who are reflecting the light of God will cherish a loving disposition. They will be cheerful, willing, obedient to all the requirements of God. They will be meek and self-sacrificing, and will work with devoted love for the salvation of souls....
OFC	286	4	All who are true lightbearers will reflect light upon the pathway of others. Let those who have named the name of Christ, depart from all iniquity. If you yield to the claims of God, and become permeated with His love, and filled with His fullness, children, youth, and young disciples will look to you for their impressions of what constitutes practical godliness; and you may thus be the means of leading them in the path of obedience to God. You will then be exerting an influence which will bear the test of God, and your work will be compared to gold, silver, and precious stones, for it will be of an imperishable nature.
------------------------True Followers Obey God's Law, November 4
OFC	287	1	Sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John 3:4.
OFC	287	2	The desire for an easy religion that requires no striving, no self-denial, no divorce from the follies of the world, has made the doctrine of faith, and faith only, a popular doctrine; but what saith the Word of God? Says the apostle James: "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? ... Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?... Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only" (James 2:14-24).
OFC	287	3	The testimony of the Word of God is against this ensnaring doctrine of faith without works. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions upon which mercy is to be granted, it is presumption; for genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures....
OFC	287	4	The commission of a known sin silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit and separates the soul from God. "Sin is the transgression of the law." And "whosoever sinneth [transgresseth the law] hath not seen him, neither known him" (1 John 3:6). Though John in his Epistles dwells so fully upon love, yet he does not hesitate to reveal the true character of that class who claim to be sanctified while living in transgression of the law of God. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected" (chap. 2:4, 5).
OFC	287	5	Here is the test of every man's profession. We cannot accord holiness to any man without bringing him to the measurement of God's only standard of holiness in heaven and in earth. If men feel no weight of the moral law, if they belittle and make light of God's precepts, if they break one of the least of these commandments, and teach men so, they shall be of no esteem in the sight of Heaven, and we may know that their claims are without foundation.
OFC	287	6	And the claim to be without sin is, in itself, evidence that he who makes this claim is far from holy. It is because he has no true conception of the infinite purity and holiness of God or of what they must become who shall be in harmony with His character; because he has no true conception of the purity and exalted loveliness of Jesus, and the malignity and evil of sin, that man can regard himself as holy.
OFC	288	1	It was the righteousness revealed in His [Christ's] life that distinguished Him from the world.
------------------------How We May Keep God's Law, November 5
OFC	288	2	His work is honourable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever. Psalm 111:3.
OFC	288	3	One ray of the glory of God, one gleam of the purity of Christ, penetrating the soul, makes every spot of defilement painfully distinct, and lays bare the deformity and defects of the human character. How can anyone who is brought before the holy standard of God's law, which makes apparent the evil motives, the unhallowed desires, the infidelity of the heart, the impurity of the lips, and that lays bare the life, make any boast of holiness? His acts of disloyalty in making void the law of God are exposed to his sight, and his spirit is stricken and afflicted under the searching influences of the Spirit of God. He loathes himself as he views the greatness, the majesty, the pure and spotless character of Jesus Christ.
OFC	288	4	When the Spirit of Christ stirs the heart with its marvelous awakening power, there is a sense of deficiency in the soul, that leads to contrition of mind, and humiliation of self, rather than to proud boasting of what has been acquired. When Daniel beheld the glory and majesty surrounding the heavenly messenger that was sent unto him, he exclaimed, as he described the wonderful scene, "Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength."
OFC	288	5	The soul that is thus touched will never wrap itself about with self-righteousness, or a pretentious garb of holiness; but will hate its selfishness, abhor its self-love, and will seek, through Christ's righteousness, for that purity of heart which is in harmony with the law of God and the character of Christ. He will then reflect the character of Christ, the hope of glory. It will be the greatest mystery to him that Jesus should have made so great a sacrifice to redeem him.
OFC	288	6	He will exclaim, with humble mien and quivering lip, "He loved me. He gave Himself for me. He became poor that I, through His poverty, might be made rich. The Man of Sorrows did not spurn me, but poured out His inexhaustible, redeeming love that my heart might be made clean; and He has brought me back into loyalty and obedience to all His commandments. His condescension, His humiliation, His crucifixion, are the crowning miracles in the marvelous exhibition of the plan of salvation....All this He has done to make it possible to impart to me His own righteousness, that I may keep the law I have transgressed. For this I adore Him. I will proclaim Him to all sinners."
------------------------The Repentant Sinner Accepted In Christ, November 6
OFC	289	1	For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Hebrews 9:24.
OFC	289	2	Christ is our sacrifice, our substitute, our surety, our divine intercessor; He is made unto us righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."
OFC	289	3	The intercession of Christ in our behalf is that of presenting His divine merits in the offering of Himself to the Father as our substitute and surety; for He ascended up on high to make an atonement for our transgressions.... "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
OFC	289	4	From these scriptures it is evident that it is not God's will that you should be distrustful, and torture your soul with the fear that God will not accept you because you are sinful and unworthy.... Present your case before Him, pleading the merits of the blood shed for you upon Calvary's cross. Satan will accuse you of being a great sinner, and you must admit this, but you can say: "I know I am a sinner, and that is the reason I need a Saviour. Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.'...I have no merit or goodness whereby I may claim salvation, but I present before God the all-atoning blood of the spotless Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is my only plea. The name of Jesus gives me access to the Father. His ear, His heart, is open to my faintest pleading, and He supplies my deepest necessities."
OFC	289	5	It is the righteousness of Christ that makes the penitent sinner acceptable to God and works his justification. However sinful has been his life, if he believes in Jesus as his personal Saviour, he stands before God in the spotless robes of Christ's imputed righteousness.
OFC	290	1	The sinner so recently dead in trespasses and sins is quickened by faith in Christ. He sees by faith that Jesus is his Saviour, and alive forevermore, able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. In the atonement made for him the believer sees such breadth, and length, and height, and depth of efficiency, sees such completeness of salvation, purchased at such an infinite cost, that his soul is filled with praise and thanksgiving.
------------------------Justified Souls Walk In The Light, November 7
OFC	290	2	God presented him [Christ Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.... He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies the man who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:25, 26, N.I.V.
OFC	290	3	"Being justified freely by his grace," the apostle Paul says, "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
OFC	290	4	Here the truth is laid out in plain lines. This mercy and goodness is wholly undeserved. The grace of Christ is freely to justify the sinner without merit or claim on his part. Justification is a full, complete pardon of sin. The moment a sinner accepts Christ by faith, that moment he is pardoned. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to him, and he is no more to doubt God's forgiving grace.
OFC	290	5	There is nothing in faith that makes it our saviour. Faith cannot remove our guilt. Christ is the power of God unto salvation to all them that believe. The justification comes through the merits of Jesus Christ. He has paid the price for the sinner's redemption. Yet it is only through faith in His blood that Jesus can justify the believer.
OFC	290	6	The sinner cannot depend upon his own good works as a means of justification. He must come to the point where he will renounce all his sin, and embrace one degree of light after another, as it shines upon his pathway. He simply grasps by faith the free and ample provision made in the blood of Christ. He believes the promises of God which through Christ are made unto him sanctification and righteousness and redemption.
OFC	290	7	And if he follows Jesus, he will walk humbly in the light, rejoicing in the light, and diffusing that light to others. Being justified by faith, he carries cheerfulness with him in his obedience in all his life. Peace with God is the result of what Christ is to him. The souls who are in subordination to God, who honor Him, and are doers of His Word, will receive divine enlightenment. In the precious Word of God, there is purity and loftiness as well as beauty that, unless assisted by God, the highest powers of man cannot attain to....
OFC	291	1	We are none of us excusable, under any form of trial, for letting our hold upon God become loosened. Although the compassion of man may fail, still God loves and pities, and reaches out His helping hand. God's everlasting arms encircle the soul that turns to Him for aid.... God loves to have His children ask Him, and trust Him to do for them those things which they cannot do for themselves.
------------------------Sanctified By Faith And Obedience, November 8
OFC	291	2	Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. John 15:8.
OFC	291	3	Many shrink from such a life as our Saviour lived. They feel that it requires too great a sacrifice to imitate the Pattern, to bring forth fruit in good works, and then patiently endure the pruning of God that they may bring forth more fruit. But when the Christian regards himself as only a humble instrument in the hands of Christ, and endeavors to faithfully perform every duty, relying upon the help which God has promised, then he will wear the yoke of Christ and find it easy; then he will bear burdens for Christ, and pronounce them light. He can look up with courage and with confidence, and say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him" (2 Timothy 1:12).
OFC	291	4	If we meet obstacles in our path, and faithfully overcome them; if we encounter opposition and reproach, and in Christ's name gain the victory; if we bear responsibilities and discharge our duties in the spirit of our Master--then, indeed, we gain a precious knowledge of His faithfulness and power. We no longer depend upon the experience of others, for we have the witness in ourselves. Like the Samaritans of old, we can say, "We have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world" (John 4:42).
OFC	291	5	The more we contemplate the character of Christ, and the more we experience of His saving power, the more keenly shall we realize our own weakness and imperfection, and the more earnestly shall we look to Him as our strength and our Redeemer.... By faith in Christ and obedience to the law of God we may be sanctified, and thus obtain a fitness for the society of holy angels and the white-robed redeemed ones in the kingdom of glory.
OFC	292	1	It is not only the privilege but the duty of every Christian to maintain a close union with Christ and to have a rich experience in the things of God. Then his life will be fruitful in good works....
OFC	292	2	When we read the lives of men who have been eminent for their piety we often regard their experiences and attainments as far beyond our reach. But this is not the case. Christ died for all; and we are assured in His Word that He is more willing to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask than are earthly parents to give good gifts to their children.
OFC	292	3	The prophets and apostles did not perfect Christian character by a miracle. They used the means which God had placed within their reach; and all who will put forth the same effort will secure the same results.
------------------------A Faith That Works, November 9
OFC	292	4	Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. Proverbs 3:5.
OFC	292	5	When we speak of faith, there is a distinction that should be borne in mind. There is a kind of belief that is wholly distinct from faith. The existence and power of God, the truth of His Word, are facts that even Satan and his hosts cannot at heart deny. The Bible says that "the devils also believe, and tremble" (James 2:19); but this is not faith. Where there is not only a belief in God's Word, but a submission of the will to Him; where the heart is yielded to Him, the affections fixed upon Him, there is faith--faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
OFC	292	6	Through this faith the heart is renewed in the image of God. And the heart that in its unrenewed state is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, now delights in its holy precepts, exclaiming with the psalmist, "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97). And the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).
OFC	292	7	There are those who have known the pardoning love of Christ and who really desire to be children of God, yet they realize that their character is imperfect, their life faulty, and they are ready to doubt whether their hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. To such I would say, Do not draw back in despair. We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes, but we are not to be discouraged. Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, not forsaken and rejected of God. No; Christ is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Said the beloved John, "These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).
OFC	293	1	And do not forget the words of Christ, "the Father himself loveth you" (John 16:27). He desires to restore you to Himself, to see His own purity and holiness reflected in you. And if you will but yield yourself to Him, He that hath begun a good work in you will carry it forward to the day of Jesus Christ. Pray more fervently; believe more fully....
OFC	293	2	The less we see to esteem in ourselves, the more we shall see to esteem in the infinite purity and loveliness of our Saviour. A view of our sinfulness drives us to Him who can pardon; and when the soul, realizing its helplessness, reaches out after Christ, He will reveal Himself in power. The more our sense of need drives us to Him and to the Word of God, the more exalted views we shall have of His character, and the more fully we shall reflect His image.
------------------------True Religion Promotes Health, November 10
OFC	293	3	[Wisdom's] ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. Proverbs 3:17.
OFC	293	4	This world is not all sorrow and misery. "God is love" is written upon every opening bud, upon the petals of every flower, and upon every spire of grass. Though the curse of sin has caused the earth to bring forth thorns and thistles, there are flowers upon the thistles and the thorns are hidden by roses. All things in nature testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God and to His desire to make His children happy. His prohibitions and injunctions are not intended merely to display His authority, but in all that He does He has the well-being of His children in view. He does not require them to give up anything that it would be for their best interest to retain.
OFC	293	5	The opinion which prevails in some classes of society, that religion is not conducive to health or to happiness in this life, is one of the most mischievous of errors. The Scripture says: "The fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied" (Proverbs 19:23). "What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it" (Psalm 34:12-14). The words of wisdom "are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh" (Proverbs 4:22).
OFC	293	6	True religion brings man into harmony with the laws of God, physical, mental, and moral. It teaches self-control, serenity, temperance. Religion ennobles the mind, refines the taste, and sanctifies the judgment. It makes the soul a partaker of the purity of heaven. Faith in God's love and overruling providence lightens the burdens of anxiety and care. It fills the heart with joy and contentment in the highest or the lowliest lot. Religion tends directly to promote health, to lengthen life, and to heighten our enjoyment of all its blessings. It opens to the soul a never-failing fountain of happiness. Would that all who have not chosen Christ might realize that He has something vastly better to offer them than they are seeking for themselves....
OFC	294	1	There is an intimate relation between the mind and the body, and in order to reach a high standard of moral and intellectual attainment the laws that control our physical being must be heeded. To secure a strong, well-balanced character, both the mental and the physical powers must be exercised and developed. What study can be more important ... than that which treats of this wonderful organism that God has committed to us, and of the laws by which it may be preserved in health?
------------------------Enlightened To Full Radiance, November 11
OFC	294	2	If we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning. Hosea 6:3.
OFC	294	3	We are living amid the perils of the last days, and we are to cleanse ourselves from all defilement, and put on the robe of Christ's righteousness. The work of God is to be steadily carried forward. We are to bring ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, into subjection to Christ. Unless we do this, the health of both body and soul will be endangered.
OFC	294	4	God desires His workers to gain daily an understanding of how to reason logically from cause to effect, arriving at wise, safe conclusions. He desires them to add to the strength of the memory. We cannot afford to make mistakes. As little children we are to sit at the feet of Christ, learning of Him how to work successfully. We are to ask God for sound judgment, and for light to impart to others. There is need of knowledge that is the fruit of experience. We should not allow a day to pass without gaining an increase of knowledge in temporal and spiritual things. We are to plant no stakes that we are not willing to take up and plant farther on, nearer the heights we hope to ascend.
OFC	294	5	The highest education is to be found in training the mind to advance day to day. The close of each day should find us a day's march nearer the overcomer's reward. Day by day our understanding is to ripen. Day by day we are to work out conclusions that will bring a rich reward in this life, and in the life to come. Looking daily to Jesus, instead of to what we ourselves have done, we shall make decided advancement in temporal as well as spiritual knowledge.
OFC	294	6	The end of all things is at hand. What we have done must not be allowed to place the period to our work. The Captain of our salvation says, "Advance. The night cometh, in which no man can work." Constantly we are to increase in usefulness. Our lives are always to be under the power of Christ. Our lamps are to be kept burning brightly.
OFC	295	1	Prayer is a heaven-ordained means of success. Appeals, petitions, entreaties, between man and man, move men, and act as a part in controlling the affairs of nations. But prayer moves heaven. That power alone that comes in answer to prayer will make men wise in the wisdom of heaven, and enable them to work in the unity of the Spirit, joined together by the bonds of peace. Prayer, faith, confidence in God, bring a divine power that sets human calculations at their real worth--nothingness....
OFC	295	2	He who places himself where God can enlighten him advances, as it were, from the partial obscurity of dawn to the full radiance of noonday.
------------------------The Temple Of God, November 12
OFC	295	3	He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. 2 Corinthians 5:15.
OFC	295	4	Man is God's workmanship, His masterpiece, created for a high and holy purpose; and on every part of the human tabernacle God desires to write His law. Every nerve and muscle, every mental and physical endowment, is to be kept pure.
OFC	295	5	God designs that the body shall be a temple for His Spirit. How solemn then is the responsibility resting on every soul. If we defile our bodies, we are doing harm not only to ourselves, but to many others....
OFC	295	6	Christ died that the moral image of God might be restored in humanity, that men and women might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. We are to use no power of our being for selfish gratification; for all our powers belong to Him, and are to be used to His glory....
OFC	295	7	The human house, God's building, requires close, watchful guardianship. With David we can exclaim, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." God's workmanship is to be preserved, that the heavenly universe and the apostate race may see that men and women are temples of the living God.
OFC	295	8	The perfection of character which God requires is the fitting up of the whole being as a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Lord requires the service of the entire being. He desires men and women to become all that He has made it possible for them to be. It is not enough for certain parts of the human machinery to be used. All parts must be brought into action, or the service is deficient....
OFC	296	1	The physical life is to be carefully educated, cultivated, and developed, that through men and women the divine nature may be revealed in its fullness. God expects men to use the intellect He has given them. He expects them to use every reasoning power for Him. They are to give the conscience the place of supremacy that has been assigned to it. The mental and physical powers, with the affections, are to be so cultivated that they can reach the highest efficiency. Thus Christ is represented to the world....
OFC	296	2	Is God pleased to see any of the organs or faculties He has given man neglected, misused, or deprived of the health and efficiency it is possible for them to have? Then cultivate the gift of faith. Be brave, and overcome every practice which mars the soul temple. We are wholly dependent on God, and our faith is strengthened be believing, though we cannot see God's purpose in His dealing with us, or the consequence of this dealing. Faith points forward and upward to things to come, laying hold of the only power that can make us complete in Him.
------------------------An Argument Infidels Cannot Resist, November 13
OFC	296	3	While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. John 12:36.
OFC	296	4	A well-ordered Christian household is an argument that the infidel cannot resist. He finds no place for his cavils [trivial faultfinding]. And the children of such a household are prepared to meet the sophistries of infidelity. They have accepted the Bible as the basis of their faith, and they have a firm foundation that cannot be swept away by the incoming tide of skepticism.
OFC	296	5	Said Christ, "Ye are the light of the world." He has committed talents to our keeping. What are we doing with His entrusted gifts? Are we letting our light shine by using them for His glory and the benefit of our fellow men, or are we using them to advance our own selfish interests? Many are using them selfishly. They do not seem to realize that we are all judgment-bound, and must soon give an account for the use we have made of our God-given opportunities to do good. But what excuse will they give in that great day for not using in the cause of God their skill, their education, their tact, and their perseverance and zeal?
OFC	296	6	We need divine help if we would keep our lights burning. But Jesus died to provide that aid. He extends the invitation: "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." Cling to the arm of Infinite Power; then you will find Him precious to your soul, and all heaven will be at your command. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light," we shall have the companionship of holy angels. To "Joshua" it was said, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge,...I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by." And who are "these that stand by"? They are the angels of God. Joshua must have a living, confiding trust in God every day; and then angels would walk with him, and the power of God would rest upon him in all his labors.
OFC	297	1	Then, Christian friends, fathers and mothers, let your light grow dim--no, never! Let your heart grow faint, or your hands weary--no, never! And by and by the portals of the celestial city will be opened to you; and you may present yourselves and your children before the throne, saying, "Here am I, and the children whom Thou hast given me." And what a reward for faithfulness that will be, to see your children crowned with immortal life in the beautiful city of God!
------------------------Family Worship Not To Be Neglected, November 14
OFC	297	2	Trust...in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. 1 Timothy 6:17.
OFC	297	3	We should be much happier and more useful, if our homelife and social intercourse were governed by the principles of the Christian religion, and illustrated the meekness and simplicity of Christ.... Let visitors see that we try to make all around us happy by our cheerfulness, sympathy, and love.
OFC	297	4	While we endeavor to secure the comfort and happiness of our guests, let us not overlook our obligation to God. The hour of prayer should not be neglected for any consideration.... At an early hour of the evening, when you can pray unhurriedly and understandingly, present your supplication, and raise your voices in happy, grateful praise. Let all who visit Christians see that the hour of prayer is the most sacred, the most precious, and the happiest hour of the day. Such an example will not be without effect.
OFC	297	5	These seasons of devotion exert a refining, elevating influence upon all who participate in them. Right thoughts and new and better desires will be awakened in the hearts of the most careless. The hour of prayer brings a peace and rest grateful to the weary spirit; for the very atmosphere of a Christian home is that of peace and restfulness.
OFC	297	6	In every act the Christian should seek to represent his Master, to make His service appear attractive....
OFC	297	7	Nine tenths of the trials and perplexities that so many worry over are either imaginary, or brought upon themselves by their own wrong course. They should cease to talk of these trials, and [cease] to magnify them. The Christian may commit every worriment, every disturbing thing to God. Nothing is too small for our compassionate Saviour to notice; nothing is too great for Him to carry.
OFC	298	1	Then let us set our hearts and homes in order; let us teach our children that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and let us, by a cheerful, happy, well-ordered life, express our gratitude and love to Him "who giveth us richly all things to enjoy." But above all things, let us fix our thoughts and the affections of our hearts on the dear Saviour who suffered for guilty man, and thus opened heaven for us.
OFC	298	2	Love to Jesus cannot be hidden, but will make itself seen and felt. It exerts a wondrous power. It makes the timid bold, the slothful diligent, the ignorant wise. It makes the stammering tongue eloquent, and rouses the dormant intellect into new life and vigor. It makes the desponding hopeful, the gloomy joyous. Love to Christ will lead its possessor to accept responsibilities and cares for His sake, and to bear them in His strength.
------------------------Families To Reflect The Goodness Of God, November 15
OFC	298	3	As the father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those that fear him. Psalm 103:13, N.I.V.
OFC	298	4	Bring the sunshine of heaven into your conversation. By speaking words that encourage and cheer, you will reveal that the sunshine of Christ's righteousness dwells in your soul. Children need pleasant words. It is essential to their happiness to feel approval resting upon them. Strive to overcome harshness of expression, and cultivate soft tones. Catch the beauty contained in the lessons of God's Word, and cherish this as essential to the happiness and success of your homelife. In a happy environment the children will develop dispositions that are sweet and sunshiny.
OFC	298	5	True beauty of character is not something that shines out only on special occasions; the grace of Christ dwelling in the soul is revealed under all circumstances. He who cherishes this grace as an abiding presence in the life will reveal beauty in character under trying as well as under easy circumstances. In the home, in the world, in the church, we are to live the life of Christ. There are souls all around in need of conversion. When the law of God is written upon the heart, and is witnessed to in a holy character, those who know not the power of the grace of Christ will be led to desire it, and will be converted.
OFC	299	1	A solemn review is now taking place in the courts above. The thought of the decisions now being made in heaven should urge parents to diligence in training their children in the fear and love of God. Not by severe words and punishment for wrongdoing will the most be accomplished, but by watchfulness and prayer, lest they be taken by the snares of the enemy....
OFC	299	2	Every family that has a knowledge of the truth for this time, is to make it known to others. The Lord's people are to get ready for the doing of a special work. The children as well as the older members of the family are to act their part in seeking to save those who are perishing. From His youth Christ was, to all with whom He associated, an influence that drew them toward higher things. So the youth today may exert a power for good that will draw souls to God.
OFC	299	3	Parents need to appreciate more fully the responsibility and honor that God has placed upon them, in making them, to the child, the representative of Himself. The character revealed in the contact of daily life will interpret to the child, for good or for evil, those words of God:
OFC	299	4	"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you."
------------------------Be One, As Christ And The Father Are One, November 16
OFC	299	5	Now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. John 17:11.
OFC	299	6	Where shall we find the purity, goodness, and holiness where we shall be secure? Where is the fold where no wolves will enter? I tell you ... the Lord has an organized body through whom He will work. There may be more than a score of Judases among them; there may be a rash Peter who will under circumstances of trial deny his Lord; there may be persons represented by John whom Jesus loved, but he may have a zeal that would destroy men's lives by calling down fire from heaven upon them to revenge an insult to Christ and to the truth. But the great Teacher seeks to give lessons of instruction to correct these existing evils. He is doing the same today with His church. He is pointing out their dangers. He is presenting before them the Laodicean message.
OFC	299	7	He shows them that all selfishness, all pride, all self-exaltation, all unbelief and prejudice, which lead to resistance of the truth and turn away from the true light, are dangerous, and unless repented of, those who cherish these things will be left in darkness as was the Jewish nation. Let every soul now seek to answer the prayer of Christ. Let every soul echo that prayer in mind, in petitions, in exhortations, that they all may be one even as Christ is one with the Father, and work to this end. In the place of turning the weapons of warfare within our own ranks, let them be turned against the enemies of God and the truth. Echo the prayer of Christ with your whole heart: "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.... I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil" (John 17:11-15)....
OFC	300	1	The door of the heart must be opened to the Holy Spirit, for this is the sanctifier, and the truth is the medium. There must be an acceptance of the truth as it is in Jesus. This is the only genuine sanctification: "Thy word is truth." Oh, read the prayer of Christ for unity, "Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are." The prayer of Christ is not only for those who are now His disciples, but for all those who shall believe on Christ through the words of His disciples, even to the end of the world....
OFC	300	2	The Lord has had a church from that day, through all the changing scenes of time to the present period.... The Bible sets before us a model church. They are to be in unity with each other, and with God. When believers are united in Christ the living vine, the result is that they are one with Christ, full of sympathy and tenderness and love.
------------------------The Route To Greater Spiritual Life In The Church, November 17
OFC	300	3	Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. John 3:7.
OFC	300	4	The question is often asked, Why is there not more power in the church? why not more vital godliness? The reason is, the requirements of God's Word are not complied with in verity and in truth; God is not loved supremely, and our neighbor as ourselves. This covers the entire ground. Upon these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Let these two requirements of God be obeyed explicitly, and there would be no discord in the church, no inharmonious notes in the family. With many the work is too superficial. Outward forms take the place of the inner work of grace.... The theory of the truth has converted the head, but the soul temple has not been cleansed from its idols....
OFC	300	5	True conviction of sin, real heart sorrow because of wickedness, death to self, the daily overcoming of defects of character, and the new birth--these, represented as old things, Paul says had passed away, and all things had become new. Such a work many know nothing of. They grafted the truth into their natural hearts, and then went on as before, manifesting the same unhappy traits of character. What is now needed is the plain testimony borne in love from lips touched with living fire.
OFC	301	1	Church members do not show that living connection with God that they must have in order to win souls from darkness to light. Make the tree good, and good fruit will be the result. The work of the Spirit of God upon the heart is essential to godliness. It must be received into the hearts of those who accept the truth, and create in them clean hearts, before one of them can keep His commandments and be doers of the Word. "Marvel not," said the great Teacher unto the astonished Nicodemus, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."
OFC	301	2	The Bible is not studied as much as it should be; it is not made the rule of life. Were its precepts conscientiously followed, and made the basis of character, there would be steadfastness of purpose that no business speculations or worldly pursuits could seriously influence. A character thus formed, and supported by the Word of God, will abide the day of trial, of difficulties, and dangers. The conscience must be enlightened, and the life sanctified by the love of the truth received into the heart, before the influence will be saving upon the world.
OFC	301	3	What is needed is men of action for the time, prompt, determined, firm as a rock to principle, and prepared to meet any emergency. Why we are so weak, why there are so many irresponsible men among us, is because they do not connect with God; they have not an indwelling Saviour, and do not feel the love of Christ ever fresh and new.... No earthly relationship is as strong as this love. Nothing can compare with it.
------------------------Reflecting Light From The Sun Of Righteousness, November 18
OFC	301	4	And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. Acts 5:32.
OFC	301	5	God wants every member of the church to stand faithfully at his post of duty, to realize his responsibility, and create a heavenly atmosphere about his soul by continually gathering the bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness to shed upon the pathway of those about him....
OFC	301	6	We are to be representatives of Christ, as Christ was a representative of the Father. We want to be able to attract souls to Jesus, to point them to the Lamb of Calvary, who taketh away the sin of the world. Christ does not clothe sin with His righteousness, but He removes the sin, and in its place He imputes His own righteousness. When your sin is cleansed, the righteousness of Christ goes before you, and the glory of the Lord is your rearward. Your influence will then be decidedly on the side of Christ; for instead of making self a center, you will make Christ a center, and will feel that you are a guardian of sacred trusts.
OFC	302	1	When you remember that Christ has paid the price of His own blood for your redemption and for the redemption of others, you will be moved to catch the bright rays of His righteousness, that you may shed them upon the pathway of those around you. You are not to look to the future, thinking that at some distant day you are to be made holy; it is now that you are to be sanctified through the truth.... Jesus says, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me... unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). We are to receive the Holy Ghost.... The Holy Spirit is the Comforter that Christ promised to His disciples to bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever He had said unto them.
OFC	302	2	Then let us cease to look to ourselves, but look to Him from whom all virtue comes. No one can make himself better, but we are to come to Jesus as we are, earnestly desiring to be cleansed from every spot and stain of sin, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.... By living faith we must lay hold of His promise, for He has said, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
OFC	302	3	We are to be witnesses for Christ, reflecting upon others the light which the Lord permits to shine upon us. We are to be as faithful soldiers marching under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel.... The Captain of our salvation knows the plan of the battle, and we shall come off more than conquerors through Him.
------------------------Praise To God Has Irresistible Power, November 19
OFC	302	4	They that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. Malachi 3:16.
OFC	302	5	To the Christian is granted the joy of gathering rays of eternal light from the throne of glory, and of reflecting these rays not only on his own path, but on the paths of those with whom he associates. By speaking words of hope and encouragement, of grateful praise and kindly cheer, he may strive to make those around him better, to elevate them, to point them to heaven and glory, and to lead them to seek, above all earthly things, the eternal substance, the immortal inheritance, the riches that are imperishable.
OFC	303	1	"Rejoice in the Lord alway," says the apostle, "and again I say, Rejoice." Wherever we go, we should carry an atmosphere of Christian hopefulness and cheer; then those who are out of Christ will see attractiveness in the religion we profess; unbelievers will see the consistency of our faith. We need to have more distinct glimpses of heaven, the land where all is brightness and joy. We need to know more of the fullness of the blessed hope. If we are constantly "rejoicing in hope," we shall be able to speak words of encouragement to those whom we meet....
OFC	303	2	Not alone in daily association with believers and unbelievers are we to glorify God by speaking often one to another in words of gratitude and rejoicing. As Christians, we are exhorted not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, for our own refreshing, and to impart the consolation we have received. In these meetings, held from week to week, we should dwell upon God's goodness and manifold mercies, upon His power to save from sin. In features, in temper, in words, in character, we are to witness that the service of God is good. Thus we proclaim that "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."
OFC	303	3	Our prayer and social meetings should be seasons of special help and encouragement.... This can best be done by having a fresh experience daily in the things of God, and by not hesitating to speak of His love in the assemblies of His people....
OFC	303	4	If we thought and talked more of Jesus, and less of ourselves, we should have much more of His presence. If we abide in Him, we shall be so filled with peace, faith, and courage, and shall have so victorious an experience to relate when we come to meeting, that others will be refreshed by our clear, strong testimony for God. These precious acknowledgments to the praise of the glory of His grace, when supported by a Christlike life, have an irresistible power, which works for the salvation of souls.
------------------------Jesus Was A Friend To Every Human Being, November 20
OFC	303	5	Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Hebrews 10:9.
OFC	303	6	Christ's dignity as a divine teacher was of an order higher than the dignity of priests and rulers. It was distinct from all worldly pomp; for it was divine. He dispensed with all worldly display, and showed that He regarded the gradations of society, fixed by opulence and rank, as of no value. He had ... stepped down from His high command to bring to human beings power to become the sons of God; and earthly rank was not of the least value with Him. He could have brought with Him ten thousand angels if they would have helped Him in His work of redeeming the race.
OFC	304	1	Christ passed by the homes of the wealthy, the courts of royalty, the renowned seats of learning, and made His home in obscure and despised Nazareth. His life, from its beginning to its close, was a life of lowliness and humility. Poverty was made sacred by His life of poverty. He would not put on a dignity of attitude that would debar men and women, however lowly, from coming into His presence and listening to His teaching....
OFC	304	2	No teacher ever placed such signal honor upon man as did our Lord Jesus Christ. He was known as the friend of publicans and sinners. He mingled with all classes, and sowed the world with truth. In the marketplace and the synagogue He proclaimed His message. He relieved every species of suffering, both physical and spiritual. Beside all waters He sowed the seeds of truth. His one desire was that all might have spiritual and physical soundness. He was the friend of every human being. Was He not pledged to bring life and light to all who would receive Him? Was He not pledged to give them power to become the sons of God? He gave Himself wholly and entirely to the work of soul-saving....
OFC	304	3	As He "went about doing good," every day's experience was an outpouring of His life. In one way only could such a life be sustained. Jesus lived in dependence upon God and communion with Him. To the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty, men now and then repair; they abide for a season, and the result is manifest in noble deeds; then their faith fails, the communion is interrupted, and the lifework marred. But the life of Jesus was a life of constant trust, sustained by continual communion; and His service for heaven and earth was without failure or faltering. As a man He supplicated the throne of God, until His humanity was charged with a heavenly current that connected humanity with divinity. Receiving life from God, He imparted life to men.
------------------------Encourage A Spirit Of Kindliness, November 21
OFC	304	4	To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all men. Titus 3:2, R.S.V.
OFC	304	5	How many useful and honored workers in God's cause have received a training amid the humble duties of the most lowly positions in life! Moses was the prospective ruler of Egypt, but God could not take him from the king's court to do the work appointed him. Only when he had been for forty years a faithful shepherd was he sent to be the deliverer of his people. Gideon was taken from the threshing-floor to be the instrument in the hands of God for delivering the armies of Israel. Elisha was called to leave the plow and do the bidding of God. Amos was a husbandman, a tiller of the soil, when God gave him a message to proclaim.
OFC	305	1	All who become coworkers with Christ will have a great deal of hard, uncongenial labor to perform, and their lessons of instruction should be wisely chosen, and adapted to their peculiarities of character, and the work which they are to pursue.
OFC	305	2	The Lord has presented to me, in many ways and at various times, how carefully we should deal with the young--that it requires the finest discrimination to deal with minds. Everyone who has to do with the education and training of youth needs to live very close to the great Teacher, to catch His spirit and manner of work. Lessons are to be given which will affect their character and lifework.
OFC	305	3	They should be taught that the gospel of Christ tolerates no spirit of caste, that it gives no place to unkind judgment of others, which tends directly to self-exaltation. The religion of Jesus never degrades the receiver, nor makes him coarse and rough; nor does it make him unkind in thought and feeling toward those for whom Christ died....
OFC	305	4	Some are in danger of making the externals all-important, of overestimating the value of mere conventionalities....
OFC	305	5	Anything that would encourage ungenerous criticism, a disposition to notice and expose every defect or error, is wrong. It fosters distrust and suspicion, which are contrary to the character of Christ, and detrimental to the mind thus exercised. Those who are engaged in this work gradually depart from the true spirit of Christianity.
OFC	305	6	The most essential, enduring education is that which will develop the nobler qualities, which will encourage a spirit of universal kindliness, leading the youth to think no evil of anyone, lest they misjudge motives and misinterpret words and actions. The time devoted to this kind of instruction will yield fruit to everlasting life.
------------------------The Eternal Reward Of Reaching Out, November 22
OFC	305	7	When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. Luke 14:13, 14.
OFC	305	8	It is the reward of Christ's workers to enter into His joy. That joy, to which Christ Himself looks forward with eager desire, is presented in His request to His Father, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am."
OFC	305	9	The angels were waiting to welcome Jesus, as He ascended after His resurrection. The heavenly host longed to greet again their loved Commander, returned to them from the prison house of death. Eagerly they pressed about Him as He entered the gates of heaven. But He waved them back. His heart was with the lonely, sorrowing band of disciples whom He had left upon Olivet. It is still with His struggling children on earth, who have the battle with the destroyer yet to wage. "Father," He says, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am."
OFC	306	1	Christ's redeemed ones are His jewels, His precious and peculiar treasure. "They shall be as the stones of a crown" "the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." In them "he shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied."
OFC	306	2	And will not His workers rejoice when they, too, behold the fruit of their labors? ...
OFC	306	3	Every impulse of the Holy Spirit leading men to goodness and to God is noted in the books of heaven, and in the day of God everyone who has given himself as an instrument for the Holy Spirit's working will be permitted to behold what his life has wrought.
OFC	306	4	Wonderful will be the revealing as the lines of holy influence, with their precious results, are brought to view. What will be the gratitude of souls that will meet us in the heavenly courts, as they understand the sympathetic, loving interest which has been taken in their salvation! All praise, honor, and glory will be given to God and to the Lamb for our redemption; but it will not detract from the glory of God to express gratitude to the instrumentality He has employed in the salvation of souls ready to perish.
OFC	306	5	The redeemed will meet and recognize those whose attention they have directed to the uplifted Saviour. What blessed converse they have with these souls! "I was a sinner," it will be said, ... "and you came to me, and drew my attention to the precious Saviour as my only hope. And I believed in Him." ... What rejoicing there will be as these redeemed ones meet and greet those who have had a burden in their behalf!
------------------------Strict Integrity To Mark The Christian, November 23
OFC	306	6	Thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Deuteronomy 25:15.
OFC	306	7	In all the details of life, Christians are to follow the principles of strict integrity. These are not the principles that govern the world; for there Satan is master, and his principles of deception and oppression bear sway. But Christians serve under a different Master, and their actions must be wrought in God. They must put aside all desire for selfish gain.
OFC	307	1	To some, deviation from perfect fairness in business deals may look like a small thing, but our Saviour does not thus regard it. His words on this point are plain and explicit: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." A man who will overreach in a small matter will overreach in a larger matter if the temptation comes to him.
OFC	307	2	Christ's followers are obliged to be more or less connected with the world in business matters. In His prayer for them the Saviour says, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." Christians are to buy and sell with the realization that the eye of God is upon them. Never are they to use false balances or deceitful weights....
OFC	307	3	In every action of life the true Christian is just what he desires those around him to think he is. He is guided by truth and uprightness. He does not scheme; therefore he has nothing to gloss over. He may be criticized, he may be tested; but through all, his unbending integrity shines out like pure gold. He is a friend and benefactor to all connected with him; and his fellow men place confidence in him; for he is trustworthy.
OFC	307	4	Does he employ laborers to gather in his harvest? He does not keep back their hard-earned money. Has he means for which he has no immediate use? He relieves the necessities of his less fortunate brother. He does not seek to enlarge his possessions by taking advantage of the untoward circumstances of his neighbor. He accepts only a fair price for that which he sells. If there are defects in the articles sold, he frankly tells the buyer, even though by so doing he may seem to work against his own pecuniary interests.
OFC	307	5	A man may not have a pleasant exterior; but if he has a reputation for straightforward, honest dealing, he is respected.... A man who steadfastly adheres to the truth wins the confidence of all. Not only do Christians trust him; worldlings are constrained to acknowledge the worth of his character.
------------------------We Are To Reflect Christ's Love, November 24
OFC	307	6	Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. John 20:21.
OFC	307	7	We should earnestly seek to know and appreciate the truth, that we may present it to others as it is in Jesus. We need to have a correct estimate of the value of our own souls; then we would not be as reckless in regard to our course of action as at present. We would seek most earnestly to know God's way; we would work an opposite direction from selfishness, and our constant prayer would be that we might have the mind of Christ, that we might be molded and fashioned after His likeness. It is in looking to Jesus and beholding His loveliness, having our eyes steadfastly fixed upon Him, that we become changed into His image. He will give grace to all that keep His way, and do His will, and walk in truth....
OFC	308	1	I beseech you whose names are registered on the church book as worthy members, to be indeed worthy, through the virtue of Christ. Mercy and truth and the love of God are promised to the humble and contrite soul....
OFC	308	2	All heaven is filled with amazement, that when this love, so broad, so deep, so rich and full, is presented to men who have known the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, they are so indifferent, so cold and unmoved....
OFC	308	3	The infinite treasures of truth have been accumulating from age to age. No representation could adequately impress us with the extent, the richness, of these vast resources. They are awaiting the demand of those who appreciate them. These gems of truth are to be gathered up by God's remnant people, to be given by them to the world; but self-confidence and obduracy of soul refuse the blessed treasure. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Such love cannot be measured, neither can it be expressed. John calls upon the world to behold "what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." It is a love that passeth knowledge.
OFC	308	4	In the fullness of the sacrifice, nothing was withheld. Jesus gave Himself. God designs that His people shall love one another as Christ loved us. They are to educate and train the soul for this love. They are to reflect this love in their own character, to reflect it to the world. Each should look upon this as his work.... Christ's fullness is to be presented to the world by those who have become partakers of His grace. They are to do that for Christ which Christ did for the Father--represent His character.
------------------------Character Is Power, November 25
OFC	308	5	We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1, 2.
OFC	308	6	Christ has given us no assurance that to attain perfection of character is an easy matter. A noble, all-round character is not inherited. It does not come to us by accident. A noble character is earned by individual effort through the merits and grace and Christ. God gives the talents, the powers of the mind; we form the character. It is formed by hard, stern battles with self. Conflict after conflict must be waged against hereditary tendencies. We shall have to criticize ourselves closely, and allow not one unfavorable trait to remain uncorrected....
OFC	309	1	A character formed according to the divine likeness is the only treasure that we can take from this world to the next. Those who are under the instruction of Christ in this world will take every divine attainment with them to the heavenly mansions....
OFC	309	2	The heavenly intelligences will work with the human agent who seeks with determined faith that perfection of character which will reach out to perfection in action. To everyone engaged in this work Christ says, I am at your right hand to help you.
OFC	309	3	As the will of man cooperates with the will of God, it becomes omnipotent. Whatever is to be done at His command may be accomplished in His strength. All His biddings are enablings.
OFC	309	4	Character is power. The silent witness of a true, unselfish, godly life carries an almost irresistible influence. By revealing in our own life the character of Christ we cooperate with Him in the work of saving souls. It is only by revealing in our life His character that we can cooperate with Him. And the wider the sphere of our influence, the more good we may do. When those who profess to serve God follow Christ's example, practicing the principles of the law in their daily life; when every act bears witness that they love God supremely and their neighbor as themselves, then will the church have power to move the world....
OFC	309	5	We know not what results a day, an hour, or a moment may determine, and never should we begin the day without committing our ways to our heavenly Father.... When unconsciously we are in danger of exerting a wrong influence, the angels will be by our side, prompting us to a better course, choosing our words for us, and influencing our actions. Thus our influence may be a silent, unconscious, but mighty power in drawing others to Christ and the heavenly world.
------------------------Jesus Showed Us How To Live, November 26
OFC	309	6	I received mercy for this reason, that in me, ... Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience for an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 1 Timothy 1:16, R.S.V.
OFC	309	7	He [Jesus] was a teacher, such an educator as the world never saw or heard before. He spake as one having authority, and yet He invites the confidence of all. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
OFC	310	1	The only-begotten Son of the infinite God has, by His words, His practical example, left us a plain pattern which we are to copy. By His words He has educated us to obey God, and by His own practice He has showed us how we can obey God. This is the very work He wants every man to do, to obey God intelligently, by precept and example teach others what they must do in order to be obedient children of God.
OFC	310	2	Jesus has helped the whole world to an intelligent knowledge of His divine mission and work. He came to represent the character of the Father to our world, and as we study the life, the words, and works of Jesus Christ, we are helped in every way in the education of obedience to God; and as we copy the example He has given us, we are living epistles known and read of all men. We are the living human agencies to represent in character Jesus Christ to the world.
OFC	310	3	Not only did Christ give explicit rules showing how we may become obedient children, but He showed us in His own life and character just how to do those things which are right and acceptable with God, so there is no excuse why we should not do those things which are pleasing in His sight....
OFC	310	4	The great Teacher came to our world to stand at the head of humanity, to thus elevate and sanctify humanity by His holy obedience to all of God's requirements, showing it is possible to obey all the commandments of God. He has demonstrated that a lifelong obedience is possible. Thus He gives chosen, representative men to the world, as the Father gave the Son, to exemplify in their life the life of Jesus Christ.
OFC	310	5	In Him was found the perfect ideal. To reveal this ideal as the only true standard for attainment; to show what every human being might become; what, through the indwelling of humanity by divinity, all who received Him would become--for this, Christ came to the world. He came to show how men are to be trained as befits the sons of God; how on earth they are to practice the principles and to live the life of heaven.
------------------------The Value Of Pain, November 27
OFC	310	6	For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18.
OFC	310	7	In the experience of the apostle John under persecution, there is a lesson of wonderful strength and comfort for the Christian. God does not prevent the plottings of wicked men, but He causes their devices to work for good to those who in trial and conflict maintain their faith and loyalty. Often the gospel laborer carries on his work amid storms of persecution, bitter opposition, and unjust reproach. At such times let him remember that the experience to be gained in the furnace of trial and affliction is worth all the pain it costs. Thus God brings His children near to Him, that He may show them their weakness and His strength. He teaches them to lean on Him. Thus He prepares them to meet emergencies, to fill positions of trust, and to accomplish the great purpose for which their powers were given them.
OFC	311	1	In all ages God's appointed witnesses have exposed themselves to reproach and persecution for the truth's sake. Joseph was maligned and persecuted because he preserved his virtue and integrity. David, the chosen messenger of God, was hunted like a beast of prey by his enemies. Daniel was cast into a den of lions because he was true to his allegiance to heaven. Job was deprived of his worldly possessions, and so afflicted in body that he was abhorred by his relatives and friends; yet he maintained his integrity.
OFC	311	2	Jeremiah could not be deterred from speaking the words that God had given him to speak; and his testimony so enraged the king and princes that he was cast into a loathsome pit. Stephen was stoned because he preached Christ and Him crucified. Paul was imprisoned, beaten with rods, stoned, and finally put to death because he was a faithful messenger for God to the Gentiles. And John was banished to the Isle of Patmos "for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."
OFC	311	3	These examples of human steadfastness bear witness to the faithfulness of God's promises--of His abiding presence and sustaining grace. They testify to the power of faith to withstand the powers of the world....
OFC	311	4	They bore witness to the power of One mightier than Satan.... Through trial and persecution the glory--the character--of God is revealed in His chosen ones. The believers in Christ, hated and persecuted by the world, are educated and disciplined in the school of Christ. On earth they walk in narrow paths; they are purified in the furnace of affliction.
------------------------Those Who Return To The Old Paths, November 28
OFC	311	5	And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35:10.
OFC	312	1	The world is full of men and women who manifest no sense of obligation to God for their entrusted gifts. They do not realize that God has entrusted them with talents, not for self-glorification, but for His own name's glory. They are eager for distinction....
OFC	312	2	There are men whom God has qualified with more than ordinary ability. They are deep thinkers, energetic, and thorough. But many of them are bent upon the attainment of their own selfish ends, without regard to the honor and glory of God. Some of these have seen the light of truth, but because they honored themselves, and did not make God first and last and best in everything, they have wandered away from Bible truth into skepticism and infidelity. When these are arrested by the chastisements of God, and through affliction are led to inquire for the old paths, the mist of skepticism is swept from their minds. Some of them repent, return to the old love, and set their feet in the way cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. No longer are they actuated by the love of money or by selfish ambition. The Spirit of God working upon the heart is valued by them more highly than gold or the praise of men. When this amazing change is wrought, the thoughts are directed by the Spirit of God into new channels, the character is transformed, and the aspirations of the soul reach out toward heavenly things.
OFC	312	3	True religion has power today. It enables men to overcome the stubborn influence of pride, selfishness, and unbelief, and in the simplicity of true godliness to reveal a living connection with heaven. The grace which Christ imparts makes it possible for men to rise superior to all the infatuating temptations of Satan. It will lead them to the cross of Jesus as active, devoted, loyal workers for the advancement of the truth of heaven.
OFC	312	4	Fidelity to God has marked the heroes of faith from age to age. As they have been brought conspicuously before the world their light has shone forth. Their obedience to the command of Christ, "Go forward," has led others to glorify God.
OFC	312	5	There are today moral heroes, men and women who are living noble lives of self-denial. They have no ambition for worldly fame. Their will is subordinate to the will of God. The love of God inspires their ministry. To do good and to save souls is their highest aim.
OFC	312	6	These have gained genuine knowledge, even the knowledge set forth by Christ in the words, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3).
------------------------God Has A Tender Care For His People, November 29
OFC	313	1	The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. Psalm 34:15.
OFC	313	2	You must not sink down discouraged. The fainthearted will be made strong; the desponding will be made to hope. God has a tender care for His people. His ear is open unto their cry. I have no fears for God's cause. He will take care of His own cause. Our duty is to fill our lot and place, live...humble at the foot of the cross, and live faithful, holy lives before Him. While we do this we shall not be ashamed, but our souls will confide in God with holy boldness.
OFC	313	3	God has released us from burdens; He has set us free.... Our enemies may triumph. They may speak lying words, and their slandering tongue frame slander, deceit, guile; yet will we not be moved. We know in whom we believe. We have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Jesus knows us.... A reckoning day is coming and all will be judged according to the deeds that are done in the body....
OFC	313	4	It is true the world is dark. Opposition may wax strong. The trifler and scorner may grow bolder and harder in their iniquity. Yet, for all this, we will not be moved. We have not run as uncertain. No, no. My heart is fixed, trusting in God. We have a whole Saviour. We can rejoice in His rich fullness. I long to be more devoted to God, more consecrated to Him. This world is too dark for me. Jesus said He would go away and prepare mansions for us, that where He is we may be also. Praise God for this. My heart leaps with joy at the cheering prospect.
OFC	313	5	Religion is made to dwell too much in an iron case. Pure religion and undefiled leads us to a childlike simplicity. We want to pray and talk with humility, having a single eye to the glory of God. There has been too much of a form of godliness without the power. The outpouring of the Spirit of God will lead to a grateful acknowledgment of the same; and while we feel and realize the wondrous love of God, we shall not hold our peace, we shall sacrifice to God with the voice of thanksgiving and make melody to Him with our hearts and voices. Let us plant our feet upon the Rock of Ages and then we will have abiding support and consolation. Our soul will repose in God with unshaken confidence.
OFC	313	6	Why do we so seldom visit the fountain when it is full and free? Our souls often need to drink at the fountain in order to be refreshed and flourish in the Lord. Salvation we must have. Without vital godliness our religion is vain. A form will be of no advantage to us. We must have the deep workings of the Spirit of God.
------------------------Christians To Reflect The Light Of Heaven, November 30
OFC	314	1	A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Matthew 5:14, 15.
OFC	314	2	"Ye are the light of the world," said Christ to His disciples. As the sun goes forth in the heavens, dispelling the shades of night, and filling the world with brightness, so must the followers of Jesus let their light shine to dispel the moral darkness of a world lying in sin. But they have no light of themselves; it is the light of Heaven which they are to reflect to the world.
OFC	314	3	"A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." Our thoughts and purposes are the secret springs of action, and hence determine the character. The purpose formed in the heart need not be expressed in word or deed in order to make it sin, and bring the soul into condemnation. Every thought, feeling, and inclination, though unseen by men, is discerned by the eye of God. But it is only when the evil that has taken root in the heart reaches its fruition in the unlawful word or deed that man can judge the character of his fellowman.
OFC	314	4	The Christian is Christ's representative. He is to show to the world the transforming power of divine grace. He is a living epistle of the truth of God, known and read of all men. The rule given by Christ by which to determine who are His true followers is, "By their fruits ye shall know them." ...
OFC	314	5	The Christian's godly life and holy conversation are a daily testimony against sin and sinners. But he must present Christ, not self. Christ is the great remedy for sin. Our compassionate Redeemer has provided for us the help we need. He is waiting to impute His righteousness to the sincere penitent, and to kindle in his heart such divine love as only our gracious Redeemer can inspire. Then let us who profess to be His witnesses on earth, His ambassadors from the court of heaven, glorify Him whom we represent, by being faithful to our trust as light bearers to the world.
OFC	314	6	Everyone who at last secures eternal life will here manifest zeal and devotion in the service of God. He will not desert the post of duty at the approach of trial, hardship, or reproach. He will be a diligent student of the Scriptures, and will follow the light as it shines upon his pathway. When some plain, scriptural requirement is presented he will not stop to inquire, What will my friends say, if I take my position with the people of God? Knowing his duty, he will do it heartily and fearlessly.
OFC	314	7	Of such truehearted followers Jesus declares that He is not ashamed to call them brethren. The God of truth will be on their side, and will never forsake them. All apparent losses for Christ's sake will count to them as infinite gain.
------------------------The Keynote Of Scripture, December 1
OFC	315	1	I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. Job 19:25.
OFC	315	2	One of the most solemn and yet most glorious truths revealed in the Bible is that of Christ's second coming, to complete the great work of redemption. To God's pilgrim people, so long left to sojourn in "the region and shadow of death," a precious, joy-inspiring hope is given in the promise of His appearing, who is "the resurrection and the life," to "bring home again His banished." The doctrine of the second advent is the very key-note of the Sacred Scriptures. From the day when the first pair turned their sorrowing steps from Eden, the children of faith have waited the coming of the Promised One to break the destroyer's power and bring them again to the lost Paradise. ... Enoch, only the seventh in descent from them that dwelt in Eden, he who for three centuries on earth walked with his God, was permitted to behold from afar the coming of the Deliverer. "Behold," he declared, "the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all." The patriarch Job in the night of his affliction exclaimed with unshaken trust: "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:...in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another."
OFC	315	3	May the God of all grace so enlighten your understanding that you may discern eternal things, that by the light of truth your own errors, which are many, may be discovered to you just as they are, that you may make the necessary effort to put them away, and in the place of this evil, bitter fruit may bring forth fruit which is precious unto eternal life.
OFC	315	4	Humble your poor, proud, self-righteous heart before God; get low, very low, all broken in your sinfulness at His feet. Devote yourself to the work of preparation. Rest not until you can truly say: My Redeemer liveth, and, because He lives, I shall live also.
OFC	315	5	If you lose heaven, you lose everything; if you gain heaven, you gain everything. Do not make a mistake in this matter, I implore you. Eternal interests are here involved.
------------------------He Shall Reign Forever, December 2
OFC	316	1	The seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. Revelation 11:15.
OFC	316	2	The coming of Christ to usher in the reign of righteousness has inspired the most sublime ... utterances of the sacred writers.... The psalmist sang of the power and majesty of Israel's King:..."Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ... before the Lord: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth." Psalm 96:11-13.
OFC	316	3	Said the prophet Isaiah: "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it...." Isaiah 25:8....
OFC	316	4	When the Saviour was about to be separated from His disciples, He comforted them in their sorrow with the assurance that He would come again: "Let not your heart be troubled....In my Father's house are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself." John 14:1-3....
OFC	316	5	The angels who lingered upon Olivet after Christ's ascension repeated to the disciples the promise of His return: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1:11. And the apostle Paul, speaking by the Spirit of Inspiration, testified: "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Says the prophet of Patmos: "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him." Revelation 1:7.
OFC	316	6	About His coming cluster the glories of that "restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." Acts 3:21. Then the long-continued rule of evil shall be broken; "the kingdoms of this world" will become "the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." Revelation 11:15.
------------------------Uplift Jesus As The Center, December 3
OFC	317	1	I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. Revelation 22:16.
OFC	317	2	The perils of the last days are upon us, and in our work we are to warn the people of the danger they are in. Let not the solemn scenes which prophecy has revealed be left untouched. If our people were half awake, if they realized the nearness of the events portrayed in the Revelation, a reformation would be wrought in our churches, and many more would believe the message. We have no time to lose.... Advance new principles, and crowd in the clear-cut truth. It will be as a sword cutting both ways. But be not too ready to take a controversial attitude. There will be times when we must stand still and see the salvation of God. Let Daniel speak, let the Revelation speak, and tell what is truth. But whatever phase of the subject is presented, uplift Jesus as the center of all hope, "the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."
OFC	317	3	We do not go deep enough in our search for truth. Every soul who believes present truth will be brought where he will be required to give a reason of the hope that is in him. The people of God will be called upon to stand before kings, princes, rulers, and great men of the earth, and they must know that they do know what is truth. They must be converted men and women. God can teach you more in one moment by His Holy Spirit than you could learn from the great men of the earth. The universe is looking upon the controversy that is going on upon the earth. At an infinite cost, God has provided for every man an opportunity to know that which will make him wise unto salvation. How eagerly do angels look to see who will avail himself of this opportunity! When a message is presented to God's people, they should not rise up in opposition to it; they should go to the Bible, comparing it with the law and the testimony, and if it does not bear this test, it is not true. God wants our minds to expand. He desires to put His grace upon us. We may have a feast of good things every day, for God can open the whole treasure of heaven to us.
------------------------God's Judgments In The Land, December 4
OFC	317	4	Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. Luke 21:26.
OFC	317	5	O that God's people had a sense of the impending destruction of thousands of cities, now almost given to idolatry! ...
OFC	318	1	Not long ago a very impressive scene passed before me. I saw an immense ball of fire falling among some beautiful mansions, causing their instant destruction. I heard someone say, "We knew that the judgments of God were coming upon the earth, but we did not know that they would come so soon." Others said, "You knew? Why then did you not tell us? We did not know." On every side I heard such words spoken....
OFC	318	2	Soon grievous troubles will arise among the nations--trouble that will not cease until Jesus comes. As never before we need to press together, serving Him who has prepared His throne in the heavens and whose kingdom ruleth over all. God has not forsaken His people, and our strength lies in not forsaking Him.
OFC	318	3	The judgments of God are in the land. The wars and rumors of wars, the destruction by fire and flood, say clearly that the time of trouble, which is to increase until the end, is very near at hand. We have no time to lose. The world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecies of the eleventh of Daniel have almost reached their final fulfillment....
OFC	318	4	Last Friday morning, just before I awoke, a very impressive scene was presented before me. I seemed to awake from sleep but was not in my home. From the windows I could behold a terrible conflagration. Great balls of fire were falling upon houses, and from these balls fiery arrows were flying in every direction. It was impossible to check the fires that were kindled, and many places were being destroyed. The terror of the people was indescribable.
OFC	318	5	Strictly will the cities of the nations be dealt with, and yet they will not be visited in the extreme of God's indignation, because some souls will yet break away from the delusions of the enemy, and will repent and be converted, while the mass will be treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.
------------------------A High Standard, December 5
OFC	318	6	And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. Leviticus 20:26.
OFC	318	7	I also saw many do not realize what they must be in order to live in the sight of the Lord without a high priest in the sanctuary through the time of trouble. Those who receive the seal of the living God and are protected in the time of trouble must reflect the image of Jesus fully.
OFC	318	8	I saw that many were neglecting the preparation so needful and were looking to the time of "refreshing" and the "latter rain" to fit them to stand in the day of the Lord and to live in His sight. Oh, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter! They had neglected the needful preparation; therefore they could not receive the refreshing that all must have to fit them to live in the sight of a holy God. Those who ... fail to purify their souls in obeying the whole truth ... will come up to the time of the falling of the plagues, and then see that they needed to be hewed and squared for the building. But there will be ... no Mediator to plead their cause before the Father. Before this time the awfully solemn declaration has gone forth, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still."
OFC	319	1	I saw that none could share the "refreshing" unless they obtain the victory over every besetment, over pride, selfishness, love of the world, and over every wrong word and action. We should, therefore, be drawing nearer and nearer to the Lord and be earnestly seeking that preparation necessary to enable us to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. Let all remember that God is holy and that none but holy beings can ever dwell in His presence.
OFC	319	2	We are today to watch that we offend not in word or deed.... We must today seek God and be determined that we will not rest satisfied without His presence. We should watch and work and pray as though this were the last day that would be granted us. How intensely earnest, then, would be our life. How closely would we follow Jesus in all our words and deeds.
------------------------Spiritual Giant Or Dwarf? December 6
OFC	319	3	Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1.
OFC	319	4	The Lord reproves and corrects the people who profess to keep His law. He points out their sins and lays open their iniquity because He wishes to separate all sin and wickedness from them, that they may perfect holiness in His fear and be prepared to die in the Lord or to be translated to heaven....
OFC	319	5	God will accept nothing but purity and holiness; one spot, one wrinkle, one defect in the character, will forever debar them from heaven, with all its glories and treasures.
OFC	319	6	Most professed Christians have no sense of the spiritual strength they might obtain were they as ambitious, zealous, and persevering to gain a knowledge of divine things as they are to obtain the paltry, perishable things of this life. The masses professing to be Christians have been satisfied to be spiritual dwarfs. They have no disposition to make it their object to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; hence godliness is a hidden mystery to them, they cannot understand it. They know not Christ by experimental knowledge.
OFC	320	1	Ample provisions have been made for all who sincerely, earnestly, and thoughtfully set about the work of perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Strength, grace, and glory have been provided through Christ, to be brought by ministering angels to the heirs of salvation. None are so low, so corrupt and vile, that they cannot find in Jesus, who died for them, strength, purity, and righteousness, if they will put away their sins, cease their course of iniquity, and turn with full purpose of heart to the living God. He is waiting to strip them of their garments, stained and polluted by sin, and to put upon them the white, bright robes of righteousness; and He bids them live and not die. In Him they may flourish. Their branches will not wither nor be fruitless. If they abide in Him, they can draw sap and nourishment from Him, be imbued with His Spirit, walk even as He walked, overcome as He overcame, and be exalted to His own right hand.
------------------------A Crisis Ahead, December 7
OFC	320	2	Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Joel 1:15.
OFC	320	3	The prophecies which the great I AM has given in His word, uniting link after link in the chain of events, from eternity in the past to eternity in the future, tell us where we are today in the procession of the ages, and what may be expected in the time to come. All that prophecy has foretold as coming to pass, until the present time, has been traced on the pages of history, and we may be assured that all which is yet to come will be fulfilled in its order.
OFC	320	4	Today the signs of the times declare that we are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Everything in our world is in agitation. Before our eyes is fulfilling the Saviour's prophecy of the events to precede His coming: "Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars.... Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places."
OFC	320	5	The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place--that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.
OFC	321	1	The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of these things. Here are revealed the great final scenes in the history of our world, ... the sound of their approach causing the earth to tremble and men's hearts to fail them for fear.
OFC	321	2	Today men and nations are being tested by the plummet in the hand of Him who makes no mistake. All are by their own choice deciding their destiny, and God is overruling all for the accomplishment of His purposes.
OFC	321	3	Christians should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise, and this preparation they should make by diligently studying the word of God and striving to conform their lives to its precepts.
------------------------Teaching From House To House, December 8
OFC	321	4	I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house. Acts 20:20.
OFC	321	5	Among the members of our churches there should be more house-to-house labor in giving Bible readings and distributing literature.... As we sow beside all waters we shall realize that "he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully."
OFC	321	6	Christ's example must be followed by those who claim to be His children. Relieve the physical necessities of your fellow men, and their gratitude will break down the barriers and enable you to reach their hearts.... Women as well as men can engage in the work.... They can do in families a work that men cannot do, a work that reaches the inner life. They can come close to the hearts of those whom men cannot reach. Their work is needed. Discreet and humble women can do a good work in explaining the truth to the people in their homes. The word of God thus explained will do its leavening work, and . . whole families will be converted....
OFC	321	7	In the home circle, at your neighbor's fireside, at the bedside of the sick, in a quiet way you may read the Scriptures and speak a word for Jesus and the truth. Precious seed may thus be sown that will spring up and bring forth fruit....
OFC	321	8	There is missionary work to be done in many unpromising places. The missionary spirit needs to take hold of our souls, inspiring us to reach classes for whom we had not planned to labor and in ways and places that we had no idea of working. The Lord has His plan for the sowing of the gospel seed. In sowing according to His will, we shall so multiply the seed that His word may reach thousands who have never heard the truth.
OFC	322	1	Thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand angels are waiting to co-operate with members of our churches in communicating the light that God has generously given, that a people may be prepared for the coming of Christ.
OFC	322	2	Our sisters, the youth, the middle-aged, and those of advanced years, may act a part in the closing work for this time; and in doing this as they have opportunity, they will obtain an experience of the highest value to themselves. In forgetfulness of self, they will grow in grace.
------------------------A Character The World Will Recognize, December 9
OFC	322	3	That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15.
OFC	322	4	It is God's purpose to manifest through His people the principles of His kingdom. That in life and character they may reveal these principles, He desires to separate them from the customs, habits, and practices of the world.... By beholding the goodness, the mercy, the justice, and the love of God revealed in His church, the world is to have a representation of His character. And when the law of God is thus exemplified in the life, even the world will recognize the superiority of those who love and fear and serve God above every other people in the world.
OFC	322	5	Seventh-day Adventists, above all people, should be patterns of piety, holy in heart and in conversation. To them have been entrusted the most solemn truths ever committed to mortals. Every endowment of grace and power and efficiency has been liberally provided. They look for the near return of Christ in the clouds of heaven. For them to give to the world the impression that their faith is not a dominating power in their lives is greatly to dishonor God.
OFC	322	6	Because of the increasing power of Satan's temptations, the times in which we live are full of peril for the children of God, and we need to learn constantly of the Great Teacher, that we may take every step in surety and righteousness. Wonderful scenes are opening before us; and at this time a living testimony is to be borne in the lives of God's professed people, so that the world may see that in this age, when evil reigns on every side, there is yet a people who are laying aside their will and are seeking to do God's will--a people in whose hearts and lives God's law is written....
OFC	322	7	Their thoughts are to be pure, their words noble and uplifting. The religion of Christ is to be interwoven with all that they do and say. They are to be a sanctified, purified, holy people, communicating light to all with whom they come in contact. It is His purpose that by exemplifying the truth in their lives, they shall be a praise in the earth. The grace of Christ is sufficient to bring this about.
------------------------Prove All Things, December 10
OFC	323	1	Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Matthew 7:15.
OFC	323	2	In the work in which my husband and I were called by the providence of God to act a part, even from its very beginning in 1843 and 1844, we have had the Lord to devise and plan for us, and He has worked out His plans through His living agents. False paths have been so often pointed out to us, and the true and safe paths so clearly defined in all the enterprises connected with the work given us to do, that I can say of a truth I am not ignorant of Satan's devices, nor of the ways and works of God. We have had to tax every power of mind, relying upon wisdom from God to guide us in our investigations, as we have had to review the different theories brought to our attention, weighing their merits and defects in the light shining from the Word of God and the things God has revealed to me through His Word and the testimonies, in order that we might not be deceived nor deceive others. We surrendered our will and way to God, and most earnestly supplicated His aid; and we never sought in vain. Many years of painful experience in connection with the work of God have made me acquainted with all kinds of false movements. Many times I have been sent to different places with the message, "I have a work for you to do in that place; I will be with you." When the occasion came, the Lord gave me a message for those who were having false dreams and visions, and in the strength of Christ I bore my testimony at the Lord's bidding....
OFC	323	3	During the past forty-five years, I have had to meet persons claiming to have from God messages of reproof to others. This phase of religious fanaticism has sprung up again and again since 1844. Satan has worked in many ways to establish error. Some things spoken in these visions came to pass; but many things--in regard to the time of Christ's coming, the end of probation, and the events to take place--proved utterly false....
OFC	323	4	"Take heed therefore how ye hear" (Luke 8:18), is an admonition of Christ.... Examine closely, "prove all things" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).... This is the counsel of God; shall we heed it?
------------------------Moving Into Line, December 11
OFC	324	1	The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God. Psalm 69:32.
OFC	324	2	It is your privilege to be glad in the Lord, and to rejoice in the knowledge of His sustaining grace. Let His love take possession of mind and heart. Guard against becoming overwearied, careworn, depressed. Bear an uplifting testimony. Turn your eyes away from that which is dark and discouraging, and behold Jesus, our great Leader, under whose watchful supervision the cause of present truth, to which we are giving our lives and our all, is destined to triumph gloriously....
OFC	324	3	Oh, let it be seen ... that Jesus is abiding in the heart, sustaining, strengthening, comforting. It is your privilege to be endowed, from day to day, with a rich measure of His Holy Spirit, and to have broadened views of the importance and scope of the message we are proclaiming to the world. The Lord is willing to reveal to you wondrous things out of His law. Wait before Him with humility of heart. Pray most earnestly for an understanding of the times in which we live, for a fuller conception of His purpose, and for increased efficiency in soulsaving....
OFC	324	4	It will be well for us to consider what is soon to come upon the earth. This is no time for trifling or self-seeking. If the times in which we are living fail to impress our minds seriously, what can reach us? ...
OFC	324	5	Men of clear understanding are needed now. God calls upon those who are willing to be controlled by the Holy Spirit to lead out in a work of thorough reformation. I see a crisis before us, and the Lord calls for His laborers to come into line. Every soul should now stand in a position of deeper, truer consecration to God than during the years that have passed....
OFC	324	6	I have been deeply impressed by scenes that have recently passed before me in the night season. There seemed to be a great movement--a work of revival--going forward in many places. Our people were moving into line, responding to God's call.... Shall we not heed His voice? Shall we not trim our lamps, and act like men who look for their Lord to come? The time is one that calls for light bearing, for action.
------------------------Preparation For What Lies Ahead, December 12
OFC	325	1	Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Zephaniah 2:3.
OFC	325	2	Transgression has almost reached its limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. God's people should be preparing for what is to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise.
OFC	325	3	The "time of trouble, such as never was," is soon to open upon us; and we shall need an experience which we do not now possess and which many are too indolent to obtain. It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal. In that time of trial, every soul must stand for himself before God. "Though Noah, Daniel, and Job" were in the land, "as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness." Ezekiel 14:20.
OFC	325	4	The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God. Upon this battle we are now entering--a battle between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition.
OFC	325	5	We should study the great waymarks that point out the times in which we are living. . We should now pray most earnestly that we may be prepared for the struggles of the great day of God's preparation.
OFC	325	6	Those who place themselves under God's control, to be led and guided by Him, will catch the steady tread of the events ordained by Him to take place. Inspired with the Spirit of Him who gave His life for the life of the world, they will no longer stand still in impotency, pointing to what they cannot do. Putting on the armor of heaven, they will go forth to the warfare, willing to do and dare for God, knowing that His omnipotence will supply their need.
------------------------Relief Of Physical Suffering, December 13
OFC	326	1	And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Matthew 10:7, 8.
OFC	326	2	Perilous times are before us. The whole world will be involved in perplexity and distress, disease of every kind will be upon the human family, and such ignorance as now prevails concerning the laws of health would result in great suffering and the loss of many lives that might be saved....
OFC	326	3	As religious aggression subverts the liberties of our nation, those who would stand for freedom of conscience will be placed in unfavorable positions. For their own sake, they should, while they have opportunity, become intelligent in regard to disease, its causes, prevention, and cure. And those who do this will find a field of labor anywhere. There will be suffering ones, plenty of them, who will need help, not only among those of our own faith, but largely among those who know not the truth.
OFC	326	4	The medical work done in connection with the giving of the third angel's message, is to accomplish wonderful results. It is to be a sanctifying, unifying work, corresponding to the work which the great Head of the church sent forth the first disciples to do.
OFC	326	5	Calling these disciples together, Christ gave them their commission: ... "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Matthew 10:7, 8, 16.
OFC	326	6	It is well for us to read this chapter and let its instruction prepare us for our labors. The early disciples were going forth on Christ's errands, under His commission. His spirit was to prepare the way before them. They were to feel that with such a message to give, such blessings to impart, they should receive a welcome in the homes of the people.
OFC	326	7	God reaches hearts through the relief of physical suffering. A seed of truth is dropped into the mind, and is watered by God. Much patience may be required before this seed shows signs of life, but at last it springs up, and bears fruit unto eternal life.
OFC	326	8	How slow men are to understand God's preparation for the day of His power!
------------------------The Corruption Of Truth, December 14
OFC	327	1	Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. Matthew 24:23.
OFC	327	2	Before the last developments of the work of apostasy there will be a confusion of faith. There will not be clear and definite ideas concerning the mystery of God. One truth after another will be corrupted.
OFC	327	3	After the truth has been proclaimed as a witness to all nations, every conceivable power of evil will be set in operation, and minds will be confused by many voices crying. "Lo, here is Christ; lo, He is there. This is the truth, I have the message from God, He has sent me with great light." Then there will be a removing of the landmarks, and an attempt to tear down the pillars of our faith. A more decided effort will be made to exalt the false sabbath, and to cast contempt upon God Himself by supplanting the day He has blessed and sanctified. This false sabbath is to be enforced by an oppressive law.
OFC	327	4	In the future, deception of every kind is to arise, and we want solid ground for our feet. We want solid pillars for the building. Not one pin is to be removed from that which the Lord has established. The enemy will bring in false theories, such as the doctrine that there is no sanctuary. This is one of the points on which there will be a departing from the faith.
OFC	327	5	There will be false dreams and false visions, which have some truth, but lead away from the original faith. The Lord has given men a rule by which to detect them: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20).
OFC	327	6	As we near the end of time, falsehood will be so mingled with truth, that only those who have the guidance of the Holy Spirit will be able to distinguish truth from error. We need to make every effort to keep the way of the Lord. We must in no case turn from His guidance to put our trust in man. The Lord's angels are appointed to keep strict watch over those who put their faith in the Lord, and these angels are to be our special help in every time of need. Every day we are to come to the Lord with full assurance of faith, and to look to Him for wisdom.... Those who are guided by the Word of the Lord will discern with certainty between falsehood and truth, between sin and righteousness.
------------------------The Shaking Time, December 15
OFC	328	1	And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Matthew 24:12.
OFC	328	2	Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads--it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved--just as soon as God's people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come. Indeed, it has begun already; the judgments of God are now upon the land, to give us warning, that we may know what is coming.
OFC	328	3	The days are fast approaching when there will be great perplexity and confusion. Satan, clothed in angel robes, will deceive, if possible, the very elect. There will be gods many and lords many. Every wind of doctrine will be blowing....
OFC	328	4	The mark of the beast will be urged upon us. Those who have step by step yielded to worldly demands and conformed to worldly customs will not find it a hard matter to yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. The contest is between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church. True godliness will be clearly distinguished from the appearance and tinsel of it. Many a star that we have admired for its brilliancy will then go out in darkness. Chaff like a cloud will be borne away on the wind, even from places where we see only floors of rich wheat. All who assume the ornaments of the sanctuary, but are not clothed with Christ's righteousness, will appear in the shame of their own nakedness.
OFC	328	5	But there are men who will receive the truth, and these will take the places made vacant by those who become offended and leave the truth....
OFC	328	6	Men of true Christian principle will take their place, and will become faithful, trustworthy householders, to advocate the word of God in its true bearings, and in its simplicity. The Lord will work so that the disaffected ones will be separated from the true and loyal ones....The ranks will not be diminished. Those who are firm and true will close up the vacancies that are made by those who become offended and apostatize.
------------------------The Sealing And The Latter Rain, December 16
OFC	329	1	Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. 2 Timothy 2:19.
OFC	329	2	Before the work is closed up and the sealing of God's people is finished, we shall receive the outpouring of the Spirit of God. Angels from heaven will be in our midst.
OFC	329	3	Our heavenly Father claims not at our hands that which we cannot perform. He desires His people to labor earnestly to carry out His purpose for them. They are to pray for power, expect power, and receive power, that they may grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.
OFC	329	4	Not all members of the church are cultivating personal piety; therefore they do not understand their personal responsibility. They do not realize that it is their privilege and duty to reach the high standard of Christian perfection.... Are we looking forward to the latter rain, confidently hoping for a better day, when the church shall be endued with power from on high and thus fitted for work? The latter rain will never refresh and invigorate the indolent, who do not use the powers God has given them.
OFC	329	5	We are in great need of the pure, life-giving atmosphere that nurtures and invigorates the spiritual life. We need greater earnestness. The solemn message given us to give to the world is to be proclaimed with greater fervency, even with an intensity that will impress unbelievers, leading them to see that the Most High is working with us, that He is the source of our efficiency and strength....
OFC	329	6	Are you using all your powers in an effort to bring the lost sheep back to the fold? There are thousands upon thousands in ignorance who might be warned. Pray as you have never prayed before for the power of Christ. Pray for the inspiration of His Spirit, that you may be filled with a desire to save those who are perishing. Let the prayer ascend to heaven, "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations" (Psalm 67:1, 2).
------------------------"In These Hours Of Probation", December 17
OFC	330	1	I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2.
OFC	330	2	We believe without a doubt that Christ is soon coming. This is not a fable to us; it is a reality. We have no doubt, neither have we had a doubt for years, that the doctrines we hold today are present truth, and that we are nearing the judgment. We are preparing to meet Him who, escorted by a retinue of holy angels, is to appear in the clouds of heaven to give the faithful and the just the finishing touch of immortality. When He comes He is not to cleanse us of our sins, to remove from us the defects in our characters, or to cure us of the infirmities of our tempers and dispositions. If wrought for us at all, this work will all be accomplished before that time. When the Lord comes, those who are holy will be holy still. Those who have preserved their bodies and spirits in holiness, in sanctification and honor, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. But those who are unjust, unsanctified, and filthy will remain so forever. No work will then be done for them to remove their defects and give them holy characters. The Refiner does not then sit to pursue His refining process and remove their sins and their corruption. This is all to be done in these hours of probation. It is now that this work is to be accomplished for us.
OFC	330	3	We embrace the truth of God with our different faculties, and as we come under the influence of that truth, it will accomplish the work for us which is necessary to give us a moral fitness for the kingdom of glory and for the society of the heavenly angels. We are now in God's workshop. Many of us are rough stones from the quarry. But as we lay hold upon the truth of God, its influence affects us. It elevates us and removes from us every imperfection and sin, of whatever nature. Thus we are prepared to see the King in His beauty and finally to unite with the pure and heavenly angels in the kingdom of glory. It is here that this work is to be accomplished for us, here that our bodies and spirits are to be fitted for immortality.
------------------------High Spiritual State Attainable, December 18
OFC	331	1	Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Jude 24.
OFC	331	2	Christ was obedient to every requirement of the law....
OFC	331	3	By His perfect obedience He has made it possible for every human being to obey God's commandments. When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then as the Lord looks upon us He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the nakedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah.
OFC	331	4	Through the plan of redemption, God has provided means for subduing every sinful trait, and resisting every temptation, however strong.
OFC	331	5	The strongest temptation is no excuse for sin. However great the pressure brought to bear upon the soul, transgression is our own act. It is not in the power of earth or hell to compel any one to sin. The will must consent, the heart must yield, or passion cannot overbear reason, nor iniquity triumph over righteousness.
OFC	331	6	If you will stand under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel, faithfully doing His service, you need never yield to temptation; for One stands by your side who is able to keep you from falling.
OFC	331	7	We need not retain one sinful propensity.... [Ephesians 2:1-6 quoted.] ...
OFC	331	8	As we partake of the divine nature, hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong are cut away from the character, and we are made a living power for good. Ever learning of the divine Teacher, daily partaking of His nature, we cooperate with God in overcoming Satan's temptations. God works, and man works, that man may be one with Christ as Christ is one with God. Then we sit together with Christ in heavenly places. The mind rests with peace and assurance in Jesus.
------------------------Who Receive The Seal? December 19
OFC	331	9	And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. Revelation 14:5.
OFC	331	10	Only those who receive the seal of the living God will have the passport through the gates of the Holy City....
OFC	332	1	The seal of the living God will be placed upon those only who bear a likeness to Christ in character.
OFC	332	2	As wax takes the impression of the seal, so the soul is to take the impression of the Spirit of God and retain the image of Christ.
OFC	332	3	Many will not receive the seal of God because they do not keep His commandments or bear the fruits of righteousness.
OFC	332	4	The great mass of professing Christians will meet with bitter disappointment in the day of God. They have not upon their foreheads the seal of the living God. Lukewarm and halfhearted, they dishonor God far more than the avowed unbeliever. They grope in darkness, when they might be walking in the noonday light of the Word, under the guidance of One who never errs....
OFC	332	5	Those whom the Lamb shall lead by the fountains of living waters, and from whose eyes He shall wipe away all tears, will be those now receiving the knowledge and understanding revealed in the Bible, the Word of God....
OFC	332	6	We are to copy no human being. There is no human being wise enough to be our criterion. We are to look to the man Christ Jesus, who is complete in the perfection of righteousness and holiness. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the pattern man. His experience is the measure of the experience that we are to gain. His character is our model. Let us, then, take our minds off the perplexities and the difficulties of this life, and fix them on Him, that by beholding we may be changed into His likeness. We may behold Christ to good purpose. We may safely look to Him; for He is all-wise. As we look to Him and think of Him, He will be formed within, the hope of glory.
OFC	332	7	Let us strive with all the power that God has given us to be among the hundred and forty-four thousand.
------------------------A Time Of Trouble Such As Never Was, December 20
OFC	332	8	And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. Daniel 12:1.
OFC	332	9	When the third angel's message closes, mercy no longer pleads for the guilty inhabitants of the earth. The people of God have accomplished their work. They have received "the latter rain," "the ... refreshing ... from the presence of the Lord," and they are prepared for the trying hour before them. Angels are hastening to and fro in heaven. An angel returning from the earth announces that his work is done; the final test has been brought upon the world, and all who have proved themselves loyal to the divine precepts have received "the seal of the living God." Then Jesus ceases His intercession in the sanctuary above. He lifts His hands and with a loud voice says, "It is done." ...
OFC	333	1	When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth. In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. God's long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one. Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old.
OFC	333	2	Those only who have clean hands and pure hearts will stand in that trying time.... Now is the time, while the four angels are holding the four winds, to make our calling and election sure.
------------------------Angelic Protection In The Time Of Trouble, December 21
OFC	333	3	Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. Isaiah 26:20.
OFC	333	4	In the day of fierce trial He [Christ] will say, "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast." What are the chambers in which they are to hide? They are the protection of Christ and holy angels. The people of God are not at this time all in one place. They are in different companies, and in all parts of the earth.
OFC	333	5	I saw the saints leaving the cities and villages, and associating together in companies, and living in the most solitary places. Angels provided them food and water, while the wicked were suffering from hunger and thirst.
OFC	333	6	During the night a very impressive scene passed before me. There seemed to be great confusion and the conflict of armies. A messenger from the Lord stood before me, and said, "Call your household. I will lead you; follow me." He led me down a dark passage, through a forest, then through the clefts of mountains, and said, "Here you are safe." There were others who had been led to this retreat. The heavenly messenger said. "The time of trouble has come as a thief in the night, as the Lord warned you it would come."
OFC	334	1	In the time of trouble just before the coming of Christ, the righteous will be preserved through the ministration of heavenly angels; but there will be no security for the transgressor of God's law. Angels cannot then protect those who are disregarding one of the divine precepts.
OFC	334	2	In the closing period of earth's history the Lord will work mightily in behalf of those who stand steadfastly for the right.... In the midst of the time of trouble--trouble such as has not been since there was a nation--His chosen ones will stand unmoved. Satan with all the hosts of evil cannot destroy the weakest of God's saints. Angels that excel in strength will protect them, and in their behalf Jehovah will reveal Himself as a "God of gods," able to save to the uttermost those who have put their trust in Him.
------------------------God's People Delivered, December 22
OFC	334	3	Thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. Isaiah 49:25.
OFC	334	4	When the protection of human laws shall be withdrawn from those who honor the law of God, there will be, in different lands, a simultaneous movement for their destruction. As the time appointed in the decree draws near, the people will conspire to root out the hated sect. It will be determined to strike in one night a decisive blow, which shall utterly silence the voice of dissent and reproof.
OFC	334	5	The people of God--some in prison cells, some hidden in solitary retreats in the forests and the mountains--still plead for divine protection, while in every quarter companies of armed men, urged on by hosts of evil angels, are preparing for the work of death. It is now, in the hour of utmost extremity, that the God of Israel will interpose for the deliverance of His chosen....
OFC	334	6	With shouts of triumph, jeering, and imprecation, throngs of evil men are about to rush upon their prey, when, lo, a dense blackness, deeper than the darkness of the night, falls upon the earth. Then a rainbow, shining with the glory from the throne of God, spans the heavens and seems to encircle each praying company. The angry multitudes are suddenly arrested. Their mocking cries die away. The objects of their murderous rage are forgotten. With fearful forebodings they gaze upon the symbol of God's covenant and long to be shielded from its overpowering brightness.
OFC	335	1	By the people of God a voice, clear and melodious, is heard saying, "Look up," and lifting their eyes to the heavens, they behold the bow of promise. The black, angry clouds that covered the firmament are parted, and like Stephen they look up steadfastly into heaven and see the glory of God and the Son of man seated upon His throne.
OFC	335	2	While all the world is plunged in darkness, there will be light in every dwelling of the saints. They will catch the first light of His second appearing.
------------------------The Day And Hour Of Christ's Coming Announced, December 23
OFC	335	3	But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Matthew 24:36.
OFC	335	4	The voice of God is heard from heaven, declaring the day and hour of Jesus' coming, and delivering everlasting covenant to His people. Like peals of loudest thunder His words roll through the earth.
OFC	335	5	He spoke one sentence, and then paused, while the words were rolling through the earth. The Israel of God stood with their eyes fixed upward, listening to the words as they came from the mouth of Jehovah and rolled through the earth like peals of loudest thunder. It was awfully solemn. At the end of every sentence the saints shouted, "Glory! Hallelujah!"
OFC	335	6	The living saints, 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake.
OFC	335	7	The Israel of God stand listening, with their eyes fixed upward. Their countenances are lighted up with His glory, and shine as did the face of Moses when he came down from Sinai. The wicked cannot look upon them. And when the blessing is pronounced on those who have honored God by keeping His Sabbath holy, there is a mighty shout of victory.
OFC	335	8	Then commenced the jubilee, when the land should rest.
OFC	335	9	A glorious light shone upon them [the saints]. How beautiful they then looked! All marks of care and weariness were gone, and health and beauty were seen in every countenance. Their enemies, the heathen around them, fell like dead men; they could not endure the light that shone upon the delivered, holy ones. This light and glory remained upon them, until Jesus was seen in the clouds of heaven.
OFC	335	10	And I saw a flaming cloud come where Jesus stood. Then Jesus ... took His place on the cloud which carried Him to the East, where it first appeared to the saints on earth--a small black cloud which was the sign of the Son of man. While the cloud was passing from the Holiest to the East, which took a number of days, the synagogue of Satan worshipped at the saint's feet.
------------------------The General Resurrection Of The Righteous, December 24
OFC	336	1	Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Isaiah 26:19.
OFC	336	2	The King of kings descends upon the cloud, wrapped in flaming fire. The heavens are rolled together as a scroll, the earth trembles before Him, and every mountain and island is moved out of its place....
OFC	336	3	Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then, raising His hands to heaven, He cries: "Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!" Throughout the length and breadth of the earth the dead shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live. And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. From the prison house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory, crying: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" 1 Corinthians 15:55. And the living righteous and the risen saints unite their voices in a long, glad shout of victory.
OFC	336	4	All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when they entered the tomb... But all arise with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth.... The mortal, corruptible form, devoid of comeliness, once polluted with sin, becomes perfect, beautiful, and immortal. All blemishes and deformities are left in the grave....
OFC	336	5	The living righteous are changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." At the voice of God they were glorified; now they are made immortal and with the risen saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air. Angels "gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
OFC	336	6	As the little infants come forth immortal from their dusty beds, they immediately wing their way to their mothers' arms.
OFC	336	7	Friends long separated by death are united, nevermore to part, and with songs of gladness ascend together to the City of God.
------------------------We Shall Recognize Each Other, December 25
OFC	337	1	Then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12.
OFC	337	2	We shall know our friends, even as the disciples knew Jesus. They may have been deformed, diseased, or disfigured, in this mortal life, and they rise in perfect health and symmetry; yet in the glorified body their identity will be perfectly preserved.... In the face radiant with the light shining from the face of Jesus, we shall recognize the lineaments of those we love.
OFC	337	3	The redeemed will meet and recognize those whose attention they have directed to the uplifted Saviour. What blessed converse they have with these souls! "I was a sinner," it will be said, "without God and without hope in the world, and you came to me and drew my attention to the precious Saviour as my only hope...." Others will say, "I was a heathen in heathen lands. You left your friends and comfortable home and came to teach me how to find Jesus and believe in Him as the only true God. I demolished my idols and worshiped God, and now I see Him face to face. I am saved, eternally saved, ever to behold Him whom I love...."
OFC	337	4	Others will express their gratitude to those who fed the hungry and clothed the naked. "When despair bound my soul in unbelief, the Lord sent you to me," they say, "to speak words of hope and comfort. You brought me food for my physical necessities, and you opened to me the Word of God, awakening me to my spiritual needs. You treated me as a brother. You sympathized with me in my sorrows, and restored my bruised and wounded soul, so that I could grasp the hand of Christ that was reached out to save me. In my ignorance you taught me patiently that I had a Father in heaven who cared for me. You read to me the precious promises of God's Word. You inspired in me the faith that He would save me. My heart was softened, subdued, broken, as I contemplated the sacrifice which Christ had made for me.... I am here, saved, eternally saved, ever to live in His presence and to praise Him who gave His life for me."
OFC	337	5	What rejoicing there will be as these redeemed ones meet and greet those who have had a burden in their behalf! And those who have lived, not to please themselves, but to be a blessing to the unfortunate who have so few blessings--how their hearts will thrill with satisfaction!
------------------------Families Will Be Reunited, December 26
OFC	338	1	Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. Jeremiah 31:16, 17.
OFC	338	2	Christ is coming with clouds and with great glory. A multitude of shining angels will attend Him. He will come to raise the dead, and to change the living saints from glory to glory. He will come to honor those who have loved Him, and kept His commandments, and to take them to Himself. He has not forgotten them nor His promise. There will be a relinking of the family chain.
OFC	338	3	The day of God will reveal how much the world owes to godly mothers....
OFC	338	4	When the judgment shall sit, and the books shall be opened; when the "well done" of the great Judge is pronounced, and the crown of immortal glory is placed upon the brow of the victor, many will raise their crowns in sight of the assembled universe, and pointing to their mother say: "She made me all I am through the grace of God. Her instruction, her prayers, have been blessed to my eternal salvation."
OFC	338	5	With joy unutterable, parents see the crown, the robe, the harp, given to their children. The days of hope and fear are ended. The seed sown with tears and prayers may have seemed to be sown in vain, but their harvest is reaped with joy at last. Their children have been redeemed.
OFC	338	6	Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood.
OFC	338	7	To His faithful followers Christ has been a daily companion and familiar friend. They have lived in close contact, in constant communion with God. Upon them the glory of the Lord has risen. In them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has been reflected. Now they rejoice in the undimmed rays of the brightness and glory of the King in His majesty. They are prepared for the communion of heaven; for they have heaven in their hearts.
------------------------Welcome To The City Of God, December 27
OFC	338	8	His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:23.
OFC	339	1	With unutterable love, Jesus welcomes His faithful ones to the joy of their Lord. The Saviour's joy is in seeing, in the kingdom of glory, the souls that have been saved by His agony and humiliation. And the redeemed will be sharers in His joy, as they behold, among the blessed, those who have been won to Christ through their prayers, their labors, and their loving sacrifice. As they gather about the great white throne, gladness unspeakable will fill their hearts, when they behold those whom they have won for Christ, and see that one has gained others, and these still others, all brought into the haven of rest, there to lay their crowns at Jesus' feet and praise Him through the endless cycles of eternity.
OFC	339	2	As the ransomed ones are welcomed to the City of God, there rings out upon the air an exultant cry of adoration. The two Adams are about to meet. The Son of God is standing with outstretched arms to receive the father of our race--the being whom He created, who sinned against his Maker, and for whose sin the marks of the crucifixion are borne upon the Saviour's form. As Adam discerns the prints of the cruel nails, he does not fall upon the bosom of his Lord, but in humiliation casts himself at His feet, crying: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" Tenderly the Saviour lifts him up and bids him look once more upon the Eden home from which he has so long been exiled.
OFC	339	3	After his expulsion from Eden, Adam's life on earth was filled with sorrow. Every dying leaf, every victim of sacrifice, every blight upon the fair face of nature, every stain upon man's purity, was a fresh reminder of his sin.... With patient humility he bore, for nearly a thousand years, the penalty of transgression. Faithfully did he repent of his sin and trust in the merits of the promised Saviour, and he died in the hope of a resurrection. The Son of God redeemed man's failure and fall; and now, through the work of the atonement, Adam is reinstated in his first dominion.
------------------------Think On Heavenly Things, December 28
OFC	339	4	These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 7:14.
OFC	339	5	John, while in vision, saw a company clothed in white robes.... They were seen in the temple of God. This will be the result for all who will lay hold of the merits of Christ and wash their robes in His blood. Every provision has been made so that we can sit with Christ upon His throne, but the condition is that we be in harmony with the law of God.... We cannot afford to lose heaven. We ought to have our conversation on heavenly things. There there is no death nor pain. Why are we so reluctant to talk of these things? Why do we dwell upon earthly things? The apostle exhorts us to have our conversation in heaven. "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20).... Christ will soon return to gather those who are prepared, and take them to this glorious place. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (Hebrews 9:28).
OFC	340	1	Do we love to think of this event or do we want to put it off? ... The more we talk of Jesus, the more we shall reflect His divine image. By beholding we become transformed. We need to bring Christ into our religious experience. When you assemble together, let the conversation be on Christ and His salvation.... The more we talk of Jesus the more of His matchless charms we shall behold.
OFC	340	2	Those who take no pleasure in thinking and talking of God in this life, will not enjoy the life that is to come, where God is ever present, dwelling among His people. But those who love to think of God will be in their element, breathing in the atmosphere of heaven. Those who on earth love the thought of heaven will be happy in its holy associations and pleasures.... "And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads" (Revelation 22:3, 4).
------------------------Only One Reminder Of Sin, December 29
OFC	340	3	Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner. Proverbs 11:31.
OFC	340	4	The wicked receive their recompense in the earth. Proverbs 11:31. They "shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts." Malachi 4:1. Some are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many days. All are punished "according to their deeds." The sins of the righteous having been transferred to Satan, he is made to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit. His punishment is to be far greater than that of those whom he has deceived. After all have perished who fell by his deceptions, he is still to live and suffer on. In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch--Satan the root, his followers the branches.
OFC	340	5	Satan and all who have joined him in rebellion will be cut off.... Then "the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be"; "they shall be as though they had not been." Psalm 37:10; Obadiah 16.
OFC	341	1	The justice of God is satisfied, and the saints and all the angelic host say with a loud voice, Amen.
OFC	341	2	While the earth is wrapped in the fire of God's vengeance, the righteous abide safely in the Holy City. Upon those that had part in the first resurrection, the second death has no power. (Revelation 20:6.) While God is to the wicked a consuming fire, He is to His people both a sun and a shield. (Psalm 84:11.)
OFC	341	3	The fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away. No eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful consequences of sin.
OFC	341	4	One reminder alone remains: our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion....
OFC	341	5	All that was lost by sin has been restored.... God's original purpose in the creation of the earth is fulfilled as it is made the eternal abode of the redeemed. "The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever." Psalm 37:29.
------------------------The Immortal Inheritance, December 30
OFC	341	6	Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Colossians 1:12, R.S.V.
OFC	341	7	The ransom has been paid, and it is possible for all to come to God, and through a life of obedience to attain unto everlasting life. Then how sad it is that men turn from the immortal inheritance, and live for the gratification of pride, for selfishness and display, and ... lose the blessing which they might have both in this life and in the life to come. They might enter into the palaces of heaven, and associate on terms of freedom and equality with Christ and heavenly angels, and with the princes of God; and yet, incredible as it may seem, they turn from heavenly attractions.
OFC	341	8	The Creator of all worlds proposes to love those who believe in His only-begotten Son as their personal Saviour, even as He loves His Son. Even here and now His gracious favor is bestowed upon us to this marvelous extent. He has given to men the gift of the Light and Majesty of heaven, and with Him He has bestowed all the treasures of heaven. Much as He has promised us for the life to come, He also bestows princely gifts upon us in this life, and as subjects of His grace, He would have us enjoy everything that will ennoble, expand, and elevate our characters. It is His design to fit us for the heavenly courts above.
OFC	341	9	But Satan is contending for the souls of men.... He would not have them catch a glimpse of the future honor, the eternal glories, laid up for those who shall be inhabitants of heaven, or have a taste of the experience that gives a foretaste of the happiness of heaven....
OFC	342	1	Those who accept Christ as their Saviour have the promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come.... The lowliest disciple of Christ may become an inhabitant of heaven, an heir of God to an inheritance incorruptible, and that fadeth not away. O that every one might make choice of the heavenly gift, become an heir of God to that inheritance whose title is secure from any destroyer, world without end! O, choose not the world, but choose the better inheritance! Press, urge your way toward the mark for the prize of your high calling in Christ Jesus.
------------------------Our Saviour's Highest Honor, December 31
OFC	342	2	And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Zechariah 13:6.
OFC	342	3	"I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." Revelation 21:1. The fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away....
OFC	342	4	One reminder alone remains: Our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in His glory: "He had bright beams coming out of his side: and there was the hiding of his power." Habakkuk 3:4, margin. That pierced side whence flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God--there is the Saviour's glory, there "the hiding of his power." ... And the tokens of His humiliation are His highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show forth His praise and declare His power.
OFC	342	5	The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. In Christ glorified they will behold Christ crucified. Never will it be forgotten that He whose power created and upheld the unnumbered worlds through the vast realms of space, the Beloved of God, the Majesty of heaven, He whom cherub and shining seraph delighted to adore--humbled Himself to uplift fallen man; that He bore the guilt and shame of sin, and the hiding of His Father's face, till the woes of a lost world broke His heart and crushed out His life on Calvary's cross. That the Maker of all worlds, the Arbiter of all destinies, should lay aside His glory and humiliate Himself from love to man will ever excite the wonder and adoration of the universe. As the nations of the saved look upon their Redeemer and behold the eternal glory of the Father shining in His countenance; as they behold His throne, which is from everlasting to everlasting, and know that His kingdom is to have no end, they break forth in rapturous song: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His own most precious blood!"

------------------------Our High Calling
OHC	7	1	Happy New Year! January 1
OHC	8	1	Which Way? January 2
OHC	9	1	Compassed With God's Mercy, January 3
OHC	10	1	Blessings to Cheer Us, January 4
OHC	11	1	Perils to Shun, January 5
OHC	12	1	The Bridge Love Built, January 6
OHC	13	1	The One Vast Gift of God, January 7
OHC	14	1	Calling All Youth! January 8
OHC	15	1	Mine to Choose, January 9
OHC	16	1	A Safe Guide, January 10
OHC	17	1	Children of the Heavenly King, January 11
OHC	18	1	Whosoever Means Me, January 12
OHC	19	1	Rich Currents of Grace, January 13
OHC	20	1	Look and Live, January 14
OHC	21	1	A Higher Standard, January 15
OHC	22	1	Strong in the Lord, January 16
OHC	23	1	Angels to Guard Us, January 17
OHC	24	1	Promises to those Who Obey, January 18
OHC	25	1	Our Only Safety, January 19
OHC	26	1	Light or Shadow? January 20
OHC	27	1	Hope for the Hopeless, January 21
OHC	28	1	Never Absent from the Mind of God, January 22
OHC	29	1	To Be Like Christ, January 23
OHC	30	1	Stay Close to Jesus, January 24
OHC	31	1	The Bible a Light for My Way, January 25
OHC	32	1	Truth in the Heart, January 26
OHC	33	1	Enjoyment of the Truth, January 27
OHC	34	1	Truth a Precious Treasure, January 28
OHC	35	1	The Bible Without a Rival, January 29
OHC	36	1	Sure Remedy for the Soul, January 30
OHC	37	1	Storing the Mind with Truth, January 31
OHC	38	1	Let Jesus Lead, February 1
OHC	39	1	Man More Precious Than Gold, February 2
OHC	40	1	I Am Not My Own, February 3
OHC	41	1	Purchase of Christ's Blood, February 4
OHC	42	1	God Wants His Own Property, February 5
OHC	43	1	Take Care of God's Property, February 6
OHC	44	1	Take God Into Your Counsel, February 7
OHC	45	1	The Cord Let Down from Heaven, February 8
OHC	46	1	The Center of my Hope, February 9
OHC	47	1	Efficacy of Christ's Blood, February 10
OHC	48	1	Christ's Humanity a Golden Chain, February 11
OHC	49	1	An Advocate with the Father, February 12
OHC	50	1	Connecting Link Between God and Man, February 13
OHC	51	1	Faultless in Christ's Perfection, February 14
OHC	52	1	The Faith that Justifies, February 15
OHC	53	1	Accepted in the Beloved, February 16
OHC	54	1	Our Redeemer a Tried Stone, February 17
OHC	55	1	Jesus Our Best Friend, February 18
OHC	56	1	Jesus is Always Near, February 19
OHC	57	1	Our Great Exemplar, February 20
OHC	58	1	Reflecting Christ's Image, February 21
OHC	59	1	In Love with Christ, February 22
OHC	60	1	To God Be the Glory, February 23
OHC	61	1	The Highest Exercise of Our Powers, February 24
OHC	62	1	Follow On to Know the Lord, February 25
OHC	63	1	The Girdle of Gladness, February 26
OHC	64	1	Life with a Purpose, February 27
OHC	65	1	Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory, February 28
OHC	66	1	Christ, the Ladder to Heaven, March 1
OHC	67	1	The Precious Treasure of Faith, March 2
OHC	68	1	Virtue and Knowledge, March 3
OHC	69	1	"And to Knowledge Temperance", March 4
OHC	70	1	The Perfect Work of Patience, March 5
OHC	71	1	"To Patience Godliness", March 6
OHC	72	1	The Virtue of Brotherly Kindness, March 7
OHC	73	1	Charity the Topmost Round, March 8
OHC	74	1	Make Your Calling and Election Sure, March 9
OHC	75	1	Holding Fast to Christ, the Ladder, March 10
OHC	76	1	The Privilege of Assurance, March 11
OHC	77	1	Chosen of God, March 12
OHC	78	1	Fullness of Christ's Ransom, March 13
OHC	79	1	God Calls for Our Best Affections, March 14
OHC	80	1	Which Captain? March 15
OHC	81	1	The Cause of All Our Woes, March 16
OHC	82	1	In Self-Distrust We Cry to God, March 17
OHC	83	1	Full Provision for Pardon, March 18
OHC	84	1	Building for Eternity, March 19
OHC	85	1	Give No Place to Temptation, March 20
OHC	86	1	Above the Fog of Doubt, March 21
OHC	87	1	Progressive Conquest of Evil, March 22
OHC	88	1	Beware of Satan's Devices, March 23
OHC	89	1	How Satan's Power is Broken, March 24
OHC	90	1	Not Saved by Proxy, March 25
OHC	91	1	God's Part and Mine, March 26
OHC	92	1	The Struggle of Unseen Forces, March 27
OHC	93	1	Christ's Example in Overcoming, March 28
OHC	94	1	How to Maintain Your Integrity! March 29
OHC	95	1	Success in Resistance, March 30
OHC	96	1	The Closer, the Safer, March 31
OHC	97	1	"Come Unto Me", April 1
OHC	98	1	Rest for the Restless, April 2
OHC	99	1	"Learn of Me", April 3
OHC	100	1	Wearing Christ's Yoke, April 4
OHC	101	1	Learning in Christ's School, April 5
OHC	102	1	Preparing for the Higher School, April 6
OHC	103	1	The True Force of the Will, April 7
OHC	104	1	When My Will is Safe, April 8
OHC	105	1	A Submissive Will, April 9
OHC	106	1	Cultivating God's Garden, April 10
OHC	107	1	In Unison with God, April 11
OHC	108	1	"Let this Mind be in You", April 12
OHC	109	1	The Influence of Mind on Mind, April 13
OHC	110	1	Entangled Minds, April 14
OHC	111	1	Preoccupying the Mind, April 15
OHC	112	1	Training the Thoughts, April 16
OHC	113	1	How to Discipline the Mind, April 17
OHC	114	1	Proper Level of the Human Mind, April 18
OHC	115	1	The Brightest Subject of Our Thoughts, April 19
OHC	116	1	Time for Meditation, April 20
OHC	117	1	What is Faith? April 21
OHC	118	1	Saved by God's Grace, April 22
OHC	119	1	Feeling Not a Safe Guide, April 23
OHC	120	1	Feeling and Faith Distinct, April 24
OHC	121	1	Faith that Works and Purifies, April 25
OHC	122	1	The Place of Good Works, April 26
OHC	123	1	Don't Be a Pretender, April 27
OHC	124	1	Hold Your Position Hour by Hour, April 28
OHC	125	1	Strength for Today, April 29
OHC	126	1	Victory After Victory, April 30
OHC	127	1	Prayer, the Channel of All Blessings, May 1
OHC	128	1	An Open Door to God's Throne, May 2
OHC	129	1	Blessings for Those Who Ask, May 3
OHC	130	1	Learn How to Pray, May 4
OHC	131	1	Seek God with All the Heart, May 5
OHC	132	1	Victory Through Watchfulness, May 6
OHC	133	1	Humble, Persevering Prayer, May 7
OHC	134	1	Wait for God's Answer, May 8
OHC	135	1	Mementos in Memory's Halls, May 9
OHC	136	1	On the Mount Before God, May 10
OHC	137	1	God's Law a Wall of Protection, May 11
OHC	138	1	A Complete Rule of Life, May 12
OHC	139	1	Weighing in for Heaven, May 13
OHC	140	1	Heart Allegiance, May 14
OHC	141	1	Blending the Law and Gospel, May 15
OHC	142	1	Pathway to Purity, May 16
OHC	143	1	An Enlightened Conscience, May 17
OHC	144	1	Fruit-Bearing Branches, May 18
OHC	145	1	Abiding in Christ, May 19
OHC	146	1	The Source of My Strength, May 20
OHC	147	1	Rejoicing in Assurance, May 21
OHC	148	1	Most Happy People on Earth, May 22
OHC	149	1	Friendship with Jesus, May 23
OHC	150	1	Jesus' Crowning Gift, May 24
OHC	151	1	Spirit Given on Condition, May 25
OHC	152	1	Christ's Representative, May 26
OHC	153	1	Yielding to the Spirit's Control, May 27
OHC	154	1	Revealer of Christ's Grace, May 28
OHC	155	1	The Time of the Spirit's Power, May 29
OHC	156	1	Pledge of Our Acceptance, May 30
OHC	157	1	Three Mighty Helpers, May 31
OHC	158	1	Summertime with God, June 1
OHC	159	1	The Sign of the New Heart, June 2
OHC	160	1	Beware of the Hard Heart, June 3
OHC	161	1	The Work of Heart-Keeping, June 4
OHC	162	1	Who Has Control of My Life? June 5
OHC	163	1	Soldiers on Life's Battlefield, June 6
OHC	164	1	The Court of Holy Life, June 7
OHC	165	1	In the Workshop of God, June 8
OHC	166	1	The Blessings of Christian Fellowship, June 9
OHC	167	1	One with the Church Above, June 10
OHC	168	1	Most Precious of All Meetings, June 11
OHC	169	1	Unity in Diversity, June 12
OHC	170	1	United in Christ, June 13
OHC	171	1	One Great Brotherhood, June 14
OHC	172	1	Victory Over Every Foe, June 15
OHC	173	1	The Golden Chain of Love, June 16
OHC	174	1	Under the Yoke of Christ, June 17
OHC	175	1	The Outflow of Love, June 18
OHC	176	1	The Silken Cord that Binds Hearts, June 19
OHC	177	1	Help for the Erring One, June 20
OHC	178	1	One to a Hundred, June 21
OHC	179	1	All Honor to the Peacemakers! June 22
OHC	180	1	No Caste with God, June 23
OHC	181	1	Root Out the Poisonous Plants, June 24
OHC	182	1	Helping One Another, June 25
OHC	183	1	The Grace of Sympathy, June 26
OHC	184	1	"Who is My Neighbour?", June 27
OHC	185	1	In the Footsteps of Jesus, June 28
OHC	186	1	Joy in Humble Service, June 29
OHC	187	1	The Precious Treasure of Time, June 30
OHC	188	1	More, More, More! July 1
OHC	189	1	The Peril of Prosperity, July 2
OHC	190	1	Agents to Relieve Distress, July 3
OHC	191	1	Nothing Too Precious to Give to God, July 4
OHC	192	1	How Does Your Account Stand? July 5
OHC	193	1	When Loss is Gain, July 6
OHC	194	1	A Curse or a Blessing? July 7
OHC	195	1	A Bank That Never Fails, July 8
OHC	196	1	The Smiles of God, July 9
OHC	197	1	The Gift God Accepts, July 10
OHC	198	1	God's Merciful Helping Hand, July 11
OHC	199	1	Sweetness of Self-Denial, July 12
OHC	200	1	A Test of Character, July 13
OHC	201	1	Do We Really Sacrifice? July 14
OHC	202	1	Truth an Antidote for Evil, July 15
OHC	203	1	With Eyes of Faith, July 16
OHC	204	1	Working the Mines of Truth, July 17
OHC	205	1	How to Study the Bible, July 18
OHC	206	1	The Bible Speaks to Me, July 19
OHC	207	1	"It is Written", July 20
OHC	208	1	Leaves from the Tree of Life, July 21
OHC	209	1	The Bread that Satisfies, July 22
OHC	210	1	As a Wall of Fire Against Temptation, July 23
OHC	211	1	Truth Continually Unfolding, July 24
OHC	212	1	Sanctifying Power of Truth, July 25
OHC	213	1	"Holier, Yea Holier Still", July 26
OHC	214	1	The Secret of Holiness, July 27
OHC	215	1	A Daily Experience in Conversion, July 28
OHC	216	1	In the Sunlight of Christ, July 29
OHC	217	1	How to Grow in Grace, July 30
OHC	218	1	"Almost to the Excellence of the Angels", July 31
OHC	219	1	Necessity of Self-Cultivation, August 1
OHC	220	1	Choosing My Lifework, August 2
OHC	221	1	Meditation with Diligent Work, August 3
OHC	222	1	The Peril of "Nothing to Do", August 4
OHC	223	1	The Blessing of Work, August 5
OHC	224	1	Sustained Versus Spasmodic Effort, August 6
OHC	225	1	God Concerned with Every Transaction, August 7
OHC	226	1	Cultivate Honesty, August 8
OHC	227	1	Great in God's Sight, August 9
OHC	228	1	Benefits of Regularity and Order, August 10
OHC	229	1	Big Little Things, August 11
OHC	230	1	Order and Cleanliness, August 12
OHC	231	1	Love's Fragrant Outreach, August 13
OHC	232	1	Why Look for Flaws? August 14
OHC	233	1	Criticism Not Our Work, August 15
OHC	234	1	Overcoming Envy and Jealousy, August 16
OHC	235	1	How to Deal with Anger, August 17
OHC	236	1	The Fragrant Touch of Courtesy, August 18
OHC	237	1	"A System of Truest Politeness", August 19
OHC	238	1	An Irresistible Influence, August 20
OHC	239	1	Cherishing the Spirit of Jesus, August 21
OHC	240	1	"Not Easily Provoked", August 22
OHC	241	1	Has Religion Made You Better? August 23
OHC	242	1	The Secret of Contentment, August 24
OHC	243	1	Watch Your Step! August 25
OHC	244	1	Habits and Character Building, August 26
OHC	245	1	Blessings Diffusive as Sunlight, August 27
OHC	246	1	Studying the Character of Christ, August 28
OHC	247	1	A Strong Fortress of Truth, August 29
OHC	248	1	The Way to Look at Things, August 30
OHC	249	1	Hold High the Standard, August 31
OHC	250	1	Reminders of Our Heavenly Home, September 1
OHC	251	1	Nature Speaks of God, September 2
OHC	252	1	A School for Mind and Morals, September 3
OHC	253	1	God's Great Reservoirs, September 4
OHC	254	1	Fragrance in our Lifework, September 5
OHC	255	1	A Pure Moral Atmosphere, September 6
OHC	256	1	Be Selective! September 7
OHC	257	1	Guard Your Affections, September 8
OHC	258	1	You Must Choose Your Company, September 9
OHC	259	1	A Friend to the Friendless, September 10
OHC	260	1	Graces Increased by Exercise, September 11
OHC	261	1	Make Your Mark in the World, September 12
OHC	262	1	The Home Training Ground, September 13
OHC	263	1	Teach the Source of True Happiness, September 14
OHC	264	1	Obedience an Element of Greatness, September 15
OHC	265	1	The Sacred Temple of the Body, September 16
OHC	266	1	The Sure Penalty of Self-Indulgence, September 17
OHC	267	1	The Light of Health Reform, September 18
OHC	268	1	A Perfected People, September 19
OHC	269	1	The Reward of Temperate Habits, September 20
OHC	270	1	A Sound Mind in a Sound Body, September 21
OHC	271	1	A Distinction in Dress, September 22
OHC	272	1	The Charm of Simplicity, September 23
OHC	273	1	A Mark of Christian Womanhood, September 24
OHC	274	1	The Beauty of Christlikeness, September 25
OHC	275	1	Consecrated Eyes, September 26
OHC	276	1	Be Careful What You Read, September 27
OHC	277	1	Chaff or Wheat? September 28
OHC	278	1	Walking with God in a Corrupt World, September 29
OHC	279	1	Youth to Stand Up for Christ, September 30
OHC	280	1	Don't Starve Your Soul! October 1
OHC	281	1	The Better Part, October 2
OHC	282	1	Youthful Zeal and Courage Needed, October 3
OHC	283	1	Are We Guilty? October 4
OHC	284	1	The Only Safe Amusements, October 5
OHC	285	1	Breaking the World's Enchantment, October 6
OHC	286	1	First Things First, October 7
OHC	287	1	Subject to God's Call, October 8
OHC	288	1	Heaven Cheap at Any Price, October 9
OHC	289	1	Talents for Everyone, October 10
OHC	290	1	How are you Using your Talents? October 11
OHC	291	1	Speech a Precious Talent, October 12
OHC	292	1	An Index to Character, October 13
OHC	293	1	When Silence is Eloquence, October 14
OHC	294	1	Words that Bring Sunshine and Joy, October 15
OHC	295	1	Words Like Apples of Gold, October 16
OHC	296	1	Christians Like the Sunlight, October 17
OHC	297	1	Let Your Light Shine, October 18
OHC	298	1	Faithful Where You Are, October 19
OHC	299	1	Character of Christ's Ambassadors, October 20
OHC	300	1	Do I Rightly Represent my Lord? October 21
OHC	301	1	Planting Seeds of Truth, October 22
OHC	302	1	Watch, Pray, Work, October 23
OHC	303	1	"To Every Man His Work", October 24
OHC	304	1	A Little Church in the Home, October 25
OHC	305	1	No Middle Ground in God's Service, October 26
OHC	306	1	Rewards of Service, October 27
OHC	307	1	Beware of Self-Confidence, October 28
OHC	308	1	Energy in the Christian Race, October 29
OHC	309	1	"Take Heed Unto Thyself", October 30
OHC	310	1	Laborers Together with God, October 31
OHC	311	1	Have You Counted the Cost? November 1
OHC	312	1	Will You Bear the Refiner's Fire? November 2
OHC	313	1	Joy Through Suffering with Christ, November 3
OHC	314	1	Token of the Everlasting Covenant, November 4
OHC	315	1	God Speaks Through the Silence, November 5
OHC	316	1	The Training Necessary for Heaven, November 6
OHC	317	1	God Knows What is Best, November 7
OHC	318	1	All Things Work Together, November 8
OHC	319	1	Seeing the Unseen, November 9
OHC	320	1	No Power can Separate from Christ, November 10
OHC	321	1	The Crucible of Trouble, November 11
OHC	322	1	A Jewel or a Pebble? November 12
OHC	323	1	God Measures Every Trial, November 13
OHC	324	1	Faith Must Pierce the Gloom, November 14
OHC	325	1	"I Tasted the Lord's Goodness", November 15
OHC	326	1	Rejoice! November 16
OHC	327	1	Peace in Affliction, November 17
OHC	328	1	Christ's Legacy of Peace, November 18
OHC	329	1	The Foundation of All True Peace, November 19
OHC	330	1	A Superficial Experience Not Enough, November 20
OHC	331	1	Rooted in Christ, November 21
OHC	332	1	No Taproot? November 22
OHC	333	1	The Stamina of Pure Religion, November 23
OHC	334	1	A Time to be Blind and Deaf, November 24
OHC	335	1	Let God's Hand Mold the Clay, November 25
OHC	336	1	Examine Yourselves, November 26
OHC	337	1	"Keep Thyself Pure", November 27
OHC	338	1	"On Unto Perfection", November 28
OHC	339	1	Seeing Him Who is Invisible, November 29
OHC	340	1	Charmed with Christ's Love, November 30
OHC	341	1	Show Your Colors! December 1
OHC	342	1	No Patchwork Religion! December 2
OHC	343	1	God's Special Sign, December 3
OHC	344	1	In the Testing Time, December 4
OHC	345	1	A Distinct and Peculiar People, December 5
OHC	346	1	High Time to Awake, December 6
OHC	347	1	Where Apostasy Begins, December 7
OHC	348	1	Am I a Laodicean? December 8
OHC	349	1	The Rags of Self-Righteousness, December 9
OHC	350	1	The Spotless Robe of Christ's Righteousness, December 10
OHC	351	1	A Message Full of Encouragement, December 11
OHC	352	1	Will You Open the Door? December 12
OHC	353	1	Victory is Assured, December 13
OHC	354	1	Unmoved in a Shaken World, December 14
OHC	355	1	A Crisis Before Us, December 15
OHC	356	1	Are You Ready for the Testing? December 16
OHC	357	1	Out of the Lion's Mouth, December 17
OHC	358	1	In the Midst of the Fire, December 18
OHC	359	1	The Struggle Against Wind and Tide, December 19
OHC	360	1	The Most Dangerous of Foes, December 20
OHC	361	1	The Cross Before the Crown, December 21
OHC	362	1	On Guard Every Moment, December 22
OHC	363	1	Crowns for the Faithful, December 23
OHC	364	1	Aim High! December 24
OHC	365	1	The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, December 25
OHC	366	1	Filled with God's Fullness, December 26
OHC	367	1	Almost Home! December 27
OHC	368	1	In the Inner Circle, December 28
OHC	369	1	Let's Take Inventory, December 29
OHC	370	1	Bury All Bitterness, December 30
OHC	371	1	The Prize of Our High Calling, December 31

------------------------Happy New Year! January 1
OHC	7	1	So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Psalm 90:12.
OHC	7	2	Another year of life is now in the past. A new year is opening before us. What will be its record? What will we each inscribe upon its spotless pages? The manner in which we spend each passing day will decide this question....
OHC	7	3	Let us enter upon the new year with our hearts cleansed from the defilement of selfishness and pride. Let us put away every sinful indulgence, and seek to become faithful, diligent learners in the school of Christ. A new year opens its unsullied pages before us. What shall we write upon them? ...
OHC	7	4	Seek to begin this year with right purposes and pure motives, as beings who are accountable to God. Ever bear in mind that your acts are daily passing into history by the pen of the recording angel. You must meet them again when the Judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened....
OHC	7	5	If we connect with God, the source of peace, and light, and truth, His Spirit will flow through us as a channel, to refresh and bless all around us. This may be the last year of life to us. Shall we not enter upon it with thoughtful consideration? Shall not sincerity, respect, benevolence, mark our deportment toward all?
OHC	7	6	Let us withhold nothing from Him who gave His precious life for us.... Let us all consecrate to God the property He has entrusted to us. Above all, let us give Him ourselves, a freewill offering.
OHC	7	7	May the beginning of this year be a time that shall never be forgotten--a time when Christ shall come in among us, and say, "Peace be unto you." John 20:19. Brethren and sisters, I wish you, one and all, a happy new year. "We live in deeds, not years; In thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best."
------------------------Which Way? January 2
OHC	8	1	Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:13, 14.
OHC	8	2	Before you are two ways--the broad road of self-indulgence and the narrow path of self-sacrifice. Into the broad road you can take selfishness, pride, love of the world; but those who walk in the narrow way must lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset. Which road have you chosen--the road which leads to everlasting death, or the road which leads to glory and immortality?
OHC	8	3	There never was a more solemn time in the history of the world than the time in which we are now living. Our eternal interests are at stake, and we should arouse to the importance of making our calling and election sure. We dare not risk our eternal interests on mere probabilities. We must be in earnest. What we are, what we are doing, what is to be our course of action in the future, are all questions of untold moment, and we cannot afford to be listless, indifferent, unconcerned. It becomes each one of us to inquire, "What is eternity to me?" Are our feet in the path that leads to heaven, or in the broad road that leads to perdition? ...
OHC	8	4	Those who make a success of the Christian life will count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Only those who are abiding in Christ can know what true life is. They realize the value of true religion. They have brought their talents of influence and means and ability to the altar of consecration, seeking only to know and do the will of Him who has died to redeem them. They know that the path they must travel is strait and narrow, and that they will have to meet many obstacles and temptations, as they resist the enticements of the broader road that leads to ruin; but they will discern the footsteps of Jesus, and press onward toward the mark for the prize of the high calling in their Lord and Saviour. They will choose the royal way that leads to heaven.
------------------------Compassed With God's Mercy, January 3
OHC	9	1	Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Psalm 32:10.
OHC	9	2	We often think that those who serve God have more trials than the unbeliever, and that the path marked out for them to travel in is rugged.... But does the sinner enjoy his worldly pleasure and enjoyment unalloyed? Oh, no. There are times when the sinner is fearfully troubled. He fears God but does not love Him.
OHC	9	3	Are the wicked free from disappointment, perplexity, earthly losses, poverty, and distress? Many of them suffer a lingering sickness, yet have no strong and mighty One to lean upon, no strengthening grace from a higher power to support them in their weakness. They lean upon their own strength. They obtain no consolation by looking forward to the future, but a fearful uncertainty torments them; and thus they close their eyes in death, not finding any pleasure in looking forward to the resurrection morn, for they have no cheering hope that they shall have part in the first resurrection....
OHC	9	4	The Christian is subject to sickness, disappointment, poverty, reproach, and distress. Yet amid all this he loves God, he chooses to do His will, and prizes nothing so highly as His approbation. In the conflicting trials and changing scenes of this life, he knows that there is One who knows it all, One who will bend His ear low to the cry of the sorrowful and distressed, One who can sympathize with every sorrow and soothe the keen anguish of every heart....
OHC	9	5	Amid all his affliction, the Christian has strong consolation. And if God permits him to suffer a lingering, distressing sickness before he closes his eyes in death, he can with cheerfulness bear it all.... He contemplates the future with heavenly satisfaction. A short rest in the grave, and then the Life-giver will break the fetters of the tomb, release the captive, and bring him from his dusty bed immortal, never more to know pain, sorrow, or death. Oh, what a hope is the Christian's! Let this hope of the Christian be mine. Let it be yours.
------------------------Blessings to Cheer Us, January 4
OHC	10	1	Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Psalm 31:19.
OHC	10	2	God scatters blessings all along our path to brighten our journey and lead our hearts out to love and praise Him, and He wants us to draw water from the well of salvation that our hearts may be refreshed. We may sing the songs of Zion, we may cheer our own hearts, and we may cheer the hearts of others; hope may be strengthened, darkness turned to light. God has not left us in a dark world--as pilgrims and strangers seeking a better country, even an heavenly--without giving us precious promises to lighten every burden. The borders of our path are strewn with fair flowers of promise. They blossom all around, sending forth rich fragrance.
OHC	10	3	How many blessings we lose because we slight and overlook the blessings we daily receive, yearning for that which we have not. Common mercies which thickly strew our pathway are forgotten and undervalued. We may learn lessons from the humble things of God in nature. The flower in dark and humble places responds to all the rays of light it can get, and puts forth its leaves. The caged bird sings in the prison cage, in the sunless tenement, as if in the lordly, sunny dwelling. God knows whether we will make a wise and saving use of His blessings; He will never give them to us to abuse. God loves the thankful heart, trusting implicitly in His words of promise, gathering comfort and hope and peace from them; and He will reveal to us still greater depths of His love.
OHC	10	4	If we praised God's holy name as we should, the flame of love would be kindled in many hearts.... The praise of God should continually be in our hearts and on our lips. This is the very best way to resist the temptation to indulge in idle, frivolous conversation.
OHC	10	5	The Lord would have us look up, and be grateful to Him that there is a heaven.... Let us grasp by living faith the rich promises of God, and be thankful from morning till night.
------------------------Perils to Shun, January 5
OHC	11	1	O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Jeremiah 10:23.
OHC	11	2	The road through Knight's Canyon, always perilous to the inexperienced traveler, is often impassable in the rainy season. [Account of a journey from Healdsburg to St. Helena, California, made by Mrs. White and a friend, in December, 1881. Friends drove ahead to guide them through a dangerous pass.] We were very thankful for a pilot in this part of our journey. I dared not look either to the right or left to view the scenery, but, holding the lines firmly, and guiding my horse in the narrow passage, I followed our leader. Carelessness here would have been fatal. Had our horse turned out of the right path, we should have plunged down a steep precipice, into the ravine below.
OHC	11	3	As we rode along in almost breathless silence, I could but think how forcibly this dangerous ride illustrates the Christian's experience. We are making life's journey amid the perils of the last days. We need to watch carefully every step, and to be sure that we are following our great Leader. Skepticism, infidelity, dissipation, and crime are on every hand. It would be an easy matter to let go the reins of self-control, and plunge over the precipice to sure destruction....
OHC	11	4	Infinite Love has cast up a pathway upon which the ransomed of the Lord may pass from earth to heaven. That path is the Son of God. Angel guides are sent to direct our erring feet. Heaven's glorious ladder is let down in every man's path, barring his way to vice and folly. He must trample upon a crucified Redeemer ere he can pass onward to a life of sin. Our heavenly Father's voice is calling us, Come up hither.... The humble, trusting ones are guided and protected in the way of peace. But He who is infinite in wisdom compels none to accept Heaven's most precious gift--compels none to walk in the path which has been cast up at such a cost. Every one is permitted to choose for himself the narrow, shining steep that leads to heaven, or that broader and easier way which ends in death.
------------------------The Bridge Love Built, January 6
OHC	12	1	Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10.
OHC	12	2	God's love for the world was not manifest because He sent His Son, but because He loved the world He sent His Son into the world that divinity clothed with humanity might touch humanity, while divinity lays hold of divinity. Though sin had produced a gulf between man and his God, a divine benevolence provided a plan to bridge that gulf. And what material did He use? A part of Himself. The brightness of the Father's glory came to a world all seared and marred with the curse, and in His own divine character, in His own divine body, bridged the gulf.... The windows of heaven were opened and the showers of heavenly grace in healing streams came to our benighted world....
OHC	12	3	Had God given us less we could not have been saved. But He gave to our world so abundantly that it could not be said that He could love us more. Then how foolish is the position taken that there is to be a second probation after the first is exhausted. God has exhausted His benevolence ... in pouring out all heaven to man in one great gift. Only in comprehending the value of this offering can we comprehend infinity. O the breadth and height and depth of the love of God! Who of finite beings can comprehend it? ...
OHC	12	4	God claims the whole of the affections of man, the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole mind, the whole strength. He lays claim to all that there is of man, because He has poured out the whole treasure of heaven by giving us His all at once, reserving nothing greater that heaven can do....
OHC	12	5	When I commence writing on this subject, I go on and on, and try to get beyond the outer edge, but I fail. When we shall reach the mansions above, Jesus will Himself lead the white-robed ones, made white in the blood of the Lamb, to the Father. "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." Revelation 7:15.
------------------------The One Vast Gift of God, January 7
OHC	13	1	Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. 2 Corinthians 9:15.
OHC	13	2	Those who receive Christ by faith will be looked upon by Heaven as precious pearls for which the merchantman has paid an infinite price, and the human agents who find Christ will realize that they have found a heavenly treasure. They will be anxious to sell all that they have in order to buy the field which contains this treasure. As they contemplate the love of God, as the plan of salvation opens to their view, as the mystery of Christ's condescension becomes plainer to them, as they see the sacrifice that He made for them, they count nothing too dear to give up for His sake. The more they dwell upon the wonderful love of God, the vaster becomes its proportion, and the brightness of the glory of God becomes too glorious for mortal vision.
OHC	13	3	The Lord God of heaven collected all the riches of the universe, and laid them down in order to purchase the pearl of lost humanity. The Father gave all His divine resources into the hands of Christ in order that the richest blessings of heaven might be poured out upon a fallen race. God could not express greater love than He has expressed in giving the Son of His bosom to this world. This gift was given to man to convince him that God had left nothing undone that He could do, that there is nothing held in reserve, but that all heaven has been poured out in one vast gift. The present and eternal happiness of man consists in receiving God's love, and in keeping God's commandments.
OHC	13	4	Christ is our redeemer. He is the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. He is the fountain in which we may be washed and cleansed from all impurity. He is the costly sacrifice that has been given for the reconciliation of man. The universe of heaven, the worlds unfallen, the fallen world, and the confederacy of evil cannot say that God could do more for the salvation of man than He has done. Never can His gift be surpassed, never can He display a richer depth of love. Calvary represents His crowning work.... The Lord would have His followers enraptured with God through the knowledge of His paternal character.
------------------------Calling All Youth! January 8
OHC	14	1	For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth. Psalm 71:5.
OHC	14	2	Jesus calls to every wanderer, "My son, give me thine heart." Proverbs 23:26.... The youth cannot be happy without the love of Jesus. He is waiting with pitying tenderness to hear the confessions of the wayward, and to accept their penitence. He watches for some return of gratitude from us, as the mother watches for the smile of recognition from her beloved child. The great God teaches us to call Him Father. He would have us understand how earnestly and tenderly His heart yearns over us in all our trials and temptations....
OHC	14	3	The young should be constantly growing in grace, and in a knowledge of the truth. The Creator of all things, with whom are all the treasures of wisdom, has promised to be the guide of their youth. He who has conquered in their behalf all the powers of evil asks for their homage. There can be no higher knowledge than the knowledge of Him whom to know aright is life and peace; no purer, deeper affection than the love of our Saviour....
OHC	14	4	There are temptations on every hand to ensnare the feet of the unwary. Ungodly, corrupt youth exert a strong influence to lead others into forbidden paths. These are among the most successful agents of Satan.... The lovers of the world will often approach under a garb of friendship, and attempt to introduce its customs and practices. Let every true soldier stand ready to resist these allurements....
OHC	14	5	Satan attacks us at our weak points; but we need not be overcome. The assault may be severe and protracted, but God has promised help for us, and in His strength we may conquer.... The precepts and promises of God's word will arm you with divine power to resist the enemy.... Satan will be baffled and defeated when he finds the heart preoccupied with the truth of God. We need also to be often found at the throne of grace. Earnest, persevering prayer, uniting our human weakness to Omnipotence, will give us the victory.
------------------------Mine to Choose, January 9
OHC	15	1	And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; ... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15.
OHC	15	2	In our world there are two classes. One is made up of those who behold a crucified and risen Saviour. The other includes all who have chosen to look away from the cross, and to follow the leadings of satanic influences. The latter class are busily engaged in putting stumbling blocks before God's people, to cause them to fall, and turn from the path of obedience into the broad way of disobedience and death....
OHC	15	3	Many choose unrighteousness because Satan presents it in such a way that it seems attractive to those who are not on guard against his wiles. And he works in a special manner through unsanctified men and women who profess to be children of God. In some way or other the enemy will seek to deceive all, even the very elect. Only as we are partakers of the divine nature can we escape the corrupting influences that are brought to bear upon us by the enemy of our souls.
OHC	15	4	As Satan seeks to break down the barriers of the soul, by tempting us to indulge in sin, we must by living faith retain our connection with God, and have confidence in His strength to enable us to overcome every besetment. We are to flee from evil, and seek righteousness, meekness, and holiness....
OHC	15	5	It is time for every one of us to decide whose side we are on. The agencies of Satan will work with every mind that will allow itself to be worked by him. But there are also heavenly agencies waiting to communicate the bright rays of the glory of God to all who are willing to receive Him.
OHC	15	6	It is ours to choose whether we will be numbered with the servants of Christ or the servants of Satan. Every day we show by our conduct whose service we have chosen....
OHC	15	7	Dear young reader, what choice have you made? What is the record of your daily life?
------------------------A Safe Guide, January 10
OHC	16	1	Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12.
OHC	16	2	All who are traveling the road to heaven need a safe guide. We must not walk in human wisdom. It is our privilege to listen to the voice of Christ speaking to us as we walk the journey of life, and His words are always words of wisdom....
OHC	16	3	Satan is working with great diligence to compass the ruin of the souls of men. He has come down with great power, knowing that he has but a short time to work. Our only safety lies in following closely after Christ, walking in His wisdom, and practicing His truth. We cannot always readily detect the working of Satan; we do not know where he lays his traps. But Jesus understands the subtle arts of the enemy, and He can keep our feet in safe paths.... "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6) Christ declares.
OHC	16	4	What would be the use of a way direct and sure in its course to glory, if no light of truth shone upon that path, that travelers should desire it? What would be the use of truth shining on the way if there was no life in the persons that walked in the way, in the pilgrims' journey from the earthly to the heavenly? Having the statement of Christ, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," all who believe in Jesus, the Leader, may in confidence walk heavenward, sure that they are in the path outlined in the Word as the way.
OHC	16	5	Christ, His character and work, is the center and circumference of all truth. He is the chain upon which the jewels of doctrine are linked. In Him is found the complete system of truth.
OHC	16	6	Those who walk in obedience will know what truth is....In order to know the truth, we must be willing to obey. Those whose affections are placed on the world are not willing to give up their plans for the plans of Christ. They walk in darkness, not knowing whither they go.
OHC	16	7	The precious light of truth flashes upon the pathway of everyone who seeks for it.
------------------------Children of the Heavenly King, January 11
OHC	17	1	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 1 John 3:1.
OHC	17	2	Let no one feel that he is stepping down in becoming a child of God. It was the only begotten Son of God who stepped down.... Leaving His splendor, His majesty, His high command, and clothing His divinity with humanity, that humanity might touch humanity, and divinity lay hold upon divinity, He came to this earth, and in our behalf suffered the death of the cross....
OHC	17	3	Christ has made an infinite sacrifice. He gave His own life for us. He took upon His divine soul the result of the transgression of God's law. Laying aside His royal crown, He condescended to step down, step by step, to the level of fallen humanity. He hung upon Calvary's cross, dying in our behalf, that we might have eternal life.... Does it seem a small thing that He should endure all this, that we might be called the sons of God? Does it seem a small thing to you to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King, partakers of an immortal inheritance?
OHC	17	4	Such is the infinite goodness of God that through Jesus Christ's merits He not only spares but pardons and justifies us, and through the righteousness of Christ imputes righteousness to us, and exalts and ennobles us by making us children of His adoption. We become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. He lifts men and women from their degradation and exalts them in righteousness.... He calls them His jewels, and a peculiar treasure unto Him. They are trophies of His grace and power, and of His greatness and riches in glory. They therefore are not their own, but are bought with a price, and through the extraordinary office of the atonement of Christ have been brought into nearness and the most sacred relationship to Jesus Christ. They are called His heritage, His children, the members of Christ's body, of His flesh and of His bones; yea, they are joined to the Lord by intimate relationship with Him.
------------------------Whosoever Means Me, January 12
OHC	18	1	For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
OHC	18	2	We should contemplate the love of Jesus, His mission and His work in reference to us as individuals. We are to say, Jesus so loved me that He gave His own life to save me. The Father loves me, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It becomes us to ascertain upon what terms Christ promises the gift of eternal life. I answer, It is upon our faith.
OHC	18	3	The gift of God's dear Son makes the promises of God ours of a surety.
OHC	18	4	How many can say, "He saves me"? I know that He wants that I should be saved. He looks upon me as of value in His sight, and therefore I know that my thoughts, my words, and my works, all pass in review before Him. Everything that is connected with the purchase of the blood of Christ is of value in the sight of God. By the price paid for our redemption we are under obligation to devote our entire affections to Christ. We are to give God all there is of us; and in giving to God our all, are we to consider that we sustain a great loss?--No, for in giving to Him our talents, we are doubling them. Every gift He has given to us, when returned to Him, receives His blessing, that it may have increased influence in the work of God. Wherever you may be, you are to realize that you belong to Christ.
OHC	18	5	The gift of Christ to the world was beyond computation, and no power could compete with God by giving a gift that would bear any comparison to the value of heaven's best treasure. The greatness of this gift was to furnish men with a theme of thanksgiving and praise that would last through time and through eternity. Having given His all in Christ, God lays claim to the heart, mind, soul, and strength of man. Looking upon the treasure which God has provided in the full and complete gift of Christ, we can exclaim: "Herein is love!"
------------------------Rich Currents of Grace, January 13
OHC	19	1	And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8.
OHC	19	2	Is it not wonderful that we can receive the rich current of grace from Deity, and work in harmony with Deity? What does Deity want with us, poor, weak, and feeble as we are? What can Deity do with us? Everything, if we are willing to surrender all. God loves every youth. He knows all about your trials. He knows that you have to battle against the powers of darkness, who strive to gain control of the human mind.
OHC	19	3	God's purpose for His children is that they shall grow to the full stature of men and women in Christ. In order to do this, we must use aright every power of mind and soul and body. We cannot afford to waste any mental or physical strength....
OHC	19	4	Satan has summoned the hosts of darkness to war against the saints. We cannot afford to be indifferent to his attacks. He comes in many ways, and we must have clear spiritual discernment, that we may be able to discern when he is seeking to gain possession of our minds. God calls on those on whom the light of truth is shining to take their stand in His army. He calls upon them to show their loyalty by walking in the light He has given.
OHC	19	5	The Lord desires you to understand the position you occupy as sons and daughters of the Most High, children of the heavenly King. He desires you to live in close connection with Him.... Cut away from everything frivolous. Do not think that you must indulge in this pleasure and that pleasure. Determine that you will be on the Lord's side....
OHC	19	6	Take firm hold of the arm of Divine power.... Harness your habits. Put on the bit and bridle. Say, "I love the Lord, and I am determined to use every particle of my intelligence in His work."...
OHC	19	7	If you will stand under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel, faithfully doing His service, you need never yield to temptation; for One stands by your side who is able to keep you from falling.
------------------------Look and Live, January 14
OHC	20	1	As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:14, 15.
OHC	20	2	The same lesson that Christ bade Moses to give to the children of Israel in the wilderness is for all such souls suffering under the plague spot of sin. From the billowy cloud Christ spoke to Moses and told him to make a brazen serpent and place it upon a pole, and then bid all that were bitten with the fiery serpents to look and live. What if, in the place of looking as Christ commanded them, they had said, "I do not believe it will do me the least bit of good to look. I am too great a sufferer from the sting of the poisonous serpent." Obedience was the object to be gained, implicit and blind obedience, without stopping to inquire the reason or the science of the matter. Christ's word was, "Look and live"....
OHC	20	3	We want clear views of what Jesus is to us. We want to have distinct views of the victories gained in our behalf. He spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly. He broke the fetters of the tomb and came forth to take again His life that He laid down for us. He ascended on high, having led captivity captive and received gifts for men. All this suffering He endured for us....He will be our helper and He will be our refuge in every time of need. He should be revealed in our Christian experience as all-sufficient, a present Saviour.
OHC	20	4	Only look and live. We dishonor God when we do not go forth from the dark cellar of doubts unto the upper chamber of hope and faith. When the Light shineth in all its brightness let us take hold on Jesus Christ by the mighty hand of faith. No longer cultivate your doubts by expressing them and pouring them into other minds, and thus becoming an agent of Satan to sow the seeds of doubt. Talk faith, live faith, cultivate love to God; evidence to the world all that Jesus is to you. Magnify His holy name. Tell of His goodness; talk of His mercy, and tell of His power.
------------------------A Higher Standard, January 15
OHC	21	1	The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10.
OHC	21	2	What fullness is expressed in the words, "I am the light of the world." John 8:12. "I am the bread of life." John 6:35. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 14:6. "I am the good shepherd." John 10:14. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10. This life is what we must have, and we must have it more abundantly. God will breathe this life into every soul that dies to self and lives to Christ. But entire self-renunciation is required. Unless this takes place, we carry with us the evil that destroys our happiness. But when self is crucified, Christ lives in us, and the power of the Spirit attends our efforts.
OHC	21	3	I wish we could be what God would have us--all light in the Lord. We need to reach a higher standard, but we can never do this until self is laid on the altar, until we let the Holy Spirit control us, molding and fashioning us according to the divine similitude....
OHC	21	4	We must daily consecrate ourselves to God's service. We must come to God in faith.... We need to humble ourselves before God. It is self that we have first to do with. Criticize the heart closely. Search it to see what hinders the free access of God's Spirit. We must receive the Holy Ghost. Then we shall have power to prevail with God.
OHC	21	5	A mere assent to truth is not enough. Daily we must live the truth. We must shut ourselves in with God, surrendering all to Him. To listen to the great and grand truths of the Word is not enough. We must ask ourselves the question, Does Christ dwell in my heart by faith? He alone can show us our necessity and reveal the dignity and glory of the truth. At the altar of self-sacrifice--the appointed place of meeting between God and the soul--we receive from the hand of God the celestial torch which searches the heart, revealing its great need of an abiding Christ.
------------------------Strong in the Lord, January 16
OHC	22	1	The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? ... Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. Psalm 27:1, 3.
OHC	22	2	We are passing through an enemy's land. Foes are upon every side to hinder our advancement. They hate God and all who follow after Him and bear His name. But those who are our enemies are the Lord's enemies, and although they are strong and artful, yet the Captain of our salvation who leadeth us can vanquish them. As the sun disperses the clouds from its path, so will the Sun of Righteousness remove the obstacles to our progress. We may cheer our souls by looking at the things unseen which will cheer and animate us in our journey....
OHC	22	3	If we cling to Him by living faith, saying with Jacob, "I will not let thee go" (Genesis 32:26); if we entreat, "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me," (Psalm 51:11), the promise is to us, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee"....
OHC	22	4	We have read an account of a noble prince who carried the picture of his father always near his heart and on important occasions when there was danger of forgetting him, he would take out the likeness and view it and say, "Let me do nothing unbecoming so excellent a father." As Christians, God has claims upon us that we should never, never lose sight of for a moment; and as we are His children by adoption, how careful should we be that we retain His image and do nothing that will belittle or degrade our holy calling, for we rank among the royal family. God has made us as vessels unto honor, prepared unto every good work. "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise." Isaiah 43:21. God's people are called a crown, a diadem. Satan would eagerly seize the Lord's treasure, but God has secured it so that Satan cannot obtain it. "Thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God." Isaiah 62:3. We are secure, perfectly secure from the enemy's subtlety while we have unwavering trust in God."
------------------------Angels to Guard Us, January 17
OHC	23	1	For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Psalm 91:11.
OHC	23	2	Oh, that we could all realize the nearness of heaven to earth! When the earthborn children know it not, they have the angels of light as their companions; for the heavenly messengers are sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. A silent witness guards every soul that lives, seeking to win and draw him to Christ. The angels never leave the tempted one a prey to the enemy who would destroy the souls of men if permitted to do so. As long as there is hope, until they resist the Holy Spirit to their eternal ruin, men are guarded by heavenly intelligences.
OHC	23	3	Oh, that all could behold our precious Saviour as He is, a Saviour. Let His hand draw aside the veil which conceals His glory from our eyes. It shows Him in His high and holy place. What do we see? Our Saviour, not in a position of silence and inactivity. He is surrounded with heavenly intelligences, cherubim, and seraphim, ten thousand times ten thousand of angels. All these heavenly beings have one object above all others, in which they are intensely interested--His church in a world of corruption.... They are working for Christ under His commission, to save to the uttermost all who look to Him and believe in Him.
OHC	23	4	Heavenly angels are commissioned to watch the sheep of Christ's pasture. When Satan with his deceptive snares would deceive if possible the very elect, these angels set in operation influences that will save the tempted souls if they will take heed to the Word of the Lord, realize their danger, and say, "No, I will not enter into that scheme of Satan. I have an Elder Brother on the throne in heaven, who has shown that He has a tender interest in me, and I will not grieve His heart of love."
OHC	23	5	Living amid these opposing forces, we may through the exercise of faith and prayer, call to our side a retinue of heavenly angels, who will guard us from every corrupting influence.
------------------------Promises to those Who Obey, January 18
OHC	24	1	Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. Exodus 19:5.
OHC	24	2	This pledge was given not only to Israel but to all who are obedient to God's Word. Those who live amid the perils of the last days may realize that just as at the beginning of their experience the truth united them to the Saviour, so He who is the author and finisher of their faith will perfect the work He has begun for them. God is faithful, by whom we are called to fellowship with His Son. As men and women cooperate with God in doing the work He has given them, they go forward from strength to greater strength. As they exercise simple faith, believing day by day that God will not fail to establish them in Christ, God says to them as He did to ancient Israel: "Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth." Deuteronomy 7:6.
OHC	24	3	Thus God is able and willing to lead all who will be led. He desires to teach each one a lesson of constant trust, unwavering faith, and unquestioning submission. He says to each one, I am the Lord thy God. Walk with Me, and I will fill thy path with light....
OHC	24	4	But God requires obedience to all His commands. The only way in which it is possible for men to be happy is by rendering obedience to the laws of God's kingdom.
OHC	24	5	Life, with its privileges and endowments, is God's gift. Let us remember that all we have comes from God, and is to be wholly and freely consecrated to Him. Paul declares, "I count all things but loss for the excellency of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith." Philippians 3:8. The sacrifice of our ideas, our will, is necessary if we would be one with Christ in God. All we have and are must be laid at Christ's feet.
------------------------Our Only Safety, January 19
OHC	25	1	The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Proverbs 29:25.
OHC	25	2	You are safe only as you trust in God. We have a vigilant foe to contend against.... He [Christ] saw that it was not possible for man to overcome the powerful foe in his own strength, therefore He came in person from the courts of heaven and bore in behalf of man the test that Adam failed to endure.... Christ overcame Satan, making it possible for man to overcome on his own behalf in the name of Christ. But the victory can only be gained in Christ's name, through His grace. When burdened, when pressed with temptation, when the feelings and desires of the natural heart are clamoring for the victory, earnest, fervent, importunate prayer in the name of Christ brings Jesus to your side as a helper, and through His name you gain the victory and Satan is vanquished....
OHC	25	3	I implore you to trust wholly in God. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." James 4:7, 8. The Christian life is a life of conflict, or self-denial and conquest. It is a continual battle and a march. Every act of obedience to Christ, every victory obtained over self, is a step in the march to glory and final victory. Take Christ for your Guide and He will lead you safely along. The pathway may be rough and thorny and the ascents steep, requiring toil. You may have to press on when weary, when you long for rest. You may have to fight on when faint and hope on when discouraged, but, with Christ as your Guide, you cannot lose the path of immortal life. You cannot fail to reach the exalted seat by the side of your Guide, whose own feet trod the rough path before you, evening the way for your feet. If you follow pride and selfish ambition you will find it pleasant at first, but the end is pain and sorrow. You may follow selfishness, which will promise you much but will poison and embitter your life. To follow Christ is safe. He will not suffer the powers of darkness to hurt one hair of your head. Trust in your Redeemer and you are safe.
------------------------Light or Shadow? January 20
OHC	26	1	Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20.
OHC	26	2	God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If there were no light, there would be no shade. But while the shade comes by the sun, it is not created by it. It is some obstruction that causes the shadow. So darkness emanates not from God, but is the result of an intruding object between the soul and God.... Disregard of the light that God has given brings the sure result. It creates a shadow, a darkness that is more dark because of the light which has been sent.... If a man withdraws himself from light and evidence, and yields to Satan's seducing arts, he himself draws the curtain of unbelief about him, so that light cannot be distinguished from darkness. More light and evidence would only be misunderstood by him. The greater the evidence, the greater will be the indifference. This will lead the deceived soul to call darkness light and truth error.
OHC	26	3	Satan is constantly working to lead men to deny the light. It is but a step from the straightforward path to a diverging one, in which Satan leads the way, and where light is all darkness, and darkness light. ... It is a dangerous thing to open the heart to unbelief, for it drives the Spirit of God away from the heart, and Satan's suggestions come in. ... We must ... avoid the first admission of doubt and unbelief.
OHC	26	4	"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Galatians 6:7. God destroys no man. Every man who is destroyed will destroy himself. When a man stifles the admonitions of conscience, he sows the seeds of unbelief and these produce a sure harvest....
OHC	26	5	"They would none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil." Proverbs 1:30-33.
------------------------Hope for the Hopeless, January 21
OHC	27	1	Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Isaiah 55:7, 8.
OHC	27	2	It is your thought that your mistakes and transgressions have been so grievous that the Lord will not have respect unto your prayers, and will bless and save you.... The closer you come to Jesus, the more faulty you will appear in your own eyes; for your vision will be clearer, and your imperfections will be seen in broad and distinct contrast to His perfect nature. But do not be discouraged. This is evidence that Satan's delusions have lost their power; that the vivifying influence of the Spirit of God is arousing you, and your indifference and unconcern are passing away.
OHC	27	3	No deep-seated love for Jesus can dwell in the heart that does not see and realize its own sinfulness. The soul that is transformed by grace will admire His divine character; but if we do not see our own moral deformity, it is unmistakable evidence that we have not had a view of the beauty and excellence of Christ. The less we see to esteem in ourselves, the more we shall see to esteem in the infinite purity and loveliness of our Saviour. A view of our own sinfulness drives us to Him who can pardon....
OHC	27	4	God does not deal with us as finite men deal with one another. His thoughts are thoughts of mercy, love, and tenderest compassion. "He will abundantly pardon." He says, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions"....
OHC	27	5	Look up, you who are tried, tempted, and discouraged, look up.... It is ever safe to look up; it is fatal to look down. If you look down, the earth reels and sways beneath you; nothing is sure. But heaven above you is calm and steady, and there is divine aid for every climber. The hand of the Infinite is reaching over the battlements of heaven to grasp yours in its strong embrace. The mighty Helper is nigh to bless, lift up, and encourage the most erring, the most sinful, if they will look to Him by faith. But the sinner must look up.
------------------------Never Absent from the Mind of God, January 22
OHC	28	1	Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 1 Peter 5:7.
OHC	28	2	To enlarge our views of God's goodness, Christ calls upon us to behold the works of His hands. "Behold the fowls of the air," He says, "they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" Matthew 6:26....
OHC	28	3	Though men and women have sinned grievously, they are not forsaken. The hand that upholds the world, upholds and strengthens His weakest child. The great Master Artist, whose skill is infinitely beyond the skill of any human being, who gives to the lily of the field its delicate and beautiful tints, cares for the little sparrow. Not one falls to the ground without His notice....
OHC	28	4	If the flower is given a beauty that outvies the glory of Solomon, what can be the measurement of the estimate God places on His purchased heritage? Christ points us to the care bestowed on the things that wither in a day, to show us how much love God must have for the beings created in His own image.... He opens before us the volume of providence, and bids us behold the names written therein. In this volume every human being has a page, on which is written the events of his life history. And from the mind of God these names are never absent for a moment. Wonderful indeed is God's love and care for the beings He has created....
OHC	28	5	That He might save the souls of perishing human beings, He made a gift of such magnitude that it can never be said that God could have made His gift, His donation to the human family, greater. His gift defies computation. All this God did that man might become impregnated with the divine love and benevolence. Thus He would assure sinners that sins of the greatest magnitude can be forgiven if the transgressor seeks for pardon, surrendering himself, body, soul, and spirit, to be transformed by the grace of God and changed into His likeness.
OHC	28	6	In behalf of man God has poured out the whole treasury of heaven, and in return He expects and claims our entire affections.
------------------------To Be Like Christ, January 23
OHC	29	1	For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3.
OHC	29	2	Jesus wants you to be happy, but you cannot be happy in having your own way and following the impulses of your own heart.... Our notions, our peculiarities, are wholly human and must not be humored or indulged. Self is to be crucified, not now and then but daily, and the physical, mental, and spiritual must be subordinate to the will of God. The glory of God, the perfection of Christian character, is to be the aim, the purpose, of our life. Christ's followers must imitate Christ in disposition.... Like Christ is the watchword, not like your father or your mother, but like Jesus Christ--hid in Christ, clothed with Christ's righteousness, imbued with the Spirit of Christ. All the peculiarities given us as an inheritance or acquired by indulgence or through erroneous education must be thoroughly overcome, decidedly resisted. Love of esteem and pride of opinion, all must be brought to the sacrifice....
OHC	29	3	Jesus is our helper; in Him and through Him we must conquer.... The grace of Christ is waiting your demand upon it. He will give you grace and strength as you need it if you ask Him.... The religion of Christ will bind and restrain every unholy passion, will stimulate to energy, to self-discipline, and industry, even in the matters of homely, everyday life, leading us to learn economy, tact, and self-denial, and to endure even privation without a murmur. The Spirit of Christ in the heart will be revealed in the character, will develop noble qualities and powers. "My grace is sufficient" (2 Corinthians 12:9) says Christ.
OHC	29	4	God has done so much to make it possible for us to be free in Christ, free from the slavery of wrong habits and evil inclinations. Dear young friends, will you not strive to be free in Christ? You point to this and that professed Christian, saying, We have no confidence in them. If their lives are examples of Christianity, we want none of it. Look not at those around you. Look instead at the only perfect pattern, the man Christ Jesus. Beholding Him, you will be changed into the same image.
------------------------Stay Close to Jesus, January 24
OHC	30	1	Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Psalm 73:23, 24.
OHC	30	2	Before you engage in any important work, remember that Jesus is your counselor, and that it is your privilege to cast all your care upon Him.... Do not keep Jesus in the background and never mention His name, never call the attention of your friends to Him who is at your side to be your counselor. Would not your friends look upon you as disrespectful were they at your side, and you never spoke to them or of them? ...
OHC	30	3	Many complain that Jesus seems a long way off. Who has placed Him a long way off? Has it not been your own course of action that has separated you from Jesus? He has not forsaken you, but you have forsaken Him for other lovers.... It is when you wander from His side, and are charmed with the voice of the seducer, and fasten your affections upon some trifling thing, that you are in danger of losing your peace and trust and confidence in God.... Then it is that Satan presents to you the thought that Jesus has forsaken you; but is it not that you have forsaken Jesus? ... We dare not let His name languish on our lips, and His love and memory die out of our hearts.
OHC	30	4	"Well," says the cold, formal professor, "this is making Christ too much like a human being"; but the Word of God warrants us to have these very ideas. It is the want of these practical, definite views of Christ, that hinders so many from having a genuine experience in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is the reason that many are fearing and doubting and mourning. Their ideas of Christ and the plan of salvation are vague, dreary, and confused. If they had, like David, set the Lord ever before them,... their feet would be upon solid rock. Behold Jesus crucified for you. Behold Him grieved with your sins; and when you pray, repent, and earnestly desire to see Him as your sin-pardoning Redeemer, ready to bless you, and to hear your acknowledgment of Him. Keep close to His side.
------------------------The Bible a Light for My Way, January 25
OHC	31	1	Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105. "Most wondrous book! bright candle of the Lord! Star of eternity! the only light By which the bark of man can navigate The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss securely."
OHC	31	2	Why should not this book--this precious treasure--be exalted and esteemed as a valued friend? This is our chart across the stormy sea of life. It is our guide-book, showing us the way to the eternal mansions, and the character we must have to inhabit them. There is no book the perusal of which will so elevate and strengthen the mind as the study of the Bible. Here the intellect will find themes of the most elevated character to call out its powers. There is nothing that will so endow with vigor all our faculties as bringing them in contact with the stupendous truths of revelation. The effort to grasp and measure these great thoughts expands the mind. We may dig down deep into the mine of truth, and gather precious treasures with which to enrich the soul. Here we may learn the true way to live, the safe way to die.
OHC	31	3	A familiar acquaintance with the Scriptures sharpens the discerning powers, and fortifies the soul against the attacks of Satan. The Bible is the sword of the Spirit, which will never fail to vanquish the adversary. It is the only true guide in all matters of faith and practice. The reason why Satan has so great control over the minds and hearts of men is that they have not made the Word of God the man of their counsel, and all their ways have not been tried by the true test. The Bible will show us what course we must pursue to become heirs of glory.
OHC	31	4	As the heart is opened to the entrance of the Word, light from the throne of God will shine into the soul. That Word, cherished in the heart, will yield to the student a treasure of knowledge that is priceless. Its ennobling principles will stamp the character with honesty and truthfulness, temperance and integrity.
------------------------Truth in the Heart, January 26
OHC	32	1	I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me. Psalm 119:30.
OHC	32	2	The cause of God needs men and women who will stand on the platform of truth without wavering, and who will hold the banner of truth firmly aloft, so that no man can fail to see on which side they are standing. Their position is to be clearly defined. Their hearts are to be pure and holy, free from pretense or deception.
OHC	32	3	The truth must find an abiding place in the heart. Then through the power of the Holy Spirit it will exert its influence in all you do and say. Shall we try to keep the truth out of sight? No, no, not for a moment! It is to be sacredly regarded. Its principles are to be consulted in all your transactions. It is to be a counselor in all your difficulties, a guide in all your relations of life, a present help in every time of need. In public, in private, where no human eye can see, where no ear but God's can hear, there the truth should control us, directing our thoughts, prompting our words and deeds.
OHC	32	4	You may show to the world that the truth which you profess sanctifies and ennobles the character and leads to industry and frugality, while it avoids avarice, overreaching, and every species of dishonesty. In your words manifest patience and forbearance, and you may every day be preaching a sermon upon the power of truth and do effectual service to the cause of God. Let no one say that the truth you profess makes you no different from the worldling.... Do not give the least occasion for anyone to speak ill of your faith because you are not sanctified through the truth.
OHC	32	5	When the truth as it is in Jesus molds our characters, it will be seen to be truth indeed. As it is contemplated by the true believer, it will grow brighter, shining in its original beauty. As we behold it, it will increase in value, brightening in its own natural loveliness, quickening and vivifying the mind, and subduing our selfish, un-Christlike coarseness of character. It will elevate our aspirations, enabling us to reach the perfect standard of holiness.
------------------------Enjoyment of the Truth, January 27
OHC	33	1	Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. Psalm 86:11.
OHC	33	2	Say with your whole heart, "I will walk in Thy truth." Every resolution expressed in the fear of God will give strength to purpose and to faith. It will tend to stimulate and to humble, to strengthen and confirm. "I will walk in thy truth." Truth deserves our confidence none the less because the world is flooded with fables. Because error and counterfeit are in circulation it only evidences the fact that there is truth, genuine truth, somewhere....
OHC	33	3	It is not enough for us to hear the truth only. God requires of us obedience. "Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." Luke 11:28. "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." John 13:17.
OHC	33	4	We may walk in the enjoyment of the truth. It need not be to us a yoke of bondage, but a consolation, a message to us of glad tidings of great joy, animating our hearts and causing us to make melody in our hearts unto God. Through patience and comfort of the Scriptures we have hope. The Christian hope is not gloomy, comfortless. Oh, no, no. It does not shut us up in a prison of doubts and fears. The truth makes free those who love and are sanctified through it. They walk in the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
OHC	33	5	We who claim to believe the truth should reveal its fruits in our words and character. We are to be far advanced in a knowledge of Jesus Christ, in the reception of His love for God and for our neighbor, in order to have the sunlight of heaven shining in our daily life. Truth must reach down to the deepest recesses of the soul, and cleanse away everything unlike the spirit of Christ, and the vacuum be supplied by the attributes of His character who was pure and holy and undefiled, that all the springs of the heart may be as flowers, fragrant with perfume, a sweet-smelling savor, a savor of life unto life.
OHC	33	6	It is truth enshrined in the soul that makes one a man of God.
------------------------Truth a Precious Treasure, January 28
OHC	34	1	Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. Proverbs 23:23.
OHC	34	2	The truth is precious; it has wrought important changes upon the life and character, exerting a masterly influence over words, deportment, thoughts, and experience.
OHC	34	3	The religion of Jesus Christ never degrades the receiver. If it finds men and women earthly, common, coarse, unkindly in words, harsh in speech, selfish and self-caring, truth received in the heart commences its purifying, refining process. In words, in dress, in all our habits, there is seen reformation and those things that please God. Then all the world may see its influence in the transforming process.
OHC	34	4	Truth refines the taste and sanctifies the judgment. It elevates and ennobles, and is silently and constantly doing its leavening work till the whole being is cleansed and made a vessel unto honor, under the operation of the Holy Spirit, to make the receiver of truth fit for the society of pure and sinless angels....
OHC	34	5	A salvation which was purchased for humanity at such an infinite cost should be held in the most precious vessel by every believer. That which is of such value should ever be highly regarded and not cheapened and made common by the coarseness and roughness retained by those who receive the truth.
OHC	34	6	Truth as it is in Jesus is not cold and lifeless and formal.... Truth is full of warmth, of evidence from the presence of Jesus....
OHC	34	7	We have a message to bear to the world. It involves a cross. The truths are unpleasant because they require self-denial and self-sacrifice. Then how essential that those who bear the truth, as they speak the truth faithfully, shall by every word and act show that the love of Christ moves them. Truth is ... always lovely, and those who live the truth as it is in Jesus should study how to present the truth so that its loveliness may appear.
OHC	34	8	Treasure the truth above everything; sell it not for any price.
------------------------The Bible Without a Rival, January 29
OHC	35	1	The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Psalm 12:6.
OHC	35	2	The Bible is second to no other book; it is without a rival. A knowledge and acceptance of its teachings will impart vigor and health of mind. A comprehension of its teachings requires the student to grasp the knowledge of God's infinite will. The Word of God teaches men and women how to become the sons and daughters of God. No other book, no other study, can equal this; the principles it instills, like the power and nature of its Author, are omnipotent. It is capable of imparting the highest education to which the mortal mind can attain.
OHC	35	3	It is not safe for us to turn from the Holy Scriptures, with only a casual reading of their sacred pages.... Rein the mind up to the high task that has been set before it, and study with determined interest, that you may understand divine truth. Those who do this, will be surprised to find to what the mind can attain.
OHC	35	4	The minds of all who make the Word of God their study will enlarge. Far more than any other study its influence is calculated to increase the powers of comprehension and endow every faculty with a new power. It brings the mind in contact with broad, ennobling principles of truth. It brings all heaven into close connection with human minds, imparting wisdom and knowledge and understanding.
OHC	35	5	In dealing with commonplace productions, and feeding on the writings of uninspired men, the mind becomes dwarfed and cheapened.... The understanding unconsciously accommodates itself to the comprehension of the things with which it is familiar, and in the consideration of these finite things, the understanding is weakened, its powers contracted, and after a time it becomes unable to expand....
OHC	35	6	All knowledge gained in this life of probation which will help us to form characters that will fit us to be companions of the saints in light is true education. It will bring blessings to ourselves and others in this life, and will secure to us the future, immortal life with its imperishable riches.
------------------------Sure Remedy for the Soul, January 30
OHC	36	1	Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases. Psalm 103:3.
OHC	36	2	Christ has given us His Word, that men and women may be thoroughly furnished with a remedy for all spiritual diseases. The Word is a test of human character. It points out the disease, and prescribes the remedy. In the Word is a prescription for every spiritual ailment. The plain commands of God will exert a healthful influence upon the mind, and upon the whole body. If taken in faith and faithfully practiced, its remedies are infallible.
OHC	36	3	Before the humblest is opened the promises of the Word of God. God declares, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally...." James 1:5. He will never be sent away empty. And the man who lives by every word of God will improve in mental and moral capabilities. He will have a clearer understanding than he manifested before he opened his heart to the entrance of the Word of life. Connected by faith with the living Source of wisdom and knowledge, the mental powers will grow and expand. While the powers of the intellect were under the sway of Satan, the whole man was deformed. But when the power of the truth is brought into the heart, it influences the entire being.
OHC	36	4	The Lord has uttered His voice in His Holy Word. Those blessed pages are full of instruction and life, harmonious with truth. They are a perfect rule of conduct. Instructions are given, principles are laid down, which apply to every circumstance in life, even though some particular case may not be stated. Nothing is left unrevealed which is essential to a complete system of faith and a correct line of practice. Every duty that God requires at our hands is made plain.... None will err from the right path who meekly and honestly take the Bible as their guide, making it the man of their counsel.
OHC	36	5	Depend on this: If you study the Word of God with a sincere desire to get help, the Lord will fill your soul with light. Your work will be approved of God, and your influence will be a savor of life.
------------------------Storing the Mind with Truth, January 31
OHC	37	1	That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more. Job 34:32.
OHC	37	2	Take your Bible and present yourself before your heavenly Father, saying, "Enlighten me; teach me what is truth." The Lord will regard your prayer, and the Holy Spirit will impress the truth upon your soul. In searching the Scriptures for yourself, you will become established in the faith. It is of the greatest importance that you continually search the Scriptures, storing the mind with the Word of God, for you may be separated from the companionship of Christians, and placed where you will not have the privilege of meeting with the children of God. You need the treasures of God's Word hidden in your heart, that when opposition comes upon you, you may bring everything to the Scriptures....
OHC	37	3	We are living in the last days, when error of a most deceptive character is accepted and believed, while truth is discarded. Many are drifting into darkness and infidelity, picking flaws with the Bible, bringing in superstitious inventions, unscriptural theories, and speculations of vain philosophy; but it is the duty of everyone to seek a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.
OHC	37	4	Truth is efficient only as it is carried out in practical life. If the Word of God condemns some habit you have indulged, a feeling you have cherished, a spirit you have manifested, turn not from the Word of God, but turn away from the evil of your doings, and let Jesus cleanse and sanctify your heart. Confess your faults, and forsake them.
OHC	37	5	Do not merely assent to the truth, and fail to be a doer of the words of Christ. The truth must be applied to self; it must bring men and women who receive it to the Rock, that they may fall upon the Rock and be broken. Then Jesus can mold and fashion their characters after His own divine character. If we would listen to His voice, we must let silence reign in the heart. The clamors of self, its pretensions, its lusts, must be rebuked, and we must put on the robe of humility, and take our place as humble learners in the school of Christ.
------------------------Let Jesus Lead, February 1
OHC	38	1	Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6.
OHC	38	2	Oh, that we who are pilgrims and strangers in this foreign country ... might comprehend Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. He says, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." The path He has marked out is so plain and distinct that the veriest sinner, loaded with guilt, need not miss his way. Not one trembling seeker need fail of finding the true path, and of walking in pure and holy light, for Jesus leads the way.
OHC	38	3	The path is so narrow, so holy, that sin cannot be tolerated therein, yet access to the path has been made for all, and not one desponding, doubting, trembling soul needs to say, "God cares nought for me." Every soul is precious in His sight.... When Satan was triumphing as the prince of the world, when he claimed the world as his kingdom, when we were all marred and corrupted with sin, God sent His messenger from heaven, even His only begotten Son, to proclaim to all the inhabitants of the world, "I have found a ransom. I have made a way of escape for all the perishing. I have your emancipation papers provided for you, sealed by the Lord of heaven and earth"....
OHC	38	4	It is not because there is any flaw in the title which has been purchased for you that you do not accept it. It is not because the mercy, the grace, the love of the Father and the Son is not ample, and has not been freely bestowed, that you do not rejoice in pardoning love.... If you are lost, it will be because you will not come unto Christ that you might have life.
OHC	38	5	God waits to bestow the blessing of forgiveness of sins, of pardon for iniquity, of the gift of righteousness upon all who will believe in His love, and accept of His salvation. Christ is ready to say to the repenting sinner, "... Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee...." Zechariah 3:4-7. Christ is the connecting link between God and man. The blood of Jesus Christ is the eloquent plea that speaks in behalf of sinners.
------------------------Man More Precious Than Gold, February 2
OHC	39	1	I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Isaiah 13:12.
OHC	39	2	Few appreciate the value of man, and the glory that would redound to God were he to cultivate and preserve purity, nobility, and integrity of character.... The short space of time allotted to men here is exceedingly valuable. Now, while probation lingers, God proposes to unite His strength with the weakness of finite man.... Those who truly love God will desire so to improve the talents that He has given them, that they may be a blessing to others. And by and by the gates of heaven will be thrown wide open to admit them, and from the lips of the King of glory the benediction will fall upon their ears like richest music, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matthew 25:34.
OHC	39	3	Thus the redeemed will be welcomed to the mansions that Jesus is preparing for them. There their companions will not be the vile of earth--liars, idolaters, the impure, or the unbelieving; but they will associate with those who have overcome Satan and his devices, and through divine aid have formed perfect characters. Every sinful tendency, every imperfection that afflicts them here, has been removed by the blood of Christ; and the excellence and brightness of His glory, far exceeding the brightness of the sun in its meridian splendor, is imparted to them. And the moral beauty, the perfection of His character, shines through them, in worth far exceeding this outward splendor. They are without fault around the great white throne, sharing the dignity and privileges of the angels.
OHC	39	4	"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9. In view of the glorious inheritance which may be his, "what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" He may be poor; yet he possesses in himself a wealth and dignity that the world could never bestow. The soul redeemed and cleansed from sin, with all its noble powers dedicated to the service of God, is of surpassing worth.
------------------------I Am Not My Own, February 3
OHC	40	1	Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. 1 Corinthians 7:23.
OHC	40	2	How natural it is to regard ourselves as complete owners of ourselves! But the Inspired Word declares, "Ye are not your own." "Ye are bought with a price." 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.... In our relation to our fellow men we are owners of our entrusted mental and physical capabilities. In our relation to God, we are borrowers, stewards of His grace.
OHC	40	3	Time is to be used judiciously, earnestly, and under the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. We are to understand just what is right and what is wrong to do with property and with mental and physical capabilities. God has a positive ownership of every power He has committed to the human agent. By His own wisdom He makes the terms of man's use of every gift of God. He will bless the proper use of every power put forth for His own name's glory. The talent of speech, of memory, of property, all are to accumulate for the glory of God, to advance His kingdom. God has left us in charge of His goods in His absence. Each steward has his own special work to do in advancing God's kingdom. Not one is excused.
OHC	40	4	The youth must be educated to respect themselves because they are bought with a price.
OHC	40	5	Christ clothed His divinity with humanity and paid the ransom for man, and He desires that man shall estimate the life thus provided for him by the infinite price paid.
OHC	40	6	It is your privilege to obey the living Word of God as a truly converted and transformed soul, to perform the highest service as a free, heaven-born spirit, to give evidence that you are worthy of the sacred trust that God has given you by sending His only begotten Son to die for you. If you believe in Christ as your personal Saviour, you receive every grace, every spiritual endowment, necessary for the perfecting of the Christian character. Show that you appreciate the sacrifice made for you, and regard it as too great to allow you to make a mock of your religious profession by being molded and fashioned after the world's criterion.
------------------------Purchase of Christ's Blood, February 4
OHC	41	1	Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1:18, 19.
OHC	41	2	You must consider that you are not at your own disposal to do that which you please for your own self. You are the Lord's property. Christ has purchased you with the price of His own blood. Your body is to be sanctified unto the Lord as a vessel unto honor. It is Christ's purchased possession. Then preserve every power, every organ, as an instrument unto righteousness. Satan desires to have your brain power, and your will, but they belong to Jesus. Consider always, "I am not my own. I must carefully and holily cherish every part of Christ's purchased possession"....
OHC	41	3	Satan may try to bind you to his car [chariot] as a helpless soul. But shout in victory that Christ has made you a free man. Do not dishonor God by one expression of inefficiency and inability to overcome fully, entirely, and gloriously through Jesus Christ, who has died to redeem you, and make you a free man. Conquer, yes, conquer. Put your will every moment on the side of God's will. Think hopefully and courageously. In faith cry out against Satan, and looking unto Jesus who is the author and finisher of your faith, say, "Jesus, my Redeemer, I am weak. I cannot do anything without Thy special help. I hang my helpless soul on Thee." Then let your imagination dwell on the thought that you are in the presence of Jesus, walking with God, your life hid with Christ in God.... Then you will not glorify Satan by imagining yourself weak and helpless. You will keep yourself uplifted into a pure and holy atmosphere. You will receive the Holy Spirit as a comforter, as a sanctifier.... You will have a calm, restful spirit in God. You will say, "Jesus lives, and because He lives I will live also. He has conquered Satan in my behalf, and I will not be conquered by the devil once. I will not disgrace my Lord and Leader; but I will triumph in His holy name, and come off more than conqueror."
------------------------God Wants His Own Property, February 5
OHC	42	1	But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. Isaiah 43:1.
OHC	42	2	Every man and woman has had the ransom money paid by Jesus Christ. "Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price"--even the precious blood of the Son of God.
OHC	42	3	Whether we give ourselves to the Lord or not, we are His. Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price. We are the Lord's by creation, and we are His by redemption. Therefore we have no right to think that we can do as we please. All we handle is the Lord's. We have no right of ourselves to anything, not even to an existence. All our money, time, and talents belong to God, and are lent us by Him that we may accomplish the work He has given us to do. He has given us the charge, "Occupy till I come." Luke 19:13.
OHC	42	4	Do not make it a business to serve yourselves and become indifferent in regard to the claims of God upon you. You are His property.... Jesus has bought you at an infinite cost. Your thoughts should be kept pure; they are the Lord's. Give them to Him. We can merit nothing from God. We can give Him nothing which is not His own. Will we keep back from God what is His own? Do not rob God and pawn His time, His talents, and His strength with the world. He asks your affections; give them to Him. They are His own. He asks your time, moment by moment; give it to Him. It is His own. He asks your intellect; give it to Him. It is His own....
OHC	42	5	The Lord wants His own property. When we have given to God soul, body, and spirit; when we have kept appetite under the control of enlightened conscience, and wrestled against every lust, showing that we consider each organ as God's property, intended for His service; when all our affections move in harmony with the Lord's mind, fastening on objects "which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God"--then we have given the Lord His own. O God, "all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee." 1 Chronicles 29:14.
------------------------Take Care of God's Property, February 6
OHC	43	1	Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father. Galatians 1:4.
OHC	43	2	You have cost much. "Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Corinthians 6:20. That which you may regard as your own is God's. Take care of His property. He has bought you with an infinite price. Your mind is His. What right has any person to abuse a body that belongs not to himself, but to the Lord Jesus Christ? What satisfaction can anyone take in gradually lessening the powers of body and mind by selfish indulgence of any form?
OHC	43	3	God has given to every human being a brain. He desires that it shall be used to His glory. By it, man is enabled to cooperate with God in efforts to save perishing fellow mortals. We have none too much brain power or reasoning faculties. We are to educate and train every power of mind and body--the human mechanism that Christ has bought--in order that we may put it to the best possible use. We are to do all we can to strengthen these powers; for God is pleased to have us become more and still more efficient colaborers with Him....
OHC	43	4	In Exodus we read that at the time the Lord directed the Israelites to build a tabernacle in the wilderness, He gave certain men special ability, talent, and skill in devising, and then He appointed them to the work. He will deal with us in the same way.... And although we may have to begin in a very small way, He will bless us and multiply our talents as a reward for faithfulness.
OHC	43	5	Christ has died for you, and you are to live as unto God. Let your reasoning powers, refined, purified, sanctified, be brought to God. The Lord requires the sanctification of the whole being. The mind, as well as the whole body, is to be elevated and ennobled. God has claims upon mind, soul, and body.
OHC	43	6	It is not in the power of those who have named the name of Jesus to give Him more than is His own. He has bought every human agent with an infinite price, and we are His property for both time and eternity.
------------------------Take God Into Your Counsel, February 7
OHC	44	1	Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 1 Peter 2:24.
OHC	44	2	Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree.... What must sin be, if no finite being could make atonement? What must its curse be if Deity alone could exhaust it? The cross of Christ testifies to every man that the penalty of sin is death.... Oh, must there be some strong bewitching power which holds the moral senses, steeling them against the impressions of the Spirit of God? I entreat of you, as Christ's ambassador, ... to be diligent in securing the grace of God. You need it every day, that you make no mistake in your life....
OHC	44	3	You may feel that you are competent to manage yourself, to lay plans and execute them in your own judgment. This is unsafe for you or for any one to do. I speak of the things I know. Take God into your counsel. Seek Him for guidance. He will not be sought of in vain.... I entreat of you not to let these precious hours of probation pass without spiritual advancement. In no case allow your moral powers to become dwarfed....
OHC	44	4	Heaven with its attractions is before you, an eternal weight of glory, which you may lose or gain. Which shall it be? Your life and your character will testify the choice you have made. I feel the more anxious because I see so many indifferent upon the subjects of infinite importance. They are always busy here and there about matters of minor importance, and the one great subject is put out of their thoughts. They have no time to pray, no time to watch, no time to search the Scriptures. They are altogether too busy to make the necessary preparation for the future life. They cannot devote time to perfect Christian characters and in diligence to secure a title to heaven.
OHC	44	5	If you have life eternal, you must be earnest and work to the point.... Glorify God by choosing His way, His will. He will be your wise counselor and your fast, unchanging friend.
------------------------The Cord Let Down from Heaven, February 8
OHC	45	1	And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:8.
OHC	45	2	Measure the cord, if you can, that has been let down from heaven to lift man up. The only estimate we can give you of the length of that chain is to point you to Calvary.
OHC	45	3	Fallen men could not have a home in the paradise of God without the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Shall we not then exalt the cross of Christ? ...
OHC	45	4	Angelic perfection failed in heaven. Human perfection failed in Eden, the paradise of bliss. All who wish for security in earth or heaven must look to the Lamb of God. The plan of salvation, making manifest the justice and love of God, provides an eternal safeguard against defection in unfallen worlds, as well as among those who shall be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Our only hope is perfect trust in the blood of Him who can save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. The death of Christ on the cross of Calvary is our only hope in this world, and it will be our theme in the world to come. Oh, we do not comprehend the value of the atonement! If we did, we would talk more about it. The gift of God in His beloved Son was the expression of an incomprehensible love. It was the utmost that God could do to preserve the honor of His law, and still save the transgressor.
OHC	45	5	Jesus placed the cross in line with the light coming from heaven, for it is there that it shall catch the eye of man. The cross is in direct line with the shining of the divine countenances, so that by beholding the cross men may see and know God and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent. In beholding God we behold the One who poured out His soul unto death. In beholding the cross the view is extended to God, and His hatred of sin is discerned. But while we behold in the cross God's hatred of sin, we also behold His love for sinners, which is stronger than death. To the world the cross is the incontrovertible argument that God is truth and light and love.
------------------------The Center of my Hope, February 9
OHC	46	1	But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Galatians 6:14.
OHC	46	2	Remove the cross from the Christian and it is like blotting out the sun which illumines the day, and dropping the moon and the stars out of the firmament of the heavens at night. The cross of Christ brings us nigh to God, reconciling man to God, and God to man. The Father looks upon the cross, upon the suffering He has given His Son to endure in order to save the race from hopeless misery and to draw man to Himself. He looks upon it with the relenting compassion of a Father's love. The cross has been almost lost sight of, but without the cross there is no connection with the Father, no unity with the Lamb in the midst of the throne in heaven, no welcome reception of the wandering who would return to the forsaken path of righteousness and truth, no hope for the transgressor in the day of judgment. Without the cross there is no means provided for overcoming the power of our strong foe. Every hope of the race hangs upon the cross.
OHC	46	3	When the sinner reaches the cross, and looks up to the One who died to save him, he may rejoice with fullness of joy; for his sins are pardoned. Kneeling at the cross, he has reached the highest place to which man can attain. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ; and the words of pardon are spoken: Live, O ye guilty sinners, live. Your repentance is accepted; for I have found a ransom.
OHC	46	4	Through the cross we learn that our heavenly Father loves us with an infinite and everlasting love, and draws us to Him with more than a mother's yearning sympathy for a wayward child. Can we wonder that Paul exclaimed, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ"? It is our privilege also to glory in the cross of Calvary, our privilege to give ourselves wholly to Him who gave Himself for us. Then with the light of love that shines from His face on ours, we shall go forth to reflect it to those in darkness.
------------------------Efficacy of Christ's Blood, February 10
OHC	47	1	It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Leviticus 17:11.
OHC	47	2	Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. To many it has been a mystery why so many sacrificial offerings were required in the old dispensation, why so many bleeding victims were led to the altar. But the great truth that was to be kept before men, and imprinted upon mind and heart, was this, "Without shedding of blood is no remission." Hebrews 9:22. In every bleeding sacrifice was typified "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29.
OHC	47	3	Christ Himself was the originator of the Jewish system of worship, in which, by types and symbols, were shadowed forth spiritual and heavenly things....Today we are living when type has met antitype in the offering of Christ for the sins of the world; we are living in the day of increased light, and yet how few are benefited with the grand and all-important truth that Christ has made an ample sacrifice for all! What justice required, Christ had rendered in the offering of Himself, and "how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" Hebrews 2:3. Those who reject the gift of life will be without excuse.
OHC	47	4	Thank God that He who spilled His blood for us, lives to plead it, lives to make intercession for every soul who receives Him. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. It speaketh better things than the blood of Abel, for Christ ever liveth to make intercession for us. We need to keep ever before us the efficacy of the blood of Jesus. That life-cleansing, life-sustaining blood, appropriated by living faith, is our hope. We need to grow in appreciation of its inestimable value, for it speaks for us only as we by faith claim its virtue, keeping the conscience clean and at peace with God.
OHC	47	5	This is represented as the pardoning blood, inseparably connected with the resurrection and life of our Redeemer, illustrated by the ever-flowing stream that proceeds from the throne of God, the water of the river of life.
------------------------Christ's Humanity a Golden Chain, February 11
OHC	48	1	For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
OHC	48	2	Christ's overcoming and obedience is that of a true human being. In our conclusions, we make many mistakes because of our erroneous views of the human nature of our Lord. When we give to His human nature a power that it is not possible for man to have in his conflicts with Satan, we destroy the completeness of His humanity. His imputed grace and power He gives to all who receive Him by faith.
OHC	48	3	The obedience of Christ to His Father was the same obedience that is required of man. Man cannot overcome Satan's temptations without divine power to combine with his instrumentality. So with Jesus Christ; He could lay hold of divine power. He came not to our world to give the obedience of a lesser God to a greater, but as a man to obey God's Holy Law, and in this way He is our example. The Lord Jesus came to our world, not to reveal what a God could do, but what a man could do, through faith in God's power to help in every emergency. Man is, through faith, to be a partaker in the divine nature, and to overcome every temptation wherewith he is beset.
OHC	48	4	The Lord now demands that every son and daughter of Adam, through faith in Jesus Christ, serve Him in human nature which we now have. The Lord Jesus has bridged the gulf that sin has made. He has connected earth with heaven, and finite man with the infinite God. Jesus, the world's Redeemer, could only keep the commandments of God in the same way that humanity can keep them.
OHC	48	5	We are not to serve God as if we were not human, but we are to serve Him in the nature we have, that has been redeemed by the Son of God; through the righteousness of Christ we shall stand before God pardoned, and as though we had never sinned.
OHC	48	6	The humanity of the Son of God is everything to us. It is the golden chain that binds our souls to Christ, and through Christ to God.
------------------------An Advocate with the Father, February 12
OHC	49	1	My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1.
OHC	49	2	How careful is the Lord Jesus to give no occasion for a soul to despair. How He fences about the soul from Satan's fierce attacks. If through manifold temptations we are surprised or deceived into sin, He does not turn from us and leave us to perish. No, no, that is not our Saviour.... He was tempted in all points like as we are; and having been tempted, He knows how to succor those who are tempted. Our crucified Lord is pleading for us in the presence of the Father at the throne of grace. His atoning sacrifice we may plead for our pardon, our justification, and our sanctification. The Lamb slain is our only hope. Our faith looks up to Him, grasps Him as the One who can save to the uttermost, and the fragrance of the all-sufficient offering is accepted of the Father.
OHC	49	3	If you make failures and are betrayed into sin, do not feel then you cannot pray ... but seek the Lord more earnestly.
OHC	49	4	The blood of Jesus is pleading with power and efficacy for those who are backslidden, for those who are rebellious, for those who sin against great light and love. Satan stands at our right hand to accuse us, and our Advocate stands at God's right hand to plead for us. He has never lost a case that has been committed to Him. We may trust in our Advocate; for He pleads His own merits in our behalf.... He is making intercession for the most lowly, the most oppressed and suffering, for the most tried and tempted ones. With upraised hands He pleads, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." Isaiah 49:16.
OHC	49	5	I would I might sound the glad note to earth's remotest bounds. "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Oh, precious redemption! How broad this great truth is--that God for Christ's dear sake, forgives us the moment we ask Him in living faith, believing that He is fully able!
------------------------Connecting Link Between God and Man, February 13
OHC	50	1	Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25.
OHC	50	2	Christ is the connecting link between God and man. He has promised His personal intercession by employing His name. He places the whole virtue of His righteousness on the side of the suppliant. Christ pleads for man, and man, in need of divine help, pleads for himself in the presence of God, using the power of the influence of the One who gave His life for the world. As we acknowledge before God our appreciation of Christ's merits, fragrance is given to our intercessions. Oh, who can value this great mercy and love! As we approach God through the virtue of Christ's merits, we are clothed with His priestly vestments. He places us close by His side, encircling us with His human arm, while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the Infinite. He puts His merits, as sweet incense, in a censer in our hands, in order to encourage our petitions. He promises to hear and answer our supplications.
OHC	50	3	Everyone who will break from the slavery and service of Satan, and will stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel will be kept by Christ's intercessions. Christ, as our Mediator, at the right hand of the Father, ever keeps us in view, for it is as necessary that He should keep us by His intercessions as that He should redeem us with His blood. If He lets go His hold of us for one moment, Satan stands ready to destroy.
OHC	50	4	As the prayers of the sincere and contrite ones ascend to heaven Christ says to the Father, "I will take their sins. Let them stand before You innocent." As He takes their sins from them, He fills their hearts with the glorious light of truth and love.
OHC	50	5	Our need of Christ's intercession is constant. Day by day, morning and evening, the humble heart needs to offer up prayers to which will be returned answers of grace and peace and joy. "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually." Hebrews 13:15.
------------------------Faultless in Christ's Perfection, February 14
OHC	51	1	For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
OHC	51	2	Pardon and justification are one and the same thing. Through faith, the believer passes from the position of a rebel, a child of sin and Satan, to the position of a loyal subject of Christ Jesus, not because of an inherent goodness, but because Christ receives him as His child by adoption. The sinner receives the forgiveness of his sins, because these sins are borne by his Substitute and Surety. The Lord speaks to His heavenly Father, saying: "This is My child, I reprieve him from the condemnation of death, giving him My life insurance policy--eternal life--because I have taken his place and have suffered for his sins. He is even My beloved son." Thus man, pardoned, and clothed with the beautiful garments of Christ's righteousness, stands faultless before God....
OHC	51	3	It is the Father's prerogative to forgive our transgressions and sins, because Christ has taken upon Himself our guilt and reprieved us, imputing to us His own righteousness. His sacrifice satisfies fully the demands of justice.
OHC	51	4	Many feel that their faults of character make it impossible for them to meet the standard that Christ has erected; but all that such ones have to do is to humble themselves at every step under the mighty hand of God; Christ does not estimate the man by the amount of work he does, but by the spirit in which the work is performed.
OHC	51	5	When He sees men lifting the burdens, trying to carry them in lowliness of mind, with distrust of self and with reliance upon Him, He adds to their work His perfection and sufficiency, and it is accepted of the Father. We are accepted in the beloved. The sinner's defects are covered by the perfection and fullness of the Lord our righteousness. Those who with sincere will, with contrite heart, are putting forth humble efforts to live up to the requirements of God, are looked upon by the Father with pitying, tender love; He regards such as obedient children, and the righteousness of Christ is imputed unto them.
------------------------The Faith that Justifies, February 15
OHC	52	1	Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1.
OHC	52	2	Justification by faith is to many a mystery. A sinner is justified by God when he repents of his sins. He sees Jesus upon the cross of Calvary.... He looks to the atoning Sacrifice as his only hope, through repentance toward God--because the laws of His government have been broken--and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ as the One who can save and cleanse the sinner from every transgression.
OHC	52	3	The mediatorial work of Christ commenced with the commencement of human guilt and suffering and misery, as soon as man became a transgressor. The law was not abolished to save man and bring him into union with God. But Christ assumed the office of his surety and deliverer in becoming sin for man, that man might become the righteousness of God in and through Him who was one with the Father. Sinners can be justified by God only when He pardons their sins, remits the punishment they deserve, and treats them as though they were really just and had not sinned, receiving them into divine favor and treating them as if they were righteous. They are justified alone through the imputed righteousness of Christ. The Father accepts the Son, and through the atoning sacrifice of His Son accepts the sinner....
OHC	52	4	There are thousands who believe in the gospel and in Jesus Christ as the world's Redeemer, but they are not saved by that faith.... They do not repent and have that faith that lays hold upon Christ as their sin-pardoning Saviour; their belief is not unto repentance....
OHC	52	5	The faith that justifies always produces first true repentance, and then good works, which are the fruit of that faith. There is no saving faith that does not produce good fruit. God gave Christ to our world to become the sinner's substitute. The moment true faith in the merits of the costly atoning sacrifice is exercised, claiming Christ as a personal Saviour, that moment the sinner is justified before God, because he is pardoned.
------------------------Accepted in the Beloved, February 16
OHC	53	1	To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Ephesians 1:6.
OHC	53	2	The Father gave all honor to His Son, seating Him at His right hand, far above all principalities and powers. He expressed His great joy and delight in receiving the Crucified One, and crowning Him with glory and honor. And all the favors He has shown to His Son in His acceptance of the great atonement, are shown to His people. Those who have united their interests in love with Christ are accepted in the Beloved. They suffered with Christ in His deepest humiliation, and His glorification is of great interest to them, because they are accepted in Him. God loves them as He loves His Son. Christ, Emmanuel, stands between God and the believer, revealing the glory of God to His chosen ones, and covering their defects and transgressions with the garments of His own spotless righteousness.
OHC	53	3	"The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his mercy." Psalm 147:11. But it is only through the value of the sacrifice made for us that we are of value in the Lord's sight. It is because of the imputed righteousness of Christ that we are counted precious by God. For Christ's sake He pardons them that fear Him. He does not see in them the vileness of the sinner; He recognizes in them the likeness of His Son, in whom they believe. In this way only can God take pleasure in any of us. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." John 1:12.
OHC	53	4	The more perfectly the Lord sees the character of His beloved Son revealed in His people, the greater is His satisfaction and delight in them. God Himself and the heavenly universe rejoice over them with singing, because Christ has not died for them in vain. The believing sinner is pronounced innocent, while the guilt is placed on Jesus Christ. The righteousness of Christ is placed on the debtor's account, and against his name on the balance sheet is written, Pardoned. Eternal Life.
------------------------Our Redeemer a Tried Stone, February 17
OHC	54	1	Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Isaiah 28:16.
OHC	54	2	Our Redeemer is a "Tried Stone." The experiment has been made, the great test has been applied, and with perfect success. In Him is fulfilled all the purpose of God for the saving of a lost world. Never was a foundation subject to so severe a trial and test as this "Tried Stone." The Lord Jehovah knew what this foundation stone could sustain. The sins of the whole world could be piled upon it. The Lord's chosen were to be revealed, heaven's gates to be thrown open to all who would believe; its untold glories were to be given to the overcomers.
OHC	54	3	"A Tried Stone" is Christ, tried by the perversity of man. Thou, O our Saviour, hast taken the burden; Thou hast given peace and rest; Thou hast been tried, proved by believers who have taken their trials to Thy sympathy, their sorrows to Thy love, their wounds to Thy healing, their weakness to Thy strength, their emptiness to Thy fullness; and never, never has one soul been disappointed. Jesus, my Tried Stone, to Thee will I come, moment by moment. In Thy presence I am lifted above pain. "When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." Psalm 61:2.
OHC	54	4	It is our privilege to enjoy sweet communion with God. Precious to the believer is His atoning blood, precious is His justifying righteousness. "Unto you therefore which believe he is precious." 1 Peter 2:7.
OHC	54	5	When I meditate upon this fountain of living power from which we may draw, I mourn that so many are losing the delight they might have had in considering His goodness. We are to be sons and daughters of God, growing into a holy temple in the Lord. "No more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.... Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Ephesians 2:19, 20. This is our privilege.
------------------------Jesus Our Best Friend, February 18
OHC	55	1	A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24.
OHC	55	2	How few are constantly beholding the unseen Guest, realizing that He is at their right hand! How many ignore His presence! Did we treat others as we treat Jesus, what discourtesy it would be thought!
OHC	55	3	Suppose a friend were with us, and we should meet an acquaintance on the way and direct our whole attention to our new-found acquaintance, ignoring the presence of our friend, what opinion would men have of our loyalty to our friend, of our degree of respect to him? And yet this is the way we treat Jesus. We forget that He is our companion. We engage in conversation, and never mention His name.... We talk of worldly business matters, and where it does not bruise the soul, where it is essential, we do not dishonor Jesus, but we do dishonor Him when we fail to mention Him in our intercourse with our friends and associates. He is our best friend, and we should seek for opportunities to speak of Him.... We should ever keep Him in view. Our conversation should be of a character that would be of no offense to God.
OHC	55	4	I know that in many hearts the inquiry arises, "Where shall I find Jesus?" There are many who want His presence, want His love and His light; but they know not where to look for Him for whom their hearts yearn. And yet Jesus does not hide Himself away; no one need search for Him in vain. "Behold," He says, "I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20. Jesus invites us to accept His presence; we are to open the door of the heart, and let Him in. But He will not share a divided heart. If it be given to the service of mammon, if selfishness and pride fill its chambers, there will be no room for the heavenly Guest; He will not take up His abode with us until the soul-temple has been emptied and cleansed. Yet there is no need of making a failure in the Christian life. Jesus is waiting to do a great work for us, and all heaven is interested in our salvation.
------------------------Jesus is Always Near, February 19
OHC	56	1	But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. Matthew 14:27.
OHC	56	2	I think of the disciples in that sore tempest; the boat labored with strong winds and heavy gales. They have given up their efforts as hopeless, and while the hungry waves talk with death, amid the storm a light form is seen walking upon the foam-capped billows.... A voice is heard amid the roar of the tempest, "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid."
OHC	56	3	Oh, how many in this time of peril, are making a hard pull against a head sea! The moon and stars seem to be hidden by storm clouds, and in despondency and despair, many of us say, "It is no use; our efforts are as nothing. We shall perish. We have toiled at the oars, but without any success".... Jesus is just as near to us amid scenes of tempest and trial as He was to His followers who were tossed on the Sea of Galilee. We must have calm, steady, firm, unwavering trust in God.... We must now have an individual experience in holding fast unto God. Christ is on board the vessel. Believe that Christ is our Captain, that He will take care, not only of us, but of the ship....
OHC	56	4	That night in that boat was to the disciples a school where they were to receive their education for the great work which was to be done afterwards. The dark hours of trial are to come to every one as a part of his education for higher work, for more devoted, consecrated effort. The storm was not sent upon the disciples to shipwreck them, but to test and prove them, individually....
OHC	56	5	The time of our educating will soon be over. We have no time to lose in walking through clouds of doubt and uncertainty.... We may stand close to the side of Jesus. Let none ... shirk one hard lesson or lose the blessing of one hard discipline....
OHC	56	6	Whatever be our condition in life, our business, we have a sure Guide. Whatever be our condition, He is our counselor. Whatever be our loneliness, He is our friend in whom we may ever trust.
------------------------Our Great Exemplar, February 20
OHC	57	1	Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Hebrews 3:1.
OHC	57	2	I present before you the great Exemplar.... As really did He meet and resist the temptations of Satan as any of the children of humanity. In this sense alone could He be a perfect example for man. He subjected Himself to humanity to become acquainted with all the temptations wherewith man is beset. He took upon Him the infirmities and bore the sorrows of the sons of Adam.
OHC	57	3	He was "made like unto his brethren." Hebrews 2:17. He felt both joy and grief as they feel. His body was susceptible to weariness, as yours. His mind, like yours, could be harassed and perplexed. If you have hardships, so did He. Satan could tempt Him. His enemies could annoy Him. The ruling powers could torture His body; the soldiers could crucify Him; and they can do no more to us. Jesus was exposed to hardships, to conflict and temptation, as a man. He became the Captain of our Salvation through suffering. He could bear His burden better than we, for He bore it without complaint, without impatience, without unbelief, without repining; but this is no evidence He felt it less than any of the suffering sons of Adam....
OHC	57	4	The period of His childhood and youth was one of comparative obscurity, but of the highest importance. He was in this obscurity laying the foundation of a sound constitution and vigorous mind. He "grew, and waxed strong in spirit." Luke 1:80. It is not as a man bending under the pressure of age that Jesus is revealed to us traversing the hills of Judea. He was in the strength of His manhood. Jesus once stood in age just where you now stand. [This extract is from a letter to a young man.] Your circumstances, your cogitations at this period of your life, Jesus has had. He cannot overlook you at this critical period. He sees your dangers. He is acquainted with your temptations. He invites you to follow His example.
------------------------Reflecting Christ's Image, February 21
OHC	58	1	But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
OHC	58	2	Looking unto Jesus, dwelling upon His virtues, mercies, and purity will create in the soul an utter abhorrence for that which is sinful, and an intense longing and thirsting for righteousness. The more closely we discern Jesus, the more will we see our own defects of character: then confess these things to Jesus and with true contrition of soul co-operate with the divine power, the Holy Spirit, to put these things away.
OHC	58	3	It is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which Jesus said He would send into the world, that changes our character into the image of Christ; and when this is accomplished, we reflect, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. That is, the character of the one who thus beholds Christ is so like His, that one looking at him sees Christ's own character shining out as from a mirror. Imperceptibly to ourselves we are changed day by day from our own ways and will into the ways and will of Christ, into the loveliness of His character. Thus we grow up into Christ, and unconsciously reflect His image.
OHC	58	4	It is not by looking away from Him that we imitate the life of Jesus, but by talking of Him, by dwelling upon His perfections, by seeking to refine the taste and elevate the character, by trying, through faith and love, and by earnest, persevering effort, to approach the perfect Pattern. By having a knowledge of Christ--His words, His habits and His lessons of instruction--we borrow the virtues of the character we have so closely studied, and become imbued with the spirit we have so much admired. Jesus becomes to us "the chiefest among ten thousand," the One "altogether lovely."
OHC	58	5	When the soul is brought into close relationship with the great Author of light and truth, impressions are made upon it revealing its true position before God. Then self will die, pride will be laid low, and Christ will draw His own image in deeper lines upon the soul.
------------------------In Love with Christ, February 22
OHC	59	1	For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Hebrews 7:26.
OHC	59	2	The character of Christ was one of unexampled excellence, embracing everything pure, true, lovely, and of good report. We have no knowledge of His ever visiting a party of pleasure or a dance hall, and yet He was the perfection of grace and courtly bearing. Christ was no novice; He was distinguished for the high intellectual powers He possessed even in the morning of His life. His youth was not wasted in indolence, neither was it wasted in sensual pleasure, self-indulgence, or frittered away in things of no profit. Not one of His hours from childhood to manhood was misspent, none were misappropriated....
OHC	59	3	Jesus was sinless and had no dread of the consequences of sin. With this exception His condition was as yours. You have not a difficulty that did not press with equal weight upon Him, not a sorrow that His heart has not experienced. His feelings could be hurt with neglect, with indifference of professed friends, as easily as yours. Is your path thorny? Christ's was so in a tenfold sense. Are you distressed? So was He. How well fitted was Christ to be an example! ...
OHC	59	4	The Inspired Record says of Him: "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." Luke 2:52. As He grew in years He grew in knowledge. He lived temperately; His precious hours were not wasted in dissipating pleasures. He had a truly healthy body and true powers of mind. The physical and mental powers could be expanded and developed as yours or any other youth's. The Word of God was His study, as it should be yours.
OHC	59	5	Take Jesus as your standard. Imitate His life. Fall in love with His character. Walk as Christ walked. A new spring will be given to your intellectual faculties, a large scope to your thoughts, when you bring your powers into vigorous contact with eternal things which are intrinsically grand and great.
------------------------To God Be the Glory, February 23
OHC	60	1	Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:1.
OHC	60	2	What a grand theme this is for contemplation--the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ! Contemplating Christ and His righteousness leaves no room for self-righteousness, for the glorifying of self. In this chapter there is no standstill. There is continual advancement in every stage in the knowledge of Christ....
OHC	60	3	In God we are to glory. The prophet says, "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth." Jeremiah 9:23, 24....
OHC	60	4	We have been called to the knowledge of Christ, and that is to the knowledge of glory and virtue. It is a knowledge of the perfection of the divine character, manifested to us in Jesus Christ, that opens up to us communion with God.... Scarcely can the human mind comprehend what is the breadth and depth and height of the spiritual attainments that can be reached by becoming partakers of the divine nature.
OHC	60	5	I long to address the young men and women who are so willing to reach only cheap standards. O that the Lord might influence their minds to see what perfection of character is! O that they might know the faith that works by love, and purifies the soul! We are living in days of peril. Christ alone can help us and give us the victory. Christ must be all in all to us; He must dwell in the heart; His life must circulate through us, as the blood circulates through the veins. His Spirit must be a vitalizing power that will cause us to influence others to become Christlike and holy.
OHC	60	6	If our youth would take heed to the rules laid down in this chapter, and practice them, what an influence they would exert on the side of right!
------------------------The Highest Exercise of Our Powers, February 24
OHC	61	1	And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3.
OHC	61	2	To comprehend and enjoy God is the highest exercise of the powers of man. This may be attained only when our affections are sanctified and ennobled by the grace of Christ.... In Christ was the brightness of His Father's glory, the express image of His person. Said our Saviour, "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." John 14:9. In Christ is the life of the soul. In the outgoings of our hearts to Him, in our earnest, affectionate yearnings for His excellence, in our eager searching into His glory, we find life. In communion with Him we eat the bread of life.
OHC	61	3	When we allow objects of minor importance to absorb our attention, to the forgetfulness of Christ, turning away from Him to accept other companionship, we set our feet in a path which leads away from God and from heaven. Christ must be the central object of our affections, and then we shall live in Him, then we shall have His spirit....
OHC	61	4	What constitutes the brightness of heaven? In what will consist the happiness of the redeemed? Christ is all in all. They will gaze with rapture unutterable upon the Lamb of God. They will pour out their songs of grateful praise and adoration to Him whom they loved and worshiped here. That song they learned and began to sing on earth. They learned to put their trust in Jesus while they were forming characters for heaven. Their hearts were attuned to His will here. Their joy in Christ will be proportioned to the love and trust which they learned to repose in Him here.
OHC	61	5	God must be ever in our thoughts. We must hold converse with Him while we walk by the way, and while our hands are engaged in labor. In all the purposes and pursuits of life we must inquire, What will the Lord have me to do? How shall I please Him who has given His life a ransom for me? Thus may we walk with God, as did Enoch of old; and ours may be the testimony which he received, that he pleased God.
------------------------Follow On to Know the Lord, February 25
OHC	62	1	Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. Hosea 6:3.
OHC	62	2	We may think we understand something about the truth and the Bible, but the revelation of truth is much beyond anything that our finite vision can comprehend. Christ leads us. When we are caught up to meet Him, and enter through the pearly gates into the city of God, He leads us by the living waters, and all the time He is educating and talking with us about things that He would have opened to our understanding upon the earth if we could have borne it. But we do not walk fast enough. We take too many back steps. We do not advance heavenward; therefore the light that would have come in glorious rays, could not come to us because we were not prepared for it. We take a step back into the world, to the gratifications of earth, and then we take a step toward heaven, and then we take a step back, and then we take a step toward heaven.
OHC	62	3	If you follow on to know the Lord, you shall know that His goings forth are prepared as the morning. You know the morning light first breaks upon us in a very dim light, and then increases and increases in brightness until the king of the day marches in the heavens in all his glory, in all his beauty.... Now if God's glory were to shine first upon us as He wants to let it shine, we could not endure it.... That is just why Christ came in humanity. We could not have borne Him if He had come in all His glory....
OHC	62	4	Now if we will follow on, and if we will not backslide a step or two every now and then, and have to gather up our forces and go on--it is better to gather up our forces than to remain in a backslidden condition and keep on backsliding, but I wish that we did not lose so much time and so much strength--we may know more of God and more of heaven, and become better acquainted with the precious truth and the rich blessings that God has for us if we will only comprehend them. He has prepared wonderful things for us.
------------------------The Girdle of Gladness, February 26
OHC	63	1	Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness. Psalm 30:11.
OHC	63	2	Many who are seeking for happiness will be disappointed in their hopes, because they seek it amiss. True happiness is not to be found in selfish gratification, but in the path of duty. God desires man to be happy, and for this reason He gave him the precepts of His law, that in obeying these he might have joy at home and abroad. While he stands in his moral integrity, true to principle, having the control of all his powers, he cannot be miserable. With its tendrils entwined about God, the soul will flourish amid unbelief and depravity. But many who are constantly looking forward for happiness fail to receive it, because, by neglecting to discharge the little duties and observe the little courtesies of life, they violate the principles upon which happiness depends.
OHC	63	3	The currents of spiritual life must not become stagnant. The water of the living fountain should be in us, a well of water springing up into everlasting life, and sweeping away the selfishness of the natural heart.... Many build up barriers between themselves and Jesus so that His love cannot flow into their hearts, and then they complain that they do not see the Sun of Righteousness. Let them forget self and live for Jesus, and the light of Heaven will bring gladness to their souls....
OHC	63	4	The fact that Jesus died to bring happiness and heaven within our reach should be a theme for constant gratitude. The beauty spread before us in God's created works, as an expression of His love, should bring gladness to our hearts. We open to ourselves the floodgates of woe or joy. If we permit our thoughts to be engrossed with the troubles and trifles of earth, our hearts will be filled with unbelief, gloom, and foreboding. If we set our affections on things above, the voice of Jesus will speak peace to our souls; murmurings will cease; vexing thoughts will be lost in praise to our Redeemer. Those who dwell upon God's great mercies, and are not unmindful of His lesser gifts, will put on the girdle of gladness, and make melody in their hearts to the Lord.
------------------------Life with a Purpose, February 27
OHC	64	1	Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Psalm 146:5.
OHC	64	2	Your only safety and happiness are in making Christ your constant counselor. You can be happy in Him if you had not another friend in the wide world. Your feelings of unrest and homesickness or loneliness may be for your good. Your heavenly Father means to teach you to find in Him the friendship and love and consolation that will satisfy your most earnest hopes and desires....
OHC	64	3	Do not be overanxious about anything. Go quietly about your duty which the day brings you. Do the best you can; ask God to be your helper.... Feel every day, "I am doing my work for God. I am not living for myself, to glorify myself, but to glorify God." Oh, trust in Jesus and not in your own heart! Cast your burden and yourself upon Him. If you feel no joy, no consolation, do not be discouraged. Hope and believe. You may have a precious experience in the things of God. Wrestle with your discouragements and doubts until you gain the victory over them in Jesus' name. Do not encourage grief, despondency, and darkness.... Repose in the broad, sure promises of God. Rest in these promises, without a doubt.
OHC	64	4	I have seen that those who live for a purpose, seeking to benefit and bless their fellow men and to honor and glorify their Redeemer, are the truly happy ones on the earth, while the man who is restless, discontented, and seeking this and testing that, hoping to find happiness, is always complaining of disappointment. He is always in want, never satisfied, because he lives for himself alone. Let it be your aim to do good, to act your part in life faithfully.
OHC	64	5	Find time to comfort some other heart, to bless with a kind, cheering word someone who is battling with temptation and maybe with affliction. In thus blessing another with cheering, hopeful words, pointing him to the Burden Bearer, you may unexpectedly find peace, happiness, and consolation yourself.
------------------------Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory, February 28
OHC	65	1	Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 1 Peter 1:8.
OHC	65	2	Christ has said: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." John 7:37. Have you exhausted the fountain?--No; for it is inexhaustible. Just as soon as you feel your need, you may drink, and drink again. The fountain is always full. And when you have once drunk of that fountain, you will not be seeking to quench your thirst from the broken cisterns of this world; you will not be studying how you can find the most pleasure, amusement, fun, and frolic. No; because you have been drinking from the stream which makes glad the city of God. Then your joy will be full.
OHC	65	3	Why should not the religion of Christ be represented as it really is, as full of attractiveness and power? Why should we not present before the world the loveliness of Christ? Why do we not show that we have a living Saviour, one who can walk with us in the darkness as well as in the light, and that we can trust in Him? ...
OHC	65	4	We have seen clouds interpose between us and the sun, but we did not mourn and clothe ourselves in sackcloth for fear that we should never see the sun again. We manifested no anxiety about it, but waited as cheerfully as possible until the cloud passed away and revealed the sun. Just so in our trials and temptations. Clouds may seem to shut from us the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness; but we know that the face of our Redeemer is not forever hidden. He is looking upon us with love and tender compassion. Let us not cast away our confidence, which hath great recompense of reward, but when clouds hang over the soul, let us keep our eyes fixed where we can see the Sun of Righteousness, and rejoice that we have a living Saviour. Think how beautiful was the light which we enjoyed, keep the mind stayed on Jesus, and the light will again shine upon us, and dismal thoughts will flee. We shall have joy in Christ, and shall go singing on our way to Mount Zion.
------------------------Christ, the Ladder to Heaven, March 1
OHC	66	1	And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Genesis 28:12.
OHC	66	2	Let us consider this ladder which was presented to Jacob.... The sin of Adam cut off all intercourse between heaven and earth. Up to the moment of man's transgression of God's law there had been free communion between earth and heaven. They were connected by a path which Deity could traverse. But the transgression of God's law broke up this path and man was separated from God....
OHC	66	3	Every link which bound earth to heaven and man to the infinite God seemed broken. Man might look to heaven, but how could he attain it? But joy to the world! The Son of God, the Sinless One, the One perfect in obedience, becomes the channel through which the lost communion may be renewed, the way through which the lost paradise may be regained. Through Christ, man's substitute and surety, man may keep the commandments of God. He may return to his allegiance and God will accept him. Christ is the ladder. "By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture." John 10:9....
OHC	66	4	The ladder is the medium of communication between God and man. Through the mystic ladder the gospel was preached to Jacob. As the ladder stretched from earth, reaching to the highest heavens, and the glory of God was seen above the ladder, so Christ in His divine nature reached immensity and was one with the Father. As the ladder, though its top penetrated into heaven, had its base upon the earth, so Christ, though God, clothed His divinity with humanity and was in the world "found in fashion as a man" (Philippians 2:8). The ladder would be useless if it rested not on the earth or if it reached not to the heavens.
OHC	66	5	God appeared in glory above the ladder, looking down with compassion on erring, sinful Jacob.... It is through Christ that the Father beholds sinful man.... The broken links have been repaired. A highway has been thrown up along which the weary and heavy laden may pass. They may enter heaven and find rest.
------------------------The Precious Treasure of Faith, March 2
OHC	67	1	Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. 2 Peter 1:2, 3.
OHC	67	2	"Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ: ... Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 2 Peter 1:1-4.
OHC	67	3	"Like precious faith" ... is a genuine faith. It is not a fruitless faith. True, saving faith is a precious treasure of inestimable value. It is not superficial. The just lives by faith a truly spiritual, Christlike life. It is through faith that the steps are taken one at a time up the ladder of progress. Faith must be cultivated. It unites the human with the divine nature.
OHC	67	4	The life of obedience to all of God's commandments is a life of progression, a life of constant advancement. As the elect, precious, have increased understanding of the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ, they see and grasp the rich promises that come through the righteousness of Christ. The more they receive of the divine grace the more they work on the plan of addition.
OHC	67	5	"Grace and peace" will be multiplied "through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." Here is the Source of all spiritual power, and faith must be in constant exercise, for all spiritual life is from Christ. Knowledge of God inspires faith in Him as the only channel to convey heaven's blessing to the soul, elevating, ennobling, refining the soul, as--through the knowledge of God--it is brought up to the high attainment of glory and virtue. "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue."
------------------------Virtue and Knowledge, March 3
OHC	68	1	And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge. 2 Peter 1:5.
OHC	68	2	"Add to your faith virtue." There is no promise given to the one who is retrograding. The apostle, in his testimony, is aiming to excite the believers to advancement in grace and holiness. They already profess to be living the truth, they have a knowledge of the precious faith, they have been made partakers of the divine nature. But if they stop here they will lose the grace they have received....
OHC	68	3	Without giving "all diligence" to make step after step upward to God above the ladder, there is no gaining ground in peace and grace and the work of holiness. "Strive," said Jesus, "to enter in at the strait gate." Luke 13:24. The way of the believer is marked out by God above the ladder. All his endeavors will be in vain if he has not virtue of character, a practical knowledge of Christ through obedience to all His requirements. Those who have faith must be careful to show their faith by their works....
OHC	68	4	"Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge"--knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, knowledge of the great plan of salvation. To be ignorant of God's commandments and laws will not excuse a soul. He will not dare to plead around the throne of God, "I did not know the truth. I was ignorant." The Lord has given His Word to be our guide, our instructor, and with this heavenly enlightening there is no excuse for ignorance....
OHC	68	5	Truth is an active, working principle, molding heart and life so that there is a constant upward movement.... In every step of climbing, the will is obtaining a new spring of action. The moral tone is becoming more like the mind and character of Christ. The progressive Christian has grace and love which passes knowledge, for divine insight into the character of Christ takes a deep hold upon his affections. The glory of God revealed above the ladder can only be appreciated by the progressive climber, who is ever attracted higher, to nobler aims which Christ reveals. All the faculties of mind and body must be enlisted.
------------------------"And to Knowledge Temperance", March 4
OHC	69	1	And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness. 2 Peter 1:6.
OHC	69	2	To knowledge must be added temperance. "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection." 1 Corinthians 9:24-27.
OHC	69	3	Athletes cheerfully comply with the conditions in order to be trained for the highest taxation of their physical strength. They do not indulge appetite, but put a constant restraint upon themselves, refraining from food which would weaken or lessen the full power of any of their organs. Yet they fight "as one that beateth the air," while Christians are in a real contest. Combatants in the games seek for mere perishable laurels. Christians have before them a glorious crown of immortality, incorruptible. And in this heavenly race there is plenty of room for all to obtain the prize. Not one will fail if he runs well, if he does according to the light which shines upon him, exercising his abilities which, to the best of his knowledge, he has kept in a healthful condition....
OHC	69	4	Any habit or practice which will weaken the nerve and brain power or the physical strength disqualifies for the exercise of the next grace which comes in after temperance--patience....
OHC	69	5	A man who is intemperate, who uses stimulating indulgences--beer, wine, strong drinks, tea and coffee, opium, tobacco, or any of these substances that are deleterious to health--cannot be a patient man. So temperance is a round of the ladder upon which we must plant our feet before we can add the grace of patience. In food, in raiment, in work, in regular hours, in healthful exercise, we must be regulated by the knowledge which it is our duty to obtain that we may, through earnest endeavor, place ourselves in right relation to life and health.
------------------------The Perfect Work of Patience, March 5
OHC	70	1	Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:3, 4.
OHC	70	2	The apostle says we succeed in the grace of temperance that we may add patience. Patience under trials will keep us from saying and doing those things which will injure our own souls and injure those with whom we associate. Let your trials be what they will, nothing can seriously injure you if you exercise patience, if you are calm and unexcited when in trying positions....
OHC	70	3	We can see the wisdom of Peter in placing temperance to be added to knowledge before patience. This is one strong reason for overcoming the appetite for all stimulants, for as the nerves become excited under the influence of these irritating substances, how many and grievous are the evils that are done! ...
OHC	70	4	There is necessity for the Christian adding patience to temperance. There will need to be firm principle and fixedness of purpose not to offend in word or action either our own conscience or the feelings of others. There must be a rising above the customs of the world in order to bear reproach, disappointment, losses and crosses without one murmur, but with uncomplaining dignity.... A petulant, ill-natured man or woman really knows not what it is to be happy. Every cup which he puts to his lips seems to be bitter as wormwood and his path seems strewn with rough stones, with briars and thorns; but he must add to temperance patience and he will not see or feel slights.
OHC	70	5	Patience must have its perfect work or we cannot be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Troubles and afflictions are appointed unto us, and shall we bear them all patiently or shall we make everything bitter by our complaining? The gold is put into the furnace that the dross may be removed. Shall we, then, not be patient under the eye of the refiner? We must refuse to sink into a sad and disconsolate state of mind, but show calm trust in God, counting it all joy when we are permitted to endure trials for Christ's sake.
------------------------"To Patience Godliness", March 6
OHC	71	1	For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. 1 Timothy 4:8.
OHC	71	2	Having added patience to temperance, we are then to ascend the ladder of progress and add to patience godliness. This is the very outgrowth of patience. Said the apostle Paul, "We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope".... Romans 5:3, 4.
OHC	71	3	Here, then, is an advance grace, godliness, which is to have the spirit and the likeness of the character of Jesus Christ. To raise us to His divine ideal is the one end of all the dealings of God with us, and of the whole plan of salvation.... The corruption of the world is seeking to steal our senses, all the unholy influences on every side are working to hold us to a low, earthly level--blinding our sensibilities, degrading our desires, enfeebling our conscience and crippling our religious faculties by urging us to give sway to the lower nature....
OHC	71	4	To draw us away from all this is the precious ladder. The eye is attracted to God above the ladder. The invitation comes from the glory above it, Come up higher. The heart is attracted. Steps are taken in advance, one after another. Higher and still higher we ascend. At every step the attraction becomes greater. Higher, holier ambitions take possession of the soul. The guilt of the past life is left behind. We dare not look down the ladder at those things which long poisoned the springs of true happiness and kindled remorse, weakened and depraved the will, and repressed every better impulse....
OHC	71	5	The aim of God's Word is to inspire hope, to lead us to ... climb step by step heavenward, with ever-increasing vigor....We attain a likeness of character to God by the imparting of His own grace.... As wax takes the counterpart of the seal, so the soul receives and retains the moral image of God. We become filled and transfigured by His brightness, as the cloud--dark in itself--when filled with the light is turned to stainless whiteness.
------------------------The Virtue of Brotherly Kindness, March 7
OHC	72	1	And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 2 Peter 1:7.
OHC	72	2	The Word of God enjoins upon every one of His children: "Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous." 1 Peter 3:8. Now unless godliness was added to patience man would not show that brotherly kindness. In His mission to our world, Christ has shown man the graces of the Spirit of God which, when accepted, fashion and mold the entire man, externally as well as internally, by abasing his pride and leading him not to esteem himself highly but to esteem his brother as precious in the sight of God because Christ paid an infinite price for his soul. When man is valued as God's property then we will be kind, amiable, and condescending toward him.
OHC	72	3	The religion of Jesus Christ is a system of the true heavenly politeness and leads to a practical exhibition of habitual tenderness of feeling, kindness of deportment. He who possesses godliness will also add this grace, taking a step higher on the ladder. The higher he mounts the ladder, the more of the grace of God is revealed in his life, his sentiments, his principles. He is learning, ever learning the terms of his acceptance with God, and the only way to obtain an inheritance in the heavens is to become like Christ in character. The whole scheme of mercy is to soften down what is harsh in temper, and refine whatever is rugged in the deportment. The internal change reveals itself in the external actions. The graces of the Spirit of God work with hidden power in the transformation of character. The religion of Christ never will reveal a sour, coarse, and uncourteous action. Courtesy is a Bible virtue. The virtue of this grace of brotherly kindness characterized the life of Christ. Never was such courtesy exhibited upon the earth as Christ revealed, and we cannot overestimate its value....
OHC	72	4	Growing in grace is an earnest working out of what God works in. It is an earnest of future glory, the working out here upon the earth of the spirit that is cherished in heaven.
------------------------Charity the Topmost Round, March 8
OHC	73	1	And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Colossians 3:14.
OHC	73	2	The next step in the ladder is charity. Add "to brotherly kindness charity," which is love. Love to God and love to our neighbor constitute the whole duty of man. Without brotherly kindness we cannot exhibit the grace of love to God or to our fellow men.
OHC	73	3	This last step in the ladder gives to the will a new spring of action. Christ offers a love that passeth knowledge. This love is not something kept apart from our life, but it takes hold of the entire being. The heaven to which the Christian is climbing will be attained only by those who have this crowning grace. This is the new affection which pervades the soul. The old is left behind. Love is the great controlling power. When love leads, all the faculties of mind and spirit are enlisted. Love to God and love to man will give the clear title to heaven.
OHC	73	4	No one can love God supremely and transgress one of His commandments. The heart softened and subdued with the beauty of Christ's character and bridled by the pure and lofty rules which He has given us will put into practice what it has learned of love, and will follow Jesus forthwith in humble obedience. The living power of faith will reveal itself in loving acts.
OHC	73	5	What evidence have we that we have the pure love, without alloy? God has erected a standard--His commandments. "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." John 14:21. The words of God must have an abiding place in our hearts.
OHC	73	6	We are to love our brethren as Christ has loved us. We are to be patient and kind, and yet there is something lacking--we must love. Christ tells us that we must forgive the erring even seventy times seven.... When there is much forgiven, the heart loves much. Love is a tender plant. It needs to be constantly cultured or it will wither and die.
OHC	73	7	All these graces we must have. We must climb the whole length of the ladder.
------------------------Make Your Calling and Election Sure, March 9
OHC	74	1	For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:8.
OHC	74	2	The only safety for the Christian is to be unwearied in his efforts to live on the plan of addition. The apostle shows the advantages to be gained in thus doing. For those who add grace to grace, God will work on the plan of multiplication, so that the graces will be in and abound in the religious life and he will not "be barren nor unfruitful...." Those abounding in the Christian graces will be zealous, lively, vigorous in all practical Christianity, and will practice righteousness--just as the branch abiding in the vine will produce the same fruit that the vine bears....
OHC	74	3	He who does not climb the ladder of progress and add grace to grace "is blind, and cannot see afar off." He fails to discern that without taking these successive steps in ascending the ladder round after round, in growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, he is not placing himself in a position where the light of God above the ladder is reflected upon him. As he does not add grace to grace, he has forgotten the claims of God upon him, and that he was to receive the forgiveness of sins through obedience to the requirements of God....
OHC	74	4	"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure." 2 Peter 1:10. We need not have a supposed hope, but an assurance. To make our calling and election sure is to follow the Bible plan to closely examine ourselves, to make strict inquiry whether we are indeed converted, whether our minds are drawn out after God and heavenly things, our wills renewed, our whole souls changed. To make our calling and election sure requires far greater diligence than many are giving to this important matter. "For if ye do these things"--live on the plan of addition, growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ--ye shall mount up, step by step, the ladder Jacob saw, and "ye shall never fall."
------------------------Holding Fast to Christ, the Ladder, March 10
OHC	75	1	For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:11.
OHC	75	2	We ascend to heaven by climbing the ladder--the whole height of Christ's work--step by step. There must be a holding fast to Christ, a climbing up by the merits of Christ. To let go is to cease to climb, is to fall, to perish. We are to mount by the Mediator and all the while to keep hold on the Mediator, ascending by successive steps, round above round, stretching the hand from one round to the next above.... There is fearful peril in relaxing our efforts in spiritual diligence for a moment, for we are hanging, as it were, between heaven and earth.
OHC	75	3	We must keep the eye directed upward to God above the ladder. The question with men and women gazing heavenward is, How can I obtain the mansions for the blessed? It is by being a partaker of the divine nature. It is by escaping the "corruption that is in the world through lust." It is by entering into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, laying hold of the hope set before you in the gospel. It is by fastening yourself to Christ and straining every nerve to leave the world behind.... It is by being in Christ and yet led by Christ; by believing and working, ... holding onto Christ and constantly mounting upward toward God....
OHC	75	4	We point you to the mansions Christ is preparing for all those who love Him. We point you to that city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. We show you its massive walls, with the twelve foundations, and tell you that these walls must be scaled. You look discouraged at the magnitude of the work before you. We point you to the ladder set up on earth, reaching to the city of God. Plant your feet on the ladder. Forsake your sins. Climb step by step and you will reach God above the ladder, and the Holy City of God....
OHC	75	5	When the successive steps have all been mounted, when the graces have been added one after another, the crowning grace is the perfect love of God--supreme love to God and love to our fellow men. And then the abundant entrance into the kingdom of God.
------------------------The Privilege of Assurance, March 11
OHC	76	1	And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. 1 John 3:19.
OHC	76	2	I would impress upon our young men and young women the necessity of making their calling and election sure. I would beseech you to do no haphazard or uncertain work where your eternal interests are involved. By so doing you lose happiness, peace, comfort, and hope in this life, and you lose also your immortal inheritance.
OHC	76	3	My young friends, you are judgment bound, and through the grace of Christ you may render obedience to the commands of God, and daily gain fortitude and strength of character, so that you need not fail or be discouraged. Divine grace has been abundantly provided for every soul, so that each one may engage in the conflict and come off victorious. Do not become sluggish; do not flatter yourselves that you may be saved in walking in accordance with the natural traits of your character--that you may drift with the current of the world, and indulge and please self, and yet be able to withstand the forces of evil in a time of crisis, and come off victorious when the battle waxes hot.... You must learn every day to obey the orders of the Captain of the Lord's host.
OHC	76	4	My young friends, do you pray? Are you educating yourselves to offer petitions for pure thoughts, for holy aspirations, for a pure heart and clean hands? Are you educating your lips to sing the praises of God, and are you seeking to do the will of God? This is the kind of education that will be of the greatest value to you; for it will aid you in the formation of Christlike character.
OHC	76	5	Do not settle down in Satan's easy chair, and say that there is no use, you cannot cease to sin, that there is no power in you to overcome. There is no power in you apart from Christ, but it is your privilege to have Christ abiding in your heart by faith, and He can overcome sin in you, when you cooperate with His efforts.... You may be living epistles, known and read of all men. You are not to be a dead letter, but a living one, testifying to the world that Jesus is able to save.
------------------------Chosen of God, March 12
OHC	77	1	Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. Isaiah 41:9.
OHC	77	2	Many have confused ideas as to what constitutes faith, and they live altogether below their privileges. They confuse feeling and faith, and are continually distressed and perplexed in mind; for Satan takes all possible advantage of their ignorance and inexperience.... We are to accept of Christ as our personal Saviour, or we shall fail in our attempt to be overcomers. It will not answer for us to hold ourselves aloof from Him, to believe that our friend or our neighbor may have Him for a personal Saviour, but that we may not experience His pardoning love. We are to believe that we are chosen of God, to be saved by the exercise of faith, through the grace of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit; and we are to praise and glorify God for such a marvelous manifestation of His unmerited favor. It is the love of God that draws the soul to Christ, to be graciously received, and presented to the Father. Through the work of the Spirit the divine relationship between God and the sinner is renewed. The Father says: "I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. I will exercise forgiving love toward them, and bestow upon them my joy. They shall be to me a peculiar treasure; for this people whom I have formed for myself shall show forth my praise."
OHC	77	3	The Father sets His love upon His elect people who live in the midst of men. These are the people whom Christ has redeemed by the price of His own blood; and because they respond to the drawing of Christ, through the sovereign mercy of God, they are elected to be saved as His obedient children. Upon them is manifested the free grace of God, the love wherewith He hath loved them. Everyone who will humble himself as a little child, who will receive and obey the word of God with a child's simplicity, will be among the elect of God.
OHC	77	4	You can prove yourself elected of Christ by being faithful; you can prove yourself the chosen of Christ by abiding in the vine.
------------------------Fullness of Christ's Ransom, March 13
OHC	78	1	According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. Ephesians 1:4, 5.
OHC	78	2	In the council of heaven, provision was made that men, though transgressors, should not perish in their disobedience, but, through faith in Christ as their substitute and surety, might become the elect of God.... God wills that all men should be saved; for ample provision has been made, in giving His only begotten Son to pay man's ransom. Those who perish will perish because they refuse to be adopted as children of God through Christ Jesus. The pride of man hinders him from accepting the provisions of salvation. But human merit will not admit a soul into the presence of God. That which will make a man acceptable to God is the imparted grace of Christ through faith in His name. No dependence can be placed in works or in happy flights of feelings as evidence that men are chosen of God; for the elect are chosen through Christ.
OHC	78	3	Jesus says, "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37. When the repenting sinner comes to Christ, conscious of his guilt and unworthiness, realizing that he is deserving of punishment, but relying on the mercy and love of Christ, he will not be turned away. The pardoning love of God is appropriated, and joyful gratitude springs up in his heart for the infinite compassion and love of his Saviour. That provision was made for him in the councils of heaven before the foundation of the world, that Christ should take upon Himself the penalty of man's transgression and impute to him His righteousness, overwhelms him with amazement.
OHC	78	4	The Father laid our sins where none but His own eyes could discern them. And as He hid His face from the innocence of Christ, so He will hide His eyes from the guilt of the believing sinner, because of the righteousness imputed to him. The righteousness of Christ laid upon us will draw upon us the most precious blessings in this life, and will bestow upon us everlasting life in the kingdom of God.
------------------------God Calls for Our Best Affections, March 14
OHC	79	1	No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24.
OHC	79	2	Many are on the enchanted ground of the enemy. Things of the least importance--foolish social parties, singing, jesting, joking--engross their minds and they serve God with a divided heart.... The declaration of Christ, "No man can serve two masters," is unheeded.
OHC	79	3	One of the most marked features of the earth's inhabitants in the days of Noah was their intense worldliness. They made eating and drinking, buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage, the supreme objects of life. It is not sinful, but the fulfillment of a duty, to eat and drink, if that which is lawful is not carried to excess.... God Himself instituted marriage when He gave Eve to Adam. All God's laws are marvelously adapted to meet the nature of man. The sin of the antediluvians was in perverting that which in itself was lawful. They corrupted God's gifts by using them to minister to their selfish desires....
OHC	79	4	Excessive love and devotion to that which in itself is lawful, proves the ruination of thousands upon thousands of souls. To matters of minor importance is often given the strength of intellect that should be wholly devoted to God. We need always to be guarded against carrying to excess that which, rightly used, is lawful. Many, many souls are lost by engaging in those things which, properly managed, are harmless, but which, perverted and misapplied, become sinful and demoralizing.
OHC	79	5	If we are constantly thinking of and struggling for the things that pertain to this life, we cannot keep our thoughts fixed on the things of heaven. Satan is seeking to lead our minds away from God, and to center them on the fashions, the customs, and the demands of the world, which bring disease and death....
OHC	79	6	In this world we are to obtain a fitness for the higher world. God has left a trust with us, and He expects us to use all our faculties in helping and blessing our fellow men. He calls for our best affections, our highest powers.
------------------------Which Captain? March 15
OHC	80	1	For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death. Psalm 48:14.
OHC	80	2	We are all under one or the other of two great captains. One, the Creator of man and of the world, is the greatest of all. All owe Him the allegiance of their whole being, the devotion of their entire affection. If the mind is given to His control, and if God has the molding and developing of the powers of the mind, new moral power will be received daily from the Source of all wisdom and all strength. Moral blessings and divine beauties will reward the efforts of everyone whose mind is heaven bent. We may grasp revelations--heavenly beauties--that lie beyond the short vision of the worldling, that outshine the imagination of the greatest mind....
OHC	80	3	Satan is the leader of the worldly.... His highest aim is to gather under his banner the majority of the world, that numbers may stand against the power of righteousness and eternal truth. Talent and ability given of God to be devoted to His service, are laid at the feet of the great rebel of God's government....
OHC	80	4	While the worldly wise is skimming along the surface, grasping the things of sight and sense, the one who fears and reveres God is reaching into eternity, penetrating the deepest recesses and gathering the knowledge and riches that are as enduring as eternity. Justice, honor, love, and truth are the attributes of God's throne. They are the principles of His government.... These are jewels to be sought after and cherished for time and for eternity....
OHC	80	5	To walk the world a pure man of untarnished morals, bearing the sacred principles of truth in your heart, its influence seen in the acts of your life; to live uncorrupted by the baseness, falsity, and dishonesty of a world which must soon be purified of its moral corruption by the fires of God's retributive justice, is to be a man whose record is immortalized in heaven, honored among the pure angels who weigh and appreciate moral worth. This is what it is to be a man of God.
------------------------The Cause of All Our Woes, March 16
OHC	81	1	But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:13.
OHC	81	2	Mark the words "deceitfulness of sin." Satan always presents his temptations under the guise of goodness. Beware that you yield not to them. One violation of straightforward truthfulness prepares the way for the second violation, and wrongs are repeated, until the heart of unbelief becomes hardened, and the conscience loses its sensitiveness.
OHC	81	3	Let none flatter themselves that the sins of their youth can easily be given up by and by. This is not so. Every sin cherished weakens the character and strengthens the habit; and physical, mental, and moral depravity result. You may repent of the wrong you have done, and set your feet in right paths; but the mold of your mind and your familiarity with evil will make it difficult for you to distinguish between right and wrong. Through the wrong habits you have formed Satan will assail you again and again.
OHC	81	4	Many ... look upon sin as a little thing.... Many take counsel of their own wishes and desires and follow their inclinations and finally conclude that sin is not so very offensive, not so terrible and dreadful in the sight of God. Sin that may appear little, that may be termed little by the blunted conscience, is so grievous a thing in the sight of God that nothing but the blood of God's own Son could wash it away. This fact places the true estimate upon sin. God will never tarnish His glory to come to our ideas and views. We shall certainly have to come to His. Just in proportion to the excellence of God is the heinous character of sin....
OHC	81	5	God seeks our real happiness. If anything lies in the way of this, He sees it must first be removed. He will thwart our purposes and disappoint our expectations and bring us through disappointments and trials to reveal to us ourselves as we are.... Sin is the cause of all our woes. If we would have true peace and happiness of mind, sin must be removed.
------------------------In Self-Distrust We Cry to God, March 17
OHC	82	1	I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Psalm 32:5.
OHC	82	2	David often triumphed in God, and yet he dwelt much upon his own unworthiness and sinfulness. His conscience was not asleep or dead. "My sin," he cried, "is ever before me." Psalm 51:3 . He did not flatter himself that sin was a matter with which he had nothing to do, and that should not concern him. As he saw the depths of deceit in his heart, he ... prayed that God would ... cleanse him from secret faults.
OHC	82	3	It is not safe for us to close our eyes and harden our consciences, that we shall not see or realize our sins.
OHC	82	4	The humble heart will not think confession beneath him. He will not feel it a disgrace to confess if he has in any way, even in thought, hurt his brother or hindered God's work through him.
OHC	82	5	Sins not repented of are sins not forgiven. Those who think themselves forgiven for sins of which they have never felt the sinfulness and over which they have never felt contrition of soul, only deceive themselves.... Our strength lies in our conscious weakness.... In self-distrust we cry to God for help, and work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Casting away all confidence in the arm of flesh, we cling with firm grasp to Jesus....
OHC	82	6	Heaven will never be reached by an easy-going people merely professing to be Christians. God calls for thorough work on the part of every one of His followers.... By resolute self-denial, By constant watchfulness, By earnest prayer, By the diligent use of every means of grace, And by the help of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, We shall come off victorious. The rest in heaven is for the weary, The crown for the brows of the warriors.
------------------------Full Provision for Pardon, March 18
OHC	83	1	The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Psalm 34:18.
OHC	83	2	Do not think that because you have made mistakes you must always be under condemnation, for this is not necessary....
OHC	83	3	Shall we look at our sins, and begin to mourn, and say, I have done wrong, and I cannot come to God with any degree of confidence? Does not the Bible say, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"? 1 John 1:9. It is a proper thing for us to have a realization of the terrible character of sin. It was sin that caused Christ to suffer an ignominious death on Calvary. But while we should understand that sin is a terrible thing, yet we should not listen to the voice of our adversary, who says, "You have sinned, and you have no right to claim the promises of God." You should say to the adversary, "It is written, 'If any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous' (1 John 2:1)"....
OHC	83	4	The psalmist says, "I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." Psalm 32:5.... This is the kind of experience that we should have.
OHC	83	5	David was pardoned of his transgression because he humbled his heart before God in repentance and contrition of soul, and believed that God's promise to forgive would be fulfilled. He confessed his sin, repented, and was reconverted. In the rapture of the assurance of forgiveness, he exclaimed, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." Psalm 32:1, 2. The blessing comes because of pardon; pardon comes through faith that the sin, confessed and repented of, is borne by the great Sin Bearer. Thus from Christ cometh all our blessings. His death is an atoning sacrifice for our sins. He is the great Medium through whom we receive the mercy and favor of God.
------------------------Building for Eternity, March 19
OHC	84	1	Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. Matthew 7:24, 25.
OHC	84	2	The formation of character is the work of a lifetime, and it is for eternity. If all could realize this, if they would awake to the thought that we are individually deciding our own destiny for eternal life or eternal ruin, what a change would take place! How differently would this probationary time be occupied! ...
OHC	84	3	In character building it is of the greatest importance that we dig deep, removing all the rubbish and building on the immovable, solid Rock, Christ Jesus. The foundation firmly laid, we need wisdom to know how to build.... In His law God has given us a pattern, and it is after this pattern that we are to build. The law is the great standard of righteousness. It represents the character of God, and is the test of our loyalty to His government.
OHC	84	4	Thoroughness is necessary to success in character building. There must be an earnest desire to carry out the plans of the Master Builder. The timbers used must be solid; no careless, unreliable work can be accepted; it would ruin the building. The whole being is to be put into this work. It demands strength and energy; there is no reserve to be wasted in unimportant matters. There must be determined human force put into the work, in cooperation with the divine Worker. There must be earnest, persevering effort to break away from the customs and maxims and associations of the world. Deep thought, earnest purpose, steadfast integrity, are essential. There must be no idleness. Life is a sacred trust; and every moment should be wisely improved....
OHC	84	5	Remember that you are building for eternity. See that your foundation is sure; then build firmly, and with persistent effort, but in gentleness, meekness, and love. So shall your house stand unshaken, not only when the storms of temptation come but when the overwhelming flood of God's wrath shall sweep over the world.
------------------------Give No Place to Temptation, March 20
OHC	85	1	In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge. Proverbs 14:26.
OHC	85	2	God requires that we confess our sins and humble our hearts before Him; but at the same time we should have confidence in Him as a tender Father, who will not forsake those who put their trust in Him. We do not realize how many of us walk by sight and not by faith. We believe the things that are seen, but do not appreciate the precious promises given us in His Word. And yet we cannot dishonor God more decidedly than by showing that we distrust what He says.
OHC	85	3	Do not for a moment acknowledge Satan's temptations as being in harmony with your own mind. Turn from them as you would from the adversary himself. Satan's work is to discourage the soul. Christ's work is to inspire the heart with faith and hope. Satan seeks to unsettle our confidence. He tells us that our hopes are built upon false premises, rather than upon the sure, immutable word of Him who cannot lie.
OHC	85	4	When he [Satan] suggests doubts as to whether we are really the people whom God is leading, whom by tests and provings He is preparing to stand in the great day, be ready to meet his insinuations by presenting the clear evidence from the Word of God that this is the remnant people who are keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
OHC	85	5	Let us trust fully, humbly, unselfishly, in God. We are His little children, and thus He deals with us. When we draw near to Him, He mercifully preserves us from the assaults of the enemy. Never will He betray one who trusts in Him as a child trusts in its parents. He sees the humble, trusting souls drawing near to Him, and in pity and love He draws near to them, and lifts up for them a standard against the enemy. "Touch them not," He says, "for they are mine. I have graven them upon the palms of my hands." He teaches them to exercise unquestioning faith in His power to work in their behalf. With assurance they say, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 1 John 5:4.
------------------------Above the Fog of Doubt, March 21
OHC	86	1	Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24.
OHC	86	2	Even Christians of long experience are often assaulted with the most terrible doubts and waverings.... You must not consider that for these temptations your case is hopeless.... Hope in God, trust in Him and rest in His promises.
OHC	86	3	When the devil comes with his doubts and unbeliefs, shut the door of your heart. Shut your eyes so that you will not dwell upon his hellish shadow. Lift them up where they can behold the things which are eternal, and you will have strength every hour. The trial of your faith is much more precious than gold.... It makes you valiant to fight the battle of the Lord....
OHC	86	4	Satan connects with everyone that will connect with him. If he can get those that have had an experience in religion, they are his most effectual agents to reach just such men and compass their souls with unbelief. You cannot afford to let any doubts come into your mind. Do not please the devil enough to tell about the terrible burdens you are carrying. Every time you do it, Satan laughs that his soul can control you and that you have lost sight of Jesus Christ your Redeemer....
OHC	86	5	We are to show forth Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. It is by living faith that we rest in that light. It is by living faith that we rejoice in that light every day. We are not to talk our doubts and trials, because they grow bigger every time we talk them. Every time we talk them, Satan has gained the victory; but when we say, "I will commit the keeping of my soul unto Him, as unto a faithful witness," then we testify that we have given ourselves to Jesus Christ without any reservation, and then God gives us light and we rejoice in Him.
OHC	86	6	The soul that loves God, rises above the fog of doubt; he gains a bright, broad, deep, living experience, and becomes meek and Christ-like. His soul is committed to God, hid with Christ in God.
------------------------Progressive Conquest of Evil, March 22
OHC	87	1	Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1:12.
OHC	87	2	It is not the order and will of God to shield His people from temptation.... When truth takes possession of the heart, the Christian will be brought into conflict.... There are opposing elements in his own household, even in his own heart, and nothing but the free Spirit of God can ensure for him the victory.
OHC	87	3	The beginning of yielding to temptation is in the sin of permitting the mind to waver, to be inconsistent in your trust in God. The wicked one is ever watching for a chance to misrepresent God, and to attract the mind to that which is forbidden. If he can, he will fasten the mind upon the things of the world. He will endeavor to excite the emotions, to arouse the passions, to fasten the affections on that which is not for your good; but it is for you to hold every emotion and passion under control, in calm subjection to reason and conscience. Then Satan loses his power to control the mind. The work to which Christ calls us is to the work of progressive conquest over spiritual evil in our characters. Natural tendencies are to be overcome.... Appetite and passion must be conquered, and the will must be placed wholly on the side of Christ.
OHC	87	4	We pray to our heavenly Father, "Lead us not into temptation," and then, too often, we fail to guard our feet against leading us into temptation. We are to keep away from the temptations by which we are easily overcome. Our success is wrought out by ourselves through the grace of Christ. We are to roll out of the way the stone of stumbling that has caused us and others so much sadness.
OHC	87	5	Temptation and trial will come to us all, but we need never be worsted by the enemy. Our Saviour has conquered in our behalf. Satan is not invincible.... Christ was tempted that He might know how to help every soul that should afterward be tempted. Temptation is not sin; the sin lies in yielding. To the soul who trusts in Jesus, temptation means victory and greater strength.
------------------------Beware of Satan's Devices, March 23
OHC	88	1	Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 2 Corinthians 2:11.
OHC	88	2	Satan's plans and devices are soliciting us on every hand. We should ever remember that he comes to us in disguise, covering his motives and the character of his temptations. He comes in garments of light, clad apparently in pure angel robes, that we may not discern that it is he. We need to use great caution, to closely investigate his devices, lest we be deceived.
OHC	88	3	Satan has his evil angels around us; and though they cannot read men's thoughts, they closely watch their words and actions. Satan takes advantage of the weaknesses and defects of character that are thus revealed, and presses his temptations where there is the least power of resistance. He makes evil suggestions, and inspires worldly thoughts, knowing that he can thus bring the soul into condemnation and bondage. To those who are selfish, worldly, avaricious, proud, faultfinding, or given to detraction--to all who are cherishing errors and defects of character--Satan presents the indulgence of self, and leads the soul off upon a track that the Bible condemns....
OHC	88	4	For every class of temptations there is a remedy. We are not left to ourselves to fight the battle against self and our sinful natures in our own finite strength. Jesus is a mighty helper, a never-failing support.... None need fail or become discouraged, when such ample provision has been made for us.
OHC	88	5	The mind must be restrained, and not allowed to wander. It should be trained to dwell upon the Scriptures, and upon noble, elevating themes. Portions of Scripture, even whole chapters, may be committed to memory, to be repeated when Satan comes in with his temptations. The fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah is a profitable one for this purpose. Wall the soul in with the restrictions and instructions given by inspiration of the Spirit of God. When Satan would lead the mind to dwell upon earthly and sensual things, he is most effectually resisted with "It is written."
------------------------How Satan's Power is Broken, March 24
OHC	89	1	Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Galatians 5:1.
OHC	89	2	The repentance of one soul sends inexpressible joy through all the host of heaven. Melody is called forth from every harp and every voice in glorious anthems because another name is registered in the book of life, another light is kindled to shine amid the moral darkness of this corrupt world. The very same event spreads consternation among the fallen angels and humiliates the great leader in the rebellion against God's holy law. The prince of darkness, seeing a soul whom he has counted his own escaping from under his control as a bird out of the snare of the fowler, and making Christ his refuge, works with hellish intensity to again entrap the one escaped.
OHC	89	3	We must dwell more on the results of genuine conversion. Not only is the sinner forgiven when he repents and confesses his iniquity; he becomes a child of God, ... an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ to an immortal inheritance.... The power of Satan is broken. Man is brought into sacred unity with Christ.
OHC	89	4	There is not a soul won to Christ ... without defeat to the tempter, and bruising of the head of the serpent. This will arouse the malice of the adversary to greater activity.... Alarmed because he is losing his prey, Satan will first seek to deceive, next to oppress and persecute. Evil men, rebuked by the precept and example of those who come to the light of Bible truth, will become agents of the great adversary of souls and will leave no means untried to draw them away from their allegiance to God and induce them to leave the narrow path of holiness.
OHC	89	5	But none need to be alarmed and afraid. God's word is pledged that if they are true to principle, if they believe and obey all God's requirements, they are members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. They are certain to have enlisted in their behalf the agencies of heaven and to come off victorious through the merits of Christ--more than conquerors through Him that loved them.
------------------------Not Saved by Proxy, March 25
OHC	90	1	Let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. Galatians 6:4.
OHC	90	2	No one can serve God by proxy. There are so many who seem to think that there is someone in this world stronger than Christ, upon whom they can lean. And instead of coming right to Christ, just as they are, giving themselves unreservedly to Him, they reach out for human help. God wants us to have an individual experience.... I cannot work out a character for you, and you cannot work out a character for me.
OHC	90	3	The gospel deals with individuals. Every human being has a soul to save or to lose. Each has an individuality separate and distinct from all others. Each must be convicted for himself, converted for himself. He must receive the truth, repent, believe, and obey for himself. He must exercise his will for himself.... Each must surrender to God by his own act.
OHC	90	4	The Lord does not desire that our individuality shall be destroyed; it is not His purpose that any two persons shall be exactly alike in tastes and dispositions. All have characteristics peculiar to themselves, and these are not to be destroyed, but to be trained, molded, fashioned, after the similitude of Christ. The Lord turns the natural aptitudes and capabilities into profitable channels. In the improvement of the faculties God has given, talent and ability are developed if the human agent will recognize the fact that all his powers are an endowment from God, to be used, not for selfish purposes, ... but for the glory of God and the good of our fellow men.
OHC	90	5	To every man God--not man--has given his work. This is an individual work--the formation of a character after the divine similitude. The lily is not to strive to be like the rose. There are distinctions in the formation of the flowers and in the fruits, but all derive their peculiar variance from God.... So it is God's design that even the best of men shall not all be of the same character. A life consecrated to the service of God will be developed and beautified in its individuality.
------------------------God's Part and Mine, March 26
OHC	91	1	Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12, 13.
OHC	91	2	"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." What does this mean? It means that every day you are to distrust your own human efforts and wisdom. You are to fear to speak at random, fear to follow your own impulses, fear that pride of heart and love of the world and lust of the flesh shall exclude the precious grace the Lord Jesus is longing to bestow upon you.
OHC	91	3	Man's working, as brought out in the text, is not an independent work he performs without God. His whole dependence is upon the power and grace of the Divine Worker. Many miss the mark here, and claim that man must work his own individual self, free from divine power. This is not in accordance with the text. Another argues that man is free from all obligation, because God does it all, both the willing and the doing. The text means that the salvation of the human soul requires the will power to be subjected to the divine will power.... And it is the very hardest, sternest conflict which comes with the purpose and hour of great resolve and decision of the human to incline the will and way to God's will and God's way.
OHC	91	4	Man is allotted a part in this great struggle for everlasting life; he must respond to the working of the Holy Spirit. It will require a struggle to break through the powers of darkness, but the Spirit that works in him can and will accomplish this. But man is no passive instrument to be saved in indolence. He is called upon to strain every muscle in the struggle for immortality, yet it is God that supplies the efficiency.
OHC	91	5	Here are man's works, and here are God's works.... With these two combined powers, man will be victorious, and receive a crown of life at last.... He puts to the stretch every spiritual nerve and muscle that he may be a successful overcomer in this work, and that he may obtain the precious boon of eternal life.
------------------------The Struggle of Unseen Forces, March 27
OHC	92	1	For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12.
OHC	92	2	The Lord would have our minds aroused regarding the influence of evil angels. Christ does not tell us of the danger threatening us from the attacks of the apostate foe without furnishing us with power to resist every attack.... Angelic agencies, both good and evil, are striving for the mastery, and every influence that is now exerted is to be closely investigated.
OHC	92	3	Satan is ever on the alert to deceive and mislead. He is using every enchantment to allure men into the broad road of disobedience. He is working to confuse the senses with erroneous sentiments, and remove the landmarks by placing his false inscription on the signposts which God has established to point the right way. It is because these evil agencies are striving to eclipse every ray of light from the soul that heavenly beings are appointed to do their work of ministry, to guide, guard, and control those who shall be heirs of salvation. None need despair because of the inherited tendencies to evil, but when the Spirit of God convicts of sin, the wrongdoer must repent and confess and forsake the evil. Faithful sentinels are on guard to direct souls in right paths.
OHC	92	4	Either the evil angels or the angels of God are controlling the minds of men. Our minds are given to the control of God, or to the control of the powers of darkness; and it will be well for us to inquire where we are standing today--whether under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel, or under the black banner of the powers of darkness.
OHC	92	5	So long as the people of God preserve their fidelity to Him, so long as they cling by living faith to Jesus, they are under the protection of heavenly angels, and Satan will not be permitted to exercise his hellish arts upon them to their destruction.
OHC	92	6	It is the greatest joy of the angels of heaven to spread the shield of their tender love over souls who turn to God.
------------------------Christ's Example in Overcoming, March 28
OHC	93	1	Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Psalm 19:13.
OHC	93	2	The great leading temptations wherewith man would be beset, Christ met and overcame in the wilderness. His coming off victor over appetite, presumption, and the world shows how we may overcome. Satan has overcome his millions in tempting the appetite and leading men to give up to presumptuous sins. There are many who profess to be followers of Christ, ... who, with hardly a thought, plunge into scenes of temptation that would require a miracle to bring them forth unsullied. Meditation and prayer would have preserved them and led them to shun the dangerous positions in which they have placed themselves and which give Satan the advantage over them.
OHC	93	3	The promises of God are not for us to claim rashly, to protect us while we rush on recklessly into danger, violating the laws of nature, or disregarding prudence and the judgment God has given us to use. This would not be genuine faith but presumption.... Satan comes to us with worldly honor, wealth, and the pleasures of life. These temptations are varied to meet men of every rank and degree, tempting them away from God to serve themselves more than their Creator. "All these things will I give thee," said Satan to Christ. "All these things will I give thee," says Satan to man. "All this money, this land, all this power, and honor, and riches, will I give thee"; and man is charmed, deceived, and treacherously allured on to his ruin. If we give ourselves up to worldliness of heart and of life, Satan is satisfied.
OHC	93	4	The Saviour overcame the wily foe, showing us how we may overcome. He has left us His example, to repel Satan with Scripture. He might have had recourse to His own divine power, ... but His example would not then have been as useful to us. Christ used only Scripture. How important that the Word of God be thoroughly studied and followed, that in case of emergency we may be "throughly furnished unto all good works" and especially fortified to meet the wily foe.
------------------------How to Maintain Your Integrity! March 29
OHC	94	1	Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Romans 6:11, 12.
OHC	94	2	Some regard sin as altogether so light a matter that they have no defense against its indulgence or its consequence....
OHC	94	3	If you suppose for a moment that God will treat sin lightly, or make provisions or exemptions so that you can go on in committing sin, and the soul suffer no penalty from so doing, you are under a terrible delusion of Satan. Any willful violation of the righteous law of Jehovah exposes your soul to the full assaults of Satan.
OHC	94	4	When you lose your conscious integrity, your soul becomes a battlefield for Satan; you have doubts and fears enough to paralyze your energies and drive you to discouragement....
OHC	94	5	Remember that temptation is not sin. Remember that however trying the circumstances in which a man may be placed, nothing can really weaken his soul so long as he does not yield to temptation but maintains his own integrity. The interests most vital to you individually are in your own keeping. No one can damage them without your consent. All the satanic legions cannot injure you unless you open your soul to the arts and arrows of Satan. Your ruin can never take place until your will consents. If there is not pollution of mind in yourself, all the surrounding pollution cannot taint or defile you.
OHC	94	6	Eternal life is worth everything to us or it is worth nothing. Those only who put forth persevering effort and untiring zeal with intense desire proportionate to the value of the object they are in pursuit of, will gain that life which measures with the life of God....
OHC	94	7	We have the example of Adam and Eve before us, and the result of their transgression should lead every soul of us to avoid sin, to abhor sin as the hateful thing it is, and to feel, in view of the sufferings which sin is sure to inflict, that it is better to suffer loss of all things than to depart from the least of God's commandments.
------------------------Success in Resistance, March 30
OHC	95	1	Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7.
OHC	95	2	There are those who recklessly place themselves in scenes of danger and peril, and expose themselves to temptations, out of which it would require a miracle of God to bring them unharmed and untainted. These are presumptuous acts, with which God is not pleased. Satan's temptation to the Saviour of the world to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple, was firmly met and resisted. The archenemy quoted a promise of God as security, that Christ might with safety do this on the strength of the promise. Jesus met this temptation with Scripture: "It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." In the same way Satan urges men into places where God does not require them to go, presenting Scripture to justify his suggestions.
OHC	95	3	The precious promises of God are not given to strengthen man in a presumptuous course, or for him to rely upon when he rushes needlessly into danger.... We are required, as children of God, to maintain the consistency of our Christian character. We should exercise prudence, caution, and humility, and walk circumspectly toward them that are without. Yet we are not in any case to surrender principle.
OHC	95	4	Our only safety is in giving no place to the devil; for his suggestions and purposes are ever to injure us, and hinder us from relying upon God. He transforms himself into an angel of purity, that he may, through his specious temptations, introduce his devices in such a manner that we may not discern his wiles. The more we yield, the more powerful will be his deceptions over us. It is unsafe to controvert or to parley with him. For every advantage we give the enemy, he will claim more. Our only safety is to reject firmly the first insinuation to presumption. God has given us grace through the merits of Christ sufficient to withstand Satan, and be more than conquerors. Resistance is success. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Resistance must be firm and steadfast. We lose all we gain if we resist today only to yield tomorrow.
------------------------The Closer, the Safer, March 31
OHC	96	1	Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. James 4:8.
OHC	96	2	"Draw nigh to God." How? By secret, earnest examination of your own heart, by childlike, heartfelt, humble dependence upon God, making known all your weakness to Jesus, and by confessing your sins.
OHC	96	3	We cannot draw nigh to God and behold His loveliness and compassion without realizing our defects and being filled with a desire to rise higher. "And he will draw nigh to you." The Lord will draw nigh to him who confesses to his brethren the wrongs he has done them, and then comes to God in humility and contrition.
OHC	96	4	He who feels his own danger is on the watch lest he shall grieve the Holy Spirit and then draw away from God because he knows that He is not pleased with his course of action. How much better and safer it is to draw nigh to God, that the pure light shining from His Word may heal the wounds that sin has made in the soul. The closer we are to God, the safer we are, for Satan hates and fears the presence of God.
OHC	96	5	Draw nigh to Him by prayer, by contemplation, by reading His Word. When He draws nigh to you, He lifts up for you a standard against the enemy. Let us take courage; for the enemy cannot pass this standard.
OHC	96	6	If we draw nigh to God, individually, then don't you see what the result will be? Can't you see that we will draw nigh to one another? We cannot draw nigh to God, and come to the same cross, without our hearts being blended together in perfect unity, answering the prayer of Christ that they may be one as He is one with the Father. And therefore we should seek in spirit, in understanding, in faith, that we may be one, that God may be glorified in us as He is glorified in the Son; and that God shall love us as He loves the Son.
OHC	96	7	The soul that loves God, loves to draw strength from Him by constant communion with Him. When it becomes the habit of the soul to converse with God, the power of the evil one is broken; for Satan cannot abide near the soul that draws nigh unto God.
------------------------"Come Unto Me", April 1
OHC	97	1	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28.
OHC	97	2	Many who hear this invitation, while sighing for rest, yet press on the rugged path, hugging their burdens close to their heart. Jesus loves them, and longs to bear their burdens and themselves also in His strong arms. He would remove the fears and uncertainties that rob them of peace and rest; but they must first come to Him, and tell Him the secret woes of their heart....
OHC	97	3	Sometimes we pour our troubles into human ears, and tell our afflictions to those who cannot help us, and neglect to confide all to Jesus, who is able to change the sorrowful way to paths of joy and peace....
OHC	97	4	He proposes to be our friend, to walk with us through all the rough pathways of life. He says to us, I am the Lord thy God; walk with me, and I will fill thy path with light. Jesus, the Majesty of Heaven, proposes to elevate to companionship with Himself those who come to Him with their burdens, their weaknesses, and their cares....
OHC	97	5	His invitation to us is a call to a pure, holy, and happy life--a life of peace and rest, of liberty and love--and to a rich inheritance in the future, immortal life.... It is our privilege to have daily a calm, close, happy walk with Jesus.
OHC	97	6	Rest is found when all self-justification, all reasoning from a selfish standpoint, is put away. Entire self-surrender, an acceptance of His ways, is the secret of perfect rest in His love.... Do just what He has told you to do, and be assured that God will do all that He has said He would do.... Have you come to Him, renouncing all your makeshifts, all your unbelief, all your self-righteousness? Come just as you are, weak, helpless, and ready to die.
OHC	97	7	What is the "rest" promised?--It is the consciousness that God is true, that He never disappoints the one who comes to Him. His pardon is full and free, and His acceptance means rest to the soul, rest in His love.
------------------------Rest for the Restless, April 2
OHC	98	1	For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. Isaiah 30:15.
OHC	98	2	Jesus invites the restless, the murmuring, the oppressed and sorrowing, to come to Him.
OHC	98	3	Jesus loves you and He wants your love. He would have you remember that He gave His precious life that you should not perish; and He will be unto you a present help in every time of need. Only look to Jesus and tell Him every perplexity and trial.... Ask Him to help and strengthen and bless you, and believe that He hears your prayers....
OHC	98	4	All heaven is looking upon you with deep interest. One soul for whom Christ has died is worth more than the whole world. I wish every young man and woman could appreciate the value of the human soul. If they would give themselves to Jesus just as they are, though sinful and polluted, He will accept them the very moment that they give themselves to Him, and Jesus will put His Spirit in the humble seeker's heart. Whosoever cometh unto Him, He will in no wise cast out. You may love Jesus with your whole heart, and He will never disappoint that love and confidence. His words are life, comfort, and hope. Satan knows that all you have to do is to look to Jesus, an uplifted Saviour. The wounded, bruised, stricken soul will find in Jesus a balm for his wounds....
OHC	98	5	There will be peace, constant peace, flowing into the soul, for the rest is found in perfect submission to Jesus Christ. Obedience to God's will finds the rest. The disciple that treads in the meek and lowly steps of the Redeemer finds rest which the world cannot give, and the world cannot take away. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." Isaiah 26:3.
OHC	98	6	Lowliness and meekness of mind, which ever characterized the life of the divine Son of God, possessed by His true followers, bring contentment, peace, and happiness, that elevate them above the slavery of artificial life.
------------------------"Learn of Me", April 3
OHC	99	1	Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:29.
OHC	99	2	"Learn of me," said the Divine Teacher, "for I am meek and lowly in heart...." We must learn self-denial, we must learn courage, patience, fortitude, and forgiving love.... If we have faith in Jesus as our helper, if our eyes of faith are directed to Him constantly, we shall become like Jesus in character. He will abide in our hearts and we will abide in Christ. Being clothed with the righteousness of Christ, our lives are hid with Christ in God. He will be our counselor. If we ask Him in faith, He will enlighten our understanding.... The lessons which Christ has given us will be practiced.
OHC	99	3	As Christ the Pattern is constantly kept before the mind's eye, new habits will be formed, powerful hereditary and cultivated tendencies will be subdued and overcome, self-esteem will be laid in the dust, old habits of thought will be constantly resisted, love for the supremacy will be seen in its real, despicable character, and will be overcome.
OHC	99	4	Christ must be blended with all our thoughts, our feelings, our affections. He must be exemplified in the minutest details of everyday service in the work that He has given us to do. When, in the place of leaning upon human understanding or conforming to worldly maxims, we sit at the feet of Jesus, eagerly drinking in His words, learning of Him, and saying. "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" our natural independence, our self-confidence, our strong self-will, will be exchanged for a childlike, submissive, teachable spirit. When we are in right relation to God, we shall recognize Christ's authority to direct us, and His claim to our unquestioning obedience.
OHC	99	5	We will have such exalted views of Jesus Christ that self will be abased. Our affections will center in Jesus, our thoughts will be strongly drawn heavenward. Christ will increase, I will decrease.... We will cultivate the virtues that dwell in Jesus, that we may reflect to others a representation of His character.
------------------------Wearing Christ's Yoke, April 4
OHC	100	1	For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:30.
OHC	100	2	Wearing the yoke with Christ, means to work in His lines, to be a copartner with Him in His sufferings and toils for lost humanity.
OHC	100	3	In accepting Christ's yoke of restraint and obedience, you will find that it is of the greatest help to you. Wearing this yoke keeps you near the side of Christ, and He bears the heaviest part of the load.
OHC	100	4	The yoke and the cross are symbols representing the same thing--the giving up of the will to God. Wearing the yoke unites finite man in companionship with the dearly beloved Son of God. Lifting the cross cuts away self from the soul, and places man where he learns how to bear Christ's burdens. We cannot follow Christ without wearing His yoke, without lifting the cross and bearing it after Him. If our will is not in accord with the divine requirements, we are to deny our inclinations, give up our darling desires, and step in Christ's footsteps....
OHC	100	5	Men frame for their own necks yokes that seem light and pleasant to wear, but they prove galling in the extreme. Christ sees this, and He says, "Take My yoke upon you. The yoke you would place upon your own neck, thinking it a precise fit, will not fit at all. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me the lessons essential for you to learn."
OHC	100	6	Your work is not to gather up burdens of your own.... We often think we are having a hard time in bearing burdens, and it is too often the case, because God has not made any provision for us to carry these burdens; but when we bear His yoke and carry His burdens, we can testify that the yoke of Christ is easy and His burdens are light, because He has made provision for these.
OHC	100	7	Yet that yoke will not give us a life of ease and freedom and selfish indulgence. The life of Christ was one of self-sacrifice and self-denial at every step; and with consistent, Christlike tenderness and love, His true follower will walk in the footsteps of the Master; and as he advances in this life, he will become more and more inspired with the spirit and life of Christ.
------------------------Learning in Christ's School, April 5
OHC	101	1	What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. Psalm 25:12.
OHC	101	2	Jesus has opened a school for the education and training of His chosen ones, and they are ever to be learning to practice the lessons that He gives them, in order that they may know Him fully.
OHC	101	3	Those who think they are very nearly good enough, and do not work diligently for the perfection of Christian character, will set up idols in their hearts, and will continue to practice sinful habits until sin will no longer appear sinful....
OHC	101	4	Jesus offers Himself to every sin-sick soul, to every soul who is struggling to overcome. The Holy Spirit is making intercession for every sincere wrestler, and Christ will make His words to be spirit and life, the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. But you will certainly fail if you permit the devil to control your mind, to guide your imaginings.... God will not be trifled with; He will not accept a divided heart. He claims entire, wholehearted service. He has paid the ransom money of His own life for every son and daughter of Adam....
OHC	101	5	Christ has a claim upon every soul; but many choose a life of sin. Some will not come unto Jesus that He may give them life. Some say, "I go, sir," to His invitation; but they do not go; they do not make an entire surrender to abide in Jesus alone, which is life and peace and joy unspeakable, and full of glory.... Will you not rise to be wise and to make diligent work for eternity? Seek the grace of Christ with the whole heart, might, mind, and strength....
OHC	101	6	God has given you a right to take hold of Him through the prayer of faith. Believing prayer is the very essence of pure religion, the secret of power with every Christian....
OHC	101	7	Take time to pray, to search the Scriptures, to put self under discipline to Jesus Christ. Live in contact with the living Christ, and as soon as you do this, He will take hold of you and hold you firmly by a strong hand that will never let go.
------------------------Preparing for the Higher School, April 6
OHC	102	1	Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. Psalm 25:5.
OHC	102	2	Those who in this earth become sons of God sit together with Christ in the preparatory school, getting ready to be received into the higher school. Day by day we are to make an individual preparation; for in the courts above no one will be represented by proxy. Each one must heed for himself the call, "Come unto me,... and I will give you rest...."
OHC	102	3	The Lord Jesus has paid your tuition fees. All that you have to do is to learn of Him. The Christlike politeness practiced in the higher school is to be practiced in this lower school, by both old and young believers. All who learn in Christ's school are under the training of heavenly agencies; and they are never to forget that they are a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.
OHC	102	4	They are to represent Christ. They are to help one another to become worthy of admission into the higher school. They are to help one another to be pure and noble, and to cherish a true idea of what it means to be a child of God. They are to speak encouraging words. They are to lift up the feeble hands and strengthen the feeble knees. Upon every heart there is to be inscribed the words, as with the point of a diamond, "There is nothing that I fear, save that I shall not know my duty, or shall fail to do it"....
OHC	102	5	A self-controlled spirit, words of love and tenderness, honor the Saviour. Those who speak kind, loving words, words that make for peace, will be richly rewarded.... We are to let His spirit shine forth in the meekness and lowliness learned of Him.
OHC	102	6	Jesus is the great Teacher.... He is so willing, so ready to take you into a closer fellowship with Himself. He is willing to teach you how to pray with the believing confidence and assurance of a little child.... Enroll your name anew as a student in His school. Learn to pray in faith. Receive the knowledge of Jesus....
OHC	102	7	Will you not sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of Him?
------------------------The True Force of the Will, April 7
OHC	103	1	For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. 2 Corinthians 8:12.
OHC	103	2	Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing power in the nature of man, bringing all the other faculties under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the deciding power which works in the children of men unto obedience to God or unto disobedience....
OHC	103	3	You desire to make your life such as will fit you for heaven at last. You are often discouraged at finding yourself weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits and customs of your old life in sin.... Your promises are like ropes of sand....
OHC	103	4	You will be in constant peril until you understand the true force of the will. You may believe and promise all things, but your promises or your faith are of no value until you put your will on the side of faith and action. If you fight the fight of faith with all your will power, you will conquer. Your feelings, your impressions, your emotions, are not to be trusted, for they are not reliable....
OHC	103	5	But you need not despair.... It is for you to yield up your will to the will of Jesus Christ; and as you do this, God will immediately take possession and work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Your whole nature will then be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ, and even your thoughts will be subject to Him. You cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire; but you can control the will, and you can make an entire change in your life. By yielding up your will to Christ, your life will be hid with Christ in God and allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You will have strength from God that will hold you fast to His strength; and a new light, even the light of living faith, will be possible to you. But your will must cooperate with God's will....
OHC	103	6	Will you not say, "I will give my will to Jesus, and I will do it now," and from this moment be wholly on the Lord's side?
------------------------When My Will is Safe, April 8
OHC	104	1	But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. Romans 6:22.
OHC	104	2	The Spirit of God does not create new faculties in the converted man, but works a decided change in the employment of those faculties. When mind and heart and soul are changed, man is not given a new conscience, but his will is submitted to a conscience renewed, a conscience whose dormant sensibilities are aroused by the working of the Holy Spirit.
OHC	104	3	Through yielding to sin, man placed his will under the control of Satan. He became a helpless captive in the tempter's power. God sent His Son into our world to break the power of Satan, and to emancipate the will of man. He sent Him to proclaim liberty to the captives, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free. By pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world, by giving us in Christ all heaven, God has purchased the will, the affections, the mind, the soul, of every human being. When man places himself under the control of God, the will becomes firm and strong to do right, the heart is cleansed from selfishness, and filled with Christlike love. The mind yields to the authority of the law of love, and every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
OHC	104	4	When the will is placed on the Lord's side, the Holy Spirit takes that will and makes it one with the divine will.
OHC	104	5	The Lord loves man. He has given evidence of this love by giving His only begotten Son to die for man, that through His grace He might redeem him from hostility to God, and bring him back to his loyalty. If man will cooperate with God, the Lord will bring his will into connection with Himself, and will vitalize it by His own Spirit.... The gospel must be received in order to regenerate the heart, and the reception of truth will mean the surrender of mind and will to the will of divine power.
OHC	104	6	The will of man is only safe when united with the will of God.
------------------------A Submissive Will, April 9
OHC	105	1	If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. John 7:17.
OHC	105	2	Those who have yielded their will to God are trained in Christ's school.... They are disciplined to habits of obedience, to do service to God. We are not creatures devoid of moral nature. The gospel does not address the understanding alone. If it did, we might approach it as we approach the study of a book dealing with mathematical formulas, which relate to the intellect alone.... Its aim is the heart. It addresses our moral nature, and takes possession of the will. It casts down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
OHC	105	3	It is the wayward heart that has dragged down the faculties of the soul. All who would learn the science of salvation must be submissive students in the school of Christ, that the soul temple may be the abiding place of the most High. If we would learn of Christ, the soul must be emptied of all its proud possessions, that Christ may imprint His image on the soul....
OHC	105	4	Then we shall have such a view of Christ's infinite sacrifice in our behalf that the soul will be softened and humbled and made full of thanksgiving to God. An intense desire will be begotten by the Holy Spirit for a favorable opportunity to witness for Christ and to express gratitude and devotion to Him who has redeemed us. Loyalty and love will be seen in all the service. A burning desire to be like Christ will keep the soul tender, leading it to give vent to grateful emotion, and in the sight of heaven to offer thanks to God for His goodness, His love, and His compassion. Such have a grace that cannot be repressed into a tame, everyday evenness of assenting to truth, while the heart is not affected.
OHC	105	5	Oh, how much more safe it is to agonize to enter into the strait gate! It is only at the altar of God that human beings can receive the celestial torch.
------------------------Cultivating God's Garden, April 10
OHC	106	1	And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2.
OHC	106	2	Man, fallen man, may be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that he can "prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." How does he prove this? By the Holy Spirit taking possession of his mind, spirit, heart, and character.
OHC	106	3	The rubbish of questionable principles and practices is to be swept away. The Lord desires the mind to be renovated, and the heart filled with the treasures of truth.
OHC	106	4	Truth has a power to elevate the receiver. It has a sanctifying influence upon mind and character.... Only by a continual improvement of the intellectual as well as the moral powers can we hope to answer the purpose of our Creator....
OHC	106	5	A Christian should possess more intelligence and keener discernment than the worldling. The study of God's Word is continually expanding the mind and strengthening the intellect. There is nothing that will so refine and elevate the character, and give vigor to every faculty, as the continual exercise of the mind to grasp and comprehend weighty and important truths.
OHC	106	6	The human mind becomes dwarfed and enfeebled when dealing with commonplace matters only, never rising above the level of time and sense to grasp the mysteries of the unseen. The understanding is gradually brought to the level of the things with which it is constantly familiar.... Man need not cease to grow intellectually and spiritually during his lifetime.
OHC	106	7	We are to cultivate the talents given us by God. They are His gifts, and are to be used in their right relation to each other, so as to make a perfect whole. God gives the talents, the powers of the mind; man makes the character. The mind is the Lord's garden, and man must cultivate it earnestly in order to form a character after the divine similitude.
------------------------In Unison with God, April 11
OHC	107	1	Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. John 4:34.
OHC	107	2	Christ declared, "I came ... not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me." John 6:38. His will was put into active exercise to save the souls of men. His human will was nourished by the divine. His servants today would do well to ask themselves, "What kind of will am I individually cultivating? Have I been gratifying my own desires, confirming myself in selfishness and obstinacy?" If we are doing this, we are in great peril, for Satan will always rule the will that is not under the control of the Spirit of God. When we place our will in unison with the will of God, the holy obedience that was exemplified in the life of Christ will be seen in our lives....
OHC	107	3	Paul declares, "I am crucified with Christ." Galatians 2:20. There is nothing so hard as the crucifixion of the will. Christ was tempted in all points like as we are; but His will was ever kept on the side of God's will. In His humanity He had the same free will that Adam had in Eden. He could have yielded to temptation as Adam yielded. And Adam, by believing God and being a doer of His word, could have resisted temptation as Christ resisted it. Had Christ so willed it, He could have commanded the stones to be made bread. He might have cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple. He might have yielded to Satan's temptation to fall down and worship him, the usurper of the world. But at every point He met the tempter with, "It is written." His will was in perfect obedience to the will of God, and the will of God was revealed throughout His entire life....
OHC	107	4	Christ's obedience to His Father's commandments is to be the measure of our obedience. Those who follow Christ, if they would become complete in Him, must keep their will surrendered to the will of God. Abundant provision has been made that those who will seek God with the whole heart may find Him a present help in every time of trouble. Help has been laid on One that is mighty. Christ has promised, I will be your helper.
------------------------"Let this Mind be in You", April 12
OHC	108	1	Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5.
OHC	108	2	The prayer that Christ has given us, that the will of God shall be done in earth as it is in heaven, is to be answered. Wonderful is this prayer, which we are to offer to God, and then fulfill in the daily life! The science of holiness, the ethics that the gospel inculcates, acknowledge no standard but the perfection of God's mind, God's will. It is the character and mind of Christ which, by conversion and transformation, men are to receive. Through His Son, God has revealed the excellency to which man is capable of attaining. And before the world God is developing us as living witnesses of what man may become through the grace of Christ. Oh, why do so many grieve the heart of infinite love? ...
OHC	108	3	God permits every person to exercise his individuality. No human mind should be submerged in another human mind. But the invitation has been given, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Each person is to stand before God with an individual faith, an individual experience, knowing for himself that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory. For us to imitate the example of any man--even a person who in our human judgment we might regard as nearly perfect in character--would be to put our trust in an imperfect, defective human being, who is unable to impart one jot or tittle of perfection to any other human being.
OHC	108	4	As our pattern we have One who is all and in all, the chiefest among ten thousand, One whose excellency is beyond comparison. What saith the Divine Teacher?--"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matthew 5:48. Would Christ tantalize us by requiring of us an impossibility?--Never, never! What an honor He confers upon us, in urging us to be holy in our sphere, as the Father is holy in His sphere. And through His power we are able to do this; for He declares, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Matthew 28:18. This unlimited power it is your privilege and mine to claim.
------------------------The Influence of Mind on Mind, April 13
OHC	109	1	For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7.
OHC	109	2	The influence of mind on mind, so strong a power for good when sanctified, is equally strong for evil in the hands of those opposed to God. This power Satan used in his work of instilling evil into the minds of the angels, and he made it appear that he was seeking the good of the universe.... Cast out of heaven, Satan set up his kingdom in this world, and ever since, he has been untiringly striving to seduce human beings from their allegiance to God. He uses the same power that he used in heaven--the influence of mind on mind. Men become tempters of their fellow men. The strong, corrupting sentiments of Satan are cherished, and they exert a masterly, compelling power.
OHC	109	3	Clear spiritual eyesight is needed to distinguish between the chaff and the wheat, between the science of Satan and the science of the Word of truth. Christ, the Great Physician, came to our world to give health and peace and perfection of character to all who will receive Him. His gospel does not consist of outward methods and performances through which the science of an evil work may be introduced as a great blessing, afterward to prove a great curse. In the second chapter of Philippians is found a presentation of true godliness. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Philippians 2:5....
OHC	109	4	To advocate the science of mind cure is opening a door through which Satan will enter to take possession of mind and heart. Satan controls both the mind that is given up to be controlled by another, and the mind that controls. May God help us to understand the true science of building on Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer.
OHC	109	5	Christ is the greatest of all physicians. He is a physician of the soul as well as of the body. Had He not come to this world to redeem us from Satan's hellish power, we would have had no hope of gaining eternal life.... Let us not point minds to erring human beings. Let us say, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29.
------------------------Entangled Minds, April 14
OHC	110	1	Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Colossians 2:8.
OHC	110	2	Satan often finds a powerful agency for evil in the power which one human mind is capable of exerting on another human mind. This influence is so seductive that the person who is being molded by it is often unconscious of its power. God has bidden me speak warning against this evil, that His servants may not come under the deceptive power of Satan. The enemy is a master worker, and if God's people are not constantly led by the Spirit of God, they will be snared and taken. For thousands of years Satan has been experimenting upon the properties of the human mind, and he has learned to know it well. By his subtle workings in these last days, he is linking the human mind with his own, imbuing it with his thoughts; and he is doing this work in so deceptive a manner that those who accept his guidance know not that they are being led by him at his will. The great deceiver hopes so to confuse the minds of men and women, that none but his voice will be heard.
OHC	110	3	The gospel of Christ is to be wrought into our everyday experience. The mind must be in a state to appreciate the divine claims of the gospel. It must be girded about, and disciplined to habits of self-control and obedience....
OHC	110	4	The teachings of the living oracles cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Satan has great power over the soul, to drag it down to a low level. Those who really want to learn of Christ will have to empty the soul of all its proud imaginings, that there may be room to enthrone Him there.
OHC	110	5	The controversy between Christ and Satan is not yet ended. The latter is constantly seeking to establish his own power and authority. If he can entangle minds, he will do it.... The deceptions of Satan are manifold, but the Lord will be our helper if we seek him earnestly.
------------------------Preoccupying the Mind, April 15
OHC	111	1	A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. Luke 6:45.
OHC	111	2	The mind is so constituted that it must be occupied with either good or evil. If it takes a low level, it is generally because it is left to deal with commonplace subjects.... Man has the power to regulate and control the workings of the mind, and give direction to the current of his thoughts. But this requires greater effort than we can make in our own strength. We must stay our minds on God, if we would have right thoughts, and proper subjects for meditation.
OHC	111	3	Few realize that it is a duty to exercise control over their thoughts and imaginations. It is difficult to keep the undisciplined mind fixed upon profitable subjects. But if the thoughts are not properly employed, religion cannot flourish in the soul. The mind must be preoccupied with sacred and eternal things, or it will cherish trifling and superficial thoughts. Both the intellectual and the moral powers must be disciplined, and they will strengthen and improve by exercise.
OHC	111	4	To understand this matter aright, we must remember that our hearts are naturally depraved, and we are unable, of ourselves, to pursue a right course. It is only by the grace of God, combined with the most earnest efforts on our part, that we can gain the victory.
OHC	111	5	There are, in the Christian faith, subjects upon which every one should accustom his mind to dwell. The love of Jesus, which passeth knowledge, His sufferings for the fallen race, His work of mediation in our behalf, and His exalted glory--these are the mysteries into which angels desired to look. Heavenly beings find in these themes enough to attract and engage their deepest thoughts; and shall we, who are so intimately concerned, manifest less interest than the angels, in the wonders of redeeming love?
OHC	111	6	The intellect, as well as the heart, must be consecrated to the service of God. He has claims upon all there is of us.
------------------------Training the Thoughts, April 16
OHC	112	1	Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13.
OHC	112	2	Many need to make a decided change in the tenor of their thoughts and actions, if they would please Jesus.
OHC	112	3	The thoughts must be trained. Gird up the loins of the mind that it shall work in the right direction, and after the order of well-formed plans; then every step is one in advance, and no effort or time is lost in following vague ideas and random plans. We must consider the aim and object of life, and ever keep worthy purposes in view. Every day the thoughts should be trained and kept to the point as the compass to the pole. Every one should have his aims and purposes, and then make every thought and action of that character to accomplish that which he purposes. The thoughts must be controlled. There must be a fixedness of purpose to carry out that which you shall undertake....
OHC	112	4	No one but yourself can control your thoughts. In the struggle to reach the highest standard, success or failure will depend much upon the character, and the manner in which the thoughts are disciplined. If the thoughts are well girded, as God directs they shall be each day, they will be upon those subjects that will help us to greater devotion. If the thoughts are right, then as a result the words will be right; the actions will be of that character to bring gladness and comfort and rest to souls....
OHC	112	5	Those who move without thoughtful consideration move unwisely. They make fitful efforts, strike out here and there, catch at this and that, but it amounts to nothing. They resemble the vine; its tendrils untrained and left to struggle out in every direction will fasten upon any rubbish within their reach; but before the vine can be of any use these tendrils must be broken off from the things they have grasped, and trained to entwine about those things which will make them graceful and well formed.
------------------------How to Discipline the Mind, April 17
OHC	113	1	Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14.
OHC	113	2	The thoughts must be pure, the meditations of the heart must be clean, if the words of the mouth are to be words acceptable to Heaven, and helpful to your associates.
OHC	113	3	The natural, selfish mind, if left to follow out its own evil desires, will act without high motives, without reference to the glory of God or the benefit of mankind. The thoughts will be evil, and only evil, continually.... The Spirit of God produces a new life in the soul, bringing the thoughts and desires into obedience to the will of Christ....
OHC	113	4	The youth should begin early to cultivate correct habits of thought. We should discipline the mind to think in a healthful channel, and not permit it to dwell upon things that are evil.... As God works upon the heart by His Holy Spirit, man must cooperate with Him....
OHC	113	5	We should meditate upon the Scriptures, thinking soberly and candidly upon the things that pertain to our eternal salvation. The infinite mercy and love of Jesus, the sacrifice made in our behalf, call for most serious and solemn reflection. We should dwell upon the character of our dear Redeemer and Intercessor. We should seek to comprehend the meaning of the plan of salvation. We should meditate upon the mission of Him who came to save His people from their sins. By constantly contemplating heavenly themes, our faith and love will grow stronger. Our prayers will be more and more acceptable to God, because they will be more and more mixed with faith and love. They will be more intelligent and fervent. There will be more constant confidence in Jesus, and you will have a daily, living experience in the willingness and power of Christ to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him....
OHC	113	6	There will be a hungering and thirsting of soul to be made like Him whom we adore. The more our thoughts are upon Christ, the more we shall speak of Him to others, and represent Him to the world.
------------------------Proper Level of the Human Mind, April 18
OHC	114	1	Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. James 4:10.
OHC	114	2	What gives the proper level to the human mind? It is the cross of Calvary. By looking unto Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of our faith, all the desire for self-glorification is laid in the dust. There comes, as we see aright, a spirit of self-abasement that promotes lowliness and humbleness of mind. As we contemplate the cross, we are enabled to see the wonderful provision it has brought to every believer. God in Christ ... if seen aright, will level human exaltation and pride. There will be no self-exaltation, but there will be true humility.
OHC	114	3	The light reflected from the cross of Calvary will humble every proud thought. Those who seek God with all the heart, and accept the great salvation offered them, will open the door of the heart to Jesus. They will cease to ascribe glory to themselves. They will not pride themselves on their acquirements, or take credit to themselves for their capabilities, but will regard all their talents as God's gifts, to be used to His glory. Every intellectual ability they will regard as precious only as it can be used in the service of Christ.
OHC	114	4	Christ's humiliation in clothing His divinity with humanity is worthy of our consideration. Had this subject been studied as carefully as it should have been, there would be far less of "I" heard and far more of Christ. It is self-esteem that stands between the human agent and his God and impedes the vital current that flows from Christ to enrich every human being. When we follow Jesus in the path of self-denial and the cross, we shall find that we do not have to strive for humility. As we walk in Christ's footsteps, we shall learn His meekness and lowliness of heart. Very few thoughts should be devoted to self; for we can never make ourselves great. It is Christ's gentleness that makes us great.
OHC	114	5	God's faithful, humble, believing people will cut the idolatry of self out of their hearts, and Christ will become all and in all.
------------------------The Brightest Subject of Our Thoughts, April 19
OHC	115	1	My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord. Psalm 104:34.
OHC	115	2	Why not keep your minds fixed on the unsearchable riches of Christ, that you may present to others the gems of truth? In the Word of God there are rich mines of truth that we may spend our whole lifetime in exploring, and yet we shall find that we have only begun to view their precious stores. Sink the shaft deep, and bring up the hidden treasures. But it is impossible to do this while we indulge an idle, restless spirit, seeking constantly for something that will merely gratify the senses, something to amuse, and cause a foolish laugh.... Minds that are occupied with frivolous reading, with exciting stories, or with seeking after amusement, do not dwell upon Christ, and cannot rejoice in the fullness of His love. The mind that finds pleasure in foolish thoughts and trifling conversation, is as destitute of the joy of Christ as were the hills of Gilboa of dew or rain.
OHC	115	3	Does not your own experience testify to this? How much peace of mind do you have at the close of a day spent in frivolity, in light and trifling conversation? Can you retire to rest at night, saying, "It is well, it is well with my soul"? ... How often when you come into the house of God, into the solemn assembly, your thoughts are turned to that foolish remark which someone has made, to that idle story, or that comical thing which you read or saw. And the thought will come at just such a time as to eclipse a bright ray of the glory of Christ, and you lose the benefit of the heaven-sent light which you ought to receive....
OHC	115	4	We need to be constantly filling the mind with Christ, and emptying it of selfishness and sin.... Just as surely as you empty your mind of vanity and frivolity, the vacuum will be supplied with that which God is waiting to give you--His Holy Spirit. Then out of the good treasure of the heart you will bring forth good things, rich gems of thought, and others will catch the words.... Your thoughts and affections will dwell upon Christ, and you will reflect upon others that which has shone upon you from the Sun of Righteousness.
------------------------Time for Meditation, April 20
OHC	116	1	But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Psalm 1:2.
OHC	116	2	Your last thought at night, your first thought in the morning, should be of Him in whom is centered your hope of eternal life.
OHC	116	3	Many seem to begrudge moments spent in meditation, and the searching of the Scriptures, and prayer, as though the time thus occupied was lost. I wish you could all view these things in the light God would have you; for you would then make the kingdom of heaven of the first importance.... As exercise increases the appetite, and gives strength and healthy vigor to the body, so will devotional exercises bring an increase of grace and spiritual vigor.
OHC	116	4	The affections should center upon God. Contemplate His greatness, His mercy and excellences. Let His goodness and love and perfection of character captivate your heart. Converse upon His divine charms, and the heavenly mansions He is preparing for the faithful. He whose conversation is in heaven, is the most profitable Christian to all around him. His words are useful and refreshing. They have a transforming power upon those who hear them.
OHC	116	5	There is constant need of private communion with God. We must take in the spirit of Christ if we would impart it to others. We cannot meet satanic and human agencies combined unless we spend much time in intercourse with the Source of all strength. There are times when we should get away from the sounds of earthly toil and human voices, and in retired places listen to the voice of Jesus. Thus we may taste of His love and imbibe His spirit. Thus we shall learn to crucify self. This course of action may seem impossible to the human mind. "I have not time," you may say. But when you consider the matter as it really is, you lose no time; for when you secure the power and grace that come alone from God, you do not accomplish the work. It is Jesus who is the real worker. "Without me," says Christ, "ye can do nothing." John 15:5.... Reflection and earnest prayer will inspire to holy endeavor.
------------------------What is Faith? April 21
OHC	117	1	Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.
OHC	117	2	Faith in Christ is not the work of nature, but the work of God on human minds, wrought in the very soul by the Holy Spirit, who reveals Christ, as Christ revealed the Father. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. With its justifying, sanctifying power, it is above what men call science. It is the science of eternal realities. Human science is often deceptive and misleading, but this heavenly science never misleads. It is so simple that a child can understand it, and yet the most learned men cannot explain it. It is inexplainable and immeasurable, beyond all human expression.
OHC	117	3	The acceptance of Christ's atonement is the groundwork of true faith.... Those who will look long enough into the divine mirror to see and despise their sins, their unlikeness to the meek and lowly Jesus, will have strength to overcome. All who truly believe will confess and forsake their sins. They will cooperate with Christ in the work of bringing their hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong under the control of the divine will, so that sin shall not have dominion over them. Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith, they will be changed into His likeness. They will grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.... Those who truly believe, who confess and forsake their sins, will grow more and more like Christ, until of them it can in heaven be said, "Ye are complete in him." Colossians 2:10.
OHC	117	4	"Ask, and it shall be given you" (Matthew 7:7) is the promise. Our part is to rest on the Word with unwavering faith, believing that God will do according to His promise. Let faith cut its way through the shadow of the enemy. When a questioning doubt arises, go to Christ and let the soul be encouraged by communion with Him. The redemption He has purchased for us is complete. The offering He made was plenteous and without stint. Heaven has a never-failing supply of help for all who are needy.
------------------------Saved by God's Grace, April 22
OHC	118	1	For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8, 9.
OHC	118	2	The divine favor, the grace of God bestowed upon us through Jesus Christ, is too precious to be given in exchange for any supposed meritorious work on the part of finite, erring man. Man has nothing in himself. The most exalted talent does not originate from man, but is the endowment of his Creator, and can purchase nothing from God. Gold and silver cannot buy the favor of God; for the wealth of the world is the entrusted talent of the Lord. Let no one think that costly offerings to benevolent enterprises will elevate him in the sight of God, or purchase for him the favor of Heaven, or procure for him a place in the mansions which Jesus has gone to prepare for those who love Him. The precious blood of Christ is wholly efficacious....
OHC	118	3	The resurrection of Christ from the dead was the Father's seal to the mission of Christ. It was a public expression of His entire satisfaction in the atoning work. He accepted the sacrifice that Jesus had made on our behalf. It was everything that God required, perfect and complete. No human being by any work of his own could piece out the work of Christ. When on the cross Jesus uttered the cry, "It is finished!" glory and joy thrilled heaven, and discomfiture fell upon the confederacy of evil. After that triumphant cry, the world's Redeemer bowed His head and died,... but by His death He was a conqueror, and He has opened the gates of eternal glory so that all who believe in Him may not perish, but have everlasting life.
OHC	118	4	The sinner's only hope is to rely wholly upon Jesus Christ.... Our acceptance with God is sure only through His beloved Son, and good works are but the result of the working of His sin-pardoning love. They are no credit to us, and we have nothing accorded to us for our good works by which we may claim a part in the salvation of our souls. Salvation is God's free gift to the believer, given to him for Christ's sake alone. The troubled soul may find peace through faith in Christ.... He cannot present his good works as a plea for the salvation of his soul.
------------------------Feeling Not a Safe Guide, April 23
OHC	119	1	The just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4.
OHC	119	2	Many pass long years in darkness and doubt because they do not feel as they desire. But feeling has nothing to do with faith. That faith which works by love and purifies the soul is not a matter of impulse. It ventures out upon the promises of God, firmly believing that what He has said, He is able also to perform. Our souls may be trained to believe, taught to rely upon the Word of God. That Word declares that "the just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17), not by feeling.
OHC	119	3	Let us put away everything like distrust and want of faith in Jesus. Let us commence a life of simple, childlike trust, not relying upon feeling, but upon faith. Do not dishonor Jesus by doubting His precious promises. He wants us to believe in Him with unwavering faith.
OHC	119	4	There is a class who say, "I believe, I believe," and lay claim to all the promises which are given on condition of obedience; but they do not the works of Christ. God is not honored by any such faith. It is spurious. Another class are trying to keep all the commandments of God, but many of them do not come up to their exalted privilege in claiming the promises that were given for them. God's promises are for those who keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
OHC	119	5	I find that I have to fight the good fight of faith every day. I have to exercise all my faith, and not rely upon feeling; I have to act as though I knew the Lord heard me, and would answer me and bless me. Faith is not a happy flight of feeling; it is simply taking God at His word--believing that He will fulfill His promises because He said He would.
OHC	119	6	Hope in God, trust in Him, and rest in His promises, whether you feel happy or not. A good emotion is no evidence that you are a child of God, neither are disturbed, troubled, perplexing feelings an evidence that you are not a child of God. Come to the Scriptures and intelligently take God at His word. Comply with the conditions and believe He will accept you as His child. Be not faithless, but believing.
------------------------Feeling and Faith Distinct, April 24
OHC	120	1	For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7.
OHC	120	2	When we comply with the Written Word then we are to walk by faith. We dishonor God when we fail to trust Him after He has given such wonderful evidence of His compassionate love in the gift of His Son. We are to keep looking to Jesus, offering up our prayers in faith, taking hold of His strength. If we would give more expression to our faith, rejoice more in the blessings that we know we have, we would daily have great cheerfulness and strength.
OHC	120	3	Feeling and faith are as distinct from each other as the east is from the west. Faith is not dependent on feeling. Daily we should dedicate ourselves to God, and believe that Christ understands and accepts the sacrifice, without examining ourselves to see if we have that degree of feeling that we think should correspond with our faith. Have we not the assurance that our heavenly Father is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him in faith than parents are to give good gifts to their children? We should go forward as if to every prayer that we send to the throne of God we heard the response from the One whose promises never fail. Even when depressed by sadness it is our privilege to make melody in our hearts to God. When we do this the mists and clouds will be rolled back and we will pass from the shadow and darkness into the clear sunshine of His presence.
OHC	120	4	If we educated our souls to have more faith, more love, greater patience, a more perfect trust in our heavenly Father, we would have more peace and happiness as we pass through the conflicts of this life. The Lord is not pleased to have us fret and worry ourselves out of the arms of Jesus. He is the only source of every grace, the fulfillment of every promise, the realization of every blessing.... Our pilgrimage would indeed be lonely were it not for Jesus. "I will not leave you comfortless," (John 14:18) He says to us. Let us cherish His words, believe His promises, repeat them by day and meditate upon them in the night season, and be happy.
------------------------Faith that Works and Purifies, April 25
OHC	121	1	Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Titus 2:14.
OHC	121	2	When you look to Calvary it is not to quiet your soul in the nonperformance of duty, not to compose yourself to sleep, but to create faith in Jesus, faith that will work, purifying the soul from the slime of selfishness. When we lay hold of Christ by faith, our work has just begun. Every man has corrupt and sinful habits that must be overcome by vigorous warfare. Every soul is required to fight the fight of faith. If one is a follower of Christ, he cannot be sharp in deal, he cannot be hardhearted, devoid of sympathy. He cannot be coarse in his speech. He cannot be full of pomposity and self-esteem. He cannot be overbearing, nor can he use harsh words, and censure and condemn.
OHC	121	3	The labor of love springs from the work of faith. Bible religion means constant work.... We are to be zealous of good works; be careful to maintain good works. And the true Witness says, "I know thy works." While it is true that our busy activities will not in themselves ensure salvation, it is also true that faith which unites us to Christ will stir the soul to activity.
OHC	121	4	The true Christian abounds in good works; he brings forth much fruit. He feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick, and ministers to the afflicted. Christians take a heartfelt interest in the children that are about them, who, through the subtle temptations of the enemy, are ready to perish. Fathers and mothers, if you have guarded your own children from the wiles of the foe, look about you to save the souls of the children who have not such care.... There are youth all around us to whom the members of the church owe a duty; for Christ has died for them.... They are precious in the sight of God, and He desires their eternal happiness.... Christ calls for voluntary cooperation on the part of His agents in doing earnest, consistent work for the salvation of souls.
OHC	121	5	A religion which shines out in good works emits a clear, sure, safe light.
------------------------The Place of Good Works, April 26
OHC	122	1	For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10.
OHC	122	2	Let no one take the limited, narrow position that any of the works of man can help in the least possible way to liquidate the debt of his transgression. This is a fatal deception. If you would understand it, you must ... with humble hearts survey the atonement. This matter is so dimly comprehended that thousands upon thousands claiming to be sons of God are children of the wicked one, because they will depend on their own works. God always demanded good works, the law demands it, but because man placed himself in sin where his good works were valueless, Jesus' righteousness alone can avail.
OHC	122	3	But are good works of no real value? Is the sinner who commits sin every day with impunity, regarded of God with the same favor as the one who through faith in Christ tries to work in his integrity? The Scripture answers,"We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." In His divine arrangement, through His unmerited favor, the Lord has ordained that good works shall be rewarded. We are accepted through Christ's merit alone; and the acts of mercy, the deeds of charity, which we perform, are the fruits of faith; and they become a blessing to us; for men are to be rewarded according to their works. It is the fragrance of the merit of Christ that makes our good works acceptable to God, and it is grace that enables us to do the works for which He rewards us. Our works in and of themselves have no merit.... We deserve no thanks from God. We have only done what it was our duty to do, and our works could not have been performed in the strength of our own sinful natures.
OHC	122	4	Christ is able to save to the uttermost.... All that man can possibly do toward his own salvation is to accept the invitation, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Revelation 22:17. No sin can be committed by man for which satisfaction has not been met on Calvary.
------------------------Don't Be a Pretender, April 27
OHC	123	1	Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. John 14:12.
OHC	123	2	Christians are to be indeed the representatives of Jesus Christ; they are not to be pretenders. Shall the world form its conceptions of God by the course of those who only take the name of Christ, and do not His works? Shall they point to those who claim to be believers, but who are not believers at heart, who betray sacred trusts, and work the works of the enemy, and say, "O these are Christians, and they will cheat and lie, and they cannot be trusted"? These are not the ones who truly represent God. But God will not leave the world to be deceived. The Lord has a peculiar people on the earth, and He is not ashamed to call them brethren; for they do the works of Christ. They make it manifest that they love God, because they keep His commandments. They bear the divine image. They are a spectacle unto the world, to angels, and to men.
OHC	123	3	The reward, the glories of heaven, bestowed upon the overcomers, will be proportionate to the degree in which they have represented the character of Christ to the world. "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly." 2 Corinthians 9:6. Thank God that it is our privilege to sow on earth the seed that will be harvested in eternity. The crown of life will be bright or dim, will glitter with many stars, or be lighted by few gems, in accordance with our own course of action. Day by day we may be laying up a good foundation against the time to come. By self-denial, by the exercise of the missionary spirit, by crowding all the good works possible into our life, by seeking so to represent Christ in character that we shall win many souls to the truth, we shall have respect unto the recompense of reward.
OHC	123	4	It rests with us to walk in the light, to make the most of every opportunity and privilege, to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so we shall work the works of Christ, and insure for ourselves treasure in the heavens.
------------------------Hold Your Position Hour by Hour, April 28
OHC	124	1	Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised). Hebrews 10:23.
OHC	124	2	It is our privilege, as children of God, to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. At times the masterly power of temptation seems to tax our will power to the uttermost, and to exercise faith seems utterly contrary to all the evidences of sense or emotion; but our will must be kept on God's side. We must believe that in Jesus Christ is everlasting strength and efficiency.... Hour by hour we must hold our position triumphantly in God, strong in His strength....
OHC	124	3	All things are possible to them that believe. Since God is working in you, you can safely set your face as a flint to do His will, and you may trust the Lord perfectly....
OHC	124	4	You must make a daily, personal consecration of all to God, You must daily renew your covenant to be His wholly and forever. Place no dependence upon changeable feelings, but plant your feet upon the sure platform of the promises of God: Thou hast said it; I believe the promise. This is an intelligent faith.
OHC	124	5	Your feelings will be troubled as you see some pursuing a course contrary to the principles of Christ; trials and tests of faith will come to you; but I entreat you to look only to Jesus, and allow none of these things to harden your heart, or to cause darkness or unbelief. Let nothing cause your faith to fail. Live as in the sight of God. Talk with Jesus as you would speak with a friend. He is ready to help you in the sorest trial; He is with you in the gravest perplexity....
OHC	124	6	A feeling of assurance is not to be despised; we should praise God for it; but when your feelings are depressed, do not think that God has changed. Praise Him just as much, because you trust in His word, and not in feelings. You have covenanted to walk by faith, not to be controlled by feelings. Feelings vary with circumstances....
OHC	124	7	Walk before God by faith, and rest fully upon His promises. Jesus says, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matthew 28:20.
------------------------Strength for Today, April 29
OHC	125	1	As thy days, so shall thy strength be. Deuteronomy 33:25.
OHC	125	2	I thank the Lord for the assurance of His grace, that is for His people now, today.... The promise is not that we will have strength today for a future emergency, that anticipated future trouble will be provided for beforehand, before it comes to us. We may, if we walk by faith, expect strength and provision for us as fast as our circumstances demand it. We live by faith, not by sight. The Lord's arrangement is for us to ask Him for the very things that we need. The grace of tomorrow will not be given today. Men's necessity is God's opportunity.... The grace of God is never given to be squandered, to be misapplied or perverted, or to be left to rust with disuse....
OHC	125	3	While you are bearing daily responsibilities in the love and fear of God, as obedient children walking in all humility of mind, strength and wisdom from God will be given to meet every trying circumstance.
OHC	125	4	We will not be able to meet the trials of this time without God. We are not to have the courage and fortitude of martyrs of old until brought into the position they were in.... We are to receive daily supplies of grace for each daily emergency. Thus we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and if persecution comes upon us, if we must be enclosed in prison walls for the faith of Jesus and the keeping of God's holy law, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." Should there be a return of persecution there would be grace given to arouse every energy of the soul to show a true heroism....
OHC	125	5	We are to keep close to the Source of our strength day by day, and when the enemy comes in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard for us against the enemy. The promise of God is sure, that strength shall be proportioned to our day. We may be confident for the future only in the strength that is given for the present necessities. The experience in God is daily becoming more precious.... Do not borrow anxiety for the future. It is today that we are in need.... The Lord is our helper, our God, and our strength in every time of need.
------------------------Victory After Victory, April 30
OHC	126	1	For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John 5:4.
OHC	126	2	When clouds come between your soul and God, when all around you is dark and forbidding, when the enemy stands ready to rob the soul of its integrity to God and the truth, and when error stands out plausible and attractive, then it is time to pray and exercise faith in God.... Cherishing faith, the soul is enabled to rise beyond itself, and penetrate the hellish shadow which the enemy casts athwart the pathway of every soul that is striving for an immortal crown....
OHC	126	3	Jesus said, "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." Mark 14:38. We are to watch and pray just as long as Satan brings up clouds of unbelief, composed of every evil thing that he can devise to lead the human mind to yield to temptation. But this cloud that lies between God and the human agent cannot envelop man and penetrate his soul unless he opens his mind and heart to its dark beams. The angels of God will guard from the poisonous malaria of temptations of the wicked one every man who will rise beyond self and circumstances and surroundings, looking unto Jesus through every mist and fog and cloud, and penetrating by faith the darkest temptations....
OHC	126	4	United with Christ, all the power you require will be given you. Abiding in Him, you can fight manfully. The more you believe and trust as a child in the Lord Jesus, the greater will be your capacity for believing. By faith you stand. Only by exercising faith can you conquer self.... Self is the ground where Satan always meets and manages those whom he wishes to deceive and conquer. But if the righteousness of Christ is revealed in you, you become strong. Looking beyond yourself to a crucified Saviour, a risen and ascended Lord, who is, as your Advocate, making intercession for you, taking hold of Christ's power and efficiency, you can conquer.
OHC	126	5	No victories ever won can compare in any wise with the victories of faith. Never let go your hold upon faith. It may triumph amid discouragement, gaining victory after victory.
------------------------Prayer, the Channel of All Blessings, May 1
OHC	127	1	And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Matthew 21:22.
OHC	127	2	Prayer is the breath of the soul, the channel of all blessings. As, with a realization of the needs of humanity, with a feeling of self- loathing, the repentant soul offers its prayer, God sees its struggles, watches its conflicts, and marks its sincerity. He has His finger upon its pulse, and He takes note of every throb. Not a feeling thrills it, not an emotion agitates it, not a sorrow shades it, not a sin stains it, not a thought or purpose moves it, of which He is not cognizant. That soul was purchased at an infinite cost, and is loved with a devotion that is unalterable....
OHC	127	3	Christ our Saviour ... had bodily wants to be supplied, bodily weariness to be relieved. It was by prayer to His Father that He was braced for duty and for trial. Day by day He followed His round of duty, seeking to save souls. His heart went out in tender sympathy for the weary and heavy laden. And He spent whole nights in prayer in behalf of the tempted ones....
OHC	127	4	The Christian is given the invitation to carry his burdens to God in prayer, and to fasten himself closely to Christ by the cords of living faith. The Lord authorizes us to pray, declaring that He will hear the prayers of those who trust in His infinite power. He will be honored by those who draw nigh to Him, who faithfully do His service. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." Isaiah 26:3. The arm of Omnipotence is outstretched to guide us and lead us onward and still onward. Go forward, the Lord says; I understand the case, and I will send you help. Continue to pray. Have faith in Me. It is for My name's glory that you ask, and you shall receive. I will be honored before those who are watching critically for your failure. They shall see the truth triumph gloriously. "All things, whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."...
OHC	127	5	True faith, true prayer--how strong they are!
------------------------An Open Door to God's Throne, May 2
OHC	128	1	Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. Revelation 3:8.
OHC	128	2	The true Witness declares: "Behold, I have set before thee an open door." Let us thank God with heart and soul and voice; and let us learn to approach unto Him as through an open door, believing that we may come freely with our petitions, and that He will hear and answer. It is by a living faith in His power to help, that we shall receive strength to fight the battles of the Lord with the confident assurance of victory.
OHC	128	3	Those who are seeking to be faithful to God may be denied many of the privileges of the world; their way may be hedged up and their work hindered by the enemies of truth; but there is no power that can close the door of communication between God and their souls. The Christian himself may close this door by indulgence in sin, or by rejection of heaven's light. He may turn away his ears from hearing the message of truth, and in this way sever the connection between God and his soul.... Every day we have the precious privilege of connecting ourselves with Christ, who has set before us an open door. All heaven is at our command. If we are obedient children of God, we may draw daily supplies of grace. Whatever temptations, trials, or persecutions may come upon us, we need not be discouraged. Neither man nor Satan can close the door which Christ has opened for us.
OHC	128	4	Whenever tempted, we have this open door to behold. No power can hide from us the light of the glory which shines from the threshold of heaven along the whole length of the ladder we are to climb; for the Lord has given us strength in His strength, courage in His courage, light in His light. When the powers of darkness are overcome, when the light of the glory of God floods the world, we shall see and understand more clearly than we do today. If we only realized that the glory of God is round about us, that heaven is nearer earth than we suppose, we should have a heaven in our homes while preparing for the heaven above.
------------------------Blessings for Those Who Ask, May 3
OHC	129	1	Ye have not, because ye ask not. James 4:2.
OHC	129	2	The grace of Christ we cannot do without. We must have help from above if we resist the manifold temptations of Satan, and escape his devices. Amid the prevailing darkness, we must have light from God to reveal the traps and gins of error, or we shall be ensnared. We should improve the opportunity for prayer, both in secret and around the family altar. Many need to learn how to pray.... When we in humility tell the Lord our wants, the Spirit itself makes intercession for us; as our sense of need causes us to lay bare our souls before the all-searching eye of Omnipotence, our earnest, fervent prayers enter within the vail, our faith claims the promises of God, and help comes to us....
OHC	129	3	Prayer is both a duty and a privilege. We must have help which God alone can give, and that help will not come unasked. If we are too self-righteous to feel our need of help from God, we shall not have His help when we need it most. If we are too independent and self-sufficient to throw ourselves daily by earnest prayer upon the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour, we shall be left subject to Satan's temptations.... Earnest, sincere ... prayer would bring strength and grace to resist the powers of darkness. God wants to bless. He is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him than are parents to give good gifts to their children. But many do not feel their need. They do not realize that they can do nothing without the help of Jesus....
OHC	129	4	I have been shown angels of God all ready to impart grace and power to those who feel their need of divine strength. But these heavenly messengers will not bestow blessings unless solicited. They have waited for the cry from souls hungering and thirsting for the blessing of God; often have they waited in vain. There were, indeed, casual prayers, but not the earnest supplication from humble, contrite hearts....
OHC	129	5	Those who would receive the blessing of the Lord, must themselves prepare the way, by confession of sin, by humiliation before God, with true penitence, and with faith in the merits of the blood of Christ.
------------------------Learn How to Pray, May 4
OHC	130	1	Lord, teach us to pray. Luke 11:1.
OHC	130	2	Christ did not give this prayer [the Lord's Prayer, Luke 11:2-4] for men to repeat as a form. He gave it as an illustration of what our prayers should be--simple, earnest, and comprehensive.
OHC	130	3	Many prayers are offered without faith. A set form of words is used, but there is no real importunity. These prayers are doubtful, hesitating; they bring no relief to those who offer them, and no comfort or hope to others. The form of prayer is used, but the spirit is wanting, showing that the petitioner does not feel his need....
OHC	130	4	Learn to pray short and right to the point, asking for just what you need. Learn to pray aloud where only God can hear you. Do not offer make-believe prayers, but earnest, feeling petitions, expressing the hunger of the soul for the Bread of Life. If we prayed more in secret, we should be able to pray more intelligently in public. These doubtful, hesitating prayers would cease. And when we engaged with our brethren in public worship, we could add to the interest of the meeting; for we should bring with us some of the atmosphere of heaven, and our worship would be a reality, and not a mere form....If the soul is not drawn out in prayer in the closet and while engaged in the business of the day, it will be manifest in the prayer meeting....
OHC	130	5	The life of the soul depends upon habitual communion with God. Its wants are made known, and the heart is open to receive fresh blessings. Gratitude flows from unfeigned lips; and the refreshing that is received from Jesus is manifested in words, in deeds of active benevolence, and in public devotion. There is love to Jesus in the heart; and where love exists, it will not be repressed, but will express itself. Secret prayer sustains this inner life. The heart that loves God will desire to commune with Him, and will lean on Him in holy confidence.
OHC	130	6	Let us learn to pray intelligently, expressing our requests with clearness and precision. Let us ... pray as though we meant it. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 5:16.
------------------------Seek God with All the Heart, May 5
OHC	131	1	Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee. Zechariah 9:12.
OHC	131	2	We need to educate the soul to lay hold, and hold fast the rich promises of Christ. The Lord Jesus knows that it is not possible for us to resist the many temptations of Satan, only as we shall have divine power given us from God. He well knows that in our own human strength we should surely fail. Therefore every provision has been made, that in every emergency and trial we shall flee to the Stronghold.... We have the word of promise from lips that will not lie.... We must individually cherish the faith that we receive of Him the things He hath promised.
OHC	131	3	God will be to us everything we will let Him be. Our languid, half-hearted prayers will not bring us returns from heaven. Oh, we need to press our petitions! Ask in faith, wait in faith, receive in faith, rejoice in hope, for everyone that seeketh findeth. Be in earnest in the matter. Seek God with all the heart. People put soul and earnestness into everything they undertake in temporal things, until their efforts are crowned with success. With intense earnestness learn the trade of seeking the rich blessings that God has promised, and with persevering, determined effort you shall have His light and His truth and His rich grace.
OHC	131	4	In sincerity, in soul hunger, cry after God. Wrestle with the heavenly agencies until you have the victory. Put your whole being into the Lord's hands, soul, body, and spirit, and resolve to be His loving, consecrated agency, moved by His will, controlled by His mind, infused by His Spirit.
OHC	131	5	Tell Jesus your wants in the sincerity of your soul. You are not required to hold a long controversy with, or preach a sermon to, God, but with a heart of sorrow for your sins, say, "Save me, Lord, or I perish." There is hope for such souls. They will seek, they will ask, they will knock, and they will find. When Jesus has taken away the burden of sin that is crushing the soul, you will experience the blessedness of the peace of Christ.
------------------------Victory Through Watchfulness, May 6
OHC	132	1	Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Mark 14:38.
OHC	132	2	Temptations may be all around you, yet you are safe as long as you do not enter into them. Many of us are overcome by Satan because we walk right into temptation.... It is your business to keep aloof from everyone and everything which will have a tendency to lead you away from duty and divert your mind from God.... If compelled to be in the society of those who are evil, you are not compelled to enter into or engage in their evil. You can, by prayer and watching, remain unsullied by the evil manifested about you.
OHC	132	3	"Watch and pray" is an injunction often repeated in the Scriptures. In the lives of those who obey this injunction there will be an undercurrent of happiness that will bless all with whom they are brought in contact. Those who are sour and cross in disposition will become sweet and gentle; those who are proud will become meek and lowly.
OHC	132	4	A man cannot be a happy Christian unless he is a watchful Christian. He who overcomes must watch; for with worldly entanglements, error, and superstition, Satan strives to win Christ's followers from Him, and to keep their minds employed with his devices. It is not enough that we avoid glaring dangers and perilous, inconsistent moves. We are to keep close to the side of Christ, walking in the path of self-denial and self-sacrifice. We are not to allow our spiritual perceptions to be blinded, as they often are, by a strong, determined will. And in order to detect the artifices of Satan and to withstand his unexpected attacks, we must have the grace of Christ and the impartation of His Spirit....
OHC	132	5	God's Word warns us that we have manifold enemies, not open and avowed, but enemies who come with smooth words and fair speeches, and who would deceive if possible the very elect. Thus Satan comes. And again, when it suits his purpose, he goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Man's will, unless kept in subjection to the will of God, is as often on the enemy's side as on the Lord's side. Therefore watch unto prayer; watch and pray always.
------------------------Humble, Persevering Prayer, May 7
OHC	133	1	Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. James 5:17, 18.
OHC	133	2	Important lessons are presented to us in the experience of Elijah. When upon Mount Carmel he offered the prayer for rain, his faith was tested, but he persevered in making known his request unto God.
OHC	133	3	The servant watched while Elijah prayed. Six times he returned from the watch, saying, There is nothing, no cloud, no sign of rain. But the prophet did not give up in discouragement. He kept reviewing his life, to see where he had failed to honor God.... As he searched his heart, he seemed to be less and less, both in his own estimation and in the sight of God. It seemed to him that he was nothing, and that God was everything; and when he reached the point of renouncing self, while he clung to the Saviour as his only strength and righteousness, the answer came. The servant appeared, and said, "Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand." 1 Kings 18:34.
OHC	133	4	We have a God whose ear is not closed to our petitions; and if we prove His word, He will honor our faith. He wants us to have all our interests interwoven with His interests, and then He can safely bless us; for we shall not then take glory to self when the blessing is ours, but shall render all the praise to God. God does not always answer our prayers the first time we call upon Him; for should He do this, we might take it for granted that we had a right to all the blessings and favors He bestowed upon us. Instead of searching our hearts to see if any evil was entertained by us, any sin indulged, we should become careless, and fail to realize our dependence upon Him....
OHC	133	5	Elijah humbled himself until he was in a condition where he would not take the glory to himself. This is the condition upon which the Lord hears prayer, for then we shall give the praise to Him.... God alone is worthy to be glorified.
------------------------Wait for God's Answer, May 8
OHC	134	1	It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:26.
OHC	134	2	There are precious promises in the Scriptures to those who wait upon the Lord. We all desire an immediate answer to our prayers, and we are tempted to become discouraged if our prayer is not immediately answered. Now my experience has taught me that this is a great mistake. The delay is for our special benefit. Our faith has a chance to be tested to see whether it is true, sincere, or changeable like the waves of the sea. We must bind ourselves upon the altar with the strong cords of faith and love, and let patience have her perfect work. Faith strengthens through continual exercise.
OHC	134	3	We must pray more and in faith. We must not pray and then run away as though afraid we should receive an answer. God will not mock us. He will answer if we watch unto prayer, if we believe we receive the things we ask for, and keep believing and never lose patience in believing. This is watching unto prayer. We guard the prayer of faith with expectancy and hope. We must wall it in with assurance and be not faithless, but believing. The fervent prayer of the righteous is never lost. The answer may not come according as we expected, but it will come, because God's word is pledged.
OHC	134	4	We need a calm waiting upon God. The need of this is imperious. It is not the noise and bustle we make in the world which proves our usefulness. See how silently God works! ... Those who desire to labor with God have need of His Spirit every day; they need to walk and labor in meekness and humility of spirit, without seeking to accomplish extraordinary things, satisfied to do the work before them and doing it faithfully. Men may not see or appreciate their efforts, but the names of these faithful children of God are written in heaven among His noblest workers, as scattering His seed in view of a glorious harvest.
OHC	134	5	Wait for the Lord, not in fretful anxiety, but in undaunted faith and unshaken trust.
------------------------Mementos in Memory's Halls, May 9
OHC	135	1	Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. 1 Samuel 7:12.
OHC	135	2	There is more encouragement to us in the least blessing which we receive ourselves than in reading biographical works relating to the faith and experience of noted men of God. The things we ourselves have experienced of the blessings of God through His gracious promises we may hang in memory's halls, and whether rich or poor, learned or illiterate, we may look and may consider these tokens of God's love. Every token of God's care and goodness and mercy should be hung as imperishable mementos in memory's halls. God would have His love, His promises, written upon the tablets of the mind. Guard the precious revealings of God that not a letter shall become obliterated or dimmed.
OHC	135	3	When Israel obtained special victories after leaving Egypt, memorials were preserved of these victories. Moses and Joshua were commanded of God to do this, to build up remembrances. When the Israelites had won a special victory over the Philistines, Samuel set up a commemorative stone and called it Ebenezer, saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us"....
OHC	135	4	Can we not, in view of the past, look on new trials and increased perplexities--even afflictions, privations, and bereavements--and not be dismayed, but look upon the past and say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.' I will commit the keeping of my soul unto Him as unto a faithful Creator. He will keep that which I have committed to His trust against that day."
OHC	135	5	Let us look to the monumental pillars, reminders of what the Lord has done to comfort us and to save us from the hand of the destroyer. Let us keep fresh in our memory all the tender mercies that God has shown us--the tears He has wiped away, the pains He has soothed, the anxieties removed, the fears dispelled, the wants supplied, the blessings bestowed--thus strengthening ourselves for all that is before us through the remainder of our pilgrimage.
------------------------On the Mount Before God, May 10
OHC	136	1	And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. 1 Kings 19:11.
OHC	136	2	This command comes to every one of us who is looking to his discouragements and mourning over his frailties and giving to the world an example of distrust of God, refusing to look and live.... You please the enemy of God and of man by keeping in the cave of darkness where there is not a ray of the Light of life....
OHC	136	3	I want to lift up my voice for Jesus and say, Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Go forth from the cave by faith. Look to Jesus, your helper. Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. Look to your atoning Sacrifice lifted up upon the cross, the Innocent dying for the guilty....
OHC	136	4	His offering of Himself was full and ample. Nothing was wanting. It was indeed a whole and ample atonement that was made. Then why ... indicate by words and example that Christ has died for you in vain? After the exhibitions of love that was without a parallel, you say by your words of doubt and mournful discouragement, "He does not love me. He will not forgive me. My sins are of too hard a character to be cured by the blood of Jesus. The offering is not of sufficient value to pay the debt I owe for the rescue of my soul."
OHC	136	5	If men and women could only see and realize how their unbelief and mournful murmurings exalt Satan and give him honor, while they rob Jesus Christ of His glory in the work of saving them, wholly and entirely, from all sin! ... Let us come out of the cavern of darkness. Let us educate our intellects to discern what Jesus is to us. Let us train our minds to stand on the mount before God in faith, strong in God under any and every temptation....
OHC	136	6	In the mount we shall have correct views of Jesus. Satan will not have power to cast his hellish shadow between our souls and Jesus, eclipse our view of Jesus, falsify Him, and encourage our hearts in cruel unbelief of His goodness, His mercy, and His love wherewith He hath loved us.
------------------------God's Law a Wall of Protection, May 11
OHC	137	1	Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Psalm 119:1.
OHC	137	2	God, the great governor of the universe, has put everything under law. The tiny flower and the towering oak, the grain of sand and the mighty ocean, sunshine and shower, wind and rain, all obey nature's laws. But man has been placed under a higher law. He has been given an intellect to see, and a conscience to feel, the powerful claims of God's great moral law, the expression of what He desires His children to be.
OHC	137	3	God has made known His will so plainly that none need err. He desires all to have a correct understanding of His law, to feel the power of its principles; for their eternal interests are here involved. He who has an understanding of the far-reaching claims of God's law can understand something of the heinousness of sin. And the more exalted his ideas of God's requirements, the greater will be his gratitude for the pardon granted him....
OHC	137	4	In his own strength the sinner cannot meet the demands of God. He must go for help to the One who paid the ransom for him....
OHC	137	5	Christ is our hope. Those who trust in Him are cleansed. The grace of Christ and the government of God walk together in perfect harmony. When Jesus became man's substitute, mercy and truth met together, and righteousness and peace kissed each other. The cross of Calvary bears witness to the high claims of God's law.
OHC	137	6	The law of ten commandments is not to be looked upon as much from the prohibitory side, as from the mercy side. Its prohibitions are the sure guarantee of happiness in obedience. As received in Christ, it works in us the purity of character that will bring joy to us through eternal ages. To the obedient it is a wall of protection. We behold in it the goodness of God, who by revealing to men the immutable principles of righteousness, seeks to shield them from the evils that result from transgression.
------------------------A Complete Rule of Life, May 12
OHC	138	1	And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament. Revelation 11:19.
OHC	138	2	Our Redeemer testifies: "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." Revelation 3:8. Through this open door into the temple of God, we see the royal law, deposited in the ark of the testament. Through this open door, light shines from that holy, just, and good law, presenting to man the true standard of righteousness, that he may make no mistake in the formation of a character that will meet the requirements of God. Sin is condemned by that law; we must put it away. Pride and selfishness can find no place in the character without crowding out Him who was meek and lowly of heart.
OHC	138	3	The law of God is the standard by which character is to be tested; if we erect a standard to suit ourselves, and attempt to follow a criterion of our own devising, we shall utterly fail to secure heaven at last....
OHC	138	4	The mind must yield obedience to the royal law of liberty, the law which the Spirit of God impresses upon the heart, and makes plain to the understanding. The expulsion of sin must be the act of the soul itself, in calling into exercise its noblest powers. The only freedom a finite will can enjoy, consists in coming into harmony with the will of God, complying with the conditions that make man a partaker of the divine nature.
OHC	138	5	The law of God given from Sinai is a copy of the mind and will of the Infinite God. It is sacredly revered by the holy angels. Obedience to its requirements will perfect Christian character, and restore man, through Christ, to his condition before the Fall. The sins forbidden in the law could never find place in heaven.
OHC	138	6	It was the love of God to man that prompted Him to express His will in the ten precepts of the Decalogue.... God has given man a complete rule of life in His law. Obeyed, he shall live by it, through the merits of Christ. Transgressed, it has power to condemn. The law sends men to Christ, and Christ points them back to the law.
------------------------Weighing in for Heaven, May 13
OHC	139	1	Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity. Job 31:6.
OHC	139	2	True measure is everything. It is the very law of God. He puts His law into the least of men's acts and dealings, that learning and living it they may be elevated, ennobled, and sanctified in heart and affection--faithful in the least.
OHC	139	3	God weighs motives, purposes, character. All men are weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and God would have all realize this fact. Hannah said, "The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed." 1 Samuel 2:3. David hath said, "Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity." Psalm 62:9. Isaiah says: "Thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just." Isaiah 26:7....
OHC	139	4	The God of heaven is true. There is not a motive in the depths of the heart, not a secret within us, not a design that God does not fully comprehend. But what is the standard of justice? God's law. God's law is placed in one scale, His holy immutable law whose claims are specified, taking, in the first four commandments, supreme love to God, and in the last six, love to our neighbor. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, ... and thy neighbour as thyself." Luke 10:27. From this standard we will not subtract one atom. God requires all the heart, mind, soul, and strength, and "love thy neighbour as thyself." This is placed in one scale, while every individual character has to pass the weighing test by being placed in the opposite scale. And by its just comparison every man's doom is irretrievably fixed....
OHC	139	5	Shall there be written, "Weighed in the balance, and found wanting"? If found wanting in the day of God it will be a terrible thing, therefore we want to be closely examining our own motives and actions by the holy law of God, to repent of every act of transgression, and as sinners lay hold of the merits of Christ to supply the deficiency. The blood of Christ alone will do this.
------------------------Heart Allegiance, May 14
OHC	140	1	Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Ephesians 6:6.
OHC	140	2	The law of Jehovah is exceedingly broad. Jesus ... plainly declared to His disciples that this holy law of God may be violated in even the thoughts and feelings and desires, as well as in the word and deed. The heart that loves God supremely will not in any way be inclined to narrow down His precepts to the very smallest possible claims, but the obedient, loyal soul will cheerfully render full spiritual obedience when the law is seen in its spiritual power. Then will the commandments come home to the soul in their real force. Sin will appear exceedingly sinful.... There is no longer self-righteousness, self-esteem, self-honor. Self-security is gone. Deep conviction of sin and self-loathing is the result, and the soul in its desperate sense of peril lays hold on the blood of the Lamb of God as his only remedy....
OHC	140	3	Many are deceiving their own souls today. They restrict the injunctions of God to condemn outward acts alone, and do not consider it sin to dishonor God in thoughts and affections. They flatter themselves that they are keeping the law of Jehovah while their life and character as daguerreotyped [photographed] in the books of heaven reveal them as venturing to see how far they can go in the direction of wrongdoing without being branded as transgressors of God's law....
OHC	140	4	Every soul who desires to depart from all iniquity ... will be ever laboring to be on the Lord's side in thought, in word, and in character, obedient to all His requirements. In the place of seeking opportunities to evade the law of God, he will give the largest interpretation to His far-reaching commandments and will strive most earnestly to bring the will, the affections, and all the heart to exemplify the great principles of His holy commandments.... The work must begin at the heart.... If the heart is right with God, then the whole life will be purified, refined, ennobled, sanctified. If the eye is single the whole body is filled with light. Religion is not a matter of externalities.... Religion is a thing of the heart.
------------------------Blending the Law and Gospel, May 15
OHC	141	1	Do we then make void the law of God through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. Romans 3:31.
OHC	141	2	We hear so many who are deceived by the enemy constantly claiming, "I am saved"; but ... they show such contempt of God's rule of righteousness that we know that they ... know nothing of saving grace. The heart is not in harmony with the law of God, but is at enmity with that law. Thus was the great rebel in heaven. Will the Lord take men and women to heaven who have no respect for the law of His universe? ...
OHC	141	3	What is to bring the sinner to the knowledge of his sins unless he knows what sin is? The only definition of sin in the Word of God is given us in 1 John 3:4. "Sin is the transgression of the law." The sinner must be made to feel that he is a transgressor. Christ dying upon the cross of Calvary is drawing his attention. Why did Christ die? Because it was the only means for man to be saved.... He took upon Himself our sins that He might impute His righteousness to all who believe in Him.... The goodness and the love of God lead the sinner to repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The awakened sinner ... is pointed to the law he has transgressed. It calls to him to repent, yet there is no saving quality in law to pardon the transgression of law, and his case seems hopeless. But the law draws him to Christ. However deep are his sins of transgression, the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse him from all sin....
OHC	141	4	The law and the gospel go hand in hand. The one is the complement of the other. The law without faith in the gospel of Christ cannot save the transgressor of law. The gospel without the law is inefficient and powerless. The law and the gospel are a perfect whole. The Lord Jesus laid the foundation of the building, and He lays "the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it." Zechariah 4:7. He is the author and finisher of our faith, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. The two blended--the gospel of Christ and the law of God--produce the love and faith unfeigned.
------------------------Pathway to Purity, May 16
OHC	142	1	And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 1 John 3:3.
OHC	142	2	Does this text mean that the human agent can remove one stain of sin from his soul? No. Then what does it mean to purify himself? It means to look upon the Lord's great moral standard of righteousness, the holy law of God, and see that he is a sinner in the light of that law. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin." 1 John 3:4, 5. It is through faith in Jesus Christ that ... the human agent is purified and cleansed.... "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." Verse 6. God has power to keep the soul that is in Christ.... A mere profession of godliness is worthless. It is he that abideth in Christ that is a Christian....
OHC	142	3	In every clime, in every nation, our youth should cooperate with God. The only way a person can be pure is to become like-minded with God. How can we know God? By studying His Word....
OHC	142	4	Unless the mind of God becomes the mind of man, every effort to purify himself will be useless; for it is impossible to elevate man except through a knowledge of God. The outward gloss may be put on, and men may be as were the Pharisees whom Jesus describes as "whited sepulchres," full of corruption and dead men's bones. But all the deformity of the soul is open to Him who judgeth righteously, and unless the truth is planted in the heart, it cannot control the life. Cleansing the outside of the cup will never make the vessel pure within. A nominal acceptance of truth is good as far as it goes, and the ability to give a reason for our faith is a good accomplishment, but if the truth does not go deeper than this, the soul will never be saved. The heart must be purified from all moral defilement. "I know also my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness." 1 Chronicles 29:17. "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23, 24.
------------------------An Enlightened Conscience, May 17
OHC	143	1	And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men. Acts 24:16.
OHC	143	2	In the Word of God we read that there are good and bad consciences.... Take your conscience to the Word of God, and see if your life and character are in accordance with the standard of righteousness which God has there revealed. You can then determine whether or not you have an intelligent faith, and what manner of conscience is yours. The conscience of man cannot be trusted unless it is under the influence of divine grace. Satan takes advantage of an unenlightened conscience, and thereby leads men into all manner of delusions.
OHC	143	3	It is not enough for a man to think himself safe in following the dictates of his conscience.... The question to be settled is, Is the conscience in harmony with the Word of God? If not, it cannot safely be followed, for it will deceive. The conscience must be enlightened by God. Time must be given to a study of the Scriptures and to prayer. Thus the mind will be stablished, strengthened, and settled.
OHC	143	4	It is the privilege of everyone to so live that God will approve and bless him. You may be hourly in communion with Heaven; it is not the will of your heavenly Father that you should ever be under condemnation and darkness. It is not pleasing to God that you should demerit yourself. You should cultivate self-respect by living so that you will be approved by your own conscience, and before men and angels.... It is your privilege to go to Jesus and be cleansed, and to stand before the law without shame and remorse. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Romans 8:1. While we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought, the Word of God does not condemn a proper self-respect. As sons and daughters of God, we should have a conscious dignity of character, in which pride and self-importance have no part.
OHC	143	5	A conscience void of offense toward God and man is a wonderful acquirement.
------------------------Fruit-Bearing Branches, May 18
OHC	144	1	I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. John 15:1, 2.
OHC	144	2	The Saviour ... points out the sign of discipleship: "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." By faith we are to lay hold on a living God, and maintain an experience that shall breathe love, tenderness, kindness, compassion, and affection. These traits of character are the fruit that the Lord Jesus desires us to produce, and to present before the world as a witness that we have a Saviour who can uplift and who can satisfy.... We need not be on the losing side, for in everything He is our sufficiency.
OHC	144	3	What we need is the presence of Jesus Christ. We want His truth shining in our hearts, pervading all our life actions. This will determine whether or not we are branches of the True Vine. If we are fruit-bearing branches we may expect that the Great Husbandman will prune us, that we may bring forth more fruit. All that is useless, all that would hinder our growth in the Christian life, must be removed.
OHC	144	4	When the purging comes, we frequently feel that the Lord is against us. Instead of this we should look to ourselves and see if there is not something we have left undone or something we need to take away from our lives before we can stand in right relation to God....
OHC	144	5	We must be living branches of the True Vine, daily laying hold of our Redeemer that we may bear the fruits of a Christian character.... When we are willing to practice self-denial and self-sacrifice, as Christ practiced it in His life, we shall bear fruit to God's glory.
OHC	144	6	It is the Saviour's delight to see His followers colaborers with God, receiving bountifully all the means of fruit bearing, and giving bountifully, as workers under Him. Christ glorified His Father by the fruit He bore, and the lives of His true followers will produce the same result. Receiving and imparting, His workers will produce much fruit.
------------------------Abiding in Christ, May 19
OHC	145	1	Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John 15:4.
OHC	145	2	As the severed branch, leafless, and apparently lifeless, is ingrafted into the living stock, and, fiber by fiber, and vein by vein, drinks in the life and strength of the vine until it buds and blossoms and bears fruit, even so may the sinner, by repentance and faith, connect himself with Christ, become a partaker of the divine nature, and bring forth in words and deeds the fruit of a holy life.
OHC	145	3	Jesus "has life in himself," and this life He offers to impart freely, to souls that are dead in trespasses and sins. Yea, He shares with them His purity, His honor, and exaltation.... The sapless branch, ingrafted into the living vine, becomes a part of the vine. It lives while united to the vine. So the Christian lives by virtue of his union with Christ. The sinful and human is linked to the holy and divine. The believing soul abides in Christ, and becomes one with Him. When persons are closely united in the relations of this life, their tastes become similar, they come to love the same things. So those who abide in Christ will love the things which He loves. They will sacredly cherish and obey His commandments....
OHC	145	4	The vine-branch, nourished from the parent stock, becomes flourishing and fruitful. Its rich and fragrant clusters attest its union with the living vine. So the Christian, abiding in Jesus, will bring forth fruit. In character and life will be manifested, like the teeming cluster of the vine, the precious graces of the Spirit,--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance....
OHC	145	5	Resolve that you will be fruit-bearing members of the living Vine. The scion can flourish only as it receives life and strength from the parent stock. Improve, then, every opportunity to connect yourselves more closely with Christ. It is by believing Him, loving Him, copying Him, and depending wholly upon Him, that you are to become one with Him; and through you His life and character will be revealed to the world.
------------------------The Source of My Strength, May 20
OHC	146	1	I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5.
OHC	146	2	We are finite, but a wonderful arrangement has been made that we may have close connection with the Infinite.... Finite beings at their best can do but little, but Christ working through humanity may accomplish wonderful results.
OHC	146	3	It is a painful thought to me that I can do so little. The limited sphere of human capabilities leads me to feel indeed the words of Christ, "Without Me ye can do nothing." Many are endowed with superior talents and do not use them, because they have no living connection with God.... My own scanty knowledge and feeble energies drive me to Jesus, and the language of my heart is, "Oh God, I can do nothing. I hang my helpless soul on Thee, Jesus Christ my Saviour. Put Thy grace into my heart. Attract my mind from my weakness to Thy almighty strength, from my ignorance to Thy eternal wisdom, from my frailty to Thy enduring might. Give me correct views of the great plan of redemption. Let me see and understand what Christ is to me, and that my heart, soul, mind, and strength are bought with a price. Christ has imparted to me that I may impart to others. Lift up my soul; strengthen and enlighten my mind that I may comprehend more clearly the character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, that I may know that it is my privilege to be a partaker of the divine nature."
OHC	146	4	The great and eternal power of God fills my mind with awe, and sometimes even terror.... May I indeed look upon Jesus, full of goodness and compassion and love, and behold the Lord God, and call Him by the endearing name of Father.
OHC	146	5	The deep struggles of my own soul against temptations, the earnest longings of my mind and heart to know God and Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour, and to have assurance, peace, and rest in their love, lead me to desire every day to be where the beams of the Sun of Righteousness can shine upon me.
------------------------Rejoicing in Assurance, May 21
OHC	147	1	If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7.
OHC	147	2	Precious are the privileges accorded him who abides in Christ.... The mind of Christ dwells in His faithful followers; their desires are in accordance with His will; their petitions are indited by His Spirit. They obtain answers to their prayers; for they ask for such blessings as He delights to bestow.
OHC	147	3	But there are thousands of prayers daily offered that God does not answer. There are faithless prayers. "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Hebrews 11:6. There are selfish prayers, proceeding from a heart that is cherishing idols.... There are petulant, fretful prayers, murmuring because of the burdens and cares of life, instead of humbly seeking grace to lighten them. Those who offer such petitions are not abiding in Christ. They have not submitted their will to the will of God. They do not comply with the condition of the promise, and it is not fulfilled to them.
OHC	147	4	They that are abiding in Jesus have the assurance that God will hear them, because they love to do His will. They offer no formal, wordy prayer, but come to God in earnest, humble confidence as a child to a tender father, and pour out the story of their grief and fears and sins, and in the name of Jesus present their wants; they depart from His presence rejoicing in the assurance of pardoning love and sustaining grace.
OHC	147	5	With a sense that Jesus is by your side, you will have cheerfulness, hope, courage, and joy.... Never, never separate from Jesus. He never separates from us. By the cross of Calvary He has given evidence of His deep love for us. He does not leave us to fight the battle in our own finite strength. He says, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5.... Jesus does not cast us off, even when we grieve Him; He clings to us still. Let your heart be animated by the love of Jesus to ardent activity for His glory.
------------------------Most Happy People on Earth, May 22
OHC	148	1	These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. John 15:11.
OHC	148	2	We, as Christians, are not required to go about with long faces, sighing as though we had no Saviour and no hope. This will not glorify God. He desires us to be cheerful. He desires us to be filled with praises to His name. He desires us to carry light in our countenances, and joy in our hearts. We have a hope that is far above any pleasures that the world can give, and this fact should be made manifest.
OHC	148	3	Why should not our joy be full--full, lacking nothing? We have an assurance that Jesus is our Saviour, and that we may draw freely from Him. We may partake freely of the rich provision that He has made for us in His Word. We may take Him at His word, believe on Him, and know that He will give us grace and power to do just as He bids us.... We may constantly seek the joy of His presence. We need not be all the time upon our knees in prayer, but we may be constantly asking for His grace, even when we are walking on the streets, or when we are engaged in our ordinary daily duties. We may constantly keep the mind ascending to Christ, and He will freely impart to us of His grace....
OHC	148	4	The joy of Christ is a pure, unalloyed cheerfulness. It is not a cheap gaiety, that leads to vanity of words or lightness of conduct. No, we are to have His joy, and His greatest joy was to see men obeying the truth.... Plead with God, saying, "I make an entire surrender. I give myself away to Thee." Then be joyful. The Word is in you, purifying and cleansing your character. God does not want His children to go about with anxiety and sorrow expressed in their faces. He wants the lovely expression of His countenance to be revealed in every one of us who are partakers of the divine nature; for we have power to escape the corruptions of the world....
OHC	148	5	We are not, because Christ died, left a company of orphans.... It is possible for us to obtain victory after victory, and be the most happy people on the face of the earth.
------------------------Friendship with Jesus, May 23
OHC	149	1	Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. John 15:14.
OHC	149	2	The character and course of the Christian is in marked contrast to that of worldlings. The Christian cannot find pleasure in the amusements and in the varied scenes of gaiety of the world. Higher and holier attractions engage the affections. Christians will show that they are the friends of God by their obedience. "Ye are my friends," says Christ, "if ye do whatsoever I command you.... If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."
OHC	149	3	Christ is your rock and your fortress. Unto His name the righteous runneth and are safe.... The righteousness and excellency of His requirements are not comprehended by the world, who look upon the religion of Christ as a yoke of bondage, a surrender of their liberty. Each of God's requirements is an order to become wise, rich, and noble by uniting our weak strength with the power of the Infinite. While following the footsteps of Christ we need never blush, for our conscience will never reproach us. His service is always reasonable. His work is always honorable and glorious. Our friends who desire us to choose the pleasures of the world and to conform to the customs of the world, who look upon us as obstinate, can have no claims upon us that bear any comparison with the claims of Christ....
OHC	149	4	The value of man as God estimates him is through his union with Christ; for God is the only One able to raise man in the scale of moral worth through the righteousness of Christ. Worldly honor and worldly greatness are of just that value that the Creator of man places upon them. Their wisdom is foolishness, their strength weakness.
OHC	149	5	Let us value what God esteems. True elevation of character is found alone through Christ. Our Saviour imputes His righteousness to the man who yields to Him his heart's best and holiest affections. Our value is in proportion to our alliance to God.
------------------------Jesus' Crowning Gift, May 24
OHC	150	1	Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. John 16:7.
OHC	150	2	Christ declared that after His ascension, He would send to His church, as His crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take His place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit--the soul of His life, the efficacy of His church, the light and life of the world....
OHC	150	3	In the gift of the Spirit, Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could bestow.... It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character upon the church.... It is the privilege of every son and daughter of God to have the indwelling of the Spirit.
OHC	150	4	Let every church member kneel before God, and pray earnestly for the impartation of the Spirit. Cry, "Lord, increase my faith. Make me to understand thy word; for the entrance of thy word giveth light. Refresh me by thy presence. Fill my heart with thy Spirit"....
OHC	150	5	When a man is filled with the Spirit, the more severely he is tested and tried, the more clearly he proves that he is a representative of Christ. The peace that dwells in the soul is seen on the countenance. The words and actions express the love of the Saviour.... Self is renounced. The name of Jesus is written on all that is said and done.
OHC	150	6	We may talk of the blessings of the Holy Spirit, but unless we prepare ourselves for its reception, of what avail are our works? Are we striving with all our power to attain to the stature of men and women in Christ? Are we seeking for His fullness, ever pressing toward the mark set before us--the perfection of His character? When the Lord's people reach this mark, they will be sealed in their foreheads. Filled with the Spirit, they will be complete in Christ, and the recording angel will declare, "It is finished."
------------------------Spirit Given on Condition, May 25
OHC	151	1	If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13.
OHC	151	2	Christ has promised the gift of the Spirit to His church, and the promise belongs to us as much as to the first disciples. But like every other promise, it is given on conditions. There are many who believe, and profess to claim the Lord's promise; they talk about Christ and about the Holy Spirit, yet receive no benefit. They do not surrender the soul to be guided and controlled by the divine agencies. We cannot use the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit, God works in His people "to will and to do of his good pleasure." Philippians 2:13. But many will not submit to this. They want to manage themselves. This is why they do not receive the heavenly gift. Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given....
OHC	151	3	There is no limit to the usefulness of one who, putting aside self, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, and lives a life wholly consecrated to God....If His people will remove the obstructions, He will pour forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams through human channels....
OHC	151	4	The Spirit furnishes the strength that sustains striving, wrestling souls in every emergency, amid the unfriendliness of relatives, the hatred of the world, and the realization of their own imperfections and mistakes. A union of divine and human endeavor, a close connection first, last, and ever, with God, the source of all strength--this is absolutely necessary.
OHC	151	5	To Jesus, who emptied Himself for the salvation of lost humanity, the Holy Spirit was given without measure. So it will be given to every follower of Christ when the whole heart is surrendered for His indwelling. Our Lord Himself has given the command, "Be filled with the Spirit," and this command is also a promise of its fulfillment. It was the good pleasure of the Father that in Christ should "all the fulness" dwell; and "in him ye are made full" (Colossians 2:9, 10, R.V.).
------------------------Christ's Representative, May 26
OHC	152	1	And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. John 16:8.
OHC	152	2	As the Comforter shall come, and reprove you of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, be careful lest you resist the Spirit of God.... Be willing to discern what it shall reveal to you. Yield up your self-will, the long idolized habits peculiar to yourself, that you may receive the principles of truth.
OHC	152	3	At the cost of infinite sacrifice and suffering, Christ has provided for us every essential to success in the Christian warfare. The Holy Spirit brings power that enables man to overcome. It is through the agency of the Spirit that the government of Satan is to be subdued. It is the Spirit that convinces of sin, and, with the consent of the human being, expels sin from the heart. The mind is then brought under a new law--the royal law of liberty.
OHC	152	4	The Lord Jesus acts through the Holy Spirit; for it is His representative. Through it He infuses spiritual life into the soul, quickening its energies for good, cleansing from moral defilement, and giving it a fitness for His kingdom. Jesus has large blessings to bestow, rich gifts to distribute among men. He is the wonderful Counselor, infinite in wisdom and strength; and if we will acknowledge the power of His Spirit, and submit to be molded by it, we shall stand complete in Him. What a thought is this! In Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him." Colossians 2:9, 10.
OHC	152	5	Never will the human heart know happiness until it is submitted to be molded by the Spirit of God. The Spirit conforms the renewed soul to the model, Jesus Christ. Through its influence, enmity against God is changed into faith and love, and pride into humility. The soul perceives the beauty of truth, and Christ is honored in excellence and perfection of character. As these changes are effected, angels break out in rapturous song, and God and Christ rejoice over souls fashioned after the divine similitude.
------------------------Yielding to the Spirit's Control, May 27
OHC	153	1	For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Romans 8:13, 14.
OHC	153	2	The will of man is aggressive, and is constantly striving to bend all things to its purposes. If it is enlisted on the side of God and right, the fruits of the Spirit will appear in the life; and God has appointed glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh good.
OHC	153	3	When Satan is permitted to mold the will, he uses it to accomplish his ends.... He stirs up the evil propensities, awakening unholy passions and ambitions. He says, "All this power, these honors, and riches, and sinful pleasures, will I give thee"; but his conditions are that integrity shall be yielded, conscience blunted. Thus he degrades the human faculties, and brings them into captivity to sin.
OHC	153	4	But God is ever seeking to impress our hearts by His Holy Spirit, that we shall be convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come. We may place our will on the side of God's will, and in His strength and grace resist the temptations of the enemy. As we yield to the influence of the Spirit of God, our conscience becomes tender and sensitive, and sin that we have passed by with little thought, becomes exceeding sinful.
OHC	153	5	God calls upon men to oppose the powers of evil. He says: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Romans 6:13, 14....
OHC	153	6	In this conflict of righteousness against unrighteousness, we can be successful only by divine aid. Our finite will must be brought into submission to the will of the Infinite; the human will must be blended with the divine. This will bring the Holy Spirit to our aid; and every conquest will tend to the recovery of God's purchased possession, to the restoration of His image in the soul.
------------------------Revealer of Christ's Grace, May 28
OHC	154	1	Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that he shall speak: and he will shew you things to come. John 16:13.
OHC	154	2	Of the Comforter it is written, "He will guide you into all truth...." Through the Holy Spirit, Christ will open more clearly to those who believe on Him that which He has inspired holy men to write concerning the truth.
OHC	154	3	Christ said of the Spirit, "He shall glorify me." John 16:14. As Christ glorified the Father by the demonstration of His love, so the Spirit was to glorify Christ by revealing to the world the riches of His grace. The very image of God is to be reproduced in humanity. The honor of God, the honor of Christ, is involved in the perfection of the character of His people....
OHC	154	4	The Spirit works in us by bringing to mind, vividly and often, the precious truths of the plan of redemption. We should forget these truths, and for us God's rich promises would lose their efficiency, were it not for the Spirit, who takes of the things of God, and shows them to us.... The Spirit illumines our darkness, informs our ignorance, and helps us in our manifold necessities. But the mind must be constantly going out after God. If worldliness is allowed to come in, if we have no desire to pray, no desire to commune with Him who is the source of strength and wisdom, the Spirit will not abide with us. Those who are unbelieving do not receive the rich endowment of grace that would make them wise unto salvation, patient, forbearing, quick to perceive and appreciate heavenly ministrations, quick to discern Satan's devices, and strong to resist sin.
OHC	154	5	The religion of Christ means more than the forgiveness of sin; it means that sin is taken away, and that the vacuum is filled with the Spirit. It means that the mind is divinely illumined, that the heart is emptied of self, and filled with the presence of Christ. When this work is done for church members, the church will be a living, working church.
------------------------The Time of the Spirit's Power, May 29
OHC	155	1	But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8.
OHC	155	2	We should pray as earnestly for the descent of the Holy Spirit as the disciples prayed on the day of Pentecost. If they needed it at that time, we need it more today. All manner of false doctrines, heresies, and deceptions are misleading the minds of men; and without the Spirit's aid, our efforts to present divine truth will be in vain.
OHC	155	3	We are living in the time of the Holy Spirit's power. It is seeking to diffuse itself through the agency of humanity, thus increasing its influence in the world. For if any man drinks of the water of life, it will be in him "a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14); and the blessing will not be confined to himself, but will be shared by others....
OHC	155	4	To reject the Holy Spirit, through whose power we conquer the forces of evil, is the sin that surpasses all others; for it cuts us off from the source of our power--from Christ and communion with Him....
OHC	155	5	The warfare between good and evil has not grown less fierce than it was in the days of the Saviour. The path to heaven is no smoother now than it was then. All our sins must be put away. Every darling indulgence that hinders our religious life must be cut off. The right eye or the right hand must be sacrificed, if it causes us to offend. Are we willing to renounce our own wisdom, and to receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child? Are we willing to part with our self-righteousness? Are we willing to sacrifice the approbation of men? The prize of eternal life is of infinite value. Are we willing to welcome the Holy Spirit's aid, and cooperate with it, putting forth efforts and making sacrifices proportionate to the value of the object to be obtained?
OHC	155	6	The heart of man may be the abode of the Holy Spirit. The peace of Christ, which passeth understanding, may rest in your soul; and the transforming power of His grace may work in your life, and fit you for the courts of glory.
------------------------Pledge of Our Acceptance, May 30
OHC	156	1	And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:16, 17.
OHC	156	2	What does this scene mean to us? How thoughtlessly we have read the account of the baptism of our Lord, not realizing that its significance was of the greatest importance to us, and that Christ was accepted of the Father in man's behalf. As Jesus bowed on the banks of Jordan and offered up His petition, humanity was presented to the Father by Him who had clothed His divinity with humanity. Jesus offered Himself to the Father in man's behalf, that those who had been separated from God through sin, might be brought back to God through the merits of the divine Petitioner....
OHC	156	3	The prayer of Christ in behalf of lost humanity cleaved its way through every shadow that Satan had cast between man and God, and left a clear channel of communication to the very throne of glory....
OHC	156	4	The voice of God was heard in answer to the petition of Christ, and this tells the sinner that his prayer will find a lodgment at the throne of the Father. The Holy Spirit will be given to those who seek for its power and grace, and will help our infirmities when we would have audience with God. Heaven is open to our petitions, and we are invited to come "boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:16.
OHC	156	5	With all our sins and weakness we are not cast aside as worthless. "He hath made us accepted in the beloved." Ephesians 1:6. The glory that rested upon Christ is a pledge of the love of God for us. It tells of the power of prayer--how the human voice may reach the ear of God, and our petitions find acceptance in the courts of heaven. The light that fell from the open portals upon the head of our Saviour, will fall upon us as we pray for help to resist temptation. The voice that spoke to Jesus says to every believing soul, "This is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased."
------------------------Three Mighty Helpers, May 31
OHC	157	1	Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4.
OHC	157	2	Jesus was our example in all things that pertain to life and godliness. He was baptized in Jordan, just as those who come to Him must be baptized.
OHC	157	3	Christ made baptism the entrance to His spiritual kingdom.... Those who receive the ordinance of baptism thereby make a public declaration that they have renounced the world, and have become members of the royal family.... Those who do this are to make all worldly considerations secondary to their new relations. Publicly they have declared that they will no longer live in pride and self-indulgence.... They are bound by a solemn covenant to live to the Lord. They are to use for Him all their entrusted capabilities.
OHC	157	4	When we submit to the solemn rite of baptism, we testify to angels and to men that we are purged from our old sins, and that henceforth, having died to the world, we will "seek those things which are above...." (Colossians 3:1). Let us not forget our baptismal vow. In the presence of the three highest powers of heaven--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit--we have pledged ourselves to do the will of Him who ... declared, "I am the resurrection, and the life.: John 11:25. Christ forgives every penitent sinner, and as the forgiven one, at the time of baptism, rises from the watery grave, he is declared a new creature, whose life is hid with Christ in God. Let us ever remember that it is our high privilege to be purged from our old sins.
OHC	157	5	When the Christian takes his baptismal vow, divine help is pledged to him. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit stand ready to work in his behalf. God places at his command the resources of heaven, that he may be an overcomer. His own power is small; but God is omnipotent, and God is his helper. Daily he is to make known his wants at the throne of grace. By faith and trust, by availing himself of the resources provided, he can be more than a conqueror.
------------------------Summertime with God, June 1
OHC	158	1	For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. Song of Solomon 2:11, 12.
OHC	158	2	This lovely morning all nature appears fresh and beautiful. Earth has put on her summer robes of green and is smiling in almost Edenic loveliness.
OHC	158	3	I think our enjoyment of the summertime is heightened by the memory of the long, cold months of winter; and on the other hand, the hope of summer helps us to endure more cheerfully the winter's reign. If we were to permit our minds to dwell upon the barrenness and desolation with which the ice king surrounds us, we might be very unhappy; but, being wiser than this, we look forward in anticipation to the coming springtime, which is to bring back the birds, awaken the sleeping flowers, clothe the earth in her robes of green, and fill the air with light and fragrance and song.
OHC	158	4	The Christian's sojourn in this world may be fitly compared to the long, cold winter. Here we experience trials, sorrows and disappointments, but we should not permit our minds to dwell upon these. Let us rather look forward with hope and faith to the coming summer when we shall be welcomed to our Eden home, where all is light and joy, where all is peace and love.
OHC	158	5	Had the Christian never experienced the storms of affliction in this world, had his heart never been chilled by disappointment or oppressed by fear, he would scarcely know how to appreciate heaven. We will not be despondent, though often weary, sad, and heartsick; the winter will not always last. The summer of peace, joy, and eternal gladness soon will come. Then Christ will dwell with us and will lead us to fountains of living waters, and will wipe all tears from our eyes.
OHC	158	6	Let nothing ... hinder you from making thorough work for eternity.... There will be no chilling winds, no wintry colds, but an eternal summer. There is light for the intellect, love that is abiding, sincere. There will be health and immortality, vigor for every faculty. There will be shut out forever every sorrow and every grief.
------------------------The Sign of the New Heart, June 2
OHC	159	1	A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26.
OHC	159	2	One of the most earnest prayers recorded in the Word of God is that of David when he pleaded, "Create in me a clean heart, O God." Psalm 51:10. God's response to such a prayer is, A new heart will I give you. This is a work that no finite man can do. Men and women are to begin at the beginning, seeking God most earnestly for a true Christian experience. They are to feel the creative power of the Holy Spirit. They are to receive the new heart, that is kept soft and tender by the grace of heaven. The selfish spirit is to be cleansed from the soul. They are to labor earnestly and with humility of heart, each one looking to Jesus for guidance and encouragement. Then the building, fitly framed together, will grow into a holy temple in the Lord.
OHC	159	3	The youth especially stumble over this phrase, "a new heart." They do not know what it means. They look for a special change to take place in their feelings. This they term conversion. Over this error thousands have stumbled to ruin, not understanding the expression, "Ye must be born again." John 3:7.
OHC	159	4	Satan leads people to think that because they have felt a rapture of feeling, they are converted. But their experience does not change. Their actions are the same as before. Their lives show no good fruit. They pray often and long, and are constantly referring to the feelings they had at such and such a time. But they do not live the new life. They are deceived. Their experience goes no deeper than feeling. They build upon the sand, and when adverse winds come, their house is swept away....
OHC	159	5	When Jesus speaks of the new heart, He means the mind, the life, the whole being. To have a change of heart is to withdraw the affections from the world, and fasten them upon Christ. To have a new heart is to have a new mind, new purposes, new motives. What is the sign of a new heart?--A changed life.
------------------------Beware of the Hard Heart, June 3
OHC	160	1	For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Psalm 95:7, 8.
OHC	160	2	No man can even once devote his God-given powers to the service of worldliness or pride without placing himself on the enemy's ground.... Every repetition of the sin weakens his power of resistance, blinds his eyes, and stifles conviction....
OHC	160	3	The Lord sends us warning, counsel, and reproof, that we may have opportunity to correct our errors before they become second nature. But if we refuse to be corrected, God does not interfere to counteract the tendencies of our own course of action. He works no miracle that the seed sown may not spring up and bear fruit. That man who manifests an infidel hardihood or a stolid indifference to divine truth, is but reaping the harvest which he has himself sown. Such has been the experience of many. They listen with stoical indifference to the truths which once stirred their very souls. They sowed neglect, indifference, and resistance to the truth; and such is the harvest which they reap. The coldness of ice, the hardness of iron, the impenetrable, unimpressible nature of rock--all these find a counterpart in the character of many a professed Christian. It was thus that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. God spoke to the Egyptian king by the mouth of Moses, giving him the most striking evidences of divine power; but the monarch stubbornly refused the light which would have brought him to repentance. God did not send a supernatural power to harden the heart of the rebellious king, but as Pharaoh resisted the truth, the Holy Spirit was withdrawn, and he was left to the darkness and unbelief which he had chosen. By persistent rejection of the Spirit's influence, men cut themselves off from God. He has in reserve no more potent agency to enlighten their minds. No revelation of His will can reach them in their unbelief.
OHC	160	4	Unbending principle will mark the course of those who sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of Him.
------------------------The Work of Heart-Keeping, June 4
OHC	161	1	Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23.
OHC	161	2	Diligent heart-keeping is essential to a healthy growth in grace. The heart in its natural state is a habitation for unholy thoughts and sinful passions. When brought into subjection to Christ, it must be cleansed by the Spirit from all defilement. This can not be done without the consent of the individual.
OHC	161	3	When the soul has been cleansed, it is the duty of the Christian to keep it undefiled. Many seem to think that the religion of Christ does not call for the abandonment of daily sins, the breaking loose from habits which have held the soul in bondage. They renounce some things condemned by the conscience, but they fail to represent Christ in the daily life. They do not bring Christlikeness into the home. They do not show a thoughtful care in their choice of words. Too often, fretful, impatient words are spoken, words which stir the worst passions of the human heart. Such ones need the abiding presence of Christ in the soul. Only in His strength can they keep guard over the words and actions.
OHC	161	4	In the work of heart-keeping we must be instant in prayer, unwearied in petitioning the throne of grace for assistance. Those who take the name of Christian should come to God in earnestness and humility, pleading for help.... The Christian cannot always be in the position of prayer, but his thoughts and desires can always be upward.
OHC	161	5	To keep your heart in heaven will give vigor to all your graces and put life into all your duties. To discipline the mind to dwell upon heavenly things will put life and earnestness into all our endeavors. Our efforts are languid, and we run the Christian race slowly, and manifest indolence and sloth, because we so little value the heavenly prize. We are dwarfs in spiritual attainments. It is the privilege and duty of the Christian to be increasing in the knowledge of the Son of God, "unto a perfect man."
------------------------Who Has Control of My Life? June 5
OHC	162	1	Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23, 24.
OHC	162	2	God leads His people on, step by step. He brings them into positions which are calculated to reveal the motives of the heart. Some endure at one point, but fall off at the next. At every advance step the heart is tested, and tried a little closer. If any find their hearts opposed to the straight work of God, it should convince them that they have a work to do in overcoming, or they will be finally rejected of the Lord.
OHC	162	3	This world is the place in which to prepare to appear in God's presence. Individuals will here show what power affects their hearts, and controls their actions.... If they prize anything higher than the truth, their hearts are not prepared to receive Jesus, and He is consequently shut out. If individuals, when tested, refuse to sacrifice their idols, ... the Spirit of God will leave them with their sinful traits unsubdued, to the control of evil angels.
OHC	162	4	Many who profess to be Christ's followers are unwilling to closely examine their own hearts, to see whether they have passed from death unto life. Some lean upon an old experience, seeming to think a mere profession of the truth will save them; but God's Word reveals the terrible fact that all such are cherishing a false hope....
OHC	162	5	Young and old, God is now testing you. You are now deciding your own eternal destiny. Pride, fashion, empty conversation, and selfishness are evils which, if fostered, will increase, and choke the good seed sown in your hearts.
OHC	162	6	Let us, as Christ's followers, search our hearts as with a lighted candle to see what manner of spirit we are of. For our present and eternal good, let us criticize our actions, to see how they stand in the light of the law of God.
OHC	162	7	We need those who will follow Christ fully, whose head, hands, ears, and every faculty and power are consecrated to Jesus. It is not purse power or brain power, but heart power we need.
------------------------Soldiers on Life's Battlefield, June 6
OHC	163	1	Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12.
OHC	163	2	When souls are converted, their salvation is not yet accomplished. They then have the race to run; the arduous struggle is before them to "fight the good fight of faith".... The battle is lifelong, and must be carried forward with determined energy proportionate to the value of the object you are in pursuit of, which is eternal life....
OHC	163	3	Satan is ever seeking to destroy; he is casting his hellish shadow between our souls and the light of the Sun of Righteousness. When you talk doubts, and distrust your heavenly Father's love, Satan comes in and deepens the impression, and that which is shadowed is made the blackness of despair. Now, your only hope is to cease talking darkness. In dwelling on the dark side, you cast away your confidence in God, and this is just what Satan wants you to do. He wants to sift you as wheat; but Jesus is making intercession for you; His love is broad and deep. Perhaps you will say, "How do you know He loves me?" I look where you may look, to the cross of Calvary. That blood shed upon the cross cleanseth from all sin....
OHC	163	4	We are daily working out our destiny. We have a crown of eternal life to win, a hell to shun. We certainly cannot save ourselves, and we know that Christ wants us to be saved. He gave His own life that He might pay the ransom for our souls. When He has made this infinite sacrifice, He does not regard us with indifference....
OHC	163	5	We want to cling to the Way, the Truth, and the Life.... We have a living Saviour, a living Intercessor, one who will help us in every time of need. When tempted to go into the dark cave of doubt and despair, sing, "Arise, my soul, arise! Shake off thy guilty fears; The bleeding Sacrifice in thy behalf appears; Before the throne my Surety stands; My name is written in His hands."
------------------------The Court of Holy Life, June 7
OHC	164	1	But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9.
OHC	164	2	The church of Christ on earth is amid the moral darkness of a disloyal world, which is trampling upon the law of Jehovah. But their Redeemer, who has purchased their ransom with the price of His own precious blood, has made every provision that His church shall be a transformed body, illumined with Light of the world, possessing the glory of Emmanuel. The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, shining through His church, will gather into His fold every lost, straying sheep who will come unto Him and find refuge in Him. They will find peace and light and joy in Him who is peace and righteousness forever.
OHC	164	3	The members of the church should individually keep the light of God's love burning brightly in their own souls, that it may also shine forth to others. We have too much at stake to allow spiritual lethargy to creep over us. Let us beware of indulging a disrelish for religious services and religious duties. Let us resolutely battle against that sluggishness of soul which is so fatal to the growth and even the life of the Christian. That church will be healthy and prosperous whose members are putting forth active, personal effort to do good to others, to save souls. This will be a constant incentive to every good work. Such Christians will labor with greater earnestness to secure their own salvation. The dormant energies will be aroused, the whole soul inspired with an unconquerable determination to win the Saviour's plaudit of "Well done," and to wear the victor's crown.
OHC	164	4	Christ makes His church a beautiful temple for God. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name," He declared, "there am I in the midst of them," Matthew 18:20. His church is the court of holy life, filled with varied gifts, and endowed with the Holy Spirit. Appropriate duties are assigned by Heaven to each member of the church on earth, and all are to find their happiness in the happiness of those whom they help and bless.
------------------------In the Workshop of God, June 8
OHC	165	1	Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5.
OHC	165	2	The Jewish temple was built of hewn stones quarried out of the mountains; and every stone was fitted for its place in the Temple, hewn, polished, and tested, before it was brought to Jerusalem. And when all were brought to the ground, the building went together without the sound of ax or hammer. This building represents God's spiritual temple, which is composed of material gathered out of every nation, and tongue, and people, of all grades, high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned. These are not dead substances, to be fitted by hammer and chisel. They are living stones, quarried out from the world by the truth; and the great Master Builder, the Lord of the temple, is now hewing and polishing them, and fitting them for their respective places in the spiritual temple. When completed, this temple will be perfect in all its parts, the admiration of angels and of men; for its Builder and Maker is God.
OHC	165	3	The care shown in the building of the temple is a lesson to us regarding the care that we are to show in our character building. No cheap material was to be used. No haphazard work was to be done in matching the different parts. Piece must fit piece perfectly. Just as God's temple was, so must His church be. Into their character building His people are to bring no worthless timbers, no careless, indifferent work.
OHC	165	4	Now we are in the workshop of God, and the process is going on in these hours of probation to fit us for the glorious temple. We cannot now be indifferent, and negligent, and careless, and refuse to depart from sin, ... and expect to become pure and holy and fashioned in character after the similitude of a palace.... Now is the day of preparation; now is the time when we can have our defects removed.
OHC	165	5	A stone that does not shine is worthless. That which constitutes the value of our churches is not dead, lusterless stones, but living stones, stones that catch the bright beams from the Chief Cornerstone, even the Sun of Righteousness.
------------------------The Blessings of Christian Fellowship, June 9
OHC	166	1	Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:25.
OHC	166	2	Those who are of the household of faith should never neglect the assembling of themselves together; for this is God's appointed means of leading His children into unity, in order that in Christian love and fellowship they may help, strengthen, and encourage one another....
OHC	166	3	As brethren of our Lord, we are called with a holy calling to a holy, happy life. Having entered the narrow path of obedience, let us refresh our minds by communion with one another and with God. As we see the day of God approaching, let us meet often to study His Word and to exhort one another to be faithful unto the end. These earthly assemblies are God's appointed means by which we have opportunity to speak with one another and to gather all the help possible to prepare, in the right way, to receive in the heavenly assemblies the fulfillment of the pledges of our inheritance.
OHC	166	4	Remember that in every assembly you meet with Christ, the Master of assemblies. Encourage a personal interest in one another; for it is not enough simply to know men. We must know men in Christ Jesus. We are enjoined to "consider one another." This is the keynote of the gospel. The keynote of the world is self.
OHC	166	5	I would encourage those who assemble in little companies to worship God. Brethren and sisters, be not disheartened because you are so few in number. The tree that stands alone upon the plain, strikes its roots deeper into the earth, spreads out its branches farther on every side, and grows stronger and more symmetrical while wrestling singly with the tempest of rejoicing in the sunshine. So the Christian, cut off from earthly dependence, may learn to rely wholly upon God, and may gain strength and courage from every conflict.
OHC	166	6	May the Lord bless the scattered and lonely ones, and make them efficient workers for Him.
------------------------One with the Church Above, June 10
OHC	167	1	For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Ephesians 3:14, 15.
OHC	167	2	The church of God upon the earth is one with the church of God above. Believers on the earth, and those who have never fallen in heaven, are one church. Every heavenly intelligence is interested in the assemblies of the saints, who on earth meet to worship God in spirit and truth, and in the beauty of holiness. In the inner court of heaven they listen to the testimonies of the witnesses for Christ in the outer court on earth, and the praise and thanksgiving that comes from the church below, is taken up in the heavenly anthem, and praise and rejoicing resounds through the heavenly court because Christ has not died in vain for the fallen sons of Adam. While angels drink from the fountainhead, the saints on earth drink of the pure streams flowing from the throne of God, making glad the city of God....
OHC	167	3	In every assembly of the saints below, are the angels of God listening to the thanksgiving, the praise, the supplication, that is offered by the people of God in testimonies, songs, and prayers. Let them remember that their praises are supplemented by the choirs of the angelic host above....
OHC	167	4	The company of believers may be few in number, but they have been taken by the cleaver of truth as rough stones from the quarry of the world ... to be fitted up by test and trial for a place in God's heavenly temple, and they are very precious in the sight of the Lord.... Even in the rough they are precious in the sight of God. The ax and the hammer and the chisel of trial and test are in the hands of One who is skillful, and are used not to destroy, not to bring to nothingness, but to work out the perfections of every soul....
OHC	167	5	The Lord will no more cast off the humblest, lowliest believer in Jesus, than He will demolish His throne. We are accepted in the Beloved. We are members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
------------------------Most Precious of All Meetings, June 11
OHC	168	1	Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. Malachi 3:16.
OHC	168	2	What a hope-inspiring picture is this, where the Lord is represented as bending down and hearkening to the testimonies borne by His witnesses! ...
OHC	168	3	The words to which God and the angels listen with delight are words of appreciation for the great gift that has been made to the world in the only-begotten Son of God. Every word of praise for the blessing of the light of truth ... is written in the heavenly records. Every word that acknowledges the merciful kindness of our heavenly Father in giving Jesus to take away our sins, and to impute to us His righteousness, is recorded in the book of His remembrance. Testimonies of this kind "shew forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light." 1 Peter 2:9....
OHC	168	4	The time and season are very precious. The assembled believers are in the audience chamber of the universe of heaven. They are to witness for God and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave His life for the world.... What deep and grave importance is attached to these little assemblies! Jesus Christ has paid the ransom money of His own blood for their souls, and He is in the midst of them when they meet to worship God. The Majesty of heaven identifies His interests with those of the believers, however humble may be their circumstances. And wherever they are privileged to meet together, it is appropriate that they speak often one to another, giving utterance to the gratitude and love that results from thinking upon the name of the Lord. Thus shall God be glorified as He hearkens and hears, and the testimony meeting will be considered the most precious of all meetings....
OHC	168	5	Let all remember that ... angels are recording in the book of remembrance every word that vindicates the character and mission of Christ. Of those who testify of the love of God, the Lord says, "They shall be mine, ... in that day when I make up my jewels." Malachi 3:17.
------------------------Unity in Diversity, June 12
OHC	169	1	There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; ... one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Ephesians 4:4-7.
OHC	169	2	Unity in diversity is God's plan. Among the followers of Christ there is to be the blending of diverse elements, one adapted to the other, and each to do its special work for God. Every individual has his place in the filling up of one great plan bearing the stamp of Christ's image.... One is fitted to do a certain work, another has a different work for which he is adapted, another has a still different line; but each is to be the complement of the others.... The Spirit of God, working in and through the diverse elements, will produce harmony of action.... There is to be only one master spirit--the Spirit of Him who is infinite in wisdom, and in whom all the diverse elements meet in beautiful, matchless unity....
OHC	169	3	Differences of character exist by nature, but our unity depends upon the degree in which we yield to the transforming influence of the Spirit of God. Through the grace of Christ, some persons possess precious traits of character, a kindly and genial disposition; their very rebukes are imbued with tenderness, for the Spirit of Christ seems manifest in them.... The power of His grace will mold and fashion character according to the divine Model, renewing it in softness and beauty, in conformity to His own blessed image....
OHC	169	4	How great the diversity manifested in the natural world! Every object has its peculiar sphere of action; yet all are found to be linked together in the great whole. Christ Jesus is in union with the Father, and from the great center this wonderful unity is to extend ... through all classes and diversities of talents. We are all to respect one another's talent; we are to harmonize in goodness, in unselfish thoughts and actions, because the Spirit of Christ, as the living, working agency, is circulating through the whole.... It is not striking actions that produce unity; it is the mold of the Holy Spirit upon the character.
------------------------United in Christ, June 13
OHC	170	1	That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21.
OHC	170	2	The solemn, earnest prayer of Christ ... reaches down along the line to our time. What a position is this for fallen man to attain through obedience--oneness with God through Jesus Christ! To what heights we are permitted to rise if we will have respect unto the recompense of the reward! We are to receive power from God that human nature, under the divine working, may not always be perverted and not always be under the depraving, corrupting influence of sin. Human nature, through Jesus Christ, becomes allied to angels--yes, even to the great God.
OHC	170	3	Those who are truly connected with God will not be at variance with one another.... His Spirit ruling in their hearts will create harmony, love, and unity. The opposite of this works in the children of Satan; there is with them a continual contradiction. Strife and envy and jealousy are the ruling elements. The characteristic of the Christian is the meekness of Christ. Benevolence, kindness, mercy, and love originate from Infinite Wisdom, while the opposite is the unholy fruit of a heart that is not in harmony with Jesus Christ....In union there is strength. In division there is weakness and defeat.
OHC	170	4	The most convincing argument we can give to the world of Christ's mission is to be found in perfect unity....In proportion to our unity with Christ will be our power to save souls.
OHC	170	5	If we reach the standard of perfection, our peculiar traits of disposition must be molded in harmony with Christ's will. Then we shall sit together in heavenly places in Christ. Brethren will work together, without a thought of collision. Little differences, dwelt upon, lead to actions that destroy Christian fellowship.... Let us keep drawing near to God, and He will draw near to us. Then, as one, we shall reach upward to Him. The churches will be as gardens of the Lord, under His cultivation. God's people will be trees of righteousness, planted by the Lord, and watered with the river of life.
------------------------One Great Brotherhood, June 14
OHC	171	1	Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 1 Corinthians 1:10.
OHC	171	2	We have one Lord, one faith, one baptism. The gospel of Christ is to reach all classes, all nations, all tongues and people. The influence of the gospel is to unite in one great brotherhood. We have only one Model that we are to imitate in character building, and then we all shall have Christ's mold; we shall be in perfect harmony; nationalities will blend in Jesus Christ, having the same mind, and the same judgment, speaking the same things, and with one mouth glorifying God. This is the work the world's Redeemer is to do for us. If we accept the truth as it is in Jesus, national prejudices and jealousies will be broken down, and the Spirit of truth will blend hearts in one. We will love as brethren; we will esteem others better than ourselves; we will be kind and courteous, meek and lowly, easy to be entreated; full of mercy and good fruits....
OHC	171	3	God knows just how to meet the peculiarities of different nationalities.... The third angel's message ... is to unite the people to do a special work, preparing them with perfection of character to unite in one great family in the mansions Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him....
OHC	171	4	The truth is all powerful and far reaching. It will unite nationalities in one great brotherhood.... Christ in men unites them on one grand platform, preparing for the uniting in one family in heaven. It is the truth that makes men one and removes national prejudice....
OHC	171	5	The truth will have the same molding influence upon hearts whatever the nationalities. Every human heart that accepts the truth will bow to the majesty of its sway, and when Christ is abiding in the heart by faith they will be of one mind, for Christ is not divided. They will be strong in His strength, happy and united in His peace. The truth is the same in its subduing power upon all hearts. It will refine and ennoble the heart of the receiver.
------------------------Victory Over Every Foe, June 15
OHC	172	1	By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. 2 Corinthians 6:7.
OHC	172	2	Through the ages of moral darkness, through centuries of strife and persecution, the church of Christ has been as a city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive generations to the present time, the pure doctrines of the Bible have been unfolding within her borders. The church of Christ, enfeebled and defective though she may appear, is the one object on earth on which He bestows in a special sense His love and regard. The church is the theater of His grace, in which He delights to make experiments of mercy on human hearts.
OHC	172	3	The church is God's fortress, His city of refuge, which He holds in a revolted world. Any betrayal of her sacred trust is treachery to Him who has bought her with the precious blood of His only begotten Son. All down through the history of the world, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth....
OHC	172	4	Today, as in the past, all heaven is watching to see the church develop in the true science of salvation.... Christ calls upon us to enter the narrow pathway, where every step means a denial of self. He calls upon us to stand upon the platform of eternal truth, and contend, yes, contend earnestly, for the faith once delivered to the saints....
OHC	172	5	As we near the time ... when Satan's deceptive power will be so great that, if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect, our discernment must be sharpened by divine enlightenment, that we may not be ignorant of Satan's devices. The whole treasury of heaven is at our command in the work of preparing the way of the Lord.
OHC	172	6	It is God's design that His church shall ever advance in purity and knowledge, from light to light, from glory to glory.
OHC	172	7	Our hope is not in man, but in the living God. With full assurance of faith, we may expect that He will unite His omnipotence with the efforts of human instrumentalities, for the glory of His name. Clad with the armor of His righteousness, we may gain the victory over every foe.
------------------------The Golden Chain of Love, June 16
OHC	173	1	A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:34, 35.
OHC	173	2	The love of Christ is a golden chain that binds finite, human beings who believe in Jesus Christ to the Infinite God. The love that the Lord has for His children passeth knowledge. No science can define or explain it. No human wisdom can fathom it.
OHC	173	3	Selfishness and pride hinder the pure love that unites us in spirit with Jesus Christ. If this love is truly cultivated, finite will blend with finite, and all will center in the Infinite. Humanity will unite with humanity, and all will be bound up with the heart of Infinite Love. Sanctified love for one another is sacred. In this great work Christian love for one another--far higher, more constant, more courteous, more unselfish, than has been seen--preserves Christian tenderness, Christian benevolence, and politeness, and enfolds the human brotherhood in the embrace of God, acknowledging the dignity with which God has invested the rights of man.
OHC	173	4	The golden chain of love, binding the hearts of the believers in unity, in bonds of fellowship and love, and in oneness with Christ and the Father, makes the connection perfect and bears to the world a testimony of the power of Christianity that cannot be controverted.... Then will selfishness be uprooted and unfaithfulness will not exist. There will not be strife and divisions. There will not be stubbornness in anyone who is bound up with Christ. Not one will act out the stubborn independence of the wayward, impulsive child who drops the hand that is leading him and chooses to stumble on alone and walk in his own ways.
OHC	173	5	Love is a tender plant, and it must be cultivated and cherished, and the roots of bitterness all have to be plucked up around it in order for it to have room to circulate, and then it will bring in under its influence all the powers of the mind, all the heart, so that we shall love God supremely, and our neighbor as ourselves.
------------------------Under the Yoke of Christ, June 17
OHC	174	1	He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. 1 John 2:10.
OHC	174	2	Satan is seeking by his temptations to obtain advantage over souls. Let nothing that you may do or say prove a temptation or discouragement to any soul. Remember he is the purchase of the blood of Christ. Every soul is precious. Only as you look to the cross of Calvary can you place a right estimate upon the soul. How sad a thing it would be to have anything you may do or say balance a soul in the wrong direction. You are bound by cords of obligation to God and to your fellow man; you cannot break these cords and free yourself from these obligations.
OHC	174	3	Do not be troubled by what other people think or say,...but cling to the Lord; He will never fail you.... We must ever bear in mind that Satan is working hard to secure every soul. We must work on the Lord's side, not giving the least occasion which anyone can take advantage of. ... If words are spoken and charges made to provoke you, the very best reproof you can give is to remain silent, as though you heard not.... We are all to remember that we are under the yoke of Christ, and we must not disgrace our Saviour or the yoke He has invited us to wear. We will just as surely rule our spirit as we wear the yoke.
OHC	174	4	What others may do, what others may say, what others may think of you, will not change God's thoughts toward you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, and the opinion of man will not change his character.... Jesus loves you; and He takes no man's measurement of your character. You are to behold Jesus and reflect His image. Keep His love in your thoughts. Invite the heavenly Guest to abide with you....
OHC	174	5	Let your spirit be cleansed from all earthliness, all unholy, uncharitable thoughts. Let your words be clean, sanctified, vivifying and refreshing all with whom you associate. Be not easily provoked. Let the praise of God be in your hearts and upon your lips, that no evil thing may truthfully be said of you.
------------------------The Outflow of Love, June 18
OHC	175	1	Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 1 John 4:7.
OHC	175	2	When the heavenly principle of eternal love fills the heart, it will flow out to others, not merely because favors are received of them, but because love is the principle of action, and modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, subdues enmity, and elevates the affections. This love is not contracted, so as merely to include "me and mine," but is as broad as the world and as high as heaven. It is in harmony with that of the angel workers. This love, cherished in the soul, sweetens the entire life, and sheds a refining influence on all around. Possessing it, we cannot but be happy, let fortune smile or frown. And if we love God with all the heart, we must love His children also. This love is the spirit of God. It is the heavenly adorning that gives true nobility and dignity to the soul.
OHC	175	3	A soul filled with the love of Jesus lends to the words, the manners, the looks, hope, courage, and serenity.... It awakens a desire for a better life; souls ready to faint are strengthened; those struggling against temptation will be fortified and comforted. The words, the expression, the manners, throw out a bright ray of sunshine, and leave behind them a clear path toward heaven.... Every one of us has opportunities of helping others. We are constantly making impressions upon the youth about us. The expression of the countenance is itself a mirror of the life within. Jesus desires that we shall become like Himself, filled with tender sympathy, exerting a ministry of love in the small duties of life....
OHC	175	4	Our duty is to live in the atmosphere of Christ's love, to breathe His love deeply, and to reflect its warmth around us. Oh, what a sphere of influence is open before us! How carefully we should cultivate the garden of the soul, so that it may bring forth only pure, sweet, fragrant flowers! Words of love, tenderness, and charity sanctify our influence over others.
------------------------The Silken Cord that Binds Hearts, June 19
OHC	176	1	By love serve one another. Galatians 5:13.
OHC	176	2	Love is the silken cord that binds hearts together. We are not to feel that we must set up ourselves as a pattern. As long as we think of ourselves and what is due to us from others it will be impossible for us to do our work of saving souls. When Christ takes possession of our hearts we shall no longer make the narrow circle of self the center of our thoughts and of our attentions.
OHC	176	3	What a wonderful reverence for human life Jesus expressed in His life mission! He stood not among the people as a king, demanding attention, reverence, service, but as one who wished to serve, to uplift humanity. He said He had not come to be ministered unto but to minister.... Wherever Christ saw a human being, He saw one who needed human sympathy. Many of us are willing to serve particular ones--those whom we honor--but the very ones to whom Christ would make us a blessing if we were not so cold-hearted, so unkind and selfish, we pass by as unworthy of our notice....
OHC	176	4	The great lesson of forgiveness must be more perfectly learned by all of us.... The greatest wrong we can do to others is to be unforgiving if we think they injure us in any way. This is a most dangerous position for a professed Christian, because just in the manner in which he treats his brethren so will the Lord of heaven treat him.
OHC	176	5	We need to have higher and more distinct views of the character of Christ.... We are not to think of God only as a judge and to forget Him as a loving Father. Nothing can do our souls greater harm than this, for our whole spiritual life is molded from our conceptions of God's character. We have lessons to learn of Jesus' love.
OHC	176	6	"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour." Ephesians 5:1, 2. This is the height of the love we are required to reach. And the texture of this love is not tainted with selfishness.
------------------------Help for the Erring One, June 20
OHC	177	1	Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Galatians 6:1.
OHC	177	2	Here is a special direction to deal tenderly with those overtaken in a fault. "Overtaken" must have its full significance.... To be led into sin unawares--not intending to sin, but to sin through want of watchfulness and prayer, not discerning the temptation of Satan and so falling into his snare--is very different from the one who plans and deliberately enters into temptation and plans out a course of sin....
OHC	177	3	More effective measures are needed to check the premeditated sin, but the apostle directs the treatment to be given to those who are overtaken or surprised or overcome by temptation.... Restore him in meekness, "considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Faith and reproofs will be needed, and kindly counsel and supplications to God, to bring them to see their danger and sin. The original word is, set in joint, as a dislocated bone; therefore the efforts should be made to set them in joint, and bring them to themselves by convincing them of their sin and error.... There should be no triumphing in a brother's fall. But in meekness, in the fear of God, in love for their soul's sake, seek to save them from sin.
OHC	177	4	When men have to swim against the stream, there is a weight of waves driving them back. Let a hand then be held out, as was the Elder Brother's hand to a sinking Peter.... Let the one who is supposed to have moved wrongly be given no occasion by his brother to become discouraged, but let him feel the strong clasp of a sympathizing hand; let him hear the whisper, "Let us pray." The Holy Spirit will give a rich experience to both. It is prayer that unites hearts. It is prayer to the Great Physician to heal the soul that will bring the blessing of God. Prayer unites us with one another and with God. Prayer brings Jesus to our side, and gives new strength and fresh grace to the fainting, perplexed soul to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Prayer turns aside the attacks of Satan.
------------------------One to a Hundred, June 21
OHC	178	1	Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Matthew 18:21, 22.
OHC	178	2	There is a great work before us. There are men and women straying from the fold of Christ, and as they become cold and indifferent, and lose all disposition to return, they will not run after you. You must take them where they are.... When you find a wandering sheep, call him to the fold; and leave him not until you see him safely enfolded there. ... Go out for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
OHC	178	3	If there is any point on which you have committed one wrong, although he may have committed one hundred, take that which you have done out of the way and open the way for him to come back again. Perhaps that was the very thing that was keeping a soul away. In your humility, confess your one wrong, and perhaps it may touch him and lead him with weeping to confess his hundred wrongs, and to take them out of the way. Thus a soul for whom Christ died will be saved....
OHC	178	4	You may say, I have tried to save this one and that one, and they have only wounded me, and I am not going to try to help them any more. But do not become discouraged if they do not at once return to the fold. Reach out still for your fellow mortals around you. You shall reap if you faint not.
OHC	178	5	Press together. Do not make little wedges of slight differences of opinion, and drive them in to separate heart from heart, but see how you can love one another even as Christ has loved you. See how you can forgive those who trespass against you, even as you want your Father in heaven to forgive your trespasses. Then you can be definite in your requests; you can be bold in Christ; for Christ presents your requests to God with the heavenly credentials which are His own righteousness, and you can believe that Christ does hear, believe that He does bless, and say, "I am His, and He is mine."
------------------------All Honor to the Peacemakers! June 22
OHC	179	1	Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Matthew 5:9.
OHC	179	2	Peacemakers! What a treasure is a peacemaker in the family; what a blessing in the church! Peacemakers may be tempted, but their life is hid with Christ in God. They look unto Jesus, copying His pattern.... They receive the peace which Christ gives....
OHC	179	3	The true nature of our religion is not found in the position we occupy, but in the gentle spirit, the kindness, the peace which we manifest. Our religion is made manifest in the home circle by the atmosphere surrounding the soul that brings happiness to the family....
OHC	179	4	True Christians will not ... speak in a cheap or fretting way. In the familiar circle of the home they will do services of love and Christian courtesy. These services may seem very commonplace, but the universe of heaven will be interested in the consistent walk of those who seek to benefit others....
OHC	179	5	It is not only our privilege but our duty to cultivate gentleness, to have the peace of Christ in the heart and as peacemakers and followers of Christ to sow precious seed that will produce a harvest unto eternal life. Professed followers of Christ may possess many good and useful qualities; but their characters are greatly marred by an unkind, fretful, faultfinding, harshly judging temper. The husband or the wife who cherishes suspicion and distrust creates dissension and strife in the home. Neither of them should keep his gentle words and smiles for strangers alone, and manifest irritability in the home, thus driving out peace and contentment....
OHC	179	6	It is practical Christlikeness alone that can make one a peacemaker in the home, in the church, in the neighborhood, and in the world. Home religion is practical sanctification.... The true quality of religion is gauged by the manner in which each member in the family does his duty to his associates.... Learn the precious lesson of being peacemakers in your home life.
------------------------No Caste with God, June 23
OHC	180	1	My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. James 2:1.
OHC	180	2	The wrongs existing in the society of the world should never, never find sanction among Christians.... God demands that you open your hand wide to the needy, and have the tenderest compassion for those who are afflicted, or who are suffering from want....
OHC	180	3	If you have the spirit of Christ, you will love as brethren; you will honor the humble disciple in his poor home, because God loves him as much as He loves you, and it may be more. He recognizes no caste. He places His own signet upon men, not by their rank, not by their wealth, not by intellectual greatness, but by their oneness with Christ. It is purity of heart, singleness of purpose, that constitutes the true value of human beings.... All who are living in daily communion with Christ, will place His estimate upon men. They will reverence the good and pure, although these are poor in this world's goods.... Avarice, selfishness, and covetousness are idolatry, and are dishonoring to God.... Tenderness, compassion, and benevolence are enjoined upon Christians.
OHC	180	4	We should study to copy the Pattern, that the Spirit that dwelt in Christ may dwell in us. The Saviour was not found among the exalted and honorable of the world. He did not spend His time among those who were seeking their ease and pleasure. He went about doing good. His work was to help those who needed help, to save the lost and perishing, to lift up the bowed down, to break the yoke of oppression from those who were in bondage, to heal the afflicted, and to speak words of sympathy and consolation to the distressed and sorrowing. We are required to copy this pattern. Let us be up and doing, seeking to bless the needy and comfort the distressed. The more we partake of the spirit of Christ, the more we shall see to do for our fellow men. We shall be filled with a love for perishing souls, and shall find our delight in following the footsteps of the Majesty of heaven.
------------------------Root Out the Poisonous Plants, June 24
OHC	181	1	Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8.
OHC	181	2	How close and tender should be the tie that binds us together! How careful we should be to have our words and actions in harmony with the sacred truths that God has committed to us! ...
OHC	181	3	Let your conversation be of such a nature that you will have no need to repent of it.... If a word is dropped that is detrimental to the character of a friend or brother, never encourage this evilspeaking; for it is the work of the enemy. Remind the speaker that God's Word forbids this kind of conversation.... The Redeemer has told us how we may reveal Him to the world. If we cherish His spirit, if we manifest His love toward others, if we guard one another's interests, if we are kind, patient, forbearing, the fruits we bear will give evidence to the world that we are God's children.... To build up one another in the most holy faith is a blessed work; to tear down is a work full of bitterness and sorrow....
OHC	181	4	We should seek to lighten one another's burdens by manifesting the love of Jesus to those around us. If our conversation were upon heaven and heavenly things, evilspeaking would soon cease to have any attraction for us. We would not then be placing our feet upon dangerous ground; nor would we enter into temptation, falling under the power of the evil one.
OHC	181	5	Instead of finding fault with others, let us be critical with ourselves. Every one should inquire, Is my heart right before God? Am I glorifying my heavenly Father? If you have cherished a wrong spirit, banish it from the soul. Eradicate from your heart everything that is of a defiling nature. Pluck up every root of bitterness, lest others be contaminated by the baleful influence. Do not allow one poisonous plant to remain in the soil of your heart. Root it out this very hour, and cultivate in its stead the plant of love. Let Jesus be enshrined in the soul-temple.... "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." 1 John 4:12.
------------------------Helping One Another, June 25
OHC	182	1	As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:10.
OHC	182	2	In the Lord's plan human beings have been made necessary to one another. If all would do their utmost to help those who need their help, their unselfish sympathy and love, what a blessed work might be done. To every one God has entrusted talents. These talents we are to use to help one another to walk in the narrow path. In this work each one is connected with the other, and all are united with Christ. It is by unselfish service that we improve and increase our talents.
OHC	182	3	The members of the church of God on this earth are as the different parts of a machine, all closely related to one another, and all closely related to and dependent on one great center. There is to be unity in diversity. No member of the Lord's firm can work successfully in independence, detached from the others.... All are to use their entrusted capabilities in His service, that each may minister to the perfection of the whole. Each is to work under the supervision of God.
OHC	182	4	By Christ's wonderful union of divinity with humanity, we are assured that even in this world we may be partakers of the divine nature.... Christ has pledged Himself to cooperate with those to whom He has entrusted talents. He has pledged Himself to train us to be His co-laborers. He will help us to follow His example, doing good and refusing to do evil. We are to be consecrated channels through whom the love of Christ flows to those in need of help....
OHC	182	5	Christ sends His light to those who keep the windows of the soul open heavenward. Under the Holy Spirit's influence, they work the works of God. He who approaches nearest to obedience to the divine law will be of the most service to God. He who follows Christ, reaching out after His goodness, His compassion, His love for the human family, will be accepted by God as a worker together with Him. Such a one will not be content to remain on a low level of spirituality. He will constantly reach higher and higher.
------------------------The Grace of Sympathy, June 26
OHC	183	1	We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Romans 15:1.
OHC	183	2	What we all need is a more pure, Christlike sympathy; not sympathy for those who are perfect--they do not need it--but sympathy for poor, suffering, struggling souls who are often overtaken in fault, sinning and repenting, tempted and discouraged. The effect of grace is to soften and subdue the soul. Then all this cold unapproachableness is melted, subdued, and Christ appears.
OHC	183	3	The love of God alone can open and expand the heart, and give to love and sympathy a breadth and height that is without measure. Those who love Jesus will love all the children of God. The sense of personal infirmities and imperfections will lead the human agent to look away from self to Christ; and the Saviour's love will break down every cold, Pharisaical barrier, it will banish all harshness and selfishness, and there will be a blending of soul with soul, even with those who are opposite in temperament.
OHC	183	4	The goodness and forbearance of God, His self-sacrificing love to sinful men, must lead all who discern His grace to manifest the same, to give sympathy liberally to others. The wonderful example of the life of Christ, the matchless tenderness with which He entered into the feelings of the oppressed soul, weeping with those that wept, rejoicing with all that rejoiced in His love, must have a deep influence upon the character of all who love God and keep His commandments.
OHC	183	5	They will give sympathy, not grudgingly but liberally; by kindly words and acts they will try to make the path just as easy for weary feet as they desire the path to be made for their feet. As we receive daily and hourly the blessing of God, we can do no less to show our gratitude than to have a kindly, unselfish interest in those for whom Christ has died. Have we blessings? Yes, we have. Well, Christ says, Pass them along to others, not to a favored few, but to all with whom we come in contact. We must give grace for grace.
------------------------"Who is My Neighbour?", June 27
OHC	184	1	Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another. Romans 12:10.
OHC	184	2	A Christian life will be revealed by Christian thoughts, Christian words, and Christian deportment. In Christ there is a divine completeness of character. In Christ we will work the works of Christ. We shall in Christ sense our binding, far-reaching obligations to God and to our fellow man.... There are many cords which unite us to our fellow men, to humanity, and to God, and this relationship is solemn with its weight of responsibility.
OHC	184	3	As long as we are in this world, we must be linked one with another. Humanity is interlaced and interwoven with humanity. As Christians we are members one of another.... The Lord designs us as His sons and daughters, whom He calls His friends, to help one another. This is to be a part of our practical Christian work.
OHC	184	4	"Who is my neighbour?" ... He is the very one who needs help the most. Thy brother, sick in spirit, needs you as you needed him. He needs the experience of one who has been as weak as himself, who can sympathize with and help him. The very knowledge of his own weakness helps that one to help another in his weakness.
OHC	184	5	Let it not be that the sympathetic cords, which should be quick to vibrate at the least touch, shall be cold as steel, frozen, as it were, and unable to help where help is needed.
OHC	184	6	Seek to help, to strengthen, to bless those with whom you are associated. The Lord will be merciful to those who are merciful. The Lord will be tender and pitiful to those who exercise tenderness and compassion and pity for others. We must realize that we are in Christ's school, not to learn how we may esteem ourselves, how we shall conduct ourselves so as to receive honor of men, but how we may cherish the meekness of Christ. Self and selfishness will be ever striving for the mastery. It is a fight we must have with ourselves, that self shall not have the victory. Through Christ you may triumph; through Christ you may conquer.
------------------------In the Footsteps of Jesus, June 28
OHC	185	1	Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Hebrews 12:12, 13.
OHC	185	2	The efficiency of Satan's kingdom is found in the blending together of satanic forces to extend the contagion of evil; but the Lord Jesus has devised a plan whereby He may work counter to the work of Satan. He designs to imbue His human agents, the subjects of His kingdom, with the principles of love and unity. With sanctified heart they are to build one another up and strengthen and extend that which is good. Reciprocating Christ's love, they are to deal in the goods of heaven. His church is to bear His superscription, and thus testify to the world that God has sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world.... Love is to be interwoven as threads of gold in all their actions.
OHC	185	3	Every Christian who is happy in the Lord will work zealously to bring the same happiness into the heart and life of one who is in need and affliction. Followers of Christ will produce their own happiness in the hearts of others by performing Christlike works. They will diffuse an atmosphere which is pure, peaceful, and Christlike. They will act out heavenly attributes, and will produce fruit after the heavenly kind and quality. That which they sow they shall also reap.
OHC	185	4	It is essential that every soul that names the name of Christ should make straight paths for his feet. Why? Lest the lame be turned out of the way. It is a terrible, terrible thing to give a soul a wrong example, and to lead him in a crooked course by the way in which you may walk.... Whatever you may see others doing that your judgment convicts you as being unseemly for a Christian, see to it that you never do the same things yourself.... Just as long as you will follow in the footsteps of Jesus, you will walk securely....
OHC	185	5	We must look on the faults of others not to condemn, but to restore and heal. Watch unto prayer, go forward and upward, catching more and more of the spirit of Jesus, and sowing the same beside all waters.
------------------------Joy in Humble Service, June 29
OHC	186	1	Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Acts 9:6.
OHC	186	2	It matters not what our position may be or how limited our capacities, we have a work to do for the Master. Our graces are developed and matured by exercise. With the truth of God burning in the soul we cannot be idle. The happiness we shall experience in doing will compensate even in this life for every effort. Those only who have experienced happiness resulting from self-denying effort in the service of Christ can speak of the matter understandingly. It is indeed joy so pure, so deep, that language cannot express it. "... Through life's transient day There is a special work marked out for you; It may be of the lowliest kind, it may Be such as shall the loftiest powers display. But none besides yourself your work can do. ‘What wilt Thou have me do?' With single eye To your Redeemer's glory, work for Him; Illumined every moment from on high, Strive in each action God to glorify, Nor let one thought of self life's radiance dim"....
OHC	186	3	We may have Christ with us while engaged in our daily avocations. Wherever we are, in whatever we are engaged, we may be indeed elevated because we are united to Christ. We may take up our humble life duties ennobled by and sanctified through the assurance of the love of God. Working from principle in the humblest calling invests it with dignity. The consciousness that we are indeed the servants of Christ will give a higher tone of character to our everyday duties--ever cheerful, patient, forbearing, and gentle....
OHC	186	4	If you are seen to be firm in principle, fearless in duty, zealous in seeking to exemplify Christ in your daily work, yet humble, lowly, gentle and tender, patient and forgiving, ready to suffer and to forgive injuries, you will be a living epistle known and read of all men.
------------------------The Precious Treasure of Time, June 30
OHC	187	1	The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Romans 13:12.
OHC	187	2	If we would at last share the reward of the righteous, we must wisely improve the time of our probation. Moments are more precious than gold....
OHC	187	3	The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. We have but a little time in which to make ready. If precious opportunities are slighted, it will result in eternal loss. We need a close connection with God. We are not safe a moment unless guided and controlled by the Holy Spirit....
OHC	187	4	The months ... are swiftly passing. Soon this year, with its burden of records, will be numbered with the past. Let the precious months remaining be devoted to earnest soul labor for our Master. Could we behold a faithful record of the manner in which we have spent the months already past, would the view be satisfactory? Deduct every action which would benefit no one, ... and how little remains of willing service, performed for the glory of God! Is not the record alarming? How many precious hours have been squandered in selfish gratification! How often, to please ourselves, have we neglected opportunities to work for Christ! ...
OHC	187	5	Life, with its marvelous privileges and opportunities, will soon be ended. The time for improvement in character will be past. Unless our sins are now repented of, and blotted out by the blood of the Lamb, they will stand in the ledger of heaven to confront us in the coming day....
OHC	187	6	Life is short. The things of the world must perish with the using. Let us be wise, and build for eternity. We cannot afford to idle away our precious moments, or engage in busy activities that will bring forth no fruit for eternity. Let the time hitherto devoted to idleness, frivolity, worldliness, be spent in gaining a knowledge of the Scriptures, in beautifying our life, and blessing and ennobling the life and character of others. This work will meet the approval of God, and win for us the heavenly benediction of "Well done."
------------------------More, More, More! July 1
OHC	188	1	Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver. Proverbs 8:18, 19.
OHC	188	2	The covetous man becomes more covetous as he draws near his death. The man who all through his life is accumulating earthly treasure, cannot readily withdraw himself from his accustomed pursuits. Shall not he who is seeking a heavenly treasure become more earnest, more zealous, and more intensely interested in seeking the treasure which is above? Shall he not covet the best and most enduring substance? Shall he not seek the crown of glory that is imperishable, the riches which moth and rust doth not corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal? The more ardent his hopes, the more strenuous are his efforts and the more determined he is not to fail of the immortal treasure.... His business on the earth is to secure eternal riches. He cannot, will not, consent, after tasting of the heavenly gifts of God, to be a pauper, left in destitution for eternity. The soul passion is more, more. This is the real want of the soul. We want more of the divine grace, more enlightenment, more faith....
OHC	188	3	Oh, if all the misdirected energies were devoted to the one great object--the rich provisions of the grace of God in this life--what testimonials we could hang in memory's halls, recounting the mercies and favors of God!... Then the habit would be carried with us as an abiding principle to accumulate spiritual treasures as earnestly and perseveringly as the worldly aspirants labor for the earthly and temporal things. You may well be dissatisfied with the present supply when the Lord has a heaven of blessedness and a treasure house of good and gracious things to supply the necessities of the soul. Today we want more grace, today we want a renewal of God's love and tokens of His goodness, and He will not withhold these good and heavenly treasures from the true seeker....
OHC	188	4	Those who feel their spiritual necessities will show their soul eagerness, their ardent desires, which extend upward and onward above every earthly, temporal inducement, to the eternal.
------------------------The Peril of Prosperity, July 2
OHC	189	1	If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. Psalm 62:10.
OHC	189	2	Among the greatest dangers that threaten the church is the love of the world. Out of this spring the sins of selfishness and covetousness. With many, the more they get of earthly treasure, the more they set their affections on it, and still they reach out for more....
OHC	189	3	Satan employs every means which he can devise to overthrow the followers of Christ. With marvelous skill and cunning he adapts his temptations to the peculiar temperament of each. Those who are naturally selfish and covetous he often tempts by throwing prosperity in their way. He knows that if they do not overcome their natural temperament, the love of mammon will cause them to stumble and fall. His object is often accomplished. When the riches of the world are offered them, many eagerly grasp the treasure, and think they are wonderfully prospered. The strong love of the world soon swallows up the love of the truth....
OHC	189	4	If those who are thus prospered would lay their possessions upon the altar of God, they might overcome their selfish, covetous spirit, and so thwart the design of Satan. Worldly wealth may be made a blessing, if rightly used. All who possess it should realize that is lent them of God, to be employed in His service. By giving freely to advance the cause of truth and to relieve the wants of the needy, they may be the means of saving others, and thus bring a blessing to their own souls here, and lay up in heaven a treasure that shall be theirs hereafter....
OHC	189	5	Many hardly know, as yet, what self-denial is, or what it is to sacrifice for the truth's sake. But none will enter Heaven but by the same path of humiliation, self-sacrifice, and cross-bearing, that the Saviour trod. Only those who are willing to sacrifice all for eternal life will have it, but it will be worth suffering for, worth crucifying self and sacrificing every idol for. The far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory will outweigh every earthly treasure and eclipse every earthly attraction.
------------------------Agents to Relieve Distress, July 3
OHC	190	1	And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40.
OHC	190	2	What if the professed followers of Jesus should look upon their expensive garments and should see the words written upon them by the finger of God, "Clothe the naked." What if they should see inscribed upon their expensive decorations in their homes, the pictures, and furniture, "Bring the poor that are cast out to thy house"! In the dining room, where the table is laden with abundant food, the finger of God has traced, "Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? ... " Let all, old and young, consider that it is not a light matter to be the Lord's steward.... The needy, the oppressed, are left in want, while the Lord's money is selfishly squandered in extravagance and luxury. O that all will remember that God is no respecter of persons! It is a great thing to be a steward, faithful and true, before a just, impartial God....
OHC	190	3	The law of God holds every man accountable for the use he makes of every dollar that comes into his hands; for the Lord has made men His agents to relieve the world's distress. If man hoards or selfishly uses his Lord's entrusted goods, it will be to the ruin of his own soul; for he honors, exalts, and glorifies himself.... There are those in our world who, although the professedly chosen of God, can always pass the needy by on the other side. Jesus sees this; Jesus marks this; He will not pass it by. Jesus declared that He came to preach the gospel to the poor. He has bestowed His goods, that love and beneficence shall live, ever growing stronger in the hearts of His people....
OHC	190	4	The apportioning of rewards at the last day turns upon the question of our practical benevolence: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Christ puts Himself in the poor man's place, identifying His interest with that of the poor.... He calls upon each disciple to dispense with grateful liberality the gifts entrusted to him, as if he were bestowing the same upon his Redeemer.
------------------------Nothing Too Precious to Give to God, July 4
OHC	191	1	By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Hebrews 11:17.
OHC	191	2	Abraham's test was the most severe that could come to a human being. Had he failed under it, he would never have been registered as the father of the faithful.... The lesson was given to shine down through the ages, that we may learn that there is nothing too precious to be given to God. It is when we look upon every gift as the Lord's, to be used in His service, that we secure the heavenly benediction. Give back to God your entrusted possessions, and more will be entrusted to you. Keep your possessions to yourself, and you will receive no reward in this life, and will lose the reward of the life to come....
OHC	191	3	There are many who have never made an unreserved surrender of themselves to God. They have not a right idea of the infinite sacrifice made by God to save a ruined world. If God should speak to them as He did to Abraham, they would not be sufficiently acquainted with His voice to know that He was calling upon them to make a sacrifice, in order to test the depth of their love and the sincerity of their faith.
OHC	191	4	The plague spot of selfishness is as contagious as leprosy. Those who enter the heavenly courts must be purified from every vestige of this plague....
OHC	191	5	The Lord has a great work for us to do, and He invites us to look to Him, to trust in Him, to walk with Him, to talk with Him. He invites us to make an unreserved surrender of all that we have and are to Him, that when He shall call upon us to sacrifice for Him, we may be ready and willing to obey. We shall enjoy the fullness of divine grace only as we give all to Christ. We shall know the meaning of true happiness only as we keep the fire burning on the altar of sacrifice. God will bequeath the most in the future to those who have done the most in the present.... Each day, under different circumstances, He tries us; and in each truehearted endeavor He chooses His workers, not because they are perfect, but because they are willing to work unselfishly for Him, and He sees that through connection with Him they may gain perfection.
------------------------How Does Your Account Stand? July 5
OHC	192	1	Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 1 Corinthians 4:2.
OHC	192	2	Money is a blessing when those who use it consider that they are the Lord's stewards, that they are handling the Lord's capital, and must one day give account of their stewardship.
OHC	192	3	Do you confess Christ in your expenditures of His entrusted means? ... If Christ had that which is His own in tithes and offerings, so much would not be left for selfish outlay on knickknacks and display. Less would be spent for dress, for pleasure excursions, for entertainments, or for display in table fare. We may confess Christ by making no elaborate preparations for visitors; we may deny Him by making more than ordinary preparations, which takes time that rightly belongs to the Lord.... Before you enter into amusement for the gratification of self, ask yourself the question, Is not this God's time and money that I am expending needlessly? Open your account book, and see how your account stands with God, with your household, and with the world.
OHC	192	4	Have you confessed Christ by faithfully tithing the mint, the anise, and the rue? When we give the Lord the tithe, we are only giving Him that which is His own, to withhold which is theft and robbery.... Does your account book reveal that you have dealt faithfully with your Lord? Are you poor? Then give your little. Have you been blessed with abundance? Then be sure to lay aside that which the Lord registers as His own.... The neglect to confess Christ in your account books cuts you off from the great privilege of having your name registered in the Lamb's book of life.
OHC	192	5	Our heavenly Father teaches by His own example of beneficence. God gives to us regularly, freely, and abundantly. Every earthly blessing is from His hand. What if the Lord should cease to bestow His gifts upon us? What a cry of wretchedness, suffering, and want would go up from the earth! We need daily the unfailing flow of Jehovah's love and goodness.
------------------------When Loss is Gain, July 6
OHC	193	1	And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Luke 12:15.
OHC	193	2	One marked feature in the teachings of Christ is the frequency and earnestness with which He rebuked the sin of covetousness and pointed out the danger of worldly acquisitions and the inordinate love of gain.... When the head and hands are constantly occupied with planning and toiling for the accumulation of riches, the claims of God and humanity are forgotten.
OHC	193	3	Means is valuable and to be desired. It is a blessing, a precious treasure, if used prudently, wisely, and not abused.... Since mortals have bodies and heads and hearts to be provided for, some provision for the body must be made in order to hold a proper position in the world. Not to meet the world's standards--oh, no, no indeed; but to be of influence in the world for good....
OHC	193	4	Want and poverty are evils to be dreaded; but hunger and nakedness, lack of home, sympathy, or a name, and even starvation, are more desirable than to sacrifice one principle of truth. Let the eternal truth be cherished, for it is immortal. If we make it a part of us we shall surely gain immortal glory and eternal riches....
OHC	193	5	If God has not given you the power to obtain means with perfect uprightness and integrity, then He never meant that you should have it, and it is best for you to submit to the will of God.... The infinite Creator is the possessor of all things. Any loss you may sustain in your allegiance to Him is infinite gain in the future immortal life, if not fully realized in this life....
OHC	193	6	Behold the glories of the firmament. Look up to the gems of light which like precious gold stud the heavens.... Cannot He who spread above us this glorious canopy, who, if the sun, moon, and stars were swept away could call them again into existence in a moment, requite His faithful, loyal servants who would be obedient to Him though they lost wealth, honor, or even a kingdom for His sake?
------------------------A Curse or a Blessing? July 7
OHC	194	1	Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. Matthew 6:19.
OHC	194	2	Treasures are those things which engross the mind, and absorb the attention, to the exclusion of God and the truth.... Our Saviour gave a decided warning against hoarding up the treasures of earth.
OHC	194	3	All branches of business, all manner of employments, are under the eye of God; and every Christian has been given ability to do something in the cause of the Master. Whether engaged in business in the field, in the warehouse, or in the countingroom, men will be held responsible to God for the wise and honest employment of their talents. They are just as accountable to God for their work, as the minister who labors in word and doctrine is for his....
OHC	194	4	Property that is treasured up upon the earth will prove only a curse, but if it is devoted to the upbuilding of the cause of truth, that God may be honored, and that souls may be saved, it will not prove a curse, but a blessing. Means are necessary to the furtherance of every good cause; and as some men have been endowed with more ability to acquire wealth than have others, they should put out their talents to the exchangers, that the Lord may receive His own, with usury, at His appearing....
OHC	194	5	Those who are ready and willing to invest in the cause of God, will be blessed in their efforts to acquire money. God created the source of wealth. He gave the sunshine, and the dew, and the rain, and caused vegetation to flourish. He blessed men with mental and physical ability, and qualified them to acquire property, so that His cause might be sustained by His professed children. The needy are all around us, and God is glorified, when the poor and the afflicted are aided and comforted. It is no sin to acquire and control property as stewards for God, holding it only until He shall require it for the necessities of His work.
OHC	194	6	We must ever bear in mind that we are in copartnership with God. His work and His cause demand the first consideration.
------------------------A Bank That Never Fails, July 8
OHC	195	1	But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:20, 21.
OHC	195	2	Here is portrayed the value of eternal riches, in contrast with the treasures of earth. If the purpose and aim of your life is to lay up treasure in heaven, you will be lifted above the base, sordid, demoralizing influence of an inordinate desire to obtain wealth in this life. Laying up treasure in heaven will give nobility to the character; it will strengthen benevolence, encourage mercy; cultivate sympathy, brotherly kindness, and charity. It will unite the soul of man with Christ, by links that can never be broken. You may lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven by being rich in good works--rich in imperishable and spiritual things.
OHC	195	3	The instruction is to "lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." It is for our own interest that we secure heavenly riches. God is not benefited by our benevolence. The cattle upon a thousand hills are His. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." Psalm 24:1. But in using the gifts that He has entrusted to our care for the salvation of souls, we transfer our wealth to the treasury of heaven. When we are seeking the glory of God, and hasting unto the day of God, we are colaborers with Christ, and our joy is not a base and fleeting emotion; but it is the joy of our Lord. We are elevated above the corroding, perplexing cares of this frail, fickle world.
OHC	195	4	While we are in this world, we are subject to losses and disappointments. Thieves break through and steal; moth and rust corrupt; fire and storm sweep away our possessions.... How many have devoted life and soul to acquiring wealth, but were not rich toward God; and when adversity came upon them, and their possessions were swept away, they had nothing laid up in heaven. They had lost all--both temporal and eternal riches....
OHC	195	5	Everything that is laid up upon earth may be swept away in a moment; but nothing can disturb the treasure that is laid up in heaven.
------------------------The Smiles of God, July 9
OHC	196	1	The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10:22.
OHC	196	2	Nothing can do us real good without the blessing of God. What God blesses is blessed. Therefore "a little that a righteous man hath is better that the riches of many wicked." Psalm 37:16. The little with the blessing of God is more efficient, and it will extend farther. The grace of God will make a little go a great ways. When we devote ourselves to the affairs of the kingdom of God, He will mind our affairs."
OHC	196	3	The Lord has given us precious blessings in the simple flowers of the field, in the fragrance so grateful to our senses. He has tinted every flower with beauty; for He is the great Master Artist. He who has created the beautiful things in nature will do far greater things for the soul. God is a lover of the beautiful, and He would adorn our characters with His own rich graces. He would have our words as fragrant as the flowers of the field. He has given us blessings in daily provision for our physical needs. The very bread we eat has upon it the image and superscription of the cross.
OHC	196	4	They only are truly blessed whose chief concern is to secure those blessings which will nourish the soul and endure forever. Our Saviour says to us, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 6:33. God has a care for us, even to bestow His temporal blessings upon us. Our earthly good is not beneath the notice of our heavenly Father. He knoweth that we have need of these things.... When God smiles upon our efforts it is worth more than any earthly income.
OHC	196	5	"How sweet our daily comforts prove When they are seasoned with His love."
OHC	196	6	Every deliverance, every blessing, that God in the past has granted to His people, should be kept fresh in memory's hall as a sure pledge of further and richer, increasing blessings that He will bestow.
OHC	196	7	These is no limit to the blessings that it is our privilege to receive.
------------------------The Gift God Accepts, July 10
OHC	197	1	Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. Luke 6:38.
OHC	197	2	Let us not complain because we are often asked to give for the upbuilding of the cause. What is it that makes these frequent calls a necessity? Is it not the rapid increase of missionary enterprises? Shall we, by refusing to give, retard the growth of these enterprises? ...
OHC	197	3	All who possess the Spirit of Christ will have a tender, sympathetic heart, and an open, generous hand.... To us has been entrusted the work of proclaiming the last message of mercy to be given to our world--the message that is to prepare a people to stand in the day of God. Do we realize our accountability? Are we acting our part in the proclamation of the message? The present time is burdened with eternal interests. We are to unfurl the standard of truth before a world perishing in error.
OHC	197	4	The more we bring to God's treasure house, the more we shall have to bring; for He will open ways before us, increasing our substance. I have found this to be true in my own experience. As God multiplies His gifts to us, we must not grow selfish, and withhold from Him our tithes and offerings. We each have a part to act in the work of salvation.
OHC	197	5	Gifts and offerings will not purchase salvation for any of us. The religion of the Bible is that development of our moral natures in which the soul holds converse with God, loves that which God loves, and hates that which God hates. God will not accept your offerings if you withhold yourself. He asks not only for that which is His own in the means entrusted to you, but for His own property in your body, soul, and spirit, purchased at the infinite price of the blood of the Son of God.
OHC	197	6	It is the humble, grateful, reverential heart that makes the offering as a sweet-smelling savor, acceptable to God.
------------------------God's Merciful Helping Hand, July 11
OHC	198	1	Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Matthew 5:7.
OHC	198	2	Be merciful, even as your Father in heaven is merciful. Think of the great gift God has made for you.... God has given you a proof of His love that defies all computation. We have no line with which to measure it, no standard with which to compare it. God invites you to let your gratitude flow forth in gifts and offerings. He calls upon you to be His merciful helping hand. Can you refuse the request of One who has done so much for you?
OHC	198	3	Christ wept at the sight of woe. Let His tenderness come into your hearts. Practice self-denial that you may have wherewith to relieve the sufferings of God's children.
OHC	198	4	The Lord saw that it was essential for us to be surrounded with the poor, who in their helplessness and need would lay claim to our ministration. They would be an aid to us in perfecting Christian character; for in providing food for their tables and clothing for their bodies, we would cultivate the attributes of the character of Christ. If we had not the poor among us, we would lose much; for in order to perfect Christian character, we must deny self.
OHC	198	5	Christ Himself, the Lord of glory, was in this earth a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He knew the meaning of want and privation. As a child, subject to poverty, He practiced the principles of self-denial. He ... came to help fallen, needy humanity. And He expects His followers, to whom He has entrusted means, to bind about their own supposed wants, and to be liberal in relieving the necessities of others.
OHC	198	6	When spending your money, think of what Jesus would do were He in your place. He calls upon His followers to tread in His footsteps of self-denial and self-sacrifice. The character of the Christian is to be a reproduction of the character of Christ. The same love, the same grace, the same unselfish benevolence, seen in His life, is to characterize the lives of His followers.
------------------------Sweetness of Self-Denial, July 12
OHC	199	1	Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Proverbs 3:9, 10.
OHC	199	2	God's claims underlie all other claims. He lays His hand upon all that He, from His fullness and beneficence, has entrusted to man, and says: "I am the rightful owner of the universe, and these goods are Mine. Use them to advance My cause, to build up My kingdom, and My blessing shall rest upon you."
OHC	199	3	Some give of their abundance, yet feel no lack. They do not practice self-denial for the cause of Christ. They give liberally and heartily, but they still have all that heart can wish. God regards it. The action and motive are strictly marked by Him, and they will not lose their reward. But those who have less means must not excuse themselves because they cannot do as much as some others. Do what you can. Deny yourself of some article you can do without, and sacrifice for the cause of God. Like the poor widow, cast in your two mites. You will actually give more than all those who give of their abundance; and you will know how sweet it is to deny self, to give to the needy, to sacrifice for the truth, and to lay up treasure in heaven.
OHC	199	4	The young ... who profess the truth, have yet a lesson of self-denial to learn. If these made more sacrifice for the truth, they would esteem it more highly. It would affect their hearts, and purify their lives. Too often the young do not take the burden of the cause of God, or feel any responsibility in regard to it. Is it because God has excused them? Oh, no; they excuse themselves. They do not realize that they are not their own. Their strength, their time, is not their own. They are bought with a price; and unless they possess the spirit of self-denial and sacrifice, they can never gain the immortal inheritance.
OHC	199	5	Give what you can now, and as you cooperate with Christ, your hand will open to impart still more. And God will refill your hand, that the treasure of truth may be taken to many souls. He will give to you that you may give to others.
------------------------A Test of Character, July 13
OHC	200	1	But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil. 1 Timothy 6:9, 10.
OHC	200	2	Satan has nets and snares, like the snares of the fowler, all prepared to entrap souls. It is his studied purpose that men shall employ their God-given powers for selfish ends rather than yield them to glorify God. God would have men engage in a work that will bring them peace and joy, and will render them eternal profit; but Satan wants us to concentrate our efforts for that which profiteth not, for the things that perish with the using.
OHC	200	3	The glory of the world to come is eclipsed by the corruptible things of earth. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Matthew 6:21. Your thoughts, your plans, your motives, will have an earthly mold, and your soul will be defiled with covetousness and selfishness. "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mark 8:36. The day is coming when the idols of silver and gold will be cast to the moles and to the bats, and the rich men will weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon them....
OHC	200	4	If your thoughts, your plans, your purposes, are all directed toward the accumulation of the things of earth, your anxiety, your study, your interests, will all be centered upon the world. The heavenly attractions will lose their beauty.... Your heart will be with your treasure.... You will have no time to devote to the study of the Scriptures and to earnest prayer that you may escape the snares of Satan....
OHC	200	5	O that the great interests of the world to come were appreciated! Why is it that men are so unconcerned about the salvation of the soul when it was purchased at such cost by the Son of God?
OHC	200	6	In the providence of God, by physical skill or ingenious inventions, some may gather more wealth than others. The Lord blesses them with health, with tact, and skill, that they may receive of His goods to bestow upon others who may not have received these blessings. The possession of means constitutes a test of character.
------------------------Do We Really Sacrifice? July 14
OHC	201	1	Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. Psalm 40:16.
OHC	201	2	Many speak of the life of the Christian taking away from us pleasures and worldly enjoyments. I say it takes away nothing worth saving. Is there perplexity, poverty, and distress endured by the Christian? Oh, yes, this is expected in this life. But is the sinner, of whom we speak as enjoying the pleasures of this world, free from these ills of life? Do we not often see them in deep perplexity and trouble? ...
OHC	201	3	Christians sometimes think they have a hard time and that it is a condescension in them to lay hold of unpopular truth and profess to be Christ's followers, that the road seems hard and that they have many sacrifices to make, when in reality they make no sacrifice at all. If in reality they are adopted into the family of God, what sacrifice have they made? Their following Christ may have broken some friendship with their world-loving relatives, but look at the exchange--their names written in the Lamb's book of life, elevated, yes, greatly exalted, to be partakers of salvation, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ to an imperishable inheritance. Shall we call it a sacrifice on our part to yield error for truth, darkness for light, sin for righteousness, a perishable name and inheritance upon earth for honors that are lasting, and a treasure undefiled that fadeth not away?
OHC	201	4	Even in this life, the Christian has One upon whom to lean for support, who will help him bear all his trials. Yet the sinner has to bear his trials alone. He goes down into the grave suffering remorse under darkness, bound by Satan, for he is his lawful prey....
OHC	201	5	If there is any one who should be continually grateful, it is the follower of Christ. If there is any one who enjoys real happiness, even in this life, it is the faithful Christian.... If we appreciate or have any sense of how dearly our salvation was purchased, anything which we may call sacrifice will sink away into insignificance.
------------------------Truth an Antidote for Evil, July 15
OHC	202	1	And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Deuteronomy 6:6, 7.
OHC	202	2	The similarity between an uncultivated field and an untrained mind is striking. Children and youth already have in their minds and hearts corrupt seed, ready to spring up and bear its perverting harvest; and the greatest care and watchfulness are needed in cultivating and storing the mind with precious seeds of Bible truth....
OHC	202	3	When the mind is stored with Bible truth, its principles take deep root in the soul, and the preference and tastes become wedded to truth, and there is no desire for debasing, exciting literature, that enfeebles the moral powers, and wrecks the faculties God has bestowed for usefulness. Bible knowledge will prove an antidote for the poisonous insinuations received through unguarded reading....
OHC	202	4	Parents can choose, if they will, whether or not their children's minds shall be filled with pure and holy thoughts and sentiments; but their tastes must be disciplined and educated with the greatest care. They must commence early to unfold the Scriptures before the expanding minds of their children, that proper habits and tastes may be formed.... The elements of evil cannot be exterminated except by the introduction of food for pure, solid thought....
OHC	202	5	I call upon the children and youth to empty their minds of foolish vanities, and make Jesus their everlasting friend. Be sure you have a well-grounded hope.... It is insanity to be quiet and at ease as so many are at the present time, having no assurance that they are indeed sons and daughters of God. Eternal interests are at stake. Put away that story, fall upon your knees in prayer for strength to overcome temptations, and devote your time to searching the Bible.... You need not remain in suspense; true light shines from God's Word upon all hearts that are open to receive its precious rays; and it is your privilege to say, "I know that my redeemer liveth." Job 19:25.
------------------------With Eyes of Faith, July 16
OHC	203	1	The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Ephesians 1:18.
OHC	203	2	The highest qualification of the mind will not, cannot, supply the place of true simplicity, of genuine piety. The Bible may be studied as a branch of human science would be; but its beauty, the evidence of its power to save the soul that believes, is a lesson that is never thus learned. If the practice of the Word is not brought into the life, then the sword of the Spirit has not wounded the natural heart. It has been shielded in poetic fancy. Sentimentalism has so wrapped it about that the heart has not sufficiently felt the keenness of its edge, piercing and cutting away the sinful shrines where self is worshipped....
OHC	203	3	The eyes of the understanding must be enlightened, and the heart and mind brought into harmony with God, who is truth. He who beholds Jesus with the eye of faith sees no glory in himself, for the glory of the Redeemer is reflected into the mind and heart. The atonement of His blood is realized, and the taking away of sin stirs the heart with gratitude.
OHC	203	4	Being justified by Christ, the receiver of truth is constrained to make an entire surrender to God, and is admitted into the school of Christ, that he may learn of Him who is meek and lowly of heart. A knowledge of the love of God is shed abroad in his heart. He exclaims, Oh, what love! What condescension! Grasping the rich promises by faith, he becomes a partaker of the divine nature. His heart being emptied of self, the waters of life flow in; the glory of the Lord shines forth. Perpetually looking unto Jesus, the human is assimilated by the divine. The believer is changed into His likeness.... The human character is changed into the divine.
OHC	203	5	Christ looks upon His people in their purity and perfection as the reward of all His sufferings, His humiliation, and His love, and the supplement of His glory--Christ the great center, from whom radiates all glory.
------------------------Working the Mines of Truth, July 17
OHC	204	1	The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. Psalm 119:130.
OHC	204	2	I feel a special interest in our youth who are interested in the truth.... I am anxious that you should press your way forward and upward in order that you shall reach the standard of Christian character that is revealed in the Word of God. Let the Word of God be your guidebook, that in everything you may be molded in conduct and character according to its requirements....
OHC	204	3	The only way in which the Christian will be able to keep himself unspotted from worldly influence will be by searching the Scriptures and by obeying the Word of God to the very letter. Satan is playing the game of life for every soul, but no one needs to be overcome by his deceptive reasoning. Those only who consent to his sophistry will be deceived by his counsels. But if the truth of God regulates the life, it must be planted in the heart. The truth will produce true beauty in the soul that will be revealed in the character. But if this result is attained, it will be because the truth is cultivated and cherished.
OHC	204	4	The Bible is to be your standard; the living oracles of Jehovah are to be your guide. You are to dig for the truth as for hidden treasures: you are to find where the treasure is, and then you are to plow every inch of that field to get the jewels. You are to work the mines of truth for new jewels, for new gems, for new diamonds, and you will find them.
OHC	204	5	As the true seeker after the truth reads the Word, and opens his mind to receive the Word, he longs after truth with his whole heart. The love, the pity, the tenderness, the courtesy, the Christian politeness, which will be the elements in the heavenly mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those that love Him, take possession of his soul.
OHC	204	6	Let the youth be taught to love the study of the Bible. Let the first place in our thoughts and affections be given to the Book of books, for it contains knowledge which we need above all other.
------------------------How to Study the Bible, July 18
OHC	205	1	Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. John 5:39.
OHC	205	2	The Book of books has the highest claim to our reverent attention. We must not be satisfied with superficial knowledge, but must seek to learn the full meaning of the words of truth, and to drink deep of the spirit of the Holy Oracles. To read a certain number of chapters daily, or commit to memory a stipulated amount without careful thought as to the meaning of the sacred text, is a work of little profit.... Some portions of Scripture are, indeed, too plain to be misunderstood; but there are others whose meaning does not lie upon the surface, to be seen at a glance. Scripture must be compared with scripture; there must be careful research and patient reflection. And such study will be richly repaid. As the miner discovers veins of precious metal concealed beneath the surface of the earth, so will he who perseveringly searches the Word of God as for hid treasure, find truths of greatest value, which are concealed from the view of the careless seeker.
OHC	205	3	No effort should be spared to establish a right habit of study. If the mind wanders, bring it back. If the intellectual and moral taste has been perverted by the overwrought and exciting tales of fiction, ... then you have a battle to fight with yourself to overcome this depraved habit.... We are surrounded by unbelief. The very atmosphere seems charged with it. Only by constant effort can we resist its power.... I appeal to young and old: Make the Word of God your textbook. Here you will find the true standard of character....
OHC	205	4	All over the field of revelation are scattered the glad springs of heavenly truth, and peace, and joy. They are within the reach of every seeker. The words of inspiration, pondered in the heart, will be as streams flowing from the river of the water of life. Our Saviour prayed that the minds of the disciples might be opened to understand the Scriptures. And whenever we study the Bible with a prayerful heart, the Holy Spirit is near to open to us the meaning of the words we read.
------------------------The Bible Speaks to Me, July 19
OHC	206	1	Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16.
OHC	206	2	The Holy One has given rules for the guidance of every soul so that no one need miss his way. These directions mean everything to us; for they form the standard to which every son and daughter of Adam must conform. We can not turn aside from any of these divine rules, and be found guiltless. We are required to make the will of God paramount in our lives, and to have the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. I would warn you to keep from the dangerous ground on which your feet would naturally be inclined to stray....
OHC	206	3	Take the Word of God, and kneeling before God, ask, What has God spoken to me from His Word? Wait before the Lord to learn the way in which you are to go.... You may learn of the heavenly Teacher His meekness and lowliness of heart. In His strength be steadfast, and stand in opposition to all that is displeasing to God, and encourage all that is right, and pure, and true. Live a life that Jesus, your heavenly Father, and the angelic host can look upon with favor....
OHC	206	4	The Lord will be your helper, and if you trust Him, will bring you up to a noble, elevated standard, and will place your feet upon the platform of eternal truth. Through the grace of Christ, you can make a right use of your entrusted capabilities, and become an agent for good in winning souls to Christ. Every talent you have should be used on the right side. Those of the youth Who put on the whole armor of God, Who will devote time every day to self-examination, Who will seek the Lord in earnest prayer, and Who will diligently study the Scriptures, Will have the help of the angels of God, And will form characters that will fit them 
OHC	206	5	For the society of the redeemed in the kingdom of glory.
------------------------"It is Written", July 20
OHC	207	1	All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 3:16, 17.
OHC	207	2	Let the seeker for truth who accepts the Bible as the inspired Word of God, lay aside every previous idea, and take that Word in its simplicity. He should renounce every sinful practice, and enter the Holy of Holies with heart softened and subdued, ready to listen to what God says.
OHC	207	3	Do not carry your creed to the Bible, and read the Scriptures in the light of that creed. If you find that your opinions are opposed to a plain "Thus saith the Lord," or to any command or prohibition He has given, give heed to the Word of God rather than to the sayings of men. Let every controversy or dispute be settled by "It is written"....
OHC	207	4	Let the heart be softened and subdued by the spirit of prayer before the Bible is read. Truth will triumph when the Spirit of truth cooperates with the humble Bible student. How precious the thought that the Author of truth still lives and reigns. Ask Him to impress your minds with the truth. Your searching of the Scriptures will then be profitable. Christ is the Great Teacher of His followers, and He will not leave you to walk in darkness.
OHC	207	5	The Bible is its own interpreter. With beautiful simplicity one portion connects itself with the truth of another portion, until the whole Bible is blended in one harmonious whole. Light flashes forth from one text to illuminate some portion of the Word that has seemed more obscure.
OHC	207	6	Christ's lessons will bear close study. One truth comprehended in its simplicity will prove a key to a whole treasure house of truth. Christ is the great mystery of godliness. He is as the Master scattering the golden grains of truth, which require tact, skill, and deep, laborious search to pick up and link together in the chain of truth. The Word is the treasure house of truth. It puts in our possession all things essential for our preparation for entrance into the city of God.
------------------------Leaves from the Tree of Life, July 21
OHC	208	1	And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. John 6:35.
OHC	208	2	The world is perishing for want of truth, pure, unadulterated truth. Christ is the truth. His words are truth.
OHC	208	3	When the believer, in the fellowship of the Spirit, can lay his hand upon truth itself, and appropriate it, he eats the bread that comes down from heaven. He enters into the life of Christ, and appreciates the great sacrifice made in behalf of the sinful race.
OHC	208	4	The knowledge that comes from God is the bread of Life. It is the leaves of the tree of life which are for the healing of the nations. The current of spiritual life thrills the soul as the words of Christ are believed and practiced. Thus it is that we are made one with Christ. The experience that was weak and feeble becomes strong. It is eternal life to us if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.
OHC	208	5	All truth is to be received as the life of Jesus. Truth cleanses us from all impurity, and prepares the soul for Christ's presence. Christ is formed within, the hope of glory.
OHC	208	6	The truth is to be partaken of every day. Thus we eat the words of Christ, which He declares are spirit and life. The acceptance of the truth will make every receiver a child of God, an heir of heaven.
OHC	208	7	Truth that is in the heart is not a cold, dead letter.... There is fullness of joy in the truth. There is a nobleness in the life of the human agent who lives and works under the vivifying influence of the truth. Truth is sacred and divine. It is stronger and more powerful than anything else in the formation of a character after the likeness of Christ. When it is cherished in the heart, the love of Christ is preferred to the love of any human being. This is Christianity. Thus truth--pure, unadulterated truth--occupies the citadel of the being. This is the life of God in the soul. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." Ezekiel 36:26.
------------------------The Bread that Satisfies, July 22
OHC	209	1	I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.... For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. John 6:51-55.
OHC	209	2	The words, "Give us this day our daily bread," refer not only to temporal food but to the spiritual food which brings everlasting life to the receiver. When we believe and receive Christ's word, we eat His flesh and drink His blood....
OHC	209	3	As by eating temporal food the physical system becomes strong, so by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, the spiritual nature is strengthened. God's Word is spirit and life to all who appropriate it. He who partakes of Christ's flesh and blood is a partaker of the divine nature.... A vital, life-giving current flows from his Saviour to him.
OHC	209	4	No one can eat this flesh and drink this blood for another. Each must come to Christ with his own soul hunger, each must have his own convictions, feel his own soul's need, and learn of Christ for himself.
OHC	209	5	Filled with the Bread of Life, we cannot hunger for earthly attractions, worldly excitements, and earthly grandeur. Our religious experience will be of the same order as the food upon which we feed.
OHC	209	6	The food we eat at one meal does not satisfy us forever. We must daily partake of food. So we must daily eat the Word of God that the life of the soul may be renewed. In those who feed constantly upon the Word, Christ is formed, the hope of glory. A neglect to read and study the Bible brings spiritual starvation....
OHC	209	7	Christ is our life. The soul in whom He abides will meet the requirements of His principles, in thorough devotion and consecration to God. Christ's personal contact with the soul builds it up, supplying its ever-recurring wants. He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He is our sufficiency....
OHC	209	8	He is the lifeblood of the soul. If He abides with us, we may say, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Galatians 2:20.
------------------------As a Wall of Fire Against Temptation, July 23
OHC	210	1	Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11.
OHC	210	2	Satan is continually seeking to influence human minds by his subtle arts. His is a master mind, given of God, but prostituted with all its noble capabilities to oppose and to make of no effect the counsels of the Most High....
OHC	210	3	We can overcome only by believing in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. We must know what is written in order that we may not be defeated by the sophistry and enchantments of Satan.... If we have been ensnared by his enchanting power, let us in the name of Jesus rebuke his power, and break with Satan without delay....
OHC	210	4	Those who cry unto God for deliverance from the terrible spell that Satan would weave about them, will set a high estimate upon the Scriptures. Our only safety is in receiving the whole Bible, not taking merely detached portions, but believing the whole truth. Your feet are upon sliding sand if you depreciate one word that is written. The Bible is a divine communication, and is as verily a message to the soul as though a voice from heaven were heard speaking to us. With what awe and reverence and humiliation should we come to the searching of the Scriptures, that we may learn of eternal realities.... Let everyone study the Bible, knowing that the Word of God is as enduring as the eternal throne. If you come to the study of the Scriptures in humility, with earnest prayer for guidance, angels of God will open to you its living realities; and if you cherish the precepts of truth, they will be to you as a wall of fire against the temptations, delusions, and enchantments of Satan....
OHC	210	5	The Word of God is able to save your souls, to make you wise unto salvation. The psalmist says, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Then let us hide the Word of God in our hearts, that we may "be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Ephesians 6:13.
------------------------Truth Continually Unfolding, July 24
OHC	211	1	I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. John 16:12.
OHC	211	2	The very limited and earthly apprehension which the disciples had of the teachings of Christ made it difficult for the Great Teacher to lead their minds into an understanding of heavenly things, and determined the measure of His divine communications.... His work was especially to reveal the moral excellency of character which the Lord requires.
OHC	211	3	Jesus did not give full comments or connected discourses upon doctrines, but He oft spoke in short sentences, as one sowing the heavenly grains of doctrines like pearls which need to be gathered up by a discerning laborer.... True learners, sitting at Christ's feet, discover the precious gems of truth uttered by our Saviour, and will discern their significance and appreciate their value. And more and more, as they become humble and teachable, will their understanding be opened to discover wondrous things out of His law.... The truth will be continually unfolding, expanding, and developing, for it is divine, like its Author.
OHC	211	4	Says Christ, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." John 16:12. "'Ye cannot bear them now.' What tenderness Breathes in this language! Well does it express Thy principle of teaching. 'Here and there A little,' is the plan Thou dost pursue; Waiting until our feeble sight can bear The truths which love unfolds before our view. The gentleness of Christ! Lord, should not we In teaching others strive to act like Thee? Patient, not hasty, toward those who learn But slowly in Thy school; who seem to need Line upon line before they can discern The hallowed lessons we so plainly read."
------------------------Sanctifying Power of Truth, July 25
OHC	212	1	Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:17.
OHC	212	2	What is sanctification? It is to give one's self wholly and without reserve--soul, body, and spirit--to God; to deal justly; to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God; to know and to do the will of God without regard to self or self-interest; to be heavenly-minded, pure, unselfish, holy, and without spot or stain.
OHC	212	3	It is through the truth, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we are to be sanctified--transformed into the likeness of Christ. And in order for this change to be wrought in us, there must be an unconditional, wholehearted acceptance of the truth, an unreserved surrender of the soul to its transforming power.
OHC	212	4	Our characters are by nature warped and perverted. Through the lack of proper development they are wanting in symmetry. With some excellent qualities are united objectionable traits, and through long indulgence wrong tendencies become second nature, and many persons cling tenaciously to their peculiarities. Even after they profess to accept the truth, to yield themselves to Christ, the same old habits are indulged, the same self-esteem is manifested, the same false notions entertained. Although such ones claim to be converted, it is evident that they have not yielded themselves to the transforming power of the truth....
OHC	212	5	If the one who is thus misrepresenting Christ could know what harm has been wrought by the faults of character which he has excused and cherished, he would be filled with horror....
OHC	212	6	Let none feel that their way needs no changing.... None can walk safely unless they are distrustful of self, and are constantly looking to the Word of God, studying it with willing heart to see their own errors, and to learn the will of Christ, and praying that it may be done in and by and through them. They show that their confidence is not in themselves, but in Christ. They hold the truth as a sacred treasure, able to sanctify and refine, and they are constantly seeking to bring their words and ways into harmony with its principles.
------------------------"Holier, Yea Holier Still", July 26
OHC	213	1	For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 4:3.
OHC	213	2	Our sanctification is God's object in all His dealing with us. He has chosen us from eternity that we might be holy. Christ gave Himself for our redemption, that through faith in His power to save from sin, we might be made complete in Him....
OHC	213	3	As Christians we have pledged ourselves to fulfil the responsibilities resting on us, and to show to the world that we have a close connection with God. Thus, through the good words and works of His disciples, Christ is to be represented and honored.
OHC	213	4	God expects of us perfect obedience to His law. This law is the echo of His voice, saying to us, Holier, yea holier still. Desire after the fullness of the grace of Christ, yea, long--hunger and thirst--after righteousness. The promise is, "Ye shall be filled." Let your heart be filled with a longing for this righteousness....
OHC	213	5	God has plainly stated that He expects us to be perfect, and because He expects this, He has made provision for us to be partakers of the divine nature. Only thus can we gain success in striving for eternal life. The power is given by Christ. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." John 1:12.
OHC	213	6	God's people are to reflect to the world the bright rays of His glory. But in order for them to do this, they must stand where these rays can fall on them. They must cooperate with God. The heart must be cleansed of all that leads to wrong. The Word of God must be read and studied with an earnest desire to gain from it spiritual power. The bread of heaven must be eaten and assimilated, becoming part of the life. Thus we gain eternal life. Thus is answered the prayer of Christ, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John 17:17.
OHC	213	7	"This is the will of God, even your sanctification." Is it your will that your desires and inclinations shall be brought into harmony with the divine mind?
------------------------The Secret of Holiness, July 27
OHC	214	1	And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:24.
OHC	214	2	No man receives holiness as a birthright, or as a gift from any other human being. Holiness is the gift of God through Christ. Those who receive the Saviour become sons of God. They are His spiritual children, born again, renewed in righteousness and true holiness. Their minds are changed. With clearer vision they behold eternal realities. They are adopted into God's family, and they become conformed to His likeness, changed by His Spirit from glory to glory. From cherishing supreme love for self, they come to cherish supreme love for God and for Christ....
OHC	214	3	Accepting Christ as a personal Saviour, and following His example of self-denial--this is the secret of holiness.
OHC	214	4	Holiness is not rapture; it is the result of surrendering all to God; it is living by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God; it is doing the will of our heavenly Father; it is trusting in God in trial, believing in His promise in the darkness as well as in the light. Religion is to walk by faith, as well as by sight, trusting in God with all confidence, and resting in His love.
OHC	214	5	Sanctification is a state of holiness, without and within, being holy and without reserve the Lord's, not in form, but in truth. Every impurity of thought, every lustful passion, separates the soul from God; for Christ can never put His robe of righteousness upon a sinner, to hide his deformity.... There must be a progressive work of triumph over evil, of sympathy with good, a reflection of the character of Jesus. We must walk in the light, which will increase and grow brighter unto the perfect day. This is real, substantial growth, which will finally attain to the full stature of men and women in Jesus Christ....
OHC	214	6	Conformity to the likeness of Christ's character, overcoming all sin and temptation, walking in the fear of God, setting the Lord continually before us, will bring peace and joy on earth, and ensure us pure happiness in heaven.
------------------------A Daily Experience in Conversion, July 28
OHC	215	1	For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16.
OHC	215	2	Genuine conversion is needed, not once in years, but daily. This conversion brings man into a new relation with God. Old things, his natural passions and hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, pass away, and he is renewed and sanctified. But this work must be continual; for as long as Satan exists, he will make an effort to carry on his work. He who strives to serve God will encounter a strong undercurrent of wrong. His heart needs to be barricaded by constant watchfulness and prayer, or else the embankment will give way; and like a millstream, the undercurrent of wrong will sweep away the safeguard. No renewed heart can be kept in a condition of sweetness without the daily application of the salt of the Word. Divine grace must be received daily, or no man will stay converted....
OHC	215	3	Test and trial will come to every soul that loves God. The Lord does not work a miracle to prevent this ordeal of trial, to shield His people from the temptations of the enemy.... Characters are to be developed that will decide the fitness of the human family for the heavenly home--characters that will stand through the pressure of unfavorable circumstances in private and public life, and that will, under the severest temptations, through the grace of God grow brave and true, be firm as a rock to principle, and come forth from the fiery ordeal, of more value than the golden wedge of Ophir. God will endorse, with His own superscription, as His elect, those who possess such characters....
OHC	215	4	The Lord accepts no halfhearted service. He demands the whole man. Religion is to be brought into every phase of life, carried into labor of every kind. The whole being is to be under God's control. We must not think that we can take supervision of our own thoughts. They must be brought into captivity to Christ. Self cannot manage self; it is not sufficient for the work.... God alone can make and keep us loyal.
------------------------In the Sunlight of Christ, July 29
OHC	216	1	That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Ephesians 4:14, 15.
OHC	216	2	"Watch unto prayer," and you will steadily grow in grace and in a knowledge of Christ. Your experience will not be one-sided, deformed, but healthful, symmetrical. All unawares to yourself, you will have expanded like the widespreading cedar, and many will profit by your counsel; your association with them will have the fragrance of heaven.
OHC	216	3	There are many professors of religion who for years have not grown one inch. The rubbish of the world, selfishness, and indolence, have separated them in sympathy and in their works from Christ....
OHC	216	4	If you are living in the sunlight of Christ, you will diffuse light to those poor souls who are dwarfs in the religious life. With the righteousness of Christ covering you as with a garment, what may you not do to bless others! ...
OHC	216	5	Your fellowship is with the Father and with the Son, and you grow into the knowledge of the divine perfection. You grow in reverence, you gain confidence in communion with God. Looking steadfastly to Jesus, you grow in faith, and learning to distrust self, you appreciate the words of Christ, "Without me ye can do nothing." John 15:5....
OHC	216	6	You may have a fervent spirit, your heart all aglow with the love of Jesus. Abide in Christ as the branch abides in the vine; drawing sustenance from the vine, you will be a flourishing branch, and will bear much fruit to the glory of God. Oh, you much need to gaze fixedly upon Jesus! Keep beholding His charms. As you behold they will keep brightening and enlarging until you are filled with all the fullness of God and bear much fruit to His glory. The branch is too firmly connected with the parent stock to be swayed by every breeze. Strength and vigorous growth tell to the world that your root is in Jesus, that your foundation is sure.
------------------------How to Grow in Grace, July 30
OHC	217	1	But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18.
OHC	217	2	How is it possible that we may grow in grace? It is possible to us only as we empty our hearts of self, and present them to Heaven, to be molded after the Divine Pattern. We may have a connection with the living channel of light; we may be refreshed with the heavenly dew, and have the showers of heaven descend upon us. As we appropriate the blessing of God, we shall be able to receive greater measures of His grace.
OHC	217	3	As little children we are to sit at the feet of Christ, learning of Him.... We should not allow a day to pass without gaining an increase of knowledge in temporal and spiritual things. We are to plant no stakes that we are not willing to take up and plant further on, nearer the heights we hope to ascend. The highest education is to be found in training the mind to advance day by day. The close of each day should find us a day's march nearer the overcomer's reward. Day by day our understanding is to ripen. Day by day we are to work out conclusions that will bring a rich reward in this life and in the life to come. Looking daily to Jesus, instead of to what we ourselves have done, we shall make decided advancement in temporal as well as spiritual knowledge.
OHC	217	4	The end of all things is at hand. What we have done must not be allowed to place the period to our work. The Captain of our salvation says, "Advance. The night cometh, in which no man can work." Constantly we are to increase in usefulness. Our lives are always to be under the power of Christ. Our lamps are to be kept burning brightly.... He who places himself where God can enlighten him, advances, as it were, from the partial obscurity of dawn to the full radiance of noonday.
OHC	217	5	We must put to the stretch every spiritual nerve and muscle.... God ... does not desire you to remain novices. He wants you to reach the very highest round of the ladder, and then step from it into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
------------------------"Almost to the Excellence of the Angels", July 31
OHC	218	1	The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. Job 17:9.
OHC	218	2	To every man God has entrusted talents for wise improvement. If rightly used, these talents will reflect glory to the Giver. But the most precious gifts of God may be perverted, and thus become a curse rather than a blessing....
OHC	218	3	The Lord has given man capacity for continual improvement, and has granted him all possible aid in the work. Through the provisions of divine grace, we may attain almost to the excellence of the angels. What shall be said of those who, having had many years of experience in the truth, and many precious advantages for growth in grace, are yet inclined toward the world, and find pleasure in its amusements and display? Instead of going on from strength to strength, they are, little by little, departing from God, and losing their spiritual life....
OHC	218	4	Talent can never take the place of piety, nor can the applause of men recommend us to the favor of God. What the majority of professed Christians need, is genuine conversion. If the heart is right, the actions will be right. An earthly, debasing influence marks the character and the life of those whose hearts do not glow with the fire of true goodness. Too many profess to be followers of Christ, and feel at liberty to follow their own judgment, and indulge the desires of their own hearts. He who would advance in the Christian life must put his own hands and heart to the work. Friends may exhort and counsel, to urge him onward and upward; Heaven may pour its choicest blessings upon him; he may have all possible assistance on the right hand and on the left, and yet all will be in vain, unless he shall put forth earnest effort to help himself. He himself must engage in the warfare against sin and Satan, or he will fail of everlasting life.
OHC	218	5	Pure religion leads its possessor ever upward, inspiring him with noble purposes, teaching him propriety of deportment, and imparting a becoming dignity to every action.
------------------------Necessity of Self-Cultivation, August 1
OHC	219	1	Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Ecclesiastes 12:1.
OHC	219	2	How can I best present before the youth the necessity of self-cultivation, is my constant inquiry. I would urge upon our youth to regard every moment of time as golden. Do not waste it in indolence; do not spend it in folly; but grasp the higher treasures. Cultivate the thoughts and expand the soul by girding about the mind, not allowing it to be filled with unimportant matters. Secure every advantage within your reach for strengthening the intellect. Do not be satisfied with a low standard. Do not rest content until by faithful endeavor, watchfulness, and earnest prayer, you have secured the wisdom that is from above. Thus you may rise in character, and gain an influence over other minds, enabling you to lead them in the path of uprightness and holiness. This is your privilege.
OHC	219	3	Cherish every ray of light that you can obtain by searching the Word of God. Take up your God-given work today, and see how much good you can accomplish in the strength of Christ. Make God your Counselor. Discipline and control the mental faculties. Self-control is a power that all may possess. It is gained by placing the will wholly on the side of God, taking the will of God for your will.
OHC	219	4	Christ ... can and will, if we submit to Him, fill the chambers of the mind and the recesses of the soul with His Spirit. Then our will will be in perfect harmony with the Divine will. Our spirit and will may be so identified with His Spirit and will that in thought and aim we shall be one with Him. Then Satan will no longer control us. Christ is our Leader, and His followers love to keep step and step with Him. He speaks, and they obey His voice as one mind and one soul.
OHC	219	5	Dear youth, the very best thing you can do is to enlist freely and decidedly in the army of the Lord. Surrender yourself into the hands of God, that your will and ways may be guided by the One who is unerring in wisdom and infinite in goodness.... Let your name be enrolled in the heavenly records as one of the chosen and elect of God.
------------------------Choosing My Lifework, August 2
OHC	220	1	Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 1 Corinthians 3:13.
OHC	220	2	We should carefully weigh the matters relative to the work we take up. Will this work be a blessing to souls? God has not given us work merely to keep us busy, but for His name's glory. Many are busily engaged gathering wood, hay, stubble. But this will all be consumed....
OHC	220	3	By God's appointment each man has his post of duty. The careful, prayerful inquiry is to be made, What duty is assigned us individually, as men and women under accountability to God? And whether our labor be wholly limited to spiritual things, or whether it is temporal and spiritual combined, we are to faithfully discharge our work. Things secular and things sacred must be combined, but spiritual things are not to be hidden by secular matters. Christ requires the service of the whole being, the physical, mental, and moral powers combined. These are to be enlisted in God's service. Man is to remember that God has the ownership of all, and that his pursuits are invested with a sacredness that they did not possess before he enlisted in the army of the Lord. Every action is to be a consecrated action, for it occupies God's entrusted talent of time. Holiness unto the Lord is inscribed on all the actions of such a one, because his whole being is brought under subjection to God.
OHC	220	4	No business is to be undertaken, even in ordinary life, if it is corrupting in its influence upon the senses. We are in the Lord's training school, and He has His own appointed means whereby we may be brought into His service.... Many are troubled because they are not working directly for the advancement of God's kingdom. But the humblest work must not be ignored. If it is honest work, it is a blessing, and may lead to the higher parts of the work.
OHC	220	5	Whether we have one year before us, or five, or ten, we are to be faithful to our trust today. We are to perform each day's duties as faithfully as though that day were to be our last.
------------------------Meditation with Diligent Work, August 3
OHC	221	1	Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord. Romans 12:11.
OHC	221	2	There are many who are absorbed in worldly business, and they do not give the Lord that devotion which is essential for their spiritual improvement. They tax brain, bone, and muscle to the uttermost, and gather to themselves burdens which lead them to forget God. Their spiritual powers are not exercised as well as their physical powers, and every day they are on the losing side, growing poorer and poorer in heavenly riches.
OHC	221	3	There is another class who meet with loss because they are indolent and spend their powers in pleasing themselves, in using their tongues, and letting their muscles rust with inaction. They waste their opportunities by inaction, and do not glorify God....
OHC	221	4	There is something for everyone to do in this world of ours. The Lord is coming, and our waiting is to be not a time of idle expectation, but of vigilant work. We are not to spend our time wholly in prayerful meditation, neither are we to drive and hurry and work as if this were required in order that we should gain heaven, while neglecting to devote time to the cultivation of personal piety. There must be a combination of meditation and diligent work. As God has expressed it in His Word, we are to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." Worldly activities are not to crowd out the service of the Lord. The soul needs the riches of the grace of God, and the body needs physical exercise, in order to accomplish the work that must be done for the promulgation of the gospel of Christ....
OHC	221	5	Parents should teach their children that the Lord means them to be diligent workers, not idlers in His vineyard.... Each one is to act his part in the great work for humanity.... Thus the lamp of the soul will not be neglected, if time is taken to pray and to search the Scriptures. The allotted task may be done, and the lamp of the soul kept trimmed and burning.
------------------------The Peril of "Nothing to Do", August 4
OHC	222	1	The way of the slothful man is an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain. Proverbs 15:19.
OHC	222	2	Industry is a blessing to youth. A life of idleness is to be shunned by a young man as a vice. However humble the occupation may be, if only honorable, if the humble duties are done faithfully, he will not lose his reward. Industry is essential to health. If habits of industry were encouraged, a door would be closed against a thousand temptations. Those who lounge away their days, having no aim or object in life, are troubled with dejection and tempted to seek amusement in forbidden indulgences which enervate the system and tax the physical powers tenfold more than the most taxing labor. Indolence destroys more than hard labor. Many die because they have not the ability or inclination to set themselves to work. "Nothing to do" has killed its thousands.
OHC	222	3	If youth will preserve habits of virtue and strict purity, and observe the laws God has established in the being, they may preserve their lives although required to perform severe labor during their lifetime. Long life is the heritage of diligence.
OHC	222	4	Some young men think if they could spend a life in doing nothing they would be supremely happy. They cultivate a hatred for useful labor. They envy the sons of pleasure who devote their lives to amusement and gaiety.... Unhappiness and heartaches are the result of such thoughts and conduct. Nothing to do has sunk many a young man in perdition. Well-regulated labor is essential for the success of every youth. God could not have inflicted a greater curse upon men and women than to doom them to live a life of inaction. Idleness will destroy soul and body. The heart, the moral character, and physical energies are enfeebled. The intellect suffers, and the heart is open to temptation as an open avenue to sink into every vice. The indolent man tempts the devil to tempt him....
OHC	222	5	Religion will prove to you an anchor. Communion with God will impart to every holy impulse a vigor that will make the duties of life a pleasure.
------------------------The Blessing of Work, August 5
OHC	223	1	Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Proverbs 6:6.
OHC	223	2	God placed our first parents in Paradise, surrounding them with all that was useful and lovely. In their Eden home nothing was wanting that could minister to their comfort and happiness. And to Adam was given the work of caring for the Garden. The Creator knew that Adam could not be happy without employment. The beauty of the Garden delighted him, but this was not enough. He must have labor to call into exercise the wonderful organs of the body. Had happiness consisted in doing nothing, man, in his state of holy innocence, would have been left unemployed. But He who created man knew what would be for his happiness; and no sooner had He created him, than He gave him his appointed work. The promise of future glory, and the decree that man must toil for his daily bread, came from the same throne....
OHC	223	3	When the body is inactive, the blood flows sluggishly, and the muscles decrease in size and strength.... Physical exercise, and a free use of air and sunlight--blessings which heaven has abundantly bestowed on all--would give life and strength to many an emaciated invalid.... Work is a blessing, not a curse. Diligent labor keeps many, young and old, from the snares of him who "finds some mischief still for idle hands to do." Let no one be ashamed of work, for honest toil is ennobling. While the hands are engaged in the most common tasks, the mind may be filled with high and holy thoughts.
OHC	223	4	Drowsiness and indolence destroy godliness, and grieve the Spirit of God. A stagnant pool is offensive; but a pure, flowing stream spreads health and gladness over the land. No man or woman who is converted can be anything but a worker. There certainly is and ever will be employment in heaven. The redeemed will not live in a state of dreamy idleness. There remaineth a rest for the people of God--a rest which they will find in serving Him to whom they owe all they have and are.
------------------------Sustained Versus Spasmodic Effort, August 6
OHC	224	1	The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want. Proverbs 21:5.
OHC	224	2	How many youth who might have become men of usefulness and power have failed because in early life they contracted habits of indecision which followed them through life to cripple all their efforts. Now and then they are filled with sudden zeal to do some great thing, but they leave their work half finished and it comes to nothing. Patient continuance in welldoing is indispensable to success.... Temperate, persevering, steady labor will achieve far more than can be accomplished by spasmodic efforts....
OHC	224	3	Labor was appointed to man by his Creator. God provided employment for our first parents in holy Eden. And since the Fall, man has been a toiler, eating his bread by the sweat of his brow. Every bone of his body, every feature of his countenance, every muscle of his limbs, evinces the fact that he was made for activity--not for idleness.
OHC	224	4	Habits of industry should be formed in youth.... The faithful discharge of life's duties, whatever your position, calls for a wise improvement of all the talents and abilities that God has given you. Guard against being always hurried, yet accomplishing nothing worthy of the effort. These fruitless efforts are often caused by a failure to do the work at the proper time. Whatever is neglected at the time when it should be performed, whether in secular or in religious things, is rarely done well. Many appear to labor diligently every hour in the day, and yet produce no results to correspond with their efforts....
OHC	224	5	Be careful not to fritter away your time upon trifles, and then fail to carry out your undertakings that are of real account.... A steadfast adherence to a purpose is necessary in order to secure the end. A distinguished man was once asked how it was possible for him to accomplish such a vast amount of business. His answer was, "I do one thing at a time".... Jesus was an earnest worker, and those who follow His example will experience self-denial, toil, and sacrifice.
------------------------God Concerned with Every Transaction, August 7
OHC	225	1	A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight. Proverbs 11:1.
OHC	225	2	A false balance is a symbol of all unfair dealing, all devices to conceal selfishness and injustice under an appearance of fairness and equity. God will not in the slightest degree favor such practices. He hates every false way. He abhors all selfishness and covetousness. Unmerciful dealing He will not tolerate, but will repay in kind. God can give prosperity to the working men whose means are acquired honestly. But His curse rests upon all that is gained by selfish practices.
OHC	225	3	When one indulges in selfishness or sharp dealing, he shows that he does not fear the Lord or reverence His name. Those who are connected with God will not only shun all injustice, but will manifest His mercy and goodness toward all with whom they have to do. The Lord will sanction no respect of person; but He will not approve the course of those who make no difference in favor of the poor, the widow, and the orphan.
OHC	225	4	Your religious faith must elevate you above every low trick. Industry, faithfulness, a firm adherence to right, and trust in God will ensure success. Move slowly, honestly, upon strictly Bible principles, or stop business. No bargain is ever made, no debt is ever paid, in which God is not concerned. He is the all-wise, eternal guardian of justice. You can never exclude God from any matter in which the rights of His people are involved. The hand of God is spread as a shield over all His creatures. No man can wound your rights without smiting that hand; you can wound no man's rights without smiting it. That hand holds the sword of justice. Beware how you deal with men....
OHC	225	5	Your light shining in your business life, exhibiting the power of practical godliness, is worth vastly more to all with whom you come in contact than sermons or creeds. The world will watch and criticize and take knowledge of you in the midst of your temporal affairs, with keenness and severity. What you say in the church is not of half as much consequence as what you do in your daily business.
------------------------Cultivate Honesty, August 8
OHC	226	1	Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. Romans 12:17.
OHC	226	2	The religion of Christ enjoins upon men to carry the pure principles of truth into their daily life, in buying and selling, in the transaction of all business, with as true a sense of religious obligation as that with which they offer to God their supplications. Business must not divert the soul from God. You should by your example demonstrate to the world that the truth of God sanctifies the receiver and produces industry, frugality, and perseverance, while it extirpates avarice, overreaching, and every species of dishonesty....
OHC	226	3	Nothing is worth so much to a young man just starting out in life as a reputation for unbending integrity.
OHC	226	4	Every business transaction is to be such as can be endorsed by Heaven, else it will bear the unsavory odor of Satan's influence. Every action is to represent the science of Heaven's principles.
OHC	226	5	Truthfulness and frankness should be ever cherished by all who claim to be followers of Christ. God and the right should be the motto. Deal honestly and righteously in this present evil world. Some will be honest when they see that honesty will not endanger their worldly interests; but all who act from this principle will have their names blotted out of the book of life.
OHC	226	6	Strict honesty must be cultivated. We can go through the world but once; we cannot come back to rectify any mistakes; therefore every move made should be with godly fear and careful consideration. Honesty and policy will not harmonize; either policy will be subdued, and truth and honesty hold the lines of control, or policy will take the lines, and honesty cease to direct. Both cannot act together; they can never be in agreement. When God makes up His jewels, the true, the frank, the honest, will be His chosen ones, His treasures. Angels are preparing crowns for such, and light from the throne of God will be reflected in its splendor from these star-gemmed diadems.
------------------------Great in God's Sight, August 9
OHC	227	1	He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. Luke 16:10.
OHC	227	2	Life is not made up of great things alone; it is the little things that make the sum of life's happiness or miseries. It is the little things in life that reveal a person's real character. Oh, if all youth and those of mature age could see as I have seen the mirror of person's lives presented before them, they would look more gravely upon even the little duties of life. Every mistake, every error, unimportant though it may be regarded, leaves a scar in this life and a blot on the heavenly records.
OHC	227	3	Life is full of duties that are not agreeable, but all these unpleasant duties will be made agreeable by a cheerful performance of them because it is right. Taking an interest in the duties which someone must do, and striving to do them with the heart, will make the most disagreeable duties pleasant.
OHC	227	4	There are many who undervalue the small events of life, the little deeds that are to be performed day by day; but these are not to be estimated as small, as every action tells either for the blessing or the injuring of someone. Every action tells its own story, it bears its own history to the throne of God. It is known whether it is on the side of right or on the side of wrong. It is only by acting in accordance with the principles of God's Word in the small transactions of life, that we place ourselves on the right side. We are tried and tested by these small occurrences, and our character will be estimated according as our work shall be.
OHC	227	5	It is the conscientious attention to what the world calls little things that makes the great beauty and success of life.
OHC	227	6	Little deeds of charity, Little words of kindness, Little acts of self-denial, A wise improvement of opportunities, A diligent cultivation of little talents, Make great men in God's sight.
------------------------Benefits of Regularity and Order, August 10
OHC	228	1	I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge. 1 Corinthians 1:4, 5.
OHC	228	2	There is need to cultivate every grace that Jesus ... has brought within our reach; for that grace alone can remedy our defects; Christ alone can transform the character. And God would have us manifest this grace, so richly provided, in the little as well as the large things of life.... Our God is a God of order and He desires that His children shall will to bring themselves into order, and under His discipline.... If the youth would form habits of regularity and order, they would improve in health, in spirits, in memory, and in disposition.
OHC	228	3	It is the duty of all to observe strict rules in their habits of life. This is for your own good, dear youth, both physically and morally. When you rise in the morning, take into consideration, as far as possible, the work you must accomplish during the day. If necessary, have a small book in which to jot down the things that need to be done, and set yourself a time in which to do your work.... Slow, dilatory habits make much work out of very little. But if you will, you may overcome these fussy, lingering habits. The exercise of the will power will make the hands move deftly....
OHC	228	4	These matters have been looked upon as little things, and almost unworthy of notice. But many are deceived as to the importance of these little things. They bear strongly upon the great whole. God does not regard anything as unimportant that pertains to the well-being of the human family. He gave His only begotten Son for the body as well as for the soul, and all is to be consecrated to Him.... Great truth can be brought into little things; practical religion must be carried into the lowly duties of daily life. And in the performance of these duties, you are forming characters that will stand the test of the Judgment. Then, in whatever position you may be placed, whatever your duties may be, do them nobly and faithfully, realizing that all heaven is beholding your work.
------------------------Big Little Things, August 11
OHC	229	1	Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. Song of Solomon 2:15.
OHC	229	2	God requires us to be right in important matters, while He tells us that faithfulness in little things will fit us for higher positions of trust....
OHC	229	3	The good qualities which many possess are hidden, and instead of attracting souls to Christ they repulse them. If these persons could see the influence of their uncourteous ways and unkind expressions upon unbelievers, and how offensive is such conduct in the sight of God, they would reform their habits, for a lack of courtesy is one of the greatest stumbling blocks to sinners. Selfish, complaining, sour Christians bar the way, so that sinners do not care to approach Christ.
OHC	229	4	Could we look beneath the surface of things, we should see that half life's misery is created by frowns and unkind speeches, which might be prevented as well as not. Many make a hell upon earth for themselves and for those whom they might comfort and bless. These are not worthy of the Christian name....
OHC	229	5	Some persons speak in a harsh, uncourteous manner, that wounds the feeling of others, and then they justify themselves by saying, "It is my way; I always tell just what I think"; and they exalt this wicked trait of character as a virtue. Their uncourteous deportment should be firmly rebuked.
OHC	229	6	That unkind word should be left unspoken, that selfish disregard for the happiness of others should give place to sympathy and thoughtfulness. True courtesy, blended with truth and justice, will make the life not only useful, but fragrant....
OHC	229	7	Integrity, justice, and Christian kindness, blended, make a beautiful combination. Courtesy is one of the graces of the Spirit. It is an attribute of heaven. The angels never fly into a passion, never are envious, selfish, and jealous. No harsh or unkind words escape their lips. And if we are to be the companions of angels, we too must be refined and courteous.
------------------------Order and Cleanliness, August 12
OHC	230	1	Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1.
OHC	230	2	It is of the highest importance that Sabbathkeepers live out their faith in every particular. They should be prompt and neat, and keep their business matters all straight....
OHC	230	3	None should be so fearful of being like the world that it will lead them to be careless in their houses, leaving things in disorder and uncleanness. It is not pride to be neat in dress, cleanly in person, orderly and tasteful in their household arrangements.... These outside appearances tell the business character of those living in the house, and not only this but the religious character of its inmates. It is impossible for a slack, disorderly person to make a good Christian. Their lives, in temporal and religious things, are just as disorderly as their dress, houses, persons, and premises.
OHC	230	4	There is order in heaven. There are rules and regulations which govern the whole heavenly host. All move in order. All there is cleanly, all in perfect harmony. And everyone who will be counted worthy to enter heaven will be thoroughly disciplined and will be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. The uncultivated have spots and wrinkles upon them now. They had better lose no time in commencing the work of cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.
OHC	230	5	God loves purity, cleanliness, order, and holiness. God requires all His people who lack these qualifications to seek them and never rest until they obtain them. They must commence the work of reform and elevate their lives, so that in conversation and deportment their acts, their lives, will be a continual recommendation of their faith and will have such a winning, compelling power upon unbelievers that they will be compelled to acknowledge that they are the children of God.
OHC	230	6	The truth as it is in Jesus will not degrade but elevate the receiver, purify his life, refine his taste, sanctify his judgment.
------------------------Love's Fragrant Outreach, August 13
OHC	231	1	And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you. 1 Thessalonians 3:12.
OHC	231	2	God would have His children realize that in order to glorify Him their affection must be given to those who most need it.... No selfishness, in look, word, or deed, is to be manifested when dealing with those of like precious faith, ... whether they be high or low, rich or poor. The love that gives kind words to only a few, while others are treated with coldness and indifference, is not love, but selfishness. It will not in any way work for the good of souls or the glory of God. Our love ... is not to be sealed up for special ones, to the neglect of others. Break the bottle, and the fragrance will fill the house.
OHC	231	3	Those who gather the sunshine of Christ's righteousness, and do not let it shine forth into the lives of others, will soon lose the sweet, bright rays of heavenly grace, selfishly reserved to be lavished only upon a few. Those who possess much affection are responsible to God to bestow this affection ... on all who need help....
OHC	231	4	To love as Christ loved means to manifest unselfishness at all times and in all places, by kind words and pleasant looks. These cost those who give them nothing, but they leave behind a fragrance that surrounds the soul. Their effect can never be estimated. Not only are they a blessing to the receiver, but to the giver; for they react upon him. Genuine love is a precious attribute of heavenly origin, which increases in fragrance in proportion as it is dispensed to others....
OHC	231	5	The souls of those who love Jesus will be surrounded with a pure, fragrant atmosphere. There are those who hide their soul hunger. These will be greatly helped by a tender word or a kind remembrance. The heavenly gifts, freely and richly bestowed by God, are in turn to be freely bestowed by us upon all who come within the sphere of our influence. Thus we reveal a love that is heaven-born, and which will increase as it is freely used in blessing others. Thus we glorify God.
------------------------Why Look for Flaws? August 14
OHC	232	1	Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Philippians 2:3.
OHC	232	2	Oh, how hard many make the Christian life! They climb the steep, briary path, staggering under imposed burdens, as though they must tinker up the characters of others.... They do not experience the sweet peace of Christ. They do not grasp the help Jesus gives them, but they are continually grieving over supposed wrongs of others, and overlook the cheering, blessed tokens for good all along their pathway.
OHC	232	3	Just as soon as one has a vivid and all-absorbing consciousness of his own personal accountability to God and of his duty to his fellow men, and senses that his influence is far reaching, stretching into eternity, he will not be satisfied with a low standard, he will not be faultfinding and critical of others. He will make his own life what he would wish the lives of others to be. He will live only in Christ, utterly and wholly dependent on Him for every beauty and loveliness of character.
OHC	232	4	We should be weeding out of our thoughts all complaining and faultfinding. Let us not continue to look upon any defects that we may see.... If we would get the right hold on God, we must keep beholding the great precious things--the purity, the glory, the power, the kindness, the affection, the love, that God bestows upon us. And thus beholding, our minds will become so fixed upon these things of eternal interest that we shall have no desire to find the flaws in others.
OHC	232	5	Think of the Lord Jesus, and His merits and His love, but do not seek to find the defects and dwell upon the mistakes that others have made. Call to your mind the things worthy of your recognition and your praise; and if you are sharp to discern errors in others, be more sharp to recognize the good and praise the good. You may, if you criticize yourselves, find things just as objectionable as that which you see in others. Then let us work constantly to strengthen one another in the most holy faith.
------------------------Criticism Not Our Work, August 15
OHC	233	1	Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Matthew 7:1, 2.
OHC	233	2	Our bodies are built up from what we eat and drink; and the character of our spiritual experience depends on what our minds feed upon and assimilate. By continually dwelling upon the mistakes and defects of others, many become religious dyspeptics.... Those who are so busy in dissecting the words and acts of others, to discover all that is objectionable, fail to discern the good and pleasant things. They do not eat of the proper food to promote spiritual vitality and healthy growth.
OHC	233	3	The Lord is not pleased with His people when they neglect to criticize their own soul, criticizing others instead. This is Satan's work. When you do this work, remember that the enemy is using you as a means of tempting others, in order that those who should be united in harmony and joy, building up one another in the most holy faith, shall be warring and complaining because some one else is sinning. Christ has not made you a sin bearer. You cannot even bear your own sin. Therefore be very careful not to take up any reproach against your neighbor. God wants His people to be free.... Shall we not remember that by the words we speak we may either wound or heal? Shall we not remember that as we judge, so we shall be judged, we who perhaps have had many more opportunities than those whom we judge?
OHC	233	4	Our hearts must be melted into tenderness and love for one another. We may criticize ourselves just as severely as we please. The one who criticizes another gives evidence that he is the very one who needs to criticize himself. Pray God to show you what you must remove from yourselves in order that you may see the kingdom of God....
OHC	233	5	There is a crown for the overcomer. Do you want it? Do you want to run the race with patience? Then do not seek to find something to condemn in your neighbor, but look right to Jesus Christ. Behold His purity, and you will be charmed and will reflect His likeness.
------------------------Overcoming Envy and Jealousy, August 16
OHC	234	1	Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:26.
OHC	234	2	Envy and jealousy are diseases which disorder all the faculties of the being. They originated with Satan in paradise.... Those who listen to his [Satan's] voice will demerit others, and will misrepresent and falsify in order to build up themselves. But nothing that defiles can enter heaven, and unless those who cherish this spirit are changed, they can never enter there, for they would criticize the angels. They would envy another's crown. They would not know what to talk of unless they could bring up the imperfections and errors of others.
OHC	234	3	O that such would become changed by beholding Christ! O that they would become meek and lowly by learning of Him! Then they would go forth, not as missionaries for Satan, to cause disunion and alienation, to bruise and mangle character, but as missionaries for Christ, to be peacemakers and to restore. Let the Holy Spirit come in and expel this unholy passion, which cannot survive in heaven. Let it die; let it be crucified. Open the heart to the attributes of Christ, who was holy, harmless, undefiled....
OHC	234	4	The Word of God exhorts, "Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous." 1 Peter 3:8. True moral worth does not seek to make a place for itself by thinking and speaking evil, by depreciating others. All envy, all jealousy, all evilspeaking, with all unbelief, must be put away from God's children.
OHC	234	5	The Bible is full of instruction enjoining us to show love, patience, and respect in our speech and in our treatment of one another. The love of Jesus in the soul never leads to malice and envy. The tender plant of Christlike love must be carefully cherished. It will not grow unless it is cultivated.
OHC	234	6	Heaven takes notice of the one who carries about with him an atmosphere of peace and love. Such a one will receive his reward. He will stand in the great day of the Lord.
------------------------How to Deal with Anger, August 17
OHC	235	1	He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. Proverbs 16:32.
OHC	235	2	How Satan exults when he is enabled to set the soul into a white heat of anger! A glance, a gesture, an intonation, may be seized upon and used, as the arrow of Satan, to wound and poison the heart that is open to receive it.
OHC	235	3	When one once gives place to an angry spirit he is just as much intoxicated as the man who has put the glass to his lips.
OHC	235	4	Christ treats anger as murder.... Passionate words are a savor of death unto death. He who utters them is not cooperating with God to save his fellow man. In heaven this wicked railing is placed in the same list as common swearing. While hatred is cherished in the soul there is not one iota of the love of God there.
OHC	235	5	When you feel an angry spirit arising, take firm hold of Jesus Christ by faith. Utter no word. Danger lies in the utterance of a single word when you are angry, for a volley of passionate utterances will follow.... The man who gives way to folly in speaking passionate words, bears false witness; for he is never just. He exaggerates every defect he thinks he sees; he is too blind and unreasonable to be convinced of his madness. He transgresses the commandments of God, and his imagination is perverted by the inspiration of Satan. He knows not what he is doing. Blind and deaf, he permits Satan to take the helm and guide him wherever he pleases. The door is then thrown open to malice, to envy, and to evil surmisings, and the poor victim is borne helplessly on.... But there is hope while the hours of probation linger, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ....
OHC	235	6	"Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless." 2 Peter 3:14. This is the standard for which every Christian must strive, not in his own natural ability, but through the grace given him of Jesus Christ. Let us wrestle for the mastery over every sin, and be able to check every impatient, fretful expression.
------------------------The Fragrant Touch of Courtesy, August 18
OHC	236	1	Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. 1 Peter 3:8.
OHC	236	2	In dealing with our fellow men we all are to consider that they are of like passions with ourselves, feeling the same weaknesses and suffering the same temptations. They, with us, have a struggle with life if they maintain their integrity.... True Christian courtesy unites and perfects both justice and politeness, and mercy and love make up the filling, giving the finest touches and most graceful charms to the character....
OHC	236	3	Abraham was a true gentleman. In his life we have the finest example of the power of true courtesy. Look at his course with Lot.... How courteously he welcomes the travelers, the messengers of God, to his tent, and entertains them! He bowed before the sons of Heth when he purchased of them a cave in which to bury his beloved Sarah.... Well did Abraham know what was due from man to his fellow man.
OHC	236	4	Paul, though firm as a rock to principle, yet ever preserved his courtesy. He was zealous for the vital points and was not regardless of the grace and politeness due to social life. The man of God did not absorb the man of humanity.
OHC	236	5	But we present a greater than Abraham and Paul--the Saviour of the world. His life was a striking illustration of genuine courtesy. It is impossible to enumerate the instances of His kindness, courtesy, and tender sympathy and love. What rays of softness and beauty did His marvelous condescension shed over His entire life! He had a kind look and an encouraging word for all who were wearied and worn with labor. He was ready to help the most helpless.
OHC	236	6	Love, courtesy, amiability--these are never lost. When men shall be changed from mortal to immortal, all the deeds of sanctified goodness done by them will be made manifest. These deeds will be preserved through the eternal ages. Not one, however small or simple, is ever lost. Through the merits of Christ's imputed righteousness they preserve their fragrance.
------------------------"A System of Truest Politeness", August 19
OHC	237	1	And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32.
OHC	237	2	We must learn to place the best possible construction upon doubtful conduct of others.... If we are ever suspecting evil we are in danger of creating what we allow ourselves to suspect.... We cannot pass along without sometimes having our feelings hurt and our temper tried, but as Christians we must be just as patient, forbearing, humble, and meek as we desire others to be. Oh, how many thousand good acts and deeds of kindness that we receive ... pass from the mind like dew before the sun, while imaginary or real injury leaves an impression which it is next to impossible to efface! The very best example to give to others is to be right ourselves, and then leave ourselves, our reputation, with God and not show too great anxiety to right every wrong impression and present our case in a favorable light....
OHC	237	3	The neglect to cultivate tender consideration and forbearance for one another has caused dissension, distrust, faultfinding, and general disunion. God ... calls upon us to put away this great sin and to strive to answer the prayer of Christ that His disciples may be one as He is one with the Father.... It is the special work of Satan to cause dissension, ... that the world should be deprived of the most powerful testimony Christians can give it that God has sent His Son to bring into harmony turbulent, proud, envious, jealous, bigoted minds....
OHC	237	4	The truth of God is not designed merely to deal with errors and vices.... The truth is designed to sanctify the receiver, to fashion and mold the entire man, externally as well as internally, by abasing pride and disposing his heart to be kind and amiable and condescending. Yes, the religion of Christ is a system of the truest politeness, and its triumphs are complete when a world may look on a people professing godliness with a united front, believers showing habitual tenderness of feeling and kindness of deportment and sincere regard for the reputation of each other.
------------------------An Irresistible Influence, August 20
OHC	238	1	Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience. Colossians 3:12, R.S.V.
OHC	238	2	Kind words, pleasant looks, a cheerful countenance, throw a charm around the Christian that makes his influence almost irresistible. This is a way to gain respect, and extend the sphere of usefulness, which costs but little. It is the religion of Christ in the heart that causes the words issuing therefrom to be gentle and the demeanor condescending, even to those in the humblest walks of life. A blustering, faultfinding, overbearing man is not a Christian; for to be a Christian is to be Christlike....
OHC	238	3	He who drinks in the spirit of Christ will let it flow forth in kind words, and be expressed in courteous deportment. The plan of salvation is to soften whatever is harsh and rough in the temper, and to smooth off whatever is rugged or sharp in the manners. External change will testify of an internal change. The truth is the sanctifier, the refiner. Received into the heart, it works with hidden power, transforming the receiver. But those who profess the truth and at the same time are rough, and sour, and unkind in words and deportment, have not learned of Jesus; all these manifestations show that they are yet servants of the wicked one. No man can be a Christian without having the spirit of Christ, manifesting meekness, gentleness, and refinement of manners....
OHC	238	4	Pleasant, kind, and well-bred Christians will have an influence for God and His truth; it cannot be otherwise. The light borrowed from Heaven will shed its brightening rays through them to the pathway of others.... The words we speak, our daily deportment, are the fruit growing upon the tree. If the fruit is sour and unpalatable, the rootlets of that tree are not drawing nourishment from a pure source. If our affections are brought into harmony with our Saviour, if our characters are meek and lowly, we evidence that our life is hid with Christ in God; and we shall leave behind us a bright track.... Beholders will discern that we have been with Jesus and learned of Him.
------------------------Cherishing the Spirit of Jesus, August 21
OHC	239	1	Forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Colossians 3:13, R.S.V.
OHC	239	2	We are in this world to meet with persons of varied minds and different temperaments, and you must consider that they do not differ with you any more than you differ with them.... We are to cultivate forbearance, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, and love and be bound together by the ties of human brotherhood.
OHC	239	3	May the dear Saviour be a welcome guest in your heart. If Christ is abiding in your heart, you will manifest Christ in your words, the law of kindness will be upon your tongues, and you will have peace within. Then all will be peace without, and you will make melody to God in your hearts.
OHC	239	4	A blessing rests upon the peacemakers.... O that the Lord would imbue me with His Holy Spirit, that I shall ever be what Christ calls a peacemaker! I do not love the atmosphere of strife and contention. I want to be able to say the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." Oh, how can we utter this prayer and be unforgiving? ...
OHC	239	5	To judge our brethren, to allow feelings to be cherished against them, even if we feel they have not done exactly right toward us, will bring no blessing to our hearts and will not help the case at all. I dare not allow my feelings to run in the channel of hunting up all my grievances and telling them over and over, and dwelling in the atmosphere of distrust, enmity, and dissension....
OHC	239	6	There is light in following Jesus, talking of Jesus, loving Jesus, and I will not allow my mind to think or speak ill of my brethren. "Inasmuch," said Christ, "as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matthew 25:40. I would not feel unkindness or hatred to anyone. I would not be an accuser of my brethren. Satan will try to stir up my mind to do this, but I cannot do it. I will cherish the forgiving Spirit of Jesus.
------------------------"Not Easily Provoked", August 22
OHC	240	1	Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. 1 Corinthians 13:4, 5.
OHC	240	2	Many have a vivid, unsanctified sensitiveness which keeps them constantly on the alert for some word, some look, or some action which they can construe as a lack of respect and appreciation. All this must be overcome. Everyone should go forward in the fear of God, doing his best without being troubled by praise or offended by censure, serving God fervently, and learning to place the most favorable interpretation upon whatever in others may seem offensive.
OHC	240	3	We may expect that false reports will circulate about us; but if we follow a straight course, if we remain indifferent to these things, others will also be indifferent. Let us leave to God the care of our reputation.... Slander can be lived down by our manner of living; it is not lived down by words of indignation. Let our great anxiety be to act in the fear of God, and show by our conduct that these reports are false. No one can injure our character as much as ourselves. It is the weak trees and the tottering houses that need to be constantly propped. When we show ourselves so anxious to protect our reputation against attacks from the outside, we give the impression that it is not blameless before God, and that it needs therefore to be continually bolstered up.
OHC	240	4	It does not behoove those from whom Jesus has so much to bear, in their failings and perversity, to be ever mindful of slights and real or imaginary offense.... The heart filled with that love which thinketh no evil will not be on the watch to notice discourtesies and grievances of which he may be the object. The will of God is that His love shall close the eyes, the ears and the heart to all such provocations and to all the suggestions with which Satan would fill them. There is a noble majesty in the silence of the one exposed to evil surmising or outrage. To be master of one's spirit is to be stronger than kings or conquerors.
------------------------Has Religion Made You Better? August 23
OHC	241	1	Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:12.
OHC	241	2	Whatever we are at heart will be revealed in character, and will have an influence on all those with whom we associate. Our words, our actions, are a savor of life unto life or of death unto death. And in the judgment we shall be brought face to face with those whom we might have helped in right, safe paths by choice words, by counsel, if we had daily connection with God and a living, abiding interest in the saving of their souls.
OHC	241	3	The Christian should not be content to be merely an active man of business. He should not be so absorbed in worldly affairs as to have scarcely a spare moment or a thought for recreation or friendship, for the good of others, for the culture of the mind, or the welfare of the soul. Energy and diligence in business are commendable, but these should not lead us to neglect that love for God and man which the Bible enjoins....
OHC	241	4	Our course in temporal matters, our conduct toward one another, is commented upon with keenness and severity. What we say in the church is not of so great consequence as our deportment in the home circle and among our neighbors. The kindly word, the thoughtful act, true politeness and hospitality, will constantly exert an influence in favor of the Christian religion.
OHC	241	5	Let not the testimony be borne concerning any of us, "Religion has made them no better. They are as self-indulgent, as worldly, as sharp in trade, as ever." All who bear such fruit scatter from Christ, instead of gathering with Him. They place obstacles in the way of those whom they might by a consistent course have won to Jesus. It is our duty as Christians to give the world unmistakable evidence that we are obeying the great commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," which is the same as our Saviour's golden rule, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
------------------------The Secret of Contentment, August 24
OHC	242	1	But godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Timothy 6:6.
OHC	242	2	Pure religion brings peace, happiness, contentment; godliness is profitable to this life and the life to come.
OHC	242	3	That unrest and discontent which ends in fretting and complaining is sinful; but the discontent with one's self which urges on to more earnest effort for greater improvement of the mind for a broader field of usefulness is praiseworthy. This discontent does not end in disappointment but in gathering force for a higher and more extended field of usefulness. Only be ever balanced by firm religious principle and a sensitive conscience, having ever the fear of God before you, and you will certainly prosper in becoming fitted for a life of usefulness.
OHC	242	4	We should live for the next world. It is so wretched to live a haphazard, aimless life. We want an object in life--to live for a purpose. God help us all to be self-sacrificing, less self-caring, more forgetful of self and selfish interest; and to do good, not for the honor we expect to receive here, but because this is the object of our life and will answer the end of our existence. Let our daily prayer go up to God that He will divest us of selfishness....
OHC	242	5	I have seen that those who live for a purpose, seeking to benefit and bless their fellow men and to honor and glorify their Redeemer, are the truly happy ones on the earth, while the man who is restless, discontented, and seeking this and testing that, hoping to find happiness, is always complaining of disappointment. He is always in want, never satisfied, because he lives for himself alone. Let it be your aim to do good, to act your part in life faithfully.
OHC	242	6	Be anxious and earnest to grow in grace, seeking for a more distinct and intelligent understanding of the will of God concerning you, striving earnestly for the mark of the prize before you. Christian perfection alone will win the spotless robes of character which will entitle you to stand before the throne of God among the blood-washed throng, bearing the palm branch of everlasting victory and eternal triumph.
------------------------Watch Your Step! August 25
OHC	243	1	Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Proverbs 4:26.
OHC	243	2	"Make straight paths for your feet," says the apostle, "lest that which is lame be turned out of the way." Hebrews 12:13. The path that leads away from God, away from His holy, perfect standard of right, is always crooked and dangerous. Yet ... many have been walking in this path of transgression. In many cases they did not start right in childhood and youth, and they have pursued crooked paths all the way along. Not only have they erred from the right way themselves but through the influence of their example others have been turned aside from the straight, plain path, and have made fatal mistakes....
OHC	243	3	We do not always realize the power of example. We are brought in contact with others. We meet persons who are erring, who do wrong in various ways; they may be disagreeable, quick, passionate, dictatorial. While dealing with these we must be patient, forbearing, kind, and gentle. Satan works through them to provoke and harass, so that we shall not exhibit a pleasant and lovable disposition. There are trials and perplexities for us all to encounter; for we are in a world of cares, anxieties, and disappointments. But these continual annoyances must be met in the spirit of Christ. Through grace we may rise superior to our surroundings, and keep our spirits calm and unruffled amid the frets and worries of everyday life. We shall thus represent Christ to the world....
OHC	243	4	Consecration to God must be a living, practical matter; not a theory to be talked about, but a principle interwoven with all our experience. We should let our light so shine before others that they, seeing our good works, shall glorify our Father who is in Heaven. We should show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. If the light of Heaven is in the soul, it will be reflected to all around us. I wish all could see this important subject in its true light. There would not then be such thoughtlessness of words and acts, such careless, indolent, irreligious living.
------------------------Habits and Character Building, August 26
OHC	244	1	Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Proverbs 4:14.
OHC	244	2	Few realize the power of habit. Inspiration asks, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" and adds, "then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil." Jeremiah 13:23. This is a solemn assertion.... But there is comfort and courage in the reflection that if evil habits acquire such force that it seems almost impossible to turn in the right direction, the power of good habits is equally strong. The results of each day's work, whether the tendency be to elevate us in the scale of moral worth or to push us downward toward perdition, are influenced by the days that have preceded it. Defeat today prepares the way for still greater defeat tomorrow; victory today ensures an easier victory tomorrow. Then how careful we should be to see that the habits and characters we are forming are correct and virtuous....
OHC	244	3	Young friends, restrain your feet from all evil ways.... Men may discipline themselves to do right. Like Daniel they may have a Heaven-born purpose in their hearts that they will not defile soul or body, notwithstanding the degeneracy and corruption of the age. God gave Daniel "knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom." Daniel 1:17. His blessing attended the man who put forth human effort in accordance with the divine will. The same help will still be given to all who pursue a similar course, and with the glory of God in view practice abstinence and self-restraint. The same difference will be seen between them and the self-indulgent that there was between Daniel and his fellows and the other youth in the king's court. There will be the clear eye and complexion, the firm tread, the strength and vigor of intellect, the keen perception of spiritual truth.
OHC	244	4	Let us remember that character is not the result of accident, but day by day it is forming for good or for evil. Great importance attaches to this work of character building; for it is far reaching in its results. We are builders for time and for eternity.
------------------------Blessings Diffusive as Sunlight, August 27
OHC	245	1	That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:45.
OHC	245	2	I see a providence in all of God's works.... The clouds and rain, as well as the bright sunshine, have their mission in blessings to man. The God of nature knows just what we need and He moves forward in a straight line, sending blessings upon the just and upon the unjust. I am so grateful that finite minds cannot have the ordering of things. What cross-purposes would be revealed!
OHC	245	3	There is a narrowness in human comprehension that is dishonoring to God. Let not him who claims Christ as his Saviour entertain the thought that God's mercies are confined to him and to the few in whom he is interested. The love and mercy of God are for everyone. Let us gather up the divine tokens of His favor, and return praise and thanksgiving to Him for His goodness, which is bestowed upon us, not to be hoarded, but to be passed along to others.... God expects everyone who enjoys His grace to diffuse this grace as freely as Christ bestows His mercies. As the sun shines upon the just and the unjust, so the Sun of Righteousness reflects light to the whole world.
OHC	245	4	God's blessings, sunshine and showers, heat and cold, and every natural blessing, are given to the world. Exclusiveness is not to be maintained by any people. "I am the light of the world." (John 8:12), Christ said. Light is a blessing, a universal blessing, which pours forth its treasures on a world unthankful, unholy, demoralized. The Lord Jesus came to demolish every wall of exclusion, to throw open every wall in the temple where God presides, that every ear may hear, that every eye may see, that every thirsty soul may drink of the water of life freely.
OHC	245	5	God scatters blessings all along our path.... We may weep and groan and mourn and stumble at every step if we choose, or we may gather up the precious, fragrant flowers and rejoice in the Lord for His goodness in making our path to heaven so pleasant.
------------------------Studying the Character of Christ, August 28
OHC	246	1	Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto thy commandments. Psalm 119:6.
OHC	246	2	In this world we might become hopelessly perplexed, as the devil wants us to be, if we keep looking upon those things that are perplexing; for by dwelling upon them, and talking of them, we become discouraged. In criticizing others because they fail to manifest love, we shall kill the precious plant of love in our own hearts. Have we individually appreciated and felt the warmth of love which Christ represented in His life? Then it is our duty to manifest this love to the world. Let us fear to dwell upon, to behold and talk of the great mistakes that others are making....
OHC	246	3	You may create an unreal world in your own mind and picture an ideal church, where the temptations of Satan no longer prompt to evil; but perfection exists only in your imagination. The world is a fallen world, and the church is a place represented by a field in which grow tares and wheat. They are to grow together until the harvest. It is not our place to uproot the tares, according to human wisdom, lest under the suggestions of Satan, the wheat may be rooted up....
OHC	246	4	None need to lose the golden moments of time in their short life history through seeking to weigh the imperfections of professed Christians. Not one of us has time to do this. If we see clearly what is the manner of character Christians should develop, and yet see in others that which is inconsistent with this character, let us determine that we will firmly resist the enemy in his temptations to make us act in an inconsistent way, and say, "I will not make Christ ashamed of me. I will more earnestly study the character of Christ in whom there was no imperfection, no selfishness, no spot, no stain of evil, who lived not to please and glorify Himself, but to glorify God and save fallen humanity. I will not copy the defective characters of these inconsistent Christians, and the mistakes that they have made shall not lead me to be like them. I will turn to the precious Saviour, that I may be like Him."
------------------------A Strong Fortress of Truth, August 29
OHC	247	1	To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27.
OHC	247	2	I have a continual longing for Christ to be formed within, the hope of glory. I long to be beautified every day with the meekness and gentleness of Christ, growing in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. I must as an individual, through the grace given me of Jesus Christ, keep my own soul in health by keeping it as a divine channel through which His grace, His love, His patience, His meekness, shall flow to the world. This is my duty and no less the duty of every church member who claims to be a son or a daughter of God.
OHC	247	3	The Lord Jesus has made His church the depositary of sacred truth. He has left with her the work of carrying out His purposes and His plans to save the souls for whom He has manifested such interest, such unmeasured love. Like the sun in relation to our world, He rises amid the moral darkness--the Sun of Righteousness. He said of Himself, "I am the light of the world." John 8:12. He said to his followers, "Ye are the light of the world." Matthew 5:14.... By reflecting the image of Jesus Christ, by the beauty and holiness of their characters, by their continual self-denial and their separation from all idols, large or small, they reveal that they have learned in the school of Christ. They are continually catching the spirit of love and forbearance, meekness, and gentleness, and they stand as representatives of Christ, a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men....
OHC	247	4	Walking and working in the world, but not of the world, they are answering in their characters the prayer of Christ: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." John 17:15. They are to stand as the strong fortress of truth, their light shining far in the moral darkness of the world. The Lord has a message for the watchmen on the walls of Zion to bear. The trumpet is to give no uncertain sound.
------------------------The Way to Look at Things, August 30
OHC	248	1	Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8.
OHC	248	2	As long as Satan has power to work upon human minds that are not barricaded with the Holy Spirit, there will be stern and earnest conflict between good and evil, and evil will be manifested, even among those who claim to be the children of God....
OHC	248	3	There is no reason for us to fix our eyes upon error, to grieve and complain, and lose precious time and opportunities in lamenting the faults of others....Would it not be more pleasing to God to take an impartial outlook, and see how many souls are serving God, and resisting temptation, and glorifying and honoring Him with their talents of means and intellect? Would it not be better to consider the wonderful, miracle-working power of God in the transformation of poor, degraded sinners, who have been full of moral pollution, who become so transformed that they are Christlike in character? ...
OHC	248	4	Let us turn away our eyes from beholding the imperfections of those who are in the church, but who have not the likeness of Christ. We shall not be held responsible because those who make a high profession do not possess corresponding virtues. Let us thank God that it is our privilege to turn away our eyes from these defective Christians, and look upon those who are truly devoted, who are doers of the Word, and who in life and character bear the image of the Divine. And above all things, thank God that it is your privilege to look upon Christ, the perfect pattern....
OHC	248	5	Everything that causes us to see the weakness of humanity is in the Lord's purpose to help us to look to Him, and in no case put trust in man, or make flesh our arm....We become changed into the image of that upon which we dwell. Then how important to open our hearts to the things that are true and lovely and of good report!
------------------------Hold High the Standard, August 31
OHC	249	1	Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Isaiah 62:10.
OHC	249	2	The Word of God not only sets forth the great principles of truth and duty which should govern our lives, but it presents also, for our encouragement, the history of many who have exemplified these principles.... Except the one perfect Pattern, there is not described in the Sacred Pages a single character more worthy of emulation than that of the prophet Daniel. Exposed in youth to all the allurements of a royal court, he became a man of unbending integrity and fervent devotion to God. He was subjected to the fierce temptations of Satan, yet his character was not vacillating, nor his course changeable. He was firm where many would be yielding; he was true where they would be false; he was strong where they would be weak. Daniel was a lofty cedar of Lebanon.... Would that the faith, integrity, and devotion of the prophet Daniel might live in the hearts of God's people of today. Never were these noble qualities more needed in the world than now....
OHC	249	3	In the records of those who have done and suffered for the name of Jesus, there is no name that shines with a brighter or purer luster than the name of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. The love of Jesus, glowing in his heart, made him self-forgetful, self-denying. He had seen the risen Christ, and the Saviour's image was impressed upon his soul, and shone forth in his life. With faith, courage, and fortitude, that would not be daunted by danger or stayed by obstacles, he pressed his way from land to land to spread the knowledge of the cross....
OHC	249	4	Are the professed followers of Christ thus exemplifying the principles of their faith? Where are the deep, living, holy experiences which men of God were wont to recount? Has the standard of Christianity been lowered? ... No; that standard remains just where God placed it. Holy men of ages past were required to give up all for Christ, to cherish His spirit, and to imitate His example. Nothing less than this will He accept now.... When called to give up all for Christ, who will stand the test?
------------------------Reminders of Our Heavenly Home, September 1
OHC	250	1	Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. Nehemiah 9:6.
OHC	250	2	There is beauty in the valley's awful grandeur, in the solemn, massive, cleft rocks; there is majesty in the towering mountains that look as if they touched the heavens. There are the lofty trees with their delicately formed leaves; the spires of grass, the opening bud and blossoming flower, the forest trees, and every living thing. They all point the mind to the great and living God. Every faculty of our being testifies that there is a living God, and we may learn from the open book of nature the most precious lessons in regard to the Lord of heaven.
OHC	250	3	In this study the mind expands, is elevated and uplifted, and becomes hungry to know more of God and His majesty. We have awakened in our hearts feelings not only of reverence and awe but of love, of faith, of trust and entire dependence upon One who is the giver of all good. And as I look at His marvelous works and see the evidences of His power I instinctively inquire, "What is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Psalm 8:4.
OHC	250	4	All the greatness and glory of these wonderful things in God's house can only be appreciated as they are, in the mind, associated with God and the future home of bliss He is preparing for those who love Him....While we talk freely of other countries, why should we be reticent in regard to the heavenly country, and the house not built with hands, eternal in the heavens? This heavenly country is of more consequence to us than any other city or country on the globe, therefore we should think and talk of this better--even an heavenly--country. And why should we not converse more earnestly, and in a heavenly frame of mind, in regard to God's gifts in nature? He has made all these things, and designs that we shall see God in His created works. These things are to keep God in our remembrance and to lift our hearts from sensual things and bind them in bonds of love and gratitude to our Creator.
------------------------Nature Speaks of God, September 2
OHC	251	1	I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Psalm 143:5, 6.
OHC	251	2	We have looked upon the lofty, terraced mountains in their majestic beauty, with their rocky battlements resembling grand old castles. These mountains speak to us of the desolating wrath of God in vindication of His broken law; for they were heaved up by the stormy convulsions of the flood. They are like mighty waves that at the voice of God stood still--stiffened billows, arrested in their proudest swell. These towering mountains belong to God; He presides over their rocky fastnesses. The wealth of their mines is His also, and so are the deep places of the earth.
OHC	251	3	If you would see the evidences that there is a God, look around you wherever your lot may be cast. He is speaking to your senses and impressing your soul through His created works. Let your heart receive these impressions, and nature will be to you an open book, and will teach you divine truth through familiar things. The lofty trees will not be regarded with indifference. Every opening flower, every leaf with its delicate veins, will testify of the infinite skill of the great Master Artist. The massive rocks and towering mountains that rise in the distance are not the result of chance. They speak in silent eloquence of One who sits upon the throne of the universe, high and lifted up. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." All His plans are perfect. What awe and reverence should His name inspire! ...
OHC	251	4	God is Himself the Rock of Ages, a refuge for His people, a covert from the storm, a shadow from the burning heat. He has given us His promises, which are more firm and immovable than the rocky heights, the everlasting hills. The mountains shall depart, and the hills shall be removed; but His kindness shall not depart, nor His covenant of peace be removed from those who by faith make Him their trust. If we would look to God for help as steadfastly as these rocky, barren mountains point to the heavens above them, we should never be moved from our faith in Him and our allegiance to His holy law.
------------------------A School for Mind and Morals, September 3
OHC	252	1	And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Revelation 15:3.
OHC	252	2	The great Architect has formed and fashioned the scenes of nature that they may have an important bearing upon man's intellectual and moral character. These are to be God's school to educate the mind and morals. Here the mind may have a vast field for study in the display of the majestic works of the Infinite One. The rocks are among the precious things of earth, containing treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In the rocks and mountains are registered the fact that God did destroy the wicked from off the earth by a flood.
OHC	252	3	Men thought themselves wiser than God, and altogether too wise to obey ... the statutes and precepts of Jehovah. The rich things of earth which God had given them did not lead them to obedience, but away from obedience, because they misused their choice favors of heaven, and made the blessings given them of God objects to separate from God. And because they became satanic in their nature, rather than divine, the Lord sent the flood of waters upon the old world.
OHC	252	4	God is full of love and plenteous in mercy; but He will by no means acquit those who neglect the great salvation He has provided. The long-lived antediluvians were swept from the earth because they made void the divine law. God will not again bring from the heavens above and the earth beneath waters as His weapons to use in the destruction of the world; but when next His vengeance shall be poured out against those who despise His authority, they will be destroyed by fire concealed in the bowels of the earth, awakened into intense activity by fires from heaven above. Then from the purified earth shall arise a song of praise: "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Revelation 5:13. "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints." And every one who has made the heavenly treasure the first consideration, ... will join in the glad triumphant strain.
------------------------God's Great Reservoirs, September 4
OHC	253	1	Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Psalm 90:2.
OHC	253	2	Our heavenly Father has furnished us with tokens of His greatness and His majesty. Especially is this so in a wonderful degree in these mountainous regions. [Written in europe.] ... The varied scenery in the towering mountains and rocky heights, the deep mountain gorges with their rapid, noisy streams of water coming from the mountains above,... the waters breaking as they strike the rocks, and scattering into spray like a veil, render this scenery altogether one of surpassing beauty and grandeur....
OHC	253	3	The mountains contain treasures of blessings which the Creator bestows upon the inhabitants of the earth. It is the diversity in the surface of the earth, in mountains, plains, and valleys, which reveals the wisdom and the power of the great Master Worker. And those who would banish from our earth the rocks and mountains, the wild gorges and the noisy, rushing streams, and the precipices--their senses ... are too limited to comprehend the majesty of God....
OHC	253	4	God, the great Architect, has built these lofty mountains, and their influence upon climate is a blessing to our world. They draw from the clouds enriching moisture. Mountain chains are God's great reservoirs, to supply the ocean with its water. These are the sources of the springs, rills, and brooks, as well as the rivers. They receive, in the form of rain and snow, the vapors with which the atmosphere is charged, and communicate them to the parched plains below.
OHC	253	5	We should look upon the irregular mountains of the earth as God's fountains of blessings from which flow forth the waters to supply all the living creatures. Every time I look upon the mountains I feel gratitude to God....
OHC	253	6	Everything about us teaches us from day to day lessons of our Father's love and of His power, and of His laws that govern nature and that lie at the foundation of all government in heaven and in earth.
------------------------Fragrance in our Lifework, September 5
OHC	254	1	And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6:28, 29.
OHC	254	2	The great Master Artist calls our attention to the soulless flowers of the field, pointing out the beautiful tints and the wonderful variety of shades one flower may possess. Thus God has revealed His skill and care. Thus He would show the great love He has for every human being.
OHC	254	3	The Lord our Creator expends as much care, wisdom, and time upon the tiny flower as upon the great things He creates. In the tiniest flowers are seen a beauty and perfection that no human art can copy. The delicate tracery of the tinted rose, as well as the stars in the heavens, shows the penciling of the great Master Artist.
OHC	254	4	Choice flowers ... reveal the advantages of culture. They teach us that it is our privilege to improve. God desires us to bring fragrance into our lifework. We are to be the plants of the Lord, serving Him in whatever way He wills. Let us do all in our power to beautify our characters.... Tender care must be given to the delicate plants. The useless offshoots must be taken away. The bruised parts must be carefully bound up. So those who are weak in the faith must have fostering care. We are to bind to our stronger purposes the weaklings in the Lord's garden, giving them support.
OHC	254	5	From the endless variety of plants and flowers, we may learn an important lesson. All blossoms are not the same in form or color. Some possess healing virtues. Some are always fragrant. There are professing Christians who think it their duty to make every other Christian like themselves. This is man's plan, not the plan of God. In the church of God there is room for characters as varied as are the flowers in a garden. In His spiritual garden there are many varieties of flowers.
OHC	254	6	The Lord cares for the flowers. He gives them beauty and fragrance. Will He not much more give us the fragrance of a cheerful disposition?
------------------------A Pure Moral Atmosphere, September 6
OHC	255	1	That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. Proverbs 2:20.
OHC	255	2	In order to have a healthy body, the blood circulating through the veins must be pure; in order to be pure it must have pure air and pure food. The use of improper food and the inhalation of impure air cause disease, which appears in various forms.
OHC	255	3	The purity and soundness of our religious life is dependent not only on the truth we accept, but on the company we keep, and the moral atmosphere we breathe. Faith, elasticity and vigor, hopefulness, joyfulness, doubts and fears, slothfulness, stupidity, envy, jealousy, distrust, selfishness, waywardness, and backsliding, are the result of the associations we form, the company we keep, and the air we breathe.
OHC	255	4	The indulgence of wrong associations will have its baleful results....The Bible may be read and prayer be offered, yet there will be no increase of spiritual health, no growth of soul, so long as the air which is breathed is bad.... The greatest care should be exercised by the believers to place themselves in close connection with God and with those who have been taught of God. It is painful to see those who have believed present truth walking into Satan's net....
OHC	255	5	We raise our voice and cry to every believer in the present truth: If you would have spiritual health, look to your lungs. Look to your spiritual food. Cultivate a love for the society of those who are pure and good, if you would have Christ formed in you as the life of the soul. The health of the soul depends upon the breathing of a good moral atmosphere.
OHC	255	6	Christ, the Great Physician, has given a prescription for every believer. He must eat the food provided in the Word of God. And the faith that works by love to God and man is dependent not only upon the food we eat but upon the air we breathe. If we associate with those who are evil, we breathe an atmosphere tainted with the malaria of sin. Be sure, by association with the meek and lowly followers of Jesus, to breathe a pure, holy atmosphere.
------------------------Be Selective! September 7
OHC	256	1	And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Ephesians 5:11.
OHC	256	2	The Christian should withdraw himself from the company of those who are as a snare to his soul. When you come in contact with those whom you cannot lift into a pure and holy atmosphere, because their moral tastes are wholly perverted, you must shun their society. Persons of this class have generally a strong will and positive temperament, and when wrought upon by the enemy of God, they become efficient agents in leading souls from the path of righteousness to paths that are false and dangerous. The moral atmosphere surrounding these souls is tainted with evil, and exerts only a defiling influence.
OHC	256	3	Your associates may not be expected to be free from imperfections or sin. But in choosing your friends, you should place your standard as high as possible. The tone of your morals is estimated by the associates you choose. You should avoid contracting an intimate friendship with those whose example you would not choose to imitate....
OHC	256	4	Choose for your associates those who hold religion and its practical influences in high respect. Keep the future life constantly in view. Let not your associations put these thoughts out of your mind. Nothing will so effectually banish serious impressions as intercourse with the vain, careless, and irreligious. Whatever intellectual greatness such persons may attain, if they treat religion with levity or even with indifference, they should not be your chosen friends. The more engaging their manners in other respects, the more should you dread their influence as companions, because they would throw around you an irreligious, godless, irreverent influence and yet combine it with so many attractions that it is positively dangerous to morals.
OHC	256	5	Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone.... A cowardly and silent reserve before evil associates, while you listen to their devices, makes you one with them.... Have courage to do right.
------------------------Guard Your Affections, September 8
OHC	257	1	Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14.
OHC	257	2	I would warn you [Counsel to a young woman.] to be guarded as to where you bestow your affections.... Remember that your life belongs to Jesus, and that you are not to live for yourself alone. You are not to enter into the marriage relation with an unbeliever; for in so doing, you do exactly contrary to that which Jesus has commanded. Shun those who are irreverent. Shun one who is a lover of idleness; shun the one who is a scoffer of hallowed things. Avoid the society of one who uses profane language, or is addicted to the use of even one glass of liquor. Listen not to the proposals of a man who has no realization of his responsibility to God.
OHC	257	3	The pure truth, which sanctifies the soul, will give you courage to cut yourself loose from the most pleasing acquaintance whom you know does not love and fear God, and knows nothing of the principles of true righteousness. We may always bear with a friend's infirmities and with his ignorance, but never with his vices. Never marry an unbeliever.
OHC	257	4	I am only voicing to you the word of God, for He declares that such a union will result in drawing away your heart from loving and serving Him.... As a child of God, you are permitted to contract marriage only in the Lord.... Should you consent to unite your life with that of an unbeliever, you would be disregarding the Word of God and imperiling your soul....
OHC	257	5	Your life is too precious a thing to be treated as of little worth. Calvary testifies to you the value of your soul.
OHC	257	6	Let every step toward a marriage alliance be characterized by modesty, simplicity, sincerity, and an earnest purpose to please and honor God. Marriage affects the afterlife both in this world and in the world to come. A sincere Christian will make no plans that God cannot approve.... Make Christ your counselor. Study His word with prayer.
------------------------You Must Choose Your Company, September 9
OHC	258	1	Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 2 Corinthians 6:17.
OHC	258	2	The true Christian will not choose the company of the unconverted. If Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, we cannot enjoy the malarious spiritual atmosphere which surrounds the souls of the irreligious....
OHC	258	3	Your acquaintances who are utterly averse to spiritual things are not refined, ennobled, and elevated by the practice of the truth. They are not under the leadership of Christ, but under the black banner of the prince of darkness. To associate with those who neither fear nor love God, unless you associate with them for the purpose of winning them to Jesus, will be a detriment to your spirituality. If you cannot lift them up, their influence will tell upon you in corrupting and tainting your faith. It is right for you to treat them kindly; but not well for you to love and choose their society, for if you choose the atmosphere that surrounds their souls, you will forfeit the companionship of Jesus. By every means in your power seek to repress sin; but never for one moment give sanction to sin either by your deeds, your words, your silence, or your presence. Every time sin is sanctioned by the professed follower of Christ, his sense of sin is weakened, and his judgment thus becomes perverted....
OHC	258	4	The Lord Jesus cannot keep any soul who places himself upon the enemy's ground and surrounds himself with the society of those who prefer such conversation and conduct as is an offense to the God he reveres and loves....
OHC	258	5	Cling close to those who will have an uplifting tendency, whose souls are surrounded with a pure and holy atmosphere.... God will be nearer to your heart, more in your thoughts, because you have separated from the world and from influences that would lead you away from the truth, and you will be less compassed with the snares of Satan.
------------------------A Friend to the Friendless, September 10
OHC	259	1	Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel. Proverbs 27:9.
OHC	259	2	We should have the love of Christ in the heart to such a degree that our interest in others will be impartial and sincere. Our affections should take a wide range, and not center simply upon a few who flatter us by special confidences. The tendency of such friendships is to lead us to neglect those who are in greater need of love than those upon whom we bestow our attentions.
OHC	259	3	We should not narrow our circle of friends to a few favorites because they pet and flatter us by their professed affection. The partial attention so often bestowed and received, works not for the highest good of those who would serve God. One draws upon the other for strength, and the praise, flattery, and affection one receives of the other, supplies the place that should be supplied by the grace of God, and thus human friends take the affections from Christ.... Human confidants, human associates, absorb the love and trust that should be given to God alone....
OHC	259	4	Instead of seeking to become a favorite yourself, or to flatter one who may be highly regarded, see if there is not a poor child who is not a favorite, to whom no special kindnesses are shown, and make this one the object of your unselfish attention. Those who are especially attractive will be at no loss for friends; while those who are less pleasing in appearance, who are timid and hard to become acquainted with, may have choice traits of character, and they are the purchase of the blood of Christ.
OHC	259	5	Feelings of unrest and homesickness or loneliness may be for your good. Your heavenly Father means to teach you to find in Him the friendship and love and consolation that will satisfy your most earnest hopes and desires.... Your only safety and happiness are in making Christ your constant counselor. You can be happy in Him if you had not another friend in the wide world.
------------------------Graces Increased by Exercise, September 11
OHC	260	1	In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Titus 2:7, 8.
OHC	260	2	A healthy, growing Christian will not be a passive recipient among his fellows. He must give as well as receive. Our graces are increased by exercise. Christian society will furnish us with pure air to breathe, and in breathing it we must be active. The Christian work performed, the sympathies, encouragements, and instructions given by us to those who need them, the self-restraint, love, patience, and forbearance which are needed, exercised in Christian work, will create in ourselves faith, obedience, hope, and love to God.... It is essential for spiritual muscle and strength that the soul have exercise. Work must be done by putting forth spiritual activity in improving opportunities to do good.... The more faithful one is in the discharge of Christian duties, the more soundness will he develop....
OHC	260	3	Weakness and vacillation will never secure respect to the Christian profession. It is impossible to reach men where they are and elevate them unless some confidence is inspired in them for your sincerity and piety. You can never reach them by stepping down from the platform of truth and reform, but by bringing others up to that platform God's Word has provided for you. If men opposed to our faith see that you who profess it are earnest, steadfast, and uncorrupted at all times and under all circumstances, and that you abide in Christ, the living Vine, and are unshaken followers of truth and reform, you will reflect the spirit and character of Christ. In your business, in the associations with believers and unbelievers, in the sanctuary, at home, in every place, you will show the influence of a Saviour's love, which will have a controlling influence upon believers.
OHC	260	4	Genius, talents, and money are not essential in order to exert this influence; but it is essential that you abide in Christ, and that He abide in you, for thus your fruit will be unto righteousness.
------------------------Make Your Mark in the World, September 12
OHC	261	1	Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12.
OHC	261	2	The period of childhood and youth--how much is bound up in these years of probation! God desires that you shall improve this time, dear youth, by obtaining a fitness for the work. If you need an education, set yourselves to work with a determination to get one. Do not wait for an opening; make one for yourselves. Take hold in any small way that opens before you. Be thorough and faithful in whatever you take in hand, however small it may be.
OHC	261	3	Some of our youth are so vacillating that they accomplish nothing for themselves; their lifetime is often half spent before they decide what they shall do, and what they will be. They bury their talents beneath a mass of rubbish. To these I would say, Practice economy. Do not spend your means for the gratification of appetite or for pleasure seeking. Make your mark in the world. Have before you the object of becoming as useful and efficient as God calls you to be. As you improve the knowledge you gain, you will be able to gather increased knowledge. Application to your books and useful manual labor, combined with earnest Christian devotion and loyalty to God, will make you men and women in the highest sense. True devotion to God, combined with the study of the sciences, will give the youth an education that will make them gentle, humble lovers of God, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Such souls, fragrant with love for God and for their fellow men, God can use as vessels unto honor.
OHC	261	4	Jesus died, dear youth, not to save you in your sins, but from your sins. He wants you to follow the example which He has set before you--to deny self, take up your cross daily, and follow Him. He claims your service, your heart's best and holiest affections. If you will walk in obedience to His will, learning cheerfully and diligently the lessons of His providence, by and by He will say, "Child, come up higher to the heavenly mansions which I have prepared for you."
------------------------The Home Training Ground, September 13
OHC	262	1	Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. Psalm 119:35.
OHC	262	2	Men have taught that God's law has been done away. Were this the case we would have no standard of character, and would have nothing to show us God's righteous claims. We should be adrift upon an ocean of uncertainty, and have no guide in dealing with the solemn responsibilities of the family relation. But it is in the family relation that we receive our training in dealing with our fellow men in general. If God had no law by which to govern human intelligences, nothing by which His character could be represented as a sample to which the human family could shape their characters, then what impression could possibly be made upon our children as to what constitutes rectitude of life and perfection of character? ...
OHC	262	3	The fifth commandment enjoins upon children obedience to their parents, and parents are to help their children to keep this commandment by acting their part in cooperating with God in requiring obedience through childhood and youth. Parents themselves must be under rule to God. They must reveal precious traits of character, presenting a pattern before their children, manifesting patience and forbearance mingled with firmness, and thus educate their children to obey their heavenly Father.... Satan delights to look upon disordered and ill-governed families, for his success depends largely upon the control he can have over the families of earth.... He is determined the standard of righteousness shall not be the rule for the formation of character....
OHC	262	4	The Ten Commandments come forth from the God of heaven, whose heart is full of love, who is infinite in wisdom, who never makes a mistake. He is too wise to err, too good to harm any one who will obey His requirements. Blessing will follow those who obey and who administer the law of Jehovah.... The happiness and peace of parents and children in this life, and their best good, will be worked out by walking in the path of His precepts; for by so doing they are in harmony with the God of heaven.
------------------------Teach the Source of True Happiness, September 14
OHC	263	1	Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6.
OHC	263	2	By their neglect to exercise proper restraint, many parents are creating great unhappiness for their children. The youth who are left to constantly seek for pleasure in amusement or selfish gratification are not happy, and never can be happy while following this course. Fathers and mothers, teach your children that the only way to be truly happy is to love and fear God; and enforce the lesson by your example. Let them see that the peace of Christ is ruling in your heart, and that His love pervades your life.
OHC	263	3	Will you consecrate your own hearts to God, that you may exert a sanctifying influence upon your children? Will you separate them from sin and sinners, and by living faith connect them with God? It should be the work of every parent to cultivate all that is good, and true, and noble in his children. It is his duty to correct their faults, to restrain their waywardness....
OHC	263	4	Make the Word of God your guide in the education of your children, ever considering what will be for their future good.... The mother may bestow upon her daughters an education that will be invaluable, by training them to bear their share of the family burdens. The father may give his sons a capital of more worth than gold or lands, by teaching them to love useful employment, instead of seeking happiness in idle amusements or dissipation. Parents, now is the time to form in your children habits of industry, self-reliance, and self-control; to cultivate economy and business tact. Now is the time to teach them courtesy and benevolence toward their fellow men, and reverence and love for God.... Home should be the most sunny and attractive spot on earth; and it may be made such by pleasant words and kind acts, and, underlying all, a steadfast adherence to the right....
OHC	263	5	Let us withhold nothing from Him who gave His precious life for us. Fathers and mothers, bring to Him your children, in the freshness and bloom of youth, and devote them to His service.
------------------------Obedience an Element of Greatness, September 15
OHC	264	1	Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Ephesians 6:1.
OHC	264	2	Jesus has given to childhood and youth a perfect example. Study the Pattern, Christ Jesus, and copy it if you would be like Him--pure, holy, sinless, and undefiled. Study the childhood of Christ. He was the Son of God, yet the Bible record tells us He returned from Jerusalem and was subject unto His parents....
OHC	264	3	Jesus, the world's Redeemer, did as He was told even if the task was not agreeable to His feelings. Obedience is an element of true greatness. No one can be truly good and great who has not learned to obey with alacrity....
OHC	264	4	When tempted to have your own way in regard to the wishes of your parents, say, "No; Jesus was subject to His parents." Ask help of Jesus, who knows the temptations of every child, of every youth, for He has been tempted and knows your every weakness and will help you to overcome it....
OHC	264	5	Seek to be useful, to help your parents; to be care-taking and thoughtful. You can help them in a variety of ways.... Doing what you can do cheerfully, with quick step, your face bright with gladness because you can do something for your parents to lighten their load, will make you a blessing in the house....
OHC	264	6	All these little duties faithfully done are entered upon the ledger of heaven.... God will make no mistakes; He will make an accurate entry of all your life duties done to His glory. So never frown but always carry a cheerful, happy face, a ready hand to help, an attentive ear to hear the requirements, and a heart to obey, a quick sympathy for those who need help....
OHC	264	7	Remember your characters are not finished; you are building up day by day a character. Weave all the kindness, obedience, thoughtfulness, painstaking, and love into it you can. Make it after the divine model. Educate yourselves that you may possess the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price. You can make the world better by living in it if you only do the very best you can.
------------------------The Sacred Temple of the Body, September 16
OHC	265	1	What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.
OHC	265	2	That perfection of character which the Lord requires is the fitting up of the whole being as a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God will accept of nothing less than the service of the entire human organism. It is not enough to bring into action certain parts of the living machinery. All parts must work in perfect harmony, or the service will be deficient. It is thus that man is qualified to cooperate with God in representing Christ to the world. Thus God desires to prepare a people to stand before Him pure and holy, that He may introduce them into the society of heavenly angels.
OHC	265	3	We have been entrusted with the most solemn message ever given to our world, and the object to be kept plainly and distinctly before our minds is the glory of God. Let us take care that we do nothing which will weaken physical, mental, or spiritual healthfulness, for God will not accept a tainted, diseased, corrupted sacrifice. Care must be exercised in eating, in drinking, in dressing, and in working, lest we detract from our efficiency and fail of doing our most exalted work in the best manner, in order that the results of our labor may be as lasting as eternity.
OHC	265	4	It is our duty to train and discipline the body in order that we shall render to the Master the highest possible service. Inclination must not control us. We are not to pamper the appetite and indulge in the use of that which is not for our good, simply because it gratifies the palate; neither are we to seek to live by the starvation plan, with the idea that we shall become spiritually-minded, and that God shall be glorified. We must use the intelligence that God has given in order that we may be perfect in body, soul, and spirit, that we may have a symmetrical character, a well-balanced mind, and do perfect work for the Master.
OHC	265	5	The sacred temple of the body must be kept pure and uncontaminated, that God's Holy Spirit may dwell therein.
------------------------The Sure Penalty of Self-Indulgence, September 17
OHC	266	1	If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. 1 Corinthians 3:17.
OHC	266	2	Perfection of character cannot be attained when the laws of nature are disregarded; for this is transgression of the law of God. His law is written by His own finger upon every nerve, every muscle, every fiber of our being, upon every faculty which has been entrusted to man. These gifts are bestowed, not to be abused and corrupted, but to be used to His honor and glory in the uplifting of humanity....
OHC	266	3	The relation that exists between mind and body is very intimate: when one is affected, the other is always more or less in sympathy. It is impossible for men, while under the power of sinful, health-destroying habits, to appreciate sacred truths. When the intellect is clouded, the moral powers are enfeebled, and sin does not look sinful. The most ennobling, grand, and glorious themes of God's Word seem but idle tales. Satan can then easily snatch away the good seed that has been sown in the heart; for the soul is in no condition to comprehend or understand its true value. It is thus that selfish, health-destroying indulgences are counteracting the influence of the message which is to prepare a people for the great day of God.
OHC	266	4	We are living in a most solemn, awful moment of this earth's history. Not a soul whose life is one of careless self-degradation, through transgression of physical laws, will stand in the great day of trial just before us. There is a terrible account to be rendered to God by those who have but little regard for the human body, and treat it ruthlessly. ... True religion and the laws of health go hand in hand.
OHC	266	5	The least departure from the strictest integrity under any circumstances because it is convenient, will harden the conscience and prepare the way for the violation of moral obligations in other ways. If we treat the health of the body, which is our highest earthly interest, without due consideration, we prepare the way for temptation and the violation of higher claims.
------------------------The Light of Health Reform, September 18
OHC	267	1	Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3 John 2.
OHC	267	2	The light God has given on health reform is for our salvation and the salvation of the world. Men and women should be informed in regard to the human habitation, fitted up by our Creator as His dwelling place, and over which He desires us to be faithful stewards.... Our bodies are wonderfully made, and the Lord requires us to keep them in order. All are under obligation to Him to keep the human structure in a healthful, wholesome condition, that every muscle, every organ, may be used in the service of God.... God, who formed the wonderful structure of the body, will take special care to keep it in order, if men cooperate, instead of working at cross-purposes, with Him.
OHC	267	3	These grand truths must be given to the world. We must reach the people where they are, and by example and precept lead them to see the beauties of the better way. The world is in sad need of instruction along these lines. The time has come when each soul must be staunch and true to every ray of light God has given, and begin in earnest to give this gospel of health to the people. We shall have strength and power to do this if we practice these truths in our own lives....
OHC	267	4	Those who are enjoying the precious blessings which come to them through obeying this message of mercy will do all in their power that others may share the same blessings. But we may rest assured that Satan will do all in his power to prevent anything like a message of reform from being given to the world at this time. Shall God's people be found on the enemy's side, either by failing to heed it themselves, or by neglecting to give it to others? "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." Matthew 12:30. If we would be safe, we must not fail to know on whose side we stand.
OHC	267	5	God desires His light bearers ever to keep a high standard before them. By precept and example they must hold this perfect standard high above Satan's false standard.
------------------------A Perfected People, September 19
OHC	268	1	Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
OHC	268	2	With an eye single to the glory of God, we should give careful, thoughtful attention to the matter of our eating and drinking. We need divine guidance, even in our commonest habits of everyday life, that there may be no little leaks which will consume means unnecessarily, simply for the gratification of perverted appetites. In the New Testament not one of God's requirements loses its binding force, or relaxes in the least its obligation to be fulfilled.... Instead of the requirements of God being relaxed in the New Testament, the lines are drawn closer, and duty is more distinctly defined. The apostle says, "Whatsoever ye do," even in the matter of eating and drinking, "do all to the glory of God." The question may be asked, "May I not do what I like with myself? Am I never to have my own way? Is not my body my own?" You may have your own way, but it will be at the loss of your soul, or you may have God's way and live to a purpose in this world, and in the world to come have life everlasting.
OHC	268	3	Those who have received instruction regarding the evils of the use of flesh foods, tea and coffee, and rich and unhealthful food preparations, and who are determined to make a covenant with God by sacrifice, will not continue to indulge their appetite for food that they know to be unhealthful. God demands that the appetites be cleansed, and that self-denial be practiced in regard to those things which are not good. This is a work that will have to be done before His people can stand before Him a perfected people.... Those who claim to believe in health reform, and yet work counter to its principles in the daily life practice, are hurting their own souls and are leaving wrong impressions upon the minds of believers and unbelievers.
OHC	268	4	Do not misuse or abuse any portion of your God-given powers, physical, mental, or moral. All your habits are to be brought under the control of a mind that is itself under the control of God.
------------------------The Reward of Temperate Habits, September 20
OHC	269	1	But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Daniel 1:8.
OHC	269	2	Inspiration has recorded the history of Daniel and his companions as a shining example for the youth of all succeeding ages.... Those who would preserve their powers unimpaired for the service of God must observe strict temperance in the use of all His bounties, as well as total abstinence from every injurious or debasing indulgence.
OHC	269	3	The youth are surrounded by allurements addressed to the appetite.... Those who, like Daniel, refuse to defile themselves, will reap the reward of their temperate habits. With their greater physical stamina and increased power of endurance, they have a bank of deposit upon which to draw in case of emergency.
OHC	269	4	Right physical habits promote mental superiority. Intellectual power, physical strength, and longevity, depend upon immutable laws. There is no happen-so, no chance, about this matter. The higher powers will not interfere to preserve men from the consequences of the violation of nature's laws.
OHC	269	5	The question with every youth ... should be, Shall I consult my inclination, and indulge my appetite, or shall I follow the dictates of conscience, and keep my head clear and preserve my physical powers by abstaining from every practice that would bring weakness upon them? Shall I fall a prey to the customs of the world, ... or shall I separate myself from every custom that is debasing in its results? Shall I not honor God, rather than please the world? ...
OHC	269	6	Daniel and his fellows realized that principle was at stake, and that they could afford to make no compromise with the tempter. The light and truth reflected from the throne of God were dearer to them than any honor that men could bestow. It is the privilege of the young people of today to be as firm and true, as modest and successful, as were the Jewish youths in the kingdom of Babylon.... God honored Daniel, and He will honor every youth who takes the course that Daniel took in honoring God.
------------------------A Sound Mind in a Sound Body, September 21
OHC	270	1	But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 1 Corinthians 9:27.
OHC	270	2	Whatever detracts from physical vigor weakens mental effort. Hence, every practice unfavorable to the health of the body should be resolutely shunned.... We cannot maintain consecration to God, and yet injure our health by the willful indulgence of a wrong habit. Self-denial is one of the conditions, not only of admission into the service of Christ but of continuance therein....
OHC	270	3	Yet how many who call themselves Christians are unwilling to exercise self-denial, even for Christ's sake. How often the love for some pernicious indulgence is stronger than the desire for a sound mind in a sound body! Precious hours of probation are spent, God-given means squandered, to please the eye or to gratify the appetite....
OHC	270	4	None need fail in this work of self-renunciation. God will give help to every earnest seeker.... If we sincerely seek His grace, our life will correspond with our profession of faith.... He knows whether our hearts are wholly devoted to His service, or given to the things of the world. We may profess what we will, but unless our life corresponds with our profession, our faith is dead. The rule given by the apostle Paul is the only safe rule for our guidance in all the affairs of life. "Whether ... ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31. In the selection of our food, we should not seek merely to please the taste, but should choose that which is most healthful. In dress, we should seek that which is simple, comfortable, convenient, and appropriate.
OHC	270	5	He who will observe simplicity in all his habits, restricting the appetite and controlling the passions, may preserve his mental powers strong, active, and vigorous, quick to perceive everything which demands thought or action, keen to discriminate between the holy and the unholy, and ready to engage in every enterprise for the glory of God and the benefit of humanity.
------------------------A Distinction in Dress, September 22
OHC	271	1	In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. 1 Timothy 2:9, 10.
OHC	271	2	The children of Israel ... were commanded to have a simple ribbon of blue in the border of their garments, to distinguish them from the nations around them, and to signify that they were God's peculiar people. [See Numbers 15:39, 40.] The people of God are not now required to have a special mark placed upon their garments. But in the New Testament we are often referred to ancient Israel for examples. If God gave such definite directions to His ancient people in regard to their dress, will not the dress of His people in this age come under His notice? Should there not be in their dress a distinction from that of the world? Should not the people of God, who are His peculiar treasure, seek even in their dress to glorify God? And should they not be examples in point of dress, and by their simple style rebuke the pride, vanity, and extravagance of worldly, pleasure-loving professors? God requires this of His people. Pride is rebuked in His Word.
OHC	271	3	We must know more of Jesus and His love than of the fashions of the world. In the name of my Master, I call upon the youth to study the example of Christ. When you wish to make an article, you carefully study the pattern, that you may reproduce it as nearly as possible. Now set to work to copy the divine Exemplar.... You cannot be like Jesus, and cherish pride in your heart....
OHC	271	4	Of how little value are gold or pearls or costly array, in comparison with the meekness and loveliness of Christ. Natural loveliness consists in symmetry, or the harmonious proportion of parts, each with the other; but spiritual loveliness consists in the harmony or likeness of our souls of Jesus. This will make its possessor more precious than fine gold, even the golden wedge of Ophir. The grace of Christ is indeed a priceless adornment. It elevates and ennobles its possessor, and reflects beams of glory upon others, attracting them also to the Source of light and blessing.
------------------------The Charm of Simplicity, September 23
OHC	272	1	For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 1 John 2:16.
OHC	272	2	Pride of dress is not a small matter, but a serious evil. It causes time, thought, and money to be spent in the decoration of the body, while the culture of the heavenly graces is neglected. Precious hours that our Saviour has exhorted us to devote to prayer and the study of the Scriptures are given to an unnecessary preparation of apparel for outward display.
OHC	272	3	Satan stands in the background, devising the fashions which lead to extravagance in the outlay of means. In forming the fashions of the day, he has a fixed purpose. He knows that time and money which are devoted to meet the demands of fashion will not be used for higher, holier objects. Precious time is wasted in keeping pace with ever-changing and never-satisfying fashions. No sooner is one style introduced than new styles are devised, and then, in order for fashionable persons to remain fashionable, the dress must be remodeled. Thus professing Christians, with divided hearts, waste their time, giving to the world nearly all their energies....
OHC	272	4	Correct taste in dress is not to be despised or condemned.... Nothing is gained in trying to save means by purchasing cheap fabrics. Let the clothing be plain and neat, without extravagance or display.
OHC	272	5	Young ladies who break away from slavery to fashion will be ornaments in society. The one who is simple and unpretending in her dress and in her manners shows that she understands that a true lady is characterized by moral worth. How charming, how interesting, is simplicity in dress, which in its comeliness can be compared with the flowers of the field! ...
OHC	272	6	Those who practice simplicity in dress have time to visit the afflicted, and are better prepared to pray with and for them. On every Christian man and woman rests the solemn duty of regulating and contracting personal expenses, that by so doing they may be able to help the needy, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked.
------------------------A Mark of Christian Womanhood, September 24
OHC	273	1	Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Peter 3:3, 4.
OHC	273	2	Lovers of fashion may claim to be followers of Christ, but their dress and conversation show what occupies the mind and engages the affections. The outside appearance is an index to the heart. True refinement does not find satisfaction in the adorning of the body for display. A modest, godly woman will dress modestly. Simplicity of apparel always makes a sensible woman appear to the best advantage. A refined, cultured mind will be revealed in the choice of simple and appropriate attire. In the sanctified heart there is no place for thoughts of needless adornment.
OHC	273	3	There is an ornament that will never perish, that will promote the happiness of all around us in this life, and will shine with undimmed luster in the immortal future. It is the adorning of a meek and lowly spirit. God has bidden us wear the richest dress upon the soul.
OHC	273	4	The inward adorning of a meek and quiet spirit is priceless. In the life of the true Christian the outward adorning is always in harmony with the inward peace and holiness.... Self-denial and sacrifice will mark the Christian's life. Evidence that the taste is converted will be seen in the dress of all who walk in the path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord.
OHC	273	5	It is right to love beauty and to desire it; but God desires us to love and seek first the highest beauty, that which is imperishable. No outward adorning can compare in value or loveliness with that "meek and quiet spirit," the "fine linen, white and clean" (Revelation 19:14), which all the holy ones of earth will wear. This apparel will make them beautiful and beloved here, and will hereafter be their badge of admission to the palace of the King. His promise is, "They shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy." Revelation 3:4.
------------------------The Beauty of Christlikeness, September 25
OHC	274	1	Shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. Titus 2:10.
OHC	274	2	Everyone who names the name of Christ is to adorn the doctrine of Christ our Saviour by a well-ordered life and a godly conversation, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit.... Possessing this, you will have favor both with God and with men.
OHC	274	3	Words spoken hastily wound and bruise souls, and the deepest wound is made upon the soul of the speaker. Christ's gift, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, is authoritatively declared by Him who can make no mistake to be of great price. We must each find out its worth for ourselves by seeking it from God. However men may estimate us, if we wear this ornament, we bear the sign of our discipleship with Christ. We are esteemed by the Most High; for the ornament we wear is in His sight of great price. This precious gem is to be sought for....
OHC	274	4	To every soul things will come to provoke, to stir up anger, and if you are not under the full control of God, you will be provoked when these things come. But the meekness of Christ calms the ruffled spirit, controls the tongue, and brings the whole being into subjection to God. Thus we learn how to bear with the censure of others. We shall be misjudged, but the precious ornament of a meek and quiet spirit teaches us how to bear, how to have pity for those who utter hasty, unadvised words. Any unpleasant spirit displayed is sure to arouse the demon of passion in unguarded hearts. Unholy anger need not to be strengthened, but bridled. It is a spark which will set on fire untamed human nature. Avoid speaking words which will stir up strife. Rather suffer wrong than do wrong. God requires every one of His followers, as far as is possible, to live peaceably with all men....
OHC	274	5	We must be Christlike. Let us strive to make our lives what Christ designs them to be, full of the fragrance of love to God and our fellow men, full of Christ's own divine Spirit, full of holy aspirations toward God, rich in the beauty of Christlikeness.
------------------------Consecrated Eyes, September 26
OHC	275	1	The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness. Proverbs 15:14.
OHC	275	2	Many do not earnestly seek to understand the lessons found in God's Word. They lay aside the Bible, and allow their minds to become engrossed with the cheap reading found in books of fiction, newspapers, and magazines.
OHC	275	3	The pernicious practice of story reading is one of the means employed by Satan to destroy souls. The mind that is occupied with exciting stories loses all relish for solid reading.... I am acquainted with many sad examples of the evil effects of this baneful practice.... The more they indulged the appetite for this kind of mental food, the greater was the demand. The imagination constantly craved its accustomed stimulus, as the inebriate longs for his wine or tobacco. Their mental and moral powers were weakened and perverted. They lost their interest in the Scriptures, and their relish for prayer; and they were as truly ruined, mentally and spiritually, as is the liquor drinker or the tobacco devotee. Novel readers are mental inebriates; and they need to sign a pledge of total abstinence as verily as does the victim of any other form of intemperance.
OHC	275	4	God has given to His people the choicest reading matter. Let the Word of God find a place in every room in the house. Keep the Bible, the bread of life, in plain sight.... Keep choice, elevating literature ever before the members of the family.
OHC	275	5	The reading of God's Word does not fascinate the imagination and inflame the passions, like the fictions of a storybook, but it softens and soothes the heart, and elevates and sanctifies the affections.
OHC	275	6	It is the privilege of the youth to say, "The Lord has given me my sight and hearing for His glory. I will close my ears to that which is foolish and cheap. I will read that Word that will fit me for a place in the home Christ is preparing for those who have sanctified their souls by obedience to the truth. My voice shall proclaim the glory of God; every power of my being shall be consecrated to God."
------------------------Be Careful What You Read, September 27
OHC	276	1	For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. Proverbs 2:6, 7.
OHC	276	2	Age after age the curiosity of men has led them to seek for the tree of knowledge; and often they think they are plucking fruit most essential, when, like Solomon in his research, they find it altogether vanity and nothingness in comparison with the science of true holiness.
OHC	276	3	Books from the pens of infidels should have no place in the libraries of those who would serve God. They will make better kindling material for your stove than food for the mind. Infidel books have been a cause of ruin to many souls. Men have studied these books of Satan's inspiration, and they have become confused in regard to what was truth. Satan stands at the side of him who opens an infidel book, and he will educate the mind that peruses such literature, and so bewitch the soul that it will be almost impossible to break the infatuation. Let no believer flatter himself that his mountain standeth sure, and that he will never be moved away from his position of faith.
OHC	276	4	We are surrounded by unbelief. The very atmosphere seems charged with it; and only by constant effort can we resist its power. Those who value their soul's salvation should shun infidel writings as they would shun the leprosy.
OHC	276	5	To the youth I would say, Be careful what you read. So long as the mind is directed into wrong channels by an improper course of reading, it is impossible for you to make the truth of God the constant subject of meditation. If there was ever a time when a knowledge of the Scriptures was more important than at any other, that time is the present. I appeal to old and young, Make the Bible your textbook. Here you will find the true standard of character.
OHC	276	6	Do not devote the precious talent of sight to reading that which ... will not benefit you.... The powers of mind and soul and body are to be sanctified to the Lord Jesus, who has bought you with His blood.
------------------------Chaff or Wheat? September 28
OHC	277	1	My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Proverbs 4:20-22.
OHC	277	2	Light and truth are within the reach of all, ... but if they do not set their minds to searching God's Word, Satan will find chaff to fill their minds, leaving no room for the growth of the precious seed of truth.... We are surrounded with temptations so disguised that they allure while they taint and corrupt the soul.
OHC	277	3	The youth of our cities breathe in the tainted, polluted atmosphere of crime.... They are educated in crime by reading the stories which fill the popular publications of the day. Having no regard for the right because it is right, as they read stories of theft, murder, and every other species of crime, they are led to devise plans by which they could improve upon the criminals' methods, and escape detection. Thus these foul publications assist in perfecting the education of the youth in the way that leads to perdition.
OHC	277	4	It is a great evil to bring these trashy magazines into the family, and yet many parents are asleep to this peril. They do not know what kind of food is being supplied to the minds of their children. The food that is given to the mind should be pure and wholesome. God calls upon His people to turn away from the brackish streams of the valley, and drink from the pure streams of Lebanon. A study of God's Word, which is eternal life to the receiver, would invigorate and strengthen the mind; but too often the grace of Christ finds the right of way obstructed by the mass of rubbish which has been allowed to accumulate in the mind. The mind is not kept hungry for the blessed Word, which must be eaten in order for the thoughts to be pure and holy....
OHC	277	5	To those who are tempted to indulge in trashy reading I would say, Read your Bible. "Search the scriptures," Christ commanded; "for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." John 5:39. Obedience to the Word of God is our only safety.
------------------------Walking with God in a Corrupt World, September 29
OHC	278	1	And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Genesis 5:24.
OHC	278	2	Enoch's life and character, which were so holy that he was translated to heaven without seeing death, represent what the lives and characters of all must be, if, like Enoch, they are to be translated when Christ shall come. His life was what the life of every individual may be if he closely connects with God. We should remember that Enoch was surrounded with influences so depraved that God brought a flood of waters on the world to destroy its inhabitants for their corruption....
OHC	278	3	When Christ shall come, our vile bodies are to be changed, and made like His glorious body; but the vile character will not be made holy then. The transformation of character must take place before His coming. Our natures must be pure and holy; we must have the mind of Christ, that He may behold with pleasure His image reflected upon our souls....
OHC	278	4	Joseph preserved his integrity when surrounded by idolaters in Egypt, in the midst of sin and blasphemy and corrupting influences. When tempted to turn from the path of virtue, his answer was, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" Genesis 39:9. Enoch, Joseph, and Daniel depended upon a strength that was infinite. This is the only course of safety for Christians to pursue in our day....
OHC	278	5	The lives of these marked men were hid with Christ in God. They were loyal to God amidst infidelity, pure amidst depravity, devout and fervent when brought in contact with atheism and idolatry. By faith they gathered to themselves only those properties which are favorable to the development of pure and holy characters. Thus may it be with us; whatever our position, however repulsive or fascinating our surroundings, faith can reach above it all and find the Holy Spirit.
OHC	278	6	The spirit which Enoch, Joseph, and Daniel possessed, we may have. We may draw from the same source of strength, and realize the same power of self-control; and the same graces may shine out in our lives.
------------------------Youth to Stand Up for Christ, September 30
OHC	279	1	For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels. Luke 9:26.
OHC	279	2	Always stand up for Christ. In word, in spirit, in action, be His witness. He loves you, and He wants to impart to you His rich grace, that you may impart this to others.... Christ has purchased you with His own blood. Then, everywhere, at all times and under all circumstances, stand up for Jesus. Remember that thus you will exert the very best influence upon all with whom you associate....
OHC	279	3	It is your privilege ever to grow in grace, advancing in the knowledge and love of God, if you maintain the sweet communion with Christ it is your privilege to enjoy. In the simplicity of humble faith ask the Lord to open your understanding, that you may discern and appreciate the precious things of His Word. Thus you may grow in grace, grow in simple, trusting faith. Then your light will shine forth to all with whom you associate. Keep your mind fixed upon the Saviour....
OHC	279	4	Be sure that your spiritual life does not become poor, sickly, inefficient. There are many who have need of the words and example of a Christian. Weakness and indecision provoke the assaults of the enemy, and any one who fails to increase in spiritual growth, in a knowledge of truth and righteousness, will frequently be overcome by the enemy.
OHC	279	5	Let your countenance reflect the joy of the Lord. Speak of His goodness and tell His power. Then your light will shine more and more distinctly. Above your trials and disappointments will be revealed the reflection of a pure, healthy religious life.
OHC	279	6	There is no limit to the influence of the human agent who wears the yoke with Christ. Daily he studies the life of Christ and conforms his life to the divine pattern.... It is by the manifestation of the spirit of Christ in our words and actions that the world takes knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus, that we are the children of God. The true nature of our religion is ... in the gentle spirit, the kindness, the peace which we manifest.
------------------------Don't Starve Your Soul! October 1
OHC	280	1	And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. Mark 4:19.
OHC	280	2	We must beware that we do not become overburdened even with what seem the necessary cares of life, so that we are unable to do the most essential work.... The largest share of the thoughts and the busy activities that engage hands and hearts, are given to selfish, personal, earthly interests. These are allowed to become so engrossing as to prevent attention to the things of eternity. The soul is left to starve for want of nourishment. Mind and body become worn out by protracted hours of application to worldly things. This is just as Satan designed it should be. All the freshness and vigor of the mind, all the keen thought, is given to the world, and God has the feeble, distracted thought, the fruit of a wearied and worried mind. The things of the highest consequence, which pertain to the eternal peace, are made subordinate to the common concerns of life, and God is robbed every day of service which would strengthen spirituality, lifting the thoughts heavenward, and bringing the soul into communion with God and holy angels.
OHC	280	3	We are not to allow the things of this world so to absorb the attention that mind and body are completely engrossed. Thus those around us are robbed of the kindly words and deeds that would help them in the upward way. The channel of light is clogged with worldly matters. The grace that Christ is longing to impart, He cannot bestow. Many are coming to have less and less strength to impart to others, because they do not receive power from the Source of all power. God calls upon them to separate from the things which corrode the mind and spoil the religious experience.
OHC	280	4	All are pressed with urgent cares, burdens, and duties; but the greater the pressure upon you, the heavier the burdens you have to bear, the greater your need of divine aid. Jesus will be your helper. You need constantly the light of life of lighten your pathway, and then its divine rays will reflect upon others.
------------------------The Better Part, October 2
OHC	281	1	And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Luke 10:41, 42.
OHC	281	2	This reproof of Christ comes to many Marthas in our time. They lose much spiritual and divine knowledge that would make them wise unto salvation, through their bustling activity to do so much in temporal things, to shower favors upon those whom they love. If they would preserve simplicity in all their preparations, and improve their precious opportunities to obtain a better knowledge of God's will and be doers of His words, they would save much irritability and would drink of the perpetual Fountain of life....
OHC	281	3	Martha ... was so anxious for all due honor to be given to Christ that in her active preparations in provision of food, she lost the most precious, golden moments of listening to instruction from His divine lips. Mary sat at His feet to catch every word. She regarded this of highest importance. This offended Martha, and she asked the Lord Jesus if He did not care that she served alone, while Mary shunned these responsibilities. Said Jesus, Martha, Mary hath chosen the better part, which shall never be taken from her. What was that better part? To learn of Jesus, to appreciate His words. In giving attention to the words which fell from His lips, she was showing her love for her Saviour....
OHC	281	4	Every word from the lips of Jesus was precious. It was joy to Him to see Mary appreciate His instruction. The more frequently the words of Christ are heard the more deeply do they influence the mind, the better they are understood, and the more easily and perfectly are they obeyed.
OHC	281	5	This spirit that is ever ready to make great outward display for our friends is a device of the enemy....
OHC	281	6	He [Christ] requires His followers--the purchase of His blood--to leave all the follies and vanities and tainting corruptions of the world out of their lives.... Let the impression, "Lo, God is here," solemnize every mind and make glad every soul.
------------------------Youthful Zeal and Courage Needed, October 3
OHC	282	1	I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. 1 John 2:14.
OHC	282	2	The work of God is in need of youthful ardor, zeal, and courage. Mental and physical vigor are essential for the advancement of the cause of God. To plan with clear mind and execute with courageous hand demand fresh and uncrippled energies. In order that the work may be forwarded in all its branches, God calls for youthful ardor. Young men and young women are invited to give Him the strength of their youth, that through the exercise of their God-given powers, through healthful thought and vigorous action, they may bring glory to God and salvation to men. God calls upon you, young men, to make the most of the powers entrusted to you. Cultivate the habit of doing your best in everything you undertake. God is your Master, and you are His employed servants....
OHC	282	3	You are ever to be learning in the school of Christ; you are to bring your entrusted capital of physical and mental energy into your work. ... Mental effort will become easier and more satisfactory as you put yourselves to the task of understanding the deep things of God....
OHC	282	4	You can rally the mind's best powers, and with a sense of your accountability to God, you can do your best, and you will not cease to advance, and to conquer difficulties. Do not settle down in slothful ease, making no special effort to accomplish your work. Make a choice of some part in the large vineyard of the Master, and do a work that will require the exercise of tact and talent.
OHC	282	5	I make an appeal to the youthful disciples of Christ to arouse, no longer to indulge in pleasure seeking, in self-love and ease; no longer be controlled by inclination, and by the lusts of the carnal heart....
OHC	282	6	My prayer to God is that the converting power of His Holy Spirit may come upon our youth, that they may become working agents to win scores of youth to Jesus Christ, that they may be among the number who shall be accounted wise, who shall "shine as the brightness of the firmament," and "as the stars for ever and ever." Daniel 12:3.
------------------------Are We Guilty? October 4
OHC	283	1	Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15.
OHC	283	2	It is an alarming fact that the love of the world predominates in the minds of the young. They decidedly love the world and the things that are in the world, and for this very reason the love of God finds no room in their hearts. Their pleasures are found in the world, and in the things of the world, and they are strangers to the Father and the graces of His Spirit. Frivolity and fashion, and empty, vain talking and laughing, characterize the life of the youth generally, and God is dishonored....
OHC	283	3	Satan is gratified to have the attention of youth attracted by anything to divert their minds from God.... They are not aware that the heavenly Artist is taking cognizance of every act, every word, ... and that even the thoughts and intents of the heart stand faithfully delineated.... Those vain, frivolous words are all written in the book. Those false words are written. Those deceptive acts, with the motives concealed from human eyes, but discerned by the all-seeing eye of Jehovah, are all written in living characters. Every selfish act is exposed. The young generally conduct themselves as though the precious hours of probation, while mercy lingers, were one grand holiday, and that they are placed in this world simply for their own amusement.
OHC	283	4	Words and acts testify plainly what is in the heart. If vanity and pride, love of self and love of dress, fill the heart, the conversation will be upon the fashions, the dress, and the appearance, but not upon Christ or the kingdom of heaven. If envious feelings dwell in the heart, the same will be manifested in words and acts....
OHC	283	5	Some dwell upon what they shall eat and drink and wherewithal they shall be clothed. Their hearts are filled with these thoughts, and they flow out from the abundance of the heart, as though these things were their grand aim in life, their highest attainment. They forget the words of Christ, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 6:33.
------------------------The Only Safe Amusements, October 5
OHC	284	1	They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. Psalm 36:8.
OHC	284	2	The enemy seeks in many ways to draw our minds from the study of the Word. Many he leads to seek for satisfaction in amusements and pleasures that seem desirable to the carnal heart. But the true children of God are not seeking their happiness in this world; they seek for the lasting joys of a home in the eternal city, where Christ dwells, and where the redeemed shall receive the rewards of obedience to the requirements of God. These do not desire the transitory, cheap amusements of this life, but the enduring bliss of heaven.
OHC	284	3	God has entrusted men and women with great powers--powers that He would have to be devoted to His service; and precious is the light that comes to every one who faithfully uses his talents for the glory of God. We should endeavor to have our minds in that condition where we can receive the impressions of the Holy Spirit. But they cannot receive increased light who allow their thoughts to run constantly upon frivolous things. The mind should be stored with heavenly treasure, with food that will enable us to grow spiritually, and thus prepare us for a holy heaven....
OHC	284	4	There are many ways in which we may help our associates, if we will give our minds to it. But it fills me with sorrow when I see plans laid for amusement and self-gratification. As these occupy the mind, there is no opportunity for the precious truth of God to take possession of the soul. When I see those whose interests are given to the amusements of the world, how I wish that they might be converted. Then they would see where they could help others, instead of devoting their time and energy to self-gratification. They would find opportunity for speaking words that would encourage, and would bring light and joy to souls in need of such help.
OHC	284	5	The only safe amusements are such as will not banish serious and religious thoughts; the only safe places of resort are those to which we can take Jesus with us.
------------------------Breaking the World's Enchantment, October 6
OHC	285	1	And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2:17.
OHC	285	2	The lessons of Christ are of that character to show the relative importance of heaven and earth. He presents before the mind's eye that the claims of heaven are first in importance. God's claims are supreme. He demands the whole heart, mind, might, and strength. Earthly things He assigns their place, to be subordinate to the eternal interests.
OHC	285	3	The temptations of Satan present earthly things and make them all-absorbing and attractive, so that the heavenly realities are eclipsed and the attachment to the world made first; and this has become so great a power that Omnipotence alone can dislodge it. Satan's work is to chain the senses to this world. Christ came to break the satanic enchantment, counterwork the work of Satan, and charm the mind away from the earthly to the heavenly. He alone is able to break the enchantment.... A few years and the world and all its glory, which has through the bewitching power of the great deceiver become an object of worship, are to be burned, with all the embellishments of the art of man. Then what will be found to compensate for the loss of the human soul?
OHC	285	4	The Prince of life calls the attention to the eternal world.... He would have the infinite grandeur of the future hold the attraction of human minds, and the present world take its subordinate place in the affections. He sets in order things that Satan has transposed. Having taken the world from the throne where it has become a ruling power and worshiped as a god, He assigns it its proper place....
OHC	285	5	With eternal realities in view we will habitually cultivate thoughts of the presence of God. This will be a shield against the incoming of the enemy; it will give strength and assurance, and lift the soul above fear. Breathing in the atmosphere of heaven, we will not be breathing the malaria of the world. We will not remain in the darkened cellar, but come up into the upper chambers where every window that looks toward heaven is open and catches the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
------------------------First Things First, October 7
OHC	286	1	Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? Matthew 6:31.
OHC	286	2	The Lord would not have any one of us be presumptuous, care not for health, and make no provision whatever for a sustenance; but when He sees the world taking all the thoughts and absorbing all the affections, He sees that eternal realities are lost sight of. He would correct this evil, which is the work of Satan. The mind, which should be trained to high, elevated contemplation of eternal realities, becomes common, bearing the image of the earthly. Jesus comes to present the advantages and beautiful imagery of the heavenly, that the attractions of heaven shall become familiar to the thoughts, and memory's hall be hung with pictures of celestial and eternal loveliness.
OHC	286	3	He sees the chambers of the mind filled with those things which defile. He places God before them as the center.... He passes through the market places, where everything is full of activity and bustle, and the voice of the traders is heard. The lessons He gives in the dense crowd that gathers to listen to His words are a warning from heaven like the trump of God to break the spell of infatuation. "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall he give in exchange for his soul?" Mark 8:36, 37.
OHC	286	4	The great Teacher gives man a view of the future world. He brings it, with its attractive possessions, within the range of his vision.... He presents the actual claims of God and heaven. If He can fasten the mind upon the future life and its blessedness, in comparison with the temporal concerns of this world, the striking contrast is deeply impressed upon the mind, absorbing the heart and soul and the whole being. He thus removes the things of time and sense from the affections where they have had the supremacy, and gives them their place as subordinate to the higher and eternal realities. He invests life with the highest responsibilities. He shows man that he must live to a purpose, separating from all life's vanities.
------------------------Subject to God's Call, October 8
OHC	287	1	And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23.
OHC	287	2	Genuine self-denial will be practiced by all who follow Christ. Judas undertook to follow Christ, and at the same time to carry out his selfish, covetous plans. He had the same privileges as had the other disciples. He had the same privileges of hearing the lessons of Christ, which plainly presented practical godliness; but he was not always pleased with the plain truth. It cut him, and instead of taking up personal labor with Judas Iscariot, he found fault with the words and works of Christ, and criticized His plain teachings. Instead of being transformed in character, he was cultivating self-love, self-esteem, and the love of money.
OHC	287	3	To live for self is to perish. Covetousness, the desire of benefit for self's sake, cuts the soul off from life. It is the spirit of Satan to get, to draw to self. It is the spirit of Christ to give, to sacrifice self for the good of others.
OHC	287	4	There can be no self-seeking in the life of him who follows the Saviour. The true Christian banishes all selfishness from his heart. How can he live for self as he thinks of Christ hanging on the cross, giving His life for the life of the world? In your behalf Jesus died a death of shame. Are you willing to consecrate yourself to His service? to hold yourself ready to be or to do anything He may require? Are you willing to put self aside, and speak a word of warning to the companion you see yielding to Satan's temptations? Are you willing to sacrifice some of your plans for the sake of trying to lead him in safe paths? Many youth are in peril who might be saved if Christians would manifest toward them a loving, unselfish interest....
OHC	287	5	The true Christian works unselfishly and untiringly for the Master. He does not seek ease or self-gratification, but holds all, even life itself, subject to God's call. And to him are spoken the words, "He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Matthew 10:39.
------------------------Heaven Cheap at Any Price, October 9
OHC	288	1	And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:27.
OHC	288	2	It is too true that the great mass who possess ability and talent do not choose to travel the Christian road. Are their talent and ability too precious to devote to the Giver, the Lord of heaven and earth? ...
OHC	288	3	Many would be followers of Christ if He would come down from the cross and appear to them in such a manner as they desire. If He would come with riches and pleasure, many would receive Him gladly and would be in haste to crown Him Lord of all. If He would only lay aside His humiliation and sufferings and cry, "If any man will come after Me, let him please himself and enjoy the world and he shall be My disciple," multitudes would believe on Him.
OHC	288	4	But the blessed Jesus will come to us in no other character than the meek and lowly Crucified One. We must partake of His self-denial and suffering here if we would take the crown hereafter....
OHC	288	5	The Word of God has not widened the narrow way, and if the multitude have found a path where they can wear a form of godliness and not bear the cross or suffer tribulation, they have found a way where our Saviour did not walk and they follow another example than that which Christ set before us. Is it not enough that Jesus left the felicity and glory of heaven, endured a life of poverty and deep affliction, and died a cruel, shameful death to provide for us the joys of holiness and heaven? And can it be that we, the worthless objects of so great a condescension and love, will seek after a better portion in this life than was given to our Redeemer?
OHC	288	6	How easy would be the way to heaven if there was no self-denial or cross! How worldlings would rush in the way, and hypocrites would travel in it without number! Thank God for the cross, the self-denial. The ignominy and shame our Saviour endured for us is none too humiliating for those saved by the purchase of His blood. Heaven will indeed be cheap enough.
------------------------Talents for Everyone, October 10
OHC	289	1	For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Matthew 25:14, 15.
OHC	289	2	God has not given talents to merely a chosen few, but to everyone He has committed some peculiar gift to be used in His service. Many to whom the Lord has given precious talents have refused to employ them for the advancement of the kingdom of God; nevertheless, they are under obligation to God for their use of His gifts. Everyone, whether serving God or pleasing himself, is a possessor of some trust, whose proper use will bring glory to God and whose perverted use will rob the Giver....
OHC	289	3	The human family is composed of responsible moral agents, and from the highest and most gifted to the lowest and most obscure, all are invested with the goods of heaven. Time is an entrusted gift of God, and is to be diligently employed in the service of Christ. Influence is a gift of God, and is to be exerted for the forwarding of the highest, noblest purposes.... Intellect is an entrusted talent. Sympathy and affection are talents to be sacredly guarded and improved, that we may render service to Him whose purchased possession we are.
OHC	289	4	All that we are or can be belongs to God. Education, discipline, and skill in every line should be used for Him. The capital is His, and the improvement is the usury that rightfully belongs to the Master. Whether the amount entrusted is large or small, the Lord requires that His householders do their best. It is not the amount entrusted or the improvement made that brings to men the approbation of Heaven, but it is the faithfulness, the loyalty to God, the loving service rendered, that brings the divine benediction, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." Verse 23. This reward of joy does not wait until our entrance into the city of God, but the faithful servant has a foretaste of it even in this life.
------------------------How are you Using your Talents? October 11
OHC	290	1	Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his Lord's money. Matthew 25:16-18.
OHC	290	2	The knowledge of the truth is altogether too precious to be hoarded up, and bound about, and hid in the earth. Even the one talent entrusted by the Master is to be faithfully employed....
OHC	290	3	God pronounces His blessing upon unselfish, unwearied diligence; and though we may have but one talent, and can make but a small investment, yet God will make the effort fruitful in results. The man who works in faith will realize that his intellect, his affections, his whole power, belongs to God, and he will seek to make diligent use of his powers, and will improve his faculties and talents. But, instead of realizing that all our faculties belong to God, how many are reckless, little thinking that their influence, their cheap, light words, are molding the characters of those with whom they associate, and bringing down their minds to a low level....
OHC	290	4	The atmosphere that surrounds the soul is fraught with influence for good or evil.... It may be full of poison and malaria, or be fragrant and pure and health giving. This moral influence will be according to our connection with Christ or our separation from Him, who is light and life. Those who are united with Christ will realize that He has given them trusts according to their several ability; and, whatever their surroundings, they will consider them favorable for the development of moral character. We are to make the most of every advantage and opportunity.... We must train and improve our ability that we may not disappoint our Master, but reach the highest possible standard, and thus influence others to follow in the footsteps of our Example. We may say, "Neither society nor intimate companions must have their ideas of Christian character cheapened by my course of action"....
OHC	290	5	What are you doing with your talents? Are you putting them out to the exchangers?
------------------------Speech a Precious Talent, October 12
OHC	291	1	By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Matthew 12:37.
OHC	291	2	God has given every youth the talent of speech to be improved for Him. This is a most important trust.... Let your words be life-giving, pointing those around you to the Saviour. Let them bring sunshine instead of gloom, harmony instead of animosity. Say nothing that you would not be willing to say in the presence of Jesus and the angels. Utter no word that will stir up strife in another heart. However provoked you may feel, restrain the hasty word. If you are Christlike in speech and action, those who associate with you will be blessed by the association. Righteous words and deeds have a more powerful influence for good than all the sermons that can be preached.
OHC	291	3	Let us guard against speaking words that discourage. Let us resolve never to engage in evilspeaking and backbiting. Let us refuse to serve Satan by implanting seeds of doubt. Let us guard against cherishing unbelief, or expressing it to others. Many, many times I have wished that there might be circulated a pledge containing a solemn promise to speak only those words that are pleasing to God. There is a great need for such a pledge as there is for one against the use of intoxicating liquor. Let us begin to discipline the tongue, remembering always that we can do this only by disciplining the mind, for "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Matthew 12:34.
OHC	291	4	Through the help that Christ can give, we shall be able to learn to bridle the tongue. Sorely as He was tried on the point of hasty and angry speech, He never once sinned with His lips. With patient calmness He met the sneers, the taunts, and the ridicule of His fellow workers at the carpenter's bench. Instead of retorting angrily, He would begin to sing one of David's beautiful psalms; and His companions, before realizing what they were doing, would unite with Him in the hymn. What a transformation would be wrought in this world if men and women today would follow Christ's example in the use of words!
------------------------An Index to Character, October 13
OHC	292	1	Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. Ephesians 5:4.
OHC	292	2	A man's character may be quite accurately estimated by the nature of his conversation.... Those who jest and joke and indulge in cheap conversation place themselves upon a level where Satan can gain access to them.... When you associate together, you may be a help and a blessing one to another if you surround yourselves with an influence that is divine. But there are those who have grave defects, which are gaining a deeper hold upon them and which if not overcome will drive the Spirit of God out of the heart.... Jesting and joking may please a class of cheap minds, and yet the influence of this kind of conduct is destructive to spirituality. I speak to you as a class and also as individuals: Guard your words. Let sobriety and sound common sense characterize your conversation. Do not trifle with the purity and nobility of your souls by condescending to indulgence in stale jokes, and in cultivating habits of trifling conversation.
OHC	292	3	The requirement of God is explicit on these points, and presents before you the obligations that rest upon you as children of God. The Word of God says, "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." Colossians 3:17.
OHC	292	4	O that every one of our youth would realize the evil of foolish conversation, and correct the habit of speaking idle words! Let every one who has indulged in this sin repent of it, confess it before God, and put it far from him. In speaking foolish words, you have dishonored the name of Christ; for you have misrepresented Him in character. No word of guile was found in His lips, no word of prevarication or falsehood. The people that are described as making up the one hundred and forty-four thousand, have the Father's name written in their foreheads, and of them it is said: "In their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God." Revelation 14:5.
------------------------When Silence is Eloquence, October 14
OHC	293	1	He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends. Proverbs 17:9.
OHC	293	2	The psalmist asks, "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour." When anyone comes to you with a tale about your neighbor, you should refuse to hear it. You should say to him, "Have you spoken of this matter to the individual concerned?" ... Tell him he should obey the Bible rule, and go first to his brother, and tell him his fault privately, and in love. If the directions of God were carried out, the floodgates of gossip would be closed.
OHC	293	3	When your brethren and neighbors come in to see you, talk of the wonderful love of Jesus. Rejoice in His intercession for lost man. Tell your friends of the love that you have for their souls, because they are the purchase of the blood of Christ. God forbid that we should make the pathway of other weary travelers harder by magnifying their errors, and by sitting in judgment upon their actions. God help us, that we may speak words of comfort and hope and courage to cheer the life of the lonely, and discouraged, and erring.
OHC	293	4	When you are tempted to speak unadvisedly, be on guard. If some one else approaches you with words of criticism regarding one of God's children, turn a deaf ear to every such word. If you are spoken to harshly, never retaliate. Utter not a word. When under provocation, remember that "silence in eloquence." Silence is the greatest rebuke that you can possibly give to a faultfinder or one whose temper is irritated.
OHC	293	5	It should be our aim to bring all the pleasantness possible into our lives, and to do all the kindness possible to those around us. Kind words are never lost. Jesus records them as if spoken to Himself. Sow the seeds of kindness, of love, and of tenderness, and they will blossom and bear fruit.
------------------------Words that Bring Sunshine and Joy, October 15
OHC	294	1	Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Colossians 4:6.
OHC	294	2	The talent of speech was given to be used for the benefit of all. Pleasant, cheery words cost no more than unpleasant, moody words. Sharp words wound and bruise the soul. In this life everyone has difficulties with which to wrestle. Everyone meets with grievances and disappointments. Shall we not bring sunshine instead of gloom into the lives of those with whom we come in contact? Shall we not speak words that will help and bless? Such words will be just as verily a blessing to us as to those to whom they are spoken.
OHC	294	3	Parents, allow no faultfinding in your home. Teach your children to speak pleasant words, words that will bring sunshine and joy. Angels are not attracted to a home where discord reigns. Bring practical godliness into the home. Prepare yourselves and your children for entrance into the city of God. Angels will be your helpers. Satan will tempt you, but do not yield. Do not speak one word of which the enemy can take advantage.
OHC	294	4	Day by day we are sowing seeds for the future harvest. We cannot be too careful of the seed we sow by our words. Often words are carelessly spoken and forgotten, but these words, for good or ill, will bring forth a harvest. Sow one unkind, harsh word, and this seed, finding soil in the minds of the hearers, will spring up to bear fruit after its kind. Sow one seed in loving, gentle, Christlike words, and it will bring you rich returns. Let us guard ourselves, lest we speak words that are not a blessing, but a curse. If we sow wheat we shall reap wheat; if we sow tares we shall reap tares; and the harvest, whether of wheat or of tares, will be sure and abundant.
OHC	294	5	"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Galatians 6:7. The harvest is sure. No frost shall blight it, no palmer worm destroy it.
OHC	294	6	God calls upon His children to guard their words.
------------------------Words Like Apples of Gold, October 16
OHC	295	1	A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Proverbs 25:11.
OHC	295	2	Some are seen to come forth from their daily communion with God clothed with the meekness of Christ. Their words ... come forth sweetly from their lips. They scatter seeds of love and kindness all along their path, ... because Christ lives in their heart.
OHC	295	3	The tongue needs to be educated and disciplined and trained to speak of the glories of heaven, to talk of the matchless love of Jesus.
OHC	295	4	There are souls who err, and who feel their shame and their folly. They are hungry for words of encouragement. They look upon their mistakes and errors until they are almost driven to desperation. Instead of ... reproving and condemning and taking away the last ray of hope that the Sun of Righteousness sheds into their hearts, let your words fall as healing balm upon the bruised soul. Be not like desolating hail that beats down and destroys the tender hope springing up in the hearts. Leave not the hungry, starving soul in his helplessness to perish because you fail to speak words of tenderness and encouragement.
OHC	295	5	The most persuasive eloquence is the word that is spoken in love and sympathy. Such words will bring light to confused minds and hope to the discouraged, brightening the prospect before them. The time in which we live calls for vital, sanctified energy; for earnestness, zeal, and the tenderest sympathy and love; for words that will not increase misery, but will inspire faith and hope. We are homeward bound, seeking a better country, even an heavenly. Instead of speaking words which will rankle in the breasts of those that hear, shall we not speak of the love wherewith God hath loved us? Shall we not try to lighten the hearts of those around us by words of Christlike sympathy?
OHC	295	6	Those who love Jesus Christ will contemplate His character, meditate upon His words, practice His precepts, and become living missionaries. The words they speak will be like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
------------------------Christians Like the Sunlight, October 17
OHC	296	1	Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1.
OHC	296	2	It is the privilege of the Christian to connect with the Source of light, and through this living connection become the light of the world. Christ's true followers will walk in the light as He is in the light, and therefore they will not travel in an uncertain way, stumbling because they walk in darkness. The Great Teacher is impressing upon His hearers the blessing which they may be to the world, represented as the sun rising in the east, dispelling the mist and shadows of darkness. The dawn gives place to day. The sun, gilding, tinting, and then glorifying the heavens with its blaze of light is a symbol of the Christian life. As the light of the sun is light and life and blessing to all that live, so should Christians, by their good works, by their cheerfulness and courage, be the light of the world. As the light of the sun chases away the shades of night and pours its glories on valleys and hills, so will the Christian reflect the Sun of Righteousness which shines on him.
OHC	296	3	Before the consistent lives of Christ's true followers, ignorance, superstition, and darkness will pass away, as the sun dispels the gloom of night. In like manner the disciples of Jesus will go into the dark places of the earth, disseminating the light of truth until the pathway of those in darkness shall be illuminated by the light of truth. In what contrast to this is the life of the professed child of God who is as the salt without the savor.... These sunless professors are shadows of darkness.... All may be channels of light if they will connect with the Source of light. They can communicate the bright rays of light to the world. None need strengthen unbelief by talking darkness. Every expression of doubt strengthens unbelief. Every thought and word of hope, courage, light, and love strengthens faith and fortifies the soul to withstand the moral darkness that exists in the world.
OHC	296	4	True Christians are a savor of life unto life, because Christ abides in their hearts. Reflecting His image, they are children of the light.
------------------------Let Your Light Shine, October 18
OHC	297	1	Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16.
OHC	297	2	To every soul born into Christ's kingdom is given a solemn charge, Let your light so shine before men that they, by seeing your good works, shall glorify your Father which is in heaven. Pour forth upon your neighbors the rich rays of light received from the Sun of Righteousness; flash upon your friends in the world the bright gems of light and truth imparted to you abundantly from the throne of God. This is trading upon the talents entrusted. Go on from light to a greater light, catching more and more the bright beams from the Sun of Righteousness, and shine more and more unto the perfect day.
OHC	297	3	Jesus does not bid the Christian to strive to shine, but just to let his light shine in clear and distinct rays to the world. Do not blanket your light. Do not sinfully withhold your light. Do not let the mist and fog and malaria of the world put out your light. Do not hide it under a bed or under a bushel, but set it on a candlestick, that it may give light to all that are in the house.... God bids you shine, penetrating the moral darkness of the world.
OHC	297	4	Many do not know what is the matter with them. They want light and see no ray. They are calling for help and they hear no response. Shall doubt and unbelief be perpetuated because I do not gather the divine rays of light from Jesus Christ and let them shine forth to others? ...
OHC	297	5	The deep struggles of my own soul against temptations, the earnest longings of my mind and heart to know God and Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour, and to have assurance, peace, and rest in their love, lead me to desire every day to be where the beams of the Sun of Righteousness can shine upon me. Without this experience, I shall indeed meet with great loss, and all with whom I associate will be affected by the loss of the light I ought to be receiving from the Source of all light and comfort, and to be flashing into their pathway. Shall I be indeed a light unto the world, or a shadow of darkness?
------------------------Faithful Where You Are, October 19
OHC	298	1	And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15.
OHC	298	2	Preaching the gospel includes more than sermonizing; and the work is not confined to the ministry. Thousands are idle who should be working in various ways for the salvation of souls.
OHC	298	3	Many feel stirred with an ambition to minister to others. Let them learn to walk humbly with God, to be doers of His Word where they are. Let them learn to be obedient, to serve in whatever capacity they may. Let them learn to do the humblest work, and to realize that they are serving Christ in whatever circumstances they may be placed. In doing humble physical work, you may reveal the fact that God is with you, and that you are trading upon the talents He has entrusted to you. Right where you are, opportunities and privileges will present themselves to you, and if you are seeking to serve Christ, you will see and improve them. In the humblest situations you will find occasions for the exercise of firm integrity and fidelity; and if faithful in serving God in the lowest place, you will be entrusted with higher responsibilities. If you are faithful in a few things, your faithfulness will testify that you are a student in the school of Christ, and that you are cultivating your ability to serve Him in larger fields.
OHC	298	4	We are nearing the close of this earth's history; soon we shall stand before the great white throne. Your opportunities for work will soon be past. Therefore work while it is called today. With the help of God, every true believer can see where there is work to be done. When the human will cooperates with the will of God, it becomes omnipotent, and the worker can make opportunities. Watch for the souls with whom you come in contact. Watch for opportunities to speak a word in season to them. Do not wait for an introduction, or until you become acquainted with them, before you seek to save the perishing souls around you. If you will go to work in earnest, ways will open before you for the accomplishment of this work. Lean upon the divine arm for wisdom, strength, and skill for the work that God has given you to do.
------------------------Character of Christ's Ambassadors, October 20
OHC	299	1	Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20.
OHC	299	2	Every true Christian will feel that he has something to do for the salvation of souls.
OHC	299	3	When you approach the stranger, when you stand face to face with the impenitent, the afflicted, the soul-needy, the Lord is by your side if you have indeed given yourself to Him. He makes the impression on the heart. But you may be the instrument for His gracious work....
OHC	299	4	The advocates of truth must hide in Jesus; He is their greatness, their power and efficiency. They must love souls as He loved them, be obedient as He was, be courteous, full of sympathy. They should war with all their power against the least defect of character in themselves. They must represent Jesus. In every act let Him appear.
OHC	299	5	He who can read the hearts of men ... knows the atmosphere surrounding every soul. He knows how many and fierce are the struggles of the human soul to overcome the natural hereditary tendencies and the sins which have become common through habit of repetition.... Thousands ... are exposed to Satan's masterly temptations, and are without a knowledge of God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent into the world to save the chiefest sinners. Oh, why do we not discern our part of the work in the great plan of redemption? ...
OHC	299	6	In every truly converted soul there will be genuine, sanctified sympathy with the suffering of Christ, endured by Him to save the sinful. They will, if colaborers with Christ, overcome selfish ease, selfish gratification, selfish indulgence, and will grow in spiritual sinew and muscle by exercising the powers given them of God to win souls to Jesus Christ. This heaven-appointed work is calculated to give breadth and depth and stability to Christian experience and character, and to bring the laborers together with God into a higher, purer atmosphere where their love for Christ will be ever increasing and their love for their fellow men will abound more and more.
------------------------Do I Rightly Represent my Lord? October 21
OHC	300	1	Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen. Isaiah 43:10.
OHC	300	2	If believers associate with unbelievers for the purpose of winning them to Christ, they will be witnesses for Christ, and having fulfilled their mission, will withdraw themselves in order to breathe in a pure and holy atmosphere. They will draw near to God, and send up earnest petitions to Christ in behalf of their friends and associates, knowing that He is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.
OHC	300	3	When in the society of unbelievers, ever remember that in character you are a representative of Jesus Christ, and let no light and trifling words, no cheap conversation, be upon your lips. Keep in mind the value of the soul, and remember that it is your privilege and your duty to be in every possible way a laborer together with God. You are not to lower yourself to the same level as that of unbelievers, and laugh, and make the same cheap speeches. In thus doing you ... make yourself one with the sinner. This manner of conduct will only make you a stumbling block in the way of sinners....
OHC	300	4	When the Holy Spirit moves upon the heart, we should cooperate with its molding influence, and we shall have noble aspirations, a clear perception of truth, meekness, teachableness, and will perform our duty with humility. This is the way in which you will become better acquainted with God, and acquaintance with God is the privilege of the Christian. Then you can labor for those who are unconverted, and the society of unbelievers will do you no harm, because your life is hid with Christ in God, and you seek the companionship of those who are out of Christ for the purpose of winning them to His service. Your connection with God makes you strong spiritually, so that you can withstand any wrong influences which are exerted by them....
OHC	300	5	Be sure to place yourself in the channel of light, and to be a practical follower of Him who went about "doing good."
------------------------Planting Seeds of Truth, October 22
OHC	301	1	In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. Ecclesiastes 11:6.
OHC	301	2	As professing children of God, we are under solemn obligation to seek and to save the lost.... God wants you to associate with believers and unbelievers, that you may help all to a fuller knowledge of the truth. Get acquainted with those whom you think you can help; then when you get into conversation with them do not talk of nothingness and folly, but tell of the precious things of God.... Angels of God will make impressions upon the mind, if in the spirit of Christ you will seek to reach and to help souls.
OHC	301	3	Wherever you are, let your light shine forth. Hand out papers and pamphlets to those with whom you associate, when you are riding on the cars, visiting, conversing with your neighbors; and improve every opportunity to speak a word in season....
OHC	301	4	We should cultivate kindliness and courtesy in our association with those whom we meet. Let us ... strive always to present the truth in an easy way. This truth means life, eternal life to the receiver. Study therefore to pass easily and courteously from subjects of a temporal nature to the spiritual and eternal.... While walking by the way, or seated by the wayside, you may drop into some heart the seed of truth.
OHC	301	5	There is work to be done for our Master. There are souls who may by our influence be led to Christ. Who is ready to engage in this work with all the heart? ...
OHC	301	6	"Thine is the seedtime; God alone Beholds the end of what is sown; Beyond our vision, weak and dim, The harvesttime is hid with Him; Yet unforgotten where it lies, The seed of generous sacrifice, Though seeming on the desert cast, Shall rise with bloom and fruit at last."
------------------------Watch, Pray, Work, October 23
OHC	302	1	I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. John 9:4.
OHC	302	2	Could the ledger of Heaven be opened before us, we would be greatly astonished at the large proportion of professing Christians who really contribute nothing toward the upbuilding of Christ's kingdom, who put forth no efforts for the salvation of souls. Such are slothful servants. Many who are satisfied not to do much good, flatter themselves that they are doing no harm so long as they do not oppose the earnest, active workers. But this class are doing much harm by their example....
OHC	302	3	The slothful servant was not condemned for what he had done, but for what he had not done. There is no more dangerous enemy to the cause of God than an indolent Christian. An open profaner does less harm, for he deceives no one; he appears what he is, a brier, a thorn. The do-nothings are the greatest hindrance. Those who will not bear burdens, who shun all disagreeable responsibilities, are the first to be taken in Satan's snare, the first to lend their influence to a wrong course.
OHC	302	4	Watch, pray, work--these are the Christian's watchwords. Let none excuse themselves from labor for the salvation of souls. Let none deceive themselves into the belief that nothing is required of them. No less is required of any than was expected of the man with one talent.
OHC	302	5	There is work to be done for Christ in our families, in our neighborhoods, everywhere. By kindness to the poor, the sick, or the bereaved, we may obtain an influence over them, so that divine truth may find access to their hearts. Opportunities for usefulness are on every hand. All who are imbued with the spirit of Christ will show themselves to be fruit-bearing branches of the living Vine....
OHC	302	6	It is ours to make the record which we desire to meet hereafter. Would we have its pages filled with the history of earnest work for God and humanity? Let us follow in the footsteps of Him who declared, "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work." John 9:4.
------------------------"To Every Man His Work", October 24
OHC	303	1	For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Mark 13:34.
OHC	303	2	We have a personal work, an individual responsibility, a personal account to render, and it is our own salvation we must secure, for it is a matter of individual concern.... The piety and obedience of others will not save us or be doing our work. Their efforts will never be registered against our names as ours....
OHC	303	3	God has left to every one of us our work--not the temporal labor as planting, sowing, reaping, and gathering in the harvest, but to build up His kingdom, to bring souls to the knowledge of the truth, and to regard this as our first and highest duty. God has claims upon us. He has endowed us with capabilities and given us opportunities, if we will see them and improve them. These obligations to God none but ourselves, individually, can meet. The delinquencies of others ... will be no excuse for any one to follow their example, because Christ is lifted up as the only true Pattern--faultless, pure, uncorrupted....
OHC	303	4	There are those who associate together to do evil and seem to think in this they lose their individual responsibility. But God holds them accountable for every act performed that has the slightest tendency to counteract the work of Christ; whether they are united with many or with the few, the sin is the same. We are individually responsible. We ourselves should be our concern. Are we in all our words and actions building up the kingdom of Christ, or are we tearing down? Christ says to each one of us, "Follow me." Then let us be found followers of Jesus Christ.
OHC	303	5	Now is our time to work. Now is the time for us to form characters after the divine Model.... If we know Christ, we shall reveal Him to others. "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." John 17:18. He came into the world to represent the Father; and the work He has given us is to represent His character. We cannot be excused from doing this work.
------------------------A Little Church in the Home, October 25
OHC	304	1	Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. Mark 5:19.
OHC	304	2	In forming a relationship with Christ, the renewed man is but coming back to his appointed relationship with God. He is a representative of Christ.... His duties lie around him, nigh and afar off. His first duty is to his children and his nearest relatives. Nothing can excuse him from neglecting the inner circle for the larger circle outside. In the day of final reckoning fathers and mothers will be required to answer in regard to their children. Parents will be asked what they did and said to secure the salvation of the souls they took upon themselves the responsibility of bringing into the world....
OHC	304	3	Fathers and mothers, are you allowing your children to grow up in impurity and sin? A great good done for others will not cancel the debt you owe to God to care for your children. The spiritual welfare of your family comes first. Take them with you to the cross of Calvary, laboring for them as those that must give an account.
OHC	304	4	Parents should seek to gain the cooperation of their children. Thus children can become laborers together with God. Some households have a little church in their home. Mutual love binds heart to heart, and the unity that exists among the members of the family preaches the most effectual sermon that could be preached on practical godliness.
OHC	304	5	As parents faithfully do their duty in the family, restraining, correcting, advising, counseling, guiding, the father as priest of the household, the mother as a home missionary, they are filling the sphere God would have them fill. By faithfully doing their duty in the home, they are multiplying agencies for doing good outside the home. They are becoming better fitted to labor in the church. By training their little flock discreetly, binding their children to themselves and to God, fathers and mothers become laborers together with God.... The members of the family become members of the royal family above, children of the heavenly King.
------------------------No Middle Ground in God's Service, October 26
OHC	305	1	He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Matthew 12:30.
OHC	305	2	My fellow Christians, we are far from reaching the divine standard. Our works do not correspond with our privileges and opportunities....
OHC	305	3	In the service of God there is no middle ground.... Let none expect to make a compromise with the world, and yet enjoy the blessing of the Lord. Let God's people come out from this world, and be separate. Let us seek more earnestly to know and do the will of our Father in heaven. Let the light of truth which has shone upon us be so received that its bright rays may go forth from us to the world. Let unbelievers see that the faith we hold makes us better men and better women; that it is a living reality, sanctifying the character, transforming the life.... Let our conversation be upon heavenly things. Let us surround ourselves with an atmosphere of Christian cheerfulness. Let us show that our religion can stand the test of trial. Let us by our kindness, forbearance, and love prove to the world the power of our faith.
OHC	305	4	Many who set out well in the Christian life are losing spiritual strength, and placing themselves in the enemy's power, by their indulgence in vain and trifling conversation. They cannot look up to God with holy confidence to ask for needed strength. By their irreligious course they bar the way of souls that might have come to Christ. Let these careless triflers remember that every word and act is photographed in the books of heaven. No human hand can erase one disgraceful blot....
OHC	305	5	As we are daily brought in contact with those who have not a knowledge of Christ and the truth, shall we talk only of our farms, our merchandise, our gains and losses; or shall we speak of those things which concern our future life? Shall we seek to win souls to Jesus? Oh, what shameful neglect of duty stands registered against the professed followers of Christ! Let us earnestly examine ourselves by the light of God's Word, seeking to discover every defect of character, that we may wash our robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb.
------------------------Rewards of Service, October 27
OHC	306	1	It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Lamentations 3:27.
OHC	306	2	The Lord calls for young men and women to enter His service. The youth are receptive, fresh, ardent, hopeful. When once they have tasted the spirit of self-sacrifice, they will not be satisfied unless they are learning constantly of the great Teacher....
OHC	306	3	As we work in connection with the great Teacher, our experience improves. The faculties of the mind are enlarged. The conscience is under divine guidance. Christ takes the entire being under His control. We are safe only as we allow Him to do this; for there is another close by, watching for an opportunity to come in and begin his destructive, ensnaring work. Then, as we enter the service of God, let Him take possession of the whole being, body, soul, and spirit....
OHC	306	4	No one can be truly united to Christ, practicing His lessons, submitting to His yoke of restraint, without realizing that which he can never express in words. New, rich thoughts come to him. Light is given to the intellect, determination to the will, tenderness to the conscience, purity to the imagination.
OHC	306	5	Young men and women who are truly converted will depart from all iniquity.... If they see the offensive character of sin, and hate it as the vile thing it is, and come to Jesus in contrition, purifying their souls by obedience to the truth, then they may be entrusted with some part in the work....
OHC	306	6	God reads the heart, He weighs the character, and is acquainted with every man's work. He gives His Spirit in proportion to the consecration and self-sacrifice manifested by those who engage in His work.
OHC	306	7	The youth are strong. They are not worn down with the weight of years, and with cares. Their affections are ardent, and if they are withdrawn from the world, and placed upon Christ and heaven, doing the will of God, they will have a hope of the better life that is enduring, and they will abide forever, being crowned with glory, honor, immortality, eternal life.
------------------------Beware of Self-Confidence, October 28
OHC	307	1	Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice. John 13:37, 38.
OHC	307	2	Just before Peter's fall, Christ said to him, "Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." Luke 22:31. How true was the Saviour's friendship for Peter! how compassionate His warning! But the warning was resented. In self-sufficiency Peter declared confidently that he would never do what Christ had warned him against. "Lord," he said, "I am ready to go with thee to prison, and to death." His self-confidence proved his ruin. He tempted Satan to tempt him, and he fell under the arts of the wily foe. When Christ needed him most, he stood on the side of the enemy, and openly denied his Lord....
OHC	307	3	Many today stand where Peter stood when in self-confidence he declared that he would not deny his Lord. And because of their self-sufficiency, they fall an easy prey to Satan's devices. Those who realize their weakness trust in a power higher than self. And while they look to God, Satan has no power against them. But those who trust in self are easily defeated. Let us remember that if we do not heed the cautions that God gives us, a fall is before us. Christ will not save from wounds the one who places himself unbidden on the enemy's ground. He lets the self-sufficient one, who acts as if he knew more than his Lord, go on in his supposed strength. Then comes suffering and a crippled life or perhaps defeat and death.
OHC	307	4	In the warfare the enemy takes advantage of the weakest points in the defense of those he is attacking. Here he makes his fiercest assaults. The Christian should have no weak points in his defense. He should be barricaded by the support that the Scriptures give to the one who is doing God's will. The tempted soul will bear away the victory if he follows the example of Him who met the tempter with the word, "It is written." He can stand securely in the protection of a "Thus saith the Lord."
------------------------Energy in the Christian Race, October 29
OHC	308	1	Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 1 Corinthians 9:24, 25.
OHC	308	2	In order to render to God perfect service, we must have clear conceptions of His will. This will require us to use only healthful food, prepared in a simple manner, that the fine nerves of the brain be not injured, making it impossible for us to discern the value of the atonement, and the priceless worth of the cleansing blood of Christ....
OHC	308	3	If, for no higher object than a wreath or perishable crown as a reward of their ambition, men subjected themselves to temperance in all things, how much more should those who profess to be seeking, not only an unfading crown of immortal glory, but a life which is to endure as long as the throne of Jehovah, and riches that are eternal, honors which are imperishable, and an eternal weight of glory. Will not the inducements presented before those who are running in the Christian race, lead them to practice self-denial, and temperance in all things? ...
OHC	308	4	With earnestness and intensity of desire to do the will of God, we should excel the zeal of those who are engaged in any other enterprise, to a degree as much greater as the value of the object we are seeking to attain is higher. The treasure we are striving to secure is imperishable, immortal, and all-glorious; while that which the worldling is in pursuit of endures but a day....
OHC	308	5	May it not be our great anxiety to succeed in this world; but may the burden of our souls be, How shall I secure the better world? What have I to do to be saved? ... The position all must come into, is to value salvation dearer than earthly gain, to count everything but loss that they may win Christ. The consecration must be entire. God will admit of no reserve, of no divided sacrifice, no idol. All must die to self, and to the world. Then let us each renew our consecration to God daily. Everlasting life is worth a lifelong, persevering, untiring effort.
------------------------"Take Heed Unto Thyself", October 30
OHC	309	1	Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. 1 Timothy 4:16.
OHC	309	2	The charge given to Timothy should be heeded in every household, and become an educating power in every family and in every school....
OHC	309	3	The highest aim of our youth should not be to strain after something novel. There was none of this in the mind and work of Timothy. They should bear in mind that, in the hands of the enemy of all good, knowledge alone may be a power to destroy them. It was a very intellectual being, one who occupied a high position among the angelic throng, that finally became a rebel; and many a mind of superior intellectual attainments is now being led captive by his power. The youth should place themselves under the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, and weave them into their daily thoughts and practical life. Then they will possess the attributes classed as highest in the heavenly courts. They will hide themselves in God, and their lives will tell to His glory.
OHC	309	4	"Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine." Thyself needs the first attention. First give yourself to the Lord for sanctification to His service. A godly example will tell more for the truth than the greatest eloquence unaccompanied by a well-ordered life. Trim the lamp of the soul, and replenish it with the oil of the Spirit. Seek from Christ that grace, that clearness of comprehension, which will enable you to do successful work. Learn from Him what it means to labor for those for whom He gave His life. The most talented worker can do little unless Christ is formed within, the hope and strength of the life.
OHC	309	5	A noble, all-round manhood does not come by chance. It is the result of character building in the early years of youth, a practice of the law of God in the home.
OHC	309	6	God is waiting to inspire the youth with power from above, that all who stand under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ may work to call, to warn, and to lead souls into safe paths, and to plant the feet of many upon the Rock of Ages.
------------------------Laborers Together with God, October 31
OHC	310	1	For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
OHC	310	2	Man cannot be towed to heaven; he cannot go as a passive passenger. He must himself use the oars, and work as a laborer together with God.
OHC	310	3	If you think you can lay down the oars, and still make your way upstream, you are mistaken. It is only by earnest effort, by using the oars with all your might, that you can stem the current. How many there are as weak as water, when they have a never-failing Source of strength! Heaven is ready to impart to us, that we may be mighty in God, and attain the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. But who of you in the past year have been making progress in the way of holiness? ... Who have been enabled to gain one precious attainment after another, until envy, pride, malice, jealousy, and every evil stain have been swept away, and only the graces of the Spirit remain? ...
OHC	310	4	God will help us if we take hold of the help He has provided. "Let him take hold of my strength," He says, "that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." Isaiah 27:5. This is a blessed promise. Many times when I have been discouraged and almost in despair, I have come to the Lord with this promise.... And as I have laid hold of the strength of God, I have found a peace which passeth understanding.
OHC	310	5	There are two grand forces at work in the salvation of the human soul. It requires the cooperation of man with the divine agencies--divine influences, and a strong, living, working faith. It is in this way only that the human agent can become a laborer together with God. The Lord does not sanction in any one of us a blind, stupid credulity. He does not dishonor the human understanding, but, far from this, He calls for the human will to be brought into connection with the divine will. He calls for the ingenuity of the human mind, the tact, the skill, to be strenuously exercised in searching out the truth as it is in Jesus.... Ye are labourers together with God.
------------------------Have You Counted the Cost? November 1
OHC	311	1	In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33.
OHC	311	2	The world's Redeemer presents to His followers the plan of the battle in which they are called to engage, and He bids them count the cost. He assures them that angels who excel in strength shall be in His army, and will enable those who trust in Him to fight valiantly. One shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight--not through their own strength, but through the power of Omnipotence.... The Captain of the Lord's host is with them, taking the command of the armies, and leading them on to victory.
OHC	311	3	Because of their human frailty, because of their sinfulness, they may fear and tremble as they view the vast hosts of the powers of darkness; but they may rejoice as they look upon the angels of God ready to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. They may rejoice as they realize that the Captain of the Lord's host will lead them forward in every conflict against natural and supernatural foes.... Your Leader is a conqueror. Advance to victory....
OHC	311	4	How precious are these assurances that we shall never be left to take one step in our own finite strength, for He has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5. We are fighting in the presence of invisible hosts. Unseen intelligences survey the whole array of evil, and help is at hand. We shall not only be provided with that which is necessary but shall be placed upon vantage ground....
OHC	311	5	To every Christian comes the word that was addressed to Peter, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." Luke 22:31. Thank God we are not left alone. This is our safety. Satan can never touch with eternal disaster one whom Christ has prepared for temptation by His previous intercession; for grace is provided in Christ for every soul, and a way of escape has been made, so that no one need fall under the power of the enemy.
------------------------Will You Bear the Refiner's Fire? November 2
OHC	312	1	That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:7.
OHC	312	2	Gold is tried in the fire, that it may be purified from dross; but faith that is purified by trial, is more precious than refined gold. Then let us look upon trials in a reasonable way. Let us not come through them with murmuring and discontent. Let us not make mistakes in getting out of them. In times of trial we must cling to God and His promises.
OHC	312	3	Some have said to me, "Do you not get discouraged at times when you are under trial?" And I have answered, "Yes, if by discouragement you mean sad or cast down." "Didn't you talk to any one of your feelings?" "No; there is a time for silence, a time to keep the tongue as with a bridle, and I was determined to utter no word of doubt or darkness, to bring no shade of gloom upon those with whom I was associated. I have said to myself, I will bear the Refiner's fire; I shall not be consumed. When I speak, it shall be of light; it shall be of faith and hope in God; it shall be of righteousness, of goodness, of the love of Christ my Saviour; it shall be to direct the minds of others toward heaven and heavenly things, to Christ's work in heaven for us, and our work upon earth for Him."
OHC	312	4	The refining furnace is to remove the dross. When the Refiner sees His image reflected in you perfectly, He will remove you from the furnace. You will not be left to be consumed or to endure the fiery ordeal any longer than is necessary for your purification. But it is necessary for you, in order to reflect the divine image, to submit to the process the Refiner chooses for you, that you may be cleansed, purified, and every spot and blemish removed--not even a wrinkle left in your Christian character. May the Lord help you ... to choose to have the will and work of God accomplished in you.... Look up! Jesus lives. Jesus loves. Jesus pities, and He will receive you with all your burden of care and trouble if you will come to Him and lay your burden upon Him. He has promised He will never leave or forsake those who put their trust in Him.
------------------------Joy Through Suffering with Christ, November 3
OHC	313	1	Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:12, 13.
OHC	313	2	We do not always consider that the sanctification we so earnestly desire and for which we pray so earnestly is brought about through the truth and, by the providence of God, in a manner we least expect. When we look for joy, behold there is sorrow. When we expect peace, we frequently have distrust and doubt, because we find ourselves plunged into trials we cannot avoid. In these trials we are having the answers to our prayers. In order for us to be purified, the fire of affliction must kindle upon us, and our will must be brought into conformity to the will of God.... God sees it best to put us under a course of discipline which is essential for us before we are fit subjects for the blessing we crave.
OHC	313	3	We should not become discouraged and give way to doubt, and think that our prayers are not noticed. We should rely more securely upon Christ and leave our case with God to answer our prayers in His own way. God has not promised to bestow His blessings through the channels we have marked out.... The plans of God are always the best, although we may not always discern them. Perfection of Christian character can be obtained only through labor, conflict, and self-denial. We do not always count upon this, and do not consider the painful and often protracted process of purifying necessary for us in order that we may be conformed to the image of Christ. God frequently answers our prayers in a way we least expect. He brings us into positions which are the most trying, to reveal what is in our hearts. To further the development of Christian graces He will place us in circumstances which will demand increased exertion on our part to keep our faith in lively exercise.
OHC	313	4	Let us bear in mind how inestimably precious are the gifts of God--the graces of His Spirit--and we shall not shrink from the trying, testing process, be it ever so painful or humiliating to us.
------------------------Token of the Everlasting Covenant, November 4
OHC	314	1	And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. Genesis 9:16.
OHC	314	2	Some time ago, we were favored with a view of the most glorious rainbow we ever beheld. We have often visited galleries of art, and have admired the skill displayed by the artist in paintings representing God's great bow of promise. But here we saw the varied tints--crimson, purple, blue, green, silver, and golden, all perfectly blended by the great Master Artist. We were entranced as we looked upon this glorious picture in the heavens.
OHC	314	3	As we look upon this bow, the seal and sign of God's promise to man, that the tempest of His wrath should no more desolate our world by the waters of a flood, we contemplate that other than finite eyes are looking upon this glorious sight. Angels rejoice as they gaze upon this precious token of God's love to man. The world's Redeemer looks upon it; for it was through His instrumentality that this bow was made to appear in the heavens, as a token or covenant of promise to man. God Himself looks upon the bow in the clouds, and remembers His everlasting covenant between Himself and man.... The bow represents Christ's love which encircles the earth, and reaches unto the highest heavens, connecting men with God, and linking earth with heaven.
OHC	314	4	As we gaze upon the beautiful sight, we may be joyful in God, assured that He Himself is looking upon this token of His covenant, and that as He looks upon it He remembers the children of earth, to whom it was given. Their afflictions, perils, and trials are not hidden from Him. We may rejoice in hope, for the bow of God's covenant is over us. He never will forget the children of His care. How difficult for the mind of finite man to take in the peculiar love and tenderness of God, and His matchless condescension when He said, "I will look upon the bow in the cloud, and remember thee."
OHC	314	5	Oh, how easy for us to forget God, while He never forgets us; He visits us with His mercies every hour.
------------------------God Speaks Through the Silence, November 5
OHC	315	1	I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 1:9.
OHC	315	2	By permitting John to be banished to the Isle of Patmos, Christ placed His disciple in a position where he could receive the most precious truth for the enlightenment of the churches. He placed him in solitude, that his ear and his heart might be sanctified to receive this truth.... The persecution of John's enemies became a means of grace. Patmos was made resplendent by the glory of a risen Saviour.... What a Sabbath that was to the lonely exile! ... Never had he learned so much of Jesus. Never had he heard such exalted truth.
OHC	315	3	The worker for God often regards the activities of life as essential to the advancement of the work. Self is mingled with all that is said and done.... The worker looks upon himself as a necessity. God says, "This poor soul has lost sight of Me and My sufficiency. I must cast My light and My vitalizing power into his heart. I must prepare him to receive truth by anointing him with the heavenly eyesalve. He sees too many things. His eye is not fastened on Me...."
OHC	315	4	Sometimes the Lord makes His path to the soul by a process painful to humanity. He is compelled to fortify the soul against self-esteem and self-dependence, in order that the worker shall not regard the failings and infirmities of his unsanctified nature as virtues, and thus be ruined by self-exaltation.
OHC	315	5	If those who claim to believe the grand truths for this time would prepare themselves by searching the Scriptures, by earnest prayer, and by the exercise of faith, they would place themselves where they would receive the light they so much crave.... The eloquence of silence before God is often essential. If the mind is kept in continual excitement, the ear is prevented from hearing the truth that the Lord would communicate to His believing ones. Christ takes His children from that which holds their attention, that they may behold His glory.
------------------------The Training Necessary for Heaven, November 6
OHC	316	1	But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23:10.
OHC	316	2	The Lord will work for those who put their trust in Him. Precious victories will be gained by the faithful. Precious lessons will be learned. Precious experiences will be realized that will be of the greatest advantage in times of trial and temptation. Those who will give all the glory to God, not taking credit to themselves, will be trusted with more and more of the blessing of God. The Lord will be magnified by those who honor Him in the midst of the people. The trial that has been borne with patience, the test that has been met with faithfulness, will prove them worthy of responsibility, and God will make them agents to carry out His will....
OHC	316	3	The conflicts of earth, in the providence of God, furnish the very training necessary to develop characters fit for the courts of heaven. We are to become members of the royal family, the sons of God, and "all things work together for good" to those who love God, and submit themselves to His will.
OHC	316	4	Our God is an ever-present help in every time of need. He is perfectly acquainted with the most secret thoughts of our heart, with all the intents and purposes of our souls. When we are in perplexity, even before we open to Him our distress, He is making arrangements for our deliverance. Our sorrow is not unnoticed. He always knows much better than we do, just what is necessary for the good of His children, and He leads us as we would choose to be led if we could discern our own hearts and see our necessities and perils, as God sees them. But finite beings seldom know themselves. They do not understand their own weakness.... God knows them better than they know themselves, and He understands how to lead them....
OHC	316	5	If we will trust Him, and commit our ways to Him, He will direct our steps in the very path that will result in our obtaining the victory over every evil passion, and every trait of character that is unlike the character of our divine Pattern.
------------------------God Knows What is Best, November 7
OHC	317	1	Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Hebrews 12:11.
OHC	317	2	God knows what is for our best good. The peculiar discipline to which we are subject is discipline to bring out not the worst and most unlovely traits of character, but the meekness and loveliness of Christ, developing the precious graces of Christ.
OHC	317	3	You need to learn in Christ's school to become Christlike. God adapts His grace to the peculiarities of each one's necessities. "My grace is sufficient for thee." 2 Corinthians 12:9. As your burden grows heavier look up and by faith cling more firmly to the hand of Jesus, your mighty helper. As difficulties thicken about His people amid the perils of the last days, He sends His angels to walk all the way by our side, drawing us closer and still closer to the bleeding side of Jesus. And as the greater trials come, lesser trials are forgotten....
OHC	317	4	You must remain pure and true and firm, remembering your character is being imprinted upon the books of heaven.... There is no circumstance or place or difficulty or hardship, where we cannot live beautiful lives of Christian fidelity and approved conduct.... Victory is not found in shunning trials--getting rid of them--but in meeting them heroically, enduring them patiently.
OHC	317	5	Everyone will meet with trials.... If you look to Jesus, if you believe in Him as your personal Saviour, you will be brought through every trial, and enduring these trials with patience, you will become stronger to endure the next test, the next trial.
OHC	317	6	It is only the narrowness of our vision that prevents us from discerning God's loving-kindness in the discipline to which He subjects His church, as well as in the great blessings which He provides. In all times of distress and confusion, God is a sure refuge to His people. In the shadow of His protection they may safely keep His way. In the affliction designed to purify them, the power of the gospel is to be their consolation. In His sure word they have a fortress.
------------------------All Things Work Together, November 8
OHC	318	1	And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28.
OHC	318	2	The heart surrendered to God's wise discipline will trust every working out of His providence.... If God should let everyone do as he pleases, conceit and pride would be fostered, and the grace of humility would not be cherished in the heart. True culture is only possible for those who are truly humble.
OHC	318	3	The things we may so much desire to do may become a reality after God has proved us in the school of experience, and among our greatest blessings may be counted the thing we were not privileged to do, that would have barred the way from doing the very things best calculated to prepare us for a higher work. The plain, sober duties of real life were essential to prevent the fruitless striving to do things that we were not fitted to do. Our devised plans often fail that God's plans for us may be a complete success. Oh, it is in the future life we shall see the tangles and mysteries of life, that have so annoyed and disappointed our fond hopes, explained. We will see that the prayers and hopes for certain things which have been withheld have been among our greatest blessings.
OHC	318	4	We need not expect all sunshine in this world. Clouds and storms will cluster about us, and we must be prepared to keep our eyes directed where we saw the light last. Its rays may be hidden but they still live, still shine beyond the cloud. It is our work to wait, to watch, to pray, and to believe. We shall prize the light of the sun more highly after the clouds disappear. We shall see the salvation of God if we trust in God in the darkness as well as in the light.
OHC	318	5	All trials, all afflictions, all peace, all safety, health, hope, life, and success are in God's hands, and He can control them all for the good of His children. It is our privilege to be suppliants, to ask anything and everything of God, submitting our request in submission to His wise purposes and infinite will.
------------------------Seeing the Unseen, November 9
OHC	319	1	For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17, 18.
OHC	319	2	If our minds are fixed upon the things that are eternal, and not on the things of earth, we shall grasp the hand of infinite power, and what can make us sad? ...
OHC	319	3	We need not be left a prey to Satan's power.... The children of God should not permit Satan to place himself between them and their God. If you permit him to do this, he will tell you that your troubles are the most grievous, the sorest troubles that any mortal ever bore. He will place his magnifying glasses before your eyes, and present everything to you in an exaggerated form to overwhelm you with discouragement.... Take the Word of God as the man of your counsel, and humble your doubting soul before God, and with contrition of heart say, "Here I lay my burden down. I cannot bear it. It is too heavy for me. I lay it down at the feet of my compassionate Redeemer"....
OHC	319	4	When Satan tempts you, breathe not a word of doubt or darkness. You may have your choice as to who shall rule your heart and control your mind. If you choose to open the door to the suggestions of the evil one, your mind will be filled with distrust and rebellious questioning. You may talk out your feelings, but every doubt you utter is a seed that will germinate and bear fruit in another's life, and it will be impossible to counteract the influence of your words. You may be able to recover from your season of temptation, and from the snare of Satan, but others that have been swayed by your influence may not be able to escape from the unbelief you have suggested. How important it is that we speak to those around us only those things which will give spiritual strength and enlightenment! Let us seek to lift souls to Jesus, whom having not seen we may love, and be filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
------------------------No Power can Separate from Christ, November 10
OHC	320	1	Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Romans 8:35.
OHC	320	2	How precious in time of need is the assurance of union with Jesus! ... We can say. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation?"--No, for this makes us feel that Christ alone is our refuge, and we flee to Him for shelter. "Or distress?"--No, for He is our consolation. "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort: who comforteth us in all our tribulation...." 2 Corinthians 1:3, 4.
OHC	320	3	"Or persecution?"--No; "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for their's is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:10.... "Or famine?"--No, for we have God's promise,... "In famine he shall redeem thee from death." Job 5:20. "... In the days of famine they shall be satisfied." Psalm 37:19. In fleeing unto Jesus we shall be fully satisfied. "Or nakedness?"--Hear the voice of Jesus saying, "Buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." Revelation 3:18.... "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment." Revelation 3:5....
OHC	320	4	"Or peril?"--No; Paul knew by experience what it was to be in peril.... "In perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren." 2 Corinthians 11:26. "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee." 2 Corinthians 12:9.... "Or sword?" ... The sword cannot kill the soul, for the life is hid with Christ in God.
OHC	320	5	Well may we ask with Paul, "Who shall separate us from the love of God?" And answer, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38, 39.
------------------------The Crucible of Trouble, November 11
OHC	321	1	Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. Jeremiah 30:7.
OHC	321	2	The path to freedom from sin is through crucifixion of self, and conflict with the powers of darkness. Let none be discouraged in view of the severe trials to be met in the time of Jacob's trouble, which is yet before them. They are to work earnestly, anxiously, not for that time, but for today. What we want is to have a knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ now, and a personal experience now. In these precious closing hours of probation, we have a deep and living experience to gain. We shall thus form characters that will ensure our deliverance in the time of trouble.
OHC	321	3	The time of trouble is the crucible that is to bring out Christlike characters. It is designed to lead the people of God to renounce Satan and his temptations. The last conflict will reveal Satan to them in his true character, that of a cruel tyrant, and it will do for them what nothing else could do, uproot him entirely from their affections. For to love and cherish sin, is to love and cherish its author, that deadly foe of Christ. When they excuse sin and cling to perversity of character, they give Satan a place in their affections, and pay him homage.
OHC	321	4	All heaven is interested in man and desires his salvation. This is the great aim in all God's dealings with individuals.... It is a matter of the greatest wonder to the heavenly host that so few care to be freed from the bondage of evil influences, so few are willing to exercise all their powers in harmony with Christ in the great work of their deliverance. If men could have unveiled before them the workings of the great deceiver to keep them in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity, how earnest would they be to renounce the works of darkness, how guarded lest they yield to temptation, how careful to see and remove every defect which mars the image of God in them; how they would press to the side of Jesus, and what earnest supplications would ascend to heaven for a calmer, closer, happier, walk with God.
------------------------A Jewel or a Pebble? November 12
OHC	322	1	In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts. Haggai 2:23.
OHC	322	2	Christians are Christ's jewels. They are to shine brightly for Him, shedding forth the light of His loveliness. Their luster depends on the polishing they receive. They may choose to be polished or to remain unpolished. But everyone who is pronounced worthy of a place in the Lord's temple must submit to the polishing process. Without the polishing that the Lord gives they can reflect no more light than a common pebble.
OHC	322	3	Christ says to man, "You are mine. I have bought you. You are now only a rough stone, but if you will place yourself in my hands, I will polish you, and the luster with which you shall shine will bring honor to My name. No man shall pluck you out of My hand. I will make you My peculiar treasure. On My coronation day, you will be a jewel in My crown of rejoicing."
OHC	322	4	The divine Worker spends little time on worthless material. Only the precious jewels does He polish after the similitude of a palace, cutting away all the rough edges. This process is severe and trying; it hurts human pride. Christ cuts deep into the experience that man in his self-sufficiency has regarded as complete, and takes away self-uplifting from the character. He cuts away the surplus surface, and putting the stone to the polishing wheel, presses it close, that all roughness may be worn away. Then, holding the jewel up to the light, the Master sees in it a reflection of Himself, and He pronounces it worthy of a place in His casket. "In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee,... and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts." Blessed be the experience, however severe, that gives new value to the stone, and causes it to shine with living brightness.
OHC	322	5	God will not suffer one of His truehearted workers to be left alone to struggle against great odds and be overcome. He preserves as a precious jewel every one whose life is hid with Christ in God.
------------------------God Measures Every Trial, November 13
OHC	323	1	There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13.
OHC	323	2	Each one has his own battles to fight, his own Christian experience to gain, independent in some respects from any other soul; and God has lessons for each to gain for himself that no other one can gain for him.... Our heavenly Father measures and weighs every trial before He permits it to come upon the believer. He considers the circumstances and the strength of the one who is to stand under the proving and test of God, and He never permits the temptations to be greater than the capacity of resistance. If the soul is overborne, the person overpowered, this can never be charged to God, ... but the one tempted was not vigilant and prayerful and did not appropriate by faith the provisions God had abundantly in store for him. Christ never failed a believer in his hour of combat. The believer must claim the promise and meet the foe in the name of the Lord....
OHC	323	3	Oh, there is a great work to be done for the people of God, ere they are prepared for translation to heaven! The heat of the furnace upon some must be severe to reveal the dross. Self will have to be crucified. When each believer is to the very extent of his knowledge obeying the Lord, and yet seeking to give no just occasion to his fellow men to oppress him, he should not fear the results, even though it be imprisonment and death....
OHC	323	4	The tender compassion of God is toward His people. Faith, wondrous faith--it leads the people of God in straight paths. Without this faith we shall certainly misunderstand His dealings with us, and distrust His love and faithfulness. Whatever may be the trials and sufferings, ... let there be no faintheartedness, no peevish repining, no complaining....
OHC	323	5	A single ray of the evidences of the undeserved favor of God shining into our hearts will overbalance every trial of whatever character and however severe it may be.
------------------------Faith Must Pierce the Gloom, November 14
OHC	324	1	Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.... He also shall be my salvation. Job 13:15, 16.
OHC	324	2	The true Christian does not allow any earthly consideration to come in between his soul and God....
OHC	324	3	When depression settles upon the soul, it is no evidence that God has changed. He is "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." Hebrews 13:8. You are sure of the favor of God when you are sensible of the beams of the Sun of Righteousness; but if the clouds sweep over your soul, you must not feel that you are forsaken. Your faith must pierce the gloom. Your eye must be single, and your whole body will be full of light. The riches of the grace of Christ must be kept before the mind. Treasure up the lessons that His love provides. Let your faith be like Job's, that you may declare, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."...
OHC	324	4	The most trying experiences in the Christian's life may be the most blessed. The special providences of the dark hours may encourage the soul in future attacks of Satan, and equip the servant of God to stand in fiery trials. The trial of your faith is more precious than gold. You must have that abiding confidence in God that is not disturbed by the temptations and arguments of the deceiver. Take the Lord at His word. You must study the promises, and appropriate them as you have need. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Romans 10:17....
OHC	324	5	It is faith that familiarizes the soul with the existence and presence of God; and when we live with an eye single to His glory, we discern more and more the beauty of His character. Our souls become strong in spiritual power, for we are breathing the atmosphere of heaven, and, realizing that God is at our right hand, we shall not be moved.... We should live as in the presence of the Infinite One....
OHC	324	6	Divine wisdom will order the steps of those who put their trust in the Lord. Divine love will encircle them, and they will realize the presence of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.
------------------------"I Tasted the Lord's Goodness", November 15
OHC	325	1	If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 1 Peter 2:3.
OHC	325	2	Have you tasted that the Lord is gracious? Does your spiritual appetite crave communion with the Lord? You may discover that He is gracious, not by having all you desire, but by passing through the school of affliction. Since I was nine years old I have been learning in the school of affliction. In my early childhood I could find nothing desirable but the precious words of Jesus. Since I tasted the Word of God in all its sweetness, I have never lost the desire for more.
OHC	325	3	After I went to Australia I was afflicted with rheumatism and malaria. For eleven months I did not have the free use of my arms. After the first week of wonder as to what it all meant, I concluded it would be best to stop wondering, and to leave myself in the hands of the Lord. I tasted His goodness and found that He is gracious. Only a little while during the night could I forget the pain enough to sleep. Yet I tasted the Lord's goodness. The sense of His presence shut me in from the world, so that it seemed as if I could speak to Him face to face, as did Moses. Throughout all the pain and suffering, I felt that I had with me a heavenly Companion....
OHC	325	4	Christ says, I am at thy right hand to help thee. What more could we in our weakness desire? Shall we go to one another with all our troubles, telling human beings the temptations we have and how weak we are? The Saviour is standing at our right hand, offering to lift us up, that we may "sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:6. But so often we turn away from Him and His promises, and tell our troubles to those who, like ourselves, are but mortal, with troubles which only Christ can bear.... Let us no longer dishonor God by turning from Him to human inefficiency....
OHC	325	5	Take your troubles to the Master. Say, "Here I am, Lord. Thou knowest all about me, and Thou canst help me. I will follow in Thy footsteps and do Thy will." When you commit yourself to God, you may be sure that in all times of affliction you will have the very help that you need.
------------------------Rejoice! November 16
OHC	326	1	Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.... Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:4-6.
OHC	326	2	It may seem difficult to rejoice in the Lord when in trouble, but we lose a great deal by giving way to a spirit of complaint. It is our privilege to have in our hearts, at all times, the peace of Christ. We should not allow ourselves to be easily disturbed. It is to test us that God brings us through trials and difficulties, and if we are patient and trustful under His proving, He will purify us from all dross, and at last bring us forth with triumph and rejoicing. Great blessings are reserved for those who uncomplainingly submit to the yoke that God wishes them to bear....
OHC	326	3	Let the light of truth shine forth in your life. Do you say, How shall I let it shine? If before you accepted the truth, you were impatient and fretful, let your life now show to those around you that the truth has had a sanctifying influence upon your heart and character, that instead of being fretful and impatient, you are now cheerful and uncomplaining. Thus you reveal Christ to the world....
OHC	326	4	"In every thing give thanks" (1 Thessalonians 5:18) for the keeping power of God through Jesus Christ.... At the moment when you are offering your prayer for help you may not feel all the joy and blessing that you would like to feel, but if you believe that Christ will hear and answer your petition, the peace of Christ will come....
OHC	326	5	If you take hold of the strength of the mighty Helper, and not reason with your adversary and never complain of God, His promises will be verified. The experience that you gain today in trusting Him will help you in meeting the difficulties of tomorrow. Each day you are to come, trusting as a little child drawing nearer to Jesus and heaven. In meeting with unwavering trust in God the daily trials and difficulties, you will again and again test the promises of Heaven, and each time you will learn a lesson of faith. Thus you will gain strength to resist temptation, and when the harder trials come, you will be able to endure.
------------------------Peace in Affliction, November 17
OHC	327	1	And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7.
OHC	327	2	Jesus came to earth to be not only man's Redeemer but his great Exemplar. His was a perfect life, a life of meekness, lowliness, purity, and unlimited trust in God.... He taught us practically the great lesson of calm, constant, unwavering confidence in our heavenly Father. He permits temptations, trials, and afflictions to come to His loved ones. They are His providences, visitations of mercy to bring them back when they stray from His side, and give them a deeper sense of His presence and providential care. The peace that passeth understanding is not for those who shrink from trials, from struggles, and from self-denial....
OHC	327	3	The eye of Jesus is upon us every moment. The clouds which intervene between the soul and the Sun of Righteousness are in the providence of God permitted to arise that our faith may be strengthened to grasp the great hopes, the sure promises, that shine undimmed through the darkness of every storm. Faith must grow through conflict and suffering. We must individually learn to suffer and be strong, and not sink down in weakness....
OHC	327	4	It is a great kindness on the part of our heavenly Father when He allows us to be placed under circumstances that lessen the attractions of earth, and lead us to place our affections on things above. Frequently, the loss of earthly blessings teaches us more than their possession. When we pass through trials and afflictions, it is no evidence that Jesus does not love and bless us. The pitying Lamb of God identifies His interest with that of His suffering ones. He guards them every moment. He is acquainted with every grief; He knows every suggestion of Satan, every doubt that tortures the soul.... He is pleading the case of the tempted, the erring, and the faithless. He is striving to lift them into companionship with Himself. It is His work to sanctify His people, to cleanse, ennoble, and purify them, and fill their hearts with peace. He is thus fitting them for glory, honor, and eternal life; for an inheritance richer and more lasting than that of any earthly prince.
------------------------Christ's Legacy of Peace, November 18
OHC	328	1	Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27.
OHC	328	2	Shortly before His crucifixion Christ bequeathed to His disciples a legacy of peace.... This peace is not the peace that comes through conformity with the world. It is an internal rather than an external peace. Without will be wars and fightings, through the opposition of avowed enemies, and the coldness and suspicion of those who claim to be friends. The peace of Christ is not to banish division, but it is to remain amid strife and division.
OHC	328	3	Though he bore the title of Prince of Peace, Christ said of Himself, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." Matthew 10:34.... The Prince of Peace, He was yet the cause of division.
OHC	328	4	Families must be divided in order that all who call upon the name of the Lord may be saved. All who refuse His infinite love will find Christianity a sword, a disturber of their peace....
OHC	328	5	It is impossible for anyone to become a true follower of Jesus Christ without distinguishing himself from the worldly mass of unbelievers. If the world would accept of Jesus, then there would be no sword of dissension; for all would be disciples of Christ and in fellowship one with another, and their unity would be unbroken. But this is not the case. Here and there an individual member of a family is true to the convictions of his conscience, and is compelled to stand alone.... The line of demarcation is made distinct. One stands upon the Word of God, the others upon the traditions and sayings of men....
OHC	328	6	The peace that Christ gave to His disciples, and for which we pray, is the peace that is born of truth, a peace that is not to be quenched because of division. Without may be wars and fightings, jealousies, envies, hatred, strife; but the peace of Christ is not that which the world giveth or taketh away.
------------------------The Foundation of All True Peace, November 19
OHC	329	1	These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. John 16:33.
OHC	329	2	"That in me ye might have peace"--peace in Christ, peace through belief of the truth. The Comforter is called the Spirit of truth because there is comfort and hope and peace in the truth. Falsehood cannot give genuine peace; this can be received only through the truth....
OHC	329	3	Jesus prayed that His followers might be one; but we are not to sacrifice the truth in order to secure this union, for we are to be sanctified through the truth. Here is the foundation of all true peace. Human wisdom would change all this, pronouncing this basis too narrow. Men would try to effect unity through concession to popular opinion, through compromise with the world, a sacrifice of vital godliness. But truth is God's basis for the unity of His people.
OHC	329	4	Sanctification, unity, peace--all are to be ours through the truth. The belief of the truth does not make men gloomy and uncomfortable. If you have peace in Christ, His precious blood is speaking pardon and hope to your soul. Yes, more, you have joy in the Holy Spirit, through accepting the precious promises. Jesus says, "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33. Therefore the world shall not overcome you if you believe in Me. It is a world that I have conquered. Because I have overcome, if you believe in Me, you shall overcome....
OHC	329	5	All that Jesus has promised, He will fulfill; and it is greatly dishonoring to Him for us to doubt Him. All His words are spirit and life. Accepted and obeyed, they will give peace and happiness and assurance forever.... Christ declares that He has given us peace; it belongs to us. And He has spoken these things, that in Him we may have that which through infinite sacrifice He had purchased for us--what He holds as ours. This peace we need not seek in the world, for the world has it not to bestow. It is in Christ. He will give it, in spite of the world, notwithstanding its threats and decrees, its alluring, deceiving promises.
------------------------A Superficial Experience Not Enough, November 20
OHC	330	1	That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15.
OHC	330	2	There is always danger of being satisfied with a superficial work; there is always danger that souls will not anchor themselves in God, but be content to drift hither and thither, the sport of Satan's temptations.... The work of the Spirit of God in the heart will develop true penitence, which will not end with confession, but will work a decided reformation in the daily life. There will be manifested an earnestness, a perseverance, and a determination that can be properly represented by agonizing....
OHC	330	3	The fact that iniquity abounds, that we are surrounded by infidels and skeptics, or by professed Christians who have a name to live, and are dead, is no reason why one of us should be swept away by the current toward perdition. Because there is an almost universal forsaking of God, there is the greater need that we stand firm and loyal.... We must gather the divine rays from the Sun of Righteousness, and reflect them to the world. In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, we must show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
OHC	330	4	Nothing but a deep personal experience will enable us to stand the test of the trials and temptations we shall meet in the Christian warfare. Too often we feel well when everything goes smoothly; but when doubts assail the soul, and Satan whispers his suggestions, our defense is gone, and we yield quickly to the arts of the tempter, with scarcely an effort to resist and repulse him, It is not enough to have good impulses. The soul must be barricaded by prayer and study the Scriptures. Armed with these weapons, Jesus encountered our wily foe on the field of battle, and overcame him. We may all conquer in His strength; but it will not answer for us to suppose that we can dispense with His help. He says, "Without me ye can do nothing." John 15:5. But no truly humble soul who walks in the light as Christ is in the light, will be ensnared by Satan's deceptive devices.
------------------------Rooted in Christ, November 21
OHC	331	1	The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Psalm 92:12.
OHC	331	2	The Christian is likened to the cedar of Lebanon. I have read that this tree does more than send down a few short roots into the yielding loam. It sends strong roots deep down into the earth, and strikes down farther and still farther in search of a still stronger hold. And in the fierce blast of the tempest, it stands firm, held by its network of cables beneath.
OHC	331	3	So the Christian strikes root deep into Christ. He has faith in his Redeemer. He knows in whom he believes. He is fully persuaded that Jesus is the Son of God and the Saviour of sinners.... The roots of faith strike deep down. Genuine Christians, like the cedar of Lebanon, do not grow in the soft surface soil, but are rooted in God, riveted in the clefts of the mountain rocks.
OHC	331	4	If the Christian thrives and progresses at all, he must do so amid strangers to God, amid scoffing, subject to ridicule. He must stand upright like the palm tree in the desert. The sky may be as brass, the desert sand may beat about the palm tree's roots, and pile itself in heaps about its trunk. Yet the tree lives as an evergreen, fresh and vigorous amid the burning desert sands. Remove the sand till you reach the rootlets of the palm tree, and you discover the secret of its life; it strikes down deep beneath the surface, to the secret waters hidden in the earth.
OHC	331	5	As the palm tree, drawing nourishment from fountains of living water, is green and flourishing in the midst of the desert, so the Christian may draw rich supplies of grace from the fountain of God's love, and may guide weary souls, that are full of unrest and ready to perish in the desert of sin, to those waters of which they may drink, and live. The Christian is ever pointing his fellow men to Jesus, who invites, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." John 7:37. This fountain never fails us; we may draw, and draw again.
------------------------No Taproot? November 22
OHC	332	1	Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58.
OHC	332	2	In order to be firmly anchored, there must be something firm to hold us; and nothing will avail until Christ takes possession of the soul.... Many who now appear strong, and talk in vindication of the truth, are not rooted and grounded. They have no tap-root; and when the storms of opposition and persecution come, they are like a tree uprooted by the blast.
OHC	332	3	We shall be attacked on every point; we shall be tried to the utmost. We do not want to hold our faith simply because it was handed down to us by our fathers, Such a faith will not stand the terrible test that is before us. We want to know why we are Seventh-day Adventists--what real reason we have for coming out from the world as a separate and distinct people....
OHC	332	4	When men are willing to become intelligent in regard to the cause of God because they have invested faith and means in it, God will help them to understand, and they will be steadfast in the faith; but when they have merely a theory, a shallow faith they cannot explain, a sudden temptation will cause them to drift away with the current bearing toward the world....
OHC	332	5	Our minds must be prepared to stand every test, and to resist every temptation, whether from without or from within. We must know why we believe as we do, why we are on the Lord's side. The truth must keep watch in our hearts, ready to sound an alarm, and summon us to action against every foe. The powers of darkness will open their batteries upon us; and all who are indifferent and careless, who have set their affections on their earthly treasure, and who have not cared to understand God's dealings with His people, will be ready victims. No power but a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, will ever make us steadfast; but with this, one may chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.
------------------------The Stamina of Pure Religion, November 23
OHC	333	1	And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts. Psalm 119:45.
OHC	333	2	There are some who talk in a regretful way concerning the restraints that the religion of the Bible imposes upon those who would follow its teachings. They seem to think that restraint is a great disadvantage, but we have reason to thank God with all our heart that He has raised a heavenly barrier between us and the ground of the enemy. There are certain tendencies of the natural heart that many think must be followed in order that the best development of the individual may result, but that which man thinks essential God sees would not be the blessing to humanity which men imagine; for the development of these very traits of character would unfit them for the mansions above. The Lord places men under test and trial that the dross may be separated from the gold; but He forces none. He does not bind with fetters and cords and barriers; for they increase disaffection rather than decrease it.... Genuine religion does not have a narrowing influence; it is a lack of religion that cramps the faculties and narrows the mind.
OHC	333	3	Religion is an active, working principle, and furnishes a stamina sufficient for the stern realities of life.... Religion ever imparts power to its possessor to restrain, control, and balance the character and intellect and emotions. It has a power to persuade, entreat, and command with divine authority all the ability and affections. Religion--oh, I wish we all understood its workings! It lays us under the weightiest obligations. As we connect ourselves with Christ we solemnly pledge ourselves to walk as Christ walked.
OHC	333	4	It is our privilege to show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.... The Lord's way must be kept, and His way is exalted in righteousness. Christians, in their manner and words and character, are to reveal their heavenly extraction. We are never to apologize to the world for being Christians and daring to be right.
OHC	333	5	Pure religion brings peace, happiness, contentment; godliness is profitable to this life and the life to come.
------------------------A Time to be Blind and Deaf, November 24
OHC	334	1	Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not. Isaiah 42:19, 20.
OHC	334	2	What kind of blindness is this? It is a blindness that will not allow our eyes to contemplate evil. It will not allow our eyes to rest upon iniquity. It will not grasp the things of sight and lose eternity out of its reckoning.... We want to see aright, we want to see as God sees; for Satan is constantly trying to convert the things our eyes rest upon in order that we may see through his medium....
OHC	334	3	The servant of the living God sees to some purpose. The eyes are sanctified and the ears are sanctified, and those who will close their eyes and ears to evil will become changed. But if they will listen to those who will address them and try to lead their thoughts away from God and their eternal interests, then their whole senses are perverted by that which their eyes rest upon. Jesus says, "If ... thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness." Matthew 6:22, 23.
OHC	334	4	It makes every difference what we give our minds and souls to feed upon. We can let our minds dwell upon romance and castle-building, and what will it do for us? It will ruin us, soul and body.... We want to have that power that will enable us to close our eyes to scenes that are not elevating, that are not ennobling, that will not purify and refine us; and to keep our ears closed to everything that is forbidden in God's Word. He forbids us to imagine evil, to speak evil, and even to think evil....
OHC	334	5	I see in Jesus everything that is lovely, everything that is holy, everything that is uplifting and pure. Then why should I want to open my eyes wide to see everything that is disagreeable? By beholding we become changed. Let us look to Jesus and consider the loveliness of His character, and by beholding we shall become changed into the same likeness.
------------------------Let God's Hand Mold the Clay, November 25
OHC	335	1	But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we are all the work of thy hand. Isaiah 64:8.
OHC	335	2	We do not know what the Lord will do for us, if we will come into line. God sees what He can make of man. There are possibilities which our feeble faith does not discern. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." 1 Corinthians 3:9. He sees all the now unamiable traits of character in man, and He knows, if men will learn the meekness and lowliness of Christ, He can mold and fashion the combative spirit, the unamiable disposition, and bring every power of the being into working order to advance His kingdom. He longs to refine, elevate, and ennoble the entire life.... Through the Holy Spirit's power He can use the very worst characters, and make them men and women of opportunity.
OHC	335	3	Blessed is the man who by faith can get a glimpse of Christ's faith.... Then there is a possibility of his becoming Christlike in character.... Great light comes to man as he sees the privileges that are for him. He sees God's plans for him and he dies to self.... He submits to be worked.... When he submits to be as clay in the hands of the potter, then God works the man into a vessel of honor.
OHC	335	4	Clay in the hands of the potter ... is turned again and again until the will of the potter is wrought out in the vessel. Grace and truth will make perfect the work of fashioning the human clay, that the glory of the great Potter may appear in the production of a shapely vessel, molded and polished for service.
OHC	335	5	The Potter cannot mold and fashion unto honor that which has never been placed in His hands. The Christian life is one of daily surrender, submission, and continual overcoming. Every day fresh victories will be gained. Self must be lost sight of, and the love of God must be constantly cultivated. Thus we grow up into Christ. Thus the life is fashioned according to the divine model.
OHC	335	6	Let the hand of God work the clay for His own service. He knows just what kind of vessel He wants.
------------------------Examine Yourselves, November 26
OHC	336	1	Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? 2 Corinthians 13:5.
OHC	336	2	"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith." Many ... may immediately respond, "Why, yes; I am in the faith, I believe every point of the truth." But do you practice what you believe? Are you at peace with God and with your brethren? Can you pray with sincerity, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors"? ... Is there no bitterness in your hearts, no envying, no jealousy, no evil surmising? ... Is there no emulation, no desire for special favor and honors, no wish to have the supremacy? ...
OHC	336	3	We do well to examine ourselves to see what manner of spirit we are cherishing. Let us learn to speak gently, quietly, even under circumstances the most trying. Let us control not only our words, but our thoughts and imaginations. Let us be kind, be courteous.
OHC	336	4	Many are sensible of their great deficiency, and they read, and pray, and resolve, and yet make no progress. They seem to be powerless to resist temptation. The reason is, they do not go deep enough. They do not seek for a thorough conversion of the soul, that the streams which issue from it may be pure, and the deportment may testify that Christ reigns within. All defects of character originate in the heart. Pride, vanity, evil temper, and covetousness proceed from the carnal heart unrenewed by the grace of Christ. If the heart is refined, softened, and ennobled, the words and actions will testify to the fact. When the soul has been entirely surrendered to God, there will be a firm reliance upon His promises, and earnest prayer and determined effort to control the words and actions.
OHC	336	5	We profess a great and holy faith; and our characters must be in accordance with that faith, and with God's great moral standard....
OHC	336	6	Let us examine our hearts in the light of the great principles of the law of God as defined by Christ: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." Luke 10:27.
------------------------"Keep Thyself Pure", November 27
OHC	337	1	Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8.
OHC	337	2	To know what constitutes purity of mind, soul, and body is the highest class of education. Paul the apostle sums up in his letter to Timothy the attainments possible for him, by saying "Keep thyself pure."
OHC	337	3	It is the special work of Satan in these last days to take possession of the minds of the youth, to corrupt their thoughts, and inflame their passions. All are free moral agents, and as such they must bring their thoughts to run in the right channel.... If Satan seeks to divert the mind to low and sensual things, bring it back again, and place it on eternal things; and when the Lord sees the determined effort made to retain only pure thoughts, He will attract the mind, like the magnet, and purify the thoughts.... The first work of those who would reform is to purify the imagination. If the mind is led out in a vicious direction, it must be restrained to dwell only upon pure and elevated subjects. When tempted to yield to a corrupt imagination, then flee to the throne of grace, and pray for strength from Heaven. In the strength of God the imagination can be disciplined to dwell upon things which are pure and heavenly....
OHC	337	4	Those who would have that wisdom which is from God, must become fools in the sinful knowledge of this age, in order to be wise. They should shut their eyes, that they may see and learn no evil. They should close their ears, lest they hear that which is evil, and obtain that knowledge which would stain their purity of thoughts and acts. And they should guard their tongues, lest they utter corrupt communications, and guile be found in their mouths. All are accountable for their actions while upon probation in this world. All have power to control their actions. If they are weak in virtue and purity of thoughts and acts, they can obtain help from the Friend of the helpless. Jesus is acquainted with all the weaknesses of human nature, and if entreated, will give strength to overcome the most powerful temptations. All can obtain this strength if they seek for it in humility.
------------------------"On Unto Perfection", November 28
OHC	338	1	Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Ephesians 4:13.
OHC	338	2	It is a great, a solemn work to obtain a moral fitness for the society of the pure and the blest.... Only by conforming to the Word of God can we hope to come to "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." But we must do this, or we shall never enter heaven. Without purity and holiness of heart, we cannot win the crown of immortal glory.
OHC	338	3	The life of the soul cannot be sustained, except by the right exercise of the affections heavenward, Christward, Godward. Repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins are essential, but not all that is required.... The Christian's life is now but just begun. He must, as exhorted by the apostle, "go on unto perfection." He must bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. If we believe in Jesus, we will love to think of Him, love to talk of Him, love to pray to Him. He is supreme in our affections. We love that which Christ loves, and hate that which Christ hates....
OHC	338	4	The Christian life is never at a standstill. It is, it must be, progressive. Our love for Christ should become stronger and stronger....
OHC	338	5	My brother, my sister, is your soul in the love of God? Many of you have a twilight perception of Christ's excellence, and your soul thrills with joy. You long for a fuller, deeper sense of the Saviour's love. You long to entwine your affections about Him more closely. You are unsatisfied. But do not despair. Give to Jesus the heart's best and holiest affections. Treasure every ray of light. Cherish every desire of the soul after God. Give yourselves the culture of spiritual thoughts and holy communings.... Make haste to ripen for Heaven....
OHC	338	6	It will cost us something to obtain a Christian experience, and to develop a true and noble character.... But the white-robed throng of the redeemed ones, are those who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
------------------------Seeing Him Who is Invisible, November 29
OHC	339	1	By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.... By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Hebrews 11:24-27.
OHC	339	2	Moses ... lived as seeing Him who is invisible, and was therefore able to count the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. If men would live in this way, we should see their faces aglow with the glory of God; for they would be viewing the glory of the eternal, and by beholding, would be transformed into the image of Christ.
OHC	339	3	Our minds take the level of the things on which our thoughts dwell, and if we think upon earthly things, we shall fail to take the impress of that which is heavenly. We would be greatly benefited by contemplating the mercy, goodness, and love of God; but we sustain great loss by dwelling upon those things which are earthly and temporal. We allow sorrow and care and perplexity to attract our minds to earth, and we magnify a molehill into a mountain.... Temporal things are not to ... engross our minds until our thoughts are entirely of the earth and the earthly. We are to train, discipline, and educate the mind so that we may think in a heavenly channel, that we may dwell on things unseen and eternal, which will be discerned by spiritual vision. It is by seeing Him who is invisible that we may obtain strength of mind and vigor of spirit....
OHC	339	4	In whatever place we are called by the providence of God, we may confidently expect that God will be our helper. We are not to be a toy to circumstances, but to be above circumstances.... When we are placed in trying positions, and find things about us that we do not like, that try our patience, and test our faith, we are not to sink down in despondency, but to take a firmer hold upon God, and prove that we are not setting our affection on things on the earth, but on things above; that we are looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Jesus is to be the beginning and the end, the first and the last. He is to be our strength in every time of trial.
------------------------Charmed with Christ's Love, November 30
OHC	340	1	If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:1, 2.
OHC	340	2	When we are tempted to place our affections on any earthly object that has a tendency to absorb our love, we must seek grace to turn from it, and not allow it to come between us and our God. We want to keep before the mind's eye the mansions which Jesus has gone to prepare for us. We must not allow our houses and lands, our business transactions and worldly enterprises to come between us and our God. We should keep before us the rich promises that He has left on record.
OHC	340	3	We should study the great waymarks that point out the times in which we are living.... We should now pray most earnestly that we may be prepared for the struggles of the great day of God's preparation. We should rejoice in the prospect of soon being with Jesus in the mansions He has gone to prepare for us.... Jesus can supply your every need.... As you behold Him you will be charmed with the riches of the glory of His divine love. The idolatrous love of things that are seen will be superseded by a higher and better love for things that are imperishable and precious. You may contemplate eternal riches until your affections are bound to things above, and you may be an instrument in directing others to set their affections on heavenly treasures....
OHC	340	4	Those who rightly value money are those who see its availability in bringing the truth before those who have never heard it, and by this means rescuing them from the power of the enemy. If one soul accepts the truth, his love for earthly things is dislodged. He sees the surpassing glory of heavenly things, appreciates the excellency of that which relates to everlasting life. He is charmed with the unseen and eternal. His grasp loosens from earthly things. He fastens his eye with admiration upon the invincible glories of the other world. He realizes that his trials are working out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and in comparison to the riches that are his to enjoy he counts them light afflictions which are but for a moment.
------------------------Show Your Colors! December 1
OHC	341	1	Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Proverbs 4:25.
OHC	341	2	In Pilgrim's Progress there is a character called Pliable. Youth, shun this character. Those represented by it are very accommodating, but they are as a reed shaken by the wind. They possess no will power. Every youth needs to cultivate decision. A divided state of the will is a snare, and will be the ruin of many youth. Be firm, else you will be left with your house, or character, built upon a sandy foundation.... Manifest decision at any cost.... Those who would walk in the path cast up for the chosen of the Lord, must not be swayed in the matters of conscience by men who have often been zealous for the wrong. They must show moral independence, and must not be afraid to be singular....
OHC	341	3	Many are changed by every current. They wait to hear what someone else thinks, and his opinion is accepted as altogether true. If they would lean wholly upon God, they would grow strong in His strength; but they do not say to the Lord, I cannot make any decision until I know Thy will. Their natural inclination is to allow another to be conscience for them; and they speak after he has spoken, saying what he says, and acting as he acts. When these persons are placed in circumstances where they must think and act for themselves, they dare not express any decided opinion. Yet often, like Aaron, they have much ability. God pity such weaklings....
OHC	341	4	We must free ourselves from the customs and bondage of society, that when the principles of our faith are at stake, we shall not hesitate to show our colors, even though we are called singular for so doing. Keep the conscience tender, that you may hear the faintest whisper of the voice that spoke as never man spoke. Let all who would wear the yoke of Christ show an inflexible purpose to do right because it is right. Keep the eye fixed on Jesus, inquiring at every step, Is this the way of the Lord? The Lord will not leave any one who does this, to become the sport of Satan's temptation....
OHC	341	5	Do not imitate men. Study your Bibles, and imitate Christ.
------------------------No Patchwork Religion! December 2
OHC	342	1	But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Matthew 24:13.
OHC	342	2	The religion that is built on self is worthless; for God makes no compromise with selfishness....
OHC	342	3	The religion of Christ is a firm fabric, composed of innumerable threads, woven together with tact and skill. Only by the wisdom that God gives can we weave this fabric. Trusting to ourselves, we draw into it threads of selfishness, and the pattern is spoiled.
OHC	342	4	There are many kinds of cloth which at first have a fine appearance, but they do not endure test. The colors are not fast. They wash out. Under the heat of summer they fade, and are lost. Such a fabric cannot endure rough handling, and is worth very little.
OHC	342	5	So it is with religion. When the warp and woof of religion will not stand the test of trial, the material of which it is composed is worthless. And an effort to patch the old cloth with a new piece does not better the condition of things; for the worn-out, flimsy material breaks away from the new, leaving the rent much larger than before. Patching will not do. The only way is to discard the old garment and procure a new one. The religion of self, composed of threads that fade and give way under the stress of temptation, must be cast aside, to be replaced by the religion woven by Him in whose life no selfishness found place.
OHC	342	6	Christ's plan is the only safe one. He declares, "Behold, I make all things new." Revelation 21:5. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 2 Corinthians 5:17. The Saviour gives no encouragement to any to think that He will accept a patchwork religion. Such a religion is of no value in His sight. There may at first seem to be some of self and some of Christ; but it is soon seen that there is none of Christ. The patches of selfishness increase till the entire garment is covered with them....
OHC	342	7	A religion formed after the divine pattern is the only one that will endure. Only by striving to live the life of Christ here can we prepare ourselves to live with Him through the eternal ages.
------------------------God's Special Sign, December 3
OHC	343	1	I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Ezekiel 20:19, 20.
OHC	343	2	The Sabbath was given to all mankind to commemorate the work of Creation. The great Jehovah, when He had laid the foundations of the earth, when he had dressed the whole world in its garb of beauty, and created all the wonders of the land and the sea, instituted the Sabbath day and made it holy. When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, the Sabbath was set apart as God's memorial. God sanctified and blessed the day in which he had rested from all His wondrous work....
OHC	343	3	As the tree of knowledge was placed in the midst of the Garden of Eden, so the Sabbath command is placed in the midst of the Decalogue. In regard to the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the restriction was made, "Ye shall not eat of it, ... lest ye die." Genesis 3:3. Of the Sabbath God said, Ye shall not defile it, but keep it holy. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." Exodus 20:8. As the tree of knowledge was the test of Adam's obedience, so the fourth command is the test that God has given to prove the loyalty of all His people.
OHC	343	4	The Sabbath is a token between God and His people. It is a holy day, given by the Creator to man as a day upon which to rest, and reflect upon sacred things. God designed it to be observed through every age as a perpetual covenant. It was to be regarded as a peculiar treasure, a trust to be carefully cherished.
OHC	343	5	As we observe the Sabbath let us remember that it is the sign which heaven has given to man that he is accepted in the Beloved; that if he is obedient, he may enter the city of God, and partake of the fruit of the tree of life. As we refrain from labor on the seventh day, we testify to the world that we are on God's side, and are striving to live in perfect conformity to His commandments. Thus we recognize as our sovereign the God who made the world in six days and rested on the seventh.
OHC	343	6	The Sabbath is the clasp which unites God and His people.
------------------------In the Testing Time, December 4
OHC	344	1	Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. Deuteronomy 7:9.
OHC	344	2	Where shall we be before the thousand generations mentioned in this scripture are ended? Our fate will have been decided for eternity. We shall either have been pronounced worthy of a home in the everlasting kingdom of God, or we shall have received sentence of eternal death.
OHC	344	3	God is testing His people, to see who will be loyal to the principles of His truth. Our work is to proclaim to the world the first, second, and third angels' messages. In the discharge of our duty we are neither to despise nor fear our enemies....
OHC	344	4	The true Sabbath is to be the sign that distinguishes those who serve God from those who serve Him not. Let those who have become sleepy and indifferent awake. We are called to be holy, and we should carefully avoid giving the impression that it is of little consequence whether or not we retain the peculiar features of our faith. Upon us rests the solemn obligation of taking a more decided stand for truth and righteousness than we have taken in the past. The line of demarcation between those who keep the commandments of God and those who do not is to be revealed with unmistakable clearness. We are conscientiously to honor God, diligently using every means of keeping in covenant relation with Him, that we may receive His blessings--the blessings so essential for a people who are to be so severely tried. To give the impression that our faith, our religion, is not a dominating power in our lives, is greatly to dishonor God.
OHC	344	5	Putting our trust in God, we are to move steadily forward, doing His work with unselfishness, in humble dependence upon Him, committing ourselves and our present and future to His wise providence, holding the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end, remembering that it is not because of our worthiness that we receive the blessings of heaven, but because of the worthiness of Christ, and our acceptance, through faith in Him, of God's abounding grace.
------------------------A Distinct and Peculiar People, December 5
OHC	345	1	Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:12.
OHC	345	2	God's people are to be distinguished as a people who serve Him fully, wholeheartedly, taking no honor to themselves, and remembering that by a most solemn covenant they have bound themselves to serve the Lord, and Him only....
OHC	345	3	The children of Israel were to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations "for a perpetual covenant." Exodus 31:16. The Sabbath has lost none of its meaning. It is still the sign between God and His people, and it will be so forever. Now and ever we are to stand as a distinct and peculiar people, free from all worldly policy, unembarrassed by confederation with those who have not wisdom to discern the claims of God, so plainly set forth in His law.
OHC	345	4	We are to show that we are seeking to work in harmony with heaven in preparing the way of the Lord. We are to bear witness to all nations, kindreds, and tongues, that we are a people who love and fear God, a people who keep holy the seventh-day Sabbath, and we are to show plainly that we have full faith that the Lord is soon to come in the clouds of heaven....
OHC	345	5	"And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads." Revelation 22:3, 4.
OHC	345	6	Who are these?--God's denominated people--those who on this earth have witnessed to their loyalty. Who are they?--Those who have kept the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus; those who have owned the Crucified One as their Saviour.
OHC	345	7	"And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever." Verse 5. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Verse 14.
------------------------High Time to Awake, December 6
OHC	346	1	And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Romans 13:11.
OHC	346	2	The great controversy is nearing its end. Every report of calamity by sea or land is a testimony to the fact that the end of all things is at hand. Wars and rumors of wars declare it. Is there a Christian whose pulse does not beat with quickened action as he anticipates the great events opening before us? The Lord is coming. We hear the footsteps of an approaching God.
OHC	346	3	This knowledge of the nearness of Christ's coming should not be allowed to lose its force, and we become careless and inattentive, and fall into slumber--into an insensibility and indifference to realities. In slumber we are in an unreal world, and not sensible of the things which are taking place around us....
OHC	346	4	There are those who have the blazing light of truth shining all around them, and yet are insensible to it. They are enchanted by the enemy, held under a spell by his bewitching power. They are not preparing for that great day which is soon to come to our world. They seem utterly insensible to religious truth.
OHC	346	5	Are there not some youth who are awake? Those who see that the night cometh, and also the morning, should work with untiring energy to arouse their sleeping associates. Can they not feel their peril, pray for them, and show them by their own life and character that they believe themselves that Christ is soon to come? ... The rapidly diminishing space of time between us and eternity should more deeply impress us. Every day that passes makes one less left us to complete our work of perfecting character....
OHC	346	6	As long as there are many asleep, many sporting away the precious hours in careless indifference, as it were, upon the very brink of the eternal world, those who do believe must be sober, must be awake, must be earnest and diligent, and watch unto prayer....
OHC	346	7	Have you, dear youth, your lamps trimmed and burning?
------------------------Where Apostasy Begins, December 7
OHC	347	1	Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. 2 Peter 3:17.
OHC	347	2	In these last days, when iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold, God will have a people to glorify His name, and stand as reprovers of unrighteousness. They are to be a "peculiar people," who will be true to the law of God, when the world shall seek to make void its precepts; and when the converting power of God works through His servants, the hosts of darkness will array themselves in bitter and determined opposition. Satan will work with "all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness." He will employ every device of deception to seduce the souls of men....
OHC	347	3	The work of apostasy begins in some secret rebellion of the heart against the requirements of God's law. Unholy desires, unlawful ambitions, are cherished and indulged, and unbelief and darkness separate the soul from God. If we do not overcome these evils, they will overcome us.
OHC	347	4	Men who have long been advancing in the path of truth, will be tested with trial and temptation. Those who listen to the suggestions of Satan, and swerve from their integrity, begin the downward path, and some masterful temptation hastens them on in the way of apostasy, till their descent is marked and rapid. Sins that were once most repugnant, become attractive, and are welcomed and practiced by those who have cast off the fear of God and their allegiance to His law. But the most pleasurable beginning in transgression, will end in misery, degradation, and ruin.
OHC	347	5	We need to be constantly on our guard, to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation. The indulgence of spiritual pride, of unholy desires, of evil thoughts, of anything that separates us from an intimate and sacred association with Jesus, imperils our souls. We must have living faith in God.... If the thought of apostasy is grievous to you, and you do not desire to become the enemies of the truth,... then "abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good." Romans 12:9.
------------------------Am I a Laodicean? December 8
OHC	348	1	I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15, 16.
OHC	348	2	The condition of many of those who claim to be the children of God is exactly represented by the message to the Laodicean church. There is opened before those who serve God, truths of inestimable value, which, brought into the practical life, show the difference between those who serve God and those who serve Him not....
OHC	348	3	The Bible is the storehouse of the unsearchable riches of God. But those who have a knowledge of the truth do not understand it as fully as they might. They do not bring the love of Christ into the heart and life. The student of the Word finds himself bending over a fountain of living water. The church needs to drink deeply of the spirituality of the Word. Their service to God needs to be very different from the tame, lifeless, emotionless religious experience that makes many believers but little different from those who believe not.
OHC	348	4	Halfhearted Christians are worse than infidels; for their deceptive words and noncommittal position lead many astray. The infidel shows his colors. The lukewarm Christian deceives both parties. He is neither a good worldling nor a good Christian. Satan uses him to do a work that no one else can do.
OHC	348	5	Love of self excludes the love of Christ. Those who live for self are ranged under the head of the Laodicean church who are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot. The ardor of the first love has lapsed into a selfish egotism. The love of Christ in the heart is expressed in the actions. If love for Christ is dull, the love for those for whom Christ has died will degenerate. There may be a wonderful appearance for zeal and ceremonies, but this is the substance of their self-inflated religion. Christ represents them as nauseating to His taste.
OHC	348	6	Let us thank the Lord that while this class is so numerous, there is still time for repentance.
------------------------The Rags of Self-Righteousness, December 9
OHC	349	1	Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Revelation 3:17.
OHC	349	2	How plainly is pictured the position of those who think they have all the truth, who take pride in their knowledge of the Word of God, while its sanctifying power has not been felt in their lives. The fervor of the love of God is wanting in their hearts.
OHC	349	3	Many are Laodiceans, living in a spiritual self-deception. They clothe themselves in the garments of their own righteousness, imagining themselves to be rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing, when they need daily to learn of Jesus, His meekness and lowliness.
OHC	349	4	What is it that constitutes the wretchedness, the nakedness, of those who feel rich and increased with goods? It is the want of the righteousness of Christ. In their own righteousness they are represented as clothed with filthy rags, and yet in this condition they flatter themselves that they are clothed upon with Christ's righteousness.... They may be crying, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we," while their hearts are filled with unholy traffic and unrighteous barter. The courts of the soul temple may be the haunt of envy, pride, passion, evil surmising, bitterness, and hollow formalism. Christ looks mournfully upon His professed people who feel rich and increased in the knowledge of the truth, and who are yet destitute of the truth in life and character.
OHC	349	5	Jesus says, "I, your Redeemer, know your works. I am familiar with the motives that prompt you to declare boastingly in regard to your spiritual condition, 'I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.' Thou 'knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.'" ... What a position to be in! They stand in their own light.
OHC	349	6	But notwithstanding their willful ignorance, they are not left by the Lord without added warning and counsel.
------------------------The Spotless Robe of Christ's Righteousness, December 10
OHC	350	1	I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Revelation 3:18.
OHC	350	2	The great Redeemer represents Himself as a heavenly merchantman, laden with riches, calling from house to house, presenting His priceless goods.
OHC	350	3	We must have the buyers and the sellers cleared out of the soul temple, that Jesus may take up His abode within us. Now He stands at the door of the heart as a heavenly merchantman; He says, ... "Open unto me; buy of me the heavenly wares; buy of me the gold tried in the fire." Buy faith and love, the precious, beautiful attributes of our Redeemer.... He invites us to buy the white raiment, which is His glorious righteousness; and the eyesalve, that we may discern spiritual things. Oh, shall we not open the heart's door to this heavenly visitor?
OHC	350	4	We cannot provide a robe of righteousness for ourselves, for the prophet says, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Isaiah 64:6. There is nothing in us from which we can clothe the soul so that its nakedness shall not appear. We are to receive the robe of righteousness woven in the loom of heaven, even the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness.
OHC	350	5	The eye is the sensitive conscience, the inner light, of the mind. Upon its correct view of things the spiritual healthfulness of the whole soul and being depends. The "eyesalve," the Word of God, makes the conscience smart under its application, for it convicts of sin. But the smarting is necessary that the healing may follow, and the eye be single to the glory of God.... Says Christ, By renouncing your own self-sufficiency, giving up all things, however dear to you, you may buy the gold, the raiment, and the eyesalve that you may see.
OHC	350	6	The Saviour comes with jewels of truth of the richest value in distinction from all counterfeits, all that is spurious. He comes to every house, to every door; He is knocking, presenting His priceless treasure, urging, "Buy of me."
------------------------A Message Full of Encouragement, December 11
OHC	351	1	As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Revelation 3:19.
OHC	351	2	The counsel of the true Witness does not represent those who are lukewarm as in a hopeless case. There is yet a chance to remedy their state, and the Laodicean message is full of encouragement.... Purity of heart, purity of motive, may yet characterize those who are halfhearted and who are striving to serve God and mammon. They may yet wash their robes of character and make them white in the blood of the Lamb.
OHC	351	3	The gold of faith and love, the white raiment of a spotless character, and the eyesalve, or the power of clear discernment between good and evil--all these we must obtain before we can hope to enter the kingdom of God. But these precious treasures will not drop upon us without some exertion on our part. We must buy--we must "be zealous and repent" of our lukewarm state. We must be awake to see our wrongs, to search for our sins, and to put them away from us....
OHC	351	4	It is the worthiness of Christ that must save us, His blood that must cleanse us. But we have efforts to make. We must do what we can, be zealous and repent, then believe that God accepts us....
OHC	351	5	All heaven is interested in our salvation; and shall we be indifferent? Shall we be careless, as though it was a small matter whether we are saved or lost? Shall we slight the sacrifice that has been made for us? ...
OHC	351	6	In the time of peril before us the professed followers of Christ will be tested. None will be able to stand but those who have had a deep and living experience in the things of God. The work of all will then be tried; if it is gold, silver, and precious stones, they will be safely shielded, as in the secret of the Lord's pavilion....
OHC	351	7	Only those who are willing to sacrifice all for eternal life will have it; but it will be worth suffering for, worth crucifying self and sacrificing every idol for. The far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory will outweigh every earthly treasure and eclipse every earthly attraction.
------------------------Will You Open the Door? December 12
OHC	352	1	Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20.
OHC	352	2	Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." Will we let Him in? He would not have us stand at this time, amid the perils of the last days, in our own finite strength.... It is our privilege to walk in the sunshine of His presence, and to weave into the characters we are forming the golden threads of cheerfulness, gratitude, forbearance, and love. We may thus show the power of divine grace, and reflect light from Heaven amid all the frets and irritations that come to us day by day.... Then why do we go stumbling along without light?
OHC	352	3	Every warning, reproof, and entreaty in the Word of God, or through His delegated messengers, is a knock at the door of the heart; it is the voice of Jesus, asking for entrance. With every knock unheeded, your determination to open becomes weaker and weaker. If the voice of Jesus is not heeded at once, it becomes confused in the mind with a multitude of other voices, the world's care and business engross the attention, and conviction dies away. The heart becomes less impressible, and lapses into a perilous unconsciousness of the shortness of time, and of the great eternity beyond.
OHC	352	4	Many have so much rubbish piled up at the door of the heart that they cannot admit Jesus. Some have difficulties between themselves and their brethren to remove; others have evil tempers, pride, covetousness; with others, love of the world bars the entrance. All this must be taken away, before they can open the door and welcome the Saviour in.
OHC	352	5	How precious is the promise, "I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Oh, the love, the wondrous love of God! After all our lukewarmness and sins He says, Return unto Me, and I will return unto thee, and will heal all thy backslidings.
OHC	352	6	Our work is to open the door of the heart and let Jesus come in. He is knocking for entrance.... Will you open the door? Jesus is standing at the door of your heart. Let Him in, the heavenly Guest.
------------------------Victory is Assured, December 13
OHC	353	1	To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Revelation 3:21.
OHC	353	2	The true Witness presents encouragements to all who are seeking to walk in the path of humble obedience, through faith in His name. He declares, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." These are the words of our Substitute and Surety. He who is the divine Head of the church, the mightiest of conquerors, would point His followers to His life, His toils, His self-denials, His struggles and sufferings, through contempt, through rejection, ridicule, scorn, insult, mockery, falsehood, up the path of Calvary to the scene of the crucifixion, that they might be encouraged to press on toward the mark for the prize and reward of the overcomer. Victory is assured through faith and obedience.
OHC	353	3	Let us make an application of the words of Christ to our own individual cases. Are we poor, and blind, and wretched, and miserable? Then let us seek the gold and white raiment that He offers. The work of overcoming is not restricted to the age of the martyrs. The conflict is for us in these days of subtle temptation to worldliness, to self-security, to indulgence of pride, covetousness, false doctrines, and immorality of life.
OHC	353	4	We can overcome. Yes; fully, entirely. Jesus died to make a way of escape for us, that we might overcome every fault, resist every temptation, and sit down at last with Him in His throne.
OHC	353	5	We have no discouraging message for the church. Although reproofs and cautions and corrections have been made, yet the church has stood as God's instrumentality to diffuse light. The commandment-keeping people of God have sounded forth a warning to the world.... The church of God is a living witness, a continual testimony, to convince men if accepted, to condemn them if resisted and rejected.
OHC	353	6	The church must and will shine forth "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." Song of Solomon 6:10.
------------------------Unmoved in a Shaken World, December 14
OHC	354	1	I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Psalm 16:8.
OHC	354	2	We are living in an age of peril, when ungodliness is common. Even professed Christians do not believe their Bibles. The truth of the Word of God is too plain and pointed for them.... Antichristian ideas, customs, and practices prevail, and they are even construed to be Christian; but that which is of most value, that which God esteems most highly, is treated with contempt. Well may the God-fearing inquire, What shall the end of these things be? Love for Christ and love for one another is fast dying out of the hearts of men....
OHC	354	3	Wickedness prevails on every hand; for Satan has come down having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time. He is a persevering, diligent, untiring worker, and if ever there was a time when men needed the presence of Christ at their right hand, it is now.... We need the Captain of our salvation continually by our side.
OHC	354	4	There is, and will continue to be, agitation all around us; for the kingdoms of the world will not be at rest. Never was there a time when the temptation to deny Christ in spirit and in deportment, was stronger, and this temptation will increase in power as we near the end. Strong and overpowering temptations will come upon men. False doctrines and fables will be presented as Bible truth, for men's acceptance; and if it were possible, they will deceive the very elect. But is it a time for our love to grow cold, when iniquity abounds? Is this a time to be at ease? Is this the time to separate from God, our Counselor?
OHC	354	5	The end of all things is at hand. The day of God is hastening on apace. The world is full of crime and anguish and sorrow. There are calamities by land and by sea. Storm and tempest make it unsafe for us to be separated from God for one single moment. Only those who live by faith in this probationary life, will be able to stand in the day of test, when everything that can be shaken will be shaken, but they shall dwell in safety and be unmoved.
------------------------A Crisis Before Us, December 15
OHC	355	1	And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. Matthew 10:18.
OHC	355	2	The time is not far off when the people of God will be called upon to give their testimony before the rulers of the earth. Not one in twenty has a realization of what rapid strides we are making toward the great crisis in our history.... There is no time for vanity, for trifling, for engaging the mind in unimportant matters.
OHC	355	3	Kings, governors, and great men will hear of you through the reports of those who are at enmity with you, and your faith and character will be misrepresented before them. But those who are falsely accused will have an opportunity to appear in the presence of their accusers to answer for themselves. They will have the privilege of bringing the light before those who are called the great men of the earth, and if you have studied the Bible, if you are ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, your enemies will not be able to gainsay your wisdom.
OHC	355	4	You now have an opportunity to attain to the greatest intellectual power through the study of the Word of God. But if you are indolent, and fail to dig deep in the mines of truth, you will not be ready for the crisis that is soon to come upon us. O that you would realize that each moment is golden. If you live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, you will not be found unprepared.
OHC	355	5	You know not where you may be called upon to give your witness of truth. Many will have to stand in the legislative courts; some will have to stand before kings and before the learned of the earth, to answer for their faith. Those who have only a superficial understanding of truth will not be able clearly to expound the Scriptures, and give definite reasons for their faith. They will become confused, and will not be workmen that need not to be ashamed. Let no one imagine that he has no need to study, because he is not to preach in the sacred desk. You know not what God may require of you.
------------------------Are You Ready for the Testing? December 16
OHC	356	1	But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. Matthew 10:19.
OHC	356	2	The servants of Christ are to prepare no set speech to present when brought to trial for their faith. Their preparation is to be made day by day, in treasuring up in their hearts the precious truths of God's Word, in feeding upon the teaching of Christ, and through prayer strengthening their faith; then, when brought into trial, the Holy Spirit will bring to their remembrance the very truths that will reach the hearts of those who shall come to hear. God will flash the knowledge obtained by diligent searching of the Scriptures, into their memory at the very time when it is needed.
OHC	356	3	You are now to get ready for the time of trial. Now you are to know whether your feet are planted on the Eternal Rock. You must have an individual experience, and not depend upon others for your light. When you are brought to the test, how do you know that you will not be alone, with no earthly friend at your side? Will you then be able to realize that Christ is your support? Will you be able to recall the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world"? There will be invisible ones all about you bent upon your destruction. Satan and his agents will seek in every way to make you waver from your steadfastness to God and His truth. But if you have an eye single to His glory, you need not take thought as to how you shall witness for His truth.
OHC	356	4	Young men and women, are you growing up to the full stature of men and women in Christ, so that when the crisis comes, you cannot be separated from the Source of your strength? If we would stand during the time of test, we must now, in the time of peace, be gaining a living experience in the things of God. We must now learn to understand what are the deep movings of the Spirit of God. Christ must be our all and in all, the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
------------------------Out of the Lion's Mouth, December 17
OHC	357	1	And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28.
OHC	357	2	Daniel is an example to believers as to what it means to confess Christ. He held the responsible position of prime minister in the kingdom of Babylon, and there were those who were envious of Daniel among the great men of the court, and they wanted to find something against him that they might bring an accusation against him to the king. But he was a faithful statesman, and they could find no flaw in his character or life.... So they agreed together to ask the king to make a decree that no one should ask any petition of any God or man for thirty days save of the king, and if any disobeyed this decree, he was to be cast into the den of lions.
OHC	357	3	But did Daniel cease to pray because this decree was to go into force? No, that was just the time when he needed to pray.... Daniel did not seek to hide his loyalty to God. He did not pray in his heart, but with his voice, aloud, with his window open toward Jerusalem, he offered up his petition to heaven. Then his enemies made their complaint to the king, and Daniel was thrown into the den of lions. But the Son of God was there.... When the king came in the morning, and called, "O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me." Daniel 6:20-22....
OHC	357	4	We may know that if our life is hid with Christ in God, when we are brought into trial because of our faith, Jesus will be with us. When we are brought before rulers and dignitaries to answer for our faith, the Spirit of the Lord will illuminate our understanding, and we shall be able to bear a testimony to the glory of God. And if we are called to suffer for Christ's sake, we shall be able to go to prison trusting in Him as a little child trusts in its parents. Now is the time to cultivate faith in God.
------------------------In the Midst of the Fire, December 18
OHC	358	1	Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 10:32.
OHC	358	2	A confession of Christ means something more than bearing testimony in social [prayer] meeting.
OHC	358	3	We have a different confession to make from that which we have made; and we shall have to make it under different circumstances. The three Hebrews were called upon to confess Christ in the face of the burning fiery furnace. They had been commanded by the king to fall down and worship the golden image which he had set up, and threatened that if they would not, they should be cast alive into the fiery furnace, but they answered, "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." Daniel 3:16-18. It cost them something to confess Christ, for their lives were at stake.
OHC	358	4	Then the king commanded that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than it was wont to be heated, and the faithful children of God were cast into the furnace. "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." Verses 24, 25.... Then Nebuchadnezzar called forth the servants of God, and they had not so much as the smell of fire upon them. If you are called to go through the fiery furnace for Christ's sake, Jesus will be at your side. "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." Isaiah 43:2.
------------------------The Struggle Against Wind and Tide, December 19
OHC	359	1	Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:11, 12.
OHC	359	2	Our gracious Redeemer looked down the stream of time, and beheld the perils that would in the last days surround His chosen....
OHC	359	3	If the members of the church labor faithfully to build up the cause of truth, they will not escape the tongue of gossip, falsehood, and slander. "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Timothy 3:12. Their consistent, unwavering course is a constant rebuke of the unbelief, pride, and selfishness of the hypocritical professor.
OHC	359	4	Their prayers and admonitions disturb his worldly ambition, and he endeavors to cast reproach upon the faithful followers of Jesus. He will garble, distort, and misrepresent facts, in the same spirit that actuated the Pharisees in their opposition to Christ.
OHC	359	5	Jesus does not lose sight of His people who have so many discouragements to encounter. It requires little effort to float with the popular current, but those who would gain the immortal shores must struggle against wind and tide. There is a form of Christianity--a spurious article--which has no reformative energy. Its possessors delight to oppose and decry the faith of others. Their religion is not seen in the market place, in the family, or in the workshop. Their religious experience runs in the corrupt channel of the world.
OHC	359	6	The true follower of Christ should not be dismayed at receiving reproach from this class. Said the beloved apostle, "Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you." 1 John 3:13. And our Saviour reminds His disciples, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you." John 15:18. Those who are faithful to God will not be harmed by reproach or opposition. Nay, rather, virtues will thus be developed that will not flourish in the sunshine of prosperity. Faith, patience, meekness, and love will bud and blossom amid clouds and darkness.
------------------------The Most Dangerous of Foes, December 20
OHC	360	1	Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. 1 Timothy 4:1.
OHC	360	2	The adversary of souls is constantly seeking to divert our minds by bringing in side issues. Let us not be deceived. Let enemies handle your name and mine as they please. Let them distort, misrepresent, our words and deeds. Let them fabricate falsehoods as best pleases them. We cannot afford to allow our minds to be diverted from Jesus and the preparation of soul which we must have in order to meet Him in peace.... In Christ's stead, I beseech you to pray as you never prayed before, to seek earnestly for faith and love, that seem to be almost banished from the earth. Live each day as in the sight of God....
OHC	360	3	Let not false teachers confuse your minds and unsettle your faith by casting reproach upon those whom God has sent you with messages of warning and instruction. Remember that it is not mere men whom you have to meet, but "principalities and powers, and wicked spirits in high places." Now is the very time when Satan is working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.
OHC	360	4	Many are in reality fighting his battles while they profess to serve under the banner of Christ. These traitors in the camp may not be suspected, but they are doing their work to create unbelief, discord, and strife. Such are the most dangerous of foes. While they insinuate themselves into our favor, and gain our confidence and sympathy, they are busy suggesting doubts and creating suspicion. They work in the same manner as did Satan in heaven when he deceived the angels by his artful representations, placing darkness for light, and making the forbearance and mercy of God to appear as harshness and severity. As he worked at the beginning, so he works in the end, only concealing himself more perfectly from view....
OHC	360	5	It is not enough that we have the theory of the truth; its principles must be inwrought in the soul, and exemplified in the life, or we shall fall a prey to the delusions prepared for the last days.
------------------------The Cross Before the Crown, December 21
OHC	361	1	Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Timothy 3:12.
OHC	361	2	We may strengthen our faith and quicken our love by going often to the foot of the cross, and there contemplating our Saviour's humiliation. Behold the Majesty of heaven suffering as a transgressor! Spotless purity, untarnished righteousness, did not shield Him from falsehood and reproach. He meekly bore the contradiction of sinners against Himself, and yielded up His life, that we might be forgiven and live forevermore. Are we willing to follow in His steps? The only reason why we do not now suffer greater persecution is, we do not in our lives more faithfully exemplify the life of Christ. I assure you, brethren and sisters, if you walk as He walked, you will know what it is to be persecuted and reproached for His sake.
OHC	361	3	If we hope to wear the crown, we must expect to bear the cross. Our greatest trials will come from those who profess godliness. It was so with the world's Redeemer; it will be so with His followers.... Those who are in earnest to win the crown of eternal life need not be surprised or disheartened because at every step toward the heavenly Canaan they meet with obstacles and encounter trials....
OHC	361	4	The Saviour knows what is best. Faith grows by conflict with doubt and difficulty and trial. Virtue gathers strength by resistance to temptation. The life of the faithful soldier is a battle and a march. No rest, fellow pilgrim, this side the heavenly Canaan.... But John in holy vision beholds the faithful souls that come up out of great tribulation, surrounding the throne of God, clad in white robes, and crowned with immortal glory. What though they have been counted the offscouring of the earth? In the investigative judgment their lives and characters are brought in review before God, and that solemn tribunal reverses the decision of their enemies. Their faithfulness to God and to His Word stands revealed, and Heaven's high honors are awarded them as conquerors in the strife with sin and Satan.
------------------------On Guard Every Moment, December 22
OHC	362	1	But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 2 Timothy 3:13.
OHC	362	2	By every conceivable device the foe is seeking to throw us off our guard. He may first attempt to deceive with smooth words and crafty insinuations; and if these fail, he proceeds to open violence. He has many a deep-laid snare for unwary feet, and those who once become entangled find it almost impossible to extricate themselves. While he praises, flatters, and exalts some, he hurls his fiery darts at others. We must be on guard every moment. Days of peculiar trial, difficulty, and danger are before us....
OHC	362	3	We must make up our minds that instead of matters taking a more favorable turn, wicked men, seducing teachers, will grow worse and worse, deceiving themselves and deceiving others. We may expect greater opposition than has yet been experienced.... We must now make Christ our refuge, or in the days before us our souls will be overwhelmed with darkness and despair. There is a point beyond which human help cannot avail. Every one must live by faith as he is forced into close and apparently deadly conflict with the powers of darkness. Each must stand or fall for himself. The arrows of the destroyer are about to be hurled against the faithful ones, and no earthly power can turn aside the shaft. But could our eyes be opened we could see angels of God encircling the righteous, that no harm may come upon them....
OHC	362	4	We must look to Jesus, study His words, pray for His spirit. We should be more frequently alone with God in meditation and prayer. Let us pray more and talk less. We cannot trust to our own wisdom, our own experience, our own knowledge of the truth; we must be daily learners, looking to our heavenly Teacher for instruction, and then, without regard to ease, pleasure, or convenience, we must go forward, knowing that He is faithful who has called....
OHC	362	5	While we realize our weakness, let us rely upon His strength, and overcome by the grace which He imparts.
------------------------Crowns for the Faithful, December 23
OHC	363	1	Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8.
OHC	363	2	Did the great apostle to the Gentiles make any real sacrifice when he exchanged Pharisaism for the gospel of Christ? We answer No! With decided purpose, he turned away from wealth, from friends and social distinction, from public honors, and from his kinsmen whom he loved fervently and earnestly. He chose to link his name and his destiny with that of a people he had regarded as low and the offscouring of all things; but for the sake of Christ he suffered the loss of all things.
OHC	363	3	His labors were more abundant than any of the disciples, his stripes above measure. He was beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked, in deaths oft. He was in peril by land and sea, in the city and in the wilderness, from robbers and from his own countrymen. He prosecuted his mission under continual infirmities, in painfulness, in weariness, in watchings often, in cold, in nakedness.... When he answered the bloodthirsty Nero, no man stood with him....
OHC	363	4	But did Paul devote his precious time to the relation of his grievous abuses? No, he called the attention from himself to Jesus. He did not live for his own happiness, yet he was happy.... "I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation." 2 Corinthians 7:4. And in the last days of his life, with a martyr's death in full view, he exclaims with satisfaction, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7. And fixing his eye upon the immortal future, which had been the grand, inspiring motive of his whole career, he adds, in full assurance of faith, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day"--and then this man who had lived for others forgets himself--"and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." Oh, noble man of faith!
OHC	363	5	Paul was a living example of what every true Christian should be. He lived for God's glory.... "For me to live is Christ." Philippians 1:21.
------------------------Aim High! December 24
OHC	364	1	For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. Colossians 2:9, 10.
OHC	364	2	We aim too low. The mark is much higher. Our minds need expansion, that we may comprehend the significance of the provision of God. We are to reflect the highest attributes of the character of God.... The law of God is the exalted standard to which we are to attain through the imputed righteousness of Christ.
OHC	364	3	It is only through a correct understanding of Christ's mission and work that the possibility of being complete in Him, accepted in the Beloved, is brought within our reach.... Human science is not divine enlightenment. Divine science is the demonstration of the Spirit of God, inspiring implicit faith in Him. The men of the world suppose this faith to be beneath the notice of their great and intelligent minds, something too low to give attention to; but here they make a great mistake. It is altogether too high for their human intelligence to reach.
OHC	364	4	The gospel message is far from being opposed to true knowledge and intellectual attainments. It is itself true science, true intellectual knowledge. True wisdom is infinitely above the comprehension of the worldly wise. The hidden wisdom, which is Christ formed within, the hope of glory, is a wisdom high as heaven. The deep principles of godliness are sublime and eternal. A Christian experience alone can help us to understand this problem, and obtain the treasures of knowledge which have been hidden in the counsels of God, but are now made known to all who have a vital connection with Christ.
OHC	364	5	In Christ dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This is why, although He was tempted in all points like as we are, He stood before the world, from His first entrance into it, untainted by corruption, though surrounded by it. Are we not also to become partakers of that fullness, and is it not thus, and thus only, that we can overcome as He overcame?
OHC	364	6	Through His sacrifice, human beings may reach the high ideal set before them, and hear at last the words, "Ye are complete in him."
------------------------The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, December 25
OHC	365	1	That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Ephesians 3:16.
OHC	365	2	The themes of redemption are momentous themes, and only those who are spiritually-minded can discern their depth and significance. It is our safety, our joy, to dwell upon the truths of the plan of salvation. Faith and prayer are necessary in order that we may behold the deep things of God. Our minds are so bound about by narrow ideas that we catch but limited views of the experience it is our privilege to have....
OHC	365	3	Why is it that many who profess to have faith in Christ have no strength to stand against the temptations of the enemy?--It is because they are not strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. The apostle prays "that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Ephesians 3:17-19. If we had this experience, we should know something of the cross of Calvary. We would know what it means to be partakers with Christ in His sufferings. The love of Christ would constrain us, and though we would not be able to explain how the love of Christ warmed our hearts, we would manifest His love in fervent devotion to His cause.
OHC	365	4	Paul opens before the Ephesian church, in the most comprehensive language, the marvelous power and knowledge they might possess as sons and daughters of the Most High. It was theirs "to be strengthened with might," ... to be "rooted and grounded in love," ... "to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge"....
OHC	365	5	Jehovah Emmanuel--He in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge--to be brought into sympathy with Him, to possess Him, as the heart opens more and more to receive His attributes: to know His love and power, to possess the unsearchable riches of Christ ... this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and "their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord." Isaiah 54:17.
------------------------Filled with God's Fullness, December 26
OHC	366	1	And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:19.
OHC	366	2	Here are revealed the heights of attainment that we may reach through faith in the promises of our heavenly Father, when we fulfill His requirements. Through the merits of Christ, we have access to the throne of infinite power. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Romans 8:32....
OHC	366	3	The heart that has once tasted of the love of Christ, cries out continually for a deeper draft; and as you impart, you will receive in richer and more abundant measure. Every revelation of God to the soul increases the capacity to know and to love. The continual cry of the heart is, More of thee, and ever the Spirit's answer is, Much more....
OHC	366	4	The life of Christ was a life charged with a divine message of the love of God, and He longed intensely to impart this love to others in rich measure. Compassion beamed from His countenance, and His conduct was characterized by grace and humility, love and truth. Every member of His church militant must manifest the same qualities, if he would join the church triumphant. The love of Christ is so broad, so full of glory, that in comparison to it, everything that man esteems so great dwindles into insignificance. When we obtain a view of it, we exclaim, O the depth of the riches of the love that God bestowed upon men in the gift of His only begotten Son! ...
OHC	366	5	It is the mystery of God in the flesh, God in Christ, divinity in humanity. Christ bowed down in unparalleled humility, that in His exaltation to the throne of God He might also exalt those who believe in Him to a seat with Him upon His throne.... "Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think," will be given unto us "the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him" (Ephesians 1:17), that we may be able to "comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge," that we may be "filled with all the fulness of God."
------------------------Almost Home! December 27
OHC	367	1	And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:3.
OHC	367	2	More than eighteen hundred years have passed since the Saviour gave the promise of His coming. Throughout the centuries His words have filled with courage the hearts of His faithful ones. The promise has not yet been fulfilled; ... but none the less sure is the word that has been spoken.
OHC	367	3	Christ will come in His own glory, in the glory of His Father, and in the glory of the holy angels. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels, the beautiful, triumphant sons of God, possessing surpassing loveliness and glory, will escort Him on His way. In the place of a crown of thorns, He will wear a crown of glory--a crown within a crown. In the place of that old purple robe, He will be clothed in a garment of whitest white, "so as no fuller on earth can white" (Mark 9:3) it. And on His vesture and on His thigh a name will be written, "King of kings, and Lord of lords." Revelation 19:16....
OHC	367	4	To His faithful followers Christ has been a daily companion, a familiar friend. They have lived in close, constant communion with God. Upon them the glory of the Lord has risen. In them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has been reflected. Now they rejoice in the undimmed rays of the brightness and glory of the King in His majesty. They are prepared for the communion of heaven, for they have heaven in their hearts.
OHC	367	5	With uplifted heads, with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining upon them, with rejoicing that their redemption draweth nigh, they go forth to meet the Bridegroom, saying, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us"....
OHC	367	6	The time of tarrying is almost ended. The pilgrims and strangers who have so long been seeking a better country are almost home. I feel as if I must cry aloud, Homeward bound! ... "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless." 2 Peter 3:14.
------------------------In the Inner Circle, December 28
OHC	368	1	He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his Angels. Revelation 3:5.
OHC	368	2	Can you, dear youth, look forward with joyful hope and expectation to the time when the Lord, your righteous Judge, shall confess your name before the Father and before the holy angels? The very best preparation you can have for Christ's second appearing is to rest with firm faith in the great salvation brought to us at His first coming. You must believe in Christ as a personal Saviour.
OHC	368	3	Many of us do not realize the covenant relation in which we stand before God as His people. We are under the most solemn obligations to represent God and Christ. We are to guard against dishonoring God by professing to be His people, and then going directly contrary to His will. We are getting ready to move. Then let us act as if we were. Let us prepare for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those that love Him.
OHC	368	4	Unless those who claim to believe the truth for this time submit to the training of God on earth for the future life, they will never see the King in His beauty.... They must cultivate patience, kindness, meekness, goodness, sympathy, and tender compassion for one another. All their rough, uncourteous, un-Christlike disposition must be purged away, for none of these unkind attributes are of Christ, but after the satanic order. The pure, heavenly graces are received and flourish in mind, heart, and character only as man becomes a partaker of the divine nature.... Heaven must begin on earth for every soul who will enter the heavenly mansions above.
OHC	368	5	All heaven appreciates the struggles of those who are fighting for the crown of everlasting life, that they may be partakers with Christ in the city of God.... God wants you there, Christ wants you there, the heavenly host wants you there. The angels are willing to stand in the outer circle, and let those who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus stand in the inner circle.... A crown of glory waits for all who fight the good fight of faith.
------------------------Let's Take Inventory, December 29
OHC	369	1	Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. Psalm 39:4.
OHC	369	2	Another year has almost passed into eternity.... Let us review the record of the year that so soon will be past. What advancement have we made in Christian experience? Our work--have we so done it that it will bear the inspection of the Master, who has given to every man work according to his several ability? Will it be consumed as hay, wood, and stubble, unworthy of preservation? or will it stand the trial by fire? ...
OHC	369	3	Every provision has been made that we may attain a height of stature in Christ Jesus that will meet the divine standard. God is not pleased with His representatives if they are content to be dwarfs when they might grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ. He wants you to have height and breadth in Christian experience. He wants you to have great thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, and lofty purposes of action. Every passing year should increase the soul's yearning for purity and perfection of Christian character. And if this knowledge increases day by day, month by month, year by year, it will not be work consumed as hay, wood, and stubble; but it will be laying on the foundation stone, gold, silver, and precious stones--works that are not perishable, but which will stand the fires of the last day.
OHC	369	4	Is our earthly, temporal work done with a thoroughness, a fidelity, that will bear scrutiny? Are there those whom we have wronged who will testify against us in the day of God? If so, the record has passed up to heaven, and we shall meet it again. We are to work for the great Taskmaster's eye, whether our painstaking efforts are seen and appreciated by men or not. No man, woman, nor child can acceptably serve God with neglectful, haphazard, sham work, whether it be secular or religious service. The true Christian will have an eye single to the glory of God in all things, encouraging his purposes and strengthening his principles with this thought, "I do this for Christ."
------------------------Bury All Bitterness, December 30
OHC	370	1	My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. Job 7:6.
OHC	370	2	If we have but little time, let us improve that little earnestly. The Bible assures us that we are in the great day of atonement. The typical Day of Atonement was a day when all Israel afflicted their souls before God, confessed their sins, and came before the Lord with contrition of soul, remorse for their sins, genuine repentance, and living faith in the atoning sacrifice.
OHC	370	3	If there have been difficulties, ... if envy, malice, bitterness, evil surmisings, have existed, confess these sins, not in a general way, but go to your brethren and sisters personally. Be definite. If you have committed one wrong and they twenty, confess that one as though you were the chief offender. Take them by the hand, let your heart soften under the influence of the Spirit of God, and say, "Will you forgive me? I have not felt right toward you. I want to make right every wrong, that naught may stand registered against me in the books of heaven. I must have a clean record." Who, think you, would withstand such a movement as this?
OHC	370	4	There is too much coldness and indifference--too much of the "I don't care" spirit--exercised among the professed followers of Christ. All should feel a care for one another, jealousy guarding each other's interests. "Love one another." Then we should stand a strong wall against Satan's devices. Amid opposition and persecution we would not join the vindictive ones, not unite with the followers of the great rebel, whose special work is to accuse the brethren, to defame and cast stain upon their characters.
OHC	370	5	Let the remnant of this year be improved in destroying every fiber of the root of bitterness, burying them in the grave with the old year. Begin the new year with more tender regard, with deeper love, for every member of the Lord's family. Press together. "United, we stand; divided, we fall." Take a higher, nobler stand than you ever have before.
------------------------The Prize of Our High Calling, December 31
OHC	371	1	I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13, 14.
OHC	371	2	He who would build up a strong, symmetrical character, he who would be a well-balanced Christian, must give all and do all for Christ.... Paul did many things. From the time that he gave his allegiance to Christ, his life was filled with untiring service. From city to city, from country to country, he journeyed, telling the story of the cross, winning converts to the gospel, and establishing churches.... At times he worked at his trade, to earn his daily bread. But in all the busy activities of his life, Paul never lost sight of one great purpose--to press toward the prize of his high calling. One aim he kept steadfastly before him--to be faithful to the One who at the gate of Damascus had revealed Himself to him. From this aim nothing had power to turn him aside....
OHC	371	3	The great purpose that constrained Paul to press forward in the face of hardship and difficulty should lead every Christian worker to consecrate himself wholly to God's service. Worldly attractions will be presented to draw his attention from the Saviour, but he is to press on toward the goal, showing to the world, to angels, and to men that the hope of seeing the face of God is worth all the effort and sacrifice that the attainment of this hope demands.
OHC	371	4	The lowliest disciple of Christ may become an inhabitant of heaven, an heir of God to an inheritance incorruptible, and that fadeth not away. O that every one might make choice of the heavenly gift, become an heir of God to that inheritance whose title is secure from any destroyer, world without end! O, choose not the world, but choose the better inheritance! Press, urge your way toward the mark for the prize of your high calling in Christ Jesus.
OHC	371	5	Soon we shall witness the coronation of our King. Those whose lives have been hidden with Christ, those who on this earth have fought the good fight of faith, will shine forth with the Redeemer's glory in the kingdom of God.

------------------------Reflecting Christ
RC	15	1	Christ--One With The Father, January 1
RC	16	1	A Teacher Sent From God, January 2
RC	17	1	Christ Sacrificed Himself For Us, January 3
RC	18	1	Christ Supplies Us With Living Water, January 4
RC	19	1	Christ's Compassion Knew No Limit, January 5
RC	20	1	Changed into His Image, January 6
RC	21	1	Christ Inspires Souls with Confidence in God, January 7
RC	22	1	By the Eye of Faith Christ is Present Ever, January 8
RC	23	1	Christ Bridged the Gulf Caused by Sin, January 9
RC	24	1	The Image of the Divine to Shine Through, January 10
RC	25	1	Christ Brought Spiritual and Physical Healing, January 11
RC	26	1	Christ's Words Carried Impelling Power, January 12
RC	27	1	Christ Recognized the Dignity of Humanity, January 13
RC	28	1	Christ Acknowledged the Rights of Everyone, January 14
RC	29	1	Christ was No Respecter of Persons, January 15
RC	30	1	Christ Our Example in True Courtesy, January 16
RC	31	1	Christ An Example In Social Power, January 17
RC	32	1	All To Reveal Christ's Spirit And Power, January 18
RC	33	1	The Revelation Of God's Love In The Cross, January 19
RC	34	1	Christ's Glory Shines On The Thief, January 20
RC	35	1	As Our Example Christ Is All And In All, January 21
RC	36	1	Christ Is The Truth, January 22
RC	37	1	Christ a Perfect Example for All, January 23
RC	38	1	Christ "The Prince of Peace", January 24
RC	39	1	The Personality of God Revealed in Christ, January 25
RC	40	1	Jesus is Our Example, January 26
RC	41	1	Jesus Provided a Model of Character, January 27
RC	42	1	Christ Filled His Disciples' Thoughts, January 28
RC	43	1	Christ Revealed The Riches Of Heaven, January 29
RC	44	1	Christ's Followers To Do Greater Works Than He, January 30
RC	45	1	Christ The Channel Of Saving Grace, January 31
RC	46	1	A Revelation Of God's Will And Character, February 1
RC	47	1	Sinners Brought Into Harmony With The Law, February 2
RC	48	1	God's Law Is The Standard Of Character, February 3
RC	49	1	True Followers Obey God's Law, February 4
RC	50	1	God's Law Is Changeless, February 5
RC	51	1	God's Law Is The Law Of Love, February 6
RC	52	1	Individual Accountability, February 7
RC	53	1	Christ Came To Magnify His Law, February 8
RC	54	1	How We Magnify The Law, February 9
RC	55	1	The Law, As A Mirror, Reveals Sin, February 10
RC	56	1	The Law Of God Versus The Law Of Self, February 11
RC	57	1	No Compromise With Evil, February 12
RC	58	1	God Reveals His Justice And Love, February 13
RC	59	1	Truth Must Be Practiced In The Life, February 14
RC	60	1	God's Authority Forever Established, February 15
RC	61	1	Principles That Underlie The Law Of God, February 16
RC	62	1	The Standard In The Judgment, February 17
RC	63	1	How We May Keep God's Law, February 18
RC	64	1	The Meaning Of God's Law, February 19
RC	65	1	Study Christ's Character And Become Like Him, February 20
RC	66	1	True Charity Will Not Compromise With Evil, February 21
RC	67	1	The Spirituality Of The Law, February 22
RC	68	1	The New Covenant Promise, February 23
RC	69	1	God's Law A Hedge Against Evil, February 24
RC	70	1	Every Soul To Be Treated With Respect, February 25
RC	71	1	Christians To Be As Transparent As Sunlight, February 26
RC	72	1	God's Law Of Forgiving Love, February 27
RC	73	1	God's Law Of Love Perfected In Us, February 28
RC	74	1	Justification By Faith--Our Only Hope, March 1
RC	75	1	The Repentant Sinner Accepted in Christ, March 2
RC	76	1	We Are Complete In Christ, March 3
RC	77	1	Christ's Blood Was Shed To Remit Our Sins, March 4
RC	78	1	Justified Souls Walk In The Light, March 5
RC	79	1	Faith Without Works Is Dead, March 6
RC	80	1	Sanctification Continues As Long As Life Lasts, March 7
RC	81	1	Sanctification Is The Result Of Lifelong Obedience, March 8
RC	82	1	More Attention To "The Faith Of Jesus", March 9
RC	83	1	Testing Time Reveals Faith And Love, March 10
RC	84	1	Sanctification Embraces The Entire Being, March 11
RC	85	1	Daniel Stands Firm Whatever The Result, March 12
RC	86	1	Daniel's Life Illustrates Sanctification, March 13
RC	87	1	In The Presence Of The Infinite, March 14
RC	88	1	Three Hebrews Display The Power Of God, March 15
RC	89	1	How The King Recognized The Son Of God, March 16
RC	90	1	God Answers Daniel's Fervent Prayer, March 17
RC	91	1	The Truly Sanctified Feel Unworthy, March 18
RC	92	1	Love Was That Of A Repentant Sinner, March 19
RC	93	1	John Learned Well The Lessons Jesus Taught, March 20
RC	94	1	The Contrast Between John And Judas, March 21
RC	95	1	Amazed At God's Love, March 22
RC	96	1	Love Is Shown By Willing Obedience, March 23
RC	97	1	Sanctified By Faith And Obedience, March 24
RC	98	1	Paul Emphasizes Sanctification, March 25
RC	99	1	Beholding Jesus With The Eye Of Faith, March 26
RC	100	1	God Works On Plan Of Multiplication, March 27
RC	101	1	God's Word The Means Of Our Sanctification, March 28
RC	102	1	The Need For Personal Consecration, March 29
RC	103	1	Without Jesus We Can Do Nothing, March 30
RC	104	1	United To Christ, We Obtain His Mind, March 31
RC	105	1	God's Original Plan Of Communication, April 1
RC	106	1	Christ Offers The Riches Of The Universe, April 2
RC	107	1	Self Is Hidden And Christ Is Revealed, April 3
RC	108	1	What True Surrender To God Involves, April 4
RC	109	1	Christ's Love Is A Satisfying Fountain, April 5
RC	110	1	We Can Bear The Fruits Of Righteousness, April 6
RC	111	1	The Word Of God Is Strong And Powerful, April 7
RC	112	1	Truth Must Be Stamped Upon The Heart, April 8
RC	113	1	The Light Of Scriptures To Be Cherished, April 9
RC	114	1	The Truth Makes Us Free, April 10
RC	115	1	The Impress of Deity Seen in His Word, April 11
RC	116	1	Meeting Satan With Scripture Weapons, April 12
RC	117	1	The Reward of Searching, April 13
RC	118	1	Divine Power Obtained Through Prayer, April 14
RC	119	1	Wait and Watch and Pray, April 15
RC	120	1	Power to Prevail with God and Men, April 16
RC	121	1	Praying Believers Should Encircle the World, April 17
RC	122	1	Prayer is Appropriate Anytime, Anywhere, April 18
RC	123	1	Faith that Works by Love, April 19
RC	124	1	By Faith All Things Are Ours, April 20
RC	125	1	By Faith Excellence is Developed, April 21
RC	126	1	Faith is a Shield for Every Soul, April 22
RC	127	1	Faith Qualifies for Us the Royal Line, April 23
RC	128	1	How to Gain Spiritual Strength, April 24
RC	129	1	The Holy Spirit, Representative of Christ, April 25
RC	130	1	Imbued by the Power of the Holy Spirit, April 26
RC	131	1	We Cannot Use the Holy Spirit, the Spirit is to Use Us, April 27
RC	132	1	The Holy Spirit, Christ's Special Gift, April 28
RC	133	1	The Effect of Receiving the Spirit, April 29
RC	134	1	We are to Reveal Christ's Love and Joy, April 30
RC	135	1	The Glorious Tree of Life, May 1
RC	136	1	The Universal Dominion of Law, May 2
RC	137	1	The Laws of Nature are the Laws of God, May 3
RC	138	1	Glorify God in our Body and Spirit, May 4
RC	139	1	We are to Reveal the Principles of Heaven, May 5
RC	140	1	Health is a Blessing Few Appreciate, May 6
RC	141	1	Nature Honors those Who Obey Her Laws, May 7
RC	142	1	The Importance of Strict Temperance, May 8
RC	143	1	All of the Living Organism is the Lord's, May 9
RC	144	1	The Relationship Between Flesh and Spirit, May 10
RC	145	1	The Health-Giving Value of Outdoor Life, May 11
RC	146	1	Each Youth Must Decide for Himself, May 12
RC	147	1	Exercise is Indispensable to Health, May 13
RC	148	1	Appropriate Exercise, May 14
RC	149	1	The Wonders of the Human Body, May 15
RC	150	1	Moral Principles Safeguard the Soul, May 16
RC	151	1	Wrong Physical Habits Affect the Brain, May 17
RC	152	1	Life is a Holy Trust, May 18
RC	153	1	True Religion Promotes Health, May 19
RC	154	1	We are to Value God's Marvelous Works, May 20
RC	155	1	Power to Think and to Do, May 21
RC	156	1	We Receive the Wisdom of Eternity, May 22
RC	157	1	True Standards of Christian Excellence, May 23
RC	158	1	Wisdom that Fulfills God's Purpose, May 24
RC	159	1	Enlightened to Full Radiance, May 25
RC	160	1	Enjoying Life's Real Pleasures, May 26
RC	161	1	The Highway to Health, May 27
RC	162	1	Mental Culture Gained by Bible Study, May 28
RC	163	1	Aim for Continual Advancement, May 29
RC	164	1	Christians to Move Onward and Upward, May 30
RC	165	1	The Temple of God, May 31
RC	166	1	Eden, the First Home, June 1
RC	167	1	The Influence of a Christian Home, June 2
RC	168	1	An Argument Infidels Cannot Resist, June 3
RC	169	1	Laying Hold of the Mighty One of Heaven, June 4
RC	170	1	Christ Bestows the Graces Needed, June 5
RC	171	1	Christ Eases the Burdens of Parents, June 6
RC	172	1	Parents to Teach Obedience, June 7
RC	173	1	Christ, the Wife and Mother's Strength, June 8
RC	174	1	Fathers to Spend Time with Children, June 9
RC	175	1	Fathers to Lead Children to Religious Light, June 10
RC	176	1	The Work of Both Parents is Important, June 11
RC	177	1	Children to Develop Well-Balanced Characters, June 12
RC	178	1	Father as Priest; Mother as Teacher, June 13
RC	179	1	Ministers to be Faithful in Family Life, June 14
RC	180	1	Parents to Counsel Their Children, June 15
RC	181	1	Study the Divine Guidebook in Worship, June 16
RC	182	1	The Bible is the Voice of God to Families, June 17
RC	183	1	Family Worship not to be Neglected, June 18
RC	184	1	Early Training of Children Determines their Future Experience, June 19
RC	185	1	Families to Reflect the Goodness of God, June 20
RC	186	1	Gentleness and Patience in the Home, June 21
RC	187	1	Useful Occupation Better Than Games, June 22
RC	188	1	Teach Children to be Workers Together With God, June 23
RC	189	1	Family United by Bonds of Love, June 24
RC	190	1	Courtesy Should Reign in the Home, June 25
RC	191	1	Cheerfulness in the Home Promotes Happiness, June 26
RC	192	1	Great Truths Handed Down From Father to Son, June 27
RC	193	1	Abraham's Example as a Father, June 28
RC	194	1	Abraham Obeyed God's Voice, June 29
RC	195	1	Hannah and the Early Life of Samuel, June 30
RC	196	1	God's Church to Reflect His Glory, July 1
RC	197	1	Every True Christian to be a Light Bearer, July 2
RC	198	1	God Glorified in Human Life, July 3
RC	199	1	Be One, as Christ and the Father are One, July 4
RC	200	1	Perfect Oneness will Give Success, July 5
RC	201	1	Prepare to Meet thy God, July 6
RC	202	1	Every Member May Render Service, July 7
RC	203	1	Let Repentant Ones be Forgiven, July 8
RC	204	1	Awake, and Watch for Souls, July 9
RC	205	1	Church Members are Blessed to Bless Others, July 10
RC	206	1	God Deals with Us as we Deal with Others, July 11
RC	207	1	God Honors Them that Honor Him, July 12
RC	208	1	The Route to Greater Spiritual Life in the Church, July 13
RC	209	1	The Ten Virgins Represent the Church, July 14
RC	210	1	Two Classes of Watchers, July 15
RC	211	1	The Wise Virgins Let Their Light Shine, July 16
RC	212	1	Revelation of God's Glory in Humanity, July 17
RC	213	1	Reflecting Light from the Sun of Righteousness, July 18
RC	214	1	Christ's Purpose to Sanctify and Cleanse the Church, July 19
RC	215	1	"Be Filled with all the Fulness of God", July 20
RC	216	1	Holy Spirit's Power Needed in End-Time, July 21
RC	217	1	The Transforming Power of the Holy Spirit, July 22
RC	218	1	True Religion Needed in the Church Today, July 23
RC	219	1	Christ's Followers to Stand Firmly for the Right, July 24
RC	220	1	Praise to God has Irresistible Power, July 25
RC	221	1	We have a "More Sure Word of Prophecy", July 26
RC	222	1	Cherished Evil Must be Replaced by Christ's Love, July 27
RC	223	1	Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone of the Church, July 28
RC	224	1	Building of God's Temple Goes Forward, July 29
RC	225	1	The Church Will Triumph Over Every Obstacle, July 30
RC	226	1	The Church Does Not Fall, July 31
RC	227	1	Christ's Commendation to the Merciful, August 1
RC	228	1	Jesus Was a Friend to Every Human Being, August 2
RC	229	1	Who is My Neighbor? August 3
RC	230	1	Follow the True Medical Missionary Worker, August 4
RC	231	1	The World Needs a Revelation of Christ, August 5
RC	232	1	Follow Christ in Service and Self-Denial, August 6
RC	233	1	God's Love Enables Us to Impart Light, August 7
RC	234	1	Love, the Ruling Principle of Action, August 8
RC	235	1	Reflect Rays of Light to Others, August 9
RC	236	1	We May Connect a Soul to Heaven, August 10
RC	237	1	Fishers of Men Need the Divine Presence, August 11
RC	238	1	The World Needs Health Principles, August 12
RC	239	1	Reveal the Preciousness of Jesus, August 13
RC	240	1	Present Truth in Love, August 14
RC	241	1	Thousands to be Warned in the Cities, August 15
RC	242	1	The Fields are Ready to Harvest, August 16
RC	243	1	Doing God's Will in Warning the Lost, August 17
RC	244	1	Heart Missionaries are Needed, August 18
RC	245	1	Success Through House-to-House Ministry, August 19
RC	246	1	Acts of Sympathy Open Doors, August 20
RC	247	1	Invite the Youth to Your Homes, August 21
RC	248	1	Youth to Help Youth, August 22
RC	249	1	The Power of Influence, August 23
RC	250	1	Press Close to Those Who Need Help, August 24
RC	251	1	God Calls Young People, August 25
RC	252	1	"Pure Religion" and "My Neighbor" Defined, August 26
RC	253	1	Reaching Out Through Literature Evangelism, August 27
RC	254	1	The Relief of Physical Needs, August 28
RC	255	1	The Ministry of Music, August 29
RC	256	1	The Joy of Service for Christ, August 30
RC	257	1	The Eternal Reward of Reaching Out, August 31
RC	258	1	Be Ready for the Coming of Christ, September 1
RC	259	1	Growing Up into Christ, September 2
RC	260	1	Our Sufficiency is in Christ Alone, September 3
RC	261	1	The Greatest in the Kingdom, September 4
RC	262	1	Influence May Bless Thousands, September 5
RC	263	1	Acquiring the Divine Beauty of Meekness, September 6
RC	264	1	Meekness, an Adorning of the Soul, September 7
RC	265	1	An Imperishable Jewel, September 8
RC	266	1	Relieving the World's Misery, September 9
RC	267	1	Choose the Robe Woven in Heaven's Loom, September 10
RC	268	1	The Widow's Mite Measured by Motive, September 11
RC	269	1	Using Riches for the Lord, September 12
RC	270	1	What the Spirit of Liberality Will Do, September 13
RC	271	1	Like Daniel, be Honest and Upright, September 14
RC	272	1	Strict Integrity to Mark the Christian, September 15
RC	273	1	Living Stones, Aglow with Wondrous Light, September 16
RC	274	1	Obedience, the Fruit of Faith, September 17
RC	275	1	The Ground of Forgiveness, September 18
RC	276	1	Encourage a Spirit of Kindliness, September 19
RC	277	1	Keep Christ in View, September 20
RC	278	1	Jesus Willed Us Peace, September 21
RC	279	1	Discipline Prepares Youth for High Destiny, September 22
RC	280	1	Tender Regard for Elderly Workers, September 23
RC	281	1	When Infirmities Come, Trust in God, September 24
RC	282	1	Cultivate the Talent of Speech, September 25
RC	283	1	Speak Evil of No Man, September 26
RC	284	1	The Joy of Well-Chosen Words, September 27
RC	285	1	Pour out Praise and Thanksgiving, September 28
RC	286	1	We are to Use Our Time Wisely, September 29
RC	287	1	Witnessing by Our Actions, September 30
RC	288	1	True Character Radiates from Within, October 1
RC	289	1	The World Needs People of Noble Character, October 2
RC	290	1	We are to Reflect Christ's Love, October 3
RC	291	1	God Alone can Renew the Heart, October 4
RC	292	1	The Highest Evidence of Nobility, October 5
RC	293	1	Self-Control Through Christ, October 6
RC	294	1	Keep Your Will on the Lord's Side, October 7
RC	295	1	Daily Prayer, Essential to Growth in Grace, October 8
RC	296	1	Divine Power and Human Effort, October 9
RC	297	1	Christ Puts on Us His Perfection of Character, October 10
RC	298	1	Character is Power, October 11
RC	299	1	Set Your Mark High, October 12
RC	300	1	We Shall Reap What We Have Sown, October 13
RC	301	1	The Lord Knows All the Thoughts, October 14
RC	302	1	A Daily Revealing of Christ's Presence, October 15
RC	303	1	Jesus Desires that We Become One with Him, October 16
RC	304	1	Treasures of Divine Grace at Our Disposal, October 17
RC	305	1	The Truth of God Refines the Taste, October 18
RC	306	1	The Building Blocks of Noble Characters, October 19
RC	307	1	Transformation of Character Takes Place Here, October 20
RC	308	1	What You Think, You are, October 21
RC	309	1	Character the Result of Single Acts, October 22
RC	310	1	We Abide in Christ by a Living Faith, October 23
RC	311	1	The Thoughts Must Be Centered Upon God, October 24
RC	312	1	The Science of Christianity, October 25
RC	313	1	Living the Character of Christ, October 26
RC	314	1	The Knowledge of God Is Vital, October 27
RC	315	1	The Necessity of Constant Growth in Grace, October 28
RC	316	1	John's Character Reflected Christ, October 29
RC	317	1	The Disciples Revealed the Love of Christ, October 30
RC	318	1	Contemplating Heavenly Things, October 31
RC	319	1	God's Children to be Light Bearers, November 1
RC	320	1	Enoch Walked With God, November 2
RC	321	1	A Preacher of Righteousness, November 3
RC	322	1	Noah Stood Like a Rock, November 4
RC	323	1	Noah Proclaimed God's Word with Force, November 5
RC	324	1	Abraham's Unquestioning Obedience, November 6
RC	325	1	Abraham's Unfaltering Faith, November 7
RC	326	1	Joseph Resolves to be True to God, November 8
RC	327	1	Jochebed's Influence on Moses, November 9
RC	328	1	Moses' Leadership Inspired Confidence, November 10
RC	329	1	Deborah's Support for Barak, November 11
RC	330	1	Gideon Leads Three Hundred Men to Victory, November 12
RC	331	1	Gideon Shows Courtesy to the Ephraimites, November 13
RC	332	1	Abigail Reveals Unselfishness and Wisdom, November 14
RC	333	1	Abigail's Influence Prevents Tragedy, November 15
RC	334	1	David Learns Through Hardship, November 16
RC	335	1	Solomon Learns from Suffering, November 17
RC	336	1	Elisha Demonstrates Steadfastness, November 18
RC	337	1	Captive Maid Shows Concern for Naaman, November 19
RC	338	1	Isaiah Responds to God's Call, November 20
RC	339	1	John Calls for Repentance, November 21
RC	340	1	Jesus Showed Us How to Live, November 22
RC	341	1	The Enormous Harvest of a Single Act, November 23
RC	342	1	Though Suffering, Paul and Silas Sing, November 24
RC	343	1	Lydia's Hospitality, November 25
RC	344	1	Paul Warns Against "Tradition" and "Philosophy", November 26
RC	345	1	The Essential Qualification for Service, November 27
RC	346	1	Those Who Return to the Old Paths, November 28
RC	347	1	Revealing the Triumphs of Grace, November 29
RC	348	1	God's People to Reveal Principles, November 30
RC	349	1	God Leads Us to Perfect Trust, December 1
RC	350	1	We Rejoice in Tribulation, December 2
RC	351	1	God has a Tender Care for His People, December 3
RC	352	1	We Fight Life's Battles in Christ's Strength, December 4
RC	353	1	God Tests Our Loyalty to Him, December 5
RC	354	1	Instead of Murmuring, Let Us Exercise Faith, December 6
RC	355	1	God's Grace Sweetens Every Affliction, December 7
RC	356	1	Whatever Our Trial, Christ is Near, December 8
RC	357	1	The Value of Pain, December 9
RC	358	1	God Teaches Self-Distrust Through Trials, December 10
RC	359	1	Meekness Under Trial, December 11
RC	360	1	Paul's Godly Life had Irresistible Power, December 12
RC	361	1	Peter Strengthened Those Enduring Trial, December 13
RC	362	1	Trials Educate, Purify, and Strengthen, December 14
RC	363	1	John Met Errors Unflinchingly, December 15
RC	364	1	Christ Lifts Us Through Sorrow, December 16
RC	365	1	Love for Jesus Makes Suffering Sweet, December 17
RC	366	1	Affliction Spreads Knowledge of God, December 18
RC	367	1	Watch, and Give Jesus Your Burden, December 19
RC	368	1	Christians to Represent Christ in Every Act, December 20
RC	369	1	The Scriptures Safeguard Against Deception, December 21
RC	370	1	God Works Mightily for His Chosen Ones, December 22
RC	371	1	Wrestling with God to Victory, December 23
RC	372	1	God's People Protected, December 24
RC	373	1	"Glory to God in the Highest", December 25
RC	374	1	The Redeemed Sing, "Worthy is the Lamb!", December 26
RC	375	1	The Deliverance of God's People, December 27
RC	376	1	Paul's Triumphant Testimony, December 28
RC	377	1	Our Glorious Destiny, December 29
RC	378	1	The Pure in Heart to Reflect Christ, December 30
RC	379	1	Christians to Reflect the Light of Heaven, December 31

------------------------Christ--One With The Father, January 1
RC	15	1	"The virgin ... will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us." Matthew 1:23, N.I.V.
RC	15	2	"The light of the knowledge of the glory of God" is seen "in the face of Jesus Christ." From the days of eternity the Lord Jesus Christ was one with the Father; He was "the image of God," the image of His greatness and majesty, "the outshining of his glory." It was to manifest this glory that He came to our world. To this sin-darkened earth He came to reveal the light of God's love--to be "God with us." Therefore it was prophesied of Him, "His name shall be called Immanuel."
RC	15	3	By coming to dwell with us, Jesus was to reveal God both to men and to angels. He was the Word of God--God's thought made audible. In His prayer for His disciples He says, "I have declared unto them thy name"--"merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth"--"that the love wherewith Thou has loved Me may be in them, and I in them."
RC	15	4	But not alone for His earthborn children was this revelation given. Our little world is the lesson book of the universe. God's wonderful purpose of grace, the mystery of redeeming love, is the theme into which, "angels desire to look," and it will be their study throughout endless ages. Both the redeemed and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their song. It will be seen that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is the glory of self-sacrificing love. In the light from Calvary it will be seen that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven; that the love which "seeketh not her own" has its source in the heart of God; and that in the meek and lowly One is manifested the character of Him who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto....
RC	15	5	We behold God in Jesus. Looking unto Jesus we see that it is the glory of our God to give. "I do nothing of myself," said Christ; "the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father." "I seek not mine own glory," but the glory of Him that sent Me (John 8:28; 6:57; John 8:50; 7:18). In these words is set forth the great principle which is the law of life for the universe. All things Christ received from God, but He took to give. So in the heavenly courts, in His ministry for all created beings: through the beloved Son, the Father's life flows out to all; through the Son it returns, in praise and joyous service, a tide of love, to the great Source of all. And thus through Christ the circuit of beneficence is complete, representing the character of the great Giver, the law of life.--The Desire of Ages, 19-21.
------------------------A Teacher Sent From God, January 2
RC	16	1	But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son ... to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Galatians 4:4, 5.
RC	16	2	At the time of Christ's first advent darkness had covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. Truth looked down from heaven, and nowhere could discern the reflection of her image. Spiritual darkness had settled down over the religious world, and this darkness was almost universal and complete....
RC	16	3	All things proclaimed the urgent necessity on the earth of a Teacher sent from God--a Teacher in whom divinity and humanity would be united. It was essential that Christ should appear in human form, and stand at the head of the human race, to uplift fallen human beings. Thus only could God be revealed to the world.
RC	16	4	Christ volunteered to lay aside His royal robe and kingly crown, and come to this earth to show to human beings what they may be in cooperation with God. He came to shine amidst the darkness, to dispel the darkness by the brightness of His presence....
RC	16	5	The Father and the Son in consultation decided that Christ must come to the world as a babe, and live the life that human beings must live from childhood to manhood, bearing the trials that they must bear, and at the same time living a sinless life, that men might see in Him an example of what they can become, and that He might know by experience how to help them in their struggles with sin. He was tried as man is tried, tempted as man is tempted. The life that He lived in this world, men can live, through His power and under His instruction....
RC	16	6	Patriarchs and prophets have predicted the coming of a distinguished Teacher, whose words were to be clothed with invincible power and authority. He was to preach the gospel to the poor, and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. He was to set judgment in the earth; the isles were to wait for His law; the Gentiles were to come to His light, and kings to the brightness of His rising. He was "the messenger of the covenant," and "the Sun of righteousness." ...
RC	16	7	And "when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son." ...The heavenly Teacher had come. Who was He? No less a being than the Son of God Himself. He appeared as God, and at the same time as the Elder Brother of the human race.--The Signs of the Times, May 17, 1905.
RC	16	8	What He taught, He lived.... What He taught, He was. His words were the expression, not only of His own life experience, but of His own character. Not only did He teach the truth, but He was the truth. It was this that gave His teaching power.--Education, 78, 79.
------------------------Christ Sacrificed Himself For Us, January 3
RC	17	1	We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Hebrews 2:9.
RC	17	2	The Lord created man pure and holy. But Satan led him astray, perverting his principles and corrupting his mind, turning his thoughts into a wrong channel. His purpose was to make the world wholly corrupt.
RC	17	3	Christ saw man's fearful danger, and He determined to save him by the sacrifice of Himself. That He might accomplish His purpose of love for the fallen race, He became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. "As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.... Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted." ...
RC	17	4	Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, a new principle of mental and spiritual power was to be brought to man, who, through association with divinity, was to become one with God. Christ, the redeemer and restorer, was to sanctify and purify man's mind, making it a power that would draw other minds to Himself. It is His purpose, by the elevating, sanctifying power of the truth, to give men nobility and dignity. He desires His children to reveal His character, to exert His influence, that other minds may be drawn into harmony with His mind....
RC	17	5	Christ might, because of our guilt, have moved far away from us. But instead of moving farther away, He came and dwelt among us, filled with all the fullness of the Godhead, to be one with us, that through His grace we might attain perfection. By a death of shame and suffering He paid our ransom. From the highest excellency He came, His divinity clothed with humanity, descending step by step to the lowest depths of humiliation. No line can measure the depth of His love....
RC	17	6	I marvel that professing Christians do not grasp the divine resources, that they do not see the cross more clearly as the medium of forgiveness and pardon, the means of bringing the proud, selfish heart of man into direct contact with the Holy Spirit, that the riches of Christ may be poured into the mind, and the human agent be adorned with the graces of the Spirit, that Christ may be commended to those who know Him not.--The Signs of the Times, September 24, 1902.
------------------------Christ Supplies Us With Living Water, January 4
RC	18	1	On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If a man is thirsty, let him come to me, and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." John 7:37, 38, N.I.V.
RC	18	2	The priest ... performed the ceremony which commemorated the smiting of the rock in the wilderness. That rock was a symbol of Him who by His death would cause living streams of salvation to flow to all who are athirst. Christ's words were the water of life. There in the presence of the assembled multitude He set Himself apart to be smitten, that the water of life might flow to the world. In smiting Christ, Satan thought to destroy the Prince of life; but from the smitten rock there flowed living water. As Jesus thus spoke to the people, their hearts thrilled with a strange awe, and many were ready to exclaim, with the woman of Samaria, "Give me this water, that I thirst not" (John 4:15).
RC	18	3	Jesus knew the wants of the soul. Pomp, riches, and honor cannot satisfy the heart. "If any man thirst, let him come unto me." The rich, the poor, the high, the low, are alike welcome. He promises to relieve the burdened mind, to comfort the sorrowing, and to give hope to the despondent. Many of those who heard Jesus were mourners over disappointed hopes, many were nourishing a secret grief, many were seeking to satisfy their restless longing with the things of the world and the praise of men; but when all was gained, they found that they had toiled only to reach a broken cistern, from which they could not quench their thirst. Amid the glitter of the joyous scene they stood, dissatisfied and sad. That sudden cry, "If any man thirst," startled them from their sorrowful meditation, and as they listened to the words that followed, their minds kindled with a new hope. The Holy Spirit presented the symbol before them until they saw in it the offer of the priceless gift of salvation.
RC	18	4	The cry of Christ to the thirsty soul is still going forth, and it appeals to us with even greater power than to those who heard it in the temple on the last day of the feast. The fountain is open for all. The weary and exhausted ones are offered the refreshing draught of eternal life. Jesus is still crying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." "Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17). "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14).--The Desire of Ages, 454.
------------------------Christ's Compassion Knew No Limit, January 5
RC	19	1	This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, "He took our infirmities and bore our diseases." Matthew 8:17, R.S.V.
RC	19	2	Our Lord Jesus Christ came to this world as the unwearied servant of man's necessity. He "took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses," that He might minister to every need of humanity. The burden of disease and wretchedness and sin He came to remove. It was His mission to bring to men complete restoration; He came to give them health and peace and perfection of character.
RC	19	3	Varied were the circumstances and needs of those who besought His aid, and none who came to Him went away unhelped. From Him flowed a stream of healing power, and in body and mind and soul men were made whole.
RC	19	4	The Saviour's work was not restricted to any time or place. His compassion knew no limit. On so large a scale did He conduct His work of healing and teaching that there was no building in Palestine large enough to receive the multitudes that thronged to Him. On the green hillslopes of Galilee, in the thoroughfares of travel, by the seashore, in the synagogues, and in every place where the sick could be brought to Him was to be found His hospital. In every city, every town, every village through which He passed, He laid His hands upon the afflicted ones, and healed them. Wherever there were hearts ready to receive His message, He comforted them with the assurance of their heavenly Father's love. All day He ministered to those who came to Him; in the evening He gave attention to such as through the day must toil to earn a pittance for the support of their families.
RC	19	5	Jesus carried the awful weight of responsibility for the salvation of men. He knew that unless there was a decided change in the principles and purposes of the human race, all would be lost. This was the burden of His soul, and none could appreciate the weight that rested upon Him. Through childhood, youth, and manhood, He walked alone....
RC	19	6	Day by day He met trials and temptations; day by day He was brought into contact with evil, and witnessed its power upon those whom He was seeking to bless and to save. Yet He did not fail nor become discouraged....
RC	19	7	He was always patient and cheerful, and the afflicted hailed Him as a messenger of life and peace. He saw the needs of men and women, children and youth, and to all He gave the invitation, "Come unto me." ...
RC	19	8	As He passed through the towns and cities, He was like a vital current, diffusing life and joy.--Gospel Workers, 41-43.
------------------------Changed into His Image, January 6
RC	20	1	But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
RC	20	2	Sin-burdened, struggling souls, Jesus in His glorified humanity has ascended into the heavens to make intercession for us. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace." We should be continually looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; for by beholding Him we shall be changed into His image, our character will be made like His. We should rejoice that all judgment is given to the Son, because in His humanity He has become acquainted with all the difficulties that beset humanity.
RC	20	3	To be sanctified is to become a partaker of the divine nature, catching the spirit and mind of Jesus, ever learning in the school of Christ. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord." It is impossible for any of us by our own power or our own efforts to work this change in ourselves. It is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which Jesus said He would send into the world, that changes our character into the image of Christ; and when this is accomplished, we reflect, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. That is, the character of the one who thus beholds Christ is so like His, that one looking at him sees Christ's own character shining out as from a mirror. Imperceptibly to ourselves, we are changed day by day from our ways and will into the ways and will of Christ, into the loveliness of His character. Thus we grow up into Christ, and unconsciously reflect His image.
RC	20	4	Professed Christians keep altogether too near the lowlands of earth. Their eyes are trained to see only commonplace things, and their minds dwell upon the things their eyes behold. Their religious experience is often shallow and unsatisfying, and their words are light and valueless. How can such reflect the image of Christ? How can they send forth the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness into all the dark places of the earth? To be a Christian is to be Christlike....
RC	20	5	[Enoch] was ever under the influence of Jesus. He reflected Christ's character, exhibiting the same qualities in goodness, mercy, tender compassion, sympathy, forbearance, meekness, humility and love. His association with Christ day by day transformed him into the image of Him with whom he was so intimately connected.--The Review and Herald, December 5, 1912.
------------------------Christ Inspires Souls with Confidence in God, January 7
RC	21	1	Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John 5:4.
RC	21	2	What kind of faith is it that overcomes the world? It is that faith which makes Christ your own personal Saviour--that faith which, recognizing your helplessness, your utter inability to save yourself, takes hold of the Helper who is mighty to save, as your only hope. It is faith that will not be discouraged, that hears the voice of Christ saying, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, and My divine strength is yours." It is the faith that hears Him say, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
RC	21	3	The reason why the churches are weak and sickly and ready to die is that the enemy has brought influences of a discouraging nature to bear upon trembling souls. He has sought to shut Jesus from their view as the Comforter, as one who reproves, who warns, who admonishes them, saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it." Christ has all power in heaven and in earth, and He can strengthen the wavering, and set right the erring. He can inspire with confidence, with hope in God; and confidence in God always results in creating confidence in one another.
RC	21	4	Every soul must have a realization that Christ is his personal Saviour; then love and zeal and steadfastness will be manifest in the Christian life. However clear and convincing the truth is, it will fail to sanctify the soul, fail to strengthen and fortify it in its conflicts, unless it is brought in constant contact with life. Satan has achieved his greatest success through interposing himself between the soul and the Saviour.
RC	21	5	Christ should never be out of the mind. The angels said concerning Him, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins." Jesus, precious Saviour! Assurance, helpfulness, security, and peace are all in Him. He is the dispeller of all our doubts, the earnest of all our hopes. How precious is the thought that we may indeed become partakers of the divine nature, whereby we may overcome as Christ overcame! Jesus is the fullness of our expectation. He is the melody of our songs, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. He is living water to the thirsty soul. He is our refuge in the storm. He is our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. When Christ is our personal Saviour, we shall show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light....
RC	21	6	Christ died because the law was transgressed, that guilty man might be saved from the penalty of his enormous guilt. But history has proved that it is easier to destroy the world than to reform it; for men crucified the Lord of Glory, who came to unite earth with heaven, and man with God.--The Review and Herald, August 26, 1890.
------------------------By the Eye of Faith Christ is Present Ever, January 8
RC	22	1	Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. John 16:7.
RC	22	2	Christ said, "It is expedient for you that I go away." No one could then have any preference because of his location or personal contact with Christ. The Saviour would be accessible to all alike, spiritually, and in this sense He would be nearer to us all than if He had not ascended on high. Now all may be equally favored by beholding Him and reflecting His character. The eye of faith sees Him ever present, in all His goodness, grace, forbearance, courtesy, and love, those spiritual and divine attributes. And as we behold, we are changed into His likeness.
RC	22	3	Christ is soon coming in the clouds of heaven, and we must be prepared to meet Him, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. We are now to accept the invitation of Christ. He says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." The words of Christ to Nicodemus are of practical value to us today: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."
RC	22	4	The converting power of God must be upon our hearts. We must study the life of Christ, and imitate the divine Pattern. We must dwell upon the perfection of His character, and be changed into His image. No one will enter the kingdom of God unless his will is brought into captivity to the will of Christ.
RC	22	5	Heaven is free from all sin, from all defilement and impurity; and if we would live in its atmosphere, if we would behold the glory of Christ, we must be pure in heart, perfect in character through His grace and righteousness. We must not be taken up with pleasure and amusement, but be fitting up for the glorious mansions Christ has gone to prepare for us. If we are faithful, seeking to bless others, patient in well-doing, at His coming Christ will crown us with glory, honor, and immortality.--The Review and Herald, December 5, 1912.
------------------------Christ Bridged the Gulf Caused by Sin, January 9
RC	23	1	For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
RC	23	2	Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven. He sought to gain control of heavenly beings, to draw them away from their Creator, and to win their homage to himself. Therefore he misrepresented God, attributing to Him the desire for self-exaltation. With his own evil characteristics he sought to invest the loving Creator. Thus he deceived angels. Thus he deceived men. He led them to doubt the word of God, and to distrust His goodness. Because God is a God of justice and terrible majesty, Satan caused them to look upon Him as severe and unforgiving. Thus he drew men to join him in rebellion against God, and the night of woe settled down upon the world.
RC	23	3	The earth was dark through misapprehension of God. That the gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the world might be brought back to God, Satan's deceptive power was to be broken. This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known. Upon the world's dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, "with healing in his wings" (Malachi 4:2).
RC	23	4	The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of "the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal" (Romans 16:25, R.V.). It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God's throne. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency....
RC	23	5	Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is acquainted with our trials, and sympathizes with our griefs. Every son and daughter of Adam may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners. For in every doctrine of grace, every promise of joy, every deed of love, every divine attraction presented in the Saviour's life on earth, we see "God with us."--The Desire of Ages, 21-24.
------------------------The Image of the Divine to Shine Through, January 10
RC	24	1	Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
RC	24	2	The ideal of Christian character is Christlikeness. As the Son of man was perfect in His life, so His followers are to be perfect in their life. Jesus was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh, even as we are. He was hungry and thirsty and weary. He was sustained by food and refreshed by sleep. He shared the lot of man; yet He was the blameless Son of God. He was God in the flesh. His character is to be ours....
RC	24	3	Christ is the ladder that Jacob saw, the base resting on the earth, and the topmost round reaching to the gate of heaven, to the very threshold of glory. If that ladder had failed by a single step of reaching the earth, we should have been lost. But Christ reaches us where we are. He took our nature and overcame, that we through taking His nature might overcome. Made "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Romans 8:3), He lived a sinless life. Now by His divinity He lays hold upon the throne of heaven, while by His humanity He reaches us. He bids us by faith in Him attain to the glory of the character of God. Therefore are we to be perfect, even as our "Father which is in heaven is perfect."
RC	24	4	Jesus had shown in what righteousness consists, and had pointed to God as its source. Now He turned to practical duties. In almsgiving, in prayer, in fasting, He said, let nothing be done to attract attention or win praise to self. Give in sincerity, for the benefit of the suffering poor. In prayer, let the soul commune with God. In fasting, go not with the head bowed down, and heart filled with thoughts of self.... It is he who yields himself most unreservedly to God that will render Him the most acceptable service. For through fellowship with God men become workers together with Him in presenting His character in humanity.
RC	24	5	The service rendered in sincerity of heart has great recompense. "Thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly." By the life we live through the grace of Christ the character is formed. The original loveliness begins to be restored to the soul. The attributes of the character of Christ are imparted, and the image of the Divine begins to shine forth. The faces of men and women who walk and work with God express the peace of heaven. They are surrounded with the atmosphere of heaven. For these souls the kingdom of God has begun. They have Christ's joy, the joy of being a blessing to humanity. They have the honor of being accepted for the Master's use; they are trusted to do His work in His name.--The Desire of Ages, 311-312.
------------------------Christ Brought Spiritual and Physical Healing, January 11
RC	25	1	Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases. Psalm 103:2, 3.
RC	25	2	Christ bade the paralytic arise and walk, "that ye may know," He said, "that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins."
RC	25	3	The paralytic found in Christ healing for both the soul and the body. The spiritual healing was followed by physical restoration. This lesson should not be overlooked. There are today thousands suffering from physical disease, who, like the paralytic, are longing for the message, "Thy sins are forgiven." The burden of sin, with its unrest and unsatisfied desires, is the foundation of their maladies. They can find no relief until they come to the Healer of the soul. The peace which He alone can give would impart vigor to the mind, and health to the body.
RC	25	4	Jesus came to "destroy the works of the devil." "In him was life," and He says, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." He is "a quickening spirit." And He still has the same life-giving power as when on earth He healed the sick and spoke forgiveness to the sinner. He "forgiveth all thine iniquities," He "healeth all thy diseases."
RC	25	5	The effect produced upon the people by the healing of the paralytic was as if heaven has opened, and revealed the glories of the better world. As the man who had been cured passed through the multitude, blessing God at every step, and bearing his burden as if it were a feather's weight, the people fell back to give him room, and with awe-stricken faces gazed upon him, whispering softly among themselves, "We have seen strange things today." ...
RC	25	6	In the home of the healed paralytic there was great rejoicing.... He stood before them in the full vigor of manhood. Those arms that they had seen lifeless were quick to obey his will. The flesh that had been shrunken and leaden-hued was now fresh and ruddy. He walked with a firm, free step. Joy and hope were written in every lineament of his countenance; and an expression of purity and peace had taken the place of marks of sin and suffering. Glad thanksgiving went up from that home, and God was glorified through His Son, who had restored hope to the hopeless, and strength to the stricken one. This man and his family were ready to lay down their lives for Jesus. No doubt dimmed their faith, no unbelief marred their fealty to Him who had brought light into their darkened home.--The Desire of Ages, 270, 271.
------------------------Christ's Words Carried Impelling Power, January 12
RC	26	1	Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29.
RC	26	2	"Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother.... And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him." ...
RC	26	3	The prompt, unquestioning obedience of these men, with no promise of wages, seems remarkable; but the words of Christ were an invitation that carried with it an impelling power. Christ would make these humble fishermen, in connection with Himself, the means of taking men out of the service of Satan, and placing them in the service of God. In this work they would become His witnesses, bearing to the world His truth unmingled with the traditions and sophistries of men. By practicing His virtues, by walking and working with Him, they were to be qualified to be fishers of men....
RC	26	4	For three years they labored in connection with the Saviour, and by His teaching, His works of healing, His example, they were prepared to carry on the work that He began. By the simplicity of faith, by pure, humble service, the disciples were taught to carry responsibilities in God's cause.
RC	26	5	There are lessons for us to learn from the experience of the apostles. These men were as true as steel to principle. They were men who would not fail nor be discouraged. They were full of reverence and zeal for God, full of noble purposes and aspirations. They were by nature as weak and helpless as any of those now engaged in the work, but they put their whole trust in the Lord. Wealth they had, but it consisted of mind and soul culture; and this every one may have who will make God first and last and best in everything. They toiled long to learn the lessons given them in the school of Christ, and they did not toil in vain. They bound themselves up with the mightiest of all powers, and were ever longing for a deeper, higher, broader comprehension of eternal realities, that they might successfully present the treasures of truth to a needy world....
RC	26	6	Everywhere the light of truth is to shine forth, that hearts may be awakened and converted. In all countries the gospel is to be proclaimed. God's servants are to labor in places nigh and afar off, enlarging the cultivated portions of the vineyard, and going to the regions beyond. They are to work while the day lasts; for the night cometh, in which no man can work.--Gospel Workers, 24-26.
------------------------Christ Recognized the Dignity of Humanity, January 13
RC	27	1	But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Ephesians 2:13, 14.
RC	27	2	Christ recognized no distinction of nationality or rank or creed. The scribes and Pharisees desired to make a local and a national benefit of the gifts of heaven, and to exclude the rest of God's family in the world. But Christ came to break down every wall of partition. He came to show that His gift of mercy and love is as unconfined as the air, the light, or the showers of rain that refresh the earth.
RC	27	3	The life of Christ established a religion in which there is no caste, a religion by which Jew and Gentile, free and bond, are linked in a common brotherhood, equal before God. No question of policy influenced His movements. He made no difference between neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies. That which appealed to His heart was a soul thirsting for the waters of life.
RC	27	4	He passed by no human being as worthless, but sought to apply the healing remedy to every soul. In whatever company He found Himself, He presented a lesson appropriate to the time and the circumstances. Every neglect or insult shown by men to their fellow men only made Him more conscious of their need of His divine-human sympathy. He sought to inspire with hope the roughest and most unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character as would make them manifest as the children of God.
RC	27	5	Often He met those who had drifted under Satan's control, and who had no power to break from his snare. To such a one, discouraged, sick, tempted, fallen, Jesus would speak words of tenderest pity, words that were needed and could be understood. Others He met who were fighting a hand-to-hand battle with the adversary of souls. These He encouraged to persevere, assuring them that they would win; for angels of God were on their side, and would give them the victory.
RC	27	6	At the table of the publicans He sat as an honored guest, by His sympathy and social kindliness showing that He recognized the dignity of humanity; and men longed to become worthy of His confidence. Upon their thirsty hearts His words fell with blessed, life-giving power. New impulses were awakened, and to these outcasts of society there opened the possibility of a new life.
RC	27	7	Though He was a Jew, Jesus mingled freely with the Samaritans.... And while He drew their hearts to Him by the tie of human sympathy, His divine grace brought to them the salvation which the Jews rejected.--The Ministry of Healing, 25, 26.
------------------------Christ Acknowledged the Rights of Everyone, January 14
RC	28	1	In every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. Acts 10:35.
RC	28	2	The Lord Jesus demands our acknowledgment of the rights of every man. Men's social rights, and their rights as Christians, are to be taken into consideration. All are to be treated with refinement and delicacy, as the sons and daughters of God.
RC	28	3	Christianity will make a man a gentleman. Christ was courteous, even to His persecutors; and His true followers will manifest the same spirit. Look at Paul when brought before rulers. His speech before Agrippa is an illustration of true courtesy as well as persuasive eloquence. The gospel does not encourage the formal politeness current with the world, but the courtesy that springs from real kindness of heart.
RC	28	4	The most careful attention to the outward proprieties of life is not sufficient to shut out all fretfulness, harsh judgment, and unbecoming speech. True refinement will never be revealed so long as self is considered the supreme object. Love must dwell in the heart. A thoroughgoing Christian draws his motives of action from his deep heartlove for the Master. Up through the roots of his affection for Christ springs an unselfish interest in his brethren. Love imparts to its possessor grace, propriety, and comeliness of deportment. It illuminates the countenance and subdues the voice; it refines and elevates the entire being.--Gospel Workers, 123.
RC	28	5	Some with whom you are brought in contact may be rough and uncourteous, but do not, because of this, be less courteous yourself. He who wishes to preserve his own self-respect must be careful not to wound needlessly the self-respect of others. This rule should be sacredly observed toward the dullest, the most blundering. What God intends to do with these apparently unpromising ones, you do not know. He has in the past accepted persons no more promising or attractive to do a great work for Him. His Spirit, moving upon the heart, has roused every faculty to vigorous action. The Lord saw in these rough, unhewn stones precious material, which would stand the test of storm and heat and pressure.--Gospel Workers, 122.
RC	28	6	Be polite to those with whom you come in contact; thus you will be polite to God. Praise Him for His goodness. Thus you are witnesses for Him, and you are preparing for the society of the angels. You are learning in this world how to conduct yourselves in the family of Christ in heaven.--Manuscript 31, 1903.
------------------------Christ was No Respecter of Persons, January 15
RC	29	1	Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. Acts 10:34.
RC	29	2	The religion of Christ uplifts the receiver to a higher plane of thought and action, while at the same time it presents the whole human race as alike the objects of the love of God, being purchased by the sacrifice of His Son. At the feet of Jesus, the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, meet together, with no thought of caste or worldly preeminence. All earthly distinctions are forgotten as we look upon Him whom our sins have pierced. The self-denial, the condescension, the infinite compassion of Him who was highly exalted in heaven, puts to shame human pride, self-esteem, and social caste. Pure, undefiled religion manifests its heaven-born principles in bringing into oneness all who are sanctified through the truth. All meet as blood-bought souls, alike dependent upon Him who has redeemed them to God.
RC	29	3	The Lord has lent men talents to improve, Those whom He has entrusted with money are to bring their talent of means to the Master. Men and women of influence are to use that which God has given them. The ones whom He has endowed with wisdom are to bring to the cross of Christ this gift to be used to His glory.
RC	29	4	And the poor have their talent, which perhaps may be larger than any other mentioned. It may be simplicity of character, humility, tried virtue, confidence in God. Through patient toil, through their entire dependence upon God, they are pointing those with whom they associate to Jesus, their Redeemer. They have a heart full of sympathy for the poor, a home for the needy and oppressed, and their testimony is clear and decided as to what Jesus is to them. They seek for glory, honor, and immortality, and their reward will be eternal life.
RC	29	5	In the human brotherhood it takes all kinds of talents to make a perfect whole; and the church of Christ is composed of men and women of varied talents, and of all ranks and all classes. God never designed that the pride of men should dissolve that which His own wisdom had ordained--the combination of all classes of minds, of all the varied talents that make a complete whole. There should be no depreciating of any part of God's great work, whether the agencies are high or lowly. All have their part to act in diffusing light in different degrees.... We are all woven together in the great web of humanity, and we cannot, without loss, withdraw our sympathies from one another.--Gospel Workers, 330, 331.
------------------------Christ Our Example in True Courtesy, January 16
RC	30	1	Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. 1 Peter 3:8.
RC	30	2	Those who work for Christ are to be upright and trustworthy, firm as a rock to principle, and at the same time kind and courteous. Courtesy is one of the graces of the Spirit. To deal with human minds is the greatest work ever given to man; and he who would find access to hearts must heed the injunction, "Be pitiful, be courteous." Love will do that which argument will fail to accomplish. But a moment's petulance, a single gruff answer, a lack of Christian politeness and courtesy in some small matter, may result in the loss of both friends and influence.
RC	30	3	What Christ was on this earth, the Christian worker should strive to be. He is our example, not only in His spotless purity, but in His patience, gentleness, and winsomeness of disposition. His life is an illustration of true courtesy. He had ever a kind look and a word of comfort for the needy and the oppressed. His presence brought a purer atmosphere into the home. His life was a leaven working amid the elements of society. Pure and undefiled, He walked among the thoughtless, the rude, the uncourteous; among unjust publicans, unrighteous Samaritans, heathen soldiers, rough peasants, and the mixed multitude. He spoke a word of sympathy here and a word there. As He saw men weary, and compelled to bear heavy burdens, He shared their burdens, and repeated to them the lessons He had learned from nature, of the love, the kindness, the goodness of God. He sought to inspire with hope the most rough and unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might attain such a character as would make them manifest as children of God.
RC	30	4	The religion of Jesus softens whatever is hard and rough in the temper, and smooths whatever is rugged and sharp in the manners. It makes the words gentle and the demeanor winning. Let us learn from Christ how to combine a high sense of purity and integrity with sunniness of disposition. A kind, courteous Christian is the most powerful argument that can be produced in favor of Christianity.
RC	30	5	Kind words are as dew and gentle showers to the soul. The Scripture says of Christ, that grace was poured into His lips, that He might "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." And the Lord bids us, "Let your speech be alway with grace" "that it may minister grace unto the hearers."--Gospel Workers, 121, 122.
RC	30	6	The essence of true politeness is consideration for others.--Education, 241.
------------------------Christ An Example In Social Power, January 17
RC	31	1	And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him. Mark 2:15.
RC	31	2	All who profess to be children of God should bear in mind that as missionaries they will be brought into contact with all classes of minds. There are the refined and the coarse, the humble and the proud, the religious and the skeptical, the educated and the ignorant, the rich and the poor. These varied minds cannot be treated alike; yet all need kindness and sympathy. By mutual contact our minds should receive polish and refinement. We are dependent upon one another, closely bound together by the ties of human brotherhood....
RC	31	3	It is through the social relations that Christianity comes in contact with the world. Every man or woman who has received the divine illumination is to shed light on the dark pathway of those who are unacquainted with the better way. Social power, sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, must be improved in bringing souls to the Saviour. Christ is not to be hid away in the heart as a coveted treasure, sacred and sweet, to be enjoyed solely by the possessor. We are to have Christ in us as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life, refreshing all who come in contact with us.--The Ministry of Healing, 495, 496.
RC	31	4	Christ did not refuse to mingle with others in friendly intercourse. When invited to a feast by Pharisee or publican, He accepted the invitation. On such occasions every word that He uttered was a savor of life unto life to His hearers; for He made the dinner hour an occasion of imparting many precious lessons adapted to their needs. Christ thus taught His disciples how to conduct themselves when in the company of those who were not religious as well as of those who were. By His own example He taught them that, [in] any public gathering, their conversation need not be of the same character as that usually indulged in on such occasions....
RC	31	5	If Christ is abiding in the soul there will come forth from the treasure house of the heart words which are pure and uplifting; if Christ is not abiding there, a satisfaction will be found in frivolity, in jesting and joking, which is a hindrance to spiritual growth and a cause of grief to the angels of God. The tongue is an unruly member, but it should not be so. It should be converted; for the talent of speech is a very precious talent. Christ is ever ready to impart of His riches, and we should gather the jewels that come from Him, that, when we speak, these jewels may drop from our lips.--Testimonies for the Church 6:173, 174.
------------------------All To Reveal Christ's Spirit And Power, January 18
RC	32	1	The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. John 7:46.
RC	32	2	When Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, His disciples were gathered close about Him, and the multitude, filled with intense curiosity, also pressed as near as possible. Something more than usual was expected. Eager faces and listening attitudes gave evidence of the deep interest. The attention of all seemed riveted upon the speaker. His eyes were lighted up with unutterable love, and the heavenly expression upon His countenance gave meaning to every word uttered. Angels of heaven were in that listening throng. There, too, was the adversary of souls with his evil angels, prepared to counteract, as far as possible, the influence of the heavenly Teacher.
RC	32	3	The truths there uttered have come down through the ages and have been a light amid the general darkness of error. Many have found in them that which the soul most needed--a sure foundation of faith and practice. But in these words spoken by the greatest Teacher the world has ever known there is no parade of human eloquence. The language is plain, and the thoughts and sentiments are marked with the greatest simplicity. The poor, the unlearned, the most simple-minded, can understand them. The Lord of heaven was in mercy and kindness addressing the souls He came to save. He taught them as one having authority, speaking the words of eternal life.
RC	32	4	All should copy the Pattern as closely as possible. While they cannot possess the consciousness of power which Jesus had, they can so connect with the Source of strength that Jesus can abide in them and they in Him, and so His spirit and His power will be revealed in them.
RC	32	5	"Walk in the light, as he is in the light." It is earthliness and selfishness that separate from God. The messages from heaven are of a character to arouse opposition. The faithful witnesses for Christ and the truth will reprove sin. Their words will be like a hammer to break the flinty heart, like a fire to consume the dross. There is constant need of earnest, decided messages of warning. God will have men who are true to duty. At the right time He sends His faithful messengers to do a work similar to that of Elijah.--Testimonies for the Church 5:253, 254.
RC	32	6	Men of the highest education in the arts and sciences have learned precious lessons from Christians in humble life who were designated by the world as unlearned. But these obscure disciples had obtained an education in the highest of all schools. They had sat at the feet of Him who spoke as "never man spake."--The Desire of Ages, 251.
------------------------The Revelation Of God's Love In The Cross, January 19
RC	33	1	It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God. Romans 8:34.
RC	33	2	The revelation of God's love to man centers in the cross. Its full significance tongue cannot utter, pen cannot portray, the mind of man cannot comprehend. Looking upon the cross of Calvary, we can only say, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
RC	33	3	Christ crucified for our sins, Christ risen from the dead, Christ ascended on high, is the science of salvation that we are to learn and to teach....
RC	33	4	"It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God" (Romans 8:34). "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25)....
RC	33	5	It is through the gift of Christ that we receive every blessing. Through that gift there comes to us day by day the unfailing flow of Jehovah's goodness. Every flower, with its delicate tints and its fragrance, is given for our enjoyment through that one Gift. The sun and the moon were made by Him. There is not a star which beautifies the heavens that He did not make. Every drop of rain that falls, every ray of light shed upon our unthankful world, testifies to the love of God in Christ. Everything is supplied to us through the one unspeakable Gift, God's only-begotten Son. He was nailed to the cross that all these bounties might flow to God's workmanship.
RC	33	6	"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1)....
RC	33	7	The knowledge of God as revealed in Christ is the knowledge that all who are saved must have. It is the knowledge that works transformation of character. This knowledge, received, will re-create the soul in the image of God. It will impart to the whole being a spiritual power that is divine....
RC	33	8	Of His own life the Saviour said, "I have kept my Father's commandments" (John 15:10). "The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him" (chap. 8:29). As Jesus was in human nature, so God means His followers to be. In His strength we are to live the life of purity and nobility which the Saviour lived.--The Ministry of Healing, 423-426.
RC	33	9	In the rock Christ Jesus is our only safety.--The Upward Look, 293.
------------------------Christ's Glory Shines On The Thief, January 20
RC	34	1	Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Luke 23:42.
RC	34	2	To Jesus in His agony on the cross there came one gleam of comfort. It was the prayer of the penitent thief. Both the men who were crucified with Jesus had at first railed upon Him; and one under his suffering only became more desperate and defiant.
RC	34	3	But not so with his companion. This man was not a hardened criminal; he had been led astray by evil associations, but he was less guilty than many of those who stood beside the cross reviling the Saviour. He had seen and heard Jesus, and had been convicted by His teaching, but he had been turned away from Him by the priests and rulers. Seeking to stifle conviction, he had plunged deeper and deeper into sin, until he was arrested, tried as a criminal, and condemned to die on the cross.
RC	34	4	In the judgment hall and on the way to Calvary he had been in company with Jesus. He had heard Pilate declare, "I find no fault in Him" (John 19:4). He had marked His Godlike bearing, and His pitying forgiveness of His tormentors. On the cross he sees the many great religionists shoot out the tongue with scorn, and ridicule the Lord Jesus. He sees the wagging heads. He hears the upbraiding speeches taken up by his companion in guilt: "If thou be Christ, save thyself and us."
RC	34	5	Among the passersby he hears many defending Jesus. He hears them repeat His words, and tell of His works. The conviction comes back to him that this is the Christ.... And now, all sin-polluted as it is, his life history is about to close. "And we indeed justly," he moans; "for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss." ...
RC	34	6	Strange, tender thoughts now spring up. He calls to mind all he has heard of Jesus, how He has healed the sick and pardoned sin.... The Holy Spirit illuminates his mind, and little by little the chain of evidence is joined together. In Jesus, bruised, mocked, and hanging upon the cross, he sees the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Hope is mingled with anguish in his voice as the helpless, dying soul casts himself upon a dying Saviour. "Lord, remember me," he cries, "when thou comest into thy kingdom."
RC	34	7	Quickly the answer came. Soft and melodious the tone, full of love, compassion, and power the words: Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with Me in paradise....
RC	34	8	With longing heart He has listened for some expression of faith from His disciples.... How grateful then to the Saviour was the utterance of faith and love from the dying thief!--The Desire of Ages, 749, 750.
------------------------As Our Example Christ Is All And In All, January 21
RC	35	1	In him was life; and the life was the light of men. John 1:4.
RC	35	2	The ethics inculcated by the gospel acknowledge no standard but the perfection of God's mind, God's will. God requires from His creatures conformity to His will. Imperfection of character is sin, and sin is the transgression of the law. All righteous attributes of character dwell in God as a perfect, harmonious whole. Everyone who receives Christ as his personal Saviour is privileged to possess these attributes. This is the science of holiness.
RC	35	3	How glorious are the possibilities set before the fallen race! Through His Son, God has revealed the excellency to which man is capable of attaining. Through the merits of Christ, man is lifted from his depraved state, purified, and made more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir. It is possible for him to become a companion of the angels in glory, and to reflect the image of Jesus Christ, shining even in the bright splendor of the eternal throne. It is his privilege to have faith that through the power of Christ he shall be made immortal. Yet how seldom he realizes to what heights he could attain if he would allow God to direct his every step!
RC	35	4	God permits every human being to exercise his individuality. He desires no one to submerge his mind in the mind of a fellow mortal. Those who desire to be transformed in mind and character are not to look to men, but to the divine Example. God gives the invitation, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." By conversion and transformation, men are to receive the mind of Christ. Every one is to stand before God with an individual faith, an individual experience, knowing for himself that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory. For us to imitate the example of any man--even one whom we might regard as nearly perfect in character--would be to put our trust in a defective human being, one who is unable to impart a jot or tittle of perfection.
RC	35	5	As our Example, we have One who is all and in all, the chiefest among ten thousand, One whose excellency is beyond comparison. He graciously adapted His life for universal imitation. United in Christ were wealth and poverty; majesty and abasement; unlimited power and meekness and lowliness which in every soul who receives Him will be reflected. In Him, through the qualities and powers of the human mind, the wisdom of the greatest Teacher the world has ever known was revealed.
RC	35	6	Before the world, God is developing us as living witnesses to what men and women may become through the grace of Christ.--The Signs of the Times, September 3, 1902.
------------------------Christ Is The Truth, January 22
RC	36	1	Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6.
RC	36	2	Christ is the truth. His words are truth, and they have a deeper significance than appears on the surface. All the sayings of Christ have a value beyond their unpretending appearance. Minds that are quickened by the Holy Spirit will discern the value of these sayings. They will discern the precious gems of truth, though these may be buried treasures.
RC	36	3	Human theories and speculations will never lead to an understanding of God's Word. Those who suppose that they understand philosophy think that their explanations are necessary to unlock the treasures of knowledge and to prevent heresies from coming into the church. But it is these explanations that have brought in false theories and heresies. Men have made desperate efforts to explain what they thought to be intricate scriptures; but too often their efforts have only darkened that which they tried to make clear.
RC	36	4	The priests and Pharisees thought they were doing great things as teachers, by putting their own interpretation upon the Word of God; but Christ said of them, "Ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God" (Mark 12:24). He charged them with the guilt of "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (chap. 7:7). Though they were the teachers of the oracles of God, though they were supposed to understand His Word, they were not doers of the Word. Satan had blinded their eyes that they should not see its true import.
RC	36	5	This is the work of many in our day. Many churches are guilty of this sin. There is danger, great danger, that the supposed wise men of today will repeat the experience of the Jewish teachers. They falsely interpret the divine oracles, and souls are brought into perplexity and shrouded in darkness because of their misconception of divine truth.
RC	36	6	The Scriptures need not be read by the dim light of tradition or human speculation. As well might we try to give light to the sun with a torch as to explain the Scriptures by human tradition or imagination. God's Holy Word needs not the torchlight glimmer of earth to make its glories distinguishable. It is light in itself--the glory of God revealed, and beside it every other light is dim.--Christ's Object Lessons, 110, 111.
RC	36	7	It is the truth ... we all need, the truth that works by love and purifies the soul.--The Upward Look, 293.
------------------------Christ a Perfect Example for All, January 23
RC	37	1	And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Luke 2:52.
RC	37	2	Man has fallen. God's image in him is defaced. By disobedience he is depraved in inclination and weakened in power, unable, apparently, to look forward to anything but tribulation and wrath. But God, through Christ, has wrought out a way of escape, and He says to everyone, "Be ye therefore perfect." It is His purpose that man shall stand before Him upright and noble, and He will not be defeated. He sent His Son to this world to bear the penalty of sin, and to show man how to live a sinless life.
RC	37	3	Christ is our ideal. He has left a perfect example for childhood, youth, and manhood. He came to this earth, and passed through the different phases of human experience. In His life sin found no place. From the beginning to the close of His earthly life, He preserved unsullied His loyalty to God. The Word says of Him, "The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him." He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man."
RC	37	4	The Saviour lived not to please Himself.... He had no home in this world, only as the kindness of His friends provided Him one, yet it was heaven to be in His presence. Day by day He met trials and temptations, yet He did not fail or become discouraged. He was always patient and cheerful, and the afflicted hailed Him as a messenger of life and peace and health. His life held nothing that was not pure and noble....
RC	37	5	God's promise is, "Ye shall be holy; for I am holy." Holiness is the reflection of God's glory. But in order to reflect this glory, we must cooperate with God. Heart and mind must be emptied of all that leads to wrong. The Word of God must be read and studied with a sincere desire to gain from it spiritual strength. This Word is the Bread of heaven. Those who receive it, and make it a part of their lives, grow strong in the strength of God. Our sanctification is God's object in all His dealing with us. He has chosen us from eternity, that we may be holy. Christ declares, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." Is it your will, also, that your desires and inclinations shall be brought into conformity to the divine will? ...
RC	37	6	Living the life of the Saviour, overcoming every selfish desire, fulfilling bravely and cheerfully our duty to God and to those around us--this makes us more than conquerors. This prepares us to stand before the great white throne free from spot or wrinkle, having washed our robes of character, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.--The Signs of the Times, March 30, 1904.
------------------------Christ "The Prince of Peace", January 24
RC	38	1	Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Matthew 5:9.
RC	38	2	Christ is "The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6), and it is His mission to restore to earth and heaven the peace that sin has broken. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). Whoever consents to renounce sin and open his heart to the love of Christ becomes a partaker of this heavenly peace.
RC	38	3	There is no other ground of peace than this. The grace of Christ, received into the heart, subdues enmity; it allays strife and fills the soul with love. He who is at peace with God and his fellow men cannot be made miserable. Envy will not be in his heart; evil surmisings will find no room there; hatred cannot exist. The heart that is in harmony with God is a partaker of the peace of heaven and will diffuse its blessed influence on all around. The spirit of peace will rest like dew upon hearts weary and troubled with worldly strife.
RC	38	4	Christ's followers are sent to the world with the message of peace. Whoever, by the quiet, unconscious influence of a holy life, shall reveal the love of Christ; whoever, by word or deed, shall lead another to renounce sin and yield his heart to God, is a peacemaker.
RC	38	5	And "blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." The spirit of peace is evidence of their connection with heaven. The sweet savor of Christ surrounds them. The fragrance of the life, the loveliness of the character, reveal to the world the fact that they are children of God. Men take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus....
RC	38	6	"And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass" (Micah 5:7).--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 27, 28.
RC	38	7	When Isaiah foretold the birth of the Messiah, he ascribed to Him the title, "Prince of Peace." When angels announced to the shepherds that Christ was born, they sang above the plains of Bethlehem: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14).
RC	38	8	There is a seeming contradiction between these prophetic declarations and the words of Christ: "I came not to send peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10:34). But, rightly understood, the two are in perfect harmony. The gospel is a message of peace. Christianity is a system which, received and obeyed, would spread peace, harmony, and happiness throughout the earth. The religion of Christ will unite in close brotherhood all who accept its teachings. It was the mission of Jesus to reconcile men to God, and thus to one another.--The Great Controversy, 46, 47.
------------------------The Personality of God Revealed in Christ, January 25
RC	39	1	I and my Father are one. John 10:30.
RC	39	2	As a personal being, God has revealed Himself in His Son. The outshining of the Father's glory, "and the express image of his person" (Hebrews 1:3), Jesus, as a personal Saviour, came to the world. As a personal Saviour He ascended on high. As a personal Saviour He intercedes in the heavenly courts. Before the throne of God in our behalf ministers "one like unto the Son of man" (Revelation 1:13).
RC	39	3	Christ, the Light of the world, veiled the dazzling splendor of His divinity and came to live as a man among men, that they might, without being consumed, become acquainted with their Creator. Since sin brought separation between man and his Maker, no man has seen God at any time, except as He is manifested through Christ.
RC	39	4	"I and my Father are one," Christ declared (John 10:30). "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him" (John 10:30; Matthew 11:27).
RC	39	5	Christ came to teach human beings what God desires them to know. In the heavens above, in the earth, in the broad waters of the ocean, we see the handiwork of God. All created things testify to His power, His wisdom, His love. Yet not from the stars or the ocean or the cataract can we learn of the personality of God as it was revealed in Christ.
RC	39	6	God saw that a clearer revelation than nature was needed to portray both His personality and His character. He sent His Son into the world to manifest, so far as could be endured by human sight, the nature and the attributes of the invisible God....
RC	39	7	Taking humanity upon Him, Christ came to be one with humanity, and at the same time to reveal our heavenly Father to sinful human beings. He who had been in the presence of the Father from the beginning, He who was the express image of the invisible God, was alone able to reveal the character of the Deity to mankind. He was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh even as we are. He was hungry and thirsty and weary. He was sustained by food and refreshed by sleep. He shared the lot of men; yet He was the blameless Son of God.... Tender, compassionate, sympathetic, ever considerate of others, He represented the character of God, and was constantly engaged in service for God and man.--The Ministry of Healing, 418-423.
RC	39	8	The theme of redemption will employ the minds and tongues of the redeemed through everlasting ages. The reflection of the glory of God will shine forth forever and ever from the Saviour's face.--Letter 280, 1904.
------------------------Jesus is Our Example, January 26
RC	40	1	In a word, as God's dear children, try to be like him. Ephesians 5:1, N.E.B.
RC	40	2	God's watchmen must not study how they shall please the people, nor listen to their words and utter them; for they must listen to hear what saith the Lord, what is His word for the people. If they rely upon discourses prepared years before, they may fail to meet the necessities of the occasion. Their hearts should be laid open so that the Lord may impress their minds, and then they will be able to give the people the precious truth warm from heaven....
RC	40	3	There is altogether too little of the Spirit and power of God in the labor of the watchmen. The Spirit which characterized that wonderful meeting on the Day of Pentecost is waiting to manifest its power upon the men who are now standing between the living and the dead as ambassadors for God. The power which stirred the people so mightily in the 1844 movement will again be revealed. The third angel's message will go forth, not in whispered tones, but with a loud voice.
RC	40	4	Many who profess to have great light are walking in sparks of their own kindling. They need to have their lips touched with a live coal from off the altar, that they may pour forth the truth like men who are inspired....
RC	40	5	Had Christ come in the majesty of a king, with the pomp which attends the great men of earth, many would have accepted Him. But Jesus of Nazareth did not dazzle the senses with a display of outward glory and make this the foundation of their reverence. He came as a humble man to be the Teacher and Exemplar as well as the Redeemer of the race. Had he encouraged pomp, had He come followed by a retinue of the great men of earth, how could He have taught humility? how could He have presented such burning truths as in His Sermon upon the Mount? His example was such as He wished all His followers to imitate. Where would have been the hope of the lowly in life had He come in exaltation and dwelt as a king upon the earth?
RC	40	6	Jesus knew the needs of the world better than they themselves knew. He did not come as an angel, clothed with the panoply of heaven, but as a man. Yet combined with His humility was an inherent power and grandeur that awed men while they loved Him. Although possessing such loveliness, such an unassuming appearance, He moved among them with the dignity and power of a heaven-born king. The people were amazed, confounded. They tried to reason the matter out; but, unwilling to renounce their own ideas, they yielded to doubts, clinging to the old expectation of a Saviour to come in earthly grandeur.--Testimonies for the Church 5:252, 253.
------------------------Jesus Provided a Model of Character, January 27
RC	41	1	For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:3, 4.
RC	41	2	Let your light shine forth in good works. Said Christ, "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." I fear that there are many who are in this condition. All have not the same work to do; different circumstances and talents qualify individuals for different kinds of work in God's vineyard. There are some who fill more responsible positions than do others; but to each one is given his work, and if he does his work with fidelity and zeal, he is a faithful steward of the grace of God.
RC	41	3	God does not intend that your light shall so shine that your good words or works shall bring the praise of men to yourself; but that the Author of all good shall be glorified and exalted. Jesus, in His life, gave to men a model of character. How little power did the world have over Him to mold Him according to its standard! All its influence was thrown off. He declared, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work!" If we had this devotion to the work of God, doing it with an eye single to His glory, we should be able to say with Christ, "I seek not mine own glory." His life was full of good works, and it is our duty to live as our great Example lived. Our life must be hid with Christ in God, and then the light will be reflected from Jesus to us, and we shall reflect it upon those around us, not in mere talk and profession, but in good works, and by manifesting the character of Christ. Those who are reflecting the light of God will cherish a loving disposition. They will be cheerful, willing, obedient to all the requirements of God. They will be meek and self-sacrificing, and will work with devoted love for the salvation of souls....
RC	41	4	All who are true lightbearers will reflect light upon the pathway of others. Let those who have named the name of Christ, depart from all iniquity. If you yield to the claims of God, and become permeated with His love, and filled with His fullness, children, youth, and young disciples will look to you for their impressions of what constitutes practical godliness; and you may thus be the means of leading them in the path of obedience to God. You will then be exerting an influence which will bear the test of God, and your work will be compared to gold, silver, and precious stones, for it will be of an imperishable nature.--The Review and Herald, October 16, 1888.
------------------------Christ Filled His Disciples' Thoughts, January 28
RC	42	1	When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13.
RC	42	2	Ever since the fall of Adam, Christ had been committing to chosen servants the seed of His Word, to be sown in human hearts. During His life on earth He had sown the seed of truth, and had watered it with His blood. The conversions that took place on the Day of Pentecost were the result of this sowing, the harvest of Christ's work, revealing the power of His teaching....
RC	42	3	Under the training of Christ the disciples had been led to feel their need of the Spirit. Under the Spirit's teaching, they received the final qualification, and went forth to their lifework. No longer were they ignorant and uncultured. No longer were they a collection of independent units or discordant, conflicting elements. No longer were their hopes set on worldly greatness. They were of "one accord," "of one heart and of one soul" (Acts 2:46; 4:32). Christ filled their thoughts; the advancement of His kingdom was their aim. In mind and character they had become like their Master, and men "took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus."
RC	42	4	Pentecost brought them the heavenly illumination. The truths they could not understand while Christ was with them were now unfolded. With a faith and assurance that they had never before known, they accepted the teachings of the Sacred Word. No longer was it a matter of faith with them that Christ was the Son of God. They knew that although clothed with humanity, He was indeed the Messiah, and they told their experience to the world with a confidence which carried with it the conviction that God was with them.
RC	42	5	They could speak the name of Jesus with assurance; for was He not their Friend and Elder Brother? Brought into close communion with Christ, they sat with Him in heavenly places. With what burning language they clothed their ideas as they bore witness for Him! Their hearts were surcharged with a benevolence so full, so deep, so far-reaching, that it impelled them to go to the ends of the earth, testifying to the power of Christ. They were filled with an intense longing to carry forward the work He had begun. They realized the greatness of their debt to heaven, and the responsibility of their work. Strengthened by the endowment of the Holy Spirit, they went forth filled with zeal to extend the triumphs of the cross. The Spirit animated them and spoke through them. The peace of Christ shone from their faces. They had consecrated their lives to Him for service, and their very features bore evidence to the surrender they had made.--The Acts of the Apostles, 45, 46.
------------------------Christ Revealed The Riches Of Heaven, January 29
RC	43	1	The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Isaiah 61:1.
RC	43	2	Never was there such an evangelist as Christ. He was the Majesty of heaven, but He humbled Himself to take our nature, that He might meet men where they were. To all people, rich and poor, free and bond, Christ, the Messenger of the covenant, brought the tidings of salvation. His fame as the Great Healer spread throughout Palestine. The sick came to the places through which He would pass, that they might call on Him for help. Hither, too, came many anxious to hear His words and to receive a touch of His hand. Thus He went from city to city, from town to town, preaching the gospel and healing the sick--the King of glory in the lowly garb of humanity.
RC	43	3	He attended the great yearly festivals of the nation, and to the multitude absorbed in outward ceremony He spoke of heavenly things, bringing eternity within their view. To all He brought treasures from the storehouse of wisdom. He spoke to them in language so simple that they could not fail of understanding. By methods peculiarly His own, He helped all who were in sorrow and affliction. With tender, courteous grace, He ministered to the sin-sick soul, bringing healing and strength....
RC	43	4	What a busy life He led! Day by day He might have been seen entering the humble abodes of want and sorrow, speaking hope to the downcast and peace to the distressed. Gracious, tenderhearted, pitiful, He went about lifting up the bowed-down and comforting the sorrowful. Wherever He went, He carried blessing.
RC	43	5	While He ministered to the poor, Jesus studied also to find ways of reaching the rich. He sought the acquaintance of the wealthy and cultured Pharisee, the Jewish nobleman, and the Roman ruler. He accepted their invitations, attended their feasts, made Himself familiar with their interests and occupations, that He might gain access to their hearts, and reveal to them the imperishable riches.
RC	43	6	Christ came to this world to show that by receiving power from on high, man can live an unsullied life. With unwearying patience and sympathetic helpfulness, He met men in their necessities. By the gentle touch of grace, He banished from the soul unrest and doubt, changing enmity to love, and unbelief to confidence....
RC	43	7	At the sound of His voice the spirit of greed and ambition fled from the heart, and men arose, emancipated, to follow the Saviour.--The Ministry of Healing, 22-25.
------------------------Christ's Followers To Do Greater Works Than He, January 30
RC	44	1	Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. John 14:12.
RC	44	2	Christ did not mean that the disciples would make more exalted exertions than He had made, but that their work would have greater magnitude. He did not refer merely to miracle working, but to all that would take place under the agency of the Holy Spirit. "When the Comforter is come," He said, "whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning" (John 15:26, 27).
RC	44	3	Wonderfully were these words fulfilled. After the descent of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were so filled with love for Him and for those for whom He died, that hearts were melted by the words they spoke and the prayers they offered. They spoke in the power of the Spirit; and under the influence of that power, thousands were converted.
RC	44	4	As Christ's representatives, the apostles were to make a decided impression on the world. The fact that they were humble men would not diminish their influence, but increase it; for the minds of their hearers would be carried from them to the Saviour, who, though unseen, was still working with them. The wonderful teaching of the apostles, their words of courage and trust, would assure all that it was not in their own power that they worked, but in the power of Christ. Humbling themselves, they would declare that He whom the Jews had crucified was the Prince of life, the Son of the living God, and that in His name they did the works that He had done.
RC	44	5	In His parting conversation with His disciples on the night before the crucifixion, the Saviour made no reference to the suffering that He had endured and must yet endure. He did not speak of the humiliation that was before Him, but sought to bring to their minds that which would strengthen their faith, leading them to look forward to the joys that await the overcomer. He rejoiced in the consciousness that He could and would do more for His followers than He had promised; that from Him would flow forth love and compassion, cleansing the soul temple, and making men like Him in character; that His truth, armed with the power of the Spirit, would go forth conquering and to conquer.
RC	44	6	"These things I have spoken unto you," He said, "that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (chap. 16:33).--The Acts of the Apostles, 22, 23.
------------------------Christ The Channel Of Saving Grace, January 31
RC	45	1	For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Colossians 2:9.
RC	45	2	By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey....
RC	45	3	In stooping to take upon Himself humanity, Christ revealed a character the opposite of the character of Satan....
RC	45	4	Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. "With his stripes we are healed."
RC	45	5	By His life and His death, Christ has achieved even more than recovery from the ruin wrought through sin. It was Satan's purpose to bring about an eternal separation between God and man; but in Christ we become more closely united to God than if we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us.... To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature.... God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven. It is the "Son of man" who shares the throne of the universe. It is the "Son of man" whose name shall be called, "Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).... In Christ the family of earth and the family of heaven are bound together. Christ glorified is our brother. Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love....
RC	45	6	Through Christ's redeeming work the government of God stands justified. The Omnipotent One is made known as the God of love. Satan's charges are refuted, and his character unveiled. Rebellion can never again arise. Sin can never again enter the universe. Through eternal ages all are secure from apostasy. By love's self-sacrifice, the inhabitants of earth and heaven are bound to their Creator in bonds of indissoluble union.
RC	45	7	The work of redemption will be complete. In the place where sin abounded, God's grace much more abounds.... Our little world, under the curse of sin the one dark blot in His glorious creation, will be honored above all other worlds in the universe of God.--The Desire of Ages, 24-26.
------------------------A Revelation Of God's Will And Character, February 1
RC	46	1	The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Romans 7:12.
RC	46	2	Many religious teachers assert that Christ by His death abolished the law, and men are henceforth free from its requirements. There are some who represent it as a grievous yoke, and in contrast to the bondage of the law they present the liberty to be enjoyed under the gospel.
RC	46	3	But not so did prophets and apostles regard the holy law of God. Said David: "I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts" (Psalm 119:45). The apostle James, who wrote after the death of Christ, refers to the Decalogue as "the royal law" and "the perfect law of liberty" (James 2:8; 1:25). And the revelator, half a century after the crucifixion, pronounces a blessing upon them "that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14).
RC	46	4	The claim that Christ by His death abolished His Father's law is without foundation. Had it been possible for the law to be changed or set aside, then Christ need not have died to save man from the penalty of sin. The death of Christ, so far from abolishing the law, proves that it is immutable. The Son of God came to "magnify the law, and make it honourable" (Isaiah 42:21).... And concerning Himself He declares: "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:8).
RC	46	5	The law of God, from its very nature, is unchangeable. It is a revelation of the will and the character of its Author. God is love, and His law is love. Its two great principles are love to God and love to man. "Love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:10). The character of God is righteousness and truth; such is the nature of His law. Says the psalmist: "Thy law is the truth"; "all thy commandments are righteousness" (Psalm 119:142, 172). And the apostle Paul declares: "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good" (Romans 7:12). Such a law, being an expression of the mind and will of God, must be as enduring as its Author.
RC	46	6	It is the work of conversion and sanctification to reconcile men to God by bringing them into accord with the principles of His law. In the beginning, man was created in the image of God. He was in perfect harmony with the nature and the law of God; the principles of righteousness were written upon his heart. But sin alienated him from his Maker. He no longer reflected the divine image.... But "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son," that man might be reconciled to God. Through the merits of Christ he can be restored to harmony with his Maker.--The Great Controversy, 466, 467.
------------------------Sinners Brought Into Harmony With The Law, February 2
RC	47	1	For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:3, 4.
RC	47	2	The law reveals to man his sins, but it provides no remedy. While it promises life to the obedient, it declares that death is the portion of the transgressor. The gospel of Christ alone can free him from the condemnation or the defilement of sin. He must exercise repentance toward God, whose law has been transgressed; and faith in Christ, His atoning sacrifice. Thus he obtains "remission of sins that are past" and becomes a partaker of the divine nature. He is a child of God, having received the spirit of adoption, whereby he cries: "Abba, Father"!
RC	47	3	Is he now free to transgress God's law? Says Paul: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law" (Romans 3:31). "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" (chap. 6:2). And John declares: "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous" (1 John 5:3). In the new birth the heart is brought into harmony with God, as it is brought into accord with His law. When this mighty change has taken place in the sinner, he has passed from death unto life, from sin unto holiness, from transgression and rebellion to obedience and loyalty. The old life of alienation from God has ended; the new life of reconciliation, of faith and love, has begun. Then "the righteousness of the law" will "be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:4). And the language of the soul will be: "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97).
RC	47	4	"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psalm 19:7). Without the law, men have no just conception of the purity and holiness of God or of their own guilt and uncleanness. They have no true conviction of sin and feel no need of repentance. Not seeing their lost condition as violators of God's law, they do not realize their need of the atoning blood of Christ. The hope of salvation is accepted without a radical change of heart or reformation of life. Thus superficial conversions abound, and multitudes are joined to the church who have never been united to Christ.... By the Word and the Spirit of God are opened to men the great principles of righteousness embodied in His law.--The Great Controversy, 467-469.
------------------------God's Law Is The Standard Of Character, February 3
RC	48	1	Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth. Psalm 119:142.
RC	48	2	Erroneous theories of sanctification ... have a prominent place in the religious movements of the day. These theories are both false in doctrine and dangerous in practical results; and the fact that they are so generally finding favor renders it doubly essential that all have a clear understanding of what the Scriptures teach upon this point.
RC	48	3	True sanctification is a Bible doctrine. The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonian church, declares: "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." And he prays: "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly" (1 Thessalonians 4:3; 5:23). The Bible clearly teaches what sanctification is and how it is to be attained. The Saviour prayed for His disciples: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17). And Paul teaches that believers are to be "sanctified by the Holy Ghost" (Romans 15:16).
RC	48	4	What is the work of the Holy Spirit? Jesus told His disciples: "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13). And the psalmist says: "Thy law is the truth." ... And since the law of God is "holy, and just, and good," a transcript of the divine perfection, it follows that a character formed by obedience to that law will be holy.
RC	48	5	Christ is a perfect example of such a character. He says: "I have kept my Father's commandments." "I do always those things that please him" (John 15:10; 8:29). The followers of Christ are to become like Him--by the grace of God to form characters in harmony with the principles of His holy law. This is Bible sanctification.
RC	48	6	This work can be accomplished only through faith in Christ, by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. Paul admonishes believers: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12, 13). The Christian will feel the promptings of sin, but he will maintain a constant warfare against it. Here is where Christ's help is needed. Human weakness becomes united to divine strength, and faith exclaims: "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57).
RC	48	7	The Scriptures plainly show that the work of sanctification is progressive. When in conversion the sinner finds peace with God through the blood of the atonement, the Christian life has but just begun. Now he is to "go on unto perfection"; to grow up "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."--The Great Controversy, 469, 470.
------------------------True Followers Obey God's Law, February 4
RC	49	1	Sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John 3:4.
RC	49	2	The desire for an easy religion that requires no striving, no self-denial, no divorce from the follies of the world, has made the doctrine of faith, and faith only, a popular doctrine; but what saith the Word of God? Says the apostle James: "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? ... Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?... Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only" (James 2:14-24).
RC	49	3	The testimony of the Word of God is against this ensnaring doctrine of faith without works. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions upon which mercy is to be granted, it is presumption; for genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures....
RC	49	4	The commission of a known sin silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit and separates the soul from God. "Sin is the transgression of the law." And "whosoever sinneth [transgresseth the law] hath not seen him, neither known him" (1 John 3:6). Though John in his Epistles dwells so fully upon love, yet he does not hesitate to reveal the true character of that class who claim to be sanctified while living in transgression of the law of God. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected" (chap. 2:4, 5).
RC	49	5	Here is the test of every man's profession. We cannot accord holiness to any man without bringing him to the measurement of God's only standard of holiness in heaven and in earth. If men feel no weight of the moral law, if they belittle and make light of God's precepts, if they break one of the least of these commandments, and teach men so, they shall be of no esteem in the sight of Heaven, and we may know that their claims are without foundation.
RC	49	6	And the claim to be without sin is, in itself, evidence that he who makes this claim is far from holy. It is because he has no true conception of the infinite purity and holiness of God or of what they must become who shall be in harmony with His character; because he has no true conception of the purity and exalted loveliness of Jesus, and the malignity and evil of sin, that man can regard himself as holy.--The Great Controversy, 472, 473.
RC	49	7	It was the righteousness revealed in His [Christ's] life that distinguished Him from the world.--The Upward Look, 303.
------------------------God's Law Is Changeless, February 5
RC	50	1	Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. John 12:31, 32.
RC	50	2	Since the divine law is as sacred as God Himself, only one equal with God could make atonement for its transgression. None but Christ could redeem fallen man from the curse of the law, and bring him again into harmony with Heaven. Christ would take upon Himself the guilt and shame of sin--sin so offensive to a holy God that it must separate the Father and His Son. Christ would reach to the depths of misery to rescue the ruined race.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 63.
RC	50	3	The plan of redemption had a yet broader and deeper purpose than the salvation of man. It was not for this alone that Christ came to the earth; it was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world might regard the law of God as it should be regarded; but it was to vindicate the character of God before the universe. To this result of His great sacrifice--its influence upon the intelligences of other worlds, as well as upon man--the Saviour looked forward when just before His crucifixion He said: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
RC	50	4	The act of Christ in dying for the salvation of man would not only make heaven accessible to men, but before all the universe it would justify God and His Son in their dealing with the rebellion of Satan. It would establish the perpetuity of the law of God, and would reveal the nature and the results of sin.
RC	50	5	From the first the great controversy had been upon the law of God. Satan had sought to prove that God was unjust, that His law was faulty, and that the good of the universe required it to be changed. In attacking the law he aimed to overthrow the authority of its Author. In the controversy it was to be shown whether the divine statutes were defective and subject to change, or perfect and immutable....
RC	50	6	Heaven marked the insult and mockery that He received, and knew that it was at Satan's instigation.... They watched the battle between light and darkness as it waxed stronger. And as Christ in His expiring agony upon the cross cried out, "It is finished" (John 19:30), a shout of triumph rang through every world and through heaven itself.... Satan had revealed his true character.... The very fact that Christ bore the penalty of man's transgression is a mighty argument to all created intelligences that the law is changeless; that God is righteous, merciful, and self-denying; and that infinite justice and mercy unite in the administration of His government.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 68-70.
------------------------God's Law Is The Law Of Love, February 6
RC	51	1	“'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Mark 12:30-31, N.I.V.
RC	51	2	Love, the basis of creation and of redemption, is the basis of true education. This is made plain in the law that God has given as the guide of life.... To love Him, the infinite, the omniscient one, with the whole strength and mind and heart, means the highest development of every power. It means that in the whole being--the body, the mind, as well as the soul--the image of God is to be restored.
RC	51	3	Like the first is the second commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The law of love calls for the devotion of body, mind, and soul to the service of God and our fellow men. And this service, while making us a blessing to others, brings the greatest blessing to ourselves. Unselfishness underlies all true development....
RC	51	4	Lucifer in heaven desired to be first in power and authority; he wanted to be God, to have the rulership of heaven; and to this end he won many of the angels to his side. When with his rebel host he was cast out from the courts of God, the work of rebellion and self-seeking was continued on earth. Through the temptation to self-indulgence and ambition, Satan accomplished the fall of our first parents; and from that time to the present the gratification of human ambition and the indulgence of selfish hopes and desires have proved the ruin of mankind.
RC	51	5	Under God, Adam was to stand at the head of the earthly family, to maintain the principles of the heavenly family. This would have brought peace and happiness. But the law that none "liveth to himself" Satan was determined to oppose. He desired to live for self. He sought to make himself a center of influence. It was this that had incited rebellion in heaven, and it was man's acceptance of this principle that brought sin on earth. When Adam sinned, man broke away from the heaven-ordained center. A demon became the central power in the world. Where God's throne should have been, Satan placed his throne. The world laid its homage, as a willing offering, at the feet of the enemy.
RC	51	6	The transgression of God's law brought woe and death in its train. Through disobedience man's powers were perverted, and selfishness took the place of love. His nature became so weakened that it was impossible for him to resist the power of evil.... Men had chosen a ruler who chained them to his car as captives.... Christ came to the world to show them that He had planted for them the tree of life, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations.--The Review and Herald, January 16, 1913.
------------------------Individual Accountability, February 7
RC	52	1	All thy commandments are righteousness. Psalm 119:172.
RC	52	2	The Spirit of God will lead us in the path of the commandments; for the promise is that "when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." We should try the spirits by the test of God's Word; for there are many spirits in the world. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." ...
RC	52	3	God holds every one of us to an individual accountability, and calls upon us to serve Him from principle, to choose Him for ourselves....
RC	52	4	God will not lightly esteem the transgression of His law. "The wages of sin is death." The consequences of disobedience prove that the nature of sin is at enmity with the well-being of God's government and the good of His creatures. God is a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of them that hate Him. The results of transgression follow those who persist in wrongdoing; but He shows mercy unto thousands of them that love Him and keep His commandments. Those who repent and turn to His service find the favor of the Lord; and He forgiveth all their iniquities and healeth all their diseases.
RC	52	5	In earthly affairs, the servant who seeks most carefully to fulfill the requirements of his office, and to carry out the will of his master, is most highly valued. A gentleman once wished to employ a trusty coachman. Several men came in answer to his advertisement. He asked each one how near he could drive to the edge of a certain precipice without upsetting the carriage. One and another replied that he could go within a perilous distance; but at last one answered that he would keep as far as possible from such a dangerous undertaking. He was employed to fill the position.
RC	52	6	Shall a man be more appreciative of a good servant than is our heavenly Father? Our anxiety should not be to see how far we can depart from the commandments of the Lord, and presume on the mercy of the Lawgiver, and still flatter our souls that we are within the bounds of God's forbearance; but our care should be to keep as far as possible from transgression. We should be determined to be on the side of Christ and our heavenly Father, and run no risks by heady presumption....
RC	52	7	We should magnify the precepts of heaven by our words and actions. He who honors the law will be honored by it in the judgment.--The Review and Herald, June 22, 1911.
------------------------Christ Came To Magnify His Law, February 8
RC	53	1	The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. Isaiah 42:21, R.S.V.
RC	53	2	Through the devices of the great apostate, man has been led to separate himself from God, and has yielded to the temptations of the adversary of God and man in committing sin and breaking the law of the Most High. God could not alter one jot or tittle of His holy law to meet man in his fallen condition; for this would reflect discredit upon the wisdom of God in making a law by which to govern heaven and earth. But God could give His only-begotten Son to become man's substitute and surety, to suffer the penalty that was merited by the transgressor, and to impart to the repentant soul His perfect righteousness.
RC	53	3	Christ became the sinless sacrifice for a guilty race, making men prisoners of hope, so that, through repentance toward God because they had broken His holy law, and through faith in Christ as their substitute, surety, and righteousness, they might be brought back to loyalty to God and to obedience to His holy law....
RC	53	4	The life and death of Christ in behalf of sinful man were for the purpose of restoring the sinner to God's favor, through imparting to him the righteousness that would meet the claims of the law, and find acceptance with the Father. But it is ever the purpose of Satan to make void the law of God, and to pervert the true meaning of the plan of salvation. Therefore he has originated the falsehood that the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary's cross was for the purpose of freeing men from the obligation of keeping the commandments of God. He has foisted upon the world the deception that God has abolished His constitution, thrown away His moral standard, and made void His holy and perfect law. Had He done this, at what terrible expense would it have been to Heaven!
RC	53	5	Instead of proclaiming the abolition of the law, Calvary's cross proclaims in thunder tones its immutable and eternal character. Could the law have been abolished, and the government of heaven and earth and the unnumbered worlds of God maintained, Christ need not have died. The death of Christ was to forever settle the question of the validity of the law of Jehovah. Having suffered the full penalty for a guilty world, Jesus became the mediator between God and man, to restore the repenting soul to favor with God by giving him grace to keep the law of the Most High.
RC	53	6	Christ came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them to the very letter. The atonement of Calvary vindicated the law of God as holy, just, and true, not only before the fallen world, but before heaven and before worlds unfallen.--The Signs of the Times, June 20, 1895.
------------------------How We Magnify The Law, February 9
RC	54	1	“Whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:19, N.I.V.
RC	54	2	What reason have men for thinking that God is not particular whether they obey Him implicitly or take their own course? Adam and Eve lost Eden for one transgression of His command; and how dare we trifle with the law of the Most High, and frame deceitful apologies to our souls? We do this at a terrible peril. We must keep all the law, every jot and tittle; for he that offendeth in one point is guilty of all. Every ray of light must be received and cherished, or we shall become bodies of darkness. The Lord Jesus declares: "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." We should magnify the precepts of heaven by our words and actions....
RC	54	3	Before the Flood swept upon the world, God sent a message through Noah to warn the people of the coming deluge. There were those who did not believe the warning; but their unbelief did not stay the showers, nor prevent the waters of the great deep from submerging a scoffing world. And today, while the last message is being heralded to bring God's servants in harmony with every precept of His law, there will be scoffers and unbelievers; but every soul must stand in his own integrity. As Noah was faithful in warning the antediluvian world, so we must be faithful to the great trust that God has given us. Although there are scoffers ... on every side, we must not shrink from presenting the truth of heaven to this generation....
RC	54	4	There are those who will be glad to lull you to sleep in your carnal security; but I have a different work. My message is to alarm you, to bid you reform your lives, and cease your rebellion against the God of the universe....
RC	54	5	Faith in Jesus does not make void the law, but establishes it, and will work the fruits of obedience in our lives....
RC	54	6	The church that Christ presents before the throne of His glory is without "spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." Do you want to be among those who have washed their robes of character in the blood of the Lamb? then, "cease to do evil; learn to do well"; walk in the commandments and ordinances of your God blameless. You are not to ask whether it suits your convenience to keep the truth of heaven. You are to take up your cross and follow Jesus, cost what it may. You will find that His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.--The Review and Herald, June 22, 1911.
------------------------The Law, As A Mirror, Reveals Sin, February 10
RC	55	1	Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 1 John 2:5.
RC	55	2	God has a standard of righteousness by which He measures character. This standard is His holy law, which is given to us as a rule of life. We are called upon to comply with its requirements, and when we do this we honor both God and Jesus Christ; for God gave the law, and Christ died to magnify it, and make it honorable. He declares: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." ... "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
RC	55	3	There are many hearers, but few doers, of the words of Christ. His words may be theoretically accepted, but if they are not stamped upon the soul, and woven into the life, they will have no sanctifying effect upon the character. It is one thing to accept the truth, and another thing to practice it in the daily life. From those who hear only, God's Word calls for no grateful response. The commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength," is acknowledged to be just, but its claims are not recognized; its principles are not carried out.
RC	55	4	We are all sinful, and of ourselves are unable to do the words of Christ. But God has made provision whereby the condemned sinner may be freed from spot and stain. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." But while Christ saves the sinner, He does not do away with the law which condemns the sinner....The law shows us our sins, as a mirror shows us that our face is not clean. The mirror has no power to cleanse the face; that is not its office.
RC	55	5	So it is with the law. It points out our defects, and condemns us, but it has no power to save us. We must come to Christ for pardon. He will take our guilt upon His own soul, and will justify us before God. And not only will He free us from sin, but He will give us power to render obedience to God's will....
RC	55	6	Today many erect a standard of their own, thinking to gain heaven, even though they neglect to do God's will. But all such are building upon the sand. They are hearers only....Our salvation cost the life of the Son of God, and God demands of us that we build our characters upon a foundation that will stand the test of the judgment.--The Signs of the Times, September 24, 1896.
------------------------The Law Of God Versus The Law Of Self, February 11
RC	56	1	For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Romans 5:19, 20.
RC	56	2	Adam did not set his mind in defiance against God, nor did he in any way speak against God; he simply went directly contrary to His express command. And how many today are doing the very same thing, and their guilt is of much greater magnitude because they have the example of Adam's experience in disobedience and its terrible results to warn them of the consequences of transgressing the law of God. So they have clear light upon this subject, and no excuse for their guilt in denying and disobeying God's authority. Adam did not stop to calculate the result of his disobedience.
RC	56	3	We can stand down here,...and with the aftersight we are privileged to have, we can see what it means to disobey God's commandments. Adam yielded to temptation and as we have the matter of sin and its consequences laid so distinctly before us, we can read from cause to effect and see the greatness of the act is not that which constitutes sin; but the disobedience of God's expressed will, which is a virtual denial of God, refusing the laws of His government. The happiness of man is in his obedience to the laws of God. In his obedience to God's law he is surrounded as with a hedge and kept from the evil.
RC	56	4	No man can be happy and depart from God's specified requirements, and set up a standard of his own which he decides he can safely follow. Then there would be a variety of standards to suit the different minds, and the government taken out of the Lord's hands and human beings grasp the reins of government. The law of self is erected, the will of man is made supreme; and when the high and holy will of God is presented to be obeyed, respected, and honored the human will wants its own way...to do its own promptings, and there is a controversy between the human agent and the divine.
RC	56	5	The fall of our first parents broke the golden chain of implicit obedience of the human will to the divine. Obedience has no longer been deemed an absolute necessity. The human agents follow their own imaginations which the Lord said of the inhabitants of the old world were evil and that continually. The Lord Jesus declares, "I have kept my Father's commandments." How? As a man. Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. To the accusations of the Jews He stood forth in His pure, virtuous, holy character and challenged them, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?"--Manuscript 1, 1892.
------------------------No Compromise With Evil, February 12
RC	57	1	Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:7.
RC	57	2	When the book of the law was found in the house of the Lord, in the time of ancient Israel, it was read before Josiah the king. And he rent his garments, and bade the men in holy office to inquire of the Lord for him, and for his people; for they had departed from the statutes of the Lord. He called together all the men of Israel, and the words of the book were read in the hearing of the congregation. The sin of the rulers and the people was pointed out, and the king stood up before them, and confessed his transgression. He manifested his repentance, and made a covenant to keep the statutes of the Lord with his whole heart. Josiah did not rest until the people did all they could to return from their backsliding, and serve the living God.
RC	57	3	Is not this our work today? Our fathers have transgressed, and we have followed in their footsteps; but God has opened the book of the law, and backslidden Israel hear the commandments of the Lord. Their transgression stands revealed, and the wrath of God will be upon every soul that does not repent and reform as the light shines upon his pathway.
RC	57	4	When Josiah heard the words of warning and condemnation because Israel had trampled upon the precepts of Heaven, he humbled himself. He wept before the Lord. He made a thorough work of repentance and reformation, and God accepted his efforts. The whole congregation of Israel entered into a solemn covenant to keep the commandments of Jehovah. This is our work today. We must repent of the past evil of our doings, and seek God with all our hearts. We must believe that God means just what He says, and make no compromise with evil in any way. We should greatly humble ourselves before God, and consider any loss preferable to the loss of His favor.
RC	57	5	Christ left all to save men from the consequence and penalty of the transgression of the law. The way from the manger to Calvary was marked with blood. The Son of God did not deviate from the path of unwavering obedience, even to the death of the cross. He endured all the woe of man's sin.... I beseech you, in the name of Christ, that you confess your sins and reform your ways, that your name may not be blotted out of the book of life, but may be confessed before the Father and before His angels. Jesus is pleading His blood before the Father; and now, while mercy lingers and probation is prolonged, seek the approbation of Heaven.--The Review and Herald, June 29, 1911.
------------------------God Reveals His Justice And Love, February 13
RC	58	1	Love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:10.
RC	58	2	After the fall of our first parents, Christ declared that in order to save man from the penalty of sin, He would come to the world to conquer Satan on the enemy's own battlefield. The controversy that began in heaven was to be continued on the earth.
RC	58	3	In this controversy much was to be involved. Vast interests were at stake. Before the inhabitants of the heavenly universe were to be answered the questions: "Is God's law imperfect, in need of amendment or abrogation, or is it immutable? Is God's government in need of change, or is it stable?"
RC	58	4	Before Christ's first advent, the sin of refusing to conform to God's law had become widespread. Apparently Satan's power was growing; his warfare against heaven was becoming more and more determined. A crisis had been reached. With an intense interest God's movements were watched by the heavenly angels. Would He come forth from His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity? Would He send fire or flood to destroy them? All heaven waited the bidding of their Commander to pour out the vials of wrath upon a rebellious world. One word from Him, one sign, and the world would have been destroyed. The worlds unfallen would have said, "Amen. Thou art righteous, O God, because Thou hast exterminated rebellion."
RC	58	5	But "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God might have sent His Son to condemn, but He sent Him to save. Christ came as a Redeemer. No words can describe the effect of this movement on the heavenly angels. With wonder and admiration they could only exclaim, "Herein is love!"
RC	58	6	Christ entered upon His mission of mercy, and from the manger to the cross was beset by the enemy. Satan contested every inch of ground, exerting his utmost power to overcome Him. Like a tempest temptation after temptation beat upon Him. But the more mercilessly they fell, the more firmly did the Son of God cling to the hand of His Father, and press on in the bloodstained path.
RC	58	7	The severity of the conflict through which Christ passed was proportionate to the vastness of the interests involved in His success or failure.... Satan sought to overthrow Christ, in order that he himself might continue to reign in this world as supreme....The Father, the Son, and Lucifer have been revealed in their true relation to one another. God has given unmistakable evidence of His justice and His love.--The Signs of the Times, August 27, 1902.
------------------------Truth Must Be Practiced In The Life, February 14
RC	59	1	Let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 1 John 3:7.
RC	59	2	Those who are looking for the revelation of Christ in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, as King of kings and Lord of lords, in life and character will seek to represent Him to the world. "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." They will hate sin and iniquity, even as Christ hated sin. They will keep the commandments of God, as Christ kept His Father's commandments. They will realize that it is not enough to acquiesce in the doctrines of truth, but that the truth must be applied to the heart, practiced in the life, in order that the followers of Christ may be one with Him, and that men may be as pure in their sphere as God is in His sphere. There have been men in every generation who have claimed to be the sons of God, who paid tithes of mint and anise and cummin, and yet who led a godless life; for they neglected the weightier matters of the law--mercy, justice, and the love of God....
RC	59	3	The sons of God will not be like the worldling; for the truth received into the heart will be the means of purifying the soul, and transforming the character, and of making its receiver like-minded with God. Unless a man becomes like-minded with God, he is still in his natural depravity. If Christ is in the heart, He will appear in the home, in the workshop, in the marketplace, in the church. The power of the truth will be felt in elevating, ennobling the mind, and softening and subduing the heart, bringing the whole man into harmony with God. He who is transformed by the truth will shed a light upon the world. He that hath the hope of Christ in him will purify himself even as He is pure. The hope of Christ's appearing is a large hope, a far-reaching hope. It is the hope of seeing the King in His beauty, and of being made like Him....
RC	59	4	He that abideth in Christ is perfected in the love of God, and his purposes, thoughts, words, and actions are in harmony with the will of God expressed in the commandments of His law. There is nothing in the heart of the man who abides in Christ that is at war with any precept of God's law. Where the Spirit of Christ is in the heart, the character of Christ will be revealed, and there will be manifested gentleness under provocation, and patience under trial. "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous." Righteousness can be defined only by God's great moral standard, the Ten Commandments. There is no other rule by which to measure character.--The Signs of the Times, June 20, 1895.
------------------------God's Authority Forever Established, February 15
RC	60	1	Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Matthew 4:10.
RC	60	2	Satan sought to make it appear that he was working for the liberty of the universe. He was determined to make his arguments so varied, so deceptive, so insidious, that everyone would be convinced that God's law was tyrannical. Even while hanging on the cross, assailed by Satan with his fiercest temptations, Christ was victorious.... With His parting breath He exclaimed, "It is finished." The battle had been won.... The blood of the innocent had been shed for the guilty. By the life that He gave, man was ransomed from eternal death, and the doom of him who had the power of death was sealed.
RC	60	3	Not until the death of Christ was the character of Satan clearly revealed to the angels or to the unfallen worlds. Then the prevarications and accusations of him who had once been an exalted angel were seen in their true light. It was seen that his professedly spotless character was deceptive. His deeply laid scheme to exalt himself to supremacy was fully discerned. His falsehoods were apparent to all. God's authority was forever established. Truth triumphed over falsehood.
RC	60	4	Not merely in the minds of a few finite creatures in this world, but in the minds of all the inhabitants of the heavenly universe, has the immutability of God's law been established. Satan's course against Christ was heralded to every world. When the issue was finally determined, every unfallen being expressed indignation at the rebellion. With one voice they extolled God as righteous, merciful, self-denying, just....
RC	60	5	The heavenly universe had witnessed the weapons that were chosen by the Prince of life--the words of Scripture, "It is written"; and the weapons used by the prince of the world--falsehood and deception. They had seen the Prince of life deal in straightforward lines of truth, honesty, and integrity, while the prince of the world exercised his power of cunning, artful secrecy, intrigue, enmity, and revenge. They had seen the One who bore the banner of truth sacrifice everything, even His life, to maintain truth, while the one who bore the banner of rebellion continued to strengthen his accusations against the God of truth.
RC	60	6	The heavenly worlds and heaven itself were amazed at God's long forbearance.... The Lord had demonstrated His wisdom and justice in banishing Satan from heaven.... All the unfallen beings are now united in regarding God's law as changeless.... His law has been proved faultless. His government is forever secure.--The Signs of the Times, August 27, 1902.
------------------------Principles That Underlie The Law Of God, February 16
RC	61	1	Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3.
RC	61	2	In Christ's sermon on the mount, light and truth are given, and principles laid down which apply to every condition of life, and to every duty that God requires at our hands. Christ had come to magnify and make honorable the law that He Himself had proclaimed from Mount Sinai to His chosen people during their wilderness wandering....
RC	61	3	In all His lessons, Christ sought to impress upon the minds and hearts of His hearers the principles which underlie His great standard of righteousness. He taught them that if they would keep God's commandments, love for God and for their fellow men must be manifested in their daily life. He sought to instill into their hearts the love He felt for humanity. Thus He sowed the seeds of truth, the fruits of which will produce a rich harvest of holiness and beauty of character. The holy influence will not only be far-reaching while time shall last, but its results will be felt throughout eternity. It will sanctify the actions, and have a purifying influence wherever it exists.
RC	61	4	Seated upon the mount, surrounded by His disciples and a large ... gathering, Jesus "opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." These are not murmurers and complainers, but those who are content with their condition and surroundings in life. They do not cherish the feeling that they deserve a better position than that which Providence has assigned them, but manifest a spirit of gratitude for every favor bestowed upon them. Every proud thought and exalted feeling is banished....
RC	61	5	Those who are truly sanctified have a sense of their own weakness. Feeling their need, they will go for light and grace and strength to Jesus, in whom all fullness dwells, and who alone can supply their wants. Conscious of their own imperfections, they seek to become more like Christ, and to live in accordance with the principles of His holy law. This continual sense of inefficiency will lead to such entire dependence upon God, that His Spirit will be exemplified in them. The treasures of heaven will be opened to supply the wants of every hungering, thirsting soul. All of this character have the assurance of one day beholding the glory of that kingdom which as yet the imagination can only faintly grasp....
RC	61	6	The standard the Christian is to keep before him is the purity and loveliness of Christ's character. Day by day he may be putting on new beauties, and reflecting to the world more and still more of the divine image.--The Bible Echo, February 21, 1898.
------------------------The Standard In The Judgment, February 17
RC	62	1	So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. James 2:12.
RC	62	2	The first angel of Revelation 14 calls upon men to "fear God, and give glory to him," and to worship Him as the Creator of the heavens and the earth. In order to do this, they must obey His law.... Without obedience to His commandments, no worship can be pleasing to God; for "this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments" (1 John 5:3).
RC	62	3	Many religious teachers say that Christ, by His death, freed us from the law; but not all take this view.... The law of God, from its very nature, is unchangeable. It is a revelation of the will and character of its Author. God is love, and His law is love. Its two great principles are love to God and man. "Love is the fulfilling of the law." The character of God is righteousness and truth, and such is the nature of His law. The psalmist says, "Thy law is the truth"; "all thy commandments are righteousness." And the apostle Paul declares, "The law is holy, and the commandments holy, and just, and good." Such a law, an expression of the mind and will of God, must be as enduring as its Author.
RC	62	4	And this law is the standard by which the lives and characters of men will be tested in the judgment. After pointing out our duty to obey His commandments, Solomon adds: "For God shall bring every work into judgment." The apostle James admonishes his brethren, "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty."
RC	62	5	Jesus will appear in the judgment as the advocate of His people, to plead in their behalf before God. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 9:24; 7:25).
RC	62	6	In the judgment all who have truly repented of sin, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice, have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven; as they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves will be accounted worthy of eternal life.... Jesus said, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."--The Watchman, October 10, 1905.
------------------------How We May Keep God's Law, February 18
RC	63	1	His work is honourable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever. Psalm 111:3.
RC	63	2	One ray of the glory of God, one gleam of the purity of Christ, penetrating the soul, makes every spot of defilement painfully distinct, and lays bare the deformity and defects of the human character. How can anyone who is brought before the holy standard of God's law, which makes apparent the evil motives, the unhallowed desires, the infidelity of the heart, the impurity of the lips, and that lays bare the life, make any boast of holiness? His acts of disloyalty in making void the law of God are exposed to his sight, and his spirit is stricken and afflicted under the searching influences of the Spirit of God. He loathes himself as he views the greatness, the majesty, the pure and spotless character of Jesus Christ.
RC	63	3	When the Spirit of Christ stirs the heart with its marvelous awakening power, there is a sense of deficiency in the soul, that leads to contrition of mind, and humiliation of self, rather than to proud boasting of what has been acquired. When Daniel beheld the glory and majesty surrounding the heavenly messenger that was sent unto him, he exclaimed, as he described the wonderful scene, "Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength."
RC	63	4	The soul that is thus touched will never wrap itself about with self-righteousness, or a pretentious garb of holiness; but will hate its selfishness, abhor its self-love, and will seek, through Christ's righteousness, for that purity of heart which is in harmony with the law of God and the character of Christ. He will then reflect the character of Christ, the hope of glory. It will be the greatest mystery to him that Jesus should have made so great a sacrifice to redeem him.
RC	63	5	He will exclaim, with humble mien and quivering lip, "He loved me. He gave Himself for me. He became poor that I, through His poverty, might be made rich. The Man of Sorrows did not spurn me, but poured out His inexhaustible, redeeming love that my heart might be made clean; and He has brought me back into loyalty and obedience to all His commandments. His condescension, His humiliation, His crucifixion, are the crowning miracles in the marvelous exhibition of the plan of salvation.... All this He has done to make it possible to impart to me His own righteousness, that I may keep the law I have transgressed. For this I adore Him. I will proclaim Him to all sinners."--The Review and Herald, October 16, 1888.
------------------------The Meaning Of God's Law, February 19
RC	64	1	The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Psalm 19:7.
RC	64	2	The carnal mind is enmity against God, and it rebels against His will....
RC	64	3	I have been shown what man is without a knowledge of the will of God.... But when the Spirit of God reveals to him the full meaning of the law, what a change takes place in his heart! Like Belshazzar, he reads intelligently the handwriting of the Almighty, and conviction takes possession of his soul. The thunders of God's word startle him from his lethargy, and he calls for mercy in the name of Jesus. And to that humble plea God always listens with a willing ear. He never turns the penitent away comfortless....
RC	64	4	If God's people would recognize His dealings with them and accept His teachings, they would find a straight path for their feet and a light to guide them through darkness and discouragement. David learned wisdom from God's dealings with him and bowed in humility beneath the chastisement of the Most High. The faithful portrayal of his true state by the prophet Nathan made David acquainted with his own sins and aided him to put them away. He accepted counsel meekly and humiliated himself before God. "The law of the Lord," he exclaims, "is perfect, converting the soul."
RC	64	5	Repentant sinners have no cause to despair because they are reminded of their transgressions and warned of their danger. These very efforts in their behalf show how much God loves them and desires to save them. They have only to follow His counsel and do His will, to inherit eternal life. God sets the sins of His erring people before them, that they may behold them in all their enormity under the light of divine truth. It is then their duty to renounce them forever.
RC	64	6	God is as powerful to save from sin today as He was in the times of the patriarchs, of David, and of the prophets and apostles. The multitude of cases recorded in sacred history where God has delivered His people from their own iniquities should make the Christian of this time eager to receive divine instruction and zealous to perfect a character that will bear the close inspection of the judgment....
RC	64	7	The words of inspiration comfort and cheer the erring soul. Although the patriarchs and apostles were subject to human frailties, yet through faith they obtained a good report, fought their battles in the strength of the Lord, and conquered gloriously. Thus may we trust in the virtue of the atoning sacrifice and be overcomers in the name of Jesus. Humanity is humanity the world over from the time of Adam down to the present generation, and the love of God through all ages is without a parallel.--Testimonies for the Church 4:13-15.
------------------------Study Christ's Character And Become Like Him, February 20
RC	65	1	No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Matthew 6:24.
RC	65	2	Halfhearted Christians obscure the glory of God, misinterpret piety, and cause men to receive false ideas as to what constitutes vital godliness. Others think that they, also, can be Christians and yet consult their own tastes and make provision for the flesh, if these falsehearted professors can do so. On many a professed Christian's banner the motto is written, "You can serve God and please self--you can serve God and mammon." They profess to be wise virgins, but not having the oil of grace in their vessels with their lamps, they shed forth no light to the glory of God and for the salvation of men. They seek to do what the world's Redeemer said was impossible to do; He has declared, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
RC	65	3	Those who profess to be Christians, but do not follow in the footsteps of Christ, make of none effect His words, and obscure the plan of salvation. By their spirit and deportment they virtually say, "Jesus, in Your day You did not understand as well as we do in our day, that man can serve God and mammon." These professors of religion claim to keep the law of God, but they do not keep it. Oh, what would the standard of true manhood have become had it been left in the hands of man! God has lifted His own standard--the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus; and the experience that follows complete surrender to God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.--The Review and Herald, August 19, 1890.
RC	65	4	You need not wait to grow good; you need not think that any effort of yours will make your prayers acceptable, and bring you salvation. Let each man and woman pray to God, not to man. Let each one come to Christ in humility.
RC	65	5	You should pray to God for yourself, believing that He listens to every word you utter. Lay bare your heart for His inspection, confess your sins, asking Him to forgive you, pleading the merits of the atonement, and then by faith contemplate the great scheme of redemption, and the Comforter will bring all things to your remembrance.
RC	65	6	The more you study the character of Christ, the more attractive will He appear to you. He will become as one near you, in close companionship with you; your affections will go out after Him. If the mind is molded by the objects with which it has most to do, then to think of Jesus, to talk of Him, will enable you to become like Him in spirit and character. You will reflect His image in that which is great and pure and spiritual. You will have the mind of Christ, and He will send you forth to the world as His spiritual representative.--The Review and Herald, August 26, 1890.
------------------------True Charity Will Not Compromise With Evil, February 21
RC	66	1	Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. 1 John 3:4, 5.
RC	66	2	As the years went by and the number of believers grew, John labored with increasing fidelity and earnestness for his brethren. The times were full of peril for the church. Satanic delusions existed everywhere. By misrepresentation and falsehood the emissaries of Satan sought to arouse opposition against the doctrines of Christ, and in consequence dissensions and heresies were imperiling the church. Some who professed Christ claimed that His love released them from obedience to the law of God. On the other hand, many taught that it was necessary to observe the Jewish customs and ceremonies; that a mere observance of the law, without faith in the blood of Christ, was sufficient for salvation.
RC	66	3	Some held that Christ was a good man, but denied His divinity. Some who pretended to be true to the cause of God were deceivers, and in practice they denied Christ and His gospel. Living themselves in transgression, they were bringing heresies into the church. Thus many were being led into the mazes of skepticism and delusion.
RC	66	4	John was filled with sadness as he saw these poisonous errors creeping into the church. He saw the dangers to which the church was exposed, and he met the emergency with promptness and decision. The Epistles of John breathe the spirit of love. It seems as if he wrote with a pen dipped in love. But when he came in contact with those who were breaking the law of God, yet claiming that they were living without sin, he did not hesitate to warn them of their fearful deception....
RC	66	5	We are authorized to hold in the same estimation as did the beloved disciple those who claim to abide in Christ while living in transgression of God's law. There exist in these last days evils similar to those that threatened the prosperity of the early church; and the teachings of the apostle John on these points should be carefully heeded. "You must have charity" is the cry heard everywhere, especially from those who profess sanctification. But true charity is too pure to cover an unconfessed sin. While we are to love the souls for whom Christ died, we are to make no compromise with evil. We are not to unite with the rebellious and call this charity. God requires His people in this age of the world to stand for the right as unflinchingly as did John in opposition to soul-destroying errors.... His testimony in regard to the Saviour's life and death was clear and forcible. Out of the abundance of a heart overflowing with love for the Saviour he spoke; and no power could stay his words.--The Acts of the Apostles, 553-555.
------------------------The Spirituality Of The Law, February 22
RC	67	1	I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil. Matthew 5:17.
RC	67	2	It was Christ who, amid thunder and flame, had proclaimed the law upon Mount Sinai. The glory of God, like devouring fire, rested upon its summit, and the mountain quaked at the presence of the Lord. The hosts of Israel, lying prostrate upon the earth, had listened in awe to the sacred precepts of the law....
RC	67	3	When the law was given, Israel, degraded by the long bondage in Egypt, had need to be impressed with the power and majesty of God; yet He revealed Himself to them no less as a God of love....
RC	67	4	The law given upon Sinai was the enunciation of the principle of love, a revelation to earth of the law of heaven. It was ordained in the hand of a Mediator--spoken by Him through whose power the hearts of men could be brought into harmony with its principles. God had revealed the purpose of the law when He declared to Israel, "Ye shall be holy men unto me" (Exodus 22:31).
RC	67	5	But Israel had not perceived the spiritual nature of the law, and too often their professed obedience was but an observance of forms and ceremonies, rather than a surrender of the heart to the sovereignty of love. As Jesus in His character and work represented to men the holy, benevolent, and paternal attributes of God, and presented the worthlessness of mere ceremonial obedience, the Jewish leaders did not receive or understand His words. They thought that He dwelt too lightly upon the requirements of the law; and when He set before them the very truths that were the soul of their divinely appointed service, they, looking only at the external, accused Him of seeking to overthrow it.
RC	67	6	The words of Christ, though calmly spoken, were uttered with an earnestness and power that stirred the hearts of the people.... They "were astonished at his teaching: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes" (Matthew 7:28, 29, R.V.). The Pharisees noted the vast difference between their manner of instruction and that of Christ. They saw that the majesty and purity and beauty of the truth, with its deep and gentle influence, was taking firm hold upon many minds. The Saviour's divine love and tenderness drew the hearts of men to Him....
RC	67	7	The Saviour said nothing to unsettle faith in the religion and institutions that had been given through Moses; for every ray of divine light that Israel's great leader communicated to his people was received from Christ. While many are saying in their hearts that He has come to do away with the law, Jesus in unmistakable language reveals His attitude toward the divine statutes. "Think not," He said, "that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets."--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 45-48.
------------------------The New Covenant Promise, February 23
RC	68	1	This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 10:16, 17.
RC	68	2	It is the Creator of men, the Giver of the law, who declares that it is not His purpose to set aside its precepts. Everything in nature, from the mote in the sunbeam to the worlds on high, is under law. And upon obedience to these laws the order and harmony of the natural world depend. So there are great principles of righteousness to control the life of all intelligent beings, and upon conformity to these principles the well-being of the universe depends.
RC	68	3	Before this earth was called into being, God's law existed. Angels are governed by its principles, and in order for earth to be in harmony with heaven, man also must obey the divine statutes. To man in Eden Christ made known the precepts of the law "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). The mission of Christ on earth was not to destroy the law, but by His grace to bring man back to obedience to its precepts.
RC	68	4	The beloved disciple, who listened to the words of Jesus on the mount, writing long afterward under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, speaks of the law as of perpetual obligation. He says that "sin is the transgression of the law" and that "whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law" (1 John 3:4). He makes it plain that the law to which he refers is "an old commandment which ye had from the beginning" (chap. 2:7). He is speaking of the law that existed at the creation and was reiterated upon Mount Sinai....
RC	68	5	He [Jesus] was to show the spiritual nature of the law, to present its far-reaching principles, and to make plain its eternal obligation.
RC	68	6	The divine beauty of the character of Christ, of whom the noblest and most gentle among men are but a faint reflection; of whom Solomon by the Spirit of inspiration wrote, He is "the chiefest among ten thousand.... Yea, he is altogether lovely" (Song of Solomon 5:10-16); of whom David, seeing Him in prophetic vision, said, "Thou art fairer than the children of men" (Psalm 45:2); Jesus, the express image of the Father's person, the effulgence of His glory; the self-denying Redeemer, throughout His pilgrimage of love on earth, was a living representation of the character of the law of God. In His life it is made manifest that heaven-born love, Christlike principles, underlie the laws of eternal rectitude....
RC	68	7	Those principles that were made known to man in Paradise as the great law of life will exist unchanged in Paradise restored.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 48-51.
------------------------God's Law A Hedge Against Evil, February 24
RC	69	1	[His commandments] stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. Psalm 111:8.
RC	69	2	He who willfully breaks one commandment, does not, in spirit and truth, keep any of them. "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10).
RC	69	3	It is not the greatness of the act of disobedience that constitutes sin, but the fact of variance from God's expressed will in the least particular; for this shows that there is yet communion between the soul and sin. The heart is divided in its service. There is a virtual denial of God, a rebellion against the laws of His government.
RC	69	4	Were men free to depart from the Lord's requirements and to set up a standard of duty for themselves, there would be a variety of standards to suit different minds and the government would be taken out of the Lord's hands. The will of man would be made supreme, and the high and holy will of God--His purpose of love toward His creatures--would be dishonored, disrespected.
RC	69	5	Whenever men choose their own way, they place themselves in controversy with God. They will have no place in the kingdom of heaven, for they are at war with the very principles of heaven. In disregarding the will of God, they are placing themselves on the side of Satan, the enemy of God and man. Not by one word, not by many words, but by every word that God has spoken, shall man live. We cannot disregard one word, however trifling it may seem to us, and be safe. There is not a commandment of the law that is not for the good and happiness of man, both in this life and in the life to come.
RC	69	6	In obedience to God's law, man is surrounded as with a hedge and kept from the evil. He who breaks down this divinely erected barrier at one point has destroyed its power to protect him; for he has opened a way by which the enemy can enter to waste and ruin.
RC	69	7	By venturing to disregard the will of God upon one point, our first parents opened the floodgates of woe upon the world. And every individual who follows their example will reap a similar result. The love of God underlies every precept of His law, and he who departs from the commandment is working his own unhappiness and ruin....
RC	69	8	A legal religion is insufficient to bring the soul into harmony with God.... The only true faith is that which "worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6) to purify the soul. It is as leaven that transforms the character.... Jesus proceeded to show His hearers what it means to keep the commandments of God--that it is a reproduction in themselves of the character of Christ. For in Him, God was daily made manifest before them.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 51-55.
------------------------Every Soul To Be Treated With Respect, February 25
RC	70	1	Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.... Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Leviticus 19:17, 18.
RC	70	2	The Saviour's words revealed to His hearers the fact that, while they were condemning others as transgressors, they were themselves equally guilty; for they were cherishing malice and hatred.... They cherished the most bitter hatred of their Roman oppressors and felt themselves at liberty to hate and despise all other peoples, and even their own countrymen who did not in all things conform to their ideas. In all this they were violating the law which declares, "Thou shalt not kill."
RC	70	3	The spirit of hate and revenge originated with Satan, and it led him to put to death the Son of God. Whoever cherishes malice or unkindness is cherishing the same spirit.... In the revengeful thought the evil deed lies enfolded, as the plant in the seed.... In the gift of His Son for our redemption, God has shown how high a value He places upon every human soul, and He gives to no man liberty to speak contemptuously of another. We shall see faults and weaknesses in those about us, but God claims every soul as His property--His by creation, and doubly His as purchased by the precious blood of Christ. All were created in His image, and even the most degraded are to be treated with respect and tenderness. God will hold us accountable for even a word spoken in contempt of one soul for whom Christ laid down His life....
RC	70	4	Jesus says that whoever shall condemn his brother as an apostate or a despiser of God shows that he himself is worthy of the same condemnation.
RC	70	5	Christ Himself, when contending with Satan about the body of Moses, "durst not bring against him a railing accusation" (Jude 1:9). Had He done this, He would have placed Himself on Satan's ground, for accusation is the weapon of the evil one. He is called in Scripture, "the accuser of our brethren" (Revelation 12:10). Jesus would employ none of Satan's weapons. He met him with the words, "the Lord rebuke thee" (Jude 1:9).
RC	70	6	His example is for us. When we are brought in conflict with the enemies of Christ, we should say nothing in a spirit of retaliation or that would bear even the appearance of a railing accusation. He who stands as a mouthpiece for God should not utter words which even the Majesty of heaven would not use when contending with Satan. We are to leave with God the work of judging and condemning.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 55-58.
------------------------Christians To Be As Transparent As Sunlight, February 26
RC	71	1	But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. Matthew 5:34-36.
RC	71	2	Everything we possess comes to us stamped with the cross, bought with the blood that is precious above all estimate, because it is the life of God. Hence there is nothing that we have a right to pledge, as if it were our own, for the fulfillment of our word....
RC	71	3	Our Saviour did not, however, forbid the use of the judicial oath, in which God is solemnly called to witness that what is said is truth and nothing but the truth. Jesus Himself, at His trial before the Sanhedrin, did not refuse to testify under oath. The high priest said unto Him, "I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus answered, "Thou hast said" (Matthew 26:63, 64)....
RC	71	4	If there is anyone who can consistently testify under oath, it is the Christian. He lives constantly as in the presence of God, knowing that every thought is open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do; and when required to do so in a lawful manner, it is right for him to appeal to God as a witness that what he says is the truth, and nothing but the truth....
RC	71	5	Everything that Christians do should be as transparent as the sunlight. Truth is of God; deception, in every one of its myriad forms, is of Satan.... It is not a light or an easy thing to speak the exact truth. We cannot speak the truth unless we know the truth, and how often preconceived opinions, mental bias, imperfect knowledge, errors of judgment, prevent a right understanding of matters with which we have to do! We cannot speak the truth unless our minds are continually guided by Him who is truth.
RC	71	6	Through the apostle Paul, Christ bids us, "Let your speech be alway with grace" (Colossians 4:6). "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers" (Ephesians 4:29). In the light of these scriptures the words of Christ upon the mount are seen to condemn jesting, trifling, and unchaste conversation. They require that our words should be not only truthful, but pure.
RC	71	7	Those who have learned of Christ will "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness" (chap. 5:11). In speech, as in life, they will be simple, straightforward, and true; for they are preparing for the fellowship of those holy ones in whose mouth "was found no guile" (Revelation 14:5).--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 66-69.
------------------------God's Law Of Forgiving Love, February 27
RC	72	1	Love your enemies. Matthew 5:44.
RC	72	2	The Saviour's lesson, "Resist not him that is evil," was a hard saying for the revengeful Jews.... But Jesus now made a still stronger declaration: ...
RC	72	3	"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:44, 45).
RC	72	4	Such was the spirit of the law which the rabbis had misinterpreted as a cold and rigid code of exactions. They regarded themselves as better than other men, and as entitled to the special favor of God by virtue of their birth as Israelites; but Jesus pointed to the spirit of forgiving love as that which would give evidence that they were actuated by any higher motives than even the publicans and sinners, whom they despised.
RC	72	5	He pointed His hearers to the Ruler of the universe, under the new name, "Our Father." He would have them understand how tenderly the heart of God yearned over them. He teaches ... that "like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him" (Psalm 103:13). Such a conception of God was never given to the world by any religion but that of the Bible. Heathenism teaches men to look upon the Supreme Being as an object of fear rather than of love--a malign deity to be appeased by sacrifices, rather than a Father pouring upon His children the gift of His love. Even the people of Israel had become so blinded to the precious teaching of the prophets concerning God that this revelation of His paternal love was as an original subject, a new gift to the world....
RC	72	6	Every good thing we have, each ray of sunshine and shower of rain, every morsel of food, every moment of life, is a gift of love.
RC	72	7	While we were yet unloving and unlovely in character, "hateful, and hating one another," our heavenly Father had mercy on us....
RC	72	8	The children of God are those who are partakers of His nature. It is not earthly rank, nor birth, nor nationality, nor religious privilege, which proves that we are members of the family of God; it is love, a love that embraces all humanity. Even sinners whose hearts are not utterly closed to God's Spirit will respond to kindness; while they may give hate for hate, they will also give love for love. But it is only the Spirit of God that gives love for hatred. To be kind to the unthankful and to the evil, to do good hoping for nothing again, is the insignia of the royalty of heaven, the sure token by which the children of the Highest reveal their high estate.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 73-75.
------------------------God's Law Of Love Perfected In Us, February 28
RC	73	1	If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:12.
RC	73	2	The conditions of eternal life, under grace, are just what they were in Eden--perfect righteousness, harmony with God, perfect conformity to the principles of His law. The standard of character presented in the Old Testament is the same that is presented in the New Testament. This standard is not one to which we cannot attain. In every command or injunction that God gives there is a promise, the most positive, underlying the command. God has made provision that we may become like unto Him, and He will accomplish this for all who do not interpose a perverse will and thus frustrate His grace.
RC	73	3	With untold love our God has loved us, and our love awakens toward Him as we comprehend something of the length and breadth and depth and height of this love that passeth knowledge. By the revelation of the attractive loveliness of Christ, by the knowledge of His love expressed to us while we were yet sinners, the stubborn heart is melted and subdued, and the sinner is transformed and becomes a child of heaven. God does not employ compulsory measures; love is the agent which He uses to expel sin from the heart. By it He changes pride into humility, and enmity and unbelief into love and faith....
RC	73	4	He tells us to be perfect as He is, in the same manner. We are to be centers of light and blessing to our little circle, even as He is to the universe. We have nothing of ourselves, but the light of His love shines upon us, and we are to reflect its brightness. "In His borrowed goodness good," we may be perfect in our sphere, even as God is perfect in His.
RC	73	5	Jesus said, Be perfect as your Father is perfect. If you are the children of God you are partakers of His nature, and you cannot but be like Him. Every child lives by the life of his father. If you are God's children, begotten by His Spirit, you live by the life of God. In Christ dwells "all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9); and the life of Jesus is made manifest "in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11). That life in you will produce the same character and manifest the same works as it did in Him. Thus you will be in harmony with every precept of His law; for "the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul" (Psalm 19:7, margin). Through love "the righteousness of the law" will be "fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:4).--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 76-78.
------------------------Justification By Faith--Our Only Hope, March 1
RC	74	1	If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:1, 2.
RC	74	2	As the penitent sinner, contrite before God, discerns Christ's atonement in his behalf, and accepts this atonement as his only hope in this life and the future life, his sins are pardoned. This is justification by faith. Every believing soul is to conform his will entirely to God's will, and keep in a state of repentance and contrition, exercising faith in the atoning merits of the Redeemer and advancing from strength to strength, from glory to glory.
RC	74	3	Pardon and justification are one and the same thing. Through faith, the believer passes from the position of a rebel, a child of sin and Satan, to the position of a loyal subject of Christ Jesus, not because of an inherent goodness, but because Christ receives him as His child by adoption. The sinner receives the forgiveness of his sins, because these sins are borne by his Substitute and Surety. The Lord speaks to His heavenly Father, saying: "This is My child. I reprieve him from the condemnation of death, giving him My life insurance policy--eternal life--because I have taken his place and have suffered for his sins. He is even My beloved son." Thus man, pardoned, and clothed with the beautiful garments of Christ's righteousness, stands faultless before God.
RC	74	4	The sinner may err, but he is not cast off without mercy. His only hope, however, is repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Father's prerogative to forgive our transgressions and sins, because Christ has taken upon Himself our guilt and reprieved us, imputing to us His own righteousness. His sacrifice satisfies fully the demands of justice.
RC	74	5	Justification is the opposite of condemnation. God's boundless mercy is exercised toward those who are wholly undeserving. He forgives transgressions and sins for the sake of Jesus, who has become the propitiation for our sins. Through faith in Christ, the guilty transgressor is brought into favor with God and into the strong hope of life eternal.--The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, pp. 1070, 1071.
RC	74	6	The sinner is justified through the merits of Jesus, and this is God's acknowledgment of the perfection of the ransom paid for man. That Christ was obedient even unto the death of the cross is a pledge of the repenting sinner's acceptance with the Father.--The Signs of the Times, July 4, 1892.
------------------------The Repentant Sinner Accepted in Christ, March 2
RC	75	1	For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Hebrews 9:24.
RC	75	2	Christ is our sacrifice, our substitute, our surety, our divine intercessor; He is made unto us righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."
RC	75	3	The intercession of Christ in our behalf is that of presenting His divine merits in the offering of Himself to the Father as our substitute and surety; for He ascended up on high to make an atonement for our transgressions.... "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
RC	75	4	From these scriptures it is evident that it is not God's will that you should be distrustful, and torture your soul with the fear that God will not accept you because you are sinful and unworthy.... Present your case before Him, pleading the merits of the blood shed for you upon Calvary's cross. Satan will accuse you of being a great sinner, and you must admit this, but you can say: "I know I am a sinner, and that is the reason I need a Saviour. Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.'... I have no merit or goodness whereby I may claim salvation, but I present before God the all-atoning blood of the spotless Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is my only plea. The name of Jesus gives me access to the Father. His ear, His heart, is open to my faintest pleading, and He supplies my deepest necessities."
RC	75	5	It is the righteousness of Christ that makes the penitent sinner acceptable to God and works his justification. However sinful has been his life, if he believes in Jesus as his personal Saviour, he stands before God in the spotless robes of Christ's imputed righteousness.
RC	75	6	The sinner so recently dead in trespasses and sins is quickened by faith in Christ. He sees by faith that Jesus is his Saviour, and alive forevermore, able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. In the atonement made for him the believer sees such breadth, and length, and height, and depth of efficiency, sees such completeness of salvation, purchased at such an infinite cost, that his soul is filled with praise and thanksgiving.--The Signs of the Times, July 4, 1892.
------------------------We Are Complete In Christ, March 3
RC	76	1	If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9.
RC	76	2	When the sinner has a view of the matchless charms of Jesus, sin no longer looks attractive to him; for he beholds the Chiefest among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely. He realizes by a personal experience the power of the gospel, whose vastness of design is equaled only by its preciousness of purpose.
RC	76	3	We have a living Saviour. He is not in Joseph's new tomb; He is risen from the dead and has ascended on high as a substitute and surety for every believing soul.... The sinner is justified through the merits of Jesus, and this is God's acknowledgment of the perfection of the ransom paid for man. That Christ was obedient even unto the death of the cross is a pledge of the repenting sinner's acceptance with the Father. Then shall we permit ourselves to have a vacillating experience of doubting and believing, believing and doubting? Jesus is the pledge of our acceptance with God. We stand in favor before God, not because of any merit in ourselves, but because of our faith "in the Lord our righteousness."
RC	76	4	Jesus stands in the holy of holies, now to appear in the presence of God for us. There He ceases not to present His people moment by moment, complete in Himself. But because we are thus represented before the Father, we are not to imagine that we are to presume upon His mercy and become careless, indifferent, and self-indulgent. Christ is not the minister of sin. We are complete in Him, accepted in the Beloved, only as we abide in Him by faith.
RC	76	5	Perfection through our own good works we can never attain. The soul who sees Jesus by faith repudiates his own righteousness. He sees himself as incomplete, his repentance insufficient, his strongest faith but feebleness, his most costly sacrifice as meager, and he sinks in humility at the foot of the cross. But a voice speaks to him from the oracles of God's Word. In amazement he hears the message, "Ye are complete in him" (Colossians 2:10). Now all is at rest in his soul. No longer must he strive to find some worthiness in himself, some meritorious deed by which to gain the favor of God.
RC	76	6	Beholding the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, he finds the peace of Christ; for pardon is written against his name, and he accepts the word of God, "Ye are complete in him." How hard is it for humanity, long accustomed to cherish doubt, to grasp this great truth! But what peace it brings to the soul, what vital life!--The Signs of the Times, July 4, 1892.
------------------------Christ's Blood Was Shed To Remit Our Sins, March 4
RC	77	1	Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:23, 24, R.S.V.
RC	77	2	We need Jesus every moment. To lose His love from our hearts means much. Yet He Himself says: "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." ...
RC	77	3	The religion of many is very much like an icicle--freezingly cold. The hearts of not a few are still unmelted, unsubdued. They cannot touch the hearts of others, because their own hearts are not surcharged with the blessed love that flows from the heart of Christ....
RC	77	4	Genuine religion is based upon a belief in the Scriptures. God's Word is to be believed without question. No part of it is to be cut and carved to fit certain theories. Men are not to exalt human wisdom by sitting in judgment upon God's Word. The Bible was written by holy men of old, as they were moved upon by the Holy Spirit; and this Book contains all that we know for certain and all that we can ever hope to learn in regard to God and Christ, unless, like Paul, we are taken to the third heaven.... This revelation to the apostle did not spoil his humility.
RC	77	5	The life of a Christian is a life regulated by the Word of God just as it reads. All the truths of the Old and the New Testaments form a complete whole. These truths we are to cherish, believe, and obey. To the true disciple, faith in God's Word is a living, active principle; for "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10). By faith man believes that he receives the righteousness of Christ.
RC	77	6	Faith, in itself, is an act of the mind. Jesus Himself is the author and the finisher of our faith. He gave His life for us; and His blood speaks in our behalf better things than spoke the blood of Abel, which cried unto God against Cain the murderer. Christ's blood was shed to remit our sins.
RC	77	7	Many commit the error of trying to define minutely the fine points of distinction between justification and sanctification. Into the definitions of these two terms they often bring their own ideas and speculations. Why try to be more minute than is Inspiration on the vital question of righteousness by faith?--Manuscript 21, 1891.
RC	77	8	Those who are united with Christ through the daily, hourly exercise of the faith which works by love and purifies the soul receive the forgiveness of their sins, and are sanctified unto eternal life.--Manuscript 12a, 1901.
------------------------Justified Souls Walk In The Light, March 5
RC	78	1	God presented him [Christ Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.... He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies the man who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:25, 26, N.I.V.
RC	78	2	"Being justified freely by his grace," the apostle Paul says, "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
RC	78	3	Here the truth is laid out in plain lines. This mercy and goodness is wholly undeserved. The grace of Christ is freely to justify the sinner without merit or claim on his part. Justification is a full, complete pardon of sin. The moment a sinner accepts Christ by faith, that moment he is pardoned. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to him, and he is no more to doubt God's forgiving grace.
RC	78	4	There is nothing in faith that makes it our saviour. Faith cannot remove our guilt. Christ is the power of God unto salvation to all them that believe. The justification comes through the merits of Jesus Christ. He has paid the price for the sinner's redemption. Yet it is only through faith in His blood that Jesus can justify the believer.
RC	78	5	The sinner cannot depend upon his own good works as a means of justification. He must come to the point where he will renounce all his sin, and embrace one degree of light after another, as it shines upon his pathway. He simply grasps by faith the free and ample provision made in the blood of Christ. He believes the promises of God which through Christ are made unto him sanctification and righteousness and redemption.
RC	78	6	And if he follows Jesus, he will walk humbly in the light, rejoicing in the light, and diffusing that light to others. Being justified by faith, he carries cheerfulness with him in his obedience in all his life. Peace with God is the result of what Christ is to him. The souls who are in subordination to God, who honor Him, and are doers of His Word, will receive divine enlightenment. In the precious Word of God, there is purity and loftiness as well as beauty that, unless assisted by God, the highest powers of man cannot attain to....
RC	78	7	We are none of us excusable, under any form of trial, for letting our hold upon God become loosened. Although the compassion of man may fail, still God loves and pities, and reaches out His helping hand. God's everlasting arms encircle the soul that turns to Him for aid.... God loves to have His children ask Him, and trust Him to do for them those things which they cannot do for themselves.--The Signs of the Times, May 19, 1898.
------------------------Faith Without Works Is Dead, March 6
RC	79	1	Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? James 2:21, 22.
RC	79	2	We need to have more of Jesus, and far less of self. We need a childlike simplicity that will lead us to tell the Lord all our wants, and believe that according to His riches and goodness and love He will satisfy our needs. "If ye shall ask any thing in my name," He says, "I will do it." If you love Me, you will show that love by keeping My commandments. "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth." ...
RC	79	3	"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." This is the only true test of character. In doing the will of God we give the best evidence that we love God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. The oft-repeated words of love for God are of no value unless that love is made manifest in the life practice. Love for God is not a mere sentiment; it is a living, working power. The man who does the will of his Father who is in heaven shows to the world that he loves God. The fruit of his love is seen in good works....
RC	79	4	The apostle James saw that dangers would arise in presenting the subject of justification by faith, and he labored to show that genuine faith cannot exist without corresponding works. The experience of Abraham is presented. "Seest thou," he says, "how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?" This genuine faith does a genuine work in the believer. Faith and obedience bring a solid, valuable experience.
RC	79	5	There is a belief that is not a saving faith. The Word declares that the devils believe and tremble. The so-called faith that does not work by love and purify the soul will not justify any man. "Ye see," says the apostle, "how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." Abraham believed God. How do we know that he believed? His works testified to the character of his faith, and his faith was accounted to him for righteousness.
RC	79	6	We need the faith of Abraham in our day, to lighten the darkness that gathers around us, shutting out the sweet sunlight of God's love, and dwarfing spiritual growth. Our faith should be prolific of good works; for faith without works is dead. Every duty performed, every sacrifice made in the name of Jesus, brings an exceeding great reward. In the very act of duty, God speaks and gives His blessing.--The Signs of the Times, May 19, 1898.
------------------------Sanctification Continues As Long As Life Lasts, March 7
RC	80	1	For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Hebrews 2:11.
RC	80	2	While with penitence and humble trust we meditate upon Jesus, whom our sins have pierced and our sorrows have burdened, we may learn to walk in His footsteps. By beholding Him we become changed into His divine likeness. And when this work is wrought in us, we shall claim no righteousness of our own, but shall exalt Jesus Christ, while we hang our helpless souls upon His merits.
RC	80	3	Our Saviour ever condemned self-righteousness. He taught His disciples that the highest type of religion is that which manifests itself in a quiet, unobtrusive manner. He cautioned them to perform their deeds of charity quietly; not for display, not to be praised or honored of men, but for the glory of God, expecting their reward hereafter. If they should perform good deeds to be lauded by men, no reward would be given them by their Father in heaven.
RC	80	4	The followers of Christ were instructed not to pray for the purpose of being heard of men. "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly" (Matthew 6:6). Such expressions as this from the lips of Christ show that He did not regard with approval that kind of piety so prevalent among the Pharisees. His teachings upon the mount show that deeds of benevolence assume a noble form and acts of religious worship shed a most precious fragrance when performed in an unpretending manner, in penitence and humility. The pure motive sanctifies the act.
RC	80	5	True sanctification is an entire conformity to the will of God. Rebellious thoughts and feelings are overcome, and the voice of Jesus awakens a new life, which pervades the entire being. Those who are truly sanctified will not set up their own opinion as a standard of right and wrong.... True sanctification is a daily work, continuing as long as life shall last. Those who are battling with daily temptations, overcoming their own sinful tendencies, and seeking for holiness of heart and life, make no boastful claims of holiness. They are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Sin appears to them exceedingly sinful....
RC	80	6	The truly righteous, who sincerely love and fear God, wear the robe of Christ's righteousness in prosperity and adversity alike.--The Sanctified Life, 8-11.
------------------------Sanctification Is The Result Of Lifelong Obedience, March 8
RC	81	1	He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 1 John 2:6.
RC	81	2	John was a teacher of holiness, and in his letters to the church he laid down unerring rules for the conduct of Christians. "Every man that hath this hope in him," he wrote, "purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3).... He taught that the Christian must be pure in heart and life. Never should he be satisfied with an empty profession. As God is holy in His sphere, so fallen man, through faith in Christ, is to be holy in his sphere....
RC	81	3	The sanctification of the church is God's object in all His dealings with His people. He has chosen them from eternity, that they might be holy. He gave His Son to die for them, that they might be sanctified through obedience to the truth, divested of all the littleness of self. From them He requires a personal work, a personal surrender. God can be honored by those who profess to believe in Him, only as they are conformed to His image and controlled by His Spirit. Then, as witnesses for the Saviour, they may make known what divine grace has done for them.
RC	81	4	True sanctification comes through the working out of the principle of love. "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him" (chap. 4:16). The life of him in whose heart Christ abides, will reveal practical godliness. The character will be purified, elevated, ennobled, and glorified. Pure doctrine will blend with works of righteousness; heavenly precepts will mingle with holy practices....
RC	81	5	It is the fragrance of our love for our fellow men that reveals our love for God. It is patience in service that brings rest to the soul. It is through humble, diligent, faithful toil that the welfare of Israel is promoted. God upholds and strengthens the one who is willing to follow in Christ's way.
RC	81	6	[Sanctification] is not gained by a happy flight of feeling, but is the result of constantly dying to sin, and constantly living for Christ. Wrongs cannot be righted nor reformations wrought in the character by feeble, intermittent efforts. It is only by long, persevering effort, sore discipline, and stern conflict, that we shall overcome. We know not one day how strong will be our conflict the next. So long as Satan reigns, we shall have self to subdue, besetting sins to overcome; so long as life shall last, there will be no stopping place, no point which we can reach and say, I have fully attained. Sanctification is the result of lifelong obedience.--The Acts of the Apostles, 559-561.
------------------------More Attention To "The Faith Of Jesus", March 9
RC	82	1	Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. 1 Timothy 3:16.
RC	82	2	Many people seem to be ignorant of what constitutes faith. Many complain of darkness and discouragements. I asked, Are your faces turned toward Jesus? Are you beholding Him, the Sun of Righteousness? You need plainly to define to the churches the matter of faith and entire dependence upon the righteousness of Christ.... There has been so little dwelling upon Christ, His matchless love, His great sacrifice made in our behalf, that Satan has nearly eclipsed the views we should have and must have of Jesus Christ. We must trust less in human beings for spiritual help and more, far more, in approaching Jesus Christ as our Redeemer.
RC	82	3	We may dwell with a determined purpose on the heavenly attributes of Jesus Christ; we may talk of His love, we may tell and sing of His mercies, we may make Him our own personal Saviour. Then we are one with Christ. We love that which Christ loved, we hate sin, that which Christ hated. These things must be talked of, dwelt upon....
RC	82	4	We are to keep before the mind the sin-pardoning Saviour. But we are to present Him in His true position--coming to die to magnify the law of God and make it honorable, and yet to justify the sinner who shall depend wholly upon the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour....
RC	82	5	The soul-saving message, the third angel's message, is the message to be given to the world. The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus are both important, immensely important, and must be given with equal force and power. The first part of the message has been dwelt upon mostly, the last part casually. The faith of Jesus is not comprehended. We must talk it, we must live it, we must pray it, and educate the people to bring this part of the message into their home life....
RC	82	6	Why are our lips so silent upon the subject of Christ's righteousness and His love for the world? Why do we not give to the people that which will revive and quicken them into a new life? The apostle Paul is filled with transport and adoration as he declares, "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."...
RC	82	7	The character of Christ is an infinitely perfect character, and He must be lifted up, He must be brought prominently into view, for He is the power, the might, the sanctification and righteousness of all who believe in Him.--Manuscript 27, 1889.
------------------------Testing Time Reveals Faith And Love, March 10
RC	83	1	The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. 2 Timothy 2:19.
RC	83	2	Self-denial, self-sacrifice, benevolence, kindness, love, patience, fortitude, and Christian trust are the daily fruits borne by those who are truly connected with God. Their acts may not be published to the world, but they themselves are daily wrestling with evil, and gaining precious victories over temptation and wrong. Solemn vows are renewed, and kept through the strength gained by earnest prayer and constant watching thereunto.
RC	83	3	The ardent enthusiast does not discern the struggles of these silent workers; but the eye of Him who seeth the secrets of the heart notices and regards with approval every effort put forth in lowliness and meekness. It requires the testing time to reveal the pure gold of love and faith in the character. When trials and perplexities come upon the church, then the steadfast zeal and warm affections of Christ's true followers are developed....
RC	83	4	The humble in heart, who have daily felt the importance of riveting their souls to the eternal Rock, will stand unmoved amid the tempests of trial, because they trusted not to themselves....
RC	83	5	A healthy man, who is able to attend to the vocations of life and goes forth day after day to his labor with buoyant spirits and with a healthy current of blood flowing through his veins, does not call the attention of everyone he meets to his soundness of body. Health and vigor are the natural conditions of his life, and therefore he is scarcely conscious that he is in the enjoyment of so rich a boon.
RC	83	6	Thus it is with the truly righteous man. He is unconscious of his goodness and piety. Religious principle has become the spring of his life and conduct, and it is just as natural for him to bear the fruits of the Spirit as for the fig tree to bear figs or for the rosebush to yield roses. His nature is so thoroughly imbued with love for God and his fellow men that he works the works of Christ with a willing heart.
RC	83	7	All who come within the sphere of his influence perceive the beauty and fragrance of his Christian life, while he himself is unconscious of it, for it is in harmony with his habits and inclinations. He prays for divine light, and loves to walk in that light. It is his meat and drink to do the will of his heavenly Father. His life is hid with Christ in God.--The Sanctified Life, 11-13.
------------------------Sanctification Embraces The Entire Being, March 11
RC	84	1	And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
RC	84	2	The sanctification set forth in the Scriptures embraces the entire being--spirit, soul, and body. Paul prayed for the Thessalonians that their "whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Again he writes to believers: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God" (Romans 12:1).
RC	84	3	In the time of ancient Israel, every offering brought as a sacrifice to God was carefully examined. If any defect was discovered in the animal presented, it was refused; for God had commanded that the offering be "without blemish." So Christians are bidden to present their bodies, "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."
RC	84	4	In order to do this, all their powers must be preserved in the best possible condition. Every practice that weakens physical or mental strength unfits man for the service of his Creator. And will God be pleased with anything less than the best we can offer? Said Christ: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart."
RC	84	5	Those who do love God with all the heart will desire to give Him the best service of their life, and they will be constantly seeking to bring every power of their being into harmony with the laws that will promote their ability to do His will. They will not, by the indulgence of appetite or passion, enfeeble or defile the offering which they present to their heavenly Father.
RC	84	6	Peter says: "Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" (1 Peter 2:11). Every sinful gratification tends to benumb the faculties and deaden the mental and spiritual perceptions, and the Word or the Spirit of God can make but a feeble impression upon the heart. Paul writes to the Corinthians: "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1). And with the fruits of the Spirit--"love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness"--he classes "temperance" (Galatians 5:22, 23).
RC	84	7	Notwithstanding these inspired declarations, how many professed Christians are enfeebling their powers in the pursuit of gain or the worship of fashion; how many are debasing their godlike manhood by gluttony, by wine drinking, by forbidden pleasure.... He whose body is the temple of the Holy Spirit will not be enslaved by a pernicious habit. His powers belong to Christ, who has bought him with the price of blood.--The Great Controversy, 473-475.
------------------------Daniel Stands Firm Whatever The Result, March 12
RC	85	1	Then the king ordered Ashpenaz ... to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility--young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace. Daniel 1:3, 4, N.I.V.
RC	85	2	The prophet Daniel was an illustrious character. He was a bright example of what men may become when united with the God of wisdom. A brief account of the life of this holy man of God is left on record for the encouragement of those who should afterward be called to endure trial and temptation.
RC	85	3	When the people of Israel, their king, nobles, and priests were carried into captivity, four of their number were selected to serve in the court of the king of Babylon. One of these was Daniel, who early gave promise of the remarkable ability developed in later years. These youth were all of princely birth, and are described as "children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them" (Daniel 1:4).
RC	85	4	Perceiving the superior talents of these youthful captives, King Nebuchadnezzar determined to prepare them to fill important positions in his kingdom. That they might be fully qualified for their life at court, according to Oriental custom, they were to be taught the language of the Chaldeans, and to be subjected for three years to a thorough course of physical and intellectual discipline.
RC	85	5	The youth in this school of training were not only to be admitted to the royal palace, but it was provided that they should eat of the meat and drink of the wine which came from the king's table....
RC	85	6	Among the viands placed before the king were swine's flesh and other meats which were declared unclean by the law of Moses, and which the Hebrews had been expressly forbidden to eat. Here Daniel was brought to a severe test. Should he adhere to the teachings of his fathers concerning meats and drinks, and offend the king, and probably lose not only his position but his life? or should he disregard the commandment of the Lord and retain the favor of the king, thus securing great intellectual advantages and the most flattering worldly prospects?
RC	85	7	Daniel did not long hesitate. He decided to stand firm in his integrity, let the result be what it might. He "purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank" (verse 8).... He made God his strength, and the fear of God was continually before him in all the transactions of his life.--The Sanctified Life, 18-20.
------------------------Daniel's Life Illustrates Sanctification, March 13
RC	86	1	So Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, "Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink." Daniel 1:11, 12, N.K.J.V.
RC	86	2	Daniel might have found a plausible excuse to depart from his strictly temperate habits; but the approval of God was dearer to him than the favor of the most powerful earthly potentate--dearer even than life itself....
RC	86	3	Daniel requested that the matter be decided by a ten days' trial--the Hebrew youth during this brief period being permitted to eat of simple food, while their companions partook of the king's dainties.... The Lord regarded with approval the firmness and self-denial of the Hebrew youth, and His blessing attended them....
RC	86	4	The life of Daniel is an inspired illustration of what constitutes a sanctified character. It presents a lesson for all, and especially for the young. A strict compliance with the requirements of God is beneficial to the health of body and mind. In order to reach the highest standard of moral and intellectual attainments, it is necessary to seek wisdom and strength from God and to observe strict temperance in all the habits of life.
RC	86	5	In the experience of Daniel and his companions we have an instance of the triumph of principle over temptation to indulge the appetite. It shows us that through religious principle young men may triumph over the lusts of the flesh and remain true to God's requirements, even though it cost them a great sacrifice.
RC	86	6	What if Daniel and his companions had made a compromise with those heathen officers and had yielded to the pressure of the occasion by eating and drinking as was customary with the Babylonians? That single instance of departure from principle would have weakened their sense of right and their abhorrence of wrong. Indulgence of appetite would have involved the sacrifice of physical vigor, clearness of intellect, and spiritual power. One wrong step would probably have led to others, until, their connection with Heaven being severed, they would have been swept away by temptation.
RC	86	7	God has said, "Them that honour me I will honour" (1 Samuel 2:30). While Daniel clung to his God with unwavering trust, the Spirit of prophetic power came upon him. While he was instructed of man in the duties of court life, he was taught of God to read the mysteries of future ages and to present to coming generations, through figures and similitudes, the wonderful things that would come to pass in the last days.--The Sanctified Life, 21-24.
------------------------In The Presence Of The Infinite, March 14
RC	87	1	Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Daniel 3:25.
RC	87	2	The fiery furnace had been heated seven times more than it was wont, and into it were cast the Hebrew exiles. So furious were the flames, that the men who cast them in were burned to death.
RC	87	3	Suddenly the countenance of the king paled with terror. His eyes were fixed upon the glowing flames, and turning to his lords, he said, "Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" (Daniel 3:4). The answer was, "True, O king." And now the monarch exclaimed, "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (verse 25).
RC	87	4	When Christ manifests Himself to the children of men, an unseen power speaks to their souls. They feel themselves to be in the presence of the Infinite One. Before His majesty, kings and nobles tremble, and acknowledge that the living God is above every earthly power.
RC	87	5	With feelings of remorse and shame, the king exclaimed, "Ye servants of the most high God, come forth" (verse 26). And they obeyed, showing themselves unhurt before that vast multitude, not even the smell of the fire being upon their garments. This miracle produced a striking change in the minds of the people. The great golden image, set up with such display, was forgotten. The king published a decree that anyone speaking against the God of these men should be put to death, "because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort" (verse 29).
RC	87	6	These three Hebrews possessed genuine sanctification. True Christian principle will not stop to weigh the consequences. It does not ask, What will people think of me if I do this? or, How will it affect my worldly prospects if I do that? With the most intense longing the children of God desire to know what He would have them do, that their works may glorify Him. The Lord has made ample provision that the hearts and lives of all His followers may be controlled by divine grace, that they may be as burning and shining lights in the world.
RC	87	7	These faithful Hebrews possessed great natural ability, they had enjoyed the highest intellectual culture, and now occupied a position of honor; but all this did not lead them to forget God. Their powers were yielded to the sanctifying influence of divine grace. By their steadfast integrity they showed forth the praises of Him who had called them out of darkness into His marvelous light.--The Sanctified Life, 38-40.
------------------------Three Hebrews Display The Power Of God, March 15
RC	88	1	Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him. Daniel 3:28.
RC	88	2	In their wonderful deliverance were displayed, before that vast assembly, the power and majesty of God. Jesus placed Himself by their side in the fiery furnace, and by the glory of His presence convinced the proud king of Babylon that it could be no other than the Son of God. The light of Heaven had been shining forth from Daniel and his companions, until all their associates understood the faith which ennobled their lives and beautified their characters. By the deliverance of His faithful servants, the Lord declares that He will take His stand with the oppressed and overthrow all earthly powers that would trample upon the authority of the God of heaven.
RC	88	3	What a lesson is here given to the fainthearted, the vacillating, the cowardly in the cause of God! What encouragement to those who will not be turned aside from duty by threats or peril! These faithful, steadfast characters exemplify sanctification, while they have no thought of claiming the high honor. The amount of good which may be accomplished by comparatively obscure but devoted Christians cannot be estimated until the life records shall be made known, when the judgment shall sit and the books be opened.
RC	88	4	Christ identifies His interest with this class; He is not ashamed to call them brethren. There should be hundreds where there is now one among us, so closely allied to God, their lives in such close conformity to His will, that they would be bright and shining lights, sanctified wholly, in soul, body, and spirit.
RC	88	5	The conflict still goes on between the children of light and the children of darkness. Those who name the name of Christ should shake off the lethargy that enfeebles their efforts, and should meet the momentous responsibilities that devolve upon them. All who do this may expect the power of God to be revealed in them. The Son of God, the world's Redeemer, will be represented in their words and in their works, and God's name will be glorified.--The Sanctified Life, 40-41.
RC	88	6	As in the days of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, so in the closing period of earth's history the Lord will work mightily in behalf of those who stand steadfastly for the right. He who walked with the Hebrew worthies in the fiery furnace will be with His followers wherever they are.... His chosen ones will stand unmoved.--Prophets and Kings, 513.
------------------------How The King Recognized The Son Of God, March 16
RC	89	1	Ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Daniel 3:26.
RC	89	2	How did that heathen king know what the Son of God was like? The Hebrew captives filling positions of trust in Babylon had in life and character represented before him the truth. When asked for a reason of their faith, they had given it without hesitation. Plainly and simply they had presented the principles of righteousness, thus teaching those around them of God whom they worshiped. They had told of Christ, the Redeemer to come; and in the form of the fourth in the midst of the fire the king recognized the Son of God....
RC	89	3	Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth before the vast multitude, showing themselves unhurt. The presence of their Saviour had guarded them from harm, and only their fetters had been burned. "And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them." ...
RC	89	4	The experiences of that day led Nebuchadnezzar to issue a decree, "That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill." "There is no other God," he urged as the reason for the decree, "that can deliver after this sort."
RC	89	5	In these and like words the king of Babylon endeavored to spread abroad before all the peoples of earth his conviction that the power and authority of the God of the Hebrews was worthy of supreme adoration. And God was pleased with the effort of the king to show Him reverence, and to make the royal confession of allegiance as widespread as was the Babylonian realm.
RC	89	6	It was right for the king to make public confession, and to seek to exalt the God of heaven above all other gods; but in endeavoring to force his subjects to make a similar confession of faith and to show similar reverence, Nebuchadnezzar was exceeding his right as a temporal sovereign. He had no more right, either civil or moral, to threaten men with death for not worshiping God, than he had to make a decree consigning to the flames all who refused to worship the golden image. God never compels the obedience of man. He leaves all free to choose whom they will serve.--Prophets and Kings, 509-511.
------------------------God Answers Daniel's Fervent Prayer, March 17
RC	90	1	O Daniel, a man greatly beloved,... for unto thee am I now sent ... for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand ... thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. Daniel 10:11, 12.
RC	90	2	"I Daniel alone saw the vision.... And there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption" (Daniel 10:7, 8).... All who are truly sanctified will have a similar experience. The clearer their views of the greatness, glory, and perfection of Christ, the more vividly will they see their own weakness and imperfection. They will have no disposition to claim a sinless character; that which has appeared right and comely in themselves will, in contrast with Christ's purity and glory, appear only as unworthy and corruptible. It is when men are separated from God, when they have very indistinct views of Christ, that they say, "I am sinless; I am sanctified."
RC	90	3	Gabriel now appeared to the prophet, and thus addressed him: "O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee" (verse 11).... What great honor is shown to Daniel by the Majesty of heaven! He comforts His trembling servant and assures him that his prayer has been heard in heaven. In answer to that fervent petition the angel Gabriel was sent to affect the heart of the Persian king. The monarch had resisted the impressions of the Spirit of God during the three weeks while Daniel was fasting and praying, but heaven's Prince, the Archangel, Michael, was sent to turn the heart of the stubborn king to take some decided action to answer the prayer of Daniel.
RC	90	4	"And when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground, and I became dumb. And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips.... And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my Lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me" (verse 15-19).
RC	90	5	So great was the divine glory revealed to Daniel that he could not endure the sight. Then the messenger of heaven veiled the brightness of his presence and appeared to the prophet as "one like the similitude of the sons of men" (verse 16). By his divine power he strengthened this man of integrity and of faith, to hear the message sent to him from God.
RC	90	6	Daniel was a devoted servant of the Most High. His long life was filled up with noble deeds of service for his Master. His purity of character and unwavering fidelity are equaled only by his humility of heart and his contrition before God. We repeat, the life of Daniel is an inspired illustration of true sanctification.--The Sanctified Life, 50-52.
------------------------The Truly Sanctified Feel Unworthy, March 18
RC	91	1	We do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. Daniel 9:18.
RC	91	2	Those who experience the sanctification of the Bible will manifest a spirit of humility. Like Moses, they have had a view of the awful majesty of holiness, and they see their own unworthiness in contrast with the purity and exalted perfection of the Infinite One.
RC	91	3	The prophet Daniel was an example of true sanctification. His long life was filled with noble service for his Master. He was a man "greatly beloved" (Daniel 10:11) of Heaven. Yet instead of claiming to be pure and holy, this honored prophet identified himself with the really sinful of Israel as he pleaded before God in behalf of his people: "We do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies." "We have sinned, we have done wickedly" (chap. 9:18, 15)....
RC	91	4	When Job heard the voice of the Lord out of the whirlwind, he exclaimed: "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). It was when Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord, and heard the cherubim crying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts," that he cried out, "Woe is me! for I am undone" (Isaiah 6:3, 5). Paul, after he was caught up into the third heaven and heard things which it was not possible for a man to utter, speaks of himself as "less than the least of all saints" (2 Corinthians 12:2-4, margin; Ephesians 3:8)....
RC	91	5	There can be no self-exaltation, no boastful claim to freedom from sin, on the part of those who walk in the shadow of Calvary's cross. They feel that it was their sin which caused the agony that broke the heart of the Son of God, and this thought will lead them to self-abasement. Those who live nearest to Jesus discern most clearly the frailty and sinfulness of humanity, and their only hope is in the merit of a crucified and risen Saviour.
RC	91	6	The sanctification now gaining prominence in the religious world carries with it a spirit of self-exaltation and a disregard for the law of God that mark it as foreign to the religion of the Bible. Its advocates teach that sanctification is an instantaneous work, by which, through faith alone, they attain to perfect holiness. "Only believe," say they, "and the blessing is yours." ... At the same time they deny the authority of the law of God, urging that they are released from obligation to keep the commandments. But is it possible for men to be holy, in accord with the will and character of God, without coming into harmony with the principles which are an expression of His nature and will, and which show what is well pleasing to Him?--The Great Controversy, 470, 471.
------------------------Love Was That Of A Repentant Sinner, March 19
RC	92	1	Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 1 John 4:7.
RC	92	2	The apostle John was distinguished above his brethren as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." While not in the slightest degree cowardly, weak, or vacillating in character, he possessed an amiable disposition and a warm, loving heart. He seemed to have enjoyed, in a preeminent sense, the friendship of Christ, and he received many tokens of the Saviour's confidence and love. He was one of the three permitted to witness Christ's glory upon the mount of transfiguration and His agony in Gethsemane; and to the care of John our Lord confided His mother in those last hours of anguish upon the cross.
RC	92	3	The Saviour's affection for the beloved disciple was returned with all the strength of ardent devotion. John clung to Christ as the vine clings to the stately pillar. For his Master's sake he braved the dangers of the judgment hall and lingered about the cross; and at the tidings that Christ had risen, he hastened to the sepulcher, in his zeal outstripping even the impetuous Peter.
RC	92	4	John's love for his Master was not a mere human friendship, but it was the love of a repentant sinner, who felt that he had been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. He esteemed it the highest honor to work and suffer in the service of his Lord. His love for Jesus led him to love all for whom Christ died. His religion was of a practical character. He reasoned that love to God would be manifested in love to His children. "We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" (1 John 4:19, 20). The apostle's life was in harmony with his teachings.
RC	92	5	The love which glowed in his heart for Christ, led him to put forth the most earnest, untiring labor for his fellow men, especially for his brethren in the Christian church....
RC	92	6	John desired to become like Jesus, and under the transforming influence of the love of Christ, he became meek and lowly of heart. Self was hid in Jesus. He was closely united to the Living Vine, and thus became a partaker of the divine nature. Such will ever be the result of communion with Christ. This is true sanctification.--The Sanctified Life, 53-55.
------------------------John Learned Well The Lessons Jesus Taught, March 20
RC	93	1	The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Luke 9:56.
RC	93	2	Upon one occasion Christ sent messengers before Him unto a village of the Samaritans, requesting the people to prepare refreshments for Himself and His disciples. But when the Saviour approached the town, He appeared to be passing on toward Jerusalem. This aroused the enmity of the Samaritans, and instead of sending messengers to invite and even urge Him to tarry with them, they withheld the courtesies which they would have given to a common wayfarer. Jesus never urges His presence upon any, and the Samaritans lost the blessing which would have been granted them had they solicited Him to be their guest.
RC	93	3	We may wonder at this uncourteous treatment of the Majesty of heaven, but how frequently are we who profess to be followers of Christ guilty of similar neglect. Do we urge Jesus to take up His abode in our hearts and in our homes? He is full of love, of grace, of blessing, and stands ready to bestow these gifts upon us; but, like the Samaritans, we are often content without them.
RC	93	4	The disciples were aware of the purpose of Christ to bless the Samaritans with His presence; and when they saw the coldness, jealousy, and disrespect shown to their Master, they were filled with surprise and indignation. James and John were especially stirred. That He whom they so highly reverenced should be thus treated seemed to them a crime too great to be passed over without immediate punishment. In their zeal they said, "Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" (Luke 9:54)....
RC	93	5	Jesus rebuked His disciples, saying, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them" (verses 55, 56). John and his fellow disciples were in a school in which Christ was teacher. Those who were ready to see their own defects, and were anxious to improve in character, had ample opportunity. John treasured every lesson and constantly sought to bring his life into harmony with the Divine Pattern.
RC	93	6	The lessons of Jesus, setting forth meekness, humility, and love as essential to growth in grace, and a fitness for his work, were of the highest value to John. These lessons are addressed to us as individuals and as brethren in the church, as well as to the first disciples of Christ.--The Sanctified Life, 57-59.
------------------------The Contrast Between John And Judas, March 21
RC	94	1	He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 1 John 5:12.
RC	94	2	During the years of his close association with Christ, he [John] was often warned and cautioned by the Saviour; and these reproofs he accepted. As the character of the Divine One was manifested to him, John saw his own deficiencies, and was humbled by the revelation. Day by day, in contrast with his own violent spirit, he beheld the tenderness and forbearance of Jesus, and heard His lessons of humility and patience. Day by day his heart was drawn out to Christ, until he lost sight of self in love for his Master. The power and tenderness, the majesty and meekness, the strength and patience, that he saw in the daily life of the Son of God, filled his soul with admiration. He yielded his resentful, ambitious temper to the molding power of Christ, and divine love wrought in him a transformation of character.
RC	94	3	In striking contrast to the sanctification worked out in the life of John is the experience of his fellow disciple, Judas. Like his associate, Judas professed to be a disciple of Christ, but he possessed only a form of godliness. He was not insensible to the beauty of the character of Christ; and often, as he listened to the Saviour's words, conviction came to him, but he would not humble his heart or confess his sins....
RC	94	4	John warred earnestly against his faults; but Judas violated his conscience and yielded to temptation, fastening upon himself more securely his habits of evil. The practice of the truths that Christ taught was at variance with his desires and purposes, and he could not bring himself to yield his ideas in order to receive wisdom from heaven. Instead of walking in the light, he chose to walk in darkness. Evil desires, covetousness, revengeful passions, dark and sullen thoughts, were cherished until Satan gained full control of him.
RC	94	5	John and Judas are representatives of those who profess to be Christ's followers. Both these disciples had the same opportunities to study and follow the divine Pattern.... Each possessed serious defects of character; and each had access to the divine grace that transforms character. But while one in humility was learning of Jesus, the other revealed that he was not a doer of the word, but a hearer only. One, daily dying to self and overcoming sin, was sanctified through the truth; the other, resisting the transforming power of grace and indulging selfish desires, was brought into bondage to Satan....
RC	94	6	There may be marked defects in the character of an individual, yet when he becomes a true disciple of Christ, the power of divine grace transforms and sanctifies him.--The Acts of the Apostles, 557-559.
------------------------Amazed At God's Love, March 22
RC	95	1	I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. Revelation 1:10.
RC	95	2	The Lord's day mentioned by John was the Sabbath, the day on which Jehovah rested after the great work of creation, and which He blessed and sanctified because He had rested upon it. The Sabbath was as sacredly observed by John upon the Isle of Patmos as when he was among the people, preaching upon that day. By the barren rocks surrounding him, John was reminded of rocky Horeb, and how, when God spoke His law to the people there, He said, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8).
RC	95	3	The Son of God spoke to Moses from the mountaintop. God made the rocks His sanctuary. His temple was the everlasting hills. The Divine Legislator descended upon the rocky mountain to speak His law in the hearing of all the people, that they might be impressed by the grand and awful exhibition of His power and glory, and fear to transgress His commandments. God spoke His law amid thunders and lightnings and the thick cloud upon the top of the mountain, and His voice was as the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud. The law of Jehovah was unchangeable, and the tablets upon which He wrote that law were solid rock, signifying the immutability of His precepts. Rocky Horeb became a sacred place to all who loved and revered the law of God.
RC	95	4	While John was contemplating the scenes of Horeb, the Spirit of Him who sanctified the seventh day came upon him. He contemplated the sin of Adam in transgressing the divine law, and the fearful result of that transgression. The infinite love of God, in giving His Son to redeem a lost race, seemed too great for language to express. As he presents it in his Epistle he calls upon the church and the world to behold it. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not" (1 John 3:1).
RC	95	5	It was a mystery to John that God could give His Son to die for rebellious man. And he was lost in amazement that the plan of salvation, devised at such a cost to Heaven, should be refused by those for whom the infinite sacrifice had been made....
RC	95	6	It is no light matter to sin against God, to set the perverse will of man in opposition to the will of his Maker. It is for the best interest of men, even in this world, to obey God's commandments. And it is surely for their eternal interest to submit to God, and be at peace with Him.... God made him a free moral agent, to obey or disobey. The reward of everlasting life--an eternal weight of glory--is promised to those who do God's will.--The Sanctified Life, 74-76.
------------------------Love Is Shown By Willing Obedience, March 23
RC	96	1	If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. Isaiah 1:19.
RC	96	2	The character of the Christian is shown by his daily life. Said Christ, "Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit" (Matthew 7:17). Our Saviour compares Himself to a vine, of which His followers are the branches. He plainly declares that all who would be His disciples must bring forth fruit; and then He shows how they may become fruitful branches. "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me" (John 15:4).
RC	96	3	The apostle Paul describes the fruit which the Christian is to bear. He says that it "is in all goodness and righteousness and truth" (Ephesians 5:9). And again, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22, 23). These precious graces are but the principles of God's law carried out in the life.
RC	96	4	The law of God is the only true standard of moral perfection. That law was practically exemplified in the life of Christ. He says of Himself, "I have kept my Father's commandments" (John 15:10). Nothing short of this obedience will meet the requirements of God's Word. "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked" (1 John 2:6). We cannot plead that we are unable to do this, for we have the assurance, "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9). As we look into the divine mirror, the law of God, we see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and our own lost condition as transgressors. But by repentance and faith we are justified before God, and through divine grace enabled to render obedience to His commandments.
RC	96	5	Those who have genuine love for God will manifest an earnest desire to know His will and to do it.... The child who loves his parents will show that love by willing obedience; but the selfish, ungrateful child seeks to do as little as possible for his parents, while he at the same time desires to enjoy all the privileges granted to the obedient and faithful.
RC	96	6	The same difference is seen among those who profess to be children of God. Many who know that they are the objects of His love and care, and who desire to receive His blessing, take no delight in doing His will. They regard God's claims upon them as an unpleasant restraint, His commandments as a grievous yoke. But he who is truly seeking for holiness of heart and life delights in the law of God, and mourns only that he falls so far short of meeting its requirements.--The Sanctified Life, 80, 81.
------------------------Sanctified By Faith And Obedience, March 24
RC	97	1	Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. John 15:8.
RC	97	2	Many shrink from such a life as our Saviour lived. They feel that it requires too great a sacrifice to imitate the Pattern, to bring forth fruit in good works, and then patiently endure the pruning of God that they may bring forth more fruit. But when the Christian regards himself as only a humble instrument in the hands of Christ, and endeavors to faithfully perform every duty, relying upon the help which God has promised, then he will wear the yoke of Christ and find it easy; then he will bear burdens for Christ, and pronounce them light. He can look up with courage and with confidence, and say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him" (2 Timothy 1:12).
RC	97	3	If we meet obstacles in our path, and faithfully overcome them; if we encounter opposition and reproach, and in Christ's name gain the victory; if we bear responsibilities and discharge our duties in the spirit of our Master--then, indeed, we gain a precious knowledge of His faithfulness and power. We no longer depend upon the experience of others, for we have the witness in ourselves. Like the Samaritans of old, we can say, "We have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world" (John 4:42).
RC	97	4	The more we contemplate the character of Christ, and the more we experience of His saving power, the more keenly shall we realize our own weakness and imperfection, and the more earnestly shall we look to Him as our strength and our Redeemer.... By faith in Christ and obedience to the law of God we may be sanctified, and thus obtain a fitness for the society of holy angels and the white-robed redeemed ones in the kingdom of glory.
RC	97	5	It is not only the privilege but the duty of every Christian to maintain a close union with Christ and to have a rich experience in the things of God. Then his life will be fruitful in good works....
RC	97	6	When we read the lives of men who have been eminent for their piety we often regard their experiences and attainments as far beyond our reach. But this is not the case. Christ died for all; and we are assured in His Word that He is more willing to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask than are earthly parents to give good gifts to their children.
RC	97	7	The prophets and apostles did not perfect Christian character by a miracle. They used the means which God had placed within their reach; and all who will put forth the same effort will secure the same results.--The Sanctified Life, 82-84.
------------------------Paul Emphasizes Sanctification, March 25
RC	98	1	Ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 4:2, 3.
RC	98	2	In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul sets before them the "mystery of the gospel" (Ephesians 6:19), the "unsearchable riches of Christ" (chap. 3:8), and then assures them of his earnest prayers for their spiritual prosperity:
RC	98	3	"I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ... that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God" (verses 14-19).
RC	98	4	He writes to his Corinthian brethren also, "to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus... : Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:2-7).
RC	98	5	These words are addressed not only to the church at Corinth but to all the people of God to the close of time. Every Christian may enjoy the blessing of sanctification.
RC	98	6	The apostle continues in these words: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (verse 10). Paul would not have appealed to them to do that which was impossible. Unity is the sure result of Christian perfection....
RC	98	7	The apostle himself was endeavoring to reach the same standard of holiness which he set before his brethren.... Paul did not hesitate to enforce, upon every suitable occasion, the importance of Bible sanctification. He says: "Ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:2, 3).
RC	98	8	"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.... Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:12-15).--The Sanctified Life, 84-87.
------------------------Beholding Jesus With The Eye Of Faith, March 26
RC	99	1	Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57.
RC	99	2	By faith look upon the crowns laid up for those who shall overcome; listen to the exultant song of the redeemed, Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain and hast redeemed us to God! Endeavor to regard these scenes as real.
RC	99	3	Stephen, the first Christian martyr, in his terrible conflict with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places exclaimed, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). The Saviour of the world was revealed to him as looking down from heaven upon him with the deepest interest, and the glorious light of Christ's countenance shone upon Stephen with such brightness that even his enemies saw his face shine like the face of an angel.
RC	99	4	If we would permit our minds to dwell more upon Christ and the heavenly world, we should find a powerful stimulus and support in fighting the battles of the Lord. Pride and love of the world will lose their power as we contemplate the glories of that better land so soon to be our home. Beside the loveliness of Christ, all earthly attractions will seem of little worth.
RC	99	5	Let none imagine that without earnest effort on their part they can obtain the assurance of God's love. When the mind has been long permitted to dwell only on earthly things, it is a difficult matter to change the habits of thought. That which the eye sees and the ear hears too often attracts the attention and absorbs the interest. But if we would enter the city of God, and look upon Jesus and His glory, we must become accustomed to beholding Him with the eye of faith here. The words and the character of Christ should be often the subject of our thoughts and of our conversation, and each day some time should be especially devoted to prayerful meditation upon these sacred themes.
RC	99	6	Sanctification is a daily work. Let none deceive themselves with the belief that God will pardon and bless them while they are trampling upon one of His requirements. The willful commission of a known sin silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit and separates the soul from God.
RC	99	7	Whatever may be the ecstasies of religious feeling, Jesus cannot abide in the heart that disregards the divine law. God will honor those only who honor Him.... Here is where Christ's help is needed. Human weakness becomes united to divine strength, and faith exclaims, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57)!--The Sanctified Life, 91-93.
------------------------God Works On Plan Of Multiplication, March 27
RC	100	1	Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. 2 Peter 1:2.
RC	100	2	If we would develop a character which God can accept, we must form correct habits in our religious life. Daily prayer is as essential to growth in grace, and even to spiritual life itself, as is temporal food to physical well-being. We should accustom ourselves to lift the thoughts often to God in prayer. If the mind wanders, we must bring it back; by persevering effort, habit will finally make it easy. We cannot for one moment separate ourselves from Christ with safety. We may have His presence to attend us at every step, but only by observing the conditions which He Himself has laid down.
RC	100	3	Religion must be made the great business of life. Everything else should be held subordinate to this. All our powers, of soul, body, and spirit, must be engaged in the Christian warfare. We must look to Christ for strength and grace, and we shall gain the victory as surely as Jesus died for us.
RC	100	4	We must come nearer to the cross of Christ. Penitence at the foot of the cross is the first lesson of peace we have to learn. The love of Jesus--who can comprehend it? Infinitely more tender and self-denying than a mother's love! If we would know the value of a human soul, we must look in living faith upon the cross, and thus begin the study which shall be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. The value of our time and our talents can be estimated only by the greatness of the ransom paid for our redemption....
RC	100	5	Sanctification is a progressive work. The successive steps are set before us in the words of Peter: "Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:5-8)....
RC	100	6	Here is a course by which we may be assured that we shall never fall. Those who are thus working upon the plan of addition in obtaining the Christian graces have the assurance that God will work upon the plan of multiplication in granting them the gifts of His Spirit.... By divine grace, all who will may climb the shining steps from earth to heaven, and at last, "with songs and everlasting joy" (Isaiah 35:10), enter through the gates into the city of God.--The Sanctified Life, 93-95.
------------------------God's Word The Means Of Our Sanctification, March 28
RC	101	1	And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. John 17:19.
RC	101	2	Before Jesus went forth to His final conflict with the powers of darkness, He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and prayed for His disciples. He said: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." ...
RC	101	3	The burden of Jesus' request was that those who believed on Him might be kept from the evil of the world, and be sanctified through the truth. He does not leave us to vague surmising as to what the truth is, but adds, "Thy word is truth." The Word of God is the means by which our sanctification is to be accomplished. It is of the greatest importance, then, that we acquaint ourselves with the sacred instruction of the Bible.
RC	101	4	It is as necessary for us to understand the words of life as it was for the early disciples to be informed concerning the plan of salvation. We shall be inexcusable if, through our own negligence, we are ignorant of the claims of God's Word. God has given us His Word, the revelation of His will, and has promised the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, to guide them into all truth; and every soul who honestly desires to do the will of God shall know of the doctrine....
RC	101	5	The mission of Jesus was demonstrated by convincing miracles. His doctrine astonished the people.... It was a system of truth that met the wants of the heart. His teaching was plain, clear, and comprehensive. The practical truths He uttered had a convincing power, and arrested the attention of the people. Multitudes lingered at His side, marveling at His wisdom. His manner corresponded with the great truths He proclaimed. There was no apology, no hesitancy, not the shadow of a doubt or uncertainty that it might be other than He declared. He spoke of the earthly and the heavenly, of the human and the divine, with positive authority; and the people "were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power." ...
RC	101	6	It is a matter of the highest importance and interest to us that we understand what truth is, and our petitions should go forth with intense earnestness that we may be guided into all truth.
RC	101	7	David appreciated the divine enlightenment, and recognized the power of the Word of God. He declared, "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple." Let those who desire light search the Scriptures, comparing scripture with scripture, and pleading with God for the illumination of the Holy Spirit. The promise is that those who seek shall find.--The Review and Herald, July 6, 1911.
------------------------The Need For Personal Consecration, March 29
RC	102	1	Be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58.
RC	102	2	There is great need of the Holy Spirit's influence in our midst. There must be an individual work done in the breaking of stubborn hearts. There needs to be deep heart-searching, that will lead to confession of sin. Believers should at this time stand with softened, sanctified, broken hearts, every sin confessed in repentance that needeth not to be repented of. The Holy Spirit is waiting to kindle in the heart the love of God, that His praise may be spoken from lips that are true, unselfish, clean, and honest. When holy principles guide the life, the soul will be beautiful in its simplicity.
RC	102	3	The influence of the prayer of faith is as far-reaching as eternity. The Lord will bless all who will seek Him with the whole heart, and who with humble souls and earnest purpose strive to follow the example of Christ. To those who thus seek to become partakers of the divine nature, the words are spoken, "Be not weary in well doing," "always abounding in the work of the Lord." He who labors in faith and humility, holding fast to the promises of God, will prevail. The greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven will be given to the faithful, believing children of God....
RC	102	4	I am instructed to urge the necessity of personal consecration and sanctification of the whole being to God. Let each soul inquire, Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do, that the vigilance of Christ may be seen in my life, and that His example may be copied by me, and that I may speak sincere words that will help souls who are in darkness and sin? ...
RC	102	5	Every individual is under obligation to give to others the truth he possesses. Nothing should be allowed to keep the servant of Christ from letting his light shine forth to his fellow men.... We should be daily increasing in ability to do the precious work of winning souls to Christ. This is such a precious work, such a satisfying work! And all heaven is waiting for channels through which can be poured the heavenly oil to refresh and strengthen needy souls. The Lord will protect and guide those who will let His divine fullness flow from their lips in grateful praise, and who labor, through deeds of charity and love, to bless mankind. Such workers will become consecrated agents for God.
RC	102	6	I would say to every believer, Bring the spirit of heavenly grace into your soul, into your experience: this is the impress of the character of Christ.... And your reward for service will be found in the reflection of the tender spirit of Christ in your own life.--The Review and Herald, February 25, 1909.
------------------------Without Jesus We Can Do Nothing, March 30
RC	103	1	Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30.
RC	103	2	Many think that it is impossible to love our neighbor as ourselves; but it is the only genuine fruit of Christianity. Love to others is putting on the Lord Jesus Christ; it is walking and working with the invisible world in view. We are thus to keep looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
RC	103	3	The solemn warning that was given to the foolish rich man should be a sufficient warning for all men to the close of time. Lesson upon lesson was given by our Lord to take everyone away from selfishness, and to establish close bonds of fellowship and brotherhood between man and man. He desired that the hearts of believers should be closely knit together in strong bonds of sympathy, so that there might be unity in Himself. They are together to rejoice in hope of the glory of God, looking for eternal life through the virtue of Jesus Christ. If Christ is abiding in the heart, His love will diffuse itself to others through its possessor, and will bind heart to heart.
RC	103	4	The grace of Christ must be the sole dependence of the Christian, and when it is, he will love his brethren as Christ loved him. Then he can say, "Come," and beseech and woo souls, entreating them to be reconciled to God. His influence will be more and more decided, and he will devote his life to Christ, who was crucified for him.
RC	103	5	Where love is perfected, the law is kept, and self finds no place. Those who love God supremely, work, suffer, and live for Him who gave His life for them. We can keep the law only through making the righteousness of Christ our own. Christ says, "Without me ye can do nothing." When we receive the heavenly gift, the righteousness of Christ, we shall find that divine grace has been provided for us, and that human resources are powerless. Jesus gives the Holy Spirit in large measure for great emergencies, to help our infirmities, to give us strong consolation, to illuminate our minds, and purify and ennoble our hearts. Christ becomes unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
RC	103	6	From the first to the last of the Christian life, not one successful step can be taken without Christ. He has sent His Spirit to be with us constantly, and by confiding in Christ to the uttermost, surrendering our will to Him, we may follow Him whithersoever He goeth.--The Review and Herald, June 26, 1894.
RC	103	7	The Holy Spirit will work every heart susceptible to its holy influence. Christ's righteousness will go before such an one, and the glory of the Lord will be his rearward.--Letter 192, 1902.
------------------------United To Christ, We Obtain His Mind, March 31
RC	104	1	The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. James 3:17, 18.
RC	104	2	Wherever there is union with Christ there is love. Whatever other fruits we may bear, if love be missing, they profit nothing. Love to God and our neighbor is the very essence of our religion. No one can love Christ and not love His children. When we are united to Christ, we have the mind of Christ. Purity and love shine forth in the character, meekness and truth control the life. The very expression of the countenance is changed.
RC	104	3	Christ abiding in the soul exerts a transforming power, and the outward aspect bears witness to the peace and joy that reign within. We drink in the love of Christ, as the branch draws nourishment from the vine. If we are grafted in Christ, if fiber by fiber we have been united with the Living Vine, we shall give evidence of the fact by bearing rich clusters of living fruit. If we are connected with the Light, we shall be channels of light, and in our words and works we shall reflect light to the world.
RC	104	4	Those who are truly Christians are bound with the chain of love which links earth to heaven, which binds finite man to the infinite God. The light that shines in the face of Jesus Christ shines in the hearts of His followers, to the glory of God.
RC	104	5	By beholding we are to become changed; and as we meditate upon the perfections of the divine Model, we shall desire to become wholly transformed, and renewed in the image of His purity. It is by faith in the Son of God that transformation takes place in the character, and the child of wrath becomes the child of God. He passes from death unto life; he becomes spiritual and discerns spiritual things. The wisdom of God enlightens his mind, and he beholds wondrous things out of His law.... In becoming a man of obedience to God, he has the mind of Christ, and the will of God becomes his will.
RC	104	6	He who places himself unreservedly under the guidance of the Spirit of God will find that his mind expands and develops. He obtains an education in the service of God which is not one-sided and deficient, developing a one-sided character, but one which results in symmetry and completeness. Weaknesses that have been manifested in a vacillating will and powerless character are overcome, for continual devotion and piety bring the man in such close relation to Christ that he has the mind of Christ. He is one with Christ, having soundness and strength of principle.--Selected Messages 1:337-338.
------------------------God's Original Plan Of Communication, April 1
RC	105	1	And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Genesis 3:8.
RC	105	2	In a knowledge of God all true knowledge and real development have their source. Wherever we turn, in the physical, the mental, or the spiritual realm; in whatever we behold, apart from the blight of sin, this knowledge is revealed. Whatever line of investigation we pursue, with a sincere purpose to arrive at truth, we are brought in touch with the unseen, mighty Intelligence that is working in and through all. The mind of man is brought into communion with the mind of God, the finite with the Infinite. The effect of such communion on body and mind and soul is beyond estimate.
RC	105	3	In this communion is found the highest education. It is God's own method of development. "Acquaint now thyself with him" is His message to mankind. The method outlined in these words was the method followed in the education of the father of our race. When in the glory of sinless manhood Adam stood in holy Eden, it was thus that God instructed him....
RC	105	4	When Adam came from the Creator's hand, he bore, in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker. "God created man in his own image" (Genesis 1:27), and it was His purpose that the longer man lived the more fully he should reveal this image--the more fully reflect the glory of the Creator. All his faculties were capable of development; their capacity and vigor were continually to increase. Vast was the scope offered for their exercise, glorious the field opened to their research.... Face-to-face, heart-to-heart communion with his Maker was his high privilege. Had he remained loyal to God, all this would have been his forever.... More and more fully would he have fulfilled the object of his creation, more and more fully have reflected the Creator's glory.--Education, 14, 15.
RC	105	5	The laws and operations of nature, and the great principles of truth that govern the spiritual universe, were opened to their minds by the infinite Author of all. In "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 4:6), their mental and spiritual powers developed, and they realized the highest pleasures of their holy existence....
RC	105	6	The Garden of Eden was a representation of what God desired the whole earth to become, and it was His purpose that, as the human family increased in numbers, they should establish other homes and schools like the one He had given. Thus in course of time the whole earth might be occupied with homes and schools where the words and the works of God should be studied, and where the students should thus be fitted more and more fully to reflect, throughout endless ages, the light of the knowledge of His glory.--Education, 22.
------------------------Christ Offers The Riches Of The Universe, April 2
RC	106	1	For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6.
RC	106	2	By sin man was shut out from God. Except for the plan of redemption, eternal separation from God, the darkness of unending night, would have been his. Through the Saviour's sacrifice, communion with God is again made possible. We may not in person approach into His presence; in our sin we may not look upon His face; but we can behold Him and commune with Him in Jesus, the Saviour. "The light of the knowledge of the glory of God" is revealed "in the face of Jesus Christ." God is "in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Corinthians 4:6; 5:19)....
RC	106	3	"In him was life; and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). The life and the death of Christ, the price of our redemption, are not only to us the promise and pledge of life, not only the means of opening again to us the treasures of wisdom: they are a broader, higher revelation of His character than even the holy ones of Eden knew.
RC	106	4	And while Christ opens heaven to man, the life which He imparts opens the heart of man to heaven. Sin not only shuts us away from God, but destroys in the human soul both the desire and the capacity for knowing Him. All this work of evil it is Christ's mission to undo. The faculties of the soul, paralyzed by sin, the darkened mind, the perverted will, He has power to invigorate and to restore. He opens to us the riches of the universe, and by Him the power to discern and to appropriate these treasures is imparted.
RC	106	5	Christ is the "Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (verse 9). As through Christ every human being has life, so also through Him every soul receives some ray of divine light. Not only intellectual but spiritual power, a perception of right, a desire for goodness, exists in every heart. But against these principles there is struggling an antagonistic power. The result of the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is manifest in every man's experience. There is in his nature a bent to evil, a force which, unaided, he cannot resist. To withstand this force, to attain that ideal which in his inmost soul he accepts as alone worthy, he can find help in but one power. That power is Christ. Cooperation with that power is man's greatest need.--Education, 28, 29.
RC	106	6	Christ stands as the representative of the Father, the connecting link between God and man; He is the great teacher of mankind. And He ordained that men and women should be His representatives.--Education, 33.
------------------------Self Is Hidden And Christ Is Revealed, April 3
RC	107	1	I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20.
RC	107	2	As a Christian submits to the solemn rite of baptism, the three highest powers in the universe--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit--place Their approval on his act, pledging Themselves to exert Their power in his behalf as he strives to honor God. He is buried in the likeness of Christ's death, and is raised in the likeness of His resurrection....
RC	107	3	The three great powers of heaven pledge Themselves to furnish the Christian with all the assistance he requires. The Spirit changes the heart of stone to the heart of flesh. And by partaking of the Word of God, Christians obtain an experience that is after the divine similitude. When Christ abides in the heart by faith, the Christian is the temple of God. Christ does not abide in the heart of the sinner, but in the heart of him who is susceptible to the influences of heaven.
RC	107	4	The light that shines forth from the life of the true Christian testifies to his union with Christ. Self is hidden from view, and Christ is revealed...."Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). Then those whose lives have been hidden with Christ, those who on this earth have fought the good fight of faith, will shine forth with the Redeemer's glory in the kingdom of God.
RC	107	5	My brother, my sister, God's purpose for you is that you shall live a life that will make others better--a life which will show that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory. It is His purpose that you shall be able to say with the apostle Paul, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20). In perfect content, resting in the love of Christ, trusting the Redeemer and Life-giver to work out for you the salvation of your soul, you will know, as you draw nearer and still nearer to Him, what it means to endure the seeing of Him who is invisible.... The contentment that Christ bestows is a gift worth infinitely more than gold and silver and precious stones....
RC	107	6	Our lives are pure only when we are under the control of God, and happy only when we hold communion with Him. The luster possessed by those who have gained the richest experience is but the reflection of the light of the Sun of Righteousness. He who lives nearest to Jesus shines the brightest.--The Signs of the Times, August 16, 1905.
------------------------What True Surrender To God Involves, April 4
RC	108	1	And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3.
RC	108	2	Wait not for some magical change to be wrought in you, without taking the requisite steps yourself. Life must be with you a humble working out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Halt not, but escape for your life....
RC	108	3	Christ requires that we shall press together, that we shall be one with Him as He is one with the Father. You must depend on God, be disciplined and trained for the higher life. Yes, depend on God; wait His pleasure; follow Him; rely in obedience on the strength of His Word.
RC	108	4	To obey when it seems the hardest is true surrender to God. This will quicken your moral nature and subdue your pride. Learn to submit your will to God's will, and you will be made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.--Manuscript 12, 1888.
RC	108	5	A general faith is not enough. We must put on the robe of Christ's righteousness and wear it openly, bravely, decidedly, exhibiting Christ, and not expect too much of finite man, but keep looking unto Jesus, and become ravished with the perfections of His character. Then we shall individually make manifest the character of Jesus, and make it evident that we are invigorated by the truth; because it sanctifies the soul and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.--Letter 14, 1891.
RC	108	6	Every missionary will have hard battles to fight with self, and these combats will not become fewer. But if we are constantly growing in Christian experience, if we continue to look to Jesus in faith, strength will be given us for every emergency. All the powers and faculties of a regenerated nature must be brought into constant, daily exercise. Every day we shall have occasion to crucify self, to war against inclination and a perverse temperament that would draw the will in a wrong direction. The repose and triumph of victory are not yet ours, except as we by faith enter into the victory that Christ has gained for us.--Letter 4, 1892.
RC	108	7	The promises of God accepted in genuine faith have a fragrant influence upon the life and the character, making the human agent to reflect the image of the Divine.... God works on His part..., imparting grace to the one who imparts in his life the graces given him in representing genuine sanctification to the world in his own character.--Manuscript 45, 1900.
------------------------Christ's Love Is A Satisfying Fountain, April 5
RC	109	1	Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. John 4:14.
RC	109	2	What said Christ to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well? ... "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:13, 14).
RC	109	3	The water to which Christ referred was the revelation of His grace in His Word. His spirit, His teaching, His love is as a satisfying fountain to every soul. Every other source to which men resort proves unsatisfying; but the Word of truth is as cool streams, represented as the waters of Lebanon, which are always satisfying. In Christ is fullness of joy forevermore. The pleasures and amusements of the world are never satisfying, or healing to the soul. But Jesus says, "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life."
RC	109	4	Christ's gracious presence in His Word ever speaks to the soul, representing Him as the well of living water to refresh the thirsting. It is our privilege to have a living, abiding Saviour. He is the source of spiritual power in us, and His influence will flow forth in words and actions that will refresh all within the sphere of our influence, begetting in them desires and aspirations for strength and purity, for holiness and peace, for that joy which brings no sorrow with it. Such an experience will be the result of having Christ as an indwelling Saviour.
RC	109	5	[Jesus] walked once a man on earth, His divinity clothed with humanity, a suffering, tempted man, beset with Satan's devices.... Now He is at the right hand of God, He is in heaven as our advocate, making intercession for us. We must always take comfort and hope as we think of this. He is thinking of those who are subject to temptations in this world. He thinks of us individually, and knows our every necessity. When tempted, just say, He cares for me, He makes intercession for me, He loves me, He has died for me. I will give myself unreservedly to Him.
RC	109	6	We grieve the heart of Christ when we go mourning over ourselves as though we were our own saviour. No; we must commit the keeping of our souls to God as unto a faithful Creator. He ever lives to make intercession for the tried, tempted ones. Open your heart to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and let not one breath of doubt, one word of unbelief, escape your lips, lest you sow the seeds of doubt. There are rich blessings for us; let us grasp them by faith. I entreat you to have courage in the Lord. Divine strength is ours, and let us talk courage and strength and faith.--The Signs of the Times, September 3, 1896.
------------------------We Can Bear The Fruits Of Righteousness, April 6
RC	110	1	That they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Isaiah 61:3.
RC	110	2	Christians must be like Christ. They should have the same spirit, exert the same influence, and have the same moral excellence that He possessed. The idolatrous and corrupt in heart must repent and turn to God. Those who are proud and self-righteous must abase self and become penitent and meek and lowly in heart. The worldly-minded must have the tendrils of the heart removed from the rubbish of the world, around which they are clinging, and entwined about God; they must become spiritually minded. The dishonest and untruthful must become just and true. The ambitious and covetous must be hid in Jesus and seek His glory, not their own. They must despise their own holiness and lay up their treasure above. The prayerless must feel the need of both secret and family prayer, and must make their supplications to God with great earnestness.
RC	110	3	As the worshipers of the true and living God we should bear fruit corresponding to the light and privileges we enjoy. Many are worshiping idols instead of the Lord of heaven and earth. Anything that men love and trust in instead of loving the Lord and trusting wholly in Him becomes an idol and is thus registered in the books of heaven. Even blessings are often turned into a curse.
RC	110	4	The sympathies of the human heart, strengthened by exercise, are sometimes perverted until they become a snare. If one is reproved, there are always some who will sympathize with him. They entirely overlook the harm that has been done to God's cause by the wrong influence of one whose life and character do not in any way resemble those of the Pattern. God sends His servants with a message to the people professing to be followers of Christ; but some are children of God only in name, and they reject the warning.
RC	110	5	God has in a wonderful manner endowed man with reasoning powers. He who fitted the tree to bear its burden of goodly fruit has made man capable of bearing the precious fruits of righteousness. He has planted man in His garden and tenderly cared for him, and He expected him to bear fruit. In the parable of the fig tree Christ says: "Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit." ...
RC	110	6	How anxiously we watch a favorite tree or plant, expecting it to reward our care by producing buds, blossoms, and fruit; and how disappointed we are to find upon it nothing but leaves. With how much more anxiety and tender interest does the heavenly Father watch the spiritual growth of those whom He has made in His own image and for whom He condescended to give His Son that they may be elevated, ennobled, and glorified.--Testimonies for the Church 5:249-251.
------------------------The Word Of God Is Strong And Powerful, April 7
RC	111	1	For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword. Hebrews 4:12.
RC	111	2	The Word of God is to be our spiritual food. "I am that bread of life" (John 6:48), Christ said.... The world is perishing for want of pure, unadulterated truth. Christ is the truth. His words are truth, and they have a deeper significance than appears on the surface, and a value beyond their unpretending appearance. Minds that are quickened by the Holy Spirit will discern the value of these words. When our eyes are anointed with the holy eyesalve, we shall be able to detect the precious gems of truth, even though they may be buried beneath the surface.
RC	111	3	Truth is delicate, refined, elevated. When it molds the character, the soul grows under its divine influence. Every day the truth is to be received into the heart. Thus we eat Christ's words, which He declares are spirit and life. The acceptance of truth will make every receiver a child of God, an heir of heaven. Truth that is cherished in the heart is not a cold, dead letter, but a living power.
RC	111	4	Truth is sacred, divine. It is stronger and more powerful than anything else in the formation of a character after the likeness of Christ. In it there is fullness of joy. When it is cherished in the heart, the love of Christ is preferred to the love of any human being. This is Christianity. This is the love of God in the soul. Thus pure, unadulterated truth occupies the citadel of the being. The words are fulfilled, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." There is a nobleness in the life of the one who lives and works under the vivifying influence of the truth....
RC	111	5	Many are supposed to be converted who will not stand the stress of trial and temptation.... They have no depth of spiritual experience. They do not apply the truth to the heart and conscience.... There is a lack of pure-toned piety; and this lack makes them weaklings in the army of the Lord, when they might be giants if they were but willing to be truly converted....
RC	111	6	We are living in perilous times. In the fear of God I tell you that the true exposition of the Scriptures is necessary for the correct moral development of our characters. When mind and heart are controlled by the Holy Spirit, when self is dead, the truth is capable of constant expansion and development. When the truth as it is in Jesus molds our characters, it will be seen to be truth indeed. As it is contemplated by the believer, it will grow brighter, shining with its original beauty. It will increase in value, quickening and vivifying the mind.... It will elevate our aspirations, enabling us to reach the perfect standard of holiness.--The Review and Herald, February 14, 1899.
------------------------Truth Must Be Stamped Upon The Heart, April 8
RC	112	1	Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Proverbs 30:5.
RC	112	2	God gives to every man his work, and with the imparted commission He gives to His messengers a measure of power proportionate to their faith. He is constantly unfolding to the heart the riches of His grace. Light will shine forth in clear rays from those who receive light from the Word of God....
RC	112	3	Those who support the truth, not only by argument, but in their lives, range themselves on the side of righteousness. By a converted life they give evidence that they bear a solemn message of warning, which is a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. When men are really converted, controversy and debate will be ended. The plain, searching truth will be proclaimed by lips touched with a live coal from the altar of God....
RC	112	4	The Old Testament is the ground where the seeds of practical godliness were first sown. This was repeated in Christ's words to His disciples. We have yet to learn that the whole Jewish economy is a compacted prophecy of the gospel. It is the gospel in figures. From the pillar of cloud, Christ presented man's duty to God and to his fellow men. His words to His appointed agencies, both in the Old Testament and in the New, point out plainly the Christian virtues. Through all His teaching He scattered the precious grains of truth. All will find these to be precious pearls, rich in value, if they will practice the principles laid down.
RC	112	5	We have the truth. Shall we not practice it? Selfishness is the great evil that makes of none effect the preaching of the cross of Christ.... Make a practical application of the truth. Urge the truth home with sanctified assurance and directness, presenting the high standard God sets before His people. Truth must become truth to the receiver to all intents and purposes. It must be stamped upon the heart....
RC	112	6	"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind." This is the service that God requires. Nothing short of this is pure and undefiled religion. The heart is the citadel of the being; and until that is wholly on the Lord's side, the enemy will gain constant victories over us by his subtle temptations.
RC	112	7	If the life is given into its control, the power of the truth is unlimited. The thoughts are brought into captivity to Christ. From the treasure of the heart are brought forth appropriate and fitting words. Especially will our words be guarded.--The Review and Herald, February 21, 1899.
------------------------The Light Of Scriptures To Be Cherished, April 9
RC	113	1	O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Psalm 43:3.
RC	113	2	The Holy Spirit must work on the hearts of the teachers of God's Word, that they may give the truth to the people in the clear, pure way that Christ Himself gave the truth. He revealed it, not only in His words, but in His life....
RC	113	3	Men in this age of the world act as if they were at liberty to question the words of the Infinite, to review His decisions and statutes, endorsing, revising, reshaping, and annulling, at their pleasure. If they cannot misconstrue, misinterpret, or alter God's plain decision, or bend it to please the multitude and themselves, they break it. We are never safe while we are guided by human opinions; but we are safe when we are guided by a "Thus saith the Lord." We cannot trust the salvation of our souls to any lower standard than the decision of an infallible Judge. Those who make God their guide, and His Word their counselor, follow the lamp of life. God's living oracles guide their feet in straight paths.
RC	113	4	Those who are thus led do not dare judge the Word of God, but ever hold that His Word judges them. They get their faith and religion from His Word. It is the guide that directs their path. It is a light to their feet, and a lamp to their path. They walk under the direction of the Father of light, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He whose tender mercies are over all His works, makes the path of the just as a shining light, which shines more and more unto the perfect day.--The Review and Herald, February 21, 1899.
RC	113	5	We have light on the Scriptures, and we shall be held accountable for all the light not cherished. The works of many do not harmonize with the truth they have received. There is far too much of the human element brought into our plans. We do not depend upon the Holy Spirit to work with its transforming energy upon the heart and life. We are deficient in faith, which is invincible and mysterious. The efficacy of truth is weakened by the course of those who do not purify their souls by obeying the truth.
RC	113	6	The secrets of the Lord are with them that fear Him and keep His covenant. We need faith in God, that under the sanctifying power of God's Word, the principles of human brotherhood may be manifested. We need the Holy Spirit's guidance. Its power upon mind and heart will enable us to present the truths of God's Holy Word. Sound doctrines brought into actual contact with human souls will result in sound and elevating practices. The truth as it is in Jesus must be cherished. Then Christians will not be Christians in name only. The love of Christ will pervade their lives.--The Review and Herald, February 28, 1899.
------------------------The Truth Makes Us Free, April 10
RC	114	1	Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Galatians 5:1.
RC	114	2	I am afraid for our churches. I tremble before God on their account. We have light on the Scriptures, and we shall be held accountable for all the light not cherished....
RC	114	3	The power of the Holy Spirit is needed to chase away our unbelief and unchristlike attributes. We must see our need of a physician. We are sick, and do not know it. May the Lord convert the hearts of His workmen! When there is a converted ministry, then look for results. But we cannot convert our own hearts. This work can be done only by the power of the Holy Spirit. In every stage of the work let this be remembered: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." ...
RC	114	4	Christ has promised to send us the Comforter, whose work is to establish the kingdom of God in the soul. When such abundant provisions of mercy, grace, and peace have been made, why do human beings act as if they regarded the truth as a yoke of bondage? It is because the heart has never tasted and seen that the Lord is good. The truth of the Word of God is thought by some to be a fetter. But it is the truth that makes men free. If the truth therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. The truth separates man from his sins, from his hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrongdoing. The soul that cherishes the love of Christ is full of freedom, light, and joy. In such a soul there are no divided thoughts. The whole man yearns after God. He does not go to men to know his duty, but to Christ, the source of all wisdom. He searches the Word of God, that he may find out what standard he must reach.
RC	114	5	Can we ever find a surer guide than Jesus? True religion consists in being under the guidance of the Holy One in thought, word, and deed. He, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, takes the humble, earnest, wholehearted seeker, and says, Follow Me. He leads him in the narrow way to holiness and heaven. Christ has opened this path for us at great cost to Himself, and we are not left to stumble our way along in the darkness. Jesus is at our right hand, proclaiming, I am the way; and all who decide to follow the Lord will be led in the royal path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in....
RC	114	6	What kind of vessels are meet for the Master's use? Empty vessels. When we empty the soul of every defilement, we are ready for use.... When mind and heart are worked by the Spirit, when self is dead, the truth is capable of constant expansion and new development.--The Review and Herald, February 28, 1899.
------------------------The Impress of Deity Seen in His Word, April 11
RC	115	1	Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Colossians 3:16.
RC	115	2	In God's Word we behold the power that laid the foundation of the earth and that stretched out the heavens. Here only can we find a history of our race unsullied by human prejudice or human pride. Here are recorded the struggles, the defeats, and the victories of the greatest men this world has ever known. Here the great problems of duty and destiny are unfolded. The curtain that separates the visible from the invisible world is lifted, and we behold the conflict of the opposing forces of good and evil, from the first entrance of sin to the final triumph of righteousness and truth; and all is but a revelation of the character of God. In the reverent contemplation of the truths presented in His Word the mind...is brought into communion with the infinite mind. Such a study will not only refine and ennoble the character, but it cannot fail to expand and invigorate the mental powers.
RC	115	3	The teaching of the Bible has a vital bearing upon man's prosperity in all the relations of this life. It unfolds the principles that are the cornerstone of a nation's prosperity--principles with which is bound up the well being of society, and which are the safeguard of the family--principles without which no man can attain usefulness, happiness, and honor in this life, or can hope to secure the future, immortal life. There is no position in life, no phase of human experience, for which the teaching of the Bible is not an essential preparation. Studied and obeyed, the Word of God would give to the world men of stronger and more active intellect than will the closest application to all the subjects that human philosophy embraces. It would give men of strength and solidity of character, of keen perception and sound judgment--men who would be an honor to God and a blessing to the world.
RC	115	4	In the study of the sciences also we are to obtain a knowledge of the Creator. All true science is but an interpretation of the handwriting of God in the material world. Science brings from her research only fresh evidences of the wisdom and power of God. Rightly understood, both the book of nature and the Written Word make us acquainted with God by teaching us something of the wise and beneficent laws through which He works....
RC	115	5	The impress of Deity, manifest in the pages of revelation, is seen upon the lofty mountains, the fruitful valleys, the broad, deep ocean. The things of nature speak to man of his Creator's love.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 596-600.
------------------------Meeting Satan With Scripture Weapons, April 12
RC	116	1	Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11.
RC	116	2	It is the first and highest duty of every rational being to learn from the Scriptures what is truth, and then to walk in the light and encourage others to follow his example. We should day by day study the Bible diligently, weighing every thought and comparing scripture with scripture. With divine help we are to form our opinions for ourselves as we are to answer for ourselves before God....
RC	116	3	An understanding of Bible truth depends not so much on the power of intellect brought to the search as on the singleness of purpose, the earnest longing after righteousness.
RC	116	4	The Bible should never be studied without prayer. The Holy Spirit alone can cause us to feel the importance of those things easy to be understood, or prevent us from wresting truths difficult of comprehension. It is the office of heavenly angels to prepare the heart so to comprehend God's Word that we shall be charmed with its beauty, admonished by its warnings, or animated and strengthened by its promises. We should make the psalmist's petition our own. "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Psalm 119:18).
RC	116	5	Temptations often appear irresistible because, through neglect of prayer and the study of the Bible, the tempted one cannot readily remember God's promises and meet Satan with the Scripture weapons. But angels are round about those who are willing to be taught in divine things; and in the time of great necessity they will bring to their remembrance the very truths which are needed. Thus "when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him" (Isaiah 59:19).
RC	116	6	Jesus promised His disciples: "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26). But the teachings of Christ must previously have been stored in the mind in order for the Spirit of God to bring them to our remembrance in the time of peril....
RC	116	7	We are living in the most solemn period of this world's history. The destiny of earth's teeming multitudes is about to be decided. Our own future well-being and also the salvation of other souls depend upon the course which we now pursue. We need to be guided by the Spirit of truth.... We should now seek a deep and living experience in the things of God. We have not a moment to lose. Events of vital importance are taking place around us. We are on Satan's enchanted ground. Sleep not.--The Great Controversy, 598-601.
------------------------The Reward of Searching, April 13
RC	117	1	If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest for her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:3-5.
RC	117	2	There must be earnest study and close investigation. Sharp, clear perceptions of truth will never be the reward of indolence. No earthly blessing can be obtained without earnest, patient, persevering effort. If men attain success in business, they must have a will to do and a faith to look for results. And we cannot expect to gain spiritual knowledge without earnest toil. Those who desire to find the treasures of truth must dig for them as the miner digs for the treasure hidden in the earth. No halfhearted, indifferent work will avail. It is essential for old and young, not only to read God's Word, but to study it with wholehearted earnestness, praying and searching for truth as for hidden treasure. Those who do this will be rewarded, for Christ will quicken the understanding....
RC	117	3	No one can search the Scriptures in the spirit of Christ without being rewarded. When man is willing to be instructed as a little child, when he submits wholly to God, he will find the truth in His Word. If men would be obedient, they would understand the plan of God's government. The heavenly world would open its chambers of grace and glory for exploration. Human beings would be altogether different from what they now are, for by exploring the mines of truth men would be ennobled. The mystery of redemption, the incarnation of Christ, His atoning sacrifice, would not be as they are now, vague in our minds. They would be not only better understood, but altogether more highly appreciated.
RC	117	4	In His prayer to the Father, Christ gave to the world a lesson which should be graven on mind and soul. "This is life eternal," He said, "that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). This is true education. It imparts power. The experimental knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent transforms man into the image of God. It gives to man the mastery of himself, bringing every impulse and passion of the lower nature under the control of the higher powers of the mind. It makes its possessor a son of God and an heir of heaven. It brings him into communion with the mind of the Infinite, and opens to him the rich treasures of the universe.
RC	117	5	This is the knowledge which is obtained by searching the Word of God. And this treasure may be found by every soul who will give all to obtain it.--Christ's Object Lessons, 111-114.
------------------------Divine Power Obtained Through Prayer, April 14
RC	118	1	And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. Mark 1:35.
RC	118	2	No other life was ever so crowded with labor and responsibility as was that of Jesus; yet how often He was found in prayer! How constant was His communion with God! Again and again in the history of His earthly life are found records such as these:... "Great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed." "And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God" (Luke 5:15, 16; 6:12).
RC	118	3	In a life wholly devoted to the good of others, the Saviour found it necessary to withdraw from the thoroughfares of travel and from the throng that followed Him day after day. He must turn aside from a life of ceaseless activity and contact with human needs, to seek retirement and unbroken communion with His Father. As one with us, a sharer in our needs and weaknesses, He was wholly dependent upon God, and in the secret place of prayer He sought divine strength, that He might go forth braced for duty and trial. In a world of sin Jesus endured struggles and torture of soul. In communion with God He could unburden the sorrows that were crushing Him. Here He found comfort and joy.
RC	118	4	In Christ the cry of humanity reached the Father of infinite pity. As a man He supplicated the throne of God till His humanity was charged with a heavenly current that should connect humanity with divinity. Through continual communion He received life from God, that He might impart life to the world. His experience is to be ours.
RC	118	5	"Come ye yourselves apart," He bids us. If we would give heed to His Word, we should be stronger and more useful....
RC	118	6	In all who are under the training of God is to be revealed a life that is not in harmony with the world, its customs, or its practices; and everyone needs to have a personal experience in obtaining a knowledge of the will of God. We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. He bids us, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).
RC	118	7	Here alone can true rest be found. And this is the effectual preparation for all who labor for God. Amid the hurrying throng, and the strain of life's intense activities, the soul that is thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. The life will breathe out fragrance, and will reveal a divine power that will reach men's hearts.--The Desire of Ages, 362-363.
------------------------Wait and Watch and Pray, April 15
RC	119	1	Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord. Psalm 27:14.
RC	119	2	Wait on the Lord, and again I say, Wait on the Lord. We may ask of the human agents and not receive. We may ask of God and He says, Ye shall receive. Therefore you know to whom to look; you know in whom to trust. You must not trust in man or make flesh your arm. Lean as heavily as you please upon the Mighty One who hath said, "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." Then wait and watch and pray and work, keeping your face constantly turned to the Sun of Righteousness.
RC	119	3	Let the bright beams from the face of Jesus shine into your hearts, to shine upon others through you. "Ye are the light of the world.... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:14-16). We must lift up Jesus before the people....
RC	119	4	Just as sure as you depend on man to be appreciated and to sustain you, you will be wholly disappointed. Your encouragement and sustaining will not come from the very best of men. The Lord has a lesson to teach you, to depend on Him alone, for He is your Redeemer. You are His property--His by creation and by redemption. The way of the Lord is to be chosen, the will of the Lord is to be your will....
RC	119	5	The Holy One has given us rules for the guidance of all. These rules form the standard from which there can be no departure. The principles of holiness have yet to be learned daily, and then the will of God will become paramount. In God you can stand, in God you can make aggressive warfare, presenting the truth as it is in Jesus.
RC	119	6	Do not feel at all ashamed of the heart softening under the movings of the Holy Spirit. Let Jesus come in as He knocks for entrance and then appreciate Him, rejoice in heart, encourage a constant gratitude that while you felt that there was no arm to save, His arm brought salvation, His love was made apparent to you. Then when in the full joy of that love you presented Jesus to others, the Holy Spirit was working through you ... to bless others.... It is the privilege of everyone who receives the Spirit of truth to represent the truth in its simplicity, to reach the hearts of the perplexed, trembling souls who are really bewildered.... He knows how to apply the balm....
RC	119	7	Make God your entire trust. Pray, pray, pray, pray in faith. Trust then the keeping of your soul to God. He will keep that which is committed to Him against that day.... Trust fully, unwaveringly in God.--Letter 126, 1895.
------------------------Power to Prevail with God and Men, April 16
RC	120	1	I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. Genesis 32:30.
RC	120	2	Those who exercise but little faith now, are in the greatest danger of falling under the power of satanic delusions and the decree to compel the conscience. And even if they endure the test they will be plunged into deeper distress and anguish in the time of trouble, because they have never made it a habit to trust in God. The lessons of faith which they have neglected they will be forced to learn under a terrible pressure of discouragement.
RC	120	3	We should now acquaint ourselves with God by proving His promises. Angels record every prayer that is earnest and sincere. We should rather dispense with selfish gratifications than neglect communion with God. The deepest poverty, the greatest self-denial, with His approval, is better than riches, honors, ease, and friendship without it. We must take time to pray. If we allow our minds to be absorbed by worldly interests, the Lord may give us time by removing from us our idols of gold, of houses, or of fertile lands.
RC	120	4	The young would not be seduced into sin if they would refuse to enter any path save that upon which they could ask God's blessing. If the messengers who bear the last solemn warning to the world would pray for the blessing of God, not in a cold, listless, lazy manner, but fervently and in faith, as did Jacob, they would find many places where they could say: "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." They would be accounted of heaven as princes, having power to prevail with God and with men....
RC	120	5	Now, while our great High Priest is making the atonement for us, we should seek to become perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought could our Saviour be brought to yield to the power of temptation.... Christ declared of Himself: "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me" (John 14:30).--The Great Controversy, 622, 623.
RC	120	6	Were not miracles wrought by Christ and His apostles? The same compassionate Saviour lives today, and He is as willing to listen to the prayer of faith as when He walked visibly among men. The natural cooperates with the supernatural. It is a part of God's plan to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, that which He would not bestow did we not thus ask.--The Great Controversy, 525.
RC	120	7	No man is safe for a day or an hour without prayer.... While we must constantly guard against the devices of Satan, we should pray in faith continually: "Lead us not into temptation."--The Great Controversy, 530.
------------------------Praying Believers Should Encircle the World, April 17
RC	121	1	Men ought always to pray, and not to faint. Luke 18:1.
RC	121	2	Let our brethren and sisters remember that we are living on the verge of the eternal world. The cases of all are being tried in the heavenly courts, and it is high time to put away sin, and to work earnestly to save as many as possible.
RC	121	3	Among God's people there should be, at this time, frequent seasons of sincere, earnest prayer. The mind should constantly be in a prayerful attitude. In the home and in the church, let earnest prayers be offered in behalf of those who have given themselves to the preaching of the Word. Let believers pray as did the disciples after the ascension of Christ.
RC	121	4	The members of our churches need to be converted, to become more spiritual-minded. A chain of earnest, praying believers should encircle the world. Let all pray in humility. A few neighbors may meet together to pray for the Holy Spirit. Let those who cannot leave home gather in their children, and unite in learning to pray together. They may claim the promise of the Saviour, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20)....
RC	121	5	In response to the prayers of God's people, angels are sent with heavenly blessings. The Lord desires us to be far more successful in our missionary efforts. Through daily prayer and consecration all may so relate themselves to their heavenly Father that He can bestow upon them rich blessings.
RC	121	6	Especially do those young in the faith need to be wide awake, and on their guard against the strategies of Satan. They must adhere steadfastly to an unwavering faith in the great atoning sacrifice. They need not continue in sin. Through prayer they may receive grace that will enable them to overcome....
RC	121	7	How much more might have been accomplished had the time spent by God's people in faultfinding been spent in encouraging one another, and in active service! How much better for voices to blend in prayer, in holy unison, than to be employed in finding fault!--The Review and Herald, January 3, 1907.
RC	121	8	The greatest victories to the church of Christ or to the individual Christian are not those that are gained by talent or education, by wealth or the favor of men. They are those victories that are gained in the audience chamber with God, when earnest, agonizing faith lays hold upon the mighty arm of power.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 203.
RC	121	9	What we want most is...heart power, prayer to God in faith for His converting power.... It is not brain power or purse power, but heart power, that the people need now.--Letter 20, 1890.
------------------------Prayer is Appropriate Anytime, Anywhere, April 18
RC	122	1	If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. John 14:14.
RC	122	2	There is no time or place in which it is inappropriate to offer up a petition to God. There is nothing that can prevent us from lifting up our hearts in the spirit of earnest prayer. In the crowds of the street, in the midst of a business engagement, we may send up a petition to God and plead for divine guidance, as did Nehemiah when he made his request before King Artaxerxes. A closet of communion may be found wherever we are. We should have the door of the heart open continually and our invitation going up that Jesus may come and abide as a heavenly guest in the soul.
RC	122	3	Although there may be a tainted, corrupted atmosphere around us, we need not breathe its miasma, but may live in the pure air of heaven. We may close every door to impure imaginings and unholy thoughts by lifting the soul into the presence of God through sincere prayer. Those whose hearts are open to receive the support and blessing of God will walk in a holier atmosphere than that of earth and will have constant communion with heaven.
RC	122	4	We need to have more distinct views of Jesus and a fuller comprehension of the value of eternal realities. The beauty of holiness is to fill the hearts of God's children; and that this may be accomplished, we should seek for divine disclosures of heavenly things.
RC	122	5	Let the soul be drawn out and upward, that God may grant us a breath of the heavenly atmosphere. We may keep so near to God that in every unexpected trial our thoughts will turn to Him as naturally as the flower turns to the sun.
RC	122	6	Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children. "The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy" (James 5:11). His heart of love is touched by our sorrows and even by our utterances of them. Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds. He rules over all the affairs of the universe.
RC	122	7	Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel.... The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share His watchcare, not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son.--Steps to Christ, 99, 100.
------------------------Faith that Works by Love, April 19
RC	123	1	Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. Proverbs 3:5.
RC	123	2	When we speak of faith, there is a distinction that should be borne in mind. There is a kind of belief that is wholly distinct from faith. The existence and power of God, the truth of His Word, are facts that even Satan and his hosts cannot at heart deny. The Bible says that "the devils also believe, and tremble" (James 2:19); but this is not faith. Where there is not only a belief in God's Word, but a submission of the will to Him; where the heart is yielded to Him, the affections fixed upon Him, there is faith--faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
RC	123	3	Through this faith the heart is renewed in the image of God. And the heart that in its unrenewed state is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, now delights in its holy precepts, exclaiming with the psalmist, "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97). And the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).
RC	123	4	There are those who have known the pardoning love of Christ and who really desire to be children of God, yet they realize that their character is imperfect, their life faulty, and they are ready to doubt whether their hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. To such I would say, Do not draw back in despair. We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes, but we are not to be discouraged. Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, not forsaken and rejected of God. No; Christ is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Said the beloved John, "These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).
RC	123	5	And do not forget the words of Christ, "the Father himself loveth you" (John 16:27). He desires to restore you to Himself, to see His own purity and holiness reflected in you. And if you will but yield yourself to Him, He that hath begun a good work in you will carry it forward to the day of Jesus Christ. Pray more fervently; believe more fully....
RC	123	6	The less we see to esteem in ourselves, the more we shall see to esteem in the infinite purity and loveliness of our Saviour. A view of our sinfulness drives us to Him who can pardon; and when the soul, realizing its helplessness, reaches out after Christ, He will reveal Himself in power. The more our sense of need drives us to Him and to the Word of God, the more exalted views we shall have of His character, and the more fully we shall reflect His image.--Steps to Christ, 63-65.
------------------------By Faith All Things Are Ours, April 20
RC	124	1	For all things are yours; ... and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's. 1 Corinthians 3:21-23.
RC	124	2	Not only has the Son of God been given as a sacrifice for the guilty, as a Redeemer for the lost, but through Him all things are ours. Those who have faith in Christ, those who are obedient to His instruction, will know by experience the boundlessness of the power that gives us constant witness that we are Christ's, and that Christ is ours. The Saviour has given us the charter of our inheritance, and we stand on vantage ground, because we have chosen Christ as our portion.
RC	124	3	Those who are obedient to His Word can receive this evidence--the assurance of the truth as it is in Jesus. If we will accustom our minds to dwell upon the facts of faith that have been given us, we may endure the seeing of Him who is invisible. Those who walk with Jesus may rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory....
RC	124	4	An abiding faith, a constant obedience, is essential to a continuance in His love.... We are to live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the truth as it is in Jesus, the truth that is exemplified in His character, will be expressed in our lives, in our spirit, our words, our temper. Truth will be the law of the mind. Christ will be formed within, the hope of glory.
RC	124	5	There is a peculiarly close union between the transformed soul and God. It is impossible to find words to describe this union. It is a treasure worth infinitely more to the true believer than gold and silver.
RC	124	6	The Christian sees the Saviour ever before him, and by beholding, he becomes changed into the same image, from glory to glory. He bears the signature of God. Shall we give this up for the science of sophistry? Never! Truth is full of Godlike richness. He who is a partaker of the divine nature will hold firm to the truth. He will never let go; for the truth holds him.
RC	124	7	Let us never forget that by the characters which we are forming day by day, we are deciding our future destiny. Those whose hearts are filled with the love of Christ will find in the heavenly courts a glad reception....
RC	124	8	It is the spirituality of the children of God that is their glory in His eyes. This is the distinguishing mark that separates them from the world.... We are to hunger and thirst after righteousness, that we may represent Christ to the world. If His love abides in our hearts, it will be distinctly revealed. We shall be lights in the world. Christ calls upon every follower of His to reveal His virtues of character, to represent Him in word and deed, to make known His love.--Manuscript 84, 1905.
------------------------By Faith Excellence is Developed, April 21
RC	125	1	Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.
RC	125	2	Do you ask, What shall I do to be saved? You must lay your preconceived opinions, your hereditary and cultivated ideas, at the door of investigation. If you search the Scriptures to vindicate your own opinions, you will never reach the truth. Search in order to learn what the Lord says. If conviction comes as you search, if you see that your cherished opinions are not in harmony with the truth, do not misinterpret the truth in order to suit your own belief, but accept the light given. Open mind and heart that you may behold wondrous things out of God's Word.
RC	125	3	Faith in Christ as the world's Redeemer calls for an acknowledgment of the enlightened intellect controlled by a heart that can discern and appreciate the heavenly treasure. This faith is inseparable from repentance and transformation of character. To have faith means to find and accept the gospel treasure, with all the obligations which it imposes.
RC	125	4	"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." He may conjecture and imagine, but without the eye of faith he cannot see the treasure. Christ gave His life to secure for us this inestimable treasure; but without regeneration through faith in His blood, there is no remission of sins, no treasure for any perishing soul.
RC	125	5	We need the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit in order to discern the truths in God's Word. The lovely things of the natural world are not seen until the sun, dispelling the darkness, floods them with its light. So the treasures in the Word of God are not appreciated until they are revealed by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
RC	125	6	The Holy Spirit, sent from heaven by the benevolence of infinite love, takes the things of God and reveals them to every soul that has an implicit faith in Christ. By His power the vital truths upon which the salvation of the soul depends are impressed upon the mind, and the way of life is made so plain that none need err.... As we study the Scriptures, we should pray for the light of God's Holy Spirit to shine upon the Word, that we may see and appreciate its treasures.--Christ's Object Lessons, 112, 113.
RC	125	7	Through faith in Christ, every deficiency of character may be supplied, every defilement cleansed, every fault corrected, every excellence developed.--Education, 257.
------------------------Faith is a Shield for Every Soul, April 22
RC	126	1	Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Ephesians 6:16.
RC	126	2	Faith is trusting God--believing that He loves us, and knows best what is for our good. Thus, instead of our own, it leads us to choose His way. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His righteousness. Our lives, ourselves, are already His; faith acknowledges His ownership and accepts its blessing. Truth, uprightness, purity, have been pointed out as secrets of life's success. It is faith that puts us in possession of these principles.
RC	126	3	Every good impulse or aspiration is the gift of God; faith receives from God the life that alone can produce true growth and efficiency.
RC	126	4	How to exercise faith should be made very plain. To every promise of God there are conditions. If we are willing to do His will, all His strength is ours. Whatever gift He promises is in the promise itself. "The seed is the word of God" (Luke 8:11). As surely as the oak is in the acorn, so surely is the gift of God in His promise. If we receive the promise, we have the gift.
RC	126	5	Faith that enables us to receive God's gifts is itself a gift, of which some measure is imparted to every human being. It grows as exercised in appropriating the Word of God. In order to strengthen faith, we must often bring it in contact with the Word. In the study of the Bible the student should be led to see the power of God's Word. In the creation, "he spake and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast" (Psalm 33:9)....
RC	126	6	Viewed from its human side, life is to all an untried path. It is a path in which, as regards our deeper experiences, we each walk alone. Into our inner life no other human being can fully enter. As the little child sets forth on that journey in which, sooner or later, he must choose his own course, himself deciding life's issues for eternity, how earnest should be the effort to direct his trust to the sure Guide and Helper!
RC	126	7	As a shield from temptation and an inspiration to purity and truth, no other influence can equal the sense of God's presence. "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." He is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity" (Hebrews 4:13; Habakkuk 1:13). This thought was Joseph's shield amidst the corruptions of Egypt. To the allurements of temptation his answer was steadfast: "How ... can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9). Such a shield, faith, if cherished, will bring to every soul.--Education, 253-255.
------------------------Faith Qualifies for Us the Royal Line, April 23
RC	127	1	Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1, N.I.V.
RC	127	2	How often those who trusted the Word of God, though in themselves utterly helpless, have withstood the power of the whole world--Enoch, pure in heart, holy in life, holding fast his faith in the triumph of righteousness against a corrupt and scoffing generation; Noah and his household against the men of his time, men of the greatest physical and mental strength and the most debased in morals; the children of Israel at the Red Sea, a helpless, terrified multitude of slaves, against the mightiest army of the mightiest nation on the globe; David, a shepherd lad, having God's promise of the throne, against Saul, the established monarch, bent on holding fast his power; Shadrach and his companions in the fire, and Nebuchadnezzar on the throne; Daniel among the lions, his enemies in the high places of the kingdom; Jesus on the cross, and the Jewish priests and rulers forcing even the Roman governor to work their will; Paul in chains led to a criminal's death, Nero the despot of a world empire.
RC	127	3	Such examples are not found in the Bible only. They abound in every record of human progress. The Vaudois and the Huguenots, Wycliffe and Huss, Jerome and Luther, Tyndale and Knox, Zinzendorf and Wesley, with multitudes of others, have witnessed to the power of God's Word against human power and policy in support of evil. These are the world's true nobility. This is its royal line. In this line the youth of today are called to take their places.
RC	127	4	Faith is needed in the smaller no less than in the greater affairs of life. In all our daily interests and occupations the sustaining strength of God becomes real to us through an abiding trust....
RC	127	5	Only the sense of God's presence can banish the fear that, for the timid child, would make life a burden. Let him fix in his memory the promise, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." Let him read that wonderful story of Elisha in the mountain city, and, between him and the hosts of armed foemen, a mighty encircling band of heavenly angels. Let him read how to Peter, in prison and condemned to death, God's angel appeared; how, past the armed guards, the massive doors and great iron gateway with their bolts and bars, the angel led God's servant forth in safety....
RC	127	6	In no less marked a manner than He wrought then will He work now wherever there are hearts of faith to be channels of His power.--Education, 254-256.
------------------------How to Gain Spiritual Strength, April 24
RC	128	1	Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. John 5:39.
RC	128	2	The Holy Spirit is beside every true searcher of God's Word, enabling him to discover the hidden gems of truth. Divine illumination comes to his mind, stamping the truth upon him with a new, fresh importance. He is filled with a joy never before felt. The peace of God rests upon him. The preciousness of truth is realized as never before. A heavenly light shines upon the Word, making it appear as though every letter were tinged with gold. God Himself speaks to the heart, making His Word spirit and life.
RC	128	3	Eternal life is the receiving of the living elements in the Scriptures, the doing of the will of God. This is what is meant by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. It is the privilege of all to partake of the bread of heaven by studying the Word, and thus gain spiritual sinew and muscle....
RC	128	4	A rich banquet is set before those who accept Christ as a personal Saviour. Day by day, as they partake of His Word, they are nourished and strengthened.
RC	128	5	Why do God's people pass by the words of the Great Teacher? Why do they rely upon human beings for help and comfort, when they have the great and grand promise, "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.... He that eateth of this bread shall live for ever"? ...
RC	128	6	Those who partake of the banquet provided for them will gain an experience of the highest value. They will see that in comparison with the Word of God, the word of man is as chaff to the wheat.
RC	128	7	In every plan we make, we must act with entire dependence upon God, else we shall be deceived by a semblance instead of the reality....
RC	128	8	By reason of the waste in the body, the blood must be constantly renewed by food. So with our spiritual life. The Word must be daily received, believed, and acted upon. Christ must dwell in us, energizing the whole being, renewing the lifeblood of the soul. His example is to be our guide. In our dealing with one another, we must reveal His sympathy. There must be a real working out of Christ's grace in our hearts. Then we can say with the apostle, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Christ's life abiding in the soul is the cause of joy and the pledge of our glory.--The Review and Herald, October 1, 1901.
------------------------The Holy Spirit, Representative of Christ, April 25
RC	129	1	The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26.
RC	129	2	That Christ should manifest Himself to them, and yet be invisible to the world, was a mystery to the disciples. They could not understand the words of Christ in their spiritual sense. They were thinking of the outward, visible manifestation. They could not take in the fact that they could have the presence of Christ with them, and yet He be unseen by the world. They did not understand the meaning of a spiritual manifestation.
RC	129	3	The Great Teacher longed to give to the disciples all the encouragement and comfort possible; for they were to be sorely tried. But it was difficult for them to comprehend His words. They had yet to learn that the inward spiritual life, all fragrant with the obedience of love, would give them the spiritual power they needed.
RC	129	4	The promise of the Comforter presented a rich truth to them. It assured them that they should not lose their faith under the most trying circumstances. The Holy Spirit, sent in the name of Christ, was to teach them all things, and bring all things to their remembrance. The Holy Spirit was to be the representative of Christ, the Advocate who is constantly pleading for the fallen race. He pleads that spiritual power may be given to them, that by the power of One mightier than all the enemies of God and man, they may be able to overcome their spiritual foes.
RC	129	5	He who knows the end from the beginning has provided for the attack of satanic agencies. And He will fulfill His word to the faithful in every age. That word is sure and steadfast; not one jot or tittle of it can fail. If men will keep under the protection of God, His banner will be over them as an impregnable fortress. He will give evidence that His word can never fail. He will prove a light which shineth in a dark place until the day dawn. He, the Sun of Righteousness, will arise with healing in His beams....
RC	129	6	He has assured you that the Holy Spirit was given to abide with you forever, to be your pleader and your guide. He asks you to trust in Him, and commit yourself into His keeping. The Holy Spirit is constantly at work, teaching, reminding, testifying, coming to the soul as a divine comforter, and convincing of sin as an appointed judge and guide....
RC	129	7	Your work is to cooperate with Christ, that you may be complete in Him. In being united to Him by faith, believing and receiving Him, you become part of Himself. Your character is His glory revealed in you.--Manuscript 44, 1897.
------------------------Imbued by the Power of the Holy Spirit, April 26
RC	130	1	Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8.
RC	130	2	It is our privilege to preach the Word in the demonstration of the Spirit. It is the privilege of every soul to exercise faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. But pure spiritual life comes only as the soul surrenders itself to the will of God through Christ, the reconciling Saviour. It is our privilege to be worked by the Holy Spirit. Through exercise of faith we are brought into communion with Christ Jesus, for Christ dwells in the hearts of all who are meek and lowly. Theirs is a faith that works by love and purifies the soul, a faith that brings peace to the heart, and leads in the path of self-denial and self-sacrifice.
RC	130	3	The promise is that if we follow on to know the Lord, we shall know that "his going forth is prepared as the morning." It is essential that we have daily the converting grace of God in the heart, that all our words and deeds may give evidence that we are in submission to the mind and will of God. In doing with meekness and humility our appointed service, we are to reveal the converting power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Then we become the Lord's agencies to do His work.
RC	130	4	With humility and meekness and yet with great earnestness we are to render our service to God. Christ is our pattern, our example in all things. He was filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit's power was manifested through Him, not by bodily movements, but by a zeal for good works.
RC	130	5	Among God's people there is need of deep, thorough heart searching, that we may be able to understand what constitutes true religion. Christ is a wonderful educator. His life and words are based upon sound principles. His manner of teaching was very simple. He was fashioned after the divine similitude, and if we follow Him, we shall make no mistakes....
RC	130	6	Our lives must be hid with Christ in God. We must have a personal knowledge of Christ. Then only can we rightly represent Him before the world. Wherever we are, we must let our light shine forth to the glory of God in good works. This is the great, the important work of our lives. Those who are really under the influence of the Holy Spirit will reveal its power by a practical application of the eternal principles of truth. They will reveal that the holy oil is emptied from the two olive branches into the chambers of the soul temple. Their words will be imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit to soften and subdue the heart. It will be manifest that the words spoken are spirit and life.--Letter 352, 1908.
------------------------We Cannot Use the Holy Spirit, the Spirit is to Use Us, April 27
RC	131	1	When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. John 16:8.
RC	131	2	Christ promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to His church, and the promise belongs as much to us as to the first disciples. But like every other promise, it is given on conditions. There are many who profess to believe and claim the Lord's promises; they talk about Christ and the Holy Spirit; yet they receive no benefit, because they do not surrender their souls to the guidance and control of divine agencies.
RC	131	3	We cannot use the Holy Spirit; the Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit, God works in His people "to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). But many will not submit to be led. They want to manage themselves. This is why they do not receive the heavenly gift. Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive.
RC	131	4	The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. Those only who are thus taught of God, those only who possess the inward working of the Spirit, and in whose life the Christ-life is manifested, can stand as true representatives of the Saviour.
RC	131	5	God takes men as they are, and educates them for His service, if they will yield themselves to Him. The Spirit of God, received into the soul, quickens all its faculties. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the mind that is devoted unreservedly to God develops harmoniously, and is strengthened to comprehend and fulfill the requirements of God. The weak, vacillating character becomes changed to one of strength and steadfastness.
RC	131	6	Continual devotion establishes so close a relation between Jesus and His disciples that the Christian becomes like his Master in character. He has clearer, broader views. His discernment is more penetrative, his judgment better balanced. So quickened is he by the life-giving power of the Sun of Righteousness, that he is enabled to bear much fruit to the glory of God....
RC	131	7	Of what avail would it be to us that the only-begotten Son of God humbled Himself, endured the temptations of the wily foe, and died, the just for the unjust, if the Spirit had not been given as a constant, working, regenerating agent, to make effectual in each individual case what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer?--Gospel Workers, 284-286.
------------------------The Holy Spirit, Christ's Special Gift, April 28
RC	132	1	But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men." Ephesians 4:7, 8, R.S.V.
RC	132	2	Jesus the Son of God humbled Himself for us, endured temptation for us, overcame in our behalf, to show us how we may overcome....
RC	132	3	The Holy Spirit was promised to be with those who were wrestling for victory, in demonstration of all mightiness, endowing the human agent with supernatural powers, and instructing the ignorant in the mysteries of the kingdom of God. That the Holy Spirit is to be the grand helper is a wonderful promise....
RC	132	4	The imparted Holy Spirit enabled His disciples, the apostles, to stand firmly against every species of idolatry and to exalt the Lord and Him alone. Who, but Jesus Christ by His Spirit and divine power, guided the pens of the sacred historians that to the world might be presented the precious record of the sayings and work of Jesus Christ?
RC	132	5	The promised Holy Spirit, that He would send after He ascended to His Father, is constantly at work to draw the attention to the great official sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary, and to unfold to the world the love of God to man, and to open to the convicted soul the precious things in the Scriptures, and to open to darkened minds the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, the truths that make their hearts burn within them with the awakened intelligence of the truths of eternity.
RC	132	6	Who but the Holy Spirit presents before the mind the moral standard of righteousness and convinces of sin, and produces godly sorrow which worketh repentance that needeth not to be repented of, and inspires the exercise of faith in Him who alone can save from all sin? ...
RC	132	7	The life of Christ is to be carefully meditated upon, and to be constantly studied with a desire to understand the reason why He had to come at all. We can only form our conclusions by searching the Scriptures as Christ has enjoined upon us to do, for He says, "They testify of me." We may find by searching the Word the virtues of obedience in contrast with the sinfulness of disobedience. "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
RC	132	8	The garden of Eden, with its foul blot of disobedience, is to be carefully studied and compared with the garden of Gethsemane, where the world's Redeemer suffered superhuman agony when the sins of the whole world were rolled upon Him.--Manuscript 1, 1892.
------------------------The Effect of Receiving the Spirit, April 29
RC	133	1	Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 1 Corinthians 2:12.
RC	133	2	The Holy Spirit enabled the disciples to exalt the Lord alone, and guided the pens of the sacred historians, that the record of the words and works of Christ might be given to the world. Today this Spirit is constantly at work, seeking to draw the attention of men to the great sacrifice made upon the cross of Calvary, to unfold to the world the love of God to man, and to open to the convicted soul the promises of the Scriptures.
RC	133	3	It is the Spirit that causes to shine into darkened minds the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness; that makes men's hearts burn within them with an awakened realization of the truths of eternity; that presents before the mind the great standard of righteousness, and convinces of sin, that inspires faith in Him who alone can save from sin; that works to transform character by withdrawing the affections of men from those things that are temporal and perishable, and fixing them upon the eternal inheritance. The Spirit re-creates, refines, and sanctifies human beings, fitting them to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King.
RC	133	4	When one is fully emptied of self, when every false god is cast out of the soul, the vacuum is filled by the inflowing of the Spirit of Christ. Such a one has the faith that purifies the soul from defilement. He is conformed to the Spirit, and he minds the things of the Spirit. He has no confidence in self. Christ is all and in all. He receives with meekness the truth that is constantly being unfolded, and gives the Lord all the glory, saying, "God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." ...
RC	133	5	The Spirit that reveals also works in him the fruits of righteousness. Christ is in him, "a well of water springing up into everlasting life." He is a branch of the True Vine, and bears rich clusters of fruit to the glory of God. What is the character of the fruit borne? The fruit of the Spirit is "love," not hatred; "joy," not discontent and mourning; "peace," not irritation, anxiety, and manufactured trials. It is "longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22, 23). Those who have this Spirit are earnest workers together with God.... They speak words of solid sense, and from the treasury of the heart bring forth pure, sacred things, after the example of Christ.--Gospel Workers, 286-288.
------------------------We are to Reveal Christ's Love and Joy, April 30
RC	134	1	Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Romans 15:13.
RC	134	2	In the great and measureless gift of the Holy Spirit are contained all of heaven's resources. It is not because of any restriction on the part of God that the riches of His grace do not flow earthward to men. If all were willing to receive, all would become filled with His Spirit. It is the privilege of every soul to be a living channel through which God can communicate to the world the treasures of His grace, the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is nothing that Christ desires so much as agents who will represent to the world His Spirit and character. There is nothing that the world needs so much as the manifestation through humanity of the Saviour's love. All heaven is waiting for channels through which can be poured the holy oil to be a joy and blessing to human hearts.
RC	134	3	Christ has made every provision that His church shall be a transformed body, illumined with the Light of the world, possessing the glory of Emmanuel. It is His purpose that every Christian shall be surrounded with a spiritual atmosphere of light and peace. He desires that we shall reveal His own joy in our lives.
RC	134	4	The indwelling of the Spirit will be shown by the outflowing of heavenly love. The divine fullness will flow through the consecrated human agent, to be given forth to others.
RC	134	5	The Sun of Righteousness has "healing in his wings" (Malachi 4:2). So from every true disciple is to be diffused an influence for life, courage, helpfulness, and true healing.
RC	134	6	The religion of Christ means more than the forgiveness of sin; it means taking away our sins, and filling the vacuum with the graces of the Holy Spirit. It means divine illumination, rejoicing in God. It means a heart emptied of self, and blessed with the abiding presence of Christ. When Christ reigns in the soul, there is purity, freedom from sin. The glory, the fullness, the completeness of the gospel plan is fulfilled in the life. The acceptance of the Saviour brings a glow of perfect peace, perfect love, perfect assurance. The beauty and fragrance of the character of Christ revealed in the life testifies that God has indeed sent His Son into the world to be its Saviour.--Christ's Object Lessons, 419, 420.
RC	134	7	There is peace in believing, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Believing brings peace, and trusting in God brings joy.--Testimonies for the Church 2:319, 320.
------------------------The Glorious Tree of Life, May 1
RC	135	1	The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden.... And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:8, 9.
RC	135	2	Man was formed in the likeness of God. His nature was in harmony with the will of God. His mind was capable of comprehending divine things. His affections were pure; his appetites and passions were under the control of reason. He was holy and happy in bearing the image of God and in perfect obedience to His will. As man came forth from the hand of his Creator, he was of lofty stature and perfect symmetry. His countenance bore the ruddy tint of health, and glowed with the light of life and joy....
RC	135	3	Everything that God had made was the perfection of beauty, and nothing seemed wanting that could contribute to the happiness of the holy pair; yet the Creator gave them still another token of His love, by preparing a garden especially for their home. In this garden were trees of every variety, many of them laden with fragrant and delicious fruit.... In the midst of the garden stood the tree of life, surpassing in glory all other trees. Its fruit appeared like apples of gold and silver, and had the power to perpetuate life....
RC	135	4	The tree of knowledge, which stood near the tree of life in the midst of the garden, was to be a test of the obedience, faith, and love of our first parents. While permitted to eat freely of every other tree, they were forbidden to taste of this, on pain of death....
RC	135	5	They were visited by angels, and were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring veil between. They were full of the vigor imparted by the tree of life, and their intellectual power was but little less than that of the angels.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 45-50.
RC	135	6	[Our first parents] were to enjoy communion with God and with holy angels; but ... their loyalty must be tested.... Obedience, perfect and perpetual, was the condition of eternal happiness. On this condition he [man] was to have access to the tree of life.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 48, 49.
RC	135	7	In order to possess an endless existence, man must continue to partake of the tree of life. Deprived of this, his vitality would gradually diminish until life should become extinct.... He [Satan] hoped that they would eat of the tree of life.... But after man's fall, holy angels were immediately commissioned to guard the tree of life.... None of the family of Adam were permitted to pass that barrier to partake of the life-giving fruit; hence there is not an immortal sinner.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 60.
------------------------The Universal Dominion of Law, May 2
RC	136	1	The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Psalm 24:1, 2.
RC	136	2	Upon all created things is seen the impress of the Deity. Nature testifies of God. The susceptible mind, brought in contact with the miracle and mystery of the universe, cannot but recognize the working of infinite power. Not by its own inherent energy does the earth produce its bounties, and year by year continue its motion around the sun. An unseen hand guides the planets in their circuit of the heavens. A mysterious life pervades all nature--a life that sustains the unnumbered worlds throughout immensity, that lives in the insect atom which floats in the summer breeze, that wings the flight of the swallow and feeds the young ravens which cry, that brings the bud to blossom, and the flower to fruit.
RC	136	3	The same power that upholds nature is working also in man. The same great laws that guide alike the star and the atom control human life. The laws that govern the heart's action, regulating the flow of the current of life to the body, are the laws of the mighty Intelligence that has the jurisdiction of the soul. From Him all life proceeds. Only in harmony with Him can be found its true sphere of action. For all the objects of His creation the condition is the same--a life sustained by receiving the life of God, a life exercised in harmony with the Creator's will. To transgress His law, physical, mental, or moral, is to place one's self out of harmony with the universe, to introduce discord, anarchy, ruin.
RC	136	4	To him who learns thus to interpret its teachings, all nature becomes illuminated; the world is a lesson book, life a school. The unity of man with nature and with God, the universal dominion of law, the results of transgression, cannot fail of impressing the mind and molding the character....
RC	136	5	So far as possible, let the child from his earliest years be placed where this wonderful lesson book shall be open before him. Let him behold the glorious scenes painted by the great Master Artist upon the shifting canvas of the heavens, ... let him watch the unfolding mysteries of the changing seasons, and, in all His works, learn of the Creator.
RC	136	6	In no other way can the foundation of a true education be so firmly and surely laid. Yet even the child, as he comes in contact with nature, will see cause for perplexity. He cannot but recognize the working of antagonistic forces. It is here that nature needs an interpreter. Looking upon the evil manifest even in the natural world, all have the same sorrowful lesson to learn--"An enemy hath done this." ... Only in the light that shines from Calvary can nature's teaching be read aright.--Education, 99-101.
------------------------The Laws of Nature are the Laws of God, May 3
RC	137	1	Attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.... For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Proverbs 4:20-22.
RC	137	2	Since the mind and the soul find expression through the body, both mental and spiritual vigor are in great degree dependent upon physical strength and activity; whatever promotes physical health promotes the development of a strong mind and a well-balanced character. Without health, no one can as distinctly understand or as completely fulfill his obligations to himself, to his fellow beings, or to his Creator. Therefore the health should be as faithfully guarded as the character. A knowledge of physiology and hygiene should be the basis of all educational effort....
RC	137	3	The youth, in the freshness and vigor of life, little realize the value of their abounding energy. A treasure more precious than gold, more essential to advancement than learning or rank or riches--how lightly it is held! how rashly squandered! How many a man, sacrificing health in the struggle for riches or power, has almost reached the object of his desire, only to fall helpless, while another, possessing superior physical endurance, grasped the longed-for prize! Through morbid conditions, the result of neglecting the laws of health, how many have been led into evil practices, to the sacrifice of every hope for this world and the next! ...
RC	137	4	The youth should be taught that the laws of nature are the laws of God--as truly divine as are the precepts of the Decalogue. The laws that govern our physical organism, God has written upon every nerve, muscle, and fiber of the body. Every careless or willful violation of these laws is a sin against our Creator. How necessary, then, that a thorough knowledge of these laws should be imparted! ...
RC	137	5	The influence of the mind on the body, as well as of the body on the mind, should be emphasized. The electric power of the brain, promoted by mental activity, vitalizes the whole system, and is thus an invaluable aid in resisting disease.... The power of the will and the importance of self-control, both in the preservation and in the recovery of health, the depressing and even ruinous effect of anger, discontent, selfishness, or impurity, and, on the other hand, the marvelous life-giving power to be found in cheerfulness, unselfishness, gratitude, should also be shown. There is a physiological truth--truth that we need to consider--in the scripture, "A merry [rejoicing] heart doeth good like a medicine" (Proverbs 17:22).--Education, 195-197.
------------------------Glorify God in our Body and Spirit, May 4
RC	138	1	For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:20.
RC	138	2	How shall we follow Him to learn of Him who is our teacher? We can search His Word, and become acquainted with His life and works. His words we are to receive as bread for our souls. In every sphere where man shall be placed, the Lord Jesus has left us His footprints. We do well to follow Him. The Spirit by which He spake, we must cherish; we are to present the truth as it is in Jesus. We are to follow Him especially in heart-purity, in love. Self must be hid with Christ in God; then when Christ who is our life shall appear, we also shall appear with Him in glory....
RC	138	3	By the inspiration of the Spirit of God, Paul the apostle writes that "whatsoever ye do," even the natural act of eating or drinking, should be done, not to gratify a perverted appetite, but under a sense of responsibility--"do all to the glory of God." Every part of the man is to be guarded; we are to beware lest that which is taken into the stomach shall banish from the mind high and holy thoughts.
RC	138	4	May I not do as I please with myself? ask some, as if we were seeking to deprive them of a great good, when we present before them the necessity of eating intelligently, and conforming all their habits to the laws God has established.
RC	138	5	There are rights which belong to every individual. We have an individuality and an identity that is our own. No one can submerge his identity in that of any other. All must act for themselves, according to the dictates of their own conscience. As regards our responsibility and influence, we are amenable to God as deriving our life from Him. This we do not obtain from humanity, but from God only. We are His by creation and by redemption. Our very bodies are not our own, to treat as we please, to cripple by habits that lead to decay, making it impossible to render to God perfect service. Our lives and all our faculties belong to Him. He is caring for us every moment; He keeps the living machinery in action; if we were left to run it for one moment, we should die. We are absolutely dependent upon God.
RC	138	6	A great lesson is learned when we understand our relation to God, and His relation to us. The words "Know ye not that ... ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price" should be hung in memory's hall, that we may ever recognize God's right to our talents, our property, our influence, our individual selves. We are to learn how to treat this gift of God, in mind, in soul, in body, that as Christ's purchased possession, we may do Him healthful, savory [pleasing] service.-- Special Testimonies, Series A 9:58, 59.
------------------------We are to Reveal the Principles of Heaven, May 5
RC	139	1	Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 2 Corinthians 6:17.
RC	139	2	Professed Christians yearly expend an immense sum upon useless and pernicious indulgences, while souls are perishing for the Word of life. God is robbed in tithes and offerings, while they consume upon the altar of destroying lust more than they give to relieve the poor or for the support of the gospel. If all who profess to be followers of Christ were truly sanctified, their means, instead of being spent for needless and even hurtful indulgences, would be turned into the Lord's treasury, and Christians would set an example of temperance, self-denial, and self-sacrifice. Then they would be the light of the world.
RC	139	3	The world is given up to self-indulgence. "The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" control the masses of the people. But Christ's followers have a holier calling. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean." In the light of God's Word we are justified in declaring that sanctification cannot be genuine which does not work this utter renunciation of the sinful pursuits and gratifications of the world.
RC	139	4	To those who comply with the conditions, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate,... and touch not the unclean," God's promise is, "I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18). It is the privilege and duty of every Christian to have a rich and abundant experience in the things of God. "I am the light of the world," said Jesus. "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18). Every step of faith and obedience brings the soul into closer connection with the Light of the world, in whom there is "no darkness at all." The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shine upon the servants of God, and they are to reflect His rays. As the stars tell us that there is a great light in heaven with whose glory they are made bright, so Christians are to make it manifest that there is a God on the throne of the universe whose character is worthy of praise and imitation. The graces of His Spirit, the purity and holiness of His character, will be manifest in His witnesses.--The Great Controversy, 475, 476.
RC	139	5	Our work in this world is to reveal the pure principles that are current in heaven.--The Upward Look, 291.
------------------------Health is a Blessing Few Appreciate, May 6
RC	140	1	Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19.
RC	140	2	Health is a blessing of which few appreciate the value; yet upon it the efficiency of our mental and physical powers largely depends. Our impulses and passions have their seat in the body, and it must be kept in the best condition physically and under the most spiritual influences in order that our talents may be put to the highest use.
RC	140	3	Anything that lessens physical strength enfeebles the mind and makes it less capable of discriminating between right and wrong. We become less capable of choosing the good and have less strength of will to do that which we know to be right.
RC	140	4	The misuse of our physical powers shortens the period of time in which our lives can be used for the glory of God. And it unfits us to accomplish the work God has given us to do. By allowing ourselves to form wrong habits, by keeping late hours, by gratifying appetite at the expense of health, we lay the foundation for feebleness. By neglecting physical exercise, by overworking mind or body, we unbalance the nervous system. Those who thus shorten their lives and unfit themselves for service by disregarding nature's laws are guilty of robbery toward God.
RC	140	5	And they are robbing their fellow men also. The opportunity of blessing others, the very work for which God sent them into the world, has by their own course of action been cut short. And they have unfitted themselves to do even that which in a briefer period of time they might have accomplished. The Lord holds us guilty when by our injurious habits we thus deprive the world of good.
RC	140	6	Transgression of physical law is transgression of the moral law; for God is as truly the author of physical laws as He is the author of the moral law. His law is written with His own finger upon every nerve, every muscle, every faculty, which has been entrusted to man. And every misuse of any part of our organism is a violation of that law.
RC	140	7	All should have an intelligent knowledge of the human frame that they may keep their bodies in the condition necessary to do the work of the Lord. The physical life is to be carefully preserved and developed that through humanity the divine nature may be revealed in its fullness. The relation of the physical organism to the spiritual life is one of the most important branches of education. It should receive careful attention in the home and in the school.... All should place themselves in the best possible relation to life and health.
RC	140	8	Our habits should be brought under the control of a mind that is itself under the control of God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 346-348.
------------------------Nature Honors those Who Obey Her Laws, May 7
RC	141	1	Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Daniel 1:8.
RC	141	2	We can have no right understanding of the subject of temperance until we consider it from a Bible standpoint. And nowhere shall we find a more comprehensive and forcible illustration of true temperance and its attendant blessings than is afforded by the history of the prophet Daniel and his associates in the court of Babylon....
RC	141	3	It was not their own pride or ambition that had brought these young men into the king's court, into the companionship of those who neither knew nor feared the true God. They were captives in a strange land, and Infinite Wisdom had placed them where they were. They considered their position, with its difficulties and its dangers; and then, in the fear of God, made their decision. Even at the risk of the king's displeasure, they would be true to the religion of their fathers. They obeyed the divine law, both natural and moral, and the blessing of God gave them strength and comeliness, and intellectual power.
RC	141	4	These youth had received a right education in early life; and now, when separated from home influences and sacred associations, they honored the instructors of their childhood. With their habits of self-denial were coupled earnestness of purpose, diligence, and steadfastness. They had no time to squander in pleasure, vanity, or folly. They were not actuated by pride or unworthy ambition; but they sought to acquit themselves creditably, for the honor of their own downtrodden people and for His glory whose servants they were.
RC	141	5	God always honors the right. The most promising youth of every land subdued by the great conqueror had been gathered at Babylon; yet amid them all, the Hebrew captives were without a rival. The erect form, the firm, elastic step, the fair countenance showing that the blood was uncorrupted, the undimmed senses, the untainted breath--all were so many certificates of good habits, insignia of the nobility with which nature honors those who are obedient to her laws. And when their ability and acquirements were tested by the king at the close of the three years of training, none were found "like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah." Their keen apprehension, their choice and exact language, their extensive and varied knowledge, testified to the unimpaired strength and vigor of their mental powers.
RC	141	6	The history of Daniel and his companions has been recorded on the pages of the Inspired Word for the benefit of all the youth of all succeeding ages.--The Signs of the Times, February 11, 1886.
------------------------The Importance of Strict Temperance, May 8
RC	142	1	Blessed art thou, O land, when ... thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness! Ecclesiastes 10:17.
RC	142	2	The lesson from the experience of these [Hebrew] youth is one which we would all do well to ponder. Our danger is not from scarcity, but from abundance. We are constantly tempted to excess. But those who would preserve their powers unimpaired for the service of God must observe strict temperance in the use of all His bounties, as well as total abstinence from every injurious or debasing indulgence.
RC	142	3	Right physical habits promote mental superiority. Intellectual power, physical strength, and longevity depend upon immutable laws. There is no happen-so, no chance, about this matter. Heaven will not interfere to preserve men from the consequences of the violation of nature's laws. There is much of truth in the adage that every man is the architect of his own fortune. While parents are responsible for the stamp of character, as well as for the education and training which they give their sons and daughters, it is still true that our position and usefulness in the world depend, to a great degree, upon our own course of action.
RC	142	4	Let old and young remember that for every violation of the laws of life, nature will utter her protest. The penalty will fall upon the mental as well as the physical powers. And it does not end with the guilty trifler. The effects of his misdemeanors are seen in his offspring, and thus hereditary evils are passed down, even to the third or fourth generation....
RC	142	5	We are suffering for the wrong habits of our fathers, and yet how many take a course every way worse than theirs! Every year millions of gallons of intoxicating liquors are drunk, and millions of dollars are spent for tobacco. Opium, tea, coffee, tobacco, and intoxicating liquors are rapidly extinguishing the spark of vitality still left in the race....
RC	142	6	The use of intoxicating liquor dethrones reason, and hardens the heart against every pure and holy influence....
RC	142	7	There is need now of men like Daniel--men who have the self-denial and the courage to be radical temperance reformers. Let every Christian see that his example and his influence are on the side of reform. Let ministers of the gospel be faithful in instructing and warning the people. And let all remember that our happiness in two worlds depends upon the right improvement of one.--The Signs of the Times, February 11, 1886.
------------------------All of the Living Organism is the Lord's, May 9
RC	143	1	In all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. Daniel 1:20.
RC	143	2	Why did Daniel and his companions refuse to eat at the king's table? Why did they refuse his meats and wines? Because they had been taught that this class of food would not keep the mind or the physical structure in the very best condition of health to do God's service. These youth urged most earnestly that the one who had charge of their food should not compel them to partake of the king's luxuries, or drink of his wine. They begged him to try them ten days only, and then examine them, and decide by their physical appearance whether their abstemious diet would be to their disadvantage. When they came in for examination, the result was decidedly in their favor.
RC	143	3	It was otherwise with the youth who had eaten of the luxuries of the king's table, and drank of his wine. The clear sparkle of the eye was gone; the ruddy, healthful glow had disappeared from the countenance. The four Hebrew captives were thereafter permitted to have the diet they had chosen. What effect did it have upon mind and character? They had conscientiously refused the stimulus of flesh and of wine. They obeyed God's will in self-denial, and He showed His approval. He desired His servants to honor Him by their adherence to steadfast principle in all their habits of life. Their countenances would be a certificate of physical soundness and moral purity.
RC	143	4	"And as for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams." These youth had the Lord as their educator. The golden links of the chain of heaven connected the finite with the infinite. They were partakers of the divine nature. They were very careful to keep themselves in touch with God. They prayed and studied and brought into their practical life strictly conscientious, humble minds.... The word of the Lord was their meat and their drink. "And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers." ...
RC	143	5	When the children of faith shall with earnest prayer dedicate themselves to God without reserve, the Lord will honor their faith, and will bless them with a clear mind....
RC	143	6	The very flesh in which the soul tabernacles, and through which it works, is the Lord's. We have no right to neglect any part of the living machinery. Every portion of the living organism is the Lord's. The knowledge of our own physical organism should teach us that every member is to do God's service, as an instrument of righteousness.-- Special Testimonies, Series A 9:60-62.
------------------------The Relationship Between Flesh and Spirit, May 10
RC	144	1	For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Galatians 6:8.
RC	144	2	The lower passions have their seat in the body and work through it. The words "flesh" or "fleshly" or "carnal lusts" embrace the lower, corrupt nature; the flesh of itself cannot act contrary to the will of God. We are commanded to crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts. How shall we do it? Shall we inflict pain on the body? No; but put to death the temptation to sin. The corrupt thought is to be expelled. Every thought is to be brought into captivity to Jesus Christ. All animal propensities are to be subjected to the higher powers of the soul. The love of God must reign supreme; Christ must occupy an undivided throne. Our bodies are to be regarded as His purchased possession. The members of the body are to become the instruments of righteousness.--The Adventist Home, 127, 128.
RC	144	3	A strict compliance with the requirements of God is beneficial to the health of body and mind. In order to reach the highest standard of moral and intellectual attainments, it is necessary to seek wisdom and strength from God, and to observe strict temperance in all the habits of life. In the experience of Daniel and his companions we have an instance of the triumph of principle over temptation to indulge the appetite. It shows us that through religious principle young men may triumph over the lusts of the flesh, and remain true to God's requirements, even though it cost them a great sacrifice....
RC	144	4	We should consider the words of the apostle in which he appeals to his brethren, by the mercies of God, to present their bodies "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." This is true sanctification. It is not merely a theory, an emotion, or a form of words, but a living, active principle, entering into the everyday life. It requires that our habits of eating, drinking, and dressing be such as to secure the preservation of physical, mental, and moral health, that we may present to the Lord our bodies--not an offering corrupted by wrong habits, but--"a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."...
RC	144	5	A close sympathy exists between the physical and the moral nature.... Wherever they may be, those who are truly sanctified will elevate the moral standard by preserving correct physical habits, and, like Daniel, presenting to others an example of temperance and self-denial. Every depraved appetite becomes a warring lust. Everything that conflicts with natural law creates a diseased condition of the soul....
RC	144	6	With what care should Christians regulate their habits, that they may preserve the full vigor of every faculty to give to the service of Christ.--The Review and Herald, January 25, 1881.
------------------------The Health-Giving Value of Outdoor Life, May 11
RC	145	1	Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3 John 1:2.
RC	145	2	The things of nature are God's blessings, provided to give health to body, mind, and soul. They are given to the well to keep them well and to the sick to make them well. Connected with water treatment, they are more effective in restoring health than all the drug medication in the world.
RC	145	3	In the country the sick find many things to call their attention away from themselves and their sufferings. Everywhere they can look upon and enjoy the beautiful things of nature--the flowers, the fields, the fruit trees laden with their rich treasure, the forest trees casting their grateful shade, and the hills and valleys with their varied verdure and many forms of life.
RC	145	4	And not only are they entertained by these surroundings, but at the same time they learn most precious spiritual lessons. Surrounded by the wonderful works of God, their minds are lifted from the things that are seen to the things that are unseen. The beauty of nature leads them to think of the matchless charms of the earth made new, where there will be nothing to mar the loveliness, nothing to taint or destroy, nothing to cause disease or death.
RC	145	5	Nature is God's physician. The pure air, the glad sunshine, the beautiful flowers and trees, the orchards and vineyards, and outdoor exercise amid these surroundings, are health-giving--the elixir of life. Outdoor life is the only medicine that many invalids need. Its influence is powerful to heal sickness caused by fashionable life, a life that weakens and destroys the physical, mental, and spiritual powers.
RC	145	6	How grateful to weary invalids accustomed to city life, the glare of many lights, and the noise of the streets are the quiet and freedom of the country! How eagerly do they turn to the scenes of nature! How glad would they be for the advantages of a sanitarium in the country, where they could sit in the open air, rejoice in the sunshine, and breathe the fragrance of tree and flower! There are life-giving properties in the balsam of the pine, in the fragrance of the cedar and the fir. And there are other trees that are health-promoting. Let no such trees be ruthlessly cut down. Cherish them where they are abundant, and plant more where there are but few....
RC	145	7	Nothing so tends to restore health and happiness as living amid attractive country surroundings.... May God help us to do our utmost to utilize the life-giving power of sunshine and fresh air.--Testimonies for the Church 7:76-79.
------------------------Each Youth Must Decide for Himself, May 12
RC	146	1	And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. 1 Corinthians 9:25.
RC	146	2	It rests with us individually to decide whether our lives shall be controlled by the mind or by the body. The youth must, each for himself, make the choice that shapes his life; and no pains should be spared that he may understand the forces with which he has to deal, and the influences which mold character and destiny.
RC	146	3	Intemperance is a foe against which all need to be guarded. The rapid increase of this terrible evil should arouse every lover of his race to warfare against it.--Education, 202.
RC	146	4	The observance of temperance and regularity in all things has a wonderful power. It will do more than circumstances or natural endowments in promoting that sweetness and serenity of disposition which count so much in smoothing life's pathway. At the same time the power of self-control thus acquired will be found one of the most valuable of equipments for grappling successfully with the stern duties and realities that await every human being.
RC	146	5	Wisdom's "ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace" (Proverbs 3:17). Let every youth in our land, with the possibilities before him of a destiny higher than that of crowned kings, ponder the lesson conveyed in the words of the wise man, "Blessed art thou, O land, when ... thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!" (Ecclesiastes 10:17).--Education, 206.
RC	146	6	"Let thine heart keep my commandments," God says; "for length of days, and years of life, and peace, shall they add to thee." "They are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh." "Pleasant words," the Scriptures declare to be not only "sweet to the soul," but "health to the bones" (Proverbs 3:1, 2, margin; 4:22; 16:24).
RC	146	7	The youth need to understand the deep truth underlying the Bible statement that with God "is the fountain of life" (Psalm 36:9). Not only is He the originator of all, but He is the life of everything that lives. It is His life that we receive in the sunshine, in the pure, sweet air, in the food which builds up our bodies and sustains our strength. It is by His life that we exist, hour by hour, moment by moment. Except as perverted by sin, all His gifts tend to life, to health and joy.
RC	146	8	"He hath made every thing beautiful in its time" (Ecclesiastes 3:11, R.V.); and true beauty will be secured, not in marring God's work, but in coming into harmony with the laws of Him who created all things, and who finds pleasure in their beauty and perfection.--Education, 197, 198.
------------------------Exercise is Indispensable to Health, May 13
RC	147	1	The glory of young men is their strength. Proverbs 20:29.
RC	147	2	Attention to health is one of our most important duties. We owe this to ourselves, to society, and to God. Young men and young women are proverbially careless in regard to their health....
RC	147	3	Exercise is indispensable to the health of every organ. If one set of muscles is used to the neglect of others, the living machinery is not being worked intelligently.
RC	147	4	When physical exercise is taken, the circulation is quickened. The heart receives blood faster and sends it to the lungs faster. The lungs work more vigorously, furnishing a greater amount of blood, which is sent with stronger power through the entire being. Exercise gives new life and strength to every part of the body.
RC	147	5	The nerves gain or lose strength in accordance with the way in which they are treated. If used too long and too severely, they are overtaxed and weakened. If used properly, they gain strength.
RC	147	6	In order to have health, equilibrium of action must be maintained. The mind must harmonize with this.... If physical exercise is regarded as drudgery, if the mind takes no interest in the exercise of the different parts of the body [the benefits will not be realized]. The mind must be interested in exercise of the muscles.
RC	147	7	In the education of the youth, physical exercise must be combined with mental taxation.--Letter 6, 1885.
RC	147	8	Perfect obedience to God's commands calls for conformity to the laws of the being....
RC	147	9	The time spent in physical exercise is not lost. The student who is constantly poring over his books, while he takes but little exercise in the open air, does himself an injury. A proportionate exercise of the various organs and faculties of the body is essential to the best work of each. When the brain is constantly taxed while the other organs are left inactive, there is a loss of physical and mental strength. The physical powers are robbed of their healthy tone, the mind loses its freshness and vigor, and a morbid excitability is the result.
RC	147	10	In order for men and women to have well-balanced minds, all the powers of the being should be called into use and developed....
RC	147	11	[The Lord] bids us reason from cause to effect, to remember that we are His property, and to unite with Him in keeping the body pure and healthy, and the whole being sanctified to Him.--Counsels to Parents and Teachers, 295-300.
------------------------Appropriate Exercise, May 14
RC	148	1	Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. Ecclesiastes 9:10.
RC	148	2	The various trades and occupations have to be learned, and they call into exercise a great variety of mental and physical capabilities; the occupations requiring sedentary habits are the most dangerous, for they take men away from the open air and sunshine, and train one set of faculties, while other organs are becoming weak from inaction. Men carry on their work, perfect their business, and soon lie down in the grave.
RC	148	3	Much more favorable is the condition of one whose occupation keeps him in the open air, exercising his muscles, while the brain is equally taxed, and all the organs have the privilege of doing their work. To those who can live outside of the cities, and labor in the open air, beholding the works of the great Master Artist, new scenes are continually unfolding. As they make the book of nature their study, a softening, subduing influence comes over them; for they realize that God's care is over all, from the glorious sun in the heavens to the little brown sparrow or the tiniest insect that has life.
RC	148	4	The Majesty of heaven has pointed us to these things of God's creation as an evidence of His love. He who fashioned the flowers has said: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." ... The Lord is our teacher, and under His instruction we may learn the most precious lessons from nature.
RC	148	5	The world is under the curse of sin, and yet even in its decay it is very beautiful. If it were not defiled by the wicked, corrupt deeds of the men who tread the soil, we could, with the blessing of God, enjoy our world as it is. But ignorance, pleasure loving, and sinful habits, corrupting soul, body, and spirit, make the world full of moral leprosy; a deadly moral malaria is destroying thousands and tens of thousands. What shall be done to save our youth? We can do little, but God lives and reigns, and He can do much....
RC	148	6	While we shun the false and artificial, discarding horse racing, card playing, lotteries, prize fights, liquor drinking, and tobacco using, we must supply sources of pleasure that are pure and noble and elevating. We should choose a location ... where the eye will not rest continually upon the dwellings of men, but upon the works of God; where there shall be places of interest for them to visit, other than what the city affords. Let [them] be placed where nature can speak to the senses, and in her voice they may hear the voice of God. Let them be where they can look upon His wondrous works, and through nature behold her Creator.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 319, 320.
------------------------The Wonders of the Human Body, May 15
RC	149	1	God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7.
RC	149	2	We are God's workmanship, and His Word declares that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made." He has prepared this living habitation for the mind; it is "curiously wrought," a temple which the Lord Himself has fitted up for the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. The mind controls the whole man. All our actions, good or bad, have their source in the mind. It is the mind that worships God and allies us to heavenly beings. Yet many spend all their lives without becoming intelligent in regard to the casket [the human body] that contains this treasure.--Child Guidance, 360.
RC	149	3	All the physical organs are the servants of the mind, and the nerves are the messengers that transmit its orders to every part of the body, guiding the motions of the living machinery. Exercise is an important aid to physical development. It quickens the circulation of the blood, and gives tone to the system. If the muscles are allowed to remain unused, it will soon be apparent that the blood does not sufficiently nourish them. Instead of increasing in size and strength, they will lose their firmness and elasticity, and become soft and weak. Inactivity is not the law the Lord has established in the human body. The harmonious action of all the parts--brain, bone, and muscle--is necessary to the full and healthful development of the entire human organism....
RC	149	4	The appetites and passions must be controlled, that through them we shall not weaken or defile God's human temple.
RC	149	5	Anything that lessens the physical power enfeebles the mind, and makes it less clear to discriminate between good and evil, between right and wrong. This principle is illustrated in the case of Nadab and Abihu. God gave them a most sacred work to perform, permitting them to come near to Himself in their appointed service; but they had a habit of drinking wine, and they entered upon the holy service in the sanctuary with confused minds.
RC	149	6	There was the sacred fire, which was kindled by God Himself; but they used the common fire upon their censers, when they offered incense to ascend as a sweet fragrance with the prayers of God's people. Because their minds were clouded by an unholy indulgence, they disregarded the divine requirement; "and there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them."...
RC	149	7	It is the duty of each student, of each individual, to do all in his power to present his body to Christ, a cleansed temple, physically perfect as well as morally free from defilement--a fit abode for God's indwelling presence.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 426-428.
------------------------Moral Principles Safeguard the Soul, May 16
RC	150	1	Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 1 Corinthians 6:18.
RC	150	2	I have been shown that we live amid the perils of the last days. Because iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold. The word "many" refers to the professed followers of Christ. They are affected by the prevailing iniquity and backslide from God, but it is not necessary that they should be thus affected. The cause of this declension is that they do not stand clear from this iniquity. The fact that their love to God is waxing cold because iniquity abounds shows that they are, in some sense, partakers in this iniquity, or it would not affect their love for God and their zeal and fervor in His cause.
RC	150	3	A terrible picture of the condition of the world has been presented before me. Immorality abounds everywhere. Licentiousness is the special sin of this age. Never did vice lift its deformed head with such boldness as now. The people seem to be benumbed, and the lovers of virtue and true goodness are nearly discouraged by its boldness, strength, and prevalence. The iniquity which abounds is not merely confined to the unbeliever and the scoffer. Would that this were the case, but it is not....
RC	150	4	Every Christian will have to learn to restrain his passions and be controlled by principle.
RC	150	5	The brain nerves which communicate with the entire system are the only medium through which Heaven can communicate to man and affect his inmost life. Whatever disturbs the circulation of the electric currents in the nervous system lessens the strength of the vital powers, and the result is a deadening of the sensibilities of the mind.--Testimonies for the Church 2:346, 347.
RC	150	6	Moral principle, strictly carried out, becomes the only safeguard of the soul. If ever there was a time when the diet should be the most simple kind, it is now.... The less feverish the diet, the more easily can the passions be controlled. Gratification of taste should not be consulted irrespective of physical, intellectual, or moral health....
RC	150	7	God has given you a habitation to care for and preserve in the best condition for His service and glory. Your bodies are not your own. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"--Testimonies for the Church 2:352, 353.
------------------------Wrong Physical Habits Affect the Brain, May 17
RC	151	1	Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
RC	151	2	The character of the food and the manner in which it is eaten exert a powerful influence on the health. Many ... have never made a determined effort to control the appetite, or to observe proper rules in regard to eating. Some eat too much at their meals, and some eat between meals whenever the temptation is presented.
RC	151	3	The need of carefulness in habits of diet should be impressed on the minds of all.... I appeal to all to refuse to eat those things that will injure the health. Thus they can serve the Lord by sacrifice.
RC	151	4	Those who obey the laws of health will give time and thought to the needs of the body and to the laws of digestion. And they will be rewarded by clearness of thought and strength of mind. On the other hand it is possible for one to spoil his Christian experience by abuse of the stomach. Those things that derange the digestion have a benumbing influence on the finer feelings of the heart.... Every habit that injures the health reacts upon the mind. That time is well spent which is directed to the establishment and preservation of sound physical and mental health. Firm, quiet nerves and a healthy circulation help men to follow right principles and to listen to the promptings of conscience....
RC	151	5	The brain is the citadel of the being. Wrong physical habits affect the brain, and prevent the attainment of ... good mental discipline. Unless the youth are versed in the science of how to care for the body as well as for the mind, they will not be successful students. Study is not the principal cause of breakdown of the mental powers. The main cause is improper diet, irregular meals, a lack of physical exercise, and careless inattention in other respects to the laws of health. When we do all that we can to preserve the health, then we can ask God in faith to bless our efforts....
RC	151	6	The youth should be taught that they are not at liberty to do as they please with their lives. God will not hold guiltless those who treat lightly His precious gifts. Men should realize that the greater their endowment of strength, of talent, of means, or of opportunities, the more heavily should the burden of God's work rest upon them, and the more they should do for Him. The youth who are trained to believe that life is a sacred trust will hesitate to plunge into the vortex of dissipation and crime that swallows up so many promising young men of this age.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 297-300.
RC	151	7	Mental and moral power is dependent upon the physical health.--Mind, Character, and Personality 1:61.
------------------------Life is a Holy Trust, May 18
RC	152	1	With thee is the foundation of life: in thy light shall we see the light. Psalm 36:9.
RC	152	2	We need as workers to keep looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. As workers together with God, we are to draw souls to Christ. We are to remember that each has a special part to act in the Master's service. O how much good the members of the church might accomplish if they realized the responsibility resting upon them to point those with whom they come in contact to the Redeemer.
RC	152	3	When church members shall disinterestedly engage in the work given them of God, a much stronger influence will be exerted in behalf of souls ready to die, and much more earnest efforts will be put forth in medical missionary lines. When every member of the church does his part faithfully, the workers in the field will be helped and encouraged and the cause of God will move forward with power....
RC	152	4	When you take time to cultivate your garden, thus gaining the exercise needed to keep the system in good working order, you are just as much doing the work of God as in holding meetings. God is our Father, He loves us, and He does not require any of His servants to abuse their bodies.
RC	152	5	Another cause, both of ill health and inefficiency in labor, is indigestion. It is impossible for the brain to do its best work when the digestive powers are abused. Many eat hurriedly of various kinds of food; this causes war in the stomach, and confuses the brain. The use of unwholesome food, and overeating of even that which is wholesome, should alike be avoided. Many eat at all hours, regardless of the laws of health. Then gloom covers the mind. How can men be honored with divine enlightenment when they are so reckless in their habits, so inattentive to the light which God has given in regard to these things?...
RC	152	6	Life is a holy trust, which God alone can enable us to keep, and to use to His glory. But He who formed the wonderful structure of the body will take special care to keep it in order if men do not work at cross-purposes with Him. Every talent entrusted to us He will help us to improve and use in accordance with the will of the Giver. Days, months, and years are added to our existence that we may improve our opportunities and advantages for working out our individual salvation, and by our unselfish life promote the well-being of others. Thus may we build up the kingdom of Christ, and make manifest the glory of God.--The Review and Herald, June 20, 1912.
------------------------True Religion Promotes Health, May 19
RC	153	1	[Wisdom's] ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. Proverbs 3:17.
RC	153	2	This world is not all sorrow and misery. "God is love" is written upon every opening bud, upon the petals of every flower, and upon every spire of grass. Though the curse of sin has caused the earth to bring forth thorns and thistles, there are flowers upon the thistles and the thorns are hidden by roses. All things in nature testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God and to His desire to make His children happy. His prohibitions and injunctions are not intended merely to display His authority, but in all that He does He has the well-being of His children in view. He does not require them to give up anything that it would be for their best interest to retain.
RC	153	3	The opinion which prevails in some classes of society, that religion is not conducive to health or to happiness in this life, is one of the most mischievous of errors. The Scripture says: "The fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied" (Proverbs 19:23). "What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it" (Psalm 34:12-14). The words of wisdom "are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh" (Proverbs 4:22).
RC	153	4	True religion brings man into harmony with the laws of God, physical, mental, and moral. It teaches self-control, serenity, temperance. Religion ennobles the mind, refines the taste, and sanctifies the judgment. It makes the soul a partaker of the purity of heaven. Faith in God's love and overruling providence lightens the burdens of anxiety and care. It fills the heart with joy and contentment in the highest or the lowliest lot. Religion tends directly to promote health, to lengthen life, and to heighten our enjoyment of all its blessings. It opens to the soul a never-failing fountain of happiness. Would that all who have not chosen Christ might realize that He has something vastly better to offer them than they are seeking for themselves....
RC	153	5	There is an intimate relation between the mind and the body, and in order to reach a high standard of moral and intellectual attainment the laws that control our physical being must be heeded. To secure a strong, well-balanced character, both the mental and the physical powers must be exercised and developed. What study can be more important ... than that which treats of this wonderful organism that God has committed to us, and of the laws by which it may be preserved in health?--Patriarchs and Prophets, 600, 601.
------------------------We are to Value God's Marvelous Works, May 20
RC	154	1	I will praise thee; I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psalm 139:14.
RC	154	2	Every power that God has given us should be employed in the very wisest and highest service to God. The Lord has brought out a people from the world to fit them not only for a pure and holy heaven but to prepare them through the wisdom He shall give them to be colaborers with God in preparing a people to stand in the day of God.
RC	154	3	Great light has been given upon health reform, but it is essential for all to treat this subject with candor and to advocate it with wisdom. In our experience we have seen many who have not presented health reform in a manner to make the best impression upon those whom they wish would receive their views. The Bible is full of wise counsel, and even the eating and drinking receive proper attention. The highest privilege that man can enjoy is to be a partaker of the divine nature, and faith that binds us in strong relationship to God will so fashion and mold mind and conduct that we become one with Christ. No one should through intemperate appetite so indulge his taste as to weaken any of the fine works of the human machinery and thus impair the mind or the body. Man is the Lord's purchased possession.
RC	154	4	If we are partakers of the divine nature, we will live in communion with our Creator and value all of God's work which led David to exclaim, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." We will not consider the organs of the body our own property, as if we had created them. All the faculties God has given to the human body are to be appreciated.... "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:20).
RC	154	5	We are not to treat unwisely one faculty of mind, soul, or body. We cannot abuse any of the delicate organs of the human body without having to pay the penalty because of transgression of nature's laws. Bible religion brought into practical life insures the highest culture of the intellect.
RC	154	6	Temperance is exalted to a high level in the Word of God. Obeying His Word, we can rise higher and still higher. The danger of intemperance is specified. The advantage to be gained by temperance is laid open before us all through the Scriptures. The voice of God is addressing us, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48)....
RC	154	7	Health reform, wisely treated, will prove an entering wedge where the truth may follow with marked success.--The Review and Herald, June 25, 1959.
------------------------Power to Think and to Do, May 21
RC	155	1	Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. Job 22:21.
RC	155	2	The law of love calls for the devotion of body, mind, and soul to the service of God and our fellow men. And this service, while making us a blessing to others, brings the greatest blessing to ourselves. Unselfishness underlies all true development. Through unselfish service we receive the highest culture of every faculty. More and more fully do we become partakers of the divine nature. We are fitted for heaven; for we receive heaven into our hearts.
RC	155	3	Since God is the source of all true knowledge, it is ... the first object of education to direct our minds to His own revelation of Himself. Adam and Eve received knowledge through direct communion with God; and they learned of Him through His works. All created things, in their original perfection, were an expression of the thought of God. To Adam and Eve nature was teeming with divine wisdom. But by transgression man was cut off from learning of God through direct communion and, to a great degree, through His works.
RC	155	4	The earth, marred and defiled by sin, reflects but dimly the Creator's glory. It is true that His object lessons are not obliterated. Upon every page of the great volume of His created works may still be traced His handwriting. Nature still speaks of her Creator. Yet these revelations are partial and imperfect. And in our fallen state, with weakened powers and restricted vision, we are incapable of interpreting aright. We need the fuller revelation of Himself that God has given in His Written Word.
RC	155	5	The Holy Scriptures are the perfect standard of truth.... Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator--individuality, power to think and to do. The men in whom this power is developed are the men who bear responsibilities, who are leaders in enterprise, and who influence character....
RC	155	6	Let students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen.... Instead of some master passion becoming a power to destroy, every motive and desire are brought into conformity to the great principles of right. As the perfection of His character is dwelt upon, the mind is renewed, and the soul is re-created in the image of God....
RC	155	7	Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God's ideal for His children. Godliness--godlikeness--is the goal to be reached.--Education, 16-18.
------------------------We Receive the Wisdom of Eternity, May 22
RC	156	1	Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. Proverbs 9:9.
RC	156	2	As we cherish and obey the promptings of the Spirit, our hearts are enlarged to receive more and more of His power, and to do more and better work. Dormant energies are aroused, and palsied faculties receive new life.
RC	156	3	The humble worker who obediently responds to the call of God may be sure of receiving divine assistance. To accept so great and holy a responsibility is itself elevating to the character. It calls into action the highest mental and spiritual powers, and strengthens and purifies the mind and heart. Through faith in the power of God, it is wonderful how strong a weak man may become, how decided his efforts, how prolific of great results.
RC	156	4	He who begins with a little knowledge, in a humble way, and tells what he knows, while seeking diligently for further knowledge, will find the whole heavenly treasure awaiting his demand. The more he seeks to impart light, the more light he will receive. The more one tries to explain the Word of God to others, with a love for souls, the plainer it becomes to himself. The more we use our knowledge and exercise our powers, the more knowledge and power we shall have.
RC	156	5	Every effort made for Christ will react in blessing upon ourselves. If we use our means for His glory, He will give us more. As we seek to win others to Christ, bearing the burden of souls in our prayers, our own hearts will throb with the quickening influence of God's grace; our own affections will glow with more divine fervor; our whole Christian life will be more of a reality, more earnest, more prayerful.
RC	156	6	The value of man is estimated in heaven according to the capacity of the heart to know God. This knowledge is the spring from which flows all power. God created man that every faculty might be the faculty of the divine mind; and He is ever seeking to bring the human mind into association with the divine. He offers us the privilege of cooperation with Christ in revealing His grace to the world, that we may receive increased knowledge of heavenly things.
RC	156	7	Looking unto Jesus we obtain brighter and more distinct views of God, and by beholding we become changed. Goodness, love for our fellow men, becomes our natural instinct. We develop a character which is the counterpart of the divine character. Growing into His likeness, we enlarge our capacity for knowing God. More and more we enter into fellowship with the heavenly world, and we have continually increasing power to receive the riches of the knowledge and wisdom of eternity.--Christ's Object Lessons, 354-355.
------------------------True Standards of Christian Excellence, May 23
RC	157	1	As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 1 Peter 1:15, 16.
RC	157	2	It is the design of God that improvement shall be the lifework of all His people, and that in all their aims they should be guided and controlled by Christian principle and correct experience. But many fail to understand the true object of life; and under the influence of cherished errors, they sacrifice all there is of life that is really valuable. The true man is one who is willing to sacrifice his own interest for the good of others, and who forgets himself in ministering to their happiness.
RC	157	3	Intellect is a mightier force than wealth or physical power. If sanctified and controlled by the Spirit of God, it can exert a powerful influence for good. Yet intellect alone does not make the man, according to the divine standard. When made a minister of vice, great intellect is a curse to the possessor and to all within its influence.
RC	157	4	One's claim to a true manhood must be determined by the use of the powers which God has given him. Lord Byron had rare intellectual gifts; but he was not a man, according to God's standard.... This man was one of the world's distinguished men; still the Lord acknowledged him only as one who had abused his God-given talents. Many others whom God endowed with giant minds, and whom the world called great men, rallied under the banner of Satan, and used the gifts of God for the perversion of truth and of destruction of the souls of men....
RC	157	5	In contrast with the lives of such men is that of Martin Luther. He was not born a prince. He wore no royal crown. From a cloistered cell his voice was heard, and his influence felt. He had a noble, generous heart, as well as a vigorous intellect, and all his powers were exercised for the good of humanity. He stood bravely for truth and right, and breasted the world's opposition to benefit his fellow men.
RC	157	6	That which will bless humanity is spiritual life. If the man is in harmony with God, he will depend continually upon Him for strength. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." It should be our lifework to press forward continually toward the perfection of Christian character, ever striving for conformity to the will of God, remembering that the efforts begun upon earth will continue throughout eternity. God has set before the human family an elevated standard, and he who is true to his God-given manhood will not only promote the happiness of his fellow creatures in this life, but will aid them to secure an eternal reward in the life to come.--The Signs of the Times, June 17, 1886.
------------------------Wisdom that Fulfills God's Purpose, May 24
RC	158	1	The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10.
RC	158	2	All the varied capabilities that men possess--of mind and soul and body--are given them by God, to be so employed as to reach the highest possible degree of excellence. But this cannot be a selfish and exclusive culture; for the character of God, whose likeness we are to receive, is benevolence and love. Every faculty, every attribute, with which the Creator has endowed us is to be employed for His glory and for the uplifting of our fellow men. And in this employment is found its purest, noblest, and happiest exercise.
RC	158	3	Were this principle given the attention which its importance demands, there would be a radical change in some of the current methods of education. Instead of appealing to pride and selfish ambition, kindling a spirit of emulation, teachers would endeavor to awaken the love of goodness and truth and beauty--to arouse the desire for excellence. The student would seek the development of God's gifts in himself, not to excel others, but to fulfill the purpose of the Creator and to receive His likeness. Instead of being directed to merely earthly standards, or being actuated by the desire for self-exaltation, which in itself dwarfs and belittles, the mind would be directed to the Creator, to know Him and to become like Him....
RC	158	4	The great work of life is character building, and a knowledge of God is the foundation of all true education.... The law of God is a reflection of His character. Hence the psalmist says, "All thy commandments are righteousness"; and "through thy precepts I get understanding." God has revealed Himself to us in His Word and in the works of creation. Through the volume of inspiration and the book of nature we are to obtain a knowledge of God.
RC	158	5	It is a law of the mind that it gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is trained to dwell. If occupied with commonplace matters only, it will become dwarfed and enfeebled. If never required to grapple with difficult problems, it will after a time almost lose the power of growth. As an educating power the Bible is without a rival. In the Word of God the mind finds subject for the deepest thought, the loftiest aspiration. The Bible is the most instructive history that men possess. It came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth, and a divine hand has preserved its purity through all the ages.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 595, 596.
------------------------Enlightened to Full Radiance, May 25
RC	159	1	If we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning. Hosea 6:3.
RC	159	2	We are living amid the perils of the last days, and we are to cleanse ourselves from all defilement, and put on the robe of Christ's righteousness. The work of God is to be steadily carried forward. We are to bring ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, into subjection to Christ. Unless we do this, the health of both body and soul will be endangered.
RC	159	3	God desires His workers to gain daily an understanding of how to reason logically from cause to effect, arriving at wise, safe conclusions. He desires them to add to the strength of the memory. We cannot afford to make mistakes. As little children we are to sit at the feet of Christ, learning of Him how to work successfully. We are to ask God for sound judgment, and for light to impart to others. There is need of knowledge that is the fruit of experience. We should not allow a day to pass without gaining an increase of knowledge in temporal and spiritual things. We are to plant no stakes that we are not willing to take up and plant farther on, nearer the heights we hope to ascend.
RC	159	4	The highest education is to be found in training the mind to advance day to day. The close of each day should find us a day's march nearer the overcomer's reward. Day by day our understanding is to ripen. Day by day we are to work out conclusions that will bring a rich reward in this life, and in the life to come. Looking daily to Jesus, instead of to what we ourselves have done, we shall make decided advancement in temporal as well as spiritual knowledge.
RC	159	5	The end of all things is at hand. What we have done must not be allowed to place the period to our work. The Captain of our salvation says, "Advance. The night cometh, in which no man can work." Constantly we are to increase in usefulness. Our lives are always to be under the power of Christ. Our lamps are to be kept burning brightly.
RC	159	6	Prayer is a heaven-ordained means of success. Appeals, petitions, entreaties, between man and man, move men, and act as a part in controlling the affairs of nations. But prayer moves heaven. That power alone that comes in answer to prayer will make men wise in the wisdom of heaven, and enable them to work in the unity of the Spirit, joined together by the bonds of peace. Prayer, faith, confidence in God, bring a divine power that sets human calculations at their real worth--nothingness....
RC	159	7	He who places himself where God can enlighten him advances, as it were, from the partial obscurity of dawn to the full radiance of noonday.--Australian Union Conference Record, November 1, 1904.
------------------------Enjoying Life's Real Pleasures, May 26
RC	160	1	I shall ... praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. Psalm 42:11.
RC	160	2	The wise man says that wisdom's "ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Many cherish the impression that devotion to God is detrimental to health and to cheerful happiness in the social relations to life. But those who walk in the path of wisdom and holiness find that "godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." They are alive to the enjoyment of life's real pleasures, while they are not troubled with vain regrets over misspent hours, nor with gloom or horror of mind, as the worldling often is when not diverted by some exciting amusement.
RC	160	3	It is true that there are many professing Christians who have diseased imaginations, and do not correctly represent the religion of the Bible. They are ever walking under a cloud. They seem to think it a virtue to complain of depression of spirits, great trials, and severe conflicts. This course is not in accordance with the words of the Saviour, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." It is the duty of all to walk in the light, and to cultivate habitual cheerfulness of mind, that they may reflect light rather than gloom and darkness.
RC	160	4	Godliness does not conflict with the laws of health, but is in harmony with them. Had men ever been obedient to the law of ten commandments, had they carried out in their lives the principles of these ten precepts, the curse of disease that now floods the world would not be. Men may teach that trifling amusements are necessary to keep the mind above despondency. The mind may indeed be thus diverted for the time being; but after the excitement is over, calm reflection comes. Conscience arouses, and makes her voice heard, saying, "This is not the way to obtain health or true happiness."
RC	160	5	There are many amusements that excite the mind, but depression is sure to follow. Other modes of recreation are innocent and healthful; but useful labor that affords physical exercise will often have a more beneficial influence upon the mind, while at the same time it will strengthen the muscles, improve the circulation, and prove a powerful agent in the recovery of health.
RC	160	6	"What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? ... The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles."--The Signs of the Times, October 23, 1884.
------------------------The Highway to Health, May 27
RC	161	1	The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. Psalm 34:15.
RC	161	2	The consciousness of rightdoing is the best medicine for diseased bodies and minds. The special blessing of God resting upon the receiver is health and strength. One whose mind is quiet and satisfied in God is on the highway to health. To have the consciousness that the eye of the Lord is upon us, and that His ear is open to our prayers, is a satisfaction indeed. To know that we have a never-failing Friend to whom we can confide all the secrets of the soul is a happiness which words can never express. Those whose moral faculties are clouded by disease are not the ones to rightly represent the Christian life or the beauties of holiness. They are too often in the fire of fanaticism, or the water of cold indifference or stolid gloom.
RC	161	3	Those who do not feel that it is a religious duty to discipline the mind to dwell upon cheerful subjects will usually be found at one of two extremes: they will be elated by a continual round of exciting amusements, indulging in frivolous conversation, laughing, and joking, or they will be depressed, having great trials and mental conflicts, which they think but few have ever experienced or can understand.... Appropriate labor, the healthy exercise of all their powers, would withdraw their thoughts from themselves....
RC	161	4	If they would train their minds to dwell upon themes which have nothing to do with self, they might yet be useful....
RC	161	5	Despondent feelings are frequently the result of too much leisure. The hands and mind should be occupied in useful labor, lightening the burdens of others; and those who are thus employed will benefit themselves also....
RC	161	6	The mind should be drawn away from self; it powers should be exercised in devising means to make others happier and better. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27).
RC	161	7	True religion ennobles the mind, refines the taste, sanctifies the judgment, and makes its possessor a partaker of the purity and holiness of heaven. It brings angels near, and separates us more and more from the spirit and influence of the world. It enters into all the acts and relations of life, and gives us the "spirit of ... a sound mind," and the result is happiness and peace.--The Signs of the Times, October 23, 1884.
------------------------Mental Culture Gained by Bible Study, May 28
RC	162	1	By knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. Proverbs 24:4.
RC	162	2	For the mind and the soul, as well as for the body, it is God's law that strength is acquired by effort. It is exercise that develops. In harmony with this law, God has provided in His Word the means for mental and spiritual development.
RC	162	3	The Bible contains all the principles that men need to understand in order to be fitted either for this life or the life to come. And these principles may be understood by all. No one with a spirit to appreciate its teaching can read a single passage from the Bible without gaining from it some helpful thought. But the most valuable teaching of the Bible is not to be gained by occasional or disconnected study. Its great system of truth is not so presented as to be discerned by the hasty or careless reader.... The truths that go to make up the great whole must be searched out and gathered up, "here a little, and there a little" (Isaiah 28:10).
RC	162	4	When thus searched and brought together, they will be found to be perfectly fitted to one another. Each Gospel is a supplement to the others, every prophecy an explanation of another, every truth a development of some other truth. The types of the Jewish economy are made plain by the gospel. Every principle in the Word of God has its place, every fact its bearing. And the complete structure, in design and execution, bears testimony to its Author. Such a structure no mind but that of the Infinite could conceive or fashion.
RC	162	5	In searching out the various parts and studying their relationship, the highest faculties of the human mind are called into intense activity. No one can engage in such study without developing mental power.
RC	162	6	And not alone in searching out truth and bringing it together does the mental value of Bible study consist. It consists also in the effort required to grasp the themes presented. The mind occupied with commonplace matters only, becomes dwarfed and enfeebled. If never tasked to comprehend grand and far-reaching truths, it after a time loses the power of growth. As a safeguard against this degeneracy, and a stimulus to development, nothing else can equal the study of God's Word.
RC	162	7	As a means of intellectual training, the Bible is more effective than any other book, or all other books combined.... No other study can impart such mental power as does the effort to grasp the stupendous truths of revelation. The mind thus brought in contact with the thoughts of the Infinite cannot but expand and strengthen.--Education, 123, 124.
------------------------Aim for Continual Advancement, May 29
RC	163	1	Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23.
RC	163	2	Truly earnest men are few in our world, but they are greatly needed. The example of an energetic person is far-reaching; he has an electric power over others. He meets obstacles in his work; but he has the push in him, and instead of allowing his way to be hedged up, he breaks down every barrier....
RC	163	3	There are thorns in every path. All who follow the Lord's leading must expect to meet with disappointments, crosses, and losses. But a spirit of true heroism will help them to overcome these. Many greatly magnify seeming difficulties, and then begin to pity themselves and give way to despondency. Such need to make an entire change in themselves. They need to discipline themselves to put forth exertion, and to overcome all childish feelings. They should determine that life shall not be spent in working at trifles. Let them resolve to accomplish something, and then do it.
RC	163	4	Many make good resolutions, but they are always going to do something and never get to it. About all their resolutions amount to is talk. In many cases, if they had more energy and accomplished something in spite of obstacles, they would have far better health.
RC	163	5	Everyone should have an aim, an object, in life. The loins of the mind should be girded up, and the thoughts be trained to keep to the point as the compass to the pole. The mind should be directed in the right channel, according to well-formed plans. Then every step will be a step in advance. No time will be lost in following vague ideas and random plans. Worthy purposes should be kept constantly in view, and every thought and act should tend to their accomplishment. Let there ever be a fixedness of purpose to carry out that which is undertaken.
RC	163	6	Success or failure in this life depends much upon the manner in which the thoughts are disciplined. If they are controlled as God directs that they shall be, they will be upon those subjects which will lead to greater devotion. If the thoughts are right, the words will be right....
RC	163	7	The afternoon sun of ... life may be more mellow and productive of fruit than the morning sun. It may continue to increase in size and brightness until it drops behind the western hills.... Keep your heart and mind young by continuous exercise....
RC	163	8	The Bible is the best book in the world for intellectual culture. The grand themes presented in it, the dignified simplicity with which these themes are handled, the light which it sheds upon the mysteries of heaven, bring strength and vigor to the understanding.--The Review and Herald, April 6, 1886.
------------------------Christians to Move Onward and Upward, May 30
RC	164	1	Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:23, 24.
RC	164	2	Wrong habits must be overcome. Right habits must be formed. Under the discipline of the greatest Teacher the world has ever known, Christians must move onward and upward toward perfection. This is God's command, and no one should say, I cannot do it. He should say instead, God requires me to be perfect, and He will give me strength to overcome all that stands in the way of perfection. He is the source of all wisdom, all power....
RC	164	3	Christians are to be light bearers, saying to all with whom they come in contact, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." They are to be examples of piety, representing Christ in word, in spirit, in action. Their actions are to be a copy of the actions of the Saviour. Thus they are to show the superiority of Christ's principles over the principles of the world. They are to work upon a higher plane of action than do those who are not Christians. They are to bring the ennobling influence of the gospel into every phase of life. Their purity and usefulness are to be a source of illumination to others.
RC	164	4	The world has set up a standard to suit the inclinations of unsanctified hearts, but this is not the standard of those who love Christ. The Redeemer has chosen them out of the world, and has left them His sinless life as a standard. He wants them to rise above all cheapness of word or action.... "Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; ...as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy."
RC	164	5	These words are to be believed and practiced. Christians are to be superior in wisdom, in knowledge, in skill, because they believe in God and His power. The Lord desires them to reach the highest round of the ladder, that they may glorify Him. He has a treasure-house of wisdom from which they may draw....
RC	164	6	The true Christian obtains an experience that brings holiness. The light of truth irradiates his understanding. A glow of love for the Redeemer clears away the cloud that has interposed between his soul and God. The will of God, pure, elevated, and sanctified, becomes his will. His countenance reveals the light of heaven. His body is a fit temple for the Holy Spirit. Holiness adorns his character. God can commune with him; for soul and body are in harmony with the principles of heaven.--The Signs of the Times, July 17, 1901.
------------------------The Temple of God, May 31
RC	165	1	He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. 2 Corinthians 5:15.
RC	165	2	Man is God's workmanship, His masterpiece, created for a high and holy purpose; and on every part of the human tabernacle God desires to write His law. Every nerve and muscle, every mental and physical endowment, is to be kept pure.
RC	165	3	God designs that the body shall be a temple for His Spirit. How solemn then is the responsibility resting on every soul. If we defile our bodies, we are doing harm not only to ourselves, but to many others....
RC	165	4	Christ died that the moral image of God might be restored in humanity, that men and women might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. We are to use no power of our being for selfish gratification; for all our powers belong to Him, and are to be used to His glory....
RC	165	5	The human house, God's building, requires close, watchful guardianship. With David we can exclaim, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." God's workmanship is to be preserved, that the heavenly universe and the apostate race may see that men and women are temples of the living God.
RC	165	6	The perfection of character which God requires is the fitting up of the whole being as a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Lord requires the service of the entire being. He desires men and women to become all that He has made it possible for them to be. It is not enough for certain parts of the human machinery to be used. All parts must be brought into action, or the service is deficient....
RC	165	7	The physical life is to be carefully educated, cultivated, and developed, that through men and women the divine nature may be revealed in its fullness. God expects men to use the intellect He has given them. He expects them to use every reasoning power for Him. They are to give the conscience the place of supremacy that has been assigned to it. The mental and physical powers, with the affections, are to be so cultivated that they can reach the highest efficiency. Thus Christ is represented to the world....
RC	165	8	Is God pleased to see any of the organs or faculties He has given man neglected, misused, or deprived of the health and efficiency it is possible for them to have? Then cultivate the gift of faith. Be brave, and overcome every practice which mars the soul temple. We are wholly dependent on God, and our faith is strengthened by believing, though we cannot see God's purpose in His dealing with us, or the consequence of this dealing. Faith points forward and upward to things to come, laying hold of the only power that can make us complete in Him.--The Review and Herald, November 6, 1900.
------------------------Eden, the First Home, June 1
RC	166	1	The Lord God ... made ... a woman, and brought her unto the man.... Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:22-24.
RC	166	2	God celebrated the first marriage. Thus the institution has for its originator the Creator of the universe. "Marriage is honourable" (Hebrews 13:4); it was one of the first gifts of God to man, and it is one of the two institutions that, after the Fall, Adam brought with him beyond the gates of Paradise. When the divine principles are recognized and obeyed in this relation, marriage is a blessing; it guards the purity and happiness of the race, it provides for man's social needs, it elevates the physical, the intellectual, and the moral nature....
RC	166	3	The home of our first parents was to be a pattern for other homes as their children should go forth to occupy the earth. That home, beautified by the hand of God Himself, was not a gorgeous palace.... God placed Adam in a garden. This was his dwelling.... In the surroundings of the holy pair was a lesson for all time--that true happiness is found, not in the indulgence of pride and luxury, but in communion with God through His created works. If men would give less attention to the artificial, and would cultivate greater simplicity, they would come far nearer to answering the purpose of God in their creation. Pride and ambition are never satisfied, but those who are truly wise will find substantial and elevating pleasure in the sources of enjoyment that God has placed within the reach of all.
RC	166	4	To the dwellers in Eden was committed the care of the garden, "to dress it and to keep it." Their occupation was not wearisome, but pleasant and invigorating. God appointed labor as a blessing to man, to occupy his mind, to strengthen his body, and to develop his faculties. In mental and physical activity Adam found one of the highest pleasures of his holy existence.... The holy pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator.... The order and harmony of creation spoke to them of infinite wisdom and power. They were ever discovering some attraction that filled their hearts with deeper love and called forth fresh expressions of gratitude.
RC	166	5	So long as they remained loyal to the divine law, their capacity to know, to enjoy, and to love would continually increase. They would be constantly gaining new treasures of knowledge, discovering fresh springs of happiness, and obtaining clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the immeasurable, unfailing love of God.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 46-51.
------------------------The Influence of a Christian Home, June 2
RC	167	1	He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12.
RC	167	2	Our time, our strength, and our energies belong to God; and if they are consecrated to His service, our light will shine. It will affect first and most strongly those in our own homes, who are most intimately associated with us; but it will extend beyond the home, even to "the world." To many it will be a savor of life unto life; but there are some who will refuse to see the light, or to walk in it. They are of that class spoken of by our Saviour, when He said: "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." Such are in a very dangerous position; but their course does not excuse any of us from letting our light shine.
RC	167	3	Suppose that because some ship had disregarded his warning beacon, and gone to pieces on the rocks, the lighthouse keeper should put out his lights, and say, "I will pay no more attention to the lighthouse"; what would be the consequence? But that is not the way he does. He keeps his lights burning all night, throwing their beams far out into the darkness, for the benefit of every mariner that comes within the dangerous reach of rocks and shoals. Were some ship to be wrecked because the lights went out, it would be telegraphed over the world that on such a night, at such a point, a ship went to pieces on the rocks because there was no light in the tower. But if some ships are wrecked because they pay no attention to the light, the lighthouse keeper is guiltless; they were warned, but they paid no heed.
RC	167	4	What if the light in the household should go out? Then everyone in that house would be in darkness; and the result would be as disastrous as though the light were to go out in the lighthouse tower. Souls are looking at you, fellow Christians, to see whether you are drunken with the cares of this life, or are preparing for the future, immortal life. They will watch to see what the influence of your life is, and whether you are true missionaries at home, training your children for heaven.
RC	167	5	The Christian's first duty is in the home. Fathers and mothers, yours is a great responsibility. You are preparing your children for life or for death; you are training them for an abiding place here in the earth, for self-gratification in this life, or for the immortal life, to praise God forever. And which shall it be? It should be the burden of your life to have every child that God has committed to your trust receive the divine mold.--The Signs of the Times, January 14, 1886.
------------------------An Argument Infidels Cannot Resist, June 3
RC	168	1	While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. John 12:36.
RC	168	2	A well-ordered Christian household is an argument that the infidel cannot resist. He finds no place for his cavils [trivial faultfinding]. And the children of such a household are prepared to meet the sophistries of infidelity. They have accepted the Bible as the basis of their faith, and they have a firm foundation that cannot be swept away by the incoming tide of skepticism.
RC	168	3	Said Christ, "Ye are the light of the world." He has committed talents to our keeping. What are we doing with His entrusted gifts? Are we letting our light shine by using them for His glory and the benefit of our fellow men, or are we using them to advance our own selfish interests? Many are using them selfishly. They do not seem to realize that we are all judgment-bound, and must soon give an account for the use we have made of our God-given opportunities to do good. But what excuse will they give in that great day for not using in the cause of God their skill, their education, their tact, and their perseverance and zeal?
RC	168	4	We need divine help if we would keep our lights burning. But Jesus died to provide that aid. He extends the invitation: "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." Cling to the arm of Infinite Power; then you will find Him precious to your soul, and all heaven will be at your command. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light," we shall have the companionship of holy angels. To "Joshua" it was said, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge,... I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by." And who are "these that stand by"? They are the angels of God. Joshua must have a living, confiding trust in God every day; and then angels would walk with him, and the power of God would rest upon him in all his labors.
RC	168	5	Then, Christian friends, fathers and mothers, let your light grow dim--no, never! Let your heart grow faint, or your hands weary--no, never! And by and by the portals of the celestial city will be opened to you; and you may present yourselves and your children before the throne, saying, "Here am I, and the children whom Thou hast given me." And what a reward for faithfulness that will be, to see your children crowned with immortal life in the beautiful city of God!--The Signs of the Times, January 14, 1886.
------------------------Laying Hold of the Mighty One of Heaven, June 4
RC	169	1	Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. Psalm 90:17.
RC	169	2	Your children should be taught to control their tempers and to cultivate a loving, Christlike spirit. So direct them that they will love the service of God, that they will take more pleasure in going to the house of worship than to places of amusement. Teach them that religion is a living principle. Had I been brought up with the idea that religion is a mere feeling, my life would have been a useless one. But I never let feeling come between Heaven and my soul. Whatever my feelings may be, I will seek God at the commencement of the day, at noon, and at night, that I may draw strength from the living Source of power.
RC	169	3	[Mothers,] has ... not [your time] been given you to be spent in beautifying the minds of your children, and cultivating loveliness of character? Should it not be spent in laying hold of the Mighty One of heaven, and seeking Him for power and wisdom to train your children for a place in His kingdom, to secure for them a life that will endure as long as the throne of Jehovah? ...
RC	169	4	Perhaps the mother sits at her work night after night, while her children go to bed without a prayer or a good-night kiss. She does not bind their tender hearts to her own by the cords of love; for she is "too busy." ...
RC	169	5	Some may wonder why it is that we say so much about home religion and the children. It is because of the terrible neglect of home duties on the part of so many. As the servants of God, parents, you are responsible for the children committed to your care. Many of them are growing up without reverence, growing up careless and irreligious, unthankful and unholy.
RC	169	6	If these children had been properly trained and disciplined, if they had been brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, heavenly angels would be in your homes. If you were true home missionaries, ... you would be ... fitting your children to stand by your side, as efficient workers in the cause of God.
RC	169	7	What an impression it makes upon society to see a family united in the work and service of the Lord. Such a family is a powerful discourse in favor of the reality of Christianity. Others see that there is an influence at work in the family that affects the children, and that the God of Abraham is with them. And that which has such a powerful influence on the children is felt beyond the home, and affects other lives. If the homes of professed Christians had a right religious mold, they would exert a mighty influence for good. They would indeed be the "light of the world."--The Signs of the Times, January 14, 1886.
------------------------Christ Bestows the Graces Needed, June 5
RC	170	1	That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace. Psalm 144:12.
RC	170	2	The first and most urgent duty which the mother owes to her Creator is to train for Him the children that He has given her.... How careful, then, should be her language and behavior in the presence of these little learners....
RC	170	3	Mothers, awake to the fact that your influence and example are affecting the character and destiny of your children; and in view of your responsibility, develop a well-balanced mind, and a pure character, reflecting only the true, the good, and the beautiful.
RC	170	4	Your compassionate Redeemer is watching you with love and sympathy, ready to hear your prayers, and to render you the assistance which you need. He knows the burdens of every mother's heart, and is her best friend in every emergency. His everlasting arms support the God-fearing, faithful mother. When upon earth, He had a mother that struggled with poverty, having many anxious cares and perplexities, and He sympathizes with every Christian mother in her cares and anxieties. That Saviour who took a long journey for the purpose of relieving the anxious heart of a woman whose daughter was possessed by an evil spirit will hear the mother's prayers, and will bless her children.
RC	170	5	He who gave back to the widow her only son as he was carried to the burial is touched today by the woe of the bereaved mother. He who wept tears of sympathy at the grave of Lazarus, and gave back to Martha and Mary their buried brother; who pardoned Mary Magdalene; who remembered His mother when He was hanging in agony upon the cross; who appeared to the weeping women, and made them His messengers to spread the first glad tidings of a risen Saviour--He is woman's best friend today, and is ready to aid her in all the relations of life.
RC	170	6	Our Saviour, who understands our heart struggles, and knows the weakness of our natures, pities our infirmities, forgives our errors, and bestows upon us the graces which we earnestly desire. Joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, faith, and charity are the elements of the Christian character. These precious graces are the fruit of the Spirit, and the Christian's crown and shield. Where these graces reign in the home, the sons are "as plants grown up in their youth," and the daughters "as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace." These heavenly attainments are not dependent upon circumstances, nor the will of imperfect judgment of man. Nothing can give more perfect contentment and satisfaction than the cultivation of a Christian character; the most exalted aspirations can aim at nothing higher.--The Signs of the Times, September 9, 1886.
------------------------Christ Eases the Burdens of Parents, June 6
RC	171	1	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; ... and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:28, 29.
RC	171	2	No work can equal that of the Christian mother. She takes up her work with a sense of what it is to bring up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. How often will she feel her burden's weight heavier than she can bear; and then how precious the privilege of taking it all to her sympathizing Saviour in prayer. She may lay her burden at His feet, and find in His presence a strength that will sustain her, and give her cheerfulness, hope, courage, and wisdom in the most trying hours. How sweet to the care-worn mother is the consciousness of such a Friend in all her difficulties. If mothers would go to Christ more frequently, and trust Him more fully, their burdens would be easier, and they would find rest to their souls.
RC	171	3	Jesus is a lover of children. The important responsibility of training her children should not rest alone upon the mother.... The father should encourage and sustain the mother in her work of care by his cheerful looks and kind words.... Her children must have her time and attention.... This training of children to meet the Bible standard will require time, perseverance, and prayer. This should be attended to if some things about the house are neglected.
RC	171	4	Many times in the day is the cry of Mother, Mother, heard, first from one little troubled voice and then another. In answer to the cry, mother must turn here and there to attend to their demands.... A word of approval will bring sunshine to the heart for hours. Many precious beams of light and gladness can the mother shed here and there among her precious little ones. How closely can she bind those dear ones to her heart, that her presence will be to them the sunniest place in the world.
RC	171	5	But frequently the patience of the mother is taxed with these numerous little trials, that seem scarcely worth attention.... She almost forgets herself time and again, but a silent prayer to her pitying Redeemer calms her nerves, and she is enabled to hold the reins of self-control with quiet dignity. She speaks with calm voice, but it has cost her an effort to restrain harsh words and subdue angry feelings, which, if expressed, would have destroyed her influence, which it would have taken time to regain.... As the parents wish God to deal with them, so should they deal with their children.
RC	171	6	Our children are only the younger members of the Lord's family, entrusted to us to educate wisely, to patiently discipline, that they may form Christian characters, and be qualified to bless others in this life, and enjoy the life to come.--The Signs of the Times, September 13, 1877.
------------------------Parents to Teach Obedience, June 7
RC	172	1	Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Ephesians 6:1.
RC	172	2	The children are to be taught that their capabilities were given them for the honor and glory of God. To this end they must learn the lesson of obedience; for only by lives of willing obedience can they render to God the service He requires. Before the child is old enough to reason, he must be taught to obey. By gentle, persistent effort, the habit should be established....
RC	172	3	Let children be shown that true reverence is revealed by obedience. God has commanded nothing that is unessential, and there is no other way of manifesting reverence so pleasing to Him as by obedience to that which He has spoken.
RC	172	4	The mother is the queen of the home, and the children are her subjects. She is to rule her household wisely, in the dignity of her motherhood.... Tell your children exactly what you require of them. Then let them understand that your word must be obeyed. Thus you are training them to respect the commandments of God, which plainly declare, "Thou shalt," and "Thou shalt not."
RC	172	5	Few parents begin early enough to teach their children to obey. The child is usually allowed to get two or three years the start of its parents, who forbear to discipline it, thinking it too young to learn to obey. But all this time self is growing strong in the little being, and every day makes harder the parent's task of gaining control. At a very early age children can comprehend what is plainly and simply told them, and by kind and judicious management can be taught to obey. Never should they be allowed to show their parents disrespect. Self-will should never be permitted to go unrebuked. The future well-being of the child requires kindly, loving, but firm discipline....
RC	172	6	Wise parents will not say to their children, "Follow your own choice; go where you will, and do what you will"; but, "Listen to the instruction of the Lord." Wise rules and regulations must be made and enforced, that the beauty of the homelife may not be spoiled....
RC	172	7	Children will be happier, far happier, under proper discipline than if left to do as their unrestrained impulses suggest. A child's truest graces consist in modesty and obedience--in attentive ears to hear the words of direction, in willing feet and hands to walk and work in the path of duty....
RC	172	8	Above all things, parents should surround their children with an atmosphere of cheerfulness, courtesy, and love. A home where love dwells and where it finds expression in looks, in words, in acts, is a place where angels delight to dwell.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 111-115.
------------------------Christ, the Wife and Mother's Strength, June 8
RC	173	1	Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Proverbs 31:28.
RC	173	2	It is true that the wheels of domestic machinery will not always run smoothly; there is much to try the patience and tax the strength. But while mothers are not responsible for circumstances over which they have no control, it is useless to deny that circumstances make a great difference with mothers in their lifework. But their condemnation is when circumstances are allowed to rule, and to subvert their principle, when they grow tired and unfaithful to their high trust, and neglect their known duty.
RC	173	3	The wife and mother who nobly overcomes difficulties, under which others sink for want of patience and fortitude to persevere, not only becomes strong herself in doing her duty, but her experience in overcoming temptations and obstacles qualifies her to be an efficient help to others, both by words and example. Many who do well under favorable circumstances seem to undergo a transformation of character under adversity and trial; they deteriorate in proportion to their troubles. God never designed that we should be the sport of circumstances....
RC	173	4	[The true wife and mother] will perform her duties with dignity and cheerfulness, not considering that it is degrading to do with her own hands whatever is necessary for her to do in a well-ordered household. If she looks to God for her strength and comfort, and in His wisdom and fear seeks to do her daily duty, she will bind her husband to her heart, and see her children coming to maturity, honorable men and women, having moral stamina to follow the example of their mother.
RC	173	5	There is no chance work in this life; the harvest will determine the character of the seed that has been sown....
RC	173	6	Mothers, you are developing character. Your compassionate Redeemer is watching you in love and sympathy, ready to hear your prayers, and render you the assistance which you need in your lifework. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, faith, and charity are the elements of the Christlike character. These precious graces are the fruits of the Spirit. They are the Christian's crown and shield. The highest daydreaming and most exalted aspirations can aim at nothing higher. Nothing can give more perfect content and satisfaction.
RC	173	7	These heavenly attainments are not dependent upon circumstances, nor the will or imperfect judgment of man. The precious Saviour, who understands our heart struggles and the weaknesses of our natures, pities, and forgives us our errors, and bestows upon us the graces which we earnestly desire.--The Health Reformer, August, 1877.
------------------------Fathers to Spend Time with Children, June 9
RC	174	1	And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4.
RC	174	2	While we have dwelt upon the importance of the mother's work and mission, we would not lightly pass over the duty and responsibility of the husband and father in the training of his children. His efforts should be in harmony with those of the God-fearing mother. He should manifest his love and respect for her as the woman he has chosen and the mother of his children....
RC	174	3	Fathers should ... mingle with the children, sympathizing with them in their little troubles, binding them to their hearts by the strong bonds of love, and establishing such an influence over their expanding minds that their counsel will be regarded as sacred....
RC	174	4	Upon returning home from his business he should find it a pleasant change to spend some time with his children. He may take them into the garden, and show them the opening buds, and the varied tints of the blooming flowers. Through such mediums he may give them the most important lessons concerning the Creator, by opening before them the great book of nature, where the love of God is expressed in every tree, and flower, and blade of grass. He may impress upon their minds the fact that if God cares so much for the trees and flowers, He will care much more for the creatures formed in His image. He may lead them early to understand that God wants children to be lovely, not with artificial adornment, but with beauty of character, the charms of kindness and affection, which will make their hearts bound with joy and happiness.
RC	174	5	Parents may do much to connect their children with God by encouraging them to love the things of nature which He has given them, and to recognize the hand of the Giver in all they receive. The soil of the heart may thus early be prepared for casting in the precious seeds of truth, which in due time will spring up and bear a rich harvest. Fathers, the golden hours which you might spend in getting a thorough knowledge of the temperament and character of your children, and the best methods of dealing with their young minds, are ... precious.--The Signs of the Times, December 6, 1877.
RC	174	6	The father's duty to his children should be one of his first interests. It should not be set aside for the sake of acquiring a fortune, or of gaining a high position in the world. In fact, those very conditions of affluence and honor frequently separate a man from his family, and cut off his influence from them more than anything else. If the father would have his children develop harmonious characters, and be an honor to him and a blessing to the world, he has a special work to do.--The Signs of the Times, December 20, 1877.
------------------------Fathers to Lead Children to Religious Light, June 10
RC	175	1	Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Psalm 127:1.
RC	175	2	What can we say to awaken the moral sensibilities of fathers, that they may understand and undertake their duty to their offspring? The subject is of intense interest and importance, having a bearing upon the future welfare of our country. We would solemnly impress upon fathers, as well as mothers, the grave responsibility they have assumed in bringing children into the world. It is a responsibility from which nothing but death can free them. True, the chief care and burden rests upon the mother during the first years of her children's lives, yet even then the father should be her stay and counsel, encouraging her to lean upon his large affections, and assisting her as much as possible....
RC	175	3	In that great day of reckoning it will be asked him: Where are the children that I entrusted to your care to educate for Me, that their lips might speak My praise, and their lives be as a diadem of beauty in the world, and they live to honor Me through all eternity?
RC	175	4	In some children the moral powers strongly predominate. They have power of will to control their minds and actions. In others the animal passions are almost irresistible. To meet these diverse temperaments, which frequently appear in the same family, fathers, as well as mothers, need patience and wisdom from the divine Helper....
RC	175	5	The father should frequently gather his children around him, and lead their minds into channels of moral and religious light. He should study their different tendencies and susceptibilities, and reach them through the plainest avenues. Some may be best influenced through veneration and the fear of God; others through the manifestation of His benevolence and wise providence, calling forth their deep gratitude; others may be more deeply impressed by opening before them the wonders and mysteries of the natural world, with all its delicate harmony and beauty, which speak to their souls of Him who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and all the beautiful things therein.
RC	175	6	Children who are gifted with the talent or love of music may receive impressions that will be lifelong, by the judicious use of those susceptibilities as the medium for religious instruction.... Many may be reached best through sacred pictures, illustrating scenes in the life and mission of Christ....
RC	175	7	While there should be a uniformity in the family discipline, it should be varied to meet the wants of different members of the family. It should be the parents' study ... to ... inspire them with a desire to attend to the highest intelligence and perfection of character.--The Signs of the Times, December 20, 1877.
------------------------The Work of Both Parents is Important, June 11
RC	176	1	[The Lord] blesses the home of the righteous. Proverbs 3:33, N.I.V.
RC	176	2	The Word of God should be judiciously brought to bear upon ... youthful minds, and be their standard of rectitude, correcting their errors, enlightening and guiding their minds, which will be far more effectual in restraining and controlling the impulsive temperament than harsh words, which will provoke to wrath....
RC	176	3	A sunny countenance and cheerful, encouraging words will brighten the poorest home, and be as a talisman to guard the father and the children from the many temptations that allure them from the love of home....
RC	176	4	But the work of making home happy does not rest upon the mother alone. Fathers have an important part to act. The husband is the house-band of the home treasures, binding by his strong, earnest, devoted affection the members of the household, mother and children, together in the strongest bonds of union. It is for him to encourage, with cheerful words, the efforts of the mother in rearing her children.
RC	176	5	The mother seldom appreciates her own work, and frequently sets so low an estimate upon her labor that she regards it as domestic drudgery. She goes through the same round day after day, week after week, with no special marked results. She cannot tell, at the close of the day, the many little things she has accomplished. Placed beside her husband's achievement, she feels that she has done nothing worth mentioning.
RC	176	6	The father frequently comes in with a self-satisfied air, and proudly recounts what he has accomplished during the day....She has not done much except take care of the children, cook the meals, and keep the house in order. She has not acted the merchant, bought nor sold; she has not acted the farmer, in tilling the soil; she has not acted the mechanic--therefore she has done nothing to make her weary....
RC	176	7	Could the veil be withdrawn, and father and mother see as God sees the work of the day, and see how His infinite eye compares the work of the one with that of the other, they would be astonished at the heavenly revelation. The father would view his labors in a more modest light, while the mother would have new courage and energy to pursue her labor with wisdom, perseverance, and patience.
RC	176	8	Now she knows its value. While the father has been dealing with the things which must perish and pass away, the mother has been dealing with developing minds and character, working, not only for time, but for eternity. Her work, if done faithfully in God, will be immortalized.--The Signs of the Times, September 13, 1877.
------------------------Children to Develop Well-Balanced Characters, June 12
RC	177	1	The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high.... He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure. Isaiah 33:5, 6, N.I.V.
RC	177	2	Guard your children from every objectionable influence possible; for in childhood they are more ready to receive impressions, either of moral dignity, purity, and loveliness of character, or of selfishness, impurity, and disobedience. Once let them become influenced by the spirit of murmuring, pride, vanity, and impurity, and the taint may be as indelible as life itself.
RC	177	3	It is because the home training is defective that the youth are so unwilling to submit to proper authority. I am a mother; I know whereof I speak when I say that youth and children are not only safer but happier under wholesome restraint than when following their own inclination.--The Adventist Home, 469, 470.
RC	177	4	It should be the object of every parent to secure to his child a well-balanced, symmetrical character. This is a work of no small magnitude and importance--a work requiring earnest thought and prayer no less than patient, persevering effort. A right foundation must be laid, a framework, strong and firm, erected, and then day by day the work of building, polishing, perfecting must go forward.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 107.
RC	177	5	The physical, mental, and spiritual capabilities should be developed in order to form a properly balanced character. Children should be watched, guarded, and disciplined in order to successfully accomplish this. It requires skill and patient effort to mold the young in the right manner. Certain evil tendencies are to be carefully restrained and tenderly rebuked; the mind is to be stimulated in favor of the right. The child should be encouraged in attempting to govern self, and all this is to be done judiciously, or the purpose desired is frustrated.
RC	177	6	Parents may well inquire: "Who is sufficient for these things?" God alone is their sufficiency, and if they leave Him out of the question, seeking not His aid and counsel, hopeless indeed is their task. But by prayer, by study of the Bible, and by earnest zeal on their part they may succeed nobly in this important duty and be repaid a hundredfold for all their time and care....
RC	177	7	The Bible, a volume rich in instruction, should be their textbook.... Impressions made upon the minds of the young are hard to efface. How important, then, that these impressions should be of the right sort, bending the elastic faculties of youth in the right direction.--Testimonies for the Church 4:197, 198.
------------------------Father as Priest; Mother as Teacher, June 13
RC	178	1	Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and reject not your mother's teaching. Proverbs 1:8, R.S.V.
RC	178	2	The love that was in the heart of Christ is to be in our hearts, that we may reveal it to those around us. We need to be daily strengthened by the deep love of God, and to let this love shine forth to those around us....
RC	178	3	Parents, you have a church in your home, and God demands that you bring into this church the grace of heaven, which is beyond computation, and the power of heaven, which is without measure. You can have this grace and this power if you will. But you must educate yourselves in accordance with your baptismal vows. When you took these vows, you pledged yourself, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that you would live unto God, and you have no right to break this pledge. The help of the three great powers is placed at your disposal.
RC	178	4	When in the name of Christ you ask for grace to overcome, it will be given unto you; for the promise is "Ask, and it shall be given you" (Matthew 7:7). Yes, seek God for aid. If you are in perplexity, do not go to your neighbors. Learn to carry your troubles to God. If you seek you will find; if you knock, it shall be opened unto you. But this means faith, faith, faith. Exercise living faith in Christ....
RC	178	5	The father is the priest and the house-band of the home. The mother is the teacher of the little ones from their babyhood, and the queen of the household. Never is she to be slighted. Never are careless, indifferent words to be spoken to her before the children. She is their teacher. In thought and word and deed the father is to reveal the religion of Christ, that his children may see plainly that he has a knowledge of what it means to be a Christian....
RC	178	6	In our work we are not to strive to make an appearance. We are to look upon Christ, beholding what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. And what a joy, what a power, will be with us as we do this! It will not be merely the excitement of feeling, but a deep abiding joy. We are to present the solid truths of the Word of God, that these truths may be impressed on the hearts of the people, and that men and women may be led to walk in the footsteps of the Redeemer....
RC	178	7	I pray that your eyes may be anointed with the heavenly eyesalve, that you may discern what is truth and what is error. We need to put on the white garments of Christ's righteousness. We need to walk and talk with God.--Manuscript 66, 1905.
------------------------Ministers to be Faithful in Family Life, June 14
RC	179	1	Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6.
RC	179	2	The father is the highest priest of the family. The souls of his wife and children, as God's property, should be to him of the highest value, and he should faithfully guide the formation of their characters. The care of his children from their infancy should be his first consideration; for it is for their present and eternal good that they develop right characters. He should carefully weigh his words and actions, considering their influence, and the results they may produce.
RC	179	3	He who is engaged in the work of the gospel ministry must be faithful in his family life. It is as essential that as a father he should improve the talents God has given him for the purpose of making the home a symbol of the heavenly family, as that in the work of the ministry he should make use of his God-given powers to win souls for the church. As the priest in the home, and as the ambassador of Christ in the church, he should exemplify in his life the character of Christ. He must be faithful in watching for souls as one that must give an account.
RC	179	4	In His service there must be seen no carelessness and inattentive work. God will not serve with the sins of men who have not a clear sense of the sacred responsibility involved in accepting a position as pastor of a church. He who fails to be a faithful, discerning shepherd in the home will surely fail of being a faithful shepherd to the flock of God in the church.--Manuscript 42, 1903.
RC	179	5	Every family is a church, over which the parents preside. The first consideration of the parents should be to work for the salvation of their children. When the father and mother as priest and teacher of the family take their position fully on the side of Christ, a good influence will be exerted in the home. And this sanctified influence will be felt in the church and will be recognized by every believer. Because of the great lack of piety and sanctification in the home, the work of God is greatly hindered. No man can bring into the church an influence that he does not exert in his home life and in his business relations....
RC	179	6	The angels of God, who minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, will help you to make your family a model of the heavenly family. Let there be peace in the home, and there will be peace in the church. This precious experience brought into the church will be the means of creating a kindly affection one for another. Quarrels will cease. True Christian courtesy will be seen among church members. The world will take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus and have learned of Him. What an impression the church would make upon the world if all the members would live Christian lives!--Child Guidance, 549.
------------------------Parents to Counsel Their Children, June 15
RC	180	1	If sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Proverbs 1:10.
RC	180	2	Parents should encourage their children to confide in them and unburden to them their heart griefs, their daily little annoyances and trials. If they do this, the parents can learn to sympathize with their children, and pray for them and with them, that God would shield and guide them. They should point them to their never-failing Friend and Counselor, who will be touched with the feelings of their infirmities. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
RC	180	3	Satan tempts children to be reserved to their parents, and choose their young and inexperienced companions as their confidants; such as cannot help them, or give them good advice....
RC	180	4	Children would be saved from many evils if they would be more familiar with their parents. Parents should encourage in their children a disposition to be open and frank with them, to come to them with their difficulties, and when they are perplexed as to what course is right, to lay the matter just as they view it before their parents, and ask advice of them.
RC	180	5	Who are so well calculated to see and point out their dangers as godly parents? Who can understand the peculiar temperaments of their children as well as they? The mother who has watched every turn of the mind from infancy, and is acquainted with the natural disposition, is best prepared to counsel her children. Who can tell as well what traits of character to check and restrain as the mother, aided by the father?
RC	180	6	Children who are Christians will prefer the love and approbation of their God-fearing parents above every earthly blessing. They will love and honor their parents. This should be one of the principal studies of their lives. How can I make my parents happy? Children who have not been disciplined and received right instruction have but little sense of their obligations to their parents....
RC	180	7	Active hands and minds do not find time to heed every temptation the enemy suggests; but idle hands and brains are all ready for Satan to control, and parents should teach their children that idleness is sin.--The Signs of the Times, June 6, 1878.
RC	180	8	The Lord requires perfection from His redeemed family. He calls for perfection in character-building. Fathers and mothers especially need to understand the best methods of training children, that they may cooperate with God. Men and women, children and youth, are measured in the scales of heaven in accordance with that which they reveal in their home life. A Christian in the home is a Christian everywhere. Religion brought into the home exerts an influence that cannot be measured.--The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 5:1085.
------------------------Study the Divine Guidebook in Worship, June 16
RC	181	1	Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.
RC	181	2	The Bible is a guide in the management of children. Here, if parents desire, they may find a course marked out for the education and training of their children, that they may make no blunders.... When this Guidebook is followed, parents, instead of giving unlimited indulgence to their children, will use more often the chastening rod; instead of being blind to their faults, their perverse tempers, and alive only to their virtues, they will have clear discernment and will look upon these things in the light of the Bible. They will know that they must command their children in the right way.--Child Guidance, 256.
RC	181	3	The Word of God abounds in general principles for the formation of correct habits of living, and the testimonies, general and personal, have been calculated to call their attention more especially to these principles.--Testimonies for the Church 4:323.
RC	181	4	In arousing and strengthening a love for Bible study, much depends on the use of the hour of worship. The hours of morning and evening worship should be the sweetest and most helpful of the day. Let it be understood that into these hours no troubled, unkind thoughts are to intrude; that parents and children assemble to meet with Jesus, and to invite into the home the presence of holy angels. Let the services be brief and full of life, adapted to the occasion, and varied from time to time.
RC	181	5	Let all join in the Bible reading and learn and often repeat God's law. It will add to the interest of the children if they are sometimes permitted to select the reading. Question them upon it, and let them ask questions. Mention anything that will serve to illustrate its meaning. When the service is not thus made too lengthy, let the little ones take part in prayer, and let them join in song, if it be but a single verse....
RC	181	6	Parents should take time daily for Bible study with their children. No doubt it will require effort and planning and some sacrifice to accomplish this; but the effort will be richly repaid. As a preparation for teaching His precepts, God commands that they be hidden in the hearts of the parents. "These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart," He says: "and thou shalt teach them diligently" (Deuteronomy 6:6, 7). In order to interest our children in the Bible, we ourselves must be interested in it. To awaken in them a love for its study, we must love it.... All that God's Word commands, we are to obey. All that it promises, we may claim.--Education, 186-189.
------------------------The Bible is the Voice of God to Families, June 17
RC	182	1	Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord. Psalm 127:3.
RC	182	2	Parents need to reform; ministers need to reform; they need God in their households. If they would see a different state of things, they must bring His Word into their families and must make it their counselor. They must teach their children that it is the voice of God addressed to them, and is to be implicitly obeyed. They should patiently instruct their children, kindly and untiringly teach them how to live in order to please God. The children of such a household are prepared to meet the sophistries of infidelity. They have accepted the Bible as the basis of their faith, and they have a foundation that cannot be swept away by the incoming tide of skepticism.
RC	182	3	In too many households prayer is neglected. Parents feel that they have no time for morning and evening worship. They cannot spare a few moments to be spent in thanksgiving to God for His abundant mercies--for the blessed sunshine and the showers of rain, which cause vegetation to flourish, and for the guardianship of holy angels. They have no time to offer prayer for divine help and guidance and for the abiding presence of Jesus in the household. They go forth to labor...without one thought of God or heaven. They have souls so precious that rather than permit them to be hopelessly lost, the Son of God gave His life to ransom them....
RC	182	4	Like the patriarchs of old, those who profess to love God should erect an altar to the Lord wherever they pitch their tent. If ever there was a time when every house should be a house of prayer, it is now. Fathers and mothers should often lift up their hearts to God in humble supplication for themselves and their children. Let the father, as priest of the household, lay upon the altar of God the morning and evening sacrifice, while the wife and children unite in prayer and praise. In such a household Jesus will love to tarry.
RC	182	5	From every Christian home a holy light should shine forth. Love should be revealed in action. It should flow out in all home intercourse, showing itself in thoughtful kindness, in gentle, unselfish courtesy. There are homes where this principle is carried out--homes where God is worshiped and truest love reigns. From these homes morning and evening prayer ascends to God as sweet incense, and His mercies and blessings descend upon the suppliants like the morning dew.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 143, 144.
RC	182	6	That which will make the character lovely in the home is that which will make it lovely in the heavenly mansions.--Child Guidance, 481.
------------------------Family Worship not to be Neglected, June 18
RC	183	1	Trust...in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. 1 Timothy 6:17.
RC	183	2	We should be much happier and more useful, if our homelife and social intercourse were governed by the principles of the Christian religion, and illustrated the meekness and simplicity of Christ.... Let visitors see that we try to make all around us happy by our cheerfulness, sympathy, and love.
RC	183	3	While we endeavor to secure the comfort and happiness of our guests, let us not overlook our obligation to God. The hour of prayer should not be neglected for any consideration.... At an early hour of the evening, when you can pray unhurriedly and understandingly, present your supplication, and raise your voices in happy, grateful praise. Let all who visit Christians see that the hour of prayer is the most sacred, the most precious, and the happiest hour of the day. Such an example will not be without effect.
RC	183	4	These seasons of devotion exert a refining, elevating influence upon all who participate in them. Right thoughts and new and better desires will be awakened in the hearts of the most careless. The hour of prayer brings a peace and rest grateful to the weary spirit; for the very atmosphere of a Christian home is that of peace and restfulness.
RC	183	5	In every act the Christian should seek to represent his Master, to make His service appear attractive....
RC	183	6	Nine tenths of the trials and perplexities that so many worry over are either imaginary, or brought upon themselves by their own wrong course. They should cease to talk of these trials, and [cease] to magnify them. The Christian may commit every worriment, every disturbing thing to God. Nothing is too small for our compassionate Saviour to notice; nothing is too great for Him to carry.
RC	183	7	Then let us set our hearts and homes in order; let us teach our children that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and let us, by a cheerful, happy, well-ordered life, express our gratitude and love to Him "who giveth us richly all things to enjoy." But above all things, let us fix our thoughts and the affections of our hearts on the dear Saviour who suffered for guilty man, and thus opened heaven for us.
RC	183	8	Love to Jesus cannot be hidden, but will make itself seen and felt. It exerts a wondrous power. It makes the timid bold, the slothful diligent, the ignorant wise. It makes the stammering tongue eloquent, and rouses the dormant intellect into new life and vigor. It makes the desponding hopeful, the gloomy joyous. Love to Christ will lead its possessor to accept responsibilities and cares for His sake, and to bear them in His strength.--The Signs of the Times, December 17, 1885.
------------------------Early Training of Children Determines their Future Experience, June 19
RC	184	1	Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. Ephesians 6:2-3.
RC	184	2	Few parents take time to think of how much depends on the instruction and training a child receives during the early years of its life. It is at this time that the foundation of a child's character is laid....
RC	184	3	Mothers, do not forget that God requires you to give your children constant, loving care. He does not want you to be a slave to your children, but He does want you to teach them to live for Him. Day by day give them lessons that will prepare them for future usefulness. One lesson that you will have to repeat over and over again is the lesson of obedience. Teach your children that they are not to rule, that they are to respect your wishes, and yield to your authority. Thus you are teaching them self-control....
RC	184	4	When children lose their self-control, and speak passionate words, the parents should for a time keep silence, neither reproving nor condemning. At such times silence is golden, and will do more to bring repentance than any words that can be uttered. Satan is well pleased when parents irritate their children by speaking harsh, angry words. Paul has given a caution on this point: "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged." They may be very wrong, but you cannot lead them to the right by losing patience with them. Let your calmness help to restore them to a proper frame of mind.
RC	184	5	Jesus loves children and youth. He rejoices when He sees Satan repulsed in his efforts to overcome them. Many a youth is in imminent peril through manifold temptations, but the Saviour has the tenderest sympathy for him, and sends His angels to guard and protect him. He is the good shepherd, ever ready to go into the wilderness to seek for the lost, straying sheep....
RC	184	6	Mothers, do you sigh for a missionary field? In your home you have a missionary field in which you may labor with untiring energy and unflagging zeal, knowing that the results of your work will endure through all eternity.... The work of the mother who has a close connection with Christ is of infinite worth. Her ministry of love makes the home a Bethel. Christ works with her, turning the common water of life into the wine of heaven.
RC	184	7	Christian parents, you are charged with the responsibility of showing the world the power and excellency of home religion. Be controlled by principle, not by impulse. Work with the consciousness that God is your helper.... Guided by Him, your children will grow up to bless and honor you in this life and in the life to come.--The Review and Herald, January 24, 1907.
------------------------Families to Reflect the Goodness of God, June 20
RC	185	1	As the father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those that fear him. Psalm 103:13, N.I.V.
RC	185	2	Bring the sunshine of heaven into your conversation. By speaking words that encourage and cheer, you will reveal that the sunshine of Christ's righteousness dwells in your soul. Children need pleasant words. It is essential to their happiness to feel approval resting upon them. Strive to overcome harshness of expression, and cultivate soft tones. Catch the beauty contained in the lessons of God's Word, and cherish this as essential to the happiness and success of your homelife. In a happy environment the children will develop dispositions that are sweet and sunshiny.
RC	185	3	True beauty of character is not something that shines out only on special occasions; the grace of Christ dwelling in the soul is revealed under all circumstances. He who cherishes this grace as an abiding presence in the life will reveal beauty in character under trying as well as under easy circumstances. In the home, in the world, in the church, we are to live the life of Christ. There are souls all around in need of conversion. When the law of God is written upon the heart, and is witnessed to in a holy character, those who know not the power of the grace of Christ will be led to desire it, and will be converted.
RC	185	4	A solemn review is now taking place in the courts above. The thought of the decisions now being made in heaven should urge parents to diligence in training their children in the fear and love of God. Not by severe words and punishment for wrongdoing will the most be accomplished, but by watchfulness and prayer, lest they be taken by the snares of the enemy....
RC	185	5	Every family that has a knowledge of the truth for this time, is to make it known to others. The Lord's people are to get ready for the doing of a special work. The children as well as the older members of the family are to act their part in seeking to save those who are perishing. From His youth Christ was, to all with whom He associated, an influence that drew them toward higher things. So the youth today may exert a power for good that will draw souls to God.
RC	185	6	Parents need to appreciate more fully the responsibility and honor that God has placed upon them, in making them, to the child, the representative of Himself. The character revealed in the contact of daily life will interpret to the child, for good or for evil, those words of God:
RC	185	7	"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you."--The Signs of the Times, November 14, 1911.
------------------------Gentleness and Patience in the Home, June 21
RC	186	1	As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you. Isaiah 66:13, N.I.V.
RC	186	2	The home is a place where every heavenly grace may be developed. The Lord delights to dwell with those families who cultivate home religion, and with whom the spirit of praise and cheerfulness reigns. His people need to understand the principles that underlie the religion of Christ, and study how to make these principles the ruling element in the life. This will fill the home with sunshine. The fruit of faith will be seen in true service for Christ.
RC	186	3	As those who profess to follow the meek and lowly Jesus, Christian parents should never permit temper to gain the mastery over them. Never should they strike their children in haste or anger. When they have done wrong, and you feel that they need correcting, take the matter to God in prayer. Kneeling before the Lord, tell your Father your grief because the Spirit of the Lord has been grieved. Seek for God's blessing and guidance in the training of your children.... When through the aid of the divine Spirit parents succeed in turning their young hearts to Him, God and angels rejoice.
RC	186	4	Let parents remember that the example they set in the daily deportment, their children will follow.... Let them remember that scolding will accomplish nothing in the formation of Christian character. It will never bring about reformations, nor lead the youth to desire to become Christ's chosen ones.
RC	186	5	By gentleness and patience, seek to win your children from wrong. Seek God for wisdom to train them so that they will love you and love God. When it is necessary to refuse them their desires, show them kindly that in doing this you are seeking their highest good. Love and cherish your children; but do not allow them to follow their own way, for this is the curse of the age in which we live. Show them where they make mistakes, and teach them that if they do not correct these wrongs, they can never be given a place in the mansions that Jesus is preparing for those who love Him. In this way you will retain their love and confidence....
RC	186	6	Children and youth need the influence of a cheerful example. They need pleasant instruction.... By an example of patience and forbearance, the Christian parent is to teach that evil temper and harshness have no place in the life of the believer in Christ, that these qualities are displeasing to God. As your children see you bringing into your lives the principles of truth, they too will be led to fight against wrong habits and practices, and with you will reflect the goodness and love of God.--The Signs of the Times, November 14, 1911.
------------------------Useful Occupation Better Than Games, June 22
RC	187	1	It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect. Psalm 18:32.
RC	187	2	Educate men and women to bring up their children free from false, fashionable practices, to teach them to be useful. The daughters should be educated under the mothers to do useful labor, not merely indoor labor but out-of-door labor as well. Mothers could also train the sons, to a certain age, to do useful things indoors and out-of-doors.
RC	187	3	There are plenty of necessary, useful things to do in our world that would make the pleasure-amusement exercise almost wholly unnecessary. Brain, bone, and muscle will acquire solidity and strength in using them to a purpose, doing good hard thinking, and in devising plans which shall train them [the youth] to develop powers of intellect and strength of the physical organs, which will be putting into practical use their God-given talents with which they may glorify God.
RC	187	4	This was plainly laid out before our health institution and our college as the forcible reason why they should be established among us; but as it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so it is in our time. Men have sought out many inventions and have widely departed from God's purposes and His ways.
RC	187	5	I do not condemn the simple exercise of playing ball; but this, even in its simplicity, may be overdone. I shrink always from the almost sure result which follows in the wake of these amusements. It leads to an outlay of means that should be expended in bringing the light of truth to souls that are perishing out of Christ. The amusements and expenditures of means for self-pleasing, which lead on step by step to self-glorifying, and the educating in these games for pleasure, produce a love and passion for such things that is not favorable to the perfection of Christian character....
RC	187	6	Suffering humanity needs help everywhere. The students may win their way to hearts by speaking words in season, by doing favors for those who need even physical labor. This will... bring a consciousness of the approval of God. It will be putting the talents, entrusted to you for wise improvement, to the exchangers....
RC	187	7	There are healthful methods of exercise that may be planned which will be beneficial to both soul and body.... It is our duty ever to seek to do good in the use of the muscles and brain God has given to youth, that they may be useful to others, making their labors lighter, ... turning the minds of the students from fun and frolic which often carries them beyond the dignity of manhood and womanhood.... The Lord would have the mind elevated, seeking higher, nobler channels of usefulness.--Selected Messages 2:321-324.
------------------------Teach Children to be Workers Together With God, June 23
RC	188	1	The ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them. Hosea 14:9.
RC	188	2	In the life of a Christian, the things of this world, the idols of pride, extravagance, and self-indulgence, are to have no place. God did not form the eye to be used for selfish purposes. He gave us the power of vision in order that we might behold and admire the Saviour in His works, which He has created for our pleasure.
RC	188	3	As children prepare to attend one of our schools, wise parents will help them to understand that in school life they are to strive to form a character that will fit them to associate with the unfallen beings of the universe. And this they can do only through the overcoming power that Christ will give them. Without His grace, no one can form a Christlike character.
RC	188	4	Parents, teach your children to become workers with you in the church. Educate them in such a way that they will delight to be workers together with God. Impress upon their minds the thought that as they grow older, their opportunities for service will enlarge, and their power and ability will increase proportionately. Let them understand that those who give themselves to God will become channels of blessing to others who know Him not. Teach them how to have power to prevail with God. If this were done faithfully by every parent, we should see consecrated workers everywhere.--Manuscript 67, 1903. Church members, young and old, should be educated to go forth to proclaim this last message to the world. If they go in humility, angels of God will go with them, teaching them how to lift up the voice in prayer, how to raise the voice in song, and how to proclaim the gospel message for this time.--Messages to Young People, 217.
RC	188	5	The idea of holding Bible readings is a heaven-born idea, and opens the way to put hundreds of young men and women into the field to do an important work, which otherwise could not have been done.
RC	188	6	The Bible is unchained. It can be carried to every man's door, and its truths may be presented to every man's conscience. There are many who, like the noble Bereans, will search the Scriptures daily for themselves, when the truth is presented, to see whether or not these things are so.... Jesus, the world's Redeemer, bids men not only to read, but to "search the scriptures." This is a great and important work, and it is committed to us, and in doing this we shall be greatly benefited; for obedience to Christ's command will not go unrewarded. He will crown with especial tokens of His favor this act of loyalty in following the light revealed in His Word.--Messages to Young People, 220.
------------------------Family United by Bonds of Love, June 24
RC	189	1	She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. Proverbs 31:26.
RC	189	2	Whenever the mother can speak a word of commendation for the good conduct of her children, she should do so. She should encourage them by words of approval and looks of love. These will be as sunshine to the heart of a child and will lead to the cultivation of self-respect and pride of character....
RC	189	3	Children have sensitive, loving natures. They are easily pleased and easily made unhappy. By gentle discipline in loving words and acts, mothers may bind their children to their hearts. To manifest severity and to be exacting with children are great mistakes. Uniform firmness and unimpassioned control are necessary to the discipline of every family. Say what you mean calmly, move with consideration, and carry out what you say without deviation.
RC	189	4	It will pay to manifest affection in your association with your children. Do not repel them by lack of sympathy in their childish sports, joys, and griefs.--Testimonies for the Church 3:532.
RC	189	5	Infant children are a mirror for the mother, in which she may see reflected her own habits and deportment, and may trace even the tones of her own voice. How careful then should be her language and behavior in the presence of these little learners who take her for an example. If she wishes them to be gentle in manners and tractable, she must cultivate those traits in herself.
RC	189	6	When children love and repose confidence in their mother, and have become obedient to her, they have been taught the first lessons in becoming Christians....
RC	189	7	In view of the individual responsibility of mothers, every woman should develop a well-balanced mind and pure character, reflecting only the true, the good, and the beautiful. The wife and mother may bind her husband and children to her heart by an unremitting love, shown in gentle words and courteous deportment, which, as a rule, will be copied by her children.
RC	189	8	Politeness is cheap, but it has power to soften natures which would grow hard and rough without it. Christian politeness should reign in every household. The cultivation of a uniform courtesy, and a willingness to do by others as we would like them to do by us, would annihilate half the ills of life. The principle inculcated in the injunction, "Be kindly affectioned one to another," is the cornerstone of the Christian character.... Christian courtesy is the golden clasp which unites the members of the family in bonds of love, becoming closer and stronger every day.--The Health Reformer, August, 1877.
------------------------Courtesy Should Reign in the Home, June 25
RC	190	1	Let love be without dissimulation.... Be kindly affectioned one to another ...; in honour preferring one another. Romans 12:9, 10.
RC	190	2	The principle inculcated by the injunction, "Be kindly affectioned one to another," lies at the very foundation of domestic happiness. Christian courtesy should reign in every household.... The wife and mother may bind the hearts of her husband and children to her own by the strong cords of love, if in her intercourse with them she will manifest unvarying love in gentle words and courteous deportment.
RC	190	3	Marked diversities of disposition and character frequently exist in the same family; for it is in the order of God that persons of varied temperaments should associate together. When this is the case, each member of the household should sacredly regard the feelings and respect the rights of the others. By this means mutual consideration and forbearance will be cultivated, prejudices will be softened, and rough points of character smoothed. Harmony may be secured, and the blending of the varied temperaments may be a benefit to each....
RC	190	4	[The true wife and mother] will perform her duties with dignity and cheerfulness, not considering it degrading to do with her own hands whatever it is necessary to do in a well-ordered household.
RC	190	5	In order to be a good wife, it is not necessary that woman's nature should be utterly merged in that of her husband. Every individual has a life distinct from all others, an experience differing essentially from theirs. It is not the design of our Creator that our individuality should be lost in another's; He would have us possess our own characters, softened and sanctified by His sweet grace. He would hear our words fresh from our own hearts. He would have our yearning desires and earnest cries ascend to Him marked by our own individuality. All do not have the same exercises of mind, and God calls for no secondhand experience. Our compassionate Redeemer reaches His helping hand to us just where we are.
RC	190	6	If woman looks to God for strength and comfort, and in His fear seeks to perform her daily duties, she will win the respect and confidence of her husband, and see her children coming to maturity honorable men and women, having moral stamina to do right....
RC	190	7	When the mother has gained the confidence of her children, and taught them to love and obey her, she has given them the first lesson in the Christian life. They must love and trust and obey their Saviour, as they love and trust and obey their parents. The love which in faithful care and right training the parents manifest for the child faintly mirrors the love of Jesus for His faithful people.--The Signs of the Times, September 9, 1886.
------------------------Cheerfulness in the Home Promotes Happiness, June 26
RC	191	1	Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. Proverbs 16:24.
RC	191	2	The mother should cultivate a cheerful, contented, happy disposition. Every effort in this direction will be abundantly repaid in both the physical well-being and the moral character of her children. A cheerful spirit will promote the happiness of her family and in a very great degree improve her own health.
RC	191	3	Let the husband aid his wife by his sympathy and unfailing affection. If he wishes to keep her fresh and gladsome, so that she will be as sunshine in the home, let him help her bear her burdens. His kindness and loving courtesy will be to her a precious encouragement, and the happiness he imparts will bring joy and peace to his own heart....
RC	191	4	Great is the honor and the responsibility placed upon fathers and mothers, in that they are to stand in the place of God to their children. Their character, their daily life, their methods of training, will interpret His words to the little ones. Their influence will win or repel the child's confidence in the Lord's assurances.
RC	191	5	Happy are the parents whose lives are a true reflection of the divine, so that the promises and commands of God awaken in the child gratitude and reverence; the parents whose tenderness and justice and long-suffering interpret to the child the love and justice and long-suffering of God; and who, by teaching the child to love and trust and obey them, are teaching him to love and trust and obey his Father in heaven. Parents who impart to a child such a gift have endowed him with a treasure more precious than the wealth of all the ages--a treasure as enduring as eternity.
RC	191	6	In the children committed to her care, every mother has a sacred charge from God. "Take this son, this daughter," He says; "train it for Me; give it a character 'polished after the similitude of a palace,' that it may shine in the courts of the Lord forever." ...
RC	191	7	There is a God above, and the light and glory from His throne rests upon the faithful mother as she tries to educate her children to resist the influence of evil. No other work can equal hers in importance....
RC	191	8	The mother who appreciates this will regard her opportunities as priceless. Earnestly will she seek, in her own character and by her methods of training, to present before her children the highest ideal.... Diligently she will study His Word. She will keep her eyes fixed upon Christ, that her own daily experience, in the lowly round of care and duty, may be a true reflection of the one true Life.--The Ministry of Healing, 374-378.
------------------------Great Truths Handed Down From Father to Son, June 27
RC	192	1	[The king] made him [Joseph] lord of his house, and ruler of all his possessions, to instruct his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom. Psalm 105:21, 22, R.S.V.
RC	192	2	In his childhood, Joseph had been taught the love and fear of God. Often in his father's tent, under the Syrian stars, he had been told the story of the night vision at Bethel, of the ladder from heaven to earth, and the descending and ascending angels and of Him who from the throne above revealed Himself to Jacob. He had been told the story of the conflict beside the Jabbok, when, renouncing cherished sins, Jacob stood conqueror, and received the title of a prince with God.
RC	192	3	A shepherd boy, tending his father's flocks, Joseph's pure and simple life had favored the development of both physical and mental power. By communion with God through nature and the study of the great truths handed down as a sacred trust from father to son, he had gained strength of mind and firmness of principle.
RC	192	4	In the crisis of his life, when making that terrible journey from his childhood home in Canaan to the bondage which awaited him in Egypt, looking for the last time on the hills that hid the tents of his kindred, Joseph remembered his father's God. He remembered the lessons of his childhood, and his soul thrilled with the resolve to prove himself true--ever to act as became a subject of the King of heaven.
RC	192	5	In the bitter life of a stranger and a slave, amidst the sights and sounds of vice and allurements of heathen worship, a worship surrounded with all the attractions of wealth and culture and the pomp of royalty, Joseph was steadfast. He had learned the lesson of obedience to duty. Faithfulness in every station, from the most lowly to the most exalted, trained every power for highest service.
RC	192	6	At the time when he was called to the court of Pharaoh, Egypt was the greatest of nations. In civilization, art, learning, she was unequaled. Through a period of utmost difficulty and danger, Joseph administered the affairs of the kingdom; and this he did in a manner that won the confidence of the king and the people. Pharaoh "made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: to bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom" (K.J.V.)....
RC	192	7	Loyalty to God, faith in the Unseen, was Joseph's anchor. In this lay the hiding of his power. "The arms of his hands were made strong By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob."...
RC	192	8	Joseph and Daniel proved themselves true to the principles of their early training, true to Him whose representatives they were.--Education, 52-57.
------------------------Abraham's Example as a Father, June 28
RC	193	1	I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. Genesis 18:19.
RC	193	2	Of Abraham it is written that "he was called the Friend of God" (James 2:23), "the father of all them that believe" (Romans 4:11). The testimony of God concerning this faithful patriarch is "Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws" (Genesis 26:5).... It was a high honor to which Abraham was called, that of being the father of the people who for centuries were the guardians and preservers of the truth of God for the world--of that people through whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed in the advent of the promised Messiah.
RC	193	3	But He who called the patriarch judged him worthy. It is God that speaks. He who understands the thoughts afar off, and places the right estimate upon men, says, "I know him." There would be on the part of Abraham no betraying of the truth for selfish purposes. He would keep the law and deal justly and righteously. And he would not only fear the Lord himself, but would cultivate religion in his home. He would instruct his family in righteousness. The law of God would be the rule in his household.
RC	193	4	Abraham's household comprised more than a thousand souls. Those who were led by his teachings to worship the one God found a home in his encampment; and here, as in a school, they received such instruction as would prepare them to be representatives of the true faith. Thus a great responsibility rested upon him. He was training heads of families, and his methods of government would be carried out in the households over which they should preside....
RC	193	5	Abraham sought, by every means in his power, to guard the inmates of his encampment against mingling with the heathen and witnessing their idolatrous practices, for he knew that familiarity with evil would insensibly corrupt the principles. The greatest care was exercised to shut out every form of false religion and to impress the mind with the majesty and glory of the living God as the true object of worship....
RC	193	6	Abraham's affection for his children and his household led him to guard their religious faith, to impart to them a knowledge of the divine statutes, as the most precious legacy he could transmit to them, and through them to the world. All were taught that they were under the rule of the God of heaven. There was to be no oppression on the part of parents, and no disobedience on the part of children. God's law had appointed to each his duties, and only in obedience to it could any secure happiness or prosperity.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 140-142.
------------------------Abraham Obeyed God's Voice, June 29
RC	194	1	Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Genesis 26:5.
RC	194	2	[Abraham's] own example, the silent influence of his daily life, was a constant lesson. The unswerving integrity, the benevolence and unselfish courtesy, which had won the admiration of kings, were displayed in the home. There was a fragrance about the life, a nobility and loveliness of character, which revealed to all that he was connected with Heaven. He did not neglect the soul of the humblest servant. In his household there was not one law for the master and another for the servant; a royal way for the rich and another for the poor. All were treated with justice and compassion, as inheritors with him of the grace of life.
RC	194	3	"He will command his ... household." There would be no sinful neglect to restrain the evil propensities of his children, no weak, unwise, indulgent favoritism; no yielding of his conviction of duty to the claims of mistaken affection. Abraham would not only give right instruction, but he would maintain the authority of just and righteous laws.
RC	194	4	How few there are in our day who follow this example! On the part of too many parents there is a blind and selfish sentimentalism, miscalled love, which is manifested in leaving children, with their unformed judgment and undisciplined passions, to the control of their own will. This is the veriest cruelty to the youth, and a great wrong to the world. Parental indulgence causes disorder in families and in society. It confirms in the young the desire to follow inclination, instead of submitting to the divine requirements. Thus they grow up with a heart averse to doing God's will, and they transmit their irreligious, insubordinate spirit to their children and children's children. Like Abraham, parents should command their households after them. Let obedience to parental authority be taught and enforced as the first step in obedience to the authority of God....
RC	194	5	Those who seek to lessen the claims of God's holy law are striking directly at the foundation of the government of families and nations. Religious parents, failing to walk in His statutes, do not command their household to keep the way of the Lord. The law of God is not made the rule of life. The children, as they make homes of their own, feel under no obligation to teach their children what they themselves have never been taught. And this is why there are so many godless families....
RC	194	6	Not until parents themselves walk in the law of the Lord with perfect hearts will they be prepared to command their children after them. A reformation in this respect is needed--a reformation which shall be deep and broad.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 142, 143.
------------------------Hannah and the Early Life of Samuel, June 30
RC	195	1	And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the Lord, and also with men. 1 Samuel 2:26.
RC	195	2	The fulfillment of Hannah's vow to dedicate her child to the Lord was not deferred until he could be presented at the tabernacle. From the earliest dawn of intellect she trained his infant mind to love and reverence God, and to regard himself as the Lord's. By every familiar object surrounding him she sought to lead his thoughts up to the Creator.
RC	195	3	When separated from her child, the faithful mother's solicitude did not cease. He was the subject of her prayers. Every year she made him a little coat, and when she came with her husband to the yearly sacrifice, she presented it to the child as a token of her love. With every stitch of that coat she had breathed a prayer that he might be pure, noble, and true. She did not ask that he might be great, but earnestly pleaded that he might be good.
RC	195	4	Her faith and devotion were rewarded. She saw her son, in the simplicity of childhood, walking in the love and fear of God. She saw him growing up to manhood in favor with God and man, humble, reverent, prompt in duty, and earnest in the service of his divine Master....
RC	195	5	Would that every mother could realize how great are her duties and her responsibilities, and how great will be the reward of faithfulness. The mother's daily influence upon her children is preparing them for everlasting life or eternal death. She exercises in her home a power more decisive than the minister in the desk, or even the king upon his throne. The day of God will reveal how much the world owes to godly mothers for men who have been unflinching advocates of truth and reform--men who have been bold to do and dare, who have stood unshaken amid trials and temptations; men who chose the high and holy interests of truth and the glory of God, before worldly honor or life itself.
RC	195	6	When the Judgment shall sit, and the books shall be opened; when the "well done" of the great Judge is pronounced, and the crown of immortal glory is placed upon the brow of the victor, many will raise their crowns in sight of the assembled universe, and pointing to their mother say, "She made me all I am through the grace of God. Her instruction, her prayers, have been blessed to my eternal salvation."
RC	195	7	Samuel became a great man in the fullest sense, as God estimates character.... Young men should be trained to stand firm for the right amid the prevailing iniquity, to do all in their power to arrest the progress of vice, and to promote virtue, purity, and true manliness. The impressions made upon the mind and character in early life are deep and abiding.--The Signs of the Times, November 3, 1881.
------------------------God's Church to Reflect His Glory, July 1
RC	196	1	Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9.
RC	196	2	The church is God's appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. From the beginning it has been God's plan that through His church shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency. The members of the church, those whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light, are to show forth His glory. The church is the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and through the church will eventually be made manifest, even to "the principalities and powers in heavenly places" (Ephesians 3:10), the final and full display of the love of God.
RC	196	3	Many and wonderful are the promises recorded in the Scriptures regarding the church. "Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people" (Isaiah 56:7). "I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing" (Ezekiel 34:26).... "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me" (Isaiah 49:16).
RC	196	4	The church is God's fortress, His city of refuge, which He holds in a revolted world. Any betrayal of the church is treachery to Him who has bought mankind with the blood of His only-begotten Son. From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His watchmen, who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which they lived. These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they were called to lay off their armor, others took up the work. God brought these witnesses into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His people.
RC	196	5	Through centuries of persecution, conflict, and darkness, God has sustained His church. Not one cloud has fallen upon it that He has not prepared for; not one opposing force has risen to counterwork His work, that He has not foreseen. All has taken place as He predicted. He has not left His church forsaken, but has traced in prophetic declarations what would occur, and that which His Spirit inspired the prophets to foretell has been brought about. All His purposes will be fulfilled. His law is linked with His throne, and no power of evil can destroy it. Truth is inspired and guarded by God; and it will triumph over all opposition.--The Acts of the Apostles, 9-12.
------------------------Every True Christian to be a Light Bearer, July 2
RC	197	1	I am the light of the world. John 9:5.
RC	197	2	God desires us to shine as lights in the world. Darkness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the people; and Christ says to His followers, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." We are to give the light of truth to others, ever asking, ever receiving, ever imparting, working in all simplicity through the sanctification of the Spirit.
RC	197	3	Christ pointed out the position His people should occupy when He said, "Ye are the light of the world." From the members of the church there is to go forth an influence which shall enlighten others. The Light-giver arranges the lamps so that all in His house (the world) may be enlightened. He has an inexhaustible supply of light, and He places those who truly believe in Him where they will shine brighter and brighter. Constantly our light is to increase in brightness because we are constantly receiving light from the Source of all light. Beholding Christ, we are to become changed into His image, reflecting His light to the world.
RC	197	4	Each soul united to Christ becomes a light in God's house. Each is to receive and impart, letting his light shine forth in clear, bright rays. We are held responsible by God if we do not let light shine to those who are in darkness. God has given each member of His church the work of giving light to the world, and those who faithfully act their part in this work will receive an increasing supply of light to impart. By His Spirit the Lord will mold and fashion the human agent, quickening his energies, and giving him light wherewith to enlighten others.
RC	197	5	Life always shows itself in action. If the heart is living, it will send the lifeblood to every part of the body. Those whose hearts are filled with spiritual life will not need to be urged to reveal this life. The divine life will flow forth from them in rich currents of grace. As they pray, and as they speak, God is glorified.
RC	197	6	There is no limit to the Lord's efficiency. He is prepared to advance and to add new territory to His kingdom; but His people must do their part in carrying forward this work. "Ask, and it shall be given you" is the promise. Our part is to rest on the word with unwavering faith, believing that God will do according to His promise. Let faith cut its way through the shadows of the enemy. When a questioning doubt arises, go to Christ, and let the soul be encouraged by communion with Him. The redemption He has purchased for us is complete. The offering He made was plenteous and without stint. Heaven has a never-failing supply of help for all who need help.--The Bible Echo, June 11, 1900.
------------------------God Glorified in Human Life, July 3
RC	198	1	For we are labourers together with God; ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
RC	198	2	It is the Saviour's delight to see His followers colaborers with God, receiving bountifully all the means of fruit-bearing, and giving bountifully, as workers under Him. Christ glorified His Father by the fruit He bore, and the lives of His true followers will produce the same result. Receiving and imparting, His workers will produce much fruit. "Hitherto," Christ said to His disciples, "have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."
RC	198	3	The God of providence still walks among us, though His footsteps are not seen, though His positive and direct workings are not recognized or understood. The world in its human wisdom knows not God. The Lord designs that through human beings His glory, not the glory of men, shall be manifested. It is His light that shines through His agencies. Providence and revelation work in divine harmony, revealing God as first, and last, and best in everything.
RC	198	4	Christ is drawing sinners to Himself by the cords of love, seeking to unite them to Himself, that they may be laborers together with God, not in pride and self-sufficiency, but in meekness and lowliness. When sinners are converted, God is glorified before the principalities and powers of heaven and earth. These converted ones are a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. "Ye are my witnesses," God says. By looking to Me you are to become transformed in character. By the manifestation of Christlike forbearance and love you are to reveal this transformation.
RC	198	5	By imparting to others the love and tenderness which God has so abundantly bestowed on us, we are to let our light shine. We should put every gift of God to the best possible use, making it a producer of good. To God we can give nothing which is not already His, but we can help the suffering ones around us. We can supply them with the necessities of this life, and at the same time speak to them of the wonderful love of God.
RC	198	6	Christ has identified His interests with those of His people. He has plainly stated that we can minister to Him by ministering to His suffering ones. Words of encouragement and cheer, spoken when the soul is sick and the pulse of courage is low, these are regarded by the Saviour as if spoken to Himself....
RC	198	7	We are to be in the world as a corrective influence, as salt that retains its savor. Among an unholy, impure, idolatrous generation, we are to be pure and holy, showing that the grace of Christ has power to restore in man the divine likeness. We are to exert a saving influence upon those in the world.--The Bible Echo, June 11, 1900.
------------------------Be One, as Christ and the Father are One, July 4
RC	199	1	Now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. John 17:11.
RC	199	2	Where shall we find the purity, goodness, and holiness where we shall be secure? Where is the fold where no wolves will enter? I tell you ... the Lord has an organized body through whom He will work. There may be more than a score of Judases among them; there may be a rash Peter who will under circumstances of trial deny his Lord; there may be persons represented by John whom Jesus loved, but he may have a zeal that would destroy men's lives by calling down fire from heaven upon them to revenge an insult to Christ and to the truth. But the great Teacher seeks to give lessons of instruction to correct these existing evils. He is doing the same today with His church. He is pointing out their dangers. He is presenting before them the Laodicean message.
RC	199	3	He shows them that all selfishness, all pride, all self-exaltation, all unbelief and prejudice, which lead to resistance of the truth and turn away from the true light, are dangerous, and unless repented of, those who cherish these things will be left in darkness as was the Jewish nation. Let every soul now seek to answer the prayer of Christ. Let every soul echo that prayer in mind, in petitions, in exhortations, that they all may be one even as Christ is one with the Father, and work to this end. In the place of turning the weapons of warfare within our own ranks, let them be turned against the enemies of God and the truth. Echo the prayer of Christ with your whole heart: "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.... I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil" (John 17:11-15)....
RC	199	4	The door of the heart must be opened to the Holy Spirit, for this is the sanctifier, and the truth is the medium. There must be an acceptance of the truth as it is in Jesus. This is the only genuine sanctification: "Thy word is truth." Oh, read the prayer of Christ for unity, "Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are." The prayer of Christ is not only for those who are now His disciples, but for all those who shall believe on Christ through the words of His disciples, even to the end of the world....
RC	199	5	The Lord has had a church from that day, through all the changing scenes of time to the present period.... The Bible sets before us a model church. They are to be in unity with each other, and with God. When believers are united in Christ the living vine, the result is that they are one with Christ, full of sympathy and tenderness and love.--Manuscript 21, 1893.
------------------------Perfect Oneness will Give Success, July 5
RC	200	1	That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21.
RC	200	2	I urge our people to cease their criticism and evil-speaking, and go to God in earnest prayer, asking Him to help them to help the erring. Let them link up with one another and with Christ. Let them study the seventeenth of John, and learn how to pray and how to live the prayer of Christ. He is the Comforter. He will abide in their hearts, making their joy full. His words will be to them as the bread of life, and in the strength thus gained they will be enabled to develop characters that will be an honor to God. Perfect Christian fellowship will exist among them. There will be seen in their lives the fruit that always appears as the result of obedience to the truth.
RC	200	3	Let us make Christ's prayer the rule of our life, that we may form characters that will reveal to the world the power of the grace of God. Let there be less talk about petty differences, and a more diligent study of what the prayer of Christ means to those who believe on His name. We are to pray for union, and then live in such a way that God can answer our prayers.
RC	200	4	Perfect oneness--a union as close as the union existing between the Father and the Son--this is what will give success to the efforts of God's workers.--Manuscript 1, 1903.
RC	200	5	Complete union with Christ and with one another is absolutely necessary to the perfection of believers. Christ's presence by faith in the hearts of believers is their power, their life. It brings union with God. "Thou in me." Union with God through Christ makes the church perfect.--Manuscript 182, 1905.
RC	200	6	He who seeks to serve others by self-denial and self-sacrifice will be given the attributes of character that commend themselves to God, and develop wisdom, true patience, forbearance, kindness, compassion. This gives him the chiefest place in the kingdom of God.--Manuscript 165, 1898.
RC	200	7	Nothing can perfect a perfect unity in the church but the spirit of Christlike forbearance. Satan can sow discord; Christ alone can harmonize the disagreeing elements.... When you as individual workers of the church love God supremely and your neighbor as yourself, then there will be no labored efforts to be in unity, there will be oneness in Christ, the ears to report will be closed, and no one will take up a reproach against his neighbor. The members of the church will cherish love and unity and be as one great family. Then we shall bear the credentials to the world that will testify that God has sent His Son into the world. Christ has said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."--Letter 29, 1889.
------------------------Prepare to Meet thy God, July 6
RC	201	1	The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord. Zephaniah 1:14.
RC	201	2	I am bidden to call upon the churches to awake out of sleep. We must contend with invisible, supernatural foes. We are to put on the whole armor of God, that we may be prepared for the battles we have daily to fight.
RC	201	3	I call upon those who have received light and knowledge to pray most earnestly, and to come up "to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." Who are these mighty foes? They are the powers who, in the days of Daniel, hindered the heavenly messengers from convincing the king of Persia of the work he was to do.
RC	201	4	Our work of heralding the second coming of Christ is similar to that of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ at His first advent. We are to proclaim to the world the message, "The great day of the Lord is near." "Prepare to meet thy God." We are to do much more than we have yet done.
RC	201	5	Among us, as among the children of Israel when they were being led to the Promised Land, are many who, unless they can see clearly every step in advance, will not move at the command of God to "go forward." They have but little faith, and but little of the spirit of self-denial....
RC	201	6	There is room in the work of God for all who are filled with the spirit of self-sacrifice. We have a solemn work before us. God is calling for men and women who are willing to experience travail of soul, men and women who are consecrated to His work. We need ... men who have a solid experience in the things of God, who, when they encounter difficulties, will hold firmly to the work, saying, We will not fail nor be discouraged. We want men who will strengthen and build up the work, not tear down and seek to destroy that which others are trying to do. We need men and women whom God can work, the fallow ground of whose heart has been broken up.
RC	201	7	We do not need workers who must be supported and carried by those who have long been in the faith.... We want workers who are not steeped in selfishness, those who are not self-sufficient....
RC	201	8	Satan will always cooperate with those who are willing to betray sacred trusts. There are traitors, ... men who claim to be Sabbathkeepers, but who, instead of building up the work, hinder it by criticizing and falsely accusing their brethren.
RC	201	9	Oh, how many might do a noble work in self-denial and self-sacrifice, who are absorbed in the little things of life! They are blind and cannot see afar off. They make a world of an atom and an atom of a world. They have become shallow streams, because they do not impart to others the Water of Life.--Manuscript 173, 1898.
------------------------Every Member May Render Service, July 7
RC	202	1	As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. 2 Corinthians 6:1, N.I.V.
RC	202	2	All our church members should feel a deep interest in home and foreign missions. Great spiritual blessing will come to them as they make self-sacrificing efforts to plant the standard of truth in new territory. The money invested in this work will bring rich returns. New converts, rejoicing in the light received from the Word, will in their turn give of their means to carry the light to others.
RC	202	3	The Lord is calling upon His people to take up different lines of missionary work. Those in the highways and hedges are to hear the saving gospel message. Church members are to do evangelistic work in the homes of those of their friends and neighbors who have not yet received full evidence of the truth....
RC	202	4	Let those who take up this work make the life of Christ their constant study. Let them be intensely in earnest, using every capability in the Lord's service. Precious results will follow sincere, unselfish effort. From the great Teacher the workers will receive the highest of all education.
RC	202	5	Many of God's people are to go forth with publications containing the light of present truth, into places where the third angel's message has never been proclaimed. The work of the canvasser-evangelist who is imbued with the Spirit of God is fraught with wonderful possibilities for good. The presentation of the truth, in love and simplicity, from house to house, is in harmony with the instruction that Christ gave His disciples when He sent them out on their first missionary tour. By songs of praise to God, humble, heartfelt prayers, and a simple presentation of Bible truth in the family circle, many will be reached. The Divine Worker will be present to send conviction to hearts. "I am with you alway" is His promise. With the assurance of the abiding presence of such a Helper, we may labor with faith and hope and courage.
RC	202	6	The monotony of our service for God needs to be broken up. Every church member should be engaged in some line of work for God. Let those who are well established in the truth go into neighboring places, and hold meetings, giving a cordial invitation to all. Let there be in these meetings melodious songs, fervent prayers, and the reading of God's Word....
RC	202	7	There are others who can visit the homes of the people, reading to the members of the family on some simple impressive subject of Bible truth....
RC	202	8	There are those who, because of pressing home duties, may not be able to do house-to-house work. But let them not think that they can do nothing to help. They can encourage those who go out, and they can give of their means to help to sustain them.--Manuscript 150, 1903.
------------------------Let Repentant Ones be Forgiven, July 8
RC	203	1	Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Luke 6:37.
RC	203	2	The Lord pardons all who repent of their sins. It is from those who do not repent, those who bolster themselves up in self-confidence, that He turns away. Never will He refuse to listen to the voice of tears and repentance. Never will He turn His face away from the humble soul who comes to Him in repentance and sorrow....
RC	203	3	The church member who believes the Word of God will never look indifferently upon a soul that humbles himself and confesses his sin. Let the repenting one be taken back with rejoicing. Christ came to the world to forgive everyone who says, "I repent. I am sorry for my sin." When a brother says, "God has forgiven me. Will you forgive?" clasp his hand, and say, "As I hope to be forgiven, I forgive."
RC	203	4	"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
RC	203	5	When the enemy is seeking in every way to destroy, shall church members unite with him to discourage a man who is repentant, and is asking for forgiveness? God has not placed any man as judge. "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.... Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
RC	203	6	"And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom; and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him."
RC	203	7	"And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Will you let this lesson sink deep into your hearts?--Letter 199, 1905.
------------------------Awake, and Watch for Souls, July 9
RC	204	1	I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. John 9:4.
RC	204	2	Never have I felt more deeply than now the necessity of keeping the way of the Lord, and of doing His will at all times. Now is the time to do thorough work for eternity. We must be humble and trustful. We must make use of every talent that God gives us. We have been blessed with great and precious light from the Word of God, and we should study how to make the best use of this light. Individually we are on test and trial. God is watching to see how we will use His great blessings.
RC	204	3	What can we say to arouse our people to use their entrusted talents to the honor and glory of God? The world's greatest need is consecrated effort for the conversion of souls. Thousands upon thousands are perishing without a knowledge of the truth. My soul is sometimes stirred to its very depths as I see the terrible picture. I would urge our people to seek to bring every thought into subjection to Christ, that all their powers may be employed in the work of saving souls. There should be no sleeping now. It is time for us to awake, and to watch for souls as they that must give account.
RC	204	4	Will our churches now arise, and awake to the situation? The representatives of Christ are to carry a burden for souls. Every nation and kindred and tongue and people is to hear the last message of mercy to the world. When our church members have a better understanding of Bible truth, they will arouse from their drowsy slumber and will be ready to devote their money to the cause of God, and to give themselves in earnest labor under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. God's people are His agents, appointed to proclaim the truth in all parts of the world.
RC	204	5	Christ has taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." This opens before us the height to which we are to attain by steady progress and continual advancement. As members of the church of Christ, we are to do His will on earth. If all would do unto others as they would have others do unto them, we would see indications of a converted world. Upon this principle the Christian is to build. We are to ascend a ladder whose top reaches to heaven.
RC	204	6	Every church member is to engage in active service for the Master. "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" He asks. "Go work today in My vineyard. Work while it is day; for the night cometh, when no man can work."
RC	204	7	"Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord." Can we comprehend this? In Christ's stead we are to beseech men to become reconciled to God.... Acknowledge Him as your Redeemer, and you will become one with Him, even as He is one with the Father.--Letter 190, 1907.
------------------------Church Members are Blessed to Bless Others, July 10
RC	205	1	Ye are the salt of the earth. Matthew 5:13.
RC	205	2	Christ's church is to be a blessing, and its members are to be blessed as they bless others. The object of God in choosing a people before all the world was not only that He might adopt them as His sons and daughters, but that through them He might confer on the world the benefits of divine illumination. When the Lord chose Abraham it was not simply to be the special friend of God, but to be a medium of the precious and peculiar privileges the Lord desired to bestow upon the nations. He was to be a light amid the moral darkness of his surroundings.
RC	205	3	Whenever God blesses His children with light and truth, it is not only that they may have the gift of eternal life, but that those around them may also be spiritually enlightened.... "Ye are the salt of the earth." And when God makes His children salt, it is not only for their own preservation, but that they may be agents in preserving others.
RC	205	4	The religion of Christ is not a selfish religion. It is not to be kept under lock and key, but it is to be an influence of power going forth from every genuine Christian to enlighten those that sit in darkness. Every soul connected with a true Christian will be made better thereby. We are to be God's light bearers, reflecting the steady beams of heaven upon others.
RC	205	5	It is through the merits of Christ that all our spiritual and temporal blessings are given us to enjoy. The salvation of Christ was placed within our reach that we might lay hold upon it by faith, that we might weave the love of Christ into our characters, and practice it in our lives, that we might be a blessing to all our race. But not one of us can shed light upon others unless we ourselves have gathered rays of divine illumination from the Word of God. We must have the Christlike mold of character or we cannot be true representatives of our Lord.
RC	205	6	We can do nothing without the help of God. The Spirit of God must work with our efforts, and if God's blessing attends us, we shall be channels of light. The Lord is willing to give us all an experience, which, if improved, will bring us from the lowlands of earth into close, heavenly relationship with God, and every fiber of selfishness will be uprooted from our natures.
RC	205	7	Do you shine as living stones in God's building? ... We have not the genuine religion, unless it exerts a controlling influence upon us in every business transaction. We should have practical godliness to weave into our lifework. We should have the transforming grace of Christ upon our hearts. We need a great deal less of self, and more of Jesus....
RC	205	8	We need plenteous grace to keep us humble, to make us prayerful, pitiful, tenderhearted, and courteous, that we may deal with others as the Lord designs we should.--The Signs of the Times, February 3, 1890.
------------------------God Deals with Us as we Deal with Others, July 11
RC	206	1	I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. Ezekiel 34:26.
RC	206	2	Everyone who has to deal with others should make their case his own; for just as we deal with others will God deal with us. We are treating Christ as we treat His children; for He is represented in the person of His saints. The truth of God must sanctify the soul, refine and elevate the character, and we must obtain the heavenly mold, before we shall be fitted for the courts above.
RC	206	3	Many are situated where they are brought in contact with believers in present truth, and with those who do not believe, and how important that all the lower lights should be trimmed and burning, that all may catch rays of light from the shining lamps of those who profess to be the followers of Christ. We need plenteous grace for this time of spiritual declension....
RC	206	4	Have you, who have hired help, let your light shine to your workmen, that they, too, may be laborers together with God? God has given you precious privileges and advantages in sending you the light of His truth, and you are to improve these blessings, and let others share your mercies. What large missionary fields there are right around your homes, what opportunities every day for you to speak of the value of God's promises.--The Signs of the Times, February 3, 1890.
RC	206	5	There is a work for every Christian to do right at his own door, in his own neighborhood. But how many lose sight of eternal interests and are completely swallowed up in their temporal affairs. There is no necessity for this, for Jesus says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
RC	206	6	Make your own and your neighbor's eternal welfare the first and most important consideration. Your neighbors have souls to save or to lose, and God expects those to whom He has given the light to make decided, interested efforts for others. They must remember the holy claims of the truth in every transaction of life. Let believers and unbelievers see in the life of those who claim to have a knowledge of advanced truth a steady, clear, strong light shining forth in zeal, in devotion, in nobility of character, in their dealings with men. Then the Lord will deal bountifully with you, His servants....
RC	206	7	Suppose that you let your light shine, and through your devotion to the cause of God, a few others are led to consecrate their service to Him; then they will be a blessing to still others that you could not reach by your personal influence. The Lord says, "I will make ... the places round about ... a blessing." Your light is to be far-reaching.--The Signs of the Times, February 10, 1890.
------------------------God Honors Them that Honor Him, July 12
RC	207	1	Them that honour me I will honour. 1 Samuel 2:30.
RC	207	2	You are God's hired servant to give light, to give time, thought, tact, to His work; and if you do this, you will receive the approbation of your heavenly Father and the gift of eternal life....
RC	207	3	Be much in prayer. Let no person, or personal interest, separate you from God, who is the source of your strength. When you arise in the morning, gather all the members of your household together, as did Abraham, and invite them to seek God with you. If your business presses strongly, and urges you to your work, then there is still greater need to take time to pray, to present your petitions to the throne of grace, and secure the protecting care, the aid, the mercy and blessing of God. Do not grudge the time that God requires, and hurry through a faithless, formal prayer, that you may rush to your business.
RC	207	4	God can do much for you, even in your labor, if you ask Him. He can send His angels to preserve you from accidents, from breakage, and losses of life and property. The reason why those who neglect the privileges that God has provided have no more comfort and peace and joy is that they do not pause to have communion with God, who is the source of their strength. Can God pour out His Spirit, can He bless us, where there is so much indifference to His service? He cannot give us His rich blessing without our cooperation in His plans. He says, "Them that honour me I will honour."
RC	207	5	It is just as convenient, just as essential, for us to pray three times a day as it was for Daniel. Prayer is the life of the soul, the foundation of spiritual growth. In your home, before your family, and before your workmen, you should testify to this truth. And when you are privileged to meet with your brethren in the church, tell them of the necessity of keeping open the channel of communication between God and the soul. Tell them that if they will find heart and voice to pray, God will find answers to their prayers. Tell them not to neglect their religious duties. Exhort the brethren to pray. We must seek if we would find, we must ask if we would receive, we must knock if we would have the door opened unto us.
RC	207	6	If there are only a few assembled, there are enough to claim the precious promises of God. The Father, the Son, and the holy angels will be present with you to behold your faith, your steadfast principle, and there you will have of the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit. God has rich blessings in store for those who will bring not only all the tithes into His storehouse, but also time and strength of bone and brain and muscle into His service.--The Signs of the Times, February 10, 1890.
------------------------The Route to Greater Spiritual Life in the Church, July 13
RC	208	1	Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. John 3:7.
RC	208	2	The question is often asked, Why is there not more power in the church? why not more vital godliness? The reason is, the requirements of God's Word are not complied with in verity and in truth; God is not loved supremely, and our neighbor as ourselves. This covers the entire ground. Upon these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Let these two requirements of God be obeyed explicitly, and there would be no discord in the church, no inharmonious notes in the family. With many the work is too superficial. Outward forms take the place of the inner work of grace.... The theory of the truth has converted the head, but the soul temple has not been cleansed from its idols....
RC	208	3	True conviction of sin, real heart sorrow because of wickedness, death to self, the daily overcoming of defects of character, and the new birth--these, represented as old things, Paul says had passed away, and all things had become new. Such a work many know nothing of. They grafted the truth into their natural hearts, and then went on as before, manifesting the same unhappy traits of character. What is now needed is the plain testimony borne in love from lips touched with living fire.
RC	208	4	Church members do not show that living connection with God that they must have in order to win souls from darkness to light. Make the tree good, and good fruit will be the result. The work of the Spirit of God upon the heart is essential to godliness. It must be received into the hearts of those who accept the truth, and create in them clean hearts, before one of them can keep His commandments and be doers of the Word. "Marvel not," said the great Teacher unto the astonished Nicodemus, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."
RC	208	5	The Bible is not studied as much as it should be; it is not made the rule of life. Were its precepts conscientiously followed, and made the basis of character, there would be steadfastness of purpose that no business speculations or worldly pursuits could seriously influence. A character thus formed, and supported by the Word of God, will abide the day of trial, of difficulties, and dangers. The conscience must be enlightened, and the life sanctified by the love of the truth received into the heart, before the influence will be saving upon the world.
RC	208	6	What is needed is men of action for the time, prompt, determined, firm as a rock to principle, and prepared to meet any emergency. Why we are so weak, why there are so many irresponsible men among us, is because they do not connect with God; they have not an indwelling Saviour, and do not feel the love of Christ ever fresh and new.... No earthly relationship is as strong as this love. Nothing can compare with it.--The Review and Herald, August 28, 1879.
------------------------The Ten Virgins Represent the Church, July 14
RC	209	1	And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Matthew 25:6.
RC	209	2	Christ with His disciples is seated upon the Mount of Olives. The sun has set behind the mountains, and the heavens are curtained with the shades of evening. In full view is a dwelling house lighted up brilliantly as if for some festive scene. The light streams from the openings, and an expectant company wait around, indicating that a marriage procession is soon to appear.
RC	209	3	In many parts of the East, wedding festivities are held in the evening. The bridegroom goes forth to meet his bride and bring her to his home. By torchlight the bridal party proceed from her father's house to his own, where a feast is provided for the invited guests. In the scene upon which Christ looks, a company are waiting the appearance of the bridal party, intending to join the procession.
RC	209	4	Lingering near the bride's house are ten young women robed in white. Each carries a lighted lamp and a small flagon for oil. All are anxiously watching for the appearance of the bridegroom. But there is a delay. Hour after hour passes; the watchers become weary and fall asleep. At midnight the cry is heard, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." The sleepers, suddenly awaking, spring to their feet. They see the procession moving on, bright with torches and glad with music. They hear the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
RC	209	5	The ten maidens seize their lamps and begin to trim them, in haste to go forth. But five have neglected to fill their flasks with oil. They did not anticipate so long a delay, and they have not prepared for the emergency. In distress they appeal to their wiser companions, saying, "Give us of your oil; for our lamps are going out." But the waiting five, with their freshly trimmed lamps, have emptied their flagons. They have no oil to spare, and they answer, "Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves."
RC	209	6	While they went to buy, the procession moved on, and left them behind. The five with lighted lamps joined the throng and entered the house with the bridal train, and the door was shut. When the foolish virgins reached the banqueting hall, they received an unexpected denial....
RC	209	7	As Christ sat looking upon the party that waited for the bridegroom, He told His disciples the story of the ten virgins, by their experience illustrating the experience of the church that shall live just before His second coming.--Christ's Object Lessons, 405, 406.
------------------------Two Classes of Watchers, July 15
RC	210	1	Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105.
RC	210	2	The two classes of watchers represent the two classes who profess to be waiting for their Lord. They are called virgins because they profess a pure faith. By the lamps is represented the Word of God. The psalmist says, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." The oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Spirit is represented in the prophecy of Zechariah.... "I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, ... and two olive trees by it." ...
RC	210	3	From the two olive trees the golden oil was emptied through the golden pipes into the bowl of the candlestick, and thence into the golden lamps that gave light to the sanctuary. So from the holy ones that stand in God's presence His Spirit is imparted to the human instrumentalities who are consecrated to His service. The mission of the two anointed ones is to communicate to God's people that heavenly grace which alone can make His Word a lamp to the feet and a light to the path. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."
RC	210	4	In the parable, all the ten virgins went out to meet the bridegroom. All had lamps and vessels for oil. For a time there was seen no difference between them. So with the church that lives just before Christ's second coming. All have a knowledge of the Scriptures. All have heard the message of Christ's near approach, and confidently expect His appearing. But as in the parable, so it is now. A time of waiting intervenes, faith is tried; and when the cry is heard, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh," ... many are unready. They have no oil in their vessels with their lamps. They are destitute of the Holy Spirit....
RC	210	5	The theory of truth, unaccompanied by the Holy Spirit, cannot quicken the soul or sanctify the heart. One may be familiar with the commands and promises of the Bible; but unless the Spirit of God sets the truth home, the character will not be transformed. Without the enlightenment of the Spirit, men will not be able to distinguish truth from error, and they will fall under the masterful temptations of Satan....
RC	210	6	Character is not transferable. No man can believe for another. No man can receive the Spirit for another. No man can impart to another the character which is the fruit of the Spirit's working.--Christ's Object Lessons, 406-412.
------------------------The Wise Virgins Let Their Light Shine, July 16
RC	211	1	The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Matthew 25:4.
RC	211	2	In the parable the wise virgins had oil in their vessels with their lamps. Their light burned with undimmed flame through the night of watching. It helped to swell the illumination for the bridegroom's honor. Shining out in the darkness, it helped to illuminate the way to the home of the bridegroom, to the marriage feast.
RC	211	3	So the followers of Christ are to shed light into the darkness of the world. Through the Holy Spirit, God's Word is a light as it becomes a transforming power in the life of the receiver. By implanting in their hearts the principles of His Word, the Holy Spirit develops in men the attributes of God. The light of His glory--His character--is to shine forth in His followers. Thus they are to glorify God, to lighten the path to the Bridegroom's home, to the city of God, to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
RC	211	4	The coming of the bridegroom was at midnight--the darkest hour. So the coming of Christ will take place in the darkest period of this earth's history. The days of Noah and Lot picture the condition of the world just before the coming of the Son of man. The Scriptures pointing forward to this time declare that Satan will work with all power and "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness" (2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10). His working is plainly revealed by the rapidly increasing darkness, the multitudinous errors, heresies, and delusions of these last days. Not only is Satan leading the world captive, but his deceptions are leavening the professed churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. The great apostasy will develop into darkness deep as midnight, impenetrable as sackcloth of hair. To God's people it will be a night of trial, a night of weeping, a night of persecution for the truth's sake. But out of that night of darkness God's light will shine.
RC	211	5	He causes "the light to shine out of darkness" (2 Corinthians 4:6). When "the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep," "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Genesis 1:2, 3). So in the night of spiritual darkness, God's Word goes forth, "Let there be light." To His people He says, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee" (Isaiah 60:1).
RC	211	6	"Behold," says the Scripture, "the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee" (verse 2).--Christ's Object Lessons, 414, 415.
------------------------Revelation of God's Glory in Humanity, July 17
RC	212	1	If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1 John 1:7.
RC	212	2	Christ does not bid His followers strive to shine. He says, Let your light shine. If you have received the grace of God, the light is in you. Remove the obstructions, and the Lord's glory will be revealed. The light will shine forth to penetrate and dispel the darkness. You cannot help shining within the range of your influence.
RC	212	3	The revelation of His own glory in the form of humanity will bring heaven so near to men that the beauty adorning the inner temple will be seen in every soul in whom the Saviour dwells. Men will be captivated by the glory of an abiding Christ. And in currents of praise and thanksgiving from the many souls thus won to God, glory will flow back to the great Giver....
RC	212	4	Christ is coming with power and great glory. He is coming with His own glory and with the glory of the Father. He is coming with all the holy angels with Him. While all the world is plunged in darkness, there will be light in every dwelling of the saints. They will catch the first light of His second appearing. The unsullied light will shine from His splendor, and Christ the Redeemer will be admired by all who have served Him. While the wicked flee from His presence, Christ's followers will rejoice. The patriarch Job, looking down to the time of Christ's second advent, said, "Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not a stranger" (Job 19:27, margin).
RC	212	5	To His faithful followers Christ has been a daily companion and familiar friend. They have lived in close contact, in constant communion with God. Upon them the glory of the Lord has risen. In them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has been reflected. Now they rejoice in the undimmed rays of the brightness and glory of the King in His majesty. They are prepared for the communion of heaven; for they have heaven in their hearts....
RC	212	6	"And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.... And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:6-9). "He is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful" (chap. 17:14).--Christ's Object Lessons, 420, 421.
------------------------Reflecting Light from the Sun of Righteousness, July 18
RC	213	1	And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. Acts 5:32.
RC	213	2	God wants every member of the church to stand faithfully at his post of duty, to realize his responsibility, and create a heavenly atmosphere about his soul by continually gathering the bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness to shed upon the pathway of those about him....
RC	213	3	We are to be representatives of Christ, as Christ was a representative of the Father. We want to be able to attract souls to Jesus, to point them to the Lamb of Calvary, who taketh away the sin of the world. Christ does not clothe sin with His righteousness, but He removes the sin, and in its place He imputes His own righteousness. When your sin is cleansed, the righteousness of Christ goes before you, and the glory of the Lord is your rearward. Your influence will then be decidedly on the side of Christ; for instead of making self a center, you will make Christ a center, and will feel that you are a guardian of sacred trusts.
RC	213	4	When you remember that Christ has paid the price of His own blood for your redemption and for the redemption of others, you will be moved to catch the bright rays of His righteousness, that you may shed them upon the pathway of those around you. You are not to look to the future, thinking that at some distant day you are to be made holy; it is now that you are to be sanctified through the truth.... Jesus says, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me... unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). We are to receive the Holy Ghost.... The Holy Spirit is the Comforter that Christ promised to His disciples to bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever He had said unto them.
RC	213	5	Then let us cease to look to ourselves, but look to Him from whom all virtue comes. No one can make himself better, but we are to come to Jesus as we are, earnestly desiring to be cleansed from every spot and stain of sin, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.... By living faith we must lay hold of His promise, for He has said, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
RC	213	6	We are to be witnesses for Christ, reflecting upon others the light which the Lord permits to shine upon us. We are to be as faithful soldiers marching under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel.... The Captain of our salvation knows the plan of the battle, and we shall come off more than conquerors through Him.--The Signs of the Times, April 4, 1892.
------------------------Christ's Purpose to Sanctify and Cleanse the Church, July 19
RC	214	1	For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Ephesians 3:14-16.
RC	214	2	He [Christ] declares, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." This unlimited power it is our privilege to claim.
RC	214	3	The glory of God is His character. While Moses was in the mount, earnestly interceding with God, he prayed, "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." In answer God declared, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee." ...
RC	214	4	The glory of God--His character--was then revealed: "The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty."
RC	214	5	This character was revealed in the life of Christ. That He might by His own example condemn sin in the flesh, He took upon Himself the likeness of sinful flesh. Constantly He beheld the character of God; constantly He revealed this character to the world.
RC	214	6	Christ desires His followers to reveal in their lives this same character....
RC	214	7	Today it is still His purpose to sanctify and cleanse His church "with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." ... No greater gift than the character that He revealed can Christ ask His Father to bestow upon those who believe on Him. What largeness there is in His request! What fullness of grace every follower of Christ has the privilege of receiving!
RC	214	8	God works with those who properly represent His character. Through them His will is done on earth as it is done in heaven. Holiness leads its possessor to be fruitful, abounding in every good work. He who has the mind that was in Christ never becomes weary in well-doing. Instead of expecting promotion in this life, he looks forward to the time when the Majesty of heaven shall exalt the sanctified ones to His throne....
RC	214	9	O that we might more fully appreciate the honor Christ confers upon us! By wearing His yoke and learning of Him, we become like Him in aspiration, in meekness and lowliness, in fragrance of character, and unite with Him in ascribing praise and honor and glory to God as supreme.--The Signs of the Times, September 3, 1902.
------------------------"Be Filled with all the Fulness of God", July 20
RC	215	1	That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ. Ephesians 3:17-19.
RC	215	2	Paul in his letter to the Colossians sets forth the rich blessings granted to the children of God. He says: We "do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness" (Colossians 1:9-11).
RC	215	3	Again he writes of his desire that the brethren at Ephesus might come to understand the height of the Christian's privilege. He opens before them, in the most comprehensive language, the marvelous power and knowledge that they might possess as sons and daughters of the Most High. It was theirs "to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man," to be "rooted and grounded in love," to "comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." But the prayer of the apostle reaches the climax of privilege when he prays that "ye might be filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:16-19).
RC	215	4	Here are revealed the heights of attainment that we may reach through faith in the promises of our heavenly Father, when we fulfill His requirements. Through the merits of Christ we have access to the throne of Infinite Power. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). The Father gave His Spirit without measure to His Son, and we also may partake of its fullness....
RC	215	5	Through Jesus the fallen sons of Adam become "sons of God." "Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Hebrews 2:11). The Christian's life should be one of faith, of victory, and joy in God.... Truly spoke God's servant Nehemiah: "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). And Paul says: "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4). "Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)....
RC	215	6	It is only as the law of God is restored to its rightful position that there can be a revival of primitive faith and godliness among His professed people.--The Great Controversy, 476-478.
------------------------Holy Spirit's Power Needed in End-Time, July 21
RC	216	1	For the Holy Ghost shall teach you. Luke 12:12.
RC	216	2	We are not to make less prominent the special truths that have separated us from the world, and made us what we are; for they are fraught with eternal interests. God has given us light in regard to the things that are now taking place, and with pen and voice we are to proclaim the truth to the world. But it is the life of Christ in the soul, it is the active principle of love imparted by the Holy Spirit, that alone will make our words fruitful. The love of Christ is the force and power of every message for God that ever fell from human lips.
RC	216	3	Day after day is passing into eternity, bringing us nearer to the close of probation. As never before we must pray for the Holy Spirit to be more abundantly bestowed upon us, and we must look for its sanctifying influence to come upon the workers, that those for whom they labor may know that they have been with Jesus and have learned of Him.
RC	216	4	We need spiritual eyesight, that we may see the designs of the enemy, and as faithful watchmen proclaim the danger. We need power from above, that we may understand, as far as the human mind can, the great themes of Christianity and their far-reaching principles.
RC	216	5	Those who are under the influence of the Spirit of God will not be fanatical, but calm and steadfast, free from extravagance in thought, word, or deed. Amid the confusion of delusive doctrines, the Spirit of God will be a guide and a shield to those who have not resisted the evidences of truth, silencing every other voice but that which comes from Him who is the truth.
RC	216	6	We are living in the last days, when error of a most deceptive character is accepted and believed, while truth is discarded. The Lord will hold both ministers and people responsible for the light shining upon them. He calls upon us to work diligently in gathering up the jewels of truth, and placing them in the framework of the gospel. In all their divine beauty they are to shine forth in the moral darkness of the world. This cannot be accomplished without the aid of the Holy Spirit, but with this aid we can do all things. When we are endowed with the Spirit, we take hold by faith of infinite power.
RC	216	7	There is nothing lost of that which comes from God. The Saviour of the world sends His messages to the soul, that the darkness of error may be dispelled. The work of the Spirit is immeasurably great. It is from this source that power and efficiency come to the worker for God.--Gospel Workers, 288, 289.
------------------------The Transforming Power of the Holy Spirit, July 22
RC	217	1	[God] hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 4:8.
RC	217	2	When the power of the Holy Spirit is appreciated and felt in the heart, far less of self will be exhibited, and far more of the feeling of human brotherhood will be revealed. Our part is not to exhibit self, but to let the Holy Spirit work in us. Thus, self-deceived men and women may be rescued from delusion.
RC	217	3	All, high or low, if they are unconverted, are on one common platform. Men may turn from one doctrine to another. This is being done, and will be done.... Yet they may know nothing of the meaning of the words, "A new heart also will I give you." Accepting new theories, and uniting with a church, do not bring new life to anyone, even though the church with which he unites may be established on the true foundation. Connection with a church does not take the place of conversion. To subscribe the name to a church creed is not of the least value to anyone if the heart is not truly changed.
RC	217	4	This question is a serious one, and its meaning should be fully realized. Men may be church members, and may apparently work earnestly, performing a round of duties from year to year, and yet be unconverted.... But when the truth is received as truth by the heart, it has passed through the conscience, and has captivated the soul with its pure principles. It is placed in the heart by the Holy Spirit, who reveals its beauty to the mind, that its transforming power may be seen in the character....
RC	217	5	With the great truth we have been privileged to receive, we should, and under the Holy Spirit's power we could, become living channels of light. We could then approach the mercy seat; and seeing the bow of promise, kneel with contrite hearts, and seek the kingdom of heaven with a spiritual violence that would bring its own reward. We would take it by force, as did Jacob. Then our message would be the power of God unto salvation. Our supplications would be full of earnestness, full of a sense of our great need; and we would not be denied. The truth would be expressed by life and character, and by lips touched with the living coal from off God's altar.
RC	217	6	When this experience is ours, we shall be lifted out of our poor, cheap selves that we have cherished so tenderly. We shall empty our hearts of the corroding power of selfishness, and shall be filled with praise and gratitude to God. We shall magnify the Lord, the God of all grace, who has magnified Christ. And He will reveal His power through us, making us as sharp sickles in the harvest field. God calls upon His people to reveal Him.--The Review and Herald, February 14, 1899.
------------------------True Religion Needed in the Church Today, July 23
RC	218	1	These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. Acts 16:17.
RC	218	2	We need true religion in the church. It is God's purpose that we shall show that we are born again, and that we are working out in our lives the great, heaven-born principles of truth. Thus only can we gain eternal life in the kingdom of glory....
RC	218	3	There might be a thousand more laborers than there are now if God's people would deny themselves, and take up the cross, and follow Jesus. What we need is the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and we need it every day. What we need is men of prayer, men who in quietness and humility, without any display or excitement, are overcoming self.
RC	218	4	What we need ... is to settle in to the living principles of present truth. Satan is creeping in with his sophistry to undermine the principles of our faith. You remember how when Paul and Silas were teaching in a certain place, a woman met them, and cried saying, "These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation." This woman was possessed with a spirit of divination, and by soothsaying brought her masters much gain. Her influence had helped to strengthen idolatry.
RC	218	5	"But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour."
RC	218	6	But, you say, she spoke good words, and why should Paul rebuke her? It was Satan speaking through her, hoping to mingle his sophistry with the truths taught by those who were proclaiming the Word of God.
RC	218	7	The same danger exists today. The enemy is trying to bring in his sophistry through those who ought to be on their knees before God, praying for an understanding of what saith the Scriptures, that they may stand against the evil influences that fill the world. God desires scientific sophistry to be purged from every heart. He desires us to rebuke every evil devising, every evil work. If we allow such devising to go unrebuked, we shall have to suffer the consequences.... God wants us to go to Him for light, and to carry His presence with us wherever we go....
RC	218	8	The enemy will present his sophistries, with little fibers that would take hold of your experience and undermine your faith. I pray that your eyes may be anointed with the heavenly eyesalve, that you may discern what is truth and what is error. We need to put on the white garments of Christ's righteousness. We need to walk and talk with God.--Manuscript 66, 1905.
------------------------Christ's Followers to Stand Firmly for the Right, July 24
RC	219	1	For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, ... until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. Isaiah 62:1.
RC	219	2	God calls upon His workers, in this age of diseased piety and perverted principle, to reveal a healthy, influential spirituality.... This God requires of you. Every jot of your influence is to be used on the side of Christ. You are now to call things by the right name, and stand firm in defense of the truth as it is in Jesus.
RC	219	3	It behooves every soul whose life is hid with Christ in God to come to the front now, and to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. Truth must be defended and the kingdom of God advanced as they would be were Christ in person on this earth....
RC	219	4	When the Holy Spirit controls the minds of our church members, there will be seen in our churches a much higher standard in speech, in ministry, in spirituality, than is now seen. The church members will be refreshed by the water of life, and the laborers, working under one Head, even Christ, will reveal their Master in spirit, in word, in deed, and will encourage one another to press forward in the grand, closing work in which we are engaged. There will be a healthy increase of unity and love, which will bear testimony to the world that God sent His Son to die for the redemption of sinners. Divine truth will be exalted; and as it shines forth as a lamp that burneth, we shall understand it more and still more clearly.
RC	219	5	The testing truth for this time is not the fabrication of any human. It is from God....
RC	219	6	In every movement Christ's followers are to reveal their regard for Christian principles--loving God supremely, and their neighbor as themselves; reflecting light and blessing on the pathway of those who are in darkness; comforting those who are cast down; sweetening the bitter waters in the place of giving their fellow pilgrims gall to drink.
RC	219	7	Let us increase in a knowledge of the truth, giving all praise and glory to Him who is one with the Father. Let us seek most earnestly for the heavenly anointing, the Holy Spirit. Let us have a pure, growing Christianity, that in the heavenly courts we may at last be pronounced complete in Christ.
RC	219	8	"Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." Lose no time now in rising and trimming your lamps. Lose no time in seeking perfect unity with one another. We must expect difficulties. Trials will come. Christ, the captain of our salvation, was made perfect through suffering. His followers will encounter the enemy many times, and will be severely tried; but they need not despair. Christ says to them, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."--Pacific Union Recorder, December 17, 1903.
------------------------Praise to God has Irresistible Power, July 25
RC	220	1	They that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. Malachi 3:16.
RC	220	2	To the Christian is granted the joy of gathering rays of eternal light from the throne of glory, and of reflecting these rays not only on his own path, but on the paths of those with whom he associates. By speaking words of hope and encouragement, of grateful praise and kindly cheer, he may strive to make those around him better, to elevate them, to point them to heaven and glory, and to lead them to seek, above all earthly things, the eternal substance, the immortal inheritance, the riches that are imperishable.
RC	220	3	"Rejoice in the Lord alway," says the apostle, "and again I say, Rejoice." Wherever we go, we should carry an atmosphere of Christian hopefulness and cheer; then those who are out of Christ will see attractiveness in the religion we profess; unbelievers will see the consistency of our faith. We need to have more distinct glimpses of heaven, the land where all is brightness and joy. We need to know more of the fullness of the blessed hope. If we are constantly "rejoicing in hope," we shall be able to speak words of encouragement to those whom we meet....
RC	220	4	Not alone in daily association with believers and unbelievers are we to glorify God by speaking often one to another in words of gratitude and rejoicing. As Christians, we are exhorted not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, for our own refreshing, and to impart the consolation we have received. In these meetings, held from week to week, we should dwell upon God's goodness and manifold mercies, upon His power to save from sin. In features, in temper, in words, in character, we are to witness that the service of God is good. Thus we proclaim that "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."
RC	220	5	Our prayer and social meetings should be seasons of special help and encouragement.... This can best be done by having a fresh experience daily in the things of God, and by not hesitating to speak of His love in the assemblies of His people....
RC	220	6	If we thought and talked more of Jesus, and less of ourselves, we should have much more of His presence. If we abide in Him, we shall be so filled with peace, faith, and courage, and shall have so victorious an experience to relate when we come to meeting, that others will be refreshed by our clear, strong testimony for God. These precious acknowledgments to the praise of the glory of His grace, when supported by a Christlike life, have an irresistible power, which works for the salvation of souls.--The Southern Watchman, March 7, 1905.
------------------------We have a "More Sure Word of Prophecy", July 26
RC	221	1	For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:16.
RC	221	2	The apostle was well qualified to speak of the purposes of God concerning the human race; for during the earthly ministry of Christ he had seen and heard much that pertained to the kingdom of God. "We have not followed cunningly devised fables," he reminded the believers, "when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount."
RC	221	3	Yet convincing as was this evidence of the certainty of the believers' hope, there was another still more convincing in the witness of prophecy, through which the faith of all must be confirmed and securely anchored. "We have also," Peter declared, "a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
RC	221	4	While exalting the "sure word of prophecy" as a safe guide in times of peril, the apostle solemnly warned the church against the torch of false prophecy, which would be uplifted by "false teachers," who would privily bring in "damnable heresies, even denying the Lord" (2 Peter 2:1). These false teachers, arising in the church and accounted true by many of their brethren in the faith, the apostle compared to "wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever." "The latter end is worse with them," he declared, "than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." ...
RC	221	5	Not all, however, would be ensnared by the enemy's devices. As the end of all things earthly should approach, there would be faithful ones able to discern the signs of the times. While a large number of professing believers would deny their faith by their works, there would be a remnant who would endure to the end.... "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless."--The Acts of the Apostles, 534-536.
------------------------Cherished Evil Must be Replaced by Christ's Love, July 27
RC	222	1	Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 1 John 2:10, N.I.V.
RC	222	2	They [the disciples] rejoiced in the sweetness of communion with saints.... But gradually a change came. The believers began to look for defects in others. Dwelling upon mistakes, giving place to unkind criticism, they lost sight of the Saviour and His love. They became more strict in regard to outward ceremonies, more particular about the theory than the practice of the faith. In their zeal to condemn others, they overlooked their own errors. They lost the brotherly love that Christ had enjoined, and, saddest of all, they were unconscious of their loss. They did not realize that happiness and joy were going out of their lives and that, having shut the love of God out of their hearts, they would soon walk in darkness.
RC	222	3	John, realizing that brotherly love was waning in the church, urged upon believers the constant need of this love. His letters to the church are full of this thought. "Beloved, let us love one another," he writes; "for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." ...
RC	222	4	It is not the opposition of the world that most endangers the church of Christ. It is the evil cherished in the hearts of believers that works their most grievous disaster and most surely retards the progress of God's cause. There is no surer way of weakening spirituality than by cherishing envy, suspicion, faultfinding, and evil surmising. On the other hand, the strongest witness that God has sent His Son into the world is the existence of harmony and union among men of varied dispositions who form His church. This witness it is the privilege of the followers of Christ to bear. But in order to do this, they must place themselves under Christ's command. Their characters must be conformed to His character and their wills to His will.
RC	222	5	"A new commandment I give unto you," Christ said, "That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). What a wonderful statement; but, oh, how poorly practiced! In the church of God today brotherly love is sadly lacking. Many who profess to love the Saviour do not love one another. Unbelievers are watching to see if the faith of professed Christians is exerting a sanctifying influence upon their lives; and they are quick to discern the defects in characters, the inconsistencies in action.
RC	222	6	Let Christians not make it possible for the enemy to point to them and say, Behold how these people, standing under the banner of Christ, hate one another. Christians are all members of one family, all children of the same heavenly Father, with the same blessed hope of immortality. Very close and tender should be the tie that binds them together.--The Acts of the Apostles, 547-550.
------------------------Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone of the Church, July 28
RC	223	1	Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 1 Peter 2:6.
RC	223	2	Upon the foundation that Christ Himself had laid, the apostles built the church of God. In the Scriptures the figure of the erection of a temple is frequently used to illustrate the building of the church. Zechariah refers to Christ as the Branch that should build the temple of the Lord....
RC	223	3	In the quarry of the Jewish and the Gentile world the apostles labored, bringing out stones to lay upon the foundation. In his letter to the believers at Ephesus, Paul said, "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:19-22)....
RC	223	4	The apostles built upon a sure foundation, even the Rock of Ages. To this foundation they brought the stones that they quarried from the world. Not without hindrance did the builders labor. Their work was made exceedingly difficult by the opposition of the enemies of Christ. They had to contend against the bigotry, prejudice, and hatred of those who were building upon a false foundation. Many who wrought as builders of the church could be likened to the builders of the wall in Nehemiah's day, of whom it is written: "They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon" (Nehemiah 4:17).
RC	223	5	Kings and governors, priests and rulers, sought to destroy the temple of God. But in the face of imprisonment, torture, and death, faithful men carried the work forward; and the structure grew, beautiful and symmetrical. At times the workmen were almost blinded by the mists of superstition that settled around them. At times they were almost overpowered by the violence of their opponents. But with unfaltering faith and unfailing courage they pressed on with the work.
RC	223	6	One after another the foremost of the builders fell by the hand of the enemy. Stephen was stoned; James was slain by the sword; Paul was beheaded; Peter was crucified; John was exiled. Yet the church grew. New workers took the place of those who fell, and stone after stone was added to the building. Thus slowly ascended the temple of the church of God.--The Acts of the Apostles, 595-597.
------------------------Building of God's Temple Goes Forward, July 29
RC	224	1	Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. Ephesians 2:19, 20.
RC	224	2	The enemy of righteousness left nothing undone in his effort to stop the work committed to the Lord's builders. But God "left not himself without witness" (Acts 14:17). Workers were raised up who ably defended the faith once delivered to the saints. History bears record to the fortitude and heroism of these men. Like the apostles, many of them fell at their post, but the building of the temple went steadily forward. The workmen were slain, but the work advanced.
RC	224	3	The Waldenses, John Wycliffe, Huss and Jerome, Martin Luther and Zwingli, Cranmer, Latimer, and Knox, the Huguenots, John and Charles Wesley, and a host of others brought to the foundation material that will endure throughout eternity. And in later years those who have so nobly endeavored to promote the circulation of God's Word, and those who by their service in heathen lands have prepared the way for the proclamation of the last great message--these also have helped to rear the structure.
RC	224	4	Through the ages that have passed since the days of the apostles, the building of God's temple has never ceased. We may look back through the centuries and see the living stones of which it is composed gleaming like jets of light through the darkness of error and superstition. Throughout eternity these precious jewels will shine with increasing luster, testifying to the power of the truth of God. The flashing light of these polished stones reveals the strong contrast between light and darkness, between the gold of truth and the dross of error.
RC	224	5	Paul and the other apostles, and all the righteous who have lived since then, have acted their part in the building of the temple. But the structure is not yet complete. We who are living in this age have a work to do, a part to act. We are to bring to the foundation material that will stand the test of fire--gold, silver, and precious stones, "polished after the similitude of a palace" (Psalm 144:12). To those who thus build for God, Paul speaks words of encouragement... : "If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward." ... The Christian who faithfully presents the word of life, leading men and women into the way of holiness and peace, is bringing to the foundation material that will endure, and in the kingdom of God He will be honored as a wise builder.--The Acts of the Apostles, 598, 599.
------------------------The Church Will Triumph Over Every Obstacle, July 30
RC	225	1	They went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Mark 16:20.
RC	225	2	As Christ sent forth His disciples, so today He sends forth the members of His church. The same power that the apostles had is for them. If they will make God their strength, He will work with them, and they shall not labor in vain. Let them realize that the work in which they are engaged is one upon which the Lord has placed His signet.
RC	225	3	God said to Jeremiah, "Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee" (Jeremiah 1:7, 8). Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched His servant's mouth, saying, "Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth" (verse 9). And He bids us go forth to speak the words He gives us, feeling His holy touch upon our lips.
RC	225	4	Christ has given to the church a sacred charge. Every member should be a channel through which God can communicate to the world the treasures of His grace, the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is nothing that the Saviour desires so much as agents who will represent to the world His Spirit and His character. There is nothing that the world needs so much as the manifestation through humanity of the Saviour's love. All heaven is waiting for men and women through whom God can reveal the power of Christianity.
RC	225	5	The church is God's agency for the proclamation of truth, empowered by Him to do a special work; and if she is loyal to Him, obedient to all His commandments, there will dwell within her the excellency of divine grace. If she will be true to her allegiance, if she will honor the Lord God of Israel, there is no power that can stand against her.
RC	225	6	Zeal for God and His cause moved the disciples to bear witness to the gospel with mighty power. Should not a like zeal fire our hearts with a determination to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ and Him crucified? It is the privilege of every Christian, not only to look for, but to hasten, the coming of the Saviour.
RC	225	7	If the church will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all allegiance with the world, there is before her the dawn of a bright and glorious day. God's promise to her will stand fast forever. He will make her an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.... When the message of God meets with opposition, He gives it additional force, that it may exert greater influence. Endowed with divine energy, it will cut its way through the strongest barriers and triumph over every obstacle.--The Acts of the Apostles, 599-601.
------------------------The Church Does Not Fall, July 31
RC	226	1	In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean upon him that smote them, but will lean upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. Isaiah 10:20, 21, R.S.V.
RC	226	2	In vision I saw two armies in terrible conflict. One army was led by banners bearing the world's insignia; the other was led by the bloodstained banner of Prince Immanuel. Standard after standard was left to trail in the dust as company after company from the Lord's army joined the foe and tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the commandment-keeping people of God. An angel flying in the midst of heaven put the standard of Immanuel into many hands, while a mighty general cried out with a loud voice: "Come into line. Let those who are loyal to the commandments of God and the testimony of Christ now take their position. Come out from among them, and be ye separate." ...
RC	226	3	The battle raged. Victory alternated from side to side. Now the soldiers of the cross gave way, "as when a standardbearer fainteth" (Isaiah 10:18). But their apparent retreat was but to gain a more advantageous position. Shouts of joy were heard. A song of praise to God went up, and angel voices united in the song, as Christ's soldiers planted His banner on the walls of fortresses till then held by the enemy. The Captain of our salvation was ordering the battle and sending support to His soldiers. His power was mightily displayed, encouraging them to press the battle to the gates. He taught them terrible things in righteousness as He led them on step by step, conquering and to conquer.
RC	226	4	At last the victory was gained. The army following the banner with the inscription, "The commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus," was gloriously triumphant.--Testimonies for the Church 8:41.
RC	226	5	There are many doctrines current in our world. There is many a religion current that numbers its thousands and tens of thousands, but there is but one that bears the superscription and the stamp of God. There is a religion of man and a religion of God. We must have our souls riveted to the eternal Rock....
RC	226	6	Satan will work his miracles to deceive; he will set up his power as supreme. The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out--the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place. None but those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin, without guile in their mouths. We must be divested of our self-righteousness and arrayed in the righteousness of Christ.--Selected Messages 2:379, 380.
------------------------Christ's Commendation to the Merciful, August 1
RC	227	1	Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Matthew 5:7.
RC	227	2	The Lord Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." There never was a time when there was greater need for the exercise of mercy than today. The poor are all around us, the distressed, the afflicted, the sorrowing, and those who are ready to perish.
RC	227	3	Those who have acquired riches have acquired them through the exercise of the talents that were given them of God; but these talents for the acquiring of property were given to them that they might relieve those who are in poverty. These gifts were bestowed upon men by Him who maketh His sun to shine and His rain to fall upon the just and the unjust, that by the fruitfulness of the earth men might have abundant supplies for all their need. The fields have been blessed of God, and of His goodness He hath prepared for the poor.
RC	227	4	In the providence of God events have been so ordered that the poor are always with us, in order that there may be a constant exercise in the human heart of the attributes of mercy and love. Man is to cultivate the tenderness and compassion of Christ; he is not to separate himself from the sorrowing, the afflicted, the needy, and the distressed.--The Signs of the Times, June 13, 1892.
RC	227	5	There are many who complain of God because the world is so full of want and suffering, but God never meant that this misery should exist. He never meant that one man should have an abundance of the luxuries of life while the children of others cry for bread. The Lord is a God of benevolence.--Testimonies for the Church 6:273.
RC	227	6	If men would do their duty as faithful stewards of their Lord's goods, there would be no cry for bread, none suffering in destitution, none naked and in want. It is the unfaithfulness of men that brings about the state of suffering in which humanity is plunged. If those whom God has made stewards would but appropriate their Lord's goods to the object for which He gave to them, this state of suffering would not exist. The Lord tests men by giving them an abundance of good things, just as He tested the rich man of the parable. If we prove ourselves unfaithful in the righteous mammon, who shall entrust us the true riches? It will be those who have stood the test on the earth, who have been found faithful, who have obeyed the words of the Lord in being merciful, in using their means for the advancement of His kingdom, that will hear from the lips of the Master, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things."--The Review and Herald, June 26, 1894.
------------------------Jesus Was a Friend to Every Human Being, August 2
RC	228	1	Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Hebrews 10:9.
RC	228	2	Christ's dignity as a divine teacher was of an order higher than the dignity of priests and rulers. It was distinct from all worldly pomp; for it was divine. He dispensed with all worldly display, and showed that He regarded the gradations of society, fixed by opulence and rank, as of no value. He had ... stepped down from His high command to bring to human beings power to become the sons of God; and earthly rank was not of the least value with Him. He could have brought with Him ten thousand angels if they would have helped Him in His work of redeeming the race.
RC	228	3	Christ passed by the homes of the wealthy, the courts of royalty, the renowned seats of learning, and made His home in obscure and despised Nazareth. His life, from its beginning to its close, was a life of lowliness and humility. Poverty was made sacred by His life of poverty. He would not put on a dignity of attitude that would debar men and women, however lowly, from coming into His presence and listening to His teaching....
RC	228	4	No teacher ever placed such signal honor upon man as did our Lord Jesus Christ. He was known as the friend of publicans and sinners. He mingled with all classes, and sowed the world with truth. In the marketplace and the synagogue He proclaimed His message. He relieved every species of suffering, both physical and spiritual. Beside all waters He sowed the seeds of truth. His one desire was that all might have spiritual and physical soundness. He was the friend of every human being. Was He not pledged to bring life and light to all who would receive Him? Was He not pledged to give them power to become the sons of God? He gave Himself wholly and entirely to the work of soul-saving....
RC	228	5	As He "went about doing good," every day's experience was an outpouring of His life. In one way only could such a life be sustained. Jesus lived in dependence upon God and communion with Him. To the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty, men now and then repair; they abide for a season, and the result is manifest in noble deeds; then their faith fails, the communion is interrupted, and the lifework marred. But the life of Jesus was a life of constant trust, sustained by continual communion; and His service for heaven and earth was without failure or faltering. As a man He supplicated the throne of God, until His humanity was charged with a heavenly current that connected humanity with divinity. Receiving life from God, He imparted life to men.--The Signs of the Times, June 7, 1905.
------------------------Who is My Neighbor? August 3
RC	229	1	Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he [the lawyer] said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. Luke 10:36, 37.
RC	229	2	Any human being who needs our sympathy and our kind offices is our neighbor. The suffering and destitute of all classes are our neighbors; and when their wants are brought to our knowledge, it is our duty to relieve them as far as possible.--Testimonies for the Church 4:226, 227.
RC	229	3	He who loves God will not only love his fellow men, but will regard with tender compassion the creatures which God has made. When the Spirit of God is in man, it leads him to relieve rather than to create suffering.
RC	229	4	After the Lord had laid bare the indifference and disregard to the priest and Levite toward their fellow man, He introduced the good Samaritan. He journeyed along the way, and when he saw the sufferer, he had compassion on him; for he was a doer of the law. This had been an actual occurrence, and was known to be exactly as represented. Christ ... inquired which one of the travelers had been a neighbor to him that fell among thieves .... The Samaritan, who was one of a despised people, cared for his suffering brother, and did not pass by on the other side. He treated his neighbor as he would desire to be treated were he in a similar condition.
RC	229	5	By this parable the duty of man to his fellow man is forever settled. We are to care for every case of suffering, and to look upon ourselves as God's agents to relieve the needy to the very uttermost of our ability. We are to be laborers together with God. There are some who manifest great affection for their relatives, for their friends and favorites, who yet fail to be kind and considerate to those who need tender sympathy, who need kindness and love.
RC	229	6	With earnest hearts, let us inquire, Who is my neighbor? Our neighbors are not merely our associates and special friends, they are not simply those who belong to our church, or who think as we do. Our neighbors are the whole human family. We are to do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. We are to give to the world an exhibition of what it means to carry out the law of God.--The Review and Herald, January 1, 1895.
RC	229	7	Go to your neighbors one by one, and come close to them till their hearts are warmed by your unselfish interest and love. Sympathize with them, pray for them, watch for opportunities to do them good, and as you can, gather a few together and open the Word of God to their darkened minds. Keep watching, as he who must render an account for the souls of men, and make the most of the privileges that God gives you of laboring with Him in His moral vineyard.--The Review and Herald, January 1, 1895.
------------------------Follow the True Medical Missionary Worker, August 4
RC	230	1	Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24.
RC	230	2	Those who labor as Christ, the great Medical Missionary, labored, must be spiritual-minded. But not all who are doing medical missionary work are exalting God and His truth. Not all are submitting to the guidance of the Holy Spirit....
RC	230	3	I pray that I may have wisdom and power from God to present to you that which constitutes gospel medical missionary work. This is a great and important branch of our denominational work. But many have lost sight of the pure, ennobling principles underlying acceptable medical missionary work....
RC	230	4	What language could so forcibly express God's love for the human family as it is expressed by the gift of His only-begotten Son for our redemption. The Innocent bore the chastisement of the guilty. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." ...
RC	230	5	Study Christ's definition of a true missionary: "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."
RC	230	6	Following Christ, as spoken of in these words, is not a pretense.... Jesus expects His disciples to follow closely in His footsteps, enduring what He endured, suffering what He suffered, overcoming as He overcame. He is anxiously waiting to see His professed followers revealing the spirit of self-sacrifice.
RC	230	7	Those who receive Christ as a personal Saviour, choosing to be partakers of His suffering, to live His life of self-denial, to endure shame for His sake, will understand what it means to be a genuine medical missionary.
RC	230	8	When all our medical missionaries live the new life in Christ, when they take His Word as their guide, they will have a much clearer understanding of what constitutes genuine medical missionary work. This work will have a deeper meaning to them when they obey the law engraven on the tables of stone by the finger of God, including the Sabbath commandment, concerning which Christ Himself spoke through Moses to the children of Israel....
RC	230	9	I am instructed to say, Follow your Leader. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is your example. Upon all medical missionary workers rests the responsibility of keeping in view Christ's life of unselfish service. They are to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus.--Pacific Union Recorder, December 17, 1903.
------------------------The World Needs a Revelation of Christ, August 5
RC	231	1	That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15.
RC	231	2	We are living in the midst of an 'epidemic of crime,' at which thoughtful, God-fearing men everywhere stand aghast. The corruption that prevails, it is beyond the power of the human pen to describe. Every day brings fresh revelations of political strife, bribery, and fraud. Every day brings its heart-sickening record of violence and lawlessness, of indifference to human suffering, of brutal, fiendish destruction of human life. Every day testifies to the increase of insanity, murder, and suicide. Who can doubt that satanic agencies are at work among men with increasing activity to distract and corrupt the mind, and defile and destroy the body?
RC	231	3	And while the world is filled with these evils, the gospel is too often presented in so indifferent a manner as to make but little impression upon the consciences or the lives of men. Everywhere there are hearts crying out for something which they have not. They long for a power that will give them mastery over sin, a power that will deliver them from the bondage of evil, a power that will give health and life and peace. Many who once knew the power of God's Word have dwelt where there is no recognition of God, and they long for the divine presence.
RC	231	4	The world needs today what it needed nineteen hundred years ago--a revelation of Christ. A great work of reform is demanded, and it is only through the grace of Christ that the work of restoration, physical, mental, and spiritual, can be accomplished.--The Ministry of Healing, 142, 143.
RC	231	5	To everyone who becomes a partaker of His grace the Lord appoints a work for others. Individually we are to stand in our lot and place, saying, "Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:8). Upon the minister of the Word, the missionary nurse, the Christian physician, the individual Christian whether he be merchant or farmer, professional man or mechanic--the responsibility rests upon all. It is our work to reveal to men the gospel of their salvation. Every enterprise in which we engage should be a means to this end....
RC	231	6	Let all cultivate their physical and mental powers to the utmost of their ability, that they may work for God where His providence shall call them. The same grace that came from Christ to Paul and Apollos, that distinguished them for their spiritual excellencies, will today be imparted to devoted Christian missionaries. God desires His children to have intelligence and knowledge, that with unmistakable clearness and power His glory may be revealed in our world.--The Ministry of Healing, 148, 149.
------------------------Follow Christ in Service and Self-Denial, August 6
RC	232	1	[Christ] made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:7.
RC	232	2	How many there are who accept Christ, and apparently live a Christian life, until their circumstances change! Perhaps they come into the possession of property. Thus God tests them, to see if they will be wise stewards. But they fail to endure the proving. They use for self-gratification that which they should devote to feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. In want and distress, God's children are calling to Him. Many are dying for want of the necessaries of life....
RC	232	3	There is a world to be warned. To us has been entrusted this work. At any cost we must practice the truth. We are to stand as self-sacrificing minutemen, willing to suffer the loss of life itself, if need be, in the service of God. There is a great work to be done in a short time.... Everyone who is finally crowned victor will, by noble, determined effort to serve God, have earned the right to be clothed with Christ's righteousness. To enter the crusade against Satan, bearing aloft the bloodstained banner of the cross of Christ--this is the duty of every Christian....
RC	232	4	The most difficult sermon to preach and the hardest to practice is self-denial. The greedy sinner, self, closes the door to the good which might be done, but which is not done because money is invested for selfish purposes. But it is impossible for anyone to retain the favor of God and enjoy communion with the Saviour, and at the same time be indifferent to the interests of his fellow beings who have no life in Christ, who are perishing in their sins.
RC	232	5	Christ has left us a wonderful example of self-sacrifice. He pleased not Himself, but spent His life in the service of others. He made sacrifices at every step, sacrifices which none of His followers can ever make, because they have never occupied the position He occupied before He came to this earth. He was commander of the heavenly host, but He came here to suffer for sinners. He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that through His poverty we might be made rich. Because He loved us, He laid aside His glory and took upon Him the form of a servant. He gave His life for us. What are we giving for Him? ...
RC	232	6	As we follow Him in the path of self-denial, lifting the cross and bearing it after Him to His Father's home, we shall reveal in our lives the beauty of the Christ-life. At the altar of self-sacrifice--the appointed place of meeting between God and the soul--we receive from the hand of God the celestial torch which searches the heart, revealing the need of an abiding Christ.--The Review and Herald, January 31, 1907.
------------------------God's Love Enables Us to Impart Light, August 7
RC	233	1	If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day. Isaiah 58:10.
RC	233	2	All around us are heard the wails of a world's sorrow. On every hand are the needy and distressed. It is ours to aid in relieving and softening life's hardships and misery.
RC	233	3	Practical work will have far more effect than mere sermonizing. We are to give food to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and shelter to the homeless. And we are called to do more than this. The wants of the soul, only the love of Christ can satisfy. If Christ is abiding in us, our hearts will be full of divine sympathy. The sealed fountains of earnest, Christlike love will be unsealed.
RC	233	4	God calls not only for our gifts for the needy, but for our cheerful countenance, our hopeful words, our kindly handclasp. When Christ healed the sick, He laid His hands upon them. So should we come in close touch with those whom we seek to benefit.
RC	233	5	There are many from whom hope has departed. Bring back the sunshine to them. Many have lost their courage. Speak to them words of cheer. Pray for them. There are those who need the bread of life. Read to them from the Word of God. Upon many is a soul sickness which no earthly balm can reach nor physician heal. Pray for these souls, bring them to Jesus. Tell them that there is a balm in Gilead and a Physician there.
RC	233	6	Light is a blessing, a universal blessing, pouring forth its treasures on a world unthankful, unholy, demoralized. So it is with the light of the Sun of Righteousness. The whole earth, wrapped as it is in the darkness of sin and sorrow, and pain, is to be lighted with the knowledge of God's love. From no sect, rank, or class of people is the light shining from heaven's throne to be excluded.
RC	233	7	The message of hope and mercy is to be carried to the ends of the earth. Whosoever will, may reach forth and take hold of God's strength and make peace with Him, and he shall make peace. No longer are the heathen to be wrapped in midnight darkness. The gloom is to disappear before the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness....
RC	233	8	It was the golden oil emptied by the heavenly messengers into the golden tubes, to be conducted from the golden bowl into the lamps of the sanctuary, that produced a continuous bright and shining light. It is the love of God continually transferred to man that enables him to impart light. Into the hearts of all who are united to God by faith the golden oil of love flows freely, to shine out again in good works, in real, heartfelt service for God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 417-419.
------------------------Love, the Ruling Principle of Action, August 8
RC	234	1	Let us not love in word ...; but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:18.
RC	234	2	Divine love makes its most touching appeals to the heart when it calls upon us to manifest the same tender compassion that Christ manifested. That man only who has unselfish love for his brother has true love for God. The true Christian will not willingly permit the soul in peril and need to go unwarned, uncared for. He will not hold himself aloof from the erring, leaving them to plunge farther into unhappiness and discouragement or to fall on Satan's battleground.
RC	234	3	Those who have never experienced the tender, winning love of Christ cannot lead others to the fountain of life. His love in the heart is a constraining power, which leads men to reveal Him in the conversation, in the tender, pitiful spirit, in the uplifting of the lives of those with whom they associate. Christian workers who succeed in their efforts must know Christ; and in order to know Him, they must know His love. In heaven their fitness as workers is measured by their ability to love as Christ loved and to work as He worked.
RC	234	4	"Let us not love in word," the apostle writes, "but in deed and in truth." The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within. It is the atmosphere of this love surrounding the soul of the believer that makes him a savor of life unto life, and enables God to bless his work.
RC	234	5	Supreme love for God and unselfish love for one another--this is the best gift that our heavenly Father can bestow. This love is not an impulse, but a divine principle, a permanent power. The unconsecrated heart cannot originate or produce it. Only in the heart where Jesus reigns is it found. "We love him, because he first loved us." In the heart renewed by divine grace, love is the ruling principle of action. It modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, and ennobles the affections. This love, cherished in the soul, sweetens the life and sheds a refining influence on all around.
RC	234	6	John strove to lead the believers to understand the exalted privileges that would come to them through the exercise of the spirit of love. This redeeming power, filling the heart, would control every other motive and raise its possessors above the corrupting influences of the world. And as this love was allowed full sway and became the motive power in the life, their trust and confidence in God and His dealing with them would be complete.--The Acts of the Apostles, 550-552.
------------------------Reflect Rays of Light to Others, August 9
RC	235	1	Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Hebrews 10:24.
RC	235	2	The Christian pilgrim is not left to walk in darkness. Jesus leads the way. Those who follow Him walk in the sunshine of His presence. The path the pilgrim treads is clear and well defined. Christ's righteousness goes before him--the righteousness that makes possible the good works characterizing the life of every true Christian. God is his rearward. He walks in the light as Christ is in the light. As he travels onward in the Christian journey, he combines faith with earnest endeavor to win others to accompany him. Constantly receiving the light of Christ's presence, constantly he reflects this light to others in words of encouragement and deeds of self-denial. He bears the sign of obedience to God's law, which distinguishes him from those who are not following the pathway that leads to life eternal....
RC	235	3	He who walks in the light ... heeds the apostle's admonition to provoke his fellow pilgrims to love and good works. Those who have a careful regard for one another's needs, those who speak words of kindly sympathy, those who give thoughtful assistance to others, to help them in their work, encourage not only their fellow men, but themselves as well, because they thus become laborers together with God....
RC	235	4	Let us make straight paths, lest the lame be turned out of the way. Let no one follow a crooked path that someone else has made; for thus he would not only go astray himself, but would make this crooked path plainer for someone else to follow.... Determine that as for yourself, you will walk in the path of obedience. Know for a certainty that you are standing under the broad shield of Omnipotence. Realize that the characteristics of Jehovah must be revealed in your life, and that in you must be accomplished a work that will mold your character after the divine similitude. Yield yourself to the guidance of Him who is head over all....
RC	235	5	Talk light; walk in the light. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." Study not how to please self. Lose sight of self, and behold the multitudes perishing in their sins. Gather to your souls the courage that can come only from the Light of the world. Forgetting self, help the many who are within reach around you. Talk faith, and your faith will increase.... Walk so that your life will reflect rays of light to others. Confide in the love of Jesus, and you will have grace to save perishing souls. Your path will be as the path of the just--a "shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."--The Signs of the Times, June 3, 1903.
------------------------We May Connect a Soul to Heaven, August 10
RC	236	1	For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. Acts 13:47.
RC	236	2	Many professed Christians are laying upon the foundation-stone wood, hay, and stubble, which the fires of the last day will consume. They engage in work that wearies, work that occupies golden hours; but it is not work that need be done. Their time is occupied, their energies exhausted, in that which will bring no precious returns either in this life or in the future immortal life. What a difference will be seen when spiritual work engages the mind, when the talents are employed in the service of Jesus! The light that He has given us will then shine forth in direct, concentrated rays to others. All that we do for Jesus will enable us to enjoy this life better.
RC	236	3	Oh, that all could see, as I have seen, the joy of those who have labored to the best of their ability, in humility and meekness, to help souls to come to Jesus! Oh, the joy that will be realized by the workers when the souls saved through their instrumentality express their gratitude in the mansions above!
RC	236	4	While Christ will be glorified as the only Redeemer, there will be an overflow of gratitude from the saved for the human instrumentalities employed in their salvation. Their gratitude to those who rescued them will find expression in words like these: "I was pursuing a course that was a dishonor and an offense to my Redeemer; you manifested a love for my soul; you opened to me the Word of God. I was on the brink of ruin; your prayers, your tearful entreaties, your earnest interest, arrested my attention. I thought that you must have the truth or you would not be so earnest for the salvation of others. I read the Word of God for myself, and found that what you told me was the truth. I am saved, and I will praise my Redeemer for His matchless mercy and pardoning love."
RC	236	5	Those who think they can do but little should improve every opportunity to do that little. It may be the smallest link in the longest chain. Separated from other influences, it may appear of little worth; but in God's great chain of circumstances it may be the link which connects a soul to Heaven. All can do something if they will; but too often selfishness prevents them from doing what they might, until the souls whom they might have saved are beyond the reach of human effort.
RC	236	6	Dear brethren and sisters, you need divine enlightenment. When you have such a close connection with the world's Redeemer as you should have, you will be led to make prompt, determined, personal efforts to save your fellow men. The future of God's people lies in the present.--The Signs of the Times, January 28, 1886.
------------------------Fishers of Men Need the Divine Presence, August 11
RC	237	1	Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.... And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. Luke 5:4-6.
RC	237	2	Everyone who in living faith follows Jesus, with an eye single to His glory, will see the salvation of God just as surely as these discouraged, despondent fishermen saw their boats filled by the miraculous draught. It was because Christ was in the ship that they were successful in their efforts to catch fish. The indwelling presence of the Saviour is equally necessary in the work of winning souls.
RC	237	3	In order to save humanity, Christ, the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, laid aside His kingly crown and royal robe, clothed His divinity with humanity, and came to this earth as our Redeemer. For thirty-three years He lived the life of a man among men, meeting the temptations that we must meet, and overcoming through the strength imparted from above. His divinity was not manifested in any display of pomp and royal power. He could have surrounded Himself with legions of heavenly angels, thereby inducing everyone to believe on Him; but this would not have been in accordance with God's purpose.
RC	237	4	Christ came to stand at the head of humanity, and to demonstrate that through the power of the Holy Spirit it is possible for man to withstand Satan's temptations. With his long human arm the Saviour encircled humanity, while with His divine arm He grasped the throne of the Infinite....
RC	237	5	We may endeavor to meet the enemy's temptations in our own strength, doing the best we can to overcome; but we shall meet with disappointment after disappointment. This was the condition in which Christ found the disciples, after their night of unrewarded toil. They were annoyed and perplexed. Directing them to "launch out into the deep," Christ said, "Let down your nets for a draught."
RC	237	6	Long had the fishermen toiled that night; often had they been disappointed in their expectations, as time and again the net was drawn up empty. When the Divine Presence was with them, and they, at His bidding, once more cast their net into the sea, what an abundance they gathered in! They were unprepared to handle so large a draught.... The sight of the miraculous draught of fish swept away the unbelief of the Galilean fishermen, and they were ready to respond to Christ's invitation to follow Him, and to learn to be fishers of men.... However long and faithfully we may toil in our human strength, we can hope for no real results; but as soon as we welcome Christ into the heart, He will work with and through us, to the salvation of souls.--Manuscript 67, 1903.
------------------------The World Needs Health Principles, August 12
RC	238	1	They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Mark 16:18.
RC	238	2	In teaching health principles, keep before the mind the great object of reform--that its purpose is to secure the highest development of body and mind and soul. Show that the laws of nature, being the laws of God, are designed for our good; that obedience to them promotes happiness in this life, and aids in the preparation for the life to come.
RC	238	3	Lead the people to study the manifestation of God's love and wisdom in the works of nature. Lead them to study that marvelous organism, the human system, and the laws by which it is governed. Those who perceive the evidences of God's love, who understand something of the wisdom and beneficence of His laws, and the results of obedience, will come to regard their duties and obligations from an altogether different point of view. Instead of looking upon an observance of the laws of health as a matter of sacrifice or self-denial, they will regard it, as it really is, as an inestimable blessing.
RC	238	4	Every gospel worker should feel that the giving of instruction in the principles of healthful living is a part of his appointed work. Of this work there is great need, and the world is open for it.
RC	238	5	Everywhere there is a tendency to substitute the work of organizations for individual effort. Human wisdom tends to consolidation, to centralization, to the building up of great churches and institutions. Multitudes leave to institutions and organizations the work of benevolence; they excuse themselves from contact with the world, and their hearts grow cold. They become self-absorbed and unimpressible. Love for God and man dies out of the soul.
RC	238	6	Christ commits to His followers an individual work--a work that cannot be done by proxy. Ministry to the sick and the poor, the giving of the gospel to the lost, is not to be left to committees or organized charities. Individual responsibility, individual effort, personal sacrifice, is the requirement of the gospel.
RC	238	7	"Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in," is Christ's command, "that my house may be filled" (Luke 14:23). He brings men into touch with those whom they seek to benefit. "Bring the poor that are cast out to thy house," He says. "When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him" (Isaiah 58:7). "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:18). Through direct contact, through personal ministry, the blessings of the gospel are to be communicated.--The Ministry of Healing, 146-148.
------------------------Reveal the Preciousness of Jesus, August 13
RC	239	1	And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.... And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? Luke 24:15-32.
RC	239	2	We should speak of Christ to those who know Him not. We should do as Christ did. Wherever He was, in the synagogue, by the wayside, in the boat thrust out a little from the land, at the Pharisee's feast or the table of the publican, He spoke to men of the things pertaining to the higher life. The things of nature, the events of daily life, were bound up by Him with the words of truth. The hearts of His hearers were drawn to Him; for He had healed their sick, had comforted their sorrowing ones, and had taken their children in His arms and blessed them. When He opened His lips to speak, their attention was riveted upon Him, and every word was to some soul a savor of life unto life.
RC	239	3	So it should be with us. Wherever we are, we should watch for the opportunities of speaking to others of the Saviour. If we follow Christ's example in doing good, hearts will open to us as they did to Him. Not abruptly, but with tact born of divine love, we can tell them of Him who is the "chiefest among ten thousand" and the One "altogether lovely" (Song of Solomon 5:10, 16). This is the very highest work in which we can employ the talent of speech.--Christ's Object Lessons, 338, 339.
RC	239	4	The example of Christ in linking Himself with the interests of humanity should be followed by all who preach His Word, and by all who have received the gospel of His grace. We are not to renounce social communion. We should not seclude ourselves from others. In order to reach all classes, we must meet them where they are. They will seldom seek us of their own accord. Not alone from the pulpit are the hearts of men touched by divine truth. There is another field of labor, humbler, it may be, but fully as promising. It is found in the home of the lowly, and in the mansion of the great; at the hospitable board, and in the gatherings of innocent social enjoyment....
RC	239	5	Wherever we go, we are to carry Jesus with us, and to reveal to others the preciousness of our Saviour.... Through the social relations, Christianity comes in contact with the world. Everyone who has received the divine illumination is to brighten the pathway of those who know not the Light of life.... Christ is pleased with His followers when they show that, though human, they are partakers of the divine nature.... The light that shines upon them they reflect upon others in works that are luminous with the love of Christ.--The Desire of Ages, 152, 153.
------------------------Present Truth in Love, August 14
RC	240	1	The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Exodus 34:6.
RC	240	2	The Lord is soon to come. The angels are holding the four winds, in order that God's people may do their long-neglected work. We are not half awake to what might be done in our world....
RC	240	3	House-to-house work is one very successful way of reaching souls. But it is not the only way that God has provided for the advancement of His work. Decided proclamations of truth are to be made. But in regard to this line of work I am instructed to say to our people: Be guarded. In bearing the message make no personal thrusts at other churches.... Let us be careful of our words. Let not our ministers follow their own impulses in denouncing and exposing the mysteries of iniquity. Upon these themes often silence is eloquence.
RC	240	4	Many are deceived. Speak the truth in tones and words of love. Let Christ be exalted. Keep to the affirmative of truth. Never leave the straight path God has marked out, for the purpose of giving someone a thrust. That thrust may do much harm and no good. It may quench conviction in many minds. Let the truth tell the story of the inconsistency of those in error.
RC	240	5	People cannot be expected to see at once the advantage of truth over the error they have cherished. The best way to expose the fallacy of error is to present the evidence of truth. This is the greatest rebuke that can be given to error. Dispel the cloud of darkness resting on minds by reflecting the bright light of the Sun of Righteousness.
RC	240	6	You may have opportunity to speak to other churches. In improving these opportunities, remember the words of the Saviour, "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Do not arouse the malignity of the enemy by making denunciatory speeches. Thus you would close doors against the entrance of truth. Clear-cut messages are to be borne. But guard against arousing antagonism. Restrain all harsh expressions.
RC	240	7	There are many souls to be saved. In words and deed be wise unto salvation, representing Christ to all with whom you come in contact. Let all see that your feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace and goodwill to men. Wonderful are the results we shall see if we enter the work imbued with the Spirit of Christ. If we carry the Word forward, in righteousness, mercy, and love, help will come in our necessity. Truth will triumph and bear away the victory.--Pacific Union Recorder, October 23, 1902.
------------------------Thousands to be Warned in the Cities, August 15
RC	241	1	And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:31.
RC	241	2	When I think of the cities in which so little work has been done, in which there are so many thousands to be warned of the soon coming of the Saviour, I feel an intensity of desire to see men and women going forth to the work in the power of the Spirit, filled with Christ's love for perishing souls.
RC	241	3	The heathen in the cities at our doors have been strangely neglected. Organized effort should be made to save them. We are now to work to convert ... those who are living within the shadow of our doors. A new song is to be put in their mouths, and they are to go forth to impart to others now in darkness the light of the third angel's message.
RC	241	4	We all need to be wide awake, that, as the way opens, we may advance the work in the large cities. We are far behind in following the light given us to enter the cities and erect memorials for God. Step by step we are to lead souls into the full light of truth. Many are longing for spiritual food. We are to continue working until a church is organized and a humble house of worship built. I am greatly encouraged to believe that many persons not of our faith will help considerably by their means. The light given me is that in many places, especially in the great cities ..., help will be given by such persons....
RC	241	5	Those who undertake to work for God in our cities must go forward in faith, doing their very best. As they watch and work and pray, God will hear and answer their petitions. They will obtain an experience that will be invaluable to them in their afterwork. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
RC	241	6	My mind is deeply stirred. In every city there is work to be done. Laborers are to go into our large cities....
RC	241	7	We need to feel the vivifying influence of the Holy Spirit as the disciples felt it on the day of Pentecost. Of their experience at that time we read: "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the Word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own." Selfishness was expelled from the heart. "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all."--Pacific Union Recorder, October 23, 1902.
------------------------The Fields are Ready to Harvest, August 16
RC	242	1	Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. John 4:35.
RC	242	2	God's servants are not to exhaust their time and strength in working especially for those whose whole lifetime has been devoted to the service of Satan, till the entire being is corrupted. As the outcasts come--and they will come, as they came to Christ--we are to forbid them not. We are to reach out to them a helping hand. But God calls for workers to reach those of the higher classes, who, if converted, could in turn work for those of their own standing. He desires to see converted talent and converted influence in the ministry enlisted in His service. The Lord is working upon men and women of talent and influence, leading them to connect with those who are giving the last message of mercy to the world.
RC	242	3	A mistake has been made in setting young men and young women at work in the slums of our great cities. Few will be saved as a result of this work.... The Lord has shown me that our work is to bring into the truth those who will be producers as well as consumers. There are men of talent and influence who are longing for something they have not yet received. Let the truth in its simplicity be presented to them. If converted, they would exert a powerful influence for the truth.
RC	242	4	God has men whom He will call into His service, men who will not carry forward the work in the lifeless way in which it has been carried forward in the past. Many who have not yet heard the message to be given to the world have learned the meaning of self-denial and self-sacrifice. Men will come into the truth who will work with earnestness and zeal, tact and understanding. Let none discourage these zealous workers. In some things they will make some mistakes, and will need to be corrected and instructed. But have not men who have been longer in the truth made mistakes, and needed correction and instruction? When they made mistakes, the Lord did not cast them off, but healed them and strengthened them, presenting them with His banner to hold aloft.
RC	242	5	God selects His messengers, and gives them His message; and He says, "Forbid them not." New methods must be introduced. God's people must awaken to the necessity of the time in which they are living.
RC	242	6	[Christ] knew that when the Holy Spirit should be poured out on the disciples, the harvest of His seed-sowing would be reaped. Thousands would be converted in a day....
RC	242	7	Time is passing, and the Lord calls upon the workers in all lines of His work to lift up their eyes and behold the fields all ripe for the harvest.--Pacific Union Recorder, October 23, 1902.
------------------------Doing God's Will in Warning the Lost, August 17
RC	243	1	As the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men. Ephesians 6:6, 7.
RC	243	2	Last night a scene was presented before me. I may never feel free to reveal all of it, but I will reveal a little.
RC	243	3	It seemed that an immense ball of fire came down upon the world, and crushed large houses. From place to place rose the cry, "The Lord has come! The Lord has come!" Many were unprepared to meet Him, but a few were saying, "Praise the Lord!"
RC	243	4	"Why are you praising the Lord?" inquired those upon whom was coming sudden destruction.
RC	243	5	"Because we now see what we have been looking for."
RC	243	6	"If you believed that these things were coming, why did you not tell us?" was the terrible response. "We did not know about these things. Why did you leave us in ignorance? Again and again you have seen us; why did you not become acquainted with us, and tell us of the judgment to come, and that we must serve God, lest we perish? Now we are lost!"
RC	243	7	Every church member is to train the intellect, in order that he may gain a clear understanding of the will of God concerning him; everyone is to educate the voice, that he may communicate a knowledge of the Scriptures to those who are in ignorance. May God help us to stand, like Daniel, in our lot and place during the days of probation that remain.
RC	243	8	Parents, teach your children regarding the things that are coming upon the earth, and lead them to prepare to meet their Lord in peace. Gain a knowledge of the Scriptures. Do not fill the head with the nonsense of novels. Brain nerve power is required by those who desire to comprehend the truth so clearly that they can teach it intelligently to others. We have none too much brainpower. Never can we afford to use tobacco, or alcoholic liquors, or any other injurious substance; for we must strive to keep our minds clear for the work of saving souls. The Lord is pleased with those who manifest fervid earnestness in His service. It is the privilege of everyone to cultivate faithfully every God-given power.
RC	243	9	In that glad day ... the ransomed ones will exclaim: "Worthy, worthy, is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again, a triumphant Conqueror." What joy the worker will then feel in going to those to whom he has spoken with trembling and in fearfulness--those to whom he has opened the Scriptures and with whom he has prayed, thus balancing their souls on the right side.... All His providences will then be made plain.--Manuscript 102, 1904.
------------------------Heart Missionaries are Needed, August 18
RC	244	1	He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2 Corinthians 5:15, R.S.V.
RC	244	2	Those who take up their appointed work will not only be a blessing to others, but they will themselves be blessed. The consciousness of duty well done will have a reflex influence upon their own souls. The despondent will forget their despondency, the weak will become strong, the ignorant intelligent, and all will find an unfailing helper in Him who has called them.
RC	244	3	The church of Christ is organized for service. Its watchword is ministry. Its members are soldiers, to be trained for conflict under the Captain of their salvation. Christian ministers, physicians, teachers, have a broader work than many have recognized. They are not only to minister to the people, but to teach them to minister. They should not only give instruction in right principles, but educate their hearers to impart these principles. Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessing can be retained only as it is shared.
RC	244	4	The monotony of our service for God needs to be broken up. Every church member should be engaged in some line of service for the Master. Some cannot do so much as others, but everyone should do his utmost to roll back the tide of disease and distress that is sweeping over our world....
RC	244	5	Educated workers who are consecrated to God can do service in a greater variety of ways and can accomplish more extensive work than can those who are uneducated. Their discipline of mind places them on vantage ground. But those who have neither great talents nor extensive education may minister acceptably to others. God will use men who are willing to be used. It is not the most brilliant or the most talented persons whose work produces the greatest and most lasting results. Men and women are needed who have heard a message from heaven. The most effective workers are those who respond to the invitation, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me" (Matthew 11:29).
RC	244	6	It is heart missionaries that are needed. He whose heart God touches is filled with a great longing for those who have never known His love. Their condition impresses him with a sense of personal woe. Taking his life in his hand, he goes forth, a heaven-sent, heaven-inspired messenger, to do a work in which angels can cooperate.--The Ministry of Healing, 148-150.
------------------------Success Through House-to-House Ministry, August 19
RC	245	1	I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 20:20, 21.
RC	245	2	The work ... has had to commence small; but ... it can be managed so as to become self-sustaining. One great means by which this can be accomplished will be by the well-directed efforts of those already in the truth to bring in others who will be a strength and support to the work. This was the way the Christian church was established. Christ first selected a few persons, and bade them follow Him. Then they went in search of their relatives and acquaintances and brought them to Christ. This is the way we are to labor. A few souls brought out and fully established on the truth will, like the first disciples, be laborers for others.... The burden now is to convince souls of the truth. This can best be done by personal efforts, by bringing the truth into their houses, praying with them, and opening to them the Scriptures.--The Review and Herald, December 8, 1885.
RC	245	3	Our Saviour went from house to house, healing the sick, comforting the mourners, soothing the afflicted, speaking peace to the disconsolate. He took the little children in His arms and blessed them and spoke words of hope and comfort to the weary mothers. With unfailing tenderness and gentleness, He met every form of human woe and affliction.
RC	245	4	Not for Himself, but for others did He labor. He was the servant of all. It was His meat and drink to bring hope and strength to all with whom He came in contact. And as men and women listened to the truths that fell from His lips ... hope sprang up in their hearts. In His teaching there was an earnestness that sent His words home with convicting power.--Gospel Workers, 188.
RC	245	5	Paul, as well as laboring publicly, went from house to house preaching repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He met with men at their homes, and besought them with tears, declaring unto them the whole counsel of God. Jesus came in personal contact with men. He did not stand aloof and apart from those who needed His help.... We must come close to the hearts of those who need our ministry. We must open the Bible to the understanding, present the claims of God's law, read the promises to the hesitating, urge the backward, arouse the careless, strengthen the weak.--The Review and Herald, April 24, 1888.
RC	245	6	Do not neglect speaking to your neighbors, and doing them all the kindness in your power.... We need to seek for the spirit that constrained the apostle Paul to go from house to house, pleading with tears, and teaching "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."--The Review and Herald, March 13, 1888.
------------------------Acts of Sympathy Open Doors, August 20
RC	246	1	The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28.
RC	246	2	Many have no faith in God and have lost confidence in man. But they appreciate acts of sympathy and helpfulness. As they see one with no inducement of earthly praise or compensation coming to their homes to minister to the sick, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and comfort the sad, and ever tenderly pointing all to Him of whose love and pity the human worker is but the messenger--as they see this, their hearts are touched. Gratitude springs up; faith is kindled. They see that God cares for them, and they are prepared to listen to the teaching of His Word.
RC	246	3	Whether in foreign missions or in the home field, all missionaries, both men and women, will gain much more ready access to the people, and will find their usefulness greatly increased, if they are able to minister to the sick. Women who go as missionaries to heathen lands may thus find opportunity for giving the gospel to the women of those lands, when every other door of access is closed. All gospel workers should know how to give the simple treatments that do so much to relieve pain and remove disease.
RC	246	4	Gospel workers should be able also to give instruction in the principles of healthful living. There is sickness everywhere, and much of it might be prevented by attention to the laws of health. The people need to see the bearing of health principles upon their well-being, both for this life and for the life to come. They need to be awakened to their responsibility for the human habitation fitted up by their Creator as His dwelling place, and over which He desires them to be faithful stewards.
RC	246	5	Thousands need and would gladly receive instruction concerning the simple methods of treating the sick--methods that are taking the place of the use of poisonous drugs. There is great need of instruction in regard to dietetic reform. Wrong habits of eating and use of unhealthful food are in no small degree responsible for the intemperance and crime and wretchedness that curse the world.
RC	246	6	In teaching health principles, keep before the mind the great object of reform--that its purpose is to secure the highest development of body and mind and soul. Show that the laws of nature, being the laws of God, are designed for our good; that obedience to them promotes happiness in this life, and aids in the preparation for the life to come.--The Review and Herald, December 24, 1914.
------------------------Invite the Youth to Your Homes, August 21
RC	247	1	Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40.
RC	247	2	We are in a world of sin and temptation, and youth are perishing out of Christ all around us, and He wants you to labor for the youth in every conceivable way that you can. If you have a house, and a pleasant home, then invite the youth that have no homes, invite the youth that are in need of help, that are in need of sympathy and kind words, courtesy, and respect. They want all this. If you want to bring them to Christ, you must show your love and respect for the purchase of His blood, the souls whom He has ransomed by the infinite cost of His own precious life, and is not that enough to lead us, as soon as we are a branch in the vine, to bear fruit? ...
RC	247	3	In heaven we shall see those youth that we helped, those youth that we invited to our house, those youth that we led from temptation, those youth that we tried to win away from being drunkards and tobacco users and wine drinkers and all these habits which are taking the underpinning out of the house, befogging the brain, and taking away the reason, and leaving men without a sound mind, and a sound body.... What do we want? A face that will reflect the sunshine of the glory of God, we want a face that reflects the likeness of the divine. We want a character reshaped. We want that the image of Christ should be restored to us. May God help us that we may ... do our best in our lifetime.
RC	247	4	You have no time to devote to the theater or the dance hall. You have no time to grumble. It is lost, lost. You have no time to play cards. You have no time to attend horse races. You have no time to attend shows. How is it with my soul? ... Have I a living connection with God? If I have, I must seek to win these souls that are attracted with these outward pleasures. Satan has managed it. Satan has devised it that one pleasure should crowd on the heels of another, a feverish excitement. No time to contemplate God, no time to think of heaven or heavenly things, no time to study the Bible, no time to put forth interested efforts for those that are out of Christ.
RC	247	5	But those that ... are giving themselves to Jesus ... can hear that voice that shall pronounce the benediction, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." There, you see, that is election.... It was prepared for every soul that would be obedient to God and that would work in Christ's lines, because that when they obtain the treasure of heavenly reward, they enter into the joy of their Lord, because their joy was full of Christ's joy which was to win souls to the Saviour.--Manuscript 43, 1894.
------------------------Youth to Help Youth, August 22
RC	248	1	Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. Romans 14:19.
RC	248	2	I addressed the students earnestly, urging upon them the instruction of the Word, and bidding them keep in mind the higher school, to which, if faithful, they will soon be transferred....
RC	248	3	I desire that these students shall do their best, and not lay any stumbling block in their own path or in the path of others; but that individually they shall strive to be Christians, seeking by diligent study and earnest prayer to gain the training essential for acceptable service in the cause of God.
RC	248	4	I long to see the youth helping one another to a higher Christian experience. We are preparing for the grand review of that day when every case shall be forever decided. In view of this solemn event, not only the youth, but all who are striving for eternal life, need to put every power of heart and mind into the work of learning Christ's way. We have severe conflicts to meet, and important victories to gain....
RC	248	5	Humble your heart before the Lord. Keep heart and mind pure and clean, and free from worldly entanglements. Every power of the sanctified life will be brought into the service of God.
RC	248	6	"At a certain battle, when one of the regiments of the attacking force was being beaten back by the enemy, the ensign in front stood his ground as the troops retreated. The captain shouted to him to bring back the colors; but the reply of the ensign was, 'Bring the men up to the colors.'" This is the spirit we are to manifest. It devolves upon every faithful standard bearer to bring the men up to the colors. The Lord calls for wholeheartedness. Many professing Christians lack the courage and the energy to bring themselves and those connected with them up to the true standard. Will not the standard bearers, as brave, true men, bring the men up to the colors, remembering that Christ, the Captain of our salvation, is on the field?
RC	248	7	From all countries the Macedonian call is sounding, Come over and help us. God has opened fields before us. If human instrumentalities will cooperate with divine agencies, many souls will be won to the truth. The Spirit of the Lord will be graciously manifested....
RC	248	8	Let every sanctified heart now respond, by seeking to proclaim the life-giving message.... If men and women in humility and faithfulness will take up their God-appointed work, divine power will be revealed in the conversion of souls to the truth. Wonderful will be the results of their efforts.--Letter 44, 1911.
------------------------The Power of Influence, August 23
RC	249	1	Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. Hebrews 12:13.
RC	249	2	We cannot realize how powerful for good or for evil is our influence upon those with whom we associate....
RC	249	3	My dear young friends, you may maintain the simplicity of true Godliness. You may follow on to know the Lord, that His going forth is prepared as the morning. You may know that He is your helper. You will have an increase of light and joy and hope and consolation in Jesus Christ, as you commit the keeping of your souls to the heavenly Powers, and become separated from corrupt worldly influences.
RC	249	4	To make straight paths for our feet--this is our work. "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." He will be with us every day as we advance in the narrow path, and through the strait gate that leads to life everlasting. He will be your helper and your strength. Let us praise Him more. We all have received very much for which to praise Him. Then let us talk much of Him, and let us love Him.
RC	249	5	Here are younger children. Christ loves you. When the mothers brought the little children to Jesus that He might place His hands on them in blessing, the disciples were going to send them away. The Master was giving important lessons to the people, and the disciples thought He should not be disturbed. Jesus heard their words. Said He, "Forbid them not ... : for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
RC	249	6	I feel a deep interest in every one of these little children, and we hope that you will all treat them very tenderly. In the family let those who are older be patient and kind to their younger brothers and sisters. They may help to educate the little ones in a knowledge of the Bible. Do not put the vim into your voice when you speak to them. Put in the blessedness that comes from doing right, from pleasing the Lord....
RC	249	7	If you will continually seek help of the Lord, you will not, when you come to the evening season of prayer, feel that you must repent of harsh or discouraging words, and unkind actions during the day. Take right hold of Christ by a living faith, and then encourage the younger children. They will do wrong sometimes, and they may get into mischief, but do not become discouraged. Shield them so far as possible from temptation, and encourage them to obey the Lord....
RC	249	8	Let us plead with the Lord in the home and in the church, that we may be of good courage, and may go forward step by step, onward and upward toward heaven.--Manuscript 61, 1907.
------------------------Press Close to Those Who Need Help, August 24
RC	250	1	For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke 19:10.
RC	250	2	The whole heavenly universe are intensely interested in every penitent soul that comes to Jesus; and they are interested, too, in the impenitent--in those whom they hope to see saved by repentance and reformation. Angels are watching our every act. They are familiar with every word uttered. They are intensely desirous of seeing us value above all else the instruction of God's Word. They desire us to learn Christ's meekness and lowliness--the highest of all sciences, the science of gladness and humility and love through Christ Jesus.
RC	250	3	The angels desire that we shall learn that the Son of man came "to save that which was lost." Christ came not to save that which is good and righteous, but "that which was lost." Brethren and sisters, when you see a soul slipping away from the truth, and endangering his hope of eternal salvation, press close to his side, and seek to help him in every way you can. Inquire into his needs; pray with him; labor kindly, patiently, with him; never despair of helping him.
RC	250	4	Church members have a work to do along the line of taking an interest in the youth. They should shake hands with them, and manifest a kindly interest in their welfare. Let us shield the youth, so far as possible, from worldly temptations and allurements. If possible, let us find some employment for them, whereby their minds may be occupied with that which is ennobling. This is genuine ministry--a ministry that God approves, and that lifts up before the one who ministers, as well as before the one ministered unto, a standard against the enemy. Satan cannot overcome by his wiles those who in word and deed are ministers of righteousness....
RC	250	5	To everyone is given the privilege of helping his fellow men to place their feet on the Rock of Ages....
RC	250	6	Christ never ceases to seek us when we wander from the fold. With unwearying steps He searches until He finds us, and brings us back to His fold. Again and again we would have perished, had it not been for His loving care.... Little do we realize the strength of the forces that are now at work in this world. The whole heavenly host are seeking to save that which was lost; the fallen angels are working with a power from beneath to counteract the efforts of Christ and His colaborers....
RC	250	7	May God help us to fight the good fight of faith, and to clothe ourselves with the whole armor, and, having done all, to stand.... Let us watch for souls as do those that must give an account.--Manuscript 102, 1904.
------------------------God Calls Young People, August 25
RC	251	1	O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Psalm 71:17.
RC	251	2	There is a great work to be done in the Master's vineyard. To accomplish this work, God calls for men to whom He has given ability for service. He does nothing without man's cooperation.
RC	251	3	Whenever the Lord has a work to be done, He calls not only the commanding officers, but all the workers. He calls young men and women who are strong and active in mind. He desires them to bring into the work their fresh, healthy powers of brain, bone, and muscle. They are to take part in the conflict against principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places.
RC	251	4	Men have nothing but that which God has given them in trust. They are not to indulge pride or to boast of their talents. They owe to God all that makes it possible for them to labor for Him. Yet every man has a part to act in preparing himself for service. By earnest study, taxing effort, he is to cultivate all his powers. Then divine power will surely combine with his efforts.
RC	251	5	Some young men are urging their way into the work who have no real fitness for it. They do not understand that they need to be taught before they can teach. They point to men who with little preparation have labored with a measure of success. But if these men have been successful, it is because they put their heart and soul into the work.... The cause of God needs efficient men....
RC	251	6	Redemption, what is it? It is the training process for heaven. This training means more than a knowledge of books. It means a knowledge of Christ, emancipation from ideas, habits, and practices that have been gained in the school of the prince of darkness. The soul must be delivered from all that is opposed to loyalty to God. Resistance of evil must be encouraged....
RC	251	7	God gives all an opportunity in this life to develop character. All may fill their appointed place in His great plan. The Lord accepted Samuel from his very childhood, because his heart was pure, and he had reverence for God. He was given to God, a consecrated offering, and the Lord made him, even in his childhood, a channel of light.
RC	251	8	A life consecrated as was Samuel's is of great value in God's sight. If the youth of today will consecrate themselves as did Samuel, the Lord will accept them and use them in His work. Of their life they may be able to say with the psalmist, "O Lord, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works."--Manuscript 51, 1900.
------------------------"Pure Religion" and "My Neighbor" Defined, August 26
RC	252	1	Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27.
RC	252	2	What is pure religion? Christ has told us that pure religion is the exercise of pity, sympathy, and love in the home, in the church, and in the world. This is the kind of religion to teach to the children, and is the genuine article. Teach them that they are not to center their thoughts upon themselves, but that wherever there is human need and suffering, there is a field for missionary work....
RC	252	3	There are many who ask, as did the lawyer, "Who is my neighbor?" The answer comes down to us in the circumstances that happened near Jericho, when the priest and the Levite passed by on the other side, and left the poor, bruised, and wounded stranger to be taken care of by the good Samaritan. Everyone who is in suffering need is our neighbor. Every straying son and daughter of Adam, who has been ensnared by the enemy of souls, and bound in the slavery of wrong habits that blight the God-given manhood or womanhood, is my neighbor....
RC	252	4	Would that children might be educated from their babyhood, through their childhood and youth, to understand what is the missionary work to be done right around them. Let the home be made a place for religious instruction. Let parents become mouthpieces of the Lord God of Israel, to teach the precepts of true Christianity, and let them be examples of what the principles of love can make men and women.
RC	252	5	We are to think and care for others who need our love, our tenderness, and care. We should ever remember that we are representatives of Christ, and that we are to share the blessings that He gives, not with those who can recompense us again, but with those who will appreciate the gifts that will supply their temporal and spiritual necessities. Those who give feasts for the purpose of helping those who have but little pleasure, for the purpose of bringing brightness into their dreary lives, for the purpose of relieving their poverty and distress, are acting unselfishly and in harmony with the instruction of Christ.--The Review and Herald, November 12, 1895.
RC	252	6	Good deeds are the fruit that Christ requires us to bear: kind words, deeds of benevolence, of tender regard for the poor, the needy, the afflicted. When hearts sympathize with hearts burdened with discouragement and grief, when the hand dispenses to the needy, when the naked are clothed, the stranger made welcome to a seat in your parlor and a place in your heart, angels are coming very near, and an answering strain is responded to in heaven.--Testimonies for the Church 2:25.
------------------------Reaching Out Through Literature Evangelism, August 27
RC	253	1	I am among you as he that serveth. Luke 22:27.
RC	253	2	Canvassing for our publications is an important and most profitable line of evangelistic work. Our publications can go to places where meetings cannot be held. In such places the faithful evangelistic canvasser takes the place of the living preacher....
RC	253	3	May the Lord move upon many of our young men and women to enter the canvassing field as canvassing evangelists. By the canvassing work the truth is presented to thousands that otherwise would not hear it. Our time for work is short. Many, very many, need the promptitude of the "quickly" in them, to lead them to arouse and go to work. The Lord calls for workers just now....
RC	253	4	Why is there not now more diligent seeking of the Lord, that hundreds may be filled with the Holy Spirit, and may go forth quickly to proclaim the truth, "the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following"? Our commission is to let the light shine forth everywhere from the press. By the printed page the light reaches the isolated ones, who have no opportunity to hear the living preachers. This is most blessed missionary work. Canvassers can be the Lord's helping hand, opening doors for the entrance of the truth.
RC	253	5	Let Christian youth be selected to handle the books containing present truth.... This is a sacred work, and those who enter it should be able to bear witness for Christ.
RC	253	6	Those youth who go into this work should be connected with those older in experience, who, if they are devoted to God, can be a great blessing to them, teaching them in the things of God, and showing them how best to work for Him. If the youth will work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, they will know by experience that God is working with them, to will and to do of His good pleasure.
RC	253	7	Not only men, but women, can enter the canvassing field. And canvassers are to go out two by two. This is the Lord's plan.
RC	253	8	I am instructed to encourage decided efforts to secure helping hands to do missionary work, to give Bible instruction and to sell books containing present truth. Thus skillful work may be done in hunting for souls. Young men, your help is called for. Make a covenant with God by sacrifice. Take hold of His work. He is your sufficiency. "Be strong, yea, be strong."--Pacific Union Recorder, October 23, 1902.
------------------------The Relief of Physical Needs, August 28
RC	254	1	The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. Matthew 4:16.
RC	254	2	There are many now in the shadow of death who need to be instructed in the truths of the gospel. Nearly the whole world is lying in wickedness. To every believer in Christ words of hope have been given for those who sit in darkness....
RC	254	3	Earnest, devoted young people are needed to enter the work as nurses.... The Lord wants wise men and women, who can act in the capacity of nurses, to comfort and help the sick and suffering. O that all who are afflicted might be ministered to by Christian physicians and nurses who could help them to place their weary, pain-racked bodies in the care of the Great Healer, in faith looking to him for restoration! If through judicious ministration the patient is led to give his soul to Christ and to bring his thoughts into obedience to the will of God, a great victory is gained.
RC	254	4	In our daily ministrations we see many careworn, sorrowful faces. What does the sorrow on these faces show? It shows the need of the soul for the peace of Christ. Men and women, longing for something they have not, have sought to supply their want at earth's broken cisterns. Let these hear a voice saying, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." Weary souls, seeking you know not what, come to the water of life. All heaven is yearning over you. "Come to me, that ye might have life."
RC	254	5	There are many lines of work to be carried forward by the missionary nurse. There are opportunities for well-trained nurses to go into homes and there endeavor to awaken an interest in the truth. In almost every community there are large numbers who will not listen to the teaching of God's Word or attend any religious service. If these are reached by the gospel, it must be carried to their homes. Often the relief of their physical needs is the only avenue by which they can be approached.
RC	254	6	Missionary nurses who care for the sick and relieve the distress of the poor will find many opportunities to pray with them, to read to them from God's Word, and to speak of the Saviour. They can pray with and for the helpless ones who have not strength of will to control the appetites that passion has degraded. They can bring a ray of hope into the lives of the defeated and disheartened. The revelation of unselfish love, manifested in acts of disinterested kindness, will make it easier for these suffering ones to believe in the love of Christ.--The Review and Herald, December 24, 1914.
------------------------The Ministry of Music, August 29
RC	255	1	My tongue will sing of your righteousness. Psalm 51:14, N.I.V.
RC	255	2	Instruction in singing is greatly needed in every school. Much more interest should be manifested.... Students who have learned to sing, with melodious voices, sweet gospel songs in such a way that the words are easily understood can do much good as singing evangelists. They will find many opportunities to use the talent that God has given them, carrying melody and sunshine into many lonely places darkened by sin and sorrow and affliction, by singing to those who seldom have the privileges of any kind of gospel ministry.
RC	255	3	Go out into the highways and the hedges. Endeavor to reach the higher as well as the lower classes. Enter the homes of the rich and the poor. As you go from house to house to sing, ask, "Would you be pleased to have us sing? We should be glad to hold a song service with you, and to offer a few words of prayer to ask God to keep us." Not many will refuse you entrance--Manuscript 67, 1903.
RC	255	4	A spirit of devotion was cherished in the schools of the prophets.... Students ... were taught how to pray, how to approach their Creator, how to exercise faith in Him, and how to understand and obey the teachings of His Spirit. Sanctified intellects brought forth from the treasure house of God things new and old, and the Spirit of God was manifested in prophecy and sacred song.
RC	255	5	Music was made to serve a holy purpose, to lift the thoughts to that which is pure, noble, and elevating, and to awaken in the soul devotion and gratitude to God. What a contrast between the ancient custom and the uses to which music is now too often devoted! How many employ this gift to exalt self, instead of using it to glorify God! A love for music leads the unwary to unite with world lovers in pleasure gatherings where God has forbidden His children to go. Thus that which is a great blessing when rightly used, becomes one of the most successful agencies by which Satan allures the mind from duty and from the contemplation of eternal things.
RC	255	6	Music forms a part of God's worship in the courts above, and we should endeavor, in our songs of praise, to approach as nearly as possible to the harmony of the heavenly choirs. The proper training of the voice is an important feature in education, and should not be neglected. Singing, as a part of religious service, is as much an act of worship as is prayer.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 594.
------------------------The Joy of Service for Christ, August 30
RC	256	1	He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 2 Corinthians 9:6.
RC	256	2	Ministry means service, and to this ministry we are all called. It is a dishonor to God for anyone to choose a life of self-pleasing. My brethren and sisters, do you realize that every year thousands and thousands of souls are perishing, dying in their sins because the light of truth has not been flashed upon their pathway?...
RC	256	3	There is a great work to be done in our world. Men and women are to be converted, not by the gift of tongues nor by the working of miracles, but by the preaching of Christ crucified. Why delay the effort to make the world better? Why wait for some wonderful thing to be done, some costly apparatus to be provided? However humble your sphere, however lowly your work, if you labor in harmony with the teachings of the Saviour, He will reveal Himself through you, and your influence will draw souls to Him. He will honor the meek and lowly ones, who seek earnestly to do service for Him. Into all that we do, whether our work be in the shop, on the farm, or in the office, we are to bring the endeavor to save souls.
RC	256	4	We are to sow beside all waters, keeping our souls in the love of God, working while it is day, using the means entrusted to us in the Master's service. Whatever our hands find to do, we are to do it with cheerfulness; whatever sacrifice we are called upon to make, we are to make it cheerfully. As we sow beside all waters, we shall realize the truth of the words, "He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully."
RC	256	5	We owe everything to grace, sovereign grace. Grace ordained our redemption, our regeneration, and our adoption to heirship with Jesus Christ. Let this grace be revealed to others.
RC	256	6	The Saviour takes those whom He finds will be molded, and uses them for His own name's glory. He uses material that others would pass by, and works in all who will give themselves to Him. He delights to take apparently hopeless material, those whom Satan has debased, and through whom he has worked, and make them the subjects of His grace. He rejoices to deliver them from suffering, and from the wrath that is to fall upon the disobedient. He makes His children His agents in the accomplishment of this work, and in its success, even in this life, they find a precious reward.
RC	256	7	But what is this compared with the joy that will be theirs in the great day of final revealing?--The Review and Herald, January 5, 1905.
------------------------The Eternal Reward of Reaching Out, August 31
RC	257	1	When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. Luke 14:13, 14.
RC	257	2	It is the reward of Christ's workers to enter into His joy. That joy, to which Christ Himself looks forward with eager desire, is presented in His request to His Father, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am."
RC	257	3	The angels were waiting to welcome Jesus, as He ascended after His resurrection. The heavenly host longed to greet again their loved Commander, returned to them from the prison house of death. Eagerly they pressed about Him as He entered the gates of heaven. But He waved them back. His heart was with the lonely, sorrowing band of disciples whom He had left upon Olivet. It is still with His struggling children on earth, who have the battle with the destroyer yet to wage. "Father," He says, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am."
RC	257	4	Christ's redeemed ones are His jewels, His precious and peculiar treasure. "They shall be as the stones of a crown"--"the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." In them "he shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied."
RC	257	5	And will not His workers rejoice when they, too, behold the fruit of their labors? ...
RC	257	6	Every impulse of the Holy Spirit leading men to goodness and to God is noted in the books of heaven, and in the day of God everyone who has given himself as an instrument for the Holy Spirit's working will be permitted to behold what his life has wrought.
RC	257	7	Wonderful will be the revealing as the lines of holy influence, with their precious results, are brought to view. What will be the gratitude of souls that will meet us in the heavenly courts, as they understand the sympathetic, loving interest which has been taken in their salvation! All praise, honor, and glory will be given to God and to the Lamb for our redemption; but it will not detract from the glory of God to express gratitude to the instrumentality He has employed in the salvation of souls ready to perish.
RC	257	8	The redeemed will meet and recognize those whose attention they have directed to the uplifted Saviour. What blessed converse they have with these souls! "I was a sinner," it will be said, ... "and you came to me, and drew my attention to the precious Saviour as my only hope. And I believed in Him." ... What rejoicing there will be as these redeemed ones meet and greet those who have had a burden in their behalf!--The Review and Herald, January 5, 1905.
------------------------Be Ready for the Coming of Christ, September 1
RC	258	1	Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Titus 2:13, 14.
RC	258	2	This scripture teaches a very different lesson from that which is presented in the words of many who profess to believe the gospel. We are exhorted to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, and to look for the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Some have made an objection to my work, because I teach that it is our duty to be looking for Christ's personal appearing in the clouds of heaven. They have said, "You would think that the day of the Lord was right upon us to hear Mrs. White speak in reference to the coming of Christ; and she has been preaching on that same subject for the last forty years, and the Lord has not yet come."
RC	258	3	This very objection might have been brought against the words of Christ Himself. He said by the mouth of the beloved disciple, "Behold, I come quickly," and John responds, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Jesus spoke these words as words of warning and encouragement to His people; and why should we not heed them? The Lord has said that it is the faithful who will be found watching and waiting for Him. It was the unfaithful servant who said, "My Lord delayeth his coming," and began to smite his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunken.
RC	258	4	The exact time of Christ's second coming is not revealed. Jesus said, No man knoweth the day nor the hour. But He also gave signs of His coming, and said, "When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." He bade them, as the signs of His coming should appear, "Look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." And in view of these things the apostle wrote: "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day." Since we know not the hour of Christ's coming, we must live soberly and godly in this present world, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." ...
RC	258	5	His people are to preserve their peculiar character as His representatives. There is work for every one of them to do. The rich should bring their means, the honored their influence, the learned their wisdom, the poor their virtue, if they would be effective workers with God. They are to bring themselves into right relation with God, that they may reflect the light of the glory of God that shines in the face of Jesus Christ.... They are to warn men of the coming judgments. They are to represent Christ to the people.--The Signs of the Times, June 24, 1889.
------------------------Growing Up into Christ, September 2
RC	259	1	I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Psalm 16:8.
RC	259	2	Many have an idea that they must do some part of the work alone. They have trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sin, but now they seek by their own efforts to live aright. But every such effort must fail. Jesus says, "Without me ye can do nothing." Our growth in grace, our joy, our usefulness--all depend upon our union with Christ. It is by communion with Him, daily, hourly--by abiding in Him--that we are to grow in grace....
RC	259	3	You gave yourself to God, to be His wholly, to serve and obey Him, and you took Christ as your Saviour. You could not yourself atone for your sins or change your heart; but having given yourself to God, you believe that He for Christ's sake did all this for you. By faith you became Christ's and by faith you are to grow up in Him--by giving and taking. You are to give all--your heart, your will, your service--give yourself to Him to obey all His requirements; and you must take all--Christ, the fullness of all blessing, to abide in your heart, to be your strength, your righteousness, your everlasting helper--to give you power to obey.
RC	259	4	Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be, "Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee." This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ.
RC	259	5	A life in Christ is a life of restfulness. There may be no ecstasy of feeling, but there should be an abiding, peaceful trust. Your hope is not in yourself; it is in Christ. Your weakness is united to His strength, your ignorance to His wisdom, your frailty to His enduring might. So you are not to look to yourself, not to let the mind dwell upon self, but look to Christ. Let the mind dwell upon His love, upon the beauty, the perfection, of His character. Christ in His self-denial, Christ in His humiliation, Christ in His purity and holiness, Christ in His matchless love--this is the subject for the soul's contemplation. It is by loving Him, copying Him, depending wholly upon Him, that you are to be transformed into His likeness.--Steps to Christ, 69-71.
------------------------Our Sufficiency is in Christ Alone, September 3
RC	260	1	God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto world. Galatians 6:14.
RC	260	2	By faith--faith that renounces all self-trust--the needy suppliant is to lay hold upon infinite power.
RC	260	3	No outward observances can take the place of simple faith and entire renunciation of self.... We can only consent for Christ to accomplish the work. Then the language of the soul will be, Lord, take my heart; for I cannot give it. It is Thy property. Keep it pure, for I cannot keep it for Thee. Save me in spite of myself, my weak, unchristlike self. Mold me, fashion me, raise me into a pure and holy atmosphere, where the rich current of Thy love can flow through my soul.
RC	260	4	It is not only at the beginning of the Christian life that this renunciation of self is to be made. At every advance step heavenward it is to be renewed. All our good works are dependent on a power outside of ourselves. Therefore there needs to be a continual reaching out of the heart after God, a continual, earnest, heartbreaking confession of sin and humbling of the soul before Him. Only by constant renunciation of self and dependence on Christ can we walk safely.
RC	260	5	The nearer we come to Jesus and the more clearly we discern the purity of His character, the more clearly we shall discern the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the less we shall feel like exalting ourselves. Those whom heaven recognizes as holy ones are the last to parade their own goodness. The apostle Peter became a faithful minister of Christ, and he was greatly honored by divine light and power; he had an active part in the upbuilding of Christ's church; but Peter never forgot the fearful experience of his humiliation; his sin was forgiven; yet well he knew that for the weakness of character which had caused his fall only the grace of Christ could avail. He found in himself nothing in which to glory.
RC	260	6	None of the apostles or prophets ever claimed to be without sin. Men who have lived nearest to God, men who would sacrifice life itself rather than knowingly commit a wrong act, men whom God had honored with divine light and power, have confessed the sinfulness of their own nature. They have put no confidence in the flesh, have claimed no righteousness of their own, but have trusted wholly in the righteousness of Christ. So will it be with all who behold Christ.
RC	260	7	At every advance step in Christian experience our repentance will deepen.... Then our lips will not be opened in self-glorification. We shall know that our sufficiency is in Christ alone.--Christ's Object Lessons, 159-161.
------------------------The Greatest in the Kingdom, September 4
RC	261	1	Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:4.
RC	261	2	The disciples had just been disputing as to who should be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They could not agree. One would claim the honor for himself; another for himself. None of the disciples were in a proper frame of mind to comprehend the significance of coming events, or to appreciate the solemnity of the present occasion. They were not prepared to participate in the Passover Supper.
RC	261	3	Christ looked upon them sadly. Trials, He knew, were before them, and His great heart of love went out to them in tender pity and sympathy. As a manifestation of His love for them, He "took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded." This was a great rebuke to them all....
RC	261	4	"So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." ...
RC	261	5	By the ordinance of humility we are taught an impressive lesson. Christ had shown to us the necessity of walking humbly before God, and of realizing what He has done for us by the gift of His Son. Christ knew that His disciples would never forget the lesson on humility given them at the Last Supper. In taking upon Himself the humblest form of service, He administered to the twelve the sternest rebuke that could have been given them.
RC	261	6	In the eighteenth of Matthew there is recorded another lesson on humility. These lessons in the Word are given for our admonition. Those who neglect to profit by them are inexcusable.
RC	261	7	The disciples came "unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
RC	261	8	Many do not realize that by walking humbly with God, we place ourselves in a position where the enemy cannot take advantage of us.... Only when we submit, as willing children, to be trained and disciplined, can God use us to His glory.--Manuscript 102, 1904.
------------------------Influence May Bless Thousands, September 5
RC	262	1	Your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 1 Thessalonians 1:8, R.S.V.
RC	262	2	The life of Christ was an ever-widening, shoreless influence, an influence that bound Him to God and to the whole human family. Through Christ, God has invested man with an influence that makes it impossible for him to live to himself. Individually we are connected with our fellow men, a part of God's great whole, and we stand under mutual obligations. No man can be independent of his fellow men; for the well-being of each affects others. It is God's purpose that each shall feel himself necessary to others' welfare, and seek to promote their happiness.
RC	262	3	Every soul is surrounded by an atmosphere of its own--an atmosphere, it may be, charged with the life-giving power of faith, courage, and hope, and sweet with the fragrance of love. Or it may be heavy and chilled with the gloom of discontent and selfishness, or poisonous with the deadly taint of cherished sin. By the atmosphere surrounding us, every person with whom we come in contact is consciously or unconsciously affected.
RC	262	4	This is a responsibility from which we cannot free ourselves. Our words, our acts, our dress, our deportment, even the expression of the countenance, has an influence. Upon the impression thus made there hang results for good or evil which no man can measure. Every impulse thus imparted is seed sown which will produce its harvest. It is a link in the long chain of human events, extending, we know not whither. If by our example we aid others in the development of good principles, we give them power to do good. In their turn they exert the same influence upon others, and they upon still others. Thus by our unconscious influence thousands may be blessed.
RC	262	5	Throw a pebble into the lake, and a wave is formed, and another and another; and as they increase, the circle widens, until it reaches the very shore. So with our influence. Beyond our knowledge or control it tells upon others in blessing....
RC	262	6	The silent witness of a true, unselfish, godly life carries an almost irresistible influence. By revealing in our own life the character of Christ we cooperate with Him in the work of saving souls. It is only by revealing in our life His character that we can cooperate with Him. And the wider the sphere of our influence, the more good we may do.--Christ's Object Lessons, 339, 340.
------------------------Acquiring the Divine Beauty of Meekness, September 6
RC	263	1	Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Zephaniah 2:3.
RC	263	2	Those who have felt their need of Christ, those who have mourned because of sin and have sat with Christ in the school of affliction, will learn meekness from the divine Teacher....
RC	263	3	The statement made by Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that he was the meekest man upon the earth, would not have been regarded by the people of his time as a commendation; it would rather have excited pity or contempt. But Jesus places meekness among the first qualifications for His kingdom. In His own life and character the divine beauty of this precious grace is revealed....
RC	263	4	Through all the lowly experiences of life He consented to pass, walking among the children of men, not as a king, to demand homage, but as one whose mission it was to serve others. There was in His manner no taint of bigotry, no cold austerity. The world's Redeemer had a greater than angelic nature, yet united with His divine majesty were meekness and humility that attracted all to Himself.
RC	263	5	Jesus emptied Himself, and in all that He did, self did not appear. He subordinated all things to the will of His Father. When His mission on earth was about to close, He could say, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do" (John 17:4)....
RC	263	6	It is the love of self that destroys our peace. While self is all alive, we stand ready continually to guard it from mortification and insult; but when we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God, we shall not take neglects or slights to heart. We shall be deaf to reproach and blind to scorn and insult. "Love suffereth long and is kind" (1 Corinthians 13:4, R.V.)....
RC	263	7	Happiness drawn from earthly sources is as changeable as varying circumstances can make it; but the peace of Christ is a constant and abiding peace. It does not depend upon any circumstances in life, on the amount of worldly goods or the number of earthly friends. Christ is the fountain of living water, and happiness drawn from Him can never fail.
RC	263	8	The meekness of Christ, manifested in the home, will make the inmates happy; it provokes no quarrel, gives back no angry answer, but soothes the irritated temper and diffuses a gentleness that is felt by all within its charmed circle. Wherever cherished, it makes the families of earth a part of the one great family above.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 13-17.
------------------------Meekness, an Adorning of the Soul, September 7
RC	264	1	The Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. Psalm 149:4.
RC	264	2	The most precious fruit of sanctification is the grace of meekness. When this grace presides in the soul, the disposition is molded by its influence. There is a continual waiting upon God and a submission of the will to His. The understanding grasps every divine truth, and the will bows to every divine precept, without doubting or murmuring. True meekness softens and subdues the heart and gives the mind a fitness for the engrafted Word. It brings the thoughts into obedience to Jesus Christ. It opens the heart to the Word of God, as Lydia's was opened. It places us with Mary, as learners at the feet of Jesus. "The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way" (Psalm 25:9).
RC	264	3	The language of the meek is never that of boasting. Like the child Samuel, they pray, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth" (1 Samuel 3:9)....
RC	264	4	Meekness in the school of Christ is one of the marked fruits of the Spirit. It is a grace wrought by the Holy Spirit as a sanctifier, and enables its possessor at all times to control a rash and impetuous temper. When the grace of meekness is cherished by those who are naturally sour or hasty in disposition, they will put forth the most earnest efforts to subdue their unhappy temper. Every day they will gain self-control, until that which is unlovely and unlike Jesus is conquered. They become assimilated to the Divine Pattern, until they can obey the inspired injunction, "Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (James 1:19)....
RC	264	5	Meekness is the inward adorning, which God estimates as of great price. The apostle speaks of this as more excellent and valuable than gold or pearls or costly array. While the outward adorning beautifies only the mortal body, the ornament of meekness adorns the soul and connects finite man with the infinite God. This is the ornament of God's own choice. He who garnished the heavens with the orbs of light has by the same Spirit promised that "he will beautify the meek with salvation." Angels of heaven will register as best adorned those who put on the Lord Jesus and walk with Him in meekness and lowliness of mind.
RC	264	6	There are high attainments for the Christian. He may ever be rising to higher attainments.--The Sanctified Life, 14-16.
------------------------An Imperishable Jewel, September 8
RC	265	1	Let not yours be the outward adorning with ... decoration of gold, and wearing of fine clothing, but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. 1 Peter 3:3, 4, R.S.V.
RC	265	2	While at Brother Harris's I had an interview with a sister who wore gold, and yet professed to be looking for Christ's coming. We spoke of the express declaration of Scripture against the wearing of gold. But she referred to where Solomon was commanded to beautify the Temple, and to the statement that the streets of the City of God were pure gold. She said that if we could improve our appearance by wearing gold, so as to have influence in the world, it was right.
RC	265	3	I replied that we were poor fallen mortals, and instead of decorating these bodies because Solomon's Temple was gloriously adorned, we should remember our fallen condition, and that it cost the suffering and death of the Son of God to redeem us. This thought should cause us self-abasement.
RC	265	4	Jesus is our pattern. If He would lay aside His humiliation and sufferings, and cry, "If any man will come after Me, let him please himself, and enjoy the world, and he shall be My disciple," the multitude would believe and follow Him. But Jesus will come to us in no other character than that of the meek, crucified One. If we would be with Him in heaven, we must be like Him on earth. The world will claim its own; and whoever will overcome must leave what belongs to it.--Life Sketches, pp. 113, 114.
RC	265	5	In the day when the accounts of all are balanced, will you feel ... that the beauty of the outward man was sought, while the inward beauty of the soul was almost entirely neglected?
RC	265	6	Have not our sisters sufficient zeal and moral courage to place themselves without excuse upon the Bible platform? The apostle has given most explicit direction on this point: "I will therefore ... that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but ... with good works."--Testimonies for the Church 4:630.
RC	265	7	Love of dress and pleasure is wrecking the happiness of thousands.... To dress plainly, abstaining from display of jewelry and ornaments of every kind, is in keeping with our faith.--Testimonies for the Church 3:366.
RC	265	8	The inward adorning of a meek and quiet spirit is priceless. In the life of the true Christian the outward adorning is always in harmony with the inward peace and holiness.... It is right to love beauty and desire it; but God desires us to love and seek first the highest beauty, that which is imperishable.--The Acts of the Apostles, 523.
------------------------Relieving the World's Misery, September 9
RC	266	1	Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven ...: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:20, 21.
RC	266	2	Where their treasure is, there will their heart be also. Those who have the Lord's talents of means are placed under a heavy responsibility. They are not to invest money merely for the gratification of selfish desires, for whatever is spent in this way is just that much kept from the Lord's treasury. Through the sovereign goodness of God, the Holy Spirit works through the human agent, and causes him to make smaller or larger investments in the cause of God, to make them redound to the glory of God.
RC	266	3	Whenever you think of using the Lord's money for your own selfish gratification, remember that there are many who are in deep poverty who cannot purchase either food or clothing, and they are God's heritage. We are to do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. If those who have abundant means are God's agents in dealing in truth, they will use their treasures wisely, so that none of the household of faith need to go hungry or naked.
RC	266	4	The reason there is such accumulated misery in our world is because those who have been entrusted with money expend it to gratify unsanctified desires, in purchasing needless ornaments of gold and precious stones, and in procuring fancy articles for adornment's sake. But at the same time those who have been purchased by the blood of Christ are starving for food, and their cry entereth into the ears of the God of Sabaoth....In every place where the truth is to go, those who are to be colaborers with God have a work to do....
RC	266	5	Earnest work must be done, not only by a few ministers, but by the whole membership of the church. The Lord God of heaven calls upon men to put away their idols, to cut off every extravagant desire, to indulge in nothing that is simply for display and parade, and to study economy in purchasing garments and furniture. Do not expend one dollar of God's money in purchasing needless articles. Your money means the salvation of souls. Then let it not be spent for gems, for gold, or precious stones.
RC	266	6	Souls for whom Christ died are perishing in their sins, and we are continually bound about because of want of means wherewith to advance the cause of God. Would you not rather have gems in the crown which Jesus shall place upon your head than expend your money for precious stones to please the fancy here in this world?... Every pound is needed, every shilling can be put to use, and invested in such a way as to bring you imperishable treasure.--Letter 90, 1895.
------------------------Choose the Robe Woven in Heaven's Loom, September 10
RC	267	1	They shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. Revelation 3:4.
RC	267	2	Lead the youth to see that in dress, as in diet, plain living is indispensable to high thinking. Lead them to see how much there is to learn and to do; how precious are the days of youth as a preparation for the lifework. Help them to see what treasures there are in the Word of God, in the book of nature, and in the records of noble lives.
RC	267	3	Let their minds be directed to the suffering which they might relieve. Help them to see that by every dollar squandered in display, the spender is deprived of means for feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and comforting the sorrowful.
RC	267	4	They cannot afford to miss life's glorious opportunities, to dwarf their minds, to ruin their health, and to wreck their happiness, for the sake of obedience to mandates that have no foundation in reason, in comfort, or in comeliness.
RC	267	5	At the same time the young should be taught to recognize the lesson of nature, "He hath made every thing beautiful in its time" (Ecclesiastes 3:11, R.V.). In dress, as in all things else, it is our privilege to honor our Creator. He desires our clothing to be not only neat and healthful, but appropriate and becoming.
RC	267	6	A person's character is judged by his style of dress. A refined taste, a cultivated mind, will be revealed in the choice of simple and appropriate attire. Chaste simplicity in dress, when united with modesty of demeanor, will go far toward surrounding a young woman with that atmosphere of sacred reserve which will be to her a shield from a thousand perils.
RC	267	7	Let girls be taught that the art of dressing well includes the ability to make their own clothing.... It will be a means of usefulness and independence that she cannot afford to miss....
RC	267	8	Let the youth and little children be taught to choose for themselves that royal robe woven in heaven's loom--the "fine linen, clean and white" (Revelation 19:8), which all the holy ones of earth will wear. This robe, Christ's own spotless character, is freely offered to every human being. But all who receive it will receive and wear it here.
RC	267	9	Let the children be taught that as they open their minds to pure, loving thoughts and do loving and helpful deeds, they are clothing themselves with His beautiful garment of character. This apparel will make them beautiful and beloved here, and will hereafter be their title of admission to the palace of the King. His promise is: "They shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy."--Education, 248, 249.
------------------------The Widow's Mite Measured by Motive, September 11
RC	268	1	And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all. Luke 21:3.
RC	268	2	The poor widow who cast two mites into the treasury of the Lord showed love, faith, and benevolence. She gave all that she had, trusting to God's care for the uncertain future. Her little gift was pronounced by our Saviour the greatest that day cast into the treasury. Its value was measured, not by the worth of the coin, but by the purity of the motive which prompted her.
RC	268	3	God's blessing upon that sincere offering has made it the source of great results. The widow's mite has been like a tiny stream flowing down through the ages, widening and deepening in its course, and contributing in a thousand directions to the extension of the truth and the relief of the needy.
RC	268	4	The influence of that small gift has acted and reacted upon thousands of hearts in every age and in every country. As the result, unnumbered gifts have flowed into the treasury of the Lord from the liberal, self-denying poor. And again, her example has stimulated to good works thousands of ease-loving, selfish, and doubting ones, and their gifts also have gone to swell the value of her offering.
RC	268	5	Liberality is a duty on no account to be neglected; but let not rich or poor for a moment entertain the thought that their offerings to God can atone for their defects of Christian character. Says the great apostle: "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing,"
RC	268	6	Again, he sets forth the fruits of true charity: "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth." If we would be accepted as the followers of Christ, we must bring forth the fruits of His Spirit; for our Saviour Himself declares: "Ye shall know them by their fruits."
RC	268	7	It is to cultivate a spirit of benevolence in us that the Lord calls for our gifts and offerings. He is not dependent upon men for means to sustain His cause. He declares, by the prophet: "Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are mine.... The world is mine and the fulness thereof"--The Signs of the Times, January 21, 1886.
------------------------Using Riches for the Lord, September 12
RC	269	1	If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. Psalm 62:10.
RC	269	2	Listen to the words of your Redeemer: "... Riches are mine. I have placed them in your hands to be wisely employed in My service, to aid the suffering, to invest in opening the gospel to those who are in darkness. Riches must not be your trust, your god, or your saviour."
RC	269	3	The channels for doing good are many, and they stand wide open. Your barns are large, too large already. If they overflow, instead of building larger, send your treasure before you into heaven. There are widows to feed, orphans to be taken under the guardianship of your home, and share your ample stores; there are souls perishing for the bread of life; missions are to be supported, meetinghouses to be built. If God's cause demands a part, not only of your interest, but of your principal, you are to give back to Him His own. He calls upon you to sow now, that you may reap your harvest with eternal joy.
RC	269	4	God's gifts increase as they are imparted. We see this illustrated in the case of the poor widow whom the prophet Elisha, by a miracle, relieved from debt. She had only one jar of oil; but the prophet told her to borrow vessels of her neighbors, and the oil poured from that one jar continued to flow till all the vessels were filled. The supply ceased only when no more vessels were brought to receive it. So it will be now. So long as we let the gifts of God flow into channels of good, the Lord will supply the flow.
RC	269	5	Christ says to His sons and daughters, "Ye are the light of the world." But who gave you light? You did not have it in you naturally. God is the source of light; the truth has shone into our hearts, to be reflected to others. True love to God will produce love to man. This is what we need--love that is patient, self-sacrificing, persevering, intelligent, practical.
RC	269	6	The Lord has given you means, that in putting it to a right use you may develop good and noble traits of character....
RC	269	7	The Lord is coming. You have no time to lose. You are not to do as did the inhabitants of the antediluvian world--plant and build, eat and drink, marry and give in marriage, the same as the careless worldling. Let the books of heaven present a different record from that which now appears. Make haste to redeem the time; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not.--The Signs of the Times, January 14, 1886.
------------------------What the Spirit of Liberality Will Do, September 13
RC	270	1	There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.... The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 11:24, 25.
RC	270	2	Many have pitied the lot of the Israel of God in being compelled to give systematically, besides making liberal offerings yearly. An all-wise God knew best what system of benevolence would be in accordance with His providence, and has given His people directions in regard to it. It has ever proved that nine tenths are worth more to them than ten tenths. Those who have thought to increase their gains by withholding from God, or by bringing Him an inferior offering--the lame, the blind, or the diseased--have been sure to suffer loss.
RC	270	3	Providence, though unseen, is ever at work in the affairs of men. God's hand can prosper or withhold, and He frequently withholds from one while He seems to prosper another. All this is to test and prove man to reveal the heart. He lets misfortune overtake one brother while He prospers others to see if those whom He favors have His fear before their eyes and will perform the duty enjoined upon them in His Word to love their neighbor as themselves and to help their poorer brother from a love to do good. Acts of generosity and benevolence were designed by God to keep the hearts of the children of men tender and sympathetic and to encourage in them an interest and affection for one another in imitation of the Master, who for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. The law of tithing was founded upon an enduring principle and was designed to be a blessing to man.
RC	270	4	The system of benevolence was arranged to prevent the great evil, covetousness.--Testimonies for the Church 3:546, 547.
RC	270	5	The small streams of beneficence must be ever kept flowing into the treasury. God's providence is far ahead, moving onward much faster than our liberalities.--Welfare Ministry, 268.
RC	270	6	When the grace of Christ is expressed in the words and works of the believers, light will shine forth to those who are in darkness; for while the lips are speaking to the praise of God, the hand will be stretched out in beneficence for the help of the perishing.
RC	270	7	We read that on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, no man said that aught that he possessed was his own. All they owned was held for the advance of the wonderful reformation. And thousands were converted in a day. When the same spirit actuates believers today, and they give back to God of His own with the same liberality, a wide and far-reaching work will be accomplished.--Welfare Ministry, 271.
------------------------Like Daniel, be Honest and Upright, September 14
RC	271	1	The integrity of the upright shall guide them. Proverbs 11:3.
RC	271	2	The case of Daniel, portrayed in a very limited manner by the prophetic pencil, has a lesson for us. It reveals the fact that a businessman is not necessarily a sharp policy man. He can be a man instructed of God at every step. Daniel while the prime minister of the kingdom of Babylon, was a prophet of God, receiving the light of heavenly inspiration....
RC	271	3	Especially are businessmen needed, not irreligious businessmen, but those who will weave the great, grand principles of truth into all their business transactions. Men who have qualifications for the work need to have their talents exercised and perfected by most thorough study and training. Not one businessman that has any appointment in the work need to be a novice. If men in any line of work need to improve their opportunities to become wise, efficient businessmen, it is those who are using their ability in the work of building up the kingdom of God in our world.
RC	271	4	The lessons for the present time are for all to understand, but they are very feebly appreciated. There should be greater thoroughness in labor; and more vigilant waiting, more vigilant watching and praying, and more vigilant working, in prospect of the events now taking place, and which are swelling to large importance as we near the close of this earth's history. The human agent is to reach for perfection, to be an ideal Christian, complete in Jesus Christ.
RC	271	5	Those who labor in business lines should exercise every precaution against error through wrong principles or methods. Their record may be like that of Daniel in the courts of Babylon. In all his business transactions, when subjected to the closest scrutiny, there was not found one item that was faulty. He was a sample of what every business man may be. But the heart must be converted and consecrated. The motives must be right with God. The inner lamp must be supplied with the oil that flows from the true messengers of heaven through the golden tubes into the golden bowl. Then the Lord's communication never comes to man in vain.
RC	271	6	God will not accept the most splendid services unless self is laid upon the altar, a living, consuming sacrifice. The root must be holy, else there can be no sound, healthful fruit, which alone is acceptable to God.... While worldly ambition and worldly projects and the greatest plans and purposes of men shall fade like the grass, "they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."--Special Testimonies 9:65, 66.
------------------------Strict Integrity to Mark the Christian, September 15
RC	272	1	Thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Deuteronomy 25:15.
RC	272	2	In all the details of life, Christians are to follow the principles of strict integrity. These are not the principles that govern the world; for there Satan is master, and his principles of deception and oppression bear sway. But Christians serve under a different Master, and their actions must be wrought in God. They must put aside all desire for selfish gain.
RC	272	3	To some, deviation from perfect fairness in business deals may look like a small thing, but our Saviour does not thus regard it. His words on this point are plain and explicit: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." A man who will overreach in a small matter will overreach in a larger matter if the temptation comes to him.
RC	272	4	Christ's followers are obliged to be more or less connected with the world in business matters. In His prayer for them the Saviour says, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." Christians are to buy and sell with the realization that the eye of God is upon them. Never are they to use false balances or deceitful weights....
RC	272	5	In every action of life the true Christian is just what he desires those around him to think he is. He is guided by truth and uprightness. He does not scheme; therefore he has nothing to gloss over. He may be criticized, he may be tested; but through all, his unbending integrity shines out like pure gold. He is a friend and benefactor to all connected with him; and his fellow men place confidence in him; for he is trustworthy.
RC	272	6	Does he employ laborers to gather in his harvest? He does not keep back their hard-earned money. Has he means for which he has no immediate use? He relieves the necessities of his less fortunate brother. He does not seek to enlarge his possessions by taking advantage of the untoward circumstances of his neighbor. He accepts only a fair price for that which he sells. If there are defects in the articles sold, he frankly tells the buyer, even though by so doing he may seem to work against his own pecuniary interests.
RC	272	7	A man may not have a pleasant exterior; but if he has a reputation for straightforward, honest dealing, he is respected.... A man who steadfastly adheres to the truth wins the confidence of all. Not only do Christians trust him; worldlings are constrained to acknowledge the worth of his character.--The Signs of the Times, February 19, 1902.
------------------------Living Stones, Aglow with Wondrous Light, September 16
RC	273	1	To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house ... acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4, 5.
RC	273	2	When the sacred work of God shall be purified from all the rubbish which has been accumulating for years, the name of God will be glorified in your midst. When the Holy Spirit controls human agents, there will be none of the underhand business which has been practiced. Honesty, truthfulness, and a willingness that all should understand the methods of working will be seen. The characters of the workers will be built up with pure, solid timbers. Straightforwardness in deal will be seen in all God's commandment-keeping people. Every thread of the web will be originated by the Lord, and each worker will draw his thread into the web to help compose the pattern. The pattern will come from the great loom perfect in its design.
RC	273	3	Three thousand years ago, David asked the question, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word." Souls already impure need to be cleansed, purified, and sanctified. Then the testimony can be borne, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
RC	273	4	In this world we are to shine in good works. The Lord requires His people who handle sacred things to be alone with God, to reflect the principles of heaven in every business transaction, to reflect the light of God's character, God's love, as Christ reflected it. [As we look] unto Jesus, all our lives will be aglow with that wondrous light. Every part of us is to be light; then whichever way we turn, light will be reflected from us to others....
RC	273	5	The fruit of the Spirit--what is it? Gloom, and sadness, and mourning, and tears? No, no; the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. These graces will be seen in every stone that helps to compose the temple of God. All the stones are not of the same dimension or shape, but every stone has its place in the temple.
RC	273	6	In the temple there is not one misshapen stone. Each is perfect, and in the diversity there is unity, making a complete whole. One thing is sure, every stone is a living stone, a stone that emits light. Now is the time for the stones taken from the quarry of the world to be brought into the workshop of God, and hewed, squared, and polished, that they may shine.--Special Instruction Regarding Royalties, 20, 21.
------------------------Obedience, the Fruit of Faith, September 17
RC	274	1	If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. Exodus 19:5.
RC	274	2	Obedience--the service and allegiance of love--is the true sign of discipleship. Thus the Scripture says, "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments" (1 John 5:3). "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him," (chap. 2:4). Instead of releasing man from obedience, it is faith, and faith only, that makes us partakers of the grace of Christ, which enables us to render obedience.
RC	274	3	We do not earn salvation by our obedience, for salvation is the free gift of God, to be received by faith. But obedience is the fruit of faith. "Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not" (chap. 3:5, 6). Here is the true test. If we abide in Christ, if the love of God dwells in us, our feelings, our thoughts, our purposes, our actions, will be in harmony with the will of God as expressed in the precepts of His holy law. "Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous" (verse 7). Righteousness is defined by the standard of God's holy law, as expressed in the ten precepts given on Sinai.
RC	274	4	The so-called faith in Christ which professes to release men from the obligation of obedience to God is not faith, but presumption. "By grace are ye saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8). But "faith, if it hath not works, is dead" (James 2:17). Jesus said of Himself before He came to earth, "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:8). And just before He ascended again to heaven, He declared, "I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10). The Scriptures says, "Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments" (1 John 2:3)....
RC	274	5	The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been--just what it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents--perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness. If eternal life were granted on any condition short of this, then the happiness of the whole universe would be imperiled. The way would be open for sin, with all its train of woe and misery, to be immortalized....
RC	274	6	The more our sense of need drives us to Him and to the Word of God, the more exalted views we shall have of His character, and the more fully we shall reflect His image.--Steps to Christ, 60-65.
------------------------The Ground of Forgiveness, September 18
RC	275	1	The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. Proverbs 15:29.
RC	275	2	We ourselves owe everything to God's free grace. Grace in the covenant ordained our adoption. Grace in the Saviour effected our redemption, our regeneration, and our exaltation to heirship with Christ. Let this grace be revealed to others.
RC	275	3	Give the erring one no occasion of discouragement. Suffer not a Pharisaical hardness to come in and hurt your brother. Let no bitter sneer rise in mind or heart. Let no tinge of scorn be manifest in the voice. If you speak a word of your own, if you take an attitude of indifference, or show suspicion or distrust, it may prove the ruin of a soul. He needs a brother with the Elder Brother's heart of sympathy to touch his heart of humanity. Let him feel the strong clasp of a sympathizing hand, and hear the whisper, Let us pray. God will give a rich experience to you both.
RC	275	4	Prayer unites us with one another and with God. Prayer brings Jesus to our side, and gives to the fainting, perplexed soul new strength to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Prayer turns aside the attacks of Satan.
RC	275	5	When one turns away from human imperfections to behold Jesus, a divine transformation takes place in the character. The Spirit of Christ working upon the heart conforms it to His image. Then let it be your effort to lift up Jesus. Let the mind's eye be directed to "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). And as you engage in this work, remember that "he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins" (James 5:20).
RC	275	6	"But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:15). Nothing can justify an unforgiving spirit. He who is unmerciful toward others shows that he himself is not a partaker of God's pardoning grace. In God's forgiveness the heart of the erring one is drawn close to the great heart of Infinite Love. The tide of divine compassion flows into the sinner's soul, and from him to the souls of others. The tenderness and mercy that Christ has revealed in His own precious life will be seen in those who become sharers of His grace....
RC	275	7	We are not forgiven because we forgive, but as we forgive. The ground of all forgiveness is found in the unmerited love of God; but by our attitude toward others we show whether we have made that love our own.--Christ's Object Lessons, 250, 251.
------------------------Encourage a Spirit of Kindliness, September 19
RC	276	1	To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all men. Titus 3:2, R.S.V.
RC	276	2	How many useful and honored workers in God's cause have received a training amid the humble duties of the most lowly positions in life! Moses was the prospective ruler of Egypt, but God could not take him from the king's court to do the work appointed him. Only when he had been for forty years a faithful shepherd was he sent to be the deliverer of his people. Gideon was taken from the threshing-floor to be the instrument in the hands of God for delivering the armies of Israel. Elisha was called to leave the plow and do the bidding of God. Amos was a husbandman, a tiller of the soil, when God gave him a message to proclaim.
RC	276	3	All who become coworkers with Christ will have a great deal of hard, uncongenial labor to perform, and their lessons of instruction should be wisely chosen, and adapted to their peculiarities of character, and the work which they are to pursue.
RC	276	4	The Lord has presented to me, in many ways and at various times, how carefully we should deal with the young--that it requires the finest discrimination to deal with minds. Everyone who has to do with the education and training of youth needs to live very close to the great Teacher, to catch His spirit and manner of work. Lessons are to be given which will affect their character and lifework.
RC	276	5	They should be taught that the gospel of Christ tolerates no spirit of caste, that it gives no place to unkind judgment of others, which tends directly to self-exaltation. The religion of Jesus never degrades the receiver, nor makes him coarse and rough; nor does it make him unkind in thought and feeling toward those for whom Christ died....
RC	276	6	Some are in danger of making the externals all-important, of overestimating the value of mere conventionalities....
RC	276	7	Anything that would encourage ungenerous criticism, a disposition to notice and expose every defect or error, is wrong. It fosters distrust and suspicion, which are contrary to the character of Christ, and detrimental to the mind thus exercised. Those who are engaged in this work gradually depart from the true spirit of Christianity.
RC	276	8	The most essential, enduring education is that which will develop the nobler qualities, which will encourage a spirit of universal kindliness, leading the youth to think no evil of anyone, lest they misjudge motives and misinterpret words and actions. The time devoted to this kind of instruction will yield fruit to everlasting life.--Gospel Workers, 332-334.
------------------------Keep Christ in View, September 20
RC	277	1	Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2.
RC	277	2	If suspicions and envy and jealousies and evil surmisings are cherished, these will exclude the blessing of God, for Jesus cannot dwell in a heart where these things are cherished. The soul temple must be cleansed of every defilement....
RC	277	3	Christ foresaw the danger of all these things, and just prior to giving His life for the world He prayed to His Father that His disciples might be one with Christ as He was one with the Father.... Nothing can grieve the Spirit of God more than variance among those who are engaged as laborers in His vineyard, because the same spirit they entertain is diffused among the churches. Such seed, once sown, is difficult to eradicate. It requires time and labor and distress of soul to adjust things, and bring in a state of harmony and peace. All heaven is laboring for the unity of the church, and the professed followers of Christ are working at cross-purposes with God, because they will not heed His instruction, but will bring in dissension....
RC	277	4	The one running in a race will surely lose his victory if he keeps looking behind him or from side to side to see if his fellows are coming out ahead of him. He must run to win the crown of immortal glory, looking unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of his faith.
RC	277	5	This work in which we are engaged is a grand, a holy, a sacred work. We cannot for a moment be off our guard. The crown, the crown, the imperishable crown to be won, is to be kept before the one running the race. So run that ye may obtain.... Look not to man. Your responsibility is to God, and He will render to every man according as his work shall be.... We behold, and catch the bright beams in the face of Jesus Christ. We receive as much as we can bear. Let us not stop to quarrel over circumstances, but keep Christ in view. Through the transforming power of the Holy Ghost we become assimilated to the image of the blessed Object we behold.
RC	277	6	Do not murmur nor find fault.... The image of Christ is engraven upon the soul [that looks upon Jesus] and reflected back in spirit, in words, in true service for our fellow beings. Christ's joy is in our hearts, and our joy is full. This is true religion. Let us make sure to obtain it, and to be kind, to be courteous, to have love in the soul--that kind of love which flows forth and is expressed in good works, which is a light to shine to the world, and which makes our joy full.--Manuscript 26, 1889.
------------------------Jesus Willed Us Peace, September 21
RC	278	1	Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27.
RC	278	2	Before our Lord went to His agony on the cross, He made His will. He had no silver or gold or houses to leave to His disciples. He was a poor man, as far as earthly possessions were concerned. Few in Jerusalem were so poor as He. But He left His disciples a richer gift than any earthly monarch could bestow on his subjects. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," He said; "not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
RC	278	3	He left them the peace which had been His during His life on the earth, which had been with Him amidst poverty, buffeting, and persecution, and which was to be with Him during His agony in Gethsemane and on the cruel cross.
RC	278	4	The Saviour's life on this earth, though lived in the midst of conflict, was a life of peace. While angry enemies were constantly pursuing Him, He said, "He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." No storm of satanic wrath could disturb the calm of that perfect communion with God. And He says to us, "My peace I give unto you."
RC	278	5	Those who take Christ at His word, and surrender their souls to His keeping, their lives to His ordering, will find peace and quietude. Nothing of the world can make them sad when Jesus makes them glad by His presence. In perfect acquiescence there is perfect rest. The Lord says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee."...
RC	278	6	Every man's experience testifies to the truth of the words of Scripture: "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest."... Sin has destroyed our peace.... The masterful passions of the heart no human power can control. We are as helpless here as were the disciples to quiet the raging storm. But He who spoke peace to the billows of Galilee, has spoken the word of peace for every soul. However fierce the tempest, those who turn to Jesus with the cry, "Lord, save us," will find deliverance. His grace, which reconciles the soul to God, quiets the strife of human passion, and in His love the heart is at rest. "He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.... So he bringeth them unto their desired haven."...
RC	278	7	The heart that is in harmony with God is a partaker of the peace of heaven, and will diffuse its blessed influence all around. The spirit of peace will rest like dew upon hearts weary and troubled with worldly strife.--The Signs of the Times, December 27, 1905.
------------------------Discipline Prepares Youth for High Destiny, September 22
RC	279	1	When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee. Proverbs 2:10, 11.
RC	279	2	Now, as in the days of Israel, every youth should be instructed in the duties of practical life. Each should acquire a knowledge of some branch of manual labor by which, if need be, he may obtain a livelihood. This is essential, not only as a safeguard against the vicissitudes of life, but from its bearing upon physical, mental, and moral development. Even if it were certain that one would never need to resort to manual labor for his support, still he should be taught to work. Without physical exercise, no one can have a sound constitution and vigorous health; and the discipline of well-regulated labor is no less essential to the securing of a strong and active mind and a noble character....
RC	279	3	Let the youth be led to understand the object of their creation, to honor God and bless their fellow men; let them see the tender love which the Father in heaven has manifested toward them, and the high destiny for which the discipline of this life is to prepare them, the dignity and honor to which they are called, even to become the sons of God, and thousands would turn with contempt and loathing from the low and selfish aims and the frivolous pleasures that have hitherto engrossed them. They would learn to hate sin and to shun it, not merely from hope of reward or fear of punishment, but from a sense of its inherent baseness, because it would be a degrading of their God-given powers, a stain upon their Godlike manhood....
RC	279	4	The elements of character that make a man successful and honored among men--the irrepressible desire for some greater good, the indomitable will, the strenuous exertion, the untiring perseverance--are not to be crushed out. By the grace of God they are to be directed to objects as much higher than mere selfish and temporal interests as the heavens are higher than the earth.
RC	279	5	And the education begun in this life will be continued in the life to come. Day by day the wonderful works of God, the evidences of His wisdom and power in creating and sustaining the universe, the infinite mystery of love and wisdom in the plan of redemption, will open to the mind in new beauty.... Even in this life we may catch glimpses of His presence and may taste the joy of communion with heaven, but the fullness of its joy and blessing will be reached in the hereafter. Eternity alone can reveal the glorious destiny to which man, restored to God's image, can attain.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 601, 602.
------------------------Tender Regard for Elderly Workers, September 23
RC	280	1	“'Rise up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.'" Leviticus 19:32, N.I.V.
RC	280	2	The history of John affords a striking illustration of the way in which God can use aged workers. When John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos, there were many who thought him to be past service, an old and broken reed, ready to fall at any time. But the Lord saw fit to use him still. Though banished from the scenes of his former labor, he did not cease to bear witness to the truth. Even in Patmos he made friends and converts. His was a message of joy, proclaiming a risen Saviour who on high was interceding for His people until He should return to take them to Himself. And it was after John had grown old in the service of his Lord that he received more communications from heaven than he had received during all the former years of his life.
RC	280	3	The most tender regard should be cherished for those whose life interest has been bound up with the work of God. These aged workers have stood faithful amid storm and trial. They may have infirmities, but they still possess talents that qualify them to stand in their place in God's cause. Though worn, and unable to bear the heavier burdens that younger men can and should carry, the counsel they can give is of the highest value.
RC	280	4	They may have made mistakes, but from their failures they have learned to avoid errors and dangers.... They have borne test and trial, and though they have lost some of their vigor, the Lord does not lay them aside. He gives them special grace and wisdom.
RC	280	5	Those who have served their Master when the work went hard, who endured poverty and remained faithful when there were few to stand for truth, are to be honored and respected.... Let the younger men realize that in having such workers among them they are highly favored. Let them give them an honored place in their councils.
RC	280	6	As those who have spent their lives in the service of Christ draw near to the close of their earthly ministry, they will be impressed by the Holy Spirit to recount the experiences they have had in connection with the work of God. The record of His wonderful dealings with His people, of His great goodness in delivering them from trial, should be repeated to those newly come to the faith. God desires the old and tried laborers to stand in their place, doing their part to save men and women from being swept downward by the mighty current of evil. He desires them to keep the armor on till He bids them lay it down.--The Acts of the Apostles, 572-574.
------------------------When Infirmities Come, Trust in God, September 24
RC	281	1	The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:2, 3.
RC	281	2	Now when you can no longer be active, and infirmities press upon you, all that God requires of you is to trust Him. Commit the keeping of your soul to Him as unto a faithful Creator. His mercies are sure, His covenant is everlasting. Happy is the man whose hope is in the Lord his God, who keepeth truth forever. Let your mind grasp the promises and hold to them. If you cannot call to mind readily the rich assurance contained in the precious promises, listen to them from the lips of another. What fullness, what love and assurance are found in these words from the lips of God Himself, proclaiming His Love, His pity and interest in the children of His care:
RC	281	3	"The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" (Exodus 34:6, 7).
RC	281	4	The Lord is full of compassion for His suffering ones. What sins are too great for His pardon? He is merciful, and as such is infinitely more ready and more pleased to pardon than to condemn. He is gracious, not looking for wrong in us; He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are but dust. In His boundless compassion and mercy He heals all our backslidings, loving us freely while we are yet sinners, withdrawing not His light, but shining on us for Christ's sake.
RC	281	5	Will you ... always trust in Jesus, who is your righteousness? The love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost, which is graciously given unto you. You are one with Christ. He will give you grace to be patient, He will give you grace to be trustful, He will give you grace to overcome restlessness, He will warm your heart with His own sweet Spirit, He will revive your soul in its weakness. Only a few days more to be as pilgrims and strangers in this world, seeking for a better country, even an heavenly. Our home is in heaven. Then stay your soul in confidence upon God. Roll all your burdens upon Him.
RC	281	6	Oh, how many times has your heart been touched with the beauty of the Saviour's countenance, charmed with the loveliness of His character, and subdued with the thought of His suffering. Now He wants you to lean your whole weight upon Him.... "And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid" (Isaiah 12:1, 2).--Selected Messages, book 2, pp. 231, 232.
------------------------Cultivate the Talent of Speech, September 25
RC	282	1	Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Colossians 4:6.
RC	282	2	It is the work of parents to train their children to proper habits of speech. The very best school for this culture is the homelife. From the earliest years the children should be taught to speak respectfully and lovingly to their parents and to one another. They should be taught that only words of gentleness, truth, and purity must pass their lips. Let the parents themselves be daily learners in the school of Christ. Then by precept and example they can teach their children the use of "sound speech, that cannot be condemned" (Titus 2:8). This is one of the greatest and most responsible of their duties.--Christ's Object Lessons, 337, 338.
RC	282	3	The power of speech is a talent that should be diligently cultivated. Of all the gifts we have received from God, none is capable of being a greater blessing than this. With the voice we convince and persuade, with it we offer prayer and praise to God, and with it we tell others of the Redeemer's love. How important, then, that it be so trained as to be most effective for good....
RC	282	4	By diligent effort all may acquire the power to read intelligibly, and to speak in a full, clear, round tone, in a distinct and impressive manner. By doing this we may greatly increase our efficiency as workers for Christ.
RC	282	5	Every Christian is called to make known to others the unsearchable riches of Christ....
RC	282	6	The right culture and use of the power of speech has to do with every line of Christian work; it enters into the homelife, and into all our intercourse with one another. We should accustom ourselves to speak in pleasant tones, to use pure and correct language, and words that are kind and courteous. Sweet, kind words are as dew and gentle showers to the soul. The Scripture says of Christ that grace was poured into His lips that He might "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary" (Psalm 45:2; Isaiah 50:4). And the Lord bids us, "Let your speech be alway with grace" (Colossians 4:6), "that it may minister grace unto the hearers" (Ephesians 4:29).
RC	282	7	In seeking to correct or reform others we should be careful of our words.... All who would advocate the principles of truth need to receive the heavenly oil of love. Under all circumstances reproof should be spoken in love. Then our words will reform but not exasperate. Christ by His Holy Spirit will supply the force and the power. This is His work.--The Acts of the Apostles, 335-337.
------------------------Speak Evil of No Man, September 26
RC	283	1	Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! Matthew 18:7.
RC	283	2	Words of reproach react on one's own soul. The training of the tongue should begin with ourselves personally. Let us speak evil of no man.
RC	283	3	"Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire."
RC	283	4	There may be cherished by us certain wrong things that are seemingly as dear as a hand or a foot. These things are to be put away from us forever. Never are our peculiar, unsanctified ideas to be pressed upon others....
RC	283	5	There is a great work to be done among church members. Many who are not called upon to enter the public ministry may do much good in their home church by speaking advisedly with their lips. The talent of speech should be used to glorify God. Too often it is used to convey evil reports. This grieves away the Holy Spirit. Let us remember that we have a Saviour who has bidden us [to] come unto Him with all our burdens. He will give us peace of mind, and He, too, will adjust that which to us seems so full of entangling difficulties. "Come unto me," He pleads, "all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." ...
RC	283	6	Those who have indulged in words of complaint and criticism shall ... pledge that henceforth, by the Lord's help, they will not speak evil of their brethren and sisters, but will take everything to God in prayer, and follow out the instruction He has given regarding the pointing out of wrongs in our fellow men. Every church member may in his daily conduct be so exemplary, so prudent and careful in speech, so kind and compassionate, that he will be esteemed by all as one who fears and loves God. Such a man will have an influence for good over all his associates.
RC	283	7	We are fallible, and have erred many times. Let us return to the Lord with repentance and confession. As we assemble to participate in the ordinances of the Lord's house, let us make every wrong right, so far as lies in our power. When bowing before a brother, washing his feet, ask yourself, "Have I aught in my heart that separates me from this brother? Have I said or done anything that estranges us?" If so, take it away by heartily confessing your sin. Thus heart will be cemented to heart, and the blessing of God will be manifest.--Manuscript 102, 1904.
------------------------The Joy of Well-Chosen Words, September 27
RC	284	1	To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is! Proverbs 15:23, R.S.V.
RC	284	2	"A word spoken in due season, how good is it!" (K.J.V.). Souls are perishing for the lack of personal labor....
RC	284	3	The bright and cheerful side of religion will be represented by all who are daily consecrated to God. We should not dishonor our Lord by a mournful relation of trials that appear grievous. All trials that are received as educators will produce joy. The whole religious life will be uplifting, elevating, ennobling, fragrant with good words and works.... [God] desires every soul to triumph in the keeping power of the Redeemer.
RC	284	4	The psalmist says: ... "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.... Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." ... "Sing unto the Lord, ... and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness."
RC	284	5	In the gracious blessings which our heavenly Father has bestowed upon us, we may discern innumerable evidences of a love that is infinite, and a tender pity surpassing a mother's yearning sympathy for her wayward child. When we study the divine character in the light of the cross, we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness blended with equity and justice. In the language of John we exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."
RC	284	6	We see in the midst of the throne One bearing in hands, and feet, and side the marks of suffering endured to reconcile man to God, and God to man. Matchless mercy reveals to us a Father, infinite, dwelling in light unapproachable, yet receiving us to Himself through the merits of His Son. The cloud of vengeance which threatened only misery and despair, in the reflected light from the cross reveals the writing of God: "Live, sinner, live! ye penitent and believing souls, live! I have paid a ransom."
RC	284	7	We must gather about the cross. Christ and Him crucified must be the theme of contemplation, of conversation, and of our most joyful emotion. We should have special praise services for the purpose of keeping fresh in our thoughts everything that we receive from God, and of expressing our gratitude for His great love, and our willingness to trust everything to the Hand that was nailed to the cross for us.... We should learn to talk the language of Canaan, to sing the songs of Zion. By the mystery and glory of the cross we can estimate the value of man, and then we shall see and feel the importance of working for our fellow men, that they may be exalted to the throne of God.--The Southern Watchman, March 7, 1905.
------------------------Pour out Praise and Thanksgiving, September 28
RC	285	1	I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30.
RC	285	2	The voice is a wonderful organ. It is a wonderful blessing, and let us use it wholly on Christ's side, and not praise the devil by complaining of the hardness of the way to heaven. Suppose we give to the world a living example of the beauty there is in religion and Jesus Christ by the offerings we present to God, talking of His goodness, and telling of His power.
RC	285	3	If you feel disposed to murmur, let it die before you give it breath, and let your voice and tongue be educated, and then when you open your eyes in the morning the very first thing will be, "I thank the Lord; He has kept me through the night. I thank Thee, Jesus Christ, for the peace that is in my heart," and morning, noon, and night you have a gratitude offering. It comes up before God as sweet perfume.
RC	285	4	And Jesus said He would give us the Comforter. What is the Comforter? It is the Holy Spirit of God. What is the Holy Spirit? It is the representative of Jesus Christ, it is our Advocate that stands by our side and places our petitions before the Father all fragrant with His merits. There He accepts the petition of the humblest saint. He doesn't ask you how much money you have, or how heavy you are loaded with property, but the very humblest saint that brings his petition to God, and [his] thank offering is made fragrant with the riches of His grace, and the Father accepts it as your offering, and the blessing comes to you, grace for grace.
RC	285	5	As you pour out your thank offering, God is glorified, and He gives you more. As you pour out thanksgiving He gives you more joy. We learn to praise God from whom all blessings flow. Shall we not begin right here to turn over the page and forget our murmurings and complainings and faultfinding, and educate the tongue to courteous words, and loving words, and sympathetic words, and tender kindness for one another of His children?
RC	285	6	Let us show Christ formed within, the hope of glory, by the fruit that we bear, and thus we can evidence to the world a living Saviour.... He arose. He broke the fetters of the tomb. In triumph He rejoices over the rent sepulchre of Joseph. "I am the resurrection and the life." Glory to God. I praise Him, the resurrection and the life. You have ... a living Saviour.
RC	285	7	Then hang your helpless souls on Jesus Christ. Abide in the vine, and bear fruit to His glory, and His joy shall be in you, and your joy shall be full.... May the Holy Spirit of God impress the heart, and may the character reveal the loveliness of Jesus Christ, because you are His representatives.--Manuscript 43, 1894.
------------------------We are to Use Our Time Wisely, September 29
RC	286	1	Be ... not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord. Romans 12:10, 11.
RC	286	2	The talent of time is precious. Every day it is given to us in trust, and we shall be called upon to give an account of it to God. It is to be used to God's glory, and if we would prolong our lives, if we would gain the life that measures with the life of God, we must give the mind pure food. No time should be wasted that might have been used to good account.
RC	286	3	Jesus Christ is our spiritual touchstone. He reveals the Father. Nothing should be given as food to the brain that will bring before the mind any mist or cloud in regard to the Word of God. No careless inattention should be shown in regard to the cultivation of the soil of the heart.--Manuscript 15, 1898.
RC	286	4	Upon the right improvement of our time depends our success in acquiring knowledge and mental culture. The cultivation of the intellect need not be prevented by poverty, humble origin, or unfavorable surroundings. Only let the moments be treasured. A few moments here and a few there, that might be frittered away in aimless talk; the morning hours so often wasted in bed; the time spent in traveling on the trams or railway cars, or waiting at the station; the moments of waiting for meals, waiting for those who are tardy in keeping an appointment--if a book were kept at hand, and these fragments of time were improved in study, reading, or careful thought, what might not be accomplished. A resolute purpose, persistent industry, and careful economy of time will enable men to acquire knowledge and mental discipline which will qualify them for almost any position of influence and usefulness.
RC	286	5	It is the duty of every Christian to acquire habits of order, thoroughness, and dispatch.... Decide how long a time is required for a given task, and then bend every effort toward accomplishing the work in the given time. The exercise of the willpower will make the hands move deftly.--Christ's Object Lessons, 343 344.
RC	286	6	It is wrong to waste our time, wrong to waste our thoughts. We lose every moment that we devote to self-seeking. If every moment were valued and rightly employed, we should have time for everything that we need to do for ourselves or for the world. In the expenditure of money, in the use of time, strength, opportunities, let every Christian look to God for guidance.--The Ministry of Healing, 208.
RC	286	7	God grants men the gift of time for the purpose of promoting His glory.--Counsels to Parents and Teachers, 354.
------------------------Witnessing by Our Actions, September 30
RC	287	1	Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:9.
RC	287	2	Again and again I am instructed to charge our people with their individual responsibility to work, and believe, and pray. The reception of Bible truth will lead to continual self-denial; for self-indulgence can never be found in a Christlike experience. Truly converted men and women will reveal the cross of Calvary in their daily actions. There are many Seventh-day Adventists who do not understand that to accept the cause of Christ means to accept His cross. The only evidence they give in their lives of their discipleship is in the name they bear. But the true Christian regards his stewardship as a sacred thing. He perseveringly studies the Word, and yields up his life to the service of Christ.
RC	287	3	The word of encouragement is given, "Be not weary in well doing," "always abounding in the work of the Lord." There is a world to be saved, a work to be done that can be accomplished only by the proclamation of the gospel message. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Should we not thank the Lord with heart and soul for His unspeakable gift? Should we not be willing to devote every capability and talent to the work of representing Christ before the world? ...
RC	287	4	"Good works" will begin to appear when the experience of repentance and conversion is brought into the life.... It is ... by showing that we are changed in character, through a belief of the truth, that we make known to others the transforming power of the grace of God.--The Review and Herald, February 25, 1909.
RC	287	5	"Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:6, 7). Wonderful truth! This is a two-edged sword which cuts both ways. This life and death question is before the whole human race. The choice we make in this life will be our choice through all eternity. We shall receive either eternal life or eternal death. There is no middle ground, no second probation.
RC	287	6	We are called upon to overcome in this life as Christ overcame. Heaven has provided us with abundant opportunities and privileges, so that we may overcome as Christ overcame, and sit down with Him on His throne. But in order to be overcomers, there must be in our lives no petting of fleshly inclinations. All selfishness must be cut out by the roots....
RC	287	7	The more the heart is wrapped up in Christ, the more secure is the treasure in the eternal world.--The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 6:1112.
------------------------True Character Radiates from Within, October 1
RC	288	1	Ye are the light of the world. Matthew 5:14.
RC	288	2	"Ye are the light of the world." The Jews thought to confine the benefits of salvation to their own nation; but Christ showed them that salvation is like the sunshine. It belongs to the whole world. The religion of the Bible is not to be confined between the covers of a book, nor within the walls of a church. It is not to be brought out occasionally for our own benefit, and then to be carefully laid aside again. It is to sanctify the daily life, to manifest itself in every business transaction and in all our social relations.
RC	288	3	True character is not shaped from without, and put on; it radiates from within. If we wish to direct others in the path of righteousness, the principles of righteousness must be enshrined in our own hearts. Our profession of faith may proclaim the theory of religion, but it is our practical piety that holds forth the word of truth. The consistent life, the holy conversation, the unswerving integrity, the active, benevolent spirit, the godly example--these are the mediums through which light is conveyed to the world.--The Desire of Ages, 306, 307.
RC	288	4	As the sun goes forth on its errand of love, dispelling the shades of night and awakening the world to life, so the followers of Christ are to go forth on their mission, diffusing the light of heaven upon those who are in the darkness of error and sin.
RC	288	5	In the brilliant light of the morning, the towns and villages upon the surrounding hills stood forth clearly, making an attractive feature of the scene. Pointing to them, Jesus said, "A city set on a hill cannot be hid." And He added, "Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house" (Matthew 5:14, 15, R.V.).
RC	288	6	Most of those who listened to the words of Jesus were peasants and fishermen whose lowly dwellings contained but one room, in which the single lamp on its stand shone to all in the house. Even so, said Jesus, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (verse 16).
RC	288	7	No other light ever has shone or ever will shine upon fallen man save that which emanates from Christ. Jesus, the Saviour, is the only light that can illuminate the darkness of a world lying in sin. Of Christ it is written, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). It was by receiving of His life that His disciples could become light bearers. The life of Christ in the soul, His love revealed in the character, would make them the light of the world.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 39, 40.
------------------------The World Needs People of Noble Character, October 2
RC	289	1	And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23, 24.
RC	289	2	True education does not ignore the value of scientific knowledge or literary acquirements; but above information it values power; above power, goodness; above intellectual acquirements, character. The world does not so much need men of great intellect as of a noble character. It needs men in whom ability is controlled by steadfast principle.
RC	289	3	"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom" (Proverbs 4:7). "The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright" (chap. 15:2). True education imparts this wisdom. It teaches the best use not only of one but of all our powers and acquirements. Thus it covers the whole circle of obligation--to ourselves, to the world, and to God.
RC	289	4	Character building is the most important work ever entrusted to human beings; and never before was its diligent study so important as now. Never was any previous generation called to meet issues so momentous; never before were young men and young women confronted by perils so great as confront them today....
RC	289	5	In true education the selfish ambition, the greed for power, the disregard for the rights and needs of humanity, that are the curse of our world, find a counterinfluence. God's plan of life has a place for every human being. Each is to improve his talents to the utmost; and faithfulness in doing this, be the gifts few or many, entitles one to honor. In God's plan there is no place for selfish rivalry. Those who measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves among themselves, are not wise (2 Corinthians 10:12). Whatever we do is to be done "as of the ability which God giveth" (1 Peter 4:11)....
RC	289	6	In every generation and in every land the true foundation and pattern for character building have been the same. The divine law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart ...; and thy neighbour as thyself" (Luke 10:27), the great principle made manifest in the character and life of our Saviour, is the only secure foundation and the only sure guide....
RC	289	7	It is as true now as when the words were spoken to Israel of obedience to His commandments: "This is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations" (Deuteronomy 4:6).
RC	289	8	Here is the only safeguard for individual integrity, for the purity of the home, the well-being of society, or the stability of the nation. Amidst all life's perplexities and dangers and conflicting claims the one safe and sure rule is to do what God says.--Education, 225-229.
------------------------We are to Reflect Christ's Love, October 3
RC	290	1	Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. John 20:21.
RC	290	2	We should earnestly seek to know and appreciate the truth, that we may present it to others as it is in Jesus. We need to have a correct estimate of the value of our own souls; then we would not be as reckless in regard to our course of action as at present. We would seek most earnestly to know God's way; we would work an opposite direction from selfishness, and our constant prayer would be that we might have the mind of Christ, that we might be molded and fashioned after His likeness. It is in looking to Jesus and beholding His loveliness, having our eyes steadfastly fixed upon Him, that we become changed into His image. He will give grace to all that keep His way, and do His will, and walk in truth....
RC	290	3	I beseech you whose names are registered on the church book as worthy members, to be indeed worthy, through the virtue of Christ. Mercy and truth and the love of God are promised to the humble and contrite soul....
RC	290	4	All heaven is filled with amazement, that when this love, so broad, so deep, so rich and full, is presented to men who have known the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, they are so indifferent, so cold and unmoved....
RC	290	5	The infinite treasures of truth have been accumulating from age to age. No representation could adequately impress us with the extent, the richness, of these vast resources. They are awaiting the demand of those who appreciate them. These gems of truth are to be gathered up by God's remnant people, to be given by them to the world; but self-confidence and obduracy of soul refuse the blessed treasure. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Such love cannot be measured, neither can it be expressed. John calls upon the world to behold "what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." It is a love that passeth knowledge.
RC	290	6	In the fullness of the sacrifice, nothing was withheld. Jesus gave Himself. God designs that His people shall love one another as Christ loved us. They are to educate and train the soul for this love. They are to reflect this love in their own character, to reflect it to the world. Each should look upon this as his work.... Christ's fullness is to be presented to the world by those who have become partakers of His grace. They are to do that for Christ which Christ did for the Father--represent His character.--The Review and Herald, December 23, 1890.
------------------------God Alone can Renew the Heart, October 4
RC	291	1	For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13.
RC	291	2	Far more than we do, we need to understand the issues at stake in the conflict in which we are engaged. We need to understand more fully the value of the truths that God has given for this time and the danger of allowing our minds to be diverted from them by the great deceiver.
RC	291	3	The infinite value of the sacrifice required for our redemption reveals the fact that sin is a tremendous evil. Through sin the whole human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination corrupted. Sin has degraded the faculties of the soul. Temptations from without find an answering chord within the heart, and the feet turn imperceptibly toward evil.
RC	291	4	As the sacrifice in our behalf was complete, so our restoration from the defilement of sin is to be complete. There is no act of wickedness that the law will excuse; there is no unrighteousness that will escape its condemnation. The life of Christ was a perfect fulfillment of every precept of the law. He said, "I have kept my Father's commandments" (John 15:10). His life is our standard of obedience and service.
RC	291	5	God alone can renew the heart. "It is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13, A.R.V.). But we are bidden: "Work out your own salvation" (verse 12, A.R.V.).
RC	291	6	Wrongs cannot be righted, nor can reformations in character be made, by a few feeble, intermittent efforts.... The struggle for conquest over self, for holiness and heaven, is a lifelong struggle. Without continual effort and constant activity there can be no advancement in the divine life, no attainment of the victor's crown.
RC	291	7	The strongest evidence of man's fall from a higher state is the fact that it costs so much to return. The way of return can be gained only by hard fighting, inch by inch, every hour. By a momentary act of the will, one may place himself in the power of evil; but it requires more than a momentary act of will to break these fetters and attain to a higher, holier life. The purpose may be formed, the work begun; but its accomplishment will require toil, time, and perseverance, patience and sacrifice.
RC	291	8	Beset with temptations without number, we must resist firmly or be conquered.... Paul's sanctification was the result of a constant conflict with self. He said: "I die daily" (1 Corinthians 15:31). His will and his desires every day conflicted with duty and the will of God. Instead of following inclination, he did God's will, however crucifying to his own nature. God leads His people on step by step.--Testimonies for the Church 8:312, 313.
------------------------The Highest Evidence of Nobility, October 5
RC	292	1	He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. Proverbs 16:32.
RC	292	2	He [who is slow to anger] has conquered self--the strongest foe man has to meet.
RC	292	3	The highest evidence of nobility in a Christian is self-control. He who can stand unmoved amid a storm of abuse is one of God's heroes.
RC	292	4	To rule the spirit is to keep self under discipline; to resist evil; to regulate every word and deed by God's great standard of righteousness. He who has learned to rule his spirit will rise above the slights, the rebuffs, the annoyances, to which we are daily exposed, and these will cease to cast a gloom over his spirit.
RC	292	5	It is God's purpose that the kingly power of sanctified reason, controlled by divine grace, shall bear sway in the lives of human beings. He who rules his spirit is in possession of this power.
RC	292	6	In childhood and youth the character is most impressible. The power of self-control should then be acquired. By the fireside and at the family board influences are exerted the results of which are as enduring as eternity. More than any natural endowment, the habits established in early years will decide whether a man shall be victorious or vanquished in the battle of life.
RC	292	7	In the use of language, there is, perhaps, no error that old and young are more ready to pass over lightly in themselves than hasty, impatient speech. They think it is a sufficient excuse to plead, "I was off my guard, and did not really mean what I said." But God's Word does not treat it lightly....
RC	292	8	The largest share of life's annoyances, its heartaches, its irritations, is due to uncontrolled temper. In one moment, by hasty, passionate, careless words, may be wrought evil that a whole lifetime's repentance cannot undo. Oh, the hearts that are broken, the friends estranged, the lives wrecked, by the harsh, hasty words of those who might have brought help and healing!
RC	292	9	Overwork sometimes causes a loss of self-control. But the Lord never compels hurried, complicated movements. Many gather to themselves burdens that the merciful heavenly Father did not place on them. Duties He never designed them to perform chase one another wildly. God desires us to realize that we do not glorify His name when we take so many burdens that we are overtaxed and, becoming heart-weary and brain-weary, chafe and fret and scold. We are to bear only the responsibilities that the Lord gives us, trusting in Him, and thus keeping our hearts pure and sweet and sympathetic.--The Review and Herald, October 31, 1907.
------------------------Self-Control Through Christ, October 6
RC	293	1	Good sense makes a man slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. Proverbs 19:11, R.S.V.
RC	293	2	There is a wonderful power in silence. When impatient words are spoken to you, do not retaliate. Words spoken in reply to one who is angry usually act as a whip, lashing the temper into greater fury. But anger met by silence quickly dies away. Let the Christian bridle his tongue, firmly resolving not to speak harsh, impatient words. With the tongue bridled, he may be victorious in every trial of patience through which he is called to pass.
RC	293	3	In his own strength man cannot rule his spirit. But through Christ he may gain self-control. In his strength he may bring his thoughts and words into subjection to the will of God. The religion of Christ brings the emotions under the control of reason and disciplines the tongue. Under its influence the hasty temper is subdued, and the heart is filled with patience and gentleness.
RC	293	4	Hold firmly to the One who has all power in heaven and in earth. Though you so often fail to reveal patience and calmness, do not give up the struggle. Resolve again, this time more firmly, to be patient under every provocation. And never take your eyes off your divine Example.
RC	293	5	God's ideal for His children is higher than the highest human thought can reach. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." This command is a promise. The plan of redemption contemplates our complete recovery from the power of Satan. Christ always separates the contrite soul from sin. He came to destroy the works of the devil. And He has made provision that the Holy Spirit shall be imparted to every repentant soul to keep him from sinning.
RC	293	6	The tempter's agency is not to be accounted an excuse for one wrong act. Satan is jubilant when he hears the professed followers of Christ making excuses for their deformity of character. It is these excuses that lead to sin. A holy temper, a Christlike life, is attainable by every repenting, believing child of God.--The Review and Herald, October 31, 1907.
RC	293	7	Christ gave Himself for the saving of the sinner. Those whose sins are forgiven, who love Jesus, will be united with Him. They will bear the yoke of Christ. This yoke is not to hamper them, not to make their religious life one of unsatisfying toil. No; the yoke of Christ is to be the very means by which the Christian life is to become one of pleasure and joy. The Christian is to be joyful in contemplation of that which the Lord has done in giving His only-begotten Son to die for the world, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."--Messages to Young People, 138.
------------------------Keep Your Will on the Lord's Side, October 7
RC	294	1	The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2:17.
RC	294	2	Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing power in the nature of man, bringing all the other faculties under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the deciding power, which works in the children of men unto obedience to God, or unto disobedience....
RC	294	3	You cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire, but you can control the will, and you can make an entire change in your life. By yielding up your will to Christ, [you] will be hid with Christ in God, and allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You will have strength from God that will hold you fast to His strength; and a new light, even the light of living faith, will be possible to you. But your will must cooperate with God's will, not with the will of associates through whom Satan is constantly working to ensnare and destroy you....
RC	294	4	By steadfastly keeping the will on the Lord's side, [you will bring] every emotion ... into captivity to the will of Jesus. You will then find your feet on solid rock. It will take, at times, every particle of willpower that you possess, but it is God that is working for you, and you will come forth from the molding process a vessel unto honor.
RC	294	5	Talk faith. Keep on God's side of the line. Set not your foot on the enemy's side, and the Lord will be your helper. He will do for you that which it is not possible for you to do for yourself. The result will be that you will become like a "cedar of Lebanon." Your life will be noble, and your works will be wrought in God. There will be in you a power, an earnestness, and a simplicity that will make you a polished instrument in the hands of God.
RC	294	6	You need to drink daily at the fountain of truth, that you may understand the secret of pleasure and joy in the Lord. But you must remember that your will is the spring of all your actions. This will, that forms so important a factor in the character of man, was at the Fall given into the control of Satan....
RC	294	7	But the infinite sacrifice of God in giving Jesus, His beloved Son, to become a sacrifice for sin, enables Him to say, without violating one principle of His government, "Yield yourself up to Me; give Me that will; take it from the control of Satan, and I will take possession of it; then I can work in you to will and to do of My good pleasure." When He gives you the mind of Christ, your will becomes as His will, and your character is transformed to be like Christ's character.--Messages to Young People, 151-154.
------------------------Daily Prayer, Essential to Growth in Grace, October 8
RC	295	1	The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 1 Peter 4:7.
RC	295	2	If we would develop a character which God can accept, we must form correct habits in our religious life. Daily prayer is as essential to growth in grace, and even to spiritual life itself, as is temporal food to physical well-being. We should accustom ourselves to often lift the thoughts to God in prayer. If the mind wanders, we must bring it back; by persevering effort, habit will finally make it easy. We cannot for one moment separate ourselves from Christ with safety. We may have His presence to attend us at every step, but only by observing the conditions which He has Himself laid down.
RC	295	3	Religion must be made the great business of life. Everything else should be held subordinate to this. All our powers of soul, body, and spirit must be engaged in Christian warfare. We must look to Christ for strength and grace, and we shall gain the victory as surely as Jesus died for us.
RC	295	4	We must come nearer to the cross of Christ. Penitence at the foot of the cross is the first lesson of peace we have to learn. The love of Jesus--who can comprehend it? Infinitely more tender and self-denying than a mother's love! If we would know the value of a human soul, we must look in living faith upon the cross, and thus, begin the study which shall be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. The value of our time and our talents can be estimated only by the greatness of the ransom paid for our redemption. What ingratitude we manifest toward God when we rob Him of His own by withholding from Him our affections and our service! Is it too much to give ourselves to Him who has sacrificed all for us? Can we choose the friendship of the world before the immortal honors which Christ proffers--"to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne"? ...
RC	295	5	Those who are ... working upon the plan of addition in obtaining the Christian graces, have the assurance that God will work upon the plan of multiplication in granting them the gifts of His Spirit.
RC	295	6	Peter addresses those who have obtained like precious faith: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." By divine grace, all who will may climb the shining steps from earth to heaven, and at last, "with songs and everlasting joy," enter through the gates into the city.--The Review and Herald, November 15, 1887.
------------------------Divine Power and Human Effort, October 9
RC	296	1	For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Titus 2:11, 12.
RC	296	2	While Christ is cleansing the sanctuary, the worshipers on earth should carefully review their life, and compare their character with the standard of righteousness. As they see their defects, they should seek the aid of the Spirit of God to enable them to have moral strength to resist the temptations of Satan, and to reach the perfection of the standard. They may be victors over the very temptations which seemed too strong for humanity to bear; for the divine power will be combined with their human effort, and Satan cannot overcome them.
RC	296	3	All heaven has been looking on with interest, and ready to do whatever God might appoint, to help fallen men and women to become what God would have them. God will work for His children, but not without their cooperation. They must have indomitable energy, and a constant desire to become all that it is possible for them to be.
RC	296	4	They should seek to cultivate their powers and develop characters that will be meet for a holy heaven. Then and then only will the servants of God be bright and shining lights in the world. Then they will bring energy into their Christian life, for they will put all their powers to the task, and respond to the efforts that have been made to uplift, refine, and purify them, that they may shine in the courts above. They will bring all their powers under the control of the Spirit of God; they will study His Word, and listen for His voice, to direct, encourage, strengthen, and advance them in their religious experience.
RC	296	5	They will not be childish and be turned aside by the temptations of Satan. They will deny themselves, not appealing to their own sympathies, for they will be of a heroic spirit. They will hoard up the great and precious truths of God's Word; they will feed upon them, and grow into strong, well-developed men and women in Christ, sons and daughters of God.
RC	296	6	The greatness of the truth which they contemplate will expand the mind and elevate the character. They will not be novices in the understanding of God's Word, nor dwarfs in religious experience. Conflict with the enemies of truth will not shatter them nor weaken their energies; it will only serve to drive them nearer to Him who is mighty to save. They will receive the discipline that will give efficiency to all their faculties. Heaven will be brought near to them in sympathy and cooperation, and they will be indeed a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men; for they will be marked characters on account of their purity, their strength of purpose, their firmness, their usefulness in the world.--The Review and Herald, April 8, 1890.
------------------------Christ Puts on Us His Perfection of Character, October 10
RC	297	1	Yield yourselves unto God,... and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Romans 6:13.
RC	297	2	Those who are called of God to labor in word and doctrine should ever be learners in the school of Christ.... Those who do not feel the importance of going on from strength to strength will not grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
RC	297	3	All heaven is interested in the work that is going on in the earth today. The angels look with interest upon those who are honored in having a part to act as colaborers with God. When the servants of Christ have a realizing sense of the presence of One who is mighty to save, they will be filled with gratitude to God for the power of His grace.... Those who dedicate their all to Christ will learn how to win souls; for they will have a close connection with the Redeemer of the world....
RC	297	4	Jesus is the light of the world, and you are to fashion your life after His. You will find help in Christ to form a strong, symmetrical, beautiful character. Satan cannot make of none effect the light shining forth from such character. The Lord has a work for each of us to do. He does not provide that we shall be sustained by the influence of human praise and petting; He means that every soul shall stand in the strength of the Lord. God has given us His best gift, even His only-begotten Son, to uplift, ennoble, and fit us, by putting on us His own perfection of character, for a home in His kingdom. Jesus came to our world and lived as He expects His followers to live. If we are self-indulgent, and too lazy to put forth earnest effort to cooperate with the wonderful work of God, we shall meet with loss in this life, and loss in the future, immortal life.
RC	297	5	God designs that we shall work, not in a despairing manner, but with strong faith and hope. As we search the Scriptures, and are enlightened to behold the wonderful condescension of the Father in giving Jesus to the world, that all who believe on Him should not perish but have everlasting life, we should rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
RC	297	6	Everything that can be gained by education, God means we shall use for the advancement of the truth. True, vital godliness must be reflected from the life and character, that the cross of Christ may be lifted up before the world, and the value of the soul be revealed in the light of the cross. Our minds must be opened to understand the Scriptures, that we may gain spiritual power by feeding upon the bread of heaven.--The Review and Herald, April 8, 1890.
------------------------Character is Power, October 11
RC	298	1	We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1, 2.
RC	298	2	Christ has given us no assurance that to attain perfection of character is an easy matter. A noble, all-round character is not inherited. It does not come to us by accident. A noble character is earned by individual effort through the merits and grace and Christ. God gives the talents, the powers of the mind; we form the character. It is formed by hard, stern battles with self. Conflict after conflict must be waged against hereditary tendencies. We shall have to criticize ourselves closely, and allow not one unfavorable trait to remain uncorrected....
RC	298	3	A character formed according to the divine likeness is the only treasure that we can take from this world to the next. Those who are under the instruction of Christ in this world will take every divine attainment with them to the heavenly mansions....
RC	298	4	The heavenly intelligences will work with the human agent who seeks with determined faith that perfection of character which will reach out to perfection in action. To everyone engaged in this work Christ says, I am at your right hand to help you.
RC	298	5	As the will of man cooperates with the will of God, it becomes omnipotent. Whatever is to be done at His command may be accomplished in His strength. All His biddings are enablings.--Christ's Object Lessons, 331-333.
RC	298	6	Character is power. The silent witness of a true, unselfish, godly life carries an almost irresistible influence. By revealing in our own life the character of Christ we cooperate with Him in the work of saving souls. It is only by revealing in our life His character that we can cooperate with Him. And the wider the sphere of our influence, the more good we may do. When those who profess to serve God follow Christ's example, practicing the principles of the law in their daily life; when every act bears witness that they love God supremely and their neighbor as themselves, then will the church have power to move the world....
RC	298	7	We know not what results a day, an hour, or a moment may determine, and never should we begin the day without committing our ways to our heavenly Father.... When unconsciously we are in danger of exerting a wrong influence, the angels will be by our side, prompting us to a better course, choosing our words for us, and influencing our actions. Thus our influence may be a silent, unconscious, but mighty power in drawing others to Christ and the heavenly world.--Christ's Object Lessons, 340-342.
------------------------Set Your Mark High, October 12
RC	299	1	I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14.
RC	299	2	Let no one say, I cannot remedy my defects of character. If you come to this decision, you will certainly fail of obtaining everlasting life. The impossibility lies in your own will. If you will not, then you cannot overcome. The real difficulty arises from the corruption of an unsanctified heart, and an unwillingness to submit to the control of God.
RC	299	3	Many whom God has qualified to do excellent work accomplish very little, because they attempt little. Thousands pass through life as if they had no definite object for which to live, no standard to reach. Such will obtain a reward proportionate to their works.
RC	299	4	Remember that you will never reach a higher standard than you yourself set. Then set your mark high, and step by step, even though it be by painful effort, by self-denial and sacrifice, ascend the whole length of the ladder of progress. Let nothing hinder you. Fate has not woven its meshes about any human being so firmly that he need remain helpless and in uncertainty. Opposing circumstances should create a firm determination to overcome them. The breaking down of one barrier will give greater ability and courage to go forward. Press with determination in the right direction, and circumstances will be your helpers, not your hindrances.
RC	299	5	Be ambitious, for the Master's glory, to cultivate every grace of character. In every phase of your character building you are to please God. This you may do; for Enoch pleased Him though living in a degenerate age. And there are Enochs in this our day.
RC	299	6	Stand like Daniel, that faithful statesman, a man whom no temptation could corrupt. Do not disappoint Him who so loved you that He gave His own life to cancel your sins. He says, "Without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). Remember this. If you have made mistakes, you certainly gain a victory if you see these mistakes and regard them as beacons of warning. Thus you turn defeat into victory, disappointing the enemy and honoring your Redeemer.--Christ's Object Lessons, 331, 332.
RC	299	7	Your time, your influence, your capabilities, your skill--all must be accounted for to Him who gives all.... Persevere in the work that you have begun, until you gain victory after victory. Educate yourselves for a purpose. Keep in view the highest standard, that you may accomplish greater and still greater good, thus reflecting the glory of God.--The Youths' Instructor, January 25, 1910, par. 14.
------------------------We Shall Reap What We Have Sown, October 13
RC	300	1	The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. 2 Timothy 2:24.
RC	300	2	Those who are truly connected with God will not be at variance with one another. The spirit of harmony, peace, and love, His Spirit ruling in their hearts, will create harmony, love, and unity. The opposite of this works in the children of Satan; there is with them a continual contradiction. Strife and envy and jealousy are the ruling elements. The characteristic of the Christian is the meekness of Christ. Benevolence, kindness, mercy, and love originate from Infinite Wisdom, while the opposite is the unholy fruit of a heart that is not in harmony with Jesus Christ....
RC	300	3	What a work is this--the education of children! ... If the parents had studied more of Christ and less of the world, if they had cared less to imitate the customs and fashions of the present age, and devoted time and painstaking effort to mold the minds and characters of their children after the divine Model, then they could send them forth with moral integrity to be carried forward in the branches of education to qualify them for any position of trust....
RC	300	4	The harvest is ours, to reap that which we have sown. If you sow distrust, envy, jealousy, self-love, bitterness of thought and feelings, this harvest you will be sure to reap. This will be a sowing of dragon's teeth to reap the same.
RC	300	5	If you manifest kindness, love, tender thoughtfulness to your students, you will reap the same in return. If teachers are severe, critical, overbearing, not sensitive of others' feelings, they will receive the same in return. A man who wishes to preserve his self-respect and dignity must be careful not to sacrifice the respect and dignity of others. This rule should be sacredly observed toward the dullest, the youngest, and most blundering scholars.
RC	300	6	What God will do with these apparently uninteresting youth, you do not know. God has accepted and chosen, in the past, just such specimens to do a great work for Him. His Spirit, operating upon the heart, has acted like an electric battery, arousing the apparently benumbed faculties to vigorous and persevering action. The Lord saw in these rough, uninteresting, unhewn stones precious metal that will endure the test of storm and tempest and the fiery ordeal of heat. God seeth not as man seeth; God judgeth not as man judgeth--He searcheth the heart....
RC	300	7	The younger members of the Lord's family shall be impressed that they are created in the image of their Maker, and that their spirit must represent the spirit of Christ.--Manuscript 2, 1881.
------------------------The Lord Knows All the Thoughts, October 14
RC	301	1	And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee. 1 Chronicles 28:9.
RC	301	2	You should keep off from Satan's enchanted ground and not allow your minds to be swayed from allegiance to God. Through Christ you may and should be happy and should acquire habits of self-control. Even your thoughts must be brought into subjection to the will of God and your feelings under the control of reason and religion. Your imagination was not given you to be allowed to run riot and have its own way without any effort at restraint or discipline. If the thoughts are wrong the feelings will be wrong; and the thoughts and feelings combined make up the moral character.
RC	301	3	When you decide that as Christians you are not required to restrain your thoughts and feelings, you are brought under the influence of evil angels and invite their presence and their control. If you yield to your impressions and allow your thoughts to run in a channel of suspicion, doubt, and repining you will be among the most unhappy of mortals....
RC	301	4	Man has been placed in a world of sorrow, care, and perplexity. He is placed here to be tested and proved, as were Adam and Eve, that he may develop a right character and bring harmony out of discord and confusion. There is much for us to do that is essential to our own happiness and that of others. And there is much for us to enjoy. Through Christ we are brought into connection with God. His mercies place us under continual obligation; feeling unworthy of His favors, we are to appreciate even the least of them.
RC	301	5	For all that you have and are, ... you are indebted to God. He has given you powers that, to a certain extent, are similar to those which He Himself possesses; and you should labor earnestly to develop these powers, not to please and exalt self, but to glorify Him....
RC	301	6	This earth is the Lord's. Here it may be seen that nature, animate and inanimate, obeys His will. God created man a superior being; he alone is formed in the image of God and is capable of partaking of the divine nature, of cooperating with his Creator and executing His plans.... How wonderfully, with what marvelous beauty, has everything in nature been fashioned. Everywhere we see the perfect works of the great Master Artist. The heavens declare His glory; and the earth, which is formed for the happiness of man, speaks to us of His matchless love.... I call your attention to these blessings from the bounteous hand of God. Let the fresh glories of each new morning awaken praise in your hearts for these tokens of His loving care.--Testimonies for the Church 5:310-312.
------------------------A Daily Revealing of Christ's Presence, October 15
RC	302	1	The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Proverbs 4:18.
RC	302	2	We must turn away from a thousand topics that invite attention. There are matters that consume time and arouse inquiry, but end in nothing. The highest interests demand the close attention and energy that are too often given to comparatively insignificant things.
RC	302	3	Accepting new theories does not bring new life to the soul. Even an acquaintance with facts and theories important in themselves is of little value unless put to a practical use. We need to feel our responsibility to give our souls food that will nourish and stimulate spiritual life....
RC	302	4	We are not doing the will of God when we speculate upon things that He has seen fit to withhold from us. The question for us to study is: "What is truth, the truth for this time, which is to be cherished, loved, honored, and obeyed?" The devotees of science have been defeated and disheartened in their efforts to find out God. What they need to inquire at this time is: "What is the truth that will enable us to win the salvation of our souls?"
RC	302	5	Christ revealed God to His disciples in a way that performed in their hearts a special work, such as He has long been urging us to allow Him to do in our hearts. There are many who, in dwelling too largely upon theory, have lost sight of the living power of the Saviour's example. They have lost sight of Him as the humble, self-denying worker. What they need is to behold Jesus. Daily we need the fresh revealing of His presence. We need to follow more closely His example of self-renunciation and sacrifice.
RC	302	6	We need the experience that Paul had when he wrote: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).
RC	302	7	The knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ expressed in character is an exaltation above everything else that is esteemed on earth or in heaven. It is the very highest education. It is the key that opens the portals of the heavenly city. This knowledge it is God's purpose that all who put on Christ shall possess....
RC	302	8	Treasure every ray of light. Cherish every desire of the soul after God. Give yourselves the culture of spiritual thoughts and holy communings.... Having repented of our sins, confessed them, and found pardon, we are to continue to learn of Christ until we come into the full noontide of a perfect gospel faith.--Testimonies for the Church 8:316-318.
------------------------Jesus Desires that We Become One with Him, October 16
RC	303	1	Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5.
RC	303	2	Jesus desires to efface the image of the earthly from the minds of His followers, and to impress upon them the image of the heavenly, that they may become one with Himself, reflecting His character, and showing forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. If you have been permitted to stand in the presence of the Sun of Righteousness, it is not that you may absorb and conceal the bright beams of Christ's righteousness, but that you may become a light to others.... There are persons who have received the precious light of the righteousness of Christ, but they do not act upon it.... They prefer the sophistry of the enemy rather than the plain, "Thus saith the Lord." ...
RC	303	3	The character we cultivate, the attitude we assume today, is fixing our future destiny. We are all making a choice, either to be with the blessed, inside the City of Light, or to be with the wicked, outside the city. The principles which govern our actions on earth are known in heaven, and our deeds are faithfully chronicled in the books of record. It is there known whether our characters are after the order of Christ.... Are we wise virgins? ... This is the question which we are deciding today by our character and attitude....
RC	303	4	To be pardoned in the way that Christ pardons is not only to be forgiven, but to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. The Lord says, "A new heart will I give unto thee." The image of Christ is to be stamped upon the very mind, and heart, and soul. The apostle says, "And we have the mind of Christ." Without the transforming process which can come alone through divine power, the original propensities to sin are left in the heart in all their strength, to forge new chains, to impose a slavery that can never be broken by human power....
RC	303	5	When Christ comes, the balances of heaven will weigh the character, and decide whether it is pure, sanctified, and holy....
RC	303	6	Happiness is the result of holiness, and conformity to the will of God. Those who would be saints in heaven, must first be saints upon the earth; for when we leave this earth, we shall take our character with us, and this will be simply taking with us some of the elements of heaven imparted to us through the righteousness of Christ....
RC	303	7	The experience that follows complete surrender to God, is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.--The Review and Herald, August 19, 1890.
------------------------Treasures of Divine Grace at Our Disposal, October 17
RC	304	1	Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure, 1 John 3:3.
RC	304	2	It is the privilege of every earnest seeker for truth and righteousness, to rely upon the sure promises of God. The Lord Jesus makes manifest the fact that the treasures of divine grace are placed entirely at our disposal, in order that we may become channels of light. We cannot receive the riches of the grace of Christ without desiring to impart them to others. When we have the love of Christ in our hearts, we shall feel that it is our duty and privilege to communicate it.
RC	304	3	The sun shining in the heavens, pours its bright beams into all the highways and byways of life. It has sufficient light for thousands of worlds like ours. And so it is with the Sun of Righteousness; His bright beams of healing and gladness are amply sufficient to save our little world, and are efficacious in establishing security in every world that has been created. Christ declares that our heavenly Father is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, than earthly parents are to give gifts to their children.
RC	304	4	The day of Pentecost furnished a wonderful occasion. In the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, what a testimony was given to the abundance of the grace of Christ! Why is it that those who claim to believe advanced truth live so far beneath their privileges? Why do they mingle self with all they do? If they will cast out self, Jesus will pour into the thirsty soul a constant supply from the river of life....
RC	304	5	It is growth in knowledge of the character of Christ that sanctifies the soul. To discern and appreciate the wonderful work of the atonement, transforms him who contemplates the plan of salvation. By beholding Christ, he becomes changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. The beholding of Jesus becomes an ennobling, refining process to the actual Christian. He sees the Pattern, and grows into its likeness, and then how easily are dissensions, emulations, and strife adjusted. The perfection of Christ's character is the Christian's inspiration. When we see Him as He is, desire awakes to be like Him, and this elevates the whole man; for "every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." ...
RC	304	6	The power of Christ is to be the comfort, the hope, the crown of rejoicing, of everyone that follows Jesus in his conflict, in his struggles in life.--The Review and Herald, August 26, 1890.
------------------------The Truth of God Refines the Taste, October 18
RC	305	1	Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. 1 Corinthians 13:4, 5, R.S.V.
RC	305	2	The truth of God is designed to elevate the receiver, to refine his taste, and to sanctify his judgment. The character of the Christian should be holy, his manners comely, his words without guile. There should be a continual effort to imitate the society he hopes soon to join, that of angels who have never fallen by sin.
RC	305	3	No man can be a Christian without having the Spirit of Christ; and if he has the Spirit of Christ, it will be manifested in kind words and a refined, courteous deportment.... External change will testify to an internal change. The truth is the sanctifier, the refiner. Received into the heart, it works with hidden power, transforming the character. But those who profess to be followers of Christ, and are at the same time rough, unkind, and uncourteous in words and deportment, have not learned of Jesus. A blustering, overbearing, faultfinding man is not a Christian; for to be a Christian is to be Christlike....
RC	305	4	Very many who are seeking for happiness will be disappointed in their hopes, because they seek it amiss, and are indulging in sinful tempers and selfish feelings. By neglecting to discharge the little duties and observe the little courtesies of life, they violate the principles on which happiness depends. True happiness is not to be found in self-gratification, but in the path of duty. God desires man to be happy, and for this reason He gave him the precepts of His Law, that in obeying these he might have joy at home and abroad. While he stands in his moral integrity, true to principle, and having the control of all his powers, he cannot be miserable. With its tendrils twined about God, the heart will be full of peace and joy, and the soul will flourish amid unbelief and depravity.
RC	305	5	Kind words, pleasant looks, a cheerful countenance, throw a charm around the Christian that makes his influence almost irresistible. It is the religion of Christ in the heart that causes the words to be gentle, and the demeanor winning, even to those in the humblest walks of life. In forgetfulness of self, in the light and peace and happiness he is constantly bestowing on others, is seen the true dignity of the man. This is a way to gain respect, and extend the sphere of usefulness, which costs but little; and the one who pursues this course will not complain that he does not receive the honor that is his due. But Bible rules must be written on the heart; Bible rules must be carried into the everyday life.--The Signs of the Times, November 11, 1886.
------------------------The Building Blocks of Noble Characters, October 19
RC	306	1	Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:5-7, R.S.V.
RC	306	2	Pleasant, kind, and well-bred Christians will have an influence for God and His truth; it cannot be otherwise. The light borrowed from Heaven will shed its brightening rays through them to the pathway of others, leading them to exclaim. "O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man whose strength is in thee."
RC	306	3	The words we speak, our daily deportment, are the fruit growing upon the tree. If the fruit is sour and unpalatable, the rootlets of that tree are not drawing nourishment from a pure source. If our characters are meek and lowly, if our affections are in harmony with our Saviour, we will show that our life is hid with Christ in God, and we leave behind us a bright track. Our life will be in such marked contrast to that of unbelievers, that our associates will discern that we have been with Jesus and learned of Him.
RC	306	4	The Christian need not become a recluse; but while necessarily associating with the world, he will not be of the world. Christian politeness should be cultivated, and daily put in practice. That unkind word should be left unspoken; that selfish disregard of the happiness of others should give place to thoughtful sympathy. True courtesy, blended with truth and justice, will make the life not only useful, but beautiful and fragrant with love and good works....
RC	306	5	Virtue, honesty, kindness, and faithful integrity make noble characters; those who possess these characteristics will win esteem, even of unbelievers, and their influence in the church will be very precious. We are required to be right in important matters; but faithfulness in little things will fit us for higher positions of trust.
RC	306	6	On the part of many, there is a great lack of true courtesy. Much is said of the improvements that have been made since the days of the patriarchs; but those living in that age could boast of a higher state of refinement, and of more true courtesy of manners, than are possessed by the people in this age of boasted enlightenment. Integrity, justice, and Christian kindness, blended, make a beautiful combination. Courtesy is one of the graces of the Spirit. It is an attribute of heaven.
RC	306	7	The angels never fly into a passion, never are envious, selfish, and jealous. No harsh or unkind words escape their lips. And if we are to be the companions of angels, we too must be refined and courteous.... A Christian will cultivate that charity that is not easily provoked, that suffereth long and is kind, that hopeth all things, endureth all things.--The Signs of the Times, November 11, 1886.
------------------------Transformation of Character Takes Place Here, October 20
RC	307	1	Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee. Psalm 84:5.
RC	307	2	We are none of us what we may be, what God would have us be, and what His Word requires us to be. And it is our unbelief that shuts us away from God; for we may at any time lift up our souls to Him, and find grace and strength. When Christ shall come, our vile bodies are to be changed, and made like His glorious body; but the vile character will not be made holy then. The transformation of character must take place before His coming. Our natures must be pure and holy; we must have the mind of Christ, that He may behold with pleasure His image reflected upon our souls.
RC	307	3	Enoch was a marked character, and many look upon his life as something far above what the generality of mortals can ever reach. But Enoch's life and character, which were so holy that he was translated to heaven without seeing death, represent the lives and characters of all who will be translated when Christ comes. His life was what the life of every individual may be if he will live near to God. We should remember that Enoch was surrounded by unholy influences. The society around him was so depraved that God brought a flood of waters on the world to destroy its inhabitants for their corruption.
RC	307	4	Were Enoch upon the earth today, his heart would be in harmony with all of God's requirements; he would walk with God, although surrounded by influences the most wicked and debasing. The palm tree well represents the life of a Christian. It stands upright amid the burning desert sands, and dies not; for it draws sustenance from springs beneath the surface.
RC	307	5	Joseph preserved his integrity when surrounded by idolaters in Egypt, in the midst of sin and blasphemy and corrupting influences. When [he was] tempted to turn aside from the path of virtue, his answer was, "How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" Enoch, Joseph, and Daniel depended upon a strength that was infinite; and this is the only course of safety for Christians to pursue in our day.
RC	307	6	The lives of these marked men were hid with Christ in God. They were loyal to God, pure amid depravity, devout and fervent when brought in contact with atheism and idolatry. Through divine grace they cultivated only such qualities as were favorable to the development of pure and holy characters.
RC	307	7	Thus it may be with us. The spirit which Enoch, Joseph and Daniel possessed, we may have; we may draw from the same source of strength, possess the same power of self-control, and the same graces may shine out in our lives.--The Signs of the Times, November 11, 1886.
------------------------What You Think, You are, October 21
RC	308	1	Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5.
RC	308	2	More precious than the golden wedge of Ophir is the power of right thought. We need to place a high value upon the right control of our thoughts; for such control prepares us to labor for the Master. It is necessary for our peace and happiness in this life that our thoughts center in Christ. As a man thinketh, so is he.
RC	308	3	The merciful shall find mercy, and the pure in heart shall see God. Every impure thought defiles the soul, impairs the moral sense, and tends to obliterate the impressions of the Holy Spirit. It dims the spiritual vision, so that men cannot behold God. The Lord may and does forgive the repenting sinner; but though forgiven, the soul is marred. All impurity of speech and thought must be shunned by him who would have clear discernment of spiritual truth.
RC	308	4	Evil thoughts destroy the soul. The converting power of God changes the heart, refining and purifying the thoughts. Unless a determined effort is made to keep the thoughts centered on Christ, grace cannot reveal itself in the life. The mind must engage in the spiritual warfare. Every thought must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. All the habits must be brought under God's control.
RC	308	5	We need a constant sense of the ennobling power of pure thoughts and the damaging influence of evil thoughts. Let us place our thoughts upon holy things. Let them be pure and true; for the only security for any soul is right thinking. We are to use every means that God has placed within our reach for the government and cultivation of our thoughts. We are to bring our minds into harmony with Christ's mind. His truth will sanctify us, body, soul, and spirit, and we shall be enabled to rise above temptation.
RC	308	6	"The prince of this world cometh," said Jesus, "and hath nothing in me." There was in Him nothing that responded to Satan's sophistry. He did not consent to sin. Not even by a thought did He yield to temptation. So may it be with us. Christ's humanity was united with divinity; He was fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.... So long as we are united to Him by faith, sin has no more dominion over us. God reaches for the hand of faith in us to direct it to lay fast hold upon the divinity of Christ, that we may attain to perfection of character.... Every promise in God's Word is ours.
RC	308	7	"By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" are we to live.... Look not to circumstances or to the weakness of self, but to the power of the Word. All its strength is yours.--The Signs of the Times, August 23, 1905.
------------------------Character the Result of Single Acts, October 22
RC	309	1	He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. Luke 16:10.
RC	309	2	It is conscientious attention to what the world terms "little things" that makes life a success. Little deeds of charity, little acts of self-denial, speaking simple words of helpfulness, watching against little sins--this is Christianity. A grateful acknowledgment of daily blessings, a wise improvement of daily opportunities, a diligent cultivation of entrusted talents--this is what the Master calls for.
RC	309	3	He who faithfully performs small duties will be prepared to answer the demands of larger responsibilities. The man who is kind and courteous in the daily life, who is generous and forbearing in his family, whose constant aim it is to make home happy, will be the first to deny self and make sacrifices when the Master calls.
RC	309	4	We may be willing to give our property to the cause of God, but this will not count unless we give Him also a heart of love and gratitude. Those who would be true missionaries in foreign fields must first be true missionaries in the home. Those who desire to work in the Master's vineyard must prepare themselves for this by a careful cultivation of the little piece of vineyard He has entrusted to their care.
RC	309	5	As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he." Many thoughts make up the unwritten history of a single day; and these thoughts have much to do with the formation of character. Our thoughts are to be strictly guarded; for one impure thought makes a deep impression on the soul. An evil thought leaves an evil impress on the mind. If the thoughts are pure and holy, the man is better for having cherished them. By them the spiritual pulse is quickened, and the power for doing good is increased. And as one drop of rain prepares the way for another in moistening the earth, so one good thought prepares the way for another....
RC	309	6	The longest chain is composed of separate links. If one of these links is faulty, the chain is worthless. Thus it is with character. A well-balanced character is formed by single acts well performed. One defect, cultivated instead of being overcome, makes the man imperfect, and closes against him the gate of the Holy City. He who enters heaven must have a character that is without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Naught that defileth can ever enter there. In all the redeemed host not one defect will be seen.
RC	309	7	God's work is perfect as a whole because it is perfect in every part, however minute. He fashions the tiny spear of grass with as much care as He would exercise in making a world. If we desire to be perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect, we must be faithful in doing little things.--Messages to Young People, 143-145.
------------------------We Abide in Christ by a Living Faith, October 23
RC	310	1	And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 2 Corinthians 6:16.
RC	310	2	We are abiding in Christ by a living faith. He is abiding in our hearts by our individual appropriating of faith. We have the companionship of the divine presence, and as we realize this presence our thoughts are brought into captivity to Jesus Christ. Our spiritual exercises are in accordance with the vividness of our sense of this companionship. Enoch walked with God in this way; and Christ is dwelling in our hearts by faith when we will consider what He is to us, and what a work He has wrought out for us in the plan of redemption. We shall be most happy in cultivating a sense of this great gift of God to our world and to us personally.
RC	310	3	These thoughts have a controlling power upon the whole character. I want to impress upon your mind that you may have a divine companion with you, if you will, always....
RC	310	4	As the mind dwells upon Christ, the character is molded after the divine similitude. The thoughts are pervaded with a sense of His goodness, His love. We contemplate His character, and thus He is in all our thoughts. His love encloses us. If we gaze even a moment upon the sun in its meridian glory, when we turn away our eyes the image of the sun will appear in everything upon which we look.
RC	310	5	Thus it is when we behold Jesus; everything we look upon reflects His image, the Sun of Righteousness. We cannot see anything else, or talk of anything else. His image is imprinted upon the eye of the soul, and affects every portion of our daily life, softening and subduing our whole nature. By beholding, we are conformed to the divine similitude, even the likeness of Christ. To all with whom we associate we reflect the bright and cheerful beams of His righteousness. We have become transformed in character; for heart, soul, mind, are irradiated by the reflection of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Here again there is the realization of a personal, living influence dwelling in our hearts by faith.
RC	310	6	When His words of instruction have been received, and have taken possession of us, Jesus is to us an abiding presence, controlling our thoughts and ideas and actions....
RC	310	7	Jesus Christ is everything to us--the first, the last, the best in everything. Jesus Christ, His Spirit, His character, colors everything; it is the warp and woof, the very texture of our entire being.... Continuing to look unto Jesus, we reflect His image to all around us.--Messages to Young People, 159-161.
------------------------The Thoughts Must Be Centered Upon God, October 24
RC	311	1	Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13.
RC	311	2	A storm is coming, relentless in its fury. Are we prepared to meet it?
RC	311	3	We need not say: The perils of the last days are soon to come upon us. Already they have come. We need now the sword of the Lord to cut to the very soul and marrow of fleshly lusts, appetites, and passions.
RC	311	4	Minds that have been given up to loose thought need to change. "Girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance: but like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:13-16, A.R.V.). The thoughts must be centered upon God. Now is the time to put forth earnest effort to overcome the natural tendencies of the carnal heart.
RC	311	5	Our efforts, our self-denial, our perseverance, must be proportionate to the infinite value of the object of which we are in pursuit. Only by overcoming as Christ overcame shall we win the crown of life.
RC	311	6	Man's great danger is in being self-deceived, indulging self-sufficiency, and thus separating from God, the source of his strength. Our natural tendencies, unless corrected by the Holy Spirit of God, have in them the seeds of moral death....
RC	311	7	In order to receive help from Christ, we must realize our need. We must have a true knowledge of ourselves. It is only he who knows himself to be a sinner that Christ can save. Only as we see our utter helplessness and renounce all self-trust, shall we lay hold on divine power.
RC	311	8	It is not only at the beginning of the Christian life that this renunciation of self is to be made. At every advance step heavenward it is to be renewed. All our good works are dependent on a power outside of ourselves; therefore there needs to be a continual reaching out of the heart after God, a constant, earnest confession of sin and humbling of the soul before Him. Perils surround us; and we are safe only as we feel our weakness and cling with the grasp of faith to our mighty Deliverer....
RC	311	9	"Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him" (Proverbs 30:5).--Testimonies for the Church 8:315, 316.
------------------------The Science of Christianity, October 25
RC	312	1	I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 1 Corinthians 9:27.
RC	312	2	The Christian life is a battle and a march. In this warfare there is no release; the effort must be continuous and persevering. It is by unceasing endeavor that we maintain the victory over the temptations of Satan. Christian integrity must be sought with resistless energy and maintained with a resolute fixedness of purpose.
RC	312	3	No one will be borne upward without stern, persevering effort in his own behalf. All must engage in this warfare for themselves. Individually we are responsible for the issue of the struggle; though Noah, Job, and Daniel were in the land, they could deliver neither son nor daughter by their righteousness.
RC	312	4	There is a science of Christianity to be mastered--a science as much deeper, broader, higher than any human science as the heavens are higher than the earth. The mind is to be disciplined, educated, trained; for we are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination. There are hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil that must be overcome. Often the training and education of a lifetime must be discarded, that one may become a learner in the school of Christ.
RC	312	5	Our hearts must be educated to become steadfast in God. We are to form habits of thought that will enable us to resist temptation. We must learn to look upward. The principles of the Word of God--principles that are as high as heaven, and that compass eternity--we are to understand in their bearing upon our daily life. Every act, every word, every thought, is to be in accord with these principles.
RC	312	6	The precious graces of the Holy Spirit are not developed in a moment. Courage, fortitude, meekness, faith, unwavering trust in God's power to save, are acquired by the experience of years. By a life of holy endeavor and firm adherence to the right the children of God are to seal their destiny.
RC	312	7	We have no time to lose. We know not how soon our probation may close. Eternity stretches before us. The curtain is about to be lifted. Christ is soon to come. The angels of God are seeking to attract us from ourselves and from earthly things. Let them not labor in vain.
RC	312	8	When Jesus rises up in the most holy place, lays off His mediatorial robes, and clothes Himself with the garments of vengeance, the mandate will go forth: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: ... and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with me" (Revelation 22:11, 12).--Testimonies for the Church 8:313-315.
------------------------Living the Character of Christ, October 26
RC	313	1	Be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless. 2 Peter 3:14.
RC	313	2	The greatest work that can be done in our world is to glorify God by living the character of Christ.--Testimonies for the Church 6:439.
RC	313	3	In the second letter addressed by Peter to those who had obtained "like precious faith" with himself, the apostle sets forth the divine plan for the development of Christian character. He writes:
RC	313	4	"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
RC	313	5	"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:2-8).
RC	313	6	These words are full of instruction, and strike the keynote of victory. The apostle presents before the believers the ladder of Christian progress, every step of which represents advancement in the knowledge of God, and in the climbing of which there is to be no standstill. Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity are the rounds of the ladder. We are saved by climbing round after round, mounting step after step, to the height of Christ's ideal for us. Thus He is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
RC	313	7	God has called His people to glory and virtue, and these will be manifest in the lives of all who are truly connected with Him. Having become partakers of the heavenly gift, they are to go on unto perfection, being "kept by the power of God through faith" (1 Peter 1:5).
RC	313	8	It is the glory of God to give His virtue to His children. He desires to see men and women reaching the highest standard; and when by faith they lay hold of the power of Christ, when they plead His unfailing promises, and claim them as their own, when with an importunity that will not be denied they seek for the power of the Holy Spirit, they will be made complete in Him.--The Acts of the Apostles, 529, 530.
------------------------The Knowledge of God Is Vital, October 27
RC	314	1	Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me. Jeremiah 9:23, 24.
RC	314	2	Having received the faith of the gospel, ... the believer is to add to his character virtue, and thus cleanse the heart and prepare the mind for the reception of the knowledge of God. This knowledge is the foundation of all true education and of all true service. It is the only real safeguard against temptation; and it is this alone that can make one like God in character. Through the knowledge of God and of His Son, Jesus Christ, are given to the believer "all things that pertain unto life and godliness." No good gift is withheld from him who sincerely desires to obtain the righteousness of God.
RC	314	3	"This is life eternal," Christ said, "that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3). And the prophet Jeremiah declared: ... "I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord" (Jeremiah 9:24). Scarcely can the human mind comprehend the breadth and depth and height of the spiritual attainments of him who gains this knowledge.
RC	314	4	None need fail of attaining, in his sphere, to perfection of Christian character. By the sacrifice of Christ, provision has been made for the believer to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. God calls upon us to reach the standard of perfection and places before us the example of Christ's character. In His humanity, perfected by a life of constant resistance of evil, the Saviour showed that through cooperation with Divinity, human beings may in this life attain to perfection of character. This is God's assurance to us that we, too, may obtain complete victory.
RC	314	5	Before the believer is held out the wonderful possibility of being like Christ, obedient to all the principles of the law.... The holiness that God's Word declares he must have before he can be saved is the result of the working of divine grace as he bows in submission to the discipline and restraining influences of the Spirit of truth. Man's obedience can be made perfect only by the incense of Christ's righteousness, which fills with divine fragrance every act of obedience.
RC	314	6	The part of the Christian is to persevere in overcoming every fault. Constantly he is to pray to the Saviour to heal the disorders of his sin-sick soul. He has not the wisdom or the strength to overcome; these belong to the Lord, and He bestows them on those who in humiliation and contrition seek Him for help.--The Acts of the Apostles, 530-532.
------------------------The Necessity of Constant Growth in Grace, October 28
RC	315	1	Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. 2 Peter 1:10.
RC	315	2	The work of transformation from unholiness to holiness is a continuous one. Day by day God labors for man's sanctification, and man is to cooperate with Him, putting forth persevering efforts in the cultivation of right habits. He is to add grace to grace; and as he thus works on the plan of addition, God works for him on the plan of multiplication. Our Saviour is always ready to hear and answer the prayer of the contrite heart, and grace and peace are multiplied to His faithful ones. Gladly He grants them the blessings they need in their struggle against the evils that beset them.
RC	315	3	There are those who attempt to ascend the ladder of Christian progress; but as they advance they begin to put their trust in the power of man, and soon lose sight of Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith. The result is failure--the loss of all that has been gained. Sad indeed is the condition of those who, becoming weary of the way, allow the enemy of souls to rob them of the Christian graces that have been developing in their hearts and lives. "He that lacketh these things," declares the apostle, "is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins."
RC	315	4	The apostle Peter had had a long experience in the things of God. His faith in God's power to save had strengthened with the years, until he had proved beyond question that there is no possibility of failure before the one who, advancing by faith, ascends round by round, ever upward and onward, to the topmost round of the ladder that reaches even to the portals of heaven.
RC	315	5	For many years Peter had been urging upon the believers the necessity of a constant growth in grace and in a knowledge of the truth; and now, knowing that soon he would be called to suffer martyrdom for his faith, he once more drew attention to the precious privileges within the reach of every believer. In the full assurance of his faith the aged disciple exhorted his brethren to steadfastness of purpose in the Christian life. "Give diligence," he pleaded, "to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
RC	315	6	Precious assurance! Glorious is the hope before the believer as he advances by faith toward the heights of Christian perfection!--The Acts of the Apostles, 532, 533.
------------------------John's Character Reflected Christ, October 29
RC	316	1	Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:10, 11.
RC	316	2	The confiding love and unselfish devotion manifested in the life and character of John present lessons of untold value to the Christian church. John did not naturally possess the loveliness of character that his later experience revealed. By nature he had serious defects. He was not only proud, self-assertive, and ambitious for honor, but impetuous, and resentful under injury. He and his brother were called "sons of thunder." Evil temper, the desire for revenge, the spirit of criticism, were all in the beloved disciple. But beneath all this the divine Teacher discerned the ardent, sincere, loving heart. Jesus rebuked his self-seeking, disappointed his ambitions, tested his faith. But He revealed to him that for which his soul longed--the beauty of holiness, the transforming power of love....
RC	316	3	The lessons of Christ, setting forth meekness and humility and love as essential to growth in grace and a fitness for His work, were of the highest value to John. He treasured every lesson and constantly sought to bring his life into harmony with the divine pattern.... His Master's lessons were graven on his soul. When he testified of the Saviour's grace, his simple language was eloquent with the love that pervaded his whole being.
RC	316	4	It was John's deep love for Christ which led him always to desire to be close by His side. The Saviour loved all the Twelve, but John's was the most receptive spirit. He was younger than the others, and with more of the child's confiding trust he opened his heart to Jesus. Thus he came more into sympathy with Christ, and through him the Saviour's deepest spiritual teaching was communicated to the people.
RC	316	5	Jesus loves those who represent the Father, and John could talk of the Father's love as no other of the disciples could. He revealed to his fellow men that which he felt in his own soul, representing in his character the attributes of God. The glory of the Lord was expressed in his face. The beauty of holiness which had transformed him shone with a Christlike radiance from his countenance. In adoration and love he beheld the Saviour until likeness to Christ and fellowship with Him became his one desire, and in his character was reflected the character of his Master.--The Acts of the Apostles, 539-545.
------------------------The Disciples Revealed the Love of Christ, October 30
RC	317	1	Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 1 John 3:16.
RC	317	2	After the ascension of Christ, John stands forth as a faithful, earnest laborer for the Master.... He enjoyed the outpouring of the Spirit ... and with fresh zeal and power he continued to speak to the people the words of life, seeking to lead their thoughts to the Unseen. He was a powerful preacher, fervent, and deeply in earnest. In beautiful language and with a musical voice he told of the words and works of Christ, speaking in a way that impressed the hearts of those who heard him. The simplicity of his words, the sublime power of the truths he uttered, and the fervor that characterized his teachings, gave him access to all classes.
RC	317	3	The apostle's life was in harmony with his teachings. The love of Christ which glowed in his heart led him to put forth earnest, untiring labor for his fellow men, especially for his brethren in the Christian church.
RC	317	4	Christ had bidden the first disciples love one another as He had loved them. Thus they were to bear testimony to the world that Christ was formed within, the hope of glory. "A new commandment I give unto you," He had said, "That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). At the time when these words were spoken, the disciples could not understand them; but after they had witnessed the sufferings of Christ, after His crucifixion and resurrection, and ascension to heaven, and after the Holy Spirit had rested on them at Pentecost, they had a clearer conception of the love of God and of the nature of that love which they must have for one another....
RC	317	5	After the descent of the Holy Spirit, when the disciples went forth to proclaim a living Saviour, their one desire was the salvation of souls. They rejoiced in the sweetness of communion with saints. They were tender, thoughtful, self-denying, willing to make any sacrifice for the truth's sake . In their daily association with one another, they revealed the love that Christ had enjoined upon them. By unselfish words and deeds they strove to kindle this love in other hearts.
RC	317	6	Such a love the believers were ever to cherish. They were to go forward in willing obedience to the new commandment. So closely were they to be united with Christ that they would be enabled to fulfill all His requirements. Their lives were to magnify the power of a Saviour who could justify them by His righteousness.--The Acts of the Apostles, 546-548.
------------------------Contemplating Heavenly Things, October 31
RC	318	1	God ... hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-6.
RC	318	2	If we would bear in mind the momentous events which are soon to take place, we would not be so weak in character. We would feel that we were living in the presence of God, and awed and amazed we should heed the injunction, "Be still, and know that I am God." Oh, when shall we ever realize the full value of our Saviour's work and intercession? When shall we rely upon Him with full confidence, and live a noble, pure, and devoted life? To what heights may the imagination reach when sanctified and inspired by the virtue of Christ! We may take in the glories of the future, eternal world. We may live as seeing Him who is invisible. Walk by faith and not by sight....
RC	318	3	Through searching the Scriptures we may come to understand what we are to Christ, and what He is to us. By beholding Him we are to become changed into His image, becoming colaborers with Him, representatives of Him in life and character. We must learn to realize that we are to live as the sons and daughters of God, loving God supremely, and our neighbors as ourselves. We are to live a pure, perfect life for Christ's sake. We are to love perfection because Jesus is the embodiment of perfection, the great center of attraction. The life we now live we must live by faith in the Son of God.
RC	318	4	If we follow Christ we shall not have a spasmodical experience, and be moved by circumstances and influenced by our surroundings. We shall not let feeling control us, and indulge in fretting, envying, faultfinding, jealousy, and vanity.
RC	318	5	It is indulgence in these things that puts us out of harmony with the harmonious life of Christ, and prevents us from becoming overcomers. We should be actuated by the noble purpose of winning daily victories, and by watchfulness and sincere prayer attain to complete control of self. When petty trials come upon us, and words are spoken that cut and bruise the soul, speak to yourself and say, "I am a child of God, heir with Jesus Christ, a colaborer with heaven, and I cannot afford to easily take offense, to be always thinking of self; for this will produce a distorted character, and is unworthy of my high calling. My heavenly Father has given me a work to do, and let me do it worthily for His name's sake."
RC	318	6	We should consider earnestly and continually the excellence of the character of Jesus Christ, that we may impart His blessings and lead men to follow in His footsteps.--The Signs of the Times, July 10, 1893.
------------------------God's Children to be Light Bearers, November 1
RC	319	1	Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16.
RC	319	2	God never designed that one man's mind or judgment should be a controlling power. Whenever He has had a special work to be done, He has always had men ready to meet the demand. In every age, when the divine voice has asked, Who will go for us? the response has come, "Here am I, send me." In ancient times the Lord had connected with His work men of varied talents. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses with his meekness and wisdom, and Joshua with his varied capabilities were all enlisted in God's service. The music of Miriam, the courage and piety of Deborah, the filial affection of Ruth, the obedience and faithfulness of Samuel--all were needed. Elijah with his stern traits of character, God used at His appointed time to execute judgment upon Jezebel.
RC	319	3	God will not give His Spirit to those who make no use of the heavenly gift. But those who are drawn out of and away from themselves, seeking to enlighten, encourage, and bless others, will have increased ability and energy to expend. The more light they give, the more they receive.--The Southern Watchman, October 31, 1905.
RC	319	4	In all ages the "Spirit of Christ which was in them" (1 Peter 1:11) has made God's true children the light of the people of their generation. Joseph was a light bearer in Egypt. In his purity and benevolence and filial love he represented Christ in the midst of a nation of idolaters. While the Israelites were on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land, the truehearted among them were a light to the surrounding nations. Through them God was revealed to the world. From Daniel and his companions in Babylon, and from Mordecai in Persia, bright beams of light shone out amid the darkness of the kingly courts.
RC	319	5	In like manner the disciples of Christ are set as light bearers on the way to heaven; through them the Father's mercy and goodness are made manifest to a world enshrouded in the darkness of misapprehension of God. By seeing their good works, others are led to glorify the Father who is above; for it is made manifest that there is a God on the throne of the universe whose character is worthy of praise and imitation. The divine love glowing in the heart, the Christlike harmony manifested in the life, are as a glimpse of heaven granted to men of the world, that they may appreciate its excellence.
RC	319	6	It is thus that men are led to believe "the love that God hath to us" (1 John 4:16). Thus hearts once sinful and corrupt are purified and transformed, to be presented "faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 1:24).--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 41, 42.
------------------------Enoch Walked With God, November 2
RC	320	1	By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; ... for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Hebrews 11:5.
RC	320	2	The knowledge of God that works transformation of character is our great need. If we fulfill His purpose, there must be in our lives a revelation of God that shall correspond to the teaching of His Word.
RC	320	3	The experience of Enoch and of John the Baptist represents what ours should be. Far more than we do, we need to study the lives of these men--he who was translated to heaven without seeing death, and he who, before Christ's first advent, was called to prepare the way of the Lord, to make His paths straight.
RC	320	4	Of Enoch it is written that he lived sixty-five years and begat a son; after that he walked with God three hundred years. During those earlier years, Enoch had loved and feared God, and had kept His commandments. But after the birth of his first son he reached a higher experience; he was drawn into closer relationship with God. As he saw the child's love for its father, its simple trust in his protection; as he felt the deep, yearning tenderness of his own heart for that firstborn son, he learned a precious lesson of the wonderful love of God to man in the gift of His Son, and the confidence which the children of God may repose in their heavenly Father. The infinite, unfathomable love of God through Christ became the subject of his meditations day and night. With all the fervor of his soul he sought to reveal that love to the people among whom he dwelt....
RC	320	5	His faith waxed stronger, his love became more ardent, with the lapse of centuries. To him prayer was as the breath of the soul. He lived in the atmosphere of heaven....
RC	320	6	The power of God that wrought with His servant was felt by those who heard. Some gave heed to the warning and renounced their sins; but the multitudes mocked at the solemn message....
RC	320	7	For three hundred years Enoch had been seeking purity of heart, that he might be in harmony with heaven. For three centuries he had walked with God. Day by day he had longed for a closer union; nearer and nearer had grown the communion, until God took him to Himself. He had stood at the threshold of the eternal world, only a step between him and the land of the blest; and now the portals opened, the walk with God, so long pursued on earth, continued, and he passed through the gates of the Holy City, the first from among men to enter there....
RC	320	8	To such communion God is calling us. As was Enoch's must be their holiness of character who shall be redeemed from among men at the Lord's second coming.--Testimonies for the Church 8:329-331.
------------------------A Preacher of Righteousness, November 3
RC	321	1	As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Luke 17:26, 27, R.S.V.
RC	321	2	It is the nature of sin to spread and increase. Since the first sin of Adam, from generation to generation it has spread like a contagious disease. While the world was yet in its infancy, sin became fearful in its proportions. Hatred of God's law, and, as the sure result, hatred of all goodness, became universal. God, who had created man and given him with an unsparing hand the bounties of His providence, was dishonored by the beings He had created, slighted and despised by the recipients of His gifts. But though sinful man forgot His benevolent Benefactor, God did not forget the creature He had formed. Not only did He send "rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons," filling man's heart with "food and gladness," but He sent him also messages of warning and entreaty. Man's wickedness was fully set before him, and the result of transgressing the divine law.
RC	321	3	In the days of Noah, the wickedness of the world became so great that God could no longer bear with it.... But He pitied the race, and in His love provided a refuge for all who would accept it. He gave the message to Noah to be given to the people: "My spirit shall not always strive with man." ... The Spirit of God continued to strive with rebellious man until the time specified had nearly expired, when Noah and his family entered the ark, and the hand of God closed its door. Mercy had stepped from the golden throne, no longer to intercede for the guilty sinner.
RC	321	4	All the men of that generation were not in the fullest sense of the term heathen idolaters. Many had a knowledge of God and His law; but they not only rejected the message of the faithful preacher of righteousness themselves, but used all their influence to prevent others from being obedient to God. To everyone comes a day of trial and trust. That generation had their day of opportunity and privilege while Noah was sounding the note of warning of the coming destruction; but they yielded their minds to the control of Satan rather than of God, and he deceived them, as he did our first parents. He set before them darkness and falsehood in the place of light and truth; and they accepted his sophistry and lies, because they were acceptable to them, and in harmony with their corrupt lives, while truth that would have saved them was rejected as a delusion. Numbers were not on the side of right.--The Signs of the Times, April 1, 1886.
------------------------Noah Stood Like a Rock, November 4
RC	322	1	And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.... But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Genesis 6:6-8.
RC	322	2	The world was arrayed against God's justice and His laws, and Noah was regarded as fanatic. Satan, when tempting Eve to disobey God, said to her, "Ye shall not surely die." Great men, worldly, honored, and wise men, repeated the same story, "Ye shall not surely die." "The threatenings of God," they said, "are for the purpose of intimidating, and will never be verified. You need not be alarmed. Such an event as the destruction of the world by the God who made it, and the punishment of the beings He has created, will never take place." ... So the people did not humble their hearts before God, but continued their disobedience and wickedness, the same as though God had not spoken to them through His servant.
RC	322	3	But Noah stood like a rock amid the tempest. He was surrounded by every species of wickedness and moral corruption; but amid popular contempt and ridicule, amid universal wickedness and disobedience, he distinguished himself by His holy integrity and unwavering faithfulness. While the world around him were disregarding God, and were indulging in all manner of extravagant dissipation which led to violence and crimes of every kind, the faithful preacher of righteousness declared to that generation that a flood of water was to deluge the world because of the unsurpassed wickedness of its inhabitants. He warned them to repent and believe, and find refuge in the ark.
RC	322	4	The message of Noah was to him a reality. Amid the scoffs and jeers of the world, he was an unbending witness for God. His meekness and righteousness were in bright contrast to the revolting crimes, intrigue, and violence continually practiced around him. A power attended his words; for it was the voice of God to man through His servant. Connection with God made him strong in the strength of infinite power, while for one hundred and twenty years his solemn warning voice fell upon the ears of the men of that generation in regard to events, which, so far as human wisdom could judge, seemed impossible. Some were deeply convicted, and would have heeded the words of warning; but there were so many to jest and ridicule that they partook of the same spirit, resisted the invitations of mercy, refused to reform, and were soon among the boldest and most defiant scoffers; for none are so reckless, and go to such lengths in sin, as those who have once had light, but have resisted the convicting Spirit of God.... How simple and childlike, amid the unbelief of a scoffing world, was the faith of Noah.... He gave to the world an example of believing just what God said.--The Signs of the Times, April 1, 1886.
------------------------Noah Proclaimed God's Word with Force, November 5
RC	323	1	Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. Genesis 6:22.
RC	323	2	The words that had been spoken to Adam were rehearsed [by Noah]--that sin and Satan should not always triumph. There was to be victory for those who feared God. When his voice was lifted in warning of what God was about to bring upon the world in judgment because of the wickedness of men, great opposition was manifested against the words of the messenger. The opposition, however, was not entirely worldwide; for some believed the message of Noah, and zealously repeated the warning.
RC	323	3	But the men who were accounted wise were sought, and were urged to present arguments by which the message of Noah might be counteracted. And as the world was at peace and not at war with the prince of evil, they were glad of any excuse to set aside the "Thus saith the Lord" and to listen to the philosophers of the age, who presented the impossibility of such a change taking place in the forces of nature as Noah predicted. There is no enmity between fallen man and fallen angels; both are evil through apostasy, and evil, wherever it exists, is in league against God. Fallen men and fallen angels were united for the dethronement of God.
RC	323	4	Thus it was that the wise men of this world talked of science and the fixed laws of nature, and declared that there could be no variation in these laws, and that this message of Noah could not possibly be true. The talented men of Noah's time set themselves in league against God's will and purpose and scorned the message and the messenger that He had sent.... Noah could not controvert their philosophies, or refute the claims of science so called; but he could proclaim the word of God; for he knew it contained the infinite wisdom of the Creator, and, as he sounded it everywhere, it lost none of its force and reality because men of the world treated him with ridicule and contempt.
RC	323	5	Noah did not mix the soft, pleasing deceptions of Satan with his message. He did not utter the sentiment of many of his day who declared that God was too merciful to do such a terrible work. Many asserted that God would grant the wicked another season of probation; but Noah did not indulge them in the faintest hope that those who neglected the present opportunity, who rejected the present message, would be favored with another opportunity of salvation.... He knew the power of God, and realized that God would fulfill His word. His fear of God did not separate him from God, but served to draw him closer to Him, and to lead him to pour out his soul in earnest supplication.--The Signs of the Times, April 18, 1895.
------------------------Abraham's Unquestioning Obedience, November 6
RC	324	1	The Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. Genesis 12:1, 2.
RC	324	2	God selected Abraham as His messenger through whom to communicate light to the world. The word of God came to him, not with the presentation of flattering prospects in this life of large salary, of great appreciation and worldly honor. "Get thee out of thy country ... unto a land that I will shew thee" was the divine message to Abraham. The patriarch obeyed, and "went out, not knowing whither he went," as God's light bearer, to keep His name alive in the earth. He forsook his country, his home, his relatives, and all pleasant associations connected with his early life, to become a pilgrim and a stranger.... Before God can use him, Abraham must be separated from his former associations, that he may not be controlled by human influence or rely upon human aid. Now that he has become connected with God, this man must henceforth dwell among strangers. His character must be peculiar, differing from all the world. He could not even explain his course of action so as to be understood by his friends, for they were idolaters. Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned; therefore his motives and his actions were beyond the comprehension of his kindred and friends.
RC	324	3	Abraham's unquestioning obedience was one of the most striking instances of faith and reliance upon God to be found in the Sacred Record. With only the naked promise that his descendants should possess Canaan, without the least outward evidence, he followed on where God should lead, fully and sincerely complying with the conditions on his part, and confident that the Lord would faithfully perform His word. The patriarch went wherever God indicated his duty; he passed through wildernesses without terror; he went among idolatrous nations, with the one thought: "God has spoken; I am obeying His voice; He will guide, He will protect me."
RC	324	4	Just such faith and confidence as Abraham had the messengers of God need today. But many whom the Lord could use will not move onward, hearing and obeying the one Voice above all others.... The Lord would do much more for His servants if they were wholly consecrated to Him, esteeming His service above the ties of kindred and all other earthly associations.--Testimonies for the Church 4:523, 524.
------------------------Abraham's Unfaltering Faith, November 7
RC	325	1	Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and ... offer him ... for a burnt offering. Genesis 22:2.
RC	325	2	The Lord saw fit to test the faith of Abraham by a most fearful trial. If he had endured the first test and had patiently waited for the promise to be fulfilled in Sarah, and had not taken Hagar as his wife, he would not have been subjected to the closest test that was ever required of man. The Lord bade Abraham, "Take now thy son, ... whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering." ...
RC	325	3	Abraham did not disbelieve God and hesitate, but early in the morning he took two of his servants and Isaac, his son, and the wood for the burnt offering, and went unto the place of which God had told him.... Abraham did not suffer paternal feelings to control him and lead him to rebel against God. The command of God was calculated to stir the depths of his soul. "Take now thy son." Then, as though to probe the heart a little deeper, He added, "Thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest"; that is, the only son of promise, "and offer him." ...
RC	325	4	Three days this father traveled with his son, having sufficient time to reason and doubt God if he was disposed to doubt. But he did not distrust God....
RC	325	5	Abraham believed that Isaac was the son of promise. He also believed that God meant just what He said when He bade him to go offer him as a burnt offering. He ... believed that God who had in His providence given Sarah a son in her old age, and who had required him to take that son's life, could also ... bring up Isaac from the dead.
RC	325	6	Abraham left the servants by the way and proposed to go alone with his son to worship some distance from them.... Firmly walked on that stern, loving, suffering father by the side of his son. As they came to the place which God had pointed out to Abraham, he built there an altar and laid the wood in order, ready for the sacrifice, and then informed Isaac of the command of God to offer him as a burnt offering. He repeated to him the promise that God several times had made to him, that through Isaac he should become a great nation, and that in performing the command of God in slaying him, God would fulfill His promise....
RC	325	7	Isaac believed in God.... After affectionately embracing his father, he submitted to be bound and laid upon the wood. And as his father's hand was raised to slay his son, an angel of God, who had marked all the faithfulness of Abraham ..., called to him out of heaven, and said, "Abraham .... Lay not thine hand upon the lad ...: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me."--The Story of Redemption, 80-82.
------------------------Joseph Resolves to be True to God, November 8
RC	326	1	And Joseph said unto [his brethren], Fear not: ... As for you, ye thought evil against me: but God meant it unto good ... to save much people alive. Genesis 50:19, 20.
RC	326	2	Joseph with his captors was on the way to Egypt.... The boy could discern in the distance the hills among which lay his father's tents. Bitterly he wept at the thought of that loving father in his loneliness and affliction. Again the scene at Dothan came up before him. He saw his angry brothers and felt their fierce glances bent upon him. The stinging, insulting words that had met his agonized entreaties were ringing in his ears. With a trembling heart he looked forward to the future. What a change in situation--from the tenderly cherished son to the despised and helpless slave! Alone and friendless, what would be his lot in the strange land to which he was going? For a time, Joseph gave himself up to uncontrolled grief and terror.
RC	326	3	But, in the providence of God, even this experience was to be a blessing to him. He had learned in a few hours that which years might not otherwise have taught him. His father, strong and tender as his love had been, had done him wrong by his partiality and indulgence. This unwise preference had angered his brothers and provoked them to the cruel deed that had separated him from his home. Its effects were manifest also in his own character. Faults had been encouraged that were now to be corrected. He was becoming self-sufficient and exacting. Accustomed to the tenderness of his father's care, he felt that he was unprepared to cope with the difficulties before him....
RC	326	4	Then his thoughts turned to his father's God. In his childhood he had been taught to love and fear Him. Often in his father's tent he had listened to the story of the vision that Jacob saw as he fled from his home an exile and a fugitive. He had been told of the Lord's promises to Jacob, and how they had been fulfilled--how, in the hour of need, the angels of God had come to instruct, comfort, and protect him. And he had learned of the love of God in providing for men a Redeemer. Now all these precious lessons came vividly before him. Joseph believed that the God of his fathers would be his God. He then and there gave himself fully to the Lord, and he prayed that the Keeper of Israel would be with him in the land of his exile.
RC	326	5	His soul thrilled with the high resolve to prove himself true to God--under all circumstances to act as became a subject of the King of heaven. He would serve the Lord with undivided heart.... One day's experience had been the turning point in Joseph's life. Its terrible calamity had transformed him from a petted child to a man, thoughtful, courageous, and self-possessed.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 213, 214.
------------------------Jochebed's Influence on Moses, November 9
RC	327	1	By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Hebrews 11:24, 25.
RC	327	2	Younger than Joseph or Daniel was Moses when removed from the sheltering care of his childhood home; yet already the same agencies that shaped their lives had molded his. Only twelve years did he spend with his Hebrew kindred; but during these years was laid the foundation of his greatness; it was laid by the hand of one little known to fame.
RC	327	3	Jochebed was a woman and a slave. Her lot in life was humble, her burden heavy. But through no other woman, save Mary of Nazareth, has the world received greater blessing. Knowing that her child must soon pass beyond her care, to the guardianship of those who knew not God, she the more earnestly endeavored to link his soul with heaven. She sought to implant in his heart love and loyalty to God. And faithfully was the work accomplished. Those principles of truth that were the burden of his mother's teaching and the lesson of her life, no after influence could induce Moses to renounce.
RC	327	4	From the humble home in Goshen the son of Jochebed passed to the palace of the Pharaohs, to the Egyptian princess, by her to be welcomed as a loved and cherished son. In the schools of Egypt, Moses received the highest civil and military training. Of great personal attractions, noble in form and stature, of cultivated mind and princely bearing, and renowned as military leader, he became the nation's pride. The king of Egypt was also a member of the priesthood; and Moses, though refusing to participate in the heathen worship, was initiated into all the mysteries of the Egyptian religion.
RC	327	5	Egypt at this time being still the most powerful and most highly civilized of nations, Moses, as its prospective sovereign, was heir to the highest honors this world could bestow. But his was a nobler choice. For the honor of God and the deliverance of His downtrodden people, Moses sacrificed the honors of Egypt. Then, in a special sense, God undertook his training....
RC	327	6	He had yet to learn the lesson of dependence upon divine power.... In the wilds of Midian, Moses spent forty years as a keeper of sheep.... In the care of the sheep and the tender lambs he must obtain the experience that would make him a faithful, long-suffering shepherd to Israel....
RC	327	7	Amidst the solemn majesty of the mountain solitudes, Moses was alone with God.... Here his self-sufficiency was swept away.--Education, 61-63.
RC	327	8	The greatness of Egypt is in the dust.... But the work of Moses can never perish. The great principles of righteousness which he lived to establish are eternal.--Education, 69.
------------------------Moses' Leadership Inspired Confidence, November 10
RC	328	1	Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people to battle at Edrei. And the Lord said unto me; Fear him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand.... And we smote him until none was left to him remaining. Deuteronomy 3:1-3.
RC	328	2	Before them [Israel] lay the powerful and populous kingdom of Bashan, crowded with great stone cities that to this day excite the wonder of the world.... The houses were constructed of huge black stones, of such stupendous size as to make the buildings absolutely impregnable to any force that in those times could have been brought against them. It was a country filled with wild caverns, lofty precipices, yawning gulfs, and rocky strongholds. The inhabitants of this land, descendants from a giant race, were themselves of marvelous size and strength, and so distinguished for violence and cruelty as to be the terror of all surrounding nations; while Og, the king of the country, was remarkable for size and prowess, even in a nation of giants.
RC	328	3	But the cloudy pillar moved forward, and following its guidance the Hebrew hosts advanced to Edrei, where the giant king, with his forces, awaited their approach. Og had skillfully chosen the place of battle. The city of Edrei was situated upon the border of a tableland rising abruptly from the plain, and covered with jagged, volcanic rocks. It could be approached only by narrow pathways....
RC	328	4	When the Hebrews looked upon the lofty form of that giant of giants towering above the soldiers of his army; when they saw the hosts that surrounded him, and beheld the seemingly impregnable fortress, behind which unseen thousands were entrenched, the hearts of many in Israel quaked with fear. But Moses was calm and firm; the Lord had said concerning the king of Bashan, "Fear him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon."
RC	328	5	The calm faith of their leader inspired the people with confidence in God. They trusted all to His omnipotent arm, and He did not fail them. Not mighty giants nor walled cities, armed hosts nor rocky fortresses, could stand before the Captain of the Lord's host. The Lord led the army; the Lord discomfited [overthrew] the enemy. The Lord conquered in behalf of Israel. The giant king and his army were destroyed, and the Israelites soon took possession of the whole country....
RC	328	6	The hosts of Bashan had yielded before the mysterious power enshrouded in the cloudy pillar.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 435-438.
RC	328	7	"The difficulties that seem so formidable, that fill your soul with dread, will vanish as you move forward in the path of obedience, humbly trusting in God."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 437.
------------------------Deborah's Support for Barak, November 11
RC	329	1	Village life ... ceased until I, Deborah, arose ... as a mother in Israel. When they chose new gods, war came to the city gates, and not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel. Judges 5:7, 8, N.I.V.
RC	329	2	For twenty years, the Israelites groaned under the yoke of the oppressor; then they turned from their idolatry, and with humiliation and repentance cried unto the Lord for deliverance. They did not cry in vain. There was dwelling in Israel a woman illustrious for her piety, and through her the Lord chose to deliver His people. Her name was Deborah. She was known as a prophetess, and in the absence of the usual magistrates, the people had sought to her for counsel and justice.
RC	329	3	The Lord communicated to Deborah His purpose to destroy the enemies of Israel, and bade her send for a man named Barak.... and make known to him the instructions which she had received. She accordingly sent for Barak, and directed him to assemble ten thousand men of the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, and make war upon the armies of King Jabin.
RC	329	4	Barak knew the scattered, disheartened, and unarmed condition of the Hebrews, and the strength and skill of their enemies. Although he had been designated by the Lord Himself as the one chosen to deliver Israel, and had received the assurance that God would go with him and subdue their enemies, yet he was timid and distrustful. He accepted the message from Deborah as the word of God, but he had little confidence in Israel, and feared that they would not obey his call. He refused to engage in such a doubtful undertaking unless Deborah would accompany him, and thus support his efforts by her influence and counsel....
RC	329	5	Barak now marshaled an army of ten thousand men, and marched to Mount Tabor, as the Lord had directed. Sisera immediately assembled an immense and well-equipped force, expecting to surround the Hebrews and make them an easy prey. The Israelites ... looked with terror upon the vast armies spread out in the plain beneath them equipped with all the implements of warfare.... Large, scythelike knives were fastened to the axles, so that the chariots, being driven through ranks of the enemy, would cut them down like wheat before the sickle.
RC	329	6	The Israelites had established themselves in a strong position in the mountains to await a favorable opportunity for an attack. Encouraged by Deborah's assurance that the very day had come for signal victory, Barak led his army down into the open plain, and boldly made a charge upon the enemy. The God of battle fought for Israel and neither skill in warfare, nor superiority of numbers and equipment, could withstand them. The hosts of Sisera were panic-stricken.... God alone could have discomfited the enemy, and the victory could be ascribed to Him alone.--The Signs of the Times, June 16, 1881.
------------------------Gideon Leads Three Hundred Men to Victory, November 12
RC	330	1	And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? Judges 6:14.
RC	330	2	Gideon was the son of Joash, of the tribe of Manasseh. The division to which this family belonged held no leading position, but the household of Joash was distinguished for courage and integrity.... To Gideon came the divine call to deliver his people....
RC	330	3	Suddenly the "angel of the Lord" appeared and addressed him with the words, "Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of valor."
RC	330	4	"Oh my Lord," was his answer, "if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?" ...
RC	330	5	The Messenger of heaven replied, "Go in this thy might and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites; have not I sent thee?"
RC	330	6	The entire force under Gideon's command numbered only thirty-two thousand men; but with the vast host of the enemy spread out before him, the word of the Lord came to him: "The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against Me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead." ...
RC	330	7	Gideon obeyed the Lord's direction, and with a heavy heart he saw twenty-two thousand, or more than two thirds of his entire force, depart for their homes. Again the word of the Lord came to him: "The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee." ... A few hastily took a little water in the hand and sucked it up as they went on; but nearly all bowed upon their knees, and leisurely drank from the surface of the stream. Those who took the water in their hands were but three hundred out of ten thousand; yet these were selected; all the rest were permitted to return to their homes. By the simplest means character is often tested....
RC	330	8	The three hundred chosen men not only possessed courage and self-control, but they were men of faith.... God could direct them....
RC	330	9	In the dead of the night, at a signal from Gideon's war horn, the three companies sounded their trumpets; then, breaking their pitchers and displaying the blazing torches, they rushed upon the enemy with the terrible war cry, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" ... One hundred and twenty thousand of the invaders perished.... No words can describe the terror of the surrounding nations when they learned what simple means had prevailed against the power of a bold, warlike people.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 546-553.
------------------------Gideon Shows Courtesy to the Ephraimites, November 13
RC	331	1	God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that. Judges 8:3.
RC	331	2	Gideon returned from pursuing the enemies of the nation, to meet censure and accusation from his own countrymen. When at his call the men of Israel had rallied against the Midianites, the tribe of Ephraim had remained behind. They looked upon the effort as a perilous undertaking; and as Gideon sent them no special summons, they availed themselves of this excuse not to join their brethren. But when the news of Israel's triumph reached them, the Ephraimites were envious because they had not shared it.
RC	331	3	After the rout of the Midianites, the men of Ephraim had, by Gideon's direction, seized the fords of the Jordan, thus preventing the escape of the fugitives. By this means a large number of the enemy were slain, among whom were two princes, Oreb and Zeeb. Thus the men of Ephraim followed up the battle, and helped complete the victory. Nevertheless, they were jealous and angry, as though Gideon had been led by his own will and judgment. They did not discern God's hand in the triumph of Israel, they did not appreciate His power and mercy in their deliverance....
RC	331	4	Returning with the trophies of victory, they angrily reproached Gideon: "Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites?"
RC	331	5	"What have I done now, in comparison of you?" said Gideon. "Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison of you?"
RC	331	6	The spirit of jealousy might easily have been fanned into a quarrel that would have caused strife and bloodshed; but Gideon's modest answer soothed the anger of the men of Ephraim, and they returned in peace to their homes. Firm and uncompromising where principle was concerned, and in war a "mighty man of valour," Gideon displayed also a spirit of courtesy that is rarely witnessed.
RC	331	7	The people of Israel, in their gratitude at deliverance from the Midianites, proposed to Gideon that he should become their king, and that the throne should be confirmed to his descendants. This proposition was in direct violation of the principles of the theocracy. God was the king of Israel, and for them to place a man upon the throne would be a rejection of their Divine Sovereign. Gideon recognized this fact; his answer shows how true and noble were his motives. "I will not rule over you," he declared; "neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 554, 555.
------------------------Abigail Reveals Unselfishness and Wisdom, November 14
RC	332	1	When Abigail saw David, she hasted, and ... fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be. 1 Samuel 25:23, 24.
RC	332	2	David and his men ... protected from the ... marauders the flocks and herds of a very wealthy man named Nabal, who had vast possessions in Carmel. Nabal was a descendant of Caleb, but his character was churlish and niggardly.
RC	332	3	David and his men were in sore need of provisions while at this place, and when the son of Jesse heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep he sent out ten young men, "and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name." ...
RC	332	4	David and his men had been like a wall of protection to the shepherds and flocks of Nabal as they pastured in the mountains. And he courteously petitioned that supplies be given them in their great need from the abundance of this rich man.... "And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? ... Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?"
RC	332	5	When the young men returned empty-handed, disappointed, and disgusted, and related the affair to David, he was filled with indignation.... David commanded his men to gird on their swords, and equip themselves for an encounter....
RC	332	6	One of the servants of Nabal hastened to Abigail, the wife of Nabal, ... and told her what had happened....
RC	332	7	Without consulting her husband, or telling him of her intention, Abigail made up an ample supply of provisions, and started out to meet the army of David. She met them in a covert of a hill. "And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and ... fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience." Abigail addressed David with as much reverence as though speaking to a crowned monarch.... With kind words she sought to soothe his irritated feelings.... With utter unselfishness of spirit, she desired him to impute the whole blame of the matter to her, and not to charge it to her poor, deluded husband....
RC	332	8	What a spirit is this! With nothing of ostentation or pride, but full of the wisdom and love of God, Abigail revealed the strength of her devotion to her household. Whatever was her husband's disposition, he was her husband still, and she made it plain to the indignant captain that the unkind course of her husband was in nowise premeditated against him as a personal affront.--The Signs of the Times, October 26, 1888.
------------------------Abigail's Influence Prevents Tragedy, November 15
RC	333	1	And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me: and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood. 1 Samuel 25:32, 33.
RC	333	2	The piety of Abigail, like the fragrance of a flower, breathed out all unconsciously in face and word and action. The Spirit of the Son of God was abiding in her soul. Her heart was full of purity, and gentleness, and sanctified love. Her speech, seasoned with grace, and full of kindness and peace, shed a heavenly influence. Better impulses came to David, and he trembled as he thought what might have been the consequences of his rash purpose. An entire household would have been slain, containing more than one precious, God-fearing person like Abigail, who had engaged in the blessed ministry of good. Her words healed the sore and bruised heart of David.
RC	333	3	Would that there were more women who would soothe the irritated feelings, prevent rash impulses, and quell great evils by words of calm and well-directed wisdom. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."
RC	333	4	A consecrated Christian life is ever shedding light and comfort and peace. It is purity, tact, simplicity, and usefulness. It is controlled by that unselfish love that sanctifies the influence. It is full of Christ, and leaves a track of light wherever its possessor may go. Abigail was a wise reprover and counselor. David's passion died away under the power of her influence and reasoning. He was convinced that he had taken an unwise course, and had lost control of his own spirit. He received the rebuke with humility of heart.... He gave thanks and blessing because she advised him righteously.
RC	333	5	There are many who, when they are reproved or advised, think it praiseworthy if they receive the rebuke without becoming impatient. But how few take reproof with gratitude of heart, and bless those who seek to save them from pursuing an evil course.
RC	333	6	Abigail rejoiced that her mission had been successful, and that she had been instrumental in saving her household from death. David rejoiced that through her timely advice he had been prevented from committing deeds of violence and revenge. Upon reflection, he realized that it would have been a matter of disgrace to him before Israel, and a remembrance that would always have caused him the keenest remorse. He felt that he and his men had the greatest cause for gratitude....
RC	333	7	When David heard the tidings of the death of Nabal, he gave thanks that God had taken vengeance into His own hands.--The Signs of the Times, October 26, 1888.
------------------------David Learns Through Hardship, November 16
RC	334	1	And David reigned over all Israel; and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people. 2 Samuel 8:15.
RC	334	2	A few miles south of Jerusalem, "the city of the great King," is Bethlehem, where David, the son of Jesse, was born more than a thousand years before the infant Jesus was cradled in the manger and worshiped by the Wise Men from the East. Centuries before the advent of the Saviour, David, in the freshness of boyhood, kept watch of his flocks as they grazed on the hills surrounding Bethlehem. The simple shepherd boy sang the songs of his own composing, and the music of his harp made a sweet accompaniment to the melody of his fresh young voice. The Lord had chosen David, and was preparing him, in his solitary life with his flocks, for the work He designed to commit to his trust in afteryears.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 637.
RC	334	3	David in his youth was intimately associated with Saul, and his stay at court and his connection with the king's household gave him an insight into the cares and sorrows and perplexities concealed by the glitter and pomp of royalty. He saw of how little worth is human glory to bring peace to the soul. And it was with relief and gladness that he returned from the king's court to the sheepfolds and the flocks.
RC	334	4	When by the jealousy of Saul driven a fugitive into the wilderness, David, cut off from human support, leaned more heavily upon God. The uncertainty and unrest of the wilderness life, its unceasing peril, its necessity for frequent flight, the character of the men who gathered to him there--"every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented" (1 Samuel 22:2)--all rendered the more essential a stern self-discipline.
RC	334	5	These experiences aroused and developed power to deal with men, sympathy for the oppressed, and hatred of injustice. Through years of waiting and peril, David learned to find in God his comfort, his support, his life. He learned that only by God's power could he come to the throne; only in His wisdom could he rule wisely. It was through the training in the school of hardship and sorrow that David was able to make the record--though afterward marred with his great sin--that he "executed judgment and justice unto all his people."--Education, 152.
RC	334	6	The love that moved him, the sorrows that beset him, the triumphs that attended him, were all themes for his active thought; and as he beheld the love of God in all the providences of his life, his heart throbbed with more fervent adoration and gratitude, his voice rang out in a richer melody, his harp was swept with more exultant joy; and the shepherd boy proceeded from strength to strength, from knowledge to knowledge; for the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 642.
------------------------Solomon Learns from Suffering, November 17
RC	335	1	O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.... Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad. 1 Kings 3:7-9.
RC	335	2	The discipline of David's early experience was lacking in that of Solomon. In circumstances, in character, and in life, he seemed favored above all others. Noble in youth, noble in manhood, the beloved of his God, Solomon entered on a reign that gave high promise of prosperity and honor. Nations marveled at the knowledge and insight of the man to whom God had given wisdom. But the pride of prosperity brought separation from God. From the joy of divine communion Solomon turned to find satisfaction in the pleasures of sense. Of this experience he says:
RC	335	3	"I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards ...: I got me servants and maidens ...: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasures of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem.... And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour."...
RC	335	4	"Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done" (Ecclesiastes 2:4-12).
RC	335	5	"I hated life.... Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun" (verses 17, 18).
RC	335	6	By his own bitter experience, Solomon learned the emptiness of a life that seeks in earthly things its highest good....
RC	335	7	In his later years, turning wearied and thirsting from earth's broken cisterns, Solomon returned to drink at the fountain of life. The history of his wasted years, with their lessons of warning, he by the Spirit of inspiration recorded for after generations. And thus, although the seed of his sowing was repeated by his people in harvests of evil, the lifework of Solomon was not wholly lost. For him at last the discipline of suffering accomplished its work.
RC	335	8	But with such a dawning, how glorious might have been his life's day, had Solomon in his youth learned the lesson that suffering had taught in other lives!--Education, 152-154.
------------------------Elisha Demonstrates Steadfastness, November 18
RC	336	1	And Elijah said unto him [Elisha], Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. 2 Kings 2:6.
RC	336	2	The early years of the prophet Elisha were passed in the quietude of country life, under the teaching of God and nature and the discipline of useful work. In a time of almost universal apostasy his father's household were among the number who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Theirs was a home where God was honored and where faithfulness to duty was the rule of daily life.
RC	336	3	The son of a wealthy farmer, Elisha had taken up the work that lay nearest. While possessing the capabilities of a leader among men, he received a training in life's common duties. In order to direct wisely, he must learn to obey. By faithfulness in little things, he was prepared for weightier trusts. Of a meek and gentle spirit, Elisha possessed also energy and steadfastness. He cherished the love and fear of God, and in the humble round of daily toil he gained strength of purpose and nobleness of character, growing in divine grace and knowledge. While cooperating with his father in the home duties, he was learning to cooperate with God.
RC	336	4	The prophetic call came to Elisha while with his father's servants he was plowing in the field. As Elijah, divinely directed in seeking a successor, cast his mantle upon the young man's shoulders, Elisha recognized and obeyed the summons. He "went after Elijah, and ministered unto him" (1 Kings 19:21). It was no great work that was at first required of Elisha; commonplace duties still constituted his discipline. He is spoken of as pouring water on the hands of Elijah, his master. As the prophet's personal attendant, he continued to prove faithful in little things, while with daily strengthening purpose he devoted himself to the mission appointed him by God....
RC	336	5	As he turned to follow Elijah he was bidden by the prophet to return home. He must count the cost--decide for himself to accept or reject the call. But Elisha understood the value of his opportunity. Not for any worldly advantage would he forgo the possibility of becoming God's messenger, or sacrifice the privilege of association with His servant.
RC	336	6	As time passed, and Elijah prepared for translation, so Elisha was prepared to become his successor. And again his faith and resolution were tested. Accompanying Elijah in his round of service, ... he was at each place invited by the prophet to turn back.... As often as the invitation to turn back was given, his answer was, "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee" (2 Kings 2:2).... For this work Elisha's early training under God's direction had prepared him.--Education, 58-61.
------------------------Captive Maid Shows Concern for Naaman, November 19
RC	337	1	The Syrians ... had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. 2 Kings 5:2, 3.
RC	337	2	"Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was ... a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper."
RC	337	3	Ben-hadad, king of Syria, had defeated the armies of Israel.... Since that time the Syrians had maintained against Israel a constant border warfare, and in one of their raids they had carried away a little maid who, in the land of her captivity, "waited on Naaman's wife." A slave, far from her home, this little maid was nevertheless one of God's witnesses, unconsciously fulfilling the purpose for which God had chosen Israel as His people.
RC	337	4	As she ministered in that heathen home, her sympathies were aroused in behalf of her master; and, remembering the wonderful miracles of healing wrought through Elisha, she said to her mistress, "Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy." She knew that the power of Heaven was with Elisha, and she believed that by this power Naaman could be healed.
RC	337	5	The conduct of the captive maid, the way that she bore herself in that heathen home, is a strong witness to the power of early home training. There is no higher trust than that committed to fathers and mothers in the care and training of their children. Parents have to do with the very foundations of habit and character. By their example and teaching the future of their children is largely decided.
RC	337	6	Happy are the parents whose lives are a true reflection of the divine, so that the promises and commands of God awaken in the child gratitude and reverence; the parents whose tenderness and justice and long-suffering interpret to the child the love and justice and long-suffering of God, and who by teaching the child to love and trust and obey them, are teaching him to love and trust and obey his Father in heaven. Parents who impart to the child such a gift have endowed him with a treasure more precious than the wealth of all the ages, a treasure as enduring as eternity....
RC	337	7	The parents of that Hebrew maid, as they taught her of God, did not know the destiny that would be hers. But they were faithful to their trust; and in the home of the captain of the Syrian host, their child bore witness to the God whom she had learned to honor.
RC	337	8	Naaman heard of the words that the maid had spoken to her mistress; and, obtaining permission from the king, he went forth to seek healing.--Prophets and Kings, 244-246.
------------------------Isaiah Responds to God's Call, November 20
RC	338	1	I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. Isaiah 6:8.
RC	338	2	In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah was permitted in vision to look into the holy place, and into the holy of holies in the heavenly sanctuary. The curtains of the innermost sanctuary were drawn aside, and a throne high and lifted up, towering as it were to the very heavens, was revealed to his gaze. An indescribable glory emanated from a personage on the throne, and His train filled the temple, as His glory will finally fill the earth. Cherubim were on either side of the mercy seat, ... and they glowed with the glory that enshrouded them from the presence of God.... These holy beings sang forth the praise and glory of God with lips unpolluted with sin.
RC	338	3	The contrast between the feeble praise which he had been accustomed to bestow upon the Creator and the fervid praises of seraphim astonished and humiliated the prophet. He had, for the time being, the sublime privilege of appreciating the spotless purity of Jehovah's exalted character.... In the light of this matchless radiance, that made manifest all he could bear in the revelation of the divine character, his own inward defilement stood out before him with startling clearness. His very words seemed vile to him.
RC	338	4	Thus when the servant of God is permitted to behold the glory of the God of heaven, as He is unveiled to humanity, and realizes to a slight degree the purity of the Holy One of Israel, he will make startling confessions of the pollution of his soul, rather than proud boasts of his holiness. In deep humiliation Isaiah exclaimed, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips." ...
RC	338	5	This is not that voluntary humility and servile self-reproach that so many seem to consider it a virtue to display. This vague mockery of humility is prompted by hearts full of pride and self-esteem. There are many who demerit themselves in words, who would be disappointed if this course did not call forth expressions of praise and appreciation from others. But the conviction of the prophet was genuine.... How could he go and speak to the people the holy requirements of Jehovah? ...
RC	338	6	While Isaiah was trembling and conscience-smitten, because of his impurity in the presence of this unsurpassed glory, he says, "Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me."--The Review and Herald, October 16, 1888.
------------------------John Calls for Repentance, November 21
RC	339	1	Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 3:2.
RC	339	2	John the Baptist in his desert life was taught of God. He studied the revelations of God in nature. Under the guiding of the Divine Spirit, he studied the scrolls of the prophets. By day and by night, Christ was his study, his meditation, until mind and heart and soul were filled with the glorious vision.
RC	339	3	He looked upon the King in His beauty, and self was lost sight of. He beheld the majesty of holiness and knew himself to be inefficient and unworthy. It was God's message that he was to declare. It was in God's power and His righteousness that he was to stand. He was ready to go forth as Heaven's messenger, unawed by the human, because he had looked upon the Divine. He could stand fearless in the presence of earthly monarchs because he had bowed before the King of kings.
RC	339	4	With no elaborate arguments or finespun theories did John declare his message. Startling and stern, yet full of hope, his voice was heard from the wilderness: "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." With a new, strange power it moved the people. The whole nation was stirred. Multitudes flocked to the wilderness.
RC	339	5	Unlearned peasants and fishermen from the surrounding country; the Roman soldiers from the barracks of Herod; chieftains with their swords at their sides, ready to put down anything that might savor of rebellion; the avaricious tax gatherers from their toll booths; and from the Sanhedrin the phylacteried priests--all listened as if spellbound; and all, even the Pharisee, and the Sadducee, the cold, unimpressible scoffer, went away with the sneer silenced and cut to the heart with a sense of their sins. Herod in his palace heard the message, and the proud, sin-hardened ruler trembled at the call to repentance.
RC	339	6	In this age, just prior to the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, such a work as that of John is to be done. God calls for men who will prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord.... As a people ... we have a message to bear--"Prepare to meet thy God" (Amos 4:12). Our message must be as direct as was the message of John. He rebuked kings for their iniquity. Notwithstanding that his life was imperiled, he did not hesitate to declare God's Word. And our work in this age must be done as faithfully.
RC	339	7	In order to give such a message as John gave, we must have a spiritual experience like his. The same work must be wrought in us. We must behold God, and in beholding Him lose sight of self. John had by nature the faults and weaknesses common to humanity; but the touch of divine love had transformed him.--Testimonies for the Church 8:331-333.
------------------------Jesus Showed Us How to Live, November 22
RC	340	1	I received mercy for this reason, that in me, ... Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience for an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 1 Timothy 1:16, R.S.V.
RC	340	2	He [Jesus] was a teacher, such an educator as the world never saw or heard before. He spake as one having authority, and yet He invites the confidence of all. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
RC	340	3	The only-begotten Son of the infinite God has, by His words, His practical example, left us a plain pattern which we are to copy. By His words He has educated us to obey God, and by His own practice He has showed us how we can obey God. This is the very work He wants every man to do, to obey God intelligently, by precept and example teach others what they must do in order to be obedient children of God.
RC	340	4	Jesus has helped the whole world to an intelligent knowledge of His divine mission and work. He came to represent the character of the Father to our world, and as we study the life, the words, and works of Jesus Christ, we are helped in every way in the education of obedience to God; and as we copy the example He has given us, we are living epistles known and read of all men. We are the living human agencies to represent in character Jesus Christ to the world.
RC	340	5	Not only did Christ give explicit rules showing how we may become obedient children, but He showed us in His own life and character just how to do those things which are right and acceptable with God, so there is no excuse why we should not do those things which are pleasing in His sight....
RC	340	6	The great Teacher came to our world to stand at the head of humanity, to thus elevate and sanctify humanity by His holy obedience to all of God's requirements, showing it is possible to obey all the commandments of God. He has demonstrated that a lifelong obedience is possible. Thus He gives chosen, representative men to the world, as the Father gave the Son, to exemplify in their life the life of Jesus Christ.--Manuscript 1, 1892.
RC	340	7	In Him was found the perfect ideal. To reveal this ideal as the only true standard for attainment; to show what every human being might become; what, through the indwelling of humanity by divinity, all who received Him would become--for this, Christ came to the world. He came to show how men are to be trained as befits the sons of God; how on earth they are to practice the principles and to live the life of heaven.--Education, 73, 74.
------------------------The Enormous Harvest of a Single Act, November 23
RC	341	1	And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites.... And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, ... they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. Mark 12:42-44.
RC	341	2	By the laws of God in nature, effect follows cause with unvarying certainty. The reaping testifies to the sowing. Here no pretense is tolerated. Men may deceive their fellow men, and may receive praise and compensation for service which they have not rendered. But in nature there can be no deception. On the unfaithful husbandman the harvest passes sentence of condemnation.
RC	341	3	And in the highest sense this is true also in the spiritual realm. It is in appearance, not in reality, that evil succeeds. The child who plays truant from school, the youth who is slothful in his studies, the clerk or apprentice who fails of serving the interests of his employer, the man in any business or profession who is untrue to his highest responsibilities, may flatter himself that, so long as the wrong is concealed, he is gaining an advantage. But not so; he is cheating himself. The harvest of life is character, and it is this that determines destiny, both for this life and for the life to come.
RC	341	4	The harvest is a reproduction of the seed sown. Every seed yields fruits after its kind. So it is with the traits of character we cherish. Selfishness, self-love, self-esteem, self-indulgence, reproduce themselves, and the end is wretchedness and ruin.... Love, sympathy, and kindness yield fruitage of blessing, a harvest that is imperishable.
RC	341	5	In the harvest the seed is multiplied. A single grain of wheat, increased by repeated sowings, would cover a whole land with golden sheaves. So widespread may be the influence of a single life, of even a single act.
RC	341	6	What deeds of love the memory of that alabaster box broken for Christ's anointing has through the long centuries prompted! What countless gifts that contribution, by a poor unnamed widow, of "two mites, which makes a farthing" (Mark 12:42), has brought to the Saviour's cause! ...
RC	341	7	"He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." ... By casting it away the sower multiplies his seed. So by imparting we increase our blessings. God's promise assures a sufficiency, that we may continue to give.
RC	341	8	More than this: as we impart the blessings of this life, gratitude in the recipient prepares the heart to receive spiritual truth, and a harvest is produced unto life everlasting.--Education, 108-110.
------------------------Though Suffering, Paul and Silas Sing, November 24
RC	342	1	At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. Acts 16:25, 26.
RC	342	2	As the messengers of the cross went about their work of teaching, a woman possessed of a spirit of divination followed them, crying, "These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days." ...
RC	342	3	Under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost Paul commanded the evil spirit to leave the woman.... Restored to her right mind, the woman chose to become a follower of Christ. Then her masters were alarmed for their craft. They saw that all hope of receiving money from her divinations and soothsayings was at an end and that their source of income would soon be entirely cut off....
RC	342	4	Stirred by a frenzy of excitement, the multitude rose against the disciples. A mob spirit prevailed and was sanctioned by the authorities, who tore the outer garments from the apostles and commanded that they should be scourged. "And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely." ...
RC	342	5	With astonishment the other prisoners heard the sound of prayer and singing issuing from the inner prison. They had been accustomed to hear shrieks and moans, cursing and swearing, breaking the silence of the night....
RC	342	6	But while men were cruel and vindictive, or criminally negligent of the solemn responsibilities devolving upon them, God had not forgotten to be gracious to His servants. All heaven was interested in the men who were suffering for Christ's sake, and angels were sent to visit the prison. At their tread the earth trembled. The heavily bolted prison doors were thrown open; the chains and fetters fell from the hands and feet of the prisoners; and a bright light flooded the prison.... The jailer had fallen into a sleep from which he was awakened by the earthquake and the shaking of the prison walls.
RC	342	7	Starting up in alarm, he saw with dismay that all the prison doors were open, and the fear flashed upon him that the prisoners had escaped.... Drawing his sword, he was about to kill himself, when Paul's voice was heard in the words of cheer, "Do thyself no harm: for we are all here." Every man was in his place, restrained by the power of God exerted through one fellow prisoner....
RC	342	8	The jailer dropped his sword.... Then, bringing them out into the open court, he inquired, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"--The Acts of the Apostles, 212-216.
------------------------Lydia's Hospitality, November 25
RC	343	1	A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, ... heard us.... And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us. Acts 16:14, 15.
RC	343	2	"On the Sabbath," Luke [declared], "we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened." Lydia received the truth gladly. She and her household were converted and baptized, and she entreated the apostles to make her house their home.--The Acts of the Apostles, 212.
RC	343	3	God's Spirit can only enlighten the understanding of those who are willing to be enlightened. We read that God opened the ears of Lydia, so that she attended to the message spoken by Paul. To declare the whole counsel of God and all that was essential for Lydia to receive--this was the part Paul was to act in her conversion; and then the God of all grace exercised His power, leading the soul in the right way. God and the human agent cooperated, and the work was wholly successful.--The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 6:1062.
RC	343	4	[The authorities] visited the prison, apologized to the apostles for their injustice and cruelty, and themselves conducted them out of the prison, and entreated them to depart out of the city.... The apostles would not urge their presence where it was not desired. They complied with the request of the magistrates, but did not hasten their departure.... They went rejoicing from the prison to the house of Lydia, where they met the new converts to the faith of Christ, and related all the wonderful dealings of God with them. They related their night's experience, and the conversion of the keeper of the prison, and of the prisoners.
RC	343	5	The apostles viewed their labors in Philippi as not in vain. They there met much opposition and persecution; but the intervention of Providence in their behalf, the conversion of the jailer and all his house, more than atoned for the disgrace and suffering they had endured. The Philippians saw represented in the deportment and presence of mind of the apostles the spirit of the religion of Jesus Christ....
RC	343	6	The news of their unjust imprisonment and miraculous deliverance was noised about through all that region, and brought the apostles and their ministry before the notice of a large number who would not otherwise have been reached. Christianity was placed upon a high plane, and the converts to the faith were greatly strengthened.--The Spirit of Prophecy 3:385, 386.
------------------------Paul Warns Against "Tradition" and "Philosophy", November 26
RC	344	1	Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Colossians 2:8.
RC	344	2	Surrounded by the practices and influences of heathenism, the Colossian believers were in danger of being drawn away from the simplicity of the gospel, and Paul, in warning them against this, pointed them to Christ as the only safe guide.... "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." ...
RC	344	3	Christ had foretold that deceivers would arise, through whose influence "iniquity" should "abound," and "the love of many" should "wax cold" (Matthew 24:12). He had warned the disciples that the church would be in more danger from this evil than from the persecution of her enemies. Again and again Paul warned the believers against these false teachers. This peril, above all others, they must guard against; for by receiving false teachers, they would open the door to errors by which the enemy would dim the spiritual perceptions and shake the confidence of those newly come to the faith of the gospel.
RC	344	4	Christ was the standard by which they were to test the doctrines presented. All that was not in harmony with His teachings they were to reject. Christ crucified for sin, Christ risen from the dead, Christ ascended on high--this was the science of salvation that they were to learn and teach.
RC	344	5	The warnings of the Word of God regarding the perils surrounding the Christian church belong to us today. As in the days of the apostles men tried by tradition and philosophy to destroy faith in the Scriptures, so today, by the pleasing sentiments of higher criticism, evolution, spiritualism, theosophy, and pantheism, the enemy of righteousness is seeking to lead souls into forbidden paths. To many the Bible is as a lamp without oil, because they have turned their minds into channels of speculative belief that bring misunderstanding and confusion.
RC	344	6	The work of higher criticism, in dissecting, conjecturing, reconstructing, is destroying faith in the Bible as a divine revelation. It is robbing God's Word of power to control, uplift, and inspire human lives. By spiritualism, multitudes are taught to believe that desire is the highest law, that license is liberty, and that man is accountable only to himself.... The power of a higher, purer, nobler life is our great need.--The Acts of the Apostles, 473-478.
------------------------The Essential Qualification for Service, November 27
RC	345	1	Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He said unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. John 21:15.
RC	345	2	Little mention is made in the book of Acts of the later work of the apostle Peter.... As the number of believers multiplied in Jerusalem and in other places visited by the messengers of the cross, the talents possessed by Peter proved of untold value to the early Christian church. The influence of his testimony concerning Jesus of Nazareth extended far and wide. Upon him had been laid a double responsibility. He bore positive witness concerning the Messiah before unbelievers, laboring earnestly for their conversion; and at the same time he did a special work for believers, strengthening them in the faith of Christ.
RC	345	3	It was after Peter had been led to self-renunciation and entire reliance upon divine power, that he received his call to act as an undershepherd. Christ had said to Peter, before his denial of Him, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:32). These words were significant of the wide and effectual work which this apostle was to do in the future for those who should come to the faith.
RC	345	4	For this work, Peter's own experience of sin and suffering and repentance had prepared him. Not until he had learned his weakness, could he know the believer's need of dependence on Christ. Amid the storm of temptation he had come to understand that man can walk safely only as in utter self-distrust he relies upon the Saviour....
RC	345	5	Christ mentioned to Peter only one condition of service--"Lovest thou me?" This is the essential qualification.... The love of Christ is not a fitful feeling, but a living principle, which is to be made manifest as an abiding power in the heart....
RC	345	6	The Saviour's manner of dealing with Peter had a lesson for him and his brethren. Although Peter had denied his Lord, the love which Jesus bore him had never faltered. And as the apostle should take up the work of ministering the Word to others, he was to meet the transgressor with patience, sympathy, and forgiving love. Remembering his own weakness and failure, he was to deal with the sheep and lambs committed to his care as tenderly as Christ had dealt with him....
RC	345	7	Ever he exalted Jesus of Nazareth as the Hope of Israel, the Saviour of mankind. He brought his own life under the discipline of the Master Worker. By every means within his power he sought to educate the believers for active service.--The Acts of the Apostles, 514-516.
------------------------Those Who Return to the Old Paths, November 28
RC	346	1	And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35:10.
RC	346	2	The world is full of men and women who manifest no sense of obligation to God for their entrusted gifts. They do not realize that God has entrusted them with talents, not for self-glorification, but for His own name's glory. They are eager for distinction....
RC	346	3	There are men whom God has qualified with more than ordinary ability. They are deep thinkers, energetic, and thorough. But many of them are bent upon the attainment of their own selfish ends, without regard to the honor and glory of God. Some of these have seen the light of truth, but because they honored themselves, and did not make God first and last and best in everything, they have wandered away from Bible truth into skepticism and infidelity. When these are arrested by the chastisements of God, and through affliction are led to inquire for the old paths, the mist of skepticism is swept from their minds. Some of them repent, return to the old love, and set their feet in the way cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. No longer are they actuated by the love of money or by selfish ambition. The Spirit of God working upon the heart is valued by them more highly than gold or the praise of men. When this amazing change is wrought, the thoughts are directed by the Spirit of God into new channels, the character is transformed, and the aspirations of the soul reach out toward heavenly things.
RC	346	4	True religion has power today. It enables men to overcome the stubborn influence of pride, selfishness, and unbelief, and in the simplicity of true godliness to reveal a living connection with heaven. The grace which Christ imparts makes it possible for men to rise superior to all the infatuating temptations of Satan. It will lead them to the cross of Jesus as active, devoted, loyal workers for the advancement of the truth of heaven.
RC	346	5	Fidelity to God has marked the heroes of faith from age to age. As they have been brought conspicuously before the world their light has shone forth. Their obedience to the command of Christ, "Go forward," has led others to glorify God.
RC	346	6	There are today moral heroes, men and women who are living noble lives of self-denial. They have no ambition for worldly fame. Their will is subordinate to the will of God. The love of God inspires their ministry. To do good and to save souls is their highest aim.
RC	346	7	These have gained genuine knowledge, even the knowledge set forth by Christ in the words, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3).--Manuscript 51, 1900.
------------------------Revealing the Triumphs of Grace, November 29
RC	347	1	Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Isaiah 43:12.
RC	347	2	The faithful ambassador of Christ is not ashamed of the banner of truth. He does not cease from proclaiming the truth, however unpopular it may be. In all places, in season, out of season, he heralds the glad tidings of salvation. Missionaries for God are called to face dangers, endure privations, and suffer reproach for the truth's sake, yet amid dangers, hardships, and reproach they are still to hold the banner aloft.
RC	347	3	The third angel proclaims his message in no whispered tones, in no hesitant manner. He cries with a loud voice, while flying swiftly through the midst of heaven. This shows that the work of God's servants is to be earnest and rapidly performed. They must be brave witnesses for the truth. With no shame upon their countenances, with uplifted heads, with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining upon them, with rejoicing that their redemption draweth nigh, they go forth declaring the last message of mercy to the world.
RC	347	4	These last-day witnesses are bold soldiers of Jesus Christ. They have tasted of the powers of the world to come. Their feet are not on sliding sand, but on solid rock. They are not easily moved away from the faith once delivered to the saints. These will be strengthened by their leader to cope with difficulties. They are messengers of righteousness, representatives of Christ, revealing the triumphs of grace.
RC	347	5	From these chosen men of God the truth will shine forth. It will be heard from their lips, reflected in their countenances, and demonstrated in their lives. They will be marked by purity and uncorruptness. The grace of Christ has a refining, ennobling influence on the character. Many men and women of ability, refinement, and education will throw their all on the Lord's side. Many will part with friends and will sacrifice every worldly interest in order to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ. Their lives give evidence to the world of the power of Christianity. They witness that the gospel is what it purports to be, the power of God unto salvation. Bright beams of gospel truth are flashed from them upon the path of those who are in darkness. Their unswerving fidelity is registered in the books of heaven.--Manuscript 51, 1900.
RC	347	6	Those who walk even as Christ walked, who are patient, gentle, kind, meek, and lowly in heart, those who yoke up with Christ and lift His burdens, who yearn for souls as He yearned for them--these will enter into the joy of their Lord. They will see with Christ the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. Heaven will triumph, for the vacancies made in heaven by the fall of Satan and his angels will be filled by the redeemed of the Lord.--The Review and Herald, May 29, 1900.
------------------------God's People to Reveal Principles, November 30
RC	348	1	As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. John 17:18.
RC	348	2	It is God's purpose to manifest through His people the principles of His kingdom. That in life and character they may reveal these principles, He desires to separate them from the customs, habits, and practices of the world. He seeks to bring them nearer to Himself, that He may make known to them His will.
RC	348	3	His purpose for His people today is the same that He had for Israel when He brought them forth from Egypt. By beholding the goodness, the mercy, the justice, and the love of God revealed in His church, the world is to have a representation of His character. And when the law of God is thus exemplified in the life, even the world will recognize the superiority of those who love and fear and serve God above every other people in the world.
RC	348	4	Seventh-day Adventists, above all people, should be patterns of piety, holy in heart and in conversation. To them have been entrusted the most solemn truths ever committed to mortals. Every endowment of grace and power and efficiency has been liberally provided. They look for the near return of Christ in the clouds of heaven. For them to give to the world the impression that their faith is not a dominating power in their lives, is greatly to dishonor God.
RC	348	5	Because of the increasing power of Satan's temptations, the times in which we live are full of peril for the children of God, and we need to learn constantly of the Great Teacher, that we may take every step in surety and righteousness. Wonderful scenes are opening before us; and at this time a living testimony is to be borne in the lives of God's professed people, so that the world may see that in this age, when evil reigns on every side, there is yet a people who are laying aside their will and are seeking to do God's will--a people in whose hearts and lives God's law is written.
RC	348	6	God expects those who bear the name of Christ to represent Him. Their thoughts are to be pure, their words noble and uplifting. The religion of Christ is to be interwoven with all that they do and say. They are to be a sanctified, purified, holy people, communicating light to all with whom they come in contact. It is His purpose that by exemplifying the truth in their lives, they shall be a praise in the earth.
RC	348	7	The grace of Christ is sufficient to bring this about. But let God's people remember that only as they believe and work out the principles of the gospel can they fulfill His purpose. Only as they yield their God-given capabilities to His service will they enjoy the fullness and the power of the promise whereon the church has been called to stand.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 321-322.
------------------------God Leads Us to Perfect Trust, December 1
RC	349	1	He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Malachi 3:3.
RC	349	2	The refining process is hard for human nature to endure; but only by it can the dross be purged from the character. In the furnace of trial we are purified from the dross that prevents us from reflecting the image of Christ. God measures every trial; He watches the furnace fire that must test every soul.
RC	349	3	Through trial God leads His children to perfect trust. "In the world ye shall have tribulation," Christ says; "but in Me ye shall have peace." It is through much tribulation, that we are to enter the kingdom of God....
RC	349	4	No cross, no crown. How can we be strong in the Lord without trial? To have physical strength, we must have exercise. To have strong faith, we must be placed in circumstances where our faith will be tried. Every temptation resisted, every trial bravely borne, gives us a new experience, and advances us in the work of character building. Our Saviour was tried in every way, yet He triumphed in God constantly. It is our privilege under all circumstances to be strong in the strength of God, and to glory in the cross of Christ.
RC	349	5	Through affliction God reveals to us the plague spots in our characters, that by His grace we may overcome our faults. Unknown chapters in regard to ourselves are opened to us, and the test comes, whether we will accept the reproof and the counsel of God. When brought into trial, we are not to fret and worry. We should not rebel, or worry ourselves out of the hand of Christ. We are to humble the soul before God.
RC	349	6	The ways of the Lord are obscure to him who desires to see things in a light pleasing to himself. They appear dark and joyless to our human nature. But God's ways are ways of mercy and the end is salvation.
RC	349	7	Elijah knew not what he was doing when in the desert he said that he had had enough of life, and prayed that he might die. The Lord in His mercy did not take him at His word. There was yet a great work for Elijah to do; and when his work was done, he was not to perish in discouragement and solitude in the wilderness. Not for him the descent into the dust of earth, but the ascent in glory, with the convoy of celestial chariots to the throne on high....
RC	349	8	"Happy is the man whom God correcteth.... He maketh sore, and bindeth up; he woundeth, and his hands make whole." ... To every stricken one, Jesus comes with the ministry of healing. The life of bereavement, pain, and suffering may be brightened by precious revealings of His presence.--The Signs of the Times, February 5, 1902.
------------------------We Rejoice in Tribulation, December 2
RC	350	1	For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
RC	350	2	Praise the Lord, that we have a compassionate, tender High Priest that can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. We do not expect rest here. No, no. The way to heaven is a cross-bearing way; the road is straight and narrow, but we will go forward with cheerfulness knowing that the King of glory once trod this way before us.
RC	350	3	We will not complain of the roughness of the way, but will be meek followers of Jesus, treading in His footsteps. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He for our sakes became poor that we through His poverty might be made rich. We will rejoice in tribulation and keep in mind the recompense of reward, the "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."
RC	350	4	We will not have a murmuring thought because we have trials. God's dear children always had them, and every trial well endured here, will only make us rich in glory. I crave the suffering part. I would not go to heaven without suffering if I could, and see Jesus who suffered so much for us to purchase for us so rich an inheritance; and to see the martyrs who laid down their lives for the truth, and the sake of Jesus. No, no. Let me [be] perfected through sufferings. I long to be a partaker with Christ of His sufferings, for if I am, I know I shall be a partaker with Him of His glory. Jesus is our pattern. Let us study to have our lives as near like Christ's as possible.
RC	350	5	My soul cries out after the living God. My very being longs after Him. Oh, for to reflect His lovely image perfectly! Oh, for to be wholly consecrated to Him! Oh, how hard it is for dear self to die. We can rejoice in a whole Saviour; one who saves us from all sin. We can be shut in with God where we can daily say, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" "to will and to do of his good pleasure." Glory be to God. I know that my life is hid with Christ in God.
RC	350	6	The curtain has been lifted. I have seen the rich reward laid up for the saints. I have had a taste of the joys of the world to come, and it has spoiled this world for me. My affections, my interests, hopes, my all is in heaven. I long to see the King in His beauty, Him whom my soul loveth. Heaven, sweet heaven. "I long to be there; and the thought that 'tis near, makes me almost impatient for Christ to appear." Praise the Lord for a good hope through Jesus Christ of immortality and eternal life.--Letter 9, 1851.
------------------------God has a Tender Care for His People, December 3
RC	351	1	The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. Psalm 34:15.
RC	351	2	You must not sink down discouraged. The fainthearted will be made strong; the desponding will be made to hope. God has a tender care for His people. His ear is open unto their cry. I have no fears for God's cause. He will take care of His own cause. Our duty is to fill our lot and place, live...humble at the foot of the cross, and live faithful, holy lives before Him. While we do this we shall not be ashamed, but our souls will confide in God with holy boldness.
RC	351	3	God has released us from burdens; He has set us free.... Our enemies may triumph. They may speak lying words, and their slandering tongue frame slander, deceit, guile; yet will we not be moved. We know in whom we believe. We have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Jesus knows us.... A reckoning day is coming and all will be judged according to the deeds that are done in the body....
RC	351	4	It is true the world is dark. Opposition may wax strong. The trifler and scorner may grow bolder and harder in their iniquity. Yet, for all this, we will not be moved. We have not run as uncertain. No, no. My heart is fixed, trusting in God. We have a whole Saviour. We can rejoice in His rich fullness. I long to be more devoted to God, more consecrated to Him. This world is too dark for me. Jesus said He would go away and prepare mansions for us, that where He is we may be also. Praise God for this. My heart leaps with joy at the cheering prospect.
RC	351	5	Religion is made to dwell too much in an iron case. Pure religion and undefiled leads us to a childlike simplicity. We want to pray and talk with humility, having a single eye to the glory of God. There has been too much of a form of godliness without the power. The outpouring of the Spirit of God will lead to a grateful acknowledgment of the same; and while we feel and realize the wondrous love of God, we shall not hold our peace, we shall sacrifice to God with the voice of thanksgiving and make melody to Him with our hearts and voices. Let us plant our feet upon the Rock of Ages and then we will have abiding support and consolation. Our soul will repose in God with unshaken confidence.
RC	351	6	Why do we so seldom visit the fountain when it is full and free? Our souls often need to drink at the fountain in order to be refreshed and flourish in the Lord. Salvation we must have. Without vital godliness our religion is vain. A form will be of no advantage to us. We must have the deep workings of the Spirit of God.--Letter 2a, 1856.
------------------------We Fight Life's Battles in Christ's Strength, December 4
RC	352	1	Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 6:13.
RC	352	2	Let everyone who names the name of Christ read this scripture again and again, and then inquire, Am I clothed with the whole armor of God, that I may be a successful colaborer with Christ? The more we know of ourselves, the more we probe our motives and desires, the more heartfelt will be our consciousness of our utter inability to fight the battle of the Lord in our Own strength....
RC	352	3	Stablish your hearts in the belief that God knows of all the trials and difficulties you will encounter in the warfare against evil; for God is dishonored when any soul belittles His power by talking unbelief.
RC	352	4	This world is God's great field of labor; He has purchased those that dwell on it with the blood of His only-begotten Son, and He means that His message of mercy shall go to everyone. Those who are commissioned to do this work will be tested and tried, but they are always to remember that God is near to strengthen and uphold them. He does not ask us to depend upon any broken reed. We are not to look for human aid. God forbid that we should place man where God should be.... The Lord Jehovah is "everlasting strength."
RC	352	5	A lesson of faith is given us in the experience of Christ with the disciples of John the Baptist. Imprisoned in the lonely dungeon, John had fallen into discouragement, and he sent his disciples to Jesus, asking, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" Christ knew on what errand these messengers had come, and by a mighty demonstration of His power He gave them unmistakable evidence of His divinity. Turning to the multitude, He spoke, and the deaf heard His voice. He spoke again, and the eyes of the blind were opened to behold the beauties of nature.... He put forth His hand, and at His touch the fever left the afflicted ones. At His command demoniacs were healed, and falling at His feet, worshipped Him. Then turning to the disciples of John, He said, "Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see."
RC	352	6	That same Jesus who wrought those mighty works, is our Saviour today, and is as willing to manifest His power on our behalf as He was in the behalf of John the Baptist. When we are hedged about by adverse circumstances, surrounded by difficulties which it seems impossible for us to surmount, we are not to murmur, but to remember the past loving kindnesses of the Lord. Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, we may endure as seeing Him who is invisible, and this will keep our minds from being clouded by the shadow of unbelief.--The Signs of the Times, September 17, 1896.
------------------------God Tests Our Loyalty to Him, December 5
RC	353	1	And all the congregation of the children of Israel ... pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Exodus 17:1.
RC	353	2	By the command of God, the children of Israel were brought to Rephidim, a place destitute of water. He who was enshrouded in the pillar of cloud was leading them, and it was by His express command that they were encamped at this place. God knew of the lack of water at Rephidim, and He brought His people hither to test their faith; but how poorly they proved themselves to be a people whom He could trust!
RC	353	3	Again and again He had manifested Himself to them. He had slain the firstborn of all the families in Egypt to accomplish their deliverance, and had brought them out of the land of their captivity with a high hand; He had fed them with angels' food, and had covenanted to bring them into the Promised Land. But now, when difficulty rose before them, they broke into rebellion, distrusted God, and complained that Moses had brought them and their children out of Egypt only that they might die of thirst in the wilderness....
RC	353	4	Many today think that when they begin their Christian life they will find freedom from all want and difficulty. But everyone who takes up his cross to follow Christ comes to a Rephidim in his experience. Life is not all made up of green pastures and cooling streams. Disappointment overtakes us, privations come, circumstances occur which bring us into difficult places. As we follow in the narrow way, doing our best, as we think, we find that grievous trials come to us.... Conscience stricken, we reason, if we had walked with God, we would never have suffered so....
RC	353	5	But of old the Lord led His people to Rephidim, and He may choose to bring us there also, in order to test our faithfulness and loyalty to Him. In mercy to us, He does not always place us in the easiest places; for if He did, in our self-sufficiency we would forget that the Lord is our helper in time of necessity. But He longs to manifest Himself to us in our emergencies, and reveal the abundant supplies that are at our disposal, independent of our surroundings; and disappointment and trial are permitted to come upon us that we may realize our own helplessness, and learn to call upon the Lord for aid, as a child, when hungry and thirsty, calls upon its earthly father.
RC	353	6	Our heavenly Father has the power of turning the flinty rock into life-giving and refreshing streams. We shall never know, until we are face to face with God, ... how many burdens He has borne for us, and how many burdens He would have been glad to bear if, with childlike faith, we had brought them to Him.--The Signs of the Times, September 10, 1896.
------------------------Instead of Murmuring, Let Us Exercise Faith, December 6
RC	354	1	Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. John 14:8.
RC	354	2	Shortly before Christ's ascension, Philip said to Him, "Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us." Grieved at his unbelief, Christ turned to him, saying, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?" Is it possible that I have walked with you, and talked with you, and fed you by miracles, and yet you have not comprehended that I was the Sent of God, "the way, the truth, and the life," that I came from heaven to represent the Father?
RC	354	3	"Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, for I am the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person." ...
RC	354	4	Too often we grieve the heart of Jesus by our unbelief. Our faith is shortsighted, and we allow trials to bring out our inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong. When brought into strait circumstances, we dishonor God by murmuring and complaining. Instead of this we should show that we have learned in the school of Christ, by helping those that are worse off than ourselves, those who are seeking for light, but are unable to find it. Such have a special claim upon our sympathy, but instead of trying to uplift them, we pass by on the other side, intent on our own interests or trials. If we do not show decided unbelief, we manifest a murmuring, complaining spirit.
RC	354	5	"O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" Christ has already proved Himself to be our ever-present Saviour. He knows all about our circumstances, and in the hour of trial can we not pray that God will give us His Holy Spirit to bring to our minds His many manifestations of power in our behalf? Can we not believe that He is as willing to help us as on former occasions? His past dealings with His servants are not to fade from our minds, but the remembrance of them is ever to strengthen and uphold us.
RC	354	6	No amount of tribulation can separate us from Christ. If He leads us to Rephidim, it is because He sees that it is for our good and for His name's glory. If we will look to Him in trusting faith, He will, in His own time, turn the bitterness of Marah into sweetness. He can open the flinty rock, and cause cooling streams to flow forth. Then shall we not lift our voices in praise and thanksgiving for past mercies, and go forward with full assurance that He is an ever-present help in time of trouble?--The Signs of the Times, September 17, 1896.
------------------------God's Grace Sweetens Every Affliction, December 7
RC	355	1	I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. John 15:1, 2.
RC	355	2	"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you." The very same sap and nourishment that nourishes the parent stock, nourishes the branch abiding in the vine. Christ is represented by the vine that imparts the nourishment, the vitality, the life, the spirit, the power, that the branch can bear fruit, and then when affliction and disappointment come, you are to show altogether a different character of fruit than the world. There is the evidence that you are connected with Jesus Christ, and that there is a power that sustains you in all your afflictions and disappointments and trials; and this power and this grace sweetens every affliction. [When] the cup of suffering may be placed to your lips, there is a Comforter and Helper. The cup of consolation is placed in the hand, and it may be the happiest period of your life.
RC	355	3	"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me."... Here are the most precious jewels of truth for every individual soul of us. Here is the only election in the Bible, and you can prove yourself elected of Christ by being faithful; you can prove yourself the chosen of Christ by abiding in the vine....
RC	355	4	Christ tells us plainly that the whole power, the whole fruit-bearing quality, is in the parent vine stock. Then let them be abiding in Christ, and drawing the nourishment from Christ, and what shall we see? We shall see something, the world will see something. There is a clear line of distinction between the believing and the unbelieving, between those that obey God, and those that disobey Him; there is a decided and marked difference in the fruit they bear.... The fruit is the character....
RC	355	5	Every ability that you have, every power that you have, your reasoning powers every talent that you have, every capability that you have, is to be brought right into the religious life, and the kindness, the compassion, the pitifulness, the love of God, is the fruit borne upon the branch that is grafted into the living Vine. And then as the rich clusters ... bow down that branch, showing that those that bear the most fruit, the richest clusters, have the true humility of lowliness, like Christ. He says, Learn of Me. Come unto Me. Now let us everyone hear it. It is the invitation not from the speaker, but it is the invitation from Jesus Christ Himself.--Manuscript 43, 1894.
------------------------Whatever Our Trial, Christ is Near, December 8
RC	356	1	Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled.... But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. Matthew 14:25-27.
RC	356	2	We are to watch. Christ said, Watch unto prayer. He does not deceive any of us. He takes us to an eminence, shows us the confederacy of evil and the strength of the powers of darkness that are arrayed against all who would have faith in Jesus Christ, and tells us to count the cost; but He does more for us; He does not leave us there without still further encouragement. He does not show us trials and conflicts and leave us without help to fight the battles. But He tells us that God has His angels that minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation. Round about His throne are thousands and thousands and ten times ten thousands of angels.
RC	356	3	What is their work? It is to do the bidding of Jesus Christ their Master. And what do they do? They tell you that Christ chose you, that heavenly angels are with you, and they remain with you. You can have but little strength to war against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places, but here is One who points you to the help heaven sent, that every soul, however strong or weak,... may be [victorious]....
RC	356	4	We say we do believe that Jesus Christ died, but is He your personal Saviour? Here is the faith part of it.... Do you grasp Him by the living hand of faith? Do you reach out your hand to Him and say, as did Peter, "Save, Lord, or I perish"? He will save you. You remember there the disciples were toiling with the ship, and they gave up all hope of reaching the land. While in their dread peril they see One coming toward them, stepping on the foam-crested billows as He would on solid earth, and they were afraid and said, "It is a spirit"; but Christ says, "It is I, be not afraid."
RC	356	5	Oh, how much "It is I" means! It means everything to us when we are in trouble or perplexities. Can you not hear His voice? Can you not hear Him saying, "It is I; be not afraid"? ... He is addressing Himself to us. Whatever your weakness or trial, Christ is near you. He says, "It is I, be not afraid."...
RC	356	6	Did ever anyone lift [his] hands to Jesus and say, "Save, Lord, or I perish," and He pass [him] by? Never, never! He is a Jesus that hears the faintest cry. We need none of us faint or cry or be discouraged. We need not faint, for like Peter, we may look to the darkness and trials around us.... The Lord took the hand of Peter and he was saved. And thus we have a Saviour and in every trial we are to trust in the Lord God of Israel and He will be our Helper.--Manuscript 10, 1891.
------------------------The Value of Pain, December 9
RC	357	1	For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18.
RC	357	2	In the experience of the apostle John under persecution, there is a lesson of wonderful strength and comfort for the Christian. God does not prevent the plottings of wicked men, but He causes their devices to work for good to those who in trial and conflict maintain their faith and loyalty. Often the gospel laborer carries on his work amid storms of persecution, bitter opposition, and unjust reproach. At such times let him remember that the experience to be gained in the furnace of trial and affliction is worth all the pain it costs. Thus God brings His children near to Him, that He may show them their weakness and His strength. He teaches them to lean on Him. Thus He prepares them to meet emergencies, to fill positions of trust, and to accomplish the great purpose for which their powers were given them.
RC	357	3	In all ages God's appointed witnesses have exposed themselves to reproach and persecution for the truth's sake. Joseph was maligned and persecuted because he preserved his virtue and integrity. David, the chosen messenger of God, was hunted like a beast of prey by his enemies. Daniel was cast into a den of lions because he was true to his allegiance to heaven. Job was deprived of his worldly possessions, and so afflicted in body that he was abhorred by his relatives and friends; yet he maintained his integrity.
RC	357	4	Jeremiah could not be deterred from speaking the words that God had given him to speak; and his testimony so enraged the king and princes that he was cast into a loathsome pit. Stephen was stoned because he preached Christ and Him crucified. Paul was imprisoned, beaten with rods, stoned, and finally put to death because he was a faithful messenger for God to the Gentiles. And John was banished to the Isle of Patmos "for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."
RC	357	5	These examples of human steadfastness bear witness to the faithfulness of God's promises--of His abiding presence and sustaining grace. They testify to the power of faith to withstand the powers of the world....
RC	357	6	They bore witness to the power of One mightier than Satan.... Through trial and persecution the glory--the character--of God is revealed in His chosen ones. The believers in Christ, hated and persecuted by the world, are educated and disciplined in the school of Christ. On earth they walk in narrow paths; they are purified in the furnace of affliction.--The Acts of the Apostles, 574-576.
------------------------God Teaches Self-Distrust Through Trials, December 10
RC	358	1	My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Isaiah 55:8.
RC	358	2	The worker for God often regards the activities of life as essential for the advancement of the work. He looks upon himself as a necessity, and self is mingled with all that is said and done. Then God interposes. He draws His child away from the earthly, which holds his attention, that he may behold His glory. He says: "This poor soul has lost sight of Me and My sufficiency. His eye is not fixed upon his Lord. I must throw My light and My vitalizing power into his heart, and thus prepare him to work in right lines. By anointing his eyes with the heavenly eyesalve I will prepare him to receive truth."
RC	358	3	The Lord is compelled to fortify the soul against self-sufficiency and self-dependence, in order that the worker shall not regard his failings as virtues, and thus be ruined by self-exaltation. Sometimes the Lord makes His path to the soul by a process that is painful to humanity; the work of purifying is a great work, and will always cost man suffering and trial. But he must pass through the furnace until the fires have consumed the dross, and he can reflect the divine image.
RC	358	4	Those who follow their own inclinations are not good judges of what the Lord is doing, and they are filled with discontent. They see failure where there is triumph, loss where there is gain. Like Jacob, they are ready to exclaim, "All these things are against me," when the very things whereof they complain are working together for their good. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." ...
RC	358	5	Let us consider the experience of Paul for a little. At the very time when it seemed that the apostle's labors were most needed to strengthen the tried and persecuted church, his liberty was taken away, and he was bound in chains. But this was the time for the Lord to work, and precious were the victories won.
RC	358	6	When to all appearance Paul was able to do the least, then it was that the truth found an entrance into the royal palace. Not Paul's masterly sermons before these great men, but his bonds attracted their attention. Through his captivity he was a conqueror for Christ. The patience and meekness with which he submitted to his long and unjust confinement set these men to weighing character. Sending his last message to his loved ones in the faith, Paul gathers up with his words the greetings from these saints in Caesar's household to the saints in other cities.--The Signs of the Times, February 21, 1900.
------------------------Meekness Under Trial, December 11
RC	359	1	Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. Philippians 1:14, N.I.V.
RC	359	2	By his [Paul's] example, Christians were impelled to greater energy as advocates of the cause from the public labors of which Paul had been withdrawn. In these ways were the apostle's bonds influential, so that when his power and usefulness seemed cut off, and to all appearance he could do the least, then it was that he gathered sheaves for Christ in fields from which he seemed wholly excluded.
RC	359	3	Before the close of that two years' imprisonment, Paul was able to say, "My bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places" (Philippians 1:13), and among those who sent greetings to the Philippians he mentions chiefly them "that are of Caesar's household" (chap. 4:22).
RC	359	4	Patience as well as courage has its victories. By meekness under trial, no less than by boldness in enterprise, souls may be won to Christ. The Christian who manifests patience and cheerfulness under bereavement and suffering, who meets even death itself with the peace and calmness of an unwavering faith, may accomplish for the gospel more than he could have effected by a long life of faithful labor. Often when the servant of God is withdrawn from active duty, the mysterious providence which our shortsighted vision would lament is designed by God to accomplish a work that otherwise would never have been done.
RC	359	5	Let not the follower of Christ think, when he is no longer able to labor openly and actively for God and His truth, that he has no service to render, no reward to secure. Christ's true witnesses are never laid aside. In health and sickness, in life and death, God uses them still. When through Satan's malice the servants of Christ have been persecuted, their active labors hindered, when they have been cast into prison, or dragged to the scaffold or to the stake, it was that truth might gain a greater triumph. As these faithful ones sealed their testimony with their blood, souls hitherto in doubt and uncertainty were convinced of the faith of Christ and took their stand courageously for Him. From the ashes of the martyrs has sprung an abundant harvest for God....
RC	359	6	The apostle and his associate workers might have argued that it would be vain to call to repentance and faith in Christ the servants of Nero.... But Paul did not reason thus; in faith he presented the gospel to these souls, and among those who heard were some who decided to obey at any cost. Notwithstanding obstacles and dangers, they would accept the light, and trust God to help them let their light shine forth to others.--The Acts of the Apostles, 464-466.
------------------------Paul's Godly Life had Irresistible Power, December 12
RC	360	1	Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3.
RC	360	2	Nero pronounced the decision that condemned Paul to a martyr's death....
RC	360	3	Few spectators were allowed to be present; for his persecutors, alarmed at the extent of his influence, feared that converts might be won to Christianity by the scenes of his death. But even the hardened soldiers who attended him listened to his words and with amazement saw him cheerful and even joyous in the prospect of death. To some who witnessed his martyrdom, his spirit of forgiveness toward his murderers and his unwavering confidence in Christ till the last proved a savor of life unto life....
RC	360	4	The heaven-born peace expressed on Paul's countenance won many a soul to the gospel. Paul carried with him the atmosphere of heaven. All who associated with him felt the influence of his union with Christ. The fact that his own life exemplified the truth he proclaimed gave convincing power to his preaching.
RC	360	5	Here lies the power of truth. The unstudied, unconscious influence of a holy life is the most convincing sermon that can be given in favor of Christianity. Argument, even when unanswerable, may provoke only opposition; but a godly example has a power that it is impossible wholly to resist.
RC	360	6	The apostle lost sight of his own approaching sufferings in his solicitude for those whom he was about to leave to cope with prejudice, hatred, and persecution. The few Christians who accompanied him to the place of execution he endeavored to strengthen and encourage by repeating the promises given for those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. He assured them that nothing would fail of all that the Lord has spoken concerning His tried and faithful children.
RC	360	7	For a little season they might be in heaviness through manifold temptations; they might be destitute of earthly comforts; but they could encourage their hearts with the assurance of God's faithfulness, saying, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him" (2 Timothy 1:2). Soon the night of trial and suffering would end, and then would dawn the glad morning of peace and perfect day.
RC	360	8	The apostle was looking into the great beyond, not with uncertainty or dread, but with joyous hope and longing expectation. As he stands at the place of martyrdom he sees not the sword of the executioner or the earth so soon to receive his blood; he looks up through the calm blue heaven of that summer day to the throne of the Eternal.--The Acts of the Apostles, 509-512.
------------------------Peter Strengthened Those Enduring Trial, December 13
RC	361	1	That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:7.
RC	361	2	Human beings, themselves given to evil, are prone to deal untenderly with the tempted and the erring. They cannot read the heart; they know not its struggle and its pain. Of the rebuke that is love, of the blow that wounds to heal, of the warning that speaks hope, they have need to learn.
RC	361	3	Throughout his ministry, Peter faithfully watched over the flock entrusted to his care, and thus proved himself worthy of the charge and responsibility given him by the Saviour. Ever he exalted Jesus of Nazareth as the Hope of Israel, the Saviour of mankind. He brought his own life under the discipline of the Master Worker. By every means within his power he sought to educate the believers for active service. His godly example and untiring activity inspired many young men of promise to give themselves wholly to the work of the ministry.
RC	361	4	As time went on, the apostle's influence as an educator and leader increased; and while he never lost his burden to labor especially for the Jews, yet he bore his testimony in many lands and strengthened the faith of multitudes in the gospel.
RC	361	5	In the later years of his ministry, Peter was inspired to write to the believers "scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." His letters were the means of reviving the courage and strengthening the faith of those who were enduring trial and affliction, and of renewing to good works those who through manifold temptations were in danger of losing their hold upon God. These letters bear the impress of having been written by one in whom the sufferings of Christ and also His consolation had been made to abound; one whose entire being had been transformed by grace, and whose hope of eternal life was sure and steadfast.
RC	361	6	At the very beginning of his first letter the aged servant of God ascribed to his Lord a tribute of praise and thanksgiving. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," he exclaimed, "which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." ...
RC	361	7	In this hope of a sure inheritance in the earth made new, the early Christians rejoiced, even in times of severe trial and affliction.--The Acts of the Apostles, 516-518.
------------------------Trials Educate, Purify, and Strengthen, December 14
RC	362	1	Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.... But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:12, 13.
RC	362	2	Looking forward with prophetic vision to the perilous times into which the church of Christ was to enter, the apostle [Peter] exhorted the believers to steadfastness in the face of trial and suffering. "Beloved," he wrote, "think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you."
RC	362	3	Trial is part of the education given in the school of Christ, to purify God's children from the dross of earthliness. It is because God is leading His children that trying experiences come to them. Trials and obstacles are His chosen methods of discipline, and His appointed conditions of success.
RC	362	4	He who reads the hearts of men knows their weaknesses better than they themselves can know them. He sees that some have qualifications which, if rightly directed, could be used in the advancement of His work. In His providence He brings these souls into different positions and varied circumstances, that they may discover the defects that are concealed from their own knowledge. He gives them opportunity to overcome these defects and to fit themselves for service. Often He permits the fires of affliction to burn, that they may be purified.
RC	362	5	God's care for His heritage is unceasing. He suffers not affliction to come upon His children but such as is essential for their present and eternal good. He will purify His church, even as Christ purified the temple during His ministry on earth. All that He brings upon His people in test and trial comes that they may gain deeper piety and greater strength to carry forward the triumphs of the cross.
RC	362	6	There had been a time in Peter's experience when he was unwilling to see the cross in the work of Christ. When the Saviour made known to the disciples His impending sufferings and death, Peter exclaimed, "Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee" (Matthew 16:22). Self-pity, which shrank from fellowship with Christ in suffering prompted Peter's remonstrance. It was to the disciple a bitter lesson, and one which he learned but slowly, that the path of Christ on earth lay through agony and humiliation. But in the heat of the furnace fire he was to learn its lesson. Now, when his once-active form was bowed with the burden of years and labors, he could write, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.... But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings."--The Acts of the Apostles, 524, 525.
------------------------John Met Errors Unflinchingly, December 15
RC	363	1	This ... is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5.
RC	363	2	John was not to prosecute his work without great hindrances. Satan was not idle. He instigated evil men to cut short the useful life of this man of God, but holy angels protected him from their assaults.... The church in its peril needed his testimony.
RC	363	3	By misrepresentation and falsehood the emissaries of Satan had sought to stir up opposition against John and against the doctrine of Christ. In consequence dissensions and heresies were imperiling the church. John met these errors unflinchingly. He hedged up the way of the adversaries of truth. He wrote and exhorted, that the leaders in these heresies should not have the least encouragement.
RC	363	4	There are at the present day evils similar to those that threatened the prosperity of the early church, and the teachings of the apostle upon these points should be carefully heeded. "You must have charity" is the cry to be heard everywhere, especially from those who profess sanctification. But charity is too pure to cover an unconfessed sin.
RC	363	5	John's teachings are important for those who are living amid the perils of the last days. He had been intimately associated with Christ, he had listened to His teachings and had witnessed His mighty miracles. He bore a convincing testimony, which made the falsehoods of His enemies of none effect.
RC	363	6	John enjoyed the blessing of true sanctification. But mark, the apostle does not claim to be sinless; he is seeking perfection by walking in the light of God's countenance. He testifies that the man who professes to know God, and yet breaks the divine law, gives the lie to his profession. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:4).
RC	363	7	In this age of boasted liberality these words would be branded as bigotry. But the apostle teaches that while we should manifest Christian courtesy, we are authorized to call sin and sinners by their right names--that this is consistent with true charity. While we are to love the souls for whom Christ died, and labor for their salvation, we should not make a compromise with sin. We are not to unite with the rebellious, and call this charity.
RC	363	8	God requires His people in this age of the world to stand, as did John in his time, unflinchingly for the right, in opposition to soul-destroying errors.--The Sanctified Life, 64, 65.
------------------------Christ Lifts Us Through Sorrow, December 16
RC	364	1	Happy is the man whom God correcteth.... He maketh sore, and bindeth up: he wounded, and his hands make whole. He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. Job 5:17-19.
RC	364	2	When tribulation comes upon us, how many of us are like Jacob! We think it the hand of an enemy; and in the darkness we wrestle blindly until our strength is spent, and we find no comfort or deliverance. To Jacob the divine touch at break of day revealed the One with whom he had been contending--the Angel of the covenant; and, weeping and helpless, he fell upon the breast of Infinite Love, to receive the blessing for which his soul longed. We also need to learn that trials mean benefit, and not to despise the chastening of the Lord nor faint when we are rebuked of Him....
RC	364	3	God would not have us remain pressed down by dumb sorrow, with sore and breaking hearts. He would have us look up and behold His dear face of love. The blessed Saviour stands by many whose eyes are so blinded by tears that they do not discern Him. He longs to clasp our hands, to have us look to Him in simple faith, permitting Him to guide us. His heart is open to our griefs, our sorrows, and our trials. He has loved us with an everlasting love and with loving-kindness compassed us about. We may keep the heart stayed upon Him and meditate upon His loving-kindness all the day. He will lift the soul above the daily sorrow and perplexity, into a realm of peace.
RC	364	4	Think of this, children of suffering and sorrow, and rejoice in hope. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4).
RC	364	5	Blessed are they also who weep with Jesus in sympathy with the world's sorrow and in sorrow for its sin. In such mourning there is intermingled no thought of self. Jesus was the Man of Sorrows, enduring heart anguish such as no language can portray. His spirit was torn and bruised by the transgressions of men. He toiled with self-consuming zeal to relieve the wants and woes of humanity, and His heart was heavy with sorrow as He saw multitudes refuse to come to Him that they might have life.
RC	364	6	All who are followers of Christ will share in this experience. As they partake of His love they will enter into His travail for the saving of the lost. They share in the sufferings of Christ, and they will share also in the glory that shall be revealed. One with Him in His work, drinking with Him the cup of sorrow, they are partakers also of His joy.... The Lord has special grace for the mourner, and its power is to melt hearts, to win souls.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 11-13.
------------------------Love for Jesus Makes Suffering Sweet, December 17
RC	365	1	Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2 Corinthians 4:17.
RC	365	2	Jesus does not present to His followers the hope of attaining earthly glory and riches, and of having a life free from trial, but He presents to them the privilege of walking with their Master in the paths of self-denial and reproach, because the world knows them not....
RC	365	3	In an unpitying confederacy, evil men and evil angels arrayed themselves against the Prince of Peace. Though His every word and act breathed of divine compassion, His unlikeness to the world provoked the bitterest hostility....
RC	365	4	Between righteousness and sin, love and hatred, truth and falsehood, there is an irrepressible conflict. When one presents the love of Christ and the beauty of holiness, he is drawing away the subjects of Satan's kingdom, and the prince of evil is aroused to resist it....
RC	365	5	As men seek to come into harmony with God, they will find that the offense of the cross has not ceased. Principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high places are arrayed against all who yield obedience to the law of heaven. Therefore, so far from causing grief, persecution should bring joy to the disciples of Christ, for it is an evidence that they are following in the steps of their Master.
RC	365	6	While the Lord has not promised His people exemption from trials, He has promised that which is far better. He has said, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25).... If you are called to go through the fiery furnace for His sake, Jesus will be by your side even as He was with the faithful three in Babylon. Those who love their Redeemer will rejoice at every opportunity of sharing with Him humiliation and reproach. The love they bear their Lord makes suffering for His sake sweet....
RC	365	7	They follow Christ through sore conflicts; they endure self-denial and experience bitter disappointments; but their painful experience teaches them the guilt and woe of sin, and they look upon it with abhorrence. Being partakers of Christ's sufferings, they are destined to be partakers of His glory.
RC	365	8	In holy vision the prophet saw the triumph of the people of God. He says, "I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory ..., stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty." (Revelation 15:2, 3).--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 29-31.
------------------------Affliction Spreads Knowledge of God, December 18
RC	366	1	Take ... the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. James 5:10.
RC	366	2	There was never one who walked among men more cruelly slandered than the Son of man. He was derided and mocked because of His unswerving obedience to the principles of God's holy law. They hated Him without a cause. Yet He stood calmly before His enemies, declaring that reproach is a part of the Christian's legacy, counseling His followers how to meet the arrows of malice, bidding them not to faint under persecution.
RC	366	3	While slander may blacken the reputation, it cannot stain the character. That is in God's keeping. So long as we do not consent to sin, there is no power, whether human or satanic, that can bring a stain upon the soul. A man whose heart is stayed upon God is just the same in the hour of his most afflicting trials and most discouraging surroundings as when he was in prosperity, when the light and favor of God seemed to be upon him. His words, his motives, his actions, may be misrepresented and falsified, but he does not mind it, because he has greater interests at stake. Like Moses, he endures as "seeing him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27)....
RC	366	4	In every age God's chosen messengers have been reviled and persecuted, yet through their affliction the knowledge of God has been spread abroad. Every disciple of Christ is to step into the ranks and carry forward the same work, knowing that its foes can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. God means that truth shall be brought to the front and become the subject of examination and discussion, even through the contempt placed upon it. The minds of the people must be agitated; every controversy, every reproach, every effort to restrict liberty of conscience, is God's means of awakening minds that otherwise might slumber.
RC	366	5	How often this result has been seen in the history of God's messengers! When the noble and eloquent Stephen was stoned to death at the instigation of the Sanhedrin council, there was no loss to the cause of the gospel. The light of heaven that glorified his face, the divine compassion breathed in his dying prayer, were as a sharp arrow of conviction to the bigoted Sanhedrist who stood by, and Saul, the persecuting Pharisee, became a chosen vessel to bear the name of Christ before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 32-34.
------------------------Watch, and Give Jesus Your Burden, December 19
RC	367	1	Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Luke 21:36.
RC	367	2	In the solemn language of this scripture, a duty is pointed out which lies in the daily pathway of everyone, whether old or young. This is the duty of watchfulness, and upon our faithfulness here our destiny for time and for eternity depends....
RC	367	3	How many there are whose hearts are today aching under their load of care, and who are thinking, Oh, if there were only someone to help me bear my burdens! Well, there is Someone to help you bear your burdens; there is rest for you who are heavy laden. Jesus, the great Burden-bearer, invites, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
RC	367	4	Here is the promise of the Master; but it is on condition. "Take my yoke upon you," He says, "and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls."
RC	367	5	"For My yoke is grievous." Is that what He says? No. "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The burden you are carrying which is so heavy, and which causes such weariness and perplexity, is your own burden. You desire to meet the world's standard; and in your eager efforts to gratify ambitious and worldly desires, you wound your consciences, and thus bring upon yourselves the additional burden of remorse.
RC	367	6	When you do not want to be distinct from the world, but desire to mix up with it so that no difference is seen between you and the world, then you may know that you are drunken with the cares of this life. Oh, there are so many selfish interests, so many cords to bind us to this world! But we must keep cutting these cords, and be in a condition of waiting for our Lord.
RC	367	7	The world has forced itself in between our souls and God. But what right have we to allow our hearts to become overcharged with the cares of this life? What right have we, through our devotion to the world, to neglect the affairs of the church and the interests of our fellow men? Why should we manufacture for ourselves burdens and cares that Christ has not laid upon us? ...
RC	367	8	"Watch ye therefore, and pray always." There is great need of watchfulness, not for our own sakes only, but also for the sake of our influence upon others. Our influence is far-reaching.... We should so speak and so walk that the Spirit of God may be in our hearts, and His blessing in our homes.--The Signs of the Times, January 7, 1886.
------------------------Christians to Represent Christ in Every Act, December 20
RC	368	1	But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. 2 Thessalonians 3:13.
RC	368	2	What can we say to arouse those who profess to be the followers of Christ, to a sense of the solemn responsibilities resting upon them? Is there no voice that shall arouse them to work while the day lasts? Our divine Master gave His life for a ruined world. Who will deny self, and make some sacrifice to save souls for whom He died?
RC	368	3	In every act of life, Christians should seek to represent Christ--seek to make His service appear attractive. Let none make religion repulsive by groans and sighs and a relation of their trials, their self-denials, and sacrifices. Do not give the lie to your profession of faith by impatience, fretfulness, and repining. Let the graces of the Spirit be manifested in kindness, meekness, forbearance, cheerfulness, and love. Let it be seen that the love of Christ is an abiding motive; that your religion is not a dress to be put off and on to suit circumstances, but a principle, calm, steady, unvarying. Alas that pride, unbelief, and selfishness, like a foul cancer, are eating out vital godliness from the heart of many a professed Christian! ...
RC	368	4	Love to Jesus will be seen, will be felt. It cannot be hidden. It exerts a wondrous power. It makes the timid bold, the slothful diligent, the ignorant wise. It makes the stammering tongue eloquent, and rouses the dormant intellect into new life and vigor. It makes the desponding hopeful, the gloomy joyous. Love to Christ will lead its possessor to accept responsibilities for His sake, and to bear them in His strength. Love to Christ will not be dismayed by tribulation, nor turned aside from duty by reproaches....
RC	368	5	Peace in Christ is of more value than all the treasures of earth. Let us seek the Lord with all our heart, let us learn of Christ to be meek and lowly, that we may find rest of soul. Let us arouse our dormant energies, and become active, earnest, fervent. The very example and deportment, as well as the words, of the Christian should be such as to awaken in the sinner a desire to come to the Fountain of life.
RC	368	6	Then let us open our hearts to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Let us work cheerfully, joyfully, in the service of our Master. Let us praise Him, not only by our words in the congregation of His saints, but by a well-ordered life and godly conversation--a life of active, noble Christian effort. Let us give diligence to make our calling and election sure, remembering that we shall triumph at last, if we do not become weary in well doing.--The Signs of the Times, June 24, 1886.
------------------------The Scriptures Safeguard Against Deception, December 21
RC	369	1	To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:20.
RC	369	2	The people of God are directed to the Scriptures as their safeguard against the influence of false teachers and the delusive power of spirits of darkness. Satan employs every possible device to prevent men from obtaining a knowledge of the Bible; for its plain utterances reveal his deceptions.... So closely will the counterfeit resemble the true that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures. By their testimony every statement and every miracle must be tested.
RC	369	3	Those who endeavor to obey all the commandments of God will be opposed and derided. They can stand only in God. In order to endure the trial before them, they must understand the will of God as revealed in His Word; they can honor Him only as they have a right conception of His character, government, and purposes, and act in accordance with them. None but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict....
RC	369	4	The apostle Paul declared, looking down to the last days: "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:3). That time has fully come. The multitudes do not want Bible truth, because it interferes with the desires of the sinful, world-loving heart; and Satan supplies the deceptions which they love.
RC	369	5	But God will have a people upon the earth to maintain the Bible, and the Bible only, as the standard of all doctrines and the basis of all reforms. The opinions of learned men, the deductions of science, the creeds or decisions of ecclesiastical councils, as numerous and discordant as are the churches which they represent, the voice of the majority--not one nor all of these should be regarded as evidence for or against any point of religious faith. Before accepting any doctrine or precept, we should demand a plain "Thus saith the Lord" in its support.
RC	369	6	Satan is constantly endeavoring to attract attention to man in the place of God. He leads the people to look to bishops, to pastors, to professors of theology, as their guides, instead of searching the Scriptures to learn their duty for themselves. Then, by controlling the minds of these leaders, he can influence the multitudes according to his will.
RC	369	7	When Christ came to speak the words of life, the common people heard Him gladly; and many, even of the priests and rulers, believed on Him.--The Great Controversy, 593-595.
------------------------God Works Mightily for His Chosen Ones, December 22
RC	370	1	When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Isaiah 43:2.
RC	370	2	The three Hebrews declared to the whole nation of Babylon their faith in Him whom they worshiped. They relied on God. In the hour of their trial they remembered the promise, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; ... when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." And in a marvelous manner their faith in the living Word had been honored in the sight of all. The tidings of their wonderful deliverance were carried to many countries by the representatives of the different nations that had been invited by Nebuchadnezzar to the dedication. Through the faithfulness of His children, God was glorified in all the earth.
RC	370	3	Important are the lessons to be learned from the experience of the Hebrew youth on the plain of Dura. In this our day, many of God's servants, though innocent of wrongdoing, will be given over to suffer humiliation and abuse at the hands of those who, inspired by Satan, are filled with envy and religious bigotry. Especially will the wrath of man be aroused against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment; and at last a universal decree will denounce these as deserving of death.
RC	370	4	The season of distress before God's people will call for a faith that will not falter. His children must make it manifest that He is the only object of their worship, and that no consideration, not even that of life itself, can induce them to make the least concession to false worship. To the loyal heart the commands of sinful, finite men will sink into insignificance beside the word of the eternal God. Truth will be obeyed though the result be imprisonment or exile or death.
RC	370	5	As in the days of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, so in the closing period of earth's history the Lord will work mightily in behalf of those who stand steadfastly for the right. He who walked with the Hebrew worthies in the fiery furnace will be with His followers wherever they are. His abiding presence will comfort and sustain.
RC	370	6	In the midst of the time of trouble--trouble such as has not been since there was a nation--His chosen ones will stand unmoved. Satan with all the hosts of evil cannot destroy the weakest of God's saints. Angels that excel in strength will protect them, and in their behalf Jehovah will reveal Himself as a "God of gods," able to save to the uttermost those who have put their trust in Him.--Prophets and Kings, 512, 513.
------------------------Wrestling with God to Victory, December 23
RC	371	1	Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. Ezekiel 14:20.
RC	371	2	Satan leads many to believe that God will overlook their unfaithfulness in the minor affairs of life; but the Lord shows in His dealings with Jacob that He will in no wise sanction or tolerate evil. All who endeavor to excuse or conceal their sins, and permit them to remain upon the books of heaven, unconfessed and unforgiven, will be overcome by Satan. The more exalted their profession and the more honorable the position which they hold, the more grievous is their course in the sight of God....
RC	371	3	Jacob's history is also an assurance that God will not cast off those who have been deceived and tempted and betrayed into sin, but who have returned unto Him with true repentance. While Satan seeks to destroy this class, God will send His angels to comfort and protect them in the time of peril.
RC	371	4	The assaults of Satan are fierce and determined, his delusions are terrible; but the Lord's eye is upon His people, and His ear listens to their cries. Their affliction is great, the flames of the furnace seem about to consume them; but the Refiner will bring them forth as gold tried in the fire. God's love for His children during the period of their severest trial, is as strong and tender as in the days of their sunniest prosperity; but it is needful for them to be placed in the furnace of fire; their earthliness must be consumed, that the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected.
RC	371	5	The season of distress and anguish before us will require a faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger--a faith that will not faint, though severely tried. The period of probation is granted to all to prepare for that time. Jacob prevailed because he was persevering and determined. His victory is an evidence of the power of importunate prayer. All who will lay hold of God's promises, as he did, and be as earnest and persevering as he was, will succeed as he succeeded. Those who are unwilling to deny self, to agonize before God, to pray long and earnestly for His blessing, will not obtain it.
RC	371	6	Wrestling with God--how few know what it is! How few have ever had their souls drawn out after God with intensity of desire until every power is on the stretch. When waves of despair which no language can express sweep over the suppliant, how few cling with unyielding faith to the promises of God....
RC	371	7	If the messengers who bear the last solemn warning to the world would pray ... fervently and in faith, as did Jacob, they would find many places where they could say: "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Genesis 32:30). They would be accounted of heaven as princes, having power to prevail with God and men.--The Great Controversy, 620-622.
------------------------God's People Protected, December 24
RC	372	1	The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. Psalm 121:5-7.
RC	372	2	When Christ ceases His intercession in the sanctuary, the unmingled wrath threatened against those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark (Revelation 14:9, 10) will be poured out. The plagues upon Egypt when God was about to deliver Israel were similar in character to those more terrible and extensive judgments which are to fall upon the world just before the final deliverance of God's people....
RC	372	3	These plagues are not universal, or the inhabitants of the earth would be wholly cut off. Yet they will be the most awful scourges that have ever been known to mortals. All the judgments upon men, prior to the close of probation, have been mingled with mercy. The pleading blood of Christ has shielded the sinner from receiving the full measure of his guilt; but in the final judgment, wrath is poured out unmixed with mercy....
RC	372	4	The people of God will not be free from suffering; but while persecuted and distressed, while they endure privation and suffer for want of food, they will not be left to perish. That God who cared for Elijah will not pass by one of His self-sacrificing children. He who numbers the hairs of their head will care for them, and in time of famine they shall be satisfied. While the wicked are dying from hunger and pestilence, angels will shield the righteous and supply their wants. To him that "walketh righteously" is the promise; "Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure" (Isaiah 33:15, 16). "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them" (chap. 41:17).
RC	372	5	"Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines,"... yet shall they that fear Him "rejoice in the Lord" and joy in the God of their salvation (Habakkuk 3:17, 18)....
RC	372	6	"The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul" (Psalm 121:6, 7). "He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.... Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling" (Psalm 91:3-10).--The Great Controversy, 627-630.
RC	372	7	Those who receive the seal of the living God and are protected in the time of trouble must reflect the image of Jesus fully.--Early Writings, 71.
------------------------"Glory to God in the Highest", December 25
RC	373	1	And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:13, 14.
RC	373	2	I entreat you, my brethren and sisters, to make ... Christmas a blessing to yourselves and others. [The birth of Jesus] was celebrated by the heavenly host. Angels of God, in the appearance of a star, conducted the Wise Men on their mission in search of Jesus. They came with gifts and costly offerings of frankincense and myrrh, to pay their oblation to the infant King foretold in prophecy. They followed the brilliant messengers with assurance and great joy.
RC	373	3	The angels ... appeared to the humble shepherds, guarding their flocks by night, upon Bethlehem's plains. One angel first appeared, clothed with the panoply of heaven; and so surprised and so terrified were the shepherds that they could only gaze upon the wondrous glory of the heavenly visitant with unutterable amazement. The angel of the Lord came to them and said, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.... For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." ...
RC	373	4	No sooner had their eyes become accustomed to the glorious presence of the one angel, than, lo! the whole plain was lighted up with the wondrous glory of the multitude of angels that peopled the plains of Bethlehem. The angel quieted the fears of the shepherds before opening their eyes to behold the multitude of the heavenly host, all praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men."
RC	373	5	Then was the melody of heaven heard by mortal ears, and the heavenly choir swept back to heaven as they closed their ever memorable anthem. The light faded away and the shadows of the night once more fell on the hills and plains of Bethlehem; but there remained in the hearts of the shepherds the brightest picture mortal man had ever looked upon, and the blessed promise and assurance of the advent to our world of the Saviour of men, which filled their hearts with joy and gladness, mingled with faith and wondrous love to God.--The Review and Herald, December 9, 1884.
RC	373	6	Those who love God should feel deeply interested in the children and youth. To them God can reveal His truth and salvation. Jesus calls the little ones that believe on Him the lambs of His flock. He has a special love for and interest in the children.... The most precious offering that the children can give to Jesus, is the freshness of their childhood.--The Review and Herald, December 17, 1889.
------------------------The Redeemed Sing, "Worthy is the Lamb!", December 26
RC	374	1	To give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Isaiah 61:3.
RC	374	2	Millions went down to the grave loaded with infamy because they steadfastly refused to yield to the deceptive claims of Satan.... But now "God is judge himself" (Psalm 50:6). Now the decisions of earth are reversed.... They are no longer feeble, afflicted, scattered, and oppressed. Henceforth they are to be ever with the Lord.
RC	374	3	They stand before the throne clad in richer robes than the most honored of the earth have ever worn. They are crowned with diadems more glorious than were ever placed upon the brow of earthly monarchs. The days of pain and weeping are forever ended. The King of glory has wiped the tears from all faces; every cause of grief has been removed. Amid the waving of palm branches they pour forth a song of praise, clear, sweet, and harmonious; every voice takes up the strain, until the anthem swells through the vaults of heaven: "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." ...
RC	374	4	In this life we can only begin to understand the wonderful theme of redemption.... Yet with the utmost stretch of our mental powers we fail to grasp its full significance. The length and the breadth, the depth and the height, of redeeming love are but dimly comprehended. The plan of redemption will not be fully understood, even when the ransomed see as they are seen and know as they are known; but through the eternal ages, new truth will continually unfold to the wondering and delighted mind. Though the griefs and pains and temptations of earth are ended and the cause removed, the people of God will ever have a distinct, intelligent knowledge of what their salvation has cost.
RC	374	5	The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. In Christ glorified they will behold Christ crucified.... As the nations of the saved look upon their Redeemer and behold the eternal glory of the Father shining in His countenance; as they behold His throne, which is from everlasting to everlasting, and know that His kingdom is to have no end, they break forth in rapturous song: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His own most precious blood!" ...
RC	374	6	Mercy, tenderness, and parental love are seen to blend with holiness, justice, and power. While we behold the majesty of His throne, high and lifted up, we see His character in its gracious manifestations, and comprehend, as never before, the significance of that endearing title, "Our Father."--The Great Controversy, 650-652.
------------------------The Deliverance of God's People, December 27
RC	375	1	For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. Psalm 27:5.
RC	375	2	With earnest longing, God's people await the tokens of their coming King. As the watchmen are accosted, "What of the night?" the answer is given unfalteringly, "'The morning cometh, and also the night' (Isaiah 21:11, 12). Light is gleaming upon the clouds above the mountaintops. Soon there will be the revealing of His glory." ... The heavens glow with the dawning of eternal day, and like the melody of angel songs the words fall upon the ear: "Stand fast to your allegiance. Help is coming." ...
RC	375	3	The precious Saviour will send help just when we need it. The way to heaven is consecrated by His footprints. Every thorn that wounds our feet has wounded His. Every cross that we are called to bear He has borne before us. The Lord permits conflicts, to prepare the soul for peace. The time of trouble is a fearful ordeal for God's people; but it is the time for every true believer to look up, and by faith he may see the bow of promise encircling him....
RC	375	4	The eye of God, looking down the ages, was fixed upon the crisis which His people are to meet, when earthly powers shall be arrayed against them. Like the captive exile, they will be in fear of death by starvation or by violence. But the Holy One who divided the Red Sea before Israel, will manifest His mighty power and turn their captivity. "They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him" (Malachi 3:17).
RC	375	5	If the blood of Christ's faithful witnesses were shed at this time, it would not, like the blood of the martyrs, be as seed sown to yield a harvest for God. Their fidelity would not be a testimony to convince others of the truth; for the obdurate heart has beaten back the waves of mercy until they return no more. If the righteous were now left to fall a prey to their enemies, it would be a triumph for the prince of darkness. Says the psalmist: "In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me."
RC	375	6	Christ has spoken: "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity" (Isaiah 26:20, 21). Glorious will be the deliverance of those who have patiently waited for His coming and whose names are written in the book of life.--The Great Controversy, 632-634.
------------------------Paul's Triumphant Testimony, December 28
RC	376	1	I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. 2 Timothy 4:7, 8.
RC	376	2	This man of faith [Paul] beholds the ladder of Jacob's vision, representing Christ, who has connected earth with heaven, and finite man with the infinite God. His faith is strengthened as he calls to mind how patriarchs and prophets have relied upon the One who is his support and consolation, and for whom he is giving his life.
RC	376	3	From these holy men who from century to century have borne testimony for their faith, he hears the assurance that God is true. His fellow apostles, who, to preach the gospel of Christ, went forth to meet religious bigotry and heathen superstition, persecution, and contempt, who counted not their lives dear unto themselves that they might bear aloft the light of the cross amidst the dark mazes of infidelity--these he hears witnessing to Jesus as the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.
RC	376	4	From the rack, the stake, the dungeon, from dens and caves of the earth, there falls upon his ear the martyr's shout of triumph. He hears the witness of steadfast souls, who, though destitute, afflicted, tormented, yet bear fearless, solemn testimony for the faith, declaring, "I know whom I have believed." These, yielding up their lives for the faith, declare to the world that He in whom they have trusted is able to save to the uttermost.
RC	376	5	Ransomed by the sacrifice of Christ, washed from sin in His blood, and clothed in His righteousness, Paul has the witness in himself that his soul is precious in the sight of his Redeemer. His life is hid with Christ in God, and he is persuaded that He who has conquered death is able to keep that which is committed to His trust. His mind grasps the Saviour's promise, "I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:40). His thoughts and hopes are centered on the second coming of his Lord. And as the sword of the executioner descends and the shadows of death gather about the martyr, his latest thought springs forward, as will his earliest in the great awakening, to meet the Life-giver, who shall welcome him to the joy of the blest....
RC	376	6	Like a trumpet peal his voice has rung out through all the ages since, nerving with his own courage thousands of witnesses for Christ, and wakening in thousands of sorrow-stricken hearts the echo of his own triumphant joy: ... "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord ... shall give me at that day."--The Acts of the Apostles, 512, 513.
------------------------Our Glorious Destiny, December 29
RC	377	1	Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9.
RC	377	2	Through the gospel, souls that are degraded and enslaved by Satan are to be redeemed to share the glorious liberty of the sons of God. God's purpose is not merely to deliver from the suffering that is the inevitable result of sin, but to save from sin itself. The soul, corrupted and deformed, is to be purified, transformed, that it may be clothed in "the beauty of the Lord our God," "conformed to the image of his Son." "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (Psalm 90:17; Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 2:9). Eternity alone can reveal the glorious destiny to which man, restored to God's image, may attain.
RC	377	3	In order for us to reach this high ideal, that which causes the soul to stumble must be sacrificed. It is through the will that sin retains its hold upon us.... Often it seems to us that to surrender the will to God is to consent to go through life maimed or crippled. But it is better, says Christ, for self to be maimed, wounded, crippled, if thus you may enter into life. That which you look upon as disaster is the door to highest benefit.
RC	377	4	God is the fountain of life, and we can have life only as we are in communion with Him. Separated from God, existence may be ours for a little time, but we do not possess life.... Only through the surrender of our will to God is it possible for Him to impart life to us. Only by receiving His life through self-surrender is it possible, said Jesus, for these hidden sins ... to be overcome. It is possible that you may bury them in your hearts and conceal them from human eyes, but how will you stand in God's presence?... To sin, wherever found, God is a consuming fire....
RC	377	5	It will require a sacrifice to give yourself to God; but it is a sacrifice of the lower for the higher, the earthly for the spiritual, the perishable for the eternal. God does not design that our will should be destroyed, for it is only through its exercise that we can accomplish what He would have us do. Our will is to be yielded to Him, that we may receive it again, purified and refined, and so linked in sympathy with the Divine that He can pour through us the tides of His love and power. However bitter and painful this surrender may appear to the willful, wayward heart, yet "it is profitable for thee."
RC	377	6	Not until he fell crippled and helpless upon the breast of the covenant angel did Jacob know the victory of conquering faith and receive the title of a prince with God.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 60-62.
------------------------The Pure in Heart to Reflect Christ, December 30
RC	378	1	He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.--Proverbs 22:11, R.S.V.
RC	378	2	Into the City of God there will enter nothing that defiles. All who are to be dwellers there will here have become pure in heart. In one who is learning of Jesus, there will be manifest a growing distaste for careless manners, unseemly language, and coarse thought. When Christ abides in the heart, there will be purity and refinement of thought and manner.
RC	378	3	But the words of Jesus, "Blessed are the pure in heart," have a deeper meaning--not merely pure in the sense in which the world understands purity, free from that which is sensual, pure from lust, but true in the hidden purposes and motives of the soul, free from pride and self-seeking, humble, unselfish, childlike....
RC	378	4	To hearts that have become purified through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, all is changed. These can know God. Moses was hid in the cleft of the rock when the glory of the Lord was revealed to him; and it is when we are hid in Christ that we behold the love of God.
RC	378	5	"He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend" (Proverbs 22:11). By faith we behold Him here and now. In our daily experience we discern His goodness and compassion in the manifestation of His providence.... The pure in heart see God in a new and endearing relation, as their Redeemer; and while they discern the purity and loveliness of His character, they long to reflect His image. They see Him as a Father longing to embrace a repenting son, and their hearts are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
RC	378	6	The pure in heart discern the Creator in the works of His mighty hand, in the things of beauty that comprise the universe. In His Written Word they read in clearer lines the revelation of His mercy, His goodness, and His grace....
RC	378	7	The beauty and preciousness of truth, which are undiscerned by the worldly-wise, are constantly unfolding to those who have a trusting, childlike desire to know and to do the will of God. We discern the truth by becoming, ourselves, partakers of the divine nature.
RC	378	8	The pure in heart live as in the visible presence of God during the time He apportions them in this world. And they will also see Him face to face in the future, immortal state, as did Adam when he walked and talked with God in Eden. "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12).--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 24-27.
------------------------Christians to Reflect the Light of Heaven, December 31
RC	379	1	A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Matthew 5:14, 15.
RC	379	2	"Ye are the light of the world," said Christ to His disciples. As the sun goes forth in the heavens, dispelling the shades of night, and filling the world with brightness, so must the followers of Jesus let their light shine to dispel the moral darkness of a world lying in sin. But they have no light of themselves; it is the light of Heaven which they are to reflect to the world.
RC	379	3	"A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." Our thoughts and purposes are the secret springs of action, and hence determine the character. The purpose formed in the heart need not be expressed in word or deed in order to make it sin, and bring the soul into condemnation. Every thought, feeling, and inclination, though unseen by men, is discerned by the eye of God. But it is only when the evil that has taken root in the heart reaches its fruition in the unlawful word or deed that man can judge the character of his fellowman.
RC	379	4	The Christian is Christ's representative. He is to show to the world the transforming power of divine grace. He is a living epistle of the truth of God, known and read of all men. The rule given by Christ by which to determine who are His true followers is, "By their fruits ye shall know them." ...
RC	379	5	The Christian's godly life and holy conversation are a daily testimony against sin and sinners. But he must present Christ, not self. Christ is the great remedy for sin. Our compassionate Redeemer has provided for us the help we need. He is waiting to impute His righteousness to the sincere penitent, and to kindle in his heart such divine love as only our gracious Redeemer can inspire. Then let us who profess to be His witnesses on earth, His ambassadors from the court of heaven, glorify Him whom we represent, by being faithful to our trust as light bearers to the world.
RC	379	6	Everyone who at last secures eternal life will here manifest zeal and devotion in the service of God. He will not desert the post of duty at the approach of trial, hardship, or reproach. He will be a diligent student of the Scriptures, and will follow the light as it shines upon his pathway. When some plain, scriptural requirement is presented he will not stop to inquire, What will my friends say, if I take my position with the people of God? Knowing his duty, he will do it heartily and fearlessly.
RC	379	7	Of such truehearted followers Jesus declares that He is not ashamed to call them brethren. The God of truth will be on their side, and will never forsake them. All apparent losses for Christ's sake will count to them as infinite gain.--The Signs of the Times, March 25, 1886.

------------------------Radiant Religion
RRe	3	1	God Bids Us Rejoice Always, January 1
RRe	4	1	In Fellowship with Him, January 2
RRe	5	1	In Trusting and Loving Him, January 3
RRe	6	1	Because He Reigns, January 4
RRe	7	1	Let the Righteous Be Glad, January 5
RRe	8	1	He Who Fears God, January 6
RRe	9	1	He Who Trusts God, January 7
RRe	10	1	The Meek, January 8
RRe	11	1	The Merciful, January 9
RRe	12	1	At Peace with God and Man, January 10
RRe	13	1	He Whose Helper Is God, January 11
RRe	14	1	Delight in Christ's Name, January 12
RRe	15	1	Thy Salvation, January 13
RRe	16	1	The Law of God, January 14
RRe	17	1	The Truth, January 15
RRe	18	1	Every Good Thing, January 16
RRe	19	1	The Source of Every Blessing, January 17
RRe	20	1	Supreme Love to God, January 18
RRe	21	1	Be Joyful that God Is My Helper, January 19
RRe	22	1	The Lord Is My Strength, January 20
RRe	23	1	He Hath Done Great Things for Me, January 21
RRe	24	1	He Is Merciful, January 22
RRe	25	1	He Clothes Me in His Righteousness, January 23
RRe	26	1	I Fear Not His Divine Judgment, January 24
RRe	27	1	My Name Is Written in Heaven, January 25
RRe	28	1	Rejoice in Youth, January 26
RRe	29	1	In Prosperity, January 27
RRe	30	1	As Expression of Faith, January 28
RRe	31	1	In Commemoration of His Blessings, January 29
RRe	32	1	In His Tabernacle, January 30
RRe	33	1	Always, January 31
RRe	34	1	Heavenly Joy Over Repentant Sinners, February 1
RRe	35	1	Rejoices in His Works, February 2
RRe	36	1	Christ Shares in Rejoicing, February 3
RRe	37	1	God Is Pleased When I Seek the Saviour, February 4
RRe	38	1	God Rejoices to Bestow Blessings, February 5
RRe	39	1	To Make Me His Witness, February 6
RRe	40	1	God Rejoices in His Chosen People, February 7
RRe	41	1	In His Church, February 8
RRe	42	1	God Delights in the Prayer of the Upright, February 9
RRe	43	1	Those Who Follow the Truth, February 10
RRe	44	1	Unbending Integrity, February 11
RRe	45	1	Kindness, Justice, and Goodness, February 12
RRe	46	1	Mercy, February 13
RRe	47	1	Obedience to His Word, February 14
RRe	48	1	Deliverance from Suffering and His Wrath, February 15
RRe	49	1	God Is Pleased to Order Events, February 16
RRe	50	1	To Give His Son for My Redemption, February 17
RRe	51	1	With His Beloved Son, February 18
RRe	52	1	Those Who Fear Him, February 19
RRe	53	1	Those Who Do His Will, February 20
RRe	54	1	My Surrender to His Will, February 21
RRe	55	1	God's Pleasure unto Zion, February 22
RRe	56	1	The Saviour Rejoices to Bring Rest and Peace, February 23
RRe	57	1	In God's Will and Law, February 24
RRe	58	1	In Communion with His Father, February 25
RRe	59	1	In Loving Interest in the Human Family, February 26
RRe	60	1	To Reveal Himself to Humble Men, February 27
RRe	61	1	In the Spirit of Self-Sacrificing Love, February 28
RRe	62	1	Happiness the Gift of God, March 1
RRe	63	1	Rejoice in the Gifts of Life, March 2
RRe	64	1	Trust in the Lord, March 3
RRe	65	1	Immanuel, "God with Us," Has Come, March 4
RRe	66	1	Cleansed by His Blood, March 5
RRe	67	1	God Answers My Prayer, March 6
RRe	68	1	God Is My Source of Wisdom, March 7
RRe	69	1	His Wisdom Brings Pleasure, March 8
RRe	70	1	Rejoice with All Nature, March 9
RRe	71	1	Nature Created for My Joy, March 10
RRe	72	1	In the Loveliness of Earth, March 11
RRe	73	1	Nature Obeys His Will, March 12
RRe	74	1	Sun of Righteousness Lights My Day, March 13
RRe	75	1	Light of His Spirit Shines on the Word, March 14
RRe	76	1	Rejoice in the Power of God, March 15
RRe	77	1	Be Happy in Useful Labor, March 16
RRe	78	1	Labor Is a Blessing to Man, March 17
RRe	79	1	God Gives Us The Fruit Of Our Labors, March 18
RRe	80	1	Duty Well Done Brings Happiness, March 19
RRe	81	1	Being Faithful in Every Detail, March 20
RRe	82	1	Find Joy in the Harvest, March 21
RRe	83	1	Bearing My Share of Life's Burdens, March 22
RRe	84	1	God Provides Food, March 23
RRe	85	1	We Should Relish Our Food, March 24
RRe	86	1	Necessities of Life Assured, March 25
RRe	87	1	God Uses the Elements to Produce Food, March 26
RRe	88	1	Israel Rejoiced over the Fruits of Canaan, March 27
RRe	89	1	Israel Was Taught the Joy of Hospitality, March 28
RRe	90	1	New Converts Rejoiced to Eat Bread of Life, March 29
RRe	91	1	Recall with Joy the Bright Spots in Life, March 30
RRe	92	1	The Coming of the Lord Is My Hope, March 31
RRe	93	1	God's Grace Is Sufficient in Persecution, April 1
RRe	94	1	For He Will Strengthen Me, April 2
RRe	95	1	Because of My Love for His Church, April 3
RRe	96	1	Because I Am Counted Worthy to Suffer, April 4
RRe	97	1	For It "Worketh Patience," April 5
RRe	98	1	Suffer with Joy When Walking with God, April 6
RRe	99	1	When His Spirit Works Through Me, April 7
RRe	100	1	The Prophets' Examples Encourage Me, April 8
RRe	101	1	When I Bear the Reproach of Christ, April 9
RRe	102	1	His Workers Possess All Things of Eternal Value, April 10
RRe	103	1	All Experiences are God's Workmen, April 11
RRe	104	1	When Continuing in Prayer, April 12
RRe	105	1	God Permits Affliction, April 13
RRe	106	1	For My Profit, April 14
RRe	107	1	The Lord Is Tender and Patient, April 15
RRe	108	1	He Desires to Refine Even Me, April 16
RRe	109	1	That I Learn The Guilt and Woe of Sin, April 17
RRe	110	1	That God Is My Strength, April 18
RRe	111	1	That We May Be Able to Comfort Others, April 19
RRe	112	1	Joy for Sorrow When Jesus Came Forth, April 20
RRe	113	1	Everlasting Joy, April 21
RRe	114	1	When God Leads Me, April 22
RRe	115	1	When I Trust in Him, April 23
RRe	116	1	When There Is True Repentance, April 24
RRe	117	1	We Have Been Forewarned of Trials, April 25
RRe	118	1	God Only Permits Sorrow, April 26
RRe	119	1	Reward of Suffering Is Righteousness, April 27
RRe	120	1	A Share in Christ's Glory, April 28
RRe	121	1	Salvation, April 29
RRe	122	1	A Reward in Heaven, April 30
RRe	123	1	Be of Good Cheer Because He Has Forgiven My Sins, May 1
RRe	124	1	Because I Am His Witness, May 2
RRe	125	1	Because God Keeps His Promises, May 3
RRe	126	1	Gladness Drawn from God Can Never Fail, May 4
RRe	127	1	Communion with the Lord Brings Gladness, May 5
RRe	128	1	Be Glad for Salvation, May 6
RRe	129	1	Right Doing Makes Glad the Heart, May 7
RRe	130	1	Be Glad in God's Leadership, May 8
RRe	131	1	He Longs to Make His Children Glad, May 9
RRe	132	1	Be Glad When a Good Word Is Spoken, May 10
RRe	133	1	Godliness Is Needful for Contentment, May 11
RRe	134	1	Riches are not Necessary, May 12
RRe	135	1	Contentment Can Be Found in My Present State, May 13
RRe	136	1	The Love of Riches Is Supplanted By Love of God, May 14
RRe	137	1	Promise to the Contented, May 15
RRe	138	1	Selfishness Breeds Discontent, May 16
RRe	139	1	Contentment Is Found in the Lot Heaven Assigns, May 17
RRe	140	1	A Merry Heart Has a Feast from God Each Day, May 18
RRe	141	1	Helps and Heals, May 19
RRe	142	1	Is a Christian Grace, May 20
RRe	143	1	Is Found in God's People, May 21
RRe	144	1	Is a Pleasure to God, May 22
RRe	145	1	Rejoices When a Prodigal Returns, May 23
RRe	146	1	Enters into the Joy of Others, May 24
RRe	147	1	Cheerfulness Is Expressed in My Face, May 25
RRe	148	1	Ennobles Duty and Drudgery, May 26
RRe	149	1	Affects God's Acceptance of Our Gifts, May 27
RRe	150	1	Should Be Found in the Assembly of His Saints, May 28
RRe	151	1	Is Based on Friendship with Jesus, May 29
RRe	152	1	In Christ's Overcoming Power, May 30
RRe	153	1	Banishes Fear, May 31
RRe	154	1	Christian Fellowship Found in Loving One Another, June 1
RRe	155	1	In Living in Harmony with Our Brethren, June 2
RRe	156	1	In the Happiness of Others, June 3
RRe	157	1	Imparts Joy to Others, June 4
RRe	158	1	Our Hearts Are Refreshed, June 5
RRe	159	1	In Praying for Souls, June 6
RRe	160	1	In Encouraging Fellow Believers, June 7
RRe	161	1	Pleasant Associations Are Pleasing to Heaven, June 8
RRe	162	1	Found in Sharing Our Homes with the Homeless, June 9
RRe	163	1	In Having Confidence in Our Fellow Men, June 10
RRe	164	1	In Promoting the Welfare of Others, June 11
RRe	165	1	In Refreshing Others Through Christ, June 12
RRe	166	1	In Working Together for God, June 13
RRe	167	1	Jonathan's Unselfish Love an Example, June 14
RRe	168	1	Rejoicing Together, June 15
RRe	169	1	In Friendly Happiness, June 16
RRe	170	1	In Self-Sacrifice to Bless Others, June 17
RRe	171	1	By Entering into Joys and Sorrows, June 18
RRe	172	1	In Words of Kindness, June 19
RRe	173	1	In Labor for the Erring, June 20
RRe	174	1	In the Return of the Erring, June 21
RRe	175	1	Family Happiness Through Christ's Love, June 22
RRe	176	1	Marriage Only the Beginning of Love, June 23
RRe	177	1	Obedient Children Bring Joy, June 24
RRe	178	1	The Faithful Mother Is a Blessing, June 25
RRe	179	1	Children Are Reflectors of Their Parents, June 26
RRe	180	1	Family Worship Is the Sweetest Hour of the Day, June 27
RRe	181	1	Father Should in Love Enforce the Sterner Virtues, June 28
RRe	182	1	Christ Will Rejoice Over His Bride, June 29
RRe	183	1	The Union of Christ and His Church, June 30
RRe	184	1	A Joyous Partnership with God, July 1
RRe	185	1	He Puts His Spirit Upon His Servant, July 2
RRe	186	1	Good Tidings of Christ's Coming, July 3
RRe	187	1	A Good Soldier of Christ, July 4
RRe	188	1	God Will Send the Latter Rain, July 5
RRe	189	1	Serving Gladly Every Day, July 6
RRe	190	1	Ready to Spend and Be Spent, July 7
RRe	191	1	Finding Joy in any Sacrifice for Him, July 8
RRe	192	1	Serve Not as Israel, Who Failed, July 9
RRe	193	1	Entertain Christ's Servants, July 10
RRe	194	1	Seeking the Lost, July 11
RRe	195	1	Lifting Up Christ Before Men, July 12
RRe	196	1	Gladden Others, the Purpose of God's Servants, July 13
RRe	197	1	Watchful of Opportunities to Bring Joy, July 14
RRe	198	1	Showing Respect to Ministers and Rulers, July 15
RRe	199	1	Gladden Others with Our Means, July 16
RRe	200	1	Bear Burdens for Their Souls, July 17
RRe	201	1	Contribute to Others' Happiness, July 18
RRe	202	1	Working for Others' Good, July 19
RRe	203	1	God's Servants are Happy Working with God, July 20
RRe	204	1	They Have the Favor of God, July 21
RRe	205	1	They Have the Greatest Joy--Service, July 22
RRe	206	1	They Are Filled with the Holy Ghost, July 23
RRe	207	1	They Reveal the Lord's Joy in Their Lives, July 24
RRe	208	1	They Share His Joy in Saving of the Lost, July 25
RRe	209	1	They Have Christ's Joy--Seeing Sinners Saved, July 26
RRe	210	1	Angels Rejoice with Men in Seeking the Lost, July 27
RRe	211	1	Angels Labor with Us in Presenting Jesus, July 28
RRe	212	1	Heaven's Host and God's Ministers Rejoice in Service, July 29
RRe	213	1	Angels Minister to Man's Needs, July 30
RRe	214	1	Angels Fulfill Promise of Divine Care, July 31
RRe	215	1	God's Good Pleasure in Uprightness, August 1
RRe	216	1	When the Wicked Turns from His Ways, August 2
RRe	217	1	Heaven Approves Obedience and Service, August 3
RRe	218	1	Ministry to Others, August 4
RRe	219	1	When I Can Take Jesus with Me, August 5
RRe	220	1	To Do Justice, August 6
RRe	221	1	Industry, August 7
RRe	222	1	Enjoyment of Nature, August 8
RRe	223	1	Meditating Upon the Lord, August 9
RRe	224	1	Moses Spurned the Pleasures of Sin, August 10
RRe	225	1	Aaron Chose Them, August 11
RRe	226	1	Boasting, August 12
RRe	227	1	Pride of Prosperity, August 13
RRe	228	1	Sinful Pleasures Hinder a Fruitful Life, August 14
RRe	229	1	They Kill Vital Connections with God, August 15
RRe	230	1	Should Turn Away from Them, August 16
RRe	231	1	Counterfeit Pleasures--the Knowledge of Evil, August 17
RRe	232	1	Unsound Doctrine, August 18
RRe	233	1	Draw Me from the Path of Uprightness, August 19
RRe	234	1	Bitter Feelings, August 20
RRe	235	1	To Do Wickedness, August 21
RRe	236	1	Folly, Foolishness, Nonsense, August 22
RRe	237	1	Foolish Talking, Jesting, Joking, August 23
RRe	238	1	The Triumph of the Wicked Is Short, August 24
RRe	239	1	Worldly Pleasure Will Pass Away, August 25
RRe	240	1	The Treasures of the Rich Man Will Be Lost, August 26
RRe	241	1	Only Bitter Regrets Remain, August 27
RRe	242	1	Laughter and Mirth Short Lived, August 28
RRe	243	1	The "Gifts" of the World Crow Worse, August 29
RRe	244	1	The Sinner Is Not Happy in God's Presence, August 30
RRe	245	1	Something Better--a New Heart, a New Spirit, August 31
RRe	246	1	Praise Him, All Ye Lands, September 1
RRe	247	1	With Singing, Timbrel, Harp, and Psaltery, September 2
RRe	248	1	Make a Joyful Noise in His Sanctuary, September 3
RRe	249	1	In the Homes of the Righteous, September 4
RRe	250	1	With Joyful Lips, September 5
RRe	251	1	Praise Promotes Health of Body and Soul, September 6
RRe	252	1	Sing with Gladness, for It Is Good and Pleasant, September 7
RRe	253	1	For It Is a Weapon Against Discouragement, September 8
RRe	254	1	For It Uplifts Our Thoughts, September 9
RRe	255	1	For It Is an Act of Worship, September 10
RRe	256	1	For It Brings Joy and Cheer, September 11
RRe	257	1	For Nature Sings His Praise, September 12
RRe	258	1	For It Banishes Care, September 13
RRe	259	1	Express Your Gladness Because God's Creation Is Exceedingly Beautiful, September 14
RRe	260	1	Because He Provides Daily Mercies, September 15
RRe	261	1	Because Great Is the Holy One of Israel, September 16
RRe	262	1	Because His Mercy Endures Forever, September 17
RRe	263	1	Because He Leads His People, September 18
RRe	264	1	Because Christ Will Come Again, September 19
RRe	265	1	Because the Lord Will Save His People, September 20
RRe	266	1	Praise the Lord with Timbrel and Harp, September 21
RRe	267	1	Sound His Praises with Trumpets, September 22
RRe	268	1	Hold Communion with Heaven, September 23
RRe	269	1	Rejoice in the Strength of the Lord, September 24
RRe	270	1	Blow Trumpets in the Temple of the Lord, September 25
RRe	271	1	Play the Songs of Victory, September 26
RRe	272	1	The Victors Shall Have the Harps of God, September 27
RRe	273	1	Pleasant Words Belong to the Pure, September 28
RRe	274	1	Are Sweet to Mind and Health to Body, September 29
RRe	275	1	Bring Help and Encouragement, September 30
RRe	276	1	Abraham Rejoiced Because He Saw Christ, October 1
RRe	277	1	Sarah, Because She Received a Son, October 2
RRe	278	1	Hannah, Because God Granted Her Prayer, October 3
RRe	279	1	Moses and Jethro, Because God Delivered Israel, October 4
RRe	280	1	Israel Rejoiced to Give to the Temple, October 5
RRe	281	1	Israel Was Glad for All the Goodness of God, October 6
RRe	282	1	Judah Rejoiced at the Restoration of Temple Service, October 7
RRe	283	1	Judah Found Joy Again in the Passover Feast, October 8
RRe	284	1	Israel Rejoiced at the Dedication of the Temple, October 9
RRe	285	1	Israel Returned to God and Was Glad, October 10
RRe	286	1	Israel Rejoiced to Be Accepted Again, October 11
RRe	287	1	Israel Rejoiced Greatly to Have a King, October 12
RRe	288	1	Solomon Rejoiced in God-Sent Wisdom and Prosperity, October 13
RRe	289	1	Judah Rejoiced in Reformation, October 14
RRe	290	1	Jews Had Joy in Deliverance from Death, October 15
RRe	291	1	Darius Was Exceedingly Glad Daniel's God Was Able, October 16
RRe	292	1	The Wise Men Rejoiced for the Lord's Guidance, October 17
RRe	293	1	Multitudes Rejoiced at Christ's Royal Entry, October 18
RRe	294	1	Zacharias and Elizabeth Rejoiced in a Son, October 19
RRe	295	1	John's Joy Fulfilled in Preparing the Saviour's Way, October 20
RRe	296	1	Zaccheus Received Him Joyfully, October 21
RRe	297	1	The Seventy Disciples Rejoiced in His Power, October 22
RRe	298	1	The Two Marys Rejoiced at News of the Resurrection, October 23
RRe	299	1	The Disciples Were Glad When They Saw the Risen Lord, October 24
RRe	300	1	After the Ascension Great Joy Was Theirs, October 25
RRe	301	1	Samaria Rejoiced When Philip Preached Christ, October 26
RRe	302	1	The Eunuch Rejoiced Upon His Conversion, October 27
RRe	303	1	Barnabas Was Glad for New Believers, October 28
RRe	304	1	Rhoda Was Filled with Gladness at Peter's Deliverance, October 29
RRe	305	1	The Gentiles Believed and Were Glad, October 30
RRe	306	1	The Macedonians Rejoiced in Denying Themselves, October 31
RRe	307	1	Wells of Salvation, November 1
RRe	308	1	God's Greatest Gift to the World--His Son, November 2
RRe	309	1	Jesus Took Glad Tidings from Place to Place, November 3
RRe	310	1	Paul and Barnabas Brought Them to Antioch, November 4
RRe	311	1	A Joyous Work to Bring Glad Tidings to Others, November 5
RRe	312	1	Joy in Buying the Treasure, November 6
RRe	313	1	Peace and Joy in the Spirit, November 7
RRe	314	1	Complete Happiness, November 8
RRe	315	1	Receive the Word with Joy and Rejoicing, November 9
RRe	316	1	For It Is God's Message to Me, November 10
RRe	317	1	For It Supplies Wisdom and Understanding, November 11
RRe	318	1	But Be Rooted to Endure Trial and Temptation, November 12
RRe	319	1	And Be Baptized, November 13
RRe	320	1	Common People Can Comprehend Thy Word, November 14
RRe	321	1	The Word Is the Light Sought By Many, November 15
RRe	322	1	Delight in the Law, for Obedience Brings Joy, November 16
RRe	323	1	For God Will Write It in My Heart, November 17
RRe	324	1	For Right Doing Brings Happiness, November 18
RRe	325	1	For the Law Reveals the Character of God, November 19
RRe	326	1	For It Is the Pledge of Eternal Life, November 20
RRe	327	1	For It Is Counsel for Happiness, November 21
RRe	328	1	For Obedience Is the Test of Loyalty to God, November 22
RRe	329	1	Joyful Worship in the House of the Lord, November 23
RRe	330	1	In the House of Prayer, November 24
RRe	331	1	On the Sabbath Day, November 25
RRe	332	1	In Praising the Lord, November 26
RRe	333	1	In the Spirit, November 27
RRe	334	1	In Contemplation of Christ, November 28
RRe	335	1	In Trusting God, November 29
RRe	336	1	Companionship with Christ a Precious Experience, November 30
RRe	337	1	God's Purpose Ever to Bring Joy Out of Sorrow, December 1
RRe	338	1	The Faithful Workers are to Reap with Joy, December 2
RRe	339	1	They Will Receive a Glorious Reward, December 3
RRe	340	1	All Workers Share in the Reward, December 4
RRe	341	1	This Hope Should Gladden My Heart, December 5
RRe	342	1	Causes Me to Choose Heavenly in Place of Earthly, December 6
RRe	343	1	The Crown of Rejoicing the Fruition of My Work, December 7
RRe	344	1	To Share with Christ the Joy in Redeemed Souls, December 8
RRe	345	1	To Complete My Heaven-Assigned Work with Joy, December 9
RRe	346	1	To Know I Have Not Worked in Vain, December 10
RRe	347	1	Brings Shame to the Wicked, December 11
RRe	348	1	To Be Presented as Faultless Before the Father's Throne, December 12
RRe	349	1	To Be Counted Greater than the Sorrow and Shame, December 13
RRe	350	1	We Shall Look Upon the Face of God, December 14
RRe	351	1	We Shall Meet and See the Lord Jesus, December 15
RRe	352	1	We Shall Rejoice at His Appearance, December 16
RRe	353	1	We Shall Be Joyful to See His Countenance, December 17
RRe	354	1	We Shall See His Glory and Honor, December 18
RRe	355	1	We Shall Delight in Him Throughout Eternity, December 19
RRe	356	1	We Shall Be Like Him, December 20
RRe	357	1	New Earth Delights--Sin Removed, December 21
RRe	358	1	Only Joy and Singing, December 22
RRe	359	1	The Garden of Eden, December 23
RRe	360	1	The River of Water of Life, December 24
RRe	361	1	The City of the Lord, December 25
RRe	362	1	No Sorrow or Sadness, December 26
RRe	363	1	We Shall Enjoy the Work of Our Hands, December 27
RRe	364	1	Pleasures Forevermore in Our Father's Kingdom, December 28
RRe	365	1	We Shall Have Unending Joy, December 29
RRe	366	1	We Shall Live in a New Creation, December 30
RRe	367	1	We Shall Rejoice in God's Pleasures Forevermore, December 31

------------------------God Bids Us Rejoice Always, January 1
RRe	3	1	Rejoice evermore. 1 Thessalonians 5:16.
RRe	3	2	All heaven is interested in the happiness of man. Our heavenly Father does not close the avenues of joy to any of His creatures.--Steps to Christ, 51.
RRe	3	3	He has made provision that all may be holy and happy if they choose. Sufficient light has been given to this generation, that we may learn what our duties and privileges are, and enjoy the precious and solemn truths in their simplicity and power.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 693.
RRe	3	4	The world's Redeemer accepts men as they are, with all their wants, imperfections, and weaknesses; and He will not only cleanse from sin and grant redemption through His blood, but will satisfy the heart longing of all who consent to wear His yoke, to bear His burden. It is His purpose to impart peace and rest to all who come to Him for the bread of life. He requires us to perform only those duties that will lead our steps to heights of bliss to which the disobedient can never attain. The true, joyous life of the soul is to have Christ formed within, the hope of glory.--Steps to Christ, 51.
------------------------In Fellowship with Him, January 2
RRe	4	1	Glory ye in His holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Psalms 105:3.
RRe	4	2	Man, created for fellowship with God, can only in such fellowship find his real life and development. Created to find in God his highest joy, he can find in nothing else that which can quiet the cravings of the heart, can satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul. He who with sincere and teachable spirit studies God's Word, seeking to comprehend its truths, will be brought in touch with its Author; and, except by his own choice, there is no limit to the possibilities of his development.--Education, 124, 125.
RRe	4	3	No man can really enjoy life without religion. Love to God purifies and ennobles every taste and desire, intensifies every affection, and brightens every worthy pleasure. It enables men to appreciate and enjoy all that is true, and good, and beautiful.--Messages to Young People, 26.
RRe	4	4	To have the consciousness that the eye of the Lord is upon us, and that His ear is open to our prayers, is a satisfaction indeed. To know that we have a never-failing Friend to whom we can confide all the secrets of the soul, is a happiness which words can never express.--Counsels on Health, 628.
------------------------In Trusting and Loving Him, January 3
RRe	5	1	Let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because Thou defendest them; let them also that love Thy name be joyful in Thee. Psalms 5:11.
RRe	5	2	We may rejoice in hope. Our Advocate is in the heavenly sanctuary, pleading in our behalf. Through His merits we have pardon and peace. He died that He might wash away our sins, clothe us with His righteousness, and fit us for the society of heaven, where we may dwell in light forever. Dear brother, dear sister, when Satan would fill your mind with despondency, gloom, and doubt, resist his suggestions. Tell him of the blood "of Jesus, that cleanses from all sin. You cannot save yourself from the tempter's power; but he trembles and flees when the merits of that precious blood are urged. Then will you not gratefully accept the blessings Jesus bestows? Will you not take the cup of salvation that He presents, and call on the name of the Lord?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 316, 317.
RRe	5	3	All your happiness, peace, joy, and success in this life are dependent upon genuine, trusting faith in God. . . . Believe in Jesus as one who pardons your sins, one who wants you to be happy in the mansions He has gone to prepare for you. He wants you to live in His presence; to have eternal life and a crown of glory.--Messages to Young People, 410.
------------------------Because He Reigns, January 4
RRe	6	1	Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The Lord reigneth. 1 Chronicles 16:31.
RRe	6	2	The world that Satan has claimed and has ruled over with cruel tyranny, the Son of God has, by one vast achievement, encircled in His love, and connected again with the throne of Jehovah. Cherubim and seraphim, and the unnumbered hosts of all the unfallen worlds, sang anthems of praise to God and the Lamb when this triumph was assured. They rejoiced that the way of salvation had been opened to the fallen race, and that the earth would be redeemed from the curse of sin. How much more should those rejoice who are the objects of such amazing love!--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 104.
RRe	6	3	With eager desire all heaven had waited for the end of His tarrying in a world marred by the curse of sin. The time had now come for the heavenly universe to receive their King. . . .
RRe	6	4	With joy unutterable, rulers and principalities and powers acknowledged the supremacy of the Prince of life. . . . Songs of triumph mingle with the music from angel harps, till heaven seems to overflow with joy and praise. Love has conquered. The lost is found. Heaven rings with voices in lofty strains proclaiming, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever."
RRe	6	5	From that scene of heavenly joy, there comes back to us on earth the echo of Christ's own wonderful words, "I ascend to My Father, and your Father; and to My God and your God." The family of heaven and the family of earth are one. For us our Lord ascended, and for us He lives.--The Desire of Ages, 832-835.
------------------------Let the Righteous Be Glad, January 5
RRe	7	1	Let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. Psalm 68:3.
RRe	7	2	Whatever is done to the glory of God is to be done with cheerfulness, not with sadness and gloom. There is nothing gloomy in the religion of Jesus. If Christians give the impression by a mournful attitude that they have been disappointed in their Lord, they misrepresent His character, and put arguments into the mouth of His enemies. Though in words they may claim God as their Father, yet in gloom and sorrow they present to the world the aspect of orphans.
RRe	7	3	Christ desires us to make His service appear attractive, as it really is. Let the self-denials and the secret heart trials be revealed to the compassionate Saviour. Let the burdens be left at the foot of the cross, and go on your way rejoicing in His love who first loved you.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 88.
------------------------He Who Fears God, January 6
RRe	8	1	Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief. Proverbs 28:14.
RRe	8	2	Without the fear of God, no one can be truly happy.--Testimonies for the Church 4:435.
RRe	8	3	"God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him." Psalms 89:7.
RRe	8	4	Those who realize the greatness and majesty of God, will take His name on their lips with holy awe. He dwelleth in light unapproachable; no man can see Him and live.--Early Writings, 122.
RRe	8	5	"Wherefore ... let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." Hebrews 12:28.
RRe	8	6	True reverence for God is inspired by a sense of His infinite greatness and a realization of His presence. With this sense of the Unseen, every heart should be deeply impressed. . . . "Holy and reverend is His name," the psalmist declares. Angels, when they speak that name, veil their faces. With what reverence, then, should we, who are fallen and sinful, take it upon our lips!--Gospel Workers, 178.
------------------------He Who Trusts God, January 7
RRe	9	1	He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. Proverbs 16:20.
RRe	9	2	If we will but listen, God's created works will teach us precious lessons of obedience and trust. From the stars that in their trackless course through space, follow from age to age their appointed path, down to the minutest atom, the things of nature obey the Creator's will. And God cares for everything and sustains everything that He has created. He who upholds the unnumbered worlds throughout immensity, at the same time cares for the wants of the little brown sparrow that sings its humble song without a fear. When men go forth to their daily toil, as when they engage in prayer; when they lie down at night, and when they rise in the morning; when the rich man feasts in his palace, or when the poor man gathers his children about the scanty board, each is tenderly watched by the heavenly Father. No tears are shed that God does not notice. There is no smile that He does not mark.
RRe	9	3	If we would but fully believe this, all undue anxieties would be dismissed. Our lives would not be so filled with disappointment as now; for everything, whether great or small, would be left in the hands of God, who is not perplexed by the multiplicity of cares, or overwhelmed by their weight. We should then enjoy a rest of soul to which many have long been strangers.--Steps to Christ, 90, 91.
------------------------The Meek, January 8
RRe	10	1	The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 29:19.
RRe	10	2	Meekness is a precious grace, willing to suffer silently, willing to endure trials. Meekness is patient, and labors to be happy under all circumstances. Meekness is always thankful, and makes its own songs of happiness, making melody in the heart to God. Meekness will suffer disappointment and wrong, and will not retaliate. Meekness is not to be silent and sulky. A morose temper is the opposite of meekness; for this only wounds and gives pain to others, and takes no pleasure to itself.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 335.
RRe	10	3	A meek and quiet spirit will not be ever looking out for happiness for itself, but will seek for self-forgetfulness, and find sweet content and true satisfaction in making others happy.--Testimonies for the Church 3:536.
RRe	10	4	The world's Redeemer had a greater than angelic nature, yet united with His divine majesty were meekness and humility that attracted all to Himself. . . . The meekness of Christ, manifested in the home, will make the inmates happy; it provokes no quarrel, gives back no angry answer, but soothes the irritated temper, and diffuses a gentleness that is felt by all within its charmed circle. Wherever cherished, it makes the families of earth a part of the one great family above.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 16.
------------------------The Merciful, January 9
RRe	11	1	He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth; but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. Proverbs 14:21.
RRe	11	2	"Ye have the poor with you always," Christ said, "and whensoever ye will ye may do them good." ... In placing among them the helpless and the poor, to be dependent upon their care, Christ tests His professed followers. By our love and service for His needy children we prove the genuineness of our love for Him. To neglect them is to declare ourselves false disciples, strangers to Christ and His love.--The Ministry of Healing, 205.
RRe	11	3	Jesus sought to correct the world's false standard of judging the value of men. He took His position with the poor, that He might lift from poverty the stigma that the world had attached to it. He has stripped from it forever the reproach of scorn, by blessing the poor, the inheritors of God's kingdom.--The Ministry of Healing, 197, 198.
RRe	11	4	He dwelt among the lowly. He set at naught the artificial distinctions of society. The aristocracy of birth, wealth, talent, learning, rank, He ignored. . . . He ate with publicans and sinners, and mingled with the common people, not to become low and earthly with them, but in order by precept and example to present to them right principles, and to uplift them from their earthliness and debasement.--The Ministry of Healing, 197.
RRe	11	5	As you open your door to Christ's needy and suffering ones, you are welcoming unseen angels. You invite the companionship of heavenly beings. They bring a sacred atmosphere of joy and peace. They come with praises upon their lips, and an answering strain is heard in heaven. Every deed of mercy makes music there. The Father from His throne numbers the unselfish workers among His most precious treasures.--The Desire of Ages, 639.
------------------------At Peace with God and Man, January 10
RRe	12	1	Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellors of peace is joy. Proverbs 12:20.
RRe	12	2	He who is at peace with God and his fellow men cannot be made miserable. Envy will not be in his heart; evil surmisings will find no room there; hatred cannot exist. The heart that is in harmony with God is a partaker of the peace of heaven, and will diffuse its blessed influence on all around. The spirit of peace will rest like dew upon hearts weary and troubled with worldly strife.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 27.
RRe	12	3	"Blessed are the peacemakers." The peace of Christ is born of truth. It is harmony with God. The world is at enmity with the law of God; sinners are at enmity with their Maker; and as a result they are at enmity with one another. But the psalmist declares, "Great peace have they which love Thy law; and nothing shall offend them." Men cannot manufacture peace. Human plans for the purification and uplifting of individuals or of society will fail of producing peace, because they do not reach the heart. The only power that can create or perpetuate true peace is the grace of Christ. When this is implanted in the heart, it will cast out the evil passions that cause strife and dissension. "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree"; and life's desert "shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose."--The Desire of Ages, 302-305.
------------------------He Whose Helper Is God, January 11
RRe	13	1	Happy is he that hath the GOD of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord, his God. Psalms 146:5.
RRe	13	2	When, after his sin in deceiving Esau, Jacob fled from his father's home, he was weighed down with a sense of guilt. Lonely and outcast as he was, separated from all that had made life dear, the one thought that above all others pressed upon his soul, was the fear that his sin had cut him off from God, that he was forsaken of Heaven. In sadness he lay down to rest on the bare earth, around him only the lonely hills, and above, the heavens bright with stars. As he slept, a strange light broke upon his vision; and lo, from the plain on which he lay, vast shadowy stairs seemed to lead upward to the very gates of heaven, and upon them angels of God were passing up and down; while from the glory above, the divine voice was heard in a message of comfort and hope. Thus was made known to Jacob that which met the need and longing of his soul,--a Saviour. With joy and gratitude he saw revealed a way by which he, a sinner, could be restored to communion with God.--Steps to Christ, 22, 23.
RRe	13	3	Jacob's history is an assurance that God will not cast off those who have been betrayed into sin, but who have returned unto Him with repentance.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 202.
RRe	13	4	"Oh the bliss of him whose guilt is pardoned, and his sin forgiven! Oh the bliss of him whom the Eternal has absolved, whose spirit has made full confession!" Psalms 32:1, Moffatt.
------------------------Delight in Christ's Name, January 12
RRe	14	1	In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted. Psalms 89:16.
RRe	14	2	"The name of the Lord" is "merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, . . . forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Of the church of Christ it is written, "This is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness." This name is put upon every follower of Christ. It is the heritage of the child of God.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 106.
RRe	14	3	The disciples were to carry their work forward in Christ's name. Their every word and act was to fasten attention on His name, as possessing that vital power by which sinners may be saved. Their faith was to center in Him who is the source of mercy and power. In His name they were to present their petitions to the Father, and they would receive answer. They were to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ's name was to be their watchword, their badge of distinction, their bond of union, the authority for their course of action, and the source of their success.--The Acts of the Apostles, 28.
RRe	14	4	"They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice." Psalms 89:15, 16.
------------------------Thy Salvation, January 13
RRe	15	1	We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our GOD we will set up our banners: the Lord fulfil all thy petitions. Psalms 20:5.
RRe	15	2	All heaven is interested in our salvation. The angels of God, thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand, are commissioned to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. They guard us against evil, and press back the powers of darkness that are seeking our destruction. Have we not reason to be thankful every moment, thankful even when there are apparent difficulties in our pathway?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 63.
RRe	15	3	God desires that the receivers of His grace shall be witnesses to its power. Those whose course has been most offensive to Him He freely accepts; when they repent, He imparts to them His divine Spirit, places them in the highest positions of trust, and sends them forth into the camp of the disloyal to proclaim His boundless mercy. He would have His servants bear testimony to the fact that through His grace men may possess Christlikeness of character, and may rejoice in the assurance of His great love.--The Desire of Ages, 826.
------------------------The Law of God, January 14
RRe	16	1	I delight in the law of GOD after the inward man. Romans 7:22.
RRe	16	2	The psalmist declares of the good man, "His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night." He refers to his own experience, and exclaims, "Oh, how love I Thy law! It is my meditation all the day." "Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in Thy word."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 526.
RRe	16	3	The will of God is expressed in the precepts of His holy law, and the principles of this law are the principles of heaven. The angels of heaven attain unto no higher knowledge than to know the will of God; and to do His will is the highest service that can engage their powers.
RRe	16	4	But in heaven, service is not rendered in the spirit of legality. When Satan rebelled against the law of Jehovah, the thought that there was a law came to the angels almost as an awakening to something unthought of. In their ministry the angels are not as servants, but as sons. There is perfect unity between them and their Creator. Obedience is to them no drudgery. Love for God makes their service a joy. So in every soul wherein Christ, the hope of glory, dwells, His words are reechoed, "I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within my heart."--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 109.
------------------------The Truth, January 15
RRe	17	1	Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. 1 Corinthians 13:6.
RRe	17	2	Love "rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." He whose heart is imbued with love is filled with sorrow at the errors and weaknesses of others; but when truth triumphs, when the cloud that darkened the fair fame of another is removed, or when sins are confessed and wrongs corrected, he rejoices.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 169.
RRe	17	3	"Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." 1 Peter 1:22.
RRe	17	4	The Word of God--the truth--is the channel through which the Lord manifests His Spirit and power. Obedience to the Word produces fruit of the required quality--"unfeigned love of the brethren." This love is heaven born, and leads to high motives and unselfish actions.--The Acts of the Apostles, 520.
RRe	17	5	"Love is never glad when others go wrong, love is gladdened by goodness, always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best." 1 Cor. 13:6, 7, Moffatt.
------------------------Every Good Thing, January 16
RRe	18	1	Thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you. Deuteronomy 26:11.
RRe	18	2	God gave directions to the Israelites to assemble before Him at set periods, in the place which He should choose, and observe special days wherein no unnecessary work was to be done, but the time was to be devoted to a consideration of the blessings which He had bestowed upon them. At these special seasons, they were to bring gifts, freewill offerings, and thank offerings, unto the Lord, according as He had blessed them. The manservant and the maidservant, the stranger, the fatherless and widow, were directed to rejoice that God had by His own wonderful power brought them from servile bondage to the enjoyment of freedom.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 573.
RRe	18	3	Shall we not keep holy festivals unto God? Shall we not show that we have some enthusiasm in His service? With the grand, ennobling theme of salvation before us, shall we be as cold as statues of marble? If men can become so excited over a match game of cricket, or a horse race, or over foolish things that bring no good to anyone, shall we be unmoved when the plan of salvation is unfolded before us? Let . . . the church henceforth have festivals of rejoicing unto the Lord.--Counsels to Teachers, 371.
------------------------The Source of Every Blessing, January 17
RRe	19	1	They took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in Thy great goodness. Nehemiah 9:25.
RRe	19	2	God is the source of every blessing for His creatures, and . . . to Him man's gratitude is due for the good gifts of His providence.
RRe	19	3	"He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." . . . And it is God who gives men power to get wealth. As an acknowledgement that all things came from Him, the Lord directed that a portion of his bounty should be returned to Him in gifts and offerings to sustain His worship.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 525.
RRe	19	4	The first that ripened of every product of the land, was consecrated to Him. . . . Thus the people were constantly reminded that God was the true proprietor of their fields, their flocks, and their herds; that He sent them sunshine and rain for their seedtime and harvest, and that everything they possessed was of His creation, and He had made them stewards of His goods.--Patriarchs and Prophets. 526.
RRe	19	5	In the seventh month came the Feast of Tabernacles, or of ingathering. This feast acknowledged God's bounty in the products of the orchard, the olive grove, and the vineyard. It was the crowning festal gathering of the year. The land had yielded its increase, the harvests had been gathered into the granaries, the fruits, the oil, and the wine had been stored, the first fruits had been reserved, and now the people came with their tributes of thanksgiving to God, who had thus richly blessed them.
RRe	19	6	This feast was to be pre-eminently an occasion of rejoicing. . . The labors of the harvest being ended, and the toils of the new year not yet begun, the people were free from care, and could give themselves up to the sacred, joyous influences of the hour.--Patriarchs and Prophets. 540.
------------------------Supreme Love to God, January 18
RRe	20	1	If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles. For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God. Job 22:23, 26.
RRe	20	2	"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." The first four commandments allow no separation of the affections from God. Nor is anything allowed to divide, or share, our supreme delight in Him. Whatever divides the affections, and takes away from the soul supreme love to God, assumes the form of an idol. Our carnal hearts would cling to our idols and seek to carry them along; but we cannot advance until we put them away, for they separate us from God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 289.
RRe	20	3	If we would but think of God as often as we have evidence of His care for us, we should keep Him ever in our thoughts, and should delight to talk of Him and to praise Him. We talk of temporal things because we have an interest in them. We talk of our friends because we love them; our joys and our sorrows are bound up with them. Yet we have infinitely greater reason to love God than to love our earthly friends; and it should be the most natural thing in the world to make Him first in all our thoughts, to talk of His goodness and tell of His power.--Steps to Christ, 107.
------------------------Be Joyful that God Is My Helper, January 19
RRe	21	1	Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice. Psalms 63:7.
RRe	21	2	The Christian always has a strong helper in the Lord. The way of the Lord's helping we may not know; but this we do know: He will never fail those who put their trust in Him. Could Christians realize how many times the Lord has ordered their way, that the purposes of the enemy concerning them might not be accomplished, they would not stumble along complainingly. Their faith would be stayed on God, and no trial would have power to move them. They would acknowledge Him as their wisdom and efficiency, and He would bring to pass that which He desires to work out through them.--Prophets and Kings, 576.
RRe	21	3	We are to be one with Christ as He is one with the Father, and the Father will love us as He loves His Son. We may have the same help that Christ had, we may have strength for every emergency; for God will be our front guard and our rearward. He will shut us in on every side.--Testimonies to Ministers, 386.
RRe	21	4	"Happy the man who stays by the Most High in shelter, who lives under the shadow of Almighty God, who calls the Eternal, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust'!" Psalms 91:1, 2, Moffatt.
RRe	21	5	In his own strength man is strengthless; but in the might of God he may be strong to overcome evil and to help others to overcome. Satan can never gain advantage of him who makes God his defense.--Prophets and Kings, 175.
RRe	21	6	Then let us not cast away our confidence, but have firm assurance, firmer than ever before. "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," and He will help us to the end.--Steps to Christ, 125.
------------------------The Lord Is My Strength, January 20
RRe	22	1	The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise Him. Psalms 28:7.
RRe	22	2	The care of God is over the weakest of His children. No act of cruelty or oppression toward them is unmarked by Heaven. Over all who love and fear Him, His hand extends as a shield.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 300.
RRe	22	3	Because of the increasing power of Satan's temptations, the times in which we live are full of peril for the children of God, and we need to learn constantly of the great Teacher, that we may take every step in surety and righteousness.--Counsels to Teachers, 322.
RRe	22	4	Those who walk humbly before God, distrustful of their own wisdom, will realize their danger, and will know God's keeping care.--Counsels to Teachers, 324.
RRe	22	5	The great God, whose glory shines from the heavens, and whose divine hand upholds millions of worlds, is our Father. We have only to love Him, trust Him, as little children in faith and confidence, and He will accept us as His sons and daughters, and we shall be heirs to all the inexpressible glory of the eternal world. All the meek will He guide in judgment, the meek will He teach His way. If we will walk in obedience to His will, learning cheerfully and diligently the lessons of His providence, by and by He will say, Child, come home to the heavenly mansions I have prepared for you.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 653.
------------------------He Hath Done Great Things for Me, January 21
RRe	23	1	The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. Psalms 126:3.
RRe	23	2	"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord . . .; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." . . . Oh, what a relationship is this! higher and holier than any earthly tie. . . . God adopts you into His family; you become members of the royal household, sons and daughters of the King who rules in the heaven of heavens. Can you desire a more exalted position than is here promised? Is not this enough? Said the angel, "What could God do for the children of men more than He has already done? If such love, such exalted promises are not appreciated, could He devise anything higher, anything richer and more lofty? All that God could do, has been done for the salvation of men."--Testimonies for the Church 1:510, 511.
RRe	23	3	The Lord desires us to appreciate the great plan of redemption, to realize our high privilege as the children of God, and to walk before Him in obedience, with grateful thanksgiving. . . . He longs to see gratitude welling up in our hearts because our names are written in the Lamb's book of life, because we may cast all our care upon Him who cares for us. He bids us rejoice because we are the heritage of the Lord, because the righteousness of Christ is the white robe of His saints, because we have the blessed hope of the soon coming of our Saviour.--Christ's Object Lessons, 299.
------------------------He Is Merciful, January 22
RRe	24	1	O satisfy us early with Thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalms 90:14.
RRe	24	2	He understands our weaknesses and our temptations; and when we come to Him with broken hearts and contrite spirits, He accepts our repentance, and promises that, as we take hold of His strength to make peace with Him, we shall make peace with Him. Oh, what gratitude, what joy, should we feel that God is merciful!--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 239, 240.
RRe	24	3	It should not be difficult to remember that the Lord desires you to lay your troubles and perplexities at His feet, and leave them there. Go to Him, saying: "Lord, my burdens are too heavy for me to carry. Wilt Thou bear them for me?" And He will answer: "I will take them. With everlasting kindness will I have mercy upon thee. I will take your sins, and will give you peace. Banish no longer your self-respect; for I have bought you with the price of My blood. You are mine. Your weakened will I will strengthen. Your remorse for sin I will remove." . . . Respond to the calls of God's mercy, and say: "I will trust in the Lord and be comforted. I will praise the Lord; for His anger is turned away. I will rejoice in God, who gives the victory."--Testimonies to Ministers, 519, 520.
------------------------He Clothes Me in His Righteousness, January 23
RRe	25	1	I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10.
RRe	25	2	By the wedding garment ... is represented the pure, spotless character which Christ's true followers will possess. To the church it is given "that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white," "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." The fine linen, says the Scripture, "is the righteousness of saints." It is the righteousness of Christ, His unblemished character, that through faith is imparted to all who receive Him as their personal Saviour. . . . This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of human devising. . . . When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness.--Christ's Object Lessors, 310-312.
------------------------I Fear Not His Divine Judgment, January 24
RRe	26	1	Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of Thy judgments, O Lord. Psalms 97:8.
RRe	26	2	When "the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all," He will also "convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds." Every sinner will be brought to see and acknowledge the justice of His condemnation.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 393.
RRe	26	3	Then it will be seen that Satan's rebellion against God has resulted in ruin to himself, and to all that chose to become his subjects. He has represented that great good would result from transgression; but it will be seen that "the wages of sin is death." . . . Satan, the root of every sin, and all evil workers, who are his branches, shall be utterly cut off. An end will be made of sin, with all the woe and ruin that have resulted from it. Says the psalmist, "Thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name forever and ever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end."
RRe	26	4	But amid the tempest of divine judgment, the children of God will have no cause for fear. "The Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel." The day that brings terror and destruction to the transgressors of God's law, will bring to the obedient, "joy unspeakable, and full of glory." "Gather My saints together unto Me," saith the Lord, "those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness; for God is Judge Himself."--Patriarchs and Prophets.. 341.
------------------------My Name Is Written in Heaven, January 25
RRe	27	1	Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. Luke 10:20.
RRe	27	2	Rejoice not in the possession of power, lest you lose sight of your dependence upon God. Be careful lest self-sufficiency come in, and you work in your own strength, rather than in the spirit and strength of your Master. Self is ever ready to take the credit if any measure of success attends the work. Self is flattered and exalted, and the impression is not made upon other minds that God is all and in all. . . .
RRe	27	3	Rejoice that through Christ you have become connected with God, members of the heavenly family. While you look higher than yourself, you will have a continual sense of the weakness of humanity. The less you cherish self, the more distinct and full will be your comprehension of the excellence of your Saviour. The more closely you connect yourself with the source of light and power, the greater light will be shed upon you, and the greater power will be yours to work for God. Rejoice that you are one with God, one with Christ, and with the whole family of heaven.--The Desire of Ages, 493, 494.
------------------------Rejoice in Youth, January 26
RRe	28	1	Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Ecclesiastes 11:9.
RRe	28	2	Says the wise man, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." But do not for a moment suppose that religion will make you sad and gloomy and will block up the way to success. The religion of Christ does not obliterate or even weaken a single faculty. It in no way incapacitates you for the enjoyment of any real happiness; it is not designed to lesson your interest in life, or to make you indifferent to the claims of friends and society. It does not mantle the life in sackcloth; it is not expressed in deep-drawn sighs and groans. No, no; those who in everything make God first and last and best, are the happiest people in the world. Smiles and sunshine are not banished from their countenance.--Messages to Young People, 38.
RRe	28	3	The Lord would have all His sons and daughters happy, peaceful, and obedient. Jesus says, "My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." "These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full."--Steps to Christ, 124.
RRe	28	4	The joy of Christ in the soul is worth everything.--Testimonies to Ministers, 516.
------------------------In Prosperity, January 27
RRe	29	1	In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him. Ecclesiastes 7:14.
RRe	29	2	God has given in His Word a picture of a prosperous man,--one whose life was in the truest sense a success, a man whom both heaven and earth delighted to honor. Of his experiences Job himself says:--
RRe	29	3	"In the ripeness of my days, When the secret of God was upon my tent; When the Almighty was yet with me, And my children were about me; . . . The young men saw me and hid themselves, And the aged rose up and stood; . . . For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; And when the eye saw me, it gave witness unto me; Because I delivered the poor that cried, The fatherless also, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me; And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was as a robe and a diadem."
RRe	29	4	"The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it."--Education, 142.
RRe	29	5	The Bible condemns no man for being rich, if he has acquired his riches honestly. Not money, but the love of money, is the root of all evil. It is God who gives men power to get wealth; and in the hands of him who acts as God's steward, using his means unselfishly, wealth is a blessing, both to its possessor and to the world.--The Ministry of Healing, 212.
------------------------As Expression of Faith, January 28
RRe	30	1	Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. Proverbs 23:16.
RRe	30	2	God has given us the gift of speech that we may recite to others His dealing with us, that His love and compassion may touch other hearts, and that praise may arise from other souls also to Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvelous light.--Counsels to Teachers, 243.
RRe	30	3	The gift of speech has been greatly abused and widely perverted from its intended purpose; but let those who claim to be children of the heavenly King awake to their responsibility, and make the most of this talent.--Counsels to Teachers, 245.
RRe	30	4	It is a law of nature that our thoughts and feelings are encouraged and strengthened as we give them utterance. While words express thoughts, it is also true that thoughts follow words. If we would give more expression to our faith, rejoice more in the blessings that we know we have,--the great mercy and love of God,--we should have more faith and greater joy. No tongue can express, no finite mind can conceive, the blessing that results from appreciating the goodness and love of God. Even on earth we may have joy as a well-spring, never failing, because fed by the streams that flow from the throne of God.--The Ministry of Healing, 251-253.
------------------------In Commemoration of His Blessings, January 29
RRe	31	1	Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your GOD seven days. Leviticus 23:39, 40.
RRe	31	2	Well would it be for the people of God at the present time to have a Feast of Tabernacles,--a joyous commemoration of the blessings of God to them. As the children of Israel celebrated the deliverance that God had wrought for their fathers, and His miraculous preservation of them during their journeyings from Egypt, so should we gratefully call to mind the various ways He has devised for bringing us out from the world, and from the darkness of error, into the precious light of His grace and truth. . .
RRe	31	3	The Feast of Tabernacles was not only commemorative, but typical. It not only pointed back to the wilderness sojourn, but, as the feast of harvest, it celebrated the ingathering of the fruits of the earth, and pointed forward to the great day of final ingathering, when the Lord of the harvest shall send forth His reapers to gather the tares together in bundles for the fire, and to gather the wheat into His garner. . . . When the ransomed of the Lord shall have been safely gathered into the heavenly Canaan,--forever delivered from the bondage of the curse, under which "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now,"--they will rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 540-542.
------------------------In His Tabernacle, January 30
RRe	32	1	Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Psalms 27:6.
RRe	32	2	"Whoso offereth praise," says the Creator, "glorifieth Me." All the inhabitants of heaven unite in praising God. Let us learn the song of the angels now, that we may sing, it when we join their shining ranks. Let us say with the psalmist, "While I live, will I praise the Lord; I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being." "Let the people praise Thee, O God; let all the people praise Thee."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 289, 290.
RRe	32	3	We must carry to every religious gathering a quickened spiritual consciousness that God and His angels are there, co-operating with all true worshipers. . . . The place of worship may be very humble, but it is no less acknowledged by God. To those who worship God in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness it will be as the gate of heaven.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 362, 363.
RRe	32	4	The temple of God is opened in heaven, and the threshold is flushed with the glory which is for every church that will love God and keep His commandments. We need to study, to meditate, and to pray. Then we shall have spiritual eyesight to discern the inner courts of the celestial temple. We shall catch the themes of song and thanksgiving of the heavenly choir round about the throne. When Zion shall arise and shine, her light will be most penetrating, and precious songs of praise and thanksgiving will be heard in the assemblies of the saints.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 368.
RRe	32	5	"Happy are they who live within Thy house, praising Thee all day long!" "Better a single day within Thy courts than a thousand days outside!" Psalms 84:4, 10, Moffatt.
------------------------Always, January 31
RRe	33	1	Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4.
RRe	33	2	"Rejoice in the Lord alway." Forgetting our own difficulties and troubles, let us praise God for an opportunity to live for the glory of His name. Let the fresh blessings of each new day awaken praise in our hearts for these tokens of His loving care. When you open your eyes in the morning, thank God that He has kept you through the night. Thank Him for His peace in your heart. Morning, noon, and night, let gratitude as a sweet perfume ascend to heaven.--The Ministry of Healing, 253.
RRe	33	3	Again I say, Rejoice in the Lord. Rest in Him. You need His power, and this power you may have. Go forward firmly, valiantly, courageously. You may err in judgment, but do not lose hold on Jesus. He is wisdom, He is light, He is power. He is to you as a great Rock in a weary land. Rest under His shadow. You need wisdom, and Jesus will give it to you. Do not be unbelieving. The more you are jostled, misapprehended, misstated, misrepresented, the more evidence you have that you are doing a work for the Master, and the more closely you must cling to your Saviour. In all your difficulties be calm and undisturbed, patient and forbearing, not rendering evil for evil, but good for evil. Look to the top of the ladder. God is above it. His glory shines on every soul ascending heavenward. Jesus is this ladder. Climb up by Him, cling to Him, and ere long you will step off the ladder into His everlasting kingdom.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 130, 131.
------------------------Heavenly Joy Over Repentant Sinners, February 1
RRe	34	1	I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Luke 15:7.
RRe	34	2	Heaven is full of joy. It resounds with the praises of Him who made so wonderful a sacrifice for the redemption of the human race. Should not the church on earth be full of praise? Should not Christians publish throughout the world the joy of serving Christ? Those who in heaven join with the angelic choir in their anthem of praise must learn on earth the song of heaven, the keynote of which is thanksgiving.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 244.
RRe	34	3	Everything in heaven is noble and elevated. All seek the interest and happiness of others. No one devotes himself to looking out and caring for self. It is the chief joy of all holy beings to witness the joy and happiness of those around them.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 239.
RRe	34	4	There is no jar, no discord, there. All is health, happiness, and joy.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 81.
------------------------Rejoices in His Works, February 2
RRe	35	1	The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in His works. Psalms 104:31.
RRe	35	2	"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." Rev. 4:11.
RRe	35	3	God looked with satisfaction upon the work of His hands. All things that He had made He pronounced "very good." Gen. 1:31. Heaven and earth were filled with rejoicing. "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job 38:7.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 349.
RRe	35	4	The creation was now complete. "The heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." . . . Eden bloomed on earth. . . . No taint of sin, or shadow of death, marred the fair creation. . . . The great Jehovah had laid the foundations of the earth; He had dressed the whole world in the garb of beauty, and had filled it with things useful to man; He had created all the wonders of the land and of the sea.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 47.
RRe	35	5	Peace brooded over the world; for earth was in harmony with heaven. "God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good"; and He rested in the joy of His completed work.--The Desire of Ages, 281.
------------------------Christ Shares in Rejoicing, February 3
RRe	36	1	When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment: when He appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him. Proverbs 8:29, 30.
RRe	36	2	The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate,--a co-worker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God." Christ, the Word, the only-begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father,--one in nature, in character, in purpose,--the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of peace." His "goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." And the Son of God declares concerning Himself; "The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting. . . . When He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 34.
------------------------God Is Pleased When I Seek the Saviour, February 4
RRe	37	1	Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me. Psalms 40:13.
RRe	37	2	The Saviour longs to manifest His grace and stamp His character on the whole world. It is His purchased possession, and He desires to make men free, and pure, and holy. Though Satan works to hinder this purpose, yet through the blood shed for the world there are triumphs to be achieved that will bring glory to God and the Lamb. Christ will not be satisfied till the victory is complete, and "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied."--The Desire of Ages, 827, 828.
RRe	37	3	Desponding soul, take courage, even though you have done wickedly. Do not think that perhaps God will pardon your transgressions, and permit you to come into His presence. God has made the first advance. While you were in rebellion against Him, He went forth to seek you. With the tender heart of the shepherd He left the ninety and nine, and went out into the wilderness to find that which was lost. The soul, bruised and wounded and ready to perish, He encircles in His arms of love, and joyfully bears it to the fold of safety.--Christ's Object Lessons, 188, 189.
------------------------God Rejoices to Bestow Blessings, February 5
RRe	38	1	They shall be My people, and I will be their God. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole soul. Jeremiah 32:38, 41.
RRe	38	2	Christ's love for His children is as tender as it is strong. And it is stronger than death; for He died to purchase our salvation, and to make us one with Him, mystically and eternally one. So strong is His love that it controls all His powers, and employs the vast resources of heaven in doing His people good. It is without variableness or shadow of turning,--the same yesterday, today, and forever. Although sin has existed for ages, trying to counteract this love and obstruct its flowing earthward, it still flows in rich currents to those for whom Christ died.
RRe	38	3	God loves the sinless angels, who do His service and are obedient to all His commands; but He does not give them grace; they have never needed it; for they have never sinned. Grace is an attribute shown to undeserving human beings. We did not seek after it; it was sent in search of us. God rejoices to bestow grace upon all who hunger and thirst for it, not because we are worthy, but because we are unworthy.--Testimonies to Ministers, 519.
------------------------To Make Me His Witness, February 6
RRe	39	1	Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Deuteronomy 10:15.
RRe	39	2	God desired to make of His people Israel a praise and a glory. Every spiritual advantage was given them. God withheld from them nothing favorable to the formation of character that would make them representatives of Himself.
RRe	39	3	Their obedience to the laws of God would make them marvels of prosperity before the nations of the world. He who could give them wisdom and skill in all cunning work would continue to be their teacher, and would ennoble and elevate them through obedience to His laws. If obedient, they would be preserved from the diseases that afflicted other nations, and would be blessed with vigor of intellect. The glory of God, His majesty and power, were to be revealed in all their prosperity. They were to be a kingdom of priests and princes. God furnished them with every facility for becoming the greatest nation on the earth.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 221, 222.
RRe	39	4	Through Israel it was His design to impart rich blessings to all peoples. Through them the way was to be prepared for the diffusion of His light to the whole world.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 221.
RRe	39	5	"His glory is His children's good; His joy, His tender Fatherhood." Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 77.
------------------------God Rejoices in His Chosen People, February 7
RRe	40	1	Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. Isaiah 62:4.
RRe	40	2	If we are faithful and obedient, God will delight in us, and bless us as His own chosen peculiar people.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 693, 694.
RRe	40	3	The Lord has joined His people to Himself by a solemn covenant, He promising to be their God, and they pledging themselves to be His, and His alone. He declares, "I will betroth thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies." And again, "I am married unto you." And Paul employs the same figure in the New Testament when he says, "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."--The Great Controversy, 381.
RRe	40	4	"You shall be my 'Delight,' your land shall be my 'wedded wife,' for the Eternal takes delight in you, and your land shall again be married. As a young man weds a maiden, so your Founder marries you, and as a bridegroom thrills to his bride, so shall your God thrill to you." Isaiah 62:4-5, Moffatt.
------------------------In His Church, February 8
RRe	41	1	The Lord thy GOD in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing. Zephaniah 3:17.
RRe	41	2	The elect of God are dear to His heart. They are those whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light, to show forth His praise, to shine as lights amid the darkness of the world. . . . God loves His children with infinite love. To Him the dearest object on earth is His church.--Christ's Object Lessons, 165, 166.
RRe	41	3	During ages of spiritual darkness, the church of God has been as a city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive generations, the pure doctrines of heaven have been unfolding within its borders. Enfeeble and defective as it may appear, the church is the one object upon which God bestows in a special sense His supreme regard. It is the theater of His grace, in which He delights to reveal His power to transform hearts.--The Acts of the Apostles, 12.
------------------------God Delights in the Prayer of the Upright, February 9
RRe	42	1	The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is His delight. Proverbs 15:8.
RRe	42	2	Every soul has the privilege of stating to the Lord his own special necessities, and to offer his individual thanksgiving for the blessings that he daily receives. But the many long and spiritless, faithless prayers that are offered to God, instead of being a joy to Him, are a burden. We need, O so much! clean, converted bearts. We need to have our faith strengthened. '"Ask, and it shall be given you," the Saviour promised; "seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Matt. 7:7. We need to educate ourselves to trust in this word, and to bring the light and grace of Christ into all our works. We need to take hold of Christ, and to retain our hold of Him until we know that the power of His transforming grace is manifested in us.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 279.
RRe	42	3	God wants His children to ask for those things that will enable Him to reveal His grace through them to the world. He wants them to seek His counsel, to acknowledge His power. ... It is well for us to feel our weakness; for then we shall seek the strength and wisdom that the Father delights to give to His children for their daily strife against the powers of evil.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 284.
------------------------Those Who Follow the Truth, February 10
RRe	43	1	Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are His delight. Proverbs 12:22.
RRe	43	2	Everything that Christians do should be as transparent as the sunlight. Truth is of God; deception, in every one of its myriad forms, is of Satan; and whoever in any way departs from the straight line of truth is betraying himself into the power of the wicked one. Yet it is not a light or an easy thing to speak the exact truth. We cannot speak the truth unless we know the truth; and how often preconceived opinions, mental bias, imperfect knowledge, errors of judgment, prevent a right understanding of matters with which we have to do! We cannot speak the truth unless our minds are continually guided by Him who is truth. . . . Those who have learned of Christ will "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness." In speech, as in life, they will be simple, straightforward, and true; for they are preparing for the fellowship of those holy ones in whose mouth "was found no guile."--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 68, 69.
------------------------Unbending Integrity, February 11
RRe	44	1	A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is His delight. Proverbs 11:1.
RRe	44	2	The accounts of every business, the details of every transaction, pass the scrutiny of unseen auditors, agents of Him who never comprises with injustice, never overlooks evil, never palliates wrong.--Education, 144.
RRe	44	3	An honest man, according to Christ's measurement, is one who will manifest unbending integrity. Deceitful weights and false balances, with which many seek to advance their interests in the world, are abomination in the sight of God. . . . When a man is indeed connected with God, and is keeping His law in truth, his life will reveal the fact; for all his actions will be in harmony with the teachings of Christ. He will not sell his honor for gain. His principles are built upon the sure foundation, and his conduct in worldly matters is a transcript of his principles. Firm integrity shines forth as gold amid the dross and rubbish of the world.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, p, 310.
RRe	44	4	Those who choose honesty as their companion will embody it in all their acts. To a large class, these men are not pleasing, but to God they are beautiful.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 607.
------------------------Kindness, Justice, and Goodness, February 12
RRe	45	1	Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 9:24.
RRe	45	2	"I am the Eternal, who deals in kindness, justice, and goodness upon earth--for these are My delight." Moffatt.
RRe	45	3	No finite mind can fully comprehend the character or the works of the Infinite One. We "cannot by searching find out God. To minds the strongest and most highly cultured, as well as to the weakest and most ignorant, that holy Being must remain clothed in mystery.--Education, 169.
RRe	45	4	The apostle Paul exclaims, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" But though "clouds and darkness are round about Him," "righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne." We can so far comprehend His dealing with us, and the motives by which He is actuated, that we may discern boundless love and mercy united to infinite power. We can understand as much of His purposes as it is for our good to know; and beyond this we must still trust the hand that is omnipotent, the heart that is full of love.--Steps to Christ, 111.
------------------------Mercy, February 13
RRe	46	1	Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy. Micah 7:18.
RRe	46	2	God "delighteth in mercy." "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." To Him the work of destruction and the denunciation of judgment is a "strange work." But it is in mercy and love that He lifts the veil from the future, and reveals to men the results of a course of sin.--The Desire of Ages, 582.
RRe	46	3	The Word of God reveals His character. He Himself has declared His infinite love and pity. When Moses prayed, "Show me Thy glory," the Lord answered, "I will make all My goodness pass before thee." This is His glory. The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." He is "slow to anger, and of great kindness," "because He delighteth in mercy."--Steps to Christ, 10, 11.
------------------------Obedience to His Word, February 14
RRe	47	1	Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22.
RRe	47	2	Burnt offerings and sacrifices were not acceptable to God in ancient times, unless the spirit was right with which the gift was offered. Samuel said, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burntofferings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and hearken than the fat of rams." All the money on earth cannot buy the blessing of God, nor insure you a single victory. Many would make any and every sacrifice but the very one they should make, which is to yield themselves, to submit their wills to the will of God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 84.
RRe	47	3	"To obey is better than sacrifice." And without obedience and unselfish love, the richest offerings are too meager to be presented to the Possessor of all things.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 57.
RRe	47	4	God has commanded nothing that is unessential, and there is no other way of manifesting reverence so pleasing to Him as by obedience to that which He has spoken.--Counsels to Teachers, 111.
------------------------Deliverance from Suffering and His Wrath, February 15
RRe	48	1	He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivereth me, because He delighteth in me. Psalms 18:19.
RRe	48	2	Christ delights to take apparently hopeless material, those whom Satan has debased and through whom he has worked, and make them subjects of His grace. He rejoices to deliver them from suffering, and from the wrath that is to fall upon the disobedient.--Gospel Workers, 516.
RRe	48	3	The world is a workshop in which, through the co-operation of human and divine agencies, Jesus is making experiments by His grace and divine mercy upon human hearts. Angels are amazed as they behold the transformation of character brought about in those who yield themselves to God.--Testimonies to Ministers, 49, 50.
RRe	48	4	The leaven of truth works a change in the whole man, making the coarse refined, the rough gentle, the selfish generous. By it the impure are cleansed, washed in the blood of the Lamb. Through its life-giving power it brings all there is of mind and soul and strength into harmony with the divine life. Man with his human nature becomes a partaker of divinity. Christ is honored in excellence and perfection of character. As these changes are effected, angels break forth in rapturous song, and God and Christ rejoice over souls fashioned after the divine similitude.--Christ's Object Lessons, 102.
------------------------God Is Pleased to Order Events, February 16
RRe	49	1	Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure. Isaiah 46:10.
RRe	49	2	He that ruleth in the heavens is the one who sees the end from the beginning,--the one before whom the mysteries of the past and the future are alike outspread, and who, beyond the woe and darkness and ruin that sin has wrought, beholds the accomplishment of His own purposes of love and blessing.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 43.
RRe	49	3	The Bible shows us God in His high and holy place, not in a state of inactivity, not in silence and solitude, but surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of holy beings, all waiting to do His will. Through these messengers He is in active communication with every part of His dominion. By His Spirit He is everywhere present. Through the agency of His Spirit and His angels, He ministers to the children of men. Above the distractions of the earth He sits enthroned; all things are open to His divine survey; and from His great and calm eternity He orders that which His providence sees best.--The Ministry of Healing, 417.
------------------------To Give His Son for My Redemption, February 17
RRe	50	1	It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Isaiah 53:10.
RRe	50	2	The plan for our redemption was not an after-thought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of "the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal." It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God's throne. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great is His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."--The Desire of Ages, 22.
RRe	50	3	He who is infinite in wisdom could devise no plan for our salvation except the sacrifice of His Son. The compensation for this sacrifice is the joy of peopling the earth with ransomed beings, holy, happy, and immortal. The result of the Saviour's conflict with the powers of darkness is joy to the redeemed, redounding to the glory of God throughout eternity. And such is the value of the soul that the Father is satisfied with the price paid; and Christ Himself, beholding the fruits of His great sacrifice, is satisfied.--The Great Controversy, 652.
------------------------With His Beloved Son, February 18
RRe	51	1	Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and lo a voice from heaven saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:16, 17.
RRe	51	2	The word that was spoken to Jesus at the Jordan, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," embraces humanity. God spoke to Jesus as our representative. With all our sins and weaknesses we are not cast aside as worthless. "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." The glory that rested upon Christ is a pledge of the love of God for us. It tells us of the power of prayer,--how the human voice may reach the ear of God, and our petitions find acceptance in the courts of heaven. By sin, earth was cut off from heaven, and alienated from its communion; but Jesus has connected it again with the sphere of glory. His love has encircled man, and reached the highest heaven. The light which fell from the open portals upon the head of our Saviour, will fall upon us as we pray for help to resist temptation. The voice which spoke to Jesus says to every believing soul, "This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased."--The Desire of Ages, 113.
------------------------Those Who Fear Him, February 19
RRe	52	1	The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy. Psalms 147:11.
RRe	52	2	All heaven rejoices when weak, faulty human beings give themselves to Jesus, to live His life.--Messages to Young People, 108.
RRe	52	3	Christ has pledged Himself to be our substitute and surety, and He neglects no one. He who could not see human beings exposed to eternal ruin without pouring out His soul unto death in their behalf, will look with pity and compassion upon every soul who realizes that he can not save himself. He will look upon no trembling suppliant without raising him up. He who through His own atonement provided for man an infinite fund of moral power, will not fail to employ this power in our behalf. We may take our sins and sorrows to His feet; for He loves us. His every look and word invites our confidence.--Christ's Object Lessons, 157.
RRe	52	4	However wretched may be the specimens of humanity that men spurn and turn aside from, they are not too low, too wretched, for the notice and love of God. Christ longs to have care-worn, weary, oppressed human beings come to Him. He longs to give them the light and joy and peace that are to be found nowhere else.--Christ's Object Lessons, 226.
------------------------Those Who Do His Will, February 20
RRe	53	1	The Lord taketh pleasure in His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation. Psalms 149:4.
RRe	53	2	The closest relationship exists between God and His people. Not only are we objects of His sparing mercy, His pardoning love; we are more than this. The Lord rejoices over His people. He delights in them. He is their surety. He will beautify all who are serving Him with a whole heart, with the spirit of holiness. He clothes them with righteousness. He loves those who do His will, who express His image.--Testimonies to Ministers, 414, 415.
RRe	53	3	He is acquainted with every one connected with His service. He knows those whose hearts He can fill with the holy oil, that they may impart it to others. Those who faithfully carry forward the work of Christ in our world, representing in word and works the character of God, fulfilling the Lord's purpose for them, are in His sight very precious. Christ takes pleasure in them as a man takes pleasure in a well-kept garden and the fragrance of the flowers he has planted.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 419.
------------------------My Surrender to His Will, February 21
RRe	54	1	It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13.
RRe	54	2	Yield up your will to the will of Jesus Christ; and as you do this, God will immediately take possession, and work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Your whole nature will then be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; and even your thoughts will be subject to him. . . . You need to drink daily at the fountain of truth, that you may understand the secret of pleasure and joy in the Lord. But you must remember that your will is the spring of all your actions. This will, that forms so important a factor in the character of man, was at the fall given into the control of Satan; and He has ever since been working in man to will and to do of His own pleasure, but to the utter ruin and misery of man. But the infinite sacrifice of God in giving Jesus, His beloved Son, to become a sacrifice for sin, enables Him to say, without violating one principle of His government, "Yield yourself up to Me; give Me that will; take it from the control of Satan, and I will take possession of it; then I can work in you to will and to do of My good pleasure." When He gives you the mind of Christ, your will becomes as His will, and your character is transformed to be like Christ's character.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 514, 515.
------------------------God's Pleasure unto Zion, February 22
RRe	55	1	Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion; build Thou the walls of Jerusalem. Psalms 51:18.
RRe	55	2	The Lord has provided His church with capabilities and blessings, that they may present to the world an image of His own sufficiency, and that His church may be complete in Him, a continual representation of another, even the eternal world, of laws that are higher than earthly laws. His church is to be a temple built after the divine similitude, and the angelic architect has brought his golden measuring rod from heaven, that every stone may be hewed and squared by the divine measurement, and polished to shine as an emblem of heaven, radiating in all directions the bright, clear beams of the Sun of righteousness.--Testimonies to Ministers, 17.
RRe	55	3	It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the word of God, that Christ subdues His chosen people to Himself. In describing to His disciples the office work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus sought to inspire them with the joy and hope that inspired His own heart. He rejoiced because of the abundant help He had provided for His church.--The Desire of Ages, 671.
RRe	55	4	He rejoiced in the consciousness that He could and would do more for His followers than He had promised; that from Him would flow forth love and compassion, cleansing the soul-temple, and making men like Him in character; that His truth, armed with the power of the Spirit, would go forth conquering and to conquer.--The Acts of the Apostles, 23.
------------------------The Saviour Rejoices to Bring Rest and Peace, February 23
RRe	56	1	Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. Hebrews 1:9.
RRe	56	2	There are many who have an erroneous idea of life and character of Christ. They think that He was devoid of warmth and sunniness, that He was stern, severe, and joyless. In many cases the whole religious experience is colored by these gloomy views.
RRe	56	3	It is often said that Jesus wept, but that He was never known to smile. Our Saviour was indeed a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, for He opened His heart to all the woes of men. But though His life was self-denying and shadowed with pain and care, His spirit was not crushed. His countenance did not wear an expression of grief and repining, but ever one of peaceful serenity. His heart was a well-spring of life; and wherever He went, He carried rest and peace, joy and gladness.--Steps to Christ, 125.
------------------------In God's Will and Law, February 24
RRe	57	1	Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart. Psalms 40:7, 8.
RRe	57	2	The self-denying Redeemer, throughout His pilgrimage of love on earth, was a living representation of the character of the law of God.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 49.
RRe	57	3	From His earliest years He was possessed of one purpose; He lived to bless others.--The Desire of Ages, 70.
RRe	57	4	He manifested a patience that nothing could disturb, and a truthfulness that would never sacrifice integrity. In principle firm as a rock, His life revealed the grace of unselfish courtesy.--The Desire of Ages, 68, 69.
RRe	57	5	There were some who sought His society, feeling at peace in His presence; but many avoided Him, because they were rebuked by His stainless life. Young companions urged Him to do as they did. He was bright and cheerful; they enjoyed His presence, and welcomed His ready suggestions; but they were impatient at His scruples, and pronounced Him narrow and strait-laced. Jesus answered, It is written, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word." . . . When questioned why He did not join in the frolics of the youth of Nazareth, He said, It is written, "I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate in Thy precepts, and have respect unto Thy ways. I will delight myself in Thy statutes; I will not forget Thy word."--The Desire of Ages, 89.
------------------------In Communion with His Father, February 25
RRe	58	1	David speaketh concerning Him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope. Acts 2:25, 26.
RRe	58	2	Christ found comfort and joy in communion with His Father. Here He could unburden His heart of the sorrows that were crushing Him.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 202.
RRe	58	3	As the human was upon Him, He felt His need of strength from His Father. He had select places of prayer. He loved to hold communion with His Father in the solitude of the mountain. In this exercise, His holy, human soul was strengthened for the duties and trials of the day. Our Saviour identifies Himself with our needs and weaknesses, in that He became a suppliant, a nightly petitioner, seeking from His Father fresh supplies of strength, to come forth invigorated and refreshed, braced for duty and trial.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 201.
RRe	58	4	He studied the word of God, and His hours of greatest happiness were found when He could turn aside from the scene of His labors to go into the fields, to meditate in the quiet valleys, to hold communion with God on the mountainside, or amid the trees of the forest. The early morning often found Him in some secluded place, meditating, searching the Scriptures, or in prayer. With the voice of singing He welcomed the morning light, with songs of thanksgiving He cheered His hours of labor, and brought heaven's gladness to the toil-worn and disheartened.--The Ministry of Healing, 52.
------------------------In Loving Interest in the Human Family, February 26
RRe	59	1	Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and My delights were with the sons of men. Proverbs 8:31.
RRe	59	2	At all times and in all places Jesus manifested a loving interest in the human family, and shed about Him the light of a cheerful piety.--Messages to Young People, 406.
RRe	59	3	He reached the hearts of the people by going among them as one who desired their good. He sought them in the public streets, in private houses, on the boats, in the synagogue, by the shores of the lake, and at the marriage feast. He met them at their daily vocations, and manifested an interest in their secular affairs. He carried His instruction into the household, bringing families in their own homes under the influence of His divine presence. His strong personal sympathy helped to win hearts.--The Desire of Ages, 151.
RRe	59	4	Jesus reproved self-indulgence in all its forms, yet He was social in His nature. He accepted the hospitality of all classes, visiting the homes of the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, and seeking to elevate their thoughts from questions of commonplace life to those things that are spiritual and eternal. He gave no license to dissipation, and no shadow of worldly levity marred His conduct; yet He found pleasure in scenes of innocent happiness, and by His presence sanctioned the social gathering.--The Desire of Ages, 150, 151.
------------------------To Reveal Himself to Humble Men, February 27
RRe	60	1	In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight. Luke 10:21.
RRe	60	2	The honored men of the world, the so-called great and wise men, with all their boasted wisdom, could not comprehend the character of Christ. They judged Him from outward appearance, from the humiliation that came upon Him as a human being. But to fishermen and publicans it had been given to see the Invisible. Even the disciples failed of understanding all that Jesus desired to reveal to them; but from time to time, as they surrendered themselves to the Holy Spirit's power, their minds were illuminated. They realized that the mighty God, clad in the garb of humanity, was among them. Jesus rejoiced that though this knowledge was not possessed by the wise and prudent, it had been revealed to these humble men. Often as He had presented the Old Testament Scriptures, and showed their application to Himself and His work of atonement, they had been awakened by His Spirit, and lifted into a heavenly atmosphere. Of the spiritual truths spoken by the prophets they had a clearer understanding than had the original writers themselves. Hereafter they would read the Old Testament Scriptures, not as the doctrines of the scribes and Pharisees, not as the utterances of wise men who were dead, but as a new revelation from God. They beheld Him "whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."--The Desire of Ages, 494.
------------------------In the Spirit of Self-Sacrificing Love, February 28
RRe	61	1	These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. John 15:11.
RRe	61	2	Our Saviour's joy was in the uplifting and redemption of fallen men. For this He counted not His life dear unto Himself, but endured the cross, despising the shame.--Steps to Christ, 81.
RRe	61	3	Ever before Him He saw the result of His mission. His earthly life, so full of toil and self-sacrifice, was cheered by the prospect that He would not have all this travail for naught. By giving His life for the life of men, He would win back the world to its loyalty to God.--The Desire of Ages, 410.
RRe	61	4	The accomplishment of the mission which He had left heaven to perform, strengthened the Saviour for His labor, and lifted Him above the necessities of humanity. To minister to a soul hungering and thirsting for the truth was more grateful to Him than eating or drinking. It was a comfort, a refreshment to Him. Benevolence was the life of His soul.--The Desire of Ages, 190, 191.
RRe	61	5	The spirit of Christ's self-sacrificing love is the spirit that pervades heaven, and is the very essence of its bliss. This is the spirit that Christ's followers will possess, the work that they will do.--Steps to Christ, 81.
------------------------Happiness the Gift of God, March 1
RRe	62	1	God giveth to a man that is good in His sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner He giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit. Ecclesiastes 2:26.
RRe	62	2	God is the source of life and light and joy to the universe. Like rays of light from the sun, like the streams of water bursting from a living spring, blessings flow out from Him to all His creatures.--Steps to Christ, 81.
RRe	62	3	Look at the wonderful and beautiful things of nature. Think of their marvelous adaptation to the needs and happiness, not only of man, but of all living creatures. The sunshine and the rain, that gladden and refresh the earth, the hills and seas and plains, all speak to us of the Creator's love. . . .
RRe	62	4	"God is love," is written upon every opening bud, upon every spire of springing grass. The lovely birds making the air vocal with their happy songs, the delicately tinted flowers in their perfection perfuming the air, the lofty trees of the forest with their rich foliage of living green--all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God, and to His desire to make His children happy.--Steps to Christ, 9, 10.
------------------------Rejoice in the Gifts of Life, March 2
RRe	63	1	Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living GOD, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. 1 Timothy 6:17.
RRe	63	2	To the infinite love of the Redeemer every human being is indebted for the gifts of life. Food and raiment and shelter, body and mind and soul,--all are the purchase of His blood.--Education, 139.
RRe	63	3	All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men.--Testimonies to Ministers, 92.
RRe	63	4	Every day they are surrounded with tokens of God's love; every day they are enjoying the bounties of His providence.--Steps to Christ, 121.
RRe	63	5	The plan of redemption begins and ends with a gift.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 730.
RRe	63	6	"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." . . . And as the crowning blessing of redemption, "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 730.
RRe	63	7	He has given us the Light and Majesty of heaven, and with Him He has bestowed all the heavenly treasure. Much as He has promised us for the life to come, He bestows princely gifts in this life. As subjects of His grace, He desires us to enjoy everything that will ennoble, expand, and elevate our characters.--The Ministry of Healing, 405.
------------------------Trust in the Lord, March 3
RRe	64	1	Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. Psalms 144:15.
RRe	64	2	We should never give to the world the false impression that Christians are a gloomy, unhappy people. If our eyes are fixed on Jesus, we shall see a compassionate Redeemer, and shall catch light from His countenance. Wherever His Spirit reigns, there peace abides. And there will be joy also, for there is a calm, holy trust in God.--The Desire of Ages, 152.
RRe	64	3	"Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency." Deut. 33:29.
RRe	64	4	It was God's purpose that by the revelation of His character through Israel men should be drawn unto Him. . . . All who, like Rahab the Canaanite, and Ruth the Moabitess, turned from idolatry to the worship of the true God, were to unite themselves with His chosen people. As the numbers of Israel increased, they were to enlarge their borders, until their kingdom should embrace the world.
RRe	64	5	God desired to bring all peoples under His merciful rule. He desired that the earth should be filled with joy and peace. He created man for happiness, and He longs to fill human hearts with the peace of heaven. He desires that the families below shall be a symbol of the great family above.--Christ's Object Lessons, 290.
------------------------Immanuel, "God with Us," Has Come, March 4
RRe	65	1	Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. Zechariah 2:10.
RRe	65	2	"His name shall be called Immanuel, . . . God with us." . . .
RRe	65	3	God commanded Moses for Israel, "Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them," and He abode in the sanctuary, in the midst of His people. Through all their weary wandering in the desert, the symbol of His presence was with them. So Christ set up His tabernacle in the midst of our human encampment. He pitched His tent by the side of the tents of men, that He might dwell among us, and make us familiar with His divine character and life. "The Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father) full of grace and truth." John 1:14, R.V. margin.
RRe	65	4	Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is acquainted with our trials, and sympathizes with our griefs. Every son and daughter of Adam may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners. For in every doctrine of grace, every promise of joy, every deed of love, every divine attraction presented in the Saviour's life on earth, we see "God with us."--The Desire of Ages, 19-24.
------------------------Cleansed by His Blood, March 5
RRe	66	1	Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. Psalms 97:12.
RRe	66	2	It is not wealth or intellect that gives happiness; it is true moral worth and a sense of duty performed. You may have the overcomer's reward, and stand before the throne of Christ to sing His praises in the day when He assembles His saints; but your robes must be cleansed in the blood of the Lamb, and charity must cover you as a garment, and you be found spotless and without blemish.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 125.
RRe	66	3	"For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." Those who have an experimental knowledge of this scripture are truly happy. They consider the approbation of Heaven of more worth than any earthly amusement; Christ in them the hope of glory, will be health to the body and strength to the soul.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 566.
------------------------God Answers My Prayer, March 6
RRe	67	1	Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. John 16:24.
RRe	67	2	Pray, believe, rejoice. Sing praises to God because He has answered your prayers. Take Him at His word. "He is faithful that promised." Hebrews 10-23. Not one sincere supplication is lost. The channel is open; the stream is flowing.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 274.
RRe	67	3	The Lord has been waiting long to impart the greatest, truest joys to the heart. All those who look to Him with undivided hearts, He will greatly bless. Those who have thus looked to Him have caught more distinct views of Jesus as their sin-bearer, their all-sufficient sacrifice, and have been hid in the cleft of the Rock, to behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.--Counsels to Teachers, 369, 370.
RRe	67	4	The gifts of Him who has all power in heaven and earth are in store for the children of God. Gifts so precious that they come to us through the costly sacrifice of the Redeemer's blood; gifts that will satisfy the deepest cravings of the heart; gifts lasting as eternity, will be received and enjoyed by all who will come to God as little children. Take God's promises as your own, plead them before Him as His own words, and you will receive fulness of joy.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 133.
------------------------God Is My Source of Wisdom, March 7
RRe	68	1	Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. Proverbs 3:13.
RRe	68	2	Neither by searching the recesses of the earth, nor in vain endeavors to penetrate the mysteries of God's being, is wisdom found. It is found, rather, in humbly receiving the revelation that He has been pleased to give, and in conforming the life to His will.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 280.
RRe	68	3	Those who hunger for knowledge that they may bless their fellow men will themselves receive blessing from God. Through the study of His word their mental powers will be aroused to earnest activity.--Christ's Object Lessons, 334.
RRe	68	4	Let none think that there is no more knowledge for them to gain. The depth of human intellect may be measured; the works of human authors may be mastered; but the highest, deepest, broadest flight of the imagination cannot find out God. There is infinity beyond all that we can comprehend. We have seen only the glimmering of divine glory and of the infinitude of knowledge and wisdom; we have, as it were, been working on the surface of the mine, when rich golden ore is beneath the surface, to reward the one who will dig for it. The shaft must be sunk deeper and yet deeper in the mine, and the result will be glorious treasure. Through a correct faith, divine knowledge will become human knowledge.--Christ's Object Lessons, 113.
RRe	68	5	"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." James 1:5. Our Father in heaven is the source of life, of wisdom, and of joy.--Steps to Christ, 9.
------------------------His Wisdom Brings Pleasure, March 8
RRe	69	1	Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay Hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. Proverbs 3:17, 18.
RRe	69	2	The wise man says that Wisdom's "ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Prov. 3:17. Many cherish the impression that devotion to God is detrimental to health and to cheerful happiness in the social relations of life. But those who walk in the path of wisdom and holiness find that "godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." 1 Tim. 4:8. They are alive to the enjoyment of life's real pleasures, while they are not troubled with vain regrets over misspent hours, nor with gloom or horror of mind, as the worldling too often is when not diverted by some exciting amusement.--Counsels on Health, 627.
RRe	69	3	True religion ennobles the mind, refines the taste, sanctifies the judgment, and makes its possessor a partaker of the purity and holiness of heaven. It brings angels near, and separates us more and more from the spirit and influence of the world. It enters into all the acts and relations of life, and gives us the "spirit of a sound mind," and the result is happiness and peace.--Counsels on Health, 629, 630.
------------------------Rejoice with All Nature, March 9
RRe	70	1	Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice. Psalms 96:11, 12.
RRe	70	2	God would have His children appreciate His works, and delight in the simple, quiet beauty with which He has adorned our earthly home.--Steps to Christ, 90.
RRe	70	3	That Creator who planted the beautiful Eden for our first parents, and who has planted for us the lovely trees and flowers, and provided everything that is beautiful and glorious in nature for the human race to enjoy, designed that they should enjoy it. . . . That God who has planted these noble trees and clothed them with their rich foliage, who has given us the brilliant and beautiful shades of the flowers, and whose lovely handiwork we see in all the realm of nature, does not design to make us unhappy; He does not design that we shall have no taste, and take no pleasure in these things. It is His design that we shall enjoy them, and be happy in the charms of nature, which are of His own creating.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 588.
RRe	70	4	Let me enjoy the beauties of the kingdom of God. Let me delight in the paintings which His own fingers have colored. I may enjoy them. You may enjoy them. We may not worship them; but through them we may be directed to Him, and behold His glory who made all these things for our enjoyment.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 592, 593.
------------------------Nature Created for My Joy, March 10
RRe	71	1	Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work: I will triumph in the works of Thy hands. O Lord, how great are Thy works! and Thy thoughts are very deep. Psalms 92:4, 5.
RRe	71	2	In the loveliness of the things of nature you may learn more of the wisdom of God than the schoolmen know. On the lily's petals, God has written a message for you,--written in language that your heart can read only as it unlearns the lessons of distrust and selfishness and corroding care. Why has He given you the singing birds and the gentle blossoms, but from the overflowing love of a Father's heart, that would brighten and gladden your path of life? All that was needed for existence would have been yours without the flowers and birds, but God was not content to provide what would suffice for mere existence. He has filled earth and air and sky with glimpses of beauty to tell you of His loving thought for you. The beauty of all created things is but a gleam from the shining of His glory. If He has lavished such infinite skill upon the things of nature, for your happiness and joy, can you doubt that He will give you every needed blessing?--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 96.
------------------------In the Loveliness of Earth, March 11
RRe	72	1	All nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3:12.
RRe	72	2	As your senses delight in the attractive loveliness of the earth, think of the world that is to come, that shall never know the blight of sin and death; where the face of nature will no more wear the shadow of the curse. Let your imagination picture the home of the saved, and remember that it will be more glorious than your brightest imagination can portray. In the varied gifts of God in nature we see but the faintest gleaming of His glory. It is written, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."
RRe	72	3	The poet and the naturalist have many things to say about nature, but it is the Christian who enjoys the beauty of the earth with the highest appreciation, because he recognizes his Father's handiwork, and perceives His love in flower and shrub and tree. No one can fully appreciate the significance of hill and vale, river and sea, who does not look upon them as an expression of God's love to man.--Steps to Christ, 91.
------------------------Nature Obeys His Will, March 12
RRe	73	1	They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at Thy tokens: Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: Thou preparest them corn, when Thou hast so provided for it. Psalms 65:8, 9.
RRe	73	2	This earth is the Lord's. Here it may be seen that nature, animate and inanimate, obeys His will. . . .
RRe	73	3	How wonderfully, with what marvelous beauty, has everything in nature been fashioned. Everywhere we see the perfect works of the great Master-artist. The heavens declare His glory; and the earth, which is formed for the happiness of man, speaks to us of His matchless love. Its surface is not a monotonous plain; but grand old mountains rise to diversify the landscape. There are sparkling streams and fertile valleys, beautiful lakes, broad rivers, and the boundless ocean. God sends the dew and the rain to refresh the thirsty earth. The breezes, that promote health by purifying and cooling the atmosphere, are controlled by His wisdom. He has placed the sun in the heavens to mark the periods of day and night, and by its genial beams give light and warmth to the earth, causing vegetation to flourish.--Testimonies for the Church 5:311, 312.
RRe	73	4	I call your attention to these blessings from the bounteous hand of God. . . . Our kind heavenly Father has given us so many things to promote our happiness. ... He is the very fountain of love, the giver of blessings innumerable.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 314.
------------------------Sun of Righteousness Lights My Day, March 13
RRe	74	1	Their line is gone through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. Psalms 19:4, 5.
RRe	74	2	The lovely things of the natural world are not seen until the sun, dispelling the darkness, floods them with its light. So the treasures in the word of God are not appreciated until they are revealed by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. . . . As we study the Scriptures, we should pray for the light of God's Holy Spirit to shine upon the word, that we may see and appreciate its treasures.--Christ's Object Lessons, 113.
RRe	74	3	He whose heart has responded to the divine touch will be seeking for that which will increase his knowledge of God, and will refine and elevate the character. As the flower turns to the sun, that the bright rays may touch it with tints of beauty, so will the soul turn to the Sun of Righteousness, that heaven's light may beautify the character with the graces of the character of Christ.--The Desire of Ages, 468.
RRe	74	4	His love gives us the privilege of sitting together with Him in heavenly places. When the blessed light of the Sun of Righteousness shines into our hearts, and we rest in peace and joy in the Lord, then let us praise the Lord; praise Him who is the health of our countenance, and our God. Let us praise Him, not in words only, but by the consecration to Him of all that we are and all that we have.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 479, 480.
------------------------Light of His Spirit Shines on the Word, March 14
RRe	75	1	Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun. Ecclesiastes 11:7.
RRe	75	2	If we gaze even a moment upon the sun in its meridian glory, when we turn away our eyes, the image of the sun will appear in everything upon which we look. Thus it is when we behold Jesus; everything we look upon reflects His image, the Sun of Righteousness. We cannot see anything else, or talk of anything else. His image is imprinted upon the eye of the soul, and effects every portion of our daily life, softening and subduing our whole nature. By beholding, we are conformed to the divine similitude, even the likeness of Christ. To all with whom we associate we reflect the bright and cheerful beams of His righteousness. We have become transformed in character; for heart, soul, mind, are irradiated by the reflection of Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us. . . .
RRe	75	3	Jesus Christ is everything to us,--the first, the last, the best in everything. Jesus Christ, His Spirit, His character, colors everything; it is the warp and the woof, the very texture of our entire being. The words of Christ are spirit and life. We cannot, then, center our thoughts upon self; it is no more we that live, but Christ that liveth in us, and He is the hope of glory. Self is dead, but Christ is a living Saviour. Continuing to look unto Jesus, we reflect His image to all around us. We cannot stop to consider our disappointments, or even to talk of them: for a more pleasant picture attracts our sight,--the precious love of Jesus.--Testimonies to Ministers, 388-390.
------------------------Rejoice in the Power of God, March 15
RRe	76	1	Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men. Job 39:19, 21.
RRe	76	2	The spasmodic, fitful movements of some who claim to be Christians are well represented by the work of strong but untrained horses. When one pulls forward, another pulls back, and at the voice of the master, one plunges ahead, and the other stands immovable. If men will not move in concert in the great and grand work for this time, there will be confusion. It is not a good sign when men refuse to unite with their brethren, and prefer to act alone. ... If men wear the yoke of Christ, they cannot pull apart: they will draw with Christ. Some. . . . pull with all the power that God has given them, but they have not yet learned that they should not pull alone. Instead of isolating themselves, let them draw in harmony with their fellow laborers. Unless they do this, their activity will work at the wrong time and in the wrong way. They will often work counter to that which God would have done, and thus their work is worse than wasted.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 258, 259.
RRe	76	3	God is the embodiment of benevolence, mercy, and love. Those who are truly connected with Him, cannot be at variance with one another. His Spirit ruling in the heart will create harmony, love, and unity.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 28.
RRe	76	4	Jesus has made it possible for you to accept His love, and in happy co-operation with Him to work under its fragrant influence.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 50.
------------------------Be Happy in Useful Labor, March 16
RRe	77	1	Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. Ecclesiastes 5:18.
RRe	77	2	The habit of enjoying useful labor, once formed, will never be lost.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 336.
RRe	77	3	He who is indolent and willingly ignorant places in his pathway that which will always be an obstruction. He refuses the culture that comes from honest toil. By failing to put forth a helping hand in behalf of humanity, he robs God. His career is very different from the career which God marked out for him; for to despise useful employment encourages the lower tastes and effectually paralyzes the most useful energies of the being.
RRe	77	4	Not a few, but thousands, of human beings exist only to consume the benefits which God in His mercy bestows on them. They forget to bring the Lord gratitude offerings for the riches He has intrusted to them in giving them the fruit of the earth. They forget that God desires them, by trading wisely in the talents lent them, to be producers as well as consumers. If they had a realization of the work the Lord desires them to do as His helping hand, they would not feel it a privilege to shun all responsibility and be waited on.
RRe	77	5	Real happiness is found only in being good and doing good. The purest, highest enjoyment comes to those who faithfully fulfill their appointed duties. No honest work is degrading. It is ignoble sloth which leads human beings to look down on the simple, everyday duties of life.--Messages to Young People, 210, 211.
------------------------Labor Is a Blessing to Man, March 17
RRe	78	1	Every man also to whom GOD Hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God. Ecclesiastes 5:19.
RRe	78	2	God appointed labor as a blessing to man, to occupy his mind, to strengthen his body, and to develop his faculties. In mental and physical activity, Adam found one of the highest pleasures of his holy existence. And when, as a result of his disobedience, he was driven from his beautiful home, and forced to struggle with a stubborn soil to gain his daily bread, that very labor, although widely different from his pleasant occupation in the garden, was a safeguard against temptation, and a source of happiness.
RRe	78	3	Those who regard work as a curse, attended though it be with weariness and pain, are cherishing an error. The rich often look down with contempt upon the working classes; but this is wholly at variance with God's purpose in creating man. What are the possessions of even the most wealthy, in comparison with the heritage given to the lordly Adam? Yet Adam was not to be idle. Our Creator, who understands what is for man's happiness, appointed Adam his work. The true joy of life is found only by the working men and women.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 50.
------------------------God Gives Us The Fruit Of Our Labors, March 18
RRe	79	1	The Lord thy GOD will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good, as He rejoiced over thy fathers. Deuteronomy 30:9.
RRe	79	2	He who fed the multitudes with five loaves and two small fishes is able today to give us the fruit of our labor. He who said to the fishers of Galilee, "Let down your nets for a draught," and who, as they obeyed, filled their nets till they broke, desires His people to see in this an evidence of what He will do for them today. The God who in the wilderness gave the children of Israel manna from heaven still lives and reigns. He will guide His people, and give skill and understanding in the work they are called to do. He will give wisdom to those who strive to do their duty conscientiously and intelligently. He who owns the world is rich in resources, and will bless every one who is seeking to bless others.
RRe	79	3	We need to look heavenward in faith. We are not to be discouraged because of apparent failure, nor should we be disheartened by delay. We should work cheerfully, hopefully, gratefully, believing that the earth holds in her bosom rich treasures for the faithful worker to garner, stores richer than gold or silver. The mountains and hills are changing: the earth is waxing old like a garment; but the blessing of God, which spreads for His people a table in the wilderness, will never cease.--The Ministry of Healing, 200.
------------------------Duty Well Done Brings Happiness, March 19
RRe	80	1	Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him? Ecclesiastes 3:22.
RRe	80	2	Those who are always busy, and go cheerfully about the performance of their daily tasks, are the most happy and healthy. The rest and composure of night brings to their wearied frames unbroken slumber. The Lord knew what was for man's happiness when He gave him work to do. The sentence that man must toil for his bread, and the promise of future happiness and glory, came from the same throne. Both are blessings.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 529, 530.
RRe	80	3	Let us remember that while the work we have to do may not be our choice, it is to be accepted as God's choice for us. Whether pleasing or unpleasing, we are to do the duty that lies nearest. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."--The Ministry of Healing, 472, 473.
RRe	80	4	We are to look upon every duty, however humble, as sacred because it is a part of God's service. Our daily prayer should be, "Lord, help me to do my best. Teach me how to do better work. Give me energy and cheerfulness. Help me to bring into my service the loving ministry of the Saviour."--The Ministry of Healing, 474.
------------------------Being Faithful in Every Detail, March 20
RRe	81	1	Thou must eat them before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto. Deuteronomy 12:18.
RRe	81	2	To become a toiler, to continue patiently in well-doing which calls for self-denying labor, is a glorious work, which Heaven smiles upon. Faithful work is more acceptable to God than the most zealous and thought-to-be holiest worship. . . . Prayers, exhortation, and talk are cheap fruits, which are frequently tied on; but fruits that are manifested in good works, in caring for the needy, the fatherless, and widows, are genuine fruits, and grow naturally upon a good tree.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 24.
RRe	81	3	Success in this life, success in gaining the future life, depends upon a faithful, conscientious attention to the little things. Perfection is seen in the least, no less than in the greatest, of the works of God. The hand that hung the worlds in space is the hand that wrought with delicate skill the lilies of the field. And as God is perfect in His sphere, so we are to be perfect in ours. The symmetrical structure of a strong, beautiful character is built up by individual acts of duty. And faithfulness should characterize our life in the least as well as in the greatest of its details. Integrity in little things, the performance of little acts of fidelity and little deeds of kindness, will gladden the path of life; and when our work on earth is ended, it will be found that every one of the little duties faithfully performed has exerted an influence for good,--an influence that can never perish.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 574.
------------------------Find Joy in the Harvest, March 21
RRe	82	1	Thou hast multiplied the nation, and to him increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. Isaiah 9:3 (Margin).
RRe	82	2	"In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand." God's great covenant declares that "while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest. . . . shall not cease." In the confidence of this promise the husbandman tills and sows. Not less confidently are we, in the spiritual sowing, to labor, trusting His assurance: "So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." . . .
RRe	82	3	The wheat develops, "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." The object of the husbandman in the sowing of the seed and the culture of the plant, is the production of grain,--bread for the hungry, and seed for future harvests. So the divine Husbandman looks for a harvest. He is seeking to reproduce Himself in the hearts and lives of His followers, that through them He may be reproduced in other hearts and lives.--Education, 105, 106.
RRe	82	4	The harvest of life is character, and it is this that determines destiny, both for this life and for the life to come. . . . Love, sympathy, and kindness yield fruitage of blessing, a harvest that is imperishable.--Education, 109.
------------------------Bearing My Share of Life's Burdens, March 22
RRe	83	1	Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Psalms 128:2.
RRe	83	2	Jesus lived in a peasant's home, and faithfully and cheerfully acted His part in bearing the burdens of the household. ... He learned a trade, and with His own hands worked in the carpenter's shop with Joseph. In the simple garb of a common laborer He walked the streets of the little town, going to and returning from His humble work. He did not employ His divine power to lessen His burdens or to lighten His toil.
RRe	83	3	As Jesus worked in childhood and youth, mind and body were developed. He did not use His physical powers recklessly, but in such a way as to keep them in health, that He might do the best work in every line. He was not willing to be defective, even in the handling of tools. He was perfect as a workman, as He was perfect in character. By His own example He taught that it is our duty to be industrious, that our work should be performed with exactness and thoroughness, and that such labor is honorable. The exercise that teaches the hands to be useful, and trains the young to bear their share of life's burdens, gives physical strength, and develops every faculty. All should find something to do that will be beneficial to themselves and helpful to others. God appointed work as a blessing, and only the diligent worker finds the true glory and joy of life.--The Desire of Ages, 72.
------------------------God Provides Food, March 23
RRe	84	1	Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:9.
RRe	84	2	God has furnished man with abundant means for the gratification of natural appetite. He has spread before him, in the products of the earth, a bountiful variety of food that is palatable to the taste and nutritious to the system. Of these, our benevolent heavenly Father says that we "may freely eat." We may enjoy the fruits the vegetables, the grains, without doing violence to the laws of our being. These articles, prepared in the most simple and natural manner, will nourish the body, and preserve its natural vigor without the use of flesh-meats.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 50.
RRe	84	3	Persons who have accustomed themselves to a rich, highlystimulating diet, have an unnatural taste, and they cannot at once relish food that is plain and simple. It will take time for the taste to become natural, and for the stomach to recover from the abuse it has suffered. But those who persevere in the use of wholesome food will, after a time, find it palatable Its delicate and delicious flavors will be appreciated, and it will be eaten with greater enjoyment than can be derived from unwholesome dainties.--The Ministry of Healing, 298.
------------------------We Should Relish Our Food, March 24
RRe	85	1	Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. Ecclesiastes 9:7.
RRe	85	2	It is important that we relish the food we eat. If we cannot do this, but eat mechanically, we fail to be nourished and built up as we would be if we could enjoy the food we take into the stomach. We are composed of what we eat. In order to make a good quality of blood, we must have the right kind of food, prepared in a right manner.
RRe	85	3	It is a religious duty for those who cook to learn how to prepare healthful food in different ways, so that it may be eaten with enjoyment. . . . The eating has to do with the life. ... It is highly essential that the art of cookery be considered one of the most important branches of education. . . . Knowledge of how to prepare food healthfully, especially bread, is no mean science.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 682.
RRe	85	4	To the health and happiness of the whole family nothing is more vital than skill and intelligence on the part of the cook. By ill-prepared, unwholesome food she may hinder and even ruin both the adult's usefulness and the child's development. Or by providing food adapted to the needs of the body, and at the same time inviting and palatable, she can accomplish as much in the right as otherwise she accomplishes in the wrong direction. So, in many ways, life's happiness is bound up with faithfulness in common duties.--Education, 216.
------------------------Necessities of Life Assured, March 25
RRe	86	1	He shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. Isaiah 33:16.
RRe	86	2	Every day you are to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Be not dismayed if you have not sufficient for tomorrow. You have the assurance of His promise, "Thou shalt dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." David says, "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 110.
RRe	86	3	That God who cared for Elijah, will not pass by one of His self-sacrificing children. He who numbers the hairs of their head, will care for them; and in time of famine they shall be satisfied. While the wicked are dying from hunger and pestilence, angels will shield the righteous, and supply their wants. To him that "walketh righteously" is the promise, "Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure." "When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them."
RRe	86	4	"Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:" yet shall they that fear Him "rejoice in the Lord," and joy in the God of their salvation.--The Great Controversy, 629.
------------------------God Uses the Elements to Produce Food, March 26
RRe	87	1	He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and the herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthened man's heart. Psalms 104:14, 15.
RRe	87	2	God has bountifully provided for the sustenance and happiness of all His creatures: and if His laws were never violated, and all acted in harmony with the divine will, health, peace, and happiness, instead of misery and continual evil, would be experienced.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 368.
RRe	87	3	It is by the mighty power of the Infinite One that the elements of nature in earth and sea and sky are kept within bounds. And these elements He uses for the happiness of His creatures. His good treasure" is freely expended "to give the rain. ... in his season, and to bless all the work" of man's hands.
RRe	87	4	"He sendeth the springs into the valleys, Which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field; The wild asses quench their thirst. . . . He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, And herb for the service of man; That He may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, And oil to make his face to shine, And bread which strengthened! man's heart." Prophets and Kings, 134, 135.
------------------------Israel Rejoiced over the Fruits of Canaan, March 27
RRe	88	1	Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and making merry. 1 Kings 4:20.
RRe	88	2	Israel . . . had abundant occasion for rejoicing. The land to which the Lord had brought them was a land flowing with milk and honey. During the wilderness wandering, God had assured them that He was guiding them to a country where they need never suffer for lack of rain.--Prophets and Kings, 135.
RRe	88	3	God brought the Israelites from Egypt, that He might establish them in the land of Canaan, a pure, holy, and happy people. In the accomplishment of this object He subjected them to a course of discipline, both for their own good and for the good of their posterity. Had they been willing to deny appetite, in obedience to His wise restrictions, feebleness and disease would have been unknown among them. Their descendants would have possessed both physical and mental strength. They would have had clear perceptions of truth and duty, keen discrimination, and sound judgment.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 378.
RRe	88	4	God might as easily have provided them with flesh as with manna; but a restriction was placed upon them for their good. It was His purpose to supply them with food better suited to their wants than the feverish diet to which many had become accustomed in Egypt. The perverted appetite was to be brought into a more healthy state, that they might enjoy the food originally provided for man--the fruits of the earth, which God gave to Adam and Eve in Eden.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 378.
------------------------Israel Was Taught the Joy of Hospitality, March 28
RRe	89	1	As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. Esther 9:22.
RRe	89	2	Gratitude, rejoicing, benevolence, trust in God's love and care,--these are health's greatest safeguard. To the Israelites they were to be the very keynote of life.--The Ministry of Healing, 281.
RRe	89	3	At their sacred feasts the Lord had directed that "the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat, and be satisfied." Christ's Object Lessons, 220.
RRe	89	4	These feasts were occasions of rejoicing, made sweeter and more tender by the hospitable welcome given to the stranger, the Levite, and the poor.--The Ministry of Healing, 281.
RRe	89	5	These gatherings were to be as object lessons to Israel. Being thus taught the joy of hospitality, the people were throughout the year to care for the bereaved and the poor. And these feasts had a wider lesson. The spiritual blessings given to Israel were not for themselves alone. God had given the bread of life to them, that they might break it to the world.--Christ's Object Lessons, 220, 221.
------------------------New Converts Rejoiced to Eat Bread of Life, March 29
RRe	90	1	They, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising GOD, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Acts 2:46, 47.
RRe	90	2	Eating has much to do with religion. The spiritual experience is greatly affected by the way in which the stomach is treated. Eating and drinking in accordance with the laws of health promote virtuous actions. But if the stomach is abused by habits that have no foundation in nature, Satan takes advantage of the wrong that has been done, and uses the stomach as an enemy of righteousness, creating a disturbance which affects the entire being.--Counsels on Health, 577, 578.
RRe	90	3	God is not honored when the body is neglected or abused, and is thus unfitted for His service. To care for the body by providing for it food that is relishable and strengthening is one of the first duties of the householder. It is far better to have less expensive clothing and furniture than to stint the supply of food.--The Ministry of Healing, 322.
RRe	90	4	Let the table be made inviting and attractive, as it is supplied with the good things which God has so bountifully bestowed. Let meal-time be a cheerful, happy time. As we enjoy the gifts of God, let us respond by grateful praise to the Giver.--The Ministry of Healing, 383.
------------------------Recall with Joy the Bright Spots in Life, March 30
RRe	91	1	The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. Psalms 16:6.
RRe	91	2	Have there not been some bright spots in your experience? Have you not had some precious seasons when your heart throbbed with joy in response to the Spirit of God? When you look back into the chapters of your life-experience, do you not find some pleasant pages? Are not God's promises, like the fragrant flowers, growing beside your path on every hand? Will you not let their beauty and sweetness fill your heart with joy?--Steps to Christ, 121, 122.
RRe	91	3	The road may be rough, and the ascent steep; there may be pitfalls upon the right hand and upon the left; we may have to endure toil in our journey; when weary, when longing for rest, we may have to toil on; when faint, we may have to fight; when discouraged, we must still hope; but with Christ as our guide, we shall not fail of reaching the desired haven at last. Christ Himself has trodden the rough way before us, and has smoothed the path for our feet. And all the way up the steep road leading to eternal life are well-springs of joy to refresh the weary.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 140.
RRe	91	4	"Thou art what I get from life, O Thou Eternal, Thou Thyself art my share; fair prospects are alloted me, a blissful heritage is mine." Psalms 16:5, 6, Moffatt.
------------------------The Coming of the Lord Is My Hope, March 31
RRe	92	1	The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish. Proverbs 10:28.
RRe	92	2	The coming of the Lord has been in all ages the hope of His true followers. The Saviour's parting promise upon Olivet, that He would come again, lighted up the future for His disciples, filling their hearts with joy and hope that sorrow could not quench nor trials dim. Amid suffering and persecution, "the appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" was the "blessed hope."--The Great Controversy, 302.
RRe	92	3	From the day when the first pair turned their sorrowing steps from Eden, the children of faith have waited the coming of the Promised One to break the destroyer's power and bring them again to the lost Paradise.--The Great Controversy, 299.
RRe	92	4	To dwell forever in this home of the blest, to bear in soul, body, and spirit, not the dark traces of sin and the curse, but the perfect likeness of our Creator, and through ceaseless ages to advance in wisdom, in knowledge, and in holiness, ever exploring new fields of thought, ever finding new wonders and new glories, ever increasing in capacity to know and to enjoy and to love, and knowing that there is still beyond us joy and love and wisdom infinite--such is the object to which the Christian's hope is pointing.--Counsels to Teachers, 55.
------------------------God's Grace Is Sufficient in Persecution, April 1
RRe	93	1	He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.
RRe	93	2	While the Lord has not promised His people exemption from trials, He has promised that which is far better. He has said, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." "My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness." If you are called to go through the fiery furnace for His sake, Jesus will be by your side, even as He was with the faithful three in Babylon. Those who love their Redeemer will rejoice at every opportunity of sharing with Him humiliation and reproach. The love they bear their Lord, makes suffering for His sake sweet.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 30.
RRe	93	3	Through all our trials we have a never-failing Helper. He does not leave us alone to struggle with temptation, to battle with evil, and be finally crushed with burdens and sorrow. Though now He is hidden from mortal sight, the ear of faith can hear His voice saying, Fear not; I am with you. ... I have endured your sorrows, experienced your struggles, encountered your temptations. I know your tears; I also have wept. The griefs that lie too deep to be breathed into any human ear, I know. Think not that you are desolate and forsaken. Though your pain touch no responsive chord in any heart on earth, look unto Me, and live.--The Desire of Ages, 483.
------------------------For He Will Strengthen Me, April 2
RRe	94	1	Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10.
RRe	94	2	The Lord's care is over all His creatures. He loves them all, and makes no difference, except that He has the most tender pity for those who are called to bear life's heaviest burdens. Gods children must meet trials and difficulties. But they should accept their lot with a cheerful spirit, remembering that for all that the world neglects to bestow, God Himself will make up to them in the best of favors.--The Ministry of Healing, 199.
RRe	94	3	In all ages of the church, God's appointed messengers have exposed themselves to reproach and persecution for the truths sake. But wherever God's people may be forced to go, even though like the beloved disciple, they are banished to desert islands, Christ will know where they are, and will strengthen and bless them, filling them with peace and joy.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 227, 228.
------------------------Because of My Love for His Church, April 3
RRe	95	1	Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church. Colossians 1:24.
RRe	95	2	The apostles counted not their lives dear unto themselves, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ. Paul and Silas suffered the loss of all things. They suffered scourging, and were in no gentle manner thrown upon the cold floor of a dungeon in a most painful position, their feet elevated and fastened in the stocks. Did repinings and complaints then reach the ear of the jailer? Oh, no. From the inner prison, voices broke the silence of midnight with songs of joy and praises to God. These disciples were cheered by a deep and earnest love for the cause of their Redeemer, for which they suffered.
RRe	95	3	As the truth of God fills our hearts, absorbs our affections, and controls our lives, we also will count it joy to suffer for the truth's sake. No prison walls, no martyr's stake, can then daunt or hinder us in the great work.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 406, 407.
RRe	95	4	"Mark all this and be glad, O folk forlorn, take heart, O worshipers of God; the Eternal listens to a life in need, he never overlooks his own in prison." Psalms 69:32, 33, Moffatt.
------------------------Because I Am Counted Worthy to Suffer, April 4
RRe	96	1	And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. Acts 5:40, 41.
RRe	96	2	As men seek to come into harmony with God, they will find that the offense of the cross has not ceased. Principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high places are arrayed against all who yield obedience to the law of heaven. Therefore, so far from causing grief, persecution should bring joy to the disciples of Christ; for it is an evidence that they are following in the steps of their Master. . . .
RRe	96	3	In all ages Satan has persecuted the people of God. He has tortured them and put them to death; but in dying they became conquerors. They revealed in their steadfast faith a mightier One than Satan. Satan could torture and kill the body, but he could not touch the life that was hid with Christ in God. He could incarcerate in prison walls, but he could not bind the spirit. They could look beyond the gloom to the glory, saying: "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 30.
------------------------For It "Worketh Patience," April 5
RRe	97	1	My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diver's temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. James 1:2, 3.
RRe	97	2	The bright and cheerful side of our religion will be represented by all who are daily consecrated to God. We should not dishonor God by the mournful relation of trials that appear grievous. All trials that are received as educators will produce joy. The whole religious life will be uplifting, elevating, ennobling, fragrant with good words and works. The enemy is well pleased to have souls depressed, downcast, mourning and groaning; he wants just such impressions made as to the effect of our faith. But God designs that the mind shall take no low level. He desires every soul to triumph in the keeping power of the Redeemer.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 365, 366.
RRe	97	3	The trial of faith is more precious than gold. All should learn that this is a part of discipline in the school of Christ, which is essential to purify and refine them from the dross of earthliness. They must endure with fortitude the taunts and attacks of enemies, and overcome all obstacles that Satan may place in their path to hedge up the way.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 578.
RRe	97	4	"Happy is he who has thy discipline and thine instruction, training him calmly to wait on, in adversity, till a pit is dug for ungodly men!" Psalms 94:12, Moffatt.
------------------------Suffer with Joy When Walking with God, April 6
RRe	98	1	That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of GOD; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Colossians 1:10, 11.
RRe	98	2	In the religious life of every soul who is finally victorious, there will be scenes of terrible, perplexity and trial; but his knowledge of the Scriptures will enable him to bring to mind the encouraging promises of God, which will comfort his heart, and strengthen his faith in the power of the Mighty One.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 578.
RRe	98	3	In all ages God's appointed witnesses have exposed themselves to reproach and persecution for the truth's sake. . . . These examples of human steadfastness bear witness to the faithfulness of God's promises,--of His abiding presence and sustaining grace. They testify to the power of faith to withstand the powers of the world. It is the work of faith to rest in God in the darkest hour, to feel, however sorely tried and tempest tossed, that our Father is at the helm. The eye of faith alone can look beyond the things of time to estimate aright the worth of the eternal riches.--The Acts of the Apostles, 575, 576.
RRe	98	4	Then talk of the promises; talk of Jesus' willingness to bless. He does not forget us for one brief moment. When notwithstanding disagreeable circumstances, we rest confidingly in His love, and shut ourselves in with Him, the sense of His presence will inspire a deep, tranquil joy.--The Ministry of Healing, 488.
------------------------When His Spirit Works Through Me, April 7
RRe	99	1	The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22, 23.
RRe	99	2	"Charity suffereth long, and is kind. Charity envieth not." The divine love ruling in the heart exterminates pride and selfishness. "Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." The purest joy springs from the deepest humiliation. The strongest and noblest characters rest upon the foundation of patience and love, and trusting submission to the will of God.
RRe	99	3	"Charity doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil." The heart in which love rules, will not be filled with passion or revenge, by injuries which pride and self-love would deem unbearable. Love is unsuspecting, ever placing the most favorable construction upon the motives and acts of others. . . .
RRe	99	4	Love not only bears with others' faults, but cheerfully submits to whatever suffering or inconvenience, such forbearance makes necessary. This love "never faileth." It can never lose its value; it is the attribute of Heaven. As a precious treasure, it will be carried by its possessor through the portals of the city of God.
RRe	99	5	The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace. Discord and strife are the work of Satan and the fruit of sin. . . . Let each ask himself: Do I possess the grace of love? Have I learned to suffer long, and to be kind?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 168, 169.
------------------------The Prophets' Examples Encourage Me, April 8
RRe	100	1	Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. James 5:10, 11.
RRe	100	2	Patience as well as courage has its victories. By meekness under trial, no less than by boldness in enterprise, souls may be won to Christ. The Christian who manifests patience and cheerfulness under bereavement and suffering, who meets even death itself with the peace and calmness of an unwavering faith, may accomplish for the gospel more than he could have effected by a long life of faithful labor. Often when the servant of God is withdrawn from active duty, the mysterious providence which our short-sighted vision would lament, is designed by God to accomplish a work that otherwise would never have been done.--The Acts of the Apostles, 465.
RRe	100	3	Not in freedom from trial, but in the midst of it, is Christian character developed. Exposure to rebuffs and opposition leads the follower of Christ to greater watchfulness, and more earnest prayer to the mighty Helper. Severe trial endured by the grace of God develops patience, vigilance, fortitude, and a deep and abiding trust in God. It is the triumph of the Christian faith that it enables its follower to suffer and be strong; to submit, and thus to conquer; to be killed all the day long, and yet to live; to bear the cross, and thus to win the crown of glory.--The Acts of the Apostles, 467, 468.
------------------------When I Bear the Reproach of Christ, April 9
RRe	101	1	If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified. 1 Peter 4:14.
RRe	101	2	The world loves sin, and hates righteousness, and this was the cause of its hostility to Jesus. All who refuse His infinite love, will find Christianity a disturbing element. The light of Christ sweeps away the darkness that covers their sins, and the need of reform is made manifest. While those who yield to the influence of the Holy Spirit begin war with themselves, those who cling to sin war against the truth and its representatives.
RRe	101	3	Thus strife is created, and Christ's followers are accused as troublers of the people. But it is fellowship with God that brings them the world's enmity. They are bearing the reproach of Christ. They are treading the path that has been trodden by the noblest of the earth. Not with sorrow, but with rejoicing, should they meet persecution. Each fiery trial is God's agent for their refining. Each is fitting them for their work as co-laborers with Him. Each conflict has its place in the great battle for righteousness, and each will add to the joy of the final triumph. Having this in view, the test of their faith and patience will be cheerfully accepted rather than dreaded and avoided.--The Desire of Ages, 306.
------------------------His Workers Possess All Things of Eternal Value, April 10
RRe	102	1	We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive nor the grace of God in vain. As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. 2 Corinthians 6:1, 10.
RRe	102	2	We are in a world of suffering. Difficulty, trial, and sorrow await us all along the way to the heavenly home. But there are many who make life's burdens doubly heavy by continually anticipating trouble. If they meet with adversity or disappointment, they think that everything is going to ruin, that theirs is the hardest lot of all, that they are surely coming to want. Thus they bring wretchedness upon themselves, and cast a shadow upon all around them. Life itself becomes a burden to them. But it need not be thus. It will cost a determined effort to change the current of their thought. But the change can be made. Their happiness, both for this life and for the life to come, depends upon their fixing their minds upon cheerful things. Let them look away from the dark picture, which is imaginary, to the benefits which God has strewn in their pathway, and beyond these to the unseen and eternal.--The Ministry of Healing, 247, 248.
RRe	102	3	All who are pursuing the onward Christian course, should have, and will have, an experience that is living, that is new and interesting. A living experience is made up of daily trials, conflicts, and temptations, strong efforts and victories, and great peace and joy gained through Jesus.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 579.
------------------------All Experiences are God's Workmen, April 11
RRe	103	1	Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. Ecclesiastes 7:3.
RRe	103	2	All our sufferings and sorrows, all our temptations and trials, all our sadness and griefs, all our persecutions and privations, in short, all things work together for our good. All experiences and circumstances are God's workmen whereby good is brought to us.--The Ministry of Healing, 489.
RRe	103	3	It may be that much work needs to be done in your character building, that you are a rough stone which must be squared and polished before it can fill a place in God's temple. You need not be surprised if with hammer and chisel God cuts away the sharp corners of your character, until you are prepared to fill the place He has for you. No human being can accomplish this work. Only by God can it be done. And be assured that He will not strike one useless blow. His every blow is struck in love, for your eternal happiness. He knows your infirmities, and works to restore, not to destroy.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 264.
------------------------When Continuing in Prayer, April 12
RRe	104	1	Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. Romans 12:12.
RRe	104	2	"Happy is the man whom God correcteth. . . . He maketh sore, and bindeth up; He woundeth, and His hands make whole. He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee." To every stricken one, Jesus comes with the ministry of healing. The life of bereavement, pain, and suffering may be brightened by precious revealings of His presence.
RRe	104	3	God would not have us remain pressed down by dumb sorrow, with sore and breaking hearts. He would have us look up, and behold His dear face of love. The blessed Saviour stands by many whose eyes are so blinded by tears that they do not discern Him. He longs to clasp our hands, to have us look to Him in simple faith, permitting Him to guide us. His heart is open to our griefs, our sorrows, and our trials. He has loved us with an everlasting love, and with loving-kindness compassed us about. We may keep the heart stayed upon Him, and meditate upon His loving-kindness all the day. He will lift the soul above the daily sorrow and perplexity, into a realm of peace. Think of this, children of suffering and sorrow, and rejoice in hope.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 12.
------------------------God Permits Affliction, April 13
RRe	105	1	Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Psalms 90:15.
RRe	105	2	Let me assure you that the struggles and conflicts which must be endured in the discharge of duty, the self-denials and sacrifices which must be made if we are faithful to Christ, are not created by Him. They are not imposed by arbitrary or unnecessary command; they do not come from the severity of the life which He requires us to lead in His service. Trials would exist in greater power and number, were we to refuse obedience to Christ, and become the servants of Satan and the slaves of sin.
RRe	105	3	Jesus invites us to come to Him, and He will lift the weights from our weary shoulders, and place upon us His yoke, which is easy, and His burden, which is light. The path in which He invites us to walk would never have cost us a pang, had we always walked in it. It is when we stray from the path of duty that the way becomes difficult and thorny. The sacrifices which we must make in following Christ are only so many steps to return to the path of light, of peace and happiness.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 558.
------------------------For My Profit, April 14
RRe	106	1	Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. Psalms 51:8.
RRe	106	2	It is true that God loves us, that He is working for our happiness, and that, if His law had always been obeyed, we should never have known suffering; and it is no less true that, in this world, as the result of sin, suffering, trouble, burdens, come to every life. . . . This world is not a parade-ground, but a battle-field. All are called to endure hardness, as good soldiers.--Education, 295.
RRe	106	3	Our sorrows do not spring out of the ground. God "doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." When He permits trials and afflictions, it is "for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness." If received in faith, the trial that seems so bitter and hard to bear will prove a blessing. The cruel blow that blights the joys of earth will be the means of turning our eyes to heaven. How many there are who would never have known Jesus had not sorrow led them to seek comfort in Him!--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 10.
RRe	106	4	The true way of dealing with trial is not by seeking to escape it, but by transforming it. . . . Painful it must be to the lower nature, crossing, as it does, the natural desires and inclinations; but the pain may be lost sight of in a higher joy.--Education, 295, 296.
------------------------The Lord Is Tender and Patient, April 15
RRe	107	1	I will be glad and rejoice in Thy mercy: for Thou hast considered my trouble; Thou hast known my soul in adversities. Psalms 31:7.
RRe	107	2	O, how precious is the sweet influence of the Spirit of God as it comes to depressed or despairing souls, encouraging the faint-hearted, strengthening the feeble, and imparting courage and help to the tried servants of the Lord! O, what a God is ours, who deals gently with the erring, and manifests His patience and tenderness in adversity, and when we are overwhelmed with some great sorrow!--Patriarchs and Prophets, 657.
RRe	107	3	The Lord permits trials in order that we may be cleansed from earthliness, from selfishness, from harsh, unchristlike traits of character. He suffers the deep waters of affliction to go over our souls, in order that we may know Him, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, in order that we may have deep heart-longings to be cleansed from defilement, and may come forth from the trial purer, holier, happier.--Christ's Object Lessons, 175.
------------------------He Desires to Refine Even Me, April 16
RRe	108	1	Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth, therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. Job 5:17.
RRe	108	2	Many of your afflictions have been visited upon you in the wisdom of God, to bring you closer to the throne of grace. He softens and subdues His children by sorrows and trials. This world is God's work-shop, where He fashions us for the courts of Heaven. He uses the planing-knife upon our quivering hearts until the roughness and irregularities are removed, and we are fitted for our proper places in the heavenly building. Through tribulation and distress, the Christian becomes purified and strengthened, and develops a character after the model that Christ has given.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 143.
RRe	108	3	The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious, which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. He does not cast worthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines.--The Ministry of Healing, 471.
RRe	108	4	"Ah, happy he whom God is chastening! Spurn not the discipline of the Almighty; He binds up where He wounds. He hurts and heals." Job 5:17, Moffatt.
------------------------That I Learn The Guilt and Woe of Sin, April 17
RRe	109	1	Unless Thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. Psalms 119:92.
RRe	109	2	Christ's true disciples follow Him through sore conflicts, enduring self-denial and experiencing bitter disappointments; but this teaches them the guilt and woe of sin, and they are led to look upon it with abhorrence.--The Acts of the Apostles, 590.
RRe	109	3	"Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet Thy commandments are my delights." Psalms 119:143.
RRe	109	4	God has given us His holy precepts, because He loves mankind. To shield us from the results of transgression, He reveals the principles of righteousness. The law is an expression of the thought of God; when received in Christ, it becomes our thought. It lifts us above the power of natural desires and tendencies, above temptations that lead to sin. God desires us to be happy, and He gave us the precepts of the law that in obeying them we might have joy.--The Desire of Ages, 307, 308.
------------------------That God Is My Strength, April 18
RRe	110	1	Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. 2 Corinthians 7:4.
RRe	110	2	All who stand unshrinkingly in the forefront of the battle, must feel the special warfare of Satan against them. As they realize his attacks, they will flee to the Stronghold. They feel their need of special strength from God, and they labor in his strength; therefore the victories they gain do not exalt them, but lead them in faith to lean more securely upon the Mighty One. Deep and fervent gratitude to God is awakened in their hearts, and they are joyful in the tribulation which they experience while pressed by the enemy. These willing servants are gaining an experience and forming a character which will do honor to the cause of God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 510.
RRe	110	3	"I am overflowing with delight, for all the trouble I have to bear." 2 Cor. 7:4, Moffatt.
RRe	110	4	Let me know that Jesus smiles upon me; let me know that He approves my actions and my course, and then let come what may, let affliction be ever so great, I will be resigned to my lot and rejoice in the Lord.--"The Graces of the Spirit," Review and Herald, Dec. 21, 1886.
------------------------That We May Be Able to Comfort Others, April 19
RRe	111	1	Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 2 Corinthians 1:3, 4.
RRe	111	2	Many were the messages of comfort given the church by the prophets of old. "Comfort ye, comfort ye My people," was Isaiah's commission from God; and with the commission were given wonderful visions that have been the believers' hope and joy through all the centuries that have followed. Despised of men, persecuted, forsaken, God's children in every age have nevertheless been sustained by His sure promises. By faith they have looked forward to the time when He will fulfill to His church the assurance, "I will make thee an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations."--Prophets and Kings, 722, 723.
RRe	111	3	Then let us not mourn and grieve because in this life we are not free from disappointments and afflictions. If in the providence of God we are called upon to endure trials, let us accept the cross, and drink the bitter cup, remembering that it is a Father's hand that holds it to our lips. Let us trust Him in the darkness as well as in the day. Can we not believe that He will give us everything that is for our good? "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Even in the night of affliction, how can we refuse to lift heart and voice in grateful praise, when we remember the love to us expressed by the cross of Calvary?--Testimonies for the Church,vol. 5, 316.
RRe	111	4	"Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted." Isa. 49:13.
------------------------Joy for Sorrow When Jesus Came Forth, April 20
RRe	112	1	Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. John 16:20.
RRe	112	2	When they should see their Lord betrayed and crucified, the disciples would mourn and fast. In His last words to them in the upper chamber, He said, "A little while, and ye shall not see Me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy."
RRe	112	3	When He should come forth from the tomb, their sorrow would be turned to joy. After His ascension He was to be absent in person; but through the Comforter He would still be with them, and they were not to spend their time in mourning. This was what Satan wanted. He desired them to give the world the impression that they had been deceived and disappointed; but by faith they were to look to the sanctuary above, where Jesus was ministering for them; they were to open their hearts to the Holy Spirit, His representative, and to rejoice in the light of His presence.--The Desire of Ages, 277.
------------------------Everlasting Joy, April 21
RRe	113	1	Ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. John 16:22.
RRe	113	2	The last hope of the disciples seemed swept away as Jesus died. Many of His followers witnessed the scene of His sufferings and death, and their cup of sorrow was full.--Early Writings, 178.
RRe	113	3	Lonely hours they spent in weeping over their disappointment. They had expected that Jesus would reign a temporal Prince, but their hopes had died with Him. In their sorrow and disappointment, they doubted whether He had not deceived them. Even His mother wavered in her faith in Him as the Messiah.--Early Writings, 180.
RRe	113	4	Jesus arose from the dead, a triumphant conqueror. In solemn awe the angelic host gazed upon the scene. And as Jesus came forth from the sepulcher, those shining angels prostrated themselves to the earth in worship, and hailed Him with songs of victory and triumph.--Early Writings, 182.
RRe	113	5	Jesus remained with His disciples forty days, causing them joy and gladness of heart as He opened to them more fully the realities of the kingdom of God.--Early Writings, 189.
RRe	113	6	His anxious followers gladly listened to His teachings, eagerly feasting upon every word which fell from His holy lips, Now they certainly knew that He was the Saviour of the world. . . .
RRe	113	7	Their hearts were warmed with love and exceeding joy, as Jesus told them that He would go and prepare mansions for them, and come again and receive them, that they might be ever with Him.--Early Writings, 190.
------------------------When God Leads Me, April 22
RRe	114	1	Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. Jeremiah 31:13.
RRe	114	2	"Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." 1 Sam. 7:12.
RRe	114	3	Let us look to the monumental pillars, reminders of what the Lord has done to comfort us and to save us from the hand of the destroyer. Let us keep fresh in our memory all the tender mercies that God has shown us,--the tears He has wiped away, the pains He has soothed, the anxieties removed, the fears dispelled, the wants supplied, the blessings bestowed,--thus strengthening ourselves for all that is before us through the remainder of our pilgrimage.
RRe	114	4	We can but look forward to new perplexities in the coming conflict, but we may look on what is past as well as on what is to come, and say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." The trial will not exceed the strength that shall be given us to bear it. Then let us take up our work just where we find it, believing that whatever may come, strength proportionate to the trial will be given.
RRe	114	5	And by and by the gates of heaven will be thrown open to admit God's children, and from the lips of the King of glory the benediction will fall on their ears like richest music, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."--Steps to Christ, 130, 131.
------------------------When I Trust in Him, April 23
RRe	115	1	Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness. Psalms 30:11.
RRe	115	2	Not all that this world bestows can heal a broken heart, or impart peace of mind, or remove care, or banish disease. Fame, genius, talent,--all are powerless to gladden the sorrowful heart or to restore the wasted life. The life of God in the soul is man's only hope.
RRe	115	3	The love which Christ diffuses through the whole being is a vitalizing power. Every vital part--the brain, the heart, the nerves--it touches with healing. By it the highest energies of the being are roused to activity. It frees the soul from the guilt and sorrow, the anxiety and care, that crush the life forces. With it come serenity and composure. It implants in the soul joy that nothing earthly can destroy,--joy in the Holy Spirit,--healthgiving, life-giving joy.--The Ministry of Healing, 115.
RRe	115	4	When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the light of heaven. No one sees the hand that lifts the burden, or beholds the light descend from the courts above. The blessing comes when, by faith, the soul surrenders itself to God.--The Desire of Ages, 172, 173.
------------------------When There Is True Repentance, April 24
RRe	116	1	To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. Isaiah 61:3.
RRe	116	2	While we sorrow on account of sin, we are to rejoice in the precious privilege of being children of God.
RRe	116	3	We often sorrow because our evil deeds bring unpleasant consequences to ourselves; but this is not repentance. Real sorrow for sin is the result of the working of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit reveals the ingratitude of the heart that has slighted and grieved the Saviour, and brings us in contrition to the foot of the cross. By every sin, Jesus is wounded afresh; and as we look upon Him whom we have pierced, we mourn for the sins that have brought anguish upon Him. Such mourning will lead to the renunciation of sin. . . .
RRe	116	4	The tears of the penitent are only the rain-drops that precede the sunshine of holiness. This sorrow heralds a joy which will be a living fountain in the soul. "Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou has transgressed against the Lord thy God"; "and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful, saith the Lord." "Unto them that mourn in Zion," He has appointed to give "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."--The Desire of Ages, 300, 301.
------------------------We Have Been Forewarned of Trials, April 25
RRe	117	1	Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. Luke 6:21.
RRe	117	2	"When men shall revile you and persecute you," said Jesus, "rejoice and be exceeding glad." And He pointed His hearers to the prophets who had spoken in the name of the Lord, as "an example of suffering and affliction, and of patience." Abel, the very first Christian of Adam's children, died a martyr. Enoch walked with God, and the world knew him not. Noah was mocked as a fanatic and alarmist. "Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment." "Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection."--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 33.
RRe	117	3	Remember that this earth is not heaven. Christ has declared: "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." . . . Jesus has not left you to be amazed at the trials and difficulties you meet. He has told you all about them, and He has told you also not to be cast down and oppressed when trials come. Look to Jesus, your Redeemer, and be cheerful and rejoice.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 127, 128.
------------------------God Only Permits Sorrow, April 26
RRe	118	1	The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10:22.
RRe	118	2	"The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: He bringeth low, and lifteth up." 1 Sam. 2:7.
RRe	118	3	In the midst of prosperity lurks danger. Throughout the ages, riches and honor have ever been attended with peril to humility and spirituality. It is not the empty cup that we have difficulty in carrying; it is the cup full to the brim that must be carefully balanced. Affliction and adversity may cause sorrow; but it is prosperity that is most dangerous to spiritual life. Unless the human subject is in constant submission to the will of God, unless he is sanctified by the truth, prosperity will surely arouse the natural inclination to presumption. . . .
RRe	118	4	Whenever pride and ambition are indulged, the life is marred; for pride, feeling no need, closes the heart against the infinite blessings of Heaven. He who makes self-glorification his aim will find himself destitute of the grace of God, through whose efficiency the truest riches and the most satisfying joys are won. But he who gives all and does all for Christ will know the fulfillment of the promise, "The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it." With the gentle touch of grace, the Saviour banishes from the soul unrest and unholy ambition, changing enmity to love, and unbelief to confidence. When He speaks to the soul, saying, "Follow Me," the spell of the world's enchantment is broken. At the sound of His voice, the spirit of greed and ambition flees from the heart, and men arise, emancipated, to follow Him.--Prophets and Kings, 59, 60.
------------------------Reward of Suffering Is Righteousness, April 27
RRe	119	1	Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: but nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Hebrews 12:11.
RRe	119	2	The trials to which Christians are subjected in sorrow, adversity, and reproach, are the means appointed of God to separate the chaff from the wheat. Our pride, selfishness, evil passions, and love of worldly pleasure, must all be overcome; therefore God sends us afflictions to test and prove us, and show us that these evils exist in our characters. We must overcome through His strength and grace, that we may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
RRe	119	3	"For our light affliction," says Paul, "which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Afflictions, crosses, temptations, adversity, and our varied trials, are God's workmen to refine us, sanctify us, and fit us for the heavenly garner.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 115.
RRe	119	4	The precious Saviour will send help just when we need it. The way to heaven is consecrated by His footprints. Every thorn that wounds our feet has wounded His. Every cross that we are called to bear, He has borne before us. The Lord permits conflicts, to prepare the soul for peace.--The Great Controversy, 633.
------------------------A Share in Christ's Glory, April 28
RRe	120	1	Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:12, 13.
RRe	120	2	Follow your Saviour through evil as well as good report; count it all joy, and a sacred honor, to bear the cross of Christ. Jesus loves you. He died for you.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 237.
RRe	120	3	The Majesty of Heaven, the King of glory, left His riches, His splendor, His honor and glory, and, in order to save sinful man, condescended to a life of humility, poverty, and shame; "who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame." Oh, why are we so sensitive to trial and reproach, to shame and suffering, when our Lord has given us such an example? Who would wish to enter into the joy of their Lord while they were unwilling to partake of His sufferings? What! the servant unwilling to bear the humility and shame and reproach which the Master bore unselfishly for him! the servant shrinking from a life of humility and sacrifice which is for his own eternal happiness, by which he may finally obtain an exceedingly great, an eternal reward! The language of my heart is, let me be a partaker with Christ of His sufferings, that I may finally share with Him the glory.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 490, 491
------------------------Salvation, April 29
RRe	121	1	Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. 1 Peter 1:5, 6.
RRe	121	2	In this life we must meet fiery trials and make costly sacrifices, but the peace of Christ is the reward. There has been so little self-denial, so little suffering for Christ's sake, that the cross is almost entirely forgotten. We must be partakers with Christ of His sufferings, if we would sit down in triumph with Him on His throne. So long as we choose the easy path of self-indulgence, and are frightened at self-denial, our faith will never become firm, and we cannot know the peace of Jesus, nor the joy that comes through conscious victory. The most exalted of the redeemed host that stand before the throne of God and the Lamb, clad in white, know the conflict of overcoming, for they have come up through great tribulation.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 215.
RRe	121	3	"You will rejoice then, though for the passing moment you may need to suffer various trials; that is only to prove your faith is sterling, . . . and it redounds to your praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. You never knew Him, but you love Him; for the moment you do not see Him, but you believe in Him, and you will thrill with an unspeakable and glorious joy to obtain the outcome of your faith in the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:6-9, Moffatt.
------------------------A Reward in Heaven, April 30
RRe	122	1	Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:11, 12.
RRe	122	2	"Great is the reward in heaven" of those who are witnesses for Christ through persecution and reproach. While the people are looking for earthly good, Jesus points them to a heavenly reward. But He does not place it all in the future life; it begins here. The Lord appeared of old time to Abraham, and said, "I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." This is the reward of all who follow Christ. Jehovah Emmanuel--He "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," in whom dwells "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"--to be brought into sympathy with Him, to know Him, to possess Him, as the heart opens more and more to receive His attributes; to know His love and power, to possess the unsearchable riches of Christ, to comprehend more and more "what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God,"--"this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord."
RRe	122	3	It was this joy that filled the hearts of Paul and Silas when they prayed and sang praises to God at midnight in the Philippian dungeon. Christ was beside them there, and the light of His presence irradiated the gloom with the glory of the courts above. From Rome, Paul wrote, unmindful of his fetters as he saw the spread of the gospel, "I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." And the very words of Christ upon the mount were re-echoed in Paul's message to the Philippian church, in the midst of their persecutions, "Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice."--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 35.
------------------------Be of Good Cheer Because He Has Forgiven My Sins, May 1
RRe	123	1	Behold, they brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. Matthew 9:2.
RRe	123	2	This paralytic had lost all hope of recovery. His disease was the result of a sinful life, and his sufferings were embittered by remorse. . . . His great desire was relief from the burden of sin. He longed to see Jesus, and receive the assurance of forgiveness and peace with heaven. Then he would be content to live or to die, according to God's will. . . .
RRe	123	3	He besought his friends to carry him on his bed to Jesus, and this they gladly undertook to do. But so dense was the crowd that had assembled in and about the house where the Saviour was, that it was impossible for the sick man and his friends to reach Him. . . .
RRe	123	4	Again and again the bearers of the paralytic tried to push their way through the crowd, but in vain. The sick man looked about him in unutterable anguish. How could he relinquish hope, when the longed-for help was so near? At his suggestion his friends bore him to the top of the house, and breaking up the roof, let him down at the feet of Jesus.
RRe	123	5	The discourse was interrupted. The Saviour looked upon the mournful countenance, and saw the pleading eyes fixed upon Him. Well He knew the longing of that burdened soul. It was Christ who brought conviction to his conscience when he was yet at home. ... It was Christ who had drawn the sufferer to Himself. Now, in words that fell like music on the listener's ear, the Saviour said, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee."
RRe	123	6	The burden of guilt rolls from the sick man's soul. He cannot doubt. . . . Hope takes the place of despair, and joy of oppressive gloom. The man's physical pain is gone, and his whole being is transformed. Making no further request, he lay in peaceful silence, too happy for words.--The Ministry of Healing, 73-76.
------------------------Because I Am His Witness, May 2
RRe	124	1	The night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. Acts 23:11.
RRe	124	2	The people of God are His representatives upon the earth, and He intends that they shall be lights in the moral darkness of this world. Scattered all over the country, in the towns, cities, and villages, they are God's witnesses, the channels through which He will communicate to an unbelieving world the knowledge of His will and the wonders of His grace. It is His plan that all who are partakers of the great salvation shall be missionaries for Him, The piety of the Christian constitutes the standard by which worldlings judge the gospel. Trials patiently borne, blessings gratefully received, meekness, kindness, mercy, and love, habitually exhibited, are the lights that shine forth in the character before the world, revealing the contrast with the darkness that comes from the selfishness of the natural heart.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 134.
RRe	124	3	It is our duty to be very jealous for the glory of God, and to bring no evil report, even by the sadness of the countenance, or by ill-advised words, as if the requirements of God were a restriction upon our liberty. Even in this world of sorrow, disappointment, and sin, the Lord desires us to be cheerful, and strong in His strength. The whole person is privileged to bear a decided testimony in every line. In features, in temper, in words, in character, we are to witness that the service of God is good.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 365.
------------------------Because God Keeps His Promises, May 3
RRe	125	1	Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Acts 27:25.
RRe	125	2	Some are always fearing, and borrowing trouble. . . . Their minds are continually dwelling upon something disagreeable, which they fear may come; or some difficulty may really exist, which, though small, blinds their eyes to the many things that demand gratitude. The difficulties they encounter, instead of driving them to God, the only source of their help, separate them from Him, because they awaken unrest and repining.
RRe	125	3	Do we well to be thus unbelieving? Why should we be grateful and distrustful? Jesus is our friend; all Heaven is interested in our welfare. We should not allow the perplexities and worries of everyday life to fret the mind and cloud the brow. If we do, we shall always have something to vex and annoy. We should not indulge a solicitude that only frets and wears us, but does not help us to bear trials.
RRe	125	4	You may be perplexed in business; your prospects may grow darker and darker, and you may be threatened with loss; but do not become discouraged; cast your care upon God, and remain calm and cheerful. Pray for wisdom to manage your affairs with discretion, and thus prevent loss and disaster. Do all you can on your part to bring about favorable results. Jesus has promised His aid, but not apart from our effort. When, relying upon our Helper, you have done all you can, accept the result cheerfully.--Steps to Christ, 127, 128.
------------------------Gladness Drawn from God Can Never Fail, May 4
RRe	126	1	Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. Psalms 4:7.
RRe	126	2	The Christian should not set too high a value, or depend too much, upon a happy flight of feeling. These feelings are not always true guides. It should be the study of every Christian to serve God from principle, and not be ruled by feeling. By so doing, faith will be brought into exercise, and will increase.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 161.
RRe	126	3	Feeling is not faith: the two are distinct. Faith is ours to exercise, but joyful feeling and the blessing are God's to give.--Early Writings, 72
RRe	126	4	If the Christian lives a humble, self-sacrificing life, peace and joy in the Lord will be the result.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 161.
RRe	126	5	Happiness drawn from earthly sources is as changeable as varying circumstances can make it; but the peace of Christ is a constant and abiding peace. It does not depend upon any circumstances in life, on the amount of worldly goods, or the number of earthly friends. Christ is the fountain of living water, and happiness drawn from Him can never fail.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 16.
------------------------Communion with the Lord Brings Gladness, May 5
RRe	127	1	I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. Psalms 16:8, 9.
RRe	127	2	If we keep the Lord ever before us, allowing our hearts to go out in thanksgiving and praise to Him, we shall have a continual freshness in our religious life. Our prayers will take the form of a conversation with God, as we would talk with a friend. He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Often there will come to us a sweet, joyful sense of the presence of Jesus. Often our hearts will burn within us as He draws nigh to commune with us as He did with Enoch. When this is in truth the experience of the Christian, there is seen in his life a simplicity, a humility, meekness, and lowliness of heart, that show to all with whom he associates that he has been with Jesus and learned of Him.
RRe	127	3	In those who possess it, the religion of Christ will reveal itself as a vitalizing, pervading principle, a living, working, spiritual energy. There will be manifest the freshness and power and joyousness of perpetual youth. The heart that receives the word of God is not as a pool that evaporates, nor like a broken cistern that loses its treasure. It is like the mountain stream fed by unfailing springs, whose cool, sparkling waters leap from rock to rock, refreshing the weary, the thirsty, the heavy laden.--Christ's Object Lessons, 129, 130.
------------------------Be Glad for Salvation, May 6
RRe	128	1	Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee: let such as love Thy salvation say continually. The Lord be magnified. Psalms 40:16.
RRe	128	2	Without a connection with God no one can possibly be happy. Fallen man is to learn that our Heavenly Father cannot be satisfied until His love embraces the repentant sinner, transformed through the merits of the spotless Lamb of God. . . .
RRe	128	3	Jesus Christ laid hold on humanity, that with His human arm He might encircle the race, while with His divine arm He grasped the throne of the Infinite. He planted His cross midway between earth and heaven, and said, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." The cross was to be the center of attraction.
RRe	128	4	It was to speak to all men, and draw them across the gulf that sin had made, to unite finite men with the infinite God. . . . Those whose sins are forgiven, who love Jesus, will be united with Him. They will bear the yoke of Christ. This yoke is not to hamper them, not to make their religious life one of unsatisfying toil. No; the yoke of Christ is to be the very means by which the Christian life is to become one of pleasure and joy. The Christian is to be joyful in contemplation of that which the Lord has done in giving His only-begotten Son to die for the world, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."--Messages to Young People, 137, 138.
------------------------Right Doing Makes Glad the Heart, May 7
RRe	129	1	Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Psalms 97:11.
RRe	129	2	Righteousness has its root in godliness. No human being is righteous any longer than he has faith in God and maintains a vital connection with Him. As a flower of the field has its root in the soil; as it must receive air, dew, showers, and sunshine, so must we receive from God that which ministers to the life of the soul.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 194.
RRe	129	3	Not by painful struggles or wearisome toil, not by gift or sacrifice, is righteousness obtained; but it is freely given to every soul who hungers and thirsts to receive it.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 18.
RRe	129	4	Righteousness is love, and love is the light and life of God. The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him.--Ibid.
RRe	129	5	Many . . . build barriers between themselves and Jesus, so that His love cannot flow into their hearts, and then they complain that they do not see the Sun of Righteousness. Let them forget self, and live for Jesus, and the light of heaven will bring gladness to their souls.--Counsels to Teachers, 232, 233.
------------------------Be Glad in God's Leadership, May 8
RRe	130	1	He brought forth His people with joy, and His chosen with gladness. That they might observe His statutes, and keep His laws. Praise ye the Lord. Psalms 105:43, 45.
RRe	130	2	God surrounded Israel with every facility, gave them every privilege, that would make them an honor to His name and a blessing to surrounding nations. If they would walk in the ways of obedience, He promised to make them "high above all nations which He hath made in praise, and in name, and in honor." "All people of the earth," He said, "shall hear that thou art called by the name of Jehovah; and they shall be afraid of thee." The nations which shall hear all these statutes shall say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."--Education, 40.
RRe	130	3	We are exhorted to "call to remembrance the former days." . . . For His people in this generation the Lord has wrought as a wonder-working God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 365.
RRe	130	4	He has done for His chosen people that which should inspire every heart with thanksgiving, and it grieves Him that so little praise is offered. He desires to have a stronger expression from His people, showing that they know they have reason for joy and gladness.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 364.
------------------------He Longs to Make His Children Glad, May 9
RRe	131	1	Nevertheless He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. Acts 14:17.
RRe	131	2	Nature testifies that One infinite in power, great in goodness, mercy, and love, created the earth, and filled it with life and gladness. . . . In earth, and sea, and sky, with their marvelous tint and color, varying in gorgeous contrast or blended in harmony, we behold His glory. The everlasting hills tell us of His power. The trees that wave their green banners in the sunlight, and the flowers in their delicate beauty, point to their Creator. The living green that carpets the brown earth tells of God's care for the humblest of His creatures. ... All things tell of His tender, fatherly care, and of His desire to make His children happy.--The Ministry of Healing, 411, 412.
RRe	131	3	It is through His power that summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, day and night follow each other in their regular succession. It is by His word that vegetation flourishes, that the leaves appear, and the flowers bloom. Every good thing we have, each ray of sunshine and shower of rain, every morsel of food, every moment of life, is a gift of love.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 74.
------------------------Be Glad When a Good Word Is Spoken, May 10
RRe	132	1	Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad. Proverbs 12:25.
RRe	132	2	Let us not gather together all the unpleasant pictures,--the iniquities and corruptions and disappointments, the evidences of Satan's power,--to hang in the halls of our memory, to talk over and mourn over, until our souls are filled with discouragement. . . .
RRe	132	3	There are, thank God, brighter and more cheering pictures which the Lord has presented to us. Let us group together the blessed assurances of His love as precious treasures, that we may look upon them continually. The Son of God leaving His Father's throne, clothing His divinity with humanity, that He might rescue man from the power of Satan; His triumph in our behalf, opening heaven to man, revealing to human vision the presence-chamber where Diety unveils His glory; the fallen race uplifted from the pit of ruin into which sin had plunged them, and brought again into connection with the infinite God, and, having endured the divine test through faith in our Redeemer, clothed in the righteousness of Christ and exalted to His throne,--these are the pictures with which God bids us gladden the chambers of the soul.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 744, 745.
------------------------Godliness Is Needful for Contentment, May 11
RRe	133	1	Godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Timothy 6:6.
RRe	133	2	Faith in God's love and overruling providence lightens the burdens of anxiety and care. It fills the heart with joy and contentment in the highest or the lowliest lot. Religion tends directly to promote health, to lengthen life, and to heighten our enjoyment of all its blessings. It opens to the soul a never-failing fountain of happiness. Would that all who have not chosen Christ might realize that He has something vastly better to offer them than they are seeking for themselves. Man is doing the greatest injury and injustice to his own soul when he thinks and acts contrary to the will of God.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 600.
RRe	133	3	In order to be happy, we must strive to attain to that character which Christ exhibited. One marked peculiarity of Christ was His self-denial and benevolence. He came not to seek ms own. He went about doing good, and this was His meat and drink. We may, by following the example of the Saviour, be in holy communion with Him; and by daily seeking to imitate His character and follow His example, we shall be a blessing to the world, and shall secure for ourselves contentment here and an eternal reward hereafter.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 227.
------------------------Riches are not Necessary, May 12
RRe	134	1	And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 1 Timothy 6:3.
RRe	134	2	Many are determined to be rich; this is their study; and in their zeal eternal considerations are overlooked. They are blinded by Satan, and make themselves believe that it is for good purposes they desire this gain; they strain their consciences, deceive themselves, and are constantly coveting riches. Such have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. They have sacrificed their noble, elevated principles, given up their faith for riches, and if not disappointed in their object, they are disappointed in the happiness which they supposed riches would bring. . . .
RRe	134	3	The apostle Paul shows the only true use for riches, and bids Timothy charge the rich to do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate: for in so doing they are laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come. . . . Godliness with contentment is great gain. Here is the true secret of happiness, and real prosperity of soul and body.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 542.
------------------------Contentment Can Be Found in My Present State, May 13
RRe	135	1	Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Philippians 4:11.
RRe	135	2	Oh that we could be satisfied with less heart-Iongings, less striving for things difficult to obtain, . . . while that which God values above jewels, the meek and quiet spirit, is not cherished. ... It is better to endure cheerfully every inconvenience than to part with peace and contentment.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 622.
RRe	135	3	There are restless ones who, were they to go to a new place to live, would still be dissatisfied, because the spirit of disaffection is in the hearts, and a change of place does not bring a change of heart. Their characters have not been refined and ennobled by the Spirit of Christ. They need to learn the lesson of contentment.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 495.
RRe	135	4	Those who are drinking at the fountain of life will not, like the worldling, manifest a longing desire for change and pleasure. In their deportment and character will be seen the rest, and peace, and happiness that they have found in Jesus by daily laying their perplexities and burdens at His feet. They will show that there is contentment and even joy in the path of obedience and duty.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 432.
------------------------The Love of Riches Is Supplanted By Love of God, May 14
RRe	136	1	The soldiers likewise demanded of Him, saying, And what shall we do? And He said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages. Luke 3:14.
RRe	136	2	The selfish, money-loving man lives only to secure for himself the riches, honors, and pleasures of this world. He loses the eternal world from his reckoning.--Christ's Object Lessons, 101.
RRe	136	3	If men love their riches better than they love their fellowmen, better than they love God or the truths of His word, if their hearts are on their riches, they cannot have eternal life. . . . Like the young man in the Bible, many go away sorrowful because they cannot have their riches and a treasure in Heaven too. They cannot have both; and they venture to risk their chance of eternal life for a worldly possession. . . .
RRe	136	4	The love of Jesus and of riches cannot dwell in the same heart. The love of God so far surpasses the love of riches that the possessor breaks away from his riches and transfers his affections to God. Through love he is then led to minister to the wants of God's cause. It is his highest pleasure to make a right disposition of his Lord's goods.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 172, 173.
------------------------Promise to the Contented, May 15
RRe	137	1	Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5.
RRe	137	2	Cultivate a contented, cheerful spirit.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 435.
RRe	137	3	"Be content with what you have." Hebrews 13:5, Moffatt.
RRe	137	4	The world is full of dissatisfied spirits, who overlook the happiness and blessings within their reach, and are continually seeking for happiness and satisfaction that they do not realize. They are constantly on the stretch for some expected, far-off good, greater than they possess, and are ever in a state of disappointment.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 640.
RRe	137	5	They have not God, they have not the hope which reaches to that within the vail, which is as an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast. All who possess this hope will purify themselves even as He is pure. Such are free from restless longings, repinings, and discontent; they are not continually looking for evil and brooding over borrowed trouble. But we see many who are having a time of trouble beforehand; anxiety is stamped upon every feature; they seem to find no consolation, but have a continual fearful looking for of some dreadful evil.
RRe	137	6	Such dishonor God, and bring the religion of Christ into disrepute. They have not true love for God. . . . Their affections have become morbid. But vain amusements will never correct the minds of such. They need the transforming influence of the Spirit of God in order to be happy.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 566.
------------------------Selfishness Breeds Discontent, May 16
RRe	138	1	For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts. Proverbs 6:34, 35.
RRe	138	2	The heart in harmony with God is lifted above the annoyances and trials of this life. But a heart where the peace of Christ is not, is unhappy, full of discontent. ... A life of selfishness is a life of evil. . . . Passions kept warm and fierce by Satan's promptings, are a bitter fountain, ever sending forth bitter streams to poison the life of others.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 488.
RRe	138	3	Those who yield to Satan's power gain no happiness thereby. They are never contented or at rest. They are dissatisfied, querulous and irritable, unthankful and rebellious.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 207.
RRe	138	4	The principle of worldlings is to get all they can of the perishable things of this life. Selfish love of gain is the ruling principle in their lives. But the purest joy is not found in riches, nor where covetousness is always craving, but where contentment reigns, and where self-sacrificing love is the ruling principle. There are thousands who are passing their lives in indulgence, and whose hearts are filled with repining. They are victims of selfishness and discontent in the vain effort to satisfy their minds with indulgence. But unhappiness is stamped upon their very countenances, and behind them is a desert, because their course is not fruitful in good works.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 382.
------------------------Contentment Is Found in the Lot Heaven Assigns, May 17
RRe	139	1	Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest. Jeremiah 45:5.
RRe	139	2	The wide, deep river, that offers a highway for the traffic and travel of nations, is valued as a world-wide benefit; but what of the little rills that help to form this noble stream? Were it not for them, the river would disappear. Upon them its very existence depends. So men called to lead in some great work are honored as if its success were due to them alone; but that success required the faithful co-operation of humbler workers almost without number,--workers of whom the world knows nothing. Tasks uncommended, labor without recognition, is the lot of most of the world's toilers. And in such a lot many are filled with discontent. They feel that life is wasted. But the little rill that makes its noiseless way through grove and meadow, bearing health and fertility and beauty, is as useful in its way as the broad river. And in contributing to the river's life, it helps achieve that which alone it could never have accomplished.
RRe	139	3	The lesson is one needed by many. Talent is too much idolized, and station too much coveted. There are too many who will do nothing unless they are recognized as leaders; too many who must receive praise, or they have no interest to labor. What we need to learn is faithfulness in making the utmost use of the powers and opportunities we have, and contentment in the lot to which Heaven assigns us.--Education, 116, 117.
------------------------A Merry Heart Has a Feast from God Each Day, May 18
RRe	140	1	All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. Proverbs 15:15.
RRe	140	2	We may have a feast of good things every day; for God can open the whole treasure of heaven to us.--Testimonies to Ministers, 119.
RRe	140	3	No human agent can supply that which will satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul. But Jesus says: ... "I am the bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst."--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 18.
RRe	140	4	What food is to the body, Christ must be to the soul. Food cannot benefit us unless we eat it; unless it becomes a part of our being. So Christ is of no value to us if we do not know Him as a personal Saviour. A theoretical knowledge will do us no good. We must feed upon Him, receive Him into the heart, so that His life becomes our life. His love, His grace, must he assimilated.--The Desire of Ages, 389.
RRe	140	5	Let church-members bear in mind that the fact that their names are registered on the church books will not save them. They must show themselves approved of God, workmen that need not be ashamed. Day by day they are to build their characters in accordance with Christ's directions. They are to abide in Him, constantly exercising faith in Him. Thus they will grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ,--wholesome, cheerful, grateful Christians, led by God into clearer and still clearer light.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 47, 48.
------------------------Helps and Heals, May 19
RRe	141	1	A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Proverbs 17:22.
RRe	141	2	"A glad heart helps and heals: a broken spirit saps vitality." Prov. 17:22, Moffatt.
RRe	141	3	The relation that exists between the mind and the body is very intimate. When one is affected, the other sympathizes. The condition of the mind affects the health to a far greater degree than many realize. Many of the diseases from which men suffer are the result of mental depression. Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life forces, and to invite decay and death. . . .
RRe	141	4	Courage, hope, faith, sympathy, love, promote health and prolong life. A contented mind, a cheerful spirit, is health to the body and strength to the soul. "A merry [rejoicing] heart doeth good like a medicine."--The Ministry of Healing, 241.
RRe	141	5	Christ is the well-spring of life. That which many need is to have a clearer knowledge of Him; they need to be patiently and kindly, yet earnestly, taught how the whole being may be thrown open to the healing agencies of heaven. When the sunlight of God's love illuminates the darkened chambers of the soul, restless weariness and disaffection will cease, and satisfying joys will give vigor to the mind, and health and energy to the body.--The Ministry of Healing, 247.
------------------------Is a Christian Grace, May 20
RRe	142	1	Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun. Ecclesiastes 8:15.
RRe	142	2	Some preserve a cold, chilling reserve, an iron dignity, that repels those who are brought within their influence. This spirit is contagious; it creates an atmosphere that is withering to good impulses and good resolves; it chokes the natural current of human sympathy, cordiality, and love; and under its influence people become constrained, and their social and generous attributes are destroyed for want of exercise.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 64.
RRe	142	3	You have a duty to perform, which is to make yourself cheerful, and to cultivate unselfishness in your feelings until it will be your greatest pleasure to make all around you happy. . . . You need to soften your hearts and be imbued with the Spirit of Christ, that you may, while living in an atmosphere of cheerful-ness and benevolence, help those about you to be healthy and happy also. You have imagined that cheerfulness was not in accordance with the religion of Christ. This is a mistake. We may have true Christian dignity, and at the same time be cheerful and pleasant in our deportment. Cheerfulness without levity is one of the Christian graces.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 62.
------------------------Is Found in God's People, May 21
RRe	143	1	Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. Jeremiah 30:19.
RRe	143	2	Many professed Christians do not correctly represent the Christian religion. They appear gloomy, as if under a cloud. They often speak of the great sacrifices they have made to become Christians. They appeal to those who have not accepted Christ, representing by their own example and conversation that they must give up everything which would make life pleasant and joyful. They throw a pall of darkness over the blessed Christian hope.
RRe	143	3	The impression is given that God's requirements are a burden even to the willing soul, and that everything that would give pleasure, or that would delight the taste, must be sacrificed. . . . This class of professed Christians have not the genuine article.--Messages to Young People, 363.
RRe	143	4	Obedience to our Saviour does not detract from our happiness and true pleasure in this life.--Testimonies for the Church,vol. 3, 374.
RRe	143	5	Whatever Christ asks us to renounce, He offers in its stead something better. . . . When once the gaze is fixed upon Him, the life finds its center. . . . Duty becomes a delight, and sacrifice a pleasure. To honor Christ, to become like Him, to work for Him, is the life's highest ambition and its greatest joy.--Education, 296, 297.
------------------------Is a Pleasure to God, May 22
RRe	144	1	Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will He help the evil doers: till He fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing. Job 8:20, 21.
RRe	144	2	You will ever find with the true Christian a marked cheerfulness, a holy, happy confidence in God, a submission to His providences, that is refreshing to the soul.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 377.
RRe	144	3	Said Christ, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." We are not to make crosses for ourselves, by wearing sackcloth, by pinching our bodies, or by denying ourselves wholesome, nourishing food. We are not to shut ourselves in monasteries, away from the world, and do no good to our fellow-beings, thinking this is the cross of Christ; neither are we required to expose health and life unnecessarily, nor to go mourning up the hill of Christian life, feeling it a sin to be cheerful, contented, happy, and joyful. These are all self-made crosses, but not the cross of Christ.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 626, 627.
RRe	144	4	Christians who gather up gloom and sadness to their souls, and murmur and complain, are giving to others a false representation of God and the Christian life. They give the impression that God is not pleased to have His children happy, and in this they bear false witness against our heavenly Father.--Steps to Christ, 120.
------------------------Rejoices When a Prodigal Returns, May 23
RRe	145	1	The father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry. Luke 15:22, 23.
RRe	145	2	Little did the gay, thoughtless youth, as he went out from his father's gate, dream of the ache and longing left in that father's heart. When he danced and feasted with his wild companions, little did he think of the shadow that had fallen on his home. And now as with weary and painful steps he pursues the homeward way, he knows not that one is watching for his return. But while he is yet "a great way off," the father discerns his form. Love is of quick sight. Not even the degradation of the years of sin can conceal the son from the father's eyes. He "had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck" in a long, clinging, tender embrace.
RRe	145	3	The father will permit no contemptuous eye to mock at his son's misery and tatters. He takes from his own shoulders the broad, rich mantle, and wraps it around the son's wasted form. . . The father holds him close to his side, and brings him home. No opportunity is given him to ask a servant's place. He is a son, who shall be honored with the best the house affords, and whom the waiting men and women shall respect and serve.
RRe	145	4	The father said to his servants, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat and be merry."--Christ's Object Lessons, 203, 204.
------------------------Enters into the Joy of Others, May 24
RRe	146	1	This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Luke 15:24.
RRe	146	2	In his restless youth the prodigal looked upon his father as stern and severe. How different his conception of him now! So those who are deceived by Satan look upon God as hard and exacting. . . . His law they regard as a restriction upon men's happiness, a burdensome yoke from which they are glad to escape. But he whose eyes have been opened by the love of Christ will behold God as full of compassion. He does not appear as a tyrannical, relentless being, but as a father longing to embrace his repenting son. The sinner will exclaim with the psalmist, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him."--Christ's Object Lessons, 204.
RRe	146	3	The very first reaching out of the heart after God is known to Him. Never a prayer is offered, however faltering, never a tear is shed, however secret, never a sincere desire after God is cherished, however feeble, but the Spirit of God goes forth to meet it. Even before the prayer is uttered, or the yearning of the heart made known, grace from Christ goes forth to meet the grace that is working upon the human soul.--Christ's Object Lessons, 206.
RRe	146	4	Arise and go to your Father. He will meet you a great way off.--Christ's Object Lessons, 206.
RRe	146	5	He will bring you into His banqueting house, and His banner over you shall be love.--Christ's Object Lessons, 206, 207.
RRe	146	6	And heaven and earth shall unite in the Father's song of rejoicing: "For this My son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."--Christ's Object Lessons, 207.
------------------------Cheerfulness Is Expressed in My Face, May 25
RRe	147	1	A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken. Proverbs 15:13.
RRe	147	2	All may possess a cheerful countenance, a gentle voice, a courteous manner, and these are elements of power.--Education, 240.
RRe	147	3	The human countenance itself is a mirror of the soul, read by others, and having a telling influence upon them for good or evil.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 523.
RRe	147	4	The faces of those who are benevolent and sympathetic will shine with the luster of true godliness, while those who do not cherish kindly thoughts and unselfish motives, express in their faces the sentiments cherished in their hearts.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 64.
RRe	147	5	Christ abiding in the heart shines out in the faces of those who love Him and keep His commandments. Truth is written there. The sweet peace of heaven is revealed. There is expressed a habitual gentleness, a more than human love.--Christ's Object Lessons, 102.
RRe	147	6	Love imparts to its possessor grace, propriety, and comeliness of deportment. Love illuminates the countenance and subdues the voice; it refines and elevates the entire man. It brings him into harmony with God; for it is a heavenly attribute.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 559, 560.
------------------------Ennobles Duty and Drudgery, May 26
RRe	148	1	Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Romans 12:8.
RRe	148	2	When we are truly consecrated to God, His love will abide in our hearts by faith, and we will cheerfully do our duty in accordance with the will of God.--Testimonies to Ministers, 399.
RRe	148	3	True service links the lowliest of God's servants on earth with the highest of His servants in the courts above.--Messages to Young People, 72, 73
RRe	148	4	Even though your work may seem to be drudgery, you may ennoble it by the way in which you do it. Do it as unto the Lord. Do it cheerfully, and with heaven-born dignity. It is the noble principles which are brought into the work that make it wholly acceptable in the Lord's sight.--Messages to Young People, 72.
RRe	148	5	We must sow beside all waters, keeping our souls in the love of God, working while it is day, and using the means the Lord has given us to do whatever duty comes next. Whatever our hands find to do. we are to do it with cheerfulness; whatever sacrifice we are called upon to make, we are to make it cheerfully.--Testimonies to Ministers, 423.
------------------------Affects God's Acceptance of Our Gifts, May 27
RRe	149	1	Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7.
RRe	149	2	God designs that the exercise of benevolence shall be purely voluntary. . . . "The Lord loveth a cheerful giver." He is not pleased to have His treasury replenished with forced supplies. The loyal hearts of His people, rejoicing in the saving truth for this time, will, through love and gratitude to Him for this precious light, be earnest and anxious to aid with their means in sending the truth to others. The very best manner in which to give expression to our love for our Redeemer, is to make offerings to bring souls to the knowledge of the truth. The plan of redemption was entirely voluntary on the part of our Redeemer, and it is the purpose of Christ that all our benevolence should be freewill offerings.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 413.
RRe	149	3	Spiritual prosperity is closely bound up with Christian liberality. The followers of Christ should rejoice in the privilege of revealing in their lives the beneficence of their Redeemer. As they give to the Lord, they have the assurance that their treasure is going before them to the heavenly courts. Would men make their property secure? Let them place it in the hands that bear the marks of the crucifixion. Would they enjoy their substance? Let them use it to bless the needy and suffering. Would they increase their possessions? Let them heed the divine injunction, "Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." Let them seek" to return their possessions for selfish purposes, and it will be to their eternal loss. But let their treasure be given to God, and from that moment it bears His inscription. It is sealed with His immutability.--The Acts of the Apostles, 344, 345.
------------------------Should Be Found in the Assembly of His Saints, May 28
RRe	150	1	Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace. Zechariah 8:19.
RRe	150	2	Our meetings should be made intensely interesting. They should be pervaded with the very atmosphere of heaven.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 609.
RRe	150	3	They should be treated with the greatest solemnity and reverence, yet all the pleasantness possible should be brought into them. They should not be prolonged till they become wearisome, for the impression thus made upon the minds of the youth will cause them to associate religion with all that is dry and uninteresting; and many will be led to cast their influence on the side of the enemy, who, if properly taught, would become a blessing to the world and to the church. . . . The social meetings and all other religious exercises should be so planned and managed that they will be not only profitable, but so pleasant as to be positively attractive.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 174, 175.
RRe	150	4	The church of God below is one with the church of God above. Believers on the earth and the beings in heaven who have never fallen constitute one church. Every heavenly intelligence is interested in the assemblies of the saints who on earth meet to worship God. . . . While angels drink from the fountain-head, the saints on earth drink of the pure stream flowing from the throne, the streams that make glad the city of our God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6. 366.
------------------------Is Based on Friendship with Jesus, May 29
RRe	151	1	Straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. Matthew 14:27.
RRe	151	2	Christians should be the most cheerful and happy people that live. They may have the consciousness that God is their father and their everlasting friend. . . . All who have indeed become acquainted, by experimental knowledge, with the love and tender compassion of our Heavenly Father will impart light and joy wherever they may be. Their presence and influence will be to their associates as the fragrance of sweet flowers, because they are linked to God and heaven, and the purity and exalted loveliness of heaven are communicated through them to all that are brought within their influence.--Messages to Young People, 363.
RRe	151	3	Our Saviour was deeply serious and intensely in earnest, but never gloomy or morose. The life of those who imitate Him will be full of earnest purpose: they will have a deep sense of personal responsibility. Levity will be repressed; there will be no boisterous merriment, no rude jesting: but the religion of Jesus gives peace like a river. It does not quench the light of joy; it does not restrain cheerfulness, nor cloud the sunny, smiling face.--Steps to Christ, 125, 126.
------------------------In Christ's Overcoming Power, May 30
RRe	152	1	These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33.
RRe	152	2	So long as we are in the world, we shall meet with adverse influences. There will be provocations to test the temper; and it is by meeting these in a right spirit that the Christian graces are developed. If Christ dwells in us, we shall be patient, kind, and forbearing, cheerful amid frets and irritations. Day by day and year by year we shall conquer self, and grow into a noble heroism. This is our allotted task; but it cannot be accomplished without help from Jesus, resolute decision, unwavering purpose, continual watchfulness, and unceasing prayer. Each one has a personal battle to fight. Not even God can make our characters noble or our lives useful, unless we become co-workers with Him. Those who decline the struggle lose the strength and joy of victory.--Gospel Workers, 477.
RRe	152	3	True happiness will be the result of every self-denial, every crucifixion of self. One victory won, the next is more easily gained. . . . God . . . wants all to be saved. Man has light and opportunities, and if he will improve them, he may overcome. . . . When a man is earnestly engaged day by day in overcoming the defects in his character, he is cherishing Christ in his soul-temple: the light of Christ is in him. Under the bright beams of the light of Christ's countenance, his entire being becomes elevated and ennobled. He has the peace of Heaven in his soul.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 345, 346.
------------------------Banishes Fear, May 31
RRe	153	1	Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee: yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10.
RRe	153	2	Is Jesus true? Does He mean what He says? Answer decidedly, Yes, every word. Then if you have settled this, by faith claim every promise that He has made, and receive the blessing; for this acceptance by faith gives life to the soul. You may believe that Jesus is true to you, even though you feel yourself to be the weakest and most unworthy of His children.--Testimonies to Ministers 517.
RRe	153	3	Words cannot describe the peace and joy possessed by him who takes God at His word. Trials do not disturb him, slights do not vex him. Self is crucified. Day by day his duties may become more taxing, his temptations stronger, his trials more severe; but he does not falter; for he receives strength equal to his need.--Messages to Young People, 98.
RRe	153	4	Christ knows the strength of your temptations and the strength of your power to resist. His hand is always stretched out in pitying tenderness to every suffering child. To the tempted, discouraged one he says, Child for whom I suffered and died, cannot you trust Me? "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."--Messages to Young People, 98.
RRe	153	5	Peace comes with dependence on divine power. ... Be cheerful, and praise the Lord for His loving-kindness. That which you cannot understand, commit to Him. He loves you, and pities your every weakness.--Testimonies to Ministers, 518.
RRe	153	6	Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invincible, than the soul that feels its nothingness, and relies on the merits of the Saviour. By prayer, by the study of His word, by faith in His abiding presence, the weakest of human beings may live in contact with the living Christ, and He will hold them by a hand that will never let go.--The Ministry of Healing, 182.
------------------------Christian Fellowship Found in Loving One Another, June 1
RRe	154	1	Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Philippians 4:1.
RRe	154	2	Christ had bidden the first disciples love one another as He had loved them. Thus they were to bear testimony to the world that Christ was formed within, the hope of glory. "A new commandment I give unto you," He had said, "That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." At the time when these words were spoken, the disciples could not understand them; but after they had witnessed the sufferings of Christ, after His crucifixion and resurrection, and ascension to heaven, and after the Holy Spirit had rested on them at Pentecost, they had a clearer conception of the love of God, and of the nature of that love which they must have for one another. . . .
RRe	154	3	They rejoiced in the sweetness of communion with saints. They were tender, thoughtful, self-denying, willing to make any sacrifice for the truth's sake. In their daily association with one another, they revealed the love that Christ had enjoined upon them. By unselfish words and deeds, they strove to kindle this love in other hearts.--The Acts of the Apostles, 547.
------------------------In Living in Harmony with Our Brethren, June 2
RRe	155	1	Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Philippians 2:2.
RRe	155	2	God designs that His people shall be a unit; that they shall see eye to eye, and be of the same mind and of the same judgment.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 361.
RRe	155	3	The religion of Christ does not require us to lose our identity of character, but merely to adapt ourselves, in some measure, to the feelings and ways of others. Many people may be brought together in a unity of religious faith whose opinions, habits, and tastes in temporal matters are not in harmony; but if they have the love of Christ glowing in their bosoms, and are looking forward to the same Heaven as their eternal home, they may have the sweetest and most intelligent communion together, and a unity the most wonderful.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 65.
RRe	155	4	Let us be determined to be in unity with our brethren. This duty God has placed upon us. We shall make their hearts glad by following their counsel, and make ourselves strong through the influence that this will give us.--Testimonies to Ministers, 500.
RRe	155	5	"So by all the stimulus of Christ, by every incentive of love, by all your participation in the Spirit, by all your affectionate tenderness, I pray you to give me the utter joy of knowing you are living in harmony." Phil. 2:1, 2, Moffatt.
------------------------In the Happiness of Others, June 3
RRe	156	1	Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. 1 Corinthians 12:26.
RRe	156	2	Christianity is a system, which, received and obeyed, would spread peace, harmony, and happiness throughout the earth. The religion of Christ will unite in close brotherhood all who accept its teachings. It was the mission of Jesus to reconcile men to God, and thus to one another.--The Great Controversy, 47.
RRe	156	3	Let your hearts be true to Jesus. Although you may feel that you are the least of all saints, yet you are members of Christ's body, and through Him you are identified with all His human agencies, and with the excellence and power of the heavenly intelligences. None of us liveth to himself. To each is assigned a post of duty, not for his own narrow, selfish interests, but that the influence of each may be a strength to all.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 296.
RRe	156	4	God's church is the court of holy life, filled with varied gifts, and endowed with the Holy Spirit. The members are to find their happiness in the happiness of those whom they help and bless.--The Acts of the Apostles, 12.
------------------------Imparts Joy to Others, June 4
RRe	157	1	Having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith. Philippians 1:25.
RRe	157	2	From the anointed ones that stand in God's presence the fullness of divine light and love and power is imparted to His people, that they may impart to others light and joy and refreshing. Those who are thus enriched are to enrich others with the treasure of God's love.--Prophets and Kings, 594.
RRe	157	3	Religion is founded upon love to God, which also leads us to love one another. It is full of gratitude, humility, long-suffering. It is self-sacrificing, forbearing, merciful, and forgiving. It sanctifies the whole life, and extends its influence over others.
RRe	157	4	Those who love God cannot harbor hatred or envy. When the heavenly principle of eternal love fills the heart, it will flow out to others, not merely because favors are received of them, but because love is the principle of action, and modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, subdues enmity, and elevates and ennobles the affections. This love is not contracted so as merely to include "me and mine," but is as broad as the world, and as high as heaven, and is in harmony with that of the angel workers. This love cherished in the soul sweetens the entire life, and sheds a refining influence on all around. Possessing it, we cannot but be happy, let fortune smile or frown.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 223, 224.
------------------------Our Hearts Are Refreshed, June 5
RRe	158	1	Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy. 2 Timothy 1:4.
RRe	158	2	"When I recall the tears you shed when we parted, I long by night and day to see you again. That would fill me with joy." 2 Tim. 1:4, 5, Moffatt.
RRe	158	3	We sustain a loss when we neglect the privilege of associating together to strengthen and encourage one another in the service of God. The truths of His Word lose their vividness and importance in our minds. Our hearts cease to be enlightened and aroused by their sanctifying influence, and we decline in spirituality. In our association as Christians we lose much by lack of sympathy with one another. He who shuts himself up to himself is not filling the position that God designed he should. . . .
RRe	158	4	If Christians would associate together, speaking to each other of the love of God, and of the precious truths of redemption, their own hearts would be refreshed, and they would refresh one another.--Steps to Christ, 106, 107.
RRe	158	5	We are all children of one Father, dependent upon one another for happiness. The claims of God and of humanity are upon us. It is the proper cultivation of the social elements of our nature that brings us into sympathy with our brethren, and affords us happiness in our efforts to bless others.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 541.
------------------------In Praying for Souls, June 6
RRe	159	1	Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. Philippians 1:4, 5.
RRe	159	2	Prayer is communion with God, the Fountain of wisdom, the Source of strength, and peace, and happiness. . . . Paul exhorts believers to "pray without ceasing," in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, making known their requests to God. "Pray one for another," James says.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 42.
RRe	159	3	Learn to exercise faith in presenting your neighbors before the throne of grace, and pleading with God to touch their hearts.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 245.
RRe	159	4	Souls are to be sought for, prayed for, labored for. Earnest appeals are to be made. Fervent prayers are to be offered. Our tame, spiritless petitions are to be changed into petitions of intense earnestness. God's word declares, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 12.
RRe	159	5	"In all my prayers for you all I always pray with a sense of joy." Phil. 1:4, Moffatt.
RRe	159	6	The minister is not to rule imperiously over the flock intrusted to his care, but to be their ensample, and to show them the way to Heaven. Following the example of Christ, he should intercede with God for the people of his care till he sees that his prayers are answered.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 267, 268.
RRe	159	7	"Always in every prayer . . . making request with joy."
------------------------In Encouraging Fellow Believers, June 7
RRe	160	1	And from thence, when the brethren heard us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum, and the Three Taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage. Acts 28:15.
RRe	160	2	It was with a heavy heart that Paul went forward to his long expected visit to the world's metropolis. How different the circumstances from those he had anticipated! How was he, fettered and stigmatized, to proclaim the gospel? . . .
RRe	160	3	At last the travelers reach Appii Forum, forty miles from Rome. As they make their way through the crowds that throng the great thoroughfare, the gray-haired old man, chained with a group of hardened-looking criminals, receives many a glance of scorn, and is made the subject of many a rude, mocking jest.
RRe	160	4	Suddenly a cry of joy is heard, and a man springs from the passing throng and falls upon the prisoner's neck, embracing him with tears and rejoicing, as a son would welcome a long-absent father. Again and again the scene is repeated. ... As the warmhearted disciples eagerly flock around their father in the gospel, the whole company is brought to a stand-still. The soldiers are impatient of delay yet they have not the heart to interrupt this happy meeting; for they too have learned to respect and esteem their prisoner. . . .
RRe	160	5	Few realize the significance of those words of Luke, that when Paul saw his brethren, "he thanked God, and took courage." In the midst of the weeping, sympathizing company of believers, who were not ashamed of his bonds, the apostle praised God aloud. The cloud of sadness that had rested upon his spirit was swept away. . . . With firmer step and joyful heart he continued on his way.--The Acts of the Apostles, 448, 449.
------------------------Pleasant Associations Are Pleasing to Heaven, June 8
RRe	161	1	Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Psalms 133:1.
RRe	161	2	There are mysterious links that bind souls together, so that the heart of one answers to the heart of another. One catches the ideas, the sentiments, the spirit, of another. This association may be a blessing or a curse.--Messages to Young People, 411.
RRe	161	3	Christian sociability is altogether too little cultivated by God's people. . . . Those who shut themselves up within themselves, who are unwilling to be drawn upon to bless others by friendly associations, lose many blessings; for by mutual contact minds receive polish and refinement; by social intercourse acquaintances are formed and friendships contracted which result in a unity of heart and an atmosphere of love which is pleasing in the sight of heaven.--Messages to Young People, 405.
RRe	161	4	"How rare and lovely, is it, This fellowship of those who meet together!-- Sweet as the sacred oil poured on the head, . . . Vital as dew of Hermon, . . . For in this fellowship has the Eternal fixed The blessing of an endless life." Psalms 133:1-3, Moffatt.
------------------------Found in Sharing Our Homes with the Homeless, June 9
RRe	162	1	Thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. Deuteronomy 16:14.
RRe	162	2	The Israelites, in all their festivities, included the poor, the stranger, and the Levite, who was both the assistant of the priest in the sanctuary, and a religious teacher and missionary. These were regarded as the guests of the people, to share their hospitality on all occasions of social and religious rejoicing, and to be tenderly cared for in sickness or in need. It is such as these whom we should make welcome to our homes.
RRe	162	3	How much such a welcome might do to cheer and encourage the missionary nurse or the teacher, the care-burdened, hardworking mother, or the feeble and aged, so often without a home, and struggling with poverty and many discouragements. . . . The warmth of a genial welcome, a place at your fireside, a seat at your home table, the privilege of sharing the blessing of the hour of prayer, would to many of these be like a glimpse of heaven.
RRe	162	4	Our sympathies are to overflow the boundaries of self and the enclosure of family walls. There are precious opportunities for those who will make their homes a blessing to others. . . . If we would show an interest in the youth, invite them to our homes, and surround them with cheering, helpful influences, there are many who would gladly turn their steps into the upward path.--The Ministry of Healing, 353-355.
------------------------In Having Confidence in Our Fellow Men, June 10
RRe	163	1	I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things. 2 Corinthians 7:16.
RRe	163	2	When men will show confidence in their fellow men, they will come much nearer to possessing the mind of Christ. . . . Jesus found access to minds by the pathway of their most familiar associations. ... He honored man with His confidence, and thus placed him on his honor. . . . Jesus assumed humanity that He might meet humanity. He brings men under the transforming power of truth by meeting them where they are. He gains access to the heart by securing sympathy and confidence, making all feel that His identification with their nature and interest is complete.--Testimonies to Ministers, 189, 190.
RRe	163	3	Let us cherish a spirit of confidence in the wisdom of our brethren. . . . Connected with the service of God, we must individually realize that we are parts of a great whole. . . . Workers for Christ are to strive for unity. We are the children of the same family, and have one heavenly Father. Let us not put on the garments of heaviness, and cherish doubts and a lack of confidence in our brethren. We should not hurt our souls by gathering the thistles and the thorns, but instead, we should gather the roses and the lilies and the pinks, and express their fragrance in our words and acts.--Testimonies to Ministers, 500, 502.
RRe	163	4	When there is harmonious action among the individual members of the church, when there is love and confidence manifested by brother to brother, there will be proportionate force and power in our work for the salvation of men.--Testimonies to Ministers, 188.
RRe	163	5	"I am glad to have full confidence in you." 2 Cor. 7:16, Moffatt.
------------------------In Promoting the Welfare of Others, June 11
RRe	164	1	Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all. 2 Corinthians 7:13.
RRe	164	2	"Over and above my personal comfort, I was especially delighted at the delight of Titus." Moffatt.
RRe	164	3	The warmth of true friendship, the love that binds heart to heart, is a foretaste of the joys of heaven.--The Ministry of Healing, 360.
RRe	164	4	Every soul is surrounded by an atmosphere of its own,--an atmosphere, it may be, charged with the life-giving power of faith, courage, and hope, and sweet with the fragrance of love. Or it may be heavy and chill with the gloom of discontent and selfishness, or poisonous with the deadly taint of cherished sin. By the atmosphere surrounding us, every person with whom we come in contact is consciously or unconsciously affected.--Christ's Object Lessons, 339.
RRe	164	5	The life of Christ was an ever-widening, shoreless influence, an influence that bound Him to God and to the whole human family. Through Christ, God has invested man with an influence that makes it impossible for him to live to himself. Individually we are connected with our fellow-men, a part of God's great whole, and we stand under mutual obligations. No man can be independent of his fellow-men; for the well-being of each affects others. It is God's purpose that each shall feel himself necessary to others' welfare, and seek to promote their happiness.--Christ's Object Lessons, 339.
------------------------In Refreshing Others Through Christ, June 12
RRe	165	1	That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed. Romans 15:32.
RRe	165	2	All who profess to be children of God should bear in mind that as missionaries they will be brought into contact with all classes of minds. There are the refined and the coarse, the humble and the proud, the religious and the skeptical, the educated and the ignorant, the rich and the poor. These varied minds cannot be treated alike; yet all need kindness and sympathy. By mutual contact our minds should receive polish and refinement. We are dependent upon one another, closely bound together by the ties of human brotherhood.
RRe	165	3	"Heaven forming each on other to depend, A master or a servant or a friend, Bids each on other for assistance call, Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all."
RRe	165	4	It is through the social relations that Christianity comes in contact with the world. Every man or woman who has received the divine illumination is to shed light on the dark pathway of those who are unacquainted with the better way. Social power, sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, must be improved in bringing souls to the Saviour. Christ is not to be hid away in the heart as a coveted treasure, sacred and sweet, to be enjoyed solely by the possessor. We are to have Christ in us as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life, refreshing all who come in contact with us.--The Ministry of Healing, 495.
------------------------In Working Together for God, June 13
RRe	166	1	The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He, said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. Exodus 4:14.
RRe	166	2	The desire for love and sympathy is implanted in the heart by God Himself. Christ, in His hour of agony in Gethsemane, longed for the sympathy of His disciples. . . . Paul, though apparently indifferent to hardship and suffering, yearned for sympathy and companionship.--The Acts of the Apostles, 491.
RRe	166	3	"Aaron the Levite thy brother . . . when he seeth thee, . . . will be glad in his heart." Ex. 4:14.
RRe	166	4	While we should cultivate sociability, let it not be merely for amusement, but for a higher purpose.--Gospel Workers, 125.
RRe	166	5	All our associations with our fellow-mortals should be with reference to their eternal interest and to our own.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 236.
RRe	166	6	We may associate together . . . and do all to the glory of God. . . . From all these pleasant associations, we want to be gathering new strength to become better men and women. From every source possible we want to gather new courage, new strength, new power, that we may elevate our lives to purity and holiness, and not come down upon the low level of this world.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 586, 587.
------------------------Jonathan's Unselfish Love an Example, June 14
RRe	167	1	I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. 2 Samuel 1:26.
RRe	167	2	The friendship of Jonathan for David was ... of God's providence, to preserve the life of the future ruler of Israel.--Patriarchs and. Prophets, 649.
RRe	167	3	Jonathan, by birth heir to the throne, yet knowing himself set aside by the divine decree; to his rival the most tender and faithful of friends, shielding David's life at the peril of his own; steadfast at his father's side through the dark days of his declining power, and at his side falling at the last,--the name of Jonathan is treasured in heaven, and it stands on earth a witness to the existence and the power of unselfish love.--Education, 157.
RRe	167	4	"Jonathan slain in the field of battle, my heart is sore for you, O Jonathan, my brother! You were my dear delight, your love for me was a wonder, far beyond a woman's love." Moffatt.
------------------------Rejoicing Together, June 15
RRe	168	1	Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Romans 12:15.
RRe	168	2	God has so constituted us that even the strongest desire sympathy.--Gospel Workers, 209.
RRe	168	3	Men cannot love God supremely and their neighbor as themselves, and be as cold as icebergs. Not only do they rob God of the love due Him, but they rob their neighbor as well. Love is a plant of heavenly growth, and it must be fostered and nourished. Affectionate hearts, truthful, loving words, will make happy families and exert an elevating influence upon all who come within the sphere of their influence.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 548.
RRe	168	4	The wonderful example of Christ, the matchless tenderness with which He entered into the feelings of others, weeping with those who wept, rejoicing with those who rejoiced, must have a deep influence upon the character of all who follow Him in sincerity. By kindly words and acts they will try to make the path easy for weary feet. ..
RRe	168	5	All around us are afflicted souls. Here and there, everywhere, we may find them. Let us search out these suffering ones, and speak a word in season to comfort their hearts. Let us ever be channels through which shall flow the refreshing waters of compassion.--The Ministry of Healing, 157, 158.
------------------------In Friendly Happiness, June 16
RRe	169	1	Her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her. Luke 1:58.
RRe	169	2	Friendly sympathy and real feelings of tender interest for others would bring to your souls blessings . . . and would bring you into close relation to our Redeemer, whose advent to the world was for the purpose of doing good, and whose life we are to copy.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 527.
RRe	169	3	The love and interest of Christ's followers must he as broad as the world. Those who live merely for "me and mine" will fail of Heaven.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 530.
RRe	169	4	We should have words and deeds of tender consideration for others. We can manifest a thousand little attentions in friendly words and pleasant looks, which will be reflected upon us again. Thoughtless Christians manifest by their neglect of others that they are not in union with Christ. It is impossible to be in union with Christ and yet be unkind to others and forgetful of their rights. Many long intensely for friendly sympathy. God has given each of us an identity of our own, which cannot be merged in that of another; but our individual characteristics will be much less prominent if we are indeed Christ's and His will is ours. Our lives should be consecrated to the good and happiness of others, as was our Saviour's. We should be self-forgetful, ever looking out for opportunities, even in little things, to show gratitude for the favors we have received of others, and watching for opportunities to cheer others, and lighten and relieve their sorrows and burdens by acts of tender kindness and little deeds of love. These thoughtful courtesies, that, commencing in our families, extend outside the family circle, help make up the sum of life's happiness, and the neglect of these little things makes up the sum of life's bitterness and sorrow.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 539, 540.
------------------------In Self-Sacrifice to Bless Others, June 17
RRe	170	1	Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me. Philippians 2:17, 18.
RRe	170	2	God does not accept the most splendid service, unless self is laid upon the altar, a living, consuming sacrifice.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 248.
RRe	170	3	Not one nook or corner of the soul is to be a hiding-place for selfishness. God desires that heaven's plan shall be carried out, and heaven's divine order and harmony prevail, in every family, in every church, in every institution. Did this love leaven society, we should see the outworking of noble principles in Christian refinement and courtesy, and in Christian charity toward the purchase of the blood of Christ.---Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 139, 140.
RRe	170	4	It was to give in His own life an illustration of unselfishness that Jesus came in the form of humanity. And all who accept this principle are to be workers together with Him in demonstrating it in practical life.--Education, 154.
RRe	170	5	We cannot be happy while we are wrapped up in our interest for ourselves. ... If we injure others, we injure ourselves also. If we bless others, we also bless ourselves; for the influence of every good deed is reflected upon our own hearts.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 72.
RRe	170	6	In order to be happy ourselves, we must live to make others happy. It is well for us to yield our possessions, our talents, and our affections in grateful devotion to Christ, and m that way find happiness here and immortal glory hereafter.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 251.
------------------------By Entering into Joys and Sorrows, June 18
RRe	171	1	I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. 2 Corinthians 2:3.
RRe	171	2	"I felt sure that my joy would be a joy for every one of you." Moffatt.
RRe	171	3	In your association with others, put yourself in their place. Enter into their feelings, their difficulties, their disappointments, their joys, and their sorrows. Identify yourself with them, and then do to them as, were you to exchange places with them, you would wish them to deal with you This is the true rule of honesty. It is another expression of the law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." And it is the substance of the teaching of the prophets. It is a principle of heaven, and will be developed in all who are fitted for its holy companionship.
RRe	171	4	The golden rule is the principle of true courtesy, and its truest illustration is seen in the life and character of Jesus. Oh what rays of softness and beauty shone forth in the daily life of our Saviour! What sweetness flowed from His very presence. The same spirit will be revealed in His children. Those with whom Christ dwells will be surrounded with a divine atmosphere. Their white robes of purity will be fragrant with perfume from the garden of the Lord. Their faces will reflect light from His, brightening the path for stumbling and weary feet.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 135.
------------------------In Words of Kindness, June 19
RRe	172	1	Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel. Proverbs 27:9.
RRe	172	2	Christians should be careful in regard to their words. . . . The conversation should be upon spiritual and divine things. . . . If the association with Christian friends is chiefly devoted to the improvement of the mind and heart, there will be no after regrets, and they can look back on the interview with a pleasant satisfaction.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 186.
RRe	172	3	In all our associations it should be remembered that in the experience of others there are chapters sealed from mortal sight. On the pages of memory are sad histories that are sacredly guarded from curious eyes. There stand registered long, hard battles with trying circumstances, perhaps troubles in the home life, that day by day weaken courage, confidence, and faith. Those who are fighting the battle of life at great odds may be strengthened and encouraged by little attentions that cost only a loving effort. To such the strong, helpful grasp of the hand by a true friend is worth more than gold or silver. Words of kindness are as welcome as the smile of angels.--The Ministry of Healing, 158.
------------------------In Labor for the Erring, June 20
RRe	173	1	When he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. Luke 15:6.
RRe	173	2	Thank God, He has presented to our imagination no picture of a sorrowful shepherd returning without the sheep. The parable does not speak of failure, but of success, and joy in the recovery.--Christ's Object Lessons, 188.
RRe	173	3	And when the straying one is found, does he command it to follow him? Does he threaten or beat it, or drive it before him, thinking of the discomfort and anxiety that he has suffered on its account? No; he lays the exhausted sheep on his shoulder, and with cheerful gratitude that his search has not been in vain, he returns to the fold. His gratitude finds expression in songs of rejoicing. And "when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost."
RRe	173	4	So when the lost sinner is found by the Good Shepherd, heaven and earth unite in rejoicing and thanksgiving. For "joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance."--Gospel Workers, 182.
RRe	173	5	This illustrates the blessed, joyful work of laboring for the erring. The church that engages successfully in this work, is a happy church.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 22.
------------------------In the Return of the Erring, June 21
RRe	174	1	When she hath found it, she called her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Luke 15:9.
RRe	174	2	In the East the houses of the poor usually consisted of but one room, often windowless and dark. The room was rarely swept, and a piece of money falling on the floor would be speedily covered by the dust and rubbish. In order that it might be found, even in the daytime, a candle must be lighted, and the house must be swept diligently.
RRe	174	3	The wife's marriage portion usually consisted of pieces of money, which she carefully preserved as her most cherished possession, to be transmitted to her own daughters. The loss of one of these pieces would be regarded as a serious calamity, and its recovery would cause great rejoicing, in which the neighboring women would readily share.--Christ's Object Lessons, 192, 193.
RRe	174	4	"Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." If angels of God rejoice over the erring who see and confess their wrongs, and return to the fellowship of their brethren, how much more should the followers of Christ, who are themselves erring, and who every day need the forgiveness of God and of their brethren, feel joy over the return of a brother or a sister who has been deceived by the sophistry of Satan.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 100.
------------------------Family Happiness Through Christ's Love, June 22
RRe	175	1	Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which He hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. Ecclesiastes 9:9.
RRe	175	2	The spirit that Christ manifests toward us is the spirit that husband and wife are to manifest toward each other. "As Christ also hath loved us," "walk in love." "As the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it."
RRe	175	3	Neither the husband nor the wife should attempt to exercise over the other an arbitrary control. Do not try to compel each other to yield to your wishes. You cannot do this and retain each other's love. Be kind, patient, and forbearing, considerate, and courteous. By the grace of God you can succeed in making each other happy, as in your marriage vow you promised to do.--The Ministry of Healing, 361.
RRe	175	4	Home should be a place where cheerfulness, courtesy, and love abide; and where these graces dwell, there will abide happiness and peace. Troubles may invade, but these are the lot of humanity. Let patience, gratitude, and love keep sunshine in the heart, though the day may be ever so cloudy. In such homes angels of God abide.--The Ministry of Healing, 393.
------------------------Marriage Only the Beginning of Love, June 23
RRe	176	1	Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Proverbs 5:18.
RRe	176	2	Let the husband aid his wife by his sympathy and unfailing affection. If he wishes to keep her fresh and gladsome, so that she will be as sunshine in the home, let him help her bear her burdens. His kindness and loving courtesy will be to her a precious encouragement, and the happiness he imparts will bring joy and peace to his own heart.--The Ministry of Healing, 374.
RRe	176	3	Let the husband and wife study each other's happiness, never failing in the small courtesies and little kindly acts that cheer and brighten the life.--The Ministry of Healing, 393.
RRe	176	4	Though difficulties, perplexities, and discouragements may arise, let neither husband nor wife harbor the thought that their union is a mistake or a disappointment. Determine to be all that it is possible to be to each other. Continue the early attentions. In every way encourage each other in fighting the battles of life. ... Let there be mutual love, mutual forbearance. Then marriage instead of being the end of love, will be as it were the very beginning of love.--The Ministry of Healing, 360.
------------------------Obedient Children Bring Joy, June 24
RRe	177	1	A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother. Proverbs 15:20.
RRe	177	2	Children who are Christians will prefer the love and approbation of their God-fearing parents above every earthly blessing. They will love and honor their parents. It should be one of the principal studies of their lives how to make their parents happy.--Messages to Young People, 335.
RRe	177	3	Children, God has seen fit to intrust you to the care of your parents, for them to instruct and discipline, and thus act their part in forming your character for heaven. And yet it rests with you to say whether you will develop a good Christian character by making the best of the advantages you have had from godly, faithful, praying parents. Notwithstanding all the anxiety and faithfulness of parents in behalf of their children, they alone cannot save them. There is a work for the children to do. Every child has an individual case to attend to.
RRe	177	4	Believing parents, you have a responsible work before you, to guide the footsteps of your children, even in their religious experience. When they truly love God, they will bless and reverence you for the care which you have manifested for them, and for your faithfulness in restraining their desires and subduing their wills.--The Ministry of Healing, 338.
RRe	177	5	They will love the Lord Jesus, and it will be their delight to please Him. They will not be impatient if reproved; but will make glad the heart of father and mother by their kindness, their patience, their willingness to do all they can in helping to bear the burdens of daily life.--The Ministry of Healing, 333.
------------------------The Faithful Mother Is a Blessing, June 25
RRe	178	1	Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Proverbs 31:25, 28.
RRe	178	2	The mother should cultivate a cheerful, contented, happy disposition. Every effort in this direction will be abundantly repaid in both the physical well-being and the moral character of her children.--The Ministry of Healing, 374.
RRe	178	3	There is a God above, and the light and glory from His throne rests upon the faithful mother as she tries to educate her children to resist the influence of evil. No other work can equal hers in importance. She has not, like the artist, to paint a form of beauty upon canvas, nor, like the sculptor, to chisel it from marble. She has not, like the author, to embody a noble thought in words of power, nor, like the musician, to express a beautiful sentiment in melody. It is hers, with the help of God, to develop in a human soul the likeness of the divine.--The Ministry of Healing, 377.
RRe	178	4	Teach your children from the cradle to practise self-denial and self-control. Teach them to enjoy the beauties of nature, and in useful employments to exercise systematically all the powers of body and mind. Bring them up to have sound constitutions and good morals, to have sunny dispositions and sweet tempers. Impress upon their tender minds the truth that God does not design that we should live for present gratification merely, but for our ultimate good. Teach them that to yield to temptation is weak and wicked; to resist, noble and manly. These lessons will be as seed sown in good soil, and they will bear fruit that will make your hearts glad.--The Ministry of Healing, 386.
------------------------Children Are Reflectors of Their Parents, June 26
RRe	179	1	The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. Proverbs 23:24, 25.
RRe	179	2	What the parents are, that, to a great extent, the children will be.--The Ministry of Healing, 371.
RRe	179	3	Great is the honor and the responsibility placed upon fathers and mothers, in that they are to stand in the place of God to their children. Their character, their daily life, their methods of training, will interpret His words to the little ones. Their influence will win or repel the child's confidence in the Lord's assurances.
RRe	179	4	Happy are the parents whose lives are a true reflection of the divine, so that the promises and commands of God awaken in the child gratitude and reverence; the parents whose tenderness and justice and long-suffering interpret to the child the love and justice and long-suffering of God; and who, by teaching the child to love and trust and obey them, are teaching him to love and trust and obey his Father in heaven. Parents who impart to a child such a gift have endowed him with a treasure more precious than the wealth of all the ages,--a treasure as enduring as eternity.--The Ministry of Healing, 375.
------------------------Family Worship Is the Sweetest Hour of the Day, June 27
RRe	180	1	Ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you. Deuteronomy 12:12.
RRe	180	2	Fathers and mothers, however pressing your business, do not fail to gather your family around God's altar. Ask for the guardianship of holy angels in your home. Remember that your dear ones are exposed to temptations. Daily annoyances beset the path of young and old. Those who would live patient, loving, cheerful lives must pray. Only by receiving constant help from God can we gain the victory over self.--The Ministry of Healing, 393.
RRe	180	3	The hours of morning and evening worship should be the sweetest and most helpful of the day. Let it be understood that into these hours no troubled, unkind thoughts are to intrude; that parents and children assemble to meet with Jesus, and to invite into the home the presence of holy angels. Let the services be brief and full of life, adapted to the occasion, and varied from time to time. Let all join in the Bible reading, and learn and often repeat God's law. . . . Let the little ones take part in prayer, and let them join in song, if it be but a single verse.--Education, 186.
------------------------Father Should in Love Enforce the Sterner Virtues, June 28
RRe	181	1	Whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Proverbs 3:12.
RRe	181	2	The father should enforce in his family the sterner virtues,--energy, integrity, honesty, patience, courage, diligence, and practical usefulness. And what he requires of his children he himself should practice, illustrating these virtues in his own manly bearing.
RRe	181	3	But, fathers, do not discourage your children. Combine affection with authority, kindness and sympathy with firm restraint. Give some of your leisure hours to your children; become acquainted with them; associate with them in their work and in their sports, and win their confidence. Cultivate friendship with them, especially with your sons. In this way you will be a strong influence for good.
RRe	181	4	The father should do his part toward making home happy. Whatever his cares and business perplexities, they should not be permitted to overshadow his family; he should enter his home with smiles and pleasant words.--The Ministry of Healing, 391.
------------------------Christ Will Rejoice Over His Bride, June 29
RRe	182	1	For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. Isaiah 62:5.
RRe	182	2	God celebrated the first marriage. Thus the institution has for its originator the Creator of the universe. "Marriage is honorable;" it was one of the first gifts of God to man, and it is one of the two institutions that, after the fall, Adam brought with him beyond the gates of Paradise. When the divine principles are recognized and obeyed in this relation, marriage is a blessing; it guards the purity and happiness of the race, it provides for man's social needs, it elevates the physical, the intellectual, and the moral nature.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 46.
RRe	182	3	He who gave Eve to Adam as a helpmeet, performed His first miracle at a marriage festival. In the festal hall where friends and kindred rejoiced together, Christ began His public ministry. Thus He sanctioned marriage, recognizing it as an institution that He Himself had established. He ordained that men and women should be united in holy wedlock, to rear families whose members, crowned with honor, should be recognized as members of the family above.
RRe	182	4	Christ honored the marriage relation by making it also a symbol of the union between Him and His redeemed ones. He Himself is the Bridegroom; the bride is the church, of which, as His chosen one, He says, "Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee."--The Ministry of Healing, 356.
------------------------The Union of Christ and His Church, June 30
RRe	183	1	Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And He saith unto me, Write, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. Revelation 19:7, 9.
RRe	183	2	In both the Old and the New Testament, the marriage relation is employed to represent the tender and sacred union that exists between Christ and His people.--The Desire of Ages, 151.
RRe	183	3	A Jewish marriage was an impressive occasion, and its joy was not displeasing to the Son of man. . . . To the mind of Jesus the gladness of the wedding festivities pointed forward to the rejoicing of that day when He shall bring home His bride to the Father's house, and the redeemed with the Redeemer shall sit down to the marriage supper of the Lamb. He says, "As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." "Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; . . . but thou shalt be called My Delight; . . . for the Lord delighteth in thee." "He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing." When the vision of heavenly things was granted to John the apostle, he wrote, "I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready." "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb."--The Desire of Ages, 151.
------------------------A Joyous Partnership with God, July 1
RRe	184	1	That saith of Cyrus, He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. Isaiah 44:28.
RRe	184	2	God works by whom He will. He sometimes selects the humblest instrument to do the greatest work; for His power is revealed through the weakness of men. We have our standard, and by it we pronounce one thing great and another small; but God does not estimate according to our rule. We are not to suppose that what is great to us must be great to God, or that what is small to us must be small to Him. It does not rest with us to pass judgment on our talents or to choose our work. We are to take up the burdens that God appoints, bearing them for His sake, and ever going to Him for rest. Whatever our work, God is honored by whole-hearted, cheerful service. He is pleased when we take up our duties with gratitude, rejoicing that we are accounted worthy to be co-laborers with Him.--Christ's Object Lesssons, 363, 364.
RRe	184	3	Christ accepts, oh, so gladly, every human agency that is surrendered to Him. He brings the human into union with the divine, that He may communicate to the world the mysteries of incarnate love. Talk it, pray it, sing it; proclaim abroad the message of His glory, and keep pressing onward to the regions beyond.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 44.
------------------------He Puts His Spirit Upon His Servant, July 2
RRe	185	1	Behold My servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Isaiah 42:1.
RRe	185	2	To Jesus, who emptied Himself for the salvation of lost humanity, the Holy Spirit was given without measure. So it will be given to every follower of Christ when the whole heart is surrendered for His indwelling. Our Lord Himself has given the command, "Be filled with the Spirit," and this command is also a promise of its fulfilment. It was the good pleasure of the Father that in Christ should "all the fulness dwell"; and "in Him ye are made full."--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 20.
RRe	185	3	God wants you to work, not with self-disparagement nor in discouragement, but with the strongest faith and hope, with cheerfulness and joy, representing Christ to the world. The religion of Jesus is joy, peace, and happiness. As we search the Scriptures, and see the infinite condescension of the Father in giving Jesus to the world that all who believe in Him may have everlasting life, every power of our being should be called into activity, to give praise and honor and glory to Him for His unspeakable love to the children of men.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 579, 580.
RRe	185	4	Let us work now as we have never worked before. ... We are to improve every opportunity of drawing souls to Christ. . . . The work to be carried on by the people of God is declared in the words of inspiration: . . . "Behold My servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. . . . He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for His law."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 63, 64.
------------------------Good Tidings of Christ's Coming, July 3
RRe	186	1	Behold, I will send My messenger, and He shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3:1.
RRe	186	2	Never was there such an evangelist as Christ. He was the Majesty of heaven, but He humbled Himself to take our nature, that He might meet men where they were. To all people, rich and poor, free and bond, Christ, the Messenger of the covenant, brought the tidings of salvation. . . . He went from city to city, from town to town, preaching the gospel and healing the sick,--the King of glory in the lowly garb of humanity.--The Ministry of Healing, 22.
RRe	186	3	He was always patient and cheerful, and the afflicted hailed Him as a messenger of life and peace. He saw the needs of men and women, children and youth, and to all He gave the invitation, "Come unto Me."
RRe	186	4	During His ministry, Jesus devoted more time to healing the sick than to preaching. His miracles testified to the truth of His words, that He came not to destroy, but to save. Wherever He went, the tidings of His mercy preceded Him. Where He had passed, the objects of His compassion were rejoicing in health, and making trial of their new-found powers. Crowds were collecting around them to hear from their lips the works that the Lord had wrought. His voice was the first sound that many had ever heard, His name the first word they had ever spoken, His face the first they had ever looked upon. Why should they not love Jesus, and sound His praise? As He passed through the towns and cities, He was like a vital current, diffusing life and joy.--The Ministry of Healing, 19.
------------------------A Good Soldier of Christ, July 4
RRe	187	1	Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangieth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. 2 Timothy 2:3, 4.
RRe	187	2	A genuine Christian will labor only to please God, having an eye single to His glory, and enjoying the reward of doing His will. . . . Love for souls for whom Christ died will lead to a denial of self, and a willingness to make any sacrifice in order to be co-workers with Christ in the salvation of souls.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 549.
RRe	187	3	The strength of an army is measured largely by the efficiency of the men in the ranks." A wise general instructs his officers to train every soldier for active service. He seeks to develop the highest efficiency on the part of all. . . . He counts on loyal and untiring service from every man in his army. . . .
RRe	187	4	And so it is in the army of Prince Emmanuel. Our General, who has never lost a battle, expects willing, faithful service from everyone who has enlisted under His banner.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 116.
RRe	187	5	No man can succeed in the service of God unless his whole heart is in the work, and he counts all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. No man who makes any reserve can be the disciple of Christ, much less can he be His co-laborer. When men appreciate the great salvation, the self-sacrifice seen in Christ's life will be seen in theirs. Wherever He leads the way, they will rejoice to follow.--The Desire of Ages, 273.
------------------------God Will Send the Latter Rain, July 5
RRe	188	1	Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. Joel 2:23.
RRe	188	2	"During the course of the day of Pentecost they were all together, when suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a violent blast of wind, which filled the whole house where they were seated. They saw tongues like flames distributing themselves, one resting on the head of each, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." Acts 2:1-4, Moffatt.
RRe	188	3	The Spirit came upon the waiting, praying disciples with a fulness that reached every heart. The Infinite One revealed Himself in power to His church. It was as if for ages this influence had been held in restraint, and now Heaven rejoiced in being able to pour out upon the church the riches of the Spirit's grace. And under the influence of the Spirit, words of penitence and confession mingled with songs of praise for sins forgiven. Words of thanksgiving and of prophecy were heard. All Heaven bent low to behold and to adore the wisdom of matchless, incomprehensible love. Lost in wonder, the apostles exclaimed, "Herein is love." They grasped the imparted gift. And what followed? The sword of the Spirit, newly edged with power and bathed in the lightnings of heaven, cut its way through unbelief. Thousands were converted in a day.--The Acts of the Apostles, 38.
RRe	188	4	The disciples were astonished and overjoyed at the greatness of the harvest of souls.--The Acts of the Apostles, 44.
RRe	188	5	These scenes are to be repeated, and with greater power. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was the former rain, but the latter rain will be more abundant. The Spirit awaits our demand and reception.--Christ's Object Lessons, 121.
------------------------Serving Gladly Every Day, July 6
RRe	189	1	Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing. Psalms 100:2.
RRe	189	2	There is comfort and joy in the service of Christ.--The Ministry of Healing, 487.
RRe	189	3	He desires us to serve Him in newness of life, with gladness every day.--Christ's Object Lessons, 299.
RRe	189	4	The exceeding rewards for right-doing, the enjoyment of heaven, the society of the angels, the communion and love of God and His Son, the elevation and extension of all our powers throughout eternal ages,--are these not mighty incentives and encouragements to urge us to give the heart's loving service to our Creator and Redeemer?--Steps to Christ, 24.
RRe	189	5	All the varied capabilities that men possess--of mind and soul and body--are given them by God, to be so employed as to reach the highest possible degree of excellence. But this cannot be a selfish and exclusive culture; for the character of God, whose likeness we are to receive, is benevolence and love. Every faculty, every attribute, with which the Creator has endowed us, is to be employed for His glory and for the uplifting of our fellowmen. And in this employment is found its purest, noblest, and happiest exercise.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 595.
------------------------Ready to Spend and Be Spent, July 7
RRe	190	1	I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. 2 Corinthians 12:15.
RRe	190	2	However trying their labor, the true workers do not regard it as drudgery. They are ready to spend and to be spent; but it is a cheerful work, done with a glad heart. Joy in God is expressed through Jesus Christ. Their joy is the joy set before Christ,--"to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." They are in co-operation with the Lord of glory. This thought sweetens all toil, it braces the will, it nerves the spirit for whatever may befall. Working with unselfish heart, ennobled by being partakers of Christ's sufferings, sharing His sympathies, and co-operating with Him in His labor, they help to swell the tide of His joy, and bring honor and praise to His exalted name.
RRe	190	3	This is the spirit of all true service for God. . . . And however short our service or humble our work, if in simple faith we follow Christ, we shall not be disappointed of the reward. . . . Blessed will be the recompense of grace to those who have wrought for God in the simplicity of faith and love.--Christ's Object Lessons, 402-404.
------------------------Finding Joy in any Sacrifice for Him, July 8
RRe	191	1	What thanks can we render to GOD again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith? 1 Thessalonians 3:9, 10.
RRe	191	2	Love to Jesus will be manifested in a desire to work as He worked, for the blessing and uplifting of humanity. It will lead to love, tenderness, and sympathy toward all the creatures of our heavenly Father's care.
RRe	191	3	The Saviour's life on earth was not a life of ease and devotion to Himself, but He toiled with persistent, earnest, untiring effort for the salvation of lost mankind. ... So those who are the partakers of the grace of Christ will be ready to make any sacrifice, that others for whom He died may share the heavenly gift. They will do all they can to make the world better for their stay in it.--Steps to Christ, 82.
RRe	191	4	If you call God your Father, you acknowledge yourselves His children, to be guided by His wisdom, and to be obedient in all things, knowing that His love is changeless. You will accept His plan for your life. As children of God, you will hold His honor, His character, His family, His work, as the objects of your highest interest. It will be your joy to recognize and honor your relation to your Father, and to every member of His family. You will rejoice to do any act, however humble, that will tend to His glory, or to the well-being of your kindred.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 105.
------------------------Serve Not as Israel, Who Failed, July 9
RRe	192	1	Because thou servedst not the Lord thy GOD with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things. Deuteronomy 28:47.
RRe	192	2	God chose Israel to reveal His character to men. He desired them to be as wells of salvation in the world. To them were committed the oracles of heaven, the revelation of God's will. . . .
RRe	192	3	But the people of Israel lost sight of their high privileges as God's representatives. They forgot God, and failed to fulfil their holy mission. The blessings they received brought no blessing to the world. All their advantages they appropriated for their own glorification. They shut themselves away from the world in order to escape temptation. The restrictions that God had placed upon their association with idolaters as a means of preventing them from conforming to the practices of the heathen, they used to build up a wall of separation between themselves and all other nations. They robbed God of the service He required of them, and they robbed their fellow-men of religious guidance and a holy example. . . .
RRe	192	4	The Jewish leaders thought themselves too wise to need instruction, too righteous to need salvation, too highly honored to need the honor that comes from Christ. The Saviour turned from them to entrust to others the privileges they had abused and the work they had slighted.--The Acts of the Apostles, 14-16.
RRe	192	5	"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," is Christ's command to His followers. Not that all are called to be ministers or missionaries in the ordinary sense of the term; but all may be workers with Him in giving the "glad tidings" to their fellow-men. To all, great or small, learned or ignorant, old or young, the command is given.--Education, 264.
------------------------Entertain Christ's Servants, July 10
RRe	193	1	Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation. Philippians 2:29.
RRe	193	2	The mission of Christ's servants is a high honor, and a sacred trust. "He that receiveth you," He says, "receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me." No act of kindness shown to them in His name, will fail to be recognized and rewarded. And in the same tender recognition He includes the feeblest and lowliest of the family of God: "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones"--those who are as children in their faith and their knowledge of Christ--"a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."--The Desire of Ages, 357, 358.
RRe	193	3	To all who, in time of trial and want, give sympathy and assistance to others more needy, God has promised great blessing. He has not changed. . . . No less sure now than when spoken by our Saviour is the promise, "He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward."
RRe	193	4	"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." These words have lost none of their force through the lapse of time. Our heavenly Father still continues to place in the pathway of His children opportunities that are blessings in disguise; and those who improve these opportunities find great joy.--Prophets and Kings, 131, 132.
------------------------Seeking the Lost, July 11
RRe	194	1	What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. Luke 15:4, 5.
RRe	194	2	The parable of the straying sheep should be treasured as a motto in every household. The divine Shepherd leaves the ninety and nine, and goes out into the wilderness to seek the one that is lost. There are thickets, quagmires, and dangerous crevices in the rocks, and the Shepherd knows that if the sheep is in any of these places, a friendly hand must help it out. As He hears its bleating afar off, He encounters any and every difficulty that He may save His sheep that is lost. When He discovers the lost one, He does not greet it with reproaches. He is only glad that He has found it alive. With firm yet gentle hand He parts the briers, or takes it from the mire; tenderly He lifts it to His shoulders, and bears it back to the fold. The pure, sinless Redeemer bears the sinful, the unclean.
RRe	194	3	The Sin-bearer carries the befouled sheep; yet so precious is His burden that He rejoices, singing, "I have found My sheep which was lost." . . . We must bear in mind the great joy manifested by the Shepherd at the recovery of the lost. He calls upon His neighbors, "Rejoice with Me; for I have found My sheep which was lost." And all heaven echoes the note of joy. The Father Himself joys over the rescued one with singing. What a holy ecstasy of joy is expressed in this parable!
RRe	194	4	That joy it is your privilege to share. Are you, who have this example before you, co-operating with Him who is seeking to save the lost? Are you co-laborers with Christ?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 124, 125.
------------------------Lifting Up Christ Before Men, July 12
RRe	195	1	What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. Philippians 1:18.
RRe	195	2	The duty and delight of all service is to uplift Christ before the people. This is the end of all true labor. Let Christ appear; let self be hidden behind Him.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 147.
RRe	195	3	The heart of the true Christian is imbued with true love, with a most earnest hunger for souls. He is not at rest until he is doing all that is in his power to seek and to save that which is lost. Time and strength are spent; toilsome work is not shunned. Others must be given the truth which has brought to his own soul such gladness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
RRe	195	4	When the truly converted soul enjoys the love of God, he will feel his obligation to yoke up with Christ and work in harmony with Him. The Spirit of Christ rests upon him. He reveals the Saviour's love, pity, and compassion, because he is one with Christ. He yearns to bring others to Jesus. His heart is melted with tenderness as he sees the peril of the souls that are out of Christ. He watches for souls as one that must give an account. With invitations and pleadings mingled with assurances of the promises of God, he seeks to win souls to Christ; and it is registered in the books of record. He is a laborer together with God.--Testimonies to Ministers, 122.
------------------------Gladden Others, the Purpose of God's Servants, July 13
RRe	196	1	Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand. 2 Corinthians 1:24.
RRe	196	2	He who is following the divine guidance has found the only true source of saving grace and real happiness, and has gained the power of imparting happiness to all around him.--Messages to Young People, 264.
RRe	196	3	You are not placed on earth merely to delve for self, to dig and build, to toil and spin, but to make life bright and joyous and beautiful with the love of Christ,--like the flowers, to gladden other lives by the ministry of love.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 97.
RRe	196	4	There is nothing, save the selfish heart of man, that lives unto itself. No bird that cleaves the air, no animal that moves upon the ground, but ministers to some other life. There is no leaf of the forest, or lowly blade of grass, but has its ministry. Every tree and shrub and leaf pours forth that element of life, without which neither man nor animal could live; and man and animal, in turn, minister to the life of tree and shrub and leaf. . . . The sun sheds its light to gladden a thousand worlds. The ocean, itself the source of all our springs and fountains, receives the streams from every land, but takes to give.--The Desire of Ages, 20, 21.
RRe	196	5	Seeking to make yourself happy ... is poor work, unprofitable business.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 56.
RRe	196	6	The greatest happiness experienced, will be in doing others good, in making others happy. Such happiness will be lasting.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 161.
------------------------Watchful of Opportunities to Bring Joy, July 14
RRe	197	1	The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. Job 29:13.
RRe	197	2	God calls not only for our gifts for the needy, but for our cheerful countenance, our hopeful words, our kindly hand-clasp. When Christ healed the sick, He laid His hands upon them. So should we come in close touch with those whom we seek to benefit.
RRe	197	3	There are many from whom hope has departed. Bring back the sunshine to them. Many have lost their courage. Speak to them words of cheer. Pray for them. There are those who need the bread of life. Read to them from the word of God. Upon many is a soul-sickness which no earthly balm can reach nor physician heal. Pray for these souls, bring them to Jesus. Tell them that there is a balm in Gilead and a Physician there.--Christ's Object Lessons, 418.
RRe	197	4	We should lose no opportunity of performing deeds of mercy, of tender forethought and Christian courtesy, for the burdened and the oppressed. If we can do no more, we may speak words of courage and hope to those who are unacquainted with God, and who can be approached most easily by the avenue of sympathy and love.
RRe	197	5	Rich and abundant are the promises made to those who are watchful of opportunities to bring joy and blessing into the lives of others.--Prophets and Kings, 327.
------------------------Showing Respect to Ministers and Rulers, July 15
RRe	198	1	Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. Hebrews 13:17.
RRe	198	2	The fifth commandment requires children ... to yield respect, submission, and obedience to their parents. ... It also enjoins respect for ministers and rulers, and for all others to whom God has delegated authority.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 308.
RRe	198	3	Men and women are to be brought under the influence of true, earnest, whole-hearted workers, who labor for souls as they that must give an account. All who are baptized into a measure of the apostolic spirit will be constrained to become God's missionaries. If they will be true, firm in the faith, if they will not sell their Lord for gain, but will ever acknowledge the divine supremacy and superintendence, God will prepare the way before them, and will greatly bless them. He will help them to represent His goodness, love, and mercy. And the glory of the Lord will be their rearward. There will be joy in the heavenly courts, and joy, pure, heavenly joy, will fill the hearts of the workers.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 58, 59.
------------------------Gladden Others with Our Means, July 16
RRe	199	1	I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Philippians 4:10.
RRe	199	2	Divine wisdom has appointed, in the plan of salvation, the law of action and reaction, making the work of beneficence, in all its branches, twice blessed. He that gives to the needy blesses others, and is blessed himself in a still greater degree. God could have reached His object in saving sinners without the aid of man; but He knew that man could not be happy without acting a part in the great work in which he would be cultivating self-denial and benevolence.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 382.
RRe	199	3	God positively enjoins upon all His followers a duty to bless others with their influence and means, and to seek that wisdom of Him which will enable them to do all in their power to elevate the thoughts and affections of those who come within their influence. In doing for others, a sweet satisfaction will be experienced, an inward peace which will be a sufficient reward. When actuated by a high and noble desire to do others good, they will find true happiness in a faithful discharge of life's manifold duties. This will bring more than an earthly reward; for every faithful, unselfish performance of duty is noticed by the angels, and shines in the life record. In Heaven none will think of self, nor seek their own pleasure; but all, from pure, genuine love, will seek the happiness of the heavenly beings around them. If we wish to enjoy heavenly society in the earth made new, we must be governed by heavenly principles here.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 132, 133.
------------------------Bear Burdens for Their Souls, July 17
RRe	200	1	Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 2 Corinthians 7:9.
RRe	200	2	Paul . . . had hoped to meet Titus at Troas, and to learn from him how the words of counsel and reproof sent to the Corinthian brethren had been received; but in this he was disappointed. . . . He therefore left Troas, and crossed over to Macedonia, where, at Philippi, he met Timothy. . . .
RRe	200	3	This faithful messenger brought the cheering news that a wonderful change had taken place among the Corinthian believers. Many had accepted the instruction contained in Paul's letter, and had repented of their sins. Their lives were no longer a reproach to Christianity, but exerted a powerful influence in favor of practical godliness.
RRe	200	4	Filled with joy, the apostle sent another letter to the Corinthian believers, expressing his gladness of heart because of the good work wrought in them: "Though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent." . . . "Now I rejoice," he continued, "not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance." . . .
RRe	200	5	For some time Paul had been carrying a burden of soul for the churches,--a burden so heavy that he could scarcely endure it. . . . But now one cause of anxiety was removed. At the tidings of the acceptance of his letter to the Corinthians, Paul broke forth into words of rejoicing. ... He felt that Satan was not to triumph over the work of God in Corinth, and in words of praise he poured forth the gratitude of his heart.--The Acts of the Apostles, 323-326.
------------------------Contribute to Others' Happiness, July 18
RRe	201	1	That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. Philippians 1:26.
RRe	201	2	The spirit of unselfish labor for others gives depth, stability, and Christlike loveliness to the character, and brings peace and happiness to its possessor. The aspirations are elevated. There is no room for sloth or selfishness. Those who thus exercise the Christian graces will grow and will become strong to work for God. They will have clear spiritual perceptions, a steady, growing faith, and an increased power in prayer. The Spirit of God, moving upon their spirit, calls forth the sacred harmonies of the soul, in answer to the divine touch. Those who thus devote themselves to unselfish effort for the good of others, are most surely working out their own salvation.--Steps to Christ, 84, 85.
RRe	201	3	Seize every opportunity to contribute to the happiness of those around you, sharing with them your affection. Words of kindness, looks of sympathy, expressions of appreciation, would to many a struggling, lonely one be as a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul. A word of cheer, an act of kindness, would go far to lighten the burdens that are resting heavily upon weary shoulders. It is in unselfish ministry that true happiness is found.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 50.
------------------------Working for Others' Good, July 19
RRe	202	1	Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not Himself; but as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on Me. Romans 15:2, 3.
RRe	202	2	It is the nature of Christianity to make happy families and happy society. Discord, selfishness, and strife will be put away from every man and woman who possesses the true spirit of Christ.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 520.
RRe	202	3	God's standard of man is elevated to the highest meaning of the term, and if he acts up to his God-given manhood, he will promote happiness in this life, which will lead to glory and an eternal reward in the life to come. The members of the human family are entitled to the name of men and women only when they employ their talents, in every possible way, for the good of others. The life of Christ is before us as a pattern.--Testimonies for the Church 4:520.
RRe	202	4	Those who feel no special pleasure in seeking to be a blessing to others, in working, even at a sacrifice, to do them good, cannot have the spirit of Christ or of Heaven; for they have no union with the work of heavenly angels, and cannot participate in the bliss that imparts elevated joy to them. Christ has said, "Joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance." If the joy of angels is to see sinners repent, will it not be the joy of sinners, saved by the blood of Christ, to see others repent and turn to Christ through their instrumentality? In working in harmony with Christ and the holy angels, we shall experience a joy that cannot be realized aside from this work.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 381, 382.
------------------------God's Servants are Happy Working with God, July 20
RRe	203	1	Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Psalms 86:4.
RRe	203	2	The faces of men and women who walk and work with God, express the peace of heaven. They are surrounded with the atmosphere of heaven. For these souls the kingdom of God has begun. They have Christ's joy, the joy of being a blessing to humanity. They have the honor of being accepted for the Master's use; they are trusted to do His work in His name.--The Desire of Ages, 312.
RRe	203	3	God might have committed the message of the gospel, and all the work of loving ministry, to the heavenly angels. He might have employed other means for accomplishing His purpose. But in His infinite love He chose to make us co-workers with Himself, with Christ and the angels, that we might share the blessing, the joy, the spiritual uplifting, which results from this unselfish ministry.--Steps to Christ, 83, 84.
RRe	203	4	In proportion as the love of Christ fills our hearts and controls our lives, covetousness, selfishness, and love of ease will be overcome, and it will be our pleasure to do the will of Christ, whose servants we claim to be. Our happiness will then be proportionate to our unselfish works, prompted by the love of Christ.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 382.
------------------------They Have the Favor of God, July 21
RRe	204	1	Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Psalms 2:11.
RRe	204	2	Whatever comes, let it not enfeeble your moral courage, and cause your religion to degenerate into a heartless form. The loving Jesus is ready to bless abundantly; but we need to obtain an experience in faith, in earnest prayer, and in rejoicing in the love of God. Shall any of us be weighed in the balances, and be found wanting? We must watch ourselves, watch the least unholy promptings of our nature, lest we become traitors to the high responsibilities God has bestowed upon us as His human agencies.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 532.
RRe	204	3	The world's Redeemer did not design that His purchased inheritance should live and die in their sins. Why, then, are so few reached and saved?--It is because so many of those who profess to be Christians are working in the same lines as the great apostate. Thousands who know not God might today be rejoicing in His love if those who claim to serve Him would work as Christ worked.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 273.
RRe	204	4	Every living Christian will be a disinterested worker for God. The Lord has given us a knowledge of His will, that we may become channels of light to others. If Christ is abiding in us, we cannot help working for Him. It is impossible to retain the favor of God, and enjoy the blessing of a Saviour's love, and yet be indifferent to the danger of those who are perishing in their sins. "It is My Father's good pleasure that ye bear much fruit."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 238, 239.
------------------------They Have the Greatest Joy--Service, July 22
RRe	205	1	Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. Isaiah 65:14.
RRe	205	2	In our life here, earthly, sin-restricted, though it is, the greatest joy and the highest education are in service. And in the future state, untrammeled by the limitations of sinful humanity, it is in service that our greatest joy and our highest education will be found,--witnessing, and ever as we witness learning anew "the riches of the glory of this mystery," "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."--Education, 309.
RRe	205	3	We do not, as followers of Christ, realize our true position. We do not have correct views of our responsibilities as hired servants of Christ. He has advanced us the wages in his suffering life and spilled blood, to bind us in willing servitude to Himself. All the good things we have are a loan from our Saviour. He has made us stewards. Our smallest offerings, our humblest services, presented in faith and love, may be consecrated gifts to win souls to the service of the Master and to promote His glory. The interest and prosperity of Christ's kingdom should be paramount to every other consideration. Those who make their pleasure and selfish interest the chief objects of their lives, are not faithful stewards.
RRe	205	4	Those who deny self to do others good, and who devote themselves and all they have to Christ's service, will realize the happiness which the selfish man seeks for in vain.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 397.
------------------------They Are Filled with the Holy Ghost, July 23
RRe	206	1	The disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost. Acts 13:52.
RRe	206	2	The Holy Spirit is the breath of spiritual life in the soul. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ.--The Desire of Ages, 805.
RRe	206	3	No sooner does one come to Christ, than there is born in his heart a desire to make known to others what a precious friend he has found in Jesus; the saving and sanctifying truth cannot be shut up in his heart. If we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and are filled with the joy of His indwelling Spirit, we shall not be able to hold our peace. If we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, we shall have something to tell. Like Philip when he found the Saviour, we shall invite others into His presence. We shall seek to present to them the attractions of Christ, and the unseen realities of the world to come. There will be an intensity of desire to follow in the path that Jesus trod. There will be an earnest longing that those around us may behold "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
RRe	206	4	And the effort to bless others will react in blessings upon ourselves. This was the purpose of God in giving us a part to act in the plan of redemption. He has granted men the privilege of becoming partakers of the divine nature, and, in their turn, of diffusing blessings to their fellow men. This is the highest honor, the greatest joy, that it is possible for God to bestow upon men.--Steps to Christ, 83.
------------------------They Reveal the Lord's Joy in Their Lives, July 24
RRe	207	1	Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10.
RRe	207	2	God, in His providence, has willed that no one can secure happiness by living for himself alone. The joy of our Lord consisted in enduring toil and shame for others, that they might be benefited thereby. We are capable of being happy in following His example, and living to bless our fellow-men.
RRe	207	3	We are invited by our Lord to take His yoke and bear His burden. In doing this, we may be happy. In bearing our own self-imposed yoke and carrying our own burdens, we find no rest; but in bearing the yoke of Christ there is rest to the soul. Those who want some great work to do for the Master can find it just where they are, in doing good and in being self-forgetful and self-sacrificing, remembering others and carrying sunshine wherever they go.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 224.
RRe	207	4	All heaven is waiting for channels through which can be poured the holy oil to be a joy and blessing to human hearts.
RRe	207	5	Christ has made every provision that His church shall be a transformed body, illumined with the Light of the world, possessing the glory of Immanuel. It is His purpose that every Christian shall be surrounded with a spiritual atmosphere of light and peace. He desires that we shall reveal His own joy in our lives.
RRe	207	6	"For the joy of the Lord is your strength."--Christ's Object Lessons, 419.
------------------------They Share His Joy in Saving of the Lost, July 25
RRe	208	1	He said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found. Luke 15:31, 32.
RRe	208	2	You claim to be a child of God; but if this claim be true, it is "thy brother" that was "dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found." He is bound to you by the closest ties; for God recognizes him as a son. Deny your relationship to him, and you show you are but a hireling in the household, not a child in the family of God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 211.
RRe	208	3	When you see yourselves as sinners saved only by the love of your heavenly Father, you will have tender pity for others who are suffering in sin. You will no longer meet misery and repentance with jealousy and censure. When the ice of selfishness is melted from your hearts, you will be in sympathy with God, and will share His joy in the saving of the lost.--Christ's Object Lessons, 210.
RRe	208	4	God has qualified His people to enlighten the world. He has entrusted them with faculties by which they are to extend His work until it shall encircle the globe. ... In far-off countries, from those whose hearts are by these agencies turned from the service of sin unto righteousness, will be heard thanksgiving and the voice of melody. By their songs of grateful praise a testimony will be borne that will win others to allegiance to and fellowship with Christ.
RRe	208	5	The conversion of souls to God is the greatest, the noblest work in which human beings can have a part. In this work are revealed God's power, His holiness, His forbearance, and His unbounded love. Every true conversion glorifies Him, and causes the angels to break forth into singing.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 51, 52.
------------------------They Have Christ's Joy--Seeing Sinners Saved, July 26
RRe	209	1	And now come I to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves. John 17:13.
RRe	209	2	The joy set before Christ, the joy that sustained Him through sacrifice and suffering, was the joy of seeing sinners saved. This should be the joy of every follower of His, the spur to his ambition.--Prophets and Kings, 172.
RRe	209	3	God has given to every man his work, and no one else can do that work for him. Oh that you individually would apply the eye-salve, that you might see your defects of character, and realize how God regards your love of the world, which is crowding out the love of God. Nothing can give you such power, such true self-reliance and nobility of soul, as a sense of the dignity of your work,--an assurance that you are co-laborers with God in doing good and saving souls.
RRe	209	4	The Son of God came to this world to leave an example of a perfect life. He sacrificed Himself for the joy that was set before Him--the joy of seeing souls rescued from Satan's grasp, and saved in the kingdom of God. "Follow Me" was Christ's command. Those who follow His example will share in the divine work of doing good, and will finally enter into the joy of their Lord.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 615.
RRe	209	5	That joy, to which Christ Himself looks forward with eager desire, is presented in His request to His Father, "I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am."--Gospel Workers, 516.
------------------------Angels Rejoice with Men in Seeking the Lost, July 27
RRe	210	1	Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Luke 15:10.
RRe	210	2	There is more joy in the presence of the angels in heaven over one sinner that repeats than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance. There is joy with the Father and with Christ. All heaven is interested in the salvation of man. He who is instrumental in saving a soul is at liberty to rejoice; for angels of God have witnessed his efforts with the most intense interest, and rejoice with him in his success.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 264.
RRe	210	3	Humanity is still as much the object of heaven's solicitude as when common men of common occupations met angels at noon-day, and talked with the heavenly messengers in the vineyards and the fields. To us in the common walks of life, heaven may be very near. Angels from the courts above will attend the steps of those who come and go at God's command.--The Desire of Ages, 48.
RRe	210	4	All the resources of heaven are at the command of those who are seeking to save the lost. Angels will help you to reach the most careless and the most hardened. And when one is brought back to God, all heaven is made glad; seraphs and cherubs touch their golden harps, and sing praises to God and the Lamb for their mercy and loving-kindness to the children of men.--Christ's Object Lessons, 197.
------------------------Angels Labor with Us in Presenting Jesus, July 28
RRe	211	1	Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word. Psalms 103:20.
RRe	211	2	In the presence-chamber of the King of kings they wait--"angels, that excel in strength," "ministers of His, that do His pleasure," "hearkening unto the voice of His word." Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, were the heavenly messengers beheld by the prophet Daniel. The apostle Paul declared them "an innumerable company." As God's messengers they go forth, like "the appearance of a flash of lightning," so dazzling their glory, and so swift their flight. ...
RRe	211	3	Angels are sent on missions of mercy to the children of God. To Abraham, with promises of blessing; to the gates of Sodom, to rescue righteous Lot from its fiery doom; to Elijah, as he was about to perish from weariness and hunger in the desert; to Elisha, with chariots and horses of fire surrounding the little town where he was shut in by his foes; to Daniel, while seeking divine, wisdom in the court of a heathen king, or abandoned to become the lions' prey; to Peter, doomed to death in Herod's dungeon; to the prisoners at Philippi; to Paul and his companions in the night of tempest on the sea; to open the mind of Cornelius to receive the gospel: to dispatch Peter with the message of salvation to the Gentile stranger,--thus holy angels have, in all ages, ministered to God's people.--The Great Controversy, 511, 512.
------------------------Heaven's Host and God's Ministers Rejoice in Service, July 29
RRe	212	1	Bless ye the Lord, all ye His hosts; ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure. Psalms 103:21.
RRe	212	2	Angels of glory that do always behold the face of the Father in heaven, joy in ministering to His little ones. Angels are ever present where they are most needed, with those who have the hardest battles with self to fight, and whose surroundings are the most discouraging. Weak and trembling souls who have many objectionable traits of character, are their special charge. That which selfish hearts would regard as humiliating service, ministering, to those who are wretched and in every way inferior in character, is the work of the pure, sinless beings from the courts above.--The Ministry of Healing, 105.
RRe	212	3	We are to be laborers together with the heavenly angels in presenting Jesus to the world. With almost impatient eagerness the angels wait for our co-operation; for man must be the channel to communicate with man. And when we give ourselves to Christ in whole-hearted devotion, angels rejoice that they may speak through our voices to reveal God's love.--The Desire of Ages, 297.
RRe	212	4	Is there not something stimulating and inspiring in this thought, that the human agent stands as the visible instrument to confer the blessings of angelic agencies? As we are thus laborers together with God, the work bears the inscription of the divine. The knowledge and activity of the heavenly workers, united with the knowledge and power that are imparted to human agencies, bring relief to the oppressed and distressed. Our acts of unselfish ministry make us partakers in the success that results from the relief offered. With what joy heaven looks upon these blended influences!--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 457.
------------------------Angels Minister to Man's Needs, July 30
RRe	213	1	Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Hebrews 1:14.
RRe	213	2	Today, as verily as in the days of the apostles, heavenly messengers are passing through the length and breadth of the land, seeking to comfort the sorrowing, to protect the impenitent, to win the hearts of men to Christ. We cannot see them personally; nevertheless they are with us, guiding, directing, protecting.
RRe	213	3	Heaven is brought near to earth by that mystic ladder, the base of which is firmly planted on the earth, while the topmost round reaches the throne of the Infinite. Angels are constantly ascending and descending this ladder of shining brightness, bearing the prayers of the needy and distressed to the Father above, and bringing blessing and hope, courage and help, to the children of men. These angels of light create a heavenly atmosphere about the soul, lifting us toward the unseen and the eternal. We cannot behold their forms with our natural sight; only by spiritual vision can we discern heavenly things. The spiritual ear alone can hear the harmony of heavenly voices. . . .
RRe	213	4	We need to understand better than we do the mission of the angels. It would be well to remember that every true child of God has the co-operation of heavenly beings. Invisible armies of light and power attend the meek and lowly ones who believe and claim the promises of God. Cherubim and seraphim, and angels that excel in strength, stand at God's right hand, "all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation."--The Acts of the Apostles, 152-154.
------------------------Angels Fulfill Promise of Divine Care, July 31
RRe	214	1	He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Psalms 91:11, 12.
RRe	214	2	"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." God commissions His angels to save His chosen ones from calamity, to guard them from "the pestilence that walketh in darkness," and "the destruction that wasteth at noonday." Again and again have angels talked with men as a man speaketh with a friend, and led them to places of security. Again and again have the encouraging words of angels renewed the drooping spirits of the faithful, and carrying their minds above the things of earth, caused them to behold by faith the white robes, the crowns, the palm branches of victory, which overcomers will receive when they surround the great white throne.--The Acts of the Apostles, 153.
RRe	214	3	O that we could all realize the nearness of heaven to earth! When the earth-born children know it not, they have angels of light as their companions. A silent witness guards every soul that lives, seeking to draw that soul to Christ. As long as there is hope, until men resist the Holy Spirit to their eternal ruin, they are guarded by heavenly intelligences.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 366, 367.
RRe	214	4	In all ages, angels have been near to Christ's faithful followers. The vast confederacy of evil is arrayed against all who would overcome; but Christ would have us look to the things which are not seen, to the armies of heaven encamped about all who love God, to deliver them. From what dangers, seen and unseen, we have been preserved through the interposition of the angels, we shall never know, until in the light of eternity we see the providences of God. Then we shall know that the whole family of heaven was interested in the family here below, and that messengers from the throne of God attended our steps from day to day.--The Desire of Ages, 240.
------------------------God's Good Pleasure in Uprightness, August 1
RRe	215	1	I know also, my God, that Thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy Thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto Thee. 1 Chronicles 29:17.
RRe	215	2	Christ is pleased with His followers when they show that, though human, they are partakers of the divine nature.--The Desire of Ages, 153.
RRe	215	3	Not by their wealth, their education, or their position does God estimate men. He estimates them by their purity of motive and their beauty of character.--The Ministry of Healing, 477.
RRe	215	4	Moral perfection is required of all. Never should we lower the standard of righteousness in order to accommodate inherited or cultivated tendencies to wrong-doing. We need to understand that imperfection of character is sin. All righteous attributes of character dwell in God as a perfect, harmonious whole, and every one who receives Christ as a personal Saviour is privileged to possess these attributes.--Christ's Object Lessons, 330.
RRe	215	5	Be ambitious, for the Master's glory, to cultivate every grace of character. In every phase of your character-building you are to please God. This you may do; for Enoch pleased Him, though living in a degenerate age. And there are Enochs in this our day.--Christ's Object Lessons, 332.
------------------------When the Wicked Turns from His Ways, August 2
RRe	216	1	Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? Ezekiel 18:23.
RRe	216	2	Satan will present the path of holiness as difficult, while the paths of worldly pleasure are strewed with flowers. In false and flattering colors will the tempter array the world with its pleasures before you.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 502, 503.
RRe	216	3	Yet do not therefore conclude that the upward path is the hard and the downward road the easy way. All along the road that leads to death there are pains and penalties, there are sorrows and disappointments, there are warnings not to go on. God's love has made it hard for the heedless and headstrong to destroy themselves. It is true that Satan's path is made to appear attractive, but it is all a deception; in the way of evil there are bitter remorse and cankering care. We may think it pleasant to follow pride and worldly ambition; but the end is pain and sorrow. Selfish plans may present flattering promises, and hold out hope of enjoyment; but we shall find that our happiness is poisoned, and our life embittered by hopes that center in self. In the downward road the gateway may be bright with flowers, but thorns are in the path. The light of hope which shines from its entrance, fades into the darkness of despair; and the soul who follows that path descends into the shadows of unending night.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 139.
------------------------Heaven Approves Obedience and Service, August 3
RRe	217	1	If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. Job 36:11.
RRe	217	2	The Christian has a source of strength and happiness to which the lovers of pleasure are strangers.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 616.
RRe	217	3	Conversion is a work that most do not appreciate. It is not a small matter to transform an earthly, sin-loving mind, and bring it to understand the unspeakable love of Christ, the charms of His grace, and the excellency of God, so that the soul shall be imbued with divine love, and captivated with the heavenly mysteries. When he understands these things, his former life appears disgusting and hateful. He hates sin, and, breaking his heart before God, he embraces Christ as the life and joy of the soul. He renounces his former pleasures. He has a new mind, new affections, new interest, new will; his sorrows, and desires, and love are all new. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, which have heretofore been preferred before Christ, are now turned from, and Christ is the charm of his life, the crown of his rejoicing. Heaven, which once possessed no charms, is now viewed in its riches and glory; and he contemplates it as his future home, where he shall see, love, and praise the One who hath redeemed him by His precious blood.--Testimonies for the Church 2:294.
RRe	217	4	The word of God, which was dull and uninteresting, is now chosen as his study, the man of his counsel. It is as a letter written to him from God, bearing the inscription of the Eternal.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 295.
RRe	217	5	The works of holiness, which appeared wearisome, are now his delight.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 294, 295.
------------------------Ministry to Others, August 4
RRe	218	1	I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. Ecclesiastes 3:12.
RRe	218	2	God calls upon men to minister gladly to their fellow men.--The Ministry of Healing, 103.
RRe	218	3	Every effort we make for Christ will be rewarded by Him; and every duty we perform in His name will minister to our own happiness.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 19.
RRe	218	4	Life is too valuable, too full of solemn, sacred responsibilities, to be wasted in pleasing self. Men and women have hardly begun to understand the true object of life. They are attracted by glitter and show. They are ambitious for worldly pre-eminence. To this the true aims of life are sacrificed. Life's best things,--simplicity, honesty, truthfulness, purity, integrity,--cannot be bought or sold. They are as free to the ignorant as to the educated, to the humble laborer as to the honored statesman. For every one God has provided pleasure that may be enjoyed by rich and poor alike,--the pleasure found in cultivating pureness of thought and unselfishness of action, the pleasure that comes from speaking sympathizing words and doing kindly deeds. From those who perform such service the light of Christ shines to brighten lives darkened by many shadows.--The Ministry of Healing, 198.
------------------------When I Can Take Jesus with Me, August 5
RRe	219	1	Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. Romans 14:22.
RRe	219	2	Those who find true happiness must have the blessing of Heaven upon all that they possess and all that they do.--The Ministry of Healing, 440.
RRe	219	3	Let us never lose sight of the fact that Jesus is a wellspring of joy. He does not delight in the misery of human beings, but loves to see them happy. Christians have many sources of happiness at their command, and they may tell with unerring accuracy what pleasures are lawful and right. They may enjoy such recreations as will not dissipate the mind or debase the soul, such as will not disappoint, and leave a sad after-influence to destroy self respect or bar the way to usefulness. If they can take Jesus with them, and maintain a prayerful spirit, they are perfectly safe.--The Ministry of Healing, 38.
RRe	219	4	Any amusement in which you can engage asking the blessing of God upon it in faith, will not be dangerous. But any amusement which disqualifies you for secret prayer, for devotion at the altar of prayer, or for taking part in the prayer meeting, is not safe, but dangerous.--The Ministry of Healing, 386.
------------------------To Do Justice, August 6
RRe	220	1	It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. Proverbs 21:15.
RRe	220	2	He who is fully content to receive his commission from above will be cheered by the promises of God, as he seeks to do justice and judgment. To have unwavering trust in God, to be a doer of His word, is to pursue a safe course. The counsel of God simplifies the perplexities of business transactions and domestic duties. The followers of Christ who work with an eye single to the glory of God will have heavenly wisdom.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 141.
RRe	220	3	The words and law of God, written in the soul, and exhibited in a consecrated, holy life, have a powerful influence to convict the world. Covetousness, which is idolatry, and envy, and love of the world, will be rooted from the hearts of those who are obedient to Christ, and it will be their pleasure to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 201.
------------------------Industry, August 7
RRe	221	1	There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God. Ecclesiastes 2:24.
RRe	221	2	At the creation, labor was appointed as a blessing. It meant development, power, happiness. The changed condition of the earth through the curse of sin has brought a change in the conditions of labor; yet though now attended with anxiety, weariness, and pain, it is still a source of happiness and development. And it is a safeguard against temptation. Its discipline places a check on self-indulgence, and promotes industry, purity, and firmness. Thus it becomes a part of God's great plan for our recovery from the fall.
RRe	221	3	While God has created and constantly controls all things, He has endowed us with a power not wholly unlike His. To us has been given a degree of control over the forces of nature. As God called forth the earth in its beauty out of chaos, so we can bring order and beauty out of confusion. And though all things are now marred with evil, yet in our completed work we feel a joy akin to His, when, looking on the fair earth, He pronounced it "very good."--Education, 214, 215.
------------------------Enjoyment of Nature, August 8
RRe	222	1	The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. Psalms 111:2.
RRe	222	2	Although sin has cast its shadow over the earth, God desires His children to find delight in the works of His hands.--The Ministry of Healing, 261, 262.
RRe	222	3	Men, in their pride, delight in magnificent and costly edifices, and glory in the works of their own hands; but God placed Adam in a garden. This was his dwelling. The blue heavens were its dome; the earth, with its delicate flowers and carpet of living green, was its floor; and the leafy branches of the goodly trees were its canopy. Its walls were hung with the most magnificent adornings,--the handiwork of the great Master-artist. In the surroundings of the holy pair was a lesson for all time,--that true happiness is found, not in the indulgence of pride and luxury, but in communion with God through His created works. If men would give less attention to the artificial, and would cultivate greater simplicity, they would come far nearer to answering the purpose of God in their creation. Pride and ambition are never satisfied, but those who are truly wise will find substantial and elevating pleasure in the sources of enjoyment that God has placed within the reach of all.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 49, 50.
------------------------Meditating Upon the Lord, August 9
RRe	223	1	My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord. Psalms 104:34.
RRe	223	2	Let every purpose you form, every work in which you engage, and every pleasure you enjoy, be to the glory of God. Let this be the language of your heart: I am Thine, O God, to live for Thee, to work for Thee, and to suffer for Thee.
RRe	223	3	Many profess to be on the Lord's side, but they are not; the weight of all their actions is on Satan's side. By what means shall we determine whose side we are on? Who has the heart? With whom are our thoughts? Upon whom do we love to converse? Who has our warmest affections and our best energies? If we are on the Lord's side, our thoughts are with Him, and our sweetest thoughts are of Him. We have no friendship with the world; we have consecrated all that we have and are to Him. We long to bear His image, breathe His Spirit, do His will, and please Him in all things.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 262.
RRe	223	4	To be brought into favor with God,--what a privilege! To commune with Him,--what could more elevate, refine, and exalt us above the frivolous pleasures of earth? To have our corrupt natures renovated by grace, our lustful appetites and animal propensities in subjection, to stand forth with noble, moral independence, achieving victories every day, will give peace of conscience which can arise alone from right-doing.
RRe	223	5	Young friends, . . . with such employment and diversion as this, you might be happy. But the reason why you are restless is, you do not seek to the only true source for happiness. You are ever trying to find out of Christ that enjoyment which is found only in Him.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 504.
------------------------Moses Spurned the Pleasures of Sin, August 10
RRe	224	1	By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Hebrews 11:24, 25.
RRe	224	2	Moses was offered the palace of the Pharaohs, and the monarch's throne; but the sinful pleasures that make men forget God were in those lordly courts, and he chose instead the "durable riches and righteousness." Instead of linking himself with the greatness of Egypt, he chose to bind up his life with God's purpose. Instead of giving laws to Egypt, he by divine direction enacted laws for the world. He became God's instrument in giving to men those principles that are the safeguard alike of the home and of society, that are the cornerstone of the prosperity of nations,--the principles recognized today by the world's greatest men as the foundation of all that is best in human governments.
RRe	224	3	The greatness of Egypt is in the dust. Its power and civilization have passed away. But the work of Moses can never perish. The great principles of righteousness which he lived to establish are eternal.--Education, 68, 69.
RRe	224	4	All who will turn from the pleasures of earth, and with Moses choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the world, will, with faithful Moses, receive the unfading crown of immortality, and the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 101.
------------------------Aaron Chose Them, August 11
RRe	225	1	Saying unto Aaron, make us gods to go before us; for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Acts 7:40, 41.
RRe	225	2	The fellow-laborer of Moses, who was left with the solemn charge of the people in his absence, heard them uttering complaints that Moses had left them, and expressing a desire to return to Egypt; yet, through fear of offending the people, he was silent. He did not stand up boldly for God; but to please the people, he made a golden calf. He seemed to be asleep to the beginning of the evil. When the first rebellious word was spoken, Aaron might have checked it; but so fearful was he of offending the people, that he apparently united with them, and was finally persuaded to make a golden calf for them to worship.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 514, 515.
RRe	225	3	"These," said Aaron without hesitation or shame, "be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Aaron influenced the children of Israel to go to greater lengths in idolatry than had entered their minds. They were no longer troubled lest the burning glory like flaming fire upon the mount had consumed their leader. They thought they had a general who just suited them, and they were ready to do anything that he suggested. They sacrificed to their golden god; they offered peace offerings, and gave themselves up to pleasure, rioting, and drunkenness.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 300.
RRe	225	4	How often, in our own day, is the love of pleasure disguised by a "form of godliness"! A religion that permits men, while observing the rites of worship, to devote themselves to selfish or sensual gratification, is as pleasing to the multitudes now as in the days of Israel. And there are still pliant Aarons, who, while holding positions of authority in the church, will yield to the desires of the unconsecrated, and thus encourage them in sin.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 317.
------------------------Boasting, August 12
RRe	226	1	But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. James 4:16.
RRe	226	2	If men could see for a moment beyond the range of finite vision, if they could catch a glimpse of the Eternal, every mouth would be stopped in its boasting.--Counsels to Teachers, 66.
RRe	226	3	It is a wicked pride that delights in the vanity of one's own works, that boasts of one's excellent qualities, seeking to make others seem inferior in order to exalt self, claiming more glory than the cold heart is willing to give to God. The disciples of Christ will heed the Master's instruction. He has bidden us love one another even as He has loved us.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 223.
RRe	226	4	Love rejoices in the truth, and institutes no envious comparisons, He who possesses love, compares only the loveliness of Christ and his own imperfect character. . . . There is no religion in the enthronement of self. He who makes self-glorification his aim, will find himself destitute of that grace which alone can make him efficient in Christ's service. Whenever pride and self-complacency are indulged, the work is marred. . . . The smallest duty done in sincerity and self-forgetfulness, is more pleasing to God than the greatest work when marred with self-seeking.--Christ's Object Lessons, 402.
RRe	226	5	Every man who praises himself, brushes the luster from his best efforts.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 607.
RRe	226	6	All boasting of merit in ourselves is out of place.--Christ's Object Lessons, 401.
------------------------Pride of Prosperity, August 13
RRe	227	1	I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the helights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. Ecclesiastes 2:8.
RRe	227	2	Noble in youth, noble in manhood, the beloved of his God, Solomon entered on a reign that gave promise of prosperity and honor. Nations marveled at the knowledge and insight of the man to whom God had given wisdom. But the pride of prosperity brought separation from God. From the joy of divine communion Solomon turned to find satisfaction in the pleasures of sense. Of his experience he says:
RRe	227	3	"I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me wineyards; I made me gardens and orchards; . . . I got me servants and maidens; . . . I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces. I gat me men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem.
RRe	227	4	. . . And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor. . . . Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. And I turned myself to behold wisdom and madness, and folly; for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done."
RRe	227	5	"I hated life. ... Yea, I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun."
RRe	227	6	By his own bitter experience, Solomon learned the emptiness of a life that seeks in earthly things its highest good.--Education, 152, 153.
------------------------Sinful Pleasures Hinder a Fruitful Life, August 14
RRe	228	1	And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection. Luke 8:1.
RRe	228	2	Satan presents the world with its most alluring, flattering charms to poor mortals, and they gaze upon it, and its glitter and tinsel eclipse the glory of heaven, and that life which is as en during as the throne of God. A life of peace, happiness, joy unspeakable, which shall know nothing of sorrow, sadness, pain, nor death, is sacrificed for a short lifetime of sin.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2 101.
RRe	228	3	Life in the cities is false and artificial. The intense passion for money getting, the whirl of excitement and pleasure seeking the thirst for display, the luxury and extravagance, all are force that, with the great masses of mankind, are turning the mind from life's true purpose. They are opening the door to a thousand evils. Upon the youth they have almost irresistible power.
RRe	228	4	One of the most subtle and dangerous temptations that assails the children and youth in the cities is the love of pleasure. Holidays are numerous; games and horse-racing draw thousands and the whirl of excitement and pleasure attracts them away from the sober duties of life. Money that should have been save for better uses is frittered away for amusements.--The Ministry of Healing, 364.
------------------------They Kill Vital Connections with God, August 15
RRe	229	1	She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. 1 Timothy 5:6.
RRe	229	2	Those who love pleasure may keep up a form of godliness, but they have no vital connections with God. Their faith is dead, their zeal has departed.--Messages to Young People, 142.
RRe	229	3	Though church-members, they are unconverted. They may take part in the church service, they may chant the psalm, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God;" but they testify to a falsehood. They are no more righteous in God's sight than is the veriest sinner. The soul that longs after the excitement of worldly pleasure, the mind that is full of love for display, cannot serve God. . . . Such a one has no inclination to war against the lust of the flesh. He belongs to indulge appetite. He chooses the atmosphere of sin.--Christ's Object Lessons, 270.
RRe	229	4	Professed Christians, worldly Christians, are unacquainted with heavenly things. They will never be brought to the gates of the New Jerusalem to engage in exercises which have not hitherto specially interested them. They have not trained their minds to delight in devotion, and in meditation upon things of God and Heaven. How, then, can they engage in the services of Heaven? how delight in the spiritual, the pure, the holy in Heaven, when it was not a special delight to them upon earth?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 265.
------------------------Should Turn Away from Them, August 16
RRe	230	1	Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 2 Timothy 3:4, 5.
RRe	230	2	There is a form of religion which is nothing more than selfishness. It takes pleasure in worldly enjoyment. It is satisfied with contemplating the religion of Christ, and knows nothing of its saving power.--Messages to Young People, 106.
RRe	230	3	One of the sins that constitute one of the signs of the last days, is that professed Christians are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Deal truly with your own souls. Search carefully. How few, after a faithful examination, can look up to Heaven and say, "I am not one of those thus described. I am not a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God."--Messages to Young People, 84.
RRe	230	4	God does not own the pleasure-seeker as His follower. Those only who are self-denying, and who live lives of sobriety, humility and holiness, are true followers of Jesus. And such cannot enjoy the frivolous, empty conversation of the lover of the world.
RRe	230	5	The true followers of Christ will have sacrifices to make. They will shun places of worldly amusement because they find no Jesus there,--no influence which will make them heavenly minded and increase their growth in grace. Obedience to the word of God will lead them to come out from all these things, and be separated.--Messages to Young People, 376, 377.
------------------------Counterfeit Pleasures--the Knowledge of Evil, August 17
RRe	231	1	When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took off the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. Genesis 3:6.
RRe	231	2	It was the will of God that Adam and Eve should not know evil. The knowledge of good had been freely given them; but the knowledge of evil,--of sin and its results, of wearing toil, on anxious care, of disappointment and grief, of pain and death,--this was in love withheld.
RRe	231	3	While God was seeking man's good, Satan was seeking his ruin. Satan desired to make it appear that this knowledge of good mingled with evil would be a blessing, and that in forbidding them to take of the fruit of the tree, God was withholding greater good. He urged that it was because of its wonderful properties for imparting wisdom and power that God had forbidden them to taste it; that He was thus seeking to prevent them from reaching a nobler development and finding greater happiness . . .
RRe	231	4	When Eve saw "that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat." It was grateful to the taste, and, as she ate, she seemed to feel a vivifying power, and imagined herself entering upon a higher state of existence. Having herself transgressed, she became a tempter to her husband, "and he did eat."
RRe	231	5	"Your eyes shall be opened," the enemy had said; "ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Their eyes were indeed opened; but how sad the opening!--Education, 23-25.
RRe	231	6	If Adam and Eve had never touched the forbidden tree, the Lord would have imparted to them knowledge,--knowledge upon which rested no curse of sin, knowledge that would have brought them everlasting joy.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 290.
------------------------Unsound Doctrine, August 18
RRe	232	1	For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12.
RRe	232	2	Those who are unwilling to accept the plain, cutting truths of the Bible, are continually seeking for pleasing fables that will quiet the conscience. The less spiritual, self-denying, and humiliating the doctrines presented, the greater the favor with which they are received. These persons degrade the intellectual powers to serve their carnal desires. Too wise in their own conceit to search the Scriptures with contrition of soul and earnest prayer for divine guidance, they have no shield from delusion. Satan is ready to supply the heart's desire, and he palms off his deceptions in the place of truth. . . . All who neglect the word of God to study convenience and policy, that they may not be at variance with the world, will be left to receive damnable heresy for religious truth. Every conceivable form of error will be accepted by those who wilfully reject the truth. He who looks with horror upon one deception will readily receive another. The apostle Paul, speaking of a class who "received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved," declares, "For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." With such a warning before us, it behooves us to be on our guard as to what doctrines we receive.--The Great Controversy, 523. 524.
------------------------Draw Me from the Path of Uprightness, August 19
RRe	233	1	To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked. Proverbs 2:12-14.
RRe	233	2	Since the fall of Adam it has been the fashion of the world to sin.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 129.
RRe	233	3	In the unregenerate heart there is love of sin, and a disposition to cherish and excuse it.--The Great Controversy, 508.
RRe	233	4	The prevalence of a sinful desire shows the delusion of the soul. Every indulgence of that desire strengthens the soul's aversion to God. The pains of duty and the pleasures of sin are the cords with which Satan binds men in his snares.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 53.
RRe	233	5	By beholding, we become changed. Though formed in the image of his Maker, man can so educate his mind that sin which he once loathed, will become pleasant to him. As he ceases to watch and pray, he ceases to guard the citadel, the heart, and engages in sin and crime. The mind is debased, and it is impossible to elevate it from corruption while it is being educated to enslave the moral and intellectual powers, and bring them in subjection to grosser passions. Constant war against the carnal mind must be maintained; and we must be aided by the refining influence of the grace of God, which will attract the mind upward, and habituate it to meditate upon pure and holy things.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 479.
RRe	233	6	The Spirit of God is continually impressing the minds of men to seek for those things which alone will give peace and rest,--the higher, holier joy of Heaven. Christ, the Lord of life and glory, gave His life "to redeem man from Satan's power. Our Saviour is constantly at work, through influences seen and unseen, to attract the minds of men from the unsatisfying pleasures of this life to the priceless treasure which may be theirs in the immortal future.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 580.
------------------------Bitter Feelings, August 20
RRe	234	1	If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him. . . . Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended. Job 31:29, 40.
RRe	234	2	Bitter feelings . . . are foreign to the spirit of Christ.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 52.
RRe	234	3	Jesus, when reviled, abused, and insulted, did not retaliate. "Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again." When the cruelty of man caused Him to suffer painful stripes and wounds, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him who judgeth righteously. . . .
RRe	234	4	Is the servant greater than his master? Christ has given us His life as a pattern, and we dishonor Him when we become jealous of every slight, and are ready to resent every injury, supposed or real. It is not an evidence of a noble mind to be prepared to defend self, to preserve our own dignity. We would better suffer wrongfully a hundred times than wound the soul by a spirit of retaliation, or by giving vent to wrath.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 426, 427.
RRe	234	5	No resentment must come into our hearts. . . . O jealousy and evil surmising, what mischief have ye wrought! how have ye turned friendship and love into bitterness and hatred! We must be less proud, less sensitive, have less self-love, and be dead to self-interest.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 566.
RRe	234	6	"Rejoice not when your enemy falls, never exult when he is overthrown; lest the Eternal see it and in displeasure divert His wrath from him to you." Prov. 24:17, 18, Moffatt.
------------------------To Do Wickedness, August 21
RRe	235	1	It is as sport to a fool to do mischief [Revised Version, "wickedness"]: but a man of understanding hath wisdom. Proverbs 10:23.
RRe	235	2	In the Old Testament the word "fool" is used to designate an apostate, or one who has abandoned himself to wickedness.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 57.
RRe	235	3	In the days of Noah . . . there were many giants, men of great stature and strength, renowned for wisdom, skillful in devising the most cunning and wonderful works; but their guilt in giving loose rein to iniquity was in proportion to their skill and mental ability.
RRe	235	4	God bestowed upon these antediluvians many and rich gifts; but they used His bounties to glorify themselves, and turned them into a curse by fixing their affections upon the gifts instead of the Giver. They employed the gold and silver, the precious stones and the choice wood, in the construction of habitations for themselves, and endeavored to excel one another in beautifying their dwellings with the most skillful workmanship. They sought only to gratify the desires of their own proud hearts, and reveled in scenes of pleasure and wickedness. . . .
RRe	235	5	"God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. . . . The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." God had given men His commandments as a rule of life, but His law was transgressed, and every conceivable sin was the result. The wickedness of men was open and daring, justice was trampled in the dust, and the cries of the oppressed reached unto heaven.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 90, 91.
RRe	235	6	The sins that called for vengeance upon the antediluvian world, exist today. The fear of God is banished from the hearts of men, and His law is treated with indifference and contempt. The intense worldliness of that generation is equaled by that of the generation now living.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 101.
------------------------Folly, Foolishness, Nonsense, August 22
RRe	236	1	Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding walketh uprightly. Proverbs 15:21.
RRe	236	2	Our recreations should not be scenes of senseless mirth, taking the form of the nonsensical. We can conduct them in such a manner as will benefit and elevate those with whom we associate, and better qualify us and them to more successfully attend to the duties devolving upon us as Christians.
RRe	236	3	We cannot be excusable in the sight of God if we engage in amusements which have a tendency to unfit us for the faithful performance of the ordinary duties of life, and thus lessen our relish for the contemplation of God and heavenly things. The religion of Christ is cheering and elevating in its influence. It is above everything like foolish jesting and joking, vain and frivolous chit-chat.--Messages to Young People, 364.
RRe	236	4	It is by leading the followers of Christ to associate with the ungodly and unite in their amusements, that Satan is most successful in alluring them into sin. . . . Through the drama he has worked for ages to excite passion and glorify vice. The opera, with its fascinating display and bewildering music, the masquerade, the dance, the card-table, Satan employs to break down the barriers of principle, and open the door to sensual indulgence. In every gathering for pleasure where pride is fostered or appetite indulged, where one is led to forget God and lose sight of eternal interests, there Satan is binding his chains about the soul.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 458-460.
------------------------Foolish Talking, Jesting, Joking, August 23
RRe	237	1	It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity. Ecclesiastes 7:5, 6.
RRe	237	2	"Foolish talking, or jesting . . . are not befitting." Ephesians 5:4, American Standard Version.
RRe	237	3	Jesting, joking, and worldly conversation belong to the world. Christians who have the peace of God in their hearts, will be cheerful and happy without indulging in lightness or frivolity. While watching unto prayer, they will have a serenity and peace which will elevate them above all superfluities.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 241.
RRe	237	4	The giddy laugh, the jesting, the joking, sickens the soul that is feeding on Christ. Cheap, foolish talk is painful to him.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 457.
RRe	237	5	Lightness, jesting, and joking will result in barrenness of soul, and the loss of the favor of God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 236.
RRe	237	6	A mind that is intent upon having the prize, upon securing heaven, will reject with firm, determined purpose every attempt at wit and jest concerning religious things.--Messages to Young People, 267.
RRe	237	7	Let no low witticism escape your lips.--The Ministry of Healing, 491.
RRe	237	8	All frivolous words, all lightness and trifling, are enticements of the enemy to deprive you of spiritual strength. Brace yourselves against this evil, in the name of the God of Israel. . . . Trim your lamps, and keep them burning, that wherever you may go, you may reveal in speech and action precious rays of light.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 133.
------------------------The Triumph of the Wicked Is Short, August 24
RRe	238	1	Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? Job 20:4, 5.
RRe	238	2	Think, oh, think, in your pleasure-seeking hours, that all these things have an end. Did you have correct views of life, endless life with God, how quickly would you turn from a life of pleasure and sin. How quickly would you change your mind, your course, and your company, and turn the strength of your affection to God and heavenly things. How resolutely would you scorn to yield to temptations which have deceived and captivated you. How zealous would be your efforts for the blessed life; how earnest and persevering your prayers to God for His grace to abide upon you, for His power to sustain you and help you resist the devil. How diligent would you be to improve every religious privilege to learn the ways and will of God. How careful would you be in meditating upon the law of God, and in comparing your life with its claims. How fearful would you be, lest you sin in word or deed, and how earnest to grow in grace and true holiness. Your conversation would not be on trifling things, but in Heaven. Then glorious and eternal things would open before you, and you would not rest until you should increase more and more in spirituality. But earthly things claim your attention, and God is forgotten. I implore you to face right about, and to seek the Lord, that He may be found of you; call upon Him while He is near.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 290, 291.
------------------------Worldly Pleasure Will Pass Away, August 25
RRe	239	1	Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2:15, 17.
RRe	239	2	There are lovers of the world, even among those who profess to be waiting for the Lord. There is ambition for riches and honor. Christ describes this class when He declares that the day of God is to come as a snare upon all that dwell upon the earth. This world is their home. They make it their business to secure earthly treasures. They erect costly dwellings, and furnish them with every good thing; they find pleasure in dress and the indulgence of appetite. The things of the world are their idols. These interpose between the soul and Christ, and the solemn and awful realities that are crowding upon us are but dimly seen and faintly realized.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 456.
RRe	239	3	If we would permit our minds to dwell more upon Christ and the heavenly world, we should find a powerful stimulus and support in fighting the battles of the Lord. Pride and love of the world will lose their power as we contemplate the glories of that better land so soon to be our home. Beside the loveliness of Christ, all earthly attractions will seem of little worth.--Messages to Young People, 113.
RRe	239	4	"The world passeth away, ... but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
RRe	239	5	Better than all the friendship of the world is the friendship of Christ's redeemed. Better than a title to the noblest palace on earth is a title to the mansions our Lord has gone to prepare. And better than all the words of earthly praise, will be the Saviour's words to His faithful servants, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."--Christ's Object Lessons, 374.
------------------------The Treasures of the Rich Man Will Be Lost, August 26
RRe	240	1	I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? Luke 12:19, 20.
RRe	240	2	The length and happiness of life does not consist in the amount of our earthly possessions. This foolish rich man in his supreme selfishness had laid up for himself treasures that he could not use. He had lived only for himself. He had overreached in trade, had made sharp bargains, and had not exercised mercy or the love of God. He had robbed the fatherless and widow, and defrauded his fellow-men, to add to his increasing stock of worldly possessions. He might have laid up his treasure in Heaven in bags that wax not old; but through his covetousness he lost both worlds.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 402.
RRe	240	3	The man who is wholly absorbed in his counting-room, the man who finds pleasure at the gaming table, the man who loves to indulge perverted appetite, the amusement lover, the frequenters of the theater and the ball-room, put eternity out of their reckoning. The whole burden of their life is, What shall we eat? what shall we drink? and wherewithal shall we be clothed? They are not in the procession that is moving heavenward. They are led by the great apostate, and with him will be destroyed.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 406, 407.
------------------------Only Bitter Regrets Remain, August 27
RRe	241	1	The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! Lamentations 5:15, 16.
RRe	241	2	Multitudes are attracted by a life of selfish and sensual pleasure. They cannot discern the hidden dangers or the fearful ending of the path that seems to them the way of happiness. Through the indulgence of appetite and passion, their energies are wasted, and millions are ruined for this world and for the world to come.--The Ministry of Healing, 371.
RRe	241	3	The true Christian will not desire to enter any place of amusement or engage in any diversion upon which he cannot ask the blessing of God. He will not be found at the theater, the billiard hall, or the bowling saloon. He will not unite with the gay waltzers, or indulge in any other bewitching pleasure that will banish Christ from the mind. . . .
RRe	241	4	When we come to the final hour, and stand face to face with the record of our lives, shall we regret that we have attended so few parties of pleasure? that we have participated in so few scenes of thoughtless mirth? Shall we not, rather, bitterly regret that so many precious hours have been wasted in self-gratification,--so many opportunities neglected, which, rightly improved, would have secured for us immortal treasures?--Messages to Young People, 398.
------------------------Laughter and Mirth Short Lived, August 28
RRe	242	1	Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness. Proverbs 14:13.
RRe	242	2	No real joy can be found in the path forbidden by Him who knows what is best, and who plans for the good of His creatures. The path of transgression leads to misery and destruction.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 600.
RRe	242	3	Happiness that is sought from selfish motives, outside of the path of duty, is ill-balanced, fitful, and transitory; it passes away, and the soul is filled with loneliness and sorrow.--Steps to Christ, 124.
RRe	242	4	The continual craving for pleasurable amusements reveals the deep longings of the soul. But those who drink at this fountain of worldly pleasure will find their soul-thirst still unsatisfied. They are deceived; they mistake mirth for happiness; and when the excitement ceases many sink down into the depths of despondency and despair. O what madness, what folly, to forsake the "Fountain of living waters" for the "broken cisterns" of worldly pleasure!--Messages to Young People, 370.
------------------------The "Gifts" of the World Crow Worse, August 29
RRe	243	1	Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Ecclesiastes 12:1.
RRe	243	2	Have you sought to feast upon the fruits of transgression, only to find them turn to ashes upon your lips? And now, your substance spent, your life-plans thwarted, and your hopes dead, do you sit alone and desolate? Now that voice which has long been speaking to your heart, but to which you would not listen, comes to you distinct and clear, "Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest; because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction." Return to your Father's house. He invites you, saying, "Return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee."--Christ's Object Lessons, 205.
RRe	243	3	As men set forth the best wine first, then afterward that which is worse, so does the world with its gifts. That which it offers may please the eye and fascinate the senses, but it proves to be unsatisfying. The wine turns to bitterness, the gaiety to gloom. That which was begun with songs and mirth, ends in weariness and disgust. But the gifts of Jesus are ever fresh and new. The feast that He provides for the soul, never fails to give satisfaction and joy. Each new gift increases the capacity of the receiver to appreciate and enjoy the blessings of the Lord. He gives grace for grace. There can be no failure of supply. If you abide in Him, the fact that you receive a rich gift today, insures the reception of a richer gift tomorrow.--The Desire of Ages, 148.
------------------------The Sinner Is Not Happy in God's Presence, August 30
RRe	244	1	What is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God? Job 27:8, 10.
RRe	244	2	In his sinless state, mall held joyful communion with Him "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." But after his sin, he could no longer find joy in holiness, and he sought to hide from the presence of God. Such is still the condition of the unrenewed heart. It is not in harmony with God, and finds no joy in communion with Him. The sinner could not be happy in God's presence; he would shrink from the companionship of holy things. Could he be permitted to enter heaven, it would have no joy for him. The spirit of unselfish love that reigns there--every heart responding to the heart of Infinite Love--would touch no answering chord in his soul. His thoughts, his interests, his motives, would be alien to those that actuate the sinless dwellers there. He would be a discordant note in the melody of heaven. Heaven would be to him a place of torture; he would long to be hidden from Him who is its light, and the center of its joy. It is no arbitrary decree on the part of God that excludes the wicked from heaven: they are shut out by their own unfitness for its companionship. The glory of God would be to them a consuming fire. They would welcome destruction, that they might be hidden from the face of Him who died to redeem them.--Steps to Christ, 19, 20.
------------------------Something Better--a New Heart, a New Spirit, August 31
RRe	245	1	Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye hare transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye. Ezekiel 18:31, 32.
RRe	245	2	Every true turning to the Lord brings abiding joy into the life.--Prophets and Kings, 668.
RRe	245	3	Many have a twilight perception of Christ's excellence, and their hearts thrill with joy. They long for a fuller, deeper sense of the Saviour's love. Let these cherish every desire of the soul after God. The Holy Spirit works with those who will be worked, molds those who will be molded, fashions those who will be fashioned. Give yourselves the culture of spiritual thoughts and holy communings. You have seen but the first rays of the early dawn of His glory. As you follow on to know the Lord, you will know that the "path of the righteous is as the light of dawn, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."--The Ministry of Healing, 503.
RRe	245	4	In Christ is fullness of joy forevermore.--Testimonies to Ministers, 390.
RRe	245	5	If we know God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, unspeakable gladness will come to the soul.--Testimonies to Ministers, 170.
------------------------Praise Him, All Ye Lands, September 1
RRe	246	1	Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: sing forth the honour of His name: make His praise glorious. Psalms 66:1, 2.
RRe	246	2	To praise God in fulness and sincerity of heart is as much a duty as is prayer. We are to show to the world and to all the heavenly intelligences that we appreciate the wonderful love of God for fallen humanity, and that we are expecting larger and yet larger blessings from His infinite fulness. Far more than we do, we need to speak of the precious chapters in our experience. After a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, our joy in the Lord and our efficiency in His service would be greatly increased by recounting His goodness and His wonderful works in behalf of His children.--Christ's Object Lessons, 299, 300.
RRe	246	3	Let praise and thanksgiving be expressed in song. When tempted, instead of giving utterance to our feelings, let us by faith lift up a song of thanksgiving to God. Song is a weapon that we can always use against discouragement.--The Ministry of Healing, 254.
RRe	246	4	"Rejoice in the Lord alway," the apostle Paul exhorts; "and again I say, Rejoice." Phil. 4:4. Whatever your disposition may be, God is able so to mould it that it will be sweet and Christlike. By the exercise of living faith you can separate from everything that is not in accordance with the mind of God, and thus bring heaven into your life here below. Doing this, you will have sunshine at every step. When the enemy seeks to enshroud the soul with darkness, sing faith and talk faith, and you will find that you have sung and talked yourself into the light.--Counsels to Teachers, 233, 234.
------------------------With Singing, Timbrel, Harp, and Psaltery, September 2
RRe	247	1	Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with psaltery. Psalms 81:1, 2.
RRe	247	2	God is glorified by songs of praise from a pure heart filled with love and devotion to Him. . . . Those who adhere strictly to the admonitions and instructions of God's word, prayerfully seeking to know and do His righteous will, feel not the petty grievances daily occurring. The gratitude which they feel, and the peace of God ruling within, causes them to make melody in their hearts unto the Lord, and by words to make mention of the debt of love and thankfulness due the dear Saviour, who so loved them as to die that they might have life.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 509, 510.
RRe	247	3	God's children are not to be subject to feelings and emotions When they fluctuate between hope and fear, the heart of Christ is hurt; for He has given them unmistakable evidence of His love He wants them to be established, strengthened, and settled in the most holy faith. He wants them to do the work He has given them; then their hearts will become in His hands as sacred harps every chord of which will send forth praise and thanksgiving to the One sent by God to take away the sins of the world.--Testimonies to Ministers, 518, 519.
------------------------Make a Joyful Noise in His Sanctuary, September 3
RRe	248	1	O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. Psalms 95:1, 2.
RRe	248	2	To the humble, believing soul, the house of God on earth is the gate of heaven. The song of praise, the prayer, the words spoken by Christ's representatives, are God's appointed agencies to prepare a people for the church above, for that loftier worship into which there can enter nothing that defileth. . . .
RRe	248	3	Happy are those who have a sanctuary, be it high or low, in the city or among the rugged mountain caves, in the lowly cabin or in the wilderness. If it is the best they can secure for the Master, He will hallow the place with His presence. . . .
RRe	248	4	The melody of song, poured forth from many hearts in clear, distinct utterance, is one of God's instrumentalities in the work of saving souls. All the service should be conducted with solemnity and awe, as if in the visible presence of the Master of assemblies.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 491-493.
RRe	248	5	The voice of thanksgiving, praise, and rejoicing is heard in heaven. The voices of the angels in heaven unite with the voices of the children of God on earth as they ascribe honor and glory and praise to God and to the Lamb for the great salvation provided.--Counsels to Teachers, 246.
------------------------In the Homes of the Righteous, September 4
RRe	249	1	The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. Psalms 118:15.
RRe	249	2	We open to ourselves the flood-gates of woe or joy. If we permit our thoughts to be engrossed with the troubles and trifles of earth, our hearts will be filled with unbelief, gloom, and foreboding. If we set our affections on things above, the voice of Jesus will speak to our hearts, murmuring will cease, and vexing thoughts will be lost in praise to our Redeemer. Those who dwell upon God's great mercies, and are not unmindful of His lesser gifts, will put on the girdle of gladness, and make melody in their hearts to the Lord.--Counsels to Teachers, 234.
RRe	249	3	Let there be singing in the home, of songs that are sweet and pure, and there will be fewer words of censure, and more of cheerfulness and hope and joy.--Education, 168.
RRe	249	4	In a sense the father is the priest of the household, laying upon the family altar the morning and evening sacrifice. But the wife and children should unite in prayer, and join in the song of praise. In the morning before he leaves home for his daily labor, let the father gather his children about him, and, bowing before God, commit them to the care of the Father in heaven. When the cares of the day are past, let the family unite in offering grateful prayer and raising the song of praise, in acknowledgement of divine care during the day.--The Ministry of Healing, 392.
------------------------With Joyful Lips, September 5
RRe	250	1	My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips. Psalms 63:5.
RRe	250	2	Those who abide in Jesus will be happy, cheerful, and joyful in God. A subdued gentleness will mark the voice, reverence for spiritual and eternal things will be expressed in the actions and music, joyful music, will echo from the lips; for it is wafted from the throne of God. This is the mystery of godliness, not easily explained, but none the less felt and enjoyed. A stubborn and rebellious heart can close its doors to all the sweet influences of the grace of God, and all the joy in the Holy Ghost; but the ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 626.
RRe	250	3	Those who walk in wisdom's ways are, even in tribulation and exceedingly joyful; for He whom their soul loveth, walks, invisible, beside them. At each upward step they discern more distinctly the touch of His hand; at every step brighter gleamings of glory from the Unseen fall upon their path; and their songs of praise, reaching ever a higher note, ascend to join the songs of angels before the throne.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 140.
------------------------Praise Promotes Health of Body and Soul, September 6
RRe	251	1	Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. Psalms 89:15.
RRe	251	2	Nothing tends more to promote health of body and of soul than does a spirit of gratitude and praise. It is a positive duty to resist melancholy, discontented thoughts and feelings,--as much a duty as it is to pray. If we are heaven-bound, how can we go as a band of mourners, groaning and complaining all along the way to our Father's house?
RRe	251	3	Those professed Christians who are constantly complaining, and who seem to think cheerfulness and happiness a sin, have not genuine religion. Those who take a mournful pleasure in all that is melancholy in the natural world, who choose to look upon dead leaves rather than to gather the beautiful living flowers; who see no beauty in grand mountain heights and in valleys clothed with living green; who close their senses to the joyful voice which speaks to them in nature, and which is sweet and musical to the listening ear,--these are not in Christ. They are gathering to themselves gloom and darkness, when they might have brightness, even the Sun of Righteousness arising in their hearts with healing in His beams.--The Ministry of Healing, 251.
------------------------Sing with Gladness, for It Is Good and Pleasant, September 7
RRe	252	1	Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely. Psalms 147:1.
RRe	252	2	The soul may ascend nearer heaven on the wings of praise. God is worshiped with song and music in the courts above, and as we express our gratitude, we are approximating to the worship of the heavenly hosts. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth" God. Let us with reverent joy come before our Creator, with "thanksgiving, and the voice of melody."--Steps to Christ, 109.
RRe	252	3	When human beings sing with the Spirit and the understanding, heavenly musicians take up the strain, and join in the song of thanksgiving. He who has bestowed upon us all the gifts that enable us to be workers together with God, expects His Servants to cultivate their voices, so that they can speak and sing in a way that all can understand. It is not loud singing that is needed, but clear intonation, correct pronunciation, and distinct utterance. Let all take time to cultivate the voice, so that "God's praise can be sung in clear, soft tones, not with harshness and shrillness that offend the ear. The ability to sing is the gift of God; let it be used to His glory.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 143, 144.
------------------------For It Is a Weapon Against Discouragement, September 8
RRe	253	1	Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. Zephaniah 3:14.
RRe	253	2	The melody of praise is the atmosphere of heaven; and when heaven comes in touch with the earth, there is music and song,--"thanksgiving, and the voice of melody."
RRe	253	3	Above the new-created earth, as it lay, fair and unblemished, under the smile of God, "the morning; stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." So human hearts, in sympathy with heaven, have responded to God's goodness in notes of praise.--Education, 161.
RRe	253	4	With a song, Jesus in His earthly life met temptation. Often when sharp, stinging words were spoken, often when the atmosphere about Him was heavy with gloom, with dissatisfaction, distrust, or oppressive fear, was heard His song of faith and holy cheer. On that last sad night of the Passover supper, as He was about to go forth to betrayal and to death, His voice was lifted in the psalm:--
RRe	253	5	"Blessed be the name of the Lord From this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun until the going down of the same The Lord's name is to be praised." Education, 166.
RRe	253	6	As our Redeemer leads us to the threshold of the Infinite, flushed with the glory of God, we may catch the themes of praise and thanksgiving from the heavenly choir round about the throne; and as the echo of the angels' song is awakened in our earthly homes, hearts will be drawn closer to the heavenly singers. Heaven's communion begins on earth. We learn here the keynote of its praise.--Education, 168.
------------------------For It Uplifts Our Thoughts, September 9
RRe	254	1	Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Psalms 149:5.
RRe	254	2	When we have a sense of Christ's sacrifice in our behalf, our lips are turned to the highest, loftiest themes of praise.--Counsels to Teachers, 370.
RRe	254	3	Music is often perverted to serve purposes of evil, and it thus becomes one of the most alluring agencies of temptation. But, rightly employed, it is a precious gift of God, designed to uplift the thoughts to high and noble themes, to inspire and elevate the soul.
RRe	254	4	As the children of Israel, journeying through the wilderness, cheered their way by the music of sacred song, so God bids His children today gladden their pilgrim life. There are few means more effective for fixing His words in the memory than repeating them in song. And such song has wonderful power. It has power to subdue rude and uncultivated natures; power to quicken thought and to awaken sympathy, to promote harmony of action, and to banish the gloom and foreboding that destroy courage and weaken effort.--Education, 167, 168.
RRe	254	5	Amidst the deepening shadows of earth's last great crisis, God's light will shine brightest, and the song of hope and trust will be heard in clearest and loftiest strains. Education, 166.
------------------------For It Is an Act of Worship, September 10
RRe	255	1	Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped. 2 Chronicles 29:30.
RRe	255	2	Singing, as a part of religious service, is as much an act of worship as is prayer.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 594.
RRe	255	3	A congregation may be the poorest in the land. It may be without the attraction of any outward show; but if the members possess the principles of the character of Christ, they will have His joy in their souls. Angels will unite with them in their worship. The praise and thanksgiving from grateful hearts will acend to God as a sweet oblation. ...
RRe	255	4	The people of Israel, as they journeyed through the wilderness, praised God in sacred song. The commandments and promises of the Lord were set to music, and all along the journey these were sung by the pilgrim travelers. And in Canaan as they met at their sacred feasts, God's wonderful works were to be recounted and grateful thanksgiving offered to His name God desired that the whole life of His people should be a life of praise. Thus His way was to be made "known upon earth, His saving health among all nations." So it should be now.--Christ's Object Lessons, 298, 299.
------------------------For It Brings Joy and Cheer, September 11
RRe	256	1	My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto Thee; and my soul, which Thou hast redeemed. Psalms 71:23.
RRe	256	2	The history of the songs of the Bible is full of suggestion as to the uses and benefits of music and song.--Education, 167.
RRe	256	3	It was with songs of praise that the armies of Israel went forth to the great deliverance under Jehoshaphat. . . . Before the army went singers, lifting their voices in praise to God,--praising Him for the victory promised.
RRe	256	4	On the fourth day thereafter, the army returned to Jerusalem, laden with the spoil of their enemies, singing praise for the victory won.--Education, 163.
RRe	256	5	With a song, Jesus in His earthly life met temptation. Often when sharp, stinging words were spoken, often when the atmosphere about Him was heavy with gloom, with dissatisfaction, distrust, or oppressive fear, was heard His song of faith and holy cheer.--Education, 166.
RRe	256	6	Then let us educate our hearts and lips to speak the praise of God for His matchless love. Let us educate our souls to be hopeful, and to abide in the light shining from the cross of Calvary. Never should we forget that we are children of the heavenly King, sons and daughters of the Lord of hosts.--The Ministry of Healing, 253.
RRe	256	7	"Happy the people who know Thy festal songs, who live within the sunshine of Thy favour!" Psalms 89:15, Moffatt.
------------------------For Nature Sings His Praise, September 12
RRe	257	1	Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem. Isaiah 52:9.
RRe	257	2	It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field. ... It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song.--The Desire of Ages, 20.
RRe	257	3	"Dwellers at the world's far end are awed at the proofs of thy power, and lands of sunrise and of sunset sing joyfully of thee. . . . The very pastures of the downs o'erflow, the hills wear girdles of joy." Psalms 65:8, 12, Moffatt.
RRe	257	4	From the solemn roll of the deep-toned thunder and old ocean's ceaseless roar, to the glad songs that make the forests vocal with melody, nature's ten thousand voices speak His praise.--The Ministry of Healing, 411.
RRe	257	5	The birds are teachers of the sweet lesson of trust. Our heavenly Father provides for them; but they must gather the food, they must build their nests, and rear their young. Every moment they are exposed to enemies that seek to destroy them. Yet how cheerily they go about their work! how full of joy are their little songs!--Education, 117, 118.
------------------------For It Banishes Care, September 13
RRe	258	1	Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. James 5:13.
RRe	258	2	Great have been the blessings received by men in response to songs of praise. . . . How often by words of holy song are unsealed in the soul the springs of penitence and faith, of hope and love and joy!--Education, 162.
RRe	258	3	Jesus is our example.--The Desire of Ages, 74.
RRe	258	4	He was never so full of worldly care as to have no time or thought for heavenly things. Often He expressed the gladness of His heart by singing psalms and heavenly songs. Often the dwellers in Nazareth heard His voice raised in praise and thanksgiving to God. He held communion with heaven in song; and as His companions complained of weariness from labor, they were cheered by the sweet melody from His lips. His praise seemed to banish the evil angels, and, like incense, fill the place with fragrance The minds of His hearers were carried away from their earthly exile, to the heavenly home.--The Desire of Ages, 73, 74.
------------------------Express Your Gladness Because God's Creation Is Exceedingly Beautiful, September 14
RRe	259	1	Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Job 38:6, 7.
RRe	259	2	When "the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them," the Creator and all heavenly beings rejoiced in contemplation of the glorious scene. "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."--The Desire of Ages, 769.
RRe	259	3	As the earth came forth from the hand of its Maker, it was exceedingly beautiful. Its surface was diversified with mountains, hills, and plains, interspersed with noble rivers and lovely lakes; but the hills and mountains were not abrupt and rugged, abounding in terrific steeps and frightful chasms, as they now do; the sharp, ragged edges of earth's rocky frame-work were buried beneath the fruitful soil, which everywhere produced a luxuriant growth of verdure. There were no loathsome swamps nor barren deserts. Graceful shrubs and delicate flowers greeted the eye at every turn. The heights were crowned with trees more majestic than any that now exist. The air, untainted by foul miasm, was clear and healthful. The entire landscape outvied in beauty the decorated grounds of the proudest palace. The angelic host viewed the scene with delight, and rejoiced at the wonderful works of God.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 44.
------------------------Because He Provides Daily Mercies, September 15
RRe	260	1	The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing. Psalms 65:13.
RRe	260	2	Under the rulership of King David, Israel had joyfully united in chanting hymns of praise to the Most High, in recognition of their entire dependence on Him for daily mercies. Listen to their words of adoration as then they sang:
RRe	260	3	"O God of our salvation, . . . Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: Thou preparest them corn, when Thou hast so provided for it. . . . The little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; The valleys also are covered over with corn; They shout for joy, they also sing." Prophets and Kings, 133, 134.
------------------------Because Great Is the Holy One of Israel, September 16
RRe	261	1	Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. Isaiah 12:6.
RRe	261	3	When the light of Christ is shining in the soul, the lips will be filled with praise and thanksgiving to God.--{RRe 261.2	The gifts which the gospel offers, are not to be secured by stealth or enjoyed in secret.
RRe	261	4	"Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, That I am God."
RRe	261	5	Our confession of His faithfulness is Heaven's chosen agency for revealing Christ to the world.--The Ministry of Healing, 100.
RRe	261	6	The daily blessings that we receive from the hand of God, and above all else the death of Jesus to bring happiness and heaven within our reach, should be a theme for constant gratitude. What compassion, what matchless love, has God shown to us, lost sinners, in connecting us with Himself, to be to Him a peculiar treasure! What a sacrifice has been made by our Redeemer, that we may be called children of God! We should praise God for the blessed hope held out before us in the great plan of redemption, we should praise Him for the heavenly inheritance, and for His rich promises; praise Him that Jesus lives to intercede for us.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 289.
RRe	261	7	With such a . . . glorious hope, such a redemption that Christ has purchased for us by His own blood, shall we hold our peace? Shall we not praise God even with a loud voice, as did the disciples when Jesus rode into Jerusalem? Is not our prospect far more glorious than was theirs? Who dare then forbid us glorifying God, even with a loud voice, when we have such a hope, big with immortality, and full of glory?--Early Writings, 110.
RRe	261	8	"Chant the Eternal's praise, His glorious feats; let the whole world know of it! Ring it out, dwellers in Sion, aloud, for great is Israel's Majesty among you." Isa. 12:5, 6, Moffatt.
------------------------Because His Mercy Endures Forever, September 17
RRe	262	1	Many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy. Ezra 3:12.
RRe	262	2	The setting up of the altar of daily burnt offerings greatly cheered the faithful remnant. Heartily they entered into the preparations necessary for the rebuilding of the temple, gathering courage as these preparations advanced from month to month.
RRe	262	3	. . . With joyous anticipation they looked forward to the time when, with temple rebuilt, they might behold the shining forth of His glory from within. . . . Soon the work was advanced to the point where the foundation-stone must be laid. This was done in the presence of many thousands who had assembled to witness the progress of the work, and to give expression to their joy in having a part in it. While the cornerstone was being set in position, the people, accompanied by the trumpets of the priests and the cymbals of the sons of Asaph, "sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because He is good, for His mercy endureth forever toward Israel."--Prophets and Kings, 560, 563.
------------------------Because He Leads His People, September 18
RRe	263	1	So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off. Ezra 3:13.
RRe	263	2	Mingled with the music and the shouts of praise that were heard on that glad day, was a discordant note. "Many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice." . . . Instead of rejoicing, they cherished thoughts of discontent and discouragement. They had seen the glory of Solomon's temple, and they lamented because of the inferiority of the building now to be erected. . . .
RRe	263	3	Could those who failed to rejoice at the laying of the foundation-stone of the temple, have foreseen the results of their lack of faith on that day, they would have been appalled. Little did they realize the weight of their words of disapproval and disappointment; little did they know how much their expressed dissatisfaction would delay the completion of the Lord's house.--Prophets and Kings, 563-565.
RRe	263	4	There were many in the congregation, however, whose larger faith and broader vision did not lead them to view this lesser glory with such dissatisfaction. "Many shouted aloud for joy: so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off."--Prophets and Kings, 564, 565.
------------------------Because Christ Will Come Again, September 19
RRe	264	1	Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. Zechariah 9:9.
RRe	264	2	When Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, His followers believed that He was about to ascend the throne of David, and deliver Israel from her oppressors. With high hopes and joyful anticipations they vied with one another in showing honor to their King. Many spread their outer garments as a carpet in His path, or strewed before Him the leafy branches of the palm. In their enthusiastic joy they united in the glad acclaim, "Hosanna to the Son of David!"--The Great Controversy, 404.
RRe	264	3	As they proceeded, the multitude was continually increased by those who had heard of the coming of Jesus and hastened to join the procession. Spectators were constantly mingling with the throng, and asking, Who is this? What does all this commotion signify? . . . Their questionings are silenced by a shout of triumph. Again and again it is repeated by the eager throng; it is taken up by the people afar off, and echoed from the surrounding hills and valleys. And now the procession is joined by crowds from Jerusalem. From the multitudes gathered to attend the Passover, thousands go forth to welcome Jesus. They greet Him with the waving of palm branches and a burst of sacred song.--The Desire of Ages, 570, 571.
------------------------Because the Lord Will Save His People, September 20
RRe	265	1	Thus saith the Lord: Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel. Jeremiah 31:7.
RRe	265	2	In vision I saw two armies in terrible conflict. One army was led by banners bearing the world's insignia; the other was led by the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. Standard after standard was left to trail in the dust, as company after company from the Lord's army joined the foe, and tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the commandmentkeeping people of God. . . .
RRe	265	3	The battle raged. Victory alternated from side to side. Now the soldiers of the cross gave way, "as when a standard-bearer fainteth." Isa. 10:18. But their apparent retreat was but to gain a more advantageous position. Shouts of joy were heard. A song of praise to God went up, and angel voices united in the song, as Christ's soldiers planted His banner on the walls of fortresses till then held by the enemy. The Captain of our salvation was ordering the battle, and sending support to His soldiers. His power was mightily displayed, encouraging them to press the battle to the gates. He taught them terrible things in righteousness as He led them on step by step, conquering and to conquer.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 41.
------------------------Praise the Lord with Timbrel and Harp, September 21
RRe	266	1	At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps. Nehemiah 12:27.
RRe	266	2	Lessons of great profit, even in this age of educational progress, may be found in the history of God's ancient people.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 95.
RRe	266	3	The art of sacred melody was diligently cultivated. No frivolous waltz was heard, nor flippant song that should extol man and divert the attention from God; but, sacred, solemn psalms of praise to the Creator, exalting His name and recounting His wondrous works. Thus music was made to serve a holy purpose, to lift the thoughts to that which was pure and noble and elevating, and to awaken in the soul devotion and gratitude to God.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 97, 98.
RRe	266	4	Music should have beauty, pathos, and power. Let the voices be lifted in songs of praise and devotion. Call to your aid, if practicable, instrumental music, and let the glorious harmony ascend to God, an acceptable offering.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 71.
------------------------Sound His Praises with Trumpets, September 22
RRe	267	1	Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God. Numbers 10:10.
RRe	267	2	The feast of Tabernacles was the closing gathering of the year. It was God's design that at this time the people should reflect on His goodness and mercy. . . . From far and near the people came, bringing in their hands a token of rejoicing. Old and young, rich and poor, all brought some gift as a tribute of thanksgiving to Him who had crowned the year with His goodness, and made His paths drop fatness. Everything that could please the eye, and give expression to the universal joy, was brought from the woods; the city bore the appearance of a beautiful forest. . . .
RRe	267	3	At the first dawn of day, the priests sounded a long, shrill blast upon their silver trumpets, and the answering trumpets, and the glad shouts of the people from their booths, echoing over hill and valley, welcomed the festal day.--The Desire of Ages, 447, 448.
RRe	267	4	The temple was the center of the universal joy. Here was the pomp of the sacrificial ceremonies. Here, ranged on either side of the white marble steps of the sacred building, the choir of Levites led the service of song. The multitude of worshipers, waving their branches of palm and myrtle, took up the strain, and echoed the chorus; and again the melody was caught up by voices near and afar off, till the encircling hills were vocal with praise.--The Desire of Ages, 448.
------------------------Hold Communion with Heaven, September 23
RRe	268	1	Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy; yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, O God my God. Psalms 43:4.
RRe	268	2	Through song, David, amidst the vicissitudes of his changeful life, held communion with heaven.--Education, 164.
RRe	268	3	The simple shepherd boy sang the songs of his own composing, and the music of his harp made a sweet accompaniment to the melody of his fresh young voice.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 637.
RRe	268	4	Daily revelation of the character and majesty of his Creator, filled the young poet's heart with adoration and rejoicing. . . . He was daily coming into a more intimate communion with God. His mind was constantly penetrating into new depths, for fresh themes to inspire his song, and to wake the music of his harp. The rich melody of his voice poured out upon the air, echoed from the hills as if responsive to the rejoicing of the angel's songs in heaven. . . .
RRe	268	5	His talents, as precious gifts from God, were employed to extol the glory of the divine Giver. His opportunities of contemplation and meditation served to enrich him with that wisdom and piety that made him beloved of God and angels. . . . Each ray of new light called forth fresh bursts of rapture, and sweeter anthems of devotion, to the glory of God and the Redeemer. The love that moved him, the sorrows that beset him, the triumphs that attended him, were all themes for his active thought; and as he beheld the love of God in all the providences of his life, his heart throbbed with more fervent adoration and gratitude, his voice rang out in a richer melody, his harp was swept with more exultant joy.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 642.
------------------------Rejoice in the Strength of the Lord, September 24
RRe	269	1	Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 20:27, 28.
RRe	269	2	Toward the close of Jehoshaphat's reign, the kingdom of Judah was invaded by an army before whose approach the inhabitants of the land had reason to tremble. "The children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle."--Prophets and Kings, 198.
RRe	269	3	As they advanced to the battle, Jehoshaphat said: "Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper." "And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness." These singers went before the army, lifting their voices in praise to God for the promise of victory. . . .
RRe	269	4	God was the strength of Judah in this crisis, and He is the strength of His people today. . . .
RRe	269	5	Laden with spoil, the armies of Judah returned "with joy; for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord." Great was their cause for rejoicing. In obedience to the command, "Stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord: . . . fear not, nor be dismayed," they had put their trust wholly in God, and He had proved their fortress and their deliverer.--Prophets and Kings, 201-203.
------------------------Blow Trumpets in the Temple of the Lord, September 25
RRe	270	1	It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 5:13.
RRe	270	2	At last the temple planned by King David, and built by Solomon his son, was completed. "All that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of the Lord," he had "prosperously effected." And now, in order that the palace crowning the heights of Mount Moriah might indeed be, as David had so much desired, a dwelling-place "not for man, but for the Lord God," there remained the solemn ceremony of formally dedicating it to Jehovah and His worship. . . .
RRe	270	3	At the appointed time, the hosts of Israel, with richly clad representatives from many foreign nations, assembled in the temple courts. The scene was one of unusual splendor. Solomon, with the elders of Israel, and the most influential men among the people, had returned from another part of the city, whence they had brought the ark of the testament. . . . With singing and with music and with great ceremony, "the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto his place, to the oracle of the house, into the most holy place." As they came out of the inner sanctuary, they took the positions assigned them. The singers--Levites arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps--stood at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets.
RRe	270	4	"It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praising the Lord, saying, For He is good; for His mercy endureth forever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord."--Prophets and Kings, 37-39.
------------------------Play the Songs of Victory, September 26
RRe	271	1	Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. Exodus 15:20, 21.
RRe	271	2	From the most terrible peril, one night had brought complete deliverance. That vast, helpless throng--bondmen unused to battle, women, children, and cattle, with the sea before them, and the mighty armies of Egypt pressing behind--had seen their path opened through the waters, and their enemies overwhelmed in the moment of expected triumph. Jehovah alone had brought them deliverance, and to Him their hearts were turned in gratitude and faith. Their emotion found utterance in songs of praise. The Spirit of God rested upon Moses, and he led the people in a triumphant anthem of thanksgiving, the earliest and one of the most sublime that are known to man. . . .
RRe	271	3	Like the voice of the great deep rose from the vast hosts of Israel that sublime ascription. It was taken up by the women of Israel, Miriam, the sister of Moses, leading the way, as they went forth with timbrel and dance. Far over desert and sea rang the joyous refrain, and the mountains re-echoed the words of their praise,--"Sing ye to Jehovah, for He hath triumphed gloriously." . . .
RRe	271	4	That song does not belong to the Jewish people alone. It points forward to the destruction of all the foes of righteousness, and the final victory of the Israel of God.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 288, 289.
------------------------The Victors Shall Have the Harps of God, September 27
RRe	272	1	I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Revelation 15:2, 3.
RRe	272	2	Before entering the city of God, the Saviour bestows upon His followers the emblems of victory, and invests them with the insignia of their royal state. The glittering ranks are drawn up, in the form of a hollow square, about their King, whose form rises in majesty high above saint and angel, whose countenance beams upon them full of benignant love. Throughout the unnumbered host of the redeemed, every glance is fixed upon Him, every eye beholds His glory whose "visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men." Upon the heads of the overcomers, Jesus with His own right hand places the crown of glory. For each there is a crown, bearing his own "new name," and the inscription, "Holiness to the Lord." In every hand are placed the victor's palm and the shining harp. Then, as the commanding angels strike the note, every hand sweeps the harp strings with skilful touch, awaking sweet music in rich, melodious strains. Rapture unutterable thrills every heart, and each voice is raised in grateful praise: "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever."--The Great Controversy, 645, 646.
------------------------Pleasant Words Belong to the Pure, September 28
RRe	273	1	The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord: but the words of the pure are pleasant words. Proverbs 15:26.
RRe	273	2	When Christ abides in the heart, there will be purity and refinement of thought and manner.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 24.
RRe	273	3	There will be manifest a growing distaste for careless manners, unseemly language, and coarse thought.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 24.
RRe	273	4	We should accustom ourselves to speak in pleasant tones, to use pure and correct language, and words that are kind and courteous. Sweet, kind words are as dew and gentle showers to the soul. The Scripture says of Christ that grace was poured into His lips, that He might "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." And the Lord bids us, ''Let your speech be always with grace," "that it may minister grace unto the hearers."--Christ's Object Lessons, 336.
RRe	273	5	Kind, cheerful, and encouraging words will prove more effective than the most healing medicines. These will bring courage to the heart of the desponding and discouraged, and the happiness and sunshine brought ... by kind acts and encouraging words, will repay the effort tenfold.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 306, 307.
RRe	273	6	Never allow censure to escape your lips, for it is like desolating hail to those around you. Let cheerful, happy, loving words fall from your lips.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 704.
------------------------Are Sweet to Mind and Health to Body, September 29
RRe	274	1	Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. Proverbs 16:24.
RRe	274	2	Words of cheer and encouragement spoken when the soul is sick and the pulse of courage is low,--these are regarded by the Saviour as if spoken to Himself. As hearts are cheered, the heavenly angels look on in pleased recognition.--The Ministry of Healing, 159.
RRe	274	3	The grace of Christ is to control the temper and the voice. Its working will be seen in politeness and tender regard shown by brother for brother, in kind, encouraging words.--Christ's Object Lessons, 102.
RRe	274	4	The influence of the mind on the body, as well as of the body on the mind, should be emphasized. . . . The depressing and even ruinous effect of anger, discontent, selfishness, or impurity, and, on the other hand, the marvelous life-giving power to be found in cheerfulness, unselfishness, gratitude, should also be shown. . . . "Pleasant words" the Scriptures declare to be not only "sweet to the soul," but "health to the bones."--Education, 197.
------------------------Bring Help and Encouragement, September 30
RRe	275	1	A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it! Proverbs 15:23.
RRe	275	2	The power of speech is of great value, and the voice should be cultivated for the blessing of those with whom we come in contact.--Counsels to Teachers, 240.
RRe	275	3	"A wise man is esteemed for being pleasant; his friendly words add to his influence." "Apt answers are a joy to men; a word in season, what a help it is!" Prov. 16:21; 15:23, Moffatt.
RRe	275	4	As followers of Christ we should make our words such as to be a help and an encouragement to one another in the Christian life. Far more than we do, we need to speak of the precious chapters in our experience. We should speak of the mercy and loving-kindness of God, of the matchless depths of the Saviour's love. Our words should be words of praise and thanksgiving. If the mind and heart are full of the love of God, this will be revealed in the conversation.--Christ's Object Lessons, 338.
RRe	275	5	Precious indeed in this world of sin and ignorance is the gift of speech, the melody of the human voice, when devoted to the praise of Him who hath loved us and given Himself for us.--Counsels to Teachers, 245.
RRe	275	6	The love of Christ in the soul is as "a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." . . . Those who possess this love will delight to talk of the things that God has prepared for them that love Him.--Messages to Young People, 390.
------------------------Abraham Rejoiced Because He Saw Christ, October 1
RRe	276	1	Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it, and was glad. John 8:56.
RRe	276	2	Abraham had greatly desired to see the promised Saviour. He offered up the most earnest prayer that before his death he might behold the Messiah. And he saw Christ. A supernatural light was given him, and he acknowledged Christ's divine character. He saw His day, and was glad. He was given a view of the divine sacrifice for sin. Of this sacrifice he had an illustration in his own experience. The command came to him, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, . . . and offer him . . . for a burnt-offering." Upon the altar of sacrifice he laid the son of promise, the son in whom his hopes were centered. Then as he waited beside the altar with knife upraised to obey God, he heard a voice from heaven saying, "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me." This terrible ordeal was imposed upon Abraham that he might see the day of Christ, and realize the great love of God for the world, so great that to raise it from its degradation, He gave His only begotten Son to a most shameful death.
RRe	276	3	Abraham learned of God the greatest lesson ever given to mortal. His prayer that he might see Christ before he should die was answered. He saw Christ; he saw all that mortal can see, and live. By making an entire surrender, he was able to understand the vision of Christ, which had been given him. He was shown that in giving His only begotten Son to save sinners from eternal ruin, God was making a greater and more wonderful sacrifice than ever man could make.--The Desire of Ages, 468, 469.
------------------------Sarah, Because She Received a Son, October 2
RRe	277	1	And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. Genesis 21:6.
RRe	277	2	There was given to Abraham the promise, especially dear to the people of that age, of a numerous posterity and of national greatness: "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing." And to this was added the assurance, precious above every other to the inheritor of faith, that of his line the Redeemer of the world should come: "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 125.
RRe	277	3	When Abraham was nearly one hundred years old, the promise of a son was repeated to him, with the assurance that the future heir should be the child of Sarah. But Abraham did not yet understand the promise. His mind at once turned to Ishmael, clinging to the belief that through him God's gracious purposes were to be accomplished. . . . Again the promise was given, in words that could not be mistaken: "Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him." . . .
RRe	277	4	The birth of Isaac, bringing, after a lifelong waiting, the fulfillment of their dearest hopes, filled the tents of Abraham and Sarah with gladness.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 146.
RRe	277	5	"And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh ... for I have born ... a son." Gen. 21:6, 7.
RRe	277	6	Isaac was her joy and pride; her life was bound up in him.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 151.
------------------------Hannah, Because God Granted Her Prayer, October 3
RRe	278	1	Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in Thy salvation. 1 Samuel 2:1.
RRe	278	2	"So Hannah rose up . . . and she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life." 1 Sam. 1:9, 11.
RRe	278	3	Hannah's prayer was granted; she received the gift for which she had so earnestly entreated. As she looked upon the child, she called him Samuel--"asked of God." As soon as the little one was old enough to be separated from his mother, she fulfilled her vow. She loved her child with all the devotion of a mother's heart; day by day, as she watched his expanding powers, and listened to his childish prattle, her affections entwined about him more closely. He was her only son, the special gift of Heaven; but she had received him as a treasure consecrated to God, and she would not withhold from the Giver His own.
RRe	278	4	Once more Hannah journeyed with her husband to Shiloh, and presented to the priest, in the name of God, her precious gift, saying, "For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him. Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord." . . .
RRe	278	5	The mother's heart was filled with joy and praise, and she longed to pour forth her gratitude to God. The Spirit of inspiration came upon her; "and Hannah prayed, and said:--
RRe	278	6	"My heart rejoiceth in the Lord; Mine horn is exalted in the Lord." Patriarchs and Prophets, 570, 571.
------------------------Moses and Jethro, Because God Delivered Israel, October 4
RRe	279	1	And Moses told his father in law all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the Lord delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. Exodus 18:8, 9.
RRe	279	2	Not far distant from where the Israelites were now encamped was the home of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Jethro had heard of the deliverance of the Hebrews, and he now set out to visit them, and restore to Moses his wife and two sons. The great leader was informed by messengers of their approach, and he went out with joy to meet them, and, the first greetings over, conducted them to his tent. He had sent back his family when on his way to the perils of leading Israel from Egypt, but now he could again enjoy the relief and comfort of their society. To Jethro he recounted the wonderful dealings of God with Israel, and the patriarch rejoiced and blessed the Lord, and with Moses and the elders he united in offering sacrifice, and holding a solemn feast in commemoration of God's mercy.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 300.
------------------------Israel Rejoiced to Give to the Temple, October 5
RRe	280	1	Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy. 1 Chronicles 29:9.
RRe	280	2	With deepest interest the king had gathered the rich material for building and beautifying the temple. He had composed the glorious anthems that in after-years should echo through its courts. Now his heart was made glad in God, as the chief of the fathers and the princes of Israel so nobly responded to his appeal, and offered themselves to the important work before them. And as they gave their service, they were disposed to do more. They swelled the offerings, giving of their own possessions into the treasury. David had felt deeply his own unworthiness in gathering the material for the house of God, and the expression of loyalty in the ready response of the nobles of his kingdom, as with willing hearts, they dedicated their treasures to Jehovah, and devoted themselves to His service, filled him with joy. But it was God alone who had imparted this disposition to His people. He, not men, must be glorified. It was He who had provided the people with the riches of earth, and His Spirit had made them willing to bring their precious things for the temple. It was all of the Lord; if His love had not moved upon the hearts of the people, the king's efforts would have been. vain, and the temple would never have been erected.
RRe	280	3	All that man receives of God's bounty still belongs to God. Whatever God has bestowed in the valuable and beautiful things of earth, is placed in the hands of men to test them,--to sound the depths of their love for Him and their appreciation of His favors. Whether it be the treasures of wealth or of intellect, they are to be laid, a willing offering, at the feet of Jesus; the giver saying, meanwhile, with David, "All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 752, 753.
------------------------Israel Was Glad for All the Goodness of God, October 6
RRe	281	1	And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before the Lord our GOD, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days. On the eighth day he sent the people away: and they blessed the king, and went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David His servant, and for Israel His people. 1 Kings 8:65, 66.
RRe	281	2	Of surpassing beauty and unrivaled splendor was the palatial building which Solomon and his associates erected for God and His worship. Garnished with precious stones, surrounded by spacious courts with magnificent approaches, and lined with carved cedar and burnished gold, the temple structure, with its broidered hangings and rich furnishings, was a fit emblem of the living church of God on earth, which through the ages has been building in accordance with the divine pattern, with materials that have been likened to "gold, silver, precious stones," "polished after the similitude of a palace."--Prophets and Kings, 36.
RRe	281	3	"So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God." For seven days the multitudes from every part of the kingdom, from the borders "of Hamath unto the river of Egypt," "a very great congregation," kept a joyous feast. The week following was spent by the happy throng in observing the Feast of Tabernacles. At the close of the season of reconsecration and rejoicing, the people returned to their homes, "glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the Lord had showed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel His people."--Prophets and Kings, 45.
------------------------Judah Rejoiced at the Restoration of Temple Service, October 7
RRe	282	1	And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people: for the thing was done suddenly. 2 Chronicles 29:36.
RRe	282	2	Hezekiah came to the throne determined to do all in his power to save Judah from the fate that was overtaking the northern kingdom. . . . No sooner had he ascended the throne than he began to plan and to execute. He first turned his attention to the restoration of the temple services, so long neglected; and in this work he earnestly solicited the co-operation of a band of priests and Levites who had remained true to their sacred calling. . . .
RRe	282	3	It was a time for quick action. The priests began at once. . . . They engaged heartily in the work of cleansing and sanctifying the temple. Because of the years of desecration and neglect, this was attended with many difficulties; but the priests and the Levites labored untiringly, and within a remarkably short time they were able to report their task complete. The temple doors had been repaired and thrown open; the sacred vessels had been assembled and put into place; and all was in readiness for the re-establishment of the sanctuary services.
RRe	282	4	In the first service held, the rulers of the city united with King Hezekiah and with the priests and Levites in seeking forgiveness for the sins of the nation. Upon the altar were placed sin offerings "to make an atonement for all Israel." "And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves, and worshiped." Once more the temple courts resounded with words of praise and adoration. The songs of David and of Asaph were sung with joy, as the worshipers realized that they were being delivered from the bondage of sin and apostasy. "Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people: for the thing was done suddenly."--Prophets and Kings, 331-333.
------------------------Judah Found Joy Again in the Passover Feast, October 8
RRe	283	1	The children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem, kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness: and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the Lord. And the whole assembly took counsel to keep other seven days: and they kept other seven days with gladness. 2 Chronicles 30:21, 23.
RRe	283	2	In his zeal to make the temple services a real blessing to the people, Hezekiah determined to revive the ancient custom of gathering the Israelites together for the celebration of the Passover Feast.--Prophets and Kings, 335.
RRe	283	3	O11 the appointed day the Passover was observed; and the week was spent by the people in offering peace offerings, and in learning what God would have them do. Daily the Levites "taught the good knowledge of the Lord;" and those who had prepared their hearts to seek God, found pardon. A great gladness took possession of the worshiping multitude; "the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing with loud instruments;" all were united in their desire to praise Him who had proved so gracious and merciful.
RRe	283	4	The seven days usually allotted to the Passover feast passed all too quickly, and the worshipers determined to spend another seven days in learning more fully the way of the Lord. The teaching priests continued their work of instruction from the book of the law; daily the people assembled at the temple to offer their tribute of praise and thanksgiving; and as the great meeting drew to a close, it was evident that God had wrought marvelously in the conversion of backsliding Judah, and in stemming the tide of idolatry which threatened to sweep all before it. The solemn warnings of the prophets had not been uttered in vain. "There was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem."--Prophets and Kings, 337, 338.
------------------------Israel Rejoiced at the Dedication of the Temple, October 9
RRe	284	1	And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy. Ezra 6:15, 16.
RRe	284	2	In rebuilding the house of the Lord, Zerubbabel had labored in the face of manifold difficulties. From the beginning, adversaries had "weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building," "and made them to cease by force and power." But the Lord had interposed in behalf of the builders.--Prophets and Kings, 594.
RRe	284	3	The promise, "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it," was literally fulfilled. "The elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar [the twelfth month], which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king,"
RRe	284	4	Shortly afterward, the restored temple was dedicated. "The children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy."--Prophets and Kings, 596.
------------------------Israel Returned to God and Was Glad, October 10
RRe	285	1	So the Levites stilled all the people, saying. Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved. And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. Nehemiah 8:11, 12.
RRe	285	2	It was the time of the Feast of Trumpets. Many were gathered at Jerusalem. The scene was one of mournful interest. The wall of Jerusalem had been rebuilt, and the gates set up; but a large part of the city was still in ruins.
RRe	285	3	On a platform of wood, erected in one of the broadest streets, and surrounded on every hand by the sad reminders of Judah's departed glory, stood Ezra, now an aged man. . . .
RRe	285	4	Certain of the priests and Levites united with Ezra in explaining the principles of the law. . . . "And the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law." They listened, intent and reverent, to the words of the Most High. As the law was explained, they were convinced of their guilt, and they mourned because of their transgressions. But this day was a festival, a day of rejoicing, a holy convocation, a day which the Lord had commanded the people to keep with joy and gladness; and in view of this they were bidden to restrain their grief, and to rejoice because of God's great mercy toward them.. . .
RRe	285	5	The earlier part of the day was devoted to religious exercises, and the people spent the remainder of the time in gratefully recounting the blessings of God, and in enjoying the bounties that He had provided. Portions were also sent to the poor, who had nothing to prepare. There was great rejoicing, because the words of the law had been read and understood.--Prophets and Kings, 661, 662.
------------------------Israel Rejoiced to Be Accepted Again, October 11
RRe	286	1	And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. Nehemiah 8:17.
RRe	286	2	At the time appointed--on the tenth day of the seventh month--the solemn services of the day of atonement were performed, according to the command of God.
RRe	286	3	From the fifteenth to the twenty-second of the same month, the people and their rulers kept once more the Feast of Tabernacles. It was proclaimed "in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God. . . . And there was very great gladness."--Prophets and Kings, 665.
RRe	286	4	Israel had returned to God with deep sorrow for backsliding. They had made confession with mourning and lamentation. They had acknowledged the righteousness of God's dealings with them, and had covenanted to obey His law. Now they must manifest faith in His promises. God had accepted their repentance; they were now to rejoice in the assurance of sins forgiven and their restoration to divine favor.--Prophets and Kings, 667, 668.
------------------------Israel Rejoiced Greatly to Have a King, October 12
RRe	287	1	All the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Cilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. 1 Samuel 11:15.
RRe	287	2	Samuel convoked the people at Mizpeh. Prayer was offered for divine guidance; then followed the solemn ceremony of casting the lot. In silence the assembled multitude awaited the issue. The tribe, the family, and the household were successively designated, and then Saul, the son of Kish, was pointed out as the individual chosen. But Saul was not in the assembly. Burdened with a sense of the great responsibility about to fall upon him, he had secretly withdrawn. He was brought back to the congregation, who observed with pride and satisfaction that he was of kingly bearing and noble form, being "higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward." Even Samuel, when presenting him to the assembly, exclaimed, "See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among the people?" And in response arose from the vast throng one long, loud shout of joy, "God save the king!" . . .
RRe	287	3	While the people in general were ready to acknowledge Saul as their king, there was a large party in opposition. ... In this condition of affairs, Saul did not see fit to assume the royal dignity. Leaving Samuel to administer the government as formerly, he returned to Gibeah. ... In his home among the uplands of Benjamin he quietly occupied himself in the duties of a husbandman, leaving the establishment of his authority entirely to God. . . .
RRe	287	4	Samuel now proposed that a national assembly should be convoked at Gilgal, that the kingdom might there be publicly confirmed to Saul. It was done; "and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peaceofferings before the Lord; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 611-613.
------------------------Solomon Rejoiced in God-Sent Wisdom and Prosperity, October 13
RRe	288	1	Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy GOD, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made He thee king, to do judgment and justice. 1 Kings 10:8, 9.
RRe	288	2	The queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon. Hearing of his wisdom, and of the magnificent temple he had built, she determined "to prove him with hard questions," and to see for herself his famous works. Attended by a retinue of servants, and with camels bearing "spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones," she made the long journey to Jerusalem. "And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart." She talked with him of the mysteries of nature; and Solomon taught her of the God of nature, the great Creator, who dwells in the highest heaven, and rules over all. "Solomon told her all her questions: there was not anything hid from the king, which he told her not." . . .
RRe	288	3	By the time of the close of her visit, the queen had been so fully taught by Solomon as to the source of his wisdom and prosperity, that she was constrained, not to extol the human agent, but to exclaim: "Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made He thee king, to do judgment and justice."--Prophets and Kings, 66, 67.
------------------------Judah Rejoiced in Reformation, October 14
RRe	289	1	He brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king. And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the king's house. 2 Kings 11:12, 20.
RRe	289	2	"The Levites and all Judah" united with Jehoiada the high priest in crowning and anointing the child Joash, and acclaiming him their king. "And they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king."
RRe	289	3	"Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the house of the Lord." "And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets."
RRe	289	4	"Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried Treason, treason!" But Jehoiada commanded the officers to lay hold of Athaliah and all her followers, and lead them out of the temple to a place of execution, where they were to be slain.
RRe	289	5	Immediately after the execution of the impenitent queen, "all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars."
RRe	289	6	A reformation followed. Those who took part in acclaiming Joash king, had solemnly covenanted "that they should be the Lord's people." And now that the evil influence of the daughter of Jezebel had been removed from the kingdom of Judah, and the priests of Baal had been slain and their temple destroyed, "all the people of the land rejoiced: and the city was quiet."--Prophets and Kings, 215, 216.
------------------------Jews Had Joy in Deliverance from Death, October 15
RRe	290	1	The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. Esther 8:16, 17.
RRe	290	2	Darius Hystaspes, under whose reign the Jews had been shown marked favor, was succeeded by Xerxes the Great. It was during his reign that those of the Jews who had failed of heeding the message to flee, were called upon to face a terrible crisis. Having refused to take advantage of the way of escape God had provided, now they were brought face to face with death. . . .
RRe	290	3	In the providence of God, Esther, a Jewess who feared the Most High, had been made queen of the Medo-Persian kingdom. Mordecai was a near relative of hers. In their extremity, they decided to appeal to Xerxes in behalf of their people. . . .
RRe	290	4	The events that followed in rapid succession,--the appearance of Esther before the king, the marked favor shown her, the banquets of the king and queen with Haman as the only guest, the troubled sleep of the king, the public honor shown Mordecai, and the humiliation and fall of Haman upon the discovery of his wicked plot,--all these are parts of a familiar story. God wrought marvelously for His penitent people; and a counter decree issued by the king, allowing them to fight for their lives, was rapidly communicated to every part of the realm by mounted couriers, who were "hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment." "And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them."--Prophets and Kings, 600-602.
------------------------Darius Was Exceedingly Glad Daniel's God Was Able, October 16
RRe	291	1	Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God. Daniel 6:23.
RRe	291	2	"It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom; and over these three presidents; of whom Daniel was first." Dan. 6:1, 2.
RRe	291	3	The honors bestowed upon Daniel excited the jealousy of the leading men of the kingdom, and they sought for occasion of complaint against him. But they could find none, "forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him." . . . Thereupon the presidents and princes, counseling together, devised a scheme whereby they hoped to accomplish the prophet's destruction. . . .--Prophets and Kings, 539, 540.
RRe	291	4	"The king . . . sore displeased ... set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him. . . . Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were instruments of music brought before him: and his sleep went from him." Dan. 6:14, 18.
RRe	291	5	God did not prevent Daniel's enemies from casting him into the lions' den; He permitted evil angels and wicked men thus far to accomplish their purpose; but it was that He might make the deliverance of His servant more marked, and the defeat of the enemies of truth and righteousness more complete. . . .
RRe	291	6	Early the next morning, King Darius hastened to the den, and "cried with a lamentable voice," "O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?"
RRe	291	7	The voice of the prophet replied: "O king, live for ever. My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me." . . .
RRe	291	8	"Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den."--Prophets and Kings, 543, 544.
------------------------The Wise Men Rejoiced for the Lord's Guidance, October 17
RRe	292	1	When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Matthew 2:9, 10.
RRe	292	2	The wise men from the East were philosophers. They belonged to a large and influential class, that included men of noble birth, and comprised much of the wealth and learning of their nation. . . . As these magi studied the starry heavens, and sought to fathom the mystery hidden in their bright paths, they beheld the glory of the Creator. Seeking clearer knowledge, they turned to the Hebrew Scriptures. In their own land were treasured prophetic writings that predicted the coming of a divine teacher. . . . But in the Old Testament the Saviour's advent was more clearly revealed. The magi learned with joy that His coming was near, and that the whole world was to be filled with a knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
RRe	292	3	The wise men had seen a mysterious light in the heavens upon that night when the glory of God flooded the hills of Bethlehem. As the light faded, a luminous star appeared, and lingered in the sky. . . . Could this strange star have been sent as a harbinger of the Promised One? . . . Through dreams they were instructed to go in search of the newborn Prince. . . .
RRe	292	4	The journey, though long, was a happy one to them. They have reached the land of Israel, and are descending the Mount of Olives, with Jerusalem in sight, when lo, the star that has guided them all the weary way rests above the temple, and after a season fades from their view. With eager steps they press onward, confidently expecting the Messiah's birth to be the joyful burden, of every tongue. But their iniquities are in vain. Entering the holy city, they repair to the temple. To their amazement they find none who seem to have a knowledge of the newborn King. . . .
RRe	292	5	The wise men departed alone from Jerusalem. The shadows of night were falling as they left the gates, but to their great joy they again saw the star, and were directed to Bethlehem.--The Desire of Ages, 59-63.
------------------------Multitudes Rejoiced at Christ's Royal Entry, October 18
RRe	293	1	When he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. Luke 19:37, 38.
RRe	293	2	Christ was following the Jewish custom for a royal entry. The animal on which He rode was that ridden by the kings of Israel, and prophecy had foretold that thus the Messiah should come to His kingdom. No sooner was He seated upon the colt than a loud shout of triumph rent the air. The multitude hailed Him as Messiah, their King. Jesus now accepted the homage which He had never before permitted, and the disciples received this as proof that their glad hopes were to be realized by seeing Him established on the throne. The multitude were convinced that the hour of their emancipation was at hand. In imagination they saw the Roman armies driven from Jerusalem, and Israel once more an independent nation. All were happy and excited; the people vied withone another in paying Him homage. They could not display outward pomp and splendor, but they gave Him the worship of happy hearts. They were unable to present Him with costly gifts, but they spread their outer garments as a carpet in His path, and they also strewed the leafy branches of the olive and thepalm in the way. They could lead the triumphal procession with no royal standards, but they cut down the spreading palm boughs, Nature's emblem of victory, and waved them aloft with loudacclamations and hosannas.--The Desire of Ages, 570.
------------------------Zacharias and Elizabeth Rejoiced in a Son, October 19
RRe	294	1	The angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. Luke 1:13, 14.
RRe	294	2	From among the faithful in Israel, who had long waited for the coming of the Messiah, the forerunner of Christ arose. The aged priest Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth were "both righteous before God and in their quiet and holy lives the light of faith shone out like a star amid the darkness of those evil days. To this godly pair was given the promise of a son, who should "go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways."
RRe	294	3	Zacharias dwelt in "the hill country of Judea," but he had gone up to Jerusalem to minister for one week in the temple, a service required twice a year from the priests of each course. . . . He was standing before the golden altar in the holy place of the sanctuary. The cloud of incense with the prayers of Israel was ascending before God. Suddenly he became conscious of a divine presence. An angel of the Lord was "standing on the right side of the altar." The position of the angel was an indication of favor, but Zacharias took no note of this. For many years he had prayed for the coming of the Redeemer; now heaven had sent its messenger to announce that these prayers were about to be answered; but the mercy of God seemed too great for him to credit. He was filled with fear and self-condemnation.
RRe	294	4	But he was greeted with the joyful assurance: "Fear not, Zacharias; for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord; . . . and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost."--The Desire of Ages, 97, 98.
------------------------John's Joy Fulfilled in Preparing the Saviour's Way, October 20
RRe	295	1	He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. John 3:29.
RRe	295	2	John had by nature the faults and weaknesses common to humanity, but the touch of divine love had transformed him. He dwelt in an atmosphere uncontaminated with selfishness and ambition, and far above the miasma of jealousy. He . . . showed how clearly he understood his relation to the Messiah, and how gladly he welcomed the One for whom he had prepared the way. . . .
RRe	295	3	John represented himself as the friend who acted as a messenger between the betrothed parties, preparing the way for the marriage. When the bridegroom had received his bride, the mission of the friend was fulfilled. He rejoiced in the happiness of those whose union he had promoted. So John had been called to direct the people to Jesus, and it was his joy to witness the success of the Saviour's work. He said, "This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease."
RRe	295	4	Looking in faith to the Redeemer, John had risen to the height of self-abnegation. He sought not to attract men to himself, but to lift their thoughts higher and still higher, until they should rest upon the Lamb of God. He himself had been only a voice, a cry in the wilderness. Now with joy he accepted silence and obscurity, that the eyes of all might be turned to the Light of life.--The Desire of Ages, 179, 180.
------------------------Zaccheus Received Him Joyfully, October 21
RRe	296	1	When Jesus came to the place, He looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received Him joyfully. Luke 19:5, 6.
RRe	296	2	Many caravans on their way to the feast passed through Jericho. Their arrival was always a festive season, but now a deeper interest stirred the people. It was known that the Galilean rabbi who had so lately brought Lazarus to life, was in the throng; and though whispers were rife as to the plottings of the priests, the multitudes were eager to do Him homage. . . . Zaccheus had heard of Jesus. The report of One who had borne Himself with kindness and courtesy toward the proscribed classes, had spread far and wide. In this chief of the publicans was awakened the longing for a better life. . . . The news sounded through Jericho that Jesus was entering the town. Zaccheus determined to see Him.
RRe	296	3	The streets were crowded, and Zaccheus, who was small of stature, could see nothing over the heads of the people. None would give way for him; so, running a little in advance of the multitude, to where a wide-branching fig-tree hung over the way, the rich tax-collector climbed to a seat among the boughs, where he could survey the procession as it passed below. The crowd comes near, it is going by, and Zaccheus scans with eager eyes to discern the one figure he longs to see. . . .
RRe	296	4	Suddenly, just beneath the fig-tree, a group halts, the company before and behind come to a standstill, and One looks upward whose glance seems to read the soul. Almost doubting his senses, the man in the tree hears the words, "Zaccheus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house."
RRe	296	5	The multitude give way, and Zaccheus, walking as in a dream, leads the way toward his own home. . . . Christ went to his home to give him lessons of truth, and to instruct his household in the things of the kingdom. They had been shut out from the synagogue by the contempt of the rabbis and worshipers; but now, the most favored household in all Jericho, they gathered in their own home about the divine Teacher, and heard for themselves the words of life.--The Desire of Ages, 552-556.
------------------------The Seventy Disciples Rejoiced in His Power, October 22
RRe	297	1	The seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name. Luke 10:17.
RRe	297	2	Like the twelve apostles, the seventy disciples whom Christ sent forth later received supernatural endowments as a seal of their mission. When their work was completed, they returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name." Jesus answered, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."
RRe	297	3	Henceforth Christ's followers are to look upon Satan as a conquered foe. Upon the cross Jesus was to gain the victory for them; that victory He desired them to accept as their own. "Behold," He said, "I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you." . . .
RRe	297	4	It is true that Satan is a powerful being; but, thank God, we have a mighty Saviour, who cast out the evil one from heaven. Satan is pleased when we magnify his power. Why not talk of Jesus? Why not magnify His power and His love?--The Ministry of Healing, 94.
------------------------The Two Marys Rejoiced at News of the Resurrection, October 23
RRe	298	1	They departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring His disciples word. Matthew 28:8.
RRe	298	2	The women who had stood by the cross of Christ waited and watched for the hours of the Sabbath to pass. On the first day of the week, very early, they made their way to the tomb, taking with them precious spices to anoint the Saviour's body. . . .
RRe	298	3	The women had not all come to the tomb from the same direction. Mary Magdalene was the first to reach the place; and upon seeing that the stone was removed, she hurried away to tell the disciples. Meanwhile the other women came up. A light was shining about the tomb, but the body of Jesus was not there. As they lingered about the place, suddenly they saw that they were not alone. A young man clothed in shining garments was sitting by the tomb. It was the angel who had rolled away the stone. . . . "Fear not ye," he said; "for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead." . . .
RRe	298	4	He is risen, He is risen! The women repeat the words again and again. No need now for the anointing spices. The Saviour is living, and not dead. They remember now that when speaking of His death He said that He would rise again. What a day is this to the world! Quickly the women departed from the sepulcher "with fear and great joy, and did run to bring His disciples word."--The Desire of Ages, 788, 789.
------------------------The Disciples Were Glad When They Saw the Risen Lord, October 24
RRe	299	1	When He had so said, He showed unto them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. John 20:20.
RRe	299	2	On reaching Jerusalem the two disciples [returning from Emmaus] enter at the eastern gate, which is open at night on festal occasions. The houses are dark and silent, but the travelers make their way through the narrow streets by the light of the rising moon. They go to the upper chamber, where Jesus spent the hours of the last evening before His death. Here they know that their brethren are to be found. Late as it is, they know that the disciples will not sleep till they learn for a certainty what has become of the body of their Lord. They find the door of the chamber securely barred. They knock for admission, but no answer comes. All is still. Then they give their names. The door is carefully unbarred, they enter, and Another, unseen, enters with them. Then the door is again fastened, to keep out spies.
RRe	299	3	The travelers find all in surprised excitement. The voices of those in the room break out in thanksgiving and praise, saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon." Then the two travelers, panting with the haste with which they have made their journey, tell the wondrous story of how Jesus has appeared to them. They have just ended, and some are saying that they cannot believe it, for it is too good to be true, when behold, another person stands before them. Every eye is fastened upon the stranger. No one has knocked for entrance. No footstep has been heard. The disciples are startled, and wonder what it means. Then they hear a voice which is no other than the voice of their Master. Clear and distinct the words fall from His lips, "Peace be unto you." . . .
RRe	299	4	They beheld the hands and feet marred by the cruel nails. They recognized His voice, like no other they had ever heard. . . . "Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord." Faith and joy took the place of unbelief, and with feelings which no words could express they acknowledged their risen Saviour.--The Desire of Ages, 802, 803.
------------------------After the Ascension Great Joy Was Theirs, October 25
RRe	300	1	It came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Luke 24:51, 52.
RRe	300	2	Christ had ascended to heaven in the form of humanity. The disciples had beheld the cloud receive Him. The same Jesus who had walked and talked and prayed with them; who had broken bread with them; who had been with them in their boats on the lake; and who had that very day toiled with them up the ascent of Olivet,--the same Jesus had now gone to share His Father's throne. And the angels had assured them that the very One whom they had seen go up into heaven, would come again even as He had ascended. . . .
RRe	300	3	When the disciples went back to Jerusalem, the people looked upon them with amazement. After the trial and crucifixion of Christ, it had been thought that they would appear downcast and ashamed. Their enemies expected to see upon their faces an expression of sorrow and defeat. Instead of this there was only gladness and triumph. Their faces were aglow with a happiness not born of earth. They did not mourn over disappointed hopes, but were full of praise and thanksgiving to God. With rejoicing they told the wonderful story of Christ's resurrection and His ascension to heaven, and their testimony was received by many.--The Desire of Ages, 832.
------------------------Samaria Rejoiced When Philip Preached Christ, October 26
RRe	301	1	Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And there was great joy in that city. Acts 8:5, 8.
RRe	301	2	Among those to whom the Saviour had given the commission, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations," were many from the humbler walks of life,--men and women who had learned to love their Lord, and who had determined to follow His example of unselfish service. To these lowly ones, as well as to the disciples who had been with the Saviour during His earthly ministry, had been given a precious trust. They were to carry to the world the glad tidings of salvation through Christ.
RRe	301	3	When they were scattered by persecution, they went forth filled with missionary zeal. . . . The Lord wrought through them. Wherever they went, the sick were healed, and the poor had the gospel preached unto them.
RRe	301	4	Philip, one of the seven deacons, was among those driven from Jerusalem. He "went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits . . . came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city."--The Acts of the Apostles, 105, 106.
------------------------The Eunuch Rejoiced Upon His Conversion, October 27
RRe	302	1	When they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. Acts 8:39.
RRe	302	2	"And, behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet." This Ethiopian was a man of good standing and of wide influence. God saw that when converted, he would give others the light he had received, and would exert a strong influence in favor of the gospel. ... By the ministration of the Holy Spirit, the Lord brought him into touch with one who could lead him to the light.
RRe	302	3	Philip was directed to go to the Ethiopian, and explain to him the prophecy that he was reading. . . . The man's heart thrilled with interest as the Scriptures were explained to him; and when the disciple had finished, he was ready to accept the light given. He did not make his high worldly position an excuse for refusing the gospel. "As they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both of them into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
RRe	302	4	"And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing."--The Acts of the Apostles, 107, 108.
------------------------Barnabas Was Glad for New Believers, October 28
RRe	303	1	Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of GOD, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Acts 11:22, 23.
RRe	303	2	After the disciples had been driven from Jerusalem by persecution, the gospel message spread rapidly through the regions lying beyond the limits of Palestine; and many small companies of believers were formed in important centers. . . .
RRe	303	3	Among the places mentioned where the gospel was gladly received, is Antioch, at that time the metropolis of Syria. The extensive commerce carried on from that populous center brought to the city many people of various nationalities. Besides, Antioch was favorably known as a resort for lovers of ease and pleasure, because of its healthful situation, its beautiful surroundings, and the wealth, culture, and refinement to be found there. In the days of the apostles, it had become a city of luxury and vice.
RRe	303	4	The gospel was publicly taught in Antioch by certain disciples from Cyprus and Cyrene, who came "preaching the Lord Jesus." "The hand of the Lord was with them," and their earnest labors were productive of fruit. "A great number believed, and turned unto the Lord."
RRe	303	5	"Tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch." Upon arrival in his new field of labor, Barnabas saw the work that had already been accomplished by divine grace, and he "was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord."--The Acts of the Apostles, 55, 156.
------------------------Rhoda Was Filled with Gladness at Peter's Deliverance, October 29
RRe	304	1	As Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. Acts 12:13, 14.
RRe	304	2	To Peter, in prison and condemned to death, God's angel appeared; . . . past the armed guards, the massive doors and great iron gateway with their bolts and bars, the angel led God's servant forth in safety.--Education, 255, 256.
RRe	304	3	The apostle made his way at once to the house where his brethren were assembled, and where they were at that moment engaged in earnest prayer for him. "As Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel.
RRe	304	4	"But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished. But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison." And Peter "departed, and went into another place." Joy and praise filled the hearts of the believers, because God had heard and answered their prayers, and had delivered Peter from the hands of Herod.--The Acts of the Apostles, 148, 149.
------------------------The Gentiles Believed and Were Glad, October 30
RRe	305	1	For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the Word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Acts 13:47, 48.
RRe	305	2	Paul and Barnabas visited Antioch in Pisidia, and on the Sabbath day went into the Jewish synagogue and sat down.... Being ... invited to speak, "Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience." Then followed a wonderful discourse.... The Spirit of God accompanied the words that were spoken, and hearts were touched. The apostle's appeal to Old Testament prophecies, and his declaration that these had been fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, carried conviction to many a soul longing for the advent of the promised Messiah. And the speaker's words of assurance that the "glad tidings" of salvation were for Jew and Gentile alike, brought hope and joy to those who had not been numbered among the children of Abraham according to the flesh. . . .
RRe	305	3	The interest aroused in Antioch of Pisidia by Paul's discourse, brought together, on the next Sabbath day, "almost the whole city ... to hear the Word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.
RRe	305	4	"Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth."
RRe	305	5	"When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the Word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." They rejoiced exceedingly that Christ recognized them as the children" of God, and with grateful hearts they listened to the Word preached.--The Acts of the Apostles, 170-174.
------------------------The Macedonians Rejoiced in Denying Themselves, October 31
RRe	306	1	Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. 2 Corinthians 8:1, 2.
RRe	306	2	Nearly all the Macedonian believers were poor in this world's goods, but their hearts were overflowing with love for God and His truth, and they gladly gave for the support of the gospel. When general collections were taken up in the Gentile churches for the relief of the Jewish believers, the liberality of the converts in Macedonia was held up as an example for other churches
RRe	306	3	The willingness to sacrifice on the part of the Macedonian believers came as a result of wholehearted consecration. Moved by the Spirit of God, they "first gave their own selves to the Lord;" then they were willing to give freely of their means for the support of the gospel. It was not necessary to urge them to give; rather, they rejoiced in the privilege of denying themselves even of necessary things in order to supply the needs of others. When the apostles would have restrained them, they importuned him to accept their offering. In their simplicity and integrity, and in their love for the brethren, they gladly denied self, and thus abounded in the fruit of benevolence.--The Acts of the Apostles, 343. 344.
------------------------Wells of Salvation, November 1
RRe	307	1	Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3.
RRe	307	2	The true principles of Christianity open before all a source of happiness, the height and depth, the length and breadth of which are immeasurable. It is Christ in us a well of water springing up into everlasting life. It is a continual well-spring from which the Christian can drink at will, and never exhaust the fountain.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 565, 566.
RRe	307	3	Why do we stay away from the fountain, when we can come and drink? Why do we die for bread, when there is a storehouse full? It is rich and free. O my soul, feast upon it, and daily drink in heavenly joys. I will not hold my peace. The praise of God is in my heart and upon my lips. We can rejoice in the fullness of our Saviour's love. We can feast upon His exellent glory.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 98.
RRe	307	4	The last words spoken by Christ to John were: "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. 22:17. When we respond to God, and say, "Lord, we come," then with joy shall we draw eater out of the wells of salvation.--Counsels to Teachers, 371.
------------------------God's Greatest Gift to the World--His Son, November 2
RRe	308	1	The angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this lay in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:10, 11.
RRe	308	2	In the fields where the boy David had led his flock, shepherds were still keeping watch by night. Through the silent hours they walked together of the promised Saviour, and prayed for the coming of the King to David's throne. "And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone around about them; and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."--The Desire of Ages, 47.
RRe	308	3	The Prince of heaven was among His people. The greatest gift of God had been given to the world. Joy to the poor; for Christ had come to make them heirs of His kingdom. Joy to the rich; for He would teach them how to secure eternal riches Joy to the ignorant; He would make them wise unto salvation. Joy to the learned; He would open to them deeper mysteries than they had ever fathomed; truths that had been hidden from the foundation of the world would be opened to men by the Saviour's mission.--The Desire of Ages, 277.
------------------------Jesus Took Glad Tidings from Place to Place, November 3
RRe	309	1	It came to pass afterward, that He went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with Him. Luke 8:1.
RRe	309	2	Christ might have occupied the highest place among the teachers of the Jewish nation; but He preferred rather to take the gospel to the poor. He went from place to place, that those in the highways and byways might hear the words of truth. By the sea, on the mountainside, in the streets of the city, in the synagogue, His voice was heard explaining the Scriptures. Often He taught in the outer court of the temple, that the Gentiles might hear His words.--The Ministry of Healing, 20.
RRe	309	3	Jesus watched with deep earnestness the changing countenances of His hearers. The faces that expressed interest and pleasure, gave Him great satisfaction. As the arrows of truth pierced to the soul, breaking through the barriers of selfishness, and working contrition, and finally gratitude, the Saviour was made glad. When His eye swept over the throng of listeners, and He recognized among them the faces He had before seen, His countenance lighted up with joy. He saw in them hopeful subjects for His kingdom. When the truth, plainly spoken, touched some cherished idol, He marked the change of countenance, the cold, forbidding look, which told that the light was unwelcome. When He saw men refuse the message of peace, His heart was pierced to the very depths.--The Desire of Ages, 254, 255.
------------------------Paul and Barnabas Brought Them to Antioch, November 4
RRe	310	1	We declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. Acts 13:32. 33.
RRe	310	2	Every true disciple is born into the kingdom of God as a missionary. He who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life. The receiver becomes a giver. The grace of Christ in the soul is like a spring in the desert, welling up to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life.--The Desire of Ages, 195.
RRe	310	3	During His ministry, Jesus had kept constantly before the disciples the fact that they were to be one with Him in His work for the recovery of the world from the slavery of sin. When He sent forth the twelve and afterward the seventy, to proclaim the kingdom of God, He was teaching them their duty to impart to others what He had made known to them. In all His work, He was training them for individual labor, to be extended as their numbers increased, and eventually to reach to the uttermost parts of the earth. The last lesson He gave His followers was that they held in trust for the world the glad tidings of salvation.--The Acts of the Apostles, 32.
------------------------A Joyous Work to Bring Glad Tidings to Others, November 5
RRe	311	1	How shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! Romans 10:15.
RRe	311	2	It was at the ordination of the twelve that the first step was taken in the organization of the church that after Christ's departure was to carry on His work on the earth. . . . Look upon the touching scene. Behold the Majesty of heaven surrounded by the twelve whom He has chosen. He is about to set them apart for their work. By these feeble agencies, through His word and Spirit, He designs to place salvation within the reach of all.
RRe	311	3	With gladness and rejoicing, God and the angels beheld this scene. The Father knew that from these men the light of heaven would shine forth; that the words spoken by them as they witnessed for His Son, would echo from generation to generation till the close of time.--The Acts of the Apostles, 18, 19.
RRe	311	4	Today the Saviour calls us, as He called Matthew and Job and Peter, to His work. If our hearts are touched by His love . . . we shall rejoice to be co-workers with Christ. ... If we make God our strength, we shall have clear perceptions of duty unselfish aspirations; our life will be actuated by a noble purpose . . . .--The Ministry of Healing, 480.
RRe	311	5	All who commune with God will find abundance of work to do for Him. Those who go forth in the spirit of the Master, seeking to reach souls with the truth, will not find the work of drawing souls to Christ a dull, uninteresting drudgery. They are charged with a work as God's husbandmen, and they will become more and more vitalized as they give themselves to the service of God. It is a joyous work to open the Scriptures to others.--Testimonies. vol. 9, 118.
------------------------Joy in Buying the Treasure, November 6
RRe	312	1	Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Matthew 13:4.
RRe	312	2	In the parable the field containing the treasure represents the Holy Scriptures. And the gospel is the treasure. The earth itself is not so interlaced with golden veins and filled with precious thing as is the Word of God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 104.
RRe	312	3	When Christ was on earth, He was brought in contact with some whose imaginations were fevered with the hope of worldly gain. They were never at rest, but were constantly trying something new, and their extravagant expectations were aroused only to be disappointed. Jesus knew the wants of the human heart, which are the same in all ages; and He called their attention to the only permanent riches.
RRe	312	4	"The kingdom of Heaven," said He, "is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which, when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." He tells men of treasure beyond estimate, which is within the reach of all. He came to earth to guide their minds in their search for this treasure. The way is marked out; the very poorest who will follow Him will be made richer than the most wealthy upon earth who know not Jesus, and they will be made increasingly rich by sharing their happiness with others.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 261, 262.
------------------------Peace and Joy in the Spirit, November 7
RRe	313	1	The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Romans 14:17.
RRe	313	2	It is the privilege of every Christian to enjoy the deep movings of the Spirit of God. A sweet, heavenly peace will pervade the mind, and you will love to meditate upon God and Heaven. You will feast upon the glorious promises of His Word.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 159.
RRe	313	3	When the Spirit of God controls mind and heart, the converted soul breaks forth into a new song; for he realizes that in his experience the promise of God has been fulfilled, that his transgression has been forgiven, his sin covered. He has exercised repentance toward God for the violation of the divine law, and faith toward Christ, who died for man's justification. "Being justified by faith," he has "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."--The Acts of the Apostles, 476.
RRe	313	4	There is peace in believing, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Believing brings peace, and trusting in God brings joy. Believe, believe! my soul says, Believe. Rest in God. He is able to keep that which you have committed to His trust. He will bring you off more than conqueror through Him who hath loved you.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 319, 320.
------------------------Complete Happiness, November 8
RRe	314	1	These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. 1 John 1:4.
RRe	314	2	Through the study of the Scriptures, we obtain a correct knowledge of how to live so as to enjoy the greatest amount of unalloyed happiness.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 374.
RRe	314	3	The teaching of the Bible has a vital bearing upon man's prosperity in all the relations of this life. It unfolds the principles that are the cornerstone of a nation's prosperity,--principles with which is bound up the well-being of society, and which are the safeguard of the family,--principles without which no man can attain usefulness, happiness, and honor in this life, or can hope to secure the future, immortal life. There is no position in life, no phase of human experience, for which the teaching of the Bible is not an essential preparation. Studied and obeyed, the Word of God would give to the world men of stronger and more active intellect than will the closest application to all the subjects that human philosophy embraces. It would give men of strength and solidity of character, of keen perception and sound judgment,--men who would be an honor to God and a blessing to the world.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 599.
RRe	314	4	"My very soul thrills at Thy word; For I belong to Thee, O Thou Eternal, God of hosts." Jer. 15:16, Moffatt.
------------------------Receive the Word with Joy and Rejoicing, November 9
RRe	315	1	Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16.
RRe	315	2	The Word of God in the Old and New Testaments, if faithfully studied and received into the life, will give spiritual wisdom and life. This Word is to be sacredly cherished. Faith in the Word of God and in the power of Christ to transform the life will enable the believer to work His works, and to live a life of rejoicing in the Lord.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 279.
RRe	315	3	The life in which the fear of the Lord is cherished will not be a life of sadness and gloom. It is the absence of Christ that makes the countenance sad, and the life a pilgrimage of sighs. Those who are filled with self-esteem and self-love do not feel the need of a living, personal union with Christ. The heart that has not fallen on the Rock is proud of its wholeness. Men want a dignified religion. They desire to walk in a path wide enough to take in their own attributes. Their self-love, their love of popularity and love of praise, exclude the Saviour from their hearts, and without Him there is gloom and sadness. But Christ dwelling in the soul is a wellspring of joy. For all who receive Him, the very keynote of the Word of God is rejoicing.--Christ's Object Lessons, 162.
------------------------For It Is God's Message to Me, November 10
RRe	316	1	I rejoice at Thy Word, as one that findeth great spoil. Psalms 119:162.
RRe	316	2	We are to regard the Bible as God's disclosure to us of eternal things,--the things of most consequence for us to know. By the world it is thrown aside, as if the perusal of it were finished; but a thousand years of research would not exhaust the hidden treasure it contains. Eternity alone will disclose the wisdom of this book; for it is the wisdom of an infinite mind.--Counsels to Teachers, 443.
RRe	316	3	But there is but little benefit derived from a hasty reading of the Scriptures. One may read the whole Bible through, and yet fail to see its beauty or comprehend its deep and hidden meaning. . . . Some portions of Scripture are indeed too plain to be misunderstood; but there are others whose meaning does not lie on the surface, to be seen at a glance. Scripture must be compared with scripture. There must be careful research and prayerful reflection. And such study will be richly repaid. As the miner discovers veins of precious metal concealed beneath the surface of the earth, so will he who perseveringly searches the Word of God as for hid treasure, find truths of the greatest value, which are concealed from the view of the careless seeker.--Steps to Christ, 95, 96.
RRe	316	4	If the time and effort spent in seeking to grasp the bright ideas of infidels were given to studying the precious things of the Word of God, thousands who now sit in darkness and in the shadow of death would be rejoicing in the glory of the Light of Life.--The Ministry of Healing, 440.
------------------------For It Supplies Wisdom and Understanding, November 11
RRe	317	1	When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee. Proverbs 2:10, 11.
RRe	317	2	Every man has the opportunity, to a great extent, of making himself whatever he chooses to be. The blessings of this life, and also of the immortal state, are within his reach. He may build up a character of solid worth, gaining new strength at every step. He may advance daily in knowledge and wisdom, conscious of new delights as he progresses, adding virtue to virtue, grace to grace. His faculties will improve by use; the more wisdom he gains, the greater will be his capacity for acquiring. His intelligence, knowledge, and virtue will thus develop into greater strength and more perfect symmetry.--Counsels on Diet and Food. 15.
RRe	317	3	Christ could have imparted to men knowledge that would have surpassed any previous disclosures, and put in the background every other discovery. He could have unlocked mystery after mystery, and could have concentrated around these wonderful revelations the active, earnest thought of successive generations till the close of time. But He would not spare a moment from teaching the science of salvation. . . .
RRe	317	4	Our Saviour did not encourage any to attend the rabbinical schools of His day, for the reason that their minds would be corrupted with the continually repeated, "They say," or "It has been said." Why, then, should we accept the unstable words of men as exalted wisdom, when a greater, a certain wisdom is at our command?--The Ministry of Healing, 448.
RRe	317	5	"For it is the Eternal who supplies wisdom, from Him come insight and knowledge. . . . Wisdom will be welcome to your mind, and knowledge will be a joy to you." Prov. 2:6, 10, Moffatt.
------------------------But Be Rooted to Endure Trial and Temptation, November 12
RRe	318	1	He that receiveth the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the Word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word, by and by he is offended. Matthew 13:20, 21.
RRe	318	2	It is not because men receive the Word immediately, nor because they rejoice in it, that they fall away. As soon as Matthew heard the Saviour's call, immediately he rose up, left all, and followed Him. As soon as the divine Word comes to our hearts, God desires us to receive it; and it is right to accept it with joy. "Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth." And there is joy in the soul that believes on Christ. But those who in the parables are said to receive the Word immediately, do not count the cost. They do not consider what the Word of God requires of them. They do not bring it face to face with all their habits of life, and yield themselves fully to its control. . . .
RRe	318	3	Many receive the gospel as a way of escape from suffering, rather than as a deliverance from sin. They rejoice for a season, for they think that religion will free them from difficulty and trial. While life moves smoothly with them, they may appear to be consistent Christians. But they faint beneath the fiery test of temptation. They cannot bear reproach for Christ's sake. When the Word of God points out some cherished sin, or requires self-denial or sacrifice, they are offended. . . . They look at the present inconvenience and trial, and forget the eternal realities.--Christ's Object Lessons, 46-48.
------------------------And Be Baptized, November 13
RRe	319	1	Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. Acts 2:41.
RRe	319	2	The scene is one full of interest. Behold the people coming from all directions to hear the disciples witness to the truth as it is in Jesus. They press in, crowding the temple. Priests and rulers are there, the dark scowl of malignity still on their faces, their hearts still filled with abiding hatred against Christ. . . . They had thought to find the apostles cowed with fear under the strong hand of oppression and murder, but they find them lifted above all fear, and filled with the Spirit, proclaiming with power the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth.--The Acts of the Apostles, 42.
RRe	319	3	Under the influence of this heavenly illumination, the Scriptures that Christ had explained to the disciples stood out before them with the luster of perfect truth. The veil that had prevented them from seeing to the end of that which had been abolished, was now removed, and they comprehended with perfect clearness the object of Christ's mission and the nature of His kingdom. They could speak with power of the Saviour; and as they unfolded to their hearers the plan of salvation, many were convicted and convinced. The traditions and superstitions inculcated by the priests were swept away from their minds, and the teachings of the Saviour were accepted.
RRe	319	4	"Then they that gladly received His word were baptized."--The Acts of the Apostles, 44.
------------------------Common People Can Comprehend Thy Word, November 14
RRe	320	1	David therefore himself calleth Him Lord; and whence is He then his son? And the common people heard Him gladly. Mark 12:37.
RRe	320	2	Christ's manner of teaching was beautiful and attractive, and it was ever characterized by simplicity. He unfolded the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven through the use of figures and symbols with which His hearers were familiar; and the common people heard Him gladly, for they could comprehend His words. There were no high-sounding words used, to understand which it was necessary to consult a dictionary.
RRe	320	3	Jesus illustrated the glories of the kingdom of God by the use of the experiences and occurrences of earth. In compassionate love and tenderness He cheered and comforted and instructed all who heard Him; for grace was poured upon His lips that He might convey to men in the most attractive way the treasures of truth.--Counsels to Teachers, 240.
RRe	320	4	The Saviour's voice was as music to the ears of those who had been accustomed to the monotonous, spiritless preaching of the scribes and Pharisees. He spoke slowly and impressively, emphasizing those words to which He wished His hearers to give special heed. Old and young, ignorant and learned, could catch the full meaning of His words. . . . The people were very attentive to Him, and it was said of Him, that He spoke not as the scribes and Pharisees; for His word was as of one who had authority.--Counsels to Teachers, 239.
------------------------The Word Is the Light Sought By Many, November 15
RRe	321	1	It came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received Him: for they were all waiting for Him. Luke 8:40.
RRe	321	2	The truth that we hear will save us only as we gladly accept it, showing in our lives the result of its working, growing in grace and in a knowledge of God.--Willing to Spend and Be Spent, Notebook Leaflets, vol. 1, no. 3.
RRe	321	3	Christ "came unto His own, and His own received Him not." The light of God shone into the darkness of the world, and "the darkness comprehended it not." But not all were found indifferent to the gift of heaven. ... In different nations there were earnest and thoughtful men who had sought in literature and science and the religions of the heathen world for that which they could receive as the soul's treasure. Among the Jews there were some who were seeking for that which they had not. Dissatisfied with a formal religion, they longed for that which was spiritual and uplifting. Christ's chosen disciples belonged to the latter class, Cornelius and the Ethiopian eunuch to the former. They had been longing and praying for light from heaven; and when Christ was revealed to them, they received Him with gladness.--Christ's Object Lessons, 116.
------------------------Delight in the Law, for Obedience Brings Joy, November 16
RRe	322	1	I have longed for Thy salvation, O Lord; and Thy law is my delight. Psalms 119:174.
RRe	322	2	What a God is our God! He rules over His kingdom with diligence and care; and He has built a hedge--the ten commandments--about His subjects, to preserve them from the results of transgression. In requiring obedience to the laws of His kingdom, God gives His people health and happiness, peace and joy. He teaches them that the perfection of character He requires can be attained only by becoming familiar with His Word.--Counsels to Teachers, 454.
RRe	322	3	Where there is not only a belief in God's Word, but a submission of the will to Him; where the heart is yielded to Him, the affections fixed upon Him, there is faith,--faith that works by love, and purifies the soul. Through this faith the heart is renewed in the image of God. And the heart that in its unrenewed state is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, now delights in its holy precepts, exclaiming with the psalmist, "O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day."--Steps to Christ, 68, 69.
------------------------For God Will Write It in My Heart, November 17
RRe	323	1	I will delight myself in Thy commandments, which I have loved. Psalms 119:47.
RRe	323	2	There is not a commandment of the law that is not for the good and happiness of man, both in this life and in the life to come. In obedience to God's law, man is surrounded as with a hedge, and kept from the evil.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 52.
RRe	323	3	The law given upon Sinai was the enunciation of the principle of love, a revelation to earth of the law of heaven. It was ordained in the hand of a Mediator,--spoken by Him through whose power the hearts of men could be brought into harmony with its principles. God had revealed the purpose of the law when He declared to Israel, "Ye shall be holy men unto Me."--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 46.
RRe	323	4	The new-covenant promise is, "I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them." While the system of types which pointed to Christ as the Lamb of God that should take away the sin of the world, was to pass away at His death, the principles of righteousness embodied in the decalogue are as immutable as the eternal throne. Not one command has been annulled, not a jot or tittle has been changed. Those principles that were made known to man in Paradise as the great law of life, will exist unchanged in Paradise restored. When Eden shall bloom on earth again, God's law of love will be obeyed by all beneath the sun.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 50.
------------------------For Right Doing Brings Happiness, November 18
RRe	324	1	Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Proverbs 29:18.
RRe	324	2	Obedience to God is the first duty of the Christian. Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 610.
RRe	324	3	The man who attempts to keep the commandments of God from a sense of obligation merely--because he is required to do so--will never enter into the joy of obedience. He does not obey. When the requirements of God are accounted a burden because they cut across human inclination, we may know that the life is not a Christian life. True obedience is the outworking of a principle within. It springs from the love of righteousness, the love of the law of God. The essence of all righteousness is loyalty to our Redeemer. This will lead us to do right because it is right,--because right-doing is pleasing to God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 97, 98.
RRe	324	4	Christ lays loving claims on all for whom He has given His life: they are to obey His will if they would share the joys that He has prepared for all who reflect His character here.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 284.
RRe	324	5	Of Christ it is written, "In Him was life: and the life was the light of men." He is the fountain of life. Obedience to Him is the life-giving power that gladdens the soul.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 288.
------------------------For the Law Reveals the Character of God, November 19
RRe	325	1	The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Psalms 19:7, 8.
RRe	325	2	Because the law of the Lord is perfect, and therefore changeless, it is impossible for sinful men, in themselves, to meet the standard of its requirements. This was why Jesus came as our Redeemer. It was His mission, by making men partakers of the divine nature, to bring them into harmony with the principles of the law of heaven. When we forsake our sins, and receive Christ as our Saviour, the law is exalted. The apostle Paul asks, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law."--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 50.
RRe	325	3	God demands nothing less of every one of His followers than that they reveal Christ's character to the world in their individual life, and that they bear testimony by precept and example that it is not in vain that Christ has suffered and died, that the image of God might be restored in them through His redeeming grace.--Testimonies to Ministers, 438.
RRe	325	4	God calls upon those who claim to be delegated to bear the truth to the world, to show in all places, both high and low, in public life and in the bypaths of private life, that they are in connection with God, that Christianity has done a noble work for them, that they are holier, happier, than those who do not acknowledge their allegiance to God's commandments.--Testimonies to Ministers, 438.
------------------------For It Is the Pledge of Eternal Life, November 20
RRe	326	1	Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart. Psalms 119:111.
RRe	326	2	He [Christ] came to manifest the nature of His law, to reveal in His own character the beauty of holiness. Christ came to the world with the accumulated love of eternity. Sweeping away the exactions which had encumbered the law of God, He showed that the law is a law of love, an expression of the Divine Goodness. He showed that in obedience to its principles is involved the happiness of mankind, and with it the stability, the very foundation and framework, of human society.
RRe	326	3	So far from making arbitrary requirements, God's law is given to men as a hedge, a shield. Whoever accepts its principles is preserved from evil. Fidelity to God involves fidelity to man. Thus the law guards the rights, the individuality, of every human being. It restrains the superior from oppression, and the subordinate from disobedience. It insures man's wellbeing, both for this world and for the world to come. To the obedient it is the pledge of eternal life; for it expresses the principles that endure forever.--Education, 76, 77.
------------------------For It Is Counsel for Happiness, November 21
RRe	327	1	The testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors. Psalms 119:24.
RRe	327	2	The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all intelligent beings depends upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. God desires from all His creatures the service of love,--a service that springs from an appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced obedience; and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 34.
RRe	327	3	God's great object in the working out of His providences is to try men, to give them opportunity to develop character. Thus He proves whether they are obedient or disobedient to His commands. Good works do not purchase the love of God; but they reveal that we possess that love. If we surrender the will to God, we shall not work in order to earn God's love His love as a free gift will be received into the soul, and from, love to Him we shall delight to obey His commandments.--Christ's Object Lessons, 283.
------------------------For Obedience Is the Test of Loyalty to God, November 22
RRe	328	1	If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. John 13:17.
RRe	328	2	"Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only." James 1:22.
RRe	328	3	There are only two classes in the world today, and only two classes will be recognized in the Judgment,--those who violate God's law, and those who obey it. Christ gives the test by which to prove our loyalty or disloyalty. If ye love Me," He says, "keep My commandments. ... He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me. ... He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings; and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me." "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love.--Christ's Object Lessons, 283.
RRe	328	4	The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been,--just what it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents,--perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness. If eternal life were granted on any condition short of this, then the happiness of the whole universe would be imperiled. The way would be open for sin, with all its train of woe and misery, to be immortalized.--Steps to Christ, 67.
------------------------Joyful Worship in the House of the Lord, November 23
RRe	329	1	I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Psalms 122:1.
RRe	329	2	Our God is a tender, merciful Father. His service should not be looked upon as a heart-saddening, distressing exercise. It should be a pleasure to worship the Lord and to take part in His work. God would not have His children, for whom so great salvation has been provided, act as if He were a hard, exacting taskmaster. He is their best friend; and when they worship Him, He expects to be with them, to bless and comfort them, filling their hearts with joy and love. The Lord desires His children to take comfort in His service, and to find more pleasure than hardship in His work. He desires that those who come to worship Him shall carry away with them precious thoughts of His care and love, that they may be cheered in all the employments of daily life, that they may have grace to deal honestly and faithully in all things.--Steps to Christ, 108, 109.
RRe	329	3	"It is a joy to give thanks to the Eternal, to sing Thy praise, O Thou Most High, to proclaim Thy goodness in the morning and Thy faithfulness at night." Psalms 92:1, 2, Moffatt.
------------------------In the House of Prayer, November 24
RRe	330	1	Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon Mine altar; for Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. Isaiah 56:7.
RRe	330	2	There is necessity for diligence in prayer; let nothing hinder you. Make every effort to keep open the communion between Jesus and your own soul. Seek every opportunity to go where prayer is wont to be made. Those who are really seeking for comnunion with God, will be seen in the prayer-meeting, faithfully to do their duty, and earnest and anxious to reap all the benefits they can gain. They will improve every opportunity of placing themselves where they can receive the rays of light from heaven.--Steps to Christ, 102.
RRe	330	3	The youth who finds joy and happiness in reading the Word of God and in the hour of prayer, is constantly refreshed by draughts from the Fountain of life. He will attain a height of moral excellence and a breadth of thought of which others cannot conceive. Communion with God encourages good thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, and lofty purposes of action, Those who thus connect their souls with God are acknowledged by Him as His sons and daughters. They are constantly reaching higher and still higher, obtaining clearer views of God and of eternity, until the Lord makes them channels of light and wisdom to the world.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 624.
------------------------On the Sabbath Day, November 25
RRe	331	1	If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. Isaiah 58:1.
RRe	331	2	Great blessings are enfolded in the observance of the Sabbath and God desires that the Sabbath day shall be to us a day of joy. There was joy at the institution of the Sabbath.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 349.
RRe	331	3	When the foundation of the earth was laid, the foundation of the Sabbath was laid also. When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, God saw that a Sabbath was essential for man, even in Paradise. In giving the Sabbath, God considered man's spiritual and physical health.--Testimonies to Ministers, 136.
RRe	331	4	The Sabbath is not intended to be a period of useless inactivity The law forbids secular labor on the rest-day of the Lord; the toil that gains a livelihood must cease; no labor for worldly pleasure or profit is lawful upon that day; but as God ceased His labor of creating, and rested upon the Sabbath and blessed it, so man is to leave the occupations of his daily life, and devote those sacred hours to healthful rest, to worship, and to holy deeds.--The Desire of Ages, 207.
RRe	331	5	The Lord says, "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; . . . then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." To all who receive the Sabbath as a sign of Christ's creative and redeeming power, it will be a delight Seeing Christ in it, they delight themselves in Him.--The Desire of Ages, 288, 289.
------------------------In Praising the Lord, November 26
RRe	332	1	That I may shew forth all Thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion; I will rejoice in Thy salvation. Psalms 9:14.
RRe	332	2	It is your privilege to trust in the love of Jesus for salvation, in the fullest, surest, noblest manner; to say, He loves me, He receives me; I will trust Him, for He gave His life for me. Nothing so dispels doubt as coming in contact with the character of Christ. He declares, "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out;" that is, there is no possibility of My casting him out, for I have pledged My word to receive him. Take Christ at His word, and let your lips declare that you have gained the victory.--Testimonies to Ministers, 517.
RRe	332	3	You desire to please the Lord, and you can do this by believing His promises. He is waiting to take you into a harbor of gracious experience, and He bids you, "Be still, and know that I am God." . . . "Come unto Me, . . . and I will give you rest." . . . "Then are they glad," because they are privileged to rest in the arms of everlasting love.--Ibid., 516.
RRe	332	4	How pleased the Saviour would be to hear His followers talking of His precious lessons of instruction, and to know that they had a relish for holy things! . . . That which is in the heart will flow from the lips. It cannot be repressed. The things that God has prepared for those that love Him, will be the theme of conversation. The love of Christ is in the soul as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life, sending forth living streams, that bring life and gladness wherever they flow.--Ibid., 88.
------------------------In the Spirit, November 27
RRe	333	1	We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Philippians 3:3.
RRe	333	2	"God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." . . . Religion is not to be confined to external forms and ceremonies. The religion that comes from God is the only religion that will lead to God. In order to serve Him aright, we must be born of the divine Spirit. This will purify the heart and renew the mind, giving us a new capacity or knowing and loving God. It will give us a willing obedience to all His requirements. This is true worship.--The Desire of Ages, 189.
RRe	333	3	The religion of Christ means more than the forgiveness of sin it means taking away our sins, and filling the vacuum with the graces of the Holy Spirit. It means divine illumination, rejoicing in God. It means a heart emptied of self, and blessed with the abiding presence of Christ. When Christ reigns in the soul there is purity, freedom from sin. The glory, the fulness, the completeness of the gospel plan is fulfilled in the life. The acceptance of the Saviour brings a glow of perfect peace, perfect love perfect assurance. The beauty and fragrance of the character of Christ, revealed in the life, testifies that God has indeed sent His Son into the world to be its Saviour.--Christ's Object Lessons 419, 420.
------------------------In Contemplation of Christ, November 28
RRe	334	1	Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him no yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8, 9.
RRe	334	2	Christ and Him crucified should be the theme of contemplation, of conversation, and of our most joyful emotion. We should keep in our thoughts every blessing we receive from God, and when we realize His great love, we should be willing to trust everything to the hand that was nailed to the cross for us.--Steps to Christ, 109.
RRe	334	3	When His words of instruction have been received, and have taken possession of us, Jesus is to us an abiding presence, controlling our thoughts and ideas and actions. We are imbued with the instruction of the greatest teacher the world ever knew.--Testimonies to Ministers, 389.
RRe	334	4	We have the companionship of the divine presence, and as we realize this presence, our thoughts are brought into captivity is Jesus Christ. Our spiritual exercises are in accordance with the vividness of our sense of this companionship. Enoch walked with God in this way; and Christ is dwelling in our hearts by faith when we will consider what He is to us, and what a work He has wrought out for us in the plan of redemption. We shall be most happy in cultivating a sense of this great gift of God to our world and to us personally.--Testimonies to Ministers, 388.
------------------------In Trusting God, November 29
RRe	335	1	Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Philippians 3:1.
RRe	335	2	The Christian's life should be one of faith, of victory, and joy in God. . . . Truly spake God's servant Nehemiah, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." And Paul says: . . . "Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Such are the fruits of Bible conversion and sanctification.--The Great Controversy, 477, 478.
RRe	335	3	Decided perseverance in a course of righteousness, disciplining the mind by religious exercises to love devotion and heavenly things, will bring the greatest amount of happiness.
RRe	335	4	If we make God our trust, we have it in our power to control the mind in these things. Through continued exercise, it will become strong to battle with eternal foes, and to subdue self, until there is a complete transformation, and the passions, appetites, and will are brought into perfect subjection. Then there will be daily piety at home and abroad, and when we engage in labor for souls, a power will attend our efforts. The humble Christian will have seasons of devotion which are not spasmodic, fitful, or superstitious, but calm and tranquil, deep, constant, and earnest. The love of God, the practice of holiness, will be pleasant when there is perfect surrender to God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 507.
------------------------Companionship with Christ a Precious Experience, November 30
RRe	336	1	As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love. Canticles 2:3, 4.
RRe	336	2	Many, even in their seasons of devotion, fail of receiving the presence, passing perhaps a moment within the sacred precincts, With hurried steps they press through the circle of Christ's loving presence, passing perhaps a moment within the sacred precincts, but not waiting for counsel. They have no time to remain with the divine Teacher. With their burdens they return to their work.
RRe	336	3	These workers can never attain the highest success until they learn the secret of strength. They must give themselves time to think, to pray, to wait upon God for a renewal of physical, mental, and spiritual power. They need the uplifting influence of His Spirit. Receiving this, they will be quickened by fresh life. The wearied frame and tired brain will be refreshed, the burdened heart will be lightened.
RRe	336	4	Not a pause for a moment in His presence, but personal contact with Christ, to sit down in companionship with Him,--this is our need. Happy ... the precious experience pictured in these words from the Song of Songs:
RRe	336	5	"As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, So is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, And His fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting-house, And His banner over me was love." Education, 260, 261.
------------------------God's Purpose Ever to Bring Joy Out of Sorrow, December 1
RRe	337	1	His anger endureth but a moment: in His favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Psalms 30:5.
RRe	337	2	It is ever God's purpose to bring light out of darkness, joy out of sorrow, and rest out of weariness, for the waiting, longing soul.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 216.
RRe	337	3	In the time of the end, the people of God will sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land. With tears they will warn the wicked of their danger in trampling upon the divine law, and with unutterable sorrow they will humble themselves before the Lord in penitence. The wicked will mock their sorrow and ridicule their solemn appeals. But the anguish and humiliation of God's people is unmistakable evidence that they are regaining the strength and nobility of character lost in consequence of sin. . . .
RRe	337	4	They have resisted the wiles of the deceiver; they have not been turned from their loyalty by the dragon's roar. Now they are eternally secure from the tempter's devices. ...
RRe	337	5	Christ is revealed as the Redeemer and Deliverer of His people. Now indeed are the remnant "men wondered at," as the tears and humiliation of their pilgrimage give place to joy and honor in the presence of God and the Lamb.--Prophets and Kings, 590-592.
------------------------The Faithful Workers are to Reap with Joy, December 2
RRe	338	1	They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy. Psalms 126:5.
RRe	338	2	As faithful husbandmen in God's great field, we must sow with tears, and be patient and hopeful. We must meet troubles and sorrows. Temptations and wearisome toil will afflict the soul, but we must patiently wait in faith to reap with joy. In the final victory God will have no use for those persons who are nowhere to be found in time of peril and danger, when the strength, courage, and influence of all are required to make a charge upon the enemy. Those who stand like faithful soldiers to battle against wrong, and to vindicate the right, warring against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, will each receive the commendation from the Master, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3. 327.
------------------------They Will Receive a Glorious Reward, December 3
RRe	339	1	He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Psalms 126:6.
RRe	339	2	A harvest of joy will be reaped by those who sow the holy seeds of truth.--Testimonies to Ministers, 175.
RRe	339	3	Glorious will be the reward bestowed when the faithful workers gather about the throne of God and of the Lamb. When John in his mortal state beheld the glory of God, he fell as one dead; he was not able to endure the sight. But when the children of God shall have put on immortality, they will "see Him as He is." 1 John 3:2. They will stand before the throne, accepted in the Beloved. All their sins have been blotted out, all their transgressions borne away. Now they can look upon the undimmed glory of the throne of God. They have been partakers with Christ in His sufferings, they have been workers together with Him in the plan of redemption, and they are partakers with Him in the joy of seeing souls saved in the kingdom of God, there to praise God through all eternity.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 285.
------------------------All Workers Share in the Reward, December 4
RRe	340	1	He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. John 4:36.
RRe	340	2	God designs that all shall be workers. The toiling beast of burden answers the purpose of its creation better than does the indolent man. God is a constant worker. The angels are workers: they are ministers of God to the children of men. Those who look forward to a heaven of inactivity will be disappointed; for the economy of heaven provides no place for the gratification of indolence. But to the weary and heavy-laden rest is promised. It is the faithful servant who will be welcomed from his labors to the joy of his Lord. He will lay off his armor with rejoicing and will forget the noise of battle in the glorious rest prepared for those who conquer through the cross of Christ.--Messages to Young People, 216.
RRe	340	3	The weight of the wrath of God will fall upon those who have misspent their time, and served mammon instead of their Creator. If you live for God and Heaven, pointing out the way of life to others, you will go onward and upward to higher and holier joys. You win be rewarded with the "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 54.
------------------------This Hope Should Gladden My Heart, December 5
RRe	341	1	Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. Luke 6:23.
RRe	341	2	We are still amidst the shadows and turmoil of earthly activities. Let us consider most earnestly the blessed hereafter. Let our faith pierce through every cloud of darkness, and behold Him who died for the sins of the world. He has opened the gates of paradise to all who receive and believe on Him. To them He gives power to become the sons and daughters of God. Let the afflictions which pain us so grievously become instructive lessons, teaching us to press forward toward the mark of the prize of our high calling in Christ. Let us be encouraged by the thought that the Lord is soon to come. Let this hope gladden our hearts.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 286, 287.
RRe	341	3	Let your imagination take hold upon things unseen. Let your, thoughts be carried away to the evidences of the great love of God for you. In contemplating the object of which you are in pursuit, you will lose the sense of pain brought by the light afflictions that are but for a moment.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 125.
RRe	341	4	The Christian is not left to walk in uncertain paths; he is not left to vain regrets and disappointments. If we do not have the pleasures of this life, we may still be joyful in looking to the life beyond.--Steps to Christ, 124.
------------------------Causes Me to Choose Heavenly in Place of Earthly, December 6
RRe	342	1	For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Hebrews 10:34.
RRe	342	2	"In heaven . . . neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and . . . thieves do not break through nor steal." Matt. 6:20.
RRe	342	3	Then let your property go beforehand to heaven. Lay up your treasure beside the throne of God. Make sure your title to the unsearchable riches of Christ.--Christ's Object Lessons, 375.
RRe	342	4	Christ calls upon every one to consider. Make an honest reckoning. Put into one scale Jesus, which means eternal treasure, life, truth, heaven, and the joy of Christ in souls redeemed; put into the other every attraction the world can offer. Into one scale put the loss of your own soul, and the souls of those whom you might have been instrumental in saving; into the other, for yourself and for them, a life that measures with the life of God. Weigh for time and for eternity. While you are thus engaged, Christ speaks: "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
RRe	342	5	God desires us to choose the heavenly in place of the earthly. He opens before us the possibilities of a heavenly investment. He would give encouragement to our loftiest aims, security to our choicest treasure. He declares, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir." When the riches that moth devours and rust corrupts shall be swept away, Christ's followers can rejoice in their heavenly treasure, the riches that are imperishable.--Christ's Object Lessons, 374.
------------------------The Crown of Rejoicing the Fruition of My Work, December 7
RRe	343	1	For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For ye are our glory and joy. 1 Thessalonians 2:19, 20.
RRe	343	2	There is a future joy to which Paul looked forward as the recompense of his labors,--the same joy for the sake of which Christ endured the cross and despised the shame,--the joy of seeing the fruition of his work. "What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?" he wrote to the Thessalonian converts. "Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For ye are our glory and joy."
RRe	343	3	Who can measure the results to the world of Paul's lifework? Of all those beneficent influences that alleviate suffering, that comfort sorrow, that restrain evil, that uplift life from the selfish and the sensual, and glorify it with the hope of immortality, how much is due to the labors of Paul and his fellow workers, as with the gospel of the Son of God they made their unnoticed journey from Asia to the shores of Europe?
RRe	343	4	What is it worth to any life to have been God's instrument in setting in motion such influences of blessing? What will it be worth in eternity to witness the results of such a life-work?--Education, 70.
------------------------To Share with Christ the Joy in Redeemed Souls, December 8
RRe	344	1	His lord said unto him. Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Matthew 25:21.
RRe	344	2	With unutterable love, Jesus welcomes His faithful ones to the "joy of their Lord." The Saviour's joy is in seeing, in the kingdom of glory, the souls that have been saved by His agony and humiliation. And the redeemed will be sharers in His joy, as they behold, among the blessed, those who have been won to Christ through their prayers, their labors, and their loving sacrifice. As they gather about the great white throne, gladness unspeakable will fill their hearts, when they behold those whom they have won for Christ, and see that one has gained others, and these still others, all brought into the haven of rest, there to lay their crowns at Jesus' feet, and praise Him through the endless cycles of eternity.--The Great Controversy, 647.
RRe	344	3	The days of pain and weeping are forever ended. The King of glory has wiped the tears from all faces; every cause of grief has been removed. Amid the waving of palm-branches they pour forth a song of praise, clear, sweet, and harmonious; every voice takes up the strain, until the anthem swells through the vaults of heaven, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." And all the inhabitants of heaven respond in the ascription, "Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever."--The Great Controversy, 650, 651.
------------------------To Complete My Heaven-Assigned Work with Joy, December 9
RRe	345	1	But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24.
RRe	345	2	Has God called you to be a representative of Christ upon earth, in His stead beseeching sinners to be reconciled to God? This is a solemn, exalted work. ... You are to be a living epistle, known and read of all men. Ease is not to be consulted. Pleasure is not to be thought of. The salvation of souls is the all important theme. It is to this work that the minister of the gospel of Christ is called.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 705.
RRe	345	3	As their reward, the faithful under-shepherds will hear from the Chief Shepherd, "Well done, good and faithful servant." He will then place the crown of glory upon their heads, and bid them enter into the joy of their Lord. What is that joy? It is beholding with Christ the redeemed saints, reviewing with Him their travail lor souls, their self-denial and self-sacrifice, their giving up of ease, of worldly gain, and every earthly inducement, and choosing the reproach, the suffering, the self-abasement, the wearing labor, and the anguish of spirit as men would oppose the counsel of God against their own souls; it is calling to remembrance the chastening of their souls before God, their weeping between the porch and the altar, and their becoming a spectacle unto the world, to angels, and to men. All this is then ended, and the fruits of their labors are seen, souls saved through their efforts in Christ. The ministers who have been co-workers with Christ, enter into the joy of their Lord, and are satisfied.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 709.
------------------------To Know I Have Not Worked in Vain, December 10
RRe	346	1	Holding forth the Word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. Philippians 2:16.
RRe	346	2	All who have borne with Jesus the cross of sacrifice, will be sharers with Him of His glory. It was the joy of Christ in His humiliation and pain, that His disciples should be glorified with Him. They are the fruit of His self-sacrifice. The outworking in them of His own character and spirit, is His reward, and will be His joy throughout eternity. This joy they share with Him, as the fruit of their labor and sacrifice is seen in other hearts and lives. They are workers together with Christ, and the Father will honor them as He honors His Son.--The Desire of Ages, 624.
RRe	346	3	The redeemed will meet and recognize those whose attention they have directed to the uplifted Saviour. What blessed converse they will have with these souls! . . . What rejoicing there will be as these redeemed ones meet and greet those who have had a burden in their behalf! And those who have lived, not to please themselves, but to be a blessing to the unfortunate who have so few blessings,--how their hearts will thrill with satisfaction! They will realize the promise, "Thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."--Gospel Workers, 518, 519.
------------------------Brings Shame to the Wicked, December 11
RRe	347	1	Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, My servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, My servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed. Isaiah 65:13.
RRe	347	2	While to the wicked the advent of the Lord brings woe and desolation, to the righteous it is fraught with joy and hope.--The Great Controversy, 339.
RRe	347	3	It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people. The sun appears, shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow in quick succession. The wicked look with terror and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance. . . .
RRe	347	4	Soon there appears in the east a small black cloud, about half the size of a man's hand. . . . The people of God know this to be the sign of the Son of man. In solemn silence they gaze upon it as it draws nearer the earth, becoming lighter and more glorious, until it is a great white cloud, its base a glory like consuming fire, and above it the rainbow of the covenant. Jesus rides forth as a mighty conqueror. ... No human pen can portray the scene; no mortal mind is adequate to conceive its splendor.--The Great Controversy, 636-641.
RRe	347	5	Those who really love the Saviour cannot but hail with gladness the announcement founded upon the Word of God, that He in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered, is coming again, not to be insulted, despised, and rejected, as at His first advent, but in power and glory, to redeem His people. It is those who do not love the Saviour, that desire Him to remain away.--The Great Controversy, 340.
------------------------To Be Presented as Faultless Before the Father's Throne, December 12
RRe	348	1	Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Jude 24, 25.
RRe	348	2	Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then raising His hands to heaven He cries, "Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!" Throughout the length and breadth of the earth, the dead shall hear that voice; and they that hear shall live. And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. From the prison-house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory, crying "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? And the living righteous and the risen saints unite their voices in a long, glad shout of victory.--The Great Controversy, 644.
RRe	348	3	There will be a re-linking of the family chain. When we look upon our dead, we may think of the morning when the trump of God shall sound, when "the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed." A little longer, and we shall see the King in His beauty. A little longer, and He will wipe all tears from our eyes. A little longer, and He will present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy."--The Desire of Ages, 632.
------------------------To Be Counted Greater than the Sorrow and Shame, December 13
RRe	349	1	Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2.
RRe	349	2	It was for the joy that was set before Him,--that He might bring many sons unto glory,--that He endured the cross and despised the shame. And inconceivably great as was the sorrow and the shame, yet greater is the joy and the glory. He looks upon the redeemed, renewed in His own image, every heart bearing the perfect impress of the divine, every face reflecting the likeness of their King. He beholds in them the result of the travail of His soul, and He is satisfied. Then, in a voice that reaches the assembled multitudes of the righteous and the wicked, He declares, "Behold the purchase of My blood! For these I suffered, for these I died, that they might dwell in My presence throughout eternal ages." And the song of praise ascends from the white-robed ones about the throne, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing."--The Great Controversy, 671.
------------------------We Shall Look Upon the Face of God, December 14
RRe	350	1	He shall pray unto God, and He will be favourable unto him: and he shall see His face with joy: for He will render unto men His righteousness. Job 33:26.
RRe	350	2	Since sin brought separation between man and his Maker, no man has seen God at any time, except as He is manifested through Christ.
RRe	350	3	"Lord, show us the Father," said Philip, "and it sufficeth us Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. . . ."
RRe	350	4	The disciples did not yet understand Christ's words concerning His relation to God. Much of His teaching was still dark to them. Christ desired them to have a clearer, more distinct knowledge of God. . . .
RRe	350	5	Thus it is today. Our knowledge of God is partial and imperfect. When the conflict is ended, and the Man Christ Jesus acknowledges before the Father His faithful worker, who in a world of sin have borne true witness for Him, they will understand clearly what now are mysteries to them.
RRe	350	6	Christ took with Him to the heavenly courts His glorified humanity. To those who receive Him He gives power to be come the sons of God, that at last God may receive them as His, to dwell with Him throughout eternity. If during this life they are loyal to God, they will at last "see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads." And what is the happiness of heaven but to see God? What greater joy could come to the sinner saved by the grace of Christ than to look upon the face of God, and know Him as Father?--The Ministry of Healing, 419-421.
------------------------We Shall Meet and See the Lord Jesus, December 15
RRe	351	1	It shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God: we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord: we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. Isaiah 25:9.
RRe	351	2	Jesus is coming but not as at His first advent, a babe in Bethlehem; not as He rode into Jerusalem, when the disciples praised God with a loud voice and cried, "Hosanna;" but in the glory of the Father, and with all the retinue of holy angels to escort Him on His way to earth. All heaven will be emptied of the angels, while the waiting saints will be looking for Him and gazing into heaven, as were the men of Galilee when He ascended from the Mount of Olivet. Then only those who are holy, those who have followed fully the meek Pattern, will with rapturous joy exclaim as they behold Him, "Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us." And they will be changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump that trump which wakes the sleeping saints, and calls them forth from their dusty beds, clothed with glorious immortality, and shouting, Victory! Victory over death and the grave!" The changed saints_ are then caught up together with the angels to meet the Lord in the air, never more to be separated from the object of their love.--Early Writings, 109, 110.
------------------------We Shall Rejoice at His Appearance, December 16
RRe	352	1	Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for My name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. Isaiah 66:5.
RRe	352	2	Christ is coming with power and great glory. He is coming with His own glory, and with the glory of the Father. He is coming with all the holy angels with Him. While all the world is plunged in darkness, there will be light in every dwelling of the saints. They will catch the first light of His second appearing. The unsullied light will shine from His splendor, and Christ the Redeemed will be admired by all who have served Him. While the wicked flee from His presence, Christ's followers will rejoice. The patriarch Job, looking down to the time of Christ's second advent, said, "Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not a stranger." To His faithful followers Christ has been a daily companion and familiar friend. They have lived in close contact, in constant communion with God. Upon them the glory of the Lord has risen. In them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has been reflected. Now they rejoice in the undimmed rays of the brightness and glory of the King in His majesty. They are prepared for the communion of heaven; for they have heaven in their hearts.--Christ's Object Lessons, 420, 421.
------------------------We Shall Be Joyful to See His Countenance, December 17
RRe	353	1	Thou hast made known to Me the ways of life; Thou shalt make Me full of joy with Thy countenance. Acts 2:28.
RRe	353	2	Heaven, . . . witness the high, the holy state of perfection that ever abides there,--every soul filled with love; every countenance beaming with joy; enchanting music in melodious strains rising in honor of God and the Lamb; and ceaseless streams of light flowing upon the saints from the face of Him who sitteth upon the throne, and from the Lamb; . . . realize that there is higher and greater joy yet to experience, for the more they receive of the enjoyment of God, the more is their capacity increased to rise higher in eternal enjoyment, and thus continue to receive new and greater supplies from the ceaseless sources of glory and bliss inexpressible.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 226, 227.
RRe	353	3	Heaven is a good place. I long to be there, and behold my lovely Jesus.--Early Writings, 39.
RRe	353	4	"Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face." 1 Cor. 13:12.
RRe	353	5	"The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face. Rev. 22:3, 4.
------------------------We Shall See His Glory and Honor, December 18
RRe	354	1	Glory and honour are in His presence; strength and gladness are in His place. 1 Chronicles 16:27.
RRe	354	2	Those who take Christ at His word, and surrender their souls to His keeping, their lives to His ordering, will find peace and quietude. Nothing of the world can make them sad when Jesus makes them glad by His presence. . . . As through Jesus we enter into rest, heaven begins here. We respond to His invitation, Come, learn of Me and in thus coming we begin the life eternal. Heaven is a ceaseless approaching to God through Christ The longer we are in the heaven of bliss, the more and still more of glory will be opened to us; and the more we know of God the more intense will be our happiness. As we walk with Jesus in this life, we may be filled with His love, satisfied with His presence. All that human nature can bear, we may receive here But what is this compared with the hereafter?--The Desire of Ages, 331.
RRe	354	3	The true Christian's joys and consolation must and will be in heaven. The longing souls of those who have tasted of the powers of the world to come, and have feasted on heavenly joys will not be satisfied with things of earth Their amusement will be in contemplating their treasure--the holy city, the earth made new their eternal home. And while they dwell upon those things which are lofty pure, and holy, heaven will be brought near, and they will feel the power of the Holy Spirit, and this will tend to wean them more and more from the world, and cause their consolation and chief joy to be in the things of heaven their sweet home.--Early Writings, 112, 113.
------------------------We Shall Delight in Him Throughout Eternity, December 19
RRe	355	1	Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Isaiah 58:14.
RRe	355	2	The heritage that God has promised to His people is not in this world. . . . All that are Christ's are "Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise,"--heirs to 'an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,"--the earth freed from the curse of sin. For "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; and the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 169, 170.
RRe	355	3	You must be there. Whatever you lose here, be determined to make sure of eternal life. Never become discouraged. . . . Live for Jesus. . . . Seek earnestly for the crown of life.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 131.
RRe	355	4	Look to Jesus, keeping your eyes fixed on the glory at the top of the ladder. Through Christ alone can you make sure of heaven, where all is purity, holiness, peace, and blessedness, where there are glories that mortal lips cannot describe. The nearest we can come to a description of the reward that awaits the overcomer is to say that it is a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. It will be an eternity of bliss, a blessed eternity, unfolding new glories throughout the ceaseless ages.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 169, 170.
------------------------We Shall Be Like Him, December 20
RRe	356	1	Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2.
RRe	356	2	Those who love God will have intelligent knowledge of Him. The image of God will shine forth from the faces of His servants, and they will be openly acknowledged as sons and daughters of God. When in the world, they did not claim to be their own, and God set to His seal that they were His. Heaven will be for those who desire it with intense desire, who put forth efforts in proportion to the value of the object which they seek. The thoughts of those who will obtain heaven, will be upon heavenly things; but those who are all taken up with the excitement and pleasure of this world, will have no love whatever for God or heaven.--Review and Herald, May 13, 1890, 290.
RRe	356	3	Those who take no pleasure in thinking and talking of God in this life, will not enjoy the life that is to come, where God is ever present dwelling among His people. But those who love to think of God will be in their element, breathing in the atmosphere of heaven. Those who on earth love the thought of heaven will be happy in its holy associations and pleasures. The prophet says, His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads."--Review and Herald, May 13, 1890, 289, 290.
RRe	356	4	"Faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy," Christ presents to the Father the purchase of His blood, declaring, "Here am I, and the children whom Thou hast given Me." "Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept." Oh, the wonders of redeeming love! the rapture of that hour when the infinite Father looking upon the ransomed, shall behold His image, sin's discord banished, its blight removed, and the human once more in harmony with the divine!--The Great Controversy, 646.
------------------------New Earth Delights--Sin Removed, December 21
RRe	357	1	The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them: and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. Isaiah 35:1.
RRe	357	2	In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called a country There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. There the wide-spreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God's people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home.--The Great Controversy, 675.
RRe	357	3	"They come home to Sion singing, crowned with an unending joy; joy and gladness overtake them, sorrow and sighs forsake them." “Let desert and dry land be glad, let steppes rejoice and flower, flowering like narcissus blooms, and ringing with delight." Isa. 35:10, I, Moffatt.
------------------------Only Joy and Singing, December 22
RRe	358	1	It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. Isaiah 35:2.
RRe	358	2	"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." Only through His word can a knowledge of these things be gained; and even this affords but a partial revelation.--Education, 301.
RRe	358	3	There when the veil that darkens our vision shall be removed, and our eyes shall behold that world of beauty of which we now catch glimpses through the microscope; when we look on the glories of the heavens, now scanned afar through the telescope, when the blight of sin removed, the whole earth shall appear in the beauty of the Lord our God," what a field will be open to our study. There the student of science may read the records of creation, and discern no reminders of the law of evil. He may listen to the music of nature's voices, and detect no note of wailing or undertone of sorrow. In all created things he may trace one handwriting, in the vast universe behold "God's name writ large," and not in earth or sea or sky one sign of ill remaining.--Education, 303.
------------------------The Garden of Eden, December 23
RRe	359	1	The Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord? joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. Isaiah 51:3.
RRe	359	2	The garden of Eden remained upon the earth long after man had become an outcast from its pleasant paths. The fallen race were long permitted to gaze upon the home of innocence, their entrance barred only by the watching angels. At the cherubim guarded gate of Paradise the divine glory was revealed. Hither came Adam and his sons to worship God. Here they renewed their vows of obedience to that law the transgression of which had banished them from Eden. When the tide of iniquity overspread the world, and the wickedness of men determined their destruction by a flood of waters, the hand that had planted Eden withdrew it from the earth. But in the final restitution, when there shall be "a new heaven and a new earth," it is to be restored more gloriously adorned than at the beginning.
RRe	359	3	Then they that have kept God's commandments shall breathe in immortal vigor beneath the tree of life; and through unending ages the inhabitants of sinless worlds shall behold, in that garden of delight a sample of the perfect work of God's creation, untouched by the curse of sin,--a sample of what the whole earth would have become, had man but fulfilled the Creator's glorious plan.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 62.
------------------------The River of Water of Life, December 24
RRe	360	1	There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. Psalms 46:4.
RRe	360	2	The prophet beholds the "river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. "And on this side of the river and on that was the tree of life." "And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." . . . "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters."--Education, 302, 303.
RRe	360	3	Oh, for language to express the glory of the bright world to come! I thirst for the living streams that make glad the city of our God.--Early Writings, 39.
RRe	360	4	Let all that is beautiful in our earthly home remind us of the crystal river and green fields, the waving trees and living fountains, the shining city and the white-robed singers, of our heavenly home,--that world of beauty which no artist can picture, no mortal tongue describe.--Counsels to Teachers, 55.
------------------------The City of the Lord, December 25
RRe	361	1	Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Isaiah 60:15.
RRe	361	2	"They shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel." Verse 14.
RRe	361	3	There are homes for the pilgrims of earth. There are robes for the righteous, with crowns of glory and palms of victory. All that has perplexed us in the providences of God will in the world to come be made plain. The things hard to be understood will then find explanation. The mysteries of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken promises, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall know that infinite love ordered the experience that seemed most trying. As we realize the tender care of Him who makes all things work together for our good, we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
RRe	361	4	Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of heaven. In the home of the redeemed, there will be no tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. Isa. 33:24. One rich tide of happiness will flow and deepen as eternity rolls on.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 286.
------------------------No Sorrow or Sadness, December 26
RRe	362	1	I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. Isaiah 65:19.
RRe	362	2	We are homeward bound. He who loved us so much as to die for us, hath builded for us a city. The New Jerusalem is our place of rest. There will be no sadness in the city of God. No wail of sorrow, no dirge of crushed hopes and buried affections, will evermore be heard. Soon the garments of heaviness will be changed for the wedding garment. Soon we shall witness the coronation of our King. Those whose lives have been hidden with Christ, those who on this earth have fought the good fight of faith, will shine forth with the Redeemer's glory in the kingdom of God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 287.
RRe	362	3	The will of God is to be done on earth, as it is done in heaven. Then the nations will own no other law than the law of heaven. All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving--the robe of Christ's righteousness. All nature, in its surpassing loveliness, will offer to God a constant tribute of praise and adoration. The world will be bathed in the light of heaven. The years will move on in gladness. The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold greater than it is now. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite in proclaiming, "There shall be no more sin, neither shall there be any more death."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 42.
------------------------We Shall Enjoy the Work of Our Hands, December 27
RRe	363	1	They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Isaiah 65:21, 22.
RRe	363	2	In the earth made new, the redeemed will engage in the occupations and pleasures that brought happiness to Adam and Eve in the beginning. The Eden life will be lived, the life in garden and field. "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. . . . For as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." . . .
RRe	363	3	The prophets to whom these great scenes were revealed longed to understand their full import. They "inquired and searched diligently: . . . searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify. . . . Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you."
RRe	363	4	To us who are standing on the very verge of their fulfilment, of what deep moment, what living interest, are these delineations of the things to come,--events for which, since our first parents turned their steps from Eden, God's children have watched and waited, longed and prayed!--Prophets and Kings, 730, 731.
------------------------Pleasures Forevermore in Our Father's Kingdom, December 28
RRe	364	1	Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Luke 12:32.
RRe	364	2	In comparison with the millions of the world, God's people will be, as they have ever been, a little flock; but if they stand for the truth as revealed in His Word, God will be their refuge. They stand under the broad shield of Omnipotence. God is always a majority. When the sound of the last trump shall penetrate the prison-house of the dead, and the righteous shall come forth with triumph, exclaiming, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"--standing then with God, with Christ, with the angels, and with the loyal and true of all ages, the children of God will be far in the majority. . . .
RRe	364	3	In this world their minds were consecrated to God; they served Him with the intellect and with the heart; and now He can place His name "in their foreheads." "And they shall reign forever and ever." They do not go in and out as those who beg a place. They are of that number to whom Christ says, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." He welcomes them as His children, saying, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."--The Acts of the Apostles, 590, 591.
------------------------We Shall Have Unending Joy, December 29
RRe	365	1	The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35:10.
RRe	365	2	The prophet caught the sound of music there, and song, such music and song as, save in the visions of God, no mortal ear has heard or mind conceived. "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." "Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." "As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there." "They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord."--Prophets and Kings, 730.
RRe	365	3	There the redeemed shall "know, even as also they are known." The loves and sympathies which God Himself has planted in the soul, shall there find truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, the sacred ties that bind together "the whole family in heaven and earth,"--these help to constitute the happiness of the redeemed.--The Great Controversy, 677.
------------------------We Shall Live in a New Creation, December 30
RRe	366	1	Be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. Isaiah 65:18.
RRe	366	2	"Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." Isa. 65:17.
RRe	366	3	There, immortal minds will contemplate with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love. There will be no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to forgetfulness of God. Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirements of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body.
RRe	366	4	All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar,--worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of human woe, and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul. With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. They share the treasures of knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon ages in contemplation of God's handiwork. With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation,--suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. Upon all things, from the least to the greatest, the Creator's name is written, and in all are the riches of His power displayed.--The Great Controversy, 677, 678.
------------------------We Shall Rejoice in God's Pleasures Forevermore, December 31
RRe	367	1	Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalms 16:11.
RRe	367	2	The years of eternity, as they roll, will bring riches and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption, and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise. . . .
RRe	367	3	The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.--The Great Controversy, 678.

------------------------Sons and Daughters of God
SD	7	1	That God Created Man in His Own Image, January 1
SD	8	1	That we should be Called the Sons of God, January 2
SD	9	1	That when Christ Appears we Shall be Like Him, January 3
SD	10	1	That we are Purified as Christ is Pure, January 4
SD	11	1	That God Sent His Son to Die That We Might Live, January 5
SD	12	1	That Power is Given us to Become the Sons of God, January 6
SD	13	1	That the Church Is the Object of God's Supreme Regard, January 7
SD	14	1	We are His Sons and Daughters, January 8
SD	15	1	If Children, then Heirs, January 9
SD	16	1	He Knows our Needs Before we Ask, January 10
SD	17	1	Every Good and Perfect Gift is from Him, January 11
SD	18	1	He Manifests His Love Toward Us, January 12
SD	19	1	He is Near to All that Call Upon Him, January 13
SD	20	1	Enoch, a Son of God, Walked with the Father, January 14
SD	21	1	He is the Express Image of the Father, January 15
SD	22	1	If We Sin, He Pleads Our Case in Heaven, January 16
SD	23	1	Belief in Him Means Everlasting Life, January 17
SD	24	1	He Knows How to Help Us When We are Tempted, January 18
SD	25	1	He is Stronger and More Mighty Than Our Adversary, January 19
SD	26	1	He is the Embodiment of Truth, January 20
SD	27	1	He is Ever Before Us, We Shall Not Be Moved, January 21
SD	28	1	Sons of God Are Led By Him, January 22
SD	29	1	He Guides Us Into All Truth, January 23
SD	30	1	He Teaches Us, January 24
SD	31	1	He Brings Wisdom and Understanding, January 25
SD	32	1	He Imparts the Fruit of the Spirit, January 26
SD	33	1	The Spirit Quickeneth, January 27
SD	34	1	He Speaks to Those Who Listen, January 28
SD	35	1	Countless Angels Ready to Help Us, January 29
SD	36	1	They Minister to the Heirs of Salvation, January 30
SD	37	1	They Constantly Ascend and Descend Heaven's Ladder, January 31
SD	38	1	The Commandments are Sure, February 1
SD	39	1	The Law of God is Perfect, February 2
SD	40	1	The Law is Holy, Just, and Good, February 3
SD	41	1	The Law is Truth and Righteousness, February 4
SD	42	1	Hasty Obedience Brings Rich Blessings, February 5
SD	43	1	In the Home, February 6
SD	44	1	To be a Strength to All Nations, February 7
SD	45	1	Rejoices the Heart and Enlightens the Eyes, February 8
SD	46	1	Statutes Given for Our Good Always, February 9
SD	47	1	We Are Assured of Life Everlasting, February 10
SD	48	1	Christ Magnified the Law and Made It Honorable, February 11
SD	49	1	Love to Be Fulfilled in Our Lives, February 12
SD	50	1	Law of Love Written in Our Hearts, February 13
SD	51	1	We are to Love the Lord with All Our Hearts, February 14
SD	52	1	We Will Love Our Neighbors as Ourselves, February 15
SD	53	1	Mercy Shown to Thousands Who Love God's Law, February 16
SD	54	1	We Love God's Commandments More Than Gold, February 17
SD	55	1	Christ Came to Earth to Fulfill the Law, February 18
SD	56	1	We Shall Have No Other Gods, February 19
SD	57	1	We Shall Not Serve Any Graven Images, February 20
SD	58	1	We Shall Not Take the Name of the Lord in Vain, February 21
SD	59	1	We Shall Keep the Sabbath Day Holy, February 22
SD	60	1	Long Life Promised for Honoring Parents, February 23
SD	61	1	We Shall Not Kill, February 24
SD	62	1	We Shall Be Pure, February 25
SD	63	1	We Shall Not Steal, February 26
SD	64	1	We Shall Not Lie, or Bear False Witness, February 27
SD	65	1	We Shall Not Be Covetous, February 28
SD	66	1	It Shall Be Our Righteousness, February 29
SD	67	1	All Who Are Weary of Sin Are Urged to Enroll, March 1
SD	68	1	We Learn of Christ, March 2
SD	69	1	He Teaches Us His Yoke is Easy, His Burden, Light, March 3
SD	70	1	Christ is the Heaven-Sent Teacher, March 4
SD	71	1	We Receive a Faith that Works by Love, March 5
SD	72	1	We Learn to Speak the Language of Canaan, March 6
SD	73	1	We Learn to Beware of Vain Deceit and Flattery, March 7
SD	74	1	Affliction Teaches Us to Long for Heaven, March 8
SD	75	1	We are to Consider Nature's Lessons, March 9
SD	76	1	We Enter Into Christ's Rest, March 10
SD	77	1	Dependence Upon God, March 11
SD	78	1	To Center Our Thoughts in Christ, March 12
SD	79	1	To Resist Temptation, March 13
SD	80	1	To Be Loving and Kind, March 14
SD	81	1	Humility, March 15
SD	82	1	Meekness, March 16
SD	83	1	Thoughtfulness, March 17
SD	84	1	Self-Control, March 18
SD	85	1	Purity, March 19
SD	86	1	Simplicity, March 20
SD	87	1	Steadfastness, March 21
SD	88	1	Patience, March 22
SD	89	1	Self-denial, March 23
SD	90	1	Forgiveness, March 24
SD	91	1	Peter's Sifting Resulted in His Conversion, March 25
SD	92	1	Lazarus Raised to Testify to God's Glory, March 26
SD	93	1	Elisha's Faithfulness Rewarded, March 27
SD	94	1	Moses Endured as Seeing Him Who is Invisible, March 28
SD	95	1	Though Severely Tried Job Remained Perfect and Upright, March 29
SD	96	1	Paul Blinded so He Would See Christ, March 30
SD	97	1	Moab a Failure because He Refused to Change, March 31
SD	98	1	Our Heart the Most Precious Offering, April 1
SD	99	1	Diligent Heart Keeping Essential to Growth in Grace, April 2
SD	100	1	God Promises Us a New Heart of Flesh, April 3
SD	101	1	The Renewed Heart Loves as Christ Loved, April 4
SD	102	1	The Renewed Heart Bringeth Forth Good Things, April 5
SD	103	1	The Renewed Heart is a Pure Heart, April 6
SD	104	1	God's Peace Keeps the New Heart, April 7
SD	105	1	Transformed by the Renewing of the Mind, April 8
SD	106	1	Mind Increases Strength by Continual Effort, April 9
SD	107	1	Every Thought Obedient to Christ, April 10
SD	108	1	The Mind Must Be Fed With Pure Food, April 11
SD	109	1	We are to Take Time to Think About God, April 12
SD	110	1	Turn Minds From the Artificial to the Natural, April 13
SD	111	1	The Mind Fixed on Christ, April 14
SD	112	1	Changes Us from Sinners to Saints, April 15
SD	113	1	Changes Our Rudeness to Refinement, April 16
SD	114	1	Changes Our Slothfulness to Dispatch, April 17
SD	115	1	Changes Our Stubborn Wills to Sanctified Wills, April 18
SD	116	1	Changes Our Constant Complaining to Praise, April 19
SD	117	1	Changes Our Defiance to Submission, April 20
SD	118	1	Changes Our Empty Lamps into Full Lamps, April 21
SD	119	1	God's Grace Sufficient for Every Need, April 22
SD	120	1	His Gifts are to Stablish and Strengthen Us, April 23
SD	121	1	Let Us Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace, April 24
SD	122	1	Rejoice in the Rich Treasures of Grace, April 25
SD	123	1	We Have Received of God's Fullness, April 26
SD	124	1	We Are Changed from Glory to Glory, April 27
SD	125	1	Redemption Through the Riches of God's Grace, April 28
SD	126	1	Blind Bartimaeus' Faith in God's Grace Rewarded, April 29
SD	127	1	From a Slave to Sin, to a Prince of God, April 30
SD	128	1	He Depended Completely on Divine Power, May 1
SD	129	1	He Submitted to Parental Authority, May 2
SD	130	1	He Was Obedient and Respectful, May 3
SD	131	1	He Was Industrious, May 4
SD	132	1	His Simplicity Gave Him Favor, May 5
SD	133	1	In Baptism, May 6
SD	134	1	In the Study of the Scriptures, May 7
SD	135	1	In the Study of Nature, May 8
SD	136	1	In Communion With God, May 9
SD	137	1	In Keeping His Father's Commandments, May 10
SD	138	1	In Being the Light of the World, May 11
SD	139	1	In Demonstrating God's Parental Attributes, May 12
SD	140	1	In Physical Development, May 13
SD	141	1	In Gaining Victory Over Appetite, May 14
SD	142	1	In Positive Self-Control, May 15
SD	143	1	His Principles are to Be Our Principles, May 16
SD	144	1	When He Was Reviled, He Reviled Not, May 17
SD	145	1	He Was Misunderstood and Often Stood Alone, May 18
SD	146	1	He Did Not Interfere With Those in Power, May 19
SD	147	1	In Love for Others, May 20
SD	148	1	In Compassion, May 21
SD	149	1	In Cheerfulness, May 22
SD	150	1	In Soul Winning, May 23
SD	151	1	In Doing Good and Blessing Others, May 24
SD	152	1	In Recognizing God as the Giver of All Gifts, May 25
SD	153	1	In Forgiveness, May 26
SD	154	1	We are to be Perfect as Christ is Perfect, May 27
SD	155	1	We are to be Holy as Christ is Holy, May 28
SD	156	1	We are to Overcome as Christ Overcame, May 29
SD	157	1	We Follow Christ in the Ordinance of Humility, May 30
SD	158	1	We Follow Christ in the Communion Service, May 31
SD	159	1	Choose Today to Serve Christ Always, June 1
SD	160	1	Choose Christ as our Captain, June 2
SD	161	1	Counsel of a True Friend Rejoices the Heart, June 3
SD	162	1	Seek the Company of the Wise, June 4
SD	163	1	We Choose Our Associates Carefully, June 5
SD	164	1	We Do Not Consent to Enticement of Sinners, June 6
SD	165	1	We Choose a Life Companion Who Loves God, June 7
SD	166	1	Not a Favored Few, But Many Friends, June 8
SD	167	1	Jesus is a Friend That is Closer Than a Brother, June 9
SD	168	1	Happy Home Atmosphere Promotes Health, June 10
SD	169	1	Labor Results in Health and Happiness, June 11
SD	170	1	Health and Happiness in the Out-of-Doors, June 12
SD	171	1	By Preserving the Living Machinery, June 13
SD	172	1	Careful Habits Ensure Good Health, June 14
SD	173	1	We Are to Be Clean Inwardly and Outwardly, June 15
SD	174	1	Daniel Blessed for Choosing the Best, June 16
SD	175	1	We Choose to Please God, Not Ourselves, June 17
SD	176	1	We Do All in the Name of Jesus, June 18
SD	177	1	With Recreation That Results in Joy, June 19
SD	178	1	With Good Books That Ennoble the Mind, June 20
SD	179	1	With Good Music That Will Be a Blessing, June 21
SD	180	1	With Holiness in All Conversation, June 22
SD	181	1	With a Happy Sabbath Day of Worship and Rest, June 23
SD	182	1	To Accept the Light God Sends, June 24
SD	183	1	Divine Wisdom, June 25
SD	184	1	True Beauty, June 26
SD	185	1	Honesty, June 27
SD	186	1	Discretion, June 28
SD	187	1	Joseph Chose Life's Best, Samson Did Not, June 29
SD	188	1	The Better Inheritance, June 30
SD	189	1	To Confess Christ, July 1
SD	190	1	To Study the Scriptures, July 2
SD	191	1	To Trust Him, July 3
SD	192	1	To Walk in His Way, July 4
SD	193	1	To Enjoy Perfect Love, July 5
SD	194	1	To Live in Harmony With His Law, July 6
SD	195	1	To Keep the Sabbath, July 7
SD	196	1	God Gives Spirit of Power and Love, July 8
SD	197	1	Sense of God's Presence Banishes Fear, July 9
SD	198	1	God's Goodness and Mercy Inspire Courage, July 10
SD	199	1	Praise to God Brings Courage, July 11
SD	200	1	Walking in the Light Brings Courage, July 12
SD	201	1	Gather Courage from the Coldness of Others, July 13
SD	202	1	Be Strong, for God is With Us, July 14
SD	203	1	Courage and Power are Needed Today, July 15
SD	204	1	God Calls Youth Because They Are Strong, July 16
SD	205	1	Courage of Obedience Demonstrated, July 17
SD	206	1	Elijah Refused to Be Discouraged, July 18
SD	207	1	We Need More Calebs and Joshuas, July 19
SD	208	1	Two Brave Young Men Rout Philistines, July 20
SD	209	1	We Need More Men Like Moses, July 21
SD	210	1	Too Much Is at Stake to Waver Now, July 22
SD	211	1	To Stand Firm in Spite of Ridicule and Scorn, July 23
SD	212	1	To Take a Decided Stand for Temperance, July 24
SD	213	1	To Stand for Principle Despite Opposition, July 25
SD	214	1	To Call Sin by its Right Name, July 26
SD	215	1	To Lift the Standard High, July 27
SD	216	1	To Face Death With the Courage of Daniel, July 28
SD	217	1	The Courageous Among God's Jewels, July 29
SD	218	1	God is With His Children, July 30
SD	219	1	Renewal of Strength, July 31
SD	220	1	We See Christ on the Cross, August 1
SD	221	1	All Men are Drawn to the Uplifted Saviour, August 2
SD	222	1	All Who Look to the Cross will Live, August 3
SD	223	1	Cross of Christ to Be Erected in Our Homes, August 4
SD	224	1	We are Redeemed by Christ's Precious Blood, August 5
SD	225	1	We are Cleansed by Christ's Blood, August 6
SD	226	1	Atonement Through Christ's Blood, August 7
SD	227	1	We are Justified by Christ's Blood, August 8
SD	228	1	Sons of God Through Christ's Blood, August 9
SD	229	1	We Are Reconciled to God by Christ's Death, August 10
SD	230	1	Christ Has Delivered Us from Eternal Death, August 11
SD	231	1	We Are to Glory Only in the Cross, August 12
SD	232	1	We Are Not to Glory in Men, August 13
SD	233	1	We Are Not to Glory in Worldly Wisdom, August 14
SD	234	1	We Are Not to Glory in Riches, August 15
SD	235	1	We Are Not to Glory in Ourselves, August 16
SD	236	1	Glory Not in Talent and Influence, August 17
SD	237	1	We Glory in the Resurrection of Christ, August 18
SD	238	1	We Thank God for His Unspeakable Gift, August 19
SD	239	1	Christ Is Our Only Access to the Father, August 20
SD	240	1	The Cross and the Law, August 21
SD	241	1	The Cross Helps Us Understand Nature, August 22
SD	242	1	For Us Christ Endured the Cross, August 23
SD	243	1	Mercy and Justice Met at the Cross, August 24
SD	244	1	The Cross Unmasks Satan's Government, August 25
SD	245	1	We Must Take Up Our Cross Daily, August 26
SD	246	1	We Take Up the Cross and Deny Self, August 27
SD	247	1	We Take Up Our Cross and Follow Christ, August 28
SD	248	1	If We Shun the Cross, We Lose Eternal Life, August 29
SD	249	1	The Cross that Simon Bore, August 30
SD	250	1	Dying Thief Accepts Christ as His Saviour, August 31
SD	251	1	Privilege of Working with God, September 1
SD	252	1	True Missionary Effort Begins in the Home, September 2
SD	253	1	Faithfulness in Little Things, September 3
SD	254	1	Home Duties Well Done, September 4
SD	255	1	Influence of a Christian Life at Home, September 5
SD	256	1	Good Behavior at Home Influences Others, September 6
SD	257	1	Job Offered Sacrifices for His Children, September 7
SD	258	1	Far-reaching Influence of Christian Home, September 8
SD	259	1	God Fills Us With His Love, September 9
SD	260	1	God Allows Affliction and Trials, September 10
SD	261	1	Persecution Helps Spread the Gospel, September 11
SD	262	1	Righteous Church Members, September 12
SD	263	1	We are to Be Zealous in Our Labors, September 13
SD	264	1	God Places Benevolence Close Beside Prayer, September 14
SD	265	1	Representatives of God's Government, September 15
SD	266	1	How We are to Work, September 16
SD	267	1	We are to Do Good to Our Neighbors, September 17
SD	268	1	We are to Labor With Love, September 18
SD	269	1	Defenders of the Faith, September 19
SD	270	1	We Are Blessed in Helping Others, September 20
SD	271	1	We are Created to Do Good Works, September 21
SD	272	1	God Blesses Those Who Consider the Poor, September 22
SD	273	1	We Are Told To Go Into All the World, September 23
SD	274	1	We are Witnesses for God, September 24
SD	275	1	We Give Liberally To Spread the Gospel, September 25
SD	276	1	We Are the Light of the World, September 26
SD	277	1	We are to Work with Christ to Save the Lost, September 27
SD	278	1	Truth Will Triumph, September 28
SD	279	1	Christ Commends Those Who Serve Him, September 29
SD	280	1	When the Gospel is Preached to All, September 30
SD	281	1	By Receiving Christ, the Source of Life, October 1
SD	282	1	By Abiding in Christ, the Source of Power, October 2
SD	283	1	By Walking as Christ Walked, October 3
SD	284	1	By Walking in the Truth, October 4
SD	285	1	By Keeping the Commandments in Every Detail, October 5
SD	286	1	By Being United as Children of God, October 6
SD	287	1	Christ is the True Vine, October 7
SD	288	1	We Are the Branches, October 8
SD	289	1	God Prunes Us to Make Us More Fruitful, October 9
SD	290	1	We Bear Fruit Only as We Abide in Christ, October 10
SD	291	1	Withered Branch Apart From Christ, October 11
SD	292	1	We Confess Christ, October 12
SD	293	1	We Bear the Fruit of Brotherly Love, October 13
SD	294	1	Christ Prayed That We All Might Be One, October 14
SD	295	1	Oneness with Christ, October 15
SD	296	1	We Reflect Christ to the World, October 16
SD	297	1	We Are Kept from Sinning, October 17
SD	298	1	We Abide in His Love, October 18
SD	299	1	We Dwell in Him and He in Us, October 19
SD	300	1	Our Life is Hid with Christ in God through Baptism, October 20
SD	301	1	The Poor in Spirit Inherit the Kingdom, October 21
SD	302	1	Those Who Mourn Shall Be Comforted, October 22
SD	303	1	The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth, October 23
SD	304	1	The Hungry and Thirsty Shall Be Filled, October 24
SD	305	1	The Merciful Shall Have Mercy, October 25
SD	306	1	The Peacemakers are Called God's Children, October 26
SD	307	1	The Persecuted Receive the Kingdom, October 27
SD	308	1	The Reviled are Blessed, October 28
SD	309	1	Transgression is Forgiven, Sin is Covered, October 29
SD	310	1	Christ in You the Hope of Glory, October 30
SD	311	1	We are Glad in the Lord, October 31
SD	312	1	Seek Constantly to Improve Your Powers, November 1
SD	313	1	Glorify God by Improving Health Habits, November 2
SD	314	1	God's Temple Is to Receive Constant Care, November 3
SD	315	1	God Wants Us to Have the Best Manners, November 4
SD	316	1	We are to Behave Ourselves Wisely, November 5
SD	317	1	Mercies of God Preserve and Elevate Us, November 6
SD	318	1	Adorned With Divine Loveliness, November 7
SD	319	1	Rough Stones Polished for a Holy Temple, November 8
SD	320	1	Joseph a Christian Gentleman, November 9
SD	321	1	Abraham Ever Displayed Unselfish Courtesy, November 10
SD	322	1	Capabilities Increase as Spirituality Increases, November 11
SD	323	1	Seek New Heights in Faith, November 12
SD	324	1	We are to Increase Spiritually, November 13
SD	325	1	God Does Not Limit Our Advancement, November 14
SD	326	1	Break Up the Fallow Ground, November 15
SD	327	1	Continually Store Mind With Divine Truth, November 16
SD	328	1	Put on the Whole Armor of God, November 17
SD	329	1	God Works in Us to Do His Good Pleasure, November 18
SD	330	1	We Put Away Childish Things, November 19
SD	331	1	We Grow Up in Christ, November 20
SD	332	1	Our Faith Grows Exceedingly, November 21
SD	333	1	Seek to Excel, November 22
SD	334	1	Attain to the Full Stature of Christ, November 23
SD	335	1	Going Forth Is Prepared as the Morning, November 24
SD	336	1	We Must Constantly Look to Jesus, November 25
SD	337	1	Our Experience Will Reach Into Eternity, November 26
SD	338	1	Look Upon Christ--Assimilate His Image, November 27
SD	339	1	We Long to Catch Glimpses of His Glory, November 28
SD	340	1	We Are Filled With Praise, November 29
SD	341	1	We Become Like Him, November 30
SD	342	1	Now Is the Sealing Time, December 1
SD	343	1	Seek the Lord While He May Be Found, December 2
SD	344	1	Become God's Sons, and Heirs Through Christ, December 3
SD	345	1	Be as Trees Planted by Rivers of Water, December 4
SD	346	1	Be Sober and Watch Unto Prayer, December 5
SD	347	1	Live Righteously and Godly, December 6
SD	348	1	Be Without Fault, December 7
SD	349	1	Overcome the World Through Faith, December 8
SD	350	1	And His Reward is With Him, December 9
SD	351	1	Hold Fast and Be Ready, December 10
SD	352	1	We Hasten His Return With Holy Conversation, December 11
SD	353	1	He Returns as Protector and Avenger of His Own, December 12
SD	354	1	He Will Be to Us a Sanctuary, December 13
SD	355	1	Probation is Fast Closing, December 14
SD	356	1	He Calls Us to the Marriage Supper, December 15
SD	357	1	Christ Comes With Power and Great Glory, December 16
SD	358	1	The Faithful of Earth Will Be Saved, December 17
SD	359	1	The Dead in Christ Rise First, December 18
SD	360	1	Caught Up to Be With Christ Forever, December 19
SD	361	1	All Nations Are Gathered in Judgment, December 20
SD	362	1	We Receive the Crown of Life, December 21
SD	363	1	A Great Multitude Enter the City of God, December 22
SD	364	1	We Inherit the Kingdom, December 23
SD	365	1	We Eat of the Tree of Life, December 24
SD	366	1	We Have Power Over the Nations, December 25
SD	367	1	We are Given Life Without End, December 26
SD	368	1	Because We are Worthy, We Shall Walk in White, December 27
SD	369	1	We are Presented to the Father, December 28
SD	370	1	We are Made Pillars in the Temple of God, December 29
SD	371	1	We Sit With Christ on His Throne, December 30
SD	372	1	We Shall Inherit All Things, December 31

------------------------That God Created Man in His Own Image, January 1
SD	7	1	God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:27.
SD	7	2	All heaven took a deep and joyful interest in the creation of the world and of man. Human beings were a new and distinct order. They were made "in the image of God," and it was the Creator's design that they should populate the earth. They were to live in close communion with heaven, receiving power from the Source of all power. Upheld by God, they were to live sinless lives.1
SD	7	3	The holy pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God, but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. They were visited by angels, and were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring veil between.... The mysteries of the visible universe--"the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge"--afforded them an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. The laws and operations of nature, which have engaged men's study for six thousand years, were opened to their minds by the infinite Framer and Upholder of all. They held converse with leaf and flower and tree, gathering from each the secrets of its life. With every living creature, from the mighty leviathan that playeth among the waters, to the insect mote that floats in the sunbeam, Adam was familiar. He had given to each its name, and he was acquainted with the nature and habits of all. God's glory in the heavens, the innumerable worlds in their orderly revolutions, "the balancings of the clouds," the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night,--all were open to the study of our first parents.2
SD	7	4	God created man a superior being; he alone is formed in the image of God, and is capable of partaking of the divine nature, of cooperating with his Creator and executing His plans.3
------------------------That we should be Called the Sons of God, January 2
SD	8	1	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not; because it knew him not. 1 John 3:1.
SD	8	2	As John thought of the love of Christ, he was led to exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."
SD	8	3	People think it a privilege to see a royal personage, and thousands go great distances to see one. How much greater privilege it is to be sons and daughters of the Most High. What greater privilege could be conferred on us than to be given entrance into the royal family?
SD	8	4	In order to become the sons and daughters of God, we must separate from the world. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate," the Lord says, "and I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." ...
SD	8	5	There is a heaven before us, a crown of life to win. But to the overcomer only is the reward given. He who gains heaven must be clothed with the robe of righteousness. "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." In the character of Christ there was no discord of any kind. And this must be our experience. Our lives must be controlled by the principles that controlled His life.4
SD	8	6	Through the perfection of the sacrifice given for the guilty race, those who believe in Christ, coming unto Him, may be saved from eternal ruin....
SD	8	7	Let no one be so deluded by the enemy as to think that it is a condescension for any man, however talented or learned or honored, to accept Christ. Every human being should look to heaven with reverence and gratitude, and exclaim with amazement, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."5
------------------------That when Christ Appears we Shall be Like Him, January 3
SD	9	1	Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2.
SD	9	2	We are not to settle down, expecting that a change of character will come to us by some miraculous work, when Jesus shall appear in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. No, my young friends, we are judgment-bound, and probation is granted to us here in this life, in order that we may form characters for the future, immortal life.6
SD	9	3	Let none imagine that selfishness, self-esteem, and self-indulgence are compatible with the Spirit of Christ. Upon every truly converted man or woman there rests a responsibility that we cannot rightly estimate. The maxims and ways of the world are not to be adopted by the sons and daughters of the heavenly King.7
SD	9	4	In separating from the world, we shall encounter difficulties on every hand. But here is comfort for us: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."8
SD	9	5	We should show by our words and works that we recognize the great responsibility laid upon us. Our light should shine so clearly that others can see that we glorify the Father in our daily lives; that we are connected with heaven and are joint heirs with Jesus Christ.9
SD	9	6	To have fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ is to be ennobled and elevated, and made a partaker of joys unspeakable and full of glory. Food, clothing, station, and wealth may have their value; but to have a connection with God ... is of priceless value.... And although it "doth not yet appear what we shall be," "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear," "we shall be like him."10
------------------------That we are Purified as Christ is Pure, January 4
SD	10	1	And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 1 John 3:3.
SD	10	2	Christ would elevate and refine man's mind, purifying it from all dross, that he may appreciate the love that is without a parallel.11
SD	10	3	Through repentance, faith, and good works he may perfect a righteous character, and claim, through the merits of Christ, the privileges of the sons of God. The principles of divine truth, received and cherished in the heart, will carry us to a height of moral excellence that we had not deemed it possible for us to reach.... "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."12
SD	10	4	Holiness of heart and purity of life were the great subjects of the teachings of Christ. In His sermon on the mount, after specifying what must be done in order to be blessed, and what must not be done, He says, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Perfection, holiness,--nothing short of this would give them success in carrying out the principles He had given them. Without this holiness, the human heart is selfish, sinful, and vicious. Holiness will lead its possessor to be fruitful, and abound in all good works. He will never become weary in well-doing; neither look for promotion in this world; but he will look forward to be promoted by the Majesty of heaven when He shall exalt His sanctified and holy ones to His throne.... Holiness of heart will produce right actions.13
SD	10	5	As God is pure in His sphere, so man is to be pure in his. And he will be pure if Christ is formed within, the hope of glory; for he will imitate Christ's life and reflect His character.14
SD	10	6	The princely dignity of the Christian character will shine forth as the sun, and the beams of light from the face of Christ will be reflected upon those who have purified themselves even as He is pure.15
SD	10	7	Purity of heart will lead to purity of life.16
------------------------That God Sent His Son to Die That We Might Live, January 5
SD	11	1	Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10.
SD	11	2	In redemption God has revealed His love in sacrifice, a sacrifice so broad and deep and high that it is immeasurable. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son...."
SD	11	3	When Adam's sin plunged the race into hopeless misery, God might have cut Himself loose from fallen beings. He might have treated them as sinners deserved to be treated. He might have commanded the angels of heaven to pour out upon our world the vials of His wrath. He might have removed this dark blot from His universe. But He did not do this. Instead of banishing them from His presence, He came still nearer to the fallen race. He gave His Son to become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, ... full of grace and truth." Christ by His human relationship to men drew them close to God. He clothed His divine nature with the garb of humanity, and demonstrated before the heavenly universe, before the unfallen worlds, how much God loves the children of men.
SD	11	4	The gift of God to man is beyond all computation. Nothing was withheld. God would not permit it to be said that He could have done more or revealed to humanity a greater measure of love. In the gift of Christ He gave all heaven.
SD	11	5	The Highest, who was with the Father before the world was, submitted to humiliation, that He might uplift humanity. Prophecy withdraws the veil, that we may behold the throne of heaven, that we may see upon that throne, high and lifted up, One who in human form, came to our world to suffer, to be lacerated with stripes, and bruised for our iniquities.17
SD	11	6	Thus God showed His love for man. With Christ He gave all heaven, that the moral image of God might be restored in man.... His grace in all its vastness is provided for all.18
------------------------That Power is Given us to Become the Sons of God, January 6
SD	12	1	But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12. Divine sonship is not something that we gain of ourselves. Only to those who receive Christ as their Saviour is given the power to become sons and daughters of God. The sinner cannot, by any power of his own, rid himself of sin. For the accomplishment of this result, he must look to a higher Power. John exclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Christ alone has power to cleanse the heart. He who is seeking for forgiveness and acceptance can say only,--“Nothing in my hand I bring; Simply to Thy cross I cling."
SD	12	2	But the promise of sonship is made to all who "believe on his name." Every one who comes to Jesus in faith will receive pardon.19
SD	12	3	The religion of Christ transforms the heart. It makes the worldly-minded man heavenly-minded. Under its influence the selfish man becomes unselfish, because this is the character of Christ. The dishonest, scheming man becomes upright, so that it is second nature to him to do to others as he would have others do to him. The profligate is changed from impurity to purity. He forms correct habits; for the gospel of Christ has become to him a savor of life unto life.20
SD	12	4	God was to be manifest in Christ, "reconciling the world unto himself." Man had become so degraded by sin that it was impossible for him, in himself, to come into harmony with Him whose nature is purity and goodness. But Christ, after having redeemed man from the condemnation of the law, could impart divine power, to unite with human effort. Thus by repentance toward God and faith in Christ, the fallen children of Adam might once more become "sons of God."21
SD	12	5	When a soul receives Christ, he receives power to live the life of Christ.22
------------------------That the Church Is the Object of God's Supreme Regard, January 7
SD	13	1	That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:27.
SD	13	2	The church, enfeebled and defective though it be, is the only object on earth on which Christ bestows His supreme regard. He is constantly watching it with solicitude, and is strengthening it by His Holy Spirit. Will we, as members of His church, allow Him to impress our minds and to work through us to His glory?23
SD	13	3	Christ loves His church. He will give all needed help to those who call upon Him for strength for the development of Christlike character. But His love is not weakness. He will not serve with their sins or give them prosperity while they continue to follow a wrong course of action. Only by faithful repentance will their sins be forgiven; for God will not cover evil with the robe of His righteousness. He will honor faithful service. He will abundantly bless those who reveal to their fellowmen His justice, mercy, and love. Let those who are engaged in His service walk before Him in true humility, following faithfully in His footsteps, cherishing the holy principles which will live through the eternal ages. Let them in word and action show that they obey the laws which are obeyed in heaven.24
SD	13	4	The church is the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and through the church will eventually be made manifest, even to "the principalities and powers in heavenly places," the final and full display of the love of God.... The church is God's fortress, His city of refuge, which He holds in a revolted world.... It is the theater of His grace, in which He delights to reveal His power to transform hearts.25
SD	13	5	God's love for His church is infinite. His care over His heritage is unceasing.26
------------------------We are His Sons and Daughters, January 8
SD	14	1	I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18.
SD	14	2	The Creator of the universe addresses you as an affectionate Father.... Your heavenly Father proposes to make you a member of the royal family, that through His exceeding great and precious promises you may be a partaker of the divine nature.... The more you partake of the character of the pure, sinless angels, and of Christ your Redeemer, the more vividly will you bear the impress of the divine, and the more faint will be the resemblance to the world.27
SD	14	3	"I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters...." What a promise is here made upon condition of obedience!.... He promises to be a Father unto you. Oh, what a relationship is this! higher and holier than any earthly tie. If you make the sacrifice, if you have to forsake father, mother, sisters, brothers, wife, and children for Christ's sake, you will not be friendless. God adopts you into His family; you become members of the royal household, sons and daughters of the King who rules in the heaven of heavens.28
SD	14	4	If you call God your Father, you acknowledge yourselves His children, to be guided by His wisdom, and to be obedient in all things, knowing that His love is changeless. You will accept His plan for your life. As children of God, you will hold His honor, His character, His family, His work, as the objects of your highest interest. It will be your joy to recognize and honor your relation to your Father, and to every member of His family.29
SD	14	5	God is our Father, a tender parent, solicitous for His spiritual children. He is pledged to be the protector, counsellor, guide, and friend, of all who are obedient to Him.30
------------------------If Children, then Heirs, January 9
SD	15	1	And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Romans 8:17.
SD	15	2	All who enter into a covenant with Jesus Christ become by adoption the children of God. They are cleansed by the regenerating power of the Word, and angels are commissioned to minister unto them. They are baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. They pledge themselves to become active members of His church in the earth. They are to be dead to all the allurements of worldly desires; but in conversation and godliness, they are, through sanctification of the Spirit to exert a living influence for God.
SD	15	3	"Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ,"--what an exalted, dignified position! Separate and distinct from the world, secure from the wily snares of Satan! By their baptismal vows, God's professed followers have pledged themselves to stand in opposition to evil. The enemy of souls will work with all craft to corrupt their minds. He will seek to introduce his methods into their service for the Master. But there is safety for them if they will heed the injunction: "... be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."31
SD	15	4	Man is honored by being made a co-partner in God's firm, by being accepted as a worker in the great centers He has established.... By appointment, the Lord our Redeemer is heir of God, and those who are co-laborers with Him in the work of saving souls, are joint heirs with Him.... To be an overcomer is to be placed in the ranks of those who have the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.32
SD	15	5	To what greater honor could we aspire than to be called the children of God? What greater rank could we hold, what greater inheritance could we find, than that which comes to those who are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ?33
------------------------He Knows our Needs Before we Ask, January 10
SD	16	1	Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. Matthew 6:8.
SD	16	2	If God, the divine artist, gives to the simple flowers, that perish in a day, their delicate and varied colors, how much greater care will He have for those who are created in His own image? ... If men love and obey God, and do their part, God will provide for all their wants.... No man can add one cubit to his stature, no matter how solicitous he may be to do so. It is no less unreasonable to be troubled about the morrow and its needs. Do your duty, and trust in God; for He knows of what things you have need.... He watches over us with more tenderness than does a mother over an afflicted child.... God is a friend in perplexity and affliction, a protector in distress, a preserver in the thousand dangers that are unseen to us.34
SD	16	3	God dwells in every abode; He hears every word that is spoken, listens to every prayer that is offered, tastes the sorrows and disappointments of every soul, regards the treatment that is given to father, mother, sister, friend, and neighbor. He cares for our necessities, and His love and mercy and grace are continually flowing to satisfy our need.... In His care we may safely rest.35
SD	16	4	God helps the feeble, and strengthens those who have no strength. In the fields where the trials and the conflicts and poverty are the greatest, God's workmen must have increased protection. To those laboring in the heat of the conflict, God says, "The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand."
SD	16	5	Our Lord adapts Himself to our special needs. He is a shade on our right hand. He walks close by our side, ready to supply all our necessities. He comes very near to those who are engaged in willing service for Him. He knows every one by name. O what assurances we have of the tender love of Christ.36
------------------------Every Good and Perfect Gift is from Him, January 11
SD	17	1	Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17.
SD	17	2	The power of God is manifested in the beating of the heart, in the action of the lungs, and in the living currents that circulate through the thousand different channels of the body. We are indebted to Him for every moment of existence, and for all the comforts of life. The powers and abilities that elevate man above the lower creation, are the endowment of the Creator. He loads us with His benefits. We are indebted to Him for the food we eat, the water we drink, the clothes we wear, the air we breathe. Without His special providence, the air would be filled with pestilence and poison. He is a bountiful benefactor and preserver. The sun which shines upon the earth, and glorifies all nature, the weird solemn radiance of the moon, the glories of the firmament, spangled with brilliant stars, the showers that refresh the land, and cause vegetation to flourish, the precious things of nature in all their varied richness, the lofty trees, the shrubs and plants, the waving grain, the blue sky, the green earth, the changes of day and night, the renewing seasons, all speak to man of his Creator's love. He has linked us to Himself by all these tokens in heaven and in earth.37
SD	17	3	We may state to Him our temporal matters, asking Him for bread and raiment as well as for the bread of life and the robe of Christ's righteousness.... The gifts of Him who has all power in heaven and earth are in store for the children of God. Gifts so precious that they come to us through the costly sacrifice of the Redeemer's blood; gifts that will satisfy the deepest craving of the heart; gifts lasting as eternity, will be received and enjoyed by all who will come to God as little children. Take God's promises as your own, plead them before Him as His own words, and you will receive fulness of joy.38
------------------------He Manifests His Love Toward Us, January 12
SD	18	1	In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9.
SD	18	2	Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love. The sovereignty of God involves fullness of blessing to all created beings. The psalmist says:
SD	18	3	"Strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of thy throne: Mercy and truth go before thy face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; They walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name do they rejoice all the day; And in thy righteousness are they exalted. For thou art the glory of their strength...." Psalm 89:13-18, R.V.
SD	18	4	The history of the great conflict between good and evil, from the time it first began in heaven to the final overthrow of rebellion and the total eradication of sin, is also a demonstration of God's unchanging love.... The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all intelligent beings depends upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. God desires from all His creatures the service of love,--service that springs from an appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced obedience.... So long as all created beings acknowledged the allegiance of love, there was perfect harmony throughout the universe of God. It was the joy of the heavenly host to fulfill the purpose of their Creator. They delighted in reflecting His glory and showing forth His praise. And while love to God was supreme, love for one another was confiding and unselfish. There was no note of discord to mar the celestial harmonies.39
------------------------He is Near to All that Call Upon Him, January 13
SD	19	1	The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. Psalm 145:18.
SD	19	2	God is pleased when we keep our faces turned toward the Sun of Righteousness.... When we are in trouble and pressed down with anxieties, the Lord is near, and He bids us cast all our care upon Him, because He cares for us....
SD	19	3	He comes to all His children in their affliction. In time of danger He is their refuge. In sorrow, He offers them joy and consolation. Shall we turn from the Redeemer, the fountain of living water, to hew out for ourselves broken cisterns, which can hold no water? When danger approaches, shall we seek for help from those as weak as ourselves, or shall we flee to Him who is mighty to save? His arms are open wide, and He utters the gracious invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." ...
SD	19	4	It is not the manifestation of His great and awful majesty and unparalleled power that will leave us without excuse if we refuse Him our love and obedience. It is the love, the compassion, the patience, the long-suffering that He has shown which will witness against those who do not offer Him the willing service of their lives. Those who turn to God with heart and soul and mind will find in Him peaceful security....
SD	19	5	He knows just what we need, just what we can bear, and He will give us grace to endure every trial and test that He brings upon us. My constant prayer is for a greater nearness to God.40
SD	19	6	Every provision has been made to meet the needs of our spiritual and our moral nature.... Light and immortality are brought to light through the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has said that He has set before us an open door, and no man can shut it. The open door is before us, and through the grace of Christ, beams of merciful light stream forth from the gates ajar.41
------------------------Enoch, a Son of God, Walked with the Father, January 14
SD	20	1	And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Genesis 5:24.
SD	20	2	Of Enoch it is written that he lived sixty-five years, and begat a son. After that he walked with God three hundred years.... After the birth of his first son, Enoch reached a higher experience; he was drawn into a closer relationship with God. He realized more fully his own obligations and responsibility as a son of God.42
SD	20	3	Enoch's righteous life was in marked contrast with the wicked people around him. His piety, his purity, his unswerving integrity were the result of his walking with God, while the wickedness of the world was the result of their walking with the deceiver of mankind. There never has been and never will be an age when the moral darkness will be so dense as when Enoch lived a life of irreproachable righteousness.43
SD	20	4	In the midst of a life of active labor, Enoch steadfastly maintained his communion with God. The greater and more pressing his labors, the more constant and earnest were his prayers.... After remaining for a time among the people laboring to benefit them by instruction and example, he would withdraw, to spend a season in solitude, hungering and thirsting for that divine knowledge which God alone can impart. Communing thus with God, Enoch came more and more to reflect the divine image. His face was radiant with a holy light, even the light that shineth in the face of Jesus. As he came forth from these divine communings, even the ungodly beheld with awe the impress of heaven upon his countenance.44
SD	20	5	We, too, are to walk with God. When we do this, our faces will be lighted up by the brightness of His presence, and when we meet one another, we shall speak of His power, saying, Praise God. Good is the Lord, and good is the word of the Lord.... And those who will be translated at the close of time, will be those who commune with God on earth.45
------------------------He is the Express Image of the Father, January 15
SD	21	1	Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Hebrews 1:3.
SD	21	2	Who is Christ?--He is the only begotten Son of the living God. He is to the Father as a word that expresses the thought,--as a thought made audible. Christ is the word of God. Christ said to Philip, "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." His words were the echo of God's words. Christ was the likeness of God, the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person.46
SD	21	3	As a personal being, God has revealed Himself in His Son. Jesus, the outshining of the Father's glory, "and the express image of his person" (Hebrews 1:3), was on earth found in fashion as a man. As a personal Saviour He came to the world. As a personal Saviour He ascended on high. As a personal Saviour He intercedes in the heavenly courts. Before the throne of God in our behalf ministers "One like unto the Son of man." Revelation 1:13.
SD	21	4	Christ, the Light of the world, veiled the dazzling splendor of His divinity and came to live as a man among men, that they might, without being consumed, become acquainted with their Creator.... Christ came to teach human beings what God desires them to know. In the heavens above, in the earth, in the broad waters of the ocean, we see the handiwork of God. All created things testify to His power, His wisdom, His love. But not from the stars or the ocean or the cataract can we learn of the personality of God as it is revealed in Christ.47
SD	21	5	Tender, compassionate, sympathetic, ever considerate of others, He represented the character of God, and was constantly engaged in service for God and man.... As Jesus was in human nature, so God means His followers to be. In His strength we are to live the life of purity and nobility which the Saviour lived.48
------------------------If We Sin, He Pleads Our Case in Heaven, January 16
SD	22	1	My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1.
SD	22	2	The Lord Jehovah did not deem the plan of salvation complete while invested only with His own love. By His appointment He has placed at His altar an Advocate clothed with our nature. As our Intercessor, Christ's office work is to introduce us to God as His sons and daughters.
SD	22	3	Christ has pledged Himself to be our substitute and surety, and He neglects no one. There is an inexhaustible fund of perfect obedience accruing from His obedience. In heaven His merits, His self-denial and self-sacrifice, are treasured as incense to be offered up with the prayers of His people. As the sinner's sincere, humble prayers ascend to the throne of God, Christ mingles with them the merits of His own life of perfect obedience. Our prayers are made fragrant by this incense. Christ has pledged Himself to intercede in our behalf, and the Father always hears the Son.
SD	22	4	This is the mystery of godliness. That Christ should take human nature, and by a life of humiliation elevate man in the scale of moral worth with God: that He should carry His adopted nature to the throne of God, and there present His children to the Father, to have conferred upon them an honor exceeding that conferred upon the angels,--this is the marvel of the heavenly universe, the mystery into which angels desire to look. This is love that melts the sinner's heart.49
SD	22	5	He who could not see human beings exposed to destruction without pouring out His soul unto death to save them from eternal ruin, will look with pity and compassion upon every soul who realizes that he can not save himself.50
SD	22	6	Christ is your Advocate. In this powerful, hearty recognition of God's love, take the hand of Christ, and hold it fast. His hand holds you much firmer than you can hold His hand.51
------------------------Belief in Him Means Everlasting Life, January 17
SD	23	1	He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. John 3:36.
SD	23	2	When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart. A change is wrought which man can never accomplish for himself. It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature. The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan.52
SD	23	3	Christ is ready to impart all heavenly influences. He knows every temptation that comes to man, and the capabilities of every human agent. He weighs his strength. He sees the present and the future, and presents before the mind the obligations that should be met, and urges that common, earthly things shall not be permitted to be so absorbing that eternal things shall be lost out of reckoning.53
SD	23	4	The gifts of His grace through Christ are free to all. There is no election but one's own by which any may perish. God has set forth in His Word the conditions upon which every soul will be elected to eternal life--obedience to His commandments, through faith in Christ. God has elected a character in harmony with His law, and any one who shall reach the standard of His requirement, will have an entrance into the kingdom of glory. Christ Himself said, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."54
SD	23	5	What an exalted position to be identified with one in whom is all perfection centered, who is indeed the Majesty of heaven, but who loved us, although fallen, so much that language cannot express it! He for our sakes laid aside His royal robe, stepped down from the throne of heaven, and condescended to clothe His divinity with humility, and became like one of us except in sin, that His life and character should be a pattern for all to copy, that they might have the precious gift of eternal life.55
------------------------He Knows How to Help Us When We are Tempted, January 18
SD	24	1	For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Hebrews 2:18.
SD	24	2	Though enduring most terrible temptations, Christ did not fail or become discouraged. He was fighting the battle in our behalf, and had He faltered, had He yielded to temptation, the human family would have been lost.
SD	24	3	The Bible gives but a bare mention of the conflict with Satan in the wilderness of temptation, but it was a terrible ordeal. Christ came off conqueror, bearing the test and trial in our behalf. How little is man able to comprehend the strength of the temptation of Christ! How little does he understand of that ordeal upon which hung the destiny of a lost world! The world's Redeemer was not warring against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. All heaven was interested in this conflict, and what joy, what rejoicing there was in heaven because help had been laid upon One who is mighty to overcome, mighty to save!
SD	24	4	What an event was this when Christ placed Himself in the position of Adam, and endured the test where Adam had failed, and by this act placed man on a vantage ground, in favor with God, where he might overcome on his own account through the merits of Jesus. In His name, through His grace, man may be an overcomer, even as Christ was an overcomer. In Christ divinity and humanity were united, and the only way in which man may be an overcomer is through becoming a partaker of the divine nature.... Divinity and humanity are blended in him who has the spirit of Christ. The apostle Paul writes, "In all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest." ... "We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."56
------------------------He is Stronger and More Mighty Than Our Adversary, January 19
SD	25	1	Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Psalm 24:8.
SD	25	2	Christ was strong to save the whole world. He wanted all. He could not endure the thought that one should be lost. He wept at the grave of Lazarus, that He could not save every one whom Satan's power had laid low in death. He had given Himself a ransom for many, even all who would avail themselves of the privilege of coming back to their loyalty to God.... When He raised Lazarus from the dead, He knew that for that life He must pay the ransom on the cross of Calvary. Every rescue made was to cause Him the deepest humiliation. He was to taste death for every man.
SD	25	3	In His life on earth, Christ developed a perfect character, He rendered perfect obedience to His Father's commandments. In coming to the world in human form, in becoming subject to the law, in revealing to men that He bore their sickness, their sorrow, their guilt, He did not become a sinner. Before the Pharisees He could say, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" Not one stain of sin was found upon Him. He stood before the world the spotless Lamb of God.
SD	25	4	From the light of His exalted purity, the world's Redeemer could see that the maladies from which the human family were suffering were brought upon them by transgression of the law of God. Every case of suffering He could trace back to its source. In every case He read the sad and awful end of unrepenting sinners. He knew that He alone could rescue them from the pit into which they had fallen. He alone could place their feet in the right path; His perfection alone could avail for their imperfection. He alone could cover their nakedness with His spotless robe of righteousness.... He is strong to deliver. Help has been laid on One that is mighty. He encircles man with His long human arm, while with His divine arm He lays hold of Omnipotence.57
------------------------He is the Embodiment of Truth, January 20
SD	26	1	To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. John 18:37.
SD	26	2	Christ's conscious superiority, even as He descended step by step in the path of humiliation, gave His words an amazing power. What lessons of instruction He gave, and with what authority He rebuked the sins of men in high position. Truth was truth to Him, and it never suffered in His hands; for He was the author of truth. "To this end," He says, "was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." ... He was the embodiment of truth and holiness. He who had stood in the councils of God, who had dwelt in the innermost sanctuary of the Eternal, was speaking that whereof He knew.... But the men who claimed to stand high in knowledge and spiritual understanding failed to comprehend His meaning; and that which had been evolved from eternity by the Father and the Son, they in their ignorance stood as critics to condemn.
SD	26	3	Christ crucified is ever drawing souls to Him. On the other hand, Satan is drawing them away from Christ, that they may not walk in the light of His countenance, that they may not see Christ in His goodness and mercy, His infinite compassion and unsurpassed love. He intercepts himself by presenting the attractions of worldly inducements, that God in Christ may not be discerned. But Christ came that whosoever will believe in Him may be saved. As a flower turns to the sun that its bright rays may aid in perfecting its beauty and symmetry, so should Christ's followers turn to the Sun of Righteousness, that heaven's light may shine upon them, perfecting their characters, and giving them a deep and abiding experience in the things of God. It is beyond our power to conceive the blessings that are brought within our reach through Christ, if we will but unite our human effort with divine grace.58
------------------------He is Ever Before Us, We Shall Not Be Moved, January 21
SD	27	1	I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Psalm 16:8.
SD	27	2	Amid the perplexities that will press upon the soul, there is only One who can help us out of all our difficulties, and relieve all our disquietude. We are to cast all our care upon Jesus, and bear in mind that He is present, and is directing us to commune with Him. We are to keep our minds stayed upon God; and in our weakness, He will be our strength; in our ignorance, He will be our wisdom; in our frailty, He will be our enduring might.
SD	27	3	We may be assured that we need not go into the heavens to bring Jesus down to us, neither into the deep to bring Him up; for He is at our right hand, and His eye is ever upon us. We should ever seek to realize that the Lord is very near us, to be our counselor and guide. This is the only way in which we may have confidence toward God.
SD	27	4	We need to educate and train the mind so that we shall have an intelligent faith, and have an understanding friendship with Jesus. Unless we continually cherish friendship between God and our souls, we shall separate from Him, and walk apart from Him. We shall make friends of those around us, and place our trust in humanity, and our affections will be diverted from the true object of worship. We must not allow coldness to chill our love for our Redeemer. If we have fellowship with Him, we must ever set the Lord before us, and treat Him as an honored Friend, giving Him the first place in our affections. We should speak of His matchless charms, and constantly cultivate the desire to have a better knowledge of Jesus Christ. Then His Spirit will have a controlling power upon life and character.... If ever there was a time when men needed the presence of Christ at their right hand, it is now.... We need the Captain of our salvation continually by our side.59
------------------------Sons of God Are Led By Him, January 22
SD	28	1	As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Romans 8:14.
SD	28	2	The Holy Spirit is a person, for He beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. When this witness is borne, it carries with it its own evidence. At such times we believe and are sure that we are the children of God.60
SD	28	3	The Lord has fulness of grace to bestow on every one that will receive the heavenly gift. The Holy Spirit will bring the God-entrusted capabilities into Christ's service, and will mold and fashion the human agent according to the divine Pattern, in proportion as the human agent shall earnestly desire the transformation.61
SD	28	4	Those who consent to be led by the Spirit of God will be illuminated and sanctified. They will discern the hatefulness of sin and the beauty of holiness. They will esteem it a great honor to be called the sons of God, knowing that they are wholly unworthy to be associated with Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father. Christ took upon Him our nature, that He might associate us with Himself. He suffered in the flesh ... that He might bring many sons and daughters to God.62
SD	28	5	It is the Spirit that causes to shine into darkened minds the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness; that makes men's hearts burn within them with an awakened realization of the truths of eternity; that presents before the mind the great standard of righteousness, and convinces of sin; that inspires faith in Him who alone can save from sin; that works to transform character by withdrawing the affections of men from those things which are temporal and perishable, and fixing them upon the eternal inheritance. The Spirit recreates, refines, and sanctifies human beings, fitting them to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King.63
------------------------He Guides Us Into All Truth, January 23
SD	29	1	Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. John 16:13.
SD	29	2	Every servant of God is to be guided by the Holy Spirit. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Our path, however rugged it may be, is marked out for us by the Lord; and in it we must walk.64
SD	29	3	Christ has made provision that His church shall be a transformed body, illumined with the light of heaven, possessing the glory of Immanuel. It is His purpose that every Christian shall be surrounded with a spiritual atmosphere of light and peace. There is no limit to the usefulness of the one who, putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart and lives a life wholly consecrated to God....
SD	29	4	To us today, as verily as to the first disciples, the promise of the Spirit belongs. God will today endow men and women with power from above, as He endowed those who on the Day of Pentecost heard the word of salvation. At this very hour His Spirit and His grace are for all who need them and will take Him at His word.65
SD	29	5	Teach your children that it is their privilege to receive every day the baptism of the Holy Spirit.66
SD	29	6	Those who are under the influence of the Spirit of God will not be fanatical, but calm and steadfast, free from extravagance in thought, word, or deed. Amid the confusion of delusive doctrines, the Spirit of God will be a guide and a shield to those who have not resisted the evidences of truth, silencing every other voice but that which comes from Him who is the truth.67
SD	29	7	A holy influence is to go forth to the world from those who are sanctified through the truth.... The Holy Spirit is to work on human hearts, taking the things of God and showing them to men.68
------------------------He Teaches Us, January 24
SD	30	1	The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. 1 John 2:27.
SD	30	2	It is the Spirit itself that teaches and enlightens. The most powerful preaching of the Word, the reading of the Scriptures, will not be able to transform the character and save souls unless the Spirit works with and through the human agents. The planning and devising must not be of a character to draw attention to self. The Word is a power, a sword, in the hands of the human agent, but the Holy Spirit in its vital power is the efficiency to impress the mind. "They shall be all taught of God." It is God that causes the light to shine into hearts.... The reason why God can do so little for us is that we forget that living virtue in the Holy Spirit is to combine with the human agent.69
SD	30	3	With the great truth we have been privileged to receive, we should, and under the Holy Spirit's power we could, become living channels of light. We could then approach the mercy-seat; and seeing the bow of promise, kneel with contrite hearts, and seek the kingdom of heaven with a spiritual violence that would bring its own reward. We would take it by force, as did Jacob. Then our message would be the power of God unto salvation. Our supplications would be full of earnestness, full of a sense of our great need; and we would not be denied. The truth would be expressed by life and character, and by lips touched with the living coal from off God's altar. When this experience is ours, we shall be lifted out of our poor, cheap selves, that we have cherished so tenderly. We shall empty our hearts of the corroding power of selfishness, and shall be filled with praise and gratitude to God. We shall magnify the Lord, the God of all grace, who has magnified Christ. And He will reveal His power through us, making us as sharp sickles in the harvest-field.70
------------------------He Brings Wisdom and Understanding, January 25
SD	31	1	And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Isaiah 11:2.
SD	31	2	As the Holy Spirit opens to you the truth, you will treasure up the most precious experiences, and will long to speak to others of the comforting things that have been revealed to you. When brought into association with them, you will communicate some fresh thought in regard to the character or the work of Christ. You will have some fresh revelation of His pitying love to impart to those who love Him and to those who love Him not.
SD	31	3	"Give, and it shall be given unto you;" for the word of God is "a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon." The heart that has once tasted the love of Christ, cries out continually for a deeper draught, and as you impart, you will receive in richer and more abundant measure. Every revelation of God to the soul increases the capacity to know and to love. The continual cry of the heart is, "More of Thee," and ever the Spirit's answer is, "Much more." For our God delights to do "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." To Jesus, who emptied Himself for the salvation of lost humanity, the Holy Spirit was given without measure. So it will be given to every follower of Christ when the whole heart is surrendered for His indwelling. Our Lord Himself has given the command, "Be filled with the Spirit," and this command is also a promise of its fulfilment. It was the good pleasure of the Father that in Christ should "all the fulness dwell;" and "in him ye are made full."
SD	31	4	God has poured out His love unstintedly, as the showers that refresh the earth. He says: "Let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together." ... "Of his fulness have we received, and grace for grace."71
------------------------He Imparts the Fruit of the Spirit, January 26
SD	32	1	For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Ephesians 5:9.
SD	32	2	Shall we consider that we are capable of fashioning our lives and characters to enter into the portals of glory? We cannot do it. We are dependent every moment upon the Spirit of God operating upon us and upon our children.
SD	32	3	If parents would see a different state of things in their family, let them consecrate themselves wholly to God, and the Lord will devise ways and means whereby a transformation may take place in their households.72
SD	32	4	Your compassionate Redeemer is watching you in love and sympathy, ready to hear your prayers, and render you the assistance which you need in your life-work. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, faith and charity are the elements of the Christian character. These precious graces are the fruits of the Spirit. They are the Christian's crown and shield.... Nothing can give more perfect content and satisfaction.73
SD	32	5	As you receive the Spirit of Christ, ... you will grow and bring forth fruit. The graces of the Spirit will ripen in your character. Your faith will increase, your convictions deepen, your love be made perfect. More and more you will reflect the likeness of Christ in all that is pure, noble, and lovely....
SD	32	6	This fruit can never perish, but will produce after its kind a harvest unto eternal life.
SD	32	7	"When the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come." Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.74
------------------------The Spirit Quickeneth, January 27
SD	33	1	It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63.
SD	33	2	Only the Holy Spirit of God can quicken the perceptive faculties.75
SD	33	3	Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive.
SD	33	4	The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. Those only who are thus taught of God, those only who possess the inward working of the Spirit, and in whose life the Christ-life is manifested, can stand as true representatives of the Saviour.
SD	33	5	God takes men as they are, and educates them for His service, if they will yield themselves to Him. The Spirit of God, received into the soul, quickens all its faculties. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the mind that is devoted unreservedly to God, develops harmoniously, and is strengthened to comprehend and fulfil the requirements of God. The weak, vacillating character becomes changed to one of strength and steadfastness. Continual devotion establishes so close a relation between Jesus and His disciples that the Christian becomes like his Master in character. He has clearer, broader views. His discernment is more penetrative, his judgment better balanced. So quickened is he by the life-giving power of the Sun of Righteousness that he is enabled to bear much fruit to the glory of God.76
SD	33	6	The believers will be of one heart and of one mind, and the Lord will make His Word powerful in the earth. New cities and villages and territories will be entered; the church will arise and shine, because her light has come, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon her.... If the Holy Spirit dwells in us, ... we shall lift up Jesus.77
------------------------He Speaks to Those Who Listen, January 28
SD	34	1	He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Revelation 2:29.
SD	34	2	How man can be a counterpart of Jesus Christ is beyond human comprehension. But the Holy Spirit can strengthen our spiritual eyesight, enabling us to see what our natural eyes cannot see, or our ears hear, or our minds comprehend. By the Spirit which searches all things, even the deep things of God, have been revealed precious truths which cannot be described by pen or voice.78
SD	34	3	In all who will submit themselves to the Holy Spirit a new principle of life is to be implanted; the lost image of God is to be restored in humanity.
SD	34	4	But man can not transform himself by the exercise of his will. He possesses no power by which this change can be effected. The leaven--something wholly from without--must be put into the meal before the desired change can be wrought in it. So the grace of God must be received by the sinner before he can be fitted for the kingdom of glory. All the culture and education which the world can give, will fail of making a degraded child of sin a child of heaven. The renewing energy must come from God. The change can be made only by the Holy Spirit. All who would be saved, high or low, rich or poor, must submit to the working of this power.79
SD	34	5	Every heart that has been visited by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness will reveal the working of the Spirit of God in voice, mind, and character. The machinery will move as if oiled and guided by a masterly hand. There will be less friction when the spirit of the worker receives the oil from the two olive branches. The holy influences will be imparted to others in words of kindness, tenderness, love, and encouragement.80
------------------------Countless Angels Ready to Help Us, January 29
SD	35	1	And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne ... and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. Revelation 5:11.
SD	35	2	When Christ ascended to the Father, He did not leave His followers without help. The Holy Spirit, as His representative, and the heavenly angels, as ministering spirits, are sent forth to aid those who against great odds are fighting the good fight of faith. Ever remember that Jesus is your helper. No one understands as well as He your peculiarities of character. He is watching over you, and if you are willing to be guided by Him, He will throw around you influences for good that will enable you to accomplish all His will for you.81
SD	35	3	Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invincible, than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly on the merits of the Saviour. God would send every angel in heaven to the aid of such a one, rather than allow him to be overcome.82
SD	35	4	Angels are God's ministers, radiant with the light ever flowing from His presence, and speeding on rapid wing to execute His will.83
SD	35	5	Angels are ever present where they are most needed, with those who have the hardest battle with self to fight, and whose surroundings are the most discouraging.84
SD	35	6	In all ages, angels have been near to Christ's faithful followers. The vast confederacy of evil is arrayed against all who would overcome; but Christ would have us look to the things which are not seen, to the armies of heaven encamped about all who love God, to deliver them. From what dangers, seen and unseen, we have been preserved through the interposition of the angels, we shall never know, until in the light of eternity we see the providences of God. Then we shall know that the whole family of heaven was interested in the family here below, and that messengers from the throne of God attended our steps from day to day.85
------------------------They Minister to the Heirs of Salvation, January 30
SD	36	1	Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Hebrews 1:14.
SD	36	2	God has angels whose whole work is to draw those who shall be heirs of salvation.... The angels' work is to keep back the powers of Satan.86
SD	36	3	The work of these heavenly beings is to prepare the inhabitants of this world to become children of God, pure, holy, undefiled. But men, though professing to be followers of Christ, do not place themselves in a position where they can understand this ministry, and thus the work of the heavenly messengers is made hard. The angels, who do always behold the face of the Father in heaven, would prefer to remain close by the side of God, in the pure and holy atmosphere of heaven; but a work must be done in bringing this heavenly atmosphere to the souls who are tempted and tried, that Satan may not disqualify them for the place the Lord would have them fill in the heavenly courts. Principalities and powers in heavenly places combine with these angels in their ministration for those who shall be heirs of salvation.87
SD	36	4	Angels, who will do for you what you can not do for yourselves, are waiting for your co-operation. They are waiting for you to respond to the drawing of Christ. Draw nigh to God and to one another. By desire, by silent prayer, by resistance of satanic agencies, put your will on the side of God's will. While you have one desire to resist the devil, and sincerely pray, Deliver me from temptation, you will have strength for your day. It is the work of the heavenly angels to come close to the tried, the tempted, the suffering ones. They labor long and untiringly to save the souls for whom Christ has died. And when souls appreciate their advantages, appreciate the heavenly assistance sent them, respond to the Holy Spirit's working in their behalf; when they put their will on the side of Christ's will, angels bear the tidings heavenward.... And there is rejoicing among the heavenly host.88
------------------------They Constantly Ascend and Descend Heaven's Ladder, January 31
SD	37	1	And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Genesis 28:12.
SD	37	2	In this speck of a world, the heavenly universe manifests the greatest interest.... Yet we come in contact with the busy activity of our cities, we mingle with the multitude in the crowded thoroughfares, we enter marts of trade and walk the streets; and through all, from morning till evening, the people act as if business, sport, and pleasure were all there is to life,--as if this world were all there is to occupy the mind. How few contemplate the unseen agencies!
SD	37	3	All heaven is intensely interested in the human beings who are so full of activity, and yet have no thought for the unseen.... Sometimes the heavenly intelligences draw aside the curtain that hides the unseen world, that our minds may be withdrawn from the hurry and rush, and consider that there are witnesses to all we do and say, when engaged in business, or when we think ourselves alone....
SD	37	4	These heavenly beings are ministering angels, and they frequently disguise themselves in the form of human beings, and as strangers converse with those who are engaged in the work of God. In lonely places they have been the companions of the traveler in peril. In tempest-tossed ships they have spoken words to allay fear and inspire hope in the hour of danger. Many, under different circumstances, have listened to the voices of the inhabitants of other worlds. Time and again have they been the leaders of armies. They have been sent forth to cleanse away pestilence. They have eaten at the humble board of families, and often have they appeared as weary travelers in need of shelter for the night....
SD	37	5	Heavenly angels are co-operating with us in every good work, and thus earth is connected with heaven.89
------------------------The Commandments are Sure, February 1
SD	38	1	All his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. Psalm 111:7, 8.
SD	38	2	Adam and Eve, at their creation, had a knowledge of the law of God. It was printed on their hearts, and they understood its claims upon them. The law of God existed before man was created. It was adapted to the condition of holy beings; even angels were governed by it. After the fall, the principles of righteousness were unchanged. Nothing was taken from the law; not one of its holy precepts could be improved. And as it has existed from the beginning, so will it continue to exist throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity.1
SD	38	3	Our duty to obey this law is to be the burden of this last message of mercy to the world. God's law is not a new thing. It is not holiness created, but holiness made known. It is a code of principles expressing mercy, goodness, and love. It presents to fallen humanity the character of God, and states plainly the whole duty of man.2
SD	38	4	The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all intelligent beings depends upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. God desires from all His creatures the service of love--service that springs from an appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced obedience; and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.3
SD	38	5	"All His commandments are sure...." Whatever is built upon the authority of man will be overthrown; but that which is founded upon the rock of God's immutable word shall stand forever.4
SD	38	6	The sacred statutes which Satan has hated and sought to destroy, will be honored throughout a sinless universe.5
------------------------The Law of God is Perfect, February 2
SD	39	1	The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Psalm 19:7.
SD	39	2	The laws which God gave His ancient people were wiser, better, and more humane than those of the most civilized nations of the earth. The laws of the nations bear marks of the infirmities and passions of the unrenewed heart; but God's law bears the stamp of the divine.6
SD	39	3	Says the psalmist, "The law of the Lord is perfect." How wonderful in its simplicity, its comprehensiveness and perfection, is the law of Jehovah! It is so brief that we can easily commit every precept to memory, and yet so far-reaching as to express the whole will of God, and to take cognizance not only of the outward actions, but of the thoughts and intents, the desires and emotions, of the heart. Human laws can not do this. They can deal with the outward actions only. A man may be a transgressor, and yet conceal his misdeeds from human eyes; he may be a criminal,--a thief, a murderer, or an adulterer,--but so long as he is not discovered, the law can not condemn him as guilty....
SD	39	4	The law of God is simple, and easily understood. If the children of men would, to the best of their ability, obey this law, they would gain strength of mind and power of discernment to comprehend still more of God's purposes and plans. And this advancement would be continued, not only during the present life, but during eternal ages; for however far he may advance in the knowledge of God's wisdom and power, there is always an infinity beyond.7
SD	39	5	Since "the law of the Lord is perfect," every variation from it must be evil.8
SD	39	6	Obedience was the only condition upon which ancient Israel was to receive the fulfilment of the promises that made them the highly favored people of God; and obedience to that law will bring as great blessings to individuals and nations now as it would have brought to the Hebrews.9
------------------------The Law is Holy, Just, and Good, February 3
SD	40	1	Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Romans 7:12.
SD	40	2	As the Supreme Ruler of the universe, God has ordained laws for the government not only of all living beings, but of all the operations of nature. Everything, whether great or small, animate or inanimate, is under fixed laws which cannot be disregarded. There are no exceptions to this rule; for nothing that the divine hand has made has been forgotten by the divine mind.... To man alone, the crowning work of His creation, God has given a conscience to realize the sacred claims of the divine law, and a heart capable of loving it as holy, just, and good; and of man prompt and perfect obedience is required.10
SD	40	3	This rule forbids all oppression from parents and all disobedience from children. The Lord is full of lovingkindness, mercy, and truth. His law is holy, just, and good, and must be obeyed by parents and children. The rules which should regulate the lives of parents and children flow from a heart of infinite love, and God's rich blessing will rest upon those parents who administer His law in their homes, and upon the children who obey this law. The combined influence of mercy and justice is to be felt. "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Households under this discipline will walk in the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.11
SD	40	4	Let the youth look upon the divine standard, and never be content with a low aim.... Walk not hesitatingly, but firmly in the strength and grace of Jesus Christ. Unto Him is committed all power in heaven and in earth. Take refuge in Jesus Christ, and enter into a firm covenant with Him in faith, to love and serve Him.12
SD	40	5	Since the law of God is "holy, and just, and good," a transcript of the divine perfection, it follows that a character formed by obedience to that law will be holy. Christ is the perfect example of such a character.13
------------------------The Law is Truth and Righteousness, February 4
SD	41	1	Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth. Psalm 119:142.
SD	41	2	God sent truth into our world in untarnished glory, beauty, and perfection, and placed it in contrast with error. Neither men nor devils were able to detect a flaw in the character of Christ; but the revelation of the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, placed darkness in such contrast, that men would not receive the light.... There is no natural enmity between evil angels and evil men; both are evil through transgression of the law of God, and evil will always league against God. Fallen men and fallen angels enter into a desperate companionship....
SD	41	3	The purity and holiness of the character of Christ stirred up the very worst passions of the human heart.... His perfect obedience to the commandments of God was a continual rebuke to a sensual and perverse generation. His spotless character was shedding light into the midst of the moral darkness of the world....
SD	41	4	Those who become the sons of God cannot avoid coming into conflict with the hosts of apostasy.... Through the merits of the Redeemer, God accepts the efforts of sinful man in keeping His law, which is holy, just, and good.
SD	41	5	Those who truly unite with Christ will be found doing the same work that Christ did while on the earth,--they will be found magnifying the law and making it honorable.... When the advocates of truth reveal the efficiency of truth in their life and character, a blow is struck against the kingdom of Satan.14
SD	41	6	The character of God is righteousness and truth; such is the nature of His law. Says the psalmist, "Thy law is the truth;" "all thy commandments are righteousness." ... Such a law, being an expression of the mind and will of God, must be as enduring as its Author.15
------------------------Hasty Obedience Brings Rich Blessings, February 5
SD	42	1	I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. Psalm 119:60.
SD	42	2	Obedience to the laws of God develops in man a beautiful character that is in harmony with all that is pure and holy and undefiled. In the life of such a man the message of the gospel of Christ is made clear. Accepting the mercy of Christ and His healing from the power of sin, he is brought into right relation with God. His life, cleansed from vanity and selfishness, is filled with the love of God. His daily obedience to the law of God obtains for him a character that assures him eternal life in the kingdom of God.
SD	42	3	In His earthly life the Saviour gives us an example of the hallowed lives that may be ours if we will devote our days to doing good to the souls that need our help. It is our privilege to bring joy to the sorrowful, light to the darkened, and life to the perishing. The Lord's message comes to us, "Why stand ye here all the day idle; work while it is day; for the night cometh when no man can work." Every word we speak, every act we perform, that conduces to the happiness of others, will conduce to our own happiness, and make our lives like the life of Christ.
SD	42	4	Our daily duties are to be cheerfully accepted and cheerfully performed. Our chief duty is to reveal in words and deportment a life which will make manifest the attributes of heaven. The Word of life is given to us to study and practice. Our actions are to be in strict conformity to the laws of the kingdom of heaven. Then heaven can approve our work; and the talents we employ in His service will multiply for greater usefulness. The consecrated life will shine amid the moral darkness of the world, guiding perishing souls to the truth of the Word....
SD	42	5	In His Gift to the world the Lord has revealed how solicitous He is that we bear in our lives the marks of our heavenly citizenship by letting every ray of light we have received shine forth in good works to our fellow-men.16
------------------------In the Home, February 6
SD	43	1	And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. Deuteronomy 6:9.
SD	43	2	From the earliest times the faithful in Israel had given much attention to the matter of education. The Lord had directed that the children, even from babyhood, should be taught of His goodness and His greatness, especially as revealed in His law and shown in the history of Israel. Through song and prayer, and lessons from the Scriptures, adapted to the opening mind, fathers and mothers were to instruct their children that the law of God is an expression of His character, and that as they received the principles of the law into the heart, the image of God was traced on mind and soul.17
SD	43	3	If it was essential for Moses to embody the commandments in sacred song, so that as they marched in the wilderness, the children could learn to sing the law verse by verse, how essential it is at this time to teach our children God's Word!18
SD	43	4	True happiness in this life and in the future life depends upon obedience to a "Thus saith the Lord." ... Let Christ's life be the pattern. Satan will devise every possible means to break down this high standard of piety as one altogether too strict. It is your work to impress upon your children in their early years the thought that they are formed in the image of God. Christ came to this world to give them a living example of what they all must be, and parents who claim to believe the truth for this time are to teach their children to love God and to obey His law. This is the greatest and most important work that fathers and mothers can do.19
SD	43	5	The great reformative movement must begin in the home. Obedience to God's law is the great incentive to industry, economy, truthfulness, and just dealing between man and man.20
SD	43	6	A noble, all-round manhood does not come by chance. It is the result of the molding process of character building in the early years of youth, and a practice of the law of God in the home.21
------------------------To be a Strength to All Nations, February 7
SD	44	1	Thy God hath commanded thy strength; strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us. Psalm 68:28.
SD	44	2	His [God's] laws were not alone for the Jewish nation. The moral law was given before the people called Jews were in existence. The law of ten commandments was of universal obligation. The sacrificial ordinances were devised to represent the one great Sacrifice, the Lamb of God, that was to take away the sin of the world, and in behalf of the transgressor meet the requirements of divine justice.
SD	44	3	The Lord would not have His people exclusive. Christ's delegated messengers are to proclaim the gospel of His grace to all nations, tongues, and people. We are to make it known that the Great Advocate is giving audience to the whole world. The Jewish church was called to be God's representative to an apostate world, and in order to fulfill this mission the Jewish people were to maintain their own existence as a nation distinct from all the idolatrous nations upon the earth. They were to stand in the world maintaining their peculiar and holy character. They could maintain their own spirituality by doing that which Adam and Eve failed to do,--by rendering obedience to all the commandments of God, and in their characters representing God's mercy, goodness, compassion, and love. Thus in excellence of character they could stand above every other nation; for through a pure and obedient people the Lord would manifest His rich blessings. Thus the principles of the laws governing His kingdom were to be exalted throughout the world. Just as surely as they responded to the mercy, the light, the grace given, they would become the light of the world. They would be constantly directing attention to God, as a wise, faultless, Supreme Ruler, and the praise of God would be in all the earth.... The Lord is our God, and He has the same purpose in regard to His believing, loyal people today.22
------------------------Rejoices the Heart and Enlightens the Eyes, February 8
SD	45	1	The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Psalm 19:8.
SD	45	2	We have only glimmering light in regard to the exceeding breadth of the law of God.... Many of those who claim to believe the testing truths for these last days, act as though God took no note of their disrespect of, and manifest disobedience to, the principles of His holy law. The law is the expression of His will, and it is through obedience to that law that God proposes to accept the children of men as His sons and daughters.... An infinite sacrifice has been made that the moral image of God may be restored to man, through willing obedience to all the commandments of God. Exceeding great is our salvation for ample provision has been made through the righteousness of Christ, that we may be pure, entire, wanting nothing.... If man will keep God's law through faith in Christ, the treasures of heaven will be at his disposal.23
SD	45	3	Open the eyes of your understanding; see the beautiful harmony in the laws of God in nature, and be awed, and reverence your Creator, the Supreme Ruler of heaven and earth. See Him, by the eye of faith, bending over you in love.... Your faith in Jesus will give strength to every purpose, consistency to the character. All your happiness, peace, joy, and success in this life are dependent upon genuine, trusting faith in God. This faith will prompt true obedience to the commandments of God. Your knowledge and faith in God is the strongest restraint from every evil practice, and the motive to all good. Believe in Jesus as one who pardons your sins, one who wants you to be happy in the mansions He has gone to prepare for you. He wants you to live in His presence; to have eternal life and a crown of glory.24
SD	45	4	In keeping God's commandments there is great reward, even in this life. Our conscience does not condemn us. Our hearts are not at enmity with God, but at peace with Him.25
------------------------Statutes Given for Our Good Always, February 9
SD	46	1	And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. Deuteronomy 6:24.
SD	46	2	As the youth go out into the world, to encounter its allurements to sin,--the passion for money-getting, for amusement and indulgence, for display, luxury, and extravagance, the overreaching, fraud, robbery and ruin,--what are the teachings there to be met?
SD	46	3	Spiritualism asserts that men are unfallen demigods; that "each mind will judge itself"; that "true knowledge places men above all law"; that "all sins committed are innocent"; for "whatever is, is right," and "God doth not condemn." The basest of human beings it represents as in heaven, and highly exalted there.... Multitudes are thus led to believe that desire is the highest law, that license is liberty, and that man is accountable only to himself.
SD	46	4	With such teaching given at the very outset of life, when impulse is strongest, and the demand for self-restraint and purity is most urgent, where are the safeguards of virtue? ... At the same time anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law, not only divine, but human....
SD	46	5	Such are the influences to be met by the youth of today. To stand amidst such upheavals they are now to lay the foundations of character. In every generation and in every land the true foundation and pattern for character-building have been the same. The divine law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God will all thy heart, ... and thy neighbour as thyself," the great principle made manifest in the character and life of our Saviour, is the only secure foundation and the only sure guide....
SD	46	6	Here is the only safeguard for individual integrity, for the purity of the home, the well-being of society, or the stability of the nation. Amidst all life's perplexities and dangers and conflicting claims, the one safe and sure rule is to do what God says.26
------------------------We Are Assured of Life Everlasting, February 10
SD	47	1	Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14.
SD	47	2	The affections of the pleasure lover are drawn away from heavenly to earthly things. He subordinates the glories of eternity to the engrossing interests of time. In his desire to possess earthly riches, the heavenly treasure is lost from view. The claims of the future life are disregarded, and the interests of this life hold sway....
SD	47	3	Christ brings the nobler world to view. He presents the advantages of citizenship in that city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He takes us to the threshold of infinity, and shows us its glories, declaring them to be within the reach of all who will live in harmony with the laws of God. Through obedience to the laws of Jehovah, the human family may become a united, happy family in the city of God; but there is no room there for those who have no regard for the will of the Lord. All who will may gain everlasting life, but they must gain it by accepting the law of God as their guide in this life instead of seeking to follow their own laws.... To those who will live a life that is in harmony with the Father, Christ will impart the virtues of His life.27
SD	47	4	Think ye that the commandment-keepers will be sorry, and mourn when the pearly gates of the Golden City of God are swung back upon their glittering hinges, and they are welcomed in? No, never. They will then rejoice, that they are not under the bondage of the law, but that they have kept God's law, and therefore are free from it. They will have right to the tree of life, a right to its healing leaves.28
SD	47	5	The God of heaven has placed a benediction upon them that keep the commandments of God.29
SD	47	6	He who has been faithful over the "few things" of earth, will be made ruler over "many things" in the eternal world of glory.30
------------------------Christ Magnified the Law and Made It Honorable, February 11
SD	48	1	The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable. Isaiah 42:21.
SD	48	2	The law of God's government was to be magnified by the death of God's only begotten Son. Christ bore the guilt of the sins of the world. Our sufficiency is found only in the incarnation and death of the Son of God. He could suffer, because sustained by divinity. He could endure, because He was without one taint of disloyalty or sin. Christ triumphed in man's behalf in thus bearing the justice of punishment. He secured eternal life to men, while He exalted the law, and made it honorable.31
SD	48	3	Every soul is under obligation to follow in the footsteps of Christ, the great example for the human family. He said, "I have kept my Father's commandments." The Pharisees thought that He was seeking to lessen the claims of the law of God, but His voice rang out upon their ears saying, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."
SD	48	4	Christ came to magnify the law and to make it honorable; He came to extol the old commandment which ye had from the beginning. Then we need the law and the prophets. We need the Old Testament to bring us down along the line to the New Testament, which does not take the place of the Old Testament, but more distinctly reveals to us the plan of salvation, giving significance to the whole system of sacrifices and offerings, and to the word which we had from the beginning. Perfect obedience is enjoined upon every soul, and obedience to the expressed will of God will make you one with Christ.... Of Him it is written, "Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart."32
------------------------Love to Be Fulfilled in Our Lives, February 12
SD	49	1	Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:10.
SD	49	2	How many are deficient in love! O, that love might eradicate from the heart hatred, emulation, and strife, and the root of bitterness, whereby many are defiled. Never can the love of Jesus be received and shed abroad in the heart until envious feelings, hatred, jealousies, and evil surmisings are put away....
SD	49	3	Many are deceiving themselves; for the principle of love does not dwell in their hearts. They may close their eyes to their own errors and defects; but they cannot deceive God. There must be a reformation. The plowshare of truth must plow deep furrows in our proud hearts, and tear up the sod of our unsanctified natures, that the Spirit and love of Jesus may be planted in our hearts. Time is fast hastening on, and every work will soon be brought into judgment, and either our sins or our names will be blotted out of the Book of Life....
SD	49	4	Pure love is simple in its operations, and separate from every other principle of action. When combined with earthly motives and selfish interests, it ceases to be pure. God considers more with how much love we work, than the amount we do. Love is a heavenly attribute. The natural heart cannot originate it. This heavenly plant only flourishes where Christ reigns supreme. Where love exists, there is power and truth in the life. Love does good, and nothing but good. Those who have love bear fruit unto holiness, and in the end everlasting life.33
SD	49	5	It was the same Jesus who commanded that love should be the ruling principle in the old dispensation, that commanded that love should be the ruling principle in the hearts of His followers in the New Testament. The working out of the principle of love is true sanctification.34
------------------------Law of Love Written in Our Hearts, February 13
SD	50	1	After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.... I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:33, 34.
SD	50	2	The work Christianity is designed to achieve in the world is not to depreciate the law of God, not to detract from its sacred dignity in the slightest degree, but it is to write that law in the mind and heart. When the law of God is thus implanted in the soul of the believer, he is approaching eternal life through the merits of Jesus....
SD	50	3	The object of the gospel is met when this great end is achieved. Its work from age to age is to unite the hearts of His followers in a spirit of universal brotherhood, through belief of the truth, and thus establish heaven's system of order and harmony in the family of God on earth, that they may be accounted worthy to become members of the royal family above. God, in His wisdom and mercy, tests men and women here, to see if they will obey His voice and respect His law, or rebel as Satan did....
SD	50	4	God's object in giving the law to the fallen race was that man might, through Jesus, rise from his low estate to be one with God, that the greatest moral changes might be manifested in his nature and character. This moral transformation must take place, or man would not be a safe subject in the kingdom of God; for he would raise a revolt....
SD	50	5	Here in this life is the testing, trying time. The angels of God are watching the development of character, and weighing moral worth. The whole question is settled in this, Is he obedient or disobedient to the commandments of God? has the sinner been transformed in this world, through the merits of Christ, to an obedient servant, so that he is fitted to join the heavenly society?35
SD	50	6	The law of God in our hearts will bring our own interests in subordination to high and eternal considerations.36
------------------------We are to Love the Lord with All Our Hearts, February 14
SD	51	1	Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Matthew 22:37.
SD	51	2	He who has the love of God shed abroad in his heart, will reflect the purity and love which exist in Jehovah, and which Christ represented in our world. He who has the love of God in his heart has no enmity against the law of God, but renders willing obedience to all His commandments, and this constitutes Christianity. He who has supreme love to God will reveal love to his fellow-men, who belong to God both by creation and redemption. Love is the fulfilling of the law; and it is the duty of every child of God to render obedience to His commandments....
SD	51	3	The law of God, which is perfect holiness, is the only true standard of character. Love is expressed in obedience, and perfect love casteth out all fear. Those who love God, have the seal of God in their foreheads, and work the works of God. Would that all who profess Christianity knew what it means to love God practically.... They would have some realization of the infinite holiness of God, knowing that He is high and lifted up, and the train of His glory fills the temple. They would have a powerful influence upon the life and character of those around them, which would work as leaven amid the mass of humanity, transforming others through the power of Jesus Christ. Connected with the Source of power, they would never lose their vital influence, but would ever increase in efficiency.37
SD	51	4	Love to God must be a living principle, underlying every act and word and thought. If in the strength of Christ we are seeking to maintain such a consecration, we shall be daily holding communion with God.... The principles of God's law will dwell in the heart, and control the actions. It will then be as natural for us to seek purity and holiness, to shun the spirit and example of the world, and to seek to benefit all around us, as it is for the angels of glory to execute the mission of love assigned them.38
------------------------We Will Love Our Neighbors as Ourselves, February 15
SD	52	1	Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Matthew 22:39.
SD	52	2	The divine law requires us to love God supremely, and our neighbor as ourselves. Without the exercise of this love, the highest profession of faith is mere hypocrisy.39
SD	52	3	The worshiper of God will find that he cannot cherish one fiber of the root of selfishness. He cannot do his duty to his God and practice oppression toward his fellow men. The second principle of the law is like unto the first, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." "This do and thou shalt live." These are the words of Jesus Christ from which there can be no departure on the part of any man, woman, or youth who would be a true Christian. It is obedience to the principles of the commandments of God, that molds the character after the divine similitude....
SD	52	4	To leave a suffering neighbor unrelieved is a breach of the law of God.... He who loves God will not only love his fellow men, but will regard with tender compassion the creatures which God has made. When the Spirit of God is in man it leads him to relieve rather than to create suffering.... We are to care for every case of suffering, and to look upon ourselves as God's agents to relieve the needy to the very uttermost of our ability. We are to be laborers together with God. There are some who manifest great affection for their relatives, for their friends and favorites, who yet fail to be kind and considerate to those who need tender sympathy, who need kindness and love. With earnest heart, let us inquire, Who is my neighbor? Our neighbors are not merely our neighbors and special friends, are not simply those who belong to our church or who think as we do. Our neighbors are the whole human family. We are to do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. We are to give to the world an exhibition of what it means to carry out the law of God. We are to love God supremely and our neighbors as ourselves.40
------------------------Mercy Shown to Thousands Who Love God's Law, February 16
SD	53	1	And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:6.
SD	53	2	The ten holy precepts spoken by Christ upon Sinai's mount were the revelation of the character of God, and made known to the world the fact that He had jurisdiction over the whole human heritage. That law of ten precepts of the greatest love that can be presented to man is the voice of God from heaven speaking to the soul in promise. "This do, and you will not come under the dominion and control of Satan." There is not a negative in that law, although it may appear thus. It is DO, and Live.... The Lord has given His holy commandments to be a wall of protection around His created beings.41
SD	53	3	Everything that God could do, He has done to manifest His great love and mercy to you. He "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Then rest in the assurance of the love of God.... Not because we first loved Him did God love us; but "while we were yet sinners," Christ died for us, making full and abundant provision for our redemption. Although by our disobedience we have merited God's displeasure and condemnation, yet He has not forsaken us, leaving us to grapple with the power of the enemy in our own finite strength. Heavenly angels fight our battles for us, and cooperating with them, we may be victorious over the powers of evil.... As we draw nigh to Him by faith, He draws nigh to us, adopting us into His family, and making us His sons and daughters.42
SD	53	4	To those who are faithful in His service, mercy is promised, not merely to the third and fourth generation ... but to thousands of generations.43
SD	53	5	The tender mercies of God are unmeasured, and those who appreciate the love of Christ will be renewed in true holiness, and brought into Christ, their living Head. They will be followers of God as dear children.44
------------------------We Love God's Commandments More Than Gold, February 17
SD	54	1	Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. Psalm 119:127.
SD	54	2	In these days of peril shall we show less devotion to the truth of God, and less fervent attachment to His law, than in former years? The very condition of things exists which Christ declared would be, prior to His second coming in power and glory. The prevailing ungodliness tends to paralyze and even to destroy true faith and piety. But this is the very time when the gold of Christian integrity will shine brightest, in contrast to the dross of hypocrisy and corruption. Now is the time for Christ's chosen to show their devotion to His service,--the time for all His followers to bear the noblest testimony for their Master by standing firm against the prevailing current of evil.
SD	54	3	As we see the results which have followed a disregard of God's law,--dishonesty, theft, licentiousness, drunkenness, and murder,--we are prepared to say with the psalmist, "I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold"; "in keeping of them, there is great reward." When the divine law is set aside, the greatest misery will result, both to families and to society. Our only hope of better things is to be found in a faithful adherence to the precepts of Jehovah. Infidel France once tried the experiment of rejecting the authority of God. What scenes of horror followed! Men cast aside the divine law as a yoke of bondage, and in their boasted liberty they placed themselves under the rule of the veriest tyrant. Anarchy and bloodshed ruled that terrible day. It was then demonstrated to the world that the surest way to undermine the foundation of order and government, is to set at naught the law of God....
SD	54	4	Instead of feeling that we are now in the slightest degree excusable in further transgression, we shall realize as never before the justice of God's claims upon us, and the sacred character of His law, since Christ must die to maintain its authority. Ere long the obedient will see the blessed results that follow the keeping of all God's commandments.45
------------------------Christ Came to Earth to Fulfill the Law, February 18
SD	55	1	Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Matthew 5:17.
SD	55	2	God chose Israel as the depositary of priceless treasure of truth for all nations, and He gave them His law as the standard of the character they were to develop before the world, before angels, and before the unfallen worlds.... Through disobedience and disloyalty God's chosen nation developed a character exactly opposite to the character God designed them to develop by obeying His law. They placed their own mold and superscription upon the truth, removing from it the superscription of God.... The law of God was being buried beneath the minutiae of outward forms,--such as the frequent washing of the hands before eating, and the washing of pots and cups. Tithes were exacted on simple garden herbs. To those who made so much of these minor things, Christ said, "...these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." ...
SD	55	3	Amid all this confusing din of voices there was need of a teacher direct from the heavenly universe to speak from inspired lips to human hearts, and to proclaim the testing truths so important to every one....
SD	55	4	As a Teacher sent from God, Christ's work was to explain the true significance of the laws of God's government.... Resetting truth in the framework of God's own law, He caused it to shine in its original, heavenly luster.... He enthroned the divine precepts in companionship with the royalty of eternal, uncorrupted truth bearing the sanction of God, the Source of all truth....
SD	55	5	Christ came not only to vindicate the law before the inhabitants of this world, but by His life to settle forever the immutability of God's law.... He [God] never lets go one who commits the keeping of the soul to His care. Having loved them because of their love of Jesus, He loves them to the end.46
------------------------We Shall Have No Other Gods, February 19
SD	56	1	Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3.
SD	56	2	The ten commandments, Thou shalt, and Thou shalt not, are ten promises assured to us if we render obedience to the law governing the universe.47
SD	56	3	There is not a moral precept enjoined in any part of the Bible which is not engraved with the finger of God in His holy law on the two tables of stone. A copy was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. The first four commandments enjoined upon man his duty to serve the Lord our God with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind, and with all the strength. This takes the whole man. This requires a love so fervent, so intense, that man can cherish nothing in his mind or affections in rivalry with God; and his works will bear the signature of heaven. Everything is secondary to the glory of God. Our heavenly Father is to be ever cherished as the first, the joy and prosperity, the light and sufficiency of our life, and our portion forever.48
SD	56	4	Let men worship and serve the Lord God, and Him only. Let not selfish pride be lifted up and served as a god. Let not money be made a god. If sensuality is not kept under the control of the higher powers of the mind, base passion will rule the being. Anything that is made the subject of undue thought and admiration, absorbing the mind, is a God chosen before the Lord.49
SD	56	5	Jehovah, the eternal, self-existent, uncreated One, Himself the source and sustainer of all, is alone entitled to supreme reverence and worship. Man is forbidden to give to any other object the first place in his affections or his service. Whatever we cherish that tends to lessen our love for God or to interfere with the service due Him, of that do we make a god.50
------------------------We Shall Not Serve Any Graven Images, February 20
SD	57	1	Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. Exodus 20:4, 5.
SD	57	2	Our Creator demands our supreme devotion, our first allegiance. Anything which tends to abate our love for God, or to interfere with the service due Him, becomes thereby an idol. With some their lands, their houses, their merchandise, are the idols. Business enterprises are prosecuted with zeal and energy, while the service of God is made a secondary consideration. Family worship is neglected, secret prayer forgotten. Many claim to deal justly with their fellow-men, and seem to feel that in so doing they discharge their whole duty. But it is not enough to keep the last six commandments of the Decalogue. We are to love the Lord our God with all the heart. Nothing short of obedience to every precept ... can satisfy the claims of the divine law.
SD	57	3	There are many whose hearts have been so hardened by prosperity that they forget God, and forget the wants of their fellow-men. Professed Christians adorn themselves with jewelry, laces, costly apparel, while the Lord's poor suffer for the necessaries of life. Men and women who claim redemption through a Saviour's blood will squander the means intrusted to them for the saving of other souls, and then grudging dole out their offerings for religion, giving liberally only when it will bring honor to themselves. These are idolaters.51
SD	57	4	Anything that diverts the mind from God assumes the form of an idol, and that is why there is so little power in the church today.52
SD	57	5	The second commandment forbids the worship of the true God by images or similitudes.... The mind, turned away from the infinite perfection of Jehovah, would be attracted to the creature rather than to the Creator.53
SD	57	6	God is a searcher of the heart. He distinguishes between true heart-service and idolatry.54
------------------------We Shall Not Take the Name of the Lord in Vain, February 21
SD	58	1	Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Exodus 20:7.
SD	58	2	The reason for this command is given: we are not to swear "by the heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, for thou canst not make one hair white or black." All things come of God. We have nothing that we have not received; and, more than this, we have nothing that has not been purchased for us by the blood of Christ.55
SD	58	3	Burning words of passion should never be spoken, for in the sight of God and holy angels they are as a species of swearing.56
SD	58	4	This commandment not only prohibits false oaths and common swearing, but it forbids us to use the name of God in a light or careless manner, without regard to its awful significance. By the thoughtless mention of God in common conversation, by appeals to Him in trivial matters, and by the frequent and thoughtless repetition of His name, we dishonor Him. "Holy and reverend in his name." All should meditate upon His majesty, His purity and holiness, that the heart may be impressed with a sense of His exalted character; and His holy name should be uttered with reverence and solemnity.57
SD	58	5	It is not men whom we are to exalt and worship; it is God, the only true and living God, to whom our worship and reverence are due. According to the teaching of the Scriptures, it dishonors God to address ministers as "reverend." No mortal has any right to attach this to his own name, or to the name of any other human being. It belongs only to God, to distinguish Him from every other being.... "Holy and reverend is his name." We dishonor God when we use this word where it does not belong.... The Father and the Son alone are to be exalted.58
------------------------We Shall Keep the Sabbath Day Holy, February 22
SD	59	1	Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8.
SD	59	2	God said, "The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God." He placed His sanctity upon this day and blessed it and hallowed it as a day of rest.... It is the only commandment in the whole Decalogue that tells who God is. It places God in distinction with every other god. It says the God that made the heaven and the earth, the God that made the trees and the flowers and that created man; this is the God that you are to keep before your children, and you have only to point to the flowers and tell them that He made these and that He rested on the seventh day from all His labors.... The seventh day is a God-given memorial.59
SD	59	3	Pointing to God as the maker of the heavens and the earth, it distinguishes the true God from all false gods. All who keep the seventh day, signify by this act that they are worshippers of Jehovah. Thus the Sabbath is the sign of man's allegiance to God as long as there are any upon the earth to serve Him....
SD	59	4	God has given men six days wherein to labor, and He requires that their own work be done in the six working days. Acts of necessity and mercy are permitted on the Sabbath, the sick and suffering are at all times to be cared for; but unnecessary labor is to be strictly avoided.... And the commandment includes all within our gates. The inmates of the house are to lay aside their worldly business during the sacred hours. All should unite to honor God by willing service upon His holy day.60
SD	59	5	So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creator's power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, God's holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. "From one sabbath to another" the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall go up "to worship before me, saith the Lord."61
------------------------Long Life Promised for Honoring Parents, February 23
SD	60	1	Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Exodus 20:12.
SD	60	2	Those who would truly follow Christ must let Him abide in the heart, and enthrone Him there as supreme. They must represent His spirit and character in their home life, and show courtesy and kindness to those with whom they come in contact. There are many children who profess to know the truth, who do not render to their parents the honor and affection that are due to them, who manifest but little love to father and mother, and fail to honor them in deferring to their wishes, or in seeking to relieve them of anxiety. Many who profess to be Christians do not know what it means to "honour thy father and thy mother," and consequently will know just as little what it means, "that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." ... The Heart-searcher knows what is your attitude toward your parents; for He is weighing moral character in the golden scales of the heavenly sanctuary. O, confess your neglect of your parents, confess your indifference toward them, and your contempt of God's holy commandment.62
SD	60	3	Parents are entitled to a degree of love and respect which is due to no other person. God Himself, who has placed upon them a responsibility for the souls committed to their charge, has ordained that during the earlier years of life, parents shall stand in the place of God to their children. And he who rejects the rightful authority of his parents, is rejecting the authority of God. The fifth commandment requires the children not only to yield respect, submission, and obedience to their parents, but also to give them love and tenderness, to lighten their cares, to guard their reputation, and to succor and comfort them in old age.63
SD	60	4	The fifth commandment is binding upon children as long as their own lives and the lives of their parents are spared.64
------------------------We Shall Not Kill, February 24
SD	61	1	Thou shalt not kill. Exodus 20:13.
SD	61	2	All acts of injustice that tend to shorten life; the spirit of hatred and revenge, or the indulgence of any passion that leads to injurious acts toward others, or causes us even to wish them harm (for "whoso hateth his brother is a murderer"); a selfish neglect of caring for the needy or suffering; all self-indulgence or unnecessary deprivation or excessive labor that tends to injure health,--all these are, to a greater or less degree, violations of the sixth commandment.65
SD	61	3	Some sacrifice physical and moral obligations, thinking to find happiness, and they lose both soul and body. Others will seek their happiness in indulgence of an unnatural appetite, and consider the indulgence of taste more desirable than health and life. Many suffer themselves to be enchained by sensual passions, and will sacrifice physical strength, intellect, and moral powers, to the gratification of lust. They will bring themselves to untimely graves, and in the Judgment will be charged with self-murder.66
SD	61	4	The spirit of hatred and revenge originated with Satan; and it led him to put to death the Son of God. Whoever cherishes malice or unkindness is cherishing the same spirit; and its fruit will be unto death. In the revengeful thought the evil deed lies enfolded, as the plant in the seed.67
SD	61	5	The law of God takes note of the jealousy, envy, hatred, malignity, revenge, lust, and ambition that surge through the soul, but have not found expression in outward action, because the opportunity, not the will, has been wanting. And these sinful emotions will be brought into the account in the day when "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing."68
SD	61	6	Christ is righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to those who believe in Him.... He set before us a perfect example of holy obedience to God's law.69
------------------------We Shall Be Pure, February 25
SD	62	1	Thou shalt not commit adultery. Exodus 20:14.
SD	62	2	This commandment forbids not only acts of impurity, but sensual thoughts and desires, or any practice that tends to excite them. Purity is demanded not only in the outward life, but in the secret intents and emotions of the heart. Christ, who taught the far-reaching obligation of the law of God, declared the evil thought or look to be as truly sin as is the unlawful deed.70
SD	62	3	When the thought of evil is loved and cherished, however secretly, said Jesus, it shows that sin still reigns in the heart. The soul is still in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. He who finds pleasure in dwelling upon scenes of impurity, who indulges the evil thought, the lustful look, may behold in the open sin, with its burden of shame and heartbreaking grief, the true nature of the evil which he has hidden in the chambers of the soul. The season of temptation, under which, it may be, one falls into grievous sin, does not create the evil that is revealed, but only develops or makes manifest that which was hidden and latent in the heart. As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he"; for out of the heart "are the issues of life."71 The heart in which Christ dwells, will be so filled, so satisfied, with His love that it will not be consumed with longing to attract sympathy and attention to itself. And through the surrender of the soul to God, His wisdom can accomplish what human wisdom fails to do.72
SD	62	4	So long as life shall last, there will be need of guarding the affections and the passions with a firm purpose. Not one moment can we be secure except as we rely upon God, the life hidden with Christ.73
SD	62	5	The nearer we live to Jesus, the more will we partake of His pure and holy character; and the more offensive sin appears to us, the more exalted and desirable will appear the purity and brightness of Christ.74
------------------------We Shall Not Steal, February 26
SD	63	1	Thou shalt not steal. Exodus 20:15.
SD	63	2	Both public and private sins are included in this prohibition. The eighth commandment condemns man-stealing and slave-dealing, and forbids wars of conquest. It condemns theft and robbery. It demands strict integrity in the minutest details of the affairs of life. It forbids overreaching in trade, and requires the payment of just debts or wages. It declares that every attempt to advantage one's self by the ignorance, weakness, or misfortune of another, is registered as fraud in the books of heaven.75
SD	63	3	The eighth commandment is to barricade the soul, and hedge man in, so that he shall make no injurious encroachment--which his self-love and desire for gain would make on his neighbor's rights. It forbids every species of dishonesty, injustice, or fraud, however prevalent, however palliated by plausible pretenses.76
SD	63	4	"Thou shalt not steal" was written by the finger of God upon the tables of stone, yet how much underhand stealing of affections is practiced and excused. A deceptive courtship is maintained, private communications are kept up, until the affections of one who is inexperienced and knows not whereunto these things may grow, are in a measure withdrawn from her parents and placed upon him who shows by the very course he pursues that he is unworthy of her love. The Bible condemns every species of dishonesty.77
SD	63	5	To trifle with hearts is a crime of no small magnitude in the sight of a holy God.78
SD	63	6	As we deal with our fellow men in petty dishonesty or in more daring fraud, so will we deal with God. Men who persist in a course of dishonesty will carry out their principles until they cheat their own souls and lose heaven and eternal life.79
SD	63	7	So long as heaven and earth continue, the holy principles of God's law will ... continue, a source of blessing, sending forth streams to refresh the earth.80
------------------------We Shall Not Lie, or Bear False Witness, February 27
SD	64	1	Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Exodus 20:16.
SD	64	2	The ninth commandment requires of us an inviolable regard for exact truth in every declaration by which the character of our fellow men may be affected. The tongue, which is kept so little under the control of the human agent, is to be bridled by strong conscientious principles, by the law of love toward God and man.81
SD	64	3	False-speaking in any matter, every attempt or purpose to deceive our neighbor, is here included. An intention to deceive is what constitutes falsehood. By a glance of the eye, a motion of the hand, an expression of the countenance, a falsehood may be told as effectually as by words. All intentional overstatement, every hint or insinuation calculated to convey an erroneous or exaggerated impression, even the statement of facts in such a manner as to mislead, is falsehood. This precept forbids every effort to injure our neighbor's reputation by misrepresentation or evil surmising, by slander or tale-bearing. Even the intentional suppression of truth, by which injury may result to others, is a violation of the ninth commandment.82
SD	64	4	He [Jesus] teaches that the exact truth should be the law of speech. "Let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay." ... These words condemn all those meaningless phrases and expletives that border on profanity. They condemn the deceptive compliments, the evasion of truth, the flattering phrases, the exaggerations, the misrepresentations in trade, that are current in society and in the business world. They teach that no one who tries to appear what he is not, or whose words do not convey the real sentiment of his heart, can be called truthful....
SD	64	5	Everything that Christians do should be as transparent as the sunlight. Truth is of God; deception, in every one of its myriad forms, is of Satan.... We can not speak the truth unless our minds are continually guided by Him who is truth.83
------------------------We Shall Not Be Covetous, February 28
SD	65	1	Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. Exodus 20:17.
SD	65	2	The last commandment condemns covetousness. Every selfish desire, every degree of discontent, every act of overreaching, every selfish gratification works to the strengthening and developing of a character which will destroy the Christlikeness of the human agent, and close the gates of the city of God against him.84
SD	65	3	When ... angels come to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, and witness the exhibition of selfishness, of covetousness, of overreaching, and benefiting self at others' disadvantage, they turn away in grief.... In no way could the Lord be better glorified and the truth more highly honored, than for unbelievers to see that the truth has wrought a great and good work upon the lives of naturally covetous and penurious men. If it could be seen that the faith of such had an influence to mold their characters, to change them from close, selfish, overreaching, money-loving men, to men who love to do good, who seek opportunities to use their means to bless those who need to be blessed, who visit the widow and fatherless in their affliction, and who keep themselves unspotted from the world, it would be an evidence that their religion was genuine.... Those who profess to be waiting and watching for the appearing of their Lord should not disgrace their profession by bantering in deal and standing for the last penny. Such fruit does not grow upon the Christian tree.85
SD	65	4	The tenth commandment strikes at the very root of all sins, prohibiting the selfish desire, from which springs the sinful act. He who in obedience to God's law refrains from indulging even a sinful desire for that which belongs to another, will not be guilty of an act of wrong toward his fellow-creatures.86
------------------------It Shall Be Our Righteousness, February 29
SD	66	1	And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us. Deuteronomy 6:25.
SD	66	2	The happiness of man is found in obedience to the laws of God. In obedience to God's law he is surrounded as with a hedge and kept from the evil.87
SD	66	3	The tempter's voice will be heard on every side, telling you that you are not now required to keep the law of God. This is a device of Satan. God has a law, and men must keep it. If they disregard these rules, they will not have that perfection of character ... required to become members of the royal family ... for God wrote these ten holy rules on tables of stone and kept them in the ark of God's testimony. The cover of this ark ... was called the mercy-seat, to signify that although death was the penalty for transgressing the law, mercy came through Jesus Christ to pardon the repentant, believing sinner.
SD	66	4	The only hope of any man lies through Jesus Christ, who brought the robe of His righteousness to put upon the sinner who would lay off his filthy garments.... The pure and holy garments are not prepared to be put on by any one after he has entered the gate of the city. All who enter will have on the robe of Christ's righteousness.... There will be no covering up of sins and faults to hide the deformity of character; no robes will be half washed; but all will be pure and spotless.88
SD	66	5	When we bring our lives to complete obedience to the law of God, regarding God as our supreme Guide, and clinging to Christ as our hope of righteousness, God will work in our behalf. This is a righteousness of faith.... The commandments of God diligently studied and practiced, open to us communication with heaven, and distinguish for us the true from the false. This obedience works out for us the divine will, bringing into our lives the righteousness and perfection that was seen in the life of Christ.89
------------------------All Who Are Weary of Sin Are Urged to Enroll, March 1
SD	67	1	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28.
SD	67	2	It is today that the sweet voice of mercy is falling upon your ears. It is today that the heavenly invitation comes to you. It is today that in Heaven everything says, Come.1
SD	67	3	Come, for all things are now ready. Whosoever will, let him come and partake of the waters of life freely. It is now that we want childlike simplicity. We want to see everything like pride, and vanity, and folly, put away. We have the Judgment in view. Men and women will want strength that is greater than any human aid to lean upon. They must lean upon the mighty arm of Jehovah. We have in view that day when the works of men are to be tried, and tested; and we want you to get ready.... We make appeals to you to rid yourselves of the pride of the world, the pride and vanity, and folly, of life. Jesus loves you. Jesus pities you. The angelic host He sends to minister unto you. And now, while all Heaven is interested for you, will you be interested for yourselves?2
SD	67	4	Some men seem afraid to take God at His word as though it would be presumption in them. They pray for the Lord to teach us and yet are afraid to credit the pledged word of God and believe we have been taught of Him. So long as we come to our heavenly Father humbly and with a spirit to be taught, willing and anxious to learn, why should we doubt God's fulfillment of His own promise? ... When you have sought to know His will, your part in the operation with God is to believe that you will be led and guided and blessed in the doing of His will.... It is Christ who is guiding His people today, showing them where and how to work.3
------------------------We Learn of Christ, March 2
SD	68	1	Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:29.
SD	68	2	Only by the aid of the divine Teacher can we understand the truths of God's Word. In His school we shall learn how to be meek and lowly. He shows us how to understand the mysteries of godliness.4
SD	68	3	Let those who desire an education of the highest kind, learn ... that God is nigh unto all who seek Him with the whole heart.
SD	68	4	The more one sees of the character of God, the more humble he becomes, and the lower his estimation is of himself. This indeed is the evidence that he beholds God, that he is in union with Jesus Christ. Unless we are meek and lowly, we cannot in truth claim that we have any conception of the character of God. Men may think that they possess superior qualifications. Their splendid talents, great learning, eloquence, activity, and zeal, may dazzle the eye, delight the fancy, and awaken the admiration of those who cannot read beneath the surface; but unless humility and modesty is linked with these other gifts, self-glorification and self-exaltation will be seen. Unless each qualification is consecrated to the Lord, unless those to whom the Lord has entrusted gifts seek that grace which alone can make their qualifications acceptable to God, they are looked upon by the Lord ... as unprofitable servants. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God thou wilt not despise." ... Those whose hearts are melted and subdued, who have seen the glorious manifestation of God's character, will show no heedless presumption.... Self will be lost in the consciousness they have of God's wonderful glory, and their own utter unworthiness. All who value a happy and holy walk with God ... will leave nothing undone if only they may gain a glimpse of His glory. In every place and under every circumstance, they will pray to God that they may be allowed to see Him. They will cherish that meek and contrite spirit that trembles at the word of God.5
------------------------He Teaches Us His Yoke is Easy, His Burden, Light, March 3
SD	69	1	For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:30.
SD	69	2	We are to bear the yoke of Christ that we may be placed in complete union with Him. "Take my yoke upon you," He says.... Wearing the yoke unites finite man in companionship with the dearly beloved Son of God. Lifting the cross cuts away self from the soul, and places man where he learns how to bear Christ's burdens. We can not follow Christ without wearing His yoke, without lifting the cross and bearing it after Him. If our will is not in accord with the divine requirements, we are to deny our inclinations, give up our darling desires, and step in Christ's footsteps....
SD	69	3	Men frame for their own necks yokes that seem light and pleasant to wear, but they prove galling in the extreme. Christ sees this, and He says, Take My yoke upon you. The yoke you would place upon your own neck, thinking it a precise fit, will not fit at all. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me the lessons essential for you to learn; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. The Lord never makes a false estimate concerning His heritage. He measures the men with whom He is working. When they submit to His yoke, when they give up the struggle that has been unprofitable for themselves and for the cause of God, they will find peace and rest. When they become sensible of their own weakness, their own deficiencies, they will delight to do God's will. They will submit to the yoke of Christ. Then God can work in them to will and to do of His good pleasure, which is often entirely contrary to the plans of the human mind. When the heavenly anointing comes to us, we shall learn the lesson of meekness and lowliness, which always brings rest to the soul.6
SD	69	4	Although you will have trials, yet these trials, well borne, only make the way more precious.7
------------------------Christ is the Heaven-Sent Teacher, March 4
SD	70	1	And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst . John 6:35.
SD	70	2	The mind is the best possession we have; but it must be trained by study, by reflection, by learning in the school of Christ, the best and truest educator the world has ever known.8
SD	70	3	"I am the Bread of life," the Author, Nourisher, and Supporter of eternal, spiritual life.... To eat His flesh and to drink His blood means to receive Him as a heaven-sent teacher. Belief in Him is essential to spiritual life. Those who feast on the Word never hunger, never thirst, never desire any higher or more exalted good.9
SD	70	4	The truest, the most exalted, knowledge is found in the Word of God. In its simplicity there is eloquence. There are those who will grasp the words of the supposed great men of the world, and love to dwell upon their phraseology as something they need to esteem and value. You will hear men exalting human beings, extolling those who are called great by this world. In doing this, they lose sight of Christ in the Word. He is not to them all and in all,--the first, the last, the best, in everything. These need to sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him whom to know aright is life eternal.10
SD	70	5	The Bible is our guide in the safe paths that lead to eternal life. God has inspired men to write that which will present the truth to us, which will attract, and which, if practised, will enable the receiver to obtain moral power to rank among the most highly educated minds. The minds of all who make the Word of God their study will enlarge. Far more than any other study, this is of a nature to increase the powers of comprehension, and endow every faculty with new vigor.... It brings us into close connection with all heaven, imparting wisdom, and knowledge, and understanding.... The gospel is adapted for spiritual food, to satisfy man's spiritual appetite. In every case it is just what man needs.11
------------------------We Receive a Faith that Works by Love, March 5
SD	71	1	For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. Galatians 5:6.
SD	71	2	When you present your petitions to the Lord, it should be in humility, without boasting of superior attainments, but with real soul hunger for the blessing of God. Christ always knows what is cherished in the heart. We must come in faith that the Lord will hear and answer our prayers; for "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Genuine faith is the faith that works by love, and purifies the soul. A living faith will be a working faith. Should we go into the garden and find that there was no sap in the plants, no freshness in the leaves, no bursting buds or blooming flowers, no signs of life in stalk or branches, we would say, "The plants are dead. Uproot them from the garden; for they are a deformity to the beds." So it is with those who profess Christianity, and have no spirituality. If there are no signs of religious vigor, if there is no doing of the commandments of the Lord, it is evident that there is no abiding in Christ, the living vine.12
SD	71	3	Faith and love are the essential, powerful, working elements of Christian character. Those who possess them are one with Christ, and are carrying forward His mission.... We are to sit at Christ's feet as continual learners, and to work with His gifts of faith and love. We shall then wear Christ's yoke, and lift His burdens, and Christ will recognize us as one with Him; in heaven it will be said, "Ye are labourers together with God." Will our youth remember that without faith it is impossible to please God? and it must be faith that works by love and purifies the soul.13
SD	71	4	We cannot overestimate the value of simple faith and unquestioning obedience. It is by following in the path of obedience in simple faith that the character obtains perfection.14
------------------------We Learn to Speak the Language of Canaan, March 6
SD	72	1	My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. Deuteronomy 32:2.
SD	72	2	We are to be witnesses for Christ; and this we shall be when we grow up daily into the full stature of men and women in Christ. It is our privilege to grow more and more like Him every day. Then we shall acquire the power to express our love for Him in higher, purer speech, and our ideas will enlarge and deepen, and our judgment become more sound and trustworthy, while our testimony will have more of life and assurance. We are not to cultivate the language of the earthy, and be so familiar with the conversation of men, that the language of Canaan will be new and unfamiliar to us. We are to learn in the school of Christ; yet it is manifest that many are satisfied with very limited experience in spiritual things, for they reveal but little knowledge of spiritual things in their prayers and testimonies. There is less good judgment manifested in matters concerning our eternal interests, than in matters concerning our earthly, temporal affairs.
SD	72	3	Christians are to be faithful students in the school of Christ, ever learning more of heaven, more of the words and will of God; more of the truth and how to use faithfully the knowledge that they have gained.15
SD	72	4	The chief requisite of language is that it be pure and kind and true--"the outward expression of an inward grace." ... The best school for this language study is the home.
SD	72	5	Kind words are as dew and gentle showers to the soul. The Scripture says of Christ that grace was poured into His lips, that He might "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." And the Lord bids us, "Let your speech be alway with grace," "that it may minister grace unto the hearers."16 When the heart is pure, rich treasure of wisdom will flow forth.17
------------------------We Learn to Beware of Vain Deceit and Flattery, March 7
SD	73	1	Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Colossians 2:8.
SD	73	2	Flattery is an art by which Satan lieth in wait to deceive and to puff up the human agent with high thoughts of himself.... Flattery has been the food upon which many of our youth have been nourished; and those who have praised and flattered have supposed that they were doing right; but they have been doing wrong. Praise, flattery, and indulgence have done more toward leading precious souls into false paths, than any other art that Satan has devised. Flattery is a part of the world's policy, but it is no part of Christ's policy. Through flattery poor human beings, full of frailty and infirmities, come to think that they are efficient and worthy, and become puffed up in their fleshly mind. They become intoxicated with the idea that they possess ability beyond what they do have, and their religious experience becomes unbalanced. Unless in the providence of God they shall be turned from these deceptions, and become converted, and learn the a-b-c of religion in the school of Christ, they will lose their souls. Many a youth has been flattered that he has ability as a natural gift; when the ability he thinks he has, can be attained only through diligent training and culture, learning the meekness and lowliness of Christ.... God permits him to be attacked by the enemy, in order that he may understand his own weakness. He is permitted to make some decided blunder, and is plunged into painful humiliation. But when he is writhing under a sense of his own weakness, he is not to be judged harshly.... This is the time when he needs a friend who ... will deal patiently and faithfully with the erring.... He is not to be lifted up by the aid of flattery.... Rather he is to be pointed to the first rounds of the ladder, and his stumbling feet are to be placed on the lowest round of the ladder of progress.... Through the aid of wise counselors, his defeat will be turned into victory.18
------------------------Affliction Teaches Us to Long for Heaven, March 8
SD	74	1	For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2 Corinthians 4:17.
SD	74	2	While the Lord has not promised His people exemption from trials, He has promised that which is far better. He has said, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." ... If you are called to go through the fiery furnace for His sake, Jesus will be by your side, even as He was with the faithful three in Babylon. Those who love their Redeemer will rejoice at every opportunity of sharing with Him humiliation and reproach. The love they bear their Lord, makes suffering for His sake sweet.
SD	74	3	In all ages Satan has persecuted the people of God. He has tortured them and put them to death; but in dying they became conquerors. They revealed in their steadfast faith a mightier One than Satan. Satan could torture and kill the body, but he could not touch the life that was hid with Christ in God. He could incarcerate in prison walls, but he could not bind the spirit. They could look beyond the gloom to the glory, saying: "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." ...
SD	74	4	The church of God, hated and persecuted by the world, are educated and disciplined in the school of Christ. They walk in narrow paths on earth; they are purified in the furnace of affliction. They follow Christ through sore conflicts; they endure self-denial, and experience bitter disappointments; but their painful experience teaches them the guilt and woe of sin, and they look upon it with abhorrence. Being partakers of Christ's sufferings, they are destined to be partakers of His glory. In holy vision the prophet saw the triumph of the people of God. He says: "I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that had gotten the victory ... stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb."19
------------------------We are to Consider Nature's Lessons, March 9
SD	75	1	And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. Matthew 6:28.
SD	75	2	Natural science is God's storehouse from which every student in the school of Christ may draw. The ways of God in natural philosophy, and the mysteries connected with His dealings with man, are a treasury from which all may draw.20
SD	75	3	The flowers of the field, in their endless variety, are always ministering to the delight of the children of men. God Himself nourishes every root, that He may express His love to all who will be softened and subdued by the works of His hands. We need no artificial display. God's love is represented by the beautiful things of His creation.21
SD	75	4	Christ sought to draw the attention of His disciples away from the artificial to the natural: "If God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith!" Why did not our heavenly Father carpet the earth with brown or gray? He chose the color that was most restful, the most acceptable to the senses. How it cheers the heart and refreshes the weary spirit to look upon the earth, clad in its garments of living green! Without this covering the air would be filled with dust, and the earth would appear like a desert. Every spire of grass, every opening bud and blooming flower is a token of God's love, and should teach us a lesson of faith and trust in Him. Christ calls our attention to their natural loveliness, and assures us that the most gorgeous array of the greatest king that ever wielded an earthly scepter was not equal to that worn by the humblest flower. You who are sighing for the artificial splendor which wealth alone can purchase, for costly paintings, furniture, and dress, listen to the voice of the divine Teacher. He points you to the flower of the field, the simple design of which cannot be equalled by human skill.22
------------------------We Enter Into Christ's Rest, March 10
SD	76	1	There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Hebrews 4:9.
SD	76	2	If you are willing to learn meekness and lowliness of heart in Christ's school, He will surely give you rest and peace. It is a terribly hard struggle to give up your own will and your own way. But this lesson learned, you will find rest and peace. Pride, selfishness, and ambition, must be overcome; your will must be swallowed up in the will of Christ. The whole life may become one constant love sacrifice, every action a manifestation, and every word an utterance of love. As the life of the vine circulates through stem and cluster, descends into the lower fibres, and reaches to the topmost leaf, so will the grace and love of Christ burn and abound in the soul, sending its virtues to every part of the being, and pervading every exercise of body and mind.23
SD	76	3	In being co-workers with Christ in the great work for which He gave His life, we shall find true rest. When we were sinners, He gave His life for us. He wants us to come to Him and learn of Him. Thus we are to find rest. He says He will give us rest. "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart." In doing this you will find in your own experience the rest that Christ gives, the rest that comes from wearing His yoke and lifting His burdens.24
SD	76	4	A form of godliness without the power is a weariness and burden; but when the whole heart is enlisted in the service of Christ, there is rest to the soul; for God causeth such to triumph daily over the powers of darkness. God helps him who commits his soul unto the Lord as unto a faithful Creator.25
SD	76	5	To learn the lessons Christ teaches is the greatest treasure students can find. Rest comes to them in the consciousness that they are trying to please the Lord.26
------------------------Dependence Upon God, March 11
SD	77	1	For without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5, last part.
SD	77	2	The first lesson to be taught ... is the lesson of dependence upon God.... As a flower of the field has its root in the soil; as it must receive air, dew, showers, and sunshine, so must we receive from God that which ministers to the life of the soul.27
SD	77	3	The presence of God is guaranteed to the Christian. This Rock of faith is the living presence of God. The weakest may depend upon it. Those who think themselves the strongest may become the weakest unless they depend on Christ as their efficiency, their worthiness. This is the Rock upon which we may build successfully. God is near in Christ's atoning sacrifice, in His intercession, His loving, tender ruling power over the church. Seated by the eternal throne, He watches them with intense interest. As long as the members of the church shall through faith draw sap and nourishment from Jesus Christ, and not from man's opinions and devisings and methods; if having a conviction of the nearness of God in Christ, they put their entire trust in Him, they will have a vital connection with Christ as the branch has connection with the parent stock. The church is established not on theories of men, on long-drawn-out plans and forms. It depends upon Christ their righteousness. It is built on faith in Christ, "and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." ...
SD	77	4	The strength of every soul is in God and not in man. Quietness and confidence is to be the strength of all who give their hearts to God. Christ has not a casual interest in us but an interest stronger than a mother for her child.... Our Saviour has purchased us by human suffering and sorrow, by insult, reproach, abuse, mockery, rejection, and death. He is watching over you, trembling child of God. He will make you secure under His protection.... Our weakness in human nature will not bar our access to the heavenly Father, for He [Christ] died to make intercession for us.28
------------------------To Center Our Thoughts in Christ, March 12
SD	78	1	And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Ephesians 4:23.
SD	78	2	The youth of today may be educated for the fulfilment of high and holy purposes.... They are pupils in the school of Christ, learning from day to day lessons of the divine Master.29
SD	78	3	It is in youth that the affections are most ardent, the memory most retentive, and the heart most susceptible to divine impressions; and it is during youth that the mental and physical powers should be set to the task in order that great improvements may be made in view of the world that now is, and that which is to come.
SD	78	4	The amount of valuable knowledge that can be acquired by young men and young women can hardly be estimated; but to reach a high standard, they must close the door to the debasing thoughts that Satan would thrust into the mind, and refuse to yield to his temptations. The youth may acquire that which gold cannot buy, by cherishing a pure, strong purpose in endeavoring to be all that God designed they should be. The mind should be trained to dwell upon right themes of thought. They should study the Scriptures, and bring into daily life the divine rules which God has laid down for their guidance. He who has grown old in the service of God may find his mind a blank in regard to the things that are happening about him, and recent transactions may soon pass from his memory; but his mind is all awake to the scenes and transactions of his childhood. O that the youth may realize how important it is to keep the mind guarded, pure and clean, from corrupting thoughts, and to preserve the soul from all debasing practices; for the purity or impurity of youth is reflected upon old age.30
SD	78	5	The truths of the Bible, received, will uplift the mind from its earthliness and debasement. If the Word of God were appreciated as it should be, both young and old would possess an inward rectitude, a strength of principle, that would enable them to resist temptation.31
------------------------To Resist Temptation, March 13
SD	79	1	Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7.
SD	79	2	Satan still comes with his temptations to the children of men. He employs every means at his command to conceal himself from view, and this is why so many are ignorant of his devices. A few days since, the question was asked me, "Do you believe in a personal devil?" "I do," was the answer. "Well," rejoined the questioner, "I do not believe that there is any such being; our evil thoughts and impulses are all the devil we know anything about!" "But," I asked, "who suggests these thoughts? Whence do they originate, if not from Satan?" ...
SD	79	3	Just as surely as we have a personal Saviour, we have also a personal adversary, cruel and cunning, who ever watches our steps, and plots to lead us astray. He can work most effectually in disguise. Wherever the opinion is entertained that he does not exist, there he is most busy. When we least suspect his presence, he is gaining advantage over us. I feel alarmed as I see so many of the youth yielding to his power while they know it not. Did they but see their danger, they would flee to Christ, the sinner's refuge.32
SD	79	4	Aim to be faithful students in the school of Christ, learning daily to conform your life to the divine Pattern. Set your faces heavenward, and press toward the mark for the prize of your high calling in Christ Jesus. Run the Christian race with patience, and rise superior to every temptation, however grievous it may be, that shall come to you. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God; and if you are desirous of taking the first upward step, you will find His hand stretched out to help you. It remains with you, individually, as to whether you walk in the light of the Sun of Righteousness, or in the darkness of error. The truth of God can be a blessing to you only as you permit its influence to purify and refine your soul.33
------------------------To Be Loving and Kind, March 14
SD	80	1	Let brotherly love continue. Hebrews 13:1.
SD	80	2	No member of the family can inclose himself within himself.... If he is filled with the love of Christ, he will manifest courtesy, kindness, tender regard for the feelings of others, and will communicate to his associates, by his acts of love, a tender, grateful, happy feeling. It will be made manifest that he is living for Jesus, and daily learning lessons at His feet, receiving His light and His peace.34
SD	80	3	The most careful cultivation of the outward proprieties of life is not sufficient to shut out all fretfulness, harsh judgment, and unbecoming speech. True refinement will never be revealed so long as self is considered as the supreme object. Love must dwell in the heart. A thoroughgoing Christian draws his motives of action from his deep heart-love for his Master. Up through the roots of his affection for Christ springs an unselfish interest in his brethren.
SD	80	4	Of all things that are sought, cherished, and cultivated, there is nothing so valuable in the sight of God as a pure heart, a disposition imbued with thankfulness and peace.
SD	80	5	If the divine harmony of truth and love exists in the heart, it will shine forth in words and actions.... The spirit of genuine benevolence must dwell in the heart. Love imparts to its possessor grace, propriety, and comeliness of deportment. Love illuminates the countenance and subdues the voice; it refines and elevates the entire man. It brings him into harmony with God, for it is a heavenly attribute.35
SD	80	6	Allow no selfishness to live in the heart or find room in the home.... When all are members of the royal family, there will be true politeness in the home life. Each member of the family will seek to make it pleasant for every other member.36
------------------------Humility, March 15
SD	81	1	But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. James 4:6.
SD	81	2	You are safe only as, in perfect submission and obedience, you connect yourselves with Christ. The yoke is easy, for Christ carries the weight. As you lift the burden of the cross, it will become light; and that cross is to you a pledge of eternal life. It is the privilege of each to follow gladly after Christ, exclaiming at every step, "Thy gentleness hath made me great." But if we would travel heavenward, we must take the Word of God as our lesson-book. In the words of inspiration we must read our lessons day by day....
SD	81	3	The humiliation of the man Christ Jesus is incomprehensible to the human mind; but His divinity and His existence before the world was formed can never be doubted by those who believe the Word of God. The apostle Paul speaks of our Mediator, the only begotten Son of God, who in a state of glory was in the form of God, the Commander of all the heavenly hosts, and who, when He clothed His divinity with humanity, took upon Him the form of a servant....
SD	81	4	In consenting to become man, Christ manifested a humility that is the marvel of the heavenly intelligences. The act of consenting to be a man would be no humiliation were it not for the fact of Christ's exalted pre-existence. We must open our understanding to realize that Christ laid aside His royal robe, His kingly crown, His high command, and clothed His divinity with humanity, that He might meet man where he was, and bring to the human family moral power to become the sons and daughters of God. To redeem man, Christ became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.37
SD	81	5	The meekness and humility that characterized the life of Christ will be made manifest in the life and character of those who "walk even as he walked."38
------------------------Meekness, March 16
SD	82	1	The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way. Psalm 25:9.
SD	82	2	You will have to learn the important lesson of what it is to be a man in the sight of God. It is to be like Jesus, meek and lowly of heart, to guard the interests of others more sacredly that you would your own.... It should be carried out in your daily life and practise, showing that you have not been playing truant or a dull scholar in the school of Christ.39
SD	82	3	Selfishness cannot exist in a heart where Christ dwells; if cherished, it will crowd out everything besides. It will lead you to follow inclination rather than duty, to make self the subject of thought, and to gratify and indulge yourself, instead of seeking to be a blessing to others. Your wants, your pleasures, will come before everything else.... True happiness is to be found, not in self-indulgence and self-pleasing, but in learning of Christ.... Those who trust to their own wisdom, and follow their own ways, go complaining at every step, because the burden which selfishness binds upon them is so heavy....
SD	82	4	Jesus loves the young, and He longs to have them possess that peace which He alone can impart. He bids them learn of Him meekness and lowliness of heart. This precious grace is rarely seen in the youth of the present day, even in those who profess to be Christians. Their own ways seem right in their eyes. In accepting the name of Christ, they do not accept His character, ... therefore they know nothing of the joy and peace to be found in His service.40
SD	82	5	The meekness of Christ, manifested in the home, will make the inmates happy; it provokes no quarrel, gives back no angry answer, but soothes the irritated temper, and diffuses a gentleness that is felt by all within its charmed circle. Wherever cherished, it makes the families of earth a part of the one great family above.41
------------------------Thoughtfulness, March 17
SD	83	1	Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. Colossians 3:12.
SD	83	2	Look to Jesus as your guide and pattern.... Study how you can be like Him, in thoughtfulness for others, in meekness and humility. Thus may you "grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ"; you may reflect His image, and be accepted of Him as His own, at His coming.42
SD	83	3	When Jesus is comprehended by faith, and brought into the inner sanctuary of the soul, the Holy Spirit will mold and fashion the character after the likeness of Christ. Lessons will then be daily learned in the school of Christ. The character of the tree will be known by its fruits. "By their fruits ye shall know them." The Christian will shine as a light amid the moral darkness of the world. He will be tender of heart, and considerate of the feelings of others. The Word of God instructs us to be "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves," and it is the duty of every Christian to bring himself under discipline to the rules of the Bible, that he may be "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed." The work coming from the hands of those who do this, will be as lasting as eternity. It will not be mingled with a shred of selfishness, and it will not be loose, careless work.43
SD	83	4	Tender affections should ever be cherished between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters. Every hasty word should be checked, and there should not be even the appearance of the lack of love one for another. It is the duty of everyone in the family to be pleasant, to speak kindly.
SD	83	5	Cultivate tenderness, affection, and love that have expression in little courtesies, in speech, in thoughtful attentions.44
SD	83	6	It is the inward adorning, the graces of the Spirit, the kind word, the thoughtful consideration for others that God values.45
------------------------Self-Control, March 18
SD	84	1	And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men. Acts 24:16.
SD	84	2	Strength of character consists of two things--power of will and power of self-control. Many youth mistake strong, uncontrolled passion for strength of character; but the truth is that he who is mastered by his passions is a weak man. The real greatness and nobility of the man is measured by his powers to subdue his feelings, not by the power of his feelings to subdue him.46
SD	84	3	Never should we lose control of ourselves. Let us ever keep before us the perfect Pattern. It is a sin to speak impatiently and fretfully or to feel angry--even though we do not speak. We are to walk worthy, giving a right representation of Christ. The speaking of an angry word is like flint striking flint: it at once kindles wrathful feelings.
SD	84	4	Never be like a chestnut bur. In the home do not allow yourself to use harsh, rasping words. You should invite the heavenly Guest to come into your home, at the same time making it possible for Him and the heavenly angels to abide with you. You should receive the righteousness of Christ, the sanctification of the Spirit of God, the beauty of holiness, that you may reveal to those around you the Light of life....
SD	84	5	Said a celebrated emperor when on his dying bed, "Among all my conquests there is but one which affords me any consolation now, and that is the conquest I have gained over my own turbulent temper." Alexander and Caesar found it easier to subdue a world than to subdue themselves. After conquering nation after nation, they fell--one of them "the victim of intemperance, the other of mad ambition."47
SD	84	6	The highest evidence of nobility in a Christian is self-control.48
SD	84	7	In the Lord's work you are constantly in a school where you may learn lessons of self-control, of sanctified dignity, of gentlemanly manners and behavior.49
------------------------Purity, March 19
SD	85	1	He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands. Job 22:30.
SD	85	2	He who deservedly bears the name of Christian, which signifies Christlike, will be filled with piety and purity, with love and reverence for God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent; and his spirit, his words, his actions, will all bear the impress of Heaven. Others will see that he has been with Jesus and learned of Him, His prayers will be simple and fervent, and will ascend to God on the wings of faith. Learning in the school of Christ, he will have a humble opinion of himself; and though he may be poor in this world's goods, he may be rich in the graces of God's Spirit, and may bless and enrich others by his spirit and influence, because Christ is in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. He will shed about him an atmosphere of hope and courage and strength, and will put to shame those who are worldly, selfish, formal professors, who have a name to live and are dead.50
SD	85	3	The precious faith inspired of God imparts strength and nobility of character. As His goodness, His mercy, and His love are dwelt upon, clearer and still clearer will be the perception of truth; higher, holier, the desire for purity of heart and clearness of thought. The soul dwelling in the pure atmosphere of holy thought is transformed by intercourse with God through the study of His Word. Truth is so large, so far-reaching, so deep, so broad, that self is lost sight of. The heart is softened, and subdued into humility, kindness, and love.... Being pure-minded, they will become strong-minded.51
SD	85	4	Purity of heart and loveliness of spirit are more precious than gold, both for time and for eternity. Only the pure in heart shall see God.52
------------------------Simplicity, March 20
SD	86	1	But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3.
SD	86	2	He who will observe simplicity in all his habits, restricting the appetite and controlling the passions, may preserve his mental powers strong, active, and vigorous, quick to perceive everything which demands thought or action, keen to discriminate between the holy and the unholy, and ready to engage in every enterprise for the glory of God and the benefit of humanity.53
SD	86	3	The little ones should be educated in childlike simplicity. They should be trained to be content with the small, helpful duties and the pleasures and experiences natural to their years. Childhood answers to the blade in the parable, and the blade has a beauty peculiarly its own. Children should not be forced into a precocious maturity, but as long as possible should retain the freshness and grace of their early years. The more quiet and simple the life of the child--the more free from artificial excitement and the more in harmony with nature--the more favorable it is to physical and mental vigor and to spiritual strength.
SD	86	4	Parents should by their example encourage the formation of habits of simplicity, and draw their children away from an artificial to a natural life. Those children are most attractive who are natural and unaffected.54
SD	86	5	The greatest Teacher the world ever knew was admired for His simplicity; for He presented divine truth in such a way that even children could comprehend His words, and at the same time He drew the attention of the best educated and deepest thinkers of the world. By the use of familiar illustrations He made truth plain to the minds of the common people. In simplicity He sowed the seed of the gospel truth in the minds and hearts of His hearers, and it sprang up and yielded a harvest unto everlasting life.55
SD	86	6	His [Christ's] glory was in His simplicity.56
------------------------Steadfastness, March 21
SD	87	1	For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear. Job 11:15.
SD	87	2	It is right for the youth to feel that they must reach the highest development of their mental powers. We would not restrict the education to which God has set no limit. But our attainments avail nothing if not put to use for the honor of God and the good of humanity....
SD	87	3	What we need is knowledge that will strengthen mind and soul, that will make us better men and women. Heart education is of far more importance than mere book-learning. It is well, even essential, to have a knowledge of the world in which we live; but if we leave eternity out of our reckoning, we shall make a failure from which we can never recover.... If the youth understood their own weakness, they would find in God their strength.57
SD	87	4	There is a science of Christianity to be mastered,--a science as much deeper, broader, higher than any human science as the heavens are higher than the earth. The mind is to be disciplined, educated, trained; for we are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination. Hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil must be overcome. Often the education and training of a lifetime must be discarded, that one may become a learner in the school of Christ. Our hearts must be educated to become steadfast in God. We are to form habits of thought that will enable us to resist temptation. We must learn to look upward. The principles of the Word of God,--principles that are as high as heaven, and that compass eternity,--we are to understand in their bearing upon our daily life. Every act, every word, every thought, is to be in accord with these principles. All must be brought into harmony with, and subject to, Christ.58
------------------------Patience, March 22
SD	88	1	For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Hebrews 10:36.
SD	88	2	The lives of some are without peace or gladness because they never get out of the range of self. They are ever reaching out for sympathy from others. If they would go to work to see how helpful they could be, and would speak words of love and courage, their souls, now dry and sorrowful, would become like a watered garden.
SD	88	3	You must learn in the school of Christ precious lessons of patience. Do not become discouraged, but keep at the work in all humility. It will drive you to Jesus; it will lead you to study the Pattern. You want to work as Jesus worked.59
SD	88	4	Trials will come, it is true, even to those who are fully consecrated. The patience of the most patient will be severely tested.... Often silence is the severest rebuke that could be given to the one who has sinned with his lips.
SD	88	5	When they [the children and youth] lose self-control and speak words that are passionate, an attitude of silence is often the best course to pursue, not taking up a line of reproof or argument or condemnation. Repentance will come very soon. The silence that is golden will often do more than all the words that can be uttered.
SD	88	6	When others are impatient, fretful, and complaining because self is not subdued, begin to sing some of the songs of Zion. While Christ was working at the carpenter's bench, others would sometimes surround Him, trying to cause Him to be impatient; but He would begin singing some of the beautiful psalms, and before they realized what they were doing, they had joined with Him in singing, influenced, as it were, by the power of the Holy Spirit which was there.60
SD	88	7	Christ's perfect example and the grace of God are given him [man] to enable him to train his sons and daughters to be sons and daughters of God.61
------------------------Self-denial, March 23
SD	89	1	Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. Mark 10:28.
SD	89	2	All have daily lessons to learn in the school of Christ, and a daily experience to gain, that they may understand their duty as His children.
SD	89	3	Many an honest, well-meaning person makes no advancement in the Christian life because he does not see the necessity of constantly learning more of Jesus. When first converted, he rejoices that he has taken his position on the Lord's side. A year later, he bears the same testimony. There is no evidence of spiritual growth; he is still weak as a child.... The first experience of the new convert is happy and joyous; but trials come; the perplexities of life are to be met; sinful traits of character that have not been controlled, strive for the mastery, and too frequently obtain it. Then come a loss of confidence and peace, neglect of prayer and the reading of the Scriptures. For want of the knowledge and experience which they should have, many are overcome by Satan. They do not know how to discern his temptations, or to resist them....
SD	89	4	Have faith in Jesus as your helper. Remember that you are not to choose your own work, or follow your own ways, but to look to Jesus as your guide and pattern. Keep His example before you, and constantly ask what will be pleasing in His sight. Learn from Him lessons of self-denial and self-sacrifice.62
SD	89	5	Watch every moment, keeping your mind stayed upon God, instead of having it upon dress, and suffering pride to dwell in your heart. Seek to deny yourself; be holy; let your mind dwell upon heaven, and let your conversation be there also.... Those who follow Christ will choose the suffering, self-denying part, and will have His approbation here, and ... glory, immortality and eternal life hereafter.63
------------------------Forgiveness, March 24
SD	90	1	Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Colossians 3:13.
SD	90	2	The religion of Jesus Christ means progress; it means to be ever reaching upward to a holier and higher standard. The Christian whose heart has been touched with the beauty of the Saviour's character, is to put into practice that which he learns in the school of Christ. We must be apt pupils in the school of Christ, readily learning that which He teaches us from day to day.64
SD	90	3	We can never attain perfection of character if we do not hear the voice of God and obey His counsel. This instruction does not apply simply to those who have had no trials to meet which would create dislike to their brethren, but it applies to those who have been injured, who have suffered from financial wrong, from reproach and criticism, from misapprehension and misjudgment. These must not allow hatred to enter the heart, or permit unkind feelings to arise when they look upon those who have injured them....
SD	90	4	Like Christ we shall forgive our enemies, and watch for opportunities to show those who have harmed us that we love their souls, and if we could, would do them good.... If those who have injured us, still continue in their course of wrong-doing ... we must make efforts to be reconciled to our brethren, following the Bible plan, as Christ Himself has directed. If our brethren refuse to be reconciled, then do not talk about them, nor injure their influence, but leave them in the hands of a just God, who judgeth all men righteously.... The youth may profess to have great love for the cause of God; but while they are unreconciled to their companions, they are unreconciled to God. It is these ... selfish feelings that are cherished, that keep the blessing of God out of our hearts and homes. Let the love of Christ flow into the heart and transform the character, or we shall not be children of God.65
------------------------Peter's Sifting Resulted in His Conversion, March 25
SD	91	1	And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Luke 22:31, 32.
SD	91	2	The reason so many of Christ's professed disciples fall into grievous temptation is that they have not a correct knowledge of themselves. Here is where Peter was so thoroughly sifted by the enemy. If we could understand our own weakness, we should see so much to do for ourselves that we would humble our hearts under the mighty hand of God. Hanging our helpless souls upon Christ, we would supplement our ignorance with His wisdom, our weakness with His strength, our frailty with His enduring might. Peter fell because he did not know his own frailty. He thought himself strong....
SD	91	3	Had Peter walked humbly with God, hiding self in Christ; had he earnestly looked for divine help; had he been less self-confident; had he received the Lord's instruction and practised it, he would have been watching unto prayer.... Had he closely examined himself, the Lord would have given him divine help and there would have been no need of Satan's sifting.... There is no power in the whole satanic force that can disable the soul that trusts, in simple confidence, in the wisdom that comes from God.66
SD	91	4	The watch-care of Christ for Peter was the cause of his restoration. Satan could do nothing against the all-powerful intercession of Christ. And the prayer that Christ offered for Peter He offers in behalf of all who are humble and contrite in heart.... Peter sinned against light and knowledge, and against great and exalted privileges. It was self-confidence that caused him to fail, and it is this same evil that is now working in human hearts. It may be our purpose to be right and to do right, but we shall most surely err unless we are constant learners in the school of Christ. Our only safety is in walking humbly with God.67
------------------------Lazarus Raised to Testify to God's Glory, March 26
SD	92	1	When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. John 11:4.
SD	92	2	Christ's two days' delay after hearing that Lazarus was sick was not a neglect or a denial on His part.... This should be an encouragement to us.... We are to rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. The answer to our prayers may not come as quickly as we desire, and it may not be just what we have asked; but He who knows what is for the highest good of His children will bestow a much greater good than we have asked, if we do not become faithless and discouraged.68
SD	92	3	Christ had not only the loved ones at Bethany to think of; He had the training of His disciples to consider. They were to be His representatives to the world, that the Father's blessing might include all. For their sake He permitted Lazarus to die. Had He restored him from illness to health, the miracle that is the most positive evidence of His divine character would not have been performed.
SD	92	4	Had Christ been in the sick-room, Lazarus would not have died; for Satan would have had no power over him. In the presence of the Lifegiver, death could not have aimed his dart at Lazarus.... He permitted Lazarus to pass under the dominion of death, and the suffering sisters saw their brother laid in the grave. Christ knew that as they looked on the face of their dead brother, their faith in their Redeemer would be severely tried. Thus He was pruning the branches, that they might bring forth more fruit. He knew that because of the struggle through which they were now passing, their faith would shine forth with far greater power.69
SD	92	5	To all who are reaching out to feel the guiding hand of God, the moment of greatest discouragement is the time when divine help is nearest.... From every temptation and every trial He will bring them forth with firmer faith and a richer experience.70
------------------------Elisha's Faithfulness Rewarded, March 27
SD	93	1	So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. 1 Kings 19:19.
SD	93	2	The prophet Elijah was about to close his earthly labors. Another was to be called to carry forward the work for that time. In his course of travel, Elijah was directed northward.... Wherever Elijah looked, the land he saw was owned by one man,--a man who had not bowed the knee to Baal, whose heart had remained undivided in the service of God.... The owner of the land was Shaphat....
SD	93	3	The attention of Elijah was attracted to Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who with the servants was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. He was educator, director, and worker. Elisha did not live in the thickly populated cities. His father was a tiller of the soil, a farmer. Far from city and court dissipation, Elisha had received his education. He had been trained in habits of simplicity, of obedience to his parents and to God.... But though of a meek and quiet spirit, Elisha had no changeable character. Integrity and fidelity and the love and fear of God were his. He had the characteristics of a ruler, but with it all was the meekness of one who would serve. His mind had been exercised in the little things, to be faithful in whatsoever he should do; so that if God should call him to act more directly for Him, he would be prepared to hear His voice.
SD	93	4	The surroundings of Elisha's home were those of wealth; but he realized that in order to obtain an all-round education, he must be a constant worker in any work that needed to be done. He had not consented to be in any respect less informed than his father's servants. He had learned how to serve first, that he might know how to lead, instruct, and command.71
SD	93	5	Elisha stood in Elijah's place. And he who had been faithful in that which was least, proved himself faithful also in much.72
------------------------Moses Endured as Seeing Him Who is Invisible, March 28
SD	94	1	By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Hebrews 11:27.
SD	94	2	For the honor of God and the deliverance of His downtrodden people, Moses sacrificed the honors of Egypt. Then, in a special sense, God undertook his training.... He had yet to learn the lesson of dependence upon divine power. He had mistaken God's purpose. It was his hope to deliver Israel by force of arms. For this he risked all, and failed. In defeat and disappointment he became a fugitive and exile in a strange land.... Apparently cut off forever from his life's mission, he was receiving the discipline essential for its fulfilment.... He must obtain the experience that would make him a faithful, long-suffering shepherd to Israel.... In the stern simplicity of the wilderness ... Moses gained that which went with him throughout the years of his toilsome and care-burdened life,--a sense of the personal presence of the Divine One.... When misunderstood and misrepresented, when called to bear reproach and insult, to face danger and death, he was able to endure "as seeing him who is invisible."73
SD	94	3	Moses stands forth superior in wisdom and integrity to all the sovereigns and statesmen of earth.... He was generous, noble, well-balanced; he was not defective, and his qualities were not merely half developed. He could successfully exhort his fellow-men, because his life itself was a living representation of what man can become and accomplish with God as his helper.... He spoke from the heart and it reached the heart. He was accomplished in knowledge and yet simple as a child in the manifestation of his deep sympathies. Endowed with a remarkable instinct, he could judge instantly of the needs of all who surrounded him.... Of the man who is noted for his meekness, Christ says, He can be trusted. Through him I can reveal Myself to the world. He will not weave into the web any threads of selfishness.74
------------------------Though Severely Tried Job Remained Perfect and Upright, March 29
SD	95	1	There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. Job 1:1.
SD	95	2	Unselfishness, the principle of God's kingdom, is the principle that Satan hates; its very existence he denies. From the beginning of the great controversy he has endeavored to prove God's principles of action to be selfish, and he deals in the same way with all who serve God. To disprove Satan's claim is the work of Christ and of all who bear His name....
SD	95	3	Very early in the history of the world is given the life-record of one over whom this controversy of Satan's was waged. Of Job, the patriarch of Uz, the testimony of the Searcher of hearts was, "There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil."
SD	95	4	Against this man, Satan brought scornful charge: "Doth Job fear God for naught? Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?" ...
SD	95	5	The Lord said unto Satan, "All that he hath is in thy power." "Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life."
SD	95	6	Thus permitted, Satan swept away all that Job possessed,--flocks and herds, men-servants and maidens, sons and daughters; and he "smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown."
SD	95	7	Still another element of bitterness was added to his cup. His friends, seeing in adversity but the retribution of sin, pressed on his bruised and burdened spirit their accusations of wrong-doing....
SD	95	8	"When he hath tried me," he said, "I shall come forth as gold." So it came to pass. By his patient endurance he vindicated his own character, and thus the character of Him whose representative he was.... The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.... So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.75
------------------------Paul Blinded so He Would See Christ, March 30
SD	96	1	And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. Acts 9:17.
SD	96	2	In the military schools of Egypt, Moses was taught the law of force, and so strong a hold did this teaching have upon his character that it required forty years ... to fit him for leadership of Israel by the law of love. The same lesson Paul had to learn.
SD	96	3	At the gate of Damascus the vision of the Crucified One changed the whole current of his life. The persecutor became a disciple, the teacher a learner. The days of darkness spent in solitude at Damascus were as years in his experience. The Old Testament Scriptures stored in his memory were his study, and Christ his teacher. To him also nature's solitudes became a school. To the desert of Arabia he went, there to study the Scriptures and to learn of God. He emptied his soul of the prejudices and traditions that had shaped his life, and received instruction from the Source of truth.
SD	96	4	His after-life was inspired by the one principle of self-sacrifice, the ministry of love. "I am debtor," he said, "both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise." ...
SD	96	5	While he possessed high intellectual endowments, the life of Paul revealed the power of a rarer wisdom. Principles of deepest import, principles concerning which the greatest minds of his time were ignorant, are unfolded in his teachings and exemplified in his life. He had that greatest of all wisdom, which gives quickness of insight and sympathy of heart, which brings man in touch with men, and enables him to arouse their better nature and inspire them to a higher life....
SD	96	6	"Being reviled," he said, "we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat"; "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."76
------------------------Moab a Failure because He Refused to Change, March 31
SD	97	1	Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed. Jeremiah 48:11.
SD	97	2	A man may refuse to hear the counsels and admonitions of God. He may choose to take the regulating of his conduct into his own hands.... Like Moab, he refuses to be changed.... He refuses to correct his defective traits of character, although the Lord has plainly pointed out his work, his privileges, his opportunities, and the advancement to be made. It is too much trouble to break up his old ways, and transform his ideas and methods. "His taste remained in him." He clings to his defects.77
SD	97	3	There are many who are not satisfied with the work that God has given them. They are not satisfied to serve Him pleasantly in the place that He has marked out for them, or to do uncomplainingly the work that He has placed in their hands. It is right for us to be dissatisfied with the way in which we perform duty, but we are not to be dissatisfied with the duty itself, because ... in His providence God places before human beings service that will be as medicine for their diseased minds.... Some He places where relaxed discipline and over-indulgence will not become their snare, where they are taught to appreciate the value of time, and to make the best and wisest use of it.
SD	97	4	There are some who desire to be a ruling power, and who need the sanctification of submission.... They are being qualified to fill places where their disciplined ability will make them of the greatest service. Some God trains by bringing to them disappointment and apparent failure. It is His purpose that they shall learn to master difficulty....
SD	97	5	Many are ignorant of how to work for God, not because they need to be ignorant, but because they are not willing to submit to His training process. Moab is spoken of as a failure because, the Word declares, "he hath been at ease from his youth."78
------------------------Our Heart the Most Precious Offering, April 1
SD	98	1	My son [my daughter], give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. Proverbs 23:26.
SD	98	2	Give to God the most precious offering that it is possible for you to make; give Him your heart. He speaks to you saying, "My son, My daughter, give Me thine heart. Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; for I will cleanse you with My own blood. I will make you members of My family--children of the heavenly King. Take My forgiveness, My peace which I freely give you. I will clothe you with My own righteousness,--the wedding garment,--and make you fit for the marriage supper of the Lamb. When clothed in My righteousness, through prayer, through watchfulness, through diligent study of My Word, you will be able to reach a high standard. You will understand the truth, and your character will be molded by a divine influence.1
SD	98	3	The heart in which Jesus makes His abode will be quickened, purified, guided, and ruled by the Holy Spirit, and the human agent will make strenuous efforts to bring his character into harmony with God. He will avoid everything that is contrary to the revealed will and mind of God.2
SD	98	4	Such a life ... will be full of comfort, full of satisfaction, because you are bringing heaven into your life, peace into your soul.... I would that all the young could understand how precious is the offering of a youthful heart to God. How lovingly the angels guard the steps of God-fearing, God-loving youth. Jesus knows them by name, and their example is helping other youth to do right. The youth who has hidden within the heart and mind a store of God's words of caution and encouragement, of His precious pearls of promise, from which he can draw at any time, will be a living channel of light.3
------------------------Diligent Heart Keeping Essential to Growth in Grace, April 2
SD	99	1	Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23.
SD	99	2	Diligent heart-keeping is essential to a healthy growth in grace. The heart in its natural state is a habitation for unholy thoughts and sinful passions. When brought into subjection to Christ, it must be cleansed by the Spirit from all defilement. This can not be done without the consent of the individual.
SD	99	3	When the soul has been cleansed, it is the duty of the Christian to keep it undefiled. Many seem to think that the religion of Christ does not call for the abandonment of daily sins, the breaking loose from habits which have held the soul in bondage. They renounce some things condemned by the conscience, but they fail to represent Christ in the daily life. They do not bring Christlikeness into the home. They do not show a thoughtful care in their choice of words. Too often, fretful, impatient words are spoken, words which stir the worst passions of the human heart. Such ones need the abiding presence of Christ in the soul. Only in His strength can they keep guard over the words and actions. In the work of heart-keeping we must be instant in prayer, unwearied in petitioning the throne of grace for assistance. Those who take the name of Christian should come to God in earnestness and humility, pleading for help. The Saviour has told us to pray without ceasing. The Christian can not always be in the position of prayer, but his thoughts and desires can always be upward. Our self-confidence would vanish, did we talk less and pray more.4
SD	99	4	The affections should center upon God. Contemplate His greatness, His mercy and excellences. Let His goodness and love and perfection of character captivate your heart.5
SD	99	5	The Saviour of the world loves to have children and youth give their hearts to Him.6
------------------------God Promises Us a New Heart of Flesh, April 3
SD	100	1	A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26.
SD	100	2	The youth especially stumble over this phrase, "A new heart." They do not know what it means. They look for a special change to take place in their feelings. This they term conversion. Over this error thousands have stumbled to ruin, not understanding the expression, "Ye must be born again." ... When Jesus speaks of the new heart, He means the mind, the life, the whole being. To have a change of heart is to withdraw the affections from the world, and fasten them upon Christ. To have a new heart is to have a new mind, new purposes, new motives. What is the sign of a new heart?--a changed life. There is a daily, hourly dying to selfishness and pride.7
SD	100	3	Then a spirit of kindness will be manifested, not by fits and starts, but continually. There will be a decided change in attitude, in deportment, in words and actions toward all with whom you are in any way connected. You will not magnify their infirmities, you will not place them in an unfavorable light. You will work in Christ's lines....
SD	100	4	Instead of exposing and publishing one's faults to others, you will put forth the most patient efforts to heal and bind up.... A harsh-spirited man is unrefined, coarse; he is not spiritual; he has not a heart of flesh, but a heart as unimpressible as a stone. His only help is to fall on the Rock, and be broken. The Lord will place all such in the crucible, and try them in fire, as gold is tried. When He can see His own image reflected in them He will remove them.... The religion of Christ is to take possession of the whole being, and give force and power to all our faculties, renovating, cleansing, and refining. It manifests itself without parade, and high-sounding words, but is shown in an upright and unselfish life.8
SD	100	5	God's power alone can change a heart of stone to a heart of flesh.9
------------------------The Renewed Heart Loves as Christ Loved, April 4
SD	101	1	A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. John 13:34.
SD	101	2	Jesus says, "Love one another as I have loved you." Love is not simply an impulse, a transitory emotion, dependent upon circumstances; it is a living principle, a permanent power. The soul is fed by the streams of pure love that flow from the heart of Christ, as a well-spring that never fails. O, how is the heart quickened, how are its motives ennobled, its affections deepened, by this communion! Under the education and discipline of the Holy Spirit, the children of God love one another, truly, sincerely, unaffectedly,--"without partiality, and without hypocrisy." And this because the heart is in love with Jesus. Our affection for one another springs from our common relation to God. We are one family, we love one another as He loved us. When compared with this true, sanctified, disciplined affection, the shallow courtesy of the world, the meaningless expression of effusive friendship, are as chaff to the wheat.10
SD	101	3	To love as Christ loved means to manifest unselfishness at all times and in all places, by kind words and pleasant looks.... Genuine love is a precious attribute of heavenly origin, which increases its fragrance in proportion as it is dispensed to others....
SD	101	4	Christ's love is deep and earnest, flowing like an irrepressible stream to all who will accept it. There is no selfishness in His love. If this heaven-born love is an abiding principle in the heart, it will make itself known, not only to those we hold most dear in sacred relationship, but to all with whom we come in contact. It will lead us to bestow little acts of attention, to make concessions, to perform deeds of kindness, to speak tender, true, encouraging words. It will lead us to sympathize with those whose hearts hunger for sympathy.11
------------------------The Renewed Heart Bringeth Forth Good Things, April 5
SD	102	1	A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. Matthew 12:35.
SD	102	2	True sanctification unites believers to Christ and to one another in bonds of tender sympathy. This union causes to flow continually into the heart rich currents of Christlike love, which flows forth again in love for one another.
SD	102	3	The qualities which it is essential for all to possess are those which marked the completeness of Christ's character,--His love, His patience, His unselfishness, and His goodness. These attributes are gained by doing kindly actions with a kindly heart.... Christians love those around them as precious souls for whom Christ has died. There is no such thing as a loveless Christian; for "God is love." ... "This is my commandment, That ye love one another as I have loved you." This is the fruit that is to be given back to God.12
SD	102	4	The Lord will help every one of us where we need help the most in the grand work of overcoming and conquering self. Let the law of kindness be upon your lips and the oil of grace in your heart. This will produce wonderful results. You will be tender, sympathetic, courteous. You need all these graces. The Holy Spirit must be received and brought into your character; then it will be as holy fire, giving forth incense which will rise up to God, not from lips that condemn, but as a healer of the souls of men. Your countenance will express the image of the divine.... God requires every soul in His service to kindle their censers from the coals of sacred fire. The common, severe, harsh words that come from your lips so readily must be withheld, and the Spirit of God speak through the human agent. By beholding the character of Christ you will become changed into His likeness. The grace of Christ alone can change your heart and then you will reflect the image of the Lord Jesus. God calls upon us to be like Him,--pure, holy, and undefiled. We are to bear the divine image.13
------------------------The Renewed Heart is a Pure Heart, April 6
SD	103	1	Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8.
SD	103	2	The wisdom that is from above is "first pure." Into the city of God there will enter nothing that defiles. All who are to be dwellers there, will here have become pure in heart. In one who is learning of Jesus, there will be manifest a growing distaste for careless manners, unseemly language, and coarse thought. When Christ abides in the heart, there will be purity and refinement of thought and manner.
SD	103	3	But the words of Jesus, "Blessed are the pure in heart," have a deeper meaning,--not merely pure in the sense in which the world understands purity, free from that which is sensual, pure from lust, but true in the hidden purposes and motives of the soul, free from pride and self-seeking, humble, unselfish, childlike....
SD	103	4	The pure in heart see God in a new and endearing relation, as their Redeemer; and while they discern the purity and loveliness of His character, they long to reflect His image. They see Him as a Father longing to embrace a repenting son, and their hearts are filled with joy....
SD	103	5	The pure in heart discern the Creator in the works of His mighty hand, in the things of beauty that comprise the universe. In His written Word they read in clearer lines the revelation of His mercy, His goodness, and His grace. The truths that are hidden from the wise and prudent, are revealed to babes. The beauty and preciousness of truth ... are constantly unfolding to those who have a trusting, childlike desire to know and to do the will of God....
SD	103	6	The pure in heart live as in the visible presence of God during the time He apportions them in this world. And they will also see Him face to face in the future, immortal state, as did Adam when he walked and talked with God in Eden. "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face."14
------------------------God's Peace Keeps the New Heart, April 7
SD	104	1	And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7.
SD	104	2	When we receive Christ as an abiding guest in the soul, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The Saviour's life on earth, though lived in the midst of conflict, was a life of peace. While angry enemies were constantly pursuing Him, He said, "He that sent me is with me; the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." No storm of human or satanic wrath could disturb the calm of that perfect communion with God. And He says to us: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest." Bear with Me the yoke of service for the glory of God and the uplifting of humanity, and you will find the yoke easy, and the burden light....
SD	104	3	Happiness drawn from earthly sources is as changeable as varying circumstances can make it; but the peace of Christ is a constant and abiding peace. It does not depend upon any circumstances in life, on the amount of worldly goods, or the number of earthly friends. Christ is the fountain of living water, and happiness drawn from Him can never fail.15
SD	104	4	Every man's experience testifies to the truth of the words of Scripture, "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest.... There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked," Sin has destroyed our peace. While self is unsubdued, we can find no rest. The masterful passions of the heart no human power can control. We are as helpless here as were the disciples to quiet the raging storm. But He who spoke peace to the billows of Galilee, has spoken the word of peace for every soul. However fierce the tempest, those who turn to Jesus ... will find deliverance. His grace ... quiets the strife of human passion, and in His love the heart is at rest.16
------------------------Transformed by the Renewing of the Mind, April 8
SD	105	1	And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2.
SD	105	2	Will men and women consider how God regards the creatures He has made? He formed man's mind. We do not think one noble thought that does not come from Him. He knows all the mysterious workings of the human mind; for did He not make it? God sees that sin has debased and degraded man, but He looks upon him with pity and compassion; for He sees that Satan has him in his power.17
SD	105	3	All true reformation begins with soul-cleansing. It is by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the mind through the power of the Holy Spirit, that a change is wrought in the life.18
SD	105	4	By beholding Christ we become changed. If the mind dwells upon temporal things constantly, these things become all-absorbing, affecting the character, so that God's glory is lost sight of and forgotten. The opportunities that are within reach for them to become conversant with heavenly things, are overlooked. Spiritual life dies....
SD	105	5	Make God your entire dependence. When you do otherwise, then it is time for a halt to be called. Stop right where you are, and change the order of things.... In sincerity, in soul-hunger, cry after God. Wrestle with the heavenly agencies until you have the victory. Put your whole being into the Lord's hands soul, body, and spirit, and resolve to be His loving, consecrated agency, moved by His will, controlled by His mind, infused by His Spirit ... then you will see heavenly things clearly.19
SD	105	6	If we would permit our minds to dwell more upon Christ and the heavenly world, we should find a powerful stimulus and support in fighting the battles of the Lord. Pride and love of the world will lose their power as we contemplate the glories of that better land so soon to be our home. Beside the loveliness of Christ, all earthly attractions will seem of little worth.20
------------------------Mind Increases Strength by Continual Effort, April 9
SD	106	1	A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength. Proverbs 24:5.
SD	106	2	Put your highest power into your effort. Call to your aid the most powerful motives. You are learning. Endeavor to go to the bottom of everything you set your hand to. Never aim lower than to become competent in the matters which occupy you. Do not allow yourself to fall into the habit of being superficial and neglectful in your duties and studies; for your habits will strengthen and you will become incapable of anything better. The mind naturally learns to be satisfied with that which requires little care and effort, and to be content with something cheap and inferior. There are, young men and young women, depths of knowledge which you have never fathomed, and you are satisfied and proud of your superficial attainments. If you knew much more than you do now, you would be convinced that you know very little.
SD	106	3	God demands of you vigorous and earnest intellectual efforts, and with every determined effort, your powers will strengthen. Your work will then always be agreeable, because you will know that you are progressing. You can either become accustomed to slow, uncertain, irresolute movements, so much so that the work of your life will not be one-half what it could be; or, your eyes fixed upon God, and your soul strengthened by prayer, you can overcome a disgraceful slowness and a dislike for work, and train your mind to think rapidly and to put forth strong efforts at the proper time.21
SD	106	4	God has given the human mind great power, power to show that the Creator has endowed man with ability to do a great work against the enemy of all righteousness, power to show what victories may be gained in the conflict against evil. To those who fulfill God's purpose for them will be spoken the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things."22
------------------------Every Thought Obedient to Christ, April 10
SD	107	1	Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5.
SD	107	2	The Lord purifies the heart very much as we air a room. We do not close the doors and windows, and throw in some purifying substance; but we open the doors and throw wide the windows, and let heaven's purifying atmosphere flow in.... The windows of impulse, of feeling must be opened up toward heaven, and the dust of selfishness and earthliness must be expelled. The grace of God must sweep through the chambers of the mind, the imagination must have heavenly themes for contemplation, and every element of the nature must be purified and vitalized by the Spirit of God.23
SD	107	3	The thoughts must be bound about, restricted, withdrawn from branching out and contemplating things that will only weaken and defile the soul. The thoughts must be pure, the meditations of the heart must be clean.... The noble powers of the mind have been given to us by the Lord, that we may employ them in contemplating heavenly things. God has made abundant provision that the soul may make continual progression in the divine life....
SD	107	4	We give our time and thought to the trivial and commonplace things of the world, and neglect the great interests that pertain to eternal life. The noble powers of the mind are dwarfed and enfeebled by lack of exercise on themes that are worthy of their concentration. "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." ...As we meditate upon the perfections of our divine Model, we shall desire to become wholly transformed and renewed in the image of His purity. We are called to come out and be separate from the world that we may be the sons and daughters of the Most High.24
------------------------The Mind Must Be Fed With Pure Food, April 11
SD	108	1	Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Proverbs 30:5.
SD	108	2	There are many who are easily amused with story books. The mind is filled with a cheap kind of food for meditation, so that it becomes powerless to search and comprehend the very things which concern eternal interests. The Lord enjoins upon children and youth to search for truth as for hidden treasure, and to be attracted and fascinated by that which unites the human with the divine.25
SD	108	3	The mind must be fed with pure food if the heart be pure.... The Bible is the standard for the young who would be loyal to the King of heaven. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."26
SD	108	4	It is impossible for the youth to possess a healthy tone of mind, and correct religious principles, unless they enjoy the perusal of the Word of God. This book contains the most interesting history, points out the way of salvation through Christ, and is their guide to a higher, and better life.27
SD	108	5	The Bible gives the true seeker an advanced mental discipline, and he comes from contemplation of divine things with his faculties enriched; self is humbled, while God and His revealed truth are exalted.... The Bible contains just that quality of food that the Christian needs, in order that he may grow strong in spirit and intellect.... Through the study of the Bible, converse is held with patriarchs and prophets. The truth is clothed in elevated language, which exerts a fascinating power over the mind; the thought is lifted up from the things of earth, and brought to contemplate the glory of the future immortal life.28
SD	108	6	Let the thought, the aptitude, the keen exercise of brain power, be given to the study of the thoughts of God.29
------------------------We are to Take Time to Think About God, April 12
SD	109	1	Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10.
SD	109	2	Christians should ... cultivate a love for meditation, and cherish a spirit of devotion. Many seem to begrudge moments spent in meditation, and the searching of the Scriptures, and prayer, as though the time thus occupied was lost. I wish you could all view these things in the light God would have you; for you would then make the kingdom of Heaven of the first importance. To keep your heart in Heaven, will give vigor to all your graces, and put life into all your duties. To discipline the mind to dwell upon heavenly things, will put life and earnestness into all our endeavors.30
SD	109	3	Let every one who desires to be a partaker of the divine nature appreciate the fact that he must escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. There must be a constant, earnest struggling of the soul against the evil imaginings of the mind. There must be a steadfast resistance of temptation to sin in thought or act. The soul must be kept from every stain, through faith in Him who is able to keep you from falling. We should meditate upon the Scriptures, thinking soberly and candidly upon the things that pertain to our eternal salvation. The infinite mercy and love of Jesus, the sacrifice made in our behalf, call for most serious and solemn reflection. We should dwell upon the character of our dear Redeemer and Intercessor. We should seek to comprehend the meaning of the plan of salvation. We should meditate upon the mission of Him who came to save His people from their sins. By constantly contemplating heavenly themes, our faith and love will grow stronger. Our prayers will be more and more acceptable to God, because they will be more and more mixed with faith and love. They will be more intelligent and fervent.31
SD	109	4	When the mind is thus filled ... the believer in Christ will be able to bring forth good things from the treasure of the heart.32
------------------------Turn Minds From the Artificial to the Natural, April 13
SD	110	1	When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? Psalm 8:3, 4.
SD	110	2	God encourages us to contemplate His works in the natural world. He desires that we shall turn our minds from the study of the artificial to the natural. We shall understand this better as we lift up our eyes to the hills of God, and contemplate the works which His own hands have created. His hand has molded the hills, and balanced them in their position, that they shall not be moved except at His command. The wind, the sun, the rain, the snow, and the ice are all ministers to do His will.
SD	110	3	By the Christian, God's love and benevolence can be seen in every gift from His hands. The beauties of nature are a theme for contemplation. In studying the natural loveliness surrounding us, the mind is carried up through nature to the Author of all that is lovely. All the works of God are speaking to our senses, magnifying His power, exalting His wisdom. Every created thing has in it charms which interest the child of God, and mold his taste to regard these precious evidences of God's love above the work of human skill.
SD	110	4	In words of glowing fervor, the prophet magnifies God in His created works: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained: what is man, that thou art mindful of him?"33
SD	110	5	The world, filled with sport and pleasure-loving, is always thirsting for some new interest. And how little time and thought are given to the Creator of the heavens and the earth. God calls upon His creatures to turn their attention from the confusion and perplexity around them, and admire His handiwork. The heavenly bodies are worthy of contemplation. God has made them for the benefit of man, and as we study His works, angels of God will be by our side to enlighten our minds.34
------------------------The Mind Fixed on Christ, April 14
SD	111	1	He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known. Proverbs 10:9.
SD	111	2	The very first step in the path of life is to keep the mind stayed on God, to have His fear continually before the eyes. A single departure from moral integrity blunts the conscience, and opens the door to the next temptation. "He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his way shall be known." We are commanded to love God supremely, and our neighbor as ourselves; but the daily experience of life shows that this law is disregarded. Uprightness in deal and moral integrity will secure the favor of God, and make a man a blessing to himself and to society; but amid the varied temptations that assail one whichever way he may turn, it is impossible to keep a clear conscience and the approval of Heaven without divine aid and a principle to love honesty for the sake of the right.
SD	111	3	A character that is approved of God and man is to be preferred to wealth. The foundation should be laid broad and deep, resting on the rock Christ Jesus. There are too many who profess to work from the true foundation, whose loose dealing shows them to be building on sliding sand; but the great tempest will sweep away their foundation, and they will have no refuge.... Do these persons see the future? Or are their eyes too dim to see, through the miasma-laden fogs of worldliness, that honor and integrity are not rewarded in the coin of this world? Will God reward virtue with mere worldly success? He has their names graven on the palms of His hands, as heirs to enduring honors, riches that are imperishable.35
SD	111	4	To dwell upon the beauty, goodness, mercy, and love of Jesus is strengthening to the mental and moral powers, and while the mind is kept trained to do the works of Christ, to be obedient children, you will habitually inquire, Is this the way of the Lord?36
------------------------Changes Us from Sinners to Saints, April 15
SD	112	1	Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isaiah 1:18.
SD	112	2	God is clothed with power; He is able to take those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and by the operation of the Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead, transform the human character, bringing back to the soul the lost image of God. Those who believe in Jesus Christ are changed from being rebels against the law of God into obedient servants and subjects of His kingdom. They are born again, regenerated, sanctified through the truth.37
SD	112	3	The world is to see God in His followers. Life and immortality are brought to light through those who are one with God in Christ. It is our privilege to have the spirit of light and knowledge that is the wisdom of heaven. All who have this spirit, in whatever position they may be placed, the highest or the lowest place of service, will reveal in their work the power of this light and knowledge.
SD	112	4	Constantly we behold Him who lived among men a life of perfect obedience. The more closely we behold Him, the more nearly we shall resemble Him in character, and the greater will be our efficiency in working for others. We shall be lifted far above the trials and perplexities of this life.... Self is to be hidden. Christ alone is to appear, full of grace and truth....
SD	112	5	Heaven is to begin on this earth. When the Lord's people are filled with meekness and tenderness, they will realize that His banner over them is love, and His fruit will be sweet to their taste. They will make a heaven below in which to prepare for heaven above.38
SD	112	6	He who receives Christ by living faith has a living connection with God.... He carries with him the atmosphere of heaven, which is the grace of God, a treasure that the world cannot buy.39
SD	112	7	If you would be a saint in heaven, you must first be a saint on earth.40
------------------------Changes Our Rudeness to Refinement, April 16
SD	113	1	Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Romans 12:9.
SD	113	2	Habits, often repeated, make character. Children who allow themselves to speak rudely to one another, and to be impolite at home, are forming habits that will cling to them in after life, and that will be most difficult to overcome. They do not show that they fear the Lord. They do not manifest refinement of character; their disposition becomes coarse, lacking in civility and that which constitutes refinement of manners; and all this casts a reflection upon the home training. In the behavior of children away from home, strangers can read, as in an open book, the history of the home life. They read there of duties left undone, of want of thoughtfulness, of lack of self-forgetfulness, of a disposition toward strife, fretfulness, impatience; while those who show that they have the fear of the Lord before them will, in character and in words, testify of a home where love is cherished, where there is peace, where patience is cultivated, where attention is given to the little proprieties of life, each mindful of his duty to make others happy....
SD	113	3	Are you all preparing to become members of the heavenly family? Are you seeking in the home life to be fitted to become members of the Lord's family? If so, make the home life happy by mutual self-sacrifice. If we want Jesus in our home, let kind words only be spoken there. The angels of God will not abide in a home where there is strife and contention. Let love be cherished, and peace and Christian politeness, and angels will be your guests.41
SD	113	4	If children and youth seek to be kind and courteous at home thoughtfulness will become an abiding habit. Every-day politeness will cause them to be always polite. Home is the very place in which to practice self-denial and thoughtfulness to each member of the family; thus it is with the family in heaven, thus it will be when the scattered families of earth are reunited in the heavenly home.42
------------------------Changes Our Slothfulness to Dispatch, April 17
SD	114	1	Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord. Romans 12:11.
SD	114	2	There are young men and young women who are very much opposed to order and discipline.... They pay no heed to rules for rising and retiring at regular hours, but burn the midnight oil, and then lie in bed in the morning.... Would it not be well to break up the habit of turning the precious hours into night, and turning the hours of night into day by the use of artificial light? ...
SD	114	3	As far as possible, it is well to consider what is to be accomplished through the day. Make a memorandum of the different duties that await your attention, and set apart a certain time for the doing of each duty. Let everything be done with thoroughness, neatness, and dispatch....
SD	114	4	Give yourself a number of minutes to do the work, and do not stop to read papers and books that take your eye, but say to yourself, "No, I have just so many minutes in which to do my work, and I must accomplish my task in the given time." ... Let those who are naturally slow of movement, seek to become active, quick, energetic, remembering the words of the apostle, "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." ...
SD	114	5	If you are under the control of slow, dilatory movements, if your habits are of a lazy order, you will make a long job out of a short one; and it is the duty of those who are slow, to reform, and to become more expeditious. If they will, they can overcome their fussy, lingering habits....
SD	114	6	Earnest, persevering effort will place you on the vantage-ground of victory; for he who strives to overcome in and through the grace of Christ, will have divine enlightenment, and will understand how great truths can be brought into little things, and religion can be carried into the little as well as into the large concerns of life.43
------------------------Changes Our Stubborn Wills to Sanctified Wills, April 18
SD	115	1	As the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Ephesians 6:6.
SD	115	2	Let no one say, "I cannot overcome my defects of character"; for if this is your decision, then you cannot have eternal life. The impossibility is all in your will. If you will not, that constitutes the cannot.
SD	115	3	The real difficulty is the corruption of an unsanctified heart, and an unwillingness to submit to the will of God. When there is a determined purpose born in your heart to overcome, you will have a disposition to overcome, and will cultivate those traits of character that are desirable, and will engage in the conflict with steady, persevering effort. You will exercise a ceaseless watchfulness over your defects of character, and will cultivate right practices in little things. The difficulty of overcoming will be lessened in proportion as the heart is sanctified by the grace of Christ.44
SD	115	4	What a work might have been done for us as individuals, if our proud and stubborn wills had been wholly submerged in the will of God, and our souls lifted up from earthliness to a higher, purer atmosphere!45
SD	115	5	Self-will and pride are evils that turned angels into demons and barred the gates of heaven against them.46
SD	115	6	You cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire, but you can control the will, and you can make an entire change in your life. By yielding up your will to Christ, your life will be hid with Christ in God, and allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You will have strength from God that will hold you fast to His strength; and a new light, even the light of living faith, will be possible to you.... There will be in you a power, an earnestness, and a simplicity that will make you a polished instrument in the hands of God.47
------------------------Changes Our Constant Complaining to Praise, April 19
SD	116	1	Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Psalm 107:8.
SD	116	2	We are heaven-bound, and we should show the attractive part of our faith. We should not go as a crippled band of mourners, groaning and complaining all along the journey to our Father's house.48
SD	116	3	Those professed Christians who are constantly complaining, who seem to think happiness and a cheerful countenance a sin, have not the genuine attributes of religion. Those who look upon nature's beautiful scenery as they would upon a dead picture; who choose to look upon dead leaves rather than to gather the beautiful flowers; who take a mournful pleasure in all that is melancholy in the language spoken to them by the natural world; who see no beauty in valleys clothed in living green, and grand mountain heights clothed with verdure; who close their senses to the joyful voice that speaks to them in nature, ...--these are not in Christ.49
SD	116	4	Suppose we change this order of things.... Suppose you try to count all your blessings. You have thought so little upon them, and they have been so continual, that when reverses or afflictions come, you are grieved, and think God is unjust. You do not call to mind how little gratitude you have manifested for all the blessings of God. You have not deserved them; but because they have flowed in upon you day by day, year by year, you have looked upon them as a matter of course, thinking it was your right to receive every advantage, and give nothing in return.... The blessings of God are more than the hairs of our head, more than the sands of the seashore. Meditate upon His love and care for us, and may it inspire you with love that trials cannot interrupt nor afflictions quench.50
SD	116	5	If we could only see the many dangers from which we are daily preserved by the holy angels, instead of complaining of our trials and misfortunes, we would talk continually of the mercies of God.51
------------------------Changes Our Defiance to Submission, April 20
SD	117	1	Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. Hebrews 13:17.
SD	117	2	There are some young men and women who have no method in doing their work. Though they are always busy, they can present but little results. They have erroneous ideas of work, and think that they are working hard, when if they had practised method in their work, and applied themselves intelligently to what they had to do, they would have accomplished much more in a shorter time. By dallying over the less important matters, they find themselves hurried, perplexed, and confused when they are called upon to do those duties that are more essential.... Under circumstances like these, where young men and women are making such mistakes in their life discipline, it would be sinful not to speak words of advice and counsel.
SD	117	3	It is an extremely delicate thing to tell people of their faults. The reprover is likely to find that in those reproved, pride and stubbornness assert themselves, and the will is arrayed in defiance and opposition. But for all this, advice should be given, and faults should be laid bare. Let the young cultivate a teachable spirit, that they may be benefited by the efforts of those who seek to help them....
SD	117	4	It may seem that we are to study our own hearts, and square our own actions by some standard of our own; but this is not the case. This would but work deform instead of reform. The work must begin in the heart, and then the spirit, the words, the expression of the countenance, and the actions of the life, will make manifest that a change has taken place. In knowing Christ through the grace that He has shed forth abundantly, we become changed.... In humility we shall correct every fault and defect of character; because Christ is abiding in the heart, we shall be fitted up for the heavenly family above.52
------------------------Changes Our Empty Lamps into Full Lamps, April 21
SD	118	1	The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Matthew 25:4.
SD	118	2	Let every youth consider the parable of the ten virgins. All had lamps, that is, an outward semblance of religion; but only five of them had the inward piety. Five of them were wanting in the oil of grace. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit, was not abiding in their hearts. Without the oil of grace, of what use was it to bear about a lamp of profession? However high may be the profession, however high may be the position held by a professor of religion, if the oil of grace is wanting, he has nothing with which to feed his lamp, and it cannot send forth clear, shining rays of light....
SD	118	3	The reason why the Bridegroom delays is because He is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. O the precious longsuffering of our merciful Saviour! O that each of the dear youth would appreciate the value of the soul that has been purchased at infinite cost on Calvary! O that each one would place a proper estimate upon the capabilities that have been given him of God! Through Christ you may climb the ladder of progress, and bring every power under the control of Jesus.... In spirit, in thought, in word, and in action, you may make manifest that you are moved by the Spirit of Christ, and your life may wield a power of influence over others.
SD	118	4	We are living in altogether too solemn a period of the world's history to be careless and negligent.... You must pray, believe, and obey. In your own strength you can do nothing; but in the grace of Jesus Christ, you can employ your powers in such a way as to bring the greatest good to your own soul, and the greatest blessing to the souls of others. Lay hold of Jesus, and you will diligently work the works of Christ, and will finally receive the eternal reward.53
------------------------God's Grace Sufficient for Every Need, April 22
SD	119	1	And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.
SD	119	2	If you have given yourself to God, to do His work, you have no need to be anxious for tomorrow. He whose servant you are, knows the end from the beginning. The events of tomorrow, which are hidden from your view, are open to the eyes of Him who is omnipotent.
SD	119	3	When we take into our hands the management of things with which we have to do, and depend upon our own wisdom for success, we are taking a burden which God has not given us, and are trying to bear it without His aid. We are taking upon ourselves the responsibility that belongs to God, and thus are really putting ourselves in His place. We may well have anxiety, and anticipate danger and loss; for it is certain to befall us. But when we really believe that God loves us, and means to do us good, we shall cease to worry about the future. We shall trust God as a child trusts a loving parent. Then our troubles and torments will disappear; for our will is swallowed up in the will of God.
SD	119	4	Christ has given us no promise of help in bearing today the burdens of tomorrow. He has said, "My grace is sufficient for thee"; but, like the manna given in the wilderness, His grace is bestowed daily, for the day's need. Like the hosts of Israel in their pilgrim life, we may find morning by morning the bread of heaven for the day's supply.
SD	119	5	One day alone is ours, and during this day we are to live for God. For this one day we are to place in the hand of Christ, in solemn service, all our purposes and plans, casting all our care upon Him, for He careth for us. "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil."54
------------------------His Gifts are to Stablish and Strengthen Us, April 23
SD	120	1	But the Lord of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. 1 Peter 5:10.
SD	120	2	Blessed is the soul who can say, "I am guilty before God: but Jesus is my Advocate. I have transgressed His law. I cannot save myself; but I make the precious blood that was shed on Calvary all my plea. I am lost in Adam, but restored in Christ. God, who so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son to die, will not leave me to perish while repentant and in contrition of soul. He will not look upon me, for I am all unworthy; but He will look upon the face of His Anointed, He will look upon my Substitute and Surety, and listen to the plea of my Advocate, who died for my sin, that I might be made the righteousness of God in Him. By beholding Him I shall be changed into His image. I cannot change my own character, save by partaking of the grace of Him who is all goodness, righteousness, mercy, and truth. But by beholding Him, I shall catch His spirit, and be transformed into His likeness...." The heart that is filled with the grace of Christ will be made manifest by its peace and joy; and where Christ abides, the character will become purified, elevated, ennobled, and glorified.55
SD	120	3	The Creator of all worlds proposes to love those who believe in His only-begotten Son as their personal Saviour, even as He loves His Son. Even here and now His gracious favor is bestowed upon us to this marvelous extent. He has given to men the gift of the Light and Majesty of heaven, and with Him He has bestowed all the treasures of heaven. Much as He has promised us for the life to come, He also bestows princely gifts upon us in this life, and as subjects of His grace, He would have us enjoy everything that will ennoble, expand, and elevate our characters.56
SD	120	4	The Lord has in readiness the most precious exhibitions of His grace to strengthen and encourage.57
------------------------Let Us Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace, April 24
SD	121	1	Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16.
SD	121	2	Jesus knows the needs of His children, and He loves to listen to their prayers. Let the children shut out the world and everything that would attract the thoughts from God, and let them feel that they are alone with God, that His eye looks into the inmost heart, and reads the desire of the soul, and that they may talk with God. In humble faith you may claim His promises, and feel that although you have nothing in yourself whereby you may claim the favor of God, because of the merits and righteousness of Christ, you may come boldly to the throne of grace, and find help in time of need. There is nothing that can make the soul so strong to resist the temptations of Satan in the great conflict of life, as to seek God in humility, laying before Him your soul in all its helplessness, expecting that He will be your helper and your defender.58
SD	121	3	With the trusting faith of a little child, we are to come to our heavenly Father, telling Him of all our needs. He is always ready to pardon and help. The supply of divine wisdom is inexhaustible, and the Lord encourages us to draw largely from it. The longing that we should have for spiritual blessings is described in the words, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." We need a deeper soul-hunger for the rich gifts that heaven has to bestow.
SD	121	4	We are to hunger and thirst after righteousness.
SD	121	5	O that we might have a consuming desire to know God by an experimental knowledge, to come into the audience chamber of the Most High, reaching up the hand of faith, and casting our helpless souls upon the One mighty to save. His loving kindness is better than life.59
SD	121	6	He desires to bestow on the children of men the riches of an eternal inheritance. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.60
------------------------Rejoice in the Rich Treasures of Grace, April 25
SD	122	1	And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you. Deuteronomy 26:11.
SD	122	2	Thanksgiving and praise should be expressed to God for temporal blessings and for whatever comforts He bestows upon us. God would have every family that He is preparing to inhabit the eternal mansions above, give glory to Him for the rich treasures of His grace. Were children, in the home life, educated and trained to be grateful to the Giver of all good things, we would see an element of heavenly grace manifest in our families. Cheerfulness would be seen in the home life, and coming from such homes, the youth would bring a spirit of respect and reverence with them into the schoolroom, and into the church. There would be an attendance in the sanctuary where God meets with His people, a reverence for all the ordinances of His worship, and grateful praise and thanksgiving would be offered for all the gifts of His providence....
SD	122	3	Every temporal blessing would be received with gratitude, and every spiritual blessing become doubly precious because the perception of each member of the household had become sanctified by the Word of truth. The Lord Jesus is very near to those who thus appreciate His gracious gifts, tracing all their good things back to the benevolent, loving, care-taking God, and recognizing Him as the great Fountain of all comfort and consolation, the inexhaustible Source of grace.61
SD	122	4	If we would give more expression to our faith, rejoice more in the blessings that we know we have,--the great mercy and love of God,--we should have more faith and greater joy. No tongue can express, no finite mind can conceive, the blessing that results from appreciating the goodness and love of God. Even on earth we may have joy as a wellspring, never failing, because fed by the streams that flow from the throne of God.62
------------------------We Have Received of God's Fullness, April 26
SD	123	1	And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. John 1:16.
SD	123	2	Christ sought to save the world, not by conformity to it, but by revealing to the world the transforming power of the grace of God to mold and fashion the human character after the likeness of the character of Christ.63
SD	123	3	Satan has represented God as selfish and oppressive, as claiming all, and giving nothing, as requiring the service of His creatures for His own glory, and making no sacrifice for their good. But the gift of Christ reveals the Father's heart.... It declares that while God's hatred of sin is as strong as death, His love for the sinner is stronger than death. Having undertaken our redemption, He will spare nothing, however dear, which is necessary to the completion of His work. No truth essential to our salvation is withheld, no miracle of mercy is neglected, no divine agency is left unemployed. Favor is heaped upon favor, gift upon gift. The whole treasury of heaven is open to those He seeks to save. Having collected the riches of the universe, and laid open the resources of infinite power, He gives them all into the hands of Christ, and says, All these are for man. Use these gifts to convince him that there is no love greater than Mine in earth or heaven. His greatest happiness will be found in loving Me.64
SD	123	4	The Father appreciates every soul whom His Son has purchased by the gift of His life. Every provision has been made for us to receive divine power, which will enable us to overcome temptations. Through obedience to all God's requirements the soul is preserved unto eternal life.65
SD	123	5	God has a heaven full of blessings that He wants to bestow on those who are earnestly seeking for that help which the Lord alone can give.66
------------------------We Are Changed from Glory to Glory, April 27
SD	124	1	But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
SD	124	2	When enlightened by the Spirit of God, the believer beholds the perfection of Jesus, and beholding this perfection, he rejoices with joy unspeakable. In self he sees sin and helplessness; in the Redeemer sinlessness and infinite power. The sacrifice that Christ made in order that He might impart to us His righteousness--this is a theme upon which we may dwell with deeper and still deeper enthusiasm. Self is nothing; Jesus is everything....
SD	124	3	The transforming power of grace can make me a partaker of the divine nature. On Christ the glory of God has shone, and by looking upon Christ, contemplating His self-sacrifice, remembering that in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, the believer is drawn closer and closer to the Source of power....
SD	124	4	How essential that we have the enlightenment of the Spirit of God; for thus only can we see the glory of Christ, and by beholding become changed from character to character in and through faith in Christ.... He has grace and pardon for every soul. As by faith we look to Jesus, our faith pierces the shadow, and we adore God for His wondrous love in giving us Jesus the Comforter....
SD	124	5	The sinner may become a child of God, an heir of heaven. He may rise from the dust, and stand forth arrayed in garments of light.... At every step of advance, he sees new beauties in Christ, and becomes more like Him in character.67
SD	124	6	The love that was manifested toward him in the death of Christ, awakens a response of thankful love, and in answer to sincere prayer, the believer is brought from grace to grace, from glory to glory, until by beholding Christ, he is changed into the same image.68
------------------------Redemption Through the Riches of God's Grace, April 28
SD	125	1	In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Ephesians 1:7, 8.
SD	125	2	He [Christ] came ... to elevate and ennoble our mental powers, so that our efforts in this life might not be misdirected and lost....
SD	125	3	The Lord Jesus came to strengthen every earnest seeker for truth, He came to reveal the Father. He allowed nothing to divert His mind from the great work of restoring the moral image of God in man. And we must see that the great and important work for us is to receive the divine likeness, to prepare a character for the future life. We must appropriate the heavenly truths to our special use in practical life. And we may carry with us all the treasure of knowledge that gives us a fitness for the life that measures with the life of God.
SD	125	4	The knowledge of God is as high as the heaven, as broad as the earth.... Only those who read the Scriptures as the voice of God speaking to them are the true learners. They tremble at the Word of God; for to them it is a living reality. They study, they search for the hidden treasure. They open the understanding and heart to receive, and they pray for heavenly grace, that they may obtain a preparation for the future, immortal life. As the heavenly torch is placed in his hand, man sees his own frailty, his infirmity, his hopelessness in looking to himself for righteousness. He sees that in himself there is nothing to recommend him to God. He prays for the Holy Spirit, the representative of Christ, to be his constant guide, to lead him into all truth.... All knowledge gained in this life of probation which will fit us to be companions of the saints in light is true education. It brings blessings to ourselves and others in this life, and will secure to us the future, immortal life, with all its imperishable riches.69
SD	125	5	Christ has a treasure house full of precious gifts for every soul.70
------------------------Blind Bartimaeus' Faith in God's Grace Rewarded, April 29
SD	126	1	And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. Mark 10:51.
SD	126	2	It is only when the sinner feels the need of a Saviour, that his heart goes after the One who can help him. When Jesus walked among men, it was the sick that wanted a physician. The poor, the afflicted and distressed, followed after Him, to receive the help and comfort which they could not find elsewhere. Blind Bartimeus is waiting by the wayside; he has waited long to meet Christ.
SD	126	3	Throngs of people who possess their sight are passing to and fro, but they have no desire to see Jesus. One look of faith would touch His heart of love, and bring them the blessings of His grace; but they know not the sickness and poverty of their souls, and they feel no need of Christ. Not so with the poor blind man. His only hope is in Jesus. As he waits and watches, he hears the tread of many feet, and he eagerly inquires, What means this noise of travel? The by-standers answer that "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." With the eagerness of intense desire, he cries, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me!" They try to silence him, but he cries the more vehemently, "Thou Son of David, have mercy on me!" This appeal is heard. His persevering faith is rewarded. Not only is physical sight restored, but the eyes of his understanding are opened. In Christ he sees his Redeemer, and the Sun of Righteousness shines into his soul. All who feel their need of Christ as did blind Bartimeus, and who will be as earnest and determined as he was, will, like him, receive the blessing which they crave.
SD	126	4	The afflicted, suffering ones who sought Christ as their helper, were charmed with the divine perfection, the beauty of holiness, that shone forth in His character.71
SD	126	5	Those who receive Christ by faith will receive also power to become the sons of God.72
------------------------From a Slave to Sin, to a Prince of God, April 30
SD	127	1	And he [Christ] said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. Genesis 32:28.
SD	127	2	That night Jacob, the petted son of his mother, experienced the new birth and became a child of God. In his discouraged state the light that came to him was regarded as most precious, and the hard stone on which his head rested the most desirable on which his head had ever rested.73
SD	127	3	What a happy man he was! He knew that he had had a communication from God. And any one of us who has received light from the throne of God, can but have a heart filled with praise, and thanksgiving, and honor to the Lord God of heaven.74
SD	127	4	Jacob, in the great crisis of his life, turned aside to pray. He was filled with one overmastering purpose,--to seek for transformation of character. But while he was pleading with God, an enemy, as he supposed, placed his hand upon him, and all night he wrestled for his life. But the purpose of his soul was not changed by peril of life itself. When his strength was nearly spent, the Angel put forth His divine power, and at His touch, Jacob knew Him with whom he had been contending. Wounded and helpless, he fell upon the Saviour's breast, pleading for a blessing. He would not be turned aside, nor cease his intercession, and Christ granted the petition of this helpless, penitent soul, according to His promise, "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me...." Jacob pleaded with determined spirit, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." This spirit of persistence was inspired by Him who wrestled with the patriarch. It was He who gave him the victory, and He changed his name from Jacob to Israel, saying, "As a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." That for which Jacob had vainly wrestled in his own strength, was won through self-surrender and steadfast faith.75
------------------------He Depended Completely on Divine Power, May 1
SD	128	1	Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. John 5:19.
SD	128	2	Jesus is the perfect pattern, and it is the duty and privilege of every child and youth to copy the pattern. Let children bear in mind that the child Jesus had taken upon Himself human nature, and was in the likeness of sinful flesh, and was tempted of Satan as all children are tempted. He was able to resist the temptation of Satan through His dependence upon the divine power of His heavenly Father, as He was subject to His will, and obedient to all His commands. He kept His Father's statutes, precepts, and laws. He was continually seeking counsel of God, and was obedient to His will.
SD	128	3	It is the duty and privilege of every child to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.... It will please the Lord Jesus to have the children ask Him for every spiritual grace, to bring all their perplexities and trials to the Saviour; for He knows how to help the children and youth, because He was a child Himself, and was once subject to all the trials, disappointments, and perplexities to which children and youth are subject. God's promise is given as much to children and youth as to those of more mature age. Whenever God has given a promise, let the children and youth turn it into a petition, and beg the Lord to do those things for them in their experience, that He did for Jesus, His only begotten Son, when in human necessity He looked to God, asking for the things which He needed. Every blessing the Father has provided for those of more mature experience, has been provided for children and youth through Jesus Christ.1
------------------------He Submitted to Parental Authority, May 2
SD	129	1	And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them. Luke 2:51.
SD	129	2	Jesus claimed His sonship to the Eternal.... His first visit to the temple had awakened new impulses. All earthly obligations were, for the time, lost sight of; but with the knowledge of His divine mission, and of His union with God, He did not resist the authority of His parents. At their request He returned with them as a faithful, obedient son, and aided them in their life of toil. He buried in His own heart the secret of His future mission, waiting submissively until the period of His public ministry should commence before announcing to the world that He was the Messiah. He submitted to parental restraint, for the period of eighteen years after He had acknowledged that He was the Son of God, and lived the simple, common life of a Galilean, working at the carpenter's trade.... For thirty years He submitted to parental restraint....
SD	129	3	It is common for children, even of Christian parents, when not over twelve years old, to feel that they must be allowed to follow their own desires. And parents are ready to be led by their children, rather than to lead them.... For this reason many youth come up with habits of selfishness and idleness. They are vain, proud, and headstrong.2
SD	129	4	When we look upon His patient self-denial, His shrinking from all notoriety, devoting Himself to His daily labor in a humble sphere, what a beautiful light is shed about His life! How clearly is pointed out the path in which children and youth should walk! ... Jesus was no less the Son of God in His lowly home, in His submission to His parents, than when God spoke from His eternal throne, saying, "This is my beloved Son."3
SD	129	5	The life of Christ assures a blessing forever upon a life of cheerful submission to parental restraint and a life of physical and mental industry.4
------------------------He Was Obedient and Respectful, May 3
SD	130	1	Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. Hebrews 5:8.
SD	130	2	If you are seeking to reflect the life and character of Christ, you will be true and obedient to your parents. You will show your love for them by your willing obedience.5
SD	130	3	No one can be truly good and great who has not learned to yield his will, first to his parents, and then to God, and to obey with alacrity. Those who learn to obey are the only ones who will be fitted to command.
SD	130	4	By learning the lessons of obedience, children are not only honoring their parents and lightening their burdens, but they are pleasing One higher in authority. "Honour thy father and thy mother" is a positive command. Children who treat their parents with disrespect, and disregard their wishes, not only dishonor them, but break the law of God. The earlier the will is made to yield to the will of the parents, and the more complete the submission, the less difficult it will be to yield to the requirements of God. And none can hope for the love and blessing of God who do not learn obedience to His commandments, and stand up firmly against temptation.6
SD	130	5	His [Christ's] life was characterized with firmness, yet He was ever respectful and obedient.7
SD	130	6	He was a perfect pattern for all youth. Ever He manifested deference and respect for age. The religion of Jesus will never lead any child to be rude and uncourteous.8
SD	130	7	The infinite Eye can search the heart, and read every defect in the character. He does not estimate youth by their outward appearance, but from the goodness they possess at heart, which can only be gained by watchfulness and prayer.... He marks their deportment to their parents and the family circle. If they are respectful, kind, affectionate, and truly polite, ... their characters are recorded in the books of Heaven as valuable.9
------------------------He Was Industrious, May 4
SD	131	1	I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. John 9:4.
SD	131	2	The life of Christ demonstrates to all youth that a life of industry and obedience is favorable to the formation of good moral character, firm principles, strength of purpose, sound knowledge, and high spiritual attainments. Most of the youth of the present day cherish a love for exciting amusements, which is unfavorable for high attainments in mental culture, and for physical strength. The mind is not kept in a calm, healthful state for thought, but is, much of the time, under an excitement; in short, is intoxicated with the amusements it craves, which renders it incapable of close application, reflection, and study.10
SD	131	3	The young who do not cherish a respect for their parents, and a love to make themselves useful, cannot enjoy real pleasure.... The love of vain amusements relaxes the tone of mind, and weakens the morals so that many youth have but little self-control and firm principle.11
SD	131	4	In His industrious life there were no idle moments to invite temptation. No aimless hours opened the way for corrupting associations. So far as possible, He closed the door to the tempter. Neither gain nor pleasure, applause nor censure, could induce Him to consent to a wrong act....
SD	131	5	He was not willing to be defective, even in the handling of tools. He was perfect as a workman, as He was perfect in character. By His own example He taught that it is our duty to be industrious, that our work should be performed with exactness and thoroughness, and that such labor is honorable. The exercise that teaches the hands to be useful and trains the young to bear their share of life's burdens gives physical strength, and develops every faculty.... God appointed work as a blessing, and only the diligent worker finds the true glory and joy of life.12
------------------------His Simplicity Gave Him Favor, May 5
SD	132	1	And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Luke 2:52.
SD	132	2	It was the simplicity of the life of Christ, and His freedom from pride and vanity, that gave Him favor with God and man. He did not seek to attract attention for distinction.13
SD	132	3	The life of Christ was passed in simplicity and purity.... His wisdom was great, but it was child-like, and increased with His years. His childhood possessed peculiar gentleness, and marked loveliness. His character was full of beauty, and unsullied perfection.14
SD	132	4	In the life of Christ we see the only safe pattern for all children and youth. When children are disposed to rebel against parental authority, they are condemned by the life of their Redeemer, who was Himself once a child, and obedient to His parents. In what marked contrast is the character of children now. The majority of children live for their own pleasure, for the purpose of display. Some try to make brilliant speeches, that they may attract notice. Some seem to think that their worth will be estimated by their appearance. They are very precise in their dress, and devote much time and means for display, that they may attract attention, while they do not find time for, and have an interest in, secret prayer. They neglect the inward adorning, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which, the apostle tells us, is of great price in the sight of God....
SD	132	5	Wealth and dress are so common that, while they may excite envy, they cannot command true respect and admiration. A cultivated mind, adorned with the grace of meekness and humility, a pure and upright heart, will be reflected in the countenance, and command love and respect.15
SD	132	6	If the youth would become strong in mind, pure in morals, firm in spiritual power, let them follow the example of Jesus in His simplicity, in His submission to parental restraint.16
------------------------In Baptism, May 6
SD	133	1	And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him, and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:16, 17.
SD	133	2	Jesus was our example in all things that pertain to life and godliness. He was baptized in Jordan, just as those who come to Him must be baptized. The heavenly angels were looking with intense interest upon the scene of the Saviour's baptism, and could the eyes of those who were looking on, have been opened, they would have seen the heavenly host surrounding the Son of God as He bowed on the banks of the Jordan. The Lord had promised to give John a sign whereby he might know who was the Messiah, and now as Jesus went up out of the water, the promised sign was given; for he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit of God, like a dove of burnished gold, hovered over the head of Christ, and a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." ... Jesus, the world's Redeemer, has opened the way so that the most sinful, the most needy, the most oppressed and despised, may find access to the Father,--may have a home in the mansions which Jesus has gone to prepare for those who love Him.17
SD	133	3	Those who have risen with Christ to walk in newness of life are the elect of God. They are holy unto the Lord, and are acknowledged by Him as His beloved. As such, they are under solemn covenant to distinguish themselves by showing humility of mind. They are to clothe themselves in garments of righteousness. They are separate from the world, from its spirit, its practises, and they are to reveal that they are learning of Him.... If they realize that they have died with Christ, if they keep their baptismal vow, the world will have no power to draw them aside to deny Christ. If they live the life of Christ in this world, they are partakers of the divine nature.18
------------------------In the Study of the Scriptures, May 7
SD	134	1	And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:27.
SD	134	2	After Joseph and Mary had searched for Him [Christ] for three days, they found Him in the court of the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. He asked His questions with a grace that charmed these learned men.... His mother could not but mark His words, His spirit, His willing obedience to all her requirements.
SD	134	3	It is not correct to say, as many writers have said, that Christ was like all children. He was not like all children. Many children are misguided and mismanaged. But Joseph, and especially Mary, kept before them the remembrance of their child's divine Fatherhood. Jesus was instructed in accordance with the sacred character of His mission. His inclination to right was a constant gratification to His parents.19
SD	134	4	His intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures shows how diligently His early years were given to the study of God's Word.20
SD	134	5	Christ opened the Scriptures to His disciples, beginning at Moses and the prophets, and instructed them in all things concerning Himself, and also explained to them the prophecies.21
SD	134	6	He pointed to the Scriptures as of unquestionable authority, and we should do the same.22
SD	134	7	Every child may gain knowledge as Jesus did. As we try to become acquainted with our heavenly Father through His Word, angels will draw near, our minds will be strengthened, our characters will be elevated, and refined.23
SD	134	8	Like Christ, we should be able to meet the enemy in time of temptation with, "It is written."24
------------------------In the Study of Nature, May 8
SD	135	1	Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee. Job 12:8.
SD	135	2	The childhood and youth of Christ were spent in humble circumstances, under conditions that were favorable to the development of a sound constitution. His life was passed mostly in the open air. He drank of the pure streams of water, and ate the fruit of the gardens. He passed up and down the steep mountain paths, and through the streets of Nazareth, as He went to and from His place of toil to His home. He enjoyed the varied notes of the birds as they caroled forth their praise to their Creator. He took delight in the beauty of the flowers that decked the fields. He noted with joy the glory of the heavens, the splendor of sun, moon, and stars, and looked upon the rising and setting sun with admiration. The book of nature was open before Him, and He enjoyed its tender lessons. The everlasting hills, the olive groves, were favorite places of resort where He went to commune with His Father. He was filled with divine wisdom, and through the study of nature, and by meditation upon the communion with God, His spiritual powers were strengthened.25
SD	135	3	The Redeemer of the world passed up and down the hills and mountains, from the great plain to the mountain valley. He enjoyed nature's beautiful scenery. He was delighted with the fields glowing with the beautiful flowers, and in listening to the birds of the air, and uniting His voice with them in their happy songs of praise.26
SD	135	4	In the life of Christ, His childhood and youth, there is a lesson for the youth of today. Christ is our example, and in youth we should contemplate God in nature,--study His character in the work of His hands. The mind is strengthened by becoming acquainted with God, by reading His attributes in the things which He has made. As we behold the beauty and grandeur in the works of nature, our affections go out after God; and ... our souls are invigorated by coming in contact with the Infinite through His marvelous works.27
------------------------In Communion With God, May 9
SD	136	1	And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. Matthew 14:23.
SD	136	2	The strength of Christ was in prayer.... Christ retired to the groves or mountains with the world and everything else shut out. He was alone with His Father. With intense earnestness, He poured out His supplications, and put forth all the strength of His soul in grasping the hand of the Infinite. When new and great trials were before Him, He would steal away to the solitude of the mountains, and pass the entire night in prayer to His heavenly Father.
SD	136	3	As Christ is our example in all things, if we imitate His example in earnest, importunate prayer to God that we may have strength in His name who never yielded to the temptations of Satan to resist the devices of the wily foe, we shall not be overcome by him.28
SD	136	4	Amid the perils of these last days, the only safety of the youth lies in ever-increasing watchfulness and prayer. The youth who finds his joy in reading the Word of God, and in the hour of prayer, will be constantly refreshed by drafts from the fountain of life. He will attain a height of moral excellence and a breadth of thought of which others cannot conceive. Communion with God encourages good thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, and lofty purposes of action. Those who thus connect themselves with God are acknowledged by Him as His sons and daughters. They are constantly reaching higher and still higher, obtaining clearer views of God and of eternity, until the Lord makes them channels of light and wisdom to the world.... The strength acquired in prayer to God will prepare us for our daily duties.29
SD	136	5	There is a mighty power in prayer. Our great adversary is constantly seeking to keep the troubled soul away from God. An appeal to Heaven by the humblest saint is more to be dreaded by Satan than the decrees of cabinets or the mandates of kings.30
------------------------In Keeping His Father's Commandments, May 10
SD	137	1	If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10.
SD	137	2	Christ was a representative before men and before angels, of the character of the God of heaven. He demonstrated the fact that when humanity depends wholly upon God, men may keep God's commandments and live, and His law be as the apple of the eye.31
SD	137	3	The example of Christ is authoritative for every son and daughter of Adam. He represented the law of God in His life, giving to men an example of what obedience to every precept will accomplish for human nature. He is our example, and every one who is endowed with reasoning faculties is required to follow in His footsteps; for His life is a perfect pattern to all humanity. Christ is the finished standard of the character to which every one may attain....
SD	137	4	How did the world's Redeemer walk?--Not in a way to please Himself simply, but to glorify God by working the works of God in uplifting fallen man who had been made in the image of God. By precept and example, He taught men the way of righteousness, representing the character of God, and giving to the world a perfect standard of moral excellency in humanity. The two grand precepts of the law are to regulate the conduct of all humanity. This was the lesson that Jesus taught by both precept and example. He said to the people, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and ... thy neighbour as thyself." The Lord God of heaven requires of human intelligences supreme love and worship.32
SD	137	5	Let the human agent compare his life with the life of Christ.... Let him imitate the example of Him who lived out the law of Jehovah, who said, "I have kept my Father's commandments." Those who follow Christ will be continually looking into the perfect law of liberty, and through the grace given them by Christ, will fashion the character according to the divine requirements.33
------------------------In Being the Light of the World, May 11
SD	138	1	Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12.
SD	138	2	It was morning; the sun had just risen above the Mount of Olives, and its rays fell with dazzling brightness on the marble palaces, and lighted up the gold of the temple walls, when Jesus, pointing to it, said, "I am the light of the world."
SD	138	3	By one who listened to these words, they were long afterward re-echoed in that sublime passage, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men."34
SD	138	4	Those who are sanctified through the truth, are as bright, shining lights, giving light to all that are in the house. Good works will be revealed in every true believer. The Lord can accept of nothing short of perfection of character, wholeness to God. Any half-hearted service will testify before the heavenly intelligences that you have failed to copy the Pattern.35
SD	138	5	Christ's followers are to be more than a light in the midst of men. They are the light of the world. Jesus says to all who have named His name, You have given yourselves to Me, and I have given you to the world as My representatives. As the Father had sent Him into the world, so He declares, "have I also sent them into the world." ... While our Saviour is the great source of illumination, forget not, O Christian, that He is revealed through humanity. God's blessings are bestowed through human instrumentality.... Angels of glory wait to communicate through you heaven's light and power to souls that are ready to perish.... If Christ is dwelling in the heart, it is impossible to conceal the light of His presence.36
SD	138	6	When the Light of the world passes by, privileges appear in all hardships, order in confusion, the success and wisdom of God in that which has seemed to be failure.37
SD	138	7	The gifts of light and life come to us together.38
------------------------In Demonstrating God's Parental Attributes, May 12
SD	139	1	Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Psalm 103:13.
SD	139	2	In all the gracious deeds that Jesus did, He sought to impress upon men the parental, benevolent attributes of God. In all His lessons He was seeking to teach men the wonderful truth that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Jesus would have us understand the love of the Father, and He seeks to draw us to Him by presenting His parental grace. He would have the whole field of our vision filled with the perfection of God's character. In His prayer for His disciples He says, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world."
SD	139	3	Jesus came into the world to illustrate the character of God in His own life, and He swept back the misrepresentations that Satan had originated, and revealed the glory of God. It was only by living among men that He could reveal the mercy, compassion, and love of His heavenly Father; for it was only by actions of benevolence that He could set forth the grace of God. The unbelief of men was deep seated, and yet they could not resist the testimony of His God-like example, and His deeds of love and truth.39
SD	139	4	The bounties of God's providence speak to every soul, confirming Christ's testimony to the supreme goodness of His Father. The Lord would have His people realize that the blessings bestowed upon any object of creation are proportionate to the place that object occupies in the scale of creation. If even the wants of dumb animals are supplied, can we appreciate the blessings which God will bestow upon the beings formed in His image?40
SD	139	5	God is love, and He cares for us. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him."41
------------------------In Physical Development, May 13
SD	140	1	And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Luke 2:40.
SD	140	2	The physical constitution of Jesus, as well as His spiritual development, is brought before us in these words, "The child grew," and "increased in stature." In childhood and youth attention should be given to physical development. Parents should so train their children in good habits of eating, drinking, dressing, and exercise, that a good foundation will be laid for sound health in after life. The physical organism should have special care, that the powers of the body may not be dwarfed, but developed to their full extent. This places the children and youth in a favorable position, so that, with proper religious training, they may, like Christ, wax strong in spirit....
SD	140	3	Many claim that it is necessary for the preservation of physical health to indulge in selfish amusement. It is true that change is required for the best development of the body, for mind and body are refreshed and invigorated by change; but this object is not gained by indulgence in foolish amusements, to the neglect of daily duties which the youth should be required to do. The active mind and hands of youth must have employment, and if they are not directed to tasks that are useful, that will develop them and bless others, they will find employment in that which will work injury to them in both body and mind.42
SD	140	4	As Jesus worked in childhood and youth, mind and body were developed. He did not use His physical powers recklessly, but in such a way as to keep them in health, that He might do the best work in every line.43
SD	140	5	His life of natural simplicity was favorable to the development of a good physical constitution, and a firm, unsullied character.44
SD	140	6	Physically, as well as spiritually, He was an example of what God designed all humanity to be through obedience to His laws.45
------------------------In Gaining Victory Over Appetite, May 14
SD	141	1	And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4:3, 4.
SD	141	2	The great trial of Christ in the wilderness on the point of appetite was to leave man an example of self-denial. This long fast was to convict men of the sinfulness of things in which professed Christians indulge. The victory which Christ gained in the wilderness was to show man the sinfulness of the very things in which he takes such pleasure. The salvation of man was in the balance, and to be decided by the trial of Christ in the wilderness. If Christ was a victor on the point of appetite, then there was a chance for man to overcome....
SD	141	3	Christians, who understand the mystery of godliness, who have a high and sacred sense of the atonement, who realize in the sufferings of Christ in the wilderness a victory gained for them ... would be greatly strengthened by earnestly and frequently comparing their lives with the true standard, the life of Christ.... The amusements which lead to levity and forgetfulness of God, can find no sanction in the example of Christ, the world's Redeemer, the only safe pattern for man to copy if he would overcome as Christ overcame.... Man now has the advantage over Adam in his warfare with Satan; for he has Adam's experience in disobedience and his consequent fall to warn him to shun his example. Man also has Christ's example in overcoming appetite, and the manifold temptations of Satan, and in vanquishing the mighty foe upon every point, and coming off victor in every contest.46
SD	141	4	The habits of eating and drinking are the most difficult to overcome because Satan binds you securely to his chariot car.47
SD	141	5	All who give themselves to the service of Christ will follow the example of Christ, and will be perfect overcomers.48
------------------------In Positive Self-Control, May 15
SD	142	1	He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. Isaiah 53:7.
SD	142	2	One class have come up without self-control; they have not bridled the temper or the tongue; and some of these claim to be Christ's followers, but they are not. Jesus has set them no such example.... Some are nervous, and if they begin to lose self-control in word or spirit under provocation, they are as much intoxicated with wrath as the inebriate is with liquor. They are unreasonable, and not easily persuaded or convinced. They are not sane; Satan for the time has full control. Every one of these exhibitions of wrath weakens the nervous system and the moral powers, and makes it difficult to restrain anger on another provocation.
SD	142	3	With this class there is only one remedy,--positive self-control under all circumstances. The effort to get into a favorable place, where self will not be annoyed, may succeed for a time; but Satan knows where to find these poor souls, and will assail them in their weak points again and again. They will be continually troubled so long as they think so much of self.... But there is hope for them. Let this life, so stormy with conflicts and worries, be brought into connection with Christ, and then self will no longer clamor for the supremacy.... They should humble themselves, saying frankly, "I have done wrong. Will you forgive me? For God has said we must not let the sun go down upon our wrath." This is the only safe path toward overcoming. Many ... nurse their wrath, and are filled with revengeful, hateful feelings.... Resist these wrong feelings, and you will experience a great change in your association with your fellowmen.49
SD	142	4	When self ceases to wrestle for the supremacy, and the heart is worked by the Holy Spirit, the soul lies perfectly passive; and then the image of God is mirrored upon the heart.50
------------------------His Principles are to Be Our Principles, May 16
SD	143	1	For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. John 13:15.
SD	143	2	In this age we are pained to see that children and youth look upon themselves as too far advanced to submit themselves to the control of their parents.... They seem to imagine that to yield to parental authority would be an evidence of weakness, a sacrifice of their rightful independence. But instead of being capable of governing themselves, they are vacillating and weak in purpose. Their moral powers are feeble, and they have but little spiritual power. The reason why they are thus weak and easily led away by temptation, is that they do not imitate the life of Christ....
SD	143	3	Instead of following in the footsteps of the divine Redeemer, they are filled with pride and self-esteem. They study inclination, and follow the bent of their unconsecrated minds.51
SD	143	4	In a moment He [Christ] distinguished between right and wrong, and placed sin in the light of God's commands, holding up the law as a mirror which reflected light upon wrong. It was this keen discrimination between right and wrong that often provoked Christ's brothers to anger. Yet His appeals and entreaties, and the sorrow expressed in His countenance, revealed such a tender, earnest love for them that they were ashamed of having tempted Him to deviate from His strict sense of justice and loyalty.52
SD	143	5	God will have a people zealous of good works, standing firm amid the pollutions of this degenerate age. There will be a people who hold so fast to the divine strength that they will be proof against every temptation. Evil communications in flaming handbills may seek to speak to their senses and corrupt their minds; yet they will be so united to God and angels that they will be as those who see not and hear not.... The youth may have principles so firm that the most powerful temptations of Satan will not draw them away from their allegiance.53
------------------------When He Was Reviled, He Reviled Not, May 17
SD	144	1	Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. 1 Peter 2:23.
SD	144	2	How often we feel that we have been dealt with unjustly, that things have been said concerning us that were untrue, and that we have been set in a false light before others. When we are thus tried, we shall need to keep strict guard over our spirit and our words. We shall need to have the love of Christ, that we may not cherish an unforgiving spirit. Let us not think that unless those who have injured us confess their wrongs, we are justified in withholding from them our forgiveness. We should not accumulate our grievances, holding them to our hearts until the one we think guilty has humbled his heart by repentance and confession.... However sorely they may have wounded us, we are not to cherish our grievances and sympathize with ourselves over our injuries, but as we hope to be pardoned for our offenses against God, so must we pardon those who have done evil to us.... When we are reviled, how strong is the temptation to revile in return, but in doing this we show ourselves as bad as the reviler. When tempted to revile, send up a silent prayer that God will give you His grace, and keep the tongue in silence....
SD	144	3	Jesus has given us an example that we should follow in His steps, and manifest compassion and love and good-will toward all. Let us cultivate a kind spirit, a spirit of forbearance, and tender, pitying love toward those, who, when under temptation, have done us grievous wrongs. If possible, let us heal these wounds, and close the door of temptation by removing every barrier the wrongdoer has erected between himself and us.... The Lord delights to bestow His blessings upon those who will honor Him, who will acknowledge His mercy, and show that they appreciate His love to them by manifesting the same gracious characteristic to those around them.54
------------------------He Was Misunderstood and Often Stood Alone, May 18
SD	145	1	I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me. Isaiah 63:3.
SD	145	2	What a support Christ would have found in His earthly relatives if they had believed in Him as one from heaven, and had co-operated with Him in doing the work of God! Their unbelief cast a shadow over the earthly life of Jesus. It was part of the bitterness of that cup of woe which He drained for us.... With their short measuring line they could not fathom the mission which He came to fulfill, and therefore could not sympathize with Him in His trials. Their coarse, unappreciative words showed that they had no true perception of His character, and did not discern that the divine blended with the human. They often saw Him full of grief; but instead of comforting Him, their spirit and words only wounded His heart....
SD	145	3	These things made His path a thorny one to travel. So pained was Christ by the misapprehension in His own home that it was a relief to Him to go where it did not exist. Often He could find relief only in being alone, and communing with His heavenly Father.
SD	145	4	Those who are called to suffer for Christ's sake, who have to endure misapprehension and distrust, even in their own home, may find comfort in the thought that Jesus has endured the same. He is moved with compassion for them. He bids them find companionship in Him, and relief where He found it, in communion with the Father. Those who accept Christ as their personal Saviour are not left as orphans to bear the trials of life alone. He receives them as members of the heavenly family; He bids them call His Father their Father. They are His "little ones," dear to the heart of God, bound to Him by the most tender and abiding ties. He has toward them an exceeding tenderness, as far surpassing what our father or mother has felt toward us in our helplessness as the divine is above the human.55
------------------------He Did Not Interfere With Those in Power, May 19
SD	146	1	Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. John 18:36.
SD	146	2	Today in the religious world there are multitudes who, as they believe, are working for the establishment of the kingdom of Christ as an earthly and temporal dominion. They desire to make our Lord the ruler of the kingdoms of this world, the ruler in its courts and camps, its legislative halls, its palaces and market places. They expect Him to rule through legal enactments, enforced by human authority. Since Christ is not now here in person, they themselves will undertake to act in His stead.... The establishment of such a kingdom is what the Jews desired in the days of Christ.... But He said, "My kingdom is not of this world." He would not accept the earthly throne.
SD	146	3	The government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive; on every hand were crying abuses,--extortion, intolerance, and grinding cruelty. Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms. He attacked no national abuses, nor condemned the national enemies. He did not interfere with the authority or administration of those in power. He who was our example kept aloof from earthly governments. Not because He was indifferent to the woes of men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely human and external measures. To be efficient, the cure must reach men individually, and must regenerate the heart.
SD	146	4	Not by the decisions of courts or councils or legislative assemblies, not by the patronage of worldly great men, is the kingdom of Christ established, but by the implanting of Christ's nature in humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."56
------------------------In Love for Others, May 20
SD	147	1	Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. Ephesians 5:1, 2.
SD	147	2	You are to follow God as dear children, to be obedient to all His requirements, walking in love as Christ also hath loved us.... Love was the element in which Christ moved and walked and worked. He came to embrace the world in the arms of His love....
SD	147	3	We are to follow the example set by Christ, and make Him our pattern, until we shall have the same love for others as He has manifested for us. He seeks to impress us with this profound lesson of love.... If your hearts have been given to selfishness, let Christ imbue you with His love. He desires that we shall love Him fully, and encourages, yes, even commands, that we shall love others as He has given us an example. He has made love the badge of our discipleship.... This is the measurement to which you are to reach,--"Love one another; as I have loved you." What height, what depth and breadth of love! This love is not simply to embrace a few favorites, it is to reach to the lowliest and humblest of God's creatures. Jesus says, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." ...
SD	147	4	The love and sympathy which Jesus would have us give to others does not savor of sentimentalism, which is a snare to the soul; it is a love that is of heavenly extraction, which Jesus exemplifies by both precept and example. But instead of manifesting this love, how often we are alienated and estranged one from another.... The result is estrangement from God, a dwarfed experience, a blighting of Christian growth....
SD	147	5	The love of Jesus is an active principle, uniting heart with heart in bonds of Christian fellowship. Every one who enters heaven will on earth have been perfected in love; for in heaven the Redeemer and the redeemed will be objects of our interest.57
------------------------In Compassion, May 21
SD	148	1	And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. Matthew 14:14.
SD	148	2	Let me point you to the life of Christ, to His compassion, His humility and love, His inexpressible tenderness. You are to copy His example. God has given you life and all the rich blessings that make it enjoyable, and in return He has claims upon you for service, for gratitude, for love, for obedience to His law. These claims are of the first importance, and cannot be lightly disregarded; but He requires nothing of you that will not make you happier, even in this life.58
SD	148	3	The Majesty of heaven identifies His interests with that of suffering humanity. Our associates and companions are in need of heartfelt kindness and tender sympathy.... It is impossible to grow up into Christ our living head, unless we practice the lesson He has given us of sympathy, compassion, and love. It is impossible to reflect the image of Christ unless this love which is of heavenly birth, is in the soul. No one will pass the portals of the city of God who does not reflect this attribute.59
SD	148	4	One unsanctified act on the part of our Saviour, would have marred the pattern, and He could not have been a perfect example for us; but although He was tempted in all points like as we are, He was yet without one taint of sin. He proclaims His character by the mouth of the prophet saying, "I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight." All who profess the name of Christ should delight in these things, by conversation and conduct making manifest to the world that they are copying the Pattern.... Whoever believes in Christ must do the works of Christ. The Lord has been presented before them as one who exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, and these are the fruits that are borne by the genuine Christian.60
------------------------In Cheerfulness, May 22
SD	149	1	And now I exhort you to be of good cheer. Acts 27:22.
SD	149	2	Jesus lived in a peasant's home, and faithfully and cheerfully acted His part in bearing the burdens of the household.... Jesus carried into His labor cheerfulness and tact. It requires much patience and spirituality to bring Bible religion into the home life and into the workshop, to bear the strain of worldly business, and yet keep the eye single to the glory of God. This is where Christ was a helper. He was never so full of worldly care as to have no time or thought for heavenly things. Often He expressed the gladness of His heart by singing psalms and heavenly songs. Often the dwellers in Nazareth heard His voice raised in praise and thanksgiving to God. He held communion with heaven in song; and as His companions complained of weariness from labor, they were cheered by the sweet melody from His lips. His praise seemed to banish the evil angels, and, like incense, fill the place with fragrance.61
SD	149	3	Do not frown and fret when any task is required of you, but cheerfully carry the little burdens.... They are nothing but plain, homely, every-day duties, and may appear to you very small and insignificant, but some one must do them. If you go about them with quick step, and a heart glad because you do something to lighten the cares of your parents, you will be a blessing in the home. You do not know how much good you can do by always wearing a cheerful, sunny face, and watching for opportunities to help.... Day by day you are building for eternity. Fashion your characters after the divine model. Weave into them all the kindness, thoughtful obedience, pains-taking, and love that you can.... Cultivate quick sympathy; always have a cheerful, happy face, and be ready to lend a helping hand to those who need your aid.... He [God] will make an accurate entry of every deed done to His glory.... And in the great day of final accounts you will receive a glorious reward.62
------------------------In Soul Winning, May 23
SD	150	1	And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 4:19.
SD	150	2	Jesus expects much of the youthful soldiers of His army, and let it be your determination that you will not disappoint your Captain and Leader. You are to wear His armor, to be marshaled under His banner, and become co-laborers with Him in conquering His enemies and extending His kingdom.... You cannot betray sacred trust without imperiling your soul. You are to be found loyal and true, obedient to every word of command, presenting to others the highest motive to action, and showing them the attractions of the service of Christ. You are to show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.63
SD	150	3	Those who have experienced the love of Christ cannot be idlers in the Master's vineyard. They will see opportunities for helping others in their steps to Christ. Partaking of Christ's love, they will labor for the souls of others. Let every soul copy the Pattern, and become missionaries in the highest sense, winning souls to Jesus.64
SD	150	4	In view of what Christ has done for us, and what He suffered for sinners, we should, out of pure, disinterested love for souls, imitate His example by sacrificing our own pleasure and convenience for their good. The joy set before Christ, which sustained Him in all His sufferings, was the salvation of poor sinners. This should be our joy, and the spur of our ambition in the cause of our Master. In so doing we please God, and manifest our love and devotion to Him as His servants. He first loved us, and withheld not from us His beloved Son, but gave Him from His bosom to die that we might live. Love, true love, for our fellow-men, evinces love to God.65
SD	150	5	Those who are in vital contact with Christ will manifest it in their actions.... They will win souls to Christ, and bring sheaves to the heavenly garner.66
------------------------In Doing Good and Blessing Others, May 24
SD	151	1	God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. Acts 10:38.
SD	151	2	Christ wrought miracle after miracle when He was on this earth. In this work He showed what God can do for afflicted bodies and souls.... He was constantly ministering to others, improving every opportunity offered Him. Even in His childhood He spoke words of comfort and tenderness to young and old.... He was an example of what all children may strive to be.... In His words and actions He manifested tender sympathy for all. His companionship was a healing, soothing balm to the disheartened and depressed.67
SD	151	3	He possessed patience which nothing could ruffle, and truthfulness which would not be turned aside. His willing hands and feet were ever ready to serve others, and lighten the burdens of His parents.68
SD	151	4	Be careful to follow the example of Jesus. As the sun-flower is constantly turning its open blossom to the sun, so let your heart, your thoughts, ever turn to Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness. Do not make self a center, and your pleasures and your wishes first. Seek the good of others; study to be a blessing to them, and to glorify your Creator.69
SD	151	5	All around us are heard the wails of a world's sorrow. On every hand are the needy and distressed. It is ours to aid in relieving and softening life's hardships and misery. The wants of the soul, only the love of Christ can satisfy. If Christ is abiding in us, our hearts will be full of divine sympathy. The sealed fountains of earnest, Christlike love will be unsealed.
SD	151	6	There are many from whom hope has departed. Bring back the sunshine to them. Many have lost their courage.... Pray for these souls. Bring them to Jesus. Tell them that there is a balm in Gilead and a Physician there.70
------------------------In Recognizing God as the Giver of All Gifts, May 25
SD	152	1	Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Psalm 68:19.
SD	152	2	Under the Jewish economy, on the birth of children an offering was made to God, by His own appointment. Now we see parents taking special pains to present gifts to their children upon their birthdays; they make this an occasion of honoring the child, as though honor were due to the human being.... For life, health, food, and clothing, no less than for the hope of eternal life, we are indebted to the Giver of all mercies; and it is due to God to recognize His gifts, and to present our offerings of gratitude to our greatest benefactor. These birthday gifts are recognized in heaven.
SD	152	3	If Christian parents had accustomed their children to present offerings to God in acknowledgment of His great gift of salvation to men, how different would be the character of the young. Their minds would have been called away from themselves to the blessed Saviour. They would have been taught to feel that He loved them, and that He is the source of all blessing; that He is their hope of happiness and eternal life.
SD	152	4	If this kind of education had been given to our children, we should today see far less selfishness, far less envy and jealousy; we should have more manly young men and womanly young women. We should see the youth coming up with moral strength, with pure principles, with well-balanced minds and lovely characters, because the Model would be ever before them; they would be impressed with the importance of copying the excellence of Jesus, the Pattern.... God wants the youth and those of mature age to look to Him, to believe in Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and to have Him abiding in the heart; then a new life will quicken every faculty of the being. The divine Comforter will be with them, to strengthen them in their weakness, and guide them in their perplexity.... It will make plain to them the path of life.71
------------------------In Forgiveness, May 26
SD	153	1	Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. Luke 23:34.
SD	153	2	Christ is our example. He placed Himself at the head of the human family to accomplish a work the importance of which men do not comprehend because they do not realize the privileges and possibilities before them as members of the human family of God.... His mercy was not weakness, but a terrible power to punish sin.... yet a power to draw to it the love of humanity. Through Christ Justice is enabled to forgive without sacrificing one jot of its exalted holiness.72
SD	153	3	Christ taught us to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," and added, "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive your trespasses." ...
SD	153	4	Will you not, if any one has done you a wrong, and is too proud and stubborn to say to you, "I repent," go to the offender and say, "I love you for Christ's sake, and I forgive you the injury you have done me"? Jesus will witness and approve of this deed of love; and as you do to others, it shall be done again to you.73
SD	153	5	We are to have a spirit of pity, of compassion toward those who have trespassed against us, whether or not they confess their faults. It they fail to repent and make confession, their sins will stand registered in the books above to confront them in the day of judgment; but if they say, "I repent," then ... we are freely to forgive from the heart their trespasses against us.74
SD	153	6	True happiness does not consist in the possession of wealth or position, but in the possession of a pure, clean heart, cleansed by obedience to the truth.... To every one is given the opportunity to carry out the principles of heaven. The forgiving of injuries, not the avenging of them, is an exhibition of that wisdom which is true goodness. Christlike love for the men through whom the Lord has wrought is a manifestation of real transformation of character.75
------------------------We are to be Perfect as Christ is Perfect, May 27
SD	154	1	And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Hebrews 5:9.
SD	154	2	Our Saviour took up the true relationship of a human being as the Son of God. We are sons and daughters of God. In order to know how to behave ourselves circumspectly, we must follow where Christ leads the way. For thirty years He lived the life of a perfect man, meeting the highest standard of perfection.76
SD	154	3	Our work is to strive to attain in our sphere of action the perfection that Christ in His life on the earth attained in every phase of character.77
SD	154	4	To go forward without stumbling, we must have the assurance that a hand all-powerful will hold us up, and an infinite pity be exercised toward us if we fall. God alone can at all times hear our cry for help.
SD	154	5	It is a solemn thought that the removal of one safeguard from the conscience, the failure to fulfill one good resolution, the formation of one wrong habit, may result not only in our own ruin, but in the ruin of those who have put confidence in us. Our only safety is to follow where the steps of the Master lead the way, to trust for protection implicitly to Him who says, "Follow me." Our constant prayer should be, "Hold up my goings in thy path, O Lord, that my footsteps slip not."78
SD	154	6	Every faculty with which the Creator has endowed us should be cultivated to the highest degree of perfection, that we may be able to do the greatest amount of good of which we are capable. In order to purify and refine our characters, we need the grace given us of Christ, that will enable us to see and correct our deficiencies, and improve that which is excellent in our characters.79
SD	154	7	The Son of God was faultless. We must aim at this perfection, and overcome as He overcame, if we would have a seat at His right hand.80
------------------------We are to be Holy as Christ is Holy, May 28
SD	155	1	Be ye holy; for I am holy. 1 Peter 1:16.
SD	155	2	With our limited powers we are to be as holy in our sphere as God is holy in His sphere.81
SD	155	3	God expects us to build characters in accordance with the Pattern set before us. We are to lay brick upon brick, adding grace to grace, finding our weak points and correcting them in accordance with the directions given. When a crack is seen in the walls of a mansion, we know that something about the building is wrong. In our character building, cracks are often seen. Unless these defects are remedied, the house will fall when the tempest of trial beats upon it.
SD	155	4	God gives us strength, reasoning power, time, in order that we may build characters on which He can place His stamp of approval. He desires each child of His to build a noble character, by the doing of pure, noble deeds, that in the end He may present a symmetrical structure, a fair temple, honored by man and God.
SD	155	5	In our character building we must build on Christ. He is the sure foundation--a foundation which can never be moved. The tempest of temptation and trial cannot move the building which is riveted to the Eternal Rock. He who would grow into a beautiful building for the Lord must cultivate every power of the being. It is only by the right use of the talents that the character can develop harmoniously. Thus we bring to the foundation that which is represented in the Word as gold, silver, precious stones--material that will stand the test of God's purifying fires.82
SD	155	6	Holiness is ... an entire surrender of the will to God; it is living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God; it is doing the will of our heavenly Father; it is trusting God in trial, in darkness as well as in light; it is walking by faith and not by sight; it is relying on God with unquestioning confidence, and resting in His love.83
------------------------We are to Overcome as Christ Overcame, May 29
SD	156	1	These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33.
SD	156	2	Satan made stronger attacks upon Christ than he will ever make upon us. There was much at stake with him, whether Christ or himself should be conqueror. If Christ resisted his most powerful temptations, and Satan did not succeed in leading Him to sin, he knew that he must lose his power, and finally be punished with everlasting destruction. Therefore Satan worked with mighty power to lead Christ to do a wrong action, for then he would gain advantage over Him.... You can never be tempted in so determined and cruel manner as was our Saviour. Satan was upon His path every moment.84
SD	156	3	Will man take hold of divine power, and with determination and perseverance resist Satan, as Christ has given him example in His conflict with the foe in the wilderness of temptation? God cannot save man against his will from the power of Satan's artifices. Man must work with his human power, aided by the divine power of Christ, to resist and to conquer at any cost to himself. In short, man must overcome as Christ overcame. And then, through the victory that it is his privilege to gain by the all-powerful name of Jesus, he may become an heir of God and joint-heir with Jesus Christ. This could not be the case if Christ alone did all the overcoming. Man must do his part; he must be victor on his own account, through the strength and grace that Christ gives him. Man must be a co-worker with Christ in the labor of overcoming, and then he will be partaker with Christ in His glory.85
SD	156	4	The Saviour overcame to show man how he may overcome. All the temptations of Satan, Christ met with the Word of God. By trusting in God's promises, He received power to obey God's commandments, and the tempter could gain no advantage.86
------------------------We Follow Christ in the Ordinance of Humility, May 30
SD	157	1	If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. John 13:14, 15.
SD	157	2	When the disciples entered the supper room, their hearts were full of resentful feelings. Judas pressed next to Christ on the left side; John was on the right. If there was a highest place, Judas was determined to have it, and that place was thought to be next to Christ....
SD	157	3	Another cause of dissension had arisen. At a feast it was customary for a servant to wash the feet of the guests.... The pitcher, the basin, and the towel were there, in readiness for the feet washing; but no servant was present, and it was the disciples' part to perform it.... Jesus waited for a time to see what they would do. Then He, the divine Teacher, rose from the table. Laying aside the outer garment that would have impeded His movements, He took a towel, and girded Himself.... "After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet." ... So Christ expressed His love for His disciples.87
SD	157	4	The celebration of these ordinances is the fulfilling of the command, "If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet...." What a place is this for hushing controversies, for forgiving those who have done us any injury. This is the time, if one has anything against his brother, to make it right, to settle every difficulty. Let there be mutual forgiveness. Let no strange flame be brought to the altar. Let no malice, no hatred, be cherished by those who meet round the communion table.88
SD	157	5	Whenever this ordinance is rightly celebrated, the children of God are brought into a holy relationship, to help and bless each other.89
------------------------We Follow Christ in the Communion Service, May 31
SD	158	1	After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 1 Corinthians 11:25.
SD	158	2	Christ was standing at the point of transition between two economies and their two great festivals.... As He ate the Passover with His disciples, He instituted in its place the service that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice. The national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was to be observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages.... Till He shall come the second time in power and glory, this ordinance is to be celebrated.90
SD	158	3	It is at these, His own appointments, that Christ meets His people, and energizes them by His presence.... All who come with their faith fixed upon Him will be greatly blessed. All who neglect these seasons of divine privilege will suffer loss. Of them it may appropriately be said, "Ye are not all clean." ...
SD	158	4	But the Communion service was not to be a season of sorrowing. This was not its purpose.... They are not to recall the differences between them and their brethren. The preparatory service has embraced all this.... Now they come to meet with Christ. They are not to stand in the shadow of the cross, but in its saving light. They are to open the soul to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. With hearts cleansed by Christ's most precious blood, in full consciousness of His presence, although unseen, they are to hear His words, "Peace I leave with you." ...
SD	158	5	The Communion service points to Christ's second coming. It was designed to keep this hope vivid in the minds of the disciples.... In their tribulation they found comfort in the hope of their Lord's return. Unspeakably precious to them was the thought, "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come."91
------------------------Choose Today to Serve Christ Always, June 1
SD	159	1	And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15.
SD	159	2	We have been bought with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish. What a price is this, unparalleled, infinite! But though Christ has bought us, and invites us to come to Him, still the world holds out its attractions to us, and strives for the mastery. Shall love for God, or love for the world, triumph in the conflict? Satan and his evil angels are watching at every avenue leading to the human heart, seeking to force souls to accept evil suggestions. The enemy presents bribes to win us to the world, as he presented bribes to Christ in the wilderness of temptation. Unless we depend upon a power out of and above ourselves, the enemy will succeed in accomplishing our ruin. But in looking to Jesus, by studying His life and character, by earnestly desiring to be like Him, our minds will be balanced in the right direction, that we may overcome selfishness, and choose a course of righteousness....
SD	159	3	I appeal to the youth: "Choose you this day whom ye will serve." There is a necessity for a decided choice; for Jesus said, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." ...
SD	159	4	If your heart is filled with love to Christ, it will be demonstrated that He is stronger than the passions which have ruled you, whose indulgence have undermined noble impulses, and left the soul to the mercy of Satan's temptations.... When the heart of the sinner is touched, he yields his will to God's will.... He sees in Jesus matchless charms, and his heart is captivated.1
------------------------Choose Christ as our Captain, June 2
SD	160	1	And he said ... as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? Joshua 5:14.
SD	160	2	When Joshua went forth in the morning before the taking of Jericho, there appeared before him a warrior fully equipped for battle. And Joshua asked, "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" and He answered, "As Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come." If the eyes of Joshua had been opened ... and he could have endured the sight, he would have seen the angels of the Lord encamped about the children of Israel; for the trained army of heaven had come to fight for the people of God, and the Captain of the Lord's host was there to command.... It was not Israel, but the Captain of the Lord's host that took Jericho. But Israel had their part to act to show their faith in the Captain of their salvation.
SD	160	3	Battles are to be fought every day. A great warfare is going on over every soul, between the prince of darkness and the Prince of life. There is a great battle to be fought, ... but you are not to do the main fighting here. As God's agent you are to yield yourselves to Him, that He may plan and direct and fight the battle for you, with your co-operation. The Prince of life is at the head of His work. He is to be with you in your daily battle with self, that you may be true to principle; that passion, when warring for the mastery, may be subdued by the grace of Christ; that you come off more than conqueror through Him that hath loved us. Jesus has been over the ground. He knows the power of every temptation. He knows just how to meet every emergency, and how to guide you through every path of danger.2
SD	160	4	He who has given His precious life because He loved you, and wanted you to be happy, will be a Captain who will always be mindful of your interest.3
------------------------Counsel of a True Friend Rejoices the Heart, June 3
SD	161	1	Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel. Proverbs 27:9.
SD	161	2	Things will go wrong with every one; sadness and discouragement press every soul; then a personal presence, a friend who will comfort and impart strength, will turn back the darts of the enemy that are aimed to destroy. Christian friends are not half as plentiful as they should be. In hours of temptation, in a crisis, what a value is a true friend! Satan at such times sends along his agents to cause the trembling limbs to stumble; but the true friends who will counsel, who will impart magnetic hopefulness, the calming faith that uplifts the soul,--oh, such help is worth more than precious pearls.4
SD	161	3	The life of Samuel from early childhood had been a life of piety and devotion. He had been placed under the care of Eli in his youth, and the loveliness of his character drew forth the warm affection of the aged priest. He was kind, generous, diligent, obedient, and respectful.... It was a singular thing that between Eli, the chief magistrate of the nation, and the simple child so warm a friendship should exist. Samuel was helpful and affectionate, and no father ever loved his child more tenderly than did Eli this youth....
SD	161	4	How touching to see youth and old age relying one upon the other, the youth looking up to the aged for counsel and wisdom, the aged looking to the youth for help and sympathy. This is as it should be. God would have the young possess such qualification of character that they shall find delight in the friendship of the old, that they may be united in the endearing bonds of affection to those who are approaching the borders of the grave.5
SD	161	5	A strong, helpful grasp of the hand of a true friend is worth more than gold and silver.6
------------------------Seek the Company of the Wise, June 4
SD	162	1	He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Proverbs 13:20.
SD	162	2	From the earliest years it is necessary to weave into the character principles of stern integrity, that the youth may reach the highest standard of manhood and womanhood.... The youth should seriously consider what shall be their purpose and life work, and lay the foundation in such a way that their habits shall be free from all taint of corruption. If they would stand in a position where they shall influence others, they must be self-reliant....
SD	162	3	We may learn a lesson from the lily, and although surrounded with influences that would tend to corrupt the morals, and bring ruin upon the soul, we may refuse to be corrupted, and place ourselves where evil association shall not corrupt our hearts. Individually the youth should seek for association with those who are toiling upward with unfaltering steps.7
SD	162	4	Examine your own hearts, judge your own course. Consider what associates you are choosing. Do you seek the company of the wise, or are you willing to choose worldly associates, companions who fear not God, and obey not the gospel?8
SD	162	5	The only safe-guard for children and youth, is the love and fear of God. Let them choose for their companions those who give evidence that they will encourage good purposes, orderly habits, and uprightness of character. Let them choose for companions those who practise the Bible truth, and walk according to the light that shines upon their pathway.9
SD	162	6	If you would have broad views, noble thoughts and aspirations, choose associations that will strengthen right principles. Let every thought and the purpose of every action bend to the securing of the future life, with eternal happiness.10
------------------------We Choose Our Associates Carefully, June 5
SD	163	1	Put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them. Numbers 6:27.
SD	163	2	God's Word places great stress upon the influence of association, even upon men and women. How much greater is its power on the developing mind and character of children and youth. The company they keep, the principles they adopt, the habits they form, will decide the question of their usefulness here, and of their future, eternal interest....
SD	163	3	Through contact with the irreligious, the pleasure-loving, and the corrupt, many, many youth lose the simplicity and purity, the faith in God, and the spirit of self-sacrifice that Christian fathers and mothers have cherished and guarded by careful instruction and earnest prayer....
SD	163	4	As a rule, men and women who have broad ideas, unselfish purposes, noble aspirations, are those in whom these characteristics were developed by their associations in early years. In all His dealings with Israel, God urged upon them the importance of guarding the associations of their children. All the arrangements of civil, religious, and social life were made with a view to preserving the children from harmful companionship, and making them, from their earliest years, familiar with the precepts and principles of the law of God. The object-lesson given at the birth of the nation was of a nature deeply to impress all hearts. Before the last terrible judgment came upon the Egyptians in the death of the first-born, God commanded His people to gather their children into their own homes. The doorpost of every house was marked with blood, and within the protection assured by this token all were to abide. So today parents who love and fear God are to keep their children under "the bond of the covenant,"--within the protection of those sacred influences made possible through Christ's redeeming blood.11
------------------------We Do Not Consent to Enticement of Sinners, June 6
SD	164	1	My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.... For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. Proverbs 1:10, 16.
SD	164	2	It is not safe for the professed follower of Christ to associate with the careless and reckless; for it is an easy matter to come to view things as they do, and to lose all sense of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Guard yourself on this one point in particular,--do not be influenced and led astray by those you have reason to know, by their words and works, are not in connection with God.12
SD	164	3	Hear the voice of God: "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." Those who are controlled by the Spirit of God are to keep their perceptive faculties awake; for the time has come when their integrity and loyalty to God and to one another will be tested. Do not commit the least injustice in order to gain an advantage for yourselves. Do unto others, in small matters as well as in great, as you would that others should do unto you. God says, "Ye are my witnesses." You are to act in My place. Could the curtain be rolled back, you would see the heavenly universe looking with intense interest upon the one who is tempted. If you do not yield to the enemy, there is joy in heaven. When the first suggestion of wrong is heard, dart a prayer to heaven, and then firmly resist the temptation to tamper with the principles condemned in God's Word. The first time the temptation comes, meet it in such a decided manner that it will never be repeated. Turn from the one who has ventured to present wrong practises to you. Resolutely turn from the tempter, saying, I must separate from your influence; for I know you are not walking in the footsteps of our Saviour.
SD	164	4	Even though you may not feel able to speak a word to those who are working on wrong principles, leave them. Your withdrawal and silence may do more than words.... Have courage to do right.13
------------------------We Choose a Life Companion Who Loves God, June 7
SD	165	1	Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Amos 3:3.
SD	165	2	The Lord has not changed.... He is true, merciful, compassionate, faithful in the performance of His Word, both in promises and threatenings. One of the greatest dangers that besets the people of God today, is that of association with the ungodly; especially in uniting themselves in marriage with unbelievers. With many, the love for the human eclipses the love for the divine. They take the first step in backsliding by venturing to disregard the Lord's express command; and complete apostasy is too often the result. It has ever proved a dangerous thing for men to carry out their own will in opposition to the requirements of God. Yet it is a hard lesson for men to learn that God means what He says. As a rule, those who choose for their friends and companions, persons who reject Christ and trample upon God's law, eventually become of the same mind and spirit.14
SD	165	3	If we would rise to the highest moral excellence, and attain to the perfection of religious character, what discrimination should be used in the formation of friendships, and the choice of a companion for life....
SD	165	4	Many who started out in life with as fair and promising a morning, in their limited sphere, as Solomon had in his exalted station, through one false and irrevocable step in the marriage relation, lose their souls, and draw others down to ruin with them.... Frivolous companions, who have no depth of principle, turn away the hearts of those who were once noble and true, to vanity, corrupting pleasures, and downright vice.15
SD	165	5	We should ever feel a deep interest in the salvation of the impenitent, and should manifest toward them a spirit of kindness and courtesy; but we can safely choose for our friends only those who are the friends of God.16
------------------------Not a Favored Few, But Many Friends, June 8
SD	166	1	A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17.
SD	166	2	Sympathy is good, wisely given, but it must be judiciously imparted, with a knowledge that the subject is deserving sympathy. What shall be said of receiving advice and counsel? Proverbs 25:9-12. "Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself; and discover not a secret to another: lest he that heareth it put thee to shame.... A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear." When we can associate together to help one another heavenward, when the conversation is upon divine and heavenly things, then it amounts to something to talk; but when the conversation centers upon self and upon earthly and unimportant matters, silence is golden. The obedient ear will receive reproof with humility, patience, and teachableness. Then only do our communications with each other prove beneficial, and fulfil all that God would have them. When both sides of the divine instruction are fulfilled, the wise reprover does his duty, and the obedient ear hears to a purpose and is benefited.17
SD	166	3	Every association we form, however limited, exerts some influence upon us. The extent to which we yield to that influence will be determined by the degree of intimacy, the constancy of the intercourse, and our love and veneration for the one with whom we associate.18
SD	166	4	Your good will, your unselfish acts, will not be to a favored few, but to all with whom you associate. Thus you will form friends and attachments that are dear and lasting; your own deeds will be reflected back on yourself.19
SD	166	5	Through the social relations, Christianity comes in contact with the world. Every one who has received the divine illumination is to brighten the pathway of those who know not the Light of Life.20
------------------------Jesus is a Friend That is Closer Than a Brother, June 9
SD	167	1	There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24.
SD	167	2	Disappointments you will have, but ever bear in mind that Jesus, the living, risen Saviour, is your Redeemer, your Restorer. He loves you, and it is better to share His love than to sit with princes and be separated from Him....
SD	167	3	Come daily to Jesus, who loves you. Open your heart to Him freely. In Him there is no disappointment. You will never find a better counsellor, a safer guide, a more sure defense.21
SD	167	4	Through all your trials ... you have had a never-failing Friend, who has said, "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."22
SD	167	5	But how often is the Lord neglected for the society of others, and for things of no value! ... We dare not let His name languish on our lips, and His love and memory die out of our hearts. "Well," says the cold, formal professor, "this is making Christ too much like a human being;" but the Word of God warrants us to have these very ideas. It is the want of these practical, definite views of Christ, that hinders so many from having a genuine experience in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is the reason that many are fearing and doubting and mourning. Their ideas of Christ and the plan of salvation are vague, dreary, and confused.... If ever there was a time when men needed the presence of Christ at their right hand, it is now, so that when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.23
SD	167	6	Communion with Christ--how unspeakably precious! Such communion it is our privilege to enjoy, if we will seek it.24
SD	167	7	The everlasting assurance shall be yours that you have a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.25
------------------------Happy Home Atmosphere Promotes Health, June 10
SD	168	1	Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144:15.
SD	168	2	A home where love dwells and where it finds expression in looks, in words, in acts, is a place where angels delight to dwell....
SD	168	3	Let the sunshine of love, cheer, and happy content enter your own hearts, and let its sweet influence pervade the home.... The atmosphere thus created will be to the children what air and sunshine are to the vegetable world, promoting health and vigor of mind and body.26
SD	168	4	Educate the soul to cheerfulness, to thankfulness, and to the expression of gratitude to God for the great love wherewith He hath loved us.... Christian cheerfulness is the very beauty of holiness.27
SD	168	5	While grief and anxiety cannot remedy a single evil, they can do great harm; but cheerfulness and hope, while they brighten the pathway of others, "are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh."28
SD	168	6	The mother should cultivate a cheerful, contented, happy disposition. Every effort in this direction will be abundantly repaid in both the physical well-being and the moral character of her children. A cheerful spirit will promote the happiness of her family, and in a very great degree improve her own health.29
SD	168	7	The healthfulness of youth requires exercise, cheerfulness, and a happy, pleasant atmosphere surrounding them, for the development of physical health and symmetrical character.30
SD	168	8	As children of the light, God would have us cultivate a cheerful, happy spirit, that we may show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.31
------------------------Labor Results in Health and Happiness, June 11
SD	169	1	The Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. Deuteronomy 16:15.
SD	169	2	A faithful fulfillment of home duties, filling the position you can occupy to the best advantage, be it ever so simple and humble, is truly elevating. This divine influence is needed. In this there is peace and sacred joy. It possesses healing power. It will secretly and insensibly soothe the wounds of the soul, and even the sufferings of the body. Peace of mind, which comes from pure and holy motives and actions, will give free and vigorous spring to all the organs of the body. Inward peace and a conscience void of offense toward God, will quicken and invigorate the intellect, like dew distilled upon the tender plants. The will is then rightly directed and controlled, and is more decided and yet free from perverseness. The meditations are pleasing because they are sanctified. The serenity of mind which you may possess, will bless all with whom you associate.... The more you taste this heavenly peace and quietude of mind, the more it will increase. It is an animated, living pleasure which does not throw all the moral energies into a stupor, but awakens them to increased activity. Perfect peace is an attribute of Heaven which angels possess.32
SD	169	3	Never will children and youth feel the peace of contentment until by the faithful performance of home duties they relieve the tired hands and weary heart and brain of the mother.... Those who neglect to bear part of the responsibilities of the home are the ones who are troubled with loneliness and discontent; for they have not learned the truth that those who are happy are happy because they share the daily routine of work.33
SD	169	4	Well-directed labor is just what they require to make them strong, vigorous, cheerful, happy, and courageous to meet the various trials with which this life is beset.34
------------------------Health and Happiness in the Out-of-Doors, June 12
SD	170	1	O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. Psalm 104:24.
SD	170	2	From out-of-door life, men, women and children will gain the desire to be pure and guileless. By the influence of the quickening, reviving, life-giving properties of nature's great medicinal resources, the functions of the body are strengthened, the intellect awakened, the imagination quickened, the spirits enlivened. The mind is prepared to appreciate the beauties of God's Word.35
SD	170	3	The pure air has in it health and life. As it is breathed in, it has an invigorating effect on the whole system.36
SD	170	4	In itself the beauty of nature leads the soul away from sin and worldly attractions, and toward purity, peace, and God.
SD	170	5	For this reason the cultivation of the soil is good work for children and youth. It brings them into direct contact with nature and nature's God.... To the nervous child or youth, ... it will be especially valuable. There is health and happiness for him in the study of nature; and the impressions made will not fade out of his mind, for they will be associated with objects that are continually before his eyes.
SD	170	6	In the natural world, God has placed in the hands of the children of men the key to unlock the treasure-house of His word. The unseen is illustrated by the seen; divine wisdom, eternal truth, infinite grace, are understood by the things that God has made.... God has made this world fair because He delights in our happiness.37
SD	170	7	In order for children and youth to have health, cheerfulness, vivacity, and well-developed muscles and brains, they should be much in the open air, and have well-regulated employment and amusement.38
SD	170	8	True happiness is found, not in the indulgence of pride and luxury, but in communion with God through His created work.39
------------------------By Preserving the Living Machinery, June 13
SD	171	1	Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3 John 1:2.
SD	171	2	The right use of one's self is the most valuable lesson that can be learned. We are not to do brain work, and stop there, or make physical exertion, and stop there; we are to make the best use of the various parts that compose the human machinery,--brain, bone, muscle, head, and heart.40
SD	171	3	The right use of one's self includes the whole circle of obligations to one's self, to the world, and to God. Then use the physical powers proportionately with the mental powers. Every action derives its quality from the motive which prompts it, and if the motives are not high, and pure, and unselfish, the mind and character will never become well balanced....
SD	171	4	You are the Lord's; for He created you. You are His by redemption; for He gave His life for you.... Preserve every portion of the living machinery, that you may use it for God. Preserve it for Him. Your health depends upon the right use of your physical organism. Do not misuse any portion of your God-given powers, physical, mental, or moral. All your habits are to be brought under the control of a mind that is itself under the control of God.
SD	171	5	If young men and women would grow up to the full stature of Christ Jesus, they must treat themselves intelligently.... Unhealthful habits of every order--late hours at night, late hours in bed in the morning, rapid eating--are to be overcome. Masticate your food thoroughly. Let there be no hurried eating. Have your room well ventilated day and night, and perform useful physical labor.... By properly using our powers to their fullest extent in the most useful employment, by keeping every organ in health, by so preserving every organ that mind, sinew, and muscle shall work harmoniously, we may do the most precious service for God.41
------------------------Careful Habits Ensure Good Health, June 14
SD	172	1	I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 30:17.
SD	172	2	The mind does not wear out nor break down so often on account of diligent employment and hard study, as on account of eating improper food at improper times, and of careless inattention to the laws of health.... Irregular hours for eating and sleeping sap the brain forces. The apostle Paul declares that he who would be successful in reaching a high standard of godliness must be temperate in all things. Eating, drinking, and dressing all have a direct bearing upon our spiritual advancement.42
SD	172	3	Health is a blessing which few appreciate.... Many eat at all hours, regardless of the laws of health. Then gloom covers the mind. How can men be honored with divine enlightenment when they are so reckless in their habits, so inattentive to the light which God has given in regard to these things.... Life is a holy trust, which God alone can enable us to keep, and to use to His glory. But He who formed the wonderful structure of the body will take special care to keep it in order if men do not work at cross-purposes with Him.43
SD	172	4	Health, life, and happiness are the result of obedience to physical laws governing our bodies. If our will and way are in accordance with God's will and way; if we do the pleasure of our Creator, He will keep the human organism in good condition, and restore the moral, mental, and physical powers, in order that He may work through us to His glory.... If we co-operate with Him in this work, health and happiness, peace and usefulness, are the sure result.44
SD	172	5	He did not die for us in order that we might become slaves to evil habits, but that we might become the sons and daughters of God, serving Him with every power of the being.45
SD	172	6	My dear young friends, advance step by step, until all your habits shall be in harmony with the laws of life and health.46
------------------------We Are to Be Clean Inwardly and Outwardly, June 15
SD	173	1	Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. Ezekiel 36:25.
SD	173	2	In order to be acceptable in God's sight, the leaders of the people were to give strict heed to the sanitary condition of the armies of Israel, even when they went forth to battle. Every soul, from the commander-in-chief to the lowest soldier in the army, was sacredly charged to preserve cleanliness in his person and surroundings; for the Israelites were chosen by God as His peculiar people. They were sacredly bound to be holy in body and spirit. They were not to be careless or neglectful of their personal duties. In every respect they were to preserve cleanliness. They were to allow nothing untidy or unwholesome in their surroundings, nothing which would taint the purity of the atmosphere.47
SD	173	3	The Ten Commandments, spoken by Jehovah from Sinai, cannot live in the hearts of persons of disorderly, filthy habits. If ancient Israel could not so much as listen to the proclamation of that holy law, unless they had obeyed the injunction of Jehovah, and had cleansed their clothing, how can that sacred law be written upon the hearts of persons who are not cleanly in person, in clothing, or in their houses? It is impossible.48
SD	173	4	Heaven is a clean and holy place. God is pure and holy. All who come into His presence should take heed to His directions, and have the body and the clothing in a pure, clean condition, thus showing respect to themselves and to Him. The heart must also be sanctified. Those who do this will not dishonor His sacred name by worshiping Him while their hearts are polluted and their apparel is untidy. God sees these things. He marks the heart-preparation, the thoughts, the cleanliness ... of those who worship Him.49
SD	173	5	Angels are impressed with the things which they behold in the outward surroundings of God's people.50
------------------------Daniel Blessed for Choosing the Best, June 16
SD	174	1	And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. Daniel 1:15.
SD	174	2	The youth should stand in a position where their hearts may be wholly the Lord's; where they are honoring God with their strength. God will then honor them by giving them knowledge and wisdom. Thus did Daniel in the courts of Babylon, standing true to principle amid the corruptions of the heathen. "Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank."51
SD	174	3	Daniel and his companions knew not what would be the result of their decision; they knew not but that it would cost them their lives; but they determined to keep the straight path of strict temperance even when in the courts of licentious Babylon.52
SD	174	4	By the example of Daniel and his fellows in Babylon, we see that it is impossible to reach the standard which that Lord would have His children reach, and practise an easy, accommodating kind of religion that leaves principle out, and is controlled by circumstances. Youth who would serve the God of heaven, cannot engage in worldly merriment, eat of enervating luxuries, or drink strong drink because it is set before them by the honored or wealthy men of the world, whom they fear to offend by refusing their favors. They may think that they have been especially honored, and that courtesy demands the acceptance of the favors proffered them; but loyalty to God must take the precedence, and fear to offend the Lord of heaven must control the Christian. The king of Babylon thought that he was bestowing great favors upon Daniel and his fellows; but they had respect unto God's commandments more than unto the favor of the king.... God honored Daniel, and He will honor every youth who takes the course that Daniel took in honoring God.53
------------------------We Choose to Please God, Not Ourselves, June 17
SD	175	1	And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. John 8:29.
SD	175	2	Had He [Christ] chosen to do so, He could have passed His days in a world of His own creating, in ease and plenty, and claimed for Himself all the pleasures and enjoyment the world could give Him. But He did not consider His own convenience. He lived not to please Himself, but to do good and lavish His blessings upon others.54
SD	175	3	There is no help for man, woman, or child, who will not hear and obey the voice of duty; for the voice of duty is the voice of God. The eyes, the ears, and the heart, will become unimpressible if men and women refuse to give heed to the divine counsel, and choose the way that is best pleasing to themselves.55
SD	175	4	The man or woman that leaves the place that God has given him or her, in order to please inclination, and acts on his own devised plan meets with disappointment, because he has chosen his way instead of God's way....
SD	175	5	Our heavenly Father is our Ruler, and we must submit to His discipline. We are members of His family. He has a right to our service.... We must not study to have our own way, but God's way and God's will.... Human beings suffer much because they step out of the path that God has chosen for them to follow. They walk in the sparks of the fire they themselves have kindled, and the sure result is affliction, unrest, and sorrow, which they might have avoided if they had submitted their will to God.... Whatever path God chooses for us, whatever way He ordains for our feet, that is the only path of safety.... With the eye of faith, with childlike submission as obedient children, we must look to God, to follow His guidance, and difficulties will clear away. The promise is, "I will instruct thee and teach thee."56
------------------------We Do All in the Name of Jesus, June 18
SD	176	1	And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Colossians 3:17.
SD	176	2	The Lord requires that every human agent shall do his best; and those that do their best will have the greatest personal satisfaction, and will bring the greatest satisfaction to those who have an interest in them. The youth need to realize that they need a deep experience in the things of God. A mere surface work will be of no benefit to them. You need to bring the light of God's Word into your heart, that you may search it with a lighted candle....
SD	176	3	When you associate together, you may be a help and a blessing one to another if you surround yourselves with an influence that is divine; but there are those who have grave defects which are gaining a deeper hold upon them, and which, if not overcome, will drive the Spirit of God out of the heart.... Bible religion is not one influence among many others, but its influence is supreme, pervading and controlling every other influence. Bible religion is to exercise control over life and conduct. It is not to be like a dash of color brushed here and there upon the canvas, but its influence is to pervade the whole life, as though the canvas were dipped into the color until every thread of the fabric was dyed a deep, fast, unfading hue. The Lord will give you understanding in all practical Bible truths as you bring them into your life practice. Principles of truth are to be carried out in your practical experience in every-day matters.57
SD	176	4	Even in the smaller duties of common life, we are to make continual growth in grace, supplied with high and holy motives, powerful because they proceed from One who gave His life to furnish us with the incentive to be wholly successful in the formation of Christian character.58
SD	176	5	Wherever the religion of Christ works, it will brighten and sweeten every detail of life with more than an earthly joy and a higher than earthly peace.59
------------------------With Recreation That Results in Joy, June 19
SD	177	1	But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. Psalm 5:11.
SD	177	2	The enemy of righteousness has every kind of pleasure prepared for youth in all conditions of life; and they are not presented alone in crowded cities, but in every spot inhabited by human beings. Satan loves to secure the youth in his ranks as soldiers. The arch fiend well knows with what material he has to deal; and he has displayed his infernal wisdom in devising customs and pleasures for the youth which will separate their affections from Jesus Christ. The various amusements of society have been the ruin of thousands and tens of thousands who, had it not been for these attractions, would have been obedient children, respectful to their parents, upright, pure, and noble in their pursuits and in their character.60
SD	177	3	Should Christ come among the assembly who were absorbed in their plays and frivolous amusements, would the solemn melody of His voice be heard in benediction, saying, "Peace be to this house"? How would the Saviour of the world enjoy these scenes of gaiety and folly?61
SD	177	4	Pride and ambition are never satisfied, but those who are truly wise will find substantial and elevating pleasure in the sources of enjoyment that God placed within the reach of all.62
SD	177	5	It is the privilege and duty of Christians to seek to refresh their spirits and invigorate their bodies by innocent recreation, with the purpose of using their physical and mental powers to the glory of God. Our recreations should not be scenes of senseless mirth, taking the form of the nonsensical. We can conduct them in such a manner as will benefit and elevate those with whom we associate, and better qualify us and them to more successfully attend to the duties devolving upon us as Christians.... The religion of Christ is cheering and elevating in its influence.63
------------------------With Good Books That Ennoble the Mind, June 20
SD	178	1	Blessed is he that readeth. Revelation 1:3.
SD	178	2	We made it a practice to read instructive and interesting books, with the Bible, in the family circle, and our children were always happy as we thus entertained them. Thus we prevented a restless desire to be out in the street with young companions, and at the same time cultivated in them a taste for solid reading.... The volumes of "Spirit of Prophecy," [The Conflict of the Ages series replaced this four-volume set.] should be in every family, and should be read aloud in the family circle.... The Testimonies contain instruction which meets the case of all, both parents and children. Should these be read aloud to the entire family, the children as well as the parents would be benefited by their counsels, warnings, and reproofs.... Let the time be devoted to the reading of the Scriptures and other interesting books that will impart knowledge and inculcate right principles. Let the best reader be selected to read aloud, while other members of the family are engaged in useful occupations. Thus these evenings at home may be made both pleasant and profitable.64
SD	178	3	Children need proper reading, which will afford amusement and recreation, and not demoralize the mind or weary the body.65
SD	178	4	Most children and young people will have reading matter; and if it is not selected for them, they will select it for themselves. They can find a ruinous quality of reading anywhere, and they soon learn to love it; but if pure and good reading is furnished them, they will cultivate a taste for that.66
SD	178	5	By practising right-doing, a disgust will be created in the heart for that which is low, cheap, and disorderly.67
SD	178	6	Pure healthful reading will be to the mind what healthful food is to the body. You will thus become stronger to resist temptation, to form right habits, and to act upon right principles.68
------------------------With Good Music That Will Be a Blessing, June 21
SD	179	1	Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Psalm 100:2.
SD	179	2	Let there be singing in the home, of songs that are sweet and pure, and there will be fewer words of censure, and more of cheerfulness and hope and joy.... As a part of religious service, singing is as much an act of worship as is prayer. Indeed, many a song is prayer.69
SD	179	3	I feel alarmed as I witness everywhere the frivolity of young men and young women who profess to believe the truth.... They have a keen ear for music, and Satan knows what organs to excite to animate, engross, and charm the mind, so that Christ is not desired.... Solemn responsibilities rest upon the young, which they lightly regard. The introduction of music into their homes, instead of inciting to holiness and spirituality, has been the means of diverting their minds from the truth. Frivolous songs and the popular sheet music of the day seem congenial to their taste. The instruments of music have taken time which should have been devoted to prayer. Music, when not abused, is a great blessing; but when put to a wrong use, it is a terrible curse.70
SD	179	4	What if you have been educated and trained in the art of music, and yet have never been taught to sing the new song? What will all this training amount to, if you have not been properly trained to be members of the Lord's family, sons and daughters of God?71
SD	179	5	No one who has an indwelling Saviour will dishonor Him before others by producing strains from a musical instrument which call the mind from God and Heaven to light and trifling things.72
SD	179	6	Music was made to serve a holy purpose, to lift the thoughts to that which is pure, noble, and elevating, and to awaken in the soul devotion and gratitude to God.73
SD	179	7	As the Lord's army of workers here below sing their songs of praise, the choir above join with them in thanksgiving, ascribing praise to God and to His Son.74
------------------------With Holiness in All Conversation, June 22
SD	180	1	But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. 1 Peter 1:15.
SD	180	2	Where the heart is purified and refined, and made fit for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the tongue will be sanctified to the glory of God.... You can surround your souls with an atmosphere that will be like breezes from the heavenly Eden. Open your heart to the Lord Jesus. Guard your tongue. Let not your tongue run at random in jesting and joking. These are signs that your heart needs to be cleansed from its defilement....
SD	180	3	Our words index the state of our heart; and whether men talk much or little, their words express the character of their thoughts. A man's character may be quite accurately estimated by the nature of his conversation. Sound, truthful words have the right ring in them.75
SD	180	4	Educate yourself to carry a pleasant countenance, and bring all the sweetness and melody possible into your voice.76
SD	180	5	The voice and tongue are gifts from God, and if rightly used, they are a power for God. Words mean very much. They may express love, devotion, praise, melody to God, or hatred and revenge. Words reveal the sentiments of the heart. They may be a savor of life unto life or of death unto death. The tongue is a world of blessing, or a world of iniquity.
SD	180	6	Some are seen to come forth from their daily communion with God clothed with the meekness of Christ. Their words are not like a desolating hail, crushing everything before it; they come forth sweetly from their lips. They scatter seeds of love and kindness all along their path, and that all unconsciously, because Christ lives in their heart. Their influence is felt more than it is seen.77
SD	180	7	Kind, tender, compassionate words will flow from sanctified hearts and lips.78
------------------------With a Happy Sabbath Day of Worship and Rest, June 23
SD	181	1	Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, ... ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. Leviticus 23:3.
SD	181	2	Whatever of ours God claims from us, He returns again, enriched, transfigured, with His own glory....
SD	181	3	The Sabbath and the family were alike instituted in Eden, and in God's purpose they are indissolubly linked together. On this day more than on any other, it is possible for us to live the life of Eden. It was God's plan for the members of the family to be associated in work and study, in worship and recreation, the father as priest of his household, and both father and mother as teachers and companions of their children. But the results of sin, having changed the conditions of life, to a great degree prevent this association. Often the father hardly sees the faces of his children throughout the week. He is almost wholly deprived of opportunity for companionship or instruction. But God's love has set a limit to the demands of toil. Over the Sabbath He places His merciful hand. In His own day He preserves for the family opportunity for communion with Him, with nature, and with one another.
SD	181	4	Since the Sabbath is the memorial of creative power, it is the day above all others when we should acquaint ourselves with God through His works.... Happy the father and mother who can teach their children God's written Word with illustrations from the open pages of the book of nature; who can gather under the green trees, in the fresh, pure air, to study the Word and to sing the praise of the Father above.
SD	181	5	By such associations parents may bind their children to their hearts, and thus to God, by ties that can never be broken.79
SD	181	6	The Sabbath should be made so interesting to our families that its weekly return will be hailed with joy.80
------------------------To Accept the Light God Sends, June 24
SD	182	1	O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Psalm 43:3.
SD	182	2	The Lord Jesus came to our world full of mercy, life, and light, ready to save those who should come unto Him. But He can save no one against his will. God does not force the conscience; He does not torture the body that He may compel men to compliance with His law. All this work is after the order of Satan....
SD	182	3	The Lord has made it apparent that He proffers to the sinner the privilege of cooperating with God. He gives light, and furnishes evidence of the truth. He makes plain what are His requirements, and it is left with the sinner as to whether he will accept the truth, and receive grace and power by which he may comply with every condition, and find rest in giving willing service to Jesus Christ, who has paid the price of his redemption. If the sinner hesitates, and fails to appreciate the light that has reached his intellect and stirred the emotions of his soul, and refuses to render obedience to God, the light grows dim, has less and less force, and finally vanishes from his view. Those who fail to appreciate the first rays of light, will not heed more decided evidences of the truth. If the tender appeals of God fail to meet with a response in the heart of the sinner, the first impressions made upon his mind lose their significance, and he is finally left in darkness. The invitation is full of love. The light is as bright when he finally refuses it, as when it first dawned upon his soul; but through rejection of light, his soul becomes full of darkness, and does not realize what is the peril of disregarding the light. Christ says to such a soul, "Yet a little while is the light with you."81
SD	182	4	Today make your calling and election sure. Peter gives a copy of the best life insurance policy in the world. He says: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you ... according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness."82
------------------------Divine Wisdom, June 25
SD	183	1	For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. Proverbs 8:11.
SD	183	2	If Adam and Eve had never touched the forbidden tree, the Lord would have imparted to them knowledge,--knowledge upon which rested no curse of sin, knowledge that would have brought them everlasting joy. The only knowledge they gained by their disobedience was a knowledge of sin and its results....
SD	183	3	Age after age, the curiosity of men has led them to seek for the tree of knowledge; and often they think they are plucking fruit most essential, when, like Solomon's research, they find it altogether vanity and nothingness in comparison with that science of true holiness which will open to them the gates of the city of God. The human ambition has been seeking for that kind of knowledge that will bring to them glory and self-exaltation and supremacy. Thus Adam and Eve were worked upon by Satan until God's restraint was snapped asunder, and their education under the teacher of lies began in order that they might have the knowledge which God had refused them.83
SD	183	4	True wisdom is a treasure as lasting as eternity. Many of the world's so-called wise men are wise only in their own estimation. Content with the acquisition of worldly wisdom, they never enter the garden of God, to become acquainted with the treasures of knowledge contained in His holy Word. Supposing themselves to be wise, they are ignorant concerning the wisdom which all must have who gain eternal life.... The unlearned man, if he knows God and Jesus Christ, has a more enduring wisdom than has the most learned man who despises the instruction of God.84
SD	183	5	Divine wisdom is to be a lamp to your feet.... Everything that can be shaken will be shaken; but rooted and grounded in the truth, you will abide with those things that cannot be shaken.85
------------------------True Beauty, June 26
SD	184	1	And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Psalm 90:17.
SD	184	2	There is a natural tendency with all to be sentimental rather than practical. In view of this fact, it is important that parents, in the education of their children, should direct and train their minds to love truth, duty, and self-denial, and to possess noble independence, to choose to be right, if the majority choose to be wrong....
SD	184	3	If they preserve to themselves sound constitutions and amiable tempers, they will possess true beauty that they can wear with a divine grace. And they will have no need to be adorned with artificials, for these are always expressive of an absence of the inward adorning of true moral worth. A beautiful character is of value in the sight of God. Such beauty will attract, but not mislead. Such charms are fast colors; they never fade.
SD	184	4	The pure religion of Jesus requires of its followers the simplicity of natural beauty and the polish of natural refinement and elevated purity, rather than the artificial and false.86
SD	184	5	There is an ornament that will never perish, that will promote the happiness of all around us in this life, and will shine with undimmed luster in the immortal future. It is the adorning of a meek and lowly spirit.... Of how little value are gold or pearls or costly array in comparison with the loveliness of Christ. Natural loveliness consists in symmetry, or the harmonious proportion of parts, each with the other; but spiritual loveliness consists in the harmony of likeness of our souls to Jesus. This will make its possessor more precious than fine gold, even the golden wedge of Ophir. The grace of Christ is indeed a priceless adornment. It elevates and ennobles its possessor and reflects beams of glory upon others, attracting them also to the Source of light and blessing.87
------------------------Honesty, June 27
SD	185	1	Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. 2 Corinthians 8:21.
SD	185	2	In all business transactions, we are to let the light shine decidedly. There is to be no sharp practice. Everything is to be done with the strictest integrity. Better consent to lose something financially than to gain a few shillings by sharp practice. We shall lose nothing in the end by fair dealing. We are to live the law of God in our world, and perfect a character after the divine similitude. All business, with those in the faith and those not in the faith, is to be transacted on square, righteous principles. Everything is to be seen in the light of God's law, everything done without fraud, without duplicity, without one tinge of guile.88
SD	185	3	For a Babylonish robe and a paltry treasure of gold and silver, Achan consented to sell himself to evil, to bring upon his soul the curse of God, to forfeit his title to a rich possession in Canaan, and lose all prospect of the future, immortal inheritance in the earth made new. A fearful price indeed he paid for his ill-gotten gains!89
SD	185	4	Deal honestly and righteously in this present evil world. Some will be honest when they see that honesty will not endanger their worldly interest; but all who act from this principle will have their names blotted out of the book of life.
SD	185	5	Strict honesty must be cultivated. We can go through the world but once; we cannot come back to rectify any mistakes; therefore every move made should be with godly fear and careful consideration....
SD	185	6	When God makes up His jewels, the true, the frank, the honest, will be His chosen ones, His treasures. Angels are preparing crowns for such; and light from the throne of God will be reflected in its splendor from these star-gemmed diadems.90
------------------------Discretion, June 28
SD	186	1	Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee. Proverbs 2:11.
SD	186	2	By your choice words and a consistent course of action, by your propriety, your earnest piety, make a telling confession of your faith, determined that Christ shall occupy the throne in the soul temple; and lay your talents without reserve at His feet to be employed in His service.... Make it the law of your life from which no temptation or side interest shall cause you to turn, to honor God.91
SD	186	3	In this fast age, reeking with corruption, you are not safe unless you stand guarded. Virtue and modesty are rare. I appeal to you as followers of Christ, making an exalted profession, to cherish the precious, priceless gem of modesty. This will guard virtue.92
SD	186	4	Holiness of heart will never lead to impure actions.... The truth of heavenly origin never degrades the receiver ...; on the contrary, it sanctifies the believer, refines his taste, elevates and ennobles him, and brings him into a close connection with Jesus. It leads him to regard the apostle Paul's injunction to abstain from even the appearance of evil, lest his "good should be evil spoken of."
SD	186	5	This is a subject to which we must give heed. We must guard against the sins of this degenerate age. We must stand aloof from everything that savors of undue familiarity. God condemns it. It is forbidden ground, upon which it is unsafe to set the feet. Every word and action should tend to elevate, refine, and ennoble the character.93
SD	186	6	My good name is capital of far more value to me than gold or silver. Let me preserve it untarnished. If men assail that name, it shall not be because I have given them occasion to do so, but for the same reason that they spoke of evil of Christ,--because they hated the purity and holiness of His character; for it was a constant rebuke to them.94
------------------------Joseph Chose Life's Best, Samson Did Not, June 29
SD	187	1	For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Galatians 6:8.
SD	187	2	Few temptations are more dangerous or more fatal to young men than the temptation to sensuality and none if yielded to will prove so decidedly ruinous to soul and body for time and eternity. The welfare of his entire future is suspended upon the decision of a moment. Joseph calmly casts his eyes to heaven for help, slips off his loose outer garment, leaving it in the hand of his tempter and while his eye is lighted with determined resolve in the place of unholy passion, he exclaims, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" The victory is gained; he flees from the enchanter; he is saved.95
SD	187	3	Samson in his peril had the same source of strength as had Joseph. He could choose the right or the wrong as he pleased. But instead of taking hold of the strength of God, he permitted the wild passions of his nature to have full sway. The reasoning powers were perverted, the morals corrupted. God had called Samson to a position of great responsibility, honor, and usefulness; but he must first learn to govern by first learning to obey the laws of God.... Samson, under ... temptations, which he had brought upon himself, gave loose rein to passion. The path which he entered upon he found to end in shame, disaster, and death. What a contrast to the history of Joseph!96
SD	187	4	Amidst the snares to which all are exposed, they need strong and trustworthy defenses on which to rely.... The shield of grace can preserve all unconquered by the temptations of the enemy, though surrounded with the most corrupting influences. By firm principle, and unwavering trust in God, their virtue and nobleness of character can shine, and, although surrounded with evil, no taint need be left upon their virtue and integrity.97
------------------------The Better Inheritance, June 30
SD	188	1	An inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:4.
SD	188	2	Our petitions to God should not proceed from hearts that are filled with selfish aspirations. God exhorts us to choose those gifts that will redound to His glory. He would have us choose the heavenly instead of the earthly. He throws open before us the possibilities and advantages of a heavenly commerce. He gives encouragement to our loftiest aims, security to our choicest treasure. When the worldly possession is swept away, the believer will rejoice in his heavenly treasure, the riches that cannot be lost in any earthly disaster.98
SD	188	3	How sad it is that men turn from the immortal inheritance, and live for the gratification of pride, for selfishness and display, and through submission to the rule of Satan, lose the blessing which they might have both in this life and in the life to come. They might enter into the palaces of heaven, and associate on terms of freedom and equality with Christ and heavenly angels, and with the princes of God, and yet, incredible as it may seem, they turn from heavenly attractions....
SD	188	4	Satan is contending for the souls of men.... He would not have them catch a glimpse of the future honor, the eternal glories, laid up for those who shall be inhabitants of heaven, or have a taste of the experience that gives a foretaste of the happiness of heaven....
SD	188	5	Those who accept Christ as their Saviour have the promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come.... The lowliest disciple of Christ may become an inhabitant of heaven, an heir of God to an inheritance incorruptible, that fadeth not away. O that every one might make choice of the heavenly gift, become an heir of God to that inheritance whose title is secure from any destroyer, world without end! O, choose not the world!99
------------------------To Confess Christ, July 1
SD	189	1	Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 1 John 4:15.
SD	189	2	The confession of which John here speaks, is not the result of a nominal faith, but is the result of an abiding faith in the living Saviour,--the result of believing that the blessings of salvation are brought within our reach through the sufferings and death of Christ, who was raised from the dead, and ever liveth to make intercession for us. We should feel assured that Jesus is our Saviour, and that life would not be enjoyable, nor afford us peace or hope, if He had not loved us and given Himself for us.1
SD	189	3	Our claim to Christ's righteousness is without a flaw, if we meet the conditions upon which it is promised. God has bestowed upon us all heaven in one rich gift, and whatever the gift includes is ours, if we accept Christ as our personal Saviour.... Speak of Jesus, educate the tongue to speak of His mercy, to tell of His power, showing forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.2
SD	189	4	Christian youth, you are a spectacle unto the world, to angels, and to men. Be brave in God. Put on the whole armor of God, and let unbelievers about you see that your life is not spoiled because you stand loyal and true to all the commandments of God. You can be, and God requires you to be, a decided witness for Him.3
SD	189	5	We need to dwell on the words of courage that Christ spoke to His disciples toward the close of His earthly ministry.... Though a cruel death was just before Him, Christ's words to His followers were full of hope. He desired to bring all the comfort possible to their hearts. Let us be strong in Him.4
------------------------To Study the Scriptures, July 2
SD	190	1	For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4.
SD	190	2	This Holy Book has withstood the assaults of Satan, who has united with evil men to make everything of divine character shrouded in clouds and darkness. But the Lord has preserved this Holy Book by His own miraculous power in its present shape,--a chart or guidebook to the human family to show them the way to heaven.... This Word ... is the guidebook to the inhabitants of a fallen world, bequeathed to them, that by studying and obeying the directions, not one soul would lose its way.5
SD	190	3	There never was a time when it was so important that followers of Christ should study the Bible as now. Deceptive influences are upon all sides, and it is essential that you counsel with Jesus, your best friend.... David declares, "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee." How many are betrayed into sin, because they have not, through prayerful study of the Word of God, realized the sinfulness of sin, and found out how they may steadfastly resist it. When temptation comes upon them, they seem to be off guard, and ignorant of the devices of the enemy. We are living in perilous times, and as we draw near the close of earth's history, there will be no safety for those who do not become familiar with the Word of God.... Everything that can be shaken, will be shaken.... The children of God have reached the most critical part of their pilgrimage; for the nets and pitfalls of the enemy are on every side. And yet with the guidance of the Lord, with that which is plainly revealed in His Word, we may walk securely and not stumble.... A voice from heaven is addressing us in its pages.6
SD	190	4	Obedience to God's Word is our only safeguard against the evils that are sweeping the world to destruction.7
------------------------To Trust Him, July 3
SD	191	1	The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Proverbs 29:25.
SD	191	2	The Lord desires you to be of good courage. Brace up.... Satan is working on every hand to destroy faith, and to make people unhappy.8
SD	191	3	If you are not experienced in discerning the devices of Satan, your only safety is in prayer. Lay open all the secrets of the heart to the search of the infinite eye, and plead with God to make you pure and strong, and to arm you completely for the great conflicts of life. Faith grows by conflicts with doubts; virtue gathers strength by the resistance of temptation.9
SD	191	4	All blessings are bestowed upon those who have a vital connection with Jesus Christ. Jesus calls them to Himself not simply to refresh us with His grace and presence for a few hours, and then to send us forth from His light to walk apart from Him in sadness and gloom. No, no. He tells us that we must abide with Him and He with us. Wherever His work is to be done, He is present, tender, loving, and compassionate. He has prepared for you and me an abiding dwelling place in Himself. He is our refuge. Our experience should broaden and deepen. Jesus has opened up all the divine fullness of His inexpressible love.... Talk courage, talk faith, talk hope. My brother and sister in the Lord, be of good courage. O, how little we know what is before us! We will give ourselves entirely to Jesus, to be wholly His, and then say, "Not my will, but thy will, O God, be done." ... You have the tender love and compassion of your Saviour. Look to Him always. Trust in Him continually, and doubt not His love. He knows all our weakness and that which we need. He will give us grace sufficient for our day. Only look to Jesus continually, and be of good courage.10
SD	191	5	In genuine faith there is a buoyancy, a steadfast principle, which neither time nor toil can weaken.11
------------------------To Walk in His Way, July 4
SD	192	1	The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. Proverbs 10:29.
SD	192	2	If from the beginning we had walked in the counsel of God, thousands more would have been converted to the present truth. But many have made crooked paths for their feet. My brethren, make straight paths, lest the lame be turned out of the way. Let no one follow a crooked path that some one else has made, for thus you would not only go astray yourself, but would make this crooked path plainer for some one else to follow. Determine that as for yourself, you will walk in the path of obedience. Know for a certainty that you are standing under the broad shield of Omnipotence. Realize that the characteristics of Jehovah must be revealed in your life, and that in you a work must be accomplished that will mold your character after the divine similitude. Yield yourself to the guidance of Him who is the Head over all.
SD	192	3	We are doing our work for the judgment. Let us be learners of Jesus. We need His guidance every moment. At every step we should inquire, "Is this the way of the Lord?" not, "Is this the way of the man who is over me?" We are to be concerned only as to whether we are walking in the way of the Lord.
SD	192	4	God will honor and uphold every true-hearted, earnest soul who is seeking to walk before Him in the perfection of Christ's grace. He will never leave nor forsake one humble, trembling soul. Shall we believe that He will work in our hearts? That if we allow Him to do so, He will make us pure and holy, by His rich grace qualifying us to be laborers together with Him? Can we with keen, sanctified perception appreciate the strength of His promises, and appropriate them, not because we are worthy, but because by living faith we claim the righteousness of Christ?12
SD	192	5	There is nothing so great and powerful as God's love for those who are His children.13
------------------------To Enjoy Perfect Love, July 5
SD	193	1	There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18.
SD	193	2	This is an important statement; for there are many who desire to love and serve God, and yet when afflictions comes upon them, they do not discern the love of God in it, but the hand of the enemy. They mourn and murmur and complain; but this is not the fruit of love to God in the soul. If we have perfect love, we shall know that God is not seeking to injure us, but that in the midst of trials, and griefs, and pains, He is seeking to make us perfect, and to test the quality of our faith. When we cease to worry about the future, and begin to believe that God loves us, and means to do us good, we shall trust Him as a child trusts a loving parent. Then our troubles and torments will disappear, and our will will be swallowed up in the will of God.14
SD	193	3	Through an abiding Christ you will become Christlike in character. The Lord desires you to stand by His side, as a kind, patient, humble son of God. The Lord designs that the laborers in His service shall represent His love....
SD	193	4	Our relations with one another should be pleasant. When we do right, the testimony of our own spirit and the testimony of the Spirit of God bear witness that the human mind is under the control of the divine mind.... His Word furnishes evidence from which we may draw the conclusion that we are indeed His sons and daughters.... True love for God carries with it true, reverential trust. And he who loves God will love his brother also.15
SD	193	5	"Now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three,"--faith, which takes hold of Omnipotence and refuses to be baffled; hope, which turns the future triumphs of the good and the true into present encouragement and joy; and love, which consecrates all to God and for God.16
------------------------To Live in Harmony With His Law, July 6
SD	194	1	Be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. Joshua 1:7.
SD	194	2	God calls for men,--for those who in His sight will be true. Reforms must be brought about in the churches. There is now great need of reinstating in the hearts of men and women an old-time reverence for the ten commandments. Through obedience to these commandments, humanity is to be sanctified, that the results of skepticism shall not be strengthened, but that the foundation of our faith shall be made manifest, and all the precepts of God's holy law enforced. The realization of individual responsibility is to be awakened. Men are to remember that in order to be regarded as men by the Lord, their course of action must be just, pure, and true.17
SD	194	3	Men and women may shun the reproach they are called upon to bear for Christ's sake, they may do the works of the children of transgressors, but as surely as they do this, they will receive the reward of the evildoer. They may climb to places of distinction, they may stand high in the literary world, and with proud superiority they may resist the truth of heavenly origin; but in the end they will lose all.
SD	194	4	Our happiness and salvation depend upon eating the bread of life; that is, obeying the words and doing the works of Christ, advancing righteousness and restraining unrighteousness. Nothing can give such self-reliance, such courage, such an increase of talents and ability, as a true estimate of the requirements of God's law.... Love for Jesus Christ leads us to obey God's commandments, which are a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, securing for us the illuminating, purifying, blissful presence of both the Father and the Son. He who is obedient can commune with God even as did Enoch.18
------------------------To Keep the Sabbath, July 7
SD	195	1	And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. Exodus 20:20.
SD	195	2	It requires moral courage to take a position to keep the commandments of the Lord. An opposer of the truth once said that it was only weak-minded people ... who would turn away from the churches to keep the seventh day as the Sabbath. But a minister who had embraced the truth replied, "If you think it takes weak-minded persons, just try it." It takes moral courage, firmness, decision, perseverance and very much prayer to step out on the unpopular side....
SD	195	3	Standing under the broad shield of Omnipotence, we do not feel that we are in the minority. God is a majority.... We are to consider that Christ has set us to be a light amid the moral darkness of the world. We are not to misinterpret the character of God, we are not to be fretful, to speak out what we think, to blame and criticize and censure others; but we are to let the Holy Spirit fashion the character after the similitude of Christ.
SD	195	4	Now let us see what Jesus will do for us if we let Him. In His prayer for His disciples He said, "And now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves." Is it possible to have joy in obeying Christ? It is the only real joy that any soul can have.19
SD	195	5	Will the Saviour ever turn away to leave you to struggle alone? No, never.... Poverty is coming upon this world, and there will be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. There will be wars and rumors of wars, and the faces of men will gather paleness. You may have to suffer distress; you may go hungry sometimes; but God will not forsake you in your suffering. He will test your faith.... We are here to manifest Christ to the world, to represent Him and His power to mankind.20
------------------------God Gives Spirit of Power and Love, July 8
SD	196	1	For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7.
SD	196	2	We are now in a time when we are to stand steadfast for the truth. We are to cherish love for souls, but never, never are we to surrender the least vital point of truth, for it is by maintaining truth, pure, unadulterated truth, that we can at this time bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ our Prince. The Word is the bread of life, and in the Word Christ's disciples are represented as eating and drinking the flesh and the blood of Christ,--making His Word a part of their lives. No lie is of the truth. Truth will stand the test in the time of false theories, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end....
SD	196	3	Let us exercise faith in God, and keep close to the side of Christ in following His Word. The Lord will teach His people if they will be taught. We can stand where we can hear the instruction of Christ. We have a living God and a living Christ. Whole legions of devils are watching their opportunities to get hold of human minds, but if we keep close to the Word, we shall not be overcome. "Wherefore," said Paul to Timothy, "I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
SD	196	4	We need to have a living faith in Jesus Christ. We need to exercise faith, that when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Lord will lift up a standard for us against him. A heart true to God is often in prayer. Do not let one wave of discouragement come over you. We must give our thoughts to the contemplation of the character and the works of God, teaching Christ's words. Be of good courage. Let your courage and your constant reliance upon Jesus Christ inspire in others belief and increased faith and hope.21
------------------------Sense of God's Presence Banishes Fear, July 9
SD	197	1	Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Joshua 1:9.
SD	197	2	Only the sense of God's presence can banish the fear that, for the timid child, would make life a burden. Let him fix in his memory the promise, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." Let him read that wonderful story of Elisha in the mountain city, and, between him and the hosts of armed foemen, a mighty encircling band of heavenly angels. Let him read how to Peter, in prison and condemned to death, God's angel appeared; how, past the armed guards, the massive doors and great iron gateway with their bolts and bars, the angel led God's servant forth in safety. Let him read of that scene on the sea, when to the tempest-tossed soldiers and seamen, worn with labor and watching and long fasting, Paul the prisoner, on his way to trial and execution, spoke those grand words of courage and hope: "Be of good cheer; for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you.... For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar; and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee." In the faith of this promise Paul assured his companions, "There shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you." So it came to pass. Because there was in that ship one man through whom God could work, the whole ship-load of heathen soldiers and sailors was preserved....
SD	197	3	Let the self-distrustful, whose lack of self-reliance leads them to shrink from care and responsibility, be taught reliance upon God. Thus many a one who otherwise would be but a cipher in the world, perhaps only a helpless burden, will be able to say with the apostle Paul, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."22
------------------------God's Goodness and Mercy Inspire Courage, July 10
SD	198	1	Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Psalm 23:6.
SD	198	2	Christ has given us no assurance that to attain to perfection of character is an easy matter. It is a conflict, a battle and a march, day by day. It is through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of heaven. In order to share with Christ in His glory we must share in His suffering.... He has overcome for us. Shall we, then, be timid and cowardly because of the trials that we meet as we advance? ...
SD	198	3	When we have a deeper appreciation of the mercy and loving-kindness of God, we shall praise Him, instead of complaining. We shall talk of the loving watchcare of the Lord, of the tender compassion of the Good Shepherd. The language of the heart will not be selfish murmuring and repining. Praise, like a clear, flowing stream, will come from God's truly believing ones. They will say, "Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." ...
SD	198	4	Why not awake the voice of spiritual song in the days of our pilgrimage? ... We need to study God's Word, to meditate and pray. Then we shall have spiritual eyesight to discern the inner courts of the celestial temple. We shall catch the notes of thanksgiving sung by the heavenly choir around the throne. When Zion shall arise and shine, her light will be most penetrating, and songs of praise and thanksgiving will be heard in the assembly of the saints. Little disappointments and difficulties will be lost sight of.
SD	198	5	The Lord is our helper.... No one ever trusted God in vain. He never disappoints those who put their dependence on Him. If we would only do the work that the Lord would have us do, walking in the footsteps of Jesus, our hearts would become sacred harps, every chord of which would send forth praise and thanksgiving to the One sent by God to take away the sin of the world.23
------------------------Praise to God Brings Courage, July 11
SD	199	1	And when he [Jehoshaphat] had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever. 2 Chronicles 20:21.
SD	199	2	"And ... he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army." ... They praised God for the victory, and four days thereafter the army returned to Jerusalem, laden with the spoils of their enemies, singing praise for the victory won.
SD	199	3	Do you not think that if more of this were done now, our hope and courage and faith would be revived? Would not the hands of the soldiers who are standing in defense of the truth be strengthened? If there were much more praising the Lord, and far less doleful recitation of discouragement, many more victories would be gained.
SD	199	4	God is the eternal, uncreated Fountain of all good. All who trust in Him will find Him to be this. To those who serve Him, looking to Him as their heavenly Father, He gives the assurance that He will fulfil His promises. His joy will be in their hearts, and their joy will be full.
SD	199	5	It is our privilege to open our hearts, and let the sunshine of Christ's presence in. My brother, my sister, face the light. Come into actual, personal contact with Christ, that you may exert an influence that is uplifting and reviving. Let your faith be strong and pure and steadfast. Let gratitude to God fill your hearts. When you rise in the morning, kneel at your bedside, and ask God to give you strength to fulfil the duties of the day, and to meet its temptations. Ask Him to help you to bring into your work Christ's sweetness of character. Ask Him to help you to speak words that will inspire those around you with hope and courage, and draw you nearer to the Saviour.24
------------------------Walking in the Light Brings Courage, July 12
SD	200	1	For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light. Ephesians 5:8.
SD	200	2	"Walk in the light." To walk in the light means to resolve, to exercise thought, to exert will-power, in an earnest endeavor to represent Christ in sweetness of character. It means to put away all gloom. You are not to rest satisfied simply in saying, "I am a child of God." Are you beholding Jesus, and, by beholding, becoming changed into His likeness? To walk in the light means advancement and progress in spiritual attainments. Paul declared, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but ... forgetting those things which are behind," constantly beholding the Pattern, I reach "forth unto those things which are before." To walk in the light means to "walk uprightly," to walk "in the way of the Lord," to "walk by faith," to "walk in the Spirit," to "walk in the truth," to "walk in love," to "walk in the newness of life." It is "perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
SD	200	3	What a terrible thing it is to darken the pathway of others by bringing shadow and gloom upon ourselves! Let each one take heed to himself. Charge not upon others your defections of character.... Talk light; walk in the light. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."... Gather to your souls the courage that can come only from the Light of the world.25
SD	200	4	When the light of heaven shines upon the human agent, his countenance will express the joy of the Lord within. It is the absence of Christ from the soul that makes people sad and of a doubtful mind. It is the want of Christ that makes the countenance sad, and the life is a pilgrimage of sighs. Rejoicing is the very keynote of the Word of God for all who receive Him. Why? Because they have the Light of life. Light brings gladness and joy, and that joy is expressed in the life and the character.26
------------------------Gather Courage from the Coldness of Others, July 13
SD	201	1	And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Matthew 24:12, 13.
SD	201	2	"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." The very atmosphere is polluted with sin. Soon God's people will be tested by fiery trials, and the great proportion of those who now appear to be genuine and true will prove to be base metal. Instead of being strengthened and confirmed by opposition, threats, and abuse, they will cowardly take the side of the opposers. The promise is: "Them that honour me I will honour."...
SD	201	3	Already the judgments of God are abroad in the land, as seen in storms, in floods, in tempests, in earthquakes, in peril by land and by sea. The great I AM is speaking to those who make void His law. When God's wrath is poured out upon the earth, who will then be able to stand? Now is the time for God's people to show themselves true to principle. When the religion of Christ is most held in contempt, when His law is most despised, then should our zeal be the warmest and our courage and firmness the most unflinching. To stand in the defense of truth and righteousness when the majority forsake us, to fight the battles of the Lord when champions are few--this will be our test. At this time we must gather warmth from the coldness of others, courage from their cowardice, and loyalty from their treason....
SD	201	4	The Captain of our salvation will strengthen His people for the conflict in which they must engage....
SD	201	5	Now is the time when we should closely connect with God, that we may be hid when the fierceness of His wrath is poured upon the sons of men.27
SD	201	6	All who will gather warmth from the coldness of others, courage from their defections, and loyalty from their treason, will triumph with the third angel's message.28
------------------------Be Strong, for God is With Us, July 14
SD	202	1	Be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. Haggai 2:4.
SD	202	2	Our Lord is cognizant of the conflict of His people in these last days with the satanic agencies combined with evil men who neglect and refuse their great salvation. With the greatest simplicity and candor, our Saviour, the mighty General of the armies of heaven, does not conceal the stern conflict which they will experience. He points out the dangers, He shows us the plan of the battle, and the hard and hazardous work to be done, and then lifts His voice before entering the conflict to count the cost while at the same time He encourages all to take up the weapons of their warfare and expect the heavenly host to compose the armies to war in defense of truth and righteousness. Men's weakness shall find supernatural strength and help in every stern conflict to do the deeds of Omnipotence, and perseverance in faith and perfect trust in God will ensure success.
SD	202	3	While the vast confederacy of evil is arrayed against them He bids them to be brave and strong and fight valiantly for they have a heaven to win, and they have more than an angel in their ranks, the mighty General of armies leads on the armies of heaven. As on the occasion of the taking of Jericho, not one of the armies of Israel could boast of exercising their finite strength to overthrow the walls of the city, but the Captain of the Lord's host planned the battle in the greatest simplicity, that the Lord alone should receive the glory and man should not be exalted. God has promised us all power; for the promise is unto you and your children, and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call.29The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 2:995, 996.
SD	202	4	Faith is the living power that presses through every barrier, overrides all obstacles, and plants its banner in the heart of the enemy's camp.30
------------------------Courage and Power are Needed Today, July 15
SD	203	1	And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. Exodus 9:16.
SD	203	2	Christian life is more than many take it to be. It does not consist wholly in gentleness, patience, meekness, and kindliness. These graces are essential; but there is need also of courage, force, energy, and perseverance. The path that Christ marks out is a narrow, self-denying path. To enter that path and press on through difficulties and discouragements, requires men who are more than weaklings.
SD	203	3	Men of stamina are wanted, men who will not wait to have their way smoothed, and every obstacle removed, men who will inspire with fresh zeal and flagging efforts to dispirited workers, men whose hearts are warm with Christian love, and whose hands are strong to do their Master's work.
SD	203	4	Some who engage in missionary service are weak, nerveless, spiritless, easily discouraged. They lack push. They have not those positive traits of character that give power to do something,--the spirit and energy that kindle enthusiasm. Those who would win success must be courageous and hopeful. They should cultivate not only the passive but the active virtues. While they are to give the soft answer that turns away wrath, they must possess the courage of a hero to resist evil. With the charity that endures all things, they need the force of character that will make their influence a positive power.
SD	203	5	Some have no firmness of character.... This weakness, indecision, and inefficiency should be overcome.... Men of power are those who have been opposed, baffled, and thwarted. By calling their energies into action, the obstacles they meet prove to them positive blessings. They gain self-reliance. Conflict and perplexity call for the exercise of trust in God, and for that firmness which develops power.31
------------------------God Calls Youth Because They Are Strong, July 16
SD	204	1	I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. 1 John 2:14.
SD	204	2	These words of approval and instruction are addressed to every young man who has put on the whole armor of righteousness. Young and strong, they may do giant strokes for God, if they will make God their only trust. The older ones who are addressed as "fathers," have a decided work to do in holding up the standard: but they feel the pressure of the burdens of life, and it is fitting that the younger ones should be encouraged to qualify themselves for duty by obtaining an experience in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, so that as the standard falls from the fathers, the strong young men may grasp it, and bear it aloft....
SD	204	3	There are many young men in this age who will search the Scriptures as for hidden treasures, and having found jewels of truth, will open up the treasures of the word to the minds of others.... "Ye are strong" comprehends more than mere physical strength. It means that the mind has been trained to think, and has been kept clear and strong by the practice of strictly temperate habits. It means that the young men have engaged with earnestness, and have overcome the enemy, connecting the religion of Jesus Christ with every-day life, and bringing Christ into their every-day duties and enjoyments. It means that they have become partakers of the divine nature.
SD	204	4	Youth who have given themselves to the service of God, are in a position to fight manfully the battles of the Lord. Let the youth take Christ as their pattern, and they will do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God. They will then be strong.32
SD	204	5	Character will be tested.... Day by day and year by year we shall conquer self and develop a noble heroism.33
------------------------Courage of Obedience Demonstrated, July 17
SD	205	1	And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. Genesis 22:12.
SD	205	2	Abraham, ... in obedience to the divine command, ... pursues his journey with Isaac by his side. He sees before him the mountain which God had told him He would signalize as the one upon which he was to sacrifice. He removes the wood from the shoulder of his servant and lays it upon Isaac, the one to be offered. He girds up his soul with firmness and agonizing sternness, ready for the work which God requires him to do. With a breaking heart and unnerved hand, he takes the fire, while Isaac inquires: Father, here is the fire and the wood; but where is the offering? But, oh, Abraham cannot tell him now! Father and son build the altar, and the terrible moment comes for Abraham to make known to Isaac that which had agonized his soul all that long journey, that Isaac himself is the victim. Isaac is not a lad; he is a full-grown young man. He could have refused to submit to his father's design had he chosen to do so. He does not accuse his father of insanity, nor does he even seek to change his purpose. He submits. He believes in the love of his father and that he would not make this terrible sacrifice of his only son if God had not bidden him to do so.
SD	205	3	Isaac is bound by the trembling, loving hands of his pitying father because God has said it. The son submits to the sacrifice because he believes in the integrity of his father. But when everything is ready, when the faith of the father and the submission of the son are fully tested, the angel of God stays the uplifted hand of Abraham that is about to slay his son and tells him that it is enough.34
SD	205	4	In order to obey God willingly under all circumstances, great courage is needful.35
SD	205	5	We can know Christ only by loving and obeying Him. The Lord calls for valiant men, who will not fail or be discouraged.36
------------------------Elijah Refused to Be Discouraged, July 18
SD	206	1	And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. 1 Kings 18:44.
SD	206	2	Important lessons are presented to us in the experience of Elijah. When upon Mt. Carmel he offered the prayer for rain, his faith was tested, but he persevered in making known his request unto God. Six times he prayed earnestly, and yet there was no sign that his petition was granted, but with a strong faith he urged his plea to the throne of grace. Had he given up in discouragement at the sixth time, his prayer would not have been answered.... We have a God whose ear is not closed to our petitions; and if we prove His word, He will honor our faith. He wants us to have all our interests interwoven with His interests, and then He can safely bless us; for we shall not then take glory to self when the blessing is ours, but shall render all the praise to God. God does not always answer our prayers the first time we call upon Him; for should He do this, we might take it for granted that we had a right to all the blessings and favors He bestowed upon us.37
SD	206	3	The servant watched while Elijah prayed.... As he searched his heart, he seemed to be less and less, both in his own estimation and in the sight of God. It seemed to him that he was nothing, and that God was everything; and when he reached the point of renouncing self, while he clung to the Saviour as his only strength and righteousness, the answer came.38
SD	206	4	However courageous and successful a man may be in the performance of a special work, unless he looks constantly to God when circumstances arise to test his faith he will lose his courage. Even after God has given him marked tokens of His power, after he has been strengthened to do God's work, he will fail unless he trusts implicitly in Omnipotence.39
------------------------We Need More Calebs and Joshuas, July 19
SD	207	1	And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. Numbers 13:30.
SD	207	2	The third angel is flying in the midst of heaven, heralding the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This represents the work which is to be done in these last days. The message loses none of its power in its onward flight. John sees the work increasing in power till the whole earth is filled with the glory of God. The message, "Fear God and keep his commandments; for the hour of his judgment is come," is to go with a loud voice. With intensified zeal and energy human beings are to carry forward the work of the Lord. In the home, in the school, and in the church men, women, and youth are to be prepared to give the message to the world.... Now, just now, we need Calebs and Joshuas. We need strong, devoted, self-sacrificing young men and young women, who will press to the front.40
SD	207	3	Today we need men of thorough fidelity, men who follow the Lord fully, men who are not disposed to be silent when they ought to speak, who are as true as steel to principle, who do not seek to make a pretentious show, but who walk humbly with God, patient, kind, obliging, courteous men, who understand that the science of prayer is to exercise faith and show works that will tell to the glory of God and the good of His people.... To follow Jesus requires wholehearted conversion at the start, and a repetition of this conversion every day.41
SD	207	4	It was Caleb's faith in God that gave him courage, that kept him from the fear of man, and enabled him to stand boldly and unflinchingly in the defense of the right. Through reliance on the same power, the mighty General of the armies of heaven, every true soldier of the cross may receive strength and courage to overcome the obstacles that seem insurmountable.42
------------------------Two Brave Young Men Rout Philistines, July 20
SD	208	1	And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. 1 Samuel 14:6.
SD	208	2	In Jonathan, the son of Saul, the Lord saw a man of pure integrity,--one to whom He could draw nigh, and upon whose heart He could move....
SD	208	3	These two men gave evidence that they were moving under the influence and command of a more than human general. To outward appearance, their venture was rash, and contrary to all military rules. But the action of Jonathan was not done in human rashness. He depended not on what he and his armor-bearer themselves could do; he was the instrument that God used in behalf of His people Israel. They made their plans, and rested their cause in the hands of God. If the armies of the Philistines challenged them, they would advance. If they said, Come, they would go forward.... Jonathan and his armor-bearer had asked a sign of the Lord; and the challenge had come, the sign was given. These two men placed their hope in God, and went forward. It was no easy passage for the brave adventurers. They had hard climbing to reach the top....
SD	208	4	It would have been an easy matter for the Philistines to kill these two brave, daring men; but it did not enter into their minds that these two solitary men had come up with any hostile intent. The wondering men above looked on, too surprised to take in their possible object. They regarded these men as deserters, and permitted them to come without harm.... "And they fell before Jonathan; and his armour-bearer slew after him." ... This daring work sent a panic through the camp. There lay the dead bodies of twenty men, and to the sight of the enemy there seemed hundreds of men prepared for war. The armies of heaven were revealed to the opposing host of the Philistines.43
------------------------We Need More Men Like Moses, July 21
SD	209	1	And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. Exodus 32:1.
SD	209	2	In the absence of Moses, the judicial authority had been delegated to Aaron, and a vast crowd gathered about his tent, with the demand, "Make us gods, which shall go before us...." Such a crisis demanded a man of firmness, decision, and unflinching courage; one who held the honor of God above popular favor, personal safety, or life itself.... Aaron feebly remonstrated with the people, but his wavering and timidity at the critical moment only rendered them the more determined. The tumult increased.... Aaron feared for his own safety; and instead of nobly standing up for the honor of God, he yielded to the demands of the multitude. His first act was to direct that the golden earrings be collected from all the people and brought to him, hoping that pride would lead them to refuse such a sacrifice. But they willingly yielded up their ornaments; and from these he made a molten calf, in imitation of the gods of Egypt.44
SD	209	3	We repeat the sin of Aaron, pacifying, when the eyesight should be clear to discern evil and state it plainly, even if it places us in an unpleasant position, because our motives may be misapprehended. We must not suffer wrong upon a brother or any soul with whom we are connected. This neglect to stand up firmly for truth was the sin of Aaron. Had he spoken the truth plainly, that golden calf would never have been made.45
SD	209	4	There are still pliant Aarons, who ... will yield to the desires of the unconsecrated, and thus encourage them in sin.46
SD	209	5	Those who are honored with a divine commission, are not to be weak, ... or to shun disagreeable duties, but to perform God's work with unswerving fidelity.47
------------------------Too Much Is at Stake to Waver Now, July 22
SD	210	1	Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. James 1:6.
SD	210	2	Some men have no firmness of character. They are like a ball of putty and can be pressed into any conceivable shape.... This weakness, indecision, and inefficiency must be overcome. There is an indomitableness about true Christian character which cannot be molded or subdued by adverse circumstances. Men must have moral backbone, an integrity which cannot be flattered, bribed, or terrified.48
SD	210	3	We have a powerful enemy.... When men give themselves over to be the slaves of Satan, he does not manifest the enmity toward them which he does to those who bear the name of Christ, and give themselves to the service of God. He hates them with a deadly hatred. He knows that he can grieve Jesus by bringing them under the power of his deceptions, by injuring them, by weakening their faith.... Satan will permit those to have a degree of rest who are bound as slaves to his chariot, for they are his willing captives; but his enmity is aroused when the message of mercy reaches his bond slaves, and they seek to wrench themselves away from his power, that they may follow the true Shepherd.... The conflict between the soul and Satan begins when the captive begins to tug at the chain, and longs to be free....
SD	210	4	Those who really desire to be taught of God, and to walk in His way, have the sure promise that if they feel their lack of wisdom and ask of God, He will give liberally, and upbraid not. The apostle says, "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." ... Believe; believe that God will do just what He has promised. Keep your prayers ascending, and watch, work, and wait. Fight the good fight of faith.49
SD	210	5	As long as we sail with the current of the world we need neither canvas nor oar. It is when we turn squarely about to stem the current that our labors begin.50
------------------------To Stand Firm in Spite of Ridicule and Scorn, July 23
SD	211	1	Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Psalm 1:1.
SD	211	2	The ungodly are those who do not love and obey the commandments of God, but go contrary to them. This is the class of counselors you are warned to shun,--the class which Satan uses to lead youth astray. Their counsel, their suggestions, are of a character to make light of sin, to ridicule righteousness.... They are represented as standing in the way of sinners, always leading them out of the straight path of duty and obedience to God's commandments into paths of disobedience. If it were not for those persons who do wrong and tempt others to do wrong, many sinners might have chosen the path of duty, the life of purity and godliness.51
SD	211	3	The fear of ridicule leads many a youth to yield to temptation and to walk in the way of the ungodly.52
SD	211	4	Jesus would not place Himself in peril to please the devil. But how many today can stand a dare?53
SD	211	5	Allow no taunts, no threats, no sneering remarks, to induce you to violate your conscience in the least particular, and thus open a door whereby Satan can come in and control the mind....
SD	211	6	You must be an interested student of the Bible.... His Word is a sure guide; if it is carefully studied, there is no danger of falling under the power of temptations that surround the youth, and crowd in upon them.54
SD	211	7	Some may ridicule you for being so strict; they may call you self-righteous; but be careful to start right, and then keep quietly on. The history of Daniel, if all was written, would open chapters before you that would show you the temptations he had to meet, of ridicule, envy, and hatred; but ... he rose superior to ridicule; and so will every one who is an overcomer.55
------------------------To Take a Decided Stand for Temperance, July 24
SD	212	1	And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. 1 Corinthians 9:25.
SD	212	2	In the family circle and in the church we should place Christian temperance on an elevated platform. It should be a living, working element, reforming habits, dispositions, and characters. Intemperance lies at the foundation of all the evil in our world.56
SD	212	3	The children need to be given lessons that will nurture in them courage to resist evil.... Parents should exercise great care in regard to the food placed before their children. Drunkards are only too often made by lessons of intemperance learned in the home. Let the children be given food that will build up mind and body, but keep away from them the highly seasoned dishes that would arouse a desire for still stronger stimulants.
SD	212	4	The use of tobacco and strong drink has a great deal to do with the increase of disease and crime. Tobacco is a slow, insidious, but most malignant poison, and its use is working untold harm....
SD	212	5	No argument is needed to show the evils of the use of intoxicating drink. The bleared, besotted wrecks of humanity,--souls for whom Christ died, and over whom angels weep,--are everywhere. They are a blot on our boasted civilization....
SD	212	6	Those who in ancient times ran for a prize realized the importance of temperate habits, and how much more should we, who are running a race for a heavenly crown. We should put forth every effort to overcome evil.57
SD	212	7	At all times and on all occasions it requires moral courage to adhere to the principles of strict temperance.58
SD	212	8	Remember that you are daily weaving for yourself a web of habits.... The better you observe the laws of health, the more clearly can you discern temptations, and resist them, and the more clearly can you discern the value of eternal things.59
------------------------To Stand for Principle Despite Opposition, July 25
SD	213	1	And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you? Nehemiah 6:3.
SD	213	2	God has men in reserve, prepared to meet the demand, that His work may be preserved from all contaminating influences. God will be honored and glorified. When the divine Spirit impresses the mind of the man appointed by God as fit for the work, he responds, saying, "Here am I; send me." ... Nehemiah showed himself to be a man whom God could use to put down false principles and to restore heaven-born principles; and God honored him. The Lord will use in His work men who are as true as steel to principle, who will not be swayed by the sophistries of those who have lost their spiritual eyesight.
SD	213	3	Nehemiah was chosen by God because he was willing to cooperate with the Lord as a restorer. Falsehood and intrigue were used to pervert his integrity, but he would not be bribed. He refused to be corrupted by the devices of unprincipled men, who had been hired to do an evil work. He would not allow them to intimidate him into following a cowardly course. When he saw wrong principles being acted upon, he did not stand by as an onlooker, and by his silence give consent. He did not leave the people to conclude that he was standing on the wrong side. He took a firm, unyielding stand for the right. He would not lend one jot of influence to the perversion of the principles that God has established.60
SD	213	4	We shall meet with opposition of every description, as did the builders of the walls of Jerusalem; but if we watch and pray, and work as they did, God will fight our battles for us, and give us precious victories.... We should move forward with unwavering confidence, believing that God will give to His truth great and precious victories.... Relying upon Jesus, we shall carry a convincing power with us that we have the truth.61
------------------------To Call Sin by its Right Name, July 26
SD	214	1	And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me. Joshua 7:19.
SD	214	2	The history of Achan teaches the solemn lesson that for one man's sin the displeasure of God will rest upon a people or a nation till the transgression is searched out and punished. Sin is corrupting in its nature. One man infected with its deadly leprosy may communicate the taint to thousands.... Many dare not condemn iniquity, lest they shall thereby sacrifice position or popularity. And by some it is considered uncharitable to rebuke sin. The servant of God ... is under the most solemn obligation to present the Word of God, without fear or favor. He must call sin by its right name....
SD	214	3	The love of God will never lead to the belittling of sin; it will never cover or excuse an unconfessed wrong. Achan learned too late that God's law, like its Author, is unchanging. It has to do with all our acts and thoughts and feelings. It follows us, and reaches every secret spring of action. By indulgence in sin, men are led to lightly regard the law of God. Many conceal their transgressions from their fellow men, and flatter themselves that God will not be strict to mark iniquity. But His law is the great standard of right, and with it every act of life must be compared in that day when God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil. Purity of heart will lead to purity of life. All excuses for sin are vain. Who can plead for the sinner when God testifies against him?62
SD	214	4	The greatest want of the world is the want of men,--men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.63
------------------------To Lift the Standard High, July 27
SD	215	1	Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Isaiah 62:10.
SD	215	2	Perplexities will increase; but let us, as believers in God, encourage one another. Let us not lower the standard, but keep it lifted high, looking to Him who is the Author and the Finisher of our faith.64
SD	215	3	We all need greater Christian courage, that we may uplift the standard on which is inscribed the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. We are to make no compromise with the leaders of rebellion.... We must have a firm determination to do the Lord's will at all times and in all places.65
SD	215	4	Let the truth for this time be cordially received and become the basis of character, and it will produce steadfastness of purpose, which the allurements of pleasure, the fickleness of custom, the contempt of the world-loving and the heart's own clamors of self-indulgence are powerless to influence.... We have marked illustrations of the sustaining power of firm, religious principle. Even the fear of death could not make the fainting David drink of the water of Bethlehem, to obtain which, valiant men had risked their lives. The gaping lions' den could not keep Daniel from his daily prayers, nor could the fiery furnace induce Shadrach and his companions to fall down before the idol which Nebuchadnezzar set up. Young men who have firm principles will eschew pleasure, defy pain, and brave even the lions' den and the heated fiery furnace rather than be found untrue to God.66
SD	215	5	Let it be written upon the conscience as with a pen of iron upon the rock, that real success, whether for this life or for the life to come, can be secured only by faithful adherence to the eternal principles of right.67
------------------------To Face Death With the Courage of Daniel, July 28
SD	216	1	I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter. Daniel 2:23.
SD	216	2	Our God is, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Daniel sought the Lord when the decree went forth to slay all the wise men of the kingdom of Babylon because they could not relate or interpret a dream which had gone from the king's mind. Nebuchadnezzar demanded not only the interpretation of the dream, but the relation of the dream itself.... They declared that the request of the king was something unreasonable, and the test beyond that which had ever been required of any man. The king became furious, and acted like all men who have great power and uncontrollable passions. He decided that every one of them should be put to death, and as Daniel and his fellows were numbered with the wise men, they also were to share this fate....
SD	216	3	Daniel came before the king, and pleaded for time to bring this matter before the supreme court of the universe, from whose decision there could be no appeal. When his request was granted, Daniel laid the whole matter before his companions, who were united with him in worshiping the true God. The matter was fully considered, and on their bended knees they pleaded that God would give them the power and wisdom that would alone avail them in their great necessity....
SD	216	4	"Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven." ... I would impress upon the youth that Daniel's God is their God, and whatever difficulty may arise, let them do as did Daniel, "desire mercies of the God of heaven."68
SD	216	5	God will not fail His church in the hour of her greatest peril. He has promised deliverance.69
------------------------The Courageous Among God's Jewels, July 29
SD	217	1	And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Malachi 3:17.
SD	217	2	Great is the work of the Lord. Men are choosing sides. Even those supposed to be heathen will choose the side of Christ, while those who become offended, as did the disciples, will go away and walk no more with Him....
SD	217	3	What effect will the attempt of men to make void the law of God have upon the righteous? Will they be intimidated because of the universal scorn that is put upon the holy law of God? Will the true believers in the, "Thus saith the Lord," become wavering and ashamed because the whole world seems to despise His righteous law? Will they be carried away by the prevalence of evil?--No; to those who have consecrated themselves to God to serve Him, the law of God becomes more precious when the contrast is shown between the obedient and the transgressor. In proportion as the attributes of Satan are developed in the despisers and transgressors of the law of God, to the faithful adherent the holy precept will become more dear and valuable. He will declare, "They have made void thy law. Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold." It is the ones who have been faithful stewards of the grace of God whose love of God's commandments grows with the contempt which all around them would put upon them.
SD	217	4	Wicked men and the church harmonize in this hatred of the law of God, and then the crisis comes.... But while they are murmuring and complaining, and falsely accusing, and doing Satan's work most zealously, another class is brought to our notice: "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name."70
------------------------God is With His Children, July 30
SD	218	1	Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Isaiah 43:5, 6.
SD	218	2	We must do our work with cheerfulness and hopefulness. We are in no case to become discouraged. Let us keep our eyes off the disagreeable parts of our experience, and let our words be full of good cheer. We can surround ourselves with a sunny atmosphere, or with an atmosphere charged with gloom. Let us educate ourselves to talk courage. Let us learn lessons from the example of Christ. Not even His terrible humiliation at the hands of the Jews and the Roman soldiers,--His mock trial and the cruel treatment that He received,--caused Him to become discouraged.71
SD	218	3	Hold the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end. The light of God's truth is not to be dimmed. It is to shine amidst the darkness of error that enshrouds our world. The Word of God is to be opened to those in the high places of the earth, as well as to those in the more lowly. The church of Christ is God's agency for the proclamation of truth; she is empowered by Him to do a special work; and if she is loyal to God, obedient to His commandments, there will dwell within her the excellence of divine power. If she will honor the Lord God of Israel, there is no power that can stand against her. If she will be true to her allegiance, the forces of the enemy will be no more able to overpower her than is the chaff to resist the whirlwind.
SD	218	4	There is before the church the dawn of a bright, glorious day, if she will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all allegiance to the world.... From Christ is flowing the living stream of salvation.... When in faith we take hold of His strength, He will change, wonderfully change, the most hopeless, discouraging outlook. He will do this for the glory of His name.72
------------------------Renewal of Strength, July 31
SD	219	1	They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31.
SD	219	2	In order to fight successfully, a soldier must have courage and strength. Of ourselves, we are weak and feeble. But we have the promise, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength."73
SD	219	3	Obstacles to the advancement of the work of God will appear; but fear not. To the omnipotence of the King of kings, our covenant-keeping God unites the gentleness and care of a tender shepherd. Nothing can stand in His way. His power is absolute, and it is the pledge of the sure fulfillment of His promises to His people. He can remove all obstructions to the advancement of His work. He has means for the removal of every difficulty, that those who serve Him and respect the means He employs may be delivered. His goodness and love are infinite, and His covenant is unalterable.
SD	219	4	The plans of the enemies of His work may seem to be firm and well established, but He can overthrow the strongest of these plans, and in His own time and way He will do this, when He sees that our faith has been sufficiently tested and that we are drawing near to Him and making Him our counselor.
SD	219	5	In the darkest days, when appearances seem so forbidding, fear not. Have faith in God. He is working out His will, doing all things well in behalf of His people. The strength of those who love and serve Him will be renewed day by day. His understanding will be placed at their service, that they may not err in the carrying out of His purposes.
SD	219	6	There is to be no despondency in God's service. Our faith is to endure the pressure brought to bear upon it. God is able and willing to bestow upon His servants all the strength they need. He will more than fulfill the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him.74
------------------------We See Christ on the Cross, August 1
SD	220	1	And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. Mark 15:25.
SD	220	2	The spotless Son of God hung upon the cross, His flesh lacerated with stripes; those hands so often reached out in blessing, nailed to the wooden bars; those feet so tireless on ministries of love, spiked to the tree; that royal head pierced by the crown of thorns; those quivering lips shaped to the cry of woe. And all that He endured--the blood drops that flowed from His head, His hands, His feet, the agony that racked His frame, and the unutterable anguish that filled His soul at the hiding of His Father's face--speaks to each child of humanity, declaring, It is for thee that the Son of God consents to bear this burden of guilt; for thee He spoils the domain of death, and opens the gates of Paradise. He ... offers Himself upon the cross as a sacrifice, and this from love to thee. He, the Sin-Bearer, endures the wrath of divine justice, and for thy sake becomes sin itself.
SD	220	3	In silence the beholders watched for the end of the fearful scene. The sun shone forth; but the cross was still enveloped in darkness. Priests and rulers looked toward Jerusalem; and lo, the dense cloud had settled over the city, and the plains of Judea. The Sun of Righteousness, the Light of the world, was withdrawing His beams from the once favored city of Jerusalem. The fierce lightnings of God's wrath were directed against the fated city.
SD	220	4	Suddenly the gloom lifted from the cross, and in clear, trumpetlike tones, that seemed to resound throughout creation, Jesus cried, "It is finished." "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." A light encircled the cross, and the face of the Saviour shone with a glory like the sun. He then bowed His head upon His breast, and died.1
------------------------All Men are Drawn to the Uplifted Saviour, August 2
SD	221	1	And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. John 12:32.
SD	221	2	Never before was there such a general knowledge of Jesus as when He hung upon the cross. He was lifted up from the earth, to draw all to Him. Into the hearts of many who beheld that crucifixion scene, and who heard Christ's words, was the light of truth to shine. With John they would proclaim, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." There were those who never rested until, searching the Scriptures and comparing passage with passage, they saw the meaning of Christ's mission. They saw that free forgiveness was provided by Him whose tender mercy embraced the whole world. They read the prophecies regarding Christ, and the promises so free and full, pointing to a fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem.2
SD	221	3	The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths cluster. In order to be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light which streams from the cross of Calvary, and in connection with the wondrous, central truth of the Saviour's atonement. Those who study the Redeemer's wonderful sacrifice grow in grace and knowledge.
SD	221	4	I present before you the great, grand monument of mercy and regeneration, salvation and redemption,--the Son of God uplifted on the cross of Calvary. This is to be the theme of every discourse.3
SD	221	5	Jesus is inviting and drawing by His Holy Spirit the hearts of young and old to Himself.... When Christ crucified is preached, the power of the gospel is demonstrated by the influence it exerts over the believer. In place of remaining dead in trespasses and sins, he is awakened.4
SD	221	6	Lift up the Man of Calvary higher and still higher; there is power in the exaltation of the cross of Christ.5
------------------------All Who Look to the Cross will Live, August 3
SD	222	1	And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Numbers 21:9.
SD	222	2	The Lord Jesus had protected the children of Israel from the venomous serpents in the wilderness, but this part of their history they did not know. Angels from heaven had accompanied them, and in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night Christ had been their protection through all their journeying. But they became selfish and discontented, and in order that they might not forget His great care over them, the Lord gave them a bitter lesson. He permitted them to be bitten by the fiery serpents, yet in His great mercy He did not leave them to perish. Moses was bidden to lift the brazen serpent on the pole, and make the proclamation that whosoever should look upon it should live. And all who looked, did live. They recovered health at once.... What a strange symbol of Christ was that likeness of the serpents which stung them. This symbol was lifted on a pole, and they were to look to it, and be healed. So Jesus was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He came as the sin-bearer....
SD	222	3	The same healing, life-giving message is now sounding. It points to the uplifted Saviour upon the shameful tree. Those who have been bitten by that old serpent, the devil, are bidden to look and live.... Look alone to Jesus as your righteousness and your sacrifice. As you are justified by faith, the deadly sting of the serpent will be healed.6
SD	222	4	Without the cross, man could have no union with the Father. On it depends our every hope. From it shines the light of the Saviour's love; and when at the foot of the cross the sinner looks up to the One who died to save him, he may rejoice with fulness of joy; for his sins are pardoned. Kneeling in faith at the cross, he has reached the highest place to which man can attain.7
------------------------Cross of Christ to Be Erected in Our Homes, August 4
SD	223	1	Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. John 8:28.
SD	223	2	Christ should be uplifted by those whom He has redeemed by dying on the cross a death of shame. He who has felt the power of the grace of Christ has a story to tell. He seeks to put in operation methods of work which will diffuse the gospel of Christ. Humanity, drawing its efficiency from the great source of wisdom, is made the instrumentality, the working agency, through which the gospel exercises its transforming power on mind and heart....
SD	223	3	All our powers are to be used for Christ. This is the debt we each owe to God. In forming a relationship with Christ the renewed man is but coming back to his appointed relationship with God.... His duties lie round him, nigh and afar off. His first duty is to his children and his nearest relatives. Nothing can excuse him from neglecting the inner circle for the larger circle outside....
SD	223	4	Some households have a little church in the home. Mutual love binds heart to heart, and the unity that exists among the members of the family preaches the most effectual sermon that could be preached on practical godliness. As parents faithfully do their duty in the family, restraining, correcting, advising, counseling, guiding,--the father as a priest of the household, the mother as a home missionary,--they are filling the sphere God would have them fill. By faithfully doing their duty in the home, they are multiplying agencies for doing good outside the home. They are becoming better fitted to labor in the church. By training their little flock discreetly, binding their children to themselves and to God, fathers and mothers become laborers together with God. The cross is erected in their home. The members of the family become members of the royal family above, children of the heavenly King.8
------------------------We are Redeemed by Christ's Precious Blood, August 5
SD	224	1	Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1:18, 19.
SD	224	2	Every soul is precious, because it has been purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.9
SD	224	3	Satan may whisper, "You are too great a sinner for Christ to save." While you acknowledge that you are indeed sinful and unworthy, you may meet the tempter with the cry, "By virtue of the atonement, I claim Christ as my Saviour. I trust not to my own merits, but to the precious blood of Jesus, which cleanses me."10
SD	224	4	You cannot save yourself from the tempter's power, but he trembles and flees when the merits of that precious blood are urged.11
SD	224	5	The Lord loves you; He is dearer to you than any earthly tie, than any earthly object. Consider how preciously near you may keep to One who is your strength and efficiency. Live not in the shadow of the cross, but on the sunny side of the cross, where the Sun of righteousness may shine into your heart.12
SD	224	6	We are to have free access to the atoning blood of Christ. This we must regard as the most precious privilege, the greatest blessing, ever granted to sinful man. And how little is made of this great gift! How deep, how wide and continuous is this stream. To every soul thirsting after holiness there is repose, there is rest, there is the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit, and then the holy, happy, peaceful walk and precious communion with Christ. Then, O then, can we intelligently say with John, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." Talk it, pray it. Let it be the theme of sacred song,--to be washed, to be cleansed; the believing soul claims that love, and by its virtues stands before the throne of God pardoned, justified, sanctified.... Its cleansing virtue gives strength and vigor to faith, power to prayer, and happiness in cheerful obedience.13
------------------------We are Cleansed by Christ's Blood, August 6
SD	225	1	The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1 John 1:7.
SD	225	2	Some speak of the Jewish age as a Christless period, without mercy or grace. To such are applicable the words of Christ to the Sadducees, "Ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God." The period of the Jewish economy was one of wonderful manifestations of divine power. So glorious was the revealing of His presence that it could not be borne by mortal man. Moses, who was so highly favored of God, exclaimed, "I do exceedingly fear and quake." But God strengthened him to endure this excellent glory, and to bring from the mount a reflection of it upon his face so that the people could not look steadfastly upon it....
SD	225	3	The very system of sacrifices was devised by Christ, and given to Adam as typifying a Saviour to come, who would bear the sins of the world, and die for its redemption. Through Moses, Christ gave definite directions to the children of Israel in regard to the sacrificial offerings.... Only clean and precious animals, those which would best symbolize Christ, were accepted as offerings to God....
SD	225	4	The Israelites were forbidden to eat the fat or the blood.... This law not only related to beasts for sacrifice, but to all cattle which were used for food. This law was to impress upon them the important fact that if there had been no sin there would have been no shedding of blood....
SD	225	5	The blood of the Son of God was symbolized by the blood of the slain victim, and God would have clear and definite ideas preserved between the sacred and the common. Blood was sacred, inasmuch as through the shedding of the blood of the Son of God alone could there be atonement for sin. Blood was also used to cleanse the sanctuary from the sins of the people, thus typifying the blood of Christ which alone can cleanse from sin.14
------------------------Atonement Through Christ's Blood, August 7
SD	226	1	We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Romans 5:11.
SD	226	2	Thank God that He who spilled His blood for us, lives to plead it, lives to make intercession for every soul who receives Him. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.... We need to keep ever before us the efficacy of the blood of Jesus. That life-cleansing, life-sustaining blood, appropriated by living faith, is our hope. We need to grow in appreciation of its inestimable value, for it speaks for us only as we by faith claim its virtue, keeping the conscience clean and at peace with God. This is represented as the pardoning blood, inseparably connected with the resurrection and life of our Redeemer, illustrated by the ever-flowing stream that proceeds from the throne of God, the water of the river of life.15
SD	226	3	The wonderful symbol of the living bird dipped in the blood of the bird slain and then set free to its joyous life [Leviticus 14:4-8], is to us the symbol of the atonement. There were death and life blended, presenting to the searcher for truth and hidden treasure, the union of the pardoning blood with the resurrection and life of our Redeemer. The bird slain was over living water; that flowing stream was a symbol of the ever flowing, ever cleansing efficacy of the blood of Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world....
SD	226	4	We are to have free access to the atoning blood of Christ. This we must regard as the most precious privilege, the greatest blessing, ever granted to sinful man.... How deep, how wide and continuous is this stream! To every soul thirsting after holiness there is repose, there is rest, there is the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit, and then the holy, happy, peaceful walk and precious communion with Christ.16
------------------------We are Justified by Christ's Blood, August 8
SD	227	1	God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Romans 5:8, 9.
SD	227	2	Christ has made reconciliation for sin, and has borne all its ignominy, reproach, and punishment; and yet while bearing sin, He has brought in everlasting righteousness, so that the believer is spotless before God....
SD	227	3	But there are many who claim to be children of God who are resting their hopes upon other dependencies, rather than on the blood of Christ alone. When urged to rest their faith wholly upon Christ as a complete Saviour, many reveal the fact that they have faith in something that they think they can do. They say, "I have a great deal to do before I can be fit to come to Christ." Another says, "When I have done to the uttermost all that I can do, then the Lord Jesus will come to my help." They imagine that they have a great deal to do themselves to save their own souls, and that Jesus will come in and piece out that part which is lacking, and give the finishing stroke to their salvation. These poor souls will not be strong in God until they accept Christ as a complete Saviour. They can add nothing to their salvation.
SD	227	4	The Israelites were required to sprinkle the door-posts with the blood of a slain lamb, in order that when the angel of death passed through the land, they might escape destruction. But if instead of doing this simple act of faith and obedience, they had barricaded the door, and taken every precaution to keep the destroying angel out, their pains would have been in vain.... When the blood was seen upon the door-post, it was enough. The salvation of the house was assured. So it is in the work of salvation; it is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth from all sin.17
SD	227	5	Through the merits of His blood, you may overcome every spiritual foe, and remedy every defect of character.18
------------------------Sons of God Through Christ's Blood, August 9
SD	228	1	Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. Hebrews 10:19, 20.
SD	228	2	Christ was nailed to the cross between the third and sixth hour, that is between nine and twelve o' clock. In the afternoon He died. This was the hour of the evening sacrifice. Then the veil of the temple, that which hid God's glory from the view of the congregation of Israel, was rent in twain from top to bottom.
SD	228	3	Through Christ the hidden glory of the holy of holies was to stand revealed. He had suffered death for every man, and by this offering, the sons of men were to become the sons of God. With open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, believers in Christ were to be changed into the same image, from glory to glory. The mercy seat, upon which the glory of God rested in the holiest of all, is opened to all who accept Christ as the propitiation for sin, and through its medium, they are brought into fellowship with God. The veil is rent, the partition walls broken down, the handwriting of ordinances cancelled. By virtue of His blood the enmity is abolished.19
SD	228	4	The simple story of the cross of Christ, His suffering and dying for the world, His resurrection and ascension, His mediation in the sinner's behalf before the Father, subdues and breaks the hard and sinful heart, and brings the sinner to repentance. The Holy Spirit sets the matter before him in a new light, and the sinner realizes that sin must be a tremendous evil to cost such a sacrifice to atone for it.... How grievous must sin be that no less a remedy than the death of the Son of God could save man from the consequences of his guilt. Why was this done in behalf of man?--It was because God loved him, and was not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, believe in Jesus as a personal Saviour, and have life eternal.20
------------------------We Are Reconciled to God by Christ's Death, August 10
SD	229	1	For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Romans 5:10.
SD	229	2	The cross is invested with a power that language cannot express. Christ's sacrifice in behalf of the human race puts to shame our meager efforts and methods to meet and uplift humanity, to help sinful men and women to find Jesus.
SD	229	3	The work of the sons and daughters of God must be of a different character than has yet been manifested by a large number. If they love Jesus, they will have enlarged ideas of the love that has been expressed for fallen man, which required the provision of so expensive an offering to save the human race. Our Saviour asks the cooperation of every son and daughter of Adam who has become a son or daughter of God.... Our Saviour declares that He brought from heaven as a donation eternal life. He was to be lifted up upon the cross of Calvary to draw all men unto Him. How then shall we treat the purchased inheritance of Christ? Tenderness, appreciation, kindness, sympathy, and love should be shown to them. Then we may work to help and bless one another. In this work we have more than human brotherhood. We have the exalted companionship of heavenly angels. They cooperate with us in the work of enlightening high and low.
SD	229	4	Having engaged in the work, the amazing work of our redemption, Christ determined in council with His Father to spare nothing, however costly, to withhold nothing however highly it might be estimated, that would rescue the poor sinner. He would give all heaven to this work of salvation, of restoring the moral image of God in man.... To be a child of God is to be one with Christ in God, and to put forth our hands in earnest, self-sacrificing love to strengthen and bless the souls that are perishing in their sins.21
------------------------Christ Has Delivered Us from Eternal Death, August 11
SD	230	1	Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. 2 Corinthians 1:10.
SD	230	2	Our Saviour came to this world to endure in human nature all the temptations wherewith man is beset. In His life He measured the power of the wily foe to deceive, to allure, and to destroy. As the Redeemer of the race, He warns humanity against seeking after those things that will lead away from the narrow path. He has cast up a glorious highway for those who are traveling toward the heavenly mansions that He has gone to prepare for all who will prepare themselves to become members of the royal family....
SD	230	3	With His life Christ has purchased every human being. He died a cruel death to save human beings from eternal death. He gave His sinless life to obtain for the sinner a life that measures with the life of God. Through His death, He provided a way whereby man may break with Satan, return to his allegiance to God, and through faith in the Redeemer obtain pardon....
SD	230	4	He who has all power in heaven and earth will restore every repenting, believing soul. To as many as receive Him He gives power to become the sons of God. He has a deep interest in every soul, for He paid the price of His own life that no one should be eternally lost.22
SD	230	5	Christ's servants can and should be able to meet and overcome every temptation. They should say, "I am not my own; I have been bought with a price. By the infinite sacrifice Christ has made for me, He has put it out of my power to give Him more than He demands. All is His. He has purchased me, body, soul, and spirit. He calls for all my time, all my capabilities."23
SD	230	6	Those who receive Him and believe in Him become the spiritual children of God. They are adopted into the royal family, and as they seek to do the will of God, they become conformed into His image.24
------------------------We Are to Glory Only in the Cross, August 12
SD	231	1	God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Galatians 6:14.
SD	231	2	The cross of Christ,--how many believe it to be what it is? How many bring it into their studies, and know its true significance? There could not be a Christian in our world without the cross of Christ.... Turn from the examples of the world, cease to extol the professedly great men; turn the mind from the glory of everything save the cross of Christ. Said Paul, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Let all, from the highest to the lowest, understand what it means to glory in the cross of Christ. That cross is to be bravely and manfully borne. Christ declares, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." And to all who will lift it, and bear it after Christ, the cross is a pledge of the crown of glory that can never fade away....
SD	231	3	This is the highest science that we can learn,--the science of salvation. The cross of Calvary, rightly regarded, is true philosophy, pure and undefiled religion. It is eternal life to all who believe. By painstaking effort, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, it should be impressed upon the minds ... that the cross of Christ is just as efficacious now as in Paul's day, and should be as perfectly understood by them as it was by the great apostle....
SD	231	4	Know that the only thing in which you can safely glory is that which will open to you the gates of the city of God. Learn from the Word of God how to form characters fitted for the country you are seeking. Know that Christ is to be set forth among you, and that all that was lost in Adam the cross of Christ fully restores to every believing soul.25
------------------------We Are Not to Glory in Men, August 13
SD	232	1	The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men. 1 Corinthians 3:20, 21.
SD	232	2	We are living in an age of licentiousness, and men and youth are bold in sin. Unless our youth are sacredly guarded, unless they are fortified with firm principles, unless greater care is manifested in choosing their associates and the literature which feeds the mind, they will be exposed to a society whose morals are as corrupt as were the morals of the inhabitants of Sodom.... Our youth will meet temptations on every hand, and they must be so educated that they will depend upon higher power, higher teaching, than can be given by mortals. There are despisers of our Lord everywhere, who habitually throw contempt upon Christianity.... Those who have not moral power cannot stand in defense of the truth; they have not courage to say: "Unless such conversation ceases, I cannot remain in your presence. Jesus, the world's Redeemer is my Saviour; in Him is centered my hope of eternal life." But this is the very way in which to silence them. If you argue with them, they will have arguments with which to meet you, and nothing you may say will touch them; but if you live for Christ, if you are firm in your allegiance to the God of heaven, you may do for them that which argument will fail to do....
SD	232	3	There is no sadder spectacle than that of those who have been purchased by the blood of Christ, who have been intrusted with talents wherewith they may glorify God, turning to jest the messages graciously sent to them in the gospel, denying the divinity of Christ, and trusting to their own finite reasoning, and to arguments that have no foundation. When tested with affliction, when brought face to face with death, all these fallacies they have cherished will be melted away like frost before the sun.... The Christian hope is as an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast.26
------------------------We Are Not to Glory in Worldly Wisdom, August 14
SD	233	1	Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Jeremiah 9:23.
SD	233	2	Men are not to rejoice in their wisdom, their strength, or their riches, but in the fact that they have a knowledge of Christ. This knowledge is the most excellent, the most precious, that we can possess. It is the pledge of everlasting life. For "this is life eternal, that we might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Money cannot buy it, intellect cannot grasp it, power cannot command it; but to all who will accept it God's glorious grace is freely given. But men may feel their need, and, renouncing all self-dependence, accept salvation as a gift. Those who enter heaven will not scale its walls by their own righteousness, nor will its gates be opened to them for costly offerings of gold or silver; but they will gain an entrance to the many mansions of the Father's house through the merits of the cross of Christ....
SD	233	3	The self-righteous feel no need of Christ. And when those who profess His name extol their own wisdom and goodness, they give evidence that they are not acquainted with Him. As soon as Christ is revealed to the soul, the sinner feels that his only hope is in the Lamb of God as the propitiation for sin. As Christ begins to open His love before him watch the effect, and see what it is. Many claim this experience who are strangers to the love of Christ. But if it leads one to look with humility upon himself, ... if he gives evidence that the heavenly reward is of more value to him than his worldly possessions, we may know that beams of life from Christ are shining upon his soul.27
SD	233	4	Out of Christ, human wisdom in all its forms is foolishness; for those who trust in their own wisdom, have lost eternity out of their reckoning.... To all who believe in Jesus as able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him, the gospel is the power and wisdom of God.28
------------------------We Are Not to Glory in Riches, August 15
SD	234	1	Let not the rich man glory in his riches. Jeremiah 9:23.
SD	234	2	The rich man is not to glory in his riches. If we fix our affections on worldly things, we fail to exalt Christ. Satan would keep our minds absorbed with the things of this life, that we may lose sight of the higher life; but we cannot afford to yield to his devices. Christ is the source of all temporal, as well as all spiritual blessings. If he has given us riches, it is not that we may claim them as our own. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven...." Paul counted all things but loss that he might win Christ. But when the Saviour calls for our possessions and our service, there are many who see they cannot obey God and carry their earthly treasures with them, and they decide to stay by their treasures....
SD	234	3	How can those who expect to stand around Christ's throne, and to be clothed with His righteousness, distrust God, and fear that He will leave them to come to want? Where is their faith? Our heavenly Father feeds the ravens, and will He not much more feed us? ... If we had a right view of Christ, we would permit nothing to interpose between ourselves and Him.... Those who study to see how near they can live to the world and yet gain heaven, will come just near enough to be shut out from heaven. We must accept the suffering part of religion if we would sit down with the Suffering One upon His throne.29
SD	234	4	While it is lawful for us to acquire means, the money that we possess should be regarded as ours only in trust, not to be squandered, but spent in the Lord's service. It should be our determined purpose to obey the orders of our Captain, and thus lay up for ourselves heavenly riches. Then, when everything in this world perishes, we shall have a treasure in the heavens, which faileth not.30
------------------------We Are Not to Glory in Ourselves, August 16
SD	235	1	But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord. Jeremiah 9:24.
SD	235	2	All boasting of merit in ourselves is out of place.31
SD	235	3	The command is not, Let him that glorieth glory in himself, but in God.... There is, then, no ground for men to take glory to themselves. For every blessing which they enjoy, for every good quality which they possess, they are indebted to the grace of Christ. None should exalt themselves as possessing wisdom or righteousness....
SD	235	4	Those who have the deepest experience in the things of God, are the farthest removed from pride or self-exaltation. They have the humblest thought of self, and the most exalted conceptions of the glory and excellence of Christ.... When we have our eyes fixed upon heaven, and have clear views of the character of Christ, we shall exalt the Lord God in our hearts.
SD	235	5	As one becomes acquainted with the history of the Redeemer, he discovers in himself serious defects; his unlikeness to Christ is so great that he sees the necessity for radical changes in his life. Still he studies with a desire to become like his great Exemplar. He catches the looks, the spirit, of his beloved Master. By beholding ... he becomes changed into the same image.
SD	235	6	It is not by looking away from Him that we imitate the life of Jesus, but by talking of Him, by dwelling upon His perfections, by seeking to refine the taste and elevate the character, by trying, through faith and love, and by earnest, persevering effort, to approach the perfect Pattern. By having a knowledge of Christ,--His words, His habits, and His lessons of instruction,--we borrow the virtues of the character we have so closely studied, and become imbued with the spirit we have so much admired. Jesus becomes to us "the chiefest among ten thousand," the One "altogether lovely."32
------------------------Glory Not in Talent and Influence, August 17
SD	236	1	If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. 1 Peter 4:11.
SD	236	2	Christ is our pattern, and those who follow Christ will not walk in darkness; for they will not seek their own pleasure. To glorify God will be the continual aim of their life.... But how many who have been entrusted with talents of means and influence have lost sight of the pattern, and followed the standard of the world.... Men and women who have been blessed with an abundance of money, with houses and with lands, generally train their children to a life of idleness and selfish indulgence. Thus they are made useless for this life, and unfit for the future, immortal life.... The youth of today are educated to believe that it is the money that makes the man.33
SD	236	3	Our power is not in our talents of education or means, neither is it in our popularity; it is in self-sacrifice, our willing obedience to Jesus Christ. Those who truly surrender all to Him, will carry a weight of influence, and will carry others along with them, because they walk in the light. Brain power will be inefficient, purse power of little account with God; but heart power, thorough godliness, humble fidelity, will bear a weight of influence that will be irresistible.34
SD	236	4	Shall we not consecrate ourselves to God without reserve? Christ, the King of glory, gave Himself a ransom for us. Can we withhold anything from Him? Shall we think our poor, unworthy selves too precious, our time or property too valuable, to give to Jesus?--No, no; the deepest homage of our hearts, the most skillful service of our hands, our talents of ability and of means,--all are but too poor an offering to bring to Him who was slain and has "redeemed us to God by his blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation."35
------------------------We Glory in the Resurrection of Christ, August 18
SD	237	1	I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. John 11:25, 26.
SD	237	2	After the crucifixion of Christ, the priests and rulers did not feel the sense of victory which they had expected. They did not rejoice at their success in silencing the voice of the Great Teacher. They were afraid. Already His death was calling attention to His life and character. The priests were convicted that their attempts at revenge had failed; and they dreaded a dead Christ more, far more, than they had ever feared a living Christ....
SD	237	3	The light of heaven encircled the tomb, and the whole heaven was lighted by the glory of the angel. The angel approached the grave, and rolling away the stone as if it had been a pebble, he sat upon it. Then his voice was heard, Son of God, come forth; Thy Father calls Thee; and Jesus came forth from the grave with the step of a mighty conqueror. There was a burst of triumph, for the heavenly family were waiting to receive Him; and the mighty angel, followed by the army of heaven, bowed in adoration before Him as He, the Monarch of heaven, proclaimed over the rent tomb of Joseph, "I am the resurrection, and the life."36
SD	237	4	All created beings live by the will and power of God. They are recipients of the life of the Son of God. However able and talented, however large their capacities, they are replenished with life from the Source of all life. He is the spring, the fountain, of life.... The life which He had laid down in humanity, He again took up and gave to humanity. "I am come," He says, "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." ...
SD	237	5	Christ became one with humanity, that humanity might become one in Spirit and life with Him. By virtue of this union in obedience to the Word of God, His life becomes their life. He says to the penitent, "I am the resurrection, and the life."37
------------------------We Thank God for His Unspeakable Gift, August 19
SD	238	1	Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. 2 Corinthians 9:15.
SD	238	2	What a terrible record the human race will have to meet in the last day, since the vast majority of men have refused the priceless offering,--rejected the richest gift that God could bestow upon the world. It is through the inestimable gift of Christ that all our blessings come. Life, health, friends, reason, happiness, are ours through the merit of Christ. O that the young and the old might realize that all comes to them through the virtue of Christ's life and death, and acknowledge the ownership of God.
SD	238	3	The apostle writes, "Ye are not your own." Even when we were under the control of a cruel master, even when the prince of darkness ruled our spirits, the Lord Jesus Christ paid the ransom price of His own blood for us.... Render to Him willing heart service, and no longer rob God of that which is His own. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." ...
SD	238	4	Through His holy Word, through His providences, and through messages sent to you by His servants, Jesus is daily saying to you, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Jesus has given His precious life for you, that you may become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Then give yourself to Him as a pledge of grateful love. Were it not for the love freely given us of Christ, we should now be in hopeless despair, in spiritual midnight. Thank God every day that He gave us Jesus.38
SD	238	5	The thought that Christ died to obtain for us the gift of everlasting life, is enough to call forth from our hearts the most sincere and fervent gratitude, and from our lips the most enthusiastic praise.39
------------------------Christ Is Our Only Access to the Father, August 20
SD	239	1	Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25.
SD	239	2	How is God reconciled to man?--By the work and merit of Jesus Christ, who ... put aside everything that would interpose between man and God's pardoning love. The law that man has transgressed is not changed to meet the sinner in his fallen condition, but is made manifest as the transcript of Jehovah's character,--the exponent of His holy will,--and is exalted and magnified in the life and character of Jesus Christ. Yet a way of salvation is provided; for the spotless Lamb of God is revealed as the One who taketh away the sin of the world. Jesus stands in the sinner's place, and takes the guilt of the transgressor upon Himself. Looking upon the sinner's Substitute and Surety, the Lord Jehovah can be just, and yet be the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. To him who accepts Christ as his righteousness, as his only hope, pardon is pronounced; for God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. The justice, truth, and holiness of Christ, which are approved by the law of God, form a channel through which mercy may be communicated to the repenting, believing sinner.
SD	239	3	Those who do not believe in Christ are not reconciled to God; but those who have faith in Him are hid with Christ in God. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."40
SD	239	4	He became the sin-bearer and died on the cross to secure salvation for every sinner who repents and returns to his loyalty to God. Only through Christ can we obtain access to the Father.41
SD	239	5	Jesus says, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Christ takes upon Him the sins of the transgressor, and imputes to him His righteousness, and by His transforming grace makes him capable of associating with angels and communing with God.42
------------------------The Cross and the Law, August 21
SD	240	1	Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein. Hosea 14:9.
SD	240	2	The cross speaks to the hosts of heaven, to worlds unfallen, and to the fallen world, the value which God has placed upon men, and of His great love wherewith He has loved us. It testifies to the world, to angels, and to men, the immutability of the divine law.43
SD	240	3	The death of Christ was to be the convincing, everlasting argument that the law of God is as unchangeable as His throne.... The fact that His own Son, the Surety for man, was not spared, is an argument that will stand to all eternity before saint and sinner, before the universe of God, to testify that He will not excuse the transgressor of His law. Every offense against God's law, however minute, is set down in the reckoning, and when the sword of justice is taken in hand, it will do the work for impenitent transgressors that was done to the divine Sufferer.44
SD	240	4	Through the imputed righteousness of Christ, the sinner may feel that he is pardoned, and may know that the law no more condemns him, because he is in harmony with all its precepts. It is his privilege to count himself innocent when he reads and thinks of the retribution that will fall upon the unbelieving and sinful. By faith he lays hold of the righteousness of Christ.... Knowing himself to be a sinner, a transgressor of the holy law of God, he looks to the perfect obedience of Christ, to His death upon Calvary for the sins of the world; and he has the assurance that he is justified by faith in the merit and sacrifice of Christ. He realizes that the law was obeyed in his behalf by the Son of God, and that the penalty of transgression cannot fall upon the believing sinner. The active obedience of Christ clothes the believing sinner with the righteousness that meets the demands of the law.45
------------------------The Cross Helps Us Understand Nature, August 22
SD	241	1	For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. Psalm 92:4.
SD	241	2	Today man cannot of himself read aright the teaching of nature. Unless guided by divine wisdom, he exalts nature and the laws of nature above nature's God. This is why mere human ideas in regard to science so often contradict the teaching of God's word. But for those who receive the light of the life of Christ, nature is again illuminated. In the light shining from the cross, we can rightly interpret nature's teaching.46
SD	241	3	In the plan of redemption there are mysteries that the human mind cannot fathom,--things which human wisdom cannot explain,--but nature can teach us much concerning the mystery of godliness. Then let the minds of the young, as far as possible, learn from nature's book. Every shrub, every tree bearing fruit, all vegetation, is given for our benefit. The mysteries of the kingdom of God are to be read in the growth of the seed.... God designed that nature should be to man a lesson-book to guide him from the path of disobedience back to God. There is need of a close study of nature under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Lord is giving object-lessons, He is making holy truths familiar to the human mind, through the most simple things of nature.47
SD	241	4	Every good thing we have, each ray of sunshine and shower of rain, every morsel of food, every moment of life, is a gift of love.48
SD	241	5	The sun and the moon were made by Him; there is not a star that beautifies the heavens which He did not make. There is not an article of food upon our tables that He has not provided for our sustenance. The stamp and superscription of God is upon it all. Everything is included in and abundantly supplied to man, through the one unspeakable Gift, the only begotten Son of God.49
------------------------For Us Christ Endured the Cross, August 23
SD	242	1	And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:8.
SD	242	2	For the joy that was set before Him, Christ endured the cross, despising the shame, and is forever set down at the right hand of God. He died on the cross as a sacrifice for the world, and through this sacrifice comes the greatest blessing that God could bestow,--the gift of the Holy Spirit. This blessing is for all who will receive Christ.
SD	242	3	The fallen world is the battle-field for the greatest conflict the heavenly universe and earthly powers have ever witnessed. It was appointed as the theater on which would be fought out the grand struggle between good and evil, between heaven and hell. Every human being acts a part in this conflict. No one can stand on neutral ground. Men must either accept or reject the world's Redeemer. All are witnesses, either for or against Christ. Christ calls upon those who stand under His banner to engage in the conflict with Him as faithful soldiers, that they may inherit the crown of life. They have been adopted as sons and daughters of God. Christ has left them His assured promise that great will be the reward in the kingdom of heaven of those who partake of His humiliation and suffering for the truth's sake.
SD	242	4	The cross of Calvary challenges, and will finally vanquish, every earthly and hellish power. In the cross all influence centers, and from it all influence goes forth. It is the great center of attraction, for on it Christ gave up His life for the human race. This sacrifice was offered for the purpose of restoring man to his original perfection; yea, more. It was offered to give him an entire transformation of character, making him more than a conqueror. Those who in the strength of Christ overcome the great enemy of God and man, will occupy a position in the heavenly courts above angels who have never fallen.50
------------------------Mercy and Justice Met at the Cross, August 24
SD	243	1	Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Psalm 85:10.
SD	243	2	Justice and Mercy stood apart, in opposition to each other, separated by a wide gulf. The Lord our Redeemer clothed His divinity with humanity, and wrought out in behalf of man a character that was without spot or blemish. He planted His cross midway between heaven and earth, and made it the object of attraction which reached both ways, drawing both Justice and Mercy across the gulf.... There it saw One equal with God bearing the penalty for all injustice and sin. With perfect satisfaction Justice bowed in reverence at the cross, saying, It is enough.
SD	243	3	By the offering made in our behalf we are placed on vantage-ground. The sinner, drawn by the power of Christ from the confederacy of sin, approaches the uplifted cross, and prostrates himself before it. Then there is a new creature in Christ Jesus. The sinner is cleansed and purified. A new heart is given to him. Holiness finds that it has nothing more to require. The work of redemption involved consequences of which it is difficult for man to have any conception. There was to be imparted to the human being striving for conformity to the divine image an outlay of heaven's treasures, an excellency of power, which would place him higher than the angels who had not fallen. The battle has been fought, the victory won. The controversy between sin and righteousness exalted the Lord of heaven, and established before the saved human family, before the unfallen worlds, before all the host of evil workers, from the greatest to the least, God's holiness, mercy, goodness, and wisdom.51
SD	243	4	Christ on the cross was the medium whereby mercy and truth met together, and righteousness and peace kissed each other.52
SD	243	5	The greatness of this gift was to furnish men with a theme of thanksgiving and praise that would last through time and through eternity.53
------------------------The Cross Unmasks Satan's Government, August 25
SD	244	1	And having spoiled principalities and powers, he [Christ] made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Colossians 2:15.
SD	244	2	At the cross of Calvary, love and selfishness stood face to face. Here was their crowning manifestation. Christ had lived only to comfort and bless, and in putting Him to death, Satan manifested the malignity of his hatred against God. He made it evident that the real purpose of his rebellion was to dethrone God, and to destroy Him through whom the love of God was shown.
SD	244	3	By the life and the death of Christ, the thoughts of men also are brought to view. From the manger to the cross, the life of Jesus was a call to self-surrender, and to fellowship in suffering. It unveiled the purposes of men. Jesus came with the truth of heaven, and all who were listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit were drawn to Him. The worshipers of self belonged to Satan's kingdom. In their attitude toward Christ, all would show on which side they stood. And thus everyone passes judgment on himself.
SD	244	4	In the day of final judgment, every lost soul will understand the nature of his own rejection of truth. The cross will be presented, and its real bearing will be seen by every mind that has been blinded by transgression. Before the vision of Calvary with its mysterious Victim, sinners will stand condemned. Every lying excuse will be swept away. Human apostasy will appear in its heinous character. Men will see what their choice has been.... When the thoughts of all hearts shall be revealed, both the loyal and the rebellious will unite in declaring, "Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? ... for thy judgments are made manifest."54
SD	244	5	Though earth was struck off from the continent of Heaven and alienated from its communion, Jesus has connected it again with the sphere of glory.55
------------------------We Must Take Up Our Cross Daily, August 26
SD	245	1	If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23.
SD	245	2	It is the power of the cross alone that can separate man from the strong confederacy of sin. Christ gave Himself for the saving of the sinner. Those whose sins are forgiven, who love Jesus, will be united with Him. They will bear the yoke of Christ. This yoke is not to hamper them, not to make their religious life one of unsatisfying toil. No; the yoke of Christ is to be the very means by which the Christian life is to become one of pleasure and joy. The Christian is to be joyful in contemplation of that which the Lord has done in giving His only begotten Son to die for the world, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
SD	245	3	Those who stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel, should be faithful soldiers in Christ's army. They should never be disloyal, never be untrue. Many of the young will volunteer to stand with Jesus, the Prince of life. But if they would continue to stand with Him, they must constantly look unto Jesus, their Captain, for His orders. They cannot be soldiers of Christ and yet engage with the confederacy of Satan, and help along his side, for then they would be enemies of Christ. They would betray sacred trusts.56
SD	245	4	The cross ... is to be lifted and borne without a murmur or complaint. In the act of raising it, you will find that it raises you. You will find it alive with mercy, compassion, and pitying love.57
SD	245	5	Through bearing the cross your experience may be such that you can say, "'I know that my Redeemer liveth,' and because He lives, I shall live also." What an assurance is this!58
------------------------We Take Up the Cross and Deny Self, August 27
SD	246	1	I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20.
SD	246	2	Christ was crucified for fallen man. But to many who call themselves Christians this event is nothing. In practise they deny the cross of Christ.... They admit that Christ died on the cross, but because there is a crucifixion for them to experience, they will not receive the lessons that lead to self-denial and self-sacrifice. They are Christians in name only. The central point of their faith is not a crucified and risen Saviour, who brings to all that receive Him the privilege of being sons and daughters of God.59
SD	246	3	Give up the pleasures of sin in exchange for heaven and eternal life. What are the few days of selfish gratification that contain not one genuine drop of happiness, to the eternity of bliss that awaits the faithful soul? Keep not Christ's love from your soul. Look to the cross of Calvary if you want a tangible proof of His love. Heaven is looking upon you with intense interest, to see what you will do. The angels are amazed when you turn with indifference from the blessings that are proffered you. If you refuse to respond to the drawing love of Christ, you will finally grow rebellious and defiant.60
SD	246	4	Paul realized that his sufficiency was not in himself, but in the presence of the Holy Spirit, whose gracious influence filled his heart, bringing every thought into subjection to Christ.... In the apostle's teachings, Christ was the central figure. "I live," he declared, "yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Self was hidden; Christ was revealed and exalted.61
SD	246	5	Those who deny self to do others good, and who devote themselves and all they have to Christ's service, will realize the happiness which the selfish man seeks for in vain.62
------------------------We Take Up Our Cross and Follow Christ, August 28
SD	247	1	My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27.
SD	247	2	How precious is the knowledge that we have a faithful Friend, One who will impart to us a noble, elevated character, which will fit us for the companionship of the heavenly angels in the courts above! His guardianship is over all His children. They have a peace that the world can neither give nor take away. The loss of earthly treasures does not make them hopeless or homeless....
SD	247	3	Christ beholds the world, full of activity in seeking for earthly treasures. He sees many eagerly trying first one thing and then another in their efforts to obtain the coveted earthly treasure which they think will satisfy their selfish greed, while in their eager pursuit they pass by the only path that leads to the true riches.
SD	247	4	As One having authority Christ speaks to such ones, inviting them to follow Him. He offers to lead them to the riches that are as enduring as eternity. He points them to the narrow path of self-denial and sacrifice. Those who press on in this path, surmounting every obstacle, will reach the land of glory. In lifting the cross they find that the cross lifts them, and they will at last gain the imperishable treasure.
SD	247	5	Many think to find security in earthly riches. But Christ seeks to remove from their eye the mote that obscures the vision, and thus enable them to behold the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. They are mistaking phantoms for realities, and have lost sight of the glories of the eternal world. Christ calls upon them to extend their view beyond the present, and add eternity to their vision.63
SD	247	6	We are to lift the cross, and follow the steps of Christ. Those who lift the cross will find that as they do this, the cross lifts them, giving them fortitude and courage, and pointing them to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.64
------------------------If We Shun the Cross, We Lose Eternal Life, August 29
SD	248	1	He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:38.
SD	248	2	There can be only two classes.... And all who place themselves on the side of the disloyal are standing under Satan's black banner, and are charged with rejecting and despitefully using Christ. They are charged with deliberately crucifying the Lord of life and glory.65
SD	248	3	He who shuns the cross shuns the reward promised to the faithful.66
SD	248	4	Look to Calvary until your heart melts at the amazing love of the Son of God. He left nothing undone that fallen man might be elevated and purified. And shall we not confess Him? Will the religion of Christ degrade its receiver?--No; it will be no degradation to follow in the footsteps of the Man of Calvary. Day by day let us sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him, that in our conversation, our conduct, our dress, and in all our affairs, we may reveal the fact that Jesus is ruling and reigning over us. God calls upon us to walk in a path that has been cast up for the ransomed of the Lord; we are not to walk in the world. We are to surrender all to God, and confess Christ before men....
SD	248	5	"He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Day by day we are to deny self, to lift the cross and follow in the footsteps of the Master....
SD	248	6	I am glad that the day of probation is not closed. Let us in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth fall on the Rock and be broken. By meekness, by love, by a holy conversation, by a compassionate spirit, confess Christ to others. O that we might come into a position where He might reveal His glory as it was revealed in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the people.67
SD	248	7	The cross of Calvary is to us the pledge of everlasting life.68
------------------------The Cross that Simon Bore, August 30
SD	249	1	And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. Matthew 27:32.
SD	249	2	The Saviour's burden was too heavy for Him in His weak and suffering condition. Since the Passover supper with His disciples, He had taken neither food nor drink. He had agonized in the garden of Gethsemane in conflict with satanic agencies.... All through the disgraceful farce of a trial He had borne Himself with firmness and dignity. But when after the second scourging the cross was laid upon Him, human nature could bear no more. He fell fainting beneath the burden.
SD	249	3	The crowd that followed the Saviour saw His weak and staggering steps, but they manifested no compassion.... His persecutors saw that it was impossible for Him to carry His burden farther. They were puzzled to find any one who would bear the humiliating load. The Jews themselves could not do this....
SD	249	4	At this time a stranger, Simon a Cyrenian, coming in from the country, meets the throng. He hears the taunts and ribaldry of the crowd; he hears the words contemptuously repeated, Make way for the King of the Jews! He stops in astonishment at the scene; and as he expressed his compassion, they seize him and place the cross upon his shoulders.
SD	249	5	Simon had heard of Jesus. His sons were believers in the Saviour, but he himself was not a disciple. The bearing of the cross to Calvary was a blessing to Simon, and he was ever after grateful for this providence. It led him to take upon himself the cross of Christ from choice, and ever cheerfully stand beneath its burden.69
SD	249	6	The cross he [Simon] was forced to bear became the means of his conversion. His sympathies were deeply stirred in favor of Jesus; and the events of Calvary, and the words uttered by the Saviour, caused him to acknowledge that He was the Son of God.70
------------------------Dying Thief Accepts Christ as His Saviour, August 31
SD	250	1	And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Luke 23:42.
SD	250	2	To the last of His work Christ is a sin-pardoner. At deepest midnight, as the Star of Bethlehem was about to sink into oblivion, lo there shines amid the moral darkness with distinct brightness the faith of a dying sinner as he lays hold upon a dying Saviour.
SD	250	3	Such faith may be represented by the eleventh hour laborers who receive as much reward as do those who have labored for many hours. The thief asked in faith, in penitence, in contrition. He asked in earnestness, as if he fully realized that Jesus could save him if He would. And the hope in his voice was mingled with anguish as he realized, that if He did not, he would be lost, eternally lost. He cast his helpless, dying soul and body on Jesus Christ.71
SD	250	4	He had heard Pilate declare, "I find no fault in him." John 19:4. He had marked His godlike bearing, and His pitying forgiveness of His tormentors.... Among the passers-by he hears many defending Jesus. He hears them repeat His words, and tell of His works. The conviction comes ... to him that this is the Christ.... When condemned for his crime, the thief had become hopeless and despairing; but strange, tender thoughts now spring up. He calls to mind all he has heard of Jesus.... He has heard the words of those who believed in Jesus and followed Him weeping.... The Holy Spirit illuminates his mind, and little by little the chain of evidence is joined together. In Jesus, bruised, mocked, and hanging upon the cross, he sees the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Hope is mingled with anguish in his voice as the helpless, dying soul casts himself upon a dying Saviour.... Quickly the answer came. Soft and melodious the tone, full of love, compassion, and power the words: Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.... To the penitent thief came the perfect peace of acceptance with God.72
------------------------Privilege of Working with God, September 1
SD	251	1	For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
SD	251	2	If you could only realize that the God of heaven takes those who have been rebels against His government, and says to them, You may be laborers together with Me, you would this day consecrate yourselves wholly to Him.... Is it not wonderful that we can receive the rich current of grace from the Deity, and work in harmony with Him? What does the Deity want with us--poor, weak, and feeble as we are? What can He do with us?--Everything, if we are willing to surrender all.1
SD	251	3	When God called me in my very childhood to work for Him, I used to think, What can I do? God says, Do My bidding. This is all that any of us need do. I want to tell you what each of you, from the oldest to the youngest, can do: You can co-operate with God, ... and with one another.... You will not study how to please yourself. You will realize that you are responsible for the influence you exert....
SD	251	4	"We are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry." Think of it! He is seeking to work the mind, just as you work the land. He is trying to sow seed that will bear fruit to His glory. "Ye are God's building." But He does not build without any care for you.2
SD	251	5	If we surrender our lives to His service, we can never be placed in a position for which God has not made provision.3
SD	251	6	Jesus has opened up all the divine fullness of His inexpressible love, and He declares to you, "Ye are laborers together with God."4
------------------------True Missionary Effort Begins in the Home, September 2
SD	252	1	And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Luke 1:6.
SD	252	2	In forming a relationship with Christ, the renewed man is but coming back to his appointed relationship with God.... His first duty is to his children and his nearest relatives. Nothing can excuse him from neglecting the inner circle for the larger circle outside. In the day of final reckoning fathers and mothers ... will be asked what they did and said to secure the salvation of the souls they took upon themselves the responsibility of bringing into the world. Did they neglect their lambs, leaving them to the care of strangers? ... A great good done for others will not cancel the debt you owe to God to care for your children. The spiritual welfare of your family comes first.5
SD	252	3	In rightly training and molding the minds of her children, mothers are entrusted with the greatest mission ever given to mortals.6
SD	252	4	Whenever you take up the duty that lies nearest you, then God will bless you, and hear your prayers. There are too many doing outside missionary work, while their own households are left destitute of any such efforts,--going to ruin through neglect.... The first missionary work is to see that love, light, and joy come into the home circle. Let us not be looking for some great temperance or missionary work to do until we have first done the duties at home. Every morning we should think, What kind act can I do today? What tender word can I speak? Kind words at home are blessed sunshine. The husband needs them, the wife needs them, the children need them.... It ought to be the desire of every heart to make as much heaven below as possible.7
SD	252	5	A soul saved in your own family circle or in your own neighborhood, by your patient, painstaking labor, will bring as much honor to the name of Christ, and will shine as brightly in your crown as if you had found that soul in China or India.8
------------------------Faithfulness in Little Things, September 3
SD	253	1	He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. Luke 16:10.
SD	253	2	Much time is lost in longing to do some great thing, some wonderful work, while the duties lying close at hand, the performance of which would make the life fragrant, are lost sight of. The life that is Christlike in the home will be Christlike in the church. It is the neglect of the smaller duties in an effort to reach after a great work, that spoils the life of many a one.9
SD	253	3	Many admire the broad, deep river which moves majestically in its onward course to the ocean. It is worthy of admiration; for it is doing its appointed work. But what of the thousand rivulets from the mountain side, which help to swell this noble stream? It is true that they are small and narrow; but they are indispensable, for without them the river could not exist. They are unitedly doing their appointed work in fertilizing the earth; their path through fields and meadows can be traced by the living green that lines their banks. Thus they are carrying out God's plan, and adding to the prosperity of the world. The mighty river has worn for itself a channel through the everlasting hills; but in its place the brook is as necessary as the river....
SD	253	4	Each individual member is responsible for the prosperity of the church. The world is full of work for the Master. Every day brings its burden of care and responsibility; and if just one neglects the work assigned him, some sacred interest suffers.10
SD	253	5	It is the conscientious attention to what the world calls little things that makes the great beauty and success of life. Little deeds of charity, little words of kindness, little acts of self-denial, a wise improvement of little opportunities, a diligent cultivation of little talents, make great men in God's sight.11
SD	253	6	Thoughtful courtesies, that, commencing in our families, extend outside the family circle, help make up the sum of life's happiness.12
------------------------Home Duties Well Done, September 4
SD	254	1	And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. Colossians 3:23.
SD	254	2	God has given you life and all the rich blessings that make it enjoyable, and in return He has claims upon you for service, for gratitude, for love, for obedience to His law.... He requires you to control passion, to restrain selfish thoughts and actions, and to leave fretful words unspoken. Would Jesus require this self-control, if it were not for your real happiness to practice it? No; He wishes you to cultivate such traits of character as will bring peace to your own hearts, and enable you to brighten other hearts and lives with the sunshine of love, joy, and cheerful contentment.
SD	254	3	If you are truly converted, if you are children of Jesus, you will honor your parents; you will not only do what they tell you, but will watch for opportunities to help them. In doing this you are working for Jesus. He considers all these care-taking, thoughtful deeds as done to Himself. This is the most important kind of missionary work; and those who are faithful in these little every-day duties are gaining a valuable experience.... By employing your time in some useful work, you will be closing a door against Satan's temptations. Remember that Jesus lived not to please Himself, and you must be like Him. Make this matter one of religious principle, and ask Jesus to help you. By exercising your mind in this direction, you will be preparing to become burden-bearers in the cause of God, as you have been care-takers in the home circle. You will have a good influence upon others, and may win them to the service of Christ....
SD	254	4	When you make up your mind to do something on which your heart is set, you do not give up for difficulties, but try again and again. Put the same energy and determination to succeed in the service of Christ, and you will not fail of a reward.13
------------------------Influence of a Christian Life at Home, September 5
SD	255	1	He blesseth the habitation of the just. Proverbs 3:33.
SD	255	2	If we have Christ abiding with us, we shall be Christians at home as well as abroad. He who is a Christian will have kind words for his relatives and associates. He will be kind, courteous, loving, sympathetic, and will be educating himself for an abode with the family above. If he is a member of the royal family, he will represent the kingdom to which he is going. He will speak with gentleness to his children, for he will realize that they too are heirs of God, members of the heavenly court. Among the children of God no spirit of hardness dwells.14
SD	255	3	Remember that just as you are in your family, so you will be in the church. Just as you treat your children, so will you treat Christ. If you cherish an un-Christlike spirit, you are dishonoring God.... Position does not make the man. It is Christ formed within that makes a man worthy of receiving the crown of life, that fadeth not away.15
SD	255	4	God wants every person to begin at home, and there live the Christ-life. In the church and in every business transaction a man will be just what he is in his home. If he submits to the Holy Spirit's guidance in the home, if he understands his responsibility to deal with minds there, then when in responsible positions he will pursue the same course. Remembering the tenderness of Christ toward him, he will manifest the same love and tenderness toward others....
SD	255	5	The principles of heaven are to be carried out in every family, in the discipline of every church, in every establishment, in every institution, in every school, and in everything that shall be managed.16
SD	255	6	Men and women, children and youth, are measured in the scales of heaven in accordance with that which they reveal in their home life. A Christian in the home is a Christian everywhere. Religion brought into the home exerts an influence that cannot be measured.17
------------------------Good Behavior at Home Influences Others, September 6
SD	256	1	Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly. 1 Chronicles 19:13.
SD	256	2	The Saviour of the world loves to have children and youth give their hearts to Him.... Through childhood and youth, they will be found faithful disciples of our Lord.... In your earliest years you may be a blessing in the home.18
SD	256	3	Even through children and youth the light of life may shine upon those who sit in darkness. Then watch and pray, and obtain a personal experience in the things of God. Your parents may teach you, they may try to guide your feet into safe paths; but it is impossible for them to change your heart. You must give your heart to Jesus, and walk in the precious light of truth that He has given you. Faithfully take up your duties in the home life, and, through the grace of God, you may grow up into the full stature of what Christ would have a child grow to be in Him....
SD	256	4	In childhood and youth you may have an experience in the service of God. Do the things that you know to be right. Be obedient to your parents. Listen to their counsels; for if they love and fear God, upon them will be laid the responsibility of educating, disciplining, and training your soul for the immortal life. Thankfully receive the help they want to give you, and make their hearts glad by cheerfully submitting yourselves to the dictates of their wiser judgments. In this way you will honor your parents, glorify God, and become a blessing to those with whom you associate.19
SD	256	5	We want children and youth to be happy in this life, and to bring all that makes heaven desirable--a place of peace and bliss--into the home life. Train yourselves to behave at home, having the fear of the Lord before you, and it will become habit to behave well when away from home.... Let love be cherished, and peace, and Christian politeness, and angels will be your guests.20
------------------------Job Offered Sacrifices for His Children, September 7
SD	257	1	And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Job 1:5.
SD	257	2	There are two ways to deal with children,--ways that differ widely in principle and in results. Faithfulness and love, united with wisdom and firmness, in accordance with the teachings of God's Word, will bring happiness in this life and in the next. Neglect of duty, injudicious indulgence, failure to restrain or correct the follies of youth, will result in unhappiness and final ruin to the children, and disappointment and anguish to the parents....
SD	257	3	It were well for parents to learn from the man of Uz a lesson of steadfastness and devotion. Job did not neglect his duty to those outside of his household; he was benevolent, kind, thoughtful of the interests of others; and at the same time he labored earnestly for the salvation of his own family. Amid the festivities of his sons and daughters, he trembled lest his children should displease God. As a faithful priest of the household, he offered sacrifices for them individually. He knew the offensive character of sin, and the thought that his children might forget the divine claims, led him to God as an intercessor in their behalf.21
SD	257	4	He [God] desires to see gathered out from the homes of our people a large company of youth who, because of the godly influences of their homes, have surrendered their hearts to Him and go forth to give Him the highest service of their lives. Directed and trained by the godly instruction of the home, the influence of the morning and evening worship, the consistent example of parents who love and fear God, they have learned to submit to God as their teacher and are prepared to render Him acceptable service as loyal sons and daughters. Such youth are prepared to represent to the world the power and grace of Christ.22
------------------------Far-reaching Influence of Christian Home, September 8
SD	258	1	O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Psalm 71:17.
SD	258	2	The temper, the personal peculiarities, the habits from which character is developed--everything practiced in the home will reveal itself in all the associations of life. The inclinations followed will work out in thoughts, in words, in acts of the same character.23
SD	258	3	The mission of the home extends beyond its own members. The Christian home is to be an object-lesson, illustrating the excellence of the true principles of life. Such an illustration will be a power for good in the world. Far more powerful than any sermon that can be preached is the influence of a true home.... As the youth go out from such a home, the lessons they have learned are imparted. Nobler principles of life are introduced into other households, and an uplifting influence works in the community.24
SD	258	4	The home in which the members are polite, courteous Christians exerts a far-reaching influence for good. Other families will mark the results attained by such a home, and will follow the example set, in their turn guarding the home against satanic influences. The angels of God will often visit the home in which the will of God bears sway. Under the power of divine grace such a home becomes a place of refreshing to worn, weary pilgrims. By watchful guarding, self is kept from asserting itself. Correct habits are formed. There is a careful recognition of the rights of others. The faith that works by love and purifies the soul stands at the helm, presiding over the whole household. Under the hallowed influence of such a home, the principle of brotherhood laid down in the Word of God is more widely recognized and obeyed.25
SD	258	5	The life of Christ is before us as a pattern, and it is when ministering, like angels of mercy, to the wants of others that man is closely allied to God. It is the nature of Christianity to make happy families and happy members of society.26
------------------------God Fills Us With His Love, September 9
SD	259	1	New wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. Luke 5:38.
SD	259	2	We should earnestly seek to know and appreciate the truth, that we may present it to others as it is in Jesus. We need to have a correct estimate of the value of our own souls; then we would not be as reckless in regard to our course of action as at present. We would seek most earnestly to know God's way; ... and our constant prayer would be that we might have the mind of Christ, that we might be molded and fashioned after His likeness. It is in looking to Jesus and beholding His loveliness, having our eyes steadfastly fixed upon Him that we become changed into His image....
SD	259	3	The end is near! We have not a moment to lose! Light is to shine forth from God's people in clear, distinct rays, bringing Jesus before the churches and before the world.... The instrumentalities to be used are those souls who gladly receive the light of truth which God communicates to them. These are God's agencies for communicating the knowledge of truth to the world. If through the grace of Christ His people will become new bottles, He will fill them with the new wine. God will give additional light, and old truths will be recovered, and replaced in the frame-work of truth; and wherever the laborers go, they will triumph. As Christ's ambassadors, they are to search the Scriptures, to seek for the truths that have been hidden beneath the rubbish of error. And every ray of light received is to be communicated to others. One interest will prevail, one subject will swallow up every other,--Christ our righteousness....
SD	259	4	"I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." This is what needs to be brought into ... all our churches. God wants every soul to turn to the first love. He wants all to have the gold of faith and love, so that they can draw from the treasure to impart to others who need it.27
------------------------God Allows Affliction and Trials, September 10
SD	260	1	Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. Psalm 119:67.
SD	260	2	The Lord estimates as of supreme value the holiness of His people, and He permits reverses to come upon individuals, upon families, and upon churches, that His people may see their danger, and humble their hearts before Him in repentance. He will treat His backslidden ones with tenderness. He will speak pardon to them, and clothe them with the garments of Christ's righteousness. He will honor them with His presence.
SD	260	3	In this, the great day of atonement, it is our duty to confess our sins and acknowledge God's mercy and love in pardoning our transgressions. Let us thank the Lord for the warnings He has given to save us from our perverse ways. Let us witness to His goodness by revealing a change in our lives. If those to whom the Lord has sent reproof, warning them that they are not walking in His way, will repent, and with humility and contrition of heart make confession, the Lord will surely receive them again into favor....
SD	260	4	A season of great trial is before us. It becomes us now to use all our capabilities and gifts in advancing the work of God. The powers the Lord has given us are to be used to build up, not to discourage and to tear down.... In all ages of the church God's appointed messengers have exposed themselves to reproach and persecution for the truth's sake. But wherever God's people may be forced to go, even though, like the beloved disciple, they are banished to desert islands, Christ will know where they are, and will strengthen and bless them, filling them with peace and joy....
SD	260	5	He will purify His church even as He purified the temple at the beginning and close of His ministry on earth. All that He brings upon the church in test and trial comes that His people may gain deeper piety and more strength to carry the triumphs of the cross to all parts of the world. He has a work for all to do.28
------------------------Persecution Helps Spread the Gospel, September 11
SD	261	1	I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. 2 Corinthians 12:10.
SD	261	2	In every age God's chosen messengers have been reviled and persecuted; yet through their affliction, the knowledge of God has been spread abroad. Every disciple of Christ is to step into the ranks, and carry forward the same work, knowing that its foes can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. God means that truth shall be brought to the front, and become the subject of examination and discussion, even through the contempt placed upon it. The minds of the people must be agitated; every controversy, every reproach, every effort to restrict liberty of conscience, is God's means of awakening minds that otherwise might slumber.
SD	261	3	How often this result has been seen in the history of God's messengers! When the noble and eloquent Stephen was stoned to death at the instigation of the Sanhedrin council, there was no loss to the cause of the gospel. The light of heaven that glorified his face, the divine compassion breathed in his dying prayer, were as a sharp arrow of conviction to the bigoted Sanhedrist who stood by, and Saul, the persecuting Pharisee, became a chosen vessel, to bear the name of Christ before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. And long afterward Paul the aged wrote from his prison-house at Rome: "Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, ... not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds.... Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached." Through Paul's imprisonment the gospel was spread abroad, and souls were won for Christ in the very palace of the Caesars. By the efforts of Satan to destroy it, "the incorruptible seed" of the Word of God, "which liveth and abideth forever," is sown in the hearts of men; through the reproach and persecution of His children, the name of Christ is magnified, and souls are saved.29
------------------------Righteous Church Members, September 12
SD	262	1	And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. Isaiah 32:17.
SD	262	2	"By their fruits ye shall know them." The inward adorning of a meek and quiet spirit is priceless. In the life of the true Christian the outward adorning is always in harmony with the inward peace and holiness. Thus in the righteousness of the members shall the church be established. God's people are to show a faith steadfast and immovable. The Bible is their standard. Rich currents of grace from heaven will produce light in them, which they are to impart to others. In all its power the truth is to be proclaimed. Those who faithfully do this work, keeping the commandments of God in deed and in truth, will be acknowledged as laborers together with God.
SD	262	3	"The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever." From the beginning to the end of the history of the church, Christ will be to His people all that these words express, if they will heed the invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, ... and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Christ is to His people life and strength, efficiency and power, wisdom and holiness.30
SD	262	4	If you yield to the claims of God, and become permeated with His love, and filled with His fullness, children, youth, and young disciples will look to you for their impressions of what constitutes practical godliness; and you may thus be the means of leading them in the path of obedience to God. You will then be exerting an influence which will bear the test of God, and your work will be compared to gold, silver, and precious stones, for it will be of an imperishable nature....
SD	262	5	There are many who are looking to you, to see what religion can do for you. If you are faithful in your God-given work, you will make right impressions, and will lead souls in the way of righteousness.31
------------------------We are to Be Zealous in Our Labors, September 13
SD	263	1	I am verily a man which ... was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day. Acts 22:3.
SD	263	2	As a people, we are not deficient in talent. There are men and women among us whose labors God would accept if they would offer them to Him, but there are so very few who have the spirit of sacrifice. Some will hand out readily of their means, and feel that when they have done this, there is no more required of them. They make no special sacrifice in thus doing. Money is good as far as it goes, but, unless accompanied by personal effort, will go but a little way toward converting souls to the truth. Not only does God call for your money, ... but He calls for you. While you have given of your means, you have selfishly withheld yourselves. One earnest worker in the vineyard is worth more than a million of money without men to do the work. This giving of yourselves will be a sacrifice if you have a correct estimate of the work, and realize its claims....
SD	263	3	Many are not sufficiently aroused to their duty to do the work they might do if they would, and that they do not do because they have not the spirit of sacrifice. God will hold such accountable for the souls of their fellow-men. They might have done a good work in union with Christ, and they will be called to render an account for the good to souls they could have done and did not....
SD	263	4	The night soon cometh, in which no man can work. Satan is earnest, zealous, and persevering in his work. If he fails to accomplish his purpose the first time, he tries again. He will try other plans, and work with great perseverance to bring in various temptations to ensnare souls. He never becomes so discouraged as to let souls entirely alone. If the zeal and perseverance of Christ's followers in their efforts to save souls were equal to Satan's efforts to deceive them to their eternal loss, we should see hundreds embracing the truth where we now see one.32
------------------------God Places Benevolence Close Beside Prayer, September 14
SD	264	1	Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. Acts 10:4.
SD	264	2	True Christian benevolence springs from the principle of grateful love. Love to Christ cannot exist without corresponding love to those whom He came into the world to redeem. Love to Christ must be the ruling principle of the being, controlling all its emotions and directing all its energies. Redeeming love should awaken all that tender affection and self-sacrificing devotion that is possible to exist in the heart of man. When this is the case, no heart-stirring appeals will be needed to break through their selfishness and awaken their dormant sympathies, to call forth benevolent offerings for the precious cause of truth....
SD	264	3	Rightly directed benevolence draws upon the mental and moral energies of men, and excites them to most healthful action in blessing the needy and in advancing the cause of God. If those who have means should realize that they are accountable to God for every dollar that they expend, their supposed wants would be much less. If conscience was alive, she would testify of needless appropriations in the gratification of the appetite, and in ministering to pride, to vanity, and to amusements, and report the squandering of their Lord's money, which should have been devoted to His cause....
SD	264	4	The length and happiness of life consist not in the amount of our earthly possessions....
SD	264	5	Those churches who are the most systematic and liberal in sustaining the cause of God, are the most prosperous spiritually. True liberality in the follower of Christ identifies his interest with that of his Master.... Worldliness and covetousness are eating out the vitals of God's people. They should understand that it is His mercy which multiplies the demands for their means. The angel of God places benevolent acts close beside prayer. He said to Cornelius, "Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God."33
------------------------Representatives of God's Government, September 15
SD	265	1	Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58.
SD	265	2	The church of Christ is to be clean, pure, and sanctified unto God. Its members stand before the world as representatives of the heavenly government. They are embarked, so long as time shall last, upon an enterprise of mercy.
SD	265	3	It is God's desire that all who profess to believe in the truth of His word shall make it known. Their persevering fidelity will be richly rewarded. "The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High."
SD	265	4	Let us then not be weary in well-doing. Let us yield our hearts entirely to the teachings of the word of the great Medical Missionary. According to our own faith in the message will be our earnestness and our power in promoting the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We are to become "labourers together with God," always "abounding in the work of the Lord."
SD	265	5	Every day of our lives we face new obligations. The termination of one duty is the beginning of the next. Our lives are to be spent in solemn service for the Master. We are the Lord's servants. The members of Christ's church are to be examples of life-service, of complete obedience to our great Example. Every day our work will be appointed unto us according to our several ability. In prayerful, watchful service, we shall perfect characters after the divine similitude, characters with which God will be pleased, and that will fit us for an entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.34
SD	265	6	The Lord is waiting to manifest through His people His grace and power.... Individually we are to walk and talk with God; then the sacred influence of the gospel of Christ in all its preciousness will appear in our lives.35
------------------------How We are to Work, September 16
SD	266	1	But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. 1 Peter 3:15.
SD	266	2	In daily doing the works of Christ, it becomes a pleasure to do His will. Christ came to our world to live out the law of God, to be our pattern in all things. He placed Himself between the mercy seat, and the vast number of heartless worshippers who were full of ostentation, pride, and vanity, and by His lessons of truth, which were "eloquent with simplicity," He impressed the people with the necessity of spiritual worship. His lessons were impressive, beautiful and weighty with importance, and yet so simple that a child could understand them. The truth He presented was so deep that the wisest and most accomplished teacher could never exhaust it. Those who work as seeing the Invisible, will always preserve simplicity, charging the simplest words with the power of the grandest truths.36
SD	266	3	The youth may be a power for Christ, if they will maintain their simplicity, and not seek to present something startling, something original, but teach the precepts of their Lord. But to invest the simplest truths with novelty and singularity, is to rob them of their power to win souls to Christ.... The use of long words and soaring eloquence is not essential to success. What you need is a living experience in the things of God, and simplicity in presenting the love of Christ to the lost.... When the heart is aglow with the love of Jesus, you will express it to others, and become witnesses for Christ.37
SD	266	4	We are not to hide the gospel, or cover the cross of Christ with ornamental roses and thus make the preaching of it of no effect.38
SD	266	5	The true, honest expression of a son or daughter of God, spoken in natural simplicity, has power to unbolt the door to hearts that have long been closed against Christ and His love.39
------------------------We are to Do Good to Our Neighbors, September 17
SD	267	1	Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it Proverbs 3:27.
SD	267	2	So ready, so eager is the Saviour's heart to welcome us as members of the family of God, that in the very first words we are to use in approaching God, He places the assurance of our divine relationship,--"Our Father." ... In calling God our Father, we recognize all His children as our brethren. We are all a part of the great web of humanity, all members of one family. In our petitions we are to include our neighbors as well as ourselves. No one prays aright who seeks a blessing for himself alone.40
SD	267	3	We are bound to the Lord by the strongest ties, and the manifestation of our Father's love should call forth the most filial affection and the most ardent gratitude. The laws of God have their foundation in the most immutable rectitude, and are so framed that they will promote the happiness of those who keep them.41
SD	267	4	In the lesson of faith that Christ taught on the mount, are revealed the principles of true religion. Religion brings man into personal relation with God, but not exclusively; for the principles of heaven are to be lived out, that they may help and bless humanity. A true child of God will love Him with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself. He will have an interest for his fellow-men. True religion is the work of grace upon the heart, that causes the life to flow out in good works, like a fountain fed from living streams. Religion does not consist merely in meditation and prayer. The Christian's light is displayed in good works, and is thus recognized by others. Religion is not to be divorced from the business life. It is to pervade and sanctify its engagements and enterprises. If a man is truly connected with God and heaven, the spirit that dwells in heaven will influence all his words and actions. He will glorify God in his works, and will lead others to honor Him.42
------------------------We are to Labor With Love, September 18
SD	268	1	By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:35.
SD	268	2	May God help us to understand that we must be laborers together with Him. Let us begin right here to be co-workers with heaven.... Will you not unite in labor for your families and for your friends and acquaintances?43
SD	268	3	Let every one of our young disciples of Christ have an unselfish love for all other disciples of Christ.... See if there is not a poor child who is not a favorite, to whom no special kindnesses are shown, and make this one the object of your unselfish attention. Those who are especially attractive will be at no loss for friends; while those who are less pleasing in appearance, who are timid and hard to become acquainted with, may have choice traits of character, and they are the purchase of the blood of Christ.44
SD	268	4	We need to realize daily what a helper we have in Jesus. Let all understand that they can be co-workers with Jesus Christ. It is your privilege to receive grace from Christ that will enable you to comfort others with the same comfort wherewith you yourselves are comforted of God.... Let each one seek to do his work as he will wish he had done when the end of all things shall come. Let each try to help the next one. Thus you may have a little heaven here below, and angels of God will work through you to make right impressions.... Christ wants to use you as His servants. Seek to help wherever you can. Cultivate the best dispositions that the grace of God may rest richly upon you.
SD	268	5	Young and old may learn to look to God as the One who will heal, as One who sympathizes, who understands their necessities and who will never make a mistake. Your humanity may lay hold of the divinity of Christ by living faith, and you may learn to carry out ... the principles of heaven. This will make you a blessing to all.45
------------------------Defenders of the Faith, September 19
SD	269	1	Ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Jude 1:3.
SD	269	2	Crime of every type is increasing in the world, and the earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof. The eternal plans of God are about to be fulfilled, and the end of all things is at hand. This is a time when those who have a knowledge of the truth of God should be ranging themselves on the side of the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. They should stand forth as defenders of the faith delivered to the saints. They should make manifest to the world what it is to keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. They should let their light shine forth in clear, strong rays upon the pathway of those who walk in darkness. The soldiers of Christ should stand shoulder to shoulder, loyal to truth, vindicators of the law of Jehovah.
SD	269	3	Those who depart from the plain precepts of God, will support error, and be ranged against the soldiers of Christ. They will make manifest who is their leader by the course they will pursue in opposing the truth of God, and in enforcing error on the conscience by oppressive measures. It is now time to take a decided stand on the side of truth; and as God has given to every one his measure of influence, he should exert it to the glory of God and for the good of his associates. Not one of the faithful stewards of Christ will be idle in such a time as this, or will be content to live simply for self. Those who are in communion with Christ will realize that there are souls on every side who may be benefited by their help, example, and influence. They will realize that they may be agents through whom Jesus will work to save those for whom He died. This should be the experience of all who profess to believe the third angel's message. Young and old should have a rich, joyful, abundant experience in the religion of Christ.46
------------------------We Are Blessed in Helping Others, September 20
SD	270	1	The soul of blessing shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 11:25, margin.
SD	270	2	There are many to whom life is a painful struggle; they feel their deficiencies, and are miserable and unbelieving; they think they have nothing for which to be grateful. Kind words, looks of sympathy, expressions of appreciation, would be to many a struggling and lonely one as the cup of cold water to a thirsty soul. A word of sympathy, an act of kindness, would lift burdens that rest heavily upon weary shoulders. And every word or deed of unselfish kindness is an expression of the love of Christ for lost humanity.
SD	270	3	The merciful "shall obtain mercy." "The soul of blessing shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself." There is sweet peace for the compassionate spirit, a blessed satisfaction in the life of self-forgetful service for the good of others. The Holy Spirit that abides in the soul, and is manifest in the life, will soften hard hearts, and awaken sympathy and tenderness. You will reap that which you sow.47
SD	270	4	The time will come when the earth shall reel to and fro, and shall be removed like a cottage. But the thoughts, the purposes, the acts of God's workers, although now unseen, will appear at the great day of final retribution and reward. Things now forgotten will then appear as witnesses, either to approve or to condemn.
SD	270	5	Love, courtesy, self-sacrifice,--these are never lost. When God's chosen ones are changed from mortality to immortality, their words and deeds of goodness will be made manifest, and will be preserved through the eternal ages. No act of unselfish service, however small or simple, is ever lost. Through the merits of Christ's imputed righteousness, the fragrance of such words and deeds is forever preserved.48
------------------------We are Created to Do Good Works, September 21
SD	271	1	For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10.
SD	271	2	There are possibilities for work to be done by you for Jesus that you have never dreamed of. A Christian is a Christ-like man, a Christ-like woman who is active in God's service, who is present at the social meeting, whose presence will encourage others also. Religion does not consist in works, but religion works; it is not dormant. The pure religion of Jesus is the fountain from which flow streams of charity, love, self-sacrifice.... With the love of Christ in the heart, the lips will utter His praise and magnify His name. There will be a pressure upon the soul filled with Christ's love....
SD	271	3	God's sons and daughters must show they are of heavenly extraction. The great man in God's sight is he who in the midst of crowds, of cares and financial pressure, keeps his soul unpolluted, unstained, without one blot of worldly pollution. Firmly relying upon God by prayer and faith, the soul will stand firm in moral independence, yet with perfect kindness, love, and goodness. The temptations of society are met and resisted, communion is maintained with God, and the communication between your soul and God enables you to transmit to others through your social relations the choicest blessings which Heaven has to bestow.... Exact and impartial justice will be seen in all his dealings, but his duty does not end here. God requires more. He demands of you to love as Christ has loved souls. He demands of you compassion for the suffering, the erring, those who are subject to Satan's temptations. He demands of you kindness, courtesy to even the unfortunate, a generous consideration of the feelings of others.... You must so order your intercourse and deal with the world as to secure for yourself a calm, hallowed peace, while you leave a record behind of a godly example.49
------------------------God Blesses Those Who Consider the Poor, September 22
SD	272	1	Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. Psalm 41:1.
SD	272	2	We are God's servants, doing His service. Into the great web of life we are to draw no thread of selfishness; for this would spoil the pattern. But, oh, how thoughtless men are apt to be! How seldom do they make the interest of God's suffering ones their own. The poor are all around them, but they pass on, thoughtless and indifferent, regardless of the widows and orphans who, left without resources, suffer, but do not tell their need. If the rich would place a small fund in the bank, at the disposal of the needy ones, how much suffering would be saved. The holy love of God should lead every one to see that it is his duty to care for some other one, and thus keep alive the spirit of benevolence.... He honors us by making us His helping hand. Instead of complaining, let us rejoice that we have the privilege of serving under so good and merciful a Master.50
SD	272	3	Hear what Isaiah says: "Bring the poor that are cast out to thy house; when thou seest the naked, cover him.... Then shall thy light break forth as the morning." Your souls shall be like a watered garden, whose waters fail not....
SD	272	4	I remember the case of a poor man, who lived near a rich widow.... She had had her orchard trimmed, and the limbs and sprouts thus cut off lay by the fence. This poor man asked of her the small favor to give him this brush to use for fuel; but she refused him, saying, "I want to keep them; for the ashes will enrich my ground." I never pass the house of that woman without thinking of this incident. Ground enriched to the neglect of the poor!51
SD	272	5	When there is a failure to appreciate the necessities of humanity, an unwillingness to be God's helping hand, the most costly offerings, the grandest display of liberality, are abominable in His sight.52
SD	272	6	It is in a life of service only that true happiness is found.53
------------------------We Are Told To Go Into All the World, September 23
SD	273	1	And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15.
SD	273	2	The Lord has given to the youth capabilities and talents with which they are to do the work of God. I ask you, dear youth, are you going to give yourselves to the Lord? Are you ready to engage in the work He has left you to do? Jesus said to His disciples, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." In the face of this command, will you appropriate your time and your energies as inclination may dictate, instead of following the counsel of God? ...
SD	273	3	There are souls to be saved. But in wasting your talent of influence, you cannot be laborers together with God, working for the salvation of others. God would have you rightfully direct every jot of influence you possess. He calls for you to whom He has given great light to cooperate with heavenly intelligences. Those who have great light and precious capabilities will have a large field in which their influence may tell unto life eternal; but if those who have been richly endowed of heaven, withhold their gifts from God's service, and misapply them in the service of self and the world, they will be punished in proportion to the light which they have persistently refused. God has made the youth the depositaries of the truth that is to be imparted to the world.... Christ is calling for whole-hearted, sincere servants, who will not be turned from their position of duty by allurements or opposition,--who will not fail or be discouraged. Will you give Him your names? Will you be among those who shall be light-bearers? Will you give yourself to Him to be employed as His agents to arrest the steps of many who are going on the road to perdition?54
SD	273	4	The work must extend from city to city, from country to country, and from nation to nation, moving continually onward and upward, established, strengthened, and settled.55
------------------------We are Witnesses for God, September 24
SD	274	1	Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord. Isaiah 43:10.
SD	274	2	"Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord." Thank God that it is our privilege to be called witnesses for God. Then if we are witnesses, we must speak for Christ, and lift Him up among our associates. When we see the ardor and religious zeal of any of our companions growing cool, we must help and encourage such a one, pray with and for him, that he may be a true witness for the Lord....
SD	274	3	You are to be the agent through whom God will speak to the soul. Precious things will be brought to your remembrance, and with a heart overflowing with the love of Jesus, you will speak words of vital interest and import. Your simplicity and sincerity will be the highest eloquence, and your words will be registered in the books of heaven as fit words, which are like apples of gold in pictures of silver. God will make them a healing flood of heavenly influence, awakening conviction and desire, and Jesus will add His intercession to your prayers, and claim for the sinner the gift of the Holy Spirit, and pour it upon his soul. And there will be joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.56
SD	274	4	The work above all work,--the business above all others which should draw and engage the energies of the soul,--is the work of saving souls for whom Christ has died. Make this the main, the important work of your life. Make it your special life-work. Cooperate with Christ in this grand and noble work, and become home and foreign missionaries. Be ready and efficient to work at home or in far-off climes for the saving of souls.... O that young and old were thoroughly converted to God, and would take up the duty that lies next them, and work as they have opportunity, becoming laborers together with God! Should this come to pass, multitudes of voices would show forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light.57
------------------------We Give Liberally To Spread the Gospel, September 25
SD	275	1	Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. Proverbs 3:9.
SD	275	2	Are you not chosen of God to be a vessel unto honor, to convey light and truth to those who are in error and darkness? The saving message of truth has come to you, and if you receive of the spirit of Christ, you will have a love for the souls who are in peril.58
SD	275	3	Men will compass land and sea for earthly gain, and endure privation and suffering to obtain their object, yet will turn away from heaven's attractions, and not regard eternal riches. Men who are in comparative poverty are usually the ones who do the most to sustain the cause of God. They are generous with their little. They have strengthened their generous impulses by continual liberalities. When their expenditures pressed close upon the income, their passion for earthly riches had no room or chance to strengthen. But many, when they begin to gather earthly riches, commence to calculate how long it will be before they can be in possession of a certain sum. In their anxiety to amass wealth for themselves, they fail to become rich toward God.59
SD	275	4	It should be your object, in whatever vocation you may be found, to do your work in a manner that shall glorify God. All that you gain, you should look upon as capital to be invested in the bank of heaven. It should be your joy to devote means, and time, and ability to win souls for Christ, to send the light to those who sit in darkness.60
SD	275	5	The Lord has ordained that the diffusion of light and truth in the earth shall be dependent upon the efforts and offerings of those who are partakers of the heavenly gift. He might have made angels the ambassadors of His truth; He might have made known His will, as He proclaimed the law from Sinai, with His own voice; but in His infinite love and wisdom He called men to become co-laborers with Himself, by choosing them to do this work.61
------------------------We Are the Light of the World, September 26
SD	276	1	Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Matthew 5:14.
SD	276	2	Our duty will only be discerned and appreciated when viewed in the light which shines from the life of Christ. As the sun rises in the east and passes toward the west, filling the world with light, so the true follower of Christ will be a light unto the world. He will go forth into the world as a bright and shining light, that those who are in darkness may be lightened and warmed by the rays shining forth from him. Christ says of His followers, "Ye are the light of the world."62
SD	276	3	Those who do not work in hopefulness, keep themselves under a cloud of doubt. The enemy is not dead yet, and the nearer we come to the close of this earth's history, the more vigilant will be the efforts of satanic agencies to keep souls under a cloud of doubt, so that the light of heaven shall not be expressed in words and acts, to bring hope and cheer and courage to others....
SD	276	4	The world is full of hurry and disappointment. The words are addressed to you, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." The words in favor of truth, spoken with the assurance that comes from the possession of a right purpose, and in cheerful hope, from a pure heart, will make the angels rejoice. The Lord would have us spiritually minded, that we may be able to see the working out of His plans in our lives. We are to be laborers together with God in accomplishing the work that He would have done. Wherever we are, we are to reflect light.63
SD	276	5	When the grace of Christ is expressed in the words and works of the believers, light will shine forth to those who are in darkness; for while the lips are speaking to the praise of God, the hand will be stretched out in beneficence for the help of the perishing.64
------------------------We are to Work with Christ to Save the Lost, September 27
SD	277	1	And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. Luke 15:6.
SD	277	2	When Jesus spoke these words, He was talking to a company, many of whom knew by experience what a shepherd's life is in Palestine. There the flocks are not kept in level, inclosed pastures, but on the hill-sides, among crags and precipices....
SD	277	3	There was always the danger from robbers and wolves to be guarded against. Sometimes a sheep would stray away from the flock; so they were frequently numbered to see that none were lost, for the shepherd must give a strict account of all the sheep under his care.... The shepherd's life is one full of peril. If he is a trustworthy shepherd, he will not be careless and study his own ease, but he will search for the straying sheep amid storm and tempest....
SD	277	4	This is the way the true Shepherd treats the lost sinner. He goes after him; He does not hesitate at peril, self-denial, and self-sacrifice. He is intent upon bringing the sin-burdened soul to repentance, to salvation, to peace, rest, and happiness in his Saviour's love. And it is the privilege of every one who has experienced the love of Jesus in his own heart, to think if there is not some one whom he can by personal effort, by studied tact and kindness, bring to Jesus, who is ready and willing to accept all who will come to Him. We can all do much through personal effort. We can be laborers with Jesus Christ.65
SD	277	5	Life is serious. You have a large field in which to work; and persevering search for the lost sheep will be the most successful way in which you can employ your time.... If you can exert a saving influence over one soul, remember there is joy in heaven over the one that repented.... You may, by judicious effort, be the means of bringing back the lost sheep to Jesus' fold.66
------------------------Truth Will Triumph, September 28
SD	278	1	Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not your's, but God's. 2 Chronicles 20:15.
SD	278	2	There is work for every individual who names the name of Christ. A voice from heaven is solemnly calling you to duty. Heed this voice, and go to work at once in any place, in any capacity. Why stand ye here all the day idle? There is work for you to do, a work that demands your best energies. Every precious moment of life is related to some duty which you owe to God or to your fellow men....
SD	278	3	A great work of saving souls remains yet to be done. Every angel in glory is engaged in this work, while every demon of darkness is opposing it. Christ has demonstrated to us the great value of souls in that He came to the world with the hoarded love of eternity in His heart, offering to make man heir to all His wealth. He unveils before us the love of the Father for the guilty race and presents Him as just and the justifier of him that believeth.67
SD	278	4	There are vast numbers arrayed against the truth, whom we must meet in presenting the light to others. Our hope is not in our knowledge of the truth, and in our own ability, but in the living God.... God's glory is at stake. And there should be decided effort as far as human effort is concerned, and living faith for the mighty God to manifest His power, else all will prove a failure. God defeated the enemies of Israel. He put their forces into disorder. They fled they knew not whither. Who can stand before the Lord God of Israel?
SD	278	5	Now we are not warring against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. The Lord would encourage us to look to Him as the source of all our strength, the One who is able to help us.... When the God of Israel undertakes work for us, He will make it a success.68
SD	278	6	Truth will triumph.69
------------------------Christ Commends Those Who Serve Him, September 29
SD	279	1	Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Matthew 25:21.
SD	279	2	The Lord is willing to do great things for us. We shall not gain the victory through numbers, but through the full surrender of the soul to Jesus. We are to go forward in His strength, trusting in the mighty God of Israel.... It is essential to have an intelligent knowledge of the truth; for how else could we meet its wily opponents? The Bible must be studied, not alone for the doctrines it teaches, but for its practical lessons. You should never be surprised, you should never be without your armor on. Be prepared for any emergency, for any call of duty. Be waiting, watching for every opportunity to present the truth, familiar with the prophecies, familiar with the lessons of Christ. But do not trust in well-prepared arguments. Argument alone is not enough. God must be sought on your knees; you must go forth to meet the people through the power and influence of His Spirit.... God would have you minute men, as were the men who composed Gideon's army.70
SD	279	3	When in the day of final awards, the reward is given to each as his works have been, it is your privilege to have redeemed souls whom you have been the means of helping, come to you and say, "You lifted me out of discouragement." And the Master will say to you, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."71
SD	279	4	The Lord keeps a complete list of His workers, and in Bible history He has given us the names of a few. Among those who were faithful stewards are Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Daniel, Nehemiah, John, and Paul.... The workers in the vineyard of the Lord have the example of the good of all ages to stimulate them. They have to encourage them the love of God, the ministration of angels, the sympathy of Jesus, and the hope of winning precious souls to shine forever as stars in their crown of rejoicing.72
------------------------When the Gospel is Preached to All, September 30
SD	280	1	And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Matthew 24:14.
SD	280	2	"As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." We are to bear as definite a testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus, as did Christ and His apostles. Trusting in the efficiency of the Holy Spirit, we are to testify of the mercy, goodness, and love of a crucified and risen Saviour, and thus be agents through whom the darkness will be dispelled from many minds, and cause thanksgiving and praise to ascend from many hearts to God. There is a great work to be done by every son and daughter of God.73
SD	280	3	Those who will not accept the last solemn message of warning sent to our world, will pervert the Scriptures; they will attack the character, and make false statements in regard to the faith and doctrines of the advocates of Bible truth. Every possible means will be employed to divert the attention. Shows, games, horseraces, and various other kinds of amusement will be set in operation. An intense power from beneath will stir them up to oppose the message from heaven.... Let us rally under the banner of Prince Immanuel, and in the name and strength of Jesus press the battle home.
SD	280	4	There are souls perishing. They must know the terms of salvation.... Many appear to be entombed in the darkness of ignorance, intrenched behind an invincible barrier, ... but bear in mind that heavenly intelligences are working with the human agents. The Holy Spirit can pierce the stronghold of unbelief. Jesus is leading His army to the field of battle.... Our General leads to victory.74
SD	280	5	When the members of the church of God do their appointed work in the needy fields at home and abroad, in fulfilment of the gospel commission, the whole world will soon be warned, and the Lord Jesus will return to this earth with power and great glory.75
SD	280	6	God will do the work if we will furnish Him the instruments.76
------------------------By Receiving Christ, the Source of Life, October 1
SD	281	1	In him was life; and the life was the light of men. John 1:4.
SD	281	2	The Lord has made every provision so that we may have a rich, abundant, joyful experience. John writes concerning Christ, saying, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men." Life is associated with light, and if we have no light from the Sun of Righteousness, we can have no life in Him. But this light has been provided for every soul, and it is only as we withdraw from the light that darkness comes upon us. Jesus said, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." In the world about us there can be no life without light. Were the sun to withdraw his shining, all vegetation, all animal life, would have an end. This illustrates the fact that we cannot have spiritual life unless we place ourselves under the beams of the Sun of Righteousness. If we put a flowering plant in a dark room, it will soon wither and die; and so we may have some spiritual life, and yet lose it by dwelling in an atmosphere of doubt and gloom....
SD	281	3	We are called, as was John, not to take the place of Christ, but to witness to the light, to direct the minds of others to Him.... Let no one who would witness for Christ, make himself prominent, and seek to attract the attention of the people to himself; but let him strive to lift up Jesus.1
SD	281	4	Humanity has in itself no light. Apart from Christ, we are like an unkindled taper, like the moon when her face is turned away from the sun; we have not a single ray of brightness to shed into the darkness of the world. But when we turn toward the Sun of Righteousness, when we come in touch with Christ, the whole soul is aglow with the brightness of the divine presence.2
------------------------By Abiding in Christ, the Source of Power, October 2
SD	282	1	For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. Colossians 2:9, 10.
SD	282	2	The Lord Jesus acts through the Holy Spirit; for it is His representative. Through it He infuses spiritual life into the soul, quickening its energies for good, cleansing it from moral defilement, and giving it a fitness for His kingdom. Jesus has large blessings to bestow, rich gifts to distribute among men. He is the wonderful Counselor, infinite in wisdom and strength; and if we will acknowledge the power of His Spirit, and submit to be molded by it, we shall stand complete in Him. What a thought is this! In Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him."
SD	282	3	Never will the human heart know happiness until it is submitted to be molded by the Spirit of God. The Spirit conforms the renewed soul to the model, Jesus Christ. Through the influence of the Spirit, enmity against God is changed into faith and love, and pride into humility. The soul perceives the beauty of truth, and Christ is honored in excellence and perfection of character. As these changes are effected, angels break out in rapturous song, and God and Christ rejoice over souls fashioned after the divine similitude.3
SD	282	4	Jehovah Emmanuel--He "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," in whom dwells "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"--to be brought into sympathy with Him, to know Him, to possess Him, as the heart opens more and more to receive His attributes; to know His love and power, to possess the unsearchable riches of Christ, to comprehend more and more "what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God,"--"this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord."4
------------------------By Walking as Christ Walked, October 3
SD	283	1	As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Colossians 2:6.
SD	283	2	You are fighting for the crown of life.... Live to please Him who thought you of such value that He gave Jesus, His only begotten Son, to save you from your sins.... Ever keep before you the thought that what is worth doing at all, is worth doing well. Depend upon God for wisdom, that you may not discourage one soul in right doing. Work with Christ in drawing souls to Him.... Do your very best in everything you undertake. Jesus is your Saviour, and rely upon Him to help you day by day, that you may not sow tares, but the good seed of the kingdom....
SD	283	3	You must learn to see with your brain as well as your eyes. You must educate your judgment so that it shall not be feeble and inefficient. You must pray for guidance, and commit your way unto the Lord. You must close your heart against all foolishness and sin, and open it to every heavenly influence. You must make the most of your time and opportunities, in order to develop a symmetrical character....
SD	283	4	We are to be "complete in him." "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." This means that you are to study the life of Christ. You are to study it with as much more earnestness than you study secular lines of knowledge, as eternal interests are more important than temporal, earthly pursuits. If you appreciate the value and sacredness of eternal things, you will bring your sharpest thoughts, your best energies, to the solving of the problem that involves your eternal well-being; for every other interest sinks into nothingness in comparison with that.
SD	283	5	You have the pattern, Christ Jesus; walk in His footsteps, and you will be qualified to fill any and every position that you may be called upon to occupy.... You are not to feel that you are a bond slave, but a son of God.5
------------------------By Walking in the Truth, October 4
SD	284	1	For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. 3 John 1:3.
SD	284	2	The Lord has a place for the very best ability He has intrusted to men. In the work of building up His kingdom, we may employ every capacity given of God, as faithfully and earnestly as did Daniel in Babylon, when he was found faithful to every duty to man, and loyal to his God.
SD	284	3	God calls for far more tact, more wise generalship, than has yet been given Him by His human agents. There is need of sharp, sanctified thinking, and keen work to counteract the ingenious plans of Satan. There is a call for a higher standard to be met, a holier, more determined, self-sacrificing effort to be put forth in the Lord's work. Our youth must be educated to meet a higher standard, to understand that they are now deciding their own eternal destiny. There is no safeguard for any one, save in having in the heart the truth as it is in Jesus. This must be planted in the heart by the Holy Spirit. Much that is now called religion will sink out of sight when it is assailed by the hosts of Satan. Nothing will stand but the truth,--the wisdom that is from above, which will sanctify the soul.
SD	284	4	Let no one imagine that self-indulgence is religion. Let not selfishness be pampered. Let the youth learn to restrict their desires, and to beware of extravagance in the use of means. Let all look unto Jesus, contemplate His character, and follow in His footsteps.6
SD	284	5	The truth if received is capable of constant expansion and new developments. It will increase in brightness as we behold it, and grow in height and depth as we aspire to grasp it. Thus it will elevate us to the standard of perfection, and give us faith and trust in God as our strength for the work before us.7
SD	284	6	Through the application of divine truth the perfect image of God will be reproduced.8
------------------------By Keeping the Commandments in Every Detail, October 5
SD	285	1	And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. 1 John 3:24.
SD	285	2	God requires us to be faithful in the smallest details of life,--to guard our words, our spirit, and our actions. To do this, we need to acquire perfect self-control, and this will demand of us constant, ceaseless watchfulness....
SD	285	3	Were self kept under control, serious errors in home and business life would be avoided. Among the members of many families there is practised the habit of saying loose, careless things, and the habit of tantalizing, of speaking harsh words, becomes stronger and stronger as it is indulged, and thus many objectionable words are spoken that are after Satan's order, and not after the order of God. Should those who indulge in speaking words of passion, study the Guide Book, and with a serious mind seek to know its requirements, and to do them,--should they make practical its injunctions,--what a transformation would there be in the conduct and conversation! ... Every relation in life, every position of responsibility, every affection and habit, every emotion of the mind, is to be brought to the great standard of righteousness, the commandments of God, which are exceeding broad. We must have simplicity of heart that we may understand, and willingness of mind to practise, all the teachings of God's Word....
SD	285	4	The whole mind must be molded by the Holy Spirit. Divine power will combine with human effort, when we seek earnestly to be complete in Christ Jesus. The Lord will help every one who seeks Him with all his heart. He shall have the light of life, and that light shines from the living oracles. As the light of the sun sheds its warmth throughout all the world, so the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness will shed health-giving rays into the heart.9
------------------------By Being United as Children of God, October 6
SD	286	1	For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26.
SD	286	2	We seldom find two persons exactly alike. Among human beings as well as among the things of the natural world, there is diversity. Unity in diversity among God's children--the manifestation of love and forbearance in spite of difference of disposition--this is the testimony that God sent His Son into the world to save sinners.10
SD	286	3	The unity that exists between Christ and His disciples does not destroy the personality of either. In mind, in purpose, in character, they are one, but not in person. By partaking of the Spirit of God, conforming to the law of God, man becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ brings His disciples into a living union with Himself and with the Father. Through the working of the Holy Spirit upon the human mind, man is made complete in Christ Jesus. Unity with Christ establishes a bond of unity with one another. This unity is the most convincing proof to the world of the majesty and virtue of Christ, and of His power to take away sin.11
SD	286	4	The powers of darkness stand a poor chance against believers who love one another as Christ has loved them, who refuse to create alienation and strife, who stand together, who are kind, courteous, and tender-hearted, cherishing the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. We must have the Spirit of Christ, or we are none of His.12
SD	286	5	In unity there is strength; in division there is weakness.13
SD	286	6	The closer our union with Christ, the closer will be our union with one another. Variance and disaffection, selfishness and conceit, are striving for supremacy. These are the fruits of a divided heart, open to the suggestions of the enemy of souls. Satan exults when he can sow seeds of dissension.14
SD	286	7	In unity there is a life, a power, that can be obtained in no other way.15
------------------------Christ is the True Vine, October 7
SD	287	1	I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. John 15:1.
SD	287	2	Those who would follow Christ, must believe in Him; they must open the heart to receive Him as an abiding guest. They must abide in Christ, as the branch abides in the living vine. There is a vital union formed between the parent stock and the branch, and the same fruit appears upon the branch that is seen upon the tree. Thus the Lord will work through the human agent who unites himself to Jesus Christ. Those who have an abiding trust in Christ, will, like Enoch, have a sense of the abiding presence of God. Why is it that there are so many who feel in uncertainty, who feel that they are orphans?--It is because they do not cultivate faith in the precious assurance that the Lord Jesus is their sin-bearer. It was in behalf of those who had transgressed the law, that Jesus took upon Him human nature, and became like unto us, in order that we might have everlasting peace and assurance. We have an advocate in the heavens, and whosoever accepts Him as his personal Saviour is not left an orphan to bear the curse of his own sins.
SD	287	3	We must daily cultivate faith, daily contemplate Him who has undertaken our case, who is a merciful and faithful high priest; "for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted [not in a few things, but in all points like as we are], he is able to succour them that are tempted." "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." Even now, in heaven, He is afflicted with our afflictions; and as a living Saviour, as an interested Advocate, He is making intercession for us.
SD	287	4	We should daily exercise faith; and that faith should daily increase as it is exercised, as we realize that He has not only redeemed us, but has loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and the Father.16
------------------------We Are the Branches, October 8
SD	288	1	I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5.
SD	288	2	We have nothing, we are nothing, unless we receive virtue from Jesus Christ.17
SD	288	3	Until the heart is surrendered unconditionally to God, the human agent is not abiding in the true Vine, and cannot flourish in the Vine, and bear rich clusters of fruit. God will not make the slightest compromise with sin. If He could have done this, Christ need not have come to our world to suffer and die. No conversion is genuine which does not change both the character and the conduct of those who accept the truth. The truth works by love, and purifieth the soul.18
SD	288	4	Our professions are worthless unless we abide in Christ; for we cannot be living branches unless the vital qualities of the Vine abound in us. In the genuine Christian the characteristics of his Master will appear, and when we reflect the graces of Christ in our lives and characters, the Father loves us as He loves His Son. When this condition is fulfilled in those who profess to believe the present truth, we shall see a prosperous church; for its members will not live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and they will be flourishing branches of the living Vine.19
SD	288	5	The root of the tree has a double office to fill. It is to hold fast by its tendrils to the earth, while it takes to itself the nourishment desired. Thus it is with the Christian. When his union with Christ, the parent stock, is complete, when he feeds upon Him, currents of spiritual strength are given to him. Can the leaves of such a branch wither?--Never! As long as the soul reaches toward Christ, there is little danger that he will wilt, and droop, and decay. The temptations that may come in like a tempest will not uproot him. The true Christian draws his motives of action from his deep love for his Redeemer. His affection for his Master is true and holy.20
------------------------God Prunes Us to Make Us More Fruitful, October 9
SD	289	1	Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. John 15:2.
SD	289	2	Those who will walk closely in the footsteps of their self-sacrificing, self-denying Redeemer will have the mind of Christ reflected in their minds. Purity and the love of Christ will shine forth in their daily lives and characters, while meekness and truth will guide their way. Every fruitful branch is pruned, that it may bring forth more fruit. Even fruitful branches may display too much foliage and appear what they really are not. The followers of Christ may be doing some work for the Master and yet not be doing half what they might do. He then prunes them, because worldliness, self-indulgence, and pride are cropping out in their lives. Husbandmen clip off the surplus tendrils of the vines ..., thus making them more fruitful. These hindering causes must be removed and the defective outgrowth cut away, to give room for the healing beams of the Sun of Righteousness....
SD	289	3	Many misunderstand the object for which they were created. It was to bless humanity and glorify God, rather than to enjoy and glorify self. God is constantly pruning His people, cutting off profuse, spreading branches, that they may bear fruit to His glory and not produce leaves only. God prunes us with sorrow, with disappointment and affliction, that the outgrowth of strong, perverse traits of character may be weakened and that the better traits may have a chance to develop. Idols must be given up, the conscience must become more tender, the meditations of the heart must be spiritual, and the entire character must become symmetrical.21
SD	289	4	By abiding in Christ, we may have His sweetness, His fragrance, His light.... He shines in our hearts. His light in our hearts shines forth from our faces. By beholding the beauty and the glory of Christ, we become changed into the same image.22
------------------------We Bear Fruit Only as We Abide in Christ, October 10
SD	290	1	Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John 15:4.
SD	290	2	The reason that we carelessly indulge in sin is that we do not see Jesus. We would not lightly regard sin, did we appreciate the fact that sin wounds our Lord.... A right estimate of the character of God would enable us rightly to represent Him to the world. Harshness, roughness in words or manner, evil-speaking, passionate words, cannot exist in the soul that is looking unto Jesus. He who abides in Christ is in an atmosphere that forbids evil, and gives not the slightest excuse for anything of this kind. Spiritual life is not nourished from within, but draws its nutrition from Christ, as the branch does from the vine. We are dependent upon Christ every moment; He is our source of supply. All our outside forms, prayers, fastings, and alms-giving cannot take the place of the inward work of the Spirit of God on the human heart.23
SD	290	3	When one is fully emptied of self, when every false god is cast out of the soul, the vacuum is filled by the inflowing of the Spirit of Christ. Such a one has the faith that purifies the soul from defilement.... He is a branch of the True Vine, and bears rich clusters of fruit to the glory of God. What is the character of the fruit borne?--The fruit of the Spirit is "love," not hatred; "joy," not discontent and mourning; "peace," not irritation, anxiety, and manufactured trials. It is "long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."24Gospel Workers, 287, 288.
SD	290	4	One branch is not to borrow its sustenance from another. Our life must come from the parent vine. It is only by personal union with Christ, by communion with Him daily, hourly, that we can bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit.... Our growth in grace, our joy, our usefulness, all depend on our union with Christ and the degree of faith we exercise in Him.25
------------------------Withered Branch Apart From Christ, October 11
SD	291	1	If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. John 15:6.
SD	291	2	He [Judas] ... did not become transformed, and converted into a living branch through connection with the True Vine. This dry sapling adhered not to the Vine until it grew into a fruitful, living branch. He revealed that he was the graft that did not bear fruit,--the graft that did not, fiber by fiber and vein by vein, become knit with the Vine, and partake of its life.
SD	291	3	The dry, disconnected sapling can become one with the parent vine stock only by being made a partaker of the life and nourishment of the living vine, by being grafted into the vine, by being brought into the closest relationship possible.... The twig holds fast to the life-giving vine, until the life of the vine becomes the life of the branch, and it produces fruit like that of the vine.26
SD	291	4	"I am the vine," said Christ; "ye are the branches." The closest possible connection is here represented. Engraft the leafless twig upon the flourishing vine stock, and it becomes a living branch, drawing sap and nourishment from the vine. Fiber by fiber, vein by vein, the sapling clings, until it buds and blossoms and bears fruit. The sapless twig represents the sinner. When united to Christ, soul is joined to soul, the feeble and finite to the holy and infinite, and man becomes one with Christ.27
SD	291	5	The apparently dry branch, by being connected with the living vine, becomes a part of it.... The soul, dead in trespasses and sins, must experience a similar process.... As the graft receives life when united to the vine, so the sinner partakes of the divine nature when connected with Christ. Finite man is united with the infinite God. When thus united, the words of Christ abide in us, and we are not actuated by a spasmodic feeling, but a living, abiding principle.28
------------------------We Confess Christ, October 12
SD	292	1	Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 10:32, 33.
SD	292	2	Are we confessing Christ in our daily life? Do we confess Him in our dress, adorning ourselves with plain and modest apparel? Is our adorning that of the meek and quiet spirit which is of so great price in the sight of God? Are we seeking to advance the cause of the Master? ... There is no use in telling you that you must not wear this or that, for if the love of these vain things is in your heart, your laying off your adornments will only be like cutting the foliage off a tree. The inclinations of the natural heart would again assert themselves. You must have a conscience of your own....
SD	292	3	We are to abide in Him as the branch abides in the vine.... What we want is to have the ax laid at the root of the tree. We want to be dead to the world, dead to self, and alive unto God.... We need to come close to Christ, that men may know that we have been with Christ and learned of Him.29
SD	292	4	He who imitates Christ will show forth His self-denial and self-sacrifice.... Just where the conscience of the Bible Christian warns him to forbear, to deny himself, to stop, just there the worldling steps over the line to indulge his selfish propensities. On one side of the line is the self-denying follower of Jesus Christ, on the other side of the line is the self-indulgent world-lover, pandering in fashion, engaging in frivolity, and pampering himself in forbidden pleasures. On this side of the line the Christian cannot go. It is no place for him.30
SD	292	5	Our life must be hid with Christ in God, that when He shall appear, we also may appear with Him in glory.31
------------------------We Bear the Fruit of Brotherly Love, October 13
SD	293	1	Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. John 15:8.
SD	293	2	The union between Christ and His people is to be living, true, and unfailing, resembling the union that exists between the Father and the Son. This union is the fruit of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All true children of God will reveal to the world their union with Christ and with their brethren. Those in whose hearts Christ abides will bear the fruit of brotherly love. They will realize that as members of God's family they are pledged to cultivate, cherish, and perpetuate Christian love and fellowship, in spirit, words, and action.
SD	293	3	To be children of God, members of the royal family, means more than many suppose. Those who are accounted by God as His children will reveal Christlike love for one another. They will live and work for one object,--the proper representation of Christ to the world. By their love and unity they will show to the world that they bear the divine credentials. By the nobility of love and self-denial, they will show those around them that they are true followers of the Saviour. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." ...
SD	293	4	The most powerful evidence a man can give that he has been born again and is a new man in Christ Jesus, is the manifestation of love for his brethren, the doing of Christlike deeds. This is the most wonderful witness that can be borne in favor of Christianity, and will win souls to the truth....
SD	293	5	Christ brings all true believers into complete oneness with Himself, even the oneness which exists between Him and His Father. The true children of God are bound up with one another and with their Saviour. They are one with Christ in God.32
------------------------Christ Prayed That We All Might Be One, October 14
SD	294	1	That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21.
SD	294	2	Christ has left us a perfect, sinless example. His followers are to walk in His footsteps. If they are not transformed in character, they can never dwell with Him in His kingdom. Christ died to elevate and ennoble them, and those who retain hereditary tendencies to wrong can not dwell with Him. He suffered all that it is possible for human flesh to suffer and endure, that we might pass triumphantly through all the temptations Satan may invent to destroy our faith.
SD	294	3	In Christ is our only hope. God has daily victories for His people to gain.... By His heavenly gifts the Lord has made ample provision for His people. An earthly parent can not give his child a sanctified character. He can not transfer his character to his child. God alone can transform us. Christ breathed on His disciples, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." This is the great gift of heaven. Christ imparted to them through the Spirit His own sanctification. He imbued them with His power, that they might win souls to the gospel. Henceforth Christ would live through their faculties, and speak through their words. They were privileged to know that hereafter He and they were to be one. They must cherish His principles and be controlled by His Spirit. They were no longer to follow their own way, to speak their own words. The words they spoke were to proceed from a sanctified heart, and fall from sanctified lips. No longer were they to live their own selfish life; Christ was to live in them.... He would give to them the glory that He had with the Father, that He and they might be one in God.33
SD	294	4	Young men and young women should realize that to be one with Christ is the highest honor to which they can attain.... Consecrate all that there is of you--soul, body, and spirit--to the Lord. Yield every power you have to the control of the Holy Spirit.34
------------------------Oneness with Christ, October 15
SD	295	1	And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. John 17:22.
SD	295	2	In these words we have a most convincing statement to prove the fact that unity, kindness, and love will exist among those who are Christians indeed. The world's Redeemer is exalted, glorified, in the character of all those who believe.... What tremendous consequences to the world depend upon the unity of those who claim to be Christians, who claim to believe that the Bible is the Word of God.35
SD	295	3	"Emmanuel, God with us." This means everything to us. What a broad foundation does it lay for our faith! What a hope big with immortality does it place before the believing soul! God with us in Christ Jesus to accompany us every step of the journey to heaven! The Holy Spirit with us as a Comforter, a Guide in our perplexities, to soothe our sorrows, and shield us in temptation! "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" ... Cultivate love, uproot suspicion, envy, jealousy, and the thinking and the speaking of evil. Press together, work as one man. Be at peace among yourselves.
SD	295	4	I beseech you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth to put away everything like spiritual pride and love of supremacy. Become as little children if when the warfare is ended you would become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. Read John 17 over and over again. That prayer of our Saviour offered to His Father in behalf of His disciples, is worthy to be oft repeated, and carried in the practical life. This will raise fallen man; for the Lord has promised that if we preserve this unity, God will love us as He loved His Son; the sinner will be saved, and God eternally glorified.
SD	295	5	Angels and archangels wonder at this great plan of redemption; they admire and love the Father and the Son as they behold the mercy and love of God.36
------------------------We Reflect Christ to the World, October 16
SD	296	1	I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:23.
SD	296	2	In the intercessory prayer of Jesus with His Father, He claimed that He had fulfilled the conditions which made it obligatory upon the Father to fulfill His part of the contract made in heaven, with regard to fallen man.... He declares Himself glorified in those who believe on Him. The church, in His name, is to carry to glorious perfection the work which He has commenced; and when that church shall be finally ransomed in the Paradise of God, He will look upon the travail of His soul and be satisfied. Through all eternity the ransomed host will be His chief glory.37
SD	296	3	"We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." We are to keep the Lord ever before us. Those who do this, walk with God as did Enoch, and imperceptibly to themselves, they become one with the Father and with the Son. Day by day a change is wrought upon mind and hearts, and the natural inclination, the natural ways, are molded after God's ways and Spirit. They increase in spiritual knowledge, and are growing up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. They reflect to the world the character of Christ, and abiding in Him, and He in them, they fulfill the mission for which they were called to be the children of God,--they become the light of the world, a city set upon a hill that cannot be hid. "No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light." Those who have been lighted from above send forth the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness.38
------------------------We Are Kept from Sinning, October 17
SD	297	1	Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. 1 John 3:6.
SD	297	2	A mere profession of godliness is worthless. It is he that abideth in Christ that is a Christian. For "every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." In every clime, in every nation, our youth should cooperate with God. The only way a person can be pure is to become like-minded with God. How can we know God?--By studying His Word....
SD	297	3	It is through faith in Jesus Christ that the truth is accepted in the heart and the human agent is purified and cleansed. Jesus was "wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Is it possible to be healed, while knowingly committing sin?--No; it is genuine faith that says, I know that I have committed sin, but that Jesus has pardoned my sin; and hereafter I will resist temptation in and through His might. "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." He has an abiding principle in the soul, that enables him to overcome temptation.
SD	297	4	"Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." God has power to keep the soul who is in Christ, when that soul is under temptation. "Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him." That is, every one who is a true believer is sanctified through the truth, in life and character. "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth [not professeth to do] righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous." "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; ... because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil." Now mark where the distinction is made: "Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither is he that loveth not his brother." "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth."39
------------------------We Abide in His Love, October 18
SD	298	1	I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:26.
SD	298	2	[This personal testimony will bring courage to many.--E. G. White Trustees.] Your self-pity is an injury to you; you sympathize with yourself, feel that you are not esteemed as you should be, that your work is altogether too hard, and your best efforts are unappreciated. These feelings are the result of a spiritual disease, which can be cured only through faith in Christ. The temptation seizes you when you are weary or perplexed; but when the first symptoms appear, and the enemy works to make you grumble and murmur, look unto Jesus, trust in your Saviour. This is the only cure for this spiritual malaria.... If you allow your mind to be occupied with these things, the enemy will see that you are kept busy. He puts his magnifying glass before your eyes, and mole hills of difficulty are made to appear as mountains.... You need to understand how to repose in God. A wise heart, molded by the Holy Spirit, it is your privilege to have; and this is the foundation of all true happiness....
SD	298	3	God would have you trust in His love, and be constantly guarding your soul by locking the gate of your thoughts, that they shall not become unmanageable; for when you allow your mind to indulge these thoughts of self-pity, the enemy comes in to suggest the most unkind and unreasonable things in regard to those who would do you good, and only good....
SD	298	4	Listen to Jesus, follow His counsel and you will not go astray from the wise and mighty Counsellor, the only true Guide, the only One who can give you peace, happiness, and fulness of joy.... Whatever others may think of us or may do to us, it need not disturb this oneness with Christ, this fellowship of the Spirit. You know we cannot find rest anywhere out of Christ.40
------------------------We Dwell in Him and He in Us, October 19
SD	299	1	He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. John 6:56.
SD	299	2	The contemplation of the Word of God will make us wise unto salvation; the knowledge of this Word will insure our happiness, and our success in the perfection of Christian character.
SD	299	3	All who in faith receive the Word of God will be doers of that Word. Their minds will be enlarged by a true knowledge, which Christ represents as eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. And as they practise the truth, they hold forth the Word of life to others. Thus they become an influence among influences, a savor of life unto life.
SD	299	4	Christ said: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven...."
SD	299	5	Satan will do everything he can to satisfy the appetite for food that does not pertain to the knowledge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Those who retain the grosser traits of character, who continue to reveal human defects in their words and disposition, bear testimony that they are not eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God.41
SD	299	6	It is the Word of God abiding in the heart that will quicken the spiritual faculties....
SD	299	7	Jesus has loved men, and has made every provision that the blood-bought soul shall have a new birth, a new life derived from His own life.... "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." Those who believe in Christ derive their motive power and the texture of their characters from Him in whom they believe.42
------------------------Our Life is Hid with Christ in God through Baptism, October 20
SD	300	1	For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3.
SD	300	2	Great responsibility comes to those who have been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Strive to understand the meaning of the words, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." In the new life upon which you have entered, you are pledged to represent the life of Christ. Having put on the new man, "which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him," "put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful."
SD	300	3	The old sinful life is dead; the new life entered into with Christ by the pledge of baptism. Practise the virtues of the Saviour's character. Let His wisdom dwell in you richly in all wisdom; "teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." ... The sins that were practised before conversion, are to be put off, with the old man. With the new man, Christ Jesus, are to be put on "kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering."43
SD	300	4	Those who, in the spirit and love of Jesus, will become one with Him, will be in close fellowship one with another, bound up by the silken cords of love.... "All ye are brethren" will be the sentiment of every child of faith.... All will be equally one with Christ.44
------------------------The Poor in Spirit Inherit the Kingdom, October 21
SD	301	1	Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3.
SD	301	2	Christ longed to fill the world with a peace and joy that would be a similitude of that found in the heavenly world.... From His divine lips there fell with fullness and abundant assurance the benedictions that showed Him to be the fountain of all goodness, and that it was His prerogative to bless and impress the minds of all present. He was engaged in His peculiar, sacred province, and the treasures of eternity were at His command. In the disposal of them He knew no control. It was no robbery with Him to act in the office of God. In His blessings He embraced those who were to compose His kingdom in this world. He had brought into the world every blessing essential to the happiness and joy of every soul, and before that vast assembly He presented the riches of the grace of heaven, the accumulated treasures of the eternal, everlasting Father....
SD	301	3	He specifies those who shall become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Himself. He proclaims publicly His choice of subjects, and assigns them their place in His service as united with Himself. Those who possess the character specified, will share with Him in the blessing and the glory and the honor that will ever come to Him.45
SD	301	4	He who feels whole, who thinks that he is reasonably good, and is contented with his condition, does not seek to become a partaker of the grace and righteousness of Christ. Pride feels no need, and so it closes the heart against Christ and the infinite blessings He came to give. There is no room for Jesus in the heart of such a person.... Those who know that they cannot possibly save themselves, or of themselves do any righteous action, are the ones who appreciate the help that Christ can bestow. They are the poor in spirit, whom He declares to be blessed.46
------------------------Those Who Mourn Shall Be Comforted, October 22
SD	302	1	Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4.
SD	302	2	The mourning here brought to view is true heart sorrow for sin.... As one is drawn to behold Jesus uplifted on the cross, he discerns the sinfulness of humanity. He sees that it is sin which scourged and crucified the Lord of glory. He sees that, while he has been loved with unspeakable tenderness, his life has been a continual scene of ingratitude and rebellion. He has forsaken his best Friend, and abused heaven's most precious gift. He has crucified to himself the Son of God afresh, and pierced anew that bleeding and stricken heart. He is separated from God by a gulf of sin that is broad and black and deep, and he mourns in brokenness of heart. Such mourning "shall be comforted." God reveals to us our guilt that we may flee to Christ, and through Him be set free from the bondage of sin, and rejoice in the liberty of the sons of God. In true contrition we may come to the foot of the cross, and there leave our burdens....
SD	302	3	The Saviour's words have a message of comfort to those also who are suffering affliction or bereavement. Our sorrows do not spring out of the ground. God "doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." When He permits trials and afflictions, it is "for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness." If received in faith, the trial that seems so bitter and hard to bear will prove a blessing. The cruel blow that blights the joys of earth will be the means of turning our eyes to heaven. How many there are who would never have known Jesus had not sorrow led them to seek comfort in Him! ...
SD	302	4	The Lord will work for all who put their trust in Him. Precious victories will be gained by the faithful. Precious lessons will be learned. Precious experiences will be realized....
SD	302	5	Christ lifts up the contrite heart, and refines the mourning soul, until it becomes His abode.47
------------------------The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth, October 23
SD	303	1	Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5.
SD	303	2	There were occasions when Christ spoke with an authority that sent His words home with irresistible force, with an overwhelming sense of the greatness of the Speaker, and the human agencies shrunk into nothingness in comparison with the One before them. They were deeply moved; their minds were impressed that He was repeating the command from the most excellent glory. As He summoned the world to listen, they were spellbound and entranced, and conviction came to their minds. Every word made for itself a place, and the hearers believed and received the words that they had no power to resist. Every word He uttered seemed to the hearers as the life of God. He was giving evidence that He was the light of the world and the authority of the church, claiming pre-eminence over them all.48
SD	303	3	Jesus places meekness among the first qualifications for His kingdom. In His own life and character the divine beauty of this precious grace is revealed....
SD	303	4	Human nature is ever struggling for expression, ready for contest; but he who learns of Christ is emptied of self, of pride, of love of supremacy, and there is silence in the soul. Self is yielded to the disposal of the Holy Spirit. Then we are not anxious to have the highest place.... We feel that our highest place is at the feet of our Saviour....
SD	303	5	Lowliness of heart, that meekness which is the fruit of abiding in Christ, is the true secret of blessing. "He will beautify the meek with salvation." ... It was through the desire for self-exaltation that sin entered into the world, and our first parents lost the dominion over this fair earth, their kingdom. It is through self-abnegation that Christ redeems that which was lost. And He says we are to overcome as He did. Through humility and self-surrender we may become heirs with Him, when the "meek shall inherit the earth."49
------------------------The Hungry and Thirsty Shall Be Filled, October 24
SD	304	1	Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6.
SD	304	2	Righteousness is holiness, likeness to God; and "God is love." It is conformity to the law of God; for "all thy commandments are righteousness;" and "love is the fulfilling of the law." Righteousness is love, and love is the light and the life of God. The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him.
SD	304	3	Not by painful struggles or wearisome toil, not by gift or sacrifice, is righteousness obtained; but it is freely given to every soul who hungers and thirsts to receive it....
SD	304	4	No human agent can supply that which will satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul. But Jesus says: "... I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."
SD	304	5	As we need food to sustain our physical strength, so do we need Christ, the bread from heaven, to sustain spiritual life, and impart strength to work the works of God. As the body is continually receiving the nourishment that sustains life and vigor, so the soul must be constantly communing with Christ, submitting to Him, and depending wholly upon Him.
SD	304	6	As the weary traveler seeks the spring in the desert, and, finding it, quenches his burning thirst, so will the Christian thirst for and obtain the pure water of life, of which Christ is the fountain.... We need not seek to quench our thirst at shallow streams; for the great fountain is just above us, of whose abundant waters we may freely drink, if we will rise a little higher in the pathway of faith.
SD	304	7	The words of God are the well-springs of life. As you seek unto those living springs, you will, through the Holy Spirit, be brought into communion with Christ.... You will know that Christ is leading you; a divine Teacher is at your side.50
------------------------The Merciful Shall Have Mercy, October 25
SD	305	1	Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Matthew 5:7.
SD	305	2	The heart of man is by nature cold and dark and unloving; whenever one manifests a spirit of mercy and forgiveness, he does it not of himself, but through the influence of the Divine Spirit moving upon his heart. "We love, because he first loved us."
SD	305	3	God is Himself the source of all mercy. His name is "merciful and gracious." He does not treat us according to our desert. He does not ask if we are worthy of His love, but He pours upon us the riches of His love, to make us worthy. He is not vindictive. He seeks not to punish, but to redeem. Even the severity which He manifests through His providences is manifested for the salvation of the wayward. He yearns with intense desire to relieve the woes of men.... All whose hearts are in sympathy with the heart of Infinite Love will seek to reclaim, and not to condemn. Christ dwelling in the soul is a spring that never runs dry. Where He abides, there will be an overflowing of beneficence.
SD	305	4	To the appeal of the erring, the tempted, the wretched victims of want and sin, the Christian does not ask, Are they worthy? but, How can I benefit them? In the most wretched, the most debased, he sees souls whom Christ died to save.... The merciful are those who manifest compassion to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed....
SD	305	5	He who has given his life to God in ministry to His children, is linked with Him who has all the resources of the universe at His command. His life is bound up by the golden chain of the immutable promises with the life of God. The Lord will not fail him in the hour of suffering and need. "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." And in the hour of final need the merciful shall find refuge in the mercy of the compassionate Saviour, and shall be received into everlasting habitations.51
------------------------The Peacemakers are Called God's Children, October 26
SD	306	1	Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Matthew 5:9.
SD	306	2	Christ is "the Prince of peace," and it is His mission to restore to earth and heaven the peace that sin has broken. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Whoever consents to renounce sin, and open his heart to the love of Christ, becomes a partaker of this heavenly peace.
SD	306	3	There is no other ground of peace than this. The grace of Christ received into the heart, subdues enmity; it allays strife, and fills the soul with love. He who is at peace with God and his fellow-men can not be made miserable. Envy will not be in his heart; evil surmisings will find no room there; hatred can not exist. The heart that is in harmony with God is a partaker of the peace of heaven, and will diffuse its blessed influence on all around. The spirit of peace will rest like dew upon hearts weary and troubled with worldly strife.
SD	306	4	Christ's followers are sent to the world with the message of peace. Whoever, by the quiet, unconscious influence of a holy life, shall reveal the love of Christ; whoever, by word or deed, shall lead another to renounce sin and yield his heart to God, is a peacemaker.
SD	306	5	And "blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." The spirit of peace is evidence of their connection with heaven. The sweet savor of Christ surrounds them. The fragrance of the life, the loveliness of the character, reveal to the world the fact that they are children of God. Men take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus. "Every one that loveth is born of God." "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his;" but "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." "And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men."52
------------------------The Persecuted Receive the Kingdom, October 27
SD	307	1	Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for their's is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:10.
SD	307	2	Jesus does not present to His followers the hope of attaining earthly glory and riches, and of having a life free from trial, but He presents to them the privilege of walking with their Master in the paths of self-denial and reproach, because the world knows them not.
SD	307	3	He who came to redeem the lost world, was opposed by the united forces of the adversaries of God and man. In an unpitying confederacy, evil men and evil angels arrayed themselves against the Prince of peace. Though His every word and act breathed of divine compassion, His unlikeness to the world provoked the bitterest hostility. Because He would give no license for the exercise of the evil passions of our nature, He aroused the fiercest opposition and enmity. So it is with all who will live godly in Christ Jesus. Between righteousness and sin, love and hatred, truth and falsehood, there is an irrepressible conflict. When one presents the love of Christ and the beauty of holiness, he is drawing away the subjects of Satan's kingdom, and the prince of evil is aroused to resist it. Persecution and reproach await all who are imbued with the Spirit of Christ. The character of the persecution changes with the times; but the principle--the spirit that underlies it--is the same that has slain the chosen of the Lord ever since the days of Abel.
SD	307	4	As men seek to come into harmony with God, they will find that the offense of the cross has not ceased. Principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high places are arrayed against all who yield obedience to the law of heaven. Therefore, so far from causing grief, persecution should bring joy to the disciples of Christ; for it is an evidence that they are following in the steps of their Master....
SD	307	5	Through trials and persecution, the glory--character--of God is revealed in His chosen ones.53
------------------------The Reviled are Blessed, October 28
SD	308	1	Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Matthew 5:11.
SD	308	2	There was never one who walked among men more cruelly slandered than the Son of man. He was derided and mocked because of His unswerving obedience to the principles of God's holy law. They hated Him without a cause. Yet He stood calmly before His enemies, declaring that reproach is a part of the Christian's legacy, counseling His followers how to meet the arrows of malice, bidding them not to faint under persecution.
SD	308	3	While slander may blacken the reputation, it can not stain the character. That is in God's keeping. So long as we do not consent to sin, there is no power, whether human or satanic, that can bring stain upon the soul. A man whose heart is stayed upon God is just the same in the hour of his most afflicting trials and most discouraging surroundings as when he was in prosperity, when the light and favor of God seemed to be upon him. His words, his motives, his actions, may be misrepresented and falsified, but he does not mind it, because he has greater interests at stake. Like Moses, he endures as "seeing him who is invisible." ...
SD	308	4	Christ is acquainted with all that is misunderstood and misrepresented by men. His children can afford to wait in calm patience and trust, no matter how much maligned and despised; for nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest, and those who honor God shall be honored by Him in the presence of men and angels.
SD	308	5	"When men shall revile you and persecute you," said Jesus, "rejoice, and be exceeding glad."54
SD	308	6	"Great is the reward in heaven" of those who are witnesses for Christ through persecution and reproach. While the people are looking for earthly good, Jesus points them to a heavenly reward. But He does not place it all in the future life; it begins here.55
------------------------Transgression is Forgiven, Sin is Covered, October 29
SD	309	1	Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32:1.
SD	309	2	That God who marks the fall of a sparrow, marks your deportment and your feelings; He marks your envy, your prejudice, your attempt to justify your action in the least matter of injustice. When you misconceive the words and acts of another, and your own feelings are stirred, so that you make incorrect statements, and it is known that you are at variance with your brother, you lead others, through their confidence in you, to regard him just as you do; and by the root of bitterness springing up, many are defiled. When it is evident that your feelings are incorrect, do you try just as diligently to remove the erroneous impressions as you did to make them? ...
SD	309	3	Now God requires that you who have thus done the least injustice to another shall confess your fault, not only to the one you have injured, but to those who through your influence have been led to regard their brother in a false light, and to make of none effect the work God has given him to do.... By repentance and confession you can have pardon registered against your name; or you can resist the conviction of the Spirit of God, and during the rest of your life, work to make it appear that your wrong feelings and unjust conclusions could not be helped. But there stands the action, there stands the evil committed, there stands the ruin of those in whose hearts you planted the root of bitterness....
SD	309	4	Whatever the character of your sin, confess it. If it is against God only, confess only to Him. If you have wronged or offended others, confess also to them, and the blessing of the Lord will rest upon you. In this way you die to self, and Christ is formed within.... Our consecration to God must be unreserved, our love ardent, our faith unwavering. Then the expressions of the lips will testify to the quickened intelligence of the mind and the deep movings of the Spirit of God upon the soul.56
------------------------Christ in You the Hope of Glory, October 30
SD	310	1	To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27.
SD	310	2	That which brings sickness of body and mind to nearly all is dissatisfied feelings and discontented repinings. They have not God, they have not the hope which reaches to that within the veil, which is as an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast. All who possess this hope will purify themselves even as He is pure. Such are free from restless longings, repinings, and discontent; they are not continually looking for evil and brooding over borrowed trouble. But we see many who are having a time of trouble beforehand; anxiety is stamped upon every feature; they seem to find no consolation, but have a continual fearful looking for of some dreadful evil.... Vain amusements will never correct the minds of such. They need the transforming influence of the Spirit of God in order to be happy. They need to be benefited by the mediation of Christ, in order to realize consolation, divine and substantial. "For he that will love life, and see good days, let him ... eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it." ... Those who have an experimental knowledge of this scripture are truly happy.... Christ in them the hope of glory will be health to the body and strength to the soul.57
SD	310	3	The soul that is imbued with the love of Jesus ... loves to contemplate Jesus, and by beholding Him, will become changed into His likeness. Christ is formed within, the hope of glory. His confidence increases ... and his love deepens and widens, as he has the assurance that he is abiding in Christ, and Christ in him.... And we may look to Jesus for His tenderest sympathy and be encouraged to persevere, putting our whole trust in Him who has said, "Be of good cheer: I have overcome the world."58
------------------------We are Glad in the Lord, October 31
SD	311	1	My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord . Psalm 104:34.
SD	311	2	Rest yourself wholly in the hands of Jesus. Contemplate His great love, and while you meditate upon His self-denial, His infinite sacrifice made in our behalf in order that we should believe in Him, your heart will be filled with holy joy, calm peace, and indescribable love. As we talk of Jesus, as we call upon Him in prayer, our confidence that He is our personal, loving Saviour will strengthen, and His character will appear more and more lovely.... We may enjoy rich feasts of love, and as we fully believe that we are His by adoption, we may have a foretaste of heaven. Wait upon the Lord in faith. The Lord draws out the soul in prayer, and gives us to feel His precious love. We have a nearness to Him, and can hold sweet communion with Him. We obtain distinct views of His tenderness and compassion, and our hearts are broken and melted with contemplation of the love that is given to us. We feel indeed an abiding Christ in the soul.... Our peace is like a river, wave after wave of glory rolls into the heart, and indeed we sup with Jesus and He with us. We have a realizing sense of the love of God, and we rest in His love. No language can describe it, it is beyond knowledge. We are one with Christ, our life is hid with Christ in God. We have the assurance that when He who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. With strong confidence, we can call God our Father. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. His Spirit makes us like Jesus Christ in temper, and disposition, and we represent Christ to others. When Christ is abiding in the soul the fact cannot be hid; for He is like a well of water springing up into everlasting life. We can but represent the likeness of Christ in our character, and our words, our deportment, produces in others a deep, abiding, increasing love for Jesus, and we make manifest ... that we are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.59
------------------------Seek Constantly to Improve Your Powers, November 1
SD	312	1	For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6.
SD	312	2	You need to seek constantly the highest culture of mind and soul, that you may bring to the education and training of your children a restful spirit, a loving heart; that you may imbue them with pure aspirations, and cultivate in them a love for things honest and pure and holy.... Seek constantly to improve your powers, that you may do the most perfect, thorough work at home, by both precept and example.1
SD	312	3	You should not follow your own inclinations. You should be very careful to set a right example in all things. Do not be inactive. Arouse your dormant energies.... Take up the duties essential to be done. Study how to perform with alacrity the plain, uninteresting, homely, but most needful duties.2
SD	312	4	Parents have not yet aroused to understand the amazing power of Christian culture. There are mines of truth to be worked that have been strangely neglected. This careless indifference does not meet the approval of God. Parents, God calls upon you to look at this matter with anointed eyes. You have as yet only skimmed the surface. Take up your long-neglected work, and God will co-operate with you. Do your work with wholeheartedness, and God will help you to make improvement. Begin by bringing the gospel into the home life.3
SD	312	5	The higher soul-culture, which gives purity and elevation to the thoughts and a spiritual fragrance to words and actions, requires careful, painstaking effort. It takes patience to keep every evil motive weeded from the garden of the Lord.4
------------------------Glorify God by Improving Health Habits, November 2
SD	313	1	For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:20.
SD	313	2	Our first duty toward God and our fellow beings is that of self-development. Every faculty with which the Creator has endowed us should be cultivated to the highest degree of perfection, that we may be able to do the greatest amount of good which we are capable. Hence that time is spent to good account which is directed to the establishment and preservation of sound physical and mental health.5
SD	313	3	Man is God's workmanship, His masterpiece, created for a high and holy purpose; and on every part of the human tabernacle God desires to write His law.... Every nerve and muscle, every mental and physical endowment, is to be kept pure.
SD	313	4	God designs that the body shall be as a temple for His Spirit. Solemn is the accountability resting upon every soul. Your individual influence is exercised for good or for evil. If you defile your body, you are not only doing harm to yourself, but to many others. Christians are under obligation to God to keep soul, body, and spirit free from all that will defile; for they have been bought with a price....
SD	313	5	No man or woman has any right to form habits which lessen the healthful action of one organ of mind or body.... Those who give themselves up to the use of tobacco and liquor do not appreciate their intellect. They do not realize the value of the faculties God has given them, to be cultivated and improved. Thus men allow their powers to wither and decay. God desires all who believe in Him to feel the necessity of improvement. Every entrusted faculty is to be enlarged. Not one gift is to be laid aside. As God's husbandry and building, man is under His supervision in every sense of the word, and the better he becomes acquainted with his Maker, the more sacred will his life become in his estimation.6
------------------------God's Temple Is to Receive Constant Care, November 3
SD	314	1	Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 2 Corinthians 6:16.
SD	314	2	We are to obey the laws of His kingdom, making ourselves all that it is possible for us to be. Earnestly we are to cultivate the highest powers of our being, remembering that we are God's property, God's building. We are required to improve every day. Even in this world of sin and sorrow, we may, by earnest, persevering effort, rise to the highest spiritual efficiency.... We are to please God. This we may do; for Enoch pleased God, though living in a degenerate age. And there are Enochs in this our day.
SD	314	3	The human house, God's building, His temple, requires close, vigilant, watchful guardianship. With David we can exclaim, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." God's workmanship is to be preserved, that it may be revealed to the heavenly universe and to the apostate race that men and women are temples of the living God.
SD	314	4	The perfection of character which God requires is the fitting up of the whole being as a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Lord requires the service of the entire human machinery. He desires men and women to be all that He has made it possible for them to be. It is not enough for certain parts of the machinery to be used. All parts must be brought into action, or the service is deficient....
SD	314	5	The physical life is to be carefully educated, cultivated, and developed, that through men and women the divine nature may be revealed in its fullness. God expects men to use the intellect He has given them. He expects them to use every reasoning power for Him. They are to give the conscience the place of supremacy that has been assigned it. The mental and physical powers, with the affections, are to be so cultivated that they can reach the highest efficiency.7
------------------------God Wants Us to Have the Best Manners, November 4
SD	315	1	Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. 1 Corinthians 15:33.
SD	315	2	The religion of Christ never degrades the receiver, never makes him coarse or rough or uncourteous.8
SD	315	3	There is much to do in order to fit us for the courts of the Lord. The roughness of spirit, the coarseness of speech, the cheapness of character, must be put away, or we can never wear the garment woven in the heavenly loom,--the righteousness of Christ....
SD	315	4	Those who, under the education of Christ, make it possible to reach the highest attainments will take every divine improvement with them to the higher school. But those who are unwilling to have their characters molded after the divine similitude make the angels sad; for by clinging to their sinful habits and practices they spoil the design of God.9
SD	315	5	Be polite to God and to one another. Remember that He wants you to have the best of manners, that you may glorify Him before the world. He desires you to live in unity with one another and to love one another. Remember that if you love one another here, you will live with the redeemed through the ceaseless ages of eternity.10
SD	315	6	Selfishness and pride hinder the pure love that unites us in spirit with Jesus Christ. If this love is truly cultivated, finite will blend with finite, and all will center in the Infinite. Humanity will unite with humanity, and all will be bound up with the heart of Infinite love. Sanctified love for one another is sacred. In this great work Christian love for one another,--far higher, more constant, more courteous, more unselfish, than has been seen,--preserves Christian tenderness, Christian benevolence, and politeness, and enfolds the human brotherhood in the embrace of God, acknowledging the dignity with which God has invested the rights of man. This dignity Christians must ever cultivate for the honor and glory of God.11
SD	315	7	As sons and daughters of God, we should have a conscious dignity of character, in which pride and self-importance have no part. 12
------------------------We are to Behave Ourselves Wisely, November 5
SD	316	1	I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.... I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. Psalm 101:2.
SD	316	2	None are to be forward or obtrusive, but we are quietly to live out our religion, with an eye single to the glory of God.... Then we shall shine as lights in the world, without noise or friction. None need fail; for One is with them who is wise in counsel, excellent in working, and mighty to accomplish His designs. He works through His agents, seen and unseen, human and divine. This work is a grand work, and will be carried forward to the glory of God, if all who are connected with it will make their works correspond to their profession of faith. Purity of thought must be cherished as indispensable to the work of influencing others. The soul must be surrounded by a pure, holy atmosphere, an atmosphere that will tend to quicken the spiritual life of all who inhale it.
SD	316	3	Jesus is honored or dishonored by the words and deportment of His professed followers. The heart must be kept pure and holy, for out of it are the issues of life. If the heart is purified through obedience to the truth, there will be no selfish preferences, no corrupt motives. There will be no partiality, no hypocrisy....
SD	316	4	In the present state of society, with the lax morals of not only youth but those of age and experience, there is great danger of becoming careless, and giving especial attention to favorites, and thus creating envy, jealousy, and evil-surmising. But few realize that they drive away the Spirit of God with their selfish thoughts and feelings, their foolish, trifling talk.... If the grace of Christ were planted in their hearts, and striking its roots down deep into good soil, they would bear fruit of an altogether different character.... The converting power of God is alone sufficient to establish pure principles in the heart, so that the wicked one may find nothing to assail.... Purity in speech, and true Christian courtesy should be constantly practised.13
------------------------Mercies of God Preserve and Elevate Us, November 6
SD	317	1	Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. Psalm 40:11.
SD	317	2	The religion of Christ will uplift the life to an elevated standard. The inward work of the Spirit of God humbles human pride, by causing us to understand something of the tender mercies and lovingkindness of God.... When you discover your own inefficiency, and look to the source of your strength, with yearning entreaty, saying, "Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me," you will obtain light....
SD	317	3	You cannot have faith that the Lord will keep you by His lovingkindness, and by His truth continually preserve you, when you do not place yourselves in the channel of light. Then shun bad companions, and choose the good. The seed of truth sown in the heart must receive the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness in order to grow. The seeds of truth which do not spring up and grow, soon lose their power to germinate, and they perish. But weeds of evil habits will spring up and flourish. The precious plants of love, joy, patience, courtesy, meekness, and humility, need to be carefully cultivated if they grow and improve.
SD	317	4	Do not be content with a superficial piety, but, young friends, grow in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Are you making advancement? Is the plant of grace waxing into a tree, or withering away? Present yourselves humbly and often at the throne of grace, and tell Jesus your every want, and do not think anything is too small for Him to notice. The Lord loves to have you seek Him, and tell Him your trials, as a child would talk with his parent. When you pray, believe Jesus hears you, and will do the things you ask of Him. Show that you have perfect trust in Jesus, and ever seek to do those things that you know will please Him, and you will have peace in Christ.14
------------------------Adorned With Divine Loveliness, November 7
SD	318	1	One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. Psalm 27:4.
SD	318	2	Exalted powers are within the reach of every one. Under God's supervision, a man may have an uncorrupted, sanctified, elevated, ennobled mind. Through the grace of Christ, man's mind is qualified to love and glorify God, the Creator.
SD	318	3	The Lord Jesus came to our world to represent the Father.... Christ was the express image of His Father's person; and He came to our world to restore in man God's moral image, in order that man although fallen, might through obedience to God's commandments become enstamped with the divine image and character.15
SD	318	4	God wants children to be lovely, not with artificial adornment, but with beauty of character, the charms of kindness and affection, which will make their hearts bound with joy and happiness.16
SD	318	5	Girls should be taught that the true charm of womanliness is not alone in beauty of form or feature, nor in the possession of accomplishments; but in a meek and quiet spirit, in patience, generosity, kindness, and a willingness to do and suffer for others. They should be taught to work, to study to some purpose, to live for some object, to trust in God and fear Him, and to respect their parents. Then as they advance in years, they will grow more pure-minded, self-reliant, and beloved. It will be impossible to degrade such a woman. She will escape the temptations and trials that have been the ruin of so many.17
SD	318	6	Christ was sent as our pattern and shall we not show that we have all His love and kindness and ... charms? And the love of Jesus Christ will take possession of our characters and our lives, and our conversation will be holy and we will dwell on heavenly things.18
------------------------Rough Stones Polished for a Holy Temple, November 8
SD	319	1	In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. Ephesians 2:21.
SD	319	2	Through the grace of Christ you will make decided endeavors to overcome all cold, rough, harsh, uncourteous ways and manners....
SD	319	3	The mighty cleaver of truth has taken you out of the quarry of the world. You were rough stones with jagged edges, bruising and marring whoever you came in contact with; there is a work to be done to smooth off the rough edges. If you appreciated the value of the work that is to be done in the workshop of God, you would welcome the blows of the ax and the hammer. Your self-esteem will be hurt, your high opinion of yourself will be cut away by the ax and the hammer, and the roughness of your character will be smoothed off; and when self and carnal propensities are worked away, then the stone will assume proper proportions for the heavenly building, and then the polishing, refining, subduing, burnishing processes will begin, and you will be molded after the model of Christ's character. His own image is to be reflected in the polished character of His human agent, and the stone is to be fitted for the heavenly building....
SD	319	4	If we are not better men and women, if we are not more kindhearted, more pitiful, more courteous, more full of tenderness and love; if we do not manifest to others the love that led Jesus to the world on His mission of mercy, we are not witnesses to the world of the power of Jesus Christ. Jesus lived not to please Himself.... He came to elevate, to ennoble, to make happy all with whom He came in contact.... He never did a rude action, never spoke a discourteous word.19
SD	319	5	It is the privilege of every youth to make of his character a beautiful structure.... Seek the Lord most earnestly, that you may become more and more refined, more spiritually cultured.20
------------------------Joseph a Christian Gentleman, November 9
SD	320	1	But the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. Genesis 39:21.
SD	320	2	Joseph regarded his being sold into Egypt as the greatest calamity that could have befallen him; but he saw the necessity of trusting in God as he had never done when protected by his father's love. Joseph brought God with him into Egypt, and the fact was made apparent by his cheerful demeanor amid his sorrow. As the ark of God brought rest and prosperity to Israel, so did this God-loving, God-fearing youth bring a blessing to Egypt. This was manifested in so marked a manner that Potiphar, in whose house he served, attributed all his blessings to his purchased slave.21
SD	320	3	Joseph's religion kept his temper sweet and his sympathy with humanity warm and strong, notwithstanding all his trials. There are those who if they feel they are not rightly used, become sour, ungenerous, crabbed and uncourteous in their words and deportment. They sink down discouraged, hateful and hating others. But Joseph was a Christian. No sooner does he enter upon prison life, than he brings all the brightness of his Christian principles into active exercise; he begins to make himself useful to others. He enters into the troubles of his fellow prisoners. He is cheerful, for he is a Christian gentleman. God was preparing him under this discipline for a situation of great responsibility, honor, and usefulness, and he was willing to learn; he took kindly to the lessons the Lord would teach him. He learned to bear the yoke in his youth. He learned to govern by first learning obedience himself....
SD	320	4	The part which Joseph acted in connection with the scenes of the gloomy prison, was that which raised him finally to prosperity and honor. God designed that he should obtain an experience by temptations, adversity, and hardships, to prepare him to fill an exalted position. Joseph carried his religion everywhere, and this was the secret of his unwavering fidelity.22
------------------------Abraham Ever Displayed Unselfish Courtesy, November 10
SD	321	1	Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. Genesis 13:9.
SD	321	2	Abraham's household comprised more than a thousand souls. Those who were led by his teachings to worship the true God found a home in his encampment; and here, as in a school, they received such instruction as would prepare them to be representatives of the faith. Abraham's affection for his children and his household led him to guard their religious faith, to impart to them a knowledge of the divine statutes, as the most precious legacy he could transmit to them, and through them to the world. All were taught that they were under the rule of the God of heaven. There was to be no oppression on the part of parents, and no disobedience on the part of children. God's law had appointed to each his duties, and only in obedience could any secure happiness and prosperity.
SD	321	3	His own example, the silent influence of his daily life, was a constant lesson. The unswerving integrity, the benevolence and unselfish courtesy which had won the admiration of kings, were displayed in the home. There was a fragrance about the life, a nobility and loveliness of character, which revealed to all that he was connected with heaven. He did not neglect the soul of the humblest servant. In his household there was not one law for the master, and one for the servant; a royal way for the rich, and another for the poor. All were treated with justice and compassion.23
SD	321	4	He was a man of faith, who always followed principles of the strictest integrity. In all his business transactions he was courteous and honorable. His life was controlled by Christian politeness, and he placed the service of the Lord before all else. He would not swerve a hair's breadth from pure, Christian principles.24
SD	321	5	It is in the power of every one to practise true Christlike courtesy.25
------------------------Capabilities Increase as Spirituality Increases, November 11
SD	322	1	As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Daniel 1:17.
SD	322	2	The ignorance of many is voluntary and inexcusable.26
SD	322	3	Some young persons ... do not improve their advantages. They would like to read and write accurately, but the price of excellence is hard work, and they will not pay it. They remind me of the youth whose father sent him to school, and gave him every advantage for gaining a good education; but he neglected to study, saying that his father was able to give him a liberal education, and he was not going to bother his brains about it. You will all say at once that he would remain ignorant, for there is no royal road to learning. But wishing for a healthy religious experience without making earnest, self-denying effort, will be equally useless. Sighing over your ignorance of divine things will never make you wise unto salvation. There are ten thousand sluggish tears and sighs toward heaven that will never win one smile of approval from Jesus. Do not think that a Christian experience will come to you of itself. When you make up your mind to do something on which your heart is set, you do not give up for difficulties, but try again and again.27
SD	322	4	Daniel and his three companions ... were well-balanced because they had yielded themselves to the control of the Holy Spirit. These youth gave to God all the glory of their secular, scientific, and religious endowments. Their learning did not come by chance; they obtained knowledge by the faithful use of their powers; and God gave them skill and understanding.28
SD	322	5	As in the case of Daniel, in exact proportion as the spiritual character is developed, the intellectual capabilities are increased.29
SD	322	6	The Lord will co-operate with all who earnestly strive to be faithful in His service, as He co-operated with Daniel and his three companions.30
------------------------Seek New Heights in Faith, November 12
SD	323	1	As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Psalm 42:1.
SD	323	2	Many of the youth ... sink under every cloud, and have no power of endurance. They do not grow in grace.... Their carnal hearts must be changed. They must see beauty in holiness; then they will pant after it as the hart panteth after the water-brooks....
SD	323	3	If your steps are ordered by the Lord, dear youth, you must not expect that your path will always be one of outward peace and prosperity. The path that leads to eternal day is not the easiest to travel, and at times it will seem dark and thorny. But you have the assurance that God's everlasting arms encircle you, to protect you from evil. He wants you to exercise earnest faith in Him, and learn to trust Him in the shadow as well as in the sunshine....
SD	323	4	In her endeavors to reach her home, the eagle is often beaten down by the tempest to the narrow defiles of the mountains. The clouds, in black, angry masses sweep between her and the sunny heights where she secures her nest. For a while she seems bewildered, and dashes this way and that, beating her strong wings as if to sweep back the dense clouds.... At last she dashes upward into the blackness, and gives a shrill scream of triumph as she emerges, a moment later, in the calm sunshine above. The darkness and tempest are all below her, and the light of heaven is shining about her. She reaches her loved home in the lofty crag, and is satisfied. It was through darkness that she reached the light. It cost her an effort to do this, but she is rewarded in gaining the object which she sought.
SD	323	5	This is the only course we can pursue as followers of Christ. We must exercise that living faith which will penetrate the clouds that, like a thick wall, separate us from heaven's light. We have heights of faith to reach, where all is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.31
------------------------We are to Increase Spiritually, November 13
SD	324	1	We beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more. 1 Thessalonians 4:10.
SD	324	2	You have within your reach more than finite possibilities. A man, as God applies the term, is a son of God. "Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is...." It is your privilege to turn away from that which is cheap and inferior, and rise to a high standard,--to be respected by men and beloved by God.
SD	324	3	The religious work which the Lord gives to young men, and to men of all ages, shows His respect for them as His children. He gives them the work of self-government. He calls them to be sharers with Him in the great work of redemption and uplifting. As a father takes his son into partnership in his business, so the Lord takes His children into partnership with Himself....
SD	324	4	Young men and women need more of the grace of Christ that they may bring the principles of Christianity into the daily life. The preparation for Christ's coming is a preparation made through Christ for the exercise of our highest qualities.... But there is a positive need of keeping close to Jesus. He is our strength and efficiency and power. We can not depend on self for one moment.
SD	324	5	Young men and young women, exercise your ability with faithfulness, generously imparting the light that God gives you. Study how best to give to others peace, and light, and truth, and the many rich blessings of heaven. Constantly improve. Keep reaching higher and still higher. It is the ability to put to the tax the powers of mind and body, ever keeping eternal realities in view, that is of value now.... Persevere in the work that you have begun, until you gain victory after victory. Educate yourselves for a purpose. Keep in view the highest standard that you may accomplish greater and still greater good, thus reflecting the glory of God.32
------------------------God Does Not Limit Our Advancement, November 14
SD	325	1	That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Colossians 1:10, 11.
SD	325	2	God fixes no limit to the advancement of those who are "filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Through prayer, through watchfulness, through growth in understanding, we are "strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness." ...
SD	325	3	God's plan for us is so broad, so full, so complete, that we have every reason for co-operating whole-heartedly with Him in carrying it out. There is no reason for hesitancy on our part.... We need to draw fresh supplies daily from the great storehouse of God's Word. This will give no time for novel reading, or for anything else that does not edify and strengthen for every good work.... The riches of heaven are at the command of God's children.33
SD	325	4	Every day the tempter will be on your track with some delusive, plausible excuse for your self-serving, your self-pleasing.... The one whose heart is wholly given to God, the one who by faith receives Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour, will reveal a steady growth in spirituality, in vigor of piety, in fixedness of purpose, in fidelity at any cost to the principles of our faith....
SD	325	5	God will honor and uphold every true-hearted, earnest soul who is seeking to walk before Him in the perfection of the grace of Christ. The Lord Jesus will never leave nor forsake one humble, trembling soul.... Can we with keen, sanctified perception appreciate the strength of the promises of God, and appropriate them to our individual selves, not because we are worthy, but because Christ is worthy? Not because we are righteous, but by living faith we claim the righteousness of Christ in our behalf?34
------------------------Break Up the Fallow Ground, November 15
SD	326	1	Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. Hosea 10:12.
SD	326	2	The principles of the truth must be interwoven with our character and life. We should cherish every ray of light that falls upon our pathway, and live up to the requirements of God. We should grow in spirituality. We are losing a great deal of the blessing ... because we do not take advance steps in the Christian life....
SD	326	3	The members of the church of Christ should gather up the divine rays of light from Jesus, and reflect them to others, leaving a bright track heavenward in the world. They are to be as the wise virgins, having their lamps trimmed and burning, representing the character of Christ to the world. We are not to be satisfied with anything short of this. We are not to be satisfied with our own righteousness, and content without the deep movings of the Spirit of God.
SD	326	4	Christ says, "Without me ye can do nothing." It is this marked nothingness, so apparent in the labors of many ... that alarms us; for we know that this is an evidence that they have not felt the converting power of Christ upon their hearts. You may look from the topmost bough to the lowest branch of their work, and you will find nothing but leaves. God desires us to come up to a higher standard. It is not His will that we should have such a dearth of spirituality....
SD	326	5	I remember visiting in Iowa when the country was new, and I saw the farmers breaking the new ground. I noticed that they had heavy teams, and made tremendous efforts to make deep furrows, but the laborers gained strength and muscle by the exercise of their physical powers. It will make our young men strong to go into new fields, and break up the fallow ground of men's hearts. This work will drive them nearer to God.... They will gain efficiency and ability by mastering difficulties and overcoming obstacles.35
------------------------Continually Store Mind With Divine Truth, November 16
SD	327	1	Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
SD	327	2	It is the duty of every child of God to store his mind with divine truth; and the more he does this, the more strength and clearness of mind he will have to fathom the deep things of God. And he will be more and more earnest and vigorous, as the principles of truth are carried out in his daily life.
SD	327	3	That which will bless humanity is spiritual life. He who is in harmony with God, will constantly depend upon Him for strength. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." It should be our life work to be constantly reaching forward to the perfection of Christian character, ever striving for conformity to the will of God. The efforts begun here will continue through eternity. The advancement made here will be ours when we enter upon the future life.
SD	327	4	Those who are partakers of Christ's meekness, purity, and love, will be joyful in God, and will shed light and gladness upon all around them. The thought that Christ died to obtain for us the gift of everlasting life, is enough to call forth from our hearts the most sincere and fervent gratitude, and from our lips the most enthusiastic praise. God's promises are rich, and full, and free. Whoever will, in the strength of Christ, comply with the conditions, may claim these promises, with all their wealth of blessing, as his own. And being thus abundantly supplied from the treasure-house of God, he may, in the journey of life, "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing;" by a godly example blessing his fellow-men, and honoring his Creator. While our Saviour would guard His followers from self-confidence by the reminder, "Without me, ye can do nothing," He has coupled with it for our encouragement the gracious assurance, "He that abideth in me ... bringeth forth much fruit."36
------------------------Put on the Whole Armor of God, November 17
SD	328	1	Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 6:13.
SD	328	2	Let us, under all circumstances, preserve our confidence in Christ. He is to be everything to us,--the first, the last, the best in everything. Then let us educate our tongues to speak forth His praise, not only when we feel gladness and joy, but at all times.
SD	328	3	Let us keep the heart full of God's precious promises, that we may speak words that will be a comfort and strength to others. Thus we may learn the language of the heavenly angels, who, if we are faithful, will be our companions through the eternal ages. Every day we should make advancement in gaining perfection of character, and this we shall certainly do if we press toward the mark of the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus. Let us not talk of the great power of Satan, but of the great power of God....
SD	328	4	In every soul two powers are struggling earnestly for the victory. Unbelief marshals its forces, led by Satan, to cut us off from the Source of our strength. Faith marshals its forces, led by Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. Hour by hour, in the sight of the heavenly universe, the conflict goes forward. This is a hand-to-hand fight, and the great question is, Which shall obtain the mastery? This question each must decide for himself. In this warfare all must take a part, fighting on one side or the other. From the conflict there is no release.... We are urged to prepare for this conflict. "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." The warning is repeated, "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."
SD	328	5	He ... to whom all power in heaven and earth has been given, will come to the help of those who trust in Him.37
------------------------God Works in Us to Do His Good Pleasure, November 18
SD	329	1	Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12, 13.
SD	329	2	Our relation to God is the same as that of little children to their parents. The God of heaven is watching His people, His church, just as loving parents watch their children. And we are as foolish as little children are; for how prone we are to think that we know everything, when really we have not begun to know what God is waiting to teach us when we show willingness to follow in His footsteps.
SD	329	3	Will we come down from our position of self-righteousness, and as little children take hold of God's work? Will we be willing to be taught and led of Him? With tottering steps we are just beginning to walk. In time we shall learn to take firmer steps, but now we are liable at any moment to stumble and fall. From the highest to the lowest, we each have spiritual weaknesses and troubles similar to the weaknesses and troubles of helpless children. And as these inexperienced children can not place their dependence on one another, but must depend on their parents, so we must learn not to hang our helpless souls on any human being, but cling to the One mighty to save....
SD	329	4	God calls upon us to make our movements in His fear and to walk tremblingly before Him. "Work out your own salvation," He says, "with fear and trembling...."
SD	329	5	So long as we work in Christ's lines, laying hold of the arm of the Mighty One, we are safe; but just as soon as we loosen our grasp of His arm, and begin to depend upon human beings, we are in great danger. This very day the Lord desires us to reach a higher standard than we have ever reached in the past. Day by day we are to advance upward, ever upward, until it can be said of us as a people, "Ye are complete in him."38
------------------------We Put Away Childish Things, November 19
SD	330	1	When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11.
SD	330	2	We are not always to remain children in our knowledge and experience in spiritual things. We are not always to express ourselves in the language of one who has just received Christ; but our prayers and exhortations are to grow in intelligence as we advance in experience in the truth. The language of a child of six in a child of ten years of age would not be pleasing to us, and how painful would it be to hear expressions of childish intelligence in one who had arrived at years of maturity. When a person becomes of age, we expect from him a corresponding intelligence, according to his years and opportunities.... But if we expect this manifestation of growing intelligence in the child, as he advances in years, should we not also expect to see the Christian grow in grace and experience? ...
SD	330	3	God has given us many advantages and opportunities, and when the last great day shall be ushered in, and we shall see what we might have attained, had we taken advantage of the helps that Heaven vouchsafed to us; when we see how we might have grown in grace, and look upon these things as God looks upon them, seeing what we have lost by failing to grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ, we shall wish that we had been more in earnest.39
SD	330	4	God does not desire you to remain novices. He needs in His work everything that you can gain here in the lines of mental culture and clear discernment. He desires to have you reach the very highest round of the ladder, and then step off it into the kingdom of God.
SD	330	5	The Lord desires you to understand the position you occupy as sons and daughters of the Most High, children of the heavenly King.40
------------------------We Grow Up in Christ, November 20
SD	331	1	That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, ... but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Ephesians 4:14, 15.
SD	331	2	You cannot weaken your own influence and standing more than in trying to weaken each other.41
SD	331	3	Constantly let your confidence in your brethren increase, for when you think evil, you speak evil. Thus you hurt yourself and make yourself weak when you ought to be strong in God.42
SD	331	4	It is not our privilege to measure the actions of others or to criticize their failings. God has not made us the bearers of others' sins. It is with our own selves we have to do. The more thorough the work of repentance and reform in our own lives, the less we shall see to criticize in others. We do wrong when we measure ourselves by the defects we see in others. God does not do so. He understands the circumstances of every life, and He measures the human being by the advantages that each one has had for perfecting a Christian character. He takes into consideration the opportunities the human agent has had for obtaining a knowledge of God and His truth. He who has a true estimation of the law of God will not compare his character with the character of others. He will judge his life by the holy law of God....
SD	331	5	In His instruction to His disciples the Saviour shows how complete must be the work of eradication of evil. "If thy right eye offend thee," He declares, "pluck it out, and cast it from thee." ...
SD	331	6	We are to make continual advancement in the perfecting of Christian character, that we may be no more "children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, ... but speaking the truth in love, may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ."43
SD	331	7	The growing is a continuous work.44
------------------------Our Faith Grows Exceedingly, November 21
SD	332	1	We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly. 2 Thessalonians 1:3.
SD	332	2	It is positively necessary for those who believe the truth, to be making continual advancement, growing up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. There is no time for backsliding and indifference. Each one must have a living experience in the things of God. Have root in yourselves. Become grounded in the faith, so that having done all you may stand, with unwavering confidence in God, through the time that will try every man's work and character. Exercise your powers in spiritual things, till you can appreciate the deep things of God's Word, and go on from strength to strength.
SD	332	3	There are thousands who claim to have the light of truth who take no steps in advance. They have no living experience, notwithstanding they have had every advantage.... The Word of God offers spiritual liberty and enlightenment to those who seek for it earnestly. Those who accept the promises of God, and act on them with living faith, will have the light of heaven in their lives. They will drink of the fountain of life, and lead others to the waters that have refreshed their own souls....
SD	332	4	The fruits of doubt are not desirable. Oh! look around you and see what havoc has been wrought by the ... evil one. Error and falsehood and heresy have held high carnival in the deceived hearts of men. From century to century the adversary has repeated his experiments with growing success; for, in spite of the sad records of lives that have gone out in darkness, as moths fly to the fire, so men rush on into the ruinous deceptions that he has prepared to entrap them.... "Heaven and earth shall pass away," but "the word of the Lord endureth forever;" and unwavering faith in His Word is the only faith that will endure through the perils of the last days.45
------------------------Seek to Excel, November 22
SD	333	1	Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. 1 Corinthians 14:12.
SD	333	2	Let the youth be taught from childhood that there is no excellence without great labor. Aspirations for eminence will not avail. Young friends, the mountain-top cannot be reached by standing still, and wishing yourselves there. You can gain your object only by taking one step at a time, advancing slowly perhaps, but holding every step gained. It is the energetic, persevering worker that will scale the Alps. Every youth should make the most of his talents, improving to the utmost present opportunities. He who will do this, may reach almost any height in moral and intellectual attainments. But he must possess a brave and resolute spirit. He will need to close his ears to the voice of pleasure; he must often refuse the solicitations of young companions. He must stand on guard continually, lest he be diverted from his purpose....
SD	333	3	Leave a field uncultivated, and it will grow up to thorns and briers. You will never see a lovely flower or a choice shrub peering above the unsightly, poisonous weeds. The worthless bramble will grow luxuriantly without thought or care, while plants that are valued for use or beauty require thorough culture. Thus it is with our youth. If right habits are formed, and right principles established, there is earnest work to be done. If wrong habits are corrected, diligence and perseverance are required to accomplish the task.... It is far easier to yield to evil influences than to resist them.46
SD	333	4	Unless they feel the importance of making the improvement that is essential in their characters in order to be better men every day, and thus be enabled to carry the responsibilities that rest upon them, they will be found on the losing side.47
SD	333	5	Grow in grace, in self-reliance, in self-control. Let every day find you more nearly prepared to unite with the royal family in the heavenly courts.48
------------------------Attain to the Full Stature of Christ, November 23
SD	334	1	Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Ephesians 4:13.
SD	334	2	As you make advances in the Christian life, you will be constantly growing up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In your experience, you will be proving what is the length and breadth, the depth and height, of the love of God, which passeth knowledge. You will feel your unworthiness. You will have no disposition to claim perfection of character, but only to exalt the perfection of your Redeemer. The more thorough and rich your experience in the knowledge of Jesus, the more humble will be your views of self....
SD	334	3	To love God supremely, and your neighbor as yourself, is true sanctification. Bible conversion will lead to constant and abiding activity, which will be free from all selfishness, all self-exaltation, and all boastful claims of holiness. If you are truly converted to God, you will exert a strong and telling influence on the side of truth. An intelligent knowledge of what it means to be a Christian will make you a blessing wherever you go. Whether you have one, two, or five talents, all will be devoted to the service of Him who has committed them to you in trust....
SD	334	4	God does not intend that your light shall so shine that your good words or works shall bring the praise of men to yourself; but that the Author of all good shall be glorified and exalted. Jesus, in His life, gave to men a model of character. How little power did the world have over Him to mold Him according to its standard! All its influence was thrown off.49
SD	334	5	You cannot stand still; you must either advance or retrograde.... Where there is spiritual health there is growth. The child of God grows up to the full stature of a man or woman in Christ. There is no limit to his improvement.50
------------------------Going Forth Is Prepared as the Morning, November 24
SD	335	1	Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning. Hosea 6:3.
SD	335	2	The end of all things is at hand. What we have done must not be allowed to place the period to our work. The Captain of our salvation says, "Advance. The night cometh, in which no man can work." Constantly we are to increase in usefulness. Our lives are always to be under the power of Christ....
SD	335	3	Prayer is a heaven-ordained means of success. Appeals, petitions, entreaties, between man and man, move men, and act as a part in controlling the affairs of nations. But prayer moves heaven. That power alone that comes in answer to prayer will make men wise in the wisdom of heaven, and enable them to work in the unity of the Spirit, joined together by the bonds of peace. Prayer, faith, confidence in God, bring a divine power that sets human calculations at their real worth,--nothingness.
SD	335	4	In all ages God has given human beings divine revelations, that thus He may fulfill His purpose of unfolding gradually to the mind the doctrines of grace. His manner of imparting the truth is illustrated by the words, "His going forth is prepared as the morning." He who places himself where God can enlighten him, advances, as it were, from the partial obscurity of dawn to the full radiance of noonday.... As the sun goes forth upon its errand of mercy and love, as the golden beams of the day flood the canopy of heaven, and beautify forest and mountain, awakening the world by dispelling the darkness of night, so the followers of Christ should go forth upon their mission of love.51
SD	335	5	It is the duty of every youth to place himself decidedly and without reserve on the side of Christ in order that he may ... grow up to the full stature of a man in Christ Jesus. He will then be written as a man in the book of God, and will be a man not only in the estimation of men, but in the sight of God.52
------------------------We Must Constantly Look to Jesus, November 25
SD	336	1	Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:2.
SD	336	2	Many of the youth repine because they have not ability to do some large work, and they covet talents by which they might do some wonderful things; but while they are spending their time in vain desires, they are making a failure of life. They are overlooking opportunities which they might improve in doing deeds of love in the path of life in which their feet are set....
SD	336	3	O that you would now consider the things that make for your peace, and devote your affections, your thoughts, your time, your service, to Christ. Satan is concentrating all his energies to bend your will to his, to make you his agent in opposing the plans of Christ, that you may refuse to have Jesus reign over you. Although you know that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," Satan ... will seek to draw you away from Christ, that you may become his agent in drawing others away, and thus frustrate the plans of God. He is the father of lies, and he weaves a net of falsehood in which he binds you with cords of lies to his service. The more intelligent you are, the more attractive, the harder he will work that he may persuade you to lay your talents at his feet, and aid him to accomplish his ends in alluring others under his black banner. If he can only keep the mind infatuated, he will do it. Paul inquires, "Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?" Satan is the bewitcher, and he has wrought, that Christ may be expelled from the soul, and that he himself may be there enthroned.
SD	336	4	I beg of you, sons and daughters, to break from the infatuation of the evil one. Flee to Jesus as your refuge, and lay hold upon eternal life.53
SD	336	5	Each day be determined that you will keep nigh to God, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.54
------------------------Our Experience Will Reach Into Eternity, November 26
SD	337	1	Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then I shall know even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12.
SD	337	2	Our life-work here is a preparation for the life eternal. The education begun here will not be completed in this life; it will be going forward through all eternity,--ever progressing, never completed. More and more fully will be revealed the wisdom and love of God in the plan of redemption. The Saviour, as He leads His children to the fountains of living waters, will impart rich stores of knowledge. And day by day the wonderful works of God, the evidences of His power in creating and sustaining the universe, will open before the mind in new beauty. In the light that shines from the throne, mysteries will disappear, and the soul will be filled with astonishment at the simplicity of the things that were never before comprehended. Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now we know in part; but then we shall know even as also we are known.55
SD	337	3	Think what it will mean to study through the eternal ages under the personal instruction of Christ! Amidst the present conflicts and temptations, in this our day of probation, we are to form characters that will prepare us to obtain a life that measures with the life of God.56
SD	337	4	We are to have an eye single to the glory of God, and thus grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The more earnestly and diligently we seek for divine wisdom, the more firmly established we shall be in the truth.57
SD	337	5	By beholding Christ, by talking of Him, by beholding the loveliness of His character we become changed. Changed from glory to glory. And what is glory? Character,--and he becomes changed from character to character. Thus we see that there is a work of purification that goes on by beholding Jesus.58
------------------------Look Upon Christ--Assimilate His Image, November 27
SD	338	1	And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14.
SD	338	2	The strength of nations and of individuals is not found in the opportunities and facilities that appear to make them invincible; it is not found in their boasted greatness. That which alone can make them great or strong is the power of God. They themselves, by their attitude toward His purpose, decide their own destiny.
SD	338	3	Human histories relate man's achievements, his victories in battle, his success in attaining worldly greatness. God's history describes man as heaven views him. In the divine records all his merit is seen to consist in his obedience to God's requirements....
SD	338	4	The centuries have their mission. Every moment has its work. Each is passing into eternity with its burden.... God is still dealing with earthly kingdoms. He is in the great cities. His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the doings of the children of men. We are not to say, God was, but, God is. He sees the very sparrow's fall, the leaf that falls from the tree, and the king who is dethroned. All are under the control of the Infinite One. Everything is changing. Cities and nations are being measured by the plummet in the hand of God. He never makes a mistake. He reads correctly. Everything earthly is unsettled, but the truth abides forever.
SD	338	5	In the eyes of the world, those who serve God may appear weak. They may be apparently sinking beneath the billows, but with the next billow, they are seen rising nearer to their heaven. I give unto them eternal life, saith our Lord, and none shall be able to pluck them out of My hand. Though kings shall be cast down, and nations removed, the souls that through faith link themselves with God's purpose shall abide forever.59
SD	338	6	Fasten your eyes upon Jesus, and by beholding you will become assimilated to His image.60
------------------------We Long to Catch Glimpses of His Glory, November 28
SD	339	1	I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. Exodus 33:18.
SD	339	2	It is our privilege to reach high and still higher, for clearer revealings of the character of God. When Moses prayed, "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory," the Lord did not rebuke him, but He granted his prayer....
SD	339	3	It is sin that darkens our minds and dims our perceptions. As sin is purged from our hearts, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, illuminating His word, and reflected from the face of nature, more and more fully will declare Him "merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth."
SD	339	4	In His light shall we see light, until mind and heart and soul are transformed into the image of His holiness.
SD	339	5	For those who thus lay hold of the divine assurances of God's Word, there are wonderful possibilities. Before them lie vast fields of truth, vast resources of power. Glorious things are to be revealed. Privileges and duties which they do not even suspect to be in the Bible will be made manifest. All who walk in the path of humble obedience, fulfilling His purpose, will know more and more of the oracles of God....
SD	339	6	The precious faith inspired of God imparts strength and nobility of character. As His goodness, His mercy, and His love are dwelt upon, clearer and still clearer will be the perception of truth; higher, holier, the desire for purity of heart and clearness of thought. The soul dwelling in the pure atmosphere of holy thought is transformed by intercourse with God through the study of His Word. Truth is so large, so far-reaching, so deep, so broad, that self is lost sight of. The heart is softened and subdued into humility, kindness, and love. And the natural powers are enlarged because of holy obedience.61
------------------------We Are Filled With Praise, November 29
SD	340	1	I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalm 34:1.
SD	340	2	It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His Spirit....
SD	340	3	As we associate together, we may be a blessing to one another. If we are Christ's, our sweetest thoughts will be of Him. We shall love to talk of Him; and as we speak to one another of His love, our hearts will be softened by divine influences. Beholding the beauty of His character, we shall be "changed into the same image from glory to glory."62
SD	340	4	The Lord Jesus ... loves you. If you doubt His love, look to Calvary. The light reflected from the cross shows you the magnitude of that love which no tongue can tell....
SD	340	5	The mercies of God surround you every moment; and it would be profitable for you to consider how and whence your blessings come every day. Let the precious blessings of God awaken gratitude in you. You cannot number the blessings of God, the constant loving-kindness expressed to you, for they are as numerous as the refreshing drops of rain. Clouds of mercy are hanging over you, and ready to drop upon you. If you will appreciate the valuable gift of salvation, you will be sensible of daily refreshment, of the protection and love of Jesus; you will be guided in the way of peace....
SD	340	6	See Him, by the eye of faith, bending over you in love.... He wants you to live in His presence; to have eternal life and a crown of glory.63
------------------------We Become Like Him, November 30
SD	341	1	Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. John 17:24.
SD	341	2	In our work we meet with many discouragements. But we shall not gain a particle of strength by dwelling on the discouragements. By beholding we become changed. As we look in faith to Jesus, His image is engraven on the heart. We are transformed in character.64
SD	341	3	There are many who, in dwelling too largely upon theory, have lost sight of the living power of the Saviour's example. They have lost sight of Him as the humble, self-denying worker. What they need is to behold Jesus. Daily we need the fresh revealing of His presence.65
SD	341	4	As we discern the perfection of our Saviour's character, we shall desire to become wholly transformed, and renewed in the image of His purity. The more we know of God, the higher will be our ideal of character, and the more earnest our longing to reflect His likeness. A divine element combines with the human when the soul reaches out after God.66
SD	341	5	As one becomes acquainted with the history of the Redeemer he discovers in himself serious defects.... He catches the looks, the spirit, of his beloved Master.... It is not by looking away from Him that we imitate the life of Jesus, but by talking of Him, by dwelling upon His perfections, by seeking to refine the taste and elevate the character, by trying, through faith and love, and by earnest, persevering effort, to approach the perfect Pattern. By having a knowledge of Christ,--His words, His habits, and His lessons of instructions,--we borrow the virtues of the character we have so closely studied, and become imbued with the spirit we have so much admired. Jesus becomes to us "the chiefest among ten thousand," the One "altogether lovely."67
------------------------Now Is the Sealing Time, December 1
SD	342	1	Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Revelation 7:3.
SD	342	2	Satan is now using every device in this sealing time to keep the minds of God's people from the present truth, and to cause them to waver. I saw a covering that God was drawing over His people to protect them in the time of trouble; and every soul that was decided on the truth, and was pure in heart, was to be covered with the covering of the Almighty. Satan knew this, and he was at work in mighty power to keep the minds of as many people as he possibly could wavering and unsettled on the truth.... I saw that Satan was at work ... to distract, deceive, and draw away God's people, just now in this sealing time. I saw some who were not standing stiffly for present truth. Their knees were trembling, and their feet sliding because they were not firmly planted on the truth....
SD	342	3	Satan was trying his every art to hold them where they were, until the sealing was past, until the covering was drawn over God's people, and they left without a shelter from the burning wrath of God, in the seven last plagues.1
SD	342	4	We are brought out of the darkness of the world into God's marvelous light. If we receive the image of God, if our souls are cleansed from every moral defilement, the seal of God will be placed upon our foreheads, and we shall be prepared for the closing scenes of this earth's history. But we have no time to lose. The more we study the life of Christ with a heart to learn, the more Christlike we become.2
SD	342	5	The sealing time is very short, and will soon be over. Now is the time, while the four angels are holding the four winds, to make our calling and election sure.3
------------------------Seek the Lord While He May Be Found, December 2
SD	343	1	Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Isaiah 55:6.
SD	343	2	The time is coming when it will be too late to seek God, and I have been thinking how we shall feel when probation is closed, and all our life-work ended. With what feeling shall we review the past? Shall we then wish that our efforts to serve God had been more earnest? Shall we wish that we had lived more in harmony with His revealed will? Shall we then be accounted as faithful servants? What if at this moment we should hear the voice of Christ saying, "It is done"? ...
SD	343	3	In view of the solemn responsibilities that rest upon us, let us contemplate the future, that we may understand what we must do in order to meet it.... In the solemn assembly of the last day, in the hearing of the universe, will be read the reason of the condemnation of the sinner. For the first time parents will learn what has been the secret life of their children. Children will see how many wrongs they have committed against their parents. There will be a general revealing of the secrets and motives of the heart; for that which is hid will be made manifest. Those who have made sport of solemn things connected with the judgment, will be sobered as they face its terrible reality. Those who have despised the Word of God, will then face the Author of the inspired oracles. We cannot afford to live with no reference to the day of judgment; for though long delayed, it is now near, even at the door, and hasteth greatly....
SD	343	4	When you consider solemn things, do you not realize, dear youth, that you must cease from your selfish, sinful course,--cease to do evil, and learn to do good? It is your own course of action that will mold your character for destruction or for the bliss of the ceaseless ages of eternity....
SD	343	5	Will you heed the injunction, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near"?4
------------------------Become God's Sons, and Heirs Through Christ, December 3
SD	344	1	Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Galatians 4:7.
SD	344	2	The Galatians were given up to the worship of idols, but as the apostles preached to them, they rejoiced in the message that promised freedom from the thraldom of sin. Paul and his fellow-workers proclaimed the doctrine of righteousness by faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ. They presented Christ as the One who, seeing the helpless condition of the fallen race, came to redeem men and women by living a life of obedience to God's law, and by paying the penalty of disobedience. And in the light of the cross, many who had never before known of the true God, began to comprehend the greatness of the Father's love. Thus the Galatians were taught the fundamental truths concerning "God the Father," and "our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." "By the hearing of faith," they received the Spirit of God, and became "the children of God by faith in Christ."
SD	344	3	Paul's manner of life while among the Galatians was such that he could afterward say, "I beseech you, be as I am." His lips had been touched with a live coal from off the altar, and he was enabled to rise above bodily infirmities, and to present Jesus as the sinner's only hope. Those who heard him knew that he had been with Jesus. Endued with power from on high, he was able to compare spiritual things with spiritual, and to tear down the strongholds of Satan. Hearts were broken by this presentation of the love of God, as revealed in the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, and many were led to inquire, What must I do to be saved? ... The cross brings us near to God, reconciling us to Him. With the relenting compassion of a father's love, Jehovah looks upon the suffering that His Son endured in order to save the race from eternal death, and accepts us in the Beloved.5
------------------------Be as Trees Planted by Rivers of Water, December 4
SD	345	1	He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Psalm 1:3.
SD	345	2	Dangers beset every path, and he who comes off conqueror will indeed have a triumphant song to sing in the city of God. Some have strong traits of character that will need to be constantly repressed. If kept under the control of the Spirit of God, these traits will be a blessing; but if not, they will prove a curse. If those who are now riding upon the wave of popularity do not become giddy, it will be a miracle of mercy. If they lean to their own wisdom, as so many thus situated have done, their wisdom will prove to be foolishness. But while they shall give themselves unselfishly to the work of God, never swerving in the least from principle, the Lord will throw about them the everlasting arm and will prove to them a mighty helper....
SD	345	3	This is a dangerous age for any man who has talents which can be of value in the work of God; for Satan is constantly plying his temptations upon such a person, ever trying to fill him with pride and ambition; and when God would use him, it is too often the case that he becomes independent and self-sufficient, and feels capable of standing alone....
SD	345	4	Prayer and effort, effort and prayer, will be the business of your life. You must pray as though the efficiency and praise were all due to God, and labor as though duty were all your own. If you want power you may have it; it is waiting your draft upon it. Only believe in God, take Him at His word, act by faith, and blessings will come.... Those who have a humble, trusting, contrite heart, God accepts, and hears their prayer; and when God helps, all obstacles will be overcome.... The blessing of heaven, obtained by daily supplication, will be as the bread of life to the soul and will cause them to increase in moral and spiritual strength, like a tree planted by the river of waters.6
------------------------Be Sober and Watch Unto Prayer, December 5
SD	346	1	The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 1 Peter 4:7.
SD	346	2	The admonition to the Israel of today is, "The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." "Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." Resist the enemy; do not be seduced by his flattering inducements and presentations. It is the work of the human agent to be strong, not in his own finite strength, but in the strength of the Lord, in the power of His might....
SD	346	3	Christ has said, "Without me ye can do nothing." The resolutions you may make in your own finite strength, will be only as ropes of sand; but if you pray in sincerity, surrendering yourself, soul, body, and spirit, unto God, you put on the whole armor of God, and open the soul to the righteousness of Christ; and this alone,--Christ's imputed righteousness,--makes you able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The work of every soul is to resist the enemy in the power and might of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the promise is that the devil shall flee from us. But let all realize that they are in peril, and there is no assurance of safety except as they comply with the conditions of the text. The Lord says, "Draw nigh to God." How?--By secret, earnest examination of your own heart; by childlike, heart-felt, humble dependence upon God, making known your weakness to Jesus; and by confessing your sins. Thus you may draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.7
------------------------Live Righteously and Godly, December 6
SD	347	1	We should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus 2:12, 13.
SD	347	2	O that our hearts may be deeply impressed with the importance of living holy lives, that the world may take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus, and have learned of Him. Christian worth does not depend upon brilliant talents, lofty birth, wonderful powers, but on a clean heart,--a heart which, purified and refined, reflects the image of divinity. It is the presence of Him who gave His life for us that makes the soul beautiful.... It is the men of prayer that are men of power....
SD	347	3	Do not allow trifling things to absorb your time and attention. Keep your mind on the glorious themes of the Word of God. A study of these themes will give you a strength that will carry you through the trials and difficulties of the last days, and bring you to where you will walk with Christ in white, because you are worthy. In the Word of God, studied and obeyed, we possess a spiritual guide and instructor by which the worst forms of evil in ourselves may be brought under the discipline of His law. If the teachings of this Word were made the controlling influence in our lives, if mind and heart were brought under its restraining power, the evils that now exist in churches and in families would find no place. Upon converted households the purest blessings would descend, and from these households an influence would go forth that would make God's people a power on the side of truth....
SD	347	4	Now is the time to watch and pray, to put away all self-indulgence, all pride, all selfishness. The precious moments that are now by many worse than wasted should be spent in meditation and prayer....
SD	347	5	On Christ's coronation day He will not acknowledge as His any who bear spot or wrinkle or any such thing. But to His faithful ones He will give crowns of immortal glory.8
------------------------Be Without Fault, December 7
SD	348	1	And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. Revelation 14:5.
SD	348	2	Sin is a hateful thing. It marred the moral beauty of a large number of the angels. It entered our world, and well-nigh obliterated the moral image of God in man. But in His great love God provided a way whereby man might regain the position from which he fell in yielding to the tempter. Christ came to stand at the head of humanity, to work out in our behalf a perfect character.... "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." ...
SD	348	3	What does the Lord require of His blood-bought heritage?--The sanctification of the whole being,--purity like the purity of Christ, perfect conformity to the will of God.... Into the holy city there can enter nothing that defileth, or maketh a lie....
SD	348	4	We can reveal the likeness of our divine Lord. We can know the science of spiritual life. We can honor our Maker....
SD	348	5	Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God's ideal for His children. He wants our minds to be clear, our tempers sweet, our love abounding. Then the peace that passeth knowledge will flow from us to bless all with whom we come in contact. The atmosphere surrounding our souls will be refreshing....
SD	348	6	Many are holding onto the truth with but the tips of their fingers. The precious time that should be spent in speaking of the Saviour's power to save, is being spent by many in carrying evil reports. Unless they make a decided change, they will be found wanting. Unless they have an entire transformation of character, they will never enter heaven.... The truly converted man has no inclination to think or talk of the faults of others. His lips are sanctified, and as God's witness he testifies that the grace of Christ has transformed his heart.... Those only will enter heaven who have overcome the temptation to think and speak evil.9
------------------------Overcome the World Through Faith, December 8
SD	349	1	For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John 5:4.
SD	349	2	Today Satan presents the same temptations that he presented to Christ, offering us the kingdoms of the world in return for our allegiance. But upon him who looks to Jesus as the author and finisher of his faith, Satan's temptations have no power. He can not cause to sin the one who will accept by faith the virtues of Him who was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.
SD	349	3	"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He who repents of his sin and accepts the gift of the life of the Son of God, can not be overcome. Laying hold by faith of the divine nature, he becomes a child of God. He prays, he believes. When tempted and tried, he claims the power that Christ died to give, and overcomes through His grace. This every sinner needs to understand. He must repent of his sins, he must believe in the power of Christ, and accept that power to save and to keep him from sin.10
SD	349	4	The Christian is not to retain his sinful habits and cherish his defects of character; but he is to be renewed in the spirit of his mind after the divine similitude. Whatever may be the nature of your defects, the Spirit of the Lord will enable you to discern them, and grace will be given you whereby they may be overcome. Through the merits of the blood of Christ you may be a conqueror, yes more than a conqueror....
SD	349	5	The truth must be admitted into the soul, and it will work the sanctification of the character. It will refine, and elevate the life, and fit you for an entrance into the mansions which Jesus has gone to prepare for those who love Him.
SD	349	6	Heaven is worth everything to us, and if we lose heaven we lose all.11
------------------------And His Reward is With Him, December 9
SD	350	1	Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Revelation 22:12.
SD	350	2	Our work here is soon to close, and every man will receive his reward according to his own labor. I was shown the saints' reward, the immortal inheritance, and saw that those who had endured the most for the truth's sake will not think they have had a hard time, but will count heaven cheap enough.12
SD	350	3	Every day bears its burden of record of unfulfilled duties, of neglect, of selfishness, of deception, of fraud, of overreaching. What an amount of evil works is accumulating for the final judgment! When Christ shall come, ... what a revelation will then be made!13
SD	350	4	Every good and every wrong act, and its influence upon others, is traced by the Searcher of hearts, to whom every secret is revealed. And the reward will be according to the motives which prompted the action.14
SD	350	5	The coming of Christ is near and hasteth greatly. The time in which to labor is short, and men and women are perishing.... We need the converting power of God to take hold of us, that we may understand the needs of a perishing world. The burden of my message to you is: Get ready, get ready to meet the Lord. Trim your lamps, and let the light of truth shine forth into the byways and the hedges. There is a world to be warned of the near approach of the end of all things....
SD	350	6	We need the presence of the Holy Spirit of God with us, that our hearts may be softened and that we may not bring a harsh spirit into the work. I pray that the Holy Spirit may take full possession of our hearts. Let us act like children of God who are looking to Him for counsel, ready to work out His plans wherever presented. God will be glorified by such a people, and those who witness our zeal will say; Amen and amen.15
------------------------Hold Fast and Be Ready, December 10
SD	351	1	Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Revelation 3:3.
SD	351	2	"Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent." Those who have been born again remember with what joy and gladness they received the light of heaven, and how eager they were to tell everybody of their happiness....
SD	351	3	"Hold fast." This does not mean, Hold fast to your sins; but, hold fast to the comfort, the faith, the hope, that God has given you in His Word. Never be discouraged. A discouraged man can do nothing. Satan is seeking to discourage you, telling you it is of no use to serve God, that it does not pay, and that it is just as well to have pleasure and enjoyment in this world. But "what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul"? You may have worldly pleasure at the expense of the future world; but can you afford to pay such a price? We are to "hold fast" and live up to all the light we receive from heaven. Why?--Because God wants us to grasp the eternal truth, and act as His helping hand by communicating the light to those who are not acquainted with His love for them. When you gave yourself to Christ, you made a pledge in the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,--the three great personal Dignitaries of heaven. "Hold fast" to this pledge....
SD	351	4	The enemy can never take out of the hand of Christ the one who is simply trusting in His promises. If the soul is trusting and working obediently, the mind is susceptible to divine impressions, and the light of God shines in, enlightening the understanding. What privileges we have in Christ Jesus!16
SD	351	5	We are to watch vigilantly for the coming of the Lord.... Every moment is to be faithfully employed. "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."17
------------------------We Hasten His Return With Holy Conversation, December 11
SD	352	1	What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God? 2 Peter 3:11, 12.
SD	352	2	Many who profess to be looking for the speedy coming of Christ, are becoming conformed to this world, and seek more earnestly for the applause of those around them, than the approbation of God....
SD	352	3	Many of these professed Christians dress, talk and act like the world, and the only thing by which they may be known, is their profession. Though they profess to be looking for Christ, their conversation is not in heaven, but on worldly things.
SD	352	4	"What manner of persons" ought those to be "in all holy conversation and godliness," who profess to be "looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God?" 2 Peter 3:11, 12....
SD	352	5	The way to heaven is rugged. Briers and thorns are in the way; but we can with cheerfulness tread the rough pathway, knowing that Jesus, the King of glory, once trod it before us. We will rejoice that we can follow in His footsteps, and be partakers with Him of His sufferings, that we may finally partake of His glory.
SD	352	6	What if reproaches are heaped upon me, even by those who profess to be looking for the Lord? ... Shall I complain, when Jesus bore the scoffs and derision of His own people? ... No, I will not complain; I will rather rejoice and be exceeding glad that I am accounted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake, that my reward may be in heaven. Only let me have an inheritance in glory, and it will be enough....
SD	352	7	Let us strive to be Christians (Christ-like) in every sense of the word, and let our dress, conversation and actions preach that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, and that we are looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of Jesus.... My affections, interest, treasure, all, is in the bright world to come. I long to see the King in His beauty.18
------------------------He Returns as Protector and Avenger of His Own, December 12
SD	353	1	And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him? Luke 18:7.
SD	353	2	At this time, when great light is shining forth from the Word of God, making dark mysteries plain as day, is the day of mercy, of hope, of joy and assurance to all who will be benefited thereby, to all who will open their minds and hearts to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness....
SD	353	3	There are diligent students of the Word of prophecy in all parts of the world, who are obtaining light and still greater light from searching the Scriptures. This is true of all nations, of all tribes, and all people. These will come from the grossest error, and will take the place of those who have had opportunities and privileges and have not prized them.... We are now making our choice, and we shall soon discern between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not....
SD	353	4	From time to time the Lord has made known His manner of working.... And when a crisis has come, He has revealed Himself, and has interposed the working of Satan's plans. He has often permitted matters with nations, with families, and with individuals to come to a crisis, that His interference might become marked. Then He has let the fact be known that there is a God in Israel who would sustain and vindicate His people.
SD	353	5	When the defiance of the law of Jehovah shall be almost universal, when His people shall be pressed in affliction by their fellow men, God will interpose. The fervent prayers of His people will be answered, for He loves to have His people seek Him with all their heart, and depend upon Him as their Deliverer. He will be sought unto to do these things for His people.... The promise is, "The Lord will avenge his own elect, which cry unto him day and night."19
------------------------He Will Be to Us a Sanctuary, December 13
SD	354	1	For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. Psalm 27:5.
SD	354	2	There is joy and consolation for the true-hearted, faithful Christian, that the world knows not of. To them it is a mystery. The Christian's hope is big with immortality and full of glory. It reacheth to that within the veil, and is as an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast. And when the storm of God's wrath shall come upon the ungodly, this hope will not fail them, but they are hid as in the secret of His pavilion.20
SD	354	3	There are troublous times before us; the judgments of God are coming upon our world. The nations of the earth are to tremble. There will be trials and perplexities on every hand; men's hearts will fail them for fear. And what shall we do in that day? Though the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and be removed like a cottage, if we have made God our trust, He will deliver us. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee.... For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."21
SD	354	4	Christ sees the termination of the conflict. The battle is waging more and more fiercely. Soon He will come whose right it is, and will take possession of all earthly things. All the confusion in our world, all the violence and crime, are a fulfilment of the words of Christ. They are the signs of the nearness of His coming. In that day of His coming, Christ will preserve those who have followed Him, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He has pledged Himself to be their sanctuary. He says to them, Enter thou into a safe retreat for a little moment, and hide thee until I shall cleanse the earth from her iniquity.22
------------------------Probation is Fast Closing, December 14
SD	355	1	He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. Revelation 22:11.
SD	355	2	All who would have their names retained in the book of life, should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin, and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart. The light, frivolous spirit indulged in by so many professed Christians must be put away. There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery. The work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another.... Every one must be tested, and found without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
SD	355	3	Solemn are the scenes connected with the closing work of the atonement. Momentous are the interests involved therein. The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above.... In the awful presence of God our lives are to come up in review....
SD	355	4	When the work of the investigative judgment closes, the destiny of all will have been decided for life or death. Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven.... Perilous is the condition of those who, growing weary of their watch, turn to the attractions of the world. While the man of business is absorbed in the pursuit of gain, while the pleasure-lover is seeking indulgence, while the daughter of fashion is arranging her adornments,--it may be in that hour the Judge of all the earth will pronounce the sentence, "Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting."23
SD	355	5	Silently, unnoticed as the midnight thief, will come the decisive hour which marks the fixing of every man's destiny, the final withdrawal of mercy's offer to guilty men. "Watch ye therefore ... lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping."24
------------------------He Calls Us to the Marriage Supper, December 15
SD	356	1	Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. Revelation 19:9.
SD	356	2	The Lord Jesus is making experiments on human hearts through the exhibition of His mercy and abundant grace. He is effecting transformations so amazing that Satan, with all his triumphant boasting, with all his confederacy of evil united against God and the laws of His government, stands viewing them as a fortress impregnable to his sophistries and delusions. They are to him an incomprehensible mystery. The angels of God, seraphim and cherubim, the powers commissioned to cooperate with human agencies, look on with astonishment and joy, that fallen men, once children of wrath, are through the training of Christ developing characters after the divine similitude, to be sons and daughters of God, to act an important part in the occupations and pleasures of heaven.
SD	356	3	To His church, Christ has given ample facilities, that He may receive a large revenue of glory from His redeemed, purchased possession. The church, being endowed with the righteousness of Christ, is His depository, in which the wealth of His mercy, His love, His grace, is to appear in full and final display. The declaration in His intercessory prayer, that the Father's love is as great toward us as toward Himself, the only-begotten Son, and that we shall be with Him where He is, forever one with Christ and the Father, is a marvel to the heavenly host, and it is their great joy. The gift of His Holy Spirit, rich, full, and abundant, is to be to His church as an encompassing wall of fire, which the powers of hell shall not prevail against. In their untainted purity and spotless perfection, Christ looks upon His people as the reward of all His suffering, His humiliation, and His love, and the supplement of His glory,--Christ, the great center from which radiates all glory. "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb."25
------------------------Christ Comes With Power and Great Glory, December 16
SD	357	1	When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. Matthew 25:31.
SD	357	2	No human language can portray the scenes of the second coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven.... He will come clad in the robe of light, which He has worn from the days of eternity. Angels will accompany Him. Ten thousand times ten thousand will escort Him on His way. The sound of the trumpet will be heard, calling the sleeping dead from the grave. The voice of Christ will penetrate the tomb, and pierce the ears of the dead, "and all that are in the graves ... shall come forth."26
SD	357	3	Christ is coming with power and great glory. He is coming with His own glory, and with the glory of the Father. And the holy angels will attend Him on His way. While all the world is plunged in darkness, there will be light in every dwelling of the saints. They will catch the first light of His second appearing. The unsullied light will shine from His splendor, and Christ the Redeemer will be admired by all who have served Him. While the wicked flee, Christ's followers will rejoice in His presence.27
SD	357	4	"For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." He is to be accompanied by all the hosts of heaven.... "And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect." ...
SD	357	5	Not until the personal advent of Christ can His people receive the kingdom.... Man in his present state is mortal, corruptible; but the kingdom of God will be incorruptible, enduring forever. Therefore man in his present state cannot enter into the kingdom of God. But when Jesus comes, He confers immortality upon His people; and then He calls them to inherit the kingdom of which they have hitherto been only heirs.28
------------------------The Faithful of Earth Will Be Saved, December 17
SD	358	1	And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 24:31.
SD	358	2	In the power of Him who rides forth conquering and to conquer, weak, finite man may gain the victory.29
SD	358	3	The Lion of Judah, so terrible to the rejectors of His grace, will be the Lamb of God to the obedient and faithful. The pillar of fire that speaks terror and wrath to the transgressor of God's law, is a token of light and mercy and deliverance to those who have kept His commandments. The arm strong to smite the rebellious will be strong to deliver the loyal. Everyone who is faithful will be saved. "He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
SD	358	4	In comparison with the millions of the world, God's people will be, as they have ever been, a little flock; but if they stand for the truth as revealed in His Word, God will be their refuge. They stand under the broad shield of Omnipotence. God is always a majority. When the sound of the last trump shall penetrate the prison-house of the dead, and the righteous shall come forth with triumph, exclaiming, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"--standing then with God, with Christ, with the angels, and the loyal and true of all ages, the children of God will be far in the majority....
SD	358	5	In holy vision the prophet saw the ultimate triumph of God's remnant church. He writes: "I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory ... stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints."30
------------------------The Dead in Christ Rise First, December 18
SD	359	1	For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
SD	359	2	The Life-giver will call up His purchased possession in the first resurrection, and until that triumphant hour, when the last trump shall sound and the vast army shall come forth to eternal victory, every sleeping saint will be kept in safety and will be guarded as a precious jewel, who is known to God by name. By the power of the Saviour that dwelt in them while living and because they were partakers of the divine nature, they are brought forth from the dead.31
SD	359	3	"The hour is coming," Christ said, "in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth." That voice is to resound through all the habitations of the dead; and every saint who sleeps in Jesus will awake and leave his prison-house. Then the virtue of character we received from Christ's righteousness will ally us to true greatness of the highest order.32
SD	359	4	The victory of the sleeping saints will be glorious on the morning of the resurrection.... The Life-giver will crown with immortality all who come forth from the grave.33
SD	359	5	There stands the risen host. The last thought was of death and its pangs. The last thoughts they had were of the grave and the tomb, but now they proclaim, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" ... Here they stand and the finishing touch of immortality is put upon them and they go up to meet their Lord in the air.... There are the columns of angels on either side; ... then the angelic choir strike the note of victory and the angels in the two columns take up the song and the redeemed host join as though they had been singing the song on the earth, and they have been. Oh, what music! There is not an inharmonious note. Every voice proclaims, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." He sees the travail of His soul, and is satisfied.34
------------------------Caught Up to Be With Christ Forever, December 19
SD	360	1	Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
SD	360	2	Jesus is coming, but not as at His first advent, a babe in Bethlehem, not as He rode into Jerusalem, when the disciples praised God with a loud voice and cried, Hosannah; but in the glory of the Father, and with all the retinue of holy angels with Him, to escort Him on His way to earth. All heaven will be emptied of the angels. The waiting saints will be looking for Him, and gazing into heaven, as were the "men of Galilee" when He ascended from the Mount of Olivet. Then, those only who are holy, those who have followed fully the meek Pattern will, with rapturous joy, exclaim as they behold Him, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us." And they will be changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump," that wakes the sleeping saints, and calls them forth from their dusty beds, clothed with glorious immortality, shouting Victory! Victory! over death and the grave. The changed saints are caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, never more to be separated from the object of their love.35
SD	360	3	To His faithful followers Christ has been a daily companion and a familiar friend. They have lived in close contact, in constant communion with God. Upon them the glory of the Lord has risen. In them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has been reflected. Now they rejoice in the undimmed rays of the brightness and the glory of the King in His majesty. They are prepared for the communion of heaven; for they have heaven in their hearts....
SD	360	4	With rejoicing that their redemption draweth nigh, they go forth to meet the Bridegroom, saying, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us."36
------------------------All Nations Are Gathered in Judgment, December 20
SD	361	1	And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. Matthew 25:32.
SD	361	2	The judgment scene will take place in the presence of all the worlds; for in this judgment the government of God will be vindicated, and His law will stand forth as "holy, and just, and good." Then every case will be decided, and sentence will be passed upon all. Sin will not then appear attractive, but will be seen in all its hideous magnitude.37
SD	361	3	"And before him shall be gathered all nations." ... Every deed, small and great, is to be brought into recognition. That which has been considered trivial here will then appear as it is. The two mites of the widow will be recognized. The cup of cold water offered, the prison visited, the hungry fed,--each will bring its own reward. And that unfulfilled duty, that selfish act, will not be forgotten. In the open court around the throne of God it will appear a very different thing from what it did when it was performed.... It will be seen that these selfish pleasures and indulgences have made the human being a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God.... But it is not necessary for any to be deceived; and we shall not be if we have fully taken our stand with Christ to follow Him through evil as well as through good report.38
SD	361	4	The character which we now manifest is deciding our future destiny. The happiness of heaven will be found by conforming to the will of God, and if men become members of the royal family in heaven, it will be because heaven has begun with them on earth.... The righteous will take every grace, every precious, sanctified ability, into the courts above, and exchange earth for heaven. God knows who are the loyal and true subjects of His kingdom on earth, and those who do His will upon earth as it is done in heaven, will be made the members of the royal family above.39
------------------------We Receive the Crown of Life, December 21
SD	362	1	Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1:12.
SD	362	2	When the Lord makes up His jewels, the true, the frank, the honest, will be looked upon with pleasure. Angels are employed in making crowns for such ones, and upon these star-gemmed crowns will be reflected, with splendor, the light which radiates from the throne of God.40
SD	362	3	Talk of heavenly things. Talk of Jesus, His loveliness and glory, and of His undying love for you, and let your heart flow out in love and gratitude to Him, who died to save you. O, get ready to meet your Lord in peace. Those who are ready will soon receive an unfading crown of life, and will dwell forever in the kingdom of God, with Christ, with angels, and with those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.41
SD	362	4	It is the waiting ones who are to be crowned with glory, honor, and immortality. You need not talk ... of the honors of the world, or the praise of its great ones. They are all vanity. Let but the finger of God touch them, and they would soon go back to dust again. I want honor that is lasting, honor that is immortal, honor that will never perish; a crown that is richer than any crown that ever decked the brow of a monarch.42
SD	362	5	In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and His Son. The angels of heaven, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King, and those who are the trophies of His victory,--those who have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts accompanied by His redeemed ones, the witnesses that His mission of suffering and self-sacrifice has not been in vain.43
------------------------A Great Multitude Enter the City of God, December 22
SD	363	1	After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. Revelation 7:9.
SD	363	2	Among earth's inhabitants, scattered in every land, there are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Like the stars of heaven, which appear only at night, these faithful ones will shine forth when darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people. In heathen Africa, in the Catholic lands of Europe and of South America, in China, in India, in the islands of the sea, and in all the dark corners of the earth, God has in reserve a firmament of chosen ones that will yet shine forth amidst the darkness, revealing clearly to an apostate world the transforming power of obedience to His law. Even now they are appearing in every nation, among every tongue and people; and in the hour of deepest apostasy, when Satan's supreme effort is made to cause "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond," to receive, under penalty of death, the sign of allegiance to a false rest-day, these faithful ones, "blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke," will "shine as lights in the world."44
SD	363	3	Let us remember that there is a grand meeting to take place ere long. Everlasting life is before us, and the city of God. Angels of God will be there, and Christ will be there.45
SD	363	4	The gates of the city will swing back on their glittering hinges, and the nations that have kept the truth will enter in. A crown will be placed on every head. The words will be spoken, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Whom is it prepared for?--For the obedient; those who keep His commandments, and do His will.... As holy angels touch their harps, He wants you to follow, singing the song of triumph in the city of God.46
------------------------We Inherit the Kingdom, December 23
SD	364	1	Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Matthew 25:34.
SD	364	2	Every action of ours in befriending God's people will be rewarded as done unto Himself.
SD	364	3	In the day of final reckoning, Christ does not present before men the great work He has done for them in giving His life for their redemption. He presents before them the faithful work they have done for Him. What surpassing love is this! He even mentions the work of the heathen, who have no intelligent knowledge of the law of the Lord, but who have done the very things the law required, because they have heeded the voice speaking to them in the things of nature. When the Holy Spirit implants Christ's Spirit in the heart of the savage, and he befriends God's servants, the quickening of the heart's sympathy is contrary to his nature, contrary to his education. The grace of God, working upon the darkened mind, has softened the savage nature untaught by the wisdom of men....
SD	364	4	Christ implants His grace in the heart of the savage, and he ministers to the necessity of the missionary, even before he has heard or comprehended the words of truth and life. Behold that crowd collected about God's servant to harm him! But the Lord is working upon the heart and mind of perhaps one man to plead in behalf of His servant; and when the war council has determined the destruction of the Christian's life, the intercession of that savage turns the decision, and his life is spared. O, the love that goes forth to the savage for this one act! To such Christ says, in the Judgment: "I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me." "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."47
------------------------We Eat of the Tree of Life, December 24
SD	365	1	To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7.
SD	365	2	In view of the Lord's soon coming, how earnest we should be in forming characters after the divine similitude....
SD	365	3	"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Is not this worth striving for? If we lose heaven, we lose everything, and there are none of us who can afford to do that. If we keep in view the eternal joys awaiting the overcomer, and trust in Christ as we strive for the perfection of character, do you think we shall be unhappy? Should it make us unhappy to imitate Christ's example of self-denial and ministry? ...
SD	365	4	We are seeking for the life that measures with the life of God; therefore our natures must be brought into conformity with the will of God. We must so conduct our life work that we can go to God in confidence and open our hearts before Him, telling Him our necessities and believing that He hears and will give us grace and strength to carry out the principles of the Word of God. What we want is heaven, the victor's crown, an entrance through the gates to the city of God, the right to eat of the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God. We want to see the King in His beauty. Then daily let us keep our eyes fixed upon Christ, the perfection of human character, and laying hold of His divinity we shall have the strength of divinity to aid us in overcoming every evil tendency and desire.48
SD	365	5	I thank God for my life.... I have a faith that looks over into the future, and sees the tree of life. Upon it grows precious fruits, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No more broken hearts, no more sadness, no more sins, no more sorrow, no more suffering, in that kingdom of glory.49
------------------------We Have Power Over the Nations, December 25
SD	366	1	He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. Revelation 2:26.
SD	366	2	It was our Lord Himself who promised His disciples, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself." It was the compassionate Saviour, who, anticipating the loneliness and sorrow of His followers, commissioned angels to comfort them with the assurance that He would come again in person, even as He went into heaven. As the disciples stood gazing intently upward to catch the last glimpse of Him whom they loved, their attention was arrested by the words, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Hope was kindled afresh by the angels' message. The disciples "returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God." They were not rejoicing because Jesus had been separated from them, and they were left to struggle with the trials and temptations of the world, but because of the angels' assurance that He would come again.
SD	366	3	The proclamation of Christ's coming should now be, as when made by the angels to the shepherds of Bethlehem, good tidings of great joy. Those who really love the Saviour cannot but hail with gladness the announcement founded upon the Word of God, that He in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered, is coming again, not to be insulted, despised, and rejected, as at His first advent, but in power and glory, to redeem His people.50
SD	366	4	The gospel is to advance from conquest to conquest, from victory to victory. The greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, and they shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever and ever.51
------------------------We are Given Life Without End, December 26
SD	367	1	He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. Revelation 2:11.
SD	367	2	"The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." While life is the inheritance of the righteous, death is the portion of the wicked. Moses declared to Israel, "I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil." The death referred to in these scriptures is not that pronounced upon Adam, for all mankind suffer the penalty of his transgression. It is the "second death" that is placed in contrast with everlasting life.
SD	367	3	In consequence of Adam's sin, death passed upon the whole human race. All alike go down into the grave. And through the provisions of the plan of salvation, all are to be brought forth from their graves. "There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust," "for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." But a distinction is made between the two classes that are brought forth. "All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." They who have been "accounted worthy" of the resurrection of life, are "blessed and holy." "On such the second death hath no power." But those who have not, through repentance and faith, secured pardon, must receive the penalty of transgression.52
SD	367	4	Said the angel, "Satan is the root, his children are the branches. They are now consumed root and branch. They have died an everlasting death. They are never to have a resurrection, and God will have a clean universe." ... And all the redeemed host, old and young, great and small, cast their glittering crowns at the feet of their Redeemer, and prostrated themselves in adoration before Him, and worshiped Him that liveth forever and ever. The beautiful new earth, with all its glory, was the eternal inheritance of the saints.53
------------------------Because We are Worthy, We Shall Walk in White, December 27
SD	368	1	Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. Revelation 3:4.
SD	368	2	When, as overcomers, we shall be "clothed in white raiment," the Lord will acknowledge our faithfulness as verily as in the days of the early Christian church He acknowledged the "few names even in Sardis," who had "not defiled their garments;" and we shall walk with Him in white, for through His atoning sacrifice we shall be accounted worthy....
SD	368	3	In view of these encouraging promises, how earnestly should we strive to perfect a character that will enable us to stand before the Son of God! Only those who are clothed in the garments of His righteousness will be able to endure the glory of His presence when He shall appear with "power and great glory."
SD	368	4	It means much to be an overcomer. The besetments of the enemy and all his evil agencies must be firmly resisted. Every moment we must be on guard. Not for one instant are we to lose sight of Christ, and of His power to save in the hour of trial. Our hand must be placed in His, that we may be upheld by the power of His might.54
SD	368	5	If you are to sit at Christ's table, and feast on the provisions He has furnished at the marriage supper of the Lamb, you must have a special garment, called the wedding garment, which is the white robe of Christ's righteousness. Every one who has on this robe is entitled to enter the city of God; and if Jesus had not been very desirous you should have a place in the mansions He has gone to prepare for those who love Him, He would not, at so great an expense to Himself, have made all these arrangements that you might be happy and sit at His table and enjoy the home He has gone to prepare for His redeemed family.55
------------------------We are Presented to the Father, December 28
SD	369	1	He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Revelation 3:5.
SD	369	2	The expression, "He that overcometh," indicates that there is something for every one of us to overcome. The overcomer is to be clothed in the white raiment of Christ's righteousness, and of him it is written: "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." O, what a privilege it is to be an overcomer, and to have our names presented before the Father by the Saviour Himself!56
SD	369	3	What a precious assurance is contained in this promise! What greater inducement could be presented to us to become the sons and daughters of God? Who will put on the whole armor? Who will enlist under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel? ... Divine enlightenment may come to every struggling, tempted child of God in order that he need not fall in the strife with the powers of darkness, but be a conqueror in every battle.57
SD	369	4	The spotless robe of Christ's righteousness is placed upon the tried, tempted, yet faithful children of God.... Their names are retained in the Lamb's book of life, enrolled among the faithful of all ages. They have resisted the wiles of the deceiver; they have not been turned from their loyalty by the dragon's roar. Now they are eternally secure from the tempter's devices.... The remnant are not only pardoned and accepted, but honored. "A fair miter" is set upon their heads. They are to be as kings and priests unto God. While Satan was urging his accusations and seeking to destroy this company, holy angels, unseen, were passing to and fro, placing upon them the seal of the living God. These are they that stand upon Mount Zion with the Lamb, having the Father's name written in their foreheads.58
------------------------We are Made Pillars in the Temple of God, December 29
SD	370	1	Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. Revelation 3:12.
SD	370	2	The only hope of any man lies through Jesus Christ.... The pure and holy garments are not prepared to be put on by any one after he has entered the gate of the city. All who enter will have on the robe of Christ's righteousness, and the name of God will be seen in their foreheads. This name is the symbol which the apostle saw in vision, and signifies the yielding of the mind to intelligent and loyal obedience to all of God's commandments.59
SD	370	3	The conflict that we are passing through is the last we shall have in this world. We are now in the midst of it. Two parties are striving for the supremacy. In this conflict we cannot be neutral. We must stand either on one side or on the other. If we take our position on the side of Christ, if we acknowledge Him before the world in word and work, we are bearing a living testimony as to whom we have chosen to serve and honor. In this important period of earth's history, we cannot afford to leave any one in uncertainty as to whose side we are on....
SD	370	4	In order to gain the victory over every besetment of the enemy, we must lay hold on a power that is out of and beyond ourselves. We must maintain a constant, living connection with Christ, who has power to give victory to every soul that will maintain an attitude of faith and humility.... As those who hope to receive the overcomer's reward, we must press forward in the Christian warfare, though at every advance we meet with opposition.... As overcomers, we are to reign with Christ in the heavenly courts, and we are to overcome through the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God."60
------------------------We Sit With Christ on His Throne, December 30
SD	371	1	To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Revelation 3:21.
SD	371	2	In these words an individual work is laid out for each one of us. We are to make determined efforts to overcome as Christ overcame. From this warfare no one is excused. If for us the gates of the holy city swing ajar, if we behold the King in His beauty, we must now overcome as Christ overcame.... He laid aside His robes of royalty, ... His riches, and for our sake became poor, that we might come into possession of an immortal inheritance. In our behalf, He met and conquered the prince of darkness....
SD	371	3	The lesson of self-control should begin with the infant in its mother's arms. The child should be taught that its will must be brought into subjection.... Who are these children committed to our care?--They are the younger members of the Lord's family. He says, Take these children and train them ... so that they will be polished after the similitude of a palace, prepared to shine in the courts of My house. What an important work! ... Remember that in your work the Creator of the universe will give you help. In His strength, and through His name, you can lead your children to be overcomers. Teach them to look to God for strength. Tell them that He hears their prayers. Teach them to overcome evil with good. Teach them to exert an influence that is elevating and ennobling. Lead them to unite with God, and then they will have strength to resist the strongest temptation. They will then receive the reward of the overcomer.61
SD	371	4	You lose much by not studying with greater earnestness and care the life of Christ. There you ... may see the victories which you have to gain ... that you may win the precious white robe of a spotless character, and stand at last without fault before the throne of God.62
------------------------We Shall Inherit All Things, December 31
SD	372	1	He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son [daughter]. Revelation 21:7.
SD	372	2	In order to inherit all things, we must resist and overcome sin.63
SD	372	3	We may have joy in the Lord if we will keep His commandments. If we indeed have our citizenship above, and a title to an immortal inheritance, an eternal substance, we have that faith which works by love and purifies the soul.... We are members of the heavenly family, children of the heavenly King, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. At His coming we shall have the crown of life that fadeth not away.64
SD	372	4	The Monarch of heaven would have you possess and enjoy all that can ennoble, expand, and exalt your being and fit you to dwell with Him forever, your existence measuring with the life of God. What a prospect is the life which is to come! What charms it possesses! How broad and deep and measureless is the love of God manifested to man!65
SD	372	5	The privileges granted to the children of God are without limit,--to be connected with Jesus Christ, who, throughout the universe of heaven and worlds that have not fallen, is adored by every heart, and His praises sung by every tongue; to be children of God, to bear His name, to become a member of the royal family; to be ranged under the banner of Prince Immanuel, the King of kings and Lord of lords.66
SD	372	6	The Son of God was the heir of all things, and the dominion and glory of the kingdoms of this world were promised to Him.... Even as Christ was in the world, so are His followers. They are the sons of God, and joint heirs with Christ; and the kingdom and dominion belong to them.67
SD	372	7	In place of the world, He will give you, for a life of obedience, the kingdom under the whole heavens. He will give you an eternal weight of glory and a life that is as enduring as eternity.68

------------------------This Day With God
TDG	9	1	Promise of Peace, January 1
TDG	10	1	With One Accord, January 2
TDG	11	1	Next Door to Heaven, January 3
TDG	12	1	Cultivating the Soil, January 4
TDG	13	1	Thou God Seest Me, January 5
TDG	14	1	The Conflict Over, January 6
TDG	15	1	Appreciating the Promises, January 7
TDG	16	1	Christian Humility, January 8
TDG	17	1	Beautiful Garments, January 9
TDG	18	1	Antidote for Apathy, January 10
TDG	19	1	Reconciliation First, January 11
TDG	20	1	No Sleeping on the Job, January 12
TDG	21	1	Agents for Heaven, January 13
TDG	22	1	Have You Asked? January 14
TDG	23	1	Help Is Promised, January 15
TDG	24	1	Powerhouse of the Universe, January 16
TDG	25	1	The Measure of Christianity, January 17
TDG	26	1	Do All You Can Do, January 18
TDG	27	1	One Day at a Time, January 19
TDG	28	1	Heaven on My Side, January 20
TDG	29	1	Brightest and Best, January 21
TDG	30	1	Look at the Pattern, January 22
TDG	31	1	Heavenly Dividends, January 23
TDG	32	1	Perfect in Him, January 24
TDG	33	1	Guidon of God, January 25
TDG	34	1	Passport to Heaven, January 26
TDG	35	1	Getting in Step, January 27
TDG	36	1	Lord, You Know All About It! January 28
TDG	37	1	The Christian's Rest, January 29
TDG	38	1	Your Case Is Not Hopeless, January 30
TDG	39	1	God Will Work With You, January 31
TDG	40	1	What God Expects, February 1
TDG	41	1	How to Make an Impact, February 2
TDG	42	1	For the Fearful, Faint, and Feeble, February 3
TDG	43	1	Help in Study, February 4
TDG	44	1	Blessings Without Number, February 5
TDG	45	1	A Thankful Heart, February 6
TDG	46	1	The Heavenly Mirror, February 7
TDG	47	1	Strength From Struggle, February 8
TDG	48	1	The New Life, February 9
TDG	49	1	Promise of His Presence, February 10
TDG	50	1	God's Goodness Displayed, February 11
TDG	51	1	Ambassadors, February 12
TDG	52	1	Heart Service, February 13
TDG	53	1	Co-Laborers With God, February 14
TDG	54	1	Reasonable Service, February 15
TDG	55	1	God Hates Deception, February 16
TDG	56	1	Take Time to be Holy, February 17
TDG	57	1	Heaven Begins Here, February 18
TDG	58	1	Peace in His Presence, February 19
TDG	59	1	Even a Child Is Known, February 20
TDG	60	1	Strong in His Strength, February 21
TDG	61	1	Anywhere, Lord, February 22
TDG	62	1	Nothing to Fear, February 23
TDG	63	1	How to Get Rid of Guilt, February 24
TDG	64	1	Trust and Obey, February 25
TDG	65	1	Secret of Sanctification, February 26
TDG	66	1	Right Thinking, February 27
TDG	67	1	Under Shepherds, February 28
TDG	68	1	In His Steps, February 29
TDG	69	1	The Only Security, March 1
TDG	70	1	Provoke to Love, March 2
TDG	71	1	Acceptable Ambition, March 3
TDG	72	1	Every Step of the Way, March 4
TDG	73	1	More Than Words, March 5
TDG	74	1	Open the Door, March 6
TDG	75	1	Open the Top Windows! March 7
TDG	76	1	What Love Does, March 8
TDG	77	1	Follow the Directions, March 9
TDG	78	1	Rule of Righteousness, March 10
TDG	79	1	The Charming Christian, March 11
TDG	80	1	Personal, Practical Piety, March 12
TDG	81	1	Lighting the Path, March 13
TDG	82	1	Birthright Blessings, March 14
TDG	83	1	The Courteous Christian, March 15
TDG	84	1	Assurance of Victory, March 16
TDG	85	1	Talents Are for Use, March 17
TDG	86	1	Price Tag of Sin, March 18
TDG	87	1	Choosing and Doing, March 19
TDG	88	1	Remedy for Ruin, March 20
TDG	89	1	Contrition, Confession, Cooperation, March 21
TDG	90	1	Probation and Perfection, March 22
TDG	91	1	Behold His Solicitude! March 23
TDG	92	1	The Consistent Christian, March 24
TDG	93	1	Making Your Trial Balance, March 25
TDG	94	1	Separating From Sin, March 26
TDG	95	1	Settling Into Salvation, March 27
TDG	96	1	His Abiding Presence, March 28
TDG	97	1	Giving What You've Got, March 29
TDG	98	1	Give Me Oil in My Lamp, March 30
TDG	99	1	His Purchased Possession, March 31
TDG	100	1	Meeting the Requirements, April 1
TDG	101	1	Heavenly Evaluation, April 2
TDG	102	1	Triumph of the Truth, April 3
TDG	103	1	Indescribable Glory, April 4
TDG	104	1	Heavenly Guarantee, April 5
TDG	105	1	Rectifying Wrong, April 6
TDG	106	1	Christ, the Magnet, April 7
TDG	107	1	Witnessing Instructions, April 8
TDG	108	1	Living the New Life, April 9
TDG	109	1	Shield of Protection, April 10
TDG	110	1	The Majesty of God, April 11
TDG	111	1	Kindness, A Virtue, April 12
TDG	112	1	Christ, the Bread of Life, April 13
TDG	113	1	Be His Messenger, April 14
TDG	114	1	I Will Keep Thee, April 15
TDG	115	1	Give As You Have Received, April 16
TDG	116	1	Strength for the Day, April 17
TDG	117	1	Constant Communion With God, April 18
TDG	118	1	Repentance and Reformation, April 19
TDG	119	1	Study to Be Approved, April 20
TDG	120	1	Destiny for Eternity, April 21
TDG	121	1	Prescription for Unity, April 22
TDG	122	1	Look on the Bright Side, April 23
TDG	123	1	Laws of Nature and Life, April 24
TDG	124	1	Ever Onward, April 25
TDG	125	1	The Christian Soldier, April 26
TDG	126	1	Vindication of Our Message, April 27
TDG	127	1	Guide Book to Salvation, April 28
TDG	128	1	Complete Commitment, April 29
TDG	129	1	Divine Prescription, April 30
TDG	130	1	Ellen White's Investments, May 1
TDG	131	1	Achieving Through Christ, May 2
TDG	132	1	Heavenly Invitation, May 3
TDG	133	1	The Blessing of Labor, May 4
TDG	134	1	Getting Rid of Sin, May 5
TDG	135	1	Essentials of Salvation, May 6
TDG	136	1	Recipe for Good Health, May 7
TDG	137	1	Preparation for Heaven, May 8
TDG	138	1	A Warning Dream, May 9
TDG	139	1	Being Alive Unto God, May 10
TDG	140	1	The Way, the Truth, the Life, May 11
TDG	141	1	Ask, Believe, Claim, May 12
TDG	142	1	Loving to Obey, May 13
TDG	143	1	The Compassionate Christian, May 14
TDG	144	1	Step by Step, May 15
TDG	145	1	Unreserved Surrender, May 16
TDG	146	1	Heart Holiness, May 17
TDG	147	1	Fidelity to the Father's Family, May 18
TDG	148	1	Obedience Is Sanctification, May 19
TDG	149	1	Christ's Crowning Miracle, May 20
TDG	150	1	Oneness With Christ, May 21
TDG	151	1	The Purifying Process, May 22
TDG	152	1	Securing Our Inheritance, May 23
TDG	153	1	Zeal for Truth, May 24
TDG	154	1	Sit in His Shadow, May 25
TDG	155	1	Claiming the Privileges, May 26
TDG	156	1	Rejoice in the Lord, May 27
TDG	157	1	The Indwelling Christ, May 28
TDG	158	1	Reverence the Cause, May 29
TDG	159	1	Without Spot, May 30
TDG	160	1	Our Guardian Angels, May 31
TDG	161	1	The Real Christian, June 1
TDG	162	1	Our Magnanimous Lord, June 2
TDG	163	1	The Door Is Still Open, June 3
TDG	164	1	Let No Man Deceive You, June 4
TDG	165	1	Individual Preparation, June 5
TDG	166	1	The Cost of Salvation, June 6
TDG	167	1	His Grace Is Sufficient, June 7
TDG	168	1	Go Work Today, June 8
TDG	169	1	Adorning the Gospel, June 9
TDG	170	1	Harvesttime, June 10
TDG	171	1	Persevering Prayer, June 11
TDG	172	1	God's Care for His Church, June 12
TDG	173	1	The Sustaining Spirit, June 13
TDG	174	1	Guard the Approaches, June 14
TDG	175	1	Immortal Inheritance, June 15
TDG	176	1	The Wonder of the Cross, June 16
TDG	177	1	Let Us Hold Fast, June 17
TDG	178	1	Fidelity in Service, June 18
TDG	179	1	Every Member a Missionary, June 19
TDG	180	1	Glorious Heritage, June 20
TDG	181	1	Invitation to All, June 21
TDG	182	1	To Love Is to Serve, June 22
TDG	183	1	God's Dealings With Men, June 23
TDG	184	1	Guidance in Perplexity, June 24
TDG	185	1	Healthful Living, June 25
TDG	186	1	Working of the Spirit, June 26
TDG	187	1	Prayer Power, June 27
TDG	188	1	A Lamp to Our Path, June 28
TDG	189	1	To Whom Shall We Go? June 29
TDG	190	1	Christian Attitude and Ambitions, June 30
TDG	191	1	A Sympathizing Saviour, July 1
TDG	192	1	Ye All Are Brethren, July 2
TDG	193	1	No Place for Pride, July 3
TDG	194	1	Jesus Cares, July 4
TDG	195	1	Truth Will Triumph, July 5
TDG	196	1	Preach the Word, July 6
TDG	197	1	The Fruits of Repentance, July 7
TDG	198	1	Come Quickly, Lord, July 8
TDG	199	1	A Standard Against the Enemy, July 9
TDG	200	1	To God Be the Glory, July 10
TDG	201	1	Spiritual Salt, July 11
TDG	202	1	Matchless Love, July 12
TDG	203	1	Work a Blessing, July 13
TDG	204	1	Perfect Faith, July 14
TDG	205	1	Foolish Fanaticisms, July 15
TDG	206	1	Eating for Life, July 16
TDG	207	1	A Life Like His, July 17
TDG	208	1	Talents Entrusted for Service, July 18
TDG	209	1	An Ever Present Help, July 19
TDG	210	1	Eat for Strength, July 20
TDG	211	1	Let Your Light Shine, July 21
TDG	212	1	An Open Door, July 22
TDG	213	1	Do You Know Your Lord? July 23
TDG	214	1	Sow Beside All Waters, July 24
TDG	215	1	Are You Building on the Rock? July 25
TDG	216	1	According to Your Faith, July 26
TDG	217	1	Little Men--Big Subjects, July 27
TDG	218	1	Reward for Faithfulness, July 28
TDG	219	1	God's Promise to Parents, July 29
TDG	220	1	Promised: Strength for the Day, July 30
TDG	221	1	How to Meet Opposition, July 31
TDG	222	1	Partakers of the Divine Nature, August 1
TDG	223	1	Jesus, Your Friend at Court, August 2
TDG	224	1	The Power of Truth, August 3
TDG	225	1	Words Are Important, August 4
TDG	226	1	Covered by Christ's Righteousness, August 5
TDG	227	1	God Honors Humility, August 6
TDG	228	1	Discernment of Duty, August 7
TDG	229	1	As the Stars Forever and Ever, August 8
TDG	230	1	Mother Love, August 9
TDG	231	1	Satan's Sophistries, August 10
TDG	232	1	Walking With the Unseen God, August 11
TDG	233	1	Look to the Light, August 12
TDG	234	1	Never Talk Discouragement, August 13
TDG	235	1	Noah's Time and Ours, August 14
TDG	236	1	The Divine Substitute, August 15
TDG	237	1	Can You Claim God's Seal? August 16
TDG	238	1	Cherish the Spirit of Happiness, August 17
TDG	239	1	Cultivate Tenderness in the Home, August 18
TDG	240	1	Danger of Doublemindedness, August 19
TDG	241	1	Through Nature to Nature's God, August 20
TDG	242	1	Controlled by the Great Designer, August 21
TDG	243	1	God's Claim on You, August 22
TDG	244	1	The Test of Sincerity, August 23
TDG	245	1	Take Hold of Divine Strength, August 24
TDG	246	1	God's Law Is Immutable, August 25
TDG	247	1	Beware the Occult, August 26
TDG	248	1	In the World, But Not of It, August 27
TDG	249	1	Copying Christ's Methods, August 28
TDG	250	1	Christian Prudence, August 29
TDG	251	1	Genuine Sanctification, August 30
TDG	252	1	The Mystery of Spiritual Growth, August 31
TDG	253	1	Receive That You May Give, September 1
TDG	254	1	Written for Our Admonition, September 2
TDG	255	1	More Privileged Than Angels, September 3
TDG	256	1	Unseen Forces in Conflict, September 4
TDG	257	1	Our Guide into All Truth, September 5
TDG	258	1	You Can Conquer, September 6
TDG	259	1	Pride Goeth Before a Fall, September 7
TDG	260	1	That Thy Faith Fail Not, September 8
TDG	261	1	Consciousness of Sins Forgiven, September 9
TDG	262	1	Christ Is Not Divided, September 10
TDG	263	1	Keep on an Even Keel, September 11
TDG	264	1	Christians Now, September 12
TDG	265	1	Watch Your Words, September 13
TDG	266	1	Cultivate Christlike Love, September 14
TDG	267	1	If Judas Had Repented, September 15
TDG	268	1	Take Jesus at His Word, September 16
TDG	269	1	All Men Are Brothers, September 17
TDG	270	1	Never Demean the Erring, September 18
TDG	271	1	How to Have Heaven Here, September 19
TDG	272	1	Christ Is the Way, September 20
TDG	273	1	God Is a Person, September 21
TDG	274	1	Have You Passed From Death to Life? September 22
TDG	275	1	He Is Always With Me, September 23
TDG	276	1	Partners With God, September 24
TDG	277	1	Divine Grace, Our Greatest Need, September 25
TDG	278	1	God's Constant Appeal, September 26
TDG	279	1	Don't Neglect Little Things, September 27
TDG	280	1	Press Toward the Mark, September 28
TDG	281	1	Your Business Is God's Business, September 29
TDG	282	1	A Great Work to Be Done, September 30
TDG	283	1	Ye Are God's Instruments, October 1
TDG	284	1	Be God's Minuteman, October 2
TDG	285	1	The Power of Transforming Grace, October 3
TDG	286	1	To Every Man His Work, October 4
TDG	287	1	The Great Commandment, October 5
TDG	288	1	Practice Run for Heaven, October 6
TDG	289	1	Power to Overcome, October 7
TDG	290	1	Set Your Affections on Heaven, October 8
TDG	291	1	Imitating the Pattern, October 9
TDG	292	1	The Banquet of God's Word, October 10
TDG	293	1	The Child's First School, October 11
TDG	294	1	Don't Shun the Cross, October 12
TDG	295	1	The Divine Refiner, October 13
TDG	296	1	The Judgment Is Coming, October 14
TDG	297	1	The Divine Commission, October 15
TDG	298	1	Empty of Pride and Self-esteem, October 16
TDG	299	1	Lip Service Religion, October 17
TDG	300	1	Think on These Things, October 18
TDG	301	1	Life-Giving Water, October 19
TDG	302	1	How to Face Bereavement, October 20
TDG	303	1	Channels of Blessing, October 21
TDG	304	1	Do Not Doubt, October 22
TDG	305	1	What to Do With Depression, October 23
TDG	306	1	Put Self Out of Sight, October 24
TDG	307	1	Importance of Home Religion, October 25
TDG	308	1	The Final Battle, October 26
TDG	309	1	We Are in the Enemy's Land, October 27
TDG	310	1	Childlike Faith, October 28
TDG	311	1	Spirit-Led Christians, October 29
TDG	312	1	Satan Is Not Dead, October 30
TDG	313	1	Just Rest in the Lord, October 31
TDG	314	1	Know for Yourself, November 1
TDG	315	1	Things Wrought by Prayer, November 2
TDG	316	1	Shining Christians, November 3
TDG	317	1	As for Hidden Treasure, November 4
TDG	318	1	Perfect--As He Is, November 5
TDG	319	1	Dallying With Sin, November 6
TDG	320	1	Heaven in Your Heart, November 7
TDG	321	1	Stewards of God's Grace, November 8
TDG	322	1	Follow on to Know the Lord, November 9
TDG	323	1	Heaven Is Open to Us, November 10
TDG	324	1	All Truth Radiates From Christ, November 11
TDG	325	1	Into All the World, November 12
TDG	326	1	No Time for Strife, November 13
TDG	327	1	Let Christ Be Your Light, November 14
TDG	328	1	Present Advantages and Future Benefits, November 15
TDG	329	1	Our Refuge and Strength, November 16
TDG	330	1	Our Special Work, November 17
TDG	331	1	God Loves the Beautiful, November 18
TDG	332	1	Cheerfulness Glorifies God, November 19
TDG	333	1	A Foretaste of Heaven, November 20
TDG	334	1	Preparing for Immortality, November 21
TDG	335	1	How to Keep Love Alive, November 22
TDG	336	1	Cunningly Devised Fables, November 23
TDG	337	1	Honesty in Business Practices, November 24
TDG	338	1	Hastening Christ's Coming, November 25
TDG	339	1	School--Here and Hereafter, November 26
TDG	340	1	Recipe for Health, November 27
TDG	341	1	The Holy Spirit--The Gift of Gifts, November 28
TDG	342	1	The Ministry of Heavenly Angels, November 29
TDG	343	1	Daily Conversion, November 30
TDG	344	1	Fear to Disobey God, December 1
TDG	345	1	Gifts to Fit Our Need, December 2
TDG	346	1	Thankful for Every Moment, December 3
TDG	347	1	Cure for Covetousness, December 4
TDG	348	1	Light Out of Darkness, December 5
TDG	349	1	Giving as We Receive, December 6
TDG	350	1	Eternal Loss, December 7
TDG	351	1	Obstinacy--Barrier to All Improvement, December 8
TDG	352	1	How God Sees Greatness, December 9
TDG	353	1	Hearts Filled With Christ's Peace, December 10
TDG	354	1	That Your Joy May Be Full, December 11
TDG	355	1	The Lord's Philosophy, December 12
TDG	356	1	The Greatness of Humility, December 13
TDG	357	1	When Truth Controls the Life, December 14
TDG	358	1	Man-Made Yokes, December 15
TDG	359	1	Oddities and Eccentricities, December 16
TDG	360	1	Observing Christmas, December 17
TDG	361	1	Let Christ Guide, December 18
TDG	362	1	Choose You This Day, December 19
TDG	363	1	Gather Up the Fragments, December 20
TDG	364	1	Flickering Lights, December 21
TDG	365	1	Love Fulfills the Law, December 22
TDG	366	1	Water into Wine, December 23
TDG	367	1	How to Be a Success, December 24
TDG	368	1	God's Unspeakable Gift, December 25
TDG	369	1	Unity, December 26
TDG	370	1	Work in Christ's Lines, December 27
TDG	371	1	Under His Wings, December 28
TDG	372	1	Perfect Conformity to God's Will, December 29
TDG	373	1	Walk in the Footsteps of Jesus, December 30
TDG	374	1	Don't Let Anything Sidetrack You, December 31

------------------------Promise of Peace, January 1
TDG	9	1	Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Isaiah 26:3, 4.
TDG	9	2	I wish you a happy new year. Let us put away everything like distrust and want of faith in Jesus forever. Let us commence a life of simple child-like trust, not relying upon feeling but upon faith.
TDG	9	3	Do not dishonor Jesus by doubting His precious promises. He wants us to believe in Him with unwavering faith. There is a class who say, "I believe, I believe," and claim all the promises which are given on condition of obedience. While they claim everything in the promises of God, they do not the works of Christ. God is not honored by any such faith, it is a spurious faith. Then we see a people trying to keep all of God's commandments, but there are many of these who do not come up to their exalted privileges and claim nothing. God's promises are to those who keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight....
TDG	9	4	I have to fight the good fight of faith everyday. I have to put to the stretch the powers of faith and not rely upon feeling, and act as though I knew the Lord heard me, and would answer me and bless me. Faith is not a happy flight of feeling, it is simply taking God at His word and believing, because God said He would do this....
TDG	9	5	I hope you will not become in any way discouraged....
TDG	9	6	God wants you to be free, He wants you to be believing, to be trustful, and just cease to doubt and believe. May God help you.... A new year has opened upon us. Let it be a happy New Year.... Nestle in the sheltering arms of Jesus, and do not wrestle yourself out of His arms. Just believe and praise God and go forward. We are almost home.
TDG	9	7	The Lord is coming. Look up and rejoice, for your redemption draweth nigh. I see in Jesus a compassionate, loving Redeemer, One who can save to the uttermost all who come unto Him. Bear your whole weight on the promises of God. Believe it is your privilege to believe.--Letter 31, January 1, 1887, to Martha Bourdeau, wife of an early minister in Europe.
------------------------With One Accord, January 2
TDG	10	1	He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 1 John 2:6.
TDG	10	2	Many are on the enchanted ground of the enemy. Things of the least importance--foolish social parties, singing, jesting, joking--engross their minds and they serve God with a divided heart. In these things you have one unseen in your midst, helping you--Satan is present, full of hellish exultation. The declaration of Christ, "No man can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24), is unheeded.
TDG	10	3	After the ascension of Christ, the Holy Spirit did not immediately descend. There were ten days after His ascension before the Holy Spirit was given. This time was devoted by the disciples to most earnest preparation for receiving so precious an endowment. The rich treasures of heaven were poured out to them after they had searched their own hearts diligently and had sacrificed every idol. They were before God, humbling their souls, strengthening their faith, confessing their sins. And their hearts were in harmony with one another. "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting" (Acts 2:1, 2). The church needs a similar experience right here at the great heart of the work. [Battle Creek, Michigan, denominational headquarters from 1855 to 1903.] Are we searching our hearts, preparing for the heavenly grace to be received? The Lord is waiting to be gracious.
TDG	10	4	The Lord will reveal Himself to His people, but they must be unitedly engaged in the work of seeking the Lord.... The work which is to be carried forward at this time is a most important one. It is a life and death question....
TDG	10	5	Shall the enemy [be allowed], right at this solemn time, to bring in a condition of things--of diversion and pleasure--to absorb the mind and fill it with vain, trifling thoughts that have no place for God, eternity, or heaven?--Manuscript 38, 1890, diary, Battle Creek, Michigan, January 2, 1890.
------------------------Next Door to Heaven, January 3
TDG	11	1	For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20.
TDG	11	2	Work, and watch, and pray for souls as they that must give an account. This year, try the Lord's prescribed remedy for evil. Let every man do that which the Lord requires him to do, looking unto Jesus, who is the owner of every soul....
TDG	11	3	Let small companies assemble together in the evening or early morning to study the Bible for themselves. Let them have a season of prayer that they may be strengthened and enlightened and sanctified by the Holy Spirit....
TDG	11	4	If you will do this, a great blessing will come to you from the One who gave His whole life to service, the One who redeemed you by His own life. You must have the power of the Holy Spirit, else you cannot be an overcomer. What testimonies you should bear of the loving acquaintance you have made with your fellow workers in these precious seasons when seeking the blessing of God. Let each tell his experience in simple words....
TDG	11	5	The work of every believer is aggressive. It is a daily warfare. Christ is saying ... "Ye are my witnesses" (Isaiah 43:10). Think it; speak it; act it. Heaven is just next door. Open the door heavenward and close the door earthward.... Will you hear His voice and open the door of the heart to Jesus? Will you love Him who gave His life for you?
TDG	11	6	Let little companies meet together to study the Scriptures. You will lose nothing by this, but will gain much. Angels of God will be in your gathering, and as you feed upon the Bread of Life, you will receive spiritual sinew and muscle. You will be feeding, as it were, upon the leaves of the tree of life. By this means only can you maintain your integrity. Fidelity to Jesus Christ will ensure a most precious reward. Let each soul strive for eternal life, acknowledging Christ in word and spirit. He has pledged His word that He will acknowledge you and me, gladly, heartily, joyously, before His heavenly Father. Is not this worth striving for? See what you can do personally to be true to principle, to maintain uncorruptness in every phase of your life; and you will behold His glory.--Letter 2, January 3, 1900, to Brother and Sister Sisley.
------------------------Cultivating the Soil, January 4
TDG	12	1	For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations. Isaiah 61:11.
TDG	12	2	The living oracles of God, "It is written," are the leaves of the tree of life, which human beings are to eat in order to gain spiritual life. As we eat the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, they become unto us eternal life. "The words that I speak unto you," He said, "they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). The restoring, vital current from Christ heals the wounds that sin has made.
TDG	12	3	"What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear; What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer."
TDG	12	4	Whatever course others pursue, we are individually to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Why?--Because it is God that worketh in us, to will and to do of His good pleasure. Yes, for His own name's glory, He works upon the minds and hearts of human beings, who are of great value in His sight, if they will allow Him to work.
TDG	12	5	When man fell, God commenced to work to defeat the plans of Satan. God works in man. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9). In the beginning the Lord enjoined upon man the cultivation of the earth. This work was made much harder because of the transgression of the law of God. By transgressing, man worked against his own present and eternal good. The earth was cursed because through disobedience man gave Satan opportunity to sow in the human heart the seeds of evil. The ground that in the beginning produced only good began to produce tares, and their growth called for continual warfare.
TDG	12	6	The cultivation of the soil is a school in which man may learn spiritual lessons. As he cultivates the soil, man is to see reflected as in a mirror the work of God upon the human soul. Divine culture brings perfection. If in connection with God the work is carried forward, the human agent, through Christ, will day by day gain victory and honor in the battle. Through the grace given, he will overcome, and will be placed on vantage ground.--Letter 5, January 4, 1900, to Brother Colcord.
------------------------Thou God Seest Me, January 5
TDG	13	1	Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4:13.
TDG	13	2	The triumph of the truth is possible only when the workers carry with them an abiding consciousness of the presence of God. They should ever realize that there is a faithful witness to every word, every transaction, in the home life or among the people. In every plan devised, in every effort made, Christ is to direct. In every council the members should speak and act as if the curtain were withdrawn, and they saw themselves transacting business in the presence of the heavenly universe. For this is the fact in the case; all heaven is looking upon the workers. In planning for aggressive warfare, let not self be made prominent; it must be hidden, wholly hidden, in Christ....
TDG	13	3	Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, and those things that cannot be shaken will remain.
TDG	13	4	The Lord requires our undivided affections. If men are not wholehearted, they will fail in the day of test and proving and trial. When the enemy shall put his forces in array against him, and the battle seems to go hard, at the very time when all the strength of intellect and capability, and all the tact of wise generalship, is needed to repulse the enemy, those who are half-hearted will turn their weapons against their own soldiers; they weaken the hands that should be strong for warfare. God is testing all who have a knowledge of the truth to see if they can be depended on to fight the battles of the Lord when hard pressed by principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world and wicked spirits in high places. Perilous times are before us, and our only safety is in having the converting power of God every day--yielding ourselves fully to Him to do His will, and walk in the light of His countenance (see 1 Peter 2:9).
TDG	13	5	Now when we are just on the borders of the promised land, let none repeat the sin of the unfaithful spies. They acknowledged that the land they went up to see was a good land, but they declared that the inhabitants were strong, the giants were there, and that they themselves were in comparison as grasshoppers in the sight of the people and in their own sight. All the difficulties were magnified into insurmountable obstacles.... Thus they leavened the whole congregation with their unbelief.--Manuscript 6, January 5, 1892, "Work in Christ's Lines."
------------------------The Conflict Over, January 6
TDG	14	1	For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matthew 5:18.
TDG	14	2	When Christ entered upon His campaign, Satan met Him and contested every inch of ground, exerting his utmost powers to conquer Him. Much was involved in this controversy. Intense interests were at stake. The questions to be answered were: "Is God's law imperfect, in need of being amended or abrogated? or is it immutable? Is God's government stable? or is it in need of changes?" Not only before those living in the city of God, but before the inhabitants of all the heavenly universe, were these questions to be answered....
TDG	14	3	From the manger to the cross Satan followed the Son of God. Temptations beat upon Him like a tempest. But the more fierce the conflict, the more familiar He became with the temptations wherewith man is beset, and the better prepared He was to succor the tempted.
TDG	14	4	The severity of the trial through which Christ passed was proportionate to the value of the object to be gained or lost by His success or failure. Not merely the interests of one world were involved. This world was the battlefield, but all the worlds that God has created were affected by the result of the conflict....Satan sought to make it appear that he was working for the liberty of the universe. Even while Christ was on the cross, the enemy was determined to make his arguments so varied, so deceptive, so insidious, that all would be convinced that God's law was tyrannical. He himself laid every scheme, planned every evil, inflamed every mind to bring affliction on Christ. He himself instigated the false accusations against One who had done only good. He himself inspired the cruel deeds that added to the suffering of the Son of God--the pure, the holy, the innocent.
TDG	14	5	By this course of action Satan has forged a chain by which he himself will be bound. The heavenly universe will bear witness to the justice of God in punishing him. Heaven itself saw what heaven would be, if he were in it....
TDG	14	6	Not merely in the minds of a few finite creatures in this world, but in the minds of all the inhabitants of the heavenly universe, has the immutability of God's law been established.... With one voice they extolled God as righteous, merciful, self-denying, just.--Manuscript 1, January 6, 1902, , "God's Justice."
------------------------Appreciating the Promises, January 7
TDG	15	1	Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men. Ephesians 6:6, 7.
TDG	15	2	Let us in our lifework strive constantly to answer the prayer of Christ, that we may be united with one another and with Him. Let us always before undertaking anything, ask ourselves the question, "Will this please my Saviour? Is it in harmony with the will of God?" The consciousness that we are bringing the Christ-life into the daily experience will give a sacred dignity to the everyday duties. All that we do will be done with faithfulness, that the Master may be honored. Thus shall we show to the world what Christianity can accomplish for sinful human beings, giving them constantly increasing efficiency for service in this life, preparing them for the higher life in the world to come.--Manuscript 1, January 7, 1903, "An Appeal."
TDG	15	3	I praise the Lord. This morning I slept until four o'clock. There was not the usual awakening through the night. This is a great blessing to me, for which I am thankful. I have been carrying a heavy burden so long as I consider the spiritual condition of the people of God, moving so far below their privilege. I lie awake pleading with my heavenly Saviour to come to our help and raise up messengers that shall bear a message decidedly to the point. "Thy word is truth" (John 17:17). I long for physical strength and power that out of the abundance of the heart moved by the Holy Spirit the mouth may speak.
TDG	15	4	Oft in the vision of the night I am speaking to large companies and in strong appeals I am repeatedly urging upon the companies before me, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:1-4).
TDG	15	5	What a rich promise is this presented to us! Let us then show that we appreciate these promises and work to the point to be fully in earnest and to be thankful for such assurance. It is for our good and the good of all with whom we shall associate in all our public labors that we shall reveal that we are seeking those things that are above.--Manuscript 173, January 7, 1905, diary.
------------------------Christian Humility, January 8
TDG	16	1	Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. James 4:8.
TDG	16	2	The Lord bears long with men, and when they manifest a determination to follow their own judgments, the Lord allows them to do so. I have been made to see the weakness and ignorance of fallen man, even in his best estate. As man goes deeper and deeper in his studies, improving in learning the will and ways of the Lord, he sees more of his own ignorance, thus revealing that he has made decided progress from the beginning.
TDG	16	3	The nearer the Christian lives to God, the more he advances in divine illumination of mind. He has more distinct sense of his own littleness, discerns his defects of character, and sees his duty in the light in which God presents it. The more closely he draws to Jesus, the more he has a near and clear sense of his own defects which had before escaped his notice, and he sees the necessity of humbling himself under the mighty hand of God. If lifted up it will not be because he lifts and exalts himself, but because the Lord exalts him. Having his eye fixed upon the purity and perfection of Christ Jesus, and acknowledging and obeying God in all his ways, he is not blinded to his own failures and imperfections. When his deportment in the eyes of men is unblamable and irreprovable, God reads the intents and purposes of the heart.
TDG	16	4	Christian humility is a wonderful grace--the very antidote to the apostasy of Satan, which has unholy ambition and every delusion that he can frame. The grace of humility through Christ Jesus will make an imperfect man discern his imperfections and make him meet for the inheritance of the saints, where God is all and in all....
TDG	16	5	Has not the Lord reproved your course? ...You have entrusted capabilities that may be improved greatly and be made efficacious under the discipline of God. Then His righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rereward. "Without me," says Christ, "ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). If you set at naught His counsel, then you are in danger.--Letter 21c, January 8, 1892,.
------------------------Beautiful Garments, January 9
TDG	17	1	Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. Isaiah 52:1.
TDG	17	2	During the night I ...passed through an experience similar to that which I had at Salamanca, New York, two years ago. When I awoke from my first short sleep, light seemed to be all around me, the room seemed to be full of heavenly angels. The Spirit of God was upon me, and my heart was full to overflowing. O what love was burning in my heart! I was exclaiming aloud, "Lord Jesus, I love Thee; Thou knowest that I love Thee. My heavenly Father, I praise Thee with my whole heart. 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life' (John 3:16). 'The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day' (Proverbs 4:18). Jesus, my Redeemer, the Representative of the Father, I put my trust in Thee."
TDG	17	3	My peace was like a river, I seemed to be shut in with God, in sweet communion with Him through my waking and sleeping hours. What high and holy privileges seemed to be mine in the love of Jesus, His life and His guardianship....
TDG	17	4	Oh, why does not the church of Christ arise, and put on her beautiful garments! Why does she not shine? The great reason of such feeble Christianity is that those who claim to believe the truth have so little knowledge of Christ, and so low an estimate of what He will be to them, and what they may be to Him. We have the most solemn, weighty truths ever committed to mortals.
TDG	17	5	Were our words, our thoughts, our actions, more pure and elevated, more in accordance with the holy faith we profess, we should view our responsibilities in a far different light. How solemn, how sacred, they would appear! We would have a deeper sense of our obligations, and should make it our constant aim to perfect holiness in the fear of God. Earthly, temporal things would be subordinate to the heavenly and eternal....
TDG	17	6	I am so grateful for the privilege of being connected with God in any way. I feel highly honored. All I ask is that the Lord in His great mercy and lovingkindness will give me strength to use in His service.--Letter 20a, January 9, 1893, to Capt. C. Eldridge.
------------------------Antidote for Apathy, January 10
TDG	18	1	For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16.
TDG	18	2	There is no defect in God's plan for the salvation of men. If the gospel is not to every soul the power of God unto salvation, it is not because the gospel is at fault, but because men are not practical believers, practical receivers of the grace and righteousness of Christ.... The professed believers do not take Christ as their personal Saviour, but follow Jesus a great way off. One reason for this lack of personal religion is that they have not been educated in these vital principles.
TDG	18	3	Another cause for the apathy and indifference in our churches is that the younger members have not been patiently, perseveringly taught how to work as faithful soldiers in Christ's army....
TDG	18	4	Many have accepted the truth without digging down deep to understand its foundation principles, and when it is opposed, they forget the arguments and evidences that sustain it. It should be impressed upon all that true and abiding knowledge can be gained only by earnest labor and persevering energy. Were the minds of the people brought under discipline by thorough searching of the Scriptures, there would be hundreds converted to the truth where there is one today....
TDG	18	5	Many are as ignorant as the very heathen in regard to the way in which a sinner can come to God and be justified before Him. They have no excuse for their ignorance; for the inspired oracles declare, "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple" (Psalm 119:130). "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10)....
TDG	18	6	A religious experience that is not founded in Christ and Him alone is worthless.... Men of intellectual powers need a clear, scriptural presentation of the plan of salvation. Let the truth in its simplicity and power be presented to them. If this does not hold the attention and arouse the interest, they never can be interested in heavenly and divine things. In every congregation there are souls who are unsatisfied. Every Sabbath they want to hear something definite explaining how they can be saved, how they are to become Christians. The important thing for them to know is, How can a sinner be justified before God?--Letter 23a, January 10, 1893, , to Brother E. H. Gates.
------------------------Reconciliation First, January 11
TDG	19	1	Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Matthew 5:23, 24.
TDG	19	2	When our duty is so plainly marked out, why do so many church members go contrary to a plain "Thus saith the Lord," and speak of their difficulties to those who know nothing in regard to them or in regard to those whom these difficulties concern? Jesus the great Teacher, has told us what our duty is. Our gifts, our prayers are not acceptable to God while we leave this duty undone, and let the poison of envy, evil-surmising, and jealousy, take possession of our souls, and spoil our union and happiness. Oh, how much unhappiness would be spared, and how many evil thoughts would be quenched, if believers would take up the work that Christ has said must be done to prevent evil thinking and evil speaking.
TDG	19	3	A few words of explanation might change entirely the views of those who have been at variance, cherishing bitter feelings. We cannot be obedient to the law of God until we put out of the mind all differences, until we allow our hearts to be softened and subdued by the Spirit of Christ. Our prayers are hindered by our pride of heart, by our refusal to confess faults and to remove wrong impressions.
TDG	19	4	We are to make every effort in our power to remove every stumbling block from before the feet of our neighbor or our brother. My son [Edson], make every concession that it is possible for you to make. Do not leave on a suffering mind a misconception that an advance in humiliation and tenderhearted interest would remove. Satan will be sure to come to that mind with the temptation to misconstrue and to make a mountain out of a molehill. A mind that easily stumbles over hurt feelings will conjure up mistaken ideas of all kinds.
TDG	19	5	The Lord Jesus has given special directions as to what each of His "little children" is to do. When we pray, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us," do we do our part to answer this prayer? ...If our brother has ought against us, we are to leave on the altar the gift we have brought to God, and be reconciled to our brother. Then we are to come and offer our gift. This is the only way in which we can keep in our hearts the peace of God.--Letter 12, January 11, 1903, , to Edson White.
------------------------No Sleeping on the Job, January 12
TDG	20	1	Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. Ezekiel 3:17.
TDG	20	2	God has a position of duty for each one of you. He requires you to be not only faithful sentinels, but thorough workmen. Never become uninterested, never careless and inactive; never sleep at your post, and never fail to perform your exact duty in accordance with your position of trust.
TDG	20	3	There is need of alacrity, promptness, even earnest energy, deep interest, and unwavering fidelity. You should learn to spring to the work at the call of duty. How long will be our allotted time to work, we know not. This is a secret with God, and for wise purposes, withheld from us. But what time we have to labor, let us employ it as those who must give an account. Oh, think earnestly, and in view of eternity, how much there is to be done in our world to arouse the mind of the careless, inattentive, and ignorant to become acquainted with the laws of God, and make them feel the necessity for their own good and God's glory, of obedience to these laws. For transgression brings, not only great suffering, but loss of life in this world, and immortal life in the next world. You should consider this matter thoroughly, and feel how much the bliss or woe of men and women is dependent upon you.
TDG	20	4	Faithfulness on your part may save many souls, while negligence and carelessness may result in the loss to your fellow creatures of both the present and the future life. You can prevent much misery and much transgression of God's law by your fidelity, by being wide awake at your post of duty.... We must arise as one, and in the power and strength of God, open our senses to the demands of the present time....
TDG	20	5	Cry to God in faith, that He may pour out His light and His grace through the channels which He has appointed for good to those who are suffering for want of knowledge. While you pray and watch with earnest diligence to suppress wrong and stand guard against dissipation and fashionable errors, lay hold by living faith of the strength which may be yours to bless all your labors. You may gather light, knowledge, and power; and your influence may be diffusive.... Every responsibility you bear will fortify and strengthen you to make renewed efforts and push forward the work successfully.--Letter 4a, January 12, 1879, to two young physicians at Battle Creek Sanitarium.
------------------------Agents for Heaven, January 13
TDG	21	1	Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. 1 Peter 3:8.
TDG	21	2	What great need there is of cultivating tenderness and gentleness. None should be ashamed to manifest a tender, compassionate spirit for those who err; for those who think they make no mistakes are far from being without fault before God. No one need to think that the manifestation of compassion is something for which he need be ashamed....
TDG	21	3	When a crisis comes in the life of any soul, and another attempts to give advice, that advice and counsel will have only the weight of influence for good that their example and spirit of the adviser has accumulated for him. It is the consistent life, the revelation of a sincere, Christlike interest for the soul in peril, that will make counsel effectual to persuade and win into safe paths. Those who are quick to censure others, who speak words that cut and bruise the already wounded soul, are doing Satan's work, and are laborers with the prince of darkness....
TDG	21	4	Let the tempted and tried souls remember that when chastisement comes upon them, it is the Lord who would save them from death. Let the souls to whom reproof comes, remember that "as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten" (Revelation 3:19).
TDG	21	5	The human agent, imbued with the Spirit of Christ, will watch for souls as they that must give an account. The claims of Christ are upon us, and we must understand our duty, and do it in the fear of God, with an eye single to His glory, and not prove unfaithful. Let no thought of self or of natural feelings be cherished to keep the lips silent. Speak, and be not afraid. With the heart full of tenderness and love for souls, warn, exhort, and entreat.
TDG	21	6	Never cease to labor for a soul while there is one ray of hope. Your words may cut to the soul. Oh, then be cautious, and clothe them with the love and tenderness of Jesus. Soften every accent with love and sympathy.... As you deal with others, as you judge others, so the Lord will judge and deal with you. Let the agent who claims to be a child of God, practice the lessons of Christ. If he is compelled to wound, let him feel the duty of healing as compulsory upon him. The truth is ever to be spoken in love, with the Spirit of Christ abiding in the soul.--Letter 70, January 13, 1894, to "Dear Brethren in Responsible Positions in the Review and Herald Office."
------------------------Have You Asked? January 14
TDG	22	1	The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:25, 26.
TDG	22	2	The Lord would have us ask that we may receive. There are the heavenly messengers waiting for the sincere petition and they draw nigh to the hungry, thirsting soul. Then let your whole souls go out after God. Wait on the Lord. The heavenly messengers will empty themselves into the golden tubes flowing into the golden bowls to enlighten others. If you ask believing you will receive. Never, never be destitute of the golden oil, for this will keep your lamps burning.
TDG	22	3	Believe ye receive the things ye ask for and ye shall have them. Come with humble heart, but presenting the promise. Then believe you do receive. The name, the all-prevailing name of our Saviour, is our assurance and our boldness. God presents Himself to us as a hearer of prayer. Keep on right ground with God, so that you may have the witness of the Spirit that you are one of His elect and faithful, trusting ones.
TDG	22	4	Never allow Satan to discourage you. Trust yourself not in the hands of M_____, but in the hands of God. Practice prayer; cultivate humility and meekness; but commit the keeping of your soul to God. Depend in all that you do on the Holy Spirit, for He is our strength, our efficiency. The Lord is ever training us through difficulties. Pray, pray; be instant in prayer. Commit everything to God in prayer--your business cares, your disappointments, your joys, your fears.
TDG	22	5	Do this, N_____, and you will have a sense of God's presence, and thankfulness and gratitude will flow forth from your heart and lips in vocal praise. Your heart will be mellow, and you will make melody to God in your heart....
TDG	22	6	Rise to a high standard. Do not indulge in cheap talk, but let the soul go forth in expressions from your lips of the love of Jesus.
TDG	22	7	Let us always be sober, reverential, in dealing with the Word of God. There is an eternal consequence in our rightly employing our talents of speech, our talents of voice, and every qualification given us to exercise and improve. We are to be pure in speech, holy in all manner of conversation, drawing nigh to God and He drawing nigh unto us.--Letter 166, January 14, 1897, to a worker couple.
------------------------Help Is Promised, January 15
TDG	23	1	Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Jeremiah 23:29.
TDG	23	2	The Lord desires His children to act well their part, and be at peace one with another through Christ, the peace-giver. When Christ abides in the heart, the powers of the whole being work in unity and harmony. The whole individual person's reason, and the affections, knowing how to act their parts, labor together unitedly. Like a king upon his throne, reason rules the working machinery.
TDG	23	3	It may be that much work needs to be done in your character building, that you are a rough stone which must be squared and polished before it is fit to fill a place in God's temple. You need not be surprised if with hammer and chisel God cuts away your defects of character, until you are prepared to fill the place He has ready for you. No human being can accomplish this work. Only by God can it be done. And be assured that He will not strike one useless blow. His every blow is struck in love, for your eternal good and happiness. He knows your infirmities, and works to restore, not to destroy.
TDG	23	4	Why do we turn from divine wisdom to human wisdom? God sees the dishonor we do Him. He knows that in humanity we shall find no solace for our woe, and He pities us because we are so needy, yet so unwilling to make Him our confidant, our burden-bearer. He sees human beings slighting the love and mercy provided for them, and He says sadly, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life" (John 5:40).
TDG	23	5	Our distrust is an insult to the One who has done so much for us. He will never neglect those who come to Him. Of the poor, fainting soul, tired of looking to humanity only to be betrayed and forgotten, Christ says, "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me" (Isaiah 27:5).
TDG	23	6	Christ desires to say of His people as He said of Israel of old, "And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:14).--Manuscript 5, January 15, 1901, "A Very Present Help."
------------------------Powerhouse of the Universe, January 16
TDG	24	1	Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10.
TDG	24	2	Jesus Christ is the world's greatest Teacher. I have tested and proved the blessed evidence of this. He has made me His messenger, to communicate great spiritual truths to many thousands.... How greatly I desire so to present His instruction that many will be led to Him. I never question His leading, and I know that I am sustained by the One who bade His disciples go forth and proclaim the gospel message, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20).
TDG	24	3	Since 1844 I have been engaged in public labor. I am always strengthened by the Lord. I realize that a power from above is imparted to me, giving me physical, mental, and spiritual efficiency. I have the full assurance that Christ gives me His sustaining grace and the evidence that He is the light of the world. I acknowledge His power. I desire to do all I possibly can for Him while I live. I want, in calm, perfect trust, to commit the keeping of my soul to God against that day. When my work here is ended, I shall rest. Sleeping in Jesus has no terror for me. In the morning of the resurrection I shall see Him as He is....
TDG	24	4	Let us be sure that our own souls are right with God, so that the Lord can teach us and guide us, and reveal His will to us. Please consider these things. And let us be much with God in prayer. The Lord is our helper and strength and fortress. If we walk humbly with God, and fear and glorify His name, He will be in our thoughts and hearts, and we shall become assimilated to His image. Let us diligently search our own hearts, and obtain that wisdom that God alone can give.
TDG	24	5	Let us remember that doubts are dangerous. If entertained, they lead to unbelief.... All our people need now to seek for the impartation of the Holy Spirit. Enter into no contention, but put away dissension and strife, and seek to answer the prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John. I beg of you to pray, pray, with heart and soul and voice.--Letter 58, January 16, 1906, to Brethren Washburn, Prescott, Daniells, Colcord.
------------------------The Measure of Christianity, January 17
TDG	25	1	Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 5:13.
TDG	25	2	Those who are placed in positions of trust must have the authority of action, but they are never to use this authority as a power to refuse help to the needy and helpless. It is never to be exercised to discourage or depress one struggling soul. Let those to whom have been given positions of influence ever remember that God desires them to carry out the mind of Christ....
TDG	25	3	True godliness is measured by the work done. Profession is nothing; position is nothing; a character like the character of Christ is the evidence we are to bear that God has sent His Son into the world. Those who profess to be Christians, yet do not act as Christ would were He in their place, greatly injure the cause of God. They misrepresent their Saviour, and are standing under false colors.
TDG	25	4	The true disciple, in whose heart Christ abides, shows forth to the world Christ's love for humanity. He is God's helping hand. The glow of spiritual health thrills his whole being as he receives from the Saviour grace to give to others....
TDG	25	5	Pure and undefiled religion is not a sentiment, but a doing of works of love and mercy. This religion is necessary to health and happiness. It enters the polluted soul-temple, and with a scourge drives out the sinful intruder. Taking the throne, it consecrates all by its presence, illuminating the heart with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. It opens the windows of the soul heavenward, letting in the sunshine of God's love. With it comes serenity and composure. Physical, mental, and moral strength increase, because the atmosphere of heaven, as a living, active agency, fills the soul....
TDG	25	6	When Christians do not reveal Christ, of what value are they? Are they not like savorless salt, "good for nothing"? But when they reveal in their lives the saving properties of the truth, poor, sin-hardened souls are not left to perish in corruption. Good works are seen; for the living principles of righteousness cannot be hidden. The gospel acted is like salt which contains all its savor. It is powerful in the saving of souls.--Letter 7, January 17, 1901, to "Brethren Who Occupy Positions of Trust."
------------------------Do All You Can Do, January 18
TDG	26	1	Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 1 Corinthians 12:4-6.
TDG	26	2	It is not always the men apparently in possession of the greatest capabilities who have the most success in some lines of the work. The Lord uses so-called less capable men. They may not be eloquent, but if they are connected with God, He will richly bless them. Their rugged, solid words, coming directly from the heart, are of great value, and are appreciated by the Lord.
TDG	26	3	Let not those connected with the Master's service look to men of larger abilities to do their work for them. God stands behind the one who does his best. Let every worker rely on His power, and He will impress the hearts of those for whom he labors. Great good may be accomplished by the sincere, humble worker who realizes that success does not depend on appearances, but on the One who has given him his commission....
TDG	26	4	God desires a different mold placed on His work. Let men go forth to labor, trusting in the Lord, and He will go with them, convicting and converting souls. One worker may be a ready speaker, another a ready writer, another may have the gift of sincere, earnest, fervent prayer, another the gift of singing. Another may have special power to explain the word of God with clearness. And each gift is to become a power for God because He works with the laborer. To one God gives the word of wisdom, to another knowledge, to another faith. But all are to work under the same Head. The diversity of gifts leads to a diversity of operations, "but it is the same God which worketh all in all" (1 Corinthians 12:6).
TDG	26	5	Let no man despise the supposed lesser gifts. Let all go to work. Let no one fold his hands in unbelief because he thinks he can do no mighty work. Cease looking at self. Look at your Leader. In sincerity, meekness, and love, do what you can....
TDG	26	6	God will certainly bless wholehearted workers. If the Lord chooses your feet to do His work, give your feet to Him. With the feet you may hunt for souls.--Letter 1, January 18, 1902, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell, who were engaged in city evangelism.
------------------------One Day at a Time, January 19
TDG	27	1	Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Psalm 62:8.
TDG	27	2	What a privilege that we sinful mortals have the privilege of speaking with God. In the closet, when walking the streets, when engaged in labor, our hearts can be ascending to God for counsel, our souls drawn out after God, a breath from heaven. All these soul longings, God will hear. All our troubles we may take to God. His hand of infinite love is moved to supply our needs. How thankful I am that we have only one day to live at a time. One day to keep our souls stayed upon, one day to watch, one day to progress in the spiritual life and thus our days may be fruitful, precious days to us.
TDG	27	3	We have a soldier's duty to perform, victories to gain, for we must not be ignorant of Satan's devices. We pray and then watch lest Satan shall steal upon us and make us forget our need of prayer, our need of vigilance and watching thereunto.
TDG	27	4	In the Christian warfare, unless there is a sharp eye on the adversary and a sharp eye on ourselves, we shall be led into Satan's snare. Our security depends on the state of our heart. God help us to take heed to ourselves or we shall certainly lose heaven. Little departures from right, little indulgences, seem a trifling thing at present, but Satan will lead us on a track that will separate us from righteousness and from God. We want not our ways but God's ways. We want to strive with all the powers of being to bruise Satan under our feet and be sure that we are right with God, that we have a clear title to our immortal inheritance.
TDG	27	5	We may have to be stripped of everything before we will come in humble submission to be led, guided, and controlled by the will of God. We want humble, trusting, childlike confidence, meekness, lowliness, no self-confidence, but humble trust in Jesus. What traits of character are we cultivating? That which will be enduring as eternity? Is our time spent in busy activity, but our souls unblessed and our heavenly Father not glorified? Eternal life is worth a lifelong, persevering, untiring effort and we cannot afford to make haphazard work. When our soul's highest interest is concerned, we cannot afford to keep Jesus in the outer courts, away from our souls.--Letter 81, January 19, 1887, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Heaven on My Side, January 20
TDG	28	1	The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Matthew 6:22.
TDG	28	2	Satan's work today is that of a deceiver and an accuser. The Lord declares him to be an accuser of the brethren day and night. By long practice Satan has become well skilled in his trade of fault-finding, and will educate every man whom he can use to unite with him in this work. By him many are being deceived, and are moving blindfolded into paths of Satan's opening.
TDG	28	3	The central power of the earth is a demon. His throne is in the midst of the world, where should have been seen the throne of God. He has been patronized by the church, for the church has been conformed to the world, and is living in transgression of the holy law of God.
TDG	28	4	Christ gave Himself to ransom man from the power of the destroyer. By becoming the sin-Bearer He broke the power of Satan. He says, "I will become the Center of the redeemed world."
TDG	28	5	"All holy agencies," saith God, "will I set in operation to oppose the armies of the invisible foe, to destroy his power. The eternal agency of the Holy Spirit shall rescue man from the effects of sin, and restore in him the image of God." ...
TDG	28	6	The Lord will not let His human treasure with Christ, its Head, go into the enemy's ranks without every effort made in their behalf. Their only hope is to do the commandments of God. This is the gospel which has been sounding down along the lines of our time.
TDG	28	7	To all Christ sends the invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). For ages this invitation, Come, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, has been ringing in clear tones above the world's confusion and trouble. God will not give man up to his own way and will, to be lost, without a determined effort to recover him. The aim of Christ's ministry, the scope of His far-reaching mercy and power, is without bounds.--Letter 78, January 20, 1900, to Brother and Sister Haysmer.
------------------------Brightest and Best, January 21
TDG	29	1	And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you. Isaiah 46:4.
TDG	29	2	I feel anxious that in our old age we who have known the truth for so long shall become mellow in spirit and in our methods of labor; that we shall understand the simple, yet important and comprehensive truths of the third angel's message; and that we shall receive these truths in the love of God, and impart them to others....
TDG	29	3	Every day put on Christ. Hold the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end. The Lord has not forsaken you. He desires you to grow in grace, to increase in ability to help the people. But if you interest them, you must speak right to the point, and you must stop before you think you are half through.
TDG	29	4	I cannot endure the thought of any of our aged believers decreasing in influence and efficiency. The Lord wants you to cooperate with Him in making all you can of yourself. If you will unite willingly with Him in this work, your last days will be your brightest and best....
TDG	29	5	Open the windows of your soul heavenward and close them earthward. Let the rays of the Sun of Righteousness shine into the chambers of the mind. To cultivate the meekness and lowliness of Christ, to wear His yoke and bear His burdens, this is the lesson before you, and it concerns you and all with whom you are brought in contact. Cultivate the heavenly virtues. Purify your soul from all defilement. Obtain a fitness to be received as a member of the royal family.
TDG	29	6	Instruction from the Word of God, right amid the cares of building, will keep the minds of the workers sweetened with grace, and will help them to accomplish their work. As the Lord impresses their minds, they will catch the most precious ideas from one another. Angels of God are on the [Sydney] Sanitarium ground. Then let the workers speak words that will be a blessing to those around them. Act your part, my brother, in the love of the truth. Have faith in the Scriptures as the Word of the living God.--Letter 11, January 21, 1901, to Dr. M. G. Kellogg, working in Australia.
------------------------Look at the Pattern, January 22
TDG	30	1	Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105.
TDG	30	2	The worker for God is not left without a pattern. He is given an example which, if followed, will make him a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. He is bidden to glorify God by carrying out unselfish aims and purposes. The Lord understands man's nature, and He holds up before him the laws of the kingdom of heaven, which he is to honor and obey. He places the Bible in his hands, as the guidebook that will show him what is truth, and what he must do in order to inherit eternal life. This book draws the attention from temporal interests to spiritual realities. It tells man, fallen and sinful though he is, that he can become a prince and a king in the heavenly courts, an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ.
TDG	30	3	God sees how strong man's inclination is to accumulate earthly treasure, and in the highways and byways of life His voice is heard saying, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36). "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:19-21).
TDG	30	4	God's messengers are commissioned to take up the very work that Christ did while on this earth. They are to give themselves to every line of ministry that He carried on. With earnestness and sincerity they are to tell men of the unsearchable riches and the immortal treasures of heaven. They are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They are to repeat Heaven's offers of peace and pardon. They are to point to the gates of the city of God, saying, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14)....
TDG	30	5	He expects everyone to work for Him according to his several ability. Man's activity is not to be repressed, but sanctified and rightly directed.--Manuscript 27, January 22, 1907, "The New England Sanitarium."
------------------------Heavenly Dividends, January 23
TDG	31	1	Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Psalm 60:4.
TDG	31	2	See that the truth is inscribed on your banner at all times and in all places....
TDG	31	3	As a nation the Jews refused to receive Christ. He had led them in their travels, as their invisible, infinite Leader. He had communicated His will to them, but in the test they rejected Him, their only hope, their only salvation, and God rejected them. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). To all who receive and obey the conditions, God's gifts flow steadily, without repentance, without recall. God has imparted His gifts to man to be used, not according to hereditary or fanciful ideas, not according to natural impulses or inclination, but according to His will....
TDG	31	4	Those who feared God were to think for themselves. They were no longer to leave other men to do their thinking. Their minds were no longer to be chained down to erroneous maxims, theories, and doctrines. Ignorance and vice, crime and violence, oppression in high places, must be unveiled. The Light of life had come to this world to shine amid the moral darkness. The gospel would now be proclaimed among the poor, the oppressed. Those in humble life would be given opportunity to understand the real qualifications necessary for entrance into the kingdom of God.
TDG	31	5	And today men from the lower ranks are to take their place in obeying the command, "Go forward." By faith they are to meet difficulties, not daring to yield to the strife and babble of unbelieving tongues. They are to press forward from one degree of success to another, praying always, and exercising that faith which answers prayer....
TDG	31	6	The agencies of God are many! But all those who are willing to work according to God's plan are included in the words, "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9). God's servants are to move so that no spiritual gift shall be lost. Their will is to be held in abeyance, and when God's time comes, the rod will blossom. What form the work will take no one can know, but God's servants are to be minutemen, able to understand the ways and will of their Leader.--Letter 8, January 23, 1899, to Dr. J. H. Kellogg, medical superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
------------------------Perfect in Him, January 24
TDG	32	1	Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
TDG	32	2	God requires moral perfection in all. Those who have been given light and opportunities should, as God's stewards, aim for perfection, and never, never lower the standard of righteousness to accommodate inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong. Christ took upon Him our human nature, and lived our life, to show us that we may be like Him by partaking of the divine nature. We may be holy, as Christ was holy in human nature. Why then are there so many disagreeable characters in the world? It is because they do not suspect that their disagreeable ways and rough, impolite speech is the result of an unholy heart....
TDG	32	3	It is the fragrance of our love to our fellow men that reveals our love for God. It is patience in service that brings rest to the soul. It is through humble, diligent, faithful toilers that the welfare of Israel is promoted. God upholds and strengthens the one who is willing to learn Christ's way....
TDG	32	4	All right inventions and improvements have their source in Him who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. Whatever we do, in whatever department of the work we are placed, God desires to refine and ennoble us. He desires to control man's mind, that he may do perfect work.
TDG	32	5	The delicate touch of the physician's hand, his power over nerve and muscle, his knowledge of the delicate organism of the body, is the wisdom of divine power, to be used in behalf of suffering humanity. The skill with which the carpenter uses the hammer, the strength with which the blacksmith makes the anvil ring, comes from God. He has entrusted men with powers, and He expects that they will look to Him for counsel. Thus they may use His gifts with unerring aptitude, testifying to God's glory that they are workers together with Him. Thus they purify their souls by sanctification of the Spirit through the truth. In their experience, the words of Christ are fulfilled, The pure in heart shall see God (see Matthew 5:8).
TDG	32	6	All should feel that they are working to one great end. The work in every department is God's, and those who do that work with exactness, without blunder, represent God's perfection.--Letter 9, January 24, 1899, to those occupying important positions in the General Conference.
------------------------Guidon of God, January 25
TDG	33	1	For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Mark 13:34.
TDG	33	2	A great work is before us; it is not our own devising or planning. All heaven is interested in this work, and those who engage in it must stand under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel. God would have us stand with our faces to the front, watching every movement of our Leader and prepared to obey orders. To every man He has given His work. God has given men and women faculties that are not to be wasted in idle contemplation and fitful emotion, but employed in decided action. Our abilities are not to be absorbed in abstraction, and neither are they to be used in idle bustle. Everything in the outside world is stirred by a power from beneath. Those who know the truth must be filled with an inspiration from God Himself. The lamps of the soul must be kept trimmed and burning.
TDG	33	3	The work we do is the least part of our taxation. It is the sin which has attached itself to all the activities that wears us out. God did not design that labor should be anything but a blessing. Man never could have been happy without something to do. When man had no dark, condemning thoughts, before sin came, his own companionship was not a burden; for he could contemplate all nature with the most satisfactory results. But the slimy track of the serpent has left its trail of misery in a hardened conscience. Labor does not bring misery; it is carrying lawful things to excess which taxes the powers of mind and body. A life of the hardest labor is more satisfying than a life of idleness.
TDG	33	4	The Word of God is plain and distinct upon this point of labor. No man or woman who is converted to God can be anything but a worker....
TDG	33	5	The last call to the supper is now being given. The lamp of the soul must be kept trimmed and burning by being replenished with the holy oil. (See Zechariah 4:11-14). In the name of the Lord let every soul now depart from all iniquity, lest the day of the Lord overtake them as a thief. The truth is to be proclaimed in clear, straight lines but always as it is in Jesus.--Letter 11, January 25, 1899, to "Dear Brethren."
------------------------Passport to Heaven, January 26
TDG	34	1	For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17, 18.
TDG	34	2	I address you and your children. I sympathize with you in your bereavement at this time. If I were with you, I could speak words of comfort to you, but as I am not, I can only trace a few lines, and let you know that I do not forget you in your affliction....
TDG	34	3	We are in the evening of this earth's history, and we may lay away our dead, knowing that they are hid for a little moment until the indignation be overpast. We need not mourn for them as those who have ho hope; for their life is hid with Christ in God. We have every reason to rejoice....
TDG	34	4	The difficulties which those who put on Christ and keep His commandments must undergo, are not of Christ's designing. "If any man will come after me," He says, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). The duty of intelligent souls is to hold to the truth, to practice virtue. We are born with a disinclination to both. It is sad to find in one's own constitution an opposition to virtues that are commendable in the sight of God, as submission, charity, sweetness of spirit, and patience that will not be provoked. Say to yourselves, dear children, I am weakness, but God is my strength. He has given me my post of duty. The General whom I serve bids me be an overcomer....
TDG	34	5	Let the affliction that has come to your family circle be a blessing to you all. Our dear sister, your mother, loved Jesus. Her warfare is ended. You are to remember that she rests in hope. "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him" (Colossians 3:4). Let the peace and comfort of the Holy Spirit come into your hearts. Open the door of your hearts, that Jesus may enter as an honored guest, and you will have a Comforter. "This is my commandment, That ye love one another" (John 15:12). Let the hearts of the living draw close to one another. Let each try to be a blessing to the other, and not a hindrance....
TDG	34	6	Let us prepare for the coming of the Son of man. Let us be true to God, and we shall receive the crown of life.--Letter 10, January 26, 1898, to Brother Hare.
------------------------Getting in Step, January 27
TDG	35	1	Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 1 Corinthians 1:10.
TDG	35	2	Last night I seemed to be standing before a large number of people who were not united. One would stand back while another desired to go forward. They were not standing in unity one with another. I saw a heavenly being appear before them, and heard him say: "Come into line! No one is fighting a battle on his own charges. The Master of assemblies says, Come into line!"
TDG	35	3	After this, I did not go to sleep again. I wondered whether in this meeting our brethren were coming into line. It is often very difficult for a large group of workers to come into full harmony one with another; but every one is to come into line, and fill his appointed place. May God help His servants to do this, is my prayer.
TDG	35	4	Although some may have followed their own way for a time, it is possible for them to return, and get into line. The Lord sees that it is not best for His children to be allowed to do as they please, and refuse to unite with their brethren who view matters somewhat differently from the way in which they may view them.
TDG	35	5	There are some who do not readily respond to the invitation to forsake their own way, and come into harmony with God's way. They prefer to follow a way of their own choosing. Those who wish to do so, have the privilege of continuing to walk in their own unconsecrated way, but the end of that way is sorrow and destruction.
TDG	35	6	The Lord has men of His appointment whom He will use in His work so long as they allow themselves to be used in accordance with His good pleasure. He can never use any one who is seeking to humble someone else. Humble yourselves, brethren. When you do this, it is possible for holy angels to communicate with you, and place you on vantage ground. Then your experience, instead of being faulty, will be filled with happiness. Seek to relate yourselves in harmony with God's leadings, and then you will be susceptible to the movings of His Holy Spirit.
TDG	35	7	The Lord is coming. The end of all things is at hand. There remains but little time in which to develop character.--Manuscript 47, January 27, 1910, "Come Into Line."
------------------------Lord, You Know All About It! January 28
TDG	36	1	For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12.
TDG	36	2	Since coming to this meeting [biennial session, Pacific Union Conference], I have passed through a strange experience. One day, after appearing before the conference to read some matter to you, the burden that was upon my soul continued to press upon me after I returned to my room. I was in distress of mind. That night I could not seem to lose myself in sleep. It seemed as if evil angels were right in the room where I was. And while I was suffering in mind, it seemed as if I was suffering great bodily pain. My right arm, which through the years has nearly always been preserved from disease and suffering, seemed powerless. I could not lift it. Then I had a most severe, excruciating pain in the ear; then most terrible suffering in the jaw. It seemed as if I must scream. But I kept saying, "Lord, You know all about it."
TDG	36	3	I was in perfect agony. It seemed that my brain and every part of my body was suffering. At times I would rise up, and think, "I will not lie here another moment." Then I would think, "You will only arouse those who are in the house, and they cannot do anything for you." And so I kept looking to the Lord, and saying, "Lord, You know all about this pain." The suffering continued, at times in the jaw, then in the brain, and then in other members of the body, until nearly daylight. Just before the break of day I fell asleep for about an hour.
TDG	36	4	My arm is all right this morning. Legions of evil angels were in that room, and if I had not clung by faith to the Lord, I do not know what might have become of me....
TDG	36	5	I shall never be able to give you a description of the satanic forces that were at work in that room, ...but since standing before you the next morning, I have had no suffering.
TDG	36	6	Light has been coming to me that unless we have more evident movings of the Spirit of God, and greater manifestations of divine power working in our midst, many of God's people will be overcome. Satanic agencies will come in, as they came to me. But we cannot afford to yield to the power of the enemy.--Manuscript 25, January 28, 1910, "An Address to the Workers Assembled at the Pacific Union Conference."
------------------------The Christian's Rest, January 29
TDG	37	1	Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:29.
TDG	37	2	You [Addie Walling] are the same to me as my own child. I have performed for years, since you were six years old, the duties of a mother. You have become interwoven with my life, a part of me, and if you are in trouble, if you have wants, if you need means, I expect you to come to me as if I were your mother.
TDG	37	3	I hope that the purpose of my adopting you [Addie and May Walling] as my children will be realized--that of seeing you both useful women, children of God forming characters for the mansions which Jesus has gone to prepare for those who love Him. I greatly desire you should make this the aim, purpose, and pursuit of your life. This character building is a most important work. It is not a work that ends in this life, but which tells in the future life. What you make of yourself here through the merits and grace of Christ will be retained through eternal ages, and I am most earnest that you should not meet a low standard. "Learn of me," says the Great Teacher, "I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest to your soul." The peace that Christ gives will never, never bring sorrow with it....
TDG	37	4	Be sober and watch unto prayer. Critically examine yourself and make earnest work. Be sincere. Ever feel that you are in the presence of God and holy angels, that the Lord is to be pleased and honored and glorified....
TDG	37	5	Addie, make your aim to be a noble woman, a sincere Christian. Have the truth at heart. I do want you to know for yourself the preciousness of a Saviour's love. If Jesus is formed within, the hope of glory, you will surely reveal Christ in speaking of Him; if His peace is in your heart you will surely express the same in your words and in your actions. Be true to yourself and be humble. Be not forward in speech, but be modest; never praise yourself, but think less and less of self and talk less of self, and lay all your burdens upon Jesus. May the Lord help you to win eternal life....
------------------------Your Case Is Not Hopeless, January 30
TDG	38	1	To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isaiah 66:2.
TDG	38	2	You have been presented before me as in doubt and despair. Christ said of you as He said to Peter, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke 22:31, 32). I bring to you good news; Jesus loves you, tempest-tossed soul. You have not made shipwreck of faith, although Satan has tried to make you believe that you have done this. Look and live. Come to Christ just as you are. Take Him as your personal Saviour.
TDG	38	3	You have made mistakes, but not willfully; you were drawn away by temptation. The possession of a large amount of means intoxicated your mind and perverted your judgment. You did not understand how to use means wisely, to the glory of God. Yet you have invested means in His cause, and where it will be used to His glory. My brother, although you have not manifested all the wisdom that you could and should have exercised, God accepts all you have done with a desire to promote His glory....
TDG	38	4	These words were presented to me for you: "In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people" (Hebrews 2:17), through the atonement. The repenting sinner is to believe in Christ as his personal Saviour. This is his only hope. He may lay hold on the merits of the blood of Christ, presenting to God the crucified and risen Saviour as his worthiness. Thus through Christ's offering of Himself, the innocent for the guilty, every obstruction is removed, and the pardoning love of God flows forth in rich streams of mercy to fallen man....
TDG	38	5	Only come to Jesus now, while it is called today. The experience you have been passing through will prove of highest value to you when you yoke up with Christ, to be a laborer together with God. You have delighted in the truth, you have believed the truth, and you believe it still, and hope against hope because the Holy Spirit is striving with you.
TDG	38	6	You have made crooked paths for your feet because of temptations, but resist the devil, and he will flee from you; draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh unto you.--Letter 91, January 30, 1895, to a well-to-do SDA businessman.
------------------------God Will Work With You, January 31
TDG	39	1	For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. Genesis 18:19.
TDG	39	2	I would write words to console and comfort you. The Lord has not left you, His everlasting arms are beneath you. He has given you an experience in Christian life that is of the highest value. You have let your light shine in your family, and its divine rays are felt. Yet there is a danger that you will allow your affection for your children to lead you to grant requests that your judgment tells you are neither for their best good nor for the glory of God.
TDG	39	3	You have been the Lord's chosen instrument, through whom He has worked, and will work for the saving of the souls of your children. You are to bear the testimony that John bore, repeating the words of Christ to love one another as Christ has loved them. The Holy Spirit will testify of their union with Christ, and believers and unbelievers will take knowledge of you that you have been with Christ and have learned of Him. As you follow on to know the Lord, you will reflect the character of Christ.
TDG	39	4	You will be subject to the infirmities of humanity, and will no doubt make mistakes, but the compassionate, loving Saviour will pardon all your errors, because you ask Him, and because you love Jesus. In spirit you will breathe the meekness of Christ, and will be a light in your home. Your conversation will be seasoned with grace, and a holy unction will pervade your prayers. The Lord will work with your efforts as He has in the past, and His righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rereward.
TDG	39	5	You have every reason for praising God for His loving kindness and tender mercy. His all-atoning blood is available to all your children. If you do not overtax your physical powers, you can in the name of Jesus do much precious work.… To you therefore which believe, He is precious.... Walk in love as dear children. The Spirit of God is striving with the children, inviting them to Christ, saying, "Come; for all things are now ready" (Luke 14:17). Will you not obey?--Letter 94, January 31, 1895, to the widowed mother of a large family of adult children.
------------------------What God Expects, February 1
TDG	40	1	God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.... Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. James 4:6-10.
TDG	40	2	When God entrusts men with responsibilities, He expects them to obey His law. They are to deal justly, realizing that the Lord beholds all their dealings with their fellow men, and that He will punish every unjust, oppressive action. God gives men opportunities to become one with Christ and one with Him. Those who walk in the fear of God, meditating upon His character, will daily become more and more like Christ. Those who choose not to know God will be ostentatious and boastful.
TDG	40	3	There are many who put on what they think to be great dignity. But in God's sight they are fools. They have not looked into the divine mirror, and they do not know how ridiculous is their pretension in the sight of a holy God. He who looks beneath the surface despises their self-sufficiency. They may hold positions of trust in the church or in the world, but so long as they continue to dishonor their Creator, making themselves the object of worship, they are an offense to Him.
TDG	40	4	God does not take pleasure in punishing those who walk contrary to Him, giving a false representation of His character. But unless they repent, the time will come when they must reap the sure reward of their course of action....
TDG	40	5	Those who have entered into a covenant to serve God are to fear lest their lives be such that they will not show the contrast between truth and error. They are not to turn aside to vain visions and human conjectures and flatteries. The lives of the righteous are to put to shame those who refuse to offer their allegiance to God.... God calls upon His people to walk before Him in all humility. He would have them reach higher and still higher in spiritual knowledge. He holds out every inducement to lead men to return to their allegiance to Him....
TDG	40	6	God is seeking to lead men to humble themselves. He tries to guide them to place their feet in the steps of the great Medical Missionary. But the Redeemer is often disappointed and crucified afresh by those professing so much.--Letter 61, February 1, 1904, to "My Brethren Bearing Responsibilities."
------------------------How to Make an Impact, February 2
TDG	41	1	Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13.
TDG	41	2	When Christ was upon this earth, He did not direct fishermen to leave their nets and boats, and go to the Jewish teachers to gain a preparation for the gospel ministry. Walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw "two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him" (Matthew 4:18-22).
TDG	41	3	This prompt obedience, without any question, without one promise of wages, seems remarkable. But the words of Christ were an invitation that implied all that He meant it should. There was an impelling influence in His words. There was no long explanation, but what He said had a drawing power....
TDG	41	4	Christ would make these humble fishermen, in connection with Himself, the means of taking men out of the service of Satan, and making them believers in Christ, teaching them in regard to the kingdom of God. In this work they would become His ministers, fishers of men....
TDG	41	5	Christ chose the foolish things of the world--those whom the world pronounced unlearned and ignorant--to confound the wise men of the world. The disciples were unlearned in the traditions of the rabbis, but with Christ as their example and teacher, they were gaining an education of the highest order; for they had before them a divine Example. Christ was presenting to them truths of the highest character.
TDG	41	6	Those whom God employs to do service for Him, He would have fitted in His way for that service. Those who preach Christ must learn of Christ daily, in order to understand the mystery of saving and serving the souls for whom He has died.... They must pattern after Him in all things, sharing His tender compassion and His sternness against all evil working.--Letter 53, February 2, 1905, to two leading workers at the newly established Paradise Valley Sanitarium.
------------------------For the Fearful, Faint, and Feeble, February 3
TDG	42	1	Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Psalm 37:3.
TDG	42	2	"Trust in the Lord." Each day has its burdens, its cares, and perplexities; and when we meet, how ready we are to talk of our difficulties and trials. So many borrowed troubles intrude, so many fears are indulged, such a weight of anxiety is expressed, that one might almost suppose that we had no pitying, loving Saviour, ready to hear all our requests, and to be to us a present help in every time of need.
TDG	42	3	Some are always fearing and borrowing trouble. Every day they are surrounded by the tokens of God's love, every day they are enjoying the bounties of His providence; but they overlook these present blessings. Their minds are continually dwelling upon something disagreeable which they fear may come: or some difficulty may really exist, which, though small, blinds their eyes to the many things which demand gratitude. The difficulties which they encounter, instead of driving them to God, the only source of help, separate them from Him, because they awaken unrest and repining.
TDG	42	4	Brethren and sisters, do we well to be thus unbelieving? Why should we be ungrateful and distrustful? Jesus is our friend. All heaven is interested in our welfare; and our anxiety and fear grieve the Holy Spirit of God. We should not indulge in a solicitude which only frets and wears us, but does not help us to bear trials. No place should be given to that distrust of God which leads us to make a preparation against future want the chief pursuit of life, as though our happiness consisted in these earthly things, and we could gain them while ignoring the fact that God controls all things.
TDG	42	5	You may be perplexed in business; your prospects may grow darker and darker, and you may be threatened with loss. But do not become discouraged; cast your care upon God, and remain calm and cheerful. Begin every day with earnest prayer, not omitting to offer praise and thanksgiving. Ask for wisdom to manage your affairs with discretion, and thus prevent loss and disaster. Do all you can on your part to bring about favorable results. Jesus has promised divine aid, but not aside from human efforts.--The Review and Herald, February 3, 1885.
------------------------Help in Study, February 4
TDG	43	1	Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.
TDG	43	2	Be careful how you interpret Scripture. Read it with a heart opened to the entrance of God's Word, and it will express heaven's light, giving understanding unto the simple. This does not mean the weak-minded, but those who do not stretch themselves beyond their measure and ability in trying to be original and independent in reaching after knowledge above that which constitutes true knowledge.
TDG	43	3	All who handle the Word of God are engaged in a most solemn and sacred work; for in their research they are to receive light and a correct knowledge, that they may give to those who are ignorant. Education is the inculcation of ideas which are light and truth. Everyone who diligently and patiently searches the Scriptures that he may educate others, entering upon the work correctly and with an honest heart, laying aside his preconceived ideas, whatever they may have been, and his hereditary prejudices at the door of investigation, will gain true knowledge. But it is easy to put a false interpretation on Scripture, placing stress on passages, and assigning to them a meaning, which, at the first investigation, may appear true, but which by further search, will be seen to be false. If the seeker after truth will compare Scripture with Scripture, he will find the key that unlocks the treasure house and gives him a true understanding of the Word of God. Then he will see that his first impressions would not bear investigation, and that continuing to believe them would be mixing falsehood with truth.
TDG	43	4	The Psalmist David in his experience had many changes of mind. At times, as he obtained views of God's will and ways, he was highly exalted. Then as he caught sight of the reverse of God's mercy and changeless love, everything seemed to be shrouded in a cloud of darkness. But through the darkness he obtained a view of the attributes of God, which gave him confidence and strengthened his faith.....
TDG	43	5	As he wept and prayed, he obtained a clearer view of the character and attributes of God, being educated by heavenly agencies, and he decided that his ideas of God's justice and severity were exaggerated.--Manuscript 4, February 4, 1896,.
------------------------Blessings Without Number, February 5
TDG	44	1	Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. Psalm 27:14.
TDG	44	2	Be of good courage, my sister. A little longer, and we shall see Jesus. "Let not your heart be troubled," He said to His disciples: "ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:1-3).
TDG	44	3	Encourage your heart in the Lord. I rejoice in the bright prospects of the future, and so may you. Let us be cheerful, and praise the Lord for His loving-kindness to the children of men. Do not look on the dark side. Have faith in God. We are Christ's property, and let us remember that He loves us, and will be our Helper and our God.
TDG	44	4	Last night I was awake for a long time. I was troubled and anxious; for I knew that some were tempted and tried, and I was wondering how I could help them to look to Jesus and comfort their hearts in His love. I thought, If I could only take hold of Christ's hand and hear His voice, as I lie awake, praying for myself, and much more for others who are tempted and tried! I could not sleep after one o'clock. I was so sorry, because I had writing that I wanted to do today, and I thought that I would be useless if I could not sleep. But at two o'clock I arose and dressed, made my fire, and before breakfast had written many pages. I have written many pages since breakfast, and have not felt sleepy at all.
TDG	44	5	Let us be thankful for every favor. Let us try to be sunshiny Christians. The souls that I trouble about, fearing that they will not hold fast till the end, I will commit to God. That which is divinely real will shine amidst the moral darkness, because Christ's light shines upon it. To Him we owe constant praise and thanksgiving; for we are kept by His power through faith. We cannot keep ourselves.
TDG	44	6	Be of good courage. The Lord loves you, and pities your every weakness. He will certainly strengthen and bless you, if you will only trust Him. It would not satisfy the heart of the infinite God to give to those who love His Son a less blessing than He gives His Son.--Letter 57, February 5, 1905, to Mrs. A. J. Breed, a minister's wife.
------------------------A Thankful Heart, February 6
TDG	45	1	Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20.
TDG	45	2	It would please the Lord if you would make an effort to forget yourself. Begin to thank the Lord for your home and your pleasant surroundings, and the many temporal blessings He gives you. By returning thanks to the Lord for His goodness, you can do something for the One who has done everything for you. Contemplate the depths of the compassion that the Saviour felt for you. For you He gave His life, suffering the cruel death of the cross. Can you not praise the Lord for this? If you will hide your life in Christ, He will receive you.
TDG	45	3	If you will show that you have a working faith, by trying every day to exercise your will power, your faculties will gain strength. I know this by experience. I remember in my own case how my faculties recovered their pliability as I tried to exercise them. Will you try to move about, and be cheerful in spirit? Put your trust in Jesus. Have faith in Him, and be pliant in His hands. You will receive great blessing by making a change in your habits....
TDG	45	4	For eleven months after going to Australia, I suffered from inflammatory rheumatism. I was unable to lift my feet from the floor without suffering great pain....
TDG	45	5	During those eleven months of suffering ...I would not give up. My right arm, from the elbow down, was whole, so that I could use the pen, and I wrote twenty-five hundred pages of letter paper for publication. During this period, I had the most terrible suffering of my life....
TDG	45	6	But to all this there is a cheerful side. My Saviour seemed to be close beside me. I felt His sacred presence in my heart, and I was so thankful. These months of suffering were the happiest months of my life, because of the companionship of my Saviour.... His love filled my heart. All through my sickness, His love, His tender compassion, was my comfort....
TDG	45	7	Look unto Jesus, your pitying, loving Saviour. If you cast your helpless soul on Christ, He will bring joy and peace to your soul. He will be your crown of rejoicing, your exceeding great reward.--Letter 34, February 6, 1907, to the wife of a conference administrator in Australia.
------------------------The Heavenly Mirror, February 7
TDG	46	1	But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
TDG	46	2	My dear brother, what have you been beholding? By beholding the imperfections of men and women, you are gradually becoming changed into the same likeness. Make a decided change, and look to Jesus, that by beholding His perfection, you may become changed into His image. Then His spirit will take possession of your mind and character. By your piety and godliness, by your words and actions, by your spiritual activity for truth and righteousness, you will represent Christ.
TDG	46	3	When a man turns away from human imperfections, and beholds Jesus, a divine transformation takes place in his character. He fixes his eye upon Christ as on a mirror which reflects the glory of God, and by beholding, he becomes "changed into the same image, from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:9).
TDG	46	4	Turn your eyes from the imperfections of others, and fix them steadfastly on Christ. With a contrite heart, study His life and character. You need not only to be more enlightened, but quickened, that you may see the banquet that is before you, and eat and drink the flesh and blood of the Son of God, which is His Word. By tasting the good Word of life, by feeding on the bread of life, you may see the power of a world to come, and be created anew in Christ Jesus. If you receive His gifts, you will be renewed unto holiness, and His grace will bring forth in you fruit unto the glory of God.
TDG	46	5	The Holy Spirit reveals Christ to the mind, and faith takes hold of Him. If you accept Christ as your personal Saviour, you will know by experience the value of the great sacrifice made in your behalf upon the cross of Calvary. The Spirit of Christ, working upon the heart conforms it to His image; for Christ is the model upon which the Spirit works. By the ministry of His Word, by His providences, by His inward working, God stamps the likeness of Christ upon the soul.
TDG	46	6	To possess Christ is your first work, and to reveal Him as one who is able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him, is your next work.--Manuscript 10, February 7, 1897, "Representing Christ."
------------------------Strength From Struggle, February 8
TDG	47	1	For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. Isaiah 50:7.
TDG	47	2	You have been bought with an infinite price and you are not your own. Soul, body, and spirit belong to Jesus Christ and you should in all humility, yet with firmness and decision, say "I am the Lord's. I will serve Him with my whole heart, mind, might, and strength."
TDG	47	3	Do not be discouraged with the opposition you encounter. It might at the present time be more pleasant to float with the current for the descent from righteousness and holiness to darkness and transgression is easy, while the one who seeks to win the eternal shores will have to struggle against wind and tide. A faith and religion that is not aggressive in spirit or heroic in action, but is corrupted by worldly currents is the only religion admired and respected and esteemed worthy by the world....
TDG	47	4	The scorn and derision, which is called forth from that class who despise the truth of God, is a compliment to Christian integrity. If you were of the world, you could enjoy its smiles, its flattery, and its applause. If Jesus Christ is in you, the hope of glory, your spirituality will rebuke the pride and extravagance of the world....
TDG	47	5	The opposition which you meet may prove an advantage to you in many respects. It will develop a class of Christian virtues which seldom spring up in the path of prosperity and sunshine. Faith, patience, forbearance, heavenly-mindedness, increasing trust in Providence are the fruits which blossom and mature amid clouds of darkness, storm, and tempest. The forest tree which stands alone and exposed to the fierce winds and storm and tempest will not be uprooted by the gale, but will strike its roots deep and spread out its branches in every direction, becoming more beautiful and strong as the consequence of its withstanding storm and tempest. This may be your case. You may be deprived of sympathy and human support and you may feel that your only hope is to reach up your hands in supplication to God and hang your helpless soul upon your Redeemer. Help which heaven sends will be just what you need....
TDG	47	6	If you fear God, you need not fear anything beside. If you please Him, you will secure everything your soul requires.--Letter 4a, February 8, 1880, to Sister Brigs.
------------------------The New Life, February 9
TDG	48	1	Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Matthew 13:33.
TDG	48	2	When leaven is introduced into meal, it penetrates to every part, till an entire change takes place. So it is with the work of the Holy Spirit upon the human heart. The truth received and believed introduces new rules, new principles of action into the life. A new standard of character is set up--the life of Christ. Those who thus receive the truth depend on Christ, and they receive more and still more strength, and greater and still greater light. Daily they expel from their hearts vanity, selfishness, self-righteousness.
TDG	48	3	As they receive the spirit of Christ, light shines from them in clear, distinct rays. They have a solemn sense of eternal realities. There is a renewal of the entire mind and heart. As the leaven introduced into the meal leavened the whole, so the leaven of truth, if introduced into the heart, will absorb to itself all the properties of soul, body, and spirit....
TDG	48	4	Transformation of heart means an entire change of the entire man. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," Christ declared (John 3:3). This change of heart is unseen; for it is an inward work, and yet, it is seen, because it works outward from within.
TDG	48	5	Has the leaven of truth been at work in your heart? Has it absorbed the whole heart, the whole affections by its sanctifying power? ...
TDG	48	6	Our first work is with our own hearts. The true principles of reform should be practiced. The heart must be converted and sanctified else we have no connection with Christ. While our hearts are divided, we shall never, never be fitted for usefulness in this life or for the future life. As intelligent beings, we need to sit down and think whether we are really seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The very best thing we can do is to think soberly and candidly whether we desire to put forth the effort necessary to obtain the Christian hope and secure the Christian's heaven. If through the grace of Christ we decide that we do, the next question is: What is there that I must cut away from my life in order that I shall not stumble?--Manuscript 14, February 9, 1898, "Like Unto Leaven."
------------------------Promise of His Presence, February 10
TDG	49	1	Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 2 Timothy 4:2.
TDG	49	2	Whoever attempts the work of reform will have decided opposition to meet. This work requires self-renunciation....
TDG	49	3	We must not ask whether we are appreciated or unappreciated. With this we have naught to do. Look at the way in which Christ worked. Whoever attempts any work of reform, whoever tries to lead the sinner to a life of self-denial and holiness will need every hour the assurance given by Christ after His resurrection, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20).
TDG	49	4	Take the Word. Live the Word. Preach the Word, as you have done in the past. The Lord Jesus has given you the promise of His Presence. Take it; appreciate it. It is not for you or me to measure the appreciation shown for the self-denial and self-sacrifice made.
TDG	49	5	The work of reform will call for all the faith and tears and prayers that human intelligence can bear. Our commission is, Lift the cross, and bear it after Jesus, striving ever for the same spirit that led Jesus to yearn for His anticipated baptism of suffering upon the cross.
TDG	49	6	When in the garden of Gethsemane, the cup of suffering was placed in the Saviour's hand, the thought came to Him, Should He drink it or should He leave the world to perish in sin? His suffering was too great for human comprehension. As the agony of soul came upon Him, "His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:44). The mysterious cup trembled in His hand. In this awful crisis, when everything was at stake, the mighty angel who stands in God's presence, came to the side of Christ, not to take the cup from His hand, but to strengthen Him to drink it, with the assurance of the Father's love.
TDG	49	7	Christ drank of the cup, and this is the reason that sinners can come to God and find pardon and grace. But those who share in Christ's glory must share also in His suffering....
TDG	49	8	Shall we take up the cross, and intelligently understand what it means to follow Christ, practicing self-denial at every step?--Letter 66, February 10, 1906, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell.
------------------------God's Goodness Displayed, February 11
TDG	50	1	But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9.
TDG	50	2	As the wax takes the counterpart of the seal, so the soul receives and retains the moral image of God. We become filled and transfigured by beholding His purity and righteousness. Our souls will become sluggish and our faith enfeebled unless we arouse and have a firm, steady, active faith....
TDG	50	3	The great sin of God's people at the present time is, we do not appreciate the value of the blessings God has bestowed upon us. We serve God with a divided heart. We cherish some idol and worship at its shrine. The truth of God is elevated and holy, sanctifying the soul, if brought into the life and interwoven with the character. God is seeking with His truth to make us a separate and peculiar people. This is the influence of the truth. Our obedience and devotion are not equal to our light and privileges, and the sacred obligations resting upon us to walk as children of the light are not fulfilled by us. As Christians we fail to come up to our high calling. Warnings and reproofs have been given us from God but only for a time have an influence upon us because we do not consider it as our lifework to press forward and upward to the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus.
TDG	50	4	Oh, that God's people would consider their superior advantages, and understand from the light of God's Word that we must be judged according to the light that shine upon our pathway. All the privileges and opportunities given us of God are for the purpose of making us better men and women. The people of God must move from a settled principle, making it their first principle to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then go on from light to still greater light....
TDG	50	5	Every soul who really believes the Word of God will show the same by his works. The great goodness of God is displayed in His will. Whatever His will or Word requires them to do they cannot be Christians if they neglect to do this. The truth is able to save our souls, for God by His own Spirit is a continual agent in it, and the divine agency makes the truth a sanctifying power.--Letter 8, February 11, 1887, to Brother and Sister Lockwood.
------------------------Ambassadors, February 12
TDG	51	1	Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20.
TDG	51	2	In the plan of restoring in men the divine image, it was provided that the Holy Spirit should move upon human minds, and be as the presence of Christ, a molding agency upon human character. Receiving the truth, men become also recipients of the grace of Christ, and devote their sanctified human ability to the work in which Christ was engaged--men become laborers together with God. It is to make men agents for God, that divine truth is brought home to their understanding. But I would inquire of the church, Have you answered this purpose? Have you fulfilled the design of God in diffusing the light of divine truth, in scattering abroad the precious jewels of truth?
TDG	51	3	What must be the thoughts of the angels of God as they look upon the church of Christ, and see how slow is the action of those who profess to be the followers of Christ, to impart the light of truth to the world which lies in moral darkness? Heavenly intelligences know that the cross is the great center of attraction. They know that it is through the cross that fallen man is to receive the atonement, and to be brought into unity with God.
TDG	51	4	The councils of heaven are looking upon you who claim to have accepted Christ as your personal Saviour, to see you make known the salvation of God to those who sit in darkness. They are looking to see you making known the significance of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit; how that through the working of this divine agency the minds of men, corrupted and defiled by sin, may become disenchanted with the lies and presentations of Satan, and turn to Christ as their only hope, their personal Saviour.
TDG	51	5	Christ says: "I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:16). As Christ's ambassador, I would entreat of all who read these lines to take heed while it is called today. "If ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts" (Hebrews 3:15; 4:7). Without waiting a moment, inquire, What am I to Christ? and what is Christ to me? What is my work? What is the character of the fruit I bear?--The Review and Herald, February 12, 1895.
------------------------Heart Service, February 13
TDG	52	1	Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. Luke 10:27.
TDG	52	2	The heart is the citadel of the whole man, and until the heart is wholly on the Lord's side, the enemy will find unguarded entrances through which he can take possession. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12, 13). If you would have light, you must intelligently cherish it, and constantly exercise faith, and not be controlled by feeling. It is evident that truth has been planted in the heart by the Holy Spirit when it is loved and cherished, and regarded as a sacred endowment. Love will then spring up in the heart like a well of living water, springing up unto everlasting life. When this love is in the heart, the worker will find no weariness in the work of Christ.
TDG	52	3	Let not one ray of light from heaven be held in questioning and doubt. In great power the Lord has revealed to you His grace, His mercy, and His love; and He who charges the work of God to undue excitement, and calls it fanaticism, is certainly standing on dangerous ground. If such do not retrieve their steps, their consciences will become less and less sensitive, and they will have less and less appreciation of the Spirit of God. It will become harder and harder for them to understand the message of God. Why?--Because they are sinning against the Holy Ghost; and as a result of their resistance, they place themselves where they cannot recognize the Spirit of God, but set themselves against every instrumentality that God might use to save them from ruin. "What sign shewest thou?" (John 2:18) said the Jews to Christ, when at the same time His life and character, His lessons and miracles, were continual signs of His holy mission and divinity.
TDG	52	4	When God moves upon the hearts of men to draw them to Christ, it seems that a compelling power comes over them, and they believe, and give themselves up to the influence of the Spirit of God. But if they do not maintain the precious victory that God has given; if they permit old practices and habits to revive, and indulge in amusement or worldly luxury; if they neglect prayer, and cease resisting evil, then Satan's temptations are accepted, and they are led to doubt the verity of their former experience.--The Review and Herald, February 13, 1894.
------------------------Co-Laborers With God, February 14
TDG	53	1	For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
TDG	53	2	Encourage the hearts of those for whom Christ has given His life. Lead them to understand that they are not to depend upon their surroundings for their Christian experience. It will cost you an effort to make them realize their responsibility to become laborers together with God. But consider that Christ, during the years of His earthly ministry, toiled all day, and often without success. Urge upon souls the eternal loss that all must sustain who refuse to give heart and mind and soul unreservedly to Christ. Every day passed in which Christ is refused admittance to the soul, is a day lost. Then show those for whom you labor how much is to be gained by surrender to God.
TDG	53	3	Prayer gives to the worker for God spiritual strength to renew the conflict. Here is the source of your greatest strength. God is represented as bending from His place in heaven, watching with living interest those who labor for Him, and waiting to impart His grace to those who supplicate His throne....
TDG	53	4	Never forget that you are laborers together with God, and that it is your privilege to be constantly shielded by His grace. Christ is watching with interest every reformatory movement carried forward in the earth. He calls upon everyone who has named His name to be converted daily, that he may work intelligently in His cause, under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit....
TDG	53	5	It is the purpose of God that His people shall be a sanctified, purified, holy people, communicating light to all around them. But only as they keep the standard uplifted, only as they reveal that the truth they profess to believe is able to influence them for righteousness and to sustain their spiritual life; only as they make the principles of truth a part of their daily lives, can they be a praise and honor to God in the earth. It is the privilege of every Christian to receive grace to enable him to stand firmly for the principles of righteousness in the service of God.--Letter 8, February 14, 1912, to S. N. Haskell.
------------------------Reasonable Service, February 15
TDG	54	1	For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. James 3:16, 17.
TDG	54	2	There is one thing upon which I am settled. It is not the duty of the Lord's children to remain in an objectionable climate, and be continually failing in health. Many of our brethren have done this and have lost their lives. When in a place where the atmosphere is filled with friction, when the work of a laborer is made exceeding hard by those who are continually counterworking his efforts and scheming to obtain advantage, then let the laborer go to some place where the atmosphere is more healthful spiritually, and where he can have more hope of success....
TDG	54	3	We must remember that in every place in which we work on the Lord's side, we counterwork the efforts of Satanic agencies. You have passed through trials; and you will have trials to meet to a greater or less degree, wherever you may be. Satan will watch every weak point of character, and will strive for the mastery; but we cannot afford to lose our chance of gaining a victory for the Lord's side. Constantly we encounter foes, and unless we are on guard, we shall lose precious opportunities of obtaining victories....
TDG	54	4	The troubles of this present time are diversified in form, but Christ has passed over the ground, and we need not be in uncertainty. He has invited us, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). The promise is, "I will be with him in trouble" (Psalm 91:15).
TDG	54	5	O what a fortress and high tower He is for us. I have been passing through great sorrow because some among those who ...have evidence that the Lord has used the feeble agent to express great and everlasting truths, are turning from the living wells to hew out and drink at broken fountains. My soul is in agony night after night. I can sleep but a few hours; for the thought of those who are in false paths afflicts my soul.--Letter 80, February 15, 1906, to F. M. Wilcox, manager of the Boulder, Colorado, Sanitarium and later editor of the Review and Herald.
------------------------God Hates Deception, February 16
TDG	55	1	Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Isaiah 58:1.
TDG	55	2	Hypocrisy is peculiarly offensive to God. A large majority of the men and women who profess to know the truth prefer smooth messages. They do not desire to have their sins and defects brought before them. They want accommodating ministers, who will not arouse conviction by speaking the truth. They choose men who will flatter them, and in their turn they flatter the minister who has shown such a "good" spirit, while they revile the faithful servant of God....
TDG	55	3	Many praise the minister who dwells on the grace and mercy and love of Jesus, who is not particular to enforce duties and obligations, who does not warn of the danger of hypocrisy, or present the terrors of God's wrath.
TDG	55	4	The Lord's work is earnest and decided, above deceit and hypocrisy. His true shepherds will not praise and exalt man. They will come before the people with a plain "Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel." They will bear His message, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. If men despise God's Word, and trust in oppression, hypocrisy, and worldliness, they must declare against them God's denunciations, that, if possible, they may be aroused to repentance. If they are too proud to repent and confess their errors, to turn to God, welcoming His salvation and seeking His favor, the Lord will remove His light from them and will leave them to walk in the way they have chosen.
TDG	55	5	Those who drive the Lord's faithful messengers into corners, who discourage them, who stand between them and the people, that their message may not have the influence God designed it should, are answerable for the deceptions and heresies that come into the church as a result of their course. They have a fearful account to render to God. After the Lord has repeatedly warned His people, and they still refuse to hearken to His voice, and will not be instructed, their guilt becomes peculiarly abhorrent to Him. The record of their rebellion is written in a book before Him, and will confront them when the judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened.--Manuscript 10, February 16, 1899, "Words of Warning."
------------------------Take Time to be Holy, February 17
TDG	56	1	For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4.
TDG	56	2	We say to every soul, Study your Bible, as you have never studied it before.... Let the affirmative of truth come forth from human lips, under the dictation of the Holy Spirit. I beg of all to watch and pray, lest they enter into temptation.
TDG	56	3	The work going on in the world means much to us all. It is now as it was when the message was given in Noah's day, and the invitation went forth for all who would to enter the ark. We know not how soon the last message of warning may be given, and our cases fixed for eternity. But the Lord is gracious, and He presents the invitation, "Come; for all things are now ready" (Luke 14:17).
TDG	56	4	There was hope for all the inhabitants of the Noachic world to enter the ark before the door was closed. After it was closed, those who entered were severely tried, for they were in the ark a full week before the rain came. O what fearful scoffing and mocking and defiance of God there was by those who had refused to enter! But after the week was ended, the rain began to fall gently. This was a new thing. The rain continued until every living thing was destroyed from the face of the earth. But one family--the family that entered the ark--was saved.
TDG	56	5	We need now to be prepared for the closing scenes of this earth's history. Let all search their own hearts diligently and be converted, that their sins may be pardoned. The world is becoming more and more decidedly opposed to God and to the truth of God. All who will do the will of God will be successful in obtaining knowledge and their experience will be valuable. We must now prepare to do a great work in a short time. We must have an individual experience, and, if we will come to the Lord in humility, He will be found of us, and He will work with us, and His salvation will be revealed.
TDG	56	6	Day and night I have been sending my prayers up to the Lord.... I have been weighed down as I have thought of the situation of those who have had such great light, and yet have gone steadily on step by step in rejection of light.... I long to see the unbelief break. I long to see Satan defeated and expelled.... I am holding on by the gift of faith.--Letter 84, February 17, 1906, to Elder and Mrs. E. W. Farnsworth, laboring in Battle Creek, Michigan.
------------------------Heaven Begins Here, February 18
TDG	57	1	Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Psalm 31:19.
TDG	57	2	As I write I have a deep sense of gratitude for the loving watchcare of our Saviour over us all. As I read the Word of God and kneel in prayer, I am so impressed with the goodness and mercy of God that I cannot offer my petition without weeping. My heart is subdued and broken as I think of my heavenly Father's goodness and love. I hunger and thirst for more and still more of Jesus in this life. Christ was crucified for me, and shall I complain if I am crucified with Christ?
TDG	57	3	I never felt a more earnest longing for righteousness than at the present time. In the waking hours of the night my prayer is, "Lord, teach Thy people how to seek and save the lost sheep."
TDG	57	4	We know not what is before us, and our only safety is in walking with Christ, our hand in His, our hearts filled with perfect trust. Has He not said, "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me" (Isaiah 27:5)? Let us keep close to the Saviour. Let us walk humbly with Him, filled with His meekness. Let self be hid with Him in God....
TDG	57	5	My heart aches as I am shown how many there are who make self their idol. Christ has paid the redemption price for them. To Him belongs the service of all their powers. But their hearts are filled with self-love, and the desire for self-adorning. They give no thought to the words, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Mark 8:34)....
TDG	57	6	Among those to whom bitter disappointment will come at the day of final reckoning will be some who have been outwardly religious, and who apparently have lived Christian lives. But self is woven into all they do. They pride themselves on their morality, their influence, their ability to stand in a higher position than others, and their knowledge of the truth, for they think that these will win for them the commendation of Christ. "Lord," they plead, "we have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets" (Luke 13:26). "Have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? (Matthew 7:22).--Letter 91, February 18, 1904, to W. C. White.
------------------------Peace in His Presence, February 19
TDG	58	1	I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. Psalm 77:11, 12.
TDG	58	2	Great things are before us, and we want to call the people from their indifference, to get ready for that day.... We are not now to cast away our confidence, but to have firm assurance, firmer than ever before. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us, and He will help us to the end. We will look to the monumental pillars, reminders of what the Lord hath done for us, to comfort and to save us from the hand of the destroyer. We want to have fresh in our memory every tear the Lord has wiped from our eyes, every pain He has soothed, every anxiety removed, every fear dispelled, every want supplied, every mercy bestowed, and strengthen ourselves for all that is before us through the remainder of our pilgrimage.
TDG	58	3	We can but look onward to new perplexities in the coming conflict, but we may well look on what is past as well as what is to come, and say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us" (1 Samuel 7:12). "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25). The trial will not exceed the strength which shall be given us to bear it.
TDG	58	4	Then let us take up our work just where we find it, without one word of repining, imagining nothing can come but that strength will come proportionate to the trial. Our children are in the hands of God. Our faith must awaken to grasp the promises and we not repine, we not be mournful, for then we dishonor God. We must encourage a cheerful, hopeful frame of mind. Our present peace must not be disturbed by anticipated trials, for God will never leave nor forsake one soul who trusts in Him. God is better unto us than our fears. If we would encourage a diligent remembrance and recital of our mercies, counting up instances in which God has wrought for us, has been better to us than our fears, in which He has interposed His power and His grace when sorely perplexed, sustained us when falling, comforted us when sorrowing, we would see that it is unbelief to distrust God or be filled with anxiety. Let mercies be remembered and enjoyed daily. We must live by faith daily.... Rejoice in God always. Today praise God for His grace, and continue to praise Him every day.--Letter 11a, February 19, 1884, to Elder and Mrs. Uriah Smith.
------------------------Even a Child Is Known, February 20
TDG	59	1	Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right. Proverbs 20:11.
TDG	59	2	When Christ was yet a child, He was found by Joseph and His mother in the temple among the doctors, listening to them and asking them questions. By His questions He threw great light into their minds. On this visit to Jerusalem He had a realization that He was indeed the Son of God, and that a special work lay before Him.
TDG	59	3	When His mother said to Him, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing," He answered, "How is it that ye sought me?" Then with the light of divinity shining forth from His countenance, He said in a most solemn manner, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:48, 49). And although after this He returned to Nazareth, and was subject to His parents, yet He did not lose the realization of His future work--the knowledge that He must labor to save the lost. He knew that He must keep faithful watch over every faculty, that Satan might not obtain one jot of advantage.
TDG	59	4	In all His actions He must be the Son of God, that He might dwell among men as the representative of the Father. His work was to make others the sons of God, and He must lose no opportunity for casting the leaven into the meal, that other youth, and those of mature age might see that it is not safe to neglect to become intellectually qualified to be coworkers with God. He must teach His fellow men to labor to the full extent of their ability to become what they would one day wish they had made themselves.
TDG	59	5	Christ was misunderstood by His brothers; for He was not like them. He worked to relieve every case of suffering that He saw, and He was always successful. He had little money to give, but He often gave His own humble food to those whom He thought more needy than Himself. His brothers felt that His influence went far to counteract theirs; for when they spoke harshly to poor, degraded souls with whom they came in contact, Christ sought these very ones, and spoke words of encouragement to them. If when in the family circle, He could do no more, He would as quietly and secretly as possible, give the wretched beings He was trying to help, the cup of cold water, and then place His own meal in their hands.--Manuscript 22, February 20, 1898, "Christ, the Great Missionary."
------------------------Strong in His Strength, February 21
TDG	60	1	Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Romans 6:12.
TDG	60	2	Be constantly learning of Jesus, constantly increasing in faith and growing in grace and the knowledge of the truth. We are doing a great work, and the Lord is our Helper, the Lord is our Shield. He will not leave nor forsake us. Angels of God are engaged in this work of proclaiming the message of warning for the world. Of ourselves we can do nothing. We are as weak as water without the Spirit of the Lord. Our strength is in hiding in Jesus. Let Christ appear as the One altogether lovely, and the chief among ten thousand.
TDG	60	3	Again, I exhort you to take good care of the habitation which God has given you. Let not sin reign in your mortal body, and do not waste the physical powers God has given you, but cherish your strength, putting your whole trust in a perfect Saviour. He wants you to be victorious and wear a jeweled crown at last.
TDG	60	4	Heaven, sweet heaven, is the saint's eternal home. We shall rest by and by. Let us then so use our powers as not abusing them, that God may increase and sanctify them and make them of the highest service. May the Lord come very near you, ...and give you a strong influence to beat down error and superstition and the works of Satan.
TDG	60	5	We may ask of God great things and He will give them us. We shall be strong in His strength. You will receive opposition from the clergy as you live up to, and present to others, the high standard of the religion of the Bible; contempt and jeering, slander and falsehood will follow you. Your motives, your words, your actions will be misunderstood and misrepresented and condemned. But, if you pursue the work irrespective of the abuse given you, if you do right, if you are kind and patient, humble in spirit, happy in God, you will have influence. You will receive the sympathy of all those who are honest and reasonable.
TDG	60	6	Hold forth the Word of life, the tempest of opposition will spend itself by its own fury and will subside. The clamor will die away.... The harmony of truth will be seen and will be felt and will be obeyed by the honest and God-fearing.--Letter 16, February 21, 1879, to Elder J. G. Matteson, pioneer minister in Denmark.
------------------------Anywhere, Lord, February 22
TDG	61	1	Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Philippians 4:11.
TDG	61	2	The thought has impressed itself upon my mind that as I have no change in my physical health it is not best to relate my pains or my hours of sleeplessness at night. So day after day passes and my experience is the same. My body is full of rheumatic pains. I have no appetite or pleasure in eating, and when sitting a short time it is a most painful process to rise. My limbs refuse to obey my will, and if I move them at all I suffer much pain.
TDG	61	3	I have many thoughts that I am not sent to this country [Australia] of the Lord. I feel at times an assurance that the Lord's will was for me to remain in California, in my own home, and write as I should be able to write upon the life of Christ. Of one thing I am certain--that the people need help in this country. And I feared it might be selfishness in me, or seeking my ease, to refuse to go to Australia.
TDG	61	4	During my life I have tried to do that which was opposed to my inclination because Christ our Pattern lived not to please Himself. Repeatedly, at large expense, I have thought I had secured a place of retirement and rest, where I could write out the life of Christ, when some earnest call would come from somewhere where help was needed, and request would be made for me to bear my testimony among the churches. I dared not say Nay. I at once responded that I would do according to the strength given me of God. After this work was finished in my feebleness, then other duties in Battle Creek called for labor which required me to carry the burden night and day, being much in prayer in the hours of the night when I could not sleep.
TDG	61	5	When I journeyed to California I verily believed I could remain there through the winter, but many expressed their minds that now was the time to go to Australia. I dared not settle down, but went, according to the voice and light of my brethren. Now when I came to Australia the burden did come upon me and I labored just as I had hitherto done.--Manuscript 29, February 22, 1892, diary, written in Melbourne, Australia.
------------------------Nothing to Fear, February 23
TDG	62	1	Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Acts 14:22.
TDG	62	2	God means we shall trust in Him and enjoy His goodness. He lays out day by day before us and we must have eyes and perceptive powers to take these things in. However great and glorious the full and perfect deliverance from evil we shall realize in heaven, it is not all to be kept for the time of final deliverance. God brings it into our present life. We need daily to cultivate faith in a present Saviour. Trusting in a power out of and above ourselves, exercising faith in unseen support and power which is waiting the demand of the needy and dependent, we can trust amid clouds as well as sunshine, singing of present deliverance and present enjoyment of His love. The life we now live must be by faith in the Son of God.
TDG	62	3	The Christian's life is a strangely mingled scene of sorrows and joys, disappointments and hopes, fears and confidence. There will be much dissatisfaction with self, as he views his own heart so deeply stirred, surged with passion that seems to bear all before it, and then follows remorse and sorrow and repentance, followed by peace and deep hidden joys, because he knows, as his faith grasps the promises that are revealed in God's Word, that he has the forgiving love of a longsuffering Saviour. And that Saviour, he seeks to bring into his life, weave into his character.
TDG	62	4	It is these revealings, these discoveries of God's goodness, that make the soul humble and lead it to cry out in gratitude, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20). We have reason to be comforted. Severe outward trials may press around the soul where Jesus lives. Let us turn to Him for the consolations He has provided for us in His Word. The nether springs of hope and comfort may appear to fail us, but the upper springs which feed the river of God are full of supply and can never be dried up. God would have you look away from the cause of your afflictions to Him who is the Owner of soul, body, and spirit. He is the lover of the soul. He knows the value of the soul. He is the true Vine and we are the branches. We shall have no spiritual nourishment only as we draw it from Jesus who is the life of the soul.--Letter 10, February 23, 1887, to Dr. J. H. Kellogg.
------------------------How to Get Rid of Guilt, February 24
TDG	63	1	Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:7.
TDG	63	2	My dear sister, I have evidence that God loves you, and that precious Saviour who gave Himself for you that you might be saved will not thrust you from Him because you are tempted, and in your weakness may have been overcome....
TDG	63	3	Now do not worry yourself out of the arms of the dear Jesus, but lie trustingly in faith. He loves you, He cares for you, He is blessing you, and He will give you His peace and grace. He is saying to you, "Thy sins be forgiven thee" (Luke 5:23).... I tell you Jesus loves us although we err and are betrayed into sin. He will forgive us, He will pardon and that abundantly. Gather to your soul the sweet promises of God....
TDG	63	4	Look away from your wretchedness to the perfection of Christ. We cannot manufacture a righteousness for ourselves. Christ has in His hands the pure robes of righteousness and He will put it upon us. He will speak sweet words of forgiveness and promises. And He presents to the thirsty soul fountains of living waters, whereby we may be refreshed. He bids us to come unto Him with all our burdens, all our griefs, and He says we shall find rest. We must therefore believe that He speaks pardon, and we must show our faith by resting in His love....
TDG	63	5	This feeling of guiltiness must be laid at the foot of the cross of Calvary. The sense of sinfulness has poisoned the springs of life and true happiness. Now Jesus says, "Lay it all on Me; I will take your sin, I will give you peace. Destroy no longer your self-respect, for I have bought you with the price of My own blood. You are Mine, your weakened will I will strengthen; your remorse for sin, I will remove." Then turn your grateful heart, trembling with uncertainty, and lay hold upon the hope set before you. God accepts your broken contrite heart. He offers you free pardon. He offers to adopt you into His family with His grace to help your weakness, and the dear Jesus will lead you on step by step, if you will only put your hand in His and let Him guide you.
TDG	63	6	Search for the precious promises of God. If Satan thrusts threatenings before your mind, turn from them and cling to the promises.--Letter 38, February 24, 1887, to "My dear Sister."
------------------------Trust and Obey, February 25
TDG	64	1	Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm.... Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. Jeremiah 17:5-7.
TDG	64	2	Like the Jews in the days of Christ, many today hear and believe, but are not willing to step out upon the platform of obedience, and accept the truth as it is in Jesus. They are afraid of losing worldly advantages. Their minds assent to the truth but to obey means to lift the cross of self-denial and sacrifice, and to cease trusting in man and making flesh their arm, and they turn away from the cross. They might sit at the feet of Jesus, learning daily of Him whom to know aright is life eternal, but they are not willing.
TDG	64	3	Every one who is saved must surrender his own plans, his ambitious schemes, which mean self-glorification, and follow where Christ leads the way. The understanding must be yielded up to Christ, for Him to cleanse, and refine, and purify. This will always be done when a right reception is given to the teachings of the Lord Jesus. It is hard for self to die daily, even when the wondrous story of God's grace is presented with the wealth of His love, which He unfolds to the soul's necessity.
TDG	64	4	O how much we need a more intimate acquaintance with the Lord Jesus. We need to enter into His will and carry out His purposes, saying with the whole heart, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" O how I long to see our churches in a condition different from the condition in which they now are--grieving the Holy Spirit day by day with their lukewarm religious life, a life neither cold nor hot. Christ says, "I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:15, 16).
TDG	64	5	O how greatly Christ would be honored and glorified before irreligious, worldly men and women if His followers were what they claim to be--true Christians, the love of Christ constraining them to make Him known before an idolatrous world, showing the marked contrast between those who serve God and those who serve Him not....We are to tell others of the love of Christ, and in order to do this, we must know by experience what it means to have this love in the heart. All will find abundant opportunities to work if they will improve the opportunities that come to them.--Letter 35, February 25, 1903, to Sister L. M. Hall, a faithful co-worker and for many years matron of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
------------------------Secret of Sanctification, February 26
TDG	65	1	For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6.
TDG	65	2	Christ commissions us to shine as lights in the world, by reflecting the light of God as seen in the face of Jesus Christ. Who among us is doing this? Are our lives all aglow with this wondrous light? God expects every one of us to reflect His image to the world. We have been led on step by step to make advancement. We have walked and worked by faith, and we need to discipline ourselves to endure hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
TDG	65	3	We want good, strong minds that are not easily discouraged, minds that are educated to grapple with the difficulties we shall meet, and wrestle with and conquer hard problems. We must lift the standard of truth in the towns and cities around us. We must see what is to be done and do it in the love and fear of God. When we have gone just as far as we can by faith, then the Lord will undertake in our behalf. It is God who has inspired us to commence this work. We have gone forward step by step, praying, believing, working. God is the author of our faith, and when we each act our individual part, He perfects the work, glorifying His own name in the finishing of it. The Lord inspires His consecrated workmen to work not from what they see but from what the Lord sees.
TDG	65	4	We need to strengthen our souls with hope, the twin sister of faith. God's workers must live in perfect submission to the will of God. There is danger of working at cross purposes with God, for man wants to work his way, which he supposes is the very best way in which to bring about the purposes of God. But we cannot have our own way and will. God must work in us and by us and through us. We are to be in the hands of God as clay in the hands of the potter, for Him to mold after the divine similitude.
TDG	65	5	Our hearts need to be wholly sanctified to God. Let us not seek to retain our own way and will. God has given us His truth, that it may sanctify, refine, and ennoble the whole man. "This is the will of God" concerning you, He said, "even your sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:3). "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:3).--Manuscript 70, February 26, 1899, "Laborers Together With God"
------------------------Right Thinking, February 27
TDG	66	1	Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13.
TDG	66	2	The thoughts must be trained. Gird up the loins of the mind that it shall work in the right direction, and after the order of well-formed plans; then every step is one in advance, and no effort or time is lost in following vague ideas and random plans. We must consider the aim and object of life, and ever keep worthy purposes in view. Every day the thoughts should be trained and kept to the point as the compass to the pole. Everyone should have his aims and purposes, and then make every thought and action of that character to accomplish that which he purposes. The thoughts must be controlled. There must be a fixedness of purpose to carry out that which you shall undertake....
TDG	66	3	No one but yourself can control your thoughts. In the struggle to reach the highest standard, success or failure will depend much upon the character, and the manner in which the thoughts are disciplined. If the thoughts are well girded, as God directs they shall be each day, they will be upon those subjects that will help us to greater devotion. If the thoughts are right, then as a result the words will be right; the actions will be of that character to bring gladness and comfort and rest to souls....
TDG	66	4	Those who move without thoughtful consideration, move unwisely. They make fitful efforts, strike out here and there, catch at this and that, but it amounts to nothing. They resemble the vine; its tendrils untrained and left to straggle out in every direction will fasten upon any rubbish within their reach; but before the vine can be of any use these tendrils must be broken off from the things they have grasped, and trained to entwine about those things which will make them graceful and well formed....
TDG	66	5	By the ever-learning student new light, new ideas, new gems of truth will be found, and eagerly grasped. He thinks; the laws of the mind require him to think. The human intellect gains expansion and vigor and acuteness by being taxed. The mind must work or it will dwindle. It will starve unless it has fresh subjects to think upon. Unless it is made to think hard it will surely lose its power of thinking.--Letter 33, February 27, 1886, to a minister working in Europe.
------------------------Under Shepherds, February 28
TDG	67	1	He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Isaiah 40:11.
TDG	67	2	In the visible creation, divine wisdom is manifested in an endless variety of processes. Uniformity is not the rule that is followed in the kingdom of nature. Neither is it the rule that is followed in the kingdom of grace. In different ways God works to attain one purpose--the saving of souls. By different methods the gracious Redeemer deals with different minds. The change of heart is as truly wrought out by one process as by another. It is the Lord working upon minds and molding characters.
TDG	67	3	All are not led to the Lord in precisely the same way. Human beings are not to define, arbitrarily and narrowly, the characteristics of God's working on minds. It may be given to one to gain spiritual strength and discernment easily, while another has to contend with "a thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7), and at times is ready, apparently, to step off the heights over the precipice. Yet who dare say that God does not still love and regard as His child the one so sorely beset, and that His hand is not still stretched out to save?
TDG	67	4	The heavenly Shepherd knows where to find the lambs that are straying from the fold. He will gather them in. He calls upon ministers and lay members to arouse to their responsibility, and unite with Him in this work. It is the special duty of Christians to seek and save the lost. Ministers and laymen are to encourage and help those who, sorely beset by temptation, know not which way to turn. My brother, through the grace of God you may become one who is able to bring back to the fold the wandering ones.
TDG	67	5	As in the days of Elijah, God had seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal, so today He has in the world many who are walking in all the light they have received. A whole firmament of chosen ones has He in reserve, that will yet shine forth amidst the darkness. In places where there might be expected only briars and thorns, fruit-bearing trees of righteousness will appear. In such places as these there are those who will bloom more sweetly for the Lord than many who live in more favored places. All around them they will shed the fragrance of His grace as they bloom in most unpromising places.--Letter 39, February 28, 1903, to J. Wessells.
------------------------In His Steps, February 29
TDG	68	1	For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10.
TDG	68	2	The Lord does not accept the service of those who live an inefficient, do-nothing life. They exert an influence that leads away from Christ. Self-denial and nobility of purpose marked His life. From the beginning to the close of His earthly ministry He went about doing good. In His life no sin appeared. No selfishness marred word or act. "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" (John 8:46), He asked the Pharisees, knowing that they could find nothing of which to accuse Him. And at His trial, Pilate declared emphatically, "I find in him no fault at all" (John 18:38).
TDG	68	3	Christ declares that as He lived, so we are to live. "Whosoever will come after me," He says, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Mark 8:34). His footsteps lead along the pathway of sacrifice.
TDG	68	4	As we pass through life, there come to us many opportunities for service. All around us there are open doors for ministry. By the right use of the talent of speech, we may do much for the Master. Words are a power for good when they are weighted with the tenderness and sympathy of Christ. Money, influence, tact, time, and strength--all these are gifts entrusted to us to make us more helpful to those around us, and more of an honor to our Creator.
TDG	68	5	Many feel that it would be a privilege to visit the scenes of Christ's life on earth, to walk where He trod, to look upon the lake where He loved to teach, and the valleys and hills where His eyes so often rested; but we need not go to Palestine in order to walk in the steps of Jesus. We shall find His footprints beside the sickbed, in the hovels of poverty, in the crowded alleys of the great city, and in every place where there are human hearts in need of consolation.
TDG	68	6	All may find something to do. "The poor always ye have with you" (John 12:8), Jesus said, and none need feel that there is no place where they can labor for Him....
TDG	68	7	Christ's rule of life, by which everyone must stand or fall in the judgment, is, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them" (Matthew 7:12).--The Review and Herald, February 29, 1912.
------------------------The Only Security, March 1
TDG	69	1	Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Exodus 31:13.
TDG	69	2	Let every one seek the Lord for himself. Eternity is before us. You cannot afford to let another day pass without taking your position on the Lord's side. Will you not act the part that God has appointed you to act in the closing scenes of this earth's history?
TDG	69	3	It is impossible to give any idea of the experience of the people of God who will be alive on the earth when past woes and celestial glory will be blended. They will walk in the light proceeding from the throne of God. By the means of the angels there will be constant communication between heaven and earth. And Satan, surrounded by evil angels, and claiming to be God, will work miracles of all kinds, to deceive, if possible, the very elect. God's people will not find their safety in working miracles; for Satan would counterfeit any miracle that might be worked. God's tried and tested people will find their power in the sign spoken of in Exodus 31:12-18. They are to take their stand on the living Word--"It is written." This is the only foundation upon which they can stand securely. Those who have broken their covenant with God will in that day be without hope and without God in the world.
TDG	69	4	The worshipers of God will be especially distinguished by their regard for the fourth commandment--since this is the sign of His creative power, and the witness to His claim upon man's reverence and homage. The wicked will be distinguished by their efforts to tear down the Creator's memorial, to exalt the institution of Rome. In the issue of the contest, all Christendom will be divided into two great classes--those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark....
TDG	69	5	Fearful tests and trials await the people of God. The spirit of war is stirring the nations from one end of the earth to the other. But in the midst of the time of trouble that is coming--a time of trouble such as has not been since there was a nation--God's chosen people will stand unmoved. Satan and his angels cannot destroy them; for angels that excel in strength will protect them.--Letter 119, March 1, 1904, to J. J. Wessells.
------------------------Provoke to Love, March 2
TDG	70	1	I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me. Psalm 39:1.
TDG	70	2	My children, watch unto prayer, and become more and more careful in regard to your words and your deportment. "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation" (Matthew 26:41). It is poor policy to give the enemy the slightest advantage. My son, be gentlemanly, and you will strengthen your influence over those with whom you work. Never speak unadvisedly. Let your respect for yourself as Christ's representative keep you from giving way to anger. If we respect ourselves by wearing Christ's yoke, we shall increase our influence tenfold.
TDG	70	3	Human nature will continue to be human nature, but it can be elevated and ennobled by union with the divine nature. It is by partaking of the divine nature that men and women escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.
TDG	70	4	Truth must be practiced in order to be a power in the world. When truth abides in the heart, the daily experience is a revelation of the controlling power of Christ's grace. Never keep the truth in the outer court. Let the Holy Spirit stamp it on the soul....
TDG	70	5	Reverence God and His purchased possession. Be careful of your manners, because you are Christ's representative. Guard your words carefully, and labor earnestly for the conviction and conversion of sinners. Keep the heart uplifted to God in prayer. When unkind, untrue words are spoken to you, do not lose control of yourself. Remember that "a soft answer turneth away wrath" (Proverbs 15:1), and that he that rules his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city.
TDG	70	6	A true Christian is a gentleman. Those who are filled with conceit think it their privilege to say many things that might better be left unsaid. Fewer words and more kind actions would make them a power for good. God declares, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matthew 12:37). All our words and deeds, good and evil, are passing in review before God. How solemn the thought!
TDG	70	7	The Word of God warns us not to provoke one another to wrath. But there is one kind of provoking that is justifiable. Paul writes: ... "I Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works" (Hebrews 10:24).--Letter 38, March 2, 1903, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Acceptable Ambition, March 3
TDG	71	1	And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. Exodus 33:19.
TDG	71	2	In this representation the Lord desired to teach the lesson that He requires in His people purity of character, holiness of life. He desires to see revealed in them toward each other the attributes of mercy and loving kindness and longsuffering, that His people may demonstrate that "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psalm 19:7). The Lord is ready to manifest Himself to us if our hearts are seeking and serving Him. It is ever His desire to impart the richest blessings to those who serve Him with a pure heart. Christ will be our teacher if we will open our hearts to His instruction and obey His voice....
TDG	71	3	It is the Lord's will that you should exert a wide influence for good. Have you resolved to be a decided Christian? Then fail not nor be discouraged. Let your work have an uplifting influence, that you may be a laborer together with God. The Lord would have us all glorify His name.
TDG	71	4	Last night a heavy burden rested upon me in regard to the great work that is to be done. It is a work that calls for the exercise of all the capabilities that men possess. Will you not exercise your capabilities in a way that will bring you into perfect union with Jesus Christ? As parents and teachers we are to cooperate with the divine Teacher. We are to labor to restore to men and women the sense of moral obligation which has been lost. Let every parent now cooperate with the divine plan, and thus become laborers together with God.
TDG	71	5	All our varied capabilities belong to God. He has bought us by the gift of His only begotten Son, and those who have a sense of their obligation to God will cooperate with the divine purpose. Those who carry responsibilities in this work of giving the third angel's message to the world are to show a determined purpose to advance the work of God. Heart and soul and voice are to be consecrated to Him that they may reach the highest degree of excellence--a likeness to the character of God. Every faculty, every attribute with which the Lord has endowed us is to be employed for the uplifting of our fellow men. If we will do our best, working with unselfish spirit, the Lord will accept our service.--Letter 50, March 3, 1909, to a physician in private practice.
------------------------Every Step of the Way, March 4
TDG	72	1	For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8.
TDG	72	2	We cannot even manufacture faith ourselves. "It is the gift of God: (Ephesians 2:8). The whole of our salvation comes through the gift of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. How glad I am. It comes from such a source that we cannot doubt it. And He is "the author"--does it stop there? Does it stop there? "The author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). Thank God. He attends us every step of the way through, if we are willing to be saved in Christ's appointed way, through obedience to His requirements. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). What does this mean? Is it a contradiction? Let us see what the last of it says. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Verses 12, 13). Praise God. Now who will be discouraged? Who is going to faint? It is not committed to us, weak, feeble mortals to work out our own salvation in our own line. It is Christ that worketh in you. And this is the privilege of every son and daughter of Adam. But we are to work. We are not to be idle. We are put here in this world to work. We are not put here to fold our arms.--Manuscript 18, March 4, 1894, "Laborers Together With God."
TDG	72	3	Christ taught the truth because He was the truth. His own thought, His character, His life experience, were embodied in His teaching. So with His servants: those who would teach the word are to make it their own by a personal experience. They must know what it means to have Christ made unto them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. In presenting the Word of God to others, they are not to make it a suppose-so, or a may-be. They should declare with the apostle Peter, "We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (2 Peter 1:16)....
TDG	72	4	As a worker gives himself unreservedly to the service of the Lord, he gains an experience that enables him to work more and more successfully for the Master.--Letter 86, March 4, 1907, to "Our churches in large cities."
------------------------More Than Words, March 5
TDG	73	1	Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23.
TDG	73	2	Without thorough purification of the life, without meekness and humbleness of mind, the professing followers of Christ can not honor Him before the world. If the graces of Christ are not revealed in their lives, they can never be admitted to the heavenly mansions He has gone to prepare for those that love Him and keep His commandments.
TDG	73	3	There are among our church members many who, while professing to walk in the ways of the Lord, are bringing into their profession the ways and habits of unconverted self, and these are spoiling their characters. So much that is frivolous is brought into the home and church life, that the Spirit of Christ is grieved. There are entire families among us who, unless they arouse from their sleepy indifference, will be lost; for they are not converted daily; they do not understand the divine science of true godliness; and therefore they are not vessels that the Master can use. They have allowed Satan to have the guidance and control of their words and actions, and they do not realize how much harm they have done to souls by their self-exaltation. They have hurt the heart of Christ by hurting those who are the purchase of His blood. I am bidden to say to these unconverted professors, "Dig deep, and lay your foundations solidly upon the Rock Christ Jesus. It is not enough for us to talk of the higher life. Our daily course of action is to be an interpretation to others of what the higher life means....
TDG	73	4	The future eternal life of each individual depends, not on words, not on profession, but on earnest works. We need to make decided efforts in order to keep the heart with all diligence, while looking to Jesus as the Author and Finisher of our faith. We need to watch over an unruly tongue; we need to watch for opportunities to do good as Jesus did. Ministers of the gospel, preach Christ. Bring His heavenly grace into your lives and thoughts. Be truthful, and ever keep under the discipline of the Word of God. We must be saved in God's appointed way. We must lean upon His counsel, and unite in His works. A penitent heart is always sensitive. Teach every individual who claims to be a child of God, that a well-built character will always be after the divine pattern.--Letter 78, March 5, 1907, to Members of the Berkeley Churches.
------------------------Open the Door, March 6
TDG	74	1	Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20.
TDG	74	2	When the heart is emptied of self-importance, the door will be opened to Christ, because you will recognize His knock. But unless you clear away the rubbish that keeps the Lord Jesus out, He cannot possibly enter; for He forces no entrance.
TDG	74	3	In the visions of the night I have been bearing a decided testimony that the Lord Jesus will be found of all who will seek Him with the whole heart, and lay hold of Him by faith. I was addressing you with intensity of earnestness. Answer the prayer of Christ for unity, and put away the suspicions with which Satan has been trying to lead you astray. Dismiss the enemy, and then the Spirit of the Lord will lift up for you a standard against the enemy....
TDG	74	4	The prosperity of the soul depends upon Christ's atoning sacrifice. He came to this world to obtain forgiveness in our behalf. Our first work is to strive most earnestly for spiritual blessings, in order that we may be kept loyal and true amidst the perils of these last days--kept from yielding one inch to Satan's devices. It is the duty of every one to make straight paths for his feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. We have no time to lose. The prosperity of the soul depends upon the oneness that Christ prayed might exist among those who believe in Him. They are to be one with Him as He is one with the Father. Drawing apart from one another is not God's plan, but the plan of the artful foe.
TDG	74	5	We are to beware of those who are denying their past experience, and who, through specious devising, would if possible deceive the very elect. He who is our Advocate in the heavenly courts is acquainted with every particular of the deceptive wiles of those who are doing this work. Those who are departing from the faith are at work to undermine the confidence of others, and they have been thus at work for years. Our warnings come from the One who is interested in us, because He sees our dangers, and is acquainted with the conniving of those who are opposed to His truth....
TDG	74	6	He who is our Intercessor in the heavenly courts will purify His people. Christ will perfect His saints.--Letter 90, March 6, 1906, to the brethren assembled in council at Graysville, Tennessee.
------------------------Open the Top Windows! March 7
TDG	75	1	Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually. 1 Chronicles 16:11.
TDG	75	2	Now just now is our opportunity to open the windows of the soul heavenward and to close the windows earthward. Now is the time for every church member to say, I will close my heart to everything that would hinder my communion with Christ; I will open the windows of my soul heavenward that I may understand spiritual things.
TDG	75	3	Believers need to talk with God in regard to their individual need of the Holy Spirit. The Word of God must be their assurance. All heaven is inviting us to receive the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness into our lives. If we will talk faith and hope and courage, our souls will be strengthened, and our hope and courage and faith will increase. Let us seek this great gift of the Sun of Righteousness, that it may shine forth in our lives to others. Let us seek the Lord that we may learn how to work His works in the world. This will make us successful missionaries, able to help others to a hopeful, courageous experience.
TDG	75	4	In our service for the Master, let not the little things be overlooked. Every human being has a life web to weave, and if the pattern is complete and perfected at last, every thread of the pattern must be carefully and faithfully worked. The grace of Christ will enable us to weave skillfully and well. Day by day we are to put forth personal diligent effort to improve. Every day we are to use our Christian intelligence in the work of strengthening the weak, and encouraging the desponding. A great test is coming to every soul. Shall we not then work and watch and pray and praise the Lord? This will give us a most precious experience. Very much has been lost to many believers because they have neglected to seek the Lord with earnestness and with a faith that will not be denied.
TDG	75	5	Words spoken and works performed in a simple, humble, encouraging way will inspire faith in other hearts. The Lord is soon to come, and the natural heart must be daily converted. We must learn to speak words in the meekness of Christ; our works and our spirit must testify that we are serving the Lord.--Letter 54, March 7, 1909, to Elder S. N. Haskell, a conference president.
------------------------What Love Does, March 8
TDG	76	1	While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Psalm 146:2.
TDG	76	2	For half a century I have been the Lord's messenger, and as long as my life shall last I shall continue to bear the messages that God gives me for His people. I take no glory to myself; in my youth the Lord made me His messenger, to communicate to His people testimonies of encouragement, warning, and reproof. For sixty years I have been in communication with heavenly messengers, and I have been constantly learning in reference to divine things, and in reference to the way in which God is constantly working to bring souls from the error of their ways to the light in God's light ....
TDG	76	3	I love God. I love Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and I feel an intense interest in every soul who claims to be a child of God. I am determined to be a faithful steward so long as the Lord shall spare my life. I will not fail nor be discouraged.
TDG	76	4	But for months my soul has been passing through intense agony on account of those who have received the sophistries of Satan [pantheistic teachings; see Testimonies for the Church 8:255-304] and are communicating the same to others, making every conceivable interpretation in various ways to destroy confidence in the gospel messages for this last generation, and in the special work which God has given me to do. I know that the Lord has given me this work, and I have no excuse to make for what I have done. In my experience I am constantly receiving evidence of the sustaining miracle-working power of God upon my body and my soul, which I have dedicated to the Lord. I am not my own; I have been bought with a price. And I have such assurance of the Lord's working in my behalf that I must acknowledge His abundant grace. I love the Lord; I love my Saviour, and my life is wholly in the hands of God. As long as He sustains me, I shall bear a decided testimony.
TDG	76	5	Why should I complain? So many times has the Lord raised me up from sickness, so wonderfully has He sustained me, that I can never doubt. I have so many unmistakable evidences of His special blessings, that I could not possibly doubt. He gives me freedom to speak His truth before large numbers of people.--Letter 86, March 8, 1906, to Elder G. I. Butler, president of the Southern Union Conference.
------------------------Follow the Directions, March 9
TDG	77	1	Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. John 6:31.
TDG	77	2	The education of the Israelites included all their habits of life. Everything that concerned their well-being was the subject of divine solicitude, and came within the province of divine law. It was because the Lord desired to make them His representatives that He provided them with a special bill of fare. They were placed under careful restrictions in regard to their diet. The use of flesh food was almost entirely prohibited. The people were to be holy, and the Lord knew that the use of flesh meat would be a hindrance to their advancement in spiritual life. By a miracle of mercy He fed them with the bread of heaven. The food provided for them was of a nature to promote physical, mental, and moral strength, and ...the wisdom of God's choice for them was vindicated in a manner that they could not gainsay. Notwithstanding the hardships of their wilderness life, there was not a feeble one in all their tribes.
TDG	77	3	If the Israelites had been given the diet to which they had been accustomed while in Egypt, they would have exhibited the unmanageable spirit that the world is exhibiting today. In the diet of men and women in this age there are included many things that the Lord would not have permitted the children of Israel to eat. The human family as it is today is an illustration of what the children of Israel would have been if God had allowed them to eat the food and follow the habits and customs of the Egyptians.
TDG	77	4	The history of the wilderness life of Israel was chronicled for the benefit of the Israel of God till the close of time. The record of God's dealing with the wanderers in all their marchings to and fro, in their exposure to hunger, thirst, and weariness, and in the striking manifestations of His power for their relief, is fraught with warning and instruction for His people in this age. The varied experiences of the Hebrews was a school of preparation for their promised home in Canaan. God would have His people review in these days, with a humble heart and a teachable spirit, the trials through which ancient Israel passed, that they may be instructed in their preparation for the heavenly Canaan.--Letter 44, March 9, 1903, to Elder J. A. Burden, manager, Sydney Sanitarium
------------------------Rule of Righteousness, March 10
TDG	78	1	Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, ...make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13:20, 21.
TDG	78	2	When you come together for worship and to seek the Lord, it should be your one aim to honor Him whose requirements are all equal and just. His will, declared to you in His word, is to be carried out to the letter. The rule of righteousness revealed in the lives of His professing people is to make them conspicuous. We are to live with an eye single to the glory of God, ever seeking to be Christians in every sense of the word.
TDG	78	3	These words were spoken by our Instructor: "You are to be under the control of God. Learn how to harmonize. Love as brethren; be pitiful; be courteous. God's commandments are just and equal. All His workers are to be honored as laborers together with God.
TDG	78	4	"The varied interests of the work are to be built up with care. From this time onward responsibilities will rapidly increase. God's will, the perfect rule of righteousness, is to be revealed in your work. Commune often every day with your God, and listen to the voice that says to you, 'Be still, and know that I am God' (Psalm 46:10). As your responsibilities increase with the advancement of the message, temptations will also increase. As the magnitude of the work presses itself upon the soul, humble your hearts before God. Act faithfully your part in the work, and stand faithfully in your individual accountability before God. God is no respecter of persons. He that doeth righteousness is righteous. A mere profession is of no value, and knowledge is of worth only as it is used righteously.
TDG	78	5	"Murmur not; repine not; covet not; quarrel not;" our Instructor continued. "When you are afflicted, look to the great Physician. You have need to rejoice, and to humble yourselves before the Lord. By indulging a selfish spirit, men become narrow and shortsighted; and then they fail to read from cause to effect. The Word of the Lord is to be your guide in all things. 'The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him'" (Habakkuk 2:20)....
TDG	78	6	The Lord now calls upon the men chosen for His work to stand as one man for the advancement of the cause of Christ.--Letter 112, March 10, 1907, to the directors of the Nashville Sanitarium and the Southern Union Conference.
------------------------The Charming Christian, March 11
TDG	79	1	Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another. Romans 12:10.
TDG	79	2	We cannot set ourselves as a criterion to which others must conform. We will reveal a tenderness of heart and a whole-souled enthusiasm in promoting the happiness of all with whom we are connected. We have a duty to do in eliminating self from our plans and in feeling a personal responsibility to act as Christ would act in circumstances similar to those with which we are surrounded. Then we will impress the minds of others in such a way that God will be glorified.
TDG	79	3	As followers of Christ we should seek to make the most favorable impression upon the minds of all we have connection with, of the religion we profess, and to inspire noble thoughts. Some will be affected by our influence through time and through eternity....
TDG	79	4	If we would teach others, we ourselves must daily learn lessons from Christ. There are some who do not comprehend the sacredness of the work of God. Those of the least ability, the most thoughtless and even the indolent youth, especially demand our prayerful consideration. We need special wisdom to know how to help those who seem inconsiderate and thoughtless. Said David, "Thy gentleness hath made me great" (2 Samuel 22:36, Psalm 18:35).
TDG	79	5	In the work of applying ourselves to help others, we may gain most precious victories. We must devote ourselves with untiring zeal, with earnest fidelity, with self-denial and with patience to the work of encouraging those who need to develop. Kind, encouraging words will do wonders. There are many who, if a constant, cheerful effort is put forth in their behalf, without faultfinding or continual chiding, will show themselves susceptible of improvement....
TDG	79	6	We are to cooperate with the Lord Jesus in restoring the inefficient and the erring to intelligence and sacred purity. We are called by God to manifest an untiring, patient interest in the salvation of those who need divine polishing....
TDG	79	7	God will not withhold wisdom from those who seek for it. He gives grace to one, that he in turn may impart it to some other needy soul.--Letter 94, March 11, 1905, to Sister Josephine Gotzian, a philanthropic Adventist widow.
------------------------Personal, Practical Piety, March 12
TDG	80	1	The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Ephesians 1:18.
TDG	80	2	Let the eye of your understanding be so enlightened that it will affect your hearts, and that the soul temple will be so full of divine mercy and compassion for perishing souls who have never heard the message that you will be aroused to put forth practical efforts in their behalf. Having our eyes thus opened to the wants of the destitute fields around us, we shall be led to bind about our own imaginary wants. Our work in missionary lines must be far more extensive. Self-denial and self-sacrifice must be practiced as they have not yet been.
TDG	80	3	It is in working actively to supply the necessities of the cause of God that we shall bring our souls in touch with the Source of all power. But let no one entertain the idea that those who have embraced the truth will be engaged in imparting more than in receiving. Your spiritual expenditures need not exceed your spiritual income. The one is essential to the other. Neglect the one, and the other will be neglected. The most interested active servants of God in every age have been those who have had most living, practical piety. Their spiritual wants were supplied from the never failing source of power, that they might impart to others. When we have an eye single to the glory of God, we shall cultivate personal piety.
TDG	80	4	There is danger of our religious activity losing in depth as it gains in surface. There is danger of our workers depending upon human agents, upon facilities, and great preparations for work, and losing their firm faith in God, in making every outward show of prosperity, while the work in the heart is neglected. Philanthropy, however widespread, cannot take the place of personal piety. Danger is on every hand, and we need to be constantly depending upon God, that His Holy Spirit may make our hearts pure, unselfish, and quick to hear the orders from above....
TDG	80	5	There is nothing insignificant in the work of God, and the faithfulness with which the work is done rather than the amount decides the reward of each. The work of the one who has but one talent is as valuable in the sight of God as the one who has five talents.--Manuscript 25, March 12, 1899, "Faithfulness in the Work of God."
------------------------Lighting the Path, March 13
TDG	81	1	Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:14, 15, R.S.V.
TDG	81	2	Christians must be light-givers, holding forth the words of life. They are exhorted by the apostle to the highest achievements of piety. The world will not be convinced by what the pulpit teaches, but by what the church lives. The path to heaven is dark or bright, just in proportion as the church gives forth a clear and strong, or doubtful, fitful light. The preacher in the desk announces the theory of the gospel, but the practical piety of the church demonstrates the power of truth, showing its real value.
TDG	81	3	The gospel is a system of practical truths destined to work great changes in human character. If it does not work the transformation in life, in habits, and practice, it is no truth to those who claim to believe it. Man must be sanctified through the truth. And said Jesus, "Thy word is truth" (John 17:17). Unless the truth of God shall lift up man out of his depravity, his intemperate and profligate habits, and make him reflect the image of God, he is lost.
TDG	81	4	Your lives, my brethren and sisters, must be after a different model than they have hitherto been, and constitute the demonstration in the sight of heaven and earth that you are lights in the world, holding forth the words of life. The piety of the members of the church constitutes the world's standard of the gospel. Then let every church member in St. Clare do his duty well; for you are laborers together with God. Let your example be in harmony with the great pattern.
TDG	81	5	Do all things without murmurings and disputings, without grumbling, without envy. Do not repeat or believe the old slander that the man of one talent brought against God, "I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow" (Luke 19:21). This parable represented the many professors of religion who gauged their piety to reach the lowest standard possible, and escape perdition.
TDG	81	6	There is need of your being diligent, prayerful students of the Bible, then you will see the exalted standard, and aim to reach it.--Letter 14, March 13, 1885, to the church at St. Clare, Nevada.
------------------------Birthright Blessings, March 14
TDG	82	1	I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Psalm 32:8.
TDG	82	2	It is as much the privilege of every individual member of the church to know from the Word God's will in regard to his course of action as it is for the president of the conference or for any other man in office of trust. The Lord would be sought unto by all who would be instructed and enlightened and worked by the Holy Spirit. God is ready to commune with His people....
TDG	82	3	Every individual must seek by earnest prayer to know the Word of God for himself, and then to do it. Only in day by day putting his trust in God, and not in the arm of flesh, will any soul obtain the experience essential to answer the prayer of Christ, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). This is the lesson given to every soul who has commenced the new year. In all your temporal concerns, in all your cares and anxieties, wait upon the Lord. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of man because they may be in positions of trust. The Lord has united your heart with Him. If you love Him, and are accepted in His service, bring all your burdens, both public and private, to the Lord and wait upon Him. You will then have an individual experience, a conviction of His presence and His readiness to hear your prayer for wisdom and for instruction that will give you assurance and confidence in the Lord's willingness to succor you in your perplexities....
TDG	82	4	He would have you rejoice and praise Him every day for the privilege granted to you in the words of Christ: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).... Spread out your case before the Lord, and whatever your anxieties and trials, your spirit will be braced for endurance. The way will be opened before you to disentangle yourself from embarrassment and difficulty. You need not go to the next town or to the ends of the earth to learn what course you shall pursue. Trust in God as your present Helper, who will overrule all things as One who knows best.--Manuscript 15, March 14, 1897, "Individual Experience Necessary."
------------------------The Courteous Christian, March 15
TDG	83	1	And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32.
TDG	83	2	We need to cherish love in our hearts. We should not be ready to think evil of our brethren. We must put the least construction on what they do or what they say. We must be Bible Christians. "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently" (1 Peter 1:22).
TDG	83	3	We must not be heedless in regard to our own souls' salvation. "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves" (2 Corinthians 13:5).
TDG	83	4	We are not to pass on indifferently. We must inquire into the character of our thoughts and feelings, our tempers, purposes, words, and deeds. We are not safe unless we are constantly and successfully warring against our own sinful corruptions. We must consider whether we are an example of Christian holiness, whether we are in the faith. Unless we search diligently examining our hearts in the light of God's Word, self-love will prompt to a much better opinion of ourselves than we should have. We must not be so earnest in our efforts to set others right that we shall neglect our own souls. We need not be so zealous for our brethren and in this zeal neglect the work that needs to be done for ourselves. Another's wrong will not make our cases any nearer right. There is an individual work to be done for ourselves, which we should in no wise neglect....
TDG	83	5	If we are filled with mercy and love of God, a corresponding effect will be produced upon others. We have nothing of which to boast. All is the gift of a beneficent Saviour. We must attend to our own souls diligently. We must walk in humility. We want no war garments on, but the garments of peace and righteousness. May the Lord teach us how to wear His yoke and how to bear His burdens. Everything in this cause and in this work may be accomplished with a kind, conciliating spirit. We may be courteous, always, and never be afraid of being too much so. We must practice showing good will toward all men.--Letter 11, March 15, 1880, to a General Conference officer.
------------------------Assurance of Victory, March 16
TDG	84	1	Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father. Galatians 1:4.
TDG	84	2	By giving His life for the life of the world, Christ bridged the gulf that sin had made, joining this sin-cursed earth to the universe of heaven as a province. God chose this world to be the theater of His mighty works of grace. While the sentence of condemnation was suspended over it because of the rebellion of its inhabitants, while the clouds of wrath were accumulating because of the transgression of the law of God, a mysterious voice was heard in heaven, "Lo, I come...to do thy will, O God" (Psalm 40:7, 8). Our substitute and surety came from heaven declaring that He had brought with Him the vast and inestimable donation of eternal life. Pardon is offered to all who will return their allegiance to the law of God. But there are those who refuse to accept a "thus saith the Lord." They will not reverence and respect His law. They make rigorous human enactments in opposition to a "thus saith the Lord," and by precept and example lead men, women, and children into sin. They exalt human enactments above the divine law. But the condemnation and wrath of God are suspended over the disobedient. The clouds of God's justice are gathering. The material of destruction has been piled up for ages; and still apostasy, rebellion, and disloyalty against God is continually increasing. The remnant people of God, who keep His commandments, will understand the word spoken by Daniel, "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (Daniel 12:10).
TDG	84	3	Satan has called this world his territory. Here his seat is, and he holds in allegiance to himself all who refuse to keep God's commandments, who reject a plain, "thus saith the Lord." They stand under the enemy's banner; for there are but two parties in the world. All rank either under the banner of the obedient or under the banner of the disobedient.
TDG	84	4	Jesus is now sending His message to a fallen world. He delights to take apparently hopeless material, those through whom Satan has worked, and make them the subjects of His grace. He rejoices to deliver them from the wrath which is to fall upon the disobedient.--Manuscript 41, March 16, 1898," The Measure of God's Love."
------------------------Talents Are for Use, March 17
TDG	85	1	Whatever gift each of you may have received, use it in service to one another, like good stewards dispensing the grace of God in its varied forms. 1 Peter 4:10, N.E.B.
TDG	85	2	How many of God's gifts have been misused, because those to whom they were given did not have the fervor of the love of Christ in the soul. There is great need of each one doing his best. There are those who would have used wisely the talents given them, if they had been left to struggle and depend on their capabilities. But they became the possessors of means, and they lost the incentive to cultivate their talents, and make all possible of themselves by communicating what they had. An abundance of money has spoiled them for faithfully fulfilling their stewardship.
TDG	85	3	Let all who claim to be Christians deal wisely with the Lord's goods. God is making an inventory of the money lent you and the spiritual advantages given you. Will you as stewards make careful inventory? Will you examine whether you are using economically all that God has placed in your charge, or whether you are wasting the Lord's goods by selfish outlay in order to make a display? Would that all that is spent needlessly, were laid up as treasure in heaven.
TDG	85	4	God gives more than money to His stewards. Your talent of imparting is a gift. What are you communicating of the gifts of God in your words, in your tender sympathy? Are you allowing your money to go into the enemy's ranks to ruin the ones you seek to please? Then again, the knowledge of the truth is a talent. There are many souls in darkness that might be enlightened by true, faithful words from you. There are hearts that are hungering for sympathy, perishing away from God. Your sympathy may help them....
TDG	85	5	The first work for all Christians to do is to search the Scriptures with most earnest prayer, that they may have that faith that works by love, and purifies the soul from every thread of selfishness. If the truth is received into the heart, it works like good leaven, until every power is brought into subjection to the will of God. Then you can no more help shining, than the sun can help shining.--Manuscript 42, March 17, 1898, "To Every Man His Work."
------------------------Price Tag of Sin, March 18
TDG	86	1	He hath made every thing beautiful in his time. Ecclesiastes 3:11.
TDG	86	2	He [God] wants us to see the natural beauty in our world. He wants us to see this, and to educate our children to see that these are an expression of God's love to man. Here is a voice speaking to you parents to soften and subdue your hearts. Keep ever before you the One that made heaven and earth, that clad the world with its green velvet carpet, that has given us the lofty trees and clad them in their green foliage. But instead of talking of the praise of the God that made all these, humanity talks of the things of human manufacture, and they think of their houses that are so beautiful and their dresses that are so richly adorned. All this takes time and money, and that means souls. God has given us money that we may expend it to His glory. Oh, if the curtain could be rolled back: if we could only get a sight of the love of God that passeth knowledge. I scarcely dare to touch it; I scarcely dare to mention the glory that is in reserve. For whom? Every soul that has been tested and tried and that has an eye single to the glory of God, that will be loyal to the truth of heaven. The world's honor, the world's glory, and the world's applause are not worth anything to us.
TDG	86	3	Every soul that believes in Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour, what then? Then the love flows from the heart of God to his heart. What does that heart do then? It turns to serve God and keep His commandments lest it will be found as Adam and Eve were after their transgression. We cannot afford that. We cannot afford to sin. Sin is an expensive business....
TDG	86	4	We want to enter the gates of the eternal city. When the pearly gates are thrown back we want to hear the voice of welcome. We want to have the crown of immortal glory placed upon our brow. We want that robe that is woven in the loom of heaven, white as no fuller on earth can white it; we want to see the King in His beauty and behold His matchless charms.... I beg of you to lay up your treasures in heaven. Rid yourself of everything that will so confuse your mind that you will not be able to distinguish between the sacred and the common.--Manuscript 20, March 18, 1894, "Our Father's Care for His Children."
------------------------Choosing and Doing, March 19
TDG	87	1	Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 1 Peter 2:24.
TDG	87	2	It is because He [Christ] has borne the punishment in His own body on the cross that man has a second probation. He may, if he will, return this loyalty. But, if he refuses to obey the commands of God, if he rejects the warnings and messages God sends, choosing rather the words of fallacy spoken by those who echo the word of the Deceiver, he is willingly ignorant, and the condemnation of God is upon him. He chooses disobedience because obedience means lifting the cross and practicing self-denial, and following Christ in the path of obedience.
TDG	87	3	The natural mind leans toward pleasure and self-gratification and it is Satan's policy to manufacture an abundance of this, that they may be filled with excitement, leaving men and women no time to consider the question, How is it with my soul? The love of pleasure is infectious. Given up to this, the mind hurries from one point to another, ever seeking for some amusement....
TDG	87	4	The ability to enjoy the riches of glory will be developed in proportion to the desire we have for these riches. How shall an appreciation of God and heavenly things be developed unless it is in this life? If the claims and cares of the world are allowed to engross all our time and attention, our spiritual powers weaken and die because they are not exercised. In a mind wholly given to earthly things, every inlet through which light from heaven may enter, is closed. God's transforming grace cannot be felt on mind and character. The talents which should be used in active piety, are ignored and neglected. How then can a response be made when the invitation is heard, "Come; for all things are now ready" (Luke 14:17)? How is it possible for a man to receive the commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant," when he has been disobedient, unthankful, unholy? He has trained the mind to disregard God's plainest requirements, to dislike religious things. He loves the things of earth more than the things of heaven.
TDG	87	5	Obedience to God's commands will enroll our names in the Lamb's book of life, "for we are made partakers of Christ" (Hebrews 3:14).--Manuscript 28, March 19, 1899, "Think Not That I Am Come to Destroy the Law."
------------------------Remedy for Ruin, March 20
TDG	88	1	But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Galatians 6:14.
TDG	88	2	Look at the cross of Calvary. It is a standing pledge of the boundless love, the measureless mercy, of the heavenly Father. O that all might repent and do their first works. When the churches do this, they will love God supremely and their neighbors as themselves. Ephraim will not envy Judah, and Judah will not vex Ephraim. Divisions will then be healed, the harsh sounds of strife will no more be heard in the borders of Israel. Through the grace freely given them of God, all will seek to answer the prayer of Christ, that His disciples should be one, even as He and the Father are one. Peace, love, mercy, and benevolence will be the abiding principles of the soul. The love of Christ will be the theme of every tongue, and it will no more be said by the true Witness, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love" (Revelation 2:4). The people of God will be abiding in Christ, the love of Jesus will be revealed, and one Spirit will animate all hearts, regenerating and renewing all in the image of Christ, fashioning all hearts alike. As living branches of the true Vine, all will be united to Christ, the living head. Christ will abide in every heart, guiding, comforting, sanctifying, and presenting to the world the unity of the followers of Jesus, thus bearing testimony that the heavenly credentials are supplied to the remnant church. In the oneness of Christ's church it will be proved that God sent His only begotten Son into the world....
TDG	88	3	Works will not buy for us an entrance into heaven. The one great Offering that has been made is ample for all who will believe. The love of Christ will animate the believer with new life. He who drinks from the water of the fountain of life, will be filled with the new wine of the kingdom. Faith in Christ will be the means whereby the right spirit and motive will actuate the believer, and all goodness and heavenly-mindedness will proceed from him who looks unto Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith. Look up to God, look not to men. God is your heavenly Father who is willing patiently to bear with your infirmities, and to forgive and heal them.--The Review and Herald, March 20, 1894.
------------------------Contrition, Confession, Cooperation, March 21
TDG	89	1	If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9.
TDG	89	2	The temptations of the enemy will come; but shall we give him the advantage to break down all the barriers, by yielding one iota from the strictest principles of integrity? If we yield in the least, he will follow one temptation with another, until we shall go directly contrary to the plainest statements of the Word of God, and follow the mind and will of Satan. Satan and his confederacy of evil angels are ever on the alert to see by what means they may ensnare and ruin souls who have enlisted under the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel. You did run well for a season, you did taste and see that the Lord is good; but when you fell into sin, you walked in darkness. When you yielded to temptation, you must have ceased to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. But, having confessed your sins, believe that the Word of God cannot fail, but that He is faithful that hath promised. It is just as much your duty to believe that God will fulfil His word, and forgive your sins, as it is your duty to confess your sins. You must exercise faith in God as in one who will do exactly as He has promised in His Word, and pardon all your transgressions.
TDG	89	3	How may we know that the Lord is indeed our sin-pardoning Redeemer, and prove what is the blessedness, the grace, the love there is in Him for us? O, we must believe His word implicitly, with contrite and submissive spirit! There is no need to go mourning and ever repenting, and under a cloud of continual condemnation. Believe the Word of God, keep looking unto Jesus, dwelling upon His virtues and mercies, and there will be created in the heart an utter abhorrence of that which is evil. You will be among those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. But the more closely we discern Jesus, the more clearly we shall see our own defects of character.
TDG	89	4	As we see our failings, let us confess them to Jesus, and, with true contrition of soul, cooperate with the divine power of the Holy Spirit to overcome all evil. If we confess our sins, we must believe that they are pardoned, because the promise is positive.--The Review and Herald, March 21, 1912.
------------------------Probation and Perfection, March 22
TDG	90	1	Do you give service? Give it as in the strength which God supplies. In all things so act that the glory may be God's through Jesus Christ; to him belong glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:11, N.E.B.
TDG	90	2	All the varied capabilities that men possess, soul, body, and spirit, are given them of God to be so educated and trained that they may reach the highest possible degree of excellence. The human agency must cooperate with the divine purpose, and in so doing man is pronounced a laborer together with God. Every faculty, every attribute with which God has endowed us is to be used to His name's glory. Man must cooperate with Christ to restore the moral image of God in man, and it is in wearing the yoke of Christ, and learning daily Christ's meekness and lowliness, that Christ can use him to be a blessing to his fellow men.
TDG	90	3	Taught first by Christ, and then guarding his own mind and soul, he shall serve a holy purpose in lifting his own thought to that which is pure and elevating, and through words and example awaken in the soul of his fellow men devotion and gratitude to God. In thus doing he is a laborer together with God. He is not to employ one entrusted gift to exalt self, to seek praise of men, but to exalt God, to inspire minds--not to think of what glory he may bring to himself, but how he can prove himself a blessing to his fellow men and become the most successful agency to draw souls to contemplate heavenly things. He must teach others in words and deeds to walk in Christ's footsteps. Then his own mind will become well-balanced, and his endowments will be appreciated as the gift of God to be employed in God's great plan to help in every way possible. By harmonious action with God in His great plan, he will fill his appointed place. He will bring himself back, through the grace of God given him to the perfection of Christ's character. Uplifted himself, through the grace of God, he is prepared to uplift by his own transformation of character his fellow men both by precept and example.
TDG	90	4	All the gifts of God are to be exercised to produce as well as to consume. In no case can this work become a self-centered work, or exclusive of his fellow workmen....
TDG	90	5	This probationary life is given to bring man back to this perfection which is to be the character of all who shall be saved. The law of God is a reflection of His character.--Letter 46, March 22, 1900, to David Steed, an Australian believer.
------------------------Behold His Solicitude! March 23
TDG	91	1	Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:11.
TDG	91	2	Stormy times are before us. The earth is corrupt, and will increase in corruption. But you may have perfect trust in Christ. Notwithstanding the violence, the crime, the appropriation by men of money to which they have no right, there is a God who is King over the universe. We are His children, not the subjects of capricious fate. We have, yes, you have, as you read the words of encouragement spoken by Christ, the sacred promise that will renew the springs of hope. You may rejoice in a living Saviour. He is our risen Lord. His promises are for all who will receive Him.
TDG	91	3	The divine lessons in the Word of God show us that the whole man is to be treated respectfully. The powers of mind, the strong passions, are not to be crushed as enemies, but are to be brought under the control of Christ, harnessed for His service. Clothed with the whole armor, we are to do battle for truth and righteousness. All our powers are to be consecrated to the purest ends.
TDG	91	4	Christ came to redeem humanity. He is interested in all our actions. He desires to mold and fashion us after the divine similitude. Not until every case is decided will Christ be at rest. I have been permitted to behold His solicitude, and the great love wherewith He has loved us. I have not a doubt in regard to the past leadings of His providence in the history of our cause. I should be as guilty as the children of Israel could I not learn lessons from the reproofs that God gave them. Disobedience must and will be punished unless men and women turn from transgression and sin and make their weakest points their strongest through continual watchcare. Darkness will become light through obedience....
TDG	91	5	Christ has given the message, full of the blessings of His power. He came to redeem humanity, and He will continue to send message after message to save His flock from Satanic delusions. He will not cease to send His messages until the redeemed universe shall be at rest.--Letter 100, March 23, 1906, to Brother and Sister Stephen Belden, aged self-supporting workers.
------------------------The Consistent Christian, March 24
TDG	92	1	God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.... If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1 John 1:5-7.
TDG	92	2	It is the privilege of the Christian to connect with the Source of light, and through this living connection become the light of the world. Christ's true followers will walk in the light as He is in the light and therefore they will not travel in an uncertain way, stumbling because they walk in darkness. The Great Teacher is impressing upon His hearers the blessing which they may be to the world, represented as the sun rising in the east, dispelling the mist and the shadows of darkness. The dawn gives place to day. The sun, gilding, tinting, and then glorifying the heavens with its blaze of light is a symbol of the Christian life. As the light of the sun is light and life and blessing to all that live, so should Christians, by their good works, by their cheerfulness and courage, be the light of the world. As the light of the sun chases away the shades of night and pours its glories on valleys and hills, so will the Christians reflect the Sun of Righteousness which shines on him.
TDG	92	3	Before the consistent lives of Christ's true followers, ignorance, superstition, and darkness will pass away, as the sun dispels the gloom of night. In like manner the disciples of Jesus will go into the dark places of the earth, disseminating the light of truth until the pathway of those in darkness shall be illuminated by the light of truth.
TDG	92	4	In what contrast to this is the life of the professed child of God who is as the salt without the savor. He has no vital connection with God and, like the worthless salt--which Christ describes as being thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men--he has no saving properties. Thus is the life of a professed follower of Christ if he has not a living connection with Jesus Christ. These sunless professors are shadows of darkness....
TDG	92	5	Every expression of doubt strengthens unbelief. Every thought and word of hope, courage, light, and love strengthens faith and fortifies the soul to withstand the moral darkness that exists in the world. Those who talk faith will have faith, and those who talk discouragements will have discouragements. By beholding we become changed.--Letter 16, March 24, 1880, to a General Conference officer.
------------------------Making Your Trial Balance, March 25
TDG	93	1	Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:21.
TDG	93	2	Brethren, we must sink the shaft deep in the mine of truth. You may question matters with yourselves and with one another, if you only do it in the right spirit; but too often self is large, and as soon as investigation begins, an unchristian spirit is manifested. This is just what Satan delights in, but we should come with a humble heart to know for ourselves what is truth. The time is coming when we shall be separated and scattered, and each one of us will have to stand without the privilege of communion with those of like precious faith; and how can you stand unless God is by your side, and you know that He is leading and guiding you? Whenever we come to investigate Bible truth, the Master of assemblies is with us. The Lord does not leave the ship one moment to be steered by ignorant pilots. We may receive our orders from the Captain of our salvation....
TDG	93	3	If a brother is teaching error, those who are in responsible positions ought to know it; and if he is teaching truth, they ought to take their stand at his side. We should all know what is being taught among us, for if it is truth, we need to know it. The Sabbath school teacher needs to know it, and every Sabbath school scholar ought to understand it. We are all under obligation to God to know what He sends to us. He has given directions by which we may test every doctrine--"To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20). But if it is according to this test, do not be so full of prejudice that you cannot acknowledge a point when it is proved to you, simply because it does not agree with your ideas.
TDG	93	4	Do not catch at every objection, however small, and make it as large as possible, and preserve it for future use. No one has said that we shall find perfection in any man's investigations, but this I do know, that our churches are dying for the want of teaching on the subject of righteousness by faith in Christ, and for kindred truths.
TDG	93	5	No matter by whom light is sent, we should open our hearts to receive it in the meekness of Christ.--The Review and Herald, March 25, 1890.
------------------------Separating From Sin, March 26
TDG	94	1	If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:1, 2.
TDG	94	2	The requirements of God are set plainly before us, and the question to be settled is, Will we comply with them? Will we accept the conditions laid down in His Word--separation from the world? This is not the work of a moment or of a day. It is not accomplished by bowing at the family altar, and offering up lip service, neither by public exhortation and prayer. It is a lifelong work. Our consecration to God must be a living principle, interwoven with the life, and leading to self-denial and self-sacrifice. It must underlie all our thoughts and be the spring of every action. This will elevate us above the world, and separate us from its polluting influence.
TDG	94	3	All our actions are affected by our religious experience, and if this experience is founded on God and we understand the mysteries of godliness, if we are daily receiving of the power of the world to come, and hold communion with God, and have the fellowship of the Spirit, if we are each day holding with a firmer grasp the higher life, and drawing closer and still closer to the bleeding side of the Redeemer, we shall have inwrought in us principles that are holy and elevating. Then it will be as natural for us to seek purity and holiness and separation from the world, as it is for the angels of glory to execute the mission of love assigned them in saving mortals from the corrupting influence of the world. Every one who enters the pearly gates of the city of God will be a doer of the Word. He will be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. It is our privilege to realize the fulness there is in Christ, and be blessed by the provision made through Him. Ample provision has been made that we should be raised from the lowlands of earth, and have our affections fastened upon God and heavenly things.
TDG	94	4	Will this separation from the world in obedience to the divine command, unfit us for doing the work the Lord has left us? Will it hinder us from doing good to those around us? No; the firmer hold we have on heaven, the greater will be our power of usefulness in the world.--Manuscript 1, March 26, 1869, "Diligence in the Work of Preparation."
------------------------Settling Into Salvation, March 27
TDG	95	1	Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Ephesians 6:10.
TDG	95	2	If you are closely connected with Jesus Christ, the Source of light and wisdom, you may become strong men and women in Christ. We are so willing to be content without any special evidence of our nearness to God that we fail where we might make a success. Every provision has been made by Jesus that we might not only believe an unpopular truth but that we might have joy in Him. The truth works by love and faith works by love, and it purifies the soul....
TDG	95	3	Now the question is, Are you gaining in the knowledge of the truth? Have you a living connection with Jesus Christ? You see Abraham had, and he talked with angels, and he could ask a favor of them. You see that Moses had a living connection with God, and his earnest petition was that he might see the glory of God. "Show me Thy glory," was his petition. Well now, the Lord did not rebuke him for making that request; he was not presumptuous in trying to know more of God and His glory. But we see that that mighty man of faith was hid in a cleft of the rock, and the hand of God was placed over the rock, and then He revealed to him His glory.
TDG	95	4	We have not earnestness enough in our faith or in our experience.... I hope there is not one of you that will settle down with a contented position because you believe the truth. Just as long as there is a soul to save in all the world you want to press yourselves to the Source of all light and power that you may save these souls. You do not care to have an earthly, worldly mold upon your experience. You have souls to save or to lose and you want a great deal more of Jesus brought into your lives, into your character, and into your experience. You can be a help and blessing to one another by being true in every position where you are, by feeling that you are God's representative upon the earth....
TDG	95	5	Do not allow the truth, because it is so often repeated to you, to become a matter of no special benefit; but let it be fitting us day by day for the society of heavenly angels in the kingdom of God.--Manuscript 19a, March 27, 1886, "Lessons From the Life of Abraham."
------------------------His Abiding Presence, March 28
TDG	96	1	Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11.
TDG	96	2	This world is our school--a school of discipline and training. We are placed here to form characters like the character of Christ, and to acquire the habits and the language of the higher life. Influences opposed to good, abound on every side. The developments of sin are becoming so full, so deep, so abhorrent to God, that soon He will arise in majesty to shake terribly the earth. So artful are the plans of the enemy, so specious the complications that he brings about, that those who are weak in the faith cannot discern his deceptions. They fall into the snares prepared by Satan, who works through human instrumentalities to deceive if possible the very elect. Only those who are closely connected with God will be able to discern the falsehoods, the intrigues, of the enemy....
TDG	96	3	Think of the glory awaiting those who overcome! They will see the face of Him in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
TDG	96	4	Let us allow God to control our minds. Let us not say or do anything that will turn a fellow being from the right way.
TDG	96	5	I feel very sad as I think of how few there are who show that they have tasted the deep blessedness of communion with a risen, ascended Saviour. Men of the world are striving for the supremacy. God's followers are to keep Christ ever in view, inquiring, Is this the way of the Lord? A holy desire to live the life of Christ is to fill our hearts. In Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
TDG	96	6	O that our people could realize what advantages would be theirs if they would look constantly to Jesus! "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). He is our Alpha and our Omega. Pressing close to His side and holding communion with Him, we become like Him. Through the transforming power of the Spirit of Christ, we are changed in heart and life. His words are engraven on the tablets of the soul, and we are His witnesses, representing Him in the daily life.--Letter 47, March 28, 1903, to F. C. Gilbert, a Jewish minister working for his own people.
------------------------Giving What You've Got, March 29
TDG	97	1	The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 11:25.
TDG	97	2	Liberality is one of the directions of the Holy Spirit, and when the professed people of God withhold from the Lord His own in tithes and offerings, they meet with spiritual loss. The Lord does not reward a stinted liberality. He calls upon the people to honor Him with their substance, and with the first-fruits of all their increase.
TDG	97	3	It is not possible to lay down rules for every case; for in many instances such a course would distress the giver. The circumstances in which some are placed, and which are of God's appointment, are to be considered. The Lord expects a man to impart of what he has and not of what he has not. With some a tenth of the income would not properly represent the proportion they should give to the Lord, while to others it is a fair return.
TDG	97	4	How many are losing rich blessings and becoming spiritually dwarfed because they withhold from God His own. The enemy of God and man is constantly at work to divert the treasures which belong to God and to please and honor and glorify the human agent. My family needs call for this and for that, men say, and convenience after convenience is added to the house in furniture, in clothing, in dainties for the table. They fail to limit their desires, when by so doing they would bring blessing to themselves and to their families.
TDG	97	5	God has made us His almoners, copartners with Him in the great work of advancing His kingdom on the earth. We may pursue the course taken by the unfaithful steward, and by so doing lose the most precious privileges ever granted to men. For thousands of years God has worked through human agencies, but at His will He can drop out the selfish, the money lover, the covetous. He can carry on His work though we act no part in it. But who among us would be pleased to have the Lord do this? ...
TDG	97	6	The Lord reads every thought of the heart, every impulse of the mind. If we have not the spirit to give freely, we mock Him.
TDG	97	7	When we show to the world, to angels, and to men that the prosperity of the cause of God is our first consideration, God will bless us.--Manuscript 47, March 29, 1899, "God Loveth a Cheerful Giver."
------------------------Give Me Oil in My Lamp, March 30
TDG	98	1	Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Zechariah 4:6.
TDG	98	2	We need not think that because we are only a tiny light, that we need not be particular about shining. The great value of our light lies in its consistency in shining amid the moral darkness of the world, in shining not to please ourselves and glorify ourselves, but to honor God with all there is of us. If we are doing service for God, and our work is corresponding with the ability God has given us, that is all He expects of us....
TDG	98	3	We know that the lamps which give us light have no light in themselves. They cannot fill themselves. So the holy appointed ones must empty the golden oil into the golden tubes. And the heavenly fire, when applied, makes them burning and shining lights. Our hearts cannot reflect light until there is a vital connection with heaven. This alone can make them burn steadily with holy, unselfish love for Jesus, and for all who are the purchase of His blood. And unless we are constantly replenished with the golden oil, the flame will die out. Unless the love of God is an abiding principle in our hearts, our light will go out....
TDG	98	4	Satan and his confederate angels point to those who profess to be children of God, but who by their disposition and actions show that they are after the similitude of the apostate, and taunt Christ and the heavenly angels. How long shall we thus crucify the Son of God afresh, so that God is ashamed to call us His sons and daughters? Is it not time that we put away childish things? Shall we be of the number who are ever learning, yet never able to come to a knowledge of the truth?
TDG	98	5	It is the golden oil that the heavenly messengers empty into the golden tubes, to be conducted into the golden bowl, that creates a continuous, bright and shining light. It is the love of God continually transferred to the human agent that keeps him a bright and shining light for God. Then he can communicate light and truth to all who are in darkness and error and sin. The golden oil is not manufactured by any human skill. It is the unseen power of the holy messengers who wait before the throne of God to communicate to everyone who is in darkness that they may diffuse heaven's light. Into the hearts of those united to God by faith, His golden oil of love flows freely.--Manuscript 27, March 30, 1897, "The Church a Repository of Truth."
------------------------His Purchased Possession, March 31
TDG	99	1	For the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4, 5, R.S.V.
TDG	99	2	In dealing with unreasonable and wicked men, those who believe the truth are to be careful not to bring themselves down to the same level, where they will use the same Satanic weapons that their enemies use, by giving loose rein to strong personal feelings, and arousing against themselves and against the work the Lord has given them to do, passion and bitter enmity. Keep Jesus uplifted. We are laborers together with God. We are provided with spiritual weapons, mighty to the pulling down of the strongholds of the enemy. We must in no case misrepresent our faith by weaving unChristlike attributes into the work. We must exalt the law of God, as binding us up with Jesus Christ and all who love Him and keep His commandments. We are also to reveal a love for the souls for whom Christ has died. Our faith is to be demonstrated as a power of which Christ is the Author. And the Bible, His word, is to make us wise unto salvation.
TDG	99	3	Let the righteousness of Christ, with its life-giving influence, into the soul, and then you can sing, He forgiveth all our iniquities. You say, I am full of spiritual disease. The great Physician is calling you to come to Him, that He may heal you. He healeth all our diseases. The worst of these diseases are envy, jealousy, evil-surmising, evil-speaking, a desire to follow plans that counterwork the work of God. The lives of all ought to be holy, but they are full of depravity, and because of this, men are easy subjects for Satan's temptations. But if Christ abides in your heart, you can say, He redeemeth our life from destruction: He crowneth us with lovingkindness and tender mercy. Then let songs of praise be upon our lips and in our heart. Meditate upon Christ's sufferings for us. In the place of watching to find something to accuse and condemn in others, thank the Lord that there is forgiveness with Him. Christ is grieved when we criticize and accuse; for this is the work of Satan. Let us draw water from the wells of salvation, and praise the Lord.
TDG	99	4	It is not sermonizing that gives evidence that the soul is born again. An appreciation of Christ's tenderness toward the sheep of His pasture gives evidence of this.--Manuscript 46, March 31, 1898, "The Work Before God's People."
------------------------Meeting the Requirements, April 1
TDG	100	1	Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer every one. Colossians 4:5, 6, R.S.V.
TDG	100	2	Let not cares be so magnified that the time shall be occupied in many cares that are not positively essential. The seriousness of this question presses upon my mind with an intensity that I cannot express. Time is passing, and when I am presented with the many churches that are not prepared to work for the Master, but are in a careless, unconcerned state, I am alarmed, and inquire, What can I say, what can I do, to change this order of things? I can say, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36, 37).
TDG	100	3	I think none of us are in a state to realize we must be laborers together with God. Many do not understand what true conversion means, what it involves. And now I address you and your family, that you may be aroused and impressed with the solemn duty to seek to arouse them to a sense of the need of most diligent watching and seeking to save perishing souls out of Christ. Every day warn someone who knows not that the end of all things is at hand.
TDG	100	4	Not one jot or tittle of God's holy requirements will ever be changed to meet man in his unready condition. His holy Word will never change or be done away. The world is asleep in their sins. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His Word can never pass away. All of us must be guided by the Word of God. What a work is before us, and professed Christians realize it not! "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3)....
TDG	100	5	How few realize the influence of the little things in this life. Those who can bear the test, the proving of God, will be acknowledged of Christ. The truth, saving truth, of God's Word, lived, will fit us for the company of the redeemed. God help us to appreciate moral excellence. Refined mental qualities, sanctified, are of more value than the gold of Ophir. The formation of a true moral standing with God is the work of a lifetime. Teach this, my dear brother and sister, by precept and example.--Letter 37a, April 1, 1903, to Brother and Sister Burden, at the Sydney, Australia, Sanitarium.
------------------------Heavenly Evaluation, April 2
TDG	101	1	I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1.
TDG	101	2	There is a measurement of character constantly going on. The angels of God are estimating your moral value, and ascertaining your needs, and bearing your case to God. How earnestly we should strive to meet the mind of the Spirit of God! And O, how thankful we should be that help has been laid upon One who is mighty to save! ...
TDG	101	3	Do you manifest impatience, and utter hasty words? Are you full of self-esteem? Have you lustful thoughts and practices? Are you doing things directly contrary to the purposes of God? Are you robbing your heavenly Father by withholding your talents and your heart from Him? Why not cease doing this way? Why not make a full surrender to God? He will impart to you His light and peace, and you will taste of His salvation. Do not any longer bring to God a lame, diseased offering. Your powers, mental and physical, are enfeebled by your own course of transgression; but such an offering is not acceptable to heaven. Why not come and be healed of your infirmities, and offer a living sacrifice, holy, and without blemish? Have you been robbing God in tithes and offerings? Here is instruction for you. Says the Lord, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Malachi 3:10). Why not take the Lord at His word? It is our privilege to experience the joy of Christ.
TDG	101	4	It would be a difficult matter to convince those who have tasted of the rich knowledge of Christ, that He is as a root out of dry ground, without form or comeliness; and He may become to our souls "the chiefest among ten thousand," and the One "altogether lovely" (Song of Solomon 5:10, 16). I love Him! I love Him! I see in Jesus matchless charms. I see in Him everything to be desired by the children of men. Let us come to the "Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Let us, through His merits and righteousness, obtain a fitting up for heaven. The broken and contrite heart He will not despise.--The Review and Herald, April 2, 1889.
------------------------Triumph of the Truth, April 3
TDG	102	1	In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned. Titus 2:7, 8.
TDG	102	2	The triumph of the truth is dependent on the influence of those who believe it. By personal labor, by a well-ordered life, by piety, faith, and tender compassion, we are to advance the truth. We have a heaven to win. The highest rewards are presented to the overcomer. Yes, an eternal weight of glory is held out before us to induce us to so run that we may obtain the crown of life that fadeth not away.
TDG	102	3	He who determines to overcome has a warfare before him from which there is no release. Manfully he is to fight the good fight of faith. Lawfully he is to strive, day by day seeking for purity and moral excellence. This God requires him to do that he may represent Christ. He is to believe the promises of God, and trust in Christ, showing those around him that he has an inexhaustible treasure from which to draw. His words are to be right words, his spirit the right spirit. His hands are never to grow weak in doing the work God has given him to do. He will meet with trials, but he must always be brave and cheerful. He is to treat all as the purchase of the blood of Christ, without partiality and without hypocrisy. The Holy Spirit is his helper. Through Christ, who strengthens him, he is enabled to bear all things....
TDG	102	4	The talents God has entrusted will call for proportionate returns. God accepts "according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not" (2 Corinthians 8:12). He does not expect from the man who has only one talent that which He expects from him who has five. If the wealthy choose to gratify every selfish desire, to enjoy the good things of this life, they will be judged accordingly. They refuse to honor Christ by humble obedience, to lift His cross. They live to please and gratify self, and thus dishonor God; and He declares, "Them that honour me I will honour" (1 Samuel 2:30)....
TDG	102	5	Only those who trade faithfully upon their talents, with a solemn sense of their responsibility, do a great work, because of their steadfast faithfulness.... Only those who glorify Him by wisely improving the gifts lent them by aiding the cause of God, are great in His sight.--Manuscript 53, April 3, 1899, "Words of Instruction to Those Connected With the Sanitarium."
------------------------Indescribable Glory, April 4
TDG	103	1	For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Isaiah 64:4.
TDG	103	2	You [in response to a request by Mrs. Stewart, an artist, who asked Ellen White to write a description of the New Jerusalem.] express a desire for me to describe things concerning the New Jerusalem. I positively decline to do anything of the kind. My powers would be inadequate to do this or even make an approach to it, and I advise you not to make any attempt to have a particular representation which will carry the impression that it is the representation of the New Jerusalem. The most eloquent representation of the New Jerusalem is but ...[an] attempt to present it.
TDG	103	3	Anyone who is dealing with the future unseen world may best describe its untold glories by quoting the words of Paul, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). I feel that many approach sacred things as though their finite powers were capable of taking them in....
TDG	103	4	There is so large a number that tread on holy ground with unsanctified feet that we are very cautious, even in statements that we present to them in regard to sacred and eternal things, because finite and common ideas become mixed with the holy and sacred. Man may try with his entrusted and cultivated powers to represent something of heaven and he will make a blunder of the whole thing.
TDG	103	5	Your power as an artist will, when stretched to its utmost capacity fall down faint and weary in seeking to take in the things of the unseen world, and yet there is an eternity beyond. With these statements you will excuse me from attempting to portray before you anything concerning the works of the great Master Artist.
TDG	103	6	Let the imaginations of the people be on the highest stretch to contemplate the glories of the New Jerusalem and yet they have but just entered upon the borders of the eternal weight of glory that shall be realized by the faithful overcomer. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the ground whereon thou standeth is holy. This is the very best answer I can give to your question.--Letter 54, April 4, 1886, to Sister Stewart.
------------------------Heavenly Guarantee, April 5
TDG	104	1	Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Matthew 7:7.
TDG	104	2	Oh, if every one would only know by personal experience how much of heaven's promised rest can be secured to the soul, even now, by sincere prayer. If one has not learned this lesson, every other lesson of life [had] better not be learned till he shall learn in the school of Christ how to master this lesson.
TDG	104	3	As Christians we want a new and living experience every day. We want to learn how to trust Jesus, to believe in Him and confide everything to Him. Jacob was raised from a man of feebleness and defects, through faith in God in prayer, to be a prince with God. He prevailed through faith. God is omnipotent. Man is finite. In converse with God, we may lay the most secret thing of the soul open to Him--for He knows it all--but not to man....
TDG	104	4	Do not become careless and separate from the Source of your strength. Watch your thoughts, watch your words, and in all things you seek to do, seek to glorify God. The more closely you lie at the foot of the cross, the more clearly will you see the matchless charms of Jesus and the unparalleled love He has evidenced for fallen man....
TDG	104	5	Let not the pressure of business separate you from God, for if you ever need counsel and clear forethought and sharp ideas, it is when you have much work on your hands. It is then that you need to take time to pray, to have increased faith and implicit trust in the counsel of the Physician in Chief. Ask Him to help you. Pray the oftener the more critical the work you have to do....
TDG	104	6	Oh what a theme to contemplate that man, depraved and lost in his natural condition, may be renewed and saved by the gracious help that Christ gives him in the gospel. The love of Jesus in the soul will drive out the enemy who is seeking to take possession of man. Every trial patiently borne, every blessing thankfully received, every temptation faithfully resisted, will make you a strong man in Jesus Christ. All this grace may be gained in the prayer of faith....
TDG	104	7	Lay hold upon strength from above. Even Jesus, when preparing for some great trial, would resort to the solitude of the mountains and spend the night in prayer to His Father.--Letter 11, April 5, 1886, to Dr. Gibbs, a physician at the St. Helena Sanitarium.
------------------------Rectifying Wrong, April 6
TDG	105	1	Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Matthew 18:15.
TDG	105	2	As you go to the one you suppose to be in fault, see that you speak in a meek and lowly spirit, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. The erring can in no other way be restored than in the spirit of meekness and gentleness and tender love. Be careful in your manner of speaking. Avoid everything in look or gesture, word or tone of voice, that savors of pride or self-sufficiency. Guard yourself against word or look that would exalt yourself or set your goodness and righteousness in contrast to their failings. Beware of the most distant approach to disdain, overbearing, or contempt. With care, avoid every appearance of anger, and though you use plainness of speech, yet let there be no reproach, no railing accusation, no token of warmth, but that of earnest love.
TDG	105	3	Above all, let there be no shadow of hate or ill will, no bitterness or soreness of expression. Nothing but kindness and gentleness can flow from a heart of love. Yet all these precious fruits need not hinder your speaking in the most serious, solemn manner, as though angels were directing their eyes upon you, and you acting in reference to the coming judgment.
TDG	105	4	Bear in mind that the success of reproof depends greatly upon the spirit in which it was given. Do not neglect earnest prayer that you may possess a lowly mind, and that angels of God may work upon the hearts before you, which you are trying to reach, and so soften them by heavenly impressions that your efforts may avail. If any good is accomplished take no credit yourself. God alone should be exalted. God alone hath done it all....
TDG	105	5	All your efforts to save the erring may be unavailing. They may repay you evil for good. They may be enraged rather than convinced. What if they hear to no good purpose and pursue the evil course they have started to follow? This will frequently be the case. Sometimes the mildest and tenderest reproof will have no good effect. In that case the blessing you wanted another to receive by pursuing a course of righteousness, ceasing to do evil and learning to do well, will return into your own bosom. If the erring persist in sin, treat them kindly and leave them with your heavenly Father.--Letter 30, April 6, 1868, to Brother and Sister Rogers.
------------------------Christ, the Magnet, April 7
TDG	106	1	Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. Acts 10:34, 35.
TDG	106	2	Christ recognizes no caste, no nationality. He holds it as His prerogative, divine and incommunicable, to work after His own might and pleasure. The compassionate Redeemer, He labored among all classes. When the paralytic was let down through the roof at His feet, He saw at a glance the trouble of the sufferer, and He immediately exercised His power as a sin-pardoning Saviour. "Be of good cheer," He said; "thy sins be forgiven thee" (Matthew 9:2).
TDG	106	3	At this, some of the scribes said within themselves, "Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?" (Mark 2:7). How astonished they were to have their unspoken thoughts opened before them. "Why reason ye these things in your hearts?" Jesus asked. "Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house" (Verses 8-11).
TDG	106	4	Christ changed the relation of the sinner toward God, taking the guilt from the inmost soul. The rich fool died in his bloated wealth, but the helpless sinner was brought to Christ, and manifesting his belief that Christ could heal him, he was not disappointed. His diseased mind was first cured, and then the great Physician cured his bodily infirmities.
TDG	106	5	Thus Christ drew the people to Him. He was unfolding truths of the highest order. The knowledge He came to impart was the gospel, in all its richness and power. The sin bearer, He is alive to all the horrors which sin brings upon the soul, and He came to this world with a message of deliverance.
TDG	106	6	What is Christianity? God's instrumentality for the conversion of the sinner. Jesus will call to account every one who is not brought under His control, who does not demonstrate in his life the influence of the cross of Calvary. Christ should be uplifted by those whom He has redeemed by dying on the cross.--Manuscript 56, April 7, 1899, "Following Christ."
------------------------Witnessing Instructions, April 8
TDG	107	1	And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Matthew 28:18-20.
TDG	107	2	Those in the home field who have a knowledge of the truth and of the blessings that this knowledge brings, should remember the needs of those who are laboring in new fields, where the work is hard and facilities few....
TDG	107	3	The instruction given in the tenth chapter of Matthew shows how the Lord regards those who go forth to work for Him in new fields. Read this chapter. Study what Christ said in regard to the perils the messengers would have to meet and the hardships they would have to endure. "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves," He said to His disciples: "be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16). Today those who labor in new fields have many trials and difficulties to encounter. They need the help and sympathy of their brethren in the home field, where facilities for work are more abundant and means more easily obtained.
TDG	107	4	Christ's last words to His disciples show the importance to be placed on the work of spreading the truth. Just before His ascension He gave them the commission, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (chap. 28:19, 20).
TDG	107	5	Christ did not confine His labors to one place. Of His work we read, "...And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent. And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee" (Luke 4:43, 44).
TDG	107	6	Would that all who have the light of truth would follow the example set by Christ, and not expend their God-given time and ability and means in one or two places, when the light of truth is to go to all the world. The wonderful display of grace shown in the gospel message is to be carried to all places.--Letter 92, April 8, 1902, to "My Brethren in Responsible Positions in the Medical Missionary Work."
------------------------Living the New Life, April 9
TDG	108	1	Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12.
TDG	108	2	Christ came to teach us, not only what we ought to know and believe, but also what we ought to do in our relations with God and with our fellow men. The golden rule of equity demands that we do unto others as we would they should do unto us. We are to keep their eternal interests in view, saying to ourselves, "They are the purchase of the Saviour's blood, bought with a price."
TDG	108	3	In all our dealing with our fellow men, whether they be believers or unbelievers, we are to treat them as Christ would treat them were He in our place. If it is for our present and eternal good to obey the law of God, it will be for their present and eternal good also to do this. Our highest aim is to be to them medical missionary workers after Christ's order....
TDG	108	4	All who enter through the pearly gates into the city of God must have set forth Christ in all their dealings. It is this that constitutes them the messengers of Christ, His witnesses. They are to bear a plain, decided testimony against all evil practices, pointing them to the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He gives to all who receive Him, power to become the sons of God.
TDG	108	5	Regeneration is the only path by which we can reach the holy city. It is narrow and the gate by which we enter is strait, but along it we are to lead men and women and children, teaching them that in order to be saved, they must have a new heart and a new spirit. The old hereditary traits of character are to be overcome. The natural desires of the soul must be changed. All deception, all falsifying, all evil-speaking must be put away. The new life, which makes men and women Christlike, is to be lived. We are, as it were, to swim against the current of evil.
TDG	108	6	The way to heaven is narrow, hedged in by the divine law of Jehovah. Those who follow this way must constantly deny self. They must obey the teachings of Christ.... Let us not trust in man, but in Jesus Christ, who died that He might win us to righteousness.--Letter 103, April 9, 1905, to E. S. Ballenger, an administrator at the Paradise Valley Sanitarium.
------------------------Shield of Protection, April 10
TDG	109	1	He came unto his own, and his own received him not. John 1:11.
TDG	109	2	He who purchased the human family with His own blood, charges as done to Himself any insult offered to a child of His. His law is to extend the shield of divine protection over every soul who puts his trust in Him.
TDG	109	3	Christ's denunciations, the woes that He pronounced, were followed by exclamations of the deepest sorrows....
TDG	109	4	Just before His crucifixion, He beheld the city [of Jerusalem], and wept over it, saying, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!" (Luke 19:42). Then He paused. They had come to the crest of Olivet, and the disciples, catching sight of Jerusalem, were about to burst forth unto exclamations of praise; but they saw that their Teacher, in the place of being joyful, was in an agony of tears.
TDG	109	5	Christ was approaching the end of His mission, and He knew that when that time should come, Jerusalem's day of probation would have ended. But He was reluctant to pronounce the words of doom. For three years He had come, seeking fruit and finding none. During these years one object was ever upon His soul--to present before His thankless, disobedient people the solemn warnings and gracious invitations of heaven. He greatly desired that the people should receive His words.
TDG	109	6	How graciously He had invited them. How anxiously He had labored to awaken in their hearts the comprehension that He was the only hope of Israel, the promised Messiah.... His lifework was to convince His disobedient people that He was their only hope. He carried them on His heart. He did all that He could do to save them. But at the end of His work in this world He was forced to say in an agony of tears, "Ye would not come unto Me that ye might have life."
TDG	109	7	The cloud of divine wrath was gathering over Jerusalem. Christ saw the city beleaguered. He saw it lost. In a voice full of tears he exclaimed, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes" (Verse 42).
TDG	109	8	I present this feeble representation ...to those who are today going over the same ground, refusing the messages of the grace of God.--Letter 317a, April 10, 1905, to "Dear Brethren in the Ministry and the Medical Missionary Work."
------------------------The Majesty of God, April 11
TDG	110	1	O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee?...Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. Psalm 89:8, 9.
TDG	110	2	Yesterday, Brother [Charles] Chittendon took out a number of us on the water in his boat.... We remained on the water and beach all day. Sailed out of the Golden Gate upon the ocean.... The waves ran high and we were tossed up and down so very grandly.... The spray dashing over us. The watchful captain giving his orders, the hands ready to obey. The wind was blowing strong and I never enjoyed anything as much in my life.
TDG	110	3	I was today to write upon Christ walking on the sea and stilling the tempest. Oh, how this scene was impressed upon my mind.... The majesty of God and His works occupied my thoughts. He holds the winds in His hands, He controls the waters. Finite beings, mere specks upon the broad, deep waters of the Pacific, were we in the sight of God, yet angels of heaven were sent from His excellent glory to guard that little sailboat that was careening over the waves....
TDG	110	4	How vividly before my mind was the boat with the disciples buffeting the waves. The night was dark and tempestuous. Their Master was absent. The sea was strong, the winds contrary. Had Jesus, their Saviour, been with them, they would have felt safe. All through the long and tedious night they bend to their oars, forcing their way against wind and waves. They are beset with danger and horror. These were strong men, accustomed to hardships and perils, and not easily intimidated with danger.
TDG	110	5	They had expected to take their Saviour on board the ship at a certain point designated, but how without Him could they even reach that spot? All in vain, the wind was against them. The strength of the rowers was exhausted and yet the merciless storm had not abated, but was lashing the waves into a fury as though to engulf the boat and themselves. Oh, how they longed for Jesus.
TDG	110	6	In the hour of their greatest peril, when they had given up all for lost, amid the lightning flashes in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus is revealed to them walking upon the water. Oh, then Jesus had not forgotten them! His watchful eye of tender sympathy and pitying love had watched them, all through that fearful storm. In their greatest need He was close by them.--Letter 5, April 11, 1876, to James White.
------------------------Kindness, A Virtue, April 12
TDG	111	1	And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4.
TDG	111	2	God calls upon believers to cease finding fault, to cease making hasty, unkind speeches. Parents, let the words that you speak to your children be kind and pleasant, that angels may have your help in drawing them to Christ. A thorough reformation is needed in the home church. Let it begin at once. Let all grumbling and fretting and scolding cease. Those who fret and scold shut out the angels of heaven and open the door to evil angels.
TDG	111	3	Let the husband and wife remember that they have burdens enough to carry without making their lives wretched by allowing differences to come in. Those who give place to little differences invite Satan into their home. The children catch the spirit of contention over mere trifles. Evil agencies do their part to make parents and children disloyal to God.
TDG	111	4	My brethren and sisters, will you not be laborers together with God, working for peace and harmony. Pray for the sweet, molding influence of the Holy Spirit. Let your lips be governed by the law of kindness. Refuse to be sour, uncourteous, unkind. Be true to your profession of faith....
TDG	111	5	When you agree to wear Christ's yoke, when you heed the invitation, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29), you will cease to bind yokes on the necks of others. You will cease to find fault. You will no longer regard it as a virtue to differ from others. You will dwell on those points on which you can agree.
TDG	111	6	We are preparing to meet our Lord when He comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. In this grand and noble work, we are to help one another. Parents are to bring all the sunshine and pleasantness that they can into their homes. They are to make their homes full of sunshine by kindly words and deeds....
TDG	111	7	Do not serve the enemy of God by exhibiting a harsh, unkind spirit. Those only will enter heaven who have overcome the temptation to speak and act unkindly and harshly. Act out the mind of Christ, speak the words of Christ, and the Lord Jesus, by His Holy Spirit, will be a guest in your home.--Letter 133, April 12, 1904, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Christ, the Bread of Life, April 13
TDG	112	1	He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. John 6:47-51.
TDG	112	2	The question is asked, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? What shall we do to gain heaven? This important question is answered to all who desire to know, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:29).... "For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world" (Verse 33). "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst" (Verse 35).
TDG	112	3	Christ gives them to understand that a man needs to be taught of God in order to comprehend these things. This is the cause of so much cheap knowledge of the Scriptures in the churches of today. Ministers preach only portions of the Word, and refuse to practice even as much as they teach. This leads to misconceptions of the Word and doctrine, it creates error and misinterpretations of the Scripture....
TDG	112	4	We may be taught by man to see the truth clearly, but God alone can teach the heart to receive the truth savingly, which is to receive the Words of eternal life into good and honest hearts. The Lord is waiting patiently to instruct every willing soul who will be taught. The fault is not with the willing Instructor, the greatest Teacher the world ever knew, but it is with the learner who holds to his own impressions and ideas, and will not give up his human theories and come in humility to be taught. He will not allow his conscience and his heart to be educated, disciplined, and trained--worked as the husbandman works the earth, and as the architect constructs the building....
TDG	112	5	Everyone needs to be worked, molded, and fashioned after the divine similitude. Christ tells you, my dear friends, young and old, the everlasting truth, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you" (Verse 53).
TDG	112	6	If you do not take Christ's word as the man of your counsel, you will not reveal His wisdom or His spiritual life.--Letter 88, April 13, 1900, to the managers and teachers in the Avondale School.
------------------------Be His Messenger, April 14
TDG	113	1	And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark 16:15, 16.
TDG	113	2	The workers in the cause of God may learn valuable lessons from the instruction Jesus gave to the seventy disciples, and from their experiences. These disciples were sent to the cities and villages whither Jesus Himself was to follow, to awaken an interest in the work of Jesus, that the people might be prepared to receive the grand truths that He would impart to them.
TDG	113	3	"After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves" (Luke 10:1-3)....
TDG	113	4	"And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: and heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you" (Verses 8, 9).
TDG	113	5	This was to be the burden of their message. They were not to lose sight of this message, nor to enter into controversy over matters that were unessential, or that would close the door to the important truths Jesus had bid them teach. They were to teach from the Old Testament, explaining the prophecies of the mission and the work of Christ, and presenting truths that would soften the hearts of the people, that they might be prepared to receive Christ, when He should follow....
TDG	113	6	The seventy had not, like the twelve, been constantly with Jesus, yet they had often heard His lessons of instruction. They were sent forth under His direction, to work as He Himself was working. Wherever they went, they were to sound the message, "The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. All may be admitted into His kingdom who will receive His message and His Messenger. This is the day of your visitation." They were to present the truth of God in such a manner that the people might be led to lay hold upon the blessings placed within their reach.--Letter 119, April 14, 1905, to the members of the Nashville church.
------------------------I Will Keep Thee, April 15
TDG	114	1	Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Revelation 3:10.
TDG	114	2	These words are important and solemn, and it would be profitable to us should we take them home with us, and search the Scriptures in reference to their true meaning. The hour of temptation is to come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth; and although we do not wish to make a time of trouble for ourselves, nor do we wish to groan over trials in the future, still we should be so closely connected with God that we shall not fall under the temptation when it does come. "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God" (Isaiah 50:10).
TDG	114	3	The Lord will raise up a standard for us against the enemy. We should believe that we have a helper in God, that we shall not be afraid, we shall not be filled with wonder and amazement; for we know that the God of Israel has been with His people from the very first--from the very infancy of this world God has been with His obedient children. We must show that we have confidence in God, and make it manifest to the world that we can trust Him because we believe in Him. His word is pledged that there shall no temptation come upon us, but that help shall be provided to sustain us....
TDG	114	4	We expect trials to come in these last days; we are not looking for anything else; but may God give us grace that we may endure the trials when they do come, and not faint under persecution. We do not desire to be in a position where we shall have no strength at that time. Then let us become acquainted with God now....
TDG	114	5	God has a people who will not receive the mark of the beast in their right hand or in their forehead. God has a place for His people to fill in this world, to reflect light. You are God's sentinels. Christ says of His people, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid" (Matthew 5:14).... God made His law for all the universe. He created man, He gives the bounteous provisions of nature, holds our breath and life in His hand. He is to be recognized, His law honored, before all the great men and the highest earthly powers.--The Review and Herald, April 15, 1890.
------------------------Give As You Have Received, April 16
TDG	115	1	Freely ye have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8.
TDG	115	2	Unexpected talent will be developed in those in the common walks of life. If men and women can only have the message of truth brought to them, many who hear will receive it. Those of every rank of life, high and low, rich and poor, will accept the truth for this time. Some who are regarded as uneducated will be called to the service of the Master, even as the humble, unlearned fishermen were called by the Saviour. Men will be called from the plow, as was Elisha, and will be moved to take up the work that God has appointed them. They will begin to labor in simplicity and quietness, reading and explaining the Scriptures to others. Their simple efforts will be successful.
TDG	115	3	House-to-house work will be done by men and women who will realize that they can labor for the Lord because He has put His Spirit upon them. As they go forth in humble faith, Christ will impart to them grace that they will impart to others. The Lord will give them the same love for perishing souls that He gave to the disciples of old.
TDG	115	4	In the future, human beings through whom angels can work will accept the truth. In the past, heavenly messengers have worked in cooperation with human agencies, giving them a force of language and power of influence that has furnished persuasive argument which has reached the citadel of the soul. The labors of apparently illiterate, unlearned men often have a wonderful influence for good....
TDG	115	5	None who catch the divine rays from the Sun of Righteousness will lack for fitting words. It will not be oratory, as the world counts oratory, but heavenly eloquence. They will speak words that will go direct to minds, awakening conviction, and causing their hearers to ask, What is truth? ...
TDG	115	6	Such workers we may encourage, saying, I am sure that you will exert an influence for good in this grand and holy work, if you will take heed to yourselves, realizing that you are subjects of saving grace, brought into sacred family relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, and commissioned to work for the saving of souls.--Letter 123, April 16, 1905, to Elder S. H. Lane, president of the New York Conference.
------------------------Strength for the Day, April 17
TDG	116	1	As thy days, so shall thy strength be.... The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Deuteronomy 33:25-27.
TDG	116	2	I am so thankful to my heavenly Father for His daily blessings to me. About a week ago, I felt completely worn out with the effort I had put forth in writing. My mind would not work, and I felt much depressed. I had almost given up hope of ever feeling rested again. But one night I prayed to God most earnestly for His strengthening, healing power to rest upon me, that I might be able to write out some things that ought to be published. I then went to sleep. In the night season I seemed to be speaking to different congregations, in regard to the healing, quickening power of the Holy Spirit. At half-past two I awoke. My headache was gone, and the soothing influence of the Spirit of God rested upon me. I walked the floor of my room, and praised God. I then took my pen in hand, and found that my mind was clear, and that I could write as well as ever. Since this experience, I have written a great deal. Our Saviour is the most skillful physician in the world. I praise Him for the marked blessing that He bestowed upon me at this time.
TDG	116	3	True religion is a religion that keeps constantly in view the honor and glory of God. We are to regard our heavenly Father with holy fear and reverence. He requires of His blood-bought heritage a cheerful obedience. As we realize His great love, our hearts will be inspired with gratitude, we shall serve Him with cheerfulness, and firmly, confidently put our trust wholly in Him.
TDG	116	4	I long to express in my life service the joy of Christ. I long to be imbued with His Spirit, that I may be a blessing to others. We have the promise, "I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me" (Jeremiah 32:39, 40).
TDG	116	5	God is "great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" (Verse 19).--Letter 139, April 17, 1904, to Robert Vickery, a layman on the Illinois Conference Committee.
------------------------Constant Communion With God, April 18
TDG	117	1	Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Matthew 24:44.
TDG	117	2	I believe we are on the very borders of the eternal world, and I am seeking to keep in constant communion with God. I prize eternal life and nothing shall separate me from the love of God. I want constantly to educate and train my soul to lean on Christ, to draw spiritual strength from Christ. God intends that we shall have an experimental knowledge of Christ, then we can be faithful witnesses for God, testifying of the grace of Christ in words and actions, by conscious and unconscious influence.
TDG	117	3	I fear, greatly fear, that many of the youth connected with the work of God do not know my Saviour. When I think of the work that God is doing for fallen man, I am lost in wonder that God will take poor, fallen beings and bring to them moral power, that there will be the internal workings of His grace, transforming the character and making men fit for the mansions God is preparing for them--beings fitted for the presence of God, fitted to be companions with angels, and to hold communion with God. Oh, how my heart yearns to be one who shall walk with Jesus Christ in the earth made new....
TDG	117	4	Our lifework now should be to prepare for eternity. We know not how soon our lifework here may close, and how essential that our low, sinful nature should be overcome, and we conform to the image of Christ. We have not one moment's time to squander. We need to be daily preparing for eternity. Our lifetime is granted us to seek the boon of eternal life. God has granted us a probation, and, if we live our threescore years and ten, how short is this period to work out our salvation! Then compare this period with the life that measures with the life of God. The short period of our test and proving may end any time. Then how earnest should we be to secure a clear title to a home in the earth made new....
TDG	117	5	My anxiety is to do the work the Master has given me to do and let nothing divert me from this work.... We must seek to be one with God. His interest must be our interest, His sentiments and designs ours. We know the love of God for sinners and the infinite sacrifice that has been made to save perishing souls; then let us unite with Christ in this great work.--Letter 82, April 18, 1887, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Repentance and Reformation, April 19
TDG	118	1	Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:17.
TDG	118	2	The Lord calls for a decided reformation.... My brethren, show true repentance for departure from God. Let angels and men see that there is forgiveness of sin with God. Extraordinary power from God must take hold of Seventh-day Adventist churches. Reconversion must take place among the members, that as God's witnesses they may testify to the authoritative power of the truth that sanctifies the soul....
TDG	118	3	Those who are sanctified through the truth will show that the truth has worked a reformation in their lives, that it is preparing them for translation into the heavenly world. But so long as pride and envy and evil surmising predominate in the life, Christ does not rule in the heart. His love is not in the soul.
TDG	118	4	In the lives of those who are partakers of the divine nature there is a crucifixion of the haughty, self-sufficient spirit that leads to self-exaltation. In its place the Spirit of Christ abides, and in the life the fruits of the Spirit appear. Having the mind of Christ, His followers reveal the graces of His character.
TDG	118	5	Nothing short of this will make men acceptable to God. Nothing short of this will give them the pure, holy character that those must have who are admitted to heaven. As soon as a man puts on Christ, an evidence of the change wrought in him is seen in spirit and word and act. A heavenly atmosphere surrounds his soul, for Christ is abiding within....
TDG	118	6	Oh, how few there are who reveal in their lives the principles of this life!... "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me" (John 6:54-57).
TDG	118	7	Do you believe these wonderful statements? Do you receive the words of Christ? I tell you that when in truth you receive them, you will practice the truth in accordance with the teachings of Christ.--Letter 63, April 19, 1903, to "Our Brethren at the Medical Missionary Council."
------------------------Study to Be Approved, April 20
TDG	119	1	And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. 2 Timothy 2:24, 25.
TDG	119	2	Every one engaging in the work needs these words framed and hung in memory's hall: "We are labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9). Then there will not be so many decided failures in the efforts made to win souls to Jesus Christ. There is need of bringing them to the foundation, and building them into a firm structure, that will abide the fires of the last great day. The people cannot be reached, and their hearts broken, except by God's divine power (see 1 Corinthians 3:9-15)....
TDG	119	3	Let the men who are engaged in the solemn work of bearing the last message to the world, heed the exhortation of Paul, "Preach the Word." Not the science of phrenology, or the productions from human speculations, but listen to the words of inspiration addressed to Timothy: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (2 Timothy 4:1-4)....
TDG	119	4	The minister of the gospel is never exhorted to strive to be a smart preacher, a popular speaker, but is commanded to "study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness" (chap. 2:15, 16). Will every messenger of God give heed to these words? We are laborers together with God, and if those who accept the responsibility of holding forth the Word of life to others do not daily yoke up with Christ, and lift His burdens, and learn of Jesus day by day; it were better for them to seek some other employment.--Manuscript 29, April 20, 1893, "Laborers to Learn Lessons at the Foot of the Cross."
------------------------Destiny for Eternity, April 21
TDG	120	1	It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. ... From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. John 6:63-69.
TDG	120	2	To those who obey, the Word of God is the tree of life. It is the word of salvation, received unto eternal life. Those who follow its teachings eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God. On the effect which this word produces on us, depends our destiny for eternity. It possesses the elements necessary for the formation of a perfect character. The Christian is appointed to connect with God in such close relationship that his life is bound up with the life of Christ in the eternal life of God.
TDG	120	3	In His wonderful prayer, Christ said, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word" (John 17:20). This takes in all who believe the gospel. "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (Verse 21). Our unity and love for one another are the credentials by which we testify to the world that God has sent His Son to save sinners.
TDG	120	4	"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me" (Verses 22, 23). Every time I read this statement, it seems almost too good to be true. But I receive it and believe it, and I thank God for His full and abundant promises, given on condition that we meet the standard of the righteousness of Christ....
TDG	120	5	The word of life is that by which the Christian is to live. From this word we are to receive a continually increasing knowledge of truth. From it we are to gain light, purity, goodness, and a faith which works by love and purifies the soul. It is given us that we may be redeemed and presented faultless before the throne of divine glory. Wondrous victory, gained by Christ in man's behalf!--Letter 60, April 21, 1900, to a young man seeking Ellen White's counsel.
------------------------Prescription for Unity, April 22
TDG	121	1	For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14, 15.
TDG	121	2	There are some things I wish to speak to you about with regard to your feelings toward Brother A. You are in danger of feeling too strong over the supposed injuries he has done you. But my brother, if he really did you a wrong, cannot you see that he will be the sufferer and not you? I am sure you should act the Christian gentleman in this case and forgive him and not allow any estrangement....
TDG	121	3	Will my brother remember his own great indebtedness to the Lord and how much he needs His forgiveness and His pity and love? Will he remember that ...if you forgive not your brother his trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses (see Matthew 6:15)? ...
TDG	121	4	Will you employ your skill in doing all in your power to be in union with Brother A? Write to him as a brother. Break down every barrier and let there be no differences between you. Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. I prescribe for you the love of Christ to be taken in large doses and it will work a great change for it has wonderful healing properties.
TDG	121	5	Do you not think all heaven would look upon you with pleasure if you should open your heart to the pitying love of Christ? Elder A will brood over this matter and so will you just as long as this difference shall live and be cultivated between you. But let every root of bitterness be dug up and buried.
TDG	121	6	It is possible that you have mistaken views in regard to Elder A's real motives. And again you may think and talk and feel more than you should feel and you misapprehend your brother....
TDG	121	7	Satan will be highly pleased to have you cherish an unforgiving spirit instead of drawing together in even cords. But Jesus, who places a high value upon man, is grieved to see division among brethren. I wish we could all be as Jesus has given us an example in His life. He came not to destroy men's lives but to save them. He used His powers to bless but never to hurt. His words, His bearing, and His work were full of divine tenderness. Nothing could disturb His absolute patience or rouse Him to vindictiveness.--Letter 46, April 22, 1887, to Dr. J. H. Kellogg.
------------------------Look on the Bright Side, April 23
TDG	122	1	And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Malachi 3:17.
TDG	122	2	I have words of encouragement for you. Jesus loves you. He gave His precious life that you should not perish, but have everlasting life. Then lift your eyes to Him. Look on the bright side. It will do you no good to look on the dark side. Be patient, come what will. You may gather strength from Jesus, for in Him all fulness dwells. When despair would sweep over your soul, continue to look to Jesus. Cast your helpless soul upon Him. He ever liveth to make intercession for you. You are precious in His sight. He who looks with interest upon the little brown sparrow looks in love and pity upon His tried, afflicted child.
TDG	122	3	It is for our present happiness and our future good that God subjects us to discipline. The greatest blessing that His children have is the discipline that He sends them. He never leads them otherwise than they would choose to be led if they could see the end from the beginning and discern the glory of the purpose that they are fulfilling, as workers together with Him.
TDG	122	4	The divine Worker spends little time on worthless material. Only the precious jewels does He polish after the similitude of a palace, cutting away the rough edges. The process is severe and trying; Christ cuts away the surplus surface, and putting the stone to the polishing wheel, presses it close, that all roughness may be worn off. Then, holding the jewel up to the light, the Master sees in it a reflection of Himself, and He pronounces it worthy of a place in His casket....
TDG	122	5	My dear brother, look ever to Jesus, and bring heaven into your life here below. The road to heaven is narrow and the gate strait, but all who will may pass through the gate and walk in the narrow path. If we reach heaven at last, our heaven must begin here below. The more of heaven that we bring into life here, the greater will be our happiness in the home above.
TDG	122	6	Let your mind dwell on the goodness of God, on the great love wherewith He has loved you. If He did not love you, He would not have given Jesus to die for you. His everlasting arms are underneath you. In all your afflictions He is afflicted. "Strong is the strength that God supplies, through His eternal Son."--Letter 69, April 23, 1903, to a young man suffering affliction.
------------------------Laws of Nature and Life, April 24
TDG	123	1	Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3 John 1:2.
TDG	123	2	Thousands, yes, millions, who walk the earth, are suffering from their own wrong course of action. Should not those for whom Christ has given His life place a value upon their own happiness, peace, and healthfulness by obeying nature's laws? We are the Lord's property by creation and by redemption, and He requires that we study how to care for our bodies, observing carefully the laws of life, health, and purity.
TDG	123	3	It is our duty to preserve and honor our bodies, in order that we shall not, by neglect, by selfish indulgence, by perverted appetite and passions, make ourselves bodies of corruption and impurity, loathsome in the sight of God, dying while life remains.
TDG	123	4	How strongly and brightly shines the mercy and lovingkindness of God in His dealings toward His heritage.... All heaven has the deepest interest in our welfare, that Satan shall not control us and conform us to his character. "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall" (Malachi 4:1, 2)....
TDG	123	5	By showing contempt for the laws of nature, men and women lay the foundation for misery and suffering. Through the weakness of their moral powers they are abject slaves to passion. Some are digging their graves with their own teeth; others defile soul and body and weaken their brain power by yielding to vile habits of moral pollution. By this they close the gates of the city of God against themselves, for the penalty of violated laws must be realized. The punishment must come....
TDG	123	6	There are lessons to be learned in this line which, if observed, will bring health to body and mind. If the habits of eating and drinking are kept intelligently under the control of the human agent, and he eats and drinks to the glory of God, his life will be lengthened. Eat to live; do not live to eat.--Manuscript 53, April 24, 1896, "A Knowledge of Physiology Necessary in Education."
------------------------Ever Onward, April 25
TDG	124	1	Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. John 16:7, 8.
TDG	124	2	It is through the mighty agency of the Holy Spirit that the government of Satan is to be subdued and subjected. It is the Holy Spirit that convinces of sin, and expels it from the soul by the consent of the human agent. The mind is then brought under a new law, and that law is the royal law of liberty. Jesus came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul; for sin can triumph only when the liberty of the soul is extinguished. Jesus reached to the very depth of human woe and misery, and His love attracts man to Himself. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, He lifts the mind up from its degradation, and fastens it upon the eternal reality. Through the merits of Christ man may be able to exercise the noblest powers of his being, and expel sin from his soul....
TDG	124	3	As we walk in the commandments of God, we follow on in the way cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. The faithful of all ages have walked in this path, and they have shone as lights in the world. In this age the light transmitted from them has been shining with increased brightness upon the path of those who are walking in darkness. Some have received the truth, believed and obeyed it. The light of the third angel's message has penetrated into many a darkened mind. The light of the wisdom, the goodness, the mercy, and love of God has been shining forth through His holy Word. We are not in the place where our fathers were. Advanced light is shining upon us in these last days. We cannot be accepted of God; we cannot honor Him by rendering the same service, doing the same work that our fathers did.
TDG	124	4	In order to be accounted guiltless before God, we must be as faithful in our time in following and obeying our light, as they were faithful in following and obeying the light that shone upon them. Of every individual member of His church, our heavenly Father requires faith and fruits according to the grace and light given. God cannot accept less. Every soul should place himself where the light will shine upon him. He should treasure every ray, that he may brighten and bless the souls of others with the Heaven-sent radiance.--The Review and Herald, April 25, 1893.
------------------------The Christian Soldier, April 26
TDG	125	1	Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:11.
TDG	125	2	The Lord will work with every sincere, devoted soldier of the cross. But no man can be a good soldier who thinks he must work independently of his fellow worker, who regards his own judgment as the best. God's workers must blend together, one supplying what the other lacks....
TDG	125	3	Do we make the preparation it is our privilege to make to stand against the wiles of the enemy? Do we realize the sacred character of God's work and the necessity of watching for souls as they that must give account? We must be vigilant, "knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light" (Romans 13:11, 12).
TDG	125	4	Are we learning to forego our own wishes? Or is self still consulted so much that in labor with our brethren we regard our judgment as best of all? God forbid that we should allow self-supremacy to withhold from us the blessings God gives to the meek and lowly. Those who truly glorify God will hide self in Christ, rejoicing if God can be glorified by the labors of those connected with them. No one can succeed in the work of God who has too high an appreciation of himself. As time goes on, his feeling of supremacy grows, and soon he comes to think that he would rather not unite with his brethren in labor, but would prefer to work alone....
TDG	125	5	Let us put far from us every feeling of self-exaltation. Let us prepare to be good soldiers of the cross by learning the lesson Christ gave, when He said, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29).
TDG	125	6	He who has crushed down all desire for self-recognition will most surely be recognized by the unselfishness of his actions. In order to help and encourage others, he is willing to put aside his own wishes, becoming all things to all men that he may by some means save some. Such a man is a noble leader in Christ's army.--Letter 67, April 26, 1900, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell, who were engaged in city evangelism.
------------------------Vindication of Our Message, April 27
TDG	126	1	Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron. 1 Timothy 4:1, 2.
TDG	126	2	I am instructed that the Lord, by His infinite power, has preserved the right hand of His messenger for more than half a century, in order that the truth may be written out as He bids me write it for publication, in periodicals and books, Why?--Because if it were not thus written out, when the pioneers in the faith shall die, there would be many, new in the faith, who would sometimes accept as messages of truth teachings that contain erroneous sentiments and dangerous fallacies. Sometimes that which men teach as "special light" is in reality specious error, which, as tares sown among the wheat, will spring up and produce a baleful harvest. And errors of this sort will be entertained by some until the close of this earth's history.
TDG	126	3	There are some who, upon accepting erroneous theories, strive to establish them by collecting from my writings statements of truth, which they use, separated from their proper connection and perverted by association with error. Thus seeds of heresy, springing up and growing rapidly into strong plants, are surrounded by many precious plants of truth, and in this way a mighty effort is made to vindicate the genuineness of the spurious plants.
TDG	126	4	So it was with the heresies taught in Living Temple.[A book expressing pantheistic sentiments published by J. H. Kellogg.] The subtle errors in this book were surrounded by many beautiful truths.... The seductive fallacies of Satan undermined confidence in the true pillars of the faith, which are grounded on Bible evidence. Truth is sustained by a plain "Thus saith the Lord." But there has been a weaving in of error, and the use of scriptures out of their natural connection, in order to substantiate fallacies, which would deceive, if possible, the very elect....
TDG	126	5	Let not the days pass by and precious opportunities be lost of seeking the Lord with all the heart and mind and soul. If we accept not the truth in the love of it, we may be among the number who will see the miracles wrought by Satan in these last days, and believe them.--Letter 136, April 27, 1906, to Brethren Butler, Daniells, and Irwin.
------------------------Guide Book to Salvation, April 28
TDG	127	1	But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:14, 15.
TDG	127	2	The many human inventions to explain the Word, making students understand it through the assertions of learned men, is a mistake. God has not made the reception of the gospel to depend upon reasonings. The gospel is adapted for spiritual food, to satisfy man's spiritual appetite. In every case it is just what man needs....
TDG	127	3	The Word of God is the great educating book. But while many claim to respect it, they place other books before it. The human reason is exalted above the divine. Must I speak out plainly, and bear a decided testimony? Had the Word of God been regarded as it ever should have been--as the voice of God to men, the source of all wisdom, all truth, all higher education--children, youth, and parents would have made it not only their study, but their teacher and their guide, that "in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7)....
TDG	127	4	"In the ages to come." What a history those ages will unfold. How can the children of the world endure to look into the heights and depths of that eternity called by the apostle "the ages to come"? What can be known about those "ages to come"?
TDG	127	5	The Bible is the textbook, and it is to be searched diligently--not as we would read a book among many books. It must be to us the book that meets the wants of the soul. This book will make the man who studies and obeys it wise unto salvation. As food cannot nourish the body unless it be eaten and digested, neither can the Word of the living God profit the soul unless it be received as the teacher in higher educational lines, as above all human productions; unless its principles be obeyed because it is the wisdom of God....
TDG	127	6	God will work out His own purpose, taking the human agent into copartnership with the great firm of salvation, and making of him all that He has promised in accordance with His Word: "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir" (Isaiah 13:12).--Manuscript 50, April 28, 1898, "The Jews Require a Sign."
------------------------Complete Commitment, April 29
TDG	128	1	Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Deuteronomy 6:4, 5.
TDG	128	2	Angels were expelled from heaven because they would not work in harmony with God. They fell from their high estate because they wanted to be exalted. They had come to exalt themselves, and they forgot that their beauty of person and of character came from the Lord Jesus. This fact the [fallen] angels would obscure, that Christ was the only begotten Son of God, and they came to consider that they were not to consult Christ.
TDG	128	3	One angel began the controversy and carried it on until there was rebellion in the heavenly courts, among the angels. They were lifted up because of their beauty.
TDG	128	4	All should learn their lesson from this, that they are individually amenable to God. When they love God with all their hearts, they will be wise unto salvation. They will do His will, and their light will ever be their glory, and be undiminished because they recognize and fear and serve their Lord. The solemn work rests upon every soul to consider that he is a servant of Jesus Christ, solemnly pledged by his baptismal vows to clothe himself with the righteousness of Christ. Will we carry out the living example of the Lord Jesus?
TDG	128	5	I am instructed that every believer must watch unto prayer, lest he fail in the Christian life battle. Every soul must daily seek the Lord with full purpose of heart, morning, noon, and night, and let the mind dwell upon the Word of God, to understand His requirements.
TDG	128	6	The one all-important matter is to serve the Lord with full purpose of heart, and seek to become the Lord's, heart and mind. All who come to the Saviour for counsel will receive the very help they need, if they will come in humility, and with assurance cling to that promise, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7)....
TDG	128	7	Lift up the standard, beginning with full surrender and continuing in the simplicity of obedience to all the Lord's commandments, according to His special directions. None of the important things specified in His Word are to be neglected.--Letter 42, April 29, 1910, to Elder D. A. Parsons, a minister in southern California.
------------------------Divine Prescription, April 30
TDG	129	1	My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.... For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Proverbs 4:20-22.
TDG	129	2	We are living amid the perils of the last days. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth, but the Lord has not left you, my brother. I am bidden to encourage you to believe that your life has not been wasted. Wake up, my brother, and the Lord will guide you to the work He has for you. But do not longer please the enemy by yielding to the temptation to despair. Let the truth of God be to your soul as the sunshine and the vital air.
TDG	129	3	My brother, will you not cooperate with the great Healer? It is necessary that you exercise your muscles as well as your nerves.... The hands, the feet, all the muscular organs were created for action. And if you do not exercise these organs and your brain power proportionately, you will lose that vitality which you should preserve.
TDG	129	4	The Lord has instructed me to tell you that you are to use the members of the body as well as the brain. Find something that you can do about the place, and make it a special charge to use the limbs and also the organs of speech....
TDG	129	5	I remember one of our workers who some years ago came to the institution in St. Helena. He was so weak he felt he could not arise from his bed. The physician in charge of the case told me, "I see no hope for him unless we can get him off from the bed and make use of his limbs and his mind in some way." I advised the doctor to persuade the patient to dress himself for a short walk for the purpose of asking him his opinion about something. It proved to be a difficult matter to get him off his bed, but he succeeded, and again the next day, he went a little farther. After three weeks, the man needed no further urging, and he soon acquired a good appetite for hygienic food. This was seventeen years ago, and the man is still alive, strong in brain, bone, and muscle.
TDG	129	6	My brother, you cannot be what you should be physically unless you exercise the powers of your being equally.... The Lord is your Helper and your God. He desires to take your case in hand, and He will cooperate with you, as you put in working order brain, bone, and muscle. Will you take this prescription of the great Physician?--Letter 160, April 30, 1907, to Brother and Sister J. A. Starr.
------------------------Ellen White's Investments, May 1
TDG	130	1	Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. Luke 12:33.
TDG	130	2	We are all well this morning. Last night, Mr. and Mrs. A called. We had a good visit. The conversation ran on bank stock, how many were getting rich from investing their means. Some also were meeting with loss. Thus losses and gains were discussed by Mr. and Mrs. A and Sister B and C.
TDG	130	3	"Now," Mrs. A said, "Mrs. White must say something. She must tell us what she thinks. She has not said a word yet."
TDG	130	4	"Well," said I, slowly, "I have been many years investing in bank stock, and met with no loss. It has yielded me back all the principal and heavy interest."
TDG	130	5	All looked up with surprise. C smiled. Mr. A asked, "Where have you invested?"
TDG	130	6	"In heavenly stock. I have been sending my treasure before me into heaven. The owner in this heavenly stock had warned me, 'Lay not up for yourself treasures upon the earth,' and told me the danger I should incur of great losses; but He had counseled me, 'Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.' This investment is certain, and will yield immense profits."
TDG	130	7	Mrs. A remarked, "And it will pay every day as you go along. You may not have to wait the rise and fall of stock. It is sure returns; no danger of losses."
TDG	130	8	We then bade them good night, and left them this to think of. Praise the name of the Lord for the evidence we have daily of our treasure being laid up in heaven; precious investment. I want the assurance from day to day that Jesus is mine and I am His.--Letter 20, May 1, 1876,.
TDG	130	9	"Charge them that are rich in this world...that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life" (1 Timothy 6:17-19). Here is a wise and perfectly safe investment; good works are here specified and recommended for our practice, for your practice. Here are profits that are valuable. There will be no danger of a failure here.--Testimonies for the Church 1:693.
------------------------Achieving Through Christ, May 2
TDG	131	1	And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Acts 20:32.
TDG	131	2	The knowledge of the way of the Lord is increasing, and will continue to increase. Heresy and superstition are clothing the world in the sackcloth garments of rebellion and transgression. Literature and cheap fiction of every order is circulated like the leaves of autumn, and the minds of thousands are so taken up with irreligious, cheap trash that there is no place in the mind for solid reading. The Word of God and all that would elevate man from his degradation is passed by with indifference.
TDG	131	3	But the Word of God contains the truth, and all those who support the truth of God for this time are doing their work for time and for eternity. Those who bring the Word of God into mind and heart are distinctly taking their stand on the side of God and the universe of heaven. They will stand heart to heart and hand to hand in defense of the holy and the pure, that which will stand the test of ages. Those who support error by word and pen and voice, and by the oppression of those who are linked with the truth, are ranged upon the other side, with the first great apostate and the evil men who are his agents. The Word declares of these that they shall "wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." And on one of these two sides, men will labor to the end.
TDG	131	4	All our powers belong to God. They are His by creation, and by redemption. God has given to every one His measure of power, and He expects each to put it forth on the side of truth. Thus it is to shine forth. The Christian is to stand with undivided interest on the Lord's side. "Now abideth faith, hope, love." Faith looks through discouraging difficulties, and lays hold of the unseen, even Omnipotence, therefore it cannot be baffled. Faith, hope, and love are sisters, and their works blend perfectly to shine amid the moral darkness of the world. The children and the youth are to be instructed, the ignorant are to be taught by patient effort to know what is truth. It is to be given them line upon line.--Manuscript 46, May 2, 1897, "The Entrance of Thy Word Giveth Light."
------------------------Heavenly Invitation, May 3
TDG	132	1	For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Luke 14:11.
TDG	132	2	Let no one exalt himself, talking of himself, extolling his abilities, displaying his knowledge, and cultivating self-conceit. Let no one seek to tear down the work of others who do not labor according to his standard. The heavenly Teacher gives us the invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). Christ was never self-confident, bigoted, or self-conceited. He declared, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" (John 5:19)....
TDG	132	3	No man has a right to call himself his own. And no man possesses any good thing that he can call his own. Every man, every thing, is the property of the Lord. All that man receives from the bounty of heaven is still the Lord's. Whatever we have that is of value, we should use for the benefit of our fellowmen, in order that they shall become valuable workers. Every energy, every endowment, is a talent that should contribute to God's glory by being used in His service. Our God-given capabilities should not be made to serve selfish ends. We should always be willing to impart, letting others know all that we know; and we should rejoice, if they in their work develop an energy and an intelligence superior to that which we possess.
TDG	132	4	God's gifts are not to be used for the exaltation of self, but are to be put out to the exchangers, so that He shall receive His own with usury. Let not one attempt to secure greatness, happiness, or self-gratification by diverting from their proper use the powers with which he is endowed; for by so doing he dishonors the Giver, and fails of fulfilling the purpose for which he was created. All our powers come from God, and should be used to His glory....
TDG	132	5	No one has the least cause for boasting. No one has any reason to glorify or exalt self, even when one does his very best.--Letter 10, May 3, 1884, to a pioneer minister in Denmark.
------------------------The Blessing of Labor, May 4
TDG	133	1	And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. 1 Thessalonians 4:11, 12.
TDG	133	2	Many look upon work as a curse, originating with the enemy of souls. This is a mistaken idea. God gave labor to man as a blessing, to occupy his mind, to strengthen his body, and to develop his faculties. Adam labored in the garden of Eden, and he found in mental and physical activity the highest pleasures of his holy existence. When he was driven from that beautiful home as the result of his disobedience, and was forced to struggle with a stubborn soil to gain his daily bread, that very labor was a relief to his sorrowing soul, a safeguard against temptation.
TDG	133	3	Judicious labor is indispensable both to the happiness and the prosperity of our race. It makes the feeble strong, the timid brave, the poor rich, and the wretched happy. Our varied trusts are proportioned to our various abilities, and God expects corresponding returns for the talents He has given to His servants. It is not the greatness of the talents possessed that determines the reward, but the manner in which they are used--the degree of faithfulness with which the duties of life are performed, be they great or small.
TDG	133	4	Idleness is one of the greatest curses that can fall upon man; for vice and crime follow in its train. Satan lies in ambush, ready to surprise and destroy those who are unguarded, whose leisure gives him opportunity to insinuate himself into their favor, under some attractive disguise. He is never more successful than when he comes to men in their idle hours.
TDG	133	5	The greatest curse following in the train of wealth is the fashionable idea that work is degrading. "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy" (Ezekiel 16:49). Here are presented before us, in the words of Holy Writ, the terrible results of idleness. It was this that caused the ruin of the cities of the plain. Idleness enfeebles the mind, debases the soul, and perverts the understanding, turning into a curse that which was given as a blessing.--The Signs of the Times, May 4, 1882.
------------------------Getting Rid of Sin, May 5
TDG	134	1	He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Proverbs 28:13.
TDG	134	2	For a Babylonish robe and a paltry treasure of gold and silver, Achan consented to sell himself to evil, to bring upon his soul the curse of God, to forfeit his title to a rich possession in Canaan, and lose all prospect of the future, immortal inheritance in the earth made new....
TDG	134	3	So great had been his hardihood and persistence, that even at the last Joshua feared he would assert his innocence, and thus enlist the sympathy of the congregation and lead them to dishonor God. He would not have confessed, had he not hoped by so doing to avert the consequences of his crime. It was this hope that led to his apparent frankness in acknowledging his guilt and relating the particulars of the sin. In this manner will confessions be made by the guilty when they stand condemned and hopeless before the bar of God, when every case has been decided for life or for death. Confessions then made will be too late to save the sinner.
TDG	134	4	There are many professed Christians whose confessions of sin are similar to that of Achan. They will, in a general way, acknowledge their unworthiness, but they refuse to confess the sins whose guilt rests upon their conscience, and which have brought the frown of God upon His people. Thus many conceal sins of selfishness, overreaching, dishonesty toward God and their neighbor, sins in the family, and many others which it is proper to confess in public.
TDG	134	5	Genuine repentance springs from a sense of the offensive character of sin. These general confessions are not the fruit of true humiliation of soul before God. They leave the sinner with a self-complacent spirit to go on as before, until his conscience becomes hardened, and warnings that once aroused him produce hardly a feeling of danger and after a time his sinful course appears right. All too late his sins will find him out, in that day when they shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever. There is a vast difference between admitting facts after they are proved, and confessing sins known only to ourselves and God.--The Signs of the Times, May 5, 1881.
------------------------Essentials of Salvation, May 6
TDG	135	1	For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light. Ephesians 5:8.
TDG	135	2	He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness sheds light into the mind of every one who will properly behold Him, loving Him supremely, showing unswerving faith and trust in Him. His light shines into the chambers of the mind and into the soul temple. The heart is filled with the light of the knowledge of the glory that shines in the face of Jesus Christ. And with this light comes spiritual discernment....
TDG	135	3	Yielding willingly to the evidence of truth, and walking in the light that shines in our pathway, we receive still greater light. Through the power of the manifestation of divine glory, we constantly advance in spiritual understanding.
TDG	135	4	Christ's knowledge of truth was direct, positive, without a shadow. The closer the acquaintance a man has with Jesus Christ, the more careful he will be to treat his fellow men respectfully, courteously, righteously. He has learned of Christ, and he follows His example in word and action. By faith he is united with Christ. "We are labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9)....
TDG	135	5	Christ's prayer was for unity among His followers. This unity is the evidence that is to convince the world that God sent His Son to save sinners. We serve Christ by revealing true, pure, holy love for one another. Those who are chosen to connect with the Lord's institutions are to be devoted, self-denying, self-sacrificing men, living not to please themselves, but to please the Master. These are the men who will do honor to the Lord's institutions.
TDG	135	6	A knowledge of God and of Christ is positively essential to salvation. We lose much every day that we do not learn more of the meekness and lowliness of Christ. Those who learn of Christ obtain the very highest class of education. Through faith and dependence on the saving grace of Christ, they increase in knowledge and wisdom. They love and praise the Saviour....
TDG	135	7	Those who are saved must in this life make it their daily business to receive grace from God, not to hoard in selfishness, but to impart for the blessing of those connected with them, to aid them in obtaining an education in spiritual things.--Letter 191, May 6, 1901, to W. L. Hoover.
------------------------Recipe for Good Health, May 7
TDG	136	1	Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
TDG	136	2	The Lord does not require His messengers to present the beautiful truths of health reform in a way that will prejudice the minds of others. Let no one place stumbling blocks in the way of those who are in the darkness of ignorance. Present the principles of temperance in their most attractive form. Let all who advocate health reform strive earnestly to make it all that they claim it is....
TDG	136	3	The question of diet should be patiently studied. We need knowledge and wise judgment, in order to move wisely in this matter. Nature's laws should not be resisted, but obeyed. The health should receive careful attention. Some conscientiously abstain from eating improper food, and at the same time fail to eat food that supplies the elements necessary for the proper sustenance of the body. Never bear a testimony against health reform by failing to supply wholesome, palatable food to take the place of the harmful articles of diet we have discarded.
TDG	136	4	Much tact and discretion should be employed in preparing foods to take the place of that which has constituted the diet of many families. This work requires both faith, earnestness of purpose, and united effort on the part of all, else reproach will be brought upon the cause of health reform. We are all mortal, and must furnish ourselves with palatable, wholesome foods. Those who do not know how to cook hygienically should learn to put good ingredients together in such a way as to make appetizing dishes....
TDG	136	5	Let us make intelligent advancement in simplifying our diet. In the providence of God, every country produces foods that contain the necessary nourishment for the upbuilding of the system. These may be made into healthful, appetizing dishes.
TDG	136	6	Without continually exercising ingenuity, no one can ever excel in healthful cookery. But all whose hearts are open to impressions and suggestions from the great Teacher will grow in knowledge and in skill. They will learn many things, and will also be able to teach others; for Christ will give skill and understanding.--Letter 177, May 7, 1901, to the brethren and sisters of the Iowa Conference.
------------------------Preparation for Heaven, May 8
TDG	137	1	For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? 1 Corinthians 4:7.
TDG	137	2	It is that man may obtain the life that measures with the life of God that the Lord breaks up his worldly ambitious projects, which, if permitted to engross the mind, would unfit him for the future world.
TDG	137	3	God is testing every one of us. He entrusts us with talents, to see whether we will be thoroughly unselfish in the use we make of them. He tells us plainly, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10). "And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?" (Verse 12).
TDG	137	4	Let us remember that we are to be tried by the laws of Christ's kingdom. We are not our own to do with ourselves as we please. We have been bought with a price, and the laws of Christ's kingdom, the ten holy precepts, present the standard that we are to reach. God is jealous of His law. He tests every man, to see whether he will obey or not.
TDG	137	5	Man sinned, and death is the penalty of sin. Christ bore the penalty, and secured for man a period of probation. In this time of probation we are now living. We have been given an opportunity to prove ourselves of value in the sight of Him who gave His only begotten Son that we should not perish, but have everlasting life.
TDG	137	6	One is our Master, even Christ. We are to remember that we are His blood-bought heritage. God's will is to become our will. Physical, mental, and spiritual gifts have been placed in our possession. In the Bible, God's will is plainly made known. God expects every man to use his gifts in a way that will give him an increased knowledge of the things of God, and will enable him to make improvement, to become more and more refined, ennobled, and purified.
TDG	137	7	In this world men and women are to fit themselves to take their place among the nobility of heaven. In this world they are to prepare for translation into the courts above. Those who take up this work as the Bible directs, will, through the grace of Christ, become examples of what all must be who enter in through the gates into the city.--Letter 80, May 8, 1903, to Dr. J. H. Kellogg.
------------------------A Warning Dream, May 9
TDG	138	1	Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken! Habakkuk 2:15.
TDG	138	2	I dreamed I was wondering why you, [this brother owned a pleasure boat on the west coast.] were so much away from your home and your family, and from the house of God on the Sabbath, and absent from the prayer meeting. In a moment I was on board your boat. There was a jovial class of men, talking and laughing, joking and card-playing. You were one with them. I saw the tables prepared with a quality of food to meet the vitiated appetite of the company. I heard them call for liquor.
TDG	138	3	I looked up in astonishment to hear your voice,_____ _____, a professed disciple of Christ, professedly looking for and hasting unto His appearing, say, "Here, gentlemen." Wine of different kinds was placed before them, and they partook of it, and you drank with them....
TDG	138	4	The young man who has so many times explained to me my dreams, spoke to you and said, "Eating and drinking with the drunkard.... Who bought those bottles of drink?" Said you, "I bought them, for I could not get companions to sail with me unless I pleased their appetites in this respect."
TDG	138	5	This is sufficient evidence that you are not pleasing God, and that you are placing yourself on Satan's field of temptation. You are making a fearful sacrifice to gratify your inordinate love of being on the water. If this is your choice before doing the work which God would have you do, you will not long be allowed to pursue your course. You will lose both worlds....
TDG	138	6	I have, since this dream, had another. I dreamed you were again using tobacco. I thought that these miserable habits, once overcome, were being taken up by you and that you were going back, step by step, to darkness, selling your soul at a cheap market. But I will now ask you, _____ _____, what do you propose to do? You stand in imminent peril....
TDG	138	7	I warn you, as a mother would her son, to avoid those things which will endanger your morals, involve you in disgrace through the cultivation of perverted appetite.... I commit these few pages to you as an ambassador of Christ. Beware lest you turn from the warning given. In love, Ellen G. White.--Letter 5, May 9, 1877,.
------------------------Being Alive Unto God, May 10
TDG	139	1	Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 10:32, 33.
TDG	139	2	How is it? Are we confessing Christ in our daily life? Do we confess Him in our dress, adorning ourselves with plain and modest apparel? Is our adorning that of the meek and quiet spirit which is of so great price in the sight of God? Are we seeking to advance the cause of the Master? Is the line of demarcation between you and the world distinct, or are you seeking to follow the fashions of this degenerate age? Is there no difference between you and the worldling? Does the same spirit work in you that works in the children of disobedience?
TDG	139	3	If we are Christians, we shall follow Christ, even though the path in which we are to walk cuts right across our natural inclinations. There is no use in telling you that you must not wear this or that, for if the love of these vain things is in your heart, your laying off your adornments will only be like cutting the foliage off a tree. The inclinations of the natural heart would again assert themselves. You must have a conscience of your own.
TDG	139	4	O, did we remember that Christ became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich, would we not seek to honor His name, and advance His cause? We are to abide in Him as the branch abides in the vine. Jesus says, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.... Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples" (John 15:5-8).
TDG	139	5	If we fulfilled this command of our Lord, there would be a different state of affairs in our churches, and we should know what it is to have the deep movings of the Spirit of God. What we want is to have the ax laid at the root of the tree. We want to be dead to the world, dead to self, and alive unto God. Our life must be hid with Christ in God, that when He shall appear, we also may appear with Him in glory. We need to come close to Christ, that men may know that we have been with Christ and learned of Him.... Keep your eye fixed upon Christ. With humility of mind seek for a nearness to God. In words, in conduct, in life, confess Christ.--The Review and Herald, May 10, 1892.
------------------------The Way, the Truth, the Life, May 11
TDG	140	1	If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7.
TDG	140	2	There are many who get above the simplicity of Jesus Christ, supposing that they must do some great thing in order to work the works of God. Things of a temporal nature absorb the attention of others, and they have little time or thought for eternal realities. Wearied out with cares that draw their minds from spiritual things, they cannot find time for communion with God. Constantly they ask themselves the question, How can I find time to study and practice the Word of God?
TDG	140	3	Christ is acquainted with the difficulties that try every soul, and He says, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:4, 5).
TDG	140	4	Our first and highest duty is to know that we are abiding in Christ. He must do the work. We are to seek to know "What saith the Lord," yielding our lives to His guidance. When we have the Spirit of an abiding Christ, everything will take on a changed aspect. The Saviour alone can give us the rest and peace we so much need. And, in every invitation He gives us to seek the Lord that He may be found of us, He is calling us to abide in Him. This is an invitation, not merely to come to Him, but to remain in Him. It is the Spirit of God that moves us to come. When we have this rest and peace, our daily worries will not lead us to be coarse and rough and uncourteous. We shall no longer follow our own way and will. We will want to do the will of God, abiding in Christ as the branches in the vine.
TDG	140	5	Christ declares Himself [to be] "the way, the truth, and the life" (chap. 14:6). The way to heaven is represented as a narrow path, cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. But truth illuminates this path at every step....
TDG	140	6	Salvation means to us complete surrender of soul, body, and spirit. Because of the unruly elements of our nature our passions often gain the mastery. The only hope for the sinner is to cease from sin. Thus his will will be in harmony with the will of Christ. His soul will be brought into fellowship with God.--Manuscript 73, May 11, 1899, "Abide in Me."
------------------------Ask, Believe, Claim, May 12
TDG	141	1	Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight. Proverbs 12:22.
TDG	141	2	I have a work to do and in the grace of Christ I shall do it. My only anxiety is for those who are so much more easily inclined to believe a lie than to believe the truth. What shall I do for them? What can I do to save them that they shall not make a lie, neither love the lie after it is made? All I can do is to present Jesus, the precious Saviour, before them as their pattern. If they love Jesus they will be pure, harmless, undefiled. They will surround themselves with the atmosphere of faith rather than of doubt and skepticism and unbelief. They will talk of Jesus, of heaven, of the Christian's duties, the Christian's warfare and how to successfully resist the powers of Satan. They will not be like vultures preying upon that which they suppose to be the defects of others.
TDG	141	3	Oh, that Jesus might be revealed to them! Oh, that they might love to dwell upon His matchless charms! Oh, that their hearts might learn with His love, then we should not be ignorant of Satan's devices. Our weapons would be turned against our most deadly foes. We should see by faith the pure light; eyes of heavenly angels intently fixed upon us with love to mark our devotion. We should by faith see Satan watching for every misstep--everything that he could use against us, taking advantage of our lack of union and love, making the crooked ways and with exulting triumph accusing these before the angels of God....
TDG	141	4	While we are powerless to stay the workings of sin and Satan, help has been provided. Ask and ye shall receive. Two or three may claim the promise, if they ask anything in His name, He will do it. He will be inquired of to do these things for us.
TDG	141	5	Oh, my brother, do not feel so independent that you will not ask help of the only One who can render you the assistance you need to break the snare of Satan. You must be watchful, zealous, faithful and true; humble and trustful, full of tenderness and compassion....
TDG	141	6	Commence the work in your own heart and then, with your heart baptized with the Spirit of Christ, lead your children to the Lamb of God.--Letter 11, May 12, 1883, to a layman in California.
------------------------Loving to Obey, May 13
TDG	142	1	If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10.
TDG	142	2	Christ attaches a weight of importance to the obedience of His people to the commandments of God. They are to have an intelligent knowledge of them, and bring them into their daily life. Man cannot keep the commandments of God, only as he is in Christ, and Christ in him. And it is not possible for him to be in Christ, having light on His commandments, while disregarding the least of them. By steadfast, willing obedience to His word, they evidence their love for the Sent of God.
TDG	142	3	Not to keep the commandments of God is not to love Him. None will keep the law of God unless they love Him who is the only begotten of the Father. And nonetheless surely; if they love Him, they will express that love by obedience to Him. All who love Christ will be loved of the Father, and He will manifest Himself to them. In all their emergencies and perplexities they will have a helper in Jesus Christ.
TDG	142	4	That Christ should manifest Himself to them, and yet be invisible to the world, was a mystery to the disciples. They could not understand the words of Christ in their spiritual sense. They were thinking of the outward, visible manifestation. They could not take in the fact that they could have the presence of Christ with them, and yet He be unseen by the world. They did not understand the meaning of a spiritual manifestation.
TDG	142	5	The great Teacher longed to give to the disciples all the encouragement and comfort possible, for they were to be sorely tried. But it was difficult for them to comprehend His words. They had yet to learn that the inward spiritual life, all fragrant with the obedience of love, would give them the spiritual power they needed....
TDG	142	6	The very image of God is to be impressed upon and reflected in humanity. The cold heart is to be quickened and glow with divine love--a love that beats in union with the love the Redeemer has evidenced for you....
TDG	142	7	While no trials arise to disturb the people of God, the faith of that people will never be known, nor the strength of the anchor that holds the human barque in safety.--Manuscript 44, May 13, 1897, "Christ's Representatives."
------------------------The Compassionate Christian, May 14
TDG	143	1	The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. John 14:30.
TDG	143	2	In all His habits of life, the Saviour gave an example of what God designs His church on earth to be. Tell this to the people. Christ desires to present His church before the Father without spot or blemish.
TDG	143	3	From His earliest years the Saviour's life was one of poverty. His childhood days were spent in toil. Working at the carpenter's bench, bearing the burdens that came to Him as a member of the family, He often became weary. He lived in a corrupt age. Yet He was uncorrupted by the evil that surrounded Him, uninfluenced by the characters of those who were artificial and wicked. In the open fields and amid the scenes of nature He found rest from toil and food for spiritual life. Looking beneath the surface, He gathered knowledge from the mysteries of nature that filled Him with peace and joy.
TDG	143	4	During the years of His public ministry, the Saviour was continually watched by crafty and hypocritical men. Spies were continually upon His track to catch something from His lips which they could use to create prejudice against Him. Again and again they tried to make Him appear guilty of wrong. There were occasions when they laid traps for Him by presenting to Him questions, the answers to which they hoped to use to cause His condemnation by the people. But at every attempt they were compelled to retire from the field confounded; their actions were revealed in their true light by the answers of Christ. The Saviour's discourses presented a power of truth to the multitudes who listened. Even the men who were sent to spy upon His actions were forced to return with the report to those who sent them, "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46)....
TDG	143	5	Let your conversation be with grace, for Christ is listening to the words you speak. Let compassion for one another be blended with all you say, then you will reveal the character of Christ. The manners of Christ were gentle and unassuming. As His followers we are to partake of His nature. We need to be daily learners of the great Teacher, that the atmosphere surrounding the soul may be filled with spiritual life.--Letter 158, May 14, 1908, to Edson White.
------------------------Step by Step, May 15
TDG	144	1	His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:21.
TDG	144	2	Oh, how many are waiting for opportunity to do some great work of self-sacrifice, and are overlooking the little daily test which God gives to prove them. It is the little things of life that develop the spirit in men and women and determine that character. These trifles cannot be neglected and yet the man be prepared to endure the severe tests, when they are brought to bear upon him....
TDG	144	3	Your character building is by no means finished. Every day a good or a bad brick is placed in the structure. You are either building crookedly, or with exactness and correctness that will make a beautiful temple for God. Therefore, look not for great opportunities, and neglect the present little opportunities of doing little acts of kindness. In words, in tones, in gestures, in looks, you can represent the spirit of Jesus. He who neglects these little things, and yet flatters himself that he is ready to do wonderful things for the Master, will be in danger of failing altogether.
TDG	144	4	Life is not made up of great sacrifices and wonderful achievements, but of little things. Kindness and love and courtesy are the marks of the Christian.... You need to cherish the precious qualities that existed in the character of Jesus.... In our association with each other, let it be ever remembered that there are chapters in the experience of others that are sealed from mortal eyes. There are sad histories that are written in the books of heaven, which are sacredly guarded from prying eyes. There stand registered long, hard battles with trying circumstances, arising in the very homes, that day by day sap the courage, the faith, the confidence, until the very manhood seems to fall to ruins. But Jesus knows it all, and He never forgets. To such, words of kindness and of affection are welcome as the smile of angels. A strong, helpful grasp of the hand of a true friend is worth more than gold and silver. It helps him to regain the manhood of the man.--Letter 16, May 15, 1886, to two physicians at the St. Helena Sanitarium.
------------------------Unreserved Surrender, May 16
TDG	145	1	I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20.
TDG	145	2	God will accept nothing less than unreserved surrender. Half-hearted, sinful Christians can never enter heaven. There they would find no happiness; for they know nothing of the high, holy principles that govern the members of the royal family.
TDG	145	3	The true Christian keeps the windows of the soul open heavenward. He lives in fellowship with Christ. His will is conformed to the will of Christ. His highest desire is to become more and more Christlike....
TDG	145	4	Earnestly and untiringly we are to strive to reach God's ideal for us. Not as a penance are we to do this, but as the only means of gaining true happiness. The only way to gain peace and joy is to have a living connection with Him who gave His life for us, who died that we might live, and who lives to unite His power with the efforts of those who are striving to overcome.
TDG	145	5	Holiness is constant agreement with God. Shall we not strive to be that which Christ so greatly desires us to be--Christians in deed and in truth--that the world may see in our lives a revelation of the saving power of truth? This world is our preparatory school. While here we shall meet with trials and difficulties. Continually the enemy of God will seek to draw us away from our allegiance. But while we cleave to Him who gave Himself for us, we are safe.
TDG	145	6	The whole world was gathered into the embrace of Christ. He died on the cross to destroy him who had the power of death, and to take away the sin of every believing soul. He calls upon us to offer ourselves on the altar of service, a living, consuming sacrifice. We are to make an unreserved consecration to God of all that we have and are.
TDG	145	7	In this lower school of earth we are to learn the lessons that will prepare us to enter the higher school, where our education will continue under the personal instruction of Christ. Then He will open to us the meaning of His Word. Shall we not, in the few days of probation remaining to us, act like men and women who are seeking for life in the kingdom of God, even an eternity of bliss?--The Review and Herald, May 16, 1907.
------------------------Heart Holiness, May 17
TDG	146	1	“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Jeremiah 31:33, R.S.V.
TDG	146	2	When the law of God is written in the heart it will be exhibited in a pure and holy life. The commandments of God are no dead letter. They are spirit and life, bringing the imaginations and even the thoughts into subjection to the will of Christ. The heart in which they are written will be kept with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. All who love Jesus and keep the commandments will seek to avoid the very appearance of evil; not because they are constrained thus to do, but because they are copying a pure model, and feel averse to everything contrary to the law written in their hearts. They will not feel self-sufficient, but their trust will be in God, who alone is able to keep them from sin and impurity. The atmosphere surrounding them is pure; they will not corrupt their own souls or the souls of others. It is their pleasure to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God.
TDG	146	3	The danger that lies before those living in these last days, is the absence of pure religion, the absence of heart holiness. The converting power of God has not wrought in transforming their characters. They profess to believe sacred truths as did the Jewish nation; but in their failing to practice the truth, they are ignorant both of the Scriptures and the power of God. The power and influence of God's law are around about, but not within the soul, renewing it in true holiness....
TDG	146	4	God designs that the teacher of the Bible should in his character and home life be a specimen of the principles of the truth which he is teaching to his fellow men.
TDG	146	5	What a man is, has a greater influence than what he says. The quiet, consistent, godly life is a living epistle, known and read of all men. A man may speak and write like an angel, but his practices may resemble a fallen fiend.... True character is not something shaped from without, or put on, but it is something radiating from within. If true goodness, purity, meekness, lowliness, and equity are dwelling in the heart, that fact will be reflected in the character; and such a character is full of power.--The Review and Herald, May 17, 1887. (Italics supplied.)
------------------------Fidelity to the Father's Family, May 18
TDG	147	1	That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.... Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 1 Corinthians 12:25-27.
TDG	147	2	In Christ we are all members of one family. God is our Father, and He expects us to take an interest in the members of His household.... As branches of the parent vine, we derive nourishment from the same source, and by willing obedience, we become one with Christ.
TDG	147	3	If one member of Christ's household falls into temptation, the other members are to look after him with kindly interest, seeking to arrest the feet that are straying into false paths, and win him to a pure, holy life. This service God requires from every member of His church (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-27).
TDG	147	4	Some, because they do not receive and impart light, have no genuine spiritual experience. They are often surprised by temptations that come in such fascinating forms that they do not recognize them as deceptions of the wily foe. How important that they obtain the experience necessary for them to have. The members of the Lord's family are to be wise and watchful, doing all in their power to save their weaker brethren from Satan's concealed nets.
TDG	147	5	This is home missionary work, and it is as helpful to those who do it as it is to those for whom it is done. The kindly interest we manifest in the home circle, the words of sympathy we speak to our brothers and sisters, fit us to work for the members of the Lord's household, with whom, if we remain loyal to Christ, we shall live through eternal ages.
TDG	147	6	"Be thou faithful unto death," Christ says, "and I will give thee a crown of life" (Revelation 2:10). Then how carefully should the members of the Lord's family guard their brethren and sisters! Make yourself their friend. If they are poor, and in need of food and clothing, minister to their temporal as well as their spiritual wants. Thus you will be a double blessing to them....
TDG	147	7	How tender we should be in our dealings with those who are striving for the crown of life. He who in love and tenderness has helped a soul in need may at another time be himself in need of compassionate words of hope and courage.--Manuscript 63, May 18, 1898, "Home Missionary Work."
------------------------Obedience Is Sanctification, May 19
TDG	148	1	And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. Ephesians 5:2.
TDG	148	2	In all the fullness of His divinity, in all the glory of His spotless humanity, Christ gave Himself for us as a full and free sacrifice, and each one who comes to Him should accept Him as if he were the only one for whom the price had been paid. As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive, for the obedient will be raised to immortality, and the transgressor will rise from the dead to suffer death, the penalty of the law which he has broken.
TDG	148	3	Obedience to the law of God is sanctification. There are many who have erroneous ideas in regard to this work in the soul, but Jesus prayed that His disciples might be sanctified through the truth, and added, "Thy word is truth." Sanctification is not an instantaneous but a progressive work, as obedience is continuous. Just as long as Satan urges his temptations upon us, the battle for self-conquest will have to be fought over and over again; but by obedience, the truth will sanctify the soul. Those who are loyal to the truth will, through the merits of Christ, overcome all weakness of character which has led them to be molded by every varying circumstance of life.
TDG	148	4	Many have taken the position that they cannot sin because they are sanctified, but this is a delusive snare of the evil one. There is constant danger of falling into sin, for Christ has warned us to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation. If we are conscious of the weakness of self, we shall not be self-confident and reckless of danger, but we shall feel the necessity of seeking to the Source of our strength, Jesus our righteousness. We shall come in repentance and contrition, with a despairing sense of our own finite weakness, and learn that we must daily apply to the merits of the blood of Christ, that we may become vessels fit for the Master's use. While thus depending upon God, we shall not be found warring against the truth, but we shall always be enabled to take our stand for the right. We should cling to the teaching of the Bible, and not follow the customs and traditions of the world, the sayings and doings of men.--The Signs of the Times, May 19, 1890.
------------------------Christ's Crowning Miracle, May 20
TDG	149	1	Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead. John 12:9.
TDG	149	2	The feast at Simon's house brought many of the Jews together; for they knew Christ was there. And they came not only to see Jesus, but Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. The raising of Lazarus was the crowning miracle of Christ's life. The last test had been given to the Jewish nation. Lazarus had been raised from the dead to bear a testimony for Christ.
TDG	149	3	Many thought that Lazarus would have some wonderful experience to relate. They were surprised when he told them nothing. But Lazarus had nothing to tell. The pen of Inspiration has given light upon this subject. "The dead know not anything. ... Their love, and their hatred, ... is now perished" (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6).
TDG	149	4	But Lazarus had a wonderful testimony to bear in regard to the work of Christ. He was a living testimonial of divine power. With assurance and power he declared that Christ was the Son of God, and asked the people what they would gain by putting Christ to death.
TDG	149	5	Overwhelming evidence was given to the priests in regard to the divinity of Christ. But they had set their hearts to resist all light, and they closed the chambers of their mind, that no light might be admitted.
TDG	149	6	The honor showed to Jesus exasperated the scribes and Pharisees. They consulted that they might also put Lazarus to death; "because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus" (John 12:11). The testimony of Lazarus was so clear and convincing that the priests could not resist its argument.... Therefore they laid their plans to put Lazarus to death.... They purposed to remove Lazarus secretly, and thus less publicity would be given to Christ's death. The end, they argued, would justify the means, but they must not summon Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea to their councils, for then their murderous designs would be opposed.
TDG	149	7	They could bring no charge against Lazarus, yet rather than admit evidence that could not be denied, they plotted to kill him. So will men do when they separate themselves from God. When unbelief once takes possession of the mind, the heart is hardened, and no power can soften it.--Manuscript 47, May 20, 1897, "Judas."
------------------------Oneness With Christ, May 21
TDG	150	1	Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.... If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. 2 Timothy 2:19-21.
TDG	150	2	Oneness with Christ depends on the renewing of the mind by the Holy Spirit. Thus we are strengthened to walk in newness of life, receiving from Christ the forgiveness of our sins. He who has that faith which works by love and purifies the soul, is a cleansed vessel, sanctified and meet for the Master's use. Self is dead....
TDG	150	3	All disunion, all selfish thoughts, words, and actions, are the fruit of the working of an unholy spirit upon the mind. Under the influence of this spirit, words are spoken which do not reveal the Saviour. Christ is not formed within, the hope of glory. Those who live thus are sinners, though they may be disguised as saints....
TDG	150	4	Those who receive Christ are meek and lowly in heart. Christ opens within their hearts a living fountain of water, which springs up unto eternal life, refreshing the souls of others. The lives of those who eat the bread of life and drink the water of salvation are purified by the grace of God....
TDG	150	5	Let all study the Word. Let not any man burden his soul with so many burdens that he cannot study the precious lessons Christ has given....
TDG	150	6	The Word of God is not half comprehended. If each one would proclaim a fast for his own soul, studying the Word of God with earnest prayer, and reading only those books which would help him to gain a clearer knowledge of the Word, God's people would have much more spiritual health and strength, much more spiritual knowledge and understanding, than they now reveal. We need to seek God, that we may find Him precious to our souls. We need to keep Him as our abiding guest and companion, never parting from Him.
TDG	150	7	To be one with Christ in God is the privilege of every soul. But in order to be this, we must be meek and lowly, teachable and obedient. Shall we not be of that number who make a business of securing by earnest prayer and faithful practice the faith that works by love and purifies the soul?--Letter 75, May 21, 1900, to Elder G. A. Irwin, president of the General Conference.
------------------------The Purifying Process, May 22
TDG	151	1	For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Hebrews 2:18.
TDG	151	2	I am awakened at twelve o'clock to write out the instruction that has been given me....
TDG	151	3	The words were spoken, "I am the Light of the world. Kindle your soul's light from the wisdom of human agencies, and your light will go out in darkness. Seek My wisdom, and you will be guided by unerring counsel. This guidance it is the privilege of every child of God to have. Ask, and ye shall receive; but ask in faith believing. Ask for that which is in accordance with the Word of God. Believing, ye shall receive."
TDG	151	4	Christ is the source of our strength. Let us study His teachings. In giving His only begotten Son to live in our world and to be subject to temptation that He might teach us how to overcome, the Father has made ample provision that we should not be taken captive by the enemy. Meeting the fallen foe, Christ overcame in behalf of humanity. He was tempted in all points like as we are, but He resisted in the strength of divinity, that He might be able to succor us when we are tempted.
TDG	151	5	Becoming partakers of His divine nature, we are to learn to discern the temptations of Satan, and, in the strength of His grace, overcome the corruptions that are in the world through lust. He who was once a sinful human being may be refined and purified through the imparted merits of Christ, and stand before his fellow men as a laborer together with God. To the earnest seeker after God, the divine nature will surely be imparted, the compassion of Christ will certainly be vouchsafed....
TDG	151	6	Satan is working with all his ingenuity to sidetrack souls. What shall we do? Let us believe that the Lord is willing to raise up and strengthen the weak.
TDG	151	7	You will find your greatest strength in dwelling upon that which is spiritual. Let the sanctification of the truth of the Word of God be revealed in your life. Let this agency refine and ennoble the soul. The Lord would have His ministering servants walk humbly before Him. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29, 30).--Letter 166, May 22, 1908, to W. W. Prescott, editor of the Review and Herald.
------------------------Securing Our Inheritance, May 23
TDG	152	1	Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Jude 1:7.
TDG	152	2	The outlook in our world is indeed alarming. God is withdrawing His Spirit from the wicked cities, which have become as the cities of the antediluvian world, and as Sodom and Gomorrah. The inhabitants of these cities have been tested and tried. We have reached a time when God is about to punish the presumptuous wrongdoers, who refuse to keep His commandments and disregard His messages of warning. He who bears long with evildoers gives everyone an opportunity to seek Him and humble their hearts before Him.
TDG	152	3	Everyone has opportunity to come to Christ and be converted, that He may heal them. But there will come a time when mercy will be no longer offered. Costly mansions, marvels of architectural skill, will be destroyed without a moment's notice, when the Lord sees that the owners have passed the boundaries of forgiveness. The destruction by fire of the stately buildings supposed to be fireproof is an illustration of how in a short time earth's architecture will lie in ruins....
TDG	152	4	The twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew gives an outline of what is to come upon the world. We are living amid the perils of the last days. Those who are perishing in sin must be warned. The Lord calls upon every one to whom He has entrusted the talent of means to act as His helping hand by giving their money for the advancement of His work. Our money is a treasure lent us by the Lord, and it is to be invested in the work of giving to the world the last message of mercy....
TDG	152	5	He who looks at earthly things as the chief good, he who spends his life in an effort to gain worldly riches, is indeed making a poor investment. Too late he will see that in which he has trusted crumbling into dust. It is only through self-denial, through the sacrifice of earthly riches, that the eternal riches can be obtained. It is through much tribulation that the Christian enters the kingdom of heaven. Constantly he is to war the good warfare, not laying down his weapons until Christ bids him rest. Only by giving all to Christ can he secure the inheritance that will endure through all eternity.--Letter 90, May 23, 1902, to Brother Johnson, a layman.
------------------------Zeal for Truth, May 24
TDG	153	1	And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. Deuteronomy 31:8.
TDG	153	2	Nothing in this world, no earthly favors or enjoyments, can take the place of the presence and favor of God. Without Him as our friend and portion, we are indeed alone. We may have many other friends, but they can never be to us what Christ is.
TDG	153	3	Those who desire to find pardon for past transgressions must come to Christ just as they are, saying, "Lord, though I have been bought with a price, and am Thy property, I have in the past refused to give myself to Thee. I now acknowledge that I am not my own, that I cannot do as I please with myself. Take me as I am, a poor, sinful creature, and cleanse and purify me from all sin by taking my sin Thine own dear self. I do not deserve this, but Thou art the only one who can save me. Take away my sin and give me Thy righteousness. I do not want to remain in sin one more day. Impart to me Thy righteousness, and keep me from all transgression of Thy holy law."
TDG	153	4	Do not limit the Holy One of Israel. Desire to see more of the manifestation of His love, that you may win others to the knowledge of His goodness....
TDG	153	5	The Lord has pledged His glorious perfection that those who seek Him with humility of heart, confessing their sins, will find Him precious to their souls. But those who refuse to obey, for fear of displeasing earthly friends, cannot be friends of God.
TDG	153	6	Obey, obey, for Christ's sake and for your own soul's sake. Obey that which your conscience tells you is truth. Accept the grace and righteousness of Christ. God is tenderly calling you, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). If you refuse the invitation to repentance, to freedom from sin, the great day of God will find you hopeless, shelterless, disobedient, a transgressor of His law. He will not then be able to give you a place in His kingdom. God help you to come now, is my prayer.--Letter 80, May 24, 1900, to a layman in Australia.
------------------------Sit in His Shadow, May 25
TDG	154	1	And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11, 12.
TDG	154	2	The Lord has not qualified any one of us to bear the burden of the work alone. He has associated together men of different minds, that they may counsel with and assist one another. In this way the deficiency in the experience and the abilities of one is supplied by the experience and the abilities of another. We should all study carefully the instruction given in Corinthians and Ephesians regarding our relation to one another as members of the body of Christ.
TDG	154	3	In your work, Edson, you must consider the relation that each worker sustains to the other workers connected with the cause of God. You must remember that others as well as yourself have a work to do in connection with this cause. You must not bar your mind against counsel....
TDG	154	4	We are connected with the service and cause of God, and we must individually realize that we are parts of a great whole. We must seek wisdom from God, learning what it means to have a waiting, watching spirit, and to go to our Saviour when tired and depressed. Trust in God, not in man's judgment alone.
TDG	154	5	You must learn to give up your will and your way, and to receive light from those whom God has made His helping hand, those by whom He designs that you shall be helped. Go to Christ for relief. Cling to Him. Stay long enough to yield up your will to the will of God. Many are in too great a hurry to pray. With hurried steps they pass through the shadow of Christ's loving presence, pausing perhaps for a few moments within the sacred precincts, but not waiting for counsel. They have no time to sit down, no time to remain with the divine Teacher. With their burdens, they return to their work....
TDG	154	6	Fix your thoughts upon the Saviour. Go apart from the bustle of the world, and sit down under Christ's shadow. This you must do if you receive the rich blessings He is waiting to bestow on you. Give your thoughts to high and holy things. Then, amidst the din of the daily toil and conflict, your spiritual strength will be renewed.--Letter 80, May 25, 1902, to Edson White, engaged in work among the blacks in the Southern States.
------------------------Claiming the Privileges, May 26
TDG	155	1	Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:13, 14.
TDG	155	2	Do whatever you can and the way will open before you. Every moment of time is golden. Souls out of Christ are to be persuaded to lay hold of the hope of the gospel....
TDG	155	3	We are not to live in this world to please ourselves. We have stern, earnest work to do every day of our lives. We look by faith to the things that are unseen and in so doing we lose sight of the trials and hardships of the way. Heaven is our home. We dare not run any risk of losing the one hope we have cherished so long, of seeing Jesus as He is and of being made like Him. We hope you will guard your steps. Live the life of prayer and faith and win the unfading crown of glory.
TDG	155	4	There is no other way for any of us to be saved but that way wrought out by our Redeemer. He has, in His life on the earth, given us a practical illustration in self-denial and self-sacrifice of what He wishes us to be. "I came not," says Christ, "to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me" (see John 6:38).
TDG	155	5	We cannot be Christians while we live to please ourselves. We must enter in through the strait gate of self-denial, if we follow the Master. This strait, self-denying path is too narrow for many to walk in who profess godliness. They want an easier path and are climbing up some other way. They refuse to follow in the footsteps of our Redeemer. Christ calls all such thieves and robbers. They take the name of Christian, which does not belong to them, because they do not represent in their life the life of Christ. They claim the privileges which belong to the sons of God while they are none of His. They live selfish lives upon the earth and have done nothing for the truth and the salvation of souls as they ought to have done. Sad indeed for these self-deceived ones. They will never see heaven, because they are not willing to share the shame, the reproach, that Jesus suffered for them.
TDG	155	6	Dear children, let Christ be enshrined in your hearts and you will love all for whom Christ has died, and will do all you can to save them.--Letter 30, May 26, 1874, to her children.
------------------------Rejoice in the Lord, May 27
TDG	156	1	For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7.
TDG	156	2	My head is weary this morning. Mist and clouds hang over my mind; but the suggestions of the enemy to distrust the Lord shall not be cherished. Now is my time to fight the good fight of faith. Now is the very occasion that needs the steady faith that works by love and purifies my soul. I seek the Lord more earnestly.
TDG	156	3	In 1 Chronicles 28:9 David gives his charge to Solomon....
TDG	156	4	The message was brought to Asa by the Lord's prophet: "The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you" (2 Chronicles 15:2; cf. Jeremiah 29:11-13). My heart goes out in faith. Faith is not feeling; faith is not sight. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).
TDG	156	5	I spoke in the Rechabite's hall at 3:00 P.M. from Philippians 4:4-7: "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." I believe the promise is for me, and I appropriate the same personally. The promise itself is of no value unless I fully believe that He that has made the promise is abundantly able to fulfill, and infinite in power to do all that He has said.
TDG	156	6	The message the Lord gave me was a message of faith. We cannot dishonor God more than in distrusting His Word. Feeling is not at all reliable. A religion fed and kept alive by emotions is valueless. God's Word is the foundation upon which our hopes may safely rest, and in the confidence we have in the Word of God we are established, strengthened, settled, riveted to the Eternal Rock. Then the prayer of Paul will be answered:
TDG	156	7	"For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:9, 10).--Manuscript 80, May 27, 1893, diary.
------------------------The Indwelling Christ, May 28
TDG	157	1	He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. 1 John 2:9, 10.
TDG	157	2	Last night I dreamed that a small company were assembled together to have a religious meeting. There was one who came in and seated himself in a dark corner, where he would attract little observation. There was not a spirit of freedom. The Spirit of the Lord was bound. Some remarks were made by the elder of the church. He seemed to be trying to hurt someone. I saw a sadness upon the countenance of the stranger. It became apparent that there was not the love of Jesus in the hearts of those who claimed to believe the truth and there was, as the sure result, an absence of the spirit of Christ and a great want both in thoughts and feelings of love for God and for one another. The assembling together had not been refreshing to anyone.
TDG	157	3	As the meeting was about to close, the stranger arose and with a voice that was full of sorrow and of tears, he told them that they had a great want in their own souls, and in their own experience, of the love of Jesus, which was present in large measure in every heart where Christ took up His abode. Every heart renewed by the Spirit of God would not only love God but love his brother, and if that brother made mistakes, if he erred, he must be dealt with after the gospel plan. Every step must be followed according to the directions given in the Word of God. "'Ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted'" (Galatians 6:1), he said. "Rememberest thou not the prayer of Christ just before He left His disciples for His long, agonizing struggle in the garden of Gethsemane, before His betrayal, His trial, and His crucifixion?" (See John 17:15-23)....
TDG	157	4	Be careful how you treat the purchase of the blood of Christ. There will be need of plain and faithful reproving of evil works, but let the one who takes this work upon him know that he is not separated from Christ by evil works himself. He must be spiritual and restore such an one in the spirit of meekness....
TDG	157	5	The spirit and character of Christ are manifested in the chosen of God, by their heavenly conversation, their meekness, their blameless conduct. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.--Manuscript 32, May 28, 1887, diary, "Visit to Germany."
------------------------Reverence the Cause, May 29
TDG	158	1	Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. 1 Timothy 3:9.
TDG	158	2	I praise the Lord this morning for the peace I enjoy. There is perfect rest for me in the Lord. I trust in His love. Why should we not rest in the love of God, the assurance of His word? What saith Jesus? "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." What can be more positive than this promise? "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). Then come; let us who believe in Jesus Christ not delay a moment, but come.
TDG	158	3	All who hold fast to themselves, as if fearful that after all the Lord Jesus does not mean as He says, show great dishonor to God. In keeping away from Jesus do not our actions say, "I do not believe the Lord Jesus means it"? You do not treat your human friends in this doubting, distrustful manner. If they show you respect, if they make you a promise, you do not say, "I have no faith; I cannot believe any of your promises. This is very trying to me, nevertheless I cannot believe your word."
TDG	158	4	You virtually tell God all of this in your actions.... You have found the rest always when you have come, but you begin to question, to look at yourself, to groan over yourself. Now stop all this. Take off that yoke you have manufactured for your neck, which galls so terribly, and take Christ's yoke, which he declares is easy, and His burden, which He tells you is light....
TDG	158	5	The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, your Comforter. Has the Holy Spirit failed to fulfill His part of the work? If so, you are not to blame. But the promise is sure and steadfast. When you say you have not faith in God you make God a liar and show that you have no confidence in the Holy Spirit's work, which is always ready to help our infirmities. He is always waiting at your door, always knocking for admittance. Let Him in. All you have to do is to put your will over on the Lord's side. You need the promise, but it is the infinite One behind the promise in whom you are to have perfect confidence. Say it: "I am the Lord's. I do believe." Crowd out every doubt from the soul. Have faith in God. He loves you. Never, never allow yourself to doubt or distrust Him.--Manuscript 80, May 29, 1893, diary.
------------------------Without Spot, May 30
TDG	159	1	Even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; ...that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:25-27.
TDG	159	2	We bear the name of Christian. Let us be true to this name. To be a Christian means to be Christlike. It means to follow Christ in self-denial, bearing aloft His banner of love, honoring Him by unselfish words and deeds. In the life of the true Christian there is nothing of self--self is dead. There was no selfishness in the life that Christ lived while on this earth. Bearing our nature, He lived a life wholly devoted to the good of others....
TDG	159	3	In word and deed Christ's followers are to be pure and true. In this world--a world of iniquity and corruption--Christians are to reveal the attributes of Christ. All they do and say is to be free from selfishness. Christ desires to present them to the Father "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," purified through His grace, bearing His likeness.
TDG	159	4	In His great love, Christ surrendered Himself for us. He gave Himself for us to meet the necessities of the striving, struggling soul. We are to surrender ourselves to Him. When this surrender is entire, Christ can finish the work He began for us by the surrender of Himself. Then He can bring to us complete restoration.
TDG	159	5	Christ gave Himself for the redemption of the race, that all who believe in Him may have everlasting life. Those who appreciate this great sacrifice receive from the Saviour that most precious of all gifts--a clean heart. They gain an experience that is more valuable than gold or silver or precious stones. They sit together in heavenly places in Christ, enjoying in communion with Him the joy and peace that He alone can give. They love Him with heart and mind and soul and strength, realizing that they are His blood-bought heritage. Their spiritual eyesight is not dimmed by worldly policy or worldly aims. They are one with Christ as He is one with the Father.
TDG	159	6	Think you not that Christ values those who live wholly for Him? Think you not that He visits those who, like the beloved John, are for His sake in hard and trying places? He finds His faithful ones, and holds communion with them, encouraging and strengthening them.--The Review and Herald, May 30, 1907.
------------------------Our Guardian Angels, May 31
TDG	160	1	Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Psalm 91:9-11.
TDG	160	2	Angels are commissioned to watch in every family. Each one has the watchcare of a holy angel. These angels are invisible, but sometimes they let their light shine so distinctly that it is recognized. I believe this to be the case in the revealing you have had. This manifestation is teaching you that the Lord loves you, and that His angels are guarding you. You are kept by the power of God.
TDG	160	3	Many things of like character will take place. This manifestation of light is to encourage you, as you say it has done, to do right. You have had a glimpse of the light of God, and let this greatly encourage your hearts, making you thankful. All of us should be thankful at all times for the truth that heavenly angels are watching us moment by moment. Very many, had they seen the light you have seen, would rejoice and be thankful.
TDG	160	4	When you search the Scriptures, trying to be right and to do right, the angels who attend your footsteps are rejoiced. Angels of heaven come in a marked manner to those who respond to the evidence of the truth and try to obey it. And if these angels are not always seen, you are to remember that they are present just the same, only your natural eyes are not strengthened to discern the light....
TDG	160	5	The great trouble with us all is that we do not take time to think that heavenly beings are near us, to help us in our every desire to do right. Heavenly light has come very near to you. Evidence has been given you that the Lord has love for you and cares for you. You can take courage, and feel that you receive strength and grace to do all the good you are capable of doing....
TDG	160	6	Thank the Lord, your heart has been quickened, because you have been privileged to see some rays of light from the heavenly messengers. You can see how much you can do to help your mother and the other members of the family. A Christian is one who is daily learning of Christ, taking up the little duties of life, bearing others' burdens. Thus you will have union with Christ.--Letter 82, May 31, 1900, to Elsie Atkins, a youthful church member in Australia.
------------------------The Real Christian, June 1
TDG	161	1	He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. Luke 16:10.
TDG	161	2	The real Christian is a servant of Christ. His work for Christ must be thoroughly well done. Nothing must come in to divert his mind from his work. Other matters can have proper attention, and yet be held subordinate, but Christ's service requires the whole man--the heart, the mind, the soul, the strength. He will not accept a divided heart. He expects us to do our best. And nothing faithfully done for Him is insignificant in His sight....
TDG	161	3	Every man is required to do the work assigned him of God. We should be willing to render small services, doing the things that are to be done, which someone must do, improving the little opportunities. If these are the only opportunities, we should still work faithfully. He who wastes hours, days, and weeks, because he is unwilling to do the work at hand, humble though it may be, will be called to render an account to God for his misspent time. If he feels that he can afford to do nothing, because he cannot obtain the desired wages, let him stop and think that that day, that one day, is the Lord's. He is the Lord's servant. He is not to waste His time. Let him think, I will spend that time in doing something, and will give all I earn to advance the work of God. I will not be counted a do-nothing.
TDG	161	4	When a man loves God supremely, and his neighbor as himself, he will not stop to inquire whether that which he can do is bringing in much or little. He will do the work, and accept the wages offered. He will not set the example of refusing a job because he cannot count upon as large wages as he thinks he should have.
TDG	161	5	The Lord judges a man's character by the principles on which he acts in dealing with his fellow men. If in common business transactions his principles are defective, the same will be brought into his spiritual service for God. The threads are woven into his whole religious life. If you have too much dignity to work for yourself for small wages, then work for the Master; give the proceeds into the Lord's treasury. Make an offering of gratitude to God for sparing your life. But do not on any account be idle.--Manuscript 20, June 1, 1896,.
------------------------Our Magnanimous Lord, June 2
TDG	162	1	No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24.
TDG	162	2	It is plainly written on the unrenewed heart and on a fallen world, All seek their own. Selfishness is the great law of our degenerate nature. Selfishness occupies the place in the soul where Christ should sit enthroned. But the Lord requires perfect obedience; and if we truly desire to serve Him, there will be no question in our minds as to whether we shall obey His requirements or seek our own temporal interests.
TDG	162	3	The Lord of glory did not consult His convenience or pleasure when He left His station of high command to become a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, accepting ignominy and death in order to deliver man from the consequence of his disobedience. Jesus died, not to save man in his sins, but from his sins. We must leave the error of our ways, take up our cross and follow Christ, denying self, and obeying God at any cost.
TDG	162	4	Those who profess to serve God, yet really serve mammon, will be visited with judgments. None will be justified in a course of disobedience for the sake of worldly profit. If God would excuse one man, He might all. Those who disregard the Lord's express injunction for personal advantage, are heaping up for themselves future woe. Christ said: "Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves" (Mark 11:17). The people of God should inquire closely if they have not, like the Jews of old, made the house of God a place of merchandise.
TDG	162	5	Many are falling into the sin of sacrificing their religion for the sake of worldly gain, preserving a form of piety, yet giving all the mind to temporal pursuit. But the law of God must be considered first of all, and obeyed in spirit and in letter. Jesus, our great exemplar, in His life and death, taught the strictest obedience. He died, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, that the honor of God's law might be preserved and yet man not utterly perish....
TDG	162	6	God has withheld nothing from man that could promote his happiness or secure to him eternal riches. He has clothed the earth with beauty, and furnished it with everything necessary for the comfort of man during his temporal life.--The Signs of the Times, June 2, 1887.
------------------------The Door Is Still Open, June 3
TDG	163	1	For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6.
TDG	163	2	In a world like ours, where truth and falsehood are so closely mingled that it is difficult to discern between them, it is a perilous matter to neglect to seek wisdom from on high. Those who will now take heed and turn to the Lord without delay, taking their position on the true foundation, will receive pardon. All error is mixed with truth, and this makes the deceptions of Satan harder to see. But when the time of test and trial comes upon us, there will be seen the difference between the righteousness of the righteous and the wickedness of the wicked.
TDG	163	3	Every error is sin, and every sin has its origin with Satan. Wrong practices have blinded the eyes and blighted the perceptive faculties of men and women. We need now to be guarded on every point....
TDG	163	4	The inhabitants of the world, under Satan's leadership, are binding up in bundles ready to be burned. We have no time, not a moment, to lose. The judgments of God are in the land, and those who stand obstinate, unconvinced by the warnings that God sends, will be bound up in bundles ready to be burned. Let ministers and church members go forth into the vineyard. They will find their harvest wherever they proclaim the forgotten truths of the Bible. Missionaries, men and women, are needed. They will find those who accept the truth, and take their position beside their teacher to win souls to Christ....
TDG	163	5	Multitudes are to be gathered into the fold. Many who have known the truth have corrupted their way before God and departed from the faith. The broken ranks will be filled up by those represented by Christ as coming in at the eleventh hour. There are many with whom the Spirit of God is striving.
TDG	163	6	The time of God's destructive judgments is the time of mercy for those who have no opportunity to learn what is truth. Tenderly will the Lord look upon them. His heart of mercy is touched; His hand is still stretched out to save, while the door is closed to those who would not enter. Large numbers will be admitted who in these last days hear the truth for the first time.--Letter 103, June 3, 1903, to Elder and Mrs. George B. Starr, workers of large experience associated with Ellen G. White in the United States and Australia.
------------------------Let No Man Deceive You, June 4
TDG	164	1	For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 2 Timothy 4:3, 4.
TDG	164	2	Prior to and at the first advent of Christ, religious teachers set forth strange ideas that were so mingled with portions of truth that they were full of deceptive power, and led souls away from God, although they still preserved the appearance of being His true worshipers. We find a similar condition of society in these last days, and those who depart from the faith, mingle with their belief diversities of human opinion. The Bible is brought into criticism. Is it because the Scriptures are inconsistent and contradictory that ministers differ so widely in their interpretation?--No, the trouble is that men are doing today as they did in the time of Christ, and are teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Religious teachers are in the same condition as were the Pharisees of whom He said, "Ye are both ignorant of the Scriptures and of the power of God" (see Matthew 22:29). The very men to whom these words were spoken were presumed to teach and interpret the Scriptures to the people.
TDG	164	3	Are the Scriptures vague and inconsistent? Is there any foundation for the conflicting opinions and various sentiments and doctrines that find credence in the religious world? If so, then we may entertain doubts of their divine origin, for it is not the inspiration of God that leads people to come to diverse opinions. Those who undertake to interpret the Bible, have corrupted the Word of God and wrested the Scripture from its true meaning, by seeking to harmonize the truth of God with the inventions and doctrines of men. The Scriptures are perverted and misapplied, and the gems of truth are set in the framework of error. These teachers are blinded, and cannot clearly discern what is the true meaning of the Scriptures....
TDG	164	4	Jesus, who gave His life to save men, has given us a warning as to what shall come to pass in the last days. The disciples came to Him privately to ask Him concerning the end of the world, and Jesus said: "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many" (Matthew 24:4, 5).--Signs of the Times, June 4, 1894.
------------------------Individual Preparation, June 5
TDG	165	1	A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. John 13:34.
TDG	165	2	These words are not the words of man, but the words of our Redeemer; and how important it is that we fulfill the instruction that He has given! There is nothing that can so weaken the influence of the church, as the lack of love. Christ says, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16). If we are to meet opposition from our enemies, who are represented as wolves, let us be careful that we do not manifest the same spirit among ourselves.
TDG	165	3	The enemy well knows that if we do not have love one for another, he can gain his object, and wound and weaken the church, by causing differences among brethren. He can lead them to surmise evil, to speak evil, to accuse, condemn, and hate one another. In this way the cause of God is brought into dishonor, the name of Christ is reproached, and untold harm is done to the souls of men.
TDG	165	4	How careful we should be, that our words and actions are all in harmony with the sacred truth that God has committed to us! The people of the world are looking to us, to see what our faith is doing for our characters and lives. They are watching to see if it is having a sanctifying effect on our hearts, if we are becoming changed into the likeness of Christ. They are ready to discover every defect in our lives, every inconsistency in our actions. Let us give them no occasion to reproach our faith.
TDG	165	5	It is not the opposition of the world that will most endanger us; it is the evil cherished right in our midst that works our most grievous disaster. It is the unconsecrated lives of half-hearted professors that retard the work of the truth, and bring darkness upon the church of God....
TDG	165	6	God would have us individually come into that position where He can bestow His love upon us. He has placed a high value upon man, and has redeemed us by the sacrifice of His only-begotten Son, and we are to see in our fellow man the purchase of the blood of Christ. If we have this love one for another, we shall be growing in love for God and the truth.--The Review and Herald, June 5, 1888.
------------------------The Cost of Salvation, June 6
TDG	166	1	My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Hebrews 12:5, 6.
TDG	166	2	Christ is our example. He was exposed to hardship. He endured suffering, He humbled Himself to humanity. Christ bore His burdens without impatience, without unbelief, without repining. He felt His trials none the less because He was the divine Son of God. You have not a trouble, perplexity, or difficulty which did not press with equal weight upon the Son of God; not a sorrow to which His heart was not equally exposed. His feelings were hurt as easily as yours. Again the life and character of Christ were faultless. His character was composed of moral excellencies, including everything pure, and true, and lovely, and of good report.
TDG	166	3	God has given us a perfect, faultless pattern. God designed to make of you an able, efficient workman. The mind He designed should be purified, elevated, ennobled. If the mind is allowed to be exercised with small things, it will be feeble as the result of unchanging laws. God wants His servants to enlarge the scope of their thoughts and plans of labor and bring their powers into vigorous contact with things that are grand, elevating, ennobling. This will give new springs to the intellectual faculties. His thoughts will take broad scope and he will gird up his energies for the task of a broader, deeper, grander work, swimming in deep and broad waters where there is no bottom or shore....
TDG	166	4	God sees men's hearts and characters when they do not see their own state correctly. He sees that His work and cause will suffer if wrongs are not corrected that exist in themselves unobserved and therefore uncorrected. Christ calls us His servants, if we do what He commands us. There is to every man assigned his particular sphere, place, and work, and God asks no more and no less from the lowliest, as well as the greatest, than that they fulfill their calling. We are not our own property. We have become servants of Christ by grace. We are the purchase of the blood of the Son of God.--Letter 16, June 6, 1875, to Elder G. I. Butler, former president of the General Conference.
------------------------His Grace Is Sufficient, June 7
TDG	167	1	Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12, 13.
TDG	167	2	Every one of us has a work to do in our own salvation, which is to meet every requirement of God. God does not do anything independent of the agency of him for whom the work is to be done. His grace is sufficient to work in and with them that are His, in the fulfillment of every promise, while the one for whom this grace is supplied is to obey every command.
TDG	167	3	The effect of God's claims is to cause His people to come out from the world and be separate, having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Without holiness "no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). "Whosoever ...will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4).
TDG	167	4	While the Lord is working with us, we must be working for ourselves. When the Lord sends His servants to us with reproof, with cautions, with warnings, we are not to turn away and refuse to receive the message because it does not come from learned men. We are not to say, This message is not needed. Every message sent to you by God's messenger is for your good, to teach you the way of salvation more perfectly. What means has God to communicate His will to men, unless it be through His delegated messengers? And are you not afraid to select that portion of the message that pleases you, and reject that which crosses your track?
TDG	167	5	You must not give expression to your doubts. They are the suggestions of Satan. If you do not respect the ways and means God has employed to reach you, will you consider what means He has in reserve to reach your case? Has there not been utterly a fault among you to criticize the ministers of God, to speak lightly of those whom the apostle has enjoined upon you to regard highly for their work's sake? Will men and women with very limited experience refuse to be helped by the very means God has ordained--His ministers? ...
TDG	167	6	What kind of respect do you think your children will have for the messengers of God after you have taken it upon yourselves to talk disrespectfully of these men as you have done?--Manuscript 37, June 7, 1887, "Cooperating With God."
------------------------Go Work Today, June 8
TDG	168	1	The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10.
TDG	168	2	Capabilities have been entrusted to every soul. These are talents to be improved by faithful service, that Christ at His coming may receive His own with usury.
TDG	168	3	We hear much of the higher education as the world regards the subject. But those who are ignorant of the higher education as it was taught and exemplified in the life of Christ, are ignorant of what constitutes the higher education. Higher education means conformity to the terms of salvation. It embraces the experience of daily looking unto Jesus, and of working together with Christ for the saving of the perishing.
TDG	168	4	Idleness is sin, for there is a world to be labored for. Christ gave His life to the work of uplifting the fallen and the sinful. Though He was the Prince of heaven, He lived and suffered and died under the abuse and scorn of fallen men; and this that He might prepare for the human family mansions in the heavenly courts. Christ imparted instruction of the highest order. Can we imagine a higher education than that to be gained in cooperation with Him?
TDG	168	5	Now is our time to work. The end of all things is at hand; soon the night cometh in which no man can work. This night is much nearer than many suppose. Lift up the man of Calvary before those who are living in sin. By pen and voice labor to sweep back the false ideas that have taken possession of men's minds regarding the higher education. To every worker Christ gives the command, Go work today in My vineyard for the glory of My name. Represent before a world laden with corruption the blessedness of true higher education. Light is to shine forth from every believer. The weary, the heavy-laden, the broken-hearted, and the perplexed, are to be pointed to Christ, the source of all spiritual life and strength....
TDG	168	6	Seek for the higher education, which is entire conformity to the will of God, and you will surely reap the reward that comes as the result of its reception. When you hourly place yourselves in that position where you can be the recipients of the blessing of God, the name of the Lord will be magnified through your lives.--Letter 102, June 8, 1909, to E. A. Sutherland and P. T. Magan, educators formerly at Battle Creek and Berrien Springs, but now at the school at Madison, Tennessee.
------------------------Adorning the Gospel, June 9
TDG	169	1	Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Job 23:12.
TDG	169	2	Only those who read the Scriptures as the voice of God speaking to them are true learners. They tremble at the Word of God, for to them it is a living reality. They study, they search for the hidden treasure. They open their understanding and heart to receive, and they pray for heavenly grace, that they may obtain a preparation for the future, immortal life.
TDG	169	3	As the heavenly torch is placed in his hand, man sees his own frailty, his infirmity, his hopelessness in looking to himself for righteousness. In himself there is nothing that can recommend him to God. He prays for the Holy Spirit, the representative of Christ, to be his constant guide, to lead him into all truth....
TDG	169	4	A bare assent to the truth is not Bible religion.... There are many Christians whose hearts are encased in a self-righteous armor that the arrow of the Lord, barbed and true, aimed by angel hands, would fail to pierce. The truth glides off, and the soul is not wounded. Man must first seek God for himself, then the Holy Spirit will take the precious truth, far above the price of rubies, as it falls from the lips of Jesus, and convey it, a living power, to the obedient heart. The truth, received in the heart becomes a quickening power, awakening every faculty. It is a divine influence that touches the heart and creates the heavenly music that flows forth from the lips in pure thanksgiving and praise.
TDG	169	5	O what can I say in order to awaken the minds of those who profess to believe the truth, that they may adorn the gospel by a faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Christ bids you look to Him as the Illuminator of your darkened souls....
TDG	169	6	The curiosity of men has led them to seek for the tree of knowledge; and often they think they are plucking fruit most essential, when, like Solomon's research, they find it altogether vanity and nothingness in comparison with that science of true holiness which will open to them the gates of the city of God....
TDG	169	7	Every human agent must see that the great and important work for him in this life is to receive the divine likeness, to prepare a character for the future life. He must appropriate the heavenly truths to his special use in practical life.--Manuscript 67, June 9, 1898, "Search the Scriptures."
------------------------Harvesttime, June 10
TDG	170	1	And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Romans 13:11, 12.
TDG	170	2	We form a part of the great web of humanity, and a mutual influence passes from one to another, not only in the church but the family in heaven and the family on earth blend, in order that Christ may become a power in the world. All the jewels of truth given to patriarchs and prophets, which have been accumulating from age to age, and from generation to generation, are to be gathered up, as hereditary trusts.
TDG	170	3	The sacred influences of present and past generations make a strong and powerful agency for God, able to stand, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places. God's people of today have all the privileges and opportunities of former generations and increased light to make them more powerful in the work of God than the people of preceding generations have been. These advantages demand corresponding returns. In harmony with our heavenly treasures are to be our efforts to open the way before others.
TDG	170	4	The Lord is at hand. Heavenly intelligences united with sanctified influences of earth are to proclaim the third angel's message and sound the warning, The end of all things is at hand. "For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry" (Hebrews 10:37). A people are to be prepared to stand in the day of the Lord, and having done all, to stand. Those who crowd together in cities and villages are making a serious mistake. Those who thus neglect to extend their influence, by circulating wider and wider, reaching to the uttermost parts of the world are neglecting to stand at their post of duty....
TDG	170	5	In His prayer for His disciples shortly before His ascension, Christ said, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (John 17:20, 21). Oh, that these blessed words may be written by the finger of God upon every heart.--Manuscript 7, June 10, 1891, "Christian Service in the Living Church."
------------------------Persevering Prayer, June 11
TDG	171	1	Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8.
TDG	171	2	We have a cunning devil to work against! Christ alone is mighty and fully able to match his power, therefore we must have Jesus with us every moment. We are sleepy, stupid, and do not sense the arts and gins and snares of Satan, set for unwary feet. Therefore we must know how we step, that every move is in God. Self must not come in here to make itself heard.
TDG	171	3	The destruction of souls is the regular employment of Satan and his agents upon the earth. The salvation of souls is the work of every follower of Christ, however weak. When [a man's] selfish interest is made first and the salvation of souls comes secondary, if at all, that man is working on Satan's side, for his very pretensions are a snare to lead others off the track, that they shall not consider the kingdom of God and His righteousness first. Satan is getting the start of all such workers. The salvation of souls comes first, always, for Satan as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. We must snatch souls away from his path. We must have clear foresight, discernment, and faith, and work as if to save a perishing life, of which some carelessness on our part might be the cause of death.
TDG	171	4	Missionary work, God help us to understand what it is, and how we must engage in it. Every missionary should be wholly the Lord's, pressing forward to attain to the perfection of Christian character. The standard of piety must be lifted high. Every species of idolatry must be sacrificed. Souls, precious souls, must be saved....
TDG	171	5	One man, when the church in Scotland was making some resolutions to compromise the faith, to concede their staunch principles, was determined never to yield a jot or tittle. He went upon his knees before God and thus pleaded, "Give me Scotland or I die." His importunate prayer was heard. Oh, that the earnest prayer of faith may arise everywhere, Give me souls buried now in the rubbish of error, or I die! Bring them to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.
TDG	171	6	We must carry the burden of souls upon our hearts; every selfish consideration must give way to this. The cost of the blood of Christ shows the value of the soul.--Letter 20, June 11, 1883, to W. C. White.
------------------------God's Care for His Church, June 12
TDG	172	1	Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. Romans 16:17.
TDG	172	2	In all ages of the world there have been men who think they have a work to do for the Lord, and show no respect for those whom the Lord has been using. They do not make right applications of Scripture, they wrest the Scriptures to sustain their own ideas. Whatever may be the claims of those who draw away from the body to proclaim theories of their own invention, they are in Satan's service, to get up some new device to divert souls from the truth for this time.
TDG	172	3	Beware of those who arise with a great burden to denounce the church. The chosen ones who are standing and breasting the storm of opposition from the world, and are uplifting the downtrodden commandments of God to exalt them as holy and honorable, are indeed the light of the world. How dare mortal man pass his judgment upon them, and call the church a harlot, Babylon, a den of thieves, a cage of every unclean and hateful bird, the habitation of devils, making the nations drunk with the wine of her fornication, confederating with the kings and great men of the earth, waxing rich through the abundance of her delicacies, and proclaiming that her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities? Is this the message we have to bear to Seventh-day Adventists? I tell you, no! God has given no man any such message. Let these men humble their hearts before God, and in true contrition repent that they have even for a time stood by the side of the accuser of the brethren who accused them before God day and night....
TDG	172	4	Supposing this spurious message is the one everyone must hear for this time, "Come out of her, my people," where shall we go? ...
TDG	172	5	I tell you, my brethren, the Lord has an organized body through whom He will work. There may be more than a score of Judases among them; there may be a rash Peter who will under circumstances of trial deny his Lord; there may be persons represented by John, whom Jesus loved, but he may have a zeal that would destroy men's lives by calling down fire from heaven upon them to revenge an insult to Christ and to the truth. But the great Teacher seeks to give lessons of instruction to correct these existing evils.--Manuscript 21, June 12, 1893,.
------------------------The Sustaining Spirit, June 13
TDG	173	1	And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8.
TDG	173	2	We [Ellen White was assisting with evening evangelistic meetings in San Jose, California.] rise at five o'clock, eat at half past six, and then the men take the team to the tent and devote one hour and half to Bible class and talking together, comparing their experiences of the day previous, and are instructed in regard to the orderly habits they should cultivate and the necessity of overcoming every defect in character. This is a school for them which they all need very much.
TDG	173	3	The L_____s are good-spirited boys, but have great deficiencies--no order, neglect the simplest duties in care-taking, leave things undone right before their faces. It is a time now for them to obtain a fitness for the work or give it up and take up that part of their education which has received no attention, until they develop a well-balanced character. Until this is done they will never be fit to go alone and do anything. We all need more of the Spirit of God, more earnest faith, more constant, earnest prayer that we may discern the grievous imperfections of our best works and our entire inability of ourselves to meet the divine standard.
TDG	173	4	Oh, the greatness of the work to save souls! How few feel it! How few are doing all they can to gather souls to Christ! Satan is working with his might--persevering, diligent, untiring--while many who profess the truth are asleep, doing nothing to save souls, not even living the truth they profess. It is no tame testimony that will meet the people. We must reach the people through God. We must be flexible in the hands of God, to be molded as clay in the hands of the potter. There is sufficiency in the grace of God for every hour of conflict, for every hour of trial. Let us take hold of God more firmly. His Spirit will help, His Spirit will strengthen and sustain.
TDG	173	5	As we come nearer to God we shall be conscious of our own nothingness and learn to depend more upon Jesus Christ and then we shall obtain clear evidence of the love of Jesus. We shall see the goodness and mercy of God displayed in the orderings of His providence.--Letter 21, June 13, 1883, to W. C. White.
------------------------Guard the Approaches, June 14
TDG	174	1	They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Psalm 126:5, 6.
TDG	174	2	Many times we [James and Ellen White] are disappointed in our expectations, but, then when we see the Lord working with our efforts, and souls coming to Christ, we forget the weariness, disappointments, and trials which we meet in connection with this work and feel honored of God to be permitted to have a part in it. We have had some very precious seasons of prayer with some who were discouraged and almost in despair [in a camp meeting held in Iowa]. We rejoiced with them as light shone into the darkened chambers of the soul. The Lord has indeed encouraged our hearts and strengthened us for our great work. We do believe fruit will abound to the glory of God as the result of this meeting.
TDG	174	3	Let your prayers, my children [Edson and Emma], go up to heaven in our behalf, that God would bring souls who are in the darkness of error to the knowledge of the truth. Light, precious light is shining on every page of the Word of God. It is the man of our counsel. When we study its pages with a heartfelt desire to learn our duty, angels are close beside us to impress the mind and strengthen the imagination to discern the sacred things revealed in the Word of God.
TDG	174	4	Every thought, word, and act, we should bring to the test of God's revealed will. In all things the inquiry should be, Will this please God? Will it be in accordance with the teachings of His Word? And when there is an indecision of mind in regard to duty, our natural hearts will plead for indulgence to follow inclination. But let us ever take the safe course, however much self-denial it may involve. Let us be determined to run no risks where eternal interests are involved....
TDG	174	5	Dear son, Edson, guard faithfully your thoughts. Keep every approach to your heart well fortified. You must put up the bars against the approach of Satan. Watchfulness at one point while others are neglected will not avail. The careless neglect of one sentinel will imperil the entire army. The neglect to guard one path to the fortress may prove the loss of the city.... There are perils before us which we must meet, and our only safety is in God.--Letter 32, June 14, 1876, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Immortal Inheritance, June 15
TDG	175	1	For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Titus 2:11, 12.
TDG	175	2	The angels of God attain unto no higher knowledge than to know the will of God; and it is their greatest delight to accomplish the perfect will of the heavenly Father. Fallen man has the privilege of becoming intelligent in regard to the will of God. While probationary time is granted us, we should put our faculties to the very highest use, that we may make of ourselves all that it is possible; and while we endeavor to reach a high standard of intelligence, we should feel our dependence upon God, for without His grace, our efforts cannot bring lasting benefit. It is through the grace of Christ that we are to be overcomers; through the merits of His blood we are to be of that number whose names will not be blotted out of the book of life. Those who are final overcomers will have the life that runs parallel with the life of God, and wear the crown of the victor. When such great and eternal reward awaits us, we should run the race with patience, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
TDG	175	3	We have no hesitancy in telling you that in order to obtain the immortal inheritance and the eternal substance, you must be overcomers in this probationary life. Everything that blots and stains the soul must be removed, must be cleansed from the heart. We must know what it means to be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruptions that are in the world through lust. Are you willing to wage war against the lusts of the flesh? Are you ready to battle against the enemy of God and man? Satan is determined to enslave every soul if he can; for he is playing a desperate game to win the souls of men from Christ and eternal life. Will you permit him to steal from you the graces of the Spirit of God, and plant in you his own corrupt nature? or will you accept the great provision of salvation, and through the merits of the Infinite Sacrifice made in your behalf, become a partaker of the divine nature? God has given His only-begotten Son, that through His shame, suffering, and death, you might have glory, honor, and immortality.--The Signs of the Times, June 15, 1891.
------------------------The Wonder of the Cross, June 16
TDG	176	1	Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1:18, 19.
TDG	176	2	This was a good day for the people in Iowa. Our meeting did not close until about one o'clock.... The precious gift of salvation and the redemption for all those who will accept it seemed so marvelous, so far beyond our finite conception, that language was tame and could not portray the infinite blessings brought within our reach by the world's Redeemer. His greatness condescended to our feebleness.
TDG	176	3	Jesus, precious Saviour! We may study the love of the Father in that He gave His dear Son to die for a fallen world. As we study this inexpressible love in the light of the cross of Calvary, we are filled with wonder, with amazement. We see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness blended harmoniously with justice and dignity and power. Jesus bids the sinner to look to Him and live. "I," He says, "have found a ransom." The gulf of perdition opened by sin is bridged by the cross of Calvary. Penitent, believing souls may see a forgiving Father reconciling us to Himself by that cross of Calvary.
TDG	176	4	The knowledge of Christ reveals the depths of sin and its offensive character, while by faith we see the cleansing stream, the blood of Christ which washes away every spot, every stain of sin. This salvation is not half appreciated. Salvation brought to us through the blood of Jesus is not estimated of priceless value. By faith this gift must be fully accepted as the great gift of God through Jesus Christ. The burden of our sins and of our sorrows was laid upon One who is merciful to pardon, mighty to save.
TDG	176	5	Why are we so cold? Why are we worldly? Why are we so careless? Why does not the love of Jesus burn upon the altar of our hearts? He carried the burden of our sins, of our sorrows; why do we not have greater faith? Why do we not trust fully and receive by faith everything from that hand which was nailed to the cross that it might be all powerful to save? Why cannot we trust that love which has been expressed to us in such infinite sacrifice that we might live?
TDG	176	6	Look in faith to the cross. Look and live. This will be our study and song throughout eternity.--Letter 6, June 16, 1881, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Let Us Hold Fast, June 17
TDG	177	1	And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.
TDG	177	2	During the past night I have slept but little. I tried to look to Jesus, to place myself in the hands of the Great Physician. He has said, "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9). The grace of Christ leads men to speak right words under all circumstances. Bodily suffering is no excuse for un-Christlike actions.
TDG	177	3	During these sleepless hours, the subject of overcoming has been the burden of my thoughts. "To him that overcometh," the Lord declares, "will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Revelation 3:21).
TDG	177	4	There are those who are forever making excuses for walking in the counsels of the enemy. Some think that because they have physical infirmities, they are privileged to speak pettish words and to act in an unlovely manner. But has Jesus made no provision for such ones to overcome temptation? Because of trial and affliction, are they to be unthankful and unholy? Are not the rays of Christ's righteousness bright enough to dispel the shadow of Satan?
TDG	177	5	The grace of God is declared to be sufficient for all the ills and trials against which human beings have to contend. Is it powerless then against bodily infirmity? Shall divine grace stand back, while Satan takes the field, holding the victim in the power of his evil attributes?
TDG	177	6	O how precious is Jesus to the soul who trusts in Him. But many are walking in darkness because they bury their faith in the shadow of Satan. They have not done that which it was in their power to do through the grace of Jesus. They have not talked faith and hope and courage. Never for a moment should we allow Satan to think that his power to distress and annoy is greater than the power of Christ to uphold and strengthen.
TDG	177	7	"Men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1). Every sincere prayer that is offered to God is mingled with the efficacy of Christ's blood. If the answer is deferred, it is because God desires us to show a holy boldness in claiming the pledged word of God. He is faithful who hath promised.--Manuscript 19, June 17, 1892,.
------------------------Fidelity in Service, June 18
TDG	178	1	Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. 1 Peter 2:23.
TDG	178	2	I hope that you will not become impatient by criticism and faultfinding; but if it comes, consider that you are not perfect, that errors are liable to occur, and that many mistakes made in a lifetime occasion suspicion, although the very ones who criticize have similar errors in their experience. Many do not think of this, and as a result they are unmerciful to others, judging others by themselves, to have the same or worse weaknesses than they themselves have. But we must individually preserve a course above retaliation.
TDG	178	3	We shall show the greatest wisdom as we pass along, doing our work with fidelity, not swerving to the right hand or to the left, keeping a straightforward course, having our eye single to the glory of God. It is not how much feeling we manifest over injustice in treatment that evidences strength of character, but it is the self-control, the firm check put upon a strong emotion, that evidences strength of character and the spirit of Jesus. The tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God is to be given to the overcomer. It is the reward given to conquest, to toil and self-sacrifice, to the working Christian who will fight the good fight of faith. We must be nobly striving and fighting for the victory. The grace of Christ will be given to all who fight lawfully.
TDG	178	4	Now, my son [Edson], take as little notice as possible of what people say. Let them say what they will, but do not by word or deportment show the rising up of self. The Lord would have you pursue such a course that you will be considered worthy of trust and confidence. You have abilities calculated to do good to others if you do not allow yourself to be carried away by impulse. If you evidence that you have a firm reliance upon God, you will gain respect and confidence and then you will exert an influence for good. You will let your light shine forth to the best advantage. You will seek to represent Jesus. You know our Saviour was reviled, but He reviled not again. He was despised and rejected of men; and can His followers expect anything better in this life? May our gracious heavenly Father impart to each of us more grace and may we rejoice in His love.--Letter 99, June 18, 1886, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Every Member a Missionary, June 19
TDG	179	1	And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. Isaiah 49:6.
TDG	179	2	Tuesday morning, June 19. I have just looked at my watch; it is two o'clock. I dress, seek the Lord, and try to write a few words to go in the mail to Africa this morning. May the Lord help me in tracing each line....
TDG	179	3	See Isaiah 49. I cannot write out this whole chapter. Read it carefully and solemnly. What words are these! "And [He] said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified" (Isaiah 49:3). How many, after they have done their best, under most trying circumstances, suffering for the want of facilities and from dearth of means, are ready to say, in the words of the Scripture, "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God" (Verse 4).
TDG	179	4	All the warnings must be given. The truth, Bible truth, is to be proclaimed in our large camp meetings, and the churches can hear the truth. They have the opportunity. All may not desire to hear. Many oppose everything that calls for self-denial. They are not willing to accept the Sabbath. In Exodus 31:12-18 it is clearly marked out in definite lines what God expects from His people, and the decided consequence of rejecting [it] is death. Notwithstanding this, many will refuse obedience because the truth involves self-denial and self-sacrifice.
TDG	179	5	Many of the ministers will not hear and be convinced. They will not enter the sanctuary of truth to receive the knowledge of truth from the Word, but will take away the key of knowledge from the people by perversion of the Scriptures, wresting the Word of God from its true meaning. Thus every step gained in reaching the people to save them from being lost in error and disobedience requires a hard, constant battle. But shall it stop? No. Lift up the standard. Plant memorials of God's truth in every place possible, work in new territories, and conversions will be made. Some who do not take their stand at once will help advance the work with their means and their sympathy, and will themselves take their position on the Lord's side.... God will have representatives in every place in all parts of the world.--Letter 86, June 19, 1900, to A. G. Daniells.
------------------------Glorious Heritage, June 20
TDG	180	1	Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: ...Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Psalm 150:1-6.
TDG	180	2	Yesterday at ten o'clock we reached this place--East Portland, Oregon. On our way from Walla Walla Tuesday morning the cars stopped, as they generally do, twenty minutes at Multnomah Falls. Nearly all left the cars to climb the high ascent to obtain a clear view of this wondrously beautiful, grand sight....
TDG	180	3	There were steps built in the embankment, then a narrow zigzag path, then more wooden steps. This was repeated many times until we reached and passed onto a rustic bridge which spanned a chasm above the first fall. The grand fall is above this and called the Bridal Veil. The point from which the water flows is about 900 feet high. As the water descends it breaks upon the jutting rocks, scattering off in widespread, beautiful sprays. It is a lovely sight.
TDG	180	4	I would have been pleased could I have spent an entire day in this place surrounded with lovely scenery. But we were grateful for these few moments to gaze upon nature's lovely, grand scenery, even if we had to do severe climbing to view it--standing on the bridge made for this purpose....
TDG	180	5	I called to mind the words of the psalmist when he calls upon everything that hath breath to praise the Lord, upon animate and inanimate creation to join in one chorus of praise and thanksgiving to God. His thus calling upon senseless, unreasoning things is the most powerful rebuke to those blessed with intelligence, if their souls do not glow and their lips do not proclaim the majesty and glory of God.
TDG	180	6	"Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.... Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word" (Psalm 148:3-8). All these agencies of God in nature are summoned to bring their tribute of praise to the Most High. And who among God's creatures will be silent when every star as it traverses its course, every breeze as it sweeps the earth, and every cloud that darkens the firmament, every shower of rain and every ray of sunshine--all are showing forth the praise of God who reigneth in the heavens?--Manuscript 9, June 20, 1884, "Visit to Multnomah Falls."
------------------------Invitation to All, June 21
TDG	181	1	Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Luke 10:2.
TDG	181	2	I had been unable to ride for some time, owing to hip and spine difficulties, and during the drive home [from Healdsburg College] I became very weary. But I am so grateful to my heavenly Father that He strengthens me.
TDG	181	3	Recently, open air meetings have been held by our brethren at Calistoga [California].... The next one will be held near St. Helena, if a suitable place can be found. We desire to do all we can to warn those around us of the soon coming of the Saviour. I believe much good will be accomplished as we take up this work. My heart is drawn out for those in darkness, who know not the truth....
TDG	181	4	I hope soon to visit the soldiers' home at Yountville. For several months a company of workers have been going there every other Sabbath to hold a song service. At first only a few attended the services, but now there are from seventy-five to one hundred present every time. Sometimes a thirty-minute talk on some Bible subject is given. At a meeting held a few weeks ago, the soldiers were asked if they would like to have a short Bible study after the song service. About a dozen said they would. But when the time came for the reading to be held, over fifty were present. The workers take reading matter with them, and when the soldiers are asked whether they would like it, their faces light up, and their hands are eagerly stretched out to receive the books and papers.
TDG	181	5	Last Sabbath one intelligent-looking man in the home said to one of our brethren, "Before you came here to sing for us, I spent nearly all my time in drinking and carousing with my companions. But since you have been coming here, I have found a much better way to employ my time. I have given up liquor drinking and am spending my spare time in reading the Desire of Ages....
TDG	181	6	We hope that the work for the soldiers will go forward. Several are interested, and those in charge of the home recognize the good work that is being done. I fully believe that some of these old men, perhaps many, will be saved. I wish that all our people could see the many doors that are open before them.--Letter 112, June 21, 1903, to Elder and Mrs. J. A. Burden, while laboring in Australia.
------------------------To Love Is to Serve, June 22
TDG	182	1	Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:3, 4.
TDG	182	2	The religion of Jesus Christ means something more than talk. The righteousness of Christ consists in right actions and good works from pure, unselfish motives. Outside righteousness, while the inward adorning is wanting, will be of no avail. "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:5-7). If we have not the light and love of God, we are not His children. If we gather not with Christ, we scatter abroad. We all have an influence, and that influence is telling upon the destiny of others, for their present and future good, or for their eternal loss.
TDG	182	3	All have lessons to learn in the school of Christ, in order to perfect Christian characters, and have a oneness with Christ. Said Christ to His disciples, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). He explained His meaning to them. He did not wish them to become children in understanding, but in malice. Little children do not manifest feelings of superiority and aristocracy. They are simple and natural in their appearance. Christ would have His followers cultivate unaffected manners, that their whole bearing might be humble and Christlike. He has made it our duty to live for others' good. He came from the royal courts of heaven to this world, to show how great an interest He had in man; and the infinite price paid for the redemption of man shows that man is of so great value that Christ could sacrifice His riches and honor in the royal courts, to lift him from the degradation of sin.
TDG	182	4	If the Majesty of heaven could do so much to evidence His love for man, what ought not men to be willing to do for each other, to help one another up out of the pit of darkness and suffering?--The Review and Herald, June 22, 1886.
------------------------God's Dealings With Men, June 23
TDG	183	1	Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? James 2:5.
TDG	183	2	In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the great Teacher rolls back the curtain, showing that God is the foundation of all faith, all goodness, all mercy.--Manuscript 81, June 23, 1898, "The Rich Man and Lazarus."
TDG	183	3	The Jews claimed to have descended from Abraham, but by failing to do the works of Abraham, they proved that they were not true children of his. Only those who are spiritually in harmony with him are reckoned as true descent. Christ recognized the beggar [Lazarus] as one whom Abraham will take into the very heart of friendship, although he belonged to a class looked upon by men as inferior.
TDG	183	4	Human sympathy should be cherished in every heart. It is an attribute of God, and is never to be banished. "All ye are brethren" (Matthew 23:8). God has laid upon men the responsibility of giving sympathy to their fellow men, of helping the needy, the wounded, the bruised. Many are demoralized by their own course of action, but who of the human family can understand, as God understands, the cause of their misery?
TDG	183	5	There are in our world today many wounded, cheerless hearts who need relief. The Lord has agencies for brightening the lives of these disconsolate ones. We may each put our talents out to usury by lifting the clouds, and letting in the sunlight of hope and faith in Him who "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
TDG	183	6	Christ has shown us that there is a time coming when the positions of the rich who have not made God their dependence, and the poor who have made God their dependence, will be reversed. Those who are poor in this world's goods, yet who are patient in suffering, and who trust in God, will one day be exalted above many of those who hold the highest positions this world can give.
TDG	183	7	The Lord deals not with us as men deal. He gave His Son at an immense sacrifice, that He might win us to His service, and with Him He gave all heaven. This He did to show the estimate He placed on the beings He had created.--Ibid.
------------------------Guidance in Perplexity, June 24
TDG	184	1	And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21.
TDG	184	2	You [Edson] need a Counselor that will not err; One whom hearsay will not prejudice; One whom narrow ideas will not unbalance His judgment. A path opens on one side, but whether it is the path for you to walk in or shun is that which you do not discern, and no mortal man can tell you. Another path closes before you, and whether it is the turning aside in another direction or to try your steadfast purpose none are wise enough to determine. You need a Guide, a Power unseen by mortal eyes, who can judge your motives and the purposes and intents of your heart to guide your ways. The Star in the East will guide your ways, if you will only follow it.
TDG	184	3	You are never alone. You are never in a place where you have no one to have interest in you. Our heavenly Father has given His Son to die for you. The cross of Calvary testified that He takes a deep interest in your welfare, for you are the purchase of the Son of God, and you are the subject of many prayers.
TDG	184	4	If you but feel right and do right, all will be well. If you ask the help of God, you will not ask in vain. The Lord is at work in many ways to win your hearty confidence. In nothing does He take more delight than to have you unburden, come to Him for light and strength, and He has promised that you shall find rest to your soul. If you will find heart and voice to pray, He will be sure to hear, and an arm will be reached down to save you. There is a God that hears prayer, and when all other resources fail, He is your refuge, a very present help in time of trouble....
TDG	184	5	If you go to God with a humble, believing heart to seek for guidance in your perplexity, then it is your privilege to rest your case with Him. Heaven and earth may pass before the promise would fail. Then take God at His word. You did believe His promises when you were only three years old. Have the simplicity of a child now, and come to Jesus in clinging faith. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and your confidence will never be betrayed, never be turned against you. Look at Jacob pleading with God on the plains of Penuel. His prayer was heard and answered, and he obtained a mighty victory--Letter 2, June 24, 1886, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Healthful Living, June 25
TDG	185	1	What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.
TDG	185	2	The first messengers of the gospel were sent forth with the word, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 10:7). This is our message today. We are to remember that the work of reaching souls cannot be confined to any one method. Gospel medical missionary work is to be carried forward, not in the precision of one man's lines, but in Christ's lines. All that is done is to bear the impress of the Holy Spirit. We are to work as Christ worked, in the same practical lines. Then we shall be safe.
TDG	185	3	The divine commission needs no reform. Christ's way of presenting truth cannot be improved upon. The worker who tries to bring in methods that will attract the worldly-minded, supposing that this will remove the objections that they feel to taking up the cross, lessens his influence. Preserve the simplicity of godliness. The Lord's blessing rests not upon the minister whose speech bears the stamp of worldliness. But He blesses the words of the one who cherishes the simplicity of true righteousness.
TDG	185	4	Our work is to be practical. We are to remember that man has a body as well as a soul to save. Our work includes far more than standing before the people to preach to them. In our work we are to minister to the physical infirmities of those with whom we are brought in contact. We are to present the principles of health reform, impressing our hearers with the thought that they have a part to act in keeping themselves in health.
TDG	185	5	The body must be kept in a healthy condition in order that the soul may be in health. The condition of the body affects the condition of the soul. He who would have physical and spiritual strength must educate his appetite in right lines. He must be careful not to burden the soul by overtaxing his physical or spiritual powers. Faithful adherence to right principles in eating, drinking, and dressing is a duty that God has laid upon human beings.
TDG	185	6	The Lord desires us to obey the laws of health and life. He holds each one responsible to care properly for his body, that it may be kept in health.--Letter 123, June 25, 1903, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Working of the Spirit, June 26
TDG	186	1	The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo, there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:20, 21.
TDG	186	2	The kingdom of heaven can be felt, but not seen. The inward working of the Spirit of God is compared to leaven.... Christ by this parable illustrates the human heart. The leaven of truth, working inwardly will be revealed in the life. The heart must be cleansed from all impurity, man must be fitted with traits of character that will enable him to do service for God in any line. The process is invisible by which the leaven changes the mass of meal into which it has been introduced, but it works until the meal is converted into bread. So must the Spirit of God work a radical change. New faculties are not supplied, but a thorough change is made in the employment of those faculties. The natural inclinations are softened and subdued. New thoughts, new feelings, new motives are implanted. But while every faculty is regenerated, man does not lose his identity....
TDG	186	3	The Scriptures are the great agency in this transformation. Christ prayed, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17). In this great work we are laborers together with God. With the divine agency there is to be the cooperation of the human instrument....
TDG	186	4	The meal in which the leaven has been hid represents the heart that believes and receives Jesus. Christ works out the principles which He alone can work in. The world looks upon this class as a mystery which they cannot solve. The selfish, money-loving man lives to eat and drink and enjoy his worldly goods. But he does not keep eternity in view. He loses the eternal world from his reckoning. But those who receive and believe the truth have that faith which works by love and purifies the soul from everything sensual. The world cannot know them, for they are keeping in view eternal realities. A motive power is working within to transform the character. A constraining influence received from heaven is working like the leaven hid in the meal. The love of Jesus has come into the heart with its redeeming power to conquer the entire being, soul, body, and spirit.--Manuscript 82, June 26, 1898, "The Leaven of Truth."
------------------------Prayer Power, June 27
TDG	187	1	The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9.
TDG	187	2	It is a marvel to me that God will bear with the perversity of the children of men so long, bearing with their disobedience and yet suffering them to live, abusing His mercies, bearing false witness against Him in most wicked statements. But God's ways are not as our ways, and we will not marvel at His loving forbearance and tender pity and infinite compassion, for He has given an unmistakable evidence that this is just like His character--slow to anger, showing mercy unto thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments.
TDG	187	3	I am thankful indeed for the sweet peace I enjoy this morning. I rested well last night and feel to rest my soul upon God this morning. He will not leave me nor forsake me. He will be to me a very present help in time of need....
TDG	187	4	Souls are perishing in their sins on every side. My soul is drawn out after them. I long to arouse them from their stupor of death. Oh, how many have never yet been warned, never heard the truth; while expostulations and warnings and prayers fall upon the ears of others who pay no heed, but reject privileges and opportunities which would be for their salvation if they would profit by them. They seem ice-bound. But our own hearts must be warmed with the divine fire; our own Christian efforts and our Christian example must be earnest and powerful.
TDG	187	5	The obligations resting upon us are not small. Our sense of dependence will drive us closer to God, and our sense of duty to be performed will summon us to effort, combined with our earnest prayers--works, faith, and continual prayer. Power! Power! Our great cry is for power without measure! It awaits us. We have only to draw; to take God at His word; to act faith; to stand firmly upon the promises; to wrestle for the endowment of the grace of God. Learning is not essential; genius is not necessary; eloquence may be lacking; but the prayer of the lowly and contrite heart God hears, and when He hears no obstacles on earth can hinder. The power of God will make us effectual.--Letter 35, June 27, 1878, to the president of the General Conference, her husband.
------------------------A Lamp to Our Path, June 28
TDG	188	1	The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.... Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Psalm 119:130-133.
TDG	188	2	I saw an angel of God standing by your side, pointing you upward. This angel ministered to your father and mother, and has offered you his protection, but you have often turned from him, and have been seeking to follow your own way. Thus you have become estranged from God....
TDG	188	3	Happy is the man who has discovered for himself that the Word of God is a light to his feet and a lamp to his path--a light shining in a dark place. It is heaven's directory for men. But there are many, O so many, who have no guide besides the opinions of finite men, prejudice, passion, or their own changeable feelings. Their minds are in a state of irritation and uncertainty. They suffer continually from mental fever.
TDG	188	4	Were you following Christ, the Word of God would be to you as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. But you have not made the honor of God the first object of your lifework. You have the Bible. Study it for yourself. The teachings of the divine directory are not to be ignored or perverted. The divine mind will guide those who desire to be led. Truth is truth, and it will enlighten all who seek for it with humble hearts. Error is error, and no amount of worldly philosophizing can make it truth.
TDG	188	5	"Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:20). What does the Lord require of His blood-bought heritage? The sanctification of the whole being--purity like the purity of Christ, perfect conformity to the will of the Lord. What is it that constitutes the beauty of the soul? The presence of the grace of Him who gave His life to redeem men and women from eternal death....
TDG	188	6	No entreaties are so tender, no lessons so plain, no commands so powerful and so protecting, no promises so full, as those which point the sinner to the fountain that has been opened to wash away the guilt of the human soul.--Letter 207, June 28, 1904, to an acquaintance of Battle Creek days.
------------------------To Whom Shall We Go? June 29
TDG	189	1	This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:11, 12.
TDG	189	2	When so many of Christ's followers left Him, and the Saviour asked the twelve, "Will ye also go away?" Simon Peter answered, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). It filled Christ's heart with sorrow to see anyone leaving Him, because He knew that faith in His name and in His mission is man's only hope. This desertion of His followers was a humiliation to Him. Oh, how little human beings know of the sorrow that filled the heart of infinite love when such things took place.
TDG	189	3	No one in the world ever longed more earnestly for appreciation and fellowship than did Christ. He hungered for sympathy. His heart was filled with a longing desire that human beings might appreciate the gift of God to the world, and honor Him by believing His words and speaking forth His praise. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
TDG	189	4	How regretful were the words, "Will ye also go away?" They touched the hearts of all the disciples but one. That one was Judas. He had a heart only for money. His highest desire was to be the greatest.
TDG	189	5	Well might the disciples say, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life." Consider what Christ was. The Son of the Highest, yet a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Have we experienced the blessing that comes from trusting Him with the whole heart, and honoring Him by ever showing our love and devotion to Him? Christ is hungry for fruit--fruit that will appease His hunger of soul in our behalf. It is His desire that we bear "much fruit."
TDG	189	6	Let us keep our hearts open to His love. "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36). Oh, when we can speak understandingly the words spoken by Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life," wonderful blessings will come to us.--Letter 171, June 29, 1905, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Christian Attitude and Ambitions, June 30
TDG	190	1	I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:14, 15.
TDG	190	2	My spirit is stirred within me as I see and sense the short time in which we have to work. Never have there seemed so great results depending upon us as a people. Never was there a time when youth of every age and country were needed to do earnestly the work to be done, as now.
TDG	190	3	Society has claims upon the youth of today. The men who have stood in the forefront of the battle, bearing the burden and heat of the day, will pass off the stage of active life. Where are the young men to fill their places when these wise instructors and counselors can carry their burdens no more? Upon the young these duties must fall. How important that the youth be educating themselves, for upon them these duties will devolve.
TDG	190	4	Prepare, my son [William C.], to discharge your duties with uncorrupted fidelity. I wish I could impress upon young men what they might be and what they might do if they will sense the claims that God has upon them. He has given them capabilities, not to stagnate in indolence, but to strengthen and elevate by noble action.
TDG	190	5	Willie, my greatest anxiety is not that you should become a great man after the world's standard, but a good man, every day making some progress in meeting God's standard of right....
TDG	190	6	Character must be made. It is the work of a lifetime. It is a work requiring meditation and thought. Judgment must be well exercised, industry and perseverance established.... You may be encouraged by others in your work, but they can never do your work of overcoming temptation. You cannot be honest and truthful, industrious and virtuous for them, neither can they become thus for you. In one sense you must stand alone, fighting your own battles. Yet not alone, for you have Jesus and the angels of God to help you. But few reach what they might in excellence of character, because they do not make their aim high. Prosperity and happiness will never grow of their own accord. They are the acquisition of labor, the fruit of long cultivation.--Letter 22, June 30, 1875, to W. C. White, her 20-year-old son.
------------------------A Sympathizing Saviour, July 1
TDG	191	1	I sent him therefore the more carefully, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice.... Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation: because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death. Philippians 2:28-30.
TDG	191	2	The apostle Paul, who had received many revelations from the Lord, met difficulties from various sources and amidst all his conflicts and discouragements, he did not lose his trust and confidence in God. Under the special tuition of the Holy Spirit, his judgment was purified, refined, elevated, sanctified. The devisings of human beings and of the enemy against him were to him a means of discipline and education, and he declares that thus he gained most excellent knowledge, because he made the Lord Jesus his dependence. "Yea doubtless," he declares, "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8)....
TDG	191	3	Jesus feels every pang of sorrow felt by those who are consecrated to His service, and who, under great difficulties, are doing His work. Let us dwell upon the love of Jesus, that we may have courage and faith. The Lord lives and reigns. There will be unwise advisers who will try to confuse us, but let us look to Jesus, and trust in Him at all times. He has been our Helper, and He will continue to be our Helper.... I am sometimes greatly perplexed to know what to do, but I will not be depressed. I am determined to bring all the sunshine into my life that I possibly can.
TDG	191	4	The debt that I have incurred in trying to advance the cause of God sometimes worries me. I became involved in debt in trying to push forward the work in Australia. The publication of Desire of Ages was a heavy expense, and I still owe the publishing houses something....
TDG	191	5	The house I now live in was paid for with borrowed money. I am just as willing to dispose of my place as I was to buy it. I have no abiding place in this world. When the Lord says, "Go, and build up the work in new places," I shall gladly go....
TDG	191	6	My trust is unwavering. I am not discouraged, because I can hold to the hand of Christ. Let us be always cheerful, that others may not catch from us the spirit of discouragement.--Letter 127, July 1, 1903, to Elder S. N. Haskell, for long years an associate worker of Ellen White's, at the time working in city evangelism.
------------------------Ye All Are Brethren, July 2
TDG	192	1	Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 1 Peter 5:2, 3.
TDG	192	2	Who gave man his life? Who gave him his reason? Did not God? Let not the Christian, who is dependent on God for every breath he draws, feel exalted above his brethren. He should not dictate terms to them, as though he has given them life and intelligence, and therefore they were responsible to him.
TDG	192	3	There is coming in among us a spirit which God will not suffer to rule. Never should Christians feel that they are lords over God's heritage. There should not be among Christians a spirit which makes some patrons and some proteges. The commandments of God forbid this. "All ye are brethren" (Matthew 23:8). No man is to think that he is the owner of the minds and capabilities of his brethren. He is not to think that others must submit to his dictation. He is liable to err, liable to make mistakes, as every man is. He is not to try to control matters in accordance with his ideas.
TDG	192	4	He who yields to this spirit of self-exaltation places himself under the control of the enemy. If ministers of the gospel cannot harmonize with all his ideas and imaginings, he turns from them and speaks against them, pouring out the sarcasm and bitterness in his heart upon ministers and ministry.
TDG	192	5	None of this work bears the signature of Heaven. Christians should reveal the tenderness of Christ, and this they will do if Christ abides in the heart. They will recognize Christ in their brethren. They will take sweet counsel together. If the dark chapters of human history were traced out according to the truth, how much would be flattering to those who exercise so much authority, who feel competent to say that others shall do as they dictate.
TDG	192	6	Jesus has given us an example in His life of purity and perfect holiness. The most exalted being in heaven, He was the most ready to serve. The most honored, He humbled Himself to minister to those who a short time before had been disputing as to who should be the greatest in His kingdom.
TDG	192	7	Seeking our own preference at the expense of others is a dear experience to gain.--Letter 92, July 2, 1900, to Dr. J. H. Kellogg.
------------------------No Place for Pride, July 3
TDG	193	1	Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. 1 Peter 5:5, 6.
TDG	193	2	The Lord has given abundant evidence of the truthfulness of His promises and threatenings. His people may trust His word. Will they then, in the face of light and evidence, follow a course of their own choosing, independent of God's ordained agencies? Even good men need to be guarded on every hand, lest they shall become so elevated over the blessings God has given them that the applause and praise from worldlings shall be as a stimulus for them to display their great wisdom and acquisitions.
TDG	193	3	The Lord sees, the Lord knows. He will certainly humble all such aspirations; for He hates pride and selfishness and covetousness. The more prosperous the work may be in itself, the less appropriate is it for men to exalt themselves, as though they were the ones who should be lifted up. Our trust must be in God. He has entrusted men with abilities and capabilities, that they may act a prominent part in His work. Let them take heed how they shall exalt themselves....
TDG	193	4	The set time to favor Zion will soon come. God has provided men and means whereby His work shall be accomplished. He will not leave His people to shame, but will accomplish His work. His work will move just as He has ordained it to move. Our covenant with Christ unites with the majesty of an omnipotent King the gentleness and tenderness of a caretaking shepherd. Please read the forty-second chapter of Isaiah.
TDG	193	5	God desires men to understand the claims He has upon them. He will judge any man who shall interpose between his fellow men and their God, to lead them into paths not cast up for the ransomed. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18). He has ordained that His works shall be presented before the world in distinct, holy, sacred lines. The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, but by the gentleness of the inspiration of His word, by the operation of His Spirit in the soul. His work in many places of the world would now be much farther advanced had not man interposed between the people and God, to do a work God has not appointed.--Letter 93, July 3, 1900, to Elder G. A. Irwin, president of the General Conference.
------------------------Jesus Cares, July 4
TDG	194	1	Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 1 Peter 5:7.
TDG	194	2	I point you to the only sure and unfailing protection. Ask God for Christ's sake to watch over and bless you and your dear children. He will do it; sure is the promise. God, your heavenly Father, will be your husband at hand to counsel, to direct and comfort as you need. Oh! ever seek for help in the Mighty One; His outstretched arm will save.
TDG	194	3	Trying as your case may be, do not yield to despondency. Guard yourself here. Your heart may ache near to breaking, but trust on, hope on. "For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men" (Lamentations 3:33). Never allow yourself to mourn. Be hopeful, be ever cheerful in God, and brighter morning will yet arrive.
TDG	194	4	Patient continuance in welldoing will lead you through this world of sorrow and strife to glory and honor and eternal life. Have God within and God overhead and you have nothing to fear. The Bible is a light to those who are in darkness. In the prospect of a blissful immortality held out to those who endure unto the end, you will find an elevating power, a strength which you need to resist evil. Be steadfast in the hour of trial, and you will gain at last a crown which will never fade away.
TDG	194	5	You need guidance from above. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and He will never betray your trust. If you will ask help of God you need not ask in vain. In order to encourage us to have confidence and trust He comes near us by His holy Word and Spirit, and seeks in a thousand ways to win our confidence. But in nothing does He take more delight than in receiving the weak who come to Him for strength. If we will find heart and voice to pray, He will be sure to find an ear to hear and an arm to save.
TDG	194	6	There is not a single instance in which God has hidden His face from the supplication of His people. When every other resource failed He was a present help in every emergency. God bless you, poor, stricken, wounded soul. Cling to His hand; hold fast. He will take you, your children, and all your griefs and burdens if you will only cast them all upon Him.--Letter 42, July 4, 1875, to a sister who had recently lost her husband.
------------------------Truth Will Triumph, July 5
TDG	195	1	Not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 2 Corinthians 4:2.
TDG	195	2	There is to be no undermining of the fundamental truths that the Lord has submitted by many miraculous evidences. A voice is to be heard in clear affirmation of the truth, in contradiction to the skepticism and fallacies that have been coming in from the enemy of truth. Reformations will take place, and the working out of the principles of divine truth will reveal growth in grace, for the divine agencies are efficient to enlighten and sanctify the human understanding.
TDG	195	3	The truth as it is in Jesus, as it was proclaimed by Him when He was enshrouded by the billowy cloud, is verity and truth in this our day, and will just as surely renovate the mind of the receiver as it has renovated minds in the past. Christ has declared, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead" (Luke 16:31).
TDG	195	4	As a people, we must prepare the way of the Lord, under the overruling guidance of the Holy Spirit, for the spread of the gospel in its purity. The stream of living water is to deepen and widen in its course. In all fields, nigh and afar off, men will be called from the plow and from the more common commercial business vocations that largely occupy the mind, and will become educated in connection with men who have had experience--men who understand the truth. Through most wonderful workings of God, mountains of difficulty will be removed and cast into the sea....
TDG	195	5	Those who preach the truth will strive to demonstrate the truth by a well-ordered life and godly conversation. And as they do this, they will become powerful in advocating the truth and in giving it the sure application that God has given it....
TDG	195	6	The call is to go forth, "Son, go labor today in My vineyard." As this call is obeyed, the message that means so much to the dwellers on the earth, will be heard and understood. Men will know what is truth. Onward, and still onward, will the work advance. And marked events of Providence will be seen and recognized, in judgments and in blessings. The truth will bear away the victory.--Letter 230, July 5, 1906, to the elders of the Battle Creek church and to ministers and physicians.
------------------------Preach the Word, July 6
TDG	196	1	Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Isaiah 8:12.
TDG	196	2	Our work is to proclaim to the world the first, second, and third angels' messages. In the discharge of our duties, we are neither to despise nor fear our enemies. To bind ourselves up by contracts with those not of our faith is not in the order of God.
TDG	196	3	We are to treat with kindness and courtesy those who refuse to be loyal to God, but we are never, never to unite with them in counsel, regarding the vital interests of His work, for this is not the way of the Lord. Putting our trust in God, we are to move steadily forward, doing His work with unselfishness, in humble dependence upon Him, committing ourselves and all that concerns our present and future to His wise providence, holding the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end, remembering that it is not because of our worthiness that we receive the blessings of heaven, but because of the worthiness of Christ, and our acceptance, through faith in Him, of God's abounding grace.
TDG	196	4	I pray that my brethren may realize that the third angel's message means much to us, and that the observance of the true Sabbath is to be the sign that distinguishes those who serve God from those who serve Him not. Let those awake who have become sleepy and indifferent. We are called to be holy, and we should carefully avoid giving the impression that it is of little consequence whether or not we retain the peculiar features of our faith. Upon us rests the solemn obligation of taking a more decided stand for truth and righteousness than we have taken in the past.
TDG	196	5	The line of demarcation between those who keep the commandments of God and those who do not, is to be revealed with unmistakable clearness. We are conscientiously to honor God, diligently using every means of keeping in covenant relation with Him, that we may receive His blessings--the blessings so essential for the people who are to be so severely tried. To give the impression that our faith, our religion, is not a dominating power in our lives, is greatly to dishonor God.--Letter 128, July 6, 1902, to the General Conference Committee and the Medical Missionary Board.
------------------------The Fruits of Repentance, July 7
TDG	197	1	Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Matthew 23:25.
TDG	197	2	When John was preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and the Pharisees and Sadducees came to his baptism, that fearless preacher of righteousness addressed them: "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance" (Matthew 3:7, 8). In coming to John, these men were not actuated by right motives. They were corrupt in principles and practice; yet they had no sense of their true condition. Filled with pride and ambition, they would not hesitate at any means which would enable them to exalt self and strengthen their influence with the people. And baptism at the hands of this popular young teacher might, they thought, aid them in carrying out these designs more successfully.
TDG	197	3	Their motives were not hidden from John, and he met them with the searching inquiry, "Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Had they heard the voice of God speaking to their hearts, they would have given evidence of the fact by bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. No such fruit was seen. They had heard the warning as merely the voice of man. They were charmed with the power and boldness with which John spoke; but the Spirit of God did not send conviction to their hearts, and as a sure result the word spoken did not bring forth fruit unto life eternal.
TDG	197	4	None are farther from the kingdom of heaven than self-righteous formalists, who are perhaps filled with pride at their own attainments, while they are wholly destitute of the Spirit of Christ, and are controlled by envy, jealousy, and love of praise and popularity. They belong to the class that John addressed as a generation of vipers, children of the wicked one. They serve the cause of Satan more effectively than the vilest profligate; for the latter does not disguise his true character; he appears what he really is.
TDG	197	5	Nothing short of an amended life--fruits meet for repentance--will meet the requirements of God. Without such fruit, our profession of faith is of no value.--The Signs of the Times, July 7, 1887.
------------------------Come Quickly, Lord, July 8
TDG	198	1	But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 1 Peter 4:7.
TDG	198	2	The end is near, and we must be prepared for what we will have to meet. Our lives must be hid with Christ in God. We need the education of the Holy Spirit.
TDG	198	3	It is our privilege to be cheerful. At times I have been tempted to feel a depression of soul, as I see how blind and mistaken many of our brethren are. It makes my heart ache to think of the men who are unsettled, and who have lost their bearings. May the Lord work to remove the cloud of uncertainty, that truth and righteousness may prevail. It seems scarcely possible that the power of deception can be so strong. I pity these men, but the impression they have made on other minds is so strong that it makes me tremble. A stormy future is before us, but we have with us One who is mighty to prevail.
TDG	198	4	At times as I see a cloud in the sky, I involuntarily exclaim, "Come, Lord Jesus, and come quickly." Such times as this will reveal character. I long to see the deceptive power of the enemy broken. But we will not let our faith fail. The only real comfort I find is to look beyond this conflict, and see the final triumph, the glory of God reflecting brightness on the overcomers. Prophecy points out the sure result of the conflict, and by faith we may see it. I long to realize the experiences opened before me in the visions the Lord has given to me.
TDG	198	5	The restraining power of the Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth. Our work must be done quickly. We must put forth every effort in our power to save souls from death. Soon the Lord God of heaven will set up His kingdom, which shall never be destroyed. Now is the time for us to develop a pure, heavenly character. The work will increase more and more in earnestness and intensity until the end. We need an increase of faith. We must watch unto prayer.
TDG	198	6	For weeks I have been as a cart beneath sheaves, not because I have the least question regarding the work God has given me to do, nor because of any desire to shun the responsibilities He has placed upon me; but my heart aches for those who are walking in the blindness of error, who have lost their discernment, and who cannot distinguish truth from error--Letter 226, July 8, 1906, to Elder G. I. Butler, a longtime associate in the work and president of the Southern Union Conference.
------------------------A Standard Against the Enemy, July 9
TDG	199	1	When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Isaiah 59:19.
TDG	199	2	God desires every man to understand his duty and obey the call, working in the way of the Lord, not after his own devising. God always rewards the confidence of His people. The way to the throne of mercy is always open. God sees the wants of His people as clearly in the darkness of midnight which surrounds them as in the splendor of noonday. To look to God for help at all times, this is our safety.
TDG	199	3	When God grants us His protection, and says of us, "Ye are labourers together with me," if you keep the way of the Lord you are safe in the midst of the greatest dangers. When Satan seeks to deceive the child of faith and trust, God lifts up a standard against the enemy in behalf of those who are conscientiously working in harmony with Him. The standard which He uplifts is His law. Those who work righteousness have an ever-present Friend to help them. In every time of need and trouble and perplexity He is near them. When they are tempted He presents Himself as their defense, saying, "I will guide thee with Mine eye. I will deliver thee from perplexity, and be a covert for thee against the strife of tongues."
TDG	199	4	The Lord sees not as man sees. Those whom He loves and honors most are often the objects of the scorn and derision of the enemy. He desires us to learn the lesson that we shall not gain success in the work by following the criterion of the world or the devising of human beings....
TDG	199	5	Hypocrisy and pretense can find no place with God. All that we put our hands to is performed [as] in the sight of the heavenly intelligences. All the thoughts of the mind, all the aspirations of the soul, are read by Him with whom we have to do. The victories gained by the soul are not measured by outside appearance or by the praise of men, but by goodness and mercy and tender compassion and a firm adherence to God's law....
TDG	199	6	God's people are in danger, notwithstanding the great light that shines upon their pathway, of following the customs of the world....
TDG	199	7	Let us be true to our colors. Let us raise the standard on which is inscribed, "The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."--Letter 99, July 9, 1900, to a physician in Australia.
------------------------To God Be the Glory, July 10
TDG	200	1	Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Matthew 20:26, 27.
TDG	200	2	No human being is to seat himself on the highest seat, accepting the praise of others, and forgetting that his treasures belong to God. God's blessing is promised to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, but nothing is so offensive as to hunger and thirst after the praise of men.
TDG	200	3	When the Lord weighs in the balances of the sanctuary the actions of those who have striven to be first, when they see how He regards such strife they will bow low at His footstool, ashamed of their course of action. All cannot be first, all cannot be masters. Walk humbly before God, acknowledging Him as your Master. It is a great misfortune to be unable to see in others higher excellencies and powers of greater usefulness than in yourself.
TDG	200	4	If we will partake of the divine nature, God will fit us to find happiness in activity, and rest in wearing Christ's yoke. Using aright the powers God has given us, praying, waiting, watching, and working, wearing Christ's yoke and learning daily of Him to be meek and lowly of heart, will bring great joy into our lives.
TDG	200	5	Were it not for God's gracious gifts and blessings, we should be bankrupt for eternity. Then let no one sound his own praises, feeding upon his supposed wisdom. If his talents were of his own manufacture, there would be some consistency in self-praise. But man has nothing of his own. Let us not reveal our lack of true wisdom by exalting self. Let us bow low in humility at the feet of Him who has entrusted to us our talents. Let us use and improve these talents, handing principle and interest back to the Giver....
TDG	200	6	As a sacred trust every talent is to be employed aright. Those whom God has made His stewards are to search the Scriptures earnestly, that they may communicate its truths to others, leading them to the path which has been cast up for the ransomed of the Lord. By precept and example we are to teach others that through the grace of Christ they may be obedient to all God's commandments, and be clothed with the righteousness of Christ.... "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14).--Manuscript 88, July 10, 1898, "The Parable of the Householder."
------------------------Spiritual Salt, July 11
TDG	201	1	Ye are the salt of the earth. Matthew 5:13.
TDG	201	2	God requires those who claim to believe the Bible, the standard of Christian character, to bring the Christ-likeness into all their service, that not one particle of the salt shall lose its preserving influence. The Christ-likeness is ever to be preserved. The mind and heart are to be cleansed from all sin, all unlikeness to Christ.
TDG	201	3	God has duties for everyone in His service, for every church member, to perform. His people are to exalt the power of the law above human judgment. By bringing the entire being, body, soul, and spirit, into harmony with the law, they are to establish the law.
TDG	201	4	God will open the way for His subjects to perform unselfish actions in all their associations, in all their business transactions with the world. By their acts of kindness and love, they are to show that they are opposed to greed and selfishness, and are representing the kingdom of heaven in our world. By self-denial, by sacrificing the gain they might obtain, they are to avoid sin, that in accordance with the laws of God's kingdom they may represent the truth in all its beauty.
TDG	201	5	But if our words and actions are unChristlike; if the spirit we cherish is not helpful; if we retain the old, unsavory traits of character, studying how we may get the best of the bargain, to the disadvantage of someone else; if, unmindful that it is our duty to help one another, we care little whether we hurt and destroy a brother's prospects, we are as salt which has lost its savor--good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden underfoot as valueless. We may gain some advantage ourselves, but what help are we to the world?
TDG	201	6	How can we have preservative qualities of character, as salt which retains its savor? How can we exert a saving influence? By obeying to the letter in every transaction of life, the plain commands of God; by being kind, benevolent, generous; by seeing the necessities of the cause of God, and trying to relieve them; by doing the work that must be done to represent the truth as it is in Jesus.--Letter 79, July 11, 1901, to A. G. Daniells, newly elected president of the General Conference.
------------------------Matchless Love, July 12
TDG	202	1	And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:22, 23.
TDG	202	2	O what love, what matchless love! Fallen human beings may become so closely united with Christ that they are glorified with Him. On this earth they have followed in His footsteps, laboring as He labored for the souls for whom He died, and when He comes to claim His own, they enter in to His joy, sitting with Him at His table in His kingdom. "Where I am, "He says, "there shall also my servant be" (John 12:26)....
TDG	202	3	What a wonderful thought it is that we, poor, fallen sinners, can become one with Christ, partakers of His divine nature, through His grace refined, purified, glorified. We may overcome, and sit down with ...Christ. We are to be conformed to His image. He loves, and He will help us. We are to be passive in His hands.
TDG	202	4	We have His promise. We hold the title deeds to real estate in the kingdom of glory. Never were title deeds drawn up more strictly according to law, or signed more legibly, than those that give God's people a right to the heavenly mansions. "Let not your heart be troubled," Christ says: "ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (chap. 14:1-3)....
TDG	202	5	All who will may come under the covenant promise. Precious is the price paid for our redemption--the blood of the only begotten Son of God. Christ was tried by the sharp proving of affliction. His human nature was tried to the uttermost. He bore the death penalty of man's transgression. He became the sinner's substitute and surety. He is able to show the fruit of His sufferings and death, in His resurrection from the dead. From the rent sepulcher of Joseph rings forth the proclamation, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in Me, and do the works of righteousness that I do, are justified, sanctified, made white and tried. They have obtained godliness and eternal life."--Letter 144, July 12, 1903, to Edson White.
------------------------Work a Blessing, July 13
TDG	203	1	For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. 1 Thessalonians 2:9.
TDG	203	2	Though Paul sat, a diligent student, at the feet of Gamaliel, he also learned a trade. He was an educated tentmaker. It was the custom among the Jews, the wealthy as well as the poorer classes, to train their sons and daughters to some useful employment, so that should adverse circumstances come, they would not be dependent on others, but would have educated ability to provide for their own necessities. They might be instructed in literary lines, but they must also be trained to some craft. This was deemed an indispensable part of their education.
TDG	203	3	The testimony of Paul and Aquila is that by their occupation they were tentmakers. While they preached the gospel, Paul and his companion wrought at their trade as tentmakers, and in doing this they could give a more thorough knowledge of Christ to those who heard them. They labored that they might obtain means for support....
TDG	203	4	In Corinth he [Paul] had lived and labored with Aquila and Priscilla, instructing them more perfectly in the truth. The great apostle was not ashamed or afraid of work, and he did not treat this subject as in any way lowering to his work in the ministry....
TDG	203	5	The custom of supporting men and women in idleness by private gifts or church money encourages them in sinful habits, and this course should be conscientiously avoided. Every man, woman, and child should be educated to do practical, useful work. All should learn some trade. It may be tentmaking, or it may be business in other lines; but all should be educated to use the members of their body to some purpose, and God is ready and willing to increase the adaptability of all who will educate themselves to industrious habits.
TDG	203	6	If a man in good physical health has property, and has no need of entering into employment for his own support, he should labor to acquire means that he may advance the cause and work of God. He is to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11). God will bless all who will guard their influence in regard to others in this respect.--Manuscript 93, July 13, 1899,.
------------------------Perfect Faith, July 14
TDG	204	1	Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. Proverbs 3:5.
TDG	204	2	God is a very present help in time of need. If you will put your trust in Him, He will make His goodness pass before you; He will lead you by His counsel. His Holy Spirit, His providences, the teachings of His word--all will be agencies in instructing you and leading you in the way of the Lord. God's promise to you is, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). Therefore you may say with humility, yet with firm confidence, "This God is my God forever and ever."
TDG	204	3	I am instructed to say to you, "Trust not in self, but trust in God. This is the measure by which we are judged in the sight of heaven--our faith in God. Seek earnestly to work the works of God. Ever maintain the simplicity of true godliness. "He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul" (Proverbs 8:36). Study the Scriptures; for there is nothing that will so firmly establish your faith in God or your belief in His truth, as this. If you will have faith in God, you cannot fail of coming out victorious.
TDG	204	4	Do not speak of trials and discouragements. Look away from these things to Christ. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). You are the purchase of His blood. Do not disappoint the One who gave His life that you might be an overcomer. He was tempted on every point that you and I can be tempted on, and in order to resist He spent whole nights in prayer and communion with His Father. Christ did not leave this world until He had made it possible for every soul to live a life of perfect faith and obedience, to have a perfect character.
TDG	204	5	Christ has made it possible for you to practice His life. You have His precious words in the Bible; believe in them, carry out their teachings. Never doubt the word of God. This word, if received into your life, will refine and sanctify you, and increase your usefulness. It is your privilege to help those who need help, to speak words of encouragement to those who need encouragement. Bear in mind that you are to show to the world the light of the glory of God.--Letter 206, July 14, 1908, a personal testimony.
------------------------Foolish Fanaticisms, July 15
TDG	205	1	Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth. Titus 1:14.
TDG	205	2	Letters have come to me, asking in regard to the teaching of some who say that nothing that has life should be killed, not even insects, however annoying or distressing they may be. Is it possible that anyone claims that God has given him this message to give to the people? The Lord has never given any human being such a message.
TDG	205	3	The people need to be enlightened in regard to what is truth. These side issues which arise are as hay, wood, and stubble compared with the truth for these last days.
TDG	205	4	Idle tales are brought in as important truth, and by some they are actually set up as tests. Messages have been borne in regard to the cruelty of killing animals for food. These messages are true, but from them some have caught the idea that no insects should be killed. Thus controversy has been created and minds have been diverted from present truth.
TDG	205	5	God has told no one that it is a sin to kill the insects which destroy our peace and rest. In all His teachings Christ gave no message of this character, and His disciples are to teach only what He commanded them.
TDG	205	6	I would say to my brethren and sisters, "Keep close to the instruction found in the Word of God. Dwell upon the rich truths of the Scriptures. Thus only can you become one in Christ. You have no time to engage in controversy regarding the killing of insects. Jesus has not placed this burden upon you. "What is the chaff to the wheat?" (Jeremiah 23:28). The attributes of Christ are to be studied and earnestly sought for, that every believer may be complete in Him, revealing the beauty of His character. We have no time for empty, foolish talk. Let us dwell upon the solemn, sacred truths for this time....
TDG	205	7	God desires men and women to think soberly and candidly. They are to ascend to a higher and still higher grade, commanding a wider and still wider horizon. Looking unto Jesus, they are to be changed into His image. They are to spend their time in searching for the deep, everlasting truths of heaven.--Letter 82, July 15, 1901, to "Dear Brethren and Sisters."
------------------------Eating for Life, July 16
TDG	206	1	My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.... For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Proverbs 4:20-22.
TDG	206	2	Erroneous opinions, arrived at because of faulty education in the home, have been handed down by children to children's children, and habits of indulgence have been fostered which have resulted in ruined health to thousands. Our sanitariums are to be places where correct education can be given to many on matters that pertain to life and health. The habits of eating should be carefully guarded, that none shall make themselves sick by indulgence of appetite. The Lord is not pleased when His people, bought by the sacrifice of His beloved Son, thoughtlessly injure themselves by wrong habits of living. As we pass through this world, we should seek to instruct all who will be taught how to avoid and how to overcome self-indulgent practices.
TDG	206	3	If we are believers in Jesus Christ, we shall seek to become intelligent as to how to keep the brain clear and active, that not a tittle of our influence shall be lost. We should seek to become laborers together with God by keeping the system in such a condition that it can render perfect service. It is poor policy indeed, to ill-treat the digestive organs, upon which the happiness of the whole being so largely depends. When the stomach is disturbed, the mind is disturbed, and the brain nerve power is weakened. It therefore becomes a religious duty with every soul to learn the science of healthful living, to keep the question of diet in mind, and to treat the matter conscientiously.
TDG	206	4	The apostle Paul declares to us that we are not our own, that we are bought with a price. If we truly love the One who gave His life for us, we shall feel under solemn obligation to avoid disease....
TDG	206	5	The strength of the temptation to indulge perverted appetite can be measured only by the longsuffering of Christ in His long fast in the wilderness. Christ knew that in order to carry out the plan of salvation, He must begin the work of redemption just where the ruin began. Adam fell on the point of appetite. Christ took up the work of redemption just where the ruin began. The same is true of our experience. We are to begin the work of reform just where the work of degeneracy is so keenly felt.--Letter 218, July 16, 1908, to a conference president.
------------------------A Life Like His, July 17
TDG	207	1	Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16.
TDG	207	2	The truth in the soul will be seen in the circumspect life. Levity of conduct, undue familiarity, will not exist. If everyone who claims to be a child of God would cherish the spirit of kindness and love, without base thoughts and undue attention, and devote his God-given powers to spreading the truth, in seeking to save souls, what a bright, steady light would shine forth to the world!
TDG	207	3	If we believe that Christ alone can save souls by His matchless grace, how earnest would everyone be to hold up Christ, to be much in prayer as Christ was, and by living faith ask much in His name that he may receive, and be willing to spend and be spent to win souls to Christ. Let all who profess to be Christians open the door of their hearts to His Spirit and to His grace; then the peace of Christ will so rule in their hearts and be revealed in their characters that there will be no discord, no strife, no emulation, no biting and devouring one another, no seeking for the supremacy. The great and earnest effort will be to live the life of Christ. We are to represent His spirit of mercy and give no occasion for anyone to follow our example in doing evil.
TDG	207	4	Jesus was courteous, benevolent. He was obedient to all of His Father's commandments, implicitly and without questioning convenience or any selfish interest. It is enough to us to know that God has spoken; and when we know His will as revealed in His Word, we are to obey.
TDG	207	5	The world's Redeemer is speaking to us; let us hear what He says: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14). Then those who see the claims of God in His Word and do not obey, but excuse their negligence or willful disregard of God's requirements, testify by their course of action that they are not embraced in the blessed promise on condition of obedience. They are not the ones who will have a right to the tree of life, but are with the willful transgressors of the law of God to whom Jesus says, "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity" (Luke 13:27).--Manuscript 15, July 17, 1885, "Influence of Unconsecrated Workers."
------------------------Talents Entrusted for Service, July 18
TDG	208	1	So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Romans 12:5, 6.
TDG	208	2	God has given to every man talents in trust. To every man He has given his work. There can be no idlers in His vineyard. Each has most earnest, sacred, solemn work to do for the Master. To everyone is committed some work to do, and none are excused. The day of final account will come, when the Lord reckons with His servants. The Chief Shepherd is Judge and illustrates the great principles which are to regulate the proceedings of the reckoning with His servants who are justified by faith, judged by their works. Faith works by love and purifies the soul of moral defilement that it may become a temple for the Lord.
TDG	208	3	The entrusted talents are not reserved for a favorite few who are exalted above their fellow men in education, in smartness of intellect. The talents are endowments bestowed upon the Lord's family individually, from the lowliest and most obscure to those who are in highest positions of trust. The entrusted gifts are proportioned to our varied capabilities, and everyone is to use these talents to God's glory. He is to increase their usefulness because through using them he becomes more and better qualified to trade on his Lord's goods and to accumulate by trading. The light of truth and all spiritual advantages are the Lord's gifts. They are to be appreciated and are to have influence upon the mind and character. We are to return to God corresponding increase, according to the gifts entrusted.
TDG	208	4	We have by grace been chosen as His servants. A servant means a worker, one who bears cares, burdens, responsibilities.... We are to realize that it is not our goods we are handling, but the Master's entrusted capital for us to invest and increase as wise stewards of our Lord's goods, that we may return to Him His investment with usury. We cannot hoard the Lord's goods and do nothing with it; thus did the slothful servant with his one pound, and lost his soul. Every man has a solemn work to do and he cannot trifle with his time; he cannot trifle with his privileges and his opportunities granted him. He must improve in character, in ability, according to his privileges and opportunities, to make a complete worker in the cause of God.--Manuscript 81, July 18, 1893,.
------------------------An Ever Present Help, July 19
TDG	209	1	The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. Nahum 1:7.
TDG	209	2	We have rich promises in the Word of God, if we only believe and trust in Him. We are in danger of trusting to our own poor human efforts, and not putting our trust in God. Everyone who has any part to act in this great preparation of the work of God for these last days should come close to God. When God sends out His workers to do a special errand for Him, He has pledged Himself to be one with them, if they will be one with God. But if they draw apart from God, and try to do this work in their own strength, they will find difficulties and discouragements at every step. Here we have the promise that in working for the Lord He is by our right hand to help us and work with us.
TDG	209	3	It would be the greatest folly in the world for any of us to take any of the credit to ourselves for any success we may have. The more humbly we walk with God, the more will He manifest Himself to us to help us. The Lord never designed to send out His servants to do a work for Him with all the opposition of Satan and evil angels against them unless He gives them divine help. The reason that we do not have greater success in the work is because we depend on our own efforts rather than upon the help God will give us. It is our privilege to feel our weakness, our unworthiness, and then claim the help that God has provided for us. We can take the Word in our distress, and while we feel the burden of souls upon us, and say, "Here, Lord, Thou hast promised, and I believe Thy word."
TDG	209	4	We must learn to go to our heavenly Father just as a child goes to its earthly parents. He says, "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matthew 7:9-11)....
TDG	209	5	While every one of God's workmen should cultivate his powers to the best of his ability, yet he should not trust in these powers. Make of yourselves everything that it is possible for you to make and then trust the rest to God.--Manuscript 8, July 19, 1886, "Overcoming Self."
------------------------Eat for Strength, July 20
TDG	210	1	Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness! Ecclesiastes 10:17.
TDG	210	2	The laws of health are to be obeyed. It is important that the digestive organs shall not be overtaxed. There are many who keep the stomach continually at work. It has not opportunity to recruit its strength, and the result must be digestive disorders.
TDG	210	3	There should be no eating between meals, and at least five hours should be allowed to elapse between the meals. Indigestion is the result of food taken into the stomach before the digestive organs have had time to dispose of the foregoing meal....
TDG	210	4	Three meals are sufficient, and two meals are better than three. For the past thirty years I have eaten only two meals a day. The dullness from which people suffer is often caused by overeating, and by eating at irregular periods. Dyspepsia brings despondency, and one suffering from this disease, though he may profess to be a Christian, acts in an un-Christlike manner.
TDG	210	5	Some claim that the inclination to eat is sufficient guide. But one may get into the habit of eating several times a day, yet this would not be best. Such a habit would produce disease, because the digestive organs would be overtaxed.
TDG	210	6	Practice health reform, and refuse to be turned aside from the right path. Do not faint away, but make your will power bring your appetite into subjection to a true purpose....
TDG	210	7	God gave Adam charge of the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it, and of the trees and herbs bearing seed, He said, "They shall be for meat" (see Genesis 1:29; 3:18). Afterward the eating of flesh meat was permitted as one of the consequences of the fall. Before the flood, no provision was made for the use of animal food....
TDG	210	8	Try going without flesh meat for six months, and see if a change for the better does not take place. I ask you to do this at once. Let your imagination be sanctified. Let your mind and conscience be awakened, your whole being aroused. Guard yourself against giving yourself too much sympathy. Be heroic. Be determined to overcome perverted appetite.--Letter 208, July 20, 1905, to a physician and his wife.
------------------------Let Your Light Shine, July 21
TDG	211	1	But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8.
TDG	211	2	My heart was rejoiced to see among the converts [at Willis, Michigan] so many young men and women, with hearts softened and subdued by the love of Jesus, acknowledging the good work wrought by God for their souls. It was indeed a precious season. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10)....
TDG	211	3	It is essential that these who have newly come to the faith should have a sense of their obligation to God, who has called them to a knowledge of the truth, and filled their hearts with His sacred peace, that they may exert a sanctifying influence over all with whom they associate. "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 43:10). To every one God has committed a work, to make known His salvation to the world.
TDG	211	4	In true religion there is nothing selfish or exclusive. The gospel of Christ is diffusive and aggressive. It is described as the salt of the earth, the transforming leaven, the light which shineth in darkness. It is impossible for one to retain the favor and love of God, and enjoy communion with Him, and still feel no responsibility for the souls for whom Christ died, who are in error and darkness, perishing in their sins. If those who profess to be followers of Christ neglect to shine as lights in the world, the vital power will leave them, and they will become cold and Christless. The spell of indifference will be upon them, a deathlike sluggishness of soul, which will make them bodies of death instead of living representatives of Jesus.
TDG	211	5	Every one must lift the cross, and in modesty, meekness, and lowliness of mind, take up his God-given duties, engaging in personal effort for those around him who need help and light. All who accept these duties will have a rich and varied experience, their own hearts will glow with fervor, and they will be strengthened and stimulated to renewed, persevering efforts to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, because it is God that worketh in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure.--The Review and Herald, July 21, 1891.
------------------------An Open Door, July 22
TDG	212	1	But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23:10.
TDG	212	2	Frequently the very best evidence that we can have that we are in the right way is that the least advance costs us effort and that darkness shrouds our pathway. It has been my experience that the loftiest heights of faith we can only reach through darkness and clouds....
TDG	212	3	It is not safe for us to cherish doubts and fears, for these grow by looking upon and talking them. I feel to reach up my hand and grasp the hand of Christ as did the sinking disciple on the stormy sea. I want to do my work with fidelity that when I shall stand before the great white throne and am called to answer for the things done in the body, which are all written in the book, that I may see souls standing there to testify I warned them, I entreated them to behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.
TDG	212	4	Oh, will there be souls then, saved through my instrumentality? Through Christ, I would set before the people an open door. "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it" (Revelation 3:8).
TDG	212	5	The city of God with all its attractions is saying, "Come." If we can by a holy life, by entreaties, by prayers, by warnings, point the sinner to the way of escape and fasten their attention to the heavenly gates open to receive them; if by faith they can see that the entrance into life is an open door, everything is gained. The earthly attractions will fade away, the heavenly will win and charm the soul....
TDG	212	6	The hindrances that hold us back from perfecting Christian characters are in ourselves. Jesus can remove them. The cross He requires us to bear will create strength in us more than it consumes, and remove our heaviest burdens to take the burden of Christ, which is light. Conflicts and trials we must meet in the discharge of duty. Christ has called us to glory and to virtue. The life He has through His own suffering and death prepared for us to lead, would never have cost us a pain or grief if we had never left it. Every self-denial and every sacrifice we make in following Christ are so many steps of the lost sheep returning to the fold.--Letter 7, July 22, 1877, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Do You Know Your Lord? July 23
TDG	213	1	He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. ... He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 1 John 5:10-12.
TDG	213	2	While we know Christ in one sense, that He is the Saviour of the world, it means more than this. We must have a personal knowledge and experience in Christ Jesus, an experimental knowledge of Christ, what He is to us, and what we are to Christ. That is the experience that everyone wants. Now, I cannot have it for any of you, nor can you have it for me. The work that is to be done for us, is to be through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit of God upon human minds and human hearts. The heart must be purified and sanctified.
TDG	213	3	I need not tell any of you that it is so, because you know it. Not one of us needs to feel a doubt as to where we are, or to think, "I wish I knew where I stood before God," but, by living faith, we must sink ourselves in God; and when we do that, His life will shine upon us. There is not a particle of need of our being in a state of inefficiency and coldness. What is the matter with us? "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." It shall be given him. There are no "ifs" nor "ands" about it. "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering" (James 1:5, 6).
TDG	213	4	You pray, and ask God for wisdom, strength, and efficiency, and feel that you must have them. But perhaps, right after that prayer, it will seem as though a hellish shadow of Satan was cast right athwart your pathway, and you see nothing beyond. What was that? Why, the devil wanted to obscure your faith.... But there is no necessity for you to do that. Is feeling to be our criterion, or is it to the word of the living God? Are we to sink our faith in the cloud? That is what Satan wants us to do....
TDG	213	5	I have had that cloud settle upon me at times, but I knew that God was there just the same.... "Ask in faith, nothing wavering." Don't let one single suggestion of the devil come in. It is to be "nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea" (Verse 6). The Lord will do great things for us if we will only show our trust in Him.--Manuscript 93a, July 23, 1899,.
------------------------Sow Beside All Waters, July 24
TDG	214	1	And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.... Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. Matthew 10:7-10.
TDG	214	2	Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, learned the trade of a tentmaker. There were higher and lower branches of tentmaking. Paul had learned the higher branches, and he could also work at the common branches, when circumstances demanded....
TDG	214	3	The Greeks on the seacoast were sharp traders. They had educated themselves to sharp practice in deal, and had come to believe that gain was godliness, and that an ability to acquire gain, whether by fair means or foul, was a reason why they should be honored. Paul was acquainted with their practices, and he would not give them a chance to say that he and his fellow laborers preached in order to be supported by the gospel.
TDG	214	4	Although it was perfectly right for him to be supported in this way (for "the labourer is worthy of his hire"), yet he saw that if he were [to do so], the influence upon his fellow laborers and those to whom he preached would not be the best. Paul feared that if he lived by preaching the gospel, he might be suspected of selfish motives in [so] doing.... He must show that he was willing to engage in any useful labor. He would not give any an excuse to demerit the work of the gospel by imputing motives of selfishness to those who preached the word. He would not give the sharp Grecians any occasion to hurt the influence of God's servants.
TDG	214	5	Paul reasoned, How could he teach the commandments, which required him to love God with heart, and soul, and strength, and mind, and his neighbor as himself, if he gave any one reason to think that he loved himself more than his neighbor or his God, that he followed the practices of the Grecians, trading sharply upon his office for the sake of gain, instead of following the principles of the gospel. How could he lead the people to Christ, if he took all he possibly could from them? Paul decided that he would not give these keen, critical, unscrupulous money traders occasion to suppose that God's servants were working as sharply and following as dishonest methods as they were.--Manuscript 97, July 24, 1899, "The Minister and Physical Work."
------------------------Are You Building on the Rock? July 25
TDG	215	1	For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:11.
TDG	215	2	As the people sat upon the hillside, listening to the words of Christ, they could see valleys and ravines through which the mountain streams found their way to the sea. In summer these streams often wholly disappeared, leaving only a dry and dusty channel. But when the wintry storms burst upon the hills, the rivers became fierce, raging torrents, at times overspreading the valleys, and bearing everything away on their resistless flood. Often, then, the hovels reared by the peasants on the grassy plain, apparently beyond reach of danger, were swept away. But high upon the hill were houses built upon the rock. In some parts of the land were dwellings built wholly of rock, and many of them had withstood the tempests of a thousand years. These houses were reared with toil and great difficulty. They were not easy of access, and their location appeared less easy of access than the grassy plain. But they were founded upon the rock; and wind and flood and tempest beat upon them in vain.
TDG	215	3	Those who hear and obey the words of Christ are building upon the rock, and when the tempest comes, their house will not be overthrown. They will through faith in Christ Jesus gain eternal life. Those who are hearers but not doers of His words, are building upon a foundation of uncertainty which is sand, and calamity will overtake them.
TDG	215	4	Had Adam and Eve heeded the words that God spoke to them in the beginning, they would not have fallen from their first estate. Our Saviour met temptation in a stronger, fiercer form than it was presented to Adam, and His only weapon was one that is within the reach of all--the Word of God. When Satan came to Christ in His weakness, and told Him to satisfy His hunger by turning the stones into bread, and thus prove Himself to be the Son of God, Christ answered, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4)....
TDG	215	5	We shall meet with false doctrines of every kind, and unless we are acquainted with what Christ has said, and are following His instruction, we shall be led astray.--Manuscript 27, July 25, 1886, "Building on the Rock."
------------------------According to Your Faith, July 26
TDG	216	1	Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. Matthew 9:29.
TDG	216	2	It is our duty, as children of God, to talk faith, and not doubt. We are to be hopeful and cheerful in the Lord. Let us not look on the dark side of circumstances, but look up, and believe in the One whom God gave to the world to save us from our sins. Christ accomplishes our salvation by inspiring faith in our hearts and a belief in the truth. The truth makes free; and those whom the Son makes free are free indeed. Let us seek to honor God by revealing a constantly increasing confidence in the assurance that He will accept every soul who serves Him in sincerity.
TDG	216	3	We are the Lord's little children, and we are to be led and upheld by Him. If we will learn lessons from the kindness and patience and tenderness of Jesus, we will be a blessing to all with whom we are associated. The Lord would have us take comfort in His promises, and praise Him much more than we do. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me" (Psalm 50:23). Let us learn how to express our gratitude to God for His wonderful condescension and love for mankind.
TDG	216	4	The only begotten Son of God consented to leave the heavenly courts and come to our world to live with an ungrateful people who refused His gracious mercies. He consented to live a life of poverty, and to endure suffering and temptation. He became a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And the Word declares, "We hid as it were our faces from him" (Isaiah 53:3). Of His own disciples, Peter, denied Him, and Judas betrayed Him. The people whom He came to bless rejected Him. They put Him to shame and caused Him untold suffering. They placed upon His head a crown of thorns that pierced His holy temples. They beat Him with a scourge, and then they nailed Him to the cross. Yet amid it all, no word of complaint escaped His lips....
TDG	216	5	Christ bore all this suffering in order to obtain the right to confer eternal righteousness upon as many as would believe on Him. O, when I think of this, I feel that no complaint should ever escape my lips....
TDG	216	6	When we are having a hard time, let us consider how much our salvation cost the God of the universe.--Letter 232, July 26, 1908, to Brother and Sister M. Hare, workers in the Southern States.
------------------------Little Men--Big Subjects, July 27
TDG	217	1	Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? Jeremiah 18:14.
TDG	217	2	We do not want to drink of the turbid streams of the valley. We do not want the corrupted sophistry of infidelity. Because many are so ready to give in to doubt and questioning, infidels are made bold. God help us that we may drink of the pure streams that flow from beneath the throne of God. We can drink, and continue to drink. And, if you thirst for knowledge, there is plenty of it here....
TDG	217	3	Many think themselves wonderfully wise in understanding the sentiments of infidel writers, but they will find that they are building upon a sandy foundation. They are not building upon the solid Rock. The storm of persecution, the storm of trial comes, and sweeps that foundation away, and they have nothing upon which to stand. What we want is to rivet our souls to the Eternal Rock....
TDG	217	4	Brother [Alfred S.] Hutchins was at one time riding in Vermont and he met a lawyer. "Well," said the lawyer, "I understand that you are a Seventh-day Adventist." "Yes." "Well," said he, "you are nothing but little men." "Yes, we know that," said Brother Hutchins, "but we are handling mighty subjects. It is by the study of these mighty subjects that we are trying to get truth before the people." This is what we want--the mighty subjects that will make men wise unto salvation.
TDG	217	5	Just as soon as you begin to think you are big men, and that you are so large that you can comprehend and pick out all that is precious in infidel authors, and leave out all that is vile, then you are wise above that which is written.... The devil is right by your side, and the evil angels are there. The devil is a great deal smarter than you are, and you cannot see what he is driving at. He will so cunningly interweave his sentiments with the thoughts of these writers, that it will be impossible to distinguish the error which they contain....
TDG	217	6	If you want to be counted a wise man in God's eyes, come right to the cross of Calvary, and get the inspiration that comes from it, and your name will be written as a wise man, who built his house upon the Rock.--Manuscript 8b, July 27, 1891, "Talk to the Teachers."
------------------------Reward for Faithfulness, July 28
TDG	218	1	And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. Luke 21:34.
TDG	218	2	Dear Christian friend, stop and think. You are trading with your Lord's money; and what use are you making of it? You may suffer your mind to be engrossed with business transactions and the cares of this life; but you cannot carry these things with you into the other world. There will be no use for this kind of education there. Then why not use your talents to build up Christ's kingdom? Why not give to the service of God the tact, skill, and energy that have made you successful in business? The works of this world will be destroyed. Would it not be better to put some of your thinking powers into the cause of God, and build where the work will be enduring, and you will not suffer loss?
TDG	218	3	The constant burden of your hearts should be, What can I do to save souls for whom Christ died? All around me are precious souls lying in wickedness, that must perish unless someone shall work for their salvation. How can I best reach these wandering ones, that I may bring them to the glorious city of God, and present them before the throne, saying, Here am I and the children whom the Lord hath given me?
TDG	218	4	Some may excuse themselves by saying, I have had no experience in this kind of work; I have used my ability only in the things of this life. Well, it is for you to say whether you will continue to devote your time and strength to worldly interests, or will use them in the cause of God. None of us will be forced into this service. If we choose to concentrate our powers upon worldly matters, there will be nothing to hinder us. But why is it that we persist in laying up treasure here instead of above? Suppose you should change the order of things, and lay up some of your treasure in heaven, would you not rejoice to receive it again by and by, imperishable? ...
TDG	218	5	Christ has appointed to every man his work. The second death will be the portion of those who labor not, and the dreadful words will be heard, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:23). But the faithful servants will not lose their reward. They will gain eternal life, and the "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Chap. 25:23), will fall as sweetest music on their ears.--The Signs of the Times, July 28, 1887.
------------------------God's Promise to Parents, July 29
TDG	219	1	That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace. Psalm 144:12.
TDG	219	2	We have been taken as rough stones out of the quarry of the world by the cleaver of truth and placed in the workshop of God. He who has genuine faith in Christ as his personal Saviour, will find that the truth accomplishes a definite work for him. His faith is working faith, and faith works by love, and purifies the soul. The Lord Jesus has paid the ransom money for us; He has given His own life in order that those who believe on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Those who receive the truth by faith will bear testimony to the quality of the faith they exercise. They will continually make improvements, looking unto Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. We cannot create our faith; but we can be colaborers with Christ in promoting the growth and triumph of faith....
TDG	219	3	The work of Christ in the heart does not destroy man's powers. Christ directs, strengthens, ennobles, and sanctifies the faculties of the soul. It is through personal acquaintance with Him that we become qualified to represent His character to the world. John says, "As many as receive him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). And again, "Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace" (Verse 16).
TDG	219	4	Christ is to be represented in the home circle. Fathers and mothers bear a weighty responsibility; for they will be held accountable for giving correct lessons to their children. They are to speak kindly to them, to be patient with them, to watch unto prayer, praying the Lord to mold and fashion the hearts of the children. But while asking God to mold and fashion the characters of the children, let mothers and fathers act their part, presenting to their offspring a living representation of the divine Pattern. God will not accept haphazard work at your hands. Your children are God's heritage, and heavenly angels are watching to see that both parents and children are colaborers with God in building up character after the divine model.--Manuscript 32, July 29, 1894, "Meeting at Seven Hills."
------------------------Promised: Strength for the Day, July 30
TDG	220	1	Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
TDG	220	2	I long for physical strength and health, for mental clearness, that I may render to God acceptable service. "Ye have not chosen me," Christ has said, "but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you" (John 15:16).
TDG	220	3	The Word is full of precious promises. I shall have strength of eyesight, I shall have strength of brain, I shall have clearness of conception and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, because I ask in the name of Jesus. Precious Saviour! He gave His life for me. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen" (Romans 11:33-36).
TDG	220	4	I long for the benefits that we all may receive through faith. Now is our opportunity to hide our life with Christ in God. Every moment of our time is precious. The precious talents lent us of God are to be employed in His service. "Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).
TDG	220	5	Yes, we are the Lord's blood-bought heritage. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). This God requires of every one who shall compose His family in the kingdom of heaven. All selfishness must be overcome. We must be true to God, true as steel to all His commandments. Human beings frame laws, and are very zealous for their enactment. At the same time they transgress the highest law from the mightiest Sovereign. This they attempt to make null and void. They exalt the human above the divine. "Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord of hosts" (Jeremiah 5:9). Yes, God will reward every man according to his works.--Manuscript 70, July 30, 1897, diary.
------------------------How to Meet Opposition, July 31
TDG	221	1	O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith. 1 Timothy 6:20, 21.
TDG	221	2	In our work for God we shall meet with much opposition. By falsehood and deception the Jews strove to keep the people from believing on Christ. Today false teachers will resort to any means to keep people from obtaining a knowledge of the truth. There are those who love error more than they love truth, because truth is opposed to their inclinations and their course of action. They refuse to repent and be converted, even though the evidence for truth is clear and convincing. They do not want to search the Scriptures, to see if these things are so. There lies the cross to be lifted, but they are unwilling to deny self. God asks them to keep holy His Sabbath, but they refuse to give up their own way....
TDG	221	3	A great and solemn work is before the people of God. They are to come close to Christ in self-denial and self-sacrifice, their one aim being to give the message of mercy to all the world. Some will work in one way and some in another, as the Lord shall call and lead them. But they are all to strive together, seeking to make the work a perfect whole. With pen and voice God's servants are to labor for Him. The printed word of truth is to be translated into different tongues. To all peoples the gospel is to be preached....
TDG	221	4	Unconsecrated minds will place hindrances in the way of God's work, as they have done in the past. But do not stop to enter into controversy and create disagreeable issues. If hindered in one way, be ready to honor God by working in a way that is open. In due time obstacles that now seem insurmountable will be removed. God can remove obstructions in ways most unexpected when He sees that by doing this He can best glorify His name....
TDG	221	5	Trials will come, for there are many who are walking at cross purposes with God. Be sure that you are walking before Him in meekness and humility. You may, yes, you will be misjudged, but the evil talkers will be ashamed if you constantly reveal the sweetness of Christ's character.--Letter 193, July 31, 1901, to "Dear Children."
------------------------Partakers of the Divine Nature, August 1
TDG	222	1	Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Isaiah 5:20, 21.
TDG	222	2	The Lord requires every man to be at his post of duty doing the very work the Lord has appointed to be done. Let every movement be preceded by humble, earnest prayer. The truth is to go forth as a lamp that burneth. Those who are guardians of the truth are to act as men who are wide awake....
TDG	222	3	Christ pronounces a woe upon all who transgress the law of God. He pronounced a woe upon the lawyers in His day because they exercised their power to afflict those who looked to them for justice and judgment. All the terrible consequences of sin will come to those who, even though they may be nominal church members, regard it as a light matter to set aside the law of Jehovah, and to make no distinction between good and evil.
TDG	222	4	In the representations the Lord has given me, I have seen those who follow their own desires, misrepresenting the truth, oppressing their brethren, and placing difficulties before them. Characters are now being developed, and men are taking sides, some on the side of the Lord Jesus Christ, some on the side of Satan and his angels. The Lord calls for all who will be true and obedient to His law to come out of and away from all connection with those who have placed themselves on the side of the enemy. Against their names is written, "TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting" (Daniel 5:27)....
TDG	222	5	There are many men, apparently moral, but who are not Christians. They are deceived in their estimate of what constitutes true Christians. They possess an alloy of character that destroys the value of the gold, and they cannot be stamped with the impress of divine approval. They must be rejected as impure, worthless metal.
TDG	222	6	We cannot, of ourselves, perfect a true moral character, but we can accept of Christ's righteousness. We can be partakers of the divine nature, and escape the corruptions that are in the world through lust. Christ has left before us a perfect pattern of what we are to be as sons and daughters of God.--Letter 256, August 1, 1906, to "My Ministering Brethren in Australia."
------------------------Jesus, Your Friend at Court, August 2
TDG	223	1	For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
TDG	223	2	When we have a promise that is so rich and so full as [John 3:14-19] ...I inquire, "What excuse have any of us for unbelief? What excuse have you to say, "I don't think the Lord hears my prayer; I wish I could believe I was a Christian, or I wish I could have the evidence that I was a child of God"? Feelings are very changeable, but here are the precious words of eternal life.
TDG	223	3	What is evidence? Is it a flight of feeling? Is it an emotion of the heart that gives you the evidence that you are a child of God? But here is the precious word of eternal life and it gives us the assurance that we may lay hold on the hope set before us in the Gospel by living faith.
TDG	223	4	We may reach up to Jesus Christ who is our Advocate in the heavenly courts. We need a friend at court. We have been sinning, been disobedient, been transgressors, and it is of the highest consequence to us that we have a Friend at court to plead our cases to the Father. He says, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto Me." Well, will all be drawn? Christ draws but will they respond to the drawing? Will they come? The invitation here in Revelation is this: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17).
TDG	223	5	It is not only the minister that is to say, "Come," but let him that heareth say, "Come." Then you must hear to a purpose, and as you hear the message you begin to talk it, and you say, "Come." The coming to you is everything. And as you see that you may come, the privilege is so large, so undeserving, that you feel that you want everybody to have the same privilege with yourself, so that we are laborers together with God. That is our work.
TDG	223	6	God says, "Come," the Spirit says, "Come," the Bride says, "Come," and whosoever heareth says, "Come." Oh, that more will with consistent godly life and with the words of their lips say, "Come." ...It is not only by precept, but by example that you carry the living example with you that heaven is worth something, that Christianity is worth striving for.--Manuscript 10, August 2, 1891,.
------------------------The Power of Truth, August 3
TDG	224	1	Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke. Isaiah 58:6.
TDG	224	2	Truth, precious truth, is sanctifying in its influence. The sanctification of the soul by the operation of the Holy Spirit is the implanting of Christ's nature in humanity. It is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ revealed in character, and the graces of Christ brought into active exercise in good works. Thus the character is transformed more and more perfectly after the image of Christ, in righteousness and true holiness. There are broad requirements in divine truth stretching out interfacing into one line after another of good works. The truths of the gospel are not unconnected; uniting they form one string of heavenly jewels, as in the personal work of Christ, and like threads of gold they run through the whole of Christian work and experience....
TDG	224	3	Let it be printed on the mind that mercy and the love of God are to be expressed to the children of God. Search heaven and earth, and there is no truth revealed more powerful than that which is manifested in mercy to the very ones who need your sympathy and aid in breaking the yoke, and setting free the oppressed. Here the truth is lived, the truth is obeyed, the truth is taught as it is in Jesus.
TDG	224	4	There is a great amount of truth professed, but truth practiced in relieving our fellow men is of great influence, reaching unto heaven, and compassing eternity. Every soul in our world is on trial; every man's experience, the common life history, tells in unmistakable language whether he is a doer of Christ's words and His works. There is constantly recurring a large array of little things that God alone sees; to act out in these things the principles of truth will bring a precious reward. The great and important things are recognized by nearly all, but the knitting of these things with the supposed smaller things of life and closely connecting them as one, is too rarely done by professed Christians. Religion is too much profession, and too little reality.
TDG	224	5	Divine truth exercises little influence upon our fellow men, when it should exercise much influence through our practice. Truth, precious truth, is Jesus in the life, a living, acting principle.--Manuscript 34, August 3, 1894,.
------------------------Words Are Important, August 4
TDG	225	1	Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14.
TDG	225	2	We all need to study the life of Christ and the lessons He gave, that we may know how to conduct ourselves in our relation with one another. Cherish the soothing influence of the Spirit of God. Remember that speech is a talent of great value, if used aright, and that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Remember also that by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Unadvised words often create difficulties which otherwise would not exist.
TDG	225	3	We are placed in this world to be children of God and to prepare for the future immortal life. Speak no unkind, thoughtless words. As you associate in family relationship, be careful to speak kind, tender words, which will comfort and encourage. Do not forget the little acts of kindness which do so much to help the member of the family who is struggling with infirmities which no one but himself can understand.
TDG	225	4	It does not pay to persist in having one's own way, to be unwilling to yield in the little things which are of small consequence, thus bringing bitterness and wrath into the home. Life is too short, too full of sorrow. We have no time to spare for the bruising of any sore, tempted heart.
TDG	225	5	Let each one be kind and considerate of the other. Never let the sun go down upon your wrath. Never close your eyes in sleep without making right the little, pettish difficulties which hurt and bruise the soul....
TDG	225	6	When you are tempted to think or speak unwisely, kneel wherever you are, and pray till you find rest in Jesus. I am sure that He will not leave you or forsake you. You may scorn yourself because of your passionate utterances, but remember that Jesus pities you, and that He will heal you, body and soul, if you will do His bidding. Here is His word to you, "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me" (Isaiah 27:5).
TDG	225	7	Jesus desires to make celestial harmony in your soul. Read His words, not with discouragement, but with confidence and hope. Listen to the blessed words which God speaks to you. Walking with Christ means to believe that, though unseen, Christ is walking with you.--Letter 104, August 4, 1901, to E. K. Beaman.
------------------------Covered by Christ's Righteousness, August 5
TDG	226	1	And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Philippians 3:9.
TDG	226	2	Joshua, standing before the angel of the Lord with defiled garments, represents those whose religious life has been faulty, who have been overcome by Satan's temptations, and are unworthy of God's favor. Today human beings stand before God with defiled garments. All their righteousness is "as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). Satan uses against them his masterly accusing power, pointing to their imperfections as evidence of their weakness. He points scornfully at the mistakes of those who claim to be doing God service. They have been deceived by him, and he begs for permission to destroy them.
TDG	226	3	But they trust in Christ, and Christ will not forsake them. He came to this world to take away their sins, and to impute to them His righteousness. He declares that through faith in His name they may receive forgiveness, and perfect Christlike characters. They have confessed their sins to Him, and have asked for pardon, and Christ declares that because they look to and believe on Him, He will give them power to become sons of God.
TDG	226	4	Their characters are defective, but because they have not trusted in their own merits and excused their sins, because they have asked for forgiveness through the merits of Christ, the Lord receives them, and rebukes Satan. Because they have humbled themselves, confessing their sins, He refuses to listen to the enemy's accusations. He has abundantly pardoned the penitent ones, and will carry forward in them His work of redeeming love if they will continue to believe in Him and to trust Him.
TDG	226	5	Those who, by divine grace, have gained the mastery over their faults, are to teach others how to overcome, pointing them to the Source of strength. To every converted soul is given the privilege of helping those around him who do not rejoice in the light in which he is standing. They also may know the joy that has come to him. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). They may take their place in the world as God's light bearers.--Letter 173, August 5, 1903, to "My Dear Brethren."
------------------------God Honors Humility, August 6
TDG	227	1	For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah 57:15.
TDG	227	2	Christ accepts and communes with the most lowly. He does not accept men because of their capabilities of eloquence, but because they seek His face, desiring His help. His Spirit, moving upon the heart, arouses every faculty to vigorous action. In these unpretentious ones the Lord sees the most precious material, which will stand storm and tempest, heat and pressure. God sees not as man sees....
TDG	227	3	There is true honor among those who have the love of God in their hearts. Our object in working for the Master should be that His name may be glorified in the conversion of sinners. Those who labor to gain applause are not approved by God. The Lord expects His servants to work from a different motive.
TDG	227	4	There are many who will spend and be spent to win souls to Christ. In obedience to the great commission, they will go forth to work for the Master. Under the ministration of angels ordinary men will be moved by the Spirit of God to warn people in the highways and byways. Humble men, who do not trust in their gifts, but who work in simplicity, trusting always in God, will share in the joy of the Saviour as their persevering prayers bring souls to the cross. We should say to them, "Go forth, brethren. Do your best humbly and sincerely, and God will work with you." They should be strengthened and encouraged, and as fast as possible fitted for labor, that success may crown their efforts. They harmonize with unseen, heavenly instrumentalities. They are workers together with God, and their brethren should bid them Godspeed, and pray for them as they labor in Christ's name. No one is authorized to hinder such workers. They should be treated with great respect. No one should speak a disparaging word of them as in the rough places of the earth they sow the gospel seed.
TDG	227	5	Christ will be with these humble workers. The angels of heaven will cooperate with them in their self-sacrificing efforts. By the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus will move upon hearts. God will work miracles in the conversion of sinners. Men and women will be gathered into church fellowship.--Letter 109, August 6, 1901, to J. O. Johnston.
------------------------Discernment of Duty, August 7
TDG	228	1	Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing: and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Revelation 3:17.
TDG	228	2	What is it that constitutes the wretchedness, the nakedness of those who feel rich and increased with goods?--It is the want of the righteousness of Christ. In their own righteousness they are represented as clothed with filthy rags, and yet in this condition they flatter themselves that they are clothed upon with Christ's righteousness. Could deception be greater? As is represented by the prophet, they may be crying, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we" (see Jeremiah 7:4), while their hearts are filled with unholy traffic and unrighteous barter.
TDG	228	3	The courts of the soul-temple may be the haunt of envy, pride, passion, evil surmising, bitterness, and hollow formalism. Christ looks mournfully upon His professed people who feel rich and increased in the knowledge of the truth, and who are yet destitute of the truth in life and character, and unconscious of their destitute condition. In sin and unbelief, they lightly regard the warnings and counsels of His servants, and treat His ambassadors with scorn and contempt, while their words of reproof are regarded as idle tales. Discernment seems to have departed, and they have no power to discriminate between the light which God sends them and the darkness that comes from the enemy of their souls....
TDG	228	4	When Jesus went away, He intrusted to men His work in all its varied branches, and every true follower of Christ has some work to do for Him, for which he is responsible to his own Master, and that work he is expected to do with fidelity, waiting for command and direction from his Leader. We are the responsible agents of God, and have been invested with the goods of heaven, and we should have an eye single to the glory of Him who has called us. On our part there should be a faithful execution of duty, doing our appointed task to the full measure of our intrusted capability. No living being can do our work for us. We must do our work through a diligent use of the intellect which God has given, gaining in knowledge and efficiency as we make progress in our work.--The Review and Herald, August 7, 1894.
------------------------As the Stars Forever and Ever, August 8
TDG	229	1	And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:3.
TDG	229	2	Upon us there rests the solemn responsibility of presenting the truth to unbelievers in the most forcible manner. How careful we should be not to present the truth in a way that will drive men and women from it. Religious teachers stand where they can do great good or great evil. If every one will now awake to the responsibility resting on him, and be determined not to place himself on the judgment seat, to criticize and condemn others, but to go to work, to preach the gospel as never before to those in darkness, many souls will be turned from iniquity to righteousness.
TDG	229	3	Faithful stewards are needed. God will work with everyone who will be worked. The Holy Spirit will lead many souls to Christ. In His companionship they will be fitted for the courts above. Those who are laborers together with God will become wise in soul saving. They will learn of the great Teacher, and while they are presenting Bible subjects to those they are trying to help, the grace of Christ will fill their hearts, and the Word of God will unfold before them. While they are sounding the call, "Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17), their own thirst will be quenched.
TDG	229	4	All need now to be faithful with God, gathering up the fragments, that nothing be lost. He calls for diligent, faithful service. There must be no lack of economy; every penny should be carefully treasured. We are to remember the lesson that Christ gave to His disciples after He had fed the multitude with five loaves and two fishes. Everyone had been satisfied, and then Christ said to the disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost" (John 6:12).
TDG	229	5	We are to receive truth from Christ, and impart it to the people. Infidelity and all kinds of wickedness are rapidly increasing, and the zeal and earnestness of God's servants are to increase proportionately.... If we withhold from God our service of love, we leave sinners unwarned.--Letter 177, August 8, 1903, to Edson White.
------------------------Mother Love, August 9
TDG	230	1	Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Isaiah 49:15.
TDG	230	2	I am grateful to our kind, heavenly Father that you [Edson White] are enjoying the blessing of good health. Make the most of this precious boon and do not become careless and transgress the laws of health. Live in so simple a manner that health may be retained....
TDG	230	3	Go forward, my son, and if you make God your trust, your strength and counselor, you will be triumphant at last. Walk with lowliness of mind, esteeming others better than yourself, and may God give you wisdom that you may conduct yourself with so much prudence that you can be an instrument in His hands of doing great good in His cause in forwarding the important work for these last days. Do not think your mother is critical and severe. She feels the most intense interest for you that you should make a success of this life and gain the future, immortal life.
TDG	230	4	God loves you. He inquires, "Can a woman forget her sucking child?" (Isaiah 49:15). You have probably heard of the sad story of the mother who, with her husband and child, attempted to cross the Green Mountains in midwinter. Their progress was arrested by night and a storm. The husband went for help and lost his way in the darkness and the drifted snow, and was long in returning. The mother felt the chill of death coming upon her, and she bared her bosom to the freezing blast and the falling snow, that she might give all that remained of her own life to save that of her child. When the morning came, the living babe was found wrapped in the mother's shawl, vainly striving with smiles and with a babe's pretty art to arrest the attention of the mother's fixed and frozen eye, and wondering why she did not awaken from her sleep.
TDG	230	5	Here is seen love stronger than death, that binds the mother's heart to her child. And yet God says that the mother will sooner forget her child than that He will forget a soul that trusts in Him. That the Lord loves us is enough to call forth deepest gratitude, every hour of our lives. God's love is speaking to you. Give attention or you will not apply His words to yourself. Only trust the love of Jesus, and you will realize the deepest joy.--Letter 12, August 9, 1873, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Satan's Sophistries, August 10
TDG	231	1	But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14.
TDG	231	2	All that leading scientific minds may conjecture aside from Christ, the Light of the world, is as chaff compared to the wheat. Christ is grieved that so few understand the science of oneness with Himself. Minds that are not under the divine guidance cannot understand the science of redemption. The mystery of godliness is found only in the believing soul who is divested of self. He is greatest in the kingdom of heaven who will become teachable as a little child.
TDG	231	3	The knowledge and education of Nicodemus was considered great and deep, but Christ showed him that they were of no value with God. He must be born again. He must receive new ideas, and understand that God is in all true science. The Lord not only expects man to do his best, but to be learning and educating others. Then he can say, "I know in whom I believe. Jesus is the Bread of Life. If I feed upon Him, I shall be one with Christ in God."
TDG	231	4	In our connection with any line of God's work, we must use the sacred fire. Supposed human ability and efficiency is common fire, but this is unacknowledged by God. A decided position must be maintained upon the high platform of eternal truth. The time has come when all who work in Christ's lines will have the mark of God, in words, in spirit, in character, in their honor of Immanuel. While so many of our people have been hovering about the mystery of faith and godliness, they could have solved the matter by proclaiming, "I know that Christ is my portion forever. His mercy, His gentleness hath made me great." ...
TDG	231	5	The truth of God has not been magnified in His believing people, because they have not brought it into their personal experience. They conform to the world, and depend upon it for their influence. They allow the world to convert them, and introduce the common fire to take the place of the sacred, that they may, in their line of work, meet the world's standard. There must not be these efforts made to ape the world's customs. This is common, not sacred fire. The living Bread must not only be admired, but eaten. That Bread which cometh down from heaven will give life to the soul.--Manuscript 96, August 10, 1898, "Christ, Our Portion."
------------------------Walking With the Unseen God, August 11
TDG	232	1	Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man. Psalm 31:20.
TDG	232	2	Notwithstanding God's Word is so little practiced, this is the only remedy for the healing of individual and national woes. Man cannot bow upon his knees in the streets and in the market place to offer up his prayers to God, but never forget, wherever you may be, that there is a God upon whom you may call for wisdom.... "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it; for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name" (Revelation 3:8).
TDG	232	3	Enoch walked with the unseen God. In the busiest places of the earth, his Companion was with him. Let all who are keeping the truth in simplicity and love, bear this in mind. The men who have the most to do have the greatest need of keeping God ever before them. When the tempter presses his suggestions upon their mind, they may, if they cherish a "Thus saith the Lord," be drawn into the secret pavilion of the Most High. His promises will be their safeguard. Amid all the confusion and rush of business, they will find a quiet resting place.
TDG	232	4	Take God with you in every place. The door is open for every son and daughter of God. The Lord is not far from the soul who seeks Him. The reason why so many are left to themselves in places of temptation is because they do not set the Lord ever before them. It is in the places where God is least thought of that you need to carry the lamp of life. If God be left out of sight, if our faith and our communion with God are broken, the soul is in positive danger. Integrity will not be maintained.
TDG	232	5	The Lord is our Helper, our Defense. God has provided that no soul that trusts in Him shall be overcome by temptation. Christ is just as much with His believing ones when they are compelled to be associated in any sense with the world as when they meet in His house to worship Him. Think of these words: "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life" (Revelation 3:4, 5).--Manuscript 97, August 11, 1898, "The Necessity of a Close Walk With God."
------------------------Look to the Light, August 12
TDG	233	1	Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. Romans 12:12.
TDG	233	2	God demands of us to exercise fervent piety under all and every circumstance in harmony with Jesus Christ. Seek for work in His lines because this is the fruit of true godliness. Win souls to Jesus.
TDG	233	3	If you feel at liberty to moan and groan over bereavements, things that are past, out of your keeping, things you cannot change or alter, you will neglect the present duties lying directly in your pathway. Look unto Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of your faith. Turn your attention from subjects which make you gloomy and sad, for you become an agent in the hands of the enemy to multiply gloom and darkness and you will make the atmosphere surrounding your soul dark and forbidding. Although severe afflictions may come upon you, it is your business to look up, and to see light in Jesus....
TDG	233	4	If you are exclusively engaged in dwelling upon your own sorrows and darkness, thinking God has dealt hard with you, your religion is not uplifting but is depressing. You become a shadow of darkness, hard and complaining, when exclusively shut up to your own sorrows.
TDG	233	5	Sister McCalpin was present and she was doing this.
TDG	233	6	She had lost her son, who was not prepared to die. She spoke, with others, in the social meeting. Oh, her heart was so heavy and sad, but she said she was comforted with the words spoken by Sister White. We had a good, profitable social meeting, then this afflicted sister spoke to me about her son they had buried a few weeks before, dying without hope, and the sorrow and grief she had felt. I entreated her to leave the mourning for the dead, which would do no good to worry over; that she as a mother should wisely and mercifully care for the living children, and that she had not a moment to devote to vain regrets, but to gird up the loins of her mind and go to work and try to bring her children to Jesus and herself surrender to Christ that she might grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. Working in Christ's lines, she would never grow cold but become identified with the Saviour in all His plans.--Manuscript 83, August 12, 1893, diary.
------------------------Never Talk Discouragement, August 13
TDG	234	1	Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
TDG	234	2	Faith is taking God at His word. The Son of God is preparing a place for you in the mansions above. Let thanksgiving be expressed for this. Do not feel that because you do not always feel uplifted, that you are not His child. Take hold with humility and zeal to do the work He asks of you. Appreciate every opportunity to do a work that will make you a blessing to those around you. Let it be your determination to do your part toward making the place where you are a place that God can approve and bless.
TDG	234	3	Unite with your companion in searching the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit will help those who seek the Lord in order to know how to do His work. While you seek to obtain perfection of Christian character, be helpers wherever you are. Praise the Lord at all times. Look on the bright side of circumstances, not on the dark side. Be watchful and prayerful, and the Lord will bless and guide and strengthen you. See how much you can do to bless others.
TDG	234	4	You are precious in the sight of God. He wants you to cherish the grace of humility and thankfulness of heart. Improve every opportunity of gaining an education, that you may impart what you learn to others. There are many who need your help. The Holy Spirit will use all who will be used.
TDG	234	5	Truth is purifying in its nature. Let truth and righteousness prevail in your life, and faultfinding will be banished. I pray that the Lord may guide you and strengthen you. Study the words of Christ. Act upon them, and you will be safe.
TDG	234	6	As you study the Word, and allow the sanctification of the truth to mold your life, the Lord can make you an acceptable worker for Him. All who come together in church capacity should be among the Lord's army of workers. But if the natural traits of character are left unsubdued, in times of crisis, when strong, hopeful words are needed, words of discouragement and hopelessness will be spoken, that bring heavy burdens on the church.... Look constantly to Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of your faith. Walk humbly with God, and do not talk discouragement.--Letter 246, August 13, 1908, to W. R. Strother.
------------------------Noah's Time and Ours, August 14
TDG	235	1	By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Hebrews 11:7.
TDG	235	2	It was through Noah's consistent faith and works combined that condemned the world. He not only preached the present truth appropriate for that time, but he acted every sermon. Had he never lifted his voice in warning, his works, his holy character among the corrupt and ungodly would have been condemning sermons to the unbelieving and dissolute of that age. He bore himself with a Christlike patience and meekness under the provoking insults, taunts, and mockery. His voice was often heard in prayer to God for His power and help that he might do all the commandments of God. This was a condemning power to the unbelieving.
TDG	235	3	But the time comes when the last appeal of Noah is made to the guilty race. He bids them yet once again heed the message of warning and find refuge in the ark. He stretches out his hands in supplication with voice full of sympathy. With quivering lip and tearful eye, he tells them his work is done, but the loud, coarse mocking and scoffs and insults more determined are heaped upon Noah. Enthusiast, fanatic, crazy, falls upon his ear. He bids them all farewell, he and his family enter the ark, and God shut the door. That door that shut Noah in, shut out the world. It was a shut door in Noah's time. And the Lord shut him in. Up to that time, God had opened a door whereby the inhabitants of the old world might find refuge if they believed the message sent to them from God. But that door was now shut and no man could open it. Probation was ended.
TDG	235	4	The long forbearance of God had ceased, the figures in the books of God's reckoning had been accumulating, the cup of the unjust was full. Mercy then ceased and justice took the sword of vengeance....
TDG	235	5	There was a shut door in Noah's time. There was a shut door to the unbelievers in the destruction of Sodom, but an open door to Lot. There was a shut door to the inhabitants of Tyrus, a shut door to the inhabitants of Jerusalem ...who disbelieved, but an open door to the humble, the believing, those who obeyed God. Thus it will be at the end of time.--Manuscript 17, August 14, 1885, "Shipboard Meditations."
------------------------The Divine Substitute, August 15
TDG	236	1	For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
TDG	236	2	"He saved others; himself he cannot save" (Mark 15:31). It is because Christ would not save Himself that the sinner has any hope of pardon or favor with God. If, in His undertaking to save the sinner, Christ had failed or become discouraged, the last hope of every son and daughter of Adam would have been at an end. The entire life of Christ was one of self-denial and self-sacrifice; and the reason that there are so few stalwart Christians is because of their self-indulgence and self-pleasing in the place of self-denial and self-sacrifice.
TDG	236	3	Oh, what soul hunger and longing had Christ to save that which was lost! The body crucified upon the cross did not detract from His divinity, His power of God to save through the human sacrifice, all who would accept His righteousness. In dying upon the cross, He transferred the guilt from the person of the transgressor to that of the divine Substitute through faith in Him as his personal Redeemer. The sins of a guilty world, which in figure are represented as "red as crimson," were imputed to the divine Surety....
TDG	236	4	Divinity was doing its work while humanity was suffering from the hatred and revenge of a God-hating people, because Christ had acknowledged Himself the Son of God. He alone could respond to the poor suffering thief. He alone was free to undertake the suretyship of the guilty criminal. The dying Redeemer saw him to be far less guilty than the ones who had condemned Him to death, far less guilty than the priests, the scribes, and rulers who had taken an active part in demanding the death of the Son of God.
TDG	236	5	What a faith had that dying thief upon the cross! He accepted Christ when apparently it was an utter impossibility that He should be the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world. In the prayer of the poor thief, there was a note different from that which was sounding on every side; it was a note of faith, and it reached to Christ. The faith of the dying man in Him was as sweetest music in the ears of Christ. The glad note of redemption and salvation was heard amid His dying agonies. God was glorified in and through His Son.--Manuscript 84a, August 15, 1897, "Christ on the Cross."
------------------------Can You Claim God's Seal? August 16
TDG	237	1	Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. Psalm 78:1.
TDG	237	2	We have a message to bear to those who have not had the light of present truth; and in our work we must make no denial of our faith. A study of the history of the children of Israel will help us to learn lessons that will keep us from repeating the mistakes that spoiled their record. The Lord wonderfully delivered this people from their bondage to an oppressive king, and Himself took charge of their vast army. He guided them by a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night--a cloud which enshrouded His own presence. He provided them with food in the wilderness; and men did eat angels' food....
TDG	237	3	Soon after Israel's encampment at Sinai, Moses was called up into the mount to meet with God. Alone he climbed the steep and rugged path, and drew near to the cloud that marked the place of Jehovah's presence. Israel was now to be taken into close and peculiar relationship to the Most High God. As a nation they were to come under the special government of God....
TDG	237	4	Amid thunders and lightnings God spoke His law in the hearing of that vast multitude. God gave the occasion of the giving of the law one of awful grandeur. He desired that the people should understand the exalted character of His law. The people must be taught that everything connected with His service must be regarded with the greatest reverence....
TDG	237	5	The time left to us is very short. Let us put away all selfish indulgence; for this weakens the physical, mental, and moral strength, and makes the human agent unable to have a true sense of the sacredness of God's requirements....
TDG	237	6	Can you claim the seal of the living God? Can you claim that you are sanctified by the truth? We have not, as a people, given the law of God the preeminence as we should. We are in danger of doing our own pleasure on the Sabbath day.
TDG	237	7	Precious instruction has been given to our people in the books I have been charged to write. How many read and study these books? The light that God has given may be regarded with indifference and unbelief, but this light will condemn all who have not chosen to accept and obey it.--Letter 258, August 16, 1907, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Cherish the Spirit of Happiness, August 17
TDG	238	1	For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 1 Corinthians 4:9.
TDG	238	2	The Lord is good, and greatly to be praised. Let us learn to praise Him with our voices, and to realize that at all times we are in excellent companionship--even with God and with His Son, Jesus. We are a spectacle to the unfallen worlds, to angels, and to our fellow men. A realization of this will lead us to go forth as the Lord may direct, with a firm, well-garrisoned heart.
TDG	238	3	Let us watch unto prayer. This will help us to realize that we are to be under the control of Christ, our divine Leader. He endows us with steadiness of purpose, with subdued, Christlike impulses, and with sound judgment, enabling us to think soberly, and yet kindly. Time is altogether too short for us to make ourselves unhappy. We will, my dear brother and sister, cherish the spirit of happiness, because we know that we have a Saviour who loves us, and who will bless us if we will welcome His presence into our hearts.
TDG	238	4	We cannot afford to use the talent of speech in a way that will not benefit anyone. The Word of God regulates the source of our feelings and actions toward one another, the state of the heart regulates the principles of the inner life. Pure, unadulterated principles will prompt right words and acts. Our talents must increase, else they will diminish.
TDG	238	5	We are to be Christ's little children, learning of Him. We are fully to believe and practice the truth we profess--that the end of all things is now at hand. Every moment we must be prepared to witness the unfolding of wonderful events. Daily we should reconsecrate our lives to the Lord's service, and open the door of the heart to welcome the heavenly Guest and to receive of His love.
TDG	238	6	In the night season I have been praying much for a greater realization of my Saviour's love. Although I never lose His love from my heart, nevertheless I greatly desire that it shall increase more and more, until of me it can be said, "Ye are complete in him" (Colossians 2:10).
TDG	238	7	Let us always speak cheerful words, never allowing one wrathful word to fall from our lips; for such a word may hurt some poor soul struggling for the vital atmosphere of heaven.--Letter 185, August 17, 1903, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell.
------------------------Cultivate Tenderness in the Home, August 18
TDG	239	1	And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8.
TDG	239	2	The young man who came to Jesus asked what he should do that he might inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to keep the commandments, and enumerated several of the precepts of the law. The young man said, "All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" (Matthew 19:20). The first four commandments enjoin upon man the duty of loving God supremely and the last six present the requirement of loving our neighbors as ourselves. How many are truly, sincerely, and wholeheartedly doing this?
TDG	239	3	The Lord is coming in a little while, and are we performing the duties that result from righteousness? Love is the basis of godliness. No man has love to God, no matter what his profession may be, unless he has unselfish love for his brother. As we love God because He first loved us, we shall love all for whom Christ died. We shall not feel like letting the soul who is in the greatest peril, and in the greatest need, go unwarned, unlabored for, and uncared for. We shall not feel like holding the erring off, and being critical and exacting, or letting them alone to plunge into further unhappiness and discouragement, and to fall on Satan's battleground, for God will deal with us as He deals with our brethren or the younger members of the Lord's family.
TDG	239	4	Cultivate tenderness of heart; surround yourselves in your home life with the atmosphere of love. But the spirit that has largely pervaded the church is an offense to God. Everyone who has been free to condemn, to dishearten, and to discourage, who has failed to give tender kindness, sympathy, and compassion to the tempted and the tried, will in his own experience be brought over the ground which others have passed over, and suffered with their hardheartedness, and will feel what others have suffered because of his want of sympathy, until he shall abhor his hardness of heart and open the door for Jesus to come in.
TDG	239	5	The converting power of God must come to every soul who has any connection with the work and cause of God that each one may be filled with the love and compassion of Christ or many will never see the kingdom of heaven.--Manuscript 62, August 18, 1894, "Home Missionary Work."
------------------------Danger of Doublemindedness, August 19
TDG	240	1	A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. James 1:8.
TDG	240	2	There are many who would serve Christ provided they could serve themselves also. But this cannot be. The Lord will not accept cowards in His army. There can be no dissembling. Christ's followers must stand ready to serve Him at all times and in every way that may be required. God will accept only true-hearted, level-headed, all-round men. "He that is not with me is against me," Christ declared; "and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad" (Matthew 12:30).
TDG	240	3	Many have tried neutrality in a crisis, but they have failed in their purpose. No one can maintain a neutral ground. Those who endeavor to do this will fulfill Christ's words, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (chap. 6:24). Those who begin their Christian life by being half and half, whatever may be their intentions, will at last be found enlisted on the enemy's side.
TDG	240	4	Double minded men and women are Satan's best allies. Whatever favorable opinion they may have of themselves, they are dissemblers. All who are loyal to God and the truth must stand firmly for the right because it is right. To yoke up with those that are unconsecrated and yet be loyal to the truth, is simply an impossibility. We cannot unite with those who are serving themselves, who are working on worldly plans, and not lose our connection with the heavenly Counsellor. We may recover ourselves from the snare of the enemy, but we are bruised and wounded, and our experience is dwarfed. "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4).
TDG	240	5	"He that loveth his life shall lose it" (John 12:25). When a man loses the shield of a good conscience, he knows that he has lost the cooperation of heavenly angels. God is not working in him. Another spirit inspires him. And to be an apostate, a traitor to the cause of God, is much more serious than death; it means the loss of eternal life.--Manuscript 87, August 19, 1897, "All That Will Live Godly in Christ Jesus Shall Suffer Persecution."
------------------------Through Nature to Nature's God, August 20
TDG	241	1	And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. Genesis 1:31.
TDG	241	2	God speaks to us in nature. It is His voice we hear as we gaze upon the beauty and richness of the natural world. We view His glory in the beauteous things His hand has made. We stand and behold His works without a veil between. God has given us these things that in beholding the works of His hands, we may learn of Him.
TDG	241	3	God has given us these precious things as an expression of His love. The Lord is a lover of the beautiful, and to please and gratify us He has spread before us the beauties of nature, even as an earthly parent seeks to place beautiful things before the children that he loves. The Lord is always pleased to see us happy. Sinful as it is with all its imperfections, the Lord has lavished upon this earth the useful and the beautiful. The beautiful tinted flowers tell of His tenderness and love. They have a language of their own, reminding us of the Giver.
TDG	241	4	We may look up through nature to nature's God. In the beautiful lofty trees, the shrubs, the flowers, God reveals His character. He is to be compared to the most beautiful lilies and roses and pinks. I love to look upon the things of God in nature, for the Lord impresses upon them His character. In love to us He has given them, and He means that we shall have pleasure in them. Then let us not worship the beautiful things in nature, but let us look up through them to nature's God, and be led to worship the Giver. Let these beautiful ministries of love answer the purpose of God, and draw our hearts to Him, to be filled with the beauties of His character, and adore His goodness, His compassion, His inexpressible love.
TDG	241	5	God is good, and greatly to be praised. His mercies have been freely bestowed upon us. He has surrounded us with tokens of His love. The heathen may rage and imagine vain things, but the Lord is unchangeable. He has made the strength of the everlasting hills to be a safe retreat for His people. He has prepared the mountains and the caves for His oppressed and persecuted children. We may sing, "God is our refuge and strength in time of trial." He who made the towering mountains, the everlasting hills--to Him we may look.--Manuscript 100, August 20, 1898, "Through Nature to Nature's God."
------------------------Controlled by the Great Designer, August 21
TDG	242	1	And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Matthew 24:14.
TDG	242	2	The church is to work actively as an organized body to spread abroad the influence of the cross of Christ. Those who work unselfishly to give the truth to those nigh and afar off are registered in the courts above, "Laborers together with God; ...God's husbandry, ...God's building." Controlled by the great Designer, they show what human beings can be when they wear the yoke of Christ, learning His meekness and lowliness.
TDG	242	3	It is because so many of Christ's professed followers seek to be first that He cannot trust them. Were they humble, willing to be taught by Him, they would be a power in showing to the world the influence of the truth upon human character. Those who work in Christ's lines, never seeking to exalt self, will reveal constant activity and steady progress in missionary enterprises. They will not be satisfied unless church is added to church.
TDG	242	4	God expects those in His service to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Our aggressive missionary work is to be more abundant than it has been in the past. More territory is to be annexed; the standard of truth is to be planted in new places; churches are to be established; all is to be done that can be done to fulfill the commission, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations" (Matthew 28:19)....
TDG	242	5	The life of a church depends on the interest which its members manifest in those outside the fold. Let the church of God remember that Christ gave Himself as a sacrifice to save a world from destruction. For our sake He became poor, that we through His poverty might come into possession of eternal riches. Shall those whom God has blessed with a knowledge of the truth become narrow in their plans? Let them arouse to a sense of their vast obligations, cutting away every thread of selfishness, that the Lord may pour upon them His Holy Spirit.
TDG	242	6	Let them seek the Lord while He may be found, and call upon Him while He is near. They have no reason for being faithless and complaining. Let them cease all fault-finding and murmuring, and encourage a spirit of gratitude for past mercies and blessings. Let them praise the Lord in unfeigned gratitude for the light of His Word.--The Signs of the Times, August 21, 1901.
------------------------God's Claim on You, August 22
TDG	243	1	Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Romans 6:13.
TDG	243	2	If you expect to be loved of God and to retain the presence of holy angels, you must have a submissive spirit. Be willing to be instructed and to be led. And seek to follow in the path of virtue and holiness.
TDG	243	3	God has claims upon you. He has blessed you with life and with health and with capabilities, reasoning powers that you may, if you will, greatly improve or you may abuse by yielding these powers or qualities of mind to the control of Satan. You are responsible for the ability which God has given you. You may, by making the most of your privileges, fit yourself for a position of usefulness and duty. You need not be aspiring to do a great work, aspiring after great things; but you may be doing your work, small though it may be, feeling your responsibility of doing this work to God's acceptance. And when you do this small work all right, God will entrust to you a still greater work. There is importance attached to the course you pursue. Angels of God are watching Mary [not otherwise identified] to see what character she develops. God is weighing moral worth and a record is kept in heaven of your acts, of all your deeds, and you will meet this record by and by.
TDG	243	4	Remember, God will make use of all His children if they will surrender to Him. He has a place and work for all. There are many, you among the number, who think it not possible that God can use them. Think not this longer. You may do your little work in a manner to glorify God. The rill does not refuse to pursue its narrow channel because it is not a river. The grass does not refuse to grow because it has not the proportions of stately trees. The star does not refuse to shine because it is not the sun. Oh, no. Everything in nature has its appointed work and murmurs not at its position. In spiritual things every man and woman has his or her own peculiar sphere and vocation. The interest God requires will be proportionate to the amount of entrusted capital according to the measure of the gift of Christ.... Now is your time and privilege to ...show a stability of character that will make you of real moral worth. Christ has a right to your service. Yield to Him heartily.--Letter 30, August 22, 1875, to "Dear Sister Mary."
------------------------The Test of Sincerity, August 23
TDG	244	1	But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22.
TDG	244	2	Of every soul the Lord demands service. Those to whom the living oracles have been opened, who see the truth, and yield themselves body, soul, and spirit to God will understand the words of the Saviour, "Go work to day in my vineyard" (Matthew 21:28), to be a requirement, but not a compulsory one. God's will is made known in His Word, and those who believe in Christ will act out their belief. They will be doers of the Word.
TDG	244	3	The test of sincerity is not in words, but in deeds. Christ does not say to any man, "What say ye more than others?" but, "What do ye more than others?" Full of deep meaning are His words, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them" (John 13:17). Words are of no value unless they are spoken in sincerity and in truth. The talent of words is made effective and of value when they are accompanied by appropriate deeds. It is of vital consequence to every soul to hear the Word and be a doer of it.
TDG	244	4	"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat" (Matthew 7:13)....
TDG	244	5	We have evidence that there are many deceivers in the world, men who say, "I go, sir," but go not. They may speak smooth words, and make fair speeches; but they deceive; they reveal in their lives that their words are not wrought in God. The practical life is a genuine index of the character. By our words and works we reveal to the world, to angels, and to men whether we believe in Christ as a personal Saviour.
TDG	244	6	Good works do not purchase the love of God, but they reveal that we possess that love. If we surrender our will and way to God, we will not work for God's love; we will obey the commandments of God because it is right to do thus. The disciple John wrote, "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). The true spiritual life will be revealed in every soul who is doing service for Christ. Those who are alive to Christ are imbued with His spirit, and they cannot help working in His vineyard. They work the work of God. Let every soul think prayerfully, that he may act consistently.--Manuscript 120, August 23, 1899, "Go, Work Today in My Vineyard."
------------------------Take Hold of Divine Strength, August 24
TDG	245	1	Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty. Psalm 89:19.
TDG	245	2	The Lord loves you. The Lord is of tender compassion. His promise is, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you" (James 4:8). When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up for you a standard against him. Bear in mind that Jesus Christ is your hope. In the sad, discouraging things that shall come to you at any time, Christ says to you, "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me" (Isaiah 27:5).
TDG	245	3	Your work is to take hold of the strength that is as firm as is the eternal throne. Believe in God. Trust in Him. Be cheerful under all circumstances. Although you may have trials, know that Christ suffered these afflicting things in behalf of His heritage. Nothing is as dear to the Lord as His church. The Lord looks at the heart. He knows who are His. The Lord will test and prove every soul that lives. "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (Daniel 12:10)....
TDG	245	4	Let those who love God and are doers of His word sing praise and thanksgiving rather than speak words of accusing and faultfinding and murmuring. The Lord will bless those who make for peace....
TDG	245	5	Trust in the Lord. Let not the feelings, the speeches, or the attitude of any human agent depress you. Be careful that in words or act you do not give others any opportunity to obtain the advantage in hurting you. Keep looking unto Jesus. He is your strength. By beholding Jesus you will become changed into His likeness. He will be the health of your countenance and your God....
TDG	245	6	The church needs you, and you need to soften and subdue your own feelings for Christ's sake. He wants you to have His Holy Spirit to work you. Then you may impart life and comfort to the church. Let your words be well chosen that you may be a real blessing to the church. Do not afflict your souls over the inconsistencies of others. Take yourselves in hand, and be consistent in all things.--Letter 125, August 24, 1900, to Brother and Sister James, new believers in Australia.
------------------------God's Law Is Immutable, August 25
TDG	246	1	Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Psalm 89:14.
TDG	246	2	It is no wonder that transgressors of God's law at the present time will get as far from it as possible; for it condemns them. But those who hold that the ten commandments were abolished at the crucifixion of Christ are in a similar deception to that of the Jews. The position that the law of God is rigorous and unbearable casts contempt upon Him who governs the universe in accordance with its holy precepts. A veil is over the hearts of those who hold this view in reading both the Old and the New Testament. The penalty for the least transgression of that law is death, and but for Christ, the sinner's Advocate, it would be summarily visited on every offender. Justice and mercy are blended. Christ and the law stand side by side. The law convicts the transgressor, and Christ pleads in the sinner's behalf.
TDG	246	3	With the first advent of Christ there was ushered in an era of greater light and glory; but it would indeed be sinful ingratitude to despise and ridicule the lesser light because a fuller and more glorious light had dawned. Those who despise the blessings and glory of the Jewish age are not prepared to be benefited by the preaching of the gospel. The brightness of the Father's glory, and the excellence and perfection of His sacred law, are only understood through the atonement made upon Calvary by His dear Son; but even the atonement loses its significance when the law of God is rejected.
TDG	246	4	The life of Christ was a most perfect and thorough vindication of His Father's law, and His death attested its immutability. Christ did not, by bearing the sinner's guilt, release man from his obligation to obey the law; for if the law could have been changed or abolished, He need not have come to this world to suffer and die. The very fact that Christ died for its transgressions attests the unchanging character of the Father's law.
TDG	246	5	The Jews had departed from God, and in their teaching had substituted their own traditions for the divine law. The life and teachings of Christ made plain and distinct the principles of this violated law. The heavenly host understood that the object of His mission was to exalt the Father's law and make it honorable, and to justify its claims.--The Signs of the Times, August 25, 1887.
------------------------Beware the Occult, August 26
TDG	247	1	And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? Isaiah 8:19.
TDG	247	2	Spiritualism is the masterpiece of deception. It is Satan's most successful and fascinating delusion--one calculated to take hold of the sympathies of those who have laid their loved ones in the grave. Evil angels come in the form of those loved ones, and relate incidents connected with their lives, and perform acts which they performed while living. In this way they lead persons to believe that their dead friends are angels, hovering over them, and communicating with them. These evil angels, who assume to be the deceased friends, are regarded with a certain idolatry, and with many their word has greater weight than the Word of God. Thus men and women are led to reject the truth, and give "heed to seducing spirits."
TDG	247	3	The Word of God declares in positive terms that "the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6). This plain scripture directly contradicts the teaching of Spiritualism, and if it were heeded would save souls from the snare of the enemy.
TDG	247	4	Many are investigating Spiritualism simply from curiosity. They have no real faith in it, and would start back horrified at the idea of becoming mediums; but they are venturing on forbidden and dangerous ground. When they are fast in the toils of the deceiver, they find they are in the power of him who makes the most abject slaves of his servants, and nothing can deliver them but the power of God. The only safety for us is in trusting implicitly and following faithfully the instruction of the Word of God. The Bible is the only chart that marks out the narrow path which shuns the pitfalls of destruction....
TDG	247	5	What love, what wonderful love, that God bears with the perversity of His people, and sends help to every soul that desires to do His will, and forsake sin! If man will but cooperate with the agencies of Heaven, he may come off more than conqueror. Fallen creatures as we are, capable of the most revolting crimes, yet we may become victors. The Signs of the Times, August 26, 1889.
------------------------In the World, But Not of It, August 27
TDG	248	1	Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4.
TDG	248	2	The great day of the Lord is near at hand. When Christ appears in the clouds of heaven, those who have not sought Him with all the heart, those who have allowed themselves to be deceived, will surely perish. Our only safety is to be found through repentance and conversion, and the blotting out of sins. Those who will now seek the Lord earnestly, humbling their hearts before Him, and forsaking their sins, will, through the sanctification of the truth, be fitted to unite with the members of the royal family, and will see the King in His beauty....
TDG	248	3	Whatever his educational attainments, only he who realizes his accountability to God, and who is led by the Holy Spirit, can be an effectual teacher, or be successful in winning to God those who are brought under his influence. Shall those who do not heed the divine counsel be acknowledged as leaders in the Lord's institutions?--God forbid. How can we regard as safe guides those who manifest a spirit of unbelief, and who, in words and character, fail of revealing true godliness?
TDG	248	4	"Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children [in learning the way of the Lord], ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3).
TDG	248	5	Self needs to be brought into submission to the yoke of Christ. The great Teacher invites all to learn of Him.... "The Son of man is come to save that which was lost" (Verse 11). But those who desire to be saved must be willing to be saved in the Lord's appointed way, and not in a way of their own choosing. The free grace of God is man's only hope. God is in earnest with every one of us....
TDG	248	6	We are called to be the Lord's special people in a much higher sense than many have realized. The world lies in wickedness, and God's people are to come out of the world, and be separate. They are to be free from worldly customs and worldly habits. They are not to accord with worldly sentiments, but are to stand out distinct, as the Lord's peculiar people, earnest in all their service. They are to have no fellowship with the works of darkness.--Letter 280, August 27, 1906, to "My Brethren and Sisters in Denver and Boulder."
------------------------Copying Christ's Methods, August 28
TDG	249	1	When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Mark 2:17.
TDG	249	2	No teacher ever placed such signal honor upon man as did our Lord and Master. He was known as a "friend of publicans and sinners." He mingled with all classes of society, that all might partake of the blessings He came to bestow. He was found in the synagogue and in the market place. He shared the social life of His countrymen, gladdening with His presence the households of all who invited Him. But He never urged His way uninvited.
TDG	249	3	He was active to relieve every species of human misery that was brought to Him in faith for relief; but He did not bestow healing power indiscriminately where there was manifested an independence and selfish exclusiveness that would give no expression to their sorrows nor ask for the help so much needed. All who came unto Him in faith He was ready and willing to relieve. Sorrow fled at His presence; injustice and oppression withered beneath His rebukes; and death, the cruel spoiler of our sinful race, obeyed His commands.
TDG	249	4	In every age since Christ was among men, there have been some who, while they professed His name, have pursued a course of seclusion or of Pharisaical preeminence. But they have not blessed their fellow men. They have found no excuse in the life of Christ for this self-righteous bigotry; for His character was genial and beneficent. He would have been excluded from every monastic order upon earth because of overstepping their prescribed rules. In every church and denomination are to be found erratics who would have blamed Him for His liberal mercies....
TDG	249	5	Those with whom God has entrusted His truth must so order their intercourse with the world as to secure to themselves a calm, hallowed peace, as well as a sacred and most thorough knowledge of how to meet men with their prejudices where they are, and minister to them the light, comfort, and peace found in the acceptance of the truth of God. They should take for example the inspiring, authoritative and social life of Christ. They must cultivate the same beneficent spirit which He possessed, and must cherish the same broad plans of action in meeting men where they are.--Letter 2, August 28, 1878, to "Dear Brethren [in Switzerland]."
------------------------Christian Prudence, August 29
TDG	250	1	Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. Amos 5:13.
TDG	250	2	Caution is to be prayerfully exercised by everyone who believes the truth. There are trying scenes before us, and we need to exercise great caution, keeping the door of our lips while the wicked are before us. We shall have to meet in our experience with men having fanatical zeal which will provoke those who hate the truth and it will be necessary to preserve a calm attitude and not state all we do know, for impressions will be made upon human minds that will, under the influence of Satan, grow to large proportions.
TDG	250	3	There is need of watching unto prayer. The evils we shall meet have long been gathering and like a storm, will come upon many when they least expect it. While they cannot be charged with originating the evil, they precipitated it. Charges will be made which believers cannot refute, because they have not shown wisdom in the use of either the pen or the voice.
TDG	250	4	Many laws will be enacted for the government of nations, calculated to oppress; and old laws that have practically become of none effect, will be resurrected. We need to move forward in our work understandingly and in faith, under the wise generalship of Jesus Christ. A great work is to be done for the Master in proclaiming the last message of mercy to our world, and we are dependent upon authorities and powers to find passage from one end of the world to another, and as long as we are dependent upon the powers that be, we must not divorce ourselves from them, for this is a worldwide message.
TDG	250	5	We are to go forward quietly, and when our way is apparently blocked in one direction we are to make no condemnation of the powers that be, for in thus doing we are teaching other powers how to work to hedge up our way. We are not to stir up opposing elements or provoke retaliation or revenge. The climax will come soon enough. It is already stealing on as a thief in the night. And we can speak Bible truth which will not set opposing influences at work.--Manuscript 90, August 29, 1893, "Our Attitude Toward the 'Powers That Be.'"
------------------------Genuine Sanctification, August 30
TDG	251	1	And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23.
TDG	251	2	Monday morning meeting commenced half past five under the tent. I spoke about thirty minutes upon the necessity of economy in dress and in the expenditure of means. There is danger of becoming reckless and careless of the Lord's money. Young ministers who engage in tent labor should be careful and not run up high expenses. The wants of the cause are many, as tents are entering new fields and as the missionary work is enlarging. The most rigid economy should be used in this matter without stinginess....
TDG	251	3	Our morning meeting was held in the tent. I spoke again about thirty minutes in reference to genuine sanctification which is nothing less than a daily dying to self and daily conformity to the will of God. Paul's sanctification was a daily conflict with self. Said he, "I die daily" (1 Corinthians 15:31). His will and his desires daily conflicted with duty and the will of God. In the plan of not following inclination, he did the will of God, however unpleasant and crucifying to his nature. The reason many in this age of the world make no greater advancement in the divine life is because they interpret their own will to be just what God wills. They do exactly as they desire and flatter themselves they are conforming to God's will. They please self in everything and have no conflict with self.
TDG	251	4	Many battle well at first against selfish desires for pleasure and ease. They are sincere and earnest, but grow weary of protracted effort of daily death, ceaseless turmoil with resisting Satan's temptations, and indolence seems inviting, death too self-repulsive, and they close the drowsy eyes and drop under temptation instead of resisting it. Fashionable sins, pride of life, do not seem so very repulsive.
TDG	251	5	There are no compromises in the Word of God for those who conform to the world. The Son of God has manifested that He might draw all men unto Him, but He came not to lull the world to sleep, not to send peace, but a sword. The followers of Christ must walk in the light of His glorious example, and at whatever sacrifice of ease or selfish indulgence, at whatever cost of labor or sufferings, we must maintain the constant battle with self and exalt the gospel standard.--Letter 49a, August 30, 1878.
------------------------The Mystery of Spiritual Growth, August 31
TDG	252	1	Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Ephesians 4:13.
TDG	252	2	If the followers of Christ were but earnest seekers after wisdom, they would be led into rich fields of truth, as yet wholly unknown to them. He who will give himself to God as fully as did Moses, will be guided by the divine hand as verily as was the great leader of Israel. He may be lowly and apparently ungifted; yet if with a loving, trusting heart he obeys every intimation of God's will, his powers will be purified, ennobled, energized, and his capabilities will be increased. As he treasures the lessons of divine wisdom, a sacred commission will be entrusted to him; he will be enabled to make his life an honor to God and a blessing to the world....
TDG	252	3	Today many are as ignorant of the Holy Spirit's work upon the heart as were those believers in Ephesus (see Acts 19:1-6); yet no truth is more clearly taught in the Word of God. Prophets and apostles have dwelt upon this theme. Christ Himself calls our attention to the growth of the vegetable world as an illustration of the agency of His Spirit in sustaining spiritual life. The sap of the vine, ascending from the root, is diffused to the branches, sustaining growth and producing blossoms and fruit. So the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Saviour, pervades the soul, renews the motives and affections, and brings even the thoughts into obedience to the will of God, enabling the receiver to bear the precious fruit of holy deeds.
TDG	252	4	The Author of this spiritual life is unseen, and the exact method by which that life is imparted and sustained, is beyond the power of human philosophy to explain. Yet the operations of the Spirit are always in harmony with the written Word. As in the natural, so in the spiritual world. The natural life is preserved moment by moment by divine power; yet it is not sustained by a direct miracle, but through the use of blessings placed within our reach. So the spiritual life is sustained by the use of those means that Providence has supplied. If the follower of Christ would grow up "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13), he must eat of the bread of life, and drink of the water of salvation.--The Review and Herald, August 31, 1911.
------------------------Receive That You May Give, September 1
TDG	253	1	Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. 1 Corinthians 3:8.
TDG	253	2	When Christ called His disciples from their fishing nets, He told them that they were to be fishers of men. By this Christ meant that they were to work. In communicating the truth to others, they were to cast their nets on the right side of the ship. By this Christ meant that they were to work in faith to save souls. And this work for individuals would, in the providence of God, lead them to work for communities. They were not to think themselves part of different systems of work, but individual threads of the great whole, inseparably united, like links in a chain, connected with their fellow men and with God.
TDG	253	3	God desires that the youth shall become skillful, thorough laborers, wearing Christ's yoke, lifting His burdens. "Ye are labourers together with God," He says. The children and youth should seek most earnestly to advance in understanding, in mental acquirements; their aim should be in spiritual as well as temporal things, to work upon the plan of addition. "Giving all diligence," the apostle Peter says, "add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that he shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:5-8)....
TDG	253	4	Advancement in true education does not harmonize with selfishness. True knowledge comes from God, and returns again to God. His children are to receive that they may give again. Those who through the grace of God have received intellectual and spiritual benefits are, as they advance, to draw others with them to a higher excellence. And this work, done to promote the good of others, will have the cooperation of unseen agencies. As we faithfully continue the work, we shall have high aspirations for righteousness, holiness, and a perfect knowledge of God. We ourselves will become complete in Christ in this life, and will take with us to the courts above our increased capabilities, there to continue our higher education.--Manuscript 108, September 1, 1898, "Higher Education."
------------------------Written for Our Admonition, September 2
TDG	254	1	The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way. Psalm 25:9.
TDG	254	2	God will work with those who will listen to His voice.
TDG	254	3	The Word of God is to be the man of our counsel, and is to guide our experience. The lessons of Old Testament history, if faithfully studied, will teach us how this can be. Christ, enshrouded in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, was the guide and the light of the children of Israel in their wilderness wandering. Here was an unerring Guide.
TDG	254	4	In all their experiences, God was trying to teach them obedience to their heavenly Guide, and faith in His power to deliver them. Their deliverance from affliction in Egypt, and their passage through the Red Sea, revealed to them His power to save. When they rebelled against Him, and went contrary to His will, God punished them. When they persisted in their rebellion, and were determined to have their own way, God gave them that for which they asked, and in this way showed them that, that which He withheld from them, He withheld for their own good. Every judgment that came as a result of their murmurings was a lesson to that vast multitude, that sorrow and suffering are always the result of transgression of the laws of God.
TDG	254	5	The history of the Old Testament was recorded for the benefit of those who should live in the generations following. The lessons of the New Testament are as greatly needed. Here again Christ is the instructor, leading His people to seek that wisdom that cometh from above, and to gain that instruction in righteousness that will mold the character after the divine similitude. Both Old and New Testament Scriptures teach the principles of obedience to the commandments of God as the terms of securing that life which measures with the life of God, for it is through obedience that we become partakers of the divine nature, and learn to escape the corruptions that are in the world through lust. Therefore its maxims are to be studied, its commands obeyed, its principles, which are more precious than gold, brought into the daily life.--Letter 342, September 2, 1907, to the workers in southern California.
------------------------More Privileged Than Angels, September 3
TDG	255	1	If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Psalm 130:3, 4.
TDG	255	2	To those who have made strange paths for their feet, the Lord offers words of encouragement. He will accept their prayers, if they will repent and be converted. Through the infinite sacrifice of Christ, and through faith in His name, they may receive the promises of God. The sons of Adam may become sons of God. O how full of thankfulness we should be that by the act of Christ in assuming humanity, fallen men are granted a second trial! Christ places them on vantage ground. Through connection with Him they may be laborers together with God. Through the grace given daily by Christ, they may be elevated and ennobled to become the sons and daughters of God. Such love is without parallel.
TDG	255	3	Jesus asks for perfect obedience. There must be thorough, practical work. Daily we are to increase in the knowledge of the divine will. Christ will impart His Spirit to all who will unitedly labor in humility.
TDG	255	4	"Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). What a price was paid to redeem the fallen race! Should not every soul enter into the service of God, seeking to improve on the talents that have been entrusted to him, that they may be returned to God with usury?
TDG	255	5	"Come unto me," says Jesus, "all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and [in learning and practicing these lessons] ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:28, 29). If we would live a Christian life, we must constantly cooperate with God, losing self in dependence upon Jesus Christ. Every day we should work as for eternity.
TDG	255	6	Man was made a little lower than the angels. Yet when he shall be purified and translated to the heavenly courts, he will be even more privileged than the angels.
TDG	255	7	All that your brothers and sisters need, all that any of us need is to live a humble, Christian life, revealing in character the strength received from Jesus Christ through union with Him.--Letter 196, September 3, 1903, to a businessman.
------------------------Unseen Forces in Conflict, September 4
TDG	256	1	He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.... He is a liar, and the father of it. John 8:44.
TDG	256	2	We are all to understand that there is a fallen angel who was once next to Christ in honor among the heavenly host. His work of deception was done in so great secrecy that the angels in less exalted positions supposed that he was the Ruler of heaven. Satan made the representation that all wrong insinuations existing in heaven originated among the angels, while he himself had made suggestions which would never have been entertained by the angels, had he not created them. He artfully presented these things to God, as having come from the angels, while they all originated with Satan himself....
TDG	256	3	Because he was not able to insinuate his deceptions upon Christ, he determined to undermine Him by false statements and reports. War in heaven was the result, and Satan was expelled. He became Christ's most deadly foe. His constant effort was to counteract, in every possible way, His great work of saving souls.
TDG	256	4	Christ had worked in the heavenly courts to convince Satan of his terrible error, till at last the evil one and his sympathizers were found in open rebellion against God Himself. Then he claimed a right to take a position above Christ as covering cherub. Expelled from heaven, he came to this earth, determined to work against Christ. He is in no danger of losing the angels that he deceived. He has them under his banner, enlisted to fight against the Son of God.
TDG	256	5	When Christ came to this world, Satan was constantly on His track, striving to make His work of no avail. When Christ was healing the sick and afflicted, Satan was on the ground, making His work of saving souls as hard as possible....
TDG	256	6	When souls, convicted, and aroused to their danger, began to inquire, "What shall I do that I may have eternal life?" Satan was present, to stir up the minds of the priests and rulers to oppose the Saviour's work, to hedge up His way. But Christ ever proved Himself superior to Satan. Rebuking the Satanic agencies, He set free the poor souls who were bound by his chains, and bade them go free.--Letter 292, September 4, 1906, to Dr. and Mrs. D. H. Kress, at the Sydney Sanitarium in Australia.
------------------------Our Guide into All Truth, September 5
TDG	257	1	And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. John 14:16.
TDG	257	2	Christ declared that, after His ascension, He would send to His church, as His crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take His place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit--the soul of His life, the efficacy of His church, the light and life of the world. With His Spirit, Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power to take away sin.
TDG	257	3	God has instructed me to tell you and all His people to be very careful not to resist the working of the Holy Spirit--the Comforter that Christ sends. Fear to take the first presumptuous step in resistance. When Christ spoke to the disciples of the Holy Spirit, He sought to uplift their thoughts and enlarge their expectations to grasp the highest conception of excellence. Let us strive to understand His words. Let us strive to appreciate the value of the wonderful gift He has bestowed on us. Let us seek for the fullness of the Holy Spirit....
TDG	257	4	I see no other way for us than to heed the words of Christ, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). These words we must obey if we gain eternal life. The Majesty of heaven came to this world to teach us this lesson by a life of constant self-denial. Shall we not heed His instruction?
TDG	257	5	In order to be saved, we must have a full and complete experience in the things of God. The atonement for sin has been made by the gift of the Son of the infinite God....
TDG	257	6	To bring the sinner to Christ is the work of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. The Saviour is the divine Example, the perfection of holiness, and He fashions the soul anew. We are privileged to receive from Christ all the excellence necessary for perfection of character. But in order for us to obtain this excellence, we must show more self-denial, more self-sacrifice.
TDG	257	7	Christ has made every provision for us to be children of God. Oh, my heart says, Praise His holy name that of His fullness we can receive grace for grace. Let us strive, by receiving His word, to reach the high standard of perfection. We are safe only when seeking the qualities that make us children of God, possessors of sanctified excellence.--Letter 155, September 5, 1902, to Judge and Mrs. Arthur, Adventist attorney at the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
------------------------You Can Conquer, September 6
TDG	258	1	I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might. Daniel 2:23.
TDG	258	2	In this age, a time of Satanic wonders, everything conceivable will be said and done to deceive, if possible, the very elect. Let believers say nothing to extol Satan's power. The Lord will distinguish His commandment-keeping people with signal marks of His favor, if they will be molded and fashioned by His Spirit, and built up in the most holy faith, hearkening strictly to the voice of His word.
TDG	258	3	Let us humble our souls before God. Let us work with an eye single to His glory. Let His praise be continually on our lips, for the benefits that He bestows are daily renewed, and should be acknowledged with thanksgiving. God is longsuffering and of tender mercy. Should He deal with us according to our perversity, according to our foolish, erratic course, our changeableness, where would we be? But "he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust" (Psalm 103:14). Remember that no human being is of himself sufficient to stand against the wily foe. Hide in God, and be sure that the Holy Spirit is with you. You can conquer the enemy only as the Lord goes before you.
TDG	258	4	If we stand in the great day of the Lord, with Christ as our refuge, our high tower, we must put away all envy, all strife for the supremacy. We must utterly destroy the roots of these unholy things, that they may not again spring up into life. We must place ourselves wholly on the side of the Lord....
TDG	258	5	Seek righteousness, and stand under the broad shield of Omnipotence. This is your only safety. God calls upon you to seek Him with humility of heart. Read Daniel's prayer, and see if your experience will stand the test of fire. God will richly bless those who humble themselves before Him....
TDG	258	6	We must not allow ourselves to be chilled to death by those who know not what it means to walk with God.... We must not allow ourselves to enter into contention. We are to speak words that make for peace and grace and truth. We are to search our hearts diligently, humbling ourselves before God. We are to respect our brethren, but we are not to place them where God should be, for they are but men.--Letter 195, September 6, 1903, to W. C. White.
------------------------Pride Goeth Before a Fall, September 7
TDG	259	1	Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 Corinthians 10:12.
TDG	259	2	Just before Peter's fall, Christ said to him, "Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat" (Luke 22:31).
TDG	259	3	How true was the Saviour's friendship for Peter! how compassionate His warning! But the warning was resented. In self-sufficiency Peter declared confidently that he would never do what Christ had warned him against. "Lord," he said, "I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death" (Verse 33). His self-confidence proved his ruin. He tempted Satan to tempt him, and he fell under the arts of the wily foe. When Christ needed him most, he stood on the side of the enemy, and openly denied his Lord....
TDG	259	4	Many today stand where Peter stood, when in self-confidence he declared that he would not deny his Lord. And because of their self-sufficiency, they fall an easy prey to Satan's devices. Those who realize their weakness trust in a power higher than self. And, while they look to God, Satan has no power against them. But those who trust in self are easily defeated. Let us remember that, if we do not heed the cautions that God gives us, a fall is before us. Christ will not save from wounds the one who places himself unbidden on the enemy's ground. He lets the self-sufficient one, who acts as if he knew more than his Lord, go on in his supposed strength. Then comes suffering and a crippled life, or perhaps defeat and death.
TDG	259	5	In the warfare, the enemy takes advantage of the weakest points in the defence of those he is attacking. Here he makes his fiercest assaults. The Christian should have no weak points in his defence. He should be barricaded by the support that the Scriptures give to the one who is doing God's will. The tempted soul will bear away the victory, if he follows the example of Him who met the tempter with the word, "It is written." He can stand securely in the protection of a "Thus saith the Lord." ...
TDG	259	6	The Lord permits His children to fall; and then, if they repent of their wrongdoing, He helps them to stand on vantage ground. As fire purifies gold, so Christ purifies His people by temptation and trial.--Manuscript 115, September 7, 1902, "The Danger of Self-sufficiency."
------------------------That Thy Faith Fail Not, September 8
TDG	260	1	My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. Psalm 34:2.
TDG	260	2	When, as you labor for the salvation of souls, sinners are convicted of their sins and you have evidence that Christ has had compassion on them, that new hope is springing up in their hearts, it is not correct to say, "We prayed for him, and he gave his heart to God and was saved." This is misleading. It is their privilege to say, solemnly, seriously, gladly, "I believe that Jesus Christ has forgiven my sins." Encourage every soul to have hope and faith, but never ...say of any man, "He is saved." ...
TDG	260	3	Patient, pitying tenderness is to be exercised toward the erring, to bring back the wandering sheep. We have an example of this in Christ's treatment of Peter who denied his Lord with cursing and swearing. Peter thought himself strong. He said, "Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake" (John 13:37). But Jesus answered him, "Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice" (Mark 14:30). But Peter "spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise" (Verse 31).
TDG	260	4	It is not wise to boast. Peter fell because he did not know his own frailty....
TDG	260	5	The Lord had said to Peter, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:31, 32).
TDG	260	6	If Satan had been suffered to have his way, there would have been no hope for Peter. He would have made complete shipwreck of faith. Had Peter earnestly and in humility looked for divine help, had he been searching his own heart in secret, he would not have been sifted when tried. Satan cannot overcome the humble learner of Christ, he who walks prayerfully before the Lord. "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard" for him against the enemy (Isaiah 59:19). Christ interposes Himself as a shelter, a retreat, and the wicked one cannot overcome Him.--Manuscript 109, September 8, 1898, "Peter's Fall and Restoration."
------------------------Consciousness of Sins Forgiven, September 9
TDG	261	1	He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30.
TDG	261	2	I feel very sad when I see the want of practical religion in our very midst. Self is largely exhibited and the spirit of Christ is not discerned. We need the divine enlightenment. We want every day to renew our consecration to God.
TDG	261	3	Why do we not have the consciousness of sins forgiven? It is because we are unbelieving. We are not practicing the teachings of Christ and bringing His virtues into our lives. Should the joy and exaltation and hope imparted by the Lord Jesus Christ be given to many of us, it would administer to self-esteem and pride. When Jesus is abiding in the heart by faith, the lessons which Christ has given us will be practiced. We will have such exalted views of Jesus Christ that self will be abased. Our affections will center in Jesus, our thoughts will be strongly drawn heavenward. Christ will increase, I will decrease.
TDG	261	4	The mind must be trained to dwell upon heavenly things. Humility will come as the result of discerning the loveliness of Jesus Christ. Dwelling upon Christ's excellencies of character, we shall see the offensive character of sin and will by faith grasp the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We will cultivate the virtues that dwell in Jesus, that we may reflect to others a representation of His character. When we look at the cross of Calvary, we will not exalt self, but keep constantly in view our unworthiness and how much our salvation cost heaven; we will discern Christ's matchless love.
TDG	261	5	Many allow their minds to dwell upon their unworthiness as though this was a virtue. It is a hindrance to their coming to Jesus in full assurance of faith. They should feel their unworthiness, and because of this--because of their sinfulness--should feel the necessity of coming to the Saviour, who is their worthiness and who will be their righteousness if they repent and humble themselves. Their unworthiness is a self-evident fact. Jesus Christ's worthiness is a sure thing. Then let every doubting soul take hope and courage, because he has One who is worthy to be his Saviour. His only hope of salvation is to lay hold by faith of a worthiness which he has not but which will be supplied by Jesus Christ our righteousness.--Manuscript 21, September 9, 1889, diary.
------------------------Christ Is Not Divided, September 10
TDG	262	1	But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.... And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 1 Corinthians 12:18-21.
TDG	262	2	Because men are not of the same stamp of character, this is no reason why they should draw apart. If we are children of the heavenly King, we shall not be at such variance that we shall stand in one another's way.
TDG	262	3	It is by the Lord's orders that His servants have varied gifts. It is by His appointment that men of varied minds are brought into the church, to be laborers together with Him. We have many different minds to meet, and different gifts are needed. God's servants are to work in perfect harmony. I thank the Lord that we are not all exactly the same, while we are all to have the same spirit--the spirit that dwelt in Christ. The apostle John was not the same as the apostle Peter. Each was to subdue his peculiarities and soften his temperament, that they might help each other, through belief in and sanctification of the truth.
TDG	262	4	It is the righteousness of Christ that goes before us. It is His character that we are to copy. And then what?--The glory of the Lord shall be our rearward. Our Leader goes before us, and as we follow Him, He imparts to us His righteousness, which is revealed in our lives by a well-ordered life and a godly conversation. It is faith and works that makes us Christians, preparing us to sit together in heavenly places with Christ.
TDG	262	5	Is Christ divided?--No. Christ abiding in the soul will not quarrel with Christ in another soul. We must learn to bear with the peculiarities of those around us. If our will is under the control of Christ's will, how can we be at variance with our brethren? If we are at variance, we may know that it is because self needs to be crucified. He whom Christ makes free is free indeed. We are not complete in Christ unless we love one another as Christ has loved us. When we do this, as Christ has given us commandment, we shall give evidence that we are complete in Him.
TDG	262	6	We must have the faith which prophets foretold and apostles preached--the faith that works by love and purifies the soul.--Letter 141, September 10, 1902, to Elder S. N. Haskell, in city evangelism in New York City.
------------------------Keep on an Even Keel, September 11
TDG	263	1	For I have given you an example. John 13:15.
TDG	263	2	We are forming characters for heaven. No character can be complete without trial and suffering. We must be tested, we must be tried. Christ bore the test of character of our behalf that we might bear this test in our own behalf through the divine strength He has brought to us. Christ is our example in patience, in forbearance, in meekness and lowliness of mind. He was at variance and at war with the whole ungodly world, yet He did not give way to passion and violence manifested in words and actions, although receiving shameful abuse in return for good works. He was afflicted, He was rejected and despitefully treated, yet He retaliated not. He possessed self-control, dignity, and majesty. He suffered with calmness and for abuse gave only compassion, pity, and love....
TDG	263	3	Imitate your Redeemer in these things. Do not get excited when things go wrong. Do not let self arise, and lose your self-control because you fancy things are not as they should be. Because others are wrong is no excuse for you to do wrong. Two wrongs will not make one right. You have victories to gain in order to overcome as Christ overcame.
TDG	263	4	Christ never murmured, never uttered discontent, displeasure, or resentment. He was never disheartened, discouraged, ruffled, or fretted. He was patient, calm, and self-possessed under the most exciting and trying circumstances. All His works were performed with a quiet dignity and ease, whatever commotion was around Him. Applause did not elate Him. He feared not the threats of His enemies. He moved amid the world of excitement, of violence and crime, as the sun moves above the clouds. Human passions and commotions and trials were beneath Him. He sailed like the sun above them all. Yet He was not indifferent to the woes of men. His heart was ever touched with the sufferings and necessities of His brethren, as though He Himself was the one afflicted. He had a calm inward joy, a peace which was serene. His will was ever swallowed up in the will of His Father. Not My will but Thine be done, was heard from His pale and quivering lips.--Letter 51a, September 11, 1874, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Christians Now, September 12
TDG	264	1	And now, little children, abide in him; that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. 1 John 2:28.
TDG	264	2	Many mean to be Christians sometime, but do not want to make the start just yet.... Not only are you losing much yourselves in giving to the enemy the very best part of your lives, but you are bringing your children up in the neglect of eternal things. They have your example, all on the wrong side. Your neglect is robbing them of the very knowledge which God makes it your duty to give them that they may learn to love, reverence, and obey the requirements of God....
TDG	264	3	Your little ones are quick and observing in the presence of older persons. You are molding their minds to think as you think, to act as you act; not to bow the knee to the Sovereign of the universe because you do not do so. It is bad enough and fearful enough to contemplate the loss of your own souls unless you surrender to God, to contemplate that you are not entering in at the door of salvation yourselves, but it is more terrible to think that you bar the way to the entrance of your children.... Forget for once all about your dignity and social position, and start out before your children as learners in the school of Christ. Tell them frankly that you have made a mistake in neglecting to acknowledge yourself as a child of God. Tell them that you want that as a family you should now commence to live for God, and then read and pray with your children....
TDG	264	4	You can have rest and peace only as you find it in Jesus. The world, its maxims and its customs, are the parents of unnumbered sufferings. Many suffer with ungratified wishes. They bind burdens on themselves--their ungratified desires. With the condemnation of conscience--not having harmony with God, and with an apprehension of His displeasure and wrath--their existence is a matter of continual anxiety. There is a dearth of heavenly consolation in suffering. They are fearful of punishment. There is a fearful foreboding of the future....
TDG	264	5	A ransom has been given for souls, a sacrifice that was infinite--a Monarch dying for rebellious subjects, that they may escape from sin, corruption, and misery. They may all receive pardon, purity, and heaven through the great condescension of the Son of God....
TDG	264	6	Come while Mercy's sweet voice invites you.--Letter 26, September 12, 1879, a personal testimony to a husband and wife.
------------------------Watch Your Words, September 13
TDG	265	1	It is written.... It is written again.... For it is written. Matthew 4:4-10.
TDG	265	2	Some who in times past have been honored of God, have become ensnared by the deceptions of the enemy. They have been warned of their danger, but in refusing to hear the warnings sent them, they have become more and more deceived, until finally they are found fighting against the Lord and against His workers.
TDG	265	3	Those who stand upon the rock of eternal truth will sometimes meet such opposition as will call for very decided action. At such times let every word be carefully weighed, lest you injure the souls of those you desire to help. Keep your tongue as with a bridle. Remember that God has not given to you the work of judging your brethren....
TDG	265	4	From the Word of God gather all the comfort and encouragement possible, and present this to souls struggling with perplexities and difficulties. But never bring a railing accusation against those who are deceived....
TDG	265	5	In meeting the enemy in the wilderness, Christ's response to his wicked insinuations was, "It is written." When Satan presumed to claim the ownership of the whole world, and asked Christ to worship him as God, He who with a word might have called to His assistance legions of angels, merely said, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10). The intensity of this conflict we but partly understand. It seemed as though the Saviour would die on the field of battle, but He withstood the wily foe. His words so carefully chosen, were as sharp as a two-edged sword. Satan was thoroughly repulsed. He realized that the Prince of Life could not be deceived by any sophistry.
TDG	265	6	We are now upon the field of conflict....
TDG	265	7	Let the Word of God be our study....
TDG	265	8	To as many as believe in Him, Christ gives power to become the sons of God. Those who are thus denominated as members of the royal family will live for Him who is the propitiation for their sins. As they follow on to know the truth, their feet are planted on the sure foundation. Neither flood nor storm can sweep away their foundation.--Letter 289, September 13, 1905, to "My Brethren in the Ministry."
------------------------Cultivate Christlike Love, September 14
TDG	266	1	He that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. 1 Peter 3:10.
TDG	266	2	The Christian parent should never lose the sense that he is one of God's little children, and that he is to cultivate a courteous, compassionate disposition, because he is an educator. He is to represent Jesus to his children. In his dealing with them, there is to be seen no impetuosity, and neither is there to be seen the cold, icy dignity that freezes love in the heart. He is to be so kind, so tender, that the hearts of the children will be softened and subdued, prepared to receive the love and grace of Christ. No harsh words are to be spoken by a Christian to any one, old or young. Such words are prompted by the enemy....
TDG	266	3	We are taught in the Word of God to be kind, tender, pitiful, courteous. Cultivate Christlike love. Let all that you do bear the impress of this love. Those who do not speak the words and do the works of Christ are trying to climb into heaven by some other way than through the door....
TDG	266	4	Do not endeavor to preserve your cold, un-Christlike dignity. This is not religion; it is not Christianity. What you need is the light that shines in the face of Christ to cause your faces to shine with the brightness of His love. Put away your cast-iron dignity. God has not told you to cherish any such thing. Let your hearts be filled with the love of Christ. Then Christlike sympathy will shine forth from your faces....
TDG	266	5	There are some serving in holy things who have no faith in God or His power. They multiply their efforts to gain salvation by their own devices. How pitiful are their vain endeavors to justify themselves, and to hold their footing against the downward current of evil. They are powerless; for they do not make God their trust....
TDG	266	6	God is the eternal, uncreated fountain of all good. All who look to Him and trust in Him find Him to be this. To those who serve Him, cleaving to Him as their heavenly Father, He gives the assurance that He will fulfil His promises. His joy will be in their hearts, and their joy will be full.--Letter 203, September 14, 1903, "To Those in Positions of Responsibility in Nashville Publishing House."
------------------------If Judas Had Repented, September 15
TDG	267	1	He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. John 13:18.
TDG	267	2	It was in the power of Christ to deliver Himself. When He spoke the words [in Gethsemane] "I am He," immediately angels surrounded Him, and that throng had all the evidence they could or would have that Christ was the power of God. When that murderous throng was sent reeling, catching the air as for support, and falling heavily to the ground, it would have been an easy matter for Christ to have kept them helpless and prostrate, and pass out of their midst unharmed. By the flashing forth of His brightness and glory He could have extinguished them. Judas expected this, for many a time Christ had escaped....
TDG	267	3	It is not a marvel that Judas, even then, should hold on to his hatred and his purpose to the last. If then he had repented, if he had confessed at this last moment, if his traitor's heart had broken, he would have received pardon. But satanic resistance increases in proportion to the light given and resisted. The appeals, the warnings of dangers and perils to come, did not change the purpose of Judas, because his heart was unchanged. In the face of light and evidence he determined to follow his own course, and do his own will. The longsuffering of Christ, the reproof kindly given, coming to him at last from the divine lips, does not break his stubborn heart. He hardens his heart by his long resistance. He sees where his footsteps are tending, but satanic agencies are all around him, and he has no power to save himself from their snare. The human attributes so long held, the refusal to yield to the light, now makes him blind to all consequences.
TDG	267	4	Judas is not the only man who has passed over this ground....
TDG	267	5	Judas was a man who possessed valuable qualities. But he was not teachable....
TDG	267	6	When one has had connection with those who bear the message from heaven, and hears but does not practice the truth, that truth is brought down to mean nothing worthy of attention to him. Thus it was with Judas.
TDG	267	7	Man must believe the truth; he must change his own course of action, coming into harmony with the light shining upon him.--Manuscript 100, September 15, 1897, "The Arrest of Christ."
------------------------Take Jesus at His Word, September 16
TDG	268	1	Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6.
TDG	268	2	I keep your case before me, and I am grieved that you are troubled in mind. I would comfort you if it were in my power. Has not Jesus, the precious Saviour, been to you so many times a present help in times of need? Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, but cease worrying. This is what you have many times talked to others. Let the words of those who are not sick, as you are, comfort you, and may the Lord help you, is my prayer.
TDG	268	3	If it is the Lord's will that you should die, you should feel that it is your privilege to commit your whole being--body, soul, and spirit--into the hands of a just and merciful God. He has no such feelings of condemnation as you imagine. I want you to stop thinking that the Lord does not love you. Cast yourself unreservedly upon the merciful provisions that He has made....
TDG	268	4	You need not think that you have done anything which would lead God to treat you with severity. I know better. Just believe in His love, and take Him at His word....
TDG	268	5	He would have you believe, and act out your faith. Christ has given us in His life an illustration of the amiability of character that He would have us all possess.... No suspicion of distrust is to take possession of our minds. No apprehension of the greatness of God is to confuse our faith. May God help us to humble ourselves in meekness and lowliness.
TDG	268	6	Christ laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown, that He might associate with humanity and show that human beings may be perfect. Clad in the garments of mercy He lived in our world a perfect life to give us evidence of His love. He has done that which should make unbelief in Him impossible. From His high command in the heavenly courts He stooped to take human nature upon Him. His life is an example of what our lives may be. That no apprehension of God's greatness should come in to efface our belief in God's love, Christ became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The human heart, given up to Him, will become a sacred harp, sending forth sacred music.--Letter 365, September 16, 1904, to Marian Davis, one of Ellen White's literary assistants, dying of consumption.
------------------------All Men Are Brothers, September 17
TDG	269	1	God that made the world and all things therein ...hath made of one blood all nations of men. Acts 17:24-26.
TDG	269	2	God has shown for human beings an infinite depth of love, and yet how far short we fall of appreciating this love. Christ died on the cross of Calvary that sinners might be redeemed from the slavery of sin and placed on vantage ground before God. Think of the wonderful love that the Father revealed in making this sacrifice. It is ours to point those outside the fold to this love, ours to tell sinners what Christ has done for them, and what they may become through His transforming grace.
TDG	269	3	We desire that in all that is done, the Lord's name shall be glorified, and His cause advanced. Never was there a time when wise generalship was so much needed as at the present time. Human prejudice is not of God. To be guided by impulse is very dangerous. Human impulse is a poor commodity and cannot take the place of sanctified reason.
TDG	269	4	The Lord Jesus is looking upon every soul with intense interest. He has declared that the spiritual character of His church is to be carefully maintained. The church is in the world, and is to do a work for the world, but the doors of the church are not to be opened to worldliness. "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up" (Matthew 15:13). The church must be strictly guarded. Its sacred character must be demonstrated to the world. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9). "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12, 13)....
TDG	269	5	Today the truth is to be proclaimed to all nations and kindreds and tongues and peoples. Christ desires us to labor in a way that will not arouse prejudice, for when prejudice is aroused, some are cut off from hearing the truth....
TDG	269	6	We are still in this world, where these barriers exist, and we must work in a way that will enable us to reach all classes. Let not the present obstructions worry you and destroy your faith and confidence in God.--Manuscript 114, September 17, 1904, "Directions Regarding Work for Colored People."
------------------------Never Demean the Erring, September 18
TDG	270	1	A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. Matthew 12:35.
TDG	270	2	Never treat those with whom you work as unfaithful unless you have unmistakable evidence that they are unfaithful. And even when a worker's unfaithfulness is clearly proved, you are not to deal with him in a manner that will give him excuse for saying, "You were harsh." You are to do nothing that will provoke the erring to anger. Do not bear down on believers or unbelievers in a way that arouses the worst feelings of the heart. Do not make charges that may be cruelly unjust. By such a course, you may drive souls to perdition....
TDG	270	3	In your work you are to reveal the sympathy of Christ. Your words are to be an expression of His sympathy. You are to speak the language of Canaan. You are no more of the world. You have come out from the world, and you are to be separate from its methods and practices. In word and action you are to reveal God's purposes of love. You are always to treat your fellow workers with respect....
TDG	270	4	He who is serving in Christ's stead is only doing his duty when he manifests to all connected with him the graces of the Spirit of God. Not a word of scolding or anger is to be heard, because such words dishonor Christ and reproach the name of Christian. It is a part of the duty of the one who is in service as a director to learn how to control himself.
TDG	270	5	The Lord Jesus has chosen human beings as His instruments. They are to carry out His purposes. His death on the cross of Calvary was the climax of His humiliation. His work as a redeemer is beyond finite conception. Only those who have died to self, whose lives are hid with Christ in God, can have any conception of the completeness of the offering made to save the fallen race.
TDG	270	6	In the daily life we are to follow Christ's example. Then into the religious life will come the peace that passes understanding. We are not to engage in any employment or enterprise to gain the praise or honor of men. We are not to speak one word or do one action that will lower in the minds of others the ideal they have of the One who died a death of shame on the cross that He might purchase the privilege of saving His enemies.--Letter 196, September 18, 1901, to an administrator at the St. Helena Sanitarium.
------------------------How to Have Heaven Here, September 19
TDG	271	1	Desire a better country, that is, an heavenly. Hebrews 11:16.
TDG	271	2	We want to seek with all the powers that God has given us to unfold the Scriptures to those who are in darkness. There is happiness, hope, and peace for the desponding. We cannot afford to give our God-given ability and devote it to the commonplace things of this earth. We want a faith that will grasp the promise set before us in the gospel. What if we should lose our soul? It would be better for us had we never been born. One soul is worth more than all the gold and silver that could be heaped up on this earth....
TDG	271	3	We want to cultivate living faith in God. We want to have our eyes turned away from the attractions of this earth and centered upon heaven and heavenly things. We do not want the earth to intervene between us and God, but we want an eye single to the glory of God. We talk of heaven and of its blessing, and it would be a great loss to lose it. Well then, if it so lovely, so desirable, bring it into this life, bring it into your families and educate your children not to live for this world but for the future, immortal life....
TDG	271	4	You can have a little heaven here below, if you will only get your eye fixed upon God--not looking at Christ half the time and at the world the other half. When you live for God, He will put His everlasting arm beneath you, and then He says, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:30). Do you believe it? I can testify this is so. By my past experience I can testify that I would not [want to] have one trial less, one sorrow less, for Paul says, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen" (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18). We want to look at the things of eternal interest, that we may think seriously in regard to what use we have made of our reasoning powers, whether we have tried to strengthen them with idle things which we cannot take with us when we shall be caught up to meet Christ in the air....
TDG	271	5	We want to be fitting that we may have an abundant entrance into the city of God.... Everything compared with this is of no consequence.--Manuscript 16, September 19, 1886, "The Privilege of Being a Christian."
------------------------Christ Is the Way, September 20
TDG	272	1	Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. John 14:8, 9.
TDG	272	2	We cannot by searching find out God. But He has revealed Himself in the character of Christ, who is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person. If we desire a knowledge of God, we must be Christlike....
TDG	272	3	He who does not seek each day to be more like Christ, cannot know the character of God. Living a pure life through faith in Christ as a personal Saviour brings the believer into a clearer, higher conception of God. No man whose character is not noble and Christlike can set forth God in a correct light. He may preach Christ, but he does not show his hearers that Christ is an abiding guest in his heart....
TDG	272	4	Those who are partakers of Christ's love through a reception of the truth will give evidence of this by making earnest, self-sacrificing efforts to give the message of God's love to those who are in error. Thus they become laborers together with Christ. Love for God and for one another unites the soul to Christ by the golden links of love. The soul is bound up with Him in sanctified, elevated union.
TDG	272	5	True sanctification unites believers to Christ and to one another in the bonds of tender sympathy. This union causes to flow continually into the heart rich currents of Christlike love, which flows forth again in love for one another.
TDG	272	6	The qualities which it is essential for all to possess are those which marked the completeness of Christ's character--His love, His patience, His unselfishness, and His goodness....
TDG	272	7	It is the greatest and most fatal deception to suppose that a man can have faith unto life eternal, without possessing Christlike love for his brethren. He who loves God and his neighbor is filled with light and love. God is in him and all around him. Christians love those around them as precious souls for whom Christ has died. There is no such thing as a loveless Christian, for "God is love."--Manuscript 133, September 20, 1899, "The Importance of the Law of God."
------------------------God Is a Person, September 21
TDG	273	1	Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Hebrews 11:3.
TDG	273	2	The whole of the natural world bears testimony of the works of the living God. Nature is our lesson book, given to us by God, the Creator of all things. These things of nature are not to be called God. They are the expression of God's character, but they are not God. By the things of His creation, we may understand God, and His love, His power, and His glory, but there is a great danger of men worshiping nature as God.
TDG	273	3	The artistic skill of human beings produces very fine samples of beautiful workmanship, revealing things which delight the eye, and these things give us something of the idea of the designer, but the thing made is not the man. It is not the work that is to be exalted, but the man who designed the things so much prized. So it is with nature. The Lord's power is constantly revealed as a miracle-working power, that the human family may see an infinity above and beyond the things made, that they may know that He who formed such a being as man, has also created all the beauties of the natural world.
TDG	273	4	There are many issues in our world today in regard to the Creator not being a personal God. God is a being, and man was made in His image. After God created man in His image, the form was perfect in all its arrangements, but it had no vitality. Then a personal, self-existing God breathed into that form the breath of life, and man became a living, breathing, intelligent being. All parts of the human machinery were put in motion. The heart, the arteries, the veins, the tongue, the hands, the feet, the perceptions of the mind, the senses, were placed under physical law. It was then that man became a living soul.
TDG	273	5	Through Jesus Christ, God--not a perfume, not something intangible, but a personal God--created man, and endowed him with intelligence and power....
TDG	273	6	The Lord is a living, personal God. A living, personal Saviour came to our world to make of none effect the specious twistings and serpentine turnings of Satan.--Manuscript 117, September 21, 1898, "A Personal God."
------------------------Have You Passed From Death to Life? September 22
TDG	274	1	We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 1 John 3:14.
TDG	274	2	I have been thinking how little we appreciate the decided declaration of the Word of God to us in regard to our relation with each other. There is that selfishness in the human heart that centers our thoughts upon ourselves; and even [in] those who seem to have a connection with God, we are pained sometimes to see how much of their thoughts are centered upon themselves, not seeing nor sensing the needs of others. We are connected together as in the great web of humanity, and in all our associations with one another we should seek to have the mind of Christ. To close the eyes to the needy and perishing, to leave sinners unwarned, and by indifference and selfishness tempt them to say, "No man careth for my soul," is to dishonor God and bring reproach upon the cause of God. Our work is to build up one another in the most holy faith.
TDG	274	3	If there is not that perfect harmony existing between us, we should not feel that we ourselves are not at all to blame in the matter. If another's thoughts and feelings are not in the same channel as our own, we should not feel that they are all wrong and we are right. We want to constantly keep the mind at the right point, to answer the prayer of Christ in John 17:21-23. We want to know what is the yoke Christ bids us take and the burdens we are to carry at this time, and constantly seek in kindness and love to show our brother that we have an interest in him, and bring love into our actions day by day. This is the gold tried in the fire--faith and love. If we see one in error on any point we should not pass along and say nothing, but we must try to bring him out from darkness into light. We must guard each other's interests as we do our own. We do not value the soul as we should. We ought to be united in one great brotherhood and be in that place where we can bear with the faults of one another with all longsuffering and meekness, and seek to bear one another's burdens. (See Ephesians 5:1, 2.)
TDG	274	4	Well, you say this is the work of the minister. But it is also the work of each of us.--Manuscript 13, September 22, 1886, "The Christian Brotherhood."
------------------------He Is Always With Me, September 23
TDG	275	1	If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. John 15:24.
TDG	275	2	All Christ's miracles were wrought to bless those whom these leading Jews neglected and despised, and refused to help. And He was beloved [by the common people] because He was the Restorer, the Great Physician. All His graces were light from heaven. In every good work He sought to lead them to accept Him as their personal Saviour. His life was fragrant, a savor of life unto life. He brought sunshine into the heart and home. They came to Him mourning, and left Him with songs of praise and glad rejoicing. He offered Himself to them that they might give Him a home in their hearts.
TDG	275	3	And yet they [the Jewish leaders] would not receive Him. While they claimed to keep the law, they denied it by their works. Having eyes they saw not, because of the ignorance that was in them through the hardness of their hearts. The impurity of their hearts, the defiling practices of their lives, their selfishness, their envy, their jealousy, their evil surmising, their transgression of the law of God, while they claimed to keep it, bore continual testimony as to their character. By the fruit the tree was known. Christ laid bare their true character. He declared that they were "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Mark 7:7). Again He says, "Ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God" (chap. 12:24).
TDG	275	4	"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). How would they see God?--in the way that Enoch saw Him. They had the privilege of walking and talking with God. By faith Enoch lived in the presence of God three hundred years. By faith he saw the faith of Jesus. He was taken into special favor with Him. The priests and rulers needed just such an experience as Enoch had. They needed a continual sense of the presence of God. O what riches of grace the Lord longed to bestow upon the favored people of God. It is represented in the call to the supper prepared for them, "All things are ready: come" (chap. 22:4).--Manuscript 96, September 23, 1897, "The Jew's Rejection of Christ."
------------------------Partners With God, September 24
TDG	276	1	So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 1 Corinthians 3:7.
TDG	276	2	We need to understand that individually we are in copartnership with God. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," He admonishes us, and adds, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12, 13). Here is the cooperation of the divine with human agencies....
TDG	276	3	The former and the latter rains are needed. "We are labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9). The Lord alone can give the precious former and latter rain. The clouds, the sunshine, the dews at night--these are heaven's most precious provisions. But all these favors graciously bestowed of Heaven will prove of little worth to those who do not appropriate them by diligent, painstaking effort on their part. Personal efforts must be put forth in agriculture. There is the plowing and replowing. Implements must be brought in and human skill must use them. The seed must be sown in its season. The laws which control seedtime and harvest must be observed, else there will be no harvest....
TDG	276	4	The apostle brings in another figure: "Ye are God's building" (Verse 9)--an edifice to be erected. The construction of a building calls for skill in using the timber which God has caused to grow for the happiness and blessing of man. The Lord has provided the forest trees, and now man must use the trees. They must be cut down and prepared by saw, and axe, and wedge, and hammer, to be fitted for the building....
TDG	276	5	Thus is presented the copartnership of the human and the divine. All the power is of God. "Without me," says Christ, "ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). Then how many hours is it safe for us to try to work alone? All the glory proceeds from God and should flow back in all possible ways to God, through our cooperation with God....
TDG	276	6	We need to consider carefully our own spiritual interest. If we are abiding in Christ, we shall not allow ambitious business transactions, even in our service for Him, to come before the spiritual fragrance that should characterize our association with our brethren.--Manuscript 182, September 24, 1897, "Ye Are God's Husbandry."
------------------------Divine Grace, Our Greatest Need, September 25
TDG	277	1	Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. 1 Corinthians 9:16.
TDG	277	2	Genuine conversion brings us daily into communion with God. There will be temptations to meet, and a strong undercurrent drawing us from God to our former state of indifference and sinful forgetfulness of God. No human heart can remain strong without divine grace. No man can remain converted unless he takes care of himself and the Master has a care for him. Unless the heart holds fast to God, and God holds fast to him, he will become self-confident and exalted and will surely stumble and fall. The power of God through faith was Paul's dependence. "I live; yet not I," he exclaims in his humility, "but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20). "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Corinthians 9:26, 27).
TDG	277	3	Paul was in such constant dread, lest his evil propensities should get the better of him, that he was constantly battling, with firm resistance, unruly appetites and passions. If the great apostle felt like trembling in view of his weakness, who has a right to feel self-confident and boastful? The moment we begin to feel self-sufficient and confident then we are in danger of a disgraceful failure.
TDG	277	4	Our only sure defense against besetting sins is prayer, daily and hourly prayer. Not one day zealous and the next careless, but through watchfulness and earnestness becoming vitalized by intercourse with God. Prayer is necessary, and we should not wait for feeling, but pray, earnestly pray, whether we feel like it or not. Heaven is open to our prayers. Prayer is the channel that conducts our gratitude and yearnings of soul for the divine blessing to the throne of God, to be returned to us in refreshing showers of divine grace. With very many, this channel is allowed to freeze up, and then the connection with heaven is interrupted.... Oh, that we would spend more time upon our knees and less time in planning for ourselves and in thinking we may do some great thing.--Letter 52, September 25, 1874, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------God's Constant Appeal, September 26
TDG	278	1	The good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid. 1 Timothy 5:25.
TDG	278	2	Many who love self-indulgence and who murmur at the straight testimony of the Laodicean message, are ignorant of how sinful their actions really are; but in the judgment they will be ashamed of their course of ingratitude and rebellion against the One who has borne so long with them, and who has not cut them off in their sins. No confession, no weeping will then avail for those who have spoiled their record. Many who now claim to be the disciples of Christ, will be numbered among those who would not repent, but who have deceived their souls unto their eternal ruin. The evasion of truth will not give courage to any soul in the day of judgment to open his lips in self-defense. Then the books will be opened that bear the record of the works of every individual....
TDG	278	3	God has sent messages from His Word to the souls who are living careless lives, and who are unashamed of their wrong course of action. I heard the words spoken: "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding" (Isaiah 40:27, 28). If the careless, self-indulgent souls would seek the Lord and confess their sins, they would see how their unconverted lives lead others astray, and they would repent and be converted....
TDG	278	4	God is constantly appealing to the human heart, bidding it recognize His love and mercy, and accept His righteousness in the place of the principles of evil. Thus He has pleaded with mankind in all ages. In Noah's day Christ spoke to men through a human agency and preached to those who were in bondage to sin. He came to Israel enshrouded in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. He it was who educated that vast multitude in their wilderness wandering....
TDG	278	5	There are many who do not weigh these things sufficiently. The instruction given to Israel should be understood today by every soul living. Man may claim great intelligence, but he needs more than human intelligence in order to grasp the revelations of the gospel.--Letter 106, September 26, 1909, "To Our Churches in Oakland and Berkeley."
------------------------Don't Neglect Little Things, September 27
TDG	279	1	Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. Matthew 6:27, 28.
TDG	279	2	I was called out to speak [to a large audience in Oakland, California] on the necessity of the deep and thorough work essential for every soul, that it may be strengthened with all might, and how there should be most earnest efforts made to help all with whom we are brought into connection, by precept and example, to strive for this thorough work to be done for them through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
TDG	279	3	A great many are likely to be deceived in regard to their spiritual condition. In Christ we shall have the victory. In Him we have a perfect Model. While He hated sin with a perfect hatred, He could weep over the sinner. He possessed the divine nature, while He had the humility of a little child. He had in His character that which we must have in our characters, undeviating perseverance in the path of duty, from which no obstacles or dangers could divert Him, while His heart was so full of compassion that the woes of humanity touched His heart with tenderest compassion. He could not pass them by, for He was the Great Physician to heal the maladies of the human race.
TDG	279	4	He was the Majesty of heaven, doing work for the future and yet taking up and adjusting matters for the present; neglecting not the smaller matters, yet working out the mightiest plans for the inhabitants of a fallen world.
TDG	279	5	Jesus, the precious Saviour, talked to His hearers in regard to their common duties of life, their care for dress, and their eating and drinking. He taught them that these things should not become a matter of absorbing interest, as though they must continually carry this burden. He pointed them to the birds and told them that their heavenly Father cares for even the little sparrow. He sustains the worlds, yet cares for the little birds, and how much more will He care for those who are formed in His image. He pointed to the flowers of glowing beauty, invited them to consider these, and declared that in their naked simplicity they outvie the glory of Solomon; and yet they are cut down in a day. Are ye not much better than they?--Manuscript 21, September 27, 1889, diary.
------------------------Press Toward the Mark, September 28
TDG	280	1	I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14.
TDG	280	2	We all have an experience to gain and crosses to lift. If we study our own pleasure and gratify our own desires and taste, we shall be found wanting in the day of retribution and rewards. If we live to do others good and to glorify God, we shall not be considerate of ourselves, but shall seek to be of use in the world, blessing humanity, and we shall receive the blessing of "Well done" from the lips of the Master.
TDG	280	3	We should live for the next world. It is so wretched to live a haphazard, aimless life. We want an object in life--to live for a purpose. God help us all to be self-sacrificing, less self-caring, more forgetful of self and selfish interest; and to do good, not for the honor we expect to receive here, but because this is the object of our life and will answer the end of our existence. Let our daily prayer go up to God that He will divest us of selfishness....
TDG	280	4	I have seen that those who live for a purpose, seeking to benefit and bless their fellow men and to honor and glorify their Redeemer, are the truly happy ones on the earth, while the man who is restless, discontented, and seeking this and testing that, hoping to find happiness, is always complaining of disappointment. He is always in want, never satisfied, because he lives for himself alone. Let it be your aim to do good, to act your part in life faithfully.
TDG	280	5	There is hurry and excitement. Men feverishly invest their capital of money in bonds and stocks, become wealthy in a day, and yet are unsatisfied. They continue to invest with insane expectancy. The bank stock goes down, the millionaire in the morning is a beggar at night and the way they think best to end the matter is with pistol, rope, or the waters of the bay. Money is a blessing when those who use it consider that they are the Lord's stewards, that they are handling the Lord's capital, and must one day give account of their stewardship. It is the love of money which the Bible condemns as the root of all evil--such love that when a man loses money the precious life God has given him is made of no account because money is gone.--Letter 17, September 28, 1872, to J. E. White.
------------------------Your Business Is God's Business, September 29
TDG	281	1	Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men. Proverbs 22:29.
TDG	281	2	By the true follower of Christ every business transaction will be regarded as a part of his religion, just as prayer is a part of his religion. The study of the Scriptures will be considered a part of his religion, for by this he learns his orders. In the light of the Scriptures man regards himself as God's servant, employed to do His will. Sometimes he finds these orders opposed to that which he would choose, were the decision left to him, but he does not find fault with his work because of this. And as he seeks to carry out the will of the Master, angels of God are with him, to be his defense against the wiles of Satan. The word of God is to be our daily teacher. This is the only true source of comfort in all our trials, the only true source of encouragement and instruction in our labors.
TDG	281	3	The Christian is to stand as a representative of the principles of heaven. He is bound by sacred obligations to represent the truth in its virtue and loveliness. Gentleness and kindness and strict truthfulness should mark his words and actions. Consecrated to God, set apart to His service, he will always honor his religious faith. No thread of selfishness is to be woven into the character. We are to educate ourselves to reveal the Spirit of God in all our lifework. The Spirit of God will never lead the steps of God's children astray. Through the power that the Holy Spirit imparts, we may weed out from our lives every questionable thing. If we will come out of the darkness with which a lack of faith enshrouds the soul, and place ourselves where the clear shining of the light of God's word can fall fully upon us, we shall be led step by step in the path that leads to holiness....
TDG	281	4	It is our privilege, by an earnest study of the Word, to learn wherein we are not revealing the principles of that Word in our daily lives. And as the mirror reveals to us our defects, we are to seek by earnest prayer and faith to put them away, and come up to the standard that is given us. As we strive to meet the perfection that God desires for us, insensibly to us the image of God will be revealed in words and works and spirit. The human will become molded to the divine.--Letter 300, September 29, 1907, to Elder O. A. Olsen, president of the Australasian Union Conference.
------------------------A Great Work to Be Done, September 30
TDG	282	1	For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. 1 Corinthians 14:8, 9.
TDG	282	2	There are many who have been waiting to hear the "certain sound" of the message that would meet the emergency. All over our land the Lord has honest souls, who are standing in uncertainty.... The message is to be proclaimed with sanctified ability. The word of the Lord has been spoken. God calls for sanctified hearts and lips. The messages of warning are to be given in the large cities, and also in the towns and villages. The men of God's appointment are to be zealously at work, disposing of our books, and disseminating light. The articles in our papers are not to present the truth in the style of a romance, for this weakens the impression that should be made by the most solemn truth ever committed to mortals. They are to contain a plain, "Thus saith the Lord." The message must be repeated, and Bible reasons given, not in the style of a romance, but in the style of the Bible. There are many who are watching for the evidence of true religion.
TDG	282	3	The Lord declares, "The message is to go forth in words of solemn warning. Nothing that will hinder the clear presentation of the message is to be introduced into your plans. Repeat the message. The wickedness in the cities is increasing. The adversary has great influence over men, because My people did not open their hearts to realize their responsibility. Tell My people to take up their work and proclaim the message. They are to speak and work in the simplicity of true godliness, and My Spirit will make the impression on hearts. Let the true note of warning be sounded. My angel shall go before you, if you will be sanctified through the truth."
TDG	282	4	A great work is to be done. The truth is to be proclaimed with clear enunciation. We are to work in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, walking humbly before God. We must send messengers throughout all the unworked fields, and the Lord will impress hearts. The first and second angels' messages went with the power of the Spirit, and those who in their proclamation walked and worked in humility were greatly blessed. Let us all wake up, and with great energy take hold of the work to be done.--Letter 88, September 30, 1910, to Elder A. G. Daniells, president of the General Conference.
------------------------Ye Are God's Instruments, October 1
TDG	283	1	But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.
TDG	283	2	Christ came to the earth to present a true and exalted standard. Brief as was the period of His public ministry, He accomplished the work He came to do. How impressive were the truths He taught, how complete His lifework! What spiritual food He daily imparted as He presented the bread of life to thousands of hungry souls. His life was a living ministry of the Word. He was the Light of the world, pointing to men the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He was its food, the Bread of life. He promised nothing that He did not perform. "Ask," He said, "and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7).
TDG	283	3	Just as we trace the pathway of a stream of living water by the line of living green it produces, so Christ could be seen in the deeds of mercy that marked His path at every step. Wherever He went health sprang up, and happiness followed wherever He had passed. The words of eternal life were presented in such simplicity that a child could understand them. Men, women, and children were so impressed with His manner of explaining the Scriptures that they would catch the very intonation of His voice, place the emphasis upon His words, and imitate His gestures. Youth caught His spirit of ministry, and sought to pattern after His gracious ways by seeking to assist those whom they saw needed help.
TDG	283	4	The blind and deaf rejoiced in His presence. The face of Christ was the first face that many eyes had ever looked upon; His words the first that had ever fallen upon their ears. These, restored, followed Him wherever it was possible. His words to the ignorant opened to them a fountain of life. He dispensed His blessings abundantly and continuously; they were the garnered treasures of eternity, given in Christ, the Lord's rich gifts to man.
TDG	283	5	Christ's work in behalf of mankind is not finished. It continues today. Through John He declares that as many as receive Him, to them will He give power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.--Manuscript 79, October 1, 1906, "Leave Your Nets and Follow Me."
------------------------Be God's Minuteman, October 2
TDG	284	1	Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-make you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed. Romans 12:2, Phillips.
TDG	284	2	We must free ourselves from the customs and bondage of society, that, when the principles of our faith are at stake, we shall not hesitate to show our colors, even if we are called singular for so doing. Keep the conscience tender, that you may hear the faintest whisper of the voice that spake as never man spake. Let all who would wear the yoke of Christ show an inflexible purpose to do right because it is right. Keep the eye fixed on Jesus, inquiring at every step, "Is this the way of the Lord?" The Lord will not leave anyone who does this to become the sport of Satan's temptation.
TDG	284	3	When perplexities arise, as they are sure to do, draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. And then, when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard for you. Decide that there is a great work to be done, and that no man's influence or opposition shall divert you from the plain path of duty. Then you can say with Nehemiah, "The hand of my God is good upon me" (see Nehemiah 2:18).
TDG	284	4	When men connected with the work of God allow themselves to be bought and sold, when they violate truth to gain the favor and approval of men, God records them in His book as betrayers of sacred trust. Let every man stand in moral independence, resolved that his mind shall be molded by the Holy Spirit. God calls for minutemen, who are not ready to voice the words of men who, if converted could exert a good influence, but unconverted, are not to be depended upon. In an emergency they are sure to lead into false paths. The Lord would not have us imitate any man, but follow on step by step to know Him....
TDG	284	5	We are not to fashion ourselves by the world's criterion or after the world's type. God's people will hear conversations regarding the carrying out of wrong methods and plans. Words of irreverence will be spoken. Religion will be jested about. Hear the voice of God, "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not" (Proverbs 1:10). Those who are controlled by the Spirit of God need to keep their perceptive faculties awake.... Have courage to do the right. The Lord's promise is more valuable than gold and silver to all who are doers of His word. Let all regard it as a great honor to be acknowledged by God as His children.--Manuscript 121, October 2, 1898, "An Example of Faithfulness."
------------------------The Power of Transforming Grace, October 3
TDG	285	1	And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. Luke 11:1.
TDG	285	2	Every soul has the privilege of stating to the Lord his own special necessities and to offer his individual thanksgiving for the blessings that he daily receives. But the many long and spiritless faithless prayers that are offered to God instead of being a joy to Him, are a burden. We need, O, so much, clean, converted hearts. We need to have our faith strengthened daily. "Ask, and it shall be given you," the Saviour promised; "seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7). We need to educate ourselves to trust in this word, and to bring the light and grace of Christ into all our works. We need to take hold of Christ, and to retain our hold of Him until we know that the power of His transforming grace is manifested in us. We must have faith in Christ if we would reflect the divine character.
TDG	285	3	Christ clothed His divinity with humanity, and lived a life of prayer and self-denial, and of daily battle with temptation, that He might help those who today are assailed by temptation. He is our efficiency and power. He desires that, through the appropriation of His grace, humanity shall become partakers of the divine nature.... The word of God in the Old and New Testaments, if faithfully studied and received into the life, will give spiritual wisdom and life. His word is to be sacredly cherished. Faith in the Word of God and in the power of Christ to transform the life will enable the believer to work His works, and to live His word and have a life of rejoicing in the Lord.
TDG	285	4	Again and again I have been instructed to say to our people, "Let your faith and trust be in God. Do not depend on any erring man to define to you your duty." ...It is right that brethren counsel together, but, when men arrange just what their brethren shall do, let them answer that they have chosen the Lord as their counselor....
TDG	285	5	There is no power in any man to remedy the defective character individually. Our hope and trust must be in One who is more than human. We need ever to remember that help has been laid on One who is mighty. The Lord has provided the needed help for every soul who will accept it.--Letter 340, October 3, 1907, to the workers in southern California.
------------------------To Every Man His Work, October 4
TDG	286	1	For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. Matthew 25:14.
TDG	286	2	Our lifetime is precious, and every action should be considered. It has been granted us that we might, if we will lay hold of it in the right spirit, accomplish a work that will be acknowledged by the Lord as good, enduring as eternity. It is an intensely solemn thing to live in view of the account we must render to God of our time, our talents, and our influence. These are precious things, talents that are not to be buried in the earth, but used. We are not to hide our talents, they are God's entrusted gifts for wise improvement, that they may accumulate in His service, and that at His coming He may receive His own with usury.
TDG	286	3	No man is called by God, in the use of the talents entrusted to him, to lay off his individual responsibility that another man may do his trading for him. To every man God has given his work, and man is accountable to God for how that work is done. The soul that accepts the great trust that God has given him, cannot transfer that talent to another. No man can transfer his influence to another person, to serve for him, or to be mind or judgment for him.
TDG	286	4	We are each in the service of God. He is our Teacher, and every lesson He shall give is to be appreciated and acted upon. We are not called upon to give account of our talents to man, but to God. Our mind, our judgment, our tact, our wisdom, all are given to us of God to be improved for Him, and it is God who will call us to account for the way in which we have used His gifts....
TDG	286	5	The period of life in every case is beset with temptations, and it is through faith in Jesus Christ alone that we shall find grace to help in every time of need. But each worker has a life to live, a character to form. Each period of life brings with the passing years some special opportunities for work; and each advancing year must be made use of, improved to the very best of human capability. This, with the aid of divine agencies, will show improvement, advancement onward and upward, walking step by step in a safe path heavenward.--Manuscript 28, October 4, 1896, to "Those Concerned in Publishing Mount of Blessing."
------------------------The Great Commandment, October 5
TDG	287	1	Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Matthew 22:36.
TDG	287	2	Supreme love for God and unselfish love for one another, these are the two great arms upon which hang all the law and the prophets. A good tree produces good fruit. The evidence of love for Christ is the manifestation of love for one another. Unselfish love for those around us is placed among the brightest evidences of true religion. By it a daily witness in Christ's favor is borne to the world.
TDG	287	3	The appetites and passions must be subdued and controlled, that the nerves may be steady and the brain able to see duty clearly. This can be done through divine grace. The gospel of Christ is the voice of duty and the voice of God.
TDG	287	4	What is meant by a failure to obey it is seen in the history of Satan, who for his disobedience was cast out of heaven. The greatest talents and the highest gifts that could be bestowed on a created being were given to Lucifer, the covering cherub. Before his fall he was a glorious being, occupying a position next to Christ, but he sought to be equal with God, and brought upon himself irretrievable ruin.
TDG	287	5	With this lesson before us, let us hide ourselves in Christ. He is the source of all wisdom, all intelligence, all power. Behold in the cross of Christ the only guarantee for our salvation. Behold the Saviour giving His life for us, that we might be Christians. Those who strive to live the life of a Christian are battling against the devil's lie. Can we doubt the result of this conflict? God lives, God reigns, and daily He is working His miracles. "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Galatians 5:24). Before the world and the heavenly universe they give evidence that they are trying to live out the words, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; ...think on these things" (Philippians 4:8).
TDG	287	6	Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, these are the fruits of the Christian tree.--Letter 21, 1901, written October 5, 1900, to an evangelist in New York City.
------------------------Practice Run for Heaven, October 6
TDG	288	1	Learn first to shew piety at home. 1 Timothy 5:4.
TDG	288	2	It has become customary in many families, with parents as well as with children, to be more pleasant when in the society of others than in their own home. This is not the plan that God has devised for parents and children. Save some of your smiles and praise and courtesy for the home circle. You should strive to be tender, thoughtful, kind, to exercise Christian politeness in the home. The gracious spirit of home religion is to be cultivated....
TDG	288	3	Christ never spoke a harsh or an unkind word. When tempted by His associates to do wrong, He would sing from the Psalm, or by some word of Scripture would discourage the enemy. Do not be ashamed to learn of Christ. He invites you, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29, 30). When you feel provoked to anger consider that in manifesting this spirit, you are not wearing the yoke of Christ, which is one of obedience, restraint, service.
TDG	288	4	Parents and children, bear this in mind, that the true followers of Christ will make their home as nearly as possible a symbol of the home above, for in doing this they are coworkers with Christ to carry out the laws of His kingdom. Read the prayer that Christ taught His disciples. Live that prayer. It is a whole sermon for all who would practice it. We have something to ask of Jesus. We have great wants and great necessities, which He alone can supply. The prayer which Christ taught His disciples covers all these needs. We want pardon, forgiveness; but we can have it only as we shall pardon and forgive others.
TDG	288	5	Christ invites your confidence. Of yourself you can do nothing. You cannot be kind, true, courteous, unselfish, without the Holy Spirit's help.... Study the life of Christ, and practice in the home life those things which you know will be required of you in the heavenly life, in the society of the heavenly family. In the home circle here we may practice our manners for the family above.--Manuscript 125, October 6, 1898, "Education in the Home."
------------------------Power to Overcome, October 7
TDG	289	1	But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. 1 Peter 3:15.
TDG	289	2	The times in which we now live call for whole-souled helpers. The practical character of the doctrines which we profess will make an impression upon hearts, for heavenly messengers cooperate with the worker whose faith and works are combined. He who has a vital connection with Jesus Christ, will have a testimony to bear as a witness for the Master. "Ye are my friends," said Christ, "if ye do whatsoever I command you" (John 15:14).
TDG	289	3	All who in truth are friends of Christ will do the works of Christ. We are so inclined to bring unsanctified, unconverted traits of character into our family government and into the church, and these make our words, our manner, and our spirit, not only an offense in the home, but also to the church and to the whole heavenly universe. God calls it a perverse spirit.
TDG	289	4	If all could see how God regards the selfish, pettish disposition, they would thoroughly despise themselves, and would make decided efforts to cut away from them every disagreeable action. The idea that men can unite with the family of God with all their disagreeable traits of character unchanged in this life is the greatest deception and delusion.
TDG	289	5	The power to overcome depends, not on circumstances, not on any man living, however learned he may be, but on the ever present help which God supplies. The truth is not something to be kept bottled up for private occasions. If the truth is in the heart the receiver will reveal that faith that works by love, and purifies the soul. Its abiding principles in the heart will be manifested at all times and on all occasions....
TDG	289	6	All our success, all our efficiency, is in Christ. We must continually look above earthly help, higher than the greatest human power, higher than the apostles. We must fasten our faith directly upon Christ Himself. He has declared, "Without me ye can do nothing" (Verse 5). "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me" (Verse 4).--Manuscript 114, October 7, 1897, "To the Faithful in Christ Jesus."
------------------------Set Your Affections on Heaven, October 8
TDG	290	1	Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:2-4.
TDG	290	2	We need to have a broader view of the Saviour as "Lord and Christ." "All power" is given to Him to give to those who claim to believe in His name. We do not half acknowledge His right to our homage and obedience, and to our increasing faith in Him....
TDG	290	3	"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved," the apostle continues, "bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
TDG	290	4	"And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Colossians 3:12-16)....
TDG	290	5	Put yourself under discipline to Christ. Be led by His word. Heed His instruction, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29).
TDG	290	6	I beseech the churches in every place to make thorough work for eternity by confession and putting away of sins. "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3). By what means? "Through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue." "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
TDG	290	7	God and Christ alone know what the souls of men have cost. For our sakes the Son of God became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich with eternal riches. His love is without a parallel.--Letter 318, October 8, 1907, to Elder O. A. Olsen, president of the Australian Union Conference.
------------------------Imitating the Pattern, October 9
TDG	291	1	God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, ...and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-6.
TDG	291	2	Where the Spirit of God is, there is meekness, patience, gentleness, and longsuffering; there is a tenderness of soul, a mildness which savors of Christ. But these fruits are not manifested by the unconverted. The more real need there is for this class to humble themselves before God, the less sense they have of their real standing, and the more self-confidence they assume. The more they claim to be led by God, the more overbearing they are to all around them, the more incapable of receiving any reproof, the more impatient of contradiction, and the less they feel the need of counsel. Instead of being meek and gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy, love, and good fruits, they are exacting and tyrannical; instead of being swift to hear and slow to speak, they are slow to hear and swift to speak.
TDG	291	3	They are unwilling to learn of anyone. The temper is fiery and vehement. There is a set determination, a fierceness in the very looks and deportment. They speak and act as though they would take the work out of God's hands and pass judgment themselves upon those whom they consider in the wrong.
TDG	291	4	A true disciple of Christ will seek to imitate the Pattern. His love will lead to perfect obedience. He will study to do the will of God on earth, as it is done in heaven. He whose heart is still defiled with sin cannot be zealous of good works; and is not careful to abstain from evil, is not vigilant and watchful over his own motives and conduct, is not jealous over his unruly tongue; he is not careful to deny self and lift the cross of Christ. These poor, deceived souls fail to keep the first four precepts of the decalogue, defining the duty of man to God, neither do they keep the last six commandments, defining the duty of man to his fellow men.
TDG	291	5	The fruits of the Spirit, ruling in the heart and controlling the life, are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, bowels of mercies, and humbleness of mind. True believers walk after the Spirit, and the Spirit of God dwells in them.--Manuscript 1, October 9, 1878, "Church Difficulties."
------------------------The Banquet of God's Word, October 10
TDG	292	1	I am the living bread which came down from heaven: ...and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. John 6:51.
TDG	292	2	The only safety for any of us is to plant our feet upon the Word of God and study the Scriptures, making God's Word our constant meditation. Tell the people to take no man's word regarding the Testimonies, but to read them and study them for themselves, and then they will know that they are in harmony with the truth. The Word of God is the truth. Of a good man the psalmist declares, "His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night" (Psalm 1:2). He who puts mind and heart into this work gains a solid, valuable experience. The Holy Spirit is in the Word of God. Here is the living, undying element so distinctly represented in the sixth chapter of John....
TDG	292	3	Let us believe the Word. He who thus eats the bread of heaven is nourished every day and will know what these words mean, "Needeth not that any man teach you." We have lessons pure from the lips of Him who owns us, who has bought us with the price of His own blood. The precious Word of God is a solid foundation upon which to build. When men come to you with their suppositions, tell them that the Great Teacher has left you His Word, which is of incalculable value, that He has sent a Comforter in His own name, even the Holy Ghost. "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26)....
TDG	292	4	Here is presented before us a rich banquet, of which all who believe in Christ as a personal Saviour may eat. He is the Tree of life to all who continue to feed on Him....
TDG	292	5	All who study these precious utterances may have strong consolation. If they will feed upon the banquet of God's Word, they will gain an experience of the highest value. They will see that in comparison with the word of God, the word of man is as chaff to the wheat.
TDG	292	6	I am instructed by the Word of God that His promises are for me and for every child of God. The banquet is spread before us; we are invited to eat the Word of God, which will strengthen spiritual muscle and sinew.--Letter 132, October 10, 1900, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell.
------------------------The Child's First School, October 11
TDG	293	1	And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. Isaiah 54:13.
TDG	293	2	It is your duty [parents] to do all you possibly can to carry out God's purpose for your children revealed in His Word. When the Lord sees that you are in earnest in striving to save their souls, He will give you grace and power to enable you to accomplish this work.
TDG	293	3	God has given His people great light on His Word. But this light is a benefit to the believer only as he practices the truth, purifying his soul by obedience. Is Satan always to triumph because parents misrepresent God by following worldly plans, failing to show the power of Christ to cleanse the heart? The whole church suffers when the children of one family are unruly. Christ is soon to come. Our schools are to reach the high standard of dependence on Bible principles.
TDG	293	4	Parents need a much deeper sense of what it means to be Christlike. They need to see the importance of laboring for the salvation of their children. God demands from them much greater consecration than they have ever shown before. Unless they reform in many ways, the school will not accomplish what it should.
TDG	293	5	The home is the child's first school. God will hold those parents accountable who do not discipline their children in accordance with His instruction. Parents are to seek God earnestly and obey Him implicitly, and they are to require obedience from their children. Do not think that you can neglect your children, and then secure their future safety by sending them to [church] school and Sabbath school. God calls upon you to do your neglected work. In the home, practice temperance in all things. And sustain the teachers who are trying to give your children a true education....
TDG	293	6	The light which shines from the cross of Calvary shows the work which God requires to be earnestly and vigilantly done as long as time shall last.--Letter 134, October 11, 1901, to the teachers and students of the Healdsburg School.
------------------------Don't Shun the Cross, October 12
TDG	294	1	And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 2 Corinthians 6:15.
TDG	294	2	In the last vision given, I was shown that you were anxious that your children should have as much religion as will render them agreeable to all, without incurring the censure of any. The restraining influence of the Spirit of God has affected them but little....
TDG	294	3	When we profess to be servants of Christ we should no longer serve the world, and should not have union or fellowship with those who reject the truths which we deem sacred. I was pointed to 1 John 2:6. "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:4, 5)....
TDG	294	4	You cannot measure yourselves by the world or by the opinions of others. Your only safety is to compare your position with what it would have been had your course been continually onward and upward since you professed to be Christ's followers. Your moral character is passing in review before God. You are weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, and, if your spirituality does not correspond with the benefits and privileges conferred upon you, you are found wanting. Your path should have been growing brighter and brighter, and you bringing forth much fruit to the glory of God.
TDG	294	5	You are wanting, yet rest as unconcerned and well satisfied as though the cloud went before you by day and the pillar of fire by night as tokens of God's favor. You reckon yourselves among the chosen, peculiar people of God, and yet have no manifestations or evidences of the power of God to save to the uttermost. You have not separated from the world as God requires His people to be separate....
TDG	294	6	The people of God are in constant warfare to maintain their peculiar and holy character, and under no condition or circumstance is the cross of Christ to be shunned or laid aside.--Letter 9, October 12, 1861, a personal testimony.
------------------------The Divine Refiner, October 13
TDG	295	1	And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin. Isaiah 1:25.
TDG	295	2	We will be tried in every way until all the dross and tin are purged from us, and nothing but the pure gold remains. There is a work to be accomplished for you. You must possess deep humility of soul, and war against self and an unyielding will, or you will certainly be ensnared by the enemy.
TDG	295	3	Some who love to hear and tell some new thing have grieved you, have injured you, and you have in your mind censured those who did not deserve censure and been suspicious of those whom you could safely trust. When you take the position you should, then your heart will be strongly knit with your brethren and sisters, and their hearts will be knit with yours; but you have been weaning yourself from your brethren and the cause exists in yourself. You are not willing to be led and instructed. Darkness and clouds are gathering over you. Satan desires you that he may sift you as wheat. He is anxiously watching for your downfall that he may exult over you.
TDG	295	4	God calls His church to be more separate from the world in their dress than you have thought. God is constantly instructing His people to flee from pride of appearance, from love of self, but you are working directly against the Spirit of God in this matter, hence you are walking in darkness and place yourself upon the battlefield of the enemy.
TDG	295	5	I saw that God loves you. The Good Shepherd has tenderly cared for you and preserved you amid your afflictions and sufferings of mind, yet you must yield your will and judgment, and be willing to be taught. None, no not one, can go alone to heaven. God has a people whom He is leading, guiding, and instructing. They must be subject one to another. If one undertakes to go alone, independently, to heaven he will find he has chosen the wrong path that will not lead him to life....
TDG	295	6	I have tried to write this matter as it was presented to me. May you see it as it is, is my prayer, and make sure and thorough work for eternity.--Letter 19, October 13, 1861, a personal testimony.
------------------------The Judgment Is Coming, October 14
TDG	296	1	For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Ecclesiastes 12:14.
TDG	296	2	The Lord is soon to come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. Is there not enough comprehended in the truths which cluster round this event and in the preparation essential for it, to make us think solemnly of our duty? Distinctly and clearly this subject is to be kept before the people. "The Son of man shall come in his glory ...: and before him shall be gathered all nations" (Matthew 25:31, 32).
TDG	296	3	Present the truth that is needed in every church as the means to an end, and that end the judgment, with its eternal decisions and rewards. God will render to every man according to his work. "Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all" (Jude 1:14, 15). And Solomon, when making his appeal and declaration as a preacher of righteousness, presented the prospect of a judgment to come. "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter," he said: "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14).
TDG	296	4	We have an abundance of weighty, solemn truths to proclaim from the Word of God without allowing the mind to devise and plan theories of human nothingness to present to the flock of God as testing truth. What is the chaff to the wheat?
TDG	296	5	The final judgment is a most solemn, awful event. This must take place before the universe. To the Lord Jesus the Father has committed all judgment. He will declare the reward of loyalty to the law of Jehovah. God will be honored and His government vindicated and glorified, and that in the presence of the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds. On the largest possible scale will the government of God be vindicated and exalted. It is not the judgment of one individual or of one nation, but of the whole world. Oh, what a change will then be made in the understanding of all created beings. Then all will see the value of eternal life.--Letter 131, October 14, 1900, to Elder A. G. Daniells.
------------------------The Divine Commission, October 15
TDG	297	1	And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Matthew 28:18, 19.
TDG	297	2	To Christ, and to Christ alone, is given the right of authority over all things. Those who put their trust in Him, and will hold fast the profession of their faith firm unto the end, will be protected. As Christ's disciples, as laborers together with Him, there must be united action among all the laborers. Some are converted to the truth in one way, others are best reached by a different method. So the laborers will act, some in one line, others in another, but all may blend unitedly. To every man is given his work.
TDG	297	3	Those who criticize their fellow workers open a door through which the enemy will enter. What can be more sad than to see brother working against brother, expressing suspicion and doubts of the other's sincerity? There is room enough for all to use their God-given talents. All are laboring with the one object of inspiring belief in the words of inspiration. Then let every one so order his speech and work that he may be in harmony with those who are laboring to the same end as he himself....
TDG	297	4	Let those who are entrusted with the work of teaching the Word of God be sure that they are under the control of Him who has declared, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18). His commission to His disciples includes the words, "Teaching them [all nations] to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Verse 20). No man is authorized to set up his own mind as the standard to which he may compel others to conform....
TDG	297	5	The glorious gospel, God's message of redeeming love, must be brought to the people, and that love is to be revealed in the hearts of the laborers. The theme of saving grace is an antidote for a harsh spirit. The love of Christ in the heart will be expressed in earnest work for the salvation of sinners....
TDG	297	6	Let the gospel be presented as the word of God for life and salvation.... The gospel will be commended by the revelation of a spirit that works by love. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace" (Isaiah 52:7).--Letter 318, October 15, 1906, to the brethren and sisters in Nashville and in Madison.
------------------------Empty of Pride and Self-esteem, October 16
TDG	298	1	As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Colossians 2:6.
TDG	298	2	When our hearts are sanctified by the truth, they will be in unity with the heart of Christ. Says the apostle, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5). Is self-seeking, self-exaltation pressing its way into your soul? Contemplate Jesus your Saviour. Think how He humbled Himself. He was Commander in the heavenly courts, but He laid aside His crown, His kingly robe, and clothed His divinity with humanity, that humanity might touch humanity, and divinity lay hold upon divinity. For the sake of fallen man He humbled Himself.
TDG	298	3	There are some ...who have been standing in their own light. Some have been ready to discover the evil, and talk of the evil, but the good they have seen in their brethren they have not commended. Those who are ready to speak and think evil of their brethren are hurting Christ in the person of His saints. They grieve the heart of Christ, and place their own souls in jeopardy ...
TDG	298	4	Who of us have emptied ourselves of pride and self-esteem? Who of us are really in earnest as was Jacob, who wrestled with the angel with all the energy of his being? Jacob put forth all his strength, supposing that he was wrestling with a lawless opponent, but the Lord put His finger with a divine touch upon him, and the wrestling ceased. Jacob knew that it was the Lord. Then, all broken, he fell upon the neck of the Angel, and held Him, pleading, "Bless me, even me." The Angel said, "Let me go, for the day breaketh."
TDG	298	5	It was now Jacob's turn to make the terms, and he said, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Genesis 32:26-30).
TDG	298	6	I counseled the people to seek the Lord most earnestly.--Manuscript 187, October 16, 1898, diary.
------------------------Lip Service Religion, October 17
TDG	299	1	If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day. Isaiah 58:10.
TDG	299	2	There is a spurious experience that is prevailing now everywhere in regard to the love of Jesus--that we must dwell on the love of Jesus, that faith in Jesus is all we need--but these souls must be instructed that the love of Jesus in the heart will lead to humility of life and obedience to all His commandments. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:4). The love of Jesus that goes no farther than the lips will not save any soul, but be a great delusion.--Manuscript 26, October 17, 1885, "First Visit to Sweden, diary."
TDG	299	3	Some who claim to love Jesus are deceivers and all their religion is lip service. It does not transform the character. It does not reveal the inward working of grace. They do not show that they have ever learned in Christ's school the lessons of meekness and lowliness of heart. They do not show by life or character that they are wearing Christ's yoke or lifting Christ's burdens. They are not reaching the standard given them in God's Word, but a human standard. Their life is not pure like Christ's life. They are not being refined and ennobled by His Spirit. The way of truth they have not known, and they are of that number who will say, "Lord, Lord, open unto us. We have taught in the streets. We have done many wonderful works." But Christ will say of them, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:23).--Ibid.
TDG	299	4	Those who reject the truth of the Bible do it under a pretense of loving Jesus. Those who love Jesus will reveal that love by being obedient children. They will be doers of the Word and not hearers only. They will not be continually pleading, "All that we have to do is to believe in Jesus." This is true in the fullest sense, but they do not comprehend, they do not take it in its fullest sense. To believe in Jesus is to take Him as your Redeemer, as your Pattern. All who love Jesus must follow His example. They must connect themselves with Jesus as closely as the branch is connected with the living vine. They are abiding in Jesus and Jesus is abiding in them and they are doers of His Word, partakers of His divine nature.--Ibid.
------------------------Think on These Things, October 18
TDG	300	1	For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Psalm 1:6.
TDG	300	2	If the mind is educated to contemplate heavenly things, the appetite will not be satisfied with that which is cheap and common. We must bear in mind that the Lord is prepared to do great things for us, but we must be prepared to receive these things by emptying from the heart all self-sufficiency and self-confidence. The Lord alone is to be exalted. "Them that honour me," He says, "I will honour" (1 Samuel 2:30). We need not be on the strain for recognition, for "the Lord knoweth them that are his." Those who do not put confidence in themselves, but look with distrust upon their own work, are the ones to whom the Lord will reveal His glory. They will make the best use of the blessings received. All who drink of the pure streams of Lebanon, will have the water of life springing up in them, and this cannot be repressed....
TDG	300	3	The Lord knows that if we look to man, and trust to man, we are leaning on an arm of flesh. He invites our confidence. There is no limit to His power. Think of the Lord Jesus, and His merits and His love, but do not seek to find the defects and dwell upon the mistakes that others have made. Call to your mind the things worthy of your recognition and your praise; and if you are sharp to discern errors in others, be more sharp to recognize the good and praise the good. You may, if you criticize yourself, find things just as objectionable as that which you see in others. Then let us work constantly to strengthen one another in the most holy faith.
TDG	300	4	In Paul's epistle to the Philippians, he says, "Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:1-6). Let us all make this spirit ours.--Manuscript 187, October 18, 1898, diary.
------------------------Life-Giving Water, October 19
TDG	301	1	Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. John 4:10.
TDG	301	2	This message is meant for us just as surely as for the woman of Samaria. It comes sounding down along the line from age to age, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." Rivet this in your minds. Every soul should awaken to an understanding of his spiritual need....
TDG	301	3	How very many there are that know not the gift of God. They talk of the truth, they talk of heaven and of religion, they talk of faith, but they know it not. They have not an experimental knowledge what faith means, or what it is to trust God, of what it is to drink of the living water of life day by day.
TDG	301	4	Are there any ...that are thirsting for the living water, and feel--O, that I might find it? I look to the right and it is not there, I seek it to the left and I find it not. I look before me, and behind me, and yet I cannot find my Saviour. Do you want to know how to find Him? Come to Him just as needy and dependent as you are, in the simplicity of a little child, in all the confidence that a child has in its parents, and ask your Saviour to pity you in your great necessity. Tell Him that you want the water of salvation....
TDG	301	5	Unless we shall drink of the water that Christ gives, we cannot improve our own situation or of those that are around us. Only by being supplied by that grace which Jesus Christ can give us and is longing to bestow upon us, will the necessities of the souls that are ready to perish be met.
TDG	301	6	It was not because this woman was a Samaritan that she did not know Christ, for He came to save the Samaritans as well as the Jews. With Him there is no caste or special favored people. He came to take away the sins of the world. This He is willing to do for all, Jew or Gentile, and this we must have done for us before we can enter heaven. We must let Him take away our sins because in Him was no sin. He is our sin-bearer.--Manuscript 18, October 19, 1895,.
------------------------How to Face Bereavement, October 20
TDG	302	1	Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Psalm 116:15.
TDG	302	2	I cannot enter into the details of my husband's sickness. You will find the account in print. I was told he was not as well. The doctor said it would be well for me to see him. They carried me into his room and the moment I looked upon him, I said, "My husband is dying." There was the unmistakable signet of death upon his countenance. Oh, how shocked I was. I knelt at his bedside. I prayed most earnestly that he should not die....
TDG	302	3	I was with him all night and the next day at noon he had a chill and from that time he did not sense anything. He just went to sleep....
TDG	302	4	We telegraphed for Willie and Mary to come.... In one week from his death Willie and Mary came; also John White [James White's brother, a Methodist minister]....
TDG	302	5	John White said, "Ellen, I am deeply sorry to see you so feeble. A trying ordeal is before you in the funeral services of the morrow. God help you, my dear sister, God help you on this occasion." Said I, "Brother John, you do not know me. The more trying the situation, the more fortitude I possess. I shall give way to no outbursts of grief, if my heart breaks. I serve God, not impulsively, but intelligently. I have a Saviour who will be to me a very present help in time of trouble. I am a Christian. I know in whom I have believed. He expects from me implicit unwavering submission. Undue grief is displeasing to God. I take up my appointed cross and will follow the Lord fully. I will not give myself to abandonment of grief. I will not yield to a morbid and melancholy state of feeling. I will not complain or murmur at the providence of God. Jesus is my Saviour. He lives. He will never leave me nor forsake me." ...
TDG	302	6	[The next day,] after Elder [Uriah] Smith had given the funeral discourse, I did so long to say something to let all know that the Christian's hope was mine and sustained me in that hour of bereavement, but I feared I could not stand upon my feet. I finally determined to make the trial and the Lord sustained me. The doctor [J.H. Kellogg] stood ready to "catch me," he said, if I fell...but I went through with what I had to say with clearness....
TDG	302	7	I feel grateful to God that I was not left to look for my consolation in the friendship of the world.--Letter 9, October 20, 1881, to "Dear Brother and Sister."
------------------------Channels of Blessing, October 21
TDG	303	1	Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching. Luke 12:37.
TDG	303	2	Those who are truly converted are called to do a work which requires money and consecration. The obligations which bind us to place our names on the church roll hold us responsible to work to the utmost of our ability for God. He calls for undivided service, for the entire devotion of heart, soul, mind, and strength. Christ has brought us into church capacity, that He may engage and engross all our capabilities in devoted service for the salvation of others. Anything short of this is opposition to the work. There are only two places in the universe where we can deposit our treasures--in God's storehouse or in Satan's. And all that is not devoted to God's service is counted on Satan's side, and goes to strengthen his cause.
TDG	303	3	The Lord designs that the means entrusted to us shall be used in building up His kingdom. His goods are committed to His stewards, that they may be carefully traded upon, and bring back a revenue to Him in the saving of souls unto eternal life. And these souls in their turn will become stewards of truth, to cooperate with the great firm in the interests of the kingdom of God.
TDG	303	4	Wherever there is life in the subjects of God's kingdom, there will be increase and growth; there is a constant interchange, taking and giving out, receiving and returning to the Lord His own. God works with every true believer, and the light and blessing received is given out again in the work which the believer does. As he thus gives of that which he has received, his capacity for receiving is increased. As he imparts of the heavenly gifts, he makes room for fresh currents of grace and truth to flow into the soul from the living fountain. Greater light, increased knowledge and blessing, are his. In this work, which devolves upon every church member, is the life and growth of the church.
TDG	303	5	He whose life consists in ever receiving and never giving soon loses the blessing. If truth does not flow forth from him to others, he loses his capacity to receive. We must impart the goods of heaven if we would have fresh blessings.... If men will become channels through which God's blessing can flow to others, the Lord will keep the channel supplied.--Manuscript 139, October 21, 1898, "An Appeal for Missions."
------------------------Do Not Doubt, October 22
TDG	304	1	Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4.
TDG	304	2	It is the privilege of everyone who has a part in any branch of the Lord's work to know that his sins are forgiven, and to rejoice in the assurance of a higher life in the courts above. This hope is more precious than silver or gold or precious stones. Keep this hope ever bright, and seek to impart it to others. In the knowledge that God's smile rests upon you, your heart will be filled with joy and peace.
TDG	304	3	Heed the gracious invitation of Christ; "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
TDG	304	4	Let all seek for that rest which Christ has promised. You are to reveal to the world the truth of His words. You are to show that in wearing the yoke of Christ, there is genuine happiness.
TDG	304	5	Do not, by doubting God's words, dishonor Him. As you believe in Him, He will cooperate with you in your efforts, and in union with Him, you may perform an acceptable work. Through the righteousness that He imparts, you may escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.
TDG	304	6	"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4). O that we might hear more of the praise of God proceeding from thankful hearts. We need Christians who constantly live in the sunshine, who under all circumstances can praise the Lord. With the hope and assurance that Christ has promised, how can we be unhappy?
TDG	304	7	There is no excuse or justification for any Christian to be discontented. Never give the impression that you are disappointed with the way that Christ has marked out for you to follow.
TDG	304	8	Our characters are to be conformed to the image of Christ. In deed and in truth we are to be amenable to the law of God. Then He can demonstrate through us the blessings that come through obedience to the principles of His word. The King of heaven stands ready to acknowledge the humblest soul that serves Him.--Letter 299, October 22, 1905, to the helpers at the Paradise Valley Sanitarium.
------------------------What to Do With Depression, October 23
TDG	305	1	Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God. Psalm 43:5.
TDG	305	2	In the night season I was conversing with you. I was saying to you, ..."Do not give way to depression, but let the comforting influence of the Holy Spirit be welcomed into your heart, to give you comfort and peace."
TDG	305	3	I am praying that the Lord will reveal Himself to you as a personal Comforter. The eyes of the soul must be kept open, in order to recognize the great mercies of our heavenly Father. Jesus is a bright and shining light. Let Him reflect His bright beams into the heart and mind. Do not forget thanksgiving. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me" (Psalm 50:23). Look to Him, and lay before Him all your necessities. Is anything too hard for the Lord? He is the Great Physician. He can heal soul and body, and He would have you take hold of Him in faith. He fully understands the needs of your case. He is a very present help in every time of need. And He is pleased when we show our gratitude to Him.
TDG	305	4	Christ is the light of the world. "Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings" (Malachi 4:2). Let the light of His peace shine into your soul. He has a tender care for you, and you should praise Him with heart and soul and voice. You can please Him by manifesting a cheerful spirit. Let not one cloud of despondency or dissatisfaction hide from you the sunshine of His presence.
TDG	305	5	It is in recognizing His light that you will conquer. You may increase in faith, by exercising the voice in speaking forth the praises of God. To the heart that recognizes Him is the promise, "I am ...the bright and morning star" (Revelation 22:16).
TDG	305	6	If you would obtain precious victories, face the light that emanates from the Sun of Righteousness. Talk hope and faith and thanksgiving to God. Be cheerful, hopeful in Christ. Educate yourself to praise Him. This is a great remedy for diseases of the soul and of the body. "I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God" (Psalm 42:11; 43:5).--Letter 322, October 23, 1906, to the wife of a church leader in Australia.
------------------------Put Self Out of Sight, October 24
TDG	306	1	We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience, and experience, hope. Romans 5:3, 4.
TDG	306	2	The experience gained in the furnace of trial and affliction is worth more than the inconvenience and painful experience it all costs. The prayers you offered in your loneliness, in your weariness and trial, God answered as you could bear it. You did not have clear and correct views of your brethren, neither did you see yourself in a correct light. But in the providence of God, He has been at work to answer the prayers you have offered in your distress in a way to save you and glorify His own name.
TDG	306	3	In your ignorance of yourself, you asked for things which were not the best for you. God hears your prayers of sincerity, but the blessing granted is something very different from your expectations. God designed to place you in His providence in connection with His church more directly, that your confidence should be less in yourself and greater in others whom He is leading out to extend His work....
TDG	306	4	It is God that has led you through straight places. He had a purpose in this, that tribulation might work in you patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. The trials He permitted to come upon you were that through the exercise of these you would experience the peaceable fruits of righteousness....
TDG	306	5	God would lead you through affliction and trials that you might have more perfect trust and confidence in Him and that you might think less of your own judgment. You can bear adversity better than prosperity. The all-seeing eye of Jehovah detected in you much dross that you considered gold and too valuable to throw away. The enemy's power over you had at times been direct and very strong....
TDG	306	6	Your will must be molded by God's will or you will fall into grievous temptations. I saw that when you labor in God, putting self out of sight, you will realize a strength from God which will give you access to hearts....
TDG	306	7	You are not always kindly, considerate of the feelings of others, and you create trials and dissatisfaction, all needlessly. More love in your labors, more kindly sympathy would give you access to hearts and win souls to Christ and the truth.--Letter 54, October 24, 1874, to an early SDA minister.
------------------------Importance of Home Religion, October 25
TDG	307	1	I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. Hebrews 2:13.
TDG	307	2	There is need of constant watchfulness, a daily reconversion, that our individual traits of character shall be wholly sanctified to God. All our powers are to be purified from the dross of sin, and trained for service. There are many who, while professing to be the servants of God, and to be looking for the soon return of Christ, are not having the experience that all must have who stand without fault before God. They are making mistakes in the work of character building. To continue to make these mistakes is a costly business, for they hinder the progress in the divine life.
TDG	307	3	Our religious obligations begin in serving God faithfully in the home life. I am urged to bear earnest testimony to parents in public and private, that they may be led to devote all their powers in sanctified service for Christ. I am instructed to urge upon our people the need of being imbued with the Spirit of God. This Spirit will teach believers to work in harmony with Christ whenever and wherever opportunity offers. As different families among our people have been presented before me, I have been shown their great need of the converting power of God....
TDG	307	4	Religion in the home is of vital importance. Upon fathers and mothers rest to a large degree the responsibility for the mold of character that their children receive.... If parents will teach their children to conduct themselves according to the principles of the Word of God, these children will unconsciously teach others what it means to be Christians. Let parents maintain true Christian dignity before their children, and they will be greatly aided in their work of upbuilding the kingdom of Christ.
TDG	307	5	The apostle Paul, describing the children living in these last days, declares them to be "disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy." It is important that parents realize the tendency of the age, and labor untiringly to educate their children away from those things, preparing them, by teaching them to love and copy the life of Christ, for a place in the future life of holiness.--Letter 90, October 25, 1911, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell.
------------------------The Final Battle, October 26
TDG	308	1	Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. Revelation 16:15.
TDG	308	2	A terrible contest is before us. We are nearing the battle of the great day of God Almighty. That which has been held in control is to be let loose. The angel of mercy is folding its wings, preparing to step down from the golden throne and leave the world to the control of Satan, the king it has chosen, a murderer and a destroyer from the beginning.
TDG	308	3	The principalities and powers of earth are in bitter revolt against the God of heaven. They are filled with hatred against all who serve Him, and soon, very soon, is to be fought the last great battle between good and evil. The earth is to be the battlefield--the scene of the final contest and the final victory. Here, where for so long Satan has led men against God, rebellion is to be forever suppressed.
TDG	308	4	Christ came to this earth in human form that He might stand as the Captain of our salvation, so that we should not be overcome by Satan's power. And when the enemy has seemed to be gaining a signal victory over righteousness, God has been working in mercy and power to counteract his designs.
TDG	308	5	Determined to efface the image of God in man, Satan works with an intensity of effort to hide God from view. Not openly does he work, but secretly, mingling the human and the divine, the spurious and the genuine, so seeking to bring confusion and distress. But in proportionate power divine mercy is revealed to counteract this wicked working, and bring to light the enemy's hidden purposes.
TDG	308	6	God's people are to bear a bold, decided testimony for the truth, unfolding the purposes of God by the witness of pen and voice. In place after place they are to proclaim the message of God's Word, arousing men and women to comprehend the truth....
TDG	308	7	There is a reality in sound doctrine. It is not as a vapor, which passes away. Light is to shine forth from the Word of God. God calls upon His people to draw near to Him. Let no one interpose between Him and His people. Christ is knocking at the door of the heart, seeking for entrance. Will you let Him in?--Letter 153, October 26, 1901, to Brethren and Sisters in Australia.
------------------------We Are in the Enemy's Land, October 27
TDG	309	1	And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Revelation 12:9.
TDG	309	2	As the Lord's people show their determination to follow the light that the Lord has given, the enemy will bring all his powers to bear to discourage them. But they are not to give up because of the difficulties that arise when they try to follow the counsel of the Lord. God has given us His work to do, and if we comply with His requirements, we shall be blessed....
TDG	309	3	The enemy is actively at work, as you will see as you travel on his territory, opening the Word of God to the people. As the last message of mercy is proclaimed by human lips, Satan will try to storm his way to the front. But he cannot prevail against Christ. As we present the truth that shows the people the evil of his delusions, his anger will be aroused, and he will do all in his power to hinder our efforts. But continue to present a "Thus saith the Lord, "remembering that God is your helper. Do not give the enemy the right of way....
TDG	309	4	Satan was once the most glorious angel in the heavenly courts. But he allowed a desire for supremacy to take possession of him, and he was expelled from heaven. He came to this earth, and entered with great zeal into commercialism. And unless we stand loyal and true by the side of Prince Emmanuel, we shall be ensnared....
TDG	309	5	In the future, strange things will happen. I tell you this so that you may not be surprised at what takes place. We shall all need to maintain a close connection with the Lord. The end is much nearer than when we first believed....
TDG	309	6	Under the leadership of Satan there are men who today are doing all in their power to plunge the world into commercial strife. Thus Satan is trying to bring about a condition of things that will make the world uncivilized. He desires to see strange things acted out, which God, who is too wise to err, has not ordained. But the Lord, yes, our God, will be Ruler of the heavens and the earth. If men and women will carry out His requirements, it will be seen that He is Ruler, carrying out His divine will.--Letter 114, October 27, 1910, to Elder A. G. Daniells, president of the General Conference.
------------------------Childlike Faith, October 28
TDG	310	1	Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3.
TDG	310	2	Jesus is your best Friend. Live by daily faith on the Son of God. Let your course of action be such that God can approve. Then you will be a blessing to others.... Do not outgrow the simple faith and trust of your childhood. When sick, your first request was, "Father, Mother, pray that the Lord will heal me and forgive my sins." When prayer was offered in your behalf, you made your simple prayer and thanked the Lord He had heard and answered, and with perfect faith and confidence you said, "I shall get well. The Lord has blessed me." You slept in perfect peace, in confidence that holy angels would guard your bed.
TDG	310	3	Be a child again. Cast all your burdens and sorrows on Him who alone can give rest to the weary heart and peace to the troubled soul. If you would learn anew the precious secret of happiness in this life and how you may attain the future, immortal life, be assured you must again be a child in trust, in obedience, in love. If you only do your duty bravely, yet cheerfully, as a happy child of God, you will reflect rays of sunshine upon others.
TDG	310	4	I charge you as one who knows, look up to God with the simple faith you had in your childhood and say, "Father, I am weary, give me rest. Unite my ignorance to Thy wisdom, my weakness to Thy strength, my frailty to Thy enduring might. Shield me with Thy protecting hand in life's conflicts. Save me from the vigilant foe who haunts my steps." Then believe, my son, and you will realize even more than you expected.
TDG	310	5	Our only safety now is to live a life of faith and good works. Your heavenly Father knows your every trial. He is acquainted with all your infirmities. He will be to you an ever present help in time of need and He will withhold no good thing from them that fear and love Him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Our compassionate Saviour will never be indifferent to any pain or sorrow or grief His children suffer....
TDG	310	6	All that you lose and all that you gain, prosperity and adversity, let it make you more like Jesus, the divine Pattern. Your happiness will be secured in preserving your childlike trust, cherishing always the beauty and loveliness of a meek and quiet spirit.--Letter 56, October 28, 1874, to Edson White.
------------------------Spirit-Led Christians, October 29
TDG	311	1	The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Psalm 19:7.
TDG	311	2	In this age of controversy, many of those upon whom the light of the Saviour's self-sacrificing life is clearly shining, will not live in accordance with heavenly principles. They desire to make a different showing than Christ made. To counteract the influence of these men, we must uplift the Christian standard, for many have turned away from Christlike principles. Truth and righteousness have lost their full meaning to them....
TDG	311	3	When the Holy Spirit works human minds, there will be a much higher standard in speech, in ministry, and in spirituality in our churches than is now seen. Then our church members will be refreshed by the waters of life, and the laborers, working under the one Head, Christ, will reveal their Master in word, in spirit, in every form of ministry, and will encourage one another in the grand, closing work in which they are engaged. There will be a healthful increase of unity and love, which will bear testimony to the world that God has sent His Son for our redemption. There will be a pruning of the branches of the vine, and a bringing forth of much fruit. The branches that bear not the precious fruit of the Spirit--Christlike words and deeds--will be cut off from the parent stock. Divine truth will be exalted, and, as it shines forth as a lamp that burneth, we shall understand it more and still more fully.
TDG	311	4	Those who hold the truth in righteousness will arouse, and put on the gospel shoes. Their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, they will make no false paths in which the lame would be turned out of the way.
TDG	311	5	God requires every man to stand free, and to follow the directions of the Word. In every movement Christ's followers are to reveal their regard for Christian principles--loving God supremely, and their neighbors as themselves; reflecting light and blessing on the pathway of those who are in darkness; comforting those who are cast down; sweetening the bitter waters in the place of giving their fellow pilgrims gall to drink.... We are to have a pure, growing Christianity. In the heavenly courts we are to be pronounced complete in Christ.--Manuscript 83, October 29, 1903, "Christ Our Example in Medical Missionary Work."
------------------------Satan Is Not Dead, October 30
TDG	312	1	I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil. John 17:15.
TDG	312	2	Satan is not dead or palsied, and he prepares minds by degrees to become imbued with his spirit, and to work after the same manner as he works against those who bear responsibilities in the work of God for these last days. In the future Satan's last exploits will be carried out with more power than ever before. He has learned much, and he is full of scientific scheming to make of no effect the work that is under the supervision of the One who came to the Isle of Patmos to educate John, and to give him instruction to be given to the churches....
TDG	312	3	Every ingenious device will be used, every possible method taken advantage of, to lead men to live a lie, that the truth shall not stand as God designed it to stand, to prepare a people, through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, to stand firm as a rock to principle....
TDG	312	4	There are those who do not humble their hearts before God, and who will not walk uprightly. They hide their true purposes, and keep in fellowship with the fallen angel, who loveth and maketh a lie. The enemy puts his spirit upon the men whom he can use to deceive those who are partially in the dark....
TDG	312	5	"Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered" (Isaiah 29:9, 10). A spiritual drunkenness is upon many who suppose they are the people who shall be exalted. Their religious faith is just as is represented in this scripture. Under its influence, they cannot walk straight.... They are scientific schemers, and those who could and should have helped, because of a clear spiritual eyesight, are themselves deceived, and are sustaining an evil work.
TDG	312	6	The developments of these last days will soon become decided. When these spiritualistic deceptions are revealed to be what they really are--the secret workings of evil spirits--those who have acted a part in them will become as men who have lost their minds.--Letter 311, October 30, 1905, to Brethren Daniells and Prescott and their associates.
------------------------Just Rest in the Lord, October 31
TDG	313	1	I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Psalm 37:25.
TDG	313	2	I am much grieved because you are sick and suffering. But cling to Him whom you have loved and served these many years. He gave His own life for the world, and He loves every one who trusts in Him. He sympathizes with those who suffer under the depression of disease. He feels every pang of anguish that His loved ones feel. Just rest in His arms, and know that He is your Saviour, and your very best Friend, and that He will never leave nor forsake you. He has been your dependence for many years, and your soul may rest in hope.
TDG	313	3	You will come forth with other faithful ones who have believed in Him, to praise Him with a voice of triumph. All you are expected to do is to rest in His love. Do not worry. Jesus loves you, and now when you are weak and suffering, He holds you in His arms, just as a loving father holds a little child. Trust in Him in whom you have believed. Has He not loved and cared for you all through your lifetime? Just rest in the precious promises given you.
TDG	313	4	The great plan of mercy from the beginning of time is to have every afflicted soul trust in His love. Your safety at the present time, when your mind is tortured with doubt, is not to trust in feeling, but in the living God. All He asks of you is to put your trust in Him, acknowledging Him as your faithful Saviour, who loves you, and has forgiven you all your mistakes and errors....
TDG	313	5	I am instructed to say to you, He has pardoned all your sins, and put upon you the white robe of His righteousness. All He requires of you now is to rest in His love. He has you in His keeping. You have fought the battles of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have kept the faith, and henceforth there is laid up for you a crown of life, to be your reward in that day when life and immortality shall be given to all who have kept the faith and have not denied the Saviour's name.
TDG	313	6	That your mind is clouded is no evidence that Christ is not your precious Saviour. Now that the childhood of age has come upon you, He regards you as no less His child.... Rest in Christ's love, my sister.... Trust the One who has helped you in the past to hold fast to the faith.--Letter 299, October 31, 1904, to "My Dear Aged Sister" (Hare).
------------------------Know for Yourself, November 1
TDG	314	1	Among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. John 12:42, 43.
TDG	314	2	There is much light yet to shine forth from the law of God and the gospel of righteousness. This message, understood in its true character, and proclaimed in the Spirit, will lighten the earth with its glory. The great decisive question is to be brought before all nations, tongues, and peoples. The closing work of the third angel's message will be attended with a power that will send the rays of the Sun of Righteousness into all the highways and byways of life, and decisions will be made for God as supreme Governor; His law will be looked upon as the rule of His government.
TDG	314	3	Many who claim to believe the truth will change their opinions in times of peril, and will take the side of the transgressors of God's law in order to escape persecution. There will be great humbling of heart before God on the part of everyone who remains faithful and true to the end. But Satan will so work upon the unconsecrated elements of the human mind that many will not accept the light in God's appointed way....
TDG	314	4	There is positive danger that some who profess to believe the truth will be found in a position similar to that of the Jews. They take the ideas of the men they are associated with, not because by searching the Scriptures they conscientiously accept the teachings in doctrine as truth. I entreat you to make God your trust; idolize no man, depend upon no man. Let not your love of man hold them in places of trust that they are not qualified to fill to the glory of God, for man is finite and erring, liable to be controlled by his own opinions and feelings. Self-esteem and self-righteousness are coming in upon us, and many will fall because of unbelief and unrighteousness, for the grace of Christ is not ruling in the hearts of many. We are to be ever searching for the truth as for hidden treasures....
TDG	314	5	I have been shown that Jesus will reveal to us precious old truths in a new light, if we are ready to receive them; but they must be received in the very way in which the Lord shall choose to send them.--Manuscript 15, November 1, 1888, "A Call to a Deeper Study of the Word."
------------------------Things Wrought by Prayer, November 2
TDG	315	1	Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Hebrews 10:22.
TDG	315	2	There can be no true prayer without true faith. "Without faith it is impossible to please him" (Hebrews 11:6). Prayer and faith are the arms by which the soul hangs upon the neck of infinite love, and grasps the hand of infinite power. God does not recognize dumb children, as far as experience in His truth is concerned. Faith is an active, working power. The newborn faith in Christ is revealed by prayer and praise. Prayer is a relief and a comfort to the troubled soul. The sincere, humble suppliant at the throne of grace may know that he is communing with God, through the divinely appointed means, and that it is his privilege to understand what God is to the believing soul. We must have a realization of our needs. We must hunger and thirst after life in Christ and through Christ. Then we shall come to Him in humility and sincerity, and He will give us the faith that works by love and purifies the soul....
TDG	315	3	Christ gave Himself willingly and cheerfully to the carrying out of the will of God. "He ...became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:8). In view of all that He has done, should we feel it a hardship to deny ourselves? Shall we draw back from being partakers of Christ's sufferings? His death ought to stir every fiber of our beings, making us willing to consecrate to His work all that we have and are.
TDG	315	4	As we think of what He has done for us, our hearts should be filled with gratitude and love, and we should renounce all selfishness and sin. What duty could the heart refuse to perform, under the constraining influence of the love of God and Christ? "I am crucified with Christ," the apostle Paul declared: "nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).
TDG	315	5	Let us relate ourselves to God in self-denying, self-sacrificing obedience. Faith in Christ always leads to willing, cheerful obedience. He died to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. There is to be perfect conformity, in thought, word, and deed, to the will of God. Heaven is only for those who have purified their souls through obedience to the truth.--Letter 301, November 2, 1904, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell.
------------------------Shining Christians, November 3
TDG	316	1	Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 1 Thessalonians 5:5.
TDG	316	2	To know God is to trust Him fully. Oh, what sentiments men entertain of God today! Men need to be restored to God and to themselves. It is so hard for men to see their own motives and judge correctly of their own spirits, so hard for men to acknowledge frankly from the heart, like David, "I have sinned. I have had a spirit unlike Christ."
TDG	316	3	The men who have had the greatest power in our world have lived in the light reflected from the cross of Calvary. They have poured out their confessions from hearts filled with sorrow because of their errors and wrongs. They have not paraded their goodness, their smartness, and their ability before God, but have said, "In my hands no price I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling." ...
TDG	316	4	Christians indeed are opposed to display. In proportion as they are Christians they are clothed with humility, and this very grace makes them a light in contrast with darkness. If we are Christians we will not seek to be praised or exalted of men, and we will not be drawn away from the work by bribes or any flattering inducement. Christians will not be driven from their post of duty by fear or by reproach, by accusation, hatred, or persecution.
TDG	316	5	Jesus says, "Ye are the light of the world.... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:14, 16). There are some who will observe the example and feel the influence of a consistent Christian life. Jesus does not bid the Christian to strive to shine, but just to let his light shine in clear and distinct rays to the world. Do not blanket your light. Do not sinfully withhold your light. Do not let the mist and fog and malaria of the world put out your light. Do not hide it under a bed or under a bushel, but set in on a candlestick, that it may give light to all that are in the house. Neither take pains to exalt yourself to shine nor go into the cave as did Elijah in his discouragement, but come out, stand with God and shine. God bids you shine, penetrating the moral darkness of the world. Be the salt, the savor of men.--Manuscript 40, November 3, 1890, "The Vision at Salamanca."
------------------------As for Hidden Treasure, November 4
TDG	317	1	They received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Acts 17:11.
TDG	317	2	My husband, Elder Joseph Bates, Father Pierce, Elder Edson, a man who was keen, noble, and true, and many others whose names I cannot now recall, were among those who, after the passing of the time in 1844 [October 22], searched for truth. At our important meetings these men would meet together and search for the truth as for hidden treasure.
TDG	317	3	I met with them, and we studied and prayed earnestly, for we felt that we must learn God's truth. Often we remained together until late at night, and sometimes through the entire night, praying for light, and studying the Word. As we fasted and prayed, great power came upon us. But I could not understand the reasoning of the brethren. My mind was locked, as it were, and I could not comprehend what we were studying. Then the Spirit of God would come upon me, I would be taken off in vision, and a clear explanation of the passages we had been studying would be given me, with instruction as to the position we were to take regarding truth and duty.
TDG	317	4	A line of truth extending from that time to the time when we shall enter the city of God, was plainly marked out before me, and I gave my brethren and sisters the instruction that the Lord had given me. They knew that, when not in vision, I could not understand these matters, and they accepted as light direct from Heaven the revelations given me. The leading points of our faith as we hold them today were firmly established. Point after point was clearly defined, and all the brethren came into harmony.
TDG	317	5	The whole company of believers were united in the truth. There were those who came in with strange doctrines, but we were never afraid to meet them. Our experience was wonderfully established by the revelation of the Holy Spirit....
TDG	317	6	It was some time after my second son was born [1849] that we were in great perplexity regarding certain points of doctrine. I was asking the Lord to unlock my mind, that I might understand His Word. Suddenly I seemed to be enshrouded in clear, beautiful light, and ever since, the Scriptures have been an open book to me--Manuscript 135, November 4, 1903, "Establishing the Foundation of Our Faith."
------------------------Perfect--As He Is, November 5
TDG	318	1	Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
TDG	318	2	As becomes beings to whom the Lord God has given the faculties of reason and of action, we should use our powers in accordance with the divine purpose. God desires to be honored and glorified in the work of His hands. Every human being will have to give an account to God for the way in which he has used his entrusted talents. We are under obligation to use our powers aright that we may be qualified for eternal life in the kingdom of God. God demands perfection from every human being. We are to be perfect in this life of humanity, even as God is perfect in His divine character.
TDG	318	3	God made every provision in man's behalf, creating him only a little lower than the angels. Adam disobeyed, and entailed sin upon his posterity. But God gave His only begotten Son for the redemption of the race. Christ took on Him the nature of man, and passed over the ground where Adam fell, to be tested and tried as all human beings are tested and tried. Satan came to Him as an angel of light to induce him, if possible, to commit sin, and thus place the human race entirely under the dominion of evil. But Christ was victorious. Satan was defeated, and the race was placed on vantage ground with God.
TDG	318	4	When the Father gave His Son to live and die for man, He placed all the treasures of heaven at our disposal. There is no excuse for sin. God has given us all the advantages He possibly could give, that we may have strength to withstand the temptations of the enemy. Had man, when tested and tried, followed the example of Christ, he would have given his children and his children's children an example of steadfast purity and righteousness, and the race would not have deteriorated, but improved....
TDG	318	5	Many act in this our day as though this were a matter of small importance. But had the human family, even after the fall of Adam, worked according to the example of Christ, every father and every mother would leave their children an example of how to conduct themselves so as to fulfill their obligations to God, then the world would have been as Eden. The earth, now a desert of sin, would have rejoiced and blossomed as the rose.--Letter 143, November 5, 1900, to Elder McClure, a minister in California.
------------------------Dallying With Sin, November 6
TDG	319	1	And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire. Mark 14:54.
TDG	319	2	No one should venture or presume upon the mercy of God, feeling at liberty to sin as much as they dare, and not abandon the hope that God will finally pardon and save. It is a sad resolve to follow Christ as far off as possible, venturing as near the verge of perdition as possible without falling in.
TDG	319	3	It was a great sacrifice Christ made for man in dying for him upon the cross. What are we willing to sacrifice for His love? Jesus says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15)--not to select out one or two or nine, but the whole ten--all His commandments must be kept. John tells us of those who pretend to love but do not obey God's requirements. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:4). "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous" (chap. 5:3)....
TDG	319	4	Jesus was among the lowly of the earth. He did not take His position by the side of the learned rabbis or the rulers. He was not found among the potentates of earth, but among the lowly ones. The truth was never found among the majority. It was ever found among the minority.
TDG	319	5	The angels from heaven did not come to the school of the prophets and sing their anthems over the temple or synagogues, but they went to the men who were humble enough to receive the message. They sang the glad tidings of a Saviour over Bethlehem's plains, while the great men, the rulers, and honorable men were left in darkness, because they were perfectly satisfied with their position and felt no need of a piety greater than that which they possessed....
TDG	319	6	Great men and professedly very good men may do terrible deeds in their bigotry and self-exalted position, and flatter themselves that they are doing God service. It will not do to rely upon them. Truth, Bible truth, you and I want at any cost. Like the noble Bereans, we want to search the Scriptures daily, with earnest prayer, to know what is truth, and then obey the truth at any cost to ourselves, without reference to the great men or good men.--Letter 35, November 6, 1877, to Caroline Clough, a non-Adventist relative.
------------------------Heaven in Your Heart, November 7
TDG	320	1	For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother. Mark 3:35.
TDG	320	2	A pure fountain will not send forth an impure stream, neither will a true Christian utter words of abuse, or enter into contention with those around him. When we set our hearts on God, we shall have a constant battle to fight, for we have the enemy of all righteousness to contend with. In every conceivable way he will seek to discourage us and cast us down. The world stands opposed to Christ and His work. But those who are striving to do the will of God have this consolation--they are united with the highest authorities of heaven. Trusting in Christ, and advancing step by step, the children of God will gain the victory.
TDG	320	3	If we desire a place in the world to come, we must bring our will into subjection to the will of God. We must follow the light that shines upon our pathway....
TDG	320	4	Let no one think that, while he is living in transgression, he will be allowed to enter the gates of the holy city. Those who, when Christ comes, are in rebellion against God will not be admitted to the courts above. No rebel will enter heaven.
TDG	320	5	Daily we are to be preparing for the kingdom of glory. God's standard is to test our character. If we endure the test, we shall be given a place among the redeemed. We must bring heaven into our hearts, into the daily life. Christ is an all-powerful helper, and those who follow Him will not walk in darkness, but will understand the thoughts of heaven. They will understand the voice of the true Shepherd, and will walk in obedience.
TDG	320	6	We must search the Scriptures for ourselves. As we search them as for hidden treasure, the truths that we find will give us strength to stand in the day of God. God holds us responsible for those around us. There are sinners to save, souls to be won. Shall we allow iniquity to separate us from Christ, from the work that He has given us? Let each one of us say, I will not disappoint the Saviour. He shall not have died for me in vain. I want to praise Him through all eternity. I must have heaven at any cost.
TDG	320	7	Would you see the King in His beauty? Would you stand around the great white throne? Then you must obey God's commandments, because none will enter heaven who refuse to accept the law of Jehovah as the rule of life.--Manuscript 31, November 7, 1886, "Giving Up Our Will for God's Will" (sermon at Torre Pelice, Italy).
------------------------Stewards of God's Grace, November 8
TDG	321	1	Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian. Exodus 3:1.
TDG	321	2	Moses spent forty years as a shepherd of flocks to prepare him to understand himself and to purify himself by emptying himself that the Lord could accomplish His will in him. The Lord did not take for His workmen mere machines in intellect or feelings. Both are essential to do the work, but these human elements of character must be purged from defects, not by talking of the will of God, but by doing His will. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine" (John 7:17). Moses was under training to God. He endured a long process of mental training to fit him to be leader of the armies of Israel.
TDG	321	3	Inspiration will come to men of God's appointment, but not to any man who retains a high idea of his own mental superiority. For every man whom God will use to do His will must have humble ideas of himself, and must seek in persevering earnestness for light. God will not require any man to become a novice and to sink down into a voluntary humility, and become more and more incapacitated. God calls upon every one with whom He works, to do the very highest kind of thinking and praying and hoping and believing.
TDG	321	4	Many have, as had Moses, very much to unlearn in order to learn the very lessons that they need to learn. He had need to be self-trained by severest mental and moral discipline, and God wrought with him before he could be fitted to train others in mind and heart. He had been instructed in the Egyptian courts. Nothing was left as unnecessary to train him to become a general of armies. The false theories of the idolatrous Egyptians had been instilled into his mind, and the influences surrounding him and things his eyes looked upon could not be easily shaken off or corrected. Thus it is with many who have had a false training in any line. All the idolatrous rubbish of heathen lore must be removed, bit by bit, item by item, from Moses' mind. Jethro helped him in many things to a correct faith, as far as he himself understood. He was working upward toward the light, when he could see God in singleness of heart....
TDG	321	5	God has done everything for us. What have we done? Shall we become faithful stewards of His grace?--Manuscript 45, November 8, 1890, "At Sands [now Stanley], Virginia," diary.
------------------------Follow on to Know the Lord, November 9
TDG	322	1	Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Acts 9:6.
TDG	322	2	Those who are striving to be overcomers will be pursued by the temptations of the enemy. Satan will tempt them to corrupt the principles which all must maintain who would reach the high standard that God has set before them. Satan rejoices when he can lead souls to follow mistaken ideas, until their names are blotted out of the book of life and recorded among the names of the unjust. We can overcome only in the way that Christ overcame--by wholehearted obedience to every commandment of God. True religion is obedience to all the commandments of God.
TDG	322	3	Every soul who is saved must surrender his own plans, and follow where Christ leads the way. The understanding must be yielded up to Christ for Him to cleanse and refine and purify. This will always be done when we receive aright the teachings of Christ. O, how much we need a more intimate acquaintance with Him! We need to enter into His purpose, and to carry out His will, saying with the whole heart, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" ...
TDG	322	4	The child of God is to reach out for higher and still higher attainments. He is to confess every sin, that by his example others may be helped to confess their sins and cherish the faith that works by love to purify the soul. He is to be constantly on guard, never standing still, never turning back, but ever pressing on to the mark of the high calling of God in Christ....
TDG	322	5	We should keep ever before us the fact that time is short. Iniquity is increasing on every hand. The righteous are set as lights in the world. Through them the glory of God is to be revealed to the world. Keep ever before you the solemn events of the future--the great review of the judgment and the coming of Christ. You with your family are to prepare for that day....
TDG	322	6	Follow on day by day to know the Lord, rejoicing that it is your privilege to say at His coming, as you stand with His faithful, waiting children, "This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: ...we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation" (Isaiah 25:9).--Letter 92, November 9, 1911, to a husband and wife.
------------------------Heaven Is Open to Us, November 10
TDG	323	1	And he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed. Genesis 28:11, 12.
TDG	323	2	Jacob was afflicted because he had made a mistake in his life. He was cast down to the very depths. Alone, weary, dispirited, tortured by the recollections of his past errors, and overwhelmed with apprehensions for the future, he laid him down to rest, his head pillowed upon a stone. Had Jacob's conscience been clear, his heart would have been strong in God. But he knew his present perplexities, his fears and trials, were in consequence of his sins. This reflection is what embittered his life. Jacob was repentant, yet he did not feel easy under the wrong he had done. Through tribulation and through physical and mental suffering he could only have hope to find his way again to the favor of God.
TDG	323	3	He lay down in sadness, with a heavy heart, repenting and yet fearing. He expected that new trials would meet him on the morrow as he pursued his weary way.
TDG	323	4	There was no friend nigh to speak a comforting word to Jacob, no one to tell him he had in his sincere repentance done what he could. But God's eye was upon His servant. He sent His angels to reveal to him a ladder of brightness reaching from the earth to the highest heavens, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon this glorious ladder, which showed Jacob the connection and intercourse constantly going on between the two worlds. When Jacob awoke his difficulties had not vanished entirely, but he had such confidence in God that he was comforted. In humble gratitude of heart he adores his Saviour and especially honors even his stony pillow.
TDG	323	5	Oh, the wonderful condescension of God! He is ever ready to meet us, even in our infirmities, and to encourage us by His presence, when we have done all on our part to make an entire surrender to Him. Heaven is open to man. God will be entreated to do these things for us. The future may seem dark before you, but God lives....
TDG	323	6	Break down every barrier and let the Saviour into your heart. Let self die. Surrender your will and die to self now, just now, and leave God to make your way for you.--Letter 29, November 10, 1879, to Edson White.
------------------------All Truth Radiates From Christ, November 11
TDG	324	1	No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. Luke 8:16.
TDG	324	2	We are not to follow human leading. Christ is our Leader. At all times and in all places, in every time of need, we shall find Him a present help. Because there are those professing to be Christians who dishonor Christ in thought, word, and deed, we are to give plainer evidence than ever before of our completeness in Him. We are to walk in the light of His countenance. We can each show that Christ is light, and that in Him is no darkness at all. If we will submit to His guidance, He will lead us from the low level on which sin has left us to the loftiest heights of grace. We are not to darken our lives by talking of our own imperfections or of the imperfections of others. We are to be all light in the Lord.
TDG	324	3	From Christ all truth radiates. Apart from Christ, science is misleading, and philosophy is foolishness. Those who are separated from the Saviour will advance theories that originate with the wily foe. Christ's life stands out as the contrast of all false science, all erroneous theories, all misleading methods.
TDG	324	4	Pretenders will arise with theories that have no foundation in the Word of God. We are to hold aloft the banner bearing the inscription, The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. We are to hold the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end. Let no one attempt to dilute truth with a mixture of sophistry. Let no one attempt to tear down the foundation of our faith, or to spoil the pattern by bringing into the web threads of human devising. Not one thread of pantheism is to be drawn into the web. Sensuality, ruinous to soul and body, is always the result of drawing these threads into the web.
TDG	324	5	"Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breast-plate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do" (1 Thessalonians 5:8-11).--Letter 249, November 11, 1903, to P. T. Magan and E. A. Sutherland, educators leading out in the establishing of Emmanuel Missionary College.
------------------------Into All the World, November 12
TDG	325	1	Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, ...even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Isaiah 56:6, 7.
TDG	325	2	The glad tidings of salvation are to be taken to those who have not yet heard them. Satan is determined to place God's people in a false light before the world. He is pleased when their lives reveal defects, when they cherish objectionable traits of character. These traits of character he uses in his service. He tries to keep God's people in a continual state of uncertainty by bringing in false theories and false science. He seeks to deceive them as he deceived Adam and Eve. He would lead them to depart from God, their true Counselor, and accept his spiritualistic sophistries. With these sophistries clothed in the garments of light, he seeks to deceive if possible the very elect.
TDG	325	3	Many yield to his temptations, and the time and influence of God's servants, which should be used in making known to unbelievers the truth for this time, is used in efforts to recover professing believers from Satan's snares. Thus the way of the advancement of the truth is blocked. It is no easy matter to clear the King's highway while men trust in themselves, and make flesh their arm....
TDG	325	4	To all who will do justice and judgment, keeping their hand from doing any evil, the promise is, "Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off" (Isaiah 56:5).
TDG	325	5	Among the people of God there is to be no colonizing. The word of the Lord to them is, "Thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left" (chap. 54:3). They are to make plants in all places. Everywhere the truth for this time is to be proclaimed. Those into whose hearts the light has shone are to remember that they are God's workmen, His witnesses. To serve and honor Him is to be their science. They are to call upon others to keep His commandments, and live. Obedience to the law of God is the question that is to test the world....
TDG	325	6	To all peoples and nations and kindreds and tongues the truth is to be proclaimed. The time has come for much aggressive work to be done in the cities and in all neglected, unworked fields.--Letter 263, November 12, 1903, to physicians and nurses.
------------------------No Time for Strife, November 13
TDG	326	1	Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. Romans 5:18.
TDG	326	2	In much of the service professedly done for God, there is self-emulation and self-exultation. God hates pretense. When men and women receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they will confess their sins, and, pardon, which means justification, will be given them. But the wisdom of the human agents who are not penitent, not humbled, is not to be depended on, for they are blinded in regard to the meaning of righteousness and sanctification through the truth. When men are stripped of self-righteousness, they will see their spiritual poverty. Then they will approach that state of brotherly kindness that will show that they are in sympathy with Christ. They will be able to appreciate the high and elevated character of the work of Christian missions....
TDG	326	3	Many are readily satisfied with offering the Lord trifling acts of service. Their Christianity is feeble. Christ gave Himself for sinners. With what anxiety for the salvation of souls we should be filled as we see human beings perishing in sin. These souls have been bought with a price.
TDG	326	4	The death of the Son of God on Calvary's cross is the measure of their value. Day by day they are deciding a question of life and death, deciding whether they will have eternal life or eternal destruction. And yet men and women professing to serve the Lord are content to occupy their time and attention with matters of little importance. They are content to be at variance with one another. If they were consecrated to the work of the Master, they would not be striving and contending like a family of unruly children. Every hand would be engaged in service. Everyone would be standing at his post of duty, working with heart and soul as missionaries of the cross of Christ. The Spirit of Christ would abide in the hearts of laborers, and works of righteousness would be wrought. The workers would carry with them into their service the sympathies and prayers of an awakened church. They would receive their orders from Christ, and would find no time for contention or strife.--Letter 173, November 13, 1902, to those assembled in council at Battle Creek.
------------------------Let Christ Be Your Light, November 14
TDG	327	1	Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14.
TDG	327	2	God calls upon all who have been drinking of the water of life to lead others to the fountain.... "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star" (Revelation 22:16). Christ is to be your light. Christ is to be your sufficiency and power. Christ is the root, and He sustains every branch by His power....
TDG	327	3	Every converted soul has a work to do. We are to receive grace in order to freely give grace. We are to let the light shine forth from the bright and morning star, to shed forth light in works of self-denial and self-sacrifice, following the example that Christ has given us in His own life and character. We are to draw from the root that substance that will enable us to bear much fruit. Every soul who has heard the divine invitation is to echo the message from hill to valley, saying to those with whom he comes in contact, "Come." ...
TDG	327	4	The love of Jesus in the heart will always be revealed in tender compassion for the souls of those for whom Christ paid so dear a price. "Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.... And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight" (1 John 3:18-22). There is no such thing as a loveless Christian....
TDG	327	5	Every true believer catches the beams from the Morning Star and transmits the light to those who sit in darkness. Not only do they shine amid the darkness of their own neighborhood, but as a church they shine forth to regions beyond. The Lord expects every man to do his duty. Every one who unites with the church is to be one with Christ to diffuse the beams of the Morning Star, and becoming the light of the world, Christ and His people are to be copartners in the great work of saving the world.--Manuscript 51, November 14, 1894,.
------------------------Present Advantages and Future Benefits, November 15
TDG	328	1	Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2.
TDG	328	2	We should ever cherish feelings of gratitude to those who have shown us favors in times of need. But these feelings that are so readily called into exercise by the kindness and disinterestedness of our friends should respond to the love and compassion of our benevolent heavenly Friend.... The friendship expressed by nearest and dearest relatives and friends is so far surpassed by the revelation of Jesus Christ that the former is dumb and expressionless when compared with the latter. It is natural that the heart should entertain sentiments of the warmest affection toward those who have done or suffered something for us.
TDG	328	3	Let me lead you to the scene of the crucifixion and show you the Son of God dying in your stead. Will not the spectacle of the cross of Christ awaken every feeling of gratitude? Will it not sweep away the coldness and indifference which steels the senses to the great sacrifice made in our behalf? ...
TDG	328	4	Satan, the adversary of souls, is constantly at work with his devices and enchantments, stealing away the senses and deadening the feelings to our highest interest. To all the little matters of life the affections are given free play, but in eternal interest the affections are trammeled, bound as by magical cords....
TDG	328	5	There are so many who endure privation and pursue at considerable sacrifice a course which promises advantages in the future. They forego present comfort for a future inducement as an equivalent, but here Jesus presents eternal life as the reward of obedience, and if paltry things of earthly gain will be sacrificed for some future good, how much more should ease, pleasure, and present worldly advantages be sacrificed for the incomparable riches and glory of the future immortal life. Let not the sorcery of earthly enchantments steal the affections from God and harden the heart to eternal interest. Look at the things that are unseen. Enshrine Jesus in the heart. Love Him with your whole soul.--Letter 15a, November 15, 1871, to Edson and Emma White. Edson was 22 and Emma was 23.
------------------------Our Refuge and Strength, November 16
TDG	329	1	God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.... The Lord of hosts is with us. Psalm 46:1-11.
TDG	329	2	Faith is not the ground of our salvation, but it is the great blessing--the eye that sees, the ear that hears, the feet that run, the hand that grasps. It is the means, not the end....
TDG	329	3	We have every encouragement that, if we daily surrender our wills to God, the promise will be fulfilled, "And of his fulness have we all received, and grace for grace" (John 1:16). Every revealing of the grace of Christ in our behalf is for us. We are to reveal His grace in our lives, in thought, word, and deed. Let us not lose our opportunity to speak and act Christ Jesus. We are to represent the mercy, the love, and the power of Christ--the power that He has given us....
TDG	329	4	Were it not for the power received through Christ, we would have no strength. But Christ has all power. "Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:18-20).
TDG	329	5	Here is our power, our comfort. Of ourselves, we have no strength. But He says, "I am with you alway," helping you to perform your duty, guiding, comforting, sanctifying, and sustaining you, giving you success in speaking words that will draw the attention of others to Christ, and awaken in their minds the desire to understand the hope and meaning of the truth, turning them from darkness to light and from the power of sin to God.
TDG	329	6	It is a wonderful thought that human beings can speak the Word of God, in simple words of comfort and encouragement. The humblest instruments will be used of God to sow the seeds of truth, which may spring up and bear fruit, because the one in whose heart they were sown needed help--a kind thought, a kind word, made effective by the One who has said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."--Letter 329a, November 16, 1905, to her 19-year-old granddaughter Mabel.
------------------------Our Special Work, November 17
TDG	330	1	And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Revelation 22:17.
TDG	330	2	The Lord has given His church a special work of personal service to do. God could have sent angels to work for the reformation of man, but He did not do this. Humanity must touch humanity....
TDG	330	3	Christ's commission is to be received and acted upon. We are to go forth in faith, with earnest prayer for the presence of One who has said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). With the promise of such companionship, we are guilty of great unbelief and disobedience if we refuse to take up the cross of self-denial and self-sacrifice.... As we communicate the light that has found entrance to our souls, the Holy Spirit gives increased light, and our hearts are filled with the precious joy of the Lord....
TDG	330	4	We have a crucified, risen Saviour to present to the people. All who have come to Jesus for pardon have found Him ever ready to take their sins, and to impute His righteousness to them. He who has come to Christ and has been truly converted will have a longing to save the souls that are out of Christ. He who loves God supremely and his neighbor as himself cannot rest content with doing nothing....
TDG	330	5	God will use humble men as His instruments. Even though they have but one talent, if they trade upon it, it will increase. The great fault in the church is that the work of saving souls is so limited, that the advancement of the kingdom of God is slow. A backslidden church is the sure result of a selfish church, a church that does not use her talents in the work of cooperating with Jesus to restore the moral image of God in man. We are to minister to every creature. A responsibility is laid upon us to work for all, our friends, our acquaintances, those that are bound up with the world and alienated from God. The apparently amiable and agreeable are to come into the sphere of our labors. The truth is for them as much as for us, and we must say, "Come."--Manuscript 123, November 17, 1897, "Christ's Commission."
------------------------God Loves the Beautiful, November 18
TDG	331	1	Let all things be done decently and in order. 1 Corinthians 14:40.
TDG	331	2	God is not glorified by those whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light being untidy, careless, and slovenly. We want to copy the heavenly Pattern as far as order and neatness are concerned, and, if heaven is desirable and attractive, I want that my premises shall be attractive in their simplicity and order. We all need to consider that thoroughness, neatness, and order should prevail among those who love and fear God, for in this we are recommending our faith.
TDG	331	3	We are making an impression upon the beholders. Our connection with God will increase our desire to be cleanly in our houses and about our premises. Fruit trees, ornamental trees, and flowers cultivated about our dwellings, pay in more ways than one.
TDG	331	4	The Lord is a lover of the beautiful, for He has made the lofty trees, the spears of grass, the beautiful shrubs, the delicate flowers, and all these have a softening, subduing influence upon the beholder, and, as their senses are charmed, they are involuntarily drawn from nature to nature's God. If the Lord is mindful of us in giving us this expression of His love in the variety of beautiful flowers growing in their natural loveliness, shall we not be grateful to Him? Shall we not do just as Jesus told us to do, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" (Matthew 6:28, 29). Here the Lord contrasts the artificial with the natural....
TDG	331	5	I expend wisely some means to have God's precious things in my sight and to have everything healthful about my premises. I do this that all may see we do not, because of our faith, descend to commonness, and become lax and loose and untidy....
TDG	331	6	Let all see that, because you believe the Lord is coming, you are preparing for a pure and holy heaven by being pure and cleanly and holy here. Then you will be at home when called to the holy mansions above. What saith the Lord to us through His inspired apostle? "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him" (1 Peter 2:9).--Manuscript 28, November 18, 1889, "A Significant Dream."
------------------------Cheerfulness Glorifies God, November 19
TDG	332	1	And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Colossians 3:17.
TDG	332	2	Where there is a heart in which the light of heaven does not radiate, there is a solitude in which Christ cannot abide. By the side of every soul is an angel presence. I have been instructed that with Christ there was given to our world all the treasures of heaven. Nothing was reserved. If man does not open the door of his heart to Christ Jesus and commune with Him, satanic agencies will commune with him.
TDG	332	3	It is to the glory of God that cheerfulness abound. If the softening, subduing influence of the grace of Christ be present, pleasant words will always be spoken. If one makes mistakes, go to the erring one alone. Speak not words of counsel with a vim, but modulate your voice. He who occupies an influential position as God's steward should take special care not to irritate by word or act. He should speak pleasantly to every worker, and reveal no irritability or sourness of disposition....
TDG	332	4	Let everyone placed in a position of trust be as much more careful how he speaks and acts, as his position is greater in responsibility than the position of his fellow workers, for those connected with the work of God can please the Master by speaking kindly only. Any word spoken thoughtlessly or unadvisedly should be retracted on the spot. If the speaker forgets to do this, or if he does not regret his thoughtlessness, someone should in the spirit of Christ remind him of his duty to apologize, for we are to remember that as Christians professing to work in unity, we must not act like sinners, whose sinful words and works, unless repented of, will condemn them....
TDG	332	5	Christians are to love one another, as Christ has loved them. Upon the manifestation of this love hinges the world's recognition of the truth of the gospel. It was for this that Christ prayed in the last prayer He offered. Christians must not act like unruly children. Before the world those who claim to be God's children must give evidence that they have left behind them the childish ways of their unconverted life.--Letter 179, November 19, 1902, to C. P. Bollman, editor of the Southern Watchman, published in Nashville, Tennessee.
------------------------A Foretaste of Heaven, November 20
TDG	333	1	And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. Revelation 21:5.
TDG	333	2	In this morning's meeting [a conference held in Battle Creek, Michigan], we were listening to the testimonies borne here, and as the last hymn was sung--"When shall we meet again, meet ne'er to sever?"--I almost forgot myself. My mind reached over to the other shore, to the time when there will be a grand meeting in the city of God around the great white throne, and the redeemed will be singing there of triumph, and of victory, and of praise to God and to the Lamb. Well now, it brought such a solemn, sweet feeling upon me; it softened my heart, and I could not prevent the tears from flowing. Oh, what happiness we shall enjoy, gathered round about the throne, clothed in the white robes of the righteousness of Christ. No more sorrow, no more separation, but to dwell in peace, to dwell in happiness, to dwell in glory through the ceaseless ages of eternity. What a happy, happy company we may be!
TDG	333	3	Now let us consider the same privileges here. When we consider the infinite sacrifice of our Saviour that we might become children of God and members of the royal family, when we consider this exaltation, when we consider that all these privileges will be ours and may be ours every day, that we may have the privileges which belong to the sons and daughters of God, how can any one of us have any word of complaint? How can anyone utter one word of murmuring? How can it dwell in our hearts?
TDG	333	4	We ought to be the most grateful people on the face of the earth. Our happiness is dependent on our faith in God--our confidence in Him. And then when we think of what a hope we have, of what a faith we have, that it reaches right into the other world; when we know that it will continue unto the ceaseless ages of eternity--I want to know how you feel in regard to these pleas that have been presented to you tonight? ...
TDG	333	5	If there is anything I can put into this work, that shall go. But there are many who are willing to give of their means, but they withhold themselves. Why is it we do not find more who give themselves to this work?--Manuscript 5, November 20, 1883, Sermon by Mrs. White at the closing morning meeting of the General Conference session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
------------------------Preparing for Immortality, November 21
TDG	334	1	For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John 5:4.
TDG	334	2	Our time here is short at best, and we want every move we shall make to tell in the strengthening and the advancement of the cause of God.... Let your cry be to God, Convert my inmost soul. Plead with God for the transforming power of His grace. Hold fast to your Saviour as did Jacob, until God shall not only reveal to you yourself, but shall reveal to you Himself, and you shall see in Jesus a strength and support, a brightness and power you have never sensed and realized.... If your faith perseveringly grasps the promises, you will prevail. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
TDG	334	3	As long as you are true to yourself, no adverse power of earth or hell will be able to destroy your peace or interrupt your communion with God. If you fear God, you need not walk in uncertainty. If you please Him you will secure everything which your soul requires. The language of an eminent Christian was, "There is nothing in the universe I fear, but that I shall not know all my duty, or shall fail to do it."
TDG	334	4	Let these words be your motto: Stand up for Jesus, though it may require any sacrifice, any self-denial. Stand up for Jesus, anywhere, anywhere, stand up for Jesus. Do all your work as though you could see through the veil and God's eye were directed full upon you, taking cognizance of every action.
TDG	334	5	He hath purchased you with His own blood and, when you need His help, call upon Him and you will have it. It is then Jesus will stand up for you. Let your short, uncertain life be a continual preparation for the future immortal life. Temptation is allowed to come upon us to discover the character we possess and to improve our defects. There are continual solicitations to sin, which are disguised to deceive and allure the soul to ruin. Satan will transform himself into an angel of light and he is constantly plotting to rob God of His glory in the destruction of souls.... Hang your helpless soul on God. Follow the light given you of heaven.--Letter 42, November 21, 1879, to Edson White.
------------------------How to Keep Love Alive, November 22
TDG	335	1	Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Ephesians 5:20, 21.
TDG	335	2	How much trouble and what a tide of woe and unhappiness would be saved if men, and women also, would continue to cultivate the regard, attention, and kind words of appreciation and little courtesies of life which kept love alive, and which they felt were necessary in gaining the companions of their choice. If the husband and wife would only continue to cultivate these attentions which nourish love, they would be happy in each other's society and would have a sanctifying influence upon their families. They would have in themselves a little world of happiness and would not desire to go outside this world for new attractions and new objects of love....
TDG	335	3	If the hearts were kept tender in our families, if there were a noble, generous deference to each other's tastes and opinions, if the wife were seeking opportunities to express her love by actions in her courtesies to her husband, and the husband manifesting the same consideration and kindly regard for the wife, the children would partake of the same spirit. The influence would pervade the household, and what a tide of misery would be saved in families! Men would not go from home to find happiness; and women would not pine for love, and lose courage and self-respect, and become lifelong invalids. Only one life lease is granted us, and with care, painstaking, and self-control it can be made endurable, pleasant, and even happy.
TDG	335	4	Every couple who unite their life interest should seek to make the life of each as happy as possible. That which we prize we seek to preserve and make more valuable, if we can. In the marriage contract men and women have made a trade, an investment for life, and they should do their utmost to control their words of impatience and fretfulness, even more carefully than they did before their marriage, for now their destinies are united for life as husband and wife, and each is valued in exact proportion to the amount of painstaking and effort put forth to retain and keep fresh the love so eagerly sought for and prized before marriage.--Letter 27, November 22, 1872, to Brother Burton, an early church member in San Francisco, California.
------------------------Cunningly Devised Fables, November 23
TDG	336	1	And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Daniel 8:14.
TDG	336	2	In the future, great watchfulness will be needed. There is to be among God's people no spiritual stupidity. Evil spirits are actively engaged in seeking to control the minds of human beings. Men are binding up in bundles, ready to be consumed by the fires of the last days. Those who discard Christ and His righteousness will accept the sophistry that is flooding the world. Christians are to be sober and vigilant, steadfastly resisting their adversary the devil, who is going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
TDG	336	3	Men under the influence of evil spirits will work miracles. They will make people sick by casting their spell upon them, and then remove the spell, leading others to say that those who were sick have been miraculously healed. This Satan has done again and again.
TDG	336	4	God will be the sanctuary of His people, if they will obey His word, believing and proclaiming the simple gospel truths that Christ proclaimed when in this world. We need now to pray as we have never prayed before. We are living in the great day of atonement, and we are to confess our sins, and make diligent work for repentance. We are to put all our capabilities to work, that we may be delivered from wicked and unreasonable men. Satan comes down as a beautiful angel, and presents lovely pictures before the eyes of those who have so perverted their ways before God that they do not see what they are or know what they need. The enemy has come down with great power, to work with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. God calls for repentance and reconversion....
TDG	336	5	When the lives of God's people are cleansed from moral and spiritual pollution; when their eyes are anointed with the heavenly eyesalve, they will see that they are poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked. They will come to the fountain that has been opened for Judah and Jerusalem, and apply the cleansing blood of Christ to their poor, sin-sick souls. God grant that they make no delay in securing the advantages that He has prepared for all who love Him and keep His commandments.--Letter 259, November 23, 1903, to Mrs. L. M. Hall, a close friend and for many years matron of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
------------------------Honesty in Business Practices, November 24
TDG	337	1	Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord. Romans 12:11.
TDG	337	2	The servants of God are obliged to be more or less connected with the worldly by business transactions, but they should buy and sell with a realization that the eye of God is upon them. No false balances or deceitful weights are to be used, for these are an abomination to the Lord. In every business transaction a Christian will be just what he wants his brethren to think he is. His course of action is guided by underlying principles. He does not scheme, therefore, he has nothing to conceal, nothing to gloss over. He may be criticized, he may be tested, but his unbending integrity will shine forth like pure gold. He is a blessing to all connected with him, for his word is trustworthy. He is a man who will not take an advantage of his neighbor. He is a friend and benefactor to all, and his fellow men put confidence in his counsel....
TDG	337	3	A truly honest man will never take advantage of weakness or incompetency in order to fill his own purse. He accepts a fair equivalent for that which he sells. If there are defects in the articles sold, he frankly tells his brother or his neighbor, although by so doing he may work against his own pecuniary interests. In all the details of life the strictest principles of honesty are to be maintained. These are not the principles which govern our world, for Satan--deceiver, liar, and oppressor--is the master, and his subjects follow him and carry out his purposes. But Christians serve under a different Master, and their actions must be wrought in God, irrespective of all selfish gain. Deviation from perfect fairness in a business deal may appear as a small thing in the estimation of some, but our Saviour did not thus regard it. His words on this point are plain and explicit: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10)....
TDG	337	4	In the Christian world today fraud is practiced to a fearful extent. God's commandment-keeping people should show that they are above all these things. The dishonest practices which mar the dealing of man with his fellow man should never be practiced by one who professes to be a believer in present truth.--Letter 3, November 24, 1878, to Brother O, a colporteur given to questionable business practices.
------------------------Hastening Christ's Coming, November 25
TDG	338	1	Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. 2 Peter 3:11, 12.
TDG	338	2	I was in England at the time of the queen's jubilee. [Queen victoria's golden jubilee in 1887.] Her picture was in all the windows, upon paper, upon glass, on everything. Everything was done to keep her in the memory and thoughts of the people. Such parades! Thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars expended upon that occasion. Why, the people paid dollars, just for a place to sit in the windows and see the parade. Two or three hundred dollars paid for a position in a window to see the queen.
TDG	338	3	I was right there in London when this excitement took place. It made me sad.... They had the right to do this, but I thought: ...Here we are looking for the Lord to come in the clouds of heaven. Do we keep Him in mind? If we really believe in Jesus, if we really believe in His coming, if we are abiding in Christ, we shall not be complaining about every little cross. We shall be thinking of what Christ our Saviour has done in our behalf. As we look at the cross of Calvary, our petty vexations will vanish from sight. Why should we not as Christians lift Him up, the Man of Calvary? Why, Christ laid aside His robes of glory, and for our sakes He became poor. He was rich, and He became poor, that through His poverty we might become rich.
TDG	338	4	That sacrifice will be lost to us, unless we lay hold upon Christ by faith. We have no righteousness of ourselves at all. All the prophecies show us that the end of all things is at hand. Let us be getting our hearts right before God....
TDG	338	5	There is a life beyond. An eternity. A life of happiness. No death can enter there. There will be no malarial taint there. No sickness, or pain or sorrow. Do you not want to be there? The streets are paved with gold, and you will see the King in His glory. I must be there. I must see the King in His majesty. Don't lead people to believe they can go there and take their sins right along. The characters must be changed here. We must learn to sing the songs of redemption here, if we ever sing the songs of redemption in heaven. Sing of God's goodness. Talk of His power.--Manuscript 20, November 25, 1888, "A Good Sermon."
------------------------School--Here and Hereafter, November 26
TDG	339	1	They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. Hebrews 6:6.
TDG	339	2	Each one must heed for himself the call, "Come unto me, ...and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).... The Lord Jesus has paid your tuition fees. All that you have to do is to learn of Him. The Christlike politeness practiced in the higher school is to be practiced in this lower school, by both old and young believers.
TDG	339	3	All who learn in Christ's school are under the training of heavenly agencies; and they are never to forget that they are a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. They are to represent Christ. They are to help one another to become worthy of admission into the higher school. They are to help one another to be pure and noble, and to cherish a true idea of what it means to be a child of God. They are to speak encouraging words. They are to lift up the feeble hands and strengthen the feeble knees. Upon every heart there is to be inscribed the words, as with the point of a diamond, "There is nothing that I fear, save that I shall not know my duty, or shall fail to do it." We are living in a time when we should seek the Lord most earnestly....
TDG	339	4	There are many ways in which human beings can crucify the Son of God afresh, and put Him to open shame. The worship of worldly business so confuses the mind that Satan stealthily approaches, and insidiously gains entrance. He has many theories by which to lead astray those who will be led. The erroneous views of God that the world is entertaining are skepticism in disguise, preparing the way for atheism. By hasty words and selfish deeds, men often grieve the heart of Christ. Thus Satan works untiringly to lead them to disloyalty. As he gains control of minds, he makes upon them lasting impressions, and the realities of eternity fade away.
TDG	339	5	A self-controlled spirit, words of love and tenderness, honor the Saviour. Those who speak kind, loving words, words that make for peace, will be richly rewarded. We are the appointed ministers of Christ, and we are to let His Spirit shine forth in the meekness and lowliness learned of Him.--Letter 257, November 26, 1903, to Dr. J. H. Kellogg.
------------------------Recipe for Health, November 27
TDG	340	1	Eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness! Ecclesiastes 10:17.
TDG	340	2	Eat at regular periods. By wrong habits of eating, you are preparing yourself for future suffering. It is not always safe to comply with invitations to meals, even though given by your brethren and friends, who wish to lavish upon you many kinds of food. You know that you can eat two or three kinds of food at a meal without injury to your digestive organs.
TDG	340	3	When you are invited out to a meal, shun the many varieties of food that those who have invited you set before you. This you must do if you would be a faithful sentinel. When food is placed before us, which, if eaten, would cause the digestive organs hours of hard work, we must not, if we eat this food, blame those who set it before us for the result. God expects us to decide for ourselves to eat that food only which will not cause suffering to the digestive organs....
TDG	340	4	Often the different kinds of food placed in the stomach do not agree, and fermentation is the result. This is the cause of many stomach difficulties. Eat at regular hours, and eat wholesome food. Do not place in the stomach too great a variety of food at one meal.
TDG	340	5	I dare not say to you or to anyone else, You must eat only two meals a day. But I do say that too much food should not be placed in the stomach at one time, for when this is done, the stomach has no chance to do its work properly. For some, three meals a day are better than two.
TDG	340	6	For thirty years, I have taken only two meals a day, and I have not eaten between meals. I know for my own part that two meals can be so arranged as to be perfectly convenient. Yet no one is to make his own case a criterion for others. Each one should study carefully the organism of his body, that he may know how to deal intelligently with the body, and that he may be sure that intemperance in eating is not destroying the vital forces of the system. Each one should know for himself how to care properly for the machinery of the body, for no one else can do this for him.--Letter 324, November 27, 1905, to Elder W. W. Simpson, an evangelist in Los Angeles, California.
------------------------The Holy Spirit--The Gift of Gifts, November 28
TDG	341	1	And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:8.
TDG	341	2	In proportion to Christ's humiliation and suffering is His exaltation. He could have become the Saviour, the Redeemer, only by first being the Sacrifice. What a mystery there is in the godliness of Christ. Having magnified the law and made it honorable by accepting its conditions in saving a world from ruin, Christ hastened to heaven to perfect His work, and to accomplish His mission by sending the Holy Spirit to His disciples. Thus He would assure His believing ones that He had not forgotten them, though now in the presence of God, where there is fullness of joy forevermore.
TDG	341	3	The Holy Spirit was to descend on those in this world who loved Christ. By this they would be qualified, in and through the glorification of their Head, to receive every endowment necessary for the fulfilling of their mission. The Life-giver held in His hands, not only the keys of death, but a whole heaven of rich blessings. All power in heaven and earth was given to Him, and having taken His place in the heavenly courts, He could dispense these blessings to all who receive Him.
TDG	341	4	Christ has said to His disciples, "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you" (John 16:7). This was the gift of gifts. The Holy Spirit was sent as the most priceless treasure man could receive. The church was baptized with the Spirit's power. The disciples were fitted to go forth and proclaim Christ, first in Jerusalem, where the shameful work of dishonoring the rightful King had been done, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth....
TDG	341	5	How full and free are the blessings to be bestowed on all who come to God in the name of His Son. If they will observe the conditions laid down in His Word, He will open to them the windows of heaven, and pour them down a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.... If God's people will sanctify themselves by obedience to His precepts, the Lord will work in their midst. He will renew humble, contrite souls, making their characters pure and holy.--Manuscript 128, November 28, 1897, "The Only True Mediator."
------------------------The Ministry of Heavenly Angels, November 29
TDG	342	1	Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Hebrews 1:14.
TDG	342	2	The Lord does not leave in darkness those who follow all the light given them, but sends His angels to communicate with them. Cornelius was living in accordance with the instruction given in the Old Testament Scriptures, and the Lord sent a messenger to tell him what to do.
TDG	342	3	God could have given Cornelius all the instruction he needed by the angel, but this was not His plan. His purpose was to place Cornelius in connection with those who had been receiving knowledge from on high, whose work it was to impart this knowledge to those seeking for light. Thus God always deals with His people.
TDG	342	4	"Send men to Joppa," the angel said, "and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: he lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do" (Acts 10:5, 6). Cornelius obeyed the instruction given. He united with the church, and became a useful and influential laborer together with God.
TDG	342	5	This instance should be a comfort and strength to us. Let those who are in the service of God study closely the relation existing between heaven and earth. Heavenly and earthly instrumentalities are to unite in the great work of communicating light to those who are in darkness.
TDG	342	6	Heavenly angels are to communicate blessings to us, and we in turn are to impart them to our fellow beings.
TDG	342	7	Notice the commendation given to Cornelius: "Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God" (Verse 4). His faithfulness was recognized in heaven. God saw that he was a man fit to be entrusted with greater light and larger responsibilities, because he had made a right use of the talents lent to him. We are to regard our stewardship as a sacred responsibility. We are to trade diligently upon the talents entrusted to us. As we do this, God will recognize our faithful endeavor, and will give us increased ability for service.
TDG	342	8	God is seeking to prepare His people to bear fruit to His glory. Paul says, "We are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9).--Manuscript 67, November 29, 1900, "Words of Instruction to the Church."
------------------------Daily Conversion, November 30
TDG	343	1	A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight. Proverbs 11:1.
TDG	343	2	We need to experience daily a reconversion. If you have taken advantage in your business dealings, which the Lord calls injustice, this must be adjusted before you can be honest and righteous in the sight of God. These things need to be corrected by our people everywhere.... When you take up this work of readjustment and getting right with God, angels of heaven will cooperate with you, giving you discernment to see where you have viewed matters in a wrong light.
TDG	343	3	Christ and angels are looking upon your work. They are measuring every action. Let your life represent the meek and lowly Jesus. Strive to do as Christ would do were He in your place. Let there be no disagreement between your measurement of strict integrity and the divine measure. True, pure principles must govern the life of every soul that shall be pronounced just and righteous in the day of God.
TDG	343	4	There are many transactions in the business world that the worldling regards as just and honest, but which God condemns. Men lay plans which they regard as right plans, but which do not accord with the true, unselfish principles that Christ has laid down in His Word.... But the approval of the world will never make an unjust action just, and wrong will stand as wrong before the heavenly universe until it is repented of and put away.
TDG	343	5	The Lord cannot bless the men who corrupt themselves by unjust business dealings, either with their brethren or with worldlings. And those who do such things lose their spirituality; they grow cold and formal and selfish. They gloss over their past mistakes by theories of their own invention that are opposed to the principles of the Word of God.
TDG	343	6	The principle which should characterize every business dealing is clearly laid down by Christ. "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets" (Matthew 7:12)....
TDG	343	7	The folly, the evil surmising, the uplifting of self, which destroy the fervent zeal of the soul will be put away, and the true believers will be humble of heart, and earnest in their labors for the perishing souls.--Letter 164, November 30, 1909, to the workers in Washington and Mountain View.
------------------------Fear to Disobey God, December 1
TDG	344	1	Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12.
TDG	344	2	There is no carelessness allowed here, there is no indolence, there is no indifference, but we are to work out each of us, our own salvation with fear and trembling. Why? Let us see: "Wherefore, my beloved, ...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). Well, then, you say, am I to go around fearing and trembling all the way? Yes, in one sense, but not in another sense.
TDG	344	3	You have the fear of God before you, and you will have a trembling lest you will depart from the counsels of God. There will be that trembling. You will be working out your own salvation all the time with fear and trembling. Does it rest here? No, let us hear how the divine power comes in: "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Verse 13). Here are man's works, and here are God's works. They both cooperate. Man cannot accomplish this work without the help of the divine power.
TDG	344	4	God does not take man with his own natural feelings and deficiencies and place him right in the light of the countenance of God. No, man must do his part, and while man works out his own salvation, with fear and trembling, it is God that worketh in him to will and to do of His own good pleasure. With these two combined powers, man will be victorious, and receive a crown of life at last. He stands in view of the haven of bliss and the eternal weight of glory before him, and he fears lest he will lose it, lest a promise being left, he shall come short of it. He cannot afford to lose it. He wants that haven of bliss, and strains every energy of his being to secure it. He taxes his abilities to the utmost. He puts to the stretch every spiritual nerve and muscle that he may be a successful overcomer in this work, and that he may obtain the precious boon of eternal life....
TDG	344	5	When the world sees that we have an intensity of desire, some object that is out of sight, which by faith is to us a living reality, then it puts an incentive to investigate, and they see that there is certainly something worth having, for they see that this faith has made a wonderful change in our life and character.--Manuscript 13, December 1, 1888, sermon, Des Moines, Iowa.
------------------------Gifts to Fit Our Need, December 2
TDG	345	1	See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. Exodus 31:2, 3.
TDG	345	2	God always has men of His appointment to step into the places where work needs to be done, men with whom and by whom He can work.... To every man the Lord has entrusted talents--gifts that correspond to the needs of some place....
TDG	345	3	The Lord will give understanding to everyone who will fully connect with His work. We are not left to trust in human wisdom. In the Lord is wisdom, and it is our privilege to look to Him for counsel....
TDG	345	4	We are all members of God's family, all in a greater or less degree entrusted with God-given talents, for the use of which we are held responsible. Whether our talent be great or small, we are to use it in God's service, and we are to recognize the right of everyone else to use the gifts entrusted to them. Never should we disparage the smallest physical, intellectual, or spiritual capital. Some may trade in pennies and farthings, and by God's blessing, and unwearied diligence, these humble ones may make successful investments, and make a gain proportionate to the capital entrusted to them. No one should make light of any humble worker, who is filling his place, and is doing a work that someone must do, however small that work may seem.
TDG	345	5	O how my heart is grieved as I see men who have had great opportunities seeking to place in a circumscribed sphere, someone, who, with encouragement, might develop to fill a position of great usefulness. The Lord makes use of vessels both large and small. Many whose lives are filled with activity and earnestness need from others counsel and encouragement, and words of approval. God looks with pleasure upon the improvement made by His children as they help and encourage one another.
TDG	345	6	All, whether entrusted with few or with many talents, are to blend together in unity. We need more of the spirit of the Saviour that we may help those who have been restricted and hindered. How much we may help them in their efforts to rise will never be known till it is made manifest in the judgment. We should have a word of encouragement to speak to all, remembering that there are a diversity of gifts.--Letter 260, December 2, 1903, to Dr. George A. Hare, who was invited to connect with the sanitarium to be established in Washington, D.C.
------------------------Thankful for Every Moment, December 3
TDG	346	1	I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. John 14:18.
TDG	346	2	Although I did not have good sleep during the night, my peace was like a river. The love of Jesus grows in my heart, and I do love Him, and my heart flows out in grateful thanksgiving. The preciousness of divine truth presents itself with such clearness and force to my mind that I long to express it to all that I can reach to comfort, and encourage them with the consolation wherewith I myself also am comforted. I feel not the slightest depression of spirits. Pleasant views and ideas present themselves to me like precious views of gold, and my heart is all aglow and I feel an ardor of soul that seems longing to express itself.
TDG	346	3	In reading the Scriptures, light seems to shine upon every letter--sentences seem so fresh and new and important--and my heart is in complete harmony with the whole. I am thankful every moment, even when awake at night and unable to sleep.
TDG	346	4	I know in my daily experience that the Holy Spirit is present as I read His Word, planting the truth in the heart, that it may be expressed in the life and character to others. The Spirit of God takes the truth from the sacred page, where He Himself hath placed it, and stamps it on the soul. What holy joy, what hope and consolation can be ours to impart to others.
TDG	346	5	I attended the afternoon meeting [at Ballarat, N.S.W., Australia], and there were more people present to hear the word than I expected. I spoke from John 14:15-24. The Lord gave me words to speak to the people to present before them the precious assurances that Christ has given to all those who know and do His commandments.
TDG	346	6	Jesus asks an evidence of their love for Him. "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). If it were not possible for us to keep His commandments, why does He speak words to us of this kind? Now the following verse opens to us a treasure of knowledge. "And I will pray the Father, [although I be absent from you] and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever" (Verse 16)....
TDG	346	7	Is not this promise sure? Can any words from the lips of God's only begotten Son make it more decided and positive?--Manuscript 2, December 3, 1892, diary.
------------------------Cure for Covetousness, December 4
TDG	347	1	Continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard. Colossians 1:23.
TDG	347	2	Only the influence of the grace of God will lead men to take their stand on the self-denying liberal side. The cause of God must not in any case be hindered. The message "Repent and be converted," must go to all parts of the world. God has freely bestowed upon us His treasures of sunshine and shower, to cause vegetation to flourish, and He expects every believer to show willing liberality in advancing the cause of truth. We need now to work as we have never worked before, that the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation, may be proclaimed throughout the world. And those who are converted to the truth are to be the means, through their self-sacrifice, of keeping the treasury supplied, that there may be meat in the Lord's house.
TDG	347	3	The Spirit of the Lord, cherished, is a sure remedy for the disease of covetousness. Talk it, live it. Put on the whole of the gospel armor. We need more of the spirit of prayer and more faith. The first chapter of Colossians holds up before us our high responsibility.
TDG	347	4	Paul says, "As ye also learned of Epaphras, ...who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.... We also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:7-10).
TDG	347	5	We must rise to a higher and still higher spirituality. We must cease all complaining, and cultivate the giving of thanks. We must work for the salvation of perishing souls.
TDG	347	6	We must lay hold of the supreme Power, and close our ears to complaint and faultfinding. Crush this inclination, and empty the soul temple of evil-thinking. Let not one unhappy thought remain within. Souls are perishing in their sins. Work to the glory of God.--Letter 372, December 4, 1906, to Elder O. A. Olsen and Dr. D. H. Kress, working in Australia.
------------------------Light Out of Darkness, December 5
TDG	348	1	Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Isaiah 48:10.
TDG	348	2	All the words of consolation I may give you [Letter written to Elder J. N. Andrews, laboring in Europe, soon after the death of his daughter, Mary.] will not amount to much. You know the Source of your strength and your consolation. You are not a stranger to Jesus and His love. You are among many to whom life is a long conflict of pain and weariness and disappointment. Hope deferred has made the heart sad, but this world is the scene of our trials, our griefs, our sorrows. We are here to bear the test of God. The fire of the furnace is to kindle till our dross is consumed and we come forth as gold purified in the furnace of affliction. You may, my dear brother, ponder upon the mysterious providence of God that has taken from you the light of your eyes.
TDG	348	3	You feel that had it not been for this great loss you would be a comparatively happy man. But it may be that the very loss of your child here will be to you, and not to you only but to many in Switzerland, for the saving of souls. Light will come out of this darkness which to you at times seems incomprehensible. "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21). Let this be the language of your heart. The cloud of mercy is hovering over you and will break over your head even in the darkest hour. God's benefits to us are as numerous as the drops of rain falling from the clouds upon the parched earth, to water and refresh it. The mercy of God is over you....
TDG	348	4	The Lord loves you, my dear brother. He loves you. "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed" (Isaiah 54:10). "All things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28). Could your eyes be opened, you would see your heavenly Father bending over you in love and could you hear His voice, it would be in tones of compassion to you who are prostrate with suffering and affliction. Stand fast in His strength; there is rest for you, the weary.--Letter 71, December 5, 1878, to J. N. Andrews.
------------------------Giving as We Receive, December 6
TDG	349	1	Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3:10.
TDG	349	2	The end is fast approaching and many in our churches are asleep. Let all now make it their chief business to serve the Lord. The Lord has entrusted to His people the talent of means, some more and some less than others. With many the possession of wealth has proved a snare. In their desire to follow the fashions of the world, they have lost their zeal for the truth, and they are in peril of losing eternal life. In proportion as God has prospered them, men should return to Him of the goods He has entrusted to their stewardship....
TDG	349	3	Let all carefully examine their business relations with their Creator. Those who will not hesitate to deal treacherously with their Maker will certainly not hesitate to deal treacherously with their fellow men.
TDG	349	4	I desire to impress upon all our people that God regards the withholding of tithes and offerings as robbery. We are merely stewards of God; we do not own the money which passes into our hands. In its disbursement we are to be colaborers with Jesus Christ.
TDG	349	5	We should feel an intense interest in the advancement of the work of God. This work has already grown to large proportions, but it is to advance still more rapidly. We need many more laborers, and there must be with all a spirit of self-denial, in order to provide facilities for the carrying forward of the message into new fields. In many places the work has been greatly retarded because of a scarcity of means. The rebuke of God will rest upon those who do not come up to His help....
TDG	349	6	In the great work of warning the world, those who have the truth in their heart and are sanctified through the truth, will act their assigned part. They will be faithful in the payment of tithes and offerings. Every church member is bound by covenant relation to God to deny himself of every extravagant outlay of means. Let not the want of economy in the home life render us unable to act our part in strengthening the work already established and in entering new territory.--Manuscript 103, December 6, 1906, "Gifts and Offerings."
------------------------Eternal Loss, December 7
TDG	350	1	Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9.
TDG	350	2	Every sin, every unrighteous action, every transgression of the law of God, tells with a thousandfold more force upon the actor than the sufferer. Every time one of the glorious faculties with which God has enriched man is abused or misused, that faculty loses forever a portion of its vigor and will never be as it was before the abuse it suffered. Every abuse inflicted upon our moral nature in this life is felt not only for time but for eternity. Though God may forgive the sinner, yet eternity will not make up that voluntary loss sustained in this life.
TDG	350	3	To go forth into the next, the future life, deprived of half the power which might be carried there is a terrible thought. The days of probation lost here in acquiring a fitness for heaven, is a loss which will never be recovered. The capacities of enjoyment will be less in the future life for the misdemeanors and abuse of moral powers in this life. However high we might attain in the future life, we might soar higher and still higher, if we had made the most of our God-given privileges and golden opportunities to improve our faculties here in this probationary existence....
TDG	350	4	We are all under one or the other of two great captains. One, the Creator of man and of the world, is the greatest of all. All owe Him the allegiance of their whole being, the devotion of their entire affection. If the mind is given to His control, and if God has the molding and developing of the powers of the mind, new moral power will be received daily from the Source of all wisdom and all strength. Moral blessings and divine beauties will reward the efforts of everyone whose mind is heaven bent. We may grasp revelations--heavenly beauties--that lie beyond the short vision of the worldling, that outshine the imagination of the greatest mind and the most learned philosopher who has not connected himself with infinite power....
TDG	350	5	Justice, honor, love, and truth are the attributes of God's throne. They are the principles of His government which is to be established on the earth, made pure by the fire of His retributive justice. These are the jewels to be sought after and cherished for time and for eternity. In view of these things, ...build your character not after the worldly standard, but for eternity.--Letter 41, December 7, 1877, to F. E. Belden, a 19-year-old nephew.
------------------------Obstinacy--Barrier to All Improvement, December 8
TDG	351	1	I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass. Isaiah 48:4.
TDG	351	2	Obstinacy is a bad trait of character, and if not overcome, is the means of doing a great deal of harm. He who is obstinate will not yield whatever sentiments he may entertain. Narrowness of mind is the cause of obstinacy. There are men of intellectual capacity who have allowed obstinacy to develop in their character, and they refuse to believe things that are right, because they themselves did not originate them.
TDG	351	3	Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. An obstinate man will not be readily convinced of anything which his sight cannot take in. He does not know what it means to walk by faith. He adheres to his own plans and opinions, be they right or wrong, because he has already adopted this line of thought. He may have abundant reason to see that he is wrong; his brethren may raise their voices against his opinions and his methods for making a success of the work, but he cherishes an almost immovable bar against conviction.... He will suggest sentiments that are unsanctioned by the experience or judgment of men who are fully as intelligent and as wise as he is. He will make assertions as though he had all the aftersight, and will uphold his ideas as all sufficient. Self has for so long been the ruling element, that the unfortunate man considers it a virtue to have, as he thinks, a mind of his own. If his way is not followed, he will raise objections on every occasion, in small matters and in large. He will hold to his words, whether they are true, or entirely false. This practice, often repeated, grows into confirmed habit, and becomes character....
TDG	351	4	By two or three who have made criticism their science, who take a position in opposition to nearly everything, the very best business may be dragged down to a low level. They can plant more seeds of doubt than they would wish to see ripen into harvest....
TDG	351	5	The Lord is not pleased to have this spirit hindering and marring His work. He calls for men who will carry out His will, men who will be controlled by His Holy Spirit.--Manuscript 159, December 8, 1898, "Speak Evil of No Man."
------------------------How God Sees Greatness, December 9
TDG	352	1	Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? Daniel 4:30.
TDG	352	2	The strength of nations and of individuals is not found in the opportunities and facilities that appear to make them invincible; it is not found in their boasted greatness. That which alone can make them great or strong is the power and purpose of God. They themselves, by their attitude toward His purpose, decide their own destiny.
TDG	352	3	Human histories relate man's achievements, his victories in battle, his success in climbing to worldly greatness. God's history describes man as heaven views him. In the divine records all his merit is seen to consist in his obedience to God's requirements. His disobedience is faithfully chronicled as meriting the punishment he will surely receive. In the light of eternity it will be seen that God deals with men in accordance with the momentous question of obedience or disobedience.
TDG	352	4	Hundreds of years before a people has come upon the stage of action, the prophetic pen, under the dictation of the Holy Spirit, has traced its history....
TDG	352	5	The voice of God, heard in past ages, is sounding down along the line from century to century, through generations that have come on the stage of action and passed away. Shall God speak, and His voice not be respected? What power mapped out all this history, that nations, one after another, should fill in their predicted time and place, unconsciously witnessing to the truth of which they themselves knew not the meaning? ...
TDG	352	6	To every man, God has assigned a place in His great plan. By truth or falsehood, by folly or wisdom, each is fulfilling a purpose, bringing about certain results....
TDG	352	7	In the eyes of the world, those who serve God may appear weak. They may be apparently sinking beneath the billows, but with the next billow they are seen rising nearer to their haven. "I give unto them eternal life," saith our Lord; "...neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand" (John 10:28). Though kings shall be cast down, and nations removed, the souls that through faith link themselves with God's purposes shall abide forever. "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (Daniel 12:3).--Manuscript 36, December 9, 1896, "Obedience the Condition of Success."
------------------------Hearts Filled With Christ's Peace, December 10
TDG	353	1	That they all may be one; as thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21.
TDG	353	2	As Christ came to the world to seek and to save perishing souls, that they should have the light of truth, so also hath He committed the same work to all who receive Him as their Saviour. "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth" (John 17:19).
TDG	353	3	How important that we should be rooted and grounded in the truth! No falsehood is of the truth. The Lord Jesus has promised that, if we receive Him by faith and believe in Him as our pattern, He will give us "power to become the sons of God." The gospel of Jesus Christ contains the grand principles of all truth, expressed in a life of purity. In love and true righteousness these principles are to be proclaimed to the world. In all our dealings with one another we are to obey the precepts of the law of God. "I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word" (Verses 19, 20).
TDG	353	4	From these words we see how much is dependent on the character of all those who claim to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. By the lives of Christ's followers the world will judge the Saviour. If anyone, in word or deed, departs from the living principles of the truth, he dishonors his Saviour and puts Christ to open shame.
TDG	353	5	Let every soul believe in Christ, and receive the power that Christ has promised, that he may be a child of God, holding the truth conscientiously, its principles interwoven with his words, his spirit, and all his works. Thus Christians may become a refining, purifying influence, working against false religion and infidelity. Their presence brings with it the grand influence of heavenly principles, making them, through Christ, an honor to the gospel. They increase in power to communicate the sanctifying grace of heaven, gaining continually in influence through their increasing reverence for the truth. Their hearts are filled with the peace of Christ.--Letter 327, December 10, 1905, to W. C. White.
------------------------That Your Joy May Be Full, December 11
TDG	354	1	And the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. Ezra 7:6.
TDG	354	2	Christ would have everyone possess in abundance the grace of heaven. He desires that His joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Every soul is to discipline himself in strict, faithful service, just as verily out of meeting as in meeting. You are in full view of the heavenly angels, and every faithful disciple may be, if he will, as was Ezra before the king. The hand of God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against those who forsake Him, and who trust in the help and friendship of the world, going to the god of Ekron to inquire, and heeding not the counsel of the living God.
TDG	354	3	The children of God will know who is their helper. They will know in whom they can trust implicitly, and with Christ's help, they may, without presumption, have a holy confidence. Yes, His servants may safely trust in Him alone, without fear, looking unto Jesus, pressing on in obedience to His requirements, leaving everything that is joined to the world, whether the world opposes or favors. Their success comes from God, and they will not fail because they have not the wealth and influence of wicked men. If they fail, it will be because they do not obey the Lord's requirements, and the Holy Spirit is not with them....
TDG	354	4	Our only safety is in being joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. We can afford to lose the friendship of worldly men. Those who join themselves to worldly men, that they may carry out their unsanctified purposes, make a fearful mistake; for they forfeit the favor and blessing of God. I am to urge upon the attention of our people that the Lord Himself has placed a wall of separation between the world and that which He has established on the earth. God's people are to serve Him, for Christ has called them out of the world, and sanctified and refined them, that they may do His service.... There is no such thing as maintaining concord between the profane and the holy. There can be no concord between Christ and Belial. But "the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself" (Psalm 4:3). And this consecration to the Lord, this separation from the world, is plainly declared and positively enjoined in both the Old and the New Testaments.--Letter 329, December 11, 1905, to J. A. Burden, manager of the Loma Linda Sanitarium.
------------------------The Lord's Philosophy, December 12
TDG	355	1	To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:20.
TDG	355	2	The Lord's philosophy, plainly outlined in His Word, is to be our rule of life. The entire being is to be under the control of the One who knows the end from the beginning. The Bible, and the Bible only is to be our guide. We must follow and obey the life-giving principles of heaven, not only for our inclinations. The wisdom and the power of God, working upon the receptive heart, brings mind and character into harmony with the laws and rules of heaven. Individually we must have the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in order to communicate to the world the great facts of truth and righteousness....
TDG	355	3	We are bidden to sound an alarm to the people. The watchmen must not fail now. They must watch unto prayer, that they may have a clear perception of their obligation to Him who, though the only begotten Son of God, came to our world to lead men and women away from the guidance of Satan.
TDG	355	4	We are to instruct and guide souls to look to Christ's example, to realize their obligation to Him, whose they are by creation and by redemption. He is the owner of every man and woman and child who comes into the world. This He became by paying the redemption price. If fallen human beings will consent to become sons and daughters of God in willing obedience, they will become one with Christ. The Saviour has bought them by giving His life to pay the penalty of sin.... Those who are truly converted will reveal the saving grace of Christ by laboring for these souls blinded by Satan. In their own lives God's workers are to show forth the power of truth and righteousness. The world is soon to meet the great Lawgiver over His broken law. Those only can hope for pardon who turn from transgression to obedience.
TDG	355	5	We are to raise the banner on which is inscribed, "The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." This is the great issue. Let it not be put out of sight. We must strive to arouse church members and those who make no profession, to see and obey the claims of the law of heaven. We are to magnify this law and make it honorable. We are to arouse those who are sunk in spiritual slumber.--Letter 138, December 12, 1910, to Elder and Mrs. Starr, at Melrose Sanitarium, where Elder Starr served as chaplain and in evangelistic ministry.
------------------------The Greatness of Humility, December 13
TDG	356	1	For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. Luke 9:24.
TDG	356	2	Christ gave His disciples a most important lesson in regard to who should be His disciples. "In the kingdom that I am about to set up," He said, "strife for the supremacy shall have no place. All ye are brethren. All My servants there shall be equal. The only greatness recognized there will be the greatness of humility and devotion to the service of others. He that humbleth himself shall be exalted, and he that exalteth himself shall be abased. He who seeks to serve others by self-denial and self-sacrifice will be given the attributes of character that commend themselves to God, and develop wisdom, true patience, forbearance, kindness, compassion. This gives him the chiefest place in the kingdom of God."
TDG	356	3	The Son of man humbled Himself to become the servant of God. He submitted to abasement and self-sacrifice, even to death, to give freedom and life, and a place in His kingdom to those who believe on Him. He gave His life as a ransom for many. This should be enough to make those who are continually seeking to be first and striving for the supremacy, ashamed of their course.
TDG	356	4	"If any man will come after me," Christ said, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23). This is the proof of discipleship. If church members would be doers of the Word, as they solemnly pledged themselves to be when they received baptism, they would love their brethren, and would be constantly seeking for unity and harmony....
TDG	356	5	Those who believe in Christ and walk humbly with Him, ...who watch to see what they can do to help and bless and strengthen the souls of others, cooperate with the angels who minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. Jesus gives them grace, and wisdom, and righteousness, making them a blessing to all with whom they are brought in contact. The more humble they are in their own estimation, the more blessings they receive from God, because receiving does not exalt them. They make a right use of their blessings, for they receive to impart.
TDG	356	6	The ministering angels receive instruction from the throne of God to cooperate with human instrumentalities. They receive the grace of Christ, to give it to human beings.--Manuscript 165, December 13, 1898, "Unity a Test of Discipleship."
------------------------When Truth Controls the Life, December 14
TDG	357	1	He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12.
TDG	357	2	The Lord Jesus took upon Him the form of sinful man, clothing His divinity with humanity. But He was holy, even as God is holy. If He had not been without spot or stain of sin, He could not have been the Saviour of mankind. He was a Sinbearer, needing no atonement. One with God in purity and holiness of character, He could make a propitiation for the sins of the whole world.
TDG	357	3	Christ is the light of the world. Through Him light is shining amid the moral darkness. If He were not light, the darkness would not be apparent, because light reveals darkness. The clearer the light, the more manifest the contrast between light and darkness. Let the light be removed, and there is nought but darkness.
TDG	357	4	Christ has declared our position. "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). He is Himself the bright and morning Star. He is the Sun of Righteousness, the brightness of His Father's glory. He is the "true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (chap. 1:9). A Physician, a Healer, He came to restore the moral image of God that was lost by transgression.
TDG	357	5	When Christ abides in the soul by faith, He makes the one who loves Him all light in the Lord. It is true that many who say they believe the truth have only a nominal faith. They are not doers of the Word. They profess to believe, but their profession will not convert them....
TDG	357	6	When Christ dwells in the heart, His presence is apparent. Good and pleasant words and actions reveal the Spirit of Christ. Sweetness of temper is manifested. There is no angry passion, no obstinacy, no evil-surmising. There is no hatred in the heart, because ...ideas and methods ...are not accepted and appreciated by others....
TDG	357	7	When the truth controls the life, there is purity and freedom from sin. The glory, the fullness, the completeness of the gospel plan is fulfilled in the life. The light of truth irradiates the soul temple. The understanding takes hold of Christ.--Manuscript 164, December 14, 1898, "Be Ye Therefore Perfect, Even as Your Father Which Is in Heaven Is Perfect."
------------------------Man-Made Yokes, December 15
TDG	358	1	For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12.
TDG	358	2	Soon the old year, with its burden of record, will have passed into eternity, and the new year will have begun. Let us gather up the treasures of the past year, and carry with us into the new year the remembrance of God's goodness and mercy. Let us brighten the future by the thought of past blessings.
TDG	358	3	"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12, 13). We must cooperate with the Lord Jesus. Only thus shall we be able to accomplish our part of the work. We are to hold fast to all we gain through Christ.
TDG	358	4	O what wonderful advantages and opportunities there are for those who wear Christ's yoke! Our troubles come because we manufacture yokes for ourselves, refusing to wear Christ's yoke. He is our efficiency. He will give us power. Our part is to plant our feet firmly on the platform of eternal truth; then we may know that over us is the protection of God.
TDG	358	5	"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). To be justified means to be pardoned. To those whom God justifies He imputes Christ's righteousness, for the Saviour has taken away our sin. We stand before the throne of God justified and sanctified. We are emptied of self, and, through the sanctification of the truth, Christ abides in our hearts....
TDG	358	6	We are being tried and tested. May the Lord of heaven shut us in with Him, that the wicked one may have no power over us....
TDG	358	7	Christ is the great Master Worker. We are laborers together with Him. He has a right to give each one his work. And let each one be sure to do the work given him. Let us do faithfully the work that the Lord has placed in our minds. He who neglects his definite work for the work that some one else has in charge is out of place. Time is lost, confidence abused and shaken, and the work hindered. When we learn to attend closely to our own special work, the Lord will help us, and all parts of His cause will move in harmony.--Letter 202, December 15, 1902, to "My Dear Brethren and Sisters."
------------------------Oddities and Eccentricities, December 16
TDG	359	1	And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. 1 Corinthians 2:4.
TDG	359	2	We are not surprised to find that Satan will work today as he has worked in the past. We must live by faith; for without faith it is impossible to please God.... Boasting claims of righteousness and noisy demonstrations are calculated to lead to a fanatical experience that will confuse many minds. If such things are encouraged, a wave of fanaticism will come into our ranks that will be detrimental to the work of God, and that will sweep away many souls in a dangerous delusion. These things are designed by Satan to deceive, if possible, the very elect.
TDG	359	3	It is our privilege to preach the Word in the demonstration of the Spirit. It is the privilege of every soul to exercise faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. But pure spiritual life comes only as the soul surrenders itself to the will of God through Christ, the reconciling Saviour. It is our privilege to be worked by the Holy Spirit. Through the exercise of faith we are brought into communion with Christ Jesus, for Christ dwells in the hearts of all who are meek and lowly. Theirs is a faith that works by love and purifies the soul, a faith that brings peace to the heart, and leads in the path of self-denial and self-sacrifice....
TDG	359	4	Let there be no oddities or eccentricities of movement on the part of those who speak the Word of truth, for such things will weaken the impression that should be made by the Word. We must be guarded, for Satan is determined, if possible, to intermingle with religious services his evil influence. Let there be no theatrical display, for this will not help to strengthen belief in the Word of God. Rather it will divert attention to the human instrument....
TDG	359	5	Those who are really under the influence of the Holy Spirit, will reveal its power by a practical application of the eternal principles of truth. They will reveal that the holy oil is emptied from the two olive branches into the chambers of the soul temple. Their words will be imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit to soften and subdue the heart. It will be manifest that the words spoken are spirit and life.--Letter 352, December 16, 1908, to Elder S. N. Haskell, president of the California Conference.
------------------------Observing Christmas, December 17
TDG	360	1	And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Luke 2:9, 10.
TDG	360	2	The 25th of December has long been commemorated as the day of Jesus' birth, and ...it is not my purpose to affirm or question the propriety of celebrating this event on this day, but to dwell upon the childhood and life of our Saviour. It is my purpose to call the attention of the children to the humble manner in which the Redeemer came to the world.
TDG	360	3	All heaven was interested in the great event of Christ's advent to earth. Heavenly messengers came to make known the birth of the long-promised, long-expected Saviour to the humble shepherds who were watching their flocks by night on the plains of Bethlehem. The first manifestation that attracted the notice of the shepherds at the birth of the Saviour, was a radiant light in the starry heavens, which filled them with wonder and admiration.... The astonished shepherds could scarcely comprehend the precious message borne to them by the angels, and when the radiant light had passed away, they said one to another, "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child" (Luke 2:15-17)....
TDG	360	4	What matchless love Jesus has manifested for a fallen world! If angels sang because the Saviour was born in Bethlehem, shall not our hearts echo the glad strain, Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will to men? Although we do not know the exact day of Christ's birth, we would honor the sacred event. May the Lord forbid that any one should be so narrow minded as to overlook the event because there is an uncertainty in regard to the exact time. Let us do what we can to fasten the minds of the children upon those things which are precious to everyone who loves Jesus. Let us teach them how Jesus came into the world to bring hope, comfort, peace, and happiness to all.... Let the hearts of all respond with exceeding joy for the priceless gift of the Son of God.--The Review and Herald, December 17, 1889.
------------------------Let Christ Guide, December 18
TDG	361	1	And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. Matthew 13:10, 11.
TDG	361	2	Christ gave His disciples to understand that He preached in parables and hid the great truths He presented under similitudes that persons who have not the truth or the love of it, whose hearts are misled by their own tempers and gratified inclinations, could not know of His doctrines....
TDG	361	3	The unfruitful hearers are specified by our Lord as the skeptical, the superficial, or the secular. These cannot discern the moral glory of the truth or its practical personal application to their own hearts. They lack that faith which overcomes the world, and as the sure consequence the world overcomes them....
TDG	361	4	It is the close connection with God which opens and makes quick and sharp the understanding. Men in Christ's day brought upon themselves that blindness that in seeing they see not and the willful deafness that in hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. Jesus told them that there was no reason for them to be surprised at what He had stated in regard to their unbelief, for Isaiah had predicted the same [Matthew 13:13-15 quoted]....
TDG	361	5	Some of the people professing to believe the truth for this time will be in a similar position. They will not understand the marvelous work of God by which God confirms His Word. They will not perceive that the working of God's Spirit is wrought by His power, not because the evidence is not sufficient, but because the waywardness and the corruption of their own hearts will not suffer them honestly and candidly to weigh these evidences for the sins of the people have hardened their hearts and their conformity to the world has clouded their conceptions of divine things.... They are unwilling to be directed in the path of righteousness which would lead to the city of God....
TDG	361	6	Our trust must be wholly in God. He will be to us a present help in every time of need. Let us wait upon the Lord and exercise faith in His promises. He will hear us. Only believe. The Captain of our salvation will not leave us to guide our own bark. We shall have His help and His wisdom just when He sees we need it.--Letter 24, December 18, 1882, to W. C. White.
------------------------Choose You This Day, December 19
TDG	362	1	Choose you this day whom ye will serve. Joshua 24:15.
TDG	362	2	The wind is increasing until it blows a gale. I do not venture upon the deck [of the steamer Wairarapa]. I feel glad to keep still....
TDG	362	3	I was lifting up my heart to God for Christ, who stilled the tempest, to say "Peace, be still."
TDG	362	4	All at once the rainbow spanned the heavens. I could see the signs of God's promise in the bow in the clouds, and I was resting in confidence in His protecting arms....
TDG	362	5	The lady in waiting [i.e., stewardess nurse] is very kind to me. I gave her Steps to Christ and some papers and pamphlets. I talked with her in regard to her soul's salvation. I pointed out the perils of anyone whose life was on the sea. She said she had thought of this ofttimes, but she said, "If I could, I would be a Christian, but I cannot. It would be an impossibility to serve God on such a vessel as this. You do not know, you cannot have any idea of the wickedness of these sailors. The captain and mates are so closely of the same character with the crew of sailors that they have no influence to introduce reform, if they desired such a thing." I asked why she did not seek some other employment. She said, "It would be no use. I have four children to support and I have not strength to do hard work." She was a small, delicate, fine-featured woman....
TDG	362	6	I tried to open before her the danger of living a prayerless life. She said, "It is no use to pray here, or try to be religious." I told her if the Lord had appointed her that place she would, if she would accept Christ as her Saviour, realize Christ as her refuge. She said, with tears in her eyes, "It is impossible. I know the company on this ship. I could not live religion here. I hope some time to have some place opened for me where I can support my family, and then I shall give my attention to serious things. If I could only be with my children and support them in a humble way I would only too gladly choose to do so."--Manuscript 88, December 19, 1893, diary, en route to Sydney, Australia, from New Zealand.
------------------------Gather Up the Fragments, December 20
TDG	363	1	Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. John 6:12.
TDG	363	2	This morning, or rather at twelve o'clock, I rose to adjust my blinds, which were being blown by the wind; and I found the manuscript which I was to read before leaving on the six o'clock train for San Francisco, where I am to unite with Elder Corliss in labor during the week of prayer. With this manuscript was a letter from you to W. C. W. [White], which I read at midnight. This letter was of special interest to me, and after reading it, I could not think of sleeping; so I dressed, and am in my writing chair at this moment....
TDG	363	3	I have felt more grateful than I can express for this pleasant refuge [Elmshaven, near St. Helena, California], for me in my old age. I do not feel any older than I did twenty years ago, but I do not count upon many years now, and I have a great desire to accomplish a work in preparing my writings so that, if I am suddenly removed, they will be in a proper shape for others to handle them, and thus carry out the oft-repeated instructions to me, "Gather up the fragments; let nothing be lost." ...
TDG	363	4	Here we have an abundance of fruit of all kinds. Our surroundings are very agreeable and pleasant to look upon. We have an abundance of pure water from the everlasting hills, and grapes in abundance....
TDG	363	5	I will write no more now, but I hope you will both be situated where for a time you will not have to strain every nerve and muscle to their highest tension. It is not best to be in any way presumptuous. The Lord desires His worn servants to have a chance to be situated where they will have an opportunity to express with pen and voice the advantage of a broad experience, without sacrificing their lives in the effort. By precept and example men should be educated to bear the strain of labor, and those who have hitherto borne the burdens should preserve the life God has given them to voice His Word--"This is the way; walk ye in it."
TDG	363	6	I will leave this right here. My watch says that it is three o'clock. In love, Ellen G. White.--Letter 161, December 20, 1900, to Brother and Sister Druillard, who labored in Africa and were being invited to join Ellen White's staff.
------------------------Flickering Lights, December 21
TDG	364	1	Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16.
TDG	364	2	I long to see the church arise to a full sense of their responsibility and accountability before God, to let their light shine forth to the world in clear, steady, bright rays. The light of many is too flickering, fitful, and uncertain. It will at times blaze forth in bright rays and then it becomes almost extinct. The Lord God of Israel cannot be glorified unless the light shines steadily amid the moral darkness, as well as in the light. The light of the Sun of Righteousness is never dim. It is constantly shining upon us. Notwithstanding Satan casts his hellish shadow athwart our path, the light shineth beyond.
TDG	364	3	Then why should not the followers of Jesus walk in His light, reflecting the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness? They may do this. Christ has enjoined upon them to do this, and He makes it possible for them to do this, for He would never enjoin them to do that which it is not possible for them to do. What is possible should be done, not only for their own happiness and peace, but for the good of the world.
TDG	364	4	We need daily to uplift the soul heavenward, catching the bright beams of light from the Sun of Righteousness. Hath God forgotten to be gracious to His people who fear Him, who love Him? No. Hath He shut up His tender mercies that they can no longer reach His tried and tempted ones? I tell you, nay. Look up, trembling, doubting souls. Look up to the face of Jesus Christ, beaming with love upon the purchase of His blood, and doubt no more.
TDG	364	5	Jesus lives as your Advocate, your great High Priest. He is your representative before the Father in the courts of heaven. His mediation secures you everything that your faith claims. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7). Who has said it? The Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is your Saviour. Never will He fail to prove true to His word. Never will He falsify Himself. God hath promised. Let faith claim the promise.--Manuscript 24, December 21, 1889, diary.
------------------------Love Fulfills the Law, December 22
TDG	365	1	Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:10.
TDG	365	2	The attribute that Christ appreciates most in man is charity (love) out of a pure heart. This is the fruit borne upon the Christian tree. "Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God" (1 John 4:7). The Lord Jesus has said, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:34, 35).
TDG	365	3	When enshrouded in the cloudy pillar He spake to the children of Israel through Moses: "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:17, 18). "These things I command you, that ye love one another" (John 15:17).
TDG	365	4	If you are Bible Christians, each will have as great an interest for his brother workman as for himself. The work of giving the bread of life to souls that are ready to perish, should be all absorbing, keeping the hearts of the workers kind and tender to one another. True Christian courtesy needs to be cultivated, the mind and heart must be educated and trained by deeds of kindness to have an unselfish interest in every laborer in the work.
TDG	365	5	Regard yourselves as missionaries, not among heathen, but among your own brethren. It requires a vast amount of time and labor to convince one soul in regard to the truth. How much money has been expended in efforts to turn men and women from sin to righteousness! And when souls are brought into the truth, what takes place in heaven? There is more joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety and nine just persons who [think they] need no repentance (see Luke 15:7)....
TDG	365	6	If you keep yourselves in the love of God, an influence will surround the soul which will be a savor of life unto life. You are to watch for souls as they that must give an account.--Manuscript 16, December 22, 1892, "Love for Brethren."
------------------------Water into Wine, December 23
TDG	366	1	This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory. John 2:11.
TDG	366	2	During the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee, at which Christ was present, it was discovered that from some cause the supply of wine had failed. This caused much perplexity and regret. It was unusual to dispense with wine on festive occasions, and its absence would seem to indicate a want of hospitality. As a relative of the parties, Mary had assisted in the arrangements for the feast, and she now spoke to Jesus, saying, "They have no wine" (John 2:3). These words were a suggestion that He might supply their need. But Jesus answered, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come" (Verse 4).
TDG	366	3	The response of Christ did not discourage His mother. At the right moment He would act His part. "His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it" (Verses 5-8).
TDG	366	4	When the time had fully come, the miracle wrought by Christ was recognized. As soon as the ruler of the feast put the goblet to his lips and tasted the wine, he looked up with glad surprise. The wine was superior to any he had ever before drunk. And it was unfermented wine. He said to the bridegroom, "Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now" (Verse 10).
TDG	366	5	Christ did not approach the jars, or touch the water; He simply looked upon the water, and it became the pure juice of the grape, clarified and refined. What effect did this miracle have?--"His disciples believed on him" (Verse 11).... By this miracle Christ also gave evidence of His mercy and compassion. He showed that He had regard for the necessities of those who followed Him to hear His words of knowledge and wisdom.--Manuscript 79, December 23, 1900, diary.
------------------------How to Be a Success, December 24
TDG	367	1	For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. 1 Chronicles 29:14.
TDG	367	2	We hope you may be prospered of God. If we have His care and His approval, we shall make a success wherever we are and in whatever we may engage. Without the blessing of God, any amount of prosperity will fail to be a success. Our first anxiety should be to secure God as our friend. "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me" (Isaiah 27:5).
TDG	367	3	Do not make it a business to serve yourselves and become indifferent in regard to the claims of God upon you. You are His property. Have fixed principles. Consider Jesus has bought you at an infinite cost. Your thoughts should be kept pure; they are the Lord's. Give them to Him. We can merit nothing from God. We can give Him nothing which is not His own. Will we keep back from God what is His own? Do not rob God and pawn His time, His talents, and His strength with the world. He asks your affections. Give them to Him. They are His own. He asks your time, moment by moment: give it to Him. It is His own. He asks your intellect: give it to Him. It is His own.
TDG	367	4	Remember the words of the inspired apostle, "Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). You are bought, ...even if you perish. The Lord wants His own property. When we have given to God soul, body, and spirit; when we have kept appetite under the control of enlightened conscience, and wrestled against every lust, showing that we consider each organ as God's property, intended for His service; when all our affections move in harmony with the Lord's mind, fastening on objects "which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1)--then we have given the Lord His own. O God, "all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee" (1 Chronicles 29:14)....
TDG	367	5	On no consideration live for yourselves alone. There are those who ever need the help you can give them. Jesus gave Himself for us. What a condescension! Let us deny self and bless others. Glorify God by choosing His way, His will. He will be your wise counselor and your fast, unchanging Friend.--Letter 23, December 24, 1873, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------God's Unspeakable Gift, December 25
TDG	368	1	Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. 2 Corinthians 9:15.
TDG	368	2	Last night the Christmas [Eve] celebration was held in the [Battle Creek] Tabernacle, and it passed off well--modestly, solemnly, and with gratitude expressed in everything done and said, because Jesus the Prince of Life had come to our world a babe in Bethlehem to be an offering for sin. He came to fulfill the prediction of the prophets and seers, which He had instructed them to utter to fulfill the counsels of heaven, and in the great mission and work verify His own word. And for this, every soul is under the most solemn obligation and gratitude to God, that Jesus, the world's Redeemer, has pledged Himself to accomplish the full salvation of every son and daughter of Adam. If they do not accept the heavenly gift, they have only themselves to blame. The sacrifice was ample, wholly consistent with the justice and honor of God's holy law. The Innocent suffered for the guilty, and this should call forth gratitude full and complete.
TDG	368	3	At half past ten [December 25] I spoke to those assembled at the Tabernacle. The Lord gave me most earnest words to speak. I tried to present the matter in the light of God's Word, that the work of labor for the salvation of souls does not rest alone upon the delegated minister, but that to every man God had given his work. The Lord's work is to be carried forward by the living members of Christ's body, and in the great divine appointment of God each one is to be educated to act a part in the conversion of souls. He has enlisted in the army of the Lord, not for ease, not to study his own amusement, but to endure hardships as a faithful soldier of the cross of Christ. Every private must act his part, be vigilant, be courageous, be true. After I had occupied about fifty minutes, many excellent testimonies were borne.
TDG	368	4	We returned home and called to our dinner, Fred Walling, my niece's son, his wife, his wife's mother, and they came with their two little ones, a babe of three months, and a boy of six years. These were strangers and poor, and needed this little encouragement.--Manuscript 24, December 25, 1889, diary.
------------------------Unity, December 26
TDG	369	1	I therefore...beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3.
TDG	369	2	Read the prayer that Christ offered for His people just before His trial and crucifixion. Christ in His human nature suffered disappointment and trials. When I read in the Bible of how many refused to believe that Christ was the Son of God, sadness fills my heart. We read that even His own brethren refused to believe in Him.
TDG	369	3	We must present an unbroken front in union and in faith. We must be strong in the Lord and in the power of His grace.... It is through disunion that the enemy comes in and sows his seed. We need the truth on every point. We need less of our own words and more of the Word of God. We are near the close of time, and we cannot afford to make a mistake. Truth will bear away the victory. We must "love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous" (1 Peter 3:8). We must practice Christian politeness. A soft answer to cruel thrusts turns away wrath....
TDG	369	4	Christ is wounded by the differences that are so easily created and brought to the front. Turn to the seventeenth chapter of John, and read the prayer of Christ, His entreaty that His disciples may be one as He is one with the Father. We greatly dishonor God when we regard it as a light matter to make our differences apparent. This is sure to weaken our own souls and the souls of others....
TDG	369	5	When we bring in our own ideas and opinions, we mislead others. Attach importance to a plain "Thus saith the Lord," and then you will be laborers together with Christ.
TDG	369	6	"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour" (Ephesians 5:1, 2). What grand and comprehensive truths are shining from the Word of God, molding hearts and minds after Christ's order. In the night season I heard these words spoken to companies, by the divine Teacher: "Blend your plans. Let there be no variance among you." ...
TDG	369	7	I would say to you, my brother, Look up. Talk faith and hope. Do not look at the dark side. Let praise and songs of hope be in your heart and on your lips.--Letter 398, December 26, 1906, to Dr. and Mrs. D. H. Kress.
------------------------Work in Christ's Lines, December 27
TDG	370	1	Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27.
TDG	370	2	Our work is incomplete if we do not educate others to be laborers together with God, visiting and praying with families, showing to the world what Jesus has done for us. God's Word declares, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27). These words are spoken to every follower of Christ. Not only the minister, but every soul connected with Him, is to be a worker in His vineyard. "Herein is my Father glorified," Christ said, "that ye bear much fruit" (John 15:8). By His own life Christ has paid for your earnest, hearty cooperation. If you do not work as faithful missionaries, you are untrue to your trust, and you disappoint your Saviour....
TDG	370	3	In His Word God has shown us the only way in which this work should be done. We are to do earnest, faithful work, laboring for souls as they that must give an account. "Repent, repent," was the message rung out by John in the wilderness....
TDG	370	4	Christ's message to the people was, "Unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." And the apostles were commanded to preach everywhere that men should repent. The Lord would have His servants preach today the old gospel doctrine, sorrow for sin, repentance, and confession. We want old-fashioned sermons, old-fashioned customs, old-fashioned fathers and mothers in Israel, who have the tenderness of Christ.
TDG	370	5	The sinner must be labored for perseveringly, earnestly, wisely, until he shall see that he is a transgressor of God's law, and shall exercise repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. When the sinner is conscious of his helpless condition, and feels his need of a Saviour, he may come with faith and hope to "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Christ will accept the soul who comes to Him in true repentance. A broken and a contrite heart He will not despise.
TDG	370	6	The battle cry is sounding along the line. Let every soldier of the cross push to the front, not in self-sufficiency, but in meekness and lowliness of heart.--The Signs of the Times, December 27, 1899.
------------------------Under His Wings, December 28
TDG	371	1	If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. John 15:20.
TDG	371	2	There is no greater evidence that Satan is working than that those who profess to be sanctified to God's service persecute their fellow beings because they do not believe the same doctrine that they themselves believe. These will rush with fury against God's people, stating as true that which they know to be untrue. Thus they show that they are inspired by him who is an accuser of the brethren, and a murderer of the saints of God. But if God permits tyrants to do with us as the priests did with His Son, shall we give up our faith, and go back to perdition? It is not because God does not care for us that He permits these things to be; for He declares, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15).
TDG	371	3	With Satan at their head to imbue them with his spirit, men may afflict God's people, they may cause pain to the body, they may take away their temporal life, but they cannot touch the life that is hid with Christ. We are not our own. Soul and body, we have been bought with the price paid on the cross of Calvary; and we are to remember that we are in the hands of Him who created us. Whatever Satan may inspire evil men to do, we are to rest in the assurance that we are under God's charge, and that by His Spirit He will strengthen us to endure....
TDG	371	4	The time is soon to come when the Lord will say, "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain" (Isaiah 26:20, 21).
TDG	371	5	Those who love God need not be surprised if those who claim to be Christians are filled with hatred because they cannot force the consciences of God's people. Not long hence they will stand before the Judge of all the earth, to render an account for the pain they have caused to the bodies and souls of God's heritage.--The Review and Herald, December 28, 1897.
------------------------Perfect Conformity to God's Will, December 29
TDG	372	1	Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Hebrews 13:8.
TDG	372	2	My brother and sister, we need to keep before us the example of Christ's perfection. When we allow our minds to dwell upon the imperfections of others, our own souls become filled with the leaven of evil.
TDG	372	3	In our endeavors to represent the truth for this time to the world, we shall meet with many difficulties, but, if we will keep the heart and mind fixed upon the precious Saviour, if we talk of His love and power, the perplexities will pass away, and we shall become happy in the assurance of a Saviour's love. We are not dependent upon the world and its changeableness. He in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, is our joy and crown of rejoicing, our peace, our power, our satisfaction. Then let us rejoice, whatever may happen, within and without.
TDG	372	4	We must obtain that measure of the grace of Christ that will enable us to dwell together in love and unity in this life, else we can never dwell together in the life to come. I am trying to show our people the need of the unity for which Christ prayed. The soul must fully own the power and authority of the Word of God. Christ, the perfect example, is ever before us. To Him we may look for grace and power to overcome every fault.
TDG	372	5	We are to get ready for the great day of God by carrying out in the daily life the perfect principles presented to us in the life of Christ. We are called by Him to be His representatives. We are God's children. By spiritual adoption we become His sons and daughters. We are to live in conformity to His will, representing Him in life and character.
TDG	372	6	Perfect conformity to the will of God is the condition of which eternal life is given.... May the Lord bless you, my brother and sister, and lead you, through a knowledge of His Word, to a perfect understanding of His will concerning you.--Letter 96, December 29, 1911, to Mrs. J. J. Gravelle, a lay sister in North Dakota.
------------------------Walk in the Footsteps of Jesus, December 30
TDG	373	1	And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability. Matthew 25:15.
TDG	373	2	Study the instruction found in Matthew 25:14-46. Compare this instruction with your life record. Let every man put away his boasting.... Let us walk in the footsteps of Christ in all the humility of true faith. Let us put away all self-trust, committing ourselves, day by day and hour by hour, to the Saviour, constantly receiving and imparting His grace. I beg those who profess to believe in Christ to walk humbly before God. Pride and self-exaltation are an offense to Him. "If any man will come after me," Christ declares, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). Those only who obey this word will He recognize as His believing ones. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12, 13).
TDG	373	3	"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (Verse 14). O wonderful condescension! The Prince of heaven, the Commander of the heavenly hosts, stepped down from His high position, laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown, and clothed His divinity with humanity, that He might become the divine Teacher of all classes of men, and live before human beings a life free from all selfishness and sin, setting them an example of what, through His grace, they may become.
TDG	373	4	"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (Verse 14). Praise God for this wonderful statement. The possibilities that it presents seem almost too great for us to grasp, and put to shame our weakness and our unbelief. I praise God that I can see my Saviour by faith. My soul grasps the great gift. Our only hope in this life is to reach forth the hand of faith, and grasp the hand outstretched to save. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (Verse 29). If we would look away from self to Jesus, making Him our Guide, the world would see in our churches a power that it does not now see.--Manuscript 166, December 30, 1905, "Aggressive Work to Be Done."
------------------------Don't Let Anything Sidetrack You, December 31
TDG	374	1	But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark. Philippians 3:13, 14.
TDG	374	2	Do not allow anything to turn you aside from the path of self-denial. Of those who in ancient times engaged in contests of physical strength, we read, "Every man that striveth in the games exerciseth self-control in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible" (1 Corinthians 9:25, A.S.V.). As we engage in the great struggle, let us think of what we shall lose if we fail. We shall lose the eternal life purchased for us by the blood of the Son of God. Shall we, then, grudge the toil of eternal vigilance? If we do all in our power to resist evil and surmount obstacles, we shall gain the victory. Vigor will reward the efforts made to press toward the prize of our high calling in Christ.
TDG	374	3	Worldly attractions will be presented to draw the attention from the Lord Jesus; but laying aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets, we are to press forward, showing to the world, to angels, and to men that the hope of seeing the face of God is worth all the efforts and the sacrifices that the attainment of the hope demands.... "I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13, 14, A.S.V.).
TDG	374	4	"One thing I do." Paul allowed nothing to divert him from the one great purpose of his life.... In the busy activities of life, he never lost sight of his one great purpose--to press on toward the prize of his high calling....
TDG	374	5	Let the great purposes that constrained Paul to press forward in the face of hardship and difficulty lead you to consecrate yourselves wholly to God's service. Whatever your hands find to do, do it with your might. Make your work pleasant with songs of praise. If you would have a clean record in the books of heaven, never fret or scold. Let your daily prayer be: "Lord, help me to do my best. Teach me how to do better work. Give me energy and cheerfulness. Help me to bring into my service the loving ministry of the Saviour."--Letter 1, December 31, 1903, to "My Dear Brethren and Sisters."

------------------------That I May Know Him
TMK	7	1	Unlock the Storehouse! January 1
TMK	8	1	Where Wisdom Begins, January 2
TMK	9	1	Who May Know God? January 3
TMK	10	1	Superficial Knowledge Not Enough, January 4
TMK	11	1	Christ the Eternal Word, January 5
TMK	12	1	The Great I Am, January 6
TMK	13	1	Co-Workers in Creation, January 7
TMK	14	1	A Sad Day for the Universe, January 8
TMK	15	1	The Mystery of Sin, January 9
TMK	16	1	Divine Enmity in the Soul, January 10
TMK	17	1	A Star of Hope, January 11
TMK	18	1	God's Character Revealed, January 12
TMK	19	1	Love So Amazing! January 13
TMK	20	1	Isaac a Figure of Christ, January 14
TMK	21	1	Christ the Mystic Ladder, January 15
TMK	22	1	Christ's First Advent Prefigured, January 16
TMK	23	1	The Smitten Rock, January 17
TMK	24	1	The Living Water, January 18
TMK	25	1	God in Human Flesh, January 19
TMK	26	1	The Babe of Bethlehem, January 20
TMK	27	1	A Light to the Young, January 21
TMK	28	1	A Child in the Temple, January 22
TMK	29	1	Keep the Saviour With You! January 23
TMK	30	1	The Ideal for All Humanity, January 24
TMK	31	1	The Meaning of Christ's Baptism, January 25
TMK	32	1	The Wilderness Temptation, January 26
TMK	33	1	A Life Without Sin, January 27
TMK	34	1	Christ Suffered, Being Tempted, January 28
TMK	35	1	Our Divine Redeemer, January 29
TMK	36	1	Marvel of the Heavenly Hosts, January 30
TMK	37	1	The Greatness of Humility, January 31
TMK	38	1	Christ the Revelation of God, February 1
TMK	39	1	Christ in the Home, February 2
TMK	40	1	Lover of Little Children, February 3
TMK	41	1	A Message for Boys and Girls, February 4
TMK	42	1	Armies of Missionary Children, February 5
TMK	43	1	Missionary to the Poor, February 6
TMK	44	1	The Pattern Man, February 7
TMK	45	1	Tender, Loving, Compassionate, February 8
TMK	46	1	An Attribute We May Share, February 9
TMK	47	1	The Compassionate Healer, February 10
TMK	48	1	Bearer of Our Afflictions, February 11
TMK	49	1	Sharing Heaven's Treasures, February 12
TMK	50	1	The Greatest Teacher, February 13
TMK	51	1	Teaching in Depth, February 14
TMK	52	1	Christ the Good Shepherd, February 15
TMK	53	1	In the Bosom of the Shepherd, February 16
TMK	54	1	The Sons of God, February 17
TMK	55	1	When Man Cooperates, February 18
TMK	56	1	Will You Let Him In? February 19
TMK	57	1	The Holy Spirit Our Helper, February 20
TMK	58	1	A Hidden Treasure, February 21
TMK	59	1	Have You Enrolled? February 22
TMK	60	1	"What Manner of Love"! February 23
TMK	61	1	"We Shall Be Like Him", February 24
TMK	62	1	Under the Great Teacher, February 25
TMK	63	1	Redeemed by Christ's Blood, February 26
TMK	64	1	The Weight of God's Wrath, February 27
TMK	65	1	The Cross of Calvary, February 28
TMK	66	1	"Despised and Rejected", March 1
TMK	67	1	"Wounded for Our Transgressions", March 2
TMK	68	1	Depths of Humiliation, March 3
TMK	69	1	Calvary--God's Crowning Work, March 4
TMK	70	1	Christ Our Divine Ransom, March 5
TMK	71	1	Resurrection to New Life, March 6
TMK	72	1	The Glorious Reunion in Heaven, March 7
TMK	73	1	A Perfect Atonement, March 8
TMK	74	1	A Conqueror Claiming His Victory, March 9
TMK	75	1	Momentarily Offering Sacrifice, March 10
TMK	76	1	An Advocate Clothed in Our Nature, March 11
TMK	77	1	When Jesus Interposes, March 12
TMK	78	1	Salvation to the Uttermost, March 13
TMK	79	1	Safe in Every Storm, March 14
TMK	80	1	Jesus Holds Us Fast! March 15
TMK	81	1	The Mystery of Godliness, March 16
TMK	82	1	A Bridge for the Gulf, March 17
TMK	83	1	The Priceless Pearl, March 18
TMK	84	1	Christ's Precious Jewels, March 19
TMK	85	1	Life's Best Things, March 20
TMK	86	1	The Most Profitable Investment, March 21
TMK	87	1	Entrusted Capital, March 22
TMK	88	1	The Life God Uses, March 23
TMK	89	1	Monitor and Friend, March 24
TMK	90	1	Fulfilling Life's Obligations, March 25
TMK	91	1	The Highest Objects of Ambition, March 26
TMK	92	1	Sowing and Reaping, March 27
TMK	93	1	Life Not to Be Trifled With, March 28
TMK	94	1	Molded After His Character, March 29
TMK	95	1	How to Enjoy Heaven, March 30
TMK	96	1	Provision for Every Emergency, March 31
TMK	97	1	Source of All Light, April 1
TMK	98	1	Christ's Blessings Universal, April 2
TMK	99	1	Equality of Believers in Christ, April 3
TMK	100	1	Linked in a Common Brotherhood, April 4
TMK	101	1	One Plan for All Time, April 5
TMK	102	1	Through Christ to God, April 6
TMK	103	1	One Family in Christ, April 7
TMK	104	1	The Sum and Substance, April 8
TMK	105	1	Water for the Thirsty, April 9
TMK	106	1	Bread for the Hungry, April 10
TMK	107	1	Partakers of Christ, April 11
TMK	108	1	A Change of Raiment, April 12
TMK	109	1	Christ Our Peace and Righteousness, April 13
TMK	110	1	Justified by Faith, April 14
TMK	111	1	Our Perfect Pattern, April 15
TMK	112	1	An All-sufficient Saviour, April 16
TMK	113	1	Profession Not Enough, April 17
TMK	114	1	The Righteousness That God Requires, April 18
TMK	115	1	A Faith That Purifies the Life, April 19
TMK	116	1	Simple Faith and Unquestioning Obedience, April 20
TMK	117	1	The Measure of Character, April 21
TMK	118	1	Children, Not Slaves, April 22
TMK	119	1	The Loveliness of Christian Character, April 23
TMK	120	1	The Rest Christ Offers, April 24
TMK	121	1	Under Christ's Yoke, April 25
TMK	122	1	The Grace of Humility, April 26
TMK	123	1	A Heavenly Partnership, April 27
TMK	124	1	Light for the Humble, April 28
TMK	125	1	The Merits of Jesus' Blood, April 29
TMK	126	1	To God Be the Glory, April 30
TMK	127	1	"The Spot of His Children", May 1
TMK	128	1	Live Up to Your Profession, May 2
TMK	129	1	An Individual Work, May 3
TMK	130	1	Perfection Through Christ's Merits, May 4
TMK	131	1	The Science of Holiness, May 5
TMK	132	1	Abiding in Christ, May 6
TMK	133	1	Genuine Fruit Bearing, May 7
TMK	134	1	Glorious Possibilities Before Us, May 8
TMK	135	1	Limitless Heights to Reach, May 9
TMK	136	1	The Preciousness of Christ, May 10
TMK	137	1	Influence of Our Words, May 11
TMK	138	1	A Holy Listener, May 12
TMK	139	1	Our Example in Self-control, May 13
TMK	140	1	Dignity Without Pride, May 14
TMK	141	1	Cheerfulness With Sobriety, May 15
TMK	142	1	"With Joy Unspeakable", May 16
TMK	143	1	Under God's Guardianship, May 17
TMK	144	1	The Voice of Nature, May 18
TMK	145	1	Tokens of God's Love Everywhere, May 19
TMK	146	1	Evidences of God's Greatness, May 20
TMK	147	1	On the Preparation Day, May 21
TMK	148	1	Through Nature to Nature's God, May 22
TMK	149	1	Honoring God in the Home, May 23
TMK	150	1	In God's Workshop, May 24
TMK	151	1	God's Spiritual Temple, May 25
TMK	152	1	Soldiers of Christ, May 26
TMK	153	1	The Proof of Our Discipleship, May 27
TMK	154	1	Come Where the Light Shines, May 28
TMK	155	1	A Life of Strength, May 29
TMK	156	1	Imitating Christ, May 30
TMK	157	1	Grace an Educator, May 31
TMK	158	1	A New Song in Our Hearts, June 1
TMK	159	1	No Standing Still, June 2
TMK	160	1	Adding and Multiplying, June 3
TMK	161	1	When You Are Growing, June 4
TMK	162	1	Reaching the Stature of Christ, June 5
TMK	163	1	Are You Growing Up? June 6
TMK	164	1	Growth and Fruit Bearing, June 7
TMK	165	1	Marks of True Sanctification, June 8
TMK	166	1	Jesus Our All, June 9
TMK	167	1	An Abiding Motive, June 10
TMK	168	1	First Things First, June 11
TMK	169	1	Fitting Up for Heaven, June 12
TMK	170	1	"Stedfast Unto the End", June 13
TMK	171	1	The Coming of the Comforter, June 14
TMK	172	1	Our Divine Credentials, June 15
TMK	173	1	Oneness With Christ and the Father, June 16
TMK	174	1	God's Measurement of My Character, June 17
TMK	175	1	Holiness a Companion of Humility, June 18
TMK	176	1	Why Be Lifted Up? June 19
TMK	177	1	"Take Heed Unto Thyself", June 20
TMK	178	1	Revealing Christ in Character, June 21
TMK	179	1	Tares Among the Wheat, June 22
TMK	180	1	As We Are Forgiven, June 23
TMK	181	1	How to Settle Your Troubles, June 24
TMK	182	1	Look for the Good, June 25
TMK	183	1	Sheep and Wolves, June 26
TMK	184	1	A Time to Close the Mind, June 27
TMK	185	1	Fragrant With Heaven's Blessing, June 28
TMK	186	1	The Greatest Service, June 29
TMK	187	1	Building Up One Another, June 30
TMK	188	1	The Highest Learning, July 1
TMK	189	1	Greatest Educator of All Time, July 2
TMK	190	1	Facing the Light, July 3
TMK	191	1	Opening the Mysteries of Redemption, July 4
TMK	192	1	Object of the Oracles, July 5
TMK	193	1	Wisdom From the Father of Light, July 6
TMK	194	1	The Christian's Textbook, July 7
TMK	195	1	Exploring the Mine of Truth, July 8
TMK	196	1	A Voice From God, July 9
TMK	197	1	Book of the Ages, July 10
TMK	198	1	True Christian Culture, July 11
TMK	199	1	Truths That Transform, July 12
TMK	200	1	Truth a Divine Sentinel, July 13
TMK	201	1	Golden Promises, July 14
TMK	202	1	Springs of Comfort, July 15
TMK	203	1	Loss That Is Gain, July 16
TMK	204	1	The Peril of Neglect, July 17
TMK	205	1	Rich Depths of Knowledge, July 18
TMK	206	1	Human Versus Divine Wisdom, July 19
TMK	207	1	Author and Teacher of Truth, July 20
TMK	208	1	Central Theme of the Scriptures, July 21
TMK	209	1	A Will of Your Own? July 22
TMK	210	1	The Platform of Truth, July 23
TMK	211	1	God's Appointed Signature, July 24
TMK	212	1	Safety in the "Old Paths", July 25
TMK	213	1	The Garden of God, July 26
TMK	214	1	To Which Party Do You Belong? July 27
TMK	215	1	Noncommittal Christians, July 28
TMK	216	1	Passing on the Light, July 29
TMK	217	1	Light for Those Who Love Light, July 30
TMK	218	1	Let God Manage You, July 31
TMK	219	1	Subjects of the King! August 1
TMK	220	1	In the Master's Stead, August 2
TMK	221	1	Support of the Lord's Plan, August 3
TMK	222	1	Beware of Satan's Snares, August 4
TMK	223	1	A Safe Place for Our Treasures, August 5
TMK	224	1	God's Treasure House of Supplies, August 6
TMK	225	1	A Never-failing Refuge, August 7
TMK	226	1	A Progressive Faith, August 8
TMK	227	1	A Dangerous Guest, August 9
TMK	228	1	Conquering Our Doubts, August 10
TMK	229	1	The Faith God Accepts, August 11
TMK	230	1	Cultivating the Plant of Faith, August 12
TMK	231	1	Much Faith, Much Peace, August 13
TMK	232	1	Faith Sees Beyond the Darkness, August 14
TMK	233	1	Take Time to Think, August 15
TMK	234	1	A Holy Watcher, August 16
TMK	235	1	The Mighty Deliverer, August 17
TMK	236	1	The Sowing Time, August 18
TMK	237	1	Under God's Searching Eye, August 19
TMK	238	1	Mercy for the Repentant, August 20
TMK	239	1	From Defeat to Victory, August 21
TMK	240	1	A Strong Defense Against Temptation, August 22
TMK	241	1	How to Get Rid of Guilt, August 23
TMK	242	1	Under the Discipline of God, August 24
TMK	243	1	The Sin God Cannot Forgive, August 25
TMK	244	1	Trifling With God's Spirit, August 26
TMK	245	1	How to Resist Satan, August 27
TMK	246	1	Drawing Nigh to God, August 28
TMK	247	1	No Excuse for Failure, August 29
TMK	248	1	Battlefield of the Soul, August 30
TMK	249	1	The Only Path of Safety, August 31
TMK	250	1	My Lord and I, September 1
TMK	251	1	Listen to God's Voice, September 2
TMK	252	1	Watch for God's Guidance, September 3
TMK	253	1	The March to Victory, September 4
TMK	254	1	Those First Dangerous Steps, September 5
TMK	255	1	The Deceitfulness of Sin, September 6
TMK	256	1	The Conflict Is for Us, September 7
TMK	257	1	Trust in Time of Trial, September 8
TMK	258	1	And Jesus Prayed, September 9
TMK	259	1	"Come Ye Yourselves Apart", September 10
TMK	260	1	Acceptable Prayer, September 11
TMK	261	1	The Model Prayer, September 12
TMK	262	1	What Is God Like? September 13
TMK	263	1	A Tender, Merciful Father, September 14
TMK	264	1	The Terms of Our Salvation, September 15
TMK	265	1	The Power of Jesus' Name, September 16
TMK	266	1	I Pray for Guidance, September 17
TMK	267	1	The Christian's Safeguard, September 18
TMK	268	1	Quiet Rest in God, September 19
TMK	269	1	Feeble Efforts Not Enough, September 20
TMK	270	1	Fervent, Effectual Prayer, September 21
TMK	271	1	Daniel's Example of Prayer and Confession, September 22
TMK	272	1	The Preciousness of Secret Prayer, September 23
TMK	273	1	Praise, Like Clear-flowing Streams, September 24
TMK	274	1	A Jubilee for Jesus? September 25
TMK	275	1	Suffering for the Truth's Sake, September 26
TMK	276	1	Strength Through Trial, September 27
TMK	277	1	The Glorious Fruits of Trial, September 28
TMK	278	1	Why These Afflictions? September 29
TMK	279	1	Bring Your Troubles to God, September 30
TMK	280	1	Addressed to Me Personally, October 1
TMK	281	1	Working the Heart's Soil, October 2
TMK	282	1	Spiritual Muscle and Sinew, October 3
TMK	283	1	"My Grace Is Sufficient for Thee", October 4
TMK	284	1	The Lord Is My Helper, October 5
TMK	285	1	Feelings No Evidence of Rejection, October 6
TMK	286	1	"I Have Prayed for Thee", October 7
TMK	287	1	The Price of Perfection, October 8
TMK	288	1	Living Out God's Law, October 9
TMK	289	1	God's Law Changeless and Eternal, October 10
TMK	290	1	The Test of Our Actions, October 11
TMK	291	1	Happiness in Obedience, October 12
TMK	292	1	Power for Obedience, October 13
TMK	293	1	Evidence of Our Allegiance, October 14
TMK	294	1	Wonderful Simplicity of the Law, October 15
TMK	295	1	God's Moral Looking Glass, October 16
TMK	296	1	Privileges of the Obedient, October 17
TMK	297	1	The Motive for Obedience, October 18
TMK	298	1	Foundation of God's Government, October 19
TMK	299	1	God's Law in the Heart, October 20
TMK	300	1	The True Standard of Character, October 21
TMK	301	1	The Game of Life, October 22
TMK	302	1	Filled With His Fullness, October 23
TMK	303	1	Distinct and Separate Ways, October 24
TMK	304	1	The Challenge of the Difficult, October 25
TMK	305	1	A Marked Distinction, October 26
TMK	306	1	Christ's Representatives in the World, October 27
TMK	307	1	Where Are You Pitching Your Tent? October 28
TMK	308	1	Who Has Our Friendship? October 29
TMK	309	1	God or Mammon? October 30
TMK	310	1	The Condition of Sonship, October 31
TMK	311	1	Shun the World's Pleasures, November 1
TMK	312	1	The Adorning That Never Fades, November 2
TMK	313	1	Daily Self-denial, November 3
TMK	314	1	The Battle Against Intemperance, November 4
TMK	315	1	The Christian Race, November 5
TMK	316	1	An Example of the Believers, November 6
TMK	317	1	God's Peculiar People, November 7
TMK	318	1	Dare to Be Different! November 8
TMK	319	1	Privileges Without Limit, November 9
TMK	320	1	A Happy Walk With Jesus, November 10
TMK	321	1	Count the Cost, November 11
TMK	322	1	Cast Out Every Idol, November 12
TMK	323	1	Threads in the Web of Humanity, November 13
TMK	324	1	Trading on God's Gifts, November 14
TMK	325	1	The Religion of Little Things, November 15
TMK	326	1	A Day of Reckoning, November 16
TMK	327	1	Putting Our Gifts to Work, November 17
TMK	328	1	Instruments of Righteousness, November 18
TMK	329	1	For the Master's Use, November 19
TMK	330	1	Work Where You Are, November 20
TMK	331	1	"Faithful in That Which Is Least", November 21
TMK	332	1	No Room for Shirkers, November 22
TMK	333	1	Serve the Lord Heartily, November 23
TMK	334	1	"Bear Ye One Another's Burdens", November 24
TMK	335	1	Sweet Music in Heaven, November 25
TMK	336	1	Channels of Light and Blessing, November 26
TMK	337	1	Repeating Christ's Invitation, November 27
TMK	338	1	An Inexhaustible Storehouse, November 28
TMK	339	1	Christ is Our Message! November 29
TMK	340	1	Fullness of the Godhead, November 30
TMK	341	1	Exalting the Man of Calvary, December 1
TMK	342	1	Now is the Time to Shine, December 2
TMK	343	1	Light for a World in Darkness, December 3
TMK	344	1	Pledge of Divine Power, December 4
TMK	345	1	Revealing Christ in the Crisis, December 5
TMK	346	1	Fortress of the Soul, December 6
TMK	347	1	Brighter and Brighter Still, December 7
TMK	348	1	He is Coming Again! December 8
TMK	349	1	Why the Lord Delays, December 9
TMK	350	1	The Revelation of Character, December 10
TMK	351	1	Watch! Watch! Watch! December 11
TMK	352	1	Standing Firm in Days of Peril, December 12
TMK	353	1	Qualifications of Heavenly Citizenship, December 13
TMK	354	1	Crisis of the Ages, December 14
TMK	355	1	A Safe Hiding Place, December 15
TMK	356	1	It Will Not Be Long, December 16
TMK	357	1	The Best Specification We Can Have, December 17
TMK	358	1	A Constant Readiness, December 18
TMK	359	1	The Day of Final Settlement, December 19
TMK	360	1	Fear Not, Child of God, December 20
TMK	361	1	Robed in His Perfection, December 21
TMK	362	1	On the Threshold of Eternity, December 22
TMK	363	1	An Abiding Place for You, December 23
TMK	364	1	We Shall See His Face, December 24
TMK	365	1	Mysteries Yet to Be Unfolded, December 25
TMK	366	1	Triumph of God's Love, December 26
TMK	367	1	The Fulfillment of God's Purpose, December 27
TMK	368	1	The Joy Set Before Him, December 28
TMK	369	1	The Results of Christ's Travail, December 29
TMK	370	1	Eternity Before Us, December 30
TMK	371	1	Home at Last! December 31

------------------------Unlock the Storehouse! January 1
TMK	7	1	Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Ephesians 3:8.
TMK	7	2	In the Word of God there are rich mines of truth that we may spend our whole lifetime in exploring, and yet we shall find that we have only begun to view their precious stores.... There are unsearchable riches for us. It will take us all eternity to comprehend the riches of the glory of God and of Jesus Christ....
TMK	7	3	Christ has said: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7:37). Have you exhausted the fountain? No, for it is inexhaustible. Just as soon as you feel your need, you may drink, and drink again. The fountain is always full. And when you have once drunk of that fountain you will not be seeking to quench your thirst from the broken cisterns of this world; you will not be studying how you can find the most pleasure, amusement, fun, and frolic. No, because you have been drinking from the stream which makes glad the city of God. Then your joy will be full, for Christ will be in you.1
TMK	7	4	Jehovah Immanuel--He "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," in whom dwells "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:3, 9)--to be brought into sympathy with Him, to know Him, to possess Him, as the heart opens more and more to receive His attributes; to know His love and power, to possess the unsearchable riches of Christ, to comprehend more and more "what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:18, 19)--"this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 54:17).2
TMK	7	5	There is no need for us to hunger, there is no need for us to thirst, while the storehouse of heaven is open for us and the key is given into our possession. What is the key? Faith, which is the gift of God. Unlock the storehouse; take of its rich treasures.3
------------------------Where Wisdom Begins, January 2
TMK	8	1	The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10.
TMK	8	2	There is a wide difference between what God has given men capacity to become, and the degree of excellence to which they actually attain.4
TMK	8	3	The Word of God presents the most potent means of education, as well as the most valuable source of knowledge, within the reach of man. The understanding adapts itself to the dimensions of the subjects with which it is required to deal. If occupied with trivial, commonplace matters only, never summoned to earnest effort to comprehend great and eternal truths, it becomes dwarfed and enfeebled. Hence the value of the Scriptures, as a means of intellectual culture.... They lead directly to the contemplation of the most exalted, the most ennobling, and the most stupendous truths that are presented to the mind of man. They direct our thoughts to the infinite Author of all things. We see revealed the character of the Eternal, and listen to His voice as He communes with patriarchs and prophets. We see explained the mysteries of His providence, the great problems which have engaged the attention of every thoughtful mind, but which, without the aid of revelation, human intellect seeks in vain to solve. They open to our understanding a simple yet sublime system of theology, presenting truths which a child may grasp, but which are yet so far reaching as to baffle the powers of the strongest mind.
TMK	8	4	The more closely God's Word is searched, and the better understood, the more vividly will the student realize that there is, beyond, infinite wisdom, knowledge, and power....
TMK	8	5	If the youth will but learn of the heavenly Teacher, as did Daniel, they will know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.... Those who consecrate themselves to God, and who have the protection of His grace and the quickening influence of His Spirit, will manifest keener intellectual power than the mere worldling. They will be able to reach the highest, noblest exercise of every faculty.5
------------------------Who May Know God? January 3
TMK	9	1	Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? Job 11:7.
TMK	9	2	We cannot by searching find out God, but He has revealed Himself in His Son, who is the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person. If we desire a knowledge of God we must be Christlike.... Living a pure life through faith in Christ as a personal Saviour will bring to the believer a clearer, higher conception of God....
TMK	9	3	Eternal life is the reward that will be given to all who obey the two great principles of God's law--love to God and love to man. The first four commandments define and enjoin love to God; the last six, love to our fellow men. Obedience to these commands is the only evidence man can give that he possesses a genuine, saving knowledge of God. Love for God is demonstrated by love for those for whom Christ has died. While enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, Christ gave directions regarding this love. Distinctly and clearly He laid down the principles of heaven as rules that His chosen people were to observe in their dealings one with another. These principles Christ lived out in His life of humanity. In His teaching He presented the motives that should govern the lives of His followers....
TMK	9	4	Those who partake of God's love through a reception of the truth will give evidence of this by making earnest, self-sacrificing efforts to give the message of God's love to others. Thus they become laborers together with Christ. Love for God and for one another unites them to Christ by golden links. Their life is bound up with His life in sanctified, elevated union.... This union causes rich currents of Christ's love to flow continually into the heart, and then flow forth again in love for others.
TMK	9	5	The qualities that it is essential for all to possess in order to know God are those that mark the completeness of Christ's character--His love, His patience, His unselfishness. These attributes are cultivated by doing kind actions with a kindly heart.6
------------------------Superficial Knowledge Not Enough, January 4
TMK	10	1	To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27.
TMK	10	2	There are many mysteries in the Word of God that we do not comprehend, and many of us are content to stop our investigation when we have just begun to receive a little knowledge concerning Christ. When there begins to be a little unfolding of the divine purposes to the mind, and we begin to obtain a slight knowledge of the character of God, we become satisfied and think that we have received about all the light that there is for us in the Word of God. But the truth of God is infinite. With painstaking effort we should work in the mines of truth, discovering the precious jewels that have been hidden.... Jesus meant just what He said when He directed His disciples to "search the Scriptures" (John 5:39). Searching means to compare scripture with scripture, and spiritual things with spiritual. We should not be satisfied with a superficial knowledge.7
TMK	10	3	We do not half realize what the Lord is willing to do for His people.... Our petitions, mingled with faith and contrition, should go up to God for an understanding of the mysteries that God would make known to His saints.... An angel's pen could not portray all the glory of the revealed plan of redemption. The Bible tells how Christ bore our sins and carried our sorrows. Here is revealed how mercy and truth have met together at the cross of Calvary, how righteousness and peace have kissed each other, how the righteousness of Christ may be imparted to fallen man. There infinite wisdom, infinite justice, infinite mercy, and infinite love were displayed. Depths, heights, lengths, and breadths of love and wisdom, all passing knowledge, are made known in the plan of salvation.8
TMK	10	4	He who desires the truth in his heart, who longs for the working of its powers upon the life and character, will be sure to have it. Says the Saviour, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).9
------------------------Christ the Eternal Word, January 5
TMK	11	1	In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:1-3.
TMK	11	2	Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father,--one in nature, in character, in purpose,--the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." His "goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." And the Son of God declares concerning Himself: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting.... When he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him" (Isaiah 9:6; Micah 5:2; Proverbs 8:22-30).
TMK	11	3	The Father wrought by His Son in the creation of all heavenly beings. "By him were all things created, ... whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him" (Colossians 1:16). Angels are God's ministers, radiant with the light ever flowing from His presence, and speeding on rapid wing to execute His will. But the Son, the anointed of God, the "express image of his person," "the brightness of his glory," "upholding all things by the word of his power," holds supremacy over them all (Hebrews 1:3).10
TMK	11	4	Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense.... The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father. He was the surpassing glory of heaven. He was the commander of the heavenly intelligences, and the adoring homage of the angels was received by Him as His right....
TMK	11	5	There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was one with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory.11
------------------------The Great I Am, January 6
TMK	12	1	Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. John 8:58.
TMK	12	2	I AM means an eternal presence; the past, present, and future are alike with God. He sees the most remote events of past history and the far distant future with as clear a vision as we do those things which are transpiring daily. We know not what is before us, and if we did, it would not contribute to our eternal welfare. God gives us an opportunity to exercise faith and trust in the great I AM.... Our Saviour says, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad" (John 8:56). Fifteen hundred years before Christ laid off His royal robe, His kingly crown, and left His position of honor in the heavenly courts, assumed humanity, and walked a man among the children of men, Abraham saw His day, and was glad. "Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am" (verses 57, 58)....
TMK	12	3	Christ was using the great name of God that was given to Moses to express the idea of the eternal presence. [See Ex. 3:14.] Isaiah also saw Christ, and his prophetic words are full of significance. He says, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). Speaking through him, the Lord says, "I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.... Fear not: for I am with thee.... I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.... Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was I am he.... I am the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King" (Isaiah 43:3-15).... When Jesus came to our world, He proclaimed Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6)....
TMK	12	4	The Lord must be believed and served as the great "I AM," and we must trust implicitly in Him.12
------------------------Co-Workers in Creation, January 7
TMK	13	1	And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. ... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:26, 27.
TMK	13	2	After the earth was created, and the beasts upon it, the Father and Son carried out their purpose, which was designed before the fall of Satan, to make man in their own image. They had wrought together in the creation of the earth and every living thing upon it. And now God said to His Son, "Let us make man in our image."13
TMK	13	3	Adam and Eve came forth from the hand of their Creator in the perfection of every physical, mental, and spiritual endowment. God planted for them a garden and surrounded them with everything lovely and attractive to the eye, and that which their physical necessities required....
TMK	13	4	The holy pair looked upon nature as a picture of unsurpassed loveliness. The brown earth was clothed with a carpet of living green, diversified with an endless variety of self-propagating, self-perpetuating flowers. Shrubs, flowers, and trailing vines regaled the senses with their beauty and fragrance. The many varieties of lofty trees were laden with fruit of every kind and of delicious flavor. ...
TMK	13	5	Adam and Eve could trace the skill and glory of God in every spire of grass and in every shrub and flower. The natural loveliness which surrounded them, like a mirror reflected the wisdom, excellence, and love of their heavenly Father. And their songs of affection and praise rose sweetly and reverentially to heaven, harmonizing with the songs of the exalted angels, and with the happy birds who were caroling forth their music without a care. There was no disease, decay, nor death anywhere. Life, life was in everything the eye rested upon. The atmosphere was impregnated with life....
TMK	13	6	Adam could reflect that he was created in the image of God, to be like Him in righteousness and holiness. His mind was capable of continual cultivation, expansion, refinement and noble elevation, for God was his teacher, and angels were his companions.14
------------------------A Sad Day for the Universe, January 8
TMK	14	1	Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Romans 5:12.
TMK	14	2	When our first parents were placed in the beautiful garden of Eden, they were tested in regard to their loyalty to God. They were free to choose the service of God, or by disobedience to ally themselves with the enemy of God and man.... If they disregard God's commands, and listened to the voice of Satan, as he spoke through the serpent, they would not only forfeit their claim to Eden, but to life itself.15
TMK	14	3	The first great moral lesson given Adam was that of self-denial. The reins of self-government were placed in his hands. Judgment, reason, and conscience were to bear sway....
TMK	14	4	Adam and Eve were permitted to partake of every tree in the Garden save one. There was only a single prohibition. The forbidden tree was as attractive and lovely as any of the trees in the Garden. It was called the tree of knowledge, because in partaking of that tree, of which God had said, "Thou shalt not eat of it," (Genesis 2:17) they would have a knowledge of sin, an experience in disobedience.16
TMK	14	5	With what intense interest the whole universe watched the conflict that was to decide the position of Adam and Eve. How attentively the angels listened to the words of Satan, the originator of sin, as he ... sought to make of none effect the law of God through his deceptive reasoning! How anxiously they waited to see if the holy pair would be deluded by the tempter, and yield to his arts! They asked themselves, Will the holy pair transfer their faith and love from the Father and Son to Satan? Will they accept his falsehoods as truth?17
TMK	14	6	Adam and Eve persuaded themselves that in so small a matter as eating of the forbidden fruit, there could not result such terrible consequences as God had declared. But this small matter was sin, the transgression of God's immutable and holy law, and it opened the floodgates of death and untold woe upon our world.... Let us not esteem sin as a trivial thing.18
------------------------The Mystery of Sin, January 9
TMK	15	1	Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so. ... Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. Ezekiel 28:14, 15.
TMK	15	2	It is impossible to explain the origin of sin so as to give a reason for its existence. Yet enough may be understood concerning both the origin and the final disposition of sin, to make fully manifest the justice and benevolence of God in all His dealings with evil. Nothing is more plainly taught in Scripture than that God was in no wise responsible for the entrance of sin.... Sin is an intruder, for whose presence no reason can be given. It is mysterious, unaccountable; to excuse it, is to defend it. Could excuse for it be found, or cause be shown for its existence, it would cease to be sin. Our only definition of sin is that given in the word of God; it is "the transgression of the law;" (1 John 3:4) it is the outworking of a principle at war with the great law of love which is the foundation of the divine government.19
TMK	15	3	Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven. He sought to gain control of heavenly beings, to draw them away from their Creator, and to win their homage to himself.... Thus he deceived angels. Thus he deceived men. He led them to doubt the word of God, and to distrust His goodness.... Thus he drew men to join him in rebellion against God, and the night of woe settled down upon the world.20
TMK	15	4	Sin appeared in a perfect universe.... The reason of its inception or development was never explained and never can be, even at the last great day when the judgment shall sit and the books be opened.... At that day it will be evident to all that there is not, and never was, any cause for sin. At the final condemnation of Satan and his angels and of all men who have finally identified themselves with him as transgressors of God's law, every mouth will be stopped. When the hosts of rebellion, from the first great rebel to the last transgressor, are asked why they have broken the law of God, they will be speechless. There will be no answer to give.21
------------------------Divine Enmity in the Soul, January 10
TMK	16	1	And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15.
TMK	16	2	Adam and Eve stood as criminals before their God, awaiting the sentence which transgression had incurred. But before they hear of the thorn and the thistle, the sorrow and anguish which should be their portion, and the dust to which they should return, they listen to words which must have inspired them with hope. Though they must suffer ... , they might look forward to ultimate victory.
TMK	16	3	God declares, "I will put enmity." This enmity is supernaturally put, and not naturally entertained. When man sinned, his nature became evil, and he was in harmony, and not at variance, with Satan. The lofty usurper, having succeeded in seducing our first parents as he had seduced angels, counted on securing their allegiance and cooperation in all his enterprises against the government of Heaven.... But when Satan heard that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, he knew that though he had succeeded in depraving human nature ... , yet by some mysterious process God would restore to man his lost power, and enable him to resist and overcome his conqueror.
TMK	16	4	It is the grace that Christ implants in the soul that creates the enmity against Satan. Without this grace, man would continue the captive of Satan, a servant ever ready to do his bidding. The new principle in the soul creates conflict where hitherto had been peace. The power which Christ imparts, enables man to resist the tyrant and usurper. Whenever a man is seen to abhor sin instead of loving it, when he resists and conquers those passions that have held sway within, there is seen the operation of a principle wholly from above. The Holy Spirit must be constantly imparted to man, or he has no disposition to contend against the powers of darkness.22
TMK	16	5	Shall we not accept the enmity which Christ has placed between man and the serpent? ... We have a right to say, In the strength of Jesus Christ I will be a conqueror.23
------------------------A Star of Hope, January 11
TMK	17	1	Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29.
TMK	17	2	To fallen man was revealed the plan of infinite sacrifice through which salvation was to be provided. Nothing but the death of God's dear Son could expiate man's sin, and Adam marveled at the goodness of God in providing such a ransom for the sinner. Through the love of God, a star of hope illumined the terrible future that spreads before the transgressor. Through the institution of the typical system of sacrifice and offering, the death of Christ was ever to be kept before guilty man, that he might better comprehend the nature of sin, the results of transgression, and the merit of the divine offering. Had there been no sin, man would never have known death. But in the innocent offering slain by his own hand he beheld the fruits of sin--the death of the Son of God in his behalf. He sees the immutable character of the law he has transgressed, and confesses his sin; he relies upon the merits of the Lamb of God....
TMK	17	3	In becoming man's substitute, in bearing the curse which should fall upon man, Christ has pledged Himself in behalf of the race to maintain the sacred and exalted honor of His Father's law.... God has given the world into the hands of Christ, that He may completely vindicate the binding claims of the law and make manifest the holiness of every principle.24
TMK	17	4	The sacrifice of beasts shadowed forth the sinless offering of God's dear Son, and pointed forward to His death upon the cross. But at the crucifixion type met antitype, and the typical system there ceased....
TMK	17	5	The Son of God is the center of the great plan of redemption which covers all dispensations. He is the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). He is the Redeemer of the fallen sons and daughters of Adam in all ages of human probation. "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).25
------------------------God's Character Revealed, January 12
TMK	18	1	But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.
TMK	18	2	The fall of man, with all its consequences, was not hidden from the Omnipotent. Redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam, but an eternal purpose, suffered to be wrought out for the blessing not only of this atom of a world, but for the good of all the worlds that God had created....
TMK	18	3	When man sinned, all heaven was filled with sorrow.... Out of harmony with the nature of God, unyielding to the claims of His law, naught but destruction was before the human race. Since the divine law is as changeless as the character of God, there could be no hope for man unless some way could be devised whereby his transgression might be pardoned, his nature renewed, and his spirit restored to reflect the image of God. Divine love had conceived such a plan....
TMK	18	4	In the work of creation Christ was with God. He was one with God, equal with Him.... He alone, the Creator of man, could be his Saviour. No angel of heaven could reveal the Father to the sinner, and win him back to allegiance to God. But Christ could manifest the Father's love, for God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Christ could be the "daysman" between a holy God and lost humanity, one who could "lay his hand upon us both" (Job 9:33).... He proposed to take upon Himself the guilt and shame of sin--sin so offensive in the sight of God that it would necessitate separation from His Father. Christ proposed to reach to the depths of man's degradation and woe, and restore the repenting, believing soul to harmony with God. Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, offered Himself as a sacrifice and substitute for the fallen sons of Adam.26
TMK	18	5	Through creation and redemption, through nature and through Christ, the glories of the divine character are revealed. By the marvelous display of His love in giving "his only begotten Son," ... the character of God is revealed to the intelligences of the universe.27
------------------------Love So Amazing! January 13
TMK	19	1	For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
TMK	19	2	Having undertaken the work of man's redemption, the Father would spare nothing, however dear, which was essential for the completion of His work. He would make opportunities for men; He would pour upon them His blessings; He would heap favor upon favor, gift upon gift, until the whole treasury of heaven was open to those whom He came to save. Having collected all the riches of the universe, and laid open all the resources of His divine nature, God gave them all for the use of man. They were His free gift. What an ocean of love is circulating, like a divine atmosphere, around the world! What manner of love is this, that the eternal God should adopt human nature in the person of His Son, and carry the same into the highest heaven!
TMK	19	3	All the heavenly intelligences were watching with intense interest the warfare that was going on upon the earth--the earth that Satan claimed as his dominion. Every moment was big with eternal realities. How would the conflict end? The angels looked for the justice of God to be revealed, His anger to be aroused against the prince of darkness and his sympathizers. But lo, mercy prevailed. When the Son of God might have come to the world to condemn, He came as righteousness and peace, to save not merely the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but all the world--every son and daughter of Adam who would believe on Him, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. What an exhibition of the love of Jehovah! This is love without a parallel.28
TMK	19	4	Our Redeemer determined on nothing less than that through His merits the love of God should be transfused through the soul that believes in Him. As our life, the vitality of God's love is to circulate through every part of our nature, that it may abide in us as it dwells in Christ Jesus. United with Christ by living faith, the Father loves us as the members of Christ's mystical body, of which Christ is the glorified head.29
------------------------Isaac a Figure of Christ, January 14
TMK	20	1	By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Hebrews 11:17, 18.
TMK	20	2	The offering of Isaac was designed by God to prefigure the sacrifice of His Son. Isaac was a figure of the Son of God, who was offered a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God desired to impress upon Abraham the gospel of salvation of men.... He was made to understand in his own experience how great was the self-denial of the infinite God in giving His Son to rescue man from ruin.
TMK	20	3	To Abraham no mental torture could be equal to that which he endured in obeying the command to sacrifice his son. ... With a breaking heart and unnerved hand, he takes the fire, while Isaac inquires, "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" (Genesis 22:7). But oh, Abraham cannot tell him now! Father and son build the altar, and the terrible moment comes for Abraham to make known to Isaac that which has agonized his soul during all that long journey--that Isaac himself is the victim.... The son submits to the sacrifice because he believes in the integrity of his father. But when everything is ready, when the faith of the father and the submission of the son are fully tested, the angel of God stays the uplifted hand of Abraham, and tells him that it is enough. "Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me" (verse 12).30
TMK	20	4	Our heavenly Father surrendered His beloved Son to the agonies of the crucifixion. Legions of angels witnessed the humiliation and soul anguish of the Son of God, but were not permitted to interpose as in the case of Isaac. No voice was heard to stay the sacrifice. God's dear Son, the world's Redeemer, was insulted, mocked at, derided, and tortured, until He bowed His head in death. What greater proof can the Infinite One give us of His divine love and pity? "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).31
------------------------Christ the Mystic Ladder, January 15
TMK	21	1	And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Genesis 28:12.
TMK	21	2	Jacob's experience as a wanderer from his home, when he was shown the mystic ladder, ... was designed to teach a great truth in regard to the plan of salvation....
TMK	21	3	The ladder represented Christ. He is the channel of communication between heaven and earth, and angels go to and fro in continual intercourse with the fallen race. The words of Christ to Nathanael were in harmony with the figure of the ladder, when He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51). Here the Redeemer identifies Himself as the mystic ladder that makes communication possible between heaven and earth....
TMK	21	4	In assuming humanity, Christ planted the ladder firmly upon the earth. The ladder reaches unto the highest heaven, and God's glory shines from its summit and illuminates its whole length, while the angels pass to and fro with messages from God to man, with petition and praise from man to God.... In the vision of Jacob was represented the union of the human and the divine in Christ. As the angels pass to and fro on the ladder, God is represented as looking down with favor upon the children of men because of the merit of His Son....
TMK	21	5	The gaining of eternal life is no easy thing. By living faith we are to keep on reaching forward, ascending the ladder round by round, seeing and taking the necessary steps; and yet we must understand that not one holy thought, not one unselfish act, can be originated in self. It is only through Christ that there can be any virtue in humanity.... But while we can do nothing without Him, we have something to do in connection with Him. At no time must we relax our spiritual vigilance, for we are hanging, as it were, between heaven and earth. We must cling to Christ, climb up by Christ, become laborers together with Him in the saving of our souls.32
------------------------Christ's First Advent Prefigured, January 16
TMK	22	1	By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Hebrews 11:24, 25.
TMK	22	2	While he was sitting under the very shadow of the throne, the Spirit of the Lord stirred his heart to lift the crushing weight that was pressing his brethren into the lowest degradation and slavery. His heart ached with sorrow, as if he himself were in slavery, laboring in the brick kiln, and sharing their degradation. They were slaves, suffering under the cruel lash. They were a reproach and a hissing to all the Egyptians, from Pharaoh down to the lowest serf.
TMK	22	3	But the Lord had singled out Moses as the one to deliver the oppressed race, and by forty years of exile, under the discipline of God, he was prepared for the work. Understanding the evil disposition of his own countrymen, knowing how many would be perverse and unreasonable, understanding that they might betray him, he was yet considering ways and means to accomplish their deliverance, though supposing that he himself had forfeited all right to be the instrument. But God, in the bush which though burning was yet unconsumed by the fire, presented Himself, and selected Moses as His agent....
TMK	22	4	Moses was accepted as a co-worker with God. He knew that scorn, hatred, persecution, and maybe death would be his portion if he should act any part in espousing the cause of the Hebrew captives.... He had stood in great popularity as the general of Pharaoh's armies, and he knew that now his name would be bandied round and falsified, but he esteemed "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt" (Hebrews 11:26). He laid down the prospect of a kingly crown, and took up the burdens of his oppressed and afflicted people.33
TMK	22	5	Moses was chosen of God to break the yoke of bondage upon the children of Israel, and ... in his work he prefigured Christ's first advent to break Satan's power over the human family and deliver those who were made captives by his power.34
------------------------The Smitten Rock, January 17
TMK	23	1	Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. Exodus 17:6.
TMK	23	2	From the smitten rock in Horeb first flowed the living stream that refreshed Israel in the desert. During all their wanderings, wherever the need existed, they were supplied with water by a miracle of God's mercy....
TMK	23	3	It was Christ, by the power of His word, that caused the refreshing stream to flow for Israel. "They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4). He was the source of all temporal as well as spiritual blessings. Christ, the true Rock, was with them in all their wanderings. "They thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them." "They ran in the dry places like a river" (Isaiah 48:21; Psalm 105:41).
TMK	23	4	The smitten rock was a figure of Christ, and through this symbol the most precious spiritual truths are taught. As the life-giving waters flowed from the smitten rock, so from Christ, "smitten of God," "wounded for our transgressions," "bruised for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:4, 5), the stream of salvation flows for a lost race. As the rock had been once smitten, so Christ was to be "once offered to bear the sins of many" (Hebrews 9:28). Our Saviour was not to be sacrificed a second time; and it is only necessary for those who seek the blessings of His grace to ask in the name of Jesus, pouring forth the heart's desire in penitential prayer. Such prayer will bring before the Lord of hosts the wounds of Jesus, and then will flow forth afresh the life-giving blood, symbolized by the flowing of the living water for Israel....
TMK	23	5	The refreshing water, welling up in a parched and barren land, ... is an emblem of the divine grace which Christ alone can bestow, and which is as the living water purifying, refreshing, and invigorating the soul. He in whom Christ is abiding has within him a never-failing fountain of grace and strength.35
------------------------The Living Water, January 18
TMK	24	1	And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:4.
TMK	24	2	Christ combines the two types. He is the rock, He is the living water.
TMK	24	3	The same beautiful and expressive figures are carried throughout the Bible. Centuries before the advent of Christ, Moses pointed to Him as the rock of Israel's salvation; the psalmist sung of Him as "my redeemer," "the rock of my strength," "the rock that is higher than I," "a rock of habitation," "rock of my heart," "rock of my refuge." In David's song His grace is pictured also as the cool, "still waters," amid green pastures, beside which the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock. Again, "Thou shalt make them," he says, "drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life." And the wise man declares, "The wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook." To Jeremiah, Christ is "the fountain of living waters"; to Zechariah, "a fountain opened ... for sin and for uncleanness."
TMK	24	4	Isaiah describes Him as the "rock of ages," and "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." And he records the precious promise, bringing vividly to mind the living stream that flowed for Israel: "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them." "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground"; "in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." The invitation is given, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." And in the closing pages of the sacred word this invitation is echoed. The river of the water of life, "clear as crystal," proceeds from the throne of God and the Lamb; and the gracious call is ringing down through the ages, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."36
TMK	24	5	References: Deuteronomy 32:15; Psalm 19:14; 62:7; 61:2; 71:3 (margin); 73:26 (margin); 94:22; 23:2; 36:8, 9; Proverbs 18:4; Jeremiah 2:13; Zechariah 13:1; Isaiah 26:4 (margin); 32:2; 41:17; 44:3; 35:6; 55:1; Revelation 22:1, 17.
------------------------God in Human Flesh, January 19
TMK	25	1	And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14.
TMK	25	2	When we want a deep problem to study, let us fix our minds on the most marvelous thing that ever took place in earth or heaven--the incarnation of the Son of God.37
TMK	25	3	Christ alone was able to represent the Deity.... God Himself must be revealed to humanity. In order to do this, our Saviour clothed His divinity with humanity. He employed the human faculties, for only by adopting these could He be comprehended by humanity. Only humanity could reach humanity. He lived out the character of God through the human body which God had prepared for Him.38
TMK	25	4	Had Christ come in His divine form, humanity could not have endured the sight. The contrast would have been too painful, the glory too overwhelming. Humanity could not have endured the presence of one of the pure, bright angels from glory; therefore Christ took not on Him the nature of angels; He came in the likeness of men.39
TMK	25	5	Looking upon Him, we behold the invisible God, who clothed His divinity with humanity in order that through humanity He might shed forth a subdued and softened glory, so that our eyes might be enabled to rest upon Him, and our souls not be extinguished by His undimmed splendor. We behold God through Christ, our Creator and Redeemer. It is our privilege to contemplate Jesus by faith, and see Him standing between humanity and the eternal throne. He is our Advocate, presenting our prayers and offerings as spiritual sacrifices to God. Jesus is the great sinless propitiation, and through His merit God and man may hold converse together.
TMK	25	6	Christ has carried His humanity into eternity. He stands before God as the representative of our race. When we are clothed with the wedding garment of His righteousness, we become one with Him, and He says of us, "They shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy" (Revelation 3:4). His saints will behold Him in His glory, with no dimming veil between.40
------------------------The Babe of Bethlehem, January 20
TMK	26	1	Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Luke 2:11, 12.
TMK	26	2	We cannot understand how Christ became a little, helpless babe. He could have come to earth in such beauty that He would have been unlike the sons of men. His face could have been bright with light, and His form could have been tall and beautiful. He could have come in such a way as to charm those who looked upon Him, but this was not the way that God planned He should come among the sons of men. He was to be like those who belonged to the human family and to the Jewish race. His features were to be like those of other human beings and He was not to have such beauty of person as to make people point Him out as different from others. He was to come as one of the human family, and to stand as a man before heaven and earth. He had come to take man's place, to pledge Himself in man's behalf, to pay the debt that sinners owed. He was to live a pure life on the earth, and show that Satan had told a falsehood when he claimed that the human family belonged to him forever, and that God could not take men out of his hands.
TMK	26	3	Men first beheld Christ as a babe, as a child. His parents were very poor, and He had nothing in this earth save that which the poor have. He passed through all the trials that the poor and lowly pass through from babyhood to childhood, from youth to manhood....
TMK	26	4	The more we think about Christ's becoming a babe here on earth, the more wonderful it appears. How can it be that the helpless babe in Bethlehem's manger is still the divine Son of God? Though we cannot understand it, we can believe that He who made the worlds, for our sakes became a helpless babe. Though higher than any of the angels, though as great as the Father on the throne of heaven, He became one with us. In Him God and man became one, and it is in this fact that we find the hope of our fallen race. Looking upon Christ in the flesh, we look upon God in humanity and see in Him the brightness of divine glory, the express image of God the Father.41
------------------------A Light to the Young, January 21
TMK	27	1	And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Luke 2:40.
TMK	27	2	The example of Jesus is a light to the young as well as to those of mature years, for His was a representative childhood and youth. From His earliest years His example was perfect. In both His physical and His spiritual nature He followed the divine order of growth illustrated by the plant, as He wishes all youth to do. Although He was the majesty of heaven, the King of glory, He became a babe in Bethlehem, and for a time represented the helpless infant in its mother's care. In childhood He did the works of an obedient child. He spoke and acted with the wisdom of a child and not of a man, honoring His parents, and carrying out their wishes in helpful ways, according to the ability of a child. But at each stage of His development He was perfect, with the simple, natural grace of a sinless life.42
TMK	27	3	Joseph, and especially Mary, kept before them the remembrance of their child's divine Fatherhood. Jesus was instructed in accordance with the sacred character of His mission. His inclination to right was a constant gratification to His parents. The questions He asked them led them to study most earnestly the great elements of truth. His soul-stirring words about nature and the God of nature opened and enlightened their minds.
TMK	27	4	On the rocks and knolls about His home the eye of the Son of God often rested. He was familiar with the things of nature. He saw the sun in the heavens, the moon and the stars fulfilling their mission. With the voice of singing He welcomed the morning light. He listened to the lark caroling forth music to its God, and joined His voice with the voice of praise and thanksgiving.43
TMK	27	5	Quiet and gentle, He seemed as one who was set apart. Whenever He could He went out alone into the fields and on the mountainsides to commune with the God of nature. When His work was done He wandered by the lakeside, among the trees of the forest, and in the green valleys, where He could think about God and lift His soul to heaven in prayer.44
------------------------A Child in the Temple, January 22
TMK	28	1	Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? Luke 2:49.
TMK	28	2	When Christ was twelve years old He went with His parents to Jerusalem to attend the feast of the Passover, and on their return He was lost in the multitude. After Joseph and Mary had searched for Him for three days, they found Him in the court of the Temple, "sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers" (Luke 2:46, 47).45
TMK	28	3	His parents listened in amazement as they heard His searching inquiries.... Though taking the attitude of a learner, Christ imparted light in every word He uttered. He interpreted the Scripture to the darkened mind of the rabbis, and gave them clear light in regard to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. The sharp, clear questions of the child learner brought a flood of light to their darkened understanding. The truth shone out as the clear shining of a light in a darkened place, as He received and imparted the knowledge of the plan of salvation.
TMK	28	4	It is plainly stated that Christ grew in knowledge. What a lesson is found in this incident in the life of Christ for all youth! If they shall diligently search the Word of God, and through the Holy Spirit receive divine guidance, they will be able to impart light to others....
TMK	28	5	Mary, the mother of Jesus, ... asked, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." Divine light shone through humanity as Jesus lifted His right hand and asked, "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them" (verses 48-50). They did not comprehend the true meaning of His words. But, though He was the Son of God, He went down with His parents and came unto Nazareth, and was subject unto them.... At the age of twelve the Holy Spirit was abiding upon Jesus and He felt something of the burden of the mission for which He had come to our world.46
------------------------Keep the Saviour With You! January 23
TMK	29	1	And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. Luke 2:43.
TMK	29	2	Not one act in the life of Christ was unimportant. Every event of His life was for the benefit of His followers in future time. This circumstance of the tarry of Christ in Jerusalem teaches an important lesson....
TMK	29	3	Jesus was acquainted with hearts. He knew that, as the crowd returned in company from Jerusalem, there would be much talking and visiting which would not be seasoned with humility and grace, and the Messiah and His mission would be nearly forgotten. It was His choice to return from Jerusalem with His parents alone; for in being retired, His father and mother would have more time for reflection, and for meditation upon the prophecies which referred to His future sufferings and death. He did not wish the painful events which they were to experience in His offering up His life for the sins of the world, to be new and unexpected to them. He was separated from them in their return to Jerusalem. After the celebration of the Passover, they sought Him sorrowing three days....
TMK	29	4	Here is a lesson of instruction to all the followers of Christ.... There is necessity of carefulness of words and actions when Christians are associated together, lest Jesus be forgotten of them, and they pass along careless of the fact that Jesus is not among them. When they are aroused to their condition, they discover that they have journeyed without the presence of Him who could give peace and joy to their hearts, and days are occupied in returning, and searching for Him whom they should have retained with them every moment. Jesus will not be found in the company of those who are careless of His presence, and who engage in conversation having no reference to their Redeemer.... It is the privilege of all to retain Jesus with them. If they do this, their words must be select, seasoned with grace. The thoughts of their hearts must be disciplined to meditate upon heavenly and divine things.47
------------------------The Ideal for All Humanity, January 24
TMK	30	1	And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Luke 2:52.
TMK	30	2	Christ lived the life of a toiler from His earliest years. In His youth He worked with His Father at the carpenter's trade, and thus honored all labor. Though He was the King of glory, yet by His practice of following a humble employment He rebuked idleness in every member of the human family, and dignified all labor as noble and Christlike.... From childhood He was a pattern of obedience and industry. He was as a pleasant sunbeam in the home circle....
TMK	30	3	Though His wisdom had astonished the doctors, yet He meekly subjected Himself to His human guardians.... The knowledge He was daily obtaining of His wonderful mission did not disqualify Him for performing the most humble duties. He cheerfully took up the work that devolves upon youth who dwell in humble households pressed by poverty. He understood the temptations of children, for He bore their sorrows and trials. Firm and steadfast was His purpose to do the right. Though enticed to evil, He refused to depart in a single instance from the strictest truth and rectitude.48
TMK	30	4	Christ is the ideal for all humanity. He has left a perfect example for childhood, youth, and manhood. He came to this earth, and passed through the different phases of human life. He talked and acted like other children and youth, except that He did no wrong. Sin found no place in His life. Ever He lived in an atmosphere of heavenly purity....
TMK	30	5	In the sanctuary of the home, Jesus received His education, not merely from His parents, but from His heavenly Father. As He grew older, God opened to Him more and more of the great work before Him. But notwithstanding His knowledge of this, He assumed no airs of superiority. Never did He by disrespect cause His parents pain or anxiety. He delighted to honor and obey them. Although He was not ignorant of His great mission, He consulted their wishes, and submitted to their authority.49
------------------------The Meaning of Christ's Baptism, January 25
TMK	31	1	Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. Matthew 3:13.
TMK	31	2	Many had come to him [John] to receive the baptism of repentance, confessing their sins.... Christ came not confessing His own sins, but guilt was imputed to Him as the sinner's substitute. He came not to repent on His own account, but in behalf of the sinner.... Christ honored the ordinance of baptism by submitting to this rite. In this act He identified Himself with His people as their representative and head. As their substitute He takes upon Him their sins, numbering Himself with the transgressors, taking the steps the sinner is required to take, and doing the work the sinner must do....
TMK	31	3	After Christ rose up from the water.... He walked out to the bank of Jordan and bowed in the attitude of prayer.... As the believer's example, His sinless humanity supplicated support and strength from His heavenly Father, as He was about to commence His public labor as the Messiah....
TMK	31	4	Never before had angels listened to such a prayer as Christ offered at His baptism, and they were solicitous to be the bearers of the message from the Father to His Son. But, no! Direct from the Father issues the light of His glory. The heavens were opened and beams of glory rested upon the Son of God and assumed the form of a dove, in appearance like burnished gold. The dovelike form was emblematical of the meekness and gentleness of Christ.... From the opening heavens came these words: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." ... Notwithstanding the Son of God was clothed with humanity, yet Jehovah, with His own voice, assures Him of His sonship with the Eternal. In this manifestation to His Son, God accepts humanity as exalted through the excellence of His beloved Son.50
TMK	31	5	Christ's prayer on the banks of the Jordan includes everyone who will believe in Him. The promise that you are accepted in the Beloved comes to you. God said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." ... Christ has cleaved the way for you to the throne of the infinite God.51
------------------------The Wilderness Temptation, January 26
TMK	32	1	Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Matthew 4:1.
TMK	32	2	Why was it that at the beginning of His public ministry Christ was led into the wilderness to be tempted? ... He went, not in His own behalf, but in our behalf; to overcome for us.... He was to be tried and tested as a representative of the race. He was to meet the foe in personal encounter, to overthrow him who claimed to be the head of the kingdoms of the world.52
TMK	32	3	Satan met Him and tempted Him on the very points where man will be tempted. Our Substitute and Surety passed over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell. And the question was, Will He stumble and fall as Adam did over God's commandments? He met Satan's attacks again and again with "It is written," and Satan left the field of conflict a conquered foe. Christ has redeemed Adam's disgraceful fall, and has perfected a character of perfect obedience, and left an example for the human family.... Had He failed on one point in reference to the law of God, He would not have been a perfect offering, for it was on one point only that Adam failed....
TMK	32	4	Our Saviour withstood on every point the test of temptation, and in this way He has made it possible for man to overcome. Now, there is enough in this idea, in this thought, to fill our hearts with gratitude every day of our lives. As Jesus was accepted as our substitute and surety, every one of us will be accepted if we stand the test and trial for ourselves. He took our nature that He might become acquainted with the trials wherewith man should be beset, and He is our mediator and intercessor before the Father.53
TMK	32	5	Those who would overcome must put to the tax every power of their being. They must agonize on their knees before God for divine power.... Men may have a power to resist evil--a power that neither earth, nor death, nor hell can master; a power that will place them where they may overcome as Christ overcame. Divinity and humanity may be combined in them.54
------------------------A Life Without Sin, January 27
TMK	33	1	We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
TMK	33	2	Let us consider how much it cost our Saviour in the wilderness of temptation to carry on in our behalf the conflict with the wily, malignant foe. Satan knew that everything depended upon his success or failure in his attempt to overcome Christ with his manifold temptations. Satan knew that the plan of salvation would be carried out to its fulfillment, that his power would be taken away, that his destruction would be certain, if Christ bore the test that Adam failed to endure. The temptations of Satan were most effective in degrading human nature, for man could not stand against their powerful influence; but Christ in man's behalf, as man's representative, resting wholly upon the power of God, endured the severe conflict, in order that He might be a perfect example to us. There is hope for man.... The work before us is to overcome as Christ overcame. He fasted forty days, and suffered the keenest pangs of hunger. Christ suffered on our account beyond our comprehension, and we should welcome trial and suffering on our own account for Christ's sake, that we may overcome as Christ also overcame, and be exalted to the throne of our Redeemer....
TMK	33	3	We have everything to gain in the conflict with our mighty foe, and we dare not for a moment yield to his temptations. We know that in our own strength it is not possible for us to succeed; but as Christ humbled Himself, and took upon Himself our nature, He is acquainted with our necessities, and has Himself borne the heaviest temptations that man will have to bear, has conquered the enemy in resisting his suggestions, in order that man may learn how to be conqueror. He was clothed with a body like ours, and in every respect suffered what man will suffer, and very much more. We shall never be called upon to suffer as Christ suffered, for the sins not of one, but the sins of the whole world were laid upon Christ. He endured humiliation, reproach, suffering, and death, that we by following His example might inherit all things.55
------------------------Christ Suffered, Being Tempted, January 28
TMK	34	1	For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Hebrews 2:16.
TMK	34	2	We need not place the obedience of Christ by itself, as something for which He was particularly adapted, by His particular divine nature, for He stood before God as man's representative and was tempted as man's substitute and surety. If Christ had a special power which it is not the privilege of man to have, Satan would have made capital of this matter. The work of Christ was to take from the claims of Satan his control of man, and He could do this only in the way that He came--a man, tempted as a man, rendering the obedience of a man.56
TMK	34	3	Would that we could comprehend the significance of the words, Christ "suffered being tempted" (Hebrews 2:18). While He was free from the taint of sin, the refined sensibilities of His holy nature rendered contact with evil unspeakably painful to Him. Yet with human nature upon Him, He met the arch apostate face to face, and singlehanded withstood the foe of His throne. Not even by a thought could Christ be brought to yield to the power of temptation.
TMK	34	4	Satan finds in human hearts some point where he can gain a foothold; some sinful desire is cherished, by means of which his temptations assert their power. But Christ declared of Himself, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me" (John 14:30). The storms of temptation burst upon Him, but they could not cause Him to swerve from His allegiance to God.
TMK	34	5	All the followers of Christ have to meet the same malignant foe that assailed their Master. With marvelous skill he adapts his temptations to their circumstances, their temperament, their mental and moral bias, their strong passions. He is ever whispering in the ears of the children of men, as he points to worldly pleasures, gains, or honors, "All this will I give you, if you will do my bidding." We must look to Christ; we must resist as He resisted; we must pray as He prayed; we must agonize as He agonized, if we would conquer as He conquered.57
------------------------Our Divine Redeemer, January 29
TMK	35	1	Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Philippians 2:6.
TMK	35	2	Jesus Christ "counted it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God." Because divinity alone could be efficacious in the restoration of man from the poisonous bruise of the serpent, God Himself, in His only begotten Son, assumed human nature, and in the weakness of human nature sustained the character of God, vindicated His holy law in every particular, and accepted the sentence of wrath and death for the sons of men. What a thought is this! He who was one with the Father before the world was made had such compassion for a world lost and ruined by transgression that He gave His life a ransom for it. He who was the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His person, bore our sins in His own body on the tree, suffering the penalty of man's transgression until justice was satisfied and required no more. How great is the redemption that has been worked out for us! So great that the Son of God died the cruel death of the cross to bring to us life and immortality through faith in Him.
TMK	35	3	This wonderful problem--how God could be just and yet the justifier of sinners--is beyond human ken. As we attempt to fathom it, it broadens and deepens beyond our comprehension. When we look with the eye of faith upon the cross of Calvary, and see our sins laid upon the victim hanging in weakness and ignominy there--when we grasp the fact that this is God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace--we are led to exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us" (1 John 3:1)! ...
TMK	35	4	When man can measure the exalted character of the Lord of hosts, and distinguish between the eternal God and finite humanity, he will know how great has been the sacrifice of Heaven to bring man from where he has fallen through disobedience to become part of the family of God.... The divinity of Christ is our assurance of eternal life.... He, the Sin Bearer of the world, is our only medium of reconciliation with a holy God.58
------------------------Marvel of the Heavenly Hosts, January 30
TMK	36	1	But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:7.
TMK	36	2	It is important that we each study to know the reason of the life of Christ in humanity, and what it means to us--why the Son of God left the courts of heaven--why He stepped down from His position as commander of the heavenly angels who came and went at His bidding--why He clothed His divinity with humanity, and in lowliness and humility came to the world as our Redeemer.
TMK	36	3	It was the marvel of the heavenly hosts that Christ should come to earth and do as He did--that His life here should be one of poverty, in such incomparable contrast with His glory in the heavenly courts. He might have come attended by the angelic throng....
TMK	36	4	Before the universe of heaven, Christ condescended to take upon Him the form of humanity, and stand among the lowly ones of earth, that He might reach them where they were, and by precept and example teach them, that though among the poor and oppressed they might be pure, and true, and noble. He came to reveal to the world that the life and character need not become contaminated amid poverty and lowliness. The lily that rests upon the bosom of the lake may be surrounded with weeds and unsightly debris, yet, unsullied, it opens its fragrant white blossom to the sunlight. It strikes its channeled stem down through the mass of rubbish to the pure sands beneath. Refusing everything that would defile, it gathers to itself only those properties that will develop into the spotless, fragrant flower.
TMK	36	5	The lily is a representation of Christ among men. He came to a world all seared and marred with the curse, but He was not polluted by His surroundings. He was the Light, the Life, and the Way. He voluntarily became an inhabitant of earth, that He might grasp the whole world in His merciful arms and lay it in the arms of His heavenly Father. What love is manifested in this sacrifice, that the Lord Himself should come to the help of the fallen sons and daughters of Adam!59
------------------------The Greatness of Humility, January 31
TMK	37	1	And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:8.
TMK	37	2	Christ came to this world for no other purpose than to manifest the glory of God, that man might be uplifted by its restoring power. All power and grace were given to Him. His heart was a wellspring of living water, a never-failing fountain, ever ready to flow forth in a rich, clear stream to those around Him. His whole life was spent in pure disinterested benevolence. His purposes were full of love and sympathy. He rejoiced that He could do more for His followers than they could ask or think. His constant prayer for them was that they might be sanctified through the truth, and He prayed with assurance, knowing that an almighty decree had been given before the world was made. He knew that the gospel of the kingdom would be preached in all the world; that truth, armed with the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, would conquer in the contest with evil; and that the bloodstained banner would one day wave triumphantly over His followers.
TMK	37	3	Yet Christ came in great humility. When He was here He pleased not Himself, but "humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." To His followers He says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29)....
TMK	37	4	From the root of true humility springs the most precious greatness of mind--greatness which leads men to conform to the image of Christ. Those who possess this greatness gain patience and trust in God. Their faith is invincible. Their true consecration and devotion keep self hidden. The words that fall from their lips are molded into expressions of Christlike tenderness and love. Having a sense of their own weakness, they appreciate the help which the Lord gives them, and they crave His grace that they may do that which is right and true. By their manner, their attitude, and their spirit, they carry with them the credentials of learners in the school of Christ.60
------------------------Christ the Revelation of God, February 1
TMK	38	1	No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. John 1:18.
TMK	38	2	Christ came to the world to reveal the character of the Father and to redeem the fallen race. The world's Redeemer was equal with God. His authority was as the authority of God. He declared that He had no existence separate from the Father. The authority by which He spoke and wrought miracles was expressly His own, yet He assures us that He and the Father are one....
TMK	38	3	Jesus had imparted a knowledge of God to patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. The revelations of the Old Testament were emphatically the unfoldings of the gospel, the unveiling of the purpose and will of the infinite Father. Through the holy men of old, Christ labored for the salvation of fallen humanity. And when He came to the world it was with the same message of redemption from sin, and restoration to the favor of God.1
TMK	38	4	What speech is to thought, so is Christ to the invisible Father. He is the manifestation of the Father, and is called the Word of God. God sent His Son into the world, His divinity clothed with humanity, that man might bear the image of the invisible God. He made known in His words, His character, His power and majesty, the nature and attributes of God.2
TMK	38	5	As legislator, Jesus exercised the authority of God; His commands and decisions were supported by the sovereignty of the eternal throne. The glory of the Father was revealed in the Son; Christ made manifest the character of the Father. He was so perfectly connected with God, so completely embraced in His encircling light, that he who had seen the Son had seen the Father. His voice was as the voice of God.... He says, "I am in the Father, and the Father in me." "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:11; Matthew 11:27; 14:9).3
------------------------Christ in the Home, February 2
TMK	39	1	And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: and both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. John 2:1, 2.
TMK	39	2	On the occasion of the marriage feast He desired to express His sympathy with, and approval of, those at the wedding. Christ did not come to this world to forbid marriage or to break down or destroy the relationship and influence which exist in the domestic circle. He came to restore, elevate, purify, and ennoble every current of pure affection, that the family on earth might become a symbol of the family in heaven....
TMK	39	3	Mothers are under the tender care of heavenly angels. How interestedly the Lord Jesus knocks at the door of families where there are little children to be educated and trained! How gently he watches over the mothers' interest, and how sad He feels to see children neglected.... In the home characters are formed; human beings are molded and fashioned to be either a blessing or a curse. To the mother the Lord has committed the younger members of the family as they come into our world weak and helpless. Infinite wisdom and infinite love does not commit this gentle office, so pregnant with eternal results, to the fathers, full of business plans and cares. Woman's heart is full of patience and love if that woman has surrendered her heart to God. She must cooperate with God and her husband in training the precious souls entrusted to her, to grow up into Christ Jesus. And the father, relying upon the grace of God, should bear the sacred responsibility that rests upon him as the husband, which means house-band.
TMK	39	4	In babyhood and childhood, when the nature is pliable, God would have the firmest impressions made for right. A battle is constantly going on between the Prince of life and the prince of this world. The question to be settled is, Whom will the mother choose as her co-worker to mold and fashion the characters of her children? If she will learn that love is the key to the souls of her children, Christ will preside in the home, filling it with heavenly sunshine. This is His work in every home that will admit Him.4
------------------------Lover of Little Children, February 3
TMK	40	1	Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them. Matthew 19:13-15.
TMK	40	2	Children are the Lord's heritage. The soul of the little child that believes in Christ is as precious in His sight as are the angels about His throne. They are to be brought to Christ, and trained for Christ. They are to be guided in the path of obedience, not indulged in appetite or vanity.
TMK	40	3	When the disciples sought to send away the mothers who were bringing their little ones to Christ, He rebuked their narrow faith, saying, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." He was grieved that the disciples should rebuke the mothers for bringing their children to Him; that His followers should say, by word or action, that His grace was limited, and that children should be kept away from Him....
TMK	40	4	A great responsibility rests upon parents, for the education and training which shape the eternal destiny of children and youth are received in their early childhood. The parents' work is to sow the good seed diligently and untiringly in the hearts of their children, occupying their hearts with seed which will bring forth a harvest of right habits, of truthfulness and willing obedience. Correct, virtuous habits formed in youth will generally mark the course of the individual through life. In most cases those who reverence God and honor the right will be found to have learned this lesson before the world could stamp its image of sin upon the soul....
TMK	40	5	O that parents were truly the sons and daughters of God! Their lives would then be fragrant with good works. A holy atmosphere would surround their souls. Their earnest supplications for grace and for the guidance of the Holy Spirit would ascend to heaven, and religion would be diffused through their homes as the bright, warming rays of the sun are diffused through the earth.5
------------------------A Message for Boys and Girls, February 4
TMK	41	1	Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Psalm 34:11.
TMK	41	2	Every child and every youth should bear in mind, "I am of value in the sight of God; I am bought with a price, and I am the property of Jesus Christ. As a follower of Christ I am to practice His virtues, that I may represent my Saviour."
TMK	41	3	Pray much. While at your work let your heart be uplifted to God. When you have committed to God the keeping of your soul, do not go away and act directly contrary to the prayer you have made. Watch as well as pray, lest you be overcome with temptation. Resist the first inclination to do wrong. Pray in your heart, "Jesus, help me; preserve me from evil," and then do what you know Christ would be pleased to have you do....
TMK	41	4	You may ask, as many others have done, How may I know that Jesus receives me and loves me? Shall I know by my feelings? No; by obedience to His Holy Word. Appropriate to yourself the rich promises of God. Believe His word that Jesus is abiding in your heart by faith. Through faith and trust in God you may have His peace, and you can then say, "I know in whom I have believed. I will listen to every whisper of His Holy Spirit."
TMK	41	5	There is but one way to be victorious. Serve God with all your heart because you love Him. Seek Him daily because you love Him and know what He is to you. Be faithful in the little things, although no eye but the Lord's may review your work. Remember that you are doing service for Christ. You may now be obtaining a precious experience every day in serving God. Plant the principles of truth in your own soul, and reveal Christ in your character. Do not be satisfied with a common, low level. You can ... resemble Christ in character....
TMK	41	6	Look unto Jesus constantly if you would advance step by step in the narrow path cast up for the chosen of the Lord to walk in, saying in your heart, "Thee will I seek, O God; Thee will I follow; Thee will I serve; under Thy guidance I can and will go forward."6
------------------------Armies of Missionary Children, February 5
TMK	42	1	Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right. Proverbs 20:11.
TMK	42	2	God wants the children and youth to join the Lord's army.... The children have as strong temptations to meet, on the right hand and on the left, as do the older soldiers. Satan and his legions will work every device to ensnare the young. It is the privilege of the children to enlist in the army of the Lord and seek to persuade others to join their ranks. Children must be educated and trained for Jesus Christ. They must be trained to resist temptation and to fight the good fight of faith. Direct their minds to Jesus as soon as they can comprehend your lessons in simple words, easy to be understood. Teach them self-control. Teach them to begin the work of overcoming when young, and they will receive the precious help that Jesus can and will give, connected with prayerful efforts of parents. Cheer them with encouraging words for the battles they fight in resisting temptation and coming off conquerors through grace given them of Jesus Christ....
TMK	42	3	Parents should hang in memory's hall the precious sayings of Christ. The children will repeat the words they hear often on the parents' lips--of Christ, and faith, and truth. Precious truth may be spoken by children. Whole armies of children may come under Christ's banner as missionaries, even in their childhood years. Never repulse the desire of children to do something for Jesus. Never quench their ardor for working in some way for the Master. Children rightly educated will learn to love Jesus and to grieve if they think they have grieved the Saviour by any sin committed by them. Keep their hearts tender and sensitive by your own words and example.7
TMK	42	4	The angels of God are ever near your little ones.... Let love and tenderness, patience and self-control, be at all times the law of your speech. Winning love is to be like deep waters, ever flowing forth in the management of your children. All through His life, Christ performed acts of love and tenderness for the children.8
------------------------Missionary to the Poor, February 6
TMK	43	1	The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Luke 4:18.
TMK	43	2	The sufferings of humanity ever touched the heart and called forth the sympathy and love of Christ. He exercised pity and compassion toward those who were afflicted in soul or body. His example in the matter of treating the suffering and afflicted should teach us how to have compassion and pity for the sufferings of His creatures.
TMK	43	3	Christ suffered in the flesh.... He knew what it was to suffer keen pangs of hunger, and He has given special lessons in regard to feeding the hungry and caring for the needy poor, and has declared that in ministering to the needy we are ministering to Himself in the person of His saints. He says, "I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat" (Matthew 25:35). He knew the discomfort and suffering of thirst, and He declared that a cup of cold water given in His name to any of His disciples should not lose its reward.9
TMK	43	4	Christ was an active, constant worker. He found the domain of religion fenced in by high, steep walls of seclusion as too sacred a matter for everyday life. He threw down the walls of partition, and exercised His helping power in behalf of every one who needed Him. He brought cheerfulness and hope to the desponding.... He did not ask, What is your creed? To what church do you belong? Active, earnest, loving interest marked His life....
TMK	43	5	The Lord Jesus knows what poverty means. He is the great missionary to the poor, the sick, the suffering. The King of heaven, He could have led a life of wealth and have lived among the wealthiest; but He chose poverty. And He has honored the poor who believe in Him, for He blessed them forever. Poverty with Christ is riches of the highest value. This poverty is sanctified and blessed....
TMK	43	6	In the humanity of Christ there are golden threads that bind the believing, trusting poor man to His own soul of infinite love.10
------------------------The Pattern Man, February 7
TMK	44	1	For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9.
TMK	44	2	This world has been visited by the Majesty of heaven, the Son of God.... Christ came to this world as the expression of the very heart and mind and nature and character of God.... But He laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown, and stepped down from His high command to take the place of a servant. He was rich, but for our sake, that we might have eternal riches, He became poor. He made the world, but so completely did He empty Himself that during His ministry He declared, "... the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."...
TMK	44	3	Christ stood at the head of humanity in the garb of humanity. So full of sympathy and love was His attitude that the poorest was not afraid to come to Him. He was kind to all; easily approached by the most lowly. He went from house to house, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting the mourners, soothing the afflicted, speaking peace to the distressed. He took the little children in His arms and blessed them, and spoke words of hope and comfort to the weary mothers. With unfailing tenderness and gentleness He met every form of human woe and affliction. Not for Himself, but for others did He labor. He was willing to humble Himself, to deny Himself. He did not seek to distinguish Himself. He was the servant of all. It was His meat and drink to be a comfort and a consolation to others, to gladden the sad and heavy-laden ones with whom He daily came in contact.
TMK	44	4	Christ stands before us as the pattern Man, the great Medical Missionary,--an example for all who should come after. His love, pure and holy, blessed all who came within the sphere of its influence. His character was absolutely perfect, free from the slightest stain of sin. He came as an expression of the perfect love of God, not to crush, not to judge and condemn, but to heal every weak, defective character, to save men and women from Satan's power. He is the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of the human race.11
------------------------Tender, Loving, Compassionate, February 8
TMK	45	1	But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. Psalm 86:15.
TMK	45	2	God has ordained according to the law of ministry that we should comfort one another in tenderness and love when great sorrows come upon us. No man liveth unto himself. No one dieth unto himself. Life and death both mean something to every human being.... God has enjoined the duty upon His human agents to communicate the character of God, testifying to His grace, His wisdom, and His benevolence, by manifesting His refined, tender, merciful love.... Jesus ... was ever touched with human woe, and our hearts should be softened and subdued by His Holy Spirit, that we may be like Him....
TMK	45	3	Our work is to restore the moral image of God in man through the abundant grace given us of God by Jesus Christ. Everywhere we shall find souls ready to die, and how essential it is that the compassion of Christ shall be given us of Him, in order that we may never place one soul in defiance by not manifesting long forbearance and pitying tenderness.... I inquire, Will we ever learn the gentleness of Christ? Oh, how much we need to know Jesus and our heavenly Father that we may represent Him in character! ...
TMK	45	4	Jesus calls us to Himself not simply to refresh us with His grace and presence for a few hours, and then to send us forth from His light to walk apart from Him in sadness and gloom. No, no. He tells us that we must abide with Him and He with us. Wherever His work is to be done He is present--tender, loving, and compassionate. He has prepared for you and me an abiding dwelling place in Himself. He is our refuge. Our experience should broaden and deepen. Jesus has opened up all the divine fullness of His inexpressible love, and He declares to you, Ye "are labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9). O what meaning these words have--"Abide in me" (John 15:4), "Take my yoke upon you" (Matthew 11:29). Will we take it? for the promise is, "Ye shall find rest unto your souls." There is rest, complete rest in abiding in Christ.12
------------------------An Attribute We May Share, February 9
TMK	46	1	Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Luke 6:36.
TMK	46	2	Mercy is an attribute that the human agent may share with God, thus cooperating with Him. Mercy is kind, pitiful. Mercy and the love of God purify the soul and beautify the heart, cleansing the life from selfishness....
TMK	46	3	God's love for the angelic host is as a part of Himself, direct and positive in its divinity. God's love for the human race is a peculiar form--a love born of mercy, for the human subject is all-undeserving....
TMK	46	4	Mercy implies the imperfection of the object upon which it is bestowed. Because of man's imperfection, mercy was brought into active existence. Sin is not the object of God's love, but of His hatred. Yet He pities the sinner, because the guilty one bears the Creator's image and has received from Him the capabilities that make it possible for him to become a son of God, not through his own merits, but through the imputed merits of Jesus Christ, through the great sacrifice the Saviour has made in his behalf....
TMK	46	5	In the church militant the children of men will be ever in need of restoration from the results of sin.... We are all dependent on one another. Almost invariably a man who is superior to another man in some respect is inferior to him in other respects. Every human being on earth is subject to temptation. And all are in need of human influence and sympathy.... He who cooperates with God by showing mercy brings himself into a position where God will extend mercy to him, for he is in harmony with the divine attributes.
TMK	46	6	God's love and mercy are ever extended toward sinners. Shall men who themselves have sinned against God, refuse to forgive and accept a repentant sinner? ... God loved us while we were yet sinners. How clear and unmistakable the line of duty is made by the words, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise" (Luke 6:31).... Only those who walk with Christ can be truly merciful.13
------------------------The Compassionate Healer, February 10
TMK	47	1	And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. Matthew 14:14.
TMK	47	2	Jesus, precious Saviour, never seemed to become weary of the importunities of the sin-sick souls and the sick with all kinds of diseases. "And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them" (Mark 6:34). This means a great deal to the suffering ones. He identified His interest with theirs. He shared their burdens. He felt their fears. He had yearning pity that was pain to the heart of Christ.
TMK	47	3	O what love, what matchless love! He has become one with us that He might share with humanity in all their experience. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet was without sin. Humanity is not to be demerited as a cheap and common thing. Christ clothed His divinity with humanity that humanity might be clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Man is the object of His solicitude and great love.
TMK	47	4	Redemption--O how much is comprehended in the word! All who will consent to be redeemed are uplifted and sanctified, redeemed through Jesus Christ from all commonness and earthliness, and enabled to cooperate with God in the great work of salvation. Jesus accepted humanity and revealed in His own life and character what man may be even when, in the providence of God, he is placed in the poorest circumstances of life. He had not even a penny wherewith to pay the tax money exacted, and wrought a miracle to obtain the little sum.
TMK	47	5	Jesus, precious Saviour, was homeless and often hungry. He had not where to lay His head. He was wearied oft. Humanity is honored because Jesus assumed humanity to reveal to the world what humanity may become. He came to bring life and immortality to light, to fill the commonplace, homeliest pursuits of life with brightness. Jesus is bending over us, searching into our characters to see if His own character is reflected in us.14
------------------------Bearer of Our Afflictions, February 11
TMK	48	1	That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. Matthew 8:17.
TMK	48	2	Christ alone was able to bear the afflictions of the many. "In all their affliction he was afflicted" (Isaiah 63:9). He never bore disease in His own flesh, but He carried the sickness of others. With tenderest sympathy He looked upon the suffering ones who pressed about Him. He groaned in spirit as He saw the work of Satan revealed in all their woe, and He made every case of need and of sorrow His own. No multiplicity of numbers distracted Him. No anguish overwhelmed Him. With a power that never quailed He cast out the evil spirits that possessed mind and body, while the pain of the sufferers thrilled through His whole being. The power of love was in all His healing. He identified His interests with suffering humanity.
TMK	48	3	Christ was health and strength in Himself, and when sufferers were in His immediate presence, disease was always rebuked. It was for this reason that He did not go at once to Lazarus. He could not witness his suffering and not bring him relief. He could not witness disease or death without combating the power of Satan. The death of Lazarus was permitted that through his resurrection the last and crowning evidence might be given to the Jews that Jesus was the Son of God.
TMK	48	4	And in all this conflict with the power of evil there was ever before Christ the darkened shadow into which He Himself must enter. Ever before Him was the means by which He must pay the ransom for these souls.... When He raised Lazarus from the dead He knew that for that life He must pay the ransom on the cross of Calvary. Every rescue made was to cause Him the deepest humiliation. He was to taste death for every man.... Of the suffering multitudes brought to Christ it is said, "He healed them all" (Matthew 12:15). Thus He expressed His love for the children of men. His miracles were part of His mission.... He knows how to speak the word "Be whole," and when He has healed the sufferer He says, "Go and sin no more."15
------------------------Sharing Heaven's Treasures, February 12
TMK	49	1	Freely ye have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8.
TMK	49	2	The blessed Redeemer has set us an example in living out the precepts of the law. He says to His followers, "Freely ye have received, freely give." We are to have an open heart to receive the rich treasures of heaven, and our hearts are to be opened to let those rich treasures out to others. Oh, we need to abide in Christ, then we will be a constant channel through which God will communicate to our brethren and to the world His own gracious Spirit....
TMK	49	3	When we have an assurance which is bright and clear of our own salvation, we shall exhibit cheerfulness and joyfulness, which becomes every follower of Jesus Christ. The softening, subduing influence of the love of God, brought into practical life, will make impressions upon minds that will be a savor of life unto life. But a harsh, denunciatory spirit, if manifested, will turn many souls away from the truth into the ranks of the enemy. Solemn thought! To deal patiently with the tempted requires us to battle with self. But God has given Jesus to us, and believing on Him as our personal Saviour, all heaven is at our command. The purchased possession of Christ is around us on every hand. There is want, there is wretchedness and sin on every side. "Freely ye have received, freely give."
TMK	49	4	"Oh, hearts are bruised, dead, And homes are bare and cold, And lambs for whom the Shepherd bled, Are straying from the fold......
TMK	49	5	"The captives to release, To God the lost to bring, To teach the way of life and peace, It is a Christlike thing."
------------------------The Greatest Teacher, February 13
TMK	50	1	And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. 1 John 5:20.
TMK	50	2	The world's Redeemer did not come with outward display, or a show of worldly wisdom. Men could not see beneath the disguise of humility the glory of the Son of God....
TMK	50	3	Christ reached the people where they were. He presented the plain truth to their minds in the most forcible and simple language. The humble poor, the most unlearned, could comprehend, through faith in Him, the most exalted truths of God. No one needed to consult the learned doctors as to His meaning. He did not perplex the ignorant with mysterious inferences, or use unaccustomed and learned words of which they had no knowledge. The greatest Teacher the world has ever known was the most definite, simple, and practical in His instruction....
TMK	50	4	He attracted attention to purity of life, to humility of spirit, and to devotion to God and His cause without hope of worldly honor or reward. He must divest religion of the narrow, conceited formalism which made it a burden and a reproach. He must present a complete, harmonious salvation to all. The narrow bounds of national exclusiveness must be overthrown, for His salvation was to reach the ends of the earth. He rejoiced in spirit as He beheld the poor of this world eagerly accepting the precious message which He brought. He looked up to heaven and said, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes" (Matthew 11:25)....
TMK	50	5	Men of the highest education and accomplishments have learned the most precious lessons from the precept and example of the humble follower of Christ, who is designated as "unlearned" by the world. But could men look with deeper insight they would see that these humble men had obtained an education in the highest of all schools, even in the school of the divine Teacher, who spake as never man spake.17
------------------------Teaching in Depth, February 14
TMK	51	1	The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. John 7:46.
TMK	51	2	Of Christ's teaching it is said, "The common people heard him gladly" (Mark 12:37). "Never man spake like this man," declared the officers who were sent to take Him. His words comforted, strengthened, and blessed those who were hungering for that peace which He alone could give. O how tender and forbearing was Christ! how filled with pity and tenderness were His lessons to the poor, the afflicted, and the oppressed! ... His illustrations were taken from the things of daily life, and ... had in them a wonderful depth of meaning. The fowls of the air, the lilies of the field, the seed, the shepherd and the sheep--with these objects Christ illustrated immortal truth, and ever afterward, when His hearers chanced to see these things of nature, they recalled His words....
TMK	51	3	Christ's words, so comforting and cheering to those that listened to them, are for us today. As a faithful shepherd knows and cares for his sheep, so Christ cares for His children. He knows the trials and difficulties surrounding each one. "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd," declares Isaiah: "he shall gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom." Christ knows His sheep intimately, and the suffering and helpless are objects of His special care....
TMK	51	4	Christ has weighed every human affliction, every human sorrow. He bears the weight of the yoke for every soul that yokes up with Him. He knows the sorrows which we feel to the depth of our being, and which we cannot express. If no human heart is aroused to sympathy for us, we need not feel that we are without sympathy. Christ knows; and He says, Look unto Me, and live. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). I have borne your griefs and carried your sorrows. You have the deepest, richest sympathy in the tender, pitying love of your Shepherd.... His humanity is not lost in the exalted character of His Omnipotence. He is ever longing to pour out His sympathy and love upon those whom He has chosen, and who will respond to His invitation.18
------------------------Christ the Good Shepherd, February 15
TMK	52	1	I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10:14, 15.
TMK	52	2	Jesus says, "I know my sheep." Let us consider this statement. We are known by God before we receive Him. "I know my sheep." How do souls become Christ's sheep? By choosing to receive Him. But Christ had first chosen them. He knew every one who would respond to His drawing, and He knew every one who would be inclined to receive Him but who, through popular opposing influences, would turn from Him, John says to all, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Those who heard the voice and did behold Jesus as the Lamb of God believed in Him and became His property from their own choice. But ... their choosing of Christ was in response to His drawing. The love of Jesus was expressed to us before we loved Him....
TMK	52	3	To Jesus the whole human family is entrusted, as the flocks of sheep are entrusted to a shepherd. These sheep and lambs are to be tended with pastoral care. They will be guarded by the faithful Chief Shepherd, under the care of faithful under shepherds, and if they will obey the voice of the Chief Shepherd they will not be left to be devoured by wolves....
TMK	52	4	Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice, ... and they follow me" (John 10:27). The Shepherd of Israel does not drive His flock, but He leads them. His attitude is wholly one of invitation. "My sheep hear my voice." If we are indeed sons and daughters of God we not only hear, but recognize the voice above all others. We appreciate the words of Christ, we distinguish the truth as it is in Jesus from all error, and the truth refreshes the soul, and fills it with gladness....
TMK	52	5	The beautiful illustration in Revelation 7 is a pastoral symbol. "... They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters ..." (Revelation 7:16, 17).19
------------------------In the Bosom of the Shepherd, February 16
TMK	53	1	He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Isaiah 40:11.
TMK	53	2	A true shepherd knows and pities and helps the sheep that most need his help--those that are bruised and lame and feeble. "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd."
TMK	53	3	Far more intimately than the patriarch Jacob knew the weak, the suffering, and the lame among his sheep, does the Chief Shepherd know His flock. He knows what no one else knows. He has Himself weighed every burden. No one knows the weight like Himself, for He has borne all our griefs, and carried all our sorrows. It was this that made Him a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief....
TMK	53	4	If there is not another soul in the universe that regards you, the Lord God of Israel is looking upon you with thoughts of compassion, tenderness, and sympathy. He sees you with your strong impulses when fainthearted and discouraged.... You have the deepest, the richest, the most refreshing sympathy in the bosom of the great Shepherd. We have not an high priest who cannot sympathize with us, but One who was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin....
TMK	53	5	Not only has every provision been made that when tried and tempted you should find help and strength and grace, but also that your influence upon other minds should be fragrant. Not only does Christ know every soul, and the temptations and trials of that soul, but He knows all the circumstances that irritate and chafe the spirit. Your great danger is in being self-sufficient. This will not do for a Christian. Christ will give you His patience if you ask for it....
TMK	53	6	God's abounding love and presence will give you the power of self-control. He will mold and fashion your mind and character. He will direct your aims and purposes and capabilities in a channel that will give you moral and spiritual power which you will not have to leave here in this world but can carry with you and retain through eternal ages.20
------------------------The Sons of God, February 17
TMK	54	1	But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.
TMK	54	2	How did men treat Christ when He came? ... "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11). Thus it is today. This history is being repeated, and will be repeated again and again before the Lord shall come in the clouds of heaven. The deceptions of Satan will be upon those who dwell on the earth....
TMK	54	3	"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." ... After fitting up this world as the dwelling place of man, God looked upon it, and rejoiced in it, pronouncing it very good. So He will accept of and rejoice in the reformation wrought out by those who, receiving Christ as their Saviour, have obtained power to become the sons of God....
TMK	54	4	The first chapter of Colossians shows us the heights to which it is our privilege to attain. We may be "filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding," walking "worthy of the Lord," "being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:9-14).
TMK	54	5	Is there not woe enough in this sin-stricken, sin-cursed earth to lead us to consecrate ourselves to the work of proclaiming the message that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16)? This earth has been trodden by the Son of God. He came to bring men light and life, to set them free from the bondage of sin. He is coming again in power and great glory to receive to Himself those who during this life have followed in His footsteps.21
------------------------When Man Cooperates, February 18
TMK	55	1	For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13.
TMK	55	2	"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). Thus the world's Redeemer illustrates the work of the Holy Spirit upon the human heart. The living agent, by an act of faith of his own, places himself in the hands of the Lord for Him to work in him His good pleasure in His time. There must be a continual exercise of faith to be in Christ and keep in Christ, abiding by faith in Him.
TMK	55	3	This is a training process, a constant discipline of the mind and heart, that Christ shall work His great work in human hearts. Self, the old natural self, dies, and Christ's will is our will, His way is our way, and the human agent becomes, with heart, mind, and intellect, an instrument in the hands of God to work no more wickedness but the righteousness of Christ....
TMK	55	4	In the divine arrangement God does nothing without the cooperation of man. He compels no man's will. That must be given to the Lord completely, else the Lord is not able to accomplish His divine work that He would do through the human agency. Jesus declared that in a certain place He could not do many mighty works among the people because of their unbelief. He wanted to do for them in that place just what He knew that they needed to have done, but He could not because unbelief barred the way. The potter cannot mold and fashion unto honor that which has never been placed in his hands. The Christian life is one of daily surrender, submission, and continual overcoming, gaining fresh victories every day. This is the growing up into Christ, fashioning the life into the divine Model....
TMK	55	5	Devotion, piety, and sanctification of the entire man come through Jesus Christ our righteousness. The love of God needs to be constantly cultivated. O how my heart cries out to the living God for the mind of Jesus Christ! I want to lose sight of self.22
------------------------Will You Let Him In? February 19
TMK	56	1	The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Jeremiah 31:3.
TMK	56	2	The work dearest to the heart of Christ is that of drawing souls to Him.... Look at Jesus, the Majesty of heaven. [From a personal letter of appeal.] What do you behold in His life history? His divinity clothed with humanity, a whole life of continual humility, the doing of one act of condescension after another, a line of continual descent from the heavenly courts to a world all seared and marred with the curse, and in a world unworthy of His presence, descending lower and still lower, taking the form of a servant, to be despised and rejected of men, obliged to flee from place to place to save His life, and at last betrayed, rejected, crucified. Then, as sinners for whom Jesus suffered more than the power of mortal can portray, shall we refuse to humble our proud will?
TMK	56	3	Study day and night the character of Christ. It was His tender compassion, His inexpressible, unparalleled love for your soul, that led Him to endure all the shame, the revilings, the abuse, the misapprehensions of earth. Approach nearer Him, behold His hands and His feet, bruised and wounded for our transgressions. "The chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."
TMK	56	4	Lose no time, let not another day pass into eternity, but just as you are, whatever your weakness, your unworthiness, your neglect, delay not to come now.... The call of Jesus to come to Him, the presentation of a crown of glory that fadeth not away, the life, the eternal life that measures with the life of God, has not been of sufficient inducement to lead you to serve Him with your undivided affections....
TMK	56	5	Be no longer on Satan's side of the question. Make decided, radical changes through the grace given you of God. No longer insult His grace. He is saying with tears, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life" (John 5:40). Now Jesus is inviting you, knocking at the door of your heart for entrance. Will you let Him come in?23
------------------------The Holy Spirit Our Helper, February 20
TMK	57	1	For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Romans 8:14.
TMK	57	2	Through the ministry of the angels the Holy Spirit is enabled to work upon the mind and heart of the human agent and draw him to Christ.... But the Spirit of God does not interfere with the freedom of the human agent. The Holy Spirit is given to be a helper, so that man may cooperate with the Divine, and it is given to Him to draw the soul but never to force obedience.
TMK	57	3	Christ is ready to impart all heavenly influences. He knows every temptation that comes to man, and the capabilities of each. He weighs his strength. He sees the present and the future, and presents before the mind the obligations that should be met, and urges that common, earthly things shall not be permitted to be so absorbing that eternal things shall be lost out of the reckoning. The Lord has fullness of grace to bestow on every one that will receive of the heavenly gift. The Holy Spirit will bring the God-entrusted capabilities into Christ's service, and will mold and fashion the human agent according to the divine Pattern.24
TMK	57	4	The Holy Spirit is our efficiency in the work of character building, in forming characters after the divine similitude. When we think ourselves capable of molding our own experience, we make a great mistake. We can never of ourselves obtain the victory over temptation. But those who have genuine faith in Christ will be worked by the Holy Spirit. The soul in whose heart faith abides will grow into a beautiful temple for the Lord. He is directed by the grace of Christ. Just in proportion as he depends on the Holy Spirit's teaching he will grow.25
TMK	57	5	The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the soul. We do not now see Christ and speak to Him, but His Holy Spirit is just as near us in one place as another. It works in and through every one who receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of the Spirit reveal the fruit of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.26
------------------------A Hidden Treasure, February 21
TMK	58	1	Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Matthew 13:44.
TMK	58	2	Without the kingdom of God we are lost ... and are without hope in the world, but salvation has been provided for us through faith in Jesus Christ. He is the treasure, and when the rubbish of the world is swept away, we are enabled to discern His infinite value....
TMK	58	3	The divinity of Christ was as a hidden treasure. At times when He was upon earth divinity flashed through humanity, and His true character was revealed. The God of heaven testified to His oneness with His Son. At His baptism the heavens were opened and the glory of God in the similitude of a dove like burnished gold hovered over the Saviour, and a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). But the nation to whom Christ came, though professing to be the peculiar people of God, did not recognize the heavenly treasure in the person of Jesus Christ....
TMK	58	4	The Majesty of heaven was not discerned in the disguise of humanity. He was the divine Teacher sent from God, the glorious Treasure given to humanity. He was fairer than the sons of men, but His matchless glory was hidden under a cover of poverty and suffering. He veiled His glory in order that divinity might touch humanity, and the treasure of immense value was not discerned by the human race....
TMK	58	5	"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). The treasure indeed is hidden under the garb of humanity. Christ is the unsearchable riches, and he who finds Christ finds heaven. The human agent who looks upon Jesus, who dwells by faith on His matchless charms, finds the eternal treasure.27
TMK	58	6	Christ does not use this parable to commend the man who hides the treasure until he can buy the field, but His object in using this illustration is to convey to our mind the value of spiritual things. To obtain worldly treasure, the man would make a sacrifice of his all, and how much more should we give for the priceless, heavenly treasure!28
------------------------Have You Enrolled? February 22
TMK	59	1	My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. Proverbs 23:26.
TMK	59	2	Dear youth, the very best thing you can do is to enlist freely and decidedly in the army of the Lord. Surrender yourself into the hands of God, that your will and ways may be guided by the One who is unerring in wisdom and infinite in goodness. To withhold yourself from God is to rob God of that which is His own. The Lord hath need of you, and you have need of the Lord. It is not safe for you to put off the decisive step, or delay the matter of making a complete surrender of yourself to God. If you have not already given yourself to God, I beseech you to do it now. Let your name be enrolled in the heavenly records as one of the chosen and elect of God....
TMK	59	3	"God so loved the world, the he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).... It is through the inestimable gift of Christ that all our blessings come. Life, health, friends, reason, happiness, are ours through the merit of Christ. O that the young and the old might realize that all comes to them through the virtue of Christ's life and death, and acknowledge the ownership of God....
TMK	59	4	Even when we were under the control of a cruel master, even when the prince of darkness ruled our spirits, the Lord Jesus Christ paid the ransom price of His own blood for us. You have been bought with a price, even with the precious blood of Christ; you are His property, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's....
TMK	59	5	Were it not for the love freely given us of Christ, we should now be in hopeless despair, in spiritual midnight. Thank God every day that He gave us Jesus. Will you not accept His gift? Will you not be His witness? Time is short, and it becomes you to work while the day lasts, living an imperishable life, hiding your life with Christ in God. Then "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:4).29
------------------------"What Manner of Love"! February 23
TMK	60	1	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 1 John 3:1.
TMK	60	2	"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God" (John 1:12).... "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:14-18).
TMK	60	3	John cannot find adequate words wherein to describe the amazing love of God to sinful man, but he calls upon all to behold the love of God revealed in the gift of His only begotten Son. Through the perfection of the sacrifice given for the guilty race, those who believe in Christ ... may be saved from eternal ruin. Christ was one with the Father, yet when sin entered our world through Adam's transgression, He was willing to step down from the exaltation of One who was equal with God, who dwelt in light unapproachable by humanity, so full of glory that no man could behold His face and live, and submit to insult, mockery, suffering, pain, and death, in order to answer the claims of the immutable law of God, and make a way of escape for the transgressor by His death and righteousness. This was the work which His Father gave Him to do, and those who accept Christ, relying wholly upon His merits, are made the adopted sons and daughters of God--are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ....
TMK	60	4	Let no one ... think that it is a condescension for any man, however talented or learned or honored, to accept Christ. Every human being should look to heaven with reverence and gratitude, and exclaim with amazement, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us."30
------------------------"We Shall Be Like Him", February 24
TMK	61	1	Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2.
TMK	61	2	Jesus, the world's Redeemer, knows all His children by name, and on those who believe shall come the glory of God.... Those who behold Jesus become changed to His image, become assimilated to His nature, and the glory of God that shines in the face of Jesus, is reflected in the lives of His followers. More and more the Christian is changed from glory to glory.... The more he looks on Christ, the more he loves and longs to look again, and the more light and love and glory he sees in Christ, the more his light increases....
TMK	61	3	It is by faith that the spiritual eye beholds the glory of Jesus. This glory is hidden until the Lord imparts the light of spiritual truth, for the eye of reason cannot see it. The glory and mystery of Christ remains incomprehensible, clouded by its excessive brightness, until the Lord flashes its meaning before the soul.... By faith the soul catches divine light from Jesus. We see matchless charms in His purity and humility, His self-denial, His wonderful sacrifice to save fallen man. Contemplation of Christ leads man to place a proper estimate upon himself.... The possibility of being like Jesus, whom he loves and adores, inspires within him that faith which works by love and purifies the heart....
TMK	61	4	Jesus is more precious to the soul that beholds Him by the eye of faith than is anything else beside, and the believing soul is more precious to Jesus than fine gold of Ophir. Christ looks upon His hands--the marks of the crucifixion are there--and He says, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me" (Isaiah 49:16). The Christian is walled in by the rich full promises of an infinite God.
TMK	61	5	The Lord is coming with power and great glory. All who have made Christ their refuge will reflect His image, and they will be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is. They are to be presented to Him without "spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27).31
------------------------Under the Great Teacher, February 25
TMK	62	1	Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17.
TMK	62	2	When true conversion takes place in the heart, it is made manifest in a transformation of character, for those who are converted become Christlike. Pride no longer lives in the heart, sin seems abominable. The converted soul hates the thing that depraves his moral sensibilities. He hates that which crucified the Lord of life and glory. Those who are truly converted grow in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and as knowledge of Christ increases, they see more clearly where their own weakness lies; they realize the deep depravity of their natures. They understand the strength of sin, and know the power of their old habits.... They have daily a sense of their entire inability to do anything without the help of Jesus Christ, therefore they say to Him, "I cast my helpless soul upon Thee. 'In my hand no price I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling.'"
TMK	62	3	As the sinner beholds the Lamb of God, he sees more clearly what provision God has made to take away the sins of the world. He sees the sufficiency and adaptation of the Spirit of grace for every conflict. The mysterious provision for the taking away of sin is Jesus Christ.... "He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our's only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2)....
TMK	62	4	The true Christian will not refuse to practice self-denial for Christ's sake. Those who are children of God are earnest workers; they are not slothful servants. There are no drones in the household of God. Every member of the household of faith has his work appointed to him.... If he is a learner in the school of Christ, he will learn how to give a testimony, how to pray, how to be a living witness for the Master....
TMK	62	5	The true Christian will be a diligent and constant student. He will realize that he lacks wisdom, strength, and experience, and he will place his will and all his interests in the care of the great Teacher.32
------------------------Redeemed by Christ's Blood, February 26
TMK	63	1	Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1:18, 19.
TMK	63	2	"'Ye are not your own.... Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). Will you give back to God that which He has ransomed with the price of His own blood? Will you give Him your reasoning powers; will you set them apart for His glory? They are His; He has bought them with a price. Will you place yourselves in the school of Christ, that your conscience may be enlightened, that it may be a good conscience, a faithful sentinel to guard the highest interests of the soul? Christ has purchased the affections; will you trifle with them, will you pervert them? Will you place them upon unworthy objects, center them upon human beings and make the creature instead of the Creator your God to worship? Or shall your affections be purified, ennobled, refined, and made to twine about your Creator and Redeemer? ...
TMK	63	3	God will not occupy a divided heart or reign from a divided throne. Every rival that holds the affections and diverts them from the God of love must be dethroned. The Lord demands all that there is of us, and there must be no reserve. Christ has purchased us, we are His heritage, and we are to be honored by being co-laborers with Jesus Christ. Wear the yoke with Christ, and daily walk with God. How shall we do this? By laying hold upon the help which God has provided. The Lord has said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7).33
TMK	63	4	God has bought us, and He claims a throne in each heart. Our minds and bodies must be subordinated to Him, and the natural habits and appetites must be made subservient to the higher wants of the soul. But we can place no dependence upon ourselves in this work. We cannot with safety follow our own guidance. The Holy Spirit must renew and sanctify us. In God's service there must be no halfway work.34
------------------------The Weight of God's Wrath, February 27
TMK	64	1	All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6.
TMK	64	2	In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ suffered in man's stead, and the human nature of the Son of God staggered under the terrible horror of the guilt of sin, until from His pale and quivering lips was forced the agonizing cry, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me"; but if there is no other way by which the salvation of fallen man may be accomplished, then "not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39).
TMK	64	3	The power that inflicted retributive justice upon man's substitute and surety, was the power that sustained and upheld the suffering One under the tremendous weight of wrath that would have fallen upon a sinful world. Christ was suffering the death that was pronounced upon the transgressors of God's law. It is a fearful thing for the unrepenting sinner to fall into the hands of the living God. This is proved by the history of the destruction of the old world by a flood, by the record of the fire which fell from heaven and destroyed the inhabitants of Sodom. But never was this proved to so great an extent as in the agony of Christ, ... when He bore the wrath of God for a sinful world....
TMK	64	4	Man has not been made a sin-bearer, and he will never know the horror of the curse of sin which the Saviour bore. No sorrow can bear any comparison with the sorrow of Him upon whom the wrath of God fell with overwhelming force. Human nature can endure but a limited amount of test and trial. The finite can only endure the finite measure, and human nature succumbs; but the nature of Christ had a greater capacity for suffering; for the human existed in the divine nature, and created a capacity for suffering to endure that which resulted from the sins of a lost world. The agony which Christ endured, broadens, deepens, and gives a more extended conception of the character of sin, and the character of the retribution which God will bring upon those who continue in sin. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.35
------------------------The Cross of Calvary, February 28
TMK	65	1	And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Luke 23:33.
TMK	65	2	The cross of Calvary appeals in power, affording a reason why we should love Christ now, and why we should consider Him first, and best, and last, in everything. We should take our fitting place in humble penitence at the foot of the cross. We may learn the lessons of meekness and lowliness of mind as we go up to Mount Calvary, and, looking upon the cross, see our Saviour in agony, the Son of God dying, the Just for the unjust. Behold Him who could summon legions of angels to His assistance with one word, a subject of jest and merriment, of reviling and hatred. He gives Himself a sacrifice for sin. When reviled, He threatened not; when falsely accused, He opened not His mouth. He prays on the cross for His murderers. He is dying for them. He is paying an infinite price for every one of them. He would not lose one whom He has purchased at so great cost. He gives Himself to be smitten and scourged without a murmur. And this uncomplaining victim is the Son of God. His throne is from everlasting, and His kingdom shall have no end.... Look, O look upon the cross of Calvary; behold the royal victim suffering on your account....
TMK	65	3	The Son of God was rejected and despised for our sakes. Can you, in full view of the cross, beholding by the eye of faith the sufferings of Christ, tell your tale of woe, your trials? Can you nurse revenge of your enemies in your heart while the prayer of Christ comes from His pale and quivering lips for His revilers, His murderers--"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34)? ...
TMK	65	4	We must not shrink from the depths of humiliation to which the Son of God submitted in order to raise us from the degradation and bondage of sin to a seat at His right hand.... It is high time we devoted the few remaining precious hours of our probation to washing our robes of character and making them white in the blood of the Lamb, that we may be of that white-robed company who shall stand about the great white throne.36
------------------------"Despised and Rejected", March 1
TMK	66	1	He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:3.
TMK	66	2	How few have any conception of the anguish which rent the heart of the Son of God during His thirty years of life upon earth. The path from the manger to Calvary was shadowed by sorrow and grief. He was the Man of Sorrows, and endured such heartache as no human language can portray. He could have said in truth, "Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow" (Lamentations 1:12). His suffering was the deepest anguish of the soul; and what man could have sympathy with the soul anguish of the Son of the infinite God? Hating sin with a perfect hatred, He yet gathered to His soul the sins of the whole world, as He trod the path to Calvary, suffering the penalty of the transgressor. Guiltless, He bore the punishment of the guilty; innocent, yet offering Himself to bear the penalty of the transgression of the law of God. The punishment of the sins of every soul was borne by the Son of the infinite God. The guilt of every sin pressed its weight upon the divine soul of the world's Redeemer. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. In assuming the nature of man, He placed Himself where He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, that by His stripes we might be healed.
TMK	66	3	In His humanity Christ was tried with as much greater temptation, with as much more persevering energy than man is tried by the evil one, as His nature was greater than man's. This is a deep mysterious truth, that Christ is bound to humanity by the most sensitive sympathies. The evil works, the evil thoughts, the evil words of every son and daughter of Adam press upon His divine soul. The sins of men called for retribution upon Himself, for He had become man's substitute, and took upon Him the sins of the world. He bore the sins of every sinner, for all transgressions were imputed unto Him.... "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3).1
------------------------"Wounded for Our Transgressions", March 2
TMK	67	1	Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:4, 5.
TMK	67	2	The sincere Christian may indeed grieve as he sees the havoc sin has wrought, but only in a limited sense can the human agent comprehend the sadness of Christ as He looks upon sin as it exists in the human heart....
TMK	67	3	From the light of His exalted purity the world's Redeemer could see that the maladies from which the human family were suffering were brought upon them by transgression of the law of God. Every case of suffering He could trace back to its cause. He read the sad and awful history of the final end of unrepenting sinners. He knew that He alone could rescue them from the pit into which they had fallen. He alone could place their feet in the right path. His perfection alone could avail for their imperfection. He alone could cover their nakedness with His own spotless robe of righteousness.
TMK	67	4	Christ wanted all. He could not endure that one should be lost. O if the human family could only see the results of sin in the transgression and violence and crime that exist in the world! If they could see the transformation of men from the image of God to the similitude of Satan! Man was created pure and holy, but through transgression he came to possess the attributes of Satan....
TMK	67	5	In coming to the world in human form, in becoming subject to the law, in revealing to men that He bore their sickness, their sorrow, their guilt, Christ did not become a sinner. He was pure and uncontaminated by any disease. Not one stain of sin was found upon Him.... He stood before the world the spotless Lamb of God. When suffering humanity pressed about Him, He who was in the health of perfect manhood was as one afflicted with them. This was essential, that He might express His perfect love in behalf of humanity.... Christ was strong to save the whole world.2
------------------------Depths of Humiliation, March 3
TMK	68	1	Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Hebrews 2:14.
TMK	68	2	Wondrous combination of man and God! ... He humbled Himself to man's nature. He did this that the Scripture might be fulfilled; and the plan was entered into by the Son of God, knowing all the steps in His humiliation, that He must descend to make an expiation for the sins of a condemned, groaning world. What humility was this! It amazed angels. The tongue can never describe it; the imagination cannot take it in. The eternal Word consented to be made flesh! God became man! It was a wonderful humility.
TMK	68	3	But He stepped still lower; the Man must humble Himself as a man to bear insult, reproach, shameful accusations, and abuse. There seemed to be no safe place for Him in His own territory. He had to flee from place to place for His life. He was betrayed by one of His disciples; He was denied by one of His most zealous followers. He was mocked. He was crowned with a crown of thorns. He was scourged. He was forced to bear the burden of the cross.
TMK	68	4	He was not insensible to this contempt and ignominy. He submitted, but, oh! He felt the bitterness as no other being could feel it. He was pure, holy, and undefiled, yet arraigned as a criminal! The adorable Redeemer stepped down from the highest exaltation. Step by step He humbled Himself to die--but what a death! It was the most shameful, the most cruel--the death upon the cross as a malefactor. He did not die as a hero in the eyes of the world, loaded with honors, as men in battle. He died as a condemned criminal, suspended between the heavens and the earth--died a lingering death of shame, exposed to the tauntings and revilings of a debased, crime-loaded, profligate multitude! ...
TMK	68	5	All this humiliation of the Majesty of heaven was for guilty, condemned man. He went lower and lower in His humiliation, until there were no lower depths that He could reach, in order to lift man up from his moral defilement. All this was for you.3
------------------------Calvary--God's Crowning Work, March 4
TMK	69	1	Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10.
TMK	69	2	The love of God was Christ's theme when speaking of His mission and His work. "Therefore doth my Father love me," He says, "because I lay down my life, that I might take it again" (John 10:17). My Father loves you with a love so unbounded that He loves Me the more because I have given My life to redeem you. He loves you, and He loves Me more because I love you, and give My life for you.... Well did the disciples understand this love as they saw their Saviour enduring shame, reproach, doubt, and betrayal, as they saw His agony in the Garden, and His death on Calvary's cross. This is a love the depth of which no sounding can ever fathom. As the disciples comprehended it, as their perception took hold of God's divine compassion, they realized that there is a sense in which the sufferings of the Son were the sufferings of the Father....
TMK	69	3	When our Redeemer consented to take the cup of suffering in order to save sinners, His capacity for suffering was the only limitation to His suffering.... By dying in our behalf, He gave an equivalent for our debt. Thus He removed from God all charge of lessening the guilt of sin. By virtue of My oneness with the Father, He says, My suffering and death enable Me to pay the penalty of sin. By My death a restraint is removed from His love. His grace can act with unbounded efficiency.4
TMK	69	4	Christ is our Redeemer. He is the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. He is the fountain in which we may be washed and cleansed from all impurity. He is the costly sacrifice that has been given for the reconciliation of man. The universe of heaven, the worlds unfallen, the fallen world, and the confederacy of evil cannot say that God could do more for the salvation of man than He has done. Never can His gift be surpassed, never can He display a richer depth of love. Calvary represents His crowning work. It is man's part to respond to His great love by appropriating the great salvation the blessing of the Lord has made it possible for man to obtain.5
------------------------Christ Our Divine Ransom, March 5
TMK	70	1	Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:3, 4.
TMK	70	2	"In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). Men need to understand that Deity suffered and sank under the agonies of Calvary. Yet Jesus Christ, whom God gave for the ransom of the world, purchased the church with His own blood. The Majesty of heaven was made to suffer at the hands of religious zealots, who claimed to be the most enlightened people upon the face of the earth.
TMK	70	3	Men whom God had created, and who were dependent upon Him for every moment of their lives, who claimed to be the children of Abraham, worked out the wrath of Satan upon the innocent Son of the infinite God. While Christ was bearing the heavy guilt incurred by transgression of the law, while in the very act of bearing our sins, of carrying our sorrows, He was mocked ... by the chief priests and rulers.... It was there that mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace embraced each other. Here is a theme which all need to understand. Here are lengths and breadths, depths and heights, that pass any computation....
TMK	70	4	The character of Christ is an infinitely perfect character. The Word declares Him. He is lifted up and proclaimed as the One who gave His life for the life of the world.... Christ gave His own life, that all the disloyal and disobedient might realize the truth of the promise given in the first chapter of John: "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). Tell it over and over again. We may become the sons of God, members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. All who accept Jesus Christ and hold the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end will be heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ to "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away."6
------------------------Resurrection to New Life, March 6
TMK	71	1	Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4.
TMK	71	2	The repentant believer, who takes the steps required in conversion, commemorates in his baptism the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. He goes down into the water in the likeness of Christ's death and burial, and he is raised out of the water in the likeness of His resurrection--not to take up the old life of sin, but to live a new life in Christ Jesus.7
TMK	71	3	He who had said, "I lay down my life, that I might take it again" (John 10:17), came forth from the grave to life that was in Himself. Humanity died; divinity did not die. In His divinity Christ possessed the power to break the bonds of death. He declares that He has life in Himself to quicken whom He will.
TMK	71	4	All created beings live by the will and power of God. They are recipients of the life of the Son of God. However able and talented, however large their capacities, they are replenished with life from the Source of all life. He is the spring, the fountain, of life. Only He who alone hath immortality, dwelling in light and life, [could] say, "I have power to lay it [my life] down, and I have power to take it again" (verse 18).... Christ was invested with the right to give immortality. The life which He had laid down in humanity, He again took up and gave to humanity....
TMK	71	5	Christ became one with humanity that humanity might become one in spirit and life with Him. By virtue of this union in obedience to the Word of God, His life becomes their life. He says to the penitent, "I am the resurrection, and the life" (John 11:25). Death is looked upon by Christ as sleep--silence, darkness, sleep. He speaks of it as if it were of little moment. "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me," He says, "shall never die" (verse 26).... "He shall never see death" (John 8:51). And to the believing one, death is but a small matter. With him to die is but to sleep. "Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him" (1 Thessalonians 4:14).8
------------------------The Glorious Reunion in Heaven, March 7
TMK	72	1	Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.... He is the King of glory. Psalm 24:7-10.
TMK	72	2	Christ came to earth as God in the guise of humanity. He ascended to heaven as the King of saints. His ascension was worthy of His exalted character. He went as one mighty in battle, a conqueror, leading captivity captive. He was attended by the heavenly host, amid shouts and acclamations of praise and celestial song.... All heaven united in His reception.9
TMK	72	3	The most precious fact to the disciples in the ascension of Jesus was that He went from them into heaven in the tangible form of their divine Teacher.... The last remembrance that the disciples were to have of their Lord was as the sympathizing Friend, the glorified Redeemer.... The brightness of the heavenly escort and the opening of the glorious gates of God to welcome Him were not to be discerned by mortal eyes.
TMK	72	4	Had the track of Christ to heaven been revealed to the disciples in all its inexpressible glory, they could not have endured the sight. Had they beheld the myriads of angels, and heard the bursts of triumph from the battlements of heaven, as the everlasting doors were lifted up, the contrast between that glory and their own lives in a word of trial, would have been so great that they would hardly have been able to again take up the burden of their earthly lives....
TMK	72	5	Their senses were not to become so infatuated with the glories of heaven that they would lose sight of the character of Christ on earth, which they were to copy in themselves. They were to keep distinctly before their minds the beauty and majesty of His life, the perfect harmony of all His attributes, and the mysterious union of the divine and human in His nature. It was better that the earthly acquaintance of the disciples with their Saviour should end in the solemn, quiet, and sublime manner in which it did. His visible ascent from the world was in harmony with the meekness and quiet of His life."10
------------------------A Perfect Atonement, March 8
TMK	73	1	And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Romans 5:11.
TMK	73	2	Our great High Priest completed the sacrificial offering of Himself when He suffered without the gate. Then a perfect atonement was made for the sins of the people. Jesus is our Advocate, our High Priest, our Intercessor. Our present position therefore is like that of the Israelites, standing in the outer court, waiting and looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ....
TMK	73	3	When the high priest entered the holy place, representing the place where our High Priest is now pleading, and offered sacrifice on the altar, no propitiatory sacrifices were offered without. While the high priest was interceding within, every heart was to be bowed in contrition before God, pleading for the pardon of transgression. Type met antitype in the death of Christ, the Lamb slain for the sins of the world. The great High Priest has made the only sacrifice that will be of any value....
TMK	73	4	In His intercession as our Advocate, Christ needs no man's virtue, no man's intercession. Christ is the only sin bearer, the only sin offering. Prayer and confession are to be offered only to Him who has entered once for all into the holy place....
TMK	73	5	Christ represented His Father to the world, and He represents before God the chosen ones in whom He has restored the moral image of God. They are His heritage.... No priest, no religionist, can reveal the Father to any son or daughter of Adam. Men have only one Advocate, one Intercessor, who is able to pardon transgression. Shall not our hearts swell with gratitude to Him who gave Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins? Think deeply upon the love the Father has manifested in our behalf, the love that He has expressed for us. We cannot measure this love. Measurement there is none. We can only point to Calvary, to the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It is an infinite sacrifice. Can we comprehend and measure infinity?11
------------------------A Conqueror Claiming His Victory, March 9
TMK	74	1	Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2:17.
TMK	74	2	Of the high priest of Israel we read, "Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually" (Exodus 28:29). What a beautiful and expressive figure this is of the unchanging love of Christ for His church! Our great High Priest, of whom Aaron was a type, bears His people upon His heart.... Christ as the great high priest, making a perfect atonement for sin, stands alone in divine majesty and glory. Other high priests were only types, and when He appeared, the need of their services vanished .... Let human beings, subject to temptation, remember that in the heavenly courts they have a high priest who is touched with the feeling of their infirmities, because He Himself was tempted, even as they are.12
TMK	74	3	Christ is the minister of the true tabernacle, the high priest of all who believe in Him as a personal Saviour, and His office no other can take. He is the high priest of the church....
TMK	74	4	Christ offered up His broken body to purchase back God's heritage, to give man another trial. "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). By His spotless life, His obedience, His death on the cross of Calvary, Christ interceded for the lost race. And now, not as a mere petitioner does the Captain of our salvation intercede for us, but as a conqueror claiming His victory. His offering is complete, and as our intercessor He executes His self-appointed work, holding before God the censer containing His own spotless merits and the prayers, confessions, and thanksgiving of His people. Perfumed with the fragrance of His righteousness, these ascend to God as a sweet savor. The offering is wholly acceptable, and pardon covers all transgression.13
------------------------Momentarily Offering Sacrifice, March 10
TMK	75	1	Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Romans 8:34.
TMK	75	2	Christ Jesus is represented as continually standing at the altar, momentarily offering up the sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is a minister of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man.... A daily and yearly typical atonement is no longer to be made, but the atoning sacrifice through a mediator is essential because of the constant commission of sin. Jesus is officiating in the presence of God, offering up His shed blood, as it had been a lamb slain....
TMK	75	3	Christ, our Mediator, and the Holy Spirit are constantly interceding in man's behalf, but the Spirit pleads not for us as does Christ who presents His blood, shed from the foundation of the world; the Spirit works upon our hearts, drawing out prayers and penitence, praise and thanksgiving....
TMK	75	4	The religious services, the prayers, the praise, the penitent confession of sin ascend from true believers as incense to the heavenly sanctuary; but passing through the corrupt channels of humanity, they are so defiled that unless purified by blood, they can never be of value with God. They ascend not in spotless purity, and unless the Intercessor who is at God's right hand presents and purifies all by His righteousness, it is not acceptable to God. All incense from earthly tabernacles must be moist with the cleansing drops of the blood of Christ. He holds before the Father the censer of His own merits, in which there is no taint of earthly corruption. He gathers into this censer the prayers, the praise, and the confessions of His people, and with these He puts His own spotless righteousness. Then, perfumed with the merits of Christ's propitiation, the incense comes up before God wholly and entirely acceptable....
TMK	75	5	O, that all may see that everything in obedience, in penitence, in praise and thanksgiving must be placed upon the glowing fire of the righteousness of Christ. The fragrance of this righteousness ascends like a cloud around the mercy seat.14
------------------------An Advocate Clothed in Our Nature, March 11
TMK	76	1	My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1.
TMK	76	2	God's appointments and grants in our behalf are without limit. The throne of grace itself is occupied by One who permits us to call Him Father.... He has placed at His altar an Advocate clothed in our nature. As our Intercessor, Christ's office work is to introduce us to God as His sons and daughters. He intercedes in behalf of those who receive Him. With His own blood He has paid their ransom. By virtue of His merits He gives them power to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. And the Father demonstrates His infinite love for Christ by receiving and welcoming Christ's friends as His friends. He is satisfied with the atonement made. He is glorified by the incarnation, the life, death, and mediation of His son.
TMK	76	3	In Christ's name our petitions ascend to the Father. He intercedes in our behalf, and the Father lays open all the treasures of His grace for our appropriation, for us to enjoy and impart to others....
TMK	76	4	Christ is the connecting link between God and man.... He places the whole virtue of His righteousness on the side of the suppliant. He pleads for man, and man, in need of divine help, pleads for himself in the presence of God, using the influence of the One who gave His life for the life of the world. As we acknowledge before God our appreciation of Christ's merits, fragrance is given to our intercessions. As we approach God through the virtue of the Redeemer's merits, Christ places us close by His side, encircling us with His human arm, while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the Infinite. He puts His merits, as sweet incense, in the censer in our hands, in order to encourage our petitions....
TMK	76	5	Yes, Christ has become the medium of prayer between man and God. He has also become the medium of blessing between God and man.15
------------------------When Jesus Interposes, March 12
TMK	77	1	For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Hebrews 9:24.
TMK	77	2	Our precious Redeemer is standing before the Father as our intercessor.... Let those who would meet the divine standard search the Scriptures for themselves, that they may have a knowledge of the life of Christ and understand His mission and work. Let them behold Him as their Advocate, standing within the vail, having in His hand the golden censer from which the holy incense of the merits of His righteousness ascends to God in behalf of those who pray to Him. Could they thus behold Him they would feel an assurance that they have a powerful, influential Advocate in the heavenly courts, and that their suit is gained at the throne of God.
TMK	77	3	What an experience may be attained at the footstool of mercy, which is the only place of sure refuge! You may discern the fact that God is back of His promises, and not dread the issue of your prayers or doubt that Jesus is standing as your surety and substitute. As you confess your sins, as you repent of your iniquity, Christ takes your guilt upon Himself and imputes to you His own righteousness and power. To those who are contrite in spirit He gives the golden oil of love and the rich treasures of His grace. It is then that you may see that the sacrifice of self to God through the merits of Christ makes you of infinite value, for clothed in the robe of Christ's righteousness you become the sons and daughters of God. Those who ... ask forgiveness in the name of Jesus will receive their request. At the very first expression of penitence Christ presents the humble suppliant's petition before the throne as His own desire in the sinner's behalf. He says, "I will pray the Father for you."
TMK	77	4	Jesus, our precious Saviour, could not see us exposed to the fatal snares of Satan and forbear making an infinite sacrifice on our behalf. He interposes Himself between Satan and the tempted soul and says, "'Get thee behind me, Satan.' Let me come close to this tempted soul." He pities and loves every humble, trembling suppliant.16
------------------------Salvation to the Uttermost, March 13
TMK	78	1	Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25.
TMK	78	2	What does intercession comprehend? It is the golden chain which binds finite man to the throne of the infinite God. The human agent whom Christ has died to save importunes the throne of God, and his petition is taken up by Jesus who has purchased him with His own blood. Our great High Priest places His righteousness on the side of the sincere suppliant, and the prayer of Christ blends with that of the human petitioner.
TMK	78	3	Christ has urged that His people pray without ceasing. This does not mean that we should always be upon our knees, but that prayer is to be as the breath of the soul. Our silent requests, wherever we may be, are to be ascending unto God, and Jesus our Advocate pleads in our behalf, bearing up with the incense of His righteousness our requests to the Father.
TMK	78	4	The Lord Jesus loves His people, and when they put their trust in Him, depending wholly upon Him, He strengthens them. He will live through them, giving them the inspiration of His sanctifying Spirit, imparting to the soul a vital transfusion of Himself. He acts through their faculties and causes them to choose His will and to act out His character. With the apostle Paul they then may say, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20)....
TMK	78	5	The Lord will not leave His afflicted, tried children to be the sport of Satan's temptations. It is your privilege to trust in Jesus. The heavens are full of rich blessings.... We have not because we ask not, or because we do not pray in faith, believing that we shall be blessed with the special influence of the Holy Spirit. To the true seeker through the mediation of Christ the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit are imparted.17
------------------------Safe in Every Storm, March 14
TMK	79	1	Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Hebrews 6:19, 20.
TMK	79	2	Hope has been set before us, even the hope of eternal life. Nothing short of this blessing for us will satisfy our Redeemer, but it is our part to lay hold upon this hope by faith in Him who has promised. We may expect to suffer, for it is those who are partakers with Him in His sufferings who shall be partakers with Him in His glory. He has purchased forgiveness and immortality for the sinful, perishing souls of men, but it is our part to receive these gifts by faith. Believing in Him, we have this hope as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast. We are to understand that we may confidently expect God's favor not only in this world but in the heavenly world, since He paid such a price for our salvation. Faith in the atonement and intercession of Christ will keep us steadfast and immovable amid the temptations that press upon us in the church militant. Let us contemplate the glorious hope that is set before us, and by faith lay hold upon it....
TMK	79	3	We gain heaven not through our own merits but through the merits of Jesus Christ.... Let your hope not be centered in yourself, but in Him who has entered within the vail. Talk of the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
TMK	79	4	It is true that we are exposed to great moral peril; it is true that we are in danger of being corrupted. But this danger threatens us only as we trust in self and look no higher than our own human efforts. In doing this we shall make shipwreck of faith.18
TMK	79	5	In Christ our hope of eternal life is centered.... Our hope is an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast when it entereth into that within the vail, for the tempest-tossed soul becomes a partaker of the divine nature. He is anchored in Christ. Amid the raging elements of temptation he will not be driven upon the rocks or drawn into the whirlpool. His ship will outride the storm.19
------------------------Jesus Holds Us Fast! March 15
TMK	80	1	My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. John 10:27, 28.
TMK	80	2	In the courts above, Christ is pleading for His church--pleading for those for whom He has paid the redemption price of His blood. Centuries, ages, can never lessen the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice. Neither life nor death, height nor depth, can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus; not because we hold Him so firmly, but because He holds us so fast. If our salvation depended on our own efforts, we could not be saved; but it depends on the One who is behind all the promises. Our grasp on Him may seem feeble, but His love is that of an elder brother; so long as we maintain our union with Him, no one can pluck us out of His hand.20
TMK	80	3	Jesus, precious Jesus, "merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 34:6, 7). O how privileged we are that we may come to Jesus just as we are and cast ourselves upon His love! We have no hope but in Jesus. He alone can reach us with His hand to lift us up out of the depths of discouragement and hopelessness and place our feet upon the Rock. Although the human soul may cling to Jesus with all the desperate sense of his great need, Jesus will cling to the souls bought by His own blood with a firmer grasp than the sinner clings to Him.
TMK	80	4	I read this over and over again, for it is so full of assurance: "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:14-16).... What a Saviour we have--a risen Saviour, One who can save all who come unto Him!21
------------------------The Mystery of Godliness, March 16
TMK	81	1	He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32.
TMK	81	2	Before this wonderful, priceless gift was bestowed, the whole heavenly universe was mightily stirred in an effort to understand God's unfathomable love, stirred to awaken in human hearts a gratitude proportionate to the value of the gift. Shall we for whom Christ has given His life, halt between two opinions? Shall we give God only a mite of the powers of our nature? Shall we return only a part of the capabilities and powers lent us by God? Can we do this while we know that He who was Commander of all heaven ... , realizing the helplessness of the human race, came to this earth in human nature to make it possible for us to unite our humanity to His divinity?
TMK	81	3	He became poor that we might come into possession of the heavenly treasure, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. To rescue the fallen race, He descended from one humiliation to another, until He, the divine-human suffering Christ, was uplifted on the cross, to draw all men unto Him. The Son of God could not have shown greater condescension than He did; He could not have stooped lower.
TMK	81	4	This is the mystery of godliness, the mystery which has inspired heavenly agencies so to minister through fallen humanity that in the world an interest will be aroused in the plan of salvation. This is the mystery that has stirred all heaven to unite with man in carrying out God's great plan for the salvation of a ruined world, that men and women may be led, by the signs in the heavens and in the earth, to prepare for the second coming of our Lord....
TMK	81	5	As the Head of the church Christ is authoritatively calling upon every person who claims to believe on Him to follow His example of self-denial and self-sacrifice.... They are called upon to rally without delay under the blood-stained banner of Christ Jesus. Withholding nothing, they are to make an entire offering for the attainment of eternal, measureless results--the salvation of souls.22
------------------------A Bridge for the Gulf, March 17
TMK	82	1	Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6.
TMK	82	2	When Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," He uttered a truth of wonderful significance. The transgression of man had separated earth from heaven, and finite man from the infinite God. As an island is separated from a continent, so earth was cut off from heaven, and a wide channel intervened between man and God. Jesus bridged this gulf, and made a way for man to come to God. He who has no spiritual light sees no way, has no hope, and men have originated theories of their own regarding the way to life.... But the only name given among men whereby they can be saved is Jesus. Across the gulf that sin has made come His words, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."...
TMK	82	3	Man can be justified alone through the imputation of Christ's righteousness. Man is justified freely by God's grace through faith, and not by works, lest any man should boast. Salvation is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord....
TMK	82	4	After the enemy had betrayed Adam and Eve into sin, the connection between heaven and earth was severed, and had it not been for Christ, the way to heaven would never have been known by the fallen race.... Christ is the mystic ladder, the base of which rests upon the earth, and whose topmost round reaches to the throne of the Infinite. The children of Adam are not left desolate and alienated from God, for through Christ's righteousness we have access unto the Father.
TMK	82	5	"By me," said Christ, "if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture" (John 10:9). Let earth be glad, let the inhabitants of the world rejoice, that Christ has bridged the gulf which sin had made, and has bound earth and heaven together. A highway has been cast up for the ransomed of the Lord. The weary and heavy laden may come unto Him and find rest to their souls. The pilgrim may journey toward the mansions that He has gone to prepare for those who love Him.23
------------------------The Priceless Pearl, March 18
TMK	83	1	Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Matthew 13:45, 46.
TMK	83	2	This goodly pearl represents the priceless treasure of Christ, as does the gold hid in the field. In Christ we have everything that is needful for us in this life, and that which will make up the joy of the world to come. All the money in the world will not buy the gift of peace and rest and love. These gifts are provided for us through faith in Christ. We cannot purchase these gifts from God; we have nothing with which to buy them. We are the property of God, for mind, soul, and body have been purchased by the ransom of the life of the Son of God....
TMK	83	3	Then what is it to buy the eternal treasure? It is simply to give back to Jesus His own, to receive Him into the heart by faith. It is cooperation with God; it is bearing the yoke with Christ; it is lifting His burdens.... The Lord Jesus laid aside His royal crown, He left His high command, He clothed His divinity with humanity, in order that through humanity He might uplift the human race. He so appreciated the possibility of the human race that He became man's substitute and surety. He places upon man His own merit, and thus elevates him in the scale of moral value with God.
TMK	83	4	Christ is the atoning sacrifice. He left the glory of heaven, He parted with His riches, He laid aside His honor, not in order to create love and interest for man in the heart of God, but to be an exponent of the love that existed in the heart of the Father.... Jesus paid the price of all His riches, He assumed humanity, He condescended to a life of poverty and humiliation, in order that He might seek and save that which was lost.
TMK	83	5	Through the grace of Christ we may be strengthened and matured, so that though now imperfect we may become complete in Him. We have mortgaged ourselves to Satan, but Christ came to ransom and redeem us. We cannot purchase anything from God. It is only by grace, the free gift of God in Christ, that we are saved.24
------------------------Christ's Precious Jewels, March 19
TMK	84	1	And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Malachi 3:17.
TMK	84	2	The kingdom of heaven is represented as being like unto a merchantman "seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."
TMK	84	3	This parable has a double significance, and applies not only to man seeking the kingdom of heaven, but to Christ seeking His lost inheritance. Through transgression man lost his holy innocence, and mortgaged himself to Satan. Christ, the only begotten Son of God, pledged Himself for the redemption of man, and paid the price of his ransom on the cross of Calvary. He left the worlds unfallen, the society of holy angels in the universe of heaven, for He could not be satisfied while humanity was alienated from Him. The heavenly Merchantman lays aside His royal robe and crown. Though the Prince and Commander of all heaven, He takes upon Him the garb of humanity, and comes to a world that is marred and seared with the curse, to seek for the one lost pearl, to seek for man fallen through disobedience....
TMK	84	4	He finds His pearl buried in rubbish. Selfishness encrusts the human heart, and it is bound by the tyranny of Satan. But He lifts the soul out of its darkness to show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We are brought into covenant relationship with God, and receive pardon and find peace. Jesus finds the pearl of lost humanity, and resets it in His own diadem....
TMK	84	5	He would inspire the most sinful, the most debased, with hope. He says, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). When a soul finds the Saviour, the Saviour rejoices as a merchantman that has found his goodly pearl. By His grace He will work upon the soul until it will be like a jewel polished for the heavenly kingdom. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."25
------------------------Life's Best Things, March 20
TMK	85	1	I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10.
TMK	85	2	Every moment of our life is intensely real. Life is no play; it is charged with awful importance, fraught with eternal responsibilities. When we look upon life from this point of view, we realize our need of divine help. The conviction will be forced upon us that a life without Christ will be a life of utter failure, but if Jesus abides with us, we shall live for a purpose. We shall then realize that without the power of God's grace and Spirit we cannot reach the high standard He has placed before us. There is a divine excellence of character to which we are to attain, and in striving to meet the standard of heaven, divine incentives will urge us on, the mind will become balanced, and the restlessness of the soul will be banished in repose in Christ.
TMK	85	3	How often do we come in contact with people who are never happy. They fail of enjoying the contentment and peace that Jesus can give. They profess to be Christians but they do not comply with the conditions upon which the promise of God is fulfilled. Jesus has said, "Come unto me.... Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). The reason why many are in a state of unrest is that they are not learning in the school of the Master. The submissive, self-sacrificing child of God understands by experience what it is to have the peace of Christ.26
TMK	85	4	Life's best things--simplicity, honesty, truthfulness, purity, unsullied integrity--are not to be bought or sold. They are free to the illiterate as to the educated, to the white man as to the black man, to the poor man as to the king upon his throne....
TMK	85	5	In the field of life we are all sowing seeds. As we sow, so shall we reap. Those who sow self-love, bitterness, jealousy, will reap a like harvest. Those who sow unselfish love, kindness, tender thoughtfulness for the feelings of others, will reap a precious harvest.27
------------------------The Most Profitable Investment, March 21
TMK	86	1	I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psalm 139:14.
TMK	86	2	Only one lease of life is granted us here, and the inquiry with every one should be, How can I invest my life that it may yield the greatest profit? Life is valuable only as we improve it for the benefit of our fellow creatures and the glory of God. Careful cultivation of the abilities with which the Creator has endowed us will fit us for usefulness here and eternal life in the world to come.
TMK	86	3	That time is well spent which is directed to the establishment and preservation of sound physical and mental health.... It is easy to lose health, but it is difficult to regain it....
TMK	86	4	We can ill afford to dwarf or cripple a single function of mind or body by overwork or by abuse of any part of the living machinery. So sure as we do this, we must suffer the consequences. It is our first duty to God and our fellow beings to develop all our powers. Every faculty with which the Creator has endowed us should be cultivated to the highest degree of perfection, that we may be able to do the greatest amount of good of which we are capable. The grace of Christ is needed to refine and purify the mind; this will enable us to see and correct our deficiencies, and to improve that which is excellent in our characters. This work, wrought for ourselves in the strength and name of Jesus, will be of more benefit to society than any sermon we might preach. The influence of a well-balanced, well-ordered life is of inestimable value....
TMK	86	5	There are few as yet who are aroused sufficiently to understand how much their habits of diet have to do with their health, their characters, their usefulness in this world, and their eternal destiny. The appetite should ever be in subjection to the moral and intellectual organs. The body should be servant to the mind, and not the mind to the body. All should understand in regard to their own physical frames, that with the psalmist they may be able to exclaim, "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."28
------------------------Entrusted Capital, March 22
TMK	87	1	Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. John 12:35.
TMK	87	2	This is the warning we would give to you who claim to believe the truth. "Yet a little while is the light with you." We would ask you to consider the shortness of human life, how swiftly time is passing. Golden opportunities and privileges are within our reach. The plenteous, abundant mercy of God is waiting your demand upon its richest treasures. The Saviour is waiting to dispense His blessings freely, and the only question is, Will you accept them? The rich provisions have been made, and light is shining in a variety of ways; but this light will lose its preciousness to those who do not appreciate it, who do not accept and respond to it, or, having received it, do not pass the light along to others.
TMK	87	3	Your life, your soul, your strength, your capabilities, your powers of mind and body, are to be regarded by you as entrusted capital to be improved for your Lord during the period of your life. You are to stand in your allotted order in God's great army, to work out His plan in saving your own soul and the souls of others. This you may do by living a consistent Christian life, by putting forth earnest efforts, by learning in the school of Christ His ways, His purposes, and subordinating your will and way to the will and way of Christ....
TMK	87	4	The Christian is to live a life distinctly different from that of the worldling. The worldling lives a cheap quality of life. He consents not to spiritual life. It is he who has the love of God that has life; it is he whose hope is centered, not in this world, but in Christ, the great center....
TMK	87	5	"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:12). Those who believe in Christ derive their motive power and the texture of their characters from Him in whom they believe. "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves" (2 Corinthians 13:5).29
------------------------The Life God Uses, March 23
TMK	88	1	Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. Isaiah 43:7.
TMK	88	2	Our life is the Lord's, and is invested with a responsibility that we do not fully comprehend. The threads of self have become woven into the fabric, and this has dishonored God.
TMK	88	3	Nehemiah, after gaining so great an influence over the monarch in whose court he lived and over his people in Jerusalem, instead of ascribing praise to his own excellent traits of character, his remarkable aptness and energy, stated the matter just as it was. He declared that his success was due to the good hand of God that was upon him. He cherished the truth that God was his safeguard in every position of influence. For every trait of character by which he obtained favor he praised the working power of God....
TMK	88	4	We need to sense deeply that all influence is a precious talent to be used for God.... We need to appreciate every capability we possess, because it is lent capital, to be improved to God's glory.... There is constant temptation for human beings to consider that any influence they have gained is the result of something valuable in themselves. The Lord does not work with these, for He will not give to any human being the glory that belongs to His own name.... He makes the humble, trustful servant His representative--the one who will not lift himself up and think of himself more highly than he ought to think. The life of such a one will be dedicated to God as a living sacrifice, and that life He will accept and use and sustain. He longs to make men wise with His own wisdom, that that wisdom may be exercised in His own behalf. He manifests Himself through the consecrated humble worker....
TMK	88	5	Carry every entrusted capability as a sacred treasure, to be used in imparting to others the knowledge and grace received. In this you will answer the purpose for which God gave them. The Lord requires us to sink self in Jesus Christ, and let the glory be all of God.30
------------------------Monitor and Friend, March 24
TMK	89	1	Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. Deuteronomy 32:7.
TMK	89	2	Life is like a voyage. We have storm and sunshine, but we bear in mind that we are nearing the desired haven. We shall soon be beyond the storms and tempests. Our present duty is to hearken to the voice that says, "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29). We must accept this invitation daily. The past is contained in the book where all things are written down. We cannot blot out the record, but we can learn many things if we choose. The past should teach us its lessons. As we make the past our monitor, we may also make it our friend. As we call to mind that in the past which has been disagreeable, let it teach us not to repeat it. In the future let nothing be traced which will cause regret in the by-and-by. We may now avoid a bad showing. Every day we live we are making our history. Today is ours, yesterday is beyond our amendment or control. Then let us not grieve the Spirit of God today, for tomorrow we shall not be able to recall this day; it will be yesterday to us....
TMK	89	3	Jesus Christ has plentiful help and grace for all who will appreciate it. The Lord is our helper; with Him is forgiveness. He alone can blot out the sins of the past. He can strengthen the mind. If we regard the past as no longer our enemy but as a friend to warn us off the ground we should not approach, it will prove a true friend....
TMK	89	4	Will we grasp and appreciate the good, and refuse the evil? Will we walk humbly with God? ... We must not fail nor be discouraged; then the present work, now passing beyond our control, will be our paymaster.... We have only a little period in which to work. We are not to educate ourselves to worry. Keep the eye upward, fixed upon the mark of our high calling in Christ Jesus. We have a work to do; let us do it as in the sight of the whole universe of heaven. We are not to faint, to stumble on in unbelief. God desires us to look to Him as our sufficiency and strive to be complete in Him.31
------------------------Fulfilling Life's Obligations, March 25
TMK	90	1	For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. Romans 14:7.
TMK	90	2	Ask yourselves the question, "What is my life toward God and toward my fellow men?" There is no one that liveth to himself. No life is lived on neutral ground. Our conceptions of life may be influenced by the enemy of all righteousness so that we do not realize its vast importance, but ... we cannot cast off our responsibility and live without reference to the future, immortal life, and still do our duty to God and to our fellow men. Each one is a part of the great web of humanity, and each one has a far-reaching influence. We cannot fulfill the obligations that rest upon us in our own strength alone. We must have divine aid in meeting our responsibilities, that our influence may ... gather with Christ.
TMK	90	3	All our talents of time, ability, and influence were bestowed by God, and are to be given back to Him in willing service. The great object of the life which God has given is not the securing of temporal advantages, but the securing of eternal privileges in the kingdom of heaven. The Lord has bought all that there is of us by the precious blood of Christ, and it is the worst kind of robbery that could be practiced to withhold from Him His own.32
TMK	90	4	Our life is not our own, never was, and never can be. The question of importance to us is, Is our life interwoven with that of Jesus? ... We shall come into judgment for the very atmosphere that surrounds the soul, for it is vital and is influencing souls for good or evil....
TMK	90	5	If you connect with God, fearing Him, loving Him, obeying Him, and giving to the world a living example of what the Christian's life should be, you will fulfill your obligation to God and to your fellow men. You are to show forth in your life what it means to love God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself. Connected with the God of wisdom and love, you will demonstrate to the world the fact that you are not living for this world, but for that which is not temporal but eternal.33
------------------------The Highest Objects of Ambition, March 26
TMK	91	1	Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. John 6:27.
TMK	91	2	We cannot tell the ambitious man that he must cease to be ambitious if he would become a Christian. God places before him the highest objects of ambition--a spotless white robe, a crown studded with jewels, a scepter, a throne of glory, and honor that is as enduring as the throne of Jehovah. All the elements of character which help to make him successful and honored in the world--the irrepressible desire for some greater good, the indomitable will, the strenuous exertion, the untiring perseverance--are not to be crushed out. These are to remain, and through the grace of God received into the heart to be turned into another channel. These valuable traits of character may be exercised on objects as much higher and nobler than worldly pursuits as the heavens are higher than the earth.
TMK	91	3	Jesus presents a white robe, a crown of glory richer than any that ever decked the brow of a monarch, and titles above those of honored princes. The recompense for a life devoted to the service of Christ exceeds anything that the human imagination can grasp. Christ does not call upon men to lay aside their zeal, their desires for excellence and elevation, but He would have them seek, not for perishable treasure or fleeting honor, but for that which is enduring....
TMK	91	4	God is well pleased if those striving for eternal life aim high. There will be strong temptations to indulge the natural traits of character by becoming worldly wise, scheming, and selfishly ambitious, gathering wealth to the neglect of the salvation which is of so much higher value. But every temptation resisted is a priceless victory gained in subduing self; it bends the powers to the service of Jesus, and increases faith, hope, patience, and forbearance.... Let us aim in the strength of Jesus for the crown heavy with stars. "They that be wise shall shine as ... the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (Daniel 12:3).34
------------------------Sowing and Reaping, March 27
TMK	92	1	Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Galatians 6:7, 8.
TMK	92	2	What is it to sow to the flesh? It is to follow the desires and inclinations of our own natural hearts. Whatever may be our profession, if we are serving self instead of God we are sowing to the flesh. The Christian life is a life of self-denial and cross bearing. We are to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.... We cannot inquire, What is for our convenience? but only, What are our orders? No one looks upon the life of a soldier as a life of self-pleasing and gratification. We are on the battlefield today, and two great forces are ever contending for the mastery....
TMK	92	3	What are you sowing in your daily life? Are you sowing to your flesh? Are you thinking only of your pleasure, your convenience? sowing to pride and vanity and ambition? ... I entreat you to sow to the Spirit. Every temptation resisted will give you power to sow to the Spirit in another time of trial.35
TMK	92	4	If you are sowing faith, rendering obedience to Christ, you will reap faith and power for future obedience. If you are seeking to be a blessing to others, God will bless you.... The joy we give to others will be reflected upon us again, for as we sow, we shall reap....
TMK	92	5	Abundant provision has been made that all who desire to live a godly life may have grace and strength through Jesus our divine Redeemer. The Christian's life is not to be one of burdens and cares, although the cross must be lifted and the burdens borne; for the servants of God are to draw peace and strength from the Source of their strength, and in so doing they will find life full of happiness and peace.... The whole being must be consecrated to God, for our precious Saviour never shares a divided heart. Our inclinations and desires must be under the control of the Spirit of God, and then we shall be strengthened to fight the good fight of faith. We should daily ask, What are the Captain's orders?36
------------------------Life Not to Be Trifled With, March 28
TMK	93	1	So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Romans 14:12.
TMK	93	2	All of us, as beings blessed of God with reasoning powers, with intellect and judgment, should acknowledge our accountability to God. The life He has given us is a sacred responsibility, and no moment of it is to be trifled with, for we shall have to meet it again in the record of the judgment. In the books of heaven our lives are as accurately traced as in the picture on the plate of the photographer. Not only are we held accountable for what we have done, but for what we have left undone. We are held to account for our undeveloped characters, our unimproved opportunities....
TMK	93	3	It is love of selfish ease, love of pleasure, your self-esteem, self-exaltation, that prevents you from learning the precious life lessons in the school of Christ. It is the Christian's duty not to permit surroundings and circumstances to mold him, but to live above surroundings, fashioning his character according to the divine Model. He is to be faithful in whatever place he is found. He is to do his duty with fidelity, improving the opportunities given him of God, making the most of his capabilities....
TMK	93	4	If you are abiding in Christ, learning in His school, you will not be rude, dishonest, or unfaithful. The cross of Christ cuts to the root of all unholy passions and practices. Whatever the nature of your work, you will carry the principles of Christ into your labor and identify yourself with the task given into your hands. Your interest will be one with that of your employer. If you are paid for your time, you will realize that the time for work is not your own, but belongs to the one who pays you for it. If you are careless and extravagant, wasting material, squandering time, failing to be painstaking and diligent, you are registered in the books of heaven as an unfaithful servant.... Faithfulness, economy, caretaking, thoroughness, should characterize all our work.... "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10).37
------------------------Molded After His Character, March 29
TMK	94	1	But we all, with open face beholding as in glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
TMK	94	2	When a man turns away from human imperfections and beholds Jesus, a divine transformation takes place in his character. He fixes his eye upon Christ as on a mirror which reflects the glory of God, and by beholding he becomes changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord....
TMK	94	3	Turn your eyes from the imperfections of others and fix them steadfastly on Christ. With a contrite heart, study His life and character. You need not only to be more enlightened, but quickened, that you may see the banquet that is before you, and eat and drink the flesh and blood of the Son of God, which is His Word. By tasting the good Word of Life, by feeding on the Bread of Life, you may see the power of a world to come, and be created anew in Christ Jesus. If you receive His gifts you will be renewed unto holiness, and His grace will bring forth in you fruit unto the glory of God.
TMK	94	4	The Holy Spirit reveals Christ to the mind, and faith takes hold of Him. If you accept Christ as your personal Saviour, you will know by experience the value of the great sacrifice made in your behalf upon the cross of Calvary. The Spirit of Christ working upon the heart conforms it to His image, for Christ is the model upon which the Spirit works. By the ministry of His Word, by His providences, by His inward working, God stamps the likeness of Christ upon the soul.
TMK	94	5	To possess Christ is your first work, and to reveal Him as One who is able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him is your next work. To serve the Lord with full purpose of heart is to honor and glorify His name by dwelling upon holy things, by having a mind filled with the vital truths revealed in His Holy Word....
TMK	94	6	Goodness, meekness, gentleness, patience, and love are the attributes of Christ's character. If you have the spirit of Christ, your character will be molded after His character.38
------------------------How to Enjoy Heaven, March 30
TMK	95	1	Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
TMK	95	2	The design of God in giving us rich promises is stated by the apostle Peter--that we "might be partakers of the divine nature." We must have earthly, worldly tastes transformed to the divine and heavenly. Heaven would be no heaven to you or to me if our tastes and our meditations and our temper were not Christlike. The pure and heavenly mansions which Christ has gone to prepare for His children are such as the redeemed alone can value by being made meet for them by the inward work of grace in their hearts.
TMK	95	3	I might picture to you the blessedness of heaven, the crowns laid up for the conquerors, the white linen which is the righteousness of Christ, the palm branches of victory, and the harps of gold. But all these alone will not make heaven a place of bliss for any one of us. Without any of these, if we have pure and holy characters, we would be happy, for we would have Jesus and His love. Purity and innocence and conformity to Christ's character will make heaven enjoyable. All the faculties will be strengthened, all in harmony. Perfect bliss can only dwell in the heart where Christ reigns supreme.
TMK	95	4	Christ came to our world to die, the Just for the unjust, ... that He might elevate and ennoble men and women and stamp His divine image upon them. For this His Spirit strives with us that there may be an ever advancing vigor and perfection of spiritual life.39
TMK	95	5	We need not retain one sinful propensity.... As we partake of the divine nature, hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong are cut away from the character, and we are made a living power for good. Ever learning of the divine Teacher, daily partaking of His nature, we cooperate with God in overcoming Satan's temptations. God works, and man works, that man may be one with Christ as Christ is one with God. Then we sit together with Christ in heavenly places. The mind rests with peace and assurance in Jesus.40
------------------------Provision for Every Emergency, March 31
TMK	96	1	How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. Hebrews 2:3.
TMK	96	2	The divine Author of salvation left nothing incomplete in the plan; every phase of it is perfect. The sin of the whole world was laid upon Jesus, and divinity gave its highest value to the suffering of humanity in Jesus that the whole world might be pardoned through faith in the Substitute. The most guilty need have no fear but that God will pardon, for because of the efficacy of the divine sacrifice the penalty of the law will be remitted. Through Christ the sinner may return to allegiance to God.
TMK	96	3	How wonderful is the plan of redemption in its simplicity and fullness. It not only provides for the full pardon of the sinner but also for the restoration of the transgressor, making a way whereby he may be accepted as a son of God. Through obedience he may be the possessor of love and peace and joy. His faith may unite him in his weakness to Christ, the source of divine strength, and through the merits of Christ he may find the approval of God, because Christ has satisfied the demands of the law, and He imputes His righteousness to the penitent, believing soul....
TMK	96	4	What love, what wonderful love, was displayed by the Son of God. ... Christ takes the sinner from the lowest degradation, and purifies, refines, and ennobles him. By beholding Jesus as He is, the sinner is transformed and elevated to the very summit of dignity, even to a seat with Christ upon his throne....
TMK	96	5	The plan of redemption provides for every emergency and for every want of the soul. If it were deficient in any way, the sinner might find some excuse to plead for neglect of its terms, but the infinite God had a knowledge of every human necessity, and ample provision has been made to supply every need.... What, then, can the sinner say in the great day of final judgment as to why he refused to give attention, the most thorough and earnest, to the salvation proffered him?41
------------------------Source of All Light, April 1
TMK	97	1	Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12.
TMK	97	2	Jesus of Nazareth declared Himself the Light of the world. What think ye of Him? What position does He occupy among the world's religious teachers? Hundreds, yes thousands, of men are recognized as having been great thinkers, men who speculated, who published their theories, and charmed the minds of many with their intellectual and moral attainments. These so-called great men who have left to the world the productions of their life of thought have been ranked as the wisest men the world has ever known. But these cannot compare with Christ. There was a revelation before man's productions were brought forth. His finite knowledge is but the result of beholding the wondrous things that have been shining in our world contained in the teachings of Christ, the greatest of all teachers. Whatever great ideas man may have evolved have come through Christ. Every precious gem of thought every flash of the intellect, is revealed by the Light of the world....
TMK	97	3	Christ makes no apology when He declares, "I am the light of the world." He was, in life and teaching, the gospel, the foundation of all pure doctrine. Just as the sun compares with the lesser lights in the heavens, so did Christ, the Source of light, compare with the teachers of His day. He was before them all, and shining with the brightness of the sun, He diffused His penetrating, gladdening rays throughout the world....
TMK	97	4	Measured by finite minds, men are called learned and great, but with all their boasted wisdom, their science and learning, they cannot thus know God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.... No man who has ever lived, or who ever will live, can claim to be the infallible guide, the supreme revealer of truth. Men may seek to reach the highest standard in learning, but there is One, "a teacher sent from God," who still stands higher than they. No human teacher can equal Him.1
------------------------Christ's Blessings Universal, April 2
TMK	98	1	That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. John 1:9.
TMK	98	2	The grace of Christ is not confined to a few. The message of mercy and forgiveness brought from heaven by Christ was to be heard by all. Our Saviour says, "I am the light of the world." (John 8:12). His blessings are universal, reaching to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples. Christ came to break down every wall of partition ... that every soul, whether Jew or Gentile, might be a free worshiper and have access to God....
TMK	98	3	Through varied channels the heavenly messengers are in active communication with every part of the world, and when man calls upon the Lord with a true and earnest heart, God is represented as bending from His throne above. He listens to every yearning cry, and answers, "Here am I." He raises up the distressed and oppressed. He bestows His blessings on the evil as well as on the good.
TMK	98	4	In every precept that Christ taught, He was expounding His own life. God's holy law was magnified in this living representative. He was the revealer of the infinite mind. He uttered no uncertain sentiments or opinions, but pure and holy truth.... He invites men to take a close view of God in Himself, in the infinite love therein expressed.2
TMK	98	5	To know God is the most wonderful knowledge that men can have. There is much wisdom with worldly men, but with all their wisdom they behold not the beauty and majesty, the justice and wisdom, the goodness and holiness, of the Creator of all worlds. The Lord walks among men by His providences, but His stately steppings are not heard, His presence is not discerned, His hand is not recognized. The work of Christ's disciples is to shine as lights, making manifest to the world the character of God. They are to catch the increasing rays of light from the Word of God and reflect them to men enshrouded in the darkness of misapprehension of God. The servants of Christ must rightly represent the character of God and Christ to men.3
------------------------Equality of Believers in Christ, April 3
TMK	99	1	For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.... There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26-28.
TMK	99	2	The secret of unity is found in the equality of believers in Christ. The reason for all division, discord, and difference is found in separation from Christ. Christ is the center to which all should be attracted; for the nearer we approach the center, the closer we shall come together in feeling, in sympathy, in love, growing into the character and image of Jesus. With God there is no respect of persons.
TMK	99	3	Jesus knew the worthlessness of earthly pomp, and He gave no attention to its display. In His dignity of soul, His elevation of character, His nobility of principle, He was far above the vain fashions of the world.... He desired not the applause of men.... Wealth, position, worldly rank in all its varieties and distinctions of human greatness, were all but so many degrees of littleness to Him who had left the honor and glory of heaven, and who possessed no earthly splendor, indulged in no luxury, and displayed no adornment but humility.
TMK	99	4	The lowly, those bound with poverty, pressed with care, burdened with toil, could find no reason in His life and example which would lead them to think that Jesus was not acquainted with their trials, knew not the pressure of their circumstances, and could not sympathize with them in their want and sorrow. The lowliness of His humble, daily life was in harmony with His lowly birth and circumstances. The Son of the infinite God, the Lord of life and glory, descended in humiliation to the life of the lowliest, that no one might feel himself excluded from His presence. He made Himself accessible to all. He did not select a favored few with whom to associate and ignore all others.4
TMK	99	5	All men are of one family by creation, and all are one through redemption. Christ came to demolish every wall of partition, ... that every soul may have free access to God. His love is so broad, so deep, so full, that it penetrates everywhere.5
------------------------Linked in a Common Brotherhood, April 4
TMK	100	1	But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. Acts 10:35.
TMK	100	2	Jesus taught that the religion of the Bible does not consist in selfish exclusiveness, in personal enjoyment, but in the doing of loving deeds, in bringing the greatest good to others, in genuine goodness.... His life was free from all pride and ostentation.... Although He was the Creator of all worlds He yet testified of Himself while on earth that "the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head" (Matthew 8:20)....
TMK	100	3	Jesus was the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, and yet in His human life He was patient, kind, courteous, benevolent, full of love for little children, and full of pity and compassion for the tempted, the tried, and the oppressed. Of Himself He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set a liberty them that are bruised,...." (Luke 4:18, 19).
TMK	100	4	Coming to earth to fulfill so gracious a mission, He was yet homeless, and often hungry and athirst. The men of His own nation hunted Him with craft and intrigue, with jealousy and hatred....
TMK	100	5	He died a most shameful death, and made a full and complete sacrifice, in order that no one might perish, but that all might come to repentance. He made an atonement for every repenting, believing soul, in order that all might find in Him a sin bearer. If those who believe in Him will but practice His words, which are spirit and life; if they will follow His example, and become a precious light to the world, they will do that for the world which no human philosophy can accomplish. The lessons of Christ lay a foundation for a religion in which there is no caste--where Jew and Gentile, free and bond, are linked in a common brotherhood, equal before God, because they are all branches of the living Vine. They believe in Christ as their personal Saviour.6
------------------------One Plan for All Time, April 5
TMK	101	1	But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. Acts 15:11.
TMK	101	2	God's truth is the same in all ages, although differently developed to meet the wants of His people in various periods. Under the Old Testament dispensation every important work was closely connected with the sanctuary. In the holy of holies the great I AM took up His abode.... There, above the mercy seat, overshadowed by the wings of the cherubim, dwelt the Shekinah of His glory, the perpetual token of His presence, while the breastplate of the high priest, set with precious stones, made known from the sacred precincts of the sanctuary the solemn message of Jehovah to the people. Wonderful dispensation, when the Holy One, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, thus manifested His glory, and revealed His will to the children of men!
TMK	101	3	The typical sacrifices and offerings of that dispensation represented Christ, who was to become the perfect offering for sinful man. Besides these mystic symbols and shadowy types pointing to a Saviour to come, there was a present Saviour to the Israelites. He it was, who, enshrouded in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, led them in their travels, and He it was who gave direct words to Moses to be repeated to the people.... He who was equal with the Father in the creation of man was commander, lawgiver, and guide to His ancient people.7
TMK	101	4	Many look upon the days of Israel as a time of darkness, when men were without Christ, without repentance and faith. Many hold the erroneous doctrine that the religion of the children of Israel consisted in forms and ceremonies in which faith in Christ had no part. But men in that age were saved by Christ as verily as men are saved by Him today.... Christ was shadowed forth in the sacrifices and symbols, which were to last till type should reach antitype in His coming to our world. The Hebrews rejoiced in a Saviour to come. We rejoice in a Saviour who has come, and who is coming again.... Christ's blood avails for us, as it did for ancient Israel.8
------------------------Through Christ to God, April 6
TMK	102	1	God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19.
TMK	102	2	All through the pages of sacred history, where the dealings of God with His chosen people are recorded, there are burning traces of the great I AM.... In all these revelations of the divine presence, the glory of God was manifested through Christ. Not alone at the Saviour's advent, but through all the ages after the fall and the promise of redemption, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." Christ was the foundation and center of the sacrificial system in both the patriarchal and the Jewish age. Since the sin of our first parents, there has been no direct communication between God and man. The Father has given the world into the hands of Christ, that through His mediatorial work He may redeem man, and vindicate the authority and holiness of the law of God. All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ. It was the Son of God that gave to our first parents the promise of redemption. It was He who revealed Himself to the patriarchs. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses understood the gospel. They looked for salvation through man's Substitute and Surety....
TMK	102	3	The solemn service of the sanctuary typified the grand truths that were to be revealed through successive generations. The cloud of incense ascending with the prayers of Israel represents His righteousness that alone can make the sinner's prayer acceptable to God; the bleeding victim on the altar of sacrifice testified of a Redeemer to come; and from the holy of holies the visible token of the divine presence shone forth. Thus through age after age of darkness and apostasy, faith was kept alive in the hearts of men until the time came for the advent of the promised Messiah. Jesus was the light of His people,--the light of the world,--before He came to earth in the form of humanity.... From Him has come every ray of heaven's brightness that has fallen upon the inhabitants of the earth. In the plan of redemption, Christ is the Alpha and the Omega,--the First and the Last.9
------------------------One Family in Christ, April 7
TMK	103	1	For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Ephesians 3:14, 15.
TMK	103	2	Through faith in Christ we become members of the royal family, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. In Christ we are one. As we come in sight of Calvary, and view the royal Sufferer who in man's nature bore the curse of the law in his behalf, all national distinctions, all sectarian differences, are obliterated; all honor of rank, all pride of caste is lost. The light shining from the throne of God upon the cross of Calvary forever puts an end to man-made separations between class and race. Men of every class become members of one family, children of the heavenly King, not through earthly power, but through the love of God who gave Jesus to a life of poverty, affliction, and humiliation, to a death of shame and agony, that He might bring many sons and daughters unto glory.
TMK	103	3	It is not the position, not the finite wisdom, not the qualifications, not the endowments of any person that makes him rank high in the esteem of God. The intellect, the reason, the talents of men, are the gifts of God to be employed to His glory, for the upbuilding of His eternal kingdom. It is the spiritual and moral character that is of value in the sight of Heaven, and that will survive the grave....
TMK	103	4	All who are found worthy to be counted as the members of the family of God in heaven, will recognize one another as sons and daughters of God. They will realize that they all receive their strength and pardon from the same source, even from Jesus Christ who was crucified for their sins. They know that they are to wash their robes of character in His blood, to find acceptance with the Father in His name, if they would be in the bright assembly of the saints, clothed in the white robes of righteousness.10
TMK	103	5	The family is named after the Father. Those who enter the heavenly mansions will have the name of the Father and the name of the city of God written in their foreheads. They will bear the divine superscription and be partakers of the divine nature.11
------------------------The Sum and Substance, April 8
TMK	104	1	And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3.
TMK	104	2	The sum and substance of the whole matter of Christian grace and experience is contained in believing on Christ, in knowing God and His Son whom He hath sent. But here is where many fail, for they lack faith in God. Instead of desiring to be brought into fellowship with Christ in His self-denial and humiliation, they are ever seeking for the supremacy of self.... O if we did but appreciate the love of God, how our hearts would be expanded, our limited sympathies would be enlarged, and break away from the icy barriers of selfishness, and our comprehension would be deeper than it now is....
TMK	104	3	It is because we do not know God, we do not have faith in Christ, that we are not deeply impressed with the humiliation He endured in our behalf, that His abasement does not lead us to the humbling of self, to the exalting of Jesus.... O if you loved Him as He has loved you, you would not shun an experience in the dark chapters of the suffering of the Son of God!
TMK	104	4	In order to be partakers with Christ in His sufferings, we must behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. When we contemplate the humiliation of Christ, beholding His self-denial and self-sacrifice, we are filled with amazement at the manifestation of divine love for guilty man. When for Christ's sake we are called to pass through trials that are of a humiliating nature, if we have the mind of Christ we shall suffer them with meekness, not resenting injury, or resisting evil. We shall manifest the spirit that dwelt in Christ.... We are to understand what the sacrifice, the labors, and the sufferings of Christ are, in order that we may cooperate with Him in working out the great scheme of redemption.12
TMK	104	5	The knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ expressed in character is the very highest education. It is the key that opens the portals of the heavenly city. This knowledge it is God's purpose that all who put on Christ shall possess.13
------------------------Water for the Thirsty, April 9
TMK	105	1	In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. John 7:37.
TMK	105	2	Once a year, at the Feast of Tabernacles, the children of Israel called to mind the time when their fathers dwelt in tents in the wilderness, as they journeyed from Egypt to the land of Canaan. The services of the last day of this feast were of peculiar solemnity, but the greatest interest centered in the ceremony that commemorated the bringing of water from the rock. When in a golden vessel the waters of Siloam were borne by the priests into the temple, and, after being mingled with wine, were poured over the sacrifice on the altar, there was great rejoicing.... On this occasion, above all the confusion of the crowd and the sounds of rejoicing, a voice is heard: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." The attention of the people is arrested. Outwardly all is joy, but the eye of Jesus, beholding the throng with the tenderest compassion, sees the soul parched and thirsting for the waters of life....
TMK	105	3	The gracious invitation, "Come unto me, and drink," comes down through all the ages to our time. And we may stand in a position similar to that of the Jews in the time of Christ, rejoicing because the fountain of truth has been opened to us, while its living waters are not permitted to refresh our thirsty souls. We must drink....
TMK	105	4	As the children of Israel celebrated the deliverance that God wrought for their fathers, and His miraculous preservation of them during their journeyings from Egypt to the Promised Land, so should the people of God at the present time gratefully call to mind the various ways He has devised to bring them out from the world, out from the darkness of error, into the precious light of truth.... We should gratefully regard the old waymarks, and refresh our souls with memories of the loving-kindness of our gracious Benefactor....
TMK	105	5	As we journey onward, what a blessed privilege is ours to accept the invitation of Christ, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink."14
------------------------Bread for the Hungry, April 10
TMK	106	1	Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. John 6:35.
TMK	106	2	Many are starved and strengthless because, instead of eating of the Bread which came down from heaven, they fill their minds with things of minor importance. But if the sinner will partake of the Bread of Life, he will, regenerated and restored, become a living soul. The Bread sent down from heaven will infuse new life into his weakened energies. The Holy Spirit will take of the things of God and show them to him, and if he will receive them his character will be cleansed from all selfishness, and refined and purified for heaven.
TMK	106	3	To the careless, the indifferent, the unconcerned, those standing on the precipice of ruin, Christ says: Open the door of your heart; give Me entrance, and I will make you a child of God. I will transform your weak, sinful nature into the divine image, giving it beauty and perfection....
TMK	106	4	Not only does Christ give us the Bread of Life, but the Water of Life, which He gives, is as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. It possesses life-giving properties and purifying efficacy for it proceeds from the throne of God.
TMK	106	5	Those who will permit God to work in them will grow up unto the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. Every power of the mind and body will be used in the service of God.... He has wonderful blessings to give to those who will receive Him. He is mighty in strength and wonderful in counsel. By the ministration of the Holy Spirit, He seeks to impress His image upon our characters. If we will feed upon Him we shall become new creatures in Christ Jesus. The virtues of a true Christian character, the excellences that are revealed in the character of Christ, will be seen in the life born of the Spirit. Man, with his human nature, will become a partaker of divinity. The power of Christ will work to sanctify every part of the being, diffusing life, activity, and soundness through the whole, and developing spiritual efficiency.15
------------------------Partakers of Christ, April 11
TMK	107	1	I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. John 6:51.
TMK	107	2	Bread cannot benefit us unless we eat it, unless it becomes a part of our being. A knowledge of Christ will avail nothing unless we become like Him in character, bearing the same likeness, and representing His spirit to the world. Christ is of no value to us unless He is formed within, the hope of glory. If we do not know Him as our personal Saviour, a theoretical knowledge will do us no good. Water will not quench thirst unless we drink it. Bread will not satisfy hunger unless we eat it. If we are feeding spiritually upon Christ we are partakers of His nature, we are eating of His flesh....
TMK	107	3	When Christ uttered these words many of His disciples were in doubt as to what He meant, and He explained His words, saying: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63).
TMK	107	4	If Christ is to you as a valuable treasure, if you find in Him your greatest satisfaction, if He is prized and cherished above all others, if you regard everything else as loss that you may win Him, you are eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood and are becoming conformed to His image. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled. The invitation is: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? ... eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness" (Isaiah 55:1, 2)....
TMK	107	5	All heaven rejoices at the redemption of the lost race. Christ rejoiced in the secret consciousness of what He purposed to do for man. He desires to do far more abundantly than we are able to ask or think. The fountain of His inexpressible love is inexhaustible, and it flows toward all those who believe in Him.16
------------------------A Change of Raiment, April 12
TMK	108	1	I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10.
TMK	108	2	"And he shewed me Joshua the high priest"--a representative of the people who keep the commandments of God--"standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him" (Zechariah 3:1).
TMK	108	3	Christ is our High Priest. Satan stands before Him night and day as an accuser of the brethren. With his masterly power he presents every objectionable feature of character as sufficient reason for the withdrawal of Christ's protecting power, thus allowing Satan to discourage and destroy those whom he has caused to sin. But Christ has made atonement for every sinner. Can we by faith hear our Advocate saying, "The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; ... is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" (verse 2).
TMK	108	4	"Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments" (verse 3). Thus sinners appear before the enemy who by his masterly, deceptive power has led them away from allegiance to God. With garments of sin and shame the enemy clothes those who have been overpowered by his temptations, and then he declares that it is unfair for Christ to be their Light, their Defender.... Hear the words of Jesus: ... I will blot out his transgressions. I will cover his sins....
TMK	108	5	The filthy garments are removed; for Christ says, "I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee" (verse 4). The iniquity is transferred to the innocent, the pure, the holy Son of God; and man, all undeserving, stands before the Lord cleansed from all unrighteousness, and clothed with the imputed righteousness of Christ. Oh, what a change of raiment is this!17
TMK	108	6	He takes every sin away, and puts on us His robe of righteousness woven in the loom of heaven.... We are adopted into the heavenly family, and we shall inherit the mansions prepared for those who are obedient.18
------------------------Christ Our Peace and Righteousness, April 13
TMK	109	1	Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. Acts 5:31.
TMK	109	2	He who has the spotless robe of righteousness, woven in the loom of heaven, in which is not a thread that sinful humanity can claim, is at the right hand of God, to clothe His believing children in the perfect garment of His righteousness. Those who are saved in the kingdom of God will have nothing of which to boast in themselves; the praise and the glory will all flow back to God....
TMK	109	3	It is not now the work of the sinner to make peace with God, but to accept Christ as his peace and righteousness. Thus man becomes one with Christ and one with God. There is no way by which the heart may be made holy, save through faith in Christ. Yet many think that repentance is a kind of preparation which men must originate themselves before they can come to Christ. They must take steps themselves in order to find Christ a mediator in their behalf. It is true that there must be repentance before there is pardon, but the sinner must come to Christ before he can find repentance. It is the virtue of Christ that strengthens and enlightens the soul, so that repentance may be godly and acceptable.... Repentance is as certainly a gift of Jesus Christ as is forgiveness of sins. Repentance cannot be experienced without Christ, for it is the repentance of which He is the author that is the ground upon which we may apply for pardon. It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that men are led to repentance. It is from Christ that the grace of contrition comes, as well as the gift of pardon, and repentance as well as forgiveness of sins is procured only through the atoning blood of Christ. Those whom God pardons He first makes penitent.19
TMK	109	4	When the sinner accepts Christ and lives in Him, Jesus takes his sins and weaknesses and then grafts the repentant soul into Himself, so that he sustains the relation to Christ that the branch does to the vine. We have nothing, we are nothing, unless we receive virtue from Jesus Christ.20
------------------------Justified by Faith, April 14
TMK	110	1	Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1, 2.
TMK	110	2	When God pardons the sinner, remits the punishment he deserves, and treats him as though he had not sinned, He receives him into divine favor, and justifies him through the merits of Christ's righteousness. The sinner can be justified only through faith in the atonement made through God's dear Son, who became a sacrifice for the sins of the guilty world. No one can be justified by any works of his own. He can be delivered from the guilt of sin, from the condemnation of the law, from the penalty of transgression, only by virtue of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ. Faith is the only condition upon which justification can be obtained, and faith includes not only belief but trust....
TMK	110	3	The sinner is represented as a lost sheep, and a lost sheep never returns to the fold unless he is sought after and brought back to the fold by the shepherd. No man of himself can repent, and make himself worthy of the blessing of justification. The Lord Jesus is constantly seeking to impress the sinner's mind and attract him to behold Himself, the Lamb of God.... We cannot take a step toward spiritual life save as Jesus draws and strengthens the soul, and leads us to experience that repentance which needeth not to be repented of....
TMK	110	4	The faith that is unto salvation is not a casual faith, it is not the mere consent of the intellect, it is belief rooted in the heart, that embraces Christ as a personal Saviour.... When the soul lays hold upon Christ as the only hope of salvation, then genuine faith is manifested. This faith leads its possessor to place all the affections of the soul upon Christ; his understanding is under the control of the Holy Spirit, and his character is molded after the divine likeness. His faith is not a dead faith, but a faith that works by love, and leads him to behold the beauty of Christ, and to become assimilated to the divine character.21
------------------------Our Perfect Pattern, April 15
TMK	111	1	He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Matthew 16:15, 16.
TMK	111	2	To human eyes Christ was only a man, yet He was a perfect man. In His humanity He was the impersonation of the divine character. God embodied His own attributes in His Son--His power, His wisdom, His goodness, His purity, His truthfulness, His spirituality, and His benevolence. In Him, though human, all perfection of character, all divine excellence, dwelt. And to the request of His disciple, "Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us," He could reply, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?" "I and my Father are one" (John 14:8, 9; 10:30)....
TMK	111	3	The strong denunciation of the Pharisees against Jesus was, "Thou, being a man, makest thyself God" (John 10:33), and for this reason they sought to stone Him. Christ did not apologize for this supposed assumption on His part. He did not say to His accusers, "You misunderstand me; I am not God." He was manifesting God in humanity. Yet He was the humblest of all the prophets, and He exemplified in His life the truth that the more perfect the character of human beings, the more simple and humble they will be. He has given to men a pattern of what they may be in their humanity, through becoming partakers of the divine nature....
TMK	111	4	The centuries that have passed since Christ was among men have not lessened the confidence of our testimony that Christ is all that He claimed to be. Today the question may be repeated, "What think ye of Christ?" (Matthew 22:42), and without a moment's hesitation the answer may be given, "He is the light of the world, the greatest religious thinker and teacher the world has ever known." All who hear His voice today, all who study the principles set forth in His teaching, must say, in truthfulness, as did the Jews of His day, "Never man spake like this man." "Is not this the Christ?" (John 7:46; 4:29).22
------------------------An All-sufficient Saviour, April 16
TMK	112	1	Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. Isaiah 45:22.
TMK	112	2	Many are making laborious work of walking in the narrow way of holiness. To many the peace and rest of this blessed way seems no nearer today than it did years in the past. They look afar off for that which is nigh; they make intricate that which Jesus made very plain. He is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). The plan of salvation has been plainly revealed in the Word of God, but the wisdom of the world has been sought too much, and the wisdom of Christ's righteousness too little. And souls that might have rested in the love of Jesus have been doubting and troubled about many things....
TMK	112	3	We are wounded, polluted with sin. What shall we do to be healed from its leprosy? ... In the wilderness, when the Lord permitted poisonous serpents to sting the rebellious Israelites, Moses was directed to lift up a brazen serpent and bid all the wounded look to it and live. But many saw no help in this Heaven-appointed remedy....
TMK	112	4	If you are the conscious of your wants, do not devote all your powers to representing them and mourning over them, but look and live. Jesus is our only Saviour, and notwithstanding millions who need to be healed will reject His offered mercy, not one who trusts in His merits will be left to perish.... Satan suggests that you are helpless and cannot bless yourself. It is true; you are helpless. But lift up Jesus before him: "I have a Saviour. In Him I trust, and He will never suffer me to be confounded. In His name I triumph. He is my righteousness, and my crown of rejoicing." ...
TMK	112	5	It may seem to you that you are sinful and undone, but it is just on this account that you need a Saviour. If you have sins to confess, lose no time. These moments are golden.... Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled, for Jesus has promised it. Precious Saviour! His arms are open to receive us, and His great heart of love is waiting to bless us.23
------------------------Profession Not Enough, April 17
TMK	113	1	Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 7:21.
TMK	113	2	A profession of religion is of no value unless good works testify to the sincerity and reality of its claim.... Those who make great professions and do not bear the fruits of godliness make it manifest that they are not abiding in the True Vine, for "by their fruits ye shall know them." They are dead branches....
TMK	113	3	Conversion has become a matter of perplexity to many because of the confusing doctrines that are taught in regard to what is religion. Coming to Christ means something more than belonging to the church. There are many whose names are registered on the leaves of the church record but whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life. Coming to Christ does not require a severe mental effort and agony. It is simply accepting the terms of salvation that God has made plain in His Word.24
TMK	113	4	God desires the willing service of our hearts. He has endowed us with reasoning faculties, with talents of ability, and with means and influence, to be exercised for the good of mankind, that we may manifest His spirit before the world. Precious opportunities and privileges are placed within our reach, and if we neglect them we rob others, we defraud our own souls, and dishonor our Maker. We shall not want to meet these slighted opportunities and neglected privileges in the day of judgment. Our eternal interests for the future depend on the present diligent performance of duty in improving the talents that God has given into our trust for the salvation of souls....
TMK	113	5	True religion works out the principles of God's law--love to God and love to man. Those who will be accepted of Heaven will have put their talents out to the exchangers for the glory of God and the good of humanity. They will have become laborers together with God, and will receive the approval of the Master when He comes in the clouds of heaven. Religion is something more than a profession, something deeper than an impulsive feeling. It is doing the will of God.25
------------------------The Righteousness That God Requires, April 18
TMK	114	1	For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20.
TMK	114	2	The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was of a selfish character, consisting of external forms. The righteousness which God requires is internal as well as external. The heart must be purified, else Christ cannot be enthroned there. The life must be conformed to the will of God.26
TMK	114	3	External forms cannot take the place of inward piety. The Jewish teachers exalted themselves as righteous; they called all those who differed from them accursed, and closed the gates of heaven to them, declaring that those who had not learned in their schools, were not righteous. But with all their criticisms and exactions, with all their forms and ceremonies, they were an offense to God. They looked down upon and despised the very ones precious in the sight of the Lord....
TMK	114	4	Human devices, human plans, and human counsels will be without power. Only in Christ Jesus will the church near the period of Christ's coming be able to stand. She is required of her Redeemer to advance in piety, to have increasing zeal, understanding better as she nears the end that her own "high calling" is "of God in Christ Jesus."
TMK	114	5	There are glorious truths to come before the people of God. Privileges and duties which they do not even suspect to be in the Bible will be laid open before the followers of Christ. As they follow on in the path of humble obedience, doing God's will, they will know more and more of the oracles of God, and be established in right doctrines.
TMK	114	6	The baptism of the Holy Spirit will dispel human imaginings, will break down self-erected barriers, and will cause to cease the feeling that "I am holier than thou." There will be a humble spirit with all, more faith and love; self will not be exalted.... Christ's spirit, Christ's example, will be exemplified in His people. We shall follow more closely the ways and works of Jesus.... The love of Jesus will pervade our hearts.27
------------------------A Faith That Purifies the Life, April 19
TMK	115	1	But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:11, 12.
TMK	115	2	Many teach that all that is necessary to salvation is to believe in Jesus, but what saith the word of truth?--"Faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). We are to "fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life," take up the cross, deny self, war against the flesh, and follow daily in the footsteps of the Redeemer....
TMK	115	3	It is a fatal mistake to think that there is nothing for you to do in obtaining salvation. You are to cooperate with the agencies of heaven. ... There is a cross to be lifted in the pathway, a wall to be scaled before you enter the eternal city, a ladder to be climbed before the gate of pearl is reached, and as you realize your inability and weakness and cry for help, a divine voice will come to you from the battlements of heaven saying, "Take hold of my strength" (Isaiah 27:5)....
TMK	115	4	The controversy that was waged between Christ and Satan is renewed over every soul that leaves the black banner of the prince of darkness to march under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. The evil one will present the most subtle allurements to draw those away from their allegiance who would be true to Heaven, but we must yield all the powers of our being into the service of God, and then we shall be kept from falling into the snares of the enemy....
TMK	115	5	Any course of action that weakens your physical or mental power unfits you for the service of your Creator. We are to love God with all our hearts, and if we have an eye single to His glory we shall eat, drink, and clothe ourselves with reference to His divine will. Every one who has a realizing sense of what it means to be a Christian will purify himself from everything that weakens and defiles. All the habits of his life will be brought into harmony with the requirements of the Word of truth, and he will not only believe, but will work out his own salvation with fear and trembling, while submitting to the molding of the Holy Spirit.28
------------------------Simple Faith and Unquestioning Obedience, April 20
TMK	116	1	And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. Matthew 19:29.
TMK	116	2	Many are strongly convinced of the truth, but either husband or wife prevents their stepping out. How can one who is in fellowship with Christ's sufferings refuse to obey His will and do His work? ... It is by following in the path of obedience in simple faith that the character attains perfection....
TMK	116	3	Christ has promised us sufficient power to reach this high standard. He says, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive" (John 14:13-17).
TMK	116	4	Consider this statement a moment. Why "cannot" the world receive the truth? "Because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him" (verse 17). The world is leagued against the truth, because it does not desire to obey the truth. Shall I, who perceive the truth, close my eyes and heart to its saving power because the world chooses darkness rather than light? Shall I bind myself up with the bundles of tares because my neighbors refuse to be bound up with the wheat? Shall I refuse light, the evidence of truth which leads to obedience, because my relatives and friends choose to follow in the paths of disobedience which lead away from God? Shall I close my mind against the knowledge of truth because my neighbors and friends will not open their understanding to discern the truth as it is in Jesus? Shall I refuse to grow in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ because my neighbors consent to remain dwarfs? ...
TMK	116	5	We cannot overestimate the value of simple faith and unquestioning obedience.29
------------------------The Measure of Character, April 21
TMK	117	1	Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
TMK	117	2	Through His inspired apostle Christ has presented to us the measure of the character that is imbued with the love of Christ. We are to bear the marks of Christ, we are to have His likeness. This example is given us that we may know the possibilities, the heights we may reach in and through Christ. The standard He presents is perfection in Him, and through His merits we may attain to it. We come short because we are content to look at earthly things rather than at heavenly. It is by beholding Christ that we are changed from glory to glory. The eye that views common things needs to be elevated....
TMK	117	3	No man has yet measured the nature of God or the character of His Son. We must have a knowledge of God by living experience.30
TMK	117	4	This life is our time of probation. We are placed under the discipline and government of God to form characters and acquire habits for the higher life.... We shall be subject to heavy trials, opposition, bereavement, affliction, but we know that Jesus passed through all these. These experiences are valuable to us; the advantages are not by any means confined to this short life; they reach into eternal ages.... All the scenes of this life in which we must act a part are to be carefully studied, for they are a part of our education. We should bring solid timbers into our character building, for we are working both for this life and eternal life. And as we near the close of this earth's history we advance more and more rapidly in Christian growth, or we retrograde just as decidedly....
TMK	117	5	Mercy and truth have met together in Christ, and righteousness and peace have embraced each other. It is when you are looking to His throne, offering up your penitence and praise and thanksgiving to God, that you perfect Christian character, and represent Christ to the world. You abide in Christ and Christ abides in you.31
------------------------Children, Not Slaves, April 22
TMK	118	1	Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Hebrews 12:28.
TMK	118	2	There are many who profess to be Christ's followers and yet are not doers of His Word. They do not relish this Word because it presents service which is not agreeable to them. They do not relish the wholesome reproofs and close, earnest appeals. They do not love righteousness, but are mastered and tyrannized over by their own erratic, human impulses.
TMK	118	3	It makes every difference how we do service for God. The boy who drudges through his lessons because he must learn will never become a real student. The man who claims to keep the commandments of God because he thinks he must do it will never enter into the enjoyment of obedience.
TMK	118	4	The essence and flavor of all obedience is the outworking of a principle within--the love of righteousness, the love of the law of God. The essence of all righteousness is loyalty to our Redeemer, doing right because it is right. When the Word of God is a burden because it cuts directly across human inclinations, then the religious life is not a Christian life, but a tug and a strain, an enforced obedience. All the purity and godliness of religion are set aside.
TMK	118	5	But adoption into the family of God makes us children, not slaves. When the love of Christ enters the heart we strive to imitate the character of Christ.... The more we study the life of Christ with a heart to learn, the more Christlike we become. Into the heart of every true doer of the Word the Holy Spirit infuses clear understanding. The more we crucify selfish practices by imparting our blessings to others and by exercising our God-given ability, the more the heavenly graces will be strengthened and increased in us. We will grow in spirituality, in patience, in fortitude, in meekness, in gentleness.... A train of cars is not merely attached to the engine; they follow on the same track as the engine. Whom are we following?32
------------------------The Loveliness of Christian Character, April 23
TMK	119	1	In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people. Isaiah 28:5.
TMK	119	2	Many seem to think only of the outward adorning, and they make it evident that they are not in Christ by the apparel in which they deck themselves.33
TMK	119	3	We are to cultivate the loveliness of Christian character, and to seek the inward adorning.... The religion of Christ never degrades the receiver; it ennobles and elevates. Upon certain conditions we are assured that we may become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. Is not this exaltation something worth seeking for? Through faith in Christ and obedience to the requirements of His law we are offered a life that shall run parallel with the life of God. And in that immortal life there shall be no sorrow, no sighing, no pain, no sin, no death. O that we might be more heavenly-minded and bring more of heaven into our life and conversation!
TMK	119	4	But with all the rich promises of God, how many seem wholly absorbed in the things of earth. They are all taken up with the thought of what shall we eat, what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed? God would not have us center our minds upon the things of this world. We are not to seek for our selfish gratification, but to center the mind upon Christ. Are you separating yourself from everything that will separate you from God? If you are in close connection with God you will talk of Him, you will have an abundance in your heart of the things of heaven....
TMK	119	5	The Lord is waiting to do great things for His children who trust in Him. Do we expect to dwell with Christ in the eternal world? Then we must dwell with Him here, that He may help us in every time of trial and temptation and make us ready for His coming in the clouds of heaven.... The beauty and grace of Christ must be woven into our characters. We cannot keep Christ so apart from our lives as we do, and yet be fitted for His companionship in heaven. He is to be the all in all of heaven, and must be our all in all upon earth.34
------------------------The Rest Christ Offers, April 24
TMK	120	1	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28.
TMK	120	2	There is a condition to the rest and peace here offered us by Christ. It is that of yoking up with Him. All who will accept the condition will find that the yoke of Christ will help them to bear every burden needful for them to carry. Without Christ at our side to bear the heaviest part of the load, we must indeed say that it is heavy. But yoked with Him to our car of duty, the burdens of life may all be lightly carried. And just in proportion as man acts in willing obedience to the requirements of God will come rest of spirit....
TMK	120	3	Meekness and humility will characterize all who are obedient to the law of God, all who will wear the yoke of Christ with submission. These graces will bring the desirable result of peace in the service of God....
TMK	120	4	God knows that if we were left to follow our own inclinations, to go just where our will would lead us, we would fall into Satan's lines and become possessors of his attributes. Therefore the law of God confines us to the will of One who is high and noble and elevating. He desires that we shall patiently and wisely take up the duties of service.... A sullen submission to the will of the Father will develop the character of a rebel. The service is looked upon by such a one in the light of drudgery. It is not rendered cheerfully and in the love of God. It is a mere mechanical performance.... Such service brings no peace or quietude to the soul.
TMK	120	5	God presents to the world two classes. For the one--the wicked--He says, "There is no peace" (Isaiah 48:22). Of the other, "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them" (Psalm 119:165)....
TMK	120	6	The Lord calls His yoke easy and His burden light. Yet that yoke will not give us a life of ease and freedom and selfish indulgence. The life of Christ was one of self-denial and self-sacrifice at every step. And His true follower, with consistent, Christlike tenderness and love, will follow in the footsteps of his Master.35
------------------------Under Christ's Yoke, April 25
TMK	121	1	Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:29, 30.
TMK	121	2	The tempter often whispers that the Christian life is one of exaction, of rigorous duties, that it is hard to be on the watch continually, and there is no need of being so particular. It was thus that he deceived and overthrew Eve in Eden, telling her that God's commands were arbitrary and unjust.... Satan's object is the same now as then. He desires to deceive and ruin us. We should study the life of Christ and seek to cherish His spirit and copy His example, and the more we become like Him, the more clearly shall we discern the temptation of Satan, and the more successfully resist his power....
TMK	121	3	True happiness is to be found, not in self-indulgence and self-pleasing, but in learning of Christ, taking His yoke, and bearing His burden. Those who trust to their own wisdom and follow their own ways, go complaining at every step, because the burden which selfishness binds upon them is so heavy and its yoke so galling. They might change all this if they would but come to Jesus and by His grace put off the yoke that links them to Satan, ... take the burden which Christ gives them, and let His yoke bind them to Him in willing, happy service.
TMK	121	4	Jesus loves the young, and He longs to have them possess that peace which He alone can impart.... If we have become the disciples of Christ we shall be learning of Him--every day learning how to overcome some unlovely trait of character, every day copying His example and coming a little nearer the Pattern. If we are ever to inherit those mansions that He has gone to prepare for us we must here be forming such characters as the dwellers there are to possess.36
TMK	121	5	The requirements of God are made in wisdom and goodness. In obeying them, the mind enlarges, the character improves, and the soul finds a peace and rest that the world can neither give nor take away. When the heart is fully surrendered to Jesus, His ways will be found to be ways of pleasantness and peace.37
------------------------The Grace of Humility, April 26
TMK	122	1	Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah 57:15.
TMK	122	2	The grace of humility should be cherished by every one who names the name of Christ, for self-exaltation can find no place in the work of God. Those who would cooperate with the Lord of hosts must daily crucify self, placing worldly ambition in the background. They must be long-suffering and kind, full of mercy and tenderness to those around them....
TMK	122	3	True humility is the evidence that we behold God and that we are in union with Jesus Christ. Unless we are meek and lowly we cannot claim that we have any true conception of the character of God. Men may think that they are serving God faithfully; their talents, learning, eloquence, or zeal may dazzle the eye, delight the fancy, and awaken the admiration of those who cannot see beneath the surface, but unless these qualifications are humbly consecrated to God, ... they are regarded by God as unprofitable servants.38
TMK	122	4	God has been waiting long for His followers to manifest true humility that He may impart rich blessings to them. Those who offer Him the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit will be hidden in the cleft of the rock and will behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. As Jesus, the Sin Bearer, the all-sufficient Sacrifice, is seen more distinctly, their lips are tuned to the loftiest praise. The more they see of the character of Christ the more humble they become, and the lower their estimate of themselves.... Self is lost sight of in their consciousness of their own unworthiness and of God's wonderful glory....
TMK	122	5	Those who value a holy and happy walk with God, who prize the strength that a knowledge of Him brings; will leave nothing undone if only they may behold God. They will cherish the spirit that trembles at His word, and in every place and under every circumstance they will pray that they may be allowed to see His glory.39
------------------------A Heavenly Partnership, April 27
TMK	123	1	Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. 1 Peter 5:6.
TMK	123	2	All heaven enters into copartnership with those who come to Christ for eternal life, submitting themselves to Him as those who have made a surrender of all to God. God requires His servants to stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel, striving in His power to keep the principles of truth pure and uncorrupted. They must never step aside from the path of self-denial and humility which every true Christian must travel. As they thus cooperate with God, Christ is formed within, "the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). Clad in His meekness and lowliness they find their highest joy in doing His service. Earthly ambition gives way to a desire to serve the Master.
TMK	123	3	"Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off." "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psalm 138:6; 51:17). Those who reveal the meek and lowly spirit of Christ are tenderly regarded by God. Nothing is unnoticed by Him. He marks their self-denial, their effort to uplift Christ before the world. Though these humble workers may be looked upon with scorn by the world, they are of great value in the sight of God. Not only the wise, the great, the beneficent, will gain a passport into the heavenly courts--not only the busy worker, full of zeal and restless activity. No; the pure in heart, in whose lips there is found no guile; the poor in spirit, who are actuated by the Spirit of an abiding Christ; the peacemaker, whose highest ambition is to do God's will--these will gain an abundant entrance. They are God's jewels, and will be among that number of whom John writes, "I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, ... saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (Revelation 19:6). They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them" (Revelation 7:15).40
------------------------Light for the Humble, April 28
TMK	124	1	The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way. Psalm 25:9.
TMK	124	2	Anything like pride in learning and dependence upon scientific knowledge which you place between your soul and the word of the Bible will most effectually close the door of your heart to the sweet, humble religion of the meek and lowly Jesus....
TMK	124	3	It is the humble in heart that receive the enlightenment of Heaven that is more precious than the boasted wisdom of the world.... He ... becomes spiritual, and discerns spiritual things. The wisdom of God enlightens his mind, and he beholds wondrous things out of God's law. This salvation which offers pardon to the transgressor, presents to him the righteousness that will bear the scrutiny of the Omniscient One, gives victory over the powerful enemy of God and man, provides eternal life and joy for its receiver....
TMK	124	4	It is the completeness of salvation that gives it its greatness. No man can measure or understand it by worldly wisdom. It may be contemplated with the most profound and concentrated study, but the mind loses itself in the untraceable majesty of its Author. But the soul united with God in meditation of His unfathomable riches is expanded, and becomes more capable of comprehending to a greater depth and height the glories of the plan of salvation.... His abilities develop and strengthen to comprehend and to do with increased skill and wisdom the requirements of God. The mind devoted unreservedly to God, under the guidance of the divine Spirit develops generally and harmoniously. The weak, vacillating character becomes changed through the power of God to one of strength and steadfastness. Continual devotion and piety establish so close a relation between Jesus and His disciple that the Christian becomes like Him in mind and character. After association with the Son of God the humble follower of Christ is found to be a person of sound principle, clear perception, and reliable judgment. He has a connection with God, the Source of light and understanding.41
------------------------The Merits of Jesus' Blood, April 29
TMK	125	1	My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. Psalm 34:2.
TMK	125	2	He realizes that an infinite sacrifice has been made for him, and that his life is of inestimable value through the merits of Jesus' blood, intercession, and righteousness. But while he comprehends the exalted privileges of the sons of God, his soul is filled with humility. There is no boasting of holiness from the lips of those who walk in the shadow of Calvary's cross. They feel that it was their sin which caused the agony that broke the heart of the Son of God.... Those who live nearest to Jesus feel most deeply their own unworthiness, and their only hope is in the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour. Like Moses, they have had a view of the awful majesty of holiness and they see their own insufficiency in contrast with the purity and exalted loveliness of Jesus.
TMK	125	3	Is there not occasion for humility? Is there not need of feeling our utter dependence upon Christ every day and hour? ... He took on Him our nature, and became sin for us, that we might have "remission of sins that are past" (Romans 3:25), and through His divine strength and grace might fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. Whoever takes the position that it makes no difference whether or not we keep the commandments of God is not acquainted with Christ. Jesus says, "I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10), and those who follow Jesus will do as He has done....
TMK	125	4	Satan will seek to entice you to enter into the paths of sin, promising that some wonderful good will result from the transgression of God's law, but he is a deceiver. He would only work your ruin.... Christ came to break the rule of the evil one.... Man was so weakened through transgression that he did not possess sufficient moral power to turn from the service of Satan to the service of the only true God; but Jesus, the Prince of life, to whom is committed "all power in heaven and earth," will impart to every soul who desires salvation the strength necessary to overcome the enemy of all righteousness.42
------------------------To God Be the Glory, April 30
TMK	126	1	Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23, 24.
TMK	126	2	This is the most precious reproof and encouragement, the most important lesson for every soul that is trying to serve God. Here is expressed in plain words that in which the Lord delights. All who understand and know God will know Him as One that exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness. If they walk humbly with God they will be enabled to keep the way of the Lord, to do His will in all kindness, compassion, mercy, tenderness, and love, for God has said, "In these things I delight." Then how careful should we be in regard to the fruit of the lips, that we dishonor not God by dealing unkindly with the purchase of His blood. If we express the character of God, we shall be Christian gentlemen and gentlewomen....
TMK	126	3	Our prosperity as a people depends wholly upon our dependence upon God for our sufficiency, grace, and perfection of character in and through our Saviour, who has paid the ransom for us with His own glorious merits.43
TMK	126	4	Those who know Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour have the privilege of being educated and trained in a higher school than that of men, and of being tutored under higher wisdom than that of finite beings. They may come under the tutorship of the greatest Teacher the world ever knew, and partake of the same knowledge that He gave to Daniel. Those who are humble in heart, those who feel their need of higher wisdom and do not rely upon their own finite judgment, but search earnestly to know the will of God, may draw from the Source of all knowledge, and obtain grace, prudence, discretion, and judgment. They will realize the fulfillment of the assurance of God's Word: "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple" (Psalm 119:130).44
------------------------"The Spot of His Children", May 1
TMK	127	1	Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144:15.
TMK	127	2	I will thank the Lord my God for His great goodness and mercy and love expressed to the human family. I am impressed we should cultivate cheerfulness; and what does this do? It reveals to the world the peace and comfort that it is our privilege to claim. It is not honoring our Lord and Saviour to carry a shade of gloom. Many do this....
TMK	127	3	"Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass; because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children" (Deuteronomy 32:1-5).
TMK	127	4	"Not the spot of his children." They do not possess the character of the sons and daughters of God; do not in spirit, in words, in actions, appear as the people who love God and keep His commandments. "Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?" "For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye" (verses 6, 9, 10).
TMK	127	5	The tenderness of God to His people, His unceasing care for them, the riches of the wisdom of the methods He has taken to lead them to Himself, demand our gratitude offerings expressed in most earnest devotion to serve Him with all humility of mind and contrition of soul. The Lord is gracious, and He would have His people represent His loving-kindness by acknowledgment in cheerful thanksgiving to God. All who appreciate the favors of God will be a happy people.1
------------------------Live Up to Your Profession, May 2
TMK	128	1	I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Ephesians 4:1.
TMK	128	2	Christ demands that those who take His name honor that name in spirit and word and deportment. In thought, word, and deed they are to be Christlike. Those who claim to be Christians and yet do not reveal in the life the virtues of Christ's character bear witness against the Saviour. They dishonor Him, putting Him to open shame....
TMK	128	3	The revelation of His grace in humanity is an evidence of the power of the truth. Those who profess to follow Christ and yet do not reveal this grace ... must know that their profession is a fraud.... A professing Christian cannot descend to the world's level without dishonoring the religion of Christ and making himself disloyal. Such a one is offensive to God. The Lord cannot own him as His disciple.
TMK	128	4	The Christian is to stand on vantage ground as a laborer together with God. But he is never to exalt himself. He is firmly to refuse the inducements presented by those who have no love for truth and righteousness, but his refusal is to be made in a Christlike spirit, not Pharisaically, with an attitude which says, "Stand aside; I am holier than thou." He must show that he cannot enter into sin because he is pledged by a most holy profession to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. By precept and example he is to discountenance all departure from Bible principles. But at the same time, by the manifestation of Christlike love, he is to make the religion of Christ attractive. He is to allow no bigotry to be seen in his life, but is to reveal tender compassion for those who have wandered away from Christ....
TMK	128	5	Walk and work in the spirit of Christ. Stand ever on guard, for temptations will come, and the Lord's disciples are to be as true as steel to principle....
TMK	128	6	Be sure to reveal the character of Christ. The Lord will be your efficiency, your strength, and your exceeding great reward if you will trust constantly in Him.2
------------------------An Individual Work, May 3
TMK	129	1	As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6, 7.
TMK	129	2	If ever there was a time when those who claim to be Christians should be all that the name comprehends, it is now. Are we following Christ in very reality? ... This is an individual work. We are to look earnestly to our own standing and accountability....
TMK	129	3	Are those who know the truth for this time anchored in Bible doctrines? Are our weapons, "Thus saith the Lord," "It is written"? Is our anchor cast within the vail? Are we individually rooted and grounded in gospel truth so that we may be established, strengthened, and settled in the faith? Are we, as those who have the knowledge of the mysteries of God, those to whom God has committed the living oracles, loyal and true to our stewardship? Those who are truly converted will reveal, as missionaries for God, what the truth means to them in its transforming efficiency and sanctifying power.
TMK	129	4	If we are weighted with the treasures of eternal truth we shall proclaim to a world perishing in sin what it signifies to have the sanctifying, redeeming love of Christ in the soul. If we are verily and truly united in Christ, it is because truth has taken possession of the soul temple....
TMK	129	5	The heart that has opened its doors to Jesus will love pure, cleansing, transforming truth, and will zealously contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. Let no man stop short of entire, unreserved surrender to God. Begin the work in the heart. Look away from the course of action pursued by others to Christ. You have a soul to save or a soul to lose, and this is too important a question to be regarded indifferently.
TMK	129	6	One of the most earnest prayers in the Inspired Word is, "Create in me a clean heart, O God" (Psalm 51:10); and from One who loved us and gave His life for us comes the great and important assurance, "A new heart also will I give you" (Ezekiel 36:26).3
------------------------Perfection Through Christ's Merits, May 4
TMK	130	1	Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
TMK	130	2	Christ presents before us the highest perfection of Christian character, which throughout our lifetime we should aim to reach.... Concerning this perfection Paul writes: "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after.... I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12-15)....
TMK	130	3	How can we reach the perfection specified by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ--our Great Teacher? Can we meet His requirement and attain to so lofty a standard? We can, else Christ would not have enjoined us to do so. He is our righteousness. In His humanity He has gone before us and wrought out for us perfection of character. We are to have the faith in Him that works by love and purifies the soul. Perfection of character is based upon that which Christ is to us. If we have constant dependence on the merits of our Saviour, and walk in His footsteps, we shall be like Him, pure and undefiled.
TMK	130	4	Our Saviour does not require impossibilities of any soul. He expects nothing of His disciples that He is not willing to give them grace and strength to perform. He would not call upon them to be perfect if He had not at His command every perfection of grace to bestow on the ones upon whom He would confer so high and holy a privilege. He has assured us that He is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him than parents are to give good gifts to their children.
TMK	130	5	Our work is to strive to attain in our sphere of action the perfection that Christ in His life on the earth attained in every phase of character. He is our example. In all things we are to strive to honor God in character. In falling day by day so far short of the divine requirements, we are endangering our soul's salvation. We need to understand and appreciate the privilege with which Christ invests us, and to show our determination to reach the highest standard. We are to be wholly dependent on the power that He has promised to give us.4
------------------------The Science of Holiness, May 5
TMK	131	1	To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. 1 Thessalonians 3:13.
TMK	131	2	The ethics inculcated by the gospel acknowledge no standard but the perfection of God's mind, God's will. God requires from His creatures conformity to His will. Imperfection of character is sin, and sin is the transgression of the law. All righteous attributes of character dwell in God as a perfect, harmonious whole. Every one who receives Christ as his personal Saviour is privileged to possess these attributes. This is the science of holiness....
TMK	131	3	The glory of God is His character.... This character was revealed in the life of Christ. That He might by His own example condemn sin in the flesh, He took upon Himself the likeness of sinful flesh. Constantly He beheld the character of God; constantly He revealed this character to the world. Christ desires His followers to reveal in their lives this same character.5
TMK	131	4	Before the world, God is developing us as living witnesses to what men and women may become through the grace of Christ. We are enjoined to strive for perfection of character. The divine Teacher says, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). Would Christ tantalize us by requiring of us an impossibility? Never, never! What an honor He confers upon us in urging us to be holy in our sphere, as the Father is holy in His sphere! He can enable us to do this, for He declares, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18). This unlimited power it is our privilege to claim....
TMK	131	5	God works with those who properly represent His character. Through them His will is done on earth as it is done in heaven....
TMK	131	6	It is our lifework to be reaching forward to the perfection of Christian character, striving constantly for conformity to God's will. Day by day we are to press upward, ever upward, until of us it can be said, "Ye are complete in him" (Colossians 2:10).6
------------------------Abiding in Christ, May 6
TMK	132	1	Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John 15:4.
TMK	132	2	"Abide in me" are words of great significance. Abiding in Christ means a living, earnest, refreshing faith that works by love and purifies the soul. It means a constant receiving of the spirit of Christ, a life of unreserved surrender to His service. Where this union exists, good works will appear. The life of the vine will manifest itself in fragrant fruit on the branches. The continual supply of the grace of Christ will bless you and make you a blessing, till you can say with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).
TMK	132	3	The sacred union with Christ will unite the brethren in the most endearing bonds of Christian fellowship. Their hearts will be touched with divine compassion one for another.... Coldness, variance, strife, are entirely out of place among the disciples of Christ. They have accepted the one faith. They have joined to serve the one Lord, to endure in the same warfare, to strive for the same object, and to triumph in the same cause. They have been bought with the same precious blood, and have gone forth to preach the same message of salvation....
TMK	132	4	Those who are constantly drawing strength from Christ will possess His spirit. They will not be careless in word or deportment. An abiding sense of how much their salvation has cost in the sacrifice of the beloved Son of God will rest upon their souls. Like a fresh and vivid transaction the scenes of Calvary will present themselves to their minds and their hearts will be subdued and made tender by this wonderful manifestation of the love of Christ to them. They will look upon others as the purchase of His precious blood, and those who are united with Him will seem noble and elevated and sacred because of this connection. The death of Christ on Calvary should lead us to estimate souls as He did. His love has magnified the value of every man, woman, and child.7
------------------------Genuine Fruit Bearing, May 7
TMK	133	1	I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5.
TMK	133	2	Said Christ, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman." "I am the vine, ye are the branches." "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit" (John 15:1, 5, 2). That unpruned branch may have looked good to human eyes but the eye of One who never slumbers nor sleeps leaves it not alone to die of discouragement. The Husbandman pruneth it, that it may produce fruit unto life eternal....
TMK	133	3	Whenever professed Christians are constantly flaunting their leaves of profession before the eyes of others, there is no real fruit to the glory of God. Their religious life and experience seem satisfactory to themselves. They have exaggerated emotions, effusive expressions of fervor, and highest exaltations. Their religion consists largely in feeling and excitement. There is very little in their own souls that corresponds to their profession of faith. Self is their ideal of perfection. They value more the outward impression they make upon others than the inner life which is hidden with Christ in God.
TMK	133	4	Let everyone who would reveal Christ by being a doer of His Word, become rooted in Christ Jesus, rooted and grounded in the truth. Put away all self-assertion. Let living and acting the lessons of Christ Jesus speak of your perfect obedience to Jesus Christ....
TMK	133	5	The formation of the character must go on day by day, hour by hour. The inward working of the Holy Spirit is revealed outwardly in the appearance of fruit, ripening and perfecting to the glory of God. The inward life speaks in the outward action, in the producing of rich fruit. This is showing forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. If the Lord Jesus is formed within, the hope of glory, the life will be rich in good works, corresponding with the truth which they profess to believe.8
------------------------Glorious Possibilities Before Us, May 8
TMK	134	1	Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5.
TMK	134	2	How glorious are the possibilities set before the fallen race! Through His Son, God has revealed the excellency to which man is capable of attaining. Through the merits of Christ man is lifted from his depraved state, purified, and made more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir. It is possible for him to become a companion of the angels in glory, and to reflect the image of Jesus Christ.... Yet how seldom he realizes to what heights he could attain if he would allow God to direct his every step!
TMK	134	3	God permits every human being to exercise his individuality. He desires no one to submerge his mind in the mind of a fellow mortal. Those who desire to be transformed in mind and character are not to look to men, but to the divine Example. God gives the invitation, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." By conversion and transformation men are to receive the mind of Christ. Every one is to stand before God with an individual faith, an individual experience, knowing for himself that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory....
TMK	134	4	As our example we have One who is all and in all, the Chiefest among ten thousand, One whose excellency is beyond comparison. He graciously adapted His life for universal imitation. United in Christ were wealth and poverty; majesty and abasement; unlimited power, and meekness and lowliness, which in every soul who receives Him will be reflected....
TMK	134	5	O that we might more fully appreciate the honor Christ confers upon us! By wearing His yoke and learning of Him, we become like Him in aspiration, in meekness and lowliness, in fragrance of character, and unite with Him in ascribing praise and honor and glory to God as supreme. Those who live up to their high privileges in this life will receive an eternal reward in the life to come. If faithful we shall join the heavenly musicians in singing with sweet accord songs of praise to God and to the Lamb.9
------------------------Limitless Heights to Reach, May 9
TMK	135	1	Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13.
TMK	135	2	"Gird up the loins of your mind," says the apostle; then control your thoughts, not allowing them to have full scope. The thoughts may be guarded and controlled by your own determined efforts. Think right thoughts and you will perform right actions. You have, then, to guard the affections, not letting them go out and fasten upon improper objects. Jesus has purchased you with His own life; you belong to Him, therefore He is to be consulted in all things as to how the powers of your mind and the affections of your heart shall be employed....
TMK	135	3	Every wrong tendency may be, through the grace of Christ, repressed, not in a languid, irresolute manner, but with firmness of purpose, with high resolves to make Christ the pattern. Let your love go out for those things that Jesus loved, and be withheld from those things that will give no strength to right impulses. With determined energy seek to learn, and to improve the character every day. You must have firmness of purpose to take yourself in hand and be what you know God would be pleased to have you.10
TMK	135	4	Thoughts of God and of heaven are ennobling. There is no limit to the height you may reach, for it will be like swimming in waters where there is no bottom.... There is nothing belittling in the pure religion of Christ. The gospel received will bow down the loftiness of human understanding and lay the haughtiness of man low, that God alone may be exalted. But in this it does not dwarf the intellect and cripple the energies.... True religion unfolds and calls out the mental energies. Conviction and repentance of sin, renunciation of self, and trust in the merits of the blood of Christ cannot be experienced without the individual being made more thoughtful, more intellectual, than he was before. No one will become mentally imbecile by having his attention directed to God. Connection with God is connection with all true wisdom.11
------------------------The Preciousness of Christ, May 10
TMK	136	1	His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. Song of Solomon 5:16.
TMK	136	2	We should bring the attractiveness of Christ into our Christian service. The soft beams of the Sun of Righteousness should shine into our hearts, that we may be pleasant and cheerful and have a strong and blessed influence on all around us. The truth of Jesus Christ does not tend to gloom and sadness.... We must look away from the disagreeable to Jesus. We must love Him more, obtain more of His attractive beauty and grace of character, and cease the contemplation of others' mistakes and errors. We should remember that our own ways are not faultless. We make mistakes again and again.... No one is perfect but Jesus. Think of Him and be charmed away from yourself, and from every disagreeable thing, for by beholding our defects faith is weakened. God and His promises are lost from sight....
TMK	136	3	O what deep, rich experiences we might gain if we were devoting all our God-given ability to seeking knowledge and spiritual strength from God! ... How little we really know of sweet communion with God. How little we know the mysteries of the future life. We may know far more than we do know if all our powers are sanctified to discern the character of Christ.
TMK	136	4	There are heights for us to reach, depths of experience to sound, if we are to be the light of the world.... Let the mind expand, that you may take in the heavenly beauties of the blessed promises. Only believe in Jesus and learn in the school of the greatest Teacher the world ever knew, and His grace will act mightily upon the human intellect and heart. His teaching will give clearness to the mental vision. It will give compass to the thoughts; the soul hunger will be filled. The heart will be softened and subdued and filled with glowing love, that neither discouragement, despondency, affliction, or trial can quench. God will open to the mind's eye His preciousness and His fullness. Then let us love and labor. I point you to Christ, the Rock of Ages.12
------------------------Influence of Our Words, May 11
TMK	137	1	And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Colossians 3:17.
TMK	137	2	Men are greatly under the influence of their own words. You are not conscious how much you are affected by your words. You accustom yourself to speak in a certain way, and your thoughts and actions follow your words. One accustoms himself to assert certain things in regard to himself, and at last he comes to believe them. Our thoughts produce our words and our words react upon our thoughts. If a man forms the habit of using sacred words reverently, he will form the custom of carefulness of speech, knowing that there is a Witness to every word uttered. When the feelings become excited and the speech is exaggerated, the mode of speaking is always extreme. It acts and reacts upon ourselves.
TMK	137	3	The Word declares, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matthew 12:37). If our words act upon ourselves they act more powerfully upon others. There is great mischief done by words spoken. God alone knows and measures the result of a careless, exaggerated mode of speaking. There is much swearing done in spirit....
TMK	137	4	You are reproducing your own character in others. You may express many things that will create in other minds a course of thought which will lead them into false paths. God may spare you to outlive your exasperated feelings and come to have sensible thoughts. You may outlive your doubts, and through repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ escape from the snare of the fowler. You may pass into the sunshine of faith, but oh, you may never be conscious ... that these words are doing their mischievous work in the soil of the hearts of others, and poisoning it. Here is a harvest some must reap....
TMK	137	5	Raise the standard for Christ Jesus and have all your words select, seasoned with salt. Cultivate true dignity.... Let your words feel the influence of the converting power of God. Let wholesome words be spoken.13
------------------------A Holy Listener, May 12
TMK	138	1	There is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Psalm 139:4.
TMK	138	2	Every hour of the day we should realize that the Lord is near, that He sees all we do, and hears every word we utter.... Cheap, earthly, unchristian words may be represented as "strange fire," and with this God can have nothing to do. The loud, boisterous laugh is a denial of God in the soul, for it reveals that the truth is not ruling in the heart.... By our vain words and unchristian example we dishonor God, and imperil not only our own souls but also the souls of those with whom we associate.
TMK	138	3	The example which Christ has given to the world forbids all levity and cheapness, and if the life is made fragrant by the grace of God, these elements will not appear. A genuine cheerfulness, an uplifting influence, will flow forth from all who love God and keep His commandments. And this carries with it a convincing, converting power. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12), says the apostle. Why with fear and trembling? Lest you shall in any way misrepresent your holy faith by lightness, by trifling, by jesting or joking, and thus give others the impression that the truth which you profess has no sanctifying influence upon the character.14
TMK	138	4	As followers of Christ we should make our words such as to be a help and an encouragement to one another in the Christian life. Far more than we do, we need to speak of the precious chapters in our experience. We should speak of the mercy and loving-kindness of God, of the matchless depths of the Saviour's love. Our words should be words of praise and thanksgiving. If the mind and heart are full of the love of God, this will be revealed in the conversation.... Great thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, unselfish purposes, yearnings for piety and holiness, will bear fruit in words that reveal the character of the heart treasure. When Christ is thus revealed in our speech, it will have power in winning souls to Him.15
------------------------Our Example in Self-control, May 13
TMK	139	1	Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. 1 Peter 2:22, 23.
TMK	139	2	The highest evidence of nobility in a Christian is self-control. We should copy the example of Jesus, for when He was reviled, He reviled not again, but "committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." Our Redeemer met insult and mockery with uncomplaining silence. All the cruel taunts of the murderous throng who exulted in His humiliation and trial in the judgment hall could not bring from Him one look or word of resentment or impatience. He was the Majesty of heaven, and in His pure breast there dwelt no room for the spirit of retaliation, but only for pity and love.16
TMK	139	3	There seems to be a mist before the eyes of many, for they fail to discern spiritual things, and do not recognize the workings of Satan to entrap their souls. Christians are not to be the slaves of passion; they are to be controlled by the Spirit of God. But many become the sport of the enemy, because when temptation comes, they do not rest in Jesus, but worry themselves out of His arms.... We make failures in our little, daily difficulties, and allow them to irritate and vex us; we fall under them, and so make stumbling blocks for ourselves and others. But blessings of the greatest importance are to result from the patient endurance of these daily vexations, for we are to gain strength to bear greater difficulties....
TMK	139	4	O that we might control our words and actions! ... What harm is wrought in the family circle by the utterance of impatient words, for the impatient utterance of one leads another to retort in the same spirit and manner. Then come words of retaliation, words of self-justification, and it is by such words that a heavy, galling yoke is manufactured for your neck, for all these bitter words will come back in a baleful harvest to your soul.... How much better to have the oil of grace in the heart, to be able to pass by all provocation, and bear all things with Christlike meekness and forbearance.17
------------------------Dignity Without Pride, May 14
TMK	140	1	My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.... My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. Job 27:4-6.
TMK	140	2	We should preserve the strictest chastity in thought, and word, and deportment. Let us remember that God sets our secret sins in the light of His countenance. There are thoughts and feelings suggested and aroused by Satan that annoy even the best of men, but if they are not cherished, if they are repulsed as hateful, the soul is not contaminated with guilt, and no other is defiled by their influence. O that we each might become a savor of life unto life to those around us!
TMK	140	3	There is great need of a deeper appreciation of the holy truth of God. If all had a realization of the solemnity and weight of the message, many sins that are now carelessly committed would cease from among us. Is there not too often the common thought and communication mingled with the sacred themes of truth? Wherever this is done, the standard is lowered. Your example leads others to regard the truth lightly, and this is one of the greatest sins in the sight of God.
TMK	140	4	It is the privilege of every one to so live that God will approve and bless him. You may be hourly in communion with Heaven; it is not the will of your heavenly Father that you should ever be under condemnation and darkness. It is not pleasing to God that you should demerit yourself. You should cultivate self-respect by living so that you will be approved by your own conscience, and before men and angels.
TMK	140	5	It is not an evidence of true humility that you go with your head bowed down and your heart filled with thoughts of self. It is your privilege to go to Jesus and be cleansed, and to stand before the law without shame and remorse. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1). While we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought, the Word of God does not condemn a proper self-respect. As sons and daughters of God we should have a conscious dignity of character, in which pride and self-importance have no part18
------------------------Cheerfulness With Sobriety, May 15
TMK	141	1	Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. Proverbs 8:6.
TMK	141	2	[Early morning diary entry, July 12, 1897.] I ask that the Holy Spirit shall control my thoughts through the day. I plead for wisdom in judgment, clearness of brain, and understanding, that I may see the treasures in the Word of God and bring out the precious truth in the simplest language. Thus did the greatest Teacher the world ever knew.
TMK	141	3	I feel more and more impressed with the greatness of the subject of the Lord's soon appearing in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. This faith moves me greatly to observe due solemnity at all times and in all places, but while I enjoin upon myself and others to be sober, they are not to cherish sadness and gloom....
TMK	141	4	While we are not to be gloomy, but cheerful and happy, there is to be no silliness, but a sobriety in harmony with our faith. Words and actions form character. Therefore our words should be clean, pure, simple, yet elevated. The gift of speech is a valuable talent, and the Lord has no pleasure in hearing low, cheap, degrading nonsense which tastes strongly of vice and revelry. No Christian should condescend to imitate and catch such habits from another.... These evil, silly words are discordant notes and contribute to the happiness of no one. They are a detriment to spirituality. The Word of God forbids them.
TMK	141	5	"A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matthew 12:35-37).
TMK	141	6	"And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?" (Matthew 9:4). Jesus reads the hearts and minds and thoughts.... There is a Witness present, tracing every word spoken and every act performed, good or evil.19
------------------------"With Joy Unspeakable", May 16
TMK	142	1	Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 1 Peter 1:8.
TMK	142	2	He [Christ] says, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (John 15:10, 11). In Him there is joy that is not uncertain and unsatisfying. If the light that flows from Jesus has come to you, and you are reflecting it upon others, you show that you have joy that is pure, elevating, and ennobling. Why should not the religion of Christ be represented as it really is, as full of attractiveness and power? Why should we not present before the world the loveliness of Christ? Why do we not show that we have a living Saviour, one who can walk with us in the darkness as well as in the light, and that we can trust in Him? ...
TMK	142	3	But minds that are occupied with frivolous reading, with exciting stories, or with seeking after amusement, do not dwell upon Christ, and cannot rejoice in the fullness of His love. The mind that finds pleasure in foolish thoughts and trifling conversation is as destitute of the joy of Christ as were the hills of Gilboa of dew or rain.... We need to be constantly filling the mind with Christ, and emptying it of selfishness and sin.20
TMK	142	4	The life in which the fear of the Lord is cherished will not be a life of sadness and gloom. It is the absence of Christ that makes the countenance sad and the life a pilgrimage of sighs.... But Christ dwelling in the soul is a wellspring of joy. For all who receive Him, the keynote of the Word of God is "rejoicing."
TMK	142	5	Why should not our joy be full--full, lacking nothing? We have the assurance that Jesus is our Saviour, and that we may freely partake of the rich provision He has made for us.... It is our privilege to seek constantly the joy of His presence. He desires us to be cheerful and to be filled with praise to His name. He wants us to carry light in our countenances and joy in our hearts.21
------------------------Under God's Guardianship, May 17
TMK	143	1	Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.... The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. Psalm 121:4-7.
TMK	143	2	[Early morning diary entries.] July 16, 1897. I awakened this morning at three o'clock and lifted my heart in prayer and thanksgiving to God for His watchful care over the household. I pray the Lord to take us all under His guardianship today and make His face to shine upon us. I pray most earnestly that He will honor our humble dwelling with His abiding presence in our home. We may every individual in the family have the converting power of God daily upon heart and character.
TMK	143	3	The religion of Christ in the heart is the wellspring of life. It is the living water that Christ will give to every thirsting soul that asks Him. There are many who keep religion in practice far from the soul temple, and their faith is not in Jesus Christ.... The heavenly Guest should be invited to occupy the throne of the soul, to control every impulse of the mind, and to bring even the thoughts into subjection to Jesus Christ....
TMK	143	4	July 26, 1897. I render thanks unto my heavenly Father for His blessing, after seeking the Lord in prayer. I go to my heavenly Father as a child in need goes to his temporal earthly father. We know that God must be interested in us, as the earthly parent is interested in his child, but to a much larger degree. I place myself as His child, and in simple faith ask for the small favors as I would ask for larger gifts, believing the Lord hears the simple, contrite prayer.
TMK	143	5	I keep saying in my heart, He loves me, He wants my love, and He wants me to be happy. "No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." "For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory." "O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee" (Psalm 84:11, 12).
TMK	143	6	I will appropriate His promises to myself, and will be glad in the Lord and ever praise His holy name.22
------------------------The Voice of Nature, May 18
TMK	144	1	And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. Genesis 1:31.
TMK	144	2	God does not design that we shall take no pleasure in the things of His creation.... He watches with a Father's joy the delight of His children in the beautiful things around them. While on earth the Redeemer of the world sought to make His lessons of instruction plain and simple, that all might comprehend them; and can we be surprised that He should choose the open air as His sanctuary, that He should desire to be surrounded by the works of His creation? ... The things which His own hand had made He took as His lesson book. He saw in them more than finite minds could comprehend.
TMK	144	3	The birds, caroling forth their songs without a care, the flowers of the valley glowing in their beauty, the lily that reposed in its purity on the bosom of the lake, the lofty trees, the cultivated land, the waving grain, the barren soil, the tree that bore no fruit, the everlasting hills, the bubbling stream, the setting sun tinting and gilding the heavens--all these He employed to impress His hearers with divine truth. He connected the work of God's finger in the heavens and upon the earth with the Word of life. From these He drew His lessons of spiritual instruction. He would pluck the lilies, the flowers of the valley, and place them in the hands of the little children, as instructors to proclaim the truth of His Word....
TMK	144	4	The beauties of nature have a tongue that speaks to us without ceasing. The open heart can be impressed with the love and glory of God as seen in the works of His hand. The listening ear can hear and understand the communications of God through the things of nature. There is a lesson in the sunbeam and in the various objects of nature that God has presented to our view. The green fields, the lofty trees, the buds and flowers, the passing cloud, the falling rain, the babbling brook, the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens--all invite our attention and meditation, and bid us become acquainted with Him who made them all.23
------------------------Tokens of God's Love Everywhere, May 19
TMK	145	1	For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else. Isaiah 45:18.
TMK	145	2	Through the goodness of God we have been surrounded with innumerable blessings. There are tokens of His love on every hand. Nature seems to be rejoicing before us. The beautiful things in heaven and earth express the love and favor of the Lord of hosts toward the inhabitants of the world. The sunshine and the rain fall on the evil and the good. The hills and seas and plains are all speaking eloquently to the soul of man of the Creator's love. It is God who brings the bud to bloom, the flower to fruit, and it is He who supplies our daily needs. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father's notice. Our minds should go up in gratitude and adoration to the Giver of every good and perfect gift.
TMK	145	3	We should teach our children to consider the works of God. They should be instructed on His love and the provision He has made for their salvation. Lead them to give their young hearts as a grateful offering, fragrant with love, to Him who has died for them. Point out the attractive loveliness of the earth, and tell them of the world that is to come that shall never know the blight of sin and death, where the face of nature will no more wear the shadow of the curse. Lead their young minds to contemplate the glories of the reward that awaits the children of God. Cultivate their imaginative powers by picturing the splendor of the new earth and the city of God; and when they are charmed with the prospect, tell them it will be more glorious than their brightest imagination can portray....
TMK	145	4	The poet and the naturalist have many things to say about nature, but it is the Christian who enjoys the beauty of the earth with the highest appreciation, because he recognizes his Father's handiwork and perceives His love in flower and shrub and tree. No one can fully appreciate the significance of hill and vale, river and sea, who does not look upon them as an expression of the love of God to man.24
------------------------Evidences of God's Greatness, May 20
TMK	146	1	For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. Psalm 92:4, 5.
TMK	146	2	The scenery through which we passed [Ellen White is here describing a carriage journey in switzerland.] was altogether too majestic, too awfully grand, to give anything like a description that can compare to the scenery as it really is. The battlements of rocks--the timeworn rocky walls that have stood since the Flood, washed with the mountain torrents--stand out smooth as if polished, while rocks diverse from these in shape are seen in regular layers, as if art had fashioned them. Here ... we viewed the most interesting, grand scenery that our eyes ever looked upon. The rocks ascend higher and still higher from the earth, and growing from these rocks are beautiful, dark-colored pines intermingled with the lighter and most beautiful living green of the maple and beech.... Such wild grandeur, such solemn scenery, carries one back to the period when the waters rose to the highest points of land, and the unbelieving antediluvians perished for their great wickedness in the waters of the Flood.
TMK	146	3	As we look upon ... the rocks of every conceivable shape, we say, "How wonderful, O Lord, are thy works in all the earth." The softening, subduing touches penciled by the great Master Artist in the beautiful arrangement of dress of dark and living green, this beautiful combination of colors to cover the rugged, time-seamed rocks! Then the deep gorges, the noisy, fast-rushing streams, and the grand mountains covered with forest trees in their beautiful summer robes!
TMK	146	4	The view is grand in the extreme, and presents to the senses such high and holy and strong and sacred ideas of God our Maker. And then the thought that we may call Him Father! ... If anyone can look upon this scenery without being impressed with the greatness and majesty of God, his heart must indeed be unimpressible. I do so long for a closer connection with God. This God of majesty and might may be our Father, our Friend, our hope and crown of rejoicing.25
------------------------On the Preparation Day, May 21
TMK	147	1	Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8.
TMK	147	2	[Diary Entry.] Friday, February 21, 1896. This day is preparation day. We would come up to the Sabbath with our work closed up in proper shape and not dragging into the Sabbath. We must commence in the morning to look after every piece of clothing if we have neglected to do this through the week, that our garments may be neat and orderly and comely to appear in the place where God's people assemble to worship Him.... Entering upon new business should be avoided, if possible, but endeavor to close up the things already started that are half accomplished. Prepare everything connected with the household matters so that there shall be freedom from worries, and the mind be prepared to rest and to meditate upon heavenly things.
TMK	147	3	There needs to be much more close investigation of the week past. Review it and see if, as a branch of the living Vine, you have drawn nourishment from the parent Vine to bear much fruit to the glory of God. If there has been feverish excitement, if hasty words have been spoken, if passion has been revealed, these have surely been the working on Satan's side of the question. Clear the heart by confession. Sincerely make everything right before the Sabbath. Examine your own selves, whether ye be in the faith. We need to guard our own souls constantly, lest we make a great profession but, like the flourishing fig tree spreading its branches in pretentious foliage, reveal no precious fruit. Christ is hungering to see and receive fruit. Leaves of profession without fruit are to Christ just as worthless as those of the fig tree which He cursed....
TMK	147	4	The humble dependence upon God, the faith that takes Him at His word and trusts Him at all times and under all circumstances, is the wearing of the yoke of Christ. The Christian brings all his passions under control to God. Then if the thoughts are brought into captivity to Jesus Christ, there is a healthful growth in beauty and grace of character.26
------------------------Through Nature to Nature's God, May 22
TMK	148	1	But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9.
TMK	148	2	If our hearts were softened and subdued with the love of God they would be open to discern His mercy and loving-kindness, as expressed to us in every shrub and in the profusion of blooming flowers which meet our eye in God's world. The delicate leaf, the spires of grass, every lofty tree, is an expression of the love of God to His children. They tell us that God is a lover of the beautiful. He speaks to us from nature's book, that He delights in the perfection of beauty of character. He would have us look up through nature to nature's God, and would have our hearts drawn out in love and affection to Him as we view His created works....
TMK	148	3	God designs that the scenes of nature should influence the children of God to delight in the pure, simple, quiet beauty with which our Father adorns our earthly home. Jesus tells us that the mightiest king that ever swayed a scepter could not compare in gorgeous array to the simple flowers that God has clothed with loveliness....
TMK	148	4	We must be preparing for the white robe of character, in order that we may pass within the pearly gates of the city of God to a heaven of bliss. Revelation presents the scene--fountains of living waters, rivers that are as clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb, trees of living green growing on either side of this river of life....
TMK	148	5	We have in the glorious things of nature a mere shadow of the original which we shall see in their full loveliness in the Paradise of God. Let us learn the precious lesson which God designed we should. He who careth for the simple flowers in their season, will He not much more care for you whom He has created in His own image? Look upon these things of beauty. God prepares and clothes them with a robe of loveliness, and yet they perish in a day. All these earthly, temporal beauties are to be appreciated as the voice of God speaking to us of the treasures and glories of the unseen and the eternal.27
------------------------Honoring God in the Home, May 23
TMK	149	1	Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Colossians 3:16.
TMK	149	2	This is what we need in our households. There is in it no fault-finding, no harshness; but peace, and joy, and rest in the Lord.... God calls for loving service. He calls upon parents to speak lovingly and tenderly to their children. Let them see that you think they help you. Give them responsibilities to bear, small ones at first, and larger ones as they grow older. Never, never, let them hear you say of them, "They hinder me more than they help me."...
TMK	149	3	How many there are who forget that the home is a school in which children are trained to work either for Christ or Satan. Fathers and mothers, remember that every word you speak in the hearing of your children has an influence upon them, an influence either for good or for ill. Remember that if you find fault with one another you are educating your children to find fault.
TMK	149	4	With your children around you, bow before the Father in heaven. Ask Him for help to guard the trust He has given you. Let your petitions be short and earnest. Say, "Heavenly Father, I want my children to be saved. Grant me the aid of Thy Spirit that I may so train them that they may be counted worthy to inherit eternal life." Train your children to offer their simple words of prayer. Tell them that God delights to have them call upon Him.
TMK	149	5	We can subdue our children only as we subdue ourselves. But there are so many parents who have brought with them into the home life their hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong. They have not left their childishness behind. They scold their children for things which should never be noticed. Parents, never scold your children. Deal firmly but kindly with them. Keep them busy. Make them feel that they are a part of the family firm, that they can help mother and father. Thank them for what they do for you.
TMK	149	6	Let your home be a place where God is loved and honored.28
------------------------In God's Workshop, May 24
TMK	150	1	Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5.
TMK	150	2	The Word of God has served as a mighty cleaver to separate the children of God from the world. As they are taken out of the quarry of the world they are as rough stones, unfit for a place in the glorious temple of God. But they are brought into the Lord's workshop, to be hewed and squared and polished, that they may become precious, accepted stones. This work of preparation for the heavenly temple is going on continually during probationary time. We are naturally inclined to desire our own way and will, but when the transforming grace of Christ takes hold upon our hearts the inquiry of our souls is, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" When the Spirit of God works within us, we are led to will and to do of the Lord's good pleasure, and there is obedience in heart and action....
TMK	150	3	Christians are to be God's noblemen, who will never grovel in bondage to the great adversary of souls, but will bind themselves to God, catching inspiration from Him whom they love, who is high and lifted up. The soul that loves God rises above the fog of doubt; he gains a bright, broad, deep, living experience, and becomes meek and Christlike. His soul is committed to God, hid with Christ in God. He will be able to stand the test of neglect, of abuse and contempt, because his Saviour has suffered all this. He will not become fretful and discouraged when difficulties press him, because Jesus did not fail or become discouraged. Every true Christian will be strong, not in the strength and merit of his good works, but in the righteousness of Christ, which through faith is imputed unto him.29
TMK	150	4	We are to occupy some place in the Lord's spiritual temple, and the important question is not as to whether you are a large or a small stone, but whether you have submitted yourself to God that He may polish you and make you emit light for His glory. If we are in the Lord's temple we must emit light. Are we permitting the heavenly Builder to hew and square and polish us? Have we faith to rest in Him?30
------------------------God's Spiritual Temple, May 25
TMK	151	1	In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Ephesians 2:21, 22.
TMK	151	2	The gospel is designed for all, and it will bring together in church capacity men and women who are different in training, in character, and in disposition. Among these will be some who are naturally slack, who feel that order is pride, and that it is not necessary to be so particular. God will not come down to their low standard....
TMK	151	3	The people of God have a high and holy calling. They are Christ's representatives. Paul addresses the church in Corinth as those who are "sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints" (1 Corinthians 1:2)....
TMK	151	4	If we have habits of speech and deportment that do not rightly represent the Christian religion we should at once set about the work of reform. As we represent Christ to the world, let us form such habits as will honor Him. Everywhere hidden from observation, agencies are at work to draw souls from Christ, and God would have still more powerful agencies at work among His people to attract souls to Christ.31
TMK	151	5	The Jewish Temple was built of hewn stones quarried out of the mountains, and every stone was fitted for its place in the Temple, hewed, polished and tested, before it was brought to Jerusalem. And when all were brought to the ground, the building went together without the sound of an ax or hammer. This building represents God's spiritual temple, which is composed of material gathered out of every nation and tongue and people, of all grades, high and low, rich and poor, learned and ignorant. These are not dead substances, to be fitted by hammer and chisel. They are living stones quarried out from the world by the truth, and the great Master Builder, the Lord of the temple, is now hewing and polishing them and fitting them for their respective places in the spiritual temple. When completed, this temple will be perfect in all its parts, the admiration of angels and of men, for its builder and maker is God. Truly, those who are to compose this glorious building are "called to be saints."32
------------------------Soldiers of Christ, May 26
TMK	152	1	By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. 2 Corinthians 6:7.
TMK	152	2	The church of Christ may be fitly compared to an army. The life of every soldier is one of toil, hardship, and danger. On every hand are vigilant foes, led on by the prince of the powers of darkness, who never slumbers and never deserts his post. Whenever a Christian is off his guard, this powerful adversary makes a sudden and violent attack. Unless the members of the church are active and vigilant, they will be overcome by his devices.
TMK	152	3	What if half the soldiers in an army were idling or asleep when ordered to be on duty; the result would be defeat, captivity, or death. Should any escape from the hands of the enemy, would they be thought worthy of a reward? No; they would speedily receive the sentence of death. And is the church of Christ careless or unfaithful, far more important consequences are involved. A sleeping army of Christian soldiers--what could be more terrible! ...
TMK	152	4	The Master calls for gospel workers. Who will respond? All who enter the army are not to be generals, captains, sergeants, or even corporals. All have not the care and responsibility of leaders. There is hard work of other kinds to be done. Some must dig trenches and build fortifications, some are to stand as sentinels, some to carry messages. While there are but few officers, it requires many soldiers to form the rank and file of the army, yet its success depends upon the fidelity of every soldier....
TMK	152	5	There is earnest work to be done by us individually if we would fight the good fight of faith. Eternal interests are at stake. We must put on the whole armor of righteousness, we must resist the devil, and we have the sure promise that he will be put to flight. The church is to conduct an aggressive warfare, to make conquests for Christ, to rescue souls from the power of the enemy. God and holy angels are engaged in this warfare. Let us please Him who has called us to be soldiers.33
------------------------The Proof of Our Discipleship, May 27
TMK	153	1	By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:35.
TMK	153	2	There is nothing that can so weaken the influence of the church as the lack of love....The people of the world are looking to us to see what our faith is doing for our characters and lives. They are watching to see if it is having a sanctifying effect on our hearts, if we are becoming changed into the likeness of Christ. They are ready to discover every defect in our lives, every inconsistency in our actions. Let us give them no occasion to reproach our faith.
TMK	153	3	It is not the opposition of the world that will most endanger us; it is the evil cherished right in our midst that works our most grievous disaster. It is the unconsecrated lives of halfhearted professors that retard the work of the truth and bring darkness upon the church of God.
TMK	153	4	There is no surer way of weakening ourselves in spiritual things than to be envious, suspicious of one another, full of faultfinding and evil surmising....
TMK	153	5	When you are associated together, be guarded in your words.... If the love of the truth is in your heart you will talk of the truth. You will talk of the blessed hope that you have in Jesus. If you have love in your heart you will seek to establish and build up your brother in the most holy faith. If a word is dropped that is detrimental to the character of your friend or brother, do not encourage this evil speaking. It is the work of the enemy. Kindly remind the speaker that the Word of God forbids that kind of conversation. We are to empty the heart of everything that defiles the soul temple, that Christ may dwell within. Our Redeemer has told us how we may reveal Him to the world. If we cherish His spirit, if we manifest His love to others, if we guard one another's interests, if we are kind, patient, forbearing, the world will have an evidence by the fruits we bear that we are the children of God. It is the unity in the church that enables it to exert a conscious influence upon unbelievers and worldlings.34
------------------------Come Where the Light Shines, May 28
TMK	154	1	Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:25.
TMK	154	2	It is no small matter for a family in an unbelieving community to stand as representatives for Jesus, keeping God's law. We are required to be living epistles, known and read of all men. This position involves fearful responsibilities. In order to live in the light we must come where the light shines. It is not well for the people of God to lose the privilege of associating with those of like faith with themselves, for the truth loses its importance in their minds.... They are not strengthened by the words of the living preacher....
TMK	154	3	The faith of most Christians will waver if they constantly neglect to meet together for conference and prayer. If it were impossible for them to enjoy such religious privileges, then God would send light direct from heaven by His angels, to animate, to cheer, and to bless His scattered people. But He does not propose to work a miracle to sustain the faith of His children. They are required to love the truth enough to make some effort to secure the privileges and blessings vouchsafed them of God....
TMK	154	4	"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him" (Malachi 3:16, 17).
TMK	154	5	It will pay, then, to improve the privileges within our reach, and even at some sacrifice to assemble with those who fear God and speak for Him. For He is represented as hearkening to those testimonies, while angels write them in a book. God will remember those who have met together and thought upon His name.... They will be as precious jewels in His sight when His wrath shall fall on the shelterless head of the sinner.35
------------------------A Life of Strength, May 29
TMK	155	1	I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. John 9:4.
TMK	155	2	The Christian life does not consist merely in the exercise of meekness, patience, humility, and kindness. One may possess these precious and amiable traits and yet be nerveless and spiritless, and almost useless when the work goes hard. Such persons lack the positiveness and energy, the solidity and strength of character, which would enable them to resist evil, and would make them a power in the cause of God.
TMK	155	3	Jesus was our example in all things, and He was an earnest and constant worker. He commenced His life of usefulness in childhood. At the age of twelve He was "about his Father's business." Between the ages of twelve and thirty, before entering upon His public ministry, He led a life of active industry. In His ministry Jesus was never idle. Said He, "I must work the works of him that sent me...." The suffering who came to Him were not turned away unrelieved. He was acquainted with each heart and knew how to minister to its needs. Loving words fell from His lips to comfort, encourage, and bless, and the great principles of the kingdom of heaven were set before the multitudes in words so simple as to be understood by all.
TMK	155	4	Jesus was a silent and unselfish worker. He did not seek fame, riches, or applause, neither did He consult His own ease and pleasure. ... He did not shirk care and responsibility, as many do who profess to be His followers....
TMK	155	5	The claims of Christ upon our service are new every day. However complete may have been our consecration at conversion, it will avail us nothing unless it be renewed daily, but a consecration that embraces the actual present is fresh, genuine, and acceptable to God. We have not weeks and months to lay at His feet; tomorrow is not ours, for we have not yet received it, but today we may work for Jesus. Today we may lay our plans and purposes before Him for His inspection and approval....This is God's day, and you are His hired servant.36
------------------------Imitating Christ, May 30
TMK	156	1	Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to him that appointed him. Hebrews 3:1, 2.
TMK	156	2	In giving to men an example of what they should be and do, Jesus, the world's Redeemer, did not have a smooth path to travel.... Jesus had been the commander of heaven, yet on earth He was as one that serveth. Uncomplainingly He endured privations, and lived the life of a poor man. He did not indulge in the luxuries that many who claim to be His followers surround themselves with; He studied not at all His pleasure, ease, or convenience. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His whole life was one of self-denial, expressing the prayer, "Not my will, but thine, O God, be done."
TMK	156	3	Christ is our pattern, and those who follow Christ will not walk in darkness, for they will not seek their own pleasure. To glorify God will be the continual aim of their life. Christ represented the character of God to the world. The Lord Jesus so conducted His life that men were compelled to acknowledge that He had done all things well. The world's Redeemer was the light of the world, for His character was without fault. Though He was the only begotten Son of God, and the heir of all things in heaven and earth, He did not leave an example of indolence and self-indulgence....
TMK	156	4	Christ never flattered any one. He never deceived or defrauded, never changed His course of straightforward uprightness to obtain favor or applause. He ever expressed the truth. The law of kindness was in His lips, and there was no guile in His mouth. Let the human agent compare his life with the life of Christ, and through the grace which Jesus imparts to those who make Him their personal Saviour, reach the standard of righteousness. Let him imitate the example of Him who lived out the law of Jehovah, who said, "I have kept my Father's commandments" (John 15:10). Those who follow Christ will be continually looking into the perfect law of liberty, and through the grace given them by Christ, will fashion the character according to the divine requirements.37
------------------------Grace an Educator, May 31
TMK	157	1	I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; ... who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:4-8.
TMK	157	2	In this world we have temporal duties to perform, and in the performance of these duties we are forming characters that will either stand the test of the judgment or be weighed in the balances and found wanting. We may do the smallest duties nobly, firmly, faithfully, as if seeing the whole heavenly host looking upon us. Take a lesson from the gardener. If he wishes a plant to grow he cultivates and trims it; he gives water, he digs about its roots, plants it where the sunshine will fall upon it, and day by day he works about it; and not by violent efforts, but by acts constantly repeated, he trains the shrub until its form is perfect and its bloom is full.
TMK	157	3	The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ works upon the heart and mind as an educator. The continued influence of His Spirit upon the soul trains and molds and fashions the character after the divine model. Let the youth bear in mind that a repetition of acts, forms habits, and habit, character.... Is the love of Christ a living, active agent in your soul, correcting, reforming, refining you, and purifying you from your wrong practices? There is need of cultivating every grace that Jesus through His suffering and death has brought within your reach. You are to manifest the grace that has been so richly provided for you, in the small as well as in the large concerns of life.... Great truths can be brought into little things, and religion can be carried into the little as well as into the large concerns of life.
TMK	157	4	The commandments of God are exceeding broad, and the Lord is not pleased to have His children disorderly, to have their lives marred by defects and their religious experience crippled, their growth in grace dwarfed, because they persist in cherishing hereditary and cultivated deficiencies in wrong habits that will be imitated by others and thus be perpetuated. If the grace of Christ cannot remedy these defects, what then constitutes transformation of character?38
------------------------A New Song in Our Hearts, June 1
TMK	158	1	And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:3.
TMK	158	2	He who believes in Christ becomes one with Christ, to show forth the glory of God, for God hath put a new song into his mouth, even praise unto the Lord. He daily desires to know more of Christ, that he may become more like Him. He discerns spiritual things and enjoys contemplation of Christ, and by beholding Him he is changed, imperceptibly to himself, into the image of Christ.... He does not place his dependence for acceptance with God upon what he can do, but relies wholly upon the merits of Christ's righteousness. Yet he knows that he cannot be slothful and be a child of God. He searches the Scriptures that testify to him of Christ, that present before him the perfect Pattern....
TMK	158	3	Precious truth is unfolded to his mind, and he receives it into the inner sanctuary of the soul. The attractions of the world become tame to him, for the glory and value of eternity are opened before him. He can say with the apostle, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God" (1 Corinthians 2:12)....
TMK	158	4	He who has a genuine experience in the things of God will not be indifferent to those who are in darkness, but will inquire, What would Jesus say to these poor needy souls? He will seek to let his light shine forth. He will pray for wisdom, grace, and tact, that he may know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. In place of engaging in trifling conversation, in jesting and joking, he will as a faithful steward of the grace of God, make the most of his opportunity, and the seed sown will spring up and bear fruit unto life eternal. The treasure of truth is in his heart, and he brings forth good things. The wellspring of life is in his soul, and the living waters flow forth....
TMK	158	5	Is this your experience? Are you growing up into Christ, your living head? ... O that the youth may consider the life of Christ, and copy the Pattern!1
------------------------No Standing Still, June 2
TMK	159	1	To them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. 2 Peter 1:1, 2.
TMK	159	2	What a grand theme this is for contemplation--the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ! Contemplating Christ and His righteousness leaves no room for self-righteousness, for the glorifying of self. In this chapter there is no standstill. There is continual advancement in every stage in the knowledge of Christ. Through the knowledge of Christ is life eternal. In His prayer Jesus says, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). In God we are to glory.... "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:30, 31)....
TMK	159	3	We have been called to the knowledge of Christ, and that is to the knowledge of glory and virtue. It is a knowledge of the perfection of the divine character, manifested to us in Jesus Christ, that opens up to us communion with God. It is by the great and precious promises that we are to become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
TMK	159	4	What possibilities are opened up to the youth who lay hold of the divine assurances of God's Word! Scarcely can the human mind comprehend what is the breadth and depth and height of the spiritual attainments that can be reached by becoming partakers of the divine nature. The human agent who yields obedience to God, Who becomes a partaker of the divine nature, finds pleasure in keeping the commandments of God, for he is one with God; he holds as vital a relation with God as does the Son to the Father.2
TMK	159	5	What privileges and blessings are granted to those who have obtained like precious faith with the disciples of Christ! Nothing is withheld from them.3
------------------------Adding and Multiplying, June 3
TMK	160	1	According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. 2 Peter 1:3.
TMK	160	2	We may attain unto glory and virtue, though weak, sinful mortals, by learning daily lessons in the school of Christ, by becoming conformed to the divine image, by manifesting His excellence of character, by adding grace to grace, by climbing round by round the ladder heavenward, by becoming complete in the Beloved. As we shall work upon the plan of addition, by faith adding grace to grace, God will work upon the plan of multiplication, and multiply grace and peace unto us....
TMK	160	3	If our youth would take heed to the rules laid down in this chapter and practice them, what an influence they would exert on the side of right! ... No longer would the law which they have transgressed be a yoke of bondage, but it would be the law of liberty, the freedom of sonship. Having repented toward God, having exercised faith in Christ, they have experienced forgiveness, and esteem the law of God above gold, yea, above fine gold.
TMK	160	4	Jesus is the sin bearer. He takes away our sins, and makes us partakers of His holiness. O what tender, pitying love dwells in the heart of Christ toward the purchase of His blood! He is able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. There is power in these precious promises, and we should cooperate with the working of Christ, devoting all our God-given talents to the service of the Master, that the Holy Spirit may work through us to the glory and honor or Christ.
TMK	160	5	Students should have a growing, expanding idea of what it means to be a Christian. To be a Christian means to be a learner in the school of Christ. It means the connecting of soul, mind, and body with divine wisdom. When this union exists between the soul and God, we are taught of God, who gives wisdom and knowledge. His Spirit imparts thoughts that are clear the holy, and gives the knowledge that lives through eternal ages. Those who are consecrated, diligent, ... fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, will reap an eternal reward.4
------------------------When You Are Growing, June 4
TMK	161	1	But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18.
TMK	161	2	It is the privilege of the young, as they grow in Jesus, to grow in spiritual grace and knowledge. We may know more and more of Jesus through an interested searching of the Scriptures and then following the ways of truth and righteousness therein revealed. Those who are ever growing in grace will be steadfast in the faith, and moving forward. There should be an earnest desire in the heart of every youth who has purposed to be a disciple of Jesus Christ to reach the highest Christian standard, to be a worker with Christ. If he makes it his aim to be of that number who shall be presented faultless before the throne of God he will be continually advancing. The only way to remain steadfast is to progress daily in divine life. Faith will increase if, when brought in conflict with doubts and obstacles, it overcomes them.... If you are growing in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ you will improve every privilege and opportunity to gain more knowledge of the life and character of Christ.
TMK	161	3	Faith in Jesus will grow as you become better acquainted with your Redeemer by dwelling upon His spotless life and His infinite love.... When you are growing in grace you will love to attend religious meetings, and you will gladly bear testimony of the love of Christ before the congregation. God, by His grace, can make the young man prudent, and He can give to the children knowledge and experience. They can grow in grace daily.... Set your aim in life high, as did Joseph and Daniel and Moses, and take into consideration the cost of the character building, and then build for time and for eternity.... In doing this work for yourself you are having an influence on many others.... How much strength a word of hope, courage, and determination in a right course will give one who is inclined to slide into habits that are demoralizing! The firm purpose you may possess in carrying out good principles will have an influence to balance souls in the right direction. There is no limit to the good you may do.5
------------------------Reaching the Stature of Christ, June 5
TMK	162	1	Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Ephesians 4:13.
TMK	162	2	The tremendous issues of eternity demand of us something more than an imaginary religion. A stately form of worship and high devotional ceremonies do not constitute a light to the world, and yet truth that is looked upon and admired in the same way as a beautiful picture or lovely flower, and not brought into the inner sanctuary of the soul, is thought by many to be all that is required in a worshiper....
TMK	162	3	We shall be saved eternally when we enter in through the gates into the city. Then we may rejoice that we are saved, eternally saved. But until then we need to heed the injunction of the apostle, and to "fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of us should seem to come short of it" (Hebrews 4:1). Having a knowledge of Canaan, singing the songs of Canaan, rejoicing in the prospect of entering into Canaan, did not bring the children of Israel into the vineyards and olive groves of the Promised Land. They could make it theirs in truth only by occupation, by complying with the conditions, by exercising living faith in God, by appropriating His promises to themselves....
TMK	162	4	Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, and when we yield to His hand we shall steadily grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. We shall make progress until we reach the full stature of men and women in Christ. Faith works by love, and purifies the soul, expelling the love of sin that leads to rebellion against, and transgression of, the law of God.... Through the agency of the Holy Spirit the character is transformed and the mind and will of the human agent are brought into perfect conformity to the divine will, and this is conformity to the divine standard of righteousness. To those who are thus transformed Christ will say, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14).6
------------------------Are You Growing Up? June 6
TMK	163	1	But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Ephesians 4:15.
TMK	163	2	It is no real evidence that you are a Christian because your emotion is stirred, your spirit stirred by truth. The question is, Are you growing up into Christ, your living head? Is the grace of Christ manifested in your life? God gives His grace to men, that they may desire more of His grace. God's grace is ever working upon the human heart, and when it is received, the evidence of its reception will appear in the life and character of its recipient, for spiritual life will be seen developing from within. The grace of Christ in the heart will always promote spiritual life, and spiritual advancement will be made. We each need a personal Saviour or we shall perish in our sins. Let the question be asked of our souls, Are we growing up unto Christ, our living head? Am I gaining advanced knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ whom He hath sent? We do not see the plants grow in the field, and yet we are assured that they do grow, and may we not know of our own spiritual strength and growth?7
TMK	163	3	When we are truly Christ's, our hearts will be full of meekness, gentleness, and kindness, because Jesus has forgiven our sins. As obedient children we shall receive and cherish the precepts He has given, and shall attend to the ordinances He has instituted. We shall be seeking constantly to obtain a knowledge of Him. His example will be our rule of life. Those who are Christ's disciples will take the work where He left it and carry it forward in His name. They will copy the words, the spirit, the practices, of none but Him. Their eye is upon the Captain of their salvation. His will is their law. And as they advance, they catch more and clearer views of His countenance, of His character, of His glory. They do not cling to self, but hold fast His Word.... They reduce their knowledge of His will to practice. They hear and do the things that Jesus teaches.... Such are entitled to all the promises of His Word. Becoming one with Christ, they do the will of God, and exhibit the riches of His grace.8
------------------------Growth and Fruit Bearing, June 7
TMK	164	1	That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. Philippians 1:9, 10.
TMK	164	2	It is the Lord's desire that His followers shall grow in grace, that their love shall abound more and more, that they shall be filled with the fruits of righteousness.... Where there is life, there will be growth and fruit bearing; but unless we grow in grace, our spirituality will be dwarfed, sickly, fruitless. It is only by growing, by bearing fruit, that we can fulfill God's purpose for us. "Herein is my Father glorified," Christ said, "that ye bear much fruit" (John 15:8). in order to bear much fruit, we must make the most of our privileges. We must use every opportunity granted us for obtaining strength.
TMK	164	3	A pure, noble character, with all its grand possibilities, has been provided for every human being. But there are many who have not an earnest longing for such a character. They are not willing to part with the evil that they may have the good. Great opportunities are placed within their reach. But they neglect to grasp the blessings that would place them in harmony with God. They work at cross-purposes with the One who is seeking their good. They are dead branches, having no living union with the Vine. They cannot grow.
TMK	164	4	One of the divine plans for growth is impartation. The Christian is to gain strength by strengthening others. "He that watereth shall be watered also himself" (Proverbs 11:25). This is not merely a promise; it is a divine law, a law by which God designs that the streams of benevolence, like the waters of the great deep, shall be kept in constant circulation, continually flowing back to their source....
TMK	164	5	Christians, is Christ revealed in us? Are we doing all in our power to gain a body that is not easily enfeebled, a mind that looks beyond self to the cause and effect of every movement, that can wrestle with hard problems and conquer them, a will that is firm to resist evil and defend the right? Are we crucifying self? Are we growing up unto the full stature of men and women in Christ?9
------------------------Marks of True Sanctification, June 8
TMK	165	1	And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
TMK	165	2	The work of sanctification begins in the heart, and we must come into such a relation with God that Jesus can put His divine mold upon us. We must be emptied of self in order to give room to Jesus, but how many have their hearts so filled with idols that they have no room for the Redeemer of the world. The world holds the hearts of men in captivity. They center their thoughts and affections upon their business, their position, their family. They hold to their opinions and ways, and cherish them as idols in the soul.... We must be emptied of self. But this is not all that is required, for when we have renounced our idols, the vacuum must be supplied....
TMK	165	3	As you empty the heart of self you must accept the righteousness of Christ. Lay hold of it by faith.... If you open the door of the heart, Jesus will supply the vacuum by the gift of His Spirit, and then you can be a living preacher in your home, in the church, and in the world. You can diffuse light, because the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness are shining upon you. Your humble life, your holy conversation, your uprightness and integrity, will tell to all around that you are a child of God, an heir of heaven, that you are not making the world your dwelling place, but that you are a pilgrim and a stranger here, looking for a better country, even an heavenly....
TMK	165	4	In order to keep the world in its proper subordination it is necessary to have more than a mere casual, nominal faith in Christ. Many might give assent to the fact that Jesus was the Son of God and yet fail to have saving faith. Jesus must be all in all to the soul. You must believe in Him as your personal and complete Saviour.10
TMK	165	5	True sanctification will be evidenced by a conscientious regard for all the commandments of God, by a careful improvement of every talent, by a circumspect conversation, by revealing in every act the meekness of Christ.11
------------------------Jesus Our All, June 9
TMK	166	1	But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30.
TMK	166	2	It is growth in knowledge of the character of Christ that sanctifies the soul. To discern and appreciate the wonderful work of the atonement transforms him who contemplates the plan of salvation. By beholding Christ he becomes changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. The beholding of Jesus becomes an ennobling, refining process.... The perfection of Christ's character is the Christian's inspiration....
TMK	166	3	Christ should never be out of the mind. The angels said concerning Him, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Jesus, precious Saviour! assurance, helpfulness, security, and peace are all in Him. He is the dispeller of all our doubts, the earnest of all our hopes. How precious is the thought that we may indeed become partakers of the divine nature, whereby we may overcome as Christ overcame! Jesus is the fullness of our expectation. He is the melody of our songs, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. He is living water to the thirsty soul. He is our refuge in the storm. He is our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption.12
TMK	166	4	The power of Christ is to be the comfort, the hope, the crown of rejoicing, of every one that follows Jesus in his conflict, in his struggles in life. He who truly follows the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, can shout as he advances, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4).
TMK	166	5	What kind of faith is it that overcomes the world? It is that faith which makes Christ your own personal Saviour--that faith which, recognizing your helplessness, your utter inability to save yourself, takes hold of the helper who is mighty to save, as your only hope. It is faith that will not be discouraged, that hears the voice of Christ saying, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, and my divine strength is yours." ... "Lo, I am with you alway."13
------------------------An Abiding Motive, June 10
TMK	167	1	For the love of Christ constraineth us. 2 Corinthians 5:14.
TMK	167	2	In every act of life Christians should seek to represent Christ--seek to make His service appear attractive. Let none make religion repulsive by groans and sighs and a relation of their trials, their self-denials, and sacrifices. Do not give the lie to your profession of faith by impatience, fretfulness, and repining. Let the graces of the Spirit be manifested in kindness, meekness, forbearance, cheerfulness, and love. Let it be seen that the love of Christ is an abiding motive; that your religion is not a dress to be put off and on to suit circumstances, but a principle--calm, steady, unwavering. Alas that pride, unbelief, and selfishness, like a foul cancer, are eating out vital godliness from the heart of many a professed Christian! When judged according to their works, how many will learn, too late, that their religion was but a glittering cheat, unacknowledged by Jesus Christ.
TMK	167	3	Love to Jesus will be seen, will be felt. It cannot be hidden. It exerts a wondrous power. It makes the timid bold, the slothful diligent, the ignorant wise. It makes the stammering tongue eloquent, and rouses the dormant intellect into new life and vigor. It makes the desponding hopeful, the gloomy joyous. Love to Christ will lead its possessor to accept responsibilities for His sake, and to bear them in His strength. Love to Christ will not be dismayed by tribulation, nor turned aside from duty by reproaches.14
TMK	167	4	Pure love is simple in its operations, and separate from every other principle of action. When combined with earthly motives and selfish interests, it ceases to be pure. God considers more with how much love we work, than the amount we do. Love is a heavenly attribute. The natural heart cannot originate it. This heavenly plant only flourishes where Christ reigns supreme. Where love exists, there is power and truth in the life. Love does good and nothing but good. Those who have love bear fruit unto holiness, and in the end everlasting life.15
------------------------First Things First, June 11
TMK	168	1	While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18.
TMK	168	2	Satan has worked continually to eclipse the glories of the future world, and to attract the whole attention to the things of this life. He has striven so to arrange matters that our thought, our anxiety, our labor, might be so fully employed in temporal things that we should not see or realize the value of eternal realities. The world and its cares have too large a place, while Jesus and heavenly things have altogether too small a share in our thoughts and affections. We should conscientiously discharge all the duties of everyday life, but it is also essential that we should cultivate above everything else, holy affection for our Lord Jesus Christ.16
TMK	168	3	Views of heavenly things do not incapacitate men and women for the duties of this life, but rather render them more efficient and faithful. Although the grand realities of the eternal world seem to charm the mind, engross the attention, and enrapture the whole being, yet with spiritual enlightenment there comes a calm, heaven-born diligence that enables the Christian to take pleasure in the performance of the commonplace duties of life....
TMK	168	4	The contemplation of the love of God manifested in the gift of His Son for the salvation of fallen men will stir the heart and arouse the powers of the soul as nothing else will. The work of redemption is a marvelous work; it is a mystery in the universe of God. But how indifferent are the objects of such matchless grace! ...
TMK	168	5	If our senses had not been blunted by sin and by contemplation of the dark pictures that Satan is constantly presenting before us, a fervent and continuous flow of gratitude would go out from our hearts toward Him who daily loads us with benefits of which we are wholly undeserving. The everlasting song of the redeemed will be praise to Him who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood; and if we ever sing that song before the throne of God we must learn it here."17
------------------------Fitting Up for Heaven, June 12
TMK	169	1	But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:16.
TMK	169	2	We profess to be pilgrims and strangers on earth, journeying to a better country, even an heavenly. If we are indeed but sojourners here, traveling to a land where none but the holy can dwell, we shall make it our first business to become acquainted with that country; we shall make diligent inquiry as to the preparation needed, the manners and character which we must have in order to become citizens there. Jesus, the King of that land, is pure and holy. He has commanded His followers, "Be ye holy; for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16). If we are hereafter to associate with Christ and sinless angels we must here obtain a fitness for such society.
TMK	169	3	This is our work--our all-important work. Every other consideration is of minor consequence. Our conversation, our deportment, our every act, should be such as to convince our family, our neighbors, and the world that we expect soon to remove to a better country.... Those whose faith is daily confirmed and strengthened by their works will become acquainted with self-denial in restricting appetite, controlling ambitious desires, bringing every thought and feeling into harmony with the divine will....
TMK	169	4	The land to which we are traveling is in every sense far more attractive than was the land of Canaan to the children of Israel.... What stayed their progress just in sight of the goodly land?.... It was their own willful unbelief that turned them back. They were unwilling to risk anything upon the promises of God.... The history of the children of Israel is written as a warning to us "upon whom the ends of the world are come." We are standing, as it were, upon the very borders of the heavenly Canaan. We may, if we will, look over on the other side and behold the attractions of the goodly land. If we have faith in the promises of God we shall show in conversation and in deportment that we are not living for this world, but are making it our first business to prepare for that holy land.18
------------------------"Stedfast Unto the End", June 13
TMK	170	1	For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. Hebrews 3:14.
TMK	170	2	We must all exercise faith. I am praying to the Lord to give me strength and health and clearness of mind, and I believe He hears my prayers. We are exhorted to be sober and watch unto prayer, but this does not mean that we are to mourn and repine, like orphaned children. True, the struggle for continual advancement in the Christian life must be lifelong, but our advancement in the heavenly path may be hopeful. If we manifest an intense energy, proportionate to the object for which we are striving, even eternal life, we are made partakers of Christ and of all the rich graces He is willing and ready to give to those who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality. If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end we shall see the King in His glory.
TMK	170	3	I do not ask for smooth paths, but I do supplicate my heavenly Father for an increase of faith, that I may surmount every apparent difficulty. He is able and willing to give us the Comforter, but we must have firmness and decision, maintaining under all circumstances a pure, Christian integrity and confidence in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The exhortation comes to us, "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness" (2 Peter 3:17).
TMK	170	4	Eternal interests are to be gained, even the salvation of our souls, and every day we are to watch and be sober. Yet we are to be cheerful, thanking the Lord for His blessings. We must have faith, living faith. God is our efficiency, the source of all power. His resources cannot be exhausted. We can have a daily, abundant supply....
TMK	170	5	For every one whose hands seem to be weakening and losing their hold, I have the word, Grasp the standard more firmly. Faith says, Go forward. You must not fail nor be discouraged. There is no weakness of faith in him who is constantly advancing.19
------------------------The Coming of the Comforter, June 14
TMK	171	1	And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. John 14:16, 17.
TMK	171	2	Christ was about to depart to His home in the heavenly courts, but He assured His disciples that He would send them the Comforter, who would abide with them forever. To the guidance of this Comforter all may implicitly trust. He is the Spirit of truth; but this truth the world can neither see nor receive....
TMK	171	3	Christ desired His disciples to understand that He would not leave them orphans. "I will not leave you comfortless," He declared: "I will come to you" (John 14:18, 19).... Precious, glorious assurance of eternal life! Even though He was to be absent, their relation to Him was to be that of a child to its parent....
TMK	171	4	The words spoken to the disciples come to us through their words. The Comforter is ours as well as theirs, at all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all affliction, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing and we feel helpless and alone. These are times when the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith.
TMK	171	5	There is no comforter like Christ, so tender and so true. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. His Spirit speaks to the heart. Circumstances may separate us from our friends; the broad, restless ocean may roll between us and them. Though their sincere friendship may still exist, they may be unable to demonstrate it by doing for us that which would be gratefully received. But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always there, one given in Christ's place, to act in His stead. He is always at our right hand, to speak soothing, gentle words, to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer. The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the soul. This Spirit works in and through every one who receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of this Spirit reveal its fruit--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.20
------------------------Our Divine Credentials, June 15
TMK	172	1	Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. John 17:11.
TMK	172	2	The unity, the harmony, that should exist among the disciples of Christ is described in these words: "That they may be one, as we are." But how many there are who draw off and seem to think that they have learned all they need to learn.... Those who choose to stand on the outskirts of the camp cannot know what is going on in the inner circle. They must come right into the inner courts, for as a people we must be united in faith and purpose.... It is through this unity that we are to convince the world of the mission of Christ, and bear our divine credentials to the world....
TMK	172	3	"I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me" (John 17:23). Can we comprehend the meaning of these words? Can we take it in? Can we measure this love? The thought that God loves us as He loves His Son should bring us in gratitude and praise to Him. Provision has been made whereby God can love us as He loves His Son, and it is through our oneness with Christ and with each other. We must each come to the fountain and drink for ourselves. A thousand around us may take of the stream of salvation, but we shall not be refreshed unless we drink of the healing stream ourselves. We must see the beauty, the light of God's Word for ourselves, and kindle our taper at the divine altar, that we may go to the world, holding forth the Word of life as a bright, shining lamp....
TMK	172	4	How precious are these words! "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory" (verse 24).... Christ wills that we should behold His glory. Where? In the kingdom of heaven. He wills that we should be one with Him. What a thought! How willing it makes me to make any and every sacrifice for His sake! He is my love, my righteousness, my comfort, my crown of rejoicing, and He wills that we should behold His glory.21
------------------------Oneness With Christ and the Father, June 16
TMK	173	1	That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21.
TMK	173	2	Let these words be oft repeated and let every soul train his ideas and spirit and action daily that he may fulfill this prayer of Jesus Christ. He does not request impossible things of His Father. He prays for the very things which must be in His disciples in relation to their oneness to each other and their unity and oneness with God and Jesus Christ. Anything short of this is not attaining to perfection of Christian character. The golden chain of love, binding the hearts of the believers in unity, in bonds of fellowship and love, and in oneness with Christ and the Father, makes the connection perfect, and bears to the world a testimony of the power of Christianity that cannot be controverted....
TMK	173	3	Then will selfishness be uprooted and unfaithfulness will not exist. There will not be strife and divisions. There will not be stubbornness in anyone who is bound up with Christ. Not one will act out the stubborn independence of the wayward, impulsive child who drops the hand that is leading him and chooses to stumble on alone....
TMK	173	4	"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:34, 35). Satan understands the power of such a testimony as a witness to the world of what grace can do in transforming character. He is not pleased that such a light shall shine forth from those who claim to believe in Jesus Christ, and he will work every conceivable device to break this golden chain which links heart to heart of those who believe the truth and binds them up in close connection with the Father and the Son....
TMK	173	5	We believe in Jesus Christ. We unite our souls to Christ. He says, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit.... These things I command you, that ye love one another" (John 15:16, 17).22
------------------------God's Measurement of My Character, June 17
TMK	174	1	For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. 2 Corinthians 10:12.
TMK	174	2	Many measure themselves among themselves, and compare their lives with the lives of others. This should not be. No one but Christ is given us as an example. He is our true pattern, and each should strive to excel in imitating Him....
TMK	174	3	To be a Christian is not merely to take the name of Christ, but to have the mind of Christ, to submit to the will of God in all things. Many who profess to be Christians have yet to learn this great lesson. Many know little of what it is to deny self for Christ's sake. They do not study how they can best glorify God and advance His cause. But it is self, self, how can it be gratified? Such religion is worthless. In the day of God those who possess it will be weighed in the balance and found wanting.23
TMK	174	4	What men may say, what their opinion of us may be, amounts to very little. The question that concerns us is, What is God's measurement of my character? ... He who sustains another man in a wrong course of action is not on God's side, but on the enemy's. "So did not I," Nehemiah says, "because of the fear of God" (Nehemiah 5:15). Every soul is to gird himself for the spiritual conflict before us. The world's plans, the world's customs, the world's conniving, are not for us. We are to say, "So did not I, because of the fear of God." Selfishness, dishonesty, craftiness, are trying to intrude into hearts. Let us not give them room.
TMK	174	5	Nehemiah kept his eye single to the glory of God.... By the stability of his course of action he gave evidence that he was a brave Christian. His conscience was cleansed, refined, and ennobled by obedience to God. He refused to depart from Christian principles.
TMK	174	6	Upon all who believe in Christ is laid the obligation of walking worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called, to reveal the character of Christ. The cross will honor every Christian who honors it.24
------------------------Holiness a Companion of Humility, June 18
TMK	175	1	Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. 1 Peter 5:5.
TMK	175	2	How many cling with tenacious grasp to their self-termed dignity, which is only self-esteem. These seek to honor themselves instead of waiting in humbleness of heart for Christ to honor them. In conversation more time is spent in talking of self than in exalting the riches of the grace of Christ....
TMK	175	3	True holiness and humility are inseparable. The nearer the soul comes to God, the more completely is it humbled and subdued. When Job heard the voice of the Lord out of the whirlwind, he exclaimed, "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). It was when Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord and heard the cherubim crying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts," that he cried out, "Woe is me! for I am undone" (Isaiah 6:3, 5). Daniel, when visited by the holy messenger, says, "My comeliness was turned in me into corruption" (Daniel 10:8). Paul, after he was caught up into the third heaven and heard things that it was not lawful for a man to utter, speaks of himself as "less than the least of all saints" (Ephesians 3:8). It was the beloved John, who leaned on Jesus' breast and beheld His glory, who fell as one dead before the angel. The more closely and continuously we behold our Saviour, the less shall we see to approve in ourselves.25
TMK	175	4	He who catches a glimpse of the matchless love of Christ counts all other things as loss, and looks upon Him as the chiefest among ten thousand and as the one altogether lovely. As seraphim and cherubim look upon Christ, they cover their faces with their wings. Their own perfection and beauty are not displayed in the presence and glory of their Lord. Then how improper it is for men to exalt themselves! Let them rather be clothed with humility, cease all strife for supremacy, and learn what it means to be meek and lowly of heart. He who contemplates God's glory and infinite love, will have humble views of himself, but by beholding the character of God, he will be changed into His divine image.26
------------------------Why Be Lifted Up? June 19
TMK	176	1	Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Philippians 2:3, 4.
TMK	176	2	There is nothing which will weaken the strength of a church like pride and passion.... Christ has given us an example of love and humility and has enjoined upon His followers to love one another as He has loved us. We must in lowliness of mind esteem others better than ourselves. We must be severe upon our own defects of character, be quick to discern our own errors and mistakes, and make less of the faults of others than of our own. We must feel a special interest in looking upon the things of others--not to covet them, not to find fault with them, not to remark upon them and present them in a false light, but to do strict justice in all things to our brethren and all with whom we have any dealings. A spirit to work plans for our own selfish interest so as to grasp a little gain, or to labor to show a superiority or rivalry, is an offense to God. The spirit of Christ will lead His followers to be concerned not only for their success and advantage, but to be equally interested for the success and advantage of their brethren. This will be loving our neighbor as ourselves....
TMK	176	3	Jesus alone is to be exalted. Whatever may be the ability or the success of any one of us, it is not because we have manufactured these powers ourselves; they are the sacred trust given us of God, to be wisely employed in His service to His glory. All is the Lord's entrusted capital. Why, then, should we be lifted up? Why should we call attention to our own defective selves? What we do possess in talent and wisdom is received from the Source of wisdom, that we may glorify God....
TMK	176	4	Pride of talent, pride of intellect, cannot exist in hearts that are hid with Christ in God.... Then let us humble ourselves, and adore Jesus, but never, never, exalt self in the least degree.... If the motive of all our life is to serve and honor Christ and bless humanity in the world, then the dreariest path of duty will become a bright way--a path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in.27
------------------------"Take Heed Unto Thyself", June 20
TMK	177	1	Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. 1 Timothy 4:16.
TMK	177	2	Some seem to think that there is a certain amount of virtue in expressing their dissatisfaction in whatever is being done by others....
TMK	177	3	There was Judas; Christ permitted him to be a member of the church, notwithstanding his covetous, avaricious character. He had some traits that might have been used to the glory of God, but he did not try to overcome the defects in his character. Christ bore with him long and patiently.... He had the same lessons set before him that were given to the other apostles, which would have set him right had he made a right use of them, but he did not sustain a right relation to Heaven. Christ knew his true condition, and gave him an opportunity. He connected John with the church, not because John was above human frailties, but that He might bind him to His great heart of love. If John overcame his defects of character, he would stand as a light to the church. Peter, if he corrected his faults, would inherit the promises of God. And Jesus said to him, after His resurrection, notwithstanding that he had but a few days before denied Him, "Feed my sheep," and "Feed my lambs" (John 21:16, 15). He could trust Peter now, for he had obtained an experience in the things of God....
TMK	177	4	John was constantly learning to copy the life of Jesus. He was learning in Christ's school.... Lesson after lesson Christ gave to His disciples, that they might know the will of the Father and shine as lights in the world. John and Peter were men whom God could trust, but Judas was not. They had received and heeded the lessons and gained the victory, but Judas had failed at every trial. He saw his faults, but instead of correcting them revenged himself by picking flaws in others around him.... Paul says to Timothy, "Take heed unto thyself"; that is, seek God first for thyself. Let us individually turn our attention to ourselves, diligently guard our own souls, and set a Christlike example before those whom we would criticise.28
------------------------Revealing Christ in Character, June 21
TMK	178	1	In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Titus 2:7, 8.
TMK	178	2	Let not anyone be afraid of going to extremes while he is a close student of the Word, humbling the soul at every step. Christ must dwell in him by faith. He, their Exemplar, was self-possessed. He walked in humility. He had true dignity. He had patience. If we individually possess these traits... there will be no extremists.
TMK	178	3	Christ never erred in His judgment of men and of truth. He was never deceived by appearances. He never raised a question but what was clearly appropriate. He never gave an answer but what was fitting and right to the point. He silenced the voice of the cavilling, shrewd, and cunning priests by penetrating through the surface and reaching the heart, flashing light into their consciences, which annoyed them; but they would not yield to conviction. Christ never went to extremes, never lost self-control or the balance of mind under any excitement. He never violated the law of good taste and discernment when to speak and when to keep silent. Then if all who claim to see the precious golden rays of the light of the Sun of Righteousness will follow the example of Christ there will be no extremists....
TMK	178	4	Let calmness and self-possession be cultivated and perseveringly maintained, for this was the character of Christ.... We hear no noisy protestations of faith, nor do we see tremendous bodily contortions and exercises in the Author of all truth.
TMK	178	5	Remember, in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. If Christ is abiding in our hearts by faith, we shall, by beholding the manner of His life, seek to be like Jesus--pure, peaceable, and undefiled. We shall reveal Christ in our character. We will not only receive and absorb light but will also diffuse it. We will have more clear and distinct views of what Jesus is to us. The symmetry, loveliness, and benevolence that were in the life of Jesus Christ will be shining forth in our lives.29
------------------------Tares Among the Wheat, June 22
TMK	179	1	Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. Matthew 13:30.
TMK	179	2	In this world we shall become hopelessly perplexed (as the devil wants us to be) if we keep looking upon those things that are perplexing, for by dwelling upon them, and talking of them, we become discouraged.... We may create an unreal world in our own mind or picture an ideal church, where the temptations of Satan no longer prompt to evil, but perfection exists only in our imagination. The world is a fallen world, and the church is a place represented by a field in which grow tares and wheat. They are to grow together until the harvest. It is not our place to uproot the tares, according to human wisdom, lest under the suggestions of Satan the wheat may be rooted up under the supposition that it is tares. The wisdom that is from above will come to him who is meek and lowly in heart, and that wisdom will not lead him to destroy, but to build up the people of God....
TMK	179	3	None need to err, none need to lose the golden moments of time in their short life history through seeking to weigh the imperfections of professed Christians. Not one of us has time to do this. If we know what is the manner of character Christians should develop, and yet see in others that which is inconsistent with this character, let us determine that we will firmly resist the enemy in his temptations to make us act in an inconsistent way, and say, "I will not make Christ ashamed of me. I will more earnestly study the character of Christ in whom there was no imperfection, no selfishness, no spot, no stain of evil, who lived not to please and glorify Himself, but to glorify God and save fallen humanity. I will not copy the defective characters of these inconsistent Christians; the mistakes that they have made shall not lead me to be like them. I will turn to the precious Saviour, that I may be like Him, follow the instruction of the Word of God, which says, 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus'" (Philippians 2:5).30
------------------------As We Are Forgiven, June 23
TMK	180	1	And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Matthew 6:12.
TMK	180	2	It is most difficult, even for those who claim to be followers of Jesus, to forgive as Christ forgives us. The true spirit of forgiveness is so little practiced, and so many interpretations are placed upon Christ's requirement, that its force and beauty are lost sight of. We have very uncertain views of the great mercy and loving-kindness of God. He is full of compassion and forgiveness, and freely pardons when we truly repent and confess our sins....
TMK	180	3	Peter, when brought to the test, sinned greatly. In denying the Master he had loved and served, he became a cowardly apostate. But his Lord did not cast him off; He freely forgave him.... Henceforth, remembering his own weakness and failures, he would be patient with his brethren in their mistakes and errors. Remembering the patient love of Christ toward him, affording him another opportunity to bring forth the fruit of good works, he would be more conciliatory toward erring ones....
TMK	180	4	The Lord requires of us the same treatment toward His followers that we receive of Him. We are to exercise patience, to be kind even though they do not meet our expectations in every particular.... The last six commandments specify man's duty to man. Christ did not say, You may tolerate your neighbor, but, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." ...
TMK	180	5	The love of Jesus needs to be brought to bear upon our lives. It will have a softening, subduing influence upon our hearts and characters. It will prompt us to forgive our brethren even though they have done us injury. Divine love must flow from our hearts in gentle words and kindly actions to one another. The fruit of these good works will hang as rich clusters upon the vine of character....
TMK	180	6	Rejoicing in Christ as your Saviour, pitiful, compassionate, and touched with the feeling of your infirmities, love and joy will be revealed in your daily life. If you love Him who died to redeem mankind you will love those for whom He died.31
------------------------How to Settle Your Troubles, June 24
TMK	181	1	Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Matthew 18:15.
TMK	181	2	We should carefully consider what is our relation to God and to one another. We are continually sinning against God, but His mercy still follows us; in love He bears with our perversities, our neglect, our ingratitude, our disobedience. He never becomes impatient with us. We insult His mercy, grieve His Holy Spirit, and do Him dishonor before men and angels, and yet His compassions fail not. The thought of God's long-suffering to us should make us forbearing to one another. How patiently should we bear with the faults and errors of our brethren when we remember how great are our own failings in the sight of God. How can we pray to our heavenly Father, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:12) if we are ... exacting in our treatment of others? ...
TMK	181	3	If you think your brother has injured you, go to him in kindness and love, and you may come to an understanding and to reconciliation.... If you succeed in settling the trouble you have gained your brother without exposing his frailties, and the settlement between you has been the covering of a multitude of sins from the observation of others....
TMK	181	4	It takes special watchfulness to keep the affections alive and our hearts in a condition where we shall be sensible of the good that exists in the hearts of others. If we do not watch on this point, Satan will put his jealousy into our souls; he will put his glasses before our eyes, that we may see the actions of our brethren in a distorted light. Instead of looking critically upon our brethren we should turn our eyes within, and be ready to discover the objectionable traits of our own character. As we have a proper realization of our own mistakes and failures, the mistakes of others will sink into insignificance.
TMK	181	5	Satan is an accuser of the brethren. He is on the watch for every error, no matter how small, that he may have something on which to found an accusation. Keep off from Satan's side.32
------------------------Look for the Good, June 25
TMK	182	1	Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8.
TMK	182	2	We are a part of the great web of humanity. We become changed into the image of that upon which we dwell. Then how important to open our hearts to the things that are true and lovely and of good report. Let into the heart the light of the Sun of Righteousness. Do not cherish one root of bitterness.33
TMK	182	3	Christ was infinite in wisdom and yet He thought best to accept Judas, although He knew what were his imperfections of character. John was not perfect; Peter denied his Lord; and yet it was of men like these that the early Christian church was organized. Jesus accepted them that they might learn of Him what constitutes a perfect Christian character. The business of every Christian is to study the character of Christ....
TMK	182	4	Judas alone did not respond to divine enlightenment.... He braced his soul to resist the influence of the truth; and while he practiced criticising and condemning others, he neglected his own soul, and cherished and strengthened his natural evil traits of character until he became so hardened that he could sell his Lord for thirty pieces of silver.
TMK	182	5	O let us encourage our souls to look to Jesus! ...
TMK	182	6	It is not an uncommon thing to see imperfection in those who carry on God's work.... Would it not be more pleasing to God to take an impartial outlook, and see how many souls are serving God and glorifying and honoring Him with their talents of means and intellect? Would it not be better to consider the wonderful, miracle-working power of God in the transformation of poor degraded sinners...? The most unfavorable matters ... should not cause us to feel perplexed and discouraged. Everything that causes us to see the weakness of humanity is in the Lord's purpose to help us to look to Him, and in no case put our trust in man, or make flesh our arm.34
------------------------Sheep and Wolves, June 26
TMK	183	1	But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. Matthew 5:44.
TMK	183	2	In these last days, when iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold, God will have a people to glorify His name, and stand as reprovers of unrighteousness. They are to be a "peculiar people," who will be true to the law of God when the world shall seek to make void its precepts, and when the converting power of God works through His servants, the hosts of darkness will array themselves in bitter and determined opposition....
TMK	183	3	Satan is at enmity with the truth, and he will instigate against its advocates every manner of warfare.35
TMK	183	4	We must have our lives so hid with Christ in God that when bitter speeches and scornful words and unkind looks meet us, we shall not permit our feelings to be stirred up against this class, but shall feel the deepest sympathy for them, because they know nothing about the precious Saviour whom we claim to know. We must remember that they are in the service of one who is the bitterest enemy of Jesus Christ, and that while all heaven is opened to the sons and daughters of God, they have no such privilege. You ought to feel that you are the happiest people upon the face of the whole earth. Notwithstanding, as Christ's representatives, you are as sheep in the midst of wolves, you have One with you who can help you under all circumstances, and you will not be devoured by these wolves if you keep close to Jesus. How careful you should be to represent Jesus in every word and action! You should feel when you arise in the morning, and when you go out upon the street, and when you come in, that Jesus loves you, that He is by your side, and that you must not cherish a thought that will grieve your Saviour....
TMK	183	5	The evil angels may be all around you to press their darkness upon you, but the will of God is greater than their power. And if you do not in word or action, or in any way, make Christ ashamed of you, the sweet blessing and peace of God will be in your heart every day you live.36
------------------------A Time to Close the Mind, June 27
TMK	184	1	Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. James 4:11.
TMK	184	2	If Satan can employ professed believers to act as accusers of the brethren, he is greatly pleased, for those who do this are just as truly serving him as was Judas when he betrayed Christ, although they may be doing it ignorantly....
TMK	184	3	Floating rumors are frequently the destroyers of unity among brethren. There are some who watch with open mind and ears to catch flying scandal. They gather up little incidents which may be trifling in themselves, but which are repeated and exaggerated until a man is made an offender for a word. Their motto seems to be, "Report, and we will report it."
TMK	184	4	These talebearers are doing the devil's work with surprising fidelity, little knowing how offensive their course is to God. If they would spend half the energy and zeal that is given to this unholy work in examining their own hearts, they would find so much to do to cleanse their souls from impurity that they would have no time or disposition to criticize their brethren, and they would not fall under the power of this temptation.
TMK	184	5	The door of the mind should be closed against, "they say" or "I have heard." Why should we not, instead of allowing jealousy or evil surmising to come into our hearts, go to our brethren, and, after frankly but kindly setting before them the things we have heard detrimental to their character and influence, pray with and for them? ...
TMK	184	6	Let us diligently cultivate the pure principles of the gospel of Christ, the religion, not of self-esteem, but of love, meekness, and lowliness of heart. Then we shall love our brethren and esteem them better than ourselves. Our minds will not dwell on the dark side of their character; we shall not feast on scandal and flying reports. But "whatsoever things are ...of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise," we shall "think on these things" (Philippians 4:8).37
------------------------Fragrant With Heaven's Blessing, June 28
TMK	185	1	Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. James 3:13, 14.
TMK	185	2	What is lying against the truth? It is claiming to believe the truth while the spirit, the words, the deportment, represent not Christ but Satan. To surmise evil, to be impatient and unforgiving, is lying against the truth, but love, patience, and long forbearance are in accordance with the principles of truth. Truth is ever pure, ever kind, breathing a heavenly fragrance unmingled with selfishness....
TMK	185	3	To be unkind, to denounce others, to give expression to harsh, severe judgments, to entertain evil thoughts, is not the result of that wisdom which is from above.... The language of the Christian must be mild and circumspect, for his holy faith requires him to represent Christ to the world. All those who abide in Christ will manifest the kind, forgiving courtesy that characterized His life. Their works will be works of piety, equity, and purity. They will have the meekness of wisdom, and will exercise the gift of the grace of Jesus.38
TMK	185	4	"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, ... and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Colossians 3:15, 16). This was Christ's practice. He was often assailed by temptation, but in place of yielding or being provoked, He sang God's praises. With spiritual songs He stopped the fluent speech of those whom Satan was using to create strife....
TMK	185	5	When those who love God are tempted, let them sing the praises of their Creator rather than speak words of accusing or faultfinding. The Lord will bless those who thus try to make peace. Trust in God. Be careful not to give the enemy any advantage by your unguarded words. Keep looking to Jesus. He is your strength....
TMK	185	6	Be so considerate, so tender, so compassionate, that the atmosphere surrounding you will be fragrant with Heaven's blessing.39
------------------------The Greatest Service, June 29
TMK	186	1	Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32.
TMK	186	2	The greatest service we can render to the cause of God, and which will reflect steady beams of light upon the pathway of others, is to be patient, kind, steadfast as a rock to principle, God-fearing. This will constitute us the salt of the earth, the light of the world. We shall be often disappointed, for we shall not find perfection in those who are connected with us, and they will not see perfection in us. It is only by agonizing effort on our part that we shall become unselfish, humble, childlike, teachable, meek and lowly of heart, like our divine Lord. We must bring our hearts and minds up to a high point of education in spiritual and heavenly things.
TMK	186	3	This world is not heaven, but it is the workshop of God for the fitting up of His people for a pure and holy paradise. And while each one of us is to feel that he is a part of the great web of humanity, he must not expect that others in that web will be without a flaw any more than himself. Mistakes will be made, and if the erring are willing to be corrected, a valuable experience is gained, so that their defeat is turned to victory. You should consider that many of your own errors are not brought to light, and be careful not to make the mistakes and imperfection of others appear in their worst light, either to yourself or to others. No man is perfect, and unjust criticism indulged towards others is not wise or Christlike....
TMK	186	4	We have a serious, solemn work to do for ourselves to cleanse our own souls from spot and stain if we will stand before the Son of man when He shall appear, acquitted of Him. We must be educators as well as reformers. To cut loose from every one who errs and does not follow our own ideas is not doing as Christ is doing for us. We are all fallible, and we need pity, forbearance, kindly consideration, and sympathetic love for those with whom we are connected. We are all unworthy of the love and confidence of God.40
------------------------Building Up One Another, June 30
TMK	187	1	We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Romans 15:1.
TMK	187	2	God does not want us to place ourselves upon the judgment seat and judge each other.... When we see errors in others, let us remember that we have faults graver, perhaps, in the sight of God than the fault we condemn in our brother. Instead of publishing his defects, ask God to bless him and to help him to overcome his error. Christ will approve of this spirit and action, and will open the way for you to speak a word of wisdom that will impart strength and help to him who is weak in the faith.
TMK	187	3	The work of building one another up in the most holy faith is a blessed work, but the work of tearing down is a work full of bitterness and sorrow. Christ identifies Himself with His suffering children, for He says, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:40).... Every heart has its own sorrows and disappointments, and we should seek to lighten one another's burdens by manifesting the love of Jesus to those around us. If our conversation were upon heaven and heavenly things, evil speaking would soon cease to have any attraction for us....
TMK	187	4	Instead of finding fault with others, let us be critical with ourselves. The question with each one of us should be, Is my heart right before God? Will this course of action glorify my Father which is in heaven? If you have cherished a wrong spirit, let it be banished from the soul. It is your duty to eradicate from your heart everything that is of a defiling nature. Every root of bitterness should be plucked up, lest others be contaminated by its baleful influence. Do not allow one poisonous plant to remain in the soil of your heart. Root it out this very hour, and plant in its stead the plant of love. Let Jesus be enshrined in the soul. Christ is our example. He went about doing good. He lived to bless others. Love beautified and ennobled all His actions, and we are commanded to follow in His steps.41
------------------------The Highest Learning, July 1
TMK	188	1	For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6.
TMK	188	2	This knowledge--the knowledge of the glory of God--is the highest class of learning that mortals can obtain. And "we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (2 Corinthians 4:7).
TMK	188	3	Human fallacies are abundant and specious. Unseen agencies are at work to make falsehood appear as truth; errors are clothed with a deceptive garb that men may be led to accept them as essential to higher education. And these fallacies will deceive many of our students unless they are thoroughly guarded, and unless they are led by the Spirit of God to take the grand and holy truths of the Word into their hearts and minds, accepting these as the principles underlying the higher education. No instruction can exceed in value the pure instruction of God, which comes for the enlightenment of all who will be enlightened.... There can be no education higher than that which was given by the Great Teacher.1
TMK	188	4	There is nothing more detrimental to the soul's interest, its purity, its true and holy conceptions of God and of sacred and eternal things than constantly giving heed to and exalting that which is not from God. It poisons the heart and degrades the understanding. Pure truth can be traced to its divine Source by its elevating, refining, sanctifying influence upon the character of the receiver.2
TMK	188	5	At this time when every conceivable thing is being brought in to confuse the people of God, let your spiritual eyesight be strengthened; let your faith in the Word of God be firm. Know for yourselves that the words and teachings of Christ, which are the words and teachings of Jehovah, contain the highest instruction it is possible for men to gain. When any would seek to confuse your minds, repeat to them the words of Christ, "No man can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24). Let the Word of the Lord stand forth clearly and distinctly.3
------------------------Greatest Educator of All Time, July 2
TMK	189	1	The people were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Matthew 7:28, 29.
TMK	189	2	The world's men of learning are not easily reached by the practical truths of God's Word. The reason is, they trust to human wisdom and pride themselves upon their intellectual superiority, and are unwilling to become humble learners in the school of Christ.
TMK	189	3	Our Saviour did not ignore learning or despise education, yet He chose unlearned fishermen for the work of the gospel because they had not been schooled in the false customs and traditions of the world. They were men of good natural ability and of a humble, teachable spirit, men whom He could educate for His great work. In the ordinary walks of life there is many a man patiently treading the round of daily toil, all unconscious that he possesses power which if called into action would raise him to an equality with the world's most honored men. The touch of a skillful hand is needed to arouse and develop those dormant faculties. It was such men whom Jesus connected with Himself, and He gave them the advantages of three years' training under His own care. No course of study in the schools of the rabbis or the halls of philosophy could have equaled this in value. The Son of God was the greatest educator the world ever knew.
TMK	189	4	The learned lawyers, priests, and scribes scorned to be taught by Christ. They desired to teach Him, and frequently made the attempt, only to be defeated by the wisdom that laid bare their ignorance and rebuked their folly.... They knew that He had not learned in the schools of the prophets, and they could not discern the divine excellence of His character beneath the lowly disguise of the Man of Nazareth. But the words and deeds of the humble Teacher, recorded by the unlettered companions of His daily life, have exerted a living power upon the minds of men from that day to the present. Not merely the ignorant and humble, but men of education, intellect, and genius reverently exclaim, with the wondering and delighted listeners of old, "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46).4
------------------------Facing the Light, July 3
TMK	190	1	Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light. Luke 11:35, 36.
TMK	190	2	The moment the eye is turned from Jesus, darkness is seen, darkness is felt, for Jesus only is light and life and peace and assurance forever. "If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light" (Matthew 6:22).... What is it to have a single eye? It is to have a disposition to look upon Christ, for by beholding we become changed from glory to glory, from character to character.
TMK	190	3	As we keep Christ in view, the bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness shine upon us and flood the chambers of the mind and heart and fill the soul temple with light. As the Light of the world shines upon us, we diffuse it to those around "as when the bright shining of a candle doth give ... light." The soul that is stayed upon God commits to Christ all that perplexes, all that annoys, all that gives anxiety. The light of Christ shines in the soul in all goodness and peace, for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily....
TMK	190	4	Those who behold Christ will never plead that their own will may be done, or that their old ways and habits may be left undisturbed. As they behold Jesus, His image becomes engraved on heart and soul, and in all their practices they reflect His example upon the world. Day by day the hands, the feet, the tongue, follow the dictates of the spiritual nature, and faith makes their path a path that grows brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Everything that keeps us from attaining unto the likeness of Christ is working out for us eternal loss. Then let no one plead for a continuance of his own way. Let no one seek to excuse his deficiencies of character by saying, It is "my way." Cooperate with Jesus Christ and you will see that your own way is a way full of deficiency and fault, and that if it is not corrected it will cause you to put into your character building traits that will be as rotten timbers.... Let nothing of these defects of character be found in your building. Build on the rock Christ Jesus.5
------------------------Opening the Mysteries of Redemption, July 4
TMK	191	1	Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. Luke 24:45.
TMK	191	2	The Lord wants every one of us to have a deeper, richer experience in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He desires that we shall grow in knowledge--not earthward, but heaven-ward, upward to Christ our living Head. How high, how great, is this knowledge to be? To the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. We cannot grow too much, we cannot gather up too many of the precious rays of light that God sends us....
TMK	191	3	We know falsehoods are coming in like a swift current, and that is just the reason why we want every ray of light that God has for us, that we may be able to stand amid the perils of the last days....
TMK	191	4	O how Christ longs to open before us the mysteries of redemption! He longed to do this for His disciples when He was among them on earth, but they were not far enough advanced in spiritual knowledge to comprehend His words. He had to say to them, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John 16:12). O how much better could they have borne the terrible ordeal through which they had to pass at His trial and crucifixion if they had advanced and been able to bear the instruction of Christ! Shall we not let Jesus open our understanding? ...
TMK	191	5	We are on the borders of the eternal world, and we must have a testimony with which all heaven shall be in harmony.6
TMK	191	6	The Lord is coming, and we must be ready! Every moment I want His grace--I want the robe of Christ's righteousness. We must humble our souls before God as never before, come low to the foot of the cross, and He will put a word in our mouths to speak for Him, even praise unto our God. He will teach us a strain from the song of the angels, even thanksgiving to our heavenly Father. We can do nothing of ourselves, but God wants to touch our lips with a living coal from off the altar. He wants to sanctify our tongues--to sanctify our whole being.7
------------------------Object of the Oracles, July 5
TMK	192	1	The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. Psalm 119:130.
TMK	192	2	The light and understanding which God's Word imparts is not designed merely, or chiefly, to promote intellectual culture. For an object higher than any earthly or temporal good were the holy oracles committed unto men. We see therein revealed the great plan of human redemption, the means devised to free mankind from the power of Satan. We see Christ, the Captain of our salvation, meeting the prince of darkness in open battle, and single-handed, obtaining the victory in our behalf. We learn too that by this victory was opened to us a door of hope, a source of strength, and that we may, as faithful soldiers, fight our own battles with the wily foe, and conquer in the name of Jesus. The powers of darkness must be met by every soul. The young as well as the old will be assailed, and all should understand the nature of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, and should realize that it concerns themselves....
TMK	192	3	It is not enough to have an intellectual knowledge of the truth.... There must be an entrance of the Word into the heart. It must be set home by the power of the Holy Spirit. The will must be brought into harmony with its requirements. Not only the intellect but the heart and conscience must concur in the acceptance of the truth.
TMK	192	4	The entrance of God's Word gives understanding to the simple--those who are untaught in the wisdom of the world. The Holy Spirit brings the saving truths of the Scriptures within the comprehension of all who desire to know and do the will of God. Uneducated minds are enabled to grasp the most sublime and soul-stirring themes that can engage the attention of men--themes that will be the study and the song of the redeemed through all eternity.
TMK	192	5	It is the knowledge which God's Word supplies, and which can be found nowhere else, that we need above every other. We want to know what to do in this our day to escape the snares of Satan and to win the crown of glory.8
------------------------Wisdom From the Father of Light, July 6
TMK	193	1	For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6.
TMK	193	2	The great and essential knowledge is the knowledge of God and His Word.... The Christian will grow in grace just in proportion as he depends upon and appreciates the teaching of the Word of God, and habituates himself to meditate upon divine things....
TMK	193	3	But let no one imagine that we would discourage education or put a low estimate upon the value of mental culture and discipline. God would have us students as long as we remain in this world, ever learning and bearing responsibility.... But no one should set himself as a critic to measure the usefulness and influence of his brother who has had few advantages in obtaining book knowledge. He may be rich in a rarer wisdom. He may have a practical education in the knowledge of the truth. Says the psalmist, "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple" (Psalm 119:130).... The wisdom spoken of by the psalmist is that which is attained when the truth is opened to the mind and applied to the heart by the Spirit of God, when its principles are wrought into the character by a life of practical godliness....
TMK	193	4	It is the Spirit of God that quickens the lifeless faculties of the soul to appreciate heavenly things, and attracts the affections toward God and the truth. Without the presence of Jesus in the heart, religious service is only dead, cold formalism. The longing desire for communion with God soon ceases when the Spirit of God is grieved from us, but when Christ is in us the hope of glory, we are constantly directed to think and act in reference to the glory of God. The questions will arise, "Will this do honor to Jesus? Will this be approved of by Him? Shall I be able to maintain my integrity if I enter into this arrangement?" God will be made the counselor of the soul, and we shall be led into safe paths, and the will of God will be made the supreme guide of our lives. This is heavenly wisdom, ... and it makes the Christian, however humble, the light of the world.9
------------------------The Christian's Textbook, July 7
TMK	194	1	Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. John 5:39.
TMK	194	2	The admonition to "search the Scriptures" was never more appropriate than at the present time. This is an age of unrest, and the youth drink deeply of its spirit. Would that they could be made to realize the importance and the peril of the position they occupy! ... Never were such momentous issues before any generation as await the one now coming upon the stage of action. Never were the youth of any age or country so earnestly observed by the angels of God as are the youth of today. All heaven is watching with intense interest for every indication of the characters they are forming--whether when brought to the test they will stand firmly for God and the right, or be swayed by worldly influences....
TMK	194	3	God has a great work to be done in a short time. He has committed to the young, talents of intellect, time, and means, and He holds them responsible for the use they make of these good gifts. He calls upon them to come to the front, to resist the corrupting, bewitching influences of this fast age and to become qualified to labor in His cause. They cannot become fitted for usefulness without putting heart and energy into the work of preparation....
TMK	194	4	It is a divine law that blessings come at some cost to the receiver. Those who would become wise in the sciences must study, and those who would become wise in regard to Bible truth, that they may impart that knowledge to others, must be diligent students of God's Holy Word. There is no other way; they must search the Scriptures diligently, interestedly, prayerfully.... And after all their research, there is beyond an infinity of wisdom, love, and power.
TMK	194	5	The Bible should ever be the Christian's textbook. Of all books it should be made the most attractive to the young. If they drink deep of its spirit they will be prepared to withstand the wiles of Satan and to resist the temptations of this infidel age.10
------------------------Exploring the Mine of Truth, July 8
TMK	195	1	For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21.
TMK	195	2	Some have neglected the Bible under the erroneous impression that the indwelling of the Spirit was preferable to the study and guidance of the Scriptures. Such will be exposed to Satan's snares and fatal delusions. The Holy Spirit and the Word are in perfect harmony. The Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures and always leads to the Scriptures....
TMK	195	3	Everything in the religious world is to be tried by the Scriptures. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20). The claimed enlightenment of the Spirit within is to be tested and tried by the Word of God, which is the detector of the pure wheat....
TMK	195	4	The mine of truth is to be explored interestedly, diligently. How often we find Christ applying the Old Testament Scriptures, expounding their truths, showing their spiritual character, clothing them with freshness and richness and beauty the people had never beheld before.... The truths our Saviour reveals in His exposition are capable of constant expansion and new and richer developments. While searching the Scriptures, the mind that is led by the Holy Spirit sees their Author, and by beholding is constantly brightening while looking at the Word. Thus the intellect aspiring to reach the standard of perfection becomes elevated to comprehend it....
TMK	195	5	The truth of heavenly origin is represented as "treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field" (Matthew 13:44) that he may work every part of it. In his persevering efforts he discovers concealed jewels and precious ore. He who labors wisely sinks the shaft deeper and deeper and discovers a rich and precious lode. He finds that the field of revelation is interlaced with golden veins of precious treasures and is indeed the storehouse of the unsearchable riches of Christ--light, truth, and life.11
------------------------A Voice From God, July 9
TMK	196	1	These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Acts 17:11.
TMK	196	2	To some the Word of God is uninteresting. The reason is, they have so long indulged in the bewitching stories to be found in the literature of the present day that they have no relish for the reading of God's Word or for religious exercises. This reading disqualifies the mind to receive sound Bible principles and to work out practical godliness....
TMK	196	3	When reading the Bible with humble, teachable heart, we are holding intercourse with God Himself. The thoughts expressed, the precepts specified, the doctrines revealed, are a voice from the God of heaven. The Bible will bear to be studied, and the mind, if not bewitched by Satan, will be attracted and charmed.... The light which beams through the Scriptures is light from the eternal throne flashed down to this earth....
TMK	196	4	All who make the Word of God their guide in this life will act from principle. Those who are vacillating, vain, and extravagant in dress, who are gratifying the appetite and following the promptings of the natural heart, will, in obeying the teachings of God's Word, become balanced. They will devote themselves to duty with an energy that never falters, and they will rise from one degree of strength to another. Their characters will be beautiful and fragrant and devoid of selfishness. They will make their way and be acceptable anywhere among those who love truth and righteousness.12
TMK	196	5	The psalmist prayed, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." The Lord heard him, for how full of assurance are the words, "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." (Psalm 119:18, 103; 19:10.). And as the Lord heard and answered David, so He will hear and answer us, making our hearts full of gladness and rejoicing.13
------------------------Book of the Ages, July 10
TMK	197	1	For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119:89.
TMK	197	2	The Word of God covers a period of history reaching from the Creation to the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. Yea, more, it carries the mind forward to the future life, and opens before it the glories of Paradise restored. Through all these centuries the truth of God has remained the same. That which was truth in the beginning is truth now. Although new and important truths appropriate for succeeding generations have been opened to the understanding, the present revealings do not contradict those of the past. Every new truth understood only makes more significant the old.14
TMK	197	3	Commencing with the Fall, down through the patriarchal and Jewish ages even to the present time, there has been a gradual unfolding of the purposes of God in the plan of redemption. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses understood the gospel through Christ; they looked for the salvation of the race through man's substitute and surety. These holy men of old held communion with the Saviour who was to come to our world in human flesh, and some of them talked with Christ and heavenly angels face to face, as a man talks with his friend.15
TMK	197	4	As time has rolled on from Creation and the cross of Calvary, as prophecy has been and is still fulfilling, light and knowledge have greatly increased.... In the life and death of Christ, a light flashes back upon the past, giving significance to the whole Jewish economy, and making of the old and the new dispensations a complete whole. Nothing that God has ordained in the plan of redemption can be dispensed with. It is the working out of the divine will in the salvation of man.16
TMK	197	5	All the truths of revelation are of value to us, and in contemplating things of eternal interest, we shall gain true perceptions of the character of God.... The entire character will be elevated and transformed. The soul will be brought into harmony with Heaven.17
------------------------True Christian Culture, July 11
TMK	198	1	But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, ... and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-6.
TMK	198	2	If you come into close relationship to Jesus Christ you see wondrous things out of His law that are not now seen. The softening, subduing influence of the Spirit of God upon human hearts and minds will make the true children of God to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Christian culture will be carried on in every heart worked by the Holy Spirit. There will be a soft, subdued spirit in all those who are looking unto Jesus. The love of Jesus always leads to Christian courtesy, refinement of language, and purity of expression that testify the company we are with--that like Enoch we are walking with God. There is no storming, no harshness, but a sweet fragrance in speech and in spirit.
TMK	198	3	The Word is to be our study. Here is a mine of precious ore. Much of it has been glimpsed at, but there is the digging to be done to secure much more precious treasures. There have been many who have just rummaged over the surface in a most careless, slovenly manner, when others are searching more carefully and prayerfully and perseveringly, and hidden, inestimable treasures are found....
TMK	198	4	Let it be seen that your life is hid with Christ in God. Let there be no hasty speech, no cheap words, no slang phrases. Let it be demonstrated that you are conscious of a Companion whom you honor, and that you will not make Him ashamed of you. Only think, we are representatives of Jesus Christ! Then represent His character in words, in deportment.... The converting power of God is needed every day to sanctify and fit vessels for the Master's use. O there are precious lessons in the Holy Book that we are yet to find and practice! Our conscience must recognize and revere a higher standard of Christianity .... You may be all light in the Lord. You may be increasing in efficiency, in purity, in the knowledge of God, if you keep meek and lowly of heart.18
------------------------Truths That Transform, July 12
TMK	199	1	The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12.
TMK	199	2	The truths of the Bible, treasured in the heart and mind and obeyed in the life, convince and convert the soul, transform the character, and comfort and uplift the heart.... The Word makes the proud humble, the perverse meek and contrite, the disobedient obedient. The sinful habits natural to man are interwoven with the daily practice. But the Word cuts away the fleshly lusts. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the mind. It divides the joints and marrow, cutting away the lusts of the flesh, making men willing to suffer for their Lord.19
TMK	199	3	The service of Christ is a heavenly and holy and blessed thing. The Word is to be diligently searched, for the ministry of the Word discovers the imperfections in our characters and teaches us that the sanctification of the Spirit is a work of heavenly devising, presenting in Christ Jesus the true perfection that if maintained will become a perfect whole in behalf of every soul. We are educated in Bible lines to become complete in Christlikeness and to see His Father's face in Him who gave His own life for the saving of the soul.20
TMK	199	4	If you are an intelligent Christian you will maintain religious vitality and will not be deterred by difficulties.... You will work the works of God in gloom as well as in glory, in shade as well as in sunshine, in trial as well as in peace. The truth must be treasured up in your heart as well as incorporated in your being, so that no temptation and no argument can induce you to yield to Satan's suggestions or devices. The truth is precious. It has wrought important changes upon the life and upon the character, exerting a masterly influence over words, deportment, thoughts, and experience. The soul who appreciates the truth lives under its influence and senses the tremendous realities of eternal things. He lives not to himself, but to Jesus Christ who died for him. To him, God lives and is very cognizant of all his words and actions.21
------------------------Truth a Divine Sentinel, July 13
TMK	200	1	Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12.
TMK	200	2	I appeal to the youth. Consider your ways....
TMK	200	3	No youth can withstand the temptations of Satan if the truth, with its purifying, uplifting power, is not abiding in the heart. Truth has a correcting influence upon the life. It is a divine sentinel, keeping watch in your souls and rousing to action against Satan's assaults. Under the divine influence of truth the mind will be strengthened, the intellect invigorated, and there will be a growing up in the knowledge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Do not tarnish the truth by indulging in habits and practices that are inconsistent with its holy character, but hold it as a treasure of highest value....
TMK	200	4	The Lord desires you to understand the position you occupy as sons and daughters of the Most High, children of the Heavenly King. He desires you to live in close connection with Him.... Determine that you will be on the Lord's side. If you will stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel, faithfully doing His service, you need never yield to temptation, for One stands by your side who is able to keep you from falling. Every youth is granted a probation in which to form a character for the future, immortal life. Precious, golden moments these will be to you if you improve them according to the light God is permitting to shine upon you from His throne....
TMK	200	5	Will the youth turn their faces heavenward? Will they open the chambers of the mind to the Sun of Righteousness? Will they throw open the door of the heart and welcome Jesus in? What beauty of character shone forth in the daily life of Christ! He is to be our pattern. There is a great work to be done in fashioning the character after the divine similitude. The grace of Christ must mold the entire being, and its triumph will not be complete until the heavenly universe shall witness habitual tenderness of feeling, Christlike love, and holy deeds in the deportment of the children of God.22
------------------------Golden Promises, July 14
TMK	201	1	Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16.
TMK	201	2	In the night season I was before a company, [Ellen White is here describing a dream or night vision.] talking with them upon faith, and trying to make them understand that they were far behind in this respect.... They had a deficient experience in the knowledge of God and their Redeemer. I was trying to show them that they must be able intelligently to voice the words of John, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), that they must behold Him as their sin bearer.
TMK	201	3	Then the Word of God was opened before me in a most beautiful, striking light. Page after page was turned, and I read the gracious invitations and words of entreaty to seek God's glory and God's will, and all other things would be added. These invitations, promises, and assurances stood out as in golden letters. Why do you not grasp them? I said. Seek first to know God before any other thing. Search the Scriptures. Feed on the words of Christ, which are spirit and life, and your knowledge will enlarge and expand. Study your Bible. Study not the philosophy contained in many books, but study the philosophy of the Word of the living God. Other literature is of little consequence when compared with this. Do not crowd into your minds so many things that are cheap and unsatisfying. In the Word of God is spread before you the richest banquet. It is the Lord's table, abundantly provided, whereof you may eat and be satisfied.
TMK	201	4	The promises of God stood out clear and distinct, as though placed in letters of gold. Why, oh, why are they not appreciated! Why is not the heart filled with thanksgiving and praise? Why are your tongues so silent? ... The talent of speech is misappropriated. Let the talent of choice words be given to God in thanksgiving and rejoicing, and this will glorify His name. Surrender self entirely to God. "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts ... ; and be ye thankful" (Colossians 3:15).23
------------------------Springs of Comfort, July 15
TMK	202	1	My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. Psalm 63:5.
TMK	202	2	There is marrow and fatness for all who seek for truth as the miner seeks for gold. Who is it that God will instruct? Isaiah tells us: "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isaiah 57:15)--those who see the evil of their unconverted characters, and repent, mourning over the life that has so poorly represented Christ....
TMK	202	3	Gather the precious rays of light shining around you and focus them in one blaze upon the Word, and truths hidden from the casual reader will stand forth plainly and distinctly. All over the field of revelation are scattered grains of gold--the sayings of the wisdom of God. If you are wise you will gather up these precious grains of truth. Make the promises of God your own. Then when test and trial come, these promises will be to you glad springs of heavenly comfort. As you study the Word, it will become to you a wellspring of wisdom. Thus you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God.
TMK	202	4	Ask God to reveal light and truth to you by His Holy Spirit, that you may understand what you read in His Word. When, after the resurrection, Christ walked with the disciples to Emmaus, He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. The same divine Teacher will enlighten our understanding if we keep the windows of the heart opened heavenward and closed earthward. The office of the Holy Spirit is to bring all things to our remembrance and to guide us into all truth.
TMK	202	5	The Lord loves us, and we are to love Him with the whole heart. Ask Him to guide you into all truth. He will do this. He longs to do it. He is waiting for you to ask Him with true humility and a firm belief that He will hear and answer you.24
------------------------Loss That Is Gain, July 16
TMK	203	1	Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. Philippians 3:8.
TMK	203	2	What is God's will? What shall I do to glorify God? I am pledged to serve my Saviour with undivided affection. I count everything but dross that I may win Christ. Heaven, eternal life, is worth everything to me, and Christ has died that I might come into possession of the eternal weight of glory....
TMK	203	3	We cannot afford to make any mistake where eternal interests are involved. To be indifferent to the claims of God upon us is most ungrateful. We cannot neglect this great salvation and be guiltless. An eternity of bliss has been purchased for every son and daughter of Adam, and all may have a clear title to the immortal inheritance, the eternal substance, if they will in probationary time prove their obedience to the commandments of God. All will be tested in this life. If they ... by faith lay hold on the merits of Christ and serve God with all their hearts they will have a title to those mansions that Jesus has prepared for all that love Him....
TMK	203	4	Let us love God supremely, allowing no influence to come between us and our God. We must give heed to the light which God has permitted to shine upon our pathway; we must show before all heaven that we appreciate every ray of light; we must reflect that light upon others. We are responsible to God for our influence. Even if we are compelled to stand apparently alone, we are not alone, for Christ is with us to encourage and strengthen and bless us. He is acquainted with every desire of your heart, with every purpose of your soul. He says, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14:18). Let us believe that God will do just as He has promised....
TMK	203	5	We must not allow our minds to drift and come to no point. We know that the Lord is soon to come, and we must serve God from principle and be firm as a rock to follow in the path of obedience, because it is the only safe path.25
------------------------The Peril of Neglect, July 17
TMK	204	1	Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. 2 Peter 1:10.
TMK	204	2	The world's Redeemer has said, "Search the scriptures" (John 5:39). In them is laid open the bounteous provisions for human necessities, and the strongest motives are set forth to influence to repentance and obedience. Here the seeker for truth may read, contemplate, and be stirred to the very depths of his being by that which a good and gracious God has done and is continually doing for him. He will be amazed that he should ever have treated with indifference the marvelous love and pardon proffered, for in redeeming man, God gave the greatest gift that He could offer. And if the objects of so great a love neglect salvation, there is nothing that Heaven can do more in their behalf....
TMK	204	3	You need to study, to contemplate these great themes, lest you cherish indifference and become too hardened to yield to the conditions of the wonderful plan of salvation, and too proud to be humbled by a realization of your own fallen condition....
TMK	204	4	The Lord enjoins upon children and youth to search for truth as for hidden treasure, and to be attracted and fascinated by that which unites the human with the divine.... Well may the apostle ask, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3)....
TMK	204	5	The power of an angel could not make an atonement for our sins. The angelic nature united to the human could not be as costly, as elevated, as the law of God. It was the Son of God alone who could present an acceptable sacrifice. God Himself became man and bore all the wrath that sin had provoked. This problem--How could God be just and yet the justifier of sinners?--baffled all finite intelligence. A divine person alone could mediate between God and man. Human redemption is a theme which may well tax the faculties of the mind to the utmost....
TMK	204	6	We cannot say to the youth or those of mature age, You have nothing to do yourself in this great work. We urge to constant effort. You must be diligent to make your calling and election sure.26
------------------------Rich Depths of Knowledge, July 18
TMK	205	1	If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. John 7:17.
TMK	205	2	The more earnestly we apply our minds to the investigation of truth, the clearer will the evidences of truth appear, and the more closely we relate ourselves to the God of all wisdom, coming into communion with Him who has created all things, the richer will be our knowledge, the more fully shall we comprehend divine truth. God has graciously endowed men with intellectual powers, and these powers are to be wisely improved, that men may have ability to search into and understand rich depths of knowledge in the character, Word, and works of God. God will open the treasures of His love to the willing and obedient; he that willeth to do the will of God shall know of the doctrine.
TMK	205	3	By communion with God we become refined, broadened, and elevated. To him who desires the knowledge of divine things, God will open hidden wonders that are beyond the comprehension of those who are unenlightened by the Spirit of God....
TMK	205	4	The great gift of salvation has been placed within our reach at an infinite cost to the Father and the Son. To neglect salvation is to neglect the knowledge of the Father and of the Son whom God hath sent....
TMK	205	5	The greatness, the breadth, of the plan of salvation invests it with incomparable grandeur, but it can only be spiritually discerned, and it increases in greatness as we contemplate it. Looking to Jesus dying upon the cross, and knowing that it was our sin that placed the innocent Sufferer there, we are bowed down before Him in wonder and love.27
TMK	205	6	All who come to Christ for a clearer knowledge of the truth will receive it. He will unfold to them the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and these mysteries will be understood by the heart that longs to know the truth. A heavenly light will shine into the soul temple and will be revealed to others as the bright shining of a lamp on a dark path.28
------------------------Human Versus Divine Wisdom, July 19
TMK	206	1	That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:5.
TMK	206	2	The prevailing spirit of our times is that of infidelity and apostasy. The spirit manifested in the world is one of pride and self-exaltation. Men boast of illumination, which in reality is the blindest presumption, for they are in opposition to the plain Word of God. Many exalt human reason, idolize human wisdom, and set the opinions of men above the revealed wisdom of God.... Among the great mass of professed Christians the grievous character of the transgression of the law of God is not understood. They do not realize that salvation can be obtained only through the blood of Christ....
TMK	206	3	In the eyes of men, vain philosophy and science, falsely so-called, are of more value than the Word of God. The sentiment prevails to a large extent that the divine Mediator is not essential to the salvation of man. A variety of theories advanced by the so-called worldly wise men for man's elevation are believed and trusted in more than is the truth of God as taught by Christ and His apostles.29
TMK	206	4	The Lord would have us individually search the Scriptures that we may become acquainted with the great plan of redemption and take in the grand subject as far as it is possible for the human mind, enlightened by the Spirit of God, to understand the purpose of God. He would have us comprehend something of His love in giving His Son to die that He might counteract evil, remove the defiling stains of sin from the workmanship of God, and reinstate the lost, elevating and ennobling the soul to its original purity through Christ's imputed righteousness. The only way in which the fallen race could be restored was through the gift of His Son, equal with Himself, possessing the attributes of God....
TMK	206	5	God has endowed humanity with attributes whereby we may appreciate God, and though man has revolted from God and has endeavored to supply the place of God with other objects of worship, the true God alone can fill the wants of the soul.30
------------------------Author and Teacher of Truth, July 20
TMK	207	1	To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. John 18:37.
TMK	207	2	Christ is the author of all truth. Every brilliant conception, every thought of wisdom, every capacity and talent of men, is the gift of Christ. He borrowed no new ideas from humanity, for He originated all. But when He came to earth He found the bright gems of truth which He had entrusted to man all buried up in superstition and tradition. Truths of most vital importance were placed in the framework of error, to serve the purpose of the arch deceiver.... But Christ swept away erroneous theories of every grade. No one save the world's Redeemer had power to present the truth in its primitive purity, divested of the error that Satan had accumulated to hide its heavenly beauty.... The work of Christ was to take the truth of which the people were in want, and separate it from error and present it free from the superstitions of the world, that the people might accept it on its own intrinsic and eternal merit. He dispersed the mists of doubt, that the truth might be revealed and shed distinct rays of light into the darkness of men's hearts.31
TMK	207	3	The truth came from His lips clothed in new and interesting representations that gave it the freshness of a new revelation. His voice was never pitched to an unnatural key, and His words came with an earnestness and assurance appropriate to their importance and the momentous consequences involved in their reception or rejection.32
TMK	207	4	He invited men to learn of Him, for He was a living representation of the law of God. He was the only one in human garb that could stand among a nation of witnesses, and looking round upon them, say, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" (John 8:46). He knew that no man could point out any defect in His character or conduct. What power His spotless purity gave to His instructions, what force to His reproofs, what authority to His commands! ... He proved Himself to be the way, the truth, and the life.33
------------------------Central Theme of the Scriptures, July 21
TMK	208	1	And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:27.
TMK	208	2	There is one great central truth to be kept ever before the mind in the searching of the Scriptures--Christ and Him crucified. Every other truth is invested with influence and power corresponding to its relation to this theme. It is only in the light of the cross that we can discern the exalted character of the law of God. The soul palsied by sin can be endowed with life only through the work wrought out upon the cross by the Author of our salvation. The love of Christ constrains man to unite with Him in His labors and sacrifice. The revelation of divine love awakens in them a sense of their neglected obligation to be light bearers to the world, and inspires them with a missionary spirit. This truth enlightens the mind and sanctifies the soul. It will banish unbelief and inspire faith.... When Christ in His work of redemption is seen to be the great central truth of the system of truth, a new light is shed upon all the events of the past and the future. They are seen in a new relation, and possess a new and deeper significance.34
TMK	208	3	The Old Testament is as verily the gospel in types and shadows as the New Testament is in its unfolding power. The New Testament does not present a new religion; the Old Testament does not present a religion to be superseded by the New. The New Testament is only the advancement and unfolding of the Old. Abel was a believer in Christ and was as verily saved by His power as was Peter or Paul. Enoch was a representative of Christ as surely as was the beloved disciple John.... That God who walked with Enoch was our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He was the light of the world then, just as He is now.35
TMK	208	4	The truth for this time is broad in its outlines, far reaching, embracing many doctrines, but these doctrines are not detached items which mean little; they are united by golden threads, forming a complete whole, with Christ as the living center.36
------------------------A Will of Your Own? July 22
TMK	209	1	The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. Proverbs 19:11.
TMK	209	2	There are duties to the body and duties to the soul, and these every human agent must cooperate with God in seeking to perform.... Do not submit to receive a cheap mold. The young need sound common sense, for they are living for two worlds....
TMK	209	3	Apply the truth to your own individual case. You have a soul to save or a soul to lose. Have a will of your own, but let it be subject to the will of God. Be determined that you will not become angry, that you will not become self-sufficient, that you will not be hasty and overbearing. If this is your weak point, guard that point as a man would guard a broken limb. Watch your spirit, and let not a hasty spirit conquer you. Be careful to examine the weak points in your character, knowing that the evils which exist may be overcome by steadfastly refusing to yield to your weakness. The evil of hasty, wicked, indulgence of temper makes any youth a madman. Keep sane. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Evil can and will grow ... through repetition.
TMK	209	4	Do not underrate the importance of little things because they are little. By action and reaction these little defects accumulate and bind themselves together like rods of steel. That little action, that unguarded word, repeated, becomes habit, ... and habit constitutes character....
TMK	209	5	Cultivate a kind, tender, sympathetic heart, and never call these attributes weakness, for they are the attributes of Christ. Be careful of your influence. Let it be of so pure and fragrant a character that you will never be ashamed to have it reproduced in others.
TMK	209	6	As drops of water make the river, so little things make up life. Life is a river, peaceful, calm, and enjoyable, or it is a troubled river, always casting up mire and dirt. In this life you may place yourself under the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Through the sanctification of the Spirit you will thus grow more and more like Christ.37
------------------------The Platform of Truth, July 23
TMK	210	1	For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. 1 Corinthians 3:19, 20.
TMK	210	2	The Word of God is to be our guide. About the truths that this Word contains there is no guesswork. Let us not leave this unerring guide in order to seek for something new and strange.... There are many such doctrines that have not for their foundation, "It is written." They are but human suppositions. It was with the word "It is written" that Christ met every temptation of Satan in the wilderness, and armed with this weapon, He could say to the enemy, "Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther."
TMK	210	3	We cannot with safety accept the opinions of any man, however learned, unless they are in harmony with the words of the Great Teacher. The opinions of erring men will be presented for our acceptance, but God's Word is our authority, and we are never to accept human teaching without the most conclusive evidence that it agrees with the teaching of God's Word. We are to know that we do know that we are standing on the platform of eternal truth--the Word of the living God.38
TMK	210	4	Truth, precious truth from the Word of God is to be presented, both in public and in families. We have a message that is to prepare a people to stand amid the perils of the last days.... Truth will stand every test that is brought to bear upon it. It cannot be overthrown by the sophistries of Satan. The more it is assailed the more bright and clear it will shine out. As we see indications of the active, earnest efforts of the enemy, shall we not make determined efforts to give the message in clear, decided lines? Shall we not stand forth in the power and Spirit of God, and receive and impart lessons from the Great Teacher? ... "O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth" (Isaiah 25:1).... Let us anchor ourselves to the words of the Lord God of Israel.39
------------------------God's Appointed Signature, July 24
TMK	211	1	And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Ezekiel 20:20.
TMK	211	2	How shall we distinguish God's true servants from the false prophets who Christ said should arise to deceive many? There is only one test of character--the law of Jehovah.
TMK	211	3	The Israelites placed over their doors a signature of blood to show that they were God's property. So the children of God in this age will bear the signature God has appointed. They will place themselves in harmony with God's holy law. A mark is placed upon every one of God's people just as verily as a mark was placed over the doors of the Hebrew dwellings, to preserve the people from the general ruin. God declares, "I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them" (Ezekiel 20:12).... There is no need for us to be deceived....
TMK	211	4	Satanic agencies have made the earth a stage for horrors which no language can describe. War and bloodshed are carried on by nations claiming to be Christian. A disregard for the law of God has brought its sure result. The great conflict now being waged is not merely a strife of man against man. On one side stands the Prince of life, acting as man's substitute and surety; on the other, the prince of darkness, with the fallen angels under his command....
TMK	211	5	There will be a sharp conflict between those who are loyal to God and those who cast scorn upon His law. The church has joined hands with the world. Reverence to God's law has been subverted. The religious leaders are teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. As it was in the days of Noah, so it is in this age of the world. But shall the prevalence of disloyalty and transgression cause those who have reverenced the law of God to have less respect for it, to unite with the powers of earth to make it void? The truly loyal will not be carried away by the current of evil. They will not throw scorn and contempt on that which God has set apart as holy. The test comes to every one. There are only two sides. On which side are you?40
------------------------Safety in the "Old Paths", July 25
TMK	212	1	Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16.
TMK	212	2	There is no safety anywhere. Satan has come down with great power and is working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. Those who do not follow in Christ's footsteps will find themselves following another leader. They have listened to strange voices until they cannot distinguish the voice of the True Shepherd. Little by little they ceased to heed the warnings, the reproofs, the instructions. Human wisdom came in, human imaginations were followed. Much reliance is placed upon human exertion and devices, and they imperceptibly go on until they are fully satisfied with their own wisdom, their own inventions, and are filled with their own doings.
TMK	212	3	Drink deep at the fountain of truth, and be a close student of the Word, for the Lord will take the words of truth and through the Holy Spirit imprint them on your heart that you may present the precious Word with simplicity and fervor. "Rejoice in the Lord alway: ..." that Jesus is glad to receive you with all your imperfections, with all your weakness, and acknowledge you as His child. Therefore, trust Him. Adorn the doctrine of Christ our Saviour by a well-ordered life and a godly conversation. "Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing"--that is, be not overanxious--"but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." What a privilege is this given to every one to trust in Jesus and tell Him everything! "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:4-7).
TMK	212	4	Have faith in God. However stormy may be the times, looking unto Jesus who is the author and the finisher of your faith, you will be complete in Him. Abide in the old paths, whoever may turn back. Be rooted and grounded and built up in the most holy faith, a living epistle known and read of all men.41
------------------------The Garden of God, July 26
TMK	213	1	For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. 1 Peter 1:24, 25.
TMK	213	2	If our minds are open to the impressions of the Spirit of God, we may learn lessons from the simple and beautiful things of nature. I feel oppressed in the crowded cities where there is naught for the eyes to look upon but houses. The flowers are to us constant teachers. The shrubs and flowers gather to themselves the properties of earth and air which they appropriate to perfect the beautiful buds and blossoming flowers for our happiness, but they are God's preachers, and we are to consider the lessons which they teach us.
TMK	213	3	Just so has God given us the precious promises throughout His Word. The Scriptures are open to us as the garden of God, and their promises are as fragrant flowers blooming all over that garden. God especially calls our attention to the very ones that are appropriate for us. In these promises we may discern the character of God and read His love to us. They are the ground upon which our faith rests, the support and strength of our faith and hope, and through these we are to delight our souls in God and breathe in the fragrance of heaven. Through the precious promises He withdraws the veil from the future and gives us glimpses of the things which He has prepared for those who love Him....
TMK	213	4	We should not regard them with carelessness or indifference. But as we would examine the precious flowers, ... delighting our senses with their loveliness and fragrance, just so we should take the promises of God, one by one, and examine them closely on every side--take in their richness, and be soothed, comforted, encouraged, and strengthened by them. God has provided for all the comforts the soul needs. They are suited to the friendless, the poverty stricken, the wealthy, the sick, the bereaved--all may have their appropriate help if they will see and take hold upon these by faith. God scatters blessings all along our path to brighten the rugged way of life, and we want to be receiving all the comfort and tokens of God's love with grateful hearts.42
------------------------To Which Party Do You Belong? July 27
TMK	214	1	Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 10:32.
TMK	214	2	The truth, to be genuine in its influence on the human heart, must be acknowledged before the universe of heaven, before the worlds unfallen, and before men. Let no one entertain the idea that he may work out his own salvation or receive the smallest spiritual blessing which the gospel offers, by stealth. The Lord calls for open, manly confession. "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 43:10). Nothing can be effectually gained in advancing in the knowledge of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ until the unbelieving one, longing after Christian excellence of character, shall become as God has intended--a spectacle unto the world, to angels, and to men, a city set on a hill that cannot be hid....
TMK	214	3	When one places his feet on the solid rock Christ Jesus as his foundation, he receives an endowment of power from the Source of all knowledge, all wisdom, and spiritual efficiency, that all may know to which party he belongs--commandment keepers or commandment breakers. The banner of Prince Emmanuel that floats over his head will not fail to clear away all uncertainty and give all to understand that we keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The love of Jesus Christ possesses a constraining power.43
TMK	214	4	When Jesus was asked the question, Art thou the Son of God? He knew that to answer in the affirmative would make His death certain; a denial would leave a stain upon His humanity. There was a time to be silent, and a time to speak. He had not spoken until plainly interrogated. In His lessons to His disciples He had declared: "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven." When challenged, Jesus did not deny His relationship with God. In that solemn moment His character was at stake and must be vindicated. He left on that occasion an example for man to follow under similar circumstances. He would teach him not to apostatize from his faith to escape suffering or even death.44
------------------------Noncommittal Christians, July 28
TMK	215	1	Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Matthew 5:14, 15.
TMK	215	2	Let no one feel inclined to hide his light. Those who hide their light so that the world may not distinguish between them and those who walk in darkness will soon lose all power to diffuse light. They are the ones who are represented by the five foolish virgins, and when the crisis comes, when the call is heard "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him" (Matthew 25:6), they will arouse at last to find that their lamps have gone out, that they have mixed with the elements of the world and have not provided themselves with the oil of grace. They were lulled to sleep by the cry of peace and safety, and did not keep their lamps trimmed and burning. Aroused to their darkness they plead for oil, but it is impossible for one Christian to impart character to another soul. Character is not transferable. Those who are ease-loving, world-loving, fashion-loving professors of Christianity will not go in to the marriage supper of the Lamb with those who are represented by the five wise virgins. When they solicit entrance they are told that the door is shut. Now is the time to impart light....
TMK	215	3	It is not to be looked upon as a trifling matter to have the light of present truth, and yet to be noncommittal. It is no trifling thing to say by attitude and sentiment, even though that sentiment is not expressed in words, "My Lord delayeth his coming." The spirit and influence of the peace and safety sentiment is in our very midst, and the very atmosphere that surrounds the soul of many who profess to be believers in the soon coming of Christ is of a malarious character, calculated to soothe the very ones who would be stirred if we showed zeal and determination and stood at our post of duty to warn men of the speedy advent of our Lord....We must speak forth the truth, we must let our light shine forth in clear, steady rays, lest some soul shall stumble and fall because our light is eclipsed.45
------------------------Passing on the Light, July 29
TMK	216	1	Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16.
TMK	216	2	Those who have an experimental knowledge of the truth are under obligation to God to communicate the precious light.... Some will be convicted and will heed the words spoken to them in love and tenderness. They will acknowledge that the truth is the very thing they need to set them free from the slavery of sin and the bondage of worldly principles. There are opened before them themes of thought, fields for action, that they had never comprehended. In Jesus the Redeemer they discern infinite wisdom, infinite justice, infinite mercy--depths, heights, lengths and breadths of love which passeth knowledge. Beholding the perfection of Christ's character, contemplating His mission, His love, His grace, His truth, they are charmed; the great want of the soul is met, and they will say with the psalmist, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness" (Psalm 17:15). The divine object of faith and love they see to be Jesus Christ. With them the love of the world, the worshiping of earthly treasures, have come to an end.
TMK	216	3	Such a soul appropriates the Word of God to himself. He sees that the miracles, the self-denial, the self-sacrifice of Christ, His being lifted up on the cross, were for him. The language of the heart will be, "He died for me. He triumphed in death that I should not perish but believe in Him as my personal Saviour, and have that life which measures with the life of God. In the riches of His grace I am possessed of treasures that are as enduring as eternity."
TMK	216	4	The world is no longer his study and his god. He hungers for a knowledge of the Word which contains for him treasures that are to be constantly sought and are constantly satisfying--an inexhaustible mine of precious things to be sought for in faith, to be appropriated and communicated to others. He has discovered the fountain of living waters, the wells of salvation, from which he may continually draw, and there will be no diminishing of the supply.46
------------------------Light for Those Who Love Light, July 30
TMK	217	1	Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Psalm 97:11.
TMK	217	2	Christ has left His Holy Spirit to be His representative in the world, to give celestial aid to every hungering, thirsting soul.... We are living in a most solemn period of this world's history, but light is shining for those who will walk in the light....
TMK	217	3	There are many who have not had the light, and they are not judged guilty. They mourn because of their human ignorance. They find nothing satisfactory, and thirst for a knowledge of the only true God. They have an ideal of God in their minds and they desire to find Him. He has entrusted light to His people to give to all those who are praying for light. He has sent forth His streams of salvation to refresh those who are athirst for a knowledge of truth, virtue, and holiness. To such we should speak as did the apostle Paul to the Athenians, "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you" (Acts 17:23). Heavenly inspiration has come to men, and they have been entrusted with gospel truth, and have thereby been weighted with a solemn responsibility to devote their God-given powers to making God known to man. Christ says, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3)....
TMK	217	4	Those who have the mind of Christ will "walk even as he walked." They will live out the law of God, will feed upon Christ, be partakers of the divine nature, and stand as living sentinels for truth. In integrity of heart they will voice the cry, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters ..." (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18)....
TMK	217	5	God gives light to those who love light. He imparts truth to those who search for truth as for something of most precious value in order that they may impart light to those who are in the valley and the shadow of death.47
------------------------Let God Manage You, July 31
TMK	218	1	And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Psalm 90:17.
TMK	218	2	God wants you to let Him manage you, that you may be a lovable Christian. The Lord would have the natural and hereditary traits of character come under the pruning knife. Look steadfastly unto Jesus, that you may catch His spirit and cherish the qualities of Christlike character. Then it will be recognized by all who have any connection with you, that you have learned of Christ His meekness, His affection, His tenderness, His sympathy. Never rest satisfied until you possess a loving and lovable spirit. Your words may come from the good treasure of the heart to strengthen, help, bless, and win all around you.... Others catch your spirit. The seeds we sow will bear a harvest in goodness, patience, kindness, and love, or exactly the opposite....
TMK	218	3	Many, many need melting over. Be sound in principle, true to God, but do not manifest one stern, ungenial phase of character. God does not want you to incur contempt by manifesting a disposition like a ball of putty, but He does want you to be in principle as sound as a rock, yet with a healthful mellowness. Like the Master, be full of grace and truth. Jesus was incorruptible, undefiled, yet in His life were mingled gentleness, meekness, benignity, sympathy, and love. The poorest were not afraid to approach Him; they did not fear a rebuff. What Christ was, every Christian should strive to be. In holiness and winsomeness of character He is our model....
TMK	218	4	We should all learn of Christ what it means to be a Christian. Let us learn of Him how to combine firmness, justice, purity, and integrity with unselfish courtesy and kindly sympathy. Thus the character becomes lovable and attractive. The beauty of holiness will disarm scoffers....
TMK	218	5	The heart must receive the divine current, and let it flow out in rich streams of mercy and grace to other hearts. All who would win souls to Christ must be winsome.48
------------------------Subjects of the King! August 1
TMK	219	1	For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us. Isaiah 33:22.
TMK	219	2	This morning [Early morning diary entry, September 5, 1900.] my soul is filled with praise and thanksgiving to God from whom come all our mercies and blessings. The Lord is good, and His mercies endure forever. I will praise Him who is the light of my countenance and my God. He is the source of all efficiency and power. Why do we not praise Him by speaking words of hope and comfort to others? Why are our lips so silent? Speech is a gift of Heaven, and it should be used in sounding forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light....
TMK	219	3	O how much good would be accomplished were God honored by all who profess to be Christians! ... The Light of the world is shining upon men in richest blessing. Every provision has been made for the supplying of our temporal and spiritual needs. Yet how little thanksgiving the Giver receives! ...
TMK	219	4	In receiving Christ as our Captain there must be a complete surrender of the human will to the divine will. The Lord can work out His will through those who have made this surrender, for they give prompt and cheerful obedience to His commands. God expects us to obey without questioning. We are to ask, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Then, though the command may be as stern and startling as that given to Abraham, we are to obey. Abraham's soul was rent asunder by the command, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and offer him for a sacrifice on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of" (Genesis 22:2). But he did not hesitate to obey.
TMK	219	5	All our activities, all our business arrangements, should be in perfect accord with the Lord's commands. The laws of God's kingdom must be obeyed by the subjects of that kingdom. Our zeal for the advancement of God's kingdom is to mark us as faithful subjects of the cross of Christ. God can trust as His representatives those who implicitly obey Him.1
------------------------In the Master's Stead, August 2
TMK	220	1	Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 1 Corinthians 4:2.
TMK	220	2	A steward identifies himself with his master. His master's interests become his. He has accepted the responsibilities of a steward and he must act in the master's stead, doing as the master would do if he were presiding over his own goods. The position is one of dignity, in that his master trusts him. If a steward in any wise acts selfishly and turns the advantages gained in trading with his lord's goods to his own advantage, he has perverted the trust reposed in him. The master can no longer look upon him as a servant to be trusted, one on whom he can depend.
TMK	220	3	Every Christian is a steward of God, entrusted with His goods.... Let all who claim to be Christians deal wisely with the Lord's goods. God is making an inventory of the money lent you and the spiritual advantages given you. Will you as stewards make careful inventory? Will you examine whether you are using economically all that God has placed in your charge, or whether you are wasting the Lord's goods by selfish outlay in order to make a display? Would that all that is spent needlessly were laid up as treasure in heaven!2
TMK	220	4	However large the income or the possessions of any person, any family, or any institution, let all remember that they are only stewards, holding in trust the Lord's money. All profit, all pay, our time, our talents, our opportunities, are to be accounted for to Him who gives them all....
TMK	220	5	God will encourage His faithful stewards who are ready to put all their energies and God-given endowments to the very best use. As all learn the lesson of faithfully rendering to God what is His due, He through His providence will enable some to bring princely offerings. He will enable others to make smaller offerings, and the small and the large gifts are acceptable to Him if given with an eye single to His glory.3
------------------------Support of the Lord's Plan, August 3
TMK	221	1	Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Malachi 3:10.
TMK	221	2	We are not to look upon the property we are handling as our own, with which we may do as we please. It is the Lord's, to be administered in accordance with His prescribed plans.4
TMK	221	3	God wants all His stewards to be exact in following divine arrangements. They are not to offset the Lord's plans with some deed of charity, some gift, or some offering, done or given when and how they, the human agents, shall see fit. God has made His plan known, and all who cooperate with Him will carry out His plan instead of daring to attempt to improve on it by their own arrangements.... God will honor them and work in their behalf, for we have His pledged word that He will open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing such as there will not be room enough to receive.
TMK	221	4	It is a very poor policy for men to seek to improve on God's plan and invent a makeshift, averaging up their good impulses in this and that instance and offsetting them against all that is required by God.... We are to strike true and faithful figures in tithing, and then say to the Lord, I have done as Thou hast commanded me. If Thou wilt honor me by trusting me with Thy goods to trade upon, I will, by Thy grace, be a faithful steward, doing all in my power to bring meat to Thy house....
TMK	221	5	Men who have large responsibilities are to be sure that they are not robbing God in any jots or tittles, when so much is involved, as is so plainly stated in Malachi. Here we are told that a blessing is given for a faithful disposition of the tithes, and a curse for the covetous retention of the money which should flow into the treasury. Then ought we not to be sure to work on the safe side, so dealing with God in handling the property lent us on trust that no shadow of reproach shall fall upon us? ... I need not ask, Will not God bless those who are faithful? We have His pledged word.5
------------------------Beware of Satan's Snares, August 4
TMK	222	1	But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 1 Timothy 6:9.
TMK	222	2	Satan has nets and snares, like the snares of the fowler, all prepared to entrap souls. It is his studied purpose that men shall employ their God-given powers for selfish ends rather than yield them to glorify God. God would have men engage in a work that will bring them peace and joy and will render them eternal profits, but Satan wants us to concentrate our efforts for that which profiteth not, for things that perish with the using....
TMK	222	3	The heart of man may be the abode of the Holy Spirit. The peace of Christ that passeth understanding may rest in your soul, and the transforming power of His grace may work in your life and fit you for the courts of glory. But if brain and nerve and muscle are all employed in the service of self, you are not making God and heaven the first consideration of your life. It is impossible to be weaving the graces of Christ into your character while you are putting all your energies on the side of the world. You may be successful in heaping up treasure on the earth for the glory of self, but "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21). Eternal considerations will be made of secondary importance. You may take part in the outward forms of worship, but your service will be an abomination to the God of heaven....
TMK	222	4	If the eye is single, if it is directed heavenward, the light of heaven will fill the soul, and earthly things will appear insignificant and uninviting. The purpose of the heart will be changed, and the admonition of Jesus will be heeded. You will lay up your treasure in heaven. Your thoughts will be fixed upon the great reward of eternity. All your plans will be made in reference to the future, immortal life. You will be drawn toward your treasure. You will not study your worldly interest, but in all your pursuits the silent inquiry will be, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6). Bible religion will be woven into your daily life.6
------------------------A Safe Place for Our Treasures, August 5
TMK	223	1	Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:19-21.
TMK	223	2	Mark these words of the Great Teacher, who spake as never man spake. He sets before you the course to pursue if you would serve your best interests in this life, and lay up for yourselves an eternal treasure. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth." There is danger of losing all in the pursuit of worldly gain, for in the feverish eagerness for earthly treasure, higher interests are forgotten....
TMK	223	3	If your thoughts, your plans, your purposes, are all directed toward the accumulation of the things of earth, your anxiety, your study, your interests, will all be centered upon the world. The heavenly attractions will lose their beauty. The glories of the eternal world will cease to have the force of reality to you. Your heart will be with your treasure, and every faculty of your mind will be so concentrated on the work you have chosen that you will not heed the warnings and entreaties of the Word and Spirit of God. You will have no time to devote to the study of the Scriptures and to earnest prayer that you may escape the snares of Satan.7
TMK	223	4	This work of transferring your possessions to the world above is worthy of all your best energies. It is of the highest importance, and involves your eternal interests. That which you bestow in the cause of God is not lost. All that is given for the salvation of souls and the glory of God is invested in the most successful enterprise in this life and in the life to come. Your talents of gold and silver, if given to the exchangers, are gaining continually in value, which will be registered to your account in the kingdom of heaven. You are to be the recipients of the eternal wealth that has increased in the hands of the exchangers. In giving to the work of God, you are laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven. All that you lay up above is secure from disaster and loss and is increasing to an eternal, and enduring, substance.8
------------------------God's Treasure House of Supplies, August 6
TMK	224	1	But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19.
TMK	224	2	The children of God are called upon to be representatives of Christ, showing forth the goodness and mercy of the Lord. If they but revealed His goodness from day to day, barriers would be raised around their souls against the temptations of the evil one....
TMK	224	3	God knows our wants, and has provided for them. The Lord has a treasure house of supplies for His children, and can give them what they need under all circumstances. Then why do we not trust Him? He has made precious promises to His children on condition of faithful obedience to His precepts. There is not a burden but He can remove, no darkness but He can dispel, no weakness but He can change to power, no fears but He can calm, no worthy aspiration but He can guide and justify.
TMK	224	4	We are not to look at ourselves. The more we dwell upon our own imperfections, the less strength we shall have to overcome them. We are to render a cheerful service to God. It is the work of Satan to present the Lord as lacking in compassion and pity.... We fasten our minds upon the misrepresentations of Satan and dishonor God by mistrusting Him and by murmuring against Him. When we act like culprits under sentence of death we bear false witness against God. The Father gave His only begotten and well-beloved Son to die for us, and in so doing He placed great honor upon humanity, for in Christ the link that was broken through sin was reunited and man again connected with Heaven.
TMK	224	5	You who doubt the mercy of God, look at the Lamb of God, look at the Man of sorrows, who bore your grief and suffered for your sin. He is your friend. He died on the cross because He loved you. He is touched with the feeling of your infirmities and bears you up before the throne. In view of His unspeakable love should not hope, love, and gratitude be cherished in your heart? Should not gladness fill your service to God?9
------------------------A Never-failing Refuge, August 7
TMK	225	1	Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6.
TMK	225	2	It is not the will of God that His people should be weighed down with care. But our Lord does not deceive us. He does not say to us, "Do not fear; there are no dangers in your path." He knows there are trials and dangers, and He deals with us plainly. He does not propose to take His people out of a world of sin and evil, but He points them to a never-failing refuge....
TMK	225	3	How can we remain in doubt, questioning whether Jesus loves us, sinful though we be and compassed with infirmities? He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. He came to our world in the humble guise of a man, that He might become acquainted with the griefs and temptations that beset man's pathway, and that He might know how to help the weary with His offer of rest and peace. But thousands upon thousands refuse His assistance and only cling more firmly to their burden of care. He comes to the afflicted, and offers to soothe their grief and heal their sorrow.... To the disappointed, the unbelieving, and the unhappy He offers contentment, while pointing to mansions that He is preparing for them.... Jesus, our precious Saviour, should be first in our thoughts and affections, and we should trust Him with entire confidence....
TMK	225	4	As each day comes we must in the strength of Jesus meet its trials and temptations. If we fail one day we add to the burdens of the next, and have less strength. We should not cloud the future by our carelessness in the present, but by thoughtful and careful performance of today's duties be preparing to meet the emergencies of tomorrow.
TMK	225	5	We need to cultivate a spirit of cheerfulness.... Let us ever look on the bright side of life and be hopeful, full of love and good works, rejoicing in the Lord always. "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts," and "be ye thankful" (Colossians 3:15).10
------------------------A Progressive Faith, August 8
TMK	226	1	But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6.
TMK	226	2	The time has come when we are to expect large blessings from the Lord. We must rise to a higher standard on the subject of faith. We have too little faith. The Word of God is our endorsement. We must take it, simply believing every word. With this assurance we may claim large things, and according to our faith it will be unto us....
TMK	226	3	The work of faith means more than we think. It means genuine reliance upon the naked word of God. By our actions we are to show that we believe that God will do just as He has said. The wheels of nature and of providence are not appointed to roll backward nor to stand still. We must have an advancing, working faith, a faith that works by love and purifies the soul from every vestige of selfishness. It is not self, but God, that we must depend upon. We must not cherish unbelief. We must have that faith that takes God at His word....
TMK	226	4	True faith consists in doing just what God has enjoined, not manufacturing things He has not enjoined. Justice, truth, mercy, are the fruit of faith. We need to walk in the light of God's law; then good works will be the fruit of our faith, the proceeds of a heart renewed every day. The tree must be made good before the fruit can be good. We must be wholly consecrated to God. Our will must be made right before the fruit can be good. We must have no fitful religion. "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).
TMK	226	5	O what a field is opened before me! Our people must have the deep working of the Spirit of God every day. They must have a faith that works by love, a faith that emanates from God. There must not be a thread of selfishness drawn into the fabric. When our faith works by love, just such a love as Christ revealed in His life, it will be of a firm texture; it will be the fruit of a will subdued. But not until self dies can Christ live in us. Not until self dies can we possess a faith that works by love and purifies the soul.11
------------------------A Dangerous Guest, August 9
TMK	227	1	And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? Mark 4:40.
TMK	227	2	Why are we so weak in faith? ... We are so faithless, so unbelieving, that the Lord cannot do for us those things which He longs to do. There are doubts in our minds that are very saddening and very difficult to dispel.
TMK	227	3	These doubts that bow down the soul we should each one bravely face, and tell the soul that we must conquer them at once. Make no delay, for there can be no peace where faith is lost. We need not express these doubts, for they may cause some poor soul to stumble. But examine them in the light of God's Word, then talk them over with Jesus with His Word of promise in your hand, and pray for their removal. Tell the Lord, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). Let not doubt be placed in a comfortable, easy chair. It is a dangerous guest when it is left to rankle in the mind and counteract faith....
TMK	227	4	Genuine faith is life, and where there is life there is growth. The life which Jesus imparts cannot but grow more and more abundantly. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power. He who drinks of the water of life which Jesus gives, possesses within himself a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Though it shall be cut off from all created springs, it is fed from the hidden fountain. It is a perpetual spring, in immediate communication with the inexhaustible fountain of life.
TMK	227	5	The Lord is dishonored when any who profess His name have an emptiness. This misrepresents God. Nothing but Christ manifested in spirit and life and character can reveal God to a world that knows Him not. The soul renewed in the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, demonstrates its divine fullness in a living, growing experience--even the fullness of Him that filleth all things.12
------------------------Conquering Our Doubts, August 10
TMK	228	1	O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Matthew 14:31.
TMK	228	2	"Wherefore didst thou doubt?" said Christ to the sinking Peter. The same question may be addressed to us.... The Lord has pledged Himself to give us strength to enable us to stand. As we search the Scriptures we find ground for confidence, provision for sufficiency. It is our privilege to say boldly, yet humbly, The Lord is my helper, therefore I shall not be moved from my steadfastness. My life is hid with Christ in God. Because He lives, I shall live also. Let us pledge ourselves before God and the angels of heaven that we will not dishonor God by speaking words of discouragement or unbelief.... Close the door to distrust and open the door wide to faith. Invite into the soul temple the heavenly Guest.
TMK	228	3	You may have your choice as to who shall rule your heart and control your mind. If you choose to open the door to the suggestions of the evil one, your mind will be filled with distrust and rebellious questioning. You may talk out your feelings, but every doubt you utter is a seed that will germinate and bear fruit in another's life, and it will be impossible to counteract the influence of your words. You may be able to recover from your season of temptation ... , but others that have been swayed by your influence may not be able to escape from the unbelief you have suggested. How important it is that we speak to those around us only those things which will give spiritual strength and enlightenment!
TMK	228	4	It is our duty to encourage faith, to talk faith that we may have faith. If we talk doubt and encourage doubt we shall have abundant doubt, for Satan will help us in this kind of work. We need sanctified hearts and sanctified lips. We need to breathe in the rich, bracing atmosphere that comes from the heavenly Canaan.... Why should we fill the gallery of the mind with gloomy scenes of doubt? Why not let the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shine into the chambers of heart and mind, and dispel the shadows of unbelief? Turn to the Light, to Jesus the precious Saviour.15
------------------------The Faith God Accepts, August 11
TMK	229	1	For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2:26.
TMK	229	2	There are many in the Christian world who claim that all that is necessary to salvation is to have faith; works are nothing, faith is the only essential. But God's Word tells us that faith without works is dead, being alone.... Faith and works go hand in hand.... Works will never save us; it is the merit of Christ that will avail in our behalf. Through faith in Him, Christ will make all our imperfect efforts acceptable to God. The faith we are required to have is not a do-nothing faith; saving faith is that which works by love and purifies the soul. He who will lift up holy hands to God without wrath and doubting will walk intelligently in the way of God's commandments.
TMK	229	3	If we are to have pardon for our sins we must first have a realization of what sin is, that we may repent and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. We must have a solid foundation for our faith; it must be founded on the Word of God, and its results will be seen in obedience to God's expressed will.... Faith and works will keep us evenly balanced, and make us successful in the work of perfecting Christian character.... We are living in an important and interesting period of this earth's history. We need more faith than we have yet had; we need a firmer hold from above. Satan is working with all power to obtain the victory over us, for he knows that he has but a short time in which to work....
TMK	229	4	There is no excuse for sin or for indolence. Jesus has led the way, and He wishes us to follow in His steps. He has suffered, He has sacrificed as none of us can, that He might bring salvation within our reach. We need not be discouraged. Jesus came to our world to bring divine power to man, that through His grace we might be transformed into His likeness. When it is in the heart to obey God, when efforts are put forth to this end, Jesus accepts this disposition and effort as man's best service, and He makes up for the deficiency with His own divine merit.16
------------------------Cultivating the Plant of Faith, August 12
TMK	230	1	And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. Luke 17:5.
TMK	230	2	Faith should be cultivated. If it has become weak it is like a sickly plant that should be placed in the sunshine and carefully watered and tended. The Lord would have every one who has had light and evidence cherish that light and walk in its brightness. God has blessed us with reasoning powers so that we may trace from cause to effect. If we would have light we must come to the light. We must individually lay hold on the hope set before us in the gospel.... How foolish it would be to go into a cellar, and mourn because we were in the dark. If we want light we must come up into a higher room. It is our privilege to come into the light, to come into the presence of God....
TMK	230	3	We should grow daily in faith in order that we may grow up to the full measure of the spiritual stature in Christ Jesus. We should believe that God will answer our prayers, and not trust to feeling. We should say, My gloomy feelings are no evidence that God has not heard me. I do not want to give up on account of these sad emotions, for "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). The rainbow of promise encircles the throne of God. I come to the throne, pointing to the sign of God's faithfulness, and cherish the faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
TMK	230	4	We are not to believe because we feel or see that God hears us. We are to trust to the promise of God. We are to go about our business believing that God will do just what He has said He would do, and that the blessings we have prayed for will come to us when we most need them. Every petition enters into the heart of God when we come believing. We have not faith enough. We should look upon our heavenly Father as more willing to help us than an earthly parent is to help his child. Why not trust Him?
TMK	230	5	"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).17
------------------------Much Faith, Much Peace, August 13
TMK	231	1	Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Psalm 31:19.
TMK	231	2	The more our faith fastens to Christ in perfect trust, the more peace we shall have. Faith will grow by exercise. God's rule is, One day at a time. Day by day do the work for each day as if you are conscious that you are working in the sight of the angels, cherubim and seraphim, and God and Christ. You are "a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men" (1 Corinthians 4:9). "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11). "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25). "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). Living thus, the Holy Spirit helps our memory, sanctifies every faculty, and keeps us reminded of our daily and hourly dependence upon our heavenly Father's care, ... and unceasing love.
TMK	231	3	This is the childlike spirit Jesus declared His disciples must have in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven--trusting as a little child in God their heavenly Father. Then Satan's temptations are discerned and more easily resisted, for there is in the heart a constant drawing nigh to God. The feeling of self-sufficiency which works the ruin of so many souls does not have an atmosphere in which to flourish.
TMK	231	4	"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). Here is a precious promise from One who means every word He says. Then why are we fearful, distrustful, and unbelieving? ... Our time is the Lord's. Our talents are the Lord's. Then how can any individual feel that he can be independent, not subject to the Spirit of God--independent of God's will, independent of God's providences and plans? ...
TMK	231	5	"Who is among you that feareth the Lord... ? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God" (Isaiah 50:10).... We are not safe in following the imaginations of our own hearts. We cannot be independent. Our only safety is in dependence on God our Redeemer.18
------------------------Faith Sees Beyond the Darkness, August 14
TMK	232	1	Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Psalm 37:3.
TMK	232	2	"Trust in the Lord." Each day has its burdens, its cares and perplexities, and when we meet, how ready we are to talk of our difficulties and trials.... Some are always fearing and borrowing trouble. Every day they are surrounded by the tokens of God's love, every day they are enjoying the bounties of His providence, but they overlook these present blessings....
TMK	232	3	Why should we be ungrateful and distrustful? Jesus is our friend. All heaven is interested in our welfare, and our anxiety and fear grieve the Holy Spirit of God. We should not indulge in a solicitude which only frets and wears us but does not help us to bear trials. No place should be given to that distrust of God which leads us to make a preparation against future want the chief pursuit of life, as though our happiness consisted in these earthly things....
TMK	232	4	You may be perplexed in business; your prospects may grow darker and darker and you may be threatened with loss. But do not become discouraged; cast your care upon God and remain calm and cheerful. Begin every day with earnest prayer, not omitting to offer praise and thanksgiving. Ask for wisdom to manage your affairs with discretion and thus prevent loss and disaster. Do all you can on your part to bring about favorable results.... When, relying upon your tried Helper, you have done all you can, accept the result cheerfully. It will not always be gain from the worldling's standpoint, but perhaps success might have been the worst thing for you....
TMK	232	5	We want an eye single to the glory of God in all the affairs of life; we want a living faith that holds fast the promises of God no matter how dark the prospect. We are not to look at the things which are seen, and judge from the world's standpoint, and be ruled by the world's principles, but we are to look at the things which are unseen, eternal.19
------------------------Take Time to Think, August 15
TMK	233	1	Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. Lamentations 3:40, 41.
TMK	233	2	I would appeal to the youth to consider their ways, to take time to think, to weigh their actions.... Compassed with temptation as you are, nothing will be sufficient as a safeguard against evil except the indwelling of Christ in your hearts through faith in His righteousness. You must practice His virtues, making Him your daily pattern....
TMK	233	3	Good character does not come by chance; it is formed by persevering, untiring effort. The youth should seek to make all that is possible of themselves, by improving every entrusted talent and capability to the glory of God. The world's Redeemer says, "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). Faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour will give strength and solidity to your character. Those who have faith in Christ will be sober-minded, ever remembering that God's eye is upon them, that angels of God are watching to see what manner of characters they will develop....
TMK	233	4	Individually, probation is granted to you in order that you may form characters for the future, immortal life. Precious, golden moments are given you that you may improve them according to the light which the Lord has graciously permitted to shine upon you from the throne of His glory.... Christ is the greatest teacher the world ever knew. Where He abides in the heart by faith, His spirit will become a vitalizing agent to purify and vivify the soul....
TMK	233	5	The truth in the heart will surely have a correcting influence on the character. Hold the truth as from God, as a treasure of the highest value, that must not be dimmed or tarnished by evil practices that are wholly out of harmony with its holy character. Under the divine influence of truth the mind will be strengthened, the intellect invigorated, and that which is useless will be discarded for that which is pure and beneficial. Under the influence of truth the Christian character will develop through the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.20
------------------------A Holy Watcher, August 16
TMK	234	1	Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4:13.
TMK	234	2	In every place, at every hour in the day, there is a holy Watcher who balances every account, whose eye takes in the whole situation, whether it is one of fidelity or one of disloyalty and deception.
TMK	234	3	We are never alone. We have a Companion whether we choose Him or not. Remember, young men and young women, that wherever you are, whatever you are doing, God is there. To your every word and action you have a witness--the holy, sin-hating God. Nothing that is said or done or thought can escape His infinite eye. Your words may not be heard by human ears, but they are heard by the Ruler of the universe. He reads the inward anger of the soul when the will is crossed. He hears the expression of profanity. In the deepest darkness and solitude He is there. No one can deceive God; none can escape from their accountability to Him.
TMK	234	4	"O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me," writes the psalmist. "Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.... If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee" (Psalm 139:1-12).
TMK	234	5	Day by day the record of your words, your actions, and your influence is being made in the books of heaven. This you must meet.21
TMK	234	6	All heaven is interested in our salvation. The angels of God are ... marking the deeds of men. They record in the books of God's remembrance the words of faith, the acts of love, the humility of spirit, and in that day when every man's work shall be tried of what sort it is, the work of the humble follower of Christ will stand the test, and will receive the commendation of Heaven. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:43).22
------------------------The Mighty Deliverer, August 17
TMK	235	1	I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts. Isaiah 65:2.
TMK	235	2	The Lord God through Christ holds out His hand all the day long in invitations to the needy. He will receive all. He welcomes all. He rejects none. It is His glory to pardon the chief of sinners. He will take the prey from the mighty, He will deliver the captive, He will pluck the brand from the burning. He will lower the golden chain of His mercy to the greatest depths of human wretchedness and guilt and lift up the debased soul contaminated with sin. But man must will to come, and cooperate in the work of saving his soul by availing himself of opportunities given him of God. The Lord forces no one. The spotless wedding robe of Christ's righteousness is prepared to clothe the sinner, but if he refuses it he must perish.23
TMK	235	3	The record of the past can be blotted out with His [Christ's] blood, the page made clean and white. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18)....
TMK	235	4	The words falling from the lips of Jesus, "Thy sins be forgiven thee" (Matthew 9:2), are worth everything to us. He saith, I have borne your sins in My own body on Calvary's cross. He sees your sorrows. His hand is laid upon the head of every contrite soul, and Jesus becomes our Advocate before the Father, and our Saviour. The lowly, contrite heart will make very much of forgiveness and pardon....
TMK	235	5	We may repeat His tender compassion for us to others who are wandering in the mazes of sin. The grace of Christ revealed to us must be tenderly revealed to others. A great tenderness and compassion will fill the soul for human beings who are still under the control of Satan. Christ is to be multiplied in every man and woman who believes in Him, for they are to live over the life of Christ in blessing and enlightening and bringing hope and peace and joy to other hearts.24
------------------------The Sowing Time, August 18
TMK	236	1	Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22.
TMK	236	2	I long to address the young men and women who are so willing to reach only cheap standards. O that the Lord might influence their minds to see what perfection of character is! O that they might know the faith that works by love and purifies the soul! We are living in days of peril. Christ alone can help us and give us the victory. Christ must be all in all to us; He must dwell in the heart; His life must circulate through us, as the blood circulates through the veins. His Spirit must be a vitalizing power.25
TMK	236	3	It is anything but wise, my young friends, to seek your own pleasure, to sow a crop of tares in foolish, sinful actions, which will not only lead others to do the same but will bring forth a bitter harvest for your own reaping. The Lord says: "... Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Galatians 6:7, 8). Youth is the sowing time, and the words and deeds of the early life are like seeds that will germinate and produce a harvest after their kind. Then why not sow seeds of kindness, of love, of faith, of patience, of self-denial, and true benevolence, and keep all your passions under control? Such sowing will produce a harvest after its kind. Let every word and deed be a seed that will result in good fruit.
TMK	236	4	If you seek the help and grace of God, the Holy Spirit will take possession of mind and character and work in you that which you can work out with all safety to yourself, and with all benefit to others.... The atmosphere that surrounds your soul will be of a pure, healthful character.26
TMK	236	5	The Lord loves the youth. He sees in them great possibilities, and is ready to help them to reach a high standard if they will only realize the need of His help and lay a foundation of character that cannot be moved.27
------------------------Under God's Searching Eye, August 19
TMK	237	1	That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24.
TMK	237	2	Provision has been made whereby every soul that is struggling under sinful practices may be made free from sin. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). The Christian is not to retain his sinful habits and cherish his defects of character, but he is to be renewed in the spirit of his mind after the divine similitude. Whatever may be the nature of your defects, the Spirit of the Lord will enable you to discern them, and grace will be given you whereby they may be overcome. Through the merits of the blood of Christ you may be a conqueror--yes, more than a conqueror....
TMK	237	3	Ask the Lord to reveal to you yourself; place your life under His searching eye, and when He lays hold upon your case you will see that you have made grievous mistakes, and what you supposed was of little importance was offensive in the sight of Heaven. You will see that there is a decided need of thorough transformation of character. You will realize that you must put away the evil of your doings, and cooperate with God and heavenly angels who are sent to minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation....
TMK	237	4	Self must die. Every practice, every habit, that has a harmful tendency, however innocent it may be regarded by the world, must be battled with until overcome, that the human agent may perfect a character after the divine Pattern....
TMK	237	5	The crooked ways, the perverse doings of those around us, are not to dim the luster of our piety or to lead us to conform our habits to, and assimilate our customs and practices with, the world's. Let the prayer go forth from the lips of those who claim to be the sons and daughters of God, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23, 24).28
------------------------Mercy for the Repentant, August 20
TMK	238	1	If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9.
TMK	238	2	All are fallible, all make mistakes and fall into sin; but if the wrongdoer is willing to see his errors, as they are made plain by the convicting Spirit of God, and in humility of heart will confess them... , then he may be restored....
TMK	238	3	The mansions that Jesus has gone to prepare for all who love Him will be peopled by those who are free from sin. But sins that are not confessed will never be forgiven; the name of him who thus rejects the grace of God will be blotted out of the book of life. The time is at hand when every secret thing shall be brought into judgment, and then there will be many confessions made that will astonish the world. The secrets of all hearts will be revealed. The confession of sin will be most public. The sad part of it is that confession then made will be too late to benefit the wrongdoer or to save others from deception. It only testifies that his condemnation is just.... You may now close the book of your remembrance in order to escape confessing your sins, but when the judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened, you cannot close them. The recording angel has testified that which is true. All that you have tried to conceal and forget is registered, and will be read to you when it is too late for wrongs to be righted.... Unless your sins are canceled, they will testify against you at that day.29
TMK	238	4	The prophet Daniel was drawing very near to God when he was seeking Him with confession and humiliation of soul. He did not try to excuse himself or his people, but acknowledged the full extent of their transgression. In their behalf he confessed sins of which he himself was not guilty, and besought the mercy of God, that he might bring his brethren to see their sins....
TMK	238	5	To all who seek Him with true repentance God gives the assurance: "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee" (Isaiah 44:22).30
------------------------From Defeat to Victory, August 21
TMK	239	1	Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. James 5:16.
TMK	239	2	All are liable to err, therefore the Word of God tells us plainly how to correct and heal these mistakes. None can say that he never makes a mistake, that he never sinned at all, but it is important to consider what disposition you make of these wrongs. The apostle Paul made grievous mistakes, all the time thinking that he was doing God service, but when the Spirit of the Lord set the matter before him in its true light, he confessed his wrongdoing, and afterward acknowledged the great mercy of God in forgiving his transgression. You also may have done wrong, thinking you were perfectly right, but when time reveals your error, then it is your duty to humble the heart and confess your sin....
TMK	239	3	Whatever the character of your sin, confess it. If it is against God only, confess only to Him. If you have wronged or offended others, confess also to them, and the blessing of the Lord will rest upon you. In this way you die to self, and Christ is formed within....
TMK	239	4	When, under the temptations of Satan, men fall into error, and their words and deportment are not Christlike, they may not realize their condition, because sin is deceptive and tends to deaden the moral perceptions. But through self-examination, searching of the Scriptures, and humble prayer, they will, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, be enabled to see their mistake. If they then confess their sins and turn from them, the tempter will not appear to them as an angel of light, but as a deceiver....
TMK	239	5	Those who acknowledge reproof and correction as from God, and are thus enabled to see and correct their errors, are learning precious lessons, even from their mistakes. Their apparent defeat is turned into victory. They stand, trusting not to their own strength, but to the strength of God. They have earnestness, zeal, and affection, united with humility and regulated by the precepts of God's Word.... They walk not stumblingly, but safely, in a path where the light of heaven shines.31
------------------------A Strong Defense Against Temptation, August 22
TMK	240	1	For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Hebrews 2:18.
TMK	240	2	Our Redeemer perfectly understood the wants of humanity. He who condescended to take upon Himself man's nature was acquainted with man's weakness. Christ lived as our example. He was tempted in all points as we are, that He might know how to succor all who should be tempted. He has trodden the path of life before us and endured the severest tests in our behalf. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief....
TMK	240	3	Christ took upon Himself our infirmities, and in the weakness of humanity He needed to seek strength from His Father. He was often to be found in earnest prayer, in the grove, by the lakeside, and in the mountains. He has enjoined upon us to watch and pray.... Without a deep sense of our need of help from God there will be but little earnest, heartfelt prayer for divine aid. Our hearts are deceitful, our foes many and vigilant. If we neglect to fortify a single weak point in our character, Satan will assail us at that point with his temptations. He is constantly plotting the ruin of the soul, and he will take every advantage of our careless security.
TMK	240	4	Christ came to our world to engage in singlehanded combat with this enemy of man, and thus to wrest the race from Satan's grasp. In the accomplishment of this object He withheld not His own life. And now, in the strength that Christ will give, man must stand for himself, a faithful sentinel against the wily, plotting foe. Says the great apostle, "Walk circumspectly"--guard every avenue of the soul, look constantly to Jesus, the true and perfect Pattern, and seek to imitate His example, not in one or two points merely, but in all things. We shall then be prepared for any and every emergency.... He whose mind loves to dwell upon God has a strong defense. He will be quick to perceive the dangers that threaten his spiritual life, and a sense of danger will lead him to call upon God for help and protection.32
------------------------How to Get Rid of Guilt, August 23
TMK	241	1	Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. Micah 7:18.
TMK	241	2	I am glad indeed that our feelings are no evidence that we are not children of God. The enemy will tempt you to think that you have done things that have separated you from God, and that He no longer loves you, but our Lord loves us still....
TMK	241	3	Look away from yourself to the perfection of Christ. We cannot manufacture a righteousness for ourselves. Christ has in His hands the pure robes of righteousness, and He will put them upon us. He will speak sweet words of forgiveness and promise. He presents to our thirsty souls fountains of living water whereby we may be refreshed. He bids us come unto Him with all our burdens, all our griefs, and He says we shall find rest....
TMK	241	4	Jesus sees the guilt of the past, and speaks pardon, and we must not dishonor Him by doubting His love. This feeling of guiltiness must be laid at the foot of the cross of Calvary. The sense of sinfulness has poisoned the springs of life and of true happiness. Now Jesus says, "Lay it all on Me. I will take your sins; I will give you peace. Banish no longer your self-respect, for I have bought you with the price of My own blood. You are Mine. Your weakened will I will strengthen; your remorse for sin I will remove." Then turn your grateful heart, trembling with uncertainty, to Him and lay hold on the hope set before you. God accepts your broken, contrite heart, and extends to you free pardon. He offers to adopt you into His family, with His grace to help your weakness, and the dear Saviour will lead you on step by step, you placing your hand in His and letting Him guide you.
TMK	241	5	Search for the precious promises of God. If Satan thrusts threatenings before your mind, turn from them and cling to the promises, and let your soul be comforted by their brightness. The cloud is dark in itself, but when filled with the light it is turned to the brightness of gold, for the glory of God is upon it.33
------------------------Under the Discipline of God, August 24
TMK	242	1	Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Psalm 19:12.
TMK	242	2	We need to study the character of the motives that prompt us to action in the light of the law of God, in order that we may be made aware of our deficiencies. But while the human agent may see his sins, he is not to become discouraged, although he finds himself condemned by the precepts of righteousness. He is to see and to realize the sinfulness of sin, to repent, and to have faith in Christ as his personal Saviour.
TMK	242	3	It is never safe for us to feel that we are possessed of virtues, and that we may congratulate ourselves on our excellences of character and our present state of purity and piety. David often triumphed in God, and yet he dwelt much upon his own unworthiness and sinfulness. His conscience was not asleep or dead. "My sin," he cries, "is ever before me" (Psalm 51:3).... As he saw the depths of deceit in his heart he was deeply disgusted with himself, and prayed that God would keep him back by His power from the presumptuous sins, and cleanse him from secret faults.
TMK	242	4	It is not safe for us to close our eyes and harden our conscience so that we shall not see or realize our sins. We need to cherish the instruction we have had in regard to the hateful character of sin, in order that we may truly confess and forsake our sins. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Are you willing to be cleansed from all unrighteousness? ...
TMK	242	5	If you are pressing forward and upward, seeking to attain new heights in education and in spiritual things, you will have discernment to understand that which is required of you. You will have the Holy Spirit to help all your infirmities. It is natural for the youth to love amusement ... , but the natural inclinations must be overcome by putting the soul under discipline to God.... Walk not hesitatingly, but firmly in the strength and grace of Jesus Christ.34
------------------------The Sin God Cannot Forgive, August 25
TMK	243	1	Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. Matthew 12:31.
TMK	243	2	"The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). No matter how sinful a person has been, no matter what his position may be, if he will repent and believe, coming unto Christ and trusting Him as his personal Saviour, he may be saved unto the uttermost....
TMK	243	3	I know the danger of those who refuse to walk in the light as God gives it. They bring upon themselves the terrible crisis of being left to follow their own ways, to do after their own judgment. The conscience becomes less and less impressible. The voice of God seems to become more and more distant, and the wrongdoer is left to his own infatuation. In stubbornness he resists every appeal, despises all counsel and advice, and turns from every provision made for his salvation.... The Spirit of God no longer exerts a restraining power over him, and the sentence is passed, "He is joined to idols; let him alone" (see Hosea 4:17).... This is the process through which the soul passes that rejects the working of the Holy Spirit....
TMK	243	4	No one need look upon the sin against the Holy Ghost as something mysterious and indefinable. The sin against the Holy Ghost is the sin of persistent refusal to respond to the invitation to repent. If you refuse to believe in Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour... , you love the atmosphere that surrounded the first great apostate. You choose this atmosphere rather than the atmosphere that surrounds the Father and the Son, and God allows you to have your choice. But let no soul be discouraged by this presentation of the matter. Let no one who is striving to do the will of the Master be cast down.35
TMK	243	5	Come with your whole heart to Jesus. Repent of your sins, make confession to God, forsake all iniquity, and you may appropriate to yourself all His promises. "Look unto me, and be ye saved" (Isaiah 45:22) is His gracious invitation.36
------------------------Trifling With God's Spirit, August 26
TMK	244	1	And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30.
TMK	244	2	When the Lord presents evidence upon evidence and gives light upon light, why is it that souls hesitate to walk in the light? ... By every hesitation and delay, we place ourselves where it is more and more difficult for us to accept the light of heaven, and at last it seems impossible to be impressed by admonitions and warnings. The sinner says, more and more easily, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee" (Acts 24:25)....
TMK	244	3	The person who is drawn again and again by his Redeemer, and who slights the warnings given, yields not to his convictions to repent, and heeds not when he is exhorted to seek pardon and grace, is in a perilous position. Jesus is drawing him, the Spirit is exerting His power upon him, urging him to surrender his will to the will of God; and when this invitation is unheeded, the Spirit is grieved away. The sinner chooses to remain in sin and impenitence, although he has evidence to encourage his faith, and more evidence would do no good.... There is another drawing to which he is responding, and that is the drawing of Satan. He yields obedience to the powers of darkness. This course is fatal, and leaves the soul in obstinate impenitence. This is the blasphemy that is most general among men, and it works in a most subtle way, until the sinner feels no remorse of conscience, no repentance, and consequently has no pardon....
TMK	244	4	Those who resist the Spirit of God think that they will repent at some future day when they get ready to take a decided step toward reformation, but repentance will then be beyond their power. According to the light and privileges given will be the darkness of those who refuse to walk in the light while they have the light....
TMK	244	5	Never, never, feel at liberty to trifle with the opportunities granted to you. Study the will of God; do not study how you can avoid keeping the commandments of God, but study rather how you may keep them in sincerity and truth and truly serve Him whose property you are.37
------------------------How to Resist Satan, August 27
TMK	245	1	Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7.
TMK	245	2	Our work is to "resist the devil," not harbor his doubts; and if we do this, the promise is "he will flee from you."
TMK	245	3	But the question is often asked, How can I resist Satan? There is only one way by which you can do this, and that is by faith, taking Christ as your helper and pleading with Him for strength. When Satan suggests doubt to your soul, when he tells you that you are too unworthy, too sinful, to realize the blessing of God, present Christ before him as your Advocate and Saviour. Tell him you know that you are a sinner, but that Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. He came "not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Mark 2:17).
TMK	245	4	Repeat His promises: "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).... "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me" (Isaiah 27:5). "Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive" (Matthew 21:22). Be simplehearted enough to believe these promises of God. When Satan comes to you, and tells you that because you are unhappy, perplexed, and troubled you are not a child of God, do not become discouraged for one moment, but gird up the loins of your mind. Let your heart repose in God. He has promised that if you come to Him, you shall find rest to your soul; and if you have done this, rest assured that He will fulfill His word in you....
TMK	245	5	Many pass long years in darkness and doubt because they do not feel as they desire. But feeling has nothing to do with faith. That faith which works by love and purifies the soul is not a matter of impulse. It ventures out upon the promises of God, firmly believing that what He has said, He is able also to perform. Our souls may be trained to believe, taught to rely upon the Word of God. That Word declares that "the just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17), not by feeling.38
------------------------Drawing Nigh to God, August 28
TMK	246	1	Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. James 4:8.
TMK	246	2	We should seek to understand what it means to draw nigh to God. We are to come near to Him, not to stand a great way off, for in that case we shall not be able to feel the influence of His divine Spirit. Those who came into the presence of Christ, drawing nigh to Him, could more readily breathe in the atmosphere that surrounded Him, catch His spirit, and be impressed with His lessons. We are engaged in a serious, solemn work, and we should seek to be in that humble position, to have that teachable spirit, that the Lord can impress our hearts, and that we may feel His drawing power. We never draw nigh to God but that He is drawing us.39
TMK	246	3	God has angels whose whole work is to draw those who shall be heirs of salvation. Whenever one takes a step toward Jesus, Jesus is taking steps toward him. The angels' work is to keep back the powers of Satan.40
TMK	246	4	Those who are ever pressing a little closer to the world, and becoming more like them in feelings, in plans, in ideas, have left a space between them and the Saviour, and Satan has pressed his way into this space, and low, worldly-tainted, selfish plans become interwoven with their experience.41
TMK	246	5	If we draw nigh to God, we shall draw nigh to one another. We cannot draw nigh to the same cross without coming into unity of spirit. Christ prayed that His disciples should be one as He and the Father are one. We should seek to be one in spirit and in understanding. We should seek to be one that God may be glorified in us as He was glorified in the Son, and God will love us as He loves His Son.42
TMK	246	6	God loves you. He does not wish to draw you nigh to Him to hurt you, oh, no; but to comfort you, to pour in the oil of rejoicing, to heal the wounds that sin has made, to bind up where Satan has bruised. He wants to give you the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness.43
------------------------No Excuse for Failure, August 29
TMK	247	1	We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. 1 John 5:18.
TMK	247	2	Many fail to recognize the claims that God has upon them. They profess to be sons and daughters of God, but they do not behave as children of God. They argue that their evil habits and customs which they followed when they served under the black banner of the prince of darkness must be excused on the ground of their weakness, while they claim that "it is their way." ... Their objectionable hereditary traits of character they choose to retain as idols.
TMK	247	3	When a soul is truly converted, old habits and natural evil besetments are done away in Christ Jesus and all things become new. Among those who profess to be servants of Christ an earnest purpose should be cultivated, such as Daniel manifested in the courts of Babylon. He knew that God was his strength and his shield, his front guard and his rear guard. Amid the corruptions that surrounded him in the courts of Babylon he kept himself free from those sights and sounds which would allure him and draw him into temptation. When his duties required that he be present at scenes of revelry, intemperance, and basest idolatry, he cultivated the habit of silent prayer, and thus he was kept by the power of God. To have the mind uplifted to God will be a benefit in all times and in all places....
TMK	247	4	Let the soul cultivate the habit of contemplating the world's Redeemer.... Help has been laid upon One that is mighty. Jesus has given His life, that every soul might have abundant help in Him....
TMK	247	5	Will you who read these words resolve that you will never again seek to excuse your defects of character by saying, "It is my way"? Let no one declare, "I cannot change my natural habits and tendencies." The truth must be admitted into the soul, and it will work the sanctification of the character. It will refine and elevate the life, and fit you for an entrance into the mansions which Jesus has gone to prepare for those who love Him.44
------------------------Battlefield of the Soul, August 30
TMK	248	1	As for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever. Psalm 41:12.
TMK	248	2	Some regard sin as altogether so light a matter that they have no defense against its indulgence or consequence.... With some ... , religion is purely a thing of feeling. You will see a fair show of fervor and devotedness for a time, but soon a change comes.... They want a sip of the pleasure of excitement--the ballroom, the dance, and the show....
TMK	248	3	If you suppose for a moment that God will treat sin lightly or make provisions or exemptions so that you can go on in committing sin, and the soul suffer no penalty for thus doing, it is a terrible delusion of Satan. Any willful violation of the righteous law of Jehovah exposes your soul to the full assaults of Satan. When you lose your conscious integrity your soul becomes a battlefield for Satan. You have doubts and fears enough to paralyze your energies and drive you to discouragement. The favor of God is gone. Some ... have tried to supply its place and seek compensation for the loss of the Holy Spirit's witness that you are a child of God, in worldly excitement in the society of worldlings. In short, you have plunged deeper into sin....
TMK	248	4	Remember that temptation is not sin. Remember that however trying the circumstances in which a man may be placed, nothing can really weaken his soul so long as he does not yield to temptation but maintains his own integrity. The interests most vital to you individually are in your own keeping. No one can damage them without your consent. All the satanic legions cannot injure you unless you open your soul to the arrows of Satan. As long as you are firm to do right, your ruin can never take place. If there is not pollution of mind in yourself, all the surrounding pollution cannot taint and defile you.
TMK	248	5	Eternal life is worth everything to us or it is worth nothing. Those only who put forth persevering effort and untiring zeal with intense desire proportionate to the object they are in pursuit of, will gain that life that measures with the life of God.45
------------------------The Only Path of Safety, August 31
TMK	249	1	And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21.
TMK	249	2	I know that human beings suffer much because they step out of the path that God has chosen for them to follow. They walk in the sparks of the fire they have kindled themselves, and the sure result is affliction, unrest, and sorrow, which they might have avoided if they had submitted their will to God and had permitted Him to control their ways. God sees that it is necessary to oppose our will and our way, and bring our human will into subjection.
TMK	249	3	Whatever path God chooses for us, whatever way He ordains for our feet, that is the only path of safety. We are daily to cherish a spirit of childlike submission, and pray that our eyes may be anointed with the heavenly eyesalve in order that we may discern the indications of the divine will, lest we become confused in our ideas, because our will seems to be all-controlling. With the eye of faith, with childlike submission as obedient children, we must look to God, to follow His guidance, and difficulties will clear away. The promise is, "I will instruct thee and teach thee ... : I will guide thee with mine eye" (Psalm 32:8)....
TMK	249	4	If we come to God in a humble and teachable spirit, not with our plans all formed before we ask Him, and shaped according to our own will, but in submission, in willingness to be taught, in faith, it is our privilege to claim the promise every hour of the day. We may distrust ourselves, and we need to guard against our own inclinations and strong tendencies lest we shall follow our mind and plans and think it is the way of the Lord....
TMK	249	5	Our heavenly Father is our Ruler, and we must submit to His discipline. We are members of His family. He has a right to our service, and if one of the members of His family would persist in having his own way, persist in doing just that which he pleased, that spirit would bring about a disordered and perplexing state of things. We must not study to have our own way, but God's way and God's will.46
------------------------My Lord and I, September 1
TMK	250	1	Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Amos 3:3.
TMK	250	2	Enoch walked with God. He was of one mind with God. The prophet asks, "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" If we are of one mind with God, our will will be swallowed up in God's will and we shall follow wherever God leads the way. As a loving child places his hand in that of his father, and walks with him in perfect trust whether it is dark or bright, so the sons and daughters of God are to walk with Jesus through joy or sorrow....
TMK	250	3	The followers of Christ are to manifest to the world the characteristics of their Lord. They must not become careless or inattentive to their duty, or indifferent as to their influence, for they are to be representatives of Jesus in the earth....
TMK	250	4	Those who do not walk in all faith and purity find the thought of coming into the presence of God a thought of terror. They do not love to think or speak of God. They say in heart and by their actions, "Depart from us, O God; we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." But through faith in Christ the true Christian knows the mind and will of God. He understands by a living experience something of the length and depth and breadth and height of the love of God that passeth knowledge.
TMK	250	5	The soul that loves God loves to draw strength from Him by constant communion with Him. When it becomes the habit of the soul to converse with God, the power of the evil one is broken, for Satan cannot abide near the soul that draws nigh unto God. If Christ is your companion, you will not cherish vain and impure thoughts; you will not indulge in trifling words that will grieve Him who has come to be the sanctifier of your soul....
TMK	250	6	Those who are sanctified through the truth are living recommendations of its power, and representatives of their risen Lord. The religion of Christ will refine the taste, sanctify the judgment, elevate, purify, and ennoble the soul, making the Christian more and more fit for the society of the heavenly angels.1
------------------------Listen to God's Voice, September 2
TMK	251	1	The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Psalm 37:23.
TMK	251	2	Young men and young women will often be brought into positions where they are uncertain what to do. Their inclination leads them in one direction, and the Holy Spirit of God draws them in another direction. Satan presses his temptation upon them and urges them to follow the inclinations of the natural heart. But those who desire to be true to Christ will listen to the voice that says, "This is the way, walk ye in it" (Isaiah 30:21). They will decide to take the course of the righteous, although it is more difficult to pursue, more painful to follow, than the way of their own heart....
TMK	251	3	We need to receive divine wisdom in the daily concerns of life in order that we may display sound judgment and choose the safe path because it is the right one. He who acts upon his own judgment will follow the inclination of the natural heart, but he whose mind is opened to the Word of God will prayerfully consider every way of his feet, so that he may honor God and keep the way of the Lord. He will remember that "even Christ pleased not himself," and he will consider it a great privilege to follow in His steps. He will take his perplexities to God in prayer and ask the guidance of Him whose property he is. He will realize that he belongs to God--soul, body, mind, and strength....
TMK	251	4	Let every youth train himself in practical lines, to trust the Lord and not to follow his own ways. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.... Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.... She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace" (Proverbs 3:5-17).2
------------------------Watch for God's Guidance, September 3
TMK	252	1	Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. Psalm 123:2.
TMK	252	2	The children of God should cultivate a keen sensitiveness to sin.... It is one of Satan's most successful devices to lead men to the commission of little sins, to blind the mind to the danger of little indulgences, little digressions from the plainly stated requirements of God. Many who would shrink with horror from some great transgression are led to look upon sin in little matters as of trifling consequence. But these little sins eat out the life of godliness in the soul....
TMK	252	3	God requires us to prove our loyalty to Him by unquestioning obedience. In deciding upon any course we should not ask merely whether we can see harm to result from it, but whether it is contrary to the will of God. We must learn to distrust self and to rely wholly upon God for guidance and support, for a knowledge of His will, and for strength to perform it. We must be much in communion with God. Prayer in secret, prayer while the hands are engaged in labor, prayer while walking by the way, prayer in the night season, the heart's desires ever ascending to God--this is our only safety. In this manner Enoch walked with God. In this manner our Exemplar obtained strength to tread the thorny path from Nazareth to Calvary.
TMK	252	4	Christ the sinless One, upon whom the Holy Spirit was bestowed without measure, constantly acknowledged His dependence upon God, and sought fresh supplies from the Source of strength and wisdom. How much more should finite, erring man feel his need of help from God every hour and every moment. How carefully should he follow the leading Hand, how carefully treasure every word that has been given for his guidance and instruction! "As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress," so should our eyes be upon the Lord our God. His commands should be received with implicit faith, and obeyed with cheerful exactness.3
------------------------The March to Victory, September 4
TMK	253	1	But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57.
TMK	253	2	Nothing can be more helpless, nothing can be more dependent, than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly upon the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour. The Christian life is a life of warfare, of continual conflict. It is a battle and a march. But every act of obedience to Christ, every act of self-denial for His sake, every trial well endured, every victory gained over temptation, is a step in the march to the glory of final victory.
TMK	253	3	If we take Christ for our guide, He will lead us safely along the narrow way. The road may be rough and thorny; the ascent may be steep and dangerous; there may be pitfalls upon the right hand and upon the left; we may have to endure toil in our journey; when weary, when longing for rest, we may have to toil on; when faint, we may have to fight; when discouraged, we may be called upon to hope; but with Christ as our Guide we shall not lose the path to immortal life, we shall not fail to reach the desired haven at last.
TMK	253	4	Christ Himself has trod the rough pathway before us and has smoothed the path for our feet. The narrow path of holiness, the way cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in, is illuminated by Him who is the light of the world. As we follow in His steps, His light will shine upon us, and as we reflect the light borrowed from the glory of Christ, the path will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.
TMK	253	5	We may think it pleasant at first to follow pride and worldly ambition, but the end is pain and sorrow. Selfish plans may present flattering promises and hold out the hope of enjoyment, but we shall find that our happiness is poisoned and our life embittered by hopes that center in self. In following Christ we are safe, for He will not suffer the powers of darkness to hurt one hair of our heads. He will keep that which is committed to His trust, and we shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved us.4
------------------------Those First Dangerous Steps, September 5
TMK	254	1	Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. Hebrews 3:12.
TMK	254	2	When the Redeemer of the world walked among men, many who identified themselves with Him as His disciples afterward forsook Him and became His bitterest enemies. The Saviour tested their faith and developed the real characters of the most ardent believers by applying spiritual truths to their hearts....
TMK	254	3	They must be Christlike, meek and lowly of heart, self-denying, self-sacrificing; they must walk in the narrow path trodden by the Man of Calvary if they would share in the gift of life and the glory of heaven. But the test was too great. They walked no more with Him. They could not hear the saying nor comprehend the nature of the truth He taught....
TMK	254	4	The work of apostasy begins in some secret rebellion of the heart against the requirements of God's law. Unholy desires, unlawful ambitions, are cherished and indulged, and unbelief and darkness separate the soul from God. If we do not overcome these evils, they will overcome us. Men who have long been advancing in the path of truth will be tested with trial and temptation. Those who listen to the suggestions of Satan and swerve from their integrity begin the downward path, and some masterful temptation hastens them on in the way of apostasy, till their descent is marked and rapid....
TMK	254	5	We need to be constantly on our guard, to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation. The indulgence of spiritual pride, of unholy desires, of evil thoughts, of anything that separates us from an intimate and sacred association with Jesus imperils our souls.... If the thought of apostasy is grievous to you, and you do not desire to become the enemies of the truth, the accusers of the brethren, then "abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good" (Romans 12:9), and believe in Him who is "able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24).5
------------------------The Deceitfulness of Sin, September 6
TMK	255	1	But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:13.
TMK	255	2	"The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Sin, however small it may be esteemed, can be persisted in only at the cost of eternal life....
TMK	255	3	Adam and Eve persuaded themselves that in so small a matter as eating of the forbidden fruit there could not result such terrible consequences as God had declared. But this small matter was sin, the transgression of God's immutable and holy law, and it opened the floodgates of death and untold woe upon our world. Age after age there has gone up from our earth a continual cry of mourning, and the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain as a consequence of man's disobedience. Heaven itself has felt the effects of his rebellion against God. Calvary stands as a memorial of the amazing sacrifice required as a propitiation for the transgression of the divine law. Let us not esteem sin as a trivial thing. Are not the hands and feet and side of the Son of the infinite God to bear an eternal testimony before the universe of its untold malignity and curse?
TMK	255	4	O that a right impression might be made upon the minds of young and old in regard to the exceeding sinfulness of sin! ...
TMK	255	5	God is not deceived by appearances of piety. He makes no mistake in His estimation of character. Men may be deceived by those who are corrupt in heart, but God pierces all disguises and reads the inner life. The moral worth of every soul is weighed in the balance of the heavenly sanctuary. Shall not these solemn thoughts have an influence upon us, that we may cease to do evil and learn to do well? There is nothing gained by a life of sin but hopeless despair....
TMK	255	6	Let faith lay hold on the promises of God. Jesus is mighty to save His people from their sins. Light from Heaven has illumined our pathway. Sin has been revealed to us by the Word and the Spirit of truth, that we may not be found transgressors of the divine precepts, and there is no opportunity to plead the excuse of ignorance. The command is "Depart from iniquity" (2 Timothy 2:19).6
------------------------The Conflict Is for Us, September 7
TMK	256	1	To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Revelation 3:21.
TMK	256	2	These are the words of our substitute and surety. He who is the divine Head of the church, the mightiest of conquerors, would point His followers to His life, His toils, His self-denials, His struggles and sufferings, through contempt, through rejection, ridicule, scorn, insult, mockery, falsehood, up the path of Calvary to the scene of the crucifixion, that they might be encouraged to press on toward the mark for the prize and reward of the overcomer.7
TMK	256	3	The plan of salvation is not appreciated as it should be. It is not discerned or comprehended. It is made altogether a cheap affair, whereas to unite the human with the divine required an exertion of Omnipotence.... Christ, by clothing His divinity with humanity, elevates humanity in the scale of moral value to an infinite worth. But what a condescension on the part of God and on the part of His only begotten Son, who was equal with the Father! ...
TMK	256	4	So great has been the spiritual blindness of men that they have sought to make of none effect the Word of God. They have declared by their traditions that the great plan of redemption was devised in order to abolish and make of none effect the law of God, when Calvary is the mighty argument that proves the immutability of the precepts of Jehovah.... The state of the character must be compared with the great moral standard of righteousness. There must be a searching out of the peculiar sins which have been offensive to God, which have dishonored His name and quenched the light of His Spirit and killed the first love from the soul....
TMK	256	5	Victory is assured through faith and obedience.... The work of overcoming is not restricted to the age of the martyrs. The conflict is for us, in these days of subtle temptation to worldliness, to self-security, to indulgence of pride, covetousness, false doctrines, and immorality of life.... Shall we stand before the proving of God?8
------------------------Trust in Time of Trial, September 8
TMK	257	1	And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28.
TMK	257	2	The Christian's hope does not rest upon the sandy foundation of feeling. Those who act from principle will behold the glory of God beyond the shadows, and rest upon the sure word of promise. They will not be deterred from honoring God however dark the way may seem. Adversity and trial will only give them an opportunity to show the sincerity of their faith and love. When depression settles upon the soul, it is no evidence that God has changed. He is "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8). You are sure of the favor of God when you are sensible of the beams of the Sun of Righteousness; but if the clouds sweep over your soul, you must not feel that you are forsaken. Your faith must pierce the gloom.... The riches of the grace of Christ must be kept before the mind. Treasure up the lessons that His love provides. Let your faith be like Job's, that you may declare, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15). Lay hold on the promises of your heavenly Father and remember His former dealing with you and with His servants, for "all things work together for good to them that love God."
TMK	257	3	The most trying experiences in the Christian's life may be the most blessed. The special providences of the dark hours may encourage the soul in future attacks of Satan, and equip the servant of God to stand in fiery trials. The trial of your faith is more precious than gold. You must have that abiding confidence in God that is not disturbed by the temptations and arguments of the deceiver. Take the Lord at His word....
TMK	257	4	It is faith that familiarizes the soul with the existence and presence of God, and when we live with an eye single to His glory we discern more and more the beauty of His character. Our souls become strong in spiritual power, for we are breathing the atmosphere of heaven and realizing that God is at our right hand.... We should live as in the presence of the Infinite One.9
------------------------And Jesus Prayed, September 9
TMK	258	1	And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. Luke 6:12.
TMK	258	2	The Majesty of heaven, while engaged in His earthly ministry, was often in earnest prayer. Frequently He spent the entire night thus. His spirit was sorrowful as He felt the power of the darkness of this world, and He left the busy city and the noisy throng to seek a retired place for intercession with His Father. The Mount of Olives was the favorite resort of the Son of God. Frequently, after the multitude had left Him for the retirement of the night, He rested not though weary with the labors of the day.... While the city was hushed in silence and His disciples had retired to obtain refreshment in sleep, His divine pleadings were ascending to His Father from the Mount of Olives, that His disciples might be kept from the evil influences which they would daily encounter in the world, and that His own soul might be strengthened and braced for the duties and trials of the coming day. All night, while His followers were sleeping, was their divine Teacher praying, while the dew and frost of night fell upon His bowed head....
TMK	258	3	The example of Christ is left on record for His followers. Jesus was Himself a source of blessing and strength. He could heal the sick and raise the dead; He commanded even the tempests, and they obeyed Him; He was unsullied with corruption, a stranger to sin; yet He endured agony which required help and support from His Father, and He prayed often with strong crying and tears. He prayed for His disciples and for Himself, thus identifying Himself with the needs, the weaknesses, and the failings which are common to humanity. He was a mighty petitioner, not possessing the passions of our human, fallen natures, but compassed with like infirmities, tempted in all points even as we are....
TMK	258	4	Christ, our Example, turned to His Father in these hours of distress. He came to earth that He might provide a way whereby we could find grace and strength to help in every time of need by following His example in frequent, earnest prayer.10
------------------------"Come Ye Yourselves Apart", September 10
TMK	259	1	Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. Psalm 27:14.
TMK	259	2	No other life was ever so crowded with labor and responsibility as was that of Jesus, yet how often He was found in prayer! How constant was His communion with God! ... As one with us, a sharer in our needs and weaknesses, He was wholly dependent upon God, and in the secret place of prayer He sought divine strength that He might go forth braced for duty and trial. In a world of sin Jesus endured struggles and torture of soul. In communion with God He could unburden the sorrows that were crushing Him....
TMK	259	3	In Christ the cry of humanity reached the Father of infinite pity. As a man He supplicated the throne of God till His humanity was charged with a heavenly current that should connect humanity with divinity. Through continual communion He received life from God, that He might impart life to the world. His experience is to be ours. "Come ye yourselves apart" (Mark 6:31), He bids us. If we would give heed to His Word we should be stronger and more useful.... If today we would take time to go to Jesus and tell Him our needs we should not be disappointed; He would be at our right hand to help us....
TMK	259	4	In all who are under the training of God is to be revealed a life that is not in harmony with the world, its customs, or its practices, and everyone needs to have a personal experience in obtaining a knowledge of the will of God. We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. He bids us, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). Here alone can true rest be found. And this is the effectual preparation for all who labor for God. Amid the hurrying throng and the strain of life's intense activities, the soul that is thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. The life will breathe out fragrance and will reveal a divine power that will reach men's hearts.11
------------------------Acceptable Prayer, September 11
TMK	260	1	And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. Luke 11:1.
TMK	260	2	Jesus taught His disciples to pray, and He often urged upon them the necessity of prayer. He did not bid them to study books to learn a form of prayer. They were not to offer prayer to men, but to make their requests known to God. He taught them that the prayer which God accepts is the simple, earnest petition from a soul that feels its need....
TMK	260	3	God invites us to come to Him with our burden of guilt and our heart sorrows. Sin fills us with fear of God. When we have sinned we try to hide ourselves from Him. But whatever our sin, God bids us come unto Him through Jesus Christ. It is only by taking our sins to God that we can be freed from them. Cain, under the rebuke of God, acknowledged his guilt in killing Abel, but he fled away from God, as if he could thus escape from his sin. Had he fled to God with his burden of guilt he would have been forgiven. The prodigal son, realizing his guilt and wretchedness, said, "I will arise and go to my father" (Luke 15:18). He confessed his sin and was taken back to his father's heart.
TMK	260	4	If we would offer acceptable prayer, there is a work to be done in confessing our sins to one another. If I have sinned against my neighbor in word or action I should make confession to him. If he has wronged me he should confess to me. So far as is possible the one who has wronged another is to make restitution. Then in contrition he is to confess the sin to God, whose law has been transgressed. In sinning against our brother, we sin against God, and we must seek pardon from Him. Whatever our sin, if we but repent and believe in the atoning blood of Christ we shall be pardoned.... We have only one channel of approach to God. Our prayers can come to Him through one name only--that of the Lord Jesus, our advocate.12
TMK	260	5	Christ is represented as stooping from His throne and bending earthward to send help to every needy soul who asks Him in faith.13
------------------------The Model Prayer, September 12
TMK	261	1	After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Matthew 6:9-13.
TMK	261	2	[Diary entry, August 2, 1902.] This morning my prayer to the Lord is for His rich grace. I never choose to begin a day without receiving special evidence that the Lord Jesus is my Helper, and that I have the rich grace that it is my privilege to receive.
TMK	261	3	In my morning devotions I have regarded it my privilege to close my petition with the prayer that Christ taught to His disciples. There is so much that I really must have to meet the needs of my own case that I sometimes fear that I shall ask amiss; but when in sincerity I offer the model prayer that Christ gave to His disciples I cannot but feel that in these few words all my needs are comprehended. This I offer after I have presented my special private prayer. If with heart and mind and soul I repeat the Lord's prayer, then I can go forth in peace to my work, knowing that I have not asked amiss....
TMK	261	4	The scribes and the Pharisees often offered their prayers in the market places and in the streets of the cities. Christ called them hypocrites. In every age men have prayed "that they may be seen of men." ... When Christ sees in His disciples errors that are liable to lead them astray, He always instructs them in the right way. He does not give an admonition without also giving an instructive lesson showing how to remedy the error. After instructing His disciples not to use "vain repetitions" in their prayers, in kindness and mercy He gave them a short sample prayer in order that they might know how to avoid imitating the prayers of the Pharisees. In giving this prayer, He knew that He was helping human infirmity by framing into words that which comprehends every human need. "We know not what we should pray for as we ought," but Christ's instruction to us is clear and definite.14
------------------------What Is God Like? September 13
TMK	262	1	For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Isaiah 54:10.
TMK	262	2	We are not to think of God only as a judge and to forget Him as our loving Father. Nothing can do our souls greater harm than this, for our whole spiritual life will be molded by our conceptions of God's character....
TMK	262	3	Now let us improve the precious opportunities to become acquainted with our heavenly Father, who "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish...." Wondrous love that God, the infinite God, has made it our privilege to approach Him by the name of Father! No earthly parent could plead more earnestly with an erring child than He who made us pleads with the transgressor. No human, loving interest has ever followed the impenitent with such tender invitations....
TMK	262	4	His word is pledged. The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but His kindness shall not depart from His people, neither shall the covenant of His peace be removed. His voice is heard, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3). "With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee" (Isaiah 54:8). How amazing is this love, that God condescends to remove all cause for doubt and questioning from human fears and weakness and takes hold of the trembling hand reached up to Him in faith; and He helps us to trust Him by multiplied assurances and securities. He has made us a binding agreement upon condition of our obedience, and He comes to meet us in our own understanding of things. We think that a pledge or promise from our fellow men, if recorded, still needs a guarantee. Jesus has met all these peculiar fears, and He has confirmed His promise with an oath: "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: ..." What more could our Lord do to strengthen our faith in His promises?15
------------------------A Tender, Merciful Father, September 14
TMK	263	1	Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Psalm 103:13.
TMK	263	2	Our God should be regarded as a tender, merciful father. The service of God should not be looked upon as a heart-saddening, distressing exercise. It should be a pleasure to worship the Lord and to take part in His work. As the people of God meditate upon the plan of salvation their hearts will be melted in love and gratitude....
TMK	263	3	God would not have His children, for whom so great a salvation has been provided, act as though He were a hard, exacting taskmaster. He is their best friend, and when they worship Him, He expects to be with them to bless and comfort them and fill their hearts with joy and love. The Lord desires His children to take comfort in His service, and to find more pleasure than hardship in His work. The Lord desires that those who come to worship Him shall carry away with them precious thoughts of His care and love that they may be cheered in all the employments of daily life, that they may have grace to deal honestly and faithfully in all things....
TMK	263	4	We dishonor God when we think of Him only as a judge ready to pass sentence upon us, and forget that He is a loving Father. The whole spiritual life is molded by our conceptions of God, and if we cherish erroneous views of His character, our souls will sustain injury. We should see in God one who yearns toward the children of men, longing to do them good.... All through the Scriptures, God is represented as one who calls, woos by His tender love, the hearts of His erring children. No earthly parent could be as patient with the faults and mistakes of their children as is God with those He seeks to save. No one could plead more tenderly with the transgressor. No human lips ever poured out more tender entreaty to the wanderer than does He. O shall we not love God, and show our love by humble obedience? Let us have a care for our thoughts, our experiences, our attitude toward God, for all His promises are but the breathings of unutterable love.16
------------------------The Terms of Our Salvation, September 15
TMK	264	1	Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. John 16:23, 24.
TMK	264	2	The disciples of Christ who were with Him from day to day did not comprehend His mission.... They were unacquainted with His unlimited resources and power. Although they had witnessed His miracles they did not discern His relationship to the Father. Just before His death He said to them, "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name." In simple language Jesus explained to them that the secret of their success would be in asking the Father for strength and grace in His name. He would be present before the face of the Father to make request in their behalf....
TMK	264	3	We need to become better acquainted with the terms upon which salvation will be ours, and better understand the relation which Christ sustains to us and to the Father. He has pledged Himself to honor His Son's name as we present it at the throne of grace. We should consider the great sacrifice that was made in our behalf to purchase for us the robe of righteousness woven in the loom of heaven. He has invited us to the wedding feast, and has provided for every one of us the wedding garment. The robe of righteousness has been purchased at infinite cost, and how daring is the insult to Heaven when one presents himself as a candidate for entrance at the wedding feast when wearing his own citizen's dress of self-righteousness! How greatly he dishonors God, openly showing contempt for the sacrifice made on Calvary! ...
TMK	264	4	No one will taste of the marriage supper of the Lamb who has not on a wedding garment. But John writes, "... He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." Then, before it is eternally too late, let each one go to the heavenly Merchantman for the white raiment, the eyesalve, the gold tried in the fire, and the oil of heavenly grace.17
------------------------The Power of Jesus' Name, September 16
TMK	265	1	Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16.
TMK	265	2	Christ is our pattern, the perfect and holy example that has been given us to follow. We can never equal the Pattern, but we may imitate and resemble it according to our ability. When we fall, all helpless, suffering in consequence of our realization of the sinfulness of sin; when we humble ourselves before God, afflicting our souls by true repentance and contrition; when we offer our fervent prayers to God in the name of Christ; we shall as surely be received by the Father as we sincerely make a complete surrender of our all to God. We should realize in our inmost soul that all our efforts in and of ourselves will be utterly worthless, for it is only in the name and strength of the Conqueror that we shall be overcomers.
TMK	265	3	If we believe in the power of Jesus' name, and present our petitions to God in His name, we shall never be turned away.... Our help cometh from God, who holds all things in His own hands. Our peace is in the assurance that His love is exercised toward us. If faith grasps this assurance, we have gained all; if we lose this assurance, all is lost. When we surrender all we have and are to God and are placed in trying and dangerous positions, coming in contact with Satan, we should remember that we shall have victory in meeting the enemy in the name and power of the Conqueror. Every angel would be commissioned to come to our rescue when we thus depend upon Christ rather than that we should be permitted to be overcome.
TMK	265	4	But we need not expect to get the victory without suffering, for Jesus suffered in conquering for us. While we suffer in His name, while we are called upon to deny appetite, and to withdraw ourselves from lovers of pleasure, we should not murmur, but should rather rejoice that we are privileged in a very small degree to be partakers with Christ of the trial, the sacrifice, the self-denial, and the suffering that our Lord endured on our behalf that we might obtain eternal salvation.18
------------------------I Pray for Guidance, September 17
TMK	266	1	They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31.
TMK	266	2	Friday, February 14, 1896. I awake at half past two, and seek the Lord, as is my practice, for wisdom and grace, mingling my prayers with thanksgiving for His tender, loving compassion toward us. The words of Isaiah 40:28-31 seem appropriate and impressed upon my mind....
TMK	266	3	My prayer is, Help me, O my heavenly Father, to trust wholly in Thy wisdom and not to lean to my own understanding. Guide Thou my pen and direct my speech that I shall not sin against Thee with voice or pen. I must have grace. I plead, Teach me Thy truth, that I shall not err from Thy way. O my Lord, I am weakness itself, but Thou art strength, fortitude, and courage to Thy people if they will only diligently make Thee their trust....
TMK	266	4	Sabbath, February 15, 1896. The Lord is good and merciful. I want my gratitude offering constantly ascending to God. I long to have a deeper sense of His goodness and of His changeless love. I long daily for the waters of life.... I must continually have my strength in God. My dependence must not waver. No human agency must come between my soul and my God. The Lord is our only hope. In Him I trust, and He will never, no never, fail me. He hath hitherto helped me when under great discouragement....
TMK	266	5	I will thank the Lord and praise His holy name. I will praise the Lord that in Him I can trust at all times. He is the health of my countenance and my strong tower into which I can run and be safe. He understands my necessities and He will give me the light of His countenance that I may reflect light upon others. I will not fail nor be discouraged. I look to Thee, my heavenly Father, to give strength and grace.... I will praise the Lord at all times and not wait for a happy flight of feeling. Then praise the Lord, for He is good, and His mercies will attend me morning, noon, and night. A happy flight of feeling is not evidence; His Word is my assurance.19
------------------------The Christian's Safeguard, September 18
TMK	267	1	Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Ephesians 6:18.
TMK	267	2	There is a feverish love of pleasure at this time, a fearful increase of licentiousness, a contempt for all authority. Not only worldlings but professed Christians also are governed by inclination rather than duty. The words of Christ are sounding down through the ages, "Watch and pray" (Matthew 26:41).20
TMK	267	3	Watchfulness and vigilance are needed now as never before in the history of the race. The eye must be turned off from beholding vanity. Lawlessness, the prevailing spirit of the age, must be met with a decided rebuke. Let none feel that they are in no danger. As long as Satan lives, his efforts will be constant and untiring to make the world as wicked as before the Flood and as licentious as were the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. The prayer may well be offered daily by those who have the fear of God before them, that He will preserve their hearts from evil desires and strengthen their souls to resist temptation. Those who in their self-confidence feel no need of watchfulness and unceasing prayer are near some humiliating fall. All who do not feel the importance of resolutely guarding their affections will be captivated by those who practice their arts to ensnare and lead astray the unwary. Men may have a knowledge of divine things and an ability to fill an important place in the work of God, yet, unless they cherish a simple faith in their Redeemer they will be ensnared and overcome by the enemy.
TMK	267	4	It is because the duties of watchfulness and prayer have been so sadly neglected that there is so great a lack of moral power. This is why so many who have a form of godliness bring forth no corresponding works. A careless indifference, a carnal security concerning religious duties and eternal things, prevails to an alarming extent. The Word of God exhorts us to be found "praying always ... , and watching thereunto with all perseverance...." Here is the Christian's safeguard, his protection amid the perils that surround his pathway.21
------------------------Quiet Rest in God, September 19
TMK	268	1	Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. Psalm 57:1.
TMK	268	2	I am so sorry that men who want to be obedient to God put so much confidence in human sympathy and human help which disappoint so often. But God, the living God, is unchangeable. He is the same kind, tender, pitiful, loving Saviour today, yesterday, and forever. Satan is now working with all his might, and leaving no means untried to unsettle minds because they see men of long experience make mistakes. But Jesus is faultless.... Make God your entire trust. Pray, pray, pray, pray in faith. Then trust the keeping of your soul to God. He will keep that which is committed to Him against that day.... Walk humbly with God. The Lord sees every sorrow, every grief, every trial that besets the human soul, and He knows how to apply the balm....
TMK	268	3	In God you can do valiantly. Tell it to the Lord in prayer, talk it to the Lord by the way. "Thee I seek; Thee I will follow; Thee I will serve. Under the shadow of Thy wings will I abide. Command me as Thou wilt; I will obey Thy voice." Yield always to the heavenly guidance. When trials come, possess your soul in patience. Wait on the Lord and have one purpose in view, to seek the eternal good of all those with whom you are connected, holding fast your integrity in the strength of your God. He will redeem His promise. Your bread shall be provided; your water shall be sure. This means not only temporal bread and water but the bread and water of eternal life.
TMK	268	4	Stand in God. Work under the sweet influence of His grace. The truth of God sanctifying the heart of the believer guides his life. We may stand firmly and assuredly. If you make the face of clay your dependence you lean on a reed that has oft broken in your hand and will break. Trust fully, unwaveringly, in God. He is the wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. We may keep the conscience unsullied and in peace and quiet rest in God.22
------------------------Feeble Efforts Not Enough, September 20
TMK	269	1	Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Psalm 61:1, 2.
TMK	269	2	When we are burdened, when we are pressed with temptation, when the feelings and desires of the natural heart are contending for the victory, we should offer up fervent, importunate prayer to our heavenly Father in the name of Christ, and this will bring Jesus to our help, so that through His all-powerful and efficacious name we may gain the victory and banish Satan from our side. But we should not flatter ourselves that we are safe while we make but feeble efforts in our own behalf.... "Strive to enter in at the strait gate" (Luke 13:24).
TMK	269	3	Our danger does not arise from the opposition of the world, but it is found in the liability of our being in friendship with the world and imitating the example of those who love not God or His truth. The loss of earthly things for the truth's sake, the suffering of great inconvenience for loyalty to principle, does not place us in danger of losing our faith and hope; but we are in danger of suffering loss because of being deceived and overcome by the temptations of Satan. Trials will work for our good if we receive and bear them without murmuring, and will tend to separate us from the love of the world and will lead us to trust more fully in God.
TMK	269	4	There is help for us only in God. We should not flatter ourselves that we have any strength in wisdom of our own, for our strength is weakness, our judgment foolishness. Christ conquered the foe in our behalf because He pitied our weakness and knew that we would be overcome and would perish if He did not come to our help. He clothed His divinity with humanity, and thus was qualified to reach man with His human arm while with His divine arm He grasped the throne of the Infinite. The merits of Christ elevate and ennoble humanity, and through the name and grace of Christ it is possible for man to overcome the degradation caused by the Fall, and through the exalted, divine nature of Christ to be linked to the Infinite.23
------------------------Fervent, Effectual Prayer, September 21
TMK	270	1	The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16.
TMK	270	2	The sincere, humble prayer of the true worshiper ascends to heaven, and Jesus mingles with our lowly petitions the holy incense of His own merit. Through His righteousness we are accepted. Christ makes our prayers wholly efficacious through the savor of His righteousness. In these days of peril we need men who will wrestle with God as did Jacob and who, like Jacob, will prevail. Thank God that the world's Redeemer promised that if He went away He would send the Holy Spirit as His representative. Let us pray and grasp the rich promises of God, and then praise God that in proportion to our earnest, humble supplications the Holy Spirit will be appointed to meet our needs. If we seek God with all our heart we shall find Him, and obtain the fulfillment of the promise.24
TMK	270	3	Let those who love the Lord and His truth unite by two's and three's to seek places of retirement and pray for God's blessing upon the minister, who can hardly find time to pray because he is constantly engaged attending to so many requests, sitting in councils, answering inquiries, giving advice, writing important letters. Let the fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous ascend to God that the word spoken may be a message of truth to reach the hearts of the hearers, and that souls may thereby be won to Christ.25
TMK	270	4	In order to be a Christian it is not necessary for a man to have great talents. An earnest prayer offered from a contrite heart by one who desires to do the Master's will is of more value in God's sight than is eloquence of speech. The human agent may have no voice in legislative councils, he may not be permitted to deliberate in senates or vote in parliaments, yet he has access to God. The King of kings bends low to listen to the prayer coming from a humble, contrite heart. God hears every prayer that is offered with the incense of faith. The weakest child of God may exert an influence in harmony with the councils of heaven.26
------------------------Daniel's Example of Prayer and Confession, September 22
TMK	271	1	And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession. Daniel 9:3, 4.
TMK	271	2	Daniel's example of prayer and confession is given for our instruction and encouragement.... Daniel knew that the appointed time for Israel's captivity was nearly ended, but he did not feel that because God had promised to deliver them, they themselves had no part to act. With fasting and contrition he sought the Lord, confessing his own sins and the sins of the people....
TMK	271	3	Daniel makes no plea on the ground of his own goodness, but he says: "O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies" (Daniel 9:18). His intensity of desire makes him earnest and fervent. He continues: "O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name."...
TMK	271	4	What a prayer was that which came forth from the lips of Daniel! What humbling of soul it reveals! The warmth of heavenly fire was recognized in the words that were going upward to God. Heaven responded to that prayer by sending its messenger to Daniel. In this our day, prayers offered in like manner will prevail with God. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16). As in ancient times, when prayer was offered, fire descended from heaven and consumed the sacrifice upon the altar, so in answer to our prayers, the heavenly fire will come into our souls. The light and power of the Holy Spirit will be ours.... That God who heard Daniel's prayer will hear ours when we come to Him in contrition. Our necessities are as urgent, our difficulties are as great, and we need to have the same intensity of purpose, and in faith roll our burden upon the great Burden Bearer. There is need for hearts to be as deeply moved in our time as in the time when Daniel prayed.27
------------------------The Preciousness of Secret Prayer, September 23
TMK	272	1	Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Psalm 62:8.
TMK	272	2	A deep sense of our need and a great desire for the things for which we ask must characterize our prayers, else they will not be heard. But we are not to become weary and cease our petitions because the answer is not immediately received. "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matthew 11:12). The violence here meant is a holy earnestness, such as Jacob manifested. We need not try to work ourselves up into an intense feeling, but calmly, persistently, we are to press our petitions at the throne of grace. Our work is to humble our souls before God, confessing our sins, and in faith drawing nigh unto God.... It is the design of God to reveal Himself in His providence and in His grace. The object of our prayers must be the glory of God, not the glorification of ourselves....
TMK	272	3	God has honored us by showing how greatly He values us. We are bought with a price, even the precious blood of the Son of God. When His heritage shall conscientiously follow the Word of the Lord, His blessing will rest upon them in answer to their prayers. "Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness" (Joel 2:12, 13).28
TMK	272	4	In secret prayer the soul should be laid bare to the inspecting eye of God.... How precious is secret prayer--the soul communing with God! Secret prayer is to be heard only by the prayer-hearing God. No curious ear is to receive the burden of petitions. Calmly, yet fervently, the soul is to reach out after God; and sweet and abiding will be the influence emanating from Him who sees in secret, whose ear is open to the prayer arising from the heart. He who in simple faith holds communion with God will gather to himself divine rays of light to strengthen and sustain him in the conflict with Satan.29
------------------------Praise, Like Clear-flowing Streams, September 24
TMK	273	1	It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: to shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night. Psalm 92:1, 2.
TMK	273	2	When the truth is appreciated, ... we have a sense of the great mercy and loving-kindness of God. While we review not the dark chapters in our experience to complain, but the manifestations of His great mercy and unfailing love and power revealed in our deliverance, we will praise far more than complain. We will talk of the loving faithfulness of God, as the true, tender, compassionate Shepherd of His flock, which He has declared none shall pluck out of His hand. The language of the heart will not be selfish murmuring and repining, but praise, like clear-flowing streams, will come from God's truly believing ones....
TMK	273	3	The Lord is full of resources. He has no lack of facilities. It is because of our lack of faith, our earthliness, our cheap talk, our unbelief, that dark shadows gather about us....
TMK	273	4	The temple of God is opened in heaven, and the threshold is flushed with the glory that is for every church that will love God and keep His commandments. We need to study, to meditate, and to pray. Then we shall have spiritual eyesight to discern the inner courts of the celestial temple. We shall catch the themes of song and thanksgiving of the heavenly choir round about the throne. When Zion shall arise and shine, her light will be most penetrating, and precious songs of praise and thanksgiving will be heard in the assembly of the saints. Murmurings, complainings, and lamentations over little disappointments and difficulties will be lost sight of. As we apply the golden eyesalve we shall see the glories beyond. Faith will cut through the hellish shadow of Satan, and we shall see our Advocate offering up the incense of His own merits in our behalf....
TMK	273	5	Let us take up the praise of God here below. Let us unite with the heavenly company above. Then we shall represent the truth as it is--a power to all who believe.30
------------------------A Jubilee for Jesus? September 25
TMK	274	1	And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long. Psalm 35:28.
TMK	274	2	While I was in England, one day there was a great parade in the streets. It was the Queen's Jubilee. Everyone was talking about it. The shop windows were filled with her pictures, and all were extolling the queen of England. Could we have taken from the shop windows the pictures of the queen and the signs of her glory, and placed instead expressions of the glory and majesty of Jesus, would not the people have regarded us as religious fanatics? They would have thought that we were carrying religion too far.... But did not our Master lay aside His royal robes, His crown of glory? Did He not clothe His divinity with humanity, and come to our world to die man's sacrifice? Why should we not talk about it? Why should we not dwell on His matchless love?
TMK	274	3	O that our tongues might lose their paralysis, that we might speak forth His praise! O that the spiritual torpor which has come upon the souls of men might be removed, that we might discern the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ! We are to be the representatives of our Lord upon earth.... He can communicate heaven's light through you to those who sit in darkness. You that have claimed to know the Lord, you who profess to have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, reveal it to those around you. Show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. If men can make so much ado over the Queen's Jubilee, if they can manifest so much enthusiasm over a finite being, can we not speak to the glory of the Prince of Life, who is so soon to come in majesty to take His weary, worn followers to Himself; to unlock the prison bars of death, and set the captives free; to give His loved ones who sleep, a glorious immortality? Why cannot Christ be introduced into our conversation? We are almost home. Let us speak courage to the weary soldiers of the cross.... Let us tell the pilgrims and strangers of earth that we shall soon reach a better country, even a heavenly.31
------------------------Suffering for the Truth's Sake, September 26
TMK	275	1	Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. John 15:20.
TMK	275	2	What will the human agent do to have the privilege of cooperating with God? Will he forsake all that he has rather than forsake Christ? ... Will he suffer persecution for the truth's sake? Reproach and persecution have separated many souls from heaven, but never a soul from the love of Christ. Never yet did persecution drive the soul who was indeed a lover of Jesus Christ away from Him. The love of Jesus in the soul is all-absorbing, for that great love wherewith God hath loved us, revealed in giving Christ to us, is beyond a parallel. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." ...
TMK	275	3	If we can bear persecution for His dear name's sake, His love becomes a ruling power in our hearts, for we have the assurance that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Never is the tempest-tried soul more dearly loved by his Saviour than when he is suffering reproach for the truth's sake. When for the truth's sake the believer stands at the bar of unrighteous tribunals, Christ stands by his side. All the reproaches that fall upon the human believer fall upon Christ in the person of His saints. "I will love him," said Christ, "and will manifest myself to him" (John 14:21). Christ is condemned over again in the person of His believing disciples. When for the truth's sake the believer is incarcerated in prison walls, Christ manifests Himself to him and ravishes his heart with His love. When he suffers death for the sake of Christ, Christ says to him, They may kill the body, but they cannot hurt the soul. "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).32
TMK	275	4	The apostle says to us, "... If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified." Ask yourself, "Is my Redeemer thus magnified in me before the universe of heaven, before the satanic agencies, and before the world?"33
------------------------Strength Through Trial, September 27
TMK	276	1	For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Psalm 66:10.
TMK	276	2	Untried character is not reliable. We are to be tried by temptation in order that we may learn to seek wisdom from God and to flee to the stronghold in time of trouble. He alone will be successful in resisting temptation who finds help and grace from God. Individually we stand as did our first parents--face to face with manifold temptations that solicit mind and heart. All heaven is watching with intense interest to see whether we will look unto Jesus and submit ourselves to His will, or whether in the temptation we shall follow the inclinations of the natural heart and the solicitations of the evil one.34
TMK	276	3	Let those who are perplexed with temptation go to God in prayer.... Persevere in prayer and watch thereunto without doubting, and the Holy Spirit will work in the human agent, bringing heart and mind into subjection to right principles.35
TMK	276	4	Those who through faith are kept by the power of God learn good and precious things. They experience the peace of Christ which passeth understanding. In resisting temptation you refuse to be confederate with Satan, and place yourselves under the banner of Jesus Christ. In the sight of heavenly intelligences you develop yourself as a conqueror. It is made manifest that you are a son of God....
TMK	276	5	You represent Christ in true goodness of character, and understand what these words signify: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.... And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace" (John 1:14-16). You receive grace, you develop grace; and as you reveal grace in your words, in your spirit and actions, God pours upon you a larger measure of grace. In proportion as you surrender yourselves to the working of the Holy Spirit you are supplied with heavenly grace. You are molded and fashioned a vessel unto honor, and become a channel through which God makes manifest His grace to the world.36
------------------------The Glorious Fruits of Trial, September 28
TMK	277	1	That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:7.
TMK	277	2	Let us believe in Jesus, trusting Him implicitly, although we may be tried as by fire.... We may love Christ more and increase our capacity for loving Him by contemplating and talking of His love. Cultivate the habit of talking with the Saviour when alone, when walking and working. Let gratitude and thanksgiving ascend to God because Jesus loves you and you love Jesus....
TMK	277	3	The Lord Jesus gave Himself a sacrifice for us. He knows us and He knows just what we need. Trial lasts only for a season. Encourage your heart in faith. We must not look on trial as punishment. Christ is the sin bearer. He is our Redeemer, and He desires to purify us from all dross. He means to make us partakers of the divine nature, developing in us the peaceable fruits of righteousness. The very fact that we are called upon to endure trials proves that the Lord Jesus sees in us something very precious that He would have developed. If He saw nothing in us whereby we might glorify His name He would not spend time refining us. We do not take special pains to prune brambles. Christ does not cast valueless stones into His furnace. It is precious ore that He tests. He sees that the refining process will bring out the reflection of His own image. Be trustful, be hopeful, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. He loves you. Hear His words: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten" (Revelation 3:19). He has not passed you by as unworthy of a trial.
TMK	277	4	What is the result of this refining process? That ye may "be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." O how precious to the soul is one word of commendation that comes from the Redeemer's lips! We may not understand all now, but the day is coming when we shall be more than satisfied, when we shall see as we are seen, and realize that trial has wrought out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.37
------------------------Why These Afflictions? September 29
TMK	278	1	It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. Psalm 119:71.
TMK	278	2	We must not think when we are afflicted that the anger of the Lord is upon us. God brings us into trials in order that we may be drawn near to Him. The psalmist says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19). He does not desire us to be under a cloud.... He does not desire us to go in anguish of spirit. We are not to look at the thorns and the thistles in our experience. We are to go into the garden of God's Word and pluck the lilies and roses and the fragrant pinks of His promises. Those who look upon the difficulties in their experience will talk doubt and discouragement, for they do not behold Jesus, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.
TMK	278	3	We should keep our minds upon the love, the mercy, and the graciousness of our God.... It is no sign that Jesus has ceased to love us because we experience doubts and discouragements. Affliction comes to us in the providence of God in order that we may see that Christ is our helper, that in Him is love and consolation. We may receive grace whereby we may be overcomers and inherit the life that measures with the life of God. We must have such an experience that when affliction comes upon us we shall not depart from the faith....
TMK	278	4	By the hand of faith grasp the promises of God and be upon vantage ground. Then you will be where Satan cannot come near and say, "God cannot help you, because you have sinned and you cannot claim the promises." The adversary desires to have us think that the way to life is so difficult that it will be impossible to reach the bliss of heaven. But God has placed us in circumstances where the very best of our natures may be developed and the highest faculties may be exercised. If we cultivate the good, the objectionable tendencies will not gain the supremacy, and at last we shall be accounted worthy to join the family above. If we desire to be saints above we must be saints upon the earth.38
------------------------Bring Your Troubles to God, September 30
TMK	279	1	My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:2-4.
TMK	279	2	The Word does not say that we are to count it all joy when we fall under temptation, but when we fall into temptation. It is not necessary to fall under temptation, for temptation comes upon us for the trying of our faith. And the trying of our faith worketh patience, not fretfulness and murmuring. If we put our trust in Jesus, He will keep us at all times, and will be our strength and shield. We are to learn valuable lessons from our trials. Paul says, "We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope ..." (Romans 5:3-5).
TMK	279	3	Many seem to think that it is impossible not to fall under temptation, that they have no power to overcome, and they sin against God with their lips, talking discouragement and doubt instead of faith and courage. Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He said, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me" (John 14:30). What does this mean? It means that the prince of evil could find no vantage ground in Christ for his temptation. And so it may be with us....
TMK	279	4	When we talk discouragement and gloom Satan listens with fiendish joy, for it pleases him to know that he has brought us into his bondage. Satan cannot read our thoughts, but he can see our actions, hear our words, and from his long knowledge of the human family he can shape his temptations to take advantage of our weak points of character. And how often do we let him into the secret of how he may obtain the victory over us!39
TMK	279	5	We must learn to come to God in any and every emergency, as a child would come to its parents.... Don't go to others with your trials and temptations; God alone can help you. If you fulfill the conditions of God's promises, the promises will be fulfilled to you....You will have an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast.40
------------------------Addressed to Me Personally, October 1
TMK	280	1	I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me; thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God. Psalm 40:17.
TMK	280	2	Do not let your great need discourage you. The Saviour of sinners, the Friend of the friendless, with compassion infinitely greater than that of a tender mother for a loved and afflicted child, is inviting, "Look unto me, and be ye saved" (Isaiah 45:22). "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5)....
TMK	280	3	There is danger of not making Christ's teachings a personal matter, of not receiving them as though they were addressed to us personally. In His words of instruction Jesus means me. I may appropriate to myself His merits, His death, His cleansing blood, as fully as though there were not another sinner in the world for whom Christ died....
TMK	280	4	There are toils and conflicts and self-denials for us all. Not one will escape them. We must tread the path where Jesus leads the way. It may be in tears, in trials, in bereavements, in sorrow for sins, or in seeking for the mastery over depraved desires, unbalanced characters, and unholy tempers. It requires earnest effort to present ourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. It takes the entire being. There is no chamber of the mind where Satan can hold sway and carry out his devices. Self must be crucified. Consecration, submission, and sacrifices must be made that will seem like taking the very lifeblood from the heart.1
TMK	280	5	Will it make you sad to be buffeted, despised, derided, maligned of the world? It ought not, for Jesus told us just how it would be. "If the world hate you," He says, "ye know that it hated me before it hated you" (John 15:18). The apostle Paul, the great hero of faith, testifies: "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18). "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17).2
------------------------Working the Heart's Soil, October 2
TMK	281	1	Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. Hosea 10:12.
TMK	281	2	Let every church member consider the breaking up of the fallow ground, the careful cleansing of the soil, and the depositing and harrowing of the seed, which is the laborious work of the husbandman. It is a rough and searching process. The harrowing of the seed is not always pleasant to the receiver, and sometimes disabling to him because he does not sense the virtue of the Word and become submissive under the tilling process in spiritual life. The sins committed require the sincere repentance that needeth not to be repented of, but when the hard soil is broken up and the stubborn clods are broken to pieces then the precious seed can be sown and harrowed into the soil. This represents the severe discipline of God. Often rebellion is manifested, and the discipline of God must continue until the determined will is broken and the end is gained.
TMK	281	3	In things spiritual as well as natural this work must be done. Often severity is needed to bring in the spiritual harvest. It is God's great law that without the proper sowing of seed and the tillage there will be no harvest in sheaves. An experience is lacking. Divine blessings wait only for human spiritual working of the soil of the heart and the industry to care for the soil while the Lord is sowing His seed.
TMK	281	4	As a man soweth he shall also reap. All who study the Word with full purpose to cleanse away from the life all sin, and who search the Scriptures to learn what is truth, will welcome the truth of the Word as a Thus saith the Lord. They will repent under the sharp reproofs of Bible truth.... If a man sow true repentance he will reap the reward of sound good works. If he continues in the faith he reaps peace. If he becomes sanctified and cleansed from his appetite for cheapness and folly he shall ... reap righteousness and perfect love.... A continuance in the well doing in overcoming makes him a daily victor because he keeps the mark of Christ's perfection ever before him.3
------------------------Spiritual Muscle and Sinew, October 3
TMK	282	1	Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1:12.
TMK	282	2	In seasons of temptation we seem to lose sight of the fact that God tests us that our faith may be tried and be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus. The Lord places us in different positions to develop us. If we have defects of character of which we are not aware, He gives us discipline that will bring those defects to our knowledge, that we may overcome them. It is His providence that brings us into varying circumstances. In each new position, we meet a different class of temptations. How many times when we are placed in some trying situation we think, "This is a wonderful mistake. How I wish I had stayed where I was before." But why is it that you are not satisfied? It is because your circumstances have served to bring new defects in your character to your notice, but nothing is revealed but that which was in you....
TMK	282	3	It is coming in contact with difficulties that will give you spiritual muscle and sinew. You will become strong in Christ if you endure the testing process and the proving of God.... Remember when trials come that you are a spectacle to angels and to men, and that every time you fail to bear the proving of the Lord you are lessening your spiritual strength. You should hold your peace from complaining, and take your burden to Jesus, and lay your whole soul open before Him. Do not carry it to a third person. Do not lay your burden upon humanity. Say, "I will not gratify the enemy by murmuring. I will lay my care at the feet of Jesus. I will tell it to Him in faith." If you do this you will receive help from above; you will realize the fulfillment of the promise, "He is on my right hand that I should not be moved" (see Psalm 16:8).4
TMK	282	4	God's Word declares, "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried" (Daniel 12:10). Only he who endures the trial will receive the crown of life.5
------------------------"My Grace Is Sufficient for Thee", October 4
TMK	283	1	And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.
TMK	283	2	Through all my sickness the last eight months, [Written during Ellen White's long illness in Australia.] I have had during my sleepless hours the most precious contemplations of the love of God to man, expressed in the wonderful sacrifice made to save him from ruin. I loved to repeat the name of Jesus; how full of sweetness, light, and love it is! Looking upon the cross, at the humiliations and sufferings endured in bearing our sins, that His righteousness might be imputed to us, softens the heart and fills the soul with His love....
TMK	283	3	When pain has seemed to be almost unbearable, I have looked to Jesus and prayed most earnestly, and He has been beside me, and the darkness has passed away and all has seemed light. The very air seemed like precious fragrance. How glorious seemed the truth! How uplifting! I could rest in the love of Jesus. Pain was still my portion, but the promise, "My grace is sufficient for thee," was enough to give me comfort. The sharpest pains seemed to be converted into peace and rest. For hours in the night season I have had sweet communion with God. My mind seemed to be illuminated. I had no disposition to murmur or complain.
TMK	283	4	Jesus was the spring of my hope and my joy and courage. Heaven has seemed to be very near, and Christ the great Physician, my restorer, the remedy of all sickness. In Him all fullness dwells. Jesus is music to my ears, and although drinking the cup of suffering, the water of life was presented to me to quench my thirst. Christ is our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. Through these months of suffering I have had such precious views of the goodness of Jesus that I want them never to become dim. I believe now that my sickness in this strange country is a part of God's plan.... How urgently my soul pleads for the heavenly endowment. Of myself I can do nothing. The power and the glory is all of God.6
------------------------The Lord Is My Helper, October 5
TMK	284	1	He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Hebrews 13:5, 6.
TMK	284	2	We must fight every day, every hour, the good fight of faith. You will meet with many trials, but if you bear them patiently they will refine and purify, ennoble and elevate you spiritually.... Very great troubles are coming upon the world, and the powers of Satan are stirring with intensity the powers from beneath to work suffering, disaster, and ruin. His work is to create all the misery upon human beings that is possible. The earth is the scene of his action, but he is held in check. He can go no farther than the Lord permits.
TMK	284	3	O how gracious is our Lord! "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:16).... "I will not leave you comfortless" (John 14:18). The Holy Spirit is to be given for the asking. Only think of it, He is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him than parents are to give good gifts unto their children. Then let us rejoice, let us be glad. Let us not look at the hellish work of the powers of darkness until hope and courage shall fail. Jesus lives, and we must let our faith pierce the blackness ... and rest in the light, rejoice in the light of the Sun of Righteousness.
TMK	284	4	Jesus lives to make intercession for us. While the blackness and darkness are closing about the world, our lives are only secure as they are hid with Christ in God. Precious Saviour! In Him alone are our hopes of eternal life to be centered. We will then talk faith, talk hope, talk courage, and diffuse light on every side. "Ye are," saith Christ, "the light of the world. A city ... set on an hill.... Let your light so shine before men, that they may ... glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:14-16). Faith must pierce the darkest cloud. Simple, earnest trust in God will glorify His name, and in that trust you may be all light in the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise Him, and glorify God for His matchless love.7
------------------------Feelings No Evidence of Rejection, October 6
TMK	285	1	The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. Psalm 145:18, 19.
TMK	285	2	I would call your attention to the precious promises in the Word of God. All who are children of God have not the same powers, the same temperaments, the same confidence and boldness. I am glad indeed that our feelings are no evidence that we are not children of God. The enemy will tempt you to think that you have done things that have separated you from God and that He no longer loves you, but our Lord loves us still, and we may know by the words He has placed on record for just such cases as yours. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9)....
TMK	285	3	God loves you; and the precious Saviour, who gave Himself for you, will not thrust you from Him because you are tempted and in your weakness may have been overcome. He loves you still.
TMK	285	4	Peter denied his Lord in the hour of trial, but Jesus did not forsake His poor disciple. Although Peter hated himself, the Lord loved him, and after His resurrection He called him by name and sent him a loving message. O what a kind, loving, compassionate Saviour we have! And He loves us though we err.
TMK	285	5	Now do not worry yourself out of the arms of the dear Saviour, but rest trustingly in faith. He loves you; He cares for you. He is blessing you and will give you His peace and grace. He is saying to you, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." You may be depressed with bodily infirmities, but that is not evidence that the Lord is not working in your behalf every day. He will pardon you, and that abundantly. Gather to your soul the sweet promises of God. Jesus is our constant, unfailing friend, and He wants you to trust in Him.... Look away from yourself to the perfection of Christ.8
------------------------"I Have Prayed for Thee", October 7
TMK	286	1	I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. Luke 22:32.
TMK	286	2	To every Christian comes the word that was addressed to Peter, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke 22:31, 32). Thank God we are not left alone. This is our safety. Satan can never touch with eternal disaster one whom Christ has prepared for temptation by His previous intercession, for grace is provided in Christ for every soul, and a way of escape has been made, so that no one need fall under the power of the enemy.
TMK	286	3	Satan is preparing many and strong temptations with which to assail the people of God. He is represented as walking to and fro like a roaring lion, seeking for some unguarded soul whom he may be successful in deceiving through his subtlety, and may finally destroy. We are not safe without Christ for a single step. But what comfort is treasured for us in the words, "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not"! Satan does not sift chaff; it is the wheat that he desires to have in his hands. Then let us take courage and pray at all times.
TMK	286	4	Christ offers our prayers to the Father, mingled with the merit of His sacrifice, and they come up before God as sweet incense.... Whenever you are tempted to sin remember that Christ's eye is upon you, and that Satan desires to have you that he may sift you as wheat. Remember to send your petitions heavenward, and see Jesus making intercession for you. Send up an earnest cry to God, "Lord, save me; I perish," and you will not be overcome; you will not enter into sin. Take your stand firmly on the words of Paul, and in the strength of Jesus say, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:37-39).9
------------------------The Price of Perfection, October 8
TMK	287	1	For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Hebrews 2:10.
TMK	287	2	Christ's invitation to us all is a call to a life of peace and rest--a life of liberty and love, and to a rich inheritance in the future immortal life.... We need not be alarmed if this path of liberty is laid through conflicts and sufferings. The liberty we shall enjoy will be the more valuable because we made sacrifices to obtain it. The peace which passeth knowledge will cost us battles with the powers of darkness, struggles severe against selfishness and inward sins....
TMK	287	3	We cannot appreciate our Redeemer in the highest sense until we can see Him by the eye of faith reaching to the very depths of human wretchedness, taking upon Himself the nature of man, the capacity to suffer, and by suffering putting forth His divine power to save and lift sinners up to companionship with Himself. O why have we so little sense of sin? Why so little penitence? It is because we do not come nearer the cross of Christ. Conscience becomes hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, because we remain away from Christ. Consider the Captain of our salvation. He suffered shame for us that we might not suffer everlasting shame and contempt. He suffered on the cross, that mercy might be granted to fallen man. God's justice is preserved, and guilty man is pardoned. Jesus dies that the sinner might live. Shame is borne by the Son of the Highest for the sake of poor sinners, that they might be ransomed and crowned with eternal glory....
TMK	287	4	We must hide self in Jesus Christ, and let Him appear in our conversation and character as the One altogether lovely, and the chief among ten thousand. Our lives, our deportment, will testify how highly we prize Christ and the salvation He has wrought out for us at such a cost to Himself. While we look constantly to Him whom our sins have pierced and our sorrows have burdened, we shall acquire strength to be like Him. We shall bind ourselves in willing, happy, captivity to Jesus Christ.10
------------------------Living Out God's Law, October 9
TMK	288	1	Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Matthew 11:27.
TMK	288	2	Jesus came to represent the character of God in living out the holy law of Jehovah. In every lesson He gave to His disciples and to the people He sought to define clearly its principles. By personal obedience to the law He invested the common duties of life with a holy significance. He lived a man among men.... He lived among the people, He shared their poverty and their griefs. He dignified life in all its details by keeping before men the glory of God, and by subordinating everything to the will of His Father. His life was characterized by supreme love to God, and fervent love to His fellow men....
TMK	288	3	His life from its beginning to its close, was one of self-denial and self-sacrifice. Upon the cross of Calvary He made the great sacrifice of Himself in behalf of all men, that the whole world might have salvation if they would. Christ was hid in God, and God stood revealed to the world in the character of His Son....
TMK	288	4	Love for a lost world was manifested every day, in every act of His life. Those who are imbued by His Spirit will work in the same lines as those in which Christ worked. In Christ the light and love of God were manifested in human nature. No human being has ever possessed so sensitive a nature as did the sinless, holy One of God, who stood as head and representative of what humanity may become through the imparting of the divine nature. To those who believe in Christ as their personal Saviour, He imputes His merit and imparts His power. To those who come to Him with their burden of grief, disappointments, and trials, He will give rest and peace. It is through the grace of Christ that the soul sees his need of repentance toward God..., and is led to look to Christ by faith, realizing that His merit is efficacious to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him.... Let us open our hearts to receive the love which it is so essential that we should cultivate in order that we may fulfill the commandments of God.11
------------------------God's Law Changeless and Eternal, October 10
TMK	289	1	Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matthew 5:17, 18.
TMK	289	2	If Satan's work had succeeded in heaven the law of God would have been changed, but this could not be, for His law was a transcript of His character and as unchangeable as His character. If any change was possible in the law of God it would have been made then and there and saved the rebellion in heaven. But as it was not altered to meet the request of Satan, he ... lost his high and holy position in the heavenly courts.
TMK	289	3	After his fall he worked upon the minds of Adam and Eve and seduced them from their loyalty.... Now if the law of God could have been changed and altered to meet man in his fallen condition, then Adam would have been pardoned and retained his home in Eden; but the penalty of transgression was death, and Christ became man's substitute and surety. Then was the time, could the law of God have been changed, to have made this change and retained Christ in the heavenly courts, that the immense sacrifice made to save a fallen race might have been avoided. But no, the law of God was changeless in its character and therefore Christ gave Himself a sacrifice in behalf of fallen man, and Adam lost Eden and was placed with all his posterity upon probation.
TMK	289	4	Had the law of God been changed in one precept since the expulsion of Satan from heaven, he would have gained on earth after his fall that which he could not gain in heaven before his fall. He would have received all that he asked for. We know that he did not.... The law ... remains unalterable as the throne of God, and the salvation of every soul is determined by obedience or disobedience.... Jesus, by the law of sympathetic love, bore our sins, took our punishment, and drank the cup of the wrath of God apportioned to the transgressor.... He bore the cross of self-denial and self-sacrifice for us, that we might have life, eternal life. Will we bear the cross for Jesus?12
------------------------The Test of Our Actions, October 11
TMK	290	1	Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Proverbs 16:3.
TMK	290	2	Let us feel thankful that we have the privilege of committing our works to God. We are to remember that we are not pieces of inanimate mechanism, but intelligent beings, able to choose the right and refuse the wrong, with a clear conscience and a pure purpose. We are to aim at consistency in all our works.
TMK	290	3	We are to commit our way to the Lord, testing it by His searching laws. "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass" (Psalm 37:5). We cannot commit our way to God if we are working out deeds of injustice. "If I regard iniquity in my heart," the psalmist declares, "the Lord will not hear me" (Psalm 66:18). When we commit our way to the Lord we are to search the heart through and through, casting out all evil, that Christ may fill it with His righteousness. We are to seek the Lord in prayer, putting at the beginning of our petitions repentance for sin....
TMK	290	4	God's law is the test of our actions. His eye sees every act, searches every chamber of the mind, detecting all lurking self-deception and all hypocrisy. All things are naked and open to the sight of Him with whom we have to do. But He will receive all who come to Him with contrite hearts and a true purpose to forsake every wrong....
TMK	290	5	In all our business transactions, in every word and deed, we are to maintain a pure purpose and a clear conscience. We are to commit our works to God and then leave them in His hands. Our work is to be done in the strictest integrity. Nothing is to be cherished that we cannot carry into the heavenly courts. As we labor let us ask God's help, realizing that this is the only thing that can keep our work free from selfishness.... Look upward with intense sincerity, for you need constant draughts of the refreshing air of heaven. We need to live in constant communion with our heavenly Father.... Perform your duties as if in the sight of a holy God.13
------------------------Happiness in Obedience, October 12
TMK	291	1	Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Colossians 1:12, 13.
TMK	291	2	Our future eternal happiness depends upon having our humanity, with all its capabilities and powers, brought into obedience to God and placed under the control of Divinity. Many have no faith in Jesus Christ. They say, "It was easy for Christ to obey the will of His Father, for He was divine." But His Word declares He was "in all points tempted like as we are" (Hebrews 4:15). He was tempted according to and in proportion to His elevation of mind, but He would not weaken or cripple His divine power by yielding to temptation. In His life on earth Christ was a representative of what humanity may be through the privileges and opportunities granted them in Him....
TMK	291	3	When Satan tempted our first parents ... he tried to flatter them into believing that they should be raised above the sphere of humanity. But Christ, by the example He has set before us, encourages the members of the human family to be men, obeying the Word of God within the sphere of their humanity. He Himself became a man--not a bondslave to Satan to work out his attributes, but a man in moral power, obedient to the law of God, which is a transcript of His character. Those who would rebel against subjection to a wise and good law emanating from God are slaves to an apostate power.
TMK	291	4	Jesus became a man that He might mediate between man and God, ... that He might restore to man the original mind which he lost in Eden through Satan's alluring temptation.... Disobedience is not in accordance with the nature which God gave to man in Eden.
TMK	291	5	Through the moral power Christ has brought to man, we may give thanks unto God who hath made us meet for the inheritance with the saints in light. Through Jesus Christ every man may overcome in his own behalf and on his own account, standing in his own individuality of character.14
------------------------Power for Obedience, October 13
TMK	292	1	If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10.
TMK	292	2	Some who claim to believe in Jesus Christ as their Saviour have said, "No one can keep the law." On this point the words of Christ are decisive. He states, "I have kept my Father's commandments." And He is our example in all things....
TMK	292	3	In the Sermon on the Mount Christ plainly declared His mission. "Think not," He said, "that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil" (Matthew 5:17). He came to carry out literally every specification concerning which the prophets had borne testimony. He who existed with the Father before the creation of the world, Himself gave the prophecies recorded by holy men--the prophecies that He came afterward to fulfill....
TMK	292	4	Christ's position with His Father is one of equality. This enabled Him to become a sin offering for transgressors. He was fully sufficient to magnify the law and make it honorable.... He separated the precepts of Jehovah from the maxims and traditions of men. He held up the Ten Commandments as an expression of truth in all its purity....
TMK	292	5	Christ came to the world to counteract Satan's falsehood that God had made a law which men could not keep. Taking humanity upon Himself, He came to this earth, and by a life of obedience showed that God has not made a law that man cannot keep. He showed that it is possible for man perfectly to obey the law. Those who accept Christ as their Saviour, becoming partakers of His divine nature, are enabled to follow His example, living in obedience to every precept of the law. Through the merits of Christ, man is to show by his obedience that he could be trusted in heaven, that he would not rebel.
TMK	292	6	Christ possessed the same nature that man possesses. He was tempted in all points like as man is tempted. The same power by which He obeyed is at man's command.15
------------------------Evidence of Our Allegiance, October 14
TMK	293	1	If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15.
TMK	293	2	Let this point be fully settled in every mind: If we accept Christ as a Redeemer we must accept Him as a Ruler. We cannot have the assurance, the perfect, confiding trust in Christ as our Saviour, until we acknowledge Him and are obedient to His commandments. Thus we evidence our allegiance to God. We have then the genuine ring in our faith. It works by love. Speak it from your heart: "Lord, I believe Thou hast died to redeem my soul. If Thou hast placed such a value upon my soul as to give Thy life for mine, I give my life and all its possibilities in all my weakness into Thy keeping." The will must be brought into complete harmony with the will of God.16
TMK	293	3	Today the invitation is given: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:28, 29). Christ has rest for all who will wear His yoke and learn His meekness and lowliness of heart. Here we are taught restraint and obedience, and in this we shall find rest. Thank God that in humility and obedience we shall find just that which we all need so much--the rest that is found in faith and confidence and perfect trust. We must not manufacture an oppressive yoke for our necks. Let us take the yoke of Christ and in entire obedience draw with Him....
TMK	293	4	"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10). This is the yoke which Christ invites us to wear--the yoke of obedience. Can we not say, "Lord, I take Thee at Thy word; I receive Thy promise. I come to Thee because I need Thee as a personal Saviour. I must have an abiding Christ. I am dependent on Thee. Thou art mine." Christ says, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them"--not in pretense, but with the whole mind, heart, soul, and strength--"he it is that loveth me" (John 14:21). This is the true test of character. We must be doers of the Word.17
------------------------Wonderful Simplicity of the Law, October 15
TMK	294	1	The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Psalm 19:7.
TMK	294	2	How wonderful in its simplicity, its comprehensiveness and perfection, is the law of Jehovah! In the purposes and dealings of God there are mysteries which the finite mind is unable to comprehend....
TMK	294	3	But there is no mystery in the law of God. The feeblest intellect can grasp these rules to regulate the life and form the character after the divine Model. If the children of men would to the best of their ability obey this law, they would gain strength of intellect and power of discernment to comprehend still more of God's purposes and plans....
TMK	294	4	The infinite sacrifice which Christ has made to magnify and exalt the law testifies that not one jot or tittle of that law will relinquish its claims upon the transgressor. Christ came to pay the debt which the sinner had incurred by transgression and by His own example to teach man how to keep the law of God. Said Christ, "I have kept my Father's commandments" (John 15:10).... It is inconceivable how so many, professing to be servants of God, can set aside His law and teach sinners that they are not amenable to its precepts. What a fatal delusion!....
TMK	294	5	We are living in a land of bondage and of death. Multitudes are enslaved by sinful customs and evil habits, and their fetters are difficult to break. Iniquity, like a flood, is deluging the earth. Crimes almost too fearful to be even mentioned are of daily occurrence. Shall we say that all this is because men live in obedience to the will of God, or is it because ministers and people hold and teach that its precepts have no binding force?18
TMK	294	6	"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" that the lost might be reclaimed.... He who has tasted and found that the Lord is good cannot bear the thought of following in the path of transgression. It is pain to him to violate the law of that God who has so loved him.19
------------------------God's Moral Looking Glass, October 16
TMK	295	1	But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. James 1:25.
TMK	295	2	At Dusseldorf we changed cars, [Written during a journey in europe.] and were obliged to wait two hours in the depot. Here we had an opportunity to study human nature. The ladies came in, changed their outer wraps, and then surveyed themselves on every side, to see that their dress was faultless. Then extra touches of powder must be put upon their faces. Long they lingered before the mirror in order to arrange their outward apparel to their satisfaction for the purpose of appearing their best when looked upon by human eyes. I thought of the law of God, the great moral looking glass into which the sinner is to look to discover the defects of his character. If all would study the law of God--the moral standard of character--as diligently and critically as many do their outward appearance by means of the looking glass, with a purpose to correct and reform every defect of character, what transformations would most assuredly take place in them. "For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was" (James 1:23, 24)....
TMK	295	3	There are many who view themselves as defective in character when they look into God's moral mirror, His law, but they have heard so much of "All you have to do is to believe" ... that after venturing to look into the mirror they straightway go from it retaining all their defects, with the words on their lips, "Jesus has done it all." These are represented by the figure that James has marked out--the man beholding himself and going away and forgetting what manner of man he was.... Faith and works are the two oars that must be used to urge the bark against the current of worldliness, pride, and vanity; and if these are not used, the boat will drift with the current downward to perdition. God help us to take care of the inward adorning, to set the heart in order as carefully as we arrange the outward apparel.20
------------------------Privileges of the Obedient, October 17
TMK	296	1	Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. John 15:14.
TMK	296	2	Those who live in close fellowship with Christ will be promoted by Him to positions of trust. The servant who does the best he can for his Master is admitted to familiar intercourse with the One whose commands he loves to obey. In the faithful discharge of duty we may become one with Christ, for those who are obeying God's commands may speak to Him freely. The one who talks most familiarly with his divine leader has the most exalted conception of His greatness and is the most obedient to His commands.
TMK	296	3	"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.... Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." ...
TMK	296	4	The character of the one who comes to God in faith will bear witness that the Saviour has entered into his life, directing all, pervading all. Such a one is continually asking, "Is this Thy will and way, O my Saviour?" Constantly he looks to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of his faith. He consults the will of his divine Friend in reference to all his actions, for he knows that in this confidence is his strength. He has made it a habit to lift up the heart to God in every perplexity....
TMK	296	5	He who accepts God as his sovereign must take the oath of allegiance to Him. He must put on the Christian uniform and bear aloft the banner that shows to whose army he belongs. He must make an open avowal of his allegiance to Christ. Concealment is impossible. Christ's impress must appear in the life in sanctified works.
TMK	296	6	"I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people.... Ye shall be holy unto me; for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine" (Leviticus 20:24-26).... "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise" (Isaiah 43:21).21
------------------------The Motive for Obedience, October 18
TMK	297	1	For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 1 John 5:3.
TMK	297	2	It is the keeping of the commandments of God that honors and glorifies Him in His chosen. Wherefore every soul to whom God has given reasoning faculties is under obligation to God to search the Word and ascertain all that is enjoined upon us as God's purchased possession. We should seek to understand all that the Word requires of us.... We cannot show greater honor to our God, whose we are by creation and redemption, than to give evidence to the beings of heaven, to the worlds unfallen, and to fallen men, that we diligently hearken unto all His commandments, which are the laws that govern His kingdom.
TMK	297	3	We need to study diligently that we may gain a knowledge of the laws of God. How can we be obedient subjects if we fail to understand the laws that govern the kingdom of God? Then open your Bibles and search for everything that will enlighten you in regard to the precepts of God; and when you discern a Thus saith the Lord, ask not the opinion of men, but whatever the cost to yourself, obey cheerfully. Then the blessing of God will rest upon you....
TMK	297	4	Often ask prayerfully, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Am I in any way disregarding the divine precepts? Am I in any way placing my influence on the enemy's side? Am I showing a careless disregard of God's commandments? Am I willing to yoke up with Christ, to lift the burdens, and to be a co-laborer with Him? Am I studying out possible excuses for neglecting obedience to a Thus saith the Lord? Am I risking the consequences of neglect to obey the clearly revealed precepts of Jehovah because I am not willing to come out from the world and be separate? Shall the fear of man have a greater influence over me than the fear of God?"
TMK	297	5	Surrender yourself to God, saying, "'Here, Lord, I give myself away; 'tis all that I can do.' I will not be found in disobedience to Thy law, for that would place me in the enemy's ranks."22
------------------------Foundation of God's Government, October 19
TMK	298	1	Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:10.
TMK	298	2	The question of deepest interest to each one should be, Am I meeting the requirements of the law of God? That law is holy, just, and good, and God would have us daily compare our actions with this, His great standard of righteousness. Only by a close examination of self in the light of God's Word can we discover our deviations from His holy rule of right....
TMK	298	3	Love is the principle that underlies God's government in heaven and on earth, and this love must be interwoven in the life of the Christian. The love of Christ is not a fitful love; it is deep, and broad, and full. Its possessor will not say, "I will love only those who love me." The heart that is influenced by this holy principle will be carried above everything of a selfish nature.
TMK	298	4	Even among professing Christians there are persons who are always on the watch for something at which to take offense. If their friends are absorbed in matters that require their attention and have no time to devote to them, they feel slighted and injured.... Their lives are like the gorgeous flowers which possess no fragrance. Much to be preferred is the simple, unpretending blossom that blesses with its sweet odor those who come in contact with it.
TMK	298	5	Instead of finding fault with others, these persons should seek to become lovely by putting on Christ.... The character of Christ is the standard which the Christian is to keep before him. His aim should be to possess those graces that were exemplified in the life of Christ in humanity....
TMK	298	6	The religion of Jesus Christ is not merely to prepare us for the future immortal life; it is to enable us to live the Christ life here on earth. Jesus is not only our pattern, He is also our friend and our guide, and by taking hold of His strong arm and partaking of His Spirit, we may walk "even as he walked."23
------------------------God's Law in the Heart, October 20
TMK	299	1	For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. Hebrews 8:10.
TMK	299	2	The blessings of the new covenant are grounded purely on mercy in forgiving unrighteousness and sins. The Lord specifies, I will do thus and thus unto all who turn to Me, forsaking the evil and choosing the good. "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:12). All who humble their hearts, confessing their sins, will find mercy and grace and assurance.
TMK	299	3	Has God, in showing mercy to the sinner, ceased to be just? Has He dishonored His holy law, and will He henceforth pass over the violation of it? God is true. He changes not. The conditions of salvation are ever the same. Life, eternal life, is for all who will obey God's law. Perfect obedience, revealed in thought, word, and deed, is as essential now as when the lawyer asked Christ, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? how readest thou? .... this do, and thou shalt live" (Luke 10:25-28).
TMK	299	4	Under the new covenant the conditions by which eternal life may be gained are the same as under the old--perfect obedience. Under the old covenant there were many offences of a daring, presumptuous character for which there was no atonement specified by law. In the new and better covenant Christ has fulfilled the law for the transgressors of law if they receive Him by faith as a personal Saviour.... Mercy and forgiveness are the reward of all who come to Christ trusting in His merits to take away their sins. In the better covenant we are cleansed from sin by the blood of Christ.... The sinner is helpless to atone for one sin. The power is in Christ's free gift, a promise appreciated by those only who are sensible of their sins and who forsake their sins and cast their helpless souls upon Christ, the sin-pardoning Saviour. He will put into their hearts His perfect law, which is "holy, and just, and good" (Romans 7:12), the law of God's own nature.24
------------------------The True Standard of Character, October 21
TMK	300	1	To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:20.
TMK	300	2	There is divine grace for all who will accept it, yet there is something for us to do.... There is a work for us to do to fit ourselves for the society of angels. We must be like Jesus, free from the defilement of sin. He was all that He requires us to be; He was a perfect pattern for childhood, for youth, for manhood. We must study the Pattern more closely.
TMK	300	3	Jesus was the Majesty of heaven, yet He condescended to take little children in His arms and bless them. He whom angels adore listened with tenderest love to their lisping, prattling praise. We must be like Him in noble dignity, while our hearts are softened and subdued by the divine love that dwelt in the heart of Christ....
TMK	300	4	We have a work to do to fashion the character after the divine Model. All wrong habits must be given up. The impure must become pure in heart, the selfish man must put away his selfishness, the proud man must get rid of his pride, the self-sufficient man must overcome his self-confidence and realize that he is nothing without Christ....
TMK	300	5	We need to be anchored in Christ, rooted and grounded in the faith. Satan works through agents. He selects those who have not been drinking of the living waters, whose souls are athirst for something new and strange, and who are ever ready to drink at any fountain that may present itself. Voices will be heard, saying, "Lo, here is Christ," or "Lo there," but we must believe them not. We have unmistakable evidence of the voice of the True Shepherd, and He is calling upon us to follow Him. He says, "I have kept my Father's commandments." He leads His sheep in the path of humble obedience to the law of God, but He never encourages them in the transgression of that law....
TMK	300	6	None need be deceived. The law of God is as sacred as His throne, and by it every man who cometh into the world is to be judged. There is no other standard by which to test character.25
------------------------The Game of Life, October 22
TMK	301	1	Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13.
TMK	301	2	The truth of God obeyed, the living by every word of God, is alone sufficient to make any of us stand in these evil times. Satan is playing the game of life for the soul....
TMK	301	3	There are opportunities and advantages which are within the reach of all to strengthen the moral and spiritual powers. The mind can be expanded and ennobled and should be made to dwell upon heavenly things.... Unless it flows in a heavenward direction it becomes an easy prey to the temptation of Satan to engage in worldly projects and enterprises that have no special connection with God. And all zeal and devotion and restless energy and feverish desire are brought into this work, and the devil stands by and laughs to see human effort wrestling so perseveringly for an object that it will never gain, which eludes its grasp.... Schemes and projects which Satan invents ensnare the soul, and poor, deceived human beings go on blindfolded to their own ruin....
TMK	301	4	There is one safeguard against Satan's deceptions and snares, that is the truth as it is in Jesus. The truth planted in the heart, nourished by watchfulness and prayer, nourished by the grace of Christ, will give us discernment. The truth must abide in the heart, be felt in its power in spite of all the alluring enchantments of Satan, and your experience and mine must be that the truth can purify, guide, and bless the soul....
TMK	301	5	The enemy is on the track of every one of us, and if we would resist temptations which assail us from without and from within, we need to make sure we are on the Lord's side, that His truth is in our hearts, that it keeps watch in our souls, ready to sound an alarm and summon us to action against every enemy. Without this defense amid unseen foes we shall be like the willow bending to the blast, driven of the wind and tossed. But if Christ abides in the soul we may be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.26
------------------------Filled With His Fullness, October 23
TMK	302	1	And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:19.
TMK	302	2	There are many who think that it is impossible to escape from the power of sin, but the promise is that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. We aim too low. The mark is much higher. Our minds need expansion, that we may comprehend the significance of the provision of God. We are to reflect the highest attributes of the character of God. We should be thankful that we are not to be left to ourselves. The law of God is the exalted standard to which we are to attain.... We are not to walk according to our own ideas... , but we are to follow in the footsteps of Christ.27
TMK	302	3	The work of overcoming is in our hands, but we are not to overcome in our own name or strength, for of ourselves we cannot keep the commandments of God. The Spirit of God must help our infirmities. Christ has become our sacrifice and surety. He has become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Through faith in His name He imputes unto us His righteousness, and it becomes a living principle in our life.... Christ imputes to us His sinless character and presents us to the Father in His own purity.28
TMK	302	4	We cannot provide a robe of righteousness for ourselves, for the prophet says, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). There is nothing in us from which we can clothe the soul so that its nakedness shall not appear. We are to receive the robe of righteousness woven in the loom of heaven, even the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness. We are to say, "He died for me. He bore my soul's disgrace, that in His name I might be an overcomer and be exalted to His throne."29
TMK	302	5	It is the privilege of the children of God to be filled with all the fullness of God. "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end" (Ephesians 3:20, 21).30
------------------------Distinct and Separate Ways, October 24
TMK	303	1	Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:13, 14.
TMK	303	2	These roads are distinct, separate, extending in opposite directions. One leads to eternal death, the other to eternal life. One is broad and smooth, the other narrow and rugged. So the parties that travel them are opposite in character, in life, in dress, and in conversation. Those who travel in the narrow way are talking of the happiness they will have at the end of the journey.... They do not dress like the company in the broad road, nor talk like them, nor act like them. A pattern has been given them. A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief opened that road for them and traveled it Himself. His followers see His footprints and are comforted and cheered. He went through safely; so can they, if they follow in His steps.
TMK	303	3	In the broad road all are occupied with their persons, their dress, and the pleasures in the way. They indulge freely in mirth and revelry, and think not of their journey's end, of the certain ruin at the termination of the path. Every day they approach nearer their destruction, yet they madly rush on faster and faster.... When it is too late they see that they have gained nothing substantial. They have grasped at shadows and lost eternal life....
TMK	303	4	A form of godliness will not save any. All must have a deep and living experience. This alone will save them in the time of trouble before us. Then their work will be tried, of what sort it is. If it is gold, silver, and precious stones, they will be hid as in the secret of the Lord's pavilion. But if their work is wood, hay, stubble, nothing can shield them from the fierceness of Jehovah's wrath....
TMK	303	5	Those who are willing to make any and every sacrifice for eternal life will have it, and it will be worth suffering for, worth crucifying self for, and sacrificing every idol for. The far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory outweighs every earthly treasure and eclipses every earthly attraction.31
------------------------The Challenge of the Difficult, October 25
TMK	304	1	Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. Luke 13:24.
TMK	304	2	A strait gate means a gate difficult to enter. By this illustration Christ showed how hard it is for men and women to leave the world and the attractions it holds, and heartily and lovingly obey the commandments of God. The wide gate is easy to enter. Entrance through it does not call for the restrictions which are painful to the human heart. Self-denial and self-sacrifice are not seen in the broad way. There depraved appetite and natural inclinations find abundant room. There may be seen self-indulgence, pride, envy, evil surmisings, love of money, self-exaltation.32
TMK	304	3	Said Christ, "Strive"--agonize--"to enter in...." We must feel our continual dependence upon God and the great weakness of our own wisdom and our own judgment and strength, and then depend wholly upon Him who has conquered the foe in our behalf, because He pitied our weakness and knew we should be overcome and perish if He did not come to our help.... Think not that by any easy or common effort you can win the eternal reward. You have a wily foe upon your track. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Revelation 3:21). Here is the battle to overcome as Christ has overcome. His life of temptation, of trial, of toil and conflict, is before us for us to imitate. We may make efforts in our own strength, but not succeed. But when we fall all helpless and suffering and needy upon the Rock of Christ, feeling in our inmost soul that our victory depends upon His merits, that all our efforts of themselves without the special help of the great Conqueror will be without avail, then Christ would send every angel out of glory to rescue us from the power of the enemy rather than that we should fall.33
TMK	304	4	We need to see that the way is narrow, and the gate strait. But as we pass through the strait gate, the wideness is without limit.34
------------------------A Marked Distinction, October 26
TMK	305	1	I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. John 17:15.
TMK	305	2	Christians are to stand out distinct from the world as God's standard bearers, showing in their lives the influence of the transforming grace of Christ. They are raised up together to sit with Christ in heavenly places that they may reveal to the world, to angels, and to men an enduring representation of the eternal world. They are to hold forth the Word of life, warning men of the binding claims of God's law. God wants His servants to be of a high order. He wants them to obey laws of a higher order than the laws of the world--laws which are the transcript of His character.
TMK	305	3	God's work is supreme. He calls for all the powers of the intellect, all the spiritual endowments. They are to be consecrated to Him and to the service of humanity. He calls for workers who are partakers of the divine nature. Those who really believe in Jesus will be colaborers with Him, showing to the unfallen worlds and to the fallen world a character which is after the divine similitude. They are to show that they have a higher, holier order of enjoyment than the world can bestow. God will bestow the power of the Holy Spirit upon all who will cooperate with Him in the cultivation of all their endowments and talents, that they may stand on vantage ground....
TMK	305	4	Christ's followers are to seek to improve the moral tone of the world, under the influence of the impartation of the Spirit of God. They are not to come down to the world's level, thinking that by doing this they will uplift it. In words, in dress, in spirit, in everything, there is to be a marked distinction between Christians and worldlings. This distinction has a convincing influence upon worldlings. They see that the sons and daughters of the Lord do separate themselves from the world, and that the Lord binds them up with Himself.... "And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power" (1 Corinthians 6:14). Who is willing to be raised to the highest level?35
------------------------Christ's Representatives in the World, October 27
TMK	306	1	They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:16, 17.
TMK	306	2	Jesus ... says, "I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth" (John 17:19). "Thy word is truth." We need, then, to become familiar with the Word of God, to study and to practice it in life.... We deny Jesus Christ as the One who taketh away the sins of the world if we do not, after accepting the truth, reveal to the world the sanctifying effects of the truth on our own characters. If we are not better men and women, if we are not more kindhearted, more pitiful, more courteous, more full of tenderness and love, if we do not manifest to others the love that led Jesus to the world on His mission of mercy, we are not witnesses to the world of the power of Jesus Christ.
TMK	306	3	Jesus lived not to please Himself. He gave Himself as a living, consuming sacrifice for the good of others. He came to elevate, to ennoble, to make happy all with whom He came in contact. Those who receive Christ will drop out all that is uncourteous, harsh, and rough, and will reveal the pleasantness, the kindness, that dwelt in Jesus, because Christ abides in the heart by faith. Christ was the light that shineth in darkness, and His followers are also to be the light of the world. They are to kindle their taper from the divine altar. The character that is sanctified through the truth adds the perfect polish.
TMK	306	4	Christ is our model, but unless we behold Him, unless we contemplate His character, we shall not reflect His character in our practical life. He was meek and lowly in heart. He never did a rude action, never spoke a discourteous word. The Lord is not pleased with our blunt, hard, unsympathetic ways toward others. All this selfishness must be purged away from our characters, and we must wear the yoke of Christ. Then we ... shall be fitting up for the society of heavenly angels. We are to be in the world but not of the world. We are to be a representation of Jesus Christ. As the Lord of life and glory came to our world to represent the Father, so we are to go to the world to represent Jesus.36
------------------------Where Are You Pitching Your Tent? October 28
TMK	307	1	If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:1, 2.
TMK	307	2	Many who should be setting their tents nearer to the land of Canaan are pitching their camp nearer to Egypt. They are not living in the light of the Sun of Righteousness. Many attend places of amusement to gratify the taste, but no spiritual strength is gained by so doing, and you will find yourself on the losing side. To encourage the love of amusement is to discourage the love of religious exercises, for the heart becomes so crowded with trifling, with what is pleasing to the natural heart, that there is no room for Jesus....
TMK	307	3	It requires the faith that works by love and purifies the soul to meet the mind of God. There are those who believe in Christ; they do not think Him an impostor; they believe the Bible to be a revelation of His divine character. They admire its holy doctrines, and revere the name, the only name given under heaven whereby men can be saved, and yet, with all this knowledge, they may be as truly ignorant of the grace of God as the veriest sinner. They have not opened the heart to let Jesus in.37
TMK	307	4	What shall I say for the benefit of the youth? Will you open your hearts to Jesus, that His love, His mercy, may fill the chambers of your soul, that you may sing and make melody in your hearts unto God? O if all your affections were given unto Jesus, you would learn the language and the songs of Canaan!
TMK	307	5	In the worldling you expect to see lightness, trifling, vanity, immorality, jesting, and joking, but let it not so much as be named among you who are risen with Christ.... We must now elevate our thoughts and come to learn in the school of the Master.38
TMK	307	6	As we near the close of time, the current of evil will set more and more decidedly toward perdition. We can be safe only as we hold firmly to the hand of Jesus, constantly looking to the Author and Finisher of our faith. He is our mighty Helper.39
------------------------Who Has Our Friendship? October 29
TMK	308	1	Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4.
TMK	308	2	The Scriptures furnish abundant evidence that it is safer to be joined to the Lord and lose the favor and friendship of the world, than to look to the world for favor and support and forget our dependence upon God....
TMK	308	3	The Lord Himself has established a separating wall between the things of the world and the things which He has chosen out of the world and sanctified to Himself. The world will not acknowledge this distinction.... But God has made this separation, and He will have it exist. In both the Old and the New Testaments the Lord has positively enjoined upon His people to be distinct from the world, in spirit, in pursuits, in practice; to be a holy nation, a peculiar people, that they may show forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. The east is not farther from the west than are the children of light, in customs, practices, and spirit, from the children of darkness. This distinction will be more marked, more decided, as we near the close of time....
TMK	308	4	There is an element called love which would teach us to praise and flatter our associates and not to faithfully tell them of their dangers and warn and counsel them for their good. This love is not Heaven-born. Our words and actions should be serious and earnest, especially before those who are neglecting their soul's salvation.... If we unite with them in lightness, trifling, pleasure seeking, or in any pursuit which will banish seriousness from the mind, we are constantly saying to them by our example, "Peace, peace; be not disturbed. You have no cause for alarm." This is saying to the sinner, "It shall be well with thee."40
TMK	308	5	If we profess to be sons and daughters of God we should pursue such a course toward the unbelieving that our souls will be clear of their blood when we meet them in the great day of final reckoning.41
------------------------God or Mammon? October 30
TMK	309	1	No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24.
TMK	309	2	You have, as an individual, a soul to save or to lose. And although Noah, Job, and Daniel were in the land they could save but their own souls through their righteousness. If you consider this it will help you to realize that you must be in earnest to apply your mind and all your powers day by day to secure profitable results.
TMK	309	3	The worshipers of the world make mammon their god, and everything else is subordinate to this worship. Should not the Christian keep in subordination the love of pleasure, the love of everything that is contrary to the interests of Jesus Christ? Precious time has not been given to be wasted on that which is less than nothing, and vanity. In thus doing we are cheating ourselves out of present peace in this life, and eternal happiness in the life to come....
TMK	309	4	Do not make a low standard your aim; aim high. Never be found at any time working on the side of the great adversary of souls, who is seeking to counteract the workings of the Spirit of God. Walk not hesitatingly but firmly in the strength and grace of Jesus Christ.... You are the property of Christ both by creation and redemption, and the glory of God is involved in your individual success....
TMK	309	5	You are a spectacle unto the world, to angels, and to men. Be brave in God. Put on the whole armor of God and let your unbelieving father [From a letter to a youth whose father was an unbeliever.] see that your life is not spoiled because you stand loyal and true to all the commandments of God as a Seventh-day Adventist. You can be, and God requires you to be, a decided witness for Him.... Do not work at all on Satan's side of the question. Probationary time is precious. Make the most of the golden moments, putting to use the talents God has given, that you may accumulate something for the Master and be a blessing to all around you. Let the heavenly angels look down with joy upon you because you are loyal and true to Jesus Christ.42
------------------------The Condition of Sonship, October 31
TMK	310	1	Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18.
TMK	310	2	Do you desire to become the sons and daughters of the Most High? Here is stated the condition of this great privilege. Come out, be separate, touch not the unclean. You cannot keep the fellowship of the world, participate in its pleasures, identify yourself with its interests, and still be the sons of God. Says John, "The world knoweth us not, because it knew him not" (1 John 3:1). But shall we let the desire for the favor of our Lord's enemies weigh against our accepting the conditions of salvation? ...
TMK	310	3	There are great things expected from the sons and daughters of God. I look upon the youth of today, and my heart yearns over them. What possibilities are open before them! If they sincerely seek to learn of Christ, He will give them wisdom, as He gave wisdom to Daniel.... Let the youth try to appreciate the privilege that may be theirs, to be directed by the unerring wisdom of God....
TMK	310	4	It is thought a great honor to be invited into the presence of a king of this earth. But let us consider the amazing privilege that is proffered to us. If we obey the requirements of God we may become the sons and daughters of the King of the universe. Through a crucified and risen Saviour we may be filled with the fruits of righteousness, and be fitted to shine in the courts of the King of kings through unending ages. The world does not know the exaltation of the sons and daughters of the Most High. Those around them do not see that the humble, self-denying spirit, the patient meekness of heart, has any extraordinary value. They did not know or appreciate Christ.... They could not understand Him; and the greater our likeness to the divine character of our Lord, the more we shall be misunderstood by the world. The more we come into fellowship with Christ and heaven, the less will be our fellowship with the world, for we are not of the world.43
------------------------Shun the World's Pleasures, November 1
TMK	311	1	Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15.
TMK	311	2	The true Christian will not desire to enter any place of amusement or engage in any diversion upon which he cannot ask the blessing of God. He will not be found at the theater, the billiard hall, or the bowling saloon. He will not unite with the gay waltzers, or indulge in any other bewitching pleasure that will banish Christ from the mind.
TMK	311	3	To those who plead for these diversions, we answer, We cannot indulge in them in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.... Go in imagination to Gethsemane and behold the anguish which Christ endured for us. See the world's Redeemer wrestling in superhuman agony, the sins of the whole world upon His soul. Hear His prayer, borne upon the sympathizing breeze, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39). The hour of darkness has come. Christ has entered the shadow of His cross. Alone He must drink the bitter cup. Of all earth's children whom He has blessed and comforted there is not one to console Him in this dreadful hour. He is betrayed into the hands of a murderous mob. Faint and weary, He is dragged from one tribunal to another.... He who knew not the taint of sin pours out His life as a malefactor upon Calvary. This history should stir every soul to its depths. It was to save us that the Son of God became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.... Let a sense of the infinite sacrifice made for our redemption be ever with you, and the ballroom will lose its attractions.
TMK	311	4	Not only did Christ die as our sacrifice, but He lived as our example. In His human nature He stands, complete, perfect, spotless. To be a Christian is to be Christlike. Our entire being--soul, body, and spirit--must be purified, ennobled, sanctified, until we shall reflect His image and imitate His example.... We need not fear to engage in any pursuit or pleasure that will aid us in this work. But it is our duty to shun everything that would divert our attention or lessen our zeal.1
------------------------The Adorning That Never Fades, November 2
TMK	312	1	Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quite spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Peter 3:3, 4.
TMK	312	2	The charms that consist only in the outward apparel are shallow and changeable; no dependence can be placed upon them. The adorning which Christ enjoins upon His followers will never fade....
TMK	312	3	If half the time spent by the youth in making themselves attractive in outward appearance were given to soul culture, to the inward adorning, what a difference would be seen in their deportment, words, and actions! Those who are truly seeking to follow Christ will have conscientious scruples in regard to the dress they wear; they will strive to meet the requirements ... so plainly given by the Lord.2
TMK	312	4	Many dress like the world to have an influence. They spend hours that are worse than thrown away, in studying this or that fashion to decorate the poor, mortal body. But here they make a sad and fatal mistake. If they would have a saving influence, if they would have their lives tell in favor of the truth, let them imitate the humble Pattern. Let them show their faith by righteous works, and make the distinction broad between themselves and the world. The words, the dress, and the actions should tell for God. Then a holy influence will be shed upon all, and all will take knowledge of them, that they have been with Jesus. Unbelievers will see that faith in Christ's coming affects the character....
TMK	312	5	The external appearance is an index to the heart. When hearts are affected by the truth there will be a death to the world, and those who are dead to the world will not be moved by the laugh, the jeer, and the scorn of unbelievers. They will feel an anxious desire to be like their Master, separate from the world. They will not imitate its fashions or customs. The noble object will be ever before them, to glorify God and gain the immortal inheritance, and in comparison with this everything of an earthly nature will sink into insignificance.3
------------------------Daily Self-denial, November 3
TMK	313	1	I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1.
TMK	313	2	Why will not the youth learn a lesson from the case of Adam? His failure in not bearing the slight test of God was followed by a terrible retribution. And yet Satan has such power to bewitch the mind that with this beacon of warning before us many will talk of liberality and not being so particular in regard to God's requirements....
TMK	313	3	It is a very small offering, at best, that we can make to our heavenly Father. In view of our accountability to God, we are all under the strongest obligation to bring our appetites and passions under the control of the intelligent will. Taste has done more to pervert the understanding and becloud the spiritual sky than everything else beside. Satan benumbs the intellect of many through indulgence of appetite, and then he makes these intemperate ones special objects of temptation, to go still farther from the path of obedience and holiness. Those who have been entrusted with valuable talents will miss eternal life unless they shall see the necessity of daily self-denial, of what it means to be an overcomer....
TMK	313	4	There is not, with many, ... one half the vigor there might be, because of ailments brought on through indulgence of appetite and debasing habits. What clearness of perception the youth might have if they would adhere strictly to the laws of health, as did Daniel and his three companions! What freedom from pain, and with how much greater ease could they perform their duties! How much greater would be their spiritual fervor! And how much more good, by precept and example, would they do to others! ...
TMK	313	5	God is able to make all grace abound toward you. We have no right to claim the promises of God till we comply with the conditions revealed in His Word. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (2 Corinthians 6:17). Will you do it?4
------------------------The Battle Against Intemperance, November 4
TMK	314	1	Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Proverbs 20:1.
TMK	314	2	We as Christians should stand firmly in defense of temperance. There is no class of persons capable of accomplishing more and effecting the object more readily than the God-fearing Bible youth. In this age the young men of our cities should unite in a firm, decided army to set their faces as a flint against every form of selfish, health-destroying indulgence. What a power they might be for good! How many they might save from becoming demoralized because they visit the halls and gardens fitted up with music and every attraction to allure the youth! Intemperance and licentiousness and profanity are sisters. Let every God-fearing youth gird on the armor and press to the front. Put your names on every pledge.... Let no feeble, weak excuse be offered to refuse to put your name to the temperance pledge....
TMK	314	3	Through intemperate appetite Adam and Eve lost Eden. If we gain the Paradise of God we must be temperate in all things. Shall any blush with shame to refuse the wine cup or the foaming mug of beer? Instead of this being a dishonorable work, they are doing service to God in the matter of refusing to indulge appetite, resisting temptation. Angels are looking upon both tempter and tempted. While sin is unmanly, indulgence of appetite is weak, cowardly, and debasing; the denial of appetite, honorable. The highest intelligences of heaven watch the conflict going on between the tempter and the tempted. And if the tempted turn away from temptation and in the strength of Jesus conquer, then angels rejoice, and Satan has lost in the conflict.... All who understand the great conflict of Christ upon the point of appetite in the wilderness of temptation will never lend one iota of their influence to brace up intemperance.
TMK	314	4	Jesus endured the painful fast in our behalf and conquered Satan in every temptation, thus making it possible for man to conquer in his own behalf, and on his own account, through the strength brought to him by this mighty victory gained as man's substitute and surety.5
------------------------The Christian Race, November 5
TMK	315	1	Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 1 Corinthians 9:24, 25.
TMK	315	2	Here Paul makes a sharp contrast, to put to shame the feeble efforts of professed Christians who plead for their selfish indulgences, and refuse to place themselves by self-denial and strictly temperate habits in a position that they will make a success of overcoming. All who entered the list in the public games were animated and excited by the hope of a prize if they were successful. In like manner a prize is held out before the Christian, the reward of faithfulness to the end of the race.... All ran in the race, but only one received the prize. The other strugglers for the perishable laurel wreath, however thorough their preparation, however earnest and determined their efforts, were doomed to failure. It is not so with the Christian race.... The weakest saint as well as the strongest may obtain the crown of immortal glory if he is thoroughly in earnest and will submit to privation and loss for Christ's sake....
TMK	315	3	If we create unnatural appetites and indulge them in any degree we violate nature's laws, and enfeebled physical, mental, and mortal conditions will result. We are hence unfitted for that persevering, energetic, and hopeful effort which we might have made had we been true to nature's laws. If we injure a single organ of the body we rob God of the service we might render to Him.6
TMK	315	4	The apostle calls our attention to the care and diligence which were required to secure the victory in these ancient games. He exhorts all who start in the Christian race to give all diligence to make success certain, while he presents before them for their encouragement the crown of glory which the righteous Judge will award to all who are faithful to the end of the race.... This crown is not a perishable chaplet of flowers, but the glorious crown of everlasting life, which awaits all who, having completed the Christian race, love the appearing of our Lord.7
------------------------An Example of the Believers, November 6
TMK	316	1	For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Titus 2:11, 12.
TMK	316	2	There is a great work for us to do if we would inherit eternal life. We are to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live a life of righteousness.... There is no salvation for us except in Jesus, for it is through faith in Him that we receive power to become the sons of God. But it is not merely a passing faith, it is faith that works the works of Christ.... Living faith makes itself manifest by exhibiting a spirit of sacrifice and devotion toward the cause of God. Those who possess it stand under the banner of Prince Emmanuel and wage a successful warfare against the powers of darkness. They stand ready to do whatsoever their Captain commands. Each one is exhorted to be "an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12), for we are to "live soberly, righteously, and godly" in this present evil world, representing the character of Christ, and manifesting His spirit....
TMK	316	3	Those who are connected with Jesus are in union with the Maker and Upholder of all things. They have a power that the world cannot give nor take away. But while great and exalted privileges are given to them, they are not simply to rejoice in their blessings. As stewards of the manifold grace of God they are to become a blessing to others. They are entrusted with great truth, and "unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required" (Luke 12:48). There are weighty responsibilities resting upon all who have received the message for this time. They are to exert an influence that will draw others to the light of God's Word.... We are our brother's keeper....
TMK	316	4	If we are true believers in Jesus we shall be gathering rays from glory, and we shall shed light on the darkened pathway of those around us. We shall reveal the gracious character of our Redeemer, and many will be drawn by our influence to "behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).8
------------------------God's Peculiar People, November 7
TMK	317	1	Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Titus 2:14.
TMK	317	2	That which more especially distinguishes God's people from the popular religious bodies is not their profession alone, but their exemplary character and their principles of unselfish love. The powerful and purifying influence of the Spirit of God upon the heart, carried out in words and works, separates them from the world, and designates them as God's peculiar people. The character and disposition of Christ's followers will be like the Master. He is the pattern, the holy and perfect example given for Christians to imitate....
TMK	317	3	The self-denial, humility, and temperance required of the righteous ... are ... in contrast with the extravagant, health-destroying habits of the people who live in this degenerate age. God has shown that health reform is as closely connected with the third angel's message as the hand is united to the body. And there is nowhere to be found so great a cause of physical and moral degeneracy as a neglect of this important subject.... Whoever violates moral obligations in the matter of eating and dressing prepares the way to violate the claims of God in regard to eternal interests. Our bodies are not our own. God has claims upon us to take care of the habitation He has given us, that we may present our bodies to Him a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. Our bodies belong to Him who made them, and we are in duty bound to become intelligent in regard to the best means of preserving from decay the habitation He has given us. If we enfeeble the body by self-gratification, by indulging the appetite, and by dressing in accordance with health-destroying fashions, in order to be in harmony with the world, we become enemies of God....
TMK	317	4	God requires of us according to the grace He has bestowed upon us.... In order for us to meet our responsibilities we must stand on that elevated ground that the order and advancement of holy, sacred truth has prepared for us.9
------------------------Dare to Be Different! November 8
TMK	318	1	That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15.
TMK	318	2	Let every one, for Christ's sake and for his own soul's sake, shun conformity to the world, to its customs, vanities, and fashions. Beware of human commandments that will obscure the holy commandments of God. The pleasure lover is ever unsatisfied, and continually desires to seek again the excitement of the ballroom, the theater, or the party of pleasure. The time God has granted us in which to prepare for eternity is spent by thousands in poring over fictitious stories. God-given intellect is perverted, the Word of God is neglected, the mind and soul are robbed of moral power needed for wrestling against faults and errors, habits and practices, that disqualify the soul for the enjoyment of Christ's presence....
TMK	318	3	Let the question be asked seriously and with intense interest, "How is it with my soul? Am I by my habits and practices working against my Redeemer?" Inquire, "Do I bring glory to Christ? Do I show to a disobedient and crooked generation that I choose to suffer reproach for the sake of Jesus?" ... Will the professed followers of Christ aim high, and reach the standard of holiness? Better be a worldling than a common, cheap, professed Christian. Dare to come out from the world and be separate. Dare to be singular because you love Jesus better than the world, and righteousness with persecution better than disobedience with worldly prosperity. Holy and entire obedience through dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ will strengthen the soul to be steadfast in the faith and hope of the gospel.
TMK	318	4	Jesus says, "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). Union with Christ is our only means for overcoming sin. Living in Christ, adhering to Christ, supported by Christ, drawing nourishment from Christ, we bear fruit after the similitude of Christ. We live and move in Him; we are one with Him and one with the Father. The name of Christ is glorified in the believing child of God. This is Bible religion.10
------------------------Privileges Without Limit, November 9
TMK	319	1	Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Psalm 1:1.
TMK	319	2	Those who have the blessing of the Lord are highly favored.... Be sure, then, that you do not choose the ungodly as your companions, for they will influence you to do those very things that will displease God and deprive you of His blessing....
TMK	319	3	When any open their minds and hearts to those who would advise them to do wrong in any way, then they are walking in the counsel of the ungodly.... They are standing in the way of sinners, ... and in the next step they will find themselves sitting in the seat of the scornful unconcerned.... The message of mercy, of love, of peace, is scorned, and those who associate with this class will become like them, despisers of God's mercy. It is surprising to see how far the influence of one ungodly youth may extend, what a power he becomes in the hands of Satan for evil, how much his counsels are heeded, how much sorrow and sadness and grief he can bring....
TMK	319	4	The privileges granted to the children of God are without limit--to be connected with Jesus Christ, who throughout the universe of heaven and worlds that have not fallen is adored by every heart, and His praises sung by every tongue; to be children of God, to bear His name, to become a member of the royal family; to be ranged under the banner of Prince Emmanuel, the King of kings and Lord of lords. His word is obeyed by the highest intelligences....
TMK	319	5	The lowliest service done for Jesus is the greatest honor mortals can enjoy. Angels, pure and holy, obey His word; and shall we be deceived and deluded into the service of Satan? Shall we refuse obedience to His requirements? Shall it not be said of us individually, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."11
------------------------A Happy Walk With Jesus, November 10
TMK	320	1	And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Genesis 5:24.
TMK	320	2	Enoch lived in a corrupt age, when moral power was very weak. Pollution was teeming all around him, yet he walked with God. He educated his mind to devotion--to think on things that were pure and holy; and his conversation was upon holy and divine things. He was made a companion of God. He walked with Him, and received His counsel. He had to contend with the same temptations that we do. The society surrounding him was no more friendly to righteousness than is the society surrounding us at the present time. The atmosphere he breathed was tainted with sin and corruption, the same as ours, yet he was unsullied with the prevailing sins of the age in which he lived. And so may we remain as pure and uncorrupted as did the faithful Enoch.12
TMK	320	3	We are living in an age when wickedness prevails. The perils of the last days thicken around us, and because iniquity abounds the love of many waxes cold.... The shortness of time is urged as an incentive for us to seek righteousness and to make Christ our friend. This is not the great motive. It savors of selfishness. Is it necessary that the terrors of the day of God be held before us to compel us through fear to right action? This ought not to be. Jesus is attractive. He is full of love, mercy, and compassion. He proposes to be our friend, to walk with us through all the rough pathways of life. He says to you, I am the Lord thy God; walk with Me, and I will fill thy path with light. Jesus, the Majesty of heaven, proposes to elevate to companionship with Himself those who come to Him with their burdens, their weaknesses, and their cares. He will make them His dear children, and finally give them an inheritance of more value than the empires of kings, a crown of glory richer than has ever decked the brow of the most exalted earthly monarch....
TMK	320	4	It is our privilege to have a calm, close, happy walk with Jesus every day we live.13
------------------------Count the Cost, November 11
TMK	321	1	For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Mark 8:35-37.
TMK	321	2	The Lord Jesus ... lifts up His voice to break the spell of infatuation upon human minds and asks the momentous question, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" ...
TMK	321	3	Disease and death are in our world, and how little we know when our individual probation shall end.... How many, if now called to render up their accounts, would do it with grief, regret, and remorse that their God-given probationary time was so fully employed in self-serving! The eternal interests of the soul have been fearfully neglected for unimportant affairs. The mind is kept busy, just as Satan designs it shall be, with selfish interests and nothing of any consequence, and time may be passing into eternity without a fitting up for heaven at all.
TMK	321	4	What can be compared with the loss of a human soul? It is a question which every soul must determine for himself--whether to gain the treasures of eternal life or to lose all because of his neglect to make God and His righteousness his first and only business. Jesus, the world's Redeemer,... looks with grief upon the large number of those who profess to be Christians who are not serving Him but themselves. They scarcely think of eternal realities, notwithstanding He calls their attention to the rich reward awaiting the faithful who will serve Him with their undivided affections. He brings eternal realities within the range of their vision. He bids them to count the cost now of being an obedient and faithful follower of Christ, and says, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24).
TMK	321	5	He would have every individual sense his responsibility to so use his precious time here in this world that it will be fruitful daily in good works. This is the only worthy aim of every living mortal--to employ his God-given faculties with endless results in view.14
------------------------Cast Out Every Idol, November 12
TMK	322	1	Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Matthew 4:10.
TMK	322	2	"Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3).... It is not alone in denying the existence of God or in bowing down to idols of wood and stone that this first commandment is broken. By many who profess to be followers of Christ, its principles are infringed, but the Lord of heaven does not acknowledge those as His children who are cherishing in their hearts anything that takes the place which God alone should hold. With many the gratification of appetite holds sway, while with others dress and love of the world are given the first place in the heart....
TMK	322	3	God has given us many things in this life upon which to bestow our affections, but when we carry to excess that which in itself is lawful we become idolaters.... Anything that separates our affections from God and lessens our interest in eternal things is an idol. Those who use the precious time given them by God--time that has been purchased at an infinite cost--in embellishing their homes for display, in following the fashions and customs of the world, are not only robbing their own souls of spiritual food, but are failing to give God His due. The time thus spent in the gratification of selfish desires might be employed in obtaining a knowledge of the Word of God, in cultivating our talents, that we might render intelligent service to our Creator.... God will not share a divided heart. If the world absorbs our attention, He cannot reign supreme. If this diminishes our devotion for God, it is idolatry in His eyes....
TMK	322	4	"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). When our hearts are tuned to praise our Maker, not only in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs but also in our lives, we shall live in communion with Heaven.... There will be gratitude in the heart and in the home, in private as well as in public devotion. This constitutes the true worship of God.15
------------------------Threads in the Web of Humanity, November 13
TMK	323	1	For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Mark 13:34.
TMK	323	2	When God commanded the tabernacle to be built in the wilderness, each man's work was assigned him.... In setting up and taking down the tabernacle, in moving from place to place in the wilderness, the position each was to occupy was plainly specified.
TMK	323	3	Christ was the invisible General of that company of more than a million people, and there were no haphazard, disorderly movements made. Order, dispatch, and exactitude were required of each one at the post of duty assigned him. This is an important lesson to the church and to every man whom God has chosen to act a part in His great work. No one is required to do another's work. Each is to do the work assigned him with exactness and integrity. The management of that great church in their journeyings in the wilderness symbolizes the management of the church till the close of earth's history, till we come into possession of the heavenly Canaan....
TMK	323	4	The Lord has need of all kinds of skillful workmen. "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11, 12). ... Each worker in every branch of work in the Lord's vineyard must have a head and a heart sanctified through the truth to enable him to see not merely the part of the work which is under his supervision, but its relation to the great whole. When the workers are consecrated to God they will reveal the love of God for their brethren who work under the unseen, divine Master Worker. "We are labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9)....
TMK	323	5	We are all part of the great web of humanity, thread packed against thread to bring out the pattern of the fabric and make it a complete whole.... Be God's thread to work out His design. You can never handle yourself.16
------------------------Trading on God's Gifts, November 14
TMK	324	1	And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Matthew 25:15.
TMK	324	2	The parable of the talents ... has a personal and individual application to every man, woman, and child possessed of the powers of reason. Your obligation and responsibility are in proportion to the talents God has bestowed upon you....
TMK	324	3	When the master of the house called his servants, he gave to every man his work. The whole family of God are included in the responsibility of using their Lord's goods. Every individual, from the lowliest and most obscure to the greatest and most exalted, is a moral agent endowed with abilities for which he is accountable to God.... The spiritual, mental, and physical ability, the influence, station, possessions, affections, sympathies, all are precious talents to be used in the cause of the Master....
TMK	324	4	Let the businessman do his business in a way that will glorify his Master because of his fidelity. Let him carry his religion into everything that is done, and reveal to men the Spirit of Christ. Let the mechanic be a diligent and faithful representative of Him who toiled in the lowly walks of life in the cities of Judea. Let every one who names the name of Christ so work, that man by seeing his good works may be led to glorify his Creator and Redeemer....
TMK	324	5	Those who have been blessed with superior talents should not depreciate the value of the services of those who are less gifted than themselves. The smallest trust is a trust from God. The one talent, through diligent use with the blessing of God, will be doubled, and the two used in the service of Christ will be increased to four; and thus the humblest instrument may grow in power and usefulness. The earnest purpose, the self-denying efforts, are all seen, appreciated, and accepted by the God of heaven.... God alone can estimate the worth of their service and see the far-reaching influence of him who works for the glory of his Maker.17
------------------------The Religion of Little Things, November 15
TMK	325	1	His Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:23.
TMK	325	2	Said Christ, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10). In the little matters some do not think it necessary to be so very exact, but this is the deception of Satan.
TMK	325	3	Selfishness is at the root of all unfairness and all lack of fidelity.... There is with many of the youth who profess to believe the truth a vanity, pride, profligacy, and carelessness that are making them reckless and disqualifying them for a noble and elevated life here, and unfitting them for the future life hereafter.... There is not with all a careful improvement of the time for which they are paid. Those who fritter away their time or fail to put it to the best use are robbing God. Some ... have a very favorable opinion of those who are careless, reckless of money and reckless of time, but God regards all these things in their true character--frauds which He will avenge.
TMK	325	4	Time, talents, and skill are to be brought into use and put to the very best account.... Let every one be true to principle, as if the eye of the Infinite was upon him. You may, young men and women, make of yourselves what you will, by the grace of God combined with earnest efforts and determined will to resist inclination to indulgence....
TMK	325	5	Christ gave to man a perfect example, but those who move out on what they call a liberal plan, and become careless in the little matters, will soon show a wide deviation from Christ's example, the only true pattern. Young men and women, will you study more closely and prayerfully the life of Christ, and make that life your criterion, your standard?18
TMK	325	6	Practical religion must be carried into the lowly duties of daily life. And in the performance of these duties you are forming characters that will stand the test of the judgment. Then, in whatever position you may be placed, whatever your duties may be, do them nobly and faithfully, realizing that all heaven is beholding your work.19
------------------------A Day of Reckoning, November 16
TMK	326	1	For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Matthew 25:29.
TMK	326	2	If talents are well improved, increased talents are the result. "Unto every one that hath shall be given." ... If Heaven's bestowed gifts are not appreciated and improved as God's intrusted capital--if they are buried in worldliness, in selfishness--these powers capable of blessing humanity decrease, and because the God of heaven is not sought after and glorified as the source of all these precious endowments, He is dishonored, and He cuts off the supply. In order to increase, to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we must put to use by human effort our physical and intellectual powers.20
TMK	326	3	Those who hoard up their talents to rust, unemployed, unimproved, must not think that such action in any way relieves them from responsibility, for God holds us responsible for the good we might do if we took up the yoke with Christ, lifting His burdens, learning more of His meekness and lowliness of heart day by day. The interest continues to accumulate on buried talents, and instead of decreasing our responsibility the burying of our talent only increases and intensifies it.
TMK	326	4	Let the human agent consider the solemn fact that the day of reckoning is just before us, and that we are daily deciding what our eternal destiny shall be. The Master examines every individual case, dealing personally with the talents entrusted by Him. O solemn day of reckoning; that day which will bring paleness to many faces; that day in which the words shall be spoken to many, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting"! It will be an awful thing to be found "wanting" when the book of accounts is opened in that great day.... Upon the decisions reached in that day depends the future, eternal interest of every soul. We shall have unspeakable joy, or unutterable woe and misery.... O how Jesus will love to recompense every true worker! Every faithfully performed duty will receive His blessing. It is then that He pronounces the benediction, "Well done."21
------------------------Putting Our Gifts to Work, November 17
TMK	327	1	But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. 1 Corinthians 7:7.
TMK	327	2	God gives more than money to His stewards. Your talent of imparting is a gift. What are you communicating of the gifts of God, in your words, in your tender sympathy? ... The knowledge of truth is a talent. There are many souls in darkness that might be enlightened by true, faithful words from you. There are hearts that are hungering for sympathy, perishing away from God. Your sympathy may help them. The Lord has need of your words, dictated by His Holy Spirit....
TMK	327	3	The first work for all Christians to do is to search the Scriptures with most earnest prayer, that they may have that faith that works by love and purifies the soul from every thread of selfishness. If the truth is received into the heart, it works like good leaven, until every power is brought into subjection to the will of God. Then you can no more help shining than can the sun....
TMK	327	4	All natural gifts are to be sanctified as precious endowments. They are to be consecrated to God, that they may minister for the Master. All social advantages are talents. They are not to be devoted to self-pleasing, amusement, or self-gratification.... The gift of correct example is a great thing. But many gather about the soul an atmosphere that is malarious....
TMK	327	5	The gifts of speech, of knowledge, of sympathy and love, communicate a knowledge of Christ. All these gifts are to be converted to God. The Lord stands in need of them, He calls for them. All are to act a part in preparing their own souls and the souls of others to rededicate their talents to God. Every soul, every gift, is to be laid under contribution to God. All are to cooperate with God in the work of saving souls. The talents you possess are given you of God to make you efficient colaborers with Christ. There are hearts hungering for sympathy, perishing for the help and assistance God has given you to give to them.22
------------------------Instruments of Righteousness, November 18
TMK	328	1	Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Romans 6:13.
TMK	328	2	The Lord has given you talents to use, and in using these talents as He intended they should be used, you will have increased aptitude and wisdom and clear spiritual eyesight to understand His work. Your mind and eyes must watch for His appearing, your ears open to hear the faintest whisperings of His voice. Your knees He has made; use them in kneeling in prayer. He is your strength. By faith take hold of the Unseen. Let your feet be shod with the preparation of the gospel for running obediently in the way of His commandments. Your tongue and voice are a talent given you of God to tell the story of His life, of His lessons, of His death, of His resurrection, of His ascension. Your bodily strength is to be devoted to the Master in fighting the good fight of faith on the battlefield, overcoming His enemies with "It is written." Your sympathies and energies belong to God. Use them to glorify your Redeemer....
TMK	328	3	Cultivate the thought that you are not alone. All your steps are watched by the Lord. You are encompassed with vigilant angels.... As the angels ministered unto Jacob, so certainly will they minister unto all of the Lord's humble, contrite ones....
TMK	328	4	Reach up, higher and still higher, taking hold of one line of faith after another. Walk and work in love to God and the poor oppressed ones, and the Lord will be your helper. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51). Jesus the precious Saviour, the Son of the living God, is the ladder uniting the celestial world with the terrestrial. His divinity lays hold of the throne of God. His humanity touches the earth. His human arm encircles the entire human race. Through Jesus Christ the angelic ministrations in love, in comfort, in reproof, in light, reach us. O thank the Lord, for He is good, and His mercies endure forever!23
------------------------For the Master's Use, November 19
TMK	329	1	But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. 2 Timothy 2:20, 21.
TMK	329	2	The Master has given to every man his work. He has given to every man according to his ability, and his trust is in proportion to his capacity....
TMK	329	3	Let none mourn that they have not larger talents to use for the Master.... Go to work with steady patience and do your very best, irrespective of what others are doing. "Every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12). Let not your thought or your words be, "O that I had a larger work! O that I were in this or that position!" Do your duty where you are. Make the best investments possible with your entrusted gift in the very place where your work will count the most before God.... Be not envious of the talents of others, for that will not increase your ability to do a good or a great work. Use your gift in meekness, in humility, in trusting faith, and wait till the day of reckoning, and you will have no cause for grief or shame....
TMK	329	4	Do not aspire to do some great service when the duty of today has not been done with fidelity. Take up the commonplace care, trade on the humble talent with a solemn sense of your responsibility for the right use of every power, every thought, that God has given you. God asks no less of the lowliest than of the most exalted; each must do his appointed work with cheerful alacrity, according to the measure of the gift of Christ.... The church of God is made up of persons of different abilities. Like vessels of various dimensions, we are placed in the house of the Lord; but it is not expected that the smaller vessels will contain all that the larger ones will hold. All that is required is that the vessel shall be full and hold according to its ability. If you perform faithfully the duties in your path you will be an acceptable servant, an honored vessel.24
------------------------Work Where You Are, November 20
TMK	330	1	And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Matthew 20:4.
TMK	330	2	There must be those who will come into the harvest field and who will be workers without expecting their wages in this world. In the next world they will be abundantly rewarded. There are men and women who have been letting their talents rust with inaction, ... who could do a most precious work and grow in grace and capability to work by doing their best in accepting the work just where they are. They can single out individuals--their neighbors--and give them personal labor....
TMK	330	3	The Lord will investigate the use we have made of the talents He has entrusted to us. He has paid the wages of His own blood and His own self-denial and sacrifice and sufferings, to secure the willing service of every soul as a laborer together with God. If only all felt their accountability to God wisely to employ the gifts in talents entrusted, what a revenue would be brought to God through Jesus Christ! The one talent may and will increase by use. The supposed lowliest gift, the humblest service, may reach minds and influence hearts that those who possess larger talents could not touch.
TMK	330	4	Now, now, now is our most favorable time to work. Individual visitation is of great value. In love for Jesus Christ and love for human souls the truth is to be carried to every family, talked of by every fireside that it is possible for you to find access to.... Bear in mind that the Holy Spirit is the worker. The human agent working for God is not alone....
TMK	330	5	Labor in perseverance, in tenderness, compassion, prayerfulness, and love will do more than sermons. The Lord Jesus, in giving His life for the saving of the world from the curse of sin, intended greater things than our eyes have yet witnessed. The Holy Spirit is waiting for channels through whom to work.... Satan will not always triumph. The Spirit of God will be poured out upon the church just as soon as the vessels are prepared to receive it.25
------------------------"Faithful in That Which Is Least", November 21
TMK	331	1	He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. Luke 16:10.
TMK	331	2	The active service of God is directly connected with the ordinary duties of life, even its humblest occupations. We are to serve God just where He puts us. He is to place us individually, and not we ourselves. Perhaps service in the home life is the place we are to occupy for a time, if not always. Then a preparation for that work should be obtained, that we may do our best in service for the Lord.
TMK	331	3	The Lord is testing and proving us to see what sort of timbers, or attributes, we are bringing into the character building. If we are listless and indifferent, negligent and careless, in the small, everyday duties we shall never be fitted for any other service for God.... He that is unfaithful in that which is least would certainly repeat this unfaithfulness if placed in higher positions of trust and given larger responsibilities.... The service of God will be done in a haphazard manner....
TMK	331	4	The importance of little things is underrated just because they are small, but the influence of the little things for good or evil is great. They supply much of the actual discipline of life for every human being. They are part of the training of the soul in the sanctification of all our entrusted talents to God. Faithfulness in the little things in the line of duty makes the worker in God's service reflect more and more the likeness of Christ.
TMK	331	5	Our Saviour is a Saviour for the perfection of the whole man. He is not the God of part of the being only. The grace of Christ works to the disciplining of the whole human fabric. He made all. He has redeemed all. He has made the mind, the strength, the body as well as the soul, partaker of the divine nature, and all is His purchased possession. He must be served with the whole mind, heart, soul, and strength. Then the Lord will be glorified in His saints in even the common, temporal things with which they are connected. "Holiness unto the Lord" will be the inscription placed upon them.26
------------------------No Room for Shirkers, November 22
TMK	332	1	Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Judges 5:23.
TMK	332	2	Shall not this be the time when all who are in connection with God shall come to the front and show their colors? Shall it be seen that men and women step back and show no interest, no zeal, no earnest effort when help is needed? When the car drags heavily, then is the time for everyone to push, put shoulders to the wheels, and not stand back giving orders, or accusing the ones who are trying to push the load, or criticizing everything they do, because it is not done in their way and after their ideas.... Let everyone do his level best to move the load with might and strength....
TMK	332	3	If the Lord should treat us as some who claim to be Christians treat one another, we should have a sore, hard time. If He should look upon the selfish, or crooked ones as they look upon one another and deal with one another, what would become of us? But I am glad the Lord is not man. He bears with our crooked ways, our selfishness, our separation from Him, our defects of character, and seeks to inform us, sending message after message of mercy, encouragement, warning, reproof, and correction, to bring us into a right position before Him, that we may have His love, His care, His blessing, abiding upon us....
TMK	332	4	We have each a work to do for the Master. Will we do this work, will we labor with unselfish, self-sacrificing interest to build up His cause, to advance His work? I am determined to do the will of God, to make straight paths for my feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. There are halting, lame ones enough.... God forbid that any of those who have had a knowledge of, and an experience in, the workings of God should themselves be halting, and need to be carried. Let them come up to help; let them become spiritually strong by doing the will of our heavenly Father, and then they can help the halting, lame ones....
TMK	332	5	May we work intelligently, heartily, with decision and positiveness, that we may be blessed and may bless others.27
------------------------Serve the Lord Heartily, November 23
TMK	333	1	And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23, 24.
TMK	333	2	The Lord requires the physical strength, and you can reveal your love for Him by the right use of your physical powers, doing the very work which needs to be done. There is no respect of persons with God....
TMK	333	3	There is science in the humblest kind of work, and if all would thus regard it, they would see nobility in labor. Heart and soul are to be put into work of any kind; then there is cheerfulness and efficiency. In agricultural and mechanical occupations, men may give evidence to God that they appreciate His gift in the physical powers, and the mental faculties as well. Let the educated ability be employed devising improved methods of work. This is just what the Lord wants. There is honor in any class of work that is essential to be done....
TMK	333	4	"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength" (Mark 12:30). God desires the love that is expressed in heart service, in soul service, in the service of the physical powers. We are not to be dwarfed in any kind of service for God. Whatever He has lent us is to be used intelligently for Him.... There is need of intelligence and educated ability to devise the best methods in farming, in building, and in every other department, that the worker may not labor in vain....
TMK	333	5	It is the duty of every worker not merely to give his strength but his mind and intellect to that which he undertakes to do.... You can choose to become stereotyped in a wrong course of action because you have not the determination to take yourselves in hand and reform, or you may cultivate your powers to do the very best kind of service, and then you will find yourselves in demand anywhere and everywhere. You will be appreciated for all that you are worth. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might" (Ecclesiastes 9:10). "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11).28
------------------------"Bear Ye One Another's Burdens", November 24
TMK	334	1	If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? James 2:15, 16.
TMK	334	2	Any neglect of duty to the needy and to the afflicted is a neglect of duty to Christ in the person of His saints. When the cases of all come in review before God, the question What did they profess? is never asked, but, What have they done? Have they been doers of the Word? Have they lived for themselves? or have they been exercised in works of benevolence, in deeds of kindness, in love preferring others before themselves, and denying themselves that they might bless others? If the record shows that this has been their life, that their characters have been marked with tenderness, self-denial, and benevolence, they will receive the blessed assurance and benediction from Christ, "Well done." ...
TMK	334	3	Our spiritual strength and blessing will be proportionate to the labor of love and good works which we perform. The injunction of the apostle is, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). Keeping the commandments of God requires of us good works, self-denial, self-sacrifice, and devotion for the good of others, not that our good works alone can save us, but that we surely cannot be saved without good works. After we have done all that we are capable of doing we are then to say, We have done no more than our duty, and at best are unprofitable servants, unworthy of the smallest favor from God. Christ must be our righteousness....
TMK	334	4	All around us there are those who have soul hunger and who long for love expressed in words and deeds. Friendly sympathy and real feelings of tender interest for others would bring to our souls blessings that we have never yet experienced, and would bring us into close relation to our Redeemer, whose advent to the world was for the purpose of doing good, and whose life we are to copy. What are we doing for Christ?29
------------------------Sweet Music in Heaven, November 25
TMK	335	1	Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40.
TMK	335	2	Christ says to His redeemed people, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me" (Matthew 25:34-36)....
TMK	335	3	Prayers, exhortation, and talk are cheap fruits, which are frequently tied on, but fruits that are manifested in good works, in caring for the needy, the fatherless, and widows, are genuine fruits, and grow naturally upon a good tree.... When hearts sympathize with hearts burdened with discouragement and grief, when the hand dispenses to the needy, when the naked are clothed, the stranger made welcome to a seat at your fireside and to a place in your heart, angels are coming very near, and an answering strain is responded to in heaven. Every act, every deed of justice and mercy and benevolence, makes sweet music ring in heaven. The Father from His throne beholds and numbers them with His most precious treasures. "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, when I make up my jewels." ...
TMK	335	4	Our heavenly Father lays blessings disguised in our pathway, which some will not touch for fear they will detract from their enjoyment. Angels are waiting to see if we embrace opportunities within our reach of doing good--waiting to see if we will bless others, that they in turn may bless us. The Lord Himself has made us to differ--some poor, some rich, some afflicted--that all may have an opportunity to develop a character. The poor are purposely permitted of God to be thus, that we might be tested and proved, and develop what is in our hearts.30
TMK	335	5	Every merciful act done to the needy, the suffering, is counted as though it were done to Jesus Himself. When you succor the poor, sympathize with the afflicted and oppressed, and befriend the orphan, you bring yourselves into a closer relationship to Jesus.31
------------------------Channels of Light and Blessing, November 26
TMK	336	1	Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13.
TMK	336	2	The world cannot see the beauty, the loveliness, goodness, and holiness of divine truth. And in order that men may understand it, there must be a channel through which it shall come to the world. The Saviour has constituted the church that channel.... Christ has revealed Himself to us that we may reveal Him to others....
TMK	336	3	If those who claim to be Christians will heed the words of Christ, all who come in contact with them will acknowledge that they have been with Jesus and have learned of Him....
TMK	336	4	Simple faith in the atoning blood can save my soul; and with John, I must call the attention of all to the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Jesus has saved me, though I had nothing to present to Him, and could only say, "In my hand no price I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling." Never did a sinner seek the Saviour with the whole heart but that the Saviour was found of him....
TMK	336	5	We may claim the blessed assurance, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions" (Isaiah 44:22). Thy "sins, which are many, are forgiven" (Luke 7:47). O how precious, how refreshing, is the sunlight of God's love! The sinner may look upon his sin-stained life, and say, "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died" (Romans 8:34). "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20). Christ the Restorer plants a new principle of life in the soul, and that plant grows and produces fruit. The grace of Christ purifies while it pardons, and fits men for a holy heaven. We are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ until we reach the full stature of men and women in Christ. O that we might all reach the high standard which God has set before us, and no longer remain dwarfs in the religious life! What beams of light would be reflected to the world in good works if we should become light bearers such as God would have us!32
------------------------Repeating Christ's Invitation, November 27
TMK	337	1	And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Revelation 22:17.
TMK	337	2	Jesus says, "... And let him that heareth say, Come...."
TMK	337	3	Those who are of a contrite heart will receive the message of heaven, and will voice the words of the angel. This is the work of all who have heard the divine invitation. Jesus said to the woman of Samaria what He says to us all, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.... But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:10-14).
TMK	337	4	The words spoken by Jesus Christ are to be repeated by those who believe them. Those who have genuine faith will make it evident by working for souls who are in darkness.... They will speak words of warning, of entreaty, and will point out the snow waters of Lebanon to those who are seeking to quench their thirst from the low streams of the valleys of the world. God calls for those who stand as soldiers under His blood-stained banner to go to work. He will clothe His messengers with divine power so that they may reach those who are perishing.33
TMK	337	5	Christ has opened a fountain for the sinful, suffering world, and the voice of divine mercy is heard: "Come, all ye thirsting souls; come and drink." You may take of the water of life freely. Let him that heareth say, Come; and whosoever will, let him come. Let every soul, women as well as men, sound this message. Then the work will be carried to the waste places of the earth. The scripture will be fulfilled: In that day the Lord shall open fountains in the valleys, and "rivers in the desert," and "with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation" (Isaiah 41:18; 43:19; Isaiah 12:3).34
TMK	337	6	A chain of living witnesses is to carry the invitation to the world. Will you act your part in this great work?35
------------------------An Inexhaustible Storehouse, November 28
TMK	338	1	To the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:2, 3.
TMK	338	2	Said Christ, "All things that the Father hath are mine." "I and my Father are one" (John 16:15; 10:30). "I appoint unto you a kingdom" (Luke 22:29). The Lord Jesus lays His hand upon the eternal throne of God with all the ease and assurance of one who rules and reigns, putting on His head the crown of deity. He sits at the right hand of God and receives supreme honor as God, the glory He had before the world was. He distributes His gifts to all who by faith shall claim them....
TMK	338	3	We have an inexhaustible storehouse, an ocean of love in the God of our salvation. He has placed in the hands of Christ all the treasures of the heavenly resources and says, "All these are for man, in order to convince fallen, sinful man of My love, ... and that for his happiness I am working and will work." The happiness of man is to know God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. It was to make this vast treasure house of all good available that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He sprinkled every gift with His own blood.... The gift to our world in sending Jesus is an exhibition of His grace which God Himself cannot surpass.... But one thing is impossible with God--the power of eclipsing the greatness of His gift in showing His love for fallen man....
TMK	338	4	Had God the Father come to our world and dwelt among us, humbling Himself, veiling His glory, that humanity might look upon Him, the history that we have of the life of Christ would not have been changed.... In every act of Jesus, in every lesson of His instruction, we are to see and hear and recognize God. In sight, in hearing, in effect, it is the voice and movements of the Father.
TMK	338	5	But language seems to be so feeble! I refrain, and with John exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1).36
------------------------Christ is Our Message! November 29
TMK	339	1	For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2.
TMK	339	2	The burden of our message should be the mission and life of Jesus Christ. Let there be a dwelling upon the humiliation, self-denial, meekness, and lowliness of Christ, that proud and selfish hearts may see the difference between themselves and the Pattern, and may be humbled....
TMK	339	3	Describe, if human language can, the humiliation of the Son of God, and think not that you have reached the climax when you see Him exchanging the throne of light and glory which He had with the Father for humanity. He came forth from heaven to earth, and while on earth, He bore the curse of God as surety for the fallen race. He was not obliged to do this. He chose to bear the wrath of God, which man had incurred.... He chose to endure the cruel mockings, the deridings, the scourging, and the crucifixion.... "He ... became obedient unto death," but the manner of His death was an astonishment to the universe, for it was even the death of the cross.
TMK	339	4	Christ was not insensible to ignominy and disgrace. He felt it all most bitterly. He felt it as much more deeply and acutely than we can feel suffering, as His nature was more exalted and pure and holy than that of the sinful race for whom He suffered. He was the Majesty of heaven, He was equal with the Father, He was the Commander of the hosts of angels, yet He died for man the death that was, above all others, clothed with ignominy and reproach. O that the haughty hearts of men might realize this! O that they might enter into the meaning of redemption and seek to learn the meekness and lowliness of Jesus! ...
TMK	339	5	The gifts of Him who has all power in heaven and in earth are in store for the children of God. Gifts so precious that they come to us through the costly sacrifice of the Redeemer's blood, gifts that will satisfy the deepest craving of the heart, gifts lasting as eternity, will be received and enjoyed by all who will come to God as little children.37
------------------------Fullness of the Godhead, November 30
TMK	340	1	And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Revelation 5:13.
TMK	340	2	On the isle of Patmos John saw the things which God desired him to give to the people. Here is a theme worthy of our contemplation. Here are large and comprehensive lessons, which all the angelic hosts are now seeking to communicate. Infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice, infinite mercy--depths, heights, lengths, breadths! Numberless pens have been employed to represent the life and character and mediatorial work of Christ, and yet to every mind through whom the Holy Spirit works these themes are presented fresh and new, just in accordance with the mind and spirit of the human agent. The Lord Jesus promised that the Spirit He would send would recall His words to the minds of those prepared to receive them. After His resurrection He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. Up to that time the disciples had not comprehended them, for the rubbish of rabbinical lore had hidden the truth from their view.
TMK	340	3	The truth, if received, is capable of constant expansion and new developments. It will increase in brightness as we behold it, and grow in height and depth as we aspire to grasp it. Thus it will elevate us to the standard of perfection, and give us faith and trust in God as our strength for the work before us. We need the truth as it is in Jesus.... As His representatives and witnesses we need to come to a full understanding of the saving truth which we must know by an experimental knowledge.
TMK	340	4	"In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:14). This is the great practical truth which must be stamped upon the soul. It is of the greatest importance that all should comprehend the greatness and power of the truth to those who receive it. "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9).38
------------------------Exalting the Man of Calvary, December 1
TMK	341	1	And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:14, 15.
TMK	341	2	I point you to the cross of Calvary. I ask you to consider the infinite sacrifice made in your behalf that through faith in Jesus Christ you may not perish but have everlasting life.... I point you to Jesus. You are safe in committing to Him the innermost working of your mind. The Lord Jesus hath purchased you with an infinite price. You may commit the keeping of your soul to Jesus. You may trust Him as your Counselor.... Constantly draw nigh unto God. He will help you.
TMK	341	3	O be sure you receive your illumination from the Source of all light. He is the great central Light of the universe of heaven and the great Light of the world. He will enlighten every man that cometh into the world. Reach no cheap, low standard. Cultivate the gentleness of Christ. Secure the highest attainments, and draw your inspiration from Jesus Christ. He is your Friend. You may always depend upon Him and find Him faithful and true. When you need His sympathy in your greatest perplexity, wounded and bruised, He will not pass you by on the other side. To Him you may come in the simplicity of children. To Him you may come with joy and rejoicing. With everything that is flattering to your hopes, every success which attends your labors in the Lord, look up to Jesus and lay every honor at His feet. Everything depends upon your walking in all humility of mind. Write the name of Christ upon your banner and never dishonor your colors.
TMK	341	4	All heaven was given to us in Christ Jesus.... O honor Jesus by giving to Him the heart's best and holiest services! He has given His life for you. Who is He that hath done this? The only begotten Son of God, He that was One with the Father before the world was.
TMK	341	5	Lift up your banner, lift it up higher. Never, never let it trail in the dust of the earth. Exalt Jesus. Lift Him up, the Man of Calvary, higher and still higher.1
------------------------Now is the Time to Shine, December 2
TMK	342	1	Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1.
TMK	342	2	We need now to arise and shine, for our light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon us. We have no time to talk of self, no time to become like the sensitive plant, that cannot be touched without shrinking. In Jesus Christ is our sufficiency. Will we talk faith? Will we talk of the glorious hope, of the full and abundant righteousness of Jesus Christ, provided for every soul? ...
TMK	342	3	The whole heavenly universe is interested, and the love of God is exercised in behalf of His faithful, commandment-keeping people. It is God in whom we must trust.... God has the world in His hand. We have God on our side. All heaven is waiting and longing for our cooperation. The Lord is supreme. Why then should we fear? The Lord is almighty; why should we tremble? In the past God has delivered His people, and He will be our helper if we will arise in His strength and go forward.
TMK	342	4	The Bible and the Bible only is to be our refuge. God is in His Word. "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." That is enough for us. "By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities" (Isaiah 53:11). If the great and loving heart of God is satisfied with the result of His mission in the souls saved, let us rejoice. Let us work as we have never done before. Let us put self aside and lay hold of Jesus Christ by faith. Let us reveal Him to the world as the One altogether lovely and the chiefest among ten thousand.
TMK	342	5	"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb" (Revelation 7:9, 10).2
------------------------Light for a World in Darkness, December 3
TMK	343	1	For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Isaiah 60:2, 3.
TMK	343	2	Darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people, and how ardently we should desire the presence of the divine Instructor to lead us in the way of truth and righteousness. God has already spoken to man at sundry times and in divers places and in various ways, yet the world's ignorance is increasing. We must speak with more pronounced utterances concerning the truth, that we may bring to man a knowledge of God. The distinction between Christians and worldlings must be more marked. The Bible must become a book of more prominence among us, and the attentive, diligent searcher by painstaking effort must search for the hidden treasure. The maxims of men, the dogmas of error, though advanced by those who profess to be interpreters of the Word of God, must be discarded, for they are calculated to cover up the truth....
TMK	343	3	The Jews turned from the Lord Jesus, whom the prophets foretold as the coming Messiah, and they have not been able to see to the end of that which was abolished. In making void the law of God, in turning from the truth with aversion, the Christian world have turned from Christ, and have made manifest the fact that they were not accustomed to looking upon truth of heavenly origin. The darkness has become like a funeral pall, and it covers the whole earth. This is not the time to become weak and sickly in faith. This is no time to permit the world to convert the church of God. Let those who have light now arise and shine....
TMK	343	4	Those who are waiting for the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ cannot mingle with those who are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, who are seeking amusement in games and pleasure parties. As faithful watchmen they must proclaim the warning, "The morning cometh, and also the night" (Isaiah 21:12).3
------------------------Pledge of Divine Power, December 4
TMK	344	1	But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8.
TMK	344	2	On the day of Pentecost the Infinite One revealed Himself in power to the church. By His Holy Spirit He descended from the heights of heaven as a rushing mighty wind to the room in which the disciples were assembled. Words of penitence and confession of sin were mingled with songs of praise for sins forgiven. Words of thanksgiving and of prophecy were heard. All heaven was bending low to behold and adore the wisdom of matchless, incomprehensible love.
TMK	344	3	The apostles and disciples were lost in wonder, and exclaimed, "Herein is love!" They grasped the imparted gift. Their hearts were surcharged with a benevolence so full, so deep, so far-reaching, that it impelled them to go to the ends of the earth testifying, God forbid that we should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were filled with an intense longing to add to the church such as should be saved....
TMK	344	4	As the disciples went forth to proclaim the gospel, filled with the power of the Spirit, so God's servants are to go forth today. All around us are fields white unto the harvest. These fields are to be reaped. We are to take up the work, filled with an unselfish desire to give the message of mercy to those who are in the darkness of error and unbelief. God will move on the hearts of believers to carry forward His work to the regions beyond....
TMK	344	5	The Lord God is bound by an eternal pledge to supply power and grace to every one who is sanctified through obedience to the truth. Jesus Christ, to whom is given all power in heaven and on earth, unites in sympathy with His instrumentalities--the earnest souls who day by day partake of the living bread "which cometh down from heaven" (John 6:33). The church on earth, united with the church in heaven, can accomplish all things.4
------------------------Revealing Christ in the Crisis, December 5
TMK	345	1	O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places: the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God. Psalm 68:35.
TMK	345	2	It is time we were endowed with power from on high. Satan and all his confederacy of evil are working with untiring vigilance to oppose good. Never was there a stronger combination formed to neutralize the lessons and teachings of Christ and to sow the seeds of infidelity in regard to the inspiration of the Scriptures....
TMK	345	3	Satan is moving with his power from beneath to inspire men to form alliances and confederacies of evil against light and against the Word of God. Infidelity, papacy, and semi-papacy are coming in close and powerful companionship with professed Christianity. The low views of inspiration, the exalting of human ideas from men called wise, are placing human talent above the divine wisdom and forms, and science so-called above the power of vital godliness. These are the signs of the last days. Let every one who believes in Jesus Christ ... use his talent of voice in exalting Jesus and presenting testimonies that will magnify, honor, and adore the Word of God.... The gospel makes itself known in its power in the consistent, holy, pure lives of those who are believers, hearers, and doers of the Word.
TMK	345	4	Do not give to the world the impression that Christ has proved to you without form and comeliness ... and that there is no beauty in Him that you should desire Him. Reveal Christ as He is--the one "altogether lovely" and the "chiefest among ten thousand" (Song of Solomon 5:16, 10). O how His glory is dimmed by His professed followers because they are earthly-minded, disobedient, unthankful, and unholy! How shamefully is the Lord Jesus kept in the background! How is His mercy, His forbearance, His long-suffering, and His matchless love veiled, and His honor beclouded by the perversity of His professed followers! ... Lift up Jesus. Talk of His love, tell of His power, and let self be lost behind the glory of His person and the mighty power of the cross of Calvary.5
------------------------Fortress of the Soul, December 6
TMK	346	1	Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Ephesians 6:10.
TMK	346	2	This has always been applicable to God's people in every age of the world, but how much more so to the remnant church who have to meet the constant and most powerful masterly workings of the power of darkness for this last time. The words of the apostle come sounding down the lines to this time: "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:11, 12).
TMK	346	3	These words inspired of God are appropriate for us. They apply in a special manner to those who are endeavoring to keep the commandments of God amidst a crooked and perverse nation among whom they shine as lights in the world. O how solemn, how fearfully solemn is this time for the youth among us who have had great light, ... that their words, spirit, and character shall not be misleading to those with whom they associate....
TMK	346	4	"Take unto you the whole armour of God" (verse 13). Make your guide the Word. "Take" it. The whole armor which is furnished you in the Scriptures is all prepared for you to take. "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth" (verses 13, 14).
TMK	346	5	Fiction, spurious interpretations of the Scriptures, dishes of fables, are everywhere presented for your acceptance. But great discernment is needed that the girdle should be the golden chain of truth. "And having on the breastplate of righteousness"--not your own, but the righteousness of Christ. This is the fortress of the soul. We may, with Christ's righteousness going before us, withstand the moral darkness and penetrate the devices of the satanic agencies.6
------------------------Brighter and Brighter Still, December 7
TMK	347	1	But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Proverbs 4:18.
TMK	347	2	The great error with churches in all ages has been to reach a certain point in their understanding of Bible truth and there stop. There they anchored. They ceased to "Go forward," as much as to say, "We have all-sufficient light. We need no more." ...
TMK	347	3	The Lord loves His people, and would lead them step by step onward under the banner of truth, the third angel's message.... In these last days we have the benefit of the wisdom and experience of past ages. The men of God, saints and martyrs, have made confession of their faith, and the knowledge of their experience and their burning zeal for God is transmitted to the world in the living oracles.... This hereditary trust has been gathered up by faithful witnesses that the bright light shining upon them in the knowledge of God might enlighten those living in these last days; and while they appreciate this light, they will advance to greater light....
TMK	347	4	The Source of all light still invites us to come and absorb its rays. Light is not placed where the followers of Christ cannot obtain its benefits. It is not cut off from the world so there is no more or increased light to shine in greater clearness and more abundantly upon all who have improved the light given of God.
TMK	347	5	God's people in these last days are not to choose darkness rather than light. They are to look for light, to expect light.... The light will continue to shine in brighter and still brighter rays, and reveal more and more distinctly the truth as it is in Jesus, that human hearts and human characters may be improved, and moral darkness--which Satan is working to bring over the people of God--may be dispelled.... As we near the close of time there will be needed a deeper and clearer discernment, a more firm knowledge of the Word of God, a living experience, and the holiness of heart and life which we must have to serve Him.7
------------------------He is Coming Again! December 8
TMK	348	1	And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Revelation 22:12.
TMK	348	2	Was Christ a false prophet when He uttered these words? More than eighteen hundred years have passed since John heard this great truth, and the Lord has not yet come to reign. But shall we give up looking for His appearance? Shall we say, "My Lord delayeth his coming"?8
TMK	348	3	"And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints" (Jude 14).... The doctrine of Christ's coming was made known at this early date to the man who walked with God in continual communion. The godly character of this prophet is to represent the state of holiness to which the people of God must attain who expect to be translated to heaven....
TMK	348	4	Shall we say we have been deceived in regard to the doctrine of Christ's near coming? ... Shall we say that all our work to make ready a people prepared for His coming has been for nought? Never.... "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; ... and let us consider one another to provoke"--unto doubts and unbelief, and apostasy? No, but "unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, ... but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching" (Hebrews 10:23-25).
TMK	348	5	We must have a knowledge of the Scriptures, that we may trace down the lines of prophecy and ... see that the day is approaching, so that with increased zeal and effort we may exhort one another to faithfulness.... Give up our faith? lose our confidence? become impatient? No, no. We will not think of such a thing.... See how the specifications of the prophecies have been and are fulfilling. Let us lift up our heads and rejoice, for our redemption draweth nigh. It is nearer than when we first believed. Shall we not wait patiently, filled with courage and faith? Shall we not make ready a people to stand in the day of final reckoning?9
------------------------Why the Lord Delays, December 9
TMK	349	1	But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8, 9.
TMK	349	2	As I have labored since 1843 and 1844 I have felt so thankful that the Lord has permitted time to last to do more fully the missionary work that was needing to be done to warn our cities. O our wise heavenly Father made the infinite sacrifice of His only begotten Son! He gave Him to our world that the world might, through the merciful provisions made, accept the Word--Bible truth--and prepare for the great event of His coming. That which caused the believing church so much sorrow in their disappointment in the time of His coming has been a reason of thanksgiving for the delay. Now the angels of God are preparing the way for the truth to reach all nations.
TMK	349	3	There are thousands in the cities, in the byways and the highways, to hear the warning message. Are we awake? Do we understand there is a world to have the warning? The cities are all to be worked diligently. We must arouse and do a great work. There are many more to hear the last warning message to a perishing world. We have no time to delay, for Satan is doing his best to destroy souls.
TMK	349	4	I now praise God for His long and merciful forbearance. The message has been carried to many countries. It is a worldwide message. There is most diligent work to do to warn our cities. We have had opportunity to send the light to many thousands who have rejoiced in the truth and sacrificed their time and their means to build up the sanitariums and churches in all parts of America. Schools have been established and new fields are opening, many in new countries. The work at times has moved slowly.... It is for the need of the Holy Spirit that many more places are not hearing the last message of warning.... Angels are waiting to fit up converted men and women to do this work if they will consecrate their whole heart, mind, and soul to the work. We have no time to lose.10
------------------------The Revelation of Character, December 10
TMK	350	1	And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Matthew 25:10.
TMK	350	2	Let none follow the example of the foolish virgins and think that it will be safe to wait until the crisis comes before gaining a preparation of character to stand in that time. It will be too late to seek for the righteousness of Christ when the guests are called in and examined. Now is the time to put on the righteousness of Christ--the wedding garment that will fit you to enter into the marriage supper of the Lamb. In the parable, the foolish virgins are represented as begging for oil and failing to receive it at their request. This is symbolic of those who have not prepared themselves by developing a character to stand in a time of crisis. It is as if they should go to their neighbors and say, Give me your character or I shall be lost. Those that were wise could not impart their oil to the flickering lamps of the foolish virgins. Character is not transferable. It is not to be bought or sold; it is to be acquired. The Lord has given to every individual an opportunity to obtain a righteous character ..., but He has not provided a way by which one human agent may impart to another the character which he has developed....
TMK	350	3	The day is coming, and it is close upon us, when every phase of character will be revealed by special temptation. Those who remain true to principle, who exercise faith to the end, will be those who have proved true under test and trial during the previous hours of their probation, and have formed characters after the likeness of Christ. It will be those who have cultivated close acquaintance with Christ who, through His wisdom and grace, are partakers of the divine nature. But no human being can give to another, heart devotion and noble qualities of mind, and supply his deficiencies with moral power.11
TMK	350	4	Let no one put off the day of preparation, lest the call be made, "Go forth to meet the bridegroom," and you be found as were the foolish virgins, with no oil in your vessels with your lamps.12
------------------------Watch! Watch! Watch! December 11
TMK	351	1	Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. Mark 13:35-37.
TMK	351	2	It is a time now when we cannot for a moment take the spiritual eye from Christ Jesus. His admonition to us is, "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." Is there one professed Christian who needs not the warning, and whose heart will not bear watching? The heart must be kept with all diligence, under constant watchfulness....
TMK	351	3	Watch the stealthy approach of the enemy, watch against old habits and natural inclinations lest they exert themselves; force them back, and watch; force them back if need be a hundred times. Watch the thoughts, watch the plans, lest they become selfish and self-centered. Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Watch over the souls whom Christ has purchased with His own blood. Watch for opportunities to do them good.
TMK	351	4	Like Mary, we need to sit at the feet of Jesus to learn of Him, having chosen that better part which will never be taken from us. Like Martha we need to be ever abounding in the work of the Lord. The higher Christian attainments can be reached only by being much on our knees in sincere prayer.... One fiber of the root of selfishness remaining in the soul will spring up when least expected, and thereby will many be defiled.13
TMK	351	5	We are in an enemy's country. He who was cast out of heaven has come down with great power. With every conceivable artifice and device he is seeking to take souls captive. Unless we are constantly on guard we shall fall an easy prey to his unnumbered deceptions.
TMK	351	6	We are stewards, entrusted by our absent Lord with the care of His household and His interests, which He came to this world to serve. He has returned to heaven, leaving us in charge, and He expects us to watch and wait and prepare for His coming. Let us be faithful to our trust, lest coming suddenly He find us sleeping.14
------------------------Standing Firm in Days of Peril, December 12
TMK	352	1	But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 1 Peter 4:7.
TMK	352	2	The signs of the times tell us that the end of all things is at hand. Prophecies fulfilled have become facts of history, clearly defining our position. We are standing upon the verge of the eternal world.... Our Lord forewarned His people that iniquity would abound in the last days and would have a paralyzing influence upon true godliness. Wickedness is seen and heard and felt all around us. It seems to permeate the very atmosphere, and affects the faith and love of God's professed people. It is difficult to hold fast Christian integrity. The fact is, much which is current in our day as Christianity is indebted for its very existence to the absence of persecution. When the test of fiery trial comes, a great proportion of these who profess the faith will show that their religion was hollow formalism....
TMK	352	3	The days in which we live are days of peril. Carelessness, levity, love of pleasure and selfish gratification, are seen in the lives of very many professed Christians. Is this the time for Seventh-day Adventists to lose their faith and grow cold and formal? God forbid! Shall we turn traitor at the very moment when God would be most glorified by our steadfast adherence to principle? Shall we turn from the heavenly attractions now, when we can almost see the glories on the other shore? We are living in the most important period of earth's history. By maintaining our allegiance to God, we may bear the noblest testimony for Christ and the truth.
TMK	352	4	The true Christian will cling to the promises of God more firmly now than ever before. His heart is where he has laid up his treasure--in heaven. When right principles are despised and forsaken, then the true and loyal will show their warmest zeal and deepest love; then they will stand most firmly for truth, unpopular though it be....
TMK	352	5	The Lord is coming.... Let us be consistent; let our works correspond with our profession of faith.15
------------------------Qualifications of Heavenly Citizenship, December 13
TMK	353	1	Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14.
TMK	353	2	"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). I want to sow for time and eternity. My heart hungers and thirsts after righteousness. I want my life hid in Christ Jesus, that my sowing shall bring me the right kind of a harvest. I feel deeply in regard to my own self, for every day, in words or in actions, I am sowing either tares or wheat. I want to sow for time or eternity. I have lived nearly the period of my allotted time, and what shall the harvest be? I want a quiet and unwavering trust in the Most High. I have experienced His protecting care in a remarkable manner when following the path of duty. I want to go down to the grave as a shock of corn fully ripe. I want no complaining in my heart; only gratitude should abide there. God's mercy and His loving-kindness are to be kept, not as a thing out of mind, but as something so precious as never to be forgotten. As eyewitnesses of His majesty we may exalt and praise His holy name. We are with Him in the holy mount.
TMK	353	3	Every moment of time is precious and weighty with eternal consequences. We are in a world of appearances which mock and deceive like the apples of Sodom. O how the Lord looks upon the double-dealing and the duplicity which is in our world! If we could not get a glimpse above and beyond the clouds to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness we might well be downcast, but Jesus lives....
TMK	353	4	The discipline in the school of Christ will cause the church to lean upon the arm of her Beloved. The redeemed of the Lord shall at last come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, in victorious triumph. All the angelic hosts will rejoice over them with singing. But what are the qualifications of our citizenship? "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."16
------------------------Crisis of the Ages, December 14
TMK	354	1	Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. Jeremiah 30:7.
TMK	354	2	The fulfilling of the signs of the times gives evidence that the day of the Lord is near at hand.... The crisis is stealing gradually upon us. The sun shines in the heavens, passing over its usual round, and the heavens still declare the glory of God. Men are still eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage. Merchants are still buying and selling.... Pleasure lovers are still crowding to theaters, horse races, gambling hells. The highest excitement prevails, yet probation's hour is fast closing, and every case is about to be eternally decided. Satan sees that his time is short. He has set all his agents to work, that men may be deceived, deluded, occupied, and entranced until the day of probation shall be ended and the door of mercy be forever shut....
TMK	354	3	The "time of trouble, such as never was" (Daniel 12:1) is soon to open upon us, and we shall need an experience which many are too indolent to obtain.... Now, while our great High Priest is making the atonement for us, we should seek to become perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought could our Saviour be brought to yield to the power of temptation. Satan finds in human hearts some point where he can gain a foothold; some sinful desire is cherished, by means of which his temptations assert their power. But Christ declared of Himself, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me" (John 14:30). Satan could find nothing in the Son of God that would enable him to gain the victory. He had kept His Father's commandments, and there was no sin in Him that Satan could use to his advantage. This is the condition in which those must be found who shall stand in the time of trouble.
TMK	354	4	"Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: ... He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice" (Psalm 50:3-5).17
------------------------A Safe Hiding Place, December 15
TMK	355	1	Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Revelation 3:10.
TMK	355	2	God keeps a reckoning with the nations.... In this age a more than common contempt is shown to God. Men have reached a point in insolence and disobedience which shows that their cup of iniquity is almost full.... The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth. When the angel of mercy folds her wings and departs, Satan will do the evil deeds he has long wished to do. Storm and tempest, war and bloodshed--in these things he delights, and thus he gathers in his harvest. And so completely will men be deceived by him that they will declare that these calamities are the result of the desecration of the first day of the week. From the pulpits of the popular churches will be heard the statement that the world is being punished because Sunday is not honored as it should be....
TMK	355	3	Satan will bring in pleasing fables to meet the minds of all who love not the truth. With angry zeal he will accuse commandment keepers.... Satan claims the world, but there is a little company who withstand his devices and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Satan sets himself to destroy this commandment-keeping company. But God is their tower of defense. He will raise up for them a standard against the enemy. He will be to them "as an hiding place from the wind," and "as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land" (Isaiah 32:2). He will say to them, "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain" (Isaiah 26:20, 21). "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (Isaiah 35:10).18
------------------------It Will Not Be Long, December 16
TMK	356	1	Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. Isaiah 26:20.
TMK	356	2	It will not be long until the gathering storm will burst upon the world that is so asleep in sin.... When the earth is reeling to and fro like a drunkard, when the heavens are shaking, and the great day of the Lord has come, who shall be able to stand? One object they behold in trembling agony from which they will try in vain to escape. "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him" (Revelation 1:7). The unsaved utter wild imprecations to dumb nature--their god: "Mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne'" (Revelation 6:16).
TMK	356	3	Creation is loyal to her God, and deaf to the frenzied call. That unrequited love is now turned to wrath. Sinners who would not let Jesus take away their sins are rushing from place to place in search of a hiding place, crying, The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and our souls are not saved! ...
TMK	356	4	That Lamb whose wrath will be so terrible to the scorners of His grace will be grace and righteousness and love and blessing to all who have received Him. The pillar of cloud that was dark with terror and avenging wrath to the Egyptians, was to the people of God a pillar of fire for brightness. So will it be to the Lord's people in these last days. The light and glory of God to His commandment-keeping people are darkness to the unbelieving. They see that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The arm, long stretched, strong to save all who come unto Him, is strong to execute His judgment upon all who would not come unto Him that they might have life. God grant that while mercy still lingers, while the voice of invitation is still heard, there will be a turning unto the Lord. The sure provision has been made to shelter every soul and shield those who have kept His commandments until the indignation be overpast.19
------------------------The Best Specification We Can Have, December 17
TMK	357	1	Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13.
TMK	357	2	We are Adventists. We are looking for the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and we love to think about it. We know in whom we have believed, and are not afraid to commit the keeping of our souls unto Him against that day. We are not at all humiliated by confessing ourselves to be Adventists....
TMK	357	3	We believe the Sabbath of the fourth commandment because it is written plainly and is the foundation of our religious faith. Let none of us be ashamed of this.... We accept not the authority of men's councils, but we go further back, even to the councils of heaven. "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." (Psalm 119:89). We take a "Thus saith the Lord." Here we stand. A doctrine that has not a "Thus saith the Lord" may be accepted by the whole world, but that does not make it truth.... If we want to know the way to heaven we must study the Bible, not man-made theories or man's suppositions.... We are not at all ashamed of our faith, Seventh-day Adventism, for it is the very best specification we can have. We are waiting for the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Men may scoff and ridicule our faith, but this should not provoke or surprise us. All these demonstrations do not make the truth error, neither do they make error truth. We take our stand firmly and unmovably upon the platform of the Word of God....
TMK	357	4	Eternal realities must be kept before the mind's eye, and the attractions of the world will appear as they are--altogether profitless.... We are pilgrims and strangers who are waiting, hoping, and praying for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If we believe this and bring it into our practical life, what vigorous action would this faith and hope inspire; what fervent love one for another; what careful holy living for the glory of God; and ... what distinct lines of demarcation would be evidenced between us and the world!20
------------------------A Constant Readiness, December 18
TMK	358	1	Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Matthew 24:44.
TMK	358	2	We are incapable of looking into the future, which often causes us disquietude and unhappiness. But one of the greatest evidences we have of the loving-kindness of God is His concealment of the events of the morrow. Our ignorance of tomorrow makes us more vigilant and earnest today. We cannot see what is before us. Our best-laid plans sometimes seem to be unwise and faulty. We think, "If we only knew the future!" But God would have His children trust in Him and be ready to go where He shall lead them. We know not the precise time when our Lord shall be revealed in the clouds of heaven, but He has told us that our only safety is in a constant readiness--a position of watching and waiting. Whether we have one year before us, or five, or ten, we are to be faithful to our trust today. We are to perform each day's duties as faithfully as though that day were to be our last.
TMK	358	3	We are not doing the will of God if we wait in idleness. To every man He has given his work, and He expects each one to do his part with fidelity.... As never before, resistance must be made against sin--against the powers of darkness. The time demands energetic and determined activity on the part of those who believe present truth. They should teach the truth by both precept and example.
TMK	358	4	If the time seems long to wait for our Deliverer to come, if, bowed by affliction and worn with toil, we feel impatient for our commission to close, and to receive an honorable release from the warfare, let us remember--and let the remembrance check every murmur--that God leaves us on earth to encounter storms and conflicts, to perfect Christian character, to become better acquainted with God our Father and Christ our Elder Brother, and to do work for the Master in winning many souls to Christ, that with glad heart we may hear the words "Well done, good and faithful servant; ... enter thou into the joy of thy lord" (Matthew 25:23).21
------------------------The Day of Final Settlement, December 19
TMK	359	1	And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. Revelation 20:12.
TMK	359	2	The Scriptures declare, "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:14). There is not a shadow of doubt about this matter.... Sin may be concealed, denied, covered up from father, mother, wife, children, and associates. No one but the guilty actors may cherish the least suspicion of the wrong, but it is laid bare before the intelligences of heaven. The darkness of the darkest night, the secrecy of all deceptive arts, is not sufficient to veil one thought from the knowledge of the Eternal....
TMK	359	3	The Lord beheld Adam and Eve as they took of the forbidden tree. In their guilt they fled from His presence and "hid themselves," but God saw them; they could not cover their shame from His eyes. When Cain slew his brother, he thought to hide his crime by denial of his deed, but the Lord said, "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground" (Genesis 4:10)....
TMK	359	4	All sin unrepented of and unconfessed will remain upon the books of record. It will not be blotted out, it will not go beforehand to judgment, to be canceled by the atoning blood of Jesus. The accumulated sins of every individual will be written with absolute accuracy, and the penetrating light of God's law will try every secret of darkness. In proportion to the light, to the opportunities, and the knowledge of God's claims upon them will be the condemnation of the rejecters of God's mercy.
TMK	359	5	The day of final settlements is just before us....
TMK	359	6	The Bible presents the law of God as a perfect standard by which to shape the life and character. The only perfect example of obedience to its precepts is found in the Son of God, the Saviour of lost mankind. There is no stain of unrighteousness upon Him, and we are bidden to follow in His steps.22
------------------------Fear Not, Child of God, December 20
TMK	360	1	And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Revelation 1:17, 18.
TMK	360	2	John, exiled upon the Isle of Patmos, ... hears a voice saying, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last" (Revelation 1:11). At the sound of the voice John falls down in astonishment as if dead. He is unable to bear the sight of the divine glory. But a hand raises John up, and the voice he remembers as the voice of his Master. He is strengthened and can endure to talk with the Lord Jesus.
TMK	360	3	So will it be with the remnant people of God who are scattered--some in the mountain fastnesses, some exiled, some pursued, some persecuted. When the voice of God is heard and the brightness of the glory is revealed, when the trial is over, the dross removed, they know they are in the presence of One who has redeemed them by His own blood. Just what Christ was to John in his exile He will be to His people who are made to feel the hand of oppression for the faith and testimony of Jesus Christ.... These were driven by the storm and tempest of persecution to the crevices of the rocks, but were hiding in the Rock of Ages; and in the fastnesses of the mountains, in the caves and dens of the earth, the Saviour reveals His presence and His glory. Yet a little while, and He that is to come will come and will not tarry. His eyes as a flame of fire penetrate into the fast-closed dungeons and hunt out the hidden ones, for their names are written in the Lamb's book of life. These eyes of the Saviour are above us, around us, noting every difficulty, discerning every danger; and there is no place where His eyes cannot penetrate, no sorrows and sufferings of His people where the sympathy of Christ does not reach....
TMK	360	4	The child of God will be terror-stricken at the first sight of the majesty of Jesus Christ. He feels that he cannot live in His holy presence. But the word comes to him as to John, "Fear not." Jesus laid His right hand upon John; He raised him up from his prostrate position. So will He do unto His loyal, trusting ones.23
------------------------Robed in His Perfection, December 21
TMK	361	1	And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. 1 John 2:28.
TMK	361	2	Jesus came into the world to save sinners, not in their sins but from their sins, and to sanctify them through the truth; and in order that He may become a perfect Saviour to us, we must enter into union with Him by a personal act of faith. Christ has chosen us, we have chosen Him, and by this choice we become united to Him and are to live from henceforth, not unto ourselves, but unto Him who has died for us. But this union can only be preserved by constant watchfulness, lest we fall into temptation and make a different choice, for we are free always to take another master if we so desire. Union with Christ means an unfailing preference for Him in every act and thought....
TMK	361	3	We are to consider ourselves as constituting the family of Christ, and we are to follow Him as dear children. Adopted into the household of God, shall we not honor our Father and our kindred? ...
TMK	361	4	We must establish an unyielding enmity between our souls and our foe, but we must open our hearts to the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. We want Satan's darkness to be shut out and the light of Heaven to flow in. We want to become so sensitive to holy influences that the lightest whisper of Jesus will move our souls.... Then we shall delight to do the will of God, and Christ can own us before the Father and before the holy angels as those who abide in Him....
TMK	361	5	But we shall not boast of our holiness. As we have clearer views of Christ's spotless and infinite purity we shall feel as did Daniel when he beheld the glory of the Lord and said, "My comeliness was turned in me into corruption" (Daniel 10:8). We cannot say, "I am sinless" till this vile body is changed and fashioned like unto His glorious body. But if we constantly seek to follow Jesus, the blessed hope is ours of standing before the throne of God without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, complete in Christ, robed in His righteousness and perfection.24
------------------------On the Threshold of Eternity, December 22
TMK	362	1	So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 1 Corinthians 15:54.
TMK	362	2	How precious to those who are losing their loved of this world are their faith and hope in the promises of God which open before them the future immortal life! Their hopes may fasten upon unseen realities of the future world. Christ has risen from the dead the first fruits. Hope and faith strengthen the soul to pass through the dark shadows of the tomb, in full faith of coming forth to immortal life in the morning of the resurrection. The Paradise of God, the home of the blessed! There all tears shall be wiped from off all faces! When Christ shall come the second time, to be "admired in all them that believe" (2 Thessalonians 1:10), death shall be swallowed up in victory, and there shall be no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more death! A rich promise is given to us: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14). Is not this promise rich and comforting to those who love God?25
TMK	362	3	The resurrection of Jesus was a sample of the final resurrection of all who sleep in Him. The risen body of the Saviour, His deportment, the accents of His speech, were all familiar to His followers. In like manner will those who sleep in Jesus rise again. We shall know our friends even as the disciples knew Jesus. Though they may have been deformed, diseased, or disfigured in this mortal life, yet in their resurrected and glorified body their individual identity will be perfectly preserved, and we shall recognize, in the face radiant with the light shining from the face of Jesus, the lineaments of those we love.26
TMK	362	4	The Life-giver will call up His purchased possession in the first resurrection, and until that triumphant hour, when the last trump shall sound and the vast army shall come forth to eternal victory, every sleeping saint will be kept in safety and will be guarded as a precious jewel, who is known to God by name.27
------------------------An Abiding Place for You, December 23
TMK	363	1	Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:1-3.
TMK	363	2	When Christ lay in the tomb, His disciples called to mind these words. They pondered over them, and wept because they could not fathom the meaning of them. No faith and hope relieved the brokenhearted disciples. They could only repeat the words, "I will come again, and receive you unto myself...."
TMK	363	3	Mansions are prepared for all who have subjected themselves in obedience to the divine law. And in order that the human family might have no excuse because of Satan's temptations, Christ became one with them. The only Being who was one with God lived the law in humanity, descended to the lowly life of a common laborer, and toiled at the carpenter's bench with His earthly parent. He lived the life which He requires of all who claim to be His children. Thus was cut off the powerful argument of Satan that God required of humanity a self-denial and subjection that He would not Himself render....
TMK	363	4	Jesus asks no more of men than that they shall follow in His footsteps. He was the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, but for our sakes He became poor that we through His poverty might be made rich. Almost His last words to us are, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." In the place of being sorrowful, your hearts troubled, you should rejoice. I came into the world for your sakes. My time here is now accomplished. I shall henceforth be in heaven. For your sakes I have been an interested worker in the world. In the future I shall be engaged just as devotedly in a more important work in your behalf. I came into the world to redeem you. I go to prepare an abiding place for you in My Father's kingdom.28
TMK	363	5	What a comfort these words should be to us! Think of the work Christ is now doing in heaven--preparing mansions for His children. He wants us to prepare to dwell in these mansions.29
------------------------We Shall See His Face, December 24
TMK	364	1	And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. Revelation 22:4.
TMK	364	2	We cannot now see the glory of God, but it is only by receiving Him here that we shall be able by and by to see Him face to face. God would have us keep our eyes fixed on Him, that we may lose sight of the things of this world. We have ... no time for any of us to delay that preparation which will enable us to see the face of God....
TMK	364	3	Only by looking to Jesus, the Lamb of God, and following in His steps, can you prepare to meet God. Follow Him, and you will one day walk the golden streets of the city of God. You will see Him who laid aside His royal garments and His kingly crown, and disguising Himself with humanity, came to our world and bore our sins, that He might lift us up and give us a revelation of His glory and majesty. We shall see Him face to face if we now give ourselves up to be molded and fashioned by Him and prepared for a place in the kingdom of God.
TMK	364	4	Those who consecrate their lives to the service of God will live with Him through the ceaseless ages of eternity. "God himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Revelation 21:3)....
TMK	364	5	Their minds were given to God in this world; they served Him with their heart and intellect, and now He can put His name in their foreheads. "And there shall no night there; ... for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever" (Revelation 22:5). They do not go in as those that beg a place there, for Christ says to them, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34). He takes them as His children, saying, Enter ye into the joy of your Lord. The crown of immortality is placed on the brow of the overcomers. They take their crowns and cast them at the feet of Jesus, and touching their golden harps, they fill all heaven with rich music in songs of praise to the Lamb. Then "they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads."30
------------------------Mysteries Yet to Be Unfolded, December 25
TMK	365	1	And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. Ephesians 3:9.
TMK	365	2	Many have endeavored to define the mystery which Paul here mentions. But it embraces much, and our ideas in regard to the love, the goodness, and the compassion of God are strangely limited. Because our knowledge of spiritual things has become so dwarfed and enfeebled, we have not advanced from light to greater light. The Lord has not been able to open to our understanding many precious things. In view of the losses which we have sustained by our earthliness and commonness we have much to make us humble....
TMK	365	3	Since the promise given in Eden, God has revealed His mysteries through His prophets.... But many mysteries yet remain unrevealed. How much that is acknowledged to be truth is mysterious and unexplainable to the human mind! How dark seem the dispensations of Providence! What necessity there is for implicit faith and trust in God's moral government! ... "How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33).
TMK	365	4	We are not now sufficiently advanced in spiritual attainments to comprehend the mysteries of God. But when we shall compose the family of heaven, these mysteries will be unfolded before us....
TMK	365	5	Then much will be revealed in explanation of matters upon which God now keeps silence because we have not gathered up and appreciated that which has been made known of the eternal mysteries. The ways of Providence will be made clear; the mysteries of grace through Christ will be unfolded. That which the mind cannot now grasp, which is hard to be understood, will be explained. We shall see order in that which has seemed unexplainable, wisdom in everything withheld, goodness and gracious mercy in everything imparted. Truth will be unfolded to the mind, free from obscurity, in a single line, and its brightness will be endurable. The heart will be made to sing for joy. Controversies will be forever ended, and all difficulties will be solved.31
------------------------Triumph of God's Love, December 26
TMK	366	1	The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. Psalm 97:1, 2.
TMK	366	2	The law of love is the foundation of God's government, and the service of love the only service acceptable to Heaven. God has granted freedom of will to all, endowed men with capacity to appreciate His character, and therefore with ability to love Him and to choose His service. So long as created beings worshiped God they were in harmony throughout the universe. While love to God was supreme, love to others abounded. As there was no transgression of the law, which is the transcript of God's character, no note of discord jarred the celestial harmonies.
TMK	366	3	But known unto God are all His works, and from eternal ages the covenant of grace (unmerited favor) existed in the mind of God. It is called the everlasting covenant, for the plan of salvation was not conceived after the fall of man, but it was that which was "kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and ... made known unto all the nations ..." (Romans 16:25, 26, R.V.)....
TMK	366	4	Before Him who ruleth in the heavens the mysteries of the past and future are alike outspread, and God sees beyond the woe and darkness and ruin that sin has wrought, the outworking of His purpose of love and blessing. Though clouds and darkness are round about Him, yet righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne.... Through the plan of salvation a larger purpose is to be wrought out even than the salvation of man and the redemption of the earth. Through the revelation of the character of God in Christ, the beneficence of the divine government would be manifested before the universe, the charge of Satan refuted, the nature and result of sin made plain, and the perpetuity of the law fully demonstrated.32
TMK	366	5	Then the extermination of sin will vindicate God's love and establish His honor before a universe of beings who delight to do His will, and in whose heart is His law.33
------------------------The Fulfillment of God's Purpose, December 27
TMK	367	1	To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 3:10, 11.
TMK	367	2	We should consider that it was not merely to accomplish the redemption of man that Christ came to earth, it was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world might regard the law of God as it should be regarded, but it was to demonstrate to all the worlds that God's law is unchangeable and that the wages of sin is death.
TMK	367	3	There is a great deal more to this subject than we can take in at a glance. O that all might see the importance of carefully studying the Scriptures! Many seem to have the idea that this world and the heavenly mansions constitute the universe of God. Not so. The redeemed throng will range from world to world, and much of their time will be employed in searching out the mysteries of redemption. And throughout the whole stretch of eternity this subject will be continually opening to their minds. The privileges of those who overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony are beyond comprehension.
TMK	367	4	We have each to battle with the fallen foe.... Begin the warfare at once by gaining victories over self. Do not give place to the devil.... Throw all the weight of your influence on the side of Christ.
TMK	367	5	When you look at the cross of Calvary you cannot doubt God's love or His willingness to save. He has worlds upon worlds that give Him divine honor, and heaven and all the universe would have been just as happy if He had left this world to perish, but so great was His love for the fallen race that He gave His own dear Son to die that they might be redeemed from eternal death. As we see the care, the love, that God has for us, let us respond to it; let us give to Jesus all the powers of our being, fighting manfully the battles of the Lord. We cannot afford to lose our souls; we cannot afford to sin against God. Life, eternal life in the kingdom of glory, is worth everything.34
------------------------The Joy Set Before Him, December 28
TMK	368	1	Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2.
TMK	368	2	The work of Christ upon earth was to seek and save that which was lost. Ever before Him He saw the result of His mission, although the baptism of blood must first be received, although the weight of sins of the world was to gather upon His innocent soul, although the shadow of an unspeakable woe was ever over Him. Yet for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross and despised the shame. He endured all this that sinful man might be saved, that he might be elevated and ennobled and have a place with Him upon His throne.35
TMK	368	3	Christ is the originator of divine truth. He knew the height and depth, length and breadth and fullness of the compassion of divine love, as no mortal man can know it. He knows the blessedness that sinners are refusing when they reject divine light, the horrors that will come upon the soul that refuses the truth of Heaven.... Christ alone knows what means the exceeding weight of glory which those who rebel against God refuse to receive....
TMK	368	4	Men are contaminated with sin, and they cannot have an adequate conception of the heinous character of the evil which they cherish. Because of sin the Majesty of heaven was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Voluntarily our divine Substitute bared His soul to the sword of justice, that we might not perish but have everlasting life. Said Christ: "I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself" (John 10:17, 18).... No man of earth nor angel of heaven could have paid the penalty of sin. Jesus was the only one who could save rebellious man.36
TMK	368	5	The joy that was set before Jesus was that of seeing souls redeemed by the sacrifice of His glory, His honor, His riches, and His own life. The salvation of man was His joy. When all the redeemed shall be gathered into the kingdom of God, He will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.37
------------------------The Results of Christ's Travail, December 29
TMK	369	1	He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Isaiah 53:11.
TMK	369	2	What sustained the Son of God during His life of toil and sacrifice? He saw the results of the travail of His soul, and was satisfied. Looking into eternity, He beheld the happiness of those who through His humiliation had received pardon and everlasting life. His ear caught the shout of the redeemed. He heard the ransomed ones singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.38
TMK	369	3	"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." During every moment of Christ's life in our world, God was repeating His gift. Christ, the sinless One, was making an infinite sacrifice for sinners, that they might be saved. He came as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and those for whom He came looked upon Him as stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. The cup of suffering was placed in His hand, as if He were the guilty one, and He drained it to the dregs. He bore the sin of the world to the bitter end.... No line can fathom, no measurement compute, the love revealed by the cross of Calvary....
TMK	369	4	In every pang of anguish endured we behold the throes of paternal love. The Father Himself travailed in the greatness of His almighty love in behalf of a world perishing in sin. By the sacrifice that has been made, the gift of eternal life has been placed within the reach of every son and daughter of Adam.39
TMK	369	5	Christ's redeemed ones are His jewels, His precious and peculiar treasure. "They shall be as the stones of a crown"--"the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints" (Zechariah 9:16; Ephesians 1:18). In them "he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." Christ looks upon His people in their purity and perfection as the reward of all His sufferings, His humiliation, and His love, and the supplement of His glory--Christ the great center, from whom radiates all glory.40
------------------------Eternity Before Us, December 30
TMK	370	1	They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. Psalm 84:7.
TMK	370	2	All heaven has been looking with intense interest upon those who claim to be God's commandment-keeping people. Here are the people who ought to be able to claim all the rich promises of God, who ought to be going on from glory to glory and from strength to strength, who ought to be in a position to reflect glory to God in the works that they do....
TMK	370	3	We have received the rich blessing of God, but we must not stop here. We are to catch more and more the divine rays of light from heaven. We are to stand just where we can receive the light and reflect it, in its glory, upon the pathway of others....
TMK	370	4	We need to drink deeper and deeper of the fountain of life.... You may have a living testimony to bear: "Hear what the Lord has done for my soul." The Lord is ready to impart still greater blessings. He permitted all His goodness to pass before Moses. He proclaimed His character to him as a God full of mercy--long-suffering and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Moses was to represent this character to the people of Israel, and we are to do the same. We are to go forth to proclaim the goodness of God and to make plain His real character before the people. We are to reflect His glory.... Let us declare the character of God to the people as Moses did to Israel, both in spirit and life. We are to catch the light of His countenance, full of compassion and love, and reflect it to perishing souls.
TMK	370	5	I beseech you to keep reaching out after God, to keep drinking of the fountain of living water. You may be as a tree planted by the rivers of waters, whose leaf does not wither. You may be full of moisture, and may be able to refresh others, and to give them grace and comfort. I love Jesus now, and I want to know more and more of Him. I have only begun to know Him, but there is an eternity before us in which there will be revealings of His glory, and we shall become better and better acquainted with our divine Lord.41
------------------------Home at Last! December 31
TMK	371	1	Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am. John 17:24.
TMK	371	2	The love of God is without measure, without comparison. It is infinite.... When we contemplate the dignity and glory of Christ we see how great was that love that prompted the sacrifice made upon the cross of Calvary for the redemption of a lost world. This theme will fill the saints with wonder and amazement through eternal ages, and why should we not meditate upon it here in this world? ...
TMK	371	3	O the mystery of godliness--God manifest in the flesh! This mystery increases as we try to comprehend it. It is incomprehensible, and yet human beings will allow worldly, earthly things to intercept the faint view it is possible for mortals to have of Jesus and His matchless love.... How can we be enthusiastic over earthly, common things and not be stirred with this picture--the cross of Calvary, the love that is revealed in the death of God's dear Son ... ?
TMK	371	4	All this humiliation and anguish were endured to bring back the wanderers, guilty and thankless, to the Father's house. O the home of the blest--I cannot afford to lose it! I shall, if saved in the kingdom of God, be constantly discerning new depths in the plan of salvation. All the redeemed saints will see and appreciate as never before the love of the Father and the Son, and songs of praise will burst forth from immortal tongues. He loved us, He gave His life for us. With glorified bodies, with enlarged capacities, with hearts made pure, with lips undefiled, we shall sing the riches of redeeming love. There will be no suffering ones in heaven, no skeptics whom we must labor to convince of the reality of eternal things, no prejudices to uproot, but all will be susceptible to that love which passeth knowledge. Rest, thank God, there is a rest for the people of God, where Jesus will lead the redeemed into green pastures, by the streams of living waters which make glad the city of our God. Then the prayer of Jesus to His Father will be answered: "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am."42

------------------------The Upward Look
UL	15	1	Look Heavenward, January 1
UL	16	1	The Need for a Reformation, January 2
UL	17	1	Victors Through Christ, January 3
UL	18	1	In Search of Truth, January 4
UL	19	1	The Holy Spirit Agrees With the Word, January 5
UL	20	1	Light Versus Darkness, January 6
UL	21	1	Where Shall We Invest? January 7
UL	22	1	Prayer and Practice Must Be United, January 8
UL	23	1	God Stoops to Listen, January 9
UL	24	1	Keep the Pattern Before You, January 10
UL	25	1	The Choice is Ours, January 11
UL	26	1	Christ, the Mighty Healer, January 12
UL	27	1	When Truth is an Abiding Principle, January 13
UL	28	1	The Perfume of Christ's Character in You, January 14
UL	29	1	Consecrated Money, January 15
UL	30	1	The Results of Inner Renewal, January 16
UL	31	1	Love as Christ Loves, January 17
UL	32	1	Resist the Devil, January 18
UL	33	1	The Family a Symbol, January 19
UL	34	1	Help Only in Christ, January 20
UL	35	1	The Life that Lasts, January 21
UL	36	1	I am a Child of God, January 22
UL	37	1	Infallible Assurance, January 23
UL	38	1	Gladness, not Gloom, January 24
UL	39	1	Our Competent Saviour, January 25
UL	40	1	Wise as Serpents, Harmless as Doves, January 26
UL	41	1	Our Long-Suffering God, January 27
UL	42	1	The Keeping Power of God, January 28
UL	43	1	Forgiving Freely, January 29
UL	44	1	Strength for Today, January 30
UL	45	1	Immortal Inheritance, January 31
UL	46	1	God's Plans are Perfect, February 1
UL	47	1	Live in Harmony with Heaven, February 2
UL	48	1	Not My Will, but Thine, February 3
UL	49	1	Today is the Day of Salvation, February 4
UL	50	1	Time to Wake Up! February 5
UL	51	1	Holy Spirit, Faithful Guide, February 6
UL	52	1	The Bible--God's Word to You, February 7
UL	53	1	Christ is Our Only Hope, February 8
UL	54	1	Choose Ye Each Day, February 9
UL	55	1	Show Yourself a Man, February 10
UL	56	1	Yokes, February 11
UL	57	1	Christ's Life Touched People, February 12
UL	58	1	Laborers Needed for the Harvest, February 13
UL	59	1	Reformation in the Heart, February 14
UL	60	1	Faith and Action, February 15
UL	61	1	Recount God's Goodness, February 16
UL	62	1	A Living Connection With the Living God, February 17
UL	63	1	The Worth of a Soul, February 18
UL	64	1	Receiving His Righteousness, February 19
UL	65	1	Trials Will Come, February 20
UL	66	1	Genuine Christianity, February 21
UL	67	1	Christ Lived a Life of Humble Obedience, February 22
UL	68	1	Angel Companions, February 23
UL	69	1	Stand Fast in the Faith, February 24
UL	70	1	God's Standard is Perfect, February 25
UL	71	1	Put on the Armor of Christ, February 26
UL	72	1	Exercise Increases Faith, February 27
UL	73	1	Walk by Faith, Not by Sight, February 28
UL	74	1	Who is King? March 1
UL	75	1	Mix Faith With Hearing, March 2
UL	76	1	God Calls For Workers, March 3
UL	77	1	Let Them Grow Together, March 4
UL	78	1	Resurrection Power Now, March 5
UL	79	1	Work, For the Night Cometh, March 6
UL	80	1	Prayer--The Secret of Power, March 7
UL	81	1	Make God First, Last, and Best in Everything, March 8
UL	82	1	The Plan of Battle Revealed, March 9
UL	83	1	Let This Mind Be in You, March 10
UL	84	1	The Ministry of Angels, March 11
UL	85	1	God's Work--Our Commitment, March 12
UL	86	1	Searching the Scriptures, March 13
UL	87	1	God, the Guardian of Justice and Mercy, March 14
UL	88	1	Time for Action, March 15
UL	89	1	God's Grace Gives Power to Overcome, March 16
UL	90	1	We May Overcome as Christ Overcame, March 17
UL	91	1	Call for Workers, March 18
UL	92	1	Never Go Back on Your Commitment, March 19
UL	93	1	Jealousy and Avarice Rebuked, March 20
UL	94	1	Religion in the Home, March 21
UL	95	1	Seeing with Heavenly Insight, March 22
UL	96	1	God, the Revealer of Secrets, March 23
UL	97	1	Gifted With a Higher Nature, March 24
UL	98	1	Christ Taught from Nature, March 25
UL	99	1	Our Christian Experience Must Be Animated, March 26
UL	100	1	The Commission is Ours, March 27
UL	101	1	God Is With His People, March 28
UL	102	1	Continual Advancement, March 29
UL	103	1	Our Study Now and in the Hereafter, March 30
UL	104	1	Christlike Love Blends Heart With Heart, March 31
UL	105	1	Form Characters for Heaven, April 1
UL	106	1	Live in Union With Christ, April 2
UL	107	1	Seek Divine, Not Human, Counsel, April 3
UL	108	1	How God Guides His Children, April 4
UL	109	1	Things Thou Knowest Not, April 5
UL	110	1	The Harvest of the Cross, April 6
UL	111	1	Seeing the Invisible, April 7
UL	112	1	Go Work in My Vineyard, April 8
UL	113	1	Sacrifice as Christ Sacrificed, April 9
UL	114	1	Shunning Satan's Snares, April 10
UL	115	1	The Influence of Mind on Mind, April 11
UL	116	1	Meeting and Mastering Difficulties, April 12
UL	117	1	We Have a Perfect Pattern, April 13
UL	118	1	Nature is Our Lesson Book, April 14
UL	119	1	Turn to God While There is Time, April 15
UL	120	1	Cultivating a Christlike Character, April 16
UL	121	1	Trust Your Brethren, April 17
UL	122	1	Christ Loves the Sinner, April 18
UL	123	1	Draw with Christ, April 19
UL	124	1	True Sanctification, April 20
UL	125	1	The Word of God Your Guide, April 21
UL	126	1	True Love Cannot Be Hidden, April 22
UL	127	1	Learning From Christ, April 23
UL	128	1	Glorify God, Not Man, April 24
UL	129	1	Cultivate the Christian Virtues, April 25
UL	130	1	Follow the Lord's Directions, April 26
UL	131	1	God Has His Chosen People, April 27
UL	132	1	Take the Cup of Salvation, April 28
UL	133	1	Go Forward, April 29
UL	134	1	The Great Exemplar, April 30
UL	135	1	Satanic Subtlety, May 1
UL	136	1	Who is the Greatest? May 2
UL	137	1	In the World But Not of the World, May 3
UL	138	1	Kept in the Love of the Truth, May 4
UL	139	1	The Christian's Legacy, May 5
UL	140	1	Right or Wrong Side--Which? May 6
UL	141	1	Christ Calls for Unity, May 7
UL	142	1	When Mistakes are Made, May 8
UL	143	1	Pray for the Holy Spirit, May 9
UL	144	1	Take Christ at His Word, May 10
UL	145	1	Follow the Great Exemplar, May 11
UL	146	1	Practice Good Work Habits, May 12
UL	147	1	Counsel to Women, May 13
UL	148	1	There is a Safe Path, May 14
UL	149	1	The Need for Unity, May 15
UL	150	1	Cure for Guilt and Depression, May 16
UL	151	1	Are You Preparing for Heaven? May 17
UL	152	1	Beware Seductive Theories, May 18
UL	153	1	Oneness with Christ, May 19
UL	154	1	By Their Fruits, May 20
UL	155	1	Christ Intercedes for You, May 21
UL	156	1	God in Nature, May 22
UL	157	1	How is it with My Soul? May 23
UL	158	1	What is the Source of Your Fire? May 24
UL	159	1	Behold Him! May 25
UL	160	1	More than a Prophet, May 26
UL	161	1	Read the Book of Daniel, May 27
UL	162	1	We Cannot Do Without God, May 28
UL	163	1	Make Home a Bit of Heaven, May 29
UL	164	1	To an Aged Sister, May 30
UL	165	1	Christ's Work and Our Work, May 31
UL	166	1	Never Yield Christian Principle, June 1
UL	167	1	Nature's Lesson Book, June 2
UL	168	1	Be Strong, June 3
UL	169	1	Light Comes in Bright Rays, June 4
UL	170	1	Why God Permits Unsettling Experiences, June 5
UL	171	1	Now Is the Time: Arise and Shine, June 6
UL	172	1	Called to Glory and Virtue, June 7
UL	173	1	All May Win, June 8
UL	174	1	The Divine Physician Prescribes, June 9
UL	175	1	God Requires the Whole Heart, June 10
UL	176	1	To Whom Shall I Confess? June 11
UL	177	1	God's Hand is on the Wheel, June 12
UL	178	1	A Home of Everlasting Sunshine, June 13
UL	179	1	Every Man is Given His Work, June 14
UL	180	1	Today, June 15
UL	181	1	Look to Jesus Christ, June 16
UL	182	1	Are You a Fruitful Branch? June 17
UL	183	1	Human Wisdom is Foolishness, June 18
UL	184	1	We Are One with the Church in Heaven, June 19
UL	185	1	God Helps Us Accomplish His Will, June 20
UL	186	1	God Can Use "Inferior" Workers, June 21
UL	187	1	Let God Work His Will in You, June 22
UL	188	1	Lessons from the Barren Fig Tree, June 23
UL	189	1	Ye Visited Me, June 24
UL	190	1	Preparing for Heaven, June 25
UL	191	1	Christ's Love Cannot Be Measured, June 26
UL	192	1	For What Are You Preparing? June 27
UL	193	1	More Like Christ Every Day, June 28
UL	194	1	Power of the Gospel, June 29
UL	195	1	God's Plans Are Simple, June 30
UL	196	1	Standing by Principle, July 1
UL	197	1	Keep Climbing, July 2
UL	198	1	The Light of the World, July 3
UL	199	1	Our Sanctuary Doctrine, July 4
UL	200	1	Eternal Vigilance, July 5
UL	201	1	The Measure of Divine Attention, July 6
UL	202	1	Have You Found Your Bearings? July 7
UL	203	1	Revelations of the Judgment, July 8
UL	204	1	Developing Characters for Heaven, July 9
UL	205	1	Be a Faithful Householder, July 10
UL	206	1	Balanced Christian Development, July 11
UL	207	1	God Is in Every Place, July 12
UL	208	1	Seek Wisdom from Above, July 13
UL	209	1	Wonderful Transaction, July 14
UL	210	1	Sanctify to God the Talent of Speech, July 15
UL	211	1	Cast Thy Burden Upon the Lord, July 16
UL	212	1	Our Merciful God, July 17
UL	213	1	Bring God's Word Unto the Very Life, July 18
UL	214	1	Christ's Minutemen, July 19
UL	215	1	Thy Word is a Lamp, July 20
UL	216	1	Judge Not, July 21
UL	217	1	Christ is our Pattern, July 22
UL	218	1	Christian Perfection, July 23
UL	219	1	Forgiveness Full and Free, July 24
UL	220	1	No Peace at Any Price, July 25
UL	221	1	Obedience is the Price, July 26
UL	222	1	Hope Thou in God, July 27
UL	223	1	Christ's Death Brings Life, July 28
UL	224	1	Eating the Leaves of the Tree of Life, July 29
UL	225	1	Love as Brethren, July 30
UL	226	1	I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes, July 31
UL	227	1	Let the Holy Spirit Control, August 1
UL	228	1	Enoch Pleased God, August 2
UL	229	1	The Great Medical Missionary, August 3
UL	230	1	True Soldiers of Christ, August 4
UL	231	1	False Sanctification, August 5
UL	232	1	Written for Our Admonition, August 6
UL	233	1	Only One Light to Illuminate the Way, August 7
UL	234	1	What God Condemns Is Not Safe, August 8
UL	235	1	Follow Christ's Example of Sacrifice, August 9
UL	236	1	Gracious Words Needed, August 10
UL	237	1	Daily Consecration, August 11
UL	238	1	Christ Has Power for Us, August 12
UL	239	1	Remove the Rubbish of Criticism, August 13
UL	240	1	Need for Reformation, August 14
UL	241	1	Promise of Divine Help, August 15
UL	242	1	We Are Christ's Representatives, August 16
UL	243	1	Using Your Talent of Influence, August 17
UL	244	1	Faith That Distinguishes, August 18
UL	245	1	Let Us Be Overcomers Here, August 19
UL	246	1	Follow the Great Teacher, August 20
UL	247	1	Build on the Rock, August 21
UL	248	1	Get Acquainted with God, August 22
UL	249	1	Keep God's Glory in View, August 23
UL	250	1	Faithfulness in Little Things, August 24
UL	251	1	Depart from the Fog of Skepticism, August 25
UL	252	1	Christ Purges for a Reason, August 26
UL	253	1	Dare to Be Like Daniel, August 27
UL	254	1	The Third Angel's Message is Sure, August 28
UL	255	1	Heaven Gave Its Most Costly Treasure, August 29
UL	256	1	Christ the Ladder, August 30
UL	257	1	Christ Holds the Standard High, August 31
UL	258	1	What Would Jesus Do? September 1
UL	259	1	The Uses of Adversity, September 2
UL	260	1	Mystery of the Incarnation, September 3
UL	261	1	Scenes of the Second Advent, September 4
UL	262	1	The Battle Over God's Law, September 5
UL	263	1	Insights into the Easter Story, September 6
UL	264	1	Witnessing to Others, September 7
UL	265	1	Help for the Conflict Promised, September 8
UL	266	1	Courage in the Lord, September 9
UL	267	1	The Life of Continual Victory, September 10
UL	268	1	Keep Looking Up, September 11
UL	269	1	Self Must Die, September 12
UL	270	1	Avoid Debates and Sharp Thrusts, September 13
UL	271	1	The Unity Christ is Looking for, September 14
UL	272	1	The Solemnity of the Final Judgment, September 15
UL	273	1	To Every Man His Work, September 16
UL	274	1	The Cities are to be Warned, September 17
UL	275	1	The Working Member, September 18
UL	276	1	Have Faith in God, September 19
UL	277	1	A Message for the World, September 20
UL	278	1	The God of Science and Revelation, September 21
UL	279	1	Stand Fast in God, September 22
UL	280	1	Jesus Listens to the Contrite, September 23
UL	281	1	God's Church a Temple, September 24
UL	282	1	How to Meet Temptation, September 25
UL	283	1	Preparation for the Latter Rain, September 26
UL	284	1	Holier, Holier Still, September 27
UL	285	1	Two Spirits in the World, September 28
UL	286	1	Let God's Spirit Do the Fashioning, September 29
UL	287	1	Get Ready for the Latter Rain, September 30
UL	288	1	Let Down Your Net, October 1
UL	289	1	Praise God In Spite of Trials, October 2
UL	290	1	Seek Divine Not Human Wisdom, October 3
UL	291	1	Our Accountability, October 4
UL	292	1	Service to God Begins on Earth, October 5
UL	293	1	How the Leaven of Evil Works, October 6
UL	294	1	Trust God's Words, Not Man's, October 7
UL	295	1	The Meaning of Communion with God, October 8
UL	296	1	Take No Glory to Self, October 9
UL	297	1	Prepared as the Morning, October 10
UL	298	1	Character is Tested, October 11
UL	299	1	How God Looks at Sin, October 12
UL	300	1	No One Goes Alone to Heaven, October 13
UL	301	1	Justice will Take the Throne, October 14
UL	302	1	Children are God's Property, October 15
UL	303	1	Abide in Christ, October 16
UL	304	1	Have You Accepted the Invitation? October 17
UL	305	1	Christ, Our Example in Labor for Others, October 18
UL	306	1	Cheer Up! Speak Words of Courage, October 19
UL	307	1	Overcoming Power Promised, October 20
UL	308	1	He Must Increase, October 21
UL	309	1	The Gospel Is Powerful, October 22
UL	310	1	No Middle Path to Paradise, October 23
UL	311	1	Heaven, the Christian's Summer, October 24
UL	312	1	Believe and Receive, October 25
UL	313	1	Christ Spoke Truth, October 26
UL	314	1	Think Trust, Not Trouble, October 27
UL	315	1	Be Singular--for Christ's Sake, October 28
UL	316	1	Nature Imperfectly Reveals God, October 29
UL	317	1	Satan's Latter-Day Sophistries, October 30
UL	318	1	God Does Not Change, October 31
UL	319	1	Accept the Saviour's Plan, November 1
UL	320	1	Blessed Assurance, November 2
UL	321	1	Take Your Stand on Christ's Side, November 3
UL	322	1	Heaven's Sun Shines Through His Followers, November 4
UL	323	1	Christ Came to Reveal God, November 5
UL	324	1	Be a Cheerful Christian, November 6
UL	325	1	Promise to the Overcomer, November 7
UL	326	1	The Great I Am, November 8
UL	327	1	Worship Nature's God, November 9
UL	328	1	Take the Cup of Salvation, November 10
UL	329	1	Look to Jesus, Not to Others, November 11
UL	330	1	Our Father's Business, November 12
UL	331	1	How Would You Have Answered? November 13
UL	332	1	Perfect Footprints, November 14
UL	333	1	In Full Assurance of Faith, November 15
UL	334	1	Leaders in the Invisible Conflict, November 16
UL	335	1	Cast Your Burdens on Jesus, November 17
UL	336	1	Nature Reveals God, November 18
UL	337	1	Walk by Faith, Not by Sight, November 19
UL	338	1	Be Wide Awake, November 20
UL	339	1	Allow God to Direct, November 21
UL	340	1	God and His Creation, November 22
UL	341	1	Revelations of God's Will, November 23
UL	342	1	How to Witness for Your Faith, November 24
UL	343	1	Use the Talents Entrusted, November 25
UL	344	1	While the Sanctuary is Being Cleansed, November 26
UL	345	1	Seek the Lord, November 27
UL	346	1	Drop Self into God's Hands, November 28
UL	347	1	God is not Nature, but Nature's God, November 29
UL	348	1	Look to God for Help, November 30
UL	349	1	The Invisible Conflict, December 1
UL	350	1	Prayer in the Night Season, December 2
UL	351	1	Be First in Good Works, December 3
UL	352	1	God's Word is True, December 4
UL	353	1	The Meaning of Christian Perfection, December 5
UL	354	1	Divine Compassion Continues to Flow, December 6
UL	355	1	Where Is Your Treasure? December 7
UL	356	1	Your Redemption Draweth Nigh, December 8
UL	357	1	The Price of Our Redemption, December 9
UL	358	1	Blend in Unity, December 10
UL	359	1	Be Sunshiny Christians, December 11
UL	360	1	Bring a Return to God, December 12
UL	361	1	God's Amazing Love, December 13
UL	362	1	Move Forward, December 14
UL	363	1	Obedience to the Heavenly Vision, December 15
UL	364	1	God's Concern for His People, December 16
UL	365	1	As a Thief in the Night, December 17
UL	366	1	Weed Your Own Garden, December 18
UL	367	1	The Gift Christ Desires, December 19
UL	368	1	Search the Scriptures, December 20
UL	369	1	God Gives Us What We Need, December 21
UL	370	1	Build on the Solid Rock, December 22
UL	371	1	Look to God Alone, December 23
UL	372	1	Shine with Living Brightness, December 24
UL	373	1	Living Stones for a Heavenly Temple, December 25
UL	374	1	Resolutions for the New Year, December 26
UL	375	1	Pray, Thy Will Be Done, December 27
UL	376	1	Educate Yourself to Believe, December 28
UL	377	1	We Are Objects of Infinite Love, December 29
UL	378	1	Fig Leaves or Christ's Robe? December 30
UL	379	1	Stewards of God's Grace, December 31

------------------------Look Heavenward, January 1
UL	15	1	They desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:16.
UL	15	2	I wish you a happy new year. The old year with its burden of record has passed into eternity. Now let every thought, every feeling be that of remembrance of God's love. Let us gather up one token after another....
UL	15	3	The evidence we have of God's care and love for us is expressed in the lessons Christ gave to His disciples upon the things in nature.... The eye is not to be fastened upon deformity, upon the curse, but upon the riches of the grace of Christ that has been provided so abundantly, that we may live in this world, and act our part in the great web of humanity, and yet not be of the world. As pilgrims, as strangers looking for the bright things of God, the joy that is set before us, seeking a city whose builder and maker is God, and by beholding the provisions made for us, the mansions Jesus has gone to prepare for us, talking of the blessed home, we forget the annoyances and the fretting cares of this life. We seem to breathe in the very atmosphere of that better, even the heavenly country. We are soothed, we are comforted; we are more than this, we are joyful in God.
UL	15	4	We could not know the gracious purposes of God toward us, but for the promises, for it is from them alone we learn what He has prepared for those who love Him. As the flowers in God's wise economy are constantly drawing the properties from earth and air to develop into the pure and beautiful buds and flowers and give forth their fragrance to delight the senses, so shall it be with us.
UL	15	5	We draw from God's promises all that peace, that comfort, that hope that will develop in us the fruits of peace, joy, and faith. And by bringing these promises into our own life we bring them always into the lives of others. Then let us appropriate these promises to ourselves.... They are like the precious flowers in the garden of God. They are to awaken our hope and expectation, and lead us to a firm faith and reliance upon God. They are to strengthen us in trouble and teach us precious lessons of trust in God. He in these precious promises draws back from eternity and gives us a glimpse of the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Let us then be quiet in God. Let us calmly trust in Him and praise Him that He has shown us such revelations of His will and purposes that we shall not build our hopes in this life but keep the eye upward to the inheritance of light and see and sense the amazing love of Jesus.--Letter 27, January 1, 1886, to Dr. and Mrs. J. H. Kellogg.
------------------------The Need for a Reformation, January 2
UL	16	1	But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:22, 23.
UL	16	2	Paul felt that the Lord's requirements must be obeyed, His judgments avoided. Like Paul, we must make every effort to obtain the crown of life, which brings eternal honor to every victor. We must not be content to live useless lives.
UL	16	3	What is humility? That sense of sin and unworthiness which leads to repentance. But we must be assured of the malignity of a disease before we feel our need of a cure. Those who do not realize the sinfulness of sin are not able to appreciate the value of the atonement and the necessity of being cleansed from all sin. The sinner measures himself by himself and by those who like himself are sinners. He does not look at the purity and holiness of Christ. But when the law of God brings conviction to his heart, he says with Paul, "I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Romans 7:9)....
UL	16	4	God created man for His glory. He will not, cannot endure the presence of sin in His dominion. If there are in the church those who are willfully sinning against God, every possible means should be used to bring them to repentance. If this is not done, God's name is dishonored. He is too pure to look upon iniquity with favor....
UL	16	5	Adam's sin would be regarded by the churches of today as a simple mistake, to be at once forgiven and no more thought of. But God's standard is high and His word immutable, and all selfish, covetous practices are an abomination in His sight. The hearts of believers need to be purified, sanctified, refined, ennobled....
UL	16	6	Look up, my brethren. Has the gospel lost its power to impress hearts? Is it because the regenerating influence of the Spirit of Christ has died away that hearts are not purified, sanctified, and prepared for the Holy Spirit? No; the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of the living God, is with us yet; but it must be wielded with earnestness. Let us use it as did God's sanctified ones of old. By its living, quickening power it will cut its way to hearts....
UL	16	7	The Lord calls for a reformation all through our ranks.... When the church is awakened, decided changes will be made. Men and women will be converted, and so filled will they be by the Spirit of God that they will pass from country to country, from city to city, proclaiming the message of truth. With hearts filled with earnest love for souls, they will open their Bibles and present the Word.--Manuscript 2, January 2, 1900, "The Need of a Reformation."
------------------------Victors Through Christ, January 3
UL	17	1	For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John 5:4.
UL	17	2	We need to draw near to our Helper, the One who is infinite in wisdom. He is our Minister and our great Medical Missionary, and He knows the straits through which His believers on this earth will pass.... He has been tempted in all points like as we are tempted. Let us not forget that Christ had the tempter to meet in every form, and that when He met him, He, our Saviour, was bearing the likeness of humanity. He is our Restorer, the Perfecter of His covenant with the human agencies who depend upon Him as their Prince and their Redeemer.
UL	17	3	Christ conquered as the sinless, unfallen, perfect Man. As the Messiah He has won the victory over the temptations of the enemy, making it possible for us to overcome as He overcame. We are to overcome in every encounter with the enemy. We are to be victors by becoming partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Each victory that He gained in His humanity makes it possible for us, through receiving and believing in Him, to gain the victory. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God" (John 1:12). Each victory that He gained in humanity secures for us its genuine fruits. Each assault of Satan overcome marks the occasion of a victory for humanity....
UL	17	4	The deliverance of the people of God and His mercies to them in past trials are to be called to mind as an assurance of that which, if we trust in God, He will do for us in present and future emergencies. Whatever may have been their experience, if they will surrender to God with full purpose of heart, with humility and contrition, He will receive them. To all who by faith receive Christ as their personal Saviour, He will give power to become overcomers--sons and daughters of God. They become partakers of the divine nature, and fully realize His mercy and the grace of His Holy Spirit....
UL	17	5	Let our prayers ascend to God in all humility. Let us through the grace Christ came to the world to impart confess and forsake our sins, with humble, contrite hearts. The Lord understands, for all secret things are known to Him. Not one mean action can be performed without God understanding every phase of temptation....
UL	17	6	Throughout the gospels, Christ made frequent reference to the great conflict that He had with Satan at the beginning of His ministry. He makes constant reference to Satan's kingdom as opposed to the kingdom of God. Let us be sure that we are on the Lord's side,--Letter 14, January 3, 1906, to Dr. and Mrs. D. H. Kress.
------------------------In Search of Truth, January 4
UL	18	1	The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. 2 Timothy 2:19.
UL	18	2	Pray for the impartation of the Holy Spirit and believe that it is for you.... Search your own hearts, and prepare the vessel for the reception of the Holy Spirit. Do not be satisfied with your present experience. Sink the shaft deeper and still deeper into the mine of truth....
UL	18	3	It is the privilege of every believer in Christ to possess Christ's nature, a nature far above that which Adam forfeited by transgression. He who sees the Son by faith and believes in Him, is obedient to the commandments of God, and in this obedience he finds everlasting life.... You will not have a firm religious experience unless you dig deep, and build your house upon the Rock....
UL	18	4	Satan works through men who will be worked, blinding the perceptive faculties, paralyzing the senses with selfish ease and love of the world, and unless a special message direct from heaven comes to them they will not discern their peril.
UL	18	5	Human nature is vacillating. Men grasp the truth with their perceptive powers, but they refuse to separate themselves from the world. Men will not consent to be God's peculiar people. They know the truth of the Bible, but they do not want to obey, and they turn from the truth. They act out their unbelief, and darkness comes upon their souls. Choosing their own way they are left to be filled with their own devices. Truth is insulted, Christ ignored, and perdition will be their portion unless they turn and repent....
UL	18	6	While these opposing influences are at work to lead away from the truth, away from conviction, away from heaven into the broad path of self-gratification, the agents of God are to work to save souls that are ready to perish. After wrestling with God in prayer, put on the armor, and engage in earnest labor for the conversion of souls. Let men see that with you truth is not a jest, but an eternal reality. You are to deal with principles as you have never dealt with them before. Scatter the seeds of truth with no sparing hand. Sow beside all waters. Have no prescribed limits which you will not pass, but [work] with all the powers that God has given you. Then the people will know you as a man who believes the truth, and to whom truth is a reality. Let not your faith fail. Bring your mind to the point of decision or shake yourself free from all slothfulness and inaction.... Hold fast. Leave no means untried. Work, and watch, and pray, and walk humbly with God.--Letter 6a, January 4, 1900, to a college Bible teacher and his wife.
------------------------The Holy Spirit Agrees With the Word, January 5
UL	19	1	But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. John 15:26.
UL	19	2	Those who have Jesus abiding in the heart by faith, have actually received the Holy Spirit. Every individual who receives Jesus as his personal Saviour, just as surely receives the Holy Spirit, to be his Counselor, Sanctifier, Guide, and Witness. The more closely the believer walks with God, the clearer his witness, and, as a sure result, the more powerful will be the influence of his testimony upon others of a Saviour's love; the more he will give evidence that he prizes the Word of God. It is his meat, it is his drink, to satisfy the thirsty soul. He prizes the privilege of learning the will of God from His Word.
UL	19	3	Some souls who claim to be believers have slighted, and turned from, the Word of God. They have neglected the Bible, the wonderful Guidebook, the true Tester of all ideas, and claim that they have the Spirit to teach them, that this renders searching the Scriptures unnecessary. All such are heeding the sophistry of Satan, for the Spirit and the Word agree, say the Scriptures, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20). He only is a free man whom the truth makes free....
UL	19	4	The Lord loves you, and His guardian angels are round about you. If you are doers of the Word you will obey the instructions of Jesus Christ.... In our own strength we are perfect weakness, but, when we put our whole trust in Jesus Christ, we are kept by His power, for He is fully able to keep every soul that puts his trust in Him. The peril to which every soul is exposed is very great.
UL	19	5	The great adversary of God, and the enemy of man, is watching to find an opportunity to take us when we are off our guard. Jesus has told us of our danger and warned us against the wily foe. He has repeatedly enjoined upon us the duty of always watching and praying, lest we enter into temptation. Believe in Jesus, trust in Jesus with living, constant faith, and rely without doubt upon Jesus to keep and save you. One mighty to save has hold upon you, and as long as you will submit to be led by Him, to learn of Him, to confide in Him, He will keep you from falling. And, when God engages to keep you, He is a sure defense.--Manuscript 1, January 5, 1894, "The Holy Spirit Agrees With the Word."
------------------------Light Versus Darkness, January 6
UL	20	1	Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, ... even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:31, 32.
UL	20	2	The great controversy going on in the world is waging more sharply today than at any period of this world's history between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness. Bear the fact in mind that, wherever there are plans set in operation to advance the cause of God in the world, Satan will be on hand to counteract, if possible, the workings of our merciful heavenly Father.... He will use every possible advantage you give him to control minds....
UL	20	3	God's people, rescued from the fire by Jesus Christ, have a sense of their sin, feel humbled and ashamed. God sees and recognizes their repentance, and notes their sorrow for sin, which they cannot remove or cancel themselves. But as they pray their prayers are heard, and this is the reason that Satan stands by to resist Christ; because He hears their prayers, He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. He regenerates the sinner, and pardon is written off against his name. This stirs Satan up to resistance. He steps in between the repenting, believing soul and Christ. He seeks to cast his hellish shadow before that soul, to dampen faith, and to make of none effect the words of God....
UL	20	4	If Satan stands between the soul and Jesus Christ, then the love and acceptance and pardon of Christ are eclipsed--man will be constantly striving to prepare a robe of righteousness to cover his deformity and sin, when Christ wants him to come to Him just as he is, and believe in Him as his personal Saviour. In His tender love, a forgiving Father brings forth His best robe in which to array His returning child....
UL	20	5	Satan is a vigilant, untiring foe, and he sleeps not. He knows that his time is short, and he will work until the end with every species of deception to draw souls into his snare and ruin them. I have a message for you--"Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." Give no place to the devil to stand between you and Christ, lest you savor of the things that be of men and not of God. If your faith is genuine, it must and will produce obedience. God commands us to do nothing which we cannot do. He will give strength to every believing, trusting soul....
UL	20	6	Cherish the love of Jesus in the heart, respect each other, for Christ has given His life for you. Every soul is precious in the sight of God. It is a wonderful thing to be remembered and cared for every hour by God.--Letter 65, January 6, 1894, to the ship's crew on board the Pitcairn.
------------------------Where Shall We Invest? January 7
UL	21	1	But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:20, 21.
UL	21	2	Financial speculations are Satan's snares, laid to catch souls. In all business transactions the only safeguard for a man is the love and fear of God. In our world today there are seen the same dishonest practices which prevailed before the Flood swept this earth of its moral pollution, and which prevailed in Sodom before fire from heaven consumed its wicked inhabitants. Satan engrosses men's minds with dreamlike prospects of great gain, and in their greed for gain, those who yield to him make representations which are positively untrue. God and the truth are forgotten....
UL	21	3	God desires His servants to avoid all speculation. Satan may pave the way by making the first investment successful, but O, how bitter will be the final outcome! If the professing Christian has success in his first speculation, his ruin is almost certain. Visionary schemes are wildly entered into as schemers present promising enterprises, which they declare will pay a large percentage on all money invested. Good men are fascinated and deceived....
UL	21	4	Instead of entering into speculation, let those who know the truth find some steady, honest employment, in which they can earn their living in a way that glorifies God. Those who encourage the thirst for speculation will extinguish the light that God has given to guide their feet aright. Making money easily, they will spend it unwisely, and their prodigality will be their ruin. To maintain their habits of selfish indulgence, they must continue to make money rapidly. The effort to make money fast enough to meet their extravagant expenses, draws many into the gambling hell....
UL	21	5	My prayer to our heavenly Father is, Lord, let the clear light shine forth. Carefully and prayerfully studied, God's Word keeps men well-balanced. In this Word we find God's way clearly defined. No one who searches the Word with sincerity will walk in darkness. But we cannot cast aside the light God sends, and at the same time walk in its rays. To be Christians at all, we must be Christians in all things, revealing His virtues, doing His works. The truth is our safeguard. Planted in the heart by the Holy Spirit, it enables us to see clearly the difference between what is right and what is wrong.--Manuscript 26a, 1890, "A Warning Against Financial Speculation."
------------------------Prayer and Practice Must Be United, January 8
UL	22	1	I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5.
UL	22	2	Wonderful opportunities are opened before the human agent to understand the unsearchable riches of the wisdom of God. In this work, which nothing less than divine power can accomplish, nothing can be perfected without the cooperation of the human agent. Then the divine and the human are blended, as in the life of the Son of God....
UL	22	3	The sincere Christian, in his [acceptance] of grace, feels that his success is wholly dependent upon Christ. Here is the Source of divine energy. He urges no claim founded on his own merit; he has no faithfulness to present to heaven. He feels his own weakness and inefficiency, and is convinced that he must be transformed in character. Self-abasement, and self-renunciation reveal that the soul has beheld Jesus. The heart made penitent by the Spirit of Christ will act from principle. He is a partaker of the divine nature.... In his daily walk and conversation he represents the character of Christ....
UL	22	4	What will it profit [us] to cherish pride of spirit, and pray for humility? What will it profit to seek eagerly the friendship and applause of the world, and pray for heavenly affections? What will it profit to indulge in passionate temper and un-Christlike words, and then ask for the meekness of Christ? This is not watching unto prayer. In the lack of that faith that works by love and purifies the soul lies the secret of unanswered prayer.... I tell you in the name of the Lord: if the church will arise in the strength of God to meet her responsibilities, consecrating to God every power, the Spirit of the Lord will be poured out in rich abundance....
UL	22	5	Some who profess to be Christians need a genuine conversion. They desire to be accepted of God; they pray in a casual way that they may be accepted, and yet through their desire for gain, their worldliness and selfishness, their robbery of God, they shut themselves away from Him. His curse is hanging over them for their selfishness and worldly lusts. Their prayers will be wholly in vain unless they comply with the condition specified in the Word of God....
UL	22	6	The uncertain experience of many professed Christians--sinning and repenting and continuing in the same dwarfed spiritual condition--is the result of worldliness and unholiness of life. The saving grace of Christ is designed for everyday life. Christ came not to save man in his sins, but from his sins. The principles of truth, abiding in the heart, will sanctify the life.--Manuscript 35, January 8, 1893, "Publishing Work."
------------------------God Stoops to Listen, January 9
UL	23	1	For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah 57:15.
UL	23	2	When man has taken the lines in his own hands to guide and drive, he will be rewarded, for the work of God will reveal terrible mistakes. Reason becomes blinded, even with the greatness of light, unless that agency is under the yoke of Christ. Every day some plan will be devised when Satan thinks he can lend a hand to sow his tares among the wheat. Vice is not to be commingled with virtue, and the cry may have to go forth in no measured tones, even now while missionary work is being done, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (2 Corinthians 6:17). God is now working for His people, but how many do not recognize the work of God from a strange work.
UL	23	3	Drawing aside the veil which conceals the glory of God, it shows Him in His place, high and holy, and lifted up, not in a state of solitude, but surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of holy, happy beings, every one waiting to bear the message, to do His bidding--all heaven is in active communication with every part of the universe through a variety of channels, and that holy One is actually stooping, bending from His throne, listening to every sound uttered, observing the movements of every earthly power. It is the highest Being condescending to the lowliest, approving or condemning every action which is developed.
UL	23	4	He is interested in the oppressed, and sends messengers to engage in the work in connection with the gospel for the beings who have corrupted their whole mind and thoughts, and they are placed in connection with truth and righteousness. Unless they become righteous themselves, they will contaminate others. There is a work to be done in our world, but if the way of the Lord is not distinctly followed, to put them in the way of life through conversion, there is reason to be afraid lest Satan shall introduce himself to work the abandoned ones our institutions undertake to help.
UL	23	5	Satan is playing a game of life for the souls of men and women for whom Christ has died. In our zeal to do a work for the Lord, we must be sure we are not going before Christ, in the place of following after Christ.--Letter 171, January 9, 1900, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Keep the Pattern Before You, January 10
UL	24	1	For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16.
UL	24	2	There is a power for good in intellect, if it is conformed to the mind of Christ, sanctified and controlled by the Spirit of God. But intellect alone cannot give a fitness for heaven, or enable us to reach the divine standard. In order for a man to be what God desires him to be, he must have a pure, noble character. The right that one has to claim that he is a man is determined by the use that he makes of his intellect. Before man can be acknowledged as a laborer together with God, he must get out of and away from the self-confidence that claims much and gives little....
UL	24	3	Human beings have no right to think that there is a limit to the efforts that they are to make to represent the goodness and love of God in the work of saving souls. Did Christ ever become weary in His work of soul-saving? Did He ever draw back from self-denial and sacrifice? When church members bring into their lives the self-denial that Christ brought into His life, when they put forth the continuous, persevering efforts that He put forth, they will have no time and no inclination to weave into their experience the false threads that would spoil the pattern....
UL	24	4	We are to watch, and work, and pray, never letting self obtain the mastery. We are to be ready, through watchfulness and prayer, to spring into action in obedience to the Master's command. Wherever we see work waiting to be done, we are to take it up and do it, constantly looking unto Jesus....
UL	24	5	For Christ's sake, watch and pray, and during the year that we have just entered, strive to restrain all harsh words. Resolve that you will not speak words that will cast a shadow over the lives of others. Do not stop to ask whether those around you appreciate your efforts to deny self. Open the windows heavenward. Think of Christ, and try to please Him....
UL	24	6	Satan will use every possible device to make you like himself, and thus separate you from the One who gave His life for you. Evil angels will strive for the mastery in your life. If you have not on the whole armor of God, you will be overcome. Shall it be thus, or shall you sign the pledge that you will not be intemperate in word or in spirit, that you will keep the divine Pattern ever before you?
UL	24	7	This warning was not given by the apostle without a purpose. We should all feel that it is our duty to stand at our post, on guard over ourselves, lest the evil agencies warring against us shall be successful in leading us to say and do that which will please the enemy.--Letter 11, January 10, 1905, "To Those Assembled at Council in Nashville."
------------------------The Choice is Ours, January 11
UL	25	1	And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Revelation 22:17.
UL	25	2	The work of your salvation and mine depends wholly upon ourselves, for it rests with us to accept the provision that has been made for us. God has done everything for us that a God can do. Christ has purchased you with His own blood; He has paid the ransom money, that you might be united with God, and separated from sin and sinners. When the heart is opened to Christ, the Holy Spirit will work in it with mighty, renewing power. But in order that we may be laborers together with God, there must be on our part an entire surrender to God. We must, to the extent of our ability, devote ourselves to Him, straining every spiritual sinew, and as faithful soldiers doing service for Christ....
UL	25	3	The law of duty [to God] is supreme. It claims authority over reason and conscience, over talents and possessions. It will admit no rival, and will not for one moment abate its high demands. It enters into no compromise with any oppressive power of earth. In every act of duty we are hiding self in Jesus. We reach out beyond ourselves, beyond the narrow scope of selfish and present gratification. Obedience to God brings the soul into agreement with the highest laws in the universe. It imparts dignity and true greatness to the humblest occupation where Christ can preside. It crowns the lowliest position in life with the highest honors, bringing man into alliance with God and binding up his interests with plans and purposes that have existence in the infinite mind from eternity.
UL	25	4	The Lord Jesus Christ has paid the price for you, not to secure a mere assent to the truth, but for heart service. He desires the homage of your soul. You cannot cease to believe that you ought to do the will of God. You can no more release yourself from the claims of duty than you can flee from the presence of God. It is only in obedience to God that you will realize true happiness....
UL	25	5	I entreat you to open the door of your heart and let your Saviour in. Give Him the whole heart--that which He has purchased. Ever bear in mind that it is you who must choose. God forces no man. He has chosen you, and engraven your name in the palms of His hands. Will you not give yourself fully to Him? Time is short. You have not a moment to lose in hesitation. The divine Word is in your hands, to be a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.--Letter 21a, January 11, 1893, to N. D. Faulkhead, treasurer of the Echo Publishing House, and at the time involved with secret societies.
------------------------Christ, the Mighty Healer, January 12
UL	26	1	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28.
UL	26	2	Christ employed every means to arrest the attention of the impenitent. How tender and considerate were His dealings with all. He longed to break the spell of infatuation upon those who were deceived and deluded by satanic agencies. He longed to give the sin-polluted soul pardon and peace.
UL	26	3	Christ was the mighty Healer of all spiritual and physical maladies. Look, O look, upon the sympathetic Redeemer. With the eye of faith behold Him walking in the streets of the cities, gathering the weak and weary to Himself. Helpless, sinful human beings crowd about Him. See the mothers with their sick and dying little ones in their arms pressing through the crowd that they may get within reach of His notice and touch. Let the eye of faith take in the scene. Watch these mothers pressing their way to Him, pale, weary, almost despairing, yet determined and persevering, bearing their burden of suffering in their arms.
UL	26	4	As these anxious ones are being crowded back, Christ makes His way to them step by step, until He is close by their side. Tears of gladness and hope fall freely as they catch His attention and look into the eyes expressing such tender pity and love for the weary mother as well as for her suffering child. He invites her confidence, saying, "What shall I do for you?" She sobs out her great want--"Master, that Thou shouldest heal my child." She has shown her faith in urging her way to Him, though she did not know that He was making His way to her, and Christ takes the child from her arms. He speaks the word, and disease flees at His touch. The pallor of death is gone. The life-giving current flows through the veins. The muscles receive strength.
UL	26	5	Words of comfort and peace are spoken to the mother, and then another case just as urgent is presented. The mother asks help for herself and her children, for they are all sufferers. With willingness and joy Christ exercises His life-giving power, and they give praise and honor and glory to His name who doeth wonderful things.
UL	26	6	No frown on Christ's countenance spurned the humble suppliant from His presence. The priests and rulers sought to discourage the suffering and needy, saying that Christ healed the sick by the power of the devil. But His way could not be hedged up. He was determined not to fail or become discouraged. Suffering privation Himself, He traversed the country that was the scene of His labor, scattering His blessings, and seeking to reach obdurate hearts.--Letter 31, January 12, 1898, to Uriah Smith, longtime editor of the Review and Herald.
------------------------When Truth is an Abiding Principle, January 13
UL	27	1	That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:10.
UL	27	2	The truth of God revealed in His Word is to be a living, abiding principle. It is not to be looked upon as an influence among many but that which is set over all others. It will exercise a power over the life and conduct until the whole being is assimilated to the image of the Perfect Pattern, and the human agent is complete in Jesus Christ. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up," not in self, not after men's ideas, but "in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ" (Colossians 2:6-8).
UL	27	3	Your greatest danger will be that you will not see the need of contemplating the character of Christ with a set purpose to imitate His life and conform your character to His character. You are to show a marked difference between your character and that of the world. "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:9, 10).
UL	27	4	The grand truths of the Bible are for us individually, to rule, to guide, to control our life, for this is the only way in which Christ can be properly represented to our world in grace and loveliness in the characters of all who profess to be His disciples. Nothing less than heart service will be acceptable with God. God requires the sanctification of the entire man, body, soul, and spirit. The Holy Spirit implants a new nature, and molds through the grace of Christ the human character, until the image of Christ is perfected. This is true holiness....
UL	27	5	The spirit and word and influence you carry are making impressions upon the minds of others. The atmosphere which surrounds the soul, if it is evil, will be like a spiritual malaria, which will be poisonous to those around. But it is profitable for the soul to have an atmosphere that will be as a savor of life unto life to others. When the soul is weighted with the truth which works by love and purifies the soul, a heavenly atmosphere will pervade the soul. "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed" (Proverbs 13:20). Every soul that claims to believe the truth, should manifest uprightness of character, devotion to God, steadfastness of purpose, and represent the character of Christ in a well-ordered life and godly conversation.--Letter 70, January 13, 1894, to "Brethren in Responsible Positions in the Review and Herald Office."
------------------------The Perfume of Christ's Character in You, January 14
UL	28	1	Thanks be to God who leads us, wherever we are, on Christ's triumphant way and makes our knowledge of him spread throughout the world like a lovely perfume! 2 Corinthians 2:14, Phillips.
UL	28	2	There is no hope for the success of any religious organization where criticism is cherished as a fine art, and called spiritual discernment. Men might far better be blind to others' faults than to be inspired by that keen, detective spirit that will watch for defects in those whom the Lord loves, and through whom He works. We all need to humble ourselves, not to have an exalted idea of self....
UL	28	3	Lose sight of all others except Christ. We want Christ in our humanity, and Christ wants to abide in us. We are human and fallible, every one of us, and unless Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, we shall make wonderful blunders in estimating our fellow workers according to our pattern and measurement. God sees beneath the surface. He sees all the good, and He marks all the evil. Leave to Him the work of passing judgment on your brethren.
UL	28	4	Have a care for the young men and young women who are now forming their characters. Converse with them, and help them all you possibly can. Let no one educate the young men and young women in the science of picking flaws. Let not the youth hear you finding fault with those who do not please your fancy. The youth are Christ's servants, to be cared for, to be encouraged in good, pure, holy thoughts. They need no lessons in evil surmising. Satan stands ready to instruct them in this line. Teach them to be kind, to respect and love one another as Christ has loved us. Keep the perfume of Christ's character in your own words and actions. Let querulous complaints forever cease. Then there will flow into your heart the sunbeams of the righteousness of Christ. God will bless you, and make you a blessing....
UL	28	5	It is the character, not the placing of our names on the church books, that makes us Christians. What manifestations will appear when Christ, abiding in the heart, is shining in the faces of those who love Him and keep His commandments. Truth is written there. The man is transformed into Christ's image. A worldling may pass by and not mark the change, but those who have had communion with Christ discern the expression of Christ in word, in spirit. The influence upon the heart is seen in a habitual gentleness, a more than human love. The sweet peace of heaven will be in the soul, and will be revealed in the countenances.--Letter 6, January 14, 1899, to "Brethren and Sisters in Camp Meeting at Ballarat."
------------------------Consecrated Money, January 15
UL	29	1	For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1 Timothy 6:10.
UL	29	2	Both large sums and small sums are to be looked upon by you as God's entrusted treasure. When you are thinking of expending means, pray over the matter, in order that you may use the Lord's goods in a way that shall please Him. The Lord would have all who claim to be His followers imitate His example. We are a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. Unbelievers are watching those who profess to be the children of God to see if they are in reality that which they profess to be. Is it consistent for us to talk of Christ's self-denial, of His self-sacrifice, and yet walk and work contrary to His example? The treasures of the world are the Lord's. They are all His both by creation and by redemption.
UL	29	3	Why is it that riches are called "unrighteous mammon"? It is because through riches men are made subject to temptation, to deal unjustly, to use them as they shall please in gratifying their desires, and in fulfilling that which their imagination calls for. Those who are in possession of money are in danger of putting the Lord's goods to a wrong use, and by this means they are led to forget God.... The rich young ruler thought that he loved God until Jesus revealed his idol to him, and showed him that he was making a God of his possessions. He had come to Christ asking, "What lack I yet?" The answer was, "Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me" (Luke 18:22)....
UL	29	4	Those who have the Lord's talents of means are placed under a heavy responsibility. They are not to invest money merely for the gratification of selfish desires, for whatever is spent in this way is just that much kept from the Lord's treasury. Through the sovereign goodness of God, the Holy Spirit works through the human agent, and causes him to make smaller or larger investments in the cause of God, to make them redound to the glory of God.
UL	29	5	Whenever you think of using the Lord's money for your own selfish gratification, remember that there are many who are in deep poverty who cannot purchase either food or clothing, and [that] they are God's heritage. We are to do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. If those who have abundant means are God's agents in dealing in truth, they will use their treasures wisely, so that none of the household of faith need to go hungry or naked.--Letter 90, January 15, 1895, to a Seventh-day Adventist woman of considerable means.
------------------------The Results of Inner Renewal, January 16
UL	30	1	That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Ephesians 3:16.
UL	30	2	We are still in probationary time. He that earnestly desires eternal life will strive for it. He will get it by desire and effort. Gold is hid in the earth. Desire and effort combined alone will secure the treasure. If we have aroused an interest in souls that are ready to die, we have aroused our own souls.
UL	30	3	What a comfort it is to know that the Lord wants us in His family above. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). We need to cherish and exercise faith. Our faith must work. We must have that faith that works by love and purifies the soul. The leaven has a vital energy, penetrating and absorbing all the elements into which it is introduced. So likewise, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The Word of the Lord is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. The Word is a power as we practice it. The great change that the truth makes is inward. It begins in the heart, and works outwardly. With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. "Burnt offerings and sacrifices thou wouldest not." The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. God is not pleased with pharisaical pretense.
UL	30	4	We will hide in Jesus Christ. We will trust in His love. We will believe day by day that He loves us with a love that is infinite. Let nothing, nothing discourage you, and make you sad. Think of the goodness of God. Recount His favors and blessings.
UL	30	5	I am laboring constantly in writing and speaking. The Lord has been my very best Friend, and you both can testify the same. Let the praise of the Lord be ever in our hearts and in our minds and upon our lips. In this way we can magnify the truth. The Holy Spirit will witness with our spirit that we are indeed children of the heavenly King. Be of good courage; Jesus is our personal Friend and Saviour. He loves us, and if He notices the little brown sparrow, how much more will He love and care for us. The memory grows weak when it is not exercised. So will our faith and hope and courage become feeble unless we look unto Jesus with all the confidence that a little child looks to its mother. By beholding Him, we become changed into His righteousness. Let not one thought of unbelief be woven into our religious experience. The Lord will be our efficiency and exceeding great reward.--Letter 20, January 16, 1898, to "Sister Kelsey."
------------------------Love as Christ Loves, January 17
UL	31	1	These things I command you, that ye love one another. John 15:17.
UL	31	2	Christ's prayer [in John 17] ... is an illustration of the intercession that He is offering for us before the Father.
UL	31	3	"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth," He prayed (Verse 17). "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
UL	31	4	"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me" (Verses 18-23).
UL	31	5	Today the One who uttered this prayer is interceding before the Father in behalf of the human beings He has redeemed. He presents them to Jehovah, saying, "I have graven them upon the palms of My hands" (cf. Isaiah 49:16).
UL	31	6	Sanctification is to come through the truth; oneness with Christ--this is God's purpose for us. By their sanctification and their unity, Christians are to give evidence to the world that a perfect work has been done for them, in and through Christ. Thus they are to bear witness that God sent His Son to save sinners. Will you not let Christ carry on this work of sanctification in your hearts? You may all be complete in Him. You have the assurance that through the sanctification of the truth you may be made perfect in one....
UL	31	7	The Saviour is acquainted with the mental suffering of His children. He knows how at times their hearts are wounded and bleeding. He would have the afflicted soothed and helped. He says to us, "Bear ye one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2). "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves" (Romans 15:1). We are to relate ourselves rightly to one another, even though to do this demands sacrifice. Christ made an infinite sacrifice for us, and should we not be willing to sacrifice for others? We are to guard carefully against wounding or bruising the hearts of God's children, for when we do this, we wound and bruise the heart of Christ.--Letter 31, January 17, 1904, to Elder and Mrs. J. A. Burden, and Dr. and Mrs. D. H. Kress.
------------------------Resist the Devil, January 18
UL	32	1	Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7.
UL	32	2	It seemed to Eve a small matter to pluck of the forbidden tree; the fruit was pleasant to the eye and to the taste and seemed desirable to make one wise. But what terrible results! It was not a small matter to thus forfeit her allegiance to God. It opened the floodgates of woe to our world. Oh, the amount of evil which will come from one false step! Not to the earth must our eyes be fixed, but upward to Heaven. We must pass through dangers and difficulties, making advance at every step, gaining victories in every conflict, still rising higher and higher; the air becomes purer as the soul is brought nearer to Heaven. The earth holds no attractions now. The heavenly landscape opens with clearness and beauty. The Christian sees the crown, the white robe, the harp, the palm branch of victory; immortality is within his reach. Now the earth sinks out of sight....
UL	32	3	If we lose everything else, we should keep conscience pure and sensitive. When asked to go where there is the least danger of offending God, doing that which you cannot do with a pure conscience, do not fear or hesitate. Look the tempter firmly in the face and say, "No; I will not imperil my soul for any worldly attraction. I love and fear God. I will not venture to dishonor or disobey Him for the riches of the world or the love and favor of a host of worldly relatives. I love Jesus who died for me. He has bought me. I am the purchase of His blood. I will be true to His claims, and my example shall never be an excuse for any to turn from the straight path of duty. I will not be the servant of Satan and of sin. My life shall be such as to leave a bright track heavenward."
UL	32	4	A single word for God, a firm, silent resistance even, would save not only your own souls, but hundreds of others....
UL	32	5	The time has come when every soul must stand or fall according to his own merits. A few righteous acts, a few good impulses, may be presented to the mind as evidences of righteousness, but God requires the whole heart. He will accept no divided affections. The whole being must be given to Him or He will not receive the offering.
UL	32	6	We must now be learning the lessons of faith if we would stand in that time of trouble which is coming upon all the world to try them who dwell upon the face of the earth. We must have the courage of heroes and the faith of martyrs.--Letter 14, January 18, 1884, to "Brother and Sister Newton," a lay family.
------------------------The Family a Symbol, January 19
UL	33	1	For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Ephesians 3:14, 15.
UL	33	2	In the church, officers are appointed as co-workers with God for the edification of the body of Christ. Mothers and fathers who are doers of the Word of God are a part of the body of Christ. They nurture and admonish their children in accordance with God's Word, raising up a little army to stand under Christ's banner. They are God's witnesses, showing to the world that they are under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Christ is their pattern and they educate their children to know God.
UL	33	3	In the prayer Christ offered in behalf of His disciples just before His betrayal and crucifixion, He said, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Should not every family on earth be a symbol of the family in heaven? In each household should there not be heard songs of praise and thanksgiving?
UL	33	4	The family whose members love God and one another, who do not get provoked, who are longsuffering, forbearing, kind, is a symbol of the family above. The members realize that they are a part of the great firm of heaven. They are taught by the laws of mutual dependence to rely upon the great Head of the church. If one of the members of such a family suffer, all the rest suffer. The suffering of one entails suffering on the other. This should teach the youth to take care of their bodies, and to pray to be preserved in health, because when they suffer from disease, the whole family partakes of their suffering.
UL	33	5	Those men and women who have determined to serve God will seek to govern their families so that they may correctly represent the religion of Christ. The children will be taught to be tidy and useful, to share the burdens of the home, not allowing the parents to bear any [burden] which they can carry. Thus the lot of mother and father is made much easier. The whole family shares the blessing of the helpfulness of its members.
UL	33	6	Why do not parents come to Jesus just as they are, asking for His forgiving grace and healing power? Why do they not plead to be endowed with capabilities that will enable them to rule their households aright?...
UL	33	7	God is robbed when men and women do not connect with Him in such a way that mind, soul, and strength may be controlled by the Holy Spirit. The family of God here below should cooperate in the most perfect harmony with God's appointed agencies in the work of molding the human character after the divine similitude.--Manuscript 1, January 19, 1899, "Unity, Courtesy, Love."
------------------------Help Only in Christ, January 20
UL	34	1	I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10.
UL	34	2	I know that all who are saved in the kingdom of God will have battles to fight against Satan; and I know that he will work every device to secure you to himself, for through you he could afflict us and weaken our courage and bring a burden of care upon us. But I am glad for every letter that we receive expressing your feelings of determination to press on and fight the good fight of faith. You say you love Jesus and mean to devote your lives to His service. Precious resolution!
UL	34	3	The more you preserve your Christian integrity to know and understand for yourself the way of life and salvation, the less of the worldly mold will be upon you. The more you know of Jesus, the more you will desire to know, and the more ignorant you will feel that you are in regard to things of eternal interest. We want the right spirit, the teachable spirit, willing to learn in Christ's school the lessons of humility and meekness. "Learn of me," said the heavenly Teacher, "for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29, 30).
UL	34	4	It is when we seek to carry our own burdens and when we manufacture a yoke for our own necks that the yoke is grievous and the burden becomes heavy. We want Christ's meekness; then little things will not irritate us. We may have zeal in working, but this is not all that we need. We want true Christian sympathy. We want self and our will submerged in the will of Christ. We want an eye single to the glory of God. We want to be continually anxious and working for the honor and glory of God.
UL	34	5	The soundness of our principles will be tested, and the strength of our loyalty will be proved. I wish all could see as I have seen the sharp, keen, persevering workings of Satan to tempt and to deceive. His vigilance never relaxes. He has ready access to souls because they are not attentive to heed the warnings God has given them.... So many invite the enemy to tempt them. They walk so carelessly that they become an easy prey. They throw wide open the citadel of the soul and invite his entrance, place themselves in circumstances where they will be entrapped....
UL	34	6	We are to remain just the people God designed we should be, gathering the divine rays of light from the Son of righteousness, and diffusing these rays amid the moral darkness that covers the earth.--Letter 8a, January 20, 1879, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------The Life that Lasts, January 21
UL	35	1	The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind. Matthew 13:47.
UL	35	2	We have abundant evidence that tares grow with wheat in the church of God. There are sincere Christians in the church, and there are also lukewarm Christians. These have opportunity to know the truth. The Word of God is presented to them; they come to the banquet, as Judas came to the Passover, but like Judas, they do not eat the Word of life. No one can compel them to eat the Word of eternal life--to make thorough work for repentance, that they may obtain a Christian experience, and become rooted and grounded in the truth....
UL	35	3	We must not be overwhelmed with discouragement because good and bad are gathered into the church. Judas was numbered among the disciples. He had every advantage a man could have, but although he heard the truth, and listened to the principles so plainly laid down, yet Christ knew that he did not receive the truth. He did not eat the truth. It did not become a part of himself. His old habits and practices constantly sought to assert themselves. But Christ did not take forcible means to cut Judas away from the disciples....
UL	35	4	All who are trying to do true service to God will be brought into perplexity. But do not think of failure. Do not talk of discouragement. Let all be united in doing the will of our heavenly Father.... If we are Christians, we cannot follow the world's policy. "It is written" must be our constant counselor. What ungodly men do should not guide us....
UL	35	5	Men act as though they had been given special liberty to cancel the decisions of God. The higher critics put themselves in the place of God, and review the Word of God, revising or endorsing it. In this way, all nations are induced to drink the wine of the fornication of Babylon. These higher critics have fixed things to suit the popular heresies of these last days. If they cannot subvert and misapply the Word of God, if they cannot bend it to human practices, they break it....
UL	35	6	All who are doers of the Word of God will be blessed abundantly. Whatever crosses they must lift, whatever losses they must sustain, whatever persecution they may suffer, even if it be to the loss of their temporal life, they are amply recompensed; for they secure that life which measures with the life of God. In losing their lives for Christ's sake, they gain a life which lasts through the eternal ages. They walk under the direction of the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. They shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads.--Letter 48, January 21, 1897, to "Brethren Daniells and Salisbury," leading workers in Australia.
------------------------I am a Child of God, January 22
UL	36	1	And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Romans 8:17.
UL	36	2	The influence of grace is to soften the heart, to refine and purify the feelings, giving a heaven-born delicacy and sense of propriety. A Christian cannot be self-exalted, for this is not Christlike. The world's Redeemer, the sinner's substitute and surety, says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28)....
UL	36	3	But let us continually bear in mind that the meek and lowly Jesus has the spirit and the ambition of a conqueror. The vast dominions over which earthly potentates hold sway form no adequate theater for the exercise of His grace, the expression of His love, and the manifestation of His glory. He who loves the Lord Jesus Christ in truth and sincerity will love those whom Christ died to save, and will eagerly embrace every opportunity to minister to Christ in the person of His disciples.
UL	36	4	We must look at our lives as sons and daughters of God, as laborers with Jesus Christ, living for a noble purpose. We are representatives of Jesus Christ in character, and are to serve Him with our undivided affections. Not only will we reveal the fact that we love God, but will, in accordance with His holy character, live a pure, perfect life. We must live perfection, because in looking at Jesus we see in Him the embodiment of perfection; and the great Center upon whom our hope of eternal life and happiness is centered will lead us to unity and harmony....
UL	36	5	The life we now live must be by faith in Jesus Christ. If we are Christ's followers our lives will not be as pieced out by little cheap spasmodic actions according to circumstances and surroundings--jerking actions, revealing feelings to be our master, indulging in little frettings, envious faultfindings, jealousies, and selfish vanity. These put us all out of harmony with the harmonious life of Jesus Christ, and we cannot be overcomers if we retain these defects....
UL	36	6	When exposed to varied scenes in life, and words are spoken that are calculated to cut and bruise the soul, speak to yourself: "I am a child of God, an heir with Jesus Christ, a colaborer with God. I must not therefore have a cheap mind, easily to take offense, always thinking of myself, for this will naturally produce an inharmonious character. It is unworthy of my noble calling. The heavenly Father has given me my work to do; let me be worthy of the trust."--Letter 78, January 22, 1893, to E. J. Waggoner, a prominent minister.
------------------------Infallible Assurance, January 23
UL	37	1	And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:3.
UL	37	2	Many, very many, will be terribly surprised when the Lord shall come suddenly as a thief in the night. Let us watch and pray, lest coming suddenly He find us sleeping. My soul is deeply stirred as I consider how much we ought to do for perishing souls. The prediction of Daniel, "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (Daniel 12:4), is to be fulfilled in our giving of the warning message; many are to be enlightened regarding the sure word of prophecy....
UL	37	3	The salvation of souls should be our first consideration. I am troubled when I see many rejoicing in temporal prosperity, for those who possess worldly treasure seldom seek earnestly to secure the heavenly. They are in danger of falling into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown man in destruction....
UL	37	4	We need a more firm reliance upon a "Thus saith the Lord." If we have this, we shall not trust to feeling, and be ruled by feeling. God asks us to rest in His love. It is our privilege to know the Word of God as a sure and tried guide, an infallible assurance. Let us work on the faith side of the question. Let us believe and trust, and talk faith and hope and courage. Let the praise of God be in our hearts and on our lips oftener than it is. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me" (Psalm 50:23). Keep the mind stayed upon God, and know the love of Christ as the Word of God reveals it. This Word is life. Talk of Christ; call others to behold Him as your Redeemer.
UL	37	5	It is our privilege to rest in an active, living faith in Christ as the Life-giver. It is our privilege to comprehend with all saints, what is the length and depth and height, and to know the love of God which passeth knowledge, and be filled with all the fullness of God. Let us contemplate Christ as the One in whom all fullness dwells. Beholding Him as our personal Saviour, we shall appreciate the value of His saving grace. We should think about Jesus more than we do. We should let His praise be in our hearts. We should speak of the love that has been so abundantly expressed for us. We certainly have every reason to praise God with heart and soul and voice, saying, I will praise the Lord for His great love wherewith He hath loved me....
UL	37	6	Lift Him up, the Christ of Calvary; lift Him up, that the world may behold Him. Talk of His goodness, sing of His love, and give Him the grateful thanks of your hearts.--Letter 12, January 23, 1907, to "Brother and Sister Nicola."
------------------------Gladness, not Gloom, January 24
UL	38	1	Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.... Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him and bless his name. Psalm 100:2-4.
UL	38	2	Let every church member kneel before God while in His temple, and consecrate to Him His own, which He has bought with the blood of Christ....
UL	38	3	God will bless all who will thus prepare themselves for His service. They will understand what it means to have the assurance of the Spirit, because they have received Christ by faith. The religion of Christ means much more than the forgiveness of sin. It means taking away our sins and filling the vacuum with the Holy Spirit. It means divine illumination, rejoicing in God. It means a heart emptied of self, and blessed with the abiding presence of Christ. We need the vital qualities of Christianity, and when we possess them, the church will be a living, active, working church. There will be growth in grace, because the bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness pervade the chambers of the mind.
UL	38	4	Let us not bring the gloom of unbelief into the church. Let us trim our lamps, seeking a fresh supply of oil, before we step over the threshold. It is our right, our privilege, to dismiss gloomy depression. As we go to the house of worship, we may go with joyfulness, for are we not going to meet with God and His people? ...
UL	38	5	Let no thought of criticism enter your mind, to torment you, for Satan is near. He will do this work without your help. Refuse to cooperate with the accuser of the brethren. Gather up every ray of light, then seek out those who need help, and give this light to them. God says, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled" (Luke 14:23)....
UL	38	6	The Lord will greatly bless His tried and chosen ones, if they will cooperate with Him. When the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost, it was like a rushing, mighty wind. It was given in no stinted measure, for it filled all the place where the disciples were sitting. So will it be given to us when our hearts are prepared to receive it....
UL	38	7	When you meet with the Lord, say, I am in the Lord's house, and I desire all wicked thoughts, all mistrust and murmuring against my brethren, to be banished. We have met here with God, who "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).--Manuscript 2, January 24, 1899, "The Need of Greater Consecration."
------------------------Our Competent Saviour, January 25
UL	39	1	These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. Revelation 17:14.
UL	39	2	What is life? A standing memorial of the only true God. The work of creation can never be explained by science. What intellect is there that can explain the science of life? Can we wonder that the materialist has no place for the existence of God? The fourth commandment declares to the whole universe, to the worlds unfallen and the fallen world, that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. The evidence there given does not leave standing room for skepticism....
UL	39	3	Christ, the Commander in the heavenly courts, was accustomed to receive the attendance and adoration of angels. And at any time during His life on this earth He could have called to His Father for twelve legions of angels. But no bribe, no temptation to lead Him to manifest His divine prerogatives, could induce Him to deviate from the path of God's appointment. Great tact and cunning were shown in the tactics which Satan followed. Three times did the enemy try to gain the victory over Christ. He assailed Him on the point of appetite. He appealed to His pride. He presented before Him the most captivating scenes of this world. He challenged Him to give evidence that He was the Son of God. Christ gave him none, but righteously maintained His dignity as One to whom God has committed all power.
UL	39	4	Today, Satan has great power in the world. He has been permitted to have proprietorship of this earth for an appointed time. During this period, when iniquity prevails, men and women are given a chance to take sides. In every possible way, Satan tries to make the broad road attractive and the narrow road grievous, humiliating, and objectionable. He lays ingenious plans to allure men and women to indulge appetite. Cheap, unsatisfying pleasures are made all and in all in this degenerate age. Satan throws his glamour about these amusements, which eclipse eternal things. Many will sell their birthright, as did Esau, for trifling consideration by the indulgence of appetite. Worldly pleasure will appear more desirable to them than the heavenly birthright.
UL	39	5	But Christ has overcome in our behalf. He was the only one who could be a competent Saviour. He had divine wisdom, ability, and power. He could stand before the world as a wonderful Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.--Letter 7, January 25, 1900, to W. K. Kellogg, brother of and assistant to Dr. J. H. Kellogg.
------------------------Wise as Serpents, Harmless as Doves, January 26
UL	40	1	Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Matthew 10:16.
UL	40	2	Men are inspired by Satan to execute his purposes against God. The Lord has said, "Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations" (Exodus 31:13). None should disobey this command in order to escape persecution. But let all consider the words of Christ, "When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another" (Matthew 10:23). If it can be avoided, do not put yourselves into the power of men who are worked by the spirit of antichrist. If the payment of a fine will deliver our brethren from the hands of these oppressors, let it be paid.... Everything that we can do should be done that those who are willing to suffer for the truth's sake may be saved from oppression and cruelty.
UL	40	3	We have the history of religious persecution from the fall of Adam down to the present time. How much of cruelty, perfidy, and corrupt intrigue is revealed. Satan is still leading men to strive for the mastery over other minds, and all this striving is designed to counterwork a "Thus saith the Lord."
UL	40	4	Christ died a victim to the mob spirit created by the religious prejudice of His own nation. Others will suffer in like manner. But they will not have to stand under the curse of the transgression of the law of God, as did Christ in behalf of the sinful world....
UL	40	5	The Lord encourages all who seek Him with the whole heart. He gives them His Holy Spirit, the manifestation of His presence and favor. But those who forsake God in order to save their lives will be forsaken by Him. In seeking to save their lives by yielding the truth, they will lose eternal life.
UL	40	6	Natural affection for relatives and friends should not lead any soul who sees the light to reject the light, to dishonor God the Father and Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. Every possible excuse for disobedience will be framed by men who choose, as many did in Christ's day, the favor of men rather than the favor of God. If one chooses wife or children, father or mother, before Christ, that choice will stand through eternal ages, with all its weight of responsibility....
UL	40	7	The greater man's influence for good, under the control of the Spirit of God, the more determined will be the enemy to indulge his envy and jealousy toward him by religious persecution. But all heaven is on the side of Christ, not of antichrist. Those who love God and are willing to be partakers with Christ in His sufferings, God will honor.--Manuscript 9, January 26, 1900, "Our Duty Under Persecution."
------------------------Our Long-Suffering God, January 27
UL	41	1	The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Exodus 34:6, 7.
UL	41	2	How grateful we should be that the Lord is slow to anger! What a wonderful thought it is, that Omnipotence puts a restraint upon His mighty power! But because the Lord is forbearing and long-suffering, the human heart often manifests a tendency to venture presumptuously to add sin to sin! ... "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Ecclesiastes 8:11). Instead of God's patience hardening the sinner to continual transgression, it should lead him to determine to seek God's forgiveness, in order that the figures standing against his account in the heavenly record may be canceled....
UL	41	3	Satan is the originator of evil. He swerved from his allegiance to God. Those who persisted in sympathizing with him in his disaffection were, with him, shut out of heaven. Implacable hatred against God fills Satan's mind. Persistently he has used his influence to efface from the human family God's image, and in its place to stamp his own satanic image. His effort to deceive our first parents was successful. Made in the image of God, the human family lost their innocence, became transgressors, and as disloyal subjects began their downward career. Satan gained control of man's power of action. Through the senses he influenced the mind.
UL	41	4	Thus it has been from the beginning of the world. Instead of remaining under God's influence, in order that he might reflect the moral image of his Creator, man placed himself under the control of Satan's influence and was made selfish. Thus sin became a universal evil. And what a dreadful evil is sin!
UL	41	5	Yielding to Satan's suggestions, our first parents opened the floodgates of evil upon the world. The questionable principles of the father and the mother of the human race influenced some of those with whom they associated. The evil that began in Paradise has extended down through the ages. Although Adam and Eve related with sorrow to their children the sad story of the Fall, their family became a divided family. Cain chose to serve Satan, Abel to serve God. Cain killed his brother Abel, because he would not follow his example.
UL	41	6	That the world might not be destroyed because of its moral pollution, God undertook His great work of salvation, sending His Son to this earth to redeem mankind.--Manuscript 55, January 27, 1902, "The Long-Sufferance of God."
------------------------The Keeping Power of God, January 28
UL	42	1	And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. John 10:28.
UL	42	2	Jesus appreciates the efforts of every tried and tempted soul. Please take in the precious words of invitation that have been spoken to you by Jesus. Christ alone can place a proper estimate upon the human soul. Those who strive for the crown of immortal life will find that the forces of Satan are arrayed against them, but remember that we are "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:5). We are living in the last time, and Satan is now working with masterly power in order that with subtle temptations he may overcome those who believe in Jesus. But we are to be "kept by the power of God"; therefore, in temptation give glory to God who is able and will keep the believing soul so that he shall not be overcome by the wily foe....
UL	42	3	The crafty deceiver has been found to be an accuser, a liar, a tormentor and a murderer; but whatever he may have led others to say concerning you, the Lord can say to him as He said to Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan." He can say to him, "You shall not come in between this soul and Me. You shall not interpose yourself between Me and the soul for whom I died a ransom." It is for you, my tempted sister, to dismiss Satan with his temptations, and to take Jesus. Press close to Jesus, and place your hand in His, and He will firmly hold your hand, and never let go of the soul who maintains his faith in Him....
UL	42	4	Living faith in the power of Jesus Christ, not in your own efficiency and wisdom, will bring you through every difficulty and temptation. Patiently wait, watch, and pray, and hold fast to the promises. However much your enemies have bruised and wounded your soul, forgive them, and by maintaining faith in Christ, you will find Him to be to you as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary land.... Endure the pressure. Submit to wrong, bear the suffering part of religion for Christ's sake, rather than sin against God by seeking to deliver yourself....
UL	42	5	Cannot you be a partaker with Christ in His sufferings? Cannot you endure to have your name cast out as evil, and suffer the loss of temporal interest? You may be falsely accused, but bear in mind that Jesus bore all this for you, and faint not at tribulation. Overcome evil with good. Do not become bitter and estranged from Jesus. He loves you. Put your trust in Him....
UL	42	6	Jesus sees the soul who is tempted, and to the broken and contrite heart, the submissive spirit, He imparts grace and soothing consolation.--Letter 32, January 28, 1894, to "Miss Hartman."
------------------------Forgiving Freely, January 29
UL	43	1	Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Matthew 18:21, 22.
UL	43	2	If the Lord should deal with the human family as men deal with one another, we should have been consumed; but He is long-suffering, of tender pity, forgiving our transgressions and sins. When we seek Him with the whole heart, He will be found of us....
UL	43	3	Christ is our sin-bearer, one who constantly pardons iniquity and sin. Mercy, forbearance, long-suffering, is the glory of His character. When Moses prayed to the Lord, saying, "Show me Thy glory," He said, "I will cause all My goodness to pass before thee." The question that Peter asked of Christ was suggested to him by the lessons that Christ had previously given in regard to church discipline.
UL	43	4	The Jewish precepts enjoined upon men the duty of forgiving five offenses, and Peter thought that in suggesting seven times he had reached the limit of human patience. But Jesus would have him understand that those who have the divine mind, and were imbued with the divine spirit, would exercise forgiveness without limit. The plan and ground of salvation, which is love, is the principle which must be carried out by [the] human family. Should Christ limit His mercy, compassion, and forgiveness by a certain number of sins, how few men would be saved!
UL	43	5	But the mercy of Christ in forgiving the iniquities of men teaches us that there must be free forgiveness of wrongs and sins that are committed against us by our fellow men. Christ gave this lesson to His disciples to correct the evils that were being taught and practiced in the precepts and examples of those who were interpreting the Scriptures at that time.
UL	43	6	The principle upon which Christ acted in seeking the recovery of the human family through the plan of salvation was the very same principle that must actuate His followers in their dealings one with another when brought into church capacity. The lesson was also to impress upon our minds the fact that we cannot reach heaven by our own merits, but only through the wonderful mercy and forbearance of God which is exercised toward us who can in no way render an equivalent.
UL	43	7	Man can be saved only through the wonderful forbearance of God in the forgiveness of his many sins and transgressions. But those who are blessed by the mercy of God should exercise the same spirit of forbearance and forgiveness toward those who constitute the Lord's family.--Letter 30, January 29, 1895, to "Brother Hardy."
------------------------Strength for Today, January 30
UL	44	1	Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:34.
UL	44	2	Edson, temptations will come to me and to you. I have been struggling with the tempter for some time, but I will not give the enemy the victory. It is my privilege to have perfect faith and confidence in God. Jesus of Nazareth was above all others the Son of man.... Christ is the pattern of what the Lord would have us become....
UL	44	3	I have been tempted, sorely tempted, as I see how little many who profess to love God are really loving Him. Our obedience to His commandments testifies whether we are indeed children of God. We are inclined to worry at the outlook of things transpiring in our world. All the forces of the powers of darkness are working against the human race to restrict religious liberty and to compel service and the worshiping of an idol Sabbath. God knows all about the outcome.
UL	44	4	I am so glad the Father understands every phase of the difficulties we shall have to meet. Believing Him and knowing Him to be God, we know that He sees with a larger vision than is possible for us. His ideals are higher than any of our conceptions. He can read every purpose of hearts that are leaguing against God, and cooperating with the evil angels to overthrow the righteous. All the forces of evil angels combined with evil men will be in action to suppress truth and liberty to believe truth. We will not fail now in our work; we will not be discouraged. Every question is open as the day to the Heart Searcher. He sees the effort made to influence a child in the wrong direction. The high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity will not overlook the one who would work counter to His will in tainting and corrupting human minds. We must consider that God knows, God understands....
UL	44	5	Children, do not limit the Holy One of Israel in your individual cases. You can be connected with God. Grow in faith and trust and unshaken confidence in God. The Lord hath done much for you, my children, and your own selves given to the Lord without reserve will make you channels of light. As you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all things else shall be added unto you. Godliness hath promise of the life that now is as well as that which is to come. As you receive the rich grace of God you will diffuse it. The faithful discharge of today's duties will be the best preparation for tomorrow's trials. We will not gather together all tomorrow's liabilities and cares to add unto the burdens of today. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. God gives us strength for each day.--Letter 141, January 30, 1896, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Immortal Inheritance, January 31
UL	45	1	What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Mark 8:36, 37.
UL	45	2	It is the purpose of redemption, not only to blot out sin, but to give back to man those spiritual gifts lost because of sin's dwarfing power. Money cannot be carried into the next life; it is not needed there. But the good deeds done to win souls to Christ, the faithful investment of God's entrusted treasure, these are carried to the heavenly courts. Those who selfishly spend the Lord's goods on themselves, leaving their needy fellow creatures without aid, who do not advance God's work in our world, dishonor their Maker. Robbery of God is written opposite their names.
UL	45	3	Poverty is not a sin unless by recklessness men bring poverty upon themselves. And even then, if they repent, they will be pardoned.... Those who have faith in Christ as a personal Saviour, even though they may occupy a humble place in the world, are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ to an immortal inheritance. They have an insurance policy to eternal life.
UL	45	4	After enumerating the privileges of those who work on the plan of addition, constantly adding Christian attributes to the character, the apostle Peter declares that God will work on the plan of multiplication: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.... Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:2-11). Here is our life insurance policy. Shall we not work on God's plan to secure it?
UL	45	5	Man is ever dear to the heart of God. The Creator of the world comes graciously near and still nearer to all those in every nation who receive Jesus as a personal Saviour....
UL	45	6	That which is highly esteemed among men is abhorrent in the sight of God. Christ asks, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36, 37).--Manuscript 6, January 31, 1899, "The Poor Rich Man."
------------------------God's Plans are Perfect, February 1
UL	46	1	By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 11:9, 10.
UL	46	2	Jesus ascended to the Father as a representative of the human race, and God will bring those who reflect His image to behold and share with Him His glory. There are homes for the pilgrims of earth. There are robes for the righteous, with crowns of glory and palms of victory. All that perplexed us in the providences of God will then be made plain. The things hard to be understood will then find an explanation. The mysteries of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken purposes, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall know that infinite love ordered the experiences that seemed most trying and hard to bear. As we realize the tender care of Him who makes all things work together for our good, we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
UL	46	3	Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of heaven. In the home of the redeemed there will be no tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity" (Isaiah 33:24). One rich tide of happiness will flow and deepen as eternity rolls on. Think of this; tell it to the children of suffering and sorrow, and bid them rejoice in hope.
UL	46	4	The nearer we come to Jesus, the more clearly we behold the purity and greatness of His character, the less we shall feel like exalting self. The contrast between our characters and His will lead to humiliation of soul and deep heart searching. The more we love Jesus, the more entirely will self be humbled and forgotten....
UL	46	5	He who is meek in spirit, he who is purest and most childlike, will be made strong for the battle. He will be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. He who feels his weakness, and wrestles with God as did Jacob, and like this servant of old cries, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me," will go forth with the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit. The atmosphere of heaven will surround him. He will go about doing good. His influence will be a positive force in favor of the religion of Christ....
UL	46	6	Our God is a very present help in time of need. He is acquainted with the most secret thoughts of our hearts, with all the intents and purposes of our souls. When we are in perplexity, even before we open to Him our distresses, He is making arrangements for our deliverance.--Letter 73, February 1, 1905, to Drs. D. H. and Lauretta Kress.
------------------------Live in Harmony with Heaven, February 2
UL	47	1	Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
UL	47	2	God gave Daniel and his companions "knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams" (Daniel 1:17).... Babylon was at this time the greatest kingdom in the world. God permitted Daniel and his companions to be taken captive that they might take to the king and nobles of Babylon the knowledge of Him, the only true God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. God brought Daniel into favor with the prince of the eunuchs because he behaved himself. He kept before him the fear of the Lord. His companions never saw in his life anything that would lead them astray. Those who had charge over him loved him, because he carried with him the fragrance of a Christlike disposition....
UL	47	3	God cooperates with human effort. Daniel might have said, "Of course, I must eat as the king commands." But instead, he resolved to obey God, and God began at once to help him. So when you are determined that you will obey the divine command, God will cooperate with you, making you witnesses of which Heaven approves....
UL	47	4	You know not in what position you may be placed. God may use you as He used Daniel to take the knowledge of the truth to the mighty of the earth. It rests with you to say whether you will have knowledge and skill. God can give you skill in all your learning. He can help you to adapt yourselves to the line of study you shall take up. Place yourselves in right relation to God. Make this your first interest....
UL	47	5	God desires you to be witnesses for Him. He desires you to draw in right lines. As you do this, He will give you skill and wisdom and understanding. You will advance step by step, for God does not want you to stand still. He wants you to run in the way of His commandments, constantly moving forward and upward.
UL	47	6	God is connected with the threads of our existence. He knows every thought of the heart, every action of the life. Then, strive to live in harmony with Him. Seek to reach a high standard.... Heavenly angels will help you, and more than that, Christ will help you. The Prince of life is more interested than anyone else in your salvation. You can do Him honor by showing that you appreciate what He has done for you. You can glorify Him and make the angels glad by revealing in your life that He has not died in vain. Be determined that opposite your names in the books of heaven shall be written the word "Overcomer." Then all discontent and unhappiness will vanish. Your hearts will be filled with peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.--Manuscript 13, February 2, 1900, "Words to Students."
------------------------Not My Will, but Thine, February 3
UL	48	1	And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. Matthew 26:39.
UL	48	2	We may mark out a course for ourselves which may be born of our own ambitions or of some selfish purposes. The Lord knows the end from the beginning. He understands the relation that each man should sustain to God and to his fellow man. The Lord may see that one man's connection with men of a certain disposition or character will affect those with whom he associates to their injury. He may not be one who can reason clearly from cause to effect. The men with whom he is brought in connection may be just the ones who will not help him where he needs help.
UL	48	3	The linking together of certain elements may produce unfavorable results. Therefore man cannot trust to his own judgment. Experience will convince him of his mistake. The Lord purposes that which will be the greatest spiritual benefit to the soul which is in the balances, ready to begin some new enterprise which means more than he himself anticipates. What should such an one do? His only safety lies in putting his preferences and his plans on one side, saying, "Not my will, but Thy will, O Lord, be done." ...
UL	48	4	In the smallest as well as the largest matters, the first great question is, What is God's will in the matter; for His will is my will. "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22). Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? One man may be required by God to do a work and stand in a position that is peculiarly trying and taxing. The Lord has a work for him to do and he risks his life, his future eternal life, in standing in that place. This was the position Christ occupied when He came to our world, entering into conflict with the rebel leader of the fallen angels. God devised a plan, and Christ accepted the position. He consented to meet the foe singlehanded, as every human being must do. He was provided with all the heavenly powers to aid Him in this great conflict; and man, if he walked in the way and will of God, is provided with the same keeping power. The same heavenly intelligences minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation, that they may overcome every temptation, great or small, as Christ overcame. But anyone who places himself in a position of peril from any motive but obedience to the will of God will fall under the power of temptation....
UL	48	5	No one is secure who thinks it is his privilege to choose for himself.--Letter 22, February 3, 1899, to a businessman.
------------------------Today is the Day of Salvation, February 4
UL	49	1	For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2.
UL	49	2	How thankful we all should be that it is not yet too late for wrongs to be righted! It is our solemn duty to reveal love for God not only in our words, but in deed and in truth.
UL	49	3	God calls at this time for skillful workers who will always be found on the side of the Chief Worker. We must have truth in the heart, and love for Christ. "Whosoever will come after me," He says, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Mark 8:34). We have each an individual work to do in denying self and in working out our own salvation with fear and trembling....
UL	49	4	Every soul who places himself on the side of Christ will be tempted with all the power of Satan's seductive influence. The grace of God can renew your heart, brace you against temptation, and give you earnest longings for the Spirit of God....
UL	49	5	God will soon vindicate His justice before the universe. His justice requires that sin shall be punished; His mercy grants that sin shall be pardoned through repentance and confession. Pardon can come only through His only begotten Son; Christ alone can expiate sin--and then only when sin is repented of and forsaken. Man has severed his connection with God, and his soul has become palsied and strengthless by the deadly poison of sin. But there was a time when the proclamation sounded through the heavenly courts, I have found a ransom! A divine life is given as man's ransom; One equal with the Father has become man's substitute.
UL	49	6	So ingenious are the plans that Satan lays to deceive and pervert, that the very blessings that come to us in the divine life may be turned into snares. By the same false reasoning by which he deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, he seeks to turn the very blessings which God sends for our good into snares and a curse. He seeks to lead men to use God's gifts as weapons against the Giver.
UL	49	7	God gave His only begotten Son to the human race that man might become a partaker of the divine nature by accepting the remedy for sin and allowing the divine grace of Christ to work in his life. The power of divinity working in humanity can bring man into right relation with God. Fallen man, by laying hold of the divine power brought within his reach, can become one with God. Everlasting life is the blessing that Christ came to give to the world.--Letter 38, February 4, 1907, to a former worker faltering in the Battle Creek pantheism crisis.
------------------------Time to Wake Up! February 5
UL	50	1	Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not. 1 Corinthians 15:33, 34.
UL	50	2	Brethren and sisters, wake up, wake up! Proclaim the gospel in its simplicity. Listen as for your life to "what saith the Scriptures." It is of supreme importance that you hear aright, that you purify your hearts from selfishness, for your eternal welfare is at stake. Are you seeking for the Pearl of Great Price? Are you guarding yourselves against the deceptions of Satan, or do you stand ready to receive the suggestions of those who have departed from the faith, and given heed to seducing spirits? Your salvation depends on your hearing aright, and receiving with meekness the engrafted Word.
UL	50	3	Will you be reconciled to God, and obey His commandments, that you may be sanctified, body, soul, and spirit? You have been bought with a price, by the death of the only begotten Son of God. Your heart beats on. On that pulsation depends your life. Its beating is independent of your will. You eat and sleep in careless indifference. But God's guardian care over you is unceasing. He controls the ebb and flow of the vital current. Where is the gratitude that should rise from human lips for His preserving care? Where is the recognition of His unceasing watchfulness?...
UL	50	4	Wake up, wake up! Put away your pride, and forsake your noncommittal position. Your testing time has come, and you must take sides with Christ or against Him. On which side are you standing? With the world, or with Christ? Are you receiving the truth and preparing to speak a word in season to arrest the attention of the careless and the indifferent? God demands decided changes in your attitude. The truth you possess is the word of the living God. What are you doing to meet the claims of the gospel? Is it your highest desire to learn the will of Him who gave Himself for you in self-denial and sacrifice, that you might become sons and daughters of God? Are you seeking to arouse souls to take an interest in eternal realities?
UL	50	5	Now is your time to learn how to work earnestly and intelligently for the salvation of those ready to perish. Make no compromise with the powers of darkness. Learn the claims of the law of God, and obey them heartily. Then your life will shine forth brightly amidst the spiritual darkness of the world.--Letter 32, February 5, 1907, to the church members in and about Melbourne, Australia.
------------------------Holy Spirit, Faithful Guide, February 6
UL	51	1	Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. John 16:7, 8.
UL	51	2	Christ knew that this announcement [the coming of the Comforter] was a wonderful truth. He was nearing the close of His ministry upon this earth, and was standing in view of the cross, with a full realization of the load of guilt that must be placed upon Him as the Sin-bearer. Yet His greatest anxiety was for His disciples. He was seeking to find solace for them, and He told them, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you" (John 16:7).
UL	51	3	Evil had been accumulating for centuries, and could only be restrained and resisted by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power. Another spirit must be met, for the essence of evil was working in all ways, and the submission of man to this satanic captivity was amazing.
UL	51	4	Today, as in Christ's day, Satan rules the minds of many. O that his terrible, fearful work could be discerned and resisted. Selfishness has perverted principles, selfishness has confused the senses and clouded the judgment. It seems so strange that notwithstanding all the light that is shining from God's blessed Word, there should be such strange ideas held, such a departure from the spirit and practice of the truth....
UL	51	5	Sins which have from time to time been pointed out are lying at the door of many, sins which the Lord regards as of no light character. If men would only give up their spirit of resistance to the Holy Spirit, the spirit which has long been leavening their religious experience, God's Spirit would address itself to their hearts. It would convince of sin. What a work! But the Holy Spirit has been insulted and light has been rejected....
UL	51	6	It is not the will of God that any shall perish, but that all shall have everlasting life. O could I be assured that ... my brethren would feel a sense of what pure principles mean to them and to all with whom they are associated, my heart would leap with joy....
UL	51	7	Every soul that will accept Jesus as his personal Saviour will pant for the privilege of serving God, and will eagerly seize the opportunity to signalize his gratitude by devoting his abilities to God's service.--Letter 8, February 6, 1896, to "My Brethren in America."
------------------------The Bible--God's Word to You, February 7
UL	52	1	Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. John 5:39.
UL	52	2	"Search the scriptures." This is the word which comes to us from Christ. If it had been essential for us to search the [church] Fathers, Christ would have told us so. But the Fathers do not all speak the same thing. Which of them shall we choose as a guide? There is no need for us to trust to uncertainty. We pass by the Fathers to learn of God out of His Word. This is life eternal, to know God. Oh, how thankful we should be that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Holy men of old wrote this Word as they were moved by the Spirit. God did not leave His Word to be preserved in the memories of men and handed down from generation to generation by oral transmission and traditional unfolding. Had He done this, the Word would gradually have been added to by men. We would have been asked to receive that which is not inspired. Let us thank God for His written word.
UL	52	3	The commentaries written about the Word do not all agree. Often they come into collision with one another. God does not ask us to be guided by them. It is His Word with which we have to deal. All can search this Word for themselves. And they may know that the teaching of this precious book is unchangeable. The opinions of human beings differ, but the Bible always says the same thing. The Word of God is from everlasting to everlasting.
UL	52	4	The Bible was not given only for ministers and learned men. Every man, woman, and child should read the Scriptures for himself or herself. Do not depend on the minister to read it for you. The Bible is God's Word to you. The poor man needs it as much as the rich man, the unlearned as much the learned. And Christ has made this Word so plain that in reading it no one need stumble. Let the humble cottager read and understand the Word given by the wisest Teacher the world has ever known, and among kings, governors, statesmen, and the world's most highly educated men there is none greater than He....
UL	52	5	To search means to look diligently for something which has been lost. Search yourself for the hidden treasure. Do not leave this work to the minister. You cannot afford to be ignorant of the Word of God. Study the difficult passages, comparing verse with verse, and you will find that Scripture is the key which unlocks Scripture. Those who prayerfully study the Scriptures go from their study wiser than when they opened the Bible.--Manuscript 12, February 7, 1901, "The Living Water."
------------------------Christ is Our Only Hope, February 8
UL	53	1	Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4:13.
UL	53	2	The Lord is a God of knowledge. In His Word, He is represented as weighing men, their development of character, and all their motives, whether they be good or evil. Hannah, the mother of Samuel, the child granted her by God in answer to her earnest entreaty, said, "The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed" (1 Samuel 2:3). David declared, "Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity" (Psalm 62:9). Isaiah says, "Thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just" (Isaiah 26:7). Solomon writes, "All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits" (Proverbs 16:2). It is for the eternal interest of everyone to search his own heart and to improve every God-given faculty.
UL	53	3	There are many important lessons for each to learn. Let all remember that there is not a motive in the heart of any man that the Lord does not clearly see. The motives of each one are weighed as carefully as if the destiny of the human agent depended upon this one result. We need a connection with divine power, that we may have an increase of clear light and an understanding of how to reason from cause to effect. We need to have the powers of the understanding cultivated, by our being partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Let us each one consider carefully the solemn truth: God in heaven is true, and there is not a design however intricate, not a motive however carefully hidden, that He does not clearly understand. He reads the secret devising of every heart. Man may plan out crooked actions for the future, thinking that God does not understand, but in that great day when the books are opened, and every man is judged by the things written in the books, those actions will appear as they are ....
UL	53	4	There is no one, however earnestly he may be striving to do his best, who can say, "I have no sin." He who would say this would be under a dangerous deception. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). How then can we escape the charge, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting"? We are to look to Christ. At infinite cost, He has covenanted to be our representative in the heavenly courts, our Advocate before God.--Manuscript 23, February 8, 1906, "A God of Knowledge by Whom Actions Are Weighed."
------------------------Choose Ye Each Day, February 9
UL	54	1	The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. Psalm 119:130.
UL	54	2	The oftener the New Testament is read, the more instructive it becomes. No one ever wearies of its beautiful words, for they are like precious gems. The deeper the research made into them, the newer and more splendid the light reflected by them. The more we study the Word with a simple, trustful heart, the more we understand the path we must travel in order to reach the Paradise of God.
UL	54	3	Our life is something we receive from Christ by a study of His Word. "In him was life"--original, unborrowed. He was the Fountain of life. We receive life from the Saviour which He takes back again. That life which God has given us should be put to the very best account, for as human agents we are forming our own destiny. We need to choose wisely those associates who will best fit us, body, soul, and spirit, for the future country, even the heavenly. In our choice of companions we should not place ourselves under influences that are in any way unfavorable to the formation of pure and correct principles, for we need all the assistance we can possibly obtain that in our associations we may develop characters after Christ's likeness.
UL	54	4	Christ says, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Revelation 3:21). There are temptations that we must meet. If we yield to them, we are on the losing side, and by meeting with defeat again and again, it becomes a habit to do wrong in the place of doing right. We thus reveal that we choose to work out the principles and attributes of Satan, rather than the principles and attributes of Jesus Christ....
UL	54	5	A Christian will not choose as the object of his affection one who by his course of action neglects Jesus Christ, who daily crucifies the Son of God afresh, and puts Him to an open shame. Such reveal by their actions and conversation that they have no respect for the One who gave His life for the life of humanity, enduring for them poverty, temptation, self-denial, and self-sacrifice. Through all His life here He was unappreciated and misunderstood, even by the members of His own family.
UL	54	6	Satan was constantly suggesting to His brethren, the sons of Joseph, criticisms of the One who seemed so unlike themselves. Every solicitation to evil was refused by Him, because He would not be persuaded to accept wrongdoing, or to deviate in the slightest from "It is written." He seemed to have Scripture treasured in heart and mind. He seldom rebuked their course of action, but always had a word from God to speak to them--"It is written."--Manuscript 2, February 9, 1896, untitled manuscript.
------------------------Show Yourself a Man, February 10
UL	55	1	Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13.
UL	55	2	You can do a much greater and more efficient work, if you will cultivate a calm trust in God, and do not become anxious, and worried, and troubled, as though Jesus were buried in the sepulcher, and you had no Saviour. He has risen,... He has ascended to the heavens, and is your Advocate before the throne of God....
UL	55	3	The followers of Jesus need not be amazed if they are made partakers with Christ of His sufferings. How can Christ look upon those for whom He has done so much, for whom He has paid so infinite a price, and yet they have never appreciated His great gift for them. The work of Christ's representatives will be similar to that of their Redeemer. They are not to look to self or trust in self. They are not to place too high an estimate upon their own efforts. And when they see that others do not regard their efforts as highly as they themselves estimate them, they come to feel that their labors might as well cease. But this is the work of the enemy. We live not to men but to God. God estimates our work at their fullest value. God estimates nobility of character, and whether men appreciate it or not, it lives after the man is gone. After man has nothing more to do with anything under the sun, the example he has set, the golden words he has spoken, live through all time and through all eternity. This influence which was after the divine pattern never dies. His life has been connected with God.
UL	55	4	We all have a personal influence, and our words and actions leave an indelible impress. It is our duty not to live for self, but for the good of others--not to be controlled by feelings, but to consider that our influence is a power for good or evil. God would have His workmen be that which David charged Solomon to be, "Show yourself a man." ...
UL	55	5	God is not pleased that any one of His representatives worries, wearies, and wears himself out, so that he does not diffuse the sweet fragrance of heaven in his life. We have but one life to live. Jesus has come to our world to teach us how to live that life, that we may represent the character of heaven. We must never grow fainthearted, for it will be far worse for ourselves and for others within the reach of our influence. God requires us to behave with dignity under trials and temptations. The Man of Sorrows, who was acquainted with grief, is before us as our example. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Revelation 3:21).--Letter 7, February 10, 1885, to Daniel T. Bourdeau, early worker in Europe.
------------------------Yokes, February 11
UL	56	1	Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Isaiah 58:6.
UL	56	2	There is a great deal of profession in our world, plenty of self-justification, but the evidences of the deep work of the grace in hearts is not so apparent. There is a very earnest, solemn question before us. The time has come when every soul should understand that he has a soul to save or a soul to lose, a heaven to win and a hell to shun. We need to understand what we shall do to be saved....
UL	56	3	In the experience of God's people there have been yokes ... that God never ordained, yokes that have greatly marred the experience and have offended the Lord God of Israel. Because a man carries responsibilities in the church, he is not given liberty to rule the mind and judgment of others with whom the Lord is working. The Lord wants every soul in His service to understand what is the kind of work required of him....
UL	56	4	God has sent the instruction to break every yoke. We are one--one in Christ Jesus. Position does not make the man. Position does not give liberty to exercise power arbitrarily over others. It is counsel that is needed; righteousness in deportment that is to be made manifest with meekness and humbleness of mind, and a spirit to seek the Lord until He is found....
UL	56	5	"Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day" (Isaiah 58:9, 10). Praise God with heart and voice for this possibility! Praise God that we can bring this promise to the Lord for fulfillment, when we comply with the conditions. When we do not know which way to turn, light direct from God will come to us, if we will follow His directions....
UL	56	6	Let us each bring ourselves into submission to the Lord God of Israel. You may have your peculiar way, I may have my peculiar way, and some others their peculiar way; but under God that way will be agreeable. If we are not under the control of God, led by the inspiration of His Spirit, our way will not be agreeable. What we need is to stand in right relation to the great I AM. When we stand in right relation to Him, we can do as Christ has commissioned.--Manuscript 9, 1909, copied February 11, 1909, "Two Kinds of Service."
------------------------Christ's Life Touched People, February 12
UL	57	1	Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19:14.
UL	57	2	Our Saviour did not live in mysterious seclusion during the years that preceded His public ministry. He lived with his parents at Nazareth, and worked with Joseph at the carpenter's trade. His life was simple, free from any extravagance or display. When the time came for His public work to begin, He went forth proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. To the close of His work, He preserved simplicity of habit. He chose His helpers from the lower ranks of life. His first disciples were humble fishermen of Galilee. His teaching was so simple that little children understood Him, and afterward might be heard repeating His words. All that He said and did possessed the charm of simplicity.
UL	57	3	Christ was a close observer, noticing many things that others passed by. He was ever helpful, ever ready to speak words of hope and sympathy to the discouraged and the bereaved. He allowed the crowd to press round Him, and complained not, though sometimes almost lifted off His feet. When He met a funeral, He did not pass by indifferently. Sadness came over His face as He looked upon death, and He wept with the mourners.
UL	57	4	As the children gathered the wildflowers growing so abundantly around them, and crowded up to present to Him their little offerings, He received them gladly, smiled upon them, and expressed His joy at seeing so many varieties of flowers.
UL	57	5	These children were His heritage. He knew that He had come to ransom them from the enemy by dying on the cross of Calvary. He spoke words to them that ever after they carried in their hearts. They were delighted to think that He appreciated their gifts and spoke so lovingly to them.
UL	57	6	Christ watched children at their play, and often expressed His approval when they gained an innocent victory over something they were determined to do. He sang to children in sweet and blessed words. They knew that He loved them. He never frowned on them. He shared their childish joys and sorrows. Often He would gather flowers, and after pointing out their beauties to the children, would leave them with them as a gift. He had made the flowers and He delighted to point out their beauties.
UL	57	7	It has been said that Jesus never smiled. This is not correct. A child in its innocence and purity called forth from His lips joyous song.--Manuscript 20, February 12, 1902, "Our Elder Brother."
------------------------Laborers Needed for the Harvest, February 13
UL	58	1	The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. Proverbs 11:30.
UL	58	2	Let those who have been trained for service now take their places quickly in the Lord's work. House-to-house laborers are needed. The Lord calls for decided efforts to be put forth in places where the people know nothing of the truth. Singing and prayer and Bible readings are needed in the homes of the people. Now, just now, is the time to obey the commission, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20). Those who do this work must have a ready knowledge of the Scriptures. "It is written" is to be their weapon of defense.
UL	58	3	God has given us light on His Word that we may give it to our fellow men. The truth spoken by Christ will reach hearts. A "Thus saith the Lord" will fall upon the ear with power, and fruit will appear wherever honest service is done.
UL	58	4	The Lord calls for action.... Should we neglect to take advantage of this time, we should miss a great opportunity for letting light from God's Word shine forth. The trumpet is to give a certain sound.
UL	58	5	Say to the people: "Know for yourselves of the doctrine." Let not your lips utter a sentence of doubt. Do not come before the people with an uncertain sound. Know what is truth and proclaim truth. Christ's teaching was always positive in its nature. Never, never utter sentiments of doubt. Bear with a certain voice an affirmative message. Lift Him up, the Man of Calvary, higher and still higher. There is power in the exaltation of the cross of Christ.
UL	58	6	Christ's divinity is to be steadfastly maintained. When the Saviour asked His disciples the question, "Whom say ye that I am?" Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:15, 16). Said Christ, "Upon this rock," not on Peter, but on the Son of God, "I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Verse 18).
UL	58	7	Great is the mystery of godliness. There are mysteries in the life of Christ that are to be believed, even though they cannot be explained.--Letter 65, February 13, 1905, to A. T. Jones, a prominent minister.
------------------------Reformation in the Heart, February 14
UL	59	1	Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Galatians 6:1.
UL	59	2	We are threads in the great web of humanity, and, as such, related with each other. Our life leaves upon the minds of others impressions which will be transferred even into eternity. Angels take note of our works, of our words, of the spirit which actuates us. Those who desire to reform others must begin the reformation in their own hearts, and show that they have acquired kindliness and humility of heart in the school of Christ. Those who have charge of others must learn first to master themselves, to refrain from blunt expressions and exaggerated censure. There are cutting words which are indulged in, which may offend, hurt, and leave upon a soul a scar which will remain. There are sharp words that fall as sparks upon an inflammable temper. There are biting words that bite like vipers.
UL	59	3	Intimate connections between imperfect, defective characters may often, as a result, do great harm to both persons, for Satan has more influence upon their minds than the Spirit of Jesus. They do not consider each other under a true and impartial light, but under the most unfavorable light possible. By trying to correct evil in a hasty, cross spirit, two evils will be created instead of correcting one. Mutual support is essential. It is the fruit of the Spirit which grows upon the Christian tree.
UL	59	4	A radical conversion must take place as regards the manner in which the various minds are to be dealt with. If every apparent injustice is considered as an affront; if amends for every slight injury are required with a spirit different from the spirit of Christ; if harsh language is used; if for difficulties small or great a spirit of impatience is manifested which stirs up and irritates, there will soon be a state of things worse than if nothing had been done to correct the evil. If such dispositions are entertained by believers; if everyone feels free to utter hasty words, we shall have miserable hearts, miserable families, and in the church, discord and dissension.
UL	59	5	But there is a Christlike way of settling all these things. The presence of Christ's love in the heart will lead to love the very ones who are astray and who are in the wrong....
UL	59	6	"Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom" (James 3:13).--Manuscript 24, February 14, 1887. "Testimony for the Workers of the Publishing House at Basel."
------------------------Faith and Action, February 15
UL	60	1	And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. John 15:27.
UL	60	2	A neglected work remains to be done, and we are to repent of our indifference toward this work, and pray for spiritual discernment to see and to sense, as we should, its urgent needs. To us has been entrusted enlightening, saving truth. All about us are multitudes who have never yet been enlightened. To these we must proclaim the lifesaving truths of the third angel's message. We are to hunt for souls, laboring with all diligence to communicate to others that which is for their eternal welfare.
UL	60	3	The unwarned multitudes are fast becoming the sport of the evil one. Satan is leading them into many forms of folly and self-pleasing. Many are seeking for that which is novel and startling; their minds are far from God and the truths of His Word. At this time, when the enemy is working as never before to engross the minds of men and women, and turn them from the truth, we should be laboring with increasing activity in the highways and also in the byways. Diligently, interestedly, we are to proclaim the last message of mercy in the cities--the highways--and the work is not to end there, but is to extend into the surrounding settlements and in the country districts--into the byways and the hedges.
UL	60	4	All classes are to be reached. As we labor, we shall meet with various nationalities. None are to be passed by, unwarned. The Lord Jesus was the gift of God to the entire world--not to the higher classes alone, and not to any one nationality, to the exclusion of others. His saving grace encircles the whole world. Whosoever will may drink of the water of life freely. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13). But there is earnest work to be done. The gospel invitation is to be given in every place, for "how ... shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Verse 14).
UL	60	5	The Lord desires His people to arise, and do their appointed work. The responsibility rests not upon the ministry alone. The lay members of the church are to share the burdens of soul saving.... The Lord now calls upon those who have a knowledge of the truth for this time, to arouse from their lethargy, and become true missionaries in His service. Time is short, and the Lord's work must be done without further delay.--Letter 4, February 15, 1911, to W. C. White.
------------------------Recount God's Goodness, February 16
UL	61	1	Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God. Psalm 50:23.
UL	61	2	[God] desires us to appreciate the great plan of redemption, to realize our high privilege as the people of God, and to walk before Him in obedience, with grateful thanksgiving. He desires us to serve Him in newness of life, with gladness every day. He longs to see gratitude welling up in our hearts because we have access to the mercy seat, the throne of grace; because our names are written in the Lamb's book of life; because we may cast all our care on Him who cares for us. He bids us rejoice because we are the heritage of the Lord, because the righteousness of Christ is the robe of His saints, because we have the blessed hope of the soon coming of our Saviour.
UL	61	3	To praise God in fullness and sincerity of heart is as much a duty as is prayer. We are to show to all the heavenly intelligences that we appreciate the wonderful love of God for fallen humanity, and that we are expecting larger and yet larger blessings from His infinite fullness. Far more than we do, we need to speak of the precious chapters in our experience. After a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, our joy in the Lord and our efficiency in His service will be greatly increased by recounting His goodness and His wonderful works in behalf of His children.
UL	61	4	Such a testimony will have an influence upon others. No more effective means can we employ for winning souls to Christ. And our love is to be shown, not only in words, but in deeds, in personal ministry and sacrifice. Christ says, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).
UL	61	5	In His prayer to His Father, He said of His disciples, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world" (John 17:18)....
UL	61	6	And by the Holy Spirit through the apostle Peter, we are admonished, "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Peter 4:10).
UL	61	7	Thus it is that God desires to fulfill for us His purpose of grace. By the power of His love, through obedience, fallen man, a worm of the dust, is to be transformed, fitted to be a member of the heavenly family, a companion through eternal ages of God and Christ and the holy angels. Heaven will triumph, for the vacancies made by the fall of Satan and his host will be filled by the redeemed of the Lord.--Manuscript 21, February 16, 1900, "God's Love Manifested."
------------------------A Living Connection With the Living God, February 17
UL	62	1	For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
UL	62	2	We must have a living dependence upon a living God. And when there is a living connection with a living God, Christ abides in the heart by living faith, and the human agent works after Christ's life. He is going to change our life and character, speaking the words that Christ speaks, revealing the character that Christ reveals. And if trials come to us, we will not manifest a rebellious spirit. The opportunities will present themselves to every one of us, because we see oppression and unkindness, and because we see burdens that would be thrown upon us, and let self come in and exhibit itself.
UL	62	3	We let self arise. We want to put the trials in their right place, and where is it? Christ says to everyone that is weary and heavy laden, "Come unto me." And what? "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." And notwithstanding the crush of conflict that we shall have to pass through if we accept the truth of heavenly origin, there is meekness and lowliness in every move. Hide in Jesus Christ. Our life and character is hid with Christ in God, so we cannot afford to let any impulse of passion control our words or control our actions, but we must keep the Saviour's example ever before us, and we must do just as Jesus would have done under similar circumstances. We are not to be revengeful.
UL	62	4	Now the work that is before us we want clearly to understand. It is a work of mercy, a work of love, a work just in Christ's lines. Just as Christ worked. He says that the nobleman went a long journey, and to every man he gave his work. The human agent is to cooperate with the divine. To everyone his work, and this is Christ's work. It is not the man's work. He is not to feel that all he has to do is to attend to his own individual self. No, there is a broader field. He is to occupy "till I come," and what is it to occupy? To be laborers together with God. Therefore, it is of the greatest consequence that we understand in clear lines what it is to be laborers together with God.
UL	62	5	We must be imbued with the Spirit of Christ. We cannot labor with God merely from our intellect or our education. We cannot buy the grace of God with money; we cannot buy it with eloquence; we cannot buy it with the power of our intellect. It is God's to begin with.... We are to occupy to the best knowledge that we have, and sense our responsibility, and let our light shine through us to those that are around us, and in doing that we are doing the work of God.--Manuscript 11, February 17, 1894, "Isaiah 58."
------------------------The Worth of a Soul, February 18
UL	63	1	For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2 Corinthians 4:17.
UL	63	2	We profess to be the repositories of God's law, and as a people professing [to have] greater light and to live up to a higher standard than any other people upon earth, we should show greater perfection of character and a deeper devotion, exalting sacred and eternal things. A most solemn message has been entrusted to those who have received the light of truth, and our light should shine forth in clear beams to brighten the pathway of those who are in darkness, and thus daily glorify God in our lives.
UL	63	3	Every member of the church has an individual responsibility as a member of the visible church, and a worker in the vineyard of the Lord, and should do his utmost to preserve harmony, union, and love in the church....
UL	63	4	The evidence that the world cannot withstand and controvert, that God has sent Jesus into the world as its Redeemer, is in the oneness of the church. Their unity and harmony is the convincing argument. Satan is therefore constantly at work to prevent this harmony and union, that in witnessing the bickerings, strifes, and dissension, unbelievers shall become disgusted with Christianity, and fastened in unbelief and infidelity. God is dishonored by those who profess the truth while they are at variance with one another.
UL	63	5	If our profession ... [to have] greater truths than other denominations [have] does not lead to deeper consecration, and purer and holier lives, of what advantage is this truth to us? It would be better for us if we had never seen the light of truth, than to profess to accept it, and not be sanctified by it.
UL	63	6	To determine how great a matter is involved in the conversion of a soul from error to truth, we must appreciate the value of immortality, we must sense the pains of the second death. We must comprehend the honors and glory awaiting the ransomed, and understand what it is to live in the presence of Him who died that He might elevate, ennoble, and give to the overcomer a royal diadem.
UL	63	7	The worth of a soul cannot be fully estimated. How gratefully will the ransomed and glorified ones remember those who were instrumental in their salvation. Not one will forget his self-denying labors, his persevering efforts, his patience, perseverance, and earnest heart yearning for these souls who might have been lost to Jesus Christ, had he neglected his duty or became weary in well doing.--Manuscript 1, February 18, 1880, "Church Difficulties."
------------------------Receiving His Righteousness, February 19
UL	64	1	For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8.
UL	64	2	We who have fallen through the transgression of the law of God have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. The way is open for everyone to prepare himself for the second appearing of Jesus Christ, that at His appearing we may be vindicated, having put away all evil, and having overcome through the cleansing blood of Christ. Through the intercession of Christ, the image of God is renewed in mind, and heart, and character. Through the blood of the only-begotten Son of God, we obtain redemption....
UL	64	3	We are in this world to honor God, and from every devising that would in any way tempt us to dishonor our Redeemer, we must turn away. In Christ we have before us the Pattern of all righteousness. He has pledged Himself to be our Guide, our Preserver, our Governor....
UL	64	4	We are transgressors of God's law. Our only hope for salvation was in Christ taking upon Himself the guilt of our sins, bearing the penalty of transgression in His own body on the tree. He made a full oblation of sacrifice, and by that one oblation of Himself made it possible for us to live in obedience to God's commands.... We are to become His loyal subjects, having pure and undefiled religion, and depending upon the one grand principle, "By grace are ye saved through faith." ...
UL	64	5	I beseech everyone to walk and work in the fear of God. Satan is always seeking to bring poor souls who have lost their bearings to the settled determination that they will act as they please. We must stand where we reflect light....
UL	64	6	God's grace is great, and those who will press closer and closer to the side of Christ will not be overcome. We shall gain everything by drawing near to God and humbling ourselves before Him. As we do this, let us remember that we are heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ; that we are to be partakers of the divine nature.
UL	64	7	I say to all, Let not one unholy thought or feeling be cherished. The power of the grace of Christ is wonderful. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up for the trusting believer a standard against the enemy. Pray, brethren and sisters, pray for your individual selves. The love and grace of Christ far surpass our finite conceptions. Plead as for your lives to be cleansed from everything that defileth. Put on Christ in deportment, and show an unselfish interest and kindness for the souls of all. We must catch the theme of redeeming love, and press on to know the Lord, that in simplicity we may reveal His character.--Letter 72, February 19, 1906, to "Brother and Sister Farnsworth."
------------------------Trials Will Come, February 20
UL	65	1	For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. Lamentations 3:33.
UL	65	2	Our heavenly Father does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. He has His purpose in the whirlwind and the storm, in the fire and in the flood. The Lord permits calamities to come to His people to save them from greater dangers. He desires everyone to examine his own heart closely and carefully, and then draw near to God, that God may draw near to him. Our life is in the hands of God. He sees dangers threatening us that we cannot see. He is the Giver of all our blessings; the Provider of all our mercies; the Orderer of all our experiences. He sees the perils that we cannot see. He may permit to come upon His people that which fills their hearts with sadness, because He sees that they need to make straight paths for their feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. He knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust. Even the very hairs of our head are numbered. He works through natural causes to lead His people to remember that He has not forgotten them, but that He desires them to forsake the way which, if they were permitted to follow unchecked and unreproved, would lead them into great peril.
UL	65	3	Trials come to us all to lead us to investigate our hearts, to see if they are purified from all that defiles. Constantly the Lord is working for our present and eternal good. Things occur which seem inexplainable, but if we trust in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him, humbling our hearts before Him, He will not permit the enemy to triumph.
UL	65	4	The Lord will save His people in His own way, by such means and instrumentalities that the glory will be returned to Him. To Him alone belongs the praise....
UL	65	5	Every soul that is saved must be a partaker with Christ of His sufferings, that he may be a partaker with Him of His glory. How few understand why God subjects them to trial. It is by the trial of our faith that we gain spiritual strength. The Lord seeks to educate His people to lean wholly upon Him. He desires them, through the lessons that He teaches them, to become more and more spiritualized. If His Word is not followed in all humility and meekness, He brings to them experiences which, if rightly received, will help to prepare them for the work to be done in His name. God desires to reveal His power in a marked manner through the lives of His people.--Manuscript 76, 1903, February 20, 1902, "The Burning of the Sanitarium."
------------------------Genuine Christianity, February 21
UL	66	1	Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1.
UL	66	2	There is a counterfeit Christianity in the world as well as a genuine Christianity. The true spirit of the man is manifested by the way in which he deals with his fellow man. We can ask the question, "Does he represent the character of Christ in spirit and action, or simply manifest the natural selfish traits of character that belong to the people of this world?" Profession weighs nothing with God. Before it is everlastingly too late for wrongs to be righted, let each one ask himself, "What am I?" It depends upon ourselves as to whether we shall form such characters as will constitute us one of God's royal family above.
UL	66	3	If we would become Christlike, we must study Christ's character.... It is necessary that we should closely examine ourselves, and enquire, "Is this Christ's way? Would Christ pursue this course of action? What kind of an impression am I leaving upon the minds of those with whom I am connected? Shall I pursue a course of action that will weaken the confidence of anyone with whom I deal and cause them to think lightly of the Christianity that I profess? Shall I be uncourteous, un-Christlike, unmerciful toward the purchase of the blood of Christ?"
UL	66	4	I would speak words of warning to the brethren of our churches, for I fear that many are acting the part of the slothful servant who hid his lord's talent in the earth. His sin was the sin of neglect, the sin of failing to improve the great treasures of knowledge that were committed to his trust. God has given precious light to His people with which to enlighten the world, and are not many treating it with indifference, and acting as though the heavenly gift were of little consequence? ...
UL	66	5	Fair weather disciples will not answer to the Lord's call in time of peril toward which we are hastening. It will take those who not only hear but do the words of Christ to be active disciples--"Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11). A new energy proceeding from beneath is taking possession of the whole synagogue of Satan, and a new life descending from heaven is taking possession of every human agent who is consecrated, devoted, and who is seeking to work the works of God....
UL	66	6	Let those who minister in word and doctrine mix faith with earnest prayer, and seek to put to use every ray of light that comes from the Written Word. The voice of God calls from heaven, and demands the use of every entrusted capability. Every talent is to be used to its uttermost.--Manuscript 6, February 21, 1895, "Genuine and Counterfeit Christianity."
------------------------Christ Lived a Life of Humble Obedience, February 22
UL	67	1	Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Hebrews 5:8, 9.
UL	67	2	Christ came to our world, and lived in the home of a peasant. He wore the best garments His parents could provide, but they were the humble garments of the peasants. He walked the rough paths, and climbed the steeps of the hillsides and mountains. When He walked the streets He was apparently alone, for human eyes did not behold His heavenly attendants. He learned the trade of a carpenter, that He might stamp all honest labor as honorable and ennobling to all who work with an eye single to the glory of God....
UL	67	3	Christ, the Lord of the whole earth, was a humble artisan. He was unrecognized, neglected, and despised. But He held His commission and authority from the highest power, the Sovereign of heaven. Angels were His attendants, for Christ was doing His Father's business just as much when toiling at the bench as a carpenter, as when working miracles for the multitude. But He concealed the secret from the world. He attached no high titles to His name, to make His position understood, but He lived the royal law of God. His work must begin in consecrating the humble trade of the craftsmen who have toiled for their daily bread. Had Christ passed His life among the grand and the rich, the world of toilers would have been deprived of the inspiration which the Lord intended they should have.
UL	67	4	Meek and lowly was the life of Christ. He chose this life that He might help the human family. He did not take His place upon a throne as Commander of the whole earth. He laid aside His royal robe, He laid off His kingly crown, that He might be made one of the human family. He took not on Him the nature of angels. His work was not the priestly office after the appointments of men. It was impossible for man to understand His exalted position, unless the Holy Spirit should make it known. For our sake, He clothed His divinity with humanity, and stepped down from the royal throne. He resigned His position as Commander in the heavenly courts, and for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. Thus, He hid His glory under the guise of humanity, that He might touch humanity with His divine, transforming power....
UL	67	5	Those to whom Christ has given a probation in which to form characters for the mansions He has gone to prepare are to enter into His life example.--Manuscript 24, February 22, 1898, "Christ's Life on Earth."
------------------------Angel Companions, February 23
UL	68	1	Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Hebrews 1:14.
UL	68	2	The angels who do always behold the face of the Father in heaven would prefer to remain close by the side of God. But the Lord gives to every angel his work for this fallen world. Divine help is provided for men. They have the opportunity of cooperating with heavenly intelligences, of being laborers together with God. The possibilities of gaining a fitness for the presence of God, of being enabled to see His face, are placed before them. Heavenly angels are working to bring the human family into a close brotherhood, a oneness described by Christ as like to that existing between the Father and the Son. How can men so highly honored by God fail to appreciate their opportunities and privileges? How can they refuse to accept the divine help proffered? How much it is possible for human beings to gain if they will keep eternity in view.
UL	68	3	Satanic agencies are ever warring for the mastery over human minds. But the angels of God are constantly at work, strengthening the weak hands and confirming the feeble knees of all who call upon God for help. The promise to every child of God is, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7). The Lord is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him than parents are to give good gifts to their children. Then ask; believe what God has said. He will surely fulfill His word. Say from the heart, "My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever" (Psalm 73:26). The victory must be gained day by day. As followers of Christ we are to stand on vantage ground before the world as Christ's representatives. Let us then engage in this part of the Christian warfare, determinedly overcoming every weakness of character....
UL	68	4	The Lord has had truehearted men and women, those who have made a covenant with God by sacrifice. They have not swerved from their integrity; they have kept themselves unspotted from the world. These have been led by the Light of life to defeat the purposes of the wily foe. Will human beings now act their part in resisting the devil? If they will do this, he will surely flee from them. Angels will do for you the things you cannot do for yourselves. They are waiting for your cooperation....
UL	68	5	While you have one desire to resist the devil, and sincerely pray, "Deliver me from temptation," you will have strength for your day. It is the work of the heavenly angels to come close to the tried, the suffering, the tempted ones.--Manuscript 14, February 23, 1899, "To Every Man His Work."
------------------------Stand Fast in the Faith, February 24
UL	69	1	Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Philippians 1:27.
UL	69	2	I pray that the people of God may not cast aside the peculiarities of their faith. Christ is glorified by a life of constant, well-defined faith. Paul declares, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). Christ is to be glorified by the living, working faith of His people. The just shall live by faith. Christ has not left His people to stumble along in darkness. He has marked out the way before them. He says, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Mark 8:34). It is along the path of self-denial, the royal highway cast up by the Redeemer, that God's people are to travel.
UL	69	3	My brother, bow in submission before Him who has brought life and immortality to light. Let your will and the will of Christ be one. Talk this, pray this, live this. God's word to us is, "Go forward," and this word we are to obey, though we shall meet with obstacles seemingly as insurmountable as the Red Sea. Let us trust the Lord God of heaven to open the way before His people. "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass" (Psalm 37:5). This patience of the soul is the rest of faith. The Lord will bless His tried, faithful people. He will not leave them to become confused.
UL	69	4	In the last great day every word, every act, will be subjected to the crucial test of the Judge of all the earth.... The Lord calls for heartfelt repentance from those who claim to be His people. Self-indulgence is to find no place in their lives. The church of God is to be jealously guarded from every phase of dishonesty, every taint of corruption. The love of Christ is directly opposed to all avarice, all pride, all pretense. The Lord calls for humble, contrite hearts. He will work by His Holy Spirit upon all who will be worked, all who love Him and keep His commandments. And they will make the presence and power of God so manifestly to appear that the enemies of the truth will be compelled to say that God and His angels are indeed the friends and helpers of those who serve Him.
UL	69	5	Schism and division are not the fruits of righteousness; they are of the wicked one. The great hindrance to our advancement at this time is the selfishness that prevents believers from having true fellowship with one another. The last prayer that Christ offered for His disciples before His trial was that they might be one in Him. Satan is determined that this oneness shall not be, for it is the strongest witness that can be borne that God did indeed send His Son to reconcile the world to heaven.--Letter 41, February 24, 1903, to Dr. F. E. Braucht, a physician laboring in Chicago.
------------------------God's Standard is Perfect, February 25
UL	70	1	Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Ephesians 4:13.
UL	70	2	The standard of character which Christ has made it possible for us to reach ... is a perfect standard. In trying to measure [up to] it, the senses become confused. The question is asked, "Who by searching can find out God?" (See Job 11:7.) Yet He has made it possible for us to become like Him in character. Oh, what will impress men and women with their need of that transformation which will enable them to reflect the divine image?
UL	70	3	Many who claim to follow Christ present to the world an inferior representation of Christianity because they do not reach the standard which makes them the elect of God. He who fails to keep constantly before him the standard of God's holy law creates a standard of his own. He becomes destitute of the life-giving principles of the gospel. He is an unprofitable servant, for he lives and works on a low plane of action. Christ's presence does not sustain him, and his spiritual representations are deformed. His life is a farce. He does not draw the higher life from God, and is unfitted to become a member of the royal family, a child of the heavenly King. Spiritually he is dead, for he does not assimilate into his own life the life which Christ has provided. He does not grasp the power which heaven has provided to enable him to be an overcomer.
UL	70	4	No one can take to heaven his natural and cultivated traits of character. He who has carried these traits with him through his period of probation has misrepresented Christ by acting upon principles which God cannot endorse. The principles of true spiritual life are not understood by those who know the truth, but fail to practice it.
UL	70	5	The Lord calls for reforms, marked, distinct reforms. Those in whose hearts Christ dwells will reveal His presence in their dealing with their fellow men. But the principles of some have been so long perverted that they have lost their discernment, and the arrow seldom reaches its mark. How can this be cured? Only by heeding Christ's prayer, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth" (John 17:17-19). There is no roundabout way in which the work of sanctification can take place.--Manuscript 16, February 25, 1901, "Testimony to the Battle Creek Church."
------------------------Put on the Armor of Christ, February 26
UL	71	1	Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16.
UL	71	2	The light of truth must shine forth to the world. Those who love God and keep His commandments are called to aggressive warfare, not against one another, but against the armies of the invisible foe. There is to be no such thing as laying off the armor. At no time are those who claim to be Christ's disciples to feel at ease in their church capacity, content to do nothing to rescue fallen human beings, and bring them back to their loyalty.
UL	71	3	Heavenly angels are constantly ascending and descending between heaven and earth, engaged in unselfish service for the building up of the kingdom of Christ. Where are the men and women who will unite with these heavenly messengers? Where are those who will use their abilities in cooperation with divine power?
UL	71	4	Think of what God has done for you. When you were perishing out of Christ, did not the warning message come to you, convincing you of sin and arousing you to repentance? Did not Christ reveal Himself to you as a sin-pardoning Saviour? And in the light and glory of your first love, were you not full of unselfish love to impart to others the grace which gave you newness of life in Christ?
UL	71	5	Do not allow your zeal for Christ to decrease. Now that you have become the helping hand of Christ, you are to work earnestly for those whom, before your conversion, you looked upon with indifference. Remember that they are in as favorable a condition as you were ... [when you were] brought to repentance, and that their salvation may be of higher value to the church than yours was. Grudge not earnest, tender words and kindly deeds. Draw those around you to the cross of Calvary. Be so greatly in love with the truth that you will daily receive fresh grace to impart. Open the windows of the soul heavenward, that the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness may shine into your hearts. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).
UL	71	6	Truth, precious, essential truth, will open before all who will keep their souls in the love of God. Duty and sacrifice will be precious to them, because of their love for the purchase of the blood of Christ. Human beings upon whom they would once scarcely look now assume a preciousness in their eyes. Once they had no interest in them; now they are united with Christ, and they are bound up in love with His heritage. The heart once frozen by icy selfishness is now melted by the influence of the Spirit.--Manuscript 17, February 26, 1901, "Neglected Duties."
------------------------Exercise Increases Faith, February 27
UL	72	1	But let them ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. James 1:6.
UL	72	2	Faith ... reaches out to grasp the hand of Christ, knowing that He will hold more firmly than it is possible for the human hand to hold, and that He will never let go. While the human agent is willing to be led, Christ will lead him....
UL	72	3	Faith is the very lifeblood of the soul. Its presence gives warmth, health, consistency, and sound judgment. Its vitality and vigor exert a powerful though unconscious influence. The life of Christ in the soul is as a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life. It leads to a constant cultivation of the heavenly graces and to a kindly submission in all things to the Lord. It enables us to reveal that Christ is abiding in the soul....
UL	72	4	"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Have we not proved this in the past as we have moved out in faith to produce the things now seen? ... Faith is not only to look forward to things unseen; it is to be confirmed by looking at past experience, at tangible results, the verification of God's Word.... Pray, "Lord, increase my faith." Faith quickens the senses to work diligently to produce results. Faith elevates and ennobles the powers of the soul, enabling it to lay hold upon the unseen....
UL	72	5	Entanglements in secular business are sometimes permitted by God to stir the sluggish faculties to more than common action, that He may honor faith by the bestowal of rich blessings. This is a means of advancing His work. But those who are without faith will never learn. By unbelief they dishonor their Lord. Unless they are converted, they will make shipwreck of their faith. They stand in the way of advancement, and this the Lord will not tolerate. He desires His people, even in the darkest shadow, to trust in Him.
UL	72	6	Satan is permitted to throw his shadow across their pathway that their dormant faith may be aroused to pierce the cloud, and find light and courage and life beyond....
UL	72	7	Looking unto Jesus, not only as our Example, but as the Author and Finisher of our faith, let us go forward, having confidence that He will supply us with all the strength that is needed for every duty. Eternal life is presented to us. Let us do all in our power to gain it.--Manuscript 18, February 27, 1901, "Canvassing for Christ's Object Lessons."
------------------------Walk by Faith, Not by Sight, February 28
UL	73	1	For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7.
UL	73	2	You need at every step the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. This faith quickens and uplifts the soul by the nobility of holy practice. It is essential to everyone who is running in the race for eternal life. It raises the soul into a purer, holier atmosphere, enabling its possessor to look forward to higher and still higher attainments and to discern clearly the dangers of a life of self-indulgence. Look by faith above yourself and see in the work of God the way to gain the riches that can be laid up beside the throne of God. O the height and depth of the knowledge that may be obtained by unreserved consecration to God. The Lord will have the whole man, or none at all. His favor cannot be purchased with gifts of money. He calls for the gift of the whole heart.
UL	73	3	It is not necessary for us to know the results of our course of action before we surrender wholly to God. We do not need to see the way, or to know what the future will be. One thing we do know, because God has said it--the man that fears God and works righteousness will be accepted by Him. This is enough for us to know. Day by day walk before the Lord in humility and contrition. Your future destiny depends on your own course of action. "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Joshua 24:15). "If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him" (1 Kings 18:21). Be one thing or the other. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke 16:13). Your present happiness and your future well-being depend on your own choice. If you choose to follow Jesus, you must obey the word, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
UL	73	4	Eternal life is for all who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God--living by every word that proceeds out of His mouth. Those who do this will gain a clear understanding of what it means to be one with Christ.
UL	73	5	"The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace" (James 3:17, 18). Two people may engage in the same acts of outward worship, yet the service of one, when weighed in the golden scales of the sanctuary, may be found wanting, while the service of the other may be accepted. Only the service that is performed in sincerity, with a humble, contrite heart, is acceptable to God.--Letter 39, February 28, 1903, to a Seventh-day Adventist businessman.
------------------------Who is King? March 1
UL	74	1	For one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. Matthew 23:8.
UL	74	2	Before God's servants take up any work, they are to pray to God in all humility, with a sense of their dependence upon God, realizing that they must be worked by His Spirit. They are to guard against setting themselves up as kings, because if they do this, they will dishonor the Lord and make a failure of their work. "All ye are brethren."
UL	74	3	Man's ingenuity, his judgment, his power to execute, all come from God. To God's service all should be devoted. The principles of the Bible are to control the Lord's servants. His workers are ever to do justice and judgment, steadfastly keeping the way of the Lord. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). Make this the point round which your life centers, and then all things needful will be given you. Put the Redeemer's interests before your own or those of any other human being. He has bought you, and all your powers belong to Him.
UL	74	4	Make no man your king. Who is our King? He who is called, "Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). He is our Saviour, our King. To Him you may always go with your burdens. However great your sins, you need have no fear of repulse. If you have injured your brother, go to him, and confess the wrong you have done him. When you have done this, you may come to your King, asking Him for pardon. He will never take advantage of your confessions. He will never disappoint you. He has pledged His word to forgive your transgressions and to cleanse you from all defilement. The names of all His people are written in His book of life.
UL	74	5	Remember that Christ is our only hope, our only refuge. He "bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness" (1 Peter 2:24). "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance" (Hebrews 9:13-15).--Manuscript 3, March 1, 1903, "To Every Man His Work."
------------------------Mix Faith With Hearing, March 2
UL	75	1	Unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Hebrews 4:2.
UL	75	2	Life is a sacred trust.... Christ has given us this present time in which to prepare for the home above. Just in accordance with the life which the human agent lives in the time of probation granted him will be the decision made regarding his case by the Judge of all.
UL	75	3	We need to realize the necessity of exercising that faith which is acceptable to God--the faith which works by love and purifies the soul. Without faith it is impossible to hear the Word in such a way as to profit by the hearing, even though it be presented in a most impressive manner....
UL	75	4	Unless we mix faith with our hearing of the Word, unless we receive the truths we hear as a message from heaven, to be carefully studied, to be eaten by the soul and assimilated into the spiritual life, we lose the impression of the Spirit of God. We do not understand by experience what it means to find rest by receiving the divine assurances of the Word.
UL	75	5	The importance of studying the Word cannot be overestimated. Its promises are large, and full of richness. In no case should we fail of securing the heavenly treasure. Christ is our only security. We cannot trust to human reasoning. The world is full of men and women who cherish deceptive theories, and it is dangerous to listen to them....
UL	75	6	The religion of Jesus Christ works a reformation in life and character. The true Christian seeks constantly for the grace that changes the objectionable features of the natural character. Instead of speaking sharp, dictatorial words, he speaks the words of encouragement that Christ would speak were He in his place. He shows benevolence to all, not only to the few who may flatter him and exalt his wisdom. The purity and holiness revealed in Christ's life radiates from the life of the true Christian.
UL	75	7	Christians are to be light bearers in the world, shining amid the darkness of sin and crime. In the kingdom of this world, the principalities and powers that take Satan as their leader must constantly be met. Following Christ's example of cross bearing and self-denial makes those who receive Christ children of God. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). They are victors in the battle of life; for they have put on the new man, "which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Colossians 3:10).--Manuscript 30, March 2, 1902, "Christlikeness in Business Dealings."
------------------------God Calls For Workers, March 3
UL	76	1	Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Exodus 31:13.
UL	76	2	The Lord speaks to those who turn away their feet from [trampling on] the Sabbath. This is the Sabbath spoken of in the thirty-first chapter of Exodus, which God declares is a sign between Him and His people. By keeping this day holy, we show to the world that we recognize God as the One who created the world in six days, and rested on the seventh. Earnestly and untiringly we are to bear the message given us, lest time shall pass and people be left unwarned.
UL	76	3	My heart aches almost to breaking as I see so much left undone that ought to be done. God's ambassadors are to maintain a living connection with Him. They are to enlarge their borders and extend their labors. Their lives are to be made pure, holy, ready for the great day soon to come upon the world. When they are imbued with the Spirit of the Master, they will see all around them souls ... perishing in sin, and they will make every effort to save those nigh--even in their own households--and those afar off. Earnest, consecrated effort for those who are out of the fold leaves no time for criticism or questioning.
UL	76	4	There must be no compromise with selfishness, for selfishness leads to idolatry. Minds that are in the darkness of ignorance in regard to the truth of the Word of God must be enlightened. A breach has been made in the law of God by the transgression of the fourth commandment. The Sabbath command is to be given its rightful position in the law of God, and by those who see and realize its importance, it is to be presented to the world. Those who work unitedly, who act faithfully their part in raising the foundation of many generations with patient, persevering effort, will be called, Repairers of the breach, Restorers of paths to dwell in.
UL	76	5	There is no excuse for those who have the light of present truth, and yet fail to impart this light to others. God calls for workers. We have a great work to do in cooperating with Him as His helping hand and helping voice. Satan is casting his hellish shadow across the pathway of every soul, seeking to eclipse the testing truth for these last days. We are to sound the message of warning to a guilty race. We are to present to men the binding claims of God's law, so that when Christ comes they will not be found in disloyalty, on the side of the Apostate. We must now prepare the way of the Lord. We must make plain in the desert a highway for our God.--Manuscript 22, March 3, 1901, "Diary."
------------------------Let Them Grow Together, March 4
UL	77	1	Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. Matthew 13:30.
UL	77	2	God's Word teaches that those who will follow the footsteps of the Man of Calvary in these last days will have to press forward under the greatest difficulties, for Satan has come down with great power, knowing that he has but a short time to work....
UL	77	3	Enmity between truth and falsehood had existed ever since the fall of Satan. The being who now works so constantly to sow the seeds of error once occupied one of the most exalted positions in the heavenly courts. But he was not satisfied with his position. He determined to be more highly exalted, and he worked to further his ambitious projects until there was war in heaven.
UL	77	4	Satan, and those whom he had deceived, and who fought with him, were cast out of heaven, but the warfare has been continued on the earth. In every age Satan has worked through men who have departed from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and teaching deceptive doctrines and principles of satanic origin. Christ taught His disciples how to meet the deceptive work of Satan and his followers. Under a variety of symbols the Saviour presented the work of extending His kingdom of truth and righteousness throughout the world. It is by teaching the truth that we are to defeat the purposes of Satan. Christ illustrated this work in the parable of the sower....
UL	77	5	The teaching of this parable is illustrated in God's own dealing with men and angels. Satan is a deceiver. When he sinned in heaven, even the loyal angels did not fully discern his character. This was why God did not at once destroy him. Had He done so, the holy angels would not have perceived the justice and love of God. A doubt of God's goodness would have been as evil seed that would yield the bitter fruit of sin and woe. Therefore the author of evil was spared, fully to develop his character.
UL	77	6	Through long ages God has borne the anguish of beholding the work of evil. He has given the infinite Gift of Calvary, rather than let any be deceived by the misrepresentations of the wicked one, for the tares could not be plucked up without danger of uprooting the precious grain. And shall we not be as forbearing toward our fellow men as the Lord of heaven is toward Satan?
UL	77	7	Not condemnation and judgment of others, but humility and distrust of self, is the teaching of Christ's parable.--Letter 86, March 4, 1907, "To Our Churches in the Large Cities."
------------------------Resurrection Power Now, March 5
UL	78	1	Be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. Philippians 3:9, 10.
UL	78	2	The twenty-first chapter of Matthew, telling of the journey of Christ to Jerusalem at the time of His triumphal entry, is a powerful chapter, and one that we need to study and understand. We need to take warning from the lesson of the pretentious fig tree that bore no fruit. It represents those who profess to serve God, whose names are on the church books, but who bear no fruit in their lives to the glory of God. My heart is longing to see the Man, who was despised and rejected, crowned and seated upon His throne....
UL	78	3	Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, God works a moral change in the lives of His people, changing them into the likeness of Christ. Then, when the last trumpet call shall reach the ears of the dead who sleep in Christ, they will come forth to a new life, clothed with the garments of salvation. They enter in through the gates into the City of God, welcomed to the happiness and joy of their Lord. Would that we all could understand and ever keep in mind the joys that await those who keep their eyes on the pattern Christ Jesus, and in this life seek to form a character like His.
UL	78	4	The Word of God contains our life insurance policy. To eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God means to study the Word and to carry that Word into the life in obedience to all its precepts. Those who thus partake of the Son of God become partakers of the divine nature, one with Christ. They breathe a holy atmosphere, in which only the soul can truly live. They carry in their lives an assurance of the holy principles received from the Word--their lives are worked by the power of the Holy Spirit, and they have an earnest of the immortality that will be theirs through the death and resurrection of Christ. Should the earthly body decay, the principles of their faith sustain them, for they are partakers of the divine nature. Because Christ was raised from the dead, they grasp the pledge of their resurrection, and eternal life is their reward.
UL	78	5	This truth is an eternal truth, because Christ Himself taught it. He has engaged to raise the righteous dead, for He gave His life for the life of the world. "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me" (John 6:57). "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger" (Verse 35).--Letter 82, March 5, 1907, to O. A. Olsen, president, Australasian Union Conference.
------------------------Work, For the Night Cometh, March 6
UL	79	1	The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. John 5:36.
UL	79	2	The signs of the times fulfilling all around us show us that the end of all things is at hand. Intense earnestness should take possession of us. Our slumbering energies should be aroused by persevering effort.
UL	79	3	Consecrated workers should go forth into the field, and move understandingly forward, clearing the King's highway, obtaining victories in new places. Let the Lord's workers labor in faith and trust. Some for whom they work will listen to the message and accept the truth. Let them do what God has commanded them to do. Proportionate to their faith will be their success. The Scriptures declare: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord" (James 1:5-7).
UL	79	4	How strange it is that those who have had the light of truth for so many years have not carried the torch of truth into the dark places of the earth. The whole world is astir. The Lord calls upon His people to awake out of sleep. My brethren and sisters, stop criticizing others, but criticize severely your own words and motives. We have no time to spend in using the enemy's methods.... Envy, malice, hatred, unbelief, which have been growing into sturdy plants in the garden of the soul, are to be uprooted and cast out, and their place supplied by love, patience, forbearance, kindness, benevolence, tenderheartedness, meekness....
UL	79	5	While the men of the world are idolizing money, and making it their trust, the Lord in His providence has brought forth from His treasure house a precious treasure, and has placed it within the reach of all. He has given His people an opportunity to take to their friends and neighbors and to strangers a book [Christ's Object Lessons] containing the precious lessons of Christ....
UL	79	6	Christ has placed upon His church a sacred charge, the fulfilling of which calls for self-denial at every step. When those who believe in Him are seen lifting the cross and bearing it after Him in the path of self-denial, willingly doing all in their power to bring blessing to those for whom Christ died, witness will be borne to the power of Christianity, and in the hearts of many now unbelievers will spring up faith in Him who gave His life to save a guilty world from eternal ruin.--Letter 43, March 6, 1903, to Lucinda Hall, one of Ellen White's closest friends.
------------------------Prayer--The Secret of Power, March 7
UL	80	1	And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. Luke 6:12.
UL	80	2	In Luke we read of Christ, "It came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God" (chap. 6:12). Men of the world often spend whole nights planning, in order to secure success; and Jesus spent many nights in prayer. He was alone with His Father, earnestly seeking the Lord with strong crying and tears. He seemed to be in an agony of distress. Why was this? He had come to His vineyard to claim His own, but He was rejected, abused. They [His enemies] were then laying plans to crucify Him. He was more and more ... beset by satanic agencies. The resistance shown by the priests and rulers to His work corresponded to the convincing evidences of His divinity. They were jealous of Him because He possessed a power that drew the people to Him. His tongue was like the pen of a ready writer. He was the very treasure house of knowledge, and His parables and illustrations made the truth plain to the unlearned. Under His teaching those who could not learn the truth from books could learn it from nature.
UL	80	3	But those who had been entrusted with the oracles of God, that they might be faithful expositors of the Scriptures, rejected and denied the Teacher sent from heaven. Christ saw that their spirit and principles were entirely contrary to the Scriptures. He saw that the Word of God was misinterpreted and misapplied. He saw how difficult it would be to instruct the people to read the Scriptures correctly, when their teachers read them in the light of their perverted judgment. What could He do to soften and subdue their hearts? This was the burden of His prayer.
UL	80	4	The Jewish people might have repented, if they would, but they were clothed with the garments of their own self-righteousness. They claimed to be the descendants of Abraham, and looked upon every promise made to Israel as theirs. But the Israel of God are those who are converted, not those who are the lineal descendants of Abraham. "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God" (Romans 3:1, 2). "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God" (chap. 2:28, 29).--Manuscript 31a, March 7, 1898, "His Own Received Him Not."
------------------------Make God First, Last, and Best in Everything, March 8
UL	81	1	Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 1 Corinthians 4:1, 2.
UL	81	2	Those who act a part in the work of God do good only because God is behind them, doing the work. Shall we then praise men, and give thanks to man, neglecting to recognize God? If we do, God will not cooperate with us. When man puts himself first and God second, he shows that he is losing his wisdom and righteousness. All that is ever done toward restoring the moral image of God in man is done because God is the efficiency of the worker. Christ declares in His prayer to His Father, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3).
UL	81	3	Let every steward understand that as he strives to advance the glory of God in our world, whether he stands before infidels or princes, he is to make God first and last and best in everything. The true Christian will realize that he has a right to his name only as he uplifts Christ with a steady, persevering, and ever-increasing force....
UL	81	4	"It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful" (1 Corinthians 4:2). When we are faithful in making God known, our impulses will be under divine supervision, and we shall make steady growth, spiritually and intellectually. But when men enter into a confederacy to exalt men, and have little to say of God, they are weakness itself. God will leave those who do not recognize Him in every effort made to uplift humanity. It is Christ's power alone that can restore broken-down human machinery. Everywhere and in every place let those around you see that you give God the glory. Let man be put in the shade, let God appear as the only hope of the human race. Every man must rivet his building to the eternal Rock, Christ Jesus; then it will stand amid storm and tempest.
UL	81	5	God prepares the mind to recognize Him who alone can help the striving, struggling soul. He will educate all who stand under His banner to be faithful stewards of His grace. Man cannot show greater weakness than by thinking he will find more acceptance in the sight of men if he leaves God out of his assemblies. God must stand the highest. The wisdom of the greatest man is foolishness with Him.
UL	81	6	God has given to man immortal principles, to which every human power must one day bow. We have truth that has been given us in trust. The precious beams of this light are not to be hid under a bushel, but are to give light to all that are in the house.--Manuscript 21, March 8, 1899, "Give Unto the Lord the Glory Due Unto His Name."
------------------------The Plan of Battle Revealed, March 9
UL	82	1	We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12.
UL	82	2	Our heavenly Father is presented to us in the character of Christ. In Him the veil is drawn aside which conceals the glory of God from our eyes. The Bible shows us God in His high and holy place, not in a state of inactivity, not in silence and solitude, but surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of holy intelligences, every one waiting to do His bidding, and taking cognizance of every wrong action against those who are the property of God....
UL	82	3	Let those who manifest so little unselfish interest in the purchase of the blood of Christ remember that the Lord will treat them as indifferently as they have treated their fellow men in their trouble. Every act of injustice and robbery and oppression is written in the books. Everyone who takes advantage of human beings formed in God's image is cooperating with the great enemy of God and man and he shall receive at the hand of God double for all these works. The work of Satan is continually driven on with terrible vindictiveness, and men participate with evil angels in wounding and bruising the souls of God's people. The Lord sees; the Lord hears the cries of His children.
UL	82	4	The Lord has not concealed from His followers the plan of the battle. He has presented before His people the great conflict, and He has given them words of encouragement. He charges them not to enter into the battle without counting the cost, while He assures them that they do not fight alone, but that supernatural agencies will enable the weak, if they trust in Him, to become strong against the vast confederacy of evil arrayed against them. He points them to the universe of heaven, and assures them that holy beings are wrestling against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places.
UL	82	5	The children of God are cooperating with all the invisible host of light. And more than angels are in their ranks; the Holy Spirit, the representative of the Captain of the Lord's host, comes down to direct the battle. Our infirmities may be many, our mistakes and sins numerous, but forgiveness is for all who, with contrition of heart, will confess and forsake their sins. Angels of light are sent to render them all the help that is required.--Letter 102a, March 9, 1896, to O. A. Tait, at the time circulation manager of the Review and Herald.
------------------------Let This Mind Be in You, March 10
UL	83	1	Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:5-7.
UL	83	2	Daniel was but a youth when carried away captive into Babylon. He was about fifteen or sixteen years old, for he is called a child, which means that he was in his youth. Why did Daniel refuse to eat at the king's luxurious table? Why did he refuse the use of wine as his beverage, when it was at the king's command that it was placed before him? He knew that by use wine would become to him a pleasant thing, and would be preferred before water.
UL	83	3	Daniel could have argued that at the royal table and at the king's command, there was no other course for him to pursue. But he and his fellows had a council together. They canvassed the entire subject as to how they would improve their physical and mental powers by the use of wine. They studied this subject most diligently. The wine of itself, they decided, was a snare. They were acquainted with the history of Nadab and Abihu, which had come to them in parchments. In these men the use of wine had encouraged their love for it. They drank wine before their sacred service in the sanctuary. Their senses were confused. They could not distinguish the difference between the sacred and the common fire. In their brain-benumbed state they did that which the Lord had charged all who served in holy office not to do. They put the common fire upon their censers, when they had been expressly charged to use only the sacred fire of the Lord's own kindling, that never went out....
UL	83	4	A second consideration of these youthful captives was that the king always asked a blessing before his meals, and addressed his idols as deity. He set apart a portion of his food, and also a portion of his wine to be presented to the idol gods whom he worshiped. This act, according to their religious instruction, consecrated the whole to the heathen god. To sit at the table where such idolatry was practiced, Daniel and his three brethren deemed, would be a dishonor to the God of heaven. These four children decided that they could not sit at the king's table, to eat of the food placed there, or to partake of the wine, all of which had been dedicated to an idol god.... There was no presumption with these youth, but a firm love for truth and righteousness. They did not choose to be singular, but they must be, else they would corrupt their ways in the courts of Babylon.--Manuscript 122, March 10, 1897, "Daniel."
------------------------The Ministry of Angels, March 11
UL	84	1	And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 2 Kings 6:17.
UL	84	2	How few contemplate the unseen agencies. Men are acting their part either for God or for Satan, the Prince of light, or the prince of darkness. All heaven is intensely interested in human beings who seem to be so full of activity, and yet have no thought for the unseen. Their thoughts are not on the Word of God and its instruction. If they would appropriate the Word of God, they would be astonished that there are agencies, good and evil, observing every word and deed. They are in every assembly for business transactions, in councils, and in meetings for the worship of God. There are more listeners in these public assemblies than can be seen with the natural sight, and every man has his work to do. Those unseen agencies are co-laborers with God or with Satan, and they work more mightily and more constantly than do men. Sometimes the heavenly intelligences draw aside the curtain that hides the unseen world, that we may have our minds withdrawn from the hurry and rush, and consider that there are witnesses to all we do and say when we [are] engaged in business, or when we think ourselves alone.
UL	84	3	The Lord would have our perceptions keen to understand that these mighty ones who visit our world have borne an active part in all the work which we have called our own. These heavenly beings are ministering angels, and they frequently disguise themselves in the form of human beings. As strangers they converse with those who are engaged in the work of God. In lonely places they have been the companions of the traveler in peril. In tempest-tossed ships angels in human form have spoken words of encouragement to allay fear and inspire hope in the hour of danger, and the passengers have thought that it was one of their number to whom they had never before spoken.
UL	84	4	Many, under different circumstances, have listened to the voices of the inhabitants of other worlds. They have come to act a part in this life. They have spoken in assemblies, and opened before assemblies human histories, and have done works which it was impossible for human agencies to do. Time and again have they been the generals of armies. They have been sent forth to cleanse away pestilence. They have eaten at the humble board of families. Often they have appeared as weary travelers in need of shelter for the night.
UL	84	5	We need to understand better than we do the work of these angel visitants.--Manuscript 39, March 11, 1898, "The Day of Reckoning."
------------------------God's Work--Our Commitment, March 12
UL	85	1	To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19.
UL	85	2	However large may be a man's claim to knowledge, to wisdom, unless he is under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, he is exceedingly ignorant of spiritual things. He may handle truth in such a way that little understanding is imparted to his inner heart life ....
UL	85	3	Place your entire dependence on the One who is able to keep the souls committed to His trust, able to imbue them with His Spirit, able to fill them with unselfish love for one another, thus enabling them to bear witness that He has sent His Son into the world to save sinners ....
UL	85	4	The root of all true self-sacrifice is an affection for the Lord Jesus so strong that it makes the wearing of His yoke easy and pleasant, and leads men to choose to learn His meekness and lowliness ....
UL	85	5	God's servants have one common work. Their aim is to be to convert people to the pure truth of the Word of God. They are not to attach men to themselves, so that they will echo everything they may say, and carry out all the suggestions they may make.
UL	85	6	Christ is the foundation of every true church. All who are brought to a new faith are to be established on Him. The plain, simple truths of the gospel are to be kept before minds. Christ crucified as the atonement for sin is the great central truth of the gospel, round which all truths cluster. To this great truth all other truths are tributary.
UL	85	7	All truths, rightly understood, derive their value and importance from their connection with this truth. The apostle Paul makes this fact stand out in royal dignity. He calls the minds of all teachers of the Word to the importance of pointing souls to Christ as the only means of salvation. "God forbid that I should glory," he says, "save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14) ....
UL	85	8	Let not man seek to fasten minds to himself. God Himself is the Founder of His church, and we have His unalterable promise that His presence and protection will be given to His faithful ones, who walk in His counsel. To the end of time, Christ is to be first. He is the source of life and strength and righteousness and holiness. All this He is to those who wear His yoke, and learn of Him how to be meek and lowly. He will not tolerate self-exaltation.--Letter 39, March 12, 1902, to Elder E. E. Franke, an evangelist.
------------------------Searching the Scriptures, March 13
UL	86	1	All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 3:16, 17.
UL	86	2	Scripture is the key that unlocks Scripture. The suppositions of men are worthless. Great care is to be exercised, lest human fallacies be brought in. Every student is to be educated to give a clear exposition of the Word, according to the example Christ has given in His teaching. He said nothing to gratify curiosity or to stimulate selfish ambition. He did not deal in abstract theories, but in that which is essential to the development of character, that which will enlarge man's capacity for knowing God, and increase his power to do good. He spoke of those truths that relate to the conduct of life, and that unite man with eternity. We read that the common people heard Him gladly. The people "were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power" (Luke 4:32).
UL	86	3	We need not tax our minds for some farfetched explanation of the words of Scripture. Thus the Jewish teachers did. They quoted the ideas and traditions of the rabbis, confusing the minds of their hearers. They taught for doctrine the commandments of men. We are not to seek for revelations that have not been made in the Word of God. In the simplicity of Christ we are to present the plain teaching of the Bible. Men in high positions of trust in the world will be charmed by a plain, straightforward, scriptural statement of truth.
UL	86	4	I have been instructed that the churches have not been advancing in a knowledge of the truth for this time, but that if the teachers of truth will take up the work clearly marked out in the Scriptures, the feet of many will be planted firmly on the platform of eternal truth. Many will know more than ever before of the truth that has been given for these last days....
UL	86	5	Let every step taken be a step of advancement toward genuine conversion, toward unreserved consecration of heart, mind, soul, and strength to the service of the Lord. Let all that is done tend to genuine reformation in thought, in word, in deed, in character building. Let the true be discerned from the false. Do not allow the enemy to lead you to weave wrong figures into the pattern. Keep the love of Christ prominent before the children and youth. Repeat to them often His simple lessons.--Letter 111, March 13, 1904, to Elder G. I. Butler, at the time president of the Southern Union.
------------------------God, the Guardian of Justice and Mercy, March 14
UL	87	1	For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. 2 Chronicles 16:9.
UL	87	2	Every worker should now consecrate himself to the work of God and carry out in his daily life the principles of the Word of God. My brethren and sisters, put away from you those peculiar traits of character that cause you to be easily disturbed, and be cleansed and purified. Die to self, and let Christ live in you. Walk humbly with God, and let correct principles mark your lives....
UL	87	3	Let the Word be your guide, your rule of conduct. It will teach you refined manners, godly conduct, and unerring judgment. Study the Word. When you are in perplexity, search the Word for instruction that is suited to your case. Seek the Lord for guidance. Never entertain that which the Lord forbids in His Word, and that which His Word requires, ever seek to do. "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39).
UL	87	4	Christ came to establish reforms, and to draw all men unto Him. His will is to be done in earth as it is in heaven. When you have determined what reforms need to be carried out, labor with persevering, fearless courage to that end. Do not expect to carry out the pure, uplifting principles of true reform without meeting opposition. God's Word plainly teaches that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution from those who seek to tear down what God declares to be truth and righteousness....
UL	87	5	There is no action of our lives in which God is not concerned, no interest which is not precious in His sight. "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," He declares (Matthew 28:20). God is the shield and buckler of His people. He spreads His hands above His trusting children, and no one can wound a child of His without smiting the hand of God.
UL	87	6	God is also the guardian of justice and mercy. He regards the way in which we treat our fellow workers. We cannot hide from Him the smallest act that affects the rights of one of His heritage. He will vindicate His righteousness before all who would take advantage of or wrong a fellow being. He discerns the motive that prompts to every action.... As the professed followers of One who is the guardian of truth and righteousness, you are to hold the truth in its purity. In every act of the daily life, you are to reveal a strict sense of right and justice.--Letter 94, March 14, 1907, to the workers in Boulder Sanitarium.
------------------------Time for Action, March 15
UL	88	1	Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Isaiah 58:1.
UL	88	2	The time has come when things must be called by their right names. The truth is to triumph gloriously, and those who have long been halting between two opinions must take their stand decidedly for or against the law of God. Some will take up with theories that misinterpret the Word of God, and undermine the foundation of the truth that has been firmly established, point by point, and sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit. The old truths are to be revived, in order that the false theories that have been brought in by the enemy may be intelligently met. There can be no unity between truth and error. We can unite with those who have been led into deception only when they are converted.
UL	88	3	There is a God, and I am commissioned to say that His truth must be vindicated, that the evil, seductive theories that are coming in may be uprooted. Many minds have been taken captive, because for years they have placed their confidence in someone who has prepared a dish of scientific fables to suit their appetite.
UL	88	4	We may well be alarmed at the crisis that is upon us. God's law has been transgressed, and the result is seen in the misrule and lawlessness that floods the world. Human lives are regarded as of little value. The spirit of disaffection is running riot.
UL	88	5	The inhabitants of the Noachian world were destroyed because, after being granted a period of one hundred and twenty years in which to choose between the evil and the good, they deliberately chose to follow their own wicked ways. Because they did not avail themselves of the opportunity God gave them to repent and turn to Him, they were destroyed by the flood.
UL	88	6	Once again, before the great destruction of the world by fire, there is granted a period of test and trial. Men are given opportunity to show whether or not they will be loyal to God. Satan is seeking to lead men in positions of trust to seek the regeneration of the world by plans of their own devising. These men desire to be reformers, but they fail because they do not work in Christ's lines. Can they reform others, when they cannot reform themselves? ...
UL	88	7	As God's witnesses, we have a message to bear to all the world. The Lord has many children who have never heard the truth for this time. God's servants must give them the final warning.--Letter 121, March 15, 1905, to J. E. White.
------------------------God's Grace Gives Power to Overcome, March 16
UL	89	1	The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Titus 2:11.
UL	89	2	I am watching and waiting for the coming of my Lord. I have not only to wait and watch and pray, but must work most diligently as well. Every action of our lives, in our business transactions with our fellow men, is to be regulated by the law of God, and we cannot then swerve from right and justice toward our fellow men under any circumstance; for the Lord will not serve with any man's sins that would injure his neighbor. With our faces heavenward, breathing out our petitions to God, developing an unselfish love for our fellow men, because we have supreme love for Jesus Christ, who has bought them with His own blood, we rise superior to the most grievous, subtle temptations. Humble dependence upon God is our surety and our power. "My soul, wait thou upon God, who is the light of my countenance and my God" (cf. Psalm 62:5; 43:5)....
UL	89	3	In every instance those with whom we associate are to be treated, if in humble circumstances with great deference and respect, because they have so little to make life happy, and because they need help. Souls are too precious to be trifled with. They are God's purchased possession. Those who are passed by as inferior, the Lord will see set in high places, if they trust in Him.
UL	89	4	The grace of God takes men as they are, and works as an educator, using every principle on which an all-sided education depends. The steady influence of the grace of God trains the soul after Christ's methods, and every fierce passion, every defective trait of character is worked upon by the molding influence of the spirit of Christ, until new motive power becomes filled with the Holy Spirit of God, after the likeness of the divine similitude.
UL	89	5	Never forget that thoughts work out actions. Repeated actions form habits, and habits form character. Then in giving attention to the little things, there is no fear that the larger things will become stained and corrupted.
UL	89	6	The Bible is to be the rule of life. It is marvelous in the eyes of the universe of heaven that men who teach the Word do not always practice the truth. Few realize what it means to be complete in Christ Jesus, the revealed will of God. His Word is not dishonored by being brought into practical life to form habits which will develop character.--Letter 85, March 16, 1896, to O. A. Olsen, General Conference president.
------------------------We May Overcome as Christ Overcame, March 17
UL	90	1	[He] was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
UL	90	2	Christ, at an infinite cost, by a painful process, mysterious to angels as well as to men, assumed humanity. Hiding His divinity, laying aside His glory, He was born a babe in Bethlehem. In human flesh He lived the law of God, that He might condemn sin in the flesh, and bear witness to heavenly intelligences that the law was ordained to life and to ensure the happiness, peace, and eternal good of all who obey....
UL	90	3	This is the mystery of godliness, that One equal with the Father should clothe His divinity with humanity, and laying aside all the glory of His office as Commander in heaven, [should] descend step after step in the path of humiliation, enduring severe and still more severe abasement. Sinless and undefiled, He stood in the judgment hall, to be tried, to have His case investigated and pronounced upon by the very nation He had delivered from slavery. The Lord of glory was rejected and condemned, yea, spat upon. With contempt for what they regarded as His pretentious claims, men smote Him in the face....
UL	90	4	Pilate pronounced Christ innocent, declaring that he found no fault in Him. Yet to please the Jews, he commanded Him to be scourged and then delivered Him up, bruised and bleeding, to suffer the cruel death of crucifixion. The Majesty of heaven was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and amid scoffing and jeers, ridicule and false accusation, He was nailed to the cross. The crowd, in whose hearts humanity seemed to be dead, sought to aggravate the cruel sufferings of the Son of God by their revilings. But as a sheep before His shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. He was giving His life for the life of the world, that all who believed in Him should not perish....
UL	90	5	Christ bore the sins of the whole world. He endured our punishment--the wrath of God against transgression. His trial involved the fierce temptation of thinking that He was forsaken by God. His soul was tortured by the pressure of a horror of great darkness.... He could not have been tempted in all points like as man is tempted had there been no possibility of His failing. He was a free agent, placed on probation, as was Adam and as is man. Unless there is a possibility of yielding, temptation is no temptation. Temptation comes and is resisted when man is powerfully influenced to do a wrong action, and knowing that he can do it, resists by faith, with a firm hold upon divine power.--Manuscript 29, March 17, 1899, "Sacrificed for Us."
------------------------Call for Workers, March 18
UL	91	1	For the Son of man is a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Mark 13:34.
UL	91	2	The angels of God are ready and waiting to go with humble men who with their Bibles in their hands will go to those who have not had this light, and read to them a "Thus saith the Lord."
UL	91	3	Those who have the gift of song are needed. The melody of praise is the atmosphere of heaven. Often by the words of sacred songs, the springs of penitence and faith have been unsealed. Song is one of the most effective means of impressing spiritual truth upon the heart.
UL	91	4	Let little companies of workers go out as the Lord's missionaries, and do as Christ commissioned the first disciples to do. Let them go into the different parts of our cities, two and two, and give the Lord's message of warning. Tell the people the story of Creation, and how at the close of His work the Lord rested upon and blessed the Sabbath day, setting it apart as a memorial of His work.
UL	91	5	Church members young and old should be educated to go forth to proclaim this last message to the world. If they will go in humility, angels of God will go with them, teaching them to lift up the voice in prayer, how to raise the voice in song, and how to proclaim the gospel message for this time. We have not a moment to lose....
UL	91	6	Who will take up this work of teaching Bible truth to old and young? Who will carry the message, following Christ's plan of labor? ... Many there are in every city who feel the need of gospel shepherds. We need men who will read the truth, practice the truth, and explain the truth.
UL	91	7	Brethren, Christ calls you. Will you heed His voice? Will you become His messengers? Will you seek the sheep that are lost? Will you teach the Word in all humility and earnestness to those who will hear?
UL	91	8	Young men and women, take up the work to which God calls you. Tell the wondrous story of the cross. Christ will lead you, and teach you to use your abilities to good purpose. As you receive the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit, and you seek to teach others, your minds will be refreshed, and you will be enabled to present words that are new and strangely beautiful to your hearers. Pray, and sing, and speak the word....
UL	91	9	Spiritual freedom will come to those who consecrate themselves unreservedly, and the quickening grace of Christ will bring light and peace and joy. The saving influence of truth will sanctify the soul of the receiver.--Letter 108, March 18, 1907, to "Our Brethren in Graysville, Tennessee."
------------------------Never Go Back on Your Commitment, March 19
UL	92	1	Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:9, 10.
UL	92	2	Let not those who have made pledges to carry on the work of God repent of their vows, and withhold that which they have given. Those who have taken upon themselves the responsibility of annulling a pledge that has been made to God are assuming to do that for which they will not care to account in the day of final reckoning. The counsel of men who would at this time advise that means be withheld from the cause of God and invested in other enterprises should be rejected, for the Lord says to you, "Lay up your treasure in heaven." "Invest your means to advance My work, to open new fields, that the light of present truth may shine to all parts of the world."
UL	92	3	How munificent was the Gift that God gave to the human race. He "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). The Lord Jesus gave His life for the world, that man might have a perfect example. Laying off His royal robe and kingly crown, He came to earth as a man. He was tempted in all points as man is tempted, but not once did He fail to follow the path He had chosen. He was kept by the power of God, upheld by the One who will be the helper of all who love Him and keep His commandments.
UL	92	4	Christ lived the simple life of a poor man's son, and thus became acquainted with the childhood life of the poor. And when, during His ministry, children were brought to Him that He might bless them, He thought of the mother who gave Him birth, and honored the mothers of these children, blessing them and their children also. Christ gave Himself to a life of humiliation and poverty, that He might be able, from childhood to manhood, to leave to all an example of what life should mean to every member of the human family.
UL	92	5	All who have become children of God are to do all in their power to seek and to save the lost sheep. They are to make use of every possible means to give sinners the word of life and the saving grace of Christ. Believers in the truth are ever to remember the sacrifice that Christ made in order that He might, in taking humanity, be an example to all human beings.--Letter 104, March 19, 1907, to "Those Making Large Gifts to the Cause of Present Truth."
------------------------Jealousy and Avarice Rebuked, March 20
UL	93	1	They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 1 Timothy 6:9.
UL	93	2	Many years ago some things were presented before me in vision in relation to you and your family. One year ago last June, as different families who erred in some things were presented before me, you, in connection with your husband and children, were again presented before me and I was referred back years in the past. I saw you watching your husband with a sort of jealous fear. His heart was devoted to you, yet you feared that he would think too much of others who had no claim to his affections.... Your fears were groundless. Yet this fear has been with you through your married life. You have passed through many hours of unnecessary suffering, scrutinizing the words and acts of your husband with a censuring mind, putting a wrong construction upon them.
UL	93	3	Satan was ever ready to do his part to ... mar the happiness of a family which might be complete. I saw that this spirit of jealousy was cruel as the grave, and caused an estrangement of feeling between husband and wife. In time the children very often understood their mother's feelings. Her sadness and trouble awakened sympathy in their hearts, and they ... became separated in a greater or less degree from [their] father. All this unhappiness was borrowed. Satan has magnified innocent words and acts into a fault.... Letter 9, 1864.
UL	93	4	You [too] have a work to do, Brother P----- [the husband], to get rid of your supreme selfishness. You are growing too close and love money so well that every penny looks large to you and the whole generosity of your character is changed to love of money, a desire to accumulate and lay up. You have gained some money, but oh, at what a loss! What an expense! The saving power of faith and the truth has been cruelly sacrificed.
UL	93	5	Brethren in present truth should let these uncertain enterprises [investing in patent rights] alone. Seek some steady employment, even if the income is small, and do not be given to much change. Many of our brethren involve themselves by engaging in patent rights which look promising to them; but after they are caught in the snare they find themselves disappointed, and their means gone--means which should have been used to support their family and advance the cause of present truth. Then come remorse, self-reproach, and regret, and some conscientious ones cast away their confidence and lose their spiritual enjoyment, and in consequence their health.--Letter 9, 1863, to an early Advent believer.
------------------------Religion in the Home, March 21
UL	94	1	Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6.
UL	94	2	The educational influences of the home life are a decided power for good or for ill. These influences are in many respects silent and gradual, but, if exerted on the side of right, they are full of preciousness. Christ came to this world to be our pattern, to show by precept and example the characters all must have who compose the family of God. He came to bless and save the human race, and to raise men and women to be sons and daughters of God. To this end He humbled Himself, stepping from the highest to the lowliest position.
UL	94	3	In the councils of heaven it was decided that the mother of the Redeemer should be a pure, pious virgin, though poor as far as earthly riches were concerned. The despised village of Nazareth was chosen as His home. Joseph, His earthly father, was a carpenter, and He who had given direction that every youth in Israel should learn a trade, learned Himself the trade of a carpenter. None need be ashamed of honest poverty. For thirty years Christ was subject to His parents, and by the labor of His hands He helped to sustain the family. Thus He would teach that labor is not a degradation, but an honor, and that it is every man's duty to engage in useful, honorable work....
UL	94	4	It is a solemn, serious work to care for those for whom Christ has died, to teach children not to lavish their affections upon the things of this world, not to waste time and labor on that which is worth less than nothing. In order to educate their children aright, mothers must be learners in the school of Christ. The Christian mother will spend much time in prayer, for in the home children are to be taught to be true to the government of God. With patience and forbearance they are to be trained. Scolding and passionate reproof will never work reforms. Fathers and mothers commit a grievous sin when they educate their children to give way to a temper by giving way [to temper] themselves and by training them according to wrong methods. Children are to be disciplined in a way that will enable them to take their place in the family of heaven....
UL	94	5	A true mother's heart of sympathy goes out for all with whom she comes in contact. With a determined effort she seeks to turn wayward souls to Christ. In His strength she is enabled to do much. And those who have no children have responsibilities to bear. In most cases they may receive to their homes children who are orphaned and homeless. These they may train for Christ's sake to practice those virtues so much needed in our world.--Manuscript 34, March 21, 1899, "The Home Life."
------------------------Seeing with Heavenly Insight, March 22
UL	95	1	He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8.
UL	95	2	A constant battle is going on between satanic agencies and heavenly intelligences. Satan is playing the game of life for the souls of men. If all could see the undercurrent of specious temptations, if they could realize the apparently heavenly appearance of satanic deceptions, far greater caution would be shown. There would be far more distrust of human wisdom and far more dependence upon God. But, when our spiritual eyesight is blinded, we do not discover the marked incidents that have taken place to turn the footsteps of God's people from safe paths into paths that are slippery and unreliable.
UL	95	3	The Lord would mold and fashion the life aright, and establish the feet upon the Rock of Ages. But, when men are self-centered and self-exalted, the angels sorrow, for they know that seeds of tares will be dropped into the minds of others, to spring up and produce their crop. The only safety for any soul is to walk humbly with God. Then men will watch unto prayer. They pray [merely] with the lips, when the heart does not unite with the prayer....
UL	95	4	Many have so beclouded their own minds with self-importance, that they have been very confident, where they would do well to be distrustful and cautious. If men could see how easily self and spiritual pride become woven with supposed devotion to the work of God, and how, when this takes place, they are left to mar the work, and set the weaver's pattern all awry, they would pray, "Anoint mine eyes with the heavenly eyesalve, that I may see all things correctly."
UL	95	5	Unless there is increased humility of heart and purity of action, things will be done that will lead to a whole train of mistakes. One mis-move, because of a lack of faith, has led to many disastrous circumstances. It does not appear such a great evil to let Satan rule and obtain the victory in little things, even when eternal interests are involved. But one misstep leads to a succession of missteps, and then to jealousy, and evil surmisings of the very one and the very things that God would have succeed.
UL	95	6	When will the people of God learn wisdom? The true religion of Jesus Christ has first to do with the mercy and grace of God in our daily experiences. God in Christ is ever nigh us; yes, nigh unto all them that call upon Him in simplicity and sincerity, realizing their great need of that wisdom that comes down from above.--Manuscript 43, March 22, 1898, "Remember the Former Things of Old."
------------------------God, the Revealer of Secrets, March 23
UL	96	1	The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29.
UL	96	2	In past ages the Lord God of heaven revealed His secrets to His prophets, and this He does still. The present and the future are equally clear to Him, and He shows to His servants the future history of what shall be. The Omniscient looked down the ages, and predicted through His prophets the rise and fall of kingdoms, hundreds of years before the events foretold took place. The voice of God echoes down the ages, telling man what is to take place. Kings and princes take their places at their appointed time. They think they are carrying out their own purposes, but in reality they are fulfilling the word God has given through His prophets. They act their part in carrying out God's great purposes. Events fall into line, fulfilling the word God has spoken.
UL	96	3	The unbelieving and godless do not discern the signs of the times. In ignorance they may refuse to accept the Inspired Record. But, when professed Christians speak sneeringly of the ways and means employed by the great I AM to make His ways and purposes known, they show themselves to be both ignorant of the Scriptures and of the power of God.
UL	96	4	The Creator knows just what elements He has to deal with in human nature. He knows what means to employ to obtain the desired end. The Christian who accepts the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, will look at Bible history in its true bearing. The past--the history of the Jewish economy from beginning to the end--instead of being spoken of contemptuously and sneered at as "the dark ages," will reveal light, and still more light, as it is studied.
UL	96	5	Man's word fails, and he who takes the assertions of man as his dependence may well tremble, for he will one day be as a shipwrecked vessel. But God's Word is infallible and endures forever. Christ declares, "Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18). God's Word will endure through the ceaseless ages of eternity.
UL	96	6	God lives and reigns. His glory is not confined to temples made with hands. He has not closed heaven against His people. As in the Jewish age, so in this age, God reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets.--Manuscript 39, March 23, 1899, "Loyalty or Disloyalty."
------------------------Gifted With a Higher Nature, March 24
UL	97	1	For our conversation is in heaven: from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Philippians 3:20, 21.
UL	97	2	There will soon be a new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. The Lord has instructed me that our physical and mental and moral powers will, under the Holy Spirit's guidance, be trained to carry on the work in all purity, in all goodness, without one thread of Satan's science brought in to spoil the pattern Christ has given us. The powers and faculties that have been sanctified in righteousness will be employed, strengthened, and prepared to do the works of Heaven's appointment.
UL	97	3	He that used the two talents entrusted in this life, will, in the future life, show that his talents have not been corrupted. They will be used on a wider and nobler plan in the future life. There is appointed to every man his certain work. Those who are partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruptions which are in the world through lust, will reveal a purified life in this time of preparation for the higher life. They commence to live the life of the heavenly order here below, and carry the divine nature with them into every line of work. No swindlers have a place in the heavenly courts. No falsifiers, no liars, no adulterers, no cruel-minded persons will be there. They will never see His face.
UL	97	4	When Christ comes, He takes those who have purified their souls by obeying the truth. Some will go into the grave who are now in active life, and some will be alive and be changed when Christ shall come. This mortal shall put on immortality and these corruptible bodies, subject to disease, will be changed from mortal to immortal. We shall then be gifted with a higher nature. The bodies of all who purify their souls by obeying the truth shall be glorified....
UL	97	5	Heaven is full of the glory of God. What can I say that will awaken the almost spiritually paralyzed sensibilities of many young and those of mature age that will break the spell of the artful deceiver which is upon them--that they may see what losses they are sustaining in not employing all the powers of their mind, soul, and strength to do the commandments of God in sincerely using all the gifts they may attain in sanctified spiritual action--that they may be prepared to become members of the royal family, perfecting their Christian character for the noble use above.--Manuscript 36, March 24, 1906, "A Solemn Warning."
------------------------Christ Taught from Nature, March 25
UL	98	1	If then God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? Luke 12:28.
UL	98	2	God encourages us to contemplate His works in the natural world. He desires that we shall turn our mind from the study of the artificial to the natural. We shall understand this better as we lift up our eyes to the hills of God, and contemplate the works which His own hands have created. They are God's work. His hand has molded the mountains and balances them in their position, that they shall not be moved except at His command. The wind, the sun, the rain, the snow, and the ice are all His ministers to do His will.
UL	98	3	Can we be surprised, then, that Christ, who made all things, should choose the open air as His sanctuary; that He should desire to be surrounded by the works of His creation? ... Jesus drew His lessons of spiritual instruction from the natural things with which His hearers were familiar. These He used to represent the truth. He would pluck the lilies, the flower of the valley, and place them in the hands of the little children, and by these simple instructors proclaim the truth of His Word. The Word of God and the things of nature around us are our lesson book. God has spread out before our senses the beauties of nature, and He watches with pleasure and a Father's joy the delight of His children in the beautiful things around them.
UL	98	4	The root of the tree has a double office to fill. It is to hold fast by its tendrils to the earth, while it takes to itself the nourishment desired. Thus it is with the Christian. When his union with Christ, the parent stalk, is complete, when he feeds upon Him, currents of spiritual strength are given to the branches. Can the leaves of such a branch wither? Never. As long as the soul reaches toward Christ, there is little danger that the leaves will wilt and droop and decay. And the temptations which may come in like a tempest will not uproot him. The true Christian draws his motives of action from his deep love for his Redeemer. His affection for his Master is true and holy. And it is the cheerful, lovable Christian of whom Christ says, "Ye are my witnesses" (Isaiah 43:10)....
UL	98	5	Those who have fled to God for refuge; those who have believed the heaven-sent message, who believe the assurance that, if they confess their sins, He is faithful and just to forgive them their sins, God will cleanse from all unrighteousness. Our God has pledged His word by His own greatness and infinity that He will bestow pardon and peace upon all who will come to Him in the name of Jesus.--Manuscript 16, March 25, 1897, "Principles of Education."
------------------------Our Christian Experience Must Be Animated, March 26
UL	99	1	I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Revelation 3:18, 19.
UL	99	2	Our conscience must be purged from dead works to serve the living God. Sanctification means perfect love, perfect obedience, entire conformity to the will of God. If our lives are conformed to the life of Christ through the sanctification of mind, soul, and body, our example will have a powerful influence on the world. We are not perfect, but it is our privilege to cut away from the entanglements of self and sin, and go on unto perfection....
UL	99	3	Great possibilities, high and holy attainments, are placed within the reach of all who have true faith. Shall we not anoint our eyes with eyesalve, that we may discern the wondrous things here brought before us? Why do we not with persevering earnestness, work out this prayer, advancing onward and upward, reaching the standard of holiness? We are laborers together with God, and we must work in harmony with one another and with God, "for it is God which worketh in ... [us] both to will and to do of his good pleasure." ...
UL	99	4	The Lord takes no pleasure in seeing us spiritually weak. "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." We have conflicts and trials to meet, but we need not fail or be discouraged....
UL	99	5	God can only be honored when we who profess to believe in Him are conformed to His image. We are to represent to the world the beauty of holiness, and we shall never enter the gates of the city of God until we perfect a Christlike character. If we, with trust in God, strive for sanctification, we shall receive it. Then as witnesses for Christ, we are to make known what the grace of God has wrought in us.
UL	99	6	The greatest disquietude we can have is uncertainty. The acceptance of the blessings of God brings righteousness and peace. The fruit of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. We must have simplicity and Godlike sincerity. We must have that wisdom which cometh from above. Our Christian experience must be animated by piety, and instinct with the divine life.--Manuscript 38, March 26, 1899, "The Will of God Concerning You."
------------------------The Commission is Ours, March 27
UL	100	1	But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8.
UL	100	2	When in His expiring moments on the cross, Christ exclaimed, "It is finished," the veil of the Temple was rent from top to bottom. The need for the Jewish system of sacrifices and offerings had ended. Type had met antitype in the death of the One to whom the sacrifices pointed. A new and living way had been opened--a way by which Jew and Gentile, free and bond, could come to God and find pardon and peace.
UL	100	3	Christ is to be uplifted as the Redeemer of the world. He is to be proclaimed as the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. "Ye shall receive power," the Saviour declared, "after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
UL	100	4	Christ's last act before leaving this earth was to commission His ambassadors to go to the world with His truth. His last words were spoken to impress the disciples with the thought that they held in trust the message of Heaven for the world. In obedience to the Saviour's command, the disciples returned to Jerusalem, and there waited for the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Heavenly intelligences cooperated with them, and gave power to the message that they bore. The Holy Spirit gave efficiency to their missionary efforts, and on one occasion three thousand were converted in a day. Paul, miraculously transformed from a bitter persecutor to a zealous believer, was added to the number of the disciples. To him was entrusted in a special manner the work of giving the message to the Gentiles.
UL	100	5	To John, banished to the Isle of Patmos for his faithfulness in witnessing to Christ, there was given special light to the church. In his exile he beheld his glorified Redeemer, and saw more distinctly than ever before what was to be at the close of this earth's history. He saw the mercy, tenderness, and love of God blending with His holiness, justice, and power. He saw sinners finding a Father in Him of whom their sins had made them afraid. Mercy and truth met together; righteousness and peace kissed each other. In the place of fleeing from God because of our sins, we flee to His arms for protection and pardon. The throne, terrible to us in our unbelief, becomes in our repentance a place of refuge.--Manuscript 38, March 27, 1905, "Be of Good Cheer."
------------------------God Is With His People, March 28
UL	101	1	The children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath ... for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever. Exodus 31:16, 17.
UL	101	2	We do not study the Scriptures as much as we should. Instead of spending our time in studying the various themes of the day we need to devote that time to the study of the Scriptures. We want to come on our knees before God with our Bibles and ask for wisdom from God to comprehend the treasures of truth. We cannot have root in ourselves unless we do this, for everything is to be shaken that can be shaken....
UL	101	3	Satan is watching that he may find the mind in an unguarded moment and so get possession of it. We do not want to be ignorant of his devices, neither do we want to be overpowered by his devices. He is pleased with the pictures that represent him as having horns and hoofs, for he has intelligence; he was once an angel of light. Those who trust in their intelligence he will make believe that they can correct the Scriptures. You are going to meet this infidelity in high places. You need the Holy Spirit of God, the divine power to cooperate with you to discern the trap that the devil is preparing, and escape it. He is going to lead the religious world captive (see 2 Thessalonians 2:11). How dare they to lay their sacrilegious hands upon the Scriptures! We must bring the Sabbath of the Lord to the front. It is so plain, and so decided. It is a sign between the children of God and the children of the world....
UL	101	4	We do not know how soon we shall be singled out as not being law-abiding citizens, because the prince of the power of the air is getting possession of the minds of men. We can choose between obeying the powers that be, and dishonoring God, or disobeying the powers that be, and honoring God. If we obey God, His Holy Spirit is resting upon us, and we are not fighting with our own assertions, but with "It is written." All we have to do is to go back to the fourth commandment. Read the testimony of Jesus Christ that not even a little dot was to be altered, but it is just as written by the finger of God on the tables of stone. We should love the truth because it is truth. It makes every difference whether we are on God's side of the question or not. You may be summoned to the courts, and in these emergencies think on the Saviour's promise: "I am there." We cannot stand on sliding sand, but we can on Christ Jesus. And we can stand there though the whole world may be arrayed against us....
UL	101	5	God has covenanted, and He will be with His people.--Manuscript 11, March 28, 1893, "Search the Scriptures."
------------------------Continual Advancement, March 29
UL	102	1	I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13, 14.
UL	102	2	It is the duty of everyone who professes to be a Christian to keep his thoughts under the control of reason and oblige himself to be cheerful and happy. However bitter may be the cause of his grief, he should cultivate a spirit of rest and quietude in God. The restfulness which is in Christ Jesus, the peace of Christ, how precious, how healing its influence, how soothing to the oppressed soul! However dark his prospects, let him cherish a spirit to hope for good. While nothing is gained by despondency, much is lost. While cheerfulness and a calm resignation and peace will make others happy and healthy, it will be of the greatest benefit to one's self. Sadness and talking of disagreeable things is encouraging the disagreeable scenes, bringing back upon one's self the disagreeable effect. God wants us to forget all these--not look down but up, up!
UL	102	3	Sadness deadens the circulation in the blood vessels and nerves, and also retards the action of the liver. It hinders the process of digestion and of nutrition, and has a tendency to dry up the marrow of the whole system....
UL	102	4	God's purposes are often veiled in mystery; they are incomprehensible to finite minds; but He who sees the end from the beginning knows better than we. What we need is to cleanse us from earthliness, to perfect our Christian character, that the robe of Christ's righteousness shall be put upon us.... Faith, patience, forbearance, heavenly-mindedness, trust in your wise heavenly Father, are the perfect blossoms which mature amidst clouds and disappointments and bereavements....
UL	102	5	The order of providence in relation to His people is advancement, progression. Continual advancement is the way of holiness, rising higher and higher in the knowledge and love of God.... God is unchangeable--the same yesterday, today, and forever. Faith must be exercised in all our prayers, for it has not lost its power, nor humble obedience its reward. If our brethren, who profess to believe the truth, would show their faith by their works, they would honor God and be enabled to convince many souls that they have the truth, for according to their faith and their obedience will they realize the fulfillment of the promises of God and be endowed with power from on high.--Letter 1, March 29, 1883, to J. N. Andrews, our first missionary, who was dying of tuberculosis in Switzerland.
------------------------Our Study Now and in the Hereafter, March 30
UL	103	1	That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace. Ephesians 2:7.
UL	103	2	Disobedience has closed the door to a vast amount of knowledge that might have been gained from the Word of God. In eternity we shall learn that which, if we had received the enlightenment that it was possible for us to obtain here, would have opened our understanding. And understanding means obedience to all God's commandments. The plan of God's government would have been understood. The heavenly world would have opened its chambers of grace and glory for exploration. Human beings would have been altogether different from what they now are in form, in speech, in song, for, by exploring the mines of truth, they would have been ennobled. The mystery of redemption, the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ in His mediatorial character, the incarnation of Christ our Redeemer, His atoning sacrifice, would not be, as they now are, vague in our mind. They would have been, not only better understood, but altogether more highly appreciated.
UL	103	3	These themes will employ the hearts and minds and tongue of the redeemed through the everlasting ages, and new developments of them will be opened up, which Christ longed to open to His disciples, but which they did not have faith to seek and grasp. Forever and ever, new views of the perfection and glory of Christ will appear.
UL	103	4	Men of decided piety and talent catch views of eternal realities, but they are not understood, because the things that are seen eclipse the glory of the unseen. By many, man's wisdom is thought to be higher than the wisdom of the divine Teacher. So God's Lesson Book, containing treasure, is looked upon as old-fashioned, so much so as to be thought tame and stale. But it is not so regarded by those who have been quickened and vivified by the Holy Spirit. They see the priceless treasure, and would sell all to buy the field that contains it....
UL	103	5	Many drink at the low, turbid waters of the valley, having forsaken the fountain of living water, the pure, snow-water of Lebanon. But those who make the Word of God their study, those who dig for the treasures of truth, will appreciate the weighty principles taught, and will digest them. As a result, they will themselves become imbued with the Spirit of Christ, and by beholding, they will become changed into His likeness. Those who appreciate the Word will teach like disciples who have been sitting at the feet of Jesus, and have accustomed themselves to learn of Him, that they might know Him whom to know aright is life eternal.--Manuscript 45, March 30, 1898, 45, "Hidden Treasure."
------------------------Christlike Love Blends Heart With Heart, March 31
UL	104	1	With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. Ephesians 4:12.
UL	104	2	God is love. The love of the Father and the Son is an attribute of every believer. The Word of God is the channel through which divine love is communicated to man. God's truth is the medium by which the intellect is reached. The Holy Spirit is given to the human agent who works in cooperation with divine agencies. It transforms mind and character, enabling man to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. Perfect love can be enjoyed only through the belief of the truth and the reception of the Holy Spirit....
UL	104	3	Christ prayed that His disciples might realize the importance of the love that He expressed by giving His life for the world. He desired them to understand something in regard to His infinite sacrifice. If they had more fully understood His self-sacrificing love, they would never have engaged in alienation and strife.
UL	104	4	I urge all who claim to believe present truth to practice that truth. If they do this, they will have a stronger and more powerful influence for good. The world will see that the love expressed by believers is the central and controlling principle of Christ's followers. Christlike love blends heart with heart. The truth draws men together. It brings into harmony and unity all who have an earnest, living faith in the Saviour. Christ designs those who believe in Him to develop and become strong by association with one another. All who work unselfishly in the Master's service bear credentials to the world that God has sent His Son to this earth.
UL	104	5	Although a company of Christians united in church capacity have not all the same talents, yet it is the duty of everyone to work. Talents differ, but to every man is given his work. All are dependent upon Christ in God. He is the glorious Head of all grades and classes of people associated through faith in the Word of God. Bound together by a common belief in heavenly principles, they are all dependent on Him who is the Author and Finisher of their faith. He has created the principles that produce universal oneness, universal love. His followers should meditate upon His love. They should not stop short of reaching the standard set before them. If the principles of Christianity are lived, they will produce universal harmony and perfect peace. When the heart is imbued with the Spirit of Christ, there is no quarreling, no seeking for the supremacy, no striving to be reigning lords.--Manuscript 46, March 31, 1902, "Unity a Sign of Discipleship."
------------------------Form Characters for Heaven, April 1
UL	105	1	But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap. Malachi 3:2.
UL	105	2	Those who profess to be sons and daughters of God should represent Him in character.... Opportunity is now given us to form characters that will fit us for an entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Those who keep the commandments of God will have a right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city. In love, God has given us a law, that we may know and put away those traits of character that cannot be tolerated in heaven. No one can enter there to whom is charged robbery, adultery, evil-speaking, or false dealing, for this would lead to another war in heaven. The law of God was given to lead men away from these practices, that their characters might be fashioned after the character of God.
UL	105	3	To follow the ever-changing fashions of this world is the chief study of many today. Should we not be as diligent to fashion our characters after the pattern given us in the Word of God? Do not think that you can conform to the world now, [laying] up your treasures here below, and then, merely because you have made a profession of faith, be among those who enter the City of God. We cannot be in harmony with the laws that govern the kingdom of heaven, unless we first conform to those laws here below. It is high time for us all to give our hearts unreservedly to God, and serve Him intelligently, as obedient children. His Holy Spirit can mold and fashion us after the divine similitude.
UL	105	4	The members of the heavenly family are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ--heirs to the treasures of heaven. They will not follow the ambition and madness of this world, to heap up treasures here below, at the loss of a Christian character that would insure them a life that measures with the life of God--a life free from sin, sickness, sorrow, and death.
UL	105	5	Many are today being led away from the simplicity of true religion by the study of so-called science. There is a true science, the science of eternal life. When Jesus came to our world, He might have opened to the minds of men a vast storehouse of scientific knowledge. But He did not do this. He devoted His life to the teaching of those truths that pertain to the salvation of the soul....
UL	105	6	God has claims upon every power of our being. His service demands the action of the whole man--all the heart, all the soul, all the strength, and all the mind. How to render this complete service to God is the only subject of any value in this life.--Manuscript 38a, April 1, 1905, "Who May Abide the Day of His Coming?"
------------------------Live in Union With Christ, April 2
UL	106	1	And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32.
UL	106	2	"If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother" (Matthew 18:15). This is the way in which misunderstandings are to be settled. Speaking alone, and in the spirit of Christ to the one who is in fault, will often remove the difficulty. Show Christlike love for your brother by seeking to adjust the difficulty "between thee and him alone." Talk quietly together. Let no angry words escape your lips. Present the subject in a way that will appeal to his best judgment. And if he will hear you, you have gained him as a friend.
UL	106	3	Whatever the character of the offense may be, this does not change the plan God has made for the settlement of misunderstandings and personal injuries. Act out the spirit of Christ. Take the recipe God has provided, and carry it to the spiritually diseased [one]. Give him the remedy that will cure the disease of disaffection. Do your part to help him. Feel that it is a duty and privilege to do this, for the sake of the unity and peace of the church, which is very dear to the heart of Christ. He does not want any wound to remain unhealed on any member of His church. All heaven is interested in the interview between the injured member and the one who has been guilty of error. After settling the difficulty, pray together, and angels of God will come to you and bless you. There is music in heaven over this union.
UL	106	4	As the erring one accepts the testimony borne, and gives evidence of true repentance, the sunshine of heaven fills his heart. Hearts are drawn together. The healing oil of love removes the disease and soreness of the wrong. The Holy Spirit binds heart to heart.
UL	106	5	Those who have been united in Christian fellowship offer prayer to God, and pledge themselves to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. If they have wronged others, they continue the work of repentance, confession, and restitution; and the disease is healed. They are fully set to do good to one another. This is the fulfilling of the law of Christ.
UL	106	6	Repentance, confession, and restitution are all required. But these cannot atone for the sin, for God has been wronged in the person of His saints. The Lord Jesus alone is able to atone for sin, by the application of His blood, shed for the guilt of the sinner. His blood cleanses from all sin.--Manuscript 47, April 2, 1902, "Lessons From the Eighteenth of Matthew."
------------------------Seek Divine, Not Human, Counsel, April 3
UL	107	1	If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. James 1:5.
UL	107	2	There are so many who, when they are in trouble, ... forget the invitations God has abundantly given, and begin to look and plan for human help. They go to human beings for aid, and this is the way in which their experience becomes feeble and confused. In all our trials we are directed to seek the Lord most earnestly, remembering that we are His property, His children by adoption. No human being can understand our necessities as Christ [can]. We shall receive help, if we ask Him in faith. We are His by creation; we are His by redemption. By the cords of divine love we are bound to the Source of all power and strength. If we will only make God our dependence, asking Him for what we want, as a little child asks his father for what he wants, we shall obtain a rich experience. We shall learn that God is the source of all strength and power....
UL	107	3	God has been greatly dishonored by His people leaning upon human beings. He has not told us to do this. He has told us that He will teach us, He will guide us. We may come to Him and receive help....
UL	107	4	What did Christ promise His disciples if they would believe in Him as their personal Saviour? "Lo, I am with you alway," He said, "even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). Again He says, "I am at thy right hand to help thee" (see Psalm 16:8). Think of how many promises He has given us, which we may grasp by the hand of faith. When we go to the Source of power, we know that we shall receive that intelligence and wisdom which comes from a pure source, which is not mixed with anything of humanity. As we pray, it is our privilege to know that God wants us to pray, to ask Him for help. "Ask, and ye shall receive" (John 16:24). It is for you to believe that you will receive. He wants us to become acquainted with Him, to speak to Him, to tell Him of our difficulties, and obtain an experience in asking of One who never misjudges and never makes a mistake....
UL	107	5	We dishonor God by striving to get someone who we think understands our case to help us. Has He not given us His only begotten Son? Is not Christ close beside us, and will He not give us the help we need?...
UL	107	6	We forget that the threshold of heaven is flooded with the glory proceeding from the throne of God, that the light may fall directly on those who are seeking the help that Christ alone can give.--Manuscript 144, April 3, 1901, "Early Morning Meeting."
------------------------How God Guides His Children, April 4
UL	108	1	I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Psalm 32:8.
UL	108	2	My dear brother, I shall be glad to write just as definitely as I can. I thought I had done this in my former letter. I then presented the situation as plainly and frankly as I could do, and I am unable to write you anything more definite than was said in my letter, which stated the particulars to you.
UL	108	3	The Lord does not give light in such a way as to leave the one addressed no chance to walk by faith. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). There is not a straight line marked out for any one of us. We need to pray and believe and watch unto prayer, ever praying and trusting. My brother, you must seek the Lord in order to know your duty....
UL	108	4	Never have I been more sure of anything in any move we have made than that the Lord's hand was in the selection of this land [for Avondale College]. We must now advance with the opening providence of God and erect our hospital. We must have a sanitarium built nearer Sydney, but not in the city. Hawkesbury is the place we are contemplating for its location. We do not propose to have an immense institution, but a plain, suitable building in some such place as Hawkesbury. Then we can have branches established in Sydney, Newcastle, and other places. This is the way the Lord would have us do. He does not design that we shall erect a colony of buildings in one center, as has been done in Battle Creek. Our work is to extend over a large territory. We must move forward slowly, surely, solidly. We are binding about the edges of everything. Economize we must, for it is our only way. The sanitarium in Sydney has been waiting to hear from you, but because of the way in which you have stated matters, we cannot say, "Come," until you feel it your duty to come. When you can feel it your duty to loose yourself from Africa, we shall be prepared to receive you. The Lord is willing to hear our petitions, and we shall let Him work in His own way. We do not mean to wait for you or anyone if Providence opens the way for us to secure a site for our sanitarium, though as yet we have no means.
UL	108	5	You say Dr. Kellogg writes that if I should authorize him to raise $5,000, he would do it. He wrote me that he could raise $5,000 besides the first $5,000, and why do I not say, "Do this"? I am not permitted to tell any man what he shall do or what he shall not do. I lay out our situation as the Lord has directed me to do, but I have no liberty to go farther.--Letter 63, April 4, 1899, to John Wessells and wife, early believers in South Africa.
------------------------Things Thou Knowest Not, April 5
UL	109	1	Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33:3.
UL	109	2	We do not always consider that the sanctification we so earnestly desire and for which we pray so earnestly is brought about through the truth and, by the providence of God, in a manner we least expect. When we look for joy, behold there is sorrow. When we expect peace, we frequently have distrust and doubt because we find ourselves plunged into trials we cannot avoid. In these trials we are having the answers to our prayers. In order for us to be purified, the fire of affliction must kindle upon us, and our will must be brought into conformity to the will of God. In order to be conformed to the image of our Saviour, we pass through a most painful process of refining. The very ones that we regard the most dear upon the earth may cause us the greatest sorrow and trial. They may view us in the wrong light. They may think us in error, and that we are deceiving and degrading ourselves because we follow the dictates of enlightened conscience in seeking for the truth as for hid treasures....
UL	109	3	Our prayers for conformity to the image of Christ may not be answered exactly as we desire. We may be tested and proved, for God sees it best to put us under a course of discipline which is essential for us before we are fit subjects for the blessing we crave. We should not become discouraged and give way to doubt, and think that our prayers are not noticed. We should rely more securely upon Christ and leave our case with God to answer our prayers in His own way. God has not promised to bestow His blessings through the channels we have marked out. God is too wise to err and too regardful of our good to allow us to choose for ourselves.
UL	109	4	The plans of God are always the best, although we may not always discern them. Perfection of Christian character can be obtained only through labor, conflict, and self-denial....
UL	109	5	How inestimably precious are the gifts of God--the graces of His Spirit--and we shall not shrink from the trying, testing process, be it ever so painful or humiliating to us. How easy would be the way to heaven if there were no self-denial or cross! How worldlings would rush in the way, and hypocrites would travel in it without number! Thank God for the cross, the self-denial. The ignominy and shame our Saviour endured for us is none too humiliating for those saved by the purchase of His blood. Heaven will indeed be cheap enough.--Letter 9, April 5, 1873, to a "Sister Billet," of San Francisco, California.
------------------------The Harvest of the Cross, April 6
UL	110	1	Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. John 12:24.
UL	110	2	In this age we can see the necessity of drawing men to Christ. This draws them to one another in that confidence, that love, that unity, for which Christ prayed in His last prayer with and for His disciples. This unity was essential for their spiritual growth. This world is a battlefield, upon which the powers of good and evil are in ceaseless warfare.
UL	110	3	At the time when Christ's work bore only the appearance of cruel defeat, when to the disciples the case seemed hopeless, certain Greeks came to the disciples, saying, "We would see Jesus" (John 12:21). This inquiry showed Christ, who was then standing in the shadow of the cross, that the sacrificial offering of Himself would bring all who believe into perfect harmony with God. By making this propitiation of man's sins, Christ's kingdom would be perfected and extended throughout the world. He would work as the Restorer. His Spirit would prevail everywhere.
UL	110	4	None of the people, not even the disciples, understood the nature of Christ's kingdom. They seemed to be unable to believe that Jesus would not sit on David's throne, that He would not take the scepter, and reign as a temporal prince in Jerusalem, before His ancients gloriously....
UL	110	5	Christ heard the eager, hungering cry, "We would see Jesus." These Greeks represented the nations and tribes and peoples who would awake to their great need of a power out of and above finite power. For a moment Christ looked into futurity, and heard voices proclaiming in all places of the earth, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (chap. 1:29). This anticipation, the consummation of His hopes, is expressed in His words, "The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified" (chap. 12:23). But the way and manner that this glorifying was to take place was never absent from Christ's mind. Only by His death could the world be saved. As the grain of wheat, the Son of man must be cast into the earth, and die, and be buried out of sight; but He was to live again!
UL	110	6	[In] every harvest this lesson of the grain of wheat is repeated. Those who till the soil have the illustration of Christ's words ever before them. The seed buried in the ground produces much fruit, and in their turn the seeds of this fruit are planted. Thus the harvest is multiplied. The harvest of the cross of Calvary will bear fruit unto eternal life. And the contemplation of this will be the glory of those who will live through eternal ages. With this lesson Christ connects the self-sacrifice we must practice.--Manuscript 33, April 6, 1897, "We Would See Jesus."
------------------------Seeing the Invisible, April 7
UL	111	1	By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; ... for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. Hebrews 11:24-26.
UL	111	2	Think of the life of Moses. What endurance and patience characterized his life. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews says, "For he endured, as seeing him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27). This character of Moses does not simply mean passive resistance of evil, but perseverance in a firm, consistent course. He kept the Lord ever before him, and the Lord was at his right hand to help him.
UL	111	3	Moses had a deep sense of the presence of God. He saw God. He was not only looking down through the ages to a Christ that would be revealed, but he saw Christ in a special manner accompanying the children of Israel in all their travels. God was real to him and present in his thoughts. When called upon to face danger, to bear insult, and to be misunderstood for Christ's sake, he was persevering to endure without retaliation.
UL	111	4	Moses believed in God as One whom he needed, and One who would help him because he needed His help. God was to him a present help in every time of need. We have far too much dead, nominal faith, but the real trusting, persevering faith we do not have. God was to Moses a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Moses had respect unto the recompense of the reward. Here is another point in faith we wish to study, and if brought into the life and experience, it will enable everyone who fears and loves God to endure trials. God will reward the man of faith and obedience. Moses was full of confidence in God, because he had appropriating faith. He needed the help of God, and he prayed for it, and believed for it, and wove it into his life experience that God cared for him. He believed that God ruled his life in particular. He knew that God had assigned to him a special work, and he would make that work thoroughly successful so far as possible. But he knew that he could not do this without the help of God, for he had a perverse people to deal with. The presence of God, he knew, was strong enough to carry him through the most trying positions that a man could be placed in. He could see and acknowledge God in every detail of his life, that he was under the eye of an all-seeing God, who weighs motives, who tries the hearts. He looked to God and believed in Him for strength to carry him through uncorrupted every form of temptation.... This is the kind of faith we need, faith that will endure the test.--Letter 42, April 7, 1886, to "Brother Ramsey."
------------------------Go Work in My Vineyard, April 8
UL	112	1	All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Matthew 28:18-20.
UL	112	2	The lessons on the parable of the vineyard and of the two sons come close home to all who have had the light of truth.... The instruction contained in these parables is of great value. All who are bearing responsibilities, be these responsibilities great or small, should study this instruction carefully. God looks for fruit from His vineyard. This fruit is the result of the work of His laborers. Every soul who believes in Christ has a work to do for Him. No true Christian can be idle in this time of such solemn importance....
UL	112	3	Have you become a silent partner? ... There are in our world many large cities in which the truth has not yet been proclaimed. Why should not the people of these cities hear the gospel message for this time? Has not Christ purchased them with His own blood? Are they not of as much value in His sight as those who have already received the truth? Are these portions of His vineyard to be left unworked, while upon other portions blessings are poured so abundantly that they are not appreciated? The truth is not appreciated, not being mixed with faith in them that hear, because they do not arouse and give to others the light they have received....
UL	112	4	Christ's last words to His disciples show the importance to be placed on the work of spreading the truth. Just before His ascension He gave them the commission, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:19, 20).
UL	112	5	Christ did not confine His labors to one place. Of His work we read, ... "And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent. And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee" (Luke 4:43, 44).
UL	112	6	Would that all who have the light of truth would follow the example set by Christ, and not expend their God-given time and ability and means in one or two places, when the light of truth is to go to all the world. The wonderful display of grace shown in the gospel message is to be carried to all places.--Letter 92, April 8, 1902. "To My Brethren in Responsible Positions in the Medical Missionary Work."
------------------------Sacrifice as Christ Sacrificed, April 9
UL	113	1	But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 2 Corinthians 9:6.
UL	113	2	The possession of riches opens the way to great temptation to become covetous and selfish, to add riches to riches, and to bury in houses and lands the means that should be returned to God. Many use their means to gratify the demands of appetite, to follow the fashions, and to build for themselves grand houses. They do not follow the example of Christ, who gave Himself with all He had for the benefit of the world to deliver men from the power of Satan.
UL	113	3	But if those who possess means will follow the example of Christ, their hearts will be filled with benevolence, and they may help in the proclamation of the truth in the cities, in the highways and the byways, and in carrying the gospel to all nations....
UL	113	4	God's work must be sustained by tithes and gifts and offerings. The Lord now calls for the means that He has entrusted to His stewards. There should be a constant stream flowing into the treasury, that the work may not be hindered. To some, God has entrusted earthly riches to be held in trust and to be returned to Him as they may be required to carry forward His work in the earth. He requires from His stewards a faithful tithe of all their capital, and in addition to the tithe, He calls for gifts and offerings.
UL	113	5	The Lord Jesus requires nothing more from His followers than He Himself has performed. Those who practice self-denial and self-sacrifice for the cause of God are but following His example. He laid off His royal robe and kingly crown, and stepped down from His high command. He became poor, that through His poverty we might come into possession of the eternal treasures. He gave not only His riches, but His own life in self-denial and self-sacrifice, that He might remove every hindrance from those who seek an entrance into the kingdom of God.
UL	113	6	Those who are not exposed to the temptations of those who are rich in this world's goods have no reason to complain, for the Prince of life has shared with them a life of poverty. He was tempted in all points like as we are. In our behalf He placed Himself as one with us in poverty, to show us how we may withstand the temptations of satanic agencies....
UL	113	7	The Lord Jesus invites us to become laborers together with Him. He is the owner of and has claims upon all that we possess. By our willingness to help in His work, we may now show our love for Him.--Manuscript 40, April 9, 1905, "Faithful Stewardship."
------------------------Shunning Satan's Snares, April 10
UL	114	1	Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8.
UL	114	2	Satan is rallying his forces to contend with the advancing work. He would bring reproach upon the work of God by setting brother against brother, and bringing in the elements of suspicion and evil surmising. I am bidden to say to our people, "Do not devise evil one against another. Do not cherish unbelief in your hearts. Do not harbor suspicion against your brethren and sisters." This is one of the most successful ways in which Satan works to alienate the hearts of those who should be doing God's service. Spend much time in earnest prayer for your individual selves. Talk and act as if in the presence of God....
UL	114	3	Disaffection began in heaven because Satan could not have the place he coveted. Disaffection and distrust had never before entered any heart. When Satan began his evil work, he did not himself see where it would lead. But the thoughts he entertained after a time were expressed in suggestions of evil, and these, diffused among the angels, led to the great rebellion which was the beginning of all the woe and misery that has befallen mankind.
UL	114	4	To those who are inclined to suspect others of wrongdoing and to charge their brethren with evil, I would say, "Please read in the book Great Controversy the chapter entitled 'The Origin of Evil.'" Bring home its truths to your individual hearts. Remember that it was the spirit of envy and evil surmising, cherished in the heart of the rebel angel, that began the evil work that opened the floodgates of woe upon our world.
UL	114	5	Satan is working in every church to spoil the flock of God. He seeks to lead brother to think evil of brother, and in this way he causes a great deal of grief and pain. I am instructed to say to every soul who professes to be a follower of Christ, "Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips, that they speak no guile." Through self-exaltation Satan works to ruin the soul, and his working may be seen in every church. My brethren and sisters, keep strict guardianship over your spirit. Guard your words, lest Satan lead you to repeat his own history.
UL	114	6	Guard your thoughts. In these closing days of earth's history Satan is working with desperate effort to seduce souls into sin. Keep your tongue as with a bridle. Keep your thoughts upon the Word of the living God. The same spirit that prompted rebellion in heaven is at work in our churches.... We are living in the last days of this earth's history, and Satan is making determined efforts to subvert the mind.--Letter 66, April 10, 1909, "To Those Assembled at Camp Meeting."
------------------------The Influence of Mind on Mind, April 11
UL	115	1	The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. Matthew 13:24, 25.
UL	115	2	How vain is the help of man when Satan's power is exercised over a human being who has become self-exalted, and who knows not that he is partaking of the science of Satan. In his self-confidence he walks right into the enemy's trap, and is ensnared. He did not heed the warnings given, and was taken as Satan's prey. If he had walked humbly with God, he would have run into the trysting place God had provided for him. Thus in times of danger he would have been safe, for God would have lifted for him a standard against the enemy....
UL	115	3	The peril of delaying to come to Christ is not discerned by those who are under the power of Satan. But when there comes the sense of acknowledged guilt, how the stricken soul hides himself with his God. Let guilty sinners come close to the One who is their atoning Sacrifice. Let them cling to Him as with the grip of death. No human being can heal the soul that has done despite to the Spirit of Christ. Only through the Saviour can healing be obtained....
UL	115	4	This is an age of skepticism and unbelief, an age of hatred of reproof. Let men beware how they entertain the sentiments of satanic agencies. Let them remember that mocking at the warnings of the Lord may mean their being left to their own way. The only hope left is to turn to God with full purpose of heart. God will pardon the transgressor if he will repent....
UL	115	5	Men have turned away from the warnings given, and are being deceived through the influence of mind over mind, and the results are most deplorable. One sinner, under the influence of the enemy's deceptions, can work untold harm. Oh, how many souls have had their faith ruined and their confidence spoiled by the protestations of belief in the Testimonies, uttered by those who for years have shown positive disbelief in them. I was relieved when some who had been making these protestations decided that the time has come to take an open stand [against them]. I felt relieved, because minds will not now be captivated by assurance after assurance that they believe the Testimonies.
UL	115	6	Oh, if those who have had faith in these men could only know how the Lord regards their confidence in those who, while men slept, have been sowing tares among the wheat.--Letter 126, April 11, 1906, to G. I. Butler, president, Southern Union Conference.
------------------------Meeting and Mastering Difficulties, April 12
UL	116	1	Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:9, 10.
UL	116	2	Some workers who are depreciated by human wisdom are by God highly exalted. God will raise up men to do a certain work, and as they advance step by step, they will learn of the great I AM. As His work unfolds, they still move forward, under His leadership, performing that which He has placed in their hands.
UL	116	3	Another man, with supposed superior abilities, may come in, and looking upon the work of these men, may think that they should be replaced by wiser men. To his imagination, their work may look all tangled and spoiled, when the Lord is leading step by step. He would advocate that a change be made. He would try to make the workers see that they are making a great mistake in trying to carry on their work. But God sees not as man sees.
UL	116	4	The workers whom He is leading may at times be in great perplexity. It is His plan that many difficulties shall be met and mastered. He inspires the workers with the determination to make every apparent failure prove a success. They are determined to walk in the light that is shining on their pathway, and although they encounter many obstacles, yet they declare, "I will not fail or be discouraged."
UL	116	5	Often men pray and weep because of the perplexities and obstacles that confront them. But it is God's purpose for them to meet perplexities and obstacles, and if they will hold the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end, determined to carry forward the work of the Lord, He will make their way clear. Success will come to them as they perseveringly struggle against apparently insurmountable difficulties; and with success will come the greatest joy.
UL	116	6	God is preparing humble, contrite men to be valuable workers. He is giving them an experience that human wisdom cannot explain. He works upon minds by His own wisdom. Supposed mistakes are permitted to appear, that in unexpected ways (which human wisdom cannot comprehend) great glory may come to God. He is accomplishing His work in His own way. He consults His own purposes, not man's theories. The power with which He works through any man is proportionate to the man's earnestness and sincerity. In all that He does, He seeks the highest good of those who are laborers together with Him.--Letter 162, April 12, 1903, to a conference executive.
------------------------We Have a Perfect Pattern, April 13
UL	117	1	Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. Isaiah 35:3, 4.
UL	117	2	Who will now put on the white robe of Christ's righteousness, which is without spot or wrinkle, so that Satan cannot in derision point to their filthy garments? Keep the soul clean and pure. You have no time to gather up the mistakes of others. Attend to your own mistakes, and make the erring ashamed by your kindly, sympathetic interest in them. A Christian is keenly sensitive to the needs of others, because he realizes that they are Christ's property. He is ever on the watch for opportunities to help them.
UL	117	3	Envy, evil surmising, backbiting, and faultfinding--let these not be named amongst Christ's disciples. These things are the cause of the present feebleness of the church. We have a perfect pattern, even the life of Christ. It is to be our eager desire to do as He has done, to live as He lived, that others, seeing our good works, may be led to glorify God. The Lord's blessing will rest upon us as we seek to bless others by doing the work that Christ came to this world to teach us how to do.
UL	117	4	God gave His only begotten Son to die for a race of rebels, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Why should we not walk and work in the way that God has marked out? Why should anyone please the enemy by tearing down another's work, using the powers God has given him to kill hope and drive souls into discouragement? In every church there are young men and young women who need the help of a strong, compassionate handclasp; of a loving, Christlike interest that will not let them go. Let there be an end to bickering over little things. Let unkind speeches go as a hateful, unprofitable thing. Cease to speak words that do no good, and come close to those who have erred. Take hold of them, and draw them to Christ. Tell Satan that he cannot have them, for they are the Saviour's property....
UL	117	5	"I came not to condemn, but to save," Christ declared. Angels are sent from the heavenly courts, not to destroy, but to watch over and guard imperiled souls, to save the lost, to bring the straying back to the fold. Have you, then, no words from a pitying heart to speak to the lost and straying? Will you let them perish, or will you reach out to them a helping hand? Right around you there are souls that are in danger of perishing. Will you not work for them and pray with them? Will you not draw them to the Saviour with the cords of love? Cease your reproaches, and speak words that will inspire them with faith and courage.--Manuscript 36, April 13, 1904, "The New Life in Christ."
------------------------Nature is Our Lesson Book, April 14
UL	118	1	In him was life; and the life was the light of men. John 1:4.
UL	118	2	Some years ago, while rowing on Lake Goguac [in Michigan] with my husband, we saw a beautiful lily, I asked my husband to get it for me, and to pluck it with as long a stem as he could. He did so, and I examined it. In the stem was a channel through which flowed the nourishment best suited to the development of the lily. This nourishment it took, refusing the vileness with which it was surrounded. It had a connection with the sand far below the surface, and from there drew the sustenance which caused it to develop ... its loveliness.
UL	118	3	Christ says, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" (Matthew 6:28, 29). No artist can produce the beautiful tints which God gives to the flowers. "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" (Verse 30).
UL	118	4	Nature is our lesson book. Christ used the objects of nature to impress truth on the minds of His hearers.... "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?.... for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" (Verses 31-34).
UL	118	5	Let us do all we can to show our children that there is a heaven to win and a hell to shun. Let us teach them to strive for everlasting life.... Bring your children up in the admonition of the Lord, and you have fitted them to work in the church, you have fitted them to go forth into missionary fields, you have fitted them to shine in the courts of the Lord.
UL	118	6	Parents, do not try to follow the ever-changing fashions of the degenerate age. It does not pay. At the last day God will ask you, "What have you done with My flock, My beautiful flock?" How will you answer Him if you have betrayed your trust? For Christ's sake I beseech of you to guard your children. Do not be cross or hasty. Give them happy things to think of....
UL	118	7	Strive with all the power God has given you to gain the crown of everlasting life, that you may cast it at the feet of the Redeemer, and touching the golden harp, fill all heaven with rich music.--Manuscript 31, April 14, 1901, "The Christian Life."
------------------------Turn to God While There is Time, April 15
UL	119	1	Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Hebrews 3:7, 8.
UL	119	2	A man for whom the Lord has done so much should honor Him in every word and act. All his transactions should be pure, considerate, and just. He should not do or say anything that he will be loath to meet when he stands before the Judge of all the earth....
UL	119	3	Throughout every department of His work God will vindicate His honor, His righteousness. Will you not stop right where you are, and consider diligently your ways? The Lord cannot endorse your spirit or your course of action. His hand is on the lever. Your plans are not His plans.... Now is your time to repent. Lose not the opportunity....
UL	119	4	My brother, do not feel that it is below your dignity to make a decided change. You must place yourself at the feet of Christ as a learner, else you will surely fail of obtaining the overcomer's reward. Lay off your commanding, kingly authority, and become one of God's little children. Until you are willing to study and obey God's will, you will be overcome by temptations and led to do strange things, which will disqualify you for filling a position of influence.
UL	119	5	Will you not repent and be converted? Will you not act every moment with the realization that you are under the divine scrutiny? Will you not make God your companion in all your work? His holiness, His justice, His truth, should purify your words and actions.
UL	119	6	You need to stop and consider that there is a God. He has spoken good in your behalf, and He will be much displeased if you deal unjustly with His heritage. He calls upon you to turn to Him with full purpose of heart. Pray, for your soul's sake, pray; for you have been so many times self-deceived and led by deceptive influences that you are tempted to regard with favor those who will flatter and extol you, and with disfavor those who would point out your errors and dangers.
UL	119	7	Many times you have almost gone over to the wrong side, but before the throne has stood your Saviour, the prints of the nails in His hands, interceding in your behalf. Pray for yourself, in the name of Christ. Pray earnestly, fervently, sincerely. I hope that your life may be spared, and that you may give yourself wholly to repentance. Come to the Lord, and surrender all to Him. You must, or you will be taken captive by the enemy.
UL	119	8	I can ... but write these words, for One [who is] of the highest authority has made this appeal to you.--Letter 55, April 15, 1903, to Dr. J. H. Kellogg, who was in danger of going off into pantheism.
------------------------Cultivating a Christlike Character, April 16
UL	120	1	Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Colossians 3:12, 13.
UL	120	2	[During the] hours of the night, while others are sleeping, I am praying that the responsible work committed to my trust may be so unselfishly and faithfully done that God will approve. The anxiety is not with me what others may think or what others may do, but What shall I do to glorify God? and Will my work bear the inspection of God? Is every high look removed from me? Is my heart in harmony with Jesus, the humble Man of Calvary? I am weeping and praying and working, trying my motives and feelings in the light of eternity, and if I am saved at last, it will be through the matchless love of my Redeemer.
UL	120	3	Oh, how great has been that love that would endure such self-denial, such self-sacrifice for me! All we can do will be little enough, and we may well say we are unprofitable servants. Just as surely as we exalt ourselves and take the highest seat, God will humble us in some way very trying to human nature....
UL	120	4	My husband, we must cultivate the spirit of Christ. There are many who profess the truth who need its sanctifying influence upon their hearts. Upright dealing and an exalted profession may characterize the life, but a want of true kindness, nobility of soul, conciliatory deportment, will neutralize all the good they are capable of doing. A sour, censorious religion finds no example in the religion of Christ....
UL	120	5	Kind words, pleasant looks, and unselfish courtesy we must cultivate, for it will invest our character with a charm that will secure us respect and increase our usefulness tenfold more than were we otherwise in words and deportment....
UL	120	6	An account we will have to render to God by and by, and we do not want to be ashamed of it because it bears the stamp of inconsistencies of impulse, of selfishness. We want to have an eye single to God's glory, and our soul temple cleansed of selfishness, ... and we assimilated to His divine image. Let us grow in grace. Cling with faith to Jesus Christ and we shall be upheld by His power.--Letter 22, April 16, 1880, to James White, her husband, who had just retired as General Conference president.
------------------------Trust Your Brethren, April 17
UL	121	1	But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. Matthew 23:8.
UL	121	2	Some days ago I received copies of a number of testimonials written for Brother N_____ by different men in official positions. I read these testimonials. In the night season a representation passed before me. Brother and Sister N_____ were looking over these testimonials. As they were talking together, there stood by their side, not the One who appeared to Brother N_____ on a certain occasion--the Messenger of heaven--but an evil messenger, who insinuated into Brother N_____'s mind the belief that his brethren wanted to get control of his property, and to put him and his wife out of the work.... The messenger said that they had been turned out in their old age in order that these brethren might carry on the work they had begun. Sister N_____ accepted this statement. Many false reports were received as truth. Next, Brother N_____ was represented to me as writing letters containing these false reports....
UL	121	3	Then the scene changed. I heard words of counsel addressed to Brother N_____ by his brethren, but he was not willing to receive help from those who had always been his sincere friends. It was represented to me that Brother and Sister N_____ were both deceived by the enemy. They had become subject to his temptations, and were deceiving themselves to their own hurt. One stood by the side of the tempted ones, and said, "Have you lost sight of Him who said, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light' (Matthew 11:28-30)? Will you, by envy and evil surmising, spoil the good work that has been done?"
UL	121	4	My brother and sister, you now have the word of counsel from the Messenger of God. You are in danger, by yielding to jealousy, of counterworking the good work you have done. Stop right where you are. The Lord has helped you. He has worked in your behalf....
UL	121	5	Addressing you, the Lord's messenger said, "Cease to heed the suggestions of the enemy. Be led by the Lord. Walk in the way of His providence. Do not betray the work into the enemy's hands by yielding to his evil suggestions. Look to Jesus.... In no case turn from your brethren, who have been your true friends.--Letter 61, April 17, 1902, to a couple who had pioneered work in the Southern States.
------------------------Christ Loves the Sinner, April 18
UL	122	1	A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. John 13:34.
UL	122	2	There are those who cherish a spirit of envy and hatred against their brethren, calling it the Spirit of God. There are those who go up and down as talebearers, accusing and condemning, blackening character, inspiring hearts with maliciousness. They carry false reports to the doors of their neighbors, who, as they listen to the slander, lose the Spirit of God. Not even the messenger of God, who bears to the people His truth, is spared.
UL	122	3	This sin is worse than the sin of Achan. Its influence is not confined to those who cherish it. It is a root of bitterness, whereby many are defiled. God cannot bless the church till it is purged of this evil that corrupts minds and spirits, the souls of those who do not repent and change their course of action.
UL	122	4	He who is renewed after the Spirit of Christ will not only love God; he will love his brethren also. Those who make mistakes are to be dealt with according to the directions given in the Word of God. "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted" (Galatians 6:1).
UL	122	5	Plainly and faithfully evil is to be reproved. But let the one who takes up this work first be sure that he is not himself separated from Christ by evil works. He must be able to restore the erring in the spirit of meekness. Unless he can do this, he should not attempt to correct or reprove his brethren, for he will make two evils in the place of curing one.
UL	122	6	Let men be careful how they treat the purchase of the blood of Christ. Let them not forget the prayer offered by the Saviour just before He left His disciples for the long struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane. Let them not forget the high estimate He has placed on human beings by purchasing them at the sacrifice of His life. There are many who seem willing to wound and bruise the hearts of their brethren. Are they following the example Christ has left them? Where in the record of His dealing with men do they find themselves sustained in showing so little forbearance and patience in dealing with their brethren?...
UL	122	7	That which distinguishes Christians from worldlings is the manifestation of Christlikeness, which by its pure influence cleanses the heart from selfishness.--Manuscript 52, April 18, 1902, "Fragments."
------------------------Draw with Christ, April 19
UL	123	1	Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:17.
UL	123	2	Assimilation is a law of human nature. Satan works with untiring perseverance to use this law, ordained by God to be a power for good, to forward his plans. He seeks to blend together righteous and unrighteous principles in order that through this union sin may lose its offensive appearance. He mixes chaff with the wheat.
UL	123	3	The righteous should associate with the wicked only to restore the principles of truth which have been almost obliterated. He who seeks to help and bless others must depend wholly upon the unseen yet all-essential supply of grace and strength. He must cooperate with God if he would be successful in saving the souls ready to perish. He must associate closely with divine agencies, drawing by faith the grace so much needed to resist the elements of unrighteousness.
UL	123	4	Christ saw Satan patterning after heaven by the use of human association, thus extending the contagion of evil, and He determined to make His church a resisting element. His people are not to borrow the forms and customs of the world, but are to be instinct with the principles which make the church on earth a symbol of the church in heaven, a channel through which heaven's rich blessings can flow.
UL	123	5	Untold good may be accomplished by the righteous working with and for the wicked; but too often those who ought to lead sinners to God do not draw with Christ.... Church members are under a solemn pledge to form characters different in every way from the characters of worldlings. If a change does not take place in them prior to their union with the church, there is danger that, though they have joined the church, they will assimilate with worldlings. Satan triumphs when he sees the leaven of the world working in the church, to the destruction of its purity and holiness.
UL	123	6	It is God's plan that in His church heavenly influences shall be reinforced and stimulated by the cooperation of the members with Him. His people are to increase in strength and efficiency, knowing that the atmosphere which surrounds the souls of righteous believers is the same as the atmosphere in the heaven of purity and light and love. Through Christian fellowship they are to form their characters, assimilating them to the character of Christ. According to their faith will be their Christlike meekness and lowliness. As God's people seek to fulfill this plan, they are answering the prayer of Christ, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."--Manuscript 27a, April 19, 1900, "God's Purpose for His People."
------------------------True Sanctification, April 20
UL	124	1	I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Acts 20:32.
UL	124	2	What is genuine sanctification? Read Exodus 31. In that chapter we shall understand the term, for God Himself has defined it. The Lord Jesus had given the special directions how to build the tabernacle. As the children of Israel had been compelled to work on the Sabbath, the sacredness of the day was not preserved. As slaves in Egypt, they had largely lost the knowledge of the Sabbath. This is the reason the commandments of God were given in awful grandeur upon Mount Sinai. The Lord would guard His Sabbath in particular, and He knew the people would forget the commandment of the Sabbath, and in their zeal the workmen would say, "This work is the Lord's, and under His supervision, and we can do His work without observing the Sabbath...." Therefore the seventh day was distinguished as God's memorial and was to be kept holy unto the Lord that the people "may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify" them. This is genuine sanctification....
UL	124	3	But the work must needs go deeper, take firmer hold of the life and of the character. Some have thought they could easily persuade a sinner to give up his idols, to keep God's commandments, to believe Jesus is soon to come in the clouds of heaven. When they can awaken no interest, no desire to search the Scriptures to see if these things are indeed truth; when they see no conviction assured in the minds of those who transgress the law of God; when they are frequently met with flimsy excuses, with indifference or decided opposition and ridicule; when their hearers turn aside to heap contempt upon God's holy law, they become discouraged. Where they looked for success, they found defeat....
UL	124	4	Oh, how many lessons those young in the faith will have to learn in the exercise of winning souls to Christ! Some will learn in defeat and failure the lessons they would not otherwise have learned, but a few repulses have so chilling an influence that the spark of grace almost becomes extinct in their own souls and they think it does not pay to make efforts to save souls, and they no longer shine as lights in the world. The thought of turning souls from the errors of their ways, the sense of obligation to impart to others the precious light of truth, dies, and they do nothing....
UL	124	5	These difficulties, opposition, disappointments and discouragements they must meet again in a more decided, intense manner, but they must be firm as a rock to principle. If we are Christians, we must be Christlike, we must reflect light.--Letter 19c, April 20, 1874, to W. C. White.
------------------------The Word of God Your Guide, April 21
UL	125	1	Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105.
UL	125	2	If we would work wisely and intelligently, our human passions, our hereditary and cultivated tendencies, must be brought under the control of a higher and more commanding generalship than human ability....
UL	125	3	"Cease to do evil; learn to do well." This is the lesson everyone should learn day by day. The training due to one's self comes first. The influence exerted by a life of strict integrity will be a continual education to others. Those who are restrained and guided by the moral and religious principles plainly laid down in God's Word walk in accordance with the mind and will of God, who is too wise to err and too good to do us harm.
UL	125	4	If you would walk wisely, walk in the way of God's commandments. The Word of God you have in your keeping, right at hand. This Word is so plain that none need go astray unless they allow themselves to be led by their hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong. Your Redeemer met Satan's treacherous advances with the words, "It is written," and with the imperative command, "Get thee behind me, Satan." I counsel you to receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your soul. The Word of God is your haven. It is a tower of strength, into which you may run and be safe....
UL	125	5	The earnest, sincere searcher for truth will not mistake truth for error. The Word of God is the bread of life, of which all may partake and obtain eternal life. Error is falsehood and deception. Those who partake of it must suffer in consequence, as did Adam and Eve in Eden. It is the privilege of all to search with prayerful, eager interest for the truth. Truth is the tree of life, the leaves of which the human family are to eat and live.
UL	125	6	Those who try to interpret the Word according to their own ideas, who read it in accordance with their opinions, will never see the truth, and will die in their sins. Those who eat of the forbidden tree accept Satan's fallacies in the place of "Thus saith the Lord," and unless they repent, they will never gain that life which measures with the life of God. As did Adam and Eve, they exclude themselves from the tree of life, the fruit of which perpetuates immortality....
UL	125	7	We are living amid the solemnities of the judgment. Our souls should be filled with awe, for we are in God's presence continually. Each one must decide for himself whether he will obey and live or disobey and perish.
UL	125	8	To those who obey, the Word of God is the tree of life. It is the word of salvation, received unto eternal life.--Letter 60, April 21, 1900, to a church member in Rochester, New York.
------------------------True Love Cannot Be Hidden, April 22
UL	126	1	Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Matthew 7:20.
UL	126	2	The law of God is the transcript of His character. Those who profess to keep this law, but who fail to show that they love God with heart, mind, and strength, who do not devote themselves unreservedly to His service, [and who] keep neither the first four commandments, which enjoin supreme love for God, nor the last six, which enjoin unselfish love for one another, are not obedient children. "By their fruits ye shall know them."
UL	126	3	True love for God will always manifest itself. It cannot be hidden. Those who keep God's commandments in truth will reveal the same love that Christ revealed for His Father and for His fellow men. He in whose heart Christ abides will reveal Christ in the character, in his work in behalf of those of the household of faith, and in behalf of those who need to be brought to a knowledge of the truth. He is ever to show by good works the fruit of his faith, revealing Christ by loving words and deeds of mercy....
UL	126	4	The doing of the law of God is the fruit of His grace in the heart. Obeying this law, we daily remember that God is the giver of all that we hold in trust. He provides us with all we have. It is because of His mercy and love that we have strength to labor. He opens ways by which we may gain earthly treasure, not that self may be exalted, not that the treasure obtained may be hoarded up, but that God's name may be glorified, that the needy may be helped, that God's treasury may be provided with that which He claims in gifts and offerings, that the work of raising the standard of truth in the regions beyond may not languish, but move forward and upward.
UL	126	5	Upon all who consecrate themselves to God as laborers together with Him is laid the responsibility of guarding the interests of His cause and work. They are to live the truth which they claim to believe. They are to keep Christ constantly before them as their Pattern, and by their good works cause praise to flow forth from hearts hungering and thirsting for the Bread of Life. Not only are they to minister to the spiritual need of those they are seeking to win for Christ, [but] they are to supply their temporal necessities. This work of mercy and love is ever presenting itself, and by faithfully doing it, God's servants are to show what the truth has done for them. They are to be faithful stewards, not only of gospel truth, but of all the blessings God has given them. Not only are they to speak words of sympathy, [but] by their deeds they are to demonstrate the reality of their sympathy and love.--Manuscript 20, 1900. Written April 22, 1894, untitled manuscript.
------------------------Learning From Christ, April 23
UL	127	1	But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:30, 31.
UL	127	2	We had a very precious season of prayer in our little tent [at the Fresno, California, camp meeting] this morning. I felt my soul drawn out in earnest prayer for you [her husband, James White] and for myself. The dear Saviour seemed very near and very gracious, full of mercy and love. I feel like serving Him with my undivided affection....
UL	127	3	Divine power must be combined with human effort or this terrible paralysis of indifference, this deathlike sluggishness will never be broken from the souls of those in darkness and error. Jesus is our strength. He is our Righteousness. We must pray more and exercise faith continually. I feel the necessity of drawing nearer and closer to Jesus. I see I must labor to the point to keep my mind ascending to God continually if I would maintain the victory over Satan's temptations.
UL	127	4	Oh, I have been shown how he exults when we are overcome and the spirit of impatience and faultfinding is indulged. He is in an exultation of triumph, for he knows that this grieves the Spirit of God and separates us from our Strength. Our words must be faultless, our spirit patient, and kind, forbearing, long-suffering, and we manifesting by our words and actions that we have learned of Jesus and are still learning in the school of Christ....
UL	127	5	We are, dear husband, building for eternity. God is rich in strength and power, and we may have His shining countenance beaming upon us and we reflecting the light to others.... God will not excuse us in sin who have had so great light. We have not one atom of righteousness of our own to stand upon. All we have ever done is because Jesus has given us His strength and His power, not because there was any inherent goodness or wisdom or righteousness in us. We are sinful and weak and imperfect, and we must feel this strongly enough to reach up for a stronger help and holier power than we possess. Jesus' life is a perfect model. We must not build upon the sand. If we do, there will be a terrible down-tumbling by and by of our house. Ye are God's building. Let us show this in a harmonious character.--Letter 25, April 23, 1880, to James White.
------------------------Glorify God, Not Man, April 24
UL	128	1	My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. Psalm 34:2.
UL	128	2	I was about to write some words of encouragement to one who had helped in the work ... at a time when it was going very hard. A hand was placed upon the paper, forbidding me to write, and a voice said, "These words of commendation will do harm to the one you are addressing. God is the Master Worker. Glorify Him, not man."...
UL	128	3	Let us be very careful not to praise or flatter any human being. Do not place before the Lord's servants the temptation of human praise. It is God who enables men and women to accomplish good. He is behind every worker. Without His power, man is helpless....
UL	128	4	There are those who by self-denial and self-sacrifice have prepared the way for a good work, yet who have not the capabilities that enable them to carry this work forward successfully when it has reached a certain stage of advancement....
UL	128	5	Brother S_____ has been greatly blessed by God. The Lord used him to start the work at H_____. But he is not to think, because of this, that he is fitted to carry the school work forward on the broad, elevated place on which it must be carried. Others, whose education and training fit them for it, must take up the work in its advanced stages, and carry it onward and upward. But the Lord does not value the less those who in self-sacrifice and self-denial prepared the way for the work to advance.
UL	128	6	The Lord's workers must not think that they must be their own judges of the position they should fill. Let all remember that there are many different lines of work, and that all these lines of work are necessary. The hewers of wood and drawers of water do acceptable service, and make a success where others would certainly make a failure....
UL	128	7	Look to Jesus. Do not spoil your record by giving way to despondency and distrust. Make straight paths for your feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way.... The man who is nearest the Lord is the man who waits for Him as one who waits for the morning, the man who has the least confidence in self and the strongest confidence in God as the One who can save to the uttermost all who come to Him....
UL	128	8	The Lord has an interest in all the work you are trying to do for Him. Do not worry. The day of trust is in our hands. The day of reckoning will bear the faithful witness as to how we have done our work. Let us do our best. If the Lord is with us, we shall be prospered.--Letter 64, April 24, 1902, to J. E. White, who was working among the blacks in the South.
------------------------Cultivate the Christian Virtues, April 25
UL	129	1	According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. 2 Peter 1:3.
UL	129	2	True Christians are faithful in little things, remembering that the Word of God declares, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10). A faithful, steady obedience to the words of Christ makes men pure in mind, resolute in purpose, and faithful in every station of life.
UL	129	3	True service is the unveiling of a heart made fragrant by the love of God. Such service gives nobility to the character in this life. Under its influence, love to God and man speaks from the lips and is revealed in the actions....
UL	129	4	When God's people place the gift of speech under the influence and control of the Holy Spirit, thousands will hear the message that God is love; that He "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). His heart of infinite love embraces every human being. His love is an inexhaustible wellspring of joy and peace. It is as enduring as eternity. It is the fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem. From its unfailing supply every soul may be satisfied. This love is the life of God, working with transforming power in the soul, perfecting Christian character, making human beings partakers of the divine nature. Through Christ this living stream of love and life flows to the world....
UL	129	5	In the Christian warfare life, spiritual life, courage, constancy, and decision are needed. Be strong in the Lord. Human courage will not suffice. The Christian soldier must be strong in the Lord. God is all-sufficient. In the omnipotence of His might gird on the armor. Make use of all the proper means of defense against the enemy of souls. You are everyone to perfect an individual character for yourselves. Resist temptation. Cultivate the Christian virtues. Be strong; yea, be strong!
UL	129	6	Those who have so many battles to fight must be strong for service. Gain strength and help from the Source of all power. If we trust in the Lord, we shall triumph in the warfare against unseen foes, but if we trust in our own strength, we shall surely meet with defeat. The armor is prepared. Put it on, and fight bravely for the Lord.--Letter 67, April 25, 1902, "To My Brethren in Positions of Responsibility in the Pacific Press."
------------------------Follow the Lord's Directions, April 26
UL	130	1	Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Psalm 37:3.
UL	130	2	The Lord is acquainted with all our circumstances. When that Ethiopian traveler was reading the Scriptures, as he rode in his chariot, angels of God were looking upon the scene. One of the disciples was sent to meet the chariot, and when he came to the place, he saw the man studying the Scriptures. Philip said to him, "Understandest thou what thou readest?" He answered, "How can I, except some man should guide me?" Then Philip opened to him the Scriptures. And when he had heard and believed, the Ethiopian asked, "What doth hinder me to be baptized?" (Acts 8:30, 31, 36).
UL	130	3	This experience shows the Lord's care for His people. It was the Spirit of God that led this man's mind to the Scriptures. But he could not interpret their meaning. Then the Lord sent one of His servants to enlighten his mind, and to make him understand.
UL	130	4	When the Ethiopian asked, "What doth hinder me to be baptized?" Philip did not wait to see how he would hold on to the faith. He said, "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him" (Verses 37, 38).
UL	130	5	The Lord wants everyone of us to fill the very place He has appointed us. If we will walk in simplicity and godliness, and trust in the Lord, just as the little child trusts its earthly parent, He will enable us to do the work He has given us to do. If we will seek the Lord, He will work for us.... The Lord will work out our salvation for us, if we will commit the keeping of our souls unto Him as unto a faithful Creator....
UL	130	6	It is not we who make the impression upon the mind and heart. Angels of God make the impression. They see every effort we make, and they soften the hearts and enlighten the minds of those for whom we are working, so that heavenly impressions can be made, and hearts and minds can be led to see and understand....
UL	130	7	You are not working alone. When you are tempted to become discouraged, remember this: Angels of God are right around you. They will minister to the very earth, causing it to give forth its treasures. This is the instruction I am trying to give to our people. I want them to understand what could be accomplished, if they would work the will of the Lord. It is the Lord who has given the instruction. Let us follow His directions.--Manuscript 13, April 26, 1909, "To the Workers and Students at Hill Crest School."
------------------------God Has His Chosen People, April 27
UL	131	1	But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9.
UL	131	2	God gives men the light, but many are filled with a self-sufficient, masterly spirit; and they strive by carrying out their own ideas to reach a height where they will be as God. They place their mind first, as if God must serve with them. Herein lies the danger in this: Unless God shall in some way make these men understand that He is God, and that they are to serve Him, human inventions will be brought in that will lead away from Bible truth, notwithstanding all the cautions that have been given.
UL	131	3	The Lord Jesus will always have a chosen people to serve Him. When the Jewish people rejected Christ, the Prince of life, He took from them the kingdom of God and gave it unto the Gentiles. God will continue to work on this principle with every branch of His work. When a church proves unfaithful to the word of the Lord, whatever their position may be, however high and sacred their calling, the Lord can no longer work with them. Others are then chosen to bear important responsibilities. But, if these in turn do not purify their lives from every wrong action, if they do not establish pure and holy principles in all their borders, then the Lord will grievously afflict and humble them and, unless they repent, will remove them from their place and make them a reproach....
UL	131	4	God is not "worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing" (Acts 17:25). No magnificence of outward display can please God, when the heart is serving idols and the hands are polluted with iniquity. The Holy Spirit will unite with those in the church who, with contrition of heart, will walk humbly with God. To all who look to Him and walk in the footsteps of Christ, He gives sanctification, comfort, and victory over the world. The people of God, His chosen kingdom, are not as a stagnant pool. They are as a river, constantly flowing, and as it advances becoming deeper and wider, until its life-giving waters are spread over all the earth. Whenever the gospel of God is received, its grace heals the maladies that sin has produced. The Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in His beams. Light, strength, and refreshing come from the Lord, and the good fruit borne bears witness to a work of righteousness.--Manuscript 33, April 27, 1903, "God's Purpose for His Church."
------------------------Take the Cup of Salvation, April 28
UL	132	1	I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. Psalm 116:13.
UL	132	2	Are you one that makes mistakes? Go to Jesus, and ask Him to forgive you, and then believe that He does. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Ask the Lord to pardon your errors. Then rejoice in Him.
UL	132	3	It will not help you in the least to keep mourning over your defects. Say, "Lord, I cast my helpless soul on Thee, and Thee alone. I will not worry, because Thou hast said, 'Ask, and ye shall receive.'" Believe that you do receive. Believe that your Saviour is full of compassion, full of tender pity and love. Let not little mishaps trouble you. Small mistakes may be ordered by the Lord to save you from making larger mistakes.
UL	132	4	Act your part in helping yourself, as all must do who would be blessed. Believe that Christ helps you. Refuse to speak a word of unbelief. When the enemy tells you that the Lord has forsaken you, tell him that you know He has not, for He declares, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Matthew 9:13)....
UL	132	5	Instead of bemoaning your weakness, and talking unbelief, and feeling that you are hardly used [i.e., abused], begin to sing. Talk of the mercy and love of God. To all who labor and are heavy laden, Christ gives the invitation, "Come unto me,... and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). This is the lesson that Christ desires you to learn, and in learning it you will find rest....
UL	132	6	Study the life that Christ lived while on this earth. He did not disregard the simplest, smallest duty that fell to Him. Perfection marked all that He did.
UL	132	7	Look to Jesus for help, and this will enable you to perform your daily duties with the grace and dignity of one who is seeking for a crown of immortal life. We dwell much on the grandeur of Christ's life. We speak of the great things that He accomplished, of the miracles that He wrought, speaking peace to the tempestuous waters, opening the ears of the deaf, raising the dead. But His attention to small things is even higher proof of His greatness and His compassion.--Letter 72, April 28, 1903, to a lay sister in Maine.
------------------------Go Forward, April 29
UL	133	1	Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you. 2 Chronicles 20:17.
UL	133	2	Into the daily life there come many perplexing problems that we cannot solve. There are those who wish to adjust every difficulty, to settle every question, before they begin to work. Such will surely fail. In the end, the future will be just as indistinct, and the problems just as perplexing, as when they began to speculate. It is in following the light given that we receive greater light....
UL	133	3	Move forward at the call of God. When He points out a work to be done, in His name and with full faith take up that work. You may not see the end from the beginning. Perplexities may surround you. Your brethren may tell you of the lions in the way. But, nevertheless, go forward, saying, "The Lord wants this work done, and I will not fail nor be discouraged. I will act my part." ...
UL	133	4	There are critics who, if you listen to their words, will rob you of all heart and hope. Do not allow them to discourage you. Say, "God abideth faithful. He cannot deny Himself." He has given to every man his work, and He calls upon all to begin to work just where they are. He cannot do what He desires to do until the human agent acts his part.
UL	133	5	At times the arm of faith seems too short even to touch the Saviour's garment, but there stands the promise, with God behind it: "Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not" (Isaiah 58:9-11)....
UL	133	6	It is not our efforts that bring victory. It is seeing God behind the promise, and believing and trusting Him. Grasp by faith the hand of infinite power. The Lord is faithful who hath promised.
UL	133	7	Questions will arise that cannot be settled by any amount of thinking. Do not spend time trying to settle them. Take up the work waiting to be done, trusting in God as your wisdom. His righteousness will go before you, and the questions that have troubled you will answer themselves.--Manuscript 54, April 29, 1902, "How to Solve Perplexing Problems."
------------------------The Great Exemplar, April 30
UL	134	1	For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. 1 Peter 2:21.
UL	134	2	It is not enough merely to acknowledge Christ. We must follow where He leads the way. His grace is sufficient. He suffered for us, and He has left us an example, that we should follow .... The present is our time of proving. The experience necessary in order to gain the crown of life will bring us far greater crucifixion of self than we have hitherto thought possible. What is the message that the apostle Paul bears to everyone who names the name of Christ? "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds" (Hebrews 12:1-3).
UL	134	3	Christ was the Lord of heaven and earth, yet for our sake He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. He was made in the likeness of God, yet He humbled Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, that He might save us. He gave His life for our redemption. Will we accept the sacrifice? The only begotten Son of God was numbered with the transgressors, that human beings might not perish, but have everlasting life. Life eternal will be their inheritance, if they will consent to humble their proud heart and become partakers of His suffering. He patiently endured shame and mockery and derision that He might save every sinful human being who would lay hold of Him by living faith. While He hung on the cross, giving His life for our redemption, His murderers mocked Him, saying, "He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him" (Matthew 27:42).... He could have refused thus to die, but He was suffering that the world through Him might be redeemed from Satan's claim and authority. Through His death all who believe in Him may have eternal life....
UL	134	4	The salvation of human beings means much more than many realize. It means that we are to choose God's way rather than our own. The Lord cannot save men while they refuse to humble themselves under the reproofs and warnings that He sends, strenuously asserting their own will, and following their own course of action.--Letter 133, April 30, 1905, to J. E. White.
------------------------Satanic Subtlety, May 1
UL	135	1	But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3.
UL	135	2	In all our dealings with one another we are to reveal Christ. Thus we shall show that we have a genuine connection with the Saviour. God is to receive all honor, all glory. When Christ shall appear, those who are united with Him by living faith will be acknowledged by Him. He will not be ashamed to call them brethren....
UL	135	3	The Lord, He is God, and beside Him there is none else. When Satan can bring his craftiness to bear on human minds, deceptive influences are received [as] from heaven. If his deceptions are allowed to enter, many souls will be ensnared by them, before it is seen that they are not from God, but from the enemy of all righteousness.
UL	135	4	I assure you that it will be one of our perplexities to distinguish the genuine from the spurious. Deception steals in unawares, just as it stole into the heavenly courts. Satan sought to undermine the confidence of the angels in God's government. He desired the place occupied by Christ, having it in his mind, that if he gained this position, to make an effort to take the place of God. Adroitly he presented his suggestions to the angels, and many of them received these suggestions. He left his insinuations in their minds to develop. They, not as cautious as their leader, began to communicate their new theories. Satan was the originator of the doubts that they expressed, but he presented them as the opinions of a large number of the angels, and as such, something that should be considered.
UL	135	5	Today, Satan works with deceptive guile to captivate human beings by his deceptive theories. The warning to beware of allowing him to enter comes sounding down along the line to our time.
UL	135	6	Let none suppose that because they have been used as the Lord's instrumentalities, they are all-sufficient. The Lord uses men and honors them by giving them His wisdom, as long as they are true to Him, and do not gather glory to themselves. Those who take themselves out of the Lord's hands, and think themselves capable of managing the work, are not led by His Spirit, but by "another spirit." Satan steps in, and they change leaders. Then comes the crookedness and subtlety of the serpent's guile.--Manuscript 37, May 1, 1903, "Directions for Work."
------------------------Who is the Greatest? May 2
UL	136	1	Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3.
UL	136	2	Read the instruction given in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew. There is nothing more positive than this in all the oracles of God; and yet God is dishonored and His cause marred by the doing of the wrongs pointed out in this chapter. These words are for you and for me, and for all who claim to be disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus. He shows us the principles upon which we are to act in all cases and under all circumstances. There is to be no striving for the supremacy. Christ teaches that in His spiritual kingdom it is not position, not outward splendor or authority, that constitutes greatness, but spiritual excellence manifested in true conversion.
UL	136	3	We are ever to be learners of Christ. He has invited us, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and [in your own experience, as you partake of My spirit and principles] ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:28, 29). Christ's yoke is a yoke of submission and obedience....
UL	136	4	In our daily lives, before our brethren and before the world, we are to be living interpreters of the Scriptures, doing honor to Christ by revealing His meekness and His lowliness of heart. Christ's teachings are to be to us as the leaves of the tree of life. As we eat and digest the bread of life, we shall reveal a symmetrical character. By our unity, by esteeming others better than ourselves, we are to bear to the world a living testimony of the power of the truth. We are not to fear that unless we labor to be first, self will not be properly estimated. If men had higher and greater views of Christ, if they had greater confidence in Him and less confidence in themselves, their characters would be molded and fashioned after the divine likeness. When self is hid in Christ, the Saviour will appear as the One altogether lovely and the chiefest among ten thousand.
UL	136	5	When men submit entirely to God, eating the bread of life and drinking the water of salvation, they will grow up into Christ. Their characters are composed of that which the mind eats and drinks. Through the Word of life, which they receive and obey, they become partakers of the divine nature. Then their entire service is after the divine similitude, and Christ, not man, is exalted.--Letter 64, May 2, 1900, to "Brother and Sister Steed." 
------------------------In the World But Not of the World, May 3
UL	137	1	If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. John 15:19.
UL	137	2	The Lord our Saviour knew every phase of experience His disciples would meet and all the conflicts they would experience. The Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you" (John 15:18). We must not as Christians become fretful and impatient over coming in contact with worldly men. They have not the belief of the truth, and whatever they say or do, keep your temper.
UL	137	3	Every time you allow your feelings to become irritated you manifest in your words that you have not that faith that works by love and sanctifies the soul. You have personal pride and a large stock of self-sufficiency, and you are not in any case prepared to connect together in business capacity or even as Christians, because your own attributes of character are not of the Bible order, to retain your position as partners.
UL	137	4	Christians can maintain an untarnished reputation if they are Christians, which means Christlike. God has made every provision that through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ they should not fail or be discouraged in a dark, troubled future, which He knew must come. The Lord Jesus Christ is grieved for His disciples, that they must pass through manifold afflictions from the world. He prepares them for that time of trial, of great temptation to lose their faith, by presenting before their minds the hopeful part of the future. He must mingle the bright, hopeful lines with the dark. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me" (Verse 26).
UL	137	5	Then He tells them that they will also cooperate with the Holy Spirit. The great Source of their strength--which is our changeless consolation and hope and courage--would ever be within their reach. They were to be Christ's witnesses. "And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning" (Verse 27). They should be His faithful representatives to an apostate world. While in the world they are not to be of the world, but bear a faithful testimony against the evil that is working in worldly policy plans contrary to the truth and righteousness.--Manuscript 80, May 3, 1893, "Diary."
------------------------Kept in the Love of the Truth, May 4
UL	138	1	Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22.
UL	138	2	Our young people need to be surrounded with wholesome, uplifting influences. They are to be kept in the love of the truth. The standard set before them should be high. Some feel a desire to be left without restraint, that they may do as they please.... The fathers and mothers ... in the church are under sacred obligation to watch for the souls of their children as they that must give an account. Let none, neither parents nor the youth, begin to believe that amusements are essential, and that a careless disregard of the Holy Spirit during hours of selfish pleasure is to be lightly regarded. God will not be mocked. Let every young man, every young woman, consider, "Am I prepared today for my life to close? Have I the heart preparation that fits me to do the work which the Lord has given me to do?"
UL	138	3	Every youth should make God's Word his guide and daily gather from the Word the instruction that is given. If some refuse to be guided by this instruction, they are sowing seeds that the enemy has placed in their hands, and they will not care to reap the harvest of the seeds sown....
UL	138	4	There are many things which are right in themselves, but which, perverted by Satan, prove a snare to the unwary. The gathering together of our youth for a singing exercise sounds very harmless, but it has been my experience, during half a century, that these singing exercises often prove a source of much harm to souls. If the hearts of all who attend were right with God; if all loved God supremely, and desired to keep His glory in view; if all would strive to please Him, then such exercises would not prove harmful. But usually there are present many who do not realize that they are becoming more and still more unconcerned regarding their duty to please God. Their souls become indifferent. One has an influence over another, and the indifference manifested toward spiritual things increases. God's Holy Word is not studied diligently day by day, and because of lack of spiritual food, they grow weak in moral power....
UL	138	5	Oh, that every member, every worker, might realize that this life is a school in which to prepare for examination by the God of heaven with regard to purity, cleanness of thought, unselfishness of action. Every word and act, every thought, is recorded on the record books of heaven.--Letter 144, May 4, 1906, to the church in Mountain View, California.
------------------------The Christian's Legacy, May 5
UL	139	1	My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction. Proverbs 3:11.
UL	139	2	Do not permit yourself to be discouraged. Do not permit yourself to be provoked, but let intelligent reason control your actions. Inquire what good it would do to be impatient. It would only gratify the enemy and confirm the opinion of those who would think evil of you. You may, by an even course of conduct, prove the words of evil-minded persons untrue. Do not enter into self-defense, but pass along doing your duty with perseverance.
UL	139	3	God help you, my son [Edson], to make sure work for eternity. This is your work. No one can do this work for you. Trust wholly in God. Our heavenly Father is mindful of your infirmities. I am thankful that He is acquainted with all our weaknesses and with all our temptations. He knows how to pity us and how to strengthen us if we will flee to Him, the Stronghold, for help. Do not, when your faith is tested, become reckless. Just wait and calmly submit your judgment and your will and your way and be willing to be led.
UL	139	4	There is no other way to be saved but that devised by our Redeemer, and of which He has given us a practical illustration in His own life of self-denial and self-sacrifice. You know He submitted to insult, to scorn and mockery without retaliation. When He was reviled, He reviled not again. "I came ... not," says Christ, "to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me" (John 6:38). We must have the mind of Christ. We must walk in His footsteps.
UL	139	5	Those who have lived for others' good and have had an eye single to the glory of God will win eternal life. Those who will not make exertion, but drift with the current, live for self. They will never hear the "Well done" spoken to them.... Precious souls are to be saved, and we have a work to do to win them to Christ.
UL	139	6	Remember that hardships and trials are a part of the Christian legacy. Christ, the Majesty of heaven, came to our world to show us how to bear the world's rebuffs without fainting or without retaliation. Every trial borne wisely will be a blessing to those who have them. They will lift up, but not cast down. Those who are continually seeking to shirk the hard and stony places but are seeking an easier path, a pleasanter way, will ever meet with disappointment and adversity. But if they brace the soul for trial and for duty, march forward bravely in God, they will find the path of self-denial and self-sacrifice will lead to honor and heavenly riches in the future, immortal life.... Pray much and exercise living faith, and you will surely sing the song of victory.--Letter 24, May 5, 1874, to Edson White.
------------------------Right or Wrong Side--Which? May 6
UL	140	1	I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. Deuteronomy 30:19.
UL	140	2	Those who are carrying forward the work of God must stand firm and steadfast, as faithful sentinels in the Lord's army. They must stand under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel.... The last message of mercy is to be proclaimed. Men and women are to be aroused to prepare for the great issues before them....
UL	140	3	The reason why men and women today do not believe the truth is because it condemns their life practices. They see that the truth calls for a reform, and they fight it because they hate the work involved in sanctification....
UL	140	4	He whose conscience is a sure guide will not stop to reason [i.e., rationalize away] when light shines upon him out of God's Word. He will not be guided by human counsel. He will not allow worldly business to stand in the way of obedience. He will lay every selfish interest at the door of investigation, and will approach the Word of God as one whose eternal interest is hanging in the balance.
UL	140	5	There is a right side--the side of Him who declared, "I have kept my Father's commandments" (John 15:10). "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psalm 19:7). There is a wrong side--the side of the one who in heaven rebelled against God. With his sympathizers he was expelled from the heavenly courts, and from his action we may understand that no matter how high a position a man may occupy in the church or in the world, if he is disloyal to God, if he accepts human laws instead of the laws of Jehovah, he can never enter heaven, for he is living in direct opposition to God. He will receive punishment in accordance with the power of influence which instead of being placed on the side of God was placed on the side of Satan. The greater the talents and influence given him, the greater will be his punishment. God will require at his hands the souls he has turned aside from truth to falsehood. Instead of leading them to God, he led them away from God, and their blood will be charged to him....
UL	140	6	In the day of judgment those who have refused the light and have led others to honor the false sabbath will see the course Satan has pursued in causing men to transgress the law of God. They will see and fully comprehend the virtue of God's sign....
UL	140	7	God's people have a serious, solemn work to do. He bids them, "Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins" (Isaiah 58:1).--Manuscript 27, May 6, 1900, "Obedience and Disobedience."
------------------------Christ Calls for Unity, May 7
UL	141	1	That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21.
UL	141	2	We each need the help we can receive from other minds. God will work in other minds than ours. The various gifts given to different ones are to blend for the "perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12)....
UL	141	3	The Lord Jesus Christ will heal our infirmities and our weaknesses. He owns us. We are His by creation and by redemption. We must all be united in Him. He is the only source of healing. All restoring power comes from Him. He has opened a fountain "to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." He gives each one an invitation to come and be healed, and to drink of the water of life. Let us not trust in ourselves, but in Jesus.
UL	141	4	There will always be obstacles before us, but we are to follow our Leader, and meet our difficulties unitedly, hand in hand. There is only one way to heaven. We must walk in the footsteps of Jesus, doing His works, even as He did the works of His Father. We must study His ways, not man's ways; we must obey His will, not our own. Walk carefully. Do not go ahead of Christ. Make no move without consulting your Leader. Ask in humble prayer, and "ye shall receive." He is the Way, the Truth, the Life.
UL	141	5	Read and study carefully the prayer that Christ offered just before His trial, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John. Follow its teachings, and you will be brought into unity. Our only hope of reaching heaven is to be one with Christ, and then, in and through Christ, we shall be one with one another. No one is called to walk alone. In Christ life and immortality are brought to light. He has opened the way to the kingdom of heaven to those who believe in Him, but He assigns to no one a path different to that which all must travel. He calls for unity, and unity we must have. God asks us to sink self in Christ. For the natural man this is not easy. But through the power of the incarnation of Christ, God manifest in the flesh, the strength of God is revealed in gentleness and beauty. To "as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." By this power we may overcome our evil tendencies and so modify our imperfect dispositions that the will of God may be fulfilled in us.--Letter 79, May 7, 1903, to J.A. Burden and wife. (Elder Burden was engaged in sanitarium work in Australia.)
------------------------When Mistakes are Made, May 8
UL	142	1	Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:7.
UL	142	2	Though a veil hangs over the future, you have a knowledge of the Lord's mercies in the past. Allow no difficulties to discourage you. You have passed through trials, and you will be called to pass through trials again. You have had to pass through experiences not altogether agreeable, and these experiences may be repeated. Temptations have come to you, and temptations will come to you again.
UL	142	3	We know not what is before us; but we know that we have the privilege of committing our souls to God, as unto a faithful Creator. Let us thank God that we have a refuge in trial. Let us remember that Christ is a present help in every time of need. The promises of God's Word are rich and full and free. God is with us; He cares for us.
UL	142	4	God is revealed to us in Christ. Our Saviour is the image of the invisible God. Oh, how near to heaven we may be. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," Christ declared.
UL	142	5	Let us allow no worldly business to absorb our energies. Let us allow nothing to occupy the place that God should fill. We must have periods of rest, times set apart for meditation and prayer and for spiritual refreshing. Christ went about doing good, healing all manner of sickness and forgiving all sins, comforting the mourners, banishing sorrow by His presence. Let us behold Him--the very compassion and lovingkindness of God Himself.
UL	142	6	Let us seek the Lord.... Never forget that you are God's little children. Refuse to worry about what you cannot help. If you make mistakes, go to the compassionate Saviour and ask Him for forgiveness. Tell Him that you want to follow His will. Be polite to God. Remember that He cares for you, and that He will be a present help in every time of need. His "tender mercies are over all his works."
UL	142	7	It is our privilege to open our hearts and let the Saviour in. Let us praise Him for the brightness of His presence. Let us carry the sunshine of His love on our countenances and bring it into our words. Then His joy will be in us, and our joy will be full....
UL	142	8	The breath of the higher life is to be breathed into our lifework. This will bind us to one another, and to God. The love of Christ needs to come into our experience. Then we shall love one another as Christ has loved us.--Letter 81, May 8, 1903, to Dr. D.H. Kress and wife. (Dr. Kress was director of the Sydney Sanitarium.)
------------------------Pray for the Holy Spirit, May 9
UL	143	1	If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13.
UL	143	2	Those who place their names on the church book should do so with a full and intelligent understanding of what this action involves. It means that you have solemnly pledged yourself to serve God. It means that you have made a full surrender of self to Him, in order that Christ may reign where self once reigned. It means that you have given up your pet ideas and policies, and have yielded your mind to the mind of Christ. It means that your fixed purpose is to be one with God, one with His people; that you will exercise self-denial and self-sacrifice to advance the interests of His kingdom; that you will strive to overcome everything that hinders growth in grace.
UL	143	3	The Lord leaves in darkness no man who has an ear to hear and a heart to understand. Let everyone keep the eye single to God's glory. Be not led astray by the snares of the wicked one. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). Let the warnings that God has given in His Word be voiced by the watchmen on the walls of Zion and heeded by every soul in the Master's service.
UL	143	4	Every case will be tried; every soul will be proved. Let each one ask, "Am I an evil servant? Do I by precept and practice lead other souls in false paths?" Remember that your influence is affecting others for good or for evil.
UL	143	5	I beseech the members of every church to seek now for the greatest blessing Heaven can bestow--the Holy Spirit. If in faith you seek for a greater measure of God's Spirit, you will be constantly taking it in and breathing it out. Daily you will receive a fresh supply. Your everyday experience will be enriched by the rich current of God's love. Before you lie vast fields of truth, vast sources of power. Let the daily prayer be, "Take from us what Thou dost choose to take, but withhold not Thy Holy Spirit from us." We must have the gift of the Holy Spirit.
UL	143	6	The truth of God is for us. The religion of Jesus Christ never degrades the receiver, but makes him pure, that he may see God. It gives him an intensity of desire to be like Jesus Christ, the One altogether lovely, the Chiefest among ten thousand.... Why should we not love Him and give Him our undivided service?
UL	143	7	As were God's people anciently, so should we be prepared to advance when the cloud rises and moves forward, and to halt when the cloud hovers over a certain place. None can stand still, making no advancement.--Manuscript 56, May 9, 1902, "Written for Our Admonition."
------------------------Take Christ at His Word, May 10
UL	144	1	Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. John 6:37.
UL	144	2	All that Jesus asks of you is to accept the truth of the gospel just as it reads. Its requirements are plain and right to the point. All God requires of you is to believe His Word, to accept a "Thus saith the Lord." God's requirements are His communications to His human family. He speaks to them as intelligent, reasoning agencies, who are responsible to render to Him the fruit of righteousness....
UL	144	3	Will you take the Word of God just as it reads? Will you as a responsible agent seek to realize your accountability to God? God is the sovereign of the world. He has entrusted human beings with sacred gifts and endowed them with precious faculties. They are responsible to Him for the right use of these endowments....
UL	144	4	We have only to come, complying with the invitation, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7:37). "Him that cometh to me I will no wise cast out" (chap. 6:37). Every human being, as he reads these words, should feel that he is on holy ground. Remember that the life of the only begotten Son of God was offered up for you. As the Holy Spirit impresses Christ's words on the heart and mind, man must feel that he is in the presence of superior goodness, superseding immeasurably anything that earth can afford. He must feel that he is occupying holy ground, for he is close to the living fountain of mercy and love.
UL	144	5	To Moses, Jehovah declared, "I am that I am" (Exodus 3:14). Christ declared, "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). By this declaration He laid open the resources of His infinite nature, imparting in His words assurance of pardon for the guilty race. He is the Word, conscious of power that He can take up and lay down His life as He chooses [in order] to secure the salvation of those who have fallen under Satan's falsehoods and intrigues....
UL	144	6	Having brought into the world the great treasures of heaven, owned and created by the eternal God, Christ can give to all eternal life. To all who believe on Him as their personal Saviour, He will give an eternal weight of glory.
UL	144	7	To us the invitation is given, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, ... and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18). Thus God has declared His covenant of obedience.--Letter 79, May 10, 1900, to a gracious businessman and his Adventist wife.
------------------------Follow the Great Exemplar, May 11
UL	145	1	I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6.
UL	145	2	In describing His earthly mission, Jesus declared, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives; and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18, 19).
UL	145	3	Are we so closely assimilated to Christ that we can represent His work and follow His example? His work gave character to His mission, showing that it was of divine appointment. In His every word and act were revealed tender compassion, love, and mercy. The poorest and humblest were not afraid to approach Him. He always noticed the little children, and they were attracted to Him.
UL	145	4	Our Saviour's words were plain and decided. He did not suppress one word of truth, but spoke the truth with convincing earnestness. And as He spoke, the desponding drew nearer, and were filled with hope and courage. He was the Prince of heaven. He never spoke a word to give needless pain to any trembling, sensitive soul. He looked with sorrow upon those who rejected Him and made light of His words, and said, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life" (John 5:40).
UL	145	5	Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. His life on this earth was one of self-denial. He comforted and encouraged everyone who came to Him for relief, for they were all precious in His eyes. He ever bore Himself with divine dignity, yet He bowed Himself with tender regard to every member of the Lord's family. He came to stand at the head of humanity, to give all who believe on Him power to become the sons and daughters of God. Such is the example we are to follow. If it were followed, the enemy would not receive so large a share of attention and honor as he now receives from those who profess to be followers of Christ, but who in reality are following satanic wiles. God sent His Son into the world that those who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. His followers are to show the strictest honesty, justice, and integrity in their every transaction.
UL	145	6	Let the work begin sincerely, through reconversion and transformation of character.--Manuscript 53, May 11, 1905, "Unto Seventy Times Seven."
------------------------Practice Good Work Habits, May 12
UL	146	1	Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men. Proverbs 22:29.
UL	146	2	Dear son Edson: I fear that you do not always wisely regulate your labor. You sometimes do too much, and then allow precious hours to pass unimproved, thus creating a necessity for extra exertion. Temperate, persevering, steady labor will achieve far more than can be accomplished by spasmodic efforts....
UL	146	3	Labor was appointed to man by his Creator. God provided employment for our first parents in holy Eden. And since the Fall, man has been a toiler, eating his bread by the sweat of his brow. Every bone of his body, every feature of his countenance, every muscle of his limbs, evinces the fact that he was made for activity, not for idleness....
UL	146	4	The faithful discharge of life's duties, whatever your position, calls for a wise improvement of all the talents and abilities that God has given you. Guard against being always hurried, yet accomplishing nothing worthy of the effort. These fruitless efforts are often caused by a failure to do the work at the proper time. Whatever is neglected at the time when it should be performed, whether in secular or in religious things, is rarely done well. Many appear to labor diligently every hour in the day, and yet produce no results to correspond with their efforts....
UL	146	5	Be careful not to fritter away your time upon trifles, and then fail to carry out your undertakings that are of real account. The church and the world need calm, well-balanced men. To run well for a season is not enough. A steadfast adherence to a purpose is necessary in order to secure the end. A distinguished man was once asked how it was possible for him to accomplish such a vast amount of business. His answer was, "I do one thing at a time." ...
UL	146	6	Henry Martyn, both as a man and a missionary, depended not a little upon his habits of regularity. To such an extent did he carry these, that he was known in the university as the student who never wasted an hour.... How many youth who might have become men of usefulness and power have failed because in early life they contracted habits of indecision which followed them through life to cripple all their efforts. Now and then they are filled with sudden zeal to do some great thing, but they leave their work half finished and it comes to nothing. Patient continuance in well doing is indispensable to success.
UL	146	7	My dear son, be thorough in all you undertake. Rely constantly upon your Saviour; go to Him for wisdom, for courage, for strength of purpose, for everything you need. May the Lord bless you is the prayer of your mother.--Letter 3, May 12, 1877, to her 27-year-old son Edson.
------------------------Counsel to Women, May 13
UL	147	1	A woman will be saved ... if she perseveres in faith and love and holiness, with modesty. 1 Timothy 2:15, T.E.V.
UL	147	2	There is a higher standard for us to reach. We are not making all that advancement that it is our duty or our privilege to make. How is it that we use the talent that God has given us in temporal matters and not in His service? Ought we not to have greater interest in eternal things than in those things which concern our temporal wants?
UL	147	3	We have heard desire expressed that husbands and families should come into the truth. This is right; it should be a prominent wish. But do we do all our duty? Do we make all the advancement that we should? Do we not come far short of our duty in meeting the work of progression? Don't be a spiritual dwarf. We love to see infants and watch their baby ways, but the same ways would be disgusting if retained until the child was two years old. So the Christian must grow. Be conformed to Christ, not deformed. Just feel as though you were anchored in Christ. Let there be a solidity to the sisters who are alone. Avoid frivolity and keep constantly watching.
UL	147	4	The rich blessings of heaven are all ready to be showered upon us. Don't be selfish. With too many, all there is to religion is: Me and my family. They will not go out of their way to help and bless any others. In such case, God cannot bless them. It is when we are drawn out from self that God blesses us. He wants us to be drawn out from ourselves. That which we sow, we will reap. If you sow selfishness, you will reap selfishness, that is, you will have it fastened upon you. Let us get out of self and talk of the mercies and blessings of God.
UL	147	5	Let all the sisters feel that if they haven't a husband to lean upon, they will lean more heavily upon God. Every one of our sisters can be a living missionary, and can bring light into every meeting. Do we act as though we were called from darkness into marvelous light? or as if we were lugging along a heavy weight? We must talk light and pray light, and light will come in. If only women in the church [would] show that God can work through women. It was Mary that first preached a risen Jesus.... There are richer blessings for those that have the harder conflict, for Christ is a present help in trouble. But we must be divested of selfishness; be acquainted with the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and we shall thus grow more and more like Jesus till the crown of immortality is placed upon our brows.--Manuscript 2, May 13, 1884, "Sermon by Mrs. E. G. White."
------------------------There is a Safe Path, May 14
UL	148	1	Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? John 14:9.
UL	148	2	There is a world to be warned, and every effort must now be made to exalt the truth.... The great Teacher held in His hand the entire map of truth. In simple language He made plain to His disciples the way to heaven, and the endless subjects of divine power. The question of the essence of God was a subject on which He maintained a wise reserve, for their entanglements and specifications would bring in science which could not be dwelt upon by unsanctified minds without confusion. In regard to God and in regard to His personality, the Lord Jesus said, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). Christ was the express image of His Father's person.
UL	148	3	The open path, the safe path of walking in the way of His commandments, is a path from which there is no safe departing. And when men follow their own human theories dressed up in soft, fascinating representations, they make a snare in which to catch souls. In the place of devoting your powers to theorizing, Christ has given you a work to do. His commission is, Go throughout the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
UL	148	4	Before the disciples shall compass the threshold, there is to be the imprint of the sacred name, baptizing the believers in the name of the threefold powers in the heavenly world. The human mind is impressed in this ceremony, the beginning of the Christian life. It means very much. The work of salvation is not a small matter, but so vast that the highest authorities are taken hold of by the expressed faith of the human agent. The eternal Godhead--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost--is involved in the action required to make assurance to the human agent, ... confederating the heavenly powers with the human that man may become, through heavenly efficiency, partakers of the divine nature and workers together with Christ.
UL	148	5	Man's capabilities can multiply through the connection of human agencies with divine agencies. United with the heavenly powers, the human capabilities increase according to that faith that works by love and purifies, sanctifies, and ennobles the whole man.--Manuscript 45, May 14, 1904, "That They All May Be One."
------------------------The Need for Unity, May 15
UL	149	1	And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. John 17:22.
UL	149	2	Our great need is unity. We have not one soul that can be spared. The Lord calls upon us to unify in harmony with Bible truth. This should be repeated over and over in the family and in the church....
UL	149	3	Said Christ, "As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do" (John 14:31). He came to our world on a mission from the Father. He came to bridge the gulf that sin had made between God and man. There was to be made a provision for a reconciliation, for a union of the human with the divine nature. Christ would sanctify all who believe in Him. In the gift of Christ to our world, God has provided for everyone a power to overcome evil. He has given unto us "exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:4).
UL	149	4	The great apostasy originally began in a denial of the love of God, as it is plainly revealed in the Word. Provision was then made whereby fallen man might have a powerful revelation of the love of God, and be given an opportunity to return to his allegiance to Jehovah. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). "I lay down my life for the sheep," says Christ (chap. 10:15). "The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (chap. 6:51). Here is a revelation of the power mighty to save "to the uttermost." God is light and love.
UL	149	5	After the war in the heavenly courts Satan and his followers were cast out. As human beings, we are subject to the crafty wiles and temptations of this fallen foe. And unless we are kept by the power of Christ, we shall certainly be led away by the satanic sophistries by which the world is flooded. Our safety is to lean not on human power, on the arm of flesh, but upon the divine arm. Those who are partakers of the divine nature will not be beguiled by Satan.
UL	149	6	Everyone will be tested. Men professing to be Christians will be placed in positions of trust, as guardians over the flock of God.... We are God's property. In Jesus Christ we are to behold a pattern of what we should be. Every soul should be educated to look not to his fellow men, but unto Christ. He is the Author and the Finisher of our Faith.--Letter 172, May 15, 1907, to P. T. Magan, cofounder of Madison Institutions.
------------------------Cure for Guilt and Depression, May 16
UL	150	1	How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Matthew 18:12, 13.
UL	150	2	I have read your letter with much interest ...
UL	150	3	The Lord wills not that any soul should perish. His mercies are without number, and He will not leave His purchased possession that He has given His own life to ransom to become the sport of Satan's temptations. All Heaven is given to all those who believe in Jesus Christ as their present personal Saviour, and no soul can dishonor God more than claiming to believe the truth and yet wearing the garments of mourning as though [he were an] orphan....
UL	150	4	The Lord does not leave His wounded and bruised sheep to the power of Satan to be torn in pieces. He is ever strengthening His own when they are weak. He delivers the tried and tempted ones from the enemy's power. The Lord Jesus never forsakes any soul that puts his trust in Him. And those who claim to be sons and daughters of God must trust in Jesus always. To do otherwise is to disown that He loves us, and, by going [about] depressed, covering ourselves with garments of heaviness and mourning, we make a very bad representation of Christ. We virtually say that our Lord is a hard, tyrannical Master. This is lying against the precious Saviour, who gave His own life that He might make it possible for all to believe in Him, and confide in His interest and love for sinful man....
UL	150	5	You do great injustice to my Saviour when you walk as though in the shadow of darkness. You are never to walk in the fire and sparks of your own kindling, subject to feelings and emotions.
UL	150	6	Jesus said, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Now if you are following another leader than Christ, who is Light and Truth and Life, leave that leader and follow Jesus the Light of the world. Is the Lord pleased to have you tossed about as the restless waves of the sea? No! No! I tell you He bids you be strengthened, stablished, rooted and grounded and built up in the most holy faith. Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price which cannot be estimated. Then your owner is God, the mighty God, and for the price paid look to the cross of Calvary. This fluctuating between hope and fear grieves the heart of Christ, who hath given you unmistakable evidence of His love and hath chosen you.--Letter 41, May 16, 1893, to D. A. Corkham, a member of the Nova Scotia Conference committee.
------------------------Are You Preparing for Heaven? May 17
UL	151	1	Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9.
UL	151	2	What a work is before us. We need greater faith in Christ and the Father, for this we must certainly have, else we shall be counted with the unbelievers. We see great opportunities and a great amount of work to do. We want the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. We cannot afford to miss the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. The sanctification of the truth, confirming man's steadfastness in the faith, will constitute men laborers together with God.
UL	151	3	United with the Source of all power, persevering in duty, enlarging the apprehension of the love of God in Christ Jesus, they become one with Christ, until they are complete with Christ in God.
UL	151	4	The glories that await the faithful overcomer are beyond any description. The Lord will greatly honor and exalt His faithful ones. They shall grow like the cedar, and their comprehension will be certainly increasing. And at every advanced stage of knowledge their anticipation will fall far beneath the reality. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). Our work now is to prepare for those mansions that God is preparing for those who love Him and keep His commandments.... The Lord Jesus will enlarge every mind and heart for the reception of the Holy Spirit....
UL	151	5	Time is short. Let the little time you have be employed for your own present and eternal good by active Christian service, doing all the good possible. Redeem the time that has been lost; seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then you will have something to impart in good works, in cheerful, consecrated influence....
UL	151	6	What preparation have you made for the future, eternal world? ... You want something higher and better than you now have. You may exert a conscious and unconscious influence in right doing. God deserves something better from you as His subject than that which you have given Him. Carefully consider: Are you standing under the banner of Prince Emmanuel, or under the black banner of the prince of darkness? There is an obligation resting upon you to return the influence and money that is lent you of the Lord to advance His cause and glorify His name.
UL	151	7	The Lord calls upon you, "My son, give me thine heart."--Letter 71, May 17, 1900, to John Wessels.
------------------------Beware Seductive Theories, May 18
UL	152	1	Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Colossians 2:8.
UL	152	2	At this time--the last days of this earth's history--we are to make the book of Revelation a special study. Why? Because it depicts the scenes that we are to meet. We need to understand what we are to meet, and how we are to meet it. We must know what efforts we are to make, so that in this perilous time we shall not be taken by the enemy's devices. We know that the last great conflict will be Satan's most determined effort to accomplish his purposes. He will come, not only as a roaring lion, but as a seducer, clothing sin with beautiful garments of light that he may take human beings in his snare.
UL	152	3	The Lord desires us to realize that it is of great importance that we stand in these last days upon the platform of eternal truth. Those who think that the church militant is the church triumphant make a great mistake. The church militant will gain great triumphs, but it will also have fierce conflicts with evil that it may be firmly established upon the platform of eternal truth. And every one of us should be determined to stand with the church upon this platform....
UL	152	4	There are those today who call the Revelation a sealed book. [It is a mystery,] but it is a mystery unfolded. We need to understand what it tells us in regard to the scenes that are to take place in the last days of this earth's history. The enemy will bring in everything that he possibly can to carry out his deceptive designs. Are they not lacking in wisdom who have no desire to understand in regard to the things that are to take place on this earth? ...
UL	152	5	In a representation which passed before me, I saw a certain work being done by medical missionary workers. Our ministering brethren were looking on, watching what was being done, but they did not seem to understand. The foundation of our faith, which was established by so much prayer, such earnest searching of the Scriptures, was being taken down, pillar by pillar. Our faith was to have nothing to rest upon--the sanctuary was gone, the atonement was gone....
UL	152	6	Do you wonder that I have something to say, when I see the pillars of our faith beginning to be moved? Seductive theories are being taught in such a way that we shall not recognize them unless we have clear spiritual discernment.--Manuscript 46, May 18, 1904, "The Foundation of Our Faith," a talk given at Berrien Springs, Michigan.
------------------------Oneness with Christ, May 19
UL	153	1	I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:23.
UL	153	2	Let us make it known that provision has been made for our redemption. Christ left the heavenly courts and came to this world to make an atonement for us. All who come to Him in living faith will be enabled to stand on vantage ground. As God's servants proclaim these things, Satan steps up to some of those who have itching minds and presents his scientific problems. Men will be tempted to place science above God. But who, by searching, can find out God? Men may put their own interpretation upon God, but no human mind can comprehend Him. This problem has not been given us to solve. Let not finite man attempt to interpret Jehovah. Let none indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion.
UL	153	3	Christ is one with the Father, but God and Christ are two distinct Personages. Read the prayer of Christ in the seventeenth chapter of John, and you will find this point clearly brought out. How earnestly the Saviour prayed that His disciples might be one with Him as He was one with the Father. But the unity that is to exist between Christ and His followers does not destroy the personality of either. They are to be one with Him as He is one with the Father. By this unity they are to make it plain to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners. The oneness of Christ's followers with Him is to be the great, unmistakable proof that God did indeed send His Son into the world to save sinners. But a loose, lax religion leaves the world confused and bewildered.
UL	153	4	My brethren and sisters, take your stand on an elevated platform, and work to the point to be one with Christ. The heart of the Saviour is set upon His followers' fulfilling God's purpose in all its height and depth. They are to be one with Him, even though they are scattered the world over. But God cannot make them one in Christ unless they are willing to give up their own way for His way.
UL	153	5	In view of all that Christ has suffered for us, should we complain when we are called to endure self-denial and suffering? Would not this make God ashamed of us? Let us rejoice that it is our privilege to be partakers in the sufferings of Christ, for thus only can we be fitted to be partakers of His glory.... Let us live lives that will lead sinners to the Saviour. Christ carried His humanity with Him into the heavenly courts, and all humanity can claim Him as their representative. We may be made complete in Him.--Manuscript 58, "The Work in Washington," a talk given May 19, 1905.
------------------------By Their Fruits, May 20
UL	154	1	Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Matthew 7:16, 17.
UL	154	2	Eternal redemption never looked so exceedingly precious as at the present time, and I never felt more deeply in earnest to overcome on every point as now. There must be no defects in our character, not one. Every spot and wrinkle must be effaced by the blood of the Lamb. Our own peculiar traits of character will disappear when the transforming power of the grace of God is felt upon our hearts. The fruits we bear in patience, kindness, forbearance, and self-denial will testify of us that we have learned of Jesus.
UL	154	3	The fruit of the tree testifies if it is a good or corrupt tree. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. By their fruits ye shall know them. Let us so speak and so labor that our fruit may be unto righteousness and we letting our light shine forth in good works. Profession is nothing. A godly life alone will God approve....
UL	154	4	I am determined to gain the victory of self. I am determined my life shall be hid with Christ in God. I will beseech the throne of grace for power, for light, that I may reflect it upon others, that souls may be saved.
UL	154	5	The great desire in this age of the world is for more power. I want more grace, more love, [a] more deep and earnest living experience. The Christian who hides in Jesus will have power without measure awaiting his draught upon it. Living faith unlocks heaven's storehouse and brings the power, the endurance, the love so essential for the Christian soldier.
UL	154	6	Husband, let us not fail of the eternal reward. We have suffered too much on the field of battle to be conquered by any foe now. We must be wholly victorious.
UL	154	7	We want our last days to be the most triumphant. It may be so. God would have it so. If we pray much and diligently use the means within our reach, we shall not falter, we shall not fail....
UL	154	8	We want no worldly honor. I care not for it. I want the "Well done" from the lips of my Redeemer to fall like music upon my ears. For this I will labor. I will do right because I love the right. I will obey God at any cost to myself, and the crown will be given by and by.--Letter 28, May 20, 1880, a private letter to James White.
------------------------Christ Intercedes for You, May 21
UL	155	1	We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. Hebrews 8:1, 2.
UL	155	2	The natural eye can never behold the comeliness and beauty of Christ. The inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, revealing to the soul its true hopeless, helpless condition without the mercy and pardon of the Sin-bearer--the all-sufficiency of Christ--can alone enable man to discern His infinite mercy, His immeasurable love, benevolence, and glory.
UL	155	3	No one ever came to our world on such an errand of grace, infinite compassion, and unspeakable love, as our Saviour; and none ever received such treatment at the hands of fallen man. "Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price" (see 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). We are Christ's by creation, His by redemption. He is the only sinless Being who endured suffering, shameful humiliation, and rejection in our behalf....
UL	155	4	Then, how should those who become new creatures in Christ Jesus, saved by His merits, conduct themselves before the universe of heaven? Shall they complain? Shall they accuse one another? Would not a meek and submissive spirit be more becoming? "Learn of me," said the great Teacher, "for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Shall we reveal this spirit in our characters? Shall we wear His yoke, and lift His burdens? ...
UL	155	5	Could all see Christ before the throne, waiting for their prayers, waiting for them to surrender their will, to cease their rebellion and come back to their allegiance to God, in deep penitence they would pray the Father to forgive their transgression of His law, and forgive them for the influence they have exercised in causing others to disregard the law of Jehovah. The confederacies of the enemy's army are triumphing in their delay. Will they longer remain under the condemnation of the law? Or, will they stand on the side of Christ, and with their influence help the betrayed, rebellious race by their own experimental knowledge? Will they now become co-workers with Jesus Christ, who is making personal intercession for them before the Father? Angels are keeping back the destroying agencies, for they have an intense interest for these rebellious sons, and they want to help them to return to the fold in safety and peace, that they may finally be overcomers, and be saved, eternally saved with the family of God in heaven.--Manuscript 29, May 21, 1900, "Faithful Stewardship."
------------------------God in Nature, May 22
UL	156	1	For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20.
UL	156	2	I see no reason why the opinions of learned men and the so-called great men should be trusted in and exalted. Those who are connected with the infinite God are the only ones who make a proper use of their knowledge or of the talent entrusted to them by the omniscient Creator. No man can ever truly excel in knowledge and influence unless he is connected with the God of wisdom and power.
UL	156	3	The real evidence of a living God is not merely in theory; it is in the conviction which God has written in our hearts, illuminated and explained by His words. It is the living power in His created works seen by a sanctified eye. The precious faith inspired of God gives strength and nobility of character. The natural powers are enlarged because of holy obedience. All the philosophies of human nature in which God has not been recognized as all in all have led to confusion and shame. The life which we live by faith in the Son of God is a series of triumphs not always seen and understood by the interested parties, but with results reaching far into the future, where we shall see and know as we are known.
UL	156	4	The most profound intellects of the world, when not enlightened by God's Word, become bewildered and lost while trying to investigate the matters of science and revelation. The Creator and His works are beyond finite comprehension, and men conclude that because they cannot explain the works and ways of God from natural causes, the Bible history is not reliable. Many are so intent upon excluding God from the exercise of sovereign will and power in the established order of the universe, that they demean men, the noblest of His creatures. The theories and speculations of philosophy would make us believe that man has come by slow degrees, not merely from a savage state, but from the very lowest form of the brute creation. They destroy man's dignity because they will not admit God's miraculous power.
UL	156	5	God has illuminated human intellects, and poured a flood of light on the world through discoveries in art and science. But those who view these from a merely human standpoint will most assuredly come to wrong conclusions. The thorns of error, skepticism, and infidelity are disguised by being covered with the garments of philosophy and science. Satan has devised this ingenious manner of winning souls away from the living God, away from the truth and religion. He exalts nature above nature's Creator.--Manuscript 4, copied May 22, 1882, "God in Nature."
------------------------How is it with My Soul? May 23
UL	157	1	Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3 John 1:2.
UL	157	2	God wants each one of us to find his place, and when each one is in his place, doing the work that God has given him, there will be perfect unity....
UL	157	3	We need to make it plain to the world that God sent His Son into the world to save sinners. How are we to do this? By putting forth every effort for unity. Each one is to feel that there is need for him to confess his own mistakes and errors, not the mistakes and errors of someone else....
UL	157	4	We need to come together as men who are amenable to God. We have been bought with a price. We have only one Judge, the Man Christ Jesus. We have not been given the work of measuring one another's characters. It is our own characters that we are to measure, by the truth contained in the Scriptures. God can enable us to do this, and can impress on our minds what we must do in order to inherit eternal life....
UL	157	5	God loves His people, and He wants them to make their peace with Him. He wants everyone to stand in that relation to others that he is willing to make any sacrifice in order to save the souls of his brethren. They may not have done right. But God wants us to work earnestly to help them, that His name may not be dishonored before the world. God does not give us promises because we have always done right, but that His name may be glorified.
UL	157	6	Let no one endeavor to cover up his own sins by revealing the mistakes of someone else. God has not given us this work to do. We are to leave others to humble their own hearts, that they may come to the light of the knowledge of God....
UL	157	7	There are those who have been loading themselves down with responsibilities that the Lord has forbidden them to carry. For years light has come to them, but they have not heeded it. What shall be done? Shall we leave these men to sink under the responsibilities that they have chosen to take upon themselves? No; we are to help them out of their difficult position. It rests upon us to do the very best we can to lift the pressure from these burdened souls....
UL	157	8	Let each one ask himself the question, How is it with my soul today? And tomorrow let him ask himself the question, How is it with my soul today? Thus, day by day, let each one humble his heart before God.--Manuscript 56, May 23, 1904, a morning talk given at Berrien Springs, Michigan.
------------------------What is the Source of Your Fire? May 24
UL	158	1	Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. Revelation 3:4.
UL	158	2	A few even in Sardis held fast their integrity. Their only hope was in holding fast to God, and in them the promise will be fulfilled, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir" (Isaiah 13:12)....
UL	158	3	In the early Christian church there were men who were true disciples of Christ. They met often together where prayer was wont to be made. They could only work to advance those principles that bore the signet of heaven. They first talked with God, ascertained what spirit they themselves were of; then they could closely and critically examine every point, every method, every principle in the light reflected from the Sun of Righteousness. They did not accept strange fire. They took their fire from the divine altar. To them, holy and just principles were sacred, and by cherishing these they kept themselves unspotted from the world.
UL	158	4	Ever looking to Jesus, they marked the spirit in which He worked and followed His example. They gave to others the pure principles of the Word of God. This Word was their counselor, their guide, their close companion. To them, the Scriptures were supreme authority. For every question agitated they had one standard to consult. It was not, "What saith men?" but, "What saith the Lord?"
UL	158	5	Those who are constrained by the love of Christ will be faithful to the work and Word of God.... The true Christian is ever to feel that he is dependent upon his Maker. And he will not be ashamed to acknowledge his dependence. Like Daniel, he will not take credit to himself. He will give all honor to God, letting worldly men as well as his brethren know that he is depending upon the Lord, and weeding out of his life everything that would grieve His Spirit. Like Daniel, he will improve every opportunity of adding to his acquirements. He will trade upon the talents the Lord has given him, after the holy principles laid down in the Word. And this will give him multiplied ability....
UL	158	6	If God gives a man wisdom, his course of action will be in harmony with the will of God, and those connected with him will have confidence in his wisdom to devise and plan for the progress and advancement of the work of God in saving souls that are ready to die. The apostle Peter says: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:2, 3).--Manuscript 66, May 24, 1898, to the General Conference and our publishing institutions.
------------------------Behold Him! May 25
UL	159	1	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 1 John 3:1.
UL	159	2	"Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." It does not understand the principles that underlie our course of action. We must stand before God with a conscience void of offense. There are wonderful privileges for every one of us. God never places before us a requirement without giving us the power to perform it. He never asks us to take one step in advance of Him. He leads the way, and we are to follow after. Following Him, we are in no danger of going astray. Thus only can we perfect a Christian character as stewards of the grace of God.
UL	159	3	To us have been entrusted the truths of the gospel for this time. It is a wonderful, wonderful treasure, and the Lord desires us to have our eyes enlightened and our hearts quickened. He desires us to be nerved and strengthened by the power that He will give us if we will only be true to Him. He desires every one of us to perfect a character after the divine similitude. The Christian who does not do this casts a reflection on God. He dishonors his Saviour. Those who have access to the words written in Scripture are without excuse if they do not apply these words to themselves, if they do not thus cleanse their hearts from sin. By the lights shining from the throne of God upon our pathway, we shall be judged at the last great day....
UL	159	4	To have light shining upon the pathway in the clearness of the gospel of Christ, as it has shone upon our pathway, is a fearful responsibility. We are to follow on step by step, with our eyes fixed upon our Leader. He will not lead us one step out of the right way.
UL	159	5	God gave Christ to our world to save us from eternal death. Behold Him, behold Him! Keep looking upon Him till you reflect His image. Do not accept the words of any man, unless you can see that he is conformed to the divine image, because if you do, you sustain him in doing wrong; you sustain him by asking his counsel and following his directions.
UL	159	6	What we need is the pure word from the Holy Bible. Christ has bidden us conform our lives to His life. We are to know what it means to keep the commandments of God in truth and righteousness. The love that was in the heart of Christ is to be in our hearts, that we may reveal it to those around us. We need to be daily strengthened by the deep love of God, and to let this love shine forth to those around us.--Manuscript 66, May 25, 1905, "The Need of Home Religion," a talk.
------------------------More than a Prophet, May 26
UL	160	1	Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. Ezekiel 3:17.
UL	160	2	Last night, in vision, I was standing before an assembly of our people, bearing a decided testimony regarding present truth and present duty. After the discourse, many gathered about me, asking questions. They desired so many explanations about this point and that point, and another point, that I said, "One at a time if you please, lest you confuse me."
UL	160	3	And then I appealed to them, saying: "For years you have had many evidences that the Lord has given me a work to do. These evidences could scarcely have been greater than they are. Will you brush away all these evidences as a cobweb, at the suggestion of a man's unbelief? That which makes my heart ache is the fact that many who are now perplexed and tempted are those who have had abundance of evidence, and opportunity to consider and pray and understand, and yet they do not discern the nature of the sophistries that are presented to influence them to reject the warnings God has given to save them from the delusions of these last days."
UL	160	4	Some have stumbled over the fact that I said I did not claim to be a prophet, and they have asked, Why is this?
UL	160	5	I have had no claims to make, only that I am instructed that I am the Lord's messenger.... Early in my work I was asked several times, Are you a prophet? I have ever responded, "I am the Lord's messenger." I know that many have called me a prophet, but I have made no claim to this title. My Saviour declared me to be His messenger. "Your work," He instructed me, "is to bear My word. Strange things will arise; and in your youth I set you apart to bear the message to the erring ones, to carry the word before unbelievers, and with pen and voice to reprove from the Word actions that are not right. Exhort from the Word. I will make My Word open to you.... My Spirit and My power shall be with you.
UL	160	6	"Be not afraid of men, for My shield will protect you. It is not you that speaketh; it is the Lord that giveth the messages of warning and reproof. Never deviate from the truth under any circumstances. Give the light I shall give you. The messages for these last days shall be written in books, and shall stand immortalized, to testify against those who have once rejoiced in the light, but who have been led to give it up because of the seductive influences of evil."--Manuscript 63, May 26, 1906, "A Messenger."
------------------------Read the Book of Daniel, May 27
UL	161	1	As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Daniel 1:17.
UL	161	2	The light that Daniel received direct from God was given especially for these last days. The visions he saw by the banks of the Ulai and the Hiddekel, the great rivers of Shinar, are now in process of fulfillment, and all the events foretold will soon come to pass.
UL	161	3	Consider the circumstances of the Jewish nation when the prophecies of Daniel were given. The Israelites were in captivity, the Temple had been destroyed, their Temple service suspended. Their religion had centered in the ceremonies of the sacrificial system. They had made the outward form all-important, while they had lost the spirit of true worship. Their services were corrupted with traditions and practices of heathenism, and in the performance of the sacrificial rites they did not look beyond the shadow of the substance. They did not discern Christ, the True Offering for the sins of man. The Lord wrought to bring the people into captivity, and to suspend the services in the Temple, in order that the outward ceremonies might not become the total of their religion. The principles and practices must be purged of heathenism, the ritual service ceased, in order that the heart might be revived. The outward glory was removed, that the spiritual might be revealed.
UL	161	4	In the land of their captivity, as the people returned unto the Lord with repentance, He manifested Himself unto them. They lacked the outward representation of His presence, but bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone into their minds and hearts. When they called unto God in their humiliation and distress, visions were given to the prophets which unfolded the events of the future--the overthrow of the oppressors of God's people, the coming of the Redeemer, and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom....
UL	161	5	Daniel had companions, and they had a special work to do. Although greatly honored in this work, they did not become in any way exalted. They were scholars, being skilled in secular as well as religious knowledge; but they had studied science without being corrupted. They were well-balanced because they had yielded themselves to the control of the Holy Spirit. These youth gave to God all the glory of their secular, scientific, and religious endowments. Their learning did not come by chance; they obtained knowledge by the faithful use of their powers; and God gave them skill and understanding.--Letter 134, May 27, 1898, to J. H. Kellogg.
------------------------We Cannot Do Without God, May 28
UL	162	1	I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12.
UL	162	2	There is no one who has pursued a wrong course whom Jesus will not pardon and receive and bless if he will come to Him believingly and cast himself, conscious of his weakness and helplessness, upon His sympathy and His strength....
UL	162	3	What a comforting thought that Jesus is touched with the feelings of our infirmities! He has been tempted in all points as we are tempted, and just the right kind of help has been provided for us, that if we only put our feet in the prints of Jesus' footsteps, we will be safe. He has hallowed the path His feet have trod. We hear His inviting voice, "Follow Me. I am the Light of the world. They that follow Me shall not walk in darkness. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (see Matthew 4:19; 8:12; John 16:33).
UL	162	4	In actual experience Christ has overcome the world, and how great is His love to us when He invites us to come to Him in all our afflictions, distresses, heartaches, and perplexities, with the assurance that He will help us. He will bring health and brightness into our lives. If we place our hand in the hand of Jesus Christ, He will place our feet on solid rock, a better foundation than we ever had before. He will make us more strong in His strength and He will work with all our efforts.
UL	162	5	Then when our own souls have experienced His healing touch we are brought into close fellowship with Jesus and we will be laborers together with God not only to restore the erring, to repair broken hearts and souls, but to impart courage and faith and confidence. This is the work of God's laborers--to bring to Jesus souls who have gone away from His direct teachings and have apparently gone to pieces on the rocks and reefs of sin. These broken lives, which have been apparently hopeless, He promises to make whole.
UL	162	6	It is more difficult to teach one who thinks he knows it all than one who feels his inefficiency and his ignorance. I speak understandingly when I say, The work of repairing souls broken down through errors, through manifest sin, is the most difficult we can do. Some pet sin has been cultivated which has taken the lines of control, one bad habit has not been vigorously fought and conquered, and oh, how hard [it is] to efface the bruises that soul has sustained....
UL	162	7	I appeal to you to delay not, but to be a wise worker for God, to put forth every effort to redeem the time. Let nothing deter you.... The Lord will accept consecrated, devoted effort on your part.--Letter 56, May 28, 1888, to a private-practice physician who had lost his way spiritually.
------------------------Make Home a Bit of Heaven, May 29
UL	163	1	Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. Psalm 127:1.
UL	163	2	We, living far down the passage of ages, have the privilege of studying the Old Testament in connection with the New. Our faith and courage should be strong as we see prophecies fulfilling. But how many there are who are unbelieving. How many there are who reveal selfishness and unkindness in their dealings with one another. How many professing Christians seem never to be satisfied unless they are engaged in strife. How many home circles are broken because the members receive and act upon Satan's suggestions.
UL	163	3	No unpleasant words are spoken in heaven. There no unkind thoughts are cherished. There envy, evil surmising, hatred, and strife find no place. Perfect harmony pervades the heavenly courts.
UL	163	4	Well does Satan know what heaven is, and what the influence of the angels is. His work is to bring into every family the cruel elements of self-will, harshness, selfishness. Thus he seeks to destroy the happiness of the family. He knows that the spirit governing in the home will be brought into the church.
UL	163	5	Let the father and mother always be guarded in their words and actions. The husband is to treat his wife, the mother of his children, with due respect, and the wife is to love and reverence her husband. How can she do this if he treats her like a servant, to be dictated to, ordered about, scolded, found fault with before the children? He is forcing her to dislike him and even to hate him.
UL	163	6	May God help fathers and mothers to open the windows of the soul heavenward and let the sunshine of Christ into the homelife. Unless they do this, they will be surrounded by a mist and fog most injurious to spirituality.
UL	163	7	Fathers and mothers, bring sweetness and brightness and hopefulness into the lives of your children. Kindness and love will work wonders. Never punish a child in anger. When you do this, you are acting like grown-up children, who have not left behind them the unreasonableness of childhood. Will you strive earnestly to be able to say, "When I became a man, I put away childish things"?
UL	163	8	Be sure, before correcting your child, to talk with your heavenly Father. When your own heart is so softened by sympathy, talk with the erring one. If the matter can be adjusted without the use of the rod, so much the better.--Manuscript 71, May 29, 1902, "Words to Parents."
------------------------To an Aged Sister, May 30
UL	164	1	O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid. Psalm 86:16.
UL	164	2	Dear Sister McDearmon.... I am getting old as well as you. Your age I do not exactly remember. I am past seventy-eight, but I am able to do a large amount of work in writing. I do long for rest, but the Lord preserves me so that I do not suffer much pain....
UL	164	3	You and I shall not expect to live much longer, but we will hold fast the faith and the blessing of the Lord through obedience to all His commandments. I am trying to do what I can, writing the things that I must write. I greatly desire to keep in the work, and bear my testimony to the last. I shall be seventy-nine years old the twenty-sixth of next November. I can yet accomplish much work writing.
UL	164	4	Though I am brain weary, yet I see so much to be done. Our warfare will soon be ended, but the Lord is good and merciful. When our warfare is ended, we shall rest in hope until the morning of the resurrection. Then the last trump shall sound, and we shall see the King in His beauty, and behold His matchless charms. My dear sister, we have a precious hope; let our hearts rely constantly upon God. Truth will triumph and bear away the victory....
UL	164	5	The Lord will be with you. He is your ever-present Helper, and you may know He will never leave nor forsake you. You should have the best of care, and live your time in this world, until the quiet rest, in full hope of the overcomer's reward. Just rest yourself in your belief of the truth. Do not worry about anything. You have kept the faith, and for you is laid up a crown of life, which Christ, the righteous Judge, shall give you at that day, and not to you only, but to all them who love His appearing (see 2 Timothy 4:8).
UL	164	6	The Lord will keep you and bless you. All your hope, I know, is in Jesus, and you may rest in His love. The angels of God will be round about you. You may rest in our Lord in quiet faith, and ever believe He has your life "hid with Christ in God."
UL	164	7	May the Lord be a continual blessing unto you, my beloved, aged sister. I am relying wholly upon the Lord Jesus. We will hope and pray and believe, and we will trust in His living Word. Our beloved Sister [Mary] Kelsey is through with earth's troubles. She was faithful and true. We will meet in the city of our God. In much love, Ellen G. White.--Letter 168, May 30, 1906, to Sister Melinda McDearmon, the mother of Edson White's wife, Emma.
------------------------Christ's Work and Our Work, May 31
UL	165	1	Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Mark 16:15, 16.
UL	165	2	It may be surprising to some that Christ's work was not extended to the heathen nations, that it was confined in so small a circumference. But the heathen nations were not prepared for His work. And had He devoted His time to the conversion of the Gentile world, He would have closed the door whereby He could bear His message to the Jewish nation....
UL	165	3	Frequently the people of other nations came to Christ to be healed, or to make some request for their relatives or friends. These people represented the great human family, who knew not God or the truth, but who felt a soul-longing for something they had not. All who came to Christ listened to His instruction, and as they heard the word of truth, they were deeply impressed. In speaking words of hope to those weary, unsatisfied souls, in healing the infirmities of those who came to Him, Christ was setting an example to be practiced from one end of the world to another. He was speaking and acting for humanity at large.... Although generation after generation would pass away, His lessons of practical service would be given by His witnesses. He was to ascend to heaven, but His work was to be carried forward with greater power than before, because He and His Father would cooperate in doing greater things for His people than they had seen while He was among them.
UL	165	4	We are to work while it is day, for the night cometh, in which no man can work. Our life is represented as a day, and when our work is ended, when the worker ceases his busy activity, the work does not cease. Others take it up. Though the human agents pass away, the work of Christ does not cease, but goes on, each worker doing God service by working as Christ worked.
UL	165	5	We often feel that in the work of God there are great interests to be handled that we are unable to touch. We seem bound about. Let us remember that Christ's work while on earth was confined to a narrow compass. Yet multitudes from all parts of the world heard His lessons. He was giving His message to those who would afterwards become His disciples.
UL	165	6	Christ worked out before His disciples and the world a perfect example of true religion. And when men realize the importance of showing patience, sympathy, and regard for the souls of men, nigh and afar off, Christ will be revealed in His followers.--Manuscript 50, May 31, 1897. "The Work of Christ."
------------------------Never Yield Christian Principle, June 1
UL	166	1	Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Isaiah 56:5.
UL	166	2	I feel deep sympathy for you, knowing that you are sorely tempted. The enemy is trying to make you faint and become discouraged. I feel no less sympathy and deep interest for your husband. Our Saviour will be his Saviour, if he will accept Him. Never, never are any one of us to feel that it is anything but the highest honor to become sons and daughters of God.
UL	166	3	My sister, never, never yield to the temptation to sacrifice Christian principle in order to meet the world's criterion. Be firm, be faithful, for you are bought with a price. Your duty to your Saviour may not lead you in the smoothest paths, for your Redeemer never walked in paths of self-pleasing and self-indulgence. He lived not to please Himself. He went without the camp, bearing the reproach. Wherever Providence has placed you, God will give you strength to stand firm in the faith. Let nothing interpose between your soul and God....
UL	166	4	Christ did not merely give us directions as to the path in which we must travel, but He came to be our Teacher. He did not merely tell us how we ought to obey, but in His own life He gave us a practical example of how we should obey. Thus He is the true Helper. Going before us, he beats down the obstructions, and tells us to walk in His footsteps. Our blessed Saviour says, "Follow Me. I will lead you. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness" (see Matthew 4:19; 14:6; John 8:12).
UL	166	5	Christ served as a true Son, an obedient Son. He declared, "I have kept my Father's commandments" (John 15:10). Sanctification is a lifelong obedience. We can be greatly honored by being in co-partnership with Christ. "Take my yoke upon you," He says, "and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29). The obedience of which Christ has left us an example is perfect and complete....
UL	166	6	My sister, the Lord loves you, and He wants you to have the crown of life. "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels" (Revelation 3:5). The white robes are the garments of Christ's righteousness, and all who have this righteousness are partakers of the divine nature. They have written upon them, "The name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name" (Verse 12).--Letter 48, June 1, 1898, to a believer in Australia.
------------------------Nature's Lesson Book, June 2
UL	167	1	And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. Matthew 6:28.
UL	167	2	The church of Christ is dependent on Him for her very existence. Only through Him can it gain continued life and strength. The members are to live constantly in the most intimate vital relationship with the Saviour. They are to follow in His steps of self-denial and sacrifice. They are to go forth into the highways and byways of life to win souls for Him, using every possible means to make the truth appear in its true character before the world.
UL	167	3	The truth is to be presented in various ways. Some in the higher walks of life will grasp it as it is presented in figures and parables. As men labor to unfold the truth with clearness, that conviction may come to their hearers, the Lord is present as He promised to be....
UL	167	4	In His wonderful Sermon on the Mount, Christ used the lilies of the field in their natural loveliness to illustrate a great truth. His language is adapted to the opening intellect of child life. The great Teacher brought His hearers in contact with nature, that they might listen to the voice which speaks in all created things; and as their hearts became tender and their minds receptive, He helped them to interpret the spiritual teaching of the scenes upon which their eyes rested. The parables, by means of which He loved to teach lessons of truth, show how open His spirit was to the influences of nature, and how He delighted to gather spiritual teaching from the surroundings of daily life.
UL	167	5	The birds of the air, the lilies of the field, the sower and the seed, the shepherd and the sheep--with these Christ illustrated immortal truth. He drew illustrations from the facts of life, facts of experience familiar to the hearers--the hid treasure, the pearl, the fishing net, the lost coin, the prodigal son, the houses on the rock and on the sand. In His lessons there was something to interest every mind, to appeal to every heart. Thus the daily task, instead of being a mere round of toil, bereft of higher thoughts, was brightened and uplifted by constant reminders of the spiritual and the unseen.
UL	167	6	The Lord Jesus would have the true philosophy of nature's great lesson book opened before the mind.... We need workers who will gain breadth of mind by studying the book God has opened before us of His created works. Angels cooperate with those who proclaim the truths represented by the things of nature. These things are not God, but they are specimens of God's handiwork.--Letter 223, June 2, 1905, to J. A. Burden.
------------------------Be Strong, June 3
UL	168	1	Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Joshua 1:6.
UL	168	2	For many months I have been troubled as I have seen how some of our sensible men whom God has used in His cause are perplexed over the scientific arguments of satanic agencies. [Dr. J. H. Kellogg's pantheistic theories.] I have not known what to do. While I was studying over these things Sabbath night a week ago, I had a vision of speaking before a large company, where many questions were asked concerning my work and writings.
UL	168	3	I was directed by a messenger from heaven not to take the burden of picking up the sayings and doubts that Satan is putting into minds. "Stand as the messenger of God anywhere, in any place," I was bidden, "and bear the testimony I shall give you. If the Holy Spirit is not received, but rejected, all your words will be as idle tales. Be free. Bear the testimonies that the Lord Jesus has for you to bear in reproof, in rebuke, in the work of encouraging and lifting up the soul; 'teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.'"
UL	168	4	When I awakened from the vision, I was praying with great fervor and earnestness, and could not cease praying. My soul was strengthened, for the words had been spoken: "Be strong, yea, be strong. Let none of the seducing words of ministers or physicians distress your mind. Tell them to take the light given them in publications. Truth will always bear away the victory. Go straight forward. Do not take up the unbelief of anyone in order to try to convince him." ...
UL	168	5	If the convincing representations and impressions of the Holy Spirit evidenced for the past half-century will not be accepted as trustworthy evidence, nothing hereafter will bring them to their senses, because the bewitching guile of Satan has perverted their discernment....
UL	168	6	Go forward. Be of good courage. If the Spirit of God be entertained in the place of the underworking of evil spirits on mind and heart, all who have been working against God will come to their right bearings. A great work is to be done now in convicting souls. The message must in no case be changed from that which has been. As has been foretold in the Scriptures, there will be seducing spirits and doctrines of devils in the midst of the church, and these evil influences will increase; but hold fast the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end....
UL	168	7	The perils of the last days are upon us. Devote not precious time in trying to convince those who would change the truth of God into a lie.--Manuscript 61a, June 3, 1906, 61a, "God's Judgments on Cities."
------------------------Light Comes in Bright Rays, June 4
UL	169	1	Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. 1 Timothy 4:15.
UL	169	2	We have been taught by God concerning the great plan of redemption. This should be to us a matter of earnest thanksgiving. God's promises will never fail if we constantly watch unto prayer....
UL	169	3	Our knowledge should give spirituality to the understanding. Our knowledge of the Scriptures should be practical. The Lord is pleased when those who are connected with Him are filled with a knowledge of His will. His servants should daily gain more knowledge of Him. Daily they should grow in grace and in spiritual understanding, strengthened with might according to His glorious power. They are to increase in spiritual efficiency, that they may give strength to the people of God.
UL	169	4	God does not ask sinners to enter His service with their natural traits of character, to make a failure before the heavenly universe and before the world.... The hard, cruel spirit which judges and condemns has left the trace of the enemy upon everything. But mercy is to come in and lay her broad impress upon every plan. The world is to see principles different from those which have hitherto been presented. Christ has erected the cross. He does not call upon any man to manufacture tests and crosses for His people. He presents His requirements before them, and gives them the invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). Wear My yoke, and in your daily experience you will find the rest which comes only to the obedient.
UL	169	5	Christ invites all to come to Him, but when they come, they are to lay aside their sins. All their vices and follies, all their pride and worldliness, are to be laid at [the foot of] His cross. This He requires because He loves them, and desires to save them; not in their sins but from their sins. He who accepts the truth longs for transformation, and the light comes to him in bright rays.
UL	169	6	The truth is to be believed and practiced, because Christ asserts it to be the word of the living God. The brightest beams of light from the threshold of heaven are thrown on the pathway in which God requires His people to walk. When sinners accept Christ as their personal Saviour, they realize the greatness of God's gift to them, and praise and thanksgiving flow to the divine Giver.
UL	169	7	The recovery of souls from sin is to be a revenue of goodness to men and of glory to God.--Manuscript 44, June 4, 1901, "Instruction to Believers."
------------------------Why God Permits Unsettling Experiences, June 5
UL	170	1	All his life long, Moab has lain undisturbed like wine settled on its lees, not emptied from vessel to vessel; he has not gone into exile. Therefore the taste of him is unaltered, and the flavour stays unchanged. Jeremiah 48:11, N.E.B.
UL	170	2	Moab did not know anything of the process of unsettling, and the people made but little moral and spiritual progress. "His taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed" (Jeremiah 48:11).
UL	170	3	A life of monotony is not the most conducive to spiritual growth. Some can reach the highest standard of spirituality only through the breaking up of the regular order of things....
UL	170	4	God desires human beings to be more closely associated with Him. Therefore He takes them away from their friends and acquaintances. When God was preparing Elijah for translation, He moved him from place to place, that he might leave behind the methods and customs he had previously followed, that he might not settle down on his lees, and thus fail of obtaining moral greatness and spiritual soundness. It was God's design that Elijah's influence should be a power to help many souls to a more perfect experience.
UL	170	5	Let those who are not permitted to rest in quietude, who must be constantly on the move, pitching their tent tonight in one place and tomorrow night in another place, remember that the Lord is leading them, and that this is His way of helping them to form perfect characters. In all the changes we are required to make, God is to be recognized as our Companion, our Guide, our Stronghold, and our Dependence. We are to ever be moving, advancing in knowledge, and thus it will be [that] they follow on to know the Lord. The light of His leading He will prepare as the morning.
UL	170	6	The Lord has various ways of testing and proving His people. Again and again He has brought about changes to see whether His human agents will keep His commandments. When in His providence He sees that changes are essential for character building, He breaks up the smooth current of the life. He orders that changes shall be made, so that His worker shall not stagnate by following the regular order.
UL	170	7	We are living in a time which calls for decided, sanctified action. Everything that can be done by the followers of Christ should be done, for the enemy will work with all his power to deter souls from receiving the truth.... But nevertheless, God's work is to go forward. We are to sow beside all waters, even though we know that many will seek to extinguish the light of truth.--Letter 59, June 5, 1901, to A. G. Daniells.
------------------------Now Is the Time: Arise and Shine, June 6
UL	171	1	It is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works. Psalm 73:28.
UL	171	2	If ever there was a time in the history of Seventh-day Adventists when they should arise and shine, it is now. No voice should be restrained from proclaiming the third angel's message. Let none, for fear of losing prestige with the world, obscure one ray of light coming from the Source of all light.
UL	171	3	It requires moral courage to do the work of God for these last days, but let us not be led by the spirit of human wisdom. The truth should be everything to us. Let those who want to make a name with the world go with the world. The great conflict is right at hand in which all will take sides. In it the whole Christian world will be involved. Daily, hourly, we must be actuated by the principles of the Word of God. Self must be sanctified by the principles of the righteousness, the mercy, and the love of God.
UL	171	4	At every point of uncertainty, pray, and earnestly inquire, "Is this the way of the Lord?" With your Bibles before you, consult with God as to what He would have you do. Holy principles are revealed in the Word of God. The source of all true wisdom is found in the cross of Calvary.
UL	171	5	Everywhere we see increasing evidence that the message we have from God is to be the last message of warning to the churches of the world. Yet year after year is passing into eternity, and the churches are unwarned. I am instructed to speak to my brethren and to ask, "Are we conscious of the neglect?" I have been given message after message for our brethren encouraging them to begin work in every place where the way shall open. If laborers would go forth to the work, the Lord would bless their own souls, and would make their efforts fruitful. As the people hear the reasons of our faith, they will become interested, and will be converted. There are many important places open to those who will work for souls. We should not be selfish in seeking to retain workers long in one place, but should be willing to sacrifice that the work may be begun in other cities that need the light of truth.
UL	171	6	Let us urge those who have been converted from error to truth to become missionaries for the extension of the knowledge of truth. Invent some way of becoming acquainted with the people.... If you will work with wisdom, with heart and soul interest, and with earnest prayer to your heavenly Father, you will find access to souls....
UL	171	7	Let those who are already at work open the way for others who desire to labor and who are qualified to take part in missionary effort.--Letter 94a, June 6, 1909, to "Dear Brethren and Sisters in Washington."
------------------------Called to Glory and Virtue, June 7
UL	172	1	And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge. 2 Peter 1:5.
UL	172	2	God has called us to glory and virtue. We have no right to assimilate with the world--dressing, talking, and living as worldlings do. God has given us a high standard to reach. To enable man to reach this standard, God sent into the world His only begotten Son. In our behalf Christ made an infinite sacrifice. He laid aside His kingly crown and royal robe, clothed His divinity with humanity, and came into our world to teach men and women the laws of life and salvation, which they must carry out to the letter in order to have everlasting life in the kingdom of glory.
UL	172	3	Satan claimed that it was impossible for human beings to keep God's law. In order to prove the falsity of this claim, Christ left His high command, took upon Himself the nature of man, and came to the earth to stand at the head of the fallen race, in order to show that humanity could withstand the temptations of Satan. He became the Head of humanity, to be assaulted with temptations on every point as fallen human nature would be tempted, that He might know how to succor all who are tempted. On this earth He worked out the problem of how to live in accordance with God's standard of right. Bearing our nature, He was true to God's standard of righteousness, gaining the victory over Satan. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet He was without sin.
UL	172	4	Before Christ came in person to reveal His Father's character, Satan thought that he would have the whole world on his side. And today the enemy is still playing the game of life with everyone. He seeks to bring in dissension and division. But if we are partakers of the divine nature, we will stand as a united whole. Let us not think that our churches can enjoy God's blessing while in a state of disunion. In this world we are to be representatives of Christ. He has called us to glory and virtue. As He represented the Father, so we are to represent Him to the world, for in representing Him we are representing the Father, who is in every place to help where help is needed.
UL	172	5	We have a great work to perform for the Master. After Jesus has sacrificed so much in our behalf, giving His life for our salvation, shall we by our course of action make Him ashamed of us? ... He desires to see us rise to the highest standard. When by living faith we lay hold of the power of a living Christ; when we plead His unfailing promises, and claim them as ours; when we seek for the power of the Holy Spirit, we are eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God.--Manuscript 77, June 7, 1902, a sermon given at the Petaluma, California, campground, "Lessons From the Second Chapter of Peter."
------------------------All May Win, June 8
UL	173	1	Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 1 Corinthians 9:24.
UL	173	2	Heaven's resources are limitless, and they are all at our command. Why then, I ask, is the progress of the Lord's work in our world so slow? Why is Christ so sadly misrepresented? Why are not the Lord's followers increasing in knowledge and purity, holiness and power?
UL	173	3	Are there not presented before Christ's followers the highest virtues to be cultivated, the greatest honors to be gained? God calls upon them to enter upon a race in which everyone may win. He calls upon them to enlist in a warfare in which everyone may be a conqueror. A robe of righteousness and a crown of everlasting life--this is the reward held out before the overcomer....
UL	173	4	When the Christian takes his baptismal vow, divine help is pledged to him. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit stand ready to work in his behalf. God places at his command the resources of heaven, that he may be an overcomer. His own power is small, but God is omnipotent, and God is his helper. Daily he is to make known his wants at the throne of grace. By faith and trust, by availing himself of the resources provided, he will come off more than conqueror. Why, then, should not those who are fighting against the powers of darkness, move forward with faith and courage? God and Christ and the Holy Spirit are on their side....
UL	173	5	When we remember that no one knows when his probation may close, how dare we live unprepared--unready to meet our Lord? How dare we remain sinful and defiled? Why are we not afraid? Why are we not troubled? Why do we not realize our peril? ... The Lord would work mightily for His people if they would put off the works of darkness and be clothed with His righteousness....
UL	173	6	God calls upon those who claim to have a knowledge of the truth to show by unquestioning obedience that they are faithful soldiers of the cross. Let not those who stand under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel do anything that will dishonor the cause for which they are fighting. Christ expects His soldiers to be brave and loyal and true.
UL	173	7	The work that Christ did on this earth His followers are to do. With the power and efficiency brought by the Holy Spirit they are to carry forward His plan for the restoration of the divine image in humanity. The Lord will do great things for them when they work under the Holy Spirit's guidance. But they must place their entire dependence on God.--Manuscript 13, June 8, 1902, "God's People to Be Light Bearers."
------------------------The Divine Physician Prescribes, June 9
UL	174	1	I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. John 6:51.
UL	174	2	For the health and vitality of the soul, the divine Physician has prescribed communion with Himself. We are to sit at His feet and learn of Him how to be meek and lowly in heart. Spiritual health is dependent on the food given to the mind and on the air which is breathed.
UL	174	3	The soul needs food, and in order to get this food, the Word of God must be studied.... The breathing of pure air is essential for the cure of disease. And it is no less essential that the atmosphere we breathe in the spiritual life shall be pure. This is essential for a healthy growth in grace. Breathe the pure atmosphere which produces pure thoughts and noble words. Choose Christian society. The Christian will not have spiritual health unless he is guarded in regard to his associations....
UL	174	4	Every Christian who is indeed a Christian must grow. He must constantly increase in wisdom and knowledge. Day by day he must approach more nearly to the full stature of a man in Christ Jesus. In order to be a follower of the Master, he must grow. He must advance into a deeper appreciation of the love of God and a clearer knowledge of His will. If his light does not shine more and more brightly, his faith becomes weak, his love grows feeble. And unless he sees and acknowledges his danger, he is doing the cause of God more harm than an avowed unbeliever. Piety leaves the soul-temple. He turns carelessly away from duties and responsibilities. The Son of God is by him crucified afresh and put to open shame.
UL	174	5	Exercise is essential to growth in grace. When the spiritually diseased are given exercise in spiritual things, there is a transformation of character. The health of the spiritual life is dependent upon exercise. But spirituality cannot grow while the heart is full of the corrupting sores of selfishness. The soul must be cleansed and purified by the refining grace of God. The channel of communication between earth and heaven must be kept free from all obstruction, that the soul may receive from Christ a supply of living water. And every spiritual muscle and sinew must be put to the tax. God has given us many opportunities to work for Him. Unless we improve these opportunities, we cannot be growing Christians. When Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, a decided change will be seen in the religious experience of professing Christians.--Manuscript 50, June 9, 1901, untitled manuscript.
------------------------God Requires the Whole Heart, June 10
UL	175	1	I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. Deuteronomy 30:16.
UL	175	2	Whenever persons are truly converted, their moral taste is changed. In all their expenditures they will have a single purpose: [to] keep the glory of God in view, to have a right influence in the church, and in all their actions to testify to worldlings that they are children of God, that through faith they have been made partakers of Christ's self-denial, of His great love for perishing souls. They will constantly be afraid that they will lift a worldly standard in the place of the banner of Jesus Christ.
UL	175	3	What an account will those in _____ have to give who have the Bible to guide them as to the spirit and action they must have in order to lead souls out of darkness to the path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. How much money is expended in order to follow the promptings and desires of a carnal heart, to please and glorify self. How much means might flow into the Lord's treasury that is employed upon self. And in the judgment those poor tempted souls who have lived to please themselves will see these things as God has estimated them. They will see how they might have saved and helped, if they had not been so absorbed with self. Everyone who has a knowledge of the truth has a work to do to come into sympathy with Christ. "Ye are laborers together with God." The salvation of the soul is above every other interest. How much higher than every other enterprise is measured by the cross of Calvary....
UL	175	4	There is work given of God for everyone to do. There are to be no idle ones. Not one is to be selfish and self-centered. It is very easy to become thus, and Satan is constantly working that this selfish spirit shall be manifested by professed Christians.
UL	175	5	I wish I could make the church understand how terrible a thing it is to profess to be Christians while, in the place of leading heavenward, their thoughts, their actions, are of a character that suits the plans of Satan, for he can use them as decoys to lead others away from true piety and earnest Christian work. Salt that has lost its savor can never benefit the world. It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men....
UL	175	6	Who wears the armor of Jesus Christ? Who are marshaled under the banner to work as faithful, well-disciplined soldiers? God has made us stewards, and it is expected of a steward that he be found faithful.... God requires the whole heart.--Manuscript 10, June 10, 1892, "Testimony to Battle Creek church."
------------------------To Whom Shall I Confess? June 11
UL	176	1	I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Psalm 32:5.
UL	176	2	My Dear Sister: There are some things that are to be confessed to God alone. If you have wronged a brother or a sister, you have the light given you in the Word: "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift" (Matthew 5:23, 24)....
UL	176	3	If your sin is between you and God, you need not give publicity to it, but confess it to God. Often poor, weak mortals act very unadvisedly in the matter of confessing their sins to human beings....
UL	176	4	I advise you to take your case to the Lord Jesus in prayer. Believe that He hears you, and that when you confess your sins and repent, and walk humbly with God, you will find pardon. Act like one whom the Lord has corrected in order to purify and save you....
UL	176	5	Never give up your faith and hope in God. Cling to the promises. Do not trust in your feelings, but in the naked Word of God. Believe the assurances of the Lord. Take your stand upon the plain "Thus saith the Lord," and rest there, feeling or no feeling. Faith is not always followed by feelings of ecstasy, but "hope thou in God." Trust fully in Him....
UL	176	6	My sister, trust in the Lord as a little child trusts its earthly parent. Cling to the Saviour. Let nothing separate your soul from God. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Look for mercies; expect mercies. Look continually for blessings. See them, acknowledge them, and do not complain, do not fret. Do not cast blame upon God, but say, "O Lord, I do believe, though I am a sinner and because I am a sinner. I believe in Thee with all my heart. Thou art the Truth, and Thy Word I believe."
UL	176	7	What is religion? It is the conformity of the whole being to the will of God. "If any man will come after me," Christ said, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23).
UL	176	8	You need an intelligent belief in the Word of God. This Word is our rule of action. You are not to stand long, saying, "What must I do?" The first question with you is, "What must I believe?" Right believing means right doing. Christ gave His life to make it possible for you to be a partaker of the divine nature.... Remember that the Lord will bless all who put their trust in Him. Your sister, Ellen G. White.--Letter 159, June 11, 1905, to a "discouraged church member."
------------------------God's Hand is on the Wheel, June 12
UL	177	1	Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Ephesians 6:10.
UL	177	2	The future is before us, and unforeseen events will surely take place, changing the present aspect of things in the world. Lust and greed are striving for the supremacy. Oppression and hatred will be exercised to destroy. Inspired by a power from beneath, Satan's instrumentalities will work with intensity to carry out his will. "The wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (Daniel 12:10). Every truly converted soul will put on the whole armor of God, and will bravely face the unseen foe. God's servants will realize the necessity of partaking of the divine nature....
UL	177	3	Now is our time of peril. Our only safety is in walking in the footsteps of Christ, and wearing His yoke. Troublous times are before us. In many instances, friends will become alienated. Without cause, men will become our enemies. The motives of the people of God will be misinterpreted, not only by the world, but by their own brethren. The Lord's servants will be put in hard places. A mountain will be made out of a molehill to justify men in pursuing a selfish, unrighteous course.
UL	177	4	The work that men have done faithfully will be disparaged and underrated, because apparent prosperity did not attend their efforts. By misrepresentation, these men will be clothed in the dark vestments of dishonesty, because circumstances beyond their control made their work perplexing. They will be pointed to as men that cannot be trusted. And this will be done by the members of the church. God's servants must arm themselves with the mind of Christ. They must not expect to escape insult and misjudgment. They will be called enthusiasts and fanatics. But let them not become discouraged. God's hand is on the wheel of His providence, guiding His work to the glory of His name.
UL	177	5	God calls upon His people to be bright lights in the world, shining amid the darkness of sin. Living the life of the Life-giver brings its reward. He went about doing good. This, every true follower of His will do, filled with a sacred sense of his loyalty to God and his duty to his fellow beings. Through the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, Christians are to grow in grace, constantly drawing nearer perfection of character.--Manuscript 156b, 1901, "The Signing of Agreements."
------------------------A Home of Everlasting Sunshine, June 13
UL	178	1	But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:16.
UL	178	2	I fear that aggressive warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil has not been maintained. If we are going to exert a Christlike example, we cannot cheer on by a half-dead Christianity the selfish, covetous spirit of the world, sharing its ungodliness and smiling upon its falsehood. Nay! By the grace of God we are to be steadfast to the principles of the truth, holding firm unto the end the beginning of our confidence. We are to be "not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." One is our Master, even Christ. To Him we must look. From Him we must receive our wisdom. By His grace we are to preserve our integrity, accepting the Word of God as our standard, and standing before the Lord in meekness and contrition.
UL	178	3	I long so much to see the deep moving of the Spirit of God. Will it ever come into our ranks as it has come in the past? "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isaiah 57:15).
UL	178	4	The word of the Lord never represses man's activity. It gives an increase of usefulness by guiding activity in the right direction. The Lord does not leave man without an object of pursuit. He places before him eternity, with all its solemn realities, and gives him a grasp on immortal, imperishable themes. He presents valuable, ennobling truth, that he may advance in a safe and sure path, in pursuit of an object worthy of the earnest engagement of all his capabilities.
UL	178	5	Man will increase in power as he follows on to know the Lord. As he endeavors to reach the highest standard, the Bible is as a light to guide his footsteps heavenward. In that Word he finds that he may be a child of God, a member of the royal family, joint heir with Christ to an immortal inheritance.
UL	178	6	The Guidebook points him to the heavenly country, and the unsearchable riches and treasures of heaven. By following on to know the Lord, he is securing eternal happiness. Day by day the peace of God is his reward, and by faith he sees a home of everlasting sunshine, free from all sorrow and disappointment. God directs his footsteps and keeps him from falling, sanctifying and elevating his energies.--Letter 45, June 13, 1901, to "Brother and Sister [J. A.] Burden.
------------------------Every Man is Given His Work, June 14
UL	179	1	When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Isaiah 59:19.
UL	179	2	Professing Christians who live cold-hearted, selfish lives are nauseating to Christ. Let us not be lukewarm Christians, heartless in our treatment of others. Let us surround ourselves with an atmosphere of courage and hope. Let us speak pleasant, encouraging words to those around us....
UL	179	3	Let us cherish the truth of God. Unless we are successful in obtaining eternal life, it were better for us that we had never been born. Let us not refuse to avail ourselves of the privileges that are ours through the sacrifice of Christ. Although equal with God, He came to this world to give His life for us. On the cross of Calvary, He died a death of shame, that He might make an atonement for the sins of those who receive Him as their Saviour. To those who receive Him, and believe on Him, He promises to give power to become the sons of God.
UL	179	4	Jesus loves you. He has purchased you with His blood. Had He not loved you, He would not have died for you. His heart of love is grieved when you work contrary to Him, because you are thwarting His plan for your salvation. God cannot bless those who oppose Him, those who refuse to accept the words of comfort and peace that would bring light and love to their souls.
UL	179	5	To every man is given his work. Those who are connected with God will reveal their connection by working with Him. They are co-partners with God and with Christ. They are joint-heirs with Christ to an immortal inheritance.
UL	179	6	If in this world we do our best, following our divine Example, overcoming in the strength that He gives, we shall be granted an abundant entrance into the courts above. There Christ will lead us by rivers of living water and teach us the meaning of the providences that in this world we did not understand. Then we shall be able to discern the love of God in what now seem to us adversities. We shall see that trials were permitted to come to us to remove our un-Christlike traits of character, and to strengthen our weak points.
UL	179	7	God is calling upon you to surrender to Him. Will you not come? Will you not give Him your heart's best and holiest affections? Will you not receive from Him gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich, and white raiment that you may be clothed? Will you not allow Him to anoint your eyes with His heavenly eyesalve, that you may see clearly?--Manuscript 114, June 14, 1903, "Duties and Privileges of a Christian," a talk given at Calistoga, California.
------------------------Today, June 15
UL	180	1	But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:13.
UL	180	2	Dear Sister _____: ... "we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec" (Hebrews 6:19, 20).
UL	180	3	We have every reason to trust in God, and to bring all our worries and anxieties to Jesus Christ, that we may become better acquainted with Him. It should not be a difficult thing to remember that the Lord Jesus is desirous that we should bring all our troubles and perplexities to Him. "Take it to the Lord in prayer," and then leave your perplexities and burdens with Him. How much happier we should be would we do this. You may come to Him as a child comes to his parents, saying, "Here, Lord, I have carried my self as though I could save myself for a long time. My burdens are too heavy for me to carry longer. Thou canst bear them for me." He says, "I will take them. With everlasting kindness will I have mercy upon thee."
UL	180	4	This love is [as] strong as it is tender. The love of Jesus is stronger than death, for He died to win your love, to have you lean upon Him fully and entirely, and to make you one with Him, mystically and eternally one. The love of Jesus is something expressed, more tender than even the love of a mother for her child. The most tender love we know is that of a mother for her child, but the love of Jesus exceeds this. She may change in her affection. Mothers may become unkind, but Jesus never, never will become unmindful or unkind, or cruel to His children.
UL	180	5	Then never, never will we show distrust and want of faith. So strong is His love that it controls all the affections of His nature, and [He] employs all His vast resources to do His people good. His love is durable, without variableness or shadow of turning. Never let us dishonor God by trying so hard to keep ourselves, fixing our eyes upon ourselves, and keeping ourselves constantly in view.
UL	180	6	Look unto Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. Let us not do as we have done, make ourselves miserable over some supposed future tomorrow's burden. Carry your duties of today cheerfully. Today's faith, today's trust in Jesus, we must have. Today I may look and live. Today I will put my trust in God. Today I will rest in quietude and peace kept by the power of God. Say, "The Lord will be glorified by my being cheerful and happy in His assurance of His love--today."
UL	180	7	In much love, Ellen G. White.--Letter 48, June 15, 1896, to a sister in need of encouragement.
------------------------Look to Jesus Christ, June 16
UL	181	1	I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. John 6:35.
UL	181	2	I am instructed to say that we must not look to any human being for power or experience, depending on them for strength and guidance. Christ says, "Look unto Me. I am the Light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life." I speak to those who claim to be children of God. Is it not time that we know the Source of our strength and the Source of our power? Shall we not, from this time forward, make a record more pleasing to the Lord?
UL	181	3	Scenes are presented to me that I can find no language to describe. Trials will come that will humble all hearts that are lifted up. Let no one feel that he is safe in following his own way, or in making man his trust. The Lord calls for men of experience, men who will carry responsibilities in His name and in His strength, men who will receive His grace with a realization of their accountability to impart it to others....
UL	181	4	The Word of the living God is to be our guide. Each one is to realize his dependence upon Him, whose he is by creation and by redemption. Read and study the statements made in the sixth chapter of John. Pray for an understanding of these truths. I am alarmed as I see the spiritual weakness of those who have had such great light. Had they walked in this light, they would have been strong in the Lord. But they have not, and those who come into the truth through their efforts look to human beings for wisdom, instead of looking to Jesus Christ, "the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9). When those who claim to believe in Christ receive Him by faith, He will be to them their sanctification, their righteousness, and their exceeding great reward....
UL	181	5	The Lord's agencies, the men of His appointment, are individually to receive wisdom from Him. They greatly dishonor Him when they trust in human devising as assurance. They are to see Him distinctly as their sufficiency, their strength.
UL	181	6	Are you representing Christ? Have you broken away from the spirit and influence of worldly policy plans and from human devising? Are you eating daily of the bread of Life?...
UL	181	7	Let the prayer come from unfeigned lips, "Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works" (Psalm 119:27). "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Verse 11).--Manuscript 78, June 16, 1902, "The Health Food Question."
------------------------Are You a Fruitful Branch? June 17
UL	182	1	I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5.
UL	182	2	"I am the true vine," Christ declared. He used the figure of the vine that as we look upon it, we may call to remembrance His precious lessons. Rightly interpreted, nature is the mirror of divinity.
UL	182	3	Christ pointed to the vine and its branches: I give you this lesson that you may understand My relationship to you and your relationship to Me. There was not the least excuse for His hearers to misunderstand His words. The figure He used was as a mirror held up before them, that they might understand His connection with them.
UL	182	4	This lesson will be repeated to the ends of the earth. All who receive Christ by faith become one with Him. The branches are not tied to the vine by any mechanical process or artificial fastening. They are united to the vine and have become part of it. They are nourished by the roots of the vine. So those who receive Christ by faith become one with Him in principle and action. They are united to Him, and the life they live is the life of the Son of God. They derive their life from Him who is life....
UL	182	5	The heart must be united with Christ's heart, the will must be submerged in His will, the mind must become one with His mind, the thoughts must be brought into captivity to Him. A man may be baptized, and his name placed on the church rolls, yet the heart may be unchanged. Hereditary and cultivated tendencies may still work evil in the character.
UL	182	6	The regenerated man has a vital union with Christ. As the branch derives its sustenance from the parent stock, and because of this bears much fruit, so the true believer is united with Christ, and reveals in his life the fruits of the Spirit. The branch becomes one with the vine. Storm cannot carry it away. Frosts cannot destroy its vital properties. Nothing is able to separate it from the vine. It is a living branch, and it bears the fruit of the vine. So with the believer. By good words and good actions, he reveals the character of Christ. As the branch derives its nourishment from the vine, so all who are truly converted draw spiritual vitality from Christ. "Verily, verily, I say unto you," He declared, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him" (John 6:53, 56).--Manuscript 78, copied June 17, 1898, "I Am the True Vine."
------------------------Human Wisdom is Foolishness, June 18
UL	183	1	Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! Psalm 144:3.
UL	183	2	The Lord has a place for every man and every woman, whether young, middle-aged, or old. When men and women find their place, there will be a work done for the Lord that has not yet been done. Great weakness has come upon the people of God because ... [some] have left the Lord Jesus, because they have lost out of their lives His Spirit, His love, His rich grace. They have lifted up their souls unto vanity, and have planned in human wisdom, supposing human talent to be their strength. Thus they bring upon themselves weakness and perplexity. In their dependence on humanity, they forget that men and women are finite, erring, naturally selfish, and that their planning is sure to be mingled with dross.
UL	183	3	The most gifted of human beings, men and women of the broadest minds and deepest comprehension, those most highly cultured and most highly educated, those who stand in the world as rulers, are infants in comparison with God in their understanding of the things of eternity. And because they have so limited knowledge of Him, because they know so little of His ways, His mind, His character, they are in danger of making themselves gods....
UL	183	4	Those who are not conscious of God's greatness, His omnipotence, will intrude themselves as great and wise, but they are mere nothingness. In God's sight they are as little children, that cannot walk alone, yet they feel fully competent to handle the greatest problems. They suppose that if they can unite and consolidate their talents, they will make a grand success. But the greater the number united, the greater will be the failure unless they seek to know and understand God. It is not numbers combined in unions that brings man into harmony with heaven.
UL	183	5	There are many, very many, who, inexperienced and unreasoning, suppose themselves wise enough to do anything they may wish to do. With God, their wisdom is foolishness. They need to remember that they are only children in wisdom, and that before they can know themselves, they must learn of God.
UL	183	6	God is our Father, and He will teach all who come to Him, realizing that their human wisdom is foolishness. As they take hold of His strength, and make peace with Him, living by His Word, He will unite His strength with their weakness, His knowledge with their ignorance, making them strong in Him. He will give them the care adapted to their necessities. Those who trust in Him as their Teacher will not stumble or fall.--Manuscript 88, June 18, 1902, "A Worldwide Work."
------------------------We Are One with the Church in Heaven, June 19
UL	184	1	There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Ephesians 4:4-6.
UL	184	2	Every church member needs to feel the converting power of God upon heart and mind; then spiritual development will be experienced. Christ has for every true believer grace sufficient to make him a son of God. Angels are working in behalf of God's people, that Satan may not gain the victory over them....
UL	184	3	He who comes to the Lord in simple trust will learn how to uplift the Saviour before men. Practical Christianity is the revealing in word and action of the will of God....
UL	184	4	At this period of time, a special work is to be done for the individual members of the church. With the Bible in your hands, you are to search the Scriptures with an earnest determination to know the words of Christ. "Search the scriptures," the Saviour said, "for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39)....
UL	184	5	The professing follower of Christ is to overcome every selfish trait of character. By well-doing he is to form a correct pattern, and testify in his life to the character of Christ, and to God's unselfish love for the human race. In works of mercy and love and sympathy, by showing kindness on the right hand and on the left, he is to repeat the works of Christ. Christ came to the earth to give to men the pattern of the perfect character that all must obtain who would be welcomed to the future heavenly world. He found His pleasure in unwearied works for the good of men. His object in coming to our world was to leave an example of what the human character must become in order to be fitted for the society of heaven.
UL	184	6	The Holy Spirit leaves no member of the church to develop a character that is without comeliness. He claims for every man and woman the privilege of becoming a child of light, an influence for righteousness, an example of a Christlike life. This is God's way of helping the church. Satan is working in every way to thwart the purpose of God, and God desires that His professing people shall make no mistakes, but that every move may be a right move. The Head of the church on earth requires the members of the church to surrender their will to the will of God in willing obedience. God has united the agencies of the church on earth with the church in heaven.--Manuscript 141, June 19, 1907, "Words to Church Members."
------------------------God Helps Us Accomplish His Will, June 20
UL	185	1	Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12, 13.
UL	185	2	Talk of God's blessings. Let us ... bring all the pleasantness possible into our lives. When others begin to question and criticize, let us be determined, either by silence or by turning the conversation into another channel, to cut off the words which would not be spoken in wisdom. We are to continue to wait upon the Lord by humble prayer and supplication, making every effort to keep the door of our lips, so that we shall not utter one foolish word savoring of unbelief.
UL	185	3	We are to talk faith, practicing the very things we have asked the Lord to give us grace to do. Thus we work out our own salvation, trying to help and save those in trouble by faithful words and kind deeds. It is God which worketh in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. The finite and the infinite are to unite in accomplishing the work that needs to be done. God has pledged himself to supply us with strength, cheerfulness, pleasantness, and joyfulness in our Saviour. [When we are] abiding in Him, the word that would cast a shadow over others is left unspoken.
UL	185	4	Let us remember that everyone has some dark spot in his experience. Let us do all we can to bring cheerfulness and hope into the lives of others. What a blessing this will be to them. In their turn they will speak words of good cheer to others to bring sunshine into their hearts. As we do this work, we shall be in a position to realize that the Lord hears our prayers, because we work in harmony with them, fulfilling all the duty we owe to God and to ourselves. We shall go about our work in a thankful, prayerful frame of mind, but by faith we claim the promise, "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find."
UL	185	5	Yes, we shall find the answer to our prayers; for God will do exceedingly abundantly above our highest expectation. What precious witness we shall then bear for God. What an honor we shall be to the truth of His word. We shall be able to say, "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies" (Psalm 40:1-4).--Letter 87, June 20, 1900, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------God Can Use "Inferior" Workers, June 21
UL	186	1	But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. 1 Corinthians 1:27.
UL	186	2	Those whom God chooses as His workers are not always talented in the estimation of the world. Sometimes He selects unlearned men. These workers have a special work to do. They reach a class to which no one else could obtain access. Those who labor in a quiet way will be rewarded with the same commendation as those who, from outward appearances, exerted a wider influence. Every worker is rewarded according to the spirit that prompted him to action.
UL	186	3	These workers open their heart to receive the truth, and they are made wise in and through Christ. Their lives inhale and exhale the fragrance of godliness. Their words are thoughtfully considered before they are spoken. Their actions are patterned after the actions of their Leader. They strive to promote the well-being of their fellow men. They take relief and happiness to the sorrowful and distressed. They feel the necessity of remaining constantly under Christ's training, that they may work in accordance with the will of God. They study how they can best imitate the cross-bearing and self-denial of their Saviour. They are God's witnesses, following His example of compassion and love, ascribing all the glory to Him whom they love and serve.
UL	186	4	Constantly they are learning of the great Teacher as they reach higher degrees of perfection, yet all the time feeling a sense of their weakness and inferiority. They are drawn upward by the strong, loving admiration they have for the beauty of Christ's character. They practice His virtues, for His life is assimilated to theirs. Ever they move onward and upward, a blessing to the world and an honor to their Redeemer. Christ says of them, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).
UL	186	5	Such workers are to be encouraged. Their work is done, not to be seen of men, but to glorify God; and it will bear His inspection. The Lord brings these workers into connection with those of more marked ability to fill up the gaps they leave. He is well pleased when they are recognized and appreciated, for they are links in His chain of service. And it is God's desire that every human instrumentality who works for Him shall be recognized, however small may be the work he does....
UL	186	6	In the heavenly courts, when the redeemed are gathered home, this class will stand nearest the Son of God. They will shine brightly in the courts of the Lord, honored by Him because they have felt it an honor to minister to those for whom Christ gave His life.--Manuscript 5, June 21, 1902, "The Need of an Awakening."
------------------------Let God Work His Will in You, June 22
UL	187	1	The God of peace ... make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Hebrews 13:20, 21.
UL	187	2	By studying the Word of God, and carrying out its precepts in all their business transactions, men may carefully discern the spirit that controls the actions. In the place of following human impulse and natural inclination, they may learn, by diligent study, the principles that should control the sons and daughters of Adam.
UL	187	3	The Bible is the guidebook that is to decide the many difficult problems that rise in minds that are selfishly inclined. It is a reflection of the wisdom of God, and not only furnishes great and important principles, but supplies practical lessons for the life and conduct of man toward his fellow man. It gives minute particulars that decide our relation to God and to each other. It is a complete revelation of the attributes and will of God in the person of Jesus Christ, and in it is set forth the obligation of the human agent to render wholehearted service to God, and to inquire at every step of the way, "Is this the way of the Lord?" ...
UL	187	4	A deceiving crookedness is discernible in the minds of those whose eyes are not anointed with the heavenly eyesalve that they may see all things in the light of God's Word. The will becomes enslaved, bound to pursue a course which the Word of God will not justify. The will of the human agent is not to be given into the control of any other man. When merged into the will of other men, it is misleading....
UL	187	5	If the human agent consents, God can and will so identify His will with all our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His Word, that when obeying His will, we are only carrying out the impulses of our minds. All such will not possess an unsanctified, selfish disposition, ready to carry out their own wills, but will have a jealous, earnest, determined zeal for the glory of God. They will not want to do anything in their own strength, and will guard strictly against the danger of promoting self.
UL	187	6	All who would perfect a Christian character must wear the yoke of Christ. If they would sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, they must learn of Him while on this earth. Our natures are in need of discipline. They must be conformed to the nature of Jesus Christ, that He may accomplish the good He designs to do for all who will submit to be molded by yielding their natures to His authority. The great Teacher will yoke up with every soul who will bear His yoke.--Letter 22, June 22, 1896, to a church administrator in Australia.
------------------------Lessons from the Barren Fig Tree, June 23
UL	188	1	Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. Matthew 3:8.
UL	188	2	I feel an earnest interest that those who have been creating dissension and strife shall be convicted of their wrong, and shall repent and be converted. Tell this to the people: "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you" (John 12:35). Because the time is short we need to follow diligently the King's business.
UL	188	3	Two nights ago in visions of the night, I seemed to be addressing a company of our people.... I was saying: "I have a message for those who have been working to destroy the influence of the messages that the Lord has been giving to His servants. There are some who for years have been spreading their roots far, but their fruit-bearing for Christ is represented by the barren fig tree." ...
UL	188	4	The lesson of the barren fig tree is one that we should keep continually before us. It is not profession of righteousness that will meet the needs of the world today and fulfill the will of God for the human family. God is looking for fruit-bearing branches. "Feed My sheep with pure provender" is the Lord's command to those who stand as teachers of the gospel of salvation. He has made provision that the gospel's saving power shall be represented in all places.
UL	188	5	I was shown that mistakes have been made that have left wrong impressions upon minds, because men were allowed to preside over important interests who were deficient of the saving grace of the gospel, who had not made its purity and simplicity a part of their lives, and who did not seek God often in humble, earnest prayer. Righteous, self-denying works were not considered by them to be a necessary part of Christian experience. They did not see the necessity of having the spirit of Christ and of emulating His example in their work of ministry. I heard words of warning and entreaty spoken to young men, imploring them to make a full surrender and to obtain a thorough conversion. Ministers were exhorted to make decided changes.
UL	188	6	The Saviour was presented to me as standing before the congregation, and addressing those who had stood to discourage and hinder others. The words were spoken, "Break every yoke. You are years behind where you should be in the carrying out of the plan of redemption. Let each seek his orders from the One in whom dwelleth truth and righteousness. Let all come into right relation to God, making thorough work of repentance."
UL	188	7	Let us press our case to the throne of grace.... I pray that thorough conversions may now be experienced.--Letter 202, June 23, 1908, to S. N. Haskell, president of the California Conference.
------------------------Ye Visited Me, June 24
UL	189	1	Remember them that are in bonds. Hebrews 13:3.
UL	189	2	Yesterday, by invitation, I spoke to the prisoners [near Salem, Oregon]. Sister Jordan, a very amiable woman in the faith, took me in her carriage.... I was surprised to see so fine a company of intelligent men. Oh, so sad! So many young men, younger than our own dear boys, so bright, and looking as though they might fill any position in society. You would not dream that they were prisoners, only as you looked upon their strange dress. And this was so neat and clean. There was nothing repulsive in their appearance.
UL	189	3	The superintendent first ushered us in and then, at the sound of the bell, the heavy iron bolts were drawn back with a loud noise, and there swarmed from their cells one hundred and fifty prisoners. Then we were locked in with them--the warden, superintendent's wife (a Southern lady), Brother and Sister Carter, Sister Jordan, and myself. The prisoners sang, led by Brother Carter. There was an organ. The performer was a young man, an excellent musician, a man of promise--yet oh, how sad, a convict! I engaged in prayer and every brow bowed. They sang again and then I addressed them.
UL	189	4	They listened with the most profound attention as I spoke from these words: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1). I then presented before them Adam's sin, his fall, and the gift of God to redeem Adam's failure; the love here manifested to save man from sin and ruin. I dwelt upon the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, the victory gained in behalf of the race, and how man may overcome the seductive snares of Satan by making Christ his trust.
UL	189	5	I dwelt a few moments upon the nature of sin; that sin was the transgression of the law, and how through repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ the sinner might be saved with a full and free salvation. But he is not saved by the merits of the blood of Christ while he continues to transgress the Father's law.... Christ died to evidence to the sinner that there was no hope for him while he continued in sin. Obedience to all God's requirements is his only hope for pardon through the blood of Christ. I dwelt largely upon the great reward to be given the final overcomer--the crown of life that fadeth not away to be placed upon his brow.
UL	189	6	The people listened with the most solemn mien, and the tearful eye and quivering lip showed that their hearts, although calloused with sin, felt the words spoken.--Letter 32, June 24, 1878, to James White, who was traveling in the Eastern United States.
------------------------Preparing for Heaven, June 25
UL	190	1	Bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. 1 Timothy 4:8.
UL	190	2	I have kept very well since the warm weather came. I am surprised that at my age [75] I am favored with such good health. I can go up and down stairs as easily and as quickly as any member of my family. Generally, I am cheerful. I do not want to cast a shadow in my family. I desire that every word that falls from my lips shall be fragrant with Christlike love....
UL	190	3	We have been commissioned to go forth as God's missionaries. In the Bible we learn what work God has given us to do, and there, too, we learn how to do this work. No one can know the will of God so certainly as he who abides in Christ. There are some who are constantly inquiring and speculating and guessing, but who, instead of advancing, are retrograding. They are not united with Christ.
UL	190	4	We are not to stumble along in uncertainty. Christ says, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Mark 8:34). "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). As we advance, we become used to following. The path of life shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.
UL	190	5	How deeply grieved the Saviour is by the loss of one of the souls for whom He made so great a sacrifice. He would bring all into the kingdom of heaven. He desires all to see the King in His beauty.... Let us not keep looking at the defects of others. Let us look ever to Jesus.... There are sinners to be saved, and in word and deed we are to fulfill Christ's purpose for them, as His agencies of healing....
UL	190	6	I am making earnest efforts to win the crown of life which at the last great day the Judge of all will give to those who love His appearing. Let us not allow our lips to be tarnished by unbelief. Let us talk the truth. Let us refuse to be deceived by the seducing spirits that will come.
UL	190	7	Sister [Lucinda] Hall, will it not be a blessed thing to be an overcomer, to sit with the royal family in the kingdom of heaven, to have a place in the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those who love His appearing? Be of good courage, my sister. Let nothing discourage you. Keep cheerful. Stand under the bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness.--Letter 121, June 25, 1903, to Lucinda Hall, a close friend.
------------------------Christ's Love Cannot Be Measured, June 26
UL	191	1	For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38, 39.
UL	191	2	Christ might, because of our guilt, have moved far from us. But instead of moving farther away from us, He came and dwelt among us, filled with all the fullness of the Godhead, to be one with us, that through His grace we might attain to perfection. By a death of shame and suffering He paid man's ransom. What self-sacrificing love is this! From the highest excellency He came, His divinity clothed with humanity, descending step by step to the very depths of humiliation. No line can measure the depth of this love. Christ has shown us how much God can love and our Redeemer suffer in order to secure our complete restoration. He desires His children to reveal His character, to exert His influence, that other minds may be drawn into harmony with His mind.
UL	191	3	Christ, our Saviour, in whom dwelt absolute perfection, became sin for the fallen race. He did not know sin by the experience of sinning, but He bore the terrible weight of the guilt of the whole world. He became our propitiation, that all who receive Him may become sons of God. The cross was erected to save man. Christ lifted on the cross was the means devised in heaven for awakening in the repenting soul a sense of the sinfulness of sin. By the cross Christ sought to draw all to Himself. He died as the only hope of saving those who, because of sin, were in the gall of bitterness. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, a new principle of mental and spiritual power was to be brought to man, who, through association with divinity, was to become one with God.
UL	191	4	To break down the barriers that Satan had erected between God and man, Christ made a full and complete sacrifice, revealing unexampled self-denial. He revealed to the world the amazing spectacle of God living in human flesh, and sacrificing Himself to save fallen man. What wonderful love! As I consider it, I weep to think that so many of those who claim to believe the truth are encrusted with selfishness....
UL	191	5	I marvel that professing Christians do not grasp the divine resources; that they do not see the cross more clearly as the medium of forgiveness and pardon, the means of bringing the proud, selfish heart of man into direct contact with the Holy Spirit, that the riches of Christ may be poured into the mind, and the human agent be adorned with the graces of the Spirit, that Christ may be commended to those who know Him not.--Manuscript 91, June 26, 1902, "Christ's Sacrifice for Us."
------------------------For What Are You Preparing? June 27
UL	192	1	And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Daniel 12:2.
UL	192	2	It is our privilege to understand the great responsibilities that God has placed upon us so that we shall not be in darkness as to what is coming upon our world. We cannot afford to meet that day without a preparation. But when we think of this great and solemn event of Christ's coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, we should live in great humiliation before God lest we fail of the grace of God and prove ourselves unworthy of eternal life....
UL	192	3	We see that the world at large have no thoughts of this great day, and many of them do not care to hear anything about it. But we must meet the record of our lives. We must remember that there is a witness to all our works. An eye like a flame of fire beholds us in all our actions of life. Our very thoughts and the intents and purposes of our hearts are laid bare to God's inspection. As the features are produced upon the polished plate of the artist, so are our characters upon the books of record in heaven.
UL	192	4	We ask you, "How stands your character in the sight of God today? Are you preparing your souls for the grand review, that you may have the white robe of character in that day?" You cannot afford to indulge in sin and iniquity. You cannot afford to be found a transgressor of God's great moral rule of righteousness....
UL	192	5	The God of heaven has given us reasoning powers and intellect, and He wants us to use them. He has given us this body which He wishes us to preserve in perfect health so that we can give Him perfect service. The Lord God is an ever-present witness to the deeds of wickedness done among the children of men upon this earth. How does He look upon men and women for whom He has paid an infinite price, but who refuse to obey His laws? ...
UL	192	6	We cannot wait until the judgment before we consent to deny self and to lift the cross. We cannot then form characters for heaven. It is here in this life that we must take sides with the humble, self-denying Redeemer. It is here that we must overcome envy, strife, selfishness, love of money, and love of the world. It is here that we must enter the school of Christ, and learn of the Master the precious lessons of meekness and lowliness of mind. And here it must be our aim and earnest effort to be loyal and true to the God of heaven by obeying all of His commandments and thus be fitting up for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for all who love God.--Manuscript 6a, June 27, 1886, "Preparation for the Judgment," a sermon by Sister White in Orebro, Sweden.
------------------------More Like Christ Every Day, June 28
UL	193	1	We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
UL	193	2	Dear Husband: I received a few lines from Willie today with the cheering account of your steady improvement in health. For this we have hoped and have not ceased our earnest prayers. The Lord has a work for you to do. You must not be discouraged, even if you have days of suffering and pain and weariness....
UL	193	3	I miss you here so much, but the Lord has not left me alone. Today has been a precious day to us in Oregon. The Spirit of the Lord was manifested in a most marked manner in the nine o'clock social [i.e., testimony] meeting. Many humble, good testimonies were borne and the melting Spirit of God rested upon preachers and people. I tried to speak to the people a short time. I told them that it is the privilege of the Christian to come to Jesus in living faith, being in earnest, claiming the promises of God, not depending upon feeling, but taking God at His word. He is a God of love, of tender compassion, of long forbearance, more kind, more beneficent that the kindest earthly parent....
UL	193	4	While talking faith and presenting Jesus as our strong helper, my heart was broken, the tears flowed freely. I seldom weep, but the melting love of Christ melted my heart and opened the fountain of tears as I presented the great ransom Jesus had made for our souls that we might have pardon, purity, and peace, and a heaven of bliss. God would have His followers useful on earth and honored and glorified in the kingdom of God....
UL	193	5	We sought to lead the people to reach forward to the things that are before us, seeking earnestly to attain the highest elevation of Christian character. In this we must rely simply on the merits and righteousness of our Surety. We must have awakened in us a holy jealousy of ourselves, and cultivate a spirit of vigilant prayer. We want the spirit of earnest, longing desire that Moses had when he prayed, "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory" (Exodus 33:18). And his petition was not presumptuous. God did not rebuke His servant as being bold and irreverent.
UL	193	6	The Lord would have us day by day [become] more like Christ, keeping His words, conforming to His precepts and example, entering more and more deeply every day into the spirit and meaning of God's requirements and gracious promises.... In God will we trust. Be of good courage in the Lord. Lean heavily upon Jesus' all-sustaining arm.... (Signed) Your Ellen.--Letter 37, June 28, 1878, to James White, who was traveling in the Eastern United States.
------------------------Power of the Gospel, June 29
UL	194	1	For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6.
UL	194	2	Dear Husband: This is the last day of our meeting, except the parting meeting tomorrow morning.... I have spoken every evening....
UL	194	3	There were a couple of Scotch people who came from Indianapolis, named Cooley. His brother-in-law is Brother Fulton who lives at Hutchinson. Cooley came from Nova Scotia and was a staunch Presbyterian. He was a man of means. His wife embraced the truth, but she met great opposition from her husband, who was set and would not yield an inch of his ideas. For some reason, to please his wife, he came with her to the camp meeting. He told her he would go with her to please her, but [that] he should never, never leave his views....
UL	194	4	After I spoke at the commencement of the Sabbath, and asked for sinners to come to the front seats, he was there. All left and he remained. Some forty others also came forward. It was through the blessing of God that the words spoken that evening convicted him so deeply he could not shake it off. He went to his tent and solicited his wife to go out and pray for him. The tall, stern old cedar was falling.
UL	194	5	I spoke one hour Sunday morning before breakfast upon the mission of the Pacific Coast. He felt again deeply. Sunday evening I spoke again with great freedom. He left for his tent again under the deepest conviction, trembling under the most terrible burden he had ever carried. He again solicited his wife, whom he had so bitterly opposed, to pray for him. This morning I read some thirty-five pages, a deep, stirring appeal to God's people upon selfishness and the tithing system. He felt it all. After I ceased speaking, we had a conference meeting which lasted till twelve o'clock.
UL	194	6	Brother Cooley arose and spoke. He repeated what he had told his wife and seemed to feel deeply because he had stood out so hard and been so bitter an opponent. As soon as he ceased speaking, I spoke to him for the first time, encouraging him to go forward.... Finally he ... took his seat beside his good wife for baptism.... He seems to think that I am his mother and has all that deep attachment peculiar to the Scotch, because it was my labors that convinced him of his sinful course and led him to decide to be one of our people....
UL	194	7	The Lord has indeed worked at this meeting.... Must take the cars in fifteen minutes. Thought you would be anxious to hear and will send this unfinished. (Signed) Your Ellen.--Letter 37, June 29, 1874, to James White, who was founding the Pacific Press Publishing Association.
------------------------God's Plans Are Simple, June 30
UL	195	1	But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.
UL	195	2	Christ, the Majesty of heaven, came to this earth in human flesh, expressing divine benevolence, sympathy, and love for the fallen race as He stood at the head of the human family. He came to redeem sinners and clothe them with His righteousness. As the Saviour of the world, He was subject to temptations. The enemy assailed Him on every point. Constantly he came to Him with the suggestion that by compromising with the world, He might win the world. Christ is our example.... [Although] He was in the world, He was not of the world. He was not to conform to worldly practices in order to reach the object of His life. He was not to please Himself. The highest standard must be maintained. Deviation from strict moral rectitude would mar His whole lifework.
UL	195	3	In order to save humanity, Christ came down to the level of humanity, as far as worldly advantages were concerned. He came to this earth to be tempted in all points like as human beings are tempted. In the wilderness Satan came to Him and assailed Him on the great points on which he assails man, but the Saviour did not yield to the enemy. Not in a single particular was He overcome. And the temptations were just as real to Him as they are to us today.
UL	195	4	Constantly the Pharisees tried to lead Christ away from the principles of God's government. Making a great profession of piety, they sought to lead Him to swerve from His allegiance. Satan has persuaded many men to deviate from principle by telling them that the end will justify the means. Reasoning from a human standpoint, they excuse themselves for wrongdoing by saying that the cause of God would be the gainer in their unfaithful dealing. This deviation from the holy principles of heaven has placed them in the ranks of the great deceiver....
UL	195	5	Christ came to this earth in human form to inaugurate a spiritual reform. He came to show man how to discard all ostentation and show; how to live upon the pure, vital principles of reform. He came to institute a plan whereby human character might be made pure. By His grace He desires to place men and women close beside the throne of God.
UL	195	6	The laws of Christ's kingdom are so simple, so compact, and yet so complete, that any man-made additions will create confusion. And the more simple our plans or work in God's service, the more we shall accomplish. By studying how they can adopt the plans of worldly policy in their work for God, men disarrange God's plans of humility and simplicity, which He desires shall be followed in advancing His kingdom.--Manuscript 53, June 30, 1901, untitled manuscript.
------------------------Standing by Principle, July 1
UL	196	1	O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Psalm 119:97.
UL	196	2	Let those who talk of principle as if they would not on any account depart from it be sure that they understand the principles laid down in the Word of God for our guidance. There are some who follow false principles. Their idea of principle is misleading. Following right principle means the faithful doing of the first four and the last six commandments. In obedience to these divine commands, we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, appropriating all that is embraced in the atonement made on Calvary. Christ will stand by the side of all who receive Him as their Saviour. To them He will give power to become the sons of God. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).
UL	196	3	The One here referred to as the Word is the Son of God, who was the Commander in the heavenly courts, and who came to this world to open heavenly things to fallen human beings. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Word that was with God before the world was. In clothing His divinity with humanity, He became possessed of two natures, the divine and the human. And because of this, He was fully able to accomplish for the human race their complete redemption, and their restoration to the privileges of the higher life.
UL	196	4	He began His earthly life as human beings begin theirs, coming to this world as a helpless babe. And while here, He lived the life that every human being may live who will receive the great gift that the Lord made to our world in sending His Son to work out the plan of salvation.
UL	196	5	Christ bore the penalty of sin, the stroke of divine justice, that human beings might not be left to perish. He bore in His body the sentence pronounced against sinners. This is the science of salvation, which can safely be searched into, and which it is profitable to strive to understand....
UL	196	6	Those who continue in transgression will be judged according to their refusal of light. They choose to stand on the side of the prince of darkness, to become the helping hand of him who, if it were possible, would deceive the very elect. They refuse the wonderful gift of heaven, and though they may profess righteousness, and talk of "adherence to principle," they are at the same time following principles opposed to the noble principles of heaven, and they teach others to follow the same corrupting principles.--Manuscript 161, July 1, 1903, "The Peril of Rejecting Light."
------------------------Keep Climbing, July 2
UL	197	1	And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2.
UL	197	2	God will accept nothing less than unreserved surrender. Halfhearted, sinful, professing Christians would spoil heaven, were they permitted to enter. They would stir up a second rebellion there. Those who know the truth, yet do not exalt the Author of truth, will never enter the City of God. Heaven would be purgatory to them, because they know nothing of the high, holy principles that govern the members of the royal family above.
UL	197	3	The directions that Christ has given are so distinct and so definite that no one need take a false step.... Let us not think that because we have made crooked paths for our feet, every other professing Christian has done the same thing. Let the one who in the past has been a faultfinder begin to climb the ladder heavenward, keeping his eyes fixed on the light above.
UL	197	4	The true Christian keeps the windows of the soul open heavenward. He lives in fellowship with Christ. His will is conformed to the will of God.... Shall we not, in the few days of probation that remain to us, act like men and women seeking for life in the kingdom of God, even an eternity of bliss?
UL	197	5	We are to strive earnestly to reach the standard set before us. Not as a penance are we to do this, but as the only means of gaining true happiness. The only way to gain peace and joy is to have a living connection with Him who gave His life for us, who died that we might live, and who lives to unite His power with the efforts of those who in this life are striving to overcome.
UL	197	6	Holiness is constant agreement with God. Shall we not be that which Christ so greatly desires us to be--Christians in deed and in truth--that the world may see in our lives a revelation of the saving power of truth? This world is our preparatory school, and while here we shall meet with trials and difficulties. But we are safe while we cleave to Him who gave His life as an offering for us....
UL	197	7	In the lower school of earth we are to learn the lessons that will prepare us to enter the higher school, where our education will continue under the personal instruction of Christ. Then He will open to us the meaning of His Word. We cannot afford to miss the privilege of seeing His face and of hearing the gospel from His lips. Shall we not put our whole souls into the work of preparing for admission into the higher school, where we shall see Christ face to face?--Manuscript 61, July 2, 1903, "Unreserved Surrender."
------------------------The Light of the World, July 3
UL	198	1	This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5.
UL	198	2	Before the fall of Adam, not a cloud rested on the mind of our first parents to obscure their clear perception of the divine character of God. They were perfectly conformed to the will of God. A beautiful light, the light of God, surrounded them. Nature was their lesson book. The Lord instructed them in regard to the natural world and then left with them this open book that they might behold beauty in every object upon which their eyes should rest. The Lord visited the holy pair, and instructed them through the works of His hands.
UL	198	3	The beauties of nature are an expression of the love of God for human intelligences, and in the Garden of Eden the existence of God was demonstrated in the objects of nature that surrounded our first parents. Every tree planted in the Garden spoke to them, saying that the invisible things of God were clearly seen, being understood by the things which were made, even His eternal power and Godhead.
UL	198	4	But while thus God could be discerned in nature, this affords no solid argument in favor of a perfect knowledge of God being revealed in nature to Adam and his posterity after the Fall. Nature could convey her lessons to man in his innocence, but sin and transgression brought a blight upon nature, and intervened between nature and nature's God. Had man never disobeyed his Creator, had he remained in his state of perfect rectitude, he could have understood and known God. But when man disobeyed God, he gave evidence that he believed the words of an apostate rather than the words of God....
UL	198	5	Adam and Eve listened to the voice of the tempter, and sinned against God. The light, the garments of heavenly innocence, departed from these tried, deceived souls, and in parting with the garments of innocence, they drew about them the dark robes of ignorance of God. The clear and perfect light of innocence, which had hitherto surrounded them, had lightened everything which they approached; but deprived of that heavenly light, the posterity of Adam could no longer trace the character of God in His created works.
UL	198	6	Therefore, after the Fall, nature was not the only teacher of man. In order that the world might not remain in darkness, in eternal, spiritual night, the God of nature must meet man in Jesus Christ. The Son of God came to the world as a revelation of the Father. He was "the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."--Manuscript 86, July 3, 1898, "Notes of the Week of Prayer."
------------------------Our Sanctuary Doctrine, July 4
UL	199	1	Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Daniel 8:14.
UL	199	2	God bids us give our time and strength to the work of preaching to the people the messages that stirred men and women in 1843 and 1844....
UL	199	3	My brethren, take your position where God bids you. Leave alone those who, after light has been repeatedly given them, have taken a stand on the opposite side.... Take up the work which has been given us. With the Word of God as your message, stand on the platform of truth and proclaim the soon coming of Christ. Truth, eternal truth, will prevail.
UL	199	4	For more than half a century [i.e., since 1844] the different points of present truth have been questioned and opposed. New theories have been advanced as truth, which were not truth, and the Spirit of God revealed their error. As the great pillars of our faith have been presented, the Holy Spirit has borne witness to them, and especially is this so regarding the truths of the sanctuary question. Over and over again the Holy Spirit has in a marked manner endorsed the preaching of this doctrine. But today, as in the past, some will be led to form new theories and to deny the truths upon which the Spirit of God has placed His approval.
UL	199	5	Any man who seeks to present theories which would lead us from the light that has come to us on the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary should not be accepted as a teacher. A true understanding of the sanctuary question means much to us as a people. When we were earnestly seeking the Lord for light on that question, light came. In vision I was given such a view of the heavenly sanctuary, and the ministration connected with the holy place, that for many days I could not speak of it.
UL	199	6	I know from the light that God has given me that there should be a revival of the messages that have been given in the past, because men will seek to bring in new theories, and will try to prove that these theories are scriptural, whereas they are error, which, if allowed a place, will undermine faith in the truth. We are not to accept these suppositions and pass them along as truth. No, no; we must not move from the platform of truth on which we have been established.
UL	199	7	There will always be those who are seeking for something new, and who stretch and strain the Word of God to make it support their ideas and theories. Let us, brethren, take the things that God has given us, and which His Spirit has taught us is truth, and believe them, leaving alone those theories which His Spirit has not endorsed.--Manuscript 125, July 4, 1907, "Lessons From the Visions of Ezekiel."
------------------------Eternal Vigilance, July 5
UL	200	1	Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8.
UL	200	2	Christ has laid down the conditions of acceptable service. "He that loveth his life shall lose it," He says; "and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour" (John 12:25, 26).
UL	200	3	It is Christ's method of serving that is of value in God's sight. The service of those who serve in the world's way is worthless, for it is all for self. The selfishness of human nature takes control. They do not serve as Christ has given them example.
UL	200	4	Let us study the life and death of Christ. Let us do all in our power to work out the plan of God. What tongue can tell, what pen unfold the mighty results of looking to Jesus and living His life? How few of those claiming to be Christians have any real right to that sacred name.
UL	200	5	Satan watches eagerly to find Christians off their guard. O that the followers of Christ would remember that eternal vigilance is the price of eternal life. Many have a slumbering faith. Unless they are invigorated, revived, quickened into action, their souls will be lost.
UL	200	6	Self must die, and Christ must be enthroned in the heart as all and in all. The thoughts must be stayed on Him. Then the life will be an honor to His name. The soul will receive power from on high to resist Satan's specious devisings.
UL	200	7	Have Seventh-day Adventists forgotten the warning given in the sixth chapter of Ephesians? We are engaged in a warfare against the hosts of darkness. Unless we follow our Leader closely, Satan will obtain the victory over us.
UL	200	8	"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Ephesians 6:13-17).--Letter 140, July 5, 1903, to "My Dear Brethren."
------------------------The Measure of Divine Attention, July 6
UL	201	1	Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Matthew 6:30.
UL	201	2	Christ taught His disciples that the measure of divine attention bestowed on any of God's work is proportionate to the rank which that object occupies in the scale of creation. The little brown sparrow, apparently the most inferior of birds, is watched over by Providence. Not one falls to the ground without the notice of our heavenly Father. The flowers of the field, the grass which clothes the earth with verdure--all share the notice and care of our heavenly Father.
UL	201	3	"Behold the fowls of the air," Christ said: "for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" (Matthew 6:26-29). If the lilies of the field are objects upon which the great Master Artist has bestowed care, making them so beautiful that they out-rival the glory of Solomon, the greatest king that ever wielded a scepter; if the grass of the field is made into a beautiful carpet for the earth, can we form any idea of the regard which God bestows upon man, who was formed in His image?
UL	201	4	God has given man intellect in order that he may comprehend greater things than these beautiful objects in nature. He carries the human agent into a higher department of truth, leading the mind higher and still higher, and opening to him the divine mind. And in the book of God's providence, the volume of life, each one is given a page. That page contains every particular of his history. Even the hairs of his head are numbered. God's children are never absent from His mind.
UL	201	5	And though sin existed for ages, seeking to counteract the merciful tide of love flowing from God to the human race, yet the love and care that God bestows upon the beings He has created in His own image has not ceased to increase in richness and abundance. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He crowned His benevolence by the inestimable gift of Jesus. By this sacrifice, a healing flood of life and heavenly grace was poured upon our world. This was God's gift to man--a gift that defies all computation.--Letter 4, July 1, 1896, "To the Men Who Occupy Responsible Positions in the Work."
------------------------Have You Found Your Bearings? July 7
UL	202	1	Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15.
UL	202	2	Conformity to the world is causing many of our people to lose their bearings. I feel deeply over this matter, because it is continually kept before me by the Lord....
UL	202	3	If ever there was a time when those who have a knowledge of present truth should find their bearings, it is the present time. Although no one is to move independently of his brethren, yet each one must gain a knowledge of his own condition, his exact bearings. The question that each one should ask himself is, "What is my relation to God?"
UL	202	4	It is conformity to the world that is causing our people to lose their bearings. The perversion of right principles has not been brought about suddenly. The angel of the Lord presented this matter to me in symbols. It seemed as if a thief were stealthily moving closer and still closer, and gradually but surely stealing away the identity of God's work by leading our brethren to conform to worldly policies....
UL	202	5	The Lord expects us to make most diligent efforts to free ourselves of the worldly spirit that has come in among us.... The Lord calls for a reformation. In every place where believers have adopted worldly principles, He desires a voice of warning to be raised. "Cry aloud," He says, "spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins" (Isaiah 58:1)....
UL	202	6	From many minds a realization of the times in which we are living is as far away as is heaven from the earth. It seems that their duty to prepare to meet a soon-coming Saviour is entirely forgotten. God wants us to come to our senses. He wants us to act like rational beings, who are living on the borders of the eternal world.
UL	202	7	Remember that in preparing yourselves for the heavenly kingdom, you are preparing others. The Scriptures say, "Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way." ...
UL	202	8	So long as we work in Christ's lines, laying hold of the arm of the Mighty One, we are safe; but just as soon as we loosen our grasp of His arm, and begin to depend upon human beings, we are in great danger.
UL	202	9	This very day the Lord desires us to reach a higher standard than we have ever reached in the past. Day by day we are to advance upward, ever upward, until it can be said of us as a people, "Ye are complete in him."--Manuscript 96, July 7, 1902, an early morning talk before the Pacific Union Medical Missionary Council at St. Helena, California.
------------------------Revelations of the Judgment, July 8
UL	203	1	Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13.
UL	203	2	In the day when everyone shall be rewarded according as his work has been, how will transgressors appear in their own sight as for a few moments they are permitted to see the record of their life as they have chosen to make it, regardless of the law which through the eternal ages will govern the universe? They will then see what God desired them to do. They will realize that they should have used their blood-bought privileges in behalf of truth and righteousness. They will see that instead of placing their talents and influence on the side of rebellion, thus strengthening the forces of the enemy, they should have devoted their powers to being and doing good....
UL	203	3	In the day of judgment men will see what they might have become through the power of Christ. They will see the robbery that they have practiced toward God. They will realize that they have apostatized from their Creator. They will see the good they might have done but did not do. They utterly refused to be made better. The efforts put forth in their behalf were in vain. They knew the claims of God, but they refused to comply with the conditions laid down in His Word. By their own choice they were united with demons. The power given them to use in God's service they used in the service of self. They made self their god, refusing to submit to any other control. They deceived themselves, and made themselves contemptible in the sight of God....
UL	203	4	In the day of judgment all this opens up before the impenitent. Scene after scene passes before them. As plainly as in the light of the noonday sun, they all see what they might have been had they cooperated with God instead of opposing Him. The picture cannot be changed. Their cases are forever decided. They must perish with the one whose ways and works they followed.
UL	203	5	A flash of light will come to all lost souls. They will see clearly the mystery of godliness, which during their lifetime they despised and hated. And the fallen angels, endowed with higher intelligence than man, will realize what they have done in using their powers to lead human beings to choose deception and falsehood. All who have united with the deceiver, all who have learned his ways and practiced his deceptions, must perish with him.... The Lord Jesus looks pityingly upon them and says, "Depart." At that time Zechariah, chapters 3 and 4, will be understood.--Manuscript 37, July 8, 1900, "The Revelations of the Judgment."
------------------------Developing Characters for Heaven, July 9
UL	204	1	Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. 2 Peter 1:10.
UL	204	2	He who beholds Jesus, realizing what He is to us and what we are to Him, will be diligent. He will live on the plan of addition, adding to his faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. This is a process of growth. He who cooperates with Christ will not be found tomorrow where he is today. Every day he will follow on to know the Lord, that he may know that His going forth is prepared as the morning. Of those who live in this way it will be written at last, "Ye are complete in him."
UL	204	3	We are to work not merely for our own souls, but for the souls of all with whom we are connected. Parents are to keep before them the point to which they should work--the perfection of the characters of their children. They are to strive earnestly to perfect the characters of their children, because the future immortal life will show the result of the work they have done.
UL	204	4	Those parents who educate their children aright, weeding out every unruly trait, are fitting them to become missionaries for Christ in truth, in righteousness, in holiness. He who in his childhood does service for God, adding to his faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity, is fitting himself to hear the words, "Child, come up higher. Enter the higher school."
UL	204	5	Do you think we shall not learn anything there? We have not the slightest idea of what will then be opened before us. With Christ we shall walk before the living waters. He will open before us the beauty and glory of nature. He will show us what He is to us and what we are to Him. There are lessons we do not know now that we shall know hereafter....
UL	204	6	It means everything to us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. God works in us, to will and to do of His good pleasure. If we let Him work, He will work. Our reward in heaven above depends on our daily walk and conversation here below. We can be Christians here. And to be a Christian, it is not necessary that we live in depression, mourning because we cannot have our own way. If we are Christians indeed, Christ is formed within, the hope of glory.--Manuscript 102, July 9, 1899, "Remarks Made by Mrs. E. G. White in the School Chapel."
------------------------Be a Faithful Householder, July 10
UL	205	1	Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old. Matthew 13:52.
UL	205	2	Truth constantly enriches the receiver. The minds of those who receive the truth increase in activity. As they exercise their talents, seeking to improve every capability, their mental and spiritual powers strengthen, for where there is spiritual life, there is development and growth. There is no possibility of the treasures of the householder diminishing, if rightly used.
UL	205	3	Mighty truths have been buried beneath the sophistry of error, but they will be found by the diligent searcher. As he finds and opens the treasure house of the precious jewels of truth, it is no robbery, for all who appreciate these jewels may possess them, and then they too have a treasure house to open to others. He who imparts does not deprive himself of the treasure, for as he examines it, that he may present it in such a way as to attract others, he finds new treasures.
UL	205	4	The treasures of truth in our possession must be given to the world, that they may have opportunity to learn the value of truth. The necessities of those who are suffering from spiritual poverty must be relieved. And not only will the minds of those helped be impressed, but the mind of him who is doing the work will be quickened by the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the cooperation of the power that comes from God alone, he will be enabled to make the truth so plain that it will vibrate in other minds....
UL	205	5	Christ died for the whole world, yet how few fill the place God has assigned to them as householders. The talents lent us in trust are to be used to benefit and bless others. They are lent to be improved. Their value is in themselves. Whether or not the one to whom they are entrusted realizes their value, they remain the same. But, if he does not appreciate them, they are of no value to him.
UL	205	6	Money may be locked up in various ways. It is still money, but it is of no special benefit to anyone. But money wisely invested brings money in return, which may be used to gain more money. Thus it is with the householder's treasure--the Word of the living God. The use made of the gems of truth determines their value to the possessor. They are to be used to help and bless and save those for whom the Lord gave His only begotten Son. Then they are of the highest value to us, and in this way our talents increase constantly. We add jewel to jewel.--Manuscript 88, July 10, 1898, "The Parable of the Householder."
------------------------Balanced Christian Development, July 11
UL	206	1	And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Psalm 37:6.
UL	206	2	Humility is greatly needed. If cherished, it would be an ornament of great value in the sight of God. It is essential in the work. But there is no virtue in thinking that humility consists in cheap inefficiency. While humility is always essential in the service of God, while it must always be cultivated, be careful that it does not degenerate into the timidity which leads men to waver when circumstances require them to stand stiffly for the truth. There must be no half-and-half service offered to God. To every man the Lord has given his work. Everyone is to be a channel through which the Lord can work to communicate the will of Heaven....
UL	206	3	Arduous and unpleasant duties have to be performed. None are to place themselves where they will sanction wrong by silence. They aid and abet the schemes of the enemy by keeping their lips closed when they should speak decidedly, though not in a boasting, self-sufficient manner. They are to speak the truth in love....
UL	206	4	God in His great mercy will give to all His believing people efficiency and power for His work and service, even as He gave power to Joseph, Samuel, Daniel, Timothy, and scores of others who availed themselves of His promises. They believed Him and relied upon Him, and this was their righteousness. Men and women have to move by faith. They have to press their way through the cloud of objections which Satan brings up to hinder their progress. When God sees that they will trust Him as their helper and their efficiency, they may pass safely through the great darkness of men's unconsecration....
UL	206	5	Without the constant help which comes only from God, even those who are looked upon as the most eminent believers are in danger of falling into the sins which Satan has prepared to dishonor God. Bear in mind, all who claim to be believers, that it is only when you have that faith which works by love and purifies the soul, only when you have the joy of Christ's salvation in the heart, that you are qualified to guide sinners to repentance and reformation. It is the genuine believer, who not only assents to the truth, but believes and practices the truth, who is not satisfied unless he has with him the presence of God, that is a power for good in the world....
UL	206	6	Christ, the One who gave His life for the life of the world, that all who believe in Him may not perish, but have everlasting life, is the true Watchman of the house.... We are kept by the power of God. The presence and grace of Christ is the secret of all life and light.--Letter 79, July 11, 1901, to A. G. Daniells.
------------------------God Is in Every Place, July 12
UL	207	1	Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write: These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works. Revelation 2:1, 2.
UL	207	2	These words fall from the lips of One who cannot lie. The picture reveals eternal vigilance. Christ is in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, walking from church to church, from congregation to congregation, from heart to heart. He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. If the candlesticks were left to the care of human agents, how often the light would flicker and go out. But God has not given His church into the hands of men. Christ, the One who gave His life for the world, that all who believe in Him may not perish, but have everlasting life, is the true Watchman of the house. He is the Warder, faithful and true, of the temple-courts of the Lord. We have reason to thank God that we are not dependent on the presence of earthly priest or minister. We are kept by the power of God. The presence and grace of Christ is the secret of all life and light....
UL	207	3	A holy Watcher notes every work and action of our lives, and weighs every motive that prompts to action. The hand that traced the characters on the wall of Belshazzar's palace is everywhere writing, "God is here." God is in every place. All our words, all our plans, all our secret motives, are weighed in the balances of infinite justice and truth.
UL	207	4	Shall the compassionate, self-sacrificing Saviour find us wanting in tenderness, love, sympathy for those for whom He gave His life? God has granted us gracious opportunities for service. He has provided us with precious talents, and we are answerable to Him for the use we make of them. If we use them wisely, God will call us laborers together with Him. If we cleanse ourselves from every impure, selfish principle, we shall one day hear the benediction, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21).
UL	207	5	Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Hannah, the mother of Samuel, said, "The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed" (1 Samuel 2:3). David says, "Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity" (Psalm 62:9). Isaiah declares, "Thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just" (Isaiah 26:7). And Solomon writes, "All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirit" (Proverbs 16:2).
UL	207	6	There is not a motive in the heart that the Lord does not read. He reads every purpose, every thought.--Manuscript 99, July 12, 1902, "A Holy People."
------------------------Seek Wisdom from Above, July 13
UL	208	1	But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. James 3:17.
UL	208	2	Dear Edson and Emma: ... My greatest desire is that you may be a polished instrument in the hand of God to be used to His glory.
UL	208	3	I hope you will not think you can go forward in your own strength relying upon your own judgment. Seek wisdom from above. Be true, be noble in purpose. Be elevated in life, and may the God of peace sanctify you wholly, soul, body, and spirit. Do not cease searching and studying and getting at the very bottom of things. God will help you in all your earnest efforts, my dear children. If you both consecrate yourselves unselfishly to God and to His work, He will accept you. You will not have the reward here, but you must look for the reward by and by when the "Well done" is spoken by the Master....
UL	208	4	All who enter heaven must be brought to the test and tried as gold in the fire even in this world. Our greatest danger will be in a carnal security. God help you, my children, to never boast in self. Unless you both watch unto prayer, you will fail at last. Never fancy it a brave life to live at ease....
UL	208	5	Be sure, my son, dig deep, lay the foundation sure. Do not ... [be deficient in] thoroughness in your efforts to seek God. Do not seek to cover up or gloss over one sin, but search deep. Guard against moving from impulse, calling it religious zeal. Surrounding influence may affect the feelings of many. The good example of others may have weight for a season, but if the heart is not renewed, if it is not thoroughly converted, it will return naturally to its own element. Watch, my dear children, against self-deception. Selfish ends may want to creep and insinuate themselves into the best actions, but give no place to the devil. Stir up your souls with daily fears of sin. Connect with heaven, and angels will minister unto you....
UL	208	6	Cling to Jesus, your Redeemer. He has given you continual evidences of His love in that He has given you adversity time and again. If we cannot bear these lighter trials, if a little lift of prosperity or adversity discover in us falseness, pride, and selfishness in the heart, if we yield to discouragement and to sin, if the scoffs and frowns of wicked men afflict us and take away our courage and hope, and we faint in the day of adversity, O, how shall we stand when He appeareth? ...
UL	208	7	We pray for you often. We believe the Lord is helping and blessing you. Aim high. Seek for more dignity--that which is of heavenly birth. Mother.--Letter 23, July 13, 1875, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Wonderful Transaction, July 14
UL	209	1	O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? Galatians 3:1.
UL	209	2	The redemption that was wrought out for us by our Lord on the cross of Calvary was to bring us to obedience to the law of God, making it possible, through His righteousness imputed to us, to keep the law of God....
UL	209	3	No man's work, no matter what his position may be, can bear any comparison with this great work for fallen man. The subject is so great, so important. Then why is it that so few pay attention to it? Men act as though they had no souls to save, no heaven to win, no hell to shun. What does it mean?
UL	209	4	Says the apostle Paul, "Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" (Galatians 3:1). The truth was to the apostle so great, so clear, so important, because eternal interests were involved, that he could only ascribe to the bewitching power of Satan the continued impiety and neglect of this great salvation. Now are there not many who are so bewitched with Satan's wiles that they do not obey the truth? that they do not see the advantages of obedience? Who is thus unwise? It is those who have not sought the Lord for help that they may cease to longer transgress His law.
UL	209	5	There is nothing so offensive to God as sin. Instead of making void the law of God by continuing in sin, every truly converted soul will be walking in the path of humble obedience to all of God's commandments. They will search the Scriptures that they might know the truth. Who hath bewitched the impenitent, the transgressor, that sin is chosen rather than obedience? It is the power of Satan that came to Adam and Eve in Eden, the deceiving, bewitching power of the fallen angel....
UL	209	6	How few talk about this great sacrifice of the life of Jesus to save the guilty sinner! If we appreciated this love manifested by God for our souls we would be elevated by taking hold of the merits of Jesus Christ, for without the righteousness of Christ man could not give to God perfect obedience....
UL	209	7	He condescended to this great sacrifice, not that sin in man should become a virtue, not that sin might be made righteousness. He took the steps that man is required to take in conversion. He went forward in baptism, and when He came up out of the water He kneeled down and offered up such a prayer to His Father as Heaven had never heard before.--Manuscript 25, July 14, 1887, "A Peculiar People."
------------------------Sanctify to God the Talent of Speech, July 15
UL	210	1	By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Matthew 12:37.
UL	210	2	We all know what mischief an unruly tongue will do if left to run at will. Those who have been brought together in church capacity have bound themselves by their act in joining the church to keep evil speaking out of their ranks. It is the duty of those in responsible positions in the church to closely guard this matter to see that order and harmony are preserved in the church....
UL	210	3	Never are you to tear one another down, for you are doing Satan's work. Day by day you are to help one another to grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ. In this work you close the door to the enemy. The power of speech is a great talent to bless others or a great curse to cause dissension and strife.
UL	210	4	The one who gives himself up to finding fault with this one and that one is neglecting his own precious soul. And those who allow such a one to carry on his un-Christlike work unrebuked are themselves accountable before God of injury to their brethren....
UL	210	5	Can we expect the blessing of God to rest upon a church when the members are cherishing bitterness against one another?... Those in whose hearts Christ abides will show in their lives the fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness. Those who are controlled by the enemy will be filled with envy, strife, malice, and evil-surmising....
UL	210	6	If one of those of whom these cruel words are spoken were tonight lying cold in death, how different would be the words spoken of him. How often this is the case: While a person is living and could be blessed by kind words, unkind, bitter words are spoken of him, but when his work is ended, and his hands are folded in death, words of love and appreciation are spoken. But the words of love fall upon ears that hear not. They are spoken to hearts that cannot be comforted. It is too late! Oh, if some of these words of love could have been spoken in life, how much better it would have been....
UL	210	7	God desires His people to bring into their homes all the peace and joy and love that it is possible for them to have. The love that they bring into the home, they will bring into the church. My brethren and sisters, you can bring the peace of heaven into the home and into the church, if you will sanctify to God the talent of speech.--Manuscript 26, July 15, 1886, "Evil-speaking," a sermon preached in Oslo, Norway.
------------------------Cast Thy Burden Upon the Lord, July 16
UL	211	1	Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. Psalm 55:22.
UL	211	2	Dear Brother: I have the most tender love for you, and would that it were otherwise with you; that those pursuing you would let you alone. But, my brother, you must bear in mind that these perplexities and annoying things are included in the "all things" that work together for good to those who love God. The Lord's eye is upon you.... If you will keep up good courage, if you will stay your soul upon God, if you will trust your heavenly Father as a child trusts its parent, and deal justly and love mercy, God can and will work with you. Then amid all your trials you will honor God, and His promise is sure, "Them that honour me I will honour" (1 Samuel 2:30).
UL	211	3	Remember that your experience is not the first of the kind. You know the history of Joseph and of Daniel. The Lord did not prevent the wicked plottings of their enemies, but He caused all their devices to work for good to those who kept their faith and loyalty amid trial and conflict.
UL	211	4	The furnace fires are not to ... [destroy], but to refine, ennoble, sanctify. Without these trials we would not feel so much our need of God and His help. We would become proud and self-sufficient. In these trials I see evidence that the Lord's eye is upon you, and that He means to draw your heart to Himself. It is not the whole, but the wounded, who need a physician; those who are pressed almost beyond the point of endurance, who need a Helper. Turn unto the stronghold. Learn the precious lesson, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
UL	211	5	Jesus loves you. The experience which you are having makes me glad, not because you are a sufferer, but because this is evidence to me that the Lord is testing and proving you to see if you will come to Him, to see if you will put your trust in Him, if you will find peace and rest in His love....
UL	211	6	Jesus has not left you to be surprised and amazed at the trials and difficulties you meet. He has told you all about them, and He has also told you that you should not be cast down and oppressed when trials come. You are to look to Jesus, your Redeemer, and be cheerful and rejoice.... We have a living Saviour, who so loved us that He died for us, that through Him we might have hope, strength, and courage, and a seat with Him upon His throne.--Letter 8, July 16, 1886, to Dr. J. H. Kellogg, director of Battle Creek Sanitarium.
------------------------Our Merciful God, July 17
UL	212	1	Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Psalm 103:1, 2.
UL	212	2	I would call your attention to the precious promises in the Word of God. All who are children of God have not the same powers, the same temperaments, the same confidence and boldness. I am glad indeed that our feelings are no evidence that we are not children of God. The enemy will tempt you to think that you have done things that have separated you from God, and that He no longer loves you, but our Lord loves us still, and we may know by the words He has placed on record for just such cases as yours. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (chap. 1:9).
UL	212	3	Now, my dear sister, I have evidence that God loves you, and the precious Saviour, who gave Himself for you, will not thrust you from Him because you are tempted and in your weakness may have been overcome. He loves you still.
UL	212	4	Peter denied his Lord in the hour of trial, but Jesus did not forsake His poor disciple. Although Peter hated himself, the Lord loved him, and after His resurrection, He called him by name and sent him a loving message. O, what a kind, loving, compassionate Saviour we have! And He loves us though we err.
UL	212	5	Now do not worry yourself out of the arms of the dear Saviour, but rest trustingly in faith. He loves you; He cares for you; He is blessing you, and will give you His peace and grace. He is saying to you, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." You may be depressed with bodily infirmities, but that is no evidence that the Lord is not working in your behalf every day. He will pardon you, and that abundantly. Gather to your soul the sweet promises of God. Jesus is our constant, unfailing Friend, and He wants you to trust in Him....
UL	212	6	Jesus sees the guilt of the past, but He speaks pardon; and we must not dishonor Him by doubting His love. This feeling of guiltiness must be laid at the foot of the cross of Calvary. The sense of sinfulness has poisoned the springs of life and of true happiness. Now Jesus says, "Lay it all on Me. I will take your sins. I will give you peace. Banish no longer your self-respect, for I have bought you with the price of My own blood. You are mine. Your weakened will I will strengthen. Your remorse for sin I will remove." Then turn your grateful heart, trembling with uncertainty, to Him, and lay hold on the hope set before you.--Letter 49, July 17, 1898, to a dear sister.
------------------------Bring God's Word Unto the Very Life, July 18
UL	213	1	Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. John 6:53.
UL	213	2	The Lord Jesus is your Redeemer. Will you not appreciate the great sacrifice He has made for you? No one has any justification for departing from Bible principles....
UL	213	3	He who is sensitive to the admonitions of the Lord will work out his own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who is working in him, to will and to do of His good pleasure. The truth of God, abiding in the heart, brings the principles of the law of God into daily practice.
UL	213	4	The man who consents to be deceived is the man in whose heart the truth is not abiding. To be occasionally a Christian, to be occasionally devout, is a great deception. It is living a lie. An occasional glance at the Word of God is not enough. An occasional petition to the throne of grace, a form of words, does not bring a supply of grace for the soul's need. In order for the truth of God to regulate the life, it must be implanted in the heart. It must be brought into the inmost life.
UL	213	5	The day will come when you will see that it does not pay to trifle with the interests of your soul, allowing it to become diseased, so inefficient that Christ declares, "Thou art neither cold nor hot.... So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:15, 16). What does this mean? That He will no longer present the name of such a one to His Father.
UL	213	6	Christ clothed His divinity with humanity, and came to this world to live a life free from spot or stain of sin, that human beings, by laying hold of divinity, might become partakers of the divine nature, thus escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. To those who receive Christ as a personal Saviour, the veil that conceals the glory of God from human discernment is drawn aside. With the eye of faith they behold eternal realities.
UL	213	7	The Word of God is to be brought into the very life. "I am that bread of life," Christ declares. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:48, 53, 54, 63). Study the whole of the sixth chapter of John. Strive for your soul's sake to understand it.--Letter 253, July 18, 1904, to a longtime Adventist in business in Battle Creek, Michigan.
------------------------Christ's Minutemen, July 19
UL	214	1	If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24.
UL	214	2	The natural appetites and inclinations crave earthly pleasures. But those who love Jesus will bring these appetites and inclinations into harmony with His will. They have chosen to be on the Lord's side, and their lives are to stand out in vivid contrast to the self-seeking of worldlings.
UL	214	3	The tempter will come to them with his blandishments and bribes, saying, "All this will I give thee if thou wilt worship me." But they know that he has nothing worth receiving, and they refuse to yield to his temptations. Through the grace of God, they are enabled to keep their purity of principle unsullied. Holy angels are close beside them, and Christ is revealed in their steadfast adherence to the truth. They are Christ's minutemen, bearing, as true witnesses, a decided testimony in favor of His truth. They show that there is a spiritual power that can enable men not to swerve an inch from truth and justice, for all the gifts men can bestow. Such ones, wherever they may be, will be honored of heaven, because they have conformed their lives to the will of God, caring not what sacrifices they are called upon to make.
UL	214	4	Religion is not pretense. All shallowness must be avoided. Christian character is built by receiving and believing in Christ. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). The true Christian carefully cherishes the truth, realizing that it is more precious than gold. He has an argument that is proof against all the assaults of the enemy.
UL	214	5	Nothing but the truth of God can meet the needs of the soul. This truth must be enshrined in the heart, becoming a part of the life. Thus an experience is gained that makes the soul watchful, careful to do nothing that would be out of harmony with the will of Him who died that men and women might have eternal life. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. He knows how to succor those who are tempted.
UL	214	6	Satan is ever watching for a chance to corrupt the soul and spoil the integrity. He who is off his guard will be assailed and overcome. Our safety depends on having Christ as our Saviour. The pardon that He gives brings rest and security to the soul. Let us be sure that we are rooted and grounded in the faith. Bible doctrines are precious to the soul because they contain holy principles.--Letter 249, July 19, 1904, to Brother and Sister Arthur.
------------------------Thy Word is a Lamp, July 20
UL	215	1	Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Isaiah 2:3.
UL	215	2	The Old Testament Scriptures were the lesson book of Israel. When the lawyer came to Christ with the question "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" ... the Saviour said, "What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." Christ said, "Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live" (Luke 10:25-28)....
UL	215	3	If there were not another text in the Bible, this statement carries sufficient light and knowledge and assurance for every soul. The lawyer had answered his own question, but willing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" (Verse 29). Then by the parable of the Good Samaritan, Christ showed who is our neighbor, and gives us an example of the love we should manifest toward those suffering and in need. The priest and Levite, whose duty it was to minister to the needs of the stranger, passed by on the other side.
UL	215	4	At the conclusion of the narrative Christ asked the lawyer, "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise" (Verses 36, 37).
UL	215	5	There are practical lessons in the Word of God.... That Word teaches living, holy principles, which prompt men to do unto others as they would have others do unto them, principles which they are to bring into the daily life here, and carry with them into the school above.... The altar and the plough are the experiences for all who seek eternal life. We know altogether too little of the greatness of the love and compassion of God. Let students put to the stretch the faculties of their mind, that they may comprehend such chapters as the forty-fifth of Isaiah, which should be placed in form, and brought into our schools as valuable studies. They will be better than romance or fable. Why have our schools been so dependent upon books which tell so little of the city we claim to be seeking, whose Builder and Maker is God? ... Heaven is our home. Our citizenship is above, and our lives must not be devoted to a world which is soon to be destroyed. We need the Word of God revealed in living characters. What pure, excellent language is found in the Word of God! What elevating, ennobling principles!--Manuscript 96, July 20, 1899. "The Bible as Our Study Book."
------------------------Judge Not, July 21
UL	216	1	For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Matthew 7:2.
UL	216	2	Last night I was in a sleepless state much of the time. Many representations passed before me. One was a scene in a council meeting where several were present. One man arose and began finding fault with one of his brethren. I looked at the speaker's garments, and saw that they were very undesirable.
UL	216	3	Another person arose, and began to state his grievance against a fellow laborer. His garments were of another pattern, and they, too, were undesirable. Still another, and another, arose, and uttered words of accusation and condemnation regarding the course of others. Everyone had some trouble to speak of, some fault to find with someone else. All were presenting the defects of Christians who are trying to do something in our world; and they declared repeatedly that certain ones were neglecting this or that or the other thing, and so on.
UL	216	4	There was no real order, no polite courtesy, in the meeting. In their anxiety to make others hear, speakers crowded in while others were still talking. Voices were raised, in an effort to make all hear above the din of confusion....
UL	216	5	After many had spoken, One of authority appeared, and repeated the words: "Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Matthew 7:1).... Christ Himself was present. An expression of painfulness came over His countenance as one after another would come forward, with uncouth dress, to expatiate upon the faults of various members of the church.
UL	216	6	Finally the heavenly Visitant arose. So intent were those present on criticizing their brethren, that it was with reluctance that they gave Him opportunity to speak. He declared that the spirit of criticism, of judging one another, was a source of weakness in the church today. Things are spoken that should never find utterance. Everyone who by word of mouth places an obstruction in the way of a fellow Christian has an account to settle with God.
UL	216	7	With earnest solemnity the Speaker declared: "The church is made of many minds, each of whom has an individuality. I gave My life in order that men and women, by divine grace, might blend in revealing a perfect pattern of My character, while at the same time retaining their individuality. No one has the right to destroy or submerge the individuality of any other human mind, by uttering words of criticism and faultfinding and condemnation."--Manuscript 109, July 21, 1906, "Love Toward God and Man."
------------------------Christ is our Pattern, July 22
UL	217	1	Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12.
UL	217	2	To follow Christ is not freedom from conflict. It is not child's play. It is not spiritual idleness. All the enjoyment in Christ's service means sacred obligations in meeting oft stern conflicts. To follow Christ means stern battles, active labor, warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Our enjoyment is the victories gained for Christ in earnest, hard warfare. Think of this.
UL	217	3	"We are labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9). Christ engaged in the great work for which He lived and died. We are to be instant in season and out of season. And why? "For ye are bought with a price," and have enlisted under the banner of Prince Emmanuel. We are enlisted for labor, "not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life" (John 6:27). We are to work out our own salvation with fear and with trembling. We are not our own. We are bought with a price, to glorify God with our bodies and spirits, which are His. A work is to be done. There is a faithful work to do in His vineyard. And to every man is given his work. If we are privileged with the bread of life, we must work in the Lord's vineyard. A charge comes to us to deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow Christ. We are to run the race set before us with persevering earnestness. This oft requires energetic movements. We cannot be idlers. We are urged, "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life." ...
UL	217	4	We must keep constantly before the ones who are pledged to the service of Christ that it means diligence. It means to be faithful workers, to do all possible to win souls to Christ. It is a constant watchfulness to be faithful unto death, to fight the good fight of faith until the warfare is ended and as overcomers we shall receive the crown of life.
UL	217	5	This means much more than we take in. Christ is our example. The Christian warfare is not a life of indulgence to eat and drink and dress as self-indulgent worldlings. The Lord Jesus came in human nature to our world to give His precious life as an example of what our life should be. He is the specimen, not of spiritual indulgence, but of a life constantly before us of self-denial, self-sacrifice. We have the correct view that Christ our Pattern came to give us. There is before us the Prince of heaven, the Son of God. He laid aside the royal crown and the princely robe and came to take His position in our world as a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. How few take it in!--Manuscript 156, July 22, 1907, "Diary Fragments."
------------------------Christian Perfection, July 23
UL	218	1	Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Jude 1:24.
UL	218	2	There is a real work to be wrought in us. Constantly we must submit our will to God's will, our way to God's way. Our peculiar ideas will strive constantly for the supremacy, but we must make God all and in all. We are not free from the failings of humanity, but we must constantly strive to be free from these failings, not to be perfect in our own eyes, but perfect in every good work. We must not dwell on the dark side. Our souls must not rest in self, but in the One who is all and in all.
UL	218	3	By beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are actually to be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. We expect too little, and we receive according to our faith. We are not to cling to our own ways, our own plans, our own ideas; we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Besetting sins are to be conquered, and evil habits overcome. Wrong dispositions and feelings are to be rooted out, and holy tempers and emotions begotten in us by the Spirit of God.
UL	218	4	This the Word of God explicitly teaches, but the Lord cannot work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure unless we crucify self, with the affections and lusts, at every step. If we try to work in our own way, we shall grievously fail.... We have a great work to do, and if we are laborers together with God, the ministering angels will cooperate with us in the work.... Then let us lay hold of this mighty power by living faith, praying and believing, trusting and working. Then God will do that which only God can do....
UL	218	5	Self is the most difficult thing we have to manage. In laying off burdens, let us not forget to lay self at the feet of Christ. Hand yourself over to Jesus, to be molded and fashioned by Him, that you may be made vessels unto honor. Your temptations, your ideas, your feelings, must all be laid at the foot of the cross. Then the soul is ready to listen to words of divine instruction. Jesus will give you to drink of the water which flows from the river of God. Under the softening and subduing influence of His Spirit your coldness and listlessness will disappear. Christ will be in you a well of water, springing up into everlasting life....
UL	218	6	Let the sanctifying power of truth be expressed in your life and revealed in your character. Let Christ mold you, as clay is molded in the hands of the potter.--Letter 57, July 23, 1887, to J. H. Durland and A. A. John, workers in England.
------------------------Forgiveness Full and Free, July 24
UL	219	1	But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. Psalm 130:4, 5.
UL	219	2	There have been sins among us as among ancient Israel, but thank God we have had an open door which no man can shut. Men may say, "I forgive all the injuries you have done to me," but their forgiveness would not blot out one sin. But the Voice sounding from Calvary--"My son, my daughter, thy sins be forgiven thee"--is all-efficacious. That word alone has power and awakens the gratitude in the grateful heart. We have a Mediator. There is but one channel of forgiveness and that channel is ever open, and through that channel a rich flood of divine mercy and forgiveness comes pouring down to us....
UL	219	3	Many have expressed wonder that God demanded so many slain victims in sacrificial offerings of the Jews, but it was to rivet in their minds the great and solemn truth that without shedding of blood there was no remission of sins. A lesson was embodied in every sacrifice, impressed in every ceremony, solemnly preached by their priests in holy office and inculcated by God Himself--this great truth that through the blood of Christ alone there is forgiveness of sins....
UL	219	4	I wish I could present this matter before our people just as I view it--the great offering made in behalf of man. Justice asked for the sufferings of a man. Christ, equal with God, gave the sufferings of a God. He needed no atonement Himself. It was for man--all for man.... His depth of agony was proportionate to the dignity and grandeur of His character. Never shall we see and comprehend the intense anguish of the sufferings of the spotless Lamb of God until we feel how deep is the pit from which we have been delivered, how grievous the sin of which humanity is guilty, and by faith grasp the full and entire pardon.
UL	219	5	Here is where thousands are failing. They do not really believe that Jesus pardons them individually. They fail to take God at His word. He has assured us that He is faithful that hath promised to forgive us and be just to His own law. His mercy is not wanting in anything. Were there one defective link in the chain, then we are hopelessly ruined in our sins.... There is not one flaw in it, not one missing link. Oh, precious redemption! Why do we not bring this great truth more fully into our lives? How broad it is, that God for Christ's sake forgives us--me, even me--the moment we ask Him to, in living faith, believing that He is fully able to do this.--Letter 85, July 24, 1886, to Uriah Smith, editor of the Review and Herald.
------------------------No Peace at Any Price, July 25
UL	220	1	Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. Matthew 10:34.
UL	220	2	The peace that Christ calls His peace, and which He bequeathed to His disciples, is not a peace which prevents all divisions; but it is a peace which is given and enjoyed in the midst of divisions. The peace that the faithful defender of the cause of Christ has is the consciousness that he is doing the will of God and reflecting His glory in good works. It is an internal rather than an external peace. Without are wars and fightings through the opposition of avowed enemies, and the coldness and suspicion of those even who claim to be friends.
UL	220	3	Christ enjoins upon His followers to "love your enemies, ... do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). He would have us love those who oppress us and do us harm. We must not express in words and acts the spirit they manifest, but improve every opportunity to do them good.
UL	220	4	But while we are required to be Christlike toward those who are our enemies, we must not, in order to have peace, cover up the faults of those we see in error. Jesus, the world's Redeemer, never purchased peace by covering iniquity, or by anything like compromise. Though His heart was constantly overflowing with love for the whole human race, He was never indulgent to their sins. He was too much their friend to remain silent while they were pursuing a course which would ruin their souls--the souls He had purchased with His own blood. He was a stern reprover of all vice, and His peace was the consciousness of having done the will of His Father, rather than a condition of things that existed as the result of having done His duty.
UL	220	5	He labored that man should be true to himself in being all that God would have him, and true to his higher and eternal interest. Living in a world marred and seared with the curse brought upon it by disobedience, he [man] could not be at peace with it unless he left it unwarned, uninstructed, and unrebuked. This would be to purchase peace at the neglect of duty.
UL	220	6	Everyone who loves Jesus and the souls for whom He died will follow after the things that make for peace. But His followers are to take special care lest in their efforts to prevent discord, the truth is surrendered, lest in warding off divisions, they make a sacrifice of its principles. True brotherhood can never be maintained by compromising principle. As surely as Christians approach the Christlike model, ... so surely will they experience the strength and venom of that old serpent the devil.--Manuscript 23b, July 25, 1896, "How to Secure Peace."
------------------------Obedience is the Price, July 26
UL	221	1	Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. Luke 10:27.
UL	221	2	The question which the lawyer put to Christ was one of vital consequence. The Pharisees who had prompted the lawyer to ask this question were expecting the Lord Jesus to answer it in such a way that they could find something against Him whereby they might accuse and condemn Him before the people. The self-possession of Christ, the wisdom and authority by which He spake, was something they could not interpret.
UL	221	3	When this question was asked by the lawyer, Christ knew that the suggestion came from His bitterest enemies, who were setting a trap to catch Him in His words. The Lord Jesus responded to the question by placing the burden upon the lawyer to answer his own question before that crowd. "What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live" (Luke 10:26-28). Obedience to the commandments of God is the price of eternal life.
UL	221	4	There is a very broad and deep work to be accomplished in fallen humanity. This is the true interpretation of genuine conversion. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The answer to this question, as given by the lawyer, comprehends the entire duty of man, who is seeking eternal life. The lawyer was unable to evade the question so directly and pointedly expressed as to the conditions of eternal life. He understood its bearings, and the necessity of answering the demands of the law in loving God supremely, and his neighbor as himself. He knew he had not done either of these, and the conviction of his neglect to obey the first four commandments and the last six commandments plainly specified in the words of the holy oracles of God was impressed by the Holy Spirit upon his heart. He saw himself weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found wanting. He did not serve God supremely, because he had not loved Him supremely, with his whole heart, with all his soul, and all his strength, and with all his mind. Lacking decidedly in this requirement of Jehovah's law, he failed decidedly to love his neighbor as himself.
UL	221	5	Thus, before the multitude he himself had given in concise words the gospel conditions of eternal life for every member of the human family, who are standing before God today.--Manuscript 45, July 26, 1900, "What Is the Chaff to Wheat?"
------------------------Hope Thou in God, July 27
UL	222	1	Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Psalm 42:5.
UL	222	2	Dear Husband: I received your telegram....
UL	222	3	Satan will not sift the chaff, because he gains nothing in this. He sifts the wheat. The devil will not try and tempt and persecute those whom he is sure of, because [they are] living in known transgression of the law of God. Those who have enlisted in the army of the Lord standing under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel, Satan will seek to harass and destroy. Christians will meet and have many and severe conflicts with the wily foe, who is merciless. He will bring them into the most difficult places and then exult in their distress. But, thank God, Jesus lives to make intercession for every one of us. Our safety is in committing ourselves to God and resting by faith in His merits who has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5).
UL	222	4	I rejoice that Jesus has a firm hold of us. Our grasp is feeble and easily broken, but our safety depends upon the firm hold Jesus has upon us. I rejoice in Jesus today. We have, my husband, walked for more than thirty years side by side in the trials and conflicts of life amid temptations and the buffetings of Satan, his arrows aimed at us to wound and destroy; but Jesus has been our defense. Satan has been repulsed. The Spirit of the Lord has lifted up a standard for us against the enemy. Our sun is westering, but it will not set in darkness. Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us. We will in the latter days of our pilgrimage repose in God and wait upon Him. If we walk with God, our faith will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day, and the reward of the faithful will be ours at last.
UL	222	5	My spirit at times is triumphant in God. I see in prospect just before us the eternal weight of glory. We have not earned it. Oh, no, Jesus earned it for us and it is a free gift, not for any righteousness and goodness of our own. Let us, in the few probationary hours left us, walk humbly with God and do the work He has committed to our hands with fidelity.
UL	222	6	I am glad you are in the grand old mountains [of Colorado]. I mean to be there soon. To be thus brought near to God through His created works is refreshing and inspiring.... While viewing the grand works of God's creation, we may walk with God. We may talk with Him. To have God as our companion, as our guest, will be the most exalted honor that heaven can bestow upon us.
UL	222	7	May the Lord bless you all is the prayer of your Ellen.--Letter 42, July 27, 1878, to James White, General Conference president.
------------------------Christ's Death Brings Life, July 28
UL	223	1	Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10.
UL	223	2	Satan had declared to his synagogue that not a single human soul would maintain his loyalty to God's commandments. One soul saved would prove this statement to be false. One soul saved would demonstrate the righteousness of God's government. Created in the image of God, man must not be left for Satan to rule and ruin. Christ came to this earth, and by a life of obedience showed that man could obey. He canceled the guilt resting upon the sinner. That the sinner might stand before God clothed with His robe of righteousness, He clothed Himself with the robe of sorrow.
UL	223	3	Who can fathom the suffering of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, as He felt to its fullest extent the weight of the sin of the world? So keenly did He feel the sinfulness of sin that for a moment the cup trembled in His hand, and all heaven heard the agonizing cry, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matthew 26:39). "Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). The omnipotent God suffered with His Son.
UL	223	4	Stand before the cross of Calvary, and learn from it the cost of redemption. With breaking heart the holy Sufferer upon the cross of Calvary looks up to God, and cries, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). The angels of heaven sympathized with their loved Commander. Gladly would they have broken their ranks and gone to His assistance. But this was not God's plan. Our Saviour trod the wine press alone, and of the people there was none with Him.
UL	223	5	The plan of redemption was laid to bring salvation within reach of sinners. Christ has carried out His purpose. His death has brought eternal life to all who will accept Him as a personal Saviour. But many, many of those He died to save refuse to return their loyalty. The world is fast becoming as it was before the Flood....
UL	223	6	Christ declares, "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24:37-39).
UL	223	7	Let not those who have had great light fold their hands, content to do nothing.--Manuscript 66, July 28, 1901, "Fragments: Work in the South."
------------------------Eating the Leaves of the Tree of Life, July 29
UL	224	1	In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2.
UL	224	2	Must we wait until we are translated before we eat of the leaves of the tree of life? He who receives into his heart the words of Christ knows what it means to eat the leaves of the tree of life....
UL	224	3	The knowledge that comes from God is the bread of life. It is the leaves of the tree of life which are for the healing of the nations. The current of spiritual life thrills the soul as the words of Christ are believed and practiced. Thus it is that we are made one with Christ. The experience that was weak and feeble becomes strong. It is eternal life to us if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.
UL	224	4	All truth is to be received as the life of Jesus. Truth cleanses us from all impurity, and prepares the soul for Christ's presence. Christ is formed within, the hope of glory....
UL	224	5	It is essential that those who pledge themselves to keep God's commandments have an intelligent knowledge of the Scriptures. Thus we learn to deny self and to be strictly honest with God in using His goods. It was in order that we might understand the divine will that God gave us the Bible. We cannot obey His commandments until we know what these commandments are.
UL	224	6	Parents are without excuse if they fail to obtain a clear understanding of God's will, that they may obey the laws of His kingdom. Only thus can they lead their children to heaven. My brethren and sisters, it is your duty to understand God's requirements. How can you educate your children in the things of God unless you first know yourselves what is right and what is wrong, unless you realize that obedience means eternal life and disobedience eternal death?
UL	224	7	We must make it our lifework to understand the will of God. Only as we do this can we train our children aright. Your every word and action is to be in accordance with the will of God, irrespective of the opinions and practices of those who refuse to obey God....
UL	224	8	"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psalm 19:7). The Lord has kept back nothing that is necessary for the enlightenment of His children. No one can plead in excuse for transgression that he was left in ignorance, that the way to heaven was not clearly marked out. We have not been left to serve God in a vague, uncertain way.--Manuscript 103, July 29, 1902, "Doing God's Will."
------------------------Love as Brethren, July 30
UL	225	1	As touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. 1 Thessalonians 4:9.
UL	225	2	Truth, precious truth, is to sanctify, subdue, refine, elevate, and finally to exalt us to a seat at the right hand of the Majesty of heaven. Shall we grow feeble in spiritual power for want of exercise? Shall we go day after day without a marked and clear experience in the religious life because we permit our minds to be absorbed in worldly business?
UL	225	3	Here, my dear son [Edson], is your danger. Here are the wiles of Satan entangling you. The very powers or organs that you cultivate become strong, and you are imperceptibly placing yourself where you will be in a position unfitted to engage in the work of God. The time that you should be giving yourself earnestly to the work, you are really unfitting yourself for the work God would honor you to do in His cause. One pretext after another has arisen to your mind to excuse you from taking hold of the work which you could do at once while you are waiting till this object is gained or that project is accomplished. It is not the great work you are fitted to do now. But it is the little duties connected with the work of God, the small responsibilities borne with humbleness and fidelity, that will qualify you for higher responsibilities, more important trusts. Purity of motives, unselfish interest, you must cultivate.
UL	225	4	Press close to your younger brother, Willie. Let no emulation or strife separate your heart and affections from him. Let no selfish feelings or jealousy find a place in your heart. Empty it of all these things. Cultivate love, confidence, and trust. Live up to the Bible standard. Carry out the light God has given you. Show in kindly acts and words and unselfish acts your true interest and affection for Willie. All the advances you make will be reflected back on you. I shall never be satisfied until I see you both, firmly and strongly, lovingly, united in the closest bonds of brotherly love. God help you to work to this end. You are older than Willie and you should seek in every way to help him and bind him to your heart. Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.
UL	225	5	Religion, my son, is not as some take it, head work, theory. It must be practically carried out in all the byways and broadways of life. It must regulate the life as well as to convince the mind. It alone must purify the heart. God requires everyone who professes His name to be good citizens and that the life of strict integrity and pure devotion should leave a bright light to the world.--Letter 35, July 30, 1876, to "Dear Children." Edson had just turned 27; Willie was 21.
------------------------I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes, July 31
UL	226	1	I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. Psalm 121:1.
UL	226	2	Dear Children, Edson and Emma: Here I am at Mr. Fair's, husband to your cousin, Addie Clough Fair, looking out and upward upon mountains of perpendicular rocks estimated at five hundred feet high....
UL	226	3	Mr. Walling took us up, up, up the mountains. We feared sometimes that we should never reach the top. We had a commanding view of the country. We could look down upon Black Hawk and Central, and see all there was of both cities....
UL	226	4	The mountain scenery of Colorado can never be described so that the imagination can gather distinct and correct ideas of this country. It is wonderful! It is marvelous! The scenery of the grand old mountains, some bald and others covered with trees! Instinctively the mind is awed and deep feelings of reverence bow the soul in humiliation as the imagination gathers a sense of the power of the Infinite. I would not be deprived of the privilege of seeing what I have of the mountain scenery of Colorado for [a] considerable [sum]....
UL	226	5	I walked miles yesterday up the steep mountains and I did not get to rest until past eleven o'clock. But this morning I am up at five, bright and active. This trip among the mountains is doing much for my health. None of you were aware of my miserable state of health. I knew it would not make home better to complain when I left Battle Creek.
UL	226	6	Father is better, we are sure, but he has times of shortness of breath and faintness or giddiness. He is careful of his diet....
UL	226	7	Mr. Walling is very earnest that we should go with him across the snowy mountain range to what is called the Park, on the other side of the snowy range.... We should have to ride on ponies over the mountains. Our provisions for three or four weeks would be taken in a wagon. All of us would have to ride on the ponies over the mountains while two horses would draw the provisions and blankets for lodging. When there, over the mountains, we are away from all settlements and must carry everything along that we need....
UL	226	8	Be sure, my children, to keep your souls free in the Lord, and then He will lead you. The meek will He guide in judgment; the meek will He teach His way.
UL	226	9	Your father is perfectly cheerful and happy. We had precious seasons of prayer before God in the groves and mountains in behalf of ourselves and you and the cause and work of God at Battle Creek.--Letter 12, July 31, 1872, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Let the Holy Spirit Control, August 1
UL	227	1	But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22, 23.
UL	227	2	The question of religious liberty needs to be clearly comprehended by our people in more ways than one. With outstretched arms men are seeking to steady the ark, and the anger of the Lord is kindled against them because they think that their position entitles them to say what the Lord's servants shall do and what they shall not do....
UL	227	3	Moses was specially chosen to be the visible leader of the children of Israel. Through long years of discipline he learned the lesson of humility, and he became a man whom God could teach and guide. He endured as seeing Him who is invisible. God trusted him--a daily learner in the school of Christ--with the leadership of the host of Israel. God talked with him face to face, as a man talketh with his friend. He was the meekest of all men. He did not seek to control the Holy Spirit, but was himself controlled by the Spirit....
UL	227	4	Every man has an individuality of his own, which is not to be submerged in any other human being. The life of each one must be hid with Christ in God. Men are under God's control, not under the control of weak, erring human beings. They are to be left free to be guided by the Holy Spirit, not by the fitful, perverse spirit of unsanctified men....
UL	227	5	Let God be recognized as the supreme Ruler of His heritage. Let every man place himself under His control. Let Him be recognized in all our assemblies, in every business meeting, every council, every committee. He sees all that is done, and hears all that is said.
UL	227	6	"Thou God seest me" (Genesis 16:13). Let these words be kept ever in mind. They will be a safeguard against imprudent, passionate speeches, against all desire to domineer. They will repress words that should never be spoken, and resolutions that men have no right to make--resolutions that restrict the liberty of human beings....
UL	227	7	God calls upon men to act under His supervision, to accept His standard, to take all their decisions and plans to Him for approval. His holiness, His justice, is to keep them from unprincipled actions....
UL	227	8	"Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry.... The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord" (Psalm 146:5-10).--Manuscript 51, August 1, 1895, "God to Control His Heritage."
------------------------Enoch Pleased God, August 2
UL	228	1	And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Genesis 5:24.
UL	228	2	God had a church when Adam and Eve and Abel accepted and hailed with joy the good news that Jesus was their Redeemer. These realized as fully then as we realize now the promise of the presence of God in their midst. Wherever Enoch found one or two who were willing to hear the message he had for them, Jesus joined with them in their worship of God. In Enoch's day there were some among the wicked inhabitants of earth who believed. The Lord never yet has left His faithful few without His presence nor the world without a witness.
UL	228	3	Enoch was a public teacher of the truth in the age in which he lived. He taught the truth; he lived the truth; and the character of the teacher who walked with God was in every way harmonious with the greatness and sacredness of his mission. Enoch was a prophet who spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. He was a light amid the moral darkness, a pattern man, a man who walked with God, being obedient to God's law--that law which Satan had refused to obey, which Adam had transgressed, which Abel obeyed, and because of his obedience was murdered. And now God would demonstrate to the universe the falsity of Satan's charge that man cannot keep God's law. He would demonstrate that though man had sinned, he could so relate himself to God that he would have the mind and spirit of God and would be a representative symbol of Christ. This holy man was selected of God to denounce the wickedness of the world, and to evidence to the world that it is possible for men to keep all the law of God....
UL	228	4	Enoch not only meditated and prayed, and put on the armor of watchfulness, but he came forth from his pleadings with God to plead with his fellow men. He did not mask the truth to find favor with unbelievers, thus neglecting their souls. This close connection with God gave him courage to work the works of God. Enoch walked with God and "had the testimony that his ways pleased God." This is the privilege of every believer today. It is man dwelling with God, and God taking up His abode with man. "I in them, and thou in me," says Jesus. To walk with God and have the witness that their ways please Him is an experience not to be confined to Enoch, to Elijah, to patriarchs, to prophets, to apostles, and to martyrs. It is not only the privilege but the duty of every follower of Christ to have Jesus enshrined in the heart, to carry Him with them in their lives; and they will indeed be fruit-bearing trees.--Manuscript 43, August 2, 1900, "The Prophet Enoch."
------------------------The Great Medical Missionary, August 3
UL	229	1	He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 1 John 2:6.
UL	229	2	The great Medical Missionary was a wonderful healer. He worked the most convincing miracles. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He spoke only the truth. Continually there fell from His lips the precious words that bring spiritual strength to those who make them a part of the daily life. Spiritually we are built up from the food that we give the mind.
UL	229	3	It is our privilege to receive the bread of life from the great Medical Missionary, who came to give life to the world. Truth, pure, refining, ennobling truth, came from His very heart.... His heart was constantly burning with the love that brought Him from heaven to our world. His goodness and His power enabled Him to reveal in His life the truth that He came to this earth to bring to the fallen race. In every word, in every act, He manifested the love of God, cheering and encouraging the downcast and distressed. In heavenly wisdom He asserted His true majesty by bending all things to the present and future happiness of human beings. He came to teach men and women how to live, here below, the life of which He gave them an example--the life that will make them fit to enter the abodes of bliss.
UL	229	4	In His breast, mercy may be said to have held her court. Hear His words of compassion, spoken to relieve the sin-sick culprit, "Thy sins be forgiven thee" (Matthew 9:3).... He brought healing to soul and body. In His life was enshrouded the love, the pity, the compassion, the joy, of heaven. Thousands were healed by His word, "I will; be thou whole." By His work, His glory was so plainly revealed that demons were pained, and when compelled to cease tormenting human beings, confessed Christ to be the Holy One of God.
UL	229	5	This work Christ did to show men that He was the tabernacle of witness; that the Word had been made flesh. In the human encampment, amongst the erring and sinful, Christ pitched His tent. He lived close to the poor and the lowly, yet He was the King of glory. He would make all familiar with His character, that we might be partakers of the divine nature, and thus become one with Him in faith and practice. He declares, "All things are delivered unto me of my Father" (chap. 11:27). "All things that the Father hath are mine" (John 16:15). "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18). Why was this wonderful transfer made but that Christ might be the world's Redeemer, the incarnate Saviour! ... The great Teacher, while on this earth, gave His whole life to teach us how to work as devoted, consecrated missionaries for God.--Letter 281, August 3, 1904, to Dr. W. H. Riley.
------------------------True Soldiers of Christ, August 4
UL	230	1	But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22.
UL	230	2	In order to be true soldiers of Jesus Christ we must meet the requirements of His Word as loyal subjects of the heavenly kingdom.... Those who claim to believe the truth must appreciate the great warfare before us and what is comprehended in being a faithful soldier of Jesus Christ.... The Saviour's army invites voluntary enlistment. There must be a complete surrender of the passions, will, and ways to the will of the Master. Our work is to obey the orders of the mighty General of armies. A strong and active bodily organization is to be maintained. The senses must be enlightened as to perfect obedience; duties are to be done which cannot always be seen as essential; but now comes in the necessity of faith in a higher wisdom and power than your own. Have faith in God, unshaken faith in the skill and ability and fidelity of your Commander, who knows the plan of the battle.
UL	230	3	The Lord Jesus does not deceive His soldiers. He opens before them the conflict, presents the plan of the battle, points out the hazardous undertaking, and exhorts everyone to count the cost. He does not leave them in ignorance. He tells everyone before enlistment to count the cost before they enlist as soldiers in His army, for a soldier's life is a life of duty.
UL	230	4	To every man in service is given his work, and no excuse can be accepted why that God-given work is not done. Some are negligent and indolent. Some are slothful servants like the man who had one talent entrusted to use and improve, but ... buried it in the earth and made no use of it. When his talent was called for, to be rendered back to God, the Owner, he had only the one unused talent. No one was improved by his entrusted gift. The least he could have done was to use it to the best of his ability, but he handed it back with a complaint against God: "I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine" (Matthew 25:24, 25). The Lord repeated His words, "Thou knewest." The fact was he had not a knowledge of God and His works and His ways and His mercy and His kindness in giving an opportunity to improve the entrusted gift. The word is, "Take ... the talent from him, and give it unto him that hath ten talents. For unto everyone that hath shall be given, ... but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath" (Verses 28, 29).--Manuscript 98, August 4, 1900, "True Soldiers of Christ."
------------------------False Sanctification, August 5
UL	231	1	Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14.
UL	231	2	Dear Sister _____: I will not delay writing you that which the Lord brings to my mind. Your case was presented to me two years ago. I then saw you were a deceived woman. You thought you had clear light from God, but it was darkness. You have had views and an experience peculiar to yourself and not in harmony with the people whom God is leading....
UL	231	3	There is no such thing as an instantaneous sanctification. It is an every-day work. Says Paul, "I die daily" (1 Corinthians 15:31). He received a conversion daily to God. As the truth and Spirit of God revealed to him the defects in his character, he put away his wrong, died to self, and cleansed himself "from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1)....
UL	231	4	Your peculiar ideas have had so powerful a control upon your mind [that] you could not dwell upon anything else. In meeting, you thought it your special duty to urge your opinions. You have taken your position above the church as though you were exalted and in the light and [as though] they must come up to your position, receive your views. You are fanatical; you have not a healthy imagination. Your influence will do harm and only harm, unless you become humble and teachable....
UL	231	5	Satan is most successful when he can cover up minds in this kind of pious, sanctified consecration which has no part in the sanctification brought to view in the Word of God. It is, in short, a spurious article, that article [that] you possess. You received your views of sanctification from those who claim to be sanctified and holy, who have no love for the law of God and who have no love for His appearing. You received your light from a corrupt source; the stream that came from a corrupt fountain is impure.
UL	231	6	As I write to you, your case is more plain and clear before me. You have allowed your views of sanctification to unite you to those who were grossly corrupt. You have not obeyed the Word of God and abstained from all appearance of evil. Satan has desired your soul that he might sift you as wheat. Your "holy, sanctified union" (as you have termed it) with individuals has been a delusion of Satan....
UL	231	7	You have been led through your perverse ideas of sanctification to depart from the Word of God. You have a work to do to break all in pieces and give up your experience in the past few years and become as a little child and be converted, be humble and teachable that God may lead you.--Letter 10, August 5, 1870, to a church member in New York State.
------------------------Written for Our Admonition, August 6
UL	232	1	Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. Matthew 21:33.
UL	232	2	This parable is of great importance to all who are entrusted with responsibilities in the Lord's service. God selected a people to be educated by Christ. He brought them into the wilderness to be trained for His service, and there gave them the highest code of morality--His holy law. To them was committed God's lesson book, the Old Testament Scriptures. Enshrouded in the pillar of cloud Christ led them in their wilderness wandering. By His own power He transplanted the wild vine from Egypt to His vineyard. Well might God ask, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done?" (Isaiah 5:4).
UL	232	3	It is impossible to enumerate the advantages the Lord prepared for the world in making the Jewish nation the repository of His rich treasures of knowledge. They were the subjects of His special favor. As a people who knew and worshiped the true God, they were to communicate the principles of His kingdom. They were instructed by the Lord. He withheld from them nothing favorable to the formation of characters which would make them fit representatives of His kingdom. Their feasts, the Passover, the Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, and the ceremonies attending these gatherings, were to proclaim the truths that God had entrusted to His people. At these gatherings the people were to show gladness and joy, expressing their thanksgiving for their privileges and the gracious treatment of their Lord. Thus they were to show to a world that knew not God that the Lord does not forsake those who trust in Him. With joyful voices they were to sing, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God" (Psalm 43:5)....
UL	232	4	The history of the children of Israel is written for our admonition and instruction upon whom the ends of the world are come. Those who would stand firm in the faith in these last days, and finally gain an entrance into the heavenly Canaan, must listen to the words of warning spoken by Jesus Christ to the Israelites. These lessons were given to the church in the wilderness to be studied and heeded by God's people throughout their generations forever. The experience of the people of God in the wilderness will be the experience of His people in this age. Truth is a safeguard in all time to those who will hold fast the faith once delivered to the saints.--Manuscript 110, August 6, 1899, "The Unfaithful Husbandmen."
------------------------Only One Light to Illuminate the Way, August 7
UL	233	1	But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Proverbs 4:18.
UL	233	2	Christ's love in the heart, revealing through the life its wondrous power--this is the greatest miracle that can be performed before a fallen, quarreling world. Let us try to work this miracle, not in our own power, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose we are and whom we serve. Let us put on Christ, and the miracle-working power of His grace will be so plainly revealed in the transformation of character that the world will be convinced that God has sent His Son into the world to make men as angels in character and life.
UL	233	3	Those who truly believe in Christ sit together with Him in heavenly places. Let us accept the badge of Christianity. This is not an outward sign, not the wearing of a cross or a crown, but it is something that reveals the union of man with God. Let us "put off the old man with his deeds; and ... put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Colossians 3:9, 10). The beauty of holiness is revealed as Christians draw near together, blending in Christlike love.
UL	233	4	"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching" (Hebrews 10:19-25).
UL	233	5	There is only one true religion, only one way to heaven; only one light to illuminate the way as the pilgrims press on. As we follow on to know the Lord, we shall acknowledge at every step that Christ is the Light of the world, that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and we shall find that the path that He bids us follow is "as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18)....
UL	233	6	The Lord is good and greatly to be praised.... How blest, how doubly blest, is the home in which father, mother, and children are consecrated to the service of Christ.--Letter 126, August 7, 1902, to an evangelist in New York City.
------------------------What God Condemns Is Not Safe, August 8
UL	234	1	Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. Jeremiah 7:23.
UL	234	2	The Lord desires everyone to work for his own spiritual and eternal good. This can only be done as we obey the lessons Christ has given. If we gain the eternal reward, we must follow the example of Christ, our Pattern, who did good and only good with the Lord's entrusted talents. He cheerfully gave up His life to ransom a wicked, apostate race. But today selfishness, worldliness, pride, and self-indulgence are constantly consuming the means entrusted to those who claim to be Christians. They are misappropriating the money that the Lord requires them to use to bring many sons and daughters to Him.
UL	234	3	When Christians work as the Head of the church worked, they will not be constantly contriving how they can use the Lord's money for their own pleasure. Is it not honor enough for them to be cooperating with the world's Redeemer? Worldly schemes, worldly investments, made to please and glorify self, bring no returns worth the having. God condemns them, and what God condemns is not safe for any living soul to practice.
UL	234	4	"Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Romans 12:2). Here is an experience to be gained that will not prove disappointing. The mighty God, who through Jesus Christ created man, calls upon every soul to prove Him, and see what this will bring to all who do this. They are tested and tried, and in conformity to the will of God, they realize what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of their Creator.
UL	234	5	Worldly conformity is hindered and made impossible through obedience to the plain, simple "Thus saith the Lord." Gospel sanctification and transformation of soul, body, and spirit sends the feet of all such through the strait gate into the narrow way, the path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. In cooperation with God, they work as Christ worked for the souls and bodies of their fellow men....
UL	234	6	The Lord calls upon you ... to look at these things with eyes enlightened not by worldly advisers, but by His Spirit. Take the Word as it reads.... Place yourself where the riches of the glory of heaven shall shine before you and behind you and on every side of you, because you are all light in the Lord.--Letter 110, August 8, 1899, to a woman of means.
------------------------Follow Christ's Example of Sacrifice, August 9
UL	235	1	Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:29.
UL	235	2	Those who would at last be received into heaven as members of the royal family must here give themselves, body, soul, and spirit, to the service of Him who paid the price of their redemption. All that we have and are belongs to the Lord. "Ye are not your own," the apostle declares. "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20)....
UL	235	3	Have you consecrated yourself wholly to the Lord? Can He use you as a vessel unto honor? Are you faithfully acting your part in His cause? To every man God has given his work. He expects every believer to cooperate with Him in the work of soul-saving. When His cause is suffering for means, how can anyone set a price on his services, refusing to take up the cross daily, and practice self-denial for Christ's sake?
UL	235	4	The fulfillment of the promise that we shall be joint-heirs with Christ rests upon our willingness to deny self. When Christ takes possession of His kingdom, it will be those who on this earth have followed Him in self-denial and sacrifice who will receive the reward of everlasting life.
UL	235	5	Christ's call to sacrifice and unreserved surrender means crucifixion of self. In order to obey this call, we must have unquestioning faith in Him as the perfect Example, and we must have a clear realization that we are to represent Him to the world. Those who work for Christ are to work in His lines. They are to live His life. His call to unreserved surrender is to be to them supreme. They are to allow no earthly tie or interest to prevent them from giving Him the homage of their hearts and the service of their lives. Earnestly and untiringly they are to labor with God to save perishing souls from the power of the tempter.
UL	235	6	Those who are thus connected with Christ learn constantly of Him, passing through the successive stages of progress in Christian experience. Difficulty and perplexity come to them, that they may learn more perfectly the will and way of Christ. But they pray and believe, and by exercise their faith increases.
UL	235	7	"Take my yoke upon you," Christ said, as in human nature He lived and worked upon this earth. Constantly He wore the yoke of submission, meeting the difficulties that human beings must meet, bearing the trials that they must bear. The enemy will continually assault us as he assaulted Christ, bringing against us strong temptation. But for everyone there is a way of escape.--Manuscript 88, August 9, 1903, "Be Not Weary in Well-doing."
------------------------Gracious Words Needed, August 10
UL	236	1	And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. Luke 4:22.
UL	236	2	This morning my heart is drawn out to God in earnest longing of soul for the Holy Spirit's guidance. What words can I speak that will be appreciated and understood? When Christ was in our world He said to the Pharisees and scribes, "Why do ye not understand my words and appreciate them?" They were continually placing their own construction upon the plain words of truth that fell from His lips....
UL	236	3	With clearness and power He spoke the words that were to come down to our time as a treasure of goodness. What precious words they were, and how full of encouragement! From His divine lips there fell with fullness and abundant assurance the benedictions that showed Him to be the fountain of all goodness, and that it was His prerogative to bless and impress the minds of all present. He was engaged in His peculiar, sacred province, and the treasures of eternity were at His command. In the disposal of them He knew no control. It was no robbery with Him to act in the office of God. In His blessings He embraced those who were to compose His kingdom in this world. He had brought into the world every blessing essential to the happiness and joy of every soul, and before that vast assembly He presented the riches of the grace of heaven, the accumulated treasures of the eternal, everlasting Father....
UL	236	4	There were occasions when Christ spoke with an authority that sent His words home with irresistible force, with an overwhelming sense of the greatness of the Speaker, and the human agencies shrank into nothingness in comparison with the One before them. They were deeply moved. Their minds were impressed that He was repeating the command from the most excellent glory. As He summoned the world to listen, they were spellbound and entranced, and conviction came to their minds. Every word made for itself a place, and the hearers believed and received the words that they had no power to resist. Every word He uttered seemed to the hearers as the life of God....
UL	236	5	"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me" (John 1:14, 15). Yes, He was before John. Enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, He led the children of Israel through the wilderness. "And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace."--Manuscript 118, August 10, 1905, "A Divine Saviour."
------------------------Daily Consecration, August 11
UL	237	1	Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Ephesians 4:29.
UL	237	2	Consecration is a very simple thing. When brought daily into our individual life in practice, we shall know far more by consecration than by trusting to an experience. Each day, each hour, let the heart go out after God: "Here, Lord, am I, Thy property; take me, use me today. I lay all my plans at Thy feet; I will have no way of my own in the matter. My time is Thine; my whole life is Thine." Let the heart be constantly going forth to God for strength, for grace every moment.
UL	237	3	Let not one evil word escape our lips, because our lips, our voice, belong to the Lord, and must be consecrated to the Lord and to His service. These lips must not dishonor Jesus, for they belong to Him. He has bought them and I must speak nothing that will offend Jesus. My ears must be closed to evil. Thus day by day we can consecrate ourselves to God. The ears must not be defiled by listening to any gossip that faultfinding ones would have us hear, for I not only cause them to sin in allowing them to talk of others' faults, but I sin myself in listening to them. I can prevent much evil speaking in thus having ears consecrated to God. I can say before the evil is done, "Let us pray," then ask God to enlighten both our minds to understand our true relation to one another and our true relation to God.
UL	237	4	Let us open our hearts to Jesus with all the simplicity that a child would tell his earthly parents his perplexities and the things that trouble him. Thus we can restrain evil not only in ourselves but in others. Practice consecration to God daily; then there will be no danger in the life of service to God. We want gratitude brought into our life, words, and works.
UL	237	5	Every word, every thought of complaining indulged in, is a reflection upon God, a dishonor to His name. We want our hearts attuned to His praise, full of thankfulness, talking of His love, our hearts softened and subdued by the grace of Christ, full of sweetness and peace and fragrance. We shall be patient, kind, tenderhearted, pitiful, courteous, even when dealing with those who are disagreeable. Oh, how many precious blessings we lose because we esteem self altogether too highly and have so little esteem for others....
UL	237	6	We must not demerit ourselves and lightly esteem the ability given us of God, neither should we overestimate our own importance and trust to our human ability.--Letter 7a, August 11, 1886, to a husband and wife working in England.
------------------------Christ Has Power for Us, August 12
UL	238	1	And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. Colossians 2:10.
UL	238	2	We are to live in the warm, genial rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Nothing but His loving compassion, His divine grace, His almighty power, can enable us to baffle the relentless foe and subdue the opposition of the human heart. What is our strength? The joy of the Lord. Let the melting love of Christ fill the heart, and we are softened and subdued, prepared to receive the power that He has for us.
UL	238	3	Let us thank God every day for the blessings that are ours. If the human agent will humble himself before God, realizing how inappropriate it is for him to cherish a feeling of self-sufficiency; realizing his utter inability to do the work that needs to be done in order for his soul to be purified, casting away, making of no account, his own righteousness, Christ will engrave His own image upon his soul....
UL	238	4	Christ will never neglect the work that has been placed in His hands. He will inspire the resolute disciple with a sense of the perversity, the sin-stained condition, the depravity, of the heart upon which He is working. The true penitent has learned the uselessness of self-importance. Looking to Jesus, comparing his own defective character with the Saviour's perfect character, he can say,
UL	238	5	In my hand no price I bring; Simply to Thy cross I cling.
UL	238	6	With Isaiah he declares, "Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name" (Isaiah 26:12, 13).
UL	238	7	Beholding Christ for the purpose of becoming like Him, the seeker after truth sees the perfection of the principles of God's law, and he becomes dissatisfied with everything but perfection. Hiding his life in the life of Christ, he sees that the holiness of the divine law is revealed in the character of Christ, and more and more earnestly he strives to be like Him. A warfare may be expected at any time, for the tempter sees that he is losing one of his subjects. A battle must be fought with the attributes which Satan has been strengthening for his own use.
UL	238	8	The human agent sees what he has to contend with--a strange power opposed to the idea of attaining the perfection that Christ holds out. But with Christ there is saving power that will gain for him victory in the conflict. The Saviour will strengthen and help him as he comes pleading for grace and efficiency.--Manuscript 89, August 12, 1903, "First Be Reconciled to Thy Brother."
------------------------Remove the Rubbish of Criticism, August 13
UL	239	1	I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2.
UL	239	2	Do not criticize others. The spirit of criticism is eating away the very vitals of the people of God. We cannot afford to pile up rubbish. Heaven sees the work that is going on of piling up the rubbish of words. Suppose we decided not to add anything to this pile of heedless, vain, and foolish words? We have a most sacred, solemn work to do....
UL	239	3	The piles of rubbish that have been accumulating need to be removed. How? Let us "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1). Cultivate personal piety. God would have us inquire, "Who hath known the mind of the Lord?" that He may instruct us, and that we may be able to say, "We have the mind of Christ." Then all the rubbish of evil words will be removed. May the Lord imbue us with His Spirit, and touch our lips with a burning coal from the altar. Earnestly, vigilantly watching and waiting and working, we are to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11).
UL	239	4	The church is the one object of Christ's intense interest in this world, and for which He has unceasing care. This church is engaged in securing the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life to all who receive it. In every soul God looks for stable principles revealed in word and action. Then they will bring from the treasure house words weighted with the principles of eternal truth.
UL	239	5	We have no time to praise the devil, no time nor voice to criticize. We are to show that the grace of Christ is abiding in our hearts. Its influence will be revealed, whatever company we are in, by words of deepest importance, involving consequences as enduring as eternity.
UL	239	6	At this period of the earth's history we cannot afford to weaken one another's influence. The Christian warfare is close and severe. We have to meet and battle with unseen foes, and we must be in harmony with the heavenly agencies, who are seeking to cleanse us from the inclination to criticize our brethren, to pass judgment on them. The Lord desires us to stand under the yoke of Christ....
UL	239	7	We are to believe and love the truth for Christ's sake. We must rise higher and higher in purity [and] knowledge. We are Christ's witnesses. Then let us not talk of difficulties or ponder over our trials, but come close to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. By beholding Him, studying and talking of Him, we become transformed into His image.--Letter 119, August 13, 1899, to a husband-and-wife team working in the Southern States.
------------------------Need for Reformation, August 14
UL	240	1	If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by. Zechariah 3:7.
UL	240	2	The future of the church depends on the efforts made by its members to understand the sinfulness of selfishness, and their willingness to take the remedy which will cure the disease from which they are suffering. Let a reformation take place, that those who accept the truth in the future shall not be contaminated by the corrupting influence of Satan....
UL	240	3	Many who are condemned by men are vindicated by God. Many who are exalted by human judgment are by God pronounced to be wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Human judgment often errs. Often man condemns his brother because his discernment is defective. God looks at the heart. He reads the motives which prompt to action.
UL	240	4	God prompts the question, "Ought I to do this?" Satan leads man to say, "I can." Right is a loyal subject. Might is a haughty tyrant, leading to warfare, the scourge of the world. Right is a representation of the perfect man in Christ Jesus. It is the foundation of all righteousness and peace--the oil which fills the divine flagons....
UL	240	5	There is a work to be done among the churches of Seventh-day Adventists that has not yet been done. Ministering angels are waiting to see who will take up the work in the right spirit.... Let all humble themselves before God, asking for grace and wisdom, that they may see wherein they have violated His holy law. Unless His Spirit enlightens them, they will never know, even though it is set before them by their brethren. Those who refuse to come into right relation to God, who will not obey the rules of His government, do not bear His mark....
UL	240	6	The Lord is merciful. He does not chastise His people because He hates them, but because He hates the sins they are committing. He must chastise them, that they may return to their loyalty. He designs their punishment to be a warning to them and to others. No one need walk in darkness. No one need say, "Specify to me the precise wrongs of which I am guilty." To those who say this, I give the word of the Lord: "Search prayerfully, and you will know."
UL	240	7	If the warnings and reproofs given in the Word of God and in the testimonies of His Spirit are not plain enough, what words would be sufficiently plain to bring about a revival and a reformation?--Manuscript 108, August 14, 1901, "Diary."
------------------------Promise of Divine Help, August 15
UL	241	1	Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity. Isaiah 58:9.
UL	241	2	Last night I had a wonderful experience. I was [in the visions of the night] in an assembly where questions were being asked and answered. I awoke at one o'clock and arose. For a time I walked the room, praying most earnestly for clearness of mind, for strength of eyesight, and for strength to write the things that must be written. I entreated the Lord to help me to bear a testimony that would awake His people before it is forever too late. I was glad that there was no one in the room below me. Sara [McEnterfer] and Maggie [Hare] usually occupy this room, but during the summer they sleep in a tent pitched under a great live-oak tree growing close by the house....
UL	241	3	We are nearing the end of this earth's history, and the different lines of God's work are to be carried forward with much more self-sacrifice than they have yet been. The work for these last days is a missionary work. Present truth, from the first letter of its alphabet to the last, means missionary effort. The work to be done calls for sacrifice at every step of advance. The workers are to come forth from trial purified and refined, as gold tried in the fire....
UL	241	4	I cannot now write all the instruction given me. These words were spoken: "Some are reckless, insensible of the results of sin, heedless of warning. Soon the handwriting on the wall, now unintelligible to them, will be read. But, like Belshazzar, they seem unable to see their peril. A straight testimony must be borne to our churches and institutions, to arouse the sleeping ones." ...
UL	241	5	The experience that I had last night has impressed me very deeply. I seemed to have Christ close beside me. I was filled with hope and courage and faith and love for souls. I pleaded with God to sustain me, and He lifted me up, and made me to triumph in Him. I know that the Lord will work for His people when they will sanctify their souls by obeying the truth. Then the whole being, body, mind, and soul, will be in harmony with God. Loving God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves, we shall possess a freedom crowned with glory.
UL	241	6	"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).--Letter 130, August 15, 1902, to Edson White.
------------------------We Are Christ's Representatives, August 16
UL	242	1	Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. 1 Peter 4:12.
UL	242	2	Our daily experience with Christ should be of the highest value to us. We have an individual part to act in His service. Our blessed Saviour has given us ... precious promises for our encouragement. He desires us to know that He is watching over us, and that He will teach us what He expects us to do. If the enemy comes to us in the morning, or during the day, with annoyances, let us remember these precious promises, and not allow ourselves to be ruffled. Let us remember that we are Christ's representatives, and that we must not, by word or act, offend one another.
UL	242	3	Do you think that perhaps no trials will arise? Certainly there will be trials. If there were not, you might rejoice that you had no devil to tempt you. But you will have temptations till the very close of time. Therefore you need to keep in close companionship with Christ. His angels are commissioned to watch over you. They are your appointed guardians. If someone says something that tends to provoke you, remember that at such a time silence is eloquence. Do not respond in a manner to retaliate. It will be better to say nothing than to speak unadvisedly. We will all have our battles to fight, though these struggles may vary in character, according to our disposition and our experience.
UL	242	4	Let us rejoice that Jesus Christ has made it possible for us to lay hold upon divinity. When we feel exceedingly tried, let us remember that there is a heavenly angel by our side. This thought will help us to honor Christ, who has made it possible for us to become sons and daughters of God. Unless we are constantly on our guard, we may be caught unawares, and speak hastily. It may then be impossible for us to remove the impression from the minds of those to whom we have spoken, for some do not desire to get rid of such impressions. They seem to delight in cherishing evil. Let us, by keeping our words in harmony with the instructions the Saviour has given us, not give them any occasion for offense.
UL	242	5	As we come in contact with varying dispositions, we shall undoubtedly find great provocation to speak unkindly. But remember that at such times silence is often eloquence. If you refrain from retaliating when you are provoked by others, you will surprise them. And, if repeatedly you preserve your dignity under provocation, they will realize that you are in connection with a higher Power.--Manuscript 55, August 16, 1909, "Lessons From the Sermon on the Mount," a talk given for morning worship at Madison (Wisconsin) Sanitarium.
------------------------Using Your Talent of Influence, August 17
UL	243	1	For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. Romans 14:7.
UL	243	2	There is constant temptation for human beings to consider that any influence they have gained is the result of something valuable in themselves. The Lord does not work with these, for He will not give to any human being the glory that belongs to His own name. God would have everyone under His supervision, and recognize that to God belongs all the glory of their success....
UL	243	3	If the human worker will walk in all humility of mind, looking to God, trusting in Him, working out his own salvation with fear and trembling, the Lord will cooperate with him. It is God that works in us to do His will for His own name's glory. He will give His wisdom, His divine power, to everyone who is doing His service. He makes the humble trustful servant His representative--the one who will not lift himself up, and think of himself more highly than he ought to think. The life of such an one will be dedicated to God as a living sacrifice, and that life He will accept and use and sustain....
UL	243	4	Our life is not our own. It is Christ's life. All is His, and we are to spend our powers in doing the will of God. Watch and pray; spend and be spent in doing His will from the heart. Carry every entrusted capability as a sacred treasure, to be used in imparting to others the knowledge and grace received....
UL	243	5	Nehemiah, after gaining so great an influence over the [Persian] monarch in whose court he lived, and over his people in Jerusalem, instead of ascribing praise to his own excellent traits of character, his remarkable aptness and energy, stated the manner just as it was. He declared that his success was due to the good hand of God that was upon him. He cherished the truth that God was his safeguard in every position of influence. For every trait of character by which he obtained favor, he praised the working power of God.... And God gave him wisdom, because he did not exalt himself. The Lord taught him how to use the gifts entrusted to him to the very best advantage, and under the supervision of God, these talents gained other talents....
UL	243	6	Every jot of influence is to be appreciated as the gift of God. The eye of the mind is to be single to the glory of God. Then the sense of responsibility will increase. Our talents will be put out to the exchangers to increase and double. There are hundreds of men and women who, if they had a proper appreciation of the heavenly trust, would go diligently and earnestly to work to use what they have.--Letter 83, August 17, 1898, to a leading minister in Australia.
------------------------Faith That Distinguishes, August 18
UL	244	1	Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. Malachi 3:18.
UL	244	2	An awakening power must be revealed in every believer. We must no longer act like sinners, while as Christians we should be revealing a living, saving faith. Living faith in Christ Jesus will produce fruit. There will be a holy, unwavering devotion to the Lord. Laboring with an eye single to His glory, we shall be sustained amidst the perils of the last days.
UL	244	3	What has sustained Christians in every age, amidst reproaches, temptations, and sufferings? A pure, trusting faith, constantly exercised to understand what is truth which sanctifies the receiver, a committing of the keeping of the soul to God, under any and every circumstance, as unto One whom they knew would not betray their trust. Our Creator will keep that which is committed unto Him against that day.
UL	244	4	Christ, by His sacrifice to save sinners, evidenced His great love for the human soul. He gave His life to secure our salvation. What an insult so many, deceived by Satan's temptations, offer to the Saviour by abusing their privileges, refusing to acknowledge His loving interest in them. Yet He, their Creator and Redeemer, bears long with them in their persistent disdain of His mercies. As this matter is daily urged upon my mind, I am so astonished that I cannot hold my peace. I long to reach sinners, and to cry out to them, "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?" (Ezekiel 33:11).
UL	244	5	Christ with His own blood has bought the whole human family. We are His purchased possession. He desires those who claim to believe in Him, to receive His power, that in this wicked and perverse generation they may become sons of God, and that they may reveal to a world entranced and corrupted by Satan, that God is love and [that] there is a difference, plain and distinct, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him [not]. The Lord knoweth them that are His.
UL	244	6	The line of demarcation between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not is becoming more and more distinct. This is as the Lord designs it should be. An active, living faith distinguishes the people of God from the sinful, who by their rejection of Christ bear continually to the world a plain testimony: "I will not have this man Christ Jesus to rule over me. I will not eat and drink to the glory of God, but will follow my inclination, eating and drinking as I please. I will not wear the yoke of Christ; I will not learn His lessons of meekness and lowliness of heart; I will have my own way, and live in this world a life of pleasure."--Letter 131, August 18, 1902, to Emma White.
------------------------Let Us Be Overcomers Here, August 19
UL	245	1	He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Revelation 21:7.
UL	245	2	If we will put self out of sight and come into right relation to God, we will manifest a forbearance and kindness that will make us a blessing to all with whom we associate. We need to come into right relation to God, for we are not safe unless we place ourselves under the broad shield of Omnipotence. Only there can God work through us to will and to do of His good pleasure, as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling....
UL	245	3	Many of us need a clearer understanding of what it means to be an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. We need to learn, as we follow on to know the Lord, that His going forth is prepared as the morning. You have watched the rising sun and the gradual breaking of day over the earth. Little by little the light increases till the sun appears. Then, growing constantly stronger, the light increases until we have the full glory of the day. This preparation of the morning is a beautiful illustration of what God desires to do for us in the perfecting of our Christian experience. We cannot afford to do a haphazard work in this world. We are seeking for a life that measures with the life of God....
UL	245	4	We need to keep ever before us the course that Christ followed. It was an overcoming course. When the devil came to Him in the wilderness of temptation, bidding Him command that the stones be made bread, that He might satisfy His hunger, the Saviour, though faint from want of food, refused to follow his suggestion.... It was in the order of God that He should have this experience that He might be touched with the feelings of the hungry, and know how to sympathize with those who were suffering and in want....
UL	245	5	As the enemy worked to overcome the Saviour, so he will work with the human family today. But in every time of trial and difficulty, remember that Christ has passed through similar experiences, and He came out from every trial without a stain of sin upon His character. He came to show what every member of the human family may become through His grace. He understands every difficulty that we must meet, and He stands ready to strengthen those who struggle with Him against the powers of evil. He waits to hear and answer their prayers.
UL	245	6	When heaven is won, and we pass through the gates of the City of God to hear the words "Well done, good and faithful servant;--enter thou into the joy of thy Lord," how small will seem the trials and difficulties that have beset our pathway here.--Manuscript 17, August 19, 1911, sermon preached at Long Beach, California.
------------------------Follow the Great Teacher, August 20
UL	246	1	And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. Revelation 21:27.
UL	246	2	This morning my hope is in Christ my Saviour. I pray that He will impart His Holy Spirit to me every day, that with heart and mind and strength I may glorify Him in this life. We are to do God's work, not according to our own plans, but in accordance with the example that the Lord Jesus has given us. He came to our world to do the work appointed Him by His Father, that we might receive an education in the high science of performing genuine service for the Master.
UL	246	3	If we practice the teachings He has given in His Word, these principles become a part of the life. This is what is meant by eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood. In this world we are daily to prepare for the higher life; and when we unite with the family above, we shall not be given new lessons, but a continuation of the lessons that Christ gave His disciples when He was here....
UL	246	4	Never are we to forget that we are a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are to labor with a constant sense of our obligation to Him who gave His life for us.... Thus we shall glorify our heavenly Father; and when the time comes for us to lay off our armor, we shall with sincerity be able to say that we have finished the work given us to do....
UL	246	5	Every capability and power that we possess is to be regarded as a sacred trust, to be used in revealing the power of saving grace. Let there be day by day a well-doing for God. Thus we shall prepare for a place in the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him.... These mansions He is preparing for those who accept the invitation "Come unto me ... and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). This is the highest science that we can possibly obtain, but those who refuse Christ will never understand it. The Word of God, studied and obeyed, fits men and women for entrance into the higher courts. Those who are striving to be true Christians have the constant guardianship of heavenly angels, for they are laborers together with God....
UL	246	6	Every day we are to become more like Jesus, learning the meekness and lowliness of Him who, though the only begotten Son of God, came to this world as our Redeemer, giving His life to pay the penalty of sin. Though hiding His divinity under the guise of humanity, He was the Mighty Counselor, the Prince of Peace. His life was filled with sympathy and love, goodness, kindness, and benevolence. He revealed the science of everlasting life--the science that we are to carry into all our efforts.--Manuscript 83, August 20, 1904, "Revealing Christ to the World."
------------------------Build on the Rock, August 21
UL	247	1	For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:11.
UL	247	2	There are many who profess to be followers of Christ who do not have an eye single to His glory. They have their own ideas and standards, and they keep these before them instead of the standard of the Word of God. What we need is pure and undefiled religion. We need to plead for the righteousness that comes to the truly converted soul who accepts the life of the Redeemer as his example.
UL	247	3	Let us not think that we can pass through this world doing just as we please and yet be accepted by God as followers of His Son. The gates of the City of God will never be thrown open to those who have not lifted the cross and followed after Christ in self-denial and self-sacrifice. We are never to lose sight of the fact that if ever we come into possession of the kingdom of glory, we must accept by faith the merits of Jesus Christ....
UL	247	4	Some who pass through hardship and discouragements may feel that theirs is a joyless lot. Let them remember that Christ passed through similar experiences. He knew what poverty and hardship was. He bids you believe on His love and follow in His footsteps. He will work through those who have means to provide for those who need....
UL	247	5	There is a world to be saved. What are you doing to cooperate with Christ? What are you doing to represent His humility of spirit? Are you seeking to become acquainted with those who are afflicted and suffering, and who need your help? Are you using your opportunities and advantages and means in winning souls to Christ? You may say, "I am not a minister, and therefore cannot preach the truth." You may not be a minister in the generally accepted sense of the word; you may never be called to stand in the desk. Nevertheless, you can be a minister for Christ. If you will have your eyes opened to see the opportunities that present themselves for speaking a word to this soul and to that, God will speak through you to lead them to Christ....
UL	247	6	Many of us have neglected to study the Scriptures. We have failed to develop such characters as Christ can use. The Son of God left the courts of glory and came to our world to partake of its temptations and hardships that He might lift us up and make us sons and daughters of God. He calls upon us individually to take up our appointed work wherever we are. We are to watch for souls as they that must give an account. We are to do what we can to minister to the spiritual needs of mankind....
UL	247	7	Every day we are building character. Let us build on the Rock, Christ Jesus. This sure foundation will stand for every one of us.--Manuscript 85, August 21, 1909, sermon preached at Nevada, Iowa.
------------------------Get Acquainted with God, August 22
UL	248	1	Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. Job 22:21.
UL	248	2	Love for God should lead us to find true enjoyment in learning and doing His will. Thus we become every day better prepared to be overcomers, examples of the power that heavenly grace has to uplift and ennoble human beings. Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet He overcame. And today He waits to hear and answer the earnest requests of His children for the grace that will enable them to overcome.
UL	248	3	Be polite to those with whom you come in contact; thus you will be polite to God. Praise Him for His goodness; thus you are witnesses for Him, and you are preparing for the society of the angels. You are learning in this world how to conduct yourselves in the family of Christ in heaven.
UL	248	4	Lose no time in becoming acquainted with the principles that the children of God must follow. We are here to copy the character of Christ, to become familiar with His gentleness, His lowliness. This will place us where our record will be, "Ye are complete in him." (Colossians 2:10). By patience, kindness, forbearance, we are to show that we are not of the world, that day by day we are learning the lessons that will fit us to enter the higher school.
UL	248	5	When God's redeemed ones are called to heaven, they will not leave behind the advancement they have made in this life by beholding Christ. They will go on, learning more and still more of God. They will carry their spiritual attainments into the courts above, leaving nothing of heavenly origin in this world. As the books of heaven are opened, each overcomer is assigned his lot and place in heaven, in accordance with the advancement he has made in this life.
UL	248	6	The sons and daughters of God are led to persevere in the work of overcoming by the daily realization that they need to be taught by the Holy Spirit the good and righteous way. No sham work enters into their service. Every day they realize that they must hold fast the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end. When one deviates from the right way, the Holy Spirit, working on his mind, leads him to confess his error so that others will be warned against the same mistake. No one is to feel that his position is so exalted that he need not acknowledge his faults, lest others place a low estimate upon him....
UL	248	7	Never should a man ... be too proud to make the acknowledgment, "I have erred." The least he can do, after he has sinned, is to show his sorrow and repentance. Men who do this will be honored by God, even though they make mistakes.--Manuscript 31, August 22, 1903, "Lessons From the Third Chapter of First John."
------------------------Keep God's Glory in View, August 23
UL	249	1	And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4.
UL	249	2	The Lord would have us cultivate home religion, causing the fear of God to circulate through the family. When parents neglect their duty to their children, failing to govern them according to right principles, the enemy is given opportunity to gain control of their lives. Children who are allowed to disregard parental authority are never happy. In the early years of life is the time for all to prepare to become members of the royal family. Parents and youth should thank the Lord in prayer and praise for the privilege of becoming children of God and citizens of His kingdom.
UL	249	3	Abraham is a noble example of a faithful householder, and he has given us an example of the unquestioning obedience that all should render. He who blesses the righteous said of Abraham, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him" (Genesis 18:19). They will keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. He will not speak words of hypocrisy or deception. There will be no betraying of sacred trusts....
UL	249	4	Just as surely as we labor together as Abraham did, so surely will we receive the commendation of Heaven. Abraham was, in a marked manner, selected to walk in the way of the Lord, governing his household by the combined influences of authority and affection. The Holy One has given us rules to obey, from which there can be no sinless swerving. We are bought with a price. Faith and works are to make us complete in Christ. Thus we shall keep the way of the Lord. When the heart is meek and lowly, God can impress the soul. The Word of God is our counselor. Let us obey its teachings.
UL	249	5	In all our work we need to keep the glory of God in view. The Word of God is our guide. Let this testimony go forth as the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Let us talk faith, and walk by faith. O what a work is ours, what a privilege, so to speak and so to act as to fasten conviction on the hearts and consciences of men. The Holy Spirit grants us His guidance in this work, and success comes when we have a strict regard for the fear of God. He is the Searcher of hearts, and He gives us the encouragement that, if we will become intelligent in our service for God and will walk humbly in the light He has graciously given, we will not be left to labor in human strength.
UL	249	6	Christ came to this world, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, to bear trial and to become acquainted with disappointment, that He might teach men and women to become like God.--Letter 242, August 23, 1908, to S. N. Haskell, president of the California Conference.
------------------------Faithfulness in Little Things, August 24
UL	250	1	Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. Luke 19:17.
UL	250	2	If our active temperament gathers in a large amount of work that we have not strength nor the grace of Christ to do understandingly and with order and exactitude, everything we undertake shows imperfection, and the work is constantly marred. God is not glorified, however good the motive....
UL	250	3	God would have us pay heed to His words. The carefully wrought service in the sight of God is of value although easily overlooked by human eyes, yet indispensable in this world where we are doing our work. God wants intelligent workers, doing their work not hurriedly, but carefully, and thoroughly, always preserving the humility of Jesus. Those who put thought and painstaking into the higher duties should put care and thought into the smaller duties, showing exactitude and diligence.
UL	250	4	Oh, how much neglected work is done, how much leaving things at loose ends because there is a constant desire to take on greater work. The work is slurred over that relates to the service of God, because they pull so much work before them that there is nothing done thoroughly. But all the work must bear the scrutiny of the Judge of all the earth. The smaller duties connected with the service of the Master assume importance because it is Christ's service. Selfishness and self-esteem should be guarded against as your bitterest enemy. But how easily self finds opportunities to exhibit itself, and how Satan exults at the exhibitions, and how sorrowful and ashamed are the angels of God of man's foolishness. How unlike Jesus Christ; in what contrast to the example He has given us in His own life. How far removed from His requirements, to crucify self with the affections and lusts....
UL	250	5	What will be our feelings when we shall stand on the sea of glass? Shall we look back on the hours of our impatience here? Shall we stand upon the eternal hills of paradise and take in the events of our past life and see how many unnecessary trials we had because we thought God was dependent upon us to do everything? God help us to see our own littleness and God's greatness. God forbid that we should have exalted ideas of our own greatness, and exalt self. Magnitude of experience is no measure of worth. God has a standard so unlike human standards, and if we see God's estimate of us, we would see value where we supposed was littleness, and littleness where we supposed was greatness.--Letter 48, August 24, 1886, to "Dear Brethren Engaged in Labor in Nimes" [France].
------------------------Depart from the Fog of Skepticism, August 25
UL	251	1	Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 6:13.
UL	251	2	Satan is making every effort to bring in spiritualistic sophistries, to throw his deceptions over minds. Now is the time for every follower of Christ to be clothed with the whole armor of God, and to fight manfully against the encroachments of the power of darkness. Let not our soldiers be found asleep at their post. The world is to be warned....
UL	251	3	There are strong men, precious in the sight of God, who are under a spell. They do not realize that they are represented by the foolish virgins. Scientific spiritualistic philosophy has taken the minds of some from the message to be proclaimed at this time. There are those who live merely to criticize. They have been associating with those who have learned from the great deceiver. Their hearts bear the sting of the serpent, and they are prepared to enter upon a campaign of unbelief.
UL	251	4	Those who have fallen asleep at their post are now to awake and trim their lamps. They are to entertain not a vestige of doubt as to the truth for this time. The hypnotism of Satan must be shown in its true bearing. We are not to turn our steps toward Egypt, but toward Canaan, the land of promise. The Lord says to me, "I have strengthened you to bear a message for this time. Wake up the men who have been receiving sophistries. They are asleep as to the great importance of the present time and the dangers of the future." Some who in the past have had a genuine experience will awake, because their lives have not been a continual contradiction of truth....
UL	251	5	Our thoughts, motives, and desires are to be brought into obedience to the will of God. They are to be inspired and controlled by Him. We are to ask ourselves, "Am I exerting all my capabilities to keep my lamp filled with oil, and carefully trimmed, that from it may shine, brightly and clearly, the light of present truth? Am I awakening the world to its danger? Am I leading perishing souls to Christ? Am I arousing men to see that the end of all things is at hand?" ...
UL	251	6	Those who are represented by the wise virgins, those who in the past have had a precious experience in the truth, are now to arouse and trim their lamps. Let those who have listened to sophistry now cut every vestige of this out of their experience. Do not allow your time to be taken up in discussion regarding these sophistries. Do not remain in the fog of skepticism until it is too late for you to find your bearings. Entire consecration to God puts to an end all vain, foolish suppositions and imaginations.--Manuscript 80, 1905, August 24, 1904, "Arise and Trim Your Lamps!"
------------------------Christ Purges for a Reason, August 26
UL	252	1	I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. John 15:1, 2.
UL	252	2	When trials come to us, let us not dwell upon the greatness of the difficulties and feel that we cannot have joy in the Lord. It is true we will have changes of feelings. There will come to us times of discouragement and depression. But shall we live by feeling or by faith? When our brethren and friends speak unadvisedly, and cause us grief, let us not be cast down. Let us remember that we are in a world of trial and grief, of sorrow and disappointment. When these experiences come to us, they should drive us to Christ. If they do not, we meet with loss.
UL	252	3	When tempted to give up under discouragement and difficulty, let us study the life and experiences of Christ. He had to contend against the powers of darkness that He might not be overcome. We have the same battle to fight, the same victories to win. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). It is our privilege to lay hold on the strength of One who is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. He invites you to present your case at the throne of grace, and cast your helpless soul on Him.
UL	252	4	The purging is not pleasant, but let us remember that Christ came to our world and took humanity that He might bear the afflictions that humanity must bear and be an example of faithful endurance under every form of trial. God wants us to realize that we are a part of the great human family, and that we must bear its tests....
UL	252	5	Let your humanity lay hold of divinity. Go to the footstool of God's grace, and say, "Lord, I hang my helpless soul on Thee. Help me to control my speech. Teach me to overcome." Christ will give you a spirit of overcoming. "They overcame him," we read, "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony" (Revelation 12:11).
UL	252	6	You may bear a testimony the opposite to that which Satan would have you bear. You may keep heart and mind sanctified by obedience to the truth. Look to Him, at morning and at noon and at night. Keep heart and mind fastened upon Christ. This is your privilege. The suffering and death of Christ has paid the price for your redemption, and through faith in Him you may overcome.... Let the love of Christ dwell in your hearts.... We must graduate sensibly in this life if we would be transferred to the higher school of the courts above.--Manuscript 79, August 26, 1909, "That I May Bring Forth More Fruit," sermon preached at Council Grove, Kansas, camp meeting.
------------------------Dare to Be Like Daniel, August 27
UL	253	1	But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Daniel 1:8.
UL	253	2	The first chapter of Daniel teaches the lesson that what we eat and drink has an influence upon the powers of the mind, and that if we would have healthful bodies and clear minds, we must be careful of our diet. If we are careless in this matter and eat simply to gratify taste, the digestive organs are impaired and the brain is confused, and neither can act their part as fully as God intended they should....
UL	253	3	Daniel and his companions determined to banish from their diet everything that would defile, and a power from above worked in harmony with their efforts. As a result they had the privilege of following their own course in the obtaining of their education. And the education they gained was better than that gained by any of the magicians, astrologers, or wise men in all the king's realm.
UL	253	4	Those who desire to come into right relation to God need to study Daniel's plan. That was a sum proved. You may take the sum and prove it also. There are many who think that those who adopt health reform suffer a loss of physical strength, but if these would test the matter for themselves, they would change their minds on this point....
UL	253	5	Daniel stood in a very responsible position in the kingdom of Babylon. There will always be those who will occupy positions of lesser responsibility; but whatever our work, our example may be such that it will lead others in to right paths. We need to humble ourselves before God and pray to Him, and trust in Him....
UL	253	6	We cannot afford to miss any opportunity for perfecting a Christian character. Whatever experience may come to others, remember that you, in your lot and place, will be tested by God. There will be times when you will be placed in unfavorable positions, but at such times plead with God, trust in Him, and walk in simple faith before the Lord. Then angels of heaven will impress your minds. Let not your minds be filled with self and self-interests.
UL	253	7	The Lord is looking upon us in mercy and love today. Who will follow out the will of the Lord? Who will study to overcome the hasty temper, remembering that the words they speak are spoken in the hearing of heavenly angels? These heavenly agencies are continually ministering to us.--Manuscript 73, August 27, 1909, "Lessons From the First Chapter of Daniel," sermon preached at Council Grove camp meeting.
------------------------The Third Angel's Message is Sure, August 28
UL	254	1	And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. Revelation 14:9, 10.
UL	254	2	The Lord desires to see the work of the third angel's message carried forward with increasing efficiency. As He has worked in all ages to give victories to His people, so in this age He longs to carry to triumphant fulfillment His purposes for His church. He bids the saints to advance unitedly, going from strength to greater strength, from faith to increased assurance and confidence in the truth and righteousness of His cause.
UL	254	3	Let us ever bear in mind that our work is to be one of advancement. We are to follow on to know the Lord. God understands the actuating principles of every mind. He has witnessed the persistent, rebellious course of some whom He has warned and counseled repeatedly. His all-seeing eye has noted the determined following of human devisings. The way of man is before the Lord. He knoweth the thoughts. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3). He looketh to the ends of the earth, and He seeth under the whole heavens. The Lord searcheth the hearts.
UL	254	4	We are to stand firm as a rock to the principles of the Word of God, remembering that God is with us to give us strength to meet each new experience. Let us ever maintain the principles of righteousness in our lives, that we may go forward from strength to strength in the name of the Lord. We are to hold as very sacred the faith that has been substantiated by the instruction and approval of the Spirit of God from our earliest experience until the present time....
UL	254	5	Arouse the people to the importance of the times in which we live, that they may be led to place themselves under the discipline of Christ. In His human life Christ revealed a divine nature; no defect appeared in His character. Beholding His life of self-denial and sacrifice that He might minister truth to the world, they may be changed in life, and learn to reflect His likeness....
UL	254	6	Let us not be unconcerned regarding our responsibility to form righteous characters, but let us place ourselves under the molding influence of the Holy Spirit that we may form characters that will reflect the divine life.--Letter 66, August 28, 1911, to S. N. Haskell, president of the California Conference.
------------------------Heaven Gave Its Most Costly Treasure, August 29
UL	255	1	For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
UL	255	2	After the Saviour had fasted forty days and forty nights, "he was afterward an hungered." Then it was that Satan appeared to Him. He came as a beautiful angel from heaven, claiming that he had a commission from God to declare the Saviour's fast at an end. "If thou be the Son of God," he said to Christ, "command that these stones be made bread" (Matthew 4:3). But in Satan's insinuation of distrust, Christ recognized the enemy whose power He had come to earth to resist. He would not accept the challenge, nor be moved by the temptation. He stood firmly to the affirmative. "Man shall not live by bread alone," He said, "but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Verse 4).
UL	255	3	Christ stood by every word of God, and He prevailed. If we would always take such a position as this when tempted, refusing to dally with temptation or argue with the enemy, the same experience would be ours. It is when we stop to reason with the devil that we are overcome. It is for us to know individually that we are right in the warfare, to take the affirmative in the sight of God, and there to stand. It is thus that we will obtain the divine power promised, through which we obtain "all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:3).
UL	255	4	There is such a thing as being partaker of the divine nature. We shall all be tempted in a variety of ways, but when we are tempted we need to remember that a provision has been made whereby we may overcome. ... He who truly believes in Christ is made partaker of the divine nature, and has power that he can appropriate under every temptation. He will not fall under temptation or be left to defeat....
UL	255	5	We think it costs us something to stand in this position before the world; and so it does. But what has our salvation cost the heavenly universe? To make us partakers of the divine nature, heaven gave its most costly treasure.... He engaged to stand in a fallen world as the representative of the Father. And He would die in behalf of a lost race. What a work was this! If He should fail, if He should be overcome by temptation, a world would be lost.--Manuscript 99a, August 29, 1908, "Called to Glory and Virtue," sermon preached at Loma Linda, California.
------------------------Christ the Ladder, August 30
UL	256	1	They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. But the Lord is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge. Psalm 94:21, 22.
UL	256	2	Planted firmly upon the earth, and reaching heavenward to the throne of God, is a ladder of shining brightness. God is above the ladder, and His light is shining along its whole length. This ladder is Christ. Every round that you climb, you are coming step after step into fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, and are becoming fashioned after His divine similitude. The angels of God are constantly ascending and descending this glorious ladder. They will not let you fall, if you keep your eye fixed upon the glory of God which is at the top of the ladder....
UL	256	3	Satan is seeking to cast his hellish shadow across your pathway, that he may hinder your journey heavenward. Act as though you had within you a power from above, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth you may resist that power which is working intensely from beneath. To have in the heart the sweet, mellow Spirit of Jesus Christ is of more consequence than any amount of self-sufficiency and self-exaltation, which separate you from Christ.
UL	256	4	Christ teaches humanity never to be self-sufficient. He says, "Learn of me; ... I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29). Learn of the One who was meek and lowly in heart--the One who has promised, "Ye shall find rest unto your souls." This glorious experience will come, and you can say, "I know Him! I know Him! I have tested Him; I have proved Him, and He has never failed me." ...
UL	256	5	If you send up your petition to God, He says He hears you. What is your evidence? Do you feel any better than before? Do you think of and examine your feelings to see if some great change has taken place within? You should step out on the Word of God, and go straight forward, knowing that He answers your prayers, because He has promised to give, if you ask. Thus by exercising faith, [you] bring about the answer to your petitions. As you work to answer your own prayers, you will find that God will reveal Himself unto you.... Begin now to reach higher and still higher. Prize the things of heaven above earthly attractions and inducements.... Learn how to pray; learn how to bear a clear and intelligent testimony, and God will be glorified in you. If you trust God, if you commit the keeping of your souls unto Him as unto a faithful Creator, you will have the sweet assurance of His love.--Manuscript 85, August 30, 1901, "Teachers to Have an Abiding Christ," talk given at a church school teachers' institute, Healdsburg, California.
------------------------Christ Holds the Standard High, August 31
UL	257	1	As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. John 17:2.
UL	257	2	God would have every man look unto Jesus, who is the Author and the Finisher of our faith. As Christians, we must in words and actions exercise the noble traits of character that dwelt in Jesus Christ, as the very highest gift that can be conferred upon the soul of man. Will everyone who names the name of Christ depart from all iniquity? The word used here does not always mean the grosser forms of sin. It means every action we would not be pleased to meet in heaven. From all such actions we are to depart. We are not to practice them in this life, either in the family or in the church. All who enter heaven where Jesus is will have in this life the characteristics that will make heaven here below. Blessed and beneficent are the rays of light from the Sun of Righteousness who is now pouring His enlightening, healing beams upon everyone who will open the windows of the soul heavenward.
UL	257	3	There are many who, though they profess to be Christians, would spoil heaven should they be translated with a spirit and character such as they now have. Their lives are full of earthliness; their tempers are unsanctified; they harbor prejudices that ought never to exist; they are wholly human. An atmosphere so unlike the character of Christ has surrounded the soul, so that they could not enjoy the change from earth to heaven. This earth is our school where we are to be proved and tried to see if we will become stewards of the grace of Christ. The power of the grace of Christ is to work in the children of disobedience until Christ Himself is formed within, the hope of glory. We must reveal that we are converted, born again, before we can see heaven. Shall we begin now to labor as humble learners of Jesus Christ? O how infinite is His love and grace! How utterly beyond price is His love expressed for fallen man! Christ, because He loves us, holds the standard high, and He will take our disposition, and make it like His own....
UL	257	4	Through faith all may receive much, if they will open the windows of the soul heavenward to let the Sun of Righteousness shine in.... We are to accept the ways and works of God through whomsoever He shall send them. We are to follow humbly in the way of the Lord. The way to evidence to the world that we are Christ's followers is to manifest unselfish love for one another, not seeking the supremacy....
UL	257	5	O that God would so impress His people that they may behold His glory, and exclaim, I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!--Manuscript 93, August 31, 1903, "Concerning the Signing of Contracts."
------------------------What Would Jesus Do? September 1
UL	258	1	Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. 2 Corinthians 3:2.
UL	258	2	O how greatly we need Jesus Christ every moment!... Let every man stand in his lot and in his place, working with earnestness, decision, and power to advance God's cause, bearing aloft the standard on which are inscribed the words "The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." ... We may teach the Bible ever so zealously, but if we do not honor the truth by efforts proportionate to its greatness, we shall form ideas of Christ which do not honor the self-denying, self-sacrificing Redeemer. We need Christ every moment. We need to look up and study His character. What would Christ do were He in my place? is to be our measurement of our duty. It is possible to preach the Word and walk directly contrary to its teaching, showing in the home life and in business life a form of godliness without the power.
UL	258	3	Vague suppositions regarding Christ are not enough. We need an abiding Christ. We need to eat His Word. He is the Bread of Life. The revealed Word is our photograph of Christ. The world can only be expelled from the soul by filling the soul with Christ. Just as the life of the body is produced by the temporal food eaten, so the life of the soul is produced by the spiritual food eaten.
UL	258	4	He who would have spiritual life and vigor must eat the flesh and drink of the blood of the Son of God. Christ declares, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me" (John 6:35, 54-57).
UL	258	5	O that the workers in every line of the service of God would eat of the leaves of the tree of life, which are for the healing of the nations.
UL	258	6	But I cannot write more now. I will try to write again soon. I could not sleep after one o'clock this morning. I have had many things to think of. Today Willie and Dr. [A. J.] Sanderson go to San Francisco to attend a meeting of the Medical Board, where some important matters will be settled, we hope, after the mind of Christ.--Letter 125, September 1, 1901, to Elder and Mrs. S.N. Haskell, who were doing evangelistic work among the blacks of New York City.
------------------------The Uses of Adversity, September 2
UL	259	1	To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Isaiah 61:3.
UL	259	2	Affliction and adversity may cause much inconvenience and may bring great depression, but it is prosperity that is dangerous to spiritual life. Unless the human subject is in constant submission to the will of God, unless he is sanctified by the truth and has the faith that works by love and purifies the soul, prosperity will surely arouse the natural inclination to presumption....
UL	259	3	In the valley of humiliation, where men depend on God to teach them and to guide their every step, there is comparative safety. But let everyone who has a living connection with God pray for ... those who are standing on a lofty pinnacle and who, because of their exalted position, are supposed to have much wisdom. Unless such men feel their need of an Arm stronger than the arm of flesh to lean upon, unless they make God their dependence, their view of things will become distorted and they will fall.
UL	259	4	The Lord has instructed me to urge everyone to realize that man is human. The church of Christ is in need of close communion with the Lord Jesus. Those who feel most their dependence upon God are usually those who have the least amount of earthly treasure on which to depend.
UL	259	5	Of all the trees, the Scotch fir tree is one of the best from which Christians may draw inspiring lessons. The Scotch fir requires less soil for its roots than any other tree. In a dry soil and amidst barren rocks it finds sufficient nourishment to keep it as green in the winter as in the summer. With the least amount of earth about its roots, it towers above all the other trees of the wood, reaching the highest toward heaven....
UL	259	6	The church members who are standing in their lot and place are trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. Although their surrounding circumstances may be adverse, yet, like the fir tree with little soil about its roots, they constantly reach heavenward, drawing nourishment from above. Like the fragrant boughs of the fir tree, they impart grace for grace received. The hidden nourishment that comes from God is returned to Him in purest service.... God calls for every man's best energies. No man can find in any human being the strength that will enable him to serve God with all his powers. He must be a partaker of the divine nature.--Manuscript 145, September 2, 1902, "Diary."
------------------------Mystery of the Incarnation, September 3
UL	260	1	And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. 1 Timothy 3:16.
UL	260	2	Was the human nature of the Son of Mary changed into the divine nature of the Son of God? No, the two natures were mysteriously blended in one person--the Man Christ Jesus. In Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When Christ was crucified, it was His human nature that died. Deity did not sink and die; that would have been impossible. Christ, the Sinless One, will save every son and daughter of Adam who accepts the salvation proffered them, consenting to become the children of God. The Saviour has purchased the fallen race with His own blood. This is a great mystery, a mystery that will not be fully, completely understood in its greatness until the translation of the redeemed shall take place. Then the power and greatness and efficacy of the gift of God to man will be understood. But the enemy is determined that this gift shall be so mystified that it will become as nothingness....
UL	260	3	Who by searching can find out God to perfection? The Gospels set forth the character of Christ as infinitely perfect. I wish I could speak of this so that the whole world could hear the object of Christ's mission and work. Read and search the Scriptures, in which Christ is set forth as the divine object of our faith. When finite man, under the subtle influence of the tempter, comes to question the words of the One who is called "Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6), his conceptions of himself increase, and his conceptions of Christ and God decrease....
UL	260	4	The most gifted men on the earth could all find abundant employment, from now until the judgment, for all their God-given powers in exalting the character of Christ. But they would still fail to present Him as He is. The mysteries of redemption, embracing Christ's divine-human character, His incarnation, His atonement for sin, could employ the pens and the highest mental powers of the wisest men from now until Christ shall be revealed in the clouds of heaven in power and great glory. But though these men should seek with all their power to give a representation of Christ and His work, the representation would fall far short of the reality....
UL	260	5	The theme of redemption will employ the minds and tongues of the redeemed through everlasting ages. The reflection of the glory of God will shine forth forever and ever from the Saviour's face.--Letter 280, September 3, 1904, to "Ministers, Physicians, and Teachers."
------------------------Scenes of the Second Advent, September 4
UL	261	1	For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. Deuteronomy 32:22.
UL	261	2	Every satanic agency is now at work with power from beneath. The day of death is not set before us in the Word as the great constraining motive impelling us to be wide awake and determined in improving our opportunities. What motive does God present in His Word to all His workers? ... "The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly" (Zephaniah 1:14). And before the coming of this last great day, we are to proclaim the last message of mercy to a fallen world, to prepare men and women for the Lord's second coming.
UL	261	3	Everything that can be devised by the enemy to occupy the mind, and to divert attention from this message, will be devised. But we are to go forward in the proclamation of the Word of the Lord. The end of all things is at hand. The coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, is very near....
UL	261	4	In the day of His coming, the last great trumpet is heard, and there is a terrible shaking of earth and heaven. The whole earth, from the loftiest mountains to the deepest mines, will hear. Everything will be penetrated by fire. The tainted atmosphere will be cleansed by fire. The fire having fulfilled its mission, the dead that have been laid away in the grave will come forth--some to the resurrection of life, to be caught up to meet their Lord in the air, and some to behold the coming of Him whom they have despised and whom they now recognize as the Judge of all the earth.
UL	261	5	All the righteous are untouched by the flames. They can walk through the fire, as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walked in the midst of the furnace heated seven times hotter than it was wont to be heated. The Hebrew worthies could not be consumed, because the form of the fourth, the Son of God, was with them. So in the day of the coming of the Lord, smoke and flame will be powerless to harm the righteous. Those who are united with the Lord will escape unscathed. Earthquakes, hurricanes, flame, and flood cannot injure those who are prepared to meet their Saviour in peace. But those who rejected our Saviour, and scourged and crucified Him, will be among those who will be raised from the dead to behold His coming in the clouds of heaven, attended by the heavenly host--ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands....
UL	261	6	This scene has been presented before me as fully as I could bear to behold it. Then the scene has changed, and scenes of things existing at the present time have passed before me--Manuscript 159, September 4, 1903, "A Message to Leading Physicians."
------------------------The Battle Over God's Law, September 5
UL	262	1	The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. Psalm 111:7, 8.
UL	262	2	Satan is at work from beneath to stir up the hellish powers of his confederacy of evil against the just. He imbues human agencies with his own attributes. Evil angels united with evil men will put forth efforts to harass, persecute, and destroy. But the Lord God of Israel will not forsake those who trust in Him. Amid the strengthening of infidelity and apostasy, amid the pretended illumination which is the blindest presumption and delusion, there will be a light from the sanctuary above shining upon God's people. The truth of God will triumph.
UL	262	3	The commandments of God will be trampled underfoot, as they were trampled upon by Satan in heaven. Unless God pours His converting power and grace upon the soul, there will be no attempt to oppose Satan, but men will be under his control, his willing captives. The enmity against Satan is put in man by God Himself. God calls upon His people to occupy a distinct, decided position. The righteous fervor with which Christ denounced every abomination in our world, the unsullied purity, which made manifest the corruption of those that deceived the people by an appearance of sanctity, excited bitter hostility against Him.
UL	262	4	Today the same attitude on the part of His people will call forth similar treatment. Every person will be arrayed under one of the two banners. The chosen and loyal will stand under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel, and all others under Satan's standard. All who are on Satan's side will unite with him in honoring the spurious Sabbath, thus paying homage to the man of sin, who has exalted himself above all that is called God and [who] has thought to change times and laws. They trample upon the laws of Jehovah and frame laws to compel all to worship the false Sabbath, the idol they have exalted. But the day of deliverance to God's people is not far distant.
UL	262	5	I wish that all could appreciate the wonderful working of God in behalf of man. For fallen angels there has been no atonement; but for fallen man a full and ample offering has been made to save to the uttermost all who shall come unto God by Him. He will not turn away one repentant seeker. "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham [that humanity might reach humanity, and divinity lay hold upon divinity]" (Hebrews 2:16).--Letter 33, September 5, 1892, to S. N. Haskell.
------------------------Insights into the Easter Story, September 6
UL	263	1	Behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. Matthew 28:11.
UL	263	2	The angels of the Lord excel in strength. One angel appeared before the Roman guard appointed to watch Christ's tomb and caused them to fear and quake and to become as powerless as dead men. Yet the whole scene was forever stamped on their minds. A mighty angel with exceeding great glory descended from the heavens to the earthly sepulcher, and laying hold on the sealed stone, removed it as he would a pebble. Then the mighty angel, with a voice that caused the earth to quake, was heard to say, "Jesus, Thou Son of God, Thy Father calls Thee." Then He who had earned the power to conquer death and the grave came forth, and proclaimed over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, "I am the resurrection and the life."
UL	263	3	The soldiers hastened to the priests, and with quaking hearts told them what had happened. The faces of the priests were as those of the dead. Caiaphas tried to speak. His lips moved, but they uttered no sound. The soldiers were about to leave the council room when a voice stayed them. Caiaphas had at last found speech. "Wait, wait," he said. "Tell no one the things you have seen."
UL	263	4	A lying report was given to the soldiers. "Say ye," said the priests, "his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept" (Matthew 28:13). The soldiers sold their integrity for money. They came in before the priests burdened with a most startling message of truth; they went out with a burden of money and on their tongues a lying report which had been framed for them by the priests.
UL	263	5	The lying report was spread far and near. But there were witnesses to Christ's resurrection whom the priests could not silence. Certain of the dead who came forth with Christ appeared to many and declared that He had risen. And Christ Himself remained with His disciples for forty days after He rose from the dead, and before His ascension [He] gave them their commission, bidding them go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
UL	263	6	In this age, a time of satanic wonders, everything conceivable will be said and done to deceive if possible the very elect. Let believers say nothing to extol Satan's power. The Lord will distinguish His commandment-keeping people with signal marks of His favor, if they will be molded and fashioned by His Spirit, and built up in the most holy faith, hearkening strictly to the voice of His Word.--Letter 195, September 6, 1903, to W. C. White.
------------------------Witnessing to Others, September 7
UL	264	1	Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? Isaiah 58:6, 7.
UL	264	2	We are living in the last days of this earth's history, and it is time we understood what we must do to be saved. The Lord will work intelligently for all who will work intelligently for Him. My brethren and sisters, there is something more for you to do than to sit in your churches Sabbath after Sabbath and to listen to the preaching of the Word. You have a work to do for [your] friends and neighbors. God requires ... that you visit these families and seek to create an interest in the truth for this time. You are not laboring together with God if you neglect the work of helping others to take hold upon eternal realities.
UL	264	3	Our ministers are not to be encouraged to hover about the churches to repeat to the believers week after week the same truths. We have a truth that is saving and precious. The Word of God must be planted in many hearts; the bread of life must be dealt out to many hungering souls.... It is a blessed work to lift up Christ before the world.
UL	264	4	When the work of the judgment is finished and decisions have been made for eternity, it will be seen that it is those who have given themselves wholeheartedly to the service of God who will stand right with heaven. Some of these may not have been able to leave their families to go to some mission field, but they have been missionaries in their own neighborhood. Their hearts have been so filled with the love of God that their great anxiety has been to win souls for Him. This has been more to them than silver and gold and the precious things of this world. And as they have labored in simplicity to minister the Word of truth, the Spirit of God has sent home the Word to the hearts of the people.
UL	264	5	My brethren and sisters, let us study the simplicity there is in the Word of God. Let us see what we can do to advance the cause of Christ in the earth. Christ was in this world as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. There were many who set themselves against His work. There will be those who will oppose you. But your work is to preach Christ and Him crucified; and when you do this, the salvation of God will be revealed in the conversion of souls....
UL	264	6	Let the light shine where you are. Lay hold of the power that there is in Christ, and learn to overcome through the merits of His blood and the word of your testimony.--Manuscript 93, September 7, 1909, "Address to the Church at Salt Lake City."
------------------------Help for the Conflict Promised, September 8
UL	265	1	Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. Isaiah 43:1.
UL	265	2	Every obstacle to the redemption of the people of God is to be removed by the opening of the Word of God and the presentation of a plain "Thus saith the Lord." The true light is to shine forth, for darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people. The truth of the living God is to appear in contrast with error. Proclaim the glad tidings: We have a Saviour who has given His life that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
UL	265	3	Obstacles to the advancement of the work of the Lord will appear, but fear not. To the omnipotence of the King of kings, our covenant-keeping God unites the gentleness and care of a tender shepherd. Nothing can stand in His way. His power is absolute, and is the pledge of the sure fulfillment of His promises to His people. He can remove all obstructions to the advancement of His work....
UL	265	4	The church of Christ is God's agency for the proclamation of truth, empowered by Him to do a special work, and if she is loyal to God, obedient to all His commandments, there will dwell within her the excellency of divine power. If she will honor the Lord God of Israel, there is no power that can stand against her. If she will be true to her allegiance, the forces of the enemy will be no more able to overpower her than is the chaff to resist the whirlwind.
UL	265	5	There is before the church the dawn of a bright, glorious day, if she will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all alliance with the world. The members of the church need now to confess their backslidings, and press together. My brethren and sisters, allow nothing to come in that will separate you from one another and from God. Talk not of differences of opinion, but unite in the love of the truth as it is in Jesus. Come before God and plead the shed blood of the Saviour as a reason that you should receive help in the warfare against evil. I assure you that you will not plead in vain. As you draw near to God, with heartfelt contrition and in full assurance of faith, the enemy who seeks to destroy you will be overcome.
UL	265	6	Turn to the Lord, ye prisoners of hope. Seek strength from God, the living God. Show an unwavering, humble faith in His power and willingness to save. From Christ is flowing the living stream of salvation. He is the Fountain of life and the Source of all power.--Letter 199, September 8, 1903, to "My Brethren in Positions of Responsibility in the Cause of God."
------------------------Courage in the Lord, September 9
UL	266	1	For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7.
UL	266	2	Gird on the armor of the Lord.... Opposition will come. Unbelief will be manifested by those who do not encourage faith and hope. When you cannot tell which way to turn, rest the whole matter with God. Encourage in your heart the faith that works by love and purifies the soul....
UL	266	3	The Lord has a work for you somewhere, but wherever that field may be, do not make an incomplete work of your consecration. Strive earnestly to glorify God, who has given His only begotten Son to save you. When you teach the Word, keep to the affirmative, and let the melting mercy of the love of God into your heart, and the quickening influence of His Holy Spirit into your mind....
UL	266	4	Be of good courage in the Lord.... Now is our time to pray and to believe and to do earnest work before the church, the means of higher education, and the agency of the Holy Spirit. That agency is truly for your life. Christ, the Chief Physician, has the only wisdom that can apply the unfailing remedy.
UL	266	5	I am instructed by the Holy Spirit to say, "All who believe the truth are to be the Lord's messengers." As disciples they are to learn continually of Christ, how to lift up their thoughts, to enlarge their expectations, and to have the loftiest conceptions of His excellence and grace, that the endowment of His Holy Spirit may compensate for the loss of His personal presence. This the Saviour sought to impress on the minds of His disciples.
UL	266	6	Let there be more earnest prayer in seeking the Lord. "Every one," said Christ, "that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth" (Luke 11:10). I am enjoined to urge upon every teacher of the gospel the need of multiplying and enlarging their conceptions of what Christ will be to them in carrying responsibilities. Capabilities increase wonderfully under the Holy Spirit's power....
UL	266	7	Will you seek the Lord most earnestly? Pray, pray as humble seekers. Do not put your ingenuity to work to prove that others are evil, but tell them in tenderness to probe deeply their own sinful hearts, and pray that the Lord will purge the soul temple of sins. Let each confess his own sins; then may he draw nigh with full assurance of faith.--Letter 296, September 9, 1906, to O. A. Olsen, at the time secretary of the North American Foreign Department of the General Conference.
------------------------The Life of Continual Victory, September 10
UL	267	1	For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:11.
UL	267	2	The Lord will not accept the work of any man that is not done in tenderness and love and kindness. He has not set us as rulers, to lord it over His heritage. Let others be moved by Christ, just as we desire to be moved by Him.
UL	267	3	Night after night, scenes have been presented to me of little companies pleading with God. He would show them some idol they had been cherishing. Some would give this up, and some would not. But the light of heaven shone from the faces of those who would put away their idol. Then other idols would be shown to them, and again some would put these away. But the light of heaven shone upon all who would give up all for Christ.
UL	267	4	We want to receive everything that God has for us in these days when wickedness is increasing so rapidly. Are we learning the lesson, as we see the increase of wickedness, that we must just as verily increase in righteousness? Do we understand that we must be growing in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, that we must be living upon the plan of addition? "Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
UL	267	5	"For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:5-11).
UL	267	6	Here is brought to view our eternal life insurance policy. We had better make sure that we are living on this plan of addition, and God will work for us on the plan of multiplication. He will multiply unto us grace and peace. Let us fix our eyes on the cross of Calvary, and behold the sacrifice of Christ to secure for us this life insurance policy--"If ye do these things, ye shall never fall; for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Verses 10, 11).--Manuscript 73, September 10, 1906, "The Work in Mountain View."
------------------------Keep Looking Up, September 11
UL	268	1	Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1.
UL	268	2	God's ambassadors must be an example to the unbelieving world and to the flock of God in words, in spirit, and in character. They must be one in heart. Christ prayed to His Father that this might be, and they are to answer that prayer in doing God's will, in loving one another, in esteeming one another--not continually looking for slights, and watching to find something to which they can take exception.
UL	268	3	If they are looking to Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of their faith, they will not be regarding their precious selves with so much solicitude. They will be waiting and diligently hearkening to receive their orders from the Captain of their salvation, and they will not be saying, as did Peter, "Lord, and what shall this man do?" Christ said to Peter, "What is that to thee? follow thou me" (John 21:21, 22). We must not take our eyes off Jesus....
UL	268	4	God has given to every man his work. When He gives to His servant a special work to do, what a pity it is that he will take up so many burdens that God has not appointed to him, but to some others to bear, and go on grumbling and complaining.
UL	268	5	What tongue can tell, what pen can trace and unfold, the mighty moral results of looking with earnest believing hearts unto Jesus, our Helper? "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). What a grand victory! Beholding, you become a changed man. Consider this: We behold, and catch the bright beams in the face of Jesus Christ. We receive as much as we can bear. Let us not stop to quarrel over circumstances, but keep Christ in view. Through the transforming power of the Holy Ghost we become assimilated to the image of the blessed Object we behold.
UL	268	6	Do not murmur nor find fault. Looking unto Jesus, the image of Christ is engraven upon the soul and reflected back in spirit, in words, in true service for our fellow beings. Christ's joy is in our hearts, and our joy is full. This is true religion. Let us make sure to obtain it, and to be kind, to be courteous, to have love in the soul--that kind of love which flows forth and is expressed in good works, which is a light to shine to the world, and which makes our joy full.--Manuscript 26, September 11, 1889, "An Appeal for Unity and Harmony."
------------------------Self Must Die, September 12
UL	269	1	And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2:10.
UL	269	2	The truths of the Word of God possess a sanctifying, transforming power. If received into the heart, and carried into the life, they will prove a savor of life unto life....
UL	269	3	There is a work to be done for some who feel no special need of help. It is because they do not feel their needy condition, that they do not reform. They carry the mold of a spoiled character. Unless these souls experience the new birth, they will never see the kingdom of heaven. Unless evil is put away from the life, they cannot be welcomed to the presence of holy angels. God will never again permit to enter the courts of heaven that which will harm and destroy.
UL	269	4	We are beset by Satan on the right hand and on the left. He is constantly seeking to spoil the faith of those connected with the work of God. But our precious faith is not to be corrupted by unconverted elements that Satan can use for the poisoning of minds and the deceiving of souls. We need to pray more and to talk less. We need to learn of Christ and to become like Him in meekness and lowliness of heart.
UL	269	5	We need to understand how necessary it is that we die to self. Self-crucifixion will place souls on vantage ground. I entreat those [of you] who profess to be Christians to die to self that you may be stirred with a new life by the Holy Spirit's power. Satan is working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. Daily we need the converting power of God, or we cannot walk in the footprints of Christ. As the mind is enlightened in regard to what is purity and sanctification, and the heart responds to the strivings of the Holy Spirit, a daily conversion will be the result.
UL	269	6	In the day of final award two classes will stand before the Judge of all the earth. To those who have failed to walk in the footsteps of Christ the words will be spoken, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:23). Those who have brought the pure, unadulterated truths of the Word of God into the practical life will hear the benediction, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant:...enter thou into the joy of thy lord" (chap. 25:21). We can never enter the City of God until we have learned to die to self, and there dwells within the soul the spirit of Christ.--Manuscript 69, September 12, 1909, "The Helpers in Our Sanitariums."
------------------------Avoid Debates and Sharp Thrusts, September 13
UL	270	1	Avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. Titus 3:9.
UL	270	2	The Holy Spirit does not work with men who love to be sharp and critical. This spirit has been cherished in meeting debaters, and some have formed the habit of squaring [off] for combat. God is dishonored in this. Keep back the sharp thrusts; do not learn in Satan's school his methods of warfare. The Holy Spirit does not inspire the words of censure. A time of trouble is before us, and every honest soul who has not had the light of truth will then take a stand for Christ. Those who believe the truth are to be newly converted every day. Then they will be vessels unto honor.
UL	270	3	Do not repeat the words of your opponents, or enter into controversy with them. You meet not merely the men, but Satan and his angels. Christ did not bring against Satan a railing accusation concerning the body of Moses. If the world's Redeemer, who understood the crooked, deceptive arts of Satan, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but in holiness and humility said, "The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan," is it not wise for His servants to follow His example? Will finite human beings take a course that Christ shunned, because it would afford Satan occasion to pervert, misrepresent, and falsify the truth?
UL	270	4	In this period of the world's history we have altogether too great a work to begin a new kind of warfare in meeting the supernatural power of satanic agencies. We must put aside personalities, however [much] we may be tempted to take advantage of words or actions. In patience we must possess our souls. Brethren, make it manifest that you are wholly on the Lord's side. Let the truth of God's Holy Word reveal transgression and sin, and manifest the sanctifying power of truth upon human hearts. A haughty spirit must not come in to mar the work of God. We have reason for gratitude to God every moment that we have the privilege of connecting with Him....
UL	270	5	There is need of contrition of soul every day, and the Lord declares the great advantage of everyone who will humble his heart and hide in Jesus. "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isaiah 57:15)....
UL	270	6	Let those who hate the law of the Lord rave and pour out their anathemas against such as have moral courage to receive and live the truth. The Lord is our strength.--Letter 21, September 13, 1895, to an evangelist in Australia.
------------------------The Unity Christ is Looking for, September 14
UL	271	1	And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13.
UL	271	2	By our unity we are to bear strong, indisputable evidence that Christ came to this world to save sinners. Satan works with all his ingenuity to prevent human beings from bearing this evidence. He wants them to develop an unsanctified individuality so that they shall not love one another. Too often professing Christians yield to him, and then the merest trifle causes a difference to spring up among them. Men and women professing godliness build walls of separation between them and their fellow workers, because not all think in exactly the same way, or follow exactly the same methods. Those who stand apart, refusing to harmonize, dishonor God before the world. Christ prayed for unity. It is His will that His followers shall labor together in Christian fellowship....
UL	271	3	Let us respond to Christ's invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). To respond to this invitation, we must let go all self-importance, all feeling of superiority, and bow in submission to the will of God.
UL	271	4	"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me" (John 17:22, 23).
UL	271	5	What a wonderful change would be seen in our world if all would obey Christ's words. He has united His interests with those of humanity, that men and women may receive from Him power to do His will. Those who through His grace become partakers of the divine nature receive the rich blessings that in the councils of heaven it was declared should be bestowed on those who believe in Christ as a personal Saviour....
UL	271	6	In order for us to bear the fruit that glorifies God, our hearts must be filled with the love of Christ. We must learn of Him, His meekness and lowliness. Then we shall not strive for self-exaltation.... When men see more clearly the completeness of Christ's sacrifice and condescension, they will better understand what is comprehended by oneness with Him.--Letter 205, September 14, 1903, to "My Dear Brethren and Sisters in Australia."
------------------------The Solemnity of the Final Judgment, September 15
UL	272	1	Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. Matthew 25:45, 46.
UL	272	2	What a work there is before us! Who comprehends it? Christ would have all understand that the end of all things is at hand, that the solemn scenes of the final judgment are soon to take place. In that great day, those whose characters the Judge of all the earth can vindicate will stand before the world glorified and honored. On this earth they manifested forth the light and glory of God, and He now rewards them according to their works.
UL	272	3	The whole world will then receive sentence. Of all the question will be asked, "Have you diligently studied the Word of God that you might know the will of God, that you might be enabled to understand the difference between sin and righteousness?" Sad will be the fate of those who would not come to Christ that they might be cleansed from all unrighteousness. Then sinners see the character of God as it is. And they see, too, the sinfulness of the sins that have drawn souls away from Christ, and placed them under the banner of rebellion, to war against Him who gave His life for them.
UL	272	4	Because Christ was one with the Father, equal with Him, He could make an atonement for transgression, and save man--not in his sins, but from his sins. Those who have despised His grace will see what they have lost by treating with contempt the One who humbled Himself to stand at the head of humanity. They hear the words of condemnation, "Depart from Me. By your example you have caused many to err. You have led them astray from the commandments in obedience to which they would have found eternal life."
UL	272	5	Far different are the words spoken to God's faithful ones. "Come, ye blessed of my Father," Christ says, "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Then from the host of the redeemed there rises the triumphant chorus, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" O that our minds could comprehend the greatness of the theme and the wonderful importance of the occasion.
UL	272	6	"Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." God's chosen ones may fall at their post of duty, but they have only fallen asleep, to rest till Jesus awakes them to share with Him an eternal weight of glory.--Letter 363, September 15, 1904, to her son Edson White.
------------------------To Every Man His Work, September 16
UL	273	1	For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. Matthew 25:14.
UL	273	2	Man may see no place for the working of certain gifts, because they are not his gift, but let each think of himself as God would have him. Let each bear in mind that his capabilities are only lent him, and that by these God is testing him to see whether he will use these entrusted talents to honor God and work for the good of his brother and his neighbor.
UL	273	3	Holiness, which means wholeness to God, is wholly acceptable to God. A Paul may plant, an Apollos water, but God giveth the increase. "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Galatians 6:8). ... In the natural world unseen agencies are constantly at work to produce the essential results, but the harvest to be reaped depends upon the seed that has been sown. After man faithfully prepares the land, and plants the seed, God must work constantly to cause the seed to germinate.
UL	273	4	So it is in spiritual things. The Word of the living God is the seed. Christ is the sower, and unless He constantly works the soil of the heart, there will be no harvest. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9). God gave His Son to die, the just for the unjust, that there might be a glorious harvest of souls. The human heart is God's seed plot, and the righteousness of Christ must be cherished there. Then let no man trust in the arm of flesh, but in God. Let each give evidence that he has faith, that he is not a religious dwarf, but that he grows under the dews and showers of the grace of Christ, that his life of righteousness is not of man's creating, but that it is the righteousness of Christ, which the grace of God has nourished in his heart....
UL	273	5	Some messages come as the Lord's hammer, to break down the workings of Satan and turn men to the living God. But mingled with this decided work of standing in defense of the truth is Christ's consolation, which comes when repentance reveals what sin really is. And while some are called to battle desperately with an evil work, there is another kind of message to be borne to the ones who, while suffering wrong, have endured the temptation to harbor a sense of injustice and cherish it....
UL	273	6	Again, some have the gift given them of God to act as organizers. Others fill their place as they work in retirement, feeling themselves little and unknown, with but few to recognize their work, and none to pity their mistakes or praise their victories. But the Lord uses all these elements. No one man can fill every place, and God's great work must go forward.--Manuscript 116, September 16, 1898, "The Two Great Principles of the Law."
------------------------The Cities are to be Warned, September 17
UL	274	1	And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Revelation 14:8.
UL	274	2	Individually and as a people we have a most solemn work before us. There is a daily preparation of heart and mind to be gained in order that we may be fitted to work out the purposes of God for us. The perils of the last days are upon us, and at this time we are each determining what our destiny for eternity shall be. Individually we are to form characters that will stand the test of the judgment. Individually we are to give, in the church where we are, an example of faithfulness and consecration.
UL	274	3	The ministry of the Word is designed to prepare a people to stand in the times of temptation in which we live; and church members are to cooperate with the work of [the] ministry by revealing in the life the principles of the truth, that no word shall be spoken or act performed that will lead into false paths or create a condition of things that God cannot approve.
UL	274	4	There has been revealed to me the grave dangers we shall meet in these last days of peril and temptation. Our only reliable light and guide for this time is in the Word of God. We must take this Word as our counselor, and faithfully follow its instructions, or we shall find that we are being controlled by our own peculiar traits of character, and our lives will reveal a selfish work that will be a hindrance and not a blessing to our fellow men....
UL	274	5	It is the duty of those who stand as leaders and teachers of the people to instruct church members how to labor in missionary lines, and then to set in operation the great, grand work of proclaiming widely this message, that must arouse every unworked city before the crisis shall come, when, through the working of satanic agencies, the doors now open to the message of the third angel shall be closed....
UL	274	6	The righteous judgments of God, with their weight of final decision, are coming upon the land. Do not hover over the churches to repeat over and over again the same truths to the people, while the cities are left in ignorance and sin, unwarned and unlabored for. Soon the way will be hedged up and these cities will be closed to the gospel message. Wake up the church members, that they may unite in doing a definite and self-denying work....
UL	274	7	The world is preparing for the closing work of the third angel's message. The truth is now to go forth with a power that it has not known for years. The message of present truth is to be proclaimed everywhere.--Manuscript 61, September 17, 1909, "Words of Instruction."
------------------------The Working Member, September 18
UL	275	1	Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:23.
UL	275	2	It is a most solemn thing to represent to the world the character of Christ. Wherever this is done, by whomever it is done, there is seed sown unto eternal life. Whatever you may see others doing that your judgment convicts you as being unseemly for a Christian, see to it that you never do the same things yourself. Never grieve the heart of Jesus, who has borne your sins and carried your sorrows. Serve God in meekness and lowliness of heart.
UL	275	3	The Lord loves you, and just as long as you will follow in the footsteps of Jesus, you will walk securely. It is essential that every soul that names the name of Christ should make straight paths for his feet. Why? Lest the lame be turned out of the way. It is a terrible, terrible thing to give a soul a wrong example, and to lead him in a crooked course by the way in which you may walk. We shall soon stand before the judgment seat of Christ, not to have our cases decided, for this has been done before. The judgment sits, the books are opened, and it is revealed that every man receives according to that which he hath done, whether it be good or evil. Crowd all the good works possible into your life....
UL	275	4	Jesus is rich in grace. Draw, constantly draw from Him, for you may have rich supplies. The demon of heresy has mapped out the world, and has resolved to possess it as his kingdom. Those who are in his army are numerous. They are disguised, and are subtle and persevering. They resist every divine influence, and employ every instrumentality in order to compass the ruin of even one soul. They possess a zeal, tact, and ability that is marvelous, and press their way into every new opening where the standard of truth is uplifted.
UL	275	5	What will the laborers together with God do? Wherein lies their ability and efficiency? Those who are workers together with God will work in Christ's lines. Imbued with the spirit of Christ, they will rise to their true dignity and responsibility. The church is not to fold her hands in security and say, "I am rich, and increased in goods, and in need of nothing." The followers of Christ are not to trust to past experience, and fail to go on to perfection. In so doing, the church will meet with defeat and ruin. Upon what shall she depend? Wholly and entirely upon God--Letter 89, September 18, 1894, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Have Faith in God, September 19
UL	276	1	The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? Psalm 118:6.
UL	276	2	Dear Brother: ... I know that you are often tempted and tried. I know that the Lord will not leave you to wrestle with these temptations alone. Only believe Jesus is your Helper, a very present help in time of trouble. Somehow today it seemed to me I must see you and bid you look up; yes, look up through the mist, through the clouds to the Sun of Righteousness. You must not be depressed. It is the depressing discouragements that are sapping your life forces. You must be cheerful even though disappointed in men. Jesus understands; Jesus is true; Jesus is your Saviour. Only a little while of trial, a little moment of affliction, then an eternal weight of glory.
UL	276	3	I write to you as I would to my own sons. You are in the place where God would have you. I tell you, my brother, there is no mistake in this matter. I know what I am talking about. Be true to God, and you will do the work He has given you to do with fidelity. God lives and reigns. We have a living and a risen Saviour. He has a care for you.... He has never proved false; He has never deceived you. He will be your guide and deliverer in the most trying circumstances. He will be at your right hand. We are every moment girded with His power and surrounded by His presence as really as were the Israelites in the midst of the divided sea.
UL	276	4	The deepest and truest philosophy of life and faith is to bring ourselves into the most intimate relation with God. God is giving you an experience, and if you do not grieve too much and feel too keenly, you will have physical strength. But sorrow and dissension and untruthfulness is to you a living death. But you must in faith commit your case to God. Truth will triumph and you will triumph with it.
UL	276	5	Keep fast hold on Jesus. Look up to the haven of rest and the home of the blest. Keep your soul in the love of God whatever may betide, and you will grow spiritually strong. Jesus is your loving Friend; He will take your hand and help you over every hard and trying place. A grateful, trustful, habitual recognition of God lies at the very foundation of all right conduct, all true character. You must never lose confidence in God. It were less sinful, less unreasonable, to forget every human friend you have in the world than to forget God. I know that you love God, and I know you will try to serve Him in all sincerity, in all fidelity, and no one will ever be able to make you afraid or ashamed to be known as a servant of the Most High God. May the Lord bless you is the prayer of (signed) Ellen G. White.--Letter 22, September 19, 1886, to Dr. J. S. Gibbs, a physician at the Rural Health Retreat, St. Helena, California.
------------------------A Message for the World, September 20
UL	277	1	Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. Revelation 1:19.
UL	277	2	Every feature of the third angel's message is to be proclaimed in all parts of the world. This is a much greater work than many realize. Our missionary enterprises are the one great object demanding our undivided attention at this time. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." In this work we are to study simplicity.
UL	277	3	This message is a testing message. Received into honest hearts, it will prove an antidote for all the world's sins and sorrows. No conditions of climate, of poverty, of ignorance, or of prejudice can hinder its efficiency, or lessen its adaptability to the needs of mankind.
UL	277	4	The proclamation of the great gospel message is the work of the disciples of Christ. Some will labor for this in one way, and others will carry another branch of the work, as the Lord calls and directs them individually. All have not the same line of work, but all may unite in their efforts. The Word of the living God is to be proclaimed throughout the world. The gospel is to go forth with great power, marked by practical manifestations of the Spirit of God. Our workers are to become a living agency to reveal the purpose of God in calling them to His work. The word of the glorious gospel is to be preached in its divine comprehensiveness. By the living voice, and by kind, compassionate deeds, we are to exemplify the principles of the gospel....
UL	277	5	The truth may be advanced by works of charity, by helping the ignorant, the sick, the hungry, and the helpless. But our work is not to be confined to the outcasts.... Let the churches be purged from their selfishness and their pride, and gain an experience in uniting with one another to encourage the hearts of the doubting and to recover those who have entered the mist and fog of unbelief.
UL	277	6	All are to hear the last message of warning. The prophecies in the book of Revelation, chapters 12 to 18, are being fulfilled. In the eighteenth chapter is recorded the very last call to the churches. This call is now to be given. In the nineteenth chapter, the time is pictured when the beast and the false prophet are taken, and cast into a lake of fire. The dragon, who was the instigator of the great rebellion against heaven, is bound, and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years. Then follows the resurrection of the wicked and the final destruction of Satan and all the wicked, and the final triumph and reign of Christ in this earth.--Manuscript 75, September 20, 1906, "A Caution Against Heavy Investment in Food Manufacture."
------------------------The God of Science and Revelation, September 21
UL	278	1	For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. 1 Corinthians 1:17.
UL	278	2	Those who read and listen to the sophistries that prevail in this age do not know God as He is. They contradict the Word of God, and extol and worship nature in the place of the Creator. While we may discern the workings of God in the things He has created, these things are not God.... The physical creation testifies of God and Jesus Christ as the great Creator of all things. "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men" (John 1:3, 4). The psalmist bears witness, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard" (Psalm 19:1-3)....
UL	278	3	The uneducated heathen learns his lessons through nature and through his own necessities, and, dissatisfied with darkness, he is reaching out for light, searching for God in the First Great Cause. There is recorded in Genesis various ways in which God speaks to the heathen. But the contrast between the revelation of God in Genesis and the ideas of the heathen is striking. Many of the pagan philosophers had a knowledge of God that was pure; but degeneracy, the worship of created things, began to obscure this knowledge. The handiwork of God in the natural world--the sun, the moon, the stars--were worshiped.
UL	278	4	Men today declare that Christ's teachings concerning God cannot be substantiated by the things of the natural world, that nature is not in harmony with the Old and New Testament Scriptures. This supposed lack of harmony between nature and science does not exist. The Word of the God of heaven is not in harmony with human science, but it is in perfect accord with His own created science.
UL	278	5	This living God is worthy of our thought, our praise, our adoration, as the Creator of the world, as the Creator of man. We are to praise God, for we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Our substance was not hid from Him when we were made in secret. His eyes saw our substance, yet being imperfect, and in His book all our members were written when as yet there was none of them. He breathed into our nostrils the breath of life. The inspiration of God has given us understanding.--Manuscript 117, September 21, 1898, "A Personal God."
------------------------Stand Fast in God, September 22
UL	279	1	And go ... unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord God; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear. Ezekiel 3:11.
UL	279	2	I am again and again reminded that I am not to try to clear away the confusion and contradiction of faith and feeling and unbelief that is expressed. I am not to be depressed, but am to speak the words of the Lord with authority, and then leave with Him all the consequences. I am instructed by the Great Physician to speak the word that the Lord gives me, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. I am told that I have nothing to do with the consequences, that God, even the Lord Jehovah, will keep me in perfect peace if I will rest in His love and do the work He has given me....
UL	279	3	The Lord desires us to put our trust in Him. I am keeping on the watch, not knowing how soon I may be called on to lay off my armor. I want my every word and impulse and action to be such that in the judgment I shall not be ashamed of them. I realize something of the time in which we are living. Our time of discipline on this earth, yours and mine, is very limited....
UL	279	4	I never realized more decidedly than at the present time the help of the Lord in my speaking and writing. I shall stand on the field of battle until the Lord releases me. I am afraid for our people--afraid that the love of the world is robbing them of godliness and piety. I am trying to arouse them to see the danger of being decoyed by the enemy onto enchanted ground. I am trying to show them the need of cultivating faith and love at all times and under all circumstances.
UL	279	5	It is only by strong faith that a strong love for the Saviour can be kept alive in the heart. Our faith in Christ must be a pure, strong, genuine faith. There is a spurious faith, which leads only to confidence in self and to criticism of others. Such faith quenches every spark of Christlike love in the soul.
UL	279	6	God calls upon His people to be united. But our union can be genuine only as we move upward to the cross of Calvary, every day crucifying self. All efforts at union that are not founded on the softening, subduing love of Christ in the heart will most assuredly fail....
UL	279	7	There is power in genuine religion. Through faith, through conformity to the will of God, we shall become so Christlike that men will see that we are partakers of the divine nature, and that we are making constant advancement in the knowledge of Christ.--Letter 146, September 22, 1902, to Brother and Sister S. T. Belden, her brother-in-law in self-supporting service.
------------------------Jesus Listens to the Contrite, September 23
UL	280	1	Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 18:10.
UL	280	2	As the veil which conceals Christ's glory from our view is drawn aside, the Saviour is shown to be in His high and holy place, not in solitude, careless and indifferent to our needs, but surrounded by thousands and thousands of holy angels, each one of which has a commission to fulfill for the blessing of humanity.
UL	280	3	The Saviour is in communication with every part of His vast dominion. He stoops from His throne to listen to the cries of His children. His heart of love is filled with pity and compassion for them. But His greatest grief, I am instructed to say, comes when grief is brought to those whom He has appointed to do a certain work; when someone who does not understand the will of God urges his way in, to cloud judgment by many words. Months and years may be needed to undo the wrong wrought in the few minutes spent in speaking unadvised words.
UL	280	4	Oh, we must not grieve the Saviour by our lack of love for one another.... At one time the disciples came to Jesus with the question, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:1-3)....
UL	280	5	We are engaged in a great and solemn work, and we should follow the Saviour closely. He will lead us to higher and still higher planes of truth. "Ye shall see greater things than these," He says, "only be diligent students." He opens to inspection the books where the name of each follower is inscribed, and they see with astonishment the record of actions dishonoring to God and actions commended by Him. Each day's record shows the workings of providence--the efforts of the Lord to keep men meek and lowly, tenderhearted, and pitiful.
UL	280	6	Christ hears every word spoken in disparagement of His children. He knows when they become almost distracted in their work because meddlesome persons, instead of attending to their own work, carry a great burden for the work of someone else.... Could the eyes of the one who is cherishing evil surmisings be opened, he would see the Saviour drawing near to the one whom he has accused, bending over him as, full of perplexity, he kneels beside his couch, weeping, and begging the Lord for strength, for wisdom, for His keeping power.--Manuscript 94, September 23, 1904, "The Sin of Evil-speaking."
------------------------God's Church a Temple, September 24
UL	281	1	Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5.
UL	281	2	The Jewish Temple was built of hewn stones quarried out of the mountains, and every stone was fitted for its place in the Temple, hewed, polished, and tested, before it was brought to Jerusalem. And when all were brought to the ground, the building went together without the sound of ax or hammer. This building represents God's spiritual temple, which is composed of material gathered out of every nation, and tongue, and people, of all grades, high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned. These are not dead substances, to be fitted by hammer and chisel. They are living stones, quarried out from the world by the truth; and the great Master Builder, the Lord of the temple, is now hewing and polishing them, and fitting them for their respective places in the spiritual temple. When completed, this temple will be perfect in all its parts, the [object of] admiration of angels and men, for its builder and maker is God.
UL	281	3	Let no one think that there need not be a stroke placed upon him. There is no person, no nation, that is perfect in every habit and thought. One must learn from another. Therefore God wants the different nationalities to mingle together, to be one in judgment, one in purpose. Then the union that there is in Christ will be exemplified.
UL	281	4	I was almost afraid to come to this country, because I heard so many say that the different nationalities of Europe were peculiar, and had to be reached in a certain way. But the wisdom of God is promised to those who feel their need and who ask for it. God can bring the people where they will receive the truth. Let the Lord take possession of the mind, and mold it as clay is molded in the hands of the potter, and these differences will not exist. Look to Jesus, brethren; copy His manners and spirit, and you will have no trouble in reaching these different classes. We have not six patterns to follow, nor five. We have only one, and that is Christ Jesus. If the Italian brethren, the French brethren, and the German brethren try to be like Him, they will plant their feet upon the same foundation of truth; the same Spirit that dwells in one will dwell in the other--Christ in them, the hope of glory. I warn you, brethren and sisters, not to build up a wall of partition between different nationalities. On the contrary, seek to break it down wherever it exists. We should endeavor to bring all into the harmony that there is in Jesus, laboring for the one object--the salvation of our fellow men.--Manuscript 135, 1901, September 24, 1885, "Unity Among Different Nationalities," a sermon given in Basel, Switzerland.
------------------------How to Meet Temptation, September 25
UL	282	1	My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. James 1:2.
UL	282	2	If this [falling into divers temptations] is our privilege, and we cannot think that the apostle has led us astray, then let us by faith appropriate the promises of God to us.
UL	282	3	"That ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." The Word does not say, "Count it all joy when ye fall under temptations," but "when ye fall into temptations." It is not necessary, because you fall into temptations, that you should fall under them. But it is a comfort to know when you fall into temptation that you are sons and daughters of God, and that the trying of your faith worketh--ill will, murmuring, fretfulness? No, patience! And this is an evidence to us that we are sons and daughters of God, if the trying of our faith worketh patience. But Jesus will help us because we look to God for our support and strength in every emergency.
UL	282	4	We learn a lesson in these trials.... "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Romans 5:1-5). But many are inclined to think, as these temptations fall upon us, that we must give up in discouragement, that we have no power to overcome. This is unbelief. We become weak because we fall under temptation and sin against God with our lips in talking discouragements and doubts, and talk on the off side and not on the side of hope and faith. You know Christ has had all these temptations. He was tempted in all points as we are. Christ says: "For the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me" (John 14:30)....
UL	282	5	As a people we are looking for our Lord to come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. How careful should we be to examine ourselves to see whether we be in the faith. There seems to be a mist hanging before the eyes of many that they cannot really discern spiritual things and the workings of Satan which threaten to entrap and ruin us. Christians will not be the slaves of passions; they will be controlled by the Spirit of Christ. When they get into perplexity they will not lose patience and faith and hope. The Lord Jesus has helped us out of peril and oppressive difficulties and perplexities hitherto, and He can help us out of our present trials.--Manuscript 20, September 25, 1887, a talk given at a workers' meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
------------------------Preparation for the Latter Rain, September 26
UL	283	1	Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. Zechariah 10:1.
UL	283	2	If you will be faithful to God, self shall be crucified; self shall die, and Christ Jesus shall live in us, and He shall be the hope of our calling; we will represent Jesus Christ to the world. Inquire sincerely, "Am I a Christian?" If I am a Christian, I am looking unto Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of my faith. In Him my hopes of eternal life are centered....
UL	283	3	We need not worry about the latter rain. All we have to do is to keep the vessel clean and right side up and prepared for the reception of the heavenly rain, and keep praying, "Let the latter rain come into my vessel. Let the light of the glorious angel which unites with the third angel shine upon me; give me a part in the work; let me sound the proclamation; let me be a colaborer with Jesus Christ." Thus seeking God, let me tell you, He is fitting you up all the time, giving you His grace.
UL	283	4	You need not be worried. You need not be thinking that there is a special time coming when you are to be crucified. The time to be crucified is just now. Every day, every hour, self is to die; self is to be crucified; and then, when the time comes that the test shall come to God's people in earnest, the everlasting arms are around you. The angels of God make a wall of fire around about and deliver you.
UL	283	5	All your self-crucifixion will not do any good then. It must be [done] before the destiny of souls is decided. It is now that self is to be crucified--when there is work to do; when there is some use to be made of every entrusted capability. It is now that we are to empty and thoroughly cleanse the vessel of its impurity. It is now that we are to be made holy unto God. This is our work, this very moment. You are not to wait for any special period for a wonderful work to be done; it is today. I give myself to God today....
UL	283	6	Are you ready to make the surrender now? You are to put away your sin right now when you see it.... Do not make leeway [that] you are going to overcome by degrees; you are going to try little by little to give up sin. Now, while it is called today, heed the invitation and harden not your hearts.
UL	283	7	Oh, my soul, why not leave the cursed thing today? Sin crucified my Lord. Why not turn from it with loathing? Why not love the things that Christ loved, and hate the things that Christ hated? He has made provision ample enough for you that you can, through Him, be more, yea, more than overcomers.--Manuscript 35, September 26, 1891, "Work and Baptism of Holy Spirit Needed."
------------------------Holier, Holier Still, September 27
UL	284	1	Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6.
UL	284	2	In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ has given a definition of true sanctification. He lived a life of holiness. He was an object lesson of what His followers are to be. We are to be crucified with Christ, buried with Him, and then quickened by His Spirit. Then we are filled with His life.
UL	284	3	Our sanctification is God's object in all His dealing with us. He has chosen us from eternity that we may be holy. Christ gave Himself for our redemption, that through our faith in His power to save from sin, we might be made complete in Him. In giving us His Word, He has given us bread from heaven. He declares that, if we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we shall receive eternal life. Why do we not dwell more upon this? Why do we not strive to make it easily understood, when it means so much? Why do not Christians open their eyes to see the work God requires them to do? Sanctification is the progressive work of a lifetime. The Lord declares, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Is it your will that your desires and inclinations shall be brought into conformity to the divine will?
UL	284	4	As Christians, we have pledged ourselves to realize and fulfill our responsibilities, and to show to the world that we have a close connection with God. Thus, through the godly words and works of His disciples, Christ is to be represented.
UL	284	5	God demands of us perfect obedience to His law--the expression of His character. "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law" (Romans 3:31). This law is the echo of God's voice, saying to us, "Holier, yes, holier still."
UL	284	6	Desire the fullness of the grace of Christ; yea, long--hunger and thirst--after righteousness. The promise is, "Ye shall be filled." Let your heart be filled with an intense longing for this righteousness, the work of which God's Word declares is peace, and its effect, quietness and assurance forever.
UL	284	7	It is our privilege to be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. God has plainly stated that He requires us to be perfect; and because He requires this, He has made provision that we may be partakers of the divine nature. Only thus can we gain success in our striving for eternal life. The power is given by Christ. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God" (John 1:12).--Letter 153, September 27, 1902, to Brother and Sister S. N. Haskell.
------------------------Two Spirits in the World, September 28
UL	285	1	Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep your's also. John 15:20.
UL	285	2	If He who was pure, holy, and undefiled, who did good and only good in our world, was treated as a base criminal, and condemned to death without a vestige of evidence against Him, what can His disciples expect but similar treatment, however faultless may be their life and blameless their character? Human enactments, laws manufactured by satanic agencies under a plea of goodness and restriction of evil, will be exalted, while God's holy enactments are despised and trampled underfoot....
UL	285	3	It is the apostasy from truth that worketh in the children of disobedience to silence the voice of those who are calling them to obedience, and provoke the loyal to become disloyal as Cain tried to provoke Abel. A demoniacal spirit takes possession of men in our world.... Demon intelligence ... will rend and destroy man formed in the divine similitude because ... [man] cannot control the conscience of his brother and make him disloyal to God's holy law, because he himself is unrighteous like Cain, who was disobedient....
UL	285	4	The world is represented in the apostate churches who are trampling upon the Word of God, transgressing His holy law. They know not what spirit they are of, nor the end of the dark tunnel through which they are passing. They are hastening forward, deceived, deluded, blind, to the first and second death. The vast tide of human will and human passion is leading to things they did not dream of when they discarded the law of Jehovah for the inventions of man.... They have exalted phantoms, and eternal realities are naught to them.
UL	285	5	But He who came to our world to seek and to save that which was lost has pledged His own life that men might have a second probation. He has pity, and compassion, and love that are without a parallel; and He has made every provision in behalf of men that none need perish. The divine Son of God came into our world, its Light and Life, to encompass the whole world and to attract and unite to Himself every human being who is under Satan's discipline and rule. He invites them, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:28, 29). Thus He unites with Himself by a new inspiration of grace all who will come unto Him. He puts upon them His seal, His sign of obedience and loyalty to His holy Sabbath.--Manuscript 104, September 28, 1897, "Condemned by the Jews."
------------------------Let God's Spirit Do the Fashioning, September 29
UL	286	1	Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Romans 6:13.
UL	286	2	The Lord desires His chosen servants to learn how to blend together. A decided influence for good is to be brought to bear on the inhabitants of the world. However diverse the talents of His workers, these workers are to labor in unity, all revealing kindness and love. By different gifts the truth is to be proclaimed, all the gifts controlled by the same Spirit....
UL	286	3	"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). This is a prescription for the healing of all spiritual, mental, and physical ills. It is Christ's gift to those who seek Him in sincerity and truth. He is the Mighty Healer. Then comes another invitation. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Verses 29, 30). Wearing Christ's yoke, and learning of Him the lesson of meekness and lowliness, we find rest in faith and confidence and trust. We find that Christ's yoke is easy and His burden light.
UL	286	4	Let those who bear responsibilities remember that it is the Holy Spirit who is to do the fashioning. It is the Lord who controls. We are not to try to mold according to our own ideas those for whom we work. We are to let Christ do the molding. He follows no human pattern. He works according to His own mind and spirit.
UL	286	5	It is man's work to reveal to the world that which Christ has placed in his heart. Through His grace man becomes a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The higher powers of the one who receives Christ are strengthened and ennobled. He receives a fitness for God's service....
UL	286	6	He who was once the covering cherub, whose work it was to hide from the heavenly intelligences the glory of God, perverted his intellect, and divorced himself from God. If a being so exalted could fall so low as to become the author of sin, let not man boast, but learn to wear gracefully the yoke of Christ, revealing His meekness and lowliness, believing on Him, cooperating with Him. "Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:20).--Letter 197, September 29, 1901, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell.
------------------------Get Ready for the Latter Rain, September 30
UL	287	1	Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. Joel 2:23.
UL	287	2	The Spirit of God is a convincing power. When this is breathed upon the church, there will be a decided change in their spiritual efficiency. The Lord God is ready to give, but many do not realize their necessity of receiving. They are weak, when they might be strong; powerless, when they might be powerful through receiving the efficiency of the Holy Spirit....
UL	287	3	From those who see the light and truth the message must go forth with a power that they do not have, and do not feel it essential that they should have. When they do take hold upon the Mighty One by living faith; when the truth is to them a living reality, then they will see a work done that at the present they do not dream of. There is a sleepy indifference upon the people who are right upon the borders of the eternal world. They have missionary work to do, decided testimonies to bear. The trumpet is to give a certain sound in warnings, in reproofs, in entreaties. All should put forth earnest labor in seeking to save perishing souls.
UL	287	4	What means this deadness? What means this spirit of being self-centered? Time is passing! The end is near! Whom are you trying to save from the pit of destruction? O that God would breathe in these worldly-minded souls; O that they might feel to the very depths of their being that they must watch unto prayer, that they have entrusted talents to be used now, just now, whenever God calls for their gifts to advance His work in our world. Do they hear the voice of God saying, "Ye are the light of the world"? Imaginations and dreams and a knowledge of the truth are not enough. Every believer is to kindle his taper from the divine altar. All are to shine, because the light of the truth has come upon them, and they cannot help shining amid the moral darkness of the world....
UL	287	5	There are souls to be revived; many to receive the joy of salvation into their own souls. They have erred, they have not been building a right character, but God has joy to restore to them, even the joy of His anointed. This will give efficiency and happiness and sanctified assurance--a living testimony. Tell the poor desponding ones who have gone astray from straight paths...[that] they need not despair. There is healing, cleansing for every soul who will come to Christ. There is a balm in Gilead; there is a Physician there.--Letter 93, September 30, 1896, to A. T. Robinson, a pioneer missionary and organizer in South Africa.
------------------------Let Down Your Net, October 1
UL	288	1	Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. Luke 5:10.
UL	288	2	Jesus asks the use of Simon's boat. Although weary with his toil and disappointment, Simon cheerfully complies with the request of Christ. The unpretentious fishing boat is made the pulpit from which come forth the words of Christ. Surely the little craft of Simon's was never so honored as on this occasion. It had never been put to so profitable use by its owner. Jesus proclaims Bible truth; He speaks words of eternal life. The truths spoken in that sermon ... [have gone] all over the world, and accomplished a work that eternity alone will reveal.
UL	288	3	When the judgment shall sit, and the books of record shall be opened, and the history of this effort is revealed, it will be seen that a light ... [then] sprang up to be reflected all through the world through time and through eternity. This experience has been repeated to thousands of the messengers of the Lord Jesus, and has inspired hope and courage and faith.
UL	288	4	"Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught" (Luke 5:4).
UL	288	5	The night was the most favorable time for the fishermen to work successfully, for in the clear water the fish would in the daylight see the net, and avoid it. Having toiled all night unsuccessfully, it seemed useless, according to human wisdom, to let down the net.
UL	288	6	"Master," replied Simon, "we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net" (Verse 5).
UL	288	7	This was true obedience. Here is an instance of implicit trust in the words of Christ, in spite of an objectionable past experience. Our first lesson is to learn the will of God, even though we pass through trying circumstances, and then, knowing His will, to obey unquestioningly. Such obedience will always be rewarded.
UL	288	8	What was the result of Simon's obedience? "And when they had done this, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their nets brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink" (Verses 6, 7).
UL	288	9	Jesus designed this experience to be an encouragement to these fishermen in their future efforts in fishing for souls.... What a powerful influence this wonderful transaction produced upon the minds of these humble fishermen! Christ's power had drawn the fish into Simon's net, but these honest-hearted men were themselves completely caught in the net that Christ has prepared for them. "They forsook all, and followed him" (Verse 11).--Manuscript 79, October 1, 1906, "Leave Your Nets and Follow Me."
------------------------Praise God In Spite of Trials, October 2
UL	289	1	For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18.
UL	289	2	I feel thankful to God for His rich blessings to me.... Keep His praise in your heart from morning till night. Speak not one word of repining, but ask for the healing power of God to come to your heart and mind. Be cheerful and hopeful. Praise the Lord....
UL	289	3	The world is rapidly filling up the measure of their iniquity. O may the Lord give me much of His love and grace and power to meet and rebuke the powers of darkness. We must keep the way of the Lord, looking unto Jesus, who is the Author and the Finisher of our faith. We are not to allow one discouraging word to pass our lips. But we can praise the Lord that we can believe and trust in Jesus. He is the Light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
UL	289	4	Let us talk faith, talk courage. Let our lips utter the praise of the Lord. Behold Him, behold Him who is the Light of the world. Talk of His love, tell of His wonderful works....
UL	289	5	We are now to be faithful stewards to our trust, whatever our line of work may be. We are to look to Jesus, and work after the divine pattern. God requires faithfulness in every soul that touches His work. Not one thread of Satan's sophistry is to be brought into the fabric.
UL	289	6	We have many things to remind us of our need of chastisement.... We need these misfortunes, else they would not have been permitted to come. The words are spoken "Well done, good and faithful servant," not "Well done, good and successful servant."
UL	289	7	Our work individually is to make a heart and a life surrender. We must die to self. The exhibitions of selfishness are so marked. Many men, many of our ministers, are unprepared to engage successfully in the work of saving souls. Soul, body, and spirit need to be reconverted. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him" (James 1:12)....
UL	289	8	Christ is moving upon hearts. Shall those who have had the messages of truth for years continue to need a reconversion? Some give evidence that they do not discern the working of the Spirit of God. They manifest a spirit to tear down and pull down. Every thread of a spirit of domineering needs to be taken away. The Lord has a mighty work to be done by those who will let themselves be worked by Him.--Letter 314, October 2, 1906, to O. A. Olsen, president of the Australian Union Conference.
------------------------Seek Divine Not Human Wisdom, October 3
UL	290	1	And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. 1 John 3:22.
UL	290	2	For a long time I have seen the danger that was coming into our ranks in the tendency to look to human wisdom and to depend on human guidance. This will always prove a snare to souls, and I am bidden to lift the danger signal, warning my fellow workers against it, and pointing them to the Lord Jesus. The man or woman who leans upon the wisdom of the human mind leans on a broken reed.
UL	290	3	I am instructed to point those who are in need of wisdom to the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.... "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him" (James 1:5-8, 12).
UL	290	4	"Ask, and it shall be given you," the Saviour declared; "seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened" (Matthew 7:7, 8)....
UL	290	5	Never should a worker encourage one who is in need of instruction and help to go first to human agencies for an understanding of his duty.... It is a wrong education to teach our people to lean on human aids, instead of going to the Lord in prayer. The enemy of souls has been the instigator of this, that minds might become obscured.... Those who bear responsibilities in the work are to cooperate with heavenly angels in teaching men and women to look to God as the source of their strength....
UL	290	6	Consecrate yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Seek the One who understands your every weakness, and who never makes a mistake. He is able to impart to you His rich grace. Looking unto Jesus, studying His Word, learn to humble your soul before God and to wrestle in prayer with Him....
UL	290	7	Christ ever manifested a heavenly courtesy in dealing with human souls. His life was a life of constant self-denial and self-sacrifice. Those who are numbered with the overcomers will be those who have practiced the virtues of Christ.--Letter 324, October 3, 1907, to a church administrator.
------------------------Our Accountability, October 4
UL	291	1	Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? Luke 19:23.
UL	291	2	Our lifetime is precious, and every action should be considered. It has been granted us that we might accomplish a work that will be acknowledged by the Lord as good, enduring as eternity, if we will lay hold of it in the right spirit. It is an intensely solemn thing to live in view of the account we must render to God of our time, our talents, and our influence....
UL	291	3	In the use of the talents entrusted to him, no man is called by God to lay off his individual responsibility [so] that another man may do his trading for him. To every man God has given his work, and man is accountable to God for how that work is done....
UL	291	4	We are not called upon to give account of our talents to man, but to God. Our mind, our judgment, our tact, our wisdom--all are given to us of God, to be improved for Him; and it is God who will call us to account for the way in which we have used His gifts....
UL	291	5	The period of life in every case is beset with temptations, and it is through faith in Jesus Christ alone that we shall find grace to help in every time of need. But each worker has a life to live, a character to form. Each period of life brings with the passing years some special opportunities for work; and each advancing year must be made use of, improved to the very best of human capability. This, with the aid of divine agencies, will show improvement, advancement onward and upward, walking step by step in a safe path heavenward.
UL	291	6	Each day, each hour of life, from childhood to youth, from youth to middle age, and onward to old age, our life history is being as faithfully recorded in the books of heaven as the polished plate of the artist reflects the features of the sitter. Each day, each hour, brings with it advantages which the human agent must improve. We cannot afford to lose a moment by doing careless work for the Lord. We must use our entrusted talents with fidelity, that earnest, honest, pure, clean work may bring glory to God. Nothing less will be accepted by Him. Our work in this world is to reveal the pure principles that are current in heaven. This is the only kind of work that will be acknowledged in the courts of heaven, and accepted as pure and holy by the Lord.--Manuscript 28, October 4, 1896, "To Those Concerned in Publishing Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing."
------------------------Service to God Begins on Earth, October 5
UL	292	1	That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:17.
UL	292	2	Those who work against the natural laws of the being must suffer the penalty of transgression. But the Saviour pities us, even when we suffer from infirmities caused by our own wrong course of action. In Him there is a healing power for us. Let us praise God for the tree of life, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations....
UL	292	3	Everywhere the effects of the curse are seen. Let us praise God that in the earth made new "there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him" (Revelation 22:3). Some little know what true service means. Those who expect to sing in an entertainment spend time in practicing, to familiarize themselves with the music and the words. That we may learn how to serve the Lord in heaven, we must enter His service now, becoming acquainted with Him and learning to be faithful servants....
UL	292	4	It is our privilege to understand the blessed Word of God. We have fallen, it is true, but we are not always to remain in sin. We have been placed on vantage ground. The Lord God of heaven "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). What a precious hope we have in Christ! ...
UL	292	5	Temptations will come. But when Satan throws his hellish shadow before us, we should reach in faith through the shadow to the light of life--to Him who has not only created man but who by His own blood has redeemed him. We are Christ's cherished heritage. In living faith we must cooperate with Him in working out our own salvation. Amid trials and temptations His hand upholds and sustains us. Those who rest in Christ Jesus are never restless or uneasy. He means just what He says when He bids us commit the keeping of our souls unto Him, as to a faithful Creator.
UL	292	6	Those who hold fast their faith unto the end will come forth from the furnace of trial as fine gold seven times purified. Of this work the prophet Isaiah says, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir" (Isaiah 13:12). When in trouble, remember that faith tried in the furnace of affliction is more precious than gold tried with fire. Remember that there is One watching every movement, to see when the last particle of dross is taken away from your character.--Manuscript 110, October 5, 1901, "The Christian's Hope."
------------------------How the Leaven of Evil Works, October 6
UL	293	1	Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 1 Corinthians 5:6.
UL	293	2	I have had presented to me how the leaven of evil will work. Satan has come down in great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time in which to work. He will work with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. Those who in their past experience have had great light but have not cherished that light nor purified their souls by obeying the truth will meet with great loss....
UL	293	3	The spirit of antichrist is developing rapidly. Soon there will be a time when those who follow their own human nature, who manifest a love for supremacy, will be found to be on the losing side. The Lord has abased kings, and He will say to all who, while professing to serve Him, ... make a display and depart from His counsel: "What doest thou to declare My law, while thou thyself livest in transgression?" ...
UL	293	4	Let everyone who considers it is his privilege to do as he pleases remember that the Lord will allow him to have his way, but he will be brought through bitter experiences. It is the truth, my brethren, that we all need, the truth that works by love and purifies the soul....
UL	293	5	Has God made the world, and then left it entirely to the jurisdiction of men? Has He retired from the scene of action, and left it to the domination of human agencies? How can it be that among those who profess to obey Him and to serve Him, there shall be strife and variance? What a terrible thing [it] is [for] sin to intrude itself, to manifest itself in apostasy, rebellion, and discord in God's fair domain! ...
UL	293	6	The Lord created all the heavenly intelligences. Lucifer, exalted to be a beautiful, glorious being in the heavenly courts, brought in jealousy [and] evil surmising because he himself was not in the position of God. He declared that man was bound and fettered if he made God first and last and best in everything. God had not previously been obliged to speak of allegiance to His laws, for there had been no occasion for the least disaffection till it was introduced by Satan.
UL	293	7	We still see the deceptive working of Satan on every side. God would have us plant our feet firmly upon the platform of His truth, that we may not be deceived by ... [Satan's] wonderful representations. In the rock Christ Jesus is our only safety.--Letter 310, October 6, 1906, to "Brother [W. D.] Salisbury and Those Connected With the Echo Publishing Company," in Australia.
------------------------Trust God's Words, Not Man's, October 7
UL	294	1	The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Psalm 19:7.
UL	294	2	We may with profit study the record of the preparation made by the congregation of Israel for the hearing of the law....
UL	294	3	The law of God is a transcript of His character. Its holy precepts were spoken from Sinai with God's own voice, and written with His finger upon tables of stone. They stand forth alone, bearing the distinct, awful significance of their supreme importance. They mean life to the obedient and death to the disobedient. Through the ages God's law has been preserved as the highest standard of morality. Not all the inventions of science or the imaginations of fruitful minds have been able to discover one essential duty not covered by this code.
UL	294	4	God's law is the security of life and property and peace and happiness. It was given to secure our present and eternal good. The antediluvians transgressed this law, and the earth was destroyed by a flood.
UL	294	5	Let no man, by scientific presentations, lead minds away from the real to the imaginary. Let God be revealed in His true greatness. God calls for men who, in the midst of the idolatry offered to nature, will look from nature to nature's God. God uses nature as one of His servants, to reveal His power. These things, the objects of His creation, show forth His handiwork. Of all that God has created, man, the crowning object of His creation, has the most greatly dishonored Him. In the judgment human beings will stand before God ashamed and condemned, because, though given intellect, reason, and power of speech, they would not obey God's law....
UL	294	6	Satan has his students, and he is teaching them his methods of secrecy; teaching them how to do underhanded work. His family is large. In his hands, crime has become a cruel science. To destroy is the motto of the archdeceiver. Satan has laid many snares for unwary souls. There are those who have so long responded to his ingenious plans that they now seem to have no power to break the spell that is upon them.
UL	294	7	When the leaders of God's people depart from principle, and bring dishonor on His cause, their sin is greater than the sin of those whose opportunities and privileges have been fewer....
UL	294	8	A man is but a man. The words that fall from his lips are not to be regarded as coming from God. Unless God stands beside those in His service, and works with them, they are nothingness. For God's people to put their trust in men and make flesh their arm is the height of folly.--Manuscript 119, October 7, 1903, "Lessons From Israel."
------------------------The Meaning of Communion with God, October 8
UL	295	1	That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3.
UL	295	2	Communion with God is the life of the soul. It is not something that we cannot interpret, something that we can clothe with beautiful words but which does not give us the genuine experience that makes our words of real value. Communion with God gives a daily experience that does indeed make our joy full.
UL	295	3	Those who have this union with Christ will declare it in spirit and word and work. Profession is nothing unless in word and work good fruit is manifest. Unity, fellowship with one another and with Christ--this is the fruit borne on every branch of the living vine. The cleansed soul, born again, has a clear, distinct testimony to bear....
UL	295	4	To know God is, in the scriptural sense of the term, to be one with Him in heart and mind, having an experimental knowledge of Him, holding reverential communion with Him as the Redeemer. Only through sincere obedience can this communion be obtained. Where this communion is lacking, the heart is not in any sense a temple of God, but is controlled by the foe, who is working out his own purposes through the human agency. Such a man, whatever his profession or claims, is not a temple of the Holy Spirit.
UL	295	5	The experience is perfected by fruit bearing. He who does not bear good fruit in words and deeds, in the strength of elevated, ennobling principle, is a bad tree. The fruit that he bears is unpalatable to God. His professed knowledge of Christ is a falsehood, a deception....
UL	295	6	In the light of the love of Christ, the gospel is an open book. This is the true light, which Christ came to bring to the world. The Saviour's true disciples have received this love....
UL	295	7	From the light that God has given me, I know that men's great danger is in being self-deceived. Satan is watching his chance. He will come to men in human form, and will speak to them most entrancing words. He will bring against them the same temptations that he brought against Christ. Unless their minds and hearts are filled with the pure, unselfish, sanctified love that Christ revealed, they will fall under Satan's power, and will do and say and write strange things, to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect....
UL	295	8	Following Christ's example of unselfish service, trusting like little children in His merits, and obeying His commands, we shall receive the approval of God.--Manuscript 120, October 8, 1903, "Lessons From the [First] Epistle of John."
------------------------Take No Glory to Self, October 9
UL	296	1	Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23, 24.
UL	296	2	In ... [our] work for the Master, self is [to be] hid. The language of the heart is, He must increase; I must decrease.... The love of self dies, the love of Jesus burns upon the altar of the soul. There is no spirit for low, common, self-seeking, or worldly ambition, because we are living in His presence, doing His work, and are in contact with Jesus Christ and His life. His character and His work are all-absorbing. The life imperceptibly becomes one with Christ as He was one with the Father. The truth and light and life are interwoven with life and character, and the aspirations are elevated, pure, unselfish, after the order of heaven....
UL	296	3	If ever a people needed spiritual perception, vigor, and steadfast faith and power in prayer, it is the people who claim to be keeping the commandments of God and looking for the Lord Jesus Christ to come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory....
UL	296	4	Love to Christ will always be seen in those who are laborers together with God. The common, earthly thoughts and motives are discarded as the love for Christ increases. None, however weak in faith and hope and courage, need to despair, for Christ has provided divine assistance to combine with man's human effort. Christ works constantly to draw the soul into a pure and holy atmosphere. He is acquainted with our infirmities, and with the embarrassment we meet on every hand in the world. Assistance has been provided for every advanced step. When the earnest, struggling soul is compassed with infirmities and surrounded by foes to discourage, the Comforter draws near. The Holy Spirit helps our infirmities.
UL	296	5	We must, if we overcome, use the means placed within our reach. We must put on the Lord Jesus Christ. By faith we must clothe ourselves with the righteousness of Christ and put no confidence in our own merits. Many are seeking to be present at the marriage supper of the Lamb in their own citizen's dress, discarding the robe woven in the loom of heaven and prepared for all at infinite cost, as a free gift to His guests that shall eat of His supper. We must wear the livery of heaven. We must be clothed in Christ's righteousness and go to warfare at His expense and under His bloodstained banner, or we are none of His.--Manuscript 41, October 9, 1890, "Diary: Labors at Adam's Center."
------------------------Prepared as the Morning, October 10
UL	297	1	Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. Hosea 6:3.
UL	297	2	Let everyone now repent of his mistakes, and seek the Lord with all his heart. The converting power of God will come to everyone who will seek the peace of Jesus Christ. His words of instruction are for all who will listen and follow Him.
UL	297	3	In mercy God seeks to lead the unrighteous to repentance. The obedient will delight in the law of the Lord. He puts His laws in their minds, and writes them in their hearts. Their speech will be such as is prompted by an indwelling Saviour. They have that faith that works by love and purifies the soul from all the defilement of Satan's suggestions. Their heart yearns after God. In their conversation they love to dwell upon His mercy and goodness, for to them He is altogether lovely. They learn the language of heaven, the country of their adoption.
UL	297	4	The promise is for us: "I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God" (Ezekiel 11:19, 20).
UL	297	5	I am instructed to say that it is not because of lack of opportunity to know the will and way of God that sinners must perish, but because of their determination to carry out their own will. They refuse to become spiritually enlightened in the Word of God. Willingly they remain ignorant of the privileges of the Christian and of his duty day by day to inquire of God. The Lord desires to give to everyone a deep, intelligent experience in spiritual life. But many are contented with a haphazard experience....
UL	297	6	The Lord calls for faithfulness in service. He desires servants who will be diligent to help those in error. The day of the Lord is right upon us.... Let not one stumbling block be laid before those who are seeking to know the will of the Lord. Do not make public the supposed errors you see in those who profess to believe the truth. What you have to say, say to them alone, with hearts filled with pity and tenderness....
UL	297	7	The will of God is made so plain that the weakest intellect can understand it, if the heart is set to do the will of God. Those who follow on to know the Lord will know that His going forth is prepared as the morning (see Hosea 6:3). Step by step the Lord will unerringly lead those who put their trust in Him.--Letter 281, October 10, 1905, to Dr. and Mrs. D. H. Kress.
------------------------Character is Tested, October 11
UL	298	1	Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. Psalm 97:2.
UL	298	2	God will test the character on every point. He has a Father's heart, and He bears long with His children. In His dealings with the children of Israel He pleaded with them in mercy and love. Patiently He set their sins before them, and in forbearance waited for them to see and acknowledge their wrongs. When they repented and confessed their sins, He forgave them; and though the offense was oft repeated, there were no taunting words spoken, no resentment expressed.
UL	298	3	Christ plainly stated that though one sin again and again, he is to be forgiven if he repents, even should he sin till seventy times seven....
UL	298	4	Words are a talent [given to us] in trust, and God will multiply every investment that is made in His love and in His fear. He will lift up and sustain the very ones who need sustaining.... Remember that silence is eloquence. To expatiate as has been the custom [of some] separates the soul from God, and brings condemnation....
UL	298	5	Let there be much praying and less talking of the mistakes of others. By much prayer let self be wholly consecrated to God. Then work with all the facilities and powers God has given to help one another to reach a higher standard. Minister in concert with the ministering angels, and an experience will be gained that will be of the highest value.
UL	298	6	The converting power of God needs to be seen upon the tongue, restraining the words that should not be spoken. Then the Holy Spirit will be revealed, binding together, not separating....
UL	298	7	All who desire to be among the number who will stand before God without fault must begin without delay the practical work of overcoming. The Lord permits trials to come in order that we may be cleansed from earthliness, from selfishness, from harsh un-Christlikeness of character. He desires to create in every heart a deep and earnest longing to be cleansed from every stain of sin, that we may come forth purer, holier, and happier from every trial which He permits. Our souls become darkened by selfishness, but if we can only see Jesus, there will be a dying to self. Changes will be made in word and action. If we are patient under the crucial test, we shall come forth reflecting the image of the Master. "He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday" (Psalm 37:6). "Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne" (Psalm 97:2).--Manuscript 61, October 11, 1900, untitled manuscript.
------------------------How God Looks at Sin, October 12
UL	299	1	And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. Numbers 20:12.
UL	299	2	Some would regard ... [Moses'] sin as one that should be lightly passed over; but God sees not as man sees. When within sight of the hills of Canaan, the Israelites murmured because the stream that had flowed wherever they encamped ceased. The cries of the people were directed against Moses and Aaron, whom they accused of bringing them into the wilderness to perish. The leaders went to the door of the tabernacle and fell on their faces. Again "the glory of the Lord appeared," and Moses was directed, "Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock" (Numbers 20:8).
UL	299	3	The two brothers went on before the multitude, Moses with the rod of God in his hand. They were now aged men. Long had they borne with the rebellion and obstinacy of Israel; but now, at last, even the patience of Moses gave way. "Hear now, ye rebels," he cried; "must we fetch you water out of this rock?" (Verse 10). And instead of speaking to the rock, as God had commanded him, he smote it twice with the rod.
UL	299	4	The water gushed forth in abundance to satisfy the host. But a great wrong had been done. Moses had spoken from irritated feeling.... "Shall we bring water?" he questioned, as if the Lord would not do what He promised. "Ye believed me not," the Lord declared to the two brothers, "to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel" (Verse 12).
UL	299	5	More than this, Moses and Aaron had assumed power that belongs only to God. The necessity for divine interposition made the occasion one of great solemnity, and the leaders of Israel should have improved it to impress the people with reverence for God and to strengthen their faith in His power and goodness. When they angrily cried, "Must we fetch you water out of this rock?" they put themselves in God's place, as if the power lay in themselves. By these words they greatly dishonored Christ, their invisible Leader. God, not man, should have been glorified. The Lord reproved these leaders, and declared that they should not enter the Promised Land. Before the Hebrew host He demonstrated that the sin of the leader was greater than the sin of those who were led.--Manuscript 169, October 12, 1903, "Words of Warning Against Present Dangers."
------------------------No One Goes Alone to Heaven, October 13
UL	300	1	And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. John 10:16.
UL	300	2	Dear Sister Mary: While I have been writing out what has been shown me in vision while at Roosevelt [New York] in regard to individual cases, your case has come in order, and I will try to write you how you were presented before me. I was shown that you are not standing in the light and favor of God, but are too mixed up with the world; that your love for your Sabbathkeeping brethren and sisters ... is growing cold....
UL	300	3	Your influence of late has not been in union with the Spirit and work of God, and you are not going forward but backward. The opinions of unbelievers are having too great an influence upon your mind.... There is a work to be accomplished for you. You must possess deep humility of soul, and war against self and an unyielding will, or you will certainly be ensnared by the enemy.
UL	300	4	Some who love to hear and tell some new thing have grieved you, have injured you, and you have in your mind censured those who did not deserve censure, and [have] been suspicious of those whom you could safely trust. When you take the position you should, then your heart will be strongly knit with your brethren and sisters, and their hearts will be knit with yours, but you have been weaning yourself from your brethren and the cause exists in yourself. You are not willing to be led and instructed. Darkness and clouds are gathering over you. Satan desires you that he may sift you as wheat....
UL	300	5	God calls His church to be more separate from the world in their dress than you have thought. God is constantly instructing His people to flee from pride of appearance, from love of self, but you are working directly against the Spirit of God in this matter, hence you are walking in darkness and place yourself upon the battlefield of the enemy.
UL	300	6	I saw that God loves you. The Good Shepherd has tenderly cared for you and preserved you amid your afflictions and sufferings of mind; yet you must yield your will and judgment, and be willing to be taught. None--no, not one--can go alone to heaven. God has a people whom He is leading, guiding, and instructing. They must be subject one to another. If one undertakes to go alone, independently, to heaven he will find he has chosen the ... path that will not lead him to life.
UL	300	7	Dear Mary, I love you. I have tried to write this matter as it was presented to me. May you see it as it is, is my prayer, and make sure and thorough work for eternity. From your sister, (signed) Ellen G. White--Letter 19, October 13, 1861, to a young Christian.
------------------------Justice will Take the Throne, October 14
UL	301	1	Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew 25:41.
UL	301	2	It is possible for men to offer the Saviour outward homage, to be Christians in profession, to have a form of godliness, while the heart, whose loyalty He prizes above all else, is estranged from Him. Such ones have a name to live, but they are dead....
UL	301	3	To the marriage supper of the Lamb will come many who have not on the wedding garment--the robe [Christ] purchased for them with His lifeblood. From lips that never make a mistake come the words, "Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?" (Matthew 22:12). Those [thus] addressed are speechless. They know that words would be useless. The truth, with its sanctifying power, has not been brought into the soul, and the tongue that once spoke so readily of the truth is now silent. The words are then spoken, "Take them out of My presence. They are not worthy to taste of My supper" (cf. Luke 14:24).
UL	301	4	As they are separated from the loyal ones, Christ looks upon them with deep sorrow. They occupied high positions of trust in God's work, but they have not the life insurance policy that would have entitled them to eternal life. From the quivering lips of Christ come the mournful words of regret, "I loved them; I gave My life for them; but they persisted in rejecting My pleadings, and continued in sin. O that thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes."
UL	301	5	Today Christ is looking with sadness upon those whose characters He must at last refuse to acknowledge. Inflated with self-sufficiency, they hope that it will be well with their souls. But at the last great day, the mirror of detection reveals to them the evil that their hearts have practiced, and shows them at the same time the impossibility of reform. Every effort was made to bring them to repentance. But they refused to humble their hearts. Now the bitter lamentation is heard, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved" (cf. Jeremiah 8:20)....
UL	301	6	What a scene is this! I pass over the ground again and again, bowed down in an agony that no tongue can express, as I see the end of the many, many who have refused to receive their Saviour. Justice will take the throne, and the arm strong to save will show itself strong to smite and destroy the enemies of the kingdom of God. Christ will lay bare the motives and deeds of everyone. Every hidden action will stand out as clearly before the doer as if proclaimed before the universe.--Manuscript 121, October 14, 1903, "A Solemn Warning."
------------------------Children are God's Property, October 15
UL	302	1	Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruits of the womb is his reward. Psalm 127:3.
UL	302	2	I have a special message to parents. I am charged to bring to parents the strict requirement of God in each family. Fathers and mothers need to be daily reconverted in the line of bringing light into their own families. Cultivate Christian politeness in your training of your children. Guard yourselves. Never allow your hand to strike a child in anger. Your children are the Lord's property and they must be treated kindly, but not vindicated in their disrespect of righteousness and truth by your own careless irreverence. Give them righteousness. Christ is truth, the complete perfect sample of what every soul must be if he enters the heavenly courts. All the great facts are set forth. You can never cure an evil spirit by doing irreligious work....
UL	302	3	Be kind in your speech to your children. No loud, tempestuous scolding will cure your children of any evil action. No taking your children in a passion and shaking them will convert them from the error of their ways to do God's will. They are God's property. As a people professing to be reformers the very best lesson that you can give your children in this age of corruption is not to indulge them to become fashionable after the worldly style. Sons and daughters are to be instructed as to what it means to be obedient to God's requirements, what will fit you and them for a position in the heavenly kingdom.
UL	302	4	Watch and pray, fathers and mothers, lest ye enter into temptation. Give your hearts and minds and souls to God's service. You are not to be severe, but kneel before the Lord with your own hearts softened by the grace of God. Be converted that you may have the earnest of the Holy Spirit. What a comfort to know that the Lord will help you in every emergency, for you are laborers together with God....
UL	302	5	Fathers and mothers, you take the responsibility of bringing children into the world. Will you consider it is not for you to work in vain? "We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." ... Now this takes in Christian experience. Here is large encouragement. Here are the graces we are to receive, if we comply with the conditions. Fathers, mothers, if you are not converted, will you measure your advantages if you will comply with the conditions? ... Your children are the Lord's property with which you have been entrusted, to bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.--Manuscript 61, October 15, 1911, "Individual Responsibility of Fathers and Mothers."
------------------------Abide in Christ, October 16
UL	303	1	Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John 15:4.
UL	303	2	Christ suffers trial to come upon His followers that they may be led to seek the Lord more earnestly. Then when trials come, do not think that the Lord is your enemy. He purges for a reason. He does not want you to be discouraged; but He would prove you, to see if you will be true to Him and will conduct yourselves circumspectly under every circumstance. He does not want to drive you away, but to drive you nearer to the Lord. In God is the Christian's only hope in time of perplexity.
UL	303	3	Do not talk to others about your trials, for they have enough of their own to bear, and our human friends cannot always understand. It is your privilege to go to One who will always understand, because His life on earth was one of constant trial and perplexity, borne without failure and sin....
UL	303	4	It is not enough that now and then you offer a prayer, and now and then deal righteously. You are to have the attributes of an abiding Christ working out in your life constantly. How many of us have this experience? Yet we may have it, and having it, we will be the happiest people on the face of the earth. With Christ's Word abiding in us, we shall give evidence that we have wholly received Him who in His humanity lived a sinless life. In the strength of divinity we shall overcome every tendency to evil....
UL	303	5	The difference between the character of Christ and the character of other men of His day was everywhere apparent; and because of this difference the world hated Him. It hated Him for His goodness and His strict integrity. And Christ declared that those who manifest the same attributes would be likewise hated. As we near the end of time this hatred for the followers of Christ will be more and more manifest.
UL	303	6	Christ took humanity and bore the hatred of the world that He might show men and women that they could live without sin, that their words, their actions, their spirit, might be sanctified to God. We can be perfect Christians if we will manifest this power in our lives. When the light of heaven rests upon us continually, we shall represent Christ. It was the righteousness revealed in His life that distinguished Him from the world and called forth its hatred....
UL	303	7	The words of Christ are spoken for His people in all ages--for us, upon whom the ends of the world are come.--Manuscript 97, October 16, 1909, "I Am the True Vine," a sermon preached at San Jose, California.
------------------------Have You Accepted the Invitation? October 17
UL	304	1	The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son. Matthew 22:2.
UL	304	2	The Lord God has provided a banquet for the whole human race. It is represented in the parable as a great supper where there is provided a festival for every soul. All connected with this supper may enjoy the heavenly feast, which is the gospel. This feast is open to all who will receive it. All are invited and urged to come....
UL	304	3	All who are partakers of the wedding feast, the gospel feast, by this act say that they have accepted Christ as their personal Saviour. They wear His distinguishing dress. They have accepted the truth as it is in Jesus, which is the robe of Christ's righteousness. Only those do honor to Christ who accept the invitation, "Come, for all things are now ready; come to the marriage supper of the Lamb." These put on the white linen, the clean, pure character, showing that they no longer live their old citizen life that they lived in their ignorance. Their speech is changed. Their conversation is in altogether another line....
UL	304	4	All who have the light of the Word presented to them are highly favored. That Word is the bread of life to those who eat of it. "In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." (Luke 10:21).
UL	304	5	The priests and scribes and rulers were so self-sufficient that they would not heed the words of Christ. They were convicted, their understanding was convinced, but they would not receive the Sent of God. They had been privileged with every temporal and spiritual advantage, but Christ looked upon them as rejecters of all the mercy and compassion and tenderness and love that He had come to the world to bring them. They turned away from the light and evidence that Christ had given them, and scorned His mercy. He looked upon them with yearning desire, and said, "Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight" (Verse 21). He was grieved that the people most favored upon the face of the earth should be the very ones to deny Him and refuse His offer of everlasting life.
UL	304	6	There is to be a constant advancement on our part. The revelation of the Father to the human agent will be such a revelation that the mind can take hold of and comprehend. All who follow on steadfastly to know the truth as it is in Jesus will know that there is still more to be learned. Expansion, development, an increase of faith and holiness, will give us an experience in the religious life, and this is the law of the Christian life.--Manuscript 143, October 17, 1898, "The Parable of the Wedding Feast."
------------------------Christ, Our Example in Labor for Others, October 18
UL	305	1	I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. John 9:4.
UL	305	2	The years are rapidly passing, bearing away their record for eternity. Wherever you see work to be done, do your very best, after the order of Christ. Place yourselves under the discipline of God. He who professes to be a Christian and yet acts out the spirit of a worldling, bears testimony that he is a false disciple.... Heaven is to be reflected in the character of the Christian. In the way Christ worked, he is to work. Our cause should be years in advance of what it is. It was God's plan that those in darkness should see great light.... Christ's work was one of constant progress. In His life He has left us an example of how we are to labor. Constantly He went about doing good....
UL	305	3	I am charged with a message to all upon whom the light of truth has shone. They are to labor patiently and perseveringly for the thousands perishing in their sins, scattered in all lands like wrecks on a desert shore. All who share in Christ's glory must share in His ministry, helping the poor, the weak, the homeless. We must be intensely in earnest, using every capability in the Lord's service. Precious results will surely follow unselfish efforts. From the Great Teacher, the workers will receive the highest of all education.
UL	305	4	We talk of higher education. This is the highest education--to make the life of Christ our constant lesson book. Let every soul whose name is on the church books put away all pride, all frivolity, all desire to follow the fashions of the world. We are to receive from Christ the highest education possible, in order that we may not lead souls into paths that God forbids. There is to be no limit to the perfection of the example that we are to set unbelievers. No loose, shiftless work is to come into our religious experience and training.
UL	305	5	Human beings have no right to think that there is a limit to the efforts they are to make in the work of soul saving. Those who are truly converted will understand that they will never see the Lord in His glory unless they form characters that will harmonize with the character of Christ. Those who are indifferent in regard to bringing thoughts and words and actions into harmony with Christ will never enter the gates of the City of God. Precious results will follow the efforts made out of sincere love for Christ. The Lord calls upon His people to take up the work to which He has been calling them from the first.--Letter 104, October 18, 1910. to Brother and Sister S. N. Haskell.
------------------------Cheer Up! Speak Words of Courage, October 19
UL	306	1	Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. Psalm 42:11.
UL	306	2	Are you standing on the side of the world, or on the side of Christ? Of what value would the whole world be to me, with all the gold and the silver that could be heaped together? Of what value would it be to you? My span of life is nearly ended. Many, many of my early associates are now in the grave. All that remains of our once large family is one of my sisters--and she is feeble. God has given me strength. He is the health of my countenance. Every morning I rejoice in Him. I know I have committed the keeping of my soul to Him, as unto a faithful Creator; and I know He has never failed me. If you place your trust in Him, the Lord will also give to every one of you His strength, His grace, His salvation.
UL	306	3	When someone asks you how you are feeling, do not complain and murmur and try to think of something mournful to tell them to gain their sympathy; but grasp them by the hand, saying, "Praise God! God is the Lord, and greatly to be praised! I love Him, because He first loved me." Let your conversation be cheerful and hopeful. Do not talk discouragingly, telling your lack of faith and your sorrows and sufferings, for the devil delights to hear such words. When talking on gloomy subjects, you are glorifying the enemy. Talk faith and hope and courage, thus glorifying God.
UL	306	4	Instead of gossiping, thus creating mischief, let us tell of the matchless power of Christ, and speak of His glory, thus magnifying and lifting up the Lord God of hosts and training ourselves to sing the song of victory in the kingdom of glory. By beginning to sing songs of triumph and thanksgiving now, we may prepare ourselves to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb when we meet on the sea of glass.
UL	306	5	The Lord will be with us during this life, if we allow ourselves to be led by His Spirit and do not neglect to glorify His name. We should bring as much of heaven as possible into this life. The light of heaven shining into the heart will be imparted in words of pleasantness, in deeds of kindness, to those who are near us. Having acquainted ourselves with God, when He comes we will be able to say, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us" (Isaiah 25:9).--Manuscript 111, October 19, 1901, a sermon preached in the St. Helena Sanitarium chapel.
------------------------Overcoming Power Promised, October 20
UL	307	1	And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3.
UL	307	2	If we will come into close relation with God, if we will yield to God His own--our mind, our heart, and all that there is of us--we will indeed find peace and happiness that we can obtain nowhere else.
UL	307	3	What does it amount to to live in this world dependent upon the applause and amusements that we can find here? Do these bring us happiness? No; they bring us only unrest and dissatisfaction, and at the same time we are losing the most precious treasure, the richest blessings that God can bestow upon us. We need to understand much more than we do the worth of our souls. We need to know what we shall do that we may work the works of God. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:29). He can be to us all that we desire.
UL	307	4	Jesus proclaimed on the last great day of the feast, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (chap. 7:37); and again we hear Him saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). Have you tried it? There are many who have, and they know that the words of Christ are verity and truth, and that when trouble has come in like a flood, they have looked to Jesus and have been comforted and strengthened.
UL	307	5	Christ has promised that if we yoke up with Him we shall find peace and comfort and hope, and we [shall] know by experience [that] His words are true. He wants everyone to be saved. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:16, 17)....
UL	307	6	Jesus Christ knew that humanity had not power in itself to resist the temptations of the enemy of souls, and therefore He clothed His divinity with humanity, left His royal throne and high command, and came to this world all seared and marred with the curse, and humiliated Himself, in order to set us an example.... He came to this world, not to attend horse races, not to attend the theater, but He came meek and lowly, and He invites us to learn of Him, the King of glory. By doing this we shall obtain the moral power He left the courts of heaven to bestow upon us.--Manuscript 16, October 20, 1895, untitled manuscript, apparently a sermon preached at the Armadale Campground, Australia.
------------------------He Must Increase, October 21
UL	308	1	He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30.
UL	308	2	On one occasion the Jewish rulers sent messengers to John the Baptist to make the inquiry "Who art thou?"... He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias" (John 1:23)....
UL	308	3	None who listened to the words of John and marked the earnestness of his manner could doubt that he referred to the Christ who had been so long promised to the world.... Multitudes accepted the preaching of John, and followed him from place to place. Many cherished in their hearts the hope that he was the Messiah. But as John saw the people turning to him, he sought to direct their minds to the coming One....
UL	308	4	In this age, just prior to the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, such a work as that of John the Baptist is to be done. God calls for men who will prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord. The message preceding the public ministry of Christ was "Repent, publicans and sinners; repent, Pharisees and Sadducees; repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (see Matthew 3:2). As a people who believe in Christ's soon appearing, we have a message to bear, "Prepare to meet thy God." Our message is to be as direct as was the message of John. He rebuked kings for their iniquity. Notwithstanding that his life was imperiled, he did not hesitate to declare God's Word; and our work in this age must be done as faithfully. In order to give such a message as John gave, we must have a spiritual experience like his.... We must behold God, and in beholding Him, lose sight of self.
UL	308	5	John had by nature the faults and weaknesses common to humanity, but the touch of divine love had transformed him. When, after Christ's ministry began, the disciples of John came to him with the complaint that all men were following the new teacher, John showed how clearly he understood his relation to the Messiah, and how gladly he welcomed the One for whom he had prepared the way.... "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). Looking in faith to the Redeemer, John had risen to the height of self-abnegation. He sought not to attract men to himself, but to lift their thoughts higher and still higher, until they should rest upon the Lamb of God....
UL	308	6	Those who are true to their calling as messengers for God will not seek honor for themselves. Love for self will be swallowed up in love for Christ. They will recognize that it is their work to proclaim, as did John the Baptist, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." They will lift up Jesus, and with Him humanity will be lifted up.--Manuscript 113, October 21, 1907, "Judge Not."
------------------------The Gospel Is Powerful, October 22
UL	309	1	Ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. Ephesians 3:2, 3.
UL	309	2	Through divine revelation, the plan of salvation, as wrought out by Christ, was laid open to Paul. Called of God, he was to teach men that from a state of hopelessness, dead in trespasses and sins, there was deliverance through the gospel of Jesus Christ. There was life and power to reach forth unto holiness. Because of these revelations, Paul was blessed with a marvelous insight. Though he could not present to others all that he himself had seen, yet he was firmly rooted and grounded in the truth. No suffering or reproach could ever lead him to deny the great truths that had been revealed to him. No presentation of false theories could lead him away from the influence of the grand views he had received of heavenly things.... The gospel as presented by Paul in his writings is just as powerful today as when it was written. To men in all ages is made known the rich treasures of the grace of Christ, the abundant love of God as revealed through His Son. Can we, while in a cold, lifeless condition, appreciate these truths?
UL	309	3	The gospel of Christ was preached to the Jewish nation. Had they accepted its truths, it would have proved their salvation. Through belief in Christ they might have become members of the royal family, manifesting through the succeeding ages the riches of His grace. But they, as a nation, rejected Christ, refused His offers of mercy, and were cut off from the parent vine, that the Gentiles might be grafted in. Still it is their privilege to become partakers with the Gentiles of the salvation of God. Belief in Christ will work in every man a transformation of character.
UL	309	4	Through the transforming grace of Christ, the fruits of the Spirit are made manifest in the life of those who were once dead in trespasses and sins. In disposition, in words, and in actions, they are seen to be partakers of the divine nature. This wonderful grace was revealed to Paul, and he worked constantly that others might be brought to a knowledge of these saving truths.
UL	309	5	To Jew and Gentile alike was the gospel preached under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The middle wall of partition that had separated the Jews was broken down in Christ Jesus. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:13).--Manuscript 111, October 22, 1906, "A Warning Against Formation."
------------------------No Middle Path to Paradise, October 23
UL	310	1	Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 2 Corinthians 6:17.
UL	310	2	There is no middle path to Paradise restored. The message given to man for these last days is not to become amalgamated with human devising. We are not to lean upon the policy of worldly lawyers. We must be humble men of prayer, not acting like those who are blinded by Satan's agencies....
UL	310	3	The greatest light and blessing that God has bestowed is not a security against transgression and apostasy in these last days. Those whom God has exalted to high positions of trust may turn from heaven's light to human wisdom. Their light will then become darkness, their God-entrusted capabilities a snare, their character an offense to God.
UL	310	4	God will not be mocked. A departure from Him has been and always will be followed by its sure results. The commission of acts that displease God will, unless decidedly repented of and forsaken, instead of seeking to justify them, lead the evildoer on step by step in deception, till many sins are committed with impunity. All who would possess a character that would make them laborers together with God and receive the commendation of God must separate themselves from the enemies of God, and maintain the truth which Christ gave to John [the revelator] to give to the world....
UL	310	5	The revelation of Christ to John is a wonderful, dignified, exalted, solemn message. To present this message with decided emphasis, demands all the talents of capabilities that God has given to men. When John received it, He was worked [upon] by the Holy Spirit, for Christ Himself came from heaven and told him what to write.
UL	310	6	Those who claim to be disciples of Christ often express hardness of heart and blindness of mind, because they do not choose and practice God's way instead of their own. Selfish motives come in and take possession of mind and character, and in their self-confidence they suppose their own way to be full of wisdom. They are not particular to follow the ways and words of God. Circumstances, they say, alter cases. Worldly policy comes in, and they are tempted and drawn away. They moved accordingly to their own unsanctified desires, making crooked paths for their own feet and for the feet of others to tread in. The lame and weak suppose them to be led by God, and therefore think that their judgment must be right. Thus many follow in false paths that are not cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in.--Manuscript 139, October 23, 1903, "The Message in Revelation."
------------------------Heaven, the Christian's Summer, October 24
UL	311	1	Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13.
UL	311	2	Christ is soon to come the second time. Of this we should often talk. It should be the uppermost thought in our minds. He is coming, with power and great glory, and every eye shall see Him. All the holy angels will accompany Him. Of this company John writes, "I beheld, and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" (Revelation 5:11).
UL	311	3	The trumpet has not yet sounded. Those who have gone down into the grave have not yet cried, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:55). The righteous dead have not yet been caught up with the living saints to meet their Lord in the air. But the time is near when the words spoken by the apostle Paul will have their fulfillment, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
UL	311	4	In order for us to be like the Saviour, we must be changed (see Philippians 3:20, 21). Now is the time for us to bring into the daily life the virtues of Christ's life. We have no time to lose. Should we fail in our character building, we shall lose eternal life. We must build on the true foundation.... We must do the work of Christ, and be constantly watching and praying. Then we shall be ready for His appearing, prepared to receive eternal life.
UL	311	5	All who will can be overcomers. Let us strive earnestly to reach the standard set before us. Christ knows our weakness, and to Him we can go daily for help. It is not necessary for us to gain strength a month ahead. We are to conquer from day to day.
UL	311	6	This earth is the place of preparation for heaven. The time spent here is the Christian's winter. Here the chilly winds of affliction blow upon us, and the waves of trouble roll against us. But in the near future, when Christ comes, sorrow and sighing will be forever ended. Then will be the Christian's summer. All trials will be over, and there will be no more sickness or death. "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Revelation 21:4).--Manuscript 28, October 24, 1886, "The Hope Set Before Us," a sermon preached at Nimes, France.
------------------------Believe and Receive, October 25
UL	312	1	What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:24.
UL	312	2	Many claim that they want to be saved, that they want to be sons and daughters of God, but they will in a most pathetic manner complain of God, because they do not feel as they think they ought to feel. They say, "I know I have much to be thankful for. The Lord has blessed me many times; but I can't feel as I want to feel. I dare not apply to myself the promises and say that I am a child of God. I think He blesses others. I think He will receive them--but not me. I cannot believe that He will forgive my sins."
UL	312	3	This is clearly defined as unbelief and it is sin before God, for they dishonor God and limit the Holy One of Israel. Christ is your Saviour.... The gracious promises are given to His church, and if you have taken the steps requisite in conversion, if you have made open confession of Christ, you are a part of the body of Christ, a part of His great whole. Anxiety, questionings, and distrust of God show that you do not believe in Him and do not appropriate the promises to yourself. Therefore you fall short of that comfort and hope and courage in the Lord that it is your privilege and duty to have every hour of the day and every day in the week. Do you love Jesus? Do you long for His peace? Then believe, and the longings of your soul shall be satisfied....
UL	312	4	You are without excuse if you hug to your soul your unbelief, your doubts, and go to others with your complaints, for there is no manner of excuse that can justify you, with these words of Christ spoken to you. They are full of comfort, full of hope and assurance forever. If you cast His words behind you and leave the cool snows of Lebanon to seek refreshment from human sources, you will not have peace or comfort, because you refuse the help that God gives you.
UL	312	5	The Lord declares that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His church. Every sincere member of the church may include himself in these promises and say, "I am the Lord's. In His strength I am invincible." Then do not put on a doleful attitude and misrepresent my Lord, and act as though He had insulted you by giving you promises that He does not fulfill, as though you are having a hard time and are left alone to battle against the powers of darkness.
UL	312	6	He says, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14:18).... Do you individually believe these words? Or do you treat them as idle tales? Do you grasp them by faith, and accept them and rejoice in them? This is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God.--Manuscript 42, October 25, 1890, "Diary."
------------------------Christ Spoke Truth, October 26
UL	313	1	Never man spake like this man. John 7:46.
UL	313	2	While upon this earth, the Son of God was the Son of man; yet there are times when His divinity flashed forth in the manifestation of superior power....
UL	313	3	Truth never languished on the lips of Christ. Truth never suffered in His hands. Words of truth flowed from His lips with surprising freshness and power, as a new revelation. Let everyone be assured that Christ uttered nothing fanciful or sentimental. He came forth from the Father to be the Light of the world. This light was not hidden under a bushel.
UL	313	4	Christ spoke on every subject with authority. Every truth that it was essential for His people to have was revealed in His teachings with the unfaltering assurance of certain knowledge. He uttered no sophistries, no mere probabilities, no human opinions quoted by men--only truths. His assertions were principles established by personal knowledge. He foresaw the delusive doctrines that would fill the world, but He expressed not one of them. No idle tales, no false theories clothed in beautiful language, came from the lips of the Great Teacher. In all His teachings He dwelt upon the unchangeable positions of Bible truth. Christ ... came to express the ideal of all truth. He unfolded gem after gem of precious truth....
UL	313	5	To every one of His appointed agents the Lord sends the message: "Take your position at your post of duty, and stand firm for the right." To all God's workers I am instructed to say: "Find your places, if you are the sent of God. Imbibe not the fanciful sentiments of human beings who are not taught of God. Christ is waiting to give you insight in regard to heavenly things; waiting to quicken your spiritual pulse to increased activity. No longer let any evil influence or propensity, natural or acquired, lead you to subordinate the claims of future, eternal interests to the common affairs of this life. No man can serve two masters whose interests are not in harmony. 'Ye cannot serve God and mammon. '"...
UL	313	6	Christ thought it not robbery to be equal with God, and yet He pleased not Himself. He took upon Himself human nature for no other purpose than to place man on vantage ground before the world and the whole heavenly universe. He carries sanctified humanity to heaven, there always to retain humanity as it would have been if man had never violated God's law. The overcomers, who upon the earth were partakers of the divine nature, He makes kings and priests unto God.--Manuscript 156, October 26, 1903, "Christ, Our Divine-Human Example."
------------------------Think Trust, Not Trouble, October 27
UL	314	1	Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians 5:17.
UL	314	2	Trust yourself in the hands of God. Do cease complaining, even though you suppose that there is something to complain of. Satan says, "I will harass him until he shall make shipwreck of faith"; but you need not be overcome by his devices. God will uphold you if you will only let Him. At times you are inclined to make a complete surrender of yourself to God, and then you feel at rest; but you take yourself back again, you do not let Jesus carry your burdens.
UL	314	3	You want the will of God to be done in you, but at the same time you shrink from the pain and self-sacrifice involved in having it done. In order that the will of God may be done in you, you must trust your heavenly Father as a child trusts its parent. But you have an anxious, troubled heart; you are actually afraid to trust yourself with God, afraid of the consequences that such a surrender may involve. Do not, I beseech you, mar your own Christian experience.
UL	314	4	The Spirit speaks to you, "Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Ephesians 5:17). In words and attitude you reveal a weakness of character when you are under the impression that you are not treated well and with the confidence and deference you should have....
UL	314	5	You are to know that God has you under His special care; you are to trust in Him because you love Him, and He loves you. He will uphold all who put their trust in Him. God will make everything work for your sanctification if you will stop fretting and trust in Him. The words spoken to you by One who cannot make a mistake were: "Do not fall into the temptation to harass your own life and make yourself miserable by your own reflections, which are frequently the direct insinuations of Satan." You keep fresh in your mind your own grievances, and go over and over the same things, cutting and bruising your own soul....
UL	314	6	Do not bring the disagreeable things of the past into your present life. Testify that life with Christ is no failure.... Dismiss Satan, walk with Jesus, and be complete in Him. Never, never give Satan the satisfaction of taunting you or others that our faith is a deception, a delusion.
UL	314	7	There is a work to be done by the Holy Spirit in the heart; when this is accomplished, bitter tears will no longer flow forth, but the promise will be fulfilled, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14). You can stand only in God. When the heart is reconciled to God, the fact will be made manifest in your association with your brethren. It will be seen that Christ is abiding in the soul temple.--Letter 10, October 27, 1894, to an evangelist working in Australia.
------------------------Be Singular--for Christ's Sake, October 28
UL	315	1	Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment. Exodus 23:2.
UL	315	2	To be singular for singularity's sake is positively detestable, below the dignity of a Christian, but to be singular because it is necessary to be so as the result of worshipping God and Him only, places Heaven's dignity upon man. We must not be afraid of being singular when duty requires us to be thus to exalt and honor God....
UL	315	3	Do not court singularity for the sake of being odd, but for the sake of avoiding sin and dishonor to God. And in this case we are not to mind even the multitude who are against us. "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil."
UL	315	4	Because the law of God is made void in our world, does it make it a virtue to transgress that law? It may appear to the world a very small matter for the Christian to be in harmony with the world by just the act of keeping Sunday for the Sabbath in the place of the seventh day, but God's Word says the seventh day is My holy day. The man of sin says, "I make a Sabbath for you and you must keep the first day of the week." ...
UL	315	5	God has a church. It is not the great cathedral, neither is it the national establishment, neither is it the various denominations; it is the people who love God and keep His commandments. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20). Where Christ is even among the humble few, this is Christ's church, for the presence of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity can alone constitute a church.
UL	315	6	Where two or three are present who love and obey the commandments of God, Jesus there presides, let it be in the desolate place of the earth, in the wilderness, in the city enclosed in prison walls. The glory of God has penetrated the prison walls, flooding with glorious beams of heavenly light the darkest dungeon. His saints may suffer, but their sufferings will, like the apostles of old, spread their faith and win souls to Christ and glorify His holy name. The bitterest opposition expressed by those who hate God's great moral standard of righteousness should not and will not shake the steadfast soul who trusts fully in God....
UL	315	7	They that will be doers of the word are building securely, and the tempest and storm of persecution will not shake their foundation, because their souls are rooted to the eternal Rock.--Letter 108, October 28, 1886, to her older sister and her husband who had not accepted the Sabbath truth.
------------------------Nature Imperfectly Reveals God, October 29
UL	316	1	For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 1 Corinthians 1:21.
UL	316	2	The existence of a personal God, the unity of Christ with His Father, lies at the foundation of all true science. From nature we can gain only an imperfect idea of the greatness and majesty of God. We see the working of His power and His wisdom, but He Himself is beyond our comprehension. The ocean, the cataract, the lofty, rugged mountains reveal but imperfectly His handiwork. Satan has introduced confusion and deformity into the creation of God. Something more than nature is needed to reveal the character of the Father.
UL	316	3	Christ came to this earth to reveal what finite minds can comprehend of the glory of God. He came to unite divinity and humanity, that through Him, with character made perfect, human beings might at last behold God in the fullness of His glory. Through the merits of the sacrifice He has made, we may become "partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:4). The bright beams of divinity pass through Christ to His followers. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12)....
UL	316	4	In these days, many deceptions are being taught as truth. Some of our brethren have taught views which we cannot endorse. Fanciful ideas, strained and peculiar interpretations of the Scripture, are coming in. Some of these teachings may seem to be but jots and tittles now, but they will grow and become snares to the inexperienced....
UL	316	5	We need to search the Scriptures daily, that we may know the way of the Lord, and that we be not deceived by religious fallacies. The world is full of false theories and seductive spiritualistic ideas, which tend to destroy clear spiritual perception, and to lead away from truth and holiness. Especially at this time do we need to heed the warning, "Let no man deceive you with vain words."
UL	316	6	We must be careful lest we misinterpret the Scriptures. The plain teachings of the Word of God are not to be so spiritualized that the reality is lost sight of. Do not overstrain the meaning of sentences in the Bible in an effort to bring forth something odd in order to please the fancy. Take the Scriptures as they read. Avoid idle speculation.--Manuscript 30, October 29, 1904, "Redeem the Time."
------------------------Satan's Latter-Day Sophistries, October 30
UL	317	1	Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. Isaiah 29:9.
UL	317	2	It is presented to me that in our experience we have been and are meeting this very condition of things. Men who have had great light and wonderful privileges have taken the word of leaders who think themselves wise, who have been greatly favored and blessed by the Lord, but who have taken themselves out of the hands of God and placed themselves in the ranks of the enemy.
UL	317	3	The world is to be flooded with specious fallacies. One human mind, accepting these fallacies, will work upon other human minds, who have been turning the precious evidence of God's truth into a lie. These men will be deceived by fallen angels, when they should have stood as faithful guardians, watching for souls, as they that must give an account. They have laid down the weapons of their warfare, and have given heed to seducing spirits. They make of no effect the counsel of God and set aside His warnings and reproofs, and are positively on Satan's side....
UL	317	4	Spiritual drunkenness is now upon men who ought not to be staggering as men under the influence of strong drink. Crimes and irregularities, fraud, deceit, and unfair dealing fill the world, in accordance with the teaching of the leader who rebelled in the heavenly courts.
UL	317	5	History is to be repeated. I could specify what will be in the near future, but the time is not yet. The forms of the dead will appear, through the cunning device of Satan, and many will link up with the one who loveth and maketh a lie. I warn our people that right among us some will turn away from the faith and give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and by them the truth will be evil spoken of.
UL	317	6	A marvelous work shall take place. Ministers, lawyers, doctors, who have permitted these falsehoods to overmaster their spirit of discernment, will be themselves deceivers, united with the deceived. A spiritual drunkenness will take possession of them. To the unfaithful stewards the Lord says, "Take your pleasure and walk in blindness as drunken men, for, after having many opportunities, and refusing to improve them, you will act at last as the drunkard acts, throwing away your hope of eternal life." Seeking deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and making lies their refuge, they will misinterpret the warnings and messages God has sent, placing on these warnings their false statements, to make God's Word of no effect.--Letter 311, October 30, 1905, to "Brethren Daniells and Prescott and Their Associates."
------------------------God Does Not Change, October 31
UL	318	1	And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15.
UL	318	2	How hard it is for man to walk humbly with God, to believe His Word and accept His plans. Satan's propositions appear to present great advantages, but they end in ruin. Over and over again men have found out by experience the result of refusing to walk in the path of obedience. Will not others gain wisdom from their experience? Let us think of the experience of our first parents and be afraid of any plans that are not based on obedience to God's will.
UL	318	3	When will men learn that God is God, not man, and that He does not change. Every calamity, every death, is a witness to the power of evil and to the truth of the living God. The Word of God is life, and it will abide forever. Through all eternity it will stand fast. How can man, knowing what God is and what He has done, choose Satan's way instead of God's way? There is only one path to Paradise restored--the path of obedience.
UL	318	4	The message given man to proclaim in these last days is not to be amalgamated with worldly opinions. In these days of peril, nothing but obedience will keep man from apostasy. God has bestowed on man great light and many blessings. But unless this light and these blessings are received, they are no security against apostasy and disobedience. When those whom God has exalted to positions of high trust turn from Him to human wisdom, their light becomes darkness, and how great is that darkness! Their entrusted capabilities are a snare to them. They are become an offense to God....
UL	318	5	There always has been, and till the conflict is ended, there always will be a departing from God. Sins have a close connection. One act of disobedience, unless repented of, leads to another. He who justifies himself in sin is led on step by step in deception, till at length he sins with impunity.
UL	318	6	Often the professed followers of Christ are found with hearts hardened and eyes blinded, because they do not obey the truth. Selfish motives and purposes take possession of the mind. In their self-confidence they suppose that their way is the way of wisdom. They are not particular to follow the path that God has marked out. They declare that circumstances alter cases, and when Satan tempts them to follow worldly principles, they yield, and making crooked paths for their feet, they lead others astray. The inexperienced follow where they go, supposing that the judgment of Christians so experienced must be wise.--Manuscript 135, October 31, 1902, "Instruction to the Church."
------------------------Accept the Saviour's Plan, November 1
UL	319	1	O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Psalm 34:8.
UL	319	2	Christ was the Prince of heaven, but He made an infinite sacrifice, and came to a world all marred with the curse brought upon it by the fallen foe. He lays hold of the fallen race. He invites us, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). The offer is ours, and every advantage is ours, if we will accept the terms....
UL	319	3	The good news of saving grace is to be carried to every place; the warning must be given to the world, but economy must be practiced if we move in the spirit of which Christ has given us an example in His life-service....
UL	319	4	The gospel is associated with light and life. If there were no sunlight, all vegetation would perish, and human life could not exist. All animal life would die. We are all to consider that there is to be no extravagance in any line.... We are preparing for the future, immortal life in the kingdom of heaven. We expect to do our work in the light and in the power of the great, mighty Healer. All are to act the self-sacrificing part. Every one of us is to learn of Christ. "Learn of me," He says; "for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29)....
UL	319	5	Our work is to be carefully studied, and is to be in accordance with our Saviour's plan. He might have had armies of angels to display His true, princely character, but He laid all that aside, and came to our world in the garb of humanity, to suffer with humanity all the temptations wherewith man is tempted. He was tempted in all points as human beings are tempted, that He might reveal that it is possible for us to be victorious overcomers--one with Christ as Christ is one with the Father. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:11, 12).
UL	319	6	God calls upon Seventh-day Adventists to reveal to the world that we are preparing for those mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those who will purify their souls by obeying the truth as it is in Jesus. Let every soul who will come after Christ deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Him.--Letter 309, November 1, 1905, to Elder and Mrs. J. A. Burden.
------------------------Blessed Assurance, November 2
UL	320	1	I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5.
UL	320	2	We have but one life to live, and through our daily connection with God we have, in and through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, a constant sustenance in doing the things that will represent Christ to the world. We may not have all the conveniences that some have in ease and comfort and in earthly goods, but we have the blessed assurance which Christ gave to His believing disciples.... To them He said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:1-3)....
UL	320	3	Blessed words! We may receive Him into our hearts, and He will be unto us hope and courage and sustaining grace. The Lord would have us trust fully and entirely in Him. Then we will, in the simplicity of our faith, believe that Christ will do for us all that He has promised. Let all come to the Saviour in the full assurance that He will do all that He has promised.
UL	320	4	We cannot please our Saviour more than by having faith in His promises. His mercies can come to you, and your prayers can come to Him. Nothing can break this line of communication. We must learn to bring all perplexities to Jesus Christ, for He will help us. He will listen to our requests. We may come to Him in full assurance of faith, nothing doubting, for He is the living Way....
UL	320	5	The more we press our petitions to His throne, the more sure we are of constantly receiving the great grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You do not give strength to the road you are traveling by [having] faith. But you increase in strength and in assurance because you have a Guide right by your side, and you can ask Him with perfect faith to guide your steps aright.
UL	320	6	Then trust in the Lord Jesus to lead you step by step into the right path. You can derive assurance and strength at every step you advance, for you can be assured that your hand is in His hand. You can "run and not be weary"; you can "walk and not faint," for you can realize by faith that you have your hand in the hand of Christ. You will not sink under discouragement, for as you follow on to know the Lord, trusting in Him, you will have the assurance that the One who never forsakes those who fully trust Him is your constant Helper.--Letter 313, November 2, 1905, to Mabel White, her 19-year-old granddaughter.
------------------------Take Your Stand on Christ's Side, November 3
UL	321	1	The trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:3, 4.
UL	321	2	To the angels, the course followed by human beings seems strangely inconsistent. They see how plainly degradation is revealed on the side of unbelief and indulgence of appetite. They see how untiringly Satan is working to destroy the image of God in man. They wonder why beings dependent on their Creator for every breath they draw act so unreasonably and inconsistently; why they choose the side of the one who crucified Christ and who has filled the world with strife and envy and jealousy....
UL	321	3	Christ is the Lord our Righteousness. Let us take our stand on His side now, just now. Let none be ashamed to acknowledge Christ as their Saviour, their counselor, their guide, and their exceeding great reward. Is this sacrificing anything? Is it an honor to be numbered among Satan's army? Those who make this choice gain nothing. Only death, eternal death, awaits them. Let those who are tempted to choose the world, to strive to gain the recognition of the world, remember that unless they choose Christ here, they will not have the recognition of heaven. Tempted ones, whom have you chosen as your leader? ...
UL	321	4	Come to Christ just as you are, weak, helpless, and ready to die. Cast yourselves wholly on His mercy. There is no difficulty within or without that cannot be conquered in His strength. Some have stormy tempers; but He who calmed the stormy sea of Galilee can say to your heart, if you repent, "Peace, be still." There is no nature that Christ cannot subdue, no temper so stormy that He cannot quell it, if the heart is surrendered to His keeping.
UL	321	5	No one need despond who commits his soul to Jesus. We have an all-powerful Saviour. Looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith, you can say, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof" (Psalm 46:1-3)....
UL	321	6	In the future life we shall understand things that here greatly perplex us. We shall realize how strong an opponent we had, and how angels of God were commissioned to guard us as we followed the counsel of the Word of God. Christ tells us that our sea will not always be smooth. We shall have tribulation. This is a part of our education, necessary to the formation of a strong, symmetrical character.--Manuscript 130, November 3, 1903, "Christ Stilling the Tempest."
------------------------Heaven's Sun Shines Through His Followers, November 4
UL	322	1	Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Matthew 5:14.
UL	322	2	He who draws nigh to Christ need not try to shine. As he beholds the Saviour, he catches the divine rays of light from the Sun of Righteousness, and he cannot help shining. The light that is in him shines forth in clear, bright rays, in words and works of righteousness. Christ's grace dwells in him richly, and heaven's light shines through him. He honors Christ by complete obedience. He is stimulated to more vigorous action in the cause of God as he imparts that which the Lord gives him. He is a light bearer to the world, shedding light on those who are in the darkness of error. He does not walk away from Christ, but keeps close by His side, conversing with Him, gathering divine principles from His Word. He goes about doing good, comforting the downcast, guiding wandering footsteps into the narrow way, sweetening the cup of bitterness, which many drink as a result of their own course of action.
UL	322	3	There are those who need the guidance of a firm, steady hand to lead them to the feet of the Master. Those who are truly successful in the work of overcoming will help others to fight manfully the battles of the Lord.
UL	322	4	Man has nothing in himself wherein to glory. Tell it in clear, strong language. All he has, his talent of reason, affection, speech, spiritual discernment, come to him through the mercy of the Son of the Infinite God. These are to be surrendered to God again. Self-annihilation is a hard process, for self struggles for existence, and dies hard. But prayer and faith place the weakest sinner on vantage ground, where the hand of faith can grasp firmly the hand of the Saviour. In and through Christ we may come off more than conquerors.
UL	322	5	God has given us instruction that every child of His has a work to do. To everyone is given talents according to his several ability. To minister for Christ, it is not necessary for a man to be a preacher. There are many who, though they do not feel that they have been set apart for the special work of preaching, are, nevertheless, ministering for Christ. The Sun of Righteousness shines upon them, and they reveal that they are one with Christ. The Word of God is the man of their counsel. As they study the Scriptures they are enabled to understand what they read. They work in unity with one another. There will be no discordant opinions among those who are taught by God. True saints are one in spirit and action. The Holy Spirit binds them together, and all the power of satanic agencies cannot break this union.--Manuscript 176, November 14, 1899, "Diary," written in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia.
------------------------Christ Came to Reveal God, November 5
UL	323	1	Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? Job 11:7.
UL	323	2	Christ has revealed God. Let those who desire to know God study the work and teaching of Christ. To those who receive Him and believe on Him, He gives power to become the sons of God. He says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30)....
UL	323	3	Human talent and human conjecture have tried by searching to find out God. Many have trodden this pathway. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out in conjectures regarding God, but the effort will be fruitless, and the fact will remain that man by searching cannot find out God. This problem has not been given us to solve. All that man needs to know and can know of God has been revealed in the life and character of His Son, the Great Teacher. As we learn more and more of what man is, of what we ourselves are in God's sight, we shall fear and tremble before Him.
UL	323	4	To those who would represent every man as born a king; to those who would make no distinction between the converted and the unconverted; to those who are losing their appreciation of their need of Christ as their Saviour, I would say, "Think of yourselves as you have been during the period of your existence! Would it be pleasant or agreeable for you to contemplate feature after feature of your lifework, in the sight of Him who knows every thought of man, and before whose eyes all man's doings are as an open book?"
UL	323	5	I call upon all who are engaged in the service of God to place themselves fully on Christ's side. There are dangers on the right hand and on the left. Our greatest danger will come from men who have lifted up their souls unto vanity, who have not heeded the words of warning and reproof sent them by God. As such men choose their own will and way, the tempter, clothed in angel robes, is close beside them, ready to unite his influence with theirs. He opens to them delusions of a most attractive character, which they present to the people of God. Some of those who listen to them will be deceived, and will work in dangerous lines.
UL	323	6	The Lord calls. Will men and women hear His voice? He gives the warning. Will they heed it? Will they listen to the last message of mercy to a fallen world? Will they accept Christ's yoke, and learn from Him His meekness and lowliness?--Letter 240, November 5, 1903. "To Medical Students and Nurses," written during the pantheism crisis.
------------------------Be a Cheerful Christian, November 6
UL	324	1	But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. Psalm 13:5.
UL	324	2	The more we reveal the power of an indwelling Saviour, the more of His power will be manifested unto us....
UL	324	3	When the farmers seek to recommend or exhibit their products, they do not gather up the poorest but the best specimens. Women possess a zeal to bring the very best golden lumps of butter, molded and prettily stamped. Men bring the best yield of vegetables of every kind. The very best and most attractive fruit is brought, and their appearance does the skillful workers credit. The variety of fruits--the apples, peaches, apricots, oranges, lemons, and plums--all these are very attractive, and make those who look upon the fruit from the orchards and gardens desire to be in the country where they can till the soil....
UL	324	4	Why should not Christians living in these last days reveal the most attractive fruit in unselfish actions? Why should not the fruit of the commandment-keeping people of God appear in the very best representation of good works? Their words, their deportment, their dress, should bear fruit of the very best quality. "By their fruits," Christ said, "ye shall know them." ...
UL	324	5	Trials are Christ's workmen to perfect the Christian graces.... These tests are not to sink the believers' faith, but raise it equal to the occasion, that unto all it may be made to appear more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire. Every trial permitted is designed to exalt the truth to a higher appreciation, that praise to God alone shall be upon the lips of the true disciple of Christ. And the growth in grace is to the honor and glory of God at the appearing of Jesus Christ, "whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you" (1 Peter 1:8-10)....
UL	324	6	The bright and cheerful side of our religion will be represented by all who are daily consecrated to God.... We do not want to dishonor God by the mournful relation of trials that appear grievous. All trials that are received as educators will produce joy. The whole religious life will be uplifting, elevating, ennobling, fragrant with good words and works. The enemy is well pleased to have souls complaining and stumbling their way along, depressed, downcast, mourning, and groaning; because Satan wants just such impressions made as to the effects of our faith. God designs that the mind shall take no low level.--Manuscript 70, November 6, 1897, "Diary."
------------------------Promise to the Overcomer, November 7
UL	325	1	There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13.
UL	325	2	We must not think that by walking in the path of obedience, we shall escape trials, for the enemy will do all in his power to hinder us from gaining heaven. But the Saviour has promised to help us. Have you trials? So had Jesus. Are you tempted? So was He--in all points like as we are. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God" (John 1:10-12)....
UL	325	3	When Christ was upon this earth, the people flocked to hear Him. So simple and plain were His words that the most unlearned among the people could understand Him, and His hearers listened as if spellbound. This enraged the scribes and Pharisees. They were filled with envy because the people listened so attentively to the words of this new Teacher. They determined to break His hold upon the multitudes. They began by attacking His character, saying that He was born in sin, and that He cast out devils through the prince of the devils. Thus were fulfilled the words "They hated me without a cause" (John 15:25; cf. Psalm 69:4). The Jewish leaders maligned and persecuted the One who is chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely.
UL	325	4	As we separate from the world and its customs, we shall meet with the displeasure of worldlings. The world hated the One who was the very embodiment of virtue, because He was better than they were. The servant is not greater than his Lord. If our ways please God, the world will hate us. If the Majesty of heaven came to this world, and endured a life of humiliation and a death of shame, why should we shrink back because obedience involves a cross? If He was persecuted, can we expect better treatment?...I point you to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He will comfort and sustain all who come to Him for help....
UL	325	5	An eternal weight of glory, and a life that measures with the life of God, await the overcomer. Our minds should be constantly dwelling on the goodness of God and the future home of the saints, and we should ever be striving for perfection of character, that at last we may be given entrance into the City of God.--Manuscript 30, November 7, 1886, "The Christian Pathway."
------------------------The Great I Am, November 8
UL	326	1	Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Psalm 90:2.
UL	326	2	God's Word and His works contain the knowledge of Himself that He has seen fit to reveal to us. We may understand the revelation that He has thus given of Himself. But it is with fear and trembling and with a sense of our own sinfulness that we are to take up this study, not with a desire to try to explain God, but with a desire to gain that knowledge which will enable us to serve Him more acceptably. Let no one venture to explain God. Human beings cannot explain themselves, and how, then, dare they venture to explain the Omniscient One?...
UL	326	3	To the curious I bear the message that God has instructed me not to frame answers to the questions of those who enquire in regard to the things that have not been revealed. The things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children. Beyond this, human beings are not to attempt to go. We are not to attempt to explain that which God has not revealed. We are to study the revelation that Christ, the Great Teacher, has given of the character of God, that in spirit and word and act we may represent Him to those who know Him not.
UL	326	4	In regard to the personality and prerogatives of God, where He is and what He is, this is a subject which we are not to dare to touch. On this theme silence is eloquence. It is those who have no experimental knowledge of God who venture to speculate in regard to Him. Did they know more of Him, they would have less to say about what He is. The one who in the daily life holds closest communion with God, and who has the deepest knowledge of Him, realizes most keenly the utter inability of human beings to explain the Creator....
UL	326	5	God always has been. He is the great I AM.... He is infinite and omnipresent. No words of ours can describe His greatness and majesty.
UL	326	6	The Bible teaching of God is the only teaching that is safe for human beings to follow. We are to regulate our faith by a plain "Thus saith the Lord." The knowledge of Himself that God desires us to gain from His Word, will, if brought into the daily life, make men and women strong to resist evil, and fit them to represent Him.
UL	326	7	We need to study the simplicity of Christ's teachings. He urges the need of prayer and humility. These are our safeguards against the erroneous reasoning by which Satan seeks to lead us to turn aside to other gods, and to accept misleading theories, clothed by him in garments of light.--Manuscript 132, November 8, 1903, "God's Chosen People," written during the pantheism crisis.
------------------------Worship Nature's God, November 9
UL	327	1	The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Psalm 24:1.
UL	327	2	God speaks to us in nature. It is His voice we hear as we gaze upon the beauty and richness of the natural world. We view His glory in the beauteous things His hand has made. We stand and behold His works without a veil between. God has given us these things that in beholding the works of His hands we may learn of Him.
UL	327	3	God has given us these precious things as an expression of His love. The Lord is a lover of the beautiful, and to please and gratify us He has spread before us the beauties of nature, even as an earthly parent seeks to place beautiful things before the children that he loves. The Lord is always pleased to see us happy. Sinful as it is with all its imperfections, the Lord has lavished upon this earth the useful and the beautiful. The beautiful, tinted flowers tell of His tenderness and love. They have a language of their own, reminding us of the Giver.
UL	327	4	We may look up through nature to nature's God. In the beautiful, lofty trees, the shrubs, the flowers, God reveals His character. He is to be compared to the most beautiful lilies and roses and pinks. I love to look upon the things of God in nature, for the Lord impresses upon them His character. In love to us He has given them, and He means that we shall have pleasure in them. Then let us not worship the beautiful things in nature, but let us look up through them to nature's God, and be led to worship the Giver. Let these beautiful ministries of love answer the purpose of God, and draw our hearts to Him, to be filled with the beauties of His character, and adore His goodness, His compassion, His inexpressible love.
UL	327	5	God is good, and greatly to be praised. His mercies have been freely bestowed upon us. He has surrounded us with tokens of His love. The heathen may rage and imagine vain things, but the Lord is unchangeable. He has made the strength of the everlasting hills to be a safe retreat for His people. He has prepared the mountains and the caves for His oppressed and persecuted children. We may sing, God is our refuge and strength in time of trial. He who made the towering mountains, the everlasting hills--to Him we may look. And He will look from His high and holy place upon those who love and fear Him....
UL	327	6	In the things of nature we are given symbols of the kingdom of heaven. Thank God, we have a city that is pure, whose Builder and Maker is God. That city cannot be moved. It is as firm as the throne of God.--Manuscript 153, November 9, 1903. "Through Nature to Nature's God."
------------------------Take the Cup of Salvation, November 10
UL	328	1	Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Isaiah 12:2.
UL	328	2	You speak in your letter of discouragement. I felt to sympathize with you and would point you to the dear Saviour, the Burden Bearer. He will receive you, if you seek Him. "Ask, and it shall be given you," are the words which fell from His divine lips. "Seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7). Claim the promise as yours. Do not seek to make yourself better and keep your eyes upon yourself, worrying and doubting the goodness and mercy of God.
UL	328	3	Just as you are, come to Him, and trust yourself in His hands. Believe that He does accept you as He has promised. Do not try to do some great thing to recommend you to God, but trust in Him now, just now.... Come by humble faith to Him who has never said to the needy and suffering, "Seek ye My face in vain." We know that we are sinners and that we often err and are frequently overcome with temptations; but this should not lead us in our great need to keep away from the only One who can help us and save us from the power of Satan. This is the enemy's work to discourage and drive to despair.
UL	328	4	What evidence have we of the matchless love of Jesus in that He left heaven and came to the earth to help us. He has said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (chap. 11:28-30).
UL	328	5	Why, my dear brother, Jesus lives to make intercession for you.... If we sin, "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous" (1 John 2:1). The pitying love of God is extended to us in all our wants and in all our imperfections. Jesus loves you, and do respond to that love by cheerfully trusting in Him. Put away from you all sins which would grieve and wound the Saviour. Seek to imitate His holy life and spotless character.... But ample provisions have been made by the dear Saviour to purify, to cleanse from all sins, and by His grace to remedy the defects in our character by imputing unto us His righteousness.
UL	328	6	But we must exercise faith ourselves. We "must believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).... Believe, my brother, believe. My soul says, Believe. Take right hold of the promises of God by faith and appropriate them to yourself.... In much love to you and yours, Your sister in Christ, Ellen G. White.--Letter 36, November 10, 1875, to a disheartened layman.
------------------------Look to Jesus, Not to Others, November 11
UL	329	1	Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2.
UL	329	2	Let those who profess to believe the truth seek most earnestly to follow in the footsteps of the Master, ministering to all who need a Saviour. Christ has plainly laid down the conditions upon which salvation depends. "If any man will come after me," He says, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). Yes, follow Christ. Let every dear soul who desires to obey God walk in the footsteps of the Redeemer. We must be meek and lowly in heart. We are to bring forth fruits of righteousness according to the capabilities God has given us.
UL	329	3	My sister, we must have heaven. We must not let anything keep us from gaining eternal life. Be humble, meek, and lowly, kind, pitiful, and tenderhearted. Do not look at and talk of the failings of others. Remember that you become like that which you behold. Eternal life is worth everything to us. Let us talk about the goodness and power and glory of Christ.
UL	329	4	You can be a blessing in the church if you will let your light shine. By your example you may teach others how to shine. Do not bring in darkness by exalting the power of the enemy above the power of the Lord Jesus. All you have to do is to open your heart to the bright beams of the sunshine of Christ's grace and glory. Talk faith, pure, sacred, holy faith. Bear no discouraging testimony, for this pleases the enemy. Talk of the goodness of God. Have we not enough at every step to praise him for?
UL	329	5	Christ says, "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it" (Revelation 3:8). Then let us not discourage others by talking of defects of character. Talk of the light. Heaven is full of light. Christ is the Light of the world. Speak hopeful words, strong, comforting words. Look away from the imperfections of others, and by your practical godliness show those around you the better way.
UL	329	6	I want you to recover all you have lost. Do not act out your impulsive feelings to the injury of any soul. In your home show your children the way to Christ. We need to appreciate more fully the value of the education to be given in the home--a jot here in love and tenderness, and a tittle somewhere else, line upon line in love. Pleasant words will do marvelous things. May God help you, my dear sister, is my prayer.--Letter 148, November 11, 1900, to the Seventh-day Adventist wife of a prosperous but unbelieving businessman.
------------------------Our Father's Business, November 12
UL	330	1	And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. Matthew 4:24.
UL	330	2	Christ's life was one of constant self-sacrifice. His work was not confined to any time or place. It was bounded only by His love and sympathy for the souls for whom He was soon to give His life. His compassion knew no limit. On so large a scale did He conduct His work of healing and teaching, that there was no building in Palestine large enough to hold the multitudes that thronged to Him. In every town and village through which He passed was to be found His hospital. On the hillsides of Galilee, in the great thoroughfares of travel, on the seashore, in the synagogues, in every place where there were hearts ready to hear His message, Jesus healed the people and pointed them to their heavenly Father. In the evening, after the hours of toil were over, He talked with those who through the day must work to earn a pittance for the support of their families.
UL	330	3	If we only realized how earnestly Jesus worked to sow the world with the gospel seed, we would ... labor untiringly to give the bread of life to perishing souls....
UL	330	4	Catch the spirit of the great Master-Worker. Learn from the Friend of sinners how to minister to sin-sick souls. His heart was ever touched with human woe. Why are we so cold and indifferent? Why are our hearts so unimpressible? Christ placed Himself on the altar of service, a living sacrifice. Why are we so unwilling to give ourselves to the work to which He consecrated His life? Something must be done to cure the terrible indifference that has taken hold upon us. Let us bow our heads in humiliation as we see how much less we have done than we might have done to sow the seeds of truth.
UL	330	5	When we are converted, our desire for ease and elegance will be changed. Christ brought His desires and wishes into strict abeyance to His mission--the mission that bore the insignia of heaven. He made everything subordinate to the great work that He came to this world to accomplish in behalf of the fallen race. When in His youth His mother found Him in the school of the rabbis, and said to Him, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing," He answered, "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:48, 49).--Manuscript 147, November 12, 1902, "An Appeal for More Effort."
------------------------How Would You Have Answered? November 13
UL	331	1	And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. 2 Kings 2:15.
UL	331	2	God's servants are to work for the higher classes, but this does not mean that they are to bind themselves up with the honored of the earth, depending on them for strength, influence, and success. The Lord will often incline the hearts of those in positions of responsibility to grant favors to His commandment-keeping people. But when God's servants leave Him to solicit recognition from men of the world, they exchange power for weakness.
UL	331	3	We have a most solemn work before us, the importance of which we can only understand by the light which is shining from God's Word on the past and the present. Who is holding fast the faith once delivered to the saints? Who, amid the cries of "Lo here" and "Lo there," is showing unshaken confidence in the Word of God? The faith of the present connects us with the past and points us to the future.
UL	331	4	We may learn valuable lessons from the experience of the prophet Elisha. Elisha was chosen by the Lord as Elijah's helper, and through test and trial he proved himself true to his trust. He was willing to be and do anything the Lord directed. He did not seek to shun the humblest service, but was as faithful in the performance of smaller duties as of larger responsibilities. He was always willing to serve in any position to which the Lord pointed him, however disagreeable it might be to his natural inclinations. And at every step he learned lessons of humility and service....
UL	331	5	"And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me" (2 Kings 2:9). He did not ask for worldly honor, for a high place among the great men of the earth. That for which He craved was a double portion of the Spirit given to the one God was about to honor with translation. He knew that nothing but a double portion of the Spirit that had rested on Elijah could fit him to fill the place Elijah had filled, because Elijah had the experience and wisdom of age, which cannot by any method be imparted to the young....
UL	331	6	Had you been asked this question, what would you have answered? What is the greatest desire of your heart as you engage in the service of God?--Manuscript 114, November 13, 1901, "Lessons From the Experience of Elisha."
------------------------Perfect Footprints, November 14
UL	332	1	Hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. 1 Peter 2:21.
UL	332	2	There is danger of our losing so much in our spiritual experience because we let slip the words that God gives. He speaks to one heart, and He speaks to another heart, and they hear these words and then go away and treat the words as a common thing, and they do not impress the mind. God wants us to take the words home to every heart.
UL	332	3	"For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him?" (Hebrews 2:2, 3). Here is presented to us the importance of our speaking. God wants us to communicate. Have the treasure house of the heart full, full of the precious words of the Scriptures. Hand it right out; it is the precious message of God to them....
UL	332	4	Many speak and act as if they were ashamed of Jesus. They do not think of Him, and introduce Him to their friends. They do not live to glorify Him--ashamed of Jesus, who took humanity that they might have life!...
UL	332	5	You cannot do another's work. Each one has his own peculiar temperament.... We are not to expect that everyone is to travel in our own footprints, but in the footprints of our self-denying Redeemer. Take up the cross and follow Him. He is our Guide. There are perfect footprints; He has made them. We are safe in following Christ. But when we seek [to make] everyone follow some other one, there is where we make a mistake, there is where our differences come in; but we should never have differences. We must believe that others are just as honest before God as we are.
UL	332	6	"For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (Hebrews 2:10). He had to understand all about the weakness of man, the strength of Satan's temptations. He took humanity right upon Himself, and bore all the temptations of the devil, and He knows what every man has to endure. Consider Christ's pity for man. He knows just how they were born. He knows just how they were surrounded in childhood. You don't know what temptations came with their birth. You don't know the conditions of their parents. Put away all judgment. Judgment belongs to the Son of God. He is the One who is to judge the world.--Manuscript 174, November 14, 1901, "Morning Lesson From Hebrews Two."
------------------------In Full Assurance of Faith, November 15
UL	333	1	Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22.
UL	333	2	We need an abiding, heartfelt dependence upon the Son of God for salvation and for all wisdom and spiritual influences. Unless there is much more love to God and to man, and a continual dependence upon the renewing, sanctifying grace of Christ to work a transformation of character by a divine change in the heart, which will be manifestly seen in word, spirit, and action, we shall fail in our work....
UL	333	3	We need increased faith, far less confidence and assurance in what we can do, and far greater confidence in what the Lord is longing to do for us individually, if we will prepare the way for Him. We need, O so much more than we now have, the longing of soul for communion with God. We need to plead most earnestly with Him. If thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, when thou shalt seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul....
UL	333	4	A great desire after large blessings and deep fullness should be cherished. But these we shall never have while we feel so self-sufficient, while we have so tame a love for God and so little Christlike love for our brethren. When self is emptied from the heart, the vacuum will be supplied with the fullness of Christ. Let the soul be less engaged in business matters. Let it put far less trust in the wisdom that bears the marks of being more human than divine. The praise given by word or action to any human being is an offense to God. Yet God will praise every individual that keeps His commandments in truth and righteousness. It is very human to place confidence and trust in man, but not so readily do these same persons walk as seeing Him who is invisible....
UL	333	5	God recognizes the wants of the soul. But our people, who have the great treasure of the Word of God opened before them, do not realize this. Self-esteem, self-sufficiency, so corrodes the soul with the slime and selfishness of earthliness, that the excellence of the things of eternal interest makes scarce a ripple upon the human heart....
UL	333	6	There needs to be a reaching out after God, not ... now and then, but a continual earnest, heartbreaking confessing and humbling of the soul before God. God's people must come into the audience chamber of the Most High.... God understands that you need Him, and if you ask, you will receive help when tempted and tried. Your petitions, made known only to God who searcheth the heart, He will hear and answer.--Letter 45, November 15, 1897, to A. G. Daniells and "my ministering brethren, and the church in Melbourne."
------------------------Leaders in the Invisible Conflict, November 16
UL	334	1	All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. Luke 10:22.
UL	334	2	No man can explain the mysteries of God. His glory is hidden from the world. Of what value are the surmisings and speculations of men concerning His personality.... Christ is the representative of the Father, "the express image of his person."
UL	334	3	Creation speaks to us of the skill and power of God. In His goodness God has placed on the earth beautiful flowers and trees, wonderfully adapted to the countries and the climate in which they grow. And, though sin has marred the form and beauty of the things of nature, though on them there may be seen traces of the work of the prince of the power of the air, yet they still speak of God, and still reveal some of the beauty of Eden.
UL	334	4	In the heavens above, in the earth, in the broad waters of the ocean, we see the handiwork of God. All creation testifies of His power, His wisdom, His love. Yet not from the stars, or the ocean, or the cataract can we learn of the personality of God. This Christ came to reveal....
UL	334	5	Christ came to reveal to a fallen race the love of God. He, the Light of the world, veiled the dazzling splendor of the brightness of His divinity, and came to live on this earth as a man among men, that they might, without being consumed, become acquainted with their Creator. No man has seen God at any time, except as He is revealed through Christ.
UL	334	6	Because of frequent triumphs, Satan is becoming more bold and defiant in his rebellion against God. The rapid development of evil, the confusion among the laboring classes, reveal that men are rapidly taking sides. They are being bound up in bundles to be burned. The labor unions are quickly stirred to violence if their demands are not complied with. Plainer and plainer is it becoming that the inhabitants of the world are not in harmony with God.
UL	334	7	No scientific theory can explain the steady march of evil workers under the generalship of Satan. In every mob wicked angels are at work, rousing men to commit deeds of violence.... The perversity and cruelty of men will reach such a height that God will reveal Himself in His majesty. Very soon the wickedness of the world will have reached its limit, and as in the days of Noah, God will pour out His judgments.
UL	334	8	But even when wickedness is at its height, we may know that our Helper is close by our side.--Letter 250, November 16, 1903, to J. E. White, her son, who was working among the blacks of the Southern States.
------------------------Cast Your Burdens on Jesus, November 17
UL	335	1	Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 1 Peter 5:6, 7.
UL	335	2	Your mind may often be clouded because of pain. Then do not try to think, but just rest, and show that you have committed your soul to God as unto a faithful Creator. It is your privilege to show in your weakness and suffering that you do not doubt the love of God toward you, that you know that He is faithful who has promised, and that you trust soul and body in His hands, that He will keep that which is committed to His trust.
UL	335	3	Let your mind dwell upon the goodness of God, upon the great love wherewith He has loved us, as evidenced in the work of redemption. If He did not love us, and consider us of value, then this great sacrifice would not have been made. He is beneficent in mercy and in grace. Let your heart and mind be at rest, like a tired child in the arms of its mother. His everlasting arms are beneath you. In all your afflictions Jesus is afflicted. What a privilege it is for you, now afflicted, to find a refuge in Jesus.
UL	335	4	The gospel armor seems too weighty to be borne. Well, Jesus Christ is your armor. Hide in Him, and the wicked one will not harass or confuse your faith. Jesus has bequeathed His peace to you....
UL	335	5	Praise the Lord that you have felt the cleansing efficacy of the Saviour's blood. Upon your soul the Sun of Righteousness hath arisen with healing in His wings. How empty and unsatisfying is every earthly thing. But Jesus, the precious Saviour, is your spiritual sustenance. He has linked your life with His life. The word of His grace is manna to the believing soul. The precious promises of the Word are life, greatness, and peace.
UL	335	6	Do not be troubled. Jesus loves you, and will care for you and bless you. The active, aggressive battle you can no more fight, but you can let Jesus fight it for you. He says to you, "Give your case entirely into My hands. Be still, and know that I am God."
UL	335	7	Dear Sister_____, we hope and pray that the Lord will give you help and strength under the severe taxation that is upon you. That God that saw Nathanael under the fig tree sees you and understands all your griefs and all your sorrows. The Lord Jesus will be your strength in this day of your affliction....
UL	335	8	The Word is the living bread. Eat of it daily. It will be a sustaining power to do all that you must do. It will infuse immortal vigor into your soul, perfect your experience, and bring to you those joys which are real, and which abide forever.--Letter 16, November 17, 1896, to an aged sister.
------------------------Nature Reveals God, November 18
UL	336	1	Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. Isaiah 40:26.
UL	336	2	Pantheistic ideas regarding God in nature are framed by Lucifer, the fallen angel. The strange part of the matter is that these ideas have been accepted by so many as beautiful truth. But that which they think is light will lead them into dense darkness. It is a distinguishing feature of the experience of Seventh-day Adventists to give glory to God. When we give glory to human agencies, when we have unlimited confidence in man, speaking of the excellence that we suppose him to possess, we worship we know not what. Let God be exalted. Let frail, erring human beings humble themselves before Him....
UL	336	3	I have had much to say of the glory of God as seen in His created works, but never have I left the impression that our God Omnipotent, who ruleth in the heavens and fills all the heavens, is to be found in flower and leaf and tree. What I have said of God's works in nature was meant to lead the mind from nature to nature's God, to show that all the glory should be given to Him who ruleth in the heavens....
UL	336	4	Men are to discharge their duty to God. They are to have reverence for and a knowledge of a personal God. They are to praise and glorify His name as the One who has placed many beautiful things in this sin-corrupted earth, that from the child to the man and woman of mature years, all may see that God loves His family here below. He so loves us that He gave us a tangible proof of His love by sending His only begotten Son to bear the sin of the world, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
UL	336	5	God desires us to think of the height and depth and breadth of His measureless love, which is without a parallel, and to remember that we are His purchased possession. "Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (see 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). We are to act as in the sight of the heavenly universe, conscientiously discharging our obligations to our Creator.
UL	336	6	The world is to be taken captive by Satan's deceiving representations. Where then is our security? How shall we guard against Satan's bewitching artifices? By reading the Word of God with an intensity of desire to know Him in the light of revelation which He has left on record of Himself.--Letter 253a, November 18, 1903, to Dr. J. H. Kellogg, who was entertaining pantheistic concepts.
------------------------Walk by Faith, Not by Sight, November 19
UL	337	1	Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4.
UL	337	2	Dear Brother: I have received your letter, and have read it. I would encourage you, my brother, to bear in mind that Jesus Christ gave His precious life for you. He will be your helper, if you trust in Him. Commit the keeping of your soul unto Him who gave His own life to a cruel, shameful death, in order to redeem every soul who will receive Him....
UL	337	3	Now, my brother, we have met with many souls who, in their Christian experience, have passed through circumstances similar to those mentioned in your letter. You must not trust to your impressions of unbelief. You must put your confidence in One who has given His life for you. Then you will be numbered among the receiving ones--among those who believe and receive His Word, and walk not by feeling, but by faith.
UL	337	4	The Word of God is true. Faith takes hold of the divine Word, whereas feeling is naught else but something that eclipses faith in a "Thus saith the Word of the living God." ... Wonderful is the work which God designs to accomplish through His servants, that His name may be glorified. My brother, you must not sink down in discouragement. Lay hold of God's promises with the faith of a little child....
UL	337	5	My brother, I beseech of you to look away from yourself unto Christ, and live. Put your trust in the One who loves human agencies. Let your dependence be wholly on Christ. He is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto Him. Believe, believe that Christ will pardon all your transgressions and forgive all your sins. Humble yourself as a little child, and Christ will receive you and bless you and strengthen you. Do not think unbelief or talk unbelief, but take God at His word, and leave yourself in His hands, to be taught and led of Him....
UL	337	6	Comfort your heart, my brother, by believing that the Lord wants you to be saved, and that you are His child. Do not think that your mind must be in a certain state of feeling or else you are not accepted of God. Your faith must rely not on feeling, but on the promises of God. Walk by faith in a "Thus saith the Lord." Rest your case with the Lord, and believe in His Word. Believe, oh, believe the Word of the Lord, and walk by faith, not by sight. Consecrate yourself anew to God. Be loyal and true to a "Thus saith the Lord," and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ doth make you free.--Letter 388, November 19, 1907, to a church member in South Lancaster, Massachusetts.
------------------------Be Wide Awake, November 20
UL	338	1	Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Romans 13:11.
UL	338	2	Satan has ever sought to infatuate the minds of men with subtle mysteries. Thus he beguiled Eve, and thus he seeks to seduce men today. Those who misquote the Word of God in an effort to substantiate error are following the example of him who beguiled Eve, and who tempted Christ in the wilderness. The enemy substituted for the Word of God his own misleading statements.
UL	338	3	The same deceptive agency that seduced the angels in heaven is working in like manner upon human minds today. By means of his seducing statements he won the confidence of many of the angels, and there was a great war in heaven. Michael and His angels fought against Satan and his deceived followers....
UL	338	4	Some who have received warning and instruction from God have deliberately turned from the messages sent to them. They have, as it were, walked blindfolded into Satan's prepared snares. Satan is playing the game of life for their souls. And some who might be in a position to help these ensnared souls have themselves become ensnared as captives to the archdeceiver.
UL	338	5	God's love for His church is infinite. He has made every provision for its growth and enlargement. His care over His people is unceasing. He has given instruction regarding the dangers of false theories and subtle reasonings of the archdeceiver. He has sent warnings, reproofs, and messages to save His people. But some, like many of Christ's disciples, are offended, because they have misinterpreted the messages sent by God.
UL	338	6	When it is essential for the purification of the church, trials are permitted. Under these trials some regard themselves as abused, and instead of humbling their hearts, they rise up in indignation. Satan watches his opportunity to present some pleasing sophistry that will captivate the minds of the tempted ones and lead them to accept his fables. Those who are thus deceived become channels through which other minds are seduced by delusive sentiments....
UL	338	7	God has no pleasure in the death of the unrighteous. He has borne long with stubborn, obdurate hearts. He who gave Christ to the world has sent messages of warning, but many have refused to heed. Long has He borne with men who have not glorified His name. He now calls upon His people to make a thorough work and remove every stumbling block. Let us clear the highway for our God.--Manuscript 106, November 20, 1905, "A Plea for Loyalty."
------------------------Allow God to Direct, November 21
UL	339	1	In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:6.
UL	339	2	During the night season I was specially moved upon by the Spirit of God. My soul had been drawn out in earnest supplication to God. I was distressed on account of the backsliding of His people.
UL	339	3	While lying in bed, unable to sleep because of the burden resting upon me, I was pleading with the Lord. I fell asleep, and in the night season I was taught of God. My guide said, "I have a work for you to do. You must speak the words given you by the Lord. After these words have been spoken, your duty here is done. You are not required to enter into details before individuals, whatever may be their position or work, if they do not recognize the voice of God in the message He gives you to bear in His name. All your efforts to remove their doubts will be of no avail if they gather the clouds of darkness about their souls. If you enter into particulars, you weaken the message. It is not you speaking, but the Lord speaking through you. Those who want to know the will of God, who do not desire to follow their own will and judgment, will be easily entreated. They will be ready to discern the right way.
UL	339	4	"The whys and wherefores are concealed from you; yet speak the words I give you, however painful it may be to you. The ways in which God leads His people are generally mysterious. You have asked to know God's way. Your supplication has been answered. God knows better than you do what is good and essential for His children. He never leads them otherwise than they would wish to be led, if they were able to see as clearly as He does what they must do to establish characters that will fit them for the heavenly courts."
UL	339	5	The people whom God is leading must venture out upon His word. They must walk forward by faith. Truths have been committed to them which they must obey. The work of God is aggressive. No one can stand in a neutral position and yet be a soldier in the Lord's army. God has commands for His people, and if they keep in close connection with Him, they will hear His voice, and will keep in step with their Captain. They will go forward in the conflict to fight the battles of the Lord. But those who place themselves in an indifferent, noncommittal position will gain no victories.--Manuscript 29, November 21, 1890, "Diary."
------------------------God and His Creation, November 22
UL	340	1	By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth....For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. Psalm 33:6-9.
UL	340	2	We need more to be shut in the audience with God. There is need of guarding our own thoughts. We are surely living amid the perils of the last days. We must walk before God meekly, with deep humility, for it is only such that will be exalted.
UL	340	3	O how little man can comprehend the perfection of God, His omnipresence united with His almighty power. A human artist receives his intelligence from God. He can only fashion his work in any line to perfection from materials already prepared for his work. In his finite power he could not create and make his materials to serve his purpose if the Great Designer had not been before him, giving him the very improvements first in his imagination.
UL	340	4	The Lord God commands things into being. He was the first Designer. He is not dependent on man, but graciously invites man's attention, and cooperates with him in progressive and higher designs. Then man takes all the glory to himself, and is extolled by his fellow men as a very remarkable genius. He looks no higher than man. The one First Cause is forgotten....
UL	340	5	I am afraid we have altogether too cheap and common ideas. "Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee" (1 Kings 8:27). Let not anyone venture to limit the power of the Holy One of Israel. There are conjectures and questions in regard to God's work--"Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5)....
UL	340	6	In the formation of our world, God was not beholden to preexistent substance or matter. For the "things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Hebrews 11:3). On the contrary, all things, material or spiritual, stood up before the Lord Jehovah at His voice, and were created for His own purpose. The heavens and all the host of them, the earth and all things that are therein, are not only the work of His hand; they came into existence by the breath of His mouth.
UL	340	7	The Lord had given evidence that by His power He could in one short hour dissolve the whole frame of nature. He can turn things upside down, and destroy the things that man has built up in his most firm and substantial manner....In fires, in floods, in earthquakes, in the fury of the great deep, in calamities by sea and by land, the warning is given that God's Spirit will not always strive with men.--Manuscript 127, November 22, 1897, untitled manuscript.
------------------------Revelations of God's Will, November 23
UL	341	1	Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. John 5:19.
UL	341	2	We are safe if we do the will of our heavenly Father....See the entire dependence of the Son on the Father, was shown in the words "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do"--mark the implicit obedience in the words--"for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" (John 5:19). No less entire is to be our dependence on Christ, and no less implicit our obedience. Christ's words regarding this matter are definite....
UL	341	3	"For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth" (Verse 20). It was in our behalf that Christ came to this world to make known the will of His Father, and to show human beings what they must become before they can stand before God in the heavenly courts. It is our work to obey God--to learn and obey the laws of His kingdom.
UL	341	4	God chose Israel to be His people, and by His mighty power He delivered them from Egyptian bondage. The Egyptians saw and felt the scourging of God. The whole land bore evidence to the power of Him who ruleth in the heavens. All Egypt was desolated before Pharaoh would submit to God's will. Thus God worked to lead His people in all future ages to magnify His power and to look to Him as the supreme Ruler.
UL	341	5	The Son of God, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, was the leader of the children of Israel, overseeing every phase of their experience. He educated and disciplined them, often testing their faith. Fleeing from Pharaoh's host, they found themselves at one time hemmed in by inaccessible mountains, with the Red Sea before them and the enemy following hard after. The command came, "Go forward," and as they obeyed, the waters parted before them. In their journey through the wilderness, the Israelites were led and protected by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night....
UL	341	6	Moses, the visible leader of the Israelites, was admitted into the secret councils of the Most High. The people were given evidence that Moses did indeed talk with God, receiving from Him the instruction given them.... God's divine philosophy is revealed in the experience of Israel, chosen by Him from all nations to be His peculiar people. From His dealing with them we learn that He must be obeyed, that those who are determined to exalt themselves must be blotted out.--Letter 259, November 23, 1903, to "Dear Sister Hall."
------------------------How to Witness for Your Faith, November 24
UL	342	1	Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Titus 2:12.
UL	342	2	Do not, because you are among unbelievers, become careless in your words, for they are taking your measure. If you sit at their table, eat temperately, and only of food that will not confuse the mind. Keep yourself from all intemperance. Be yourself an object lesson, illustrating right principles. If they offer you tea to drink, tell them in simple words [of] its injurious effect on the system. Tell them also that you do not use spirituous drinks of any kind, because you desire to keep your mind in such a condition that God can impress it with the sacred truths of His Word, and that you cannot afford to weaken any of your mental and physical powers, lest you shall be unable to discern sacred things. Thus you can sow the seeds of truth, and lead out upon the subject of keeping soul, body, and spirit in such a condition that you can understand eternal realities.
UL	342	3	Study yourself the instruction given to Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron. They "offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not." Taking common fire, they placed it upon their censers, "and there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified" (Leviticus 10:1-3)....
UL	342	4	The Lord desires you to be soul winners. Do not try to reveal your smartness as theologians, even of Bible truth, for by so doing you will speak to many words that will be as little understood by them as Greek. ... Connect yourself firmly with Christ, and present the truth as it is in Him. Work as Paul worked. Wherever he was, whether before scowling Pharisees or Roman authorities, rich or poor, learned or ignorant, the cripple at Lystra or the convicted sinners in a Macedonian dungeon, he lifted up Christ as One who hates sin and loves the sinner, the One who bore our sins that He might have full power and authority to impart to us His righteousness.
UL	342	5	Hearts cannot fail to be touched by the story of the atonement. Those who realize the necessity of keeping the heart under the control of the Holy Spirit will be enabled to sow seed that will spring up unto eternal life.--Manuscript 23, November 24, 1890, "Diary."
------------------------Use the Talents Entrusted, November 25
UL	343	1	Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Matthew 25:29.
UL	343	2	Let not my brother ... question God's wise arrangements, for God hath said He will make His strength perfect in your weakness. Ever bear a humble, contrite heart, and you will afford God an opportunity of manifesting His love and grace to the frail instrument. Let not one moment be wasted in lamenting the opportunities you never had.
UL	343	3	You have often thought: "If I had been in another position in life, and had had the advantages that many others have had, I might have had a larger capital to invest for my Lord." The Lord knew all about this matter when He selected you for the work He has given you to do. In God's beautiful arrangement, the one talent may be increased by use, even becoming ten. And ever remember that God will accept according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not. (see 2 Corinthians 8:12).
UL	343	4	God has given you your talents. He has chosen you to bear responsibilities, not because you had a thorough education, not because you were an orator, or a man of brilliant intellect; He chose you because through His grace you walked humbly with God, and manifested faithfulness in that which is least.
UL	343	5	Jesus has been delivering His goods to His servants age after age. One generation after another has been gathering up the hereditary trust; the talents have increased largely by use, and have descended to us. We are as His hired servants. He has bought us, paid the ransom money in His own blood to secure our willing service.
UL	343	6	Some, like yourself, feel the responsibility of trading upon the goods of heaven committed to them. You long to bring a greater income to your Lord. You are unreconciled to the smallness of the largest gifts which you can lay on the altar for Christ; the utmost of time and effort you can give to the Master seems all too little, and you bemoan the imperfect service. Look to the uplifted Saviour. He is not dead and in Joseph's new tomb, with a great stone rolled before it. He has risen!...He stands as our great high priest! He maketh intercession for you.
UL	343	7	All He asks of you is just to use the talents entrusted. If you think that God has given you five talents, then be consoled that He does not require of you the improvement of ten. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I bid you look up! The rainbow of promise is encircling the throne.--Manuscript 8, November 25, 1892, to a General Conference leader.
------------------------While the Sanctuary is Being Cleansed, November 26
UL	344	1	Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. Isaiah 43:10.
UL	344	2	Satan is constantly alluring away from faithfulness and thoroughness in the essential works of preparedness for the great event that will try every man's soul. The work in the heavenly sanctuary is going forward. Jesus is cleansing the sanctuary. The work on earth corresponds with the work in heaven. The heavenly angels are at work constantly to draw man, the living agent, to look to Jesus to contemplate and meditate upon Jesus that he may, in viewing the perfection of Christ, be impressed with the imperfections of His own character. The promised Comforter, Christ... declared, "shall testify of me." This is the burden of the message for this time....
UL	344	3	Talk as Christ talked. Work as Christ worked. We must look to Christ and live. Catching sight of His loveliness, we long to practice the virtues and righteousness of Christ. It is by beholding Christ that we become changed into His image, and by renouncing self, giving our hearts up wholly to Jesus for His Spirit to refine, ennoble, and elevate, we will be in close connection with the future world, bathed in the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. We rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Then we are commanded to go into other cities and towns and tell them the good news with hearts all aglow with divine love, even to them that are afar off, even as many as the Lord your God shall call.
UL	344	4	Tell to others the blessed truths of His Word, and in obeying the words of Christ, continue in His love. How He urges us by the love we bear to Him to keep His commandments. He does this, not to urge us to do impossible things, but because He knows what it means to keep His Father's commandments. He wants every soul that heareth His invitation to say the same to others, and to receive His richest gifts, for He knows that in keeping the commandments of God, we are not brought into servile bondage, but are made free through the blood of Jesus Christ. "And in keeping of them [His commandments] there is great reward" (Psalm 19:11).
UL	344	5	Tell it to others with pen and voice, with piety, with humility, with love, representing the character of Christ. "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17).--Manuscript 48, November 26, 1890, "Reflections on Labors in Brooklyn."
------------------------Seek the Lord, November 27
UL	345	1	Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Ecclesiastes 12:1.
UL	345	2	My Dear Young Friend: I have felt an interest in you similar to the yearning desire a mother feels for her child. Will you let me be your friend? Gladly would I help you to help yourself to become an honorable, trustworthy man. You need a Friend that will help you at all times, and I point you to Jesus as your Friend and Helper. I do not ask how far you separated your soul from God in the days of your temptation. I do not seek to draw aside the curtain that conceals the past. But some things which have been opened before me in your past history have made me feel an intense desire to preserve you from companionship that would not be a help to you, that would not lift you up, but would drag you down....
UL	345	3	Your only safety is in making a decided movement in the right direction. I cannot choose for you. If I could, gladly would I do it.... You have kept yourself aloof from Christ for a long time, and yet probation has been granted you--you have had light and opportunities to know what is truth. It rests with you to decide whether you will choose the service of Satan or the service of Him who gave His life for you....
UL	345	4	In your younger days you had conscientious convictions, but your associations were not properly chosen, and in following your own lead, you have brought danger and suffering upon yourself. You will carry the marks as long as life shall last. If an angel of God had not, in answer to the many prayers sent up to heaven in your behalf, stood by your side at the time of the accident, your life would have ended then and there.... But the Lord said, "I will spare him for another trial."...
UL	345	5	We sometimes blunder, but if we see and confess our errors, God is just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Our failures should not discourage us, but should be turned into victories. It is your privilege to choose this day whom you will serve....
UL	345	6	You have within your reach more than finite possibilities. If you link yourself with God, turning to Him with full decision of soul, He will accept the prodigal....
UL	345	7	Make your decision for time and for eternity. Let not any human agent cheat you out of your soul. No one can pay a ransom for your soul. Jesus has done that. Will you be indifferent to such love? ... Again I say, "Come." Jesus invites [you]; all heaven says, "Come."--Letter 33, November 27, 1896, to a young Adventist in Australia.
------------------------Drop Self into God's Hands, November 28
UL	346	1	My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. John 10:29.
UL	346	2	We must rise to a higher standard on the subject of faith. We have too little faith. The Word of God is our endorsement. We must take it, simply believing every word. With this assurance, we may claim large things, and according to our faith it will be unto us.... If we humble our hearts before God, if we seek to abide in Christ, we shall have a higher, holier experience....
UL	346	3	True faith consists in doing just what God has enjoined, not manufacturing things He has not enjoined. Justice, truth, mercy, are the fruit of faith. We need to walk in the light of God's law; then good works will be the fruit of our faith, the proceeds of a heart renewed every day.
UL	346	4	We must not in any way make self our god. God has given Himself to die for us, that He might purify us from all iniquity. The Lord will carry on this work of perfection for us if we will allow ourselves to be controlled by Him....
UL	346	5	The work of righteousness cannot be carried forward unless we exercise implicit faith. Move every day under God's mighty working power. The fruit of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. If we had exercised more faith in God and had trusted less to our own ideas and wisdom, God would have manifested His power in a marked manner on human hearts. By a union with Him, by living faith, we are privileged to enjoy the virtue and efficacy of His mediation. Hence we are crucified with Christ, dead with Christ, risen with Christ, to walk in newness of life with Him.
UL	346	6	We are not to hold ourselves in our own hands. We are to drop self into the hands of God.... Our lack of faith is the reason that we have not seen more of the power of God. We exercise more faith in our own working than in God's working for us. God designs that everything possible shall be done to enable us to stand heart to heart, mind to mind, shoulder to shoulder. This lack of love and confidence in one another weakens our faith in God.
UL	346	7	We need to pray as we never have prayed before for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, for if there was ever a time when we needed this baptism, it is now. There is nothing the Lord has more frequently told us He would bestow upon us, and nothing by which His name would be more glorified in bestowing, than the Holy Spirit. When we partake of this Spirit, men and women will be born again.... Souls once lost will be found, and brought back.--Letter 105, November 28, 1898, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell.
------------------------God is not Nature, but Nature's God, November 29
UL	347	1	Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:11.
UL	347	2	The heart is the place for the truth to begin its work. Truth is to be a power in the life and character. If received and cherished in the heart, it will work as the leaven of a life-giving principle, changing the whole being.
UL	347	3	Truth has power to make the sayings of Christ spirit and life. If cherished and respected, it will cause the man to turn from his evil ways. Truth and error cannot abide in the same heart. "He that is not with me is against me," Christ declares, "and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad" (Matthew 12:30).
UL	347	4	Wisdom, intellect, power--these are not God. But God is the Author of all wisdom, all grace, all power. God gave Lucifer his power and wisdom, yet this intelligence was not God Himself. We are to know God as He is revealed in His marvelous works. Who by searching can find out God? This is not part of our work.... God's character is expressed in the Ten Commandments. To know God as He is--this is the science of all goodness and truth and righteousness. We must obey every expression of His character as revealed in His law.
UL	347	5	God requires obedience, not for the purpose of showing His authority, but that we may become one with Him in character. We will find in God the attributes of character needed to form characters after His likeness. We are to form characters that are in harmony with the Deity. Thus our natures become spiritualized in every faculty.
UL	347	6	We cannot present any correct representation in words of God's glory and majesty. It is beyond expression. But we can enjoy the contemplation of God, and the sense of His presence. We can know of Him all that human beings can bear. We can talk with Him in prayer.
UL	347	7	At times, when our faith goes out to Him completely, we converse with Him, and by faith endure the seeing of the Invisible. Faith revealed Him and we contemplate all that we can endure. When in times of trouble and perplexity we trust Him fully, we have a living sense of His cheering, all-pervading presence and power. We realize that the Lord is indeed our strength and our portion forever. We can be one with Christ in God. But let us never undertake to define God as an essence. Never, never venture one step into the way of putting God in the place of the things of His creation.--Manuscript 126, November 29, 1905, "A Warning Against Present Dangers."
------------------------Look to God for Help, November 30
UL	348	1	Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11.
UL	348	2	The Bible is to be the rule of your life practice, for all who follow its teachings are made wise unto salvation.
UL	348	3	You cannot depend on your own righteousness. If you make the Lord your trust constantly, you will not be brought into confusion. For keeping power, trust wholly in the One who understands all your spiritual necessities. God is very pitiful. Depend on Him alone. Christ's righteousness atones for your sins. He is making intercession in your behalf. Seek to please Him by keeping all His commandments.
UL	348	4	The more that we, individually, are acquainted with the Bible, and the more earnestly and zealously we criticize ourselves, comparing our hearts and lives with the standard of God's requirements, the more fully will we trust only in the Wisdom that cannot err. Through faith we will accept the promise given to those who receive Christ as their personal Saviour--the promise that to them He will give power to become sons and daughters of God.
UL	348	5	My brother, keep the perfection of Christ's character ever before you. Whatever may be the human judgment pronounced on your case, remember that God has authorized no human agent to be judge of his fellow man. Put your trust in God at all times, and you will find Him able to keep you by His almighty power. He will be an ever-present, all-sufficient defense against the strife of tongues which Satan inspires to confuse and weaken and discourage....
UL	348	6	The Friend of sinners knows how to help and strengthen and bless those who, having sinned, turn again unto the Lord. Those who seek God with the whole heart will find Him a present help in every time of need. He will heal the erring, instead of denouncing and crushing them. He will hear the penitential prayers, and will pardon the repentant ones, doing them good, according to the great riches of His grace....
UL	348	7	Lift up heart and soul in praise to God because He has acknowledged you as His child. He will make you His helping hand, and will bless you in the work of trying to help other souls. The Holy Spirit will work every heart susceptible to its holy influence. Christ's righteousness will go before such an one, and the glory of the Lord will be his rearward.--Letter 192, November 30, 1902, to W. O. Palmer, one of J. E. White's helpers in his work for the blacks of the Southern States.
------------------------The Invisible Conflict, December 1
UL	349	1	Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness. Ephesians 6:14.
UL	349	2	The enemy is on the track of every one of us, and if we would resist temptations which assail us from without and from within, we need to make sure we are on the Lord's side, that His truth is in our hearts, that it keeps watch in our souls, ready to sound an alarm and summon us to action against every enemy. Without this defense amid unseen foes we shall be like the willow bending to blast, driven of the wind and tossed. But if Christ abides in the soul we may be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might....
UL	349	3	The mind can be expanded and ennobled and should be made to dwell upon heavenly things. Our powers must be cultivated to the uttermost, else we shall fail of meeting God's standard. Unless...[the mind] flows in a heavenward direction it becomes an easy prey to the temptation of Satan to engage in worldly projects and enterprises that have no special connection with God.... All zeal and devotion and restless energy and feverish desire are brought into this work, and the devil stands by and laughs to see human effort wrestling so perseveringly for an object that it will never gain, which eludes its grasp....
UL	349	4	To be independent and self-reliant in some respects is [a] duty that we owe to ourselves. But here, where the enemy will come in with his delusive snares, pride takes the place of humility. And when you or I trust to our own resources, our own wisdom, and seek counsel of our own heart, then certain disappointment, shame, and confusion will be our portion at last. We are in a fair way to triumph only when we are closely connected with God, and have on the whole armor of righteousness....
UL	349	5	It is essential that you feel the power of the truth as well as to believe it. It should have a steady, abiding influence upon the mind. But dreamlike projects are favored and bar the way to deep and thorough heavenly principles. The things of this life have the precedence of the interest pertaining to the future, immortal life. The common and earthly deaden the sense of the eternal.
UL	349	6	There is one safeguard against Satan's deceptions and snares--that is the truth as it is in Jesus. The truth planted in the heart, nourished by watchfulness and prayer, nourished by the grace of Christ, will give us discernment. The truth must abide in the heart, be felt in its power in spite of all the alluring enchantments of Satan, and your experience and mine must be that the truth can purify, guide, and bless the soul.--Letter 17, December 1, 1886, to "My Dear--"(addressee unknown).
------------------------Prayer in the Night Season, December 2
UL	350	1	Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. Psalm 17:3.
UL	350	2	The past night [December 1] was to me one of great experience. I seemed to be in a meeting where there were a large number assembled--many believers and some unbelievers. On one occasion the company was divided into several smaller companies. I had a special burden and had addressed my remarks to some few under the temptations of the enemy. They were entertaining ideas that were not sound but would lead them into the denying of the truth. This present time in which we live is a period of great temptation to give heed to erroneous sentiments and suggestions of seducing spirits, and to link up with evil angels and present the same as present truth. There was a deep interest manifested in searching the Scriptures.
UL	350	3	I had a special burden of prayer, and the peril of souls seemed to me so great upon my soul. I poured out the burden of my soul unto the Lord. I was pleading most earnestly for the Lord to break the power of the enemy and set us free, to let the minds of the beloved ones who are tempted go free, and to let the precious truth shine forth amid the moral darkness. I presented my prayer to the Lord that He would come forth to the help of His people and magnify the truth, that those who were uninformed would not be deceived in this period of great peril. I presented before the Lord our great need of special help to be granted to His people in accordance with the consistency of His attributes to work in our behalf and answer our prayers to glorify His own name.
UL	350	4	I was reaching higher and still higher, pleading with God to comply with our earnest supplications and let His truth at this time appear in all its dignity and beauty and saving grace. As He had often made known His special love and His special power and made the truth appear in its strength and its authority, to make known again His clear and sacred truth unmixed with chaff, ... I pleaded, and I felt that the Lord had pledged Himself. Victory came in, and I awoke crying aloud in joy that the Lord had manifested to us His grace, His truth, and His salvation. I learned from the members of my family that my praying was aloud in my sleep.
UL	350	5	The precious goodness and love of God to me gave me comfort and strength and joy. I felt that I had a new source of hope and encouragement that deliverance would be wrought for souls.... The Word of God will be established forever and forever.--Manuscript 177, December 2, 1903, "Diary--December, 1903."
------------------------Be First in Good Works, December 3
UL	351	1	What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? James 2:14.
UL	351	2	Enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, Christ was the leader of His people. He gave them statutes and laws, that by obedience to His requirements, they might be His denominated people. He bestowed upon them the bounties of heaven, but He expected them, in turn, to share their blessings with others who were less favored. So He deals with His chosen people today....
UL	351	3	Nothing gratifies the enemy more than to see the people of God at strife among themselves. We all need the daily, converting power of the grace of God, for many of our churches are backslidden. They do not reveal the genuine Christian life, and the spirit of the Master. A hundredfold more might be done than is being done to spread the gospel message nigh and afar off....
UL	351	4	I have a message for our churches.... There is to be a deeper consecration than has yet been seen, or many will be unprepared to enter the Holy City. With some there is a desire to be first, to rule. It is right to desire to be first in good works, in attaining the Christian graces, but to many the words of Christ as recorded in the seventh chapter of Matthew are applicable today. Read and study this chapter carefully. These are the words of Christ, and it is for every individual to make diligent work for his own soul's salvation....
UL	351	5	We must carry on the Lord's work unitedly. Firmly and decidedly we are to proclaim the words of God. But we must guard against creating unnecessary prejudice. Let no one, in conversation or in discourse, give sharp thrusts, for by this means doors have been closed, and opportunities have been lost.
UL	351	6	If all our churches had been wide awake, we would not now see such poisonous influences as are now at work and many who ought to understand the truth being taken in the snares of Satan's sophistry. Satan is at work among God's people, even as he worked among the angels in the heavenly courts, and many are being ensnared.
UL	351	7	The judgments of God are in the land, and our testimonies are to be given under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Now, just now, is our time to work under the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit. We must give the message quickly, line upon line. Men will be forced to a decision, and it is our part that they are given an opportunity to understand the truth, so that they may take their stand intelligently on the right side.--Manuscript 101, December 3, 1906, "The Lord Loveth a Cheerful Giver."
------------------------God's Word is True, December 4
UL	352	1	No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Isaiah 54:17.
UL	352	2	The great apostasy, which is developing and increasing and waxing stronger, ... will continue to do so until the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout. We are to hold fast the first principles of our denominated faith, and go forward from strength to increased faith. Ever we are to keep the faith that has been substantiated by the Holy Spirit of God from the earlier events of our experience until the present time. We need now larger breadth, and deeper, more earnest, unwavering faith in the leadings of the Holy Spirit. If we needed the manifest proof of the Holy Spirit's power to confirm truth in the beginning, after the passing of the time, we need today all the evidence in the confirmation of the truth, when souls are departing from the faith and giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. There must not be any languishing of soul now.
UL	352	3	If ever there was a period of time when we needed the Holy Spirit's power in our discourses, in our prayers, in every action proposed, it is now. We are not to stop at the first experience, but while we bear the same message to the people, this message is to be strengthened and enlarged. We are to see and realize the importance of the message made certain by its divine origin. We are to follow on to know the Lord, that we may know that His going forth is prepared as the morning. Our souls need the quickening from the Source of all power. We may be strengthened and confirmed in the past experience that holds us to the essential points of truth which have made us what we are--Seventh-day Adventists.
UL	352	4	The past fifty years have not dimmed one jot or principle of our faith as we received the great and wonderful evidences that were made certain to us in 1844, after the passing of the time. The languishing souls are to be confirmed and quickened according to His Word.... Not a word is changed or denied. That which the Holy Spirit testified to as truth after the passing of the time, in our great disappointment, is the solid foundation of truth. [The] pillars of truth were revealed, and we accepted the foundation principles that have made us what we are--Seventh-day Adventists, keeping the commandments of God and having the faith of Jesus.
UL	352	5	Have not the hearts of Christ's disciples burned within them as He has talked with us by the way and opened to us the Scriptures? Has not the Lord Jesus opened to us the Scriptures, and presented to us things kept secret from the foundation of the world?--Letter 326, December 4, 1905, to W. C. White.
------------------------The Meaning of Christian Perfection, December 5
UL	353	1	I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13.
UL	353	2	What does God require? Perfection; nothing less than perfection. But if we would be perfect, we must put no confidence in self. Daily we must know and understand that self is not to be trusted. We need to grasp God's promises with firm faith. We need to ask for the Holy Spirit with a full realization of our own helplessness. Then when the Holy Spirit works, we shall not give self the glory. The Holy Spirit will graciously take the heart into His keeping, bringing to it all the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. We shall be kept by the power of God through faith.
UL	353	3	When we are daily under the control of God's Spirit, we shall be commandment-keeping people. We may show to the world that obedience to God's commands brings its own reward, even in this life, and in the future life eternal blessedness. Notwithstanding our profession of faith, the Lord by whom our actions are weighed sees but an imperfect representation of Christ. He has declared that such a condition of things cannot glorify Him.
UL	353	4	It means much to commit the keeping of the soul to God. It means that we are to live and walk by faith, not trusting in or glorifying self, but looking to Jesus our Advocate as the Author and Finisher of our faith. The Holy Spirit will do its work upon a heart that is contrite, but never can He work upon a self-important, self-righteous soul. In his own wisdom such a one would mend himself. He interposes between his soul and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will work if self will not interpose....
UL	353	5	The Holy Spirit is ready to cooperate with all who will receive Him and be taught by Him. All who lay hold on the truth and are sanctified through the truth are so united with Christ that they can represent Him in word and action.... May the Holy Spirit speak to the hearts of God's chosen people, that their words may be as choice as gold as they give the bread of life to those in transgression and sin....
UL	353	6	It is God's pleasure and will that the blessings bestowed on man shall be given in perfect completeness. He has made provision that every difficulty may be overcome, every want supplied through the Holy Spirit. Thus He designs that man shall perfect a Christian character. God would have us contemplate His love, His promises, given so freely to those who have no merit in themselves, He would have us depend fully, gratefully, rejoicingly in the righteousness provided for us in Christ. To all who come to God in His appointed way, He freely listens.--Manuscript 148, December 5, 1897, "The Christian Life."
------------------------Divine Compassion Continues to Flow, December 6
UL	354	1	It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22, 23.
UL	354	2	I have very solemn feelings as I consider the condition the world is in. O how careless, how full of crime and disobedience and sin, how sad, how terribly sad is the fact that the world does not recognize the love of God in giving Jesus Christ as our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who was equal with God. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Sin has for ages disturbed, or I might say, impeded the great work of divine benevolence by obstructing the channel through human agencies that refuse to receive the heavenly gift and therefore cannot impart the same.
UL	354	3	God is calling for men and women to become consecrated as laborers with Jesus Christ. Although sin and wickedness have disturbed for ages the flow of rich grace, yet this flow has not been cut off from earth. Its course is earthward, and if men would only cooperate with God, if the channel of communication was kept open, unrestrained, to communicate to the world, the light of heaven would be shining in all parts of the world, scattering the moral darkness.
UL	354	4	I am satisfied that we must work in earnest. The ministers are not the only ones who are to shine, but workers are to be raised up in all the churches, and as these who receive the truth shall maintain humility and contrition, they are the very ones God will use to bless their fellow men, by doing whatever they can in their supposed humble capacity.
UL	354	5	It is not the most learned, not the most eloquent of the human family through whom the Lord will reveal Himself. "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isaiah 57:15). "But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word" (chap. 66:2).
UL	354	6	The Lord calls for us to render back to Him the endowments He has given to men, whereby they can use all their powers of intellect, and all their strength, physically and morally, in His service to do good and bless others. A crisis has arrived in the government of God on earth. Divine compassion has been flowing to the people, notwithstanding that the heavenly current has been beaten back by stubborn hearts.--Letter 52, December 6, 1895, to a minister in Australia.
------------------------Where Is Your Treasure? December 7
UL	355	1	Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:1, 2.
UL	355	2	How precious is the knowledge that we have a faithful Friend, One who will impart to us a noble, elevated character that will fit us for the companionship of the heavenly angels in the courts above! His guardianship is over all His children. They have a peace that the world can neither give nor take away. The loss of earthly treasures does not make them hopeless or homeless....
UL	355	3	Christ beholds the world, full of activity in seeking for earthly treasures. He sees many eagerly trying first one thing and then another in their efforts to obtain the coveted earthly treasure, which they think will satisfy their selfish greed, while in their eager pursuit they pass by the only path that leads to the true riches.
UL	355	4	As One having authority Christ speaks to such ones, inviting them to follow Him. He offers to lead them to the riches that are as enduring as eternity. He points them to the narrow path of self-denial and sacrifice. Those who press on in this path, surmounting every obstacle, will reach the land of glory. In lifting the cross they find that the cross lifts them, and they will at last gain the imperishable treasure.
UL	355	5	Many think to find security in earthly riches. But Christ seeks to remove from their eye the mote that obscures the vision, and thus enable them to behold the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. They are mistaking phantoms for realities, and have lost sight of the glories of the eternal world. Christ calls upon them to extend their view beyond the present and add eternity to their vision.--Letter 264, December 7, 1903, to a businessman of some means, 1-6.
UL	355	6	There is no place on earth where treasure is secure from loss. But there is a city that has foundations, whose builder and whose Maker is God. Christ seeks to draw the attention away from unwise investments in perishable riches, warning men to lay up their treasures in heaven.--Ibid., 8.
UL	355	7	Those who have lavished their affection on earthly treasures without regard to the heavenly riches will soon receive their reward. They will lose the earthly treasures to obtain [that for] which they have sold their souls to Satan....
UL	355	8	Will those who have not yet fully yielded themselves to the great rebel now come over to the Lord's side? Will they, before it is everlastingly too late, leave the works of wickedness and stand under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel?--Ibid., 6, 7.
------------------------Your Redemption Draweth Nigh, December 8
UL	356	1	And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Luke 21:28.
UL	356	2	We must have a greater nearness to God. Much less of self and much more of Jesus Christ and His grace must be brought into our everyday life. We are living in an important period of this world's history. The end of all things is at hand; the sands of time are fast running out; soon in heaven it will be said: "It is done" "He that is holy, let him be holy still"; "he which is filthy, let him be filthy still" (Revelation 21:6; 22:11)....
UL	356	3	Let us as a people, as far as possible, cleanse the camp of moral defilement and aggravating sins. When sin is making its march upon the people who claim to be elevating the moral standard of righteousness, how can we expect God to turn His power in our behalf and save us as a people that did righteousness?
UL	356	4	All the policy in the world cannot save us from the terrible sifting, and all the efforts made with high authorities will not lift from us the scourging of God, just because sin is cherished. If as a people we do not keep ourselves in the faith and not only advocate with pen and voice the commandments of God but keep them every one, not violating a single precept knowingly, then weakness and ruin will come upon us. It is a work that we must attend to in every one of our churches....
UL	356	5	Satan will work his miracles to deceive; he will set up his power as supreme. The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out--the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place. None but those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin, without guile in their mouths....
UL	356	6	The remnant that purify their souls by obeying the truth gather strength from the trying process, exhibiting the beauty of holiness amid the surrounding apostasy. All these, He says, "I have graven ... upon the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:16). They are held in everlasting, imperishable remembrance. We want faith now, living faith....
UL	356	7	Dear brethren, the Lord is coming. Lift up your thoughts and heads and rejoice. Oh, we would think that those who hear the joyful news, who claim to love Jesus, would be filled with joy unutterable and full of glory. This is the good, the joyful news which should electrify every soul, which should be repeated in our homes, and told to those whom we meet on the street.--Letter 55, December 8, 1886, to G. I. Butler, General Conference president, and S. N. Haskell, a leading worker.
------------------------The Price of Our Redemption, December 9
UL	357	1	For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20.
UL	357	2	As Christ ascended, His hands outstretched to bless His disciples, a cloud of angels received Him and hid Him from their sight. As the disciples looked with straining eyes for the last glimpse of their ascending Lord, two angels from the rejoicing throng stood by them and said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11)....
UL	357	3	The disciples were filled with great joy. Over and over again they repeated the words Christ had spoken to them in His last lessons, as recorded in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of John; and every one had something to say about the instruction, especially with regard to the words of the fourteenth of John ... [Verses 1-3, quoted]....
UL	357	4	The promise that He would come again, and also the thought that He had left them His peace, filled their hearts with joy....
UL	357	5	Satan has made men and women his prisoners, and claims them as his subjects. When Christ saw that there was no human being able to be man's intercessor, He Himself entered the fierce conflict and battled with Satan. The First begotten of God was the only One who could liberate those who by Adam's sin had been brought in subjection to Satan.
UL	357	6	The Son of God gave Satan every opportunity to try all his arts upon Him. The enemy had tempted the angels in heaven, and afterwards the first Adam. Adam fell, and Satan supposed he could succeed in ensnaring Christ after He assumed humanity. All the fallen host looked upon this engagement as an opportunity to gain the supremacy over Christ. They had longed for a chance to show their enmity against God. When the lips of Christ were sealed in death, Satan and his angels imagined that they had obtained the victory.
UL	357	7	It was the thought of standing under the guilt of the whole world that brought the inexpressible anguish to Christ. In the death struggle the Son of God could rely only upon His heavenly Father; all was by faith. He Himself was a ransom, a gift, given for the freeing of the captives. By His own arm He has brought salvation to the children of men, but at what a cost to Himself! ...
UL	357	8	What a spectacle was this conflict! It resulted in demonstrating to the heavenly universe the justice of God.--Manuscript 125, December 9, 1901, "The Unchangeable Law of God."
------------------------Blend in Unity, December 10
UL	358	1	Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:11.
UL	358	2	The world is looking with gratification at the disunion [seen] among Christians. Infidelity is well pleased. God calls for a change among His people. Union with Christ and with one another is our only safety in these last days. Let us not make it possible for Satan to point to our church members, saying, "Behold how these people, standing under the banner of Christ, hate one another. We have nothing to fear from them while they spend more strength fighting one another than in warfare with my forces."
UL	358	3	After the descent of the Holy Spirit, the disciples went forth to proclaim a risen Saviour, their one desire the salvation of souls. They rejoiced in the sweetness of communion with saints. They were tender, thoughtful, self-denying, willing to make any sacrifice for the truth's sake. In their daily association with one another they revealed the love that Christ had commanded them to reveal. By unselfish words and deeds they strove to kindle this love in other hearts....
UL	358	4	But the early Christians began to look for defects in one another. Dwelling upon mistakes, encouraging suspicion and doubt, giving way to unkind criticism, they lost sight of the Saviour and of the great love He had revealed for sinners. They became more strict in regard to outward ceremonies, more particular about the theory of the faith, more severe in their criticisms. In their zeal to condemn others, they themselves erred. They forgot the lesson of brotherly love that Christ had taught. And, saddest of all, they were unconscious of their loss. They did not realize that happiness and joy were going out of their lives, and that soon they would walk in darkness, having shut the love of God out of their hearts.
UL	358	5	The apostle John realized that brotherly love was waning in the church, and he dwelt particularly upon this point. Up to the day of his death, he urged upon believers the constant exercise of love for one another....
UL	358	6	In the church of God today brotherly love is greatly lacking. Many of those who profess to love the Saviour neglect to love those who are united with them in Christian fellowship....
UL	358	7	Harmony and unity existing among men of varied dispositions is the strongest witness that can be borne that God has sent His Son into the world to save sinners. It is our privilege to bear this witness. But in order to do this, we must place ourselves under Christ's command. Our characters must be molded in harmony with Christ's character; our wills must be surrendered to His will.--Manuscript 143, December 10, 1903, "Unity."
------------------------Be Sunshiny Christians, December 11
UL	359	1	I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34:4.
UL	359	2	Do not talk of the faults of others. Take care of your own garden. See that your own heart is cleansed by the power of God. When trouble comes, instead of getting out of patience, instead of fretting and worrying, go to the Lord, and tell Him all about it.... Do not go to human friends, for they have all the burdens they can bear....
UL	359	3	Do not think that by placing your burdens on others, you can find relief. Come right to the Burden-bearer, and tell Him about them. Believe that He is able and willing to meet the circumstances of your case. When in contrition you come to the foot of the cross, when you have faith in the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour, you will receive power through Him. As you cast your helpless soul upon Him, He gives you peace and joy and strength and courage. Then you are able to tell someone else how precious Christ is to you. You can say, "I sought Him, and found Him precious to my soul."
UL	359	4	"Ye shall find rest." How? By living experience--because Christ's yoke is a yoke of patience and gentleness and long-suffering. Those who learn His meekness and lowliness learn also how to love one another as He has loved them. They reach the place where they refuse to criticize and condemn others. They learn that there is committed to them a work that no one else can do for them--the work of learning of Christ. When we place ourselves in His hands, He shows us the possibilities and probabilities before us, and bids us go for help to One infinitely higher than erring human beings.
UL	359	5	Christ is our efficiency. How do I know this? I know it by experience. For a while, many many years ago, I was in despair. Then I cast myself on the mercy and love of the Saviour, and His power came upon me. At one time those who were working [in the publishing office] thought me dead. But all at once I raised my voice in prayer. The power of God was upon me all night long, and henceforth I understood that I must trust in Christ. I had been praying and praying for help, and all the time my Saviour was standing close by my side, waiting for me to recognize Him as my sufficiency, my strength, my grace. I learned the lesson, and after that, when I kneeled down to pray, I believed that I would receive an answer, whether I felt as if I would or not....
UL	359	6	Oh, how I wish that we would honor Christ by realizing what He wants to do for us, and taking Him at His word. If we would do this, we should be sunshiny Christians. By beholding Christ, we would be changed into His likeness.--Manuscript 118, December 11, 1904, "Union With Christ."
------------------------Bring a Return to God, December 12
UL	360	1	The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them. Psalm 89:11.
UL	360	2	[Many in this world] are proving themselves to be dishonest in dealing with God's property. They love not the truth. They turn away from the righteousness of Christ to the beggarly elements of the world. They trample under their feet the precepts of God's law, especially the Sabbath commandment. The heart of the Saviour is grieved by their conduct. He desires to save every soul whom He has purchased. O that men would understand this, and place themselves in connection with the great Master Worker!
UL	360	3	Soon the Lord is coming to this earth with power and great glory, and the work that we are to do now is outlined in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. Who is doing this work? Who is building the Lord's altars? Who is preparing the people for the great day of the Lord? Now, just now, everyone who claims to be a child of God should bring of his means to God's treasury, that there may be a supply to draw from to provide the workers with facilities for entering new places to present the truth to those who have never heard it. Let there be no dearth in the Lord's treasury. From His treasure God supplies all our necessities. Shall we be only consumers? Shall we not be producers, giving of our means that the truth may be presented to many people, who will acknowledge and accept the message, and in turn give back to God His own, and themselves be numbered among producers? ...
UL	360	4	We are not only to receive God's gifts. With a full sense of our accountability we are to bring a return to Him, that there may be in His treasury for the advancement of His work an ample supply of means, a supply from which His workmen may draw to enable them to carry the message from city to city and from country to country. God's self-sacrificing workers should be provided with sufficient facilities to make their work a success....
UL	360	5	"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof" (Psalm 24:1). This world is the Lord's storehouse, from which we are ever drawing. He has provided fruits and grains and vegetables for our sustenance. For us He makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall. The whole human family, good and evil, are constantly drawing from God's storehouse. It makes every difference with those so highly privileged how they receive the Lord's gifts and how they treat the contract the Lord has made with them. He has made them His almoners, directing them to draw from His storehouse, and then make a return to Him in gifts and offerings, "that there may be meat in mine house."--Manuscript 73, December 12, 1900, "Bring an Offering Unto the Lord."
------------------------God's Amazing Love, December 13
UL	361	1	If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. James 1:5, 6.
UL	361	2	If you will become a learner in the school of Christ, submit your will to Him, and come under His discipline, you will be able to walk in His ways; and by living in constant connection with Jesus, you will be a channel of light to others. You and I ... need to feel our entire dependence upon God, for His grace and His guidance. God wants you to come into sympathy and harmony with His plans. Submission to the authority of Christ, which forms an essential qualification in His disciples, is not only opposed to the pride which feels hurt when advised and counseled, but those who have it will choose to be subject one to another....
UL	361	3	Fatal deceptions are upon souls. They have a settled confidence. They think they are Christians simply because they assent to the truth; and so completely does this delusion enclose and encase the heart, that the arrows of the Lord do not find access to it, and the deep, searching truths, which clearly portray this very delusion, are listened to without effect, with not a thought of their application to themselves. Oh! seek preparation of heart at the throne of grace, that when you feel your incompetence, you may have clear views of the power and dignity of Christ, and can grasp the promises by faith, and can have a living connection with God....
UL	361	4	"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Oh, what love! what amazing love! And yet how few appreciate it! How few are partakers of the divine nature! Having undertaken the amazing work of redemption, He resolved that He would not give up the plan, but that He would spare nothing, however costly; withhold nothing, however dear, which was essential to the consummation of His design of bestowing on man gift upon gift, until He had opened to Him all the treasures of heaven.
UL	361	5	The saving grace of God upon us, the increased conception of His greatness, justice, mercy, and love, will not fill our hearts to no purpose. This knowledge of God, which Jesus came from heaven to impart, must not be trifled with. The love of God cannot remain in our possession unless it is expressed.--Letter 48, December 13, 1888, to David H. Lamson, a conference evangelist and administrator.
------------------------Move Forward, December 14
UL	362	1	Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. Deuteronomy 2:3.
UL	362	2	"Go forward" was the word of the Lord to Israel as they stood with the Red Sea before them and Pharaoh's host pressing hard after them. They obeyed, and as Moses smote the waters with his rod, lo, they parted and stood up on one side as a wall, making a path over which the people passed in safety. With faith and trust let us go forward in the word that the Lord has given us, assured that He will be with us as our Helper and Protector.
UL	362	3	Go forward, not in self-sufficiency and self-exaltation, yet filled with faith and hope and courage. Angels of God are guarding His faithful ones. If they keep the way of the Lord, they will receive all needed help. Much of the Lord's work has, in the beginning, been small, despised by those who desire to see it carried forward from the first with strength and importance. But the Lord must test His workers, many of whom are not able to bear success, who should it come to them, would exalt self.
UL	362	4	Let God be praised and magnified. Let men walk in humility before Him, glorifying Him, not themselves. Those who work most successfully for God are those who are much in prayer, who place their entire dependence on Him.
UL	362	5	In many cases the dearth of means felt is in accordance with God's plan, that His work may be carried forward in the same way that the Majesty of heaven carried it forward. Economy, self-denial, and self-sacrifice are ever to be revealed. Until the end of time the church will have to strive with difficulties, that God's work may stand out pure and clean, untainted with fraud or intrigue. Every institution God will cleanse by driving out the buyers and sellers.
UL	362	6	Believe in God, and walk in His counsel. You may be permitted to struggle with difficulties, and then the Lord reveals His power and wisdom in answer to humble prayer. Have confidence in Him as a prayer-hearing, prayer-answering God.... He will reveal Himself to you as a God who can help in every emergency....
UL	362	7	The ministry of the Word does not rest merely upon those who preach the Word, but upon all who read and hear the Word. The hearts of God's people are to be so filled with the love of Christ that their words of thanksgiving and praise will warm other hearts in need of help. This is service that all can perform, and the Lord accepts it as offered to Himself. He makes it efficacious, by imparting to the earnest worker the grace that reconciles man to God.--Manuscript 158, December 14, 1902, "Fragments."
------------------------Obedience to the Heavenly Vision, December 15
UL	363	1	I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Acts 26:9.
UL	363	2	Many place themselves where it is difficult to maintain integrity and preserve purity. God gives to them the warning to flee out of Sodom. But they cling to their own ideas and think that they know best, and the work that they could do out of the cities, they do, for the sake of convenience, in the cities. They gather round them workers who ought to be out of the cities. Some of these workers may be unbelievers, but they might be converted if the religious interests were made first.
UL	363	3	The Lord calls for those in positions of trust in His cause to make centers for their work out of the cities, that they may call round them believers and unbelievers, and then make every provision to give them religious advantages.
UL	363	4	Christians will be tested and tried. But if they are sincerely trying to serve God, strength will be given them for every conflict. They are not to listen to the false reports that come to their ears, but are to go straight forward in the path of duty. They are to learn to think for themselves, and their actions are ever to be in accordance with the Word of God.
UL	363	5	Do not go out of your way to call your enemy to account. His words of censure and malice are like sparks which, if not blown upon and fed, will go out of themselves. Live down the evil reports of those whose tongues are set on fire of hell. If you stop of dispute, you will but open the way for further abuse.
UL	363	6	Often difficulties may be healed by silence. Let the evil talker alone. Go about your work as one who has a sacred trust to fulfill. When you are criticized, move on as one who hears not. Your heart may be wounded; nevertheless, do not allow yourself to be turned aside from your work. Give your time and attention to matters of eternal interest.
UL	363	7	Christ is your example. He came to this world and in humanity lived the life that He desires you to live. Look to Him. Study His plans and purposes and methods. His life is our lesson book. A divine-human Saviour, He stands before us with the invitation "Come unto me, ... and I will give you rest.... My yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
UL	363	8	Christ's life is a perfect revelation of God's character. What then is our duty? Paul tells us. Christ revealed Himself to Paul as he was persecuting the saints, and he declared, "I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision" (Acts 26:19).--Manuscript 159, December 15, 1902, "Fragments."
------------------------God's Concern for His People, December 16
UL	364	1	For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. Psalm 94:14.
UL	364	2	The Lord God of heaven is in communication with the fallen inhabitants of this world. He is not regardless of our world and its variety of concerns. The Lord is represented in His Word as bending toward earth and its inhabitants who are deceived and annoyed and deluded by satanic agencies. He is listening to every word that is uttered.
UL	364	3	When Moses turned aside at the sight of the burning bush that was not consumed, the Lord called, "Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God" (Exodus 3:4-6).
UL	364	4	Now mark the words of the Lord: "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians" (Verses 7, 8)....
UL	364	5	The Lord is not regardless of His people, and He will punish and reprove everyone who oppresses them. He hears every groan; He listens to every prayer; He observes the movements of everyone; He approves or condemns every action. The Lord of heaven is represented as raising up the fallen. He is the Friend of all who love and fear Him, and He will punish everyone who dares to lead them astray from safe paths, putting them in positions of distress as they conscientiously endeavor to keep the way of the Lord and reach the abodes of the righteous.
UL	364	6	Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without the notice of your heavenly Father. Then let men be careful how, by word or action, they cause one of God's little ones sorrow or grief. If the little sparrow that has no soul cannot fall to the ground without the notice of our heavenly Father, surely the souls of those for whom Christ has died are precious; and will not God judge those who cause pain or disappointment to the hearts of those for whom Christ has given His life? ...
UL	364	7	Who can measure or anticipate the gift of God? For ages, sin [has] interrupted the divine flow of benevolence to man, but that mercy and great love purchased for the fallen race has not ceased to accumulate; it has not lost its earthward direction.... God lives and reigns, and in Christ He has poured forth on the world a healing flood. Our Saviour has made every provision for man.--Manuscript 142, December 16, 1897, "God's Care for His Workers."
------------------------As a Thief in the Night, December 17
UL	365	1	But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 1 Thessalonians 5:1, 2.
UL	365	2	We know not the exact time of our Lord's coming. But whether it be this year, or next year, or in several years, Christ has told us that He will come as a thief in the night. He says unto all, "Watch." To very, very many, He will come in such an hour as they think not. At the time of His coming, men will be asking, "Where is the promise of His coming?" ...
UL	365	3	Satan, the originator of evil, is now revealing his power in the children of men. This is his hour, and the power of darkness. Apparently he controls the world. The gospel messenger will find that there is a power moving the world to greater and still greater opposition to Christ and His message. The last great conflict between the forces of good and evil is spoken of as "a time of trouble such as never was." The violence which fills the earth will exceed that which existed before the destruction of the old world.
UL	365	4	Satan is working with all his power to hinder the work of God. If God's people occupy a portion of their time in teaching the delusive sentiments of Satan, the kingdom of evil will rejoice. When those having a knowledge of the path over which God has led us give heed to seducing spirits and depart from the faith, the time and effort required to correct the evils that follow are so much time and effort taken from the work of proclaiming the gospel message. We must warn our brethren and sisters not to give heed to false theories, and to beware of those who have allowed themselves to be ensnared.
UL	365	5	If ever God's watchmen needed to be on their guard, it is now.... The trumpet must give a certain sound. There will be a general proclamation of truth, the whole earth will be enlightened with the glory of God, but those only will recognize the light who have sought to know the difference between holiness and sin.
UL	365	6	When Satan shall have accomplished his work of ensnaring all who will subject themselves to his deceptive influence, when he shall have finished his work of scattering abroad, Christ will rise up and bring deliverance to every one whose name is found written in the book of life. Satan and his followers will be destroyed. Then "they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."--Letter 268, December 17, 1903, to Dr. David Paulson, at the time director of the American Medical Missionary College in Chicago and editor of The Life Boat.
------------------------Weed Your Own Garden, December 18
UL	366	1	Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? 2 Corinthians 13:5.
UL	366	2	To speak the word of God with faithfulness is a work of the greatest importance. But this is an entirely different work from continually censuring, thinking evil, and drawing apart from one another. Judging and reproving are two different things. God has laid upon His servants the work of reproving in love those who err, but He has forbidden and denounced the thoughtless judging so common among professed believers in the truth....
UL	366	3	Those who are working for God should put away all unkind criticism, and draw together in unity. They need to study the Lord's teaching in regard to this. Christ desires His soldiers to stand shoulder to shoulder, united in the work of fighting the battles of the cross. He desires the union between those who work for Him to be as close as the union between Him and His Father. Those who have felt the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit will heed the lessons of the divine Instructor, and will show their sincerity by doing all in their power to work in harmony with their brethren....
UL	366	4	It is the one who has every reason to distrust his own principles who is keenly alive to the failings of others. If there were not some lack in our own experience, we would not be so suspicious of our brethren. It is he whose conscience condemns him who passes judgment so readily. Let everyone tremble and be afraid of himself. Let him see that his own heart is right with God. Let him weed his own garden; he will find enough to keep him busily employed. If he does this work faithfully [he] will not have time to find fault with the gardens of others. Instead of judging others, let us judge ourselves. Let us make sure that we are among the number who are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:2). "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently" (Verse 22)....
UL	366	5	God has placed us in this world in companionship with one another. Let us walk together in love, bending our energies to the work of saving souls. As we thus serve God in holy companionship, we shall prove that we are laborers together with Him.--Manuscript 75a, December 18, 1900, "Judge Not."
------------------------The Gift Christ Desires, December 19
UL	367	1	I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1.
UL	367	2	Will every soul before the old year closes put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, Christ Jesus? Let there be no great ambitious stress to buy presents for Christmas and New Year's. Little presents for the children may not be amiss, but the Lord's people should not spend His money in buying costly presents.
UL	367	3	Christ calls for the greatest of all gifts--the gift of the heart, the mind, the soul, the strength.... God requires the service of the whole heart. Those who place themselves in right relation to God will stand the test of the judgment. If the heart, mind, soul, and strength are looked upon as the Lord's blood-bought heritage, He will use them in His service. Those who obtain eternal life must give evidence to the world that they love God with all the capabilities that He has given them. They are to obey the two supreme commands, which embody all the whole law, acknowledging by their course of action that they are doers of the law....
UL	367	4	The apparently weak soul, who with a contrite, trusting spirit takes God at His word, and with a sense of his unworthiness asks for help, will be given grace to win victory after victory, and to gain the eternal weight of glory in the future life. The Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, is truly God in infinity, but not in personality. He has wrought out the righteousness that enables human beings to overcome every assault of Satan. He will impute His righteousness to the believing saint who walks as He walked when on earth.
UL	367	5	The Prince of heaven, Christ, became a servant, and He accepts human beings to be laborers together with Him. He declares, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). No one will fail who walks in all humility of mind, learning of Christ the lessons He has given all to learn. We are safe while we strive for the mastery as an overcomer with deep, earnest love for God and for one another....
UL	367	6	The Lord would have every soul who believes in Christ forming a character that will give him a fitness for the mansions which Christ has gone to prepare for those who in this life keep God's commandments.... A better kingdom is being prepared for all who are faithful, tried, and sanctified, those who are living constantly on the plan of addition, adding virtue to virtue, and grace to grace.--Manuscript 116, December 19, 1905, "An Entire Consecration."
------------------------Search the Scriptures, December 20
UL	368	1	These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Acts 17:11.
UL	368	2	It is of little advantage to skim over the surface of the Scriptures. If we would understand fully the words of Christ, thought must be brought into the searching of the Scriptures. We should open the Scriptures with great reverence, and not in a slothful, lazy manner. The word of Christ is spirit and life to the receiver. The words of Christ to the Pharisees were, "[Ye] search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39). They were searching the Scriptures for evidence of Christ's appearing, gathering up every evidence in regard to the manner in which they supposed He would come, while Christ was in their midst, and they did not discern Him by the use of faith....
UL	368	3	In this our day, as in Christ's day, there will be a misreading and misinterpreting of the Scriptures. If the Jews had studied the Scriptures with earnest, prayerful, humble hearts, their searching would have been rewarded with a true knowledge of the time, and not only the time, but also the manner of Christ's first appearing. They would not have ascribed the glories of the second appearing of Christ to His first advent. They had the testimony of Daniel; they had the testimony of Isaiah and other prophets; they had the teaching of Moses; and here was Christ Himself in their midst, and still they were searching the Scriptures for evidence in regard to His coming. They were doing to Christ, at the same time, the very things that it had been prophesied they would do. They were so blinded that they knew not the time of His visitation, or what they were doing. Thus they were fulfilling the Scripture.
UL	368	4	Many are doing the same thing today ... because they have not had experience in the testing message comprehended in the first, second, and third angels' messages. There are those who are searching the Scriptures for proof that these messages are still in the future. They gather together the truthfulness of the messages, but they fail to give them their proper place in prophetic history. Therefore such are in danger of misleading the people in regard to locating the messages. They do not see and understand the time of the end, or when to locate the messages....The watchman is to know the time of the night. Everything is now clothed with a solemnity that all who believe the truth should feel and sense.... All the little things of life are but a mote now. Those that pertain to eternity are of great consequence.--Manuscript 41a, December 20, 1896, untitled manuscript.
------------------------God Gives Us What We Need, December 21
UL	369	1	For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11.
UL	369	2	We have a wise, loving heavenly Father, who hears the prayers of His children. But He does not always give them what they desire. He withholds that which He sees would not be for their good. But He bestows on them all that they need. He gives them that which is necessary for growth in grace. When we pray, we should say, "Lord, if what I ask for is for my good, give it to me; but if it is not, withhold it, but give me Thy blessings." The Lord hears our petitions; He understands our situation, and He will supply the very thing we need. He will strengthen our faith and increase our spirituality. The Lord is good and merciful, perfect in understanding and infinite in wisdom.
UL	369	3	There are those who pray for temporal blessings which they think will bring them worldly prosperity. God sees that such blessings would spoil their spiritual life. He gives them an understanding mind, showing them that it is not best for them to have riches, and that they must be satisfied with His grace and peace and love.
UL	369	4	God, who knows the end from the beginning, jealously guards the welfare of His children. In answering their prayers, He will give them that which will be continually fitting them to be partakers of the divine nature, and to overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust. We must submit our will to God's will. We must have confidence in His love, His wisdom, His faithfulness, His keeping power.
UL	369	5	The Lord has instructed me that the time has come when there should be unity in the ranks of His people. If there are those who have not faith in the messages that have come to us from God by His Word and by the testimonies of His Spirit, they need to know for themselves what is the faith once delivered unto the saints. The representations made show that there are some who have lost their bearing....
UL	369	6	Christ's ministry is to be the ministry of His followers. To branch off into spiritualistic ideas is to depart from the faith, giving heed to doctrines of deception.
UL	369	7	The messages that God has given through His servant John are now to be proclaimed as of special importance. This is our work--to revive the sacred truths that called us out from the world and made us what we are. We are not to yield up one feature of the faith, but are to hold our confidence firm unto the end. We are to give no place to doctrines that are not in harmony with the truth for this time.--Letter 270, December 21, 1903, to Edson White.
------------------------Build on the Solid Rock, December 22
UL	370	1	And [ye] are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. Ephesians 2:20.
UL	370	2	None need to feel it too humiliating to ... present themselves as seeking at the throne of grace for larger supplies. The temple doors are to be opened. The temple of the soul is to be cleansed from moral defilement, altars of sacrifice set right, selfishness cleansed away from the soul, idols sacrificed....
UL	370	3	We frequently have brought to our notice cases of youth who are bewildered by the teachers and the ministry of the Word in the churches of today, because they are doing as the Jewish nation did, "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." ... The Bible is taken as a whole [as] the Word of God, but not all the Inspired Word. One wise man questions some portions of it and some other wise, supposed good man questions another book, and infidelity is stealthily making itself a place in the minds of youth. Soon the knowledge of the truth weakens and their faith is confused. They do not know what to believe....
UL	370	4	When one places his feet on the solid Rock Christ Jesus as his foundation, he receives an endowment of power from the Source of all knowledge, all wisdom and spiritual efficiency, that all may know to which party he belongs--commandment-keepers, or commandment-breakers. The banner of Prince Emmanuel that floats over his head will not fail to clear away all uncertainty and give all to understand that we keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The love of Jesus Christ possesses a constraining power....
UL	370	5	The living out of Bible truth gives a direct and powerful tendency to expansion and growth. Every virtue becomes invigorated as it is exercised. It is a sore trial to drag ourselves away from worldly, deceiving influences. Every step that we advance we see obstacles that Satan presents, and we have to wrestle with difficulties, but an experience is being gained in having to press against these barriers, for the way opens, fresh incentives are presented from heaven, and faith becomes confirmed as we look upon Christ.
UL	370	6	The attractions of Christ are all-satisfying, and through Christ Jesus we read our title to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. His grace is seen to be all-sufficient. The sympathy and love of Jesus are beseeching, wooing, drawing us to follow on in His footsteps, to know the Lord until we shall know His going forth is prepared as the morning.--Letter 128, December 22, 1895, to Edson and Emma White.
------------------------Look to God Alone, December 23
UL	371	1	Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22.
UL	371	2	Let all be educated to search the Scriptures, to be constantly looking unto Jesus, and not to human agents, to be their guide. The Word of God is to be the man of our counsel. That Word is infinite. Obeyed, it will guide us into safe and sure paths. But the Word diluted with human devices and imaginings is not a safe guide....
UL	371	3	Take the Word of God individually. We may meet Satan with the weapon, "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10). The Bible is the great mine of truth, which we are to work as those seeking for hidden treasure. In no case is the attention to be diverted from that Word....
UL	371	4	In this time above all others, every soul needs to have the eyes anointed with eyesalve, that he may see. God gives no one a mission that will cheapen and lower His work for these last days. He calls upon us to bring it up, to elevate, ennoble, honor, and advance His truth, revealing His wisdom as supreme. Talk Bible truth, and bring from the treasure house things new and old. Talk the principles of our faith firmly and constantly, giving a Thus saith the Scriptures.
UL	371	5	Living the truth, practicing the lessons of Christ, always refines, ennobles, and sanctifies the soul. My burden is to uplift men and women by uplifting Jesus before them. When God is recognized as the theme of all thoughts, as the object of love, reverence, and worship; when the Lord Jesus, the Pattern, is kept before the mind, the heart is being cleansed from all moral defilement. Then the soul becomes an accurate judge of propriety of action; every attitude is touched with grace.
UL	371	6	The sense of personal accountability to a personal, all-seeing God places every human agent on elevated ground; and there will be deep thinking and genuine self-denial on every point, because God is working on the hearts of the children of His love, who are His heritage.
UL	371	7	The love of God ever tends to the fear of God--fear to offend Him. Those who are truly converted will not venture heedlessly upon the borders of any evil, lest they grieve the Spirit of God and are left to their own way, to be filled with their own doings. The Word of God is the Guidebook; turn not from its pages to depend upon the human agent. That Book contains the warnings, the admonitions, from God, the rebuke of every evil, the clear definition of sin as the transgression of the law which is God's great standard of virtue and holiness.... Not one who will study the Word of God and apply its teachings will miss the way.--Letter 4, December 23, 1893, to "Dear Brethren and Sisters."
------------------------Shine with Living Brightness, December 24
UL	372	1	And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Malachi 3:17.
UL	372	2	Christians are Christ's jewels, bought with an infinite price. They are to shine brightly for Him, shedding forth the light of His loveliness. And ever they are to remember that all the luster that Christian character possesses is received from the Sun of Righteousness.
UL	372	3	The luster of Christ's jewels depends on the polishing that they receive. God does not compel us to be polished. We are left free to choose to be polished or to remain unpolished. But everyone who is pronounced worthy of a place in the Lord's temple must submit to the polishing process. He must consent to have the sharp edges cut away from his character, that it may be shapely and beautiful, fitted to represent the perfection of Christ's character....
UL	372	4	The divine Worker spends little time on worthless material. Only the precious jewels does He polish after the similitude of a palace. With hammer and chisel He cuts away the rough edges, preparing us for a place in God's temple. The process is severe and trying. It hurts human pride. Christ cuts deep into the experience that man in his self-sufficiency regarded as complete, and takes away self-uplifting from the character. He cuts away the surplus surface, and putting the stone to the polishing wheel, presses it close, that all roughness may be worn off. Then holding the jewel up to the light the Master sees in it a reflection of His own image, and it is pronounced worthy of a place in His temple.
UL	372	5	Blessed be the experience, however severe, that gives new value to the stone, enabling it to shine with living brightness! ...
UL	372	6	[The Lord] has workers whom He will call forth from poverty and obscurity. Engaged in the common duties of life, and clothed with coarse raiment, they are looked upon by men as of little value. But Christ sees in them infinite possibilities, and in His hands they will become precious jewels, to shine brightly in the kingdom of God. "They shall be mine, saith the Lord of Host, in that day when I make up my jewels." (Malachi 3:17).
UL	372	7	Christ's perfect knowledge of human character fits Him to deal with minds. God knows just how to treat each soul. He judges not as man judges. He knows the real value of the material upon which He is working in fitting men and women for positions of trust.--Manuscript 168, December 24, 1902, "The Sin of Evil-speaking."
------------------------Living Stones for a Heavenly Temple, December 25
UL	373	1	All the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Ephesians 2:21, 22.
UL	373	2	If we do not respond to the light given and render corresponding obedience, keeping our souls in the love of God, abiding in Christ, that which to us would become a blessing becomes a curse. It is the deceiver, not the Spirit of truth, that makes us believe that we cannot become pure and holy, a powerful people separate from the world, united in love and union with one another through Christ. We need not expect any other portion than that which was given to our Lord. According to the heart service given to God will be the enmity of Satan against the followers of Jesus; and the children of God are more wise and powerful when the wisdom and influence of the world are arrayed against us than when they are engaged in favor and fellowship with them....
UL	373	3	The Jewish Temple was built of hewn stones, and at great expense of time and money and labor these stones were cut out of the mountain and fitted for their places in the building before they were collected together, so that when the building was completed there was not the sound of an ax or hammer heard in its upbuilding. The stones which are in God's sacred temple are not collected from the mountains of Judea but gathered from the nations, kindreds and tongues and people. They are not lifeless material that must be prepared with hammer and chisel, but living stones which emit light. The great cleaver of truth has taken them from the quarry of the world and placed them under the hand of the great Master Builder, the Lord of the temple, and He is polishing them in His workshop, which is this world, that all the rough edges and crookedness may be removed and they hammered and chiseled and squared by the truth of God, polished and refined, ready to fill their place in God's spiritual temple, that they may grow up a holy temple for God.
UL	373	4	Now we are in the workshop of God, and the process is going on in these hours of probation to fit us for the glorious temple. We cannot now be indifferent and negligent and careless, and refuse to depart from sin, but we must be dying to our defects of character and expect to become pure and holy and fashioned in character after the similitude of a palace. When Christ shall come, it is then ... too late to obtain a holy character. Now is the day of preparation; now is the time when we can have our defects removed; now is the time when our sins must go beforehand to judgment, be confessed and repented of and pardon written off against our names.--Letter 60, December 25, 1886, to John Corliss and wife, pioneer workers in Australia.
------------------------Resolutions for the New Year, December 26
UL	374	1	This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Philippians 3:13-15.
UL	374	2	Yesterday was Christmas. Did you do as the Wise Men did by offering your gifts to Jesus? Or has the enemy changed the order of things, and directed the worship to himself? The gifts are now bestowed upon friends instead of Him who has made so great a sacrifice for us. All the gifts should flow in another channel, where they could be used in the salvation of men.
UL	374	3	The new year is just before us. Shall not the gifts be turned to a better account than heretofore? Shall not confession be made and shall we not avail ourselves of the blood of Christ, who is able and willing to cleanse from all sin? For our sakes Christ became poor.
UL	374	4	In the last great day we shall be judged in accordance with what we have done. Christ will say, "I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?" (Matthew 25:42-44). Christ will then say, "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me" (Verse 45). And Christ will say, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Verse 41).
UL	374	5	Christ came and set the example in sacrificing, and if we are Christ's, then we will do the works of Christ. Instead of pleasing ourselves, we will be seeking to do others good, and to impart benefits to suffering humanity. And unless this is done, we cannot expect to have a part with Christ.
UL	374	6	There are souls to be saved all around us, and each has a work to do to be reconciled to Christ. This is the work to take hold of in the new year. We are living for time and eternity, and we want the light to flash upon our pathway and in return we want to extend its blessings to others....
UL	374	7	Let each strive to have a better record for the coming year, and live so near to God that you may be surrounded with the atmosphere of heaven, and thus be a representative of Christ.--Manuscript 60, December 26, 1886, a sermon preached in the Tramelan, Switzerland, town hall, John Vuilleumier translating.
------------------------Pray, Thy Will Be Done, December 27
UL	375	1	Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. James 5:14, 15.
UL	375	2	In praying for the sick, it is no sign that we are unbelieving to keep saying, "If it can be for Thy glory, to do this for us, we will praise Thee, and magnify Thy holy name." ...
UL	375	3	As there is no healing power in any human being, we must trust in God, who loves us and who gave Himself for us. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. You have a pitiful, loving, compassionate Redeemer who loves you, who blesses you. He will not leave or forsake you. He who understands the present and future history of all will do that which is for our best good and His name's glory....
UL	375	4	Jesus loves you, and He blesses you. His promise is sure.... Christ is the Restorer, Satan is the destroyer. All that mortals can do is to follow implicitly the Word of the Lord. In this they do their part. Will the Lord fail in doing His part? Press your petitions to the throne of grace, and then wait, trustfully, hopefully....
UL	375	5	In all my petitions I say, "Not our will, but thine, O Lord, be done." He knows this [is] not a prayer of doubt, but of perfect trust--that God knows what is best.... Our work is to pray, to believe, and to wait patiently for Him who is our Saviour.
UL	375	6	I pray, "O God, the living God, reveal Thyself. Make known Thy power unto Thy people, and may this sickness result in our good and Thine own name's glory." There is not a thread of unbelief in this prayer, but perfect submission to the will of God, who is mighty to save to the utmost all who believe in Him. Whatever objectionable circumstances attend the case, we have nothing to do with appearances.
UL	375	7	God desires us to trust implicitly in Him, and if it is for our good and His name's glory to do the work, it will be done. We are to wait. The power of the Lord is limitless. We poor mortals need to purify our souls, that when the Lord works for us, it will not ruin us. This is the reason that so few of the sick are healed. If they were [healed], men would be elevated in self-esteem. We must learn from Jesus to be meek and lowly of heart, and we shall find rest unto our souls.
UL	375	8	Never for a moment question that God loves you. He does love you, and He does give you evidence of His love. Thank our heavenly Father for a compassionate Saviour, who can save to the uttermost soul and body.--Letter 127, December 27, 1898, to Brother and Sister Wilson.
------------------------Educate Yourself to Believe, December 28
UL	376	1	Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Proverbs 16:3.
UL	376	2	Brother A-----, you must cast away your fears. Leave consequences with the Lord and let go. You try too hard to save yourself, to do some great thing yourself which will commend you to God. All God requires of you, dear brother, is entire submission of yourself to Him with all the consequences that your acceptance of the whole truth involves. Satan says, "What if it is error after all. Can you afford to run the risk?" Jesus loves you, and if you will consecrate yourself and all that you have to Him, He will accept you and will be your Burden-bearer, your never-failing Friend.
UL	376	3	You have looked with terror and alarm at the cross of Christ. The yoke has appeared to you galling. Satan has made it appear thus. Jesus has invited you to come to Him: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
UL	376	4	This yoke, [which] you are afraid [to] put upon your neck because you fear it will gall, Jesus says is easy. The burden you dare not touch--it is light. All that is required on your part is to resolutely lay hold upon it, and you will find it a support rather than a grievous burden. That cross which seems to you so inconvenient an instrument to lift, which seems too heavy to be raised, when you cheerfully lay hold upon it and lift it, it will lift you and be a support and strength to you....
UL	376	5	You must educate yourself to believe, to take your stand on the elevated platform of eternal truth, and welcome reproach and trial for Christ's sake. Jesus will help you; angels of God will help you resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you....
UL	376	6	Believe Jesus loves you, and in your efforts to obey the truth, if you err, don't feel that you must worry and worry, give up your confidence in God, think that God is your enemy. We are erring mortals. If we sin, "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). You cannot cleanse yourself from impurities. Carry all your burdens to Jesus. He will help you. He wants you to not wait and expect through your good deeds to make atonement for sin or to make yourself righteous. Trust in the merits of the blood of a crucified, risen Saviour.--Letter 20, December 28, 1867, to a discouraged church member.
------------------------We Are Objects of Infinite Love, December 29
UL	377	1	But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. Ephesians 2:4, 5.
UL	377	2	The heart surrendered to God's wise discipline will trust every working out of His providence.... Temptation will come to discourage, but what is gained by yielding to any such temptations? Is the soul made any better by murmuring and complaining of its only source of strength? Is the anchor cast within the vail? Will it hold in sickness? Will it be the testimony borne in the last closing scenes of life when the lips are becoming palsied with death? The anchor holds! I know that my Redeemer liveth....
UL	377	3	O Precious, loving, long-suffering, long-forbearing Jesus, how my soul adores Thee! That a poor, unworthy, sin-polluted soul can stand before the Holy God, complete in the righteousness of our Substitute and Surety! Wonder, O Heavens, and be astonished, O earth, that fallen man is the object of His infinite love and delight. He rejoices over them with celestial songs, and man defiled with sin, having become cleansed through the righteousness of Christ, is presented to the Father free from every spot and stain of sin, "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27). "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth" (Romans 8:33).
UL	377	4	Let every weak, tempest-tossed soul find anchorage in Jesus Christ and not become so self-centered that he can think only of his little disappointments and the interruption of his plans and hopes. Is not the subject of the plan of salvation all-absorbing? If the infinite God justifies me, "who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died" (Verse 34). He has in His dying for man revealed how much He loves man--enough to die for Him! The law condemns the sinner and drives him to Christ. It is God that justifies and pardons.
UL	377	5	Satan will accuse and seek permission to destroy, but it is God that opens the door of refuge. It is God that justifieth him that entereth that door. Then if God be for us, who can be against us? Oh, the bright glorious truth. Why do not men discern it? Why not walk in its bright beams? Why do not all who believe talk of Christ's matchless love? ...
UL	377	6	God lives and reigns. All who are saved must fight manfully as soldiers of Jesus Christ; then they will be registered in heaven's books as true and faithful. They are to work the works of Jesus Christ, fight the good fight of faith.--Letter 2, December 29, 1889, to W.C. White's first wife, Mary White, who was dying of tuberculosis.
------------------------Fig Leaves or Christ's Robe? December 30
UL	378	1	Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. Genesis 3:21.
UL	378	2	The Lord Jesus Christ has prepared a covering--the robe of His own righteousness--that He will put on every repenting, believing soul who by faith will receive it. Said John, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Sin is the transgression of the law. Christ died to make it possible for every man to have his sins taken away.
UL	378	3	A fig-leaf apron will never cover our nakedness. Sin must be taken away, and the garment of Christ's righteousness must cover the transgressor of God's law. Then when the Lord looks upon the believing sinner, He sees, not the fig leaves covering him, but Christ's own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah. Man has hidden his nakedness, not under a covering of fig leaves, but under the robe of Christ's righteousness.
UL	378	4	Christ has made a sacrifice to satisfy the demands of justice. What a price for Heaven to pay to ransom the transgressor of the law of Jehovah. Yet that holy law could not be maintained with any smaller price. In the place of the law being abolished to meet sinful man in his fallen condition, it has been maintained in all its sacred dignity. In His Son, God gave Himself to save from eternal ruin all who would believe in Him.
UL	378	5	Sin is disloyalty to God, and [is] deserving of punishment. Fig leaves sewed together have been employed since the days of Adam, yet the nakedness of the soul of the sinner is not covered. All the arguments pieced together by all who have interested themselves in this flimsy robe will come to nought. Sin is the transgression of the law. Christ was manifest in our world to take away transgression and sin, and to substitute for the covering of fig leaves the pure robes of His righteousness. The law of God stands vindicated by the suffering and death of the only begotten Son of the infinite God.
UL	378	6	The transgression of God's law in a single instance, in the smallest particular, is sin. And the nonexecution of the penalty of that sin would be a crime in the divine administration. God is a judge, the Avenger of justice, which is the habitation and the foundation of His throne. He cannot dispense with His law; He cannot do away with its smallest item in order to meet and pardon sin. The rectitude, justice, and moral excellence of the law must be maintained and vindicated before the heavenly universe and the worlds unfallen.--Manuscript 145, December 30, 1897, "Notes of Work."
------------------------Stewards of God's Grace, December 31
UL	379	1	Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8.
UL	379	2	Those who walk in the narrow way must follow the directions of the Guidebook. Thus only can they reach the gates of the City of God....
UL	379	3	God has put men and women in possession of precious gifts. To different ones He has given different gifts. Not all have the same strength of character or the same depth of knowledge. But each one is to use his gifts in the Master's service, however small this gift may seem to be. The faithful steward trades wisely on the goods entrusted to him.
UL	379	4	The endowments of mind and body are to be carefully guarded. Our gifts are not to be weakened by self-indulgence. Every power is to be carefully preserved, that it may always be ready for instant use. No part of the physical organism is to be weakened by misuse. Each part, however small, has an influence on the whole. The abuse of one nerve or muscle lessens the usefulness of the whole body. Those for whom Christ has given His life should bring their habits and practices into conformity to His will.
UL	379	5	God's Word declares, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:20). But God does not desire the death of anyone. At infinite cost He provided for man a second probation. He "so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
UL	379	6	Should not those to whom the light of truth for this time has come place themselves in close connection with God, using their capabilities to advance the work of soul saving? Should not the one who possesses an understanding of the Scriptures impart the knowledge given him to those who know not the truth?
UL	379	7	Upon every believer in present truth rests the responsibility of working for sinners. God points them to their special work--the proclamation of the third angel's message. They are to show their appreciation of God's great gift by consecrating themselves to the work for which Christ gave His life. They are to be stewards of the grace of God, dispensing to others the blessings bestowed on them.
UL	379	8	He who has found comfort in the Word of God is to share this comfort with others. Thus only can he continue to receive comfort.--Manuscript 147, December 31, 1903, "The Narrow Way."

------------------------With God at Dawn
WGD	3	1	He Is the True God, January 1
WGD	4	1	He Is the King Eternal, January 2
WGD	5	1	God and Christ Are One, January 3
WGD	6	1	God Is Not a Man, January 4
WGD	7	1	The Lord Made the Heavens, January 5
WGD	8	1	God Gave Us an Intercessor, January 6
WGD	9	1	We May Know Him, January 7
WGD	10	1	The Scriptures Testify of God, January 8
WGD	11	1	The Heavens Declare His Glory, January 9
WGD	12	1	Elijah Found God in the Still, Small Voice, January 10
WGD	13	1	God Is Found in the Things He Made, January 11
WGD	14	1	His Goodness Witnesses Continually, January 12
WGD	15	1	They That Seek His Face Shall Find Him, January 13
WGD	16	1	God's Throne Is in Heaven, January 14
WGD	17	1	We Must Desire to Know Him, January 15
WGD	18	1	We Must Seek Him, January 16
WGD	19	1	We Must Believe. January 17
WGD	20	1	Through the Holy Spirit, January 18
WGD	21	1	Taste and See, January 19
WGD	22	1	The Earth Is Full of His Goodness, January 20
WGD	23	1	We Must Study His Works, January 21
WGD	24	1	God Hath Chosen Us to Save Us, January 22
WGD	25	1	We Must Fear and Serve the Lord, January 23
WGD	26	1	We Must Work Out Our Own Salvation, January 24
WGD	27	1	We Must Have Love for Others, January 25
WGD	28	1	We Are to Point Men to Jesus, January 26
WGD	29	1	We Must Seek Wisdom, January 27
WGD	30	1	The Challenge of a Mighty Work, January 28
WGD	31	1	Hold Fast The Word, January 29
WGD	32	1	Lay a True Foundation, January 30
WGD	33	1	Seek Righteousness, January 31
WGD	34	1	He that Dwelleth in God Dwelleth in Love, February 1
WGD	35	1	Christ's Love Is Like the Father's Love, February 2
WGD	36	1	God Searches Out His Sheep, February 3
WGD	37	1	Christ Loves Us as the Father Loves Him, February 4
WGD	38	1	Christ Loved His Own Unto the End, February 5
WGD	39	1	God's Love Supplies Daily Needs, February 6
WGD	40	1	God Sends Every Good Gift, February 7
WGD	41	1	God's Love Is Greater than Life Itself, February 8
WGD	42	1	Christ's Mission Prompted by Father's Love, February 9
WGD	43	1	God's Love Reveals His Character, February 10
WGD	44	1	God's Love Will Not Clear the Guilty, February 11
WGD	45	1	He Remembereth We Are Dust, February 12
WGD	46	1	God Will Remove Our Yoke of Sin, February 13
WGD	47	1	God's Love Gives Us Hope of Perfection, February 14
WGD	48	1	Only by His Mercy Are We Not Consumed, February 15
WGD	49	1	His Kindness Is Everlasting, February 16
WGD	50	1	Consolation and Good Hope Through Grace, February 17
WGD	51	1	Hope Will Anchor the Soul, February 18
WGD	52	1	He Made Him to Be Sin for Us, February 19
WGD	53	1	We Are Reconciled to God Through Christ, February 20
WGD	54	1	He Has Redeemed Us, February 21
WGD	55	1	While We Were Yet Sinners Christ Died, February 22
WGD	56	1	Christ's Sufferings Bring Us to God, February 23
WGD	57	1	He Was Our Sin Offering, February 24
WGD	58	1	Christ Gave Himself for Our Deliverance, February 25
WGD	59	1	What Does God Require, February 26
WGD	60	1	Love to One Another, February 27
WGD	61	1	The World Loves Not God, February 28
WGD	62	1	Salvation from God Has Gone Forth, March 1
WGD	63	1	I Am with Thee to Save Thee, March 2
WGD	64	1	Salvation Is the Gift of God, March 3
WGD	65	1	Look Unto Me and Be Ye Saved, March 4
WGD	66	1	He Will Establish His Covenant with Us, March 5
WGD	67	1	He Will Write the Law in Our Hearts, March 6
WGD	68	1	He Will Remember Our Sin No More, March 7
WGD	69	1	He Will Give Us a New Heart, March 8
WGD	70	1	He Will Cause Us to Walk in His Statutes, March 9
WGD	71	1	He Will Cleanse Us, March 10
WGD	72	1	He Will Pardon Our Iniquities, March 11
WGD	73	1	Christ Came to Seek the Lost, March 12
WGD	74	1	He Will Bind and Strengthen, March 13
WGD	75	1	He Will Gather and Bring Back the Lost, March 14
WGD	76	1	He Seeks the Very Young, March 15
WGD	77	1	We Are Called According to His Purpose, March 16
WGD	78	1	The Father Seeks True Worshipers, March 17
WGD	79	1	God Has Chosen Us, March 18
WGD	80	1	God Withholds No Good Thing, March 19
WGD	81	1	He Understands When We Are Tempted, March 20
WGD	82	1	Faithfulness Rewarded, March 21
WGD	83	1	Perfect Peace Will Be Given, March 22
WGD	84	1	His Portion Is His People, March 23
WGD	85	1	He Protects in Times of Trouble, March 24
WGD	86	1	Continual Guidance Is Promised, March 25
WGD	87	1	He Is Not Slack Concerning His Promises, March 26
WGD	88	1	We Must Claim God's Promises, March 27
WGD	89	1	We Must Believe, March 28
WGD	90	1	God's Promises Are Conditional on Obedience, March 29
WGD	91	1	God Fulfills His Promises if We Cooperate, March 30
WGD	92	1	We Should Thank Him for His Precious Promises, March 31
WGD	93	1	Counsel Belongs to the Lord, April 1
WGD	94	1	Come, Buy, Eat Without Price, April 2
WGD	95	1	Come, Let Us Reason Together, April 3
WGD	96	1	Take My Yoke--It Is Easy, April 4
WGD	97	1	Come, I Will Teach You, April 5
WGD	98	1	Trust in the Lord, April 6
WGD	99	1	Be Still, and Know, April 7
WGD	100	1	Abide in Me, April 8    
WGD	101	1	Worship God, April 9    
WGD	102	1	Forget Not My Law, April 10
WGD	103	1	Commit Thy Way Unto Him, April 11
WGD	104	1	Cast Thy Burden Upon Him, April 12
WGD	105	1	Get Wisdom, April 13    
WGD	106	1	Keep Thy Tongue, April 14
WGD	107	1	Rest in the Lord, April 15
WGD	108	1	Honor Him, April 16     
WGD	109	1	Ponder Thy Path, April 17
WGD	110	1	Keep Thy Heart, April 18
WGD	111	1	Glorify God, April 19   
WGD	112	1	Study, April 20         
WGD	113	1	Flee From Lusts, April 21
WGD	114	1	Be Honorable, April 22  
WGD	115	1	Turn At My Reproof, April 23
WGD	116	1	Attend My Words, April 24
WGD	117	1	Avoid Evil, April 25    
WGD	118	1	Stir Up Thyself, April 26
WGD	119	1	Be Ye Not Conformed To This World, April 27
WGD	120	1	Forsake the Foolish, April 28
WGD	121	1	Flee These Things, April 29
WGD	122	1	Take Hold of Instruction, April 30
WGD	123	1	All Have Gone Astray, May 1
WGD	124	1	Ye Have Sold Yourselves, May 2
WGD	125	1	Sinners Are Taken Captive, May 3
WGD	126	1	The Heart Is Deceitful, May 4
WGD	127	1	The Carnal Mind Is Enmity with God, May 5
WGD	128	1	Then Shall Ye Remember Your Evil Ways, May 6
WGD	129	1	Godly Sorrow Worketh Repentance, May 7
WGD	130	1	He That Repenteth Shall Live, May 8
WGD	131	1	His Goodness Leads to Repentance, May 9
WGD	132	1	Put Iniquity Far Away, May 10
WGD	133	1	Wash You, Make You Clean, May 11
WGD	134	1	Be Not Stiff-Necked, But Yield, May 12
WGD	135	1	I Will Not Offend Anymore, May 13
WGD	136	1	The Repentance of Jacob, May 14
WGD	137	1	The Repentance of Ezra, May 15
WGD	138	1	The Repentance of Nehemiah, May 16
WGD	139	1	The Repentance of David, May 17
WGD	140	1	The Repentance of Solomon, May 18
WGD	141	1	The Repentance of Zaccheus, May 19
WGD	142	1	The Repentance of Paul, May 20
WGD	143	1	Your Sins Will Not Be Mentioned, May 21
WGD	144	1	Only Acknowledge Thine Iniquity, May 22
WGD	145	1	The Lord Will Heal and Bind Us Up, May 23
WGD	146	1	If My People Seek I Will Hear, May 24
WGD	147	1	We Shall Be Dead To Our Sins, May 25
WGD	148	1	Christ The Sure Foundation, May 26
WGD	149	1	Salvation Is By The Grace Of God, May 27
WGD	150	1	Who Is A God Like Unto Thee?, May 28
WGD	151	1	Him Hath God Exalted, May 29
WGD	152	1	He Who Calls Us Is Faithful, May 30
WGD	153	1	God Punishes Less than We Deserve, May 31
WGD	154	1	We Are Changed Into His Image, June 1
WGD	155	1	Through the Word We Are Reborn, June 2
WGD	156	1	Rebirth, the Work of the Holy Spirit, June 3
WGD	157	1	Obedience Necessary to Enter Heaven, June 4
WGD	158	1	The Path of the Obedient Is Mercy and Truth, June 5
WGD	159	1	The Heathen and the Stranger Shall Obey God, June 6
WGD	160	1	Long Life Promised to the Obedient, June 7
WGD	161	1	Blessed Are They That Do His Commandments, June 8
WGD	162	1	His Commands Are Not Grievous, June 9
WGD	163	1	Destruction the Result of Disobedience, June 10
WGD	164	1	We Are No More Children Tossed To and Fro, June 11
WGD	165	1	Increasing in the Knowledge of God, June 12
WGD	166	1	Strength and Beauty of Character, June 13
WGD	167	1	Grow in Grace and Knowledge, June 14
WGD	168	1	The Word of God Stimulates Growth, June 15
WGD	169	1	The Word of God Is Bread from Heaven, June 16
WGD	170	1	Press Toward the Mark, June 17
WGD	171	1	I Shall Not Be Moved, June 18
WGD	172	1	I Shall Be Like a Tree, June 19
WGD	173	1	Faithfulness in that Which Is Least, June 20
WGD	174	1	I Shall Not Fear, June 21
WGD	175	1	The Word of Christ Shall Dwell in Me, June 22
WGD	176	1	We Shall Be Rooted and Built Up in Him, June 23
WGD	177	1	Having Done All, I Shall Stand, June 24
WGD	178	1	The Transforming Power of Truth, June 25
WGD	179	1	We Shall Be New Creatures, June 26
WGD	180	1	The Transformed Life Is Sincere, June 27
WGD	181	1	The Transformed Life Bears Fruit, June 28
WGD	182	1	The Fruits of the Spirit Are Borne, June 29
WGD	183	1	By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them, June 30
WGD	184	1	Seek the Lord Continually, July 1
WGD	185	1	Take Hold of God's Strength, July 2
WGD	186	1	God Will Be Favorable, July 3
WGD	187	1	In Thee Do I Hope, for Thou Wilt Hear, July 4
WGD	188	1	He Knows Our Needs Before We Ask, July 5
WGD	189	1	God Hears the Prayer of the Discouraged One, July 6
WGD	190	1	God Will Protect, July 7
WGD	191	1	God Will Avenge His Own Elect, July 8
WGD	192	1	If I Call, God Will Answer, July 9
WGD	193	1	Whatsoever We Ask We Receive, July 10
WGD	194	1	Whatsoever We Ask in His Name He Will Do, July 11
WGD	195	1	Ask, That Your Joy May Be Full, July 12
WGD	196	1	Secret Prayer Will Be Answered, July 13
WGD	197	1	If Two Shall Agree, It Shall Be Done, July 14
WGD	198	1	Faith and Belief Are Necessary, July 15
WGD	199	1	Blessed Is He That Readeth, July 16
WGD	200	1	In the Night His Song Is with Me, July 17
WGD	201	1	Commune With Thine Own Heart, July 18
WGD	202	1	I Will Meditate in Thy Precepts, July 19
WGD	203	1	I Have Remembered Thy Name in the Night, July 20
WGD	204	1	My Soul Thirsteth for God, July 21
WGD	205	1	Muse on the Work of His Hands, July 22
WGD	206	1	We Will Give Ourselves to Prayer, July 23
WGD	207	1	Continuing Instant in Prayer, July 24
WGD	208	1	Example of Paul, July 25
WGD	209	1	As Long as I Live I Will Call, July 26
WGD	210	1	In the Morning I Will Pray to Thee, July 27
WGD	211	1	Holy and Reverend Is His Name, July 28
WGD	212	1	As for Me, I Will Call Upon God, July 29
WGD	213	1	Praise the Lord, July 30
WGD	214	1	Give Thanks in Prayer and Melody, July 31
WGD	215	1	Confess One to Another, August 1
WGD	216	1	Be Reconciled To Thy Brother, August 2
WGD	217	1	Confession Merits Mercy, August 3
WGD	218	1	Behold, I Am Vile, August 4
WGD	219	1	We Are Ashamed, August 5
WGD	220	1	The Burden of Sin Is Too Heavy, August 6
WGD	221	1	My Life Is Spent with Grief, August 7
WGD	222	1	My Foolishness Is Known to God, August 8
WGD	223	1	I Will Declare My Iniquity, August 9
WGD	224	1	I Acknowledge My Transgression, August 10
WGD	225	1	Holy Spirit Brings Conviction, August 11
WGD	226	1	Search Me and Know My Heart, August 12
WGD	227	1	Only God Can Forgive, August 13
WGD	228	1	All Sins, Save One, Shall Be Forgiven, August 14
WGD	229	1	If We Confess, He Is Faithful, August 15
WGD	230	1	Confession Leads to Salvation, August 16
WGD	231	1	I Acknowledged and Thou Forgavest, August 17
WGD	232	1	He Will Not Remember Our Sins, August 18
WGD	233	1	Forgive and Ye Shall Be Forgiven, August 19
WGD	234	1	We Are Redeemed By His Blood, August 20
WGD	235	1	His Blood Was Shed for Many, August 21
WGD	236	1	Through Faith Our Sins Are Washed Away, August 22
WGD	237	1	Christ Washed Us in His Own Blood, August 23
WGD	238	1	These Have Washed Their Robes, August 24
WGD	239	1	Ye Who Were Far Off Are Made Nigh, August 25
WGD	240	1	Not By the Blood of Animals, But His Own, August 26
WGD	241	1	The Scepter of His Kingdom, August 27
WGD	242	1	Reconciliation By His Son, August 28
WGD	243	1	His Righteousness Marks His Superiority, August 29
WGD	244	1	He Became Our High Priest, August 30
WGD	245	1	Righteousness Fulfilled in Him, August 31
WGD	246	1	Yield Your Members, September 1
WGD	247	1	Present Your Bodies, September 2
WGD	248	1	Who Then Is Willing?, September 3
WGD	249	1	I Turned My Feet, September 4
WGD	250	1	Forsake All for Him, September 5
WGD	251	1	Serve God with a Willing Mind, September 6
WGD	252	1	God Desires a Contrite Heart, September 7
WGD	253	1	We Will Serve the Lord, September 8
WGD	254	1	A Disciple's Decision, September 9
WGD	255	1	Sincerity, September 10 
WGD	256	1	A Clear Conscience, September 11
WGD	257	1	Sobriety, Godliness, September 12
WGD	258	1	Faithfulness Unto Death, September 13
WGD	259	1	Obedience, September 14 
WGD	260	1	Happiness, September 15 
WGD	261	1	Peace, September 16     
WGD	262	1	God Leads, September 17 
WGD	263	1	God Is My Shield, September 18
WGD	264	1	He Hath Established My Goings, September 19
WGD	265	1	He Gives a New Song, September 20
WGD	266	1	His Name Is My Refuge, September 21
WGD	267	1	Right Living Brings Honor, September 22
WGD	268	1	Consecration Brings Peace, September 23
WGD	269	1	Consecration of Jesus, September 24
WGD	270	1	Consecration of the Macedonians, September 25
WGD	271	1	Consecration of Moses, September 26
WGD	272	1	Consecration of the Poor Widow, September 27
WGD	273	1	Consecration of Samuel, September 28
WGD	274	1	Consecration of Paul, September 29
WGD	275	1	Consecration of Elisha, September 30
WGD	276	1	I Have Ordained You, October 1
WGD	277	1	We Are Co-Workers with Him, October 2
WGD	278	1	Messengers of God, October 3
WGD	279	1	God Directs Our Service, October 4
WGD	280	1	Let Your Light Shine, October 5
WGD	281	1	Cast Thy Bread Upon the Waters, October 6
WGD	282	1	We Labor with God, October 7
WGD	283	1	A Willing Mind, October 8
WGD	284	1	A Hearty Attitude, October 9
WGD	285	1	An Earnest Spirit, October 10
WGD	286	1	Constancy in Service, October 11
WGD	287	1	Simplicity, October 12  
WGD	288	1	Courage, October 13     
WGD	289	1	God's Appointed Weapons, October 14
WGD	290	1	The Example of Christ, October 15
WGD	291	1	The Son of Man Came to Minister, October 16
WGD	292	1	I Have Shewed You All Things, October 17
WGD	293	1	Christ's Work Specified, October 18
WGD	294	1	Christ's Work Is Our Work, October 19
WGD	295	1	He Shall Justify Many, October 20
WGD	296	1	Christ Came to Call Sinners, October 21
WGD	297	1	Go Ye, October 22       
WGD	298	1	Preach the Word, October 23
WGD	299	1	Look on the Fields, October 24
WGD	300	1	Tell Your Children, October 25
WGD	301	1	Go Without Fear, October 26
WGD	302	1	Paul Kept the Faith, October 27
WGD	303	1	Jesus Went About Doing Good, October 28
WGD	304	1	God's Love Is Promised, October 29
WGD	305	1	God Accompanies His Servants, October 30
WGD	306	1	Laborers to Shine as the Stars, October 31
WGD	307	1	He Will Be with Us, November 1
WGD	308	1	My Ransom Is Paid, November 2
WGD	309	1	He Will Claim His Own, November 3
WGD	310	1	He Is Our Saviour, November 4
WGD	311	1	He Chasteneth Whom He Loveth, November 5
WGD	312	1	God's Chastening a Blessing, November 6
WGD	313	1	He Will Purge Thy Dross, November 7
WGD	314	1	He Rebukes, November 8  
WGD	315	1	He Careth for Me, November 9
WGD	316	1	He Will Not Forsake, November 10
WGD	317	1	He Sends Angel Watchers, November 11
WGD	318	1	Be Strong and Take Courage, November 12
WGD	319	1	He Will Be Our God, November 13
WGD	320	1	He Will Thrust Out the Enemy, November 14
WGD	321	1	He Is Our Shield and Sword, November 15
WGD	322	1	He Will Not Fail, November 16
WGD	323	1	He Will Hold Thy Hand, November 17
WGD	324	1	He Will Make Darkness Light, November 18
WGD	325	1	He Will Redeem Us, November 19
WGD	326	1	He Draws All Men By His Death, November 20
WGD	327	1	With Him Is Plenteous Redemption, November 21
WGD	328	1	Zion Shall Be Redeemed, November 22
WGD	329	1	Redemption from the Grave, November 23
WGD	330	1	Our Creator Will Redeem Us, November 24
WGD	331	1	He Will Deliver the Needy, November 25
WGD	332	1	They That Love Thee Shall Prosper, November 26
WGD	333	1	Doing His Will Assures Prosperity, November 27
WGD	334	1	Prosperity Promised the Remnant, November 28
WGD	335	1	Ancient Israel an Example of God's Care, November 29
WGD	336	1	God's People Promised Outpouring of the Spirit, November 30
WGD	337	1	What Is Man, December 1 
WGD	338	1	God's Love Immeasurable as Heavens, December 2
WGD	339	1	The Heavens Praise Him, December 3
WGD	340	1	The Outspread Heavens Display His Might, December 4
WGD	341	1	He Made and Preserves Them All, December 5
WGD	342	1	Man Made in Uprightness, December 6
WGD	343	1	He Sitteth Upon the Circle of the Earth, December 7
WGD	344	1	There Is Nothing Too Hard for Thee, December 8
WGD	345	1	He Laid the Foundation in the Beginning, December 9
WGD	346	1	God Dwells Between the Cherubim, December 10
WGD	347	1	God Dwells also in the Contrite Heart, December 11
WGD	348	1	God's Dwelling Future Home of the Saved, December 12
WGD	349	1	Angel Hosts Minister Before God, December 13
WGD	350	1	Angels Interested in Sinful Man, December 14
WGD	351	1	Angels Connect Us with Heaven, December 15
WGD	352	1	Angels Protect and Guide Us, December 16
WGD	353	1	We Look for New Heavens and a New Earth, December 17
WGD	354	1	God's Throne Shared with the Overcomer, December 18
WGD	355	1	Abraham Looked for a City, December 19
WGD	356	1	He Hath Prepared for Them a City, December 20
WGD	357	1	The Tree and River of Life Are in the City, December 21
WGD	358	1	God Himself Shall Be Their God, December 22
WGD	359	1	There Shall Be No More Curse, December 23
WGD	360	1	God's Preparation for Those Who Love Him, December 24
WGD	361	1	There Shall Be No Death, December 25
WGD	362	1	Man Restored to Original Stature, December 26
WGD	363	1	We Shall Build Houses, December 27
WGD	364	1	We Shall Long Enjoy the Work of Our Hands, December 28
WGD	365	1	Wild Beasts Will Not Destroy, December 29
WGD	366	1	All Will Worship on the Sabbath Day, December 30
WGD	367	1	These Sayings Are Faithful and True, December 31

------------------------He Is the True God, January 1
WGD	3	1	"But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation." Jeremiah 10:10.
WGD	3	2	Like our Saviour, we are in this world to do service for God. We are here to become like God in character, and by a life of service to reveal Him to the world. In order to be coworkers with God, in order to become like Him, and to reveal His character, we must know Him aright. We must know Him as He reveals Himself.
WGD	3	3	A knowledge of God is the foundation of all true education and of all true service. It is the only real safeguard against temptation. It is this alone that can make us like God in character. This is the knowledge needed by all who are working for the uplifting of their fellow men. Transformation of character, purity of life, efficiency in service, adherence to correct principles, all depend upon a right knowledge of God. This knowledge is the essential preparation both for this life and for the life to come.
WGD	3	4	"The knowledge of the Holy is understanding."
WGD	3	5	Through a knowledge of Him are given unto us "all things that pertain unto life and godliness.". . . We need to study the revelations of Himself that God has given.--The Ministry of Healing, 409, 410.
WGD	3	6	A clear conception of what God is and what He requires us to be, will lead to wholesome humility.--Counsels to Teachers, 53.
------------------------He Is the King Eternal, January 2
WGD	4	1	"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen." 1 Tim. 1:17.
WGD	4	2	The revelation of Himself that God has given in His Word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out in conjectures regarding the nature of God, but the effort will be fruitless. This problem has not been given us to solve. No human mind can comprehend God. None are to indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion.
WGD	4	3	Even the angels were not permitted to share the counsels between the Father and the Son when the plan of salvation was laid. And human beings are not to intrude into the secrets of the Most High. We are as ignorant of God as little children; but, as little children, we may love and obey Him. Instead of speculating in regard to His nature or His prerogatives, let us give heed to the words He has spoken: "Canst thou by searching find out God?"--The Ministry of Healing, 429, 430.
WGD	4	4	Man can not by searching find out God. Let none seek with presumptuous hand to lift the veil that conceals His glory. "Unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out." It is a proof of His mercy that there is the hiding of His power; for to lift the veil that conceals the divine presence is death. No mortal mind can penetrate the secrecy in which the Mighty One dwells and works. Only that which He sees fit to reveal can we comprehend of Him. Reason must acknowledge an authority superior to itself. Heart and intellect must bow to the great I AM.--The Ministry of Healing, 438.
------------------------God and Christ Are One, January 3
WGD	5	1	"My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." John 10:29, 30.
WGD	5	2	As a personal being, God has revealed Himself in His Son. Jesus, the outshining of the Father's glory, "and the express image of His person," was on earth found in fashion as a man. As a personal Saviour, He came to the world. As a personal Saviour, He ascended on high. As a personal Saviour, He intercedes in the heavenly courts. Before the throne of God in our behalf ministers "One like unto the Son of man."
WGD	5	3	Christ, the light of the world, veiled the dazzling splendor of His divinity, and came to live as a man among men, that they might, without being consumed, become acquainted with their Creator. No man has seen God at any time, except as He is revealed through Christ.
WGD	5	4	"I and My Father are one," Christ declared. . . . Christ came to teach human beings what God desires them to know. In the heavens above, in the earth, in the broad waters of the ocean, we see the handiwork of God. All created things testify to His power, His wisdom, His love. But not from the stars or the ocean or the cataract can we learn of the personality of God as it is revealed in Christ.
WGD	5	5	God saw that a clearer revelation than nature was needed to portray both His personality and His character. He sent His Son into the world to reveal, so far as could be endured by human sight, the nature and the attributes of the invisible God. . . . He is the divine Teacher, the Enlightener. Had God thought us in need of revelations other than those made through Christ, and in His written Word, He would have given them.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 265, 266.
------------------------God Is Not a Man, January 4
WGD	6	1	"God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" Numbers 23:19.
WGD	6	2	As we learn more and more of what God is, and of what we ourselves are in His sight, we shall fear and tremble before Him.--The Ministry of Healing, 435.
WGD	6	3	He [Jesus] pointed His hearers to the Ruler of the universe, under the new name, "Our Father." He would have them understand how tenderly the heart of God yearned over them. He teaches that God cares for every lost soul; that "like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him."
WGD	6	4	Such a conception of God was never given to the world by any religion but that of the Bible. Heathenism teaches men to look upon the Supreme Being as an object of fear rather than of love,--a malign deity to be appeased by sacrifices, rather than a Father pouring upon His children the gift of His love. Even the people of Israel had become so blinded to the precious teaching of the prophets concerning God, that this revelation of His paternal love was as an original subject, a new gift to the world.
WGD	6	5	The Jews held that God loved those who served Him,-- according to their view, those who fulfilled the requirements of the rabbis,--and that all the rest of the world lay under His frown and curse. Not so, said Jesus; the whole world, the evil and the good, lies in the sunshine of His love.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 74.
WGD	6	6	God does not deal with us as finite men deal with one another. His thoughts are thoughts of mercy, love, and tenderest compassion.--Steps to Christ, 57, 58.
------------------------The Lord Made the Heavens, January 5
WGD	7	1	"For all the gods of the people are idols: but the Lord made the heavens." 1 Chronicles 16:26.
WGD	7	2	The sun rising in the heavens is a representative of Him who is the life and light of all that He has made. All the brightness and beauty that adorn the earth and light up the heavens, speak of God. . . . All things tell of His tender, fatherly care, and of His desire to make His children happy. The mighty power that works through all nature and sustains all things is not, as some men of science represent, merely an all-pervading principle, an actuating energy. God is a Spirit; yet He is a personal Being; for so He has revealed Himself:
WGD	7	3	"The Lord is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King: . . . The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, Even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.". . .
WGD	7	4	God's handiwork in nature is not God Himself in nature. The things of nature are an expression of God's character and power; but we are not to regard nature as God. The artistic skill of human beings produces very beautiful workmanship, things that delight the eye, and these things reveal to us something of the thought of the designer; but the thing made is not the maker. It is not the work, but the workman, that is counted worthy of honor. So while nature is an expression of God's thought, it is not nature, but the God of nature that is to be exalted. . . . In the creation of the earth, God was not indebted to pre-existing matter. . . . All things, material or spiritual, stood up before the Lord Jehovah at His voice, and were created for His own purpose.--The Ministry of Healing, 412-415.
------------------------God Gave Us an Intercessor, January 6
WGD	8	1	"Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Hebrews 7:25.
WGD	8	2	God's appointments and grants in our behalf are without limit. The throne of grace is itself the highest attraction, because occupied by One who permits us to call Him Father. But God did not deem the principle of salvation complete while invested only with His own love. By His appointment He has placed at His altar an Advocate clothed with our nature. As our Intercessor, His office-work is to introduce us to God as His sons and daughters. Christ intercedes in behalf of those who have received Him. To them He gives power, by virtue of His own merits, to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. And the Father demonstrates His infinite love for Christ, who paid our ransom with His blood, by receiving and welcoming Christ's friends as His friends. He is satisfied with the atonement made. He is glorified by the incarnation, the life, death, and mediation of His Son.
WGD	8	3	No sooner does the child of God approach the mercy-seat than he becomes the client of the great Advocate. At his first utterance of penitence and appeal for pardon, Christ espouses his case, and makes it His own, presenting the supplication before the Father as His own request.
WGD	8	4	As Christ intercedes in our behalf, the Father lays open all the treasures of His grace for our appropriation, to be enjoyed and to be communicated to others. . . .
WGD	8	5	God desires His obedient children to claim His blessing, and to come before Him with praise and thanksgiving. God is the Fountain of life and power.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 363, 364.
------------------------We May Know Him, January 7
WGD	9	1	"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life." 1 John 5:20.
WGD	9	2	God never asks us to believe, without giving sufficient evidence upon which to base our faith. His existence, His character, the truthfulness of His Word, are all established by testimony that appeals to our reason; and this testimony is abundant. Yet God has never removed the possibility of doubt. Our faith must rest upon evidence, not demonstration. Those who wish to doubt will have opportunity; while those who really desire to know the truth, will find plenty of evidence on which to rest their faith.--Steps to Christ, 110.
WGD	9	3	The Bible unfolds truth with a simplicity and a perfect adaptation to the needs and longings of the human heart, that has astonished and charmed the most highly cultivated minds, while it enables the humble and uncultured to discern the way of salvation. And yet these simply stated truths lay hold upon subjects so elevated, so far-reaching, so infinitely beyond the power of human comprehension, that we can accept them only because God has declared them. Thus the plan of redemption is laid open to us, so that every soul may see the steps he is to take in repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, in order to be saved in God's appointed way; yet beneath these truths, so easily understood, lie mysteries that are the hiding of His glory,--mysteries that overpower the mind in its research, yet inspire the sincere seeker for truth with reverence and faith. The more he searches the Bible, the deeper is his conviction that it is the Word of the living God, and human reason bows before the majesty of divine revelation.--Ibid., 112, 113.
------------------------The Scriptures Testify of God, January 8
WGD	10	1	"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." John 5:39.
WGD	10	2	The study book of the highest value is that which contains the instruction of Christ, the Teacher of teachers.--Counsels to Teachers, 389.
WGD	10	3	The words of the living God are the highest of all education.--Counsels to Teachers, 381.
WGD	10	4	The Author of nature is the Author of the Bible. Creation and Christianity have one God. God is revealed in nature, and God is revealed in His Word. In clear rays the light shines from the sacred page, showing us the living God, as represented in the laws of His government, in the creation of the world, in the heavens that He has garnished. His power is to be recognized as the only means of redeeming the world from the degrading superstitions that are so dishonoring to God and man. . . .
WGD	10	5	When the Bible is made the guide and counselor, it exerts an ennobling influence upon the mind. Its study more than any other will refine and elevate. It will enlarge the mind of the candid student, endowing it with new impulses and fresh vigor. It will give greater efficiency to the faculties by bringing them in contact with grand, far-reaching truths. . . . Let the Bible be received as the food of the soul, the best and most effectual means of purifying and strengthening the intellect.-- Counsels to Teachers, 395, 396.
WGD	10	6	In God's Word only do we behold the power that laid the foundations of the earth, and that stretched out the heavens. . . . In the Word of God the mind finds subjects for the deepest thought, the loftiest aspirations. Here we may hold communion with patriarchs and prophets, and listen to the voice of the Eternal as He speaks with men.--Counsels to Teachers, 52.
------------------------The Heavens Declare His Glory, January 9
WGD	11	1	"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." Psalm 19:1-3.
WGD	11	2	The same power that upholds nature, is working also in man. The same great laws that guide alike the star and the atom, control human life. The laws that govern the heart's action, regulating the flow of the current of life to the body, are the laws of the mighty Intelligence that has the jurisdiction of the soul. From Him all life proceeds. Only in harmony with Him can be found its true sphere of action. For all the objects of His creation the condition is the same,--a life sustained by receiving the life of God, a life exercised in harmony with the Creator's will. To transgress His law, physical, mental, or moral, is to place one's self out of harmony with the universe, to introduce discord, anarchy, ruin.
WGD	11	3	To him who learns thus to interpret its teachings, all nature becomes illuminated; the world is a lesson-book, life a school. The unity of man with nature and with God, the universal dominion of law, the results of transgression, can not fail of impressing the mind and moulding the character. . . .
WGD	11	4	So far as possible, let the child from his earliest years be placed where this wonderful lesson-book shall be open before him. Let him behold the glorious scenes painted by the great Master Artist upon the shifting canvas of the heavens, let him become acquainted with the wonders of earth and sea, let him watch the unfolding mysteries of the changing seasons, and, in all His works, learn of the Creator.--Education, 99-101.
------------------------Elijah Found God in the Still, Small Voice, January 10
WGD	12	1	"And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice." 1 Kings 19:12.
WGD	12	2	Not in mighty manifestations of divine power, but by "a still small voice," did God choose to reveal Himself to His servant. He desired to teach Elijah that it is not always the work that makes the greatest demonstration that is most successful in accomplishing His purpose. While Elijah waited for the revelation of the Lord, a tempest rolled, the lightnings flashed, and a devouring fire swept by; but God was not in all this. Then there came a still small voice, and the prophet covered his head before the presence of the Lord. His petulance was silenced, his spirit softened and subdued. He now knew that a quiet trust, a firm reliance on God, would ever find for him a present help in time of need.--Prophets and Kings, 168, 169.
WGD	12	3	God speaks to us through His providential workings, and through the influence of His Spirit upon the heart. In our circumstances and surroundings, in the changes daily taking place around us, we may find precious lessons, if our hearts are but open to discern them. . . .
WGD	12	4	God speaks to us in His Word. Here we have in clearer lines the revelation of His character, of His dealings with men, and the great work of redemption. Here is open before us the history of patriarchs and prophets and other holy men of old. ... As we read of the precious experiences granted them, of the light and love and blessing it was theirs to enjoy, and of the work they wrought through the grace given them, the spirit that inspired them kindles a flame of holy emulation in our hearts and a desire to be like them in character,--like them to walk with God.--Steps to Christ, 91, 92.
------------------------God Is Found in the Things He Made, January 11
WGD	13	1	"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." Romans 1:20.
WGD	13	2	In dwelling upon the laws of matter and the laws of nature, many lose sight of, if they do not deny, the continual and direct agency of God. They convey the idea that nature acts independently of God, having in and of itself its own limits and its own powers wherewith to work. In their minds there is a marked distinction between the natural and the supernatural. The natural is ascribed to ordinary causes, un-connected with the power of God. Vital power is attributed to matter, and nature is made a deity. It is supposed that matter is placed in certain relations, and left to act from fixed laws, with which God Himself can not interfere; that nature is endowed with certain properties, and placed subject to laws, and is then left to itself to obey these laws, and perform the work originally commanded.
WGD	13	3	This is false science; there is nothing in the Word of God to sustain it. God does not annul His laws, but He is continually working through them, using them as His instruments. They are not self-working. God is perpetually at work in nature. She is His servant, directed as He pleases. Nature in her work testifies of the intelligent presence and active agency of a Being who moves in all His works according to His will. It is not by an original power inherent in nature that year by year the earth yields its bounties, and continues its march around the sun. The hand of infinite power is perpetually at work guiding this planet. It is God's power momentarily exercised that keeps it in position in its rotation.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 259, 260.
------------------------His Goodness Witnesses Continually, January 12
WGD	14	1	"Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." Acts 14:17.
WGD	14	2	Sin has marred earth's beauty; on all things may be seen traces of the work of evil. Yet much that is beautiful remains. Nature testifies that One infinite in power, great in goodness, mercy, and love, created the earth, and filled it with life and gladness. Even in their blighted state, all things reveal the handiwork of the great Master Artist. Wherever we turn, we may hear the voice of God, and see evidences of His goodness.
WGD	14	3	From the solemn roll of the deep-toned thunder and old ocean's ceaseless roar, to the glad songs that make the forests vocal with melody, nature's ten thousand voices speak His praise. In earth, and sea, and sky, with their marvelous tint and color, varying in gorgeous contrast or blended in harmony, we behold His glory. The everlasting hills tell us of His power. The trees that wave their green banners in the sunlight, and the flowers in their delicate beauty, point to their Creator. The living green that carpets the brown earth tells of God's care for the humblest of His creatures.
WGD	14	4	The caves of the sea and the depths of the earth reveal His treasures. He who placed the pearls in the ocean and the amethyst and chrysolite among the rocks, is a lover of the beautiful.--The Ministry of Healing, 410-412.
WGD	14	5	The God of heaven is constantly at work. It is by His power that vegetation is caused to flourish, that every leaf appears, and every flower blooms. Every drop of rain or flake of snow, every spire of grass, every leaf and flower and shrub, testifies of God. These little things so common around us teach the lesson that . . . nothing is too small for His attention.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 260.
------------------------They That Seek His Face Shall Find Him, January 13
WGD	15	1	"When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." Ps. 27:8.
WGD	15	2	All the powers of Satan are set in operation to hold the attention to frivolous amusements, and he is gaining his object. He is interposing his devisings between God and the soul. He will manufacture diversions to keep men from thinking about God. The world, filled with sport and pleasureloving, is always thirsting for some new interest, but how little time and thought are given to the Creator of the heavens and the earth? . . . God would have us study the works of infinity, and from this study learn to love and reverence and obey Him. The heavens and the earth with their treasures are to teach the lessons of God's love and care and power.
WGD	15	3	God calls upon His creatures to turn their attention from the confusion and perplexity around them, and admire His handiwork. As we study His works, angels from heaven will be by our side, to enlighten our minds, and guard them from Satan's deceptions. As you look at the wonderful things that God's hand has made, let your proud, foolish heart feel its dependence and inferiority. How terrible it is when the acknowledgment of God is not made when it should be made! How sad to humble oneself when it is too late!-- Counsels to Teachers, 456, 457.
WGD	15	4	In the religion of Christ there is a regenerating influence that transforms the entire being, lifting man above every debasing, groveling vice, and raising the thoughts and desires toward God and heaven. Linked to the Infinite One, man is made partaker of the divine nature. Upon him the shafts of evil have no effect; for he is clothed with the panoply of Christ's righteousness.--Counsels to Teachers, 51, 52.
------------------------God's Throne Is in Heaven, January 14
WGD	16	1	"The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven; his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men." Ps. 11:4.
WGD	16	2	The Bible shows us God in His high and holy place, not in a state of inactivity, not in silence and solitude, but surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of holy beings, all waiting to do His will. Through these messengers He is in active communication with every part of His dominion. By His Spirit He is everywhere present. Through the agency of His Spirit and His angels, He ministers to the children of men.
WGD	16	3	Above the distractions of the earth He sits enthroned; all things are open to His divine survey; and from His great and calm eternity He orders that which His providence sees best. . . .
WGD	16	4	Our knowledge of God is partial and imperfect. When the conflict is ended, and the Man Christ Jesus acknowledges before the Father His faithful workers, who in a world of sin have borne true witness for Him, they will understand clearly what now are mysteries to them.
WGD	16	5	Christ took with Him to the heavenly courts His glorified humanity. To those who receive Him He gives power to become the sons of God, that at last God may receive them as His, to dwell with Him throughout eternity. If during this life they are loyal to God, they will at last "see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads." And what is the happiness of heaven but to see God? What greater joy could come to the sinner saved by the grace of Christ than to look upon the face of God, and know Him as Father?--The Ministry of Healing, 417-421.
------------------------We Must Desire to Know Him, January 15
WGD	17	1	"For I desired mercy and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6.
WGD	17	2	We have no time to lose. We know not how soon our probation may close. At the longest, we have but a brief lifetime here, and we know not how soon the arrow of death may strike our hearts. We know not how soon we may be called to give up the world and all its interests. Eternity stretches before us. The curtain is about to be lifted. But a few short years, and for every one now numbered with the living the mandate will go forth: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; . . . and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still."
WGD	17	3	Are we prepared? Have we become acquainted with God, the Governor of Heaven, the Lawgiver, and with Jesus Christ whom He sent into the world as His representative? When our life-work is ended, shall we be able to say, as did Christ our example: "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. . . . I have manifested Thy name"?
WGD	17	4	The angels of God are seeking to attract us from ourselves and from earthly things. Let them not labor in vain. . . . The thoughts must be centered upon God. We must put forth earnest effort to overcome the evil tendencies of the natural heart. Our efforts, our self-denial and perseverance, must be proportionate to the infinite value of the object of which we are in pursuit. Only by overcoming as Christ overcame shall we win the crown of life.--The Ministry of Healing, 454, 455.
WGD	17	5	The knowledge of God as revealed in His Word is the knowledge to be given to our children. . . . Let the youth make the Word of God the food of mind and soul.--The Ministry of Healing, 460.
------------------------We Must Seek Him, January 16
WGD	18	1	"I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me." Proverbs 8:17.
WGD	18	2	Although God dwells not in temples made with hands, yet He honors with His presence the assemblies of His people. He has promised that when they come together to seek Him, to acknowledge their sins, and to pray for one another, He will meet with them by His Spirit. But those who assemble to worship Him should put away every evil thing. Unless they worship Him in spirit and truth and in the beauty of holiness, their coming together will be of no avail.--Prophets and Kings, 50.
WGD	18	3	We must turn away from a thousand topics that invite attention. There are matters that consume time and arouse inquiry, but end in nothing. The highest interests demand the close attention and energy that are so often given to comparatively insignificant things. . . .
WGD	18	4	"What think ye of Christ?"--This is the all-important question. Do you receive Him as a personal Saviour? To all who receive Him He gives power to become sons of God. Christ revealed God to His disciples in a way that performed in their hearts a special work, such as He desires to do in our hearts. There are many who, in dwelling too largely upon theory, have lost sight of the living power of the Saviour's example. They have lost sight of Him as the humble, self-denying worker. What they need is to behold Jesus. Daily we need the fresh revealing of His presence. We need to follow more closely His example of self-renunciation and self-sacrifice. . . . The knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ expressed in character is an exaltation above everything else that is esteemed on earth or in heaven.--The Ministry of Healing, 456, 457.
------------------------We Must Believe. January 17
WGD	19	1	"Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper." 2 Chron. 20:20.
WGD	19	2	The whole Bible is a revelation of the glory of God in Christ. Received, believed, obeyed, it is the great instrumentality in the transformation of character. It is the grand stimulus, the constraining force, that quickens the physical, mental, and spiritual powers, and directs the life into right channels.
WGD	19	3	The reason why the youth, and even those of mature years, are so easily led into temptation and sin, is that they do not study the Word of God, and meditate upon it, as they should. The lack of firm, decided will-power, which is manifest in life and character, results from neglect of the sacred instruction of God's word. They do not by earnest effort direct the mind to that which would inspire pure, holy thought, and divert it from that which is impure and untrue. There are few who choose the better part, who sit at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary, to learn of the divine Teacher. Few treasure His words in the heart, and practise them in the life.
WGD	19	4	The truths of the Bible, received, will uplift mind and soul. If the Word of God were appreciated as it should be, both young and old would possess an inward rectitude, a strength of principle, that would enable them to resist temptation.-- The Ministry of Healing, 458, 459.
WGD	19	5	We must set our hearts to know what is truth. All the lessons which God has caused to be placed on record in His Word are for our warning and instruction. They are given to save us from deception. Their neglect will result in ruin to ourselves. Whatever contradicts God's Word, we may be sure proceeds from Satan.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 55.
------------------------Through the Holy Spirit, January 18
WGD	20	1	"He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." John 16:14.
WGD	20	2	The Holy Spirit exalts and glorifies the Saviour. It is His office to present Christ, the purity of His righteousness, and the great salvation that we have through Him. . . . The Spirit of truth is the only effectual teacher of divine truth. How must God esteem the human race, since He gave His Son to die for them, and appoints His Spirit to be man's teacher and continual guide!--Steps to Christ, 96.
WGD	20	3	Before offering Himself as the sacrificial victim, Christ sought for the most essential and complete gift to bestow upon His followers, a gift that would bring within their reach the boundless resources of grace. . . . Before this the Spirit had been in the world; from the very beginning of the work of redemption He had been moving upon men's hearts. But while Christ was on earth, the disciples had desired no other helper. Not until they were deprived of His presence would they feel their need of the Spirit, and then He would come.
WGD	20	4	The Holy Spirit is Christ's representative, but divested of the personality of humanity, and independent thereof. Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally. Therefore it was for their interest that He should go to the Father, and send the Spirit to be His successor on earth. No one could then have any advantage because of his location or his personal contact with Christ. By the Spirit the Saviour would be accessible to all. In this sense He would be nearer to them than if He had not ascended on high. . . . Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always at our right hand to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer.--The Desire of Ages, 668-670.
------------------------Taste and See, January 19
WGD	21	1	"O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." Ps. 34:8.
WGD	21	2	Thus through faith they will come to know God by an experimental knowledge. They have proved for themselves the reality of His Word, the truth of His promises. They have tasted, and they know that the Lord is good. The beloved John had a knowledge gained through his own experience. . . . So every one may be able, through his own experience, to "set his seal to this, that God is true." He can bear witness to that which he himself has seen and heard and felt of the power of Christ. He can testify:--"I needed help, and I found it in Jesus. Every want was supplied, the hunger of my soul was satisfied; the Bible is to me the revelation of Christ. I believe in Jesus because He is to me a divine Saviour. I believe the Bible because I have found it to be the voice of God to my soul."
WGD	21	3	It is our privilege to reach higher and still higher, for clearer revealings of the character of God. When Moses prayed, "I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory," the Lord did not rebuke him, but He granted his prayer. God declared to His servant, "I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and will proclaim the name of Jehovah before thee." It is sin that darkens our minds and dims our perceptions. As sin is purged from our hearts, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, illuminating His Word and reflected from the face of nature, more and more fully will declare Him "merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." In His light shall we see light, until mind and heart and soul are transformed into the image of His holiness.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 321, 322.
------------------------The Earth Is Full of His Goodness, January 20
WGD	22	1	"He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." Psalm 33:5, 6.
WGD	22	2	From the stars that in their trackless course through space, follow from age to age their appointed path, down to the minutest atom, the things of nature obey the Creator's will. . . . He who upholds the unnumbered worlds throughout immensity, at the same time cares for the wants of the little brown sparrow that sings its humble song without a fear. When men go forth to their daily toil, as when they engage in prayer; when they lie down at night, and when they rise in the morning; when the rich man feasts in his palace, or when the poor man gathers his children about the scanty board, each is tenderly watched by the heavenly Father.--Steps to Christ, 90.
WGD	22	3	God is constantly employed in upholding and using as His servants the things that He has made. He works through the laws of nature, using them as His instruments. They are not self-acting. Nature in her work testifies of the intelligent presence and active agency of a Being who moves in all things according to His will. . . . It is not by inherent power that year by year the earth yields its bounties, and continues its march around the sun. The hand of the Infinite One is perpetually at work guiding this planet. It is God's power continually exercised that keeps the earth in position in its rotation. It is God who causes the sun to rise in the heavens. He opens the windows of heaven and gives rain. . . . It is by His power that vegetation is caused to flourish, that every leaf appears, every flower blooms, every fruit develops.-- The Ministry of Healing, 416.
------------------------We Must Study His Works, January 21
WGD	23	1	"For Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep." Psalm 92:4, 5.
WGD	23	2	Many are the ways in which God is seeking to make Himself known to us and bring us into communion with Him. Nature speaks to our senses without ceasing. The open heart will be impressed with the love and glory of God as revealed through the works of His hands. The listening ear can hear and understand the communications of God through the things of nature. The green fields, the lofty trees, the buds and flowers, the passing cloud, the falling rain, the babbling brook, the glories of the heavens, speak to our hearts, and invite us to become acquainted with Him who made them all.
WGD	23	3	Our Saviour bound up His precious lessons with the things of nature. The trees, the birds, the flowers of the valleys, the hills, the lakes, and the beautiful heavens, as well as the incidents and surroundings of daily life, were all linked with the words of truth, that His lessons might thus be often recalled to mind, even amid the busy cares of man's life of toil.
WGD	23	4	God would have His children appreciate His works, and delight in the simple, quiet beauty with which He has adorned our earthly home. He is a lover of the beautiful, and above all that is outwardly attractive He loves beauty of character; He would have us cultivate purity and simplicity, the quiet graces of the flowers. If we will but listen, God's created words will teach us precious lessons of obedience and trust. . . . No tears are shed that God does not notice. There is no smile that he does not mark.--Steps to Christ, 89, 90.
------------------------God Hath Chosen Us to Save Us, January 22
WGD	24	1	"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." 2 Thess. 2:13.
WGD	24	2	It is through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth that we become laborers together with God. Christ waits for the co-operation of His church. He does not design to add a new element of efficiency to His Word; He has done His great work in giving His inspiration to the Word. The blood of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the divine Word, are ours. The object of all this provision of heaven is before us,-- the salvation of the souls for whom Christ died; and it depends upon us to lay hold on the promises God has given and become laborers together with Him.
WGD	24	3	Divine and human agencies must co-operate in the work. . . . Having stood in the counsels of God, having dwelt in the everlasting heights of the sanctuary, all elements of truth were in Him and of Him. He was one with God. It means more than finite minds can comprehend to present in every missionary effort Christ and Him crucified. . . . Christ risen from the dead; Christ ascended on high as our intercessor,-- this is the science of salvation that we need to learn and to teach.--Counsels to Teachers, 22, 23.
WGD	24	4	In his efforts to reach God's ideal for him, the Christian is to despair of nothing. Moral and spiritual perfection, through the grace and power of Christ, is promised to all. Jesus is the source of power, the fountain of life. . . . He leads us to the throne of God, and puts into our mouth a prayer through which we are brought into close contact with Himself. In our behalf He sets in operation the all-powerful agencies of heaven.--The Acts of the Apostles, 478.
------------------------We Must Fear and Serve the Lord, January 23
WGD	25	1	"Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name." Deut. 10:20.
WGD	25	2	It is God's purpose to manifest through His people the principles of His kingdom. That in life and character they may reveal these principles, He desires to separate them from the customs, habits, and practices of the world. He seeks to bring them near to Himself, that He may make known to them His will. . . . With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, God brought out the Hebrew host from the land of bondage. Wonderful was the deliverance He wrought for them, punishing their enemies, who refused to listen to His Word, with total destruction.
WGD	25	3	God desired to take His people apart from the world, and prepare them to receive His Word. From Egypt He led them to Mount Sinai, where He revealed to them His glory. Here was nothing to attract their senses or divert their minds from God; and as the vast multitude looked at the lofty mountains towering above them, they could realize their own nothingness in the sight of God. Beside these rocks, immovable except by the power of the divine will, God communicated with men. And that His Word might ever be clear and distinct in their minds, He proclaimed amid thunder and lightning and with terrible majesty the law which He had given in Eden, and which was the transcript of His character. And the words were written on tables of stone by the finger of God. Thus the will of the infinite God was revealed to a people who were called to make known to every nation, kindred, and tongue the principles of His government in heaven and in earth. To the same work He has called His people in this generation. To them He has revealed His will, and of them He requires obedience.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 9, 10.
------------------------We Must Work Out Our Own Salvation, January 24
WGD	26	1	"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, . . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Philippians 2:12, 13.
WGD	26	2	The Christian life is a battle and a march. But the victory to be gained is not won by human power. The field of conflict is the domain of the heart. The battle which we have to fight-- the greatest battle that was ever fought by man--is the surrender of self to the will of God, the yielding of the heart to the sovereignty of love. The old nature, born of blood and of the will of the flesh, can not inherit the kingdom of God. The hereditary tendencies, the former habits, must be given up.
WGD	26	3	He who determines to enter the spiritual kingdom will find that all the powers and passions of an unregenerate nature, backed by the forces of the kingdom of darkness, are arrayed against him. Selfishness and pride will make a stand against anything that would show them to be sinful. We can not, of ourselves, conquer the evil desires and habits that strive for the mastery. We can not overcome the mighty foe who holds us in his thrall. God alone can give us the victory. He desires us to have the mastery over ourselves, our own will and ways. But He can not work in us without our consent and cooperation. The divine Spirit works through the faculties and powers given to man. Our energies are required to cooperate with God.
WGD	26	4	The victory is not won without much earnest prayer, without the humbling of self at every step. Our will is not to be forced into cooperation with divine agencies, but it must be voluntarily submitted.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 142.
------------------------We Must Have Love for Others, January 25
WGD	27	1	"Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself." Matthew 22:39.
WGD	27	2	The law of love calls for the devotion of body, mind, and soul to the service of God and our fellow-men. And this service, while making us a blessing to others, brings the greatest blessing to ourselves. Unselfishness underlies all true development. Through unselfish service we receive the highest culture of every faculty. More and more fully do we become partakers of the divine nature. We are fitted for heaven; for we receive heaven into our hearts.--Education, 16.
WGD	27	3	It is a wicked pride that delights in the vanity of one's own works, that boasts of one's excellent qualities, seeking to make others seem inferior in order to exalt self, claiming more glory than the cold heart is willing to give to God. The disciples of Christ will heed the Master's instruction. He has bidden us love one another even as He has loved us. Religion is founded upon love to God, which also leads us to love one another. It is full of gratitude, humility, long-suffering. It is self-sacrificing, forbearing, merciful, and forgiving. It sanctifies the whole life, and extends its influence over others.
WGD	27	4	Those who love God cannot harbor hatred or envy. When the heavenly principle of eternal love fills the heart, it will flow out to others, not merely because favors are received of them, but because love is the principle of action, and modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, subdues enmity, and elevates and ennobles the affections. This love is not contracted so as merely to include "me and mine," but is as broad as the world, and as high as heaven, and is in harmony with that of the angel workers.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 223, 224.
------------------------We Are to Point Men to Jesus, January 26
WGD	28	1	"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29.
WGD	28	2	There is a great work to be done, and every effort possible must be made to reveal Christ as the sin-pardoning Saviour, Christ as the sin-bearer, Christ as the bright and morning Star; and the Lord will give us favor before the world until our work is done. While the angels hold the four winds, we are to work with all our capabilities. Me must bear our message without any delay. We must give evidence to the heavenly universe, and to men in this degenerate age, that our religion is a faith and a power of which Christ is the Author, and His Word the divine oracle. Human souls are hanging in the balance. They will either be subjects for the kingdom of God or slaves to the despotism of Satan. All are to have the privilege of laying hold of the hope set before them in the gospel; and how can they hear without a preacher? The human family is in need of a moral renovation, a preparation of character, that they may stand in God's presence. There are souls ready to perish because of the theoretical errors which are prevailing, and which are calculated to counterwork the gospel message.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 20, 21.
WGD	28	3	There is no work in our world so great, so sacred, and so glorious, no work that God honors so much, as this gospel work. The message presented at this time is the last message of mercy for a fallen world. Those who have the privilege of hearing this message, and who persist in refusing to heed the warning, cast away their last hope of salvation. There will be no second probation. The word of truth, "It is written," is the gospel we are to preach. No flaming sword is placed before this tree of life. All who will may partake of it.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 19.
------------------------We Must Seek Wisdom, January 27
WGD	29	1	"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold." Proverbs 3:13, 14.
WGD	29	2	Since God is the source of all true knowledge, it is, as we have seen, the first object of education to direct our minds to His own revelation of Himself. Adam and Eve received knowledge through direct communion with God; and they learned of Him through His works. All created things, in their original perfection, were an expression of the thought of God. To Adam and Eve nature was teeming with divine wisdom. But by transgression man was cut off from learning of God through direct communion, and to a great degree, through His works. The earth, marred and defiled by sin, reflects but dimly the Creator's glory. It is true that His object-lessons are not obliterated. Upon every page of the great volume of His created works may still be traced His handwriting. Nature still speaks of her Creator. Yet these revelations are partial and imperfect. And in our fallen state, with weakened powers and restricted vision, we are incapable of interpreting aright. We need the fuller revelation of Himself that God has given in His written Word. . . .
WGD	29	3	To obtain an education worthy of the name, we must receive a knowledge of God, the Creator, and of Christ, the Redeemer, as they are revealed in the Sacred Word. . . . Instead of confining their study to that which men have said or written, let students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen.--Education, 16-18.
------------------------The Challenge of a Mighty Work, January 28
WGD	30	1	"Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes." Isaiah 54:2.
WGD	30	2	God's people have a mighty work before them, a work that must continually rise to greater prominence. Our efforts in missionary lines must become far more extensive. A more decided work than has been done must be done prior to the second appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
WGD	30	3	God's people are not to cease their labors until they shall encircle the world. The vineyard includes the whole world, and every part of it is to be worked. There are places which are now a moral wilderness, and these are to become as the garden of the Lord. The waste places of the earth are to be cultivated, that they may bud and blossom as the rose. New territories are to be worked by men inspired by the Holy Spirit. New churches must be established, new congregations organized. At this time there should be representatives of present truth in every city, and in the remote parts of the earth. The whole earth is to be illuminated with the glory of God's truth. The light is to shine to all lands and all peoples. And it is from those who have received the light that it is to shine forth. The day-star has risen upon us, and we are to flash its light upon the pathway of those in darkness.
WGD	30	4	A crisis is right upon us. We must now by the Holy Spirit's power proclaim the great truths for these last days. It will not be long before every one will have heard the warning and made his decision. Then shall the end come. It is the very essence of all right faith to do the right thing at the right time. God is the great Master-Worker, and by His providence He prepares the way for His work to be accomplished.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 23, 24.
------------------------Hold Fast The Word, January 29
WGD	31	1	"Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." Titus 1:9.
WGD	31	2	The Lord has often made manifest in His providence that nothing less than revealed truth, the Word of God, can reclaim man from sin or keep him from transgression. That Word which reveals the guilt of sin, has a power upon the human heart to make man right and keep him so. The Lord has said that His Word is to be studied and obeyed; it is to be brought into the practical life; that Word is as inflexible as the character of God,--the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.--Testimonies to Ministers, 80, 81.
WGD	31	3	But however much one may advance in spiritual life, he will never come to a point where he will not need diligently to search the Scriptures; for therein are found the evidences of our faith. All points of doctrine, even though they have been accepted as truth, should be brought to the law and to the testimony; if they cannot stand this test, "there is no light in them."
WGD	31	4	The great plan of redemption, as revealed in the closing work for these last days, should receive close examination. The scenes connected with the sanctuary above should make such an impression upon the minds and hearts of all that they may be able to impress others. All need to become more intelligent in regard to the work of the atonement, which is going on in the sanctuary above. . . . By study, contemplation, and prayer, God's people will be elevated above common, earthly thoughts and feelings, and will be brought into harmony with Christ and His great work of cleansing the sanctuary above from the sins of the people.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 575.
------------------------Lay a True Foundation, January 30
WGD	32	1	"According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 3:10, 11.
WGD	32	2	Those who have trained the mind to delight in spiritual exercises, are the ones who can be translated and not be overwhelmed with the purity and transcendent glory of Heaven. You may have a good knowledge of the arts, you may have an acquaintance with the sciences, you may excel in music and in penmanship, your manners may please your associates, but what have these things to do with a preparation for Heaven? What have they to do to prepare you to stand before the tribunal of God?
WGD	32	3	Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Nothing but holiness will prepare you for Heaven. It is sincere, experimental piety alone that can give you a pure, elevated character, and enable you to enter into the presence of God, who dwelleth in light unapproachable. The heavenly character must be acquired bn earth, or it can never be acquired at all. Then begin at once. Flatter not yourself that a time will come when you can make an earnest effort easier than now. Every day increases your distance from God.
WGD	32	4	Prepare for eternity with such zeal as you have not yet manifested. Educate your mind to love the Bible, to love the prayer-meeting, to love the hour of meditation, and above all, the hour when the soul communes with God. Become heavenly-minded if you would unite with the heavenly choir in the mansions above.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 267, 268.
------------------------Seek Righteousness, January 31
WGD	33	1	"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6.
WGD	33	2	If you have a sense of need in your soul, if you hunger and thirst after righteousness, this is an evidence that Christ has wrought upon your heart, in order that He may be sought unto to do for you, through the endowment of the Holy Spirit, those things which it is impossible for you to do for yourself. We need not seek to quench our thirst at shallow streams; for the great fountain is just above us, of whose abundant waters we may freely drink, if we will rise a little higher in the pathway of faith.
WGD	33	3	The words of God are the well-springs of life. As you seek unto those living springs, you will, through the Holy Spirit, be brought into communion with Christ. Familiar truths will present themselves to your mind in a new aspect; texts of Scripture will burst upon you with a new meaning, as a flash of light; you will see the relation of other truths to the work of redemption, and you will know that Christ is leading you; a divine Teacher is at your side.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 20.
WGD	33	4	The sense of unworthiness will lead the heart to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and this desire will not be disappointed. Those who make room in their hearts for Jesus will realize His love. All who long to bear the likeness of the character of God shall be satisfied. The Holy Spirit never leaves unassisted the soul who is looking unto Jesus. He takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto him. If the eye is kept fixed on Christ, the work of the Spirit ceases not until the soul is conformed to His image.--The Desire of Ages, 302.
------------------------He that Dwelleth in God Dwelleth in Love, February 1
WGD	34	1	"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16.
WGD	34	2	All the paternal love which has come down from generation to generation through the channel of human hearts, all the springs of tenderness which have opened in the souls of men, are but as a tiny rill to the boundless ocean, when compared with the infinite, exhaustless love of God. Tongue cannot utter it; pen cannot portray it. You may meditate upon it every day of your life; you may search the Scriptures diligently in order to understand it; you may summon every power and capability that God has given you, in the endeavor to comprehend the love and compassion of the heavenly Father; and yet there is an infinity beyond. You may study that love for ages; yet you can never fully comprehend the length and the breadth, the depth and the height, of the love of God in giving His Son to die for the world. Eternity itself can never fully reveal it. Yet as we study the Bible, and meditate upon the life of Christ and the plan of redemption, these great themes will open to our understanding more and more. . . .
WGD	34	3	It is Satan's constant study to keep the minds of men occupied with those things which will prevent them from obtaining the knowledge of God. . . . The Son of the Highest has strength to fight the battle for us; and through "Him that loved us," we may come off "more than conquerors."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 740, 741.
------------------------Christ's Love Is Like the Father's Love, February 2
WGD	35	1	As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." John 15:9, 10.
WGD	35	2	Christ came to reveal God to the world as a God of love, full of mercy, tenderness, and compassion. The thick darkness with which Satan had endeavored to enshroud the throne of Deity was swept away by the world's Redeemer, and the Father was again manifest to men as the light of life.
WGD	35	3	When Philip came to Jesus with the request, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us," the Saviour answered him, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" Christ declares Himself to be sent into the world as a representative of the Father. In His nobility of character, in His mercy and tender pity, in His love and goodness, He stands before us as the embodiment of divine perfection, the image of the invisible God.
WGD	35	4	Says the apostle, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." Only as we contemplate the great plan of redemption can we have a just appreciation of the character of God. The work of creation was a manifestation of His love: but the gift of God to save the guilty and ruined race, alone reveals the infinite depths of divine tenderness and compassion.
WGD	35	5	. . . What love, what matchless love, that, sinners and aliens as we are, we may be brought back to God, and adopted into His family! We may address Him by the endearing name. "Our Father." which is a sign of our affection for Him, and a pledge of His tender regard and relationship to us. And the Son of God. beholding the heirs of grace, "is not ashamed to call them brethren."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 738-740.
------------------------God Searches Out His Sheep, February 3
WGD	36	1	"As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day." Eze. 34:12.
WGD	36	2	Men may deny the claim of His love, they may wander from Him, they may choose another master; yet they are God's, and He longs to recover His own. . . . In the parable the shepherd goes out to search for one sheep,--the very least that can be numbered. So if there had been but one lost soul, Christ would have died for that one. The sheep that has strayed from the fold is the most helpless of all creatures. It must be sought for by the shepherd, for it can not find its way back. So with the soul that has wandered away from God; he is as helpless as the lost sheep, and unless divine love had come to his rescue, he could never find his way to God.
WGD	36	3	The shepherd who discovers that one of his sheep is missing, does not look carelessly upon the flock that is safely housed, and say, "I have ninety and nine, and it will cost me too much trouble to go in search of the straying one. Let him come back, and I will open the door of the sheepfold and let him in." No; no sooner does the sheep go astray than the shepherd is filled with grief and anxiety. He counts and recounts the flock. . . . He leaves the ninety and nine within the fold, and goes in search of the straying sheep. . . . At last his effort is rewarded; the lost is found. . . . The parable does not speak of failure, but of success, and joy in the recovery. Here is the divine guarantee that not even one of the straying sheep of God's fold is overlooked, not one is left unsuccored. Every one that will submit to be ransomed, Christ will rescue from the pit of corruption, and from the briers of sin.-- Christ's Object Lessons, 187, 188.
------------------------Christ Loves Us as the Father Loves Him, February 4
WGD	37	1	"I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." John 17:23.
WGD	37	2	Jesus teaches us to call His Father our Father. He is not ashamed to call us brethren. So ready, so eager is the Saviour's heart to welcome us as members of the family of God, that in the very first words we are to use in approaching God, He places the assurance of our divine relationship,---"Our Father." Here is the announcement of that wonderful truth, so full of encouragement and comfort, that God loves us as He loves His Son. . . .
WGD	37	3	The world that Satan has claimed and has ruled over with cruel tyranny, the Son of God has, by one vast achievement, encircled in His love, and connected again with the throne of Jehovah. Cherubim and seraphim, and the unnumbered hosts of all the unfallen worlds, sang anthems of praise to God and the Lamb when this triumph was assured. They rejoiced that the way of salvation had been opened to the fallen race, and that the earth would be redeemed from the curse of sin. How much more should those rejoice who are the objects of such amazing love! . . .
WGD	37	4	The very first step in approaching God is to know and believe the love that He has to us; for it is through the drawing of His love that we are led to come to Him.
WGD	37	5	The perception of God's love works the renunciation of selfishness. In calling God our Father, we recognize all His children as our brethren. We are all a part of the great web of humanity, all members of one family. In our petitions we are to include our neighbors as well as ourselves. No one prays aright who seeks a blessing for himself alone.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 105.
------------------------Christ Loved His Own Unto the End, February 5
WGD	38	1	"Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." John 13:1.
WGD	38	2	In the upper chamber of a dwelling at Jerusalem, Christ was sitting at table with His disciples. They had gathered to celebrate the Passover. The Saviour desired to keep this feast alone with the twelve. He knew that His hour was come; He Himself was the true paschal lamb, and on the day the Passover was eaten, He was to be sacrificed. He was about to drink the cup of wrath; He must soon receive the final baptism of suffering. But a few quiet hours yet remained to Him, and these were to be spent for the benefit of His beloved disciples. . . .
WGD	38	3	He was now in the shadow of the cross, and the pain was torturing His heart. He knew that He would be deserted in the hour of his betrayal. He knew that by the most humiliating process to which criminals were subjected, He would be put to death. He knew the ingratitude and cruelty of those He had come to save. He knew how great the sacrifice that He must make, and for how many it would be in vain. Knowing all that was before Him, He might naturally have been overwhelmed with the thought of His own humiliation and suffering. But He looked upon the twelve, who had been with Him as His own, and who after His shame and sorrow and painful usage were over, would be left to struggle in the world. His thoughts of what He Himself must suffer were ever connected with His disciples. He did not think of Himself. His care for them was uppermost in His mind.--The Desire of Ages, 642, 643.
------------------------God's Love Supplies Daily Needs, February 6
WGD	39	1	"The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing." Psalm 145:15, 16.
WGD	39	2	It is through the gift of Christ that we receive every blessing. Through that gift there comes to us day by day the unfailing flow of Jehovah's goodness. Every flower, with its delicate tints and sweet fragrance, is given for our enjoyment through that one Gift. The sun and moon were made by Him; there is not a star that beautifies the heavens which He did not make. There is not an article of food upon our tables that He has not provided for our sustenance. The superscription of Christ is upon it all. Everything is supplied to man through the one unspeakable Gift, the only begotten Son of God. He was nailed to the cross that all these bounties might flow to God's workmanship.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 287, 288.
WGD	39	3	"God is love," is written upon every opening bud, upon every spire of springing grass. The lovely birds making the air vocal with their happy songs, the delicately tinted flowers in their perfection perfuming the air, the lofty trees of the forest with their rich foliage of living green,--all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God, and to His desire to make His children happy. . . .
WGD	39	4	God has bound our hearts to Him by unnumbered tokens in heaven and in earth. Through the things of nature, and the deepest and tenderest earthly ties that human hearts can know. He has sought to reveal Himself to us. Yet these but imperfectly represent His love.--Steps to Christ, 10.
------------------------God Sends Every Good Gift, February 7
WGD	40	1	"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17.
WGD	40	2	The heart of God yearns over His earthly children with a love stronger than death. In giving up His Son, He has poured out to us all heaven in one gift. The Saviour's life and death and intercession, the ministry of angels, the pleading of the Spirit, the Father working above and through all, the unceasing interest of heavenly beings,--all are enlisted in behalf of man's redemption. . . .
WGD	40	3	Shall we not regard the mercy of God? What more could He do? Let us place ourselves in right relation to Him who has loved us with amazing love. Let us avail ourselves of the means provided for us that we may be transformed into His likeness, and be restored to fellowship with the ministering angels, to harmony and communion with the Father and the Son.--Steps to Christ, 24, 25.
WGD	40	4	Nature and revelation alike testify of God's love. Our Father in heaven is the source of life, of wisdom, and of joy. Look at the wonderful and beautiful things of nature. Think of their marvelous adaptation to the needs and happiness, not only of man, but of all living creatures.
WGD	40	5	The sunshine and the rain, that gladden and refresh the earth, the hills and seas and plains, all speak to us of the Creator's love. It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures. . . . The world, though fallen, is not all sorrow and misery. In nature itself are messages of hope and comfort. There are flowers upon the thistles, and the thorns are covered with roses.--Steps to Christ, 9, 10.
------------------------God's Love Is Greater than Life Itself, February 8
WGD	41	1	"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13.
WGD	41	2	Christ gave no stinted service. He did not measure His work by hours. His time, His heart, His soul and strength, were given to labor for the benefit of humanity. Through weary days He toiled, and through long nights He bent in prayer for grace and endurance that He might do a larger work. With strong crying and tears He sent His petitions to heaven, that His human nature might be strengthened, that He might be braced to meet the wily foe in all his deceptive workings, and fortified to fulfil His mission of uplifting humanity. . . . "The love of Christ," said Paul, "constraineth us." This was the actuating principle of his conduct; it was his motive power. If ever his ardor in the path of duty flagged for a moment, one glance at the cross caused him to gird up anew the loins of his mind and press forward in the way of self-denial. In his labors for his brethren he relied much upon the manifestation of infinite love in the sacrifice of Christ, with its subduing, constraining power. . . .
WGD	41	3	In the life of Christ, everything was made subordinate to His work, the great work of redemption which He came to accomplish. And the same devotion, the same self-denial and sacrifice, the same subjection to the claims of the Word of God, is to be manifest in His disciples. Every one who accepts Christ as his personal Saviour will long for the privilege of serving God. Contemplating what heaven has done for him, his heart is moved with boundless love and adoring gratitude. --The Ministry of Healing, 500-502.
WGD	41	4	The infinite love of God has been manifested in the gift of His only begotten Son to redeem a lost race.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 469.
------------------------Christ's Mission Prompted by Father's Love, February 9
WGD	42	1	"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.
WGD	42	2	What language could so forcibly express God's love for the human family as it is expressed by the gift of His onlybegotten Son for our redemption. The Innocent bore the chastisement of the guilty.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 208.
WGD	42	3	The revelation of God's love to men centers in the cross. Its full significance tongue can not utter; pen can not portray; the mind of man can not comprehend. Looking upon the cross of Calvary we can only say, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
WGD	42	4	Christ crucified for our sins, Christ risen from the dead, Christ ascended on high, is the science of salvation that we are to learn and to teach. . . . Here are infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice, infinite mercy,--"the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 287.
WGD	42	5	Taking humanity upon Him, Christ came to be one with humanity, and at the same time to reveal our heavenly Father to sinful human beings.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 286.
WGD	42	6	Christ's favorite theme was the paternal character and abundant love of God. This knowledge of God was Christ's own gift to men, and this gift He has committed to His people to be communicated by them to the world.--Testimonies.. vol. 6, 55.
WGD	42	7	The youth have been bought with an infinite price, even the blood of the Son of God. Consider the sacrifice of the Father in permitting His Son to make this sacrifice.--Messages to Young People, 16.
------------------------God's Love Reveals His Character, February 10
WGD	43	1	"And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." Ex. 34:6.
WGD	43	2	It is our privilege to reach higher and still higher, for clearer revealings of the character of God. . . . It is sin that darkens our minds and dims our perceptions. As sin is purged from our hearts, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, illuminating His Word, and reflected from the face of nature, more and more fully will declare Him "merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.". . .
WGD	43	3	For those who thus lay hold of the divine assurances of God's Word, there are wonderful possibilities. Before them lie vast fields of truth, vast resources of power. Glorious things are to be revealed. Privileges and duties which they do not even suspect to be in the Bible will be made manifest. All who walk in the path of humble obedience, fulfilling His purpose, will know more and more of the oracles of God.
WGD	43	4	Let the student take the Bible as his guide, and stand firm for principle, and he may aspire to any height of attainment. All the philosophies of human nature have led to confusion and shame when God has not been recognized as all in all. But the precious faith inspired of God imparts strength and nobility of character. As His goodness, His mercy, and His love are dwelt upon, clearer and still clearer will be the perception of truth; higher, holier, the desire for purity of heart and clearness of thought. The soul dwelling in the pure atmosphere of holy thought is transformed by intercourse with God through the study of His Word.--The Ministry of Healing. 464-466.
------------------------God's Love Will Not Clear the Guilty, February 11
WGD	44	1	"Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." Ex. 34:7.
WGD	44	2	There will soon be a sudden change in God's dealings. The world in its perversity is being visited by casualties,-- by floods, storms, fires, earthquakes, famines, wars, and bloodshed. The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power; yet He will not at all acquit the wicked. "The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet." O that men might understand the patience and longsuffering of God! He is putting under restraint His own attributes. His omnipotent power is under the control of Omnipotence. O that men would understand that God refuses to be wearied out with the world's perversity, and still holds out the hope of forgiveness even to the most undeserving! But His forbearance will not always continue. Who is prepared for the sudden change that will take place in God's dealing with sinful men? Who will be prepared to escape the punishment that will certainly fall upon transgressors?
WGD	44	3	We have not a temporal millennium in which to do the work of warning the world. There is need of transformation of soul. The most effective intelligence that can be obtained will be obtained in the school of Christ.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 356, 357.
WGD	44	4	God has given to men a declaration of His character, and of His method of dealing with sin. . . . The power and authority of the divine government will be employed to put down rebellion; yet all the manifestations of retributive justice will be perfectly consistent with the character of God as a merciful, long-suffering, benevolent being.--The Great Controversy, 541.
------------------------He Remembereth We Are Dust, February 12
WGD	45	1	"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." Psalm 103:13, 14.
WGD	45	2	The same power that Christ exercised when He walked visibly among men is in His Word. It was by His word that Jesus healed disease and cast out demons; by His word He stilled the sea, and raised the dead; and the people bore witness that His word was with power. He spoke the Word of God, as He had spoken to all the prophets and teachers of the Old Testament. The whole Bible is a manifestation of Christ.
WGD	45	3	The Scriptures are to be received as God's Word to us, not written merely, but spoken. When the afflicted ones came to Christ, He beheld not only those who asked for help, but all who throughout the ages should come to Him in like need and with like faith. When He said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee;" when He said to the woman of Capernaum, "Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace," He spoke to other afflicted, sin-burdened ones who should seek His help.
WGD	45	4	So with all the promises of God's Word. In them He is speaking to us individually, speaking as directly as if we could listen to His voice. It is in these promises that Christ communicates to us His grace and power. They are leaves from that tree which is "for the healing of the nations." Received, assimilated, they are to be the strength of the character, the inspiration and sustenance of the life. Nothing else can have such healing power. Nothing besides can impart the courage and faith, which give vital energy to the whole being.--The Ministry of Healing, 122.
------------------------God Will Remove Our Yoke of Sin, February 13
WGD	46	1	"I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them." Hosea 11:4.
WGD	46	2	The Eastern shepherd does not drive his sheep. He depends not upon force or fear; but going before, he calls them. They know his voice, and obey the call. So does the Saviour-Shepherd with His sheep. . . . Through the prophet, Jesus declares, . . . "Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." He compels none to follow Him. . . .
WGD	46	3	It is not the fear of punishment, or the hope of everlasting reward, that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him. They behold the Saviour's matchless love, revealed throughout His pilgrimage on earth, from the manger of Bethlehem to Calvary's cross, and the sight of Him attracts, it softens and subdues the soul. Love awakens in the heart of the beholders. They hear His voice, and they follow Him. . . .
WGD	46	4	The path may be steep and rugged, but Jesus has traveled that way; His feet have pressed down the cruel thorns, to make the pathway easier for us. Every burden that we are called to bear, He himself has borne.
WGD	46	5	Though now He has ascended to the presence of God. and shares the throne of the universe, Jesus has lost none of His compassionate nature. To-day the same tender, sympathizing heart is open to ail the woes of humanity. To-day the hand that was pierced is reached forth to bless more abundantly His people that are in the world. . . . The Saviour would have passed through the agony of Calvary, that one might be saved in His kingdom. He will never abandon one for whom He has died. Unless His followers choose to leave Him, He will hold them fast.--The Desire of Ages, 480.
------------------------God's Love Gives Us Hope of Perfection, February 14
WGD	47	1	"That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Romans 8:4.
WGD	47	2	With untold love our God has loved us, and our love awakens toward Him as we comprehend something of the length and breadth and depth and height of this love that passeth knowledge. By the revelation of the attractive loveliness of Christ, by the knowledge of His love expressed to us while we were yet sinners, the stubborn heart is melted and subdued, and the sinner is transformed and becomes a child of heaven. God does not employ compulsory measures; love is the agent which He uses to expel sin from the heart. By it He changes pride into humility, and enmity and unbelief into love and faith.
WGD	47	3	The Jews had been wearily toiling to reach perfection by their own efforts, and they had failed. Christ had already told them that their righteousness could never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now He points out to them the character of the righteousness that all who enter heaven will possess. Throughout the sermon on the mount He describes its fruits, and now in one sentence He points out its source and its nature: Be perfect as God is perfect. The law is but a transcript of the character of God. Behold in your heavenly Father a perfect manifestation of the principles which are the foundation of His government. God is love. Like rays of light from the sun, love and light and joy flow out from Him to all His creatures. It is His nature to give. His very life is the outflow of unselfish love. . . . He tells us to be perfect as He is, -- in the same manner. We are to be centers of light and blessing to our little circle, even as He is to the universe.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 77.
------------------------Only by His Mercy Are We Not Consumed, February 15
WGD	48	1	"This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not." Lam. 3:21, 22.
WGD	48	2	The way of the Lord's helping we may not know; but this we do know: He will never fail those who put their trust in Him.---Prophets and Kings, 576.
WGD	48	3	God's love for the fallen race is a peculiar manifestation of love,--a love born of mercy; for human beings are all undeserving. Mercy implies imperfection of the object toward which it is shown. It is because of sin that mercy was brought into active exercise. . . .
WGD	48	4	The angels look with awe and amazement upon the mission of Christ to the world. They marvel at the love that moved Him to give Himself a sacrifice for the sins of men. But how lightly human beings regard the purchase of His blood!-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 264-266.
WGD	48	5	Those with whom we associate day by day need our help, our guidance. They may be in such a condition of mind that a word spoken in season will be as a nail in a sure place. To-morrow some of these souls may be where we can never reach them again. What is our influence over these fellow travelers?--Prophets and Kings, 348.
WGD	48	6	The God whom we serve is long-suffering; "His compassions fail not." Throughout the period of probationary time, His Spirit is entreating men to accept the gift of life. . . . It is Satan's special device to lead man into sin, and then leave him there, helpless and hopeless, fearing to seek for pardon. But God invites, "Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me." . . . In Christ every provision has been made, every encouragement offered.--Prophets and Kings, 325, 326.
------------------------His Kindness Is Everlasting, February 16
WGD	49	1	"In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." Isaiah 54:8.
WGD	49	2	Through all our trials we have a never-failing Helper. He does not leave us alone to struggle with temptation, to battle with evil, and be finally crushed with burdens and sorrow. Though now He is hidden from mortal sight, the ear of faith can hear His voice saying, Fear not; I am with you. . . . I have endured your sorrows, experienced your struggles, encountered your temptations. I know your tears; I also have wept. The griefs that lie too deep to be breathed into any human ear, I know. Think not that you are desolate and forsaken. Though your pain touch no responsive chord in any heart on earth, look unto Me, and live. . . .
WGD	49	3	However much a shepherd may love his sheep, he loves his sons and daughters more. Jesus is not only our shepherd; He is our "everlasting Father," and He says, "I know Mine own, and Mine own know Me, even as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father." What a statement is this!--the only begotten Son, He who is in the bosom of the Father, He whom God has declared to be "the Man that is my fellow,"--the communion between Him and the eternal God is taken to represent the communion between Christ and His children on the earth!
WGD	49	4	Because we are the gift of His Father, and the reward of His work, Jesus loves us. He loves us as His children. Reader, He loves you. Heaven itself can bestow nothing greater, nothing better. Therefore trust.--The Desire of Ages, 483.
------------------------Consolation and Good Hope Through Grace, February 17
WGD	50	1	"Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work." 2 Thess. 2:16, 17.
WGD	50	2	In the religious life of every soul who is finally victorious, there will be scenes of terrible perplexity and trial; but his knowledge of the Scriptures will enable him to bring to mind the encouraging promises of God, which will comfort his heart, and strengthen his faith in the power of the Mighty One. . . . The trial of faith is more precious than gold. All should learn that this is a part of the discipline in the school of Christ, which is essential to purify and refine them from the dross of earthliness. They must endure with fortitude the taunts and attacks of enemies, and overcome all obstacles that Satan may place in their path to hedge up the way. He will try to lead them to neglect prayer, and to discourage them in the study of the Scriptures; and he will throw his hateful shadow athwart their path, to hide Christ and the heavenly attractions from their view.
WGD	50	3	None should go along shrinking and trembling under continual doubt, sowing their path with complainings; but all should look up to God, and see His goodness, and rejoice in His love. Summon all your powers to look up, not down at your difficulties; then you will never faint by the way. You will soon see Jesus behind the cloud, reaching out His hand to help you; and all you have to do, is to give Him your hand in simple faith, and let Him lead you. As you become trustful, you will, through faith in Jesus, become hopeful. The light shining from the cross of Calvary will reveal to you God's estimate of the soul, and appreciating that estimate, you will seek to reflect the light to the world. Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 578, 579.
------------------------Hope Will Anchor the Soul, February 18
WGD	51	1	"Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil." Hebrews 6:19.
WGD	51	2	It is true that disappointments will come; tribulation we must expect; but we are to commit everything, great and small, to God. He does not become perplexed by the multiplicity of our grievances, nor overpowered by the weight of our burdens. His watchcare extends to every household, and encircles every individual; He is concerned in all our business and our sorrows. He marks every tear; He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. All the afflictions and trials that befall us here are permitted, to work out His purposes of love toward us,--"that we might be partakers of His holiness," and thus become participants in that fullness of joy which is found in His presence. . . .
WGD	51	3	The meager views which so many have had of the exalted character and office of Christ have narrowed their religious experience, and have greatly hindered their progress in the divine life. Personal religion among us as a people is at a low ebb. There is much form, much machinery, much tongue religion; but something deeper and more solid must be brought into our religious experience. . . . It is the work of the Christian in this life to represent Christ to the world, in life and character unfolding the blessed Jesus. If God has given us light, it is that we may reveal it to others. But in comparison with the light we have received, and the opportunities and privileges granted us to reach the hearts of the people, the results of our work thus far have been too small. . . . We must search the Scriptures diligently, prayerfully; our understanding must be quickened by the Holy Spirit, and our hearts must be uplifted to God in faith and hope and continual praise.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 742-744.
------------------------He Made Him to Be Sin for Us, February 19
WGD	52	1	"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Corinthians 5:21.
WGD	52	2	God permitted His beloved Son, full of grace and truth, to come from a world of indescribable glory, to a world marred and blighted with sin, darkened with the shadow of death and the curse. He permitted him to leave the bosom of His love, the adoration of the angels, to suffer shame, insult, humiliation, hatred, and death. . . . Behold Him in the wilderness, in Gethsemane, upon the cross! The spotless Son of God took upon Himself the burden of sin. He who had been one with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that sin makes between God and man. This wrung from His lips the anguished cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" It was the burden of sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of its separation of the soul from God,--it was this that broke the heart of the Son of God.
WGD	52	3	But this great sacrifice was not made in order to create in the Father's heart a love for man, not to make Him willing to save. No, no! "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son."
WGD	52	4	The Father loves us, not because of the great propitiation, but He provided the propitiation because He loves us. Christ was the medium through which He could pour out His infinite love upon a fallen world. . . . None but the Son of God could accomplish our redemption; for only He who was in the bosom of the Father could declare Him. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it manifest. Nothing less than the infinite sacrifice made by Christ in behalf of fallen man could express the Father's love to lost humanity.--Steps to Christ, 14-16.
------------------------We Are Reconciled to God Through Christ, February 20
WGD	53	1	"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." 2 Corinthians 5:19.
WGD	53	2	Look, O look to Jesus and live! You cannot but be charmed with the matchless attractions of the Son of God. Christ was God manifest in the flesh, the mystery hidden for ages, and in our acceptance or rejection of the Saviour of the world are involved eternal interests.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 179.
WGD	53	3	By sin man was shut out from God. Except for the plan of redemption, eternal separation from God, the darkness of unending night, would have been his. Through the Saviour's sacrifice, communion with God is again made possible. We may not in person "approach into His presence; in our sin we may not look upon His face; but we can behold Him and commune with Him in Jesus, the Saviour. . . . God is "in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.". . .
WGD	53	4	The life and the death of Christ, the price of our redemption, are not only to us the promise and pledge of life, not only the means of opening again to us the treasures of wisdom; they are a broader, higher revelation of His character than even the holy ones of Eden knew. And while Christ opens heaven to man, the life which He imparts opens the heart of man to heaven. Sin not only shuts us away from God, but destroys in the human soul both the desire and the capacity for knowing Him. All this work of evil it is Christ's mission to undo. The faculties of the soul, paralyzed by sin, the darkened mind, the perverted will, He has power to invigorate and to restore. He opens to us the riches of the universe, and by Him the power to discern and to appropriate these treasures is imparted.--Education, 28, 29.
------------------------He Has Redeemed Us, February 21
WGD	54	1	"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins; return unto me; for I have redeemed thee." Isaiah 44:22.
WGD	54	2	The heart of Infinite Love yearns after those who feel powerless to free themselves from the snares of Satan; and He graciously offers to strengthen them to live for Him. . . . Have you, reader, chosen your own way? Have you wandered far from God? Have you sought to feast upon the fruits of transgression, only to find them turn to ashes upon your lips? And now, your life-plans thwarted, and your hopes dead, do you sit alone and desolate? That voice which has long been speaking to your heart, but to which you would not listen, comes to you distinct and clear, "Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.". . . Do not listen to the enemy's suggestion to stray away from Christ until you have made yourself better; until you are good enough to come to God. If you wait until then, you will never come.--Prophets and Kings, 316-320.
WGD	54	3	Heaven's plan of salvation is broad enough to embrace the whole world. God longs to breathe into prostrate humanity the breath of life. And He will not permit any soul to be disappointed who is sincere in his longing for something higher and nobler than anything the world can offer. Constantly He is sending His angels to those who, while surrounded by circumstances the most discouraging, pray in faith for some power higher than themselves to take possession of them, and bring deliverance and peace. In various ways God will reveal Himself to them, and will place them in touch with providences that will establish their confidence in the One who has given Himself a ransom for all.--Prophets and Kings, 377, 378.
------------------------While We Were Yet Sinners Christ Died, February 22
WGD	55	1	"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8.
WGD	55	2	To save the transgressor of God's law, Christ, the one equal with the Father, came to live heaven before men, that they might learn to know what it is to have heaven in the heart. He illustrated what man must be to be worthy of the precious boon of the life that measures with the life of God.
WGD	55	3	The life of Christ was a life charged with a divine message of the love of God, and He longed intensely to impart this love to others in rich measure. Compassion beamed from His countenance, and His conduct was characterized by grace, humility, truth, and love. Every member of His church militant must manifest the same qualities, if He would join the church triumphant. The love of Christ is so broad, so full of glory, that in comparison to it, everything that men esteem as great, dwindles into insignificance. When we obtain a view of it, we exclaim, O the depth of the riches of the love that God bestowed upon men in the gift of His only-begotten Son!
WGD	55	4	When we seek for appropriate language in which to describe the love of God, we find words too tame, too weak, too far beneath the theme, and we lay down our pen and say, "No, it cannot be described.". . . In attempting any description of this love, we feel that we are as infants lisping their first words. Silently we may adore; for silence in this matter is the only eloquence. This love is past all language to describe. --Fundamentals of Christian Education, 179, 180.
WGD	55	5	The plan for our redemption was not an after-thought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of "the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal."--The Desire of Ages, 22.
------------------------Christ's Sufferings Bring Us to God, February 23
WGD	56	1	"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." 1 Peter 3:18.
WGD	56	2	God gave His Son to a life of humiliation, self-denial, poverty, toil, reproach, and to the agonizing death of crucifixion. But there was no angel to bear the joyful message, "It is enough; you need not die, my well-beloved Son." Legions of angels were sorrowfully waiting, hoping that, as in the case of Isaac, God would at the last moment prevent His shameful death. But angels were not permitted to bear any such message to God's dear Son. The humiliation in the judgment hall, and on the way to Calvary, went on. He was mocked, derided, and spit upon. He endured the jeers, taunts, and revilings of those who hated Him, until upon the cross He bowed His head and died.
WGD	56	3	Could God give us any greater proof of His love than in thus giving His Son to pass through this scene of suffering? And as the gift of God to man was a free gift, His love infinite, so His claims upon our confidence, our obedience, our whole heart, and the wealth of our affections, are correspondingly infinite. He requires all that it is possible for man to give. The submission on our part must be proportionate to the gift of God; it must be complete, and wanting in nothing. We are all debtors to God. He claims prompt and willing obedience, and nothing short of this will He accept. We have opportunity now to secure the love and favor of God. This year may be the last year in the lives of some who read this. Are there any among the youth who read this appeal, who would choose the pleasures of the world before that peace which Christ gives the earnest seeker and the cheerful doer of His will?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 369, 370.
------------------------He Was Our Sin Offering, February 24
WGD	57	1	"Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." Isaiah 53:10.
WGD	57	2	It is the mystery of God in the flesh, God in Christ, and divinity in humanity. Christ bowed down in unparalleled humility, that in His exaltation to the throne of God, He might also exalt those who believe in Him, to a seat with Him upon His throne. All who look upon Jesus in faith that the wounds and bruises that sin has made will be healed in Him, shall be made whole.
WGD	57	3	The themes of redemption are momentous themes, and only those who are spiritually minded can discern their depth and significance. . . . Faith and prayer are necessary in order that we may behold the deep things of God. Our minds are so bound about with narrow ideas, that we catch but limited views of the experience it is our privilege to have. How little do we comprehend what is meant by the prayer of the apostle, when he says, "That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. . . ." Jesus beheld the human race, ignorant, apostate from God, standing under the penalty of the broken law; and He came to bring deliverance, to offer a complete pardon, signed by the Majesty of heaven. If man will accept this pardon, he may be saved; if he rejects it, he will be lost.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 180, 181.
------------------------Christ Gave Himself for Our Deliverance, February 25
WGD	58	1	"Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." Gal. 1:4.
WGD	58	2	The price paid for our redemption, the infinite sacrifice of our heavenly Father in giving His Son to die for us, should give us exalted conceptions of what we may become through Christ. As the inspired apostle John beheld the height, the depth, the breadth of the Father's love toward the perishing race, he was filled with adoration and reverence; and . . . he called upon the world to behold it. . . . What a value this places upon man! Through transgression, the sons of man become subjects of Satan. Through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, the sons of Adam may become the sons of God. By assuming human nature, Christ elevates humanity. Fallen men are placed where, through connection with Christ, they may indeed become worthy of the name "sons of God."
WGD	58	3	Such love is without a parallel. Children of the heavenly King! Precious promise! Theme for the most profound meditation! The matchless love of God for a world that did not love Him! The thought has a subduing power upon the soul, and brings the mind into captivity to the will of God. The more we study the divine character in the light of the cross, the more we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness blended with equity and justice, and the more clearly we discern innumerable evidences of a love that is infinite, and a tender pity surpassing a mother's yearning sympathy for her wayward child.--Steps to Christ, 17, 18.
WGD	58	4	Christ waits to adopt you into His family. His strength will help your weakness; He will lead you step by step. Place your hand in His, and let Him guide you.--The Ministry of Healing. 85.
------------------------What Does God Require, February 26
WGD	59	1	"And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul." Deut. 10:12.
WGD	59	2	Let the youth be impressed with the thought that they are not their own. They belong to Christ. They are the purchase of His blood, the claim of His love. They live because He keeps them by His power. Their time, their strength, their capabilities are His, to be developed, to be trained, to be used for Him. Next to the angelic beings, the human family, formed in the image of God, are the noblest of His created works. God desires them to become all that He has made it possible for them to be, and to do their very best with the powers He has given them.
WGD	59	3	Life is mysterious and sacred. It is the manifestation of God Himself, the source of all life. Precious are its opportunities, and earnestly should they be improved. Once lost, they are gone forever.
WGD	59	4	Before us God places eternity, with its solemn realities, and gives us a grasp on immortal, imperishable themes. He presents valuable, ennobling truth, that we may advance in a safe and sure path, in pursuit of an object worthy of the earnest engagement of all our capabilities.
WGD	59	5	God looks into the tiny seed that He Himself has formed, and sees wrapped within it the beautiful flower, the shrub, or the lofty, wide-spreading tree. So does He see the possibilities in every human being. We are here for a purpose. God has given us His plan for our life, and He desires us to reach the highest standard of development. He desires that we shall constantly be growing in holiness, in happiness, in usefulness. --The Ministry of Healing, 396-398.
------------------------Love to One Another, February 27
WGD	60	1	"And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour." Ephesians 5:2.
WGD	60	2	We need not begin by trying to love one another. The love of Christ in the heart is what is needed. When self is submerged in Christ, true love springs forth spontaneously. In patient forbearance we shall conquer. It is patience in service that brings rest to the soul. It is through humble, diligent, faithful toilers that the welfare of Israel is promoted. A word of love and encouragement will do more to subdue the hasty temper and wilful disposition than all the fault-finding and censure that you can heap upon the erring one.
WGD	60	3	The Master's message must be declared in the Master's spirit. Our only safety is in keeping our thoughts and impulses under the control of the great Teacher. Angels of God will give to every true worker a rich experience in doing this. The grace of humility will mold our words into expressions of Christlike tenderness.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 266.
WGD	60	4	During every hour of Christ's sojourn upon the earth, the love of God was flowing from Him in irrepressible streams. All who are imbued with His spirit will love as He loved. The very principle that actuated Christ will actuate them in all their dealing one with another.
WGD	60	5	This love is the evidence of their discipleship. . . . When men are bound together, not by force or self-interest, but by love, they show the working of an influence that is above every human influence. Where this oneness exists, it is evidence that the image of God is being restored in humanity, that a new principle of life has been implanted.--The Desire of Ages, 678.
------------------------The World Loves Not God, February 28
WGD	61	1	"Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you." 1 John 3:13.
WGD	61	2	The gospel is to be carried forward by aggressive warfare, in the midst of opposition, peril, loss, and suffering. But those who do this work are only following in their Master's steps.
WGD	61	3	As the world's Redeemer, Christ was constantly confronted with apparent failure. He, the messenger of mercy to our world, seemed to do little of the work He longed to do in uplifting and saving. Satanic influences were constantly working to oppose His way. But He would not be discouraged.-- The Desire of Ages, 678.
WGD	61	4	The early Christians were indeed a peculiar people. Their blameless deportment and unswerving faith were a continual reproof that disturbed the sinner's peace. Though few in numbers, without wealth, position, or honorary titles, they were a terror to evil-doers wherever their character and doctrines were known. Therefore they were hated by the wicked, even as Abel was hated by the ungodly Cain. For the same reason that Cain slew Abel, did those who sought to throw off the restraint of the Holy Spirit, put to death God's people. It was for the same reason that the Jews rejected and crucified the Saviour,--because the purity and holiness of His character was a constant rebuke to their selfishness and corruption. From the days of Christ until now, His faithful disciples have excited the hatred and opposition of those who love and follow the ways of sin.--The Great Controversy, 46.
WGD	61	5	God gives you intelligence and a reasoning mind, whereby you may grasp His promises; and Jesus is ready to help you in forming a strong, symmetrical character.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 579.
------------------------Salvation from God Has Gone Forth, March 1
WGD	62	1	"My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust." Isaiah 51:5.
WGD	62	2	I saw the beauty of Heaven. I heard the angels sing their rapturous songs, ascribing praise, honor, and glory to Jesus. I could then realize something of the wondrous love of the Son of God. He left all the glory, all the honor which He had in Heaven, and was so interested for our salvation that He patiently and meekly bore every indignity and slight which man could heap upon Him. . . . He was stretched on Calvary's cross, and suffered the most agonizing death, to save us from death; that we might be washed in His blood, and be raised up to live with Him in the mansions He is preparing for us, to enjoy the light and glory of Heaven, to hear the angels sing, and to sing with them. I saw that all Heaven is interested in our salvation; and shall we be indifferent? Shall we be careless, as though it were a small matter whether we are saved or lost? Shall we slight the sacrifice that has been made for us? Some have done this. They have trifled with offered mercy, and the frown of God is upon them. God's Spirit will not always be grieved. It will depart if grieved a little longer.
WGD	62	3	After all has been done that God could do to save men, if they show by their lives that they slight Jesus' offered mercy, death will be their portion, and it will be dearly purchased.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 123, 124.
------------------------I Am with Thee to Save Thee, March 2
WGD	63	1	"And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord." Jeremiah 15:20.
WGD	63	2	I have seen an angel standing with scales in his hands, weighing the thoughts and interest of the people of God, especially the young. In one scale were the thoughts and interest tending Heavenward; in the other were the thoughts and interest tending to earth. And in this scale were thrown all the reading of story-books, thoughts of dress and show, vanity, pride, etc. Oh, what a solemn moment! the angels of God standing with scales, weighing the thoughts of His professed children,--those who claim to be dead to the world and alive to God. The scale filled with thoughts of earth, vanity, and pride quickly went down, notwithstanding weight after weight rolled from the scale. The one with the thoughts and interest tending to Heaven went quickly up as the other went down, and oh, how light it was! I can relate this as I saw it, but never can I give the solemn and vivid impression stamped upon my mind, as I saw the angel with the scales weighing the thoughts and interest of the people of God. Said the angel, "Can such enter Heaven? No, no, never. Tell them the hope they now possess is vain, and unless they speedily repent, and obtain salvation, they must perish."
WGD	63	3	A form of godliness will not save any. All must have a deep and living experience. This alone will save them in the time of trouble. Then their work will be tried of what sort it is; and if it is gold, silver, and precious stones, they will be hid as in the secret of the Lord's pavilion. But if their work is wood, hay, and stubble, nothing can shield them from the fierceness of Jehovah's wrath.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 124. 125.
------------------------Salvation Is the Gift of God, March 3
WGD	64	1	For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8, 9.
WGD	64	2	Salvation is a free gift, and yet it is to be bought and sold. In the market of which divine mercy has the management, the precious pearl is represented as being bought without money and without price. In this market all may obtain the goods of heaven. The treasury of the jewels of truth is open to all. "Behold, I have set before thee an open door," the Lord declares, "and no man can shut it." No sword guards the way through this door. Voices from within and at the door say, Come. The Saviour's voice earnestly and lovingly invites us: "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich."
WGD	64	3	The gospel of Christ is a blessing that all may possess. The poorest are as well able as the richest to purchase salvation, for no amount of worldly wealth can secure it. It is obtained by willing obedience, by giving ourselves to Christ as His own purchased possession. Education, even of the highest class, can not of itself bring a man nearer to God. The Pharisees were favored with every temporal and every spiritual advantage, and they said with boastful pride, We are "rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;" yet they were "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.". . .
WGD	64	4	We can not earn salvation, but we are to seek for it with as much interest and perseverance as though we would abandon everything in the world for it. . . . Abandon the idea that temporal or spiritual advantages will win for you salvation. God calls for your willing obedience. He asks you to give up your sins.--Christ's Object Lessons, 116, 117.
------------------------Look Unto Me and Be Ye Saved, March 4
WGD	65	1	"Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." Isaiah 45:22.
WGD	65	2	Heaven's plan of salvation is broad enough to embrace the whole world. God longs to breathe into prostrate humanity the breath of life. And He will not permit any soul to be disappointed who is sincere in his longing for something higher and nobler than anything the world can offer. Constantly He is sending His angels to those who, while surrounded by circumstances the most discouraging, pray in faith for some power higher than themselves to take possession of them, and bring deliverance and peace. In various ways God will reveal Himself to them, and will place them in touch with providences that will establish their confidence in the One who has given Himself a ransom for all, "that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His com mandments."--Prophets and Kings, 377, 378.
WGD	65	3	In this life we can only begin to understand the wonderful theme of redemption. . . . The length and the breadth, the depth and height, of redeeming love are but dimly comprehended. The plan of redemption will not be fully understood, even when the ransomed see as they are seen and know as they are known; but through the eternal ages, new truth will continually unfold to the wondering and delighted mind. Though the griefs and pains and temptations of earth are ended, and the cause removed, the people of God will ever have a distinct, intelligent knowledge of what their salvation has cost.--The Great Controversy, 651.
WGD	65	4	Almost but not wholly saved, means to be not almost but wholly lost.--Christ's Object Lessons, 118.
------------------------He Will Establish His Covenant with Us, March 5
WGD	66	1	"And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God." Ezekiel 16:62, 63.
WGD	66	2	Before the foundations of the earth were laid, the Father and the Son had united in a covenant to redeem man if he should be overcome by Satan. They had clasped their hands in a solemn pledge that Christ should become the surety for the human race. This pledge Christ has fulfilled. When upon the cross He cried out, "It is finished," He addressed the Father. The compact had been fully carried out.--The Desire of Ages, 834.
WGD	66	3	God will not break His covenant, nor alter the thing that has gone out of His lips. His word will stand fast forever, as unalterable as His throne. At the judgment, this covenant will be brought forth, plainly written with the finger of God; and the world will be arraigned before the bar of Infinite Justice to receive sentence.--Prophets and Kings, 187.
WGD	66	4	For the disheartened there is a sure remedy,--faith, prayer, work. Faith and activity will impart assurance and satisfaction that will increase day by day. Are you tempted to give way to feelings of anxious foreboding or utter despondency? In the darkest days, when appearances seem most forbidding, fear not. Have faith in God. He knows your need. He has all power. His infinite love and compassion never weary. Fear not that He will fail of fulfilling His promise. He is eternal truth. Never will He change the covenant He has made with those who love Him. And He will bestow upon His faithful servants the measure of efficiency that their need demands.--Prophets and Kings, 164, 165.
------------------------He Will Write the Law in Our Hearts, March 6
WGD	67	1	"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people." Jeremiah 31:33.
WGD	67	2	The same law that was engraved upon the tables of stone, is written by the Holy Spirit upon the tables of the heart. Instead of going about to establish our own righteousness, we accept the righteousness of Christ. His blood atones for our sins. His obedience is accepted for us. Then the heart renewed by the Holy Spirit will bring forth "the fruits of the Spirit." Through the grace of Christ we shall live in obedience to the law of God written upon our hearts. Having the Spirit of Christ, we shall walk even as He walked. Through the prophet He declared of Himself, "I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart." And when among men He said, "The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.". . . God's work is the same in all time, although there are different degrees of development, and different manifestations of His power, to meet the wants of men in the different ages. Beginning with the first gospel promise, and coming down through the patriarchal and Jewish ages, and even to the present time, there has been a gradual unfolding of the purposes of God in the plan of redemption.
WGD	67	3	The Saviour typified in the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish law is the very same that is revealed in the gospel. The clouds that enveloped His divine form have rolled back; the mists and shades have disappeared; and Jesus, the world's Redeemer, stands revealed. He who proclaimed the law from Sinai, and delivered to Moses the precepts of the ritual law, is the same that spoke the sermon on the mount.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 372, 373.
------------------------He Will Remember Our Sin No More, March 7
WGD	68	1	"And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, . . . and I will remember their sin no more." Jeremiah 31:34.
WGD	68	2	While Jesus is pleading for the subjects of His grace, Satan accuses them before God as transgressors. The great deceiver has sought to lead them into skepticism, to cause them to lose confidence in God, to separate themselves from His love, and to break His law. Now he points to the record of their lives, . . . which has dishonored their Redeemer, to all the sins that he has tempted them to commit, and because of these he claims them as his subjects.
WGD	68	3	Jesus does not excuse their sins, but shows their penitence and faith, and claiming for them forgiveness, He lifts His wounded hands before the Father and the holy angels, saying, "I know them by name. I have graven them on the palms of My hands.". . .
WGD	68	4	The work of the investigative judgment and the blotting out of sins is to be accomplished before the second advent of the Lord. Since the dead are to be judged out of the things written in the books, it is impossible that the sins of men should be blotted out until after the judgment at which their cases are to be investigated. But the apostle Peter distinctly states that the sins of believers will be blotted out "when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ." When the investigative judgment closes, Christ will come, and His reward will be with Him to give to every man as his work shall be. In the typical service the high priest, having made the atonement for Israel, came forth and blessed the congregation. So Christ, at the close of His work as mediator, will appear . . . to bless His waiting people with eternal life.--The Great Controversy, 484, 485.
------------------------He Will Give Us a New Heart, March 8
WGD	69	1	"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." Eze. 36:26.
WGD	69	2	The truths of God's Word are not mere sentiments, but the utterances of the Most High. He who makes these truths a part of his life becomes in every sense a new creature. He is not given new mental powers, but the darkness that through ignorance and sin have clouded the understanding, is removed.
WGD	69	3	The words, "A new heart also will I give you," mean, A new mind will I give you. This change of heart is always attended by a clear conception of Christian duty, an understanding of truth. The clearness of our view of truth will be proportionate to our understanding of the Word of God. He who gives the Scriptures close, prayerful attention will gain clear comprehension and sound judgment, as if in turning to God he had reached a higher plane of intelligence.
WGD	69	4	If the mind is set to the task of studying the Bible, the understanding will strengthen and the reasoning faculties will improve. Under the study of the Scriptures the mind expands and becomes more evenly balanced than if occupied in obtaining information from books that have no connection with the Bible --Counsels to Teachers, 452.
WGD	69	5	When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the light of heaven. No one sees the hand that lifts the burden, or beholds the light descend from the courts above. The blessing comes when by faith the soul surrenders itself to God. -- The Desire of Ages, 172, 173.
------------------------He Will Cause Us to Walk in His Statutes, March 9
WGD	70	1	"And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." Eze. 36:27.
WGD	70	2	To the heart that has become purified, all is changed. Transformation of character is the testimony to the world of an indwelling Christ. The Spirit of God produces a new life in the soul, bringing the thoughts and desires into obedience to the will of Christ; and the inward man is renewed in the image of God. Weak and erring men and women show to the world that the redeeming power of grace can cause the faulty character to develop into symmetry and abundant fruitfulness.
WGD	70	3	The heart that receives the Word of God is not as a pool that evaporates, not like a broken cistern that loses its treasure. It is like the mountain stream, fed by unfailing springs, whose cool, sparkling waters leap from rock to rock, refreshing the weary, the thirsty, the heavy-laden. It is like a river constantly flowing, and as it advances, becoming deeper and wider, until its life-giving waters are spread over all the earth. The stream that goes singing on its way, leaves behind its gift of verdure and fruitfulness. . . . When the earth lies bare and brown under the summer's scorching hear, a line of verdure marks the river's course.
WGD	70	4	So it is with the true child of God. The religion of Christ reveals itself as a vitalizing, pervading principle, a living, working, spiritual energy. When the heart is opened to the heavenly influence of truth and love, these principles will flow forth again like streams in the desert, causing fruitfulness to appear where now are barrenness and dearth.--Prophets and Kings,pp. 233, 234.
------------------------He Will Cleanse Us, March 10
WGD	71	1	"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you." Eze. 36:25.
WGD	71	2	It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to escape from the pit of sin in which we are sunken. Our hearts are evil, and we can not change them. . . . Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they can not change the heart. . . . There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness. . . .
WGD	71	3	It is not enough to perceive the loving-kindness of God, to see the benevolence, the fatherly tenderness, of His character. It is not enough to discern the wisdom and justice of His law, to see that it is founded upon the eternal principle of love. Paul the apostle saw all this when he exclaimed, "I consent unto the law that it is good.". . . But he added, in the bitterness of his soul-anguish and despair, "I am carnal, sold under sin." He longed for the purity, the righteousness, to which in himself he was powerless to attain, and he cried out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?" Such is the cry that has gone up from burdened hearts in all lands and in all ages. To all there is but one answer, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." . . . With His own merits, Christ has bridged the gulf which sin had made, so that the ministering angels can hold communion with man. Christ connects fallen man, in his weakness and helplessness with the Source of infinite power.--Steps to Christ, 20-23.
------------------------He Will Pardon Our Iniquities, March 11
WGD	72	1	"And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me." Jeremiah 33:8.
WGD	72	2	Every man's work passes in review before God, and is registered for faithfulness or unfaithfulness. Opposite each name in the books of heaven is entered, with terrible exactness, every wrong word, every selfish act, every unfulfilled duty, and every secret sin, with every artful dissembling. Heavensent warnings or reproofs neglected, wasted moments, unimproved opportunities, the influence exerted for good or for evil, with its far-reaching results, all are chronicled by the recording angel. The law of God is the standard by which the characters and the lives of men will be tested in the judgment. . . . As the books of record are opened in the judgment, the lives of all who have believed on Jesus come in review before God. Beginning with those who first lived upon the earth, our Advocate presents the cases of each successive generation, and closes with the living. Every name is mentioned, every case closely investigated. Names are accepted, names rejected. When any have sins remaining upon the books of record, unrepented of and unforgiven, their names will be blotted out of the book of life, and the record of their good deeds will be erased from the book of God's remembrance. . . . All who have truly repented of sin . . . have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven, as they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves will be accounted worthy of eternal life.--The Great Controversy, 482, 483.
------------------------Christ Came to Seek the Lost, March 12
WGD	73	1	"For the Son of man is come lo seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19:10.
WGD	73	2	The lost coin represents those who are lost in trespasses and sins, but who have no sense of their condition They are estranged from God, but they know it not. Their souls are in peril, but they are unconscious and unconcerned. In this parable Christ teaches that even those who are indifferent to the claims of God, are the objects of His pitying love. They are to be sought for, that they may be brought back to God. . . . The coin, though lying among dust and rubbish, is a piece of silver still. Its owner seeks it because it is of value. So every soul, however degraded by sin, is in God's sight accounted precious. As the coin bears the image and superscription of the reigning power, so man at his creation bore the image and superscription of God; and though now marred and dim through the influence of sin, the traces of this inscription remain upon every soul. God desires to recover that soul, and to retrace upon it His own image in righteousness and holiness. The woman in the parable searches diligently for her lost coin. . . . So in the family, if one member is lost to God, every means should be used for his recovery. On the part of all the others, let there be diligent, careful self-examination. Let the life-practise be investigated. See if there is not some mistake, some error in management, by which that soul is confirmed in impenitence.--Christ's Object Lessons, 193, 194.
WGD	73	3	Notwithstanding the defects of the people of God, Christ does not turn away from the objects of His care. . . . God will do justice for His own elect.--Christ's Object Lessons, 169, 170.
------------------------He Will Bind and Strengthen, March 13
WGD	74	1	"I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment." Eze. 34:16.
WGD	74	2	The man who separates from God that he may serve himself, is the slave of mammon. The mind that God created for the companionship of angels, has become degraded to the service of that which is earthly and bestial. This is the end to which self-serving tends. If you have chosen such a life, you know that you are spending money for that which is not bread, and labor for that which satisfieth not. There come to you hours when you realize your degradation. Alone in the far country, you feel your misery, and in despair you cry, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?". . . The love of God still yearns over the one who has chosen to separate from Him, and He sets in operation influences to bring him back to the Father's house. The prodigal son in his wretchedness "came to himself." The deceptive power that Satan had exercised over him was broken. . . . Miserable as he was, the prodigal found hope in the conviction of his father's love. It was that love which was drawing him toward home. So it is the assurance of God's love that constrains the sinner to return to God. . . . In the parable there is no taunting, no casting up to the prodigal of his evil course. The son feels that the past is forgiven and forgotten, blotted out forever. And so God says to the sinner, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins." "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."--Christ's Object Lessons, 201-205.
------------------------He Will Gather and Bring Back the Lost, March 14
WGD	75	1	"And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel." Eze. 34:13.
WGD	75	2	Christ came to bring salvation within the reach of all. Upon the cross of Calvary He paid the infinite redemptionprice for a lost world. His self-denial and self-sacrifice, His unselfish labor, His humiliation, above all, the offering up of His life, testifies to the depth of His love for fallen man. It was to seek and to save the lost that He came to earth. His mission was to sinners,--sinners of every grade, of every tongue and nation. He paid the price for ail, to ransom them, and bring them into union and sympathy with Himself. The most erring, the most sinful, were not passed by; His labors were especially for those who most needed the salvation He came to bring. The greater their need of reform, the deeper was His interest, the greater His sympathy, and the more earnest His labors. His great heart of love was stirred to its depths for the ones whose condition was most hopeless, and who most needed His transforming grace.
WGD	75	3	In the parable of the lost sheep is represented the wonderful love of Christ for the erring, wandering ones. He does not choose to remain with those who accept His salvation, bestowing all His efforts upon them, and receiving their gratitude and love. The true shepherd leaves the flock that love Him, and goes out into the wilderness, enduring hardship and facing danger and death, to seek and save the sheep that has wandered from the fold, and that must perish if not brought back. . . . O wonderous love! He tenderly gathers it in His arms, and placing it upon His shoulder bears it back to the fold.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 603, 604.
------------------------He Seeks the Very Young, March 15
WGD	76	1	"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." Mark 10:14, 15.
WGD	76	2	Christ is to-day the same compassionate Saviour as when He walked among men. He is as verily the helper of mothers now as when He gathered the little ones to His arms in Judea. The children of our hearths are as much the purchase of His blood as were the children of long ago. . . . When Jesus told the disciples not to forbid the children to come to Him, He was speaking to His followers in all ages,--to officers of the church, ministers, helpers, and all Christians. Jesus is drawing the children, and He bids us, "Suffer them to come;" as if He would say, They will come, if you do not hinder them. Let not your unchristlike character misrepresent Jesus. Do not keep the little ones away from Him by your coldness and harshness. Never give them cause to feel that heaven would not be a pleasant place to them if you were there. . . .
WGD	76	3	Do not give them the false impression that the religion of Christ is a religion of gloom, and that in coming to the Saviour they must give up all that makes life joyful.
WGD	76	4	As the Holy Spirit moves upon the hearts of the children, co-operate with His work. Teach them that the Saviour is calling them, that nothing can afford Him greater joy than for them to give themselves to Him in the bloom and freshness of their years.
WGD	76	5	The Saviour regards with infinite tenderness the souls whom He has purchased with His blood. They are the claim of His love. He looks upon them with unutterable longing.-- The Ministry of Healing, 41-44.
------------------------We Are Called According to His Purpose, March 16
WGD	77	1	"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." 2 Timothy 1:9.
WGD	77	2	"Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And He saith unto them, Follow Me. . . ." The prompt, unquestioning obedience of these men, with no promise of wages, seems remarkable; but the words of Christ were an invitation that carried with it an impelling power. Christ would make these humble fishermen, in connection with Himself, the means of taking men out of the service of Satan, and placing them in the service of God. In this work they would become His witnesses, bearing to the world His truth unmingled with the traditions and sophistries of men. By practicing His virtues, by walking and working with Him, they were to be qualified to be fishers of men. . . . Workers of this character are needed now, men who will consecrate themselves without reserve to the work of representing the kingdom of God to a world lying in wickedness. The world needs men of thought, men of principle, men who are constantly growing in understanding and discernment. There is great need of men who can use the press to the best advantage, that the truth may be given wings to speed it to every nation, and tongue, and people.--Gospel Workers, 24, 25.
WGD	77	3	To labor for God and for the salvation of souls is the highest and noblest calling that men ever had or ever can have. The losses and gains in this business are of great importance; for the results do not end with this life, but reach over into eternity.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 411.
------------------------The Father Seeks True Worshipers, March 17
WGD	78	1	"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him." John 4:23.
WGD	78	2	We are living in an age when all should especially give heed to the injunction of the Saviour, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." One of your strong temptations is to irreverence. God is high and holy; and to the humble, believing soul, His house on earth, the place where His people meet for worship, is as the gate of heaven. The song of praise, the words spoken by Christ's ministers, are God's appointed agencies to prepare a people for the church above, for that loftier worship into which there can enter nothing that is impure, unholy. . . .
WGD	78	3	Do not have so little reverence for the house and worship of God as to communicate with one another during the sermon. If those who commit this fault could see the angels of God looking upon them and marking their doings, they would be filled with shame and abhorrence of themselves.-- Messages to Young People, 265, 266.
WGD	78	4	Those who are unwilling to forsake every sin and to seek earnestly for God's blessing, will not obtain it. But all who will lay hold of God's promises as did Jacob, and be as earnest and persevering as he was, will succeed as he succeeded.-- Patriarchs and Prophets, 203.
WGD	78	5	Do not neglect secret prayer, for it is the soul of religion. With earnest, fervent prayer, plead for purity of soul. Plead as earnestly, as eagerly, as you would for your mortal life, were it at stake. Remain before God until unutterable longings are begotten within you for salvation, and the sweet evidence is obtained of pardoned sin.--Messages to Young People, 268.
------------------------God Has Chosen Us, March 18
WGD	79	1	"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." 1 Peter 2:9.
WGD	79	2	As we read the Word of God, how plain it appears that His people are to be peculiar and distinct from the unbelieving world around them. Our position is interesting and fearful; living in the last days, how important that we imitate the example of Christ, and walk even as He walked. . . . The opinions and wisdom of men must not guide or govern us. They always lead away from the cross. The servants of Christ have neither their home nor their treasure here. Would that all of them could understand that it is only because the Lord reigns that we are even permitted to dwell in peace and safety among our enemies.
WGD	79	3	It is not our privilege to claim special favors of the world. We must consent to be poor and despised among men, until the warfare is finished and the victory won. The members of Christ are called to come out and be separate from the friendship and spirit of the world; their strength and power consists in being chosen and accepted of God. . . .
WGD	79	4	Even as Christ was in the world, so are His followers. They are the sons of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; and the kingdom and dominion belong to them. The world understand not their character and holy calling; they perceive not their adoption into the family of God. Their union and fellowship with the Father and Son is not manifest, and while the world behold their humiliation and reproach, it does not appear what they are, or what they shall be. They are strangers. The world know them not, and appreciate not the motives which actuate them. --Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 286, 287.
------------------------God Withholds No Good Thing, March 19
WGD	80	1	"For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." Ps. 84:11.
WGD	80	2	The promises of God are full and abundant, and there is no need for anyone to depend upon humanity for strength. To all that call upon Him, God is near to help and succor. And He is greatly dishonored when, after inviting our confidence, we turn from Him,--the only one who will not misunderstand us, the only one who can give unerring counsel,--to men who in their human weakness are liable to lead us astray.--Testimonies to Ministers, 381, 382.
WGD	80	3	God loves the sinless angels, who do His service and are obedient to all His commands; but He does not give them grace; they have never needed it; for they have never sinned. Grace is an attribute shown to undeserving human beings. We did not seek after it; it was sent in search of us. God rejoices to bestow grace upon all who hunger and thirst for it, not because we are worthy, but because we are unworthy. Our need is the qualification which gives us the assurance that we shall receive the gift.--Testimonies to Ministers, 519.
WGD	80	4	The gold and the silver are the Lord's, and He could rain them from Heaven if He chose; but instead of this He has made man His steward, intrusting him with means, not to be hoarded, but to be used in benefiting others. He thus makes man the medium through which to distribute His blessings on earth. God planned the system of beneficence, in order that man might become, like his Creator, benevolent and unselfish in character, and finally be a partaker with Him of the eternal, glorious reward.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 473.
------------------------He Understands When We Are Tempted, March 20
WGD	81	1	"For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." Hebrews 2:18.
WGD	81	2	The tempter can never compel us to do evil. He cannot control minds unless they are yielded to his control. The will must consent, faith must let go its hold upon Christ before Satan can exercise his power upon us. But every sinful desire we cherish affords him a foothold. Every point in which we fail of meeting the divine standard, is an open door by which he can enter to tempt and destroy us. And every failure or defeat on our part gives occasion for him to reproach Christ . . . Often when Satan has failed of exciting distrust, he succeeds in leading us to presumption. If he can cause us to place ourselves unnecessarily in the way of temptation, he knows that the victory is his. God will preserve all who walk in the path of obedience; but to depart from it is to venture on Satan's ground. There we are sure to fall. The Saviour has bidden us, "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." Meditation and prayer would keep us from rushing unbidden into the way of danger, and thus we should be saved from many a defeat.--The Desire of Ages, 125, 126.
WGD	81	3	Christ's victory was as complete as had been the failure of Adam. So we may resist temptation, and force Satan to depart from us. Jesus gained the victory through submission and faith in God, and by the apostle He says to us, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you."-- The Desire of Ages, 130, 131.
WGD	81	4	The strongest temptation cannot excuse sin. However great the pressure brought to bear upon the soul, transgression is our own act.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 421.
------------------------Faithfulness Rewarded, March 21
WGD	82	1	"A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." Proverbs 28:20.
WGD	82	2	It is conscientious attention to what the world terms "little things" that makes life a success. Little deeds of charity, little acts of self-denial, speaking simple words of helpfulness, watching against little sins,--this is Christianity. A grateful acknowledgment of daily blessings, a wise improvement of daily opportunities, a diligent cultivation of intrusted talents, --this is what the Master calls for.
WGD	82	3	He who faithfully performs small duties will be prepared to answer the demands of larger responsibilities. The man who is kind and courteous in the daily life, who is generous and forbearing in his family, whose constant aim it is to make home happy, will be the first to deny self and make sacrifices when the Master calls.
WGD	82	4	We may be willing to give our property to the cause of God, but this will not count unless we give Him also a heart of love and gratitude. Those who would be true missionaries in foreign fields must first be true missionaries in the home. Those who desire to work in the Master's vineyard must prepare themselves for this by a careful cultivation of the little piece of vineyard He has intrusted to their care. . . .
WGD	82	5	At the day of judgment, those who have been faithful in their everyday life . . . will hear the words, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Christ does not commend them for the eloquent orations they have made, the intellectual power they have displayed, or the liberal donations they have given. It is for doing little things which are generally overlooked that they are rewarded.--Messages to Young People, 143-145.
------------------------Perfect Peace Will Be Given, March 22
WGD	83	1	"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." Isaiah 26:3.
WGD	83	2	Put away your distrust of our heavenly Father. Instead of talking of your doubts, break away from them in the strength of Jesus, and let light shine into your soul by letting your voice express confidence and trust in God. I know that the Lord is very nigh to give you victory, and I say to you, Be helped, be strengthened, be lifted out of and away from the dark dungeon of unbelief. Doubts will rush into your mind, because Satan is trying to hold you in captivity to his cruel power, but face him in the strength that Jesus is willing to give you, and conquer the inclination to express unbelief in your Saviour.
WGD	83	3	Do not talk of your inefficiency and your defects. When despair would seem to be sweeping over your soul, look to Jesus, saying, He lives to make intercession for me. Forget the things that are behind, and believe the promise, "I will come to you," and "abide with you.". . .
WGD	83	4	It is your privilege to trust in the love of Jesus for salvation, in the fullest, surest, noblest manner; to say, He loves me, He receives me; I will trust Him, for He gave His life for me. Nothing so dispels doubt as coming in contact with the character of Christ. He declares, "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out;" that is, there is no possibility of My casting him out, for I have pledged My word to receive him. Take Christ at His word, and let your lips declare that you have gained the victory. . . . Peace comes with dependence on divine power. As fast as the soul resolves to act in accordance with the light given, the Holy Spirit gives more light and strength.--Testimonies to Ministers, 516-518.
------------------------His Portion Is His People, March 23
WGD	84	1	"For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye." Deut. 32:9, 10.
WGD	84	2	Christ designs that heaven's order, heaven's plan of government, heaven's divine harmony, shall be represented in His church on earth. Thus in His people He is glorified. Through them the Sun of Righteousness will shine in undimmed luster to the world. Christ has given to His church ample facilities, that He may receive a large revenue of glory from His redeemed, purchased possession. He has bestowed upon His people capabilities and blessings that they may represent His own sufficiency. The church, endowed with the righteousness of Christ, is His depositary, in which the riches of His mercy, His grace, and His love, are to appear in full and final display. Christ looks upon His people in their purity and perfection, as the reward of His humiliation, and the supplement of His glory,--Christ, the great Center, from whom radiates all glory.--The Desire of Ages, 680.
WGD	84	3	The purpose which God seeks to accomplish through His people to-day is the same that He desired to accomplish through Israel. . . . By beholding the goodness, the mercy, the justice, and the love of God revealed in the church, the world is to have a representation of His character. And when the law of God is thus exemplified in the life, even the world will recognize the superiority of those who love and fear and serve God above every other people on the earth. The Lord has His eye upon every one of His people; He has His plans concerning each. It is His purpose that those who practice His holy precepts shall be a distinguished people.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 12, 13.
------------------------He Protects in Times of Trouble, March 24
WGD	85	1	"For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock." Ps. 27:5.
WGD	85	2	The Lord has shown me repeatedly that it is contrary to the Bible to make any provision for our temporal wants in the time of trouble. I saw that if the saints had food laid up by them, or in the field in the time of trouble, when sword, famine, and pestilence are in the land, it would be taken from them by violent hands, and strangers would reap their fields. Then will be the time for us to trust wholly in God, and He will sustain us. I saw that our bread and water will be sure at that time, and that we shall not lack or suffer hunger; for God is able to spread a table for us in the wilderness. If necessary He would send ravens to feed us, as He did to feed Elijah, or rain manna from heaven, as He did for the Israelites.
WGD	85	3	Houses and lands will be of no use to the saints in the time of trouble, for they will then have to flee before infuriated mobs, and at that time their possessions can not be disposed of to advance the cause of present truth. I was shown that it is the will of God that the saints should cut loose from every Incumbrance before the time of trouble comes, and make a covenant with God through sacrifice.--Early Writings, 56, 57.
WGD	85	4	Prayer moves the arm of Omnipotence. He who marshals the stars in order in the heavens, whose word controls the waves of the great deep,--the same infinite Creator will work in behalf of His people if they call upon Him in faith.
WGD	85	5	He will restrain the forces of darkness, until the warning is given to the world, and all who will heed it are prepared for the conflict.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 453.
------------------------Continual Guidance Is Promised, March 25
WGD	86	1	"And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." Isaiah 58:11.
WGD	86	2	We are to exercise wisdom and judgment in every action of life, that we may not, by reckless movements, place ourselves in trial. We are not to plunge into difficulties, neglecting the means God has provided, and misusing the faculties He has given us. Christ's workers are to obey His instructions implicitly. The work is God's, and if we would bless others, His plans must be followed. Self cannot be made a center; self can receive no honor. If we plan according to our own ideas, the Lord will leave us to our own mistakes. But when, after following His directions, we are brought into strait places, He will deliver us.
WGD	86	3	We are not to give up in discouragement, but in every emergency we are to seek help from Him who has infinite resources at His command. Often we shall be surrounded with trying circumstances, and then, in the fullest confidence, we must depend upon God. He will keep every soul that is brought into perplexity through trying to keep the way of the Lord.--The Desire of Ages, 368, 369.
WGD	86	4	When . . . Nebuchadnezzar for the first time besieged and captured Jerusalem, and carried away Daniel and his companions, with others specially chosen for service in the court of Babylon, the faith of the Hebrew captives was tried to the utmost. But those who had learned to place their trust in the promises of God found these all-sufficient in every experience through which they were called to pass during their sojourn in a strange land. The Scriptures proved to them a guide and a stay .--Prophets and Kings, 428.
------------------------He Is Not Slack Concerning His Promises, March 26
WGD	87	1	"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9.
WGD	87	2	With the rich promises of the Bible before you, can you still give place to doubt? Can you believe that when the poor sinner longs to return, longs to forsake his sins, the Lord sternly withholds him from coming to His feet in repentance? Away with such thoughts! Nothing can be more dishonoring to God than these ideas. Nothing can hurt your own soul more than to entertain such thoughts of our heavenly Father. Our whole spiritual life will catch a tone of hopelessness from such conceptions of God. They discourage all effort to seek God or to serve Him. We must not think of God only as a judge ready to pronounce sentence against us. He hates sin: but from love to sinners He gave Himself, in the person of Christ, that all who would might be saved, and have eternal blessedness in the kingdom of glory.
WGD	87	3	The Lord Himself declares His character, that Satan has malignantly set in a false light. He has revealed Himself as, "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." What stronger or more tender language could have been employed than He has chosen, in which to express His love toward us?-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 633.
WGD	87	4	Our Creator justly claims the right to do as He chooses with the creatures of His hand. He has a right to govern as He will, and not as man chooses. But He is not a severe judge, a harsh, exacting creditor. He is the very fountain of love, the giver of blessings innumerable.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 314.
------------------------We Must Claim God's Promises, March 27
WGD	88	1	"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Matthew 7:7, 8.
WGD	88	2	"Ask." The asking makes it manifest that you realize your necessity; and if you ask in faith, you will receive. The Lord has pledged His word, and it can not fail. If you come with true contrition, you need not feel that you are presumptuous in asking for what the Lord has promised. When you ask for the blessings you need, that you may perfect a character after Christ's likeness, the Lord assures you that you are asking according to a promise that will be verified. That you feel and know you are a sinner, is sufficient ground for asking for His mercy and compassion. . . .
WGD	88	3	"Seek." Desire not merely His blessing, but Himself. . . . Seek and ye shall find. God is seeking you, and the very desire you feel to come to Him, is but the drawing of His Spirit. Yield to that drawing. Christ is pleading the cause of the tempted, the erring, and the faithless. He is seeking to lift them into companionship with Himself. "If thou seek Him, He will be found of thee."
WGD	88	4	"Knock." We come to God by special invitation, and He waits to welcome us to His audience-chamber. The first disciples who followed Jesus were not satisfied with a hurried conversation with Him by the way; they said, "Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?". . . Let those who desire the blessing of God, knock and wait at the door of mercy with firm assurance, saying, For Thou, O Lord, hast said, Every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 130, 131.
------------------------We Must Believe, March 28
WGD	89	1	"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Matthew 21:22.
WGD	89	2	He who blessed the nobleman at Capernaum is just as desirous of blessing us. But like the afflicted father, we are often led to seek Jesus by the desire for some earthly good; and upon the granting of our request we rest our confidence in His love. The Saviour longs to give us a greater blessing than we ask; and He delays the answer to our request that He may show us the evil of our own hearts, and our deep need of His grace. He desires us to renounce the selfishness that leads us to seek Him. Confessing our helplessness and bitter need, we are to trust ourselves wholly to His love. The nobleman wanted to see the fulfillment of his prayer before he should believe; but he had to accept the word of Jesus, that his request was heard, and the blessing granted. This lesson we also have to learn. Not because we see or feel that God hears us, are we to believe. We are to trust in His promises. When we come to Him in faith, every petition enters the heart of God. When we have asked for His blessing, we should believe that we receive it, and thank Him that we have received it. Then we are to go about our duties, assured that the blessing will be realized when we need it most. When we have learned to do this, we shall know that our prayers are answered.--The Desire of Ages, 200.
WGD	89	3	Confound not faith and feeling together. They are distinct. Faith is ours to exercise. This faith we must keep in exercise. Believe, believe. Let your faith take hold of the blessing, and it is yours. Your feelings have nothing to do with this faith. When faith brings the blessing to your heart, and you rejoice in the blessing, it is no more faith, but feeling.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 167.
------------------------God's Promises Are Conditional on Obedience, March 29
WGD	90	1	"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" John 15:7.
WGD	90	2	All His gifts are promised on condition of obedience. God has a heaven full of blessings for those who will co-operate with Him. All who obey Him may with confidence claim the fulfilment of His promises. But we must show a firm, undeviating trust in God. Often He delays to answer us, in order to try our faith or test the genuineness of our desire. Having asked according to His Word, we should believe His promise. and press our petitions with a determination that will not be denied.
WGD	90	3	God does not say, Ask once, and you shall receive. He bids us ask. Unwearyingly persist in prayer. The persistent asking brings the petitioner into a more earnest attitude, and gives him an increased desire to receive the things for which he asks. Christ said to Martha at the grave of Lazarus, "If thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God."
WGD	90	4	But many have not a living faith. This is why they do not see more of the power of God. Their weakness is the result of their unbelief. They have more faith in their own working than in the working of God for them. They take themselves into their own keeping. They plan and devise, but pray little, and have little real trust in God. They think they have faith, but it is only the impulse of the moment. Failing to realize their own need, or God's willingness to give, they do not persevere in keeping their requests before the Lord.
WGD	90	5	Our prayers are to be as earnest and persistent as was the petition of the needy friend who asked for the loaves at midnight. The more earnestly and steadfastly we ask, the closer will be our spiritual union with Christ.--Christ's Object Lessons, 145, l46.
------------------------God Fulfills His Promises if We Cooperate, March 30
WGD	91	1	"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20.
WGD	91	2	I saw that many have so much rubbish piled up at the door of their heart that they cannot get the door open. Some have difficulties between themselves and their brethren to remove. Others have evil tempers, selfish covetousness, to remove before they can open the door. Others have rolled the world before the door of their heart, which bars the door. All this rubbish must be taken away, and then they can open the door and welcome the Saviour in.
WGD	91	3	Oh, how precious was this promise, as it was shown to me in vision! "I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Oh, the love, the wondrous love of God! After all our lukewarmness and sins He says, "Return unto me, and I will return unto thee, and will heal all thy backslidings.". . . Some, I saw, would gladly return. Others will not let this message to the Laodicean church have its weight upon them. They will glide along, much after the same manner as before, and will be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Those only who zealously repent will have favor with God. . . . Jesus died to make a way of escape for us, that we might overcome every evil temper, every sin, every temptation, and sit down at last with Him.
WGD	91	4	It is our privilege to have faith and salvation. The power of God has not decreased. His power, I saw, would be just as freely bestowed now as formerly. It is the church of God that have lost their faith to claim, their energy to wrestle, as did Jacob, crying, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." Enduring faith has been dying away. It must be revived in the hearts of God's people.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 143, 144.
------------------------We Should Thank Him for His Precious Promises, March 31
WGD	92	1	"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." Ephesians 1:3.
WGD	92	2	Do we remember that the mercies of the Lord are new every morning, and that His faithfulness faileth not? Do we acknowledge our dependence upon Him, and express gratitude for all His favors? On the contrary, we too often forget that "every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights."
WGD	92	3	How often those who are in health forget the wonderful mercies that are continued to them day by day, year after year. They render no tribute of praise to God for all His benefits. But when sickness comes, God is remembered.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 315.
WGD	92	4	Satan seeks to draw our minds away from the mighty Helper, to lead us to ponder over our degeneration of soul. But though Jesus sees the guilt of the past, He speaks pardon; and we should not dishonor Him by doubting His love. The feeling of guiltiness must be laid at the foot of the cross, or it will poison the springs of life. When Satan thrusts his threatenings upon you, turn from them, and comfort your soul with the promises of God. The cloud may be dark in itself, but when filled with the light of heaven, it turns to the brightness of gold; for the glory of God rests upon it.
WGD	92	5	God's children are not to be subject to feelings and emotions. When they fluctuate between hope and fear, the heart of Christ is hurt; for He has given them unmistakable evidence of His love. He wants them to be established, strengthened, and settled in the most holy faith.--Testimonies to Ministers, 518, 519.
------------------------Counsel Belongs to the Lord, April 1
WGD	93	1	"Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength." Proverbs 8:14.
WGD	93	2	Jesus came to represent the character of the Father, and He sent His disciples into the world to represent the character of Christ; He has given us His Word to point out the way of life, and He has not left us simply to carry that Word, but has also promised to give it efficiency by the power of the Holy Spirit. Is there need, then, that any should walk in uncertainty, grieving that they do not know and experience the movings of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts? Are you hungering and thirsting for instruction in righteousness? Then you have the sure promise that you shall be filled . . .
WGD	93	3	The Lord would have us in possession of the spirit of heavenly wisdom. Are we all being impressed to pray to the Lord humbly and earnestly as our necessities require, importuning Him for the spirit of wisdom? Do we pray, saying, "Show me the secrets which I know not, teach Thou me"? O for humble, earnest prayer to go forth from unfeigned lips praying for the counsel that is of God!--Testimonies to Ministers, 199, 200.
WGD	93	4	The disciples came to Jesus and told Him all things. Their intimate relationship with Him encouraged them to lay before Him their favorable and unfavorable experiences, their joy at seeing results from their labors, and their sorrow at their failures, their faults, and their weaknesses.--The Desire of Ages, 359.
------------------------Come, Buy, Eat Without Price, April 2
WGD	94	1	"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Isaiah 55:1.
WGD	94	2	Is Jesus true? Does He mean what He says? Answer decidedly, Yes, every word. Then if you settled this, by faith claim every promise that He has made, and receive the blessing; for this acceptance by faith gives life to the soul. You may believe that Jesus is true to you, even though you feel yourself to be the weakest and most unworthy of His children. And as you believe, all your dark, brooding doubts are thrown back upon the archdeceiver, who originated them. . . . By living faith you are to trust Him, even though the impulse is strong within you to speak words of distrust.--Testimonies to Ministers, 517.
WGD	94	3	The refreshing water, welling up in a parched and barren land, causing the desert place to blossom, and flowing out to give life to the perishing, is an emblem of the divine grace which Christ alone can bestow, and which is as the living water, purifying, refreshing, and invigorating the soul. He in whom Christ is abiding has within him a never-failing fountain of grace and strength. Jesus cheers the life and brightens the path of all who truly seek Him. His love, received into the heart, will spring up in good works unto eternal life. And not only does it bless the soul in which it springs, but the living stream will flow out in words and deeds of righteousness, to refresh the thirsting around him. --Patriarchs and Prophets, 412.
WGD	94	4	As the body is continually receiving the nourishment that sustains life and vigor, so the soul must be constantly communing with Christ, submitting to Him, and depending wholly upon Him.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 19.
------------------------Come, Let Us Reason Together, April 3
WGD	95	1	"Come now, and, let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah 1:18.
WGD	95	2	Here are the promises, plain and definite, rich and full; but they are all upon conditions. If you comply with the conditions, can you not trust the Lord to fulfill His word? Let these blessed promises, set in the framework of faith, be placed in memory's halls. Not one of them will fail. All that God hath spoken, He will do. "He is faithful that promised.". . .
WGD	95	3	The Lord will receive the sinner when he repents and forsakes his sins so that God can work with his efforts in seeking perfection of character. The promises are not yea and nay, but if man complies with the conditions, they are in Christ, "yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." The whole purpose of God in giving His Son for the sins of the world, is that man may be saved, not in transgression and unrighteousness, but in forsaking sin, washing his robes of character, and making them white in the blood of the Lamb. He proposes to remove from man the offensive thing that He hates; but man must co-operate with God in the work. Sin must be given up, hated, and the righteousness of Christ must be accepted by faith. Thus will the divine co-operate with the human.
WGD	95	4	We should beware that we do not give place to doubt and unbelief, and in our attitude of despair complain of God, and misrepresent Him to the world. This is placing ourselves on Satan's side of the question.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 630-632.
------------------------Take My Yoke--It Is Easy, April 4
WGD	96	1	"Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30.
WGD	96	2	Those who have fellowship with Christ have constant rest and peace. Then why do we walk alone, disdaining His companionship? Why do we not take Him into all our counsels? Why do we not come to Him in all our perplexities, and prove the strength of His promises?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 410.
WGD	96	3	Jesus looked upon the distressed and heart-burdened, those whose hopes were blighted, and who with earthly joys were seeking to quiet the longing of the soul, and He invited all to find rest in Him. Tenderly He bade the toiling people, "Take My yoke. . . ." In these words, Christ was speaking to every human being. Whether they know it or not, all are weary and heavy laden. All are weighed down with burdens that only Christ can remove. The heaviest burden that we bear is the burden of sin. If we were left to bear this burden, it would crush us. But the sinless One has taken our place. "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
WGD	96	4	He has borne the burden of our guilt. He will take the load from our weary shoulders. He will give us rest. The burden of care and sorrow also He will bear. He invites us to cast all our care upon Him; for He carries us upon His heart.
WGD	96	5	The Elder Brother of our race is by the eternal throne. He looks upon every soul who is turning his face toward Him as the Saviour. . . . He is watching over you, trembling child of God. Are you tempted? He will deliver. Are you weak? He will strengthen. Are you ignorant? He will enlighten--The Ministry of Healing, 71.
------------------------Come, I Will Teach You, April 5
WGD	97	1	"Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord." Ps. 34:11.
WGD	97	2	The Holy Spirit illumines our darkness, informs our ignorance, and understands and helps us in our manifold necessities. But the mind must be constantly going out after God. If coldness and worldliness are allowed to come in, we shall have no heart to pray, no courage to look up to Him who is the source of strength and wisdom. Then pray always, dear brethren and sisters, "lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting." Urge your requests to the throne of grace, and rely upon God hour by hour and moment by moment. The service of Christ will regulate all your relations with your fellow-men, and make your life fruitful in good works.
WGD	97	3	Let none imagine that selfishness, self-esteem, and selfindulgence are compatible with the Spirit of Christ. Upon every truly converted man or woman there rests a responsibility that we cannot rightly estimate. The maxims and ways of the world are not to be adopted by the sons and daughters of the heavenly King. . . .
WGD	97	4	The arduous struggle for conquest over self, for holiness and Heaven, is a life-long struggle. There is no release in this war; the effort must be continuous and persevering. Christian integrity must be sought with resistless energy, and maintained with a resolute fixedness of purpose. A genuine religious experience unfolds and intensifies. Continual advancement, increasing knowledge and power in the Word of God, is the natural result of a vital connection with God. The light of holy love will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 410-413.
------------------------Trust in the Lord, April 6
WGD	98	1	"Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." Ps. 37:3.
WGD	98	2	We must have less trust in what we ourselves can do, and more trust in what the Lord can do for and through us. You are not engaged in your own work; you are doing the work of God. Surrender your will and way to Him. Make not a single reserve, not a single compromise with self. Know what it is to be free in Christ.
WGD	98	3	The mere hearing of sermons Sabbath after Sabbath, the reading of the Bible through and through, or the explanation of it verse by verse, will not benefit us or those who hear us, unless we bring the truths of the Bible into our individual experience. The understanding, the will, the affections, must be yielded to the control of the Word of God. Then through the work of the Holy Spirit the precepts of the Word will become the principles of the life. As you ask the Lord to help you, honor your Saviour by believing that you do receive His blessing. All power, all wisdom, are at our command. We have only to ask.
WGD	98	4	Walk continually in the light of God. Meditate day and night upon His character. Then you will see His beauty and rejoice in His goodness. Your heart will grow with a sense of His love. You will be uplifted, as if borne by everlasting arms. With the power and light that God imparts, you can comprehend more and accomplish more than you ever before deemed possible.--The Ministry of Healing, 513, 514.
WGD	98	5	Jesus does not call on us to follow Him, and then forsake us. If we surrender our lives to His service, we can never be placed in a position for which God has not made provision. --Gospel Workers, 263.
------------------------Be Still, and Know, April 7
WGD	99	1	"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." Ps. 46:10.
WGD	99	2	In a life wholly devoted to the good of others, the Saviour found it necessary to turn aside from ceaseless activity and contact with human needs, to seek retirement and unbroken communion with His Father. As the throng that had followed Him depart, He goes into the mountains, and there, alone with God, pours our His soul in prayer for these suffering, sinful, needy ones. . . . All who are under the training of God need the quiet hour for communion with their own hearts, with nature, and with God. In them is to be revealed a life that is not in harmony with the world, its customs, or its practises; and they need to have a personal experience in obtaining a knowledge of the will of God. We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart.
WGD	99	3	When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. He bids us, "Be still, and know that I am God." This is the effectual preparation for all labor for God. Amidst the hurrying throng, and the strain of life's intense activities, he who is thus refreshed, will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. He will receive a new endowment of both physical and mental strength. His life will breathe out a fragrance, and will reveal a divine power that will reach men's hearts.--The Ministry of Healing, 58.
WGD	99	4	In the midst of this maddening rush, God is speaking. He bids us come apart and commune with Him. . . . Not a pause for a moment in His presence, but personal contact with Christ, to sit down in companionship with Him,--this is our need.--Education, 260, 261.
------------------------Abide in Me, April 8
WGD	100	1	"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." John 15:4.
WGD	100	2	We need constantly a fresh revelation of Christ, a daily experience that harmonizes with His teachings. High and holy attainments are within our reach. Continual progress in knowledge and virtue is God's purpose for us. His law is the echo of His own voice, giving to all the invitation, "Come up higher. Be holy, holier still." Every day we may advance in perfection of Christian character.
WGD	100	3	Those who are engaged in service for the Master need an experience much higher, deeper, broader, than many have yet thought of having. Many who are already members of God's great family know little of what it means to behold His glory, and to be changed from glory to glory. Many have a twilight perception of Christ's excellence, and their hearts thrill with joy. They long for a fuller, deeper sense of the Saviour's love. Let these cherish every desire of the soul after God. The Holy Spirit works with those who will be worked, molds those who will be molded, fashions those who will be fashioned. Give yourselves the culture of spiritual thoughts and holy communings. You have seen but the first rays of the early dawn of His glory. As you follow on to know the Lord, you will know that the "path of the righteous is as the light of dawn, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
WGD	100	4	. . . Ever before Him, Christ saw the result of His mission. His earthly life, so full of toil and self-sacrifice, was cheered by the thought that He would not have all this travail for naught. By giving His life for the life of men, He would restore in humanity the image of God.--The Ministry of Healing, 503, 504.
------------------------Worship God, April 9
WGD	101	1	"Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy." Ps. 99:9.
WGD	101	2	Not by seeking a holy mountain or a sacred temple are men brought into communion with heaven. Religion is not to be confined to external forms and ceremonies. The religion that comes from God is the only religion that will lead to God. In order to serve Him aright, we must be born of the divine Spirit. This will purify the heart and renew the mind, giving us a new capacity for knowing and loving God. It will give us a willing obedience to all His requirements. This is true worship. It is the fruit of the working of the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit every sincere prayer is indited, and such prayer is acceptable to God. Wherever a soul reaches out after God, there the Spirit's working is manifest, and God will reveal Himself to that soul. For such worshipers He is seeking. He waits to receive them, and to make them His sons and daughters.--The Desire of Ages, 189.
WGD	101	3	Our meetings for worship should be sacred, precious occasions. . . . Nothing that savors of an unchristian, unloving spirit should be permitted to enter; for do we not assemble to seek mercy and forgiveness from the Lord? and the Saviour has plainly said, "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. . . ." Who can stand before God, and plead a faultless character, a blameless life? . . .
WGD	101	4	Our meetings should be made intensely interesting. They should be pervaded with the very atmosphere of heaven. Let there be no long, dry speeches and formal prayers, merely for the sake of occupying the time. All should be ready to act their part with promptness, and when their duty is done, the meetings should be closed. . . . This is offering to God acceptable worship.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 607-609.
------------------------Forget Not My Law, April 10
WGD	102	1	"My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: for length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee." Proverbs 3:1, 2.
WGD	102	2	No man can rightly present the law of God without the gospel, or the gospel without the law. The law is the gospel embodied, and the gospel is the law unfolded. The law is the root, the gospel is the fragrant blossom and fruit which it bears.--Christ's Object Lessons, 128.
WGD	102	3	To many of the afflicted ones who received healing, Christ said, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." Thus He taught that disease is the result of violating God's laws, both natural and spiritual. The great misery in the world would not exist, did men but live in harmony with the Creator's plan.--The Desire of Ages, 824.
WGD	102	4	Through disobedience to God, Adam and Eve had lost Eden, and because of sin the whole earth was cursed. But if God's people followed His instruction, their land would be restored to fertility and beauty. God Himself gave them directions in regard to the culture of the soil, and they were to co-operate with Him in its restoration. Thus the whole land, under God's control, would become an object-lesson of spiritual truth. As in obedience to His natural laws the earth should produce its treasures, so in obedience to His moral law the hearts of the people were to reflect the attributes of His character. Even the heathen would recognize the superiority of those who served and worshiped the living God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 289.
WGD	102	5	Only by accepting the virtue and grace of Christ can we keep the law. Belief in the propitiation for sin enables fallen man to love God with his whole heart, and his neighbor as himself.--Christ's Object Lessons, 378.
------------------------Commit Thy Way Unto Him, April 11
WGD	103	1	"Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass." Ps. 37:5.
WGD	103	2	With ordinary humanity there is a selfishness, an ambition, that mars the work of God. Self-interest must be lost sight of. There should be no aiming to be first, no standing aloof from God's workmen, speaking and writing in a bigoted manner of things that have not been critically and prayerfully investigated and humbly brought before the council.
WGD	103	3	The future world is close at hand, with its unalterable and solemn issues--so near, so very near, and such a great work to be done, so many important decisions to be made; yet in your councils the preconceived opinions, the selfish ideas and plans, the wrong traits of character received by birth, are lugged in, and allowed to have an influence. You should ever feel that it is a sin to move from impulse. You should ever feel that power, using it to carry out your own ends regardless of the consequences to others, because you are in a position that makes this possible; but you should use the power that is given you as a sacred, solemn trust, remembering that you are servants of the most high God, and must meet in the Judgment every decision that you make. If your acts are unselfish, and for the glory of God, they will bear the trying test. Ambition is death to spiritual advancement, genius is erring, slothful indolence is criminal; but a life where every just principle is respected must be a successful one.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 419.
WGD	103	4	As the little child sets forth on that journey in which, sooner or later, he must choose his own course, himself deciding life's issues for eternity, how earnest should be the effort to direct his trust to the sure Guide and Helper!--Education, 255.
------------------------Cast Thy Burden Upon Him, April 12
WGD	104	1	"Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." Ps. 55:22.
WGD	104	2	Jesus has not left you to be amazed at the trials and difficulties you meet. He has told you all about them, and He has told you also not to be cast down and oppressed when trials come. Look to Jesus, your Redeemer, and be cheerful and rejoice. The trials hardest to bear are those that come from our brethren, our own familiar friends; but even these trials may be borne with patience. Jesus is not lying in Joseph s new tomb. He has risen, and has ascended to heaven, there to intercede in our behalf. We have a Saviour who so loved us that He died for us, that through Him we might have hope and strength and courage, and a place with Him upon His throne. He is able and willing to help you whenever you call upon Him.
WGD	104	3	If you try to carry your burdens alone, you will be crushed under them. You have heavy responsibilities. Jesus knows about them, and He will not leave you alone, if you do not leave Him. He is honored when you commit the keeping of your soul to Him as unto a faithful Creator. He bids you hope in His mercy, believing that He does not desire you to carry these weighty responsibilities in your own strength. Only believe and you will see the salvation of God. . . .
WGD	104	4	It hurts you when one for whom you have done much becomes your enemy, having been brought under an influence opposed to you. But do you not do almost the same thing to Jesus when you turn away from Him? He has been your best friend. . . . He declares that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Show that you believe this. Take God at His word. -Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 128, 129.
------------------------Get Wisdom, April 13
WGD	105	1	"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." Proverbs 4:7.
WGD	105	2	True education does not ignore the value of scientific knowledge or literary acquirements; but above information it values power; above power, goodness; above intellectual acquirements, character. The world does not so much need men of great intellect as of noble character. It needs men in whom ability is controlled by steadfast principle. . . . Character-building is the most important work ever entrusted to human beings; and never before was its diligent study so important as now. Never was any previous generation called to meet issues so momentous; never before were young men and young women confronted by perils so great as confront them to-day.--Education, 225.
WGD	105	3	Students, make your school life as perfect as possible. You will pass over the way but once, and precious are the opportunities granted you. You are not only to learn but to practise the lessons of Christ. While obtaining your education, you have the opportunity to tell of the wonderful truths of God's Word. Improve every such opportunity. God will bless every minute spent in this way.
WGD	105	4	Maintain your simplicity and your love for souls, and the Lord will lead you in safe paths. The rich experience you gain will be of more value to you than gold or silver or precious stones.
WGD	105	5	You know not to what position you may be called in the future. God may use you as He used Daniel, to take the knowledge of the truth to the mighty of the earth. It rests with you to say whether you will have skill and knowledge to do this work. God can give you skill in all your learning.-- Counsels to Teachers, 554, 555.
------------------------Keep Thy Tongue, April 14
WGD	106	1	"Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile." Ps. 34:13.
WGD	106	2	Of all the gifts that God has bestowed upon men, none is more precious than the gift of speech. If sanctified by the Holy Spirit, it is a power for good. It is with the tongue that we convince and persuade; with it we offer prayer and praise to God; and with it we convey rich thoughts of the Redeemer's love.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 336.
WGD	106	3	All impurity of speech or of thought must be shunned by him who would have clear discernment of spiritual truth.-- The Desire of Ages, 302.
WGD	106	4	Who does not love life, and desire good days? yet how few comply with the conditions, to refrain the tongue from evil, and the lips from speaking guile. Few are willing to follow the Saviour's example of meekness and humility. Many ask the Lord to humble them, but are unwilling to submit to the needful discipline. When the test comes, when trials or even annoyances occur, the heart rebels, and the tongue utters words that are like poisoned arrows or blasting hail.
WGD	106	5	Evil-speaking is a two-fold curse, falling more heavily upon the speaker than upon the hearer. He who scatters the seeds of dissension and strife, reaps in his own soul the deadly fruits. How miserable is the tale-bearer, the surmiser of evil! He is a stranger to true happiness. . . . The sin of evil-speaking begins with the cherishing of evil thoughts. . . . Every unholy thought must be instantly repelled.
WGD	106	6	To your closet, followers of Christ. Pray in faith, and with all the heart. Satan is watching to ensnare your feet. You must have help from above if you would escape his devices.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 176, 177.
------------------------Rest in the Lord, April 15
WGD	107	1	"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass." Ps. 37:7.
WGD	107	2	Many, even in their seasons of devotion, fail of receiving the blessing of real communion with God. They are in too great haste. With hurried steps they press through the circle of Christ's loving presence, pausing perhaps a moment within the sacred precincts, but not waiting for counsel. They have no time to remain with the divine Teacher. With their burdens they return to their work.
WGD	107	3	These workers can never attain the highest success until they learn the secret of strength. They must give themselves time to think, to pray, to wait upon God for a renewal of physical, mental, and spiritual power. They need the uplifting influence of His Spirit. Receiving this, they will be quickened by fresh life. The wearied frame and tired brain will be refreshed, the burdened heart will be lightened.--Education, 260.
WGD	107	4	Again I say, Rejoice in the Lord. Rest in Him. You need His power, and this power you may have. Go forward firmly, valiantly, courageously. You may err in judgment, but do not lose your hold on Jesus. He is wisdom, He is light, He is power. He is to you as a great Rock in a weary land. Rest under His shadow. You need wisdom, and Jesus will give it to you. Do not be unbelieving. The more you are jostled, misapprehended, misstated, misrepresented, the more evidence you have that you are doing a work for the Master, and the more closely you must cling to your Saviour. In all your difficulties be calm and undisturbed, patient and forbearing, not rendering evil for evil, but good for evil. Look to the top of the ladder. God is above it.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 130.
------------------------Honor Him, April 16
WGD	108	1	"Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." Proverbs 3:9, 10.
WGD	108	2	If God's blessing rests upon you because you surrender all to Him, you will prosper. If you turn from God, He will turn from you. His hand can scatter faster than you can gather. --Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 496.
WGD	108	3	The spirit of liberality is the spirit of heaven. This spirit finds its highest manifestation in Christ's sacrifice on the cross. . . . On the other hand, the spirit of selfishness is the spirit of Satan. The principle illustrated in the lives of worldlings is to get, get. Thus they hope to secure happiness and ease, but the fruit of their sowing is misery and death.
WGD	108	4	Not until God ceases to bless His children will they cease to be under bonds to return to Him the portion that He claims. Not only should they render the Lord the portion that belongs to Him, but they should bring also to His treasury, as a gratitude-offering, a liberal tribute. With joyful hearts they should dedicate to the Creator the first-fruits of their bounties,--their choicest possessions, their best and holiest service. Thus they will gain rich blessings. God Himself will make their souls like a watered garden, whose waters fail not. And when the last great harvest is gathered in, the sheaves that they are enabled to bring to the Master will be the recompense of their unselfish use of the talents lent them.--The Acts of the Apostles, 339, 340.
WGD	108	5	God's hand can prosper or withhold; and He frequently withholds from one while He seems to prosper another. All this is to test and prove men, and to reveal the heart.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 547.
------------------------Ponder Thy Path, April 17
WGD	109	1	"Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established." Proverbs 4:26.
WGD	109	2	The greatest want of the world is the want of men,--men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall. But such a character is not the result of accident; it is not due to special favors or endowments of Providence. A noble character is the result of self-discipline, of the subjection of the lower to the higher nature,--the surrender of self for the service of love to God and man.
WGD	109	3	The youth need to be impressed with the truth that their endowments are not their own. Strength, time, intellect, are But lent treasures. They belong to God, and it should be the resolve of every youth to put them to the highest use. He is a branch from which God expects fruit; a steward, whose capital must yield increase; a light, to illuminate the world's darkness. Every youth, every child, has a work to do for the honor of God and the uplifting of humanity.--Education, 57.
WGD	109	4	Only as we see our utter helplessness and renounce all self-trust, shall we lay hold on divine power. It is not only at the beginning of the Christian life that this renunciation of self is to be made. At every advance step heavenward it is to be renewed. All our good works are dependent on a power outside of ourselves; therefore there needs to be a continual reaching out of the heart after God, a constant, earnest con-fession of sin and humbling of the soul before Him.--The Ministry of Healing, 455.
------------------------Keep Thy Heart, April 18
WGD	110	1	"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23.
WGD	110	2	Heart education is of far more importance than mere booklearning. It is well, even essential, to have a knowledge of the world in which we live; but if we leave eternity out of our reckoning, we shall make a failure from which we can never recover. A student may devote all his powers to acquiring knowledge; but unless he has a knowledge of God, unless he obeys the laws that govern his own being, he will destroy himself. By wrong habits, he loses the power of self-appreciation; he loses self-control. He can not reason correctly about matters that concern him most deeply. He is reckless and irrational in his treatment of mind and body. Through his neglect to cultivate right principles, he is ruined both for this world and for the world to come.
WGD	110	3	If the youth understood their own weakness, they would find in God their strength. If they seek to be taught by Him, they will become wise in His wisdom, and their lives will be fruitful of blessing to the world. But if they give up their minds to mere worldly and speculative study, and thus separate from God, they will lose all that enriches life.--The Ministry of Healing, 450.
WGD	110	4	It is by the youth and children of to-day that the future of society is to be determined, and what these youth and children shall be depends upon the home. To the lack of right home training may be traced the. larger share of the disease and misery and crime that curse humanity. If the home life were pure and true, if the children who went forth from its care were prepared to meet life's responsibilities and dangers, what a change would be seen in the world!--The Ministry of Healing, 351.
------------------------Glorify God, April 19
WGD	111	1	"For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Cor. 6:20.
WGD	111	2	Every student needs to understand the relation between plain living and high thinking. It rests with us individually to decide whether our lives shall be controlled by the mind or by the body. The youth must, each for himself, make the choice that shapes his life; and no pains should be spared that he may understand the forces with which he has to deal, and the influences which mould character and destiny.
WGD	111	3	Intemperance is a foe against which all need to be guarded. The rapid increase of this terrible evil should arouse every lover of his race to warfare against it. . . . But in order to reach the root of intemperance we must go deeper than the use of alcohol or tobacco. Idleness, lack of aim, or evil associations, may be the predisposing cause. Often it is found at the home table, in families that account themselves strictly temperate. Anything that disorders digestion, that creates undue mental excitement, or in any way enfeebles the system, disturbing the balance of the mental and the physical powers, weakens the control of the mind over the body, and thus tends toward intemperance. The downfall of many a promising youth might be traced to unnatural appetites created by an unwholesome diet.--Education, 202, 203.
WGD	111	4	Attention to recreation and physical culture will at times, no doubt, interrupt the regular routine of school work; but the interruption will prove no real hindrance. In the invigoration of mind and body, the fostering of an unselfish spirit, and the binding together of pupil and teacher by the ties of common interest and friendly association, the expenditure of time and effort will be repaid a hundredfold.--Education, 213.
------------------------Study, April 20
WGD	112	1	"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.'' 1 Tim. 2:15.
WGD	112	2	The youth especially should feel that they must train their minds, and take every opportunity to become intelligent, that they may render acceptable service to Him who has given His precious life for them. And let no one make the mistake of regarding himself as so well educated as to have no more need of studying books or nature.
WGD	112	3	Let everyone improve every opportunity with which in the providence of God he is favored, to acquire all that is possible in revelation or science. We should learn to place the proper estimate on the powers that God has given us. If a youth has to begin at the lowest round of the ladder, he should not be discouraged, but be determined to climb round after round until he shall hear the voice of Christ saying, "Child, come up higher. Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.". . .
WGD	112	4	Young men and women, have you, as individuals purchased at infinite cost, sought to study to show yourselves approved unto God, workmen which need not be ashamed? Have you brought to God the precious talent of your voice, and put forth painstaking effort to speak clearly, distinctly, and readily? . . . The Lord, who made man perfect in the beginning, will help you to cultivate your physical and mental powers, and fit you to bear burdens and responsibilities in the cause of God.-- Fundamentals of Christian Education, 213-215.
WGD	112	5	Life is not given to us to be spent in idleness or selfpleasing, but great possibilities have been placed before every one who will develop his God-given capabilities.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 416.
------------------------Flee From Lusts, April 21
WGD	113	1	"Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." 2 Tim. 2:22.
WGD	113	2	We have no time to lose. We know not how soon our probation may close. Eternity stretches before us. The curtain is about to be lifted. Christ is soon to come. The angels of God are seeking to attract us from ourselves and from earthly things. Let them not labor in vain. When Jesus rises up in the most holy place, lays off His mediatorial robes, and clothes Himself with the garments of vengeance, the mandate will go forth, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. . . . And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be."
WGD	113	3	A storm is coming, relentless in its fury. Are we prepared to meet it? We need not say, The perils of the last days are soon to come upon us. Already they have come. We need now the sword of the Lord to cut to the very soul and marrow of fleshly lusts, appetites, and passions. Minds that have been given up to loose thought need to change. . . . The thoughts must be centered upon God. Now is the time to put forth earnest effort to overcome the natural tendencies of the carnal, heart. Our efforts, our self-denial, our perseverance, must be proportionate to the infinite value of the object of which we are in pursuit. Only by overcoming as Christ overcame shall we win the crown of life. . . .
WGD	113	4	We must turn away from a thousand topics that invite attention. There are matters that consume time and arouse inquiry, but end in nothing. The highest interests demand the close attention and energy that are too often given to comparatively insignificant things.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 314-316.
------------------------Be Honorable, April 22
WGD	114	1	"Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men." Romans 12:17.
WGD	114	2	Life is disciplinary. While in the world, the Christian will meet with adverse influences. There will be provocations to test the temper; and it is by meeting these in a right spirit that the Christian graces are developed. If injuries and insults are meekly borne, if insulting words are responded to by gentle answers, and oppressive acts by kindness, this is evidence that the Spirit of Christ dwells in the heart, that sap from the Living Vine is flowing to the branches. We are in the school of Christ in this life, where we are to learn to be meek and lowly of heart; and in the day of final accounts we shall see that all the obstacles we meet, all the hardships and annoyances that we are called to bear, are practical lessons in the application of principles of Christian life. If well endured, they develop the Christlike in the character, and distinguish the Christian from the worldling.
WGD	114	3	There is a high standard to which we are to attain if we would be children of God, noble, pure, holy, and undefiled; and a pruning process is necessary if we would reach this standard. How would this pruning be accomplished if there were no difficulties to meet, no obstacles to surmount, nothing to call out patience and endurance? These trials are not the smallest blessings in our experience. They are designed to nerve us to determination to succeed. We are to use them as God's means to gain decided victories over self, instead of allowing them to hinder, oppress, and destroy us. Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 344, 345.
WGD	114	4	If honesty is an essential principle of business life, must we not recognize our obligation to God,--the obligation that underlies every other?--Education, 139.
------------------------Turn At My Reproof, April 23
WGD	115	1	"Turn you at my reproof: behold I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you." Proverbs 1:23.
WGD	115	2	The proud heart strives to earn salvation; but both our title to heaven and our fitness for it are found in the righteousness of Christ. The Lord can do nothing toward the recovery of man until, convinced of his own weakness, and stripped of all self-sufficiency, he yields himself to the control of God. Then he can receive the gift that God is waiting to bestow. From the soul that feels his need, nothing is withheld. He has unrestricted access to Him in whom all fulness dwells.--The Desire of Ages, 300.
WGD	115	3	If ye then, being human and evil, "know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" The Holy Spirit, the representative of Himself, is the greatest of all gifts. All "good things" are comprised in this. The Creator, Himself, can give us nothing greater, nothing better. When we beseech the Lord to pity us in our distress, and to guide us by His Holy Spirit, He will never turn away our prayer.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 132.
WGD	115	4	Will you not, without delay, place yourself in right relation to God? Will you not say, "I will give my will to Jesus, and I will do it now," and from this moment be wholly on the Lord's side? Disregard custom, and the strong clamoring of appetite and passion. . . . By steadfastly keeping the will on the Lord's side, every emotion will be brought into captivity to the will of Jesus. You will then find your feet on solid rock. It will take, at times, every particle of will-power that you possess, but it is God that is working for you, and you will come forth from the molding process a vessel unto honor.--- Messages to Young People, 153.
------------------------Attend My Words, April 24
WGD	116	1	"Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths." Proverbs 7:24, 25.
WGD	116	2	Our Saviour's joy was in the uplifting and redemption of fallen men. For this He counted not His life dear unto Himself, but endured the cross, despising the shame. So angels are ever engaged in working for the happiness of others. This is their joy. That which selfish hearts would regard as humiliating service, ministering to those who are wretched and in every way inferior in character and rank, is the work of sinless angels. The spirit of Christ's self-sacrificing love is the spirit that pervades heaven, and is the very essence of its bliss. This is the spirit that Christ's followers will possess, the work that they will do.
WGD	116	3	When the love of Christ is enshrined in the heart, like sweet fragrance it can not be hidden. Its holy influence will be felt by all with whom we come in contact. The spirit of Christ in the heart is like a spring in the desert, flowing to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish, eager to drink of the water of life.--Steps to Christ, 81.
WGD	116	4	The unaided human will has no real power to resist and overcome evil. The defenses of the soul are broken down. Man has no barrier against sin. When once the restraints of God's Word and His Spirit are rejected, we know not to what depths one may sink.--The Ministry of Healing, 429.
WGD	116	5	If we are to learn of Christ, we must pray as the apostles prayed when the Holy Spirit was poured upon them. We need a baptism of the Spirit of God. We are not safe for one hour while we are failing to render obedience to the Word of God. --Fundamentals of Christian Education, 537.
------------------------Avoid Evil, April 25
WGD	117	1	"Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away." Proverbs 4:14, 15.
WGD	117	2	In forming friendship, great caution should be exercised lest an intimacy be contracted with one whose example it would not be safe to imitate; for the effect of such an intimacy is to lead away from God, from devotion, and the love of the truth. It is positively dangerous for you to be intimate with friends who have not a religious experience. . . . Eternal considerations should come first with you. Nothing can have a more subtle and positively dangerous influence upon the mind, and serve more effectually to banish serious impressions, and the convictions of the Spirit of God, than to associate with those who are vain and careless, and whose conversation is upon the world and vanity. The more engaging these persons may be in other respects, the more dangerous is their influence as companions, because they throw around an irreligious life so many pleasing attractions.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 42, 43.
WGD	117	3	Like Israel, Christians too often yield to the influence of the world, and conform to its principles and customs, in order to secure the friendship of the ungodly; but in the end it will be found that these professed friends are the most dangerous of foes. The Bible plainly teaches that there can be no harmony between the people of God and the world. . . . Satan works through the ungodly, under cover of a pretended friendship, to allure God's people into sin, that he may sep-arate them from Him; and when their defense is removed, then he will lead his agents to turn against them, and seek to accomplish their destruction.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 559.
------------------------Stir Up Thyself, April 26
WGD	118	1	"Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord." Ps. 35:23.
WGD	118	2	If we would escape having a sickly experience, we must begin in earnest without delay to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. There are many who give no decided evidence that they are true to their baptismal vows. Their zeal is chilled by formality, worldly ambition, pride, and love of self. Occasionally their feelings are stirred, but they do not fall on the Rock, Christ Jesus. They do not come to God with hearts that are broken in repentance and confession. Those who experience the work of true conversion in their hearts will reveal the fruits of the Spirit in their lives. O that those who have so little spiritual life would realize that eternal life can be granted only to those who become partakers of the divine nature, and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust!
WGD	118	3	The power of Christ alone can work the transformation in heart and mind that all must experience who would partake with Him of the new life in the kingdom of heaven.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 155, 156.
WGD	118	4	There is a noisy zeal, without aim or purpose, which is not according to knowledge, which is blind in its operations and destructive in its results. This is not Christian zeal. Christian zeal is controlled by principle, and is not spasmodic. It is earnest, deep, and strong, engaging the whole soul, and arousing to exercise the moral sensibilities. The salvation of souls and the interests of the kingdom of God are matters of the highest importance. What object is there that calls for greater earnestness than the salvation of souls and the glory of God? --Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 232.
------------------------Be Ye Not Conformed To This World, April 27
WGD	119	1	"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12:2.
WGD	119	2	Many of the professed, peculiar people of God are so conformed to the world that their peculiar character is not discerned, and it is difficult to distinguish "between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." God would do great things for His people, if they would come out from the world and be separate. If they would submit to be led by Him, He would make them a praise in all the earth.
WGD	119	3	Says the True Witness, "I know thy works." Angels of God who minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation, are acquainted with the condition of all, and understand just the measure of faith possessed by each individual. The unbelief, pride, covetousness, and love of the world, which have existed in the hearts of God's professed people, have grieved the sinless angels. As they have seen that grievous and presump-tuous sins exist in the hearts of many professed followers of Christ, and that God has been dishonored by their inconsistent, crooked course, they have been caused to weep. And yet those most at fault, those who cause the greatest feebleness in the church, and bring a stain upon their holy profession, do not seem to be alarmed or convicted, but seem to feel that they are flourishing in the Lord.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 125.
WGD	119	4	When we voluntarily place ourselves in an atmosphere of worldliness and unbelief, we displease God, and drive holy angels from our homes. Those who secure for their children worldly wealth and honor at the expense of their eternal interests, will find in the end that these advantages are a terrible loss. . . . The heritage that God has promised to His people is not in this world.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 169.
------------------------Forsake the Foolish, April 28
WGD	120	1	"Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding." Proverbs 9:6.
WGD	120	2	Eternity stretches before us. The curtain is about to be lifted. We who occupy this solemn, responsible position, what are we doing, what are we thinking about, that we cling to our selfish love of ease, while souls are perishing around us? Have our hearts become utterly callous? Cannot we feel or understand that we have a work to do for the salvation of others? Brethren, are you of the class who having eyes see not, and having ears hear not? Is it in vain that God has given you a knowledge of His will? Is it in vain that He has sent you warning after warning? Do you believe the declarations of eternal truth concerning what is about to come upon the earth, do you believe that God's judgments are hanging over the people, and can you still sit at ease, indolent, careless, pleasureloving?
WGD	120	3	It is no time now for God's people to be fixing their affections or laying up their treasure in the world. The time is not far distant, when, like the early disciples, we shall be forced to seek a refuge in desolate and solitary places. As the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies was the signal for flight to the Judean Christians, so the assumption of power on the part of our nation, in the decree enforcing the papal Sabbath, will be a warning to us. It will then be time to leave the large cities, preparatory to leaving the smaller ones for retired homes in secluded places among the mountains. And now, instead of seeking expensive dwellings here, we should be preparing to move to a better country, even a heavenly.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 464, 465.
------------------------Flee These Things, April 29
WGD	121	1	"But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." 1 Tim. 6:11.
WGD	121	2	Our time here is short. We can pass through this world but once; as we pass along, let us make the most of life. The work to which we are called does not require wealth or social position or great ability. It requires a kindly, self-sacrificing spirit and a steadfast purpose. A lamp, however small, if kept steadily burning, may be the means of lighting many other lamps. Our sphere of influence may seem narrow, our ability small, our opportunities few, our acquirements limited; yet wonderful possibilities are ours through a faithful use of the opportunities of our own homes. If we will open our hearts and homes to the divine principles of life, we shall become channels for currents of life-giving power. From our homes will flow streams of healing, bringing life, and beauty, and fruitfulness where now are barrenness and dearth.--The Ministry of Healing, 355.
WGD	121	3	Many who call themselves Christians are mere human moralists. They have refused the gift which alone could enable them to honor Christ by representing Him to the world. The work of the Holy Spirit is to them a strange work. They are not doers of the Word. The heavenly principles that distinguish those who are one with Christ from those who are one with the world have become almost indistinguishable. The professed followers of Christ are no longer a separate and peculiar people. The line of demarcation is indistinct. . . . The righteousness of Christ will not cover one cherished sin. . . . Every act is judged by the motives that prompt it. Only that which is in accord with the principles of God's law will stand in the Judgment.--Christ's Object Lessons, 315, 316.
------------------------Take Hold of Instruction, April 30
WGD	122	1	"Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life." Proverbs 4:13.
WGD	122	2	You have the Word of the living God, and for the asking you may have the gift of the Holy Spirit to make that Word a power to those who believe and obey. The Holy Spirit's work is to guide into all truth. When you depend on the Word of the living God with heart, and mind, and soul, the channel of communication will be unobstructed. Deep, earnest study of the Word under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will give you fresh manna, and the same Spirit will make its use effectual. The exertion made by the youth to discipline the mind for high and holy aspirations will be rewarded. Those who make persevering efforts in this direction, putting the mind to the task of comprehending God's Word, are prepared to be laborers together with God.
WGD	122	3	The world acknowledges as teachers some whom God cannot indorse as safe instructors. By these the Bible is discarded, and the productions of infidel authors are recommended as if they contained those sentiments which should be woven into the character. What can you expect from the sowing of this kind of seed? In the study of these objectionable books, the minds of teachers as well as of students become corrupted, and the enemy sows his tares. It cannot be otherwise. By drinking of an impure fountain, poison is introduced into the system. Inexperienced youth taken over this line of study receive impressions which lead their thoughts into channels that are fatal to piety. . . . The soul is never safe unless it is under the divine guidance. Then it will be led into all truth.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 163-167.
------------------------All Have Gone Astray, May 1
WGD	123	1	"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6.
WGD	123	2	Whatever your anxieties and trials, spread out your case before the Lord. Your spirit will be braced for endurance. The way will be open for you to disentangle yourself from embarrassment and difficulty. The weaker and more helpless you know yourself to be, the stronger will you become in His strength. The heavier your burdens, the more blessed the rest in casting them upon your Burden-bearer. Circumstances may separate friends; the restless waters of the wide sea may roll between us and them. But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the Saviour. Wherever we may be, He is at our right hand, to support, maintain, uphold, and cheer. Greater than the love of a mother for her child, is Christ's love for His redeemed. It is our privilege to rest in His love; to say, "I will trust Him; for He gave His life for me." Human love may change; but Christ's love knows no change. When we cry to Him for help, His hand is stretched out to save.--The Ministry of Healing, 72.
WGD	123	3	Never feel that Christ is far away. He is always near. His living presence surrounds you. . . . He desires you not only to touch His garments, but to walk with Him in constant communion.--The Ministry of Healing, 85.
------------------------Ye Have Sold Yourselves, May 2
WGD	124	1	"For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money." Isaiah 52:3.
WGD	124	2	Sin not only shuts away from God, but destroys in the human soul both the desire and the capacity for knowing Him. Through sin, the whole human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination corrupted; the faculties of the soul are degraded. There is an absence of pure religion, of heart holiness. The converting power of God has not wrought in transforming the character. The soul is weak, and for want of moral force to overcome, is polluted and debased.--Prophets and Kings, 233.
WGD	124	3	More clearly than we do, we need to understand the issues at stake in the great conflict in which we are engaged. We need to understand more fully the value of the truths of the Word of God, and the danger of allowing our minds to be diverted from them by the great deceiver.
WGD	124	4	The infinite value of the sacrifice required for our redemption reveals the fact that sin is a tremendous evil. Through sin the whole human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination corrupted. Sin has degraded the faculties of the soul. Temptations from without find an answering chord within the heart, and the feet turn imperceptibly toward evil.
WGD	124	5	As the sacrifice in our behalf was complete, so our restoration from the defilement of sin is to be complete. No act of wickedness will the law of God excuse; no unrighteousness can escape its condemnation. The ethics of the gospel acknowledge no standard but the perfection of the divine character. The life of Christ was a perfect fulfilment of every precept of the law.--The Ministry of Healing, 451.
------------------------Sinners Are Taken Captive, May 3
WGD	125	1	"And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." 2 Tim. 2:26.
WGD	125	2	It is a perilous thing to allow an unchristian trait to live in the heart. One cherished sin will, little by little, debase the character, bringing all its nobler powers into subjection to the evil desire. The removal of one safe-guard from the conscience, the indulgence of one evil habit, one neglect of the high claims of duty, breaks down the defenses of the soul, and opens the way for Satan to come in and lead us astray. The only safe course is to let our prayers go forth daily from a sincere heart, as did David, "Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 452.
WGD	125	3	We are living in an atmosphere of satanic witchery. The enemy will weave a spell of licentiousness around every soul that is not barricaded by the grace of Christ. Temptations will come; but if we watch against the enemy, and maintain the balance of self-control and purity, the seducing spirits will have no influence over us. Those who do nothing to evil courage temptation will have strength to withstand it when it comes; but those who keep themselves in an atmosphere of evil will have only themselves to blame if they are overcome and fall from their steadfastness. . . . We are to be guided by true theology and common sense. Our souls are to be surrounded by the atmosphere of heaven. Men and women are to watch themselves; they are to be constantly on guard, allowing no word or act that would cause their good to be evil spoken of. He who professes to be a follower of Christ is to watch himself, keeping himself pure and undefiled in thought, word, and deed. His influence upon others is to be uplifting.--Counsels to Teachers, 257, 258.
------------------------The Heart Is Deceitful, May 4
WGD	126	1	"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9.
WGD	126	2	Counterfeit holiness, spurious sanctification, is still doing its work of deception. Under various forms it exhibits the same spirit as in the days of Luther, diverting minds from the Scriptures, and leading men to follow their own feelings and impressions rather than to yield obedience to the law of God. This is one of Satan's most successful devices to cast reproach upon purity and truth.--The Great Controversy, 193.
WGD	126	3	He who beholds Christ in His self-denial, His lowliness of heart, will be constrained to say, as did Daniel, when he beheld One like the sons of men, "My comeliness was turned in me into corruption." The independence and self-supremacy in which we glory, are seen in their true vileness, as tokens of servitude to Satan. Human nature is ever struggling for expression, ready for contest; but he who learns of Christ is emptied of self, of pride, of love of supremacy, and there is silence in the soul. Self is yielded to the disposal of the Holy Spirit. Then we are not anxious to have the highest place. We have no ambition to crowd and elbow ourselves into notice; but we feel that our highest place is at the feet of our Saviour. We look to Jesus, waiting for His hand to lead, listening for His voice to guide. . . . It is the love of self that destroys our peace. While self is all alive, we stand ready continually to guard it from mortification and insult; but when we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God, we shall not take neglects or slights to heart. We shall be deaf to reproach, and blind to scorn and insult.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 15.
------------------------The Carnal Mind Is Enmity with God, May 5
WGD	127	1	"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Romans 8:7, 8.
WGD	127	2	Man was originally endowed with noble powers and a wellbalanced mind. He was perfect in his being, and in harmony with God. His thoughts were pure, his aims holy. But through disobedience, his powers were perverted, and selfishness took the place of love. His nature became so weakened through transgression that it was impossible for him, in his own strength, to resist the power of evil. He was made captive by Satan, and would have remained so forever had not God specially interposed. It was the tempter's purpose to thwart the divine plan in man's creation, and fill the earth with woe and desolation. And he would point to all this evil as the result of God's work in creating man.
WGD	127	3	In his sinless state, man held joyful communion with Him "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." But after his sin, he could no longer find joy in holiness, and he sought to hide from the presence of God. Such is still the condition of the unrenewed heart. It is not in harmony with God, and finds no joy in communion with Him. The sinner could not be happy in God's presence; he would shrink from the companionship of holy beings. Could he be permitted to enter heaven, it would have no joy for him. The spirit of unselfish love that reigns there--every heart responding to the heart of Infinite Love--would touch no answering chord in his soul. His thoughts, his interests, his motives, would be alien to those that actuate the sinless dwellers there. He would be a discordant note in the melody of heaven.--Steps to Christ, 17, 18.
------------------------Then Shall Ye Remember Your Evil Ways, May 6
WGD	128	1	"Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations." Eze. 36:31.
WGD	128	2	No outward observances can take the place of simple faith and entire renunciation of self. But no man can empty himself of self. We can only consent for Christ to accomplish the work. Then the language of the soul will be, Lord, take my heart; for I can not give it. It is Thy property. Keep it pure, for I can not keep it for Thee. Save me in spite of myself, my weak, unchristlike self. Mold me, fashion me, raise me into a pure and holy atmosphere, where the rich current of Thy love can flow through my soul.
WGD	128	3	It is not only at the beginning of the Christian life that this renunciation of self is to be made. At every advance step heavenward it is to be renewed. All our good works are dependent on a power outside of ourselves. Therefore there needs to be a continual reaching out of the heart after God, a continual, earnest, heart-breaking confession of sin and humbling of the soul before Him. Only by constant renunciation of self and dependence on Christ can we walk safely.
WGD	128	4	The nearer we come to Jesus, and the more clearly we discern the purity of His character, the more clearly we shall discern the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the less we shall feel like exalting ourselves. Those whom heaven recognizes as holy ones are the last to parade their own goodness. . . . At every advance step in Christian experience our repentance will deepen. It is to those whom the Lord has forgiven, to those whom He acknowledges as His people, that He says, "Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, . . . and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight."---Christ's Object Lessons, 159, 160.
------------------------Godly Sorrow Worketh Repentance, May 7
WGD	129	1	"For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." 2 Corinthians 7:10.
WGD	129	2	God reveals to us our guilt that we may flee to Christ, and through Him be set free from the bondage of sin, and rejoice in the liberty of the sons of God. In true contrition we may come to the foot of the cross, and there leave our burdens. . . . The trials of life are God's workmen, to remove the impurities and roughness from our character. Their hewing, squaring, and chiseling, their burnishing and polishing, is a painful process; it is hard to be pressed down to the grinding wheel. But the stone is brought forth prepared to fill its place in the heavenly temple. Upon no useless material does the Master bestow such careful, thorough work. Only His precious stones are polished after the similitude of a palace.
WGD	129	3	The Lord will work for all who put their trust in Him. Precious victories will be gained by the faithful. Precious lessons will be learned. Precious experiences will be realized.-- Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 10, 11.
WGD	129	4	Christ is the sympathetic, compassionate Redeemer. In His sustaining power men and women become strong to resist evil. As the convicted sinner looks at sin, it becomes to him exceeding sinful. He wonders that he did not come to Christ before. He sees that his faults must be overcome, and that his appetites and passions must be subjected to God's will, that he must be a partaker of the divine nature, having overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust. Having repented of his transgression of God's law, he strives earnestly to overcome sin. He seeks to reveal the power of Christ's grace, and he is brought into personal touch with the Saviour.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 151.
------------------------He That Repenteth Shall Live, May 8
WGD	130	1	"But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die." Eze. 18:21.
WGD	130	2	Those who dwell upon God's mercies, and are nor unmindful of His lesser gifts, will put on the girdle of gladness, and make melody in their hearts to the Lord. The daily blessings that we receive from the hand of God, and above all else the death of Jesus to bring happiness and heaven within our reach, should be a theme for constant gratitude.
WGD	130	3	What compassion, what matchless love, has God shown to us, lost sinners, in connecting us with Himself, to be to Him a peculiar treasure! What sacrifice has been made by our Redeemer, that we may be called children of God! We should praise God for the blessed hope held out before us in the great plan of redemption, we should praise Him for the heavenly inheritance, and for His rich promises; praise Him that Jesus lives to intercede for us.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 289.
WGD	130	4	Wrongs cannot be righted nor reformations wrought in the character by feeble intermittent efforts. It is only by long, persevering effort, sore discipline, and stern conflict, that we shall overcome. We know not one day how strong will be our conflict the next. . . . None of the apostles and prophets ever claimed to be without sin. Men who have lived the nearest to God, men who would sacrifice life itself rather than knowingly commit a wrong act, men whom God has honored with divine light and power, have confessed the sinfulness of their nature. They have put no confidence in the flesh, have claimed no righteousness of their own, but have trusted wholly in the righteousness of Christ. So will it be with all who behold Christ.--The Acts of the Apostles, 560, 561.
------------------------His Goodness Leads to Repentance, May 9
WGD	131	1	"Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" Romans 2:4.
WGD	131	2	It is true that men sometimes become ashamed of their sinful ways, and give up some of their evil habits, before they are conscious that they are being drawn to Christ. But whenever they make an effort to reform, from a sincere desire to do right, it is the power of Christ that is drawing them. An influence of which they are unconscious works upon the soul, and the conscience is quickened, and the outward life is amended. And as Christ draws them to look upon His cross, to behold Him whom their sins have pierced, the commandment comes home to the conscience. The wickedness of their life, the deep-seated sin of the soul, is revealed to them. They begin to comprehend something of the righteousness of Christ, and exclaim, "What is sin, that it should require such a sacrifice for the redemption of its victim? Was all this love, all this suffering, all this humiliation demanded, that we might not perish, but have everlasting life?"
WGD	131	3	The sinner may resist this love, may refuse to be drawn to Christ; but if he does not resist, he will be drawn to Jesus; a knowledge of the plan of salvation will lead him to the foot of the cross in repentance for his sins, which have caused the sufferings of God's dear Son. . . .
WGD	131	4	Through influences seen and unseen, our Saviour is constantly at work to attract the minds of men from the unsatisfying pleasures of sin to the infinite blessings that may be theirs in Him. To all these souls, who are vainly seeking to drink from the broken cisterns of this world, the divine message is addressed, "Let him that is athirst come. . . ."--Steps to Christ, 27, 28.
------------------------Put Iniquity Far Away, May 10
WGD	132	1	"If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him; if iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles." Job 11:13, 14.
WGD	132	2	But let none deceive themselves with the thought that God, in His great love and mercy, will yet save even the rejecters of His grace. The exceeding sinfulness of sin can be estimated only in the light of the cross. When men urge that God is too good to cast off the sinner, let them look to Calvary. It was because there was no other way in which man could be saved, because without this sacrifice it was impossible for the human race to escape from the defiling power of sin, and be restored to communion with holy beings,--impossible for them again to become partakers of spiritual life,--it was because of this that Christ took upon Himself the guilt of the disobedient and suffered in the sinner's stead. The love and suffering and death of the Son of God all testify to the terrible enormity of sin, and declare that there is no escape from its power, no hope of the higher life, but through the submission of the soul to Christ.
WGD	132	3	The impenitent sometimes excuse themselves by saying of professed Christians, "I am as good as they are. They are no more self-denying, sober, or circumspect in their conduct than I am. They love pleasure and self-indulgence as well as I do." Thus they make the faults of others an excuse for their own neglect of duty. But the sins and defects of others do not excuse any one; for the Lord has not given us an erring, human pattern. . . . Beware procrastination. Do not put off the work of forsaking your sins, and seeking purity of heart through Jesus. Here is where thousands upon thousands have erred, to their eternal loss.--Steps to Christ, 31-33.
------------------------Wash You, Make You Clean, May 11
WGD	133	1	"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil." Isaiah 1:16.
WGD	133	2	But many are attracted by the beauty of Christ and the glory of heaven, who yet shrink from the conditions by which alone these can become their own. There are many in the broad way who are not fully satisfied with the path in which they walk. They long to break from the slavery of sin, and in their own strength they seek to make a stand against their sinful practises. They look toward the narrow way and the strait gate; but selfish pleasure, love of the world, pride, unsanctified ambition, place a barrier between them and the Saviour. To renounce their own will, their chosen objects of affection or pursuit, requires a sacrifice at which they hesitate, and falter, and turn back. Many "will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." They desire the good, they make some effort to obtain it; but they do not choose it; they have not a settled purpose to secure it at the cost of all things.
WGD	133	3	The only hope for us if we would overcome is to unite our will to God's will, and work in cooperation with Him, hour by hour, and day by day. We can not retain self, and yet enter the kingdom of God. If we ever attain unto holiness, it will be through the renunciation of self, and the reception of the mind of Christ. Pride and self-sufficiency must be crucified. Are we willing to pay the price required of us? Are we willing to have our will brought into perfect conformity to the will of God? Until we are willing, the transforming grace of God can not be manifest upon us.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 143.
WGD	133	4	Repentance is the first step that must be taken by all who would return to God.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 590.
------------------------Be Not Stiff-Necked, But Yield, May 12
WGD	134	1	"Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter into His sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever; and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you." 2 Chron. 30:8.
WGD	134	2	If those who hide and excuse their faults could see how Satan exults over them, how he taunts Christ and holy angels with their course, they would make haste to confess their sins and to put them away. Through defects in the character, Satan works to gain control of the whole mind, and he knows that if these defects are cherished, he will succeed. Therefore he is constantly seeking to deceive the followers of Christ with his fatal sophistry that it is impossible for them to overcome. But Jesus pleads in their behalf His wounded hands, His bruised body; and He declares to all who would follow Him, "My grace is sufficient for thee." . . .Let none, then, regard their defects as incurable. God will give faith and grace to overcome them.
WGD	134	3	We are now living in the great day of atonement. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin and humiliation before the Lord, lest they be cut off from among the people. In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the book of life, should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart. The light, frivolous spirit indulged by so many professed Christians must be put away. There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery.--The Great Controversy, 489, 490.
------------------------I Will Not Offend Anymore, May 13
WGD	135	1	"Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend anymore: that which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more." Job 34:31, 32.
WGD	135	2	Come with your whole heart to Jesus. Repent of your sins, make confession to God, forsake all iniquity, and you may appropriate to yourself all His promises. . . . The day will come when the awful denunciation of God's wrath will be uttered against all who have persisted in their disloyalty to Him. This will be when God must speak and do terrible things in righteousness against the transgressors of His law. But you need not be among those who will come under the wrath of God. It is now the day of His salvation. The light from the cross of Calvary is now shining forth in clear, bright rays, revealing Jesus, our sacrifice for sin. As you read the promises which I have set before you, remember they are the expression of unutterable love and pity. The great heart of infinite Love is drawn toward the sinner with boundless compassion. "We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."
WGD	135	3	Yes, only believe that God is your helper. He wants to restore His moral image in man. As you draw nigh to Him with confession and repentance, He will draw nigh to you with mercy and forgiveness. We owe the Lord everything. He is the author of our salvation.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 634, 635.
WGD	135	4	You have resolved to give yourself to God. Now go to Him, and ask that He will wash away your sins, and give you a new heart. Then believe that He does this because He has promised. This is the lesson which Jesus taught while He was on earth, that the gift which God promises us, we must believe we do receive, and it is ours.--Steps to Christ, 49, 50.
------------------------The Repentance of Jacob, May 14
WGD	136	1	"Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us; even the Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his memorial." Hosea 12:4, 5.
WGD	136	2	Jacob "had power over the Angel, and prevailed." Through humiliation, repentance, and self-surrender, this sinful, erring mortal prevailed with the Majesty of heaven. He had fastened his trembling grasp upon the promises of God, and the heart of Infinite Love could not turn away the sinner's plea.-- Patriarchs and Prophets, 197.
WGD	136	3	Yet Jacob's history is an assurance that God will not cast off those who have been betrayed into sin, but who have returned unto Him with true repentance. It was by self-surrender and confiding faith that Jacob gained what he had failed to gain by conflict in his own strength. God thus taught His servant that divine power and grace alone could give him the blessing he craved. Thus it will be with those who live in the last days. As dangers surround them, and despair seizes upon the soul, they must depend solely upon the merits of the atonement. We can do nothing of ourselves. In all our helpless unworthiness we must trust in the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour. None will ever perish while they do this. The long, black catalogue of our delinquencies is before the eye of the Infinite. The register is complete; none of our offenses are forgotten. But He who listened to the cries of His servant of old, will hear the prayer of faith, and pardon our transgressions. He has promised, and He will fulfill His word.
WGD	136	4	Jacob prevailed because he was persevering and determined. His experience testifies to the power of importunate prayer. It is now that we are to learn this lesson of prevailing prayer, of unyielding faith.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 202, 203.
------------------------The Repentance of Ezra, May 15
WGD	137	1	"And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens." Ezra 9:6.
WGD	137	2	The sorrow of Ezra and his associates over the evils that had insidiously crept into the very heart of the Lord's work, wrought repentance. Many of those who had sinned, were deeply affected. . . . In a limited degree they began to realize the heinousness of sin, and the horror with which God regards it. They saw the sacredness of the law spoken at Sinai, and many trembled at the thought of their transgressions. . . . This was the beginning of a wonderful reformation. With infinite patience and tact, and with a careful consideration for the rights and welfare of every individual concerned, Ezra and his associates strove to lead the penitent of Israel into the right way. Above all else, Ezra was a teacher of the law; and as he gave personal attention to the examination of every case, he sought to impress the people with the holiness of this law, and the blessings to be gained through obedience. . . .
WGD	137	3	In this age of the world, when Satan is seeking, through manifold agencies to blind the eyes of men and women to the binding claims of the law of God, there is need of men who can cause many to "tremble at the commandment of our God." There is need of true reformers, who will point transgressors to the great Lawgiver, and teach them that "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."
WGD	137	4	There is need of mighty men in the Scriptures; men whose every word and act exalts the statutes of Jehovah; men who seek to strengthen faith. Teachers are needed, O, so much, who will inspire hearts with reverence and love for the Scriptures.--Prophets and Kings, 622-624.
------------------------The Repentance of Nehemiah, May 16
WGD	138	1	"Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou bast done right, but we have done wickedly." Nehemiah 9:33.
WGD	138	2	Overwhelmed with sorrow, Nehemiah could neither eat nor drink; he "wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted." In his grief he turned to the divine Helper. . . . Faithfully he made confession of his sins and the sins of his people. He pleaded that God would maintain the cause of Israel, restore their courage and strength, and help them to build up the waste places of Judah. As Nehemiah prayed, his faith and courage grew strong. His mouth was filled with holy arguments. . . .
WGD	138	3	To pray as Nehemiah prayed in his hour of need is a resource at the command of the Christian under circumstances when other forms of prayer may be impossible. Toilers in the busy walks of life, crowded and almost overwhelmed with perplexity, can send up a petition to God for divine guidance. Travelers by sea and land, when threatened with some great danger, can thus commit themselves to Heaven's protection. In times of sudden difficulty or peril, the heart may send up its cry for help to One who has pledged Himself to come to the aid of His faithful, believing ones whenever they call upon Him.
WGD	138	4	In every circumstance, under every condition, the soul weighed down with grief and care, or fiercely assailed by temptation may find assurance, support, and succor in the unfailing love and power of a covenant-keeping God. . . .
WGD	138	5	This example of wise forethought and resolute action should be a lesson to all Christians. God's children are not only to pray in faith, but to work with diligent and provident care.--Prophets and Kings, 629-633.
------------------------The Repentance of David, May 17
WGD	139	1	"For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me." Ps. 40:12, 13.
WGD	139	2	Through successive generations, infidels have pointed to the character of David, bearing this dark stain, and have exclaimed in triumph and derision, "This is the man after God's own heart!". . . But the history of David furnishes no countenance to sin. It was when he was walking in the counsel of God, that he was called a man after God's own heart. When he sinned, this ceased to be true of him until by repentance he had returned to the Lord. . . . Though David repented of his sin, and was forgiven and accepted by the Lord, he reaped the baleful harvest of the seed he himself had sown. The judgments upon him and upon his house testify to God's abhorrence of the sin. . . .
WGD	139	3	God intended the history of David's fall to serve as a warning that even those whom He has greatly blessed and favored are not to feel secure, and neglect watchfulness and prayer. And thus it has proved to those who in humility have sought to learn the lesson that God designed to teach. From generation to generation, thousands have thus been led to realize their own danger from the tempter's power. . . . David's repentance was sincere and deep. There was no effort to palliate his crime. No desire to escape the judgments threatened, inspired his prayer. But he saw the enormity of his transgression against God; he saw the defilement of his soul; he loathed his sin. It was not for pardon only that he prayed, but for purity of heart.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 722-725
------------------------The Repentance of Solomon, May 18
WGD	140	1	"Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." Eccl. 2:11.
WGD	140	2	Awakened as from a dream, . . . Solomon with quickened conscience began to see his folly in its true light. Chastened in spirit, with mind and body enfeebled, he turned wearied and thirsting from earth's broken cisterns, to drink once more at the fountain of life. For him at last the discipline of suffering had accomplished its work. Long had he been harassed by the fear of utter ruin because of inability to turn from folly; but now he discerned in the message given him a ray of hope. God had not utterly cut him off, but stood ready to deliver him from a bondage more cruel than the grave, and from which he had had no power to free himself.--Prophets and Kings, 77, 78.
WGD	140	3	Not only to the youth, but to those of mature years, and to those who are descending the hill of life and facing the western sun, the life of Solomon is full of warning. We see and hear of unsteadiness in youth,--the young wavering between right and wrong, and the current of evil passions proving too strong for them. In those of maturer years, we do not look for this unsteadiness and unfaithfulness; we expect the char-acter to be established, the principles firmly rooted. But this is not always so. . . . From such examples we should learn that in watchfulness and prayer is the only safety for both young and old. Security does not lie in exalted position and great privileges. . . . Those who heed the warning of Solomon's apostasy will shun the first approach of those sins that overcame him. Only obedience to the requirements of Heaven will keep man from apostasy.--Prophets and Kings, 82, 83.
------------------------The Repentance of Zaccheus, May 19
WGD	141	1	"And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold." Luke 19:8.
WGD	141	2	Zaccheus had been overwhelmed, amazed, and silenced, at the love and condescension of Christ in stooping to him, so unworthy. Now love and loyalty to his new-found Master unseal his lips. He will make public his confession and his repentance. . . .
WGD	141	3	Before Zaccheus had looked upon the face of Christ, he had begun the work that made him manifest as a true penitent. Before being accused by men, he had confessed his sin. He had yielded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and had begun to carry out the teaching of the words written for ancient Israel as well as for ourselves. The Lord had said long before, . . . "Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God." These words had been spoken by Christ Himself when He was enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, and the very first response of Zaccheus to the love of Christ was in manifesting compassion toward the poor and suffering. . . . No repentance is genuine that does not work reformation. The righteousness of Christ is not a cloak to cover unconfessed and unforsaken sin; it is a principle of life that transforms the character and controls the conduct. Holiness is wholeness for God; it is the entire surrender of heart and life to the indwelling of the principles of heaven. . . .
WGD	141	4	If we have injured others through any unjust business transaction, if we have overreached in trade, . . . we should confess our wrong, and make restitution as far as lies in our power.--The Desire of Ages, 554-556.
------------------------The Repentance of Paul, May 20
WGD	142	1	"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 1 Tim. 1:15.
WGD	142	2	As Saul yielded himself fully to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, he saw the mistakes of his life, and recognized the far-reaching claims of the law of God. He who had been a proud Pharisee, confident that he was justified by his good works, now bowed before God with the humility and simplicity of a little child, confessing his own unworthiness, and pleading the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour. Saul longed to come into full harmony and communion with the Father and the Son; and in the intensity of his desire for pardon and acceptance, he offered up fervent supplications to the throne of grace. The prayers of the penitent Pharisee were not in vain. The inmost thoughts and emotions of his heart were transformed by divine grace; and his nobler faculties were brought into harmony with the eternal purposes of God. . . .
WGD	142	3	The conversion of Saul is a striking evidence of the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit to convict men of sin. He had verily believed that Jesus of Nazareth had disregarded the law of God, and had taught His disciples that it was of no effect. But after his conversion, Saul recognized Jesus as the one who had come into the world for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law. He was convinced that Jesus was the originator of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices.--The Acts of the Apostles, 119, 120.
WGD	142	4	Jesus might have done all this work for Paul directly, but this was not His plan. Paul had something to do in the line of confession to the men whose destruction he had premeditated, and God had a responsible work for the men to do whom He had ordained to act in His stead.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 431, 432.
------------------------Your Sins Will Not Be Mentioned, May 21
WGD	143	1	"All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not he mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live." Eze. 18:22.
WGD	143	2	When in his distress, Jacob laid hold of the Angel, and made supplication with tears, the heavenly Messenger, in order to try his faith, also reminded him of his sin, and endeavored to escape from him. But Jacob would not be turned away. He had learned that God is merciful, and he cast himself upon His mercy. He pointed back to his repentance for his sin, and pleaded for deliverance. As he reviewed his life, he was driven almost to despair; but he held fast the Angel. . . .
WGD	143	3	Such will be the experience of God's people in their final struggle with the powers of evil. God will test their faith, their perseverance, their confidence in His power to deliver them. Satan will endeavor to terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless. . . . But remembering the greatness of God's mercy, and their own sincere repentance, they will plead His promises made through Christ to helpless, repenting sinners. Their faith will not fail because their prayers are not immediately answered. They will lay hold of the strength of God, as Jacob laid hold of the Angel, and the language of their souls will be, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.". . . So in the time of trouble, if the people of God had unconfessed sins to appear before them while tortured with fear and anguish, they would be overwhelmed. . . . But while they have a deep sense of their unworthiness, they will have no concealed wrongs to reveal. Their sins will have been blotted out by the atoning blood of Christ, and they cannot bring them to remembrance.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 201, 202.
------------------------Only Acknowledge Thine Iniquity, May 22
WGD	144	1	"Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God." Jeremiah 3:12, 13.
WGD	144	2	We often sorrow because our evil deeds bring unpleasant consequences to ourselves; but this is not repentance. Real sorrow for sin is the result of the working of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit reveals the ingratitude of the heart that has slighted and grieved the Saviour, and brings us in contrition to the foot of the cross. By every sin, Jesus is wounded afresh; and as we look upon Him whom we have pierced, we mourn for the sins that have brought anguish upon Him. Such mourning will lead to the renunciation of sin.
WGD	144	3	The worldling may pronounce this sorrow a weakness, but it is the strength which binds the penitent to the Infinite One with links that cannot be broken. It shows that the angels of God are bringing back to the soul the graces that were lost through hardness of heart and transgression. The tears of the penitent are only the rain-drops that precede the sunshine of holiness. This sorrow heralds a joy which will be a living fountain in the soul. . . . When brought into trial, we are not to fret and complain. We should not rebel, or worry ourselves out of the hand of Christ. We are to humble the soul before God. The ways of the Lord are obscure to him who desires to see things in a light pleasing to himself. They appear dark and joyless to our human nature. But God's ways are ways of mercy, and the end is salvation.--The Desire of Ages, 300, 301.
------------------------The Lord Will Heal and Bind Us Up, May 23
WGD	145	1	"Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up." Hosea 6:1.
WGD	145	2	The love which Christ diffuses through the whole being is a vitalizing power. Every vital part--the brain, the heart, the nerves--it touches with healing. By it the highest energies of the being are roused to activity. It frees the soul from the guilt and sorrow, the anxiety and care, that crush the life forces. With it come serenity and composure. It implants in the soul joy that nothing earthly can destroy,--joy in the Holy Spirit,--health-giving, life-giving joy. . . . Though men have brought suffering upon themselves by their own wrong-doing, He regards them with pity. In Him they may find help. He will do great things for those who trust in Him.
WGD	145	3	Although for ages sin has been strengthening its hold on the human race, although through falsehood and artifice Satan has cast the black shadow of his interpretation upon the Word of God, and has caused men to doubt His goodness; yet the Father's mercy and love have not ceased to flow earthward in rich currents. If human beings would open the windows of the soul heavenward, in appreciation of the divine gifts, a flood of healing virtue would pour in.--The Ministry of Healing, 115, 116.
WGD	145	4	Jesus was the healer of the body as well as of the soul. He was interested in every phase of suffering that came under His notice, and to every sufferer He brought relief, His kind words having a soothing balm. None could say that He had worked a miracle; but virtue--the healing power of love-- went out from Him to the sick and distressed. Thus in an unobtrusive way He worked for the people from His very childhood.--The Desire of Ages, 92.
------------------------If My People Seek I Will Hear, May 24
WGD	146	1	"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chron. 7:14.
WGD	146	2	None of the apostles or prophets ever claimed to be without sin. Men who have lived nearest to God, men who would sacrifice life itself rather than knowingly commit a wrong act, men whom God had honored with divine light and power, have confessed the sinfulness of their own nature. They have put no confidence in the flesh, have claimed no righteousness of their own, but have trusted wholly in the righteousness of Christ. So will it be with all who behold Christ. . . .
WGD	146	3	We need to shun everything that would encourage pride and self-sufficiency; therefore we should beware of giving or receiving flattery or praise. It is Satan's work to flatter. He deals in flattery as well as in accusing and condemnation. Thus he seeks to work the ruin of the soul. Those who give praise to men are used by Satan as his agents. Let the workers for Christ direct every word of praise away from themselves. Let self be put out of sight. Christ alone is to be exalted. "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood," let every eye be directed, and praise from every heart ascend.
WGD	146	4	The life in which the fear of the Lord is cherished will not be a life of sadness and gloom. It is the absence of Christ that makes the countenance sad, and the life a pilgrimage of sighs. Those who are filled with self-esteem and self-love do not feel the need of a living, personal union with Christ. . . . But Christ dwelling in the soul is a wellspring of joy. For all who receive Him, the very keynote of the Word of God is rejoicing.--Christ's Object Lessons, 160-162.
------------------------We Shall Be Dead To Our Sins, May 25
WGD	147	1	"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye are healed." 1 Peter 2:24.
WGD	147	2	The one thing essential for us in order that we may receive and impart the forgiving love of God is to know and believe the love that He has to us. Satan is working by every deception he can command, in order that we may not discern that love. He will lead us to think that our mistakes and transgressions have been so grievous that the Lord will not have respect unto our prayers, and will not bless and save us. In ourselves we can see nothing but weakness, nothing to recommend us to God, and Satan tells us that it is of no use; we can not remedy our defects of character. When we try to come to God, the enemy will whisper, It is of no use for you to pray; did not you do that evil thing? Have you not sinned against God, and violated your own conscience? But we may tell the enemy that "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." When we feel that we have sinned, and can not pray, it is then the time to pray. Ashamed we may be, and deeply humbled; but we must pray, and believe. . . . Forgiveness, reconciliation with God, comes to us, not as a reward for our works, it is not bestowed because of the merit of sinful men, but it is a gift unto us, having in the spotless righteousness of Christ its foundation for bestowal.
WGD	147	3	We should not try to lessen our guilt by excusing sin. We must accept God's estimate of sin, and that is heavy indeed. Calvary alone can reveal the terrible enormity of sin. If we had to bear our own guilt, it would crush us. But the sinless One has taken our place, though undeserving, He has borne our iniquity.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 115, 116.
------------------------Christ The Sure Foundation, May 26
WGD	148	1	"Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded." 1 Peter 2:6.
WGD	148	2	In infinite wisdom, God chose the foundation-stone, and laid it Himself. He called it "a sure foundation." The entire world may lay upon it their burdens and griefs; it can endure them all. With perfect safety they may build upon it. Christ is a "tried stone." Those who trust in Him, He never disappoints. He has borne every test. He has endured the pressure of Adam's guilt, and the guilt of his posterity, and has come off more than conqueror of the powers of evil. He has borne the burdens cast upon Him by every repenting sinner. In Christ the guilty heart has found relief. He is the sure foundation. All who make Him their dependence, rest in perfect security. . . . To those who believe, Christ is the sure foundation. These are they who fall upon the Rock and are broken. Submission to Christ and faith in Him are here represented. To fall upon the Rock and be broken is to give up our self-righteousness, and to go to Christ with the humility of a child, repenting of our transgressions, and believing in His forgiving love. And so also it is by faith and obedience that we build on Christ as our foundation.
WGD	148	3	Upon this living stone, Jews and Gentiles alike may build. This is the only foundation upon which we may securely build. It is broad enough for all, and strong enough to sustain the weight and burden of the whole world. And by connection with Christ, the living stone, all who build upon this foundation become living stones. Many persons are by their own endeavors hewn, polished, and beautified; but they cannot become "living stones" because they are not connected with Christ.--The Desire of Ages, 598, 599.
------------------------Salvation Is By The Grace Of God, May 27
WGD	149	1	"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." Titus 2:11.
WGD	149	2	Jesus had presented the cup of blessing to those who felt that they were "rich, and increased with goods, and had need of nothing," and they had turned with scorn from the gracious gift. He who feels whole, who thinks that he is reasonably good, and is contented with his condition, does not seek to become a partaker of the grace and righteousness of Christ. Pride feels no need, and so it closes the heart against Christ and the infinite blessings He came to give. There is no room for Jesus in the heart of such a person. Those who are rich and honorable in their own eyes do not ask in faith, and receive the blessing of God. They feel that they are full, therefore they go away empty. Those who know that they can not possibly save themselves, or of themselves do any righteous action, are the ones who appreciate the help that Christ can bestow. They are the poor in spirit, whom He declares to be blessed.
WGD	149	3	Whom Christ pardons, He first makes penitent, and it is the office of the Holy Spirit to convince of sin. Those whose hearts have been moved by the convicting Spirit of God, see that there is nothing good in themselves. They see that all they have ever done is mingled with self and sin. Like the poor publican, they stand afar off, not daring to lift up so much as their eyes to heaven, and cry, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner." And they are blessed. There is forgiveness for the penitent; for Christ is "the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.". . . All who have a sense of their deep soul poverty, who feel that they have nothing good in themselves, may find righteousness and strength by looking unto Jesus.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 7.
------------------------Who Is A God Like Unto Thee?, May 28
WGD	150	1	"Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy." Micah 7:18.
WGD	150	2	We may now suppose that our feet stand secure, and that we shall never be moved. We may say with confidence, "I know in whom I have believed; nothing can shake my faith in God and in His Word." But Satan is planning to take advantage of our hereditary and cultivated traits of character, and to blind our eyes to our own necessities and defects. Only through realizing our own weakness, and looking steadfastly unto Jesus, can we walk securely.--The Desire of Ages, 382.
WGD	150	3	In mercy to the world, God blotted out its wicked inhabitants in Noah's time. In mercy, He destroyed the corrupt dwellers in Sodom. Through the deceptive power of Satan, the workers of iniquity obtain sympathy and admiration, and are thus constantly leading others to rebellion. It was so in Cain's and in Noah's day, and in the time of Abraham and Lot; it is so in our time. It is in mercy to the universe that God will finally destroy the rejecters of His grace.--The Great Controversy, 543.
WGD	150	4	Do not listen to the enemy's suggestion to stay away from Christ until you have made yourself better; until you are good enough to come to God. If you wait until then, you will never come. . . . Arise and go to your Father. He will meet you a great way off. If you take even one step toward Him in repentance, He will hasten to enfold you in His arms of infinite love. His ear is open to the cry of the contrite soul. The very first reaching out of the heart after God is known to Him.-- Christ's Object Lessons, 205, 206.
------------------------Him Hath God Exalted, May 29
WGD	151	1	"Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." Acts 5:31.
WGD	151	2	How shall a man be just with God? How shall the sinner be made righteous? It is only through Christ that we can be brought into harmony with God, with holiness; but how are we to come to Christ? . . . Repentance includes sorrow for sin, and a turning away from it. We shall not renounce sin unless we see its sinfulness; until we turn away from it in heart, there will be no real change in the life.
WGD	151	3	There are many who fail to understand the true nature of repentance. Multitudes sorrow that they have sinned, and even make an outward reformation, because they fear that their wrong-doing will bring suffering upon themselves. But this is not repentance in the Bible sense. They lament the suffering, rather than the sin. Such was the grief of Esau when he saw that the birthright was lost to him forever. Balaam, terrified by the angel standing in his pathway with drawn sword, acknowledged his guilt lest he should lose his life; but there was no genuine repentance for sin, no conversion of purpose, no abhorrence of evil. Judas Iscariot, after betraying his Lord, exclaimed, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.". . . The consequences that were to result to him filled him with terror, but there was no deep, heart-breaking grief in his soul, that he had betrayed the spotless Son of God. . . . These all lamented the results of sin, but did not sorrow for the sin itself. But when the heart yields to the influence of the Spirit of God, the conscience will be quickened and the sinner will discern something of the depth and sacredness of God's holy law, the foundation of His government in heaven and on earth.--Steps to Christ, 26-28.
------------------------He Who Calls Us Is Faithful, May 30
WGD	152	1	"Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." 1 Thess. 5:24.
WGD	152	2	Never a prayer is offered, however faltering, never a tear is shed, however secret, never a sincere desire after God is cherished, however feeble, but the Spirit of God goes forth to meet it. Even before the prayer is uttered, or the yearning of the heart made known, grace from Christ goes forth to meet the grace that is working upon the human soul.
WGD	152	3	Your Heavenly Father will take from you the garments defiled by sin. In the beautiful parabolic prophecy of Zechariah, the high priest Joshua, standing clothed in filthy garments before the angel of the Lord, represents the sinner. And the word is spoken by the Lord, "Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him He said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. . . ." Even so God will clothe you with "the garments of salvation," and cover you with "the robe of righteousness.". . . He will bring you into His banqueting house, and His banner over you shall be love.--Christ's Object Lessons, 206.
WGD	152	4	The steps upward to Heaven must be taken one at a time; every advance step strengthens us for the next. The transforming power of the grace of God upon the human heart is a work which but few comprehend, because they are too indolent to make the necessary effort.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 444.
WGD	152	5	O, the long-suffering mercy of our God! When His people put away the sins that had shut out His presence, He heard their prayers, and at once began to work for them.-- Patriarchs and Prophets, 558.
------------------------God Punishes Less than We Deserve, May 31
WGD	153	1	"And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this." Ezra 9:13.
WGD	153	2	The forbearance that God has exercised toward the wicked emboldens men in transgression; but their punishment will be none the less certain and terrible for being long delayed. . . . While He does not delight in vengeance, He will execute judgment upon the transgressors of His law. He is forced to do this, to preserve the inhabitants of the earth from utter depravity and ruin. In order to save some, He must cut off those who have become hardened in sin. "The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked." By terrible things in righteousness He will vindicate the authority of His downtrodden law. And the very fact of His reluctance to execute justice, testifies to the enormity of the sins that call forth His judgments, and to the severity of the retribution awaiting the transgressor.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 628.
WGD	153	3	As of old, He entreats the erring ones who profess His name to repent and turn from their evil ways. Now, as then, by the mouth of His chosen servants He predicts the dangers before them. He sounds the note of warning, and reproves sin just as faithfully as in the days of Jeremiah. But the Israel of our time have the same temptations to scorn reproof and hate counsel as had ancient Israel. They too often turn a deaf ear to the words that God has given His servants for the benefit of those who profess the truth. Though the Lord in mercy withholds for a time the retribution of their sin, . . . He will not always stay His hand, but will visit iniquity with righteous judgment.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 165, 166.
------------------------We Are Changed Into His Image, June 1
WGD	154	1	"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 3:18.
WGD	154	2	A pearl of great price is offered to the youth. They may sell all and buy this pearl, or they may refuse it, to their own infinite loss. Heaven may be attained by all who will comply with the conditions laid down in the Word of God. Our Redeemer was obedient unto death; He gave Himself an offering for sin. . . . Young friends, you may form earnest purposes in your own strength, you may flatter yourselves that you can pursue a straightforward course without yielding the heart to the controlling influence of the Spirit of God; but you are not thus made happy. Your restless spirit needs change, and thirsts for pleasure in amusement and hilarity and the society of your young associates. You are hewing out to yourselves broken cisterns which contain no water. . . . Happiness is to be found only in repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ; for your heart is filled with rebellion; it breathes forth in your words. Your selfish prayers and religious forms may soothe the conscience, but they only increase your peril. Your nature is unrenewed. . . .
WGD	154	3	The surrender of the heart to Jesus subdues the rebel into a penitent, and then the language of the obedient soul is, "Old things are passed away. . . ." This is the true religion of the Bible. Everything short of this is a deception.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 624, 625.
------------------------Through the Word We Are Reborn, June 2
WGD	155	1	"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." 1 Peter 1:23.
WGD	155	2	The youth who finds joy and happiness in reading the Word of God and in the hour of prayer, is constantly refreshed by draughts from the Fountain of life. He will attain a height of moral excellence and a breadth of thought of which others cannot conceive. Communion with God encourages good thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, and lofty purposes of action. Those who thus connect their souls with God are acknowledged by Him as His sons and daughters. They are constantly reaching higher and still higher, obtaining clearer views of God and of eternity, until the Lord makes them channels of light and wisdom to the world.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 624.
WGD	155	3	The change of heart by which we become children of God is in the Bible spoken of as birth. Again, it is compared to the germination of the good seed sown by the husbandman. In like manner those who are just converted to Christ are, as "newborn babes," to "grow up" to the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. . . . So from natural life, illustrations are drawn, to help us better to understand the mysterious truths of spiritual life.---Steps to Christ, 71.
WGD	155	4	If we would live a true Christian life, the conscience must be quickened by constant contact with the Word of God. All the precious things which at infinite cost God has provided for us, will do us no good; they cannot strengthen us and produce spiritual growth unless we appropriate them. We must eat the Word of God,--make it a part of ourselves.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 195.
------------------------Rebirth, the Work of the Holy Spirit, June 3
WGD	156	1	"Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." John 3:5, 6.
WGD	156	2	No human invention can find a remedy for the sinning soul. . . . The fountain of the heart must be purified before the streams can become pure. He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility. There is safety for one who has merely a legal religion, a form of godliness. The Christian's life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit. . . .
WGD	156	3	The wind is heard among the branches of the trees, rustling the leaves and flowers; yet it is invisible, and no man knows whence it comes, or whither it goes. So with the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. It can no more be explained than can the movements of the wind. A person may not be able to tell the exact time or place, or to trace all the circumstances in the process of conversion; but this does not prove him to be unconverted. By an agency as unseen as the wind, Christ is constantly working upon the heart. Little by little, perhaps unconsciously to the receiver, impressions are made that tend to draw the soul to Christ. These may be received through meditating upon Him, through reading the Scriptures, or through hearing the Word from the living preacher. Suddenly, as the Spirit comes with more direct appeal, the soul gladly surrenders itself to Jesus. . . . The beginning of redemption we may know here through a personal experience.--The Desire of Ages, 172, 173.
------------------------Obedience Necessary to Enter Heaven, June 4
WGD	157	1	"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; hut he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Matthew 7:21.
WGD	157	2	All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart-work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.--The Desire of Ages, 668.
WGD	157	3	The children are to be taught that their capabilities were given them for the honor and glory of God. To this end they must learn the lesson of obedience; for only by lives of willing obedience can they render to God the service He requires. Before the child is old enough to reason, he may be taught to obey. By gentle, persistent effort, the habit should be estab-lished. Thus to a great degree may be prevented those later conflicts between will and authority that do so much to arouse in the minds of the youth alienation and bitterness toward parents and teachers, and too often resistance of all authority, human and divine. Let children be shown that true reverence is revealed by obedience. God has commanded nothing that is unessential, and there is no other way of manifesting reverence so pleasing to Him as by obedience to that which He has spoken.---Counsels to Teachers, 110, 111.
WGD	157	4	With energy and fidelity our youth should meet the demands upon them; and this will be a guarantee of success.-- Counsels to Teachers, 100.
------------------------The Path of the Obedient Is Mercy and Truth, June 5
WGD	158	1	"All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies." Psalm 25:10.
WGD	158	2	God's people are to keep His commandments, discarding all worldly policy. Having adopted right principles of action, they are to reverence these principles; for they are heavenborn. Obedience to God is of more value to you than gold or silver. Yoking up with Christ, learning His meekness and lowliness, cuts short many a conflict; for when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him.--Testimonies for the Church,vol. 8, 95.
WGD	158	3	The material world is under God's control. The laws of nature are obeyed by nature. Everything speaks and acts the will of the Creator. Cloud and sunshine, dew and rain, wind and storm, all are under the supervision of God, and yield implicit obedience to His command. It is in obedience to the law of God that the spire of grain bursts through the ground. . . . These the Lord develops in their proper season because they do not resist His working. And can it be that man, made in the image of God, endowed with reason and speech, shall alone be unappreciative of His gifts and disobedient to His will? Shall rational beings alone cause confusion in our world?--Christ's Object Lessons, 81, 82.
WGD	158	4	Obedience is the test of discipleship. It is the keeping of the commandments that proves the sincerity of our professions of love. When the doctrine we accept kills sin in the heart, purifies the soul from defilement, bears fruit unto holiness, we may know that it is the truth of God. . . . When the joy of right-doing is in our hearts; when we exalt Christ, and not self, we may know that our faith is of the right order.-- Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 146.
------------------------The Heathen and the Stranger Shall Obey God, June 6
WGD	159	1	"As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me." Ps. 18:44.
WGD	159	2	The law of God is as sacred as Himself. It is a revelation of His will, a transcript of His character, the expression of divine love and wisdom. The harmony of creation depends upon the perfect conformity of all beings, of everything, animate and inanimate, to the law of the Creator. God has ordained laws for the government, not only of living beings, but of all the operations of nature. . . .
WGD	159	3	But while everything in nature is governed by natural laws, man alone, of all that inhabits the earth, is amenable to moral law. To man, the crowning work of creation, God has given power to understand His requirements, to comprehend the justice and beneficence of His law, and its sacred claims upon him; and of man unswerving obedience is re-quired.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 52.
WGD	159	4	Parents have not restrained the selfishness of their children. Self-indulgence has been the object of pursuit. Through selfserving, multitudes are bound in servitude to Satan. They are the slaves of their own impulses and passions, which are under the control of the wicked one. In calling them to His service, God offers them freedom. Obedience to God is liberty from the thralldom of sin, deliverance from human passion and impulse.--Testimonies to Ministers, 247.
WGD	159	5	Willing obedience to God's requirements gives vital energy and power to the soul. A work enduring as the sun is done for the worker as well as for those for whom he labors. However limited the capacity of the one who engages in this work, the labor . . . will be acceptable to God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 613.
------------------------Long Life Promised to the Obedient, June 7
WGD	160	1	"And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days." 1 Kings 3:14.
WGD	160	2	Men and women cannot violate natural law by indulging depraved appetite and lustful passions, and not violate the law of God. Therefore He has permitted the light of health reform to shine upon us, that we may see our sin in violating the laws which He has established in our being. All our enjoyment or suffering may be traced to obedience or transgression of natural law. Our gracious heavenly Father sees the deplorable condition of men, who, some knowingly but many ignorantly, are living in violation of the laws that He has established. And in love and pity to the race, He causes the light to shine upon health reform. He publishes His law, and the penalty that will follow the transgression of it, that all may learn, and be careful to live in harmony with natural law. . . .
WGD	160	3	Ignorance is no excuse now for the transgression of law. The light shines clearly, and none need be ignorant, for the great God Himself is man's instructor. All are bound by the most sacred obligations to God to heed the sound philosophy and genuine experience which He is now giving them in reference to health reform.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 161, 162.
WGD	160	4	What a God is our God! He rules over His kingdom with diligence and care; and He has built a hedge--the ten commandments--about His subjects, to preserve them from the results of transgression. In requiring obedience to the laws of His kingdom, God gives His people health and happiness, peace and joy.--Counsels to Teachers, 454.
------------------------Blessed Are They That Do His Commandments, June 8
WGD	161	1	"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Revelation 22:14.
WGD	161	2	A faithful obedience to God's requirements will have a surprising influence to elevate, develop, and strengthen all man's faculties. Those who have in youth devoted themselves to the service of God, are found to be the men of sound judgment and keen discrimination. And why should it not be so? Communion with the greatest Teacher the world has ever known, strengthens the understanding, illuminates the mind, and purifies the heart--elevates, refines, and ennobles the whole man. . . .
WGD	161	3	Among the youth who profess godliness, there is a large class who may seem to contradict this statement. They make no advancement in knowledge or in spirituality. Their powers are dwarfing, rather than developing. But the psalmist's words are true of the genuine Christian. It is not, indeed, the bare letter of God's Word that gives light and understanding; it is the Word opened and applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit. When a man is truly converted, he becomes a son of God, a partaker of the divine nature. Not only is the heart renewed, but the intellect is strengthened and invigorated. There have been many instances of persons who before conversion were thought to possess ordinary and even inferior ability, but who after conversion seemed to be entirely transformed. They then manifested remarkable power to comprehend the truths of God's Word, and to present these truths to others. . . .
WGD	161	4	God will do a great work for the youth, if they will by the aid of the Holy Spirit receive His Word into the heart and obey it in the life.--Messages to Young People, 65, 66.
------------------------His Commands Are Not Grievous, June 9
WGD	162	1	"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3.
WGD	162	2	We are to give ourselves to Christ, to live a life of willing obedience to all His requirements. All that we are, all the talents and capabilities we possess, are the Lord's, to be consecrated to His service. When we thus give ourselves wholly to Him, Christ, with all the treasures of heaven, gives Himself to us. We obtain the pearl of great price.--Christ's Object Lessons, 116.
WGD	162	3	Remember, you have a Heaven to gain, an open path to perdition to shun. God means what He says. When He prohibited our first parents from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, their disobedience opened the floodgates of woe to the whole world. If we walk contrary to God, He will walk contrary to us. Our only safe course is to render obedience to all His requirements at whatever cost. All are founded in infinite love and wisdom.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 365.
WGD	162	4	The young should be controlled by firm principle, that they may rightly improve the powers which God has given them. But youth follow impulse so much and so blindly, without reference to principle, that they are constantly in danger. Since they cannot always have the guidance and protection of parents and guardians, they need to be trained to self-reliance and self-control. They must be taught to think and act from conscientious principle.--Messages to Young People, 379.
WGD	162	5	It is through the power and prevalence of truth that we must be sanctified, and elevated to the true dignity of the standard set forth in the Word. The way of the Lord can be learned only through most careful obedience to His Word. Study the Word.--Messages to Young People, 391.
------------------------Destruction the Result of Disobedience, June 10
WGD	163	1	"If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isaiah 1:19, 20.
WGD	163	2	The want of respect for the counsel of a godly parent, is one of the marked sins of this degenerate age. There are many lives in our land that are dark and wretched because of one step taken in the dark. By one act of disobedience many a youth has blighted his whole life and weighed down a loving mother's heart with anguish. God will not hold you guiltless if you follow in this course. By despising the counsel of a God-fearing mother, who would willingly give her life for her children, you are transgressing the fifth commandment. You know not where your steps are leading you.
WGD	163	3	I again plead a mother's claim, a mother's love. There can be no baser ingratitude than that which marks the sin of disobedience to a Christian mother. In the days of your helpless infancy she watched over you; her prayers and tears were witnessed of Heaven as she affectionately cherished you. For her children she has toiled and planned, thought, prayed, and exercised self-denial. Through your whole life her true heart has been anxious and earnest for your welfare. And yet now you choose your own course; you follow your own blind, stubborn will, irrespective of the bitter harvest you will reap, and the sorrow you will bring her.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 125.
WGD	163	4	Disobedience has closed the door to a vast amount of knowledge that might have been gained from the Word of God. Had men been obedient, they would have understood the plan of God's government. The heavenly world would have opened its chambers of grace and glory for exploration.-- Counsels to Teachers, 440, 441.
------------------------We Are No More Children Tossed To and Fro, June 11
WGD	164	1	"That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." Ephesians 4:14, 15.
WGD	164	2	In perfecting a Christian character, it is essential to persevere in right doing. I would impress upon our youth the importance of perseverance and energy in the work of character-building. From the earliest years it is necessary to weave into the character principles of stern integrity, that the youth may reach the highest standard of manhood and womanhood. They should ever keep the fact before their eyes that they have been bought with a price, and should glorify God in their bodies and spirits, which are His. . . .
WGD	164	3	It is the work of the youth to make advancement day by day. Peter says, "Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
WGD	164	4	All these successive steps are not to be kept before the mind's eye, and counted as you start; but fixing the eye upon Jesus, with an eye single to the glory of God, you will make advancement. You cannot reach the full measure of the stature of Christ in a day, and you would sink in despair could you behold all the difficulties that must be met and overcome. You have Satan to contend with, and he will seek by every possible device to attract your mind from Christ.--Messages to Young People, 45, 46.
------------------------Increasing in the Knowledge of God, June 12
WGD	165	1	"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." Colossians 1:10.
WGD	165	2	He uses his gifts best who seeks by earnest endeavor to carry out the Lord's great plan for the uplifting of humanity. Persevere in the work that you have begun, until you gain victory after victory. Educate yourselves for a purpose. Keep in view the highest standard, that you may accomplish greater and still greater good, thus reflecting the glory of God.-- Messages to Young People, 48.
WGD	165	3	Do not become overwhelmed with the great amount of work you must do in your lifetime, for you are not required to do it all at once. Let every power of your being go to each day s work, improve each precious opportunity, appreciate the helps that God gives you, and make advancement up the ladder of progress step by step. Remember that you are to live but one day at a time, that God has given you one day, and heavenly records will show how you have valued its privileges and opportunities. May you so improve every day given you of God, that at last you may hear the Master say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."--Messages to Young People, 46.
WGD	165	4	Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invincible, than the soul that feels its nothingness, and relies wholly on the merits of the Saviour. God would send every angel in heaven to the aid of such an one, rather than allow him to be overcome.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 17.
WGD	165	5	Remember that in your life, religion is not merely one influence among others; it is to be an influence dominating all others. Be strictly temperate. Resist every temptation. Make no concessions to the wily foe.--Counsels to Teachers, 489.
------------------------Strength and Beauty of Character, June 13
WGD	166	1	"I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon." Hosea 14:5, 6.
WGD	166	2	It rests with you, young men and women, to decide whether you will become trustworthy and faithful, ready and resolute to take your stand for the right under all circumstances. Do you desire to form correct habits? Then seek the company of those who are sound in morals, and whose aim tends to that which is good. The precious hours of probation are granted that you may remove every defect from the character, and this you should seek to do, not only that you may obtain the future life, but that you may be useful in this life. A good character is a capital of more value than gold or silver. It is unaffected by panics or failures, and in that day when earthly possessions shall be swept away, it will bring rich returns. Integrity, firmness, and perseverance are qualities that all should seek earnestly to cultivate; for they clothe the possessor with a power which is irresistible,---a power which makes him strong to do good, strong to resist evil, strong to bear adversity.
WGD	166	3	The love of truth, and a sense of the responsibility to glorify God, are the most powerful of all incentives to the improvement of the intellect. With this impulse to action the student cannot be a trifler. He will be always in earnest. . . . In every place are to be found youth whose mind is cast in an inferior mould. When brought into association with this class, those who have placed themselves without reserve on the side of Christ will stand firmly by that which reason and conscience tell them is right.--Counsels to Teachers, 225, 226.
------------------------Grow in Grace and Knowledge, June 14
WGD	167	1	"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 3:18.
WGD	167	2	Young friends, the fear of the Lord lies at the very foundation of all progress; it is the beginning of wisdom. Your Heavenly Father has claims upon you; for without solicitation or merit on your part He gives you the bounties of His providence; and more than this, He has given you all heaven in one gift, that of His beloved Son.
WGD	167	3	In return for this infinite gift, He claims of you willing obedience. As you are bought with a price, even the precious blood of the Son of God, He requires that you make a right use of the privileges you enjoy.
WGD	167	4	Your intellectual and moral faculties are God's gifts, talents intrusted to you for wise improvement, and you are not at liberty to let them lie dormant for want of proper cultivation, or be crippled and dwarfed by inaction. It is for you to determine whether or not the weighty responsibilities that rest upon you shall be faithfully met, whether or not your efforts shall be well directed and your best.
WGD	167	5	We are living in the perils of the last days. All heaven is interested in the characters you are forming. Every provision has been made for you, that you should be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Man is not left alone to conquer the powers of evil by his own feeble efforts. Help is at hand, and will be given every soul who really desires it. Angels of God, that ascend and descend the ladder that Jacob saw in vision, will help every soul who wills to climb even to the highest heaven.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 85, 86.
------------------------The Word of God Stimulates Growth, June 15
WGD	168	1	"As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." 1 Peter 2:2, 3.
WGD	168	2	We recommend to every student the Book of books as the grandest study for human intelligence, the book that contains the knowledge essential for this life and the life to come. . . . The student who in his school life becomes familiar with the truths of God's Word and feels their transforming power upon his heart, will represent the character of Christ to the world in well-ordered life and a godly conversation.--Counsels to Teachers, 395, 396.
WGD	168	3	As with life, so it is with growth. It is God who brings the bud to bloom and the flower to fruit. It is by His power that the seed develops, "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.". . . The plants and flowers grow not by their own care or anxiety or effort, but by receiving that which God has furnished to minister to their life. The child can not, by any anxiety or power of its own, add to its stature. No more can you, by anxiety or effort of yourself, secure spiritual growth. The plant, the child, grows by receiving from its surroundings that which ministers to its life,--air, sunshine, and food. What these gifts of nature are to animal and plant, such is Christ to those who trust in Him. . . . In the matchless gift of His Son, God has encircled the whole world with an atmosphere of grace, as real as the air which circulates around the globe. All who choose to breathe this life-giving atmosphere will live, and grow up to the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. As the flower turns to the sun . . . so should we turn to the Sun of Righteousness, . . . that our character may be developed into the likeness of Christ.--Steps to Christ, 72, 73.
------------------------The Word of God Is Bread from Heaven, June 16
WGD	169	1	"As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever." John 6:57, 58.
WGD	169	2	Our life is to be bound up with the life of Christ; we are to draw constantly from Him, partaking of Him, the living bread that came down from heaven, drawing from a fountain ever fresh, ever giving forth its abundant treasures. If we keep the Lord ever before us, allowing our hearts to go out in thanksgiving and praise to Him, we shall have a continual freshness in our religious life.
WGD	169	3	Our prayers will take the form of a conversation with God, as we would talk with a friend. He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Often there will come to us a sweet, joyful sense of the presence of Jesus. Often our hearts will burn within us as He draws nigh to commune with us as He did with Enoch. . . . In those who possess it, the religion of Christ will reveal itself as a vitalizing, pervading principle, a living, working, spiritual energy. There will be manifest the freshness and power and joyousness of perpetual youth.
WGD	169	4	The heart that receives the Word of God is not as a pool that evaporates, not like a broken cistern that loses its treasure. It is like the mountain stream fed by unfailing springs, whose cool, sparkling waters leap from rock to rock, refreshing the weary, the thirsty, the heavy laden.--Christ's Object Lessons, 129, 130.
WGD	169	5	Christians should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise, and this preparation they should make by diligently studying the word of God.--Prophets and Kings, 626.
------------------------Press Toward the Mark, June 17
WGD	170	1	"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13, 14.
WGD	170	2	The heavenly intelligences will work with the human agent who seeks with determined faith that perfection of character which will reach out to perfection in action. To every one engaged in this work Christ says, I am at your right hand to help you. As the will of man co-operates with the will of God, it becomes omnipotent. Whatever is to be done at His command, may be accomplished in His strength. All His biddings are enablings.--Christ's Object Lessons, 332, 333.
WGD	170	3	Beginning in the morning of life, controlled by the laws of nature and of God, the Christian moves steadily onward and upward, daily drawing nearer his heavenly home, where await for him a crown of life, and a new name, "which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." Constantly he grows in happiness, in holiness, in usefulness. The progress of each year exceeds that of the past year.
WGD	170	4	God has given the youth a ladder to climb, a ladder that reaches from earth to heaven. Above this ladder is God, and on every round fall the bright beams of His glory. He is watching those who are climbing, ready, when the grasp relaxes and the steps falter, to send help. Yes, tell it in words full of cheer, that no one who perseveringly climbs the ladder will fail of gaining an entrance into the heavenly city.
WGD	170	5	Satan presents many temptations to the youth. He is playing the game of life for their souls, and he leaves no means untried to allure and ruin them.--Messages to Young People, 95.
------------------------I Shall Not Be Moved, June 18
WGD	171	1	"I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." Ps. 16:8.
WGD	171	2	It is by small things that our characters are formed to habits of integrity. . . . Nothing with which we have to do is really small. Every action is of some account, either on the side of right, or on the side of wrong. It is only by exercising principle in the small transactions of ordinary life that we are tested and our characters formed. In the various circumstances of life we are tested and proved, and thereby we acquire a power to stand the greater and more important tests that we are called to endure, and are qualified to fill still more important positions. The mind must be trained through daily tests to habits of fidelity, to a sense of the claims of right and duty above inclination and pleasure. Minds thus trained do not waver between right and wrong, as the reed trembles in the wind; but as soon as matters come before them, they discern at once that principle is involved, and they instinctively choose the right without long debating the matter. They are loyal because they have trained themselves to habits of faithfulness and truth. By being faithful in that which is least, they acquire strength, and it becomes easy for them to be faithful in greater matters.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 22.
WGD	171	3	If our lives are filled with holy fragrance, if we honor God by having good thoughts toward others, and good deeds to bless others, it matters not whether we live in a cottage or a palace. Circumstances have but little to do with the experiences of the soul.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 488.
WGD	171	4	A great name among men is as letters traced in sand; but a spotless character will endure to all eternity.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p 579.
------------------------I Shall Be Like a Tree, June 19
WGD	172	1	"And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Ps. 1:3.
WGD	172	2	There must be no pretense in the lives of those who have so sacred and solemn a message as we have been called to bear. The world is watching Seventh-day Adventists, because it knows something of their profession of faith, and of their high standard, and when it sees those who do not live up to their profession, it points at them with scorn.
WGD	172	3	Those who love Jesus will bring all in their lives into harmony with His will. They have chosen to be on the Lord's side, and their lives are to stand out in vivid contrast with the lives of worldlings. The tempter will come to them with his blandishments and bribes, saying, "All this will I give thee if thou wilt worship me." But they know that he has nothing worth receiving, and they refuse to yield to his temptations. Through the grace of God, they are enabled to keep their purity of principle unsullied. Holy angels are close beside them, and Christ is revealed in their steadfast adherence to the truth.
WGD	172	4	They are Christ's minutemen, bearing, as true witnesses, a decided testimony in favor of the truth. They show that there is a spiritual power that can enable men and women not to swerve an inch from truth and justice, for all the gifts that men can bestow. Such ones, wherever they may be, will be honored of heaven, because they have conformed their lives to the will of God, caring not what sacrifices they are called upon to make.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 23, 24.
WGD	172	5	Men must have moral backbone, an integrity which cannot be flattered, bribed, or terrified.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 297.
------------------------Faithfulness in that Which Is Least, June 20
WGD	173	1	"He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." Luke 16:10.
WGD	173	2	As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he." Many thoughts make up the unwritten history of a single day; and these thoughts have much to do with the formation of character. Our thoughts are to be strictly guarded; for one impure thought makes a deep impression on the soul. An evil thought leaves an evil impress on the mind. If the thoughts are pure and holy, the man is better for having cherished them. By them the spiritual pulse is quickened, and the power for doing good is increased. And as one drop of rain prepares the way for another in moistening the earth, so one good thought prepares the way for another.
WGD	173	3	The longest journey is performed by taking one step at a time. A succession of steps brings us to the end of the road. The longest chain is composed of separate links. If one of these links is faulty, the chain is worthless. Thus it is with character. A well-balanced character is formed by single acts well performed. One defect, cultivated instead of being overcome, makes the man imperfect, and closes against him the gate of the Holy City. He who enters heaven must have a character that is without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Naught that defileth can ever enter there. In all the redeemed host not one defect will be seen.
WGD	173	4	God's work is perfect as a whole because it is perfect in every part, however minute. He fashions the tiny spear of grass with as much care as He would exercise in making a world. If we desire to be perfect, . . . we must be faithful in doing little things.--Messages to Young People, 144, 145.
------------------------I Shall Not Fear, June 21
WGD	174	1	"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Ps. 27:1.
WGD	174	2	Those who are finally victorious will have seasons of terrible perplexity and trial in their religious life; but they must not cast away their confidence, for this is a part of their discipline in the school of Christ, and it is essential in order that all dross may be purged away. The servant of God must endure with fortitude the attacks of the enemy, his grievous taunts, and must overcome the obstacles which Satan will place in his way.
WGD	174	3	Satan will seek to discourage the followers of Christ, so that they may not pray or study the Scriptures, and he will throw his hateful shadow athwart the path to hide Jesus from the view, to shut away the vision of His love, and the glories of the heavenly inheritance. It is his delight to cause the children of God to go shrinkingly, tremblingly, and painfully along, under continual doubt. He seeks to make the pathway as sorrowful as possible; but if you keep looking up, not down at your difficulties, you will not faint in the way, you will soon see Jesus reaching His hand to help you, and you will only have to give Him your hand in simple confidence, and let Him lead you. . . .
WGD	174	4	Jesus is the light of the world, and you are to fashion your life after His. You will find help in Christ to form a strong, symmetrical, beautiful character. Satan cannot make of none effect the light shining forth from such a character. The Lord has a work for each of us to do. He does not provide that we shall be sustained by the influence of human praise and petting; He means that every soul shall stand in the strength of the Lord.--Messages to Young People, 63, 64.
------------------------The Word of Christ Shall Dwell in Me, June 22
WGD	175	1	"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16.
WGD	175	2	Faith in Jesus will grow as you become better acquainted with your Redeemer by dwelling upon His spotless life and His infinite love. You cannot dishonor God more than to profess to be His disciple while you keep at a distance from Him, and are not fed and nourished by His Holy Spirit.
WGD	175	3	When you are growing in grace, you will love to attend religious meetings, and you will gladly bear testimony of the love of Christ before the congregation. God, by His grace, can make the young man prudent, and He can give to the children knowledge and experience. They can grow in grace daily. You should not measure your faith by your feelings.
WGD	175	4	Closely examine your own heart, and the state of your affections toward God. Inquire, Have I devoted the precious moments of today in seeking to please myself, seeking for my own amusement? or have I made others happy? Have I helped those connected with me to greater devotion to God and to appreciate eternal things? Have I brought my religion into my home, and there revealed the grace of Christ in my words and in my deportment? By my respectful obedience, have I honored my parents, and thus kept the fifth commandment? Have I cheerfully taken up my little, everyday duties, performing them with fidelity, doing what I could to lighten the burdens of others? Have I kept my lips from evil, and my tongue from speaking guile? Have I honored Christ my Redeemer, who gave His precious life that eternal life might be within my reach?--Messages to Young People, 121, 122.
------------------------We Shall Be Rooted and Built Up in Him, June 23
WGD	176	1	"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." Colossians 2:6, 7.
WGD	176	2	We need to be converted daily. Our prayers should be more fervent; then they will be more effectual. Stronger and stronger should be our confidence that God's Spirit will be with us, making us pure and holy, as upright and fragrant as the cedar of Lebanon.--Gospel Workers, 272.
WGD	176	3	Many receive applause for virtues which they do not possess. The Searcher of hearts weighs the motives, and often deeds highly applauded by men are recorded by Him as springing from selfishness and base hypocrisy. Every act of our lives, . . . is judged by the Searcher of hearts according to the motives which prompted it.--Gospel Workers, 275.
WGD	176	4	Those who are engaged in service for the Master need an experience much higher, deeper, broader, than many have yet thought of having. Many who are already members of God's great family know little of what it means to behold His glory, and to be changed from glory to glory. Many have a twilight perception of Christ's excellence, and their hearts thrill with joy. They long for a fuller, deeper sense of the Saviour's love. . . .
WGD	176	5	The Holy Spirit works with those who will be worked, moulds those who will be moulded, fashions those who will be fashioned. Give yourselves the culture of spiritual thoughts and holy communings. You have seen but the first rays of the early dawn of His glory. As you follow on to know the Lord, you will know that the "path of the righteous is as the light of dawn, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."--Gospel Workers, 274.
------------------------Having Done All, I Shall Stand, June 24
WGD	177	1	"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Ephesians 6:13.
WGD	177	2	Those who stand in defense of the honor of God, and maintain the purity of truth at any cost, will have manifold trials, as did our Saviour in the wilderness of temptation. While those who have yielding temperaments, who have not courage to condemn wrong, but keep silent when their influence is needed to stand in defense of the right against any pressure, may avoid many heart-aches and escape many perplexities, they will also lose a very rich reward, if not their own souls. Those who are in harmony with God, and who through faith in Him receive strength to resist wrong and stand in defense of the right, will always have severe conflicts, and will frequently have to stand almost alone. But precious victories will be theirs while they make God their dependence. His grace will be their strength. Their moral sensibility will be keen and clear, and their moral powers will be able to withstand wrong influences. Their integrity, like that of Moses, will be of the purest character.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 302, 303.
WGD	177	3	Stupidity must be shaken off. We must arouse from the lethargy that will prove our destruction unless we resist it. Satan has a powerful, controlling influence upon minds. . . . There is no such thing now as a neutral position. We are all decidedly for the right, or decidedly with the wrong. . . . There are many who profess to believe the truth who are blind to their own danger. They cherish iniquity in their hearts and practice it in their lives. Their friends cannot read their hearts, and frequently think that such are all right.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 328, 329.
------------------------The Transforming Power of Truth, June 25
WGD	178	1	"And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." 1 John 3:3.
WGD	178	2	None but He who has created man can effect a change in the human heart. God alone can give the increase. Every teacher is to realize that he is to be moved by divine agencies. The human judgment and ideas of the most experienced are liable to be imperfect and faulty, and the frail instrument, subject to his own hereditary traits of character, has need to submit to the sanctification of the Holy Spirit every day, else self will gather the reins and want to drive. In the meek and lowly spirit of the learner, all human methods and plans and ideas must be brought to God for His correction and indorsement; otherwise the restless energy of Paul or the skilful logic of Appollos will be powerless to effect the conversion of souls.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 167.
WGD	178	3	Jesus assumed humanity that He might meet humanity. He brings men under the transforming power of truth by meeting them where they are. He gains access to the heart by securing sympathy and confidence, making all feel that His identification with their nature and interest is complete. The truth came from His lips beautiful in its simplicity, yet clothed with dignity and power. What a teacher was our Lord Jesus Christ! How tenderly did He treat every honest inquirer after truth, that He might gain admission to his sympathies, and find a home in the heart.--Testimonies to Ministers, 190.
WGD	178	4	Christ has made every provision that His church shall be a transformed body, illumined with the Light of the world, possessing the glory of Immanuel. It is His purpose that every Christian shall be surrounded with a spiritual atmosphere of light and peace.--Christ's Object Lessons, 419.
------------------------We Shall Be New Creatures, June 26
WGD	179	1	"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17.
WGD	179	2	As the mind dwells upon Christ, the character is molded after the divine similitude. The thoughts are pervaded with a sense of His goodness, His love. We contemplate His character, and thus He is in all our thoughts. His love incloses us. If we gaze even a moment upon the sun in its meridian glory, when we turn away our eyes the image of the sun will appear in everything upon which we look.
WGD	179	3	Thus it is when we behold Jesus; everything we look upon reflects His image, the Sun of Righteousness. We cannot see anything else, or talk of anything else. His image is imprinted upon the eye of the soul, and affects every portion of our daily life, softening and subduing our whole nature. By beholding we are conformed to the divine similitude, even the likeness of Christ. To all with whom we associate we reflect the bright and cheerful beams of His righteousness. We have become transformed in character; for heart, soul, mind are irradiated by the reflection of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Here again there is the realization of a personal, living influence dwelling in our hearts by faith.
WGD	179	4	When His words of instruction have been received, and have taken possession of us, Jesus is to us an abiding presence, controlling our thoughts and ideas and actions. We are imbued with the instruction of the greatest teacher the world ever knew. A sense of human accountability and of human influence, gives character to our views of life and of daily duties. Jesus Christ is everything to us,--the first, the last, the best in everything.--Messages to Young People, 160, 161.
------------------------The Transformed Life Is Sincere, June 27
WGD	180	1	"That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ." Philippians 1:10.
WGD	180	2	Many whom God has qualified to do excellent work accomplish very little, because they attempt little. Thousands pass through life as if they had no definite object for which to live, no standard to reach. Such will obtain a reward proportionate to their works. Remember that you will never reach a higher standard than you yourself set. Then set your mark high, and step by step, even though it be by painful effort, by self-denial and sacrifice, ascend the whole length of the ladder of progress. Let nothing hinder you. Fate has not woven its meshes about any human being so firmly that he need remain helpless and in uncertainty. Opposing circumstances should create a firm determination to overcome them. The breaking down of one barrier will give greater ability and courage to go forward. Press with determination in the right direction, and circumstances will be your helpers, not your hindrances.
WGD	180	3	Be ambitious, for the Master's glory, to cultivate every grace of character. In every phase of your character-building you are to please God. This you may do; for Enoch pleased Him, though living in a degenerate age. And there are Enochs in this our day. . . .
WGD	180	4	A character formed according to the divine likeness is the only treasure that we can take from this world to the next. Those who are under the instruction of Christ in this world will take every divine attainment with them to the heavenly mansions. And in heaven we are continually to improve. How important, then, is the development of character in this life. --Christ's Object Lessons, 331, 332.
------------------------The Transformed Life Bears Fruit, June 28
WGD	181	1	"Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:11.
WGD	181	2	The plant does not germinate, grow, or bring forth fruit for itself, but to "give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater." So no man is to live unto himself. The Christian is in the world as a representative of Christ, for the salvation of other souls.
WGD	181	3	There can be no growth or fruitfulness in the life that is centered in self. If you have accepted Christ as a personal Saviour, you are to forget yourself, and try to help others. Talk of the love of Christ, tell of His goodness. Do every duty that presents itself. Carry the burden of souls upon your heart, and by every means in your power seek to save the lost. As you receive the Spirit of Christ,--the spirit of unselfish love and labor for others,--you will grow and bring forth fruit. The graces of the Spirit will ripen in your character. Your faith will increase, your convictions deepen, your love be made perfect. More and more you will reflect the likeness of Christ in all that is pure, noble, and lovely.--Christ's Object Lessons, 67, 68.
WGD	181	4	It is His plan, by conforming His servants day by day to the image of Christ, by making them partakers of the divine nature, to cause them to bear fruit abundantly.
WGD	181	5	He desires His people, through actual experience in the truth of the gospel, to become true, solid, trustworthy, experimental missionaries. He would have them show results far higher, holier, and more definite than in our day have yet been revealed.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 186.
------------------------The Fruits of the Spirit Are Borne, June 29
WGD	182	1	"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22, 23.
WGD	182	2	This fruit can never perish, but will produce after its kind a harvest unto eternal life. . . . Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.
WGD	182	3	It is the privilege of every Christian, not only to look for, but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christwould come to gather the precious grain.--Christ's Object Lessons, 69.
WGD	182	4	The heart in which love rules, will not be filled with passion or revenge, by injuries which pride and self-love would deem unbearable. Love is unsuspecting, ever placing the most favorable construction upon the motives and acts of others. Love will never needlessly expose the faults of others. It does not listen eagerly to unfavorable reports, but rather seeks to bring to mind some good qualities of the one defamed. . . . The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace. Discord and strife are the work of Satan and the fruit of sin. If we would as a people, enjoy peace and love, we must put away our sins, we must come into harmony with God, and we shall be in harmony with one another. Let each ask himself: Do I possess the grace of love? Have I learned to suffer long, and to be kind? --Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 169.
------------------------By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them, June 30
WGD	183	1	"Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. . . . Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." Matthew 7:17-20.
WGD	183	2	No matter how high his profession, he whose heart is not imbued with love for God and for his fellow-men, is not a disciple of Christ. Though he should possess great faith, and even have power to work miracles, yet without love his faith would be worthless. He might display great liberality, but should he from some other motive than genuine love, bestow all his goods to feed the poor, the act would not commend him to the favor of God. In his zeal he might even meet a martyr's death, yet if destitute of the gold of love he would be regarded by God as a deluded enthusiast or an ambitious hypocrite.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 168,
WGD	183	3	There is an eloquence far more powerful than the eloquence of words in the quiet, consistent life of a pure, true Christian. What a man is has more influence than what he says. . . . It is our own character and experience that determine our influence upon others. In order to convince others of the power of Christ's grace, we must know its power in our own hearts and lives. The gospel we present for the saving of souls must be the gospel by which our own souls are saved. Only through a living faith in Christ as a personal Saviour is it possible to make our influence felt in a skeptical world. If we would draw sinners out of the swift-running current, our own feet must be firmly set upon the Rock, Christ Jesus. The badge of Christianity is not an outward sign, not the wearing of a cross or a crown, but it is that which reveals the union of man with God.--The Ministry of Healing, 469, 470.
------------------------Seek the Lord Continually, July 1
WGD	184	1	"Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually." 1 Chronicles 16:11.
WGD	184	2	Prayer is heaven's ordained means of success in the conflict with sin and the development of Christian character. The divine influences that come in answer to the prayer of faith will accomplish in the soul of the suppliant all for which he pleads. For the pardon of sin, for the Holy Spirit, for a Christlike temper, for wisdom and strength to do His work, for any gift He has promised, we may ask; and the promise is, "Ye shall receive."-- The Acts of the Apostles, 564.
WGD	184	3	When the mind of man is brought into communion with the mind of God, the finite with the Infinite, the effect on body, and mind, and soul, is beyond estimate. In such communion is found the highest education. It is God's own method of development.--The Acts of the Apostles, 126.
WGD	184	4	Not all your good purposes and good intentions will enable you to withstand evil. You must be men and women of prayer. Your petitions must not be faint, occasional, and fitful, but earnest, persevering, and constant. It is not always necessary to bow upon your knees in order to pray. Cultivate the habit of talking with the Saviour when you are alone, when you are walking, and when you are busy with your daily labor. Let the heart be continually uplifted in silent petition for help, for light, for strength, for knowledge. Let every breath be a prayer. --The Ministry of Healing, 510, 511.
------------------------Take Hold of God's Strength, July 2
WGD	185	1	"Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." Isaiah 27:5.
WGD	185	2	Enoch was a man of strong and highly cultivated mind, and extensive knowledge; he was honored with special revelations from God; yet being in constant communion with heaven, with a sense of the divine greatness and perfection ever before him, he was one of the humblest of men. The closer the connection with God, the deeper was the sense of his own weakness and imperfection.
WGD	185	3	Distressed by the increasing wickedness of the ungodly, and fearing that their infidelity might lessen his reverence for God, Enoch avoided constant association with them, and spent much time in solitude, giving himself to meditation and prayer. Thus he waited before the Lord, seeking a clearer knowledge of His will, that he might perform it. To him prayer was as the breath of the soul; he lived in the very atmosphere of heaven.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 85.
WGD	185	4	Communing thus with God, Enoch came more and more to reflect the divine image. His face was radiant with a holy light, even the light that shineth from the face of Jesus. As he came forth from these divine communings, even the ungodly beheld with awe the impress of heaven upon his countenance.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 87.
WGD	185	5	Whoever under the reproof of God will humble the soul with confession and repentance, as did David, may be sure that there is hope for him. Whoever will in faith accept God's promises, will find pardon. The Lord will never cast away one truly repentant soul. He has given this promise: "Let him take hold of my strength, . . . and he shall make peace with me."--Patriarchs and Prophets. 726.
------------------------God Will Be Favorable, July 3
WGD	186	1	"He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness." Job 33:26.
WGD	186	2	No cry from a soul in need, though it fail of utterance in words, will be unheeded. Those who will consent to enter into covenant relation with the God of heaven are not left to the power of Satan or to the infirmity of their own nature.--The Desire of Ages, 258, 259.
WGD	186	3	There are few who rightly appreciate or improve the precious privilege of prayer. We should go to Jesus and tell Him all our needs. We may bring Him our little cares and perplexities as well as our greater troubles. Whatever arises to disturb or distress us, we should take it to the Lord in prayer. When we feel that we need the presence of Christ at every step, Satan will have little opportunity to intrude his temptations. It is his studied effort to keep us away from our. best and most sympathizing friend. We should make no one our confidant but Jesus. We can safely commune with Him of all that is in our hearts.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 200, 201.
WGD	186	4	Every sincere prayer is heard in heaven. It may not be fluently expressed; but if the heart is in it, it will ascend to the sanctuary where Jesus ministers, and He will present it to the Father without one awkward, stammering word, beautiful and fragrant with the incense of His own perfection.-- The Desire of Ages, 667.
WGD	186	5	If we would only take the Lord at His word, what blessings might be ours! Would that there were more fervent, effectual prayer. Christ will be the helper of all who seek Him in faith.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 202.
------------------------In Thee Do I Hope, for Thou Wilt Hear, July 4
WGD	187	1	"For in thee, O Lord, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God." Ps. 38:15.
WGD	187	2	We must be much in prayer, if we would make progress in the divine life. When the message of truth was first proclaimed, how much we prayed. How often was the voice of intercession heard in the chamber, in the barn, in the orchard, or the grove. Frequently we spent hours in earnest prayer, two or three together claiming the promise; often the sound of weeping was heard, and then the voice of thanksgiving and the song of praise. Now the day of God is nearer than when we first believed, and we should be more earnest, more zealous, and fervent than in those early days. Our perils are greater now than then. Souls are more hardened. We need now to be imbued with the spirit of Christ; and we should not rest until we receive it.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 161, 162.
WGD	187	3	Pray, yes, pray with unshaken faith and trust. The Angel of the Covenant, even our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Mediator who secures the acceptance of the prayers of His believing ones.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 179.
WGD	187	4	Through nature and revelation, through His providence, and by the influence of His Spirit, God speaks to us. But these are not enough; we need also to pour out our hearts to Him. In order to have spiritual life and energy, we must have actual intercourse with our heavenly Father. Our minds may be drawn out toward Him; we may meditate upon His works, His mercies, His blessings; but this is not, in the fullest sense, communing with Him. In order to commune with God, we must have something to say to Him concerning our actual life.--Steps to Christ, 97.
------------------------He Knows Our Needs Before We Ask, July 5
WGD	188	1	"For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." Matthew 6:8.
WGD	188	2	Jesus Himself, while He dwelt among men, was often in prayer. Our Saviour identified Himself with our needs and weakness, in that He became a suppliant, a petitioner, seeking from His Father fresh supplies of strength, that He might come forth braced for duty and trial. He is our example in all things. He is a brother in our infirmities, "in all points tempted like as we are;" but as the sinless one, His nature recoiled from evil; He endured struggles and torture of soul in a world of sin. His humanity made prayer a necessity and a privilege. He found comfort and joy in communion with His Father. And if the Saviour of men, the Son of God, felt the need of prayer, how much more should feeble, sinful mortals feel the necessity of fervent, constant prayer.
WGD	188	3	Our heavenly Father waits to bestow upon us the fulness of His blessing. It is our privilege to drink largely at the fountain of boundless love. What a wonder it is that we pray so little! God is ready and willing to hear the sincere prayer of the humblest of His children, and yet there is much manifest reluctance on our part to make known our wants to God. What can the angels of heaven think of poor helpless human beings, who are subject to temptation, when God's heart of infinite love yearns toward them, ready to give them more than they can ask or think, and yet they pray so little, and have so little faith.--Steps to Christ, 97, 98.
WGD	188	4	Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary, in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him.--Steps to Christ, p.97.
------------------------God Hears the Prayer of the Discouraged One, July 6
WGD	189	1	"For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee." Ps. 31:22.
WGD	189	2	Be not discouraged because your heart seems hard. Every obstacle, every internal foe, only increases your need of Christ. He came to take away the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh. Look to Him for special grace to overcome your peculiar faults. . . . Cry to the dear Saviour for help to sacrifice every idol, and to put away every darling sin. Let the eye of faith see Jesus standing before the Father's throne, presenting His wounded hands as He pleads for you. Believe that strength comes to you through your precious Saviour.--Messages to Young People, 112.
WGD	189	3	The first resistance to the Spirit's pleading prepares the way for the second resistance. Thus the heart is hardened, and the conscience seared.
WGD	189	4	On the other hand, every resistance of temptation makes resistance more easy. Every denial of self makes self-denial easier. Every victory gained prepares the way for a fresh victory. Each resistance of temptation, each self-denial, each triumph over sin, is a seed sown unto eternal life. Every unselfish action gives new strength to spirituality. . . . With outstretched arms He waits to welcome the prodigal. Go to Him, and tell Him about your mistakes and failures. Ask Him to strengthen you for fresh endeavor. He will never disappoint you, never abuse your confidence. Trial will come to you. Thus the Lord polishes the roughness from your character. Do not murmur. You make the trial harder by repining. Honor God by cheerful submission. Patiently endure the pressure.--Messages to Young People, 96, 97.
------------------------God Will Protect, July 7
WGD	190	1	"Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may he ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger." Zephaniah 2:3.
WGD	190	2	The tempest is coming, and we must get ready for its fury by having repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord will arise to shake terribly the earth. We shall see troubles on all sides. Thousands of ships will be hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by millions. Fires will break out unexpectedly, and no human effort will be able to quench them. The palaces of earth will be swept away in the fury of the flames.
WGD	190	3	Disasters by rail will become more and more frequent; confusion, collision, and death without a moment's warning will occur on the great lines of travel. The end is near, probation is closing. Oh, let us seek God while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near!--Messages to Young People, 89, 90.
WGD	190	4	God forbid, that I should cease to warn you. Young friends, seek the Lord with all your heart. Come with zeal, and when you sincerely feel that without the help of God you perish, when you pant after Him as the hart panteth after the water-brooks, then will the Lord strengthen you speedily. Then will your peace pass all understanding. If you expect salvation, you must pray. Take time. Be not hurried and careless in your prayers. Beg of God to work in you a thorough reformation, that the fruits of His Spirit may dwell in you, and you shine as lights in the world. Be not a hindrance or curse to the cause of God; you can be a help, a blessing. Does Satan tell you that you cannot enjoy salvation, full and free? Believe him not.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 159.
------------------------God Will Avenge His Own Elect, July 8
WGD	191	1	"And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he hear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." Luke 18:7, 8.
WGD	191	2	In all ages, God has wrought through holy angels for the succor and deliverance of His people. Celestial beings have taken an active part in the affairs of men. They have appeared clothed in garments that shone as the lightning; they have come as men, in the garb of wayfarers. Angels have appeared in human form to men of God. They have rested, as if weary, under the oaks at noon. They have accepted the hospitalities of human homes. They have acted as guides to benighted travelers. They have, with their own hands, kindled the fires of the altar. They have opened prison doors, and set free the servants of the Lord. Clothed with the panoply of heaven, they came to roll away the stone from the Saviour's tomb. --The Great Controversy, 631.
WGD	191	3	The precious Saviour will send help just when we need it. The way to heaven is consecrated by His footprints. Every thorn that wounds our feet has wounded His. Every cross that we are called to bear, He has borne before us.
WGD	191	4	The Lord permits conflicts, to prepare the soul for peace. The time of trouble is a fearful ordeal for God's people; but it is the time for every true believer to look up, and by faith he may see the bow of promise encircling him.--The Great Controversy, 633.
WGD	191	5	It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people. . . . In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying, "It is done."--The Great Controversy, 636.
------------------------If I Call, God Will Answer, July 9
WGD	192	1	"He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him." Ps. 91:15.
WGD	192	2	We all desire immediate and direct answers to our prayers, and are tempted to become discouraged when the answer is delayed or comes in an unlooked-for form. But God is too wise and good to answer our prayers always at just the time and in just the manner we desire. He will do more and better for us than to accomplish all our wishes. And because we can trust His wisdom and love, we should not ask Him to concede to our will, but should seek to enter into and accomplish His purpose. Our desires and interests should be lost in His will. These experiences that test faith are for our benefit. By them it is made manifest whether our faith is true and sincere, resting on the Word of God alone, or whether depending on circumstances, it is uncertain and changeable. Faith is strengthened by exercise. We must let patience have its perfect work, remembering that there are precious promises in the Scriptures for those who wait upon the Lord.--The Ministry of Healing, 230, 231.
WGD	192	3	God is too wise to err, and too good to withhold any good thing from His saints that walk uprightly. Man is erring, and although his petitions are sent up from an honest heart, he does not always ask for the things that are good for himself, or that will glorify God. When this is so, our wise and good Father hears our prayers, and will answer, sometimes immediately; but He gives us the things that are for our best good and His own glory. God gives us blessings; if we could look into His plan, we would clearly see that He knows what is best for us, and that our prayers are answered.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 120, 121.
------------------------Whatsoever We Ask We Receive, July 10
WGD	193	1	"And whatsoever we ask. we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." 1 John 3:22.
WGD	193	2	It is possible even for a parent to turn away from his hungry child, but God can never reject the cry of the needy and longing heart. With what wonderful tenderness He has described His love! To those who in days of darkness feel that God is unmindful of them, this is the message from the Father's heart: "Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands."
WGD	193	3	Every promise in the Word of God furnishes us with subject-matter for prayer, presenting the pledged word of Jehovah as our assurance. Whatever spiritual blessing we need, it is our privilege to claim through Jesus. We may tell the Lord, with the simplicity of a child, exactly what we need. We may state to Him our temporal matters, asking Him for bread and raiment as well as for the bread of life and the robe of Christ's righteousness. Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things, and you are invited to ask Him concerning them. It is through the name of Jesus that every favor is received. God will honor that name, and will supply your necessities from the riches of His liberality.
WGD	193	4	But do not forget that in coming to God as a father, you acknowledge your relation to Him as a child. You not only trust His goodness, but in all things yield to His will, knowing that His love is changeless.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 132, 133.
------------------------Whatsoever We Ask in His Name He Will Do, July 11
WGD	194	1	"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." John 14:13, 14.
WGD	194	2	Walk the narrow plank of faith. Trust all on the promises of the Lord. Trust God in darkness. That is the time to have faith. But you often let feeling govern you. You look for worthiness in yourselves when you do not feel comforted by the Spirit of God, and despair because you cannot find it. You do not trust enough in Jesus, precious Jesus. You do not make His worthiness to be all, all. The very best you can do will not merit the favor of God. It is Jesus' worthiness that will save you, His blood that will cleanse you. But you have efforts to make.You must do what you can on your part. Be zealous and repent, then believe.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 167.
WGD	194	3	I saw that if we do not feel immediate answers to our prayers, we should hold fast our faith, not allowing distrust to come in, for that will separate us from God. If our faith wavers, we shall receive nothing from Him. Our confidence in God should be strong; and when we need it most, the blessing will fall upon us like a shower of rain.
WGD	194	4	When the servants of God pray for His Spirit and blessing, it sometimes comes immediately; but it is not always then bestowed. At such times, faint not. Let your faith hold fast the promise that it will come. Let your trust be fully in God, and often that blessing will come when you need it most, and you will unexpectedly receive help from God when you are presenting the truth to unbelievers, and will be enabled to speak the word with clearness and power.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 121.
------------------------Ask, That Your Joy May Be Full, July 12
WGD	195	1	"Hitherto have ye asked, nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." John 16:24.
WGD	195	2	It was represented to me like children asking a blessing of their earthly parents who love them. They ask something that the parent knows will hurt them; the parent gives them the things that will be good and healthful for them, in the place of that which they desired. I saw that every prayer which is sent up in faith from an honest heart, will be heard of God and answered, and the one that sent up the petition will have the blessing when he needs it most, and it will often exceed his expectations. Not a prayer of a true saint is lost if sent up in faith, from an honest heart.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 121.
WGD	195	3	Watch, pray, work--this is the Christian's watchword. The life of a true Christian is a life of constant prayer. He knows that the light and strength of one day is not sufficient for the trials and conflicts of the next. Satan is continually changing his temptations. Every day we shall be placed in different circumstances; and in the untried scenes that await us we shall be surrounded by fresh dangers, and constantly assailed by new and unexpected temptations. It is only through the strength and grace gained from heaven that we can hope to meet the temptations and perform the duties before us. . . .
WGD	195	4	Ask, then; ask, and ye shall receive. Ask for humility, wisdom, courage, increase of faith. To every sincere prayer an answer will come. . . . The prayers you offer in loneliness, in weariness, in trial, God answers, not always according to your expectations, but always for your good.--Gospel Workers, 257, 258.
------------------------Secret Prayer Will Be Answered, July 13
WGD	196	1	"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Matthew 6:6.
WGD	196	2	Family prayer and public prayer have their place; but it is secret communion with God that sustains the soul-life. It was in the mount with God that Moses beheld the pattern of that wonderful building which was to be the abiding-place of His glory. It is in the mount with God--the secret place of communion--that we are to contemplate His glorious ideal for humanity. Thus we shall be enabled so to fashion our character-building that to us may be fulfilled the promise, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
WGD	196	3	While engaged in our daily work, we should lift the soul to heaven in prayer. These silent petitions rise like incense before the throne of grace; and the enemy is baffled. The Christian whose heart is thus stayed upon God cannot be overcome. No evil , arts can destroy his peace. All the promises of God's Word, all the power of divine grace, all the resources of Jehovah, are pledged to secure his deliverance.--Gospel Workers, 254.
WGD	196	4	God reads the hidden thoughts. We may pray in secret, and He who sees in secret will hear, and will reward us openly.-- Messages to Young People, 247.
WGD	196	5	We should be much in secret prayer. Christ is the vine, we are the branches. And if we would grow and flourish, we must continually draw sap and nourishment from the Living Vine; for separated from the Vine, we have no strength. . . . Press your petitions to the throne, and hold on by strong faith. The promises are sure.--Early Writings, 73.
------------------------If Two Shall Agree, It Shall Be Done, July 14
WGD	197	1	"Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." Matthew 18:19.
WGD	197	2	The earnest prayers of this faithful few will not be in vain. When the Lord comes forth as an avenger, He will also come as a protector of all those who have preserved the faith in its purity, and kept themselves unspotted from the world. It is at this time that God has promised to avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them. --Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 210.
WGD	197	3	Strive earnestly for unity. Pray for it, work for it. It will bring spiritual health, elevation of thought, nobility of character, heavenly-mindedness, enabling you to overcome selfishness and evil-surmisings, and to be more than conquerors through Him that loved you, and gave Himself for you. Crucify self; esteem others better than yourselves. Thus you will be brought into oneness with Christ. Before the heavenly universe, and before the church and the world, you will bear unmistakable evidence that you are God's sons and daughters. God will be glorified in the example that you set.
WGD	197	4	The world needs to see worked out before it the miracle that binds the hearts of God's people together in Christian love. It needs to see the Lord's people sitting together in heavenly places in Christ.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 188.
WGD	197	5	God calls upon His faithful ones, who believe in Him, to talk courage to those who are unbelieving and hopeless. May the Lord help us to help one another, and to prove Him by living faith.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 12.
------------------------Faith and Belief Are Necessary, July 15
WGD	198	1	"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Hebrews 11:6.
WGD	198	2	In some instances of healing, Jesus did not at once grant the blessing sought. But in the case of leprosy, no sooner was the appeal made than it was granted. When we pray for earthly blessings, the answer to our prayer may be delayed, or God may give us something other than we ask; but not so when we ask for deliverance from sin.
WGD	198	3	It is His will to cleanse us from sin, to make us His children, and to enable us to live a holy life. Christ "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father."--The Ministry of Healing, 70.
WGD	198	4	It is faith that connects us with heaven, and brings us strength for coping with the powers of darkness. In Christ, God has provided means for subduing every evil trait, and resisting every temptation, however strong. But many feel that they lack faith, and therefore they remain away from Christ. Let these souls, in their helpless unworthiness, cast themselves upon the mercy of their compassionate Saviour. Look not to self, but to Christ. He who healed the sick and cast out demons when He walked among men, is still the same mighty Redeemer. Then grasp His promises as leaves from the tree of life: "Him that cometh to Me I will in nowise cast out." As you come to Him, believe that He accepts you, because He has promised. You can never perish while you do this--never.-- The Ministry of Healing, 65, 66.
WGD	198	5	In the prayer of faith there is a divine science; it is a science that every one who would make his life-work a success must understand.--Education, 257.
------------------------Blessed Is He That Readeth, July 16
WGD	199	1	"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is it hand." Revelation 1:3.
WGD	199	2	When a real love for the Bible is awakened, and the student begins to realize how vast is the field and how precious its treasure, he will desire to seize upon every opportunity for acquainting himself with God's Word. Its study will be restricted to no special time or place. And this continuous study is one of the best means of cultivating a love for the Scriptures. Let the student keep his Bible always with him. As you have opportunity, read a text and meditate upon it. While walking the streets, waiting at a railway station, waiting to meet an engagement, improve the opportunity to gain some precious thought from the treasure-house of truth.
WGD	199	3	The great motive powers of the soul are faith, hope, and love; and it is to these that Bible study, rightly pursued, appeals. The outward beauty of the Bible, the beauty of imagery and expression, is but the setting, as it were, for its real treasure,--the beauty of holiness. In its record of the men who walked with God, we may catch glimpses of His glory. In the One "altogether lovely" we behold Him, of whom all beauty of earth and heaven is but a dim reflection. . . . As the student of the Bible beholds the Redeemer, there is awakened in the soul the mysterious power of faith, adoration, and love. Upon the vision of Christ the gaze is fixed, and the beholder grows into the likeness of that which he adores. . . .
WGD	199	4	The springs of heavenly peace and joy unsealed in the soul by the words of Inspiration will become a mighty river of influence to bless all who come within its reach.--Education, 191, 192.
------------------------In the Night His Song Is with Me, July 17
WGD	200	1	"Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." Ps. 42:8.
WGD	200	2	If you have given yourself to God, to do His work, you have no need to be anxious for to-morrow. He whose servant you are, knows the end from the beginning. The events of tomorrow, which are hidden from your view, are open to the eyes of Him who is omnipotent.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 100.
WGD	200	3	Worry is blind, and cannot discern the future; but Jesus sees the end from the beginning. In every difficulty He has His way prepared to bring relief.--The Desire of Ages, 330.
WGD	200	4	As Jesus rested by faith in the Father's care, so we are to rest in the care of our Saviour. If the disciples had trusted in Him, they would have been kept in peace. . . . How often the disciples' experience is ours! When the tempests of temptation gather, and the fierce lightnings flash, and the waves sweep over us, we battle with the storm alone, forgetting that there is One who can help us. We trust to our own strength till our hope is lost, and we are ready to perish. Then we remember Jesus, and if we call upon Him to save us, we shall not cry in vain.--The Desire of Ages, 336.
WGD	200	5	We shall be tested and tried; we may be called to spend wakeful nights; but let such times be spent in earnest prayer to God, that He may give understanding, and quicken the mind to discern the privileges that are ours.--Messages to Young People, 26.
WGD	200	6	The soul dwelling in the pure atmosphere of holy thought will be transformed by communion with God through the study of the Scriptures.--Christ's Object Lessons, 60.
------------------------Commune With Thine Own Heart, July 18
WGD	201	1	"Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still," Ps. 4:4.
WGD	201	2	Closely examine your own heart, and the state of your affections toward God. Inquire, Have I devoted the precious moments of today in seeking to please myself, seeking for my own amusement? or have I made others happy? Have I helped those connected with me to greater devotion to God and to appreciate eternal things? Have I brought my religion into my home, and there revealed the grace of Christ in my words and in my deportment? By my respectful obedience, have I honored my parents, and thus kept the fifth commandment? Have I cheerfully taken up my little, everyday duties, performing them with fidelity, doing what I could to lighten the burdens of others? Have I kept my lips from evil, and my tongue from speaking guile? Have I honored Christ my Redeemer, who gave His precious life that eternal life might be within my reach? . . .
WGD	201	3	Be earnest; be resolute. Present the promise of God, and then believe without a doubt. Do not wait to feel special emotions before you think the Lord answers. Do not mark out some particular way that the Lord must work for you before you believe you receive the things you ask of Him; but trust His word, and leave the whole matter in the hands of the Lord, with full faith that your prayer will be honored, and the answer will come at the very time and in the very way your heavenly Father sees is for your good; and then live out your prayers. Walk humbly and keep moving forward.-- Messages to Young People, 122, 123.
------------------------I Will Meditate in Thy Precepts, July 19
WGD	202	1	"I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word," Ps. 119:15, 16.
WGD	202	2	Thoughts and meditations upon the goodness of God to us would close the avenues of the soul to Satan's suggestions. God's love for us is proved daily; yet we are thoughtless of His favors and indifferent to His entreaties. He seeks to impress us with His Spirit of tenderness, His love and forbearance; but we scarcely recognize the marks of His kindness, and have little sense of the lesson of love He desires us to learn. Some, like Haman, forget all God's favors, because Mordecai is before them and is not disgraced; because their hearts are filled with enmity and hatred, rather than love, the spirit of our dear Redeemer, who gave His precious life for His enemies.
WGD	202	3	We profess to have the same Father, to be bound to the same immortal home, to enjoy the same solemn faith, and to believe the same testing message; and yet many are at strife with one another like quarrelsome children. Some who are engaged in the same branch of the work are at variance with one another and therefore at variance with the spirit of Christ. --Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 222, 223.
WGD	202	4	Let the student take the Bible as his guide, and stand like a rock for principle, and he may aspire to any height of attainment. All the philosophies of human nature have led to confusion and shame when God has not been recognized as all in all. But the precious faith inspired of God imparts strength and nobility of character. As His goodness, His mercy, and His love are dwelt upon, clearer and still clearer will be the perception of truth; higher, holier, the desire for purity of heart and clearness of thought.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 322.
------------------------I Have Remembered Thy Name in the Night, July 20
WGD	203	1	"Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law." Ps. 119:54, 55.
WGD	203	2	God's messengers must tarry long with Him, if they would have success in their work. The story is told of an old Lancashire woman who was listening to the reasons that her neighbors gave for their minister's success. They spoke of his gifts, of his style of address, of his manners. "Nay," said the old woman, "I will tell you what it is. Your man is very thick with the Almighty."
WGD	203	3	When men are as devoted as Elijah was and possess the faith that he had, God will reveal Himself as He did then. When men plead with the Lord as did Jacob, the results that were seen then will again be seen. Power will come from God in answer to the prayer of faith. . . .
WGD	203	4	The Saviour loved the solitude of the mountain in which to hold commune with His Father. Through the day He labored earnestly to save men from destruction. He healed the sick, comforted the mourning, called the dead to life, and brought hope and cheer to the despairing. After His work for the day was finished, He went forth, evening after evening, away from the confusion of the city, and bowed in prayer to His Father. Frequently He continued His petitions through the entire night; but He came from these seasons of communion invigorated and refreshed, braced for duty and for trial.--Gospel Workers, 255, 256.
WGD	203	5	Feeble, sinful man has the privilege of speaking to his Maker. We may utter words that reach the throne of the Monarch of the universe. We may speak with Jesus as we walk by the way, and He says, I am at thy right hand.--Gospel Workers, 258.
------------------------My Soul Thirsteth for God, July 21
WGD	204	1	"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" Ps. 42:1, 2.
WGD	204	2	The heart that has once tasted the love of Christ, cries out continually for a deeper draught, and as you impart, you will receive in richer and more abundant measure. Every revelation of God to the soul increases the capacity to know and to love.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 20.3.
WGD	204	3	The cry of Christ to the thirsty soul is still going forth, and it appeals to us with even greater power than to those who heard it in the temple on that last day of the feast. The fountain is open for all. The weary and exhausted ones are offered the refreshing draught of eternal life.--The Desire of Ages, 454.
WGD	204	4	The greatest victories gained for the cause of God are not the result of labored argument, ample facilities, wide influence, or abundance of means; they are gained in the audience chamber with God, when with earnest, agonizing faith men lay hold upon the mighty arm of power.
WGD	204	5	True faith and true prayer--how strong they are! They are as two arms by which the human suppliant lays hold upon the power of Infinite Love. Faith is trusting in God,--believing that He loves us, and knows what is for our best good. Thus, instead of our own way, it leads us to choose His way. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His right-eousness. Our lives, ourselves are already His; faith acknowledges His ownership, and accepts its blessing. Truth, uprightness, purity, are pointed out as secrets of life's success. It is faith that puts us in possession of these.--Gospel Workers, 259.
------------------------Muse on the Work of His Hands, July 22
WGD	205	1	"I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands." Ps. 143:5.
WGD	205	2	The mercies of God surround you every moment; and it would be profitable for you to consider how and whence your blessings come every day. Let the precious blessings of God awaken gratitude in you. You cannot number the blessings of God, the constant loving-kindness expressed to you, for they are as numerous as the refreshing drops of rain.
WGD	205	3	Clouds of mercy are hanging over you, and ready to drop upon you. If you will appreciate the valuable gift of salvation, you will be sensible of daily refreshment, of the protection and love of Jesus; you will be guided in the way of peace.
WGD	205	4	Look upon the glorious things of God in nature, and let your heart go out in gratitude to the Giver. There is in nature's book profitable study for the mind. Be not thankless and reckless. Open the eyes of your understanding; see the beautiful harmony in the laws of God in nature, and be awed, and reverence your Creator, the supreme Ruler of heaven and earth.--Messages to Young People, 409.
WGD	205	5	If the young would study the glorious works of God in nature, and His majesty and power as revealed in His Word, they would come from every such exercise with faculties quickened and elevated. A vigor would be received, having no kin to arrogance. By a contemplation of the marvels of divine power, the mind will learn that hardest but most useful of all lessons, that human wisdom, unless connected with the Infinite and sanctified by the grace of Christ, is foolishness.--Messages to Young People, 253.
WGD	205	6	If we faithfully study the book of nature, we shall find it a fruitful source for contemplating the infinite love and power of God.--Messages to Young People, 365, 366.
------------------------We Will Give Ourselves to Prayer, July 23
WGD	206	1	"But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." Acts 6:4.
WGD	206	2	Pray, yes, pray as you have never prayed before, that you may not be deluded by Satan's devices, that you may not be given up to a heedless, careless, vain spirit, and attend to religious duties to quiet your own conscience. It is inappropriate for Christians in any age of the world to be lovers of pleasure, but how much more so now when the scenes of this earth's history are so soon to close.
WGD	206	3	Surely the foundation of your hope of everlasting life cannot be laid too sure. The welfare of your soul, and your eternal happiness depend upon whether your foundation is built upon Christ. While others are panting after earthly enjoyments, be ye panting after the unmistakable assurance of the love of God, earnestly, fervently crying, Who will show me how to make my calling and election sure?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 144, 145.
WGD	206	4	The darkness of the evil one incloses those who neglect to pray. The whispered temptations of the enemy entice them to sin; and it is all because they do not make use of the privileges that God has given them in the divine appointment of prayer. Why should the sons and daughters of God be reluctant to pray, when prayer is the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven's storehouse, where are treasured the boundless re-sources of Omnipotence? Without unceasing prayer and diligent watching, we are in danger of growing careless and of deviating from the right path. The adversary seeks continually to obstruct the way to the mercy-seat, that we may not by earnest supplication and faith obtain grace and power to resist temptation.--Steps to Christ, 98, 99.
------------------------Continuing Instant in Prayer, July 24
WGD	207	1	"Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality." Romans 12:12, 13.
WGD	207	2	Perseverance in prayer has been made a condition of receiving. We must pray always, if we would grow in faith and experience. We are to be "instant in prayer," to "continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.". . . Unceasing prayer is the unbroken union of the soul with God, so that life from God flows into our life; and from our life, purity and holiness flow back to God.
WGD	207	3	There is necessity for diligence in prayer; let nothing hinder you. Make every effort to keep open the communion between Jesus and your own soul. Seek every opportunity to go where prayer is wont to be made. Those who are really seeking for communion with God, will be seen in the prayermeeting, faithful to do their duty, and earnest and anxious to reap all the benefits they can gain. They will improve every opportunity of placing themselves where they can receive the rays of light from heaven.
WGD	207	4	We should pray in the family circle; and above all we must not neglect secret prayer; for this is the life of the soul. It is impossible for the soul to flourish while prayer is neglected. Family or public prayer alone is not sufficient. In solitude let the soul be laid open to the inspecting eye of God. Secret prayer is to be heard only by the prayer-hearing God. No curious ear is to receive the burden of such petitions. In secret prayer the soul is free from surrounding influences, free from excitement. Calmly, yet fervently, will it reach out after God. Sweet and abiding will be the influence emanating from Him who seeth in secret, whose ear is open to hear the prayer arising from the heart.--Steps to Christ, 101-103.
------------------------Example of Paul, July 25
WGD	208	1	"For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Colossians 1:9.
WGD	208	2	The ship on which Paul and his companions were to continue their journey, was about to sail, and the brethren hastened on board. The apostle himself, however, chose to take the nearer route by land between Troas and Assos, meeting his companions at the latter city. This gave him a short season for meditation and prayer. The difficulties and dangers connected with his coming visit to Jerusalem, the attitude of the church there toward him and his work, as well as the condition of the churches and the interests of the gospel work in other fields, were subjects of earnest, anxious thought; and he took advantage of this special opportunity to seek God for strength and guidance.--The Acts of the Apostles, 391, 392.
WGD	208	3	Pray in your closet; and as you go about your daily labor, let your heart be often uplifted to God. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. These silent prayers rise like precious incense before the throne of grace. Satan can not overcome him whose heart is thus stayed upon God.
WGD	208	4	There is no time or place in which it is inappropriate to offer up a petition to God. There is nothing that can prevent us from lifting up our hearts in the spirit of earnest prayer. In the crowds of the street, in the midst of a business engagement, we may send up a petition to God, and plead for divine guidance, as did Nehemiah when he made his request before King Artaxerxes. A closet of communion may be found wherever we are.--Steps to Christ, 103.
------------------------As Long as I Live I Will Call, July 26
WGD	209	1	"Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live." Ps. 116:2.
WGD	209	2	We should have the door of the heart open continually, and our invitation going up that Jesus may come and abide as a heavenly guest in the soul.
WGD	209	3	Although there may be a tainted, corrupted atmosphere around us, we need not breathe its miasma, but may live in the pure air of heaven. We may close every door to impure imaginings and unholy thoughts by lifting the soul into the presence of God through sincere prayer. Those whose hearts are open to receive the support and blessing of God will walk in a holier atmosphere than that of earth, and will have constant communion with Heaven.
WGD	209	4	We need to have more distinct views of Jesus, and a fuller comprehension of the value of eternal realities. The beauty of holiness is to fill the hearts of God's children; and that this may be accomplished, we should seek for divine disclosures of heavenly things.
WGD	209	5	Let the soul be drawn out and upward, that God may grant us a breath of the heavenly atmosphere. We may keep so near to God that in every unexpected trial our thoughts will turn to Him as naturally as the flower turns to the sun.
WGD	209	6	Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears, before God. You can not burden Him; you can not weary Him. . . . Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe. Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice.--Steps to Christ, 103-105.
------------------------In the Morning I Will Pray to Thee, July 27
WGD	210	1	"My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." Ps. 5:3.
WGD	210	2	When you rise in the morning, do you feel your helplessness, and your need of strength from God? and do you humbly, heartily make known your wants to your heavenly Father? If so, angels mark your prayers, and if these prayers have not gone forth out of feigned lips, when you are in danger of unconsciously doing wrong, and exerting an influence which will lead others to do wrong, your guardian angel will be by your side, prompting you to a better course, choosing your words for you, and influencing your actions.
WGD	210	3	If you feel in no danger, and if you offer no prayer for help and strength to resist temptations, you will be sure to go astray; your neglect of duty will be marked in the book of God in Heaven, and you will be found wanting in the trying day.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 363, 364.
WGD	210	4	Morning and night obtain the victory for yourselves in your own family. Let not your daily labor keep you from this. Take time to pray, and as you pray, believe that God hears you. Have faith mixed with your prayers. You may not at all times feel the immediate answer; but then it is that faith is tried. You are proved to see whether you will trust in God, whether you have living, abiding faith.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 167.
WGD	210	5	Those who thus connect themselves with God are acknowledged by Him as His sons and daughters. They are constantly reaching higher and still higher, obtaining clearer views of God and of eternity, until the Lord makes them channels of light and wisdom to the world.--Messages to Young People, 247.
------------------------Holy and Reverend Is His Name, July 28
WGD	211	1	"He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name." Ps. 111:9.
WGD	211	2	Both in public and in private worship, it is our privilege to bow on our knees before the Lord when we offer our petitions to Him. Jesus, our example, "kneeled down, and prayed." Of His disciples it is recorded that they, too, "kneeled down, and prayed." Paul declared, "I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." In confessing before God the sins of Israel, Ezra knelt. Daniel "kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God."
WGD	211	3	True reverence for God is inspired by a sense of His infinite greatness and a realization of His presence. With this sense of the Unseen, every heart should be deeply impressed. The hour and place of prayer are sacred, because God is there; and as reverence is manifested in attitude and demeanor, the feeling that inspires it will be deepened. "Holy and reverend is His name," the psalmist declares. Angels, when they speak that name, veil their faces. With what reverence, then should we, who are fallen and sinful, take it upon our lips!
WGD	211	4	Well would it be for old and young to ponder those words of Scripture that show how the place marked by God's special presence should be regarded.--Gospel Workers, 178.
WGD	211	5	High-flown language is inappropriate in prayer, whether the petition be offered in the pulpit, in the family circle, or in secret. Especially should the one offering public prayer use simple language, that others may understand what is said and unite with the petition.--Gospel Workers, 177.
------------------------As for Me, I Will Call Upon God, July 29
WGD	212	1	"As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice." Ps. 55:16, 17.
WGD	212	2	As we make Christ our daily companion, we shall feel that the powers of an unseen world are all around us; and by looking unto Jesus we shall become assimilated to His image. By beholding we become changed. The character is softened, refined, and ennobled for the heavenly kingdom. The sure result of our intercourse and fellowship with our Lord will be to increase piety, purity, and fervor. There will be a growing intelligence in prayer. We are receiving a divine education, and this is illustrated in a life of diligence and zeal.
WGD	212	3	The soul that turns to God for its help, its support, its power, by daily, earnest prayer, will have noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth and duty, lofty purposes of action, and a continual hungering and thirsting after righteousness. By maintaining a connection with God, we shall be enabled to diffuse to others through our association with them, the light, the peace, the serenity that rule in our hearts. The strength acquired in prayer to God, united with persevering effort in training the mind in thoughtfulness and care-taking, prepares one for daily duties, and keeps the spirit in peace under all circumstances.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 85.
WGD	212	4	We are living in a most solemn, important time of this earth's history. We are amid the perils of the last days. Important and fearful events are before us. ... We should flee to the Word of God and to prayer, individually seeking the Lord earnestly, that we may find Him. We should make this our first business.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 53.
------------------------Praise the Lord, July 30
WGD	213	1	"I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth." Ps. 34:1.
WGD	213	2	Shall all our devotional exercises consist in asking and receiving? Shall we be always thinking of our wants, and never of the benefits we receive? Shall we be recipients of His mercies, and never express our gratitude to God, never praise Him for what He has done for us? We do not pray any too much, but we are too sparing of giving thanks. If the lovingkindness of God called forth more thanksgiving and praise, we would have far more power in prayer. We would abound more and more in the love of God, and have more bestowed to praise Him for. You who complain that God does not hear your prayers, change the present order, and mingle praise with your petitions. When you consider His goodness and mercies, you will find that He will consider your wants.
WGD	213	3	Pray, pray earnestly and without ceasing, but do not forget to praise. It becomes every child of God to vindicate His character. You can magnify the Lord; you can show the power of sustaining grace. There are multitudes who do not appreciate the great love of God nor the divine compassion of Jesus. Thousands even regard with disdain the matchless grace shown in the plan of redemption. All who are partakers of this great salvation are not clear in this matter. They do not cultivate grateful hearts.
WGD	213	4	But the theme of redemption is one that the angels desire to look into; it will be the science and the song of the ransomed throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. Is it not worthy of careful thought and study now? Should we not praise God with heart and soul and voice for His "wonderful works to the children of men"?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 317, 318.
------------------------Give Thanks in Prayer and Melody, July 31
WGD	214	1	"The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him." Ex. 15:2.
WGD	214	2	It was in hours of solitary prayer that Jesus in His earthlife received wisdom and power. Let the youth follow His example in finding at dawn and twilight a quiet season for communion with their Father in heaven. And throughout the day let them lift up their hearts to God. At every step of our way He says, "I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand; . . . fear not; I will help thee."
WGD	214	3	Could our children learn these lessons in the morning of their years, what freshness and power, what joy and sweetness, would be brought into their lives!--Education, 259.
WGD	214	4	As the children of Israel, journeying through the wilderness, cheered their way by the music of sacred song, so God bids His children to-day gladden their pilgrim life. There are few means more effective for fixing His words in the memory than repeating them in song. And such song has wonderful power. It has power to subdue rude and uncultivated natures; power to quicken thought and to awaken sympathy, to promote harmony of action, and to banish the gloom and foreboding that destroy courage and weaken effort. . . .
WGD	214	5	Let there be singing in the home, of songs that are sweet and pure, and there will be fewer words of censure, and more of cheerfulness and hope and joy. Let there be singing in the school, and the pupils will be drawn closer to God, to their teachers, and to one another.
WGD	214	6	As a part of religious service, singing is as much an act of worship as is prayer. Indeed, many a song is prayer.--Education, 167, 168.
------------------------Confess One to Another, August 1
WGD	215	1	"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 5:16.
WGD	215	2	If you have given offense to your friend or neighbor, you are to acknowledge your wrong, and it is his duty freely to forgive you. Then you are to seek the forgiveness of God, because the brother whom you wounded is the property of God, and in injuring him you sinned against his Creator and Redeemer. The case is not brought before the priest at all, but before the only true mediator, our great High Priest, who "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," and who is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," and is able to cleanse from every stain of iniquity. . . .
WGD	215	3	True confession is always of a specific character, and acknowledges particular sins. They may be of such a nature as only to be brought before God; they may be wrongs that should be confessed before individuals who have suffered injury through them; or they may be of a general kind that should be made known in the congregation of the people. But all confession should be definite, and to the point, acknowledging the very sins of which you are guilty. . . .
WGD	215	4	Confession will not be acceptable to God without sincere repentance and reformation. There must be decided changes in the life; everything offensive to God must be put away. This will be the result of genuine sorrow for sin.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 639, 640.
------------------------Be Reconciled To Thy Brother, August 2
WGD	216	1	"Therefore if thou bring thy gift tu the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." Matthew 5:23, 24.
WGD	216	2	Then there are confessions that the Lord has bidden us to make to one another. If you have wronged your brother by word or deed, you are first to be reconciled to him before your worship will be acceptable to Heaven. Confess to those whom you have injured, and make restitution, bringing forth fruit meet for repentance. If any one has feelings of bitterness, wrath, or malice toward a brother, let him go to him personally, confess his sin, and seek forgiveness.
WGD	216	3	From Christ's manner of dealing with the erring we may learn profitable lessons which are equally applicable to this work of confession. He bids us go to the one who has fallen into temptation, and labor with him alone. If it is not possible to help him, because of the darkness of his mind and his separation from God, we are to try again with two or three others. If the wrong is not righted, then, and only then, we are to tell it to the church. It is far better if wrongs can be righted, and injuries healed, without bringing the matter before the whole church. . . .
WGD	216	4	But the question of how and to whom sins should be confessed, is one that demands careful, prayerful study. We must consider it from all points, weighing it before God, and seeking divine illumination. . . .
WGD	216	5	There is power and permanency in what the Lord does, whether He works by human instrumentality or otherwise. . . . Hearts that are under the influence of the Spirit of God will be in sweet harmony with His will.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 646, 647.
------------------------Confession Merits Mercy, August 3
WGD	217	1	"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." Proverbs 28:13.
WGD	217	2	The conditions of obtaining mercy of God are simple and just and reasonable. The Lord does not require us to do some grievous thing, in order that we may have the forgiveness of sin. We need not make long and wearisome pilgrimages, or perform painful penances, to commend our souls to the God of heaven, or to expiate our transgression; but he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy. This is a precious promise, given to fallen man to encourage him to trust in the God of love, and to seek for eternal life in His kingdom. . . .
WGD	217	3	Daniel did not seek to excuse himself or his people before God; but in humility and contrition of soul he confessed the full extent and demerit of their transgressions, and vindicated God's dealings as just toward a nation that had set at naught His requirements and would not profit by His entreaties.
WGD	217	4	There is great need to-day of just such sincere, heart-felt repentance and confession. Those who have not humbled their souls before God in acknowledging their guilt, have not yet fulfilled the first condition of acceptance. If we have not experienced that repentance which is not to be repented of, and have not confessed our sin with true humiliation of soul and brokenness of spirit, abhorring our iniquity, we have never sought truly for the forgiveness of sin; and if we have never sought, we have never found the peace of God. The only reason why we may not have remission of sins that are past, is that we are not willing to humble our proud, hearts, and comply with the conditions of the Word of truth.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 635, 636.
------------------------Behold, I Am Vile, August 4
WGD	218	1	"Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth." Job 40:4.
WGD	218	2	Every act of transgression, every neglect or rejection of the grace of Christ, is reacting upon yourself; it is hardening the heart, depraving the will, benumbing the understanding, and not only making you less inclined to yield, but less capable of yielding, to the tender pleading of God's Holy Spirit.
WGD	218	3	Many are quieting a troubled conscience with the thought that they can change a course of evil when they choose; that they can trifle with the invitations of mercy, and yet be again and again impressed. They think that after doing despite to the Spirit of grace, after casting their influence on the side of Satan, in a moment of terrible extremity they can change their course. But this is not so easily done. The experience, the education, of a lifetime, has so thoroughly molded the character that few then desire to receive the image of Jesus.
WGD	218	4	Even one wrong trait of character, one sinful desire, persistently cherished will eventually neutralize all the power of the gospel. Every sinful indulgence strengthens the soul's aversion to God. The man who manifests an infidel hardihood, or a stolid indifference to divine truth, is but reaping the harvest of that which he has himself sown.--Steps to Christ, 38, 39.
WGD	218	5	It is difficult for us to understand ourselves, to have a correct knowledge of our own characters. The Word of God is plain; but often there is an error in applying it to one's self. There is liability to self-deception, and to think its warnings and reproofs do not mean me. . . . Self-love and confidence may give us assurance that we are right, when we are far from meeting the requirements of God's Word.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 332.
------------------------We Are Ashamed, August 5
WGD	219	1	"We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God." Jeremiah 3:25.
WGD	219	2	Confession will not be acceptable to God without sincere repentance and reformation. There must be decided changes in the life; everything offensive to God must be put away. This will be the result of genuine sorrow for sin. The work that we have to do on our part is plainly set before us: "Wash you, make you clean." . . .
WGD	219	3	When sin has deadened the moral perceptions, the wrongdoer does not discern the defects of his character, nor realize the enormity of the evil he has committed; and unless he yields to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, he remains in partial blindness to his sin. His confessions are not sincere and in earnest. To every acknowledgment of his guilt he adds an apology in excuse of his course, declaring that if it had not been for certain circumstances, he would not have done this or that, for which he is reproved.--Steps to Christ, 44, 45.
WGD	219	4	No man lives to himself. Shame, defeat, and death were brought upon Israel by one man's sin. . . . Various sins that are cherished and practiced by professed Christians bring the frown of God upon the church. In the day when the Ledger of Heaven shall be opened, the Judge will not in words express to man his guilt, but will cast one penetrating, convicting glance, and every deed, every transaction of life, will be vividly impressed upon the memory of the wrong-doer. The person will not, as in Joshua's day, need to be hunted out from tribe to family, but his own lips will confess his shame, his selfishness, covetousness, dishonesty, dissembling, and fraud.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 493.
------------------------The Burden of Sin Is Too Heavy, August 6
WGD	220	1	"For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me." Ps. 38:4.
WGD	220	2	When Satan tells you that you are a sinner, and cannot hope to receive blessing from God, tell him that Christ came into the world to save sinners. We have nothing to recommend us to God; but the plea that we may urge now and ever is our utterly helpless condition, that makes His redeeming power a necessity. Renouncing all self-dependence, we may look to the cross of Calvary and say,--
WGD	220	3	"In my hand no price I bring; Simply to Thy cross I cling.". . .
WGD	220	4	Satan cannot hold the dead in his grasp when the Son of God bids them live. He cannot hold in spiritual death one soul who in faith receives Christ's Word of power. God is saying to all who are dead in sin, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." That Word is eternal life. . . . If we receive the Word, we have the deliverance.--The Desire of Ages, 317-320.
WGD	220	5	Whatever may have been your past experience, however discouraging your present circumstances, if you will come to Jesus just as you are, weak, helpless, and despairing, our compassionate Saviour will meet you a great way off, and will throw about you His arms of love and His robe of righteousness. He presents us to the Father clothed in the white raiment of His own character. He pleads before God in our behalf, saying: I have taken the sinner's place. Look not upon this wayward child, but look on Me. Does Satan plead loudly against our souls, accusing of sin, and claiming us as his prey, the blood of Christ pleads with greater power.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 8.
------------------------My Life Is Spent with Grief, August 7
WGD	221	1	"For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed." Ps. 31:10.
WGD	221	2	Jesus knows the circumstances of every soul. The greater the sinner's guilt, the more he needs the Saviour. His heart of divine love and sympathy is drawn out most of all for the one who is the most hopelessly entangled in the snares of the enemy. With His own blood He has signed the emancipation papers of the race.--The Ministry of Healing, 89, 90.
WGD	221	3	When, after his sin in deceiving Esau, Jacob fled from his father's home, he was weighed down with a sense of guilt. Lonely and outcast as he was, separated from all that had made life dear, the one thought that above all others pressed upon his soul, was the fear that his sin had cut him off from God, that he was forsaken of Heaven. In sadness he lay down to rest on the bare earth, around him only the lonely hills, and above, the heavens bright with stars. As he slept, a strange light broke upon his vision; and lo, from the plain on which he lay, vast shadowy stairs seemed to lead upward to the very gates of heaven, and upon them angels of God were passing up and down; while from the glory above, the divine voice was heard in a message of comfort and hope. Thus was made known to Jacob that which met the need and longing of his soul,--a Saviour. With joy and gratitude he saw revealed a way by which he, a sinner, could be restored to communion with God. The mystic ladder of his dream represented Jesus, the only medium of communication between God and man. . . .
WGD	221	4	O let us contemplate the amazing sacrifice that has been made for us! Let us try to appreciate the labor and energy that Heaven is expending to reclaim the lost, and bring them back to the Father's house.--Steps to Christ, 22-24.
------------------------My Foolishness Is Known to God, August 8
WGD	222	1	"O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee." Ps. 69:5.
WGD	222	2	We may flatter ourselves that we are free from many things of which others are guilty; but if we have some strong points of character, and but one weak point, there is yet a communion between sin and the soul. The heart is divided in its service, and says, "Some of self and some of Thee." The child of God must search out the sin which he has petted and indulged himself in, and permit God to cut it out of his heart. He must overcome that one sin; for it is not a trifling matter in the sight of God.
WGD	222	3	One says, "I am not the least jealous, but then I do get provoked and say mean things, although I am always sorry after giving way to temper." Another says, "I have this fault or that, but then I just despise such and such meanness as is manifested by a certain person of my acquaintance." The Lord has not given us a list of graded sins, so that we may reckon some as of little consequence, and say that they will do but little harm, while others are of greater magnitude and will do much harm.
WGD	222	4	A chain is no stronger than is its weakest link. We might pronounce such a chain good on the whole, but if one link is weak the chain cannot be depended on. . . . That impatient word quivering on your lips must be left unspoken. That thought that your character is not rightly estimated must be put from you; for it weakens your influence, and works out the sure result, making you of light estimation in the minds of others. You should overcome the idea that you are a martyr, and lay claim to the promise of Christ, who says, "My grace is sufficient for thee."--Messages to Young People, 91, 92.
------------------------I Will Declare My Iniquity, August 9
WGD	223	1	"For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin." Ps. 38:18.
WGD	223	2	A little time spent in sowing your wild oats, dear young friends, will produce a crop that will imbitter your whole life; an hour of thoughtlessness--once yielding to temptation-- may turn the whole current of your life in the wrong direction. You can have but one youth; make that useful. When once you have passed over the ground, you can never return to rectify your mistakes. He who refuses to connect with God, and puts himself in the way of temptation, will surely fall. God is testing every youth. Many have excused their carelessness and irreverence, because of the wrong example given them by more experienced professors. But this should not deter any from right-doing. In the day of final accounts you will plead no such excuses as you plead now. You will be justly condemned, because you knew the way, but did not choose to walk in it. . . . While some of the youth are wasting their powers in vanity and folly, others are disciplining their minds, storing up knowledge, girding on the armor to engage in life's warfare, determined to make it a success. But they cannot make life a success, however high they may attempt to climb, unless they center their affections upon God. If they will turn to the Lord with all the heart, rejecting the flatteries of those who would in the slightest degree weaken their purpose to do right, they will have strength and confidence in God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 622-624.
WGD	223	3	It is for you to yield up your will to the will of Jesus Christ; and as you do this, God will immediately take possession, and work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. --Messages to Young People, 152.
------------------------I Acknowledge My Transgression, August 10
WGD	224	1	"For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me." Ps. 51:3.
WGD	224	2	Thorough conversion is necessary among those who profess to believe the truth, in order for them to follow Jesus and obey the will of God,--not a submission born of circumstances, as was that of the terrified Israelites when the power of the Infinite was revealed to them, but a deep and heart-felt repentance and renunciation of sin.
WGD	224	3	Those who are but half converted, are as a tree whose boughs hang upon the side of truth, but whose roots, firmly bedded in the earth, strike out into the barren soil of the world. Jesus looks in vain for fruit upon its branches; He finds nothing but leaves.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 155.
WGD	224	4	The reason why the youth, and even those of mature years, are so easily led into temptation and sin, is that they do not study the Word of God and meditate upon it as they should. The lack of firm, decided will-power, which is manifest in life and character, results from their neglect of the sacred instruction of God's Word.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 319.
WGD	224	5	In order to receive help from Christ, we must realize our need. We must have a true knowledge of ourselves. It is only he who knows himself to be a sinner that Christ can save. Only as we see our utter helplessness and renounce all self-trust, shall we lay hold on divine power. . . . All our good works are dependent on a power outside of ourselves; therefore there needs to be a continual reaching out of the heart after God, a constant, earnest confession of sin and humbling of the soul before Him. Perils surround us; and we are safe only as we feel our weakness, and cling with the grasp of faith to our mighty Deliverer.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 316.
------------------------Holy Spirit Brings Conviction, August 11
WGD	225	1	"And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." John 16:8.
WGD	225	2	It is the privilege of every Christian to enjoy the deep movings of the Spirit of God. A sweet, heavenly peace will pervade the mind, and you will love to meditate upon God and heaven. You will feast upon the glorious promises of His Word. But know first that you have begun the Christian course. Know that the first steps are taken in the road to everlasting life. Be not deceived. I fear, yea, I know that many of you know not what religion is. You have felt some excitement, some emotion, but have never seen sin in its enormity. You have never felt your undone condition, and turned from your evil ways with bitter sorrow. You have never died to the world. You still love its pleasures; you love to engage in conversation on worldly matters. But when the truth of God is introduced, you have nothing to say. Why so silent? Why so talkative upon worldly things, and so silent upon the subject that should most concern you,--a subject that should engage your whole soul? The truth of God does not dwell in you.-- Messages to Young People, 132, 133.
WGD	225	3	The Christian's life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit.--Messages to Young People, 157.
WGD	225	4	The Holy Spirit never leaves unassisted the soul who is looking unto Jesus. He takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto him. If the eye is kept fixed on Christ, the work of the Spirit ceases not until the soul is conformed to His image.--The Desire of Ages, 302.
------------------------Search Me and Know My Heart, August 12
WGD	226	1	"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Ps. 139:23, 24.
WGD	226	2	Nothing is more treacherous than the deceitfulness of sin. It is the god of this world that deludes, and blinds, and leads to destruction. Satan does not enter with his array of temptations at once. He disguises these temptations with a semblance of good. He mingles with amusements and folly some little improvements, and deceived souls make it an excuse that great good is to be derived by engaging in them. This is only the deceptive part. It is Satan's hellish arts masked. Beguiled souls take one step, then are prepared for the next. It is so much more pleasant to follow the inclinations of their own hearts than to stand on the defensive, and resist the first insinuation of the wily foe, and thus shut out his in-comings.
WGD	226	3	Oh, how Satan watches to see his bait taken so readily, and to see souls walking in the very path he has prepared! He does not want them to give up praying and maintaining a form of religious duties; for he can thus make them more useful in his service. He unites his sophistry and deceptive snares with their experiences and professions, and thus won-derfully advances his cause.
WGD	226	4	There is a necessity for close self-examination, and to closely investigate in the light of God's Word, Am I sound, or am I rotten, at heart? Am I renewed in Christ, or am I still carnal at heart, with an outside, new dress put on? Rein yourself up to the tribunal of God, and see as in the light of God if there is any secret sin, any iniquity, any idol you have not sacrificed. . . . Deal truly with your own souls. Search carefully.--Messages to Young People, 83, 84.
------------------------Only God Can Forgive, August 13
WGD	227	1	"To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him." Dan. 9:9.
WGD	227	2	Do not look to men, nor hang your hopes upon them, feeling that they are infallible, but look to Jesus constantly. Say nothing that would cast a reproach upon our faith. Confess your secret sins alone before your God. Acknowledge your heart wanderings to Him who knows perfectly how to treat your case.
WGD	227	3	If you have wronged your neighbor, acknowledge to him your sin, and show fruit of the same by making restitution. Then claim the blessing. Come to God just as you are, and let Him heal all your infirmities. Press your case to the throne of grace; let the work be thorough. Be sincere in dealing with God and your own soul. If you come to Him with a heart truly contrite, He will give you the victory. Then you may bear a sweet testimony of freedom, showing forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. He will not misapprehend or misjudge you. Your fellowmen cannot absolve you from sin, or cleanse you from iniquity. Jesus is the only one who can give you peace. He loved you, and gave Himself for you. His great heart of love is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities."
WGD	227	4	What sins are too great for Him to pardon? What soul too dark and sin-oppressed for Him to save? He is gracious, not looking for merit in us, but of His own boundless goodness healing our backslidings and loving us freely, while we are yet great sinners. He is "slow to anger and of great kindness."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 649.
WGD	227	5	Confess your sins to God, who only can forgive them, and your faults to one another.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 639.
------------------------All Sins, Save One, Shall Be Forgiven, August 14
WGD	228	1	"Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, . . . but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness." Mark 3:28, 29.
WGD	228	2	What constitutes the sin against the Holy Ghost?--It is willfully attributing to Satan the work of the Holy Spirit. For example, suppose that one is a witness of the special work of the Spirit of God. He has convincing evidence that the work is in harmony with the Scriptures, and the Spirit witnesses with his spirit that it is of God. Afterward, however he falls under temptation; pride, self-sufficiency, or some other evil trait, controls him; and rejecting all the evidence of its divine character, he declares that that which he had before acknowledged to be the power of the Holy Spirit was the power of Satan. It is through the medium of His Spirit that God works upon the human heart; and when men willfully reject the Spirit, and declare it to be from Satan, they cut off the channel by which God can communicate with them. By denying the evidence which God has been pleased to give them, they shut out the light which had been shining in their hearts, and as the result they are left in darkness.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 634.
WGD	228	3	Whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes, the guilt is washed away by the blood of Christ; but he who rejects the work of the Holy Spirit is placing himself where repentance and faith cannot come to him. It is by the Spirit that God works upon the heart; when men wilfully reject the Spirit, and declare it to be from Satan, they cut off the channel by which God can communicate with them. When the Spirit is finally rejected, there is no more that God can do for the soul.--The Desire of Ages, 322.
------------------------If We Confess, He Is Faithful, August 15
WGD	229	1	"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9.
WGD	229	2	The humble and broken heart, subdued by genuine repentance, will appreciate something of the love of God, and the cost of Calvary; and as a son confesses to a loving father, so will the truly penitent bring all his sins before God.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 641.
WGD	229	3	Every sin is an offense against God, and is to be confessed to Him through Christ. Every open sin should be as openly confessed. Wrong done to a fellow being should be made right with the one who has been offended. If any who are seeking health have been guilty of evil-speaking, if they have sowed discord in the home, and neighborhood, or the church, and have stirred up alienation and dissension, if by any wrong practise they have led others into sin, these things should be confessed before God and before those who have been offended. --The Ministry of Healing, 228, 229.
WGD	229	4	We are not to trust in our faith, but in the promises of God. When we repent of our past transgressions of His law, and resolve to render obedience in the future, we should believe that God for Christ's sake accepts us, and forgives our sins.
WGD	229	5	Darkness and discouragement will sometimes come upon the soul, and threaten to overwhelm us; but we should not cast away our confidence. We must keep the eye fixed on Jesus, feeling or no feeling. We should seek to faithfully perform every known duty, and then calmly rest in the promises of God.--Messages to Young People, 111.
------------------------Confession Leads to Salvation, August 16
WGD	230	1	"For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation," Romans 10:10.
WGD	230	2	Could Christians realize how many times the Lord has ordered their way, that the purposes of the enemy concerning them might not be accomplished, they would not stumble along complainingly. Their faith would be stayed on God, and no trial would have power to move them. They would acknowledge Him as their wisdom and efficiency, and He would bring to pass that which He desires to work out through them.-- Prophets and Kings, 576.
WGD	230	3	The conditions of obtaining mercy from God are simple and reasonable. The Lord does not require us to do some grievous thing in order to gain forgiveness. We need not make long and wearisome pilgrimages, or perform painful penances, to commend our souls to the God of heaven or to expiate our transgression. He that "confesseth and forsaketh" his sin "shall have mercy."
WGD	230	4	In the courts above, Christ is pleading for His church-- pleading for those for whom He has paid the redemption price of His blood. Centuries, ages, can never lessen the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice. Neither life nor death, height nor depth, can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus; not because we hold Him so firmly, but because He holds us so fast. If our salvation depended on our own efforts, we could not be saved; but it depends on the One who is behind all the promises. Our grasp on Him may seem feeble, but His love is that of an elder brother; so long as we maintain our union with Him, no one can pluck us out of His hand.-- The Acts of the Apostles, 552, 553.
------------------------I Acknowledged and Thou Forgavest, August 17
WGD	231	1	"I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." Ps. 32:5.
WGD	231	2	For those who are convicted of sin and weighed down with a sense of their unworthiness, there are lessons of faith and encouragement in this record. The Bible faithfully presents the result of Israel's apostasy; but it portrays also the deep humiliation and repentance, the earnest devotion and generous sacrifice, that marked their seasons of return to the Lord.
WGD	231	3	Every true turning to the Lord brings abiding joy into the life. When a sinner yields to the influence of the Holy Spirit, he sees his own guilt and defilement in contrast with the holiness of the great Searcher of hearts. He sees himself condemned as a transgressor. But he is not, because of this, to give way to despair; for his pardon has already been secured. He may rejoice in the sense of sins forgiven, in the love of a pardoning heavenly Father. It is God's glory to encircle sinful, repentant human beings in the arms of His love, to bind up their wounds, to cleanse them from sin, and to clothe them with the garments of salvation.--Prophets and Kings, 668.
WGD	231	4	The Psalms of David pass through the whole range of experience, from the depths of conscious guilt and self-condemnation to the loftiest faith and the most exalted communing with God. His life record declares that sin can bring only shame and woe, but that God's love and mercy can reach to the deepest depths, that faith will lift up the repenting soul to share the adoption of the sons of God. Of all the assurances which His Word contains, it is one of the strongest testi-monies to the faithfulness, the justice, and the covenant mercy of God.--Patriarchs and, Prophets, 754.
------------------------He Will Not Remember Our Sins, August 18
WGD	232	1	"I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." Isaiah 43:25.
WGD	232	2	Said Jesus: "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.". . .
WGD	232	3	The deepest interest manifested among men in the decisions of earthly tribunals but faintly represents the interest evinced in the heavenly courts when the names entered in the book of life come up in review before the Judge of all the earth. . . .
WGD	232	4	Sins that have not been repented of and forsaken will not be pardoned, and blotted out of the books of record, but will stand to witness against the sinner in the day of God. He may have committed his evil deeds in the light of day or in the darkness of night; but they were open and manifest before Him with whom we have to do. Angels of God witnessed each sin, and registered it in the unerring records. Sin may be concealed, denied, covered up from father, mother, wife, children, and associates; no one but the guilty actors may cherish the least suspicion of the wrong; but it is laid bare before the intelligences of heaven.
WGD	232	5	The darkness of the darkest night, the secrecy of all deceptive arts, is not sufficient to veil one thought from the knowledge of the Eternal. God has an exact record of every unjust account and every unfair dealing. He is not deceived by appearances of piety. He makes no mistakes in His estimation of character. Men may be deceived by those who are corrupt in heart, but God pierces all disguises, and reads the inner life. How solemn is the thought!--The Great Controversy, 483-486.
------------------------Forgive and Ye Shall Be Forgiven, August 19
WGD	233	1	"Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven." Luke 6:37.
WGD	233	2	Jesus teaches that we can receive forgiveness from God only as we forgive others. It is the love of God that draws us unto Him, and that love can not touch our hearts without creating love for our brethren. . . .
WGD	233	3	He who is unforgiving, cuts off the very channel through which alone he can receive mercy from God. We should not think that unless those who have injured us confess the wrong, we are justified in withholding from them our forgiveness. It is their part, no doubt, to humble their hearts by repentance and confession; but we are to have a spirit of compassion toward those who have trespassed against us, whether or not they confess their faults. However sorely they may have wounded us, we are not to cherish our grievances, and sympathize with ourselves over our injuries; but as we hope to be pardoned for our offenses against God, we are to pardon all who have done evil to us.
WGD	233	4	But forgiveness has a broader meaning than many suppose. When God gives the promise that He "will abundantly pardon," He adds, as if the meaning of that promise exceeded all that we could comprehend: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."
WGD	233	5	God's forgiveness is not merely a judicial act by which He sets us free from condemnation. It is not only forgiveness for sin, but reclaiming from sin. It is the outflow of redeeming love that transforms the heart. . . . God in Christ gave Himself for our sins.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 113, 114.
------------------------We Are Redeemed By His Blood, August 20
WGD	234	1	"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Ephesians 1:7.
WGD	234	2	Our condition through sin has become preternatural, and the power that restores us must be supernatural, else it has no value. There is but one power that can break the hold of evil from the hearts of men, and that is the power of God in Jesus Christ. Only through the blood of the Crucified One is there cleansing from sin.
WGD	234	3	His grace alone can enable us to resist and subdue the tendencies of our fallen nature. This power the spiritualistic theories concerning God make of no effect. If God is an essence pervading all nature, then He dwells in all men; and in order to attain holiness, man has only to develop the power that is within him.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 291.
WGD	234	4	You may have the overcomer's reward, and stand before the throne of Christ to sing His praises in the day when He assembles His saints; but your robes must be cleansed in the blood of the Lamb, and charity must cover you as a garment, and you be found spotless and without blemish. John says: After this I beheld and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. . . . They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 125.
------------------------His Blood Was Shed for Many, August 21
WGD	235	1	"For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Matthew 26:28.
WGD	235	2	Children of the Lord, how precious is the promise! How full the atonement of the Saviour for our guilt! The Redeemer, with a heart of unalterable love, still pleads His sacred blood in the sinner's behalf. The wounded hands, the pierced side, the marred feet, plead eloquently for fallen man, whose redemption is purchased at such an infinite cost. Oh, matchless condescension! Neither time nor events can lessen the efficacy of the atoning sacrifice. As the fragrant cloud of incense rose acceptably to Heaven, and Aaron sprinkled the blood upon the mercy-seat of ancient Israel, and cleansed the people from guilt, so the merits of the slain Lamb are accepted by God to-day as a purifier from the defilement of sin.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 124.
WGD	235	3	As we receive the bread and wine symbolizing Christ's broken body and spilled blood, we in imagination join in the scene of communion in the upper chamber. We seem to be passing through the garden consecrated by the agony of Him who bore the sins of the world. We witness the struggle by which our reconciliation with God was obtained. Christ is set forth crucified among us.
WGD	235	4	Looking upon the crucified Redeemer, we more fully comprehend the magnitude and meaning of the sacrifice made by the Majesty of heaven. The plan of salvation is glorified before us, and the thought of Calvary awakens living and sacred emotions in our hearts. Praise to God and the Lamb will be in our hearts and on our lips; for pride and self-worship cannot flourish in the soul that keeps fresh in memory the scenes of Calvary.--The Desire of Ages, 661.
------------------------Through Faith Our Sins Are Washed Away, August 22
WGD	236	1	"Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." Romans 3:25.
WGD	236	2	The blood of the spotless Lamb of God the believers apply to their own hearts. Looking upon the great Antitype, we can say, "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.". . ."Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."--Testimonies to Ministers, 95.
WGD	236	3	The Son of God came voluntarily to accomplish the work of atonement. There was no obligatory yoke upon Him; for He was independent and above all law. The angels, as God's intelligent messengers, were under the yoke of obligation; no personal sacrifice of theirs could atone for the guilt of fallen man. Christ alone was free from the claims of the law to undertake the redemption of the sinful race. He had power to lay down His life and to take it up again. . . .
WGD	236	4	The blood of Christ is efficacious, but it needs to be applied continually. God not only wants His servants to use the means He has intrusted to them for His glory, but He desires them to make a consecration of themselves to His cause.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 120-122.
WGD	236	5	The Saviour is bending over the purchase of His blood, saying with inexpressible tenderness and pity, "Wilt thou be made whole?" He bids you arise in health and peace. . . . He will set free the captive that is held by weakness and misfortune and the chains of sin.--The Desire of Ages, 203.
WGD	236	6	We must exercise that living faith, which will penetrate the clouds that, like a thick wall, separate us from heaven's light.--Messages to Young People, 103.
------------------------Christ Washed Us in His Own Blood, August 23
WGD	237	1	"Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." Revelation 1:5.
WGD	237	2	Satan may whisper, "You are too great a sinner for Christ to save." While you acknowledge that you are indeed sinful and unworthy, you may meet the tempter with the cry, "By virtue of the atonement, I claim Christ as my Saviour. I trust not to my own merits, but to the precious blood of Jesus, which cleanses me. This moment I hang my helpless soul on Christ." --Messages to Young People, 112.
WGD	237	3	Man was under the condemnation of the broken law. He could not save himself, and for this reason Christ came to this world, clothed His divinity with humanity, and gave His life, the just for the unjust. He gave Himself for our sins, and to every soul He freely offers the blood-bought pardon.--Christ's Object Lessons, 244, 245.
WGD	237	4	The angels look with awe and amazement upon the mission of Christ to the world. They marvel at the love that moved Him to give Himself a sacrifice for the sins of men. But how lightly human beings regard the purchase of His blood!-- Gospel Workers, 497.
WGD	237	5	As this wonderful, priceless Gift was bestowed, the whole heavenly universe was mightily stirred, in an effort to understand God's unfathomable love. . . . Shall we . . . halt between two opinions? Shall we return to God only a mite of the capabilities and powers lent us by Him? How can we do this while we know that He who was Commander of all heaven laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown, and, realizing the helplessness of the fallen race, came to this earth in human nature to make it possible for us to unite our humanity to His divinity?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 29.
------------------------These Have Washed Their Robes, August 24
WGD	238	1	"These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Revelation 7:14.
WGD	238	2	Upon the crystal sea before the throne, that sea of glass as it were mingled with fire,--so resplendent is it with the glory of God,--are gathered the company that have "gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name." With the Lamb upon Mount Zion, "having the harps of God," they stand, the hundred and forty and four thousand that were redeemed from among men; and there is heard, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of a great thunder, "the voice of harpers harping with their harps.". . . "These are they which came out of great tribulation;" they have passed through the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation; they have endured the anguish of the time of Jacob's trouble; they have stood without an intercessor through the final outpouring of God's judgments. But they have been delivered, for they have "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."--The Great Controversy, 648, 649.
WGD	238	3	The most exalted of the redeemed host that stand before the throne of God and the Lamb, clad in white, know the conflict of overcoming, for they have come up through great tribulation. Those who have yielded to circumstances rather than engage in this conflict, will not know how to stand in that day when anguish will be upon every soul, when, though Noah, Job, and Daniel, were in the land, they could save neither son nor daughter, for every one must deliver his soul by his own righteousness.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 215.
------------------------Ye Who Were Far Off Are Made Nigh, August 25
WGD	239	1	"But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Ephesians 2:13.
WGD	239	2	You have been chosen by Christ. You have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb. Plead before God the efficacy of that blood. Say unto Him: "I am Thine by creation;
WGD	239	3	I am Thine by redemption. I respect human authority, and the advice of my brethren; but I cannot depend wholly upon these. I want Thee, O God, to teach me. I have covenanted with Thee to adopt the divine standard of character, and make Thee my counselor and guide,--a party to every plan of my life; therefore teach me." Let the glory of the Lord be your first consideration. Repress every desire for worldly distinction, every ambition to secure the first place. Encourage heart purity and holiness, that you may represent the true principles of the gospel. Let every act of your life be sanctified by a holy endeavor to do the Lord's will, that your influence may not lead others into forbidden paths.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 348, 349.
WGD	239	4	The efficacy of the blood of Christ was to be presented to the people with freshness and power, that their faith might lay hold upon its merits. As the high priest sprinkled the warm blood upon the mercy seat, while the fragrant cloud of incense ascended before God, so while we confess our sins, and plead the efficacy of Christ's atoning blood, our prayers are to ascend to heaven, fragrant with the merits of our Saviour's character. Notwithstanding our unworthiness, we are ever to bear in mind that there is One that can take away sin, and save the sinner. Every sin acknowledged before God with a contrite heart, He will remove. This faith is the life of the church.--Testimonies to Ministers, 92, 93.
------------------------Not By the Blood of Animals, But His Own, August 26
WGD	240	1	"Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us." Hebrews 9:12.
WGD	240	2	As Christ at His ascension appeared in the presence of God to plead His blood in behalf of penitent believers, so the priest in the daily ministration sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice in the holy place in the sinner's behalf. . . .
WGD	240	3	In the great day of final award, the dead are to be "judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." Then by virtue of the atoning blood of Christ, the sins of all the truly penitent will be blotted from the books of heaven. Thus the sanctuary will be freed, or cleansed, from the record of sin. In the type, this great work of atonement, or blotting out of sins, was represented by the services of the day of atonement,--the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary, which was accomplished by the removal, by virtue of the blood of the sin-offering, of the sins by which it had been polluted. . . . Thus in the ministration of the tabernacle, and of the temple that afterward took its place, the people were taught each day the great truths relative to Christ's death and ministration, and once each year their minds were carried forward to the closing events of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, the final purification of the universe from sin and sinners.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 357, 358.
WGD	240	4	The act of Christ in dying for the salvation of man would not only make heaven accessible to men, but before all the universe it would justify God and His Son in their dealing with the rebellion of Satan. It would establish the perpetuity of the law of God, and would reveal the nature and the results of sin.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 69.
------------------------The Scepter of His Kingdom, August 27
WGD	241	1	"But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." Hebrews 1:8.
WGD	241	2	Our hope is to be constantly strengthened by the knowledge that Christ is our righteousness. Let our faith rest upon this foundation; for it will stand fast forever. Instead of dwelling upon the darkness of Satan, and fearing his power, we should open our hearts to receive light from Christ, and to let it shine forth to the world, declaring that He is above all the power of Satan; that His sustaining arm will support all who trust in Him.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 742.
WGD	241	3	All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure.--Testimonies to Ministers, 92.
WGD	241	4	The development of all our powers is the first duty we owe to God and to our fellow-men. No one who is not growing daily in capability and usefulness is fulfilling the purpose of life. In making a profession of faith in Christ we pledge ourselves to become all that it is possible for us to be as workers for the Master, and we should cultivate every faculty to the highest degree of perfection, that we may do the greatest amount of good of which we are capable.--Christ's Object Lessons, 329, 330.
WGD	241	5	Those who are seeking the righteousness of Christ will be dwelling upon the themes of the great salvation.--Counsels to Teachers, 341.
------------------------Reconciliation By His Son, August 28
WGD	242	1	"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Romans 5:10.
WGD	242	2	Jesus Christ has given Himself as a complete offering in behalf of every fallen son and daughter of Adam. O what humiliation He bore! How He descended, step after step, lower and lower in the path of humiliation, yet He never degraded His soul with one foul blot of sin! All this He suffered, that He might lift you up, cleanse, refine, and ennoble you, and place you as a joint heir with Himself upon His throne.
WGD	242	3	How shall you make your calling and election sure? What is the way of salvation? Christ says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." However sinful, however guilty you may be, you are called, you are chosen. . . . Not one will be forced against his will to come to Jesus Christ. The Majesty of heaven, the only-begotten Son of the true and living God, opened the way for you to come to Him, by giving His life as a sacrifice on Calvary's cross. But while He suffered all this for you, He is too pure, He is too just, to behold iniquity. But even this need not keep you away from Him; for He says, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
WGD	242	4	Let perishing souls come to Him just as they are, without one plea, and plead the atoning blood of Christ, and they will find acceptance with God, who dwelleth in glory between the cherubim above the mercy seat. The blood of Jesus is a neverfailing passport, by which all your petitions may find access to the throne of God.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 251, 252.
------------------------His Righteousness Marks His Superiority, August 29
WGD	243	1	"Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." Hebrews 1:9.
WGD	243	2	We are God's servants, and to each of us He has given talents, both natural and spiritual. As children of God, we should be constantly gaining in fitness for the heavenly mansions which Christ told His disciples He was going away to prepare for them. He who lays hold upon the righteousness of Christ may become a perfect man in Christ Jesus. Working from a high standpoint, seeking to follow the example of Christ, we shall grow up into His likeness, possessing more and more refinement.--Testimonies to Ministers, 150.
WGD	243	3	The Christian in his business life is to represent to the world the manner in which our Lord would conduct business enterprises. In every transaction he is to make it manifest that God is his teacher. "Holiness unto the Lord," is to be written upon day books and ledgers, on deeds, receipts, and bills of exchange. Those who profess to be followers of Christ, and who deal in an unrighteous manner, are bearing false witness against the character of a holy, just, and merciful God.--The Desire of Ages, 556.
WGD	243	4	Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided, can make us meet to appear in God's presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul.--Christ's Object Lessons, 311.
WGD	243	5	If we will but keep our eyes fixed on the Saviour, and trust in His power, we shall be filled with a sense of security; for the righteousness of Christ will become our righteousness.--Messages to Young People, 107.
------------------------He Became Our High Priest, August 30
WGD	244	1	"Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Hebrews 2:17.
WGD	244	2	As a consecrated high priest He intercedes for His people. As a faithful shepherd He gathers His flock under the shadow of the Almighty, in the strong and sure refuge. For Him there waits the last battle with Satan, and He goes forth to meet it.-- The Desire of Ages, 680.
WGD	244	3	So Christ, the great high priest, pleading His blood before the Father in the sinner's behalf, bears upon His heart the name of every repentant, believing soul.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 351.
WGD	244	4	Like Aaron, who symbolized Christ, our Saviour bears the names of all His people on His heart in the holy place. Our great High Priest remembers all the words by which He has encouraged us to trust. He is ever mindful of His covenant.-- Christ's Object Lessons, 148.
WGD	244	5	The work of Christ as man's intercessor is presented in that beautiful prophecy of Zechariah concerning Him "whose name is The Branch." Says the prophet: "He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His [the Father's] throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne.". . . As a priest, Christ is now set down with the Father in His throne. Upon the throne with the eternal, self-existent One, is He who "hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.". . . His intercession is that of a pierced and broken body, of a spotless life. The wounded hands, the pierced side, the marred feet, plead for fallen man, whose redemption was purchased at such infinite cost.--The Great Controversy, 415, 416.
------------------------Righteousness Fulfilled in Him, August 31
WGD	245	1	"And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Matthew 3:15.
WGD	245	2	Jesus did not receive baptism as a confession of guilt on His own account. He identified Himself with sinners, taking the steps that we are to take, and doing the work that we must do. His life of suffering and patient endurance after His baptism was also an example to us.
WGD	245	3	Upon coming up out of the water, Jesus bowed in prayer on the river bank. A new and important era was opening before Him. He was now, upon a wider stage, entering on the conflict of His life. Though He was the Prince of Peace, His coming must be as the unsheathing of a sword. . . . No one upon earth had understood Him, and during His ministry He must still walk alone. Throughout His life His mother and His brothers did not comprehend His mission. Even His disciples did not understand Him. He had dwelt in eternal light, as one with God, but His life on earth must be spent in solitude. . . . Alone He must tread the path; alone He must bear the burden. Upon Him who had laid off His glory, and accepted the weakness of humanity, the redemption of the world must rest. He saw and felt it all, but His purpose remained steadfast. Upon His arm depended the salvation of the fallen race, and He reached out His hand to grasp the hand of Omnipotent Love.--The Desire of Ages, 111.
WGD	245	4	Jesus might have remained at the Father's side. He might have retained the glory of heaven, and the homage of the angels. But He chose to give back the scepter into the Father's hands, and to step down from the throne of the universe, that He might bring light to the benighted, and life to the perishing.--The Desire of Ages, 23.
------------------------Yield Your Members, September 1
WGD	246	1	"Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Romans 6:13.
WGD	246	2	God's stamp is upon us. He has bought us, and He desires us to remember that our physical, mental, and moral powers belong to Him. Time and influence, reason, affection, and conscience, all are God's, and are to be used only in harmony with His will. They are not to be used in accordance with the direction of the world; for the world is under a leader who is at enmity with God.
WGD	246	3	The flesh, in which the soul tabernacles, belongs to God. Every sinew, every muscle, is His. In no case are we by neglect or abuse to weaken a single organ. We are to co-operate with God by keeping the body in the very best possible condition of health, that it may be a temple where the Holy Ghost may abide, molding, according to the will of God, every physical and spiritual power.
WGD	246	4	The mind must be stored with pure principles. Truth must be graven on the tablets of the soul. The memory must be filled with the precious truths of the Word. Then, like beautiful gems, these truths will flash out in the life.--Messages to Young People, 69.
WGD	246	5	The people of God will be tested and proved. A close and searching work must go on among Sabbathkeepers. Like ancient Israel, how soon we forget God and His wondrous works, and rebel against Him.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 287.
------------------------Present Your Bodies, September 2
WGD	247	1	"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Romans 12:1.
WGD	247	2	You are not your own. Jesus has purchased you with His blood. Do not bury your talents in the earth. Use them for Him. In whatever business you may be engaged, bring Jesus into it. If you find that you are losing your love for your Saviour, give up your business, and say, "Here I am, Saviour; what wilt Thou have me to do?" He will receive you graciously, and love you freely. He will abundantly pardon; for He is merciful and long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. . . .
WGD	247	3	We, and all that we have, belong to God. We should not regard it as a sacrifice to give Him the affection of our hearts. The heart itself should be given to Him as a willing offering.--Messages to Young People, 70.
WGD	247	4	The body is the only medium through which the mind and the soul are developed for the upbuilding of character. Hence it is that the adversary of souls directs his temptations to the enfeebling and degrading of the physical powers. His success here means the surrender to evil of the whole being. The tendencies of our physical nature, unless under the dominion of a higher power, will surely work ruin and death.
WGD	247	5	The body is to be brought into subjection. . . . The requirements of God must be brought home to the conscience. Men and women must be awakened to the duty of self-mastery, the need of purity, freedom from every depraving appetite and defiling habit. They need to be impressed with the fact that all their powers of mind and body are the gift of God, and are to be preserved in the best possible condition for His service.--The Ministry of Healing, 130.
------------------------Who Then Is Willing?, September 3
WGD	248	1	"And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?" 1 Chronicles 29:5.
WGD	248	2	It is not safe for us to linger to contemplate the advantages to be reaped through yielding to Satan's suggestions. Sin means dishonor and disaster to every soul that indulges in it; but it is blinding and deceiving in its nature, and it will entice us with flattering presentations. If we venture on Satan's ground, we have no assurance of protection from his power. So far as in us lies, we should close every avenue by which the tempter may find access to us.--Messages to Young People, 70.
WGD	248	3	The whole heart must be yielded to God, or the change can never be wrought in us by which we are to be restored to His likeness. By nature we are alienated from God. The Holy Spirit describes our condition in such words as these: "Dead in trespasses and sins;" "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint;" "no soundness in it." We are held fast in the snare of Satan; "taken captive by him at his will." God desires to heal us, to set us free. But since this requires an entire transformation, a renewing of our whole nature, we must yield ourselves wholly to him.
WGD	248	4	The warfare against self is the greatest battle that was ever fought. The yielding of self, surrendering all to the will of God, requires a struggle; but the soul must submit to God before it can be renewed in holiness.
WGD	248	5	The government of God is not, as Satan would make it appear, founded upon a blind submission, an unreasoning control. It appeals to the intellect and the conscience.--Steps to Christ, 47, 48.
------------------------I Turned My Feet, September 4
WGD	249	1	"I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies." Ps. 119:59.
WGD	249	2	Age will never excuse us from obeying God. Our faith should be prolific of good works; for faith without works is dead. Every duty performed, every sacrifice made in the name of Jesus, brings an exceeding great reward. In the very act of duty, God speaks, and gives His blessing. But He requires of us an entire surrender of the faculties. The mind and heart, the whole being, must be given to Him, or we fall short of becoming true Christians.
WGD	249	3	God has withheld nothing from man that can secure to him eternal riches. He has clothed the earth with beauty, and furnished it for his use and comfort during his temporal life. He has given His Son to die for the redemption of a world that had fallen through sin and folly. . . . God requires prompt and unquestioning obedience of His law; but men are asleep, or paralyzed by the deceptions of Satan, who suggests excuses and subterfuges, and conquers their scruples, saying, as he said to Eve in the garden, "Ye shall not surely die." Disobedience not only hardens the heart and conscience of the guilty one, but it tends to corrupt the faith of others.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 145, 146.
WGD	249	4	Can we afford to have our own way, and take ourselves out of the hands of God, because it is more pleasing to the natural heart? God requires perfect submission and perfect obedience. --Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 218.
WGD	249	5	As a flower turns to the sun that the bright rays may aid in perfecting its beauty and symmetry, so should the youth turn to the Sun of Righteousness, that Heaven's light may shine upon them.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 445.
------------------------Forsake All for Him, September 5
WGD	250	1	"So likewise, whosoever he he of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:33.
WGD	250	2	God does not force the will of His creatures. He can not accept an homage that is not willingly and intelligently given. A mere forced submission would prevent all real development of mind or character; it would make man a mere automaton. Such is not the purpose of the Creator. . . . In giving ourselves to God, we must necessarily give up all that would separate us from Him. . . . Whatever shall draw away the heart from God must be given up. Mammon is the idol of many. The love of money, the desire for wealth, is the golden chain that binds them to Satan. Reputation and worldly honor are worshiped by another class. The life of selfish ease and freedom from responsibility is the idol of others. But these slavish bands must be broken. We can not be half the Lord's and half the world's. We are not God's children unless we are such entirely. . . .
WGD	250	3	When Christ dwells in the heart, the soul will be so filled with His love, with the joy of communion with Him, that it will cleave to Him; and in the contemplation of Him, self will be forgotten. Love to Christ will be the spring of action. . . . A profession of Christ without this deep love, is mere talk, dry formality, and heavy drudgery.
WGD	250	4	Do you feel that it is too great a sacrifice to yield all to Christ? Ask yourself the question, "What has Christ given for me?"--Steps to Christ, 48, 49.
WGD	250	5	God will bring you over the ground again and again, until with humble heart and subdued mind you bear the test that He inflicts, and are wholly sanctified to His service and work.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 214.
------------------------Serve God with a Willing Mind, September 6
WGD	251	1	"Know thou the God of thy father, and serve him, with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts." 1 Chronicles 28:9.
WGD	251	2	In order for us to reach this high ideal, that which causes the soul to stumble must be sacrificed. It is through the will that sin retains its hold upon us. The surrender of the will is represented as plucking out the eye or cutting off the hand. Often it seems to us that to surrender the will to God is to consent to go through life maimed or crippled. But it is better, says Christ, for self to be maimed, wounded, crippled, if thus you may enter into life. That which you look upon as disaster is the door to highest benefit. . . .
WGD	251	3	Only through the surrender of our will to God is it possible for Him to impart life to us. Only by receiving His life through self-surrender is it possible, said Jesus, for these hidden sins, which I have pointed out, to be overcome. . . . If you cling to self, refusing to yield your will to God, you are choosing death. To sin, wherever found, God is a con-suming fire. If you choose sin, and refuse to separate from it, the presence of God, which consumes sin, must consume you. --Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 61.
WGD	251	4	You need to drink daily at the fountain of truth, that you may understand the secret of pleasure and joy in the Lord. But you must remember that your will is the spring of all your actions. . . . There is no such thing as following Christ unless you . . . determine to obey God. It is not your feelings, your emotions, that make you a child of God, but the doing of God's will. A life of usefulness is before you, if your will becomes God's will.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 515.
------------------------God Desires a Contrite Heart, September 7
WGD	252	1	"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Ps. 51:17.
WGD	252	2	The path to Heaven is no smoother now than in the days of our Saviour. All our sins must be put away. Every darling indulgence that hinders our religious life must be cut off. The right eye or the right hand must be sacrificed, if it cause us to offend. . . . Are we willing to part with self-righteousness? Are we willing to give up our chosen worldly associates? . . . Every association we form, however limited, exerts some influence upon us. The extent to which we yield to that influence will be determined by the degree of intimacy, the constancy of the intercourse, and our love and veneration for the one with whom we associate. Thus by acquaintance and association with Christ, we may become like Him, the one faultless example.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 222, 223.
WGD	252	3	No outward forms can make us clean; no ordinance, administered by the saintliest of men, can take the place of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God must do its work upon the heart. . . .
WGD	252	4	The spirit of Christ will be revealed in all who are born of God. Strife and contention cannot arise among those who are controlled by His Spirit. . . .
WGD	252	5	To talk of religious things in a casual way, to pray for spiritual blessings without real soul-hunger, and living faith, avails little. The wondering crowd that pressed close about Christ, realized no vital power from the contact. But when the poor, suffering woman, in her great need, put forth her hand and touched the hem of Jesus' garment, she felt the healing virtue. Hers was the touch of faith.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 227.
------------------------We Will Serve the Lord, September 8
WGD	253	1	"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve; . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15.
WGD	253	2	There will be a sharp conflict between those who are loyal to God and those who cast scorn upon His law. Reverence for God's law has been subverted. The religious leaders are teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. As it was in the days of ancient Israel, so it is in this age of the world. But because of the prevalence of disloyalty and transgression, will those who have reverenced the law of God now cherish less respect for it? Will they unite with the powers of earth to make it void? The loyal will not be carried away by the current of evil. They will not throw contempt on that which God has set apart as holy. They will not follow Israel's example of forgetfulness; they will call to remembrance God's dealings with His people in all ages, and will walk in the way of His commandments. The test comes to every one. There are only two sides. On which side are you?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 120.
WGD	253	3	Let every soul be on the alert. The adversary is on your track. Be vigilant, watching diligently lest some carefullyconcealed and masterly snare shall take you unawares. Let the careless and indifferent beware lest the day of the Lord come upon them as a thief in the night. Many will wander from the path of humility, and, casting aside the yoke of Christ, will walk in strange paths. Blinded and bewildered, they will leave the narrow path that leads to the city of God. . . .
WGD	253	4	It is time for our people to take their families from the cities into more retired localities, else many of the youth, and many also of those older in years, will be ensnared and taken by the enemy.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 99-101.
------------------------A Disciple's Decision, September 9
WGD	254	1	"And he left all, rose up, and followed him." Luke 5:28.
WGD	254	2	When Christ called His disciples to follow Him, He offered them no flattering prospects in this life. He gave them no promise of gain or worldly honor, nor did they make any stipulation as to what they should receive. To Matthew as he sat at the receipt of custom, the Saviour said, "Follow Me. And he arose, and followed Him." Matthew did not, before rendering service, wait to demand a certain salary, equal to the amount received in his former occupation. Without question or hesitation he followed Jesus. It was enough for him that he was to be with the Saviour, that he might hear His words and unite with Him in His work.
WGD	254	3	So it was with the disciples previously called. When Jesus bade Peter and his companions follow Him, they immediately left their boats and nets. Some of these disciples had friends dependent on them for support; but when they received the Saviour's invitation, they did not hesitate, inquiring, How shall I live, and sustain my family? They were obedient to the call; and when afterward Jesus asked them, "When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything?" they could answer, "Nothing."
WGD	254	4	To-day the Saviour calls us, as He called Matthew and John and Peter, to His work. If our hearts are touched by His love, the question of compensation will not be uppermost in our minds.--Gospel Workers, 113, 114.
WGD	254	5	Principle is always exacting. No man can succeed in the service of God unless his whole heart is in the work, and he counts all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. . . . Wherever He leads the way, they will rejoice to follow.--The Desire of Ages, 273.
------------------------Sincerity, September 10
WGD	255	1	"He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." 1 John 2:6.
WGD	255	2	Singleness of purpose, whole-hearted devotion to God, is the condition pointed out by the Saviour's words. Let the purpose be sincere and unwavering to discern the truth and to obey it at whatever cost, and you will receive divine enlightenment. Real piety begins when all compromise with sin is at an end. Then the language of the heart will be that of the apostle Paul: "This one thing I do . . . , I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.". . .
WGD	255	3	Yielding to temptation begins in permitting the mind to waver, to be inconstant in your trust in God. If we do not choose to give ourselves fully to God, then we are in darkness. When we make any reserve, we are leaving open a door through which Satan can enter to lead us astray by his temptations. He knows that if he can obscure our vision, so that the eye of faith can not see God, there will be no barrier against sin.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 91, 92..
WGD	255	4	We are living in times full of importance to each one. Light is shining in clear, steady rays around us. If this light is rightly received and appreciated, it will be a blessing to us and to others; but if we trust in our own wisdom and strength, or in the wisdom and strength of our fellow men, it will be turned into a poison. In the struggle for eternal life, we can not lean upon one another. The bread of life must be eaten by each one. Individually we must partake of it, that soul, body, and mind may be revived and strengthened by its transforming power, thus becoming assimilated to the mind and character of Jesus Christ. God must be made first and last and best in everything.--Testimonies to Ministers, 385.
------------------------A Clear Conscience, September 11
WGD	256	1	"And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men." Acts 24:16.
WGD	256	2	My brethren, the Lord calls upon you to examine the heart closely. He calls upon you to adorn the truth in your daily practise, and in all your dealings with one another. . . . It is dangerous for you to trifle with the sacred demands of conscience. . . . Are you learning daily in the school of Christ,-- learning how to dismiss doubt and evil surmisings, learning how to be fair and noble in your dealings with your brethren, for your own sake, and for Christ's sake?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 195.
WGD	256	3	All who in that evil day would fearlessly serve God according to the dictates of conscience, will need courage, firmness, and a knowledge of God and His Word; for those who are true to God will be persecuted, their motives will be impugned, their best efforts misinterpreted, and their names cast out as evil. Satan will work with all his deceptive power to influence the heart and becloud the understanding, to make evil appear good, and good evil. The stronger and purer the faith of God's people, and the firmer their determination to obey Him, the more fiercely will Satan strive to stir up against them the rage of those who . . . trample upon the law of God.--The Acts of the Apostles, 431.
WGD	256	4	Our gatherings should be so conducted, and we should so conduct ourselves, that when we return to our homes we can have a conscience void of offense toward God and man; a consciousness that we have not wounded or injured in any manner those with whom we have been associated, or had an injurious influence over them.--Messages to Young People, 385, 386.
------------------------Sobriety, Godliness, September 12
WGD	257	1	"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." Titus 2:11, 12.
WGD	257	2	As ordinarily conducted, parties of pleasure also are a hindrance to real growth, either of mind or of character. Frivolous associations, habits of extravagance, of pleasure-seeking, and too often of dissipation, are formed, that shape the whole life for evil. In place of such amusements, parents and teachers can do much to supply diversions wholesome and life-giving.
WGD	257	3	In this, as in all things else that concern our well-being, Inspiration has pointed the way. In early ages, with the people who were under God's direction, life was simple. They lived close to the heart of nature. Their children shared in the labor of the parents, and studied the beauties and mysteries of nature's treasure-house. And in the quiet of field and wood they pondered those mighty truths handed down as a sacred trust from generation to generation. Such training produced strong men. --Education, 211.
WGD	257	4	Righteousness is love, and love is the light and the life of God. The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him. Not by painful struggles or wearisome toil, not by gift or sacrifice, is righteousness obtained; but it is freely given to every soul who hungers and thirsts to receive it. . . .
WGD	257	5	As we need food to sustain our physical strength, so do we need Christ, the bread from heaven, to sustain spiritual life, and impart strength to work the works of God.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 18, 19.
------------------------Faithfulness Unto Death, September 13
WGD	258	1	"Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Acts 21:13.
WGD	258	2	During Paul's final trial before Nero, the emperor had been so strongly impressed with the force of the apostle's words, that he deferred the decision of the case, neither acquitting nor condemning the accused servant of God. But the emperor's malice against Paul soon returned. . . . Not long afterward Nero pronounced the decision that condemned Paul to a martyr's death. Inasmuch as a Roman citizen could not be subjected to torture, he was sentenced to be beheaded. Paul was taken in a private manner to the place of execution. Few spectators were allowed to be present; for his persecutors, alarmed at the extent of his influence, feared that converts might be won to Christianity by the scenes of his death. . . .
WGD	258	3	More than one accepted the Saviour whom Paul preached, and ere long fearlessly sealed their faith with their blood. . . . Paul carried with him the atmosphere of heaven. All who associated with him felt the influence of his union with Christ. The fact that his own life exemplified the truth he proclaimed, gave convincing power to his preaching. Here lies the power of truth. . . .
WGD	258	4	The apostle was looking into the great beyond, not with uncertainty or dread, but with joyous hope and longing expectation. As he stands at the place of martyrdom, he sees not the sword of the executioner or the earth so soon to receive his blood; he looks up through the calm blue heaven of that summer day to the throne of the Eternal. . . . Paul has the witness in himself that his soul is precious in the sight of his Redeemer.--The Acts of the Apostles, 509-512.
------------------------Obedience, September 14
WGD	259	1	"Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end." Ps. 119:33.
WGD	259	2	God has made known His will, and it is folly for man to question that which has gone out of His lips. After Infinite Wisdom has spoken, there can be no doubtful questions for man to settle, no wavering possibilities for him to adjust. All that is required of him is a frank, earnest concurrence in the expressed will of God. Obedience is the highest dictate of reason as well as of conscience.--The Acts of the Apostles, 506.
WGD	259	3	Above all, let children be taught that true reverence is shown by obedience. God has commanded nothing that is unessential, and there is no other way of manifesting reverence so pleasing to Him as obedience to that which He has spoken. --Education, 244.
WGD	259	4	Few parents begin early enough to teach their children to obey. The child is usually allowed to get two or three years the start of its parents, who forbear to discipline it, thinking it too young to learn to obey. But all this time self is growing strong in the little being, and every day makes harder the parent's task of gaining control. At a very early age children can comprehend what is plainly and simply told them, and by kind and judicious management can be taught to obey.-- Counsels to Teachers, 111, 112.
WGD	259	5	If the youth could see that in complying with the laws and regulations of our institutions they are only doing that which will improve their standing in society, elevate the character, ennoble the mind, and increase their happiness, they would not rebel against just rules and wholesome requirements, nor engage in creating suspicion and prejudice against these institutions.--Messages to Young People, 182.
------------------------Happiness, September 15
WGD	260	1	"But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee." Ps. 5:11.
WGD	260	2	All your happiness, peace, joy, and success in this life are dependent upon genuine, trusting faith in God. This faith will prompt true obedience to the commandments of God. Your knowledge and faith in God is the strongest restraint from every evil practice, and the motive to all good.
WGD	260	3	Believe in Jesus as one who pardons your sins, one who wants you to be happy in the mansions He has gone to prepare for you. He wants you to live in His presence; to have eternal life and a crown of glory.--Messages to Young People, 410.
WGD	260	4	Whatever is done to the glory of God is to be done with cheerfulness, not with sadness and gloom. There is nothing gloomy in the religion of Jesus. If Christians give the impression by a mournful attitude that they have been disappointed in their Lord, they misrepresent His character, and put arguments into the mouth of His enemies. Though in words they may claim God as their Father, yet in gloom and sorrow they present to the world the aspect of orphans.
WGD	260	5	Christ desires us to make His service appear attractive, as it really is. Let the self-denials and the secret heart trials be revealed to the compassionate Saviour. Let the burdens be left at the foot of the cross, and go on your way rejoicing in His love who first loved you. Men may never know of the work going on secretly between the soul and God, but the result of the Spirit's work upon the heart will be manifest to all; for He "that seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly."--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 88.
------------------------Peace, September 16
WGD	261	1	"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27.
WGD	261	2	When we receive Christ as an abiding guest in the soul, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The Saviour's life on earth, though lived in the midst of conflict, was a life of peace. . . . No storm of human or Satanic wrath could disturb the calm of that perfect communion with God. And He says to us: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.". . . Happiness drawn from earthly sources is as changeable as varying circumstances can make it; but the peace of Christ is a constant and abiding peace. It does not depend upon any circumstances in life, on the amount of worldly goods, or the number of earthly friends. Christ is the fountain of living water, and happiness drawn from Him can never fail.
WGD	261	3	The meekness of Christ, manifested in the home, will make the inmates happy; it provokes no quarrel, gives back no angry answer, but soothes the irritated temper, and diffuses a gentleness that is felt by all within its charmed circle. Wherever cherished, it makes the families of earth a part of the one great family above.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 15, 16.
WGD	261	4	Christ is "the Prince of peace," and it is His mission to restore to earth and heaven the peace that sin has broken. . . . Whoever consents to renounce sin, and open his heart to the love of Christ, becomes a partaker of this heavenly peace.
WGD	261	5	There is no other ground of peace than this. The grace of Christ received into the heart, subdues enmity; it allays strife, and fills the soul with love. He who is at peace with God and his fellow-men can not be made miserable.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 27.
------------------------God Leads, September 17
WGD	262	1	"And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness: and gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people; that they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Praise ye the Lord." Ps. 105:43-45.
WGD	262	2	The cloud that was a wall of darkness to the Egyptians was to the Hebrews a great flood of light, illuminating the whole camp, and shedding brightness upon the path before them. So the dealings of Providence bring to the unbelieving, darkness and despair, while to the trusting soul they are full of light and peace. The path where God leads the way may lie through the desert or the sea, but it is a safe path.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 290.
WGD	262	3	God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning, and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as co-workers with Him. Not Enoch, who was translated to heaven, not Elijah, who ascended in a chariot of fire, was greater or more honored than John the Baptist, who perished alone in the dungeon. "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." And of all the gifts that Heaven can bestow upon men, fellowship with Christ in His sufferings is the most weighty trust and the highest honor.--The Desire of Ages, 224.
WGD	262	4	The dealings of God with His people should be often repeated. How frequently were the waymarks set up by the Lord in His dealings with ancient Israel! Lest they should forget the history of the past, He commanded Moses to frame these events into song, that parents might teach them to their children.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 364, 365.
------------------------God Is My Shield, September 18
WGD	263	1	"Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him." Proverbs 30:5.
WGD	263	2	God's commandment-keeping people stand under the broad shield of Omnipotence.
WGD	263	3	"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust. For He will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, And from the deadly pestilence. He will cover thee with His pinions, And under His wings shalt thou take refuge; His truth is a shield and buckler."
WGD	263	4	Our God has heaven and earth at His command, and He knows just what we need. We can see only a little way before us; "but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."
WGD	263	5	Above the distractions of the earth He sits enthroned; all things are open to His divine survey; and from His great and calm eternity He orders that which His providence sees best.
WGD	263	6	Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father's notice. Satan's hatred against God leads him to delight in destroying even the dumb creatures. It is only through God's protecting care that the birds are preserved to gladden us with their songs of joy. But He does not forget even the sparrows.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 272, 273.
------------------------He Hath Established My Goings, September 19
WGD	264	1	"He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." Ps. 40:2.
WGD	264	2	Christian life is more than many take it to be. It does not consist wholly in gentleness, patience, meekness, and kindliness. These graces are essential; but there is need also of courage, force, energy, and perseverance. The path that Christ marks out is a narrow, self-denying path. To enter that path and press on through difficulties and discouragements, requires men who are more than weaklings.
WGD	264	3	Men of stamina are wanted, men who will not wait to have their way smoothed, and every obstacle removed, men who will inspire with fresh zeal the flagging efforts of dispirited workers, men whose hearts are warm with Christian love, and whose hands are strong to do their Master's work.
WGD	264	4	Some who engage in missionary service are weak, nerveless, spiritless, easily discouraged. They lack push. They have not those positive traits of character that give power to do something,--the spirit and energy that kindle enthusiasm. Those who would win success must be courageous and hopeful. They should cultivate not only the passive but the active virtues. While they are to give the soft answer that turns away wrath, they must possess the courage of a hero to resist evil. With the charity that endures all things, they need the force of character that will make their influence a positive power. . . .
WGD	264	5	There is in true Christian character an indomitableness that can not be molded or subdued by adverse circumstances. We must have moral backbone, an integrity that can not be flattered, bribed, or terrified.--The Ministry of Healing, 497, 498.
------------------------He Gives a New Song, September 20
WGD	265	1	"And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord." Ps. 40:3.
WGD	265	2	When the Spirit of God controls mind and heart, the converted soul breaks forth into a new song; for he realizes that in his experience the promise of God has been fulfilled, that his transgression has been forgiven, his sin covered. He has exercised repentance toward God for the violation of the divine law, and faith toward Christ, who died for man's justification.--The Acts of the Apostles, 476.
WGD	265	3	With such a prospect as this before us, such a glorious hope, such a redemption that Christ has purchased for us by His own blood, shall we hold our peace? Shall we not praise God even with a loud voice, as did the disciples when Jesus rode into Jerusalem? Is not our prospect far more glorious than was theirs? Who dare then forbid us glorifying God, even with a loud voice, when we have such a hope, big with immortality, and full of glory? We have tasted of the powers of the world to come, and long for more.--Early Writings, 110.
WGD	265	4	By their good works, Christ's followers are to bring glory, not to themselves, but to Him through whose grace and power they have wrought. It is through the Holy Spirit that every good work is accomplished, and the Spirit is given to glorify, not the receiver, but the Giver. When the light of Christ is shining in the soul, the lips will be filled with praise and thanksgiving to God. Your prayers, your performance of duty, your benevolence, your self-denial, will not be the theme of your thought or conversation. Jesus will be magnified, self will be hidden, and Christ will appear as all in all.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 80.
------------------------His Name Is My Refuge, September 21
WGD	266	1	"The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." Proverbs 18:10.
WGD	266	2	The cities of refuge appointed for God's ancient people were a symbol of the refuge provided in Christ. The same merciful Saviour who appointed those temporal cities of refuge, has by the shedding of His own blood provided for the transgressors of God's law a sure retreat, into which they may flee for safety from the second death. No power can take out of His hands the souls that go to Him for pardon.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 516.
WGD	266	3	Satan seeks to bring us into temptation, that the evil of our characters may be revealed before men and angels, that he may claim us as his own. . . . The enemy leads us into sin, and then he accuses us before the heavenly universe as unworthy of the love of God. . . .
WGD	266	4	God, in His great love, is seeking to develop in us the precious graces of His Spirit. He permits us to encounter obstacles, persecution, and hardships, not as a curse, but as the greatest blessing of our lives. Every temptation resisted, every trial bravely borne, gives us a new experience, and advances us in the work of character-building. The soul that through divine power resists temptation, reveals to the world and to the heavenly universe the efficiency of the grace of Christ. . . .
WGD	266	5	The only safeguard against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith in His righteousness. It is because selfishness exists in our hearts that temptation has power over us. But when we behold the great love of God, selfishness appears to us in its hideous and repulsive character, and we desire to have it expelled from the soul.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 118.
------------------------Right Living Brings Honor, September 22
WGD	267	1	"He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour." Proverbs 21:21.
WGD	267	2	The world to-day is in crying need of a revelation of Christ Jesus in the person of His saints. God desires that His people shall stand before the world a holy people.--Testimonies to Ministers, 458.
WGD	267	3	In the history of Joseph, Daniel, and his fellows, we see how the golden chain of truth may bind the youth to the throne of God. They could not be tempted to turn aside from their course of integrity. They valued the favor of God above the favor and praise of princes, and God loved them and spread His shield over them. Because of their faithful integrity, because of their determination to honor God above every human power, the Lord signally honored them before men. . . . These youth were not ashamed to display their true colors. Even in the court of the king, in their words, their habits, their practices, they confessed their faith in the Lord God of heaven. They refused to bow to any earthly mandate that detracted from the honor of God. They had strength from heaven to confess their allegiance to God. You should be prepared to follow the example of these noble youth. Never be ashamed of your colors; put them on, unfurl them to the gaze of men and angels. Do not be controlled by false modesty, by false prudence which suggests to you a course of action contrary to this advice. By your choice words and a consistent course of action, by your propriety, your earnest piety, make a telling confession of your faith, determined that Christ shall occupy the throne in the soul temple; and lay your talents without reserve at His feet to be employed in His service.--Messages to Young People, 27, 28.
------------------------Consecration Brings Peace, September 23
WGD	268	1	"Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them." Ps. 119:165.
WGD	268	2	The less of the meekness and lowliness of Christ the human agent has in his spirit and character, the more he sees perfection in his own methods, and imperfection in the methods of others. --Testimonies to Ministers, 191.
WGD	268	3	There is nothing more needed in the work than the practical results of communion with God. We should show by our daily lives that we have peace and rest in God. His peace in the heart will shine forth in the countenance. It will give to the voice a persuasive power. Communion with God will impart a moral elevation to the character and to the entire course of action. Men will take knowledge of us, as of the first disciples, that we have been with Jesus.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 47.
WGD	268	4	The peace of Christ is born of truth. It is harmony with God. The world is at enmity with the law of God; sinners are at enmity with their Maker; and as a result they are at enmity with one another. But the psalmist declares, "Great peace have they which love Thy law; and nothing shall offend them." Men cannot manufacture peace. Human plans for the purification and uplifting of individuals or of society will fail of producing peace, because they do not reach the heart. The only power that can create or perpetuate true peace is the grace of Christ. When this is implanted in the heart, it will cast out the evil passions that cause strife and dissension. "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;" and life's desert "shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose."--The Desire of Ages, 302-305.
------------------------Consecration of Jesus, September 24
WGD	269	1	"And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Philippians 2:8.
WGD	269	2	Jesus carried the awful weight of responsibility for the salvation of men. He knew that unless there was a decided change in the principles and purposes of the human race, all would be lost. This was the burden of His soul, and none could appreciate the weight that rested upon Him. Through childhood, youth, and manhood, He walked alone. Yet it was heaven to be in His presence. Day by day He met trials and temptations; day by day He was brought into contact with evil, and witnessed its power upon those whom He was seeking to bless and to save. Yet He did not fail nor become discouraged.
WGD	269	3	In all things He brought His wishes into strict abeyance to His mission. He glorified His life by making everything in it subordinate to the will of His Father. When in His youth, His mother, finding Him in the school of the rabbis, said, "Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us?" He answered, and His answer is the key-note of His life-work,--"How is it that ye sought Me? wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?"--Gospel Workers, 42.
WGD	269	4	The same devotion, the same consecration, the same subjection to the claims of the Word of God, that were manifest in Christ, must be seen in His servants. He left His home of security and peace, left the glory that He had with the Father before the world was, left His position upon the throne of the universe, and went forth, a suffering tempted man; went forth in solitude, to sow in tears, to water with His blood the seed of life for a lost world.--Gospel Workers, 111, 112.
------------------------Consecration of the Macedonians, September 25
WGD	270	1	"For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves. . . . And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God." 2 Corinthians 8:3-5.
WGD	270	2	Nearly all the Macedonian believers were poor in this world's goods, but their hearts were overflowing with love for God and His truth, and they gladly gave for the support of the gospel. When general collections were taken up in the Gentile churches for the relief of the Jewish believers, the liberality of the converts in Macedonia was held up as an example to other churches. Writing to the Corinthian believers, the apostle called their attention to "the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. . . . Yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves. . . ."
WGD	270	3	The willingness to sacrifice on the part of the Macedonian believers came as a result of whole-hearted consecration. Moved by the Spirit of God, they "first gave their own selves to the Lord;" then they were willing to give freely of their means for the support of the gospel. It was not necessary to urge them to give; rather, they rejoiced in the privilege of denying themselves even of necessary things in order to supply the needs of others. When the apostle would have restrained them, they importuned him to accept their offering. In their simplicity and integrity, and in their love for the brethren, they gladly denied self, and thus abounded in the fruit of benevolence. . . .
WGD	270	4	Spiritual prosperity is closely bound up with Christian liberality. The followers of Christ should rejoice in the privilege of revealing in their lives the beneficence of their Redeemer.--The Acts of the Apostles, 343, 344.
------------------------Consecration of Moses, September 26
WGD	271	1	"By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward." Hebrews 11:24-26.
WGD	271	2	Moses was fitted to take pre-eminence among the great of the earth, to shine in the courts of its most glorious kingdom, and to sway the scepter of its power. His intellectual greatness distinguishes him above the great men of all ages. As historian, poet, philosopher, general of armies, and legislator, he stands without a peer. Yet with the world before him, he had the moral strength to refuse the flattering prospects of wealth and greatness and fame, "choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."
WGD	271	3	Moses had been instructed in regard to the final rewards to be given to the humble and obedient servants of God, and worldly gain sank to its proper insignificance in comparison. The magnificent palace of Pharaoh and the monarch's throne were held out as an inducement to Moses; but he knew that the sinful pleasures that make men forget God were in its lordly courts.
WGD	271	4	He looked beyond the gorgeous palace, beyond a monarch's crown, to the high honors that will be bestowed on the saints of the Most High in a kingdom untainted by sin. He saw by faith an imperishable crown that the King of heaven would place on the brow of the overcomer. This faith led him to turn away from the lordly ones of earth, and join the humble, poor, despised nation that had chosen to obey God rather than to serve sin.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 246.
------------------------Consecration of the Poor Widow, September 27
WGD	272	1	"And He said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had." Luke 21:3, 4.
WGD	272	2	The rich had bestowed from their abundance, many of them to be seen and honored by men. Their large donations had deprived them of no comfort, or even luxury; they had required no sacrifice, and could not be compared in value with the widow's mite.
WGD	272	3	It is the motive that gives character to our acts, stamping them with ignominy or with high moral worth. Not the great things which every eye sees and every tongue praises does God account most precious. The little duties cheerfully done, the little gifts which make no show, and which to human eyes may appear worthless, often stand highest in His sight. A heart of faith and love is dearer to God than the most costly gift. The poor widow gave her living to do the little that she did. She deprived herself of food in order to give those two mites to the cause she loved. And she did it in faith, believing that her Heavenly Father would not overlook her great need. It was this unselfish spirit and childlike faith that won the Saviour's commendation.--The Desire of Ages, 615.
WGD	272	4	In order to manifest the character of God, in order that we may not deceive ourselves, the church, and the world, by a counterfeit Christianity, we must become personally acquainted with God. If we have fellowship with God, we are His ministers, though we may never preach to a congregation. We are workers together with God in presenting the perfection of His character in humanity.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 13.
------------------------Consecration of Samuel, September 28
WGD	273	1	"And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the Lord, and also with men." 1 Samuel 2:26.
WGD	273	2	Though Samuel's youth was passed at the tabernacle devoted to the worship of God, he was not free from evil influences or sinful example. The sons of Eli feared not God, nor honored their father; but Samuel did not seek their company nor follow their evil ways. It was his constant endeavor to become what God would have him. This is the privilege of every youth. God is pleased when even little children give themselves to His service. Samuel had been placed under the care of Eli, and the loveliness of his character drew forth the warm affection of the aged priest. He was kind, generous, obedient, and respectful. Eli, pained by the waywardness of his own sons, found rest and comfort and blessing in the presence of his charge. Samuel was helpful and affectionate, and no father ever loved his child more tenderly than did Eli this youth. It was a singular thing that between the chief magistrate of the nation and the simple child so warm an affection should exist. As the infirmities of age came upon Eli, and he was filled with anxiety and remorse by the profligate course of his own sons, he turned to Samuel for comfort. . . .
WGD	273	3	Young as he was when brought to minister in the tabernacle, Samuel had even then duties to perform in the service of God, according to his capacity. These were at first very humble, and not always pleasant; but they were performed to the best of his ability, and with a willing heart. His religion was carried into every duty of life. He regarded himself as God s servant, and his work as God's work. His efforts were accepted, because they were prompted by love to God and a sincere desire to do His will.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 573.
------------------------Consecration of Paul, September 29
WGD	274	1	"And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." Ephesians 6:19, 20.
WGD	274	2	So to the apostle Paul, praying in the temple at Jerusalem, came the message, "Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." So those who are called to unite with Christ must leave all in order to follow Him. Old associations must be broken up, plans of life relinquished, earthly hopes surrendered. In toil and tears, in solitude and through sacrifice, must the seed be sown.
WGD	274	3	Those who consecrate body, soul, and spirit to God, will constantly receive a new endowment of physical, mental, and spiritual power. The inexhaustible supplies of heaven are at their command. Christ gives them the breath of His own Spirit, the life of His own life. The Holy Spirit puts forth His highest energies to work in heart and mind. The grace of God enlarges and multiplies their faculties, and every perfection of the divine nature comes to their assistance in the work of saving souls.
WGD	274	4	Through co-operation with Christ, they are made complete in Him, and in their human weakness they are enabled to do the deeds of Omnipotence.--Gospel Workers, 112, 113.
WGD	274	5	Many do not discern and appreciate how great is the influence of each one for good or evil. Every student should understand that the principles which he adopts become a living, molding influence upon character. He who accepts Christ as his personal Saviour, will love Jesus, and all for whom Christ has died; for Christ will be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. He will surrender himself without reservation to the rule of Christ.--Messages to Young People, 29.
------------------------Consecration of Elisha, September 30
WGD	275	1	"And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee?" 1 Kings 19:20.
WGD	275	2	This was not a repulse, but a test of faith. Elisha must count the cost,--decide for himself to accept or reject the call. If his desires clung to his home and its advantages, he was at liberty to remain there. But Elisha understood the meaning of the call. He knew it was from God, and he did not hesitate to obey. Not for any worldly advantage would he forego the opportunity of becoming God's messenger, or sacrifice the privilege of association with His servant.
WGD	275	3	He "took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him." Without hesitation he left a home where he was beloved, to attend the prophet in his uncertain life.
WGD	275	4	Had Elisha asked Elijah what was expected of him,--what would be his work,--he would have been answered: God knows; He will make it known to you. If you wait upon the Lord, He will answer your every question. You may come with me if you have evidence that God has called you. Know for yourself that God stands back of me, and that it is His voice you hear. If you can count everything but dross that you may win the favor of God, come.--Prophets and Kings, 220, 221.
WGD	275	5	For your present and eternal good it is best to commit yourself wholly to the right, that the world may know where you are standing.--Messages to Young People, 28.
------------------------I Have Ordained You, October 1
WGD	276	1	"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." John 15:16.
WGD	276	2	The life on earth is the beginning of the life in heaven; education on earth is an initiation into the principles of heaven; the life-work here is a training for the life-work there. What we now are, in character and holy service, is the sure foreshadowing of what we shall be. . . . Christ's work below is His work above, and our reward for working with Him in this world will be the greater power and wider privilege of working with Him in the world to come. . . .
WGD	276	3	In our life here, earthly, sin-restricted, though it is, the greatest joy and the highest education are in service. And in the future state, untrammeled by the limitations of sinful humanity, it is in service that our greatest joy and our highest education will be found;--witnessing, and ever as we witness learning anew "the riches of the glory of this mystery;" "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."--Education, 307-309.
WGD	276	4	Christ gave no stinted service. He did not measure His work by hours. His time, His heart, His soul and strength, were given to labor for the benefit of humanity. Through weary days He toiled, and through long nights He bent in prayer for grace and endurance that He might do a larger work. . . . "The love of Christ," said Paul, "constraineth us." This was the actuating principle of his conduct; it was his motive-power. --Gospel Workers, 292, 293.
------------------------We Are Co-Workers with Him, October 2
WGD	277	1	"We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." 2 Corinthians 6:1.
WGD	277	2	In the life of Christ, everything was made subordinate to His work, the great work of redemption which He came to accomplish. And the same devotion, the same self-denial and sacrifice, the same subjection to the claims of the Word of God, is to be manifest in His disciples.
WGD	277	3	Every one who accepts Christ as his personal Saviour will long for the privilege of serving God. Contemplating what heaven has done for him, his heart is moved with boundless love and adoring gratitude. He is eager to signalize his gratitude by devoting his abilities to God's service. He longs to show his love for Christ and for His purchased possession. He covets toil, hardship, sacrifice.
WGD	277	4	The true worker for God will do his best, because in so doing he can glorify his Master. He will do right in order to regard the requirements of God. He will endeavor to improve all his faculties. He will perform every duty as unto God. His one desire will be that Christ may receive homage and perfect service.
WGD	277	5	There is a picture representing a bullock standing between a plow and an altar, with the inscription, "Ready for either," ready to toil in the furrow or to be offered on the altar of sacrifice. This is the position of the true child of God,--willing to go where duty calls, to deny self, to sacrifice for the Redeemer's cause.--The Ministry of Healing, 502.
WGD	277	6	The talents, however few, are to be put to use. The question that most concerns us is not, How much have I received? but, What am I doing with that which I have?--Christ's Object Lessons, 329.
------------------------Messengers of God, October 3
WGD	278	1	"As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." John 17:18.
WGD	278	2	But when we give ourselves wholly to God, and in our work follow His directions, He makes Himself responsible for its accomplishment. He would not have us conjecture as to the success of our honest endeavors. Not once should we even think of failure. We are to co-operate with One who knows no failure.
WGD	278	3	We should not talk of our own weakness and inability. This is a manifest distrust of God, a denial of His Word. When we murmur because of our burdens, or refuse the responsibilities He calls upon us to bear, we are virtually saying that He is a hard master, that He requires what He has not given us power to do. . . . God works by whom He will. He sometimes selects the humblest instrument to do the greatest work; for His power is revealed through the weakness of men. We have our standard, and by it we pronounce one thing great and another small; but God does not estimate according to our rule. . . . It does not rest with us to pass judgment on our talents or to choose our work. We are to take up the burdens that God appoints, bearing them for His sake, and ever going to Him for rest. Whatever our work, God is honored by whole-hearted, cheerful service. He is pleased when we take up our duties with gratitude, rejoicing that we are accounted worthy to be co-laborers with Him.--Christ's Object Lessons, 363, 364.
WGD	278	4	Christ accepts, oh, so gladly, every human agency that is surrendered to Him. He brings the human into union with the divine, that He may communicate to the world the mysteries of incarnate love.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 44.
------------------------God Directs Our Service, October 4
WGD	279	1	"And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day." Isaiah 58:10.
WGD	279	2	As we see the necessities of the poor, the ignorant, the afflicted, how often our hearts sink. We question, "What avail our feeble strength and slender resources to supply this terrible necessity? Shall we not wait for some one of greater ability to direct the work, or for some organization to undertake it?" Christ says, "Give ye them to eat." Use the means, the time, the ability, you have. Bring your barley loaves to Jesus.
WGD	279	3	Though your resources may not be sufficient to feed thousands, they may suffice to feed one. In the hand of Christ they may feed many. Like the disciples, give what you have. Christ will multiply the gift. He will reward honest, simple reliance upon Him. That which seemed but a meager supply will prove to be a rich feast.--The Ministry of Healing, 49, 50.
WGD	279	4	Our hearts are to be so filled with the love of Christ that our words of thanksgiving shall warm other hearts. This is service that all can perform, and the Lord accepts it as offered to Himself. He makes it efficacious, imparting to the earnest worker the grace that reconciles man to God.
WGD	279	5	May the Lord help His people to realize that there is earnest work to be done. May He help them to remember that in the home, in the church, and in the world they are to work the works of Christ. They are not left to labor alone. The angels are their helpers. And Christ is their helper. Then let them labor faithfully and untiringly. In due season they will reap, if they faint not.
WGD	279	6	The Christian pilgrim does not yield to his desire to rest. He moves steadily forward, saying, "The night is far spent; the day is at hand."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 18.
------------------------Let Your Light Shine, October 5
WGD	280	1	"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:16.
WGD	280	2	Throughout the world, messengers of mercy are needed. There is a call for Christian families to go into communities that are in darkness and error, to go to foreign fields, to become acquainted with the needs of their fellow men, and to work for the cause of the Master. If such families would settle in the dark places of the earth, places where the people are enshrouded in spiritual gloom, and let the light of Christ's life shine out through them, what a noble work might be accomplished.
WGD	280	3	This work requires self-sacrifice. While many are waiting to have every obstacle removed, the work they might do is left undone, and multitudes are dying without hope and without God. Some for the sake of commercial advantage, or to acquire scientific knowledge, will venture into unsettled regions, and cheerfully endure sacrifice and hardship; but how few for the sake of their fellow men are willing to move their families into regions that are in need of the gospel.
WGD	280	4	To reach the people, wherever they are, and whatever their position or condition, and to help them in every way possible,--this is true ministry. By such effort you may win hearts, and open a door of access to perishing souls.
WGD	280	5	In all your work remember that you are bound up with Christ, a part of the great plan of redemption. The love of Christ, in a healing, life-giving current, is to flow through your life. As you seek to draw others within the circle of His love, let the purity of your language, the unselfishness of your service, the joyfulness of your demeanor, bear witness to the power of His grace.--The Ministry of Healing, 155, 156.
------------------------Cast Thy Bread Upon the Waters, October 6
WGD	281	1	"Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days." Eccl. 11:1.
WGD	281	2	No one can live the law of God without ministering to others. But there are many who do not live out Christ's merciful, unselfish life. . . . They plan and study to please themselves. They act only in reference to self. Time is of value to them only as they can gather for themselves. In all the affairs of life this is their object. Not for others but for themselves do they minister. God created them to live in a world where unselfish service must be performed. He designed them to help their fellow-men in every possible way. But self is so large that they cannot see anything else. They are not in touch with humanity. Those who thus live for self are like the fig-tree, which made every pretension, but was fruitless. . . . In the sentence pronounced on the fig-tree Christ demonstrates how fateful in His eyes is this vain pretense. He declares that the open sinner is less guilty than is he who professes to serve God, but who bears no fruit to His glory.--The Desire of Ages, 584.
WGD	281	3	"I am debtor," Paul declares, "both to the Greeks and to the barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise." So also are we. By all that has blessed our life above others, we are placed under obligation to every human being whom we might benefit.
WGD	281	4	These truths are not for the closet more than for the counting-room. The goods that we handle are not our own, and never can this fact safely be lost sight of. We are but stewards, and on the discharge of our obligation to God and man depend both the welfare of our fellow-beings and our own destiny for this life and for the life to come.--Education, 139.
------------------------We Labor with God, October 7
WGD	282	1	"For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." 1 Cor. 3:9.
WGD	282	2	He will use you and me and each human being who enters His service, if we will submit to His guidance. Each one is to stand in his watchtower, listening attentively to that which the Spirit has to say to him, remembering that his every word and act makes an impression, not only on his own character, but on the characters of those with whom he is connected. . . .
WGD	282	3	Each day God works with His building, stroke upon stroke, to perfect the structure, that it may become a holy temple for Him. Man is to co-operate with God. Each worker is to become just what God designs him to be, building his life with pure, noble deeds, that in the end his character may be a symmetrical structure, a fair temple, honored by God and man. There is to be no flaw in the building, for it is the Lord's. Every stone must be perfectly laid, that it may endure the pressure placed upon it. One stone laid wrong will affect the whole building. To you and to every other worker God gives the warning: "Take heed how you build, that your building may stand the test of storm and tempest, because it is founded on the eternal Rock."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 172, 173.
WGD	282	4	To every man is given "his work,"--the work for which his capabilities adapt him,--the work which will result in greatest good to himself and to his fellow-men, and in greatest honor to God.
WGD	282	5	Thus our business or calling is a part of God's great plan, and, so long as it is conducted in accordance with His will, He Himself is responsible for the results.--Education, 138.
------------------------A Willing Mind, October 8
WGD	283	1	"For if there he first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." 2 Corinthians 8:12.
WGD	283	2	Blessed will be the recompense of grace to those who have wrought for God in the simplicity of faith and love. The value of service to God is measured by the spirit in which it is rendered, rather than by the length of time spent in labor.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 74.
WGD	283	3	It is not the length of time we labor, but our willingness and fidelity in the work, that makes it acceptable to God. In all our service a full surrender of self is demanded. The smallest duty done in sincerity and self-forgetfulness, is more pleasing to God than the greatest work when marred with selfseeking. He looks to see how much of the spirit of Christ we cherish, and how much of the likeness of Christ our work reveals. He regards more the love and faithfulness with which we work than the amount we do.
WGD	283	4	Only when selfishness is dead, when strife for the supremacy is banished, when gratitude fills the heart, and love makes fragrant the life,--it is only then that Christ is abiding in the soul, and we are recognized as laborers together with God.-- Gospel Workers, 506, 507.
WGD	283	5	The worker who manifests a lack of courtesy, who shows impatience at the ignorance or waywardness of others, who speaks hastily or acts thoughtlessly, may close the door to hearts so that he can never reach them.
WGD	283	6	As the dew and the still showers fall upon the withering plants, so let words fall gently when seeking to win men from error. God's plan is first to reach the heart.--The Ministry of Healing, 157.
------------------------A Hearty Attitude, October 9
WGD	284	1	"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ." Colossians 3:23, 24.
WGD	284	2	Your service in the cause of God must be more hearty, full, and thorough. You cannot perfect a Christian character by serving God when you feel inclined to do so, and neglecting it when you please.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 215.
WGD	284	3	Those who go forth in the spirit of the Master, seeking to reach souls with the truth, will not find the work of drawing souls to Christ a dull, uninteresting drudgery. They are charged with a work as God's husbandmen, and they will become more and more vitalized as they give themselves to the service of God. It is a joyous work to open the Scriptures to others.
WGD	284	4	Young men and women should be educated to become workers in their own neighborhoods and in other places. Let all set their hearts and minds to become intelligent in regard to the work for this time, qualifying themselves to do that for which they are best adapted.
WGD	284	5	Many young men who have had the right kind of education at home are to be trained for service, and encouraged to lift the standard of truth in new places by well-planned and faithful work. . . . As they unite their labors with those of the older workers, using their youthful energies to the very best account, they will have the companionship of heavenly angels; and as workers together with God, it is their privilege to sing and pray and believe, and work with courage and freedom.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 118, 119.
WGD	284	6	We are to give ourselves to the service of God, and we should seek to make the offering as nearly perfect as possible. --Patriarchs and Prophets, 352.
------------------------An Earnest Spirit, October 10
WGD	285	1	"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Ps. 126:6.
WGD	285	2	Do your best, and God will accept your efforts. Take up the duty lying nearest you, and perform it with fidelity, and your work will be wholly acceptable to the Master. Do not, in your desire to do something great, overlook the smaller tasks awaiting you.--Messages to Young People, 96.
WGD	285	3	The coming of Christ is near, and hasteth greatly. The time in which to labor is short, and men and women are perishing. Said the angel, "Should not the men who have had great light co-operate with Him who sent His Son to the world to give light and salvation to men?" Shall men who have received the knowledge of the truth line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, show but little appreciation of Him who came to the earth that His divine power might be the heritage of every believing soul? It was thus that the divinity of Christ was to become effectual in the salvation of the race, and the intercession of our great High Priest avail before the throne of God. The plan was devised in heaven. Shall those who have been bought with such a price fail of appreciating the great salvation?---Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 105.
WGD	285	4	Missionaries should enter the field before they shall be compelled to cease labor. There are now open doors on every side; they cannot afford to wait to complete years of training; for the years before us are not many, and we need to work while the day lasts.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 359.
------------------------Constancy in Service, October 11
WGD	286	1	"Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God." 1 Cor. 7:24.
WGD	286	2	God's servants are to put on every piece of the Christian armor. We are not wrestling simply with human foes. God calls upon every Christian to enter the warfare, and fight under His leadership, depending for success on the grace and help of Heaven. We are to go forward in the strength of the Mighty One. Never are we to yield to Satan's attacks. Why should not we, as Christian warriors, stand against principalities and powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world? God calls upon us to press forward, using the gifts entrusted to us. Satan will place temptation before us. He will try to overcome us by stratagem. But in the strength of God we are to stand firm as a rock to principle.
WGD	286	3	In this warfare there is no release. Satan's agents never pause in their work of destruction. Those who are in Christ's service must watch every outpost. Our object is to save perishing souls from ruin. This is a work of infinite greatness, and man can not hope to obtain success in it, unless he unites with the divine Worker.
WGD	286	4	From eternity Christ has been man's Redeemer. Ever since the fall there has come to those uniting with Him in His great work, the word, "Be not weary in well-doing.". . .
WGD	286	5	The Christian is encouraged to show patient perseverance in carrying forward the work of the gospel ministry, in connection with the medical missionary work. As he gains an experience in genuine religion, he obtains a spiritual knowledge that makes character.
WGD	286	6	The life of a true Christian is one continuous round of service.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 219, 220.
------------------------Simplicity, October 12
WGD	287	1	"And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." Matthew 10:42.
WGD	287	2	The work must be carried forward in the simplicity of truth. . . . Carry forward your work in humility. Never rise above the simplicity of the gospel of Christ. Not in the art of display, but in lifting up Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer, will you find success in winning souls. As you work for God in humility and lowliness of heart, He will manifest Himself to you.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 142.
WGD	287	3	Because they are not connected with some directly religious work, many feel that their lives are useless, that they are doing nothing for the advancement of God's kingdom. If they could do some great thing, how gladly they would undertake it! But because they can serve only in little things, they think themselves justified in doing nothing. In this they err. A man may be in the active service of God while engaged in the ordinary, everyday duties,--while felling trees, clearing the ground, or following the plow. The mother who trains her children for Christ is as truly working for God as is the minister in the pulpit.
WGD	287	4	Many long for special talent with which to do a wonderful work, while the duties lying close at hand, the performance of which would make the life fragrant, are lost sight of. Let such ones take up the duties lying directly in their pathway. . . . It is not the possession of splendid talents that enables us to render acceptable service; but the conscientious performance of daily duties, the contented spirit, the unaffected, sincere interest in the welfare of others. In the humblest lot true excellence may be found.--Prophets and Kings, 219.
------------------------Courage, October 13
WGD	288	1	"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Romans 1:16.
WGD	288	2	God cannot use men who, in time of peril, when the strength, courage, and influence of all are needed, are afraid to take a firm stand for the right. He calls for men who will do faithful battle against wrong, warring against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It is to such as these that He will speak the words: "Well done, good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."--Prophets and Kings, 142.
WGD	288	3	Hope and courage are essential to perfect service for God. These are the fruit of faith. Despondency is sinful and unreasonable. God is able and willing "more abundantly" to bestow upon His servants the strength they need for test and trial. The plans of the enemies of His work may seem to be well laid and firmly established; but God can overthrow the strongest of these. And this He does in His own time and way, when He sees that the faith of His servants has been sufficiently tested.--Prophets and Kings, 164.
WGD	288	4	Through the fidelity to the principles of temperance shown by the Hebrew youth, God is speaking to the youth of to-day. There is need of men who, like Daniel, will do and dare for the cause of right. Pure hearts, strong hands, fearless courage, are needed; for the warfare between vice and virtue calls for ceaseless vigilance. To every soul Satan comes with temptation in many alluring forms on the point of indulgence of appetite. . . . Intellectual power, physical stamina, and the length of life depend upon immutable laws. Through obedience to these laws, man may stand conqueror of himself.--Prophets and Kings, 488, 489.
------------------------God's Appointed Weapons, October 14
WGD	289	1	"Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Ephesians 6:16, 17.
WGD	289	2	God has provided abundant means for successful warfare against the evil that is in the world. The Bible is the armory where we may equip for the struggle. Our loins must be girt about with truth. Our breastplate must be righteousness. The shield of faith must be in our hand, the helmet of salvation on our brow; and with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, we are to cut our way through the obstructions and entanglements of sin. . . .
WGD	289	3	Summoning Timothy before the bar of God, Paul bids him preach the Word, not the sayings and customs of men; to be ready to witness for God whenever opportunity should present itself--before large congregations and private circles, by the way and at the fireside, to friends and to enemies, whether in safety or exposed to hardship and peril, reproach and loss. . . . He was to reveal the patience and love of Christ, explaining and enforcing his reproofs by the truths of the Word.
WGD	289	4	To hate and reprove sin, and at the same time to show pity and tenderness for the sinner, is a difficult attainment. . . .
WGD	289	5	We must guard against undue severity toward the wrongdoer; but we must also be careful not to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. There is need of showing Christlike patience and love for the erring one, but there is also danger of showing so great toleration for his error that he will look upon himself as undeserving of reproof, and will reject it as uncalled for and unjust.--The Acts of the Apostles, 502-504.
------------------------The Example of Christ, October 15
WGD	290	1	"Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." John 4:34.
WGD	290	2	Never was there such an evangelist as Christ. He was the Majesty of heaven, but He humbled Himself to take our nature, that He might meet men where they were. To all people, rich and poor, free and bond, Christ, the Messenger of the covenant, brought the tidings of salvation. His fame as the great Healer spread throughout Palestine. The sick came to the places through which He would pass, that they might call on Him for help. Hither, too, came many anxious to hear His words and to receive a touch of His hand. Thus He went from city to city, from town to town, preaching the gospel and healing the sick,--the King of glory in the lowly garb of humanity.
WGD	290	3	He attended the great yearly festivals of the nation, and to the multitude absorbed in outward ceremony He spoke of heavenly things, bringing eternity within their view. To all He brought treasures from the storehouse of wisdom. He spoke to them in language so simple that they could not fail of understanding. By methods peculiarly His own, He helped all who were in sorrow and affliction. With tender, courteous grace, He ministered to the sin-sick soul, bringing healing and strength.--Gospel Workers, 44, 45.
WGD	290	4	Consider the life of Christ. Standing at the head of humanity, serving His Father, He is an example of what every son should and may be. The obedience that Christ rendered God requires from human beings to-day. He served His Father with love, in willingness and freedom. . . . Christ counted no sacrifice too great, no toil too hard, in order to accomplish the work which He came to do.--Christ's Object Lessons, 282.
------------------------The Son of Man Came to Minister, October 16
WGD	291	1	"Even as the Son of man came not to he ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28.
WGD	291	2	He called men, not to authority, but to service, the strong to bear the infirmities of the weak. Power, position, talent, education, placed their possessor under the greater obligation to serve his fellows. To even the lowliest of Christ's disciples it is said, "All things are for your sakes.". . . Among His disciples Christ was in every sense a caretaker, a burden-bearer. He shared their poverty, He practised self-denial on their account, He went before them to smooth the more difficult places, and soon He would consummate His work on earth by laying down His life. The principle on which Christ acted is to actuate the members of the church which is His body. The plan and ground of salvation is love. In the kingdom of Christ those are greatest who follow the example He has given, and act as shepherds of His flock.--The Desire of Ages, 550.
WGD	291	3	But Christ reaches us where we are. He took our nature and overcame, that we through taking His nature might overcome.
WGD	291	4	. . . Jesus had shown in what righteousness consists, and had pointed to God as its source. Now He turned to practical duties. In alms giving, in prayer, in fasting, He said, let nothing be done to attract attention or win praise to self. Give in sincerity, for the benefit of the suffering poor. In prayer, let the soul commune with God. In fasting, go not with the head bowed down, and heart filled with thoughts of self. . . . It is he who yields himself most unreservedly to God that will render Him the most acceptable service. For through fellowship with God men become workers together with Him in presenting His character in humanity.--The Desire of Ages, 312.
------------------------I Have Shewed You All Things, October 17
WGD	292	1	"I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35.
WGD	292	2	Among the poor there are many who long to show their gratitude to God for His grace and truth. They greatly desire to share with their more prosperous brethren in sustaining His service. These souls should not be repulsed. . . . If given from a heart filled with love for God, these seeming trifles become consecrated gifts, priceless offerings, which God smiles upon and blesses.
WGD	292	3	When Jesus said of the widow, She "hath cast in more than they all," His words were true, not only of the motive, but of the results of her gift. The "two mites which make a farthing" have brought to God's treasury an amount of money far greater than the contributions of those rich Jews. The influence of that little gift has been like a stream, small in its beginning, but widening and deepening as it flowed down through the ages. In a thousand ways it has contributed to the relief of the poor and the spread of the gospel. Her example of self-sacrifice has acted and reacted upon thousands of hearts in every land and in every age. It has appealed to both the rich and the poor, and their offerings have swelled the value of her gift. God's blessing upon the widow's mite has made it the source of great results. So with every gift bestowed and every act performed with a sincere desire for God's glory. It is linked with the purposes of Omnipotence. Its results for good no man can measure.--The Desire of Ages, 615, 616.
WGD	292	4	The commonest tasks, wrought with loving faithfulness, are beautiful in God's sight.--Prophets and Kings, 219.
------------------------Christ's Work Specified, October 18
WGD	293	1	"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Isaiah 61:1.
WGD	293	2	He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed by Satan. There were whole villages where there was not a moan of sickness in any house; for He had passed through them, and healed all their sick. His work gave evidence of His divine anointing. Love, mercy, and compassion were revealed in every act of His life; His heart went out in tender sympathy to the children of men. He took man's nature, that He might reach man s wants. The poorest and humblest were not afraid to approach Him. Even little children were attracted to Him. They loved to climb upon His knees, and gaze into the pensive face, benignant with love. Jesus did not suppress one word of truth, but He uttered it always in love. He exercised the greatest tact, and thoughtful, kind attention, in His intercourse with the people. He was never rude, never needlessly spoke a severe word, never gave needless pain to a sensitive soul. He did not censure human weakness. He spoke the truth, but always in love. He denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity; but tears were in His voice as He uttered His scathing rebukes. He wept over Jerusalem, the city He loved, which refused to receive Him, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. They had rejected Him, the Saviour, but He regarded them with pitying tenderness. His life was one of self-denial and thoughtful care for others. Every soul was precious in His eyes. While He ever bore Himself with divine dignity, He bowed with the tenderest regard to every member of the family of God.-- Steps to Christ, 12, 13.
------------------------Christ's Work Is Our Work, October 19
WGD	294	1	"To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn." Isaiah 61:2.
WGD	294	2	The example of the Saviour should inspire us to put forth earnest, self-sacrificing effort for the good of others. He came to this world as the unwearied servant of man's necessity. Love for the lost race was manifested in all that He said and did. He clothed His divinity with humanity, that He might stand among human beings as one of them,--a sharer of their poverty and their griefs. What a busy life He led! Day by day He might be seen entering the humble abodes of want and sorrow, speaking hope to the downcast and peace to the distressed. This is the work that He asks His people to do to-day. Humble, gracious, tender-hearted, pitiful, He went about doing good, lifting up the bowed-down and comforting the sorrowful. None who came to Him went away unhelped. To all He brought hope and gladness. . . .
WGD	294	3	The opportunities that He has given us, the promises that He has made, the privileges that He has bestowed, should inspire us with far greater zeal and devotion.
WGD	294	4	Every addition to the church should be one more agency for the carrying out of the plan of redemption. Every power of God's people should be devoted to bringing many sons and daughters to Him. In our service there is to be no indifference, no selfishness. Any departure from self-denial, any relaxation of earnest effort, means so much power given to the enemy.-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 221, 222.
WGD	294	5	With such an army of workers as our youth . . . how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world!--Counsels to Teachers, 555. He Shall Justify Many, October 20
------------------------He Shall Justify Many, October 20
WGD	295	1	"He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." Isaiah 53:11.
WGD	295	2	True holiness is wholeness in the service of God. This is the condition of true Christian living. Christ asks for an unreserved consecration, for undivided service. He demands the heart, the mind, the soul, the strength. Self is not to be cherished. He who lives to himself is not a Christian. Love must be the principle of action. Love is the underlying principle of God's government in heaven and earth, and it must be the foundation of the Christian's character. This alone can make and keep him steadfast. This alone can enable him to withstand trial and temptation.
WGD	295	3	And love will be revealed in sacrifice. The plan of redemption was laid in sacrifice,--a sacrifice so broad and deep and high that it is immeasurable. Christ gave all for us, and those who receive Christ will be ready to sacrifice all for the sake of their Redeemer. The thought of His honor and glory will come before anything else. If we love Jesus, we shall love to live for Him, to present our thank-offerings to Him, to labor for Him.--Christ's Object Lessons, 48, 49.
WGD	295	4	The Redeemer will not accept divided service. Daily the worker for God must learn the meaning of self-surrender. He must study the Word of God, learning its meaning and obeying its precepts. Thus he may reach the standard of Christian excellence. Day by day God works with him, perfecting the character that is to stand in the time of final test. And day by day the believer is working out before men and angels a sublime experiment, showing what the gospel can do for fallen human beings.--Gospel Workers, 113.
------------------------Christ Came to Call Sinners, October 21
WGD	296	1	"I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Mark 2:17.
WGD	296	2	He who came from heaven to be our example spent nearly thirty years of His life in common, mechanical labor; but during this time He was studying the Word and the works of God, and helping, teaching, all whom His influence could reach. When His public ministry began, He went about healing the sick, comforting the sorrowful, and preaching the gospel to the poor. This is the work of all His followers. . . . In the heart touched by His love, there is begotten a desire to work for Him. Let this desire be encouraged and rightly guided. Whether in the home, the neighborhood, or the school, the presence of the poor, the afflicted, the ignorant, or the unfortunate, should be regarded, not as a misfortune, but as affording precious opportunity for service. In this work, as in every other, skill is gained in the work itself. It is by training in the common duties of life and in ministry to the needy and suffering, that efficiency is assured. Without this the best-meant efforts are often useless and even harmful. It is in the water, not on the land, that men learn to swim.--Education, 267, 268.
WGD	296	3	The work of Christ was largely composed of personal interviews. He had a faithful regard for the one-soul audience; and that one soul has carried to thousands the intelligence received. --Messages to Young People, 203.
WGD	296	4	God takes men as they are, and educates them for His service, if they will yield themselves to Him. . . . Continual devotion establishes so close a relation between Jesus and His disciple that the Christian becomes like Him in mind and character. Through a connection with Christ he will have clearer and broader views.--The Desire of Ages, 251.
------------------------Go Ye, October 22
WGD	297	1	"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Matthew 28:19.
WGD	297	2	The gospel commission is the great missionary charter of Christ's kingdom. . . . The disciples were to carry their work forward in Christ's name. Their every word and act was to fasten attention on His name, as possessing that vital power by which sinners may be saved. Their faith was to center in Him who is the source of mercy and power. In His name they were to present their petitions to the Father, and they would receive answer. They were to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ's name was to be their watchword, their badge of distinction, their bond of union, the authority for their course of action, and the source of their success. Nothing was to be recognized in His kingdom that did not bear His name and superscription. When Christ said to the disciples, Go forth in My name to gather into the church all who believe, He plainly set before them the necessity of maintaining simplicity. The less ostentation and show, the greater would be their influence for good. The disciples were to speak with the same simplicity with which Christ had spoken.--The Acts of the Apostles, 28, 29.
WGD	297	3	We know not in what line our children may be called to serve. They may spend their lives within the circle of the home; they may engage in life's common vocations, or go as teachers of the gospel to heathen lands; but all are alike called to be missionaries for God, ministers of mercy to the world. They are to obtain an education that will help them to stand by the side of Christ in unselfish service.--Prophets and Kings, 245.
------------------------Preach the Word, October 23
WGD	298	1	"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." 2 Tim. 4:2.
WGD	298	2	The subject of Christ's teaching was the Word of God. He met questioners with a plain, "It is written," "What saith the Scripture?" "How readest thou?" At every opportunity, when an interest was awakened by either friend or foe, He presented the Word. With clearness and power He proclaimed the gospel message. His words shed a flood of light on the teachings of patriarchs and prophets, and the Scriptures came to men as a new revelation. Never before had His hearers perceived in the Word of God such depth of meaning.--Gospel Workers, 44.
WGD	298	3	God wants the youth to become men of earnest mind, to be prepared for action in His noble work, and fitted to bear responsibilities. God calls for young men with hearts uncorrupted, strong and brave, and determined to fight manfully in the struggle before them, that they may glorify God, and bless humanity.--Messages to Young People, 21.
WGD	298	4	Young men, press to the front, and identify yourselves as laborers together with Christ, taking up the work where He left it, to carry it on to its completion.--Messages to Young People, 25.
WGD	298	5	You will often meet with souls that are under the stress of temptation. . . . Beware lest you discourage such souls, and thus give the tempter an advantage. Whenever you see or hear something that needs to be corrected, seek the Lord for wisdom and grace, that in trying to be faithful you may not be severe. It is always humiliating to have one's errors pointed out. Do not make the experience more bitter by needless censure. Unkind criticism brings discouragement, making life sunless and unhappy.--Gospel Workers, 496.
------------------------Look on the Fields, October 24
WGD	299	1	"Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." John 4:35.
WGD	299	2	Vast territories are opened before us where the light of truth has never penetrated. Whichever way we look we see rich harvests ready to be gathered, but there are none to do the reaping. Prayers are offered for the triumph of the truth. What do your prayers mean, brethren? . . . a success that will sustain and support itself without any effort on your part? . . . There must be an awakening, a spiritual renovation. The temperature of Christian piety must be raised.
WGD	299	3	Plans must be devised and executed for the spread of truth to all nations of the earth. Satan is lulling Christ's professed followers to sleep, while souls are perishing all around them; and what excuse can they give to the Master for their negligence? . . .
WGD	299	4	There is work for every individual who names the name of Christ. A voice from Heaven is solemnly calling you to duty. Heed this voice, and go to work at once in any place in any capacity. Why stand ye here all the day idle? There is work for you to do,--a work that demands your best energies. Every precious moment of life is related to some duty which you owe to God or to your fellow-men, and yet you are idle!
WGD	299	5	A great work of saving souls remains yet to be done. Every angel in glory is engaged in this work, while every demon of darkness is opposing it. Christ has demonstrated to us the great value of souls in that He came to the world with the hoarded love of eternity in His heart, offering to make man heir to all His wealth.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 203, 204.
------------------------Tell Your Children, October 25
WGD	300	1	"Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation." Joel 1:3.
WGD	300	2	Not until parents themselves walk in the law of the Lord with perfect hearts, will they be prepared to command their children after them. A reformation in this respect is needed,-- a reformation which shall be deep and broad. . . . They should patiently instruct their children, kindly and untiringly teach them how to live in order to please God.
WGD	300	3	The children of such a household are prepared to meet the sophistries of infidelity. They have accepted the Bible as the basis of their faith, and they have a foundation that cannot be swept away by the incoming tide of skepticism. . . .
WGD	300	4	Like the patriarchs of old, those who profess to love God should erect an altar to the Lord wherever they pitch their tent. If ever there was a time when every house should be a house of prayer, it is now. Fathers and mothers should often lift up their hearts to God in humble supplication for themselves and their children. . . . A well-ordered Christian household is a powerful argument in favor of the reality of the Christian religion,--an argument that the infidel cannot gainsay.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 143, 144.
WGD	300	5	The home is the child's first school, and it is here that the foundation should be laid for a life of service. Its principles are to be taught not merely in theory. They are to shape the whole life training. Very early the lesson of helpfulness should be taught the child. . . . The more fully the spirit of true ministry pervades the home, the more fully it will be developed in the lives of the children. They will learn to find joy in service and sacrifice for the good of others.--The Ministry of Healing, 400, 401.
------------------------Go Without Fear, October 26
WGD	301	1	"But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak." Jeremiah 1:7.
WGD	301	2	God dwells in every abode; He hears every word that is spoken, listens to every prayer that is offered, tastes the sorrows and disappointments of every soul, regards the treatment that is given to father, mother, sister, friend, and neighbor. He cares for our necessities, and His love and mercy and grace are continually flowing to satisfy our need. But if you call God your Father, you acknowledge yourselves His children, to be guided by His wisdom, and to be obedient in all things, knowing that His love is changeless. You will accept His plan for your life.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 105.
WGD	301	3	How often those who trusted the Word of God, though in themselves utterly helpless, have withstood the power of the whole world,--Enoch, pure in heart, holy in life, holding fast his faith in the triumph of righteousness against a corrupt and scoffing generation; Noah and his household against the men of his time, men of the greatest physical and mental strength and the most debased in morals; . . . David, a shepherd lad, having God's promise of the throne, against Saul, the established monarch, bent on holding fast his power; Shadrach and his companions in the fire, and Nebuchadnezzar on the throne; Daniel among the lions, his enemies in the high places of the kingdom; Jesus on the cross, and the Jewish priests and rulers forcing even the Roman governor to work their will; Paul in chains led to a criminal's death. . . . These are the world's true nobility. This is its royal line. In this line the youth of to-day are called to take their places.--Education, 254, 255.
------------------------Paul Kept the Faith, October 27
WGD	302	1	"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." 2 Tim. 4:7.
WGD	302	2	From the judgment-hall of Caesar, Paul returned to his cell, realizing that he had gained for himself only a brief respite. He knew that his enemies would not rest until they had compassed his death. But he knew also that for a time truth had triumphed. To have proclaimed a crucified and risen Saviour before the vast crowd who had listened to him, was in itself a victory. That day a work had begun which would grow and strengthen, and which Nero and all other enemies of Christ would seek in vain to hinder or destroy. . . .
WGD	302	3	Through his long term of service, Paul had never faltered in his allegiance to his Saviour. Wherever he was,--whether before scowling Pharisees, or Roman authorities; before the furious mob at Lystra, or the convicted sinners in the Macedonian dungeon; whether reasoning with the panic-stricken sailors on the shipwrecked vessel, or standing alone before Nero to plead for his life,--he had never been ashamed of the cause he was advocating. The one great purpose of his Christian life had been to serve Him whose name had once filled him with contempt; and from this purpose no opposition or persecution had been able to turn him aside. His faith, made strong by effort and pure by sacrifice, upheld and strengthened him. . . . The true minister of God will not shun hardship or responsibility. From the Source that never fails those who sincerely seek for divine power, he draws strength that enables him to meet and overcome temptation, and to perform the duties that God places upon him. . . . His soul goes out in longing desire to do acceptable service for the Master.--The Acts of the Apostles, 498-501.
------------------------Jesus Went About Doing Good, October 28
WGD	303	1	"Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." Acts 10:38.
WGD	303	2	Christ's followers have been redeemed for service. Our Lord teaches that the true object of life is ministry. Christ Himself was a worker, and to all His followers He gives the law of service,--service to God and to their fellow-men. Here Christ has presented to the world a higher conception of life than they had ever known. By living to minister for others, man is brought into connection with Christ. The law of service becomes the connecting link which binds us to God and to our fellow-men.
WGD	303	3	To His servants Christ commits "His goods,"--something to be put to use for Him. He gives "to every man his work." Each has his place in the eternal plan of heaven. Each is to work in co-operation with Christ for the salvation of souls. Not more surely is the place prepared for us in the heavenly mansions than is the special place designated on earth where we are to work for God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 326, 267.
WGD	303	4	His life was one of constant self-sacrifice. He had no home in this world, except as the kindness of friends provided for Him as a wayfarer. He came to live in our behalf the life of the poorest, and to walk and work among the needy and the suffering. Unrecognized and unhonored, He walked in and out among the people for whom He had done so much. . . .
WGD	303	5	During His ministry, Jesus devoted more time to healing the sick than to preaching. His miracles testified to the truth of His words, that He came not to destroy, but to save. Wherever He went, the tidings of His mercy preceded Him. Where He had passed, the objects of His compassion were rejoicing in health, and making trial of their new-found powers.--The Ministry of Healing, 19.
------------------------God's Love Is Promised, October 29
WGD	304	1	"For the love of Christ constraineth us." 2 Corinthians 5:14.
WGD	304	2	Although His love is driven back by the stubborn heart, He returns to plead with greater force, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." The winning power of His love compels souls to come in. . . . Christ will impart to His messengers the same yearning love that He Himself has in seeking for the lost. We are not merely to say, "Come." There are those who hear the call, but their ears are too dull to take in its meaning. Their eyes are too blind to see anything good in store for them. Many realize their great degradation. They say, I am not fit to be helped, leave me alone. But the workers must not desist. In tender, pitying love, lay hold of the discouraged and helpless ones. Give them your courage, your hope, your strength. By kindness compel them to come. . . .
WGD	304	3	If the servants of God will walk with Him in faith, He will give power to their message. They will be enabled so to present His love and the danger of rejecting the grace of God, that men will be constrained to accept the gospel.
WGD	304	4	Christ will perform wonderful miracles if men will but do their God-given part. In human hearts to-day as great a transformation may be wrought as has ever been wrought in generations past. . . . Through human agents who co-operate with the divine, many a poor outcast will be reclaimed, and in his turn will seek to restore the image of God in man. There are those who have had very meager opportunities, who have walked in ways of error because they knew no better way, to whom beams of light will come. . . . Many will come from the grossest error and sin, and will take the place of others who have had opportunities and privileges but have not prized them.--Christ's Object Lessons, 235, 236.
------------------------God Accompanies His Servants, October 30
WGD	305	1	"Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Joshua 1:9.
WGD	305	2	To human agencies is committed the work of extending the triumphs of the cross from point to point. As the Head of the church, Christ is authoritatively calling upon every one who claims to believe on Him to follow His example of self-denial and self-sacrifice in working for the conversion of those whom Satan and his vast army are exerting every power to destroy. God's people are called upon to rally without delay under the blood-stained banner of Christ Jesus. Unceasingly they are to continue their warfare against the enemy, pressing the battle even to the gates. And every one who is added to the ranks by conversion is to be assigned his post of duty. Every one should be willing to be or to do anything in this warfare. When church-members put forth earnest efforts to advance the message, they will live in the joy of the Lord, and will meet with success. Triumph always follows decided effort.
WGD	305	3	Christ, in His mediatorial capacity, gives to His servants the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is the efficiency of the Spirit that enables human agencies to be representatives of the Redeemer in the work of soulsaving. That we may unite with Christ in this work, we should place ourselves under the molding influence of His Spirit. Through the power thus imparted, we may co-operate with the Lord in the bonds of unity as laborers together with Him in the salvation of souls. To every one who offers himself to the Lord for service, withholding nothing, is given power for the attainment of measureless results. The Lord God is bound by an eternal pledge to supply power and grace to every one who is sanctified through obedience to the truth.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 30, 31.
------------------------Laborers to Shine as the Stars, October 31
WGD	306	1	"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Dan. 12:3.
WGD	306	2	What we shall be in heaven is the reflection of what we are now in character and holy service. Christ said of Himself, "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." This, His work on earth, is His work in heaven. And our reward for working with Christ in this world is the greater power and wider privilege of working with Him in the world to come.--Christ's Object Lessons, 361.
WGD	306	3	How many toil unselfishly and unweariedly for those who pass beyond their reach and knowledge! Parents and teachers lie down in their last sleep, their life-work seeming to have been wrought in vain; they know not that their faithfulness has unsealed springs of blessing that can never cease to flow; only by faith they see the children they have trained become a benediction and an inspiration to their fellow-men, and the influence repeat itself a thousandfold.
WGD	306	4	Many a worker sends out into the world messages of strength and hope and courage, words that carry blessing to hearts in every land; but of the results he, toiling in loneliness and obscurity, knows little. So gifts are bestowed, burdens are borne, labor is done. Men sow the seed from which, above their graves, others reap blessed harvests. . . . In the hereafter the action and reaction of all these will be seen.
WGD	306	5	Of every gift that God has bestowed, leading men to unselfish effort, a record is kept in heaven. To trace this in its wide-spreading lines, to look upon those who by our efforts have been uplifted and ennobled. . .--this will be one of the studies and rewards of the heavenly school.--Education, 305, 306.
------------------------He Will Be with Us, November 1
WGD	307	1	"When thou passeth through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee" Isaiah 43:2.
WGD	307	2	In this our day, many of God's servants, though innocent of wrong-doing, will be given over to suffer humiliation and abuse at the hands of those who, inspired by Satan, are filled with envy and religious bigotry. Especially will the wrath of man be aroused against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment; and at last a universal decree will denounce these as deserving of death. . . .
WGD	307	3	His children must make it manifest that He is the only object of their worship, and that no consideration . . . can induce them to make the least concession to false worship. To the loyal heart the commands of sinful, finite men will sink into insignificance beside the Word of the eternal God. Truth will be obeyed though the result be imprisonment or exile or death.--Prophets and Kings, 512, 513.
WGD	307	4	In all ages the Saviour's chosen have been educated and disciplined in the school of trial. They walked in narrow paths on earth; they were purified in the furnace of affliction. For Jesus' sake they endured opposition, hatred, calumny. They followed Him through conflicts sore; they endured self-denial and experienced bitter disappointments. . . . They love much, because they have been forgiven much. Having been partakers of Christ's sufferings, they are fitted to be partakers with Him of His glory.--The Great Controversy, 649, 650.
------------------------My Ransom Is Paid, November 2
WGD	308	1	"For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee." Isaiah 43:3.
WGD	308	2	We may rejoice in hope. Our Advocate is in the heavenly sanctuary, pleading in our behalf. Through His merits we have pardon and peace. He died that He might wash away our sins, clothe us with His righteousness, and fit us for the society of Heaven, where we may dwell in light forever. . . . You cannot save yourself from the tempter's power; but he trembles and flees when the merits of that precious blood are urged. Then will you not gratefully accept the blessings Jesus bestows? . . . Do not for a moment pain the heart of the pitying Saviour by your unbelief. He watches with the most intense interest your progress in the heavenly way; He sees your earnest efforts; He notes your declensions and your recoveries, your hopes and your fears, your conflicts and your victories.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 316, 317.
WGD	308	3	The Saviour longs to manifest His grace and stamp His character on the whole world. It is His purchased possession, and He desires to make men free, and pure, and holy. Though Satan works to hinder this purpose, yet through the blood shed for the world there are triumphs to be achieved that will bring glory to God and the Lamb.--The Desire of Ages, 827.
WGD	308	4	In order to secure man to Himself, and insure his eternal salvation, Christ left the royal courts of heaven, and came to this earth, endured the agonies of sin and shame in man s stead, and died to make him free.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 614.
------------------------He Will Claim His Own, November 3
WGD	309	1	"I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth." Isaiah 43:6.
WGD	309	2	Sorrow filled heaven as it was realized that man was lost, and that the world which God had created was to be filled with mortals doomed to misery, sickness, and death, and that there was no way of escape for the offender. The whole family of Adam must die. I then saw the lovely Jesus, and beheld an expression of sympathy and sorrow upon His countenance. Soon I saw Him approach the exceeding bright light which enshrouded the Father. . . . Three times He was shut in by the glorious light about the Father, and the third time He came from the Father we could see His person. . . . He then made known to the angelic choir that a way of escape had been made for lost man; that He had been pleading with His Father, and had obtained permission to give His own life as a ransom for the race, to bear their sins, and take the sentence of death upon Himself, thus opening a way whereby they might, through the merits of His blood, find pardon for past trans-gressions, and by obedience be brought back to the garden from which they were driven.--Early Writings, 126.
WGD	309	3	Soon I heard the voice of God, which shook the heavens and the earth. . . . I looked upon the company, who, a short time before, were in such distress and bondage. Their captivity was turned. A glorious light shone upon them. . . . All marks of care and weariness were gone, and health and beauty were seen in every countenance. . . . This light and glory remained upon them, until Jesus was seen in the clouds of heaven, and the faithful, tried company were changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, from glory to glory.--Early Writings, 272, 273.
------------------------He Is Our Saviour, November 4
WGD	310	1	"I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour." Isaiah 43:11.
WGD	310	2	No self-assertion mingled with His life. The homage which the world gives to position, wealth, or talent, was foreign to the Son of man. None of the means that men employ to win allegiance or command homage did Jesus use. Centuries before His birth it had been prophesied of Him, "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street."-- The Ministry of Healing, 31.
WGD	310	3	It is fellowship with Christ, personal contact with a living Saviour, that enables the mind and heart and soul to triumph over the lower nature. Tell the wanderer of an almighty hand that will hold him up, of an infinite humanity in Christ that pities him.--Christ's Object Lessons, 388.
WGD	310	4	O, let no word be spoken to cause deeper pain! To the soul weary of a life of sin, but knowing not where to find relief, present the compassionate Saviour. Take him by the hand, lift him up, speak to him words of courage and hope. Help him to grasp the hand of the Saviour.--The Ministry of Healing, 168.
WGD	310	5	There are no barriers which man or Satan can erect but that faith can penetrate. In faith the woman of Phenicia flung herself against the barriers that had been piled up between Jew and Gentile. Against discouragement, regardless of appearances that might have led her to doubt, she trusted the Saviour's love. It is thus that Christ desires us to trust in Him. The blessings of salvation are for every soul. Nothing but his own choice can prevent any man from becoming a partaker of the promise in Christ by the gospel.--The Desire of Ages, 403.
------------------------He Chasteneth Whom He Loveth, November 5
WGD	311	1	"For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Hebrews 12:6.
WGD	311	2	The Lord can bring victory out of that which may seem to us discomfiture and defeat. We are in danger of forgetting God, of looking at the things which are seen, instead of beholding by the eye of faith the things which are unseen. When misfortune or calamity comes, we are ready to charge God with neglect or cruelty. If He sees fit to cut off our usefulness in some line, we mourn, not stopping to think that thus God may be working for our good. We need to learn that chastisement is a part of His great plan, and that under the rod of affliction the Christian may sometimes do more for the Master than when engaged in active service. . . .
WGD	311	3	The work of gaining salvation is one of co-partnership, a joint operation. There is to be co-operation between God and the repentant sinner. This is necessary for the formation of right principles in the character. Man is to make earnest efforts to overcome that which hinders him from attaining to perfection. But he is wholly dependent upon God for success. Human effort of itself is not sufficient. Without the aid of divine power it avails nothing. God works and man works. Resistance of temptation must come from man, who must draw his power from God. On the one side there is infinite wisdom, compassion, and power; on the other, weakness, sinfulness, absolute helplessness.
WGD	311	4	God wishes us to have the mastery over ourselves. But He cannot help us without our consent and co-operation. The divine Spirit works through the powers and faculties given to man.--The Acts of the Apostles, 481, 482.
------------------------God's Chastening a Blessing, November 6
WGD	312	1	"Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law." Ps. 94:12.
WGD	312	2	Of ourselves, we are not able to bring the purposes and desires and inclinations into harmony with the will of God; but if we are "willing to be made willing," the Saviour will accomplish this for us, "casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." He who would build up a strong, symmetrical character, he who would be a well-balanced Christian, must give all and do all for Christ; for the Redeemer will not accept divided service. Daily he must learn the meaning of self-surrender. He must study the Word of God, learning its meaning and obeying its precepts. . . . Day by day God works with him, perfecting the character that is to stand in the time of final test. And day by day the believer is working out before men and angels a sublime experiment, showing what the gospel can do for fallen human beings.--The Acts of the Apostles, 482, 483.
WGD	312	3	But when tribulation comes upon us, how many of us are like Jacob! We think it the hand of an enemy; and in the darkness we wrestle blindly until our strength is spent, and we find no comfort or deliverance. . . . God would not have us remain pressed down by dumb sorrow, with sore and breaking hearts. He would have us look up, and behold His dear face of love. The blessed Saviour stands by many whose eyes are so blinded by tears that they do not discern Him. He longs to clasp our hands, to have us look to Him in simple faith, permitting Him to guide us. His heart is open to our griefs, our sorrows, and our trials.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 11, 12.
------------------------He Will Purge Thy Dross, November 7
WGD	313	1	"And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin." Isaiah 1:25.
WGD	313	2	If received in faith, the trial that seems so bitter and hard to bear will prove a blessing. The cruel blow that blights the joys of earth will be the means of turning our eyes to heaven. How many there are who would never have known Jesus had not a sorrow led them to seek comfort in Him!--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 10.
WGD	313	3	Of all the gifts that heaven can bestow upon men, fellowship with Christ in His sufferings is the most weighty trust and the highest honor. . . . Many are unable to make definite plans for the future, Their life is unsettled. They can not discern the outcome of affairs, and this often fills them with anxiety and unrest. Let us remember that the life of God's children in this world is a pilgrim life. We have not wisdom to plan our own lives. It is not for us to shape our future. . . . Too many, in planning for a brilliant future, make an utter failure. Let God plan for you. . . . God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning, and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as coworkers with Him. --The Ministry of Healing, 478, 479.
WGD	313	4	God is the refiner and purifier of souls; in the heat of the furnace the dross is separated forever from the true silver and gold of the Christian character. Jesus watches the test. He knows what is needed to purify the precious metal that it may reflect the radiance of His divine love. . . . God's work of refining and purifying must go on until His servants are so humbled, so dead to self, that, when called into active service, their eye will be single to His glory.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 86.
------------------------He Rebukes, November 8
WGD	314	1	"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." Revelation 3:19.
WGD	314	2	The Master saw that you needed a fitness for His heavenly kingdom. He did not leave you in the furnace for the fire of affliction to consume. As a refiner and purifier of silver, he kept His eye upon you, watching the process of purification until He should discern His image reflected in you. Although you have often felt affliction's flame kindling upon you, and at times have thought it would consume you, yet the loving-kindness of God has been just as great toward you at these times as when you were free in spirit, and triumphing in Him. The furnace was to purify and refine, but not to consume and destroy.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 269.
WGD	314	3	Then let us not mourn and grieve because in this life we are not free from disappointments and afflictions. If in the providence of God we are called upon to endure trials let us accept the cross, and drink the bitter cup, remembering that it is a Father's hand that holds it to our lips. Let us trust Him in the darkness as well as in the day. Can we not believe that He will give us everything that is for our good? . . . Even in the night of affliction, how can we refuse to lift heart and voice in grateful praise, when we remember the love to us expressed by the cross of Calvary?--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 316.
WGD	314	4	And even after the saints are sealed with the seal of the living God, His elect will have trials individually. Personal afflictions will come; but the furnace is closely watched by an eye that will not suffer the gold to be consumed. The indelible mark of God is upon them. God can plead that His own name is written there. The Lord has shut them in.--Testimonies to Ministers, 446.
------------------------He Careth for Me, November 9
WGD	315	1	"Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." 1 Peter 5:7.
WGD	315	2	Let all who are afflicted or unjustly used, cry to God. Turn away from those whose hearts are as steel, and make your requests known to your Maker. Never is one repulsed who comes to Him with a contrite heart. Not one sincere prayer is lost. Amid the anthems of the celestial choir, God hears the cries of the weakest human being. We pour out our heart's desire in our closets, we breathe a prayer as we walk by the way, and our words reach the throne of the Monarch of the universe. They may be inaudible to any human ear, but they can not die away into silence, nor can they be lost through the activities of business that are going on. Nothing can drown the soul's desire. It rises above the din of the street, above the confusion of the multitude, to the heavenly courts. It is God to whom we are speaking, and our prayer is heard.--Christ's Object Lessons, 174.
WGD	315	3	We should not darken our own path or the path of others with the shadow of our trials. We have a Saviour to whom to go, into whose pitying ear we may pour every complaint. We may leave all our cares and burdens with Him, and then our labor will not seem hard or our trials severe. . . . By the exercise of living faith you can separate from everything that is not in accordance with the mind of God, and thus bring heaven into your life here below. Doing this, you will have sunshine at every step. When the enemy seeks to enshroud the soul with darkness, sing faith and talk faith, and you will find that you have sung and talked yourself into the light.--Counsels to Teachers, 233, 234.
------------------------He Will Not Forsake, November 10
WGD	316	1	"For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance." Ps. 94:14.
WGD	316	2	Let us remember that Jesus knows us individually, and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows the wants of each of His creatures, and reads the hidden, unspoken grief of every heart. If one of the little ones for whom He died is injured, He sees it, and calls the offender to account. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He cares for His feeble, sickly, wandering sheep. He knows them all by name. The distress of every sheep and every lamb of His flock touches His heart of sympathizing love, and the cry for aid reaches His ear. One of the greatest sins of the shepherds of Israel is thus pointed out by the prophet: "The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. . . . My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill; yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them."
WGD	316	3	Jesus cares for each one as though there were not another individual on the face of the earth.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 346.
WGD	316	4	God brings His people near Him by close, testing trials, by showing them their own weakness and inability, and by teaching them to lean upon Him as their only help and safeguard. Then His object is accomplished. They are prepared to be used in every emergency, to fill important positions of trust, and to accomplish the grand purposes for which their powers were given them.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 86.
------------------------He Sends Angel Watchers, November 11
WGD	317	1	"For He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." Ps. 91:11.
WGD	317	2	Heaven is brought near to earth by that mystic ladder, the base of which is firmly planted on the earth, while the topmost round reaches the throne of the Infinite. Angels are constantly ascending and descending this ladder of shining brightness, bearing the prayers of the needy and distressed to the Father above, and bringing blessing and hope, courage and help, to the children of men. These angels of light create a heavenly atmosphere about the soul, lifting us toward the unseen and the eternal. We cannot behold their forms with our natural sight; only by spiritual vision can we discern heavenly things. The spiritual ear alone can hear the harmony of heavenly voices. . . . Again and again have angels talked with men as a man speaketh with a friend, and led them to places of security. Again and again have the encouraging words of angels renewed the drooping spirits of the faithful, and carrying their minds above the things of earth, caused them to behold by faith the white robes, the crowns, the palm branches of victory, which overcomers will receive when they surround the great white throne.
WGD	317	3	It is the work of the angels to come close to the tried, the suffering, the tempted. They labor untiringly in behalf of those for whom Christ died.--The Acts of the Apostles, 153, 154.
WGD	317	4	While angels drink from the fountain-head, the saints on earth drink of the pure streams flowing from the throne, the streams that make glad the city of our God. O that we could all realize the nearness of heaven to earth! . . . Let us remember that our praises are supplemented by the choirs of the angelic host above.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 366, 367.
------------------------Be Strong and Take Courage, November 12
WGD	318	1	"Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." Deut. 31:6.
WGD	318	2	Success in any line demands a definite aim. He who would achieve true success in life must keep steadily in view the aim worthy of his endeavor. Such an aim is set before the youth of to-day. The heaven-appointed purpose of giving the gospel to the world in this generation is the noblest that can appeal to any human being. It opens a field of effort to every one whose heart Christ has touched.
WGD	318	3	God's purpose for the children growing up beside our hearths is wider, deeper, higher, than our restricted vision has comprehended. . . . And many a lad of to-day, growing up as did Daniel in his Judean home, studying God's Word and His works, and learning the lessons of faithful service, will yet stand in legislative assemblies, in halls of justice, or in royal courts, as a witness for the King of kings.--Education, 262.
WGD	318	4	While you take counsel with your doubts and fears, or try to solve everything that you cannot see clearly before you have faith, your perplexities will only increase and deepen. If you come to God, feeling helpless and dependent, as you really are, and in humble, trusting prayer make your wants known to Him . . . He can and will attend to your cry, and will let light shine into your heart and all around you; for through sincere prayer your soul is brought into connection with the mind of the Infinite.--Gospel Workers, 320, 321.
WGD	318	5	Old habits, hereditary tendencies to wrong, will strive for the mastery, and against these he is to be ever on guard, striving in Christ's strength for victory.--The Acts of the Apostles, 476, 477.
------------------------He Will Be Our God, November 13
WGD	319	1	"And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." Ex. 6:7.
WGD	319	2	The mighty God of Israel is our God. In Him we may trust, and if we obey His requirements He will work for us in as signal a manner as He did for His ancient people. Every one who seeks to follow the path of duty will at times be assailed by doubt and unbelief. The way will sometimes be so barred by obstacles, apparently insurmountable, as to dishearten those who will yield to discouragement; but God is saying to such, Go forward. Do your duty at any cost. The difficulties that seem so formidable, that fill your soul with dread, will vanish as you move forward in the path of obedience, humbly trusting in God.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 437.
WGD	319	3	In all the dealings of God with His people, there is, mingled with His love and mercy, the most striking evidence of His strict and impartial justice. This is exemplified in the history of the Hebrew people. God had bestowed great blessings upon Israel. . . . And yet what swift and severe retribution was visited upon them for their transgressions!--Patriarchs and Prophets, 469. There are those who address the great and all-powerful and holy God, who dwelleth in light unapproachable, as they would address an equal, or even an inferior. There are those who conduct themselves in His house as they would not presume to do in the audience-chamber of an earthly ruler. These should remember that they are in His sight whom seraphim adore, before whom angels vail their faces. . . ." This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 252.
------------------------He Will Thrust Out the Enemy, November 14
WGD	320	1	"The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy before thee; and shall say, Destroy them." Deut. 33:27.
WGD	320	2	Perilous times are before us. Every one who has a knowledge of the truth should awake, and place himself, body, soul, and spirit, under the discipline of God. The enemy is on our track. We must be wide awake, on our guard against him. We must put on the whole armor of God. We must follow the directions given through the Spirit of prophecy. We must love and obey the truth for this time. This will save us from ac-cepting strong delusions. God has spoken to us through His Word. He has spoken to us through the testimonies to the church, and through the books that have helped to make plain our present duty and the position we should now occupy. The warnings that have been given, line upon line, precept upon precept, should be heeded. If we disregard them, what excuse can we offer?--Gospel Workers, 308.
WGD	320	3	The sinner is exposed to eternal death, until he finds a hiding-place in Christ; and as loitering and carelessness might rob the fugitive of his only chance for life, so delays and indifference may prove the ruin of the soul. Satan, the great adversary, is on the track of every transgressor of God's holy law, and he who is not sensible of his danger, and does not earnestly seek shelter in the eternal refuge, will fall a prey to the destroyer.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 517.
WGD	320	4	He who curbed the lions in their den, and walked with His faithful witnesses amid the fiery flames, is just as ready to work in our behalf, to subdue every evil in our nature. . . . He turns no weeping, contrite one away.--The Ministry of Healing, 90.
------------------------He Is Our Shield and Sword, November 15
WGD	321	1	"Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency!" Deut. 33:29.
WGD	321	2	He who serves under the blood-stained banner of Emmanuel often has that to do which calls for heroic effort and patient endurance. But the soldier of the cross stands unshrinkingly in the forefront of the battle. As the enemy presses the attack against him, he turns to the Stronghold for aid; and as he brings to the Lord the promises of the Word, he is strengthened for the duties of the hour. He realizes his need of strength from above. . . . Relying upon that power, he is enabled to present the message of salvation so forcibly that it awakens an answering chord in other minds.--Gospel Workers, 16.
WGD	321	3	While Paul possessed high intellectual endowments, his life revealed the power of a rarer wisdom, which gave him quickness of insight and sympathy of heart, and brought him into close touch with others, enabling him to arouse their better nature and inspire them to strive for a higher life. His heart was filled with an earnest love for the Corinthian believers. . . . He knew that at every step in the Christian pathway they would be opposed by the synagogue of Satan, and that they would have to engage in conflicts daily. . . . But he knew also that in Christ crucified they were offered power sufficient to convert the soul, and divinely adapted to enable them to resist all temptations to evil. With faith in God as their armor, and with His Word as their weapon of warfare, they would be supplied with an inner power that would enable them to turn aside the attacks of the enemy.--The Acts of the Apostles, 307.
------------------------He Will Not Fail, November 16
WGD	322	1	"He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law." Isaiah 42:4.
WGD	322	2	Christ is acquainted with all that is misunderstood and misrepresented by men. His children can afford to wait in calm patience and trust, no matter how much maligned and despised; for nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest, and those who honor God shall be honored by Him in the presence of men and angels. . . . Abel, the very first Christian of Adam's children, died a martyr. Enoch walked with God, and the world knew him not. Noah was mocked as a fanatic and alarmist. . . . "Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection." In every age God's chosen messengers have been reviled and persecuted; yet through their affliction, the knowledge of God has been spread abroad. Every disciple of Christ is to step into the ranks, and carry forward the same work, knowing that its foes can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. God means that truth shall be brought to the front, and become the subject of examination and discussion, even through the contempt placed upon it. The minds of the people must be agitated; every controversy, every reproach, every effort to restrict liberty of conscience, is God's means of awakening minds that otherwise might slumber.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 32, 33.
WGD	322	3	Christ will never abandon the soul for whom He has died. The soul may leave Him, and be overwhelmed with temptation; but Christ can never turn from one for whom He has paid the ransom of His own life. Could our spiritual vision be quickened, . . . we should see angels flying swiftly to aid these tempted ones, who are standing as on the brink of a precipice.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 118.
------------------------He Will Hold Thy Hand, November 17
WGD	323	1	"I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles." Isaiah 42:6.
WGD	323	2	The soul that is yielded to Christ, becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies, is impregnable to the assaults of Satan.--The Desire of Ages, 324.
WGD	323	3	Live in contact with the living Christ, and He will hold you firmly by a hand that will never let go. Know and believe the love that God has to us, and you are secure; that love is a fortress impregnable to all the delusions and assaults of Satan. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe."--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 119.
WGD	323	4	Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invincible, than the soul that feels its nothingness, and relies wholly on the merits of the Saviour. By prayer, by the study of His Word, by faith in His abiding presence, the weakest of human beings may live in contact with the living Christ, and He will hold them by a hand that will never let go. . . . Those whom Christ has forgiven most will love Him most. These are they who in the final day will stand nearest to His throne.-- The Ministry of Healing, 182.
WGD	323	5	The angels of glory find their joy in giving,--giving love and tireless watchcare to souls that are fallen and unholy. Heavenly beings woo the hearts of men; they bring to this dark world light from the courts above; by gentle and patient ministry they move upon the human spirit, to bring the lost into a fellowship with Christ which is even closer than they themselves can know.--The Desire of Ages, 21.
------------------------He Will Make Darkness Light, November 18
WGD	324	1	"And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight." Isaiah 42:16.
WGD	324	2	The trials to which Christians are subjected in sorrow, adversity, and reproach, are the means appointed of God to separate the chaff from the wheat. Our pride, selfishness, evil passions, and love of worldly pleasure, must all be overcome; therefore God sends us afflictions to test and prove us, and show us that these evils exist in our characters. We must overcome through His strength and grace, that we may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. . . . Afflictions, crosses, temptations, adversity, and our varied trials, are God's workmen to refine us, sanctify us, and fit us for the heavenly garner.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 115.
WGD	324	3	Oh, why are we so sensitive to trial and reproach, to shame and suffering, when our Lord has given us such an example? Who would wish to enter into the joy of their Lord while they were unwilling to partake of His sufferings?
WGD	324	4	What! the servant unwilling to bear the humility and shame and reproach which the Master bore unselfishly for him! the servant shrinking from a life of humility and sacrifice which is for his own eternal happiness, by which he may finally obtain an exceedingly great, an eternal reward! The language of my heart is, Let me be a partaker with Christ of His sufferings, that I may finally share with Him the glory.--Testimonies for the Church, vol.2, 491.
WGD	324	5	Be not moved from your steadfastness by the jeers and scoffs of those whose minds are given to vanity. Follow your Saviour through evil as well as good report.--Testimonies for the Church, vol.2, 237.
------------------------He Will Redeem Us, November 19
WGD	325	1	"I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments." Ex. 6:6.
WGD	325	2	The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other in the whole book clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God. From the first intimation of hope in the sentence pronounced in Eden to that last glorious promise of the Revelation, "They shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads," the burden of every book and every passage of the Bible is the unfolding of this wondrous theme,--man's uplifting,--the power of God, "which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." He who grasps this thought has before him an infinite field for study. He has the key that will unlock to him the whole treasure-house of God's Word.
WGD	325	3	The science of redemption is the science of all sciences; the science that is the study of the angels and of all the intelligences of the unfallen worlds; the science that engages the attention of our Lord and Saviour; the science that enters into the purpose brooded in the mind of the Infinite,--"kept in silence through times eternal;" the science that will be the study of God's redeemed throughout endless ages. This is the highest study in which it is possible for man to engage. As no other study can, it will quicken the mind and uplift the soul. --Education, 125, 126.
WGD	325	4	It was He who created the human soul, with its capacity for knowing and for loving. And He is not in Himself such as to leave the demands of the soul unsatisfied. . . . We need to clasp a hand that is warm, to trust in a heart full of tenderness. And even so God has in His Word revealed Himself. --Education, 133.
------------------------He Draws All Men By His Death, November 20
WGD	326	1	"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." John 12:32.
WGD	326	2	The great plan of redemption results in fully bringing back the world into God's favor. All that was lost by sin is restored. Not only man but the earth is redeemed, to be the eternal abode of the obedient. For six thousand years, Satan has struggled to maintain possession of the earth. Now God's original purpose in its creation is accomplished. "The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 342.
WGD	326	3	The true object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul. In the beginning, God created man in His own likeness. He endowed him with noble qualities. His mind was well balanced, and all the powers of his being were harmonious. But the fall and its effects have perverted these gifts. . . . To bring him back to the perfection in which he was first created, is the great object of life,--the object that underlies every other. It is the work of parents and teachers, in the education of the youth, to co-operate with the divine purpose; and in so doing they are "laborers together with God."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 595.
WGD	326	4	The theme of redemption will bear the most concentrated study, and its depths will never be fully explored. Do not fear that you will exhaust the wonderful theme. Go to the fountain for yourself, that you may be filled with refreshment. Drink deep at the well of salvation, that Jesus may be in you a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life.--Counsels to Teachers, 528.
------------------------With Him Is Plenteous Redemption, November 21
WGD	327	1	"Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption." Ps. 130:7.
WGD	327	2	Up to the time of man's rebellion against the government of God, there had been free communion between God and man. But the sin of Adam and Eve separated earth from heaven, so that man could not have communion with his Maker. Yet the world was not left in solitary hopelessness. . . . Had He not with His own merits bridged the gulf that sin had made, the ministering angels could have held no communion with fallen man. Christ connects man in his weakness and helplessness with the source of infinite power.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 184.
WGD	327	3	In patriarchal times the sacrificial offerings connected with divine worship constituted a perpetual reminder of the coming of a Saviour; and thus it was with the entire ritual of the sanctuary services throughout Israel's history. In the ministration of the tabernacle, and of the temple that afterward took its place, the people were taught each day, by means of types and shadows, the great truths relative to the advent of Christ as Redeemer, Priest, and King; and once each year their minds were carried forward to the closing events of the great con-troversy between Christ and Satan, the final purification of the universe from sin and sinners.--Prophets and Kings, 684, 685.
WGD	327	4	The Messiah was to be hid in God, and God was to be revealed in the character of His son. Without a knowledge of God, humanity would be eternally lost. Without divine help, men and women would sink lower and lower. Life and power must be imparted by Him who made the world. Man's necessities could be met in no other way.--Prophets and Kings, 693.
------------------------Zion Shall Be Redeemed, November 22
WGD	328	1	"Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness." Isaiah 1:27.
WGD	328	2	We may have a vision of the future, the blessedness of heaven. In the Bible are revealed visions of future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, and these are dear to His church. By faith we may stand on the threshold of the eternal city, and hear the gracious welcome given to those who in this life co-operate with Christ, regarding it as an honor to suffer for His sake. . . . There the redeemed greet those who led them to the Saviour, and all unite in praising Him who died that human beings might have the life that measures with the life of God. The conflict is over. Tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all heaven as the ransomed ones take up the joyful strain, Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again, a triumphant conqueror.--The Acts of the Apostles, 601, 602.
WGD	328	3	Whenever one renounces sin, which is the transgression of the law, his life will be brought into conformity to the law, into perfect obedience. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. The light of the Word carefully studied, the voice of conscience, the strivings of the Spirit, produce in the heart genuine love for Christ, who gave Himself a whole sacrifice to redeem the whole person, body, soul, and spirit. And love is manifested in obedience. . . .
WGD	328	4	Faithful Christian men and women should have an intense interest to bring the convicted soul to a correct knowledge of righteousness in Christ Jesus. . . . They must not neglect the faithful, tender, loving instruction so essential to the young converts that there may be no half-hearted work. The very first experience should be right.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 92.
------------------------Redemption from the Grave, November 23
WGD	329	1	"But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me." Ps. 49:15.
WGD	329	2	Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then raising His hands to heaven He cries, "Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!" Throughout the length and breadth of the earth, the dead shall hear that voice; and they that hear shall live. And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. From the prison-house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory, crying, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" And the living righteous and the risen saints unite their voices in a long, glad shout of victory.
WGD	329	3	All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when they entered the tomb. Adam, who stands among the risen throng, is of lofty height and majestic form, in stature but little below the Son of God. He presents a marked contrast to the people of later generations; in this one respect is shown the great degeneracy of the race. But all arise with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth. . . . The mortal, corruptible form, devoid of comeliness, once polluted with sin, becomes perfect, beautiful, and immortal.--The Great Controversy, 644, 645.
WGD	329	4	There will be a re-linking of the family chain. When we look upon our dead, we may think of the morning when the trump of God shall sound, when "the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." A little longer, and we shall see the King in His beauty.--The Desire of Ages, 632.
------------------------Our Creator Will Redeem Us, November 24
WGD	330	1	"But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine" Isaiah 43:1.
WGD	330	2	As the shepherd leads his flock over the rocky hills, through forest and wild ravines, to grassy nooks by the river-side; as he watches them on the mountains through the lonely night, shielding from robbers, caring tenderly for the sickly and feeble, his life comes to be one with theirs. A strong and tender attachment unites him to the objects of his care. However large the flock, the shepherd knows every sheep. Every one has its name, and responds to the name at the shepherd's call. As an earthly shepherd knows his sheep, so does the divine Shepherd know His flock that are scattered throughout the world. . . . Jesus says, "I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine." "I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands."
WGD	330	3	Jesus knows us individually, and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows us all by name. He knows the very house in which we live, the name of each occupant. He has at times given directions to His servants to go to a certain street in a certain city, to such a house to find one of His sheep.
WGD	330	4	Every soul is as fully known to Jesus as if he were the only one for whom the Saviour died. The distress of every one touches His heart. The cry for aid reaches His ear. He came to draw all men unto Himself. He bids them, "Follow Me," and His Spirit moves upon their hearts to draw them to come to Him. Many refuse to be drawn. Jesus knows who they are. He also knows who gladly hear His call. . . . He cares for each one as if there were not another on the face of the earth.--The Desire of Ages, 479, 480.
------------------------He Will Deliver the Needy, November 25
WGD	331	1	"For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper." Ps. 72:12.
WGD	331	2	There are multitudes to-day as truly under the power of evil spirits as was the demoniac of Capernaum. All who wilfully depart from God's commandments are placing themselves under the control of Satan. Many a man tampers with evil, thinking that he can break away at pleasure; but he is lured on and on, until he finds himself controlled by a will stronger than his own. He can not escape its mysterious power. Secret sin or master passion may hold him a captive as helpless as was the demoniac of Capernaum.
WGD	331	3	Yet his condition is not hopeless. God does not control our minds without our consent; but every man is free to choose what power he will have to rule over him. None have fallen so low, none are so vile, but that they may find deliverance in Christ. . . . No cry from a soul in need, though it fail of utterance in words, will be unheeded. Those who consent to enter into covenant with God are not left to the power of Satan or to the infirmity of their own nature.--The Ministry of Healing, 92, 93.
WGD	331	4	While helping the poor in temporal things, keep always in view their spiritual needs. Let your own life testify to the Saviour's keeping power. . . . The Lord's care is over all His creatures. He loves them all, and makes no difference, except that He has the most tender pity for those who are called to bear life's heaviest burdens. God's children must meet trials and difficulties. But they should accept their lot with a cheerful spirit, remembering that for all that the world neglects to bestow, God Himself will make up to them in the best of favors.--The Ministry of Healing, 198, 199.
------------------------They That Love Thee Shall Prosper, November 26
WGD	332	1	"They shall prosper that love thee." Ps. 122:6.
WGD	332	2	If God's blessing rests upon you because you surrender all to Him, you will prosper. If you turn from God, He will turn from you. His hand can scatter faster than you can gather. . . . Our Saviour refers us to the fowls of the air, which sow not, neither reap, nor gather into barns, yet their heavenly Father feedeth them. . . . "And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field. . . ." These lilies, in their simplicity and innocence, meet the mind of God better than Solomon in his costly decorations, yet destitute of the heavenly adorning. . . . Can you not trust in your heavenly Father? Can you not rest upon His gracious promise? "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Precious promise! Can we not rely upon it?---Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 496, 497.
WGD	332	3	The length and usefulness of life do not consist in the amount of our earthly possessions. Those who use their wealth in doing good will see no necessity for large accumulations in this world; for the treasure which is used to advance the cause of God, and which is given to the needy in Christ's name, is given to Christ, and He lays it up for us in the bank of Heaven, in bags which wax not old. He who does this is rich toward God, and his heart will be where his treasures are secured.
WGD	332	4	He who humbly uses what God has given for the honor of the Giver, freely giving as he has received, may feel the peace and assurance in all his business that God's hand is over him for good, and he himself will bear the impress of God, having the Father's smile.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 546.
------------------------Doing His Will Assures Prosperity, November 27
WGD	333	1	"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." Joshua 1:8.
WGD	333	2	In His law God has made known the principles that underlie all true prosperity, both of nations and of individuals.-- Prophets and Kings, 500.
WGD	333	3	God blesses the work of men's hands, that they may return to Him His portion. He gives them the sunshine and the rain; He causes vegetation to flourish; He gives health, and ability to acquire means. Every blessing comes from His bountiful hand, and He desires men and women to show their gratitude by returning Him a portion in tithes and offerings--in thank offerings, in freewill offerings, in trespass offerings. They are to devote their means to His service, that His vineyard may not remain a barren waste.--Prophets and Kings, 707, 708.
WGD	333	4	By a knowledge of the divine law and obedience to its precepts, men may become the sons of God. By violation of that law, they become servants of Satan. On the one hand, they may rise to any height of moral excellence; or on the other hand, they may descend to any depth of iniquity and degradation.--Counsels to Teachers, 95.
WGD	333	5	God tests men, some in one way, and some in another. He tests some by bestowing upon them His rich bounties, and others by withholding His favors. He proves the rich to see if they will love God, the Giver, and their neighbor as themselves. When man makes a right use of these bounties. God is pleased; He can then trust him with greater responsibilities. --Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 261.
------------------------Prosperity Promised the Remnant, November 28
WGD	334	1	"For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things." Zech. 8:12.
WGD	334	2	In proclaiming the truths of the everlasting gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, God's church on earth to-day is fulfilling the ancient prophecy, "Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit."
WGD	334	3	The followers of Jesus, in cooperation with heavenly intelligences, are rapidly occupying the waste places of the earth; and as the result of their labors, an abundant fruitage of precious souls is developing. To-day, as never before, the dissemination of Bible truth by means of a consecrated church is bringing to the sons of men the benefits foreshadowed centuries ago in the promise to Abraham and to all Israel--to God's church on earth in every age--"I will bless thee, . . . and thou shalt be a blessing."
WGD	334	4	This promise of blessing should have met fulfillment in large measure during the centuries following the return of the Israelites from the lands of their captivity. It was God's design that the whole earth be prepared for the first advent of Christ, even as to-day the way is preparing for His second coming. At the end of the years of humiliating exile, God graciously gave to His people Israel, through Zechariah, the assurance: "I am returned unto Zion. . . . I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.". . . Rich were the rewards, both temporal and spiritual, promised those who should put into practice these principles of righteousness.--Prophets and Kings, 703, 704.
------------------------Ancient Israel an Example of God's Care, November 29
WGD	335	1	"I will also save you from all your uncleanlinesses; and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen." Ezekiel 36:29,30.
WGD	335	2	The principles set forth . . . for the instruction of Israel, are to be followed by God's people to the end of time. True prosperity is dependent on the continuance of our covenant relationship with God. Never can we afford to compromise principle by entering into alliance with those who do not fear Him. There is constant danger that professing Christians will come to think that in order to have influence with worldlings, they must to a certain extent conform to the world. But though such a course may appear to afford great advantages, it always ends in spiritual loss.--Prophets and Kings, 570.
WGD	335	3	The Lord made a covenant with Israel, that if they would obey His commandments, He would give them rain in due season, the land should yield her increase, and the trees of the field should yield their fruit. He promised that their threshing should reach unto the vintage, and the vintage unto the sowingtime, and that they should eat their bread to the full, and dwell in their land safely. . . . But if they disregarded His requirements, He would deal with them entirely contrary to all this. His curse should rest upon them in place of His blessing. He would break their pride of power, and would make the heavens over them as iron and the earth as brass. . . .
WGD	335	4	Those who are selfishly withholding their means, need not be surprised if God's hand scatters. . . . God can scatter the means He has lent to His stewards, if they refuse to use it to His glory.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 661, 662.
------------------------God's People Promised Outpouring of the Spirit, November 30
WGD	336	1	"Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God." Eze. 39:29.
WGD	336	2	While Christ is dwelling in the heart, it is impossible to conceal the light of His presence, or for that light to grow dim. On the contrary, it will grow brighter and brighter as day by day the mists of selfishness and sin that envelop the soul are dispelled by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. --Patriarchs and Prophets, 134.
WGD	336	3	Christ has promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to His church, and the promise belongs to us as much as to the first disciples. But like every other promise, it is given on conditions. There are many who believe and profess to claim the Lord's promise; they talk about Christ and about the Holy Spirit, yet receive no benefit. They do not surrender the soul to be guided and controlled by the divine agencies. . . . Only to those who wait humbly upon God . . . is the Spirit given. --The Desire of Ages, 672.
WGD	336	4	The promise of the Holy Spirit is not limited to any age or to any race. Christ declared that the divine influence of His Spirit was to be with His followers unto the end. From the day of Pentecost to the present time, the Comforter has been sent to all who have yielded themselves fully to the Lord and to His service. To all who have accepted Christ as a personal Saviour, the Holy Spirit has come as a counselor, sanctifier, guide, and witness. The more closely believers have walked with God, the more clearly and powerfully have they testified of their Redeemer's love and of His saving grace.--The Acts of the Apostles, 49.
------------------------What Is Man, December 1
WGD	337	1	"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained: what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Ps. 8:3, 4.
WGD	337	2	Man had become so degraded by sin that it was impossible for him, in himself, to come into harmony with Him whose nature is purity and goodness. But Christ, after having redeemed man from the condemnation of the law, could impart divine power, to unite with human effort. Thus . . . the fallen children of Adam might once more become "sons of God."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 64.
WGD	337	3	Nature testifies of God. The susceptible mind, brought in contact with the miracle and mystery of the universe, can not but recognize the working of infinite power. Not by its own inherent energy does the earth produce its bounties, and year by year continue its motion around the sun. An unseen hand guides the planets in their circuit of the heavens. A mysterious life pervades all nature,--a life that sustains the unnumbered worlds throughout immensity; that lives in the insect atom which floats in the summer breeze; that wings the flight of the swallow, and feeds the young ravens which cry; that brings the bud to blossom, and the flower to fruit .--Education, 99.
WGD	337	4	In those hours that come to all, when the heart is faint, and temptation presses sore; . . . where, then, can such courage and steadfastness be found as in that lesson which God has bidden us learn from the stars in their untroubled course?-- Education, 115.
------------------------God's Love Immeasurable as Heavens, December 2
WGD	338	1	"If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord" Jeremiah 31:37.
WGD	338	2	The rainbow spanning the heavens with its arch of light is a token of "the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature." And the rainbow encircling the throne on high is also a token to God's children of His covenant of peace. As the bow in the cloud results from the union of sunshine and shower, so the bow above God's throne represents the union of His mercy and His justice.--Education, 115.
WGD	338	3	But the power of God is still exercised in upholding the objects of His creation. It is not because the mechanism once set in motion continues to act by its own inherent energy that the pulse beats, and breath follows breath. Every breath, every pulsation of the heart, is an evidence of the care of Him in whom we live and move and have our being. From the smallest insect to man, every living creature is daily dependent upon His providence. . . . The mighty power that works through all nature and sustains all things is not, as some men of science claim, merely an all-pervading principle, an actuating energy. God is a spirit; yet He is a personal being, for man was made in His image. . . . As a personal Saviour, He came to the world. As a personal Saviour, He ascended on high. As a personal Saviour, He intercedes in the heavenly courts. Before the throne of God in our behalf ministers "one like the Son of man."--Education, 131, 132.
WGD	338	4	Only the love that flows from the heart of Christ can heal. Only He in whom that love flows, even as the sap in the tree or the blood in the body, can restore the wounded soul.--Education, 113, 114.
------------------------The Heavens Praise Him, December 3
WGD	339	1	"Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded, and they were created." Ps. 148:4, 5.
WGD	339	2	The sun, the moon, the stars, the solid rocks, the flowing stream, the broad, restless ocean, teach lessons that all would do well to heed.--Counsels to Teachers, 190.
WGD	339	3	Nature is full of lessons of the love of God. Rightly understood, these lessons lead to the Creator. They point from nature to nature's God, teaching those simple, holy truths that cleanse the mind, and bring it into close touch with God.
WGD	339	4	The great Teacher calls on nature to reflect the light that floods the threshold of heaven, that men and women may be led to obey His Word. And nature does the bidding of the Creator. To the heart softened by the grace of God, the sun, the moon, the stars, the lofty trees, the flowers of the field, utter their words of counsel and advice. The sowing of the seed carries the mind to spiritual seed-sowing. The tree stands forth declaring that a good tree cannot bear evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bear good fruit. . . . As Christ tells us the meaning of the things in nature, the science of true religion flashes forth, explaining the relation of the law of God to the natural and the spiritual world.
WGD	339	5	The swallow and the crane observe the changes of the seasons. They migrate from one country to another to find a climate suitable to their convenience and happiness, as the Lord designed they should. They are obedient to the laws which govern their life. But the beings formed in the image of God fail to honor Him by obeying the laws of nature.-- Counsels to Teachers, 188, 189.
------------------------The Outspread Heavens Display His Might, December 4
WGD	340	1	"Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea: which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south." Job 9:8, 9.
WGD	340	2	While the Bible should hold the first place in the education of children and youth, the book of nature is next in importance. God's created works testify to His love and power. He has called the world into being, with all that it contains. God is a lover of the beautiful; and in the world which He has fitted up for us He has not only given us everything necessary for our comfort, but He has filled the heavens and the earth with beauty. We see His love and care in the rich fields of autumn, and His smile in the glad sunshine. His hand has made the castle-like rocks and the towering mountains. The lofty trees grow at His command; He has spread earth's green velvet carpet, and dotted it with shrubs and flowers.
WGD	340	3	Why has He clothed the earth and trees with living green, instead of with dark, somber brown? Is it not that they may be more pleasing to the eye? And shall not our hearts be filled with gratitude as we read the evidences of His wisdom and love in the wonders of His creation?
WGD	340	4	The same creative energy that brought the world into existence is still exerted in upholding the universe and continuing the operations of nature. The hand of God guides the planets in their orderly march through the heavens. It is not because of inherent power that year by year the earth continues her motion round the sun, and produces her bounties. . . . It is through His power that vegetation flourishes, that the leaves appear, and the flowers bloom.
WGD	340	5	The whole natural world is designed to be an interpreter of the things of God.--Counsels to Teachers, 185, 186.
------------------------He Made and Preserves Them All, December 5
WGD	341	1	"Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all." Neh. 9:6.
WGD	341	2	The most effective way to teach the heathen who know not God, is through His works. In this way far more readily than by any other method, they can be made to realize the difference between their idols, the works of their own hands, and the true God, the Maker of heaven and earth. . . . There is a simplicity and purity in these lessons direct from nature that makes them of the highest value to others besides the heathen. The children and youth, all classes of students, need the lessons to be derived from this source. In itself the beauty of nature leads the soul away from sin and worldly attractions, and toward purity, peace, and God.
WGD	341	3	For this reason the cultivation of the soil is good work for children and youth. It brings them into direct contact with nature and nature's God. And that they may have this advantage, there should be, as far as possible, in connection with our schools, large flower gardens and extensive lands for cultivation. . . . In the natural world, God has placed in the hands of the children of men the key to unlock the treasurehouse of His Word. The unseen is illustrated by the seen; divine wisdom, eternal truth, infinite grace, are understood by the things that God has made. . . . Let the mind be developed to its utmost capacity, and the physical powers trained for the practical duties of life. But teach them also that God has made this world fair because He delights in our happiness; and that a more beautiful home is preparing for us in that world where there will be no more sin.--Counsels to Teachers, 186-188.
------------------------Man Made in Uprightness, December 6
WGD	342	1	"Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." Eccl. 7:29.
WGD	342	2	Man was to bear God's image, both in outward resemblance and in character. Christ alone is "the express image" of the Father; but man was formed in the likeness of God. His nature was in harmony with the will of God. His mind was capable of comprehending divine things. His affections were pure; his appetites and passions were under the control of reason. He was holy and happy in bearing the image of God, and in perfect obedience to His will.
WGD	342	3	As man came forth from the hand of his Creator, he was of lofty stature and perfect symmetry. His countenance bore the ruddy tint of health, and glowed with the light of life and joy. Adam's height was much greater than that of men who now inhabit the earth. Eve was somewhat less in stature; yet her form was noble, and full of beauty. The sinless pair wore no artificial garments; they were clothed with a covering of light and glory, such as the angels wear. So long as they lived in obedience to God, this robe of light continued to enshroud them. . . . God Himself gave Adam a companion. . . . Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his feet as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected by him.-- Patriarchs and Prophets, 45, 46.
WGD	342	4	So long as they remained loyal to the divine law, their capacity to know, to enjoy, and to love, would continually increase. They would be constantly gaining new treasures of knowledge, discovering fresh springs of happiness, and obtaining clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the immeasurable, unfailing love of God.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 51.
------------------------He Sitteth Upon the Circle of the Earth, December 7
WGD	343	1	"It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretchest out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in." Isaiah 40:22.
WGD	343	2	He that ruleth in the heavens is the one who sees the end from the beginning,--the one before whom the mysteries of the past and the future are alike outspread, and who, beyond the woe and darkness and ruin that sin has wrought, beholds the accomplishment of His own purposes of love and blessing. Though "clouds and darkness are round about him, righteousness and judgment are the foundation of his throne." And this the inhabitants of the universe, both loyal and disloyal, will one day understand. "His work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he." --Patriarchs and Prophets, 43.
WGD	343	3	God is our Father, who loves and cares for us as His children; He is also the great King of the universe. The interests of His kingdom are our interests, and we are to work for its upbuilding.--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 107.
WGD	343	4	To hallow the name of the Lord requires that the words in which we speak of the Supreme Being be uttered with reverence. "Holy and reverend is His name." We are never in any manner to treat lightly the titles or appellations of the Deity. In prayer we enter the audience-chamber of the Most High; and we should come before Him with holy awe. The angels veil their faces in His presence. The cherubim and the bright and holy seraphim approach His throne with solemn reverence. How much more should we, finite, sinful beings, come in a reverent manner before the Lord, our Maker!--Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 106.
------------------------There Is Nothing Too Hard for Thee, December 8
WGD	344	1	"Ah Lord God! Behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee." Jeremiah 32:17.
WGD	344	2	As the earth came forth from the hand of its Maker, it was exceedingly beautiful. Its surface was diversified with mountains, hills, and plains, interspersed with noble rivers and lovely lakes; but the hills and mountains were not abrupt and rugged, abounding in terrific steeps and frightful chasms, as they now do; the sharp, ragged edges of earth s rocky framework were buried beneath the fruitful soil, which everywhere produced a luxuriant growth of verdure. There were no loathsome swamps nor barren deserts. Graceful shrubs and delicate flowers greeted the eye at every turn. The heights were crowned with trees more majestic than any that now exist. The air, untainted by foul miasm, was clear and healthful. . . .
WGD	344	3	After the earth with its teeming animal and vegetable life, had been called into existence, man, the crowning work of the Creator, and the one for whom the beautiful earth had been fitted up, was brought upon the stage of action. . . . Here is clearly set forth the origin of the human race; and the divine record is so plainly stated that there is no occasion for erroneous conclusions. . . . He who set the starry worlds on high, and tinted with delicate skill the flowers of the field, who filled the earth and the heavens with the wonders of His power, when he came to crown His glorious work, to place one in the midst to stand as ruler of the fair earth, did not fail to create a being worthy of the hand that gave Him life. . . . Though formed from the dust, Adam was "the son of God."--Patriarchs and Prophets, 44, 45.
------------------------He Laid the Foundation in the Beginning, December 9
WGD	345	1	"And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." Hebrews 1:10.
WGD	345	2	The great Jehovah had laid the foundations of the earth; He had dressed the whole world in the garb of beauty, and had filled it with things useful to man; He had created all the wonders of the land and of the sea. In six days the great work of creation had been accomplished. And God rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." God looked with satisfaction upon the work of His hands. All was perfect, worthy of its divine Author, and he rested, not as one weary, but as well pleased with the fruits of His wisdom and goodness and the manifestations of His glory. . . .
WGD	345	3	The home of our first parents was to be a pattern for other homes as their children should go forth to occupy the earth. That home, beautified by the hand of God Himself, was not a gorgeous palace. Men, in their pride, delight in magnificent and costly edifices, and glory in the work of their own hands; but God placed Adam in a garden. This was his dwelling. The blue heavens were its dome; the earth, with its delicate flowers and carpet of living green, was its floor, and the leafy branches of the goodly trees were its canopy. Its walls were hung with the most magnificent adornings,--the handiwork of the great Master-artist. In the surroundings of the holy pair was a lesson for all time,--that true happiness is found, not in the indulgence of pride and luxury, but in communion with God through His created works.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 47-49.
------------------------God Dwells Between the Cherubim, December 10
WGD	346	1	"O Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth." Isaiah 37:16.
WGD	346	2	The abiding-place of the King of kings, where thousand thousands minister unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before Him; that temple, filled with the glory of the eternal throne, where seraphim, its shining guardians, veil their faces in adoration, could find, in the most magnificent structure ever reared by human hands, but a faint reflection of its vastness and glory. . . .
WGD	346	3	In the temple in heaven, the dwelling-place of God, His throne is established in righteousness and judgment. In the most holy place is His law, the great rule of right by which all mankind are tested. The ark that enshrines the tables of the law is covered with the mercy-seat, before which Christ pleads His blood in the sinner's behalf. Thus is represented the union of justice and mercy in the plan of human redemption. This union infinite wisdom alone could devise, and infinite power accomplish; it is a union that fills all heaven with wonder and adoration. The cherubim of the earthly sanctuary, looking reverently down upon the mercy-seat, represent the interest with which the heavenly host contemplate the work of redemption. This is the mystery of mercy into which angels desire to look,--that God can be just while He justifies the repenting sinner, and renews His intercourse with the fallen race; that Christ could stoop to raise unnumbered multitudes from the abyss of ruin, and clothe them with the spotless garments of His own righteousness, to unite with angels who have never fallen, and to dwell forever in the presence of God. --The Great Controversy, 414, 415.
------------------------God Dwells also in the Contrite Heart, December 11
WGD	347	1	"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit." Isaiah 57:15.
WGD	347	2	Christ revealed God to His disciples in a way that performed in their hearts a special work, such as He has long been urging us to allow Him to do in our hearts. There are many who, in dwelling too largely upon theory, have lost sight of the living power of the Saviour's example. They have lost sight of Him as the humble, self-denying worker. What they need is to behold Jesus. Daily we need the fresh revealing of His presence.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, 317.
WGD	347	3	Tenderly had the Lord dealt with Israel in their deliverance from Egyptian bondage and in their journey to the promised land. . . . "My presence shall go with thee," was the promise given during the journey through the wilderness. This assurance was accompanied by a marvelous revelation of Jehovah's character, which enabled Moses to proclaim to all Israel the goodness of God, and to instruct them fully concerning the attributes of their invisible King.--Prophets and Kings, 312.
WGD	347	4	While the wind is itself invisible, it produces effects that are seen and felt. So the work of the Spirit upon the soul will reveal itself in every act of him who has felt its saving power. When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the light of heaven. No one sees the hand that lifts the burden, or beholds the light descend from the courts above. The blessing comes when, by faith, the soul surrenders itself to God.--Messages to Young People, 158.
------------------------God's Dwelling Future Home of the Saved, December 12
WGD	348	1	"Let not your heart he troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may he also." John 14:1-3.
WGD	348	2	Before the ransomed throng is the holy city. Jesus opens wide the pearly gates, and the nations that have kept the truth enter in. There they behold the Paradise of God, the home of Adam in his innocency. Then that voice, richer than any music that ever fell on mortal ear, is heard, saying, "Your conflict is ended." "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."--The Great Controversy, 646.
WGD	348	3	Then I saw a very great number of angels bring from the city glorious crowns,--a crown for every saint, with his name written thereon. As Jesus called for the crowns, angels presented them to Him, and with His own right hand the lovely Jesus placed the crowns on the heads of the saints. In the same manner the angels brought the harps, and Jesus presented them also to the saints. The commanding angels first struck the note, and then every voice was raised in grateful, happy praise, and every hand skilfully swept over the strings of the harp, sending forth melodious music in rich and perfect strains. Then I saw Jesus lead the redeemed company to the gate of the city. He laid hold of the gate and swung it back on its glittering hinges, and bade the nations that had kept the truth enter in. Within the city there was everything to feast the eye. Rich glory they behold everywhere.--Early Writings, 288.
------------------------Angel Hosts Minister Before God, December 13
WGD	349	1	"But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels." Hebrews 12:22.
WGD	349	2	We are informed in Scripture as to the number, and the power and glory, of the heavenly beings, of their connection with the government of God, and also of their relation to the work of redemption. . . . In the presence-chamber of the King of kings they wait--"angels, that excel in strength," "ministers of His, that do His pleasure," "hearkening unto the voice of His word." Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, were the heavenly messengers beheld by the prophet Daniel. . . .
WGD	349	3	A guardian angel is appointed to every follower of Christ. These heavenly watchers shield the righteous from the power of the wicked one. This Satan himself recognized when he said, "Doth Job fear for naught? Hast not Thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?". . . Said the Saviour, speaking of those that believe in Him, "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father." The angels appointed to minister to the children of God have at all times access to His presence. Thus God's people, exposed to the deceptive power and unsleeping malice of the prince of darkness . . . are assured of the unceasing guardianship of heavenly angels. . . . If God has granted to His children promise of grace and protection, it is because there are mighty agencies of evil to be met,--agencies numerous, determined, and untiring, of whose malignity and power none can safely be ignorant or unheeding. --The Great Controversy, 511-513.
------------------------Angels Interested in Sinful Man, December 14
WGD	350	1	"There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." Luke 15:10.
WGD	350	2	The angels prostrated themselves at the feet of their Commander, and offered to become a sacrifice for man. But an angel s life could not pay the debt; only He who created man had power to redeem him. Yet the angels were to have a part to act in the plan of redemption. Christ was to be made "a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death." As He should take human nature upon Him, His strength would not be equal to theirs, and they were to minister to Him, to strengthen and soothe Him under His sufferings. They were also to be ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who should be heirs of salvation. They would guard the subjects of grace from the power of evil angels, and from the darkness constantly thrown around them by Satan.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 64, 65.
WGD	350	3	If you are in communion with Christ, you will place His estimate upon every human being. You will feel for others the same deep love that Christ has felt for you. Then you will be able to win, not drive, to attract, not repulse, those for whom He died. . . .
WGD	350	4	In this work all the angels of heaven are ready to co-operate. All the resources of heaven are at the command of those who are seeking to save the lost. Angels will help you to reach the most careless and the most hardened. And when one is brought back to God, all heaven is made glad; seraphs and cherubs touch their golden harps, and sing praises to God and the Lamb for their mercy and loving-kindness to the children of men.--Christ's Object Lessons, 197.
------------------------Angels Connect Us with Heaven, December 15
WGD	351	1	"Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven" Matthew 18:10.
WGD	351	2	You, Pharisees, said Christ, regard yourselves as the favorites of heaven. You think yourselves secure in your own righteousness. Know, then, that if you need no repentance, My mission is not to you. These poor souls who feel their poverty and sinfulness, are the very ones whom I have come to rescue. Angels of heaven are interested in these lost ones whom you despise. You complain and sneer when one of these souls joins himself to Me; but know that angels rejoice, and the song of triumph rings through the courts above.--Christ's Object Lessons, 189, 190.
WGD	351	3	Angels are watching with intense interest to see how man is dealing with his fellow-men. When they see one manifest Christlike sympathy for the erring, they press to his side, and bring to his remembrance words to speak that will be as the bread of life to the soul.--Christ's Object Lessons, 149.
WGD	351	4	If the lost sheep is not brought back to the fold, it wanders until it perishes. And many souls go down to ruin for want of a hand stretched out to save. These erring ones may appear hard and reckless; but if they had received the same advantages that others have had, they might have revealed far more nobility of soul, and greater talent for usefulness. Angels pity these wandering ones. Angels weep, while human eyes are dry and hearts are closed to pity.--Christ's Object Lessons, 191, 192.
WGD	351	5	There is perfect order and harmony in the holy city. All the angels that are commissioned to visit the earth hold a golden card, which they present to the angels at the gates of the city as they pass in and out.--Early Writings, 39.
------------------------Angels Protect and Guide Us, December 16
WGD	352	1	"Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared." Ex. 23:20.
WGD	352	2	Those who have tempted the devil to tempt them will have to make desperate efforts to free themselves from his power. But when they begin to work for themselves, then angels of God whom they have grieved will come to their rescue. Satan and his angels are unwilling to lose their prey. They contend and battle with the holy angels, and the conflict is severe. But if those who have erred continue to plead, and in deep humility confess their wrongs, angels who excel in strength will prevail and wrench them from the power of the evil angels.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 301.
WGD	352	3	The mother's work often seems to her an unimportant service. It is a work that is rarely appreciated. Others know little of her many cares and burdens. Her days are occupied with a round of little duties, all calling for patient effort, for self-control, for tact, wisdom, and self-sacrificing love; yet she cannot boast of what she has done as any great achievement. She has only kept things in the home running smoothly. . . . She feels that she has accomplished nothing. But it is not so. Heavenly angels watch the careworn mother, noting the burdens she carries day by day. Her name may not have been heard in the world, but it is written in the Lamb's book of life.--Counsels to Teachers, 144.
WGD	352	4	Though the rulers of this world know it not, yet often in their councils angels have been spokesmen. Human eyes have looked upon them; human ears have listened to their appeals; human lips have opposed their suggestions and ridiculed their counsels; human hands have met them with insult and abuse.-- The Great Controversy, 632.
------------------------We Look for New Heavens and a New Earth, December 17
WGD	353	1	"Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Peter 3:13.
WGD	353	2	At the cherubim-guarded gate of Paradise the divine glory was revealed. Hither came Adam and his sons to worship God. Here they renewed their vows of obedience to that law the transgression of which had banished them from Eden. When the tide of iniquity overspread the world, and the wickedness of men determined their destruction by a flood of waters, the hand that had planted Eden withdrew it from the earth. But in the final restitution, when there shall be "a new heaven and a new earth," it is to be restored more gloriously adorned than at the beginning. Then they that have kept God's commandments shall breathe in immortal vigor beneath the tree of life; and through unending ages the inhabitants of sinless worlds shall behold, in that garden of delight, a sample of the perfect work of God's creation, untouched by the curse of sin,--a sample of what the whole earth would have become, had man but fulfilled the Creator's glorious plan.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 62.
WGD	353	3	There will be music there, and song, such music and song as, save in the visions of God, no mortal ear has heard or mind conceived. . . . There every power will be developed, every capability increased. The grandest enterprises will be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations will be reached, the highest ambitions realized. And still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of body and mind and soul. All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's children.--Education, 307.
------------------------God's Throne Shared with the Overcomer, December 18
WGD	354	1	"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." Revelation 3:21.
WGD	354	2	God's everlasting arm encircles the soul that turns to Him for aid, however feeble that soul may be. The precious things of the hills shall perish; but the soul that lives for God, unmoved by censure, unperverted by applause, shall abide forever with Him. The city of God will open its golden gates to receive him who learned while on earth to lean on God for guidance and wisdom, for comfort and hope amid loss and affliction. The songs of angels will welcome him there, and for him the tree of life will yield its fruits.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 328.
WGD	354	3	The memorial of your life will be written in the book of records; and, if you are finally an overcomer, there will be souls saved through your efforts, by your self-denial, your good words and consistent Christian life. And when the rewards are finally distributed to all as their works have been, redeemed souls will call you blessed, and the Master will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant," "enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, 246, 247.
WGD	354	4	"They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.". . . In union with Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute-book, the Bible, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body.--The Great Controversy, 661.
WGD	354	5	After the saints are changed to immortality and caught up together with Jesus, after they receive their harps, their robes, and their crowns, and enter the city, Jesus and the saints sit in judgment.--Early Writings, 52.
------------------------Abraham Looked for a City, December 19
WGD	355	1	"For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Hebrews 11:10.
WGD	355	2	Abraham had no possession in the earth, "no, not so much as to set his foot on." He possessed great substance, and he used it to the glory of God and good of his fellow-men; but he did not look upon this world as his home. The Lord had called him to leave his idolatrous countrymen, with the promise of the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession; yet neither he nor his son nor his son's son received it.
WGD	355	3	When Abraham desired a burial-place for his dead, he had to buy it of the Canaanites. His sole possession in the land of promise was that rock-hewn tomb in the cave of Machpelah.
WGD	355	4	But the word of God had not failed; neither did it meet its final accomplishment in the occupation of Canaan by the Jewish people. . . . Abraham himself was to share the inheritance. . . . And the Bible plainly teaches that the promises made to Abraham are to be fulfilled through Christ. . . . God gave to Abraham a view of this immortal inheritance, and with this hope he was content. "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
WGD	355	5	Of the posterity of Abraham it is written, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." We must dwell as pilgrims and strangers here if we would gain "a better country, that is, a heavenly." --Patriarchs and Prophets, 169, 170.
------------------------He Hath Prepared for Them a City, December 20
WGD	356	1	‘'But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." Hebrews 11:16.
WGD	356	2	After the judgment of the wicked dead had been finished, at the end of the one thousand years, Jesus left the city, and the saints and a train of the angelic host followed Him. Jesus descended upon a great mountain, which as soon as His feet touched it, parted asunder, and became a mighty plain.
WGD	356	3	Then we looked up and saw the great and beautiful city, with twelve foundations, and twelve gates, three on each side, and an angel at each gate. We cried out, "The city! the great city! it is coming down from God out of heaven!" And it came down in all its splendor and dazzling glory, and settled in the mighty plain which Jesus had prepared for it.--Early Writings, 291.
WGD	356	4	As the prophet beholds the redeemed dwelling in the city of God, free from sin and from all marks of the curse, in rapture he exclaims: "Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her."
WGD	356	5	"Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, Wasting nor destruction within thy borders; But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, And thy gates Praise. . . ."
WGD	356	6	The prophet caught the sound of music there, and song, such music and song as, save in the visions of God, no mortal ear has heard or mind conceived. . . . "They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord."-- Prophets and Kings, 729, 730.
------------------------The Tree and River of Life Are in the City, December 21
WGD	357	1	"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life." Revelation 22:1, 2.
WGD	357	2	In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called a country. There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. There the wide-spreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God's people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home.--The Great Controversy, 675.
WGD	357	3	I saw the redeemed host bow and cast their glittering crowns at the feet of Jesus, and then, as His lovely hand raised them up, they touched their golden harps, and filled all heaven with their rich music, and songs to the Lamb.
WGD	357	4	I then saw Jesus leading His people to the tree of life, and again we heard His lovely voice, richer than any music that ever fell on mortal ear, saying, "The leaves of this tree are for the healing of the nations. Eat ye all of it."
WGD	357	5	Upon the tree of life was most beautiful fruit, of which the saints could partake freely. In the city was a most glorious throne, from which proceeded a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal. On each side of this river was the tree of life, and on the banks of the river were other beautiful trees bearing fruit which was good for food.--Early Writings, 289.
------------------------God Himself Shall Be Their God, December 22
WGD	358	1	"And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." Revelation 21:3.
WGD	358	2	All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar,--worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of human woe, and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul. With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. They share the treasures of knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon ages in contem-plation of God's handiwork.
WGD	358	3	With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation,--suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. Upon all things, from the least to the greatest, the Creator's name is written, and in all are the riches of His power displayed.
WGD	358	4	And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption, and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise.--The Great Controversy, 677, 678.
------------------------There Shall Be No More Curse, December 23
WGD	359	1	"And there shall be no more curse: hut the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him." Revelation 22:3.
WGD	359	2	The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love. --The Great Controversy, 678.
WGD	359	3	The voice of the Son of God is heard calling forth the sleeping saints, and as the prophet beholds them coming from the prison-house of death, he exclaims: "Thy dead men shall live. . . . Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."
WGD	359	4	"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, And the tongue of the dumb sing."
WGD	359	5	In the visions of the prophet, those who have triumphed over sin and the grave are now seen happy in the presence of their Maker, talking freely with Him as man talked with God in the beginning.--Prophets and Kings, 728, 729.
WGD	359	6	Language is altogether too feeble to attempt a description of heaven. As the scene rises before me, I am lost in amazement. Carried away with the surpassing splendor and excellent glory, I lay down the pen, and exclaim, "Oh, what love! what wondrous love!"--Early Writings, 289.
------------------------God's Preparation for Those Who Love Him, December 24
WGD	360	1	"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 1 Cor. 2:9.
WGD	360	2	And to all the faithful ones who were striving against evil, John heard the promises made: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.". . . John saw the mercy, the tenderness, and the love of God blending with His holiness, justice, and power. He saw sinners finding a Father in Him of whom their sins had made them afraid. And looking beyond the culmination of the great conflict, he beheld upon Zion "them that had gotten the victory . . . stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God," and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.-- The Acts of the Apostles, 588, 589.
WGD	360	3	A fear of making the future inheritance seem too material has led many to spiritualize away the very truths which lead us to look upon it as our home. Christ assured His disciples that He went to prepare mansions for them in the Father's house. Those who accept the teachings of God's Word will not be wholly ignorant concerning the heavenly abode. And yet, "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." Human language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous. It will be known only to those who behold it.--The Great Controversy, 674, 675.
WGD	360	4	Heaven is a school: its field of study, the universe; its teacher, the Infinite One. A branch of this school was established in Eden; and, the plan of redemption accomplished, education will again be taken up in the Eden school.-- Education, 301.
------------------------There Shall Be No Death, December 25
WGD	361	1	"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." Revelation 21:4.
WGD	361	2	Christ's true disciples follow Him through sore conflicts, enduring self-denial and experiencing bitter disappointment: but this teaches them the guilt and woe of sin, and they are led to look upon it with abhorrence. Partakers of Christ's sufferings, they are destined to be partakers of His glory. In holy vision the prophet saw the ultimate triumph of God's remnant church.-- The Acts of the Apostles, 590.
WGD	361	3	Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of heaven. There will be no more tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. . . .
WGD	361	4	In the city of God "there shall be no night." None will need or desire repose. There will be no weariness in doing the will of God and offering praise to His name. We shall ever feel the freshness of the morning, and shall ever be far from its close.--The Great Controversy, 676.
WGD	361	5	There the redeemed greet those who led them to the Saviour, and all unite in praising Him who died that human beings might have the life that measures with the life of God. The conflict is over. Tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all heaven as the ransomed ones take up the joyful strain, Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again, a triumphant conqueror.--The Acts of the Apostles, 602.
------------------------Man Restored to Original Stature, December 26
WGD	362	1	"But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." Mal. 4:2.
WGD	362	2	Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will "grow up" to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory. The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be removed, and Christ's faithful ones will appear "in the beauty of the Lord our God," in mind and soul and body reflecting the perfect image of their Lord. Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood.
WGD	362	3	The living righteous are changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." At the voice of God they were glorified; now they are made immortal, and with the risen saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air. Angels "gather together the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Little children are borne by holy angels to their mothers' arms. Friends long separated by death are united, nevermore to part, and with songs of gladness ascend together to the city of God. . . .
WGD	362	4	The glittering ranks are drawn up, in the form of a hollow square about their King, whose form rises in majesty high above saint and angel, whose countenance beams upon them full of benignant love. . . . For each there is a crown, bearing his own "new name," and the inscription, "Holiness to the Lord." In every hand are placed the victor's palm and the shining harp. Then, as the commanding angels strike the note, every hand sweeps the harp strings with skilful touch, awaking sweet music in rich, melodious strains.--The Great Controversy, 645, 646.
------------------------We Shall Build Houses, December 27
WGD	363	1	"And they shall build houses, and inhabit them: and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them." Isaiah 65:21.
WGD	363	2	In the earth made new, the redeemed will engage in the occupations and pleasures that brought happiness to Adam and Eve in the beginning. The Eden life will be lived, the life in garden and field.--Prophets and Kings, 730.
WGD	363	3	There man will be restored to his lost kingship, and the lower order of beings will again recognize his sway; the fierce will become gentle, and the timid trustful. There will be open to the student history of infinite scope and of wealth inexpressible. Here, from the vantage-ground of God's Word, the student is afforded a view of the vast field of history, and may gain some knowledge of the principles that govern the course of human events. But his vision is still clouded, and his knowledge incomplete. Not until he stands in the light of eternity will he see all things clearly.--Education, 304.
WGD	363	4	There I saw most glorious houses, that had the appearance of silver, supported by four pillars set with pearls most glorious to behold. These were to be inhabited by the saints. In each was a golden shelf. I saw many of the saints go into the houses, take off their glittering crowns and lay them on the shelf, then go out into the field by the houses to do something with the earth; not as we have to do with the earth here; no, no. A glorious light shone all about their heads, and they were con-tinually shouting and offering praises to God. I saw another field full of all kinds of flowers, and as I plucked them, I cried out, "They will never fade." Next I saw a field of tall grass. . . ; it was living green, and had a reflection of silver and gold, as it waved proudly to the glory of King Jesus.--Early Writings, 18.
------------------------We Shall Long Enjoy the Work of Our Hands, December 28
WGD	364	1	"They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." Isaiah 65:22.
WGD	364	2	I heard shouts of triumph from the angels and from the redeemed saints, which sounded like ten thousand musical instruments, because they were to be no more annoyed and tempted by Satan, and because the inhabitants of other worlds were delivered from his presence and his temptations.--Early Writings, 290.
WGD	364	3	There when the veil that darkens our vision shall be removed, and our eyes shall behold that world of beauty of which we now catch glimpses through the microscope; when we look on the glories of the heavens, now scanned afar through the telescope; when, the blight of sin removed, the whole earth shall appear "in the beauty of the Lord our God," what a field will be open to our study! There the student of science may read the records of creation, and discern no reminders of the law of evil. He may listen to the music of nature's voices, and detect no note of wailing or undertone of sorrow. In all created things he may trace one handwriting,-- in the vast universe behold "God's name writ large," and not in earth or sea or sky one sign of ill remaining.--Education, 303.
WGD	364	4	My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. Isaiah 32:18.
WGD	364	5	Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. Isaiah 60:18.
------------------------Wild Beasts Will Not Destroy, December 29
WGD	365	1	"The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord." Isaiah 65:25.
WGD	365	2	Then we entered a field full of all kinds of beasts,--the lion, the lamb, the leopard, and the wolf, all together in perfect union. We passed through the midst of them, and they followed on peaceably after. Then we entered a wood, not like the dark woods we have here; no, no; but light, and all over glorious; the branches of the trees waved to and fro, and we all cried out, "We will dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods." We passed through the woods, for we were on our way to Mount Zion. As we were traveling along, we met a company who also were gazing at the glories of the place. I noticed red as a border on their garments; their crowns were brilliant; their robes were pure white. As we greeted them, I asked Jesus who they were. He said they were martyrs that had been slain for Him. With them was an innumerable company of little ones; they also had a hem of red on their garments. Mount Zion was just before us, and on the mount was a glorious temple, and about it were seven other mountains, on which grew roses and lilies. And I saw the little ones climb, or, if they chose, use their little wings and fly to the top of the mountains, and pluck the never-fading flowers. There were all kinds of trees around the temple to beautify the place; the box, the pine, the fir, the oil, the myrtle, the pomegranate, and the fig-tree bowed down with the weight of its timely figs,-- these made the place all over glorious. . . . And I saw a table of pure silver; it was many miles in length, yet our eyes could extend over it.--Early Writings, 18, 19.
------------------------All Will Worship on the Sabbath Day, December 30
WGD	366	1	"And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." Isaiah 66:23.
WGD	366	2	Fellow pilgrim, we are still amid the shadows and turmoil of earthly activities; but soon our Saviour is to appear to bring deliverance and rest. Let us by faith behold the blessed hereafter, as pictured by the hand of God. He who died for the sins of the world, is opening wide the gates of Paradise to all who believe on Him. Soon the battle will have been fought, the victory won. Soon we shall see Him in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. And in His presence the trials and sufferings of this life will seem as nothingness. The former things "shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.". . .
WGD	366	3	The nations of the saved will know no other law than the law of heaven. All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite in proclaiming, "There shall be no more sin, neither shall there be any more death."--Prophets and Kings, 731, 732.
WGD	366	4	In the beginning the Father and the Son had rested upon the Sabbath after their work of creation. . . . When there shall be a "restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began," the creation Sabbath, the day on which Jesus lay at rest in Joseph's tomb, will still be a day of rest and rejoicing.
WGD	366	5	Heaven and earth will unite in praise as "from one Sabbath to another," the nations of the saved shall bow in joyful worship to God and the Lamb.--The Desire of Ages, 769, 770.
------------------------These Sayings Are Faithful and True, December 31
WGD	367	1	"And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done." Revelation 22:6.
WGD	367	2	In the darkest days of her long conflict with evil, the church of God has been given revelations of the eternal purpose of Jehovah. His people have been permitted to look beyond the trials of the present to the triumphs of the future, when, the warfare having been accomplished, the redeemed will enter into possession of the promised land. These visions of future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, should be dear to His church today, when the controversy of the ages is rapidly closing, and the promised blessings are soon to be realized in all their fullness. . . . Clad in the armor of Christ's righteousness, the church is to enter upon her final conflict. "Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners," she is to go forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer. --Prophets and Kings, 722-725.
WGD	367	3	The prophets to whom these great scenes were revealed longed to understand their full import. They "inquired and searched diligently: . . . searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify. . . . Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you.". . .
WGD	367	4	Look up, look up, and let your faith continually increase. Let this faith guide you along the narrow path that leads through the gates of the city into the great beyond, the wide, unbounded future of glory that is for the redeemed.--Prophets and Kings, 731, 732.

------------------------Ye Shall Receive Power
YRP	9	1	The Promise of the Spirit, January 1
YRP	10	1	The Comforter, January 2
YRP	11	1	The Nature of the Spirit: A Mystery, January 3
YRP	12	1	The Spirit: A Witness, January 4
YRP	13	1	Christ's Representative, January 5
YRP	14	1	The Heavenly Dove, January 6
YRP	15	1	Unseen as the Wind, January 7
YRP	16	1	Oil in Your Vessels, January 8
YRP	17	1	A Constant Flow of Oil, January 9
YRP	18	1	Leaven in Our Heart, January 10
YRP	19	1	Living Water to be Shared, January 11
YRP	20	1	Life-giving Sap, January 12
YRP	21	1	The "New Wine" of the Kingdom, January 13
YRP	22	1	A Burning Fire, January 14
YRP	23	1	Tongues of Fire, January 15
YRP	24	1	Giver of a New Life, January 16
YRP	25	1	Showers of Grace, January 17
YRP	26	1	The Spirit Helps Us, January 18
YRP	27	1	The Spirit Intercedes for Us, January 19
YRP	28	1	The Spirit Leads Us to Become God's Children, January 20
YRP	29	1	The Spirit Moves Among Us, January 21
YRP	30	1	The Spirit Visits Us, January 22
YRP	31	1	The Spirit Speaks to Us, January 23
YRP	32	1	The Spirit Enlightens Us, January 24
YRP	33	1	The Spirit Can Be Grieved, January 25
YRP	34	1	The Spirit May Depart, January 26
YRP	35	1	The Sin Against the Spirit, January 27
YRP	36	1	Willfully Rejecting the Spirit, January 28
YRP	37	1	Now Is the Time for Repentance, January 29
YRP	38	1	The Spirit Patiently Waits, January 30
YRP	39	1	The Spirit Is Ever Waiting, January 31
YRP	40	1	Born Again, February 1
YRP	41	1	Chosen to Be Saved, February 2
YRP	42	1	A Temple for the Spirit, February 3
YRP	43	1	Partakers of the Divine Nature, February 4
YRP	44	1	Clay in the Hands of the Potter, February 5
YRP	45	1	Dry Bones Vivified, February 6
YRP	46	1	Weak Souls Strengthened, February 7
YRP	47	1	Divine Image Restored, February 8
YRP	48	1	The Heart Changed, February 9
YRP	49	1	Lips Are Sanctified, February 10
YRP	50	1	The Mind Renewed, February 11
YRP	51	1	Self Crucified, February 12
YRP	52	1	Thoughts Transformed, February 13
YRP	53	1	Tastes Are Changed, February 14
YRP	54	1	Temper Is Subdued, February 15
YRP	55	1	Pride Is Broken, February 16
YRP	56	1	The House Cleansed, February 17
YRP	57	1	A Christlike Character, February 18
YRP	58	1	Having the Mind of Christ, February 19
YRP	59	1	Abiding in Him, February 20
YRP	60	1	Beholding Him, February 21
YRP	61	1	Complete in Him, February 22
YRP	62	1	Resting in Him, February 23
YRP	63	1	Conformed to His Image, February 24
YRP	64	1	In Cooperation With the Spirit, February 25
YRP	65	1	Free From the Curse of Sin, February 26
YRP	66	1	Sanctified but Not Sinless, February 27
YRP	67	1	Always Growing, February 28
YRP	68	1	Step by Step to Victory, February 29
YRP	69	1	A Holy Fragrance, March 1
YRP	70	1	Repentance, the First Fruit, March 2
YRP	71	1	Love, March 3
YRP	72	1	Joy, March 4
YRP	73	1	Peace, March 5
YRP	74	1	Long-suffering, March 6
YRP	75	1	Gentleness, March 7
YRP	76	1	Goodness, March 8
YRP	77	1	Faith, March 9
YRP	78	1	Meekness, March 10
YRP	79	1	Temperance, March 11
YRP	80	1	Self-control, March 12
YRP	81	1	Kindness, March 13
YRP	82	1	Charity, March 14
YRP	83	1	Contentment, March 15
YRP	84	1	Thankfulness, March 16
YRP	85	1	Harmony, March 17
YRP	86	1	Unity, March 18
YRP	87	1	Oneness, March 19
YRP	88	1	Brotherly Love, March 20
YRP	89	1	Generosity, March 21
YRP	90	1	Benevolence, March 22
YRP	91	1	Purity, March 23
YRP	92	1	Outward Neatness, March 24
YRP	93	1	Obedience, March 25
YRP	94	1	Confidence, March 26
YRP	95	1	Godliness, March 27
YRP	96	1	Holiness, March 28
YRP	97	1	Humility, March 29
YRP	98	1	Dependence, March 30
YRP	99	1	Christlikeness, March 31
YRP	100	1	Enlightened Through the Spirit, April 1
YRP	101	1	The Spirit Essential for Understanding Truth, April 2
YRP	102	1	Ways in Which the Spirit Leads Us, April 3
YRP	103	1	Going to the Source of Light, April 4
YRP	104	1	Developing Spiritual Discernment, April 5
YRP	105	1	Looking for Treasures, April 6
YRP	106	1	Searching for Truth, April 7
YRP	107	1	Knowing the Unknown, April 8
YRP	108	1	Digging Deeper Into the Mine, April 9
YRP	109	1	With Humble Hearts, April 10
YRP	110	1	With a Teachable Disposition, April 11
YRP	111	1	With Empty Vessels, April 12
YRP	112	1	With a Prayerful Spirit, April 13
YRP	113	1	Trusting In His Illumination, April 14
YRP	114	1	Believing in His Guidance, April 15
YRP	115	1	Meditating on God's Word, April 16
YRP	116	1	Rejoicing in the Word, April 17
YRP	117	1	Sanctified Through the Word, April 18
YRP	118	1	Guided Through the Written Testimony, April 19
YRP	119	1	Illumination Not Given Apart From the Word, April 20
YRP	120	1	Not Relying on Our Own Imagination, April 21
YRP	121	1	Not Guided by Emotions, April 22
YRP	122	1	Not Trusting in Impressions, April 23
YRP	123	1	A Clear Voice Amid Other Voices, April 24
YRP	124	1	Ready to Give Reason of Our Hope, April 25
YRP	125	1	Capable to Distinguish False Theories, April 26
YRP	126	1	Able to Discern Truth From Error, April 27
YRP	127	1	Separating the True From the Fictitious, April 28
YRP	128	1	Laying a Firm Foundation, April 29
YRP	129	1	Building Upon the Rock, April 30
YRP	130	1	Always With Us, May 1
YRP	131	1	In Times of Trial, May 2
YRP	132	1	Surrounded by a Divine Shield, May 3
YRP	133	1	In Moments of Despair, May 4
YRP	134	1	Still Loved Though We Err, May 5
YRP	135	1	In the Darkest Hour, May 6
YRP	136	1	With Concerned Parents, May 7
YRP	137	1	Beside Mothers Leading Their Little Ones, May 8
YRP	138	1	Answering Prayers for Divine Help, May 9
YRP	139	1	Directing the Sanctification of the Family, May 10
YRP	140	1	Very Close to the Children, May 11
YRP	141	1	The Spirit Loves to Work With Children, May 12
YRP	142	1	With the Younger Members of God's Family, May 13
YRP	143	1	Youth Receiving Power to Be Overcomers, May 14
YRP	144	1	Helping to Build Up a Character For Heaven, May 15
YRP	145	1	Moving Among the Students, May 16
YRP	146	1	Eager to Help Teachers, May 17
YRP	147	1	Going House to House With The Gospel Worker, May 18
YRP	148	1	Making Lasting Impressions Through the Canvasser, May 19
YRP	149	1	Directing the Publishing Ministry, May 20
YRP	150	1	Impressing Minds Through the Books, May 21
YRP	151	1	Traveling With the Missionaries, May 22
YRP	152	1	Dispelling Darkness, May 23
YRP	153	1	Encouraging the Heralds of the Gospel, May 24
YRP	154	1	Working Through Humble Instruments, May 25
YRP	155	1	With Consecrated Men and Women, May 26
YRP	156	1	Divine Help in Doing Samaritan Work, May 27
YRP	157	1	Pity and Compassion: God's Spirit at Work, May 28
YRP	158	1	Earnest to Give the Final Warning, May 29
YRP	159	1	The Time Is Near for the Spirit's Departing, May 30
YRP	160	1	The Spirit Finally Withdrawn, May 31
YRP	161	1	The Greatest Work on Earth, June 1
YRP	162	1	The Light of the World, June 2
YRP	163	1	The Salt of the Earth, June 3
YRP	164	1	Ambassadors for Christ, June 4
YRP	165	1	Witnesses for the Cross, June 5
YRP	166	1	Cooperating With the Divine Power, June 6
YRP	167	1	Laborers Together With God, June 7
YRP	168	1	Human Cooperation Essential, June 8
YRP	169	1	Instrumentalities for the Saving of Souls, June 9
YRP	170	1	Unworthy but Useful, June 10
YRP	171	1	All Members Called to be Missionaries, June 11
YRP	172	1	God May Choose and Fit Anybody, June 12
YRP	173	1	Even Children May Share Their Faith, June 13
YRP	174	1	Global Mission: The Spirit Opens Doors, June 14
YRP	175	1	The Cities: Fields White for Harvest, June 15
YRP	176	1	The Neighborhood: A Large Field of Work, June 16
YRP	177	1	Filled With the Spirit, June 17
YRP	178	1	Touched With Sacred Fire, June 18
YRP	179	1	The Spirit Gives the Right Words, June 19
YRP	180	1	Human Voice a Channel for Divine Voice, June 20
YRP	181	1	Love: The Best Advertisement for Truth, June 21
YRP	182	1	Earnest Work: A Recipe for Lessening Burdens, June 22
YRP	183	1	Human Work Made Effective by the Spirit, June 23
YRP	184	1	Keeping Total Dependency on God, June 24
YRP	185	1	Following the Captain's Orders, June 25
YRP	186	1	Keeping the Watchers Awake, June 26
YRP	187	1	All Heaven Interested in Saving Souls, June 27
YRP	188	1	Heavenly Agencies Waiting for Us, June 28
YRP	189	1	No Time to Lose, June 29
YRP	190	1	A Prayer for the Outpouring of the Spirit, June 30
YRP	191	1	Beauty in Diversity, July 1
YRP	192	1	To Be God's Instrumentalities, July 2
YRP	193	1	To Become Agents of Salvation, July 3
YRP	194	1	Used as a Power for God, July 4
YRP	195	1	A God-given Faith, July 5
YRP	196	1	Faith That Works, July 6
YRP	197	1	The Gift of Speech, July 7
YRP	198	1	The Gift of Singing, July 8
YRP	199	1	The Gift of Healing, July 9
YRP	200	1	Healing Power Through the Great Physician, July 10
YRP	201	1	Healing Gift Does Not Replace Institutions, July 11
YRP	202	1	Not All Healing Comes From the Spirit, July 12
YRP	203	1	True Miracles Will Happen Again, July 13
YRP	204	1	The Gift of Tongues: Fluency in Foreign Languages, July 14
YRP	205	1	Tongues: To Preach the Gospel, July 15
YRP	206	1	Preaching Christ: More Important Than Tongues and Miracles, July 16
YRP	207	1	Looking for a More Excellent Way, July 17
YRP	208	1	God Can Use Common Skills, July 18
YRP	209	1	Common Individuals Gifted to Serve, July 19
YRP	210	1	No Gift Superior or Inferior, July 20
YRP	211	1	More Gifts: More Responsibility, July 21
YRP	212	1	Youth Gifted to Be a Living Channel, July 22
YRP	213	1	Women Gifted to Benefit Humanity, July 23
YRP	214	1	Mothers Gifted to Nurture Their Children, July 24
YRP	215	1	Students Gifted to Be Witnesses, July 25
YRP	216	1	The Canvasser Gifted to Testify, July 26
YRP	217	1	Pastors and Teachers to Pursue Unity, July 27
YRP	218	1	Every Man, Woman, and Child Is Responsible, July 28
YRP	219	1	Asking for the Gifts, July 29
YRP	220	1	Guidance Promised to Find Your Gift, July 30
YRP	221	1	Feeling the Need for the Spiritual Gifts, July 31
YRP	222	1	Given by Inspiration of God, August 1
YRP	223	1	Variety in Styles, August 2
YRP	224	1	Writers Impressed by Different Aspects, August 3
YRP	225	1	Divine Message in Human Language, August 4
YRP	226	1	Theophanies: Divine Presence With Humans, August 5
YRP	227	1	Diverse Ways of Inspiration: The Visionary, August 6
YRP	228	1	The Historian: Using Secular Sources, August 7
YRP	229	1	The Eyewitness: Inspired to Give Testimony, August 8
YRP	230	1	The Counselor: Giving Inspired Advice, August 9
YRP	231	1	The Leader: Calling for Commitment, August 10
YRP	232	1	The Writer: Publishing by God's Orders, August 11
YRP	233	1	Reasons for the Gift: To Define Truth, August 12
YRP	234	1	To Establish Bible Truth, August 13
YRP	235	1	To Build Upon the Foundation, August 14
YRP	236	1	To Meet Fanaticism, August 15
YRP	237	1	To Prevent Fanaticism, August 16
YRP	238	1	To Avoid Doctrinal Errors, August 17
YRP	239	1	To Warn About Future Deceptions, August 18
YRP	240	1	God's Plans for the Work of the Church: Educational Work, August 19
YRP	241	1	The Medical Ministry, August 20
YRP	242	1	The Publishing Work, August 21
YRP	244	1	The Health Food Ministry, August 23
YRP	245	1	The Support of Missions, August 24
YRP	246	1	Advice for the Leaders, August 25
YRP	247	1	Divine Counsel for Parents, August 26
YRP	248	1	Encouragement for the Erring, August 27
YRP	249	1	Directions for the Youth, August 28
YRP	250	1	Closing Message Addressed to Youth, August 29
YRP	251	1	Light Lasting Until the End, August 30
YRP	252	1	The Proper Attitude, August 31
YRP	253	1	Enoch, September 1
YRP	254	1	Noah, September 2
YRP	255	1	Abraham, September 3
YRP	256	1	Joseph, September 4
YRP	257	1	Moses, September 5
YRP	258	1	Joshua, September 6
YRP	259	1	Deborah and Barak, September 7
YRP	260	1	Gideon, September 8
YRP	261	1	Samuel, September 9
YRP	262	1	David, September 10
YRP	263	1	Solomon, September 11
YRP	264	1	Elijah, September 12
YRP	265	1	Elisha, September 13
YRP	266	1	Isaiah, September 14
YRP	267	1	Jeremiah, September 15
YRP	268	1	Josiah and Huldah, September 16
YRP	269	1	Daniel, September 17
YRP	270	1	Esther, September 18
YRP	271	1	Ezra and Nehemiah, September 19
YRP	272	1	Zerubbabel and Zechariah, September 20
YRP	273	1	John the Baptist, September 21
YRP	274	1	Jesus Our Lord, September 22
YRP	275	1	The Disciples, September 23
YRP	276	1	Stephen, September 24
YRP	277	1	Philip the Deacon, September 25
YRP	278	1	Dorcas, September 26
YRP	279	1	Paul, September 27
YRP	280	1	Timothy, September 28
YRP	281	1	Aquila and Priscilla: Self-supporting Missionaries, September 29
YRP	282	1	John the Revelator, September 30
YRP	283	1	The Greatest Need, October 1
YRP	284	1	The Greatest Gift, October 2
YRP	285	1	A Thorough Reformation, October 3
YRP	286	1	Heart Searching and Self-examination, October 4
YRP	287	1	With One Accord, October 5
YRP	288	1	Seeking Harmony, October 6
YRP	289	1	Feeling Our Spiritual Need, October 7
YRP	290	1	Placing Self Aside, October 8
YRP	291	1	Opening the Heart, October 9
YRP	292	1	Emptying the Vessel, October 10
YRP	293	1	Windows Wide Open, October 11
YRP	294	1	The Sun of Righteousness Purifies the Soul, October 12
YRP	295	1	Eyes Looking Heavenward, October 13
YRP	296	1	From Scarlet to White, October 14
YRP	297	1	Garment Changed, October 15
YRP	298	1	The Will Surrendered, October 16
YRP	299	1	Self Subdued, October 17
YRP	300	1	A Mind Submissive, October 18
YRP	301	1	Removing Every Hindrance, October 19
YRP	302	1	Accepting the Spirit's Influence, October 20
YRP	303	1	Expecting Great Things, October 21
YRP	304	1	Asking for His Blessing, October 22
YRP	305	1	Trusting His Promise, October 23
YRP	306	1	A Permanent Connection, October 24
YRP	307	1	Real Appreciation, October 25
YRP	308	1	More Preaching, October 26
YRP	309	1	More Commitment, October 27
YRP	310	1	More Consecrated Members, October 28
YRP	311	1	More Charity, October 29
YRP	312	1	More Earnest Praying, October 30
YRP	313	1	A Prayer in Behalf of God's People, October 31
YRP	314	1	Revival at Pentecost, November 1
YRP	315	1	Unlimited Supplies of Missionary Spirit, November 2
YRP	316	1	A New Pentecost, November 3
YRP	317	1	A Special Bestowal of Spiritual Grace, November 4
YRP	318	1	Full Impartation of the Spirit, November 5
YRP	319	1	No Specific Time, November 6
YRP	320	1	Without Excitement, November 7
YRP	321	1	In Unexpected Ways, November 8
YRP	322	1	To Unexpected People, November 9
YRP	323	1	As God Pleases, November 10
YRP	324	1	At Times, Human Machinery Set Aside, November 11
YRP	325	1	Often Rejected, November 12
YRP	326	1	Beware of Resisting, November 13
YRP	327	1	Not an Emotion or Rapture, November 14
YRP	328	1	Neither Excitement Nor Sensationalism, November 15
YRP	329	1	Not Looking for Originality, November 16
YRP	330	1	No disorder or Fanaticism, November 17
YRP	331	1	God's Work Characterized by Calmness, November 18
YRP	332	1	A Spiritual Revolution, November 19
YRP	333	1	The Spirit Brings Peace and Joy, November 20
YRP	334	1	It Calls for a Joyful Praise, November 21
YRP	335	1	Fraternal Love Expressed, November 22
YRP	336	1	Liberality and Benevolence Shown, November 23
YRP	337	1	Prejudice and Racism Destroyed, November 24
YRP	338	1	Selfishness and Dishonesty Swept Away, November 25
YRP	339	1	Fear of Witnessing Gone, November 26
YRP	340	1	Satan's Wrath Awakened, November 27
YRP	341	1	True and Counterfeit Revivals, November 28
YRP	342	1	Strength for the Time of Trouble, November 29
YRP	343	1	Now Is the Time for Preparation, November 30
YRP	344	1	A Spiritual Fight, December 1
YRP	345	1	Soldiers for Christ, December 2
YRP	346	1	Happiness in Serving Our Captain, December 3
YRP	347	1	Trials and Opposition Bring Benefit, December 4
YRP	348	1	The Enemy Does Not Give Up Easily, December 5
YRP	349	1	Uncovering the Enemy's Devices, December 6
YRP	350	1	Not in "My Own Way," December 7, December 7
YRP	351	1	Prayer Brings Strength, December 8
YRP	352	1	There Is Always an Open Door, December 9
YRP	353	1	Looking for a Daily Victory, December 10
YRP	354	1	Each Victory Makes the Following Easier, December 11
YRP	355	1	Supernatural Strength Promised, December 12
YRP	356	1	Closer to Jesus, December 13
YRP	357	1	Victory Brings Joy to Heaven, December 14
YRP	358	1	Nothing More Invincible, December 15
YRP	359	1	A Brand Plucked Out of the Fire, December 16
YRP	360	1	Victory on the Battlefield, December 17
YRP	361	1	Eating of the Tree of Life, December 18
YRP	362	1	Wearing the Victor's Crown, December 19
YRP	363	1	Walking With Him in White, December 20
YRP	364	1	Having Our Names in the Book of Life, December 21
YRP	365	1	Kept Safe in the Hour of Temptation, December 22
YRP	366	1	A Pillar in God's Temple, December 23
YRP	367	1	A Seat Upon His Throne, December 24
YRP	368	1	Victory Through Christ, December 25
YRP	369	1	By the Blood of the Lamb, December 26
YRP	370	1	Following the Pattern, December 27
YRP	371	1	Victory Assured, December 28
YRP	372	1	The Church Triumphant, December 29
YRP	373	1	Heirs of the King, December 30
YRP	374	1	Victorious at Last, December 31

------------------------The Promise of the Spirit, January 1
YRP	9	1	And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. John 14:16.
YRP	9	2	When Christ gave His disciples the promise of the Spirit, He was nearing the close of His earthly ministry. He was standing in the shadow of the cross, with a full realization of the load of guilt that was to rest upon Him as the Sin Bearer. Before offering Himself as the sacrificial victim, He instructed His disciples regarding a most essential and complete gift which He was to bestow upon His followers--the gift that would bring within their reach the boundless resources of His grace.
YRP	9	3	"I will pray the Father," He said, "and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you" (John 14:16, 17). The Saviour was pointing forward to the time when the Holy Spirit should come to do a mighty work as His representative. The evil that had been accumulating for centuries was to be resisted by the divine power of the Holy Spirit....
YRP	9	4	The promise of the Holy Spirit is not limited to any age or to any race. Christ declared that the divine influence of His Spirit was to be with His followers unto the end. From the day of Pentecost to the present time, the Comforter has been sent to all who have yielded themselves fully to the Lord and to His service. To all who have accepted Christ as a personal Saviour, the Holy Spirit has come as a counselor, sanctifier, guide, and witness. The more closely believers have walked with God, the more clearly and powerfully have they testified of their Redeemer's love and of His saving grace. The men and women who through long centuries of persecution and trial enjoyed a large measure of the presence of the Spirit in their lives have stood as signs and wonders in the world. Before angels and men they have revealed the transforming power of redeeming love.--The Acts of the Apostles, 47-49.
------------------------The Comforter, January 2
YRP	10	1	Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. John 16:13.
YRP	10	2	How can we stand in the day of test if we do not understand the words of Christ? He said: "These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:25, 26). It is the Holy Spirit that is to bring to our remembrance the words of Christ. The theme Christ chose to dwell upon in His last discourse to His disciples was that of the office of the Holy Spirit. He opened before them a wide tract of truth. They were to receive His words by faith, and the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, was to bring all things to their remembrance.
YRP	10	3	The consolation given by Christ in this promise was found in the fact that the divine influence was to be with His followers to the end. But this promise is not accepted and believed by the people today, and therefore is not cherished by them, nor is its fulfillment seen in the experience of the church. The promise of the gift of the Spirit of God is left as a matter to be little considered by the church. It is not impressed upon the people, and the result is only that which might be expected--spiritual drought, spiritual darkness, spiritual declension and death. Minor matters occupy the mind and soul, but divine power which is necessary for the growth and prosperity of the church, which would, if possessed, bring all other blessings in its train, is lacking, although it is offered to us in infinite plentitude. Just as long as the church are satisfied with small things, they are disqualified to receive the great things of God. But why do we not hunger and thirst after the gift of the Holy Spirit, since it is the means whereby the heart may be kept pure? The Lord designs that divine power shall cooperate with human effort.
YRP	10	4	It is all-essential for the Christian to understand the meaning of the promise of the Holy Spirit just prior to the coming of our Lord Jesus the second time. Talk of it, pray for it, preach concerning it; for the Lord is more willing to give the Holy Spirit than parents are to give good gifts to their children.--The Review and Herald, November 15, 1892.
------------------------The Nature of the Spirit: A Mystery, January 3
YRP	11	1	Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. John 14:17.
YRP	11	2	It is not essential for us to be able to define just what the Holy Spirit is. Christ tells us that the Spirit is the Comforter, "the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father." It is plainly declared regarding the Holy Spirit that, in His work of guiding men into all truth, "He shall not speak of himself" (John 15:26; 16:13).
YRP	11	3	The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together passages of Scripture and put a human construction on them, but the acceptance of these views will not strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep for human understanding, silence is golden.
YRP	11	4	The office of the Holy Spirit is distinctly specified in the words of Christ: "When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). It is the Holy Spirit that convicts of sin. If the sinner responds to the quickening influence of the Spirit, he will be brought to repentance and aroused to the importance of obeying the divine requirements.
YRP	11	5	To the repentant sinner, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, the Holy Spirit reveals the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. "He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you," Christ said. "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 16:14; 14:26).
YRP	11	6	The Spirit is given as a regenerating agency, to make effectual the salvation wrought by the death of our Redeemer. The Spirit is constantly seeking to draw the attention of men to the great offering that was made on the cross of Calvary, to unfold to the world the love of God, and to open to the convicted soul the precious things of the Scriptures.--The Acts of the Apostles, 51, 52.
------------------------The Spirit: A Witness, January 4
YRP	12	1	The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. Romans 8:16.
YRP	12	2	If the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, what is the result? The believing soul comes into perfect submission to the will of God. The Majesty of heaven condescends to a holy, familiar intercourse with him who seeks God with the whole heart, and the child of God, through the abundant manifestation of His grace, is softened into a childlike dependence. You must commit your soul and body unto God with perfect trust in His power and willingness to bless you, helpless and unworthy as you are. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12).
YRP	12	3	Do not become restlessly active, but zealous in faith, with one object, namely, to attract souls to Jesus Christ, the crucified Redeemer. It is not the logical sermon, the sermon to convince the intellect, that will do this work. The heart must be persuaded, and melted into tenderness. The will must be submitted to God's will, and the whole aspirations directed heavenward. You must feed upon the word of the living God. It must be brought into the practical life. It must take hold of and command the whole man....
YRP	12	4	When Jesus is our abiding trust, our offering to God will be ourselves. Our dependence will be on the righteousness and intercession of Christ Jesus as our only hope. There is no confusion, no distrust, because by faith we see Jesus ordained of God for this very purpose, to make reconciliation for the sins of the world. He stands engaged by solemn covenant to mediate in behalf of all who come to God by Him, and to accomplish their salvation if they will only believe. The privilege is granted us to come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in every time of need.--Manuscript Releases 14:276, 277.
------------------------Christ's Representative, January 5
YRP	13	1	Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. John 16:7.
YRP	13	2	The Comforter is called "the Spirit of truth." His work is to define and maintain the truth. He first dwells in the heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus He becomes the Comforter. There is comfort and peace in the truth, but no real peace or comfort can be found in falsehood. It is through false theories and traditions that Satan gains his power over the mind. By directing men to false standards, he misshapes the character. Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart. Thus He exposes error, and expels it from the soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the Word of God, that Christ subdues His chosen people to Himself.
YRP	13	3	In describing to His disciples the office work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus sought to inspire them with the joy and hope that inspired His own heart. He rejoiced because of the abundant help He had provided for His church. The Holy Spirit was the highest of all gifts that He could solicit from His Father for the exaltation of His people. The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of men to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character on His church.--The Review and Herald, November 19, 1908.
------------------------The Heavenly Dove, January 6
YRP	14	1	And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. John 1:32.
YRP	14	2	Christ is our example in all things. In response to His prayer to His Father, heaven was opened, and the Spirit descended like a dove and abode upon Him. The Holy Spirit of God is to communicate with man, and to abide in the hearts of the obedient and faithful. Light and strength will come to those who earnestly seek it in order that they may have wisdom to resist Satan, and to overcome in times of temptation. We are to overcome even as Christ overcame.
YRP	14	3	Jesus opened His public mission with fervent prayer, and His example makes manifest the fact that prayer is necessary in order to lead a successful Christian life. He was constantly in communion with His Father, and His life presents to us a perfect pattern which we are to imitate. He appreciated the privilege of prayer, and His work showed the results of communion with God. Examining the record of His life, we find that upon all important occasions He retired to the grove, or to the solitude of the mountains, and offered earnest, persevering prayer to God. He frequently devoted the entire night to prayer just before He was called upon to work some mighty miracle. During these nightly seasons of prayer, after the labors of the day, He compassionately dismissed His disciples, that they might return to their homes for rest and sleep, while with strong crying and tears He poured forth earnest petitions to God in behalf of humanity.
YRP	14	4	Jesus was braced for duty and fortified for trial through the grace of God that came to Him in answer to prayer. We are dependent upon God for success in living the Christian life, and Christ's example opens before us the path by which we may come to a never-failing source of strength, from which we may draw grace and power to resist the enemy and to come off victorious. On the banks of Jordan Christ offered prayer as the representative of humanity, and the opening heaven and the voice of approval assures us that God accepts humanity through the merits of His Son.--The Signs of the Times, July 24, 1893.
------------------------Unseen as the Wind, January 7
YRP	15	1	The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8, RSV.
YRP	15	2	The wind is heard among the branches of the trees, rustling the leaves and flowers; yet it is invisible, and no man knows whence it comes or whither it goes. So with the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. [The Spirit] can no more be explained than can the movements of the wind. A person may not be able to tell the exact time or place, or to trace all the circumstances in the process of conversion; but this does not prove him to be unconverted.
YRP	15	3	By an agency as unseen as the wind, Christ is constantly working upon the heart. Little by little, perhaps unconsciously to the receiver, impressions are made that tend to draw the soul to Christ. These may be received through meditating upon Him, through reading the Scriptures, or through hearing the Word from the living preacher. Suddenly, as the Spirit comes with more direct appeal, the soul gladly surrenders itself to Jesus. By many this is called sudden conversion; but it is the result of long wooing by the Spirit of God--a patient, protracted process. While the wind is itself invisible, it produces effects that are seen and felt. So the work of the Spirit upon the soul will reveal itself in every act of him who has felt its saving power. When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the light of heaven. No one sees the hand that lifts the burden, or beholds the light descend from the courts above. The blessing comes when by faith the soul surrenders itself to God. Then that power which no human eye can see creates a new being in the image of God.
YRP	15	4	It is impossible for finite minds to comprehend the work of redemption. Its mystery exceeds human knowledge; yet he who passes from death to life realizes that it is a divine reality. The beginning of redemption we may know here through a personal experience. Its results reach through the eternal ages.--The Desire of Ages, 172, 173.
------------------------Oil in Your Vessels, January 8
YRP	16	1	They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Matthew 25:3, 4.
YRP	16	2	Many receive the truth readily, but they fail to assimilate truth, and its influence is not abiding. They are like the foolish virgins, who had no oil in their vessels with their lamps. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, which is brought into the soul through faith in Jesus Christ. Those who earnestly search the Scriptures with much prayer, who rely upon God with firm faith, who obey His commandments, will be among those who are represented as wise virgins. The teachings of the Word of God are not yea and nay, but yea and amen.
YRP	16	3	The requirement of the gospel is far-reaching. Says the apostle, "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him" (Colossians 3:17). "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). Practical piety will not be attained by giving the grand truths of the Bible a place in the outer courts of the heart. The religion of the Bible must be brought into the large and the little affairs of life. It must furnish the powerful motives and principles that will regulate the Christian's character and course of action....
YRP	16	4	The oil so much needed by those who are represented as foolish virgins, is not something to be put on the outside. They need to bring the truth into the sanctuary of the soul, that it may cleanse, refine, and sanctify. It is not theory that they need; it is the sacred teachings of the Bible, which are not uncertain, disconnected doctrines, but are living truths, that involve eternal interests that center in Christ. In Him is the complete system of divine truth. The salvation of the soul, through faith in Christ, is the ground and pillar of the truth.
YRP	16	5	Those who exercise true faith in Christ make it manifest by holiness of character, by obedience to the law of God. They realize that the truth as it is in Jesus reaches heaven, and compasses eternity. They understand that the Christian's character should represent the character of Christ, and be full of grace and truth. To them is imparted the oil of grace, which sustains a never-failing light. The Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer makes him complete in Christ.--The Review and Herald, September 17, 1895.
------------------------A Constant Flow of Oil, January 9
YRP	17	1	And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. Zechariah 4:12-14.
YRP	17	2	The continual communication of the Holy Spirit to the church is represented by the prophet Zechariah under another figure, which contains a wonderful lesson of encouragement for us. The prophet says: "The angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
YRP	17	3	"So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my Lord? ... Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.... And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? ... Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth" (Zechariah 4:1-14).
YRP	17	4	From the two olive trees, the golden oil was emptied through golden pipes into the bowl of the candlestick, and thence into the golden lamps that gave light to the sanctuary. So from the holy ones that stand in God's presence, His Spirit is imparted to human instrumentalities that are consecrated to His service. The mission of the two anointed ones is to communicate light and power to God's people. It is to receive blessing for us that they stand in God's presence. As the olive trees empty themselves into the golden pipes, so the heavenly messengers seek to communicate all that they receive from God. The whole heavenly treasure awaits our demand and reception; and as we receive the blessing, we in our turn are to impart it. Thus it is that the holy lamps are fed, and the church becomes a light-bearer in the world.--The Review and Herald, March 2, 1897.
------------------------Leaven in Our Heart, January 10
YRP	18	1	And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Luke 13:20, 21.
YRP	18	2	This parable illustrates the penetrating and assimilating power of the gospel, which is to fashion the church after the divine similitude by working on the hearts of the individual members. As the leaven operates on the meal, so the Holy Spirit operates on the human heart, absorbing all its capabilities and powers, bringing soul, body, and spirit into conformity to Christ.
YRP	18	3	In the parable the woman placed the leaven in the meal. It was necessary to supply a want. By this God would teach us that, of himself, man does not possess the properties of salvation. He cannot transform himself by the exercise of his will. The truth must be received into the heart. Thus the divine leaven does its work. By its transforming, vitalizing power it produces a change in the heart. New thoughts, new feelings, new purposes are awakened. The mind is changed, the faculties are set to work. Man is not supplied with new faculties, but the faculties he has are sanctified. The conscience hitherto dead is aroused. But man cannot make this change himself. It can be made only by the Holy Spirit. All who would be saved, high or low, rich or poor, must submit to the working of this power.
YRP	18	4	This truth is presented in Christ's words to Nicodemus: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.... That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:3-8).
YRP	18	5	When our minds are controlled by the Spirit of God, we shall understand the lesson taught by the parable of the leaven. Those who open their hearts to receive the truth will realize that the Word of God is the great instrumentality in the transformation of character.--The Review and Herald, July 25, 1899.
------------------------Living Water to be Shared, January 11
YRP	19	1	But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14.
YRP	19	2	As the plan of redemption begins and ends with a gift, so it is to be carried forward. The same spirit of sacrifice which purchased salvation for us will dwell in the hearts of all who become partakers of the heavenly gift. Says the apostle Peter: "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Peter 4:10). Said Jesus to His disciples as He sent them forth, "Freely ye have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). In him who is fully in sympathy with Christ, there can be nothing selfish or exclusive. He who drinks of the living water will find that it is "in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." The Spirit of Christ within him is like a spring welling up in the desert, flowing to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life.
YRP	19	3	It was the same spirit of love and self-sacrifice which dwelt in Christ that impelled the apostle Paul to his manifold labors. "I am debtor," he says, "both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise" (Romans 1:14). "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8).
YRP	19	4	Our Lord designed that His church should reflect to the world the fullness and sufficiency that we find in Him. We are constantly receiving of God's bounty, and by imparting of the same we are to represent to the world the love and beneficence of Christ. While all heaven is astir, dispatching messengers to all parts of the earth to carry forward the work of redemption, the church of the living God are also to be co-laborers with Jesus Christ. We are members of His mystical body. He is the Head, controlling all the members of the body. Jesus Himself, in His infinite mercy, is working on human hearts, effecting spiritual transformations so amazing that angels look on with astonishment and joy.--The Review and Herald, December 24, 1908.
------------------------Life-giving Sap, January 12
YRP	20	1	And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. Acts 19:1, 2.
YRP	20	2	There are today many as ignorant of the Holy Spirit's work upon the heart as were those believers in Ephesus; yet no truth is more clearly taught in the Word of God. Prophets and apostles have dwelt upon this theme. Christ Himself calls our attention to the growth of the vegetable world as an illustration of the agency of His Spirit in sustaining spiritual life. The sap of the vine, ascending from the root, is diffused to the branches, sustaining growth and producing blossoms and fruit. So the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Saviour, pervades the soul, renews the motives and affections, and brings even the thoughts into obedience to the will of God, enabling the receiver to bear the precious fruit of holy deeds.
YRP	20	3	The Author of this spiritual life is unseen, and the exact method by which that life is imparted and sustained, it is beyond the power of human philosophy to explain. Yet the operations of the Spirit are always in harmony with the written Word. As in the natural, so in the spiritual world. The natural life is preserved moment by moment by divine power; yet it is not sustained by a direct miracle, but through the use of blessings placed within our reach. So the spiritual life is sustained by use of those means that Providence has supplied. If the follower of Christ would grow up "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13), he must eat of the bread of life and drink of the water of salvation. He must watch and pray and work, in all things giving heed to the instructions of God in His Word.--The Acts of the Apostles, 284, 285.
------------------------The "New Wine" of the Kingdom, January 13
YRP	21	1	And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles. Mark 2:22.
YRP	21	2	We need to be constantly filling the mind with Christ, and emptying it of selfishness and sin. When Christ came into the world, the leaders of the Jews were so permeated with Phariseeism that they could not receive His teachings. Jesus compared them to the shriveled wineskins which were not fit to receive the new wine from the vintage. He had to find new bottles into which to put the new wine of His kingdom. This was why He turned away from the Pharisees, and chose the lowly fishermen of Galilee.
YRP	21	3	Jesus was the greatest teacher the world ever knew, and He chose men whom He could educate, and who would take the words from His lips, and send them down along the line to our time. So, by His Spirit and His Word, He would educate you for His work. Just as surely as you empty your mind of vanity and frivolity, the vacuum will be supplied with that which God is waiting to give you--His Holy Spirit. Then out of the good treasure of the heart you will bring forth good things, rich gems of thought, and others will catch the words, and will begin to glorify God. Then you will not have the mind centered upon self. You will not be making a show of self; you will not be acting self; but your thoughts and affections will dwell upon Christ, and you will reflect upon others that which has shone upon you from the Sun of righteousness.
YRP	21	4	Christ has said: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7:37). Have you exhausted the fountain?--No; for it is inexhaustible. Just as soon as you feel your need, you may drink, and drink again. The fountain is always full. And when you have once drunk of that fountain, you will not be seeking to quench your thirst from the broken cisterns of this world; you will not be studying how you can find the most pleasure, amusement, fun, and frolic. No; because you have been drinking from the stream which makes glad the city of God. Then your joy will be full; for Christ will be in you, the hope of glory.--The Review and Herald, March 15, 1892.
------------------------A Burning Fire, January 14
YRP	22	1	Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. Jeremiah 20:9.
YRP	22	2	God will move upon men in humble positions to declare the message of present truth. Many such will be seen hastening hither and thither, constrained by the Spirit of God to give the light to those in darkness. The truth is as a fire in their bones, filling them with a burning desire to enlighten those who sit in darkness. Many, even among the uneducated, will proclaim the Word of the Lord. Children will be impelled by the Holy Spirit to go forth to declare the message of heaven. The Spirit will be poured out upon those who yield to His promptings. Casting off man's binding rules and cautious movements, they will join the army of the Lord.
YRP	22	3	In the future, men in the common walks of life will be impressed by the Spirit of the Lord to leave their ordinary employment and go forth to proclaim the last message of mercy. As rapidly as possible they are to be prepared for labor, that success may crown their efforts. They cooperate with heavenly agencies, for they are willing to spend and be spent in the service of the Master. No one is authorized to hinder these workers. They are to be bidden Godspeed as they go forth to fulfill the great commission. No taunting word is to be spoken of them as in the rough places of the earth they sow the gospel seed.
YRP	22	4	Life's best things--simplicity, honesty, truthfulness, purity, unsullied integrity--cannot be bought or sold; they are as free to the ignorant as to the educated, to the black man as to the white man, to the humble peasant as to the king upon his throne. Humble workers, who do not trust in their own strength, but who labor in simplicity, trusting always in God, will share in the joy of the Saviour. Their persevering prayers will bring souls to the cross. In cooperation with their self-sacrificing efforts Jesus will move upon hearts, working miracles in the conversion of souls. Men and women will be gathered into church fellowship. Meetinghouses will be built and schools established. The hearts of the workers will be filled with joy as they see the salvation of God.--Testimonies for the Church 7:26-28.
------------------------Tongues of Fire, January 15
YRP	23	1	And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:3, 4.
YRP	23	2	If you search the Scriptures with a meek and teachable spirit, your efforts will be richly rewarded. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). The Bible should be studied with prayer. We should pray as did David, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Psalm 119:18). No man can have insight into the Word of God without the illumination of the Holy Spirit. If we will but come into the right position before God, His light will shine upon us in rich, clear rays.
YRP	23	3	This was the experience of the early disciples. The Scriptures declare that "when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:1-4). God is willing to give us a similar blessing, when we seek for it as earnestly.
YRP	23	4	The Lord did not lock the reservoir of heaven after pouring His Spirit upon the early disciples. We, also, may receive of the fullness of His blessing. Heaven is full of the treasures of His grace, and those who come to God in faith may claim all that He has promised. If we do not have His power, it is of our spiritual lethargy, our indifference, our indolence. Let us come out of this formality and deadness.
YRP	23	5	There is a great work to be done for this time, and we do not half realize what the Lord is willing to do for His people. We talk about the first angel's message, and the second angel's message, and we think we have some understanding of the third angel's message; but we should not be satisfied with our present knowledge. Our petitions, mingled with faith and contrition, should go up to God, for an understanding of the mysteries that God would make known to His saints.--The Review and Herald, June 4, 1889.
------------------------Giver of a New Life, January 16
YRP	24	1	Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:5.
YRP	24	2	In order to serve God acceptably, we must be "born again." Our natural dispositions, which are in opposition to the Spirit of God, must be put away. We must be made new men and women in Christ Jesus. Our old, unrenewed lives must give place to a new life--a life full of love, of trust, of willing obedience. Think you that such a change is not necessary for entrance into the kingdom of God? Listen to the words of the Majesty of heaven: "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). Unless the change takes place, we cannot serve God aright. Our work will be defective; earthly plans will be brought in; strange fire, dishonoring to God, will be offered. Our lives will be unholy and unhappy, full of unrest and trouble.
YRP	24	3	The change of heart represented by the new birth can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit. It alone can cleanse us from all impurity. If it is allowed to mold and fashion our hearts, we shall be able to discern the character of the kingdom of God, and realize the necessity of the change which must be made before we can obtain entrance to this kingdom. Pride and self-love resist the Spirit of God; every natural inclination of the soul opposes the change from self-importance and pride to the meekness and lowliness of Christ. But if we would travel in the pathway to eternal life, we must not listen to the whispering of self. In humility and contrition we must beseech our heavenly Father, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). As we receive divine light, and cooperate with the heavenly intelligences, we are "born again," freed from the defilement of sin by the power of Christ.
YRP	24	4	Christ came to our world because He saw that men had lost the image and nature of God. He saw that they had wandered far from the path of peace and purity, and that, if left to themselves, they would never find their way back. He came with a full and complete salvation, to change our stony hearts to hearts of flesh, to change our sinful natures into His similitude, that, by being partakers of the divine nature, we might be fitted for the heavenly courts.--The Youth's Instructor, September 9, 1897.
------------------------Showers of Grace, January 17
YRP	25	1	Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. Zechariah 10:1.
YRP	25	2	In the East the former rain falls at the sowing time. It is necessary in order that the seed may germinate. Under the influence of the fertilizing showers, the tender shoot springs up. The latter rain, falling near the close of the season, ripens the grain, and prepares it for the sickle. The Lord employs these operations of nature to represent the work of the Holy Spirit. As the dew and the rain are given first to cause the seed to germinate, and then to ripen the harvest, so the Holy Spirit is given to carry forward, from one stage to another, the process of spiritual growth. The ripening of the grain represents the completion of the work of God's grace in the soul. By the power of the Holy Spirit the moral image of God is to be perfected in the character. We are to be wholly transformed into the likeness of Christ....
YRP	25	3	Many have in a great measure failed to receive the former rain. They have not obtained all the benefits that God has thus provided for them. They expect that the lack will be supplied by the latter rain. When the richest abundance of grace shall be bestowed, they intend to open their hearts to receive it. They are making a terrible mistake. The work that God has begun in the human heart in giving His light and knowledge must be continually going forward. Every individual must realize his own necessity. The heart must be emptied of every defilement, and cleansed for the indwelling of the Spirit.
YRP	25	4	It was by the confession and forsaking of sin, by earnest prayer and consecration of themselves to God, that the early disciples prepared for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The same work, only in greater degree, must be done now. Then the human agent had only to ask for the blessing, and wait for the Lord to perfect the work concerning him. It is God who began the work, and He will finish His work, making man complete in Jesus Christ. But there must be no neglect of the grace represented by the former rain. Only those who are living up to the light they have will receive greater light. Unless we are daily advancing in the exemplification of the active Christian virtues, we shall not recognize the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain.--The Review and Herald, March 2, 1897.
------------------------The Spirit Helps Us, January 18
YRP	26	1	Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Romans 8:26.
YRP	26	2	The Holy Spirit indites all genuine prayer. I have learned to know that in all my intercessions the Spirit intercedes for me and for all saints; but His intercessions are according to the will of God, never contrary to His will. "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities"; and the Spirit, being God, knoweth the mind of God; therefore in every prayer of ours for the sick, or for other needs, the will of God is to be regarded. "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:11).
YRP	26	3	If we are taught of God, we shall pray in conformity to His revealed will, and in submission to His will which we know not. We are to make supplication according to the will of God, relying on the precious Word, and believing that Christ not only gave Himself for but to His disciples. The record declares, "He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John 20:22).
YRP	26	4	Jesus is waiting to breathe upon all His disciples, and give them the inspiration of His sanctifying Spirit, and transfuse the vital influence from Himself to His people. He would have them understand that henceforth they cannot serve two masters. Their lives cannot be divided. Christ is to live in His human agents, and work through their faculties, and act through their capabilities. Their will must be submitted to His will, they must act with His Spirit that it may be no more they that live, but Christ that liveth in them. Jesus is seeking to impress upon them the thought that in giving His Holy Spirit He is giving to them the glory which the Father has given Him, that He and His people may be one in God. Our way and will must be in submission to God's will, knowing that it is holy, just, and good.--The Signs of the Times, October 3, 1892.
------------------------The Spirit Intercedes for Us, January 19
YRP	27	1	And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:27.
YRP	27	2	We have only one channel of approach to God. Our prayers can come to Him through one name only--that of the Lord Jesus our Advocate. His Spirit must inspire our petitions. No strange fire was to be used in the censers that were waved before God in the sanctuary. So the Lord Himself must kindle in our hearts the burning desire, if our prayers are acceptable to Him. The Holy Spirit within must make intercessions for us, with groanings that cannot be uttered.
YRP	27	3	A deep sense of our need, and a great desire for the things for which we ask, must characterize our prayers, else they will not be heard. But we are not to become weary, and cease our petitions because the answer is not immediately received. "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matthew 11:12). The violence here meant is a holy earnestness, such as Jacob manifested. We need not try to work ourselves up into an intense feeling; but calmly, persistently, we are to press our petitions at the throne of grace. Our work is to humble our souls before God, confessing our sins, and in faith drawing nigh unto God. The Lord answered the prayer of Daniel, not that Daniel might glorify himself, but that the blessing might reflect glory to God. It is the design of God to reveal Himself in His providence and in His grace. The object of our prayers must be the glory of God, not the glorification of ourselves.
YRP	27	4	When we see ourselves weak, ignorant, and helpless, as we really are, we shall come before God as humble suppliants. It is ignorance of God and of Christ that makes any soul proud and self-righteous. The infallible indication that a man knows not God is found in the fact that he feels that in himself he is great or good. Pride of heart is always associated with ignorance of God. It is the light from God that discovers our darkness and destitution. When the divine glory was revealed to Daniel, he exclaimed, "My comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength" (Daniel 10:8).
YRP	27	5	The moment the humble seeker sees God as He is, that moment he will have the same view of himself that Daniel had. There will be no lifting up of the soul unto vanity, but a deep sense of the holiness of God and of the justice of His requirements.--The Review and Herald, February 9, 1897.
------------------------The Spirit Leads Us to Become God's Children, January 20
YRP	28	1	For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Romans 8:14.
YRP	28	2	Christ took His stand among men as the Oracle of God. He spoke as one having authority, addressing Himself in strong terms to the people, and demanding implicit faith and obedience. We as a people have based our faith upon the principles set forth in His Word. We have pledged ourselves to bring heart and mind to obedience to the living Word, and to follow a "Thus saith the Lord."
YRP	28	3	All our present and future hopes depend upon our kinship with Christ and with God. The apostle Paul speaks strong words to confirm our faith in this respect. To those who are led by the Spirit of God, in whose hearts the grace of Christ is dwelling, he declares: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:16, 17). "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (verse 15).
YRP	28	4	We are called by Christ to come out from the world and to be separate. We are called to live holy lives, having our hearts continually drawn out to God, and having in our lives the Holy Spirit as an abiding presence. Every true believer in Christ will reveal that the grace of His love is in the heart. Where once there was estrangement from God, there will be revealed copartnership with Him; where once the carnal nature was manifest, there will be seen the attributes of the divine.
YRP	28	5	His people are to become workers of righteousness, constant seekers after God, constant workers of His will. This will make them complete in Christ. To angels and to men and to worlds unfallen they are to make it manifest that their lives are conforming to the will of God, that they are loyal adherents to the principles of His kingdom. The Holy Spirit, dwelling in their hearts by faith, will bring them into fellowship with Christ and with one another, and will yield in them the precious fruits of holiness.--The Review and Herald, August 19, 1909.
------------------------The Spirit Moves Among Us, January 21
YRP	29	1	Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 1 John 4:13.
YRP	29	2	Though we cannot see the Spirit of God, we know that men who have been dead in trespasses and sins become convicted and converted under its operations. The thoughtless and wayward become serious. The hardened repent of their sins, and the faithless believe. The gambler, the drunkard, the licentious, become steady, sober, and pure. The rebellious and obstinate become meek and Christlike. When we see these changes in the character, we may be assured that the converting power of God has transformed the entire man. We saw not the Holy Spirit, but we saw the evidence of His work on the changed character of those who were hardened and obdurate sinners. As the wind moves in its force upon the lofty trees and brings them down, so the Holy Spirit can work upon human hearts, and no finite man can circumscribe the work of God.
YRP	29	3	The Spirit of God is manifested in different ways upon different men. One under the movings of this power will tremble before the Word of God. His convictions will be so deep that a hurricane and tumult of feeling seem to rage in his heart, and his whole being is prostrate under the convicting power of the truth. When the Lord speaks forgiveness to the repenting soul, he is full of ardor, full of love to God, full of earnestness and energy, and the life-giving Spirit which he has received cannot be repressed. Christ is in him, a well of water springing up into everlasting life. His feelings of love are as deep and ardent as was his distress and agony. His soul is like the fountain of the great deep broken up, and he pours forth his thanksgiving and praise, his gratitude and joy, until the heavenly harps are tuned to notes of rejoicing. He has a story to tell, but not in any precise, common, methodical way. He is a soul ransomed through the merits of Jesus Christ, and his whole being is thrilled with the realization of the salvation of God.--The Review and Herald, May 5, 1896.
------------------------The Spirit Visits Us, January 22
YRP	30	1	In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. Ephesians 1:13.
YRP	30	2	Through the deep movings of the Spirit of God, I have had opened before me the character of the work of the visitation of the Spirit of God. I have had opened before me the danger in which souls would be placed who had been thus visited; for afterward, they would have to meet fiercer assaults of the enemy, who would press upon them his temptations to make of none effect the workings of the Spirit of God, and cause that the momentous truths presented and witnessed by the Holy Spirit should not purify and sanctify those who had received the light of heaven, and thus cause that Christ should not be glorified in them. The period of great spiritual light, if that light is not sacredly cherished and acted upon, will be turned into a time of corresponding spiritual darkness. The impression made by the Spirit of God, if men do not cherish the sacred impression, and occupy holy ground, will fade from the mind.
YRP	30	3	Those who would advance in spiritual knowledge must stand by the very fount of God, and drink again and again from the wells of salvation so graciously opened unto them. They must never leave the source of refreshment; but with hearts swelling with gratitude and love at the display of the goodness and compassion of God, they must be continually partakers of the living water....
YRP	30	4	"But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not" (John 6:36). This has been literally fulfilled in the cases of many; for the Lord gave them a deeper insight into truth, into His character of mercy and compassion and love; and yet after being thus enlightened, they have turned from Him in unbelief. They saw the deep movings of the Spirit of God; but when the insidious temptations of Satan came in, as they always will come after a season of revival, they did not resist unto blood, striving against sin; and those who might have stood on vantage ground, had they made a right use of the precious enlightenment that they had, were overcome by the enemy. They should have reflected the light that God gave to them upon the souls of others; they should have worked and acted in harmony with the sacred revealings of the Holy Spirit; and in not doing so, they suffered loss.--The Review and Herald, January 30, 1894.
------------------------The Spirit Speaks to Us, January 23
YRP	31	1	But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. John 15:26.
YRP	31	2	The Lord has condescended to give you an outpouring of His Holy Spirit. At the camp meetings, and in our various institutions, a great blessing has been showered upon you. You have been visited by the heavenly messengers of light and truth and power, and it should not be thought a strange thing that God should thus bless you. How does Christ subdue His chosen people to Himself? It is by the power of His Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit, through the Scriptures, speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the hearts of men.
YRP	31	3	Before His crucifixion, Christ promised that the Comforter should be sent to His disciples. He said: "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:7, 8). "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you" (verses 13, 14).
YRP	31	4	This promise of Christ has been made little enough of, and because of a dearth of the Spirit of God, the spirituality of the law and its eternal obligations have not been comprehended. Those who have professed to love Christ have not comprehended the relation which exists between them and God, and it is still but dimly outlined to their understanding. They but vaguely comprehend the amazing grace of God in giving His only begotten Son for the salvation of the world. They do not understand how far-reaching are the claims of the holy law, how intimately the precepts of the law are to be brought into practical life. They do not realize what a great privilege and necessity are prayer, repentance, and the doing of the words of Christ.
YRP	31	5	It is the office of the Holy Spirit to reveal to the mind the character of the consecration that God will accept. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, the soul is enlightened, and the character is renewed, sanctified, and uplifted.--The Review and Herald, January 30, 1894.
------------------------The Spirit Enlightens Us, January 24
YRP	32	1	Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. John 12:35.
YRP	32	2	Jesus says, "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you." Gather up every ray, pass not one by. Walk in the light. Practice every precept of truth presented to you. Live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, and you will then follow Jesus wherever He goeth. When the Lord presents evidence upon evidence and gives light upon light, why is it that souls hesitate to walk in the light? Why do men neglect to walk in light to a greater light?
YRP	32	3	The Lord does not refuse to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. When conviction comes home to the conscience, why not listen, and heed the voice of the Spirit of God? By every hesitation and delay, we place ourselves where it is more and more difficult for us to accept the light of heaven, and at last it seems impossible to be impressed by admonitions and warnings. The sinner says, more and more easily, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee" (Acts 24:25).
YRP	32	4	I know the danger of those who refuse to walk in the light as God gives it. They bring upon themselves the terrible crisis of being left to follow their own ways, to do after their own judgment. The conscience becomes less and less impressible. The voice of God seems to become more and more distant, and the wrongdoer is left to his own infatuation. In stubbornness he resists every appeal, despises all counsel and advice, and turns from every provision made for his salvation, and the voice of the messenger of God makes no impression upon his mind. The Spirit of God no longer exerts a restraining power over him, and the sentence is passed, "[He] is joined to idols, let him alone" (Hosea 4:17). Oh, how dark, how sullen, how obstinate, is his independence! It seems that the insensibility of death is upon his heart. This is the process through which the soul passes that rejects the working of the Holy Spirit.--The Review and Herald, June 29, 1897.
------------------------The Spirit Can Be Grieved, January 25
YRP	33	1	And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30.
YRP	33	2	I would that all my brethren and sisters would remember that it is a serious thing to grieve the Holy Spirit; and it is grieved when the human agent seeks to work himself, and refuses to enter the service of the Lord because the cross is too heavy or the self-denial too great. The Holy Spirit seeks to abide in each soul. If it is welcomed as an honored guest, those who receive it will be made complete in Christ; the good work begun will be finished; and holy thoughts, heavenly affections, and Christlike actions will take the place of impure thoughts, perverse sentiments, and rebellious acts.
YRP	33	3	The Holy Spirit is a divine teacher. If we will heed its lessons, we shall become wise unto salvation. But we need to guard well our hearts; for too often we forget the heavenly instruction we have received, and seek to act out the natural inclinations of our unconsecrated minds. Each one must fight his own battle against self. Heed the teachings of the Holy Spirit. If this is done, they will be repeated again and again until the impressions are as it were lead on the rock forever.
YRP	33	4	God has bought us, and He claims a throne in each heart. Our minds and bodies must be subordinated to Him; and the natural habits and appetites must be made subservient to the higher wants of the soul. But we can place no dependence upon ourselves in this work. We cannot with safety follow our own guidance. The Holy Spirit must renew and sanctify us. And in God's service there must be no halfway work. Those who profess to serve God and yet indulge their natural impulses will mislead other souls. Said Christ, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" (Matthew 22:37). "This do, and thou shalt live" (Luke 10:28).--Manuscript Releases 18:47, 48.
------------------------The Spirit May Depart, January 26
YRP	34	1	Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? Hebrews 10:29.
YRP	34	2	Those who resist the Spirit of God, and provoke Him to depart, know not to what lengths Satan will lead them. When the Holy Spirit departs from the man, he will imperceptibly do those things which once he viewed, in a correct light, to be decided sin. Unless he heeds the warnings, he will wrap himself in a deception that, as in the case of Judas, will cause him to become a traitor and blind. He will follow step by step in the footsteps of Satan. Who, then, can strive with him to any purpose? Will the ministers plead with him and for him? All their words are as idle tales. Such souls have Satan as their chosen companion, to misconstrue the word spoken, and bring it to their understanding in a perverted light.
YRP	34	3	When the Spirit of God is grieved away, every appeal made through the Lord's servants is meaningless to them. They will misconstrue every word. They will laugh at and turn into ridicule the most solemn words of Scripture warnings, which, if they were not bewitched by satanic agencies, would make them tremble. Every appeal made to them is in vain. They will not hear reproof or counsel. They despise all the entreaties of the Spirit, and disobey the commandments of God which they once vindicated and exalted. Well may the words of the apostle come home to such souls, "Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?" (Galatians 3:1). They follow the counsel of their own heart until truth is no more truth to them. Barabbas is chosen, Christ is rejected.
YRP	34	4	It is essential to live by every word of God, else our old nature will constantly reassert itself. It is the Holy Spirit, the redeeming grace of truth in the soul, that makes the followers of Christ one with one another, and one with God. He alone can expel enmity, envy, and unbelief. He sanctifies the entire affections. He restores the willing, desirous soul from the power of Satan unto God. This is the power of grace. It is a divine power. Under its influence there is a change from the old habits, customs, and practices which, when cherished, separate the soul from God; and the work of sanctification goes on in the soul, constantly progressing and enlarging.--The Review and Herald, October 12, 1897.
------------------------The Sin Against the Spirit, January 27
YRP	35	1	Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. Matthew 12:31.
YRP	35	2	I will address these lines to those who have had light, those who have had privileges, those who have had warnings and entreaties, who have made no determined effort to yield themselves in full surrender to God. I would warn you to fear lest you sin against the Holy Ghost, and be left to your own course, sunk in moral lethargy, and never obtain forgiveness. Why allow yourselves to be longer educated in the school of Satan, and pursue a course of action that will make repentance and reformation impossible? Why resist the overtures of mercy? Why say, "Let me alone," until God shall be compelled to give you your desire, since you will have it so?
YRP	35	3	Those who resist the Spirit of God think that they will repent at some future day, when they get ready to take a decided step toward reformation; but repentance will then be beyond their power. According to the light and privileges given will be the darkness of those who refuse to walk in the light while they have the light.
YRP	35	4	No one need look upon the sin against the Holy Ghost as something mysterious and indefinable. The sin against the Holy Ghost is the sin of persistent refusal to respond to the invitation to repent. If you refuse to believe in Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, you love darkness rather than light, you love the atmosphere that surrounded the first great apostate. You choose this atmosphere rather than the atmosphere that surrounds the Father and the Son, and God allows you to have your choice. But let no soul be discouraged by this presentation of the matter. Let no one who is striving to do the will of the Master be cast down. Hope thou in God. The Lord Jesus has made it manifest that He regards you at an infinite estimation. He left His royal throne, He left His royal courts, He clothed His divinity with humanity, and died a shameful death upon the cross of Calvary, that you might be saved.--The Review and Herald, June 29, 1897.
------------------------Willfully Rejecting the Spirit, January 28
YRP	36	1	And whosever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Matthew 12:32.
YRP	36	2	It was just before this that Jesus had a second time performed the miracle of healing a man possessed, blind and dumb, and the Pharisees had reiterated the charge, "He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils" (Matthew 9:34). Christ told them plainly that in attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan, they were cutting themselves off from the fountain of blessing. Those who had spoken against Jesus Himself, not discerning His divine character, might receive forgiveness; for through the Holy Spirit they might be brought to see their error and repent. Whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes, the guilt is washed away in the blood of Christ; but he who rejects the work of the Holy Spirit is placing himself where repentance and faith cannot come to him.
YRP	36	3	It is by the Spirit that God works upon the heart; when men willfully reject the Spirit, and declare Him to be from Satan, they cut off the channel by which God can communicate with them. When the Spirit is finally rejected, there is no more that God can do for the soul....
YRP	36	4	It is not God that blinds the eyes of men or hardens their hearts. He sends them light to correct their errors, and to lead them in safe paths; it is by the rejection of this light that the eyes are blinded and the heart hardened. Often the process is gradual, and almost imperceptible. Light comes to the soul through God's Word, through His servants, or by the direct agency of His Spirit; but when one ray of light is disregarded, there is a partial benumbing of the spiritual perceptions, and the second revealing of light is less clearly discerned. So the darkness increases, until it is night in the soul. Thus it had been with these Jewish leaders. They were convinced that a divine power attended Christ, but in order to resist the truth, they attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan. In doing this they deliberately chose deception; they yielded themselves to Satan, and henceforth they were controlled by his power.--The Desire of Ages, 321-323.
------------------------Now Is the Time for Repentance, January 29
YRP	37	1	We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) 2 Corinthians 6:1, 2.
YRP	37	2	Brother P, you ask if you have committed the sin which has no forgiveness in this life or in the life to come. I answer: I do not see the slightest evidence that this is the case. What constitutes the sin against the Holy Ghost? It is willfully attributing to Satan the work of the Holy Spirit. For example, suppose that one is a witness of the special work of the Spirit of God. He has convincing evidence that the work is in harmony with the Scriptures, the Spirit witnesses with his spirit that it is of God. Afterward, however, he falls under temptation; pride, self-sufficiency, or some other evil trait controls him; and rejecting all the evidence of its divine character, he declares that which he had before acknowledged to be the power of the Holy Spirit was the power of Satan.
YRP	37	3	It is through the medium of His Spirit that God works upon the human heart; and when men willfully reject the Spirit and declare it to be from Satan, they cut off the channel by which God can communicate with them. By denying the evidence which God has been pleased to give them, they shut out the light which had been shining in their hearts, and as the result are left in darkness. Thus the words of Christ are verified: "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:23). For a time, persons who have committed this sin may appear to be children of God; but when circumstances arise to develop character and show what manner of spirit they are of, it will be found that they are on the enemy's ground, standing under his black banner.
YRP	37	4	My brother, the Spirit invites you today. Come with your whole heart to Jesus. Repent of your sins, make confession to God, forsake all iniquity, and you may appropriate to yourself all His promises. "Look unto me, and be ye saved" (Isaiah 45:22) is His gracious invitation.--Testimonies for the Church 5:634.
------------------------The Spirit Patiently Waits, January 30
YRP	38	1	Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20.
YRP	38	2	All, from the oldest to the youngest, need to be taught of God. We may be taught by man to see the truth clearly, but God alone can teach the heart to receive the truth savingly, which means to receive the words of eternal life into good and honest hearts. The Lord is waiting patiently to instruct every willing soul who will be taught. The fault is not with the willing Instructor, the greatest Teacher the world ever knew, but it is with the learner who holds to his own impressions and ideas, and will not give up his human theories and come in humility to be taught. He will not allow his conscience and his heart to be educated, disciplined, and trained--worked as the husbandman works the earth, and as the architect constructs the building. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9).
YRP	38	3	Everyone needs to be worked, molded, and fashioned after the divine similitude. Christ tells you, my dear friends, young and old, the everlasting truth, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. [If you do not take Christ's word as the man of your counsel, you will not reveal His wisdom or His spiritual life.] Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; ... For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him" (John 6:53-56). Said Christ, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (verse 63).
YRP	38	4	Those who search the Scriptures, and most earnestly seek to understand them, will reveal the sanctification of the Spirit through the belief of the truth, for they take into their very heart the truth, and have that faith that works by love and purifies the soul. All their spiritual sinew and muscle are nourished by the Bread of Life which they eat.--Manuscript Releases 8:162, 163.
------------------------The Spirit Is Ever Waiting, January 31
YRP	39	1	But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26.
YRP	39	2	The Holy Spirit is ever waiting to do His office work upon the human heart. Those who desire to learn can place themselves in close connection with God, and the promise that the Comforter shall teach them all things, and bring all things to their remembrance, whatever Christ had said to His disciples when He was upon the earth will be fulfilled. But if we disconnect from God, we can be no longer students in the school of Christ. Then we shall feel no special burden for the souls for whom Christ has died.
YRP	39	3	It was most difficult for the disciples of Christ to keep His lessons distinct from the traditions and maxims of the rabbis, the scribes, and pharisees. The teachings which the disciples had been educated to respect as the voice of God held a power over their minds and molded their sentiments. The disciples could not be a living and shining light until they were freed from the influence of the sayings and commandments of men, and the words of Christ were deeply impressed upon their minds and hearts as distinct truths, as precious jewels, to be appreciated, loved, and acted upon.
YRP	39	4	Jesus came to the world, lived a holy life, and died, to leave to the church His legacy in the valuable treasures He entrusted to them. He made His disciples the depositaries of most precious doctrines, to be placed in the hands of His church unmixed with the errors and traditions of men. He revealed Himself to them as the light of the world, the Sun of righteousness. And He promised them the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father was to send in His name.--The Signs of the Times, November 16, 1891.
YRP	39	5	"I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you" (John 14:18). The divine Spirit that the world's Redeemer promised to send is the presence and power of God. He will not leave His people in the world destitute of His grace, to be buffeted by the enemy of God, and harassed by the oppression of the world; but He will come to them.--The Signs of the Times, November 23, 1891.
------------------------Born Again, February 1
YRP	40	1	Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.
YRP	40	2	Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). The whole life of Christ upon earth was lived for the purpose of manifesting the will of God on earth as it is in heaven. Said Christ, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.... Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:3-6).
YRP	40	3	Christ does not acknowledge any caste, color, or grade as necessary to become a subject of His kingdom. Admittance to His kingdom does not depend upon wealth or a superior heredity. But those who are born of the Spirit are the subjects of His kingdom. Spiritual character is that which will be recognized by Christ. His kingdom is not of this world. His subjects are those who are partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And this grace is given them of God.
YRP	40	4	Christ does not find His subjects fitted for His kingdom, but He qualifies them by His divine power. Those who have been dead in trespasses and sins are quickened to spiritual life. The faculties which God has given them for holy purposes are refined, purified, and exalted, and they are led to form characters after the divine similitude. Though they have misapplied their talents and made them serve sin; though Christ has been to them a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, because they stumbled at the Word, being disobedient, yet by the drawing of His love they are led at last into the path of duty. Christ said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).
YRP	40	5	Christ draws them to Himself by an unseen power. He is the light of life, and He imbues them with His own Spirit. As they are drawn into the spiritual atmosphere, they see that they have been made the sport of Satan's temptations, and that they have been under his dominion; but they break the yoke of fleshly lusts, and refuse to be the servants of sin. Satan strives to hold them. He assails them with various temptations; but the Spirit works to renew them after the image of Him who created them.--The Review and Herald, March 26, 1895.
------------------------Chosen to Be Saved, February 2
YRP	41	1	According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Ephesians 1:4.
YRP	41	2	We are to believe that we are chosen of God to be saved by the exercise of faith, through the grace of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit; and we are to praise and glorify God for such a marvelous manifestation of His unmerited favor. It is the love of God that draws the soul to Christ to be graciously received and presented to His Father. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, the divine relationship between God and the sinner is renewed. Our heavenly Father says, "I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people. I will exercise forgiving love toward them, and bestow upon them My joy. They shall be to Me a peculiar treasure; for this people whom I have formed for Myself shall show forth My praise" (see: Jeremiah 30:22; 31:1, 33; Exodus 19:5).
YRP	41	3	Christ is calling souls to come unto Him, and it is for our present and eternal interest to hear and respond to the call. Jesus says, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you" (John 15:16). Then let all who would be called children of God respond to the invitation of Christ, and place themselves where the light of heaven will shine upon them, where they will realize what it is to be hearers and doers of the words of Christ, what it is to follow the Light of the world, and be accepted in the Beloved.
YRP	41	4	Everything that God could do has been done for the salvation of man. In one rich gift He poured out the treasures of heaven. He invites, He pleads, He urges; but He will not compel men to come unto Him. He waits for their cooperation. He waits for the consent of the will, that He may bestow upon the sinner the riches of His grace, reserved for him from the foundation of the world.... The Lord does not design that human power should be paralyzed; but that by cooperation with God, man may become a more efficient agent in His hands.... The Lord holds out to man the privilege of copartnership with Himself.--The Messenger, April 26, 1893.
------------------------A Temple for the Spirit, February 3
YRP	42	1	What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.
YRP	42	2	A power above and outside of man is to work upon him, that solid timbers may be brought into his character building. In the inner sanctuary of the soul the presence of God is to abide. "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (2 Corinthians 6:16). "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Corinthians 3:16, 17)....
YRP	42	3	"For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord; ... in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:18-22).
YRP	42	4	Man does not build himself into a habitation for the Spirit, but unless there is a cooperation of man's will with God's will, the Lord can do nothing for him. The Lord is the great Master Worker, and yet the human agent must cooperate with the Divine Worker, or the heavenly building cannot be completed. All the power is of God, and all the glory is to redound to God, and yet all the responsibility rests with the human agent; for God can do nothing without the cooperation of man.--The Review and Herald, October 25, 1892.
------------------------Partakers of the Divine Nature, February 4
YRP	43	1	Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
YRP	43	2	A healthy Christian is one who has Christ formed within, the hope of glory. He loves truth, purity, and holiness, and will manifest spiritual vitality, having love for the Word of God, and seeking communion with those who are acquainted with the Word, in order that he may catch every ray of light that God has communicated to them, which reveals Christ and makes Him more precious to the soul. He who has sound faith finds that Christ is the life of the soul, that He is in him as a well of water springing up unto everlasting life, and he delights to conform every power of the soul to the obedience of his Lord. The Holy Spirit with its vivifying influence ever keeps such a soul in the love of God.
YRP	43	3	To the Christian it is written: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:2-11).--The Review and Herald, December 11, 1894.
------------------------Clay in the Hands of the Potter, February 5
YRP	44	1	And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. Jeremiah 18:4-6.
YRP	44	2	I lay down my pen and lift up my soul in prayer, that the Lord would breathe upon His backslidden people, which are as dry bones, that they may live. The end is near, stealing upon us so stealthily, so imperceptibly, so noiselessly, like the muffled tread of the thief in the night to surprise the sleepers off guard and unready. May the Lord grant to bring His Holy Spirit upon hearts that are now at ease, that they may no longer sleep as do others, but watch and be sober.
YRP	44	3	Who will consent even now, after wasting much of his lifetime, to give his will as clay into the hands of the Potter, and cooperate with God in becoming in His hands molded a vessel unto honor? Oh, how must the clay be in the hands of the Potter, how susceptible to receive divine impressions, standing in the bright beams of righteousness. No earthly, no selfish motives should be suffered to live, for if you give them place, you cannot be hewn into the divine image. The spirit of truth sanctifies the soul.
YRP	44	4	When the greatness of this work is comprehended, it will bring even the thoughts into captivity to Christ. This is beyond our private comprehension, but thus it will be. Then is it wisdom on our part to put dependence on our own works? We must let God work for us. Is there any excellency that appears in our characters or our conduct? Does it originate with finite human beings? No; it is all from God, the great center or expression of the power of the potter over the clay.
YRP	44	5	Oh, that those whom the Lord has blessed with the treasures of truth would awake and say from the heart, "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6). Light is increasing to enlighten every soul who will diffuse the light to others.--The General Conference Daily Bulletin, February 4, 1893.
------------------------Dry Bones Vivified, February 6
YRP	45	1	And [I] shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord. Ezekiel 37:14.
YRP	45	2	It is not the human agent that is to inspire with life. The Lord God of Israel will do that part, quickening the lifeless spiritual nature into activity. The breath of the Lord of hosts must enter into the lifeless bodies. In the judgment, when all secrets are laid bare, it will be known that the voice of God spoke through the human agent, and aroused the torpid conscience, and stirred the lifeless faculties, and moved sinners to repentance and contrition, and forsaking of sins. It will then be clearly seen that through the human agent faith in Jesus Christ was imparted to the soul, and spiritual life from heaven was breathed upon one who was dead in trespasses and sins, and he was quickened with spiritual life.
YRP	45	3	But not only does this simile of the dry bones apply to the world, but also to those who have been blessed with great light; for they also are like the skeletons of the valley. They have the form of men, the framework of the body; but they have not spiritual life. But the parable does not leave the dry bones merely knit together into the forms of men; for it is not enough that there is symmetry of limb and feature. The breath of life must vivify the bodies, that they may stand upright, and spring into activity. These bones represent the house of Israel, the church of God, and the hope of the church is the vivifying influence of the Holy Spirit. The Lord must breathe upon the dry bones, that they may live.
YRP	45	4	The Spirit of God, with its vivifying power, must be in every human agent, that every spiritual muscle and sinew may be in exercise. Without the Holy Spirit, without the breath of God, there is torpidity of conscience, loss of spiritual life. Many who are without spiritual life have their names on the church records, but they are not written in the Lamb's book of life. They may be joined to the church, but they are not united to the Lord. They may be diligent in the performance of a certain set of duties, and may be regarded as living men; but many are among those who have "a name that thou livest, and art dead" (Revelation 3:1).--The SDA Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 4, 1165, 1166.
------------------------Weak Souls Strengthened, February 7
YRP	46	1	Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Romans 8:12, 13.
YRP	46	2	The promise of the Holy Spirit is not limited to any age or to any race. Christ declared that the divine influence of His Spirit was to be with His followers unto the end. From the day of Pentecost to the present time, the Comforter has been sent to all who have yielded themselves fully to the Lord and to His service. To all who have accepted Christ as a personal Saviour, the Holy Spirit has come as a counselor, sanctifier, guide, and witness. The more closely believers have walked with God, the more clearly and powerfully have they testified of their Redeemer's love and of His saving grace. The men and women who through the long centuries of persecution and trial enjoyed a large measure of the presence of the Spirit in their lives have stood as signs and wonders in the world. Before angels and men they have revealed the transforming power of redeeming love.
YRP	46	3	Those who at Pentecost were endued with power from on high, were not thereby freed from further temptation and trial. As they witnessed for truth and righteousness they were repeatedly assailed by the enemy of all truth, who sought to rob them of their Christian experience. They were compelled to strive with all their God-given powers to reach the measure of the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. Daily they prayed for fresh supplies of grace, that they might reach higher and still higher toward perfection. Under the Holy Spirit's working even the weakest, by exercising faith in God, learned to improve their entrusted powers and to become sanctified, refined, and ennobled. As in humility they submitted to the molding influence of the Holy Spirit, they received of the fullness of the Godhead and were fashioned in the likeness of the divine.--The Acts of the Apostles, 49, 50.
------------------------Divine Image Restored, February 8
YRP	47	1	And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:23, 24.
YRP	47	2	In the plan of restoring in men the divine image, it was provided that the Holy Spirit should move upon human minds, and be as the presence of Christ, a molding agency upon human character. Receiving the truth, men become also recipients of the grace of Christ, and devote their sanctified human ability to the work in which Christ was engaged--men become laborers together with God. It is to make men agents for God, that divine truth is brought home to their understanding. But I would inquire of the church, Have you answered this purpose? Have you fulfilled the design of God in diffusing the light of divine truth, in scattering abroad the precious jewels of truth?
YRP	47	3	What must be the thoughts of the angels of God as they look upon the church of Christ, and see how slow is the action of those who profess to be the followers of Christ, to impart the light of truth to the world which lies in moral darkness? Heavenly intelligences know that the cross is the great center of attraction. They know that it is through the cross that fallen man is to receive the atonement, and to be brought into unity with God. The councils of heaven are looking upon you who claim to have accepted Christ as your personal Saviour, to see you make known the salvation of God to those who sit in darkness. They are looking to see you making known the significance of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit; how that through the working of this divine agency the minds of men, corrupted and defiled by sin, may become disenchanted with the lies and presentations of Satan, and turn to Christ as their only hope, their personal Saviour.
YRP	47	4	Christ says: "I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:16). As Christ's ambassador, I would entreat of all who read these lines to take heed while it is called today. "If ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts" (Hebrews 4:7). Without waiting a moment, inquire, What am I to Christ? What is Christ to me? What is my work? What is the character of the fruit I bear?--The Review and Herald, February 12, 1895.
------------------------The Heart Changed, February 9
YRP	48	1	A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. Ezekiel 36:26, 27.
YRP	48	2	The heart of man may be the abode of the Holy Spirit. The peace of Christ that passeth understanding may rest in your soul, and the transforming power of His grace may work in your life, and fit you for the courts of glory. But if brain and nerve and muscle are all employed in the service of self, you are not making God and heaven the first consideration of your life. It is impossible to be weaving the graces of Christ into your character while you are putting all your energies on the side of the world.
YRP	48	3	You may be successful in heaping up treasure on the earth, for the glory of self; but "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21). Eternal considerations will be made of secondary importance. You may take part in the outward forms of worship; but your service will be an abomination to the God of heaven. You cannot serve God and mammon. You will either yield your heart and put your will on the side of God, or you will give your energies to the service of the world. God will accept no half-hearted service.
YRP	48	4	"The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light" (Luke 11:34). If the eye is single, if it is directed heavenward, the light of heaven will fill the soul, and earthly things will appear insignificant and uninviting. The purpose of the heart will be changed, and the admonition of Jesus will be heeded. You will lay up your treasure in heaven. Your thoughts will be fixed upon the great rewards of eternity. All your plans will be made in reference to the future, immortal life. You will be drawn toward your treasure. You will not study your worldly interest; but in all your pursuits the silent inquiry will be "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6).--The Review and Herald, January 24, 1888.
------------------------Lips Are Sanctified, February 10
YRP	49	1	And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Isaiah 6:7.
YRP	49	2	By His heavenly gifts the Lord has made ample provision for His people. An earthly parent cannot give his child a sanctified character. He cannot transfer his character to his child. God alone can transform us. Christ breathed on His disciples, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John 20:22). This is the great gift of heaven. Christ imparted to them through the Spirit His own sanctification. He imbued them with His power, that they might win souls to the gospel. Henceforth Christ would live through their faculties, and speak through their words. They were privileged to know that hereafter He and they were to be one. They must cherish His principles and be controlled by His Spirit. They were no longer to follow their own way, to speak their own words. The words they spoke were to proceed from a sanctified heart, and fall from sanctified lips. No longer were they to live their own selfish life; Christ was to live in them and speak through them. He would give to them the glory that He had with the Father, that He and they might be one in God.
YRP	49	3	The Lord Jesus is our great high priest, our advocate in the courts of heaven. The solemn position in which we stand to Him as worshipers is not appreciated. For our present and eternal good we need to understand this relation. If we are His children we are bound together in the bonds of Christian brotherhood, loving one another as He has loved us, united in the sacred relation of those washed in the blood of the Lamb. Bound up with Christ in God, we are to love as brethren.
YRP	49	4	Thank God that we have a great High Priest, who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Christ has not entered into the holy place made with hands, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. By virtue of His own blood He entered in once for all into the holy place above, having obtained eternal redemption for us.--General Conference Bulletin, October 1, 1899, fourth quarter 1899.
------------------------The Mind Renewed, February 11
YRP	50	1	And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2.
YRP	50	2	The part man has to act in the salvation of the soul is to believe on Jesus Christ as a perfect Redeemer, not for some other man, but for his own self. He is to trust, to love, to fear the God of heaven. There is a certain work to be accomplished. Man must be delivered from the power of sin. He must be made perfect in every good work. In doing the words of Christ is his only assurance that his house is built upon the solid foundation. To hear, to say, to preach, and not to do the words of Christ is building upon the sand.
YRP	50	3	Those who do the words of Christ will perfect a Christian character, because Christ's will is their will. Thus is Christ formed within, the hope of glory. They are beholding, as in a glass, the glory of God. By our making Christ the subject of meditation, He will become the subject of conversation; and by beholding, we will actually be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord. Man, fallen man, may be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that he can "prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." How does he prove this? By the Holy Spirit taking possession of his mind, spirit, heart, and character. Where does the proving come in? "We are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men" (1 Corinthians 4:9).
YRP	50	4	A real work is wrought by the Holy Spirit upon the human character, and its fruits are seen; just as a good tree will bear good fruit, so will the tree that is actually planted in the Lord's garden produce good fruit unto eternal life. Besetting sins are overcome; evil thoughts are not allowed in the mind; evil habits are purged from the soul temple. The tendencies, which have been biased in a wrong direction, are turned in a right direction. Wrong dispositions and feelings are rooted out. Holy tempers and sanctified emotions are now the fruit borne upon the Christian tree. An entire transformation has taken place. This is the work to be wrought.--Elder E. P. Daniels and the Fresno Church, 8, 9.
------------------------Self Crucified, February 12
YRP	51	1	I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20.
YRP	51	2	Candidly and seriously we are to consider the question, Have we humbled ourselves before God, that the Holy Spirit may work through us with transforming power? As children of God, it is our privilege to be worked by His Spirit. When self is crucified, the Holy Spirit takes the brokenhearted ones, and makes them vessels unto honor. They are in His hands as clay in the hands of the potter. Jesus Christ will make such men and women superior in mental, physical, and moral power. The graces of the Spirit will give solidity to the character. They will exert an influence for good because Christ is abiding in the soul.
YRP	51	3	Unless this converting power shall go through our churches, unless the revival of the Spirit of God shall come, all their profession will never make the members of the church Christians. There are sinners in Zion who need to repent of sins that have been cherished as precious treasures. Until these sins are seen, and thrust from the soul, until every faulty, unlovely trait of character is transformed by the Spirit's influence, God cannot manifest Himself in power. There is more hope for the open sinner than for the professedly righteous who are not pure, holy, and undefiled....
YRP	51	4	Who is willing to take himself in hand? Who is willing to lay his finger upon his cherished idols of sin, and allow Christ to purify the temple by casting out the buyers and sellers? Who is prepared to allow Jesus to enter the soul and cleanse it from everything that tarnishes or corrupts? The standard is "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). God calls upon men and women to empty their hearts of self. Then His Spirit can find unobstructed entrance. Stop trying to do the work yourself. Ask God to work in and through you until the words of the apostle become yours, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."--Manuscript Releases 1:366, 367.
------------------------Thoughts Transformed, February 13
YRP	52	1	Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8.
YRP	52	2	We have each of us an individual work to do, to gird up the loins of our minds, to be sober, to watch unto prayer. The mind must be firmly controlled to dwell upon subjects that will strengthen the moral powers. The youth should begin early to cultivate correct habits of thought. We should discipline the mind to think in a healthful channel, and not permit it to dwell upon things that are evil. The psalmist exclaims, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer" (Psalm 19:14).
YRP	52	3	As God works upon the heart by His Holy Spirit, man must cooperate with Him. The thoughts must be bound about, restricted, withdrawn from branching out and contemplating things that will only weaken and defile the soul. The thoughts must be pure, the meditations of the heart must be clean, if the words of the mouth are to be words acceptable to heaven, and helpful to your associates. Christ said to the Pharisees, "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matthew 12:34-37).
YRP	52	4	In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ presented before His disciples the far-reaching principles of the law of God. He taught His hearers that the law was transgressed by the thoughts before the evil desire was carried out in actual commission. We are under obligation to control our thoughts, and to bring them into subjection to the law of God.--The Review and Herald, June 12, 1888.
------------------------Tastes Are Changed, February 14
YRP	53	1	That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Ephesians 4:22.
YRP	53	2	John says, "The light"--Christ--"shineth in darkness," that is, in the world, "and the darkness comprehended it not.... But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:5-13). The reason why the unbelieving world is not saved is that they do not choose to be enlightened. The old nature, born of blood and the will of the flesh, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The old ways, the hereditary tendencies, the former habits, must be given up; for grace is not inherited. The new birth consists in having new motives, new tastes, new tendencies.
YRP	53	3	Those who are begotten unto a new life by the Holy Spirit have become partakers of the divine nature, and in all their habits and practices, they will give evidence of their relationship to Christ. When men who claim to be Christians retain all their natural defects of character and disposition, in what does their position differ from that of the worldling? They do not appreciate the truth as a sanctifier, a refiner. They have not been born again....
YRP	53	4	Let none feel that their way needs no changing. Those who decide thus are not fitted to engage in the work of God, for they will not feel the necessity of pressing constantly toward a higher standard, making continual improvement. None can walk safely unless they are distrustful of self, and are constantly looking to the work of God, studying it with willing heart to see their own errors, and to learn the will of Christ, and praying that it may be done in and by and through them. They show that their confidence is not in themselves, but in Christ. They hold the truth as a sacred treasure, able to sanctify and refine, and they are constantly seeking to bring their words and ways into harmony with its principles. They fear and tremble lest something savoring of self shall be idolized, and thus their defects be reproduced in others who confide in them. They are always seeking to subdue self, to put away everything that savors of it, and to supply the place with the meekness and lowliness of Christ. They are looking unto Jesus, growing up into Him, gathering from Him light and grace, that they may diffuse the same to others.--The Review and Herald, April 12, 1892.
------------------------Temper Is Subdued, February 15
YRP	54	1	Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. James 3:13.
YRP	54	2	Meekness in the school of Christ is one of the marked fruits of the Spirit. It is a grace wrought by the Holy Spirit as a sanctifier, and enables its possessor at all times to control a rash and impetuous temper. When the grace of meekness is cherished by those who are naturally sour or hasty in disposition, they will put forth the most earnest efforts to subdue their unhappy temper. Every day they will gain self-control, until that which is unlovely and unlike Jesus is conquered. They become assimilated to the divine Pattern, until they can obey the inspired injunction, "Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (James 1:19).
YRP	54	3	When a man professes to be sanctified, and yet in words and works may be represented by the impure fountain sending forth its bitter waters, we may safely say, that man is deceived. He needs to learn the very alphabet of what constitutes the life of a Christian. Some who profess to be servants to Christ have so long cherished the demon of unkindness that they seem to love the unhallowed element, and to take pleasure in speaking words that displease and irritate. These men must be converted, before Christ will acknowledge them as His children.
YRP	54	4	Meekness is the inward adorning, which God estimates as of great price. The apostle speaks of this as more excellent and valuable than gold, or pearls, or costly array. While the outward adorning beautifies only the mortal body, the ornament of meekness adorns the soul, and connects finite man with the infinite God. This is the ornament of God's own choice. He who garnished the heavens with the orbs of light has by the same Spirit promised that He will "beautify the meek with salvation" (Psalm 149:4). Angels of heaven will register as best adorned, those who put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and walk with Him in meekness and lowliness of mind.--The Review and Herald, January 18, 1881.
------------------------Pride Is Broken, February 16
YRP	55	1	For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Romans 12:3.
YRP	55	2	The acceptance of truth is one of God's means of sanctification. The more clearly we understand the truth that He sends to us, and the more faithfully we obey it, the more humble shall we be in our own estimation, and the more exalted shall we be in the estimation of the heavenly universe. The more unselfish our efforts for God, the more Christlike will be their influence, and the greater will be the good they will accomplish.
YRP	55	3	There is a wide difference between the spirit of the world and the spirit of Christ. One leads to self-seeking, to striving for treasures that will be destroyed by the fires of the last day; the other leads to self-denial and self-sacrifice, to striving for the treasures that never perish.
YRP	55	4	The Holy Spirit, received by faith, breaks stubborn hearts. This is the soul and power of the sanctification of the truth, the source of the faith that works by love and purifies the heart. All true exaltation grows out of the humiliation developed in the life of Christ, shown by the wonderful sacrifice that He made to save perishing souls. He who is exalted by God must first humble himself. God has exalted Christ above every name that is named. But Christ first reached to the very depths of human woe, weaving Himself into the sympathies of the race by His meekness and gentleness. He has set an example that all who engage in His service are to follow.
YRP	55	5	"Learn of me," said the greatest Teacher that the world has ever known. "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29). It is not enough for us to read the Word of God. The Scriptures are given for our instruction, and we are to search them carefully and diligently. We are to study the Word of God, comparing one portion with another. Scripture is the key that unlocks scripture. As we read and study and pray, there is beside us a divine Teacher, the Holy Spirit, enlightening our understanding, that we may comprehend the great truths of God's Word.--Pacific Union Recorder, February 23, 1905.
------------------------The House Cleansed, February 17
YRP	56	1	Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10.
YRP	56	2	"Create in me a clean heart." This is beginning right, at the very foundation of Christian character; for out of the heart are the issues of life. If all, ministers and people, would see to it that their hearts are right with God, we should see much larger results from the labor put forth. The more important and responsible your work, the greater the necessity that you have clean hearts. The needed grace is provided, and the power of the Holy Spirit will work with every effort you make in this direction.
YRP	56	3	If every child of God would seek Him earnestly and perseveringly, there would be a greater growth in grace. Dissensions would cease; believers would be of one heart and one mind; and purity and love would prevail in the church. By beholding we become changed. The more you contemplate the character of Christ, the more you will become conformed to His image. Come to Jesus just as you are, and He will receive you, and put a new song in your mouth, even praise to God.
YRP	56	4	"Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me" (Psalm 51:11). Repentance as well as forgiveness is the gift of God through Christ. It is through the influence of the Holy Spirit that we are convinced of sin, and feel our need of pardon. None but the contrite are forgiven; but it is the grace of the Lord that makes the heart penitent. He is acquainted with all our weaknesses and infirmities, and He will help us. He will hear the prayer of faith; but the sincerity of prayer can be proved only by our efforts to bring ourselves into harmony with the great moral standard which will test every man's character.
YRP	56	5	We need to open our hearts to the influence of the Spirit, and to experience its transforming power. The reason that you do not receive more of the saving help of God is because the channel of communication between Heaven and your own souls is clogged by worldliness, love of display, and desire for supremacy. While some are conforming more and more to the world's customs and maxims, we should be molding our lives after the divine model. And our covenant-keeping God will restore unto us the joys of His salvation, and uphold us by His free Spirit.--The Review and Herald, June 24, 1884.
------------------------A Christlike Character, February 18
YRP	57	1	For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3.
YRP	57	2	Jesus is the perfect pattern. Instead of trying to please self and have our own way, let us seek to reflect His image. He was kind and courteous, compassionate and tender. Are we like Him in these respects? Do we seek to make our lives fragrant with good works? What we need is the simplicity of Christ. I fear that in many cases a hard, unfeeling spirit, that is entirely unlike that of the divine Pattern, has taken possession of the heart. This cast-iron principle, which has been cherished by so many, and which has even been thought a virtue, must all be removed, that we may love one another as Christ has loved us.
YRP	57	3	It is not enough that we merely profess the faith; something more than a nominal assent is wanted. There must be a real knowledge, a genuine experience in the principles of the truth as it is in Jesus. The Holy Spirit must work within, bringing these principles into the strong light of distinct consciousness, that we may know their power and make them a living reality. The mind must yield obedience to the royal law of liberty, the law which the Spirit of God impresses upon the heart, and makes plain to the understanding. The expulsion of sin must be the act of the soul itself, in calling into exercise its noblest powers. The only freedom a finite will can enjoy consists in coming into harmony with the will of God, complying with the conditions that make man a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust....
YRP	57	4	The human character is depraved, deformed by sin, and terribly unlike that of the first man as he came from the hands of the Creator. Jesus proposes to take man's deformity and sin, and to give him, in return, beauty and excellence in his own character. He engages to renovate the soul through the truth. Error cannot do this work of regeneration; therefore we must have spiritual eyesight to discern between truth and falsehood, that we fall not into the snare of the enemy.--The Review and Herald, November 24, 1885.
------------------------Having the Mind of Christ, February 19
YRP	58	1	For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16.
YRP	58	2	As the man is converted by the truth, the work of transformation of character goes on. He has an increased measure of understanding, in becoming a man of obedience to God. The mind and will of God become his will, and by constantly looking to God for counsel, he becomes a man of increased understanding. There is a general development of the mind that is unreservedly placed under the guidance of the Spirit of God.
YRP	58	3	This is not a one-sided education, which develops a one-sided character; but there is revealed a harmoniously developed character. Weaknesses that have been seen in the powerless, vacillating character are overcome, and continual devotion and piety bring the man in such close relation to Jesus Christ that he has the mind of Christ. He is one with Christ, having soundness and strength of principle, and clearness of perception, which is that wisdom that comes from God, who is the source of all light and understanding.
YRP	58	4	The grace of God has fallen upon the humble, obedient, conscientious soul like the Sun of righteousness, strengthening the mental faculties, and in the most astonishing manner making those who long to use their capacity in the Master's service, small though it may be, strong continually by obedience and practice, and grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and be bearers of much fruit to the glory of God, in good works. So that the men of learning and of high accomplishments have learned most precious lessons from the precepts and examples of the unlearned, as the world would call them. But could they have a deeper sight, it would be seen that they had obtained knowledge in the highest graded school, even the school of Jesus Christ.... The opening of God's Word is followed by remarkable opening in strengthening a man's faculties; for the entrance of God's Word is the application of divine truth to the heart, purifying and refining the soul through the agency of the Holy Spirit.--The Review and Herald, July 19, 1887.
------------------------Abiding in Him, February 20
YRP	59	1	Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John 15:4.
YRP	59	2	We need to pray for the impartation of the divine Spirit as the remedy for sin-sick souls. The surface truths of revelation, made plain and easy to be understood, are accepted by many as supplying all that is essential; but the Holy Spirit, working upon the mind, awakens an earnest desire for truth uncorrupted by error. He who is really desirous to know what is truth cannot remain in ignorance; for precious truth rewards the diligent seeker. We need to feel the converting power of God's grace, and I urge all who have closed their heart against God's Spirit to unlock the door, and plead earnestly, Abide with me. Why should we not prostrate ourselves at the throne of divine grace, praying that God's Spirit may be poured out upon us as it was upon the disciples? Its presence will soften our hard hearts, and fill us with joy and rejoicing, transforming us into channels of blessing.
YRP	59	3	The Lord would have every one of His children rich in faith, and this faith is the fruit of the working of the Holy Spirit upon the mind. It dwells with each soul who will receive it, speaking to the impenitent in words of warning, and pointing them to Jesus, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. It causes light to shine into the minds of those who are seeking to cooperate with God, giving them efficiency and wisdom to do His work.
YRP	59	4	The Holy Spirit never leaves unassisted a soul who is looking to Jesus. It takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to the seeker. And if the eye is kept fixed upon Jesus, the work of the Spirit ceases not until the soul is conformed to His image. Through the gracious influence of the Spirit the sinner is changed in spirit and purpose, till he becomes one with Christ. His affection for God increases; he hungers and thirsts for righteousness, and by beholding Christ he is changed from glory to glory, from character to character, and becomes more and more like his Master.--The Signs of the Times, September 27, 1899.
------------------------Beholding Him, February 21
YRP	60	1	Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. Isaiah 45:22.
YRP	60	2	In order to meet the requirement of the law, our faith must grasp the righteousness of Christ, accepting it as our righteousness. Through union with Christ, through acceptance of His righteousness by faith, we may be qualified to work the works of God, to be colaborers with Christ. If you are willing to drift along with the current of evil, and do not cooperate with the heavenly agencies in restraining transgression in your family, and in the church, in order that everlasting righteousness may be brought in, you do not have faith.
YRP	60	3	Faith works by love and purifies the soul. Through faith the Holy Spirit works in the heart to create holiness therein; but this cannot be done unless the human agent will work with Christ. We can be fitted for heaven only through the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart; for we must have Christ's righteousness as our credentials if we would find access to the Father. In order that we may have the righteousness of Christ, we need daily to be transformed by the influence of the Spirit, to be a partaker of the divine nature. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to elevate the taste, to sanctify the heart, to ennoble the whole man.
YRP	60	4	Let the soul look to Jesus. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). No one will be forced to look to Christ; but the voice of invitation is sounding in yearning entreaty, "Look and live." In looking to Christ, we shall see that His love is without a parallel, that He has taken the place of the guilty sinner, and has imputed unto him His spotless righteousness.
YRP	60	5	When the sinner sees his Saviour dying upon the cross under the curse of sin in his stead, beholding His pardoning love, love awakes in his heart. The sinner loves Christ, because Christ has first loved him, and love is the fulfilling of the law. The repenting soul realizes that God "is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). The Spirit of God works in the believer's soul, enabling him to advance from one line of obedience to another, reaching on from strength to greater strength, from grace to grace in Christ Jesus.--The Review and Herald, November 1, 1892.
------------------------Complete in Him, February 22
YRP	61	1	And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. Colossians 2:10.
YRP	61	2	You cannot enter heaven with any deformity or imperfection of character, and you must be fitted for heaven now in this probationary life. If you would enter the abode of the righteous when Christ shall come, you must have the deep movings of the Spirit of God, that you may have an individual experience, and be complete in Him who is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Through the power of the righteousness of Christ, we are to depart from all iniquity. There must be a living connection of the soul with its Redeemer. The channel of communication must be open continually between man and his God, that the soul may grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord.
YRP	61	3	But how many do not pray. They feel under condemnation for sin, and they think they must not come to God until they have done something to merit His favor, or until God has forgotten about their transgressions. They say, "I cannot hold up holy hands before God without wrath or doubting, and therefore I cannot come." So they remain away from Christ, and are committing sin all the time in so doing, for without Him you can do nothing but evil.
YRP	61	4	Just as soon as you commit sin, you should flee to the throne of grace, and tell Jesus all about it. You should be filled with sorrow for sin, because through sin you have weakened your own spirituality, grieved the heavenly angels, and wounded and bruised the loving heart of your Redeemer. When you have asked Jesus in contrition of soul for His forgiveness, believe that He has forgiven you. Do not doubt His divine mercy, or refuse the comfort of His infinite love.
YRP	61	5	If your child had disobeyed you, and committed wrong against you, and that child should come with a breaking heart to ask forgiveness, you know what you would do. You know how quickly you would draw your child to your heart, and assure him that your love was unchanged, and his transgressions forgiven. Are you more merciful than your merciful heavenly Father, who so loved the world that He "gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life"? (John 3:16). You should go to God as children go to their parents.--The Bible Echo, February 1, 1892.
------------------------Resting in Him, February 23
YRP	62	1	Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:29.
YRP	62	2	While you have been walking in meekness and lowliness of heart, a work has been going on for you, a work which only God could do; for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And that good pleasure is to have you abide in Christ, rest in His love. You must not let anything rob your soul of peace, of restfulness, of the assurance that you are accepted just now. Appropriate every promise; all are yours on condition of your complying with the Lord's prescribed terms. Entire surrender of your ways, which seem so very wise, and taking Christ's ways, is the secret of perfect rest in His love.
YRP	62	3	Giving up one's life to Him means much more than we suppose. We must learn His meekness and lowliness before we realize the fulfillment of the promise "Ye shall find rest unto your souls." It is by learning the habits of Christ, His meekness, His lowliness, that self becomes transformed--by taking Christ's yoke upon you and then submitting to learn. There is no one who has not much to learn. All must come under training by Jesus Christ. When they fall upon Christ, their own hereditary and cultivated traits of character are taken away as hindrances to their being partakers of the divine nature. When self dies, then Christ lives in the human agent. He abides in Christ, and Christ lives in him.
YRP	62	4	Christ desires all to become His students. He says, Yield yourselves to My training; submit your souls unto Me. I will not extinguish you, but will work out for you such a character that you shall be transferred from the lower school to the higher grade. Submit all things to Me. Let My life, My patience, My longsuffering, My forbearance, My meekness, My lowliness, be worked out in your character, as one that abides in Me.... Then you have the promise not only "I will give," but "Ye shall find rest unto your souls."--Bible Training School, August 1, 1903.
------------------------Conformed to His Image, February 24
YRP	63	1	But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
YRP	63	2	Sin-burdened, struggling souls, Jesus in His glorified humanity has ascended into the heavens to make intercession for us. "For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace" (Hebrews 4:15, 16). We should be continually looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith; for by beholding Him we shall be changed into His image, our character will be made like His. We should rejoice that all judgment is given to the Son, because in His humanity He has become acquainted with all the difficulties that beset humanity.
YRP	63	3	To be sanctified is to become a partaker of the divine nature, catching the spirit and mind of Jesus, ever learning in the school of Christ. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord." It is impossible for any of us by our power or our own efforts to work this change in ourselves. It is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which Jesus said He would send into the world, that changes our character into the image of Christ; and when this is accomplished, we reflect, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. That is, the character of the one who thus beholds Christ is so like His, that one looking at him sees Christ's own character shining out as from a mirror. Imperceptibly to ourselves, we are changed day by day from our own ways and will into the ways and will of Christ, into the loveliness of His character. Thus we grow up into Christ, and unconsciously reflect His image.
YRP	63	4	Professed Christians keep altogether too near the lowlands of earth. Their eyes are trained to see only commonplace things, and their minds dwell upon the things their eyes behold. Their religious experience is often shallow and unsatisfying, and their words are light and valueless. How can such reflect the image of Christ? How can they send forth the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness into all the dark places of the earth? To be a Christian is to be Christlike.--The Review and Herald, April 28, 1891.
------------------------In Cooperation With the Spirit, February 25
YRP	64	1	Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12.
YRP	64	2	If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Nothing but divine power can regenerate the human heart and imbue souls with the love of Christ, which will ever manifest itself with love for those for whom He died. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. When a man is converted to God, a new moral taste is supplied, a new motive power is given, and he loves the things that God loves; for his life is bound up by the golden chain of the immutable promises to the life of Jesus. Love, joy, peace, and inexpressible gratitude will pervade the soul, and the language of him who is blessed will be, "Thy gentleness hath made me great" (Psalm 18:35).
YRP	64	3	But those who are waiting to behold a magical change in their characters without determined effort on their part to overcome sin will be disappointed. We have no reason to fear while looking to Jesus, no reason to doubt but that He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto Him; but we may constantly fear lest our old nature will again obtain the supremacy, that the enemy shall devise some snare whereby we shall again become his captives.
YRP	64	4	We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. With our limited powers we are to be as holy in our sphere as God is holy in His sphere. To the extent of our ability, we are to make manifest the truth and love and excellence of the divine character. As wax takes the impression of the seal, so the soul is to take the impression of the Spirit of God and retain the image of Christ.
YRP	64	5	We are to grow daily in spiritual loveliness. We shall fail often in our efforts to copy the divine Pattern. We shall often have to bow down to weep at the feet of Jesus, because of our shortcomings and mistakes; but we are not to be discouraged; we are to pray more fervently, believe more fully, and try again with more steadfastness to grow into the likeness of our Lord.--Selected Messages 1:336, 337.
------------------------Free From the Curse of Sin, February 26
YRP	65	1	But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. Romans 6:22.
YRP	65	2	The Lord would have His people sound in the faith--not ignorant of the great salvation so abundantly provided for them. They are not to look forward, thinking that at some future time a great work is to be done for them; for the work is now complete. The believer is not called upon to make his peace with God; he never has nor ever can do this. He is to accept Christ as his peace, for with Christ is God and peace. Christ made an end of sin, bearing its heavy curse in His own body on the tree, and He hath taken away the curse from all those who believe in Him as a personal Saviour. He makes an end of the controlling power of sin in the heart, and the life and character of the believer testify to the genuine character of the grace of Christ.
YRP	65	3	To those that ask Him, Jesus imparts the Holy Spirit; for it is necessary that every believer should be delivered from pollution, as well as from the curse and condemnation of the law. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, the sanctification of the truth, the believer becomes fitted for the courts of heaven; for Christ works within us, and His righteousness is upon us. Without this no soul will be entitled to heaven. We would not enjoy heaven unless qualified for its holy atmosphere by the influence of the Spirit and the righteousness of Christ.
YRP	65	4	In order to be candidates for heaven we must meet the requirement of the law: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself" (Luke 10:27). We can do this only as we grasp by faith the righteousness of Christ. By beholding Jesus we receive a living, expanding principle in the heart, and the Holy Spirit carries on the work, and the believer advances from grace to grace, from strength to strength, from character to character. He conforms to the image of Christ, until in spiritual growth he attains unto the measure of the full stature in Christ Jesus. Thus Christ makes an end of the curse of sin, and sets the believing soul free from its action and effect.--Selected Messages 1:394, 395.
------------------------Sanctified but Not Sinless, February 27
YRP	66	1	But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:30, 31.
YRP	66	2	Just here we might distinguish between genuine and false sanctification. Sanctification does not consist in merely professing and teaching the Word of God, but in living in conformity to His will. Those who claim to be sinless, and make their boast of sanctification, are self-confident, and do not realize their peril. They anchor their souls upon the supposition that having once experienced the sanctifying power of God, they are in no danger of falling. While claiming to be rich and increased in goods, and in need of nothing, they know not that they are miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.
YRP	66	3	But those who are truly sanctified have a sense of their own weakness. Feeling their need, they will go for light and grace and strength to Jesus, in whom all fullness dwells, and who alone can supply their wants. Conscious of their own imperfections, they seek to become more like Christ, and to live in accordance with the principles of His holy law. This continual sense of inefficiency will lead to such entire dependence upon God that His Spirit will be exemplified in them. The treasures of heaven will be opened to supply the wants of every hungering, thirsting soul. All of this character have the assurance of one day beholding the glory of that kingdom which as yet the imagination can only faintly grasp.
YRP	66	4	Those who have felt the sanctifying and transforming power of God must not fall into the dangerous error of thinking that they are sinless, that they have reached the highest state of perfection, and are beyond the reach of temptation. The standard the Christian is to keep before him is the purity and loveliness of Christ's character. Day by day he may be putting on new beauties, and reflecting to the world more and still more of the divine image.--The Bible Echo, February 21, 1898.
------------------------Always Growing, February 28
YRP	67	1	But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Proverbs 4:18.
YRP	67	2	At infinite cost, provision has been made that men shall reach the perfection of Christian character. Those who have been privileged to hear the truth, and have been impressed by the Holy Spirit to receive the Holy Scriptures as the voice of God, have no excuse for becoming dwarfs in the religious life. By exercising the ability which God has given, they are to be daily learning, and daily receiving spiritual fervor and power, which have been provided for every true believer. If we would be growing plants in the Lord's garden, we must have a constant supply of spiritual life and earnestness. Growth will then be seen in the faith and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no halfway house where we may throw off responsibility, and rest by the way. We are to keep advancing heavenward, developing a solid religious character.
YRP	67	3	The measure of the Holy Spirit we receive will be proportioned to the measure of our desire and the faith exercised for it, and the use we shall make of the light and knowledge that shall be given to us. We shall be entrusted with the Holy Spirit according to our capacity to receive and our ability to impart it to others. Christ says, "Every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth" (Luke 11:10).
YRP	67	4	He who truly seeks for the precious grace of Christ will be sure not to be disappointed. This promise has been given to us by Him who will not deceive us. It is not stated as a maxim or a theory, but as a fact, as a law of the divine government. We can be assured that we shall receive the Holy Spirit if we individually try the experiment of testing God's Word. God is true; His order is perfect. "He that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened" (verse 10). Light and truth will shine forth according to the desire of the soul. Oh, that all would hunger and thirst after righteousness, that they might be filled!--The Review and Herald, May 5, 1896.
------------------------Step by Step to Victory, February 29
YRP	68	1	I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 1 Corinthians 9:26, 27.
YRP	68	2	God leads His people on step by step. The Christian life is a battle and a march. In this warfare there is no release; the effort must be continuous and persevering. It is by unceasing endeavor that we maintain the victory over the temptations of Satan. Christian integrity must be sought with resistless energy and maintained with a resolute fixedness of purpose....
YRP	68	3	There is a science of Christianity to be mastered--a science as much deeper, broader, higher than any human science as the heavens are higher than the earth. The mind is to be disciplined, educated, trained; for we are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination. There are hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil that must be overcome. Often the training and education of a lifetime must be discarded, that one may become a learner in the school of Christ. Our hearts must be educated to become steadfast in God. We are to form habits of thought that will enable us to resist temptation. We must learn to look upward. The principles of the Word of God--principles that are as high as heaven, and that compass eternity--we are to understand in their bearing upon our daily life. Every act, every word, every thought, is to be in accord with these principles.
YRP	68	4	The precious graces of the Holy Spirit are not developed in a moment. Courage, fortitude, meekness, faith, unwavering trust in God's power to save, are acquired by the experience of years. By a life of holy endeavor and firm adherence to the right the children of God are to seal their destiny.
YRP	68	5	We have no time to lose. We know not how soon our probation may close. Eternity stretches before us. The curtain is about to be lifted. Christ is soon to come. The angels of God are seeking to attract us from ourselves and from earthly things. Let them not labor in vain.--Testimonies for the Church 8:313, 314.
------------------------A Holy Fragrance, March 1
YRP	69	1	Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. John 15:16.
YRP	69	2	In order to bear much fruit, we must make the most of our privileges and opportunities, becoming more and more spiritually minded. We must put away all commonness, all pride, all worldliness, and daily receive divine aid. If you grow spiritually, you must employ all the means which the gospel provides, and be prepared to gain in piety by the influence of the Holy Spirit; for the seed is developed from blade to full corn by unseen and supernatural agencies.
YRP	69	3	The promise with which Jesus consoled His disciples just before His betrayal and crucifixion was that of the Holy Spirit; and in the doctrine of divine influence and agency, what riches were revealed to them; for this blessing would bring in its train all other blessings. The Holy Spirit breathes upon the soul who humbly rests in Christ as the author and finisher of his faith; and from such a believer fruit will come forth unto life eternal. His influence will be fragrant, and the name of Jesus will be music in his ears, and melody in his heart.
YRP	69	4	The Christian will be a savor of life unto life to others, although he may not be able to explain the mysteries of his experience. But he will know that when clouds and darkness compassed him about, and he cried unto the Lord, the darkness was dispersed, and peace and joy were in the temple of the soul. He will know what it is to have the pardoning love of God revealed to the heart, to experience the peace that passeth all understanding, to have praise and thanksgiving and adoration welling up in the soul unto Him who has loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood. He has peace through Jesus Christ, and joy in the Holy Ghost. One with Christ, his soul is filled with submission to His will, and heaven is enshrined in his heart while he is enfolded in the bosom of infinite love. Christians of this order will bear much fruit to the glory of God. They will rightly interpret the character of God, and manifest His attributes unto the world.--The Signs of the Times, April 3, 1893.
------------------------Repentance, the First Fruit, March 2
YRP	70	1	Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Psalm 51:1, 2.
YRP	70	2	Repentance is one of the first fruits of saving grace. Our great Teacher, in His lessons to erring, fallen man, presents the life-giving power of His grace, declaring that through this grace men and women may live the new life of holiness and purity. He who lives this life works out the principles of the kingdom of heaven. Taught of God, he leads others in straight paths. He will not lead the lame into paths of uncertainty. The working of the Holy Spirit in his life shows that he is a partaker of the divine nature. Every soul thus worked by the Spirit of Christ receives so abundant a supply of the rich grace that, beholding his good works, the unbelieving world acknowledges that he is controlled and sustained by divine power, and is led to glorify God.--God's Amazing Grace, 138.
YRP	70	3	There are those who, notwithstanding all the gracious invitation of Christ, continue to reveal ungodliness in their lives. To such ones God says: "How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? ... Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you" (Proverbs 1:22, 23).--Signs of the Times, June 28, 1905.
YRP	70	4	Repentance for sin is the first fruits of the working of the Holy Spirit in the life. It is the only process by which infinite purity reflects the image of Christ in His redeemed subjects. In Christ all fullness dwells. Science that is not in harmony with Him is of no value. He teaches us to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. This knowledge is the highest science that any man can reach.--The SDA Bible Commentary, 6:1068, Ellen G. White Comments.
------------------------Love, March 3
YRP	71	1	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 1 John 3:1.
YRP	71	2	John says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." No language can express this love; we can describe but a faint degree of love that passeth knowledge. It would require the language of the Infinite to express the love that has made it possible for us to be called the sons of God. In becoming a Christian, a man does not step down. There is no shame in having connection with the living God.
YRP	71	3	Jesus bore the humiliation and shame and reproach that justly belonged to the sinner. He was the Majesty of heaven, He was the King of glory, He was equal with the Father; and yet He clothed His divinity with humanity, that humanity might touch humanity, that divinity might lay hold of divinity. Had He come as an angel, He could not have been a partaker with us of our sufferings, could not have been tempted in all points like as we are, He could not have sympathized with our sorrows; but He came in the garb of our humanity, that as our substitute and surety, He might overcome the prince of darkness in our behalf, and make us victors through His merits.
YRP	71	4	[As we stand] under the shadow of the cross of Calvary, the inspiration of His love fills our hearts. When I look upon Him whom my sins have pierced, the inspiration from on high comes upon me; and this inspiration may come upon each one of you through the Holy Spirit. Unless you receive the Holy Spirit, you cannot have the love of God in the soul; but through a living connection with Christ, we are inspired with love and zeal and earnestness.
YRP	71	5	We are not as a block of marble, which may reflect the light of the sun, but cannot be imbued with life. We are capable of responding to the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness; for as Christ illuminates our souls, He gives light and life. We drink in the love of Christ as the branch draws nourishment from the vine. If we are grafted into Christ, if fiber by fiber we have been united with the living Vine, we shall give evidence of this fact by bearing rich clusters of fruit.--The Review and Herald, September 27, 1892.
------------------------Joy, March 4
YRP	72	1	I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High. Psalm 9:1, 2.
YRP	72	2	We must have more faith. Let us begin to believe unto salvation. Let us come to God in faith, fully assured that as we surrender all to Him, He will make us Christlike in character. We must tell this to all over and over again. Then, one with Christ, we can reveal Him to the world. Then all our fitful, haphazard work will cease.
YRP	72	3	Let us honor God by showing firm faith and unswerving trust. Let us remember that He is not glorified by the manifestation of a fretful, unhappy spirit. The Lord cares for the flowers. He gives them beauty and fragrance. Will He not much more give us the fragrance of a cheerful disposition? Will He not restore in us the divine image? Then let us have faith in Him. Let us now, just now, place ourselves where He can give us His Holy Spirit. Then we can give to the world a revelation of what true religion does for men and women. The joy of a Saviour filling our hearts gives us that peace and confidence which enables us to say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth" (Job 19:25).
YRP	72	4	In His Word the Lord has made it plain that His people are a joyful people. True faith reaches up the hand and lays hold upon the One who is behind the promise "Great shall be the peace of thy children" (Isaiah 54:13). "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river" (Isaiah 66:12). "Behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy" (Isaiah 65:18). In God we may "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Peter 1:8). "Men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed" (Psalm 72:17). Let us strive to educate the believers to rejoice in the Lord. Spiritual joy is the result of active faith. God's people are to be full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Then He will be glorified in them.--Bible Training School, April 1, 1905.
------------------------Peace, March 5
YRP	73	1	Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6, 7.
YRP	73	2	The world's Redeemer sought to bring to the hearts of the sorrowing disciples the strongest solace. But from a large field of subjects, He chose the theme of the Holy Spirit, which was to inspire and comfort their hearts. And yet, though Christ made much of this theme concerning the Holy Spirit, how little is it dwelt upon in the churches! The name and presence of the Holy Spirit are almost ignored, yet the divine influence is essential in the work of perfecting the Christian character.
YRP	73	3	Some are not at peace, not at rest; they are in a state of constant fretfulness, and permit impulse and passion to rule their hearts. They know not what it means to experience peace and rest in Christ. They are as a ship without anchor, driven with the wind and tossed. But those whose minds are controlled by the Holy Spirit walk in humility and meekness; for they work in Christ's lines, and will be kept in perfect peace, while those who are not controlled by the Holy Spirit are like the restless sea.
YRP	73	4	The Lord has given us a divine directory by which we may know His will. Those who are self-centered, self-sufficient, do not feel their need of searching the Bible, and they are greatly disturbed if others do not have the same defective ideas, and see with the same distorted vision that they do. But he who is guided by the Holy Spirit has cast his anchor within the veil wherein Jesus has entered for us. He searches the Scriptures with eager earnestness, and seeks for light and knowledge to guide him amid the perplexities and perils which at every step compass his path. Those who are restless, complaining, murmuring, read the Bible for the purpose of vindicating their own course of action, and they ignore or pervert the counsels of God. He who has peace has placed his will on the side of God's will, and longs to follow the divine guidance.--The Signs of the Times, August 14, 1893.
------------------------Long-suffering, March 6
YRP	74	1	Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. Colossians 3:12.
YRP	74	2	The Captain of our salvation made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, in order that humanity might be allied to divinity. Man is to represent Christ. He is to be long-suffering toward his fellow men, to be patient, forgiving, and full of Christlike love. He who is truly converted will manifest respect for his brethren; he will do as Christ has commanded. Jesus said, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:34, 35). Where the love of Christ abounds in the soul, there will be an expression of that love that will be understood by the world....
YRP	74	3	Not all who name the name of Christ are one with Christ. Those who do not have the Spirit and the grace of Christ are none of His, no matter what may be their profession. By their fruits ye shall know them. The customs and practices that are after the order of the world do not carry out the principles of God's law, and therefore do not breathe of His Spirit nor express His character. Christlikeness will be revealed only by those who are assimilated to the divine image. Only those who are being molded through the operation of the Holy Spirit are doers of the Word of God, and express the mind and the will of God.
YRP	74	4	There is counterfeit Christianity in the world as well as genuine Christianity. The true spirit of a man is manifested by the way in which he deals with his fellow man. We may ask the question, Does he represent the character of Christ in spirit and action, or simply manifest the natural, selfish traits of character that belong to the people of this world? Profession weighs nothing with God. Before it is everlastingly too late for wrongs to be righted, let each one ask himself, "What am I?" It depends upon ourselves as to whether we shall form such characters as will constitute us members of God's royal family above.--The Review and Herald, April 9, 1895.
------------------------Gentleness, March 7
YRP	75	1	But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22, 23.
YRP	75	2	If we have Christ abiding with us, we shall be Christians at home as well as abroad. He who is a Christian will have kind words for his relatives and associates. He will be kind, courteous, loving, sympathetic, and will be educating himself for an abode with the family above. If he is a member of the royal family, he will represent the kingdom to which he is going. He will speak with gentleness to his children, for he will realize that they, too, are heirs of God, members of the heavenly court. Among the children of God no spirit of harshness dwells; for "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." The spirit that is cherished in the home is the spirit that will be manifested in the church.
YRP	75	3	Oh, we must educate the soul to be pitiful, gentle, tender, full of forgiveness and compassion. While we lay aside all vanity, all foolish talking, jesting, and joking, we are not to become cold, unsympathetic, and unsocial. The Spirit of the Lord is to rest upon you until you shall be like a fragrant flower from the garden of God. You are to keep talking of the light, of Jesus, the Sun of righteousness, until you shall change from glory to glory, from character to character, going on from strength to strength, and reflecting more and more of the precious image of Jesus. When you do this, the Lord will write in the books of heaven, "Well done," because you represent Jesus.
YRP	75	4	Christians should not be hard-hearted, unapproachable; Jesus is to be reflected in our deportment, and we are to have a character beautiful with the graces of heaven. The presence of God is to be an abiding presence with us; and wherever we are, we are to carry light to the world. Those around you are to realize that the atmosphere of heaven surrounds you.--The Review and Herald, September 20, 1892.
------------------------Goodness, March 8
YRP	76	1	But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Matthew 12:36, 37.
YRP	76	2	God would have us individually come into that position where He can bestow His love upon us. He has placed a high value upon man, and has redeemed us by the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, and we are to see in our fellow man the purchase of the blood of Christ. If we have this love one for another, we shall be growing in love for God and the truth. We have been pained at heart to see how little love is cherished in our midst. Love is a plant of heavenly origin, and if we would have it flourish in our hearts, we must cultivate it daily. Mildness, gentleness, long-suffering, not being easily provoked, bearing all things, enduring all things--these are the fruits upon the precious tree of love.
YRP	76	3	When you are associated together, be guarded in your words. Let your conversation be of such a nature that you will have no need of repentance. "Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30). "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things" (Matthew 12:35). If the love of the truth is in your heart, you will talk of the truth. You will talk of the blessed hope that you have in Jesus. If you have love in your heart, you will seek to establish and build up your brother in the most holy faith. If a word is dropped that is detrimental to the character of your friend or brother, do not encourage this evil-speaking. It is the work of the enemy. Kindly remind the speaker that the Word of God forbids that kind of conversation.
YRP	76	4	We are to empty the heart of everything that defiles the soul temple, that Christ may dwell within. Our Redeemer has told us how we may reveal Him to the world. If we cherish His Spirit, if we manifest His love to others, if we guard one another's interest, if we are kind, patient, forbearing, the world will have an evidence by the fruits we bear that we are the children of God. It is the unity in the church that enables it to exert a conscious influence upon unbelievers and worldlings.--The Review and Herald, June 5, 1888.
------------------------Faith, March 9
YRP	77	1	Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.
YRP	77	2	In coming to Christ there must be an exercise of faith. We need to bring Him into our everyday life; then we shall have peace and joy, and we shall know by experience the meaning of His word, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10). Our faith must claim the promise, that we may abide in the love of Jesus. Jesus said, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (verse 11).
YRP	77	3	Faith works by love and purifies the soul. Through faith the Holy Spirit finds access to the heart, and creates holiness therein. Man cannot become an agent to work the works of Christ unless he is in communion with God through the Holy Spirit. We can be fitted for heaven only through a transformation of character; we must have Christ's righteousness as our credentials, if we would find access to the Father. We must be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. We must daily be transformed by the influence of the Holy Spirit; for it is the work of the Holy Spirit to elevate the taste, to sanctify the heart, to ennoble the whole man, by presenting to the soul the matchless charms of Jesus.
YRP	77	4	We are to behold Christ, and by beholding to become changed. We must come to Him, as to an open, inexhaustible fountain, from which we may drink again and again, and ever find a fresh supply. We are to respond to the drawing of His love, to feed on the Bread of Life which came down from heaven, to drink of the Water of Life which flows from the throne of God. We are to keep looking up, that faith may bind us to the throne of God. Do not look down, as though you were bound to the earth. Do not keep up an examination of your faith, pulling it up, as though it were a flower, to see if it has any root. Faith grows imperceptibly.--The Bible Echo, February 15, 1893.
------------------------Meekness, March 10
YRP	78	1	With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. Ephesians 4:2.
YRP	78	2	I invite you to look to the Man of Calvary. Look to Him whose head was crowned with the crown of thorns, who bore the cross of shame, who went step by step down the path of humiliation. Look to Him who was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, who was despised and rejected of men. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4). "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (verse 5). Look to Calvary until your heart melts at the amazing love of the Son of God. He left nothing undone that fallen man might be elevated and purified.
YRP	78	3	And shall we not confess Him? Will the religion of Christ degrade its receiver? No; it will be no degradation to follow in the footsteps of the Man of Calvary. Day by day let us sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him, that in our conversation, our conduct, our dress, and in all our affairs, we may reveal the fact that Jesus is ruling and reigning over us. God calls upon us to walk in a path that has been cast up for the ransomed of the Lord; we are not to walk in the world. We are to surrender all to God, and confess Christ before men.
YRP	78	4	"Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 10:33). What right have we to profess to be Christians, and yet deny our Lord in life and deed? "He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it" (verses 38, 39). Day by day we are to deny self, to lift the cross and follow in the footsteps of the Master.
YRP	78	5	Oh, that the baptism of the Holy Spirit might come upon you, that you might be imbued with the Spirit of God! Then day by day you will become more and more conformed to the image of Christ, and in every action of your life, the question would be, "Will it glorify my Master?" By patient continuance in well-doing you would seek for glory and honor, and would receive the gift of immortality.--The Review and Herald, May 10, 1892.
------------------------Temperance, March 11
YRP	79	1	Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
YRP	79	2	God requires all men to render their bodies to Him a living sacrifice, not a dead or a dying sacrifice, a sacrifice which their own course of action is debilitating, filling with impurities and disease. God calls for a living sacrifice. The body, He tells us, is the temple of the Holy Ghost, the habitation of His Spirit, and He requires all who bear His image to take care of their bodies for the purpose of His service and His glory. "Ye are not your own," says the inspired apostle, "ye are bought with a price"; wherefore "glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). In order to do this, add to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience.
YRP	79	3	It is a duty to know how to preserve the body in the very best condition of health, and it is a sacred duty to live up to the light which God has graciously given. If we close our eyes to the light for fear we shall see our wrongs, which we are unwilling to forsake, our sins are not lessened but increased. If light is turned from in one case, it will be disregarded in another.
YRP	79	4	It is just as much sin to violate the laws of our being as to break one of the Ten Commandments, for we cannot do either without breaking God's law. We cannot love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength while we are loving our appetites, our tastes, a great deal better than we love the Lord. We are daily lessening our strength to glorify God, when He requires all our strength, all our mind. By our wrong habits we are lessening our hold on life, and yet professing to be Christ's followers, preparing for the finishing touch of immortality....
YRP	79	5	Closely examine your own hearts, and in your lives imitate the unerring Pattern, and all will be well with you. Preserve a clear conscience before God. In all you do glorify His name. Divest yourselves of selfishness and selfish love.--Testimonies for the Church 2:70, 71.
------------------------Self-control, March 12
YRP	80	1	But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Daniel 1:8.
YRP	80	2	The lesson here presented is one that we would do well to ponder. A strict compliance with the Bible requirements will be a blessing both to body and soul. The fruit of the Spirit is not only love, joy, and peace, but temperance also. We are enjoined not to defile our bodies; for they are the temples of the Holy Spirit.
YRP	80	3	The Hebrew captives were men of like passions with ourselves. Amid the seductive influences of the luxurious courts of Babylon, they stood firm. The youth of today are surrounded with allurements to self-indulgence. Especially in our large cities, every form of sensual gratification is made easy and inviting. Those who, like Daniel, refuse to defile themselves will reap the reward of temperate habits. With their greater physical stamina and increased power of endurance, they have a bank of deposit upon which to draw in case of emergency.
YRP	80	4	Right physical habits promote mental superiority. Intellectual power, physical stamina, and length of life depend upon immutable laws. Nature's God will not interfere to preserve men from the consequences of violating nature's requirements. He who strives for the mastery must be temperate in all things. Daniel's clearness of mind and firmness of purpose, his power in acquiring knowledge and in resisting temptation, were due in a great degree to the plainness of his diet, in connection with his life of prayer....
YRP	80	5	The history of Daniel and his youthful companions has been recorded on the pages of the Inspired Word, for the benefit of the youth of all succeeding ages. Through the record of their fidelity to the principles of temperance, God is speaking today to young men and young women, bidding them gather up the precious rays of light He has given on the subject of Christian temperance, and place themselves in right relation to the laws of health.--The Youth's Instructor, July 9, 1903.
------------------------Kindness, March 13
YRP	81	1	She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. Proverbs 31:26.
YRP	81	2	The Lord will help every one of us where we need help the most in the grand work of overcoming and conquering self. Let the law of kindness be upon your lips and the oil of grace in your heart. This will produce wonderful results. You will be tender, sympathetic, courteous. You need all these graces. The Holy Spirit must be received and brought into your character; then it will be as holy fire, giving forth incense which will rise up to God, not from lips that condemn, but as a healer of the souls of men. Your countenance will express the image of the divine.
YRP	81	3	No sharp, critical, blunt, or severe words should be spoken. This is common fire, and must be left out of all our councils and intercourse with our brethren. God requires every soul in His service to kindle their censers from the coals of sacred fire. The common, severe, harsh words that come from your lips so readily must be withheld, and the Spirit of God speak through the human agent. By beholding the character of Christ you will become changed into His likeness. The grace of Christ alone can change your heart and then you will reflect the image of the Lord Jesus. God calls upon us to be like Him--pure, holy, and undefiled. We are to bear the divine image.--The SDA Bible Commentary, 3:1164, Ellen G. White Comments.
YRP	81	4	We may talk of the blessings of the Holy Spirit, and pray in regard to receiving them; but unless the human agent is worked by the Spirit of God, He reveals that he has Him not. When the Spirit molds and fashions the character after the divine similitude, He will be unmistakably revealed in every word we speak and in everything we do, showing to the world that there is a marked difference between the children of light and the children of darkness. The Lord wants us to stand stiffly for the faith once delivered to the saints. We are to speak the truth in love. Our great Teacher says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29, 30).--Letter 84, 1899.
------------------------Charity, March 14
YRP	82	1	Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Isaiah 58:6, 7.
YRP	82	2	Truth, precious truth, is sanctifying in its influence. The sanctification of the soul by the operation of the Holy Spirit is the implanting of Christ's nature in humanity. It is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ revealed in character, and the grace of Christ brought into active exercise in good works. Thus the character is transformed more and more perfectly after the image of Christ in righteousness and true holiness.
YRP	82	3	There are broad requirements in divine truth stretching out into one line after another of good works. The truths of the gospel are not unconnected; uniting they form one string of heavenly jewels, as in the personal work of Christ, and like threads of gold they run through the whole of Christian work and experience.--Selected Messages 3:198.
YRP	82	4	Any neglect on the part of those who claim to be followers of Christ, a failure to relieve the necessities of a brother or sister who is bearing the yoke of poverty and oppression, is registered in the books of heaven as shown to Christ in the person of His saints. What a reckoning the Lord will have with many, very many, who present the words of Christ to others but fail to manifest tender sympathy and regard for a brother in the faith who is less fortunate and successful than themselves.--Welfare Ministry, 210.
YRP	82	5	Many will allow a brother to struggle along unaided under adverse circumstances, and in thus doing they give to one precious soul the impression that they are thus representing Christ. It is no such thing; Jesus, who was rich, for our sake became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. That He might save the sinner, He withheld not His own life. The heart of Christ is ever touched with human woe.--The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 1270.
------------------------Contentment, March 15
YRP	83	1	Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Philippians 4:11.
YRP	83	2	God has His faithful witnesses who are not attempting to do that which Christ has pronounced impossible--that is, seeking to serve God and mammon at the same time. They are burning and shining lights amid the moral darkness of the world, and amid the gross darkness that covers the people like the pall of death. The members of the church of Christ are individually to be controlled by the Holy Spirit, in order that they may not have a changeable, fluctuating experience. They are to be rooted and grounded in the truth.
YRP	83	3	When the joy of the saving power of Christ's righteousness is rightly understood by experimental knowledge, there will be vital interest in the church, there will be those who will teach transgressors God's ways, and sinners will be converted to the truth as it is in Jesus. It is the professors of religion that need converting; for Satan has brought his deceptions to bear upon their souls.
YRP	83	4	The soul that is brought into personal contact with Christ becomes a holy temple unto the Lord; for Jesus is made unto the believer wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He who has fully surrendered to God has a consciousness of Christ's saving presence. He is a possessor of spiritual patience, and has the rest of soul that comes from learning of Him who is meek and lowly of heart. Trusting in Jesus to be his efficiency and righteousness, his soul is filled with a pleasant contentment.
YRP	83	5	What is the joy of the Christian? It is the result of the consciousness of the presence of Christ. What is the love of the Christian? It is the reflection of the love of Christ. It is the effect of the operation of the Holy Spirit. Looking to the cross of Calvary, we see Jesus dying for the sins of the world, in order that by His death, life and immortality might be brought to light in behalf of the contrite soul. Jesus is all in all, and without Him we can do nothing. Without Christ, spiritual life would be impossible.--The Review and Herald, December 4, 1894.
------------------------Thankfulness, March 16
YRP	84	1	In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18.
YRP	84	2	There is much needless worrying, much trouble of mind, over things that cannot be helped. The Lord would have His children put their trust fully in Him. Our Lord is a just and righteous God. His children should acknowledge His goodness and His justice in the large and the small things of life. Those who cherish the spirit of worry and complaint are refusing to recognize His guiding hand. Needless anxiety is a foolish thing; and it hinders us from standing in a true position before God.
YRP	84	3	When the Holy Spirit comes into the soul, there will be no desire to complain and murmur because we do not have everything we want; rather, we will thank God from a full heart for the blessings that we have. There is great need of more thankfulness among our workers today; and until they have this spirit they will be unprepared for a place in the kingdom of heaven. There is a mighty work to be done for every one of us. We comprehend but little of what God desires to work out through us. We should seek to realize the breadth of His plans, and profit by every lesson that He [has] tried to teach us.
YRP	84	4	A great deal of mischief is wrought in the imagination of our own hearts and minds when we seek to carry our own way contrary to the law of kindness. Here is where many fail. We do not cultivate a disposition to kindness; we want everything to come in an easy way to ourselves. But the question of greatest importance to each one of us should be not how we can carry our own plans against the plans of others, but how we can have the power to live for Christ every day. Christ came to earth and gave His life that we might have eternal salvation. He wants to encircle each of us with the atmosphere of heaven, that we may give to the world an example that will honor the religion of Christ.--Loma Linda Messages, 602.
------------------------Harmony, March 17
YRP	85	1	Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. Ephesians 4:3, 4.
YRP	85	2	The Holy Spirit will work with the consecrated human instrument; for this is God's purpose. God has opened a door between heaven and earth, which no power can close. He calls upon every human being to be pure, holy, sanctified, in order that the work for this time may be accomplished. When God's people place themselves in proper relation to Him and to one another, there will be a full impartation of the Holy Spirit for the harmonious combination of the whole body.
YRP	85	3	Nothing so manifestly weakens a church as disunion and strife. Nothing so wars against Christ and the truth as this spirit. "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20). "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom" (James 3:11-13).
YRP	85	4	"Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled" (Hebrews 12:12-15).
YRP	85	5	As long as we are in this world we must be linked with one another. Humanity is interlaced and interwoven with humanity. As Christians we are members one of another. The Lord has made us thus, and when disappointments come, we are not to think the worse of one another. We are individual members of the general body. In helplessness and disappointment we are fighting the battles of life, and the Lord designs us, as His sons and daughters, whom He calls His friends, to help one another. This is to be a part of our practical Christian work.--The Signs of the Times, February 7, 1900.
------------------------Unity, March 18
YRP	86	1	Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:20, 21.
YRP	86	2	Harmony and union existing among men of varied dispositions is the strongest witness that can be borne that God has sent His Son into the world to save sinners. It is our privilege to bear this witness. But, in order to do this, we must place ourselves under Christ's command. Our characters must be molded in harmony with His character, our wills must be surrendered to His will. Then we shall work together without a thought of collision.
YRP	86	3	Little differences dwelt upon lead to actions that destroy Christian fellowship. Let us not allow the enemy thus to gain the advantage over us. Let us keep drawing nearer to God and to one another. Then we shall be as trees of righteousness, planted by the Lord, and watered by the river of life. And how fruitful we shall be! Did not Christ say: "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit" (John 15:8)?
YRP	86	4	The heart of the Saviour is set upon His followers' fulfilling God's purpose in all its height and depth. They are to be one in Him, even though they are scattered the world over. But God cannot make them one in Christ unless they are willing to give up their own way for His way.
YRP	86	5	When Christ's prayer is fully believed, when its instruction is brought into the daily life of God's people, unity of action will be seen in our ranks. Brother will be bound to brother by the golden bonds of the love of Christ. The Spirit of God alone can bring about this oneness. He who sanctified Himself can sanctify His disciples. United with Him, they will be united with one another in the most holy faith. When we strive for this unity as God desires us to strive for it, it will come to us.--Testimonies for the Church 8:242, 243.
------------------------Oneness, March 19
YRP	87	1	And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:22, 23.
YRP	87	2	What attainments are there presented for the Christian's endeavor, but how far short are our practices. Were our practices in harmony with the command of our Lord, the result would be glorious. He says, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (John 17:20, 21)....
YRP	87	3	Jesus did not pray for that which was not attainable by us, and if this unity is possible, why do not those who are professed followers of Christ strive more earnestly for this condition of grace? When we are one with Christ, we shall be one with His followers. The great want of the soul is Jesus, the hope of glory. Through the Holy Spirit this unity may be attained, and love for the brethren will abound, and men will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus and learned of Him. Our life will be a reflection of His holy character. As believers in Him we shall represent His meekness of spirit, His gentleness of demeanor. Individually the church of God must answer the prayer of Christ till we all come into the unity of the Spirit.
YRP	87	4	What is it that causes dissension and discord? It is the result of walking apart from Christ. At a distance from Him, we lose our love for Him, and grow cold toward His followers. The farther the beams of light recede from their center, the wider separated they become. Each believer is as a beam of light from Christ the Sun of righteousness. The more closely we walk with Christ, the center of all love and light, the greater will be our affection for His light-bearers. When the saints are drawn close to Christ, they must of necessity be drawn close to each other, for the sanctifying grace of Christ will bind their hearts together. You cannot love God and yet fail to love your brethren.--The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 1048, 1049.
------------------------Brotherly Love, March 20
YRP	88	1	Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another. Romans 12:10.
YRP	88	2	When the Holy Spirit moves upon human minds, all petty complaints and accusations between man and his fellow man will be put away. The bright beams of the Sun of righteousness will shine into the chambers of the mind and heart. In our worship of God there will be no distinction between rich and poor, white and black. All prejudice will be melted away. When we approach God, it will be as one brotherhood. We are pilgrims and strangers, bound for a better country, even a heavenly. There all pride, all accusation, all self-deception, will forever have an end. Every mask will be laid aside, and we shall "see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). There our songs will catch the inspiring theme, and praise and thanksgiving will go up to God.--The Review and Herald, October 24, 1899.
YRP	88	3	The Lord Jesus came to our world to save men and women of all nationalities.... Jesus came to shed light over the whole world. At the beginning of His ministry He declared His mission: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18, 19)....
YRP	88	4	The Lord's eye is upon all His creatures; He loves them all, and makes no difference between white and black, except that He has a special tender pity for those who are called to bear a greater burden than others. Those who love God and believe on Christ as their Redeemer, while they must meet the trials and the difficulties that lie in their path, should yet with a cheerful spirit accept their life as it is, considering that God above regards these things, and for all that the world neglects to bestow, He will Himself make up to them in the best of favors.--Selected Messages 2:487, 488.
------------------------Generosity, March 21
YRP	89	1	How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. 2 Corinthians 8:2.
YRP	89	2	It is only when Christian motives are fully acknowledged, and the conscience is awake to duty, when divine light makes impressions upon the heart and character, that selfishness is overcome, and the mind of Christ is exemplified. The Holy Spirit, working upon human hearts and characters, will expel all tendency to covetousness, to deceptive dealing.
YRP	89	3	When the Lord's messenger bears a message to the church, God is speaking to the people, awakening the conscience to see that they have not been rendering an honest tithe to the Lord, and that when it was not convenient to give, they have failed to present their offerings to Him. They have used the Lord's own money for themselves, in building houses, in purchasing horses, carriages, or lands. They do this in the hope of large returns, and every year they have the same excuse. "Will a man rob God?" (Malachi 3:8). Oh, yes, he has done this many times, because he has not been spiritual, to discern the spiritual things.
YRP	89	4	On some occasions the Lord has moved decidedly upon worldly, selfish men. Their minds were illuminated by the Holy Spirit, their hearts felt its softening, subduing influence. Under a sense of the abundant mercy and grace of God, they felt it their duty to promote His cause, to build up His kingdom. They remembered the requirement, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal" (Matthew 6:19, 20). They felt a desire to have a share in the kingdom of God, and they pledged to give of their means to some of the various enterprises of the Lord's cause. That pledge was not made to man, but to God in the presence of His angels, who were moving upon the hearts of these selfish, money-loving men.--The Review and Herald, May 23, 1893.
------------------------Benevolence, March 22
YRP	90	1	Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:7, 8.
YRP	90	2	When the hearts of men are softened by the presence of the Spirit of God, they are more susceptible to impressions of the Holy Spirit, and resolves are made to deny self and to sacrifice for the cause of God. It is when divine light shines into the chambers of the mind with unusual clearness and power that the feelings of the natural man are overcome, that selfishness loses its power upon the heart, and that desires are awakened to imitate the Pattern, Jesus Christ, in practicing self-denial and benevolence. The disposition of the naturally selfish man then becomes kind and pitiful toward lost sinners, and he makes a solemn pledge to God, as did Abraham and Jacob.
YRP	90	3	Heavenly angels are present on such occasions. The love of God and love for souls triumphs over selfishness and love of the world. Especially is this the case when the speaker, in the Spirit and power of God, presents the plan of redemption, laid by the Majesty of heaven in the sacrifice of the cross....
YRP	90	4	God has given man a part to act in accomplishing the salvation of His fellow men. He can work in connection with Christ by doing acts of mercy and beneficence. But he cannot redeem them, not being able to satisfy the claims of insulted justice. This the Son of God alone can do, by laying aside His honor and glory, clothing His divinity with humanity, and coming to earth to humiliate Himself and shed His blood in behalf of the human race.
YRP	90	5	In commissioning His disciples to go "into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15), Christ assigned to men the work of spreading the gospel. But while some go forth to preach, He calls upon others to answer to His claims upon them for tithes and offerings with which to support the ministry and to spread the printed truth all over the land.--Testimonies for the Church 4:470-472.
------------------------Purity, March 23
YRP	91	1	Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8.
YRP	91	2	When one is fully emptied of self, when every false god is cast out of the soul, the vacuum is supplied by the inflowing of the Spirit of Christ. Such a one has the faith which works by love and purifies the soul from every moral and spiritual defilement. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, can work upon the heart, influencing and directing, so that he enjoys spiritual things. He is "after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1), and he minds the things of the Spirit. He has no confidence in self; Christ is all in all. Truth is constantly being unfolded by the Holy Spirit; he receives with meekness the engrafted word, and he gives the Lord all the glory, saying, "God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:10). "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" (verse 12).
YRP	91	3	The Spirit that reveals also works in him the fruits of righteousness. Christ is in him "a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14). He is a branch of the True Vine, and bears rich clusters of fruit to the glory of God. What is the character of the fruit borne? "The fruit of the Spirit is love." Mark the words--love, not hatred; it is joy, not discontent and mourning; peace, not irritation, anxiety, and manufactured trials. It is "longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22, 23).
YRP	91	4	Those who have this Spirit will be earnest laborers together with God; the heavenly intelligences cooperate with them, and they go weighted with the Spirit of the message of truth which they bear. They are a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. They are ennobled, refined, through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. They have not brought into the treasury of the soul wood, hay, stubble, but gold, silver, and precious stones. They speak words of solid sense, and from the treasures of the heart bring forth pure and sacred things according to the example of Christ.--The Home Missionary, November 1, 1893.
------------------------Outward Neatness, March 24
YRP	92	1	She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. Proverbs 31:21, 22.
YRP	92	2	Educate, educate, educate. Parents who receive the truth are to conform their habits and practices to the directions God has given. The Lord desires all to remember that the service of God is a pure and holy service, and that those who receive the truth must be purified in disposition, in temper, in heart, in conversation, in the dress, and in the home, so that the angels of God, unseen by them, shall come in to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation.
YRP	92	3	All who join the church should reveal a transformation of character which shows their reverence for holy things. Their whole life should be molded after the refinement of Christ Jesus. Those who join the church are to be humble enough to receive instruction on the points wherein they are remiss, and wherein they can and must change. They must exert a Christian influence. Those who make no change in words or deportment, in their dress or in their homes, are living unto themselves and not unto Christ. They have not been created anew in Christ Jesus, unto the purifying of the heart and the outward surroundings.
YRP	92	4	Christians will be judged by the fruit they bear in reformatory work. Every true Christian will show what the truth of the gospel has done for him. He who has been made a son of God must practice habits of neatness and cleanliness. Every action, however small, has an influence. The Lord desires to make every human being an agency through whom Christ can manifest His Holy Spirit. Christians are in no case to be careless or indifferent in regard to their outward appearance. They are to be neat and trim, though without adornment. They are to be pure inside and out.--Testimonies to Southern Africa, 87.
------------------------Obedience, March 25
YRP	93	1	As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. 1 Peter 1:14, 15.
YRP	93	2	What does God require? Perfection, nothing less than perfection. But if we would be perfect, we must put no confidence in self. Daily we must know and understand that self is not to be trusted. We need to grasp God's promises with firm faith. We need to ask for the Holy Spirit with a full realization of our own helplessness. Then when the Holy Spirit works we shall not give self the glory. The Holy Spirit will graciously take the heart into His keeping, bringing to it all the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness. We shall be kept by the power of God through faith.
YRP	93	3	When we are daily under the control of God's Spirit, we shall be commandment-keeping people. We may show to the world that obedience to God's commands brings its own reward, even in this life, and in the future life eternal blessedness. Notwithstanding our profession of faith, the Lord, by whom our actions are weighed, sees but an imperfect representation of Christ. He has declared that such a condition of things cannot glorify Him.
YRP	93	4	It means much to commit the keeping of the soul to God. It means that we are to live and walk by faith, not trusting in or glorifying self, but looking to Jesus our Advocate as the author and finisher of our faith. The Holy Spirit will do its work upon the heart that is contrite, but never can it work upon a self-important, self-righteous soul. In his own wisdom such a one would mend himself. He interposes between his soul and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will work if self will not interpose.
YRP	93	5	Where is our dependence? Where is our help? God's Word tells us: "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit is ready to cooperate with all who will receive Him and be taught by Him. All who lay hold on the truth and are sanctified through the truth are so united with Christ that they can represent Him in word and action.--Manuscript Releases 12:52, 53.
------------------------Confidence, March 26
YRP	94	1	Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. Hebrews 10:35.
YRP	94	2	John says, "This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him" (1 John 5:14, 15). Let us dwell much upon these points before the people, that their ideas may be enlarged, their faith increased. They should be encouraged to ask largely, and expect without a doubt the riches of His grace; for through Jesus we can come into the audience chamber of the Most High. Through His merits we have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
YRP	94	3	Oh, that we may have a deeper experience in prayer! With confidence we may come to God, knowing what it is to have the presence and power of His Holy Spirit. We may confess our sins, and right there, while asking, know that He pardons our transgressions, because He has promised to forgive. We must exercise faith, and manifest true earnestness and humility. We can never do this without the grace of the Holy Spirit. We must lie low at the feet of Jesus, and cherish no selfishness, reveal no self-uplifting, but in simplicity seek the Lord, asking for His Holy Spirit as a little child asks bread of his parents.
YRP	94	4	We should act our part, take Christ as our personal Saviour, and, standing under the cross of Calvary, "Look and live." God sets His children apart for Himself. And as they connect themselves with Him, they have power with God, and prevail. Of ourselves we can do nothing; but through the grace of His Holy Spirit, life and light are imparted, and the soul is filled with longing, earnest desire for God, for holiness. Then it is that Christ leads us to the throne of grace, and clothes us with His righteousness; for the Lord God of heaven loves us. We would be willfully blind and stubborn to doubt that His heart is toward us. While Jesus, our Intercessor, pleads for us in heaven, the Holy Spirit works in us, to will and to do of His good pleasure. All heaven is interested in the salvation of the soul. Then what reason have we to doubt that the Lord will and does help us?--The Signs of the Times, October 3, 1892.
------------------------Godliness, March 27
YRP	95	1	And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Genesis 5:24.
YRP	95	2	Godliness is the fruit of Christian character. If we abide in the Vine, we shall bear the fruits of the Spirit. The life of the Vine will manifest itself through the branches. We must have a close and intimate connection with heaven, if we bear the grace of godliness. Jesus must be a guest in our homes, a member of our households, if we reflect His image and show that we are sons and daughters of the Most High.
YRP	95	3	Religion is a beautiful thing in the home. If the Lord abides with us, we shall feel that we are members of Christ's family in heaven. We shall realize that angels are watching us, and our manners will be gentle and forbearing. We shall be fitting up for an entrance into the courts of heaven, by cultivating courtesy and godliness. Our conversation will be holy, and our thoughts will be upon heavenly things.
YRP	95	4	Enoch walked with God. He honored God in every affair of life. In his home and in his business, he inquired, "Will this be acceptable to the Lord?" And by remembering God, and following His counsel, he was transformed in character, and became a godly man, whose ways pleased the Lord. We are exhorted to add to godliness brotherly kindness. Oh, how much we need to take this step, to add this quality to our characters! In many of our homes there is a hard, combative spirit manifested. Critical words and unkind actions are offensive to God. Dictatorial commands and haughty, overbearing manners are not acceptable to heaven. The reason there are so many differences existing between brethren is that they have failed to add brotherly kindness. We should have that love for others that Christ has had for us.
YRP	95	5	A man is estimated at his true value by the Lord of heaven. If he is unkind in his earthly home, he is unfit for the heavenly home. If he will have his own way, no matter whom it grieves, he would not be content in heaven, unless he could rule there. The love of Christ must control our hearts, and the peace of God will abide in our homes.--The Review and Herald, February 21, 1888.
------------------------Holiness, March 28
YRP	96	1	Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14.
YRP	96	2	God has from eternity chosen men to be holy. "This is the will of God [concerning you], even your sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:3). The echo of His voice comes to us, ever saying, "Holier, holier still." And ever our answer is to be, "Yes, Lord, holier still."
YRP	96	3	No man receives holiness as a birthright, or as a gift from any other human being. Holiness is the gift of God through Christ. Those who receive the Saviour become sons of God. They are His spiritual children, born again, renewed in righteousness and true holiness. Their minds are changed. With clearer vision they behold eternal realities. They are adopted into God's family, and they become conformed to His likeness, changed by His Spirit from glory to glory. From cherishing supreme love for self, they come to cherish supreme love for God and for Christ.
YRP	96	4	"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). Justification means pardon. It means that the heart, purged from dead works, is prepared to receive the blessing of sanctification. God has told us what we must do to receive this blessing. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmuring and disputings; that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:12-15).
YRP	96	5	The love of God, cherished in the heart and revealed in the words and acts, will do more to elevate and ennoble human beings than all else can. In the life of Christ, this love found full and complete expression. On the cross of Christ the Saviour made an atonement for the fallen race. Holiness is the fruit of this sacrifice. It is because He has died for us that we are promised this great gift. And Christ longs to bestow this gift on us. He longs to make us partakers of His nature. He longs to save those who by sin have separated themselves from God. He calls upon them to choose His service, to give themselves wholly into His control, to learn from Him how to do God's will.--The Signs of the Times, December 17, 1902.
------------------------Humility, March 29
YRP	97	1	And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. Daniel 9:4, 5.
YRP	97	2	Spurious sanctification carries with it a boastful, self-righteous spirit which is foreign to the religion of the Bible. Meekness and humility are the fruits of the Spirit. The prophet Daniel was an example of true sanctification. His long life was filled up with noble service for his Master. He was a man "greatly beloved" (Daniel 10:11) of heaven, and was granted such honors as have rarely been vouchsafed to mortals. Yet his purity of character and unwavering fidelity were equaled only by his humility and contrition.
YRP	97	3	Instead of claiming to be pure and holy, this honored prophet identified himself with the really sinful of Israel, as he pleaded before God in behalf of his people: "We do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies" (Daniel 9:18). "We have sinned, we have done wickedly" (verse 15). And "for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach" (verse 16).
YRP	97	4	He declares, "I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people" (verse 20). And when at a later time the Son of God appeared in answer to his prayers to give him instruction, he declares, "My comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength" (Daniel 10:8).
YRP	97	5	Those who are truly seeking to perfect Christian character will never indulge the thought that they are sinless. The more their minds dwell upon the character of Christ, and the nearer they approach to His divine image, the more clearly will they discern Its spotless perfection, and the more deeply will they feel their own weakness and defects. Those who claim to be without sin give evidence that they are far from holy. It is because they have no true knowledge of Christ that they can look upon themselves as reflecting His image. The greater the distance between them and their Saviour, the more righteous they appear in their own eyes.--The Spirit of Prophecy 4:301, 302.
------------------------Dependence, March 30
YRP	98	1	Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12.
YRP	98	2	The experience of the Christian in his earliest love is full of simplicity and freshness; but as his opportunities multiply, his experience should enlarge, and his knowledge increase. He should become strong to bear responsibility, and his maturity should be in proportion to his privileges....
YRP	98	3	But unless there is an hourly dependence upon Christ, increasing knowledge and privileges will result in self-trust and self-righteousness. The young Christian is in danger of forgetting that it is Christ that has begun the good work in him, and that it is Christ that must finish it. The soul must renounce all merit, and trust wholly in the merit of Him who is too wise to err. Man of himself can do no good thing. Said Jesus, "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). The soul is to stay itself upon God.
YRP	98	4	In the gift of Christ all heaven was poured out, and through Christ the Holy Spirit is promised to the believer. Jesus said to His disciples, "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26). Christ not only offers pardon to the believing, repenting soul, but He promises him the constant aid of the Holy Spirit.
YRP	98	5	In the growth of the seed in the soil, man cannot see the working of unseen agencies that develop the plant to perfection, bringing up first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. But though young in the faith, you may know that you have passed from death unto life, if the fruits of the Spirit are made manifest in your life. If you are growing in faith and hope and love, you may know that your spiritual vision has been cleared. If you delight to dwell upon the plan of salvation, upon the glorious manifestations of the divine character, if your heart, in contemplation of the love of God, glows with thankfulness and joy, you may be sure that you have been illuminated by the beams of the Holy Spirit, and heavenly agencies are bringing your character up to maturity of Christian life.--The Signs of the Times, March 27, 1893.
------------------------Christlikeness, March 31
YRP	99	1	Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2.
YRP	99	2	Christ is soon coming in the clouds of heaven, and we must be prepared to meet Him, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. We are now to accept the invitation of Christ. He says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:28, 29). The words of Christ to Nicodemus are of practical value to us today: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:5-8).
YRP	99	3	The converting power of God must be upon our hearts. We must study the life of Christ, and imitate the divine Pattern. We must dwell upon the perfection of His character, and be changed into His image. No one will enter the kingdom of God unless his passions are subdued, unless his will is brought into captivity to the will of Christ.
YRP	99	4	Heaven is free from all sin, from all defilement and impurity; and if we would live in its atmosphere, if we would behold the glory of Christ, we must be pure in heart, perfect in character through His grace and righteousness. We must not be taken up with pleasure and amusement, but be fitting up for the glorious mansions Christ has gone to prepare for us. If we are faithful, seeking to bless others, patient in well-doing, at His coming Christ will crown us with glory, honor, and immortality.--The Review and Herald, April 28, 1891.
------------------------Enlightened Through the Spirit, April 1
YRP	100	1	The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Ephesians 1:18.
YRP	100	2	The apostle Paul makes supplication to God: "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power" (Ephesians 1:17-19). But the mind must first be made adaptable to the nature of the truth to be investigated. The eyes of the understanding must be enlightened, and heart and mind brought into harmony with God, who is truth.
YRP	100	3	He who beholds Jesus with the eye of faith sees no glory in himself; for the glory of the Redeemer is reflected into the mind and heart. The atonement of His blood is realized, and the taking away of sin stirs his heart with gratitude. Being justified by Christ, the receiver of truth is constrained to make an entire surrender to God, and is admitted into the school of Christ, that he may learn of Him who is meek and lowly of heart. A knowledge of the love of God is shed abroad in his heart. He exclaims, Oh, what love! What condescension! Grasping the rich promises of faith, he becomes a partaker of the divine nature. His heart being emptied of self, the waters of life flow in, and the glory of the Lord shines forth. Perpetually looking unto Jesus, the human is assimilated by the divine. The believer is changed into His likeness.
YRP	100	4	"We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory [from character to character] even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). The human character is changed into the divine. It is the spiritual eye that discerns this glory. It is veiled, shrouded in mystery, until the Holy Spirit imparts this discernment to the soul.--The Review and Herald, February 18, 1896.
------------------------The Spirit Essential for Understanding Truth, April 2
YRP	101	1	But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:10.
YRP	101	2	There is a great work to be done for this time, and we do not half realize what the Lord is willing to do for His people. We talk about the first angel's message, and the second angel's message, and we think we have some understanding of the third angel's message; but we should not be satisfied with our present knowledge. Our petitions, mingled with faith and contrition, should go up to God, for an understanding of the mysteries that God would make known to His saints. We should have a realization that unless taught by the Holy Spirit, we shall not rightly comprehend the Bible; for it is a sealed book even to the learned, who are wise in their own conceit.
YRP	101	3	Jesus meant just what He said when He directed His disciples to "search the Scriptures." Searching means to compare scripture with scripture, and spiritual things with spiritual. We should not be satisfied with a superficial knowledge. We should search for the hidden treasure concealed beneath the surface, as the merchantman seeks for goodly pearls. Light, great light, will reward the diligent searcher for truth.
YRP	101	4	There are many who have not taxed their mental powers, and who have no experience in putting to the stretch their utmost ability to find out what is truth. It is not possible that the Holy Spirit shall fall upon you unless you feel your need, and are more desirous for its descent than you now are. You should realize that you are living upon the very borders of the eternal world, that Christ is coming very soon, and that all heaven is interested in the work that is in progress in fitting up a people for His coming.
YRP	101	5	If ever there was a people that needed to heed the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodicean church to be zealous and to repent before God, it is the people who have had opened up before them the stupendous truths for this time, and who have not lived up to their high privileges and responsibilities. We have lost much in not living up to the light of the solemn truths which we profess to believe.--The Review and Herald, June 4, 1889.
------------------------Ways in Which the Spirit Leads Us, April 3
YRP	102	1	My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27.
YRP	102	2	Jesus expects all who claim to be His soldiers to do service for Him. He expects you to recognize the enemy and to resist him, not to invite him to your confidence and thus betray sacred trust. The Lord has placed you in a position where you may be elevated and ennobled, and be constantly gaining fitness for His work. If you do not obtain these qualifications; you alone are to blame.
YRP	102	3	There are three ways in which the Lord reveals His will to us, to guide us, and to fit us to guide others. How may we know His voice from that of a stranger? How shall we distinguish it from the voice of a false shepherd? God reveals His will to us in His Word, the Holy Scriptures. His voice is also revealed in His providential workings; and it will be recognized if we do not separate our souls from Him by walking in our own ways, doing according to our own wills, and following the promptings of an unsanctified heart, until the senses have become so confused that eternal things are not discerned, and the voice of Satan is so disguised that it is accepted as the voice of God.
YRP	102	4	Another way in which God's voice is heard is through the appeals of His Holy Spirit, making impressions upon the heart, which will be wrought out in the character. If you are in doubt upon any subject, you must first consult the Scriptures. If you have truly begun the life of faith, you have given yourself to the Lord to be wholly His, and He has taken you to mold and fashion according to His purpose, that you may be a vessel unto honor. You should have an earnest desire to be pliable in His hands and to follow whithersoever He may lead you. You are then trusting him to work out His designs, while at the same time you are cooperating with Him by working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You, my brother, will find difficulty here because you have not yet learned by experience to know the voice of the Good Shepherd, and this places you in doubt and peril. You ought to be able to distinguish His voice.--Testimonies for the Church 5:511, 512.
------------------------Going to the Source of Light, April 4
YRP	103	1	The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. Psalm 119:130.
YRP	103	2	It is sometimes the case that men of intellectual ability, improved by education and culture, fail to comprehend certain passages of Scripture, while others who are uneducated, whose understanding seems weak and whose minds are undisciplined, will grasp the meaning, finding strength and comfort in that which the former declare to be mysterious or pass by as unimportant. Why is this? It has been explained to me that the latter class do not rely upon their own understanding. They go to the Source of light, the One who has inspired the Scriptures, and with humility of heart ask God for wisdom, and they receive it. There are mines of truth yet to be discovered by the earnest seeker.
YRP	103	3	Christ represented the truth as treasure hid in a field. It does not lie right upon the surface; we must dig for it. But our success in finding it does not depend so much on our intellectual ability as on our humility of heart and the faith which will lay hold upon divine aid.
YRP	103	4	Without the guidance of the Holy Spirit we shall be continually liable to wrest the Scriptures or to misinterpret them. There is much reading of the Bible that is without profit and in many cases is a positive injury. When the Word of God is opened without reverence and without prayer; when the thoughts and affections are not fixed upon God or in harmony with His will, the mind is clouded with doubt; and in the very study of the Bible, skepticism strengthens. The enemy takes control of the thoughts, and he suggests interpretations that are not correct.
YRP	103	5	Whenever men are not seeking, in word and deed, to be in harmony with God, then, however learned they may be, they are liable to err in their understanding of Scripture, and it is not safe to trust to their explanations. When we are truly seeking to do God's will, the Holy Spirit takes the precepts of His Word and makes them the principles of the life, writing them on the tablets of the soul. And it is only those who are following the light already given that can hope to receive the further illumination of the Spirit.--Testimonies for the Church 5:704, 705.
------------------------Developing Spiritual Discernment, April 5
YRP	104	1	But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14.
YRP	104	2	The jewels of truth lie scattered over the field of revelation; but they have been buried beneath human traditions, beneath the sayings and commandments of men, and the wisdom from heaven has been practically ignored; for Satan has succeeded in making the world believe that the words and achievements of men are of great consequence. The Lord God, the Creator of the worlds, at infinite cost has given the gospel to the world. Through this divine agent, glad, refreshing springs of heavenly comfort and abiding consolation have been opened for those who will come to the fountain of life. There are veins of truth yet to be discovered; but spiritual things are spiritually discerned.
YRP	104	3	Minds beclouded with evil cannot appreciate the value of the truth as it is in Jesus. When iniquity is cherished, men do not feel the necessity of making diligent effort with prayer and reflection, to understand that they must know or lose heaven. They have so long been under the shadow of the enemy that they view truth as men behold objects through a smoked and imperfect glass; for all things are dark and perverted in their eyes. Their spiritual vision is feeble and untrustworthy; for they look upon the shadow, and turn away from the light.
YRP	104	4	But those who profess to believe in Jesus should ever press to the light. They should daily pray for the light of the Holy Spirit to shine upon the pages of the sacred book, that they may be enabled to comprehend the things of the Spirit of God. We must have implicit trust in God's Word, or we are lost. The words of men, however great they may be, are not able to make us perfect, to thoroughly furnish unto all good works.
YRP	104	5	"God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:13). In this text the two agencies in the salvation of man are revealed--the divine influence, the strong, living faith of those who follow Christ. It is through the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth that we become laborers together with God.--The Review and Herald, December 1, 1891.
------------------------Looking for Treasures, April 6
YRP	105	1	Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Matthew 13:44.
YRP	105	2	In our day the church has been to a great degree content with the surface truths of revelation, made so plain and easy to be understood that many have thought these supplied all that was essential, and in accepting them they have been content. But the Holy Spirit, working upon the mind, will not allow it to rest in indolence. It awakens an earnest desire for truth uncorrupted with error and false doctrines. Celestial truth will reward the diligent seeker. The mind that is really desirous to know what is truth cannot be content in indolence.
YRP	105	3	The kingdom of heaven is likened to treasure hid in a field, "the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." He buys it that he may work it, plow up every part of it, and take possession of its treasures. It is the Holy Spirit's office to direct this search and to reward it. The searcher, while digging the field, finds leads of precious ore of which he seeks to estimate the value, and he sinks the shaft deeper, for still more valuable treasure. Thus many a rich lode is discovered. The gold fields of the earth are not so interlaced with veins of precious ore as is the field of revelation with leads that bring to view the unsearchable riches of Christ.
YRP	105	4	The Lord would have every one of His believing children rich in faith; and this is the fruit of the working of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. From the heart the Spirit works outward, developing a character that God will approve. What a vast field of the treasures of truth did Christ add to the domain of faith to be appropriated by His disciples! We need greater faith if we would have better knowledge of the Word. The greatest hindrance to our receiving the divine illumination is that we do not depend on the efficiency of the Holy Spirit.--The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 1537, 1538.
------------------------Searching for Truth, April 7
YRP	106	1	Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. John 5:39.
YRP	106	2	Christ came in the form of humanity to live the law of God. He was the Word of life. He came to be the gospel of salvation to the world, and to fulfill every specification of the law. Jesus is the word, the guidebook, which must be received and obeyed in every particular. How necessary that this mine of truth be explored, and the precious treasures of truth be discovered and secured as rich jewels. The incarnation of Christ, His divinity, His atonement, His wonderful life in heaven as our advocate, the office of the Holy Spirit--all these living, vital themes of Christianity are revealed from Genesis to Revelation. The golden links of truth form a chain of evangelical truth, and the first, and staple, is found in the great teachings of Christ Jesus. Why, then, should not the Scriptures be ennobled and exalted in every school in our land? How little children are educated to study the Bible as the Word of God, and feed upon its truths, which are the flesh and blood of the Son of God!
YRP	106	3	"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood [that is, continues to receive the words of Christ and practice them], hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him" (John 6:53-56), "and he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us" (1 John 3:24).
YRP	106	4	There is necessity for every family to make the Bible the book of their study. Christ's sayings are pure gold, without one particle of dross, unless men, with their human understanding, shall try to put it there, and make falsehood appear as a portion of truth. To those who have received the false interpretation of the Word, when they search the Scriptures with the determined effort to obtain the very marrow of truth contained in them, the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of their understanding, and the truths of the Word are to them as a new revelation.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 385, 386.
------------------------Knowing the Unknown, April 8
YRP	107	1	For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:11.
YRP	107	2	Revelation is not the creation or invention of something new, but the manifestation of what was, until revealed, unknown to human beings. The great and eternal truths contained in the gospel are revealed through diligent searching and humbling of ourselves before God. The divine Teacher leads the mind of the humble seeker for truth; and by the Holy Spirit's guidance, the truths of the Word are made known to him. And there can be no more certain and efficient way of knowledge than in being thus guided. The promise of the Saviour was "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13). It is through the impartation of the Holy Spirit that we are made to understand the Word of God.
YRP	107	3	The psalmist writes, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.... Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Psalm 119:9-18).
YRP	107	4	We are admonished to seek for the truth as for hid treasure. The Lord opens the understanding of the true seeker after truth; and the Holy Spirit enables him to grasp the truths of revelation. This is what the psalmist means when he asks that his eyes may be opened to behold wondrous things out of the law. When the soul pants after the excellencies of Jesus Christ, the mind is enabled to grasp the glories of the better world. Only by the aid of the divine Teacher can we understand the truths of the Word of God. In Christ's school we learn to be meek and lowly because there is given to us an understanding of the mysteries of godliness.
YRP	107	5	He who inspired the Word was the true expositor of the Word. Christ illustrated His teachings by calling the attention of His hearers to the simple laws of nature, and to the familiar objects which they daily saw and handled. Thus He led their minds from the natural to the spiritual.--Sabbath-School Worker, December 1, 1909.
------------------------Digging Deeper Into the Mine, April 9
YRP	108	1	These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Acts 17:11.
YRP	108	2	It is proper and right to read the Bible; but your duty does not end there; for you are to search its pages for yourselves. The knowledge of God is not to be gained without mental effort, without prayer for wisdom in order that you may separate from the pure grain of truth the chaff with which men and Satan have misrepresented the doctrines of truth. Satan and his confederacy of human agents have endeavored to mix the chaff of error with the wheat of truth. We should diligently seek for the hidden treasure, and seek wisdom from heaven in order to separate human inventions from the divine commands. The Holy Spirit will aid the seeker for great and precious truths which relate to the plan of redemption.
YRP	108	3	I would impress upon all the fact that a casual reading of Scriptures is not enough. We must search, and this means the doing of all the Word implies. As the miner eagerly explores the earth to discover its veins of gold, so you are to explore the Word of God for the hidden treasure that Satan has so long sought to hide from man. The Lord says, "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching" (John 7:17, RV).
YRP	108	4	The Word of God is truth and light, and is to be a lamp unto your feet, to guide you every step of the way to the gates of the city of God. It is for this reason that Satan has made such desperate efforts to obstruct the path that has been cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. You are not to take your ideas to the Bible, and make your opinions a center around which truth is to revolve. You are to lay aside your ideas at the door of investigation, and with humble, subdued hearts, with self hid in Christ, with earnest prayer, you are to seek wisdom from God. You should feel that you must know the revealed will of God, because it concerns your personal, eternal welfare. The Bible is a directory by which you may know the way to eternal life. You should desire above all things that you may know the will and ways of the Lord.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, 307, 308.
------------------------With Humble Hearts, April 10
YRP	109	1	For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah 57:15.
YRP	109	2	All who will come to the Word of God for guidance, with humble, inquiring minds, determined to know the terms of salvation, will understand what saith the Scriptures. But those who bring to the investigation of the Word a spirit which it does not approve will take away from the search a spirit which it has not imparted. The Lord will not speak to a mind that is unconcerned. He wastes not His instruction on one who is willingly irreverent or polluted. But the tempter educates every mind that yields itself to his suggestions, and is willing to make of none effect God's holy law.
YRP	109	3	We need to humble our hearts, and with sincerity and reverence search the Word of life; for that mind alone that is humble and contrite can see light. The heart, the mind, the soul, must be prepared to receive light. There must be silence in the soul. The thoughts must be brought into captivity to Jesus Christ. The boastful self-knowledge and self-sufficiency must stand rebuked in the presence of the Word of God.
YRP	109	4	The Lord speaks to the heart that humbles itself before Him. At the altar of prayer, as the throne of grace is touched by faith, we receive from the hand of God that celestial torch which enlightens our darkness, and convinces us of our spiritual necessity. The Holy Spirit takes of the things of God, and reveals them to the one who is sincerely seeking for the heavenly treasure. If we yield to His guidance, He leads us into all light. As we behold the glory of Christ, we become changed into His image. We have that faith which works by love, and purifies the soul. Our hearts are renewed, and we are made willing to obey God in all things.--The Review and Herald, December 15, 1896.
------------------------With a Teachable Disposition, April 11
YRP	110	1	Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Jeremiah 6:16.
YRP	110	2	After asking the Lord for a knowledge of His will, for heavenly wisdom, for the light of the Holy Spirit, the petitioner will search the Scriptures, and find that passages that were dark to his mind have suddenly grown clear, and he understands his duty as never before. Jesus said: "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 7:16, 17).
YRP	110	3	The knowledge of divine truth is promised to those who will render obedience to the light and truth that have been given to them. An entrance into the strait gate is not dependent upon the possession of learning or riches, but it is dependent upon the possession of a teachable spirit. He who appreciates the first ray of heavenly light, and appropriates it, and walks in it, bringing his actions into harmony with that ray, and becoming sanctified through it, will receive yet more light. He will understand that the gospel is the plan of salvation....
YRP	110	4	He who has an obedient heart, that is ready to do the will of God, will not only gladly receive truth, but will earnestly seek for truth as for hidden treasure. He will come to the Scriptures with a humble and teachable spirit, seeking to understand how he may walk in the light, and saying, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6). He is ready to sacrifice anything and everything, if required, in order that he may be in harmony with the will of God.
YRP	110	5	It is not always an easy matter to render obedience to the will of God. It demands firmness of purpose to enter in at the strait gate and to travel in the narrow path that leads to eternal life, for on every hand are voices inviting the soul into bye and forbidden paths. Those who love wealth and honor and high position will not enter in at the strait gate unless they part with their idols. There is not room to enter in at the strait gate and carry the things of this world along.
YRP	110	6	He who would enter in at the strait gate must make an entire consecration of his all to God. Jesus says, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).--The Review and Herald, March 28, 1912.
------------------------With Empty Vessels, April 12
YRP	111	1	But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 2 Corinthians 4:7.
YRP	111	2	The question has been asked, What kind of vessels does the Spirit use? What does Christ say?--"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). What kind of vessels are meet for the Master's use?--Empty vessels. When we empty the soul of every defilement, we are ready for use.
YRP	111	3	Are we emptied of self? Are we cured of selfish planning? Oh, for less self-occupation! May the Lord purify His people, teachers, and churches. He has given a rule for the guidance of all, and from this there can be no careless departure. But there has been, and still is, a swerving from righteous principles. How long shall this condition of things exist? How can the Master use us as vessels for holy service until we empty ourselves, and make room for His Spirit to work?
YRP	111	4	God calls for His people to reveal Him. Shall the world manifest principles of integrity that the church does not maintain? Shall a selfish ambition to be first be shown by the followers of Christ? Shall not the principles cherished by them be laid upon the true foundation, even Christ Jesus? What material shall we place upon this foundation, that there may no longer be antagonism, but unity, in the church? Shall we bring to it wood, hay, stubble? Shall we not rather bring the most precious material--gold, silver, precious stones? Shall we not distinguish sharply between the chaff and the wheat? Shall we not realize that we must receive the Holy Spirit in our hearts, that it may mold and fashion the life?
YRP	111	5	We are living in perilous times. In the fear of God I would say that the true exposition of the Scriptures is necessary for the correct moral development of our characters. When mind and heart are worked by the Spirit, when self is dead, the truth is capable of constant expansion and new development. When the truth molds our characters, it will be seen to be truth indeed.--The Review and Herald, February 28, 1899.
------------------------With a Prayerful Spirit, April 13
YRP	112	1	Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Psalm 119:18.
YRP	112	2	Many a portion of Scripture which learned men pronounce a mystery, or pass over as unimportant, is full of comfort and instruction to him who has been taught in the school of Christ. One reason why many theologians have no clearer understanding of God's Word is [that] they close their eyes to truths which they do not wish to practice. An understanding of Bible truth depends not so much on the power of intellect brought to the search as on the singleness of purpose, the earnest longing after righteousness.
YRP	112	3	The Bible should never be studied without prayer. The Holy Spirit alone can cause us to feel the importance of those things easy to be understood, or prevent us from wresting truths difficult of comprehension. It is the office of heavenly angels to prepare the heart so to comprehend God's Word that we shall be charmed with its beauty, admonished by its warnings, or animated and strengthened by its promises. We should make the psalmist's petition our own: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law".
YRP	112	4	Temptations often appear irresistible because, through neglect of prayer and the study of the Bible, the tempted one cannot readily remember God's promises and meet Satan with the Scripture weapons. But angels are round about those who are willing to be taught in divine things; and in the time of great necessity they will bring to their remembrance the very truths which are needed. Thus "when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him" (Isaiah 59:19).
YRP	112	5	Jesus promised His disciples: "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26). But the teachings of Christ must previously have been stored in the mind in order for the Spirit of God to bring them to our remembrance in the time of peril. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart," said David, "that I might not sin against thee" (Psalm 119:11).--The Great Controversy, 599, 600.
------------------------Trusting In His Illumination, April 14
YRP	113	1	Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Psalm 119:34.
YRP	113	2	All over the field of revelation are scattered glad springs of heavenly truth, peace, and joy. These fountains of joy are within the reach of every seeker. The words of Inspiration, pondered in the heart, will be as living streams flowing from the river of the water of life. Our Saviour prayed that the mind of His followers might be opened to understand the Scriptures. Whenever we study the Bible with a prayerful heart, the Holy Spirit is near to open to us the meaning of the words we read. The man whose mind is enlightened by the opening of God's Word to his understanding will not only feel that he must more diligently seek to understand that Word, but that he must have a better understanding of the sciences. He will feel that he is called to a high calling in Christ Jesus.
YRP	113	3	The more closely connected man is with the Source of all knowledge and wisdom, the more he will feel that he must advance in intellectual and spiritual attainments. The opening of God's Word is always followed by a remarkable opening and strengthening of man's faculties; for the entrance of His words giveth light. By contemplation of great truths, the mind is elevated, the affections purified and refined; for the Spirit of God, through the truth of God, quickens the lifeless spiritual faculties, and attracts the soul heavenward.
YRP	113	4	Then take your Bible and present yourself before your heavenly Father, saying, "Enlighten me; teach me what is truth." The Lord will regard your prayer, and the Holy Spirit will impress the truth upon your soul. In searching the Scriptures for yourself, you will become established in the faith. It is of the greatest importance that you continually search the Scriptures, storing the mind with the truths of God. You may be separated from the companionship of Christians, and placed where you will not have the privilege of meeting with the children of God. You need the treasures of God's Word hidden in your heart, that when opposition comes upon you, you may bring everything to the test of the Scriptures.--The Bible Echo, October 15, 1892.
------------------------Believing in His Guidance, April 15
YRP	114	1	That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. 1 Corinthians 2:5-7.
YRP	114	2	You are accepted in the Beloved. I have had the most earnest desire that you should perfect a Christian character, not in your own strength, but in the strength and in the virtue and righteousness of Christ. The donation of the Holy Spirit was the greatest gift God could bestow upon finite man. This is free to all and in this gift there could be no computation; this endowment specially signalized the enthronement of the only begotten Son of God in His mediatorial kingdom. In this, the gift of the Comforter, the Lord God of heaven demonstrates to man the perfect reconciliation which He had effected between Himself and men. "Which hope," says the apostle, "we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered" (Hebrews 6:19, 20).
YRP	114	3	Has not God said He would give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? And is not this Spirit a real, true, actual Guide? Some men seem afraid to take God at His word, as though it would be presumption in them. They pray for the Lord to teach us and yet are afraid to credit the pledged word of God and believe we have been taught of Him. So long as we come to our heavenly Father humbly and with a spirit to be taught, willing and anxious to learn, why should we doubt God's fulfillment of His own promise? You must not for a moment doubt Him and dishonor Him thereby.
YRP	114	4	When you have sought to know His will, your part in the operation with God is to believe that you will be led and guided and blessed in the doing of His will. We may mistrust ourselves lest we misinterpret His teachings, but make even this a subject of prayer, and trust Him, still trust Him to the uttermost, that His Holy Spirit will lead you to interpret aright His plans and the working of His providence.--Manuscript Releases 6:223, 224.
------------------------Meditating on God's Word, April 16
YRP	115	1	O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Psalm 119:97.
YRP	115	2	Men need not the dim light of tradition and custom to make the Scriptures comprehensible. It is just as sensible to suppose that the sun, shining in the heavens at noonday, needs the glimmerings of the torchlights of earth to increase its glory. In the Bible every duty is made plain, every lesson is comprehensible. The gift of Christ and the illumination of the Holy Spirit reveal to us the Father. The Word is able to make men and women and youth wise unto salvation.
YRP	115	3	"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16, 17). No other book is so potent to elevate the thoughts, to give vigor to the faculties, as the broad, ennobling truths of the Bible. If God's Word were studied as it should be, men would have a breadth of mind, a nobility of character, and a stability of purpose that is rarely seen in these times.
YRP	115	4	Little benefit is to be derived from a hasty reading of the Scriptures. One may read the whole Bible through, and yet fail to see its beauty or to comprehend its depth of meaning. One passage studied until its significance is clear to the mind, and its relation to the plan of salvation evident, is of more value than the perusal of many chapters with no definite purpose in view and no positive instruction gained. Keep your Bible with you. As you have opportunity, read it; fix the texts in your memory. Even while you are walking in the street, you may read a passage and meditate upon it, thus fixing it on the mind.
YRP	115	5	Never should the Bible be studied without prayer. Before opening its pages, we should ask for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and it will be given. When Nathanael came to Jesus, the Saviour exclaimed, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile" (John 1:47). Nathanael said, "Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee" (verse 48). And Jesus will see us also in the secret place of prayer, if we will seek Him for light, that we may know what is truth. Angels from the world of light will be with those who in humility of heart seek for divine guidance.--Atlantic Union Gleaner June 9, 1909, par. 8.
------------------------Rejoicing in the Word, April 17
YRP	116	1	Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16.
YRP	116	2	There is constant need of patience, gentleness, self-denial, and self-sacrifice in the exercise of Bible religion. But if the Word of God is made an abiding principle in our lives, everything with which we have to do, each word, each trivial act, will reveal that we are subject to Jesus Christ, that even our thoughts have been brought into captivity to Him. If the Word of God is received into the heart, it will empty the soul of self-sufficiency and self-dependence. Our lives will be a power for good, because the Holy Spirit will fill our minds with the things of God. The religion of Christ will be practiced by us; for our wills are in perfect conformity to the will of God.
YRP	116	3	Some who profess to have true religion sadly neglect the Guidebook given by God to point the way to heaven. They may read the Bible, but merely reading God's Word, as one would read words traced by a human pen, will give only a superficial knowledge. Talking of the truth will not sanctify the receivers. They may profess to be working for God, when, were Christ among them, His voice would be heard, saying, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God" (Matthew 22:29). Such cannot know what true religion means.
YRP	116	4	"The words that I speak unto you," said Christ, "they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). Jeremiah testifies to the Word of God, saying, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart." There is divine healing in God's Word, which the so-called wise and prudent cannot experience, but which is revealed to babes. "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple" (Psalm 119:130). If this Word is enshrined in the heart, it becomes the treasure-house of the mind, from which we bring forth things new and old. We no longer find pleasure in thinking of the common things of earth, but say, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (verse 105).--The Review and Herald, May 4, 1897.
------------------------Sanctified Through the Word, April 18
YRP	117	1	Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:17.
YRP	117	2	The burden of Jesus' request was that those who believed on Him might be kept from the evil of the world, and sanctified through the truth. He does not leave us to vague surmising as to what the truth is, but adds, "Thy word is truth." The Word of God is the means by which our sanctification is to be accomplished. It is of the greatest importance, then, that we acquaint ourselves with the sacred instruction of the Bible. It is as necessary for us to understand the words of life as it was for the early disciples to be informed concerning the plan of salvation.
YRP	117	3	We shall be inexcusable if, through our own negligence, we are ignorant of the claims of God's Word. God has given us His Word, the revelation of His will, and has promised the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, to guide them into all truth; and every soul who honestly desires to do the will of God shall know of the doctrine.
YRP	117	4	The world is full of false teaching; and if we do not resolutely search the Scriptures for ourselves, we shall accept its errors for truth, adopt its customs, and deceive our own hearts. The doctrines and customs of the world are at variance with the truth of God. Those who seek to turn from the service of the world to the service of God will need divine help. They will have to set their faces like a flint toward Zion. They will feel the opposition of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and will have to go contrary to the spirit and influences of the world.
YRP	117	5	Since the time when the Son of God breasted the haughty prejudices and unbelief of mankind, there has been no change in the attitude of the world toward the religion of Jesus. The servants of Christ must meet the same spirit of opposition and reproach, and must go "without the camp, bearing his reproach" (Hebrews 13:13).
YRP	117	6	The mission of Jesus was demonstrated by convincing miracles. His doctrine astonished the people. It was not the contradictory jargon of the scribes, full of mysticism, burdened with absurd forms and meaningless exactions; but it was a system of truth that met the wants of the heart. His teaching was plain, clear, and comprehensive. The practical truths He uttered had a convincing power, and arrested the attention of the people.--The Review and Herald, February 7, 1888.
------------------------Guided Through the Written Testimony, April 19
YRP	118	1	To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:20.
YRP	118	2	The Holy Spirit always leads to the written Word, and calls the attention to the great moral standard of righteousness. To be honored of God in thus being privileged to testify of the truth is a wonderful thing. Said Christ to His disciples just before He ascended up and the clouds of angels received Him out of their sight, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). They were qualified by the heavenly endowment of the Holy Spirit to testify of Christ.
YRP	118	3	I wish to impress upon you the fact that those who have Jesus abiding in the heart by faith have actually received the Holy Spirit. Every individual who receives Jesus as his personal Saviour just as surely receives the Holy Spirit to be his Counselor, Sanctifier, Guide, and Witness. The more closely the believer walks with God, the clearer his witness, and, as a sure result, the more powerful will be the influence of his testimony upon others of a Saviour's love; the more he will give evidence that he prizes the Word of God. It is his meat, it is his drink, to satisfy the thirsty soul. He prizes the privilege of learning the will of God from His Word.
YRP	118	4	Some souls who claim to be believers have slighted, and turned from, the Word of God. They have neglected the Bible, the wonderful Guidebook, the true tester of all ideas, and claim that they have the Spirit to teach them, that this renders searching the Scriptures unnecessary. All such are heeding the sophistry of Satan, for the Spirit and the Word agree. Say the Scriptures, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." He only is a free man whom the truth makes free.--Manuscript Releases 14:70, 71.
------------------------Illumination Not Given Apart From the Word, April 20
YRP	119	1	For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew 24:24.
YRP	119	2	In these days of delusion, everyone who is established in the truth will have to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. Every variety of error will be brought out in the mysterious working of Satan, which would, if it were possible, deceive the very elect, and turn them from the truth. There will be human wisdom to meet--the wisdom of learned men, who, as were the Pharisees, are teachers of the law of God, but do not obey the law themselves. There will be human ignorance and folly to meet in disconnected theories arrayed in new and fantastic dress--theories that it will be all the more difficult to meet because there is no reason in them.
YRP	119	3	There will be false dreams and false visions, which have some truth, but lead away from the original faith. The Lord has given men a rule by which to detect them: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20). If they belittle the law of God, if they pay no heed to His will as revealed in the testimonies of His Spirit, they are deceivers. They are controlled by impulse and impressions, which they believe to be from the Holy Spirit, and consider more reliable than the Inspired Word. They claim that every thought and feeling is an impression of the Spirit; and when they are reasoned with out of the Scriptures, they declare that they have something more reliable. But while they think that they are led by the Spirit of God, they are in reality following an imagination wrought upon by Satan.--Selected Messages 2:98, 99.
YRP	119	4	Satan will work in a most subtle manner to introduce human inventions clothed with angel garments. But the light from the Word is shining amid the moral darkness; and the Bible will never be superseded by miraculous manifestations. The truth must be studied, it must be searched for as hidden treasure. Wonderful illuminations will not be given aside from the Word, or to take the place of it. Cling to the Word, receive the ingrafted Word, which will make men wise unto salvation.--Selected Messages 2:100.
------------------------Not Relying on Our Own Imagination, April 21
YRP	120	1	And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. 1 Corinthians 2:4.
YRP	120	2	I have seen that danger attends every new phase of experience in the church, because some hear things with such a wrong spirit. While some teachers may be strong and efficient in teaching in the lines of Bible doctrines, they will not all be men who have a knowledge of practical life, and can advise perplexed minds with surety and safety. They do not discern the perplexing situation that must necessarily come to every family who shall make a change. Therefore let all be careful what they say; if they know not the mind of God in some matters, let them never speak from a guess or suppose so. If they know nothing definite, let them say so, and let the individual rely wholly upon God. Let there be much praying done, and even with fasting, that not one shall move in darkness, but move in the light as God is in the light.
YRP	120	3	We may look for anything now to break forth outside and within our ranks; and there are minds undisciplined by the grace of the Holy Spirit, that have not practiced the words of Christ, and who do not understand the movings of the Spirit of God, who will follow a wrong course of action because they do not follow Jesus fully. They follow impulse and their own imagination.
YRP	120	4	Let there be nothing done in a disorderly manner, that there shall be a great loss or sacrifice made upon property because of ardent, impulsive speeches which stir up an enthusiasm which is not after the order of God, that a victory that was essential to be gained, shall, for lack of levelheaded moderation and proper contemplation, and sound principles and purposes, be turned into a defeat. Let there be wise generalship in this matter, and all move under the guidance of a wise, unseen Counselor, which is God. Elements that are human will struggle for the mastery, and there may be a work done that does not bear the signature of God.--Special Testimonies Relating to Various Matters in Battle Creek, 17, 18.
------------------------Not Guided by Emotions, April 22
YRP	121	1	Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105.
YRP	121	2	Sanctification is not a happy flight of feeling, not the work of an instant, but the work of a lifetime. If anyone claims that the Lord has sanctified him, and made him holy, the proof of his claim to the blessing will be seen in the fruits of meekness, patience, long-suffering, truthfulness, and love. If the blessing that those who claim to be sanctified have received leads them to rely upon some particular emotion, and they declare there is no need of searching the Scriptures that they may know God's revealed will, then the supposed blessing is a counterfeit, for it leads its possessors to place value on their own unsanctified emotions and fancies, and to close their ears to the voice of God in His Word.
YRP	121	3	Why need those who claim they have had special manifestations of the Spirit, and the witness that their sins are all forgiven, conclude that they can lay the Bible aside, and from henceforth walk alone? When we ask those who claim to have been instantaneously sanctified, if they are searching the Scriptures as Jesus told them to do, to see if there is not additional truth for them to accept, they answer, "God makes known His will to us directly in special signs and revelations, and we can afford to lay the Bible aside."
YRP	121	4	There are thousands who are being deceived by trusting to some special emotion, and discarding the Word of God. They are not building upon the only safe and sure foundation--the Word of God. A religion that is addressed to intelligent creatures will produce reasonable evidences of its genuineness, for there will be marked results in heart and character. The grace of Christ will be made manifest in their daily conduct. We may safely ask those who profess to be sanctified, Do the fruits of the Spirit appear in your life? Do you manifest the meekness and lowliness of Christ, and reveal the fact that you are learning daily in the school of Christ, shaping your life after the pattern of His unselfish life?
YRP	121	5	The best evidence that any of us can have of our connection with the God of heaven is that we keep His commandments. The best proof of faith in Christ is distrust of self and dependence upon God. The only reliable proof of our abiding in Christ is to reflect His image. Just so far as we do this we give evidence that we are sanctified through the truth, for the truth is exemplified in our daily life.--The Signs of the Times, February 28, 1895.
------------------------Not Trusting in Impressions, April 23
YRP	122	1	I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. Psalm 119:15, 16.
YRP	122	2	In His Word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the revealer of doctrines, and the test of experience. "Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16, 17, RV).
YRP	122	3	Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His Word has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, the Spirit was promised by our Saviour, to open the Word to His servants, to illuminate and apply its teachings. And since it was the Spirit of God that inspired the Bible, it is impossible that the teaching of the Spirit should ever be contrary to that of the Word.
YRP	122	4	The Spirit was not given--nor can it ever be bestowed--to supersede the Bible; for the Scriptures explicitly state that the Word of God is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested. Says the apostle John, "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). And Isaiah declares, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20).
YRP	122	5	Great reproach has been cast upon the work of the Holy Spirit by the errors of a class that, claiming its enlightenment, profess to have no further need of guidance from the Word of God. They are governed by impressions which they regard as the voice of God in the soul. But the spirit that controls them is not the Spirit of God. This following of impressions, to the neglect of the Scriptures, can lead only to confusion, to deception and ruin. It serves only to further the designs of the evil one.
YRP	122	6	Since the ministry of the Holy Spirit is of vital importance to the church of Christ, it is one of the devices of Satan, through the errors of extremists and fanatics, to cast contempt upon the work of the Spirit and cause the people of God to neglect this source of strength which our Lord Himself has provided.--The Great Controversy, vii.
------------------------A Clear Voice Amid Other Voices, April 24
YRP	123	1	And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21.
YRP	123	2	Amid the confusion of delusive doctrines, the Spirit of God will be a guide and a shield to those who have not resisted the evidences of truth. He silences every other voice than that which comes from Him who is the truth and the life. God gives to every soul opportunity to hear the voice of the True Shepherd, to receive the knowledge of God and our Saviour. When the heart receives this truth as a precious treasure, Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, while the whole heavenly universe exclaims, Amen and amen! We have absolute need of the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. We have no time to confer with flesh and blood.
YRP	123	3	We have need of divine illumination. Every individual is striving to become a center of influence; and until God works for His people, they will not see that subordination to God is the only safety for any soul. His transforming grace upon human hearts will lead to unity that has not yet been realized; for all who are assimilated to Christ will be in harmony with one another. The Holy Spirit will create unity.
YRP	123	4	"He shall glorify me" (John 16:14). "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). The Holy Spirit glorifies God by so revealing His character to His people that He becomes the object of their supreme affections, and by making manifest His character in them.
YRP	123	5	They see clearly that there never was any righteousness in the world but His, no excellence in the world but that derived from Him. When the Spirit was poured out from on high, the church was flooded with light, but Christ was the source of that light; His name was on every tongue, His love filled every heart. So it will be when the angel that comes down from heaven having great power shall lighten the whole earth with His glory....
YRP	123	6	The gift of His Holy Spirit, rich, full, and abundant, is to His church as an encompassing wall of fire, and the powers of hell shall not prevail against it. In their untainted purity and spotless perfection Christ looks upon His people as the reward of all His suffering, His humiliation, and His love, and the supplement of His glory--Christ the great center from which radiates all glory.--The Home Missionary, November 1, 1893.
------------------------Ready to Give Reason of Our Hope, April 25
YRP	124	1	But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. 1 Peter 3:15.
YRP	124	2	This is what we shall see if we are connected with God. God wants us to depend upon Him, and not upon man. He desires us to have a new heart; He would give us revealings of light from the throne of God. We should wrestle with every difficulty, but when some controverted point is presented, are you to go to man to find out his opinion, and then shape your conclusions from his? No, go to God. Tell Him what you want; take your Bible and search as for hidden treasures.
YRP	124	3	We do not go deep enough in our search for truth. Every soul who believes present truth will be brought where he will be required to give a reason of the hope that is in him. The people of God will be called upon to stand before kings, princes, rulers, and great men of the earth, and they must know that they do know what is truth. They must be converted men and women. God can teach you more in one moment by His Holy Spirit than you could learn from the great men of the earth. The universe is looking upon the controversy that is going on upon the earth. At an infinite cost, God has provided for every man an opportunity to know that which will make him wise unto salvation. How eagerly do angels look to see who will avail himself of this opportunity!
YRP	124	4	When a message is presented to God's people, they should not rise up in opposition to it; they should go to the Bible, comparing it with the law and the testimony, and if it does not bear this test, it is not true. God wants our minds to expand. He desires to put His grace upon us. We may have a feast of good things every day; for God can open the whole treasure of heaven to us. We are to be one with Christ as He is one with the Father, and the Father will love us as He loves His Son. We may have the same help that Christ had, we may have strength for every emergency; for God will be our front guard and our rearward.--Selected Messages 1:415, 416.
------------------------Capable to Distinguish False Theories, April 26
YRP	125	1	Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Jude 1:3.
YRP	125	2	Jude bears this message to guard believers against the seductive influence of false teachers, men who have a form of godliness but who are not safe leaders. In these last days, false teachers will arise and become actively zealous. All kinds of theories will be presented to divert the minds of men and women from the very truth that defines the position we can occupy with safety in this time when Satan is working with power upon religionists, leading them to make a pretense of being righteous, but to fail of placing themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
YRP	125	3	False theories will be mingled with every phase of experience, and advocated with satanic earnestness in order to captivate the mind of every soul who is not rooted and grounded in a full knowledge of the sacred principles of the Word. In the very midst of us will arise false teachers, giving heed to seducing spirits whose doctrines are of satanic origin. These teachers will draw away disciples after themselves. Creeping in unawares, they will use flattering words, and make skillful misrepresentations with seductive tact.
YRP	125	4	The only hope of our churches is to keep wide awake. Those who are well grounded in the truth of the Word, those who test everything by a "Thus saith the Lord" are safe. The Holy Spirit will guide those who prize the wisdom of God above the deceptive sophistries of satanic agencies. Let there be much praying, not in human lines but under the inspiration of love of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. The families who believe the truth are to speak words of wisdom and intelligence--words that will come to them as the result of searching the Scriptures.
YRP	125	5	Now is our time of test and trial. Now is the time when the members of every believing family must close their lips against speaking words of accusation concerning their brethren. Let them speak words that impart courage, and strengthen the faith which works by love and purifies the soul.--The Kress Collection, 5.
------------------------Able to Discern Truth From Error, April 27
YRP	126	1	For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11:13, 14.
YRP	126	2	The truth is efficient, and through obedience its power changes the mind into the image of Jesus. It is the truth as it is in Jesus that quickens the conscience and transforms the mind; for it is accompanied to the heart by the Holy Spirit. There are many, who, lacking spiritual discernment, take the bare letter of the Word, and find that unaccompanied by the Spirit of God, it quickens not the soul, it sanctifies not the heart. One may be able to quote from the Old and the New Testament, may be familiar with the commands and promises of the Word of God; but unless the Holy Spirit sends the truth home to the heart, enlightening the mind with divine light, no soul falls upon the Rock and is broken; for it is the divine agency that connects the soul with God.
YRP	126	3	Without the enlightenment of the Spirit of God, we shall not be able to discern truth from error, and shall fall under the masterful temptations and deceptions that Satan will bring upon the world. We are near the close of the controversy between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness, and soon the delusions of the enemy will try our faith, of what sort it is. Satan will work miracles in the sight of the beast, and deceive "them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast" (Revelation 13:14).
YRP	126	4	But though the prince of darkness will work to cover the earth with darkness, and with gross darkness the people, the Lord will manifest His converting power. A work is to be accomplished in the earth similar to that which took place at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the days of the early disciples, when they preached Jesus and Him crucified. Many will be converted in a day; for the message will go with power. It can then be said: "Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost" (1 Thessalonians 1:5). It is the Holy Spirit that draws men to Christ; for He takes of the things of God, and shows them unto the sinner. Jesus said: "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you" (John 16:14).--The Review and Herald, November 29, 1892.
------------------------Separating the True From the Fictitious, April 28
YRP	127	1	For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 2 Timothy 4:3, 4.
YRP	127	2	Much is being said regarding the impartation of the Holy Spirit, and by some this is being so interpreted that it is an injury to the churches. Eternal life is the receiving of the living elements in the Scriptures and doing the will of God. This is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. To those who do this, life and immortality are brought to light through the gospel, for God's Word is verity and truth, spirit and life. It is the privilege of all who believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour to feed on the Word of God. The Holy Spirit's influence renders that Word, the Bible, an immortal truth, which to the prayerful searcher gives spiritual sinew and muscle.
YRP	127	3	"Search the scriptures," Christ declared, "for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39). Those who dig beneath the surface discover the hidden gems of truth. The Holy Spirit is present with the earnest searcher. His illumination shines upon the Word, stamping the truth upon the mind with a new, fresh importance. The searcher is filled with a sense of peace and joy never before felt. The preciousness of truth is realized as never before. A new, heavenly light shines upon the Word, illuminating it as though every letter were tinged with gold. God Himself has spoken to the mind and heart, making the Word spirit and life.
YRP	127	4	Every true searcher of the Word lifts his heart to God, imploring the aid of the Spirit. And he soon discovers that which carries him above all the fictitious statements of the would-be teacher, whose weak, tottering theories are not sustained by the Word of the living God. These theories were invented by men who had not learned the first great lesson, that God's Spirit and life are in His Word. If they had received in the heart the eternal element contained in the Word of God, they would see how tame and expressionless are all efforts to get something new to create a sensation. They need to learn the very first principles of the Word of God.--Selected Messages 2:38, 39.
------------------------Laying a Firm Foundation, April 29
YRP	128	1	That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Ephesians 4:14.
YRP	128	2	The voice of God is speaking to us through His Word, and there are many voices that we will hear; but Christ has said we should beware of them who will say, Here is Christ or there is Christ. Then how shall we know that they have not the truth, unless we bring everything to the Scriptures? Christ has warned us to beware of false prophets who will come to us in His name, saying that they are Christ.
YRP	128	3	Now, if you should take the position that it is not important for you to understand the Scriptures for yourselves, you will be in danger of being led away with these doctrines. Christ has said that there will be a company who in the day of retributive judgment will say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" But Christ will say, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:22, 23)....
YRP	128	4	The time is coming when Satan will work miracles right in your sight, claiming that he is Christ; and if your feet are not firmly established upon the truth of God, then you will be led away from your foundation. The only safety for you is to search for the truth as for hid treasures. Dig for the truth as you would for treasures in the earth, and present the Word of God, the Bible, before your heavenly Father, and say, Enlighten me; teach me what is truth.
YRP	128	5	And when His Holy Spirit shall come into your hearts, to impress the truth into your souls, you will not let it go easily. You have gained such an experience in searching the Scriptures, that every point is established. And it is important that you continually search the Scriptures. You should store the mind with the Word of God; for you may be separated, and placed where you will not have the privilege of meeting with the children of God. Then you will want the treasures of God's Word hidden in your hearts, and when opposition comes around you, you will need to bring everything to the Scriptures.--The Review and Herald, April 3, 1888.
------------------------Building Upon the Rock, April 30
YRP	129	1	Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. Matthew 7:24.
YRP	129	2	As you stand here today, and see the defects of your characters in the light of God's great moral standard, will you not say, "I will redeem the past; I will go to work in the Lord's vineyard"? By living faith will you not grasp the promises of God, and appropriate Christ's righteousness, and find the light of heaven shining in your life? You are to bring Christ into your every thought and action. A defective link in a chain makes it worthless, and a defect in your character will unfit you to enter the kingdom of heaven. You must set everything in order. But you cannot do this great work without divine aid. Are you ready to accept the promises of God, and to make them your own by living faith in his immutable word?
YRP	129	3	You should walk by faith, not by feeling. We do not want a sensational religion; but we want a religion founded on intelligent faith. This faith plants its feet on the eternal rock of God's Word. Those who walk by faith are all the time seeking for perfection of character by constant obedience to Christ. The Captain of our salvation has given us His orders, and we are to yield implicit obedience; but if we close the Book that reveals His will, and do not inquire, or search, or seek to understand, how can we fulfill its obligation? We shall be found wanting at last, if we pursue this course....
YRP	129	4	We are coming to a crisis, and I am in terror for our souls. Why is it that we find men leaving the faith? Are we in a position where we shall know what we believe, and shall not be shaken out? That souls leave the truth should not discourage us in the least, but only make us seek more earnestly for the blessing of God. It is not the education, or the talents, or the position of men, that is to save them. We are to be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
YRP	129	5	How do you stand before God today? The question is not How will you stand in the day of trouble, or at some future time? but how is it with your soul today? Will you go to work today? We want a personal, individual experience today. Today, we want Christ abiding with us.--The Review and Herald, April 9, 1889.
------------------------Always With Us, May 1
YRP	130	1	I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. John 14:18.
YRP	130	2	Christ desired His disciples to understand that He would not leave them orphans. "I will not leave you comfortless," He declared; "I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:18, 19). Precious, glorious assurance of eternal life! Even though He was to be absent, their relation to Him was to be that of a child to its parent.
YRP	130	3	"At that day," He said, "ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (John 14:20). He sought to impress the minds of the disciples with the distinction between those who are of the world and those who are of Christ. He was about to die, but He desired them to realize that He would live again. And although, after His ascension, He would be absent from them, yet by faith they might see and know Him, and He would have the same loving interest in them that He had while with them....
YRP	130	4	The words spoken to the disciples come to us through their words. The Comforter is ours as well as theirs, at all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all affliction, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone. These are times when the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith.
YRP	130	5	There is no comforter like Christ, so tender and so true. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. His Spirit speaks to the heart. Circumstances may separate us from our friends; the broad, restless ocean may roll between us and them. Though their sincere friendship may still exist, they may be unable to demonstrate it by doing for us that which would be gratefully received. But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always there, one given in Christ's place, to act in His stead. He is always at our right hand, to speak soothing, gentle words; to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer.
YRP	130	6	The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the soul. This Spirit works in and through everyone who receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of this Spirit reveal its fruit--love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.--The Review and Herald, October 26, 1897.
------------------------In Times of Trial, May 2
YRP	131	1	For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
YRP	131	2	Christ dwells in him who receives Him by faith. Though trials may come upon the soul, yet the Lord's presence will be with us. The burning bush in which was the Lord's presence did not consume away. The fire did not extinguish a fiber of the branches. Thus will it be with the feeble human agent who puts his trust in Christ. The furnace fire of temptation may burn, persecution and trial may come, but only the dross will be consumed. The gold will shine brighter because of the process of purification.
YRP	131	3	Greater is He that is in the heart of the faithful, than he that controls the hearts of unbelievers. Complain not bitterly of the trial which comes upon you, but let your eyes be directed to Christ, who has clothed His divinity with humanity, in order that we may understand how great His interest in us since He has identified Himself with suffering humanity. He tasted the cup of human sorrow, He was afflicted in all our afflictions, He was made perfect through suffering, tempted in all points like as humanity is tempted, in order that He might succor those who are in temptation.
YRP	131	4	He says, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir" (Isaiah 13:12). He will make a man precious by abiding with Him, by giving unto him the Holy Spirit. He says, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke 11:13).
YRP	131	5	The Lord has instructed us to call God our Father, to regard Him as the fountain of paternal affection, the source of the love that has been flowing from century to century through the channel of the human heart. All the pity, compassion, and love which have been manifested in the earth have emanated from the throne of God, and, compared to the love that dwells in His heart, are as a fountain to an ocean. His love is perpetually flowing forth to make the weak strong, to make the fainthearted firm, and give moral courage to the wavering. God works through Christ, and man may come unto the Father in the name of the Son. Our science and our song is "Hear what the Lord hath done for my soul."--The Signs of the Times, March 5, 1896.
------------------------Surrounded by a Divine Shield, May 3
YRP	132	1	And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Psalm 50:15.
YRP	132	2	When trials arise that seem unexplainable, we should not allow our peace to be spoiled. However unjustly we may be treated, let not passion arise. By indulging a spirit of retaliation we injure ourselves. We destroy our own confidence in God, and grieve the Holy Spirit. There is by our side a Witness, a heavenly Messenger, who will lift up for us a standard against the enemy. He will shut us in with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Beyond this Satan cannot penetrate. He cannot pass this shield of holy light.
YRP	132	3	While the world is progressing in wickedness, none of us need flatter ourselves that we shall have no difficulties. But it is these very difficulties that bring us into the audience chamber of the Most High. We may seek counsel of One who is infinite in wisdom.
YRP	132	4	The Lord says, "Call upon me in the day of trouble" (Psalm 50:15). He invites us to present to Him our perplexities and necessities, and our need of divine help. He bids us be instant in prayer. As soon as difficulties arise, we are to offer to Him our sincere, earnest petitions. By our importunate prayers we give evidence of our strong confidence in God. The sense of our need leads us to pray earnestly, and our heavenly Father is moved by our supplications.
YRP	132	5	Often those who suffer reproach or persecution for their faith are tempted to think themselves forsaken by God. In the eyes of men they are in the minority. To all appearance their enemies triumph over them. But let them not violate their conscience. He who has suffered in their behalf, and has borne their sorrows and afflictions, has not forsaken them.
YRP	132	6	The children of God are not left alone and defenseless. Prayer moves the arm of Omnipotence. Prayer has "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire"--we shall know what it means when we hear the reports of the martyrs who died for their faith--"turned to flight the armies of the aliens" (Hebrews 11:33, 34).--Christ's Object Lessons, 171, 172.
------------------------In Moments of Despair, May 4
YRP	133	1	Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Matthew 7:7, 8.
YRP	133	2	Then come, and seek, and find. The reservoir of power is open, is full and free. Come with humble hearts, not thinking that you must do some good thing to merit the favor of God, or that you must make yourself better before you can come to Christ. You can never do anything to better your condition. In the name of Jesus, come with full assurance of faith, because you are a sinner; for Christ said, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Matthew 9:13). Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. You are to ask, to seek, to knock, and to believe that you are accepted through Christ Jesus, trusting Him alone to do those things for you which you can never do for yourself....
YRP	133	3	Jesus is our atoning sacrifice; we can make no atonement for ourselves, but by faith we can accept the atonement that has been made. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:18, 19). "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). It is by virtue of this precious blood that the sin-stricken soul can be restored to soundness. While you are putting up your petition to God, the Holy Spirit applies the faithful promises of God to your heart.
YRP	133	4	In moments of perplexity, when Satan suggests doubt and discouragement, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up as a standard against him the faithful sayings of Christ, and the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness will flash into your mind and soul. When Satan would overwhelm you with despair, the Holy Spirit will point you to the intercession made for you by a living Saviour. Christ is the fragrance, the holy incense, which makes your petitions acceptable to the Father. When the light of Christ's righteousness is fully understood and accepted, love, joy, peace, and inexpressible gratitude will pervade the soul, and the language of him who is blessed will be "Thy gentleness hath made me great" (Psalm 18:35).--The Signs of the Times, August 22, 1892.
------------------------Still Loved Though We Err, May 5
YRP	134	1	My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1.
YRP	134	2	Those who are in connection with God are channels for the power of the Holy Spirit. If one who daily communes with God errs from the path, if he turns a moment from looking steadfastly unto Jesus, it is not because he sins willfully; for when he sees his mistake, he turns again, and fastens his eyes upon Jesus, and the fact that he has erred does not make him less dear to the heart of God. He knows that he has communion with the Saviour; and when reproved for his mistake in some matter of judgment, he does not walk sullenly, and complain of God, but turns the mistake into a victory. He learns a lesson from the words of the Master, and takes heed that he be not again deceived.
YRP	134	3	Those who truly love God have internal evidence that they are beloved of God, that they have communion with Christ, that their hearts are warmed with fervent love toward Him. The truth for this time is believed with sound confidence. They can say with all assurance, "We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.... We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts" (2 Peter 1:16-19).
YRP	134	4	The inner life of the soul will reveal itself in the outward conduct. Let the Word of God bear its testimony in behalf of the messenger whom God hath sent with a message in these last days to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" (Isaiah 52:7).
YRP	134	5	The wisdom of so-called intellectual men cannot be relied upon, unless they have learned and are daily learning lessons in the school of Christ. Men, in their supposed wisdom, may plan and devise theories and systems of philosophy, but the Lord calls them vain and foolish. The Lord says, "The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Corinthians 1:25).--The Review and Herald, May 12, 1896.
------------------------In the Darkest Hour, May 6
YRP	135	1	And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.
YRP	135	2	You may be disappointed, and your will and your way may be denied; but be assured that the Lord loves you. The furnace fire may kindle upon you, not for the purpose of destroying you, but to consume the dross, that you may come forth as gold seven times purified. Bear in mind that God will give you songs in the night. Darkness may seem to enclose you, but you are not to look at the clouds. Beyond the darkest cloud there is an ever-shining light. The Lord has light for every soul. Open the door of the heart to hope, peace, and joy. Jesus says, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (John 15:11).
YRP	135	3	God has a special work for everyone to do, and each one of us may do well the work which God has assigned him. The only thing we have to fear on our part is that we shall not keep our eyes continually fixed upon Jesus, that we shall not have an eye single to the glory of God, so that if we were called to lay down our armor and sleep in death we might not be ready to give an account of our trust. Forget not for a moment that you are Christ's property, bought with an infinite price, and that you are to glorify Him in your spirit, and in your body, which are His....
YRP	135	4	God has provided a balm for every wound. There is a Balm in Gilead, there is a Physician there. Will you not now as never before study the Scriptures? Seek the Lord for wisdom in every emergency. In every trial plead with Jesus to show you a way out of your troubles, then your eyes will be opened to behold the remedy and to apply to your case the healing promises that have been recorded in His Word. In this way the enemy will find no place to lead you into mourning and unbelief, but instead you will have faith and hope and courage in the Lord. The Holy Spirit will give you clear discernment that you may see and appropriate every blessing that will act as an antidote to grief, as a branch of healing to every draught of bitterness that is placed to your lips.--Selected Messages 2:272-274.
------------------------With Concerned Parents, May 7
YRP	136	1	Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Psalm 51:11-13.
YRP	136	2	What a prayer is this! How evident it is that sinners in the household are not to be treated with indifference, but that the Lord looks upon them as the purchase of His blood. In every household where the unconverted are, it should be the work of those who know the Lord to work in wisdom for their conversion. The Lord will surely bless the efforts of parents, as in His fear and love they seek to save the souls of their households. The Lord Jesus is waiting to be gracious.
YRP	136	3	Oh, that the work might begin at the heart! "For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psalm 51:16, 17). Then let it be understood by all the members of the household that the work must begin at the heart. The heart must be subdued and made contrite through the creating, regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. Realizing the aid of this mighty agency, cannot parents work for the conversion of their children with more zeal and love than ever before?
YRP	136	4	The promise of the Lord is "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them" (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
YRP	136	5	When the Spirit of the Lord works upon the hearts of the parents, their prayers and tears will come up before God, and they will earnestly entreat, and will receive grace and wisdom from heaven, and will be able to work for their unconverted children. As this Spirit is manifested in the home, it will be brought into the church, and those who are home missionaries will also become agents for God in the church and in the world. The institutions which God has planted will bear an entirely different mold.--The Review and Herald, March 14, 1893.
------------------------Beside Mothers Leading Their Little Ones, May 8
YRP	137	1	For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him: therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. 1 Samuel 1:27, 28.
YRP	137	2	Christian mothers should realize that they are co-workers with God when training and disciplining their children in such a manner as will enable them to reflect the character of Christ. In this work they will have the cooperation of heavenly angels; but it is a work that is sadly neglected, and for this reason Christ is robbed of His heritage--the younger members of His family. But through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, humanity may be a co-worker with divinity.
YRP	137	3	The lessons of Christ upon the occasion of receiving the children, should leave a deeper impression upon our minds. The words of Christ encourage parents to bring their little ones to Jesus. They may be wayward, and possess passions like those of humanity, but this should not deter us from bringing them to Christ. He blessed children that were possessed of passions like His own.
YRP	137	4	We often err in training our children. Parents often indulge their children in that which is selfish and demoralizing, and, instead of having travail of soul for their salvation, they let them drift along, and grow up with perverse tempers and unlovely characters. They do not accept their God-given responsibility to educate and train their children for the glory of God. They become dissatisfied with their children's manners, and disheartened as they realize that their faults are the result of their own neglect, and then they become discouraged.
YRP	137	5	But if parents would feel that they are never released from their burden of educating and training their children for God, if they would do their work in faith, cooperating with God by earnest prayer and work, they would be successful in bringing their children to the Saviour. Let fathers and mothers devote themselves, soul, body, and spirit, to God before the birth of their children.--The Signs of the Times, April 9, 1896.
------------------------Answering Prayers for Divine Help, May 9
YRP	138	1	And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Deuteronomy 6:6, 7.
YRP	138	2	Fathers and mothers, how can I find words to describe your great responsibility! By the character you reveal before your children you are educating them to serve God or to serve self. Then offer to heaven your earnest prayers for the aid of the Holy Spirit, that your hearts may be sanctified, and that the course you pursue may honor God and win your children to Christ. It should give to parents a sense of the solemnity and sacredness of their task, when they realize that by careless speech or action they may lead their children astray.
YRP	138	3	Parents need the guardianship of God and His Word. If they do not heed the counsels of the Word of God, if they do not make the Bible the man of their counsel, the rule of their life, their children will grow careless and will walk in paths of disobedience and unbelief. Christ lived a life of toil and self-denial, and died a death of shame, that He might give an example of the spirit that should inspire and control His followers. As in their home life parents strive to be Christlike, heavenly influences will be shed abroad in the lives of their family.
YRP	138	4	In every Christian home God should be honored by the morning and evening sacrifices of praise and prayer. Every morning and evening earnest prayers should ascend to God for His blessing and guidance. Will the Lord of heaven pass by such homes, and leave no blessing there? Nay, verily. Angels hear the offering of praise and the prayer of faith, and they bear the petitions to Him who ministers in the sanctuary for His people, and pleads His merits in their behalf. True prayer takes hold upon Omnipotence, and gives men the victory. Upon his knees the Christian obtains strength to resist temptation.--The Review and Herald, February 1, 1912.
------------------------Directing the Sanctification of the Family, May 10
YRP	139	1	Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6.
YRP	139	2	I appeal to parents to prepare themselves and their children to unite with the family above. Get ready, for Christ's sake, get ready to meet your Lord in peace. Begin to work in your family on right lines. Get down to the root of the matter. Bring the truth into your homes, to sanctify and purify them. Do not keep it in the outer court. How blind many professing Christians are to their own interests! How utterly they fail to see what Christ would do for them were He admitted into their homes. Let Christians work as earnestly to win the crown of life as worldlings work to win earthly advantages, and the church of God will certainly move forward with power....
YRP	139	3	The Holy Spirit produces actions that are in harmony with the law of God. The regenerating work of the Spirit will be seen in families where painstaking efforts are put forth to manifest kindness, patience, and love. Almighty power is at work, preparing minds and hearts to submit to the molding influence of the Holy Spirit, leading parents to sanctify themselves, that their children also may be sanctified.
YRP	139	4	The home in which the members are polite, courteous Christians exerts a far-reaching influence for good. Other families will mark the results attained by such a home, and will follow the example set, in their turn guarding the home against satanic influences.
YRP	139	5	The angels of God will often visit the home in which the will of God bears sway. Under the power of divine grace such a home becomes a place of refreshing to worn, weary pilgrims. By watchfully guarding, self is kept from asserting itself. Correct habits are formed. There is a careful recognition of the rights of others. The faith that works by love and purifies the soul stands at the helm, presiding over the whole household. Under the hallowed influence of such a home, the principle of brotherhood laid down in the Word of God is more widely recognized and obeyed.--The Southern Watchman, January 19, 1904.
------------------------Very Close to the Children, May 11
YRP	140	1	And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. Mark 10:13-16.
YRP	140	2	God wants every child of tender age to be His child, to be adopted into His family. Young though they may be, the youth may be members of the household of faith, and have a most precious experience. They may have hearts that are tender and ready to receive impressions that will be lasting. They may have their hearts drawn out in confidence and love for Jesus, and live for the Saviour. Christ will make them little missionaries. The whole current of their thoughts may be changed, so that sin will not appear a thing to be enjoyed, but to be hated and shunned.
YRP	140	3	Small children, as well as those who are older, will be benefited by this instruction; and in thus simplifying the plan of salvation, the teachers will receive as great blessings as those who are taught. The Holy Spirit of God will impress the lessons upon the receptive minds of the children, that they may grasp the ideas of Bible truth in their simplicity. And the Lord will give an experience to these children in missionary lines; He will suggest to them lines of thought that even the teachers did not have. The children who are properly instructed will be witnesses for the truth.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 169, 170.
YRP	140	4	Work as if you were working for your life to save children from being drowned in the polluting, corrupting influences of this life.--Child Guidance, 309.
YRP	140	5	A teacher should be employed who will educate the children in the truths of the Word of God, which are so essential for these last days, and which it is so important for them to understand. A great test is coming: it will be upon obedience or disobedience to the commandments of God.--The Review and Herald, July 2, 1908.
------------------------The Spirit Loves to Work With Children, May 12
YRP	141	1	And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:2-6.
YRP	141	2	Oh, for a clear perception of what we might accomplish if we would learn of Jesus! The springs of heavenly peace and joy, unsealed in the soul of the teacher by the magic words of inspiration, will become a mighty river of influence, to bless all who connect with Him. Do not think that the Bible will become a tiresome book to the children. Under a wise instructor the work will become more and more desirable. It will be to them as the bread of life, and will never grow old. There is in it a freshness and beauty that attract and charm the children and youth. It is like the sun shining upon the earth, giving its brightness and warmth, yet never exhausted. By lessons from the Bible history and doctrine, the children and youth can learn that all other books are inferior to this. They can find here a fountain of mercy and of love.
YRP	141	3	God's holy, educating Spirit is in His Word. A light, a new and precious light, shines forth upon every page. Truth is there revealed, and words and sentences are made bright and appropriate for the occasion, as the voice of God speaking to them.
YRP	141	4	We need to recognize the Holy Spirit as our enlightener. That Spirit loves to address the children, and discover to them the treasures and beauties of the Word of God. The promises spoken by the great Teacher will captivate the senses and animate the soul of the child with a spiritual power that is divine. There will grow in the fruitful mind a familiarity with divine things, which will be as a barricade against the temptations of the enemy.--The General Conference Bulletin, April 1, 1898.
------------------------With the Younger Members of God's Family, May 13
YRP	142	1	Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Ecclesiastes 12:1.
YRP	142	2	Every blessing the Father has provided for those of more mature experience has been provided for children and youth through Jesus Christ. When the Lord sees the youth studying the life and lessons of Christ, He gives His angels charge over them, to keep them in all their ways, as He gave His angels charge over Jesus, His beloved Son. The angels attended Jesus when He lived upon earth under the guidance of God's Holy Spirit, doing His heavenly Father's will, that He might give a correct sample of character, that might be an example to children and youth. He desired that, in every action of their lives, they should do those things of which God could approve. He knew that every good work, every deed of kindness, every act of obedience to father and mother, would be registered in the books of heaven.
YRP	142	3	Those who honor their parents would reap a reward in the fulfillment of the promise that they should live long upon the land which the Lord their God giveth them. Children are to continue in well-doing, praying that through the merits of Jesus, the Lord will give them His grace, His mind, and His beauty of character. God has withheld no blessing that is necessary for shaping the character of children and youth after the divine pattern given them in the youth of Jesus. They are to ask for the graces of His character, in simple, trusting faith, and in the name of Jesus, just as a son asks a favor of his earthly parent.
YRP	142	4	Dear children and youth, you need a new heart. Ask God for this. He says, "A new heart also will I give you" (Ezekiel 36:26). When you have asked according to His will, doubt not that you will receive; for whatever God has promised, He will fulfill. If you come with true contrition of soul, you need not feel that you are at all presumptuous in asking for what God has promised. Presumption is asking for things to gratify selfish inclination; for human enjoyment in earthly things. But when you ask for the spiritual blessings you so much need in order that you may perfect a character after Christ's likeness, the Lord assures you that you are asking according to a promise that will be verified.--The Youth's Instructor, August 23, 1894.
------------------------Youth Receiving Power to Be Overcomers, May 14
YRP	143	1	Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Ecclesiastes 11:9.
YRP	143	2	In surrendering ourselves to God, we reap great advantages; for if we have weaknesses of character, as we all have, we unite ourselves to One who is mighty to save. Our ignorance will be united to infinite wisdom, our frailty to enduring might, and, like Jacob, we may each become a prince with God. Connected with the Lord God of Israel, we shall have power from above which will enable us to be overcomers; and by the impartation of divine love, we shall find access to the hearts of men. We shall have fastened our trembling grasp upon the throne of the Infinite, and shall say, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me" (Genesis 32:26).
YRP	143	3	The assurance is given that He will bless us and make us a blessing; and this is our light, our joy, our triumph. When the youth understand what it is to have the favor and love of God in the heart, they will begin to realize the value of their blood-bought privileges, and will consecrate their ability to God, and strive with all their God-given powers to increase their talents to use in the Master's service.
YRP	143	4	The only safety for our youth in this age of sin and crime is to have a living connection with God. They must learn how to seek God, that they may be filled with His Holy Spirit, and act as though they realized that the whole host of heaven was looking upon them with interested solicitude, ready to minister unto them in danger and in time of need. The youth should be barricaded by warning and instruction against temptation. They should be taught what are the encouragements held out to them in the Word of God. They should have delineated before them the peril of taking a step into the bypaths of evil. They should be educated to revere the counsels of God in His sacred oracles. They should be so instructed that they will set their resolution against evil, and determine that they will not enter into any path where they could not expect Jesus to accompany them, and His blessing to abide upon them.--The Review and Herald, November 21, 1893.
------------------------Helping to Build Up a Character For Heaven, May 15
YRP	144	1	If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Daniel 3:17, 18.
YRP	144	2	While these youth were working out their own salvation, God was working in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. Here are revealed the conditions of success. To make God's grace our own, we must act our part. The Lord does not propose to perform for us either the willing or the doing. His grace is given to work in us to will and to do, but never as a substitute for our effort. Our souls are to be aroused to cooperate. The Holy Spirit works in us, that we may work out our own salvation. This is the practical lesson the Holy Spirit is striving to teach us. "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).
YRP	144	3	The Lord will cooperate with all who earnestly strive to be faithful in His service, as He cooperated with Daniel and his three companions. Fine mental qualities and a high tone of moral character are not the result of accident. God gives opportunities; success depends upon the use made of them. The openings of Providence must be quickly discerned and eagerly entered. There are many who might become mighty men, if, like Daniel, they would depend upon God for grace to be overcomers, and for strength and efficiency to do their work.
YRP	144	4	I address you, young men: Be faithful. Put heart into your work. Imitate none who are slothful, and who give divided service. Actions, often repeated, form habits, habits form character. Patiently perform the little duties of life. So long as you undervalue the importance of faithfulness in the little duties, your character-building will be unsatisfactory. In the sight of Omnipotence, every duty is important. The Lord has said, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10). In the life of a true Christian there are no nonessentials.--Messages to Young People, 147, 148.
------------------------Moving Among the Students, May 16
YRP	145	1	But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Romans 8:11.
YRP	145	2	The Lord God of heaven has caused His Holy Spirit from time to time to move upon the students in the school [Battle Creek College], that they might acknowledge Him in all their ways, so that He might direct their paths. At times the manifestation of the Holy Spirit has been so decided that studies were forgotten, and the greatest Teacher the world ever knew made His voice heard, saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
YRP	145	3	The Lord knocked at the door of hearts, and I saw that angels of God were present. There seemed to be no special effort on the part of the teachers to influence the students to give their attention to the things of God, but God had a Watcher in the school, and though His presence was unseen, yet His influence was discernible. Again and again there have been manifest tokens of the presence of the holy Watchman in the school. Again and again the voice of Jesus has spoken to the students, saying, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20).
YRP	145	4	The Lord has been waiting long to impart the greatest, truest joys to the heart. All those who look to Him with undivided hearts, He will greatly bless. Those who have thus looked to Him have caught more distinct views of Jesus as their sin-bearer, their all-sufficient sacrifice, and have been hid in the cleft of the rock, to behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. When we have a sense of His all-sufficient sacrifice, our lips are tuned to the highest, loftiest themes of praise.--Special Testimonies On Education, 77, 78.
------------------------Eager to Help Teachers, May 17
YRP	146	1	And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. 2 Kings 2:15.
YRP	146	2	The Holy Spirit came into the schools of the prophets, bringing even the thoughts of the students into harmony with the will of God. There was a living connection between heaven and these schools, and the joy and thanksgiving of loving hearts found expression in songs of praise in which the angels joined. If teachers would open their hearts to receive the Spirit, they would be prepared to cooperate with it in working for their students; and when it is given free course, it will effect wonderful transformations. It will work in each heart, correcting selfishness, molding and refining the character, and bringing even the thoughts into captivity to Christ....
YRP	146	3	Instead of being repressed and driven back, the Holy Spirit should be welcomed, and its presence encouraged. When teachers sanctify themselves through obedience to the Word, the Holy Spirit will give them glimpses of heavenly things. When they seek God with humility and earnestness, the words which they have spoken in freezing accents will burn in their hearts; the truth will not then languish upon their tongues.
YRP	146	4	The agency of the Spirit of God does not remove from us the necessity of exercising our faculties and talents, but teaches us how to use every power to the glory of God. The human faculties when under the special direction of the grace of God are capable of being used to the best purpose on earth. Ignorance does not increase the humility or spirituality of any professed follower of Christ. The truths of the divine Word can be best appreciated by an intellectual Christian. Christ can be best glorified by those who serve Him intelligently. The great object of education is to enable us to use the powers which God has given us in such a manner as to represent the religion of the Bible and promote the glory of God.--North Pacific Union Gleaner, May 26, 1909.
------------------------Going House to House With The Gospel Worker, May 18
YRP	147	1	Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart. Luke 9:1-4.
YRP	147	2	The Lord is calling upon His people to take up different lines of missionary service. Those in the highways and byways of life are to hear the gospel message. Church members are to do evangelistic work in the homes of their neighbors who have not yet received full evidence of the truth for this time.
YRP	147	3	Let those who take up this work make the life of Christ their constant study. Let them be intensely in earnest, using every capability in the Lord's service. Precious results will follow sincere, unselfish efforts. From the great Teacher the workers will receive the highest of all education. But those who do not impart the light they have received will one day realize that they have sustained a fearful loss.
YRP	147	4	Many of God's people are to go forth with our publications into places where the third angel's message has never been proclaimed. The work of the canvasser-evangelist whose heart is imbued with the Holy Spirit is fraught with wonderful possibilities for good. The presentation of the truth, in love and simplicity, from house to house, is in harmony with the instruction that Christ gave His disciples when He sent them out on their first missionary tour. By songs of praise, humble, heartfelt prayers, and a simple presentation of truth in the family circle, many will be reached. The divine Worker will be present to send conviction to hearts. "I am with you alway" (Matthew 28:20) is His promise. With the assurance of the abiding presence of such a Helper, we may labor with faith and hope and courage.
YRP	147	5	The monotony of our service for God needs to be broken up. Every church member should be engaged in some special service for the Master. Let those who are well established in the truth go into neighboring places, and hold meetings. Let God's Word be read, and let the ideas expressed be such that they will be readily comprehended by all.--The Review and Herald, May 5, 1904.
------------------------Making Lasting Impressions Through the Canvasser, May 19
YRP	148	1	How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Isaiah 52:7.
YRP	148	2	Humble, fervent prayer would do more in behalf of the circulation of our books than all the expensive pictures in the world. If the workers will turn their attention to that which is true and living and real; if they will pray for, believe for, and trust in the Holy Spirit, it will be poured upon them in strong, heavenly currents, and right and lasting impressions will be made upon the human heart. Then pray and work, and work and pray, and the Lord will work with you.
YRP	148	3	Every canvasser has positive and constant need of the angelic ministration; for he has an important work to do, a work that he cannot do in his own strength. Those who are born again, who are willing to be guided by the Holy Spirit, doing in Christ's way that which they can do, those who will work as if they could see the heavenly universe watching them, will be accompanied and instructed by holy angels, who will go before them to the dwellings of the people, preparing the way for them....
YRP	148	4	When men realize the times in which we are living, they will work as in the sight of heaven. The canvasser will handle these books that bring light and strength to the soul. He will drink in the spirit of these books, and put his whole soul into the work of presenting them to the people. His strength, his courage, his success will depend upon how fully the truth presented in the books is woven into his own experience and developed in his character. When his own life is thus molded he can go forward representing to others the sacred truth he is handling in the books for which he is finding a place in homes. Imbued with the Spirit of God, he will gain a deep, rich experience, and heavenly angels will give him success in the work.--(Australasian) Union Conference Record, May 1, 1901.
------------------------Directing the Publishing Ministry, May 20
YRP	149	1	And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Isaiah 60:3.
YRP	149	2	Our publishing houses were erected to do a work for the Lord, to send heavenly light to all parts of the world, to bring precious souls into the fold. Let the [publishing house] office be a missionary plant to do a work for the Master in the conversion of souls. Work, and watch, and pray for souls as they that must give an account. This year try the Lord's prescribed remedy for evil. Let every man do that which the Lord requires him to do, looking unto Jesus, who is the owner of every soul.
YRP	149	3	Let the workers who have to act a part in this firm remember that God calls them to be a convention of Christian workers, a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. Let small companies assemble together in the evening or early morning to study the Bible for themselves. Let them have a season of prayer that they may be strengthened and enlightened and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. This is the work Christ wants to have done in the heart of everyone who is engaged in any department of the publishing work. If you will do this, a great blessing will come to you from the One who gave His whole life to service, the One who redeemed you by His own life.
YRP	149	4	You must have the power of the Holy Spirit, else you cannot be an overcomer. What testimonies you should bear of the loving acquaintance you have made with your fellow workers in these precious seasons when seeking the blessing of God. Let each tell his experience in simple words. This will bring more comfort and joy to the soul than all the pleasant instruments of song that can be produced in the Tabernacle. Let Christ come into your hearts.
YRP	149	5	The work of every believer is aggressive. It is a daily warfare. Christ is saying to the managers and workers in the office, "Ye are my witnesses" (Isaiah 43:10). Think it; speak it; act it. Heaven is just next door. Open the door heavenward and close the door earthward. God is calling the workers in every department of the office. Will you hear His voice and open the door of the heart to Jesus? Will you love Him who gave His life for you?--Manuscript Releases 12:46, 47.
------------------------Impressing Minds Through the Books, May 21
YRP	150	1	Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. Isaiah 6:8.
YRP	150	2	Pray and work. More will be accomplished by the Christlike humble prayer than by many words without prayer. Work in simplicity, and the Lord will work with the canvasser. The Holy Spirit will impress minds just as He impresses the minds of those who listen to the words of God's delegated ministers, who preach His Word. The same ministry of holy angels attends the one who gives himself to canvassing for books for the educating of the people as to what is truth.
YRP	150	3	Men and women can work in lines effectually if they feel in their hearts that they are doing the work of the Lord in ministering to the souls who know not the truth for this time. They are sounding the note of warning in the byways and highways to prepare a people for the great day of God which is about to break upon the world. We have no time to lose. We must encourage this work. Who will go forth now with our publications? Let them read the sixth chapter of Isaiah, and take its lesson home to their hearts.
YRP	150	4	"Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:5-8).
YRP	150	5	This representation will be acted over and over again if the canvassers are pressing close to the side of Christ, wearing His yoke, and daily learning of Him how to carry messages of peace and comfort to the sorrowing, disappointed ones, the sad and brokenhearted. By imbuing them with His own Spirit, Christ the great teacher is fitting them to do a good and important work.--The Bible Echo, September 18, 1899.
------------------------Traveling With the Missionaries, May 22
YRP	151	1	As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. Acts 13:2-4.
YRP	151	2	Oh, how we need the divine Presence! For the baptism of the Holy Spirit, every worker should be breathing out his prayers to God. Companies should be gathered together to call upon God for special help, for heavenly wisdom, that the people of God may know how to plan and devise and execute the work. Especially should men pray that the Lord will choose His agents, and baptize His missionaries with the Holy Spirit.
YRP	151	3	For ten days the disciples prayed before the Pentecostal blessing came. It needed all that time to bring them to an understanding of what is meant to offer effectual prayer, drawing nearer and nearer to God, confessing their sins, humbling their hearts before God, and by faith beholding Jesus, and becoming changed into His image. When the blessing did come, it filled all the place where they were assembled; and endowed with power, they went forth to do effectual work for the Master.
YRP	151	4	We should pray as earnestly for the descent of the Holy Spirit as the disciples prayed on the day of Pentecost. If they needed [the Spirit] at that time, we need it more today. Moral darkness, like a funeral pall, covers the earth. All manner of false doctrines, heresies, and satanic deceptions are misleading the minds of men. Without the Spirit and power of God, it will be in vain that we labor to present the truth. We must have the Holy Spirit to sustain us in the conflict; "for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12).
YRP	151	5	We cannot fall as long as we hope and trust in God. Let every soul of us, ministers and people, say, as did Paul, "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air" (1 Corinthians 9:26), but with a holy faith and hope, in expectation of winning the prize.--The Home Missionary, November 1, 1893.
------------------------Dispelling Darkness, May 23
YRP	152	1	Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1, 2.
YRP	152	2	The church has been appointed as the medium through which divine light is to shine into the moral darkness of this world, and the peace-giving beams of the Sun of righteousness fall upon the hearts of men. Personal labor with individuals and with families constitutes a part of the work to be done in God's moral vineyard. The meekness, the patience, the forbearance, the love of Christ must be revealed in the homes of the land. The church must arise and shine. Radiant with the Spirit and power of the truth, the people of God must go forth to a world lying in darkness, to make manifest the light of the glory of God. God has given to men noble powers of mind to be employed to His honor; and in the missionary work these powers of mind are called into active exercise. Wise improvement and development of the gifts of God will be seen in His servants. Day by day there will be growth in the knowledge of Christ.
YRP	152	3	He who once spake as never man spake, who wore the garb of humanity, is still the Great Teacher. As you follow in His footsteps, seeking the lost, angels will draw near, and through the illumination of the Spirit of God, greater knowledge will be obtained as to the best ways and means for accomplishing the work committed to your hands....
YRP	152	4	Those who should have been the light of the world have shed forth but feeble and sickly beams. What is light? It is piety, goodness, truth, mercy, love; it is the revealing of the truth in the character and life. The gospel is dependent on the personal piety of its believers for its aggressive power, and God has made provision through the death of His beloved Son, that every soul may be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. Every soul is to be a bright and shining light, showing forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.--The Review and Herald, March 24, 1891.
------------------------Encouraging the Heralds of the Gospel, May 24
YRP	153	1	Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 2 Corinthians 3:5, 6.
YRP	153	2	Those only who are constantly receiving fresh supplies of grace will have power proportionate to their daily need and their ability to use that power. Instead of looking forward to some future time when, through a special endowment of spiritual power, they will receive a miraculous fitting up for soul winning, they are yielding themselves daily to God, that He may make them vessels meet for His use. Daily they are improving the opportunities for service that lie within their reach. Daily they are witnessing for the Master wherever they may be, whether in some humble sphere of labor in the home, or in a public field of usefulness.
YRP	153	3	To the consecrated worker there is wonderful consolation in the knowledge that even Christ during His life on earth sought His Father daily for fresh supplies of needed grace; and from this communion with God He went forth to strengthen and bless others. Behold the Son of God bowed in prayer to His Father! Though He is the Son of God, He strengthens His faith by prayer, and by communion with heaven gathers to Himself power to resist evil and to minister to the needs of men.
YRP	153	4	As the elder brother of our race He knows the necessities of those who, compassed with infirmity and living in a world of sin and temptation, still desire to serve Him. He knows that the messengers whom He sees fit to send are weak, erring men; but to all who give themselves wholly to His service He promises divine aid. His own example is an assurance that earnest, persevering supplication to God in faith--faith that leads to entire dependence upon God, and unreserved consecration to His work--will avail to bring to men the Holy Spirit's aid in the battle against sin.--The Acts of the Apostles, 55, 56.
------------------------Working Through Humble Instruments, May 25
YRP	154	1	Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians 1:25.
YRP	154	2	God will move upon men of humble position in society, men who have not become insensible to the bright rays of light through so long contemplating the light of truth, and refusing to make any improvement or advancement therein. Many such will be seen hurrying hither and thither, constrained by the Spirit of God to bring the light to others. The truth, the word of God, is as a fire in their bones, filling them with a burning desire to enlighten those who sit in darkness.
YRP	154	3	Many, even among the uneducated, now proclaim the words of the Lord. Children are impelled by the Spirit to go forth and declare the message from heaven. The Spirit is poured out upon all who will yield to its promptings, and, casting off all man's machinery, his binding rules and cautious methods, they will declare the truth with the might of the Spirit's power. Multitudes will receive the faith and join the armies of the Lord.
YRP	154	4	Many of those who are professedly followers of the Lord at the present time do not submit themselves to the guidance of His Spirit, but try to harness up the Holy Spirit, and drive Him in their way. All such must abandon their self-sufficiency, and yield themselves unreservedly to the Lord, that He may work out His good pleasure in and through them.
YRP	154	5	The seven last plagues are about to descend upon the disobedient. Many have let the gospel invitation go unheeded; they have been tested and tried; but mountainous obstacles have seemed to loom up before their faces, blocking their onward march. Through faith, perseverance, and courage, many will surmount these obstructions and walk out into the glorious light. Almost unconsciously barriers have been erected in the strait and narrow way; stones of stumbling have been placed in the path; these will all be rolled away. The safeguards which false shepherds have thrown around their flocks will become as naught; thousands will step out into the light, and work to spread the light.--The Review and Herald, July 23, 1895.
------------------------With Consecrated Men and Women, May 26
YRP	155	1	For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 1 Corinthians 1:26.
YRP	155	2	Not all can fill the same place; but everyone who yields himself to the consecrating influence of the Holy Spirit will be under the control of Christ, and for consecrated men and women God has made full provision. He will carry on His work by a variety of ways and instruments. It is not alone the most talented, not alone those who hold high positions of trust, or are the most highly educated, that the Lord will use in His work of soul-saving. He will use many who have had few advantages. By the use of simple means He will bring those who own property and land to a belief of the truth; and these will become God's helping hand in the advancement of His work. It is not always the brightest talent that accomplishes the most for God. The Lord can speak through anyone who is consecrated to His service.
YRP	155	3	When we catch the Spirit of the message that is to lead souls to choose between life and death, we shall see a work done that we do not now dream of. Once let the missionary spirit take hold of men and women, young and old, and we shall see many going into the highways and hedges, and compelling the honest in heart to come in.
YRP	155	4	Let those who labor for souls remember that they are pledged to cooperate with Christ, to obey His directions, to follow His guidance. Every day they are to ask for and receive power from on high. They are to cherish a constant sense of the Saviour's love, His efficiency, His watchfulness, His tenderness. They are to look to Him as the shepherd and bishop of their souls. Then they will have the sympathy and support of the heavenly angels. Christ will be their joy and crown of rejoicing. Their hearts will then be controlled by the Holy Spirit. They will go forth clothed with holy zeal, and their efforts will be accompanied by a power proportionate to the importance of the message they proclaim.--The Review and Herald, October 27, 1910.
------------------------Divine Help in Doing Samaritan Work, May 27
YRP	156	1	But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. Luke 10:33, 34.
YRP	156	2	I have been shown that the medical missionary work will discover, in the very depths of degradation, men who once possessed fine minds, richest qualifications, who will be rescued, by proper labor, from their fallen condition. It is the truth as it is in Jesus that is to be brought before human minds after they have been sympathetically cared for and their physical necessities met. The Holy Spirit is working and cooperating with the human agencies that are laboring for such souls, and some will appreciate the foundation upon a rock for their religious faith.
YRP	156	3	There is to be no startling communication of strange doctrine to these subjects whom God loves and pities; but as they are helped physically by the medical missionary workers, the Holy Spirit cooperates with the minister of human agencies to arouse the moral powers. The mental powers are awakened into activity, and these poor souls will, many of them, be saved in the kingdom of God.
YRP	156	4	Nothing can, or ever will, give character to the work in the presentation of truth to help the people just where they are so well as Samaritan work. A work properly conducted to save poor sinners that have been passed by the churches will be the entering wedge whereby the truth will find standing room. A different order of things needs to be established among us as a people, and as this class of work is done, there will be created an entirely different atmosphere surrounding the souls of the workers; for the Holy Spirit communicates to all those who are doing God's service, and those who are worked by the Holy Spirit will be a power for God in lifting up, strengthening, and saving the souls that are ready to perish.--Welfare Ministry, 131, 132.
------------------------Pity and Compassion: God's Spirit at Work, May 28
YRP	157	1	Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. Luke 10:36, 37.
YRP	157	2	It is not possible for the heart in which Christ abides to be destitute of love. If we love God because He first loved us, we shall love all for whom Christ died. We cannot come in touch with divinity without coming in touch with humanity; for in Him who sits upon the throne of the universe, divinity and humanity are combined. Connected with Christ, we are connected with our fellow men by the golden links of the chain of love. Then the pity and compassion of Christ will be manifest in our life. We shall not wait to have the needy and unfortunate brought to us. We shall not need to be entreated to feel for the woes of others. It will be as natural for us to minister to the needy and suffering as it was for Christ to go about doing good.
YRP	157	3	Wherever there is an impulse of love and sympathy, wherever the heart reaches out to bless and uplift others, there is revealed the working of God's Holy Spirit. In the depths of heathenism, men who have had no knowledge of the written law of God, who have never even heard the name of Christ, have been kind to His servants, protecting them at the risk of their own lives. Their acts show the working of a divine power.… 
YRP	157	4	The glory of heaven is in lifting up the fallen, comforting the distressed. And wherever Christ abides in human hearts, He will be revealed in the same way. Wherever it acts, the religion of Christ will bless. Wherever it works, there is brightness.
YRP	157	5	No distinction on account of nationality, race, or caste, is recognized by God. He is the Maker of all mankind. All men are of one family by creation, and all are one through redemption.--Christ's Object Lessons, 384-386.
------------------------Earnest to Give the Final Warning, May 29
YRP	158	1	And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. Revelation 18:1.
YRP	158	2	Day after day is passing into eternity, bringing us nearer to the close of probation. Now we must pray as never before for the Holy Spirit to be more abundantly bestowed upon us, and we must look for its sanctifying influence to come upon the workers, that the people for whom they labor may know that they have been with Jesus and learned of Him. We need spiritual eyesight now as never before, that we may see afar off, and that we may discern the snares and designs of the enemy, and as faithful watchmen proclaim the danger. We need spiritual power that we may take in, as far as the human mind can, the great subjects of Christianity, and how far-reaching are its principles.
YRP	158	3	When God's people humble the soul before Him, individually seeking His Holy Spirit with all the heart, there will be heard from human lips such a testimony as is represented in this Scripture: "After these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory" (Revelation 18:1). There will be faces aglow with the love of God, there will be lips touched with holy fire, saying, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).
YRP	158	4	Those who are under the influence of the Spirit of God will not be fanatical, but calm, steadfast, free from extravagance. But let all who have had the light of truth shining clear and distinct upon their pathway, be careful how they cry peace and safety. Be careful what influence you exert at this time.
YRP	158	5	Jesus longs to bestow the heavenly endowment in large measure upon His people. Prayers are ascending to God daily for the fulfillment of the promise; and not one of the prayers put up in faith is lost. Christ ascended on high, leading captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. When, after Christ's ascension, the Spirit came down as promised, like a rushing, mighty wind, filling the whole place where the disciples were assembled, what was the effect?
YRP	158	6	Thousands were converted in a day. We have taught, we have expected that an angel is to come down from heaven, that the earth will be lightened with his glory, when we shall behold an ingathering of souls similar to that witnessed on the day of Pentecost.--The Home Missionary, November 1, 1893.
------------------------The Time Is Near for the Spirit's Departing, May 30
YRP	159	1	And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Revelation 22:17.
YRP	159	2	Probationary time will not continue much longer. Now God is withdrawing His restraining hand from the earth. Long has He been speaking to men and women through the agency of His Holy Spirit; but they have not heeded the call. Now He is speaking to His people, and to the world, by His judgments. The time of these judgments is a time of mercy for those who have not yet had opportunity to learn what is truth. Tenderly will the Lord look upon them. His heart of mercy is touched; His hand is still stretched out to save. Large numbers will be admitted to the fold of safety who in these last days will hear the truth for the first time.
YRP	159	3	The Lord calls upon those who believe in Him to be workers together with Him. While life shall last, they are not to feel that their work is done. Shall we allow the signs of the end to be fulfilled without telling people of what is coming upon the earth? Shall we allow them to go down in darkness without having urged upon them the need of a preparation to meet their Lord? Unless we ourselves do our duty to those around us, the day of God will come upon us as a thief. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise.
YRP	159	4	As a people, we must prepare the way of the Lord, under the overruling guidance of the Holy Spirit. The gospel is to be proclaimed in its purity. The stream of living water is to deepen and widen in its course. In fields nigh and afar off, men will be called from the plow, and from the more common commercial business vocations, and will be educated in connection with men of experience. As they learn to labor effectively, they will proclaim the truth with power. Through most wonderful workings of divine providence, mountains of difficulty will be removed.
YRP	159	5	The message that means so much to the dwellers upon earth will be heard and understood. Men will know what is truth. Onward, and still onward, the work will advance, until the whole earth shall have been warned. And then shall the end come.--The Review and Herald, November 22, 1906.
------------------------The Spirit Finally Withdrawn, May 31
YRP	160	1	He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. Revelation 22:11.
YRP	160	2	When the third angel's message closes, mercy no longer pleads for the guilty inhabitants of the earth. The people of God have accomplished their work. They have received "the latter rain," "the refreshing from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3:19), and they are prepared for the trying hour before them. Angels are hastening to and fro in heaven. An angel returning from the earth announces that his work is done; the final test has been brought upon the world, and all who have proved themselves loyal to the divine precepts have received "the seal of the living God" (Revelation 7:2).
YRP	160	3	Then Jesus ceases His intercession in the sanctuary above. He lifts His hands and with a loud voice says, "It is done," and all the angelic host lay off their crowns as He makes the solemn announcement: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still" (Revelation 22:11). Every case has been decided for life or death. Christ has made the atonement for His people and blotted out their sins. The number of His subjects is made up; "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven" (Daniel 7:27), is about to be given to the heirs of salvation, and Jesus is to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.
YRP	160	4	When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth. In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. God's longsuffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn.--The Great Controversy, 613, 614.
------------------------The Greatest Work on Earth, June 1
YRP	161	1	For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke 19:10.
YRP	161	2	Everyone who believes in Christ as a personal Saviour is under bonds to God to be pure and holy, to be a spiritual worker, seeking to save the lost, whether they are great or small, rich or poor, bond or free. The greatest work on earth is to seek and to save those who are lost, for whom Christ has paid the infinite price of His own blood. Everyone is to do active service, and if those who have been blessed with light do not diffuse light to others, they will lose the rich grace which has been bestowed upon them, because they neglect a sacred duty plainly marked out in the Word of God. As the light of the unfaithful one diminishes, his own soul is brought into peril; and the ones to whom he should have been a shining light miss the labor that God intended that they should have through the human instrument. Thus the sheep unsought is not brought back to the fold.
YRP	161	3	God depends upon you, the human agent, to fulfil your duty to the best of your ability, and He Himself will give the increase. If human agents would but cooperate with the divine intelligences, thousands of souls would be rescued. The Holy Spirit would give devoted workers glimpses of Jesus that would brace them for every conflict, that would elevate and strengthen them, and make them more than conquerors. When two or three are met together to unite their counsel, and to send up their petitions, the promise is for them: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Luke 11:9). "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (verse 13). The Lord has promised that where two or three are met together in His name, there will He be in the midst. Those who meet together for prayer will receive an unction from the Holy One.--The Review and Herald, June 30, 1896.
------------------------The Light of the World, June 2
YRP	162	1	Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Matthew 5:14.
YRP	162	2	Our fidelity to Christian principles calls us to active service for God. Those who do not use their talents in the cause and work of God will have no part with Jesus in His glory. Light is to shine forth from every soul that is a recipient of the grace of God. There are many souls in darkness, but what rest, and ease, and quietude many feel in this matter! Thousands enjoy great light and precious opportunities, but do nothing with their influence or their money, to enlighten others. They do not even take the responsibility of keeping their own souls in the love of God, that they may not become a burden to the church. Such ones would be a burden and a clog in heaven. For Christ's sake, for the truth's sake, for their own sakes, such should arouse and make diligent work for eternity. Heavenly mansions are preparing for all who will comply with the conditions laid down in the Word of God.
YRP	162	3	In behalf of the souls for whom Christ has died, who are in the darkness of error, it is enjoined upon all true followers of Christ to be a light to the world. God has done His part in the great work, and is waiting for the cooperation of His followers. The plan of salvation is fully developed. The blood of Jesus Christ is offered for the sins of the world, the Word of God is speaking to man in counsels, in reproofs, in warnings, in promises, and in encouragement, and the efficacy of the Holy Spirit is extended to help him in all his efforts. But with all this light the world is still perishing in darkness, buried in error and sin.
YRP	162	4	Who will be laborers together with God, to win these souls to the truth? Who will bear to them the good tidings of salvation? The people whom God has blessed with light and truth are to be the messengers of mercy. Their means are to flow into the divine channel. Their earnest efforts are to be put forth. They are to become laborers together with God, self-denying, self-sacrificing, like Jesus, who for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich.--The Review and Herald, March 1, 1887.
------------------------The Salt of the Earth, June 3
YRP	163	1	Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 5:13.
YRP	163	2	God will work with the church, but not without their cooperation. May every one of you who have tasted the good Word of God "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). Jesus says, "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." The saving salt, the savor of the Christian, is the love of Jesus in the heart, the righteousness of Christ pervading the soul. If the professor of religion would keep the saving efficacy of his faith, he must ever keep the righteousness of Christ before him, and have the glory of God for his rearward. Then the power of Christ will be revealed in life and character.
YRP	163	3	Oh, when we come to the pearly gates, and have an entrance into the city of God, will anyone who enters there regret that he devoted his life unreservedly to Jesus? Let us now love Him with undivided affections, and cooperate with the heavenly intelligences, that we may be laborers together with God, and by partaking of the divine nature, be able to reveal Christ to others. Oh, for the baptism of the Holy Spirit! Oh, that the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness might shine into the chambers of mind and heart, that every idol might be dethroned and expelled from the soul temple! Oh, that our tongues might be loosened to speak of His goodness, to tell of His power!
YRP	163	4	If you respond to the drawing of Jesus, you will not fail to have an influence on somebody through the beauty and power of the grace of Christ. Let us behold Him and become changed into the image of Him in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and realize that we are accepted in the Beloved, "complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:10).--Bible Echo, February 15, 1892.
------------------------Ambassadors for Christ, June 4
YRP	164	1	Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20.
YRP	164	2	We are ambassadors for Christ, and we are to live, not to save our reputation, but to save perishing souls from perdition. Our daily endeavor should be to show them that they may gain truth and righteousness. Instead of trying to elicit sympathy for ourselves, by giving others the impression that we are not appreciated, we are to forget self entirely; and if we fail to do this, through want of spiritual discernment and vital piety, God will require at our hands the souls of those for whom we should have labored. He has made provision that every worker in His service may have grace and wisdom, that he may become a living epistle, known and read of all men.
YRP	164	3	By watchfulness and prayer we may accomplish just what the Lord designs that we shall. By faithful, painstaking discharge of our duty, by watching for souls as they that must give account, we may remove every stumbling block out of the way of others. By earnest warnings and entreaties, with our own souls drawn out in tender solicitude for those that are ready to perish, we may win souls to Christ.
YRP	164	4	I would that all my brethren and sisters would remember that it is a serious thing to grieve the Holy Spirit, and it is grieved when the human agent seeks to work himself, and refuses to enter the service of the Lord because the cross is too heavy or the self-denial too great. The Holy Spirit seeks to abide in each soul. If it is welcomed as an honored guest, those who receive it will be made complete in Christ. The good work begun will be finished; the holy thoughts, heavenly affections, and Christlike actions will take the place of impure thoughts, perverse sentiments, and rebellious acts.
YRP	164	5	The Holy Spirit is a divine teacher. If we heed its lessons, we shall become wise unto salvation. But we need to guard well our hearts, for too often we forget the heavenly instruction we have received, and seek to act out the natural inclinations of our unconsecrated minds. Each one must fight his own battle against self. Heed the teachings of the Holy Spirit. If this is done, they will be repeated again and again until the impressions are as it were "lead in the rock forever."--Counsels on Health, 560, 561.
------------------------Witnesses for the Cross, June 5
YRP	165	1	And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. Luke 24:48, 49.
YRP	165	2	After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the disciples, clothed with the divine panoply, went forth as witnesses to tell the wonderful story of the manger and the cross. They were humble men, but they went forth with the truth. After the death of their Lord, they were a helpless, disappointed, discouraged company--as sheep without a shepherd: but now they go forth as witnesses for the truth, with no weapons but the Word and Spirit of God, to triumph over all opposition. Their Saviour had been rejected and condemned and nailed to the ignominious cross. The Jewish priests and rulers had declared in scorn, "He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him" (Matthew 27:42).
YRP	165	3	But that cross, that instrument of shame and torture, brought hope and salvation to the world. The believers rallied; their hopelessness and conscious helplessness had left them. They were transformed in character, and united in the bonds of Christian love. Although without wealth, though counted by the world as mere ignorant fishermen, they were made by the Holy Spirit witnesses for Christ. Without earthly honor or recognition, they were heroes of faith. From their lips came words of divine eloquence and power that shook the world.
YRP	165	4	The third, fourth, and fifth chapters of Acts give an account of their witnessing. Those who had rejected and crucified the Saviour expected to find His disciples discouraged, crestfallen, and ready to disown their Lord. With amazement they heard the clear, bold testimony given under the power of the Holy Spirit. The words and works of the disciples represented the words and works of their Teacher; and all who heard them said, They have learned of Jesus, they talk as He talked. "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all" (Acts 4:33).--Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 1543.
------------------------Cooperating With the Divine Power, June 6
YRP	166	1	But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8.
YRP	166	2	God has determined to leave nothing undone to recover man from the toils of the enemy. After Christ's ascension, the Holy Spirit was given to man to assist all who would cooperate with Him in the reshaping and remodeling of the human character. The Holy Spirit's part of the work has been defined by our Saviour. He says, "He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). The Holy Spirit is the convicter, and sanctifier as well.
YRP	166	3	As none can repent of their sins until they are convicted, the necessity of uniting the Spirit with us in our labor to reach the fallen is apparent. All of our human abilities will be exercised in vain unless we are united to the heavenly intelligences. It is through the lack of knowledge of the vitalizing truth, and the corrupting influence of error, that men are fallen so low, sunk in the depths of sinful degradation. Angels and men are to work in harmony to teach the truth of God to those who are unlearned therein, that they may be set free from the bonds of sin. It is the truth alone that makes men free. This liberty, this freedom through the knowledge of the truth, is to be proclaimed to every creature.
YRP	166	4	Jesus Christ, God Himself, and the angels of heaven are interested in this grand and holy work. Man has been given the exalted privilege of revealing the divine character by unselfishly engaging in the effort to rescue man from the pit of ruin into which he has been plunged. Every human being who will submit to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit is to be used for the accomplishment of this divinely conceived purpose. Christ is the head of His church, and it will glorify Him the more to have every portion of that church engaged in the work for the salvation of souls.
YRP	166	5	But the human workers need to leave more room for the Holy Spirit to work, that the laborers may be bound together, and move forward in the strength of a united body of soldiers. Let all remember that we are "a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men" (1 Corinthians 4:9).--(Australasian) Union Conference Record, April 1, 1898.
------------------------Laborers Together With God, June 7
YRP	167	1	For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
YRP	167	2	The Holy Spirit must be the living agency to convince of sin. The divine agent presents to the speaker the benefits of the sacrifice made upon the cross; and as the truth is brought in contact with the souls present, Christ wins them to Himself, and works to transform their nature. He is ready to help our infirmities, to teach, to lead, to inspire us with ideas that are of heavenly birth.
YRP	167	3	How little can men do in the work of saving souls, and yet how much through Christ, if they are imbued with His Spirit! The human teacher cannot read the hearts of his hearers; but Jesus dispenses the grace that every soul needs. He understands the capabilities of man, his weakness and his strength. The Lord is working on the human heart; and a minister can be to the souls who are listening to his words a savor of death unto death, turning them away from Christ; or, if he is consecrated, devotional, distrustful of self, but looking unto Jesus, he may be a savor of life unto life to souls who are already under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and in whose hearts the Lord is preparing the way for the messages which He has given to the human agent. Thus the heart of the unbeliever is touched, and it responds to the message of truth.
YRP	167	4	"We are labourers together with God." The convictions implanted in the heart, and the enlightenment of the understanding by the entrance of the Word, work in perfect harmony. The truth brought before the mind has power to arouse the dormant energies of the soul. The Spirit of God working in the heart cooperates with the working of God through His human instrumentalities.
YRP	167	5	Again and again I have been shown that the people of God in these last days could not be safe in trusting in men, and making flesh their arm. The mighty cleaver of truth has taken them out of the world as rough stones that are to be hewed and squared and polished for the heavenly building. They must be hewed by the prophets with reproof, warning, admonition, and advice, that they may be fashioned after the divine Pattern; this is the specified work of the Comforter--to transform heart and character, that men may keep the way of the Lord.--The Home Missionary, November 1, 1893.
------------------------Human Cooperation Essential, June 8
YRP	168	1	For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? Romans 10:13, 14.
YRP	168	2	God has expended amazing sacrifices upon men, and mighty energies for the reclaiming of man from transgression and sin to loyalty and obedience; but I have been shown that He does nothing without the cooperation of human agencies. Every endowment of grace and power and efficiency has been liberally provided, and the strongest motives presented to arouse and keep living in the human heart the missionary spirit, that divine and human agency may be combined....
YRP	168	3	What use have you made of the gift of God? He has supplied the motive forces of which He has made a lodgment in your hearts, that with patience and hope and untiring vigilance you might set forth Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that you might send the note of warning that Christ is coming the second time with power and great glory, calling men to repent of their sins....
YRP	168	4	How did the Holy Spirit work upon your hearts? By the energies of the Holy Spirit it was stimulating you to the exercise of the talents God has given you, that every man and woman and youth should employ them to set forth the truth for this time, making personal efforts, going into the cities where truth has never been and lifting the standard. In the blessing God has bestowed upon you, have not your energies been quickened, and the truth been more deeply impressed upon your soul, and its important relation to perishing souls out of Christ? Are ye witnesses for Christ in a more distinct and decided manner, after the manifest revealing of God's blessing upon you?
YRP	168	5	The Holy Spirit's office is to bring decidedly to your minds the important, vital truths. Is this extra endowment to be bound up in a napkin and hidden in the earth? No, no, it is to be put out to the exchangers; and as man uses his talents, however small, the Holy Spirit takes the things of God, and presents them anew to the mind. He makes the neglected Word to be a vivifying agency. Through the Spirit, it is quick and powerful upon human minds, not because of the smartness, the educational power of the human agency, but because the divine power works with the human, and to the divine belongs all the credit.--The Home Missionary, November 1, 1893.
------------------------Instrumentalities for the Saving of Souls, June 9
YRP	169	1	I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 1 Corinthians 3:6, 7.
YRP	169	2	Here are the mighty agencies for moving the world. The cross of Calvary brings under tribute every power of those who believe on Christ, that they may be instrumentalities for the saving of souls. Human effort is to be united with the divine; it must derive its efficacy from heaven. We are to be laborers together with God. The Lord is represented as opening the hearts of men and women to receive the Word, and the Holy Spirit makes the Word effective.
YRP	169	3	Those who receive the truth have that faith which leads to decided action, which works by love, and purifies the soul. Thus the truth is a sanctifier. Its transforming power is seen on the character. When it has been admitted into the inner sanctuary of the soul, it does not operate superficially, leaving the heart unchanged; it does not awaken the emotions merely, to the neglect of the judgment and will; but it goes down to the very depths of the nature, and brings the whole being into harmonious action.
YRP	169	4	Now the work of him who is truly converted begins in earnest. He must work as Christ worked. He must not live any longer to himself, but wholly for the Lord. The world has lost him; for his life is hid with Christ in God. That means that self no longer has the supremacy. The light shining from the cross of Calvary holds him in its bright rays, and the Spirit has taken of the things of Christ, and revealed them to him in such an attractive light as to have a transforming effect on his habits and practices, showing that he is a new creature in Christ Jesus. Every dollar he recognizes as of value, not to gratify his taste or lust, not for him to hide in the earth, but to do good with, to help win souls to the truth, to build up the kingdom of Christ. His enjoyment is the same as that of Christ--in seeing souls saved. Why are we doing so little for the salvation of men, when there is so much to do? Why are we doing so little to draw men and women and children to Christ?--The Review and Herald, October 6, 1891.
------------------------Unworthy but Useful, June 10
YRP	170	1	But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29.
YRP	170	2	If we had a just appreciation of the importance and greatness of our work, and could see ourselves as we are at this time, we should be filled with wonder that God could use us, unworthy as we are, in the work of bringing souls into the truth. There are many things that we ought to be able to understand, that we do not comprehend because we are so far behind our privileges.
YRP	170	3	Christ said to His disciples, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John 16:12). This is our condition. Would they not have been able to understand what He had to say to them, if they had been doers of His word--if they had improved point after point of the truth which He had presented to them? But although they could not then understand, He told them that He would send the Comforter, who would lead them into all truth. We should be in a position where we can comprehend the teaching, leading, and working of the Spirit of Christ. We must not measure God or His truth by our finite understanding, or by our preconceived opinions.
YRP	170	4	There are many who do not realize where they are standing; for they are spiritually blinded. "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Corinthians 13:5). I trust that none of us will be found to be reprobates. Is Christ abiding in your hearts by faith? Is His Spirit in you? If it is, there will be such a yearning in your soul for the salvation of those for whom Christ has died, that self will sink into insignificance, and Christ alone will be exalted....
YRP	170	5	Those who profess to be united to Christ should be laborers together with God. The people of God are to warn the world, and to prepare a people to stand in the day of wrath when the Son of man shall come in the clouds of heaven. The members of the church of Christ should gather up the divine rays of light from Jesus, and reflect them to others, leaving a bright track heavenward in the world.--The Review and Herald, October 8, 1889.
------------------------All Members Called to be Missionaries, June 11
YRP	171	1	But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9.
YRP	171	2	The Holy Spirit, Christ's representative, arms the weakest with might to press forward unto victory. God has organized His instrumentalities to draw all men unto Him. He sends forth to His work many who have not been dedicated by the laying on of hands. He answers objections that would arise against this method of labor, even before they arise. God sees the end from the beginning. He knows and anticipates every want, and provides for every emergency. If finite men to whom He commits His work do not bar the way, God will send forth laborers into His vineyard.
YRP	171	3	To every converted soul He says: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). It is not necessary that the Lord should first sit in earthly legislative councils, and inquire of those who think they must plan for His work, "Will you permit men whom I have chosen, to unite with you in working in some part of My moral vineyard?" Christ was standing only a few steps from His heavenly throne when He gave His commission to His disciples, and included as missionaries all who would believe on His name.
YRP	171	4	Jesus wants every minister to whom He has committed a sacred trust to remember His injunctions, to consider the vastness of His work, and to place the obligation of preaching the gospel to the world upon the large number to whom it belongs. "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:46, 47). The power of God was to go with those that proclaimed the gospel. If those who claim to have a living experience in the things of God had done their appointed duty as God ordained, the whole world would have been warned, and the Lord Jesus would have come to our world with power and great glory.--The Home Missionary, August 1, 1896.
------------------------God May Choose and Fit Anybody, June 12
YRP	172	1	Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23, 24.
YRP	172	2	The Lord works in His own way, in order that men shall not lift themselves up in pride of intellect, and take the credit and the glory to themselves. The Lord would have every human being understand that his capabilities and endowments are from the Lord. God works by whom He will. He takes those whom He pleases to do His work, and He does not consult those to whom He will send His messenger as to what are their preferences concerning whom or what manner of person they would like to bring the message of God to them.
YRP	172	3	God will use men who are willing to be used. The Lord would use men of intelligence if they would permit Him to mold and fashion them, and to shape their testimony after His own order. Men high or low, learned or ignorant, would better let the Lord manage and take care of the safety of His own ark. The work of men is to obey the voice of God.
YRP	172	4	Whoever has a connection with the work and cause of God is to be continually under the discipline of God. "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." ...
YRP	172	5	There are souls famishing for the bread of life, thirsting for the waters of salvation; and woe unto that man who by pen or voice shall turn them aside into false paths! The Spirit of God is appealing to men, presenting to them their moral obligation to love and serve Him with heart, might, mind, and strength, and to love their neighbors as themselves. The Holy Spirit moves upon the inner self until it becomes conscious of the divine power of God, and every spiritual faculty is quickened to decided action.--The Review and Herald, May 12, 1896.
------------------------Even Children May Share Their Faith, June 13
YRP	173	1	And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? Matthew 21:15, 16.
YRP	173	2	The standard of truth may be raised by humble men and women; and the youth, and even children, may be a blessing to others, by revealing what the truth has done for them. God will use the most feeble instruments if they are wholly submitted to Him. He can work through them to reach souls to whom the minister could not obtain access. There are the highways and byways to be searched. With your Bible in your hand, with your heart warm and glowing with the love of God, you may go out and tell others your experience; you may make known to them the truth that has impressed your heart, praying with faith that God will make your efforts successful in their salvation. Communicate light, and you will have more light to communicate. Thus you may become laborers together with God.
YRP	173	3	God desires that His children shall make use of all their powers, that in working to bless others, they may grow strong in the strength of Jesus. You may not be learned; you may not be thought capable of doing a great work for God; but there are things which you can do. You can let your light shine forth to others....
YRP	173	4	Everyone may have an understanding of the truth, and exert an influence for good. Then go to work, my brethren and sisters. Gain an experience by working for others. You may make mistakes; but this is not more than the most intelligent, and those in positions of trust, have done again and again. You will not always meet with success; but you can never know the result of humble, disinterested effort to help those who are in darkness. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, you may win souls from error to truth, and in so doing your own souls will be filled with the love of God.--The Review and Herald, January 12, 1897.
------------------------Global Mission: The Spirit Opens Doors, June 14
YRP	174	1	And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Matthew 24:14.
YRP	174	2	The whole world is a vast missionary field, and yet we who have long been established in the truth should be encouraged with the thought that fields which were once difficult of access are now easily entered. Every church in our land should seek for the revival of the missionary spirit. They should seek for steady growth in zeal and activity. All should pray that the indifference which has caused both men and means to be withheld from the work may be banished, and that Christ may abide in the soul. For our sake He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich.
YRP	174	3	The office work of the Holy Spirit is to convince of sin, and I know that it is a sin for any one of us to be indifferent now. As we look around at the different fields that have been entered, we are led to inquire, "What hath God wrought?" What more could He have done for His vineyard than He has done? God has made provision to supply His rich grace, to give divine power for the performance of His work. Nothing is wanting on the part of God; the lack is on the part of the human agency, who refuses to cooperate with divine intelligences. Through the plan He has devised, nothing can be done for the salvation of man save through the cooperation of man. Sinners who have been blessed with light and evidence, who know that through grace that can be supplied to them, they may meet the conditions upon which salvation is promised, and yet who decline to make the attempt, have but themselves to blame for their own destruction. We feel that of such it may be said that Christ has died for them in vain.
YRP	174	4	But who is to blame for the loss of souls who know not God, and who have had no opportunity for hearing the reasons of our faith? What obligation rests upon the church in reference to a world that is perishing without the gospel? Unless there is more decided self-denial on the part of those who claim to believe the truth, unless there is more decided faithfulness in bringing all the tithes and offerings into the treasury, unless broader plans are laid than have yet been carried into execution, we shall not fulfill the gospel commission to go into all the world, and preach Christ to every creature.--The Home Missionary, April 1, 1895.
------------------------The Cities: Fields White for Harvest, June 15
YRP	175	1	Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. John 4:35.
YRP	175	2	To us, as surely as to the disciples of that time, Christ speaks these words. Time is passing, and the Lord calls upon the workers in all lines of His work to lift up their eyes and behold the fields all ripe for the harvest.
YRP	175	3	Our workers are not branching out as they should in their efforts. Our leading men are not awake to the work that must yet be accomplished. When I think of the cities in which so little work has been done, in which there are so many thousands to be warned of the soon coming of the Saviour, I feel an intensity of desire to see men and women going forth to the work in the power of the Spirit, filled with Christ's love for perishing souls.
YRP	175	4	The heathen in the cities at our doors have been strangely neglected. Organized effort should be made to save them. We are now to work to convert the heathen who are in the midst of us--those who are living within the shadow of our doors. A new song is to be put in their mouths, and they are to go forth to impart to others now in darkness the light of the third angel's message.
YRP	175	5	We all need to be wide awake that, as the way opens, we may advance the work in the large cities. We are far behind in following the light given us to enter the cities and erect memorials for God. Step by step we are to lead souls into the full light of truth. Many are longing for spiritual food. We are to continue working until a church is organized and a humble house of worship built. I am greatly encouraged to believe that many persons not of our faith will help considerably by their means. The light given me is that in many places, especially in the great cities of America, help will be given by such persons.--Pacific Union Recorder, October 23, 1902.
------------------------The Neighborhood: A Large Field of Work, June 16
YRP	176	1	Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him. Luke 8:39.
YRP	176	2	The fields are opening everywhere, calling for the living preacher. At home and abroad are openings that there seems no way to fill. Yet there is a large number who have the light of truth, and if these would do all in their power to give light to others, how much might be accomplished! All cannot be preachers of the Word, but in their own homes all might do something for Christ. They could do a good work among their neighbors. If they would put their minds and hearts to the work, they might devise plans by which they could be useful in a small way, whatever their position.
YRP	176	3	The ever-increasing opportunities for usefulness, the providential openings for the Word of God to be presented, demand our offerings of time and intellect and money, gifts large and small, as God has prospered us, to make a way for the truth in the dark places of the earth, to set up the standard of righteousness, and to advance the interests of the kingdom of Christ. The heavenly angels are waiting to unite with the human agent, that many souls may hear and be impressed by the Holy Spirit, and be converted.
YRP	176	4	We have long been looking and waiting for the coming of the Lord; but are we doing all in our power to hasten His coming? "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). While the Lord is ever working, while all heaven is engaged in the work on earth to draw men to Christ and repentance, what are the human agents doing to be channels of light, that they may cooperate with the divine agencies? Are they daily inquiring, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6). Are they practicing self-denial, as did Jesus? Are they deeply stirred, their hearts drawn out in prayer to God that they may be receiving of His grace, the Holy Spirit of God, that they may have wisdom to work with their ability and their means to save souls that are perishing out of Christ?--The Review and Herald, May 16, 1893.
------------------------Filled With the Spirit, June 17
YRP	177	1	And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost. Acts 13:52.
YRP	177	2	The work of the Holy Spirit is immeasurably great. It is from this Source that power and efficiency come to the worker for God; and the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, as the personal presence of Christ to the soul. He who looks to Christ in simple, childlike faith is made a partaker of the divine nature through the agency of the Holy Spirit. When led by the Spirit of God, the Christian may know that he is made complete in Him who is the head of all things. As Christ was glorified on the day of Pentecost, so will He again be glorified in the closing work of the gospel, when He shall prepare a people to stand the final test, in the closing conflict of the great controversy.
YRP	177	3	When the earth is lightened with the glory of God, we shall see a work similar to that which was wrought when the disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed the power of a risen Saviour. The light of heaven penetrated the darkened minds of those who had been deceived by the enemies of Christ, and the false representation of Him was rejected; for through the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, they now saw Him exalted to be a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins. Christ was glorified through the power of the Holy Spirit resting upon men.
YRP	177	4	The revelation of Christ by the Holy Spirit brought to them a realizing sense of His power and majesty, and they stretched forth their hands unto Him by faith, saying, "I believe." Thus it was in the time of the early rain; but the latter rain will be more abundant. The Saviour of men will be glorified, and the earth will be lightened with the bright shining of the beams of His righteousness. He is the fountain of light, and light from the gates ajar has been shining upon the people of God, that they may lift Him up in His glorious character before those who sit in darkness.--The Home Missionary, November 1, 1893.
------------------------Touched With Sacred Fire, June 18
YRP	178	1	John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Luke 3:16.
YRP	178	2	It was a sin in the ancient economy to offer a sacrifice upon the wrong altar, or to allow incense to be kindled from a strange fire. We are in danger of commingling the sacred and the common. The holy fire from God is to be used with our offerings. The true altar is Christ, and the true fire is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is to inspire, to teach, to lead, and to guide men, and make them safe counselors. If we turn aside from God's chosen ones, we are in danger of inquiring from strange gods, and of offering upon a strange altar....
YRP	178	3	The most powerful preaching of the Word will avail nothing unless the Spirit teaches and enlightens those who hear. Unless the Spirit works with and through the human agent, souls will not be saved or characters transformed by the reading of the Scriptures. The planning and devising that is done in connection with the work should not be of a character to draw attention to self. The Word is a power, a sword in the hand of the human agent. But the Holy Spirit is its efficiency, its vital power in impressing the mind.
YRP	178	4	"They shall all be taught of God" (John 6:45). It is God that causeth the light to shine into the hearts of men. Will my ministering brethren remember that it is essential that God be recognized as the source of our strength, and the Spirit as the Comforter? The great reason why God can do so little for us is that we forget that living virtue comes through our cooperation with the Holy Spirit.--Manuscript Releases 2:45, 46.
YRP	178	5	The Spirit is constantly showing to the soul glimpses of the things of God. A divine presence seems to hover near, and then if the mind responds, if the door of the heart is opened, Jesus abides with the human agent. The Spirit's energy is working in the heart and leading the inclination of the will to Jesus by living faith and complete dependence on divine power to will and to do of His good pleasure. The Spirit taketh the things of God, just as fast as the soul resolves and acts in accordance with the light revealed.--Manuscript Releases 2:46.
------------------------The Spirit Gives the Right Words, June 19
YRP	179	1	For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. Matthew 10:20.
YRP	179	2	Of all the gifts which God has given to man, none is more precious than the gift of speech, if it is sanctified by the Holy Spirit. It is with the tongue that we convince and persuade: with it we offer prayer and praise to God, and with it we convey rich thoughts of the Redeemer's love. Those who are fitted to enlighten minds will often have opportunity to read from the Bible or from books which teach the truth, and thus bring the evidence to enlighten souls.
YRP	179	3	When the Lord's voice calls, "Whom shall I send? and who will go for us?" the divine Spirit puts it into hearts to respond, "Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:8). But bear in mind that the live coal from the altar must first touch your lips. Then the words you speak will be wise and holy words. Then you will have wisdom to know what to say and what to leave unsaid. You will not try to reveal your smartness as theologians. You will be careful not to arouse a combative spirit or excite prejudice, by introducing indiscriminately all the points of our faith. You will find enough to talk about that will not excite opposition, but that will open the heart to desire a deeper knowledge of God's Word.
YRP	179	4	The Lord desires you to be soul winners; therefore, while you should not force doctrinal points upon the people, you should "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15). Why fear? Fear lest your words should savor of self-importance, lest unadvised words be spoken, lest the words and manner should not be after Christ's likeness. Connect firmly with Christ, and present the truth as it is in Him. Hearts cannot fail to be touched by the story of the atonement.
YRP	179	5	As you learn the meekness and lowliness of Christ, you will know what you should say to the people; for the Holy Spirit will tell you what words you ought to speak. Those who realize the necessity of keeping the heart under the control of the Holy Spirit will be enabled to sow seed that will spring up into eternal life. This is the work of the gospel evangelist.--(Australasian) Union Conference Record, July 1, 1902.
------------------------Human Voice a Channel for Divine Voice, June 20
YRP	180	1	And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. Exodus 4:15.
YRP	180	2	When he who is a colaborer with Christ presses home the truth to the sinner's heart in humility and love, the voice of love speaks through the human instrumentality. Heavenly intelligences work with a consecrated human agent, and the Spirit operates upon the soul of the unbeliever. Efficiency to believe comes from God to the heart, and the sinner accepts the evidence of God's Word.
YRP	180	3	Through the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit he is changed and becomes one with Christ in spirit and purpose. His affection for God increases, he hungers after righteousness and longs to be more like his Master. By beholding Christ, he is changed from glory to glory, from character to character, and becomes more and more like Jesus. He is imbued with love for Christ and filled with a deep, unresting love for perishing souls, and Christ is formed within, the hope of glory. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12).--Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 220, 221.
YRP	180	4	We need more of the working of the Infinite and far less trust in human agencies. We are to prepare a people to stand in the day of God's preparation; we are to call men's attention to the cross of Calvary, to make clear the reason why Christ made His great sacrifice. We are to show men that it is possible for them to come back to their allegiance to God and to their obedience to His commandments. When the sinner looks upon Christ as the propitiation for his sins, let men step aside. Let them declare to the sinner that Christ "is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2).
YRP	180	5	Encourage him to seek wisdom from God; for through earnest prayer he will learn the way of the Lord more perfectly than if instructed by some human counselor. He will see that it was the transgression of the law that caused the death of the Son of the infinite God, and he will hate the sins that wounded Jesus. As he looks upon Christ as a compassionate, tender High Priest, his heart will be preserved in contrition.--Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 220.
------------------------Love: The Best Advertisement for Truth, June 21
YRP	181	1	By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:35.
YRP	181	2	Man may become a fellow laborer with God in carrying out the great work of redemption. God allows each man his own sphere of action while He has given His Word as the guide of life. He has also given the Holy Spirit as a sufficient power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character on the human agent, and, through him, upon all who shall come within the sphere of his influence.
YRP	181	3	The human agent is urged to cooperate with God, to work out His mercy, His goodness, and His love, thus impressing other minds. Every man is to become an instrumentality through which the Holy Spirit can work. He can become this only by yielding all his capabilities to the control of the Spirit. God gave His Spirit upon the day of Pentecost, and through [the Spirit's] working upon receptive hearts [God] could impress all with whom the believers came in contact.
YRP	181	4	Through our relation of friendship and familiarity with human beings like ourselves, we may exert an uplifting influence. Those who are united in a common hope and faith in Christ Jesus can be a blessing to one another. Jesus says, "Love one another; as I have loved you" (John 13:34). Love is not simply an impulse, a transitory emotion, dependent upon circumstances; it is a living principle, a permanent power. The soul is fed by the streams of pure love that flow from the heart of Christ, as a wellspring that never fails.
YRP	181	5	Oh, how is the heart quickened, how are its motives ennobled, its affections deepened, by this communion! Under the education and discipline of the Holy Spirit, the children of God love one another, truly, sincerely, unaffectedly, "without partiality, and without hypocrisy" (James 3:17). And this because the heart is in love with Jesus. Our affection for one another springs from our common relation to God. We are one family, we love one another as He loved us. When compared with this true, sanctified, disciplined affection, the shallow courtesy of the world, the meaningless expressions of effusive friendship, are as chaff to the wheat.--The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 1508, 1509.
------------------------Earnest Work: A Recipe for Lessening Burdens, June 22
YRP	182	1	Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10.
YRP	182	2	There have been altogether too many looking in upon their own trials and difficulties. But when they forget self, and look upon the suffering necessity of others, there will be no time to magnify their own griefs. Earnest work for the Lord is a recipe for mind ailments; and the helpful hand to lift the burdens Christ has borne for all His heritage will lessen our burdens, and they will not seem worth mentioning. True, honest work will give healthy action to the mind by giving healthy action to the muscles. It is the constant manufacturing of ills and burdens that kills. We are to be content to bear the strain of daily duties; and the great pressure of tomorrow's liabilities--leave these cares for the time when we must take them.
YRP	182	3	We are called now to be educated, that we may do the work that God has assigned to us, and it will not crush out our life. The humblest can have a share in the work, and a share in the reward when the coronation shall take place, and Christ, our Advocate and Redeemer, becomes the King of His redeemed subjects. We must now do all in our power to seek personal consecration to God. It is not more mighty men, not more talented men, not more learned men, that we need in the presentation of the truth for this time; but men who have a knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent.
YRP	182	4	Personal piety will qualify any worker, for the Holy Spirit takes possession of him, and the truth for this time becomes a power, because his everyday thoughts and all his activities are running in Christ's lines. He has an abiding Christ; and the humblest soul, linked with Christ Jesus, is a power, and his work will abide. May the Lord help us to understand His divine will, and do it heartily, unflinchingly, and there will be joy in the Lord.--The Home Missionary, November 1, 1897.
------------------------Human Work Made Effective by the Spirit, June 23
YRP	183	1	If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13.
YRP	183	2	The promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit is not comprehended as it should be; the privileges to be enjoyed through its acceptance are not appreciated as they might be. God desires that His church should lay hold by faith upon His promises, and ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to help them in every place. He assures us that He is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him, than parents are to give good gifts unto their children. Since it is possible for everyone to have the heavenly unction, "ye need not that any man teach you" (1 John 2:27), and there is no excuse for shunning responsibilities; no duty should be unwelcome, no obligation evaded. Christ Himself is the renewing power, working in and through every soldier by the agency of the Holy Spirit. The efficiency of the Spirit of God will make effective the labors of all who are willing to submit to His guidance.
YRP	183	3	God is moving upon every mind that is open to receive the impressions of His Holy Spirit. He is sending out messengers that they may give the warnings in every locality. God is testing the devotion of His churches, and their willingness to render obedience to the Spirit's guidance. Knowledge is to be increased. The messengers of heaven are to be seen running to and fro, seeking in every way possible to warn the people of the coming judgments, and presenting the glad tidings of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. The standard of righteousness is to be exalted.
YRP	183	4	The Spirit of God is moving upon men's hearts, and those who respond to His influence will become lights in the world. Everywhere they are seen going forth to communicate to others the light they have received, as they did after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And as they let their light shine they receive more and more of the Spirit's power. The earth is lighted with the glory of God.--(Australasian) Union Conference Record, April 1, 1898.
------------------------Keeping Total Dependency on God, June 24
YRP	184	1	And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 1 Corinthians 2:1-3.
YRP	184	2	There will come times when the church will be stirred by divine power, and earnest activity will be the result; for the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit will inspire its members to go forth and bring souls to Christ. But when this activity is manifested, the most earnest workers will be safe only as they depend upon God through constant, earnest prayer. They will need to make earnest supplication that through the grace of Christ they may be saved from taking pride in their work, or of making a savior of their activity. They must constantly look to Jesus, that they may realize that it is His power which does the work, and thus be able to ascribe all the glory to God.
YRP	184	3	We shall be called upon to make most decided efforts to extend the work of God, and prayer to our heavenly Father will be most essential. It will be necessary to engage in prayer in the closet, in the family, and in the church. Our households must be set in order, and earnest efforts must be made to interest every member of the family in missionary enterprises. We must seek to engage the sympathies of our children in earnest work for the unsaved, that they may do their best at all times and in all places to represent Christ.
YRP	184	4	But let us not forget that as activity increases, and we become successful in doing the work that must be accomplished, there is danger of our trusting in human plans and methods. There will be a tendency to pray less, and to have less faith. We shall be in danger of losing our sense of dependence upon God, who alone can make our work succeed; but although this is the tendency, let no one think that the human instrument is to do less. No, he is not to do less, but to do more by accepting the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit. The world in its own wisdom knew not God, and every human power is naturally, to a greater or less degree, opposed to God. We are to look to Jesus, and cooperate with heavenly agencies, offering our petitions to the Father in Jesus' name.--The Review and Herald, July 4, 1893.
------------------------Following the Captain's Orders, June 25
YRP	185	1	Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. 2 Timothy 2:3, 4.
YRP	185	2	We have only a little while to urge the warfare; then Christ will come, and this scene of rebellion will close. Then our last efforts will have been made to work with Christ and advance His kingdom. Some who have stood in the forefront of the battle, zealously resisting incoming evil, fall at the post of duty; others gaze sorrowfully at the fallen heroes, but have no time to cease work. They must close up the ranks, seize the banner from the hand palsied by death, and with renewed energy vindicate the truth and the honor of Christ. As never before, resistance must be made against sin--against the powers of darkness. The time demands energetic and determined activity on the part of those who believe present truth. They should teach the truth by both precept and example.
YRP	185	3	If the time seems long to wait for our Deliverer to come, if, bowed by affliction and worn with toil, we feel impatient for our commission to close, and to receive an honorable release from the warfare, let us remember--and let the remembrance check every murmur--that God leaves us on earth to encounter storms and conflicts, to perfect Christian character, to become better acquainted with God our Father and Christ our Elder Brother, and to do work for the Master in winning many souls to Christ, that with glad heart we may hear the words: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Matthew 25:21).
YRP	185	4	Be patient, Christian soldier. Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come. The night of weary waiting, and watching, and mourning is nearly over. The reward will soon be given; the eternal day will dawn. There is no time to sleep now--no time to indulge in useless regrets. He who ventures to slumber now will miss precious opportunities of doing good. We are granted the blessed privilege of gathering sheaves in the great harvest; and every soul saved will be an additional star in the crown of Jesus, our adorable Redeemer. Who is eager to lay off the armor, when by pushing the battle a little longer he will achieve new victories and gather new trophies for eternity?--The Review and Herald, October 25, 1881.
------------------------Keeping the Watchers Awake, June 26
YRP	186	1	And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Romans 13:11.
YRP	186	2	My brethren, you must have Jesus enthroned within, and self must die. We must be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and then we shall not sit down, saying unconcernedly, "What is to be will be; prophecy must be fulfilled." Oh, awake, I pray you, awake! for you bear the most sacred responsibilities. As faithful watchmen, you should see the sword coming, and give the warning, that men and women may not pursue a course through ignorance that they would avoid if they knew the truth.
YRP	186	3	The Lord has enlightened us in regard to what is coming upon the earth, that we may enlighten others, and we shall not be held guiltless if we are content to sit at ease, with folded hands, and quibble over matters of minor importance. The minds of many have been engrossed with contentions, and they have rejected the light given through the Testimonies, because it did not agree with their own opinions.
YRP	186	4	God does not force any man into His service. Every soul must decide for himself whether or not he will fall on the Rock and be broken. Heaven has been amazed to see the spiritual stupidity that has prevailed. You need individually to open your proud hearts to the Spirit of God, You need to have your intellectual ability sanctified to the service of God. The transforming power of God must be upon you, that your minds may be renewed by the Holy Spirit, that you may have the mind that was in Christ.
YRP	186	5	If the watchmen sleep under an opiate of Satan's and do not recognize the voice of the true Shepherd, and do not take up the warning, I tell you in the fear of God, they will be charged with the blood of souls. The watchmen must be wide awake, men who will not slumber at their post of duty, day nor night. They must give the trumpet a certain sound, that the people may shun the evil, and choose the good. Stupidity and careless indifference cannot be excused. On every side of us there are breakers and hidden rocks which will dash our bark in pieces, and leave us helpless wrecks, unless we make God our refuge and help.--The Review and Herald, December 24, 1889.
------------------------All Heaven Interested in Saving Souls, June 27
YRP	187	1	To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19.
YRP	187	2	In the work of saving men, men and angels are to work in harmony, teaching the truth of God to those who are unlearned therein, in order that they may be set free from the bonds of sin. Truth alone can make men free. The liberty that comes through a knowledge of truth is to be proclaimed to every creature. Our heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the angels of heaven are all interested in this grand and holy work.
YRP	187	3	To man has been given the exalted privilege of revealing the divine character by unselfishly seeking to rescue man from the pit of ruin into which he has been plunged. Every human being who will submit to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit is to be used for the accomplishment of this divinely conceived purpose. Christ is the head of His church, and it will glorify Him the more to have every portion of that church engaged in the work for the salvation of souls....
YRP	187	4	There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents, than over the ninety and nine who suppose they need no repentance. When we hear of the success of the truth in any locality, let the whole church join in songs of rejoicing, let praises ascend to God. Let the name of the Lord be glorified by us, and we shall be inspired with greater zeal to become workers together with God. The Lord urges us to fulfill the injunction "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). But we need to leave more room for the working of the Holy Spirit, in order that laborers may be bound together and may move forward in the strength of a united body of soldiers.
YRP	187	5	Let all remember that we are "a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men" (1 Corinthians 4:9). Therefore each one should inquire with meekness and fear, What is my path of duty? Entire consecration to the service of God will reveal the molding influence of the Holy Spirit at every step along the way.--The Review and Herald, July 16, 1895.
------------------------Heavenly Agencies Waiting for Us, June 28
YRP	188	1	That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:9, 10.
YRP	188	2	The Lord calls for every talent and ability to be put to use. When the reproach of indolence and slothfulness shall have been wiped away from the church, the Spirit of the Lord will be graciously manifested; divine power will combine with human effort, the church will see the providential interpositions of the Lord God of hosts, the light of truth will be diffused, the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent. As in the apostles' time, many souls will turn unto the Lord. The earth will be lighted with the glory of the angel from heaven.
YRP	188	3	If the world is to be convinced of sin as transgressors of God's law, the agency must be the Holy Spirit working through human instrumentalities. The church needs now to shake off her death-like slumber; for the Lord is waiting to bless His people who will recognize the blessing when it comes, and diffuse it in clear, strong rays of light. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.... And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes" (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
YRP	188	4	If the wilderness of the church is to become as a fruitful field, and the fruitful field to be as a forest, it is through the Holy Spirit of God poured out upon His people. The heavenly agencies have long been waiting for the human agents, the members of the church, to cooperate with them in the great work to be done. They are waiting for you. So vast is the field, so comprehensive the design, that every sanctified heart will be pressed into service as an agent of divine power....
YRP	188	5	Let all who believe the truth for this time put away their differences; put away envy and evil speaking and evil thinking. Press together, press together. "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently" (1 Peter 1:22).--The General Conference Daily Bulletin, February 28, 1893.
------------------------No Time to Lose, June 29
YRP	189	1	The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. Jeremiah 8:20.
YRP	189	2	The Lord is coming. The earth's history is soon to close. Are you prepared to meet the Judge of the earth? Bear in mind that "he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy" (James 2:13). How terrible it will be in the last great day to find that those with whom we have been familiarly associated are separated from us forever; to see the members of our family, perhaps our own children, unsaved; to find those who have visited our homes, and eaten at our tables, among the lost. Then we shall ask ourselves the question, Was it because of my impatience, my un-Christlike disposition; was it because self was not under control, that the religion of Christ became distasteful to them?
YRP	189	3	The world must be warned of the soon coming of the Lord. We have but a little time in which to work. Years have passed into eternity that might have been improved in seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and in diffusing the light to others. God calls upon His people who have great light, much labor bestowed upon them, and are established in the truth to now work for themselves and others as they have never done before. Make use of every ability; bring into exercise every power, every entrusted talent; use all the light that God has given you to do others good. Do not try to be preachers; but become ministers for God.
YRP	189	4	As the truth is better understood by the workers, it will ever appear in a more striking light; as you seek to enlighten others, with your minds under the holy influence of the Spirit of God, your attention will be directed toward those things that are of eternal interest. In such efforts, mingled with prayers for divine light, your own hearts will throb with the quickening influence of the grace of God; your own affections will glow with more divine fervor, and your whole Christian life will be more of a reality, more earnest, and more prayerful. Thus by Christ abiding in the heart, you may become laborers together with God.--The Home Missionary, February 1, 1898.
------------------------A Prayer for the Outpouring of the Spirit, June 30
YRP	190	1	As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. John 17:18-20.
YRP	190	2	My heavenly Father, I come to Thee at this time, just as I am, poor and needy, and dependent upon Thee. I ask Thee to give me and give this people the grace that perfects Christian character. Wilt Thou have compassion upon this people? Let Thy light shine into the chambers of the mind, and into the soul temple. My Saviour, Thou hast given Thy life to purchase Thine inheritance, that, as overcomers, they may enter the kingdom of God, where they shall go no more out forever. Bless those who have signified their desire to serve Thee. Put Thy Spirit upon them.
YRP	190	3	I ask Thee, heavenly Father, to let Thy Holy Spirit come to this people. May Thy salvation be revealed. Touch their hearts, and make them very tender. Soften them by Thy Holy Spirit, and help them to see the work to be done for their neighbors, and for souls that are perishing all around them. Oh, awaken them to their responsibilities! May they wash their robes of character, and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. Wilt Thou encircle them in the arms of Thy mercy? Plead with them through the impressions of Thy Holy Spirit, that they may try to let their light shine to those that have not known the truth. Put Thy church in order, O Lord, that they may labor for souls.
YRP	190	4	My Saviour, reveal Thyself to this people. Let Thy love be expressed. Oh, let it be revealed! Hold Thy people, that Satan may not have his will and way with them. Help them to press through all opposition, that at last they may lay their crowns at the feet of Jesus in the city of God; and Thy name shall have all the glory. Amen.--The Review and Herald, July 16, 1908.
------------------------Beauty in Diversity, July 1
YRP	191	1	Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.... Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 1 Corinthians 12:1-6.
YRP	191	2	The talents that Christ entrusts to His church represent especially the gifts and blessings imparted by the Holy Spirit. "To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will" (1 Corinthians 12:8-11)....
YRP	191	3	In all the Lord's arrangements, there is nothing more beautiful than His plan of giving to men and women a diversity of gifts. The church is His garden, adorned with a variety of trees, plants, and flowers. He does not expect the hyssop to assume the proportions of the cedar, nor the olive to reach the height of the stately palm. Many have received but a limited religious and intellectual training, but God has a work for this class to do, if they will labor in humility, trusting in Him....
YRP	191	4	Different gifts are imparted to different ones, that the workers may feel their need of one another. God bestows these gifts, and they are employed in His service, not to glorify the possessor, not to uplift man, but to uplift the world's Redeemer. They are to be used for the good of all mankind, by representing the truth, not testifying to a falsehood.... In every word and act, kindness and love will be revealed; and as each worker fills his appointed place faithfully, the prayer of Christ for the unity of His followers will be answered, and the world will know that these are His disciples.--The Signs of the Times, March 15, 1910.
------------------------To Be God's Instrumentalities, July 2
YRP	192	1	Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 1 Corinthians 3:5.
YRP	192	2	God's servants do not all possess the same gifts, but they are all His workmen. Each is to learn of the Great Teacher, and then to communicate what he has learned. All do not do the same work, but under the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit they are all God's instrumentalities. God employs a diversity of gifts in His work of winning souls from Satan's army.
YRP	192	3	"Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor" (1 Corinthians 3:8). God, and not man, is the judge of man's work, and He will apportion to each his just reward. It is not given to any human being to judge between the different servants of God. The Lord alone is the judge and rewarder of every good work.
YRP	192	4	"He that planteth and he that watereth are one," engaged in the same work--the salvation of souls. "We are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (verse 9). In these words the church is compared to a cultivated field, in which the husbandmen are to labor, caring for the vines of the Lord's planting; and to a building, which is to become a holy temple for the Lord. Christ is the Master Workman. All are to work under His supervision, letting Him work for and through His workmen. He gives them tact and skill, and if they heed His instructions, crowns their labor with success.
YRP	192	5	None are to complain against God, who has appointed to each man his work. He who murmurs and frets, who wants his own way, who desires to mold his fellow laborers to suit his own ideas, needs the divine touch before he is qualified to labor in any line. Unless he is changed, he will surely mar the work.
YRP	192	6	Remember that we are laborers together with God. God is the all-powerful, effectual mover. His servants are His instruments.--The Review and Herald, December 11, 1900.
------------------------To Become Agents of Salvation, July 3
YRP	193	1	For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6.
YRP	193	2	Christians are to be indeed the representatives of Jesus Christ; they are not to be pretenders. Shall the world form its conceptions of God by the course of those who only take the name of Christ, and do not His works? Shall they point to those who claim to be believers, but who are not believers at heart, who betray sacred trusts, and work the works of the enemy, and say, "Oh, these are Christians, and they will cheat and lie, and they cannot be trusted"? These are not the ones who truly represent God.
YRP	193	3	But God will not leave the world to be deceived. The Lord has a peculiar people on the earth, and He is not ashamed to call them brethren; for they do the works of Christ. They make it manifest that they love God, because they keep His commandments. They bear the divine image. They are a spectacle unto the world, to angels, and to men. They cooperate with heavenly intelligences, and the Lord is most honored and glorified by those who do the most good works.
YRP	193	4	True piety of heart is made manifest by good words and good works, and men see the works of those who love God, and they are led thereby to glorify God. The true Christian abounds in good works; he brings forth much fruit. He feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick, and ministers to the afflicted. Christians take a heartfelt interest in the children that are about them, who, through the subtle temptations of the enemy, are ready to perish.... There are youth all around us to whom the members of the church owe a duty; for Christ has died for them upon the cross of Calvary to purchase for them the gift of salvation. They are precious in the sight of God, and He desires their eternal happiness.
YRP	193	5	The saving work of Christ is complete only when the members of the church do their part, arising and shining because their light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon them. Christ calls for voluntary cooperation on the part of His agents in doing earnest, consistent work for the salvation of souls.--The Review and Herald, January 29, 1895.
------------------------Used as a Power for God, July 4
YRP	194	1	But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:7, 8.
YRP	194	2	One worker may be a ready speaker; another a ready writer; another may have the gift of sincere, earnest, fervent prayer; another the gift of singing; another may have special power to explain the Word of God with clearness. And each gift is to become a power for God because He works with the laborer. To one God gives the word of wisdom, to another knowledge, to another faith; but all are to work under the same Head. The diversity of gifts leads to a diversity of operations, but "it is the same God which worketh all in all" (1 Corinthians 12:6).
YRP	194	3	The Lord desires His chosen servants to learn how to unite together in harmonious effort. It may seem to some that the contrast between their gifts and the gifts of a fellow laborer is too great to allow them to unite in harmonious effort; but when they remember that there are varied minds to be reached, and that some will reject the truth as it is presented by one laborer, only to open their hearts to God's truth as it is presented in a different manner by another laborer, they will hopefully endeavor to labor together in unity. Their talents, however diverse, may all be under the control of the same Spirit. In every word and act, kindness and love will be revealed; and as each worker fills his appointed place faithfully, the prayer of Christ for the unity of His followers will be answered, and the world will know that these are His disciples.
YRP	194	4	In loving sympathy and confidence God's workers are to unite with one another. He who says or does anything that tends to separate the members of Christ's church is counterworking the Lord's purpose. Wrangling and dissension in the church, the encouragement of suspicion and unbelief, are dishonoring to Christ. God desires His servants to cultivate Christian affection for one another.--Testimonies for the Church 9:144, 145.
------------------------A God-given Faith, July 5
YRP	195	1	To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:9.
YRP	195	2	Faith, too, is the gift of God. Faith is the assent of man's understanding to God's words, that binds the heart to God's service. And whose is man's understanding, if it be not God's? Whose the heart, if it be not God's? To have faith is to render to God the intellect, the energy, that we have received from Him; therefore those who exercise faith do not themselves deserve any credit. Those who believe so firmly in a heavenly Father that they can trust Him with unlimited confidence; those who by faith can reach beyond the grave to the eternal realities beyond, must pour forth to their Maker the confession "All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee" (1 Chronicles 29:14).
YRP	195	3	No man has a right to call himself his own. And no man possesses any good thing that he can call his own. Every man, every thing, is the property of the Lord. All that man receives from the bounty of heaven is still the Lord's. Whatever knowledge he has that in any way helps him to be an intelligent workman in God's cause is from the Lord, and should be imparted by him to his fellow men, in order that they, too, may become valuable workmen. He to whom God has entrusted unusual gifts should return to the Lord's storehouse that which he has received, by freely giving to others the benefit of his blessings. Thus God will be honored and glorified....
YRP	195	4	Heavenly bestowed capabilities should not be made to serve selfish ends. Every energy, every endowment, is a talent that should contribute to God's glory by being used in His service. His gifts are to be put out to the exchangers, that He may receive His own, with usury. The talents that fit a man for service are entrusted to him not only that he may be an acceptable worker himself, but that he may also be enabled to teach others who in some respects are deficient.--The Review and Herald, December 1, 1904.
------------------------Faith That Works, July 6
YRP	196	1	And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Hebrews 11:32-34.
YRP	196	2	Faith is trusting God--believing that He loves us and knows best what is for our good. Thus, instead of our own, it leads us to choose His way. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His righteousness. Our lives, ourselves, are already His; faith acknowledges His ownership and accepts its blessing. Truth, uprightness, purity, have been pointed out as secrets of life's success. It is faith that puts us in possession of these principles.
YRP	196	3	Every good impulse or aspiration is the gift of God; faith receives from God the life that alone can produce true growth and efficiency.
YRP	196	4	How to exercise faith should be made very plain. To every promise of God there are conditions. If we are willing to do His will, all His strength is ours. Whatever gift He promises is in the promise itself. "The seed is the word of God" (Luke 8:11). As surely as the oak is in the acorn, so surely is the gift of God in His promise. If we receive the promise, we have the gift.
YRP	196	5	Faith that enables us to receive God's gifts is itself a gift, of which some measure is imparted to every human being. It grows as exercised in appropriating the Word of God. In order to strengthen faith, we must often bring it in contact with the Word.
YRP	196	6	In the study of the Bible the student should be led to see the power of God's word. In the creation, "He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast." He "calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Psalm 33:9; Romans 4:17); for when He calls them, they are.--Education, 253, 254.
------------------------The Gift of Speech, July 7
YRP	197	1	Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 2 Timothy 4:2.
YRP	197	2	The power of speech is a talent that should be diligently cultivated. Of all the gifts we have received from God, none is capable of being a greater blessing than this. With the voice we convince and persuade; with it we offer praise and prayer to God; and with it we tell others of the Redeemer's love. Not one word is to be spoken unadvisedly. No evil speaking, no frivolous talk, no fretful repining or impure suggestions, will escape the lips of him who is following Christ.
YRP	197	3	The apostle Paul, writing by the Holy Spirit, says, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth" (Ephesians 4:29). A corrupt communication does not mean only words that are vile. It means any expression contrary to holy principles and pure and undefiled religion. It includes impure hints and covert suggestions of evil. Unless instantly resisted, these lead to great sin.
YRP	197	4	Upon every family, upon every individual Christian, is laid the duty of barring the way against corrupt speech. When [we are] in the company of those who indulge in foolish talk, it is our duty to change the subject of conversation if possible. By the help of the grace of God, we should try to drop words or introduce a subject that will turn the conversation into a profitable channel.
YRP	197	5	Our words should be words of praise and thanksgiving. If the mind and heart are full of the love of God, this will be revealed in the conversation. It will not be a difficult matter to impart that which enters into our spiritual life. Great thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, unselfish purposes, yearnings for piety and holiness, will bear fruit in words that reveal the character of the heart treasure. When Christ is thus revealed in our speech, it will have a power in winning souls to Him.
YRP	197	6	We should speak of Christ to those who know Him not. We should do as Christ did. Wherever He was, in the synagogue, by the wayside, in the boat thrust out a little from the land, at the Pharisee's feast or the table of the publican, He spoke to men of the things pertaining to the higher life.--The Signs of the Times, July 2, 1902.
------------------------The Gift of Singing, July 8
YRP	198	1	What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. 1 Corinthians 14:15.
YRP	198	2	The Lord is calling upon His people to take up different lines of missionary work, to sow beside all waters. We do but a small part of the work that He desires us to do among our neighbors and friends. By kindness to the poor, the sick, or the bereaved we may obtain an influence over them, so that divine truth will find access to their hearts. No such opportunity for service should be allowed to pass unimproved. It is the highest missionary work that we can do. The presentation of the truth in love and sympathy from house to house is in harmony with the instruction of Christ to His disciples when He sent them out on their first missionary tour.
YRP	198	3	Those who have the gift of song are needed. Song is one of the most effective means of impressing spiritual truth upon the heart. Often by the words of sacred song, the springs of penitence and faith have been unsealed. Church members, young and old, should be educated to go forth to proclaim this last message to the world. If they go in humility, angels of God will go with them, teaching them how to lift up the voice in prayer, how to raise the voice in song, and how to proclaim the gospel message for this time.
YRP	198	4	Young men and women, take up the work to which God calls you. Christ will teach you to use your abilities to good purpose. As you receive the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit, and seek to teach others, your minds will be refreshed, and you will be able to present words that are new and strangely beautiful to your hearers. Pray and sing, and speak the Word....
YRP	198	5	God wants His people to receive to impart. As impartial, unselfish witnesses, they are to give to others what the Lord has given them. And as you enter into this work, and by whatever means in your power seek to reach hearts, be sure to work in a way that will remove prejudice instead of creating it. Make the life of Christ your constant study, and labor as He did, following His example.--The Review and Herald, June 6, 1912.
------------------------The Gift of Healing, July 9
YRP	199	1	Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. James 5:14, 15.
YRP	199	2	The power of Christ to stay disease has been revealed in the past in a remarkable manner. Before we were blessed with institutions where the sick could get help from suffering, by diligent treatment and earnest prayer in faith to God, we carried the most seemingly hopeless cases through successfully. Today the Lord invites the suffering ones to have faith in Him. Man's necessity is God's opportunity.
YRP	199	3	"And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Judah, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them" (Mark 6:1-6).
YRP	199	4	With all our treatments given to the sick, simple fervent prayer should be offered for the blessing of healing. We are to point the sick to the compassionate Saviour, and His power to forgive and to heal. Through His gracious providence they may be restored. Point the sufferers to their Advocate in the heavenly courts. Tell them that Christ will heal the sick, if they will repent and cease to transgress the laws of God. There is a Saviour who will reveal Himself in our sanitariums to save those who will submit themselves to Him. The suffering ones can unite with you in prayer, confessing their sin, and receiving pardon.--Manuscript Releases 8:267, 268.
------------------------Healing Power Through the Great Physician, July 10
YRP	200	1	And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him. Mark 1:32-34.
YRP	200	2	In giving us His Son, the Father gave the most costly gift that heaven could bestow. This gift it is our privilege to use in our ministration to the sick. Let Christ be your dependence. Commit every case to the Great Healer; let Him guide in every operation. The prayer offered in sincerity and in faith will be heard. This will give confidence to the physicians and courage to the sufferer.
YRP	200	3	I have been instructed that we should lead the sick in our institutions to expect large things because of the faith of the physician in the Great Healer, who, in the years of His earthly ministry, went through the towns and villages of the land and healed all who came to Him. None were turned away; He healed them all. Let the sick realize that, although unseen, Christ is present to bring relief and healing.
YRP	200	4	After His resurrection, Christ met with His disciples, and for forty days instructed them concerning their future work. On the day of His ascension, He met with the disciples in a mountain in Galilee, where He had appointed them. And He said to them, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth; go ye therefore, and teach all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:18-20). It is the privilege of every physician and every sufferer to believe this promise; it is life to all who believe.--Loma Linda Messages, 355.
------------------------Healing Gift Does Not Replace Institutions, July 11
YRP	201	1	And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. Luke 5:13, 14.
YRP	201	2	The remark is often made, by one and another, "Why depend so much on sanitariums? Why do we not pray for the miraculous healing of the sick, as the people of God used to do?" In the early history of our work many were healed by prayer. And some, after they were healed, pursued the same course in the indulgence of appetite that they had followed in the past. They did not live and work in such a way as to avoid sickness. They did not show that they appreciated the Lord's goodness to them. Again and again they were brought to suffering through their own careless, thoughtless course of action. How could the Lord be glorified in bestowing on them the gift of health?
YRP	201	3	When the light came that we should have a sanitarium, the reason was plainly given. There were many who needed to be educated in regard to healthful living. A place must be provided to which the sick could be taken, where they could be taught how to live so as to preserve health....
YRP	201	4	Lectures should be diligently kept up as a means of teaching the patients how to prevent disease by a wise course of action. By means of these lectures the patients may be shown the responsibility resting on them to keep the body in the most healthful condition because it is the Lord's purchased possession. Mind, soul, and body are bought with a price.... "Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:20)....
YRP	201	5	In the providence of God, instruction has been given that sanitariums be established, in order that the sick may be drawn to them, and learn how to live healthfully. The establishment of sanitariums is a providential arrangement, whereby people from all churches are to be reached, and made acquainted with the saving truth for this time.--Manuscript Releases 7:378, 379.
------------------------Not All Healing Comes From the Spirit, July 12
YRP	202	1	Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:22, 23.
YRP	202	2	We need to be anchored in Christ, rooted and grounded in the faith. Satan works through agents. He selects those who have not been drinking of the living waters, whose souls are athirst for something new and strange, and who are ever ready to drink at any fountain that may present itself. Voices will be heard, saying, "Lo, here is Christ," or "Lo, ... there"; but we must believe them not" (Matthew 24:23). We have unmistakable evidence of the voice of the True Shepherd, and He is calling upon us to follow Him. He says, "I have kept my Father's commandments" (John 15:10). He leads His sheep in the path of humble obedience to the law of God, but He never encourages them in the transgression of that law.
YRP	202	3	"The voice of a stranger" is the voice of one who neither respects nor obeys God's holy, just, and good law. Many make great pretensions to holiness, and boast of the wonders they perform in healing the sick, when they do not regard this great standard of righteousness. But through whose power are these cures wrought?
YRP	202	4	If those through whom cures are performed are disposed, on account of these manifestations, to excuse their neglect of the law of God, and continue in disobedience, though they have power to any and every extent, it does not follow that they have the great power of God. On the contrary, it is the miracle-working power of the great deceiver. He is a transgressor of the moral law, and employs every device that he can master to blind men to its true character. We are warned that in the last days he will work with signs and lying wonders. And he will continue these wonders until the close of probation, that he may point to them as evidence that he is an angel of light and not of darkness.--The Review and Herald, November 17, 1885.
------------------------True Miracles Will Happen Again, July 13
YRP	203	1	Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:12.
YRP	203	2	The great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening. The prophecies which were fulfilled in the outpouring of the former rain at the opening of the gospel are again to be fulfilled in the latter rain at its close. Here are "the times of refreshing" to which the apostle Peter looked forward when he said: "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you" (Acts 3:19, 20).
YRP	203	3	Servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven. By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given. Miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers. Satan also works, with lying wonders, even bringing down fire from heaven in the sight of men. (Revelation 13:13). Thus the inhabitants of the earth will be brought to take their stand.
YRP	203	4	The message will be carried not so much by argument as by the deep conviction of the Spirit of God. The arguments have been presented. The seed has been sown, and now it will spring up and bear fruit. The publications distributed by missionary workers have exerted their influence, yet many whose minds were impressed have been prevented from fully comprehending the truth or from yielding obedience. Now the rays of light penetrate everywhere, the truth is seen in its clearness, and the honest children of God sever the bands which have held them. Family connections, church relations, are powerless to stay them now. Truth is more precious than all besides. Notwithstanding the agencies combined against the truth, a large number take their stand upon the Lord's side.--The Great Controversy, 611, 612.
------------------------The Gift of Tongues: Fluency in Foreign Languages, July 14
YRP	204	1	And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Acts 2:5-8.
YRP	204	2	"And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:3, 4). The Holy Spirit, assuming the form of tongues of fire, rested upon those assembled. This was an emblem of the gift then bestowed on the disciples, which enabled them to speak with fluency languages with which they had heretofore been unacquainted. The appearance of fire signified the fervent zeal with which the apostles would labor and the power that would attend their work.
YRP	204	3	"There were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven" (verse 5). During the dispersion the Jews had been scattered to almost every part of the inhabited world, and in their exile they had learned to speak various languages. Many of these Jews were on this occasion in Jerusalem, attending the religious festivals then in progress. Every known tongue was represented by those assembled. This diversity of languages would have been a great hindrance to the proclamation of the gospel; God therefore in a miraculous manner supplied the deficiency of the apostles. The Holy Spirit did for them that which they could not have accomplished for themselves in a lifetime. They could now proclaim the truths of the gospel abroad, speaking with accuracy the languages of those for whom they were laboring.
YRP	204	4	This miraculous gift was a strong evidence to the world that their commission bore the signet of Heaven. From this time forth the language of the disciples was pure, simple, and accurate, whether they spoke in their native tongue or in a foreign language.--The Acts of the Apostles, 39, 40.
------------------------Tongues: To Preach the Gospel, July 15
YRP	205	1	So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. 1 Corinthians 14:9-11.
YRP	205	2	Ministers who labor in word and doctrine should be thorough workmen, and should present the truth in its purity, yet with simplicity. They should feed the flock with clean provender, thoroughly winnowed. There are wandering stars professing to be ministers sent of God who are preaching the Sabbath from place to place, but who have truth mixed up with error and are throwing out their mass of discordant views to the people. Satan has pushed them in to disgust intelligent and sensible unbelievers.
YRP	205	3	Some of these have much to say upon the gifts and are often especially exercised. They give themselves up to wild, excitable feelings and make unintelligible sounds which they call the gift of tongues, and a certain class seem to be charmed with these strange manifestations. A strange spirit rules with this class, which would bear down and run over anyone who would reprove them. God's Spirit is not in the work and does not attend such workmen. They have another spirit. Still, such preachers have success among a certain class. But this will greatly increase the labor of those servants whom God shall send, who are qualified to present before the people the Sabbath and the gifts in their proper light, and whose influence and example are worthy of imitation.
YRP	205	4	The truth should be presented in a manner which will make it attractive to the intelligent mind. We are not understood as a people, but are looked upon as poor, weak-minded, low, and degraded. Then how important for all who teach, and all who believe the truth, to be so affected by its sanctifying influence that their consistent, elevated lives shall show unbelievers that they have been deceived in this people. How important that the cause of truth be stripped of everything like a false and fanatical excitement, that the truth may stand upon its own merits, revealing its native purity and exalted character.--Testimonies for the Church 1:414, 415.
------------------------Preaching Christ: More Important Than Tongues and Miracles, July 16
YRP	206	1	How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. 1 Corinthians 14:26.
YRP	206	2	There is a great work to be done in our world. Men and women are to be converted, not by the gift of tongues nor by the working of miracles, but by the preaching of Christ crucified. Why delay the effort to make the world better? Why wait for some wonderful thing to be done, some costly apparatus to be provided? However humble your sphere, however lowly your work, if you labor in harmony with the teachings of the Saviour, He will reveal Himself through you, and your influence will draw souls to Him. He will honor the meek and lowly ones, who seek earnestly to do service for Him. Into all that we do, whether our work be in the shop, on the farm, or in the office, we are to bring the endeavor to save souls.
YRP	206	3	We are to sow beside all waters, keeping our souls in the love of God, working while it is day, using the means entrusted to us in the Master's service. Whatever our hands find to do, we are to do it with cheerfulness; whatever sacrifice we are called upon to make, we are to make it cheerfully. As we sow beside all waters, we shall realize the truth of the words "He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (2 Corinthians 9:6).
YRP	206	4	We owe everything to grace, sovereign grace. Grace ordained our redemption, our regeneration, and our adoption to heirship with Jesus Christ. Let this grace be revealed to others.
YRP	206	5	The Saviour takes those whom He finds will be molded, and uses them for His own name's glory. He uses material that others would pass by, and works in all who will give themselves to Him. He delights to take apparently hopeless material, those whom Satan has debased, and through whom he has worked, and make them the subjects of His grace. He rejoices to deliver them from suffering, and from the wrath that is to fall upon the disobedient. He makes His children His agents in the accomplishment of this work, and in its success, even in this life, they find a precious reward.--The Review and Herald, January 5, 1905.
------------------------Looking for a More Excellent Way, July 17
YRP	207	1	But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. 1 Corinthians 12:31.
YRP	207	2	Some are in danger of giving way to envy lest another shall have the supremacy. They are liable not to recognize the gifts of their fellow workers as being as necessary to the success of the work as are their own gifts. But true love for God carries with it true, reverential trust. And he who loves God will love his brother also.
YRP	207	3	There is to be no ordering, no domineering, no masterly authority. The love of God, in a healing, life-giving current, is to flow through the life. The spirit and words and deeds of every worker are to show that he realizes that he is acting in Christ's place. The power that he receives from the Great Teacher is the power to educate others, not the power to order or dictate. He is to come to Christ as one who desires to know how to teach and help others.
YRP	207	4	Patient, cheerful contentment is one of the "best gifts." So also is courage to follow in the path of duty, even when this path separates us from friends. But courage of conviction must never lead to stubbornness, which leads a man to adhere to his own ideas. Let all watch and pray.
YRP	207	5	The talent of speech is a wonderful gift--a gift that can be a great power for good or for evil.
YRP	207	6	Intellectual ability, good taste, skill, refinement, true elevation--these God uses in His work. But they must first be placed under His jurisdiction. The Lord's presence is to be a controlling power. He whose heart blends with the heart of Christ is, in desires and practices, conformed to the will of Christ.
YRP	207	7	We are to covet earnestly the best gifts, but this does not mean that we are to seek to be first. We are to strive earnestly for power to follow Christ's example, that we may be heralds of His gospel. This is true religion. Temptations come; suspicions and evil surmising make it hard for us to preserve the spirit of the higher life; nevertheless the Lord desires us to walk straight forward in His blessed, holy light.--Pacific Union Recorder, July 26, 1906.
------------------------God Can Use Common Skills, July 18
YRP	208	1	And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the Lord hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. Exodus 35:30, 31.
YRP	208	2	Skill in the common arts is a gift from God. He provides both the gift and wisdom to use the gift aright. When He desired a work done on the tabernacle, He said, "See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship" (Exodus 31:2, 3). Through the prophet Isaiah the Lord said, "Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
YRP	208	3	"When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cumin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place? For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cumin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cumin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working" (Isaiah 28:23-29).
YRP	208	4	God dispenses His gifts as it pleases Him. He bestows one gift upon one, and another gift upon another, but all for the good of the whole body. It is in God's order that some shall be of service in one line of work, and others in other lines--all working under the selfsame Spirit. The recognition of this plan will be a safeguard against emulation, pride, envy, or contempt of one another. It will strengthen unity and mutual love.--Counsels to Parents and Teachers, 314, 315.
------------------------Common Individuals Gifted to Serve, July 19
YRP	209	1	But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7.
YRP	209	2	God does not accept men because of their capabilities, but because they seek His face, desiring His help. God sees not as man sees. He judges not from appearances. He searches the heart, and judges righteously. "To this man will I look," He declares, "even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word" (Isaiah 66:2).
YRP	209	3	He accepts and communes with His lowly, unpretentious followers; for in them He sees the most precious material, which will stand the test of storm and tempest, heat and pressure.
YRP	209	4	Our object in working for the Master should be that His name may be glorified in the conversion of sinners. Those who labor to gain applause are not approved of God.
YRP	209	5	The Lord uses many gifts in the work of saving sinners. In the future, common men will be impressed by the Spirit of God to leave their ordinary employment to go forth and proclaim the last message of mercy. They are to be strengthened and encouraged, and as fast as possible prepared for labor, that success may crown their efforts. They cooperate with unseen, heavenly agencies, for they are willing to spend and be spent in the service of the Master. They are laborers together with God, and their brethren should bid them Godspeed, praying for them as they go forth to fulfill the great commission. No one is authorized to hinder such workers. They are to be treated with the greatest respect. No taunting word is to be spoken of them as in the rough places of the earth they sow the gospel seed.--The Review and Herald, July 4, 1907.
------------------------No Gift Superior or Inferior, July 20
YRP	210	1	For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Mark 13:34.
YRP	210	2	Jesus is ministering in the heavenly sanctuary, but He is with His workers also; for He declares, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). He is spiritual director of His church on earth, and He longs to see the members filled with a determination to labor harmoniously for the advancement of His kingdom. He has raised up a succession of workers who derive their authority from Him, the Great Teacher. He has chosen for His work men of varied talents and varied capabilities. Some of these might not be the men you would choose, but you will pass through an experience that will lead you to see that God exalts men whom you would regard as inferior to yourselves.
YRP	210	3	When the judgment shall sit, and the books are opened, many will be surprised by God's estimate of character. They will realize that God sees not as man sees, that He judges not as human beings judge. He reads the heart. He knows the motives that prompt the action, and He recognizes and commends every faithful effort put forth for Him. The Lord uses various gifts in His work. Let no worker think that his gifts are superior to those of another worker. Let God be the judge. He tests and approves His workers, and He places a just estimate on their qualifications. He has placed in the church a variety of gifts, to meet the varied wants of the many minds with which His workers are brought in contact.
YRP	210	4	The Lord has given to every man his work, and every man is to do the work that the Lord has given him. All have not the same gifts or the same disposition. All need to feel daily the converting power of the Holy Spirit, that they may bear much fruit for the Lord. It is not the one who preaches the gospel that provides the efficiency that makes his efforts successful. It is the unseen Worker standing behind the minister who brings conviction and conversion to souls.--Bible Training School, November 1, 1909.
------------------------More Gifts: More Responsibility, July 21
YRP	211	1	For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Matthew 25:14, 15.
YRP	211	2	To every man is given his work. One man may not be able to do the work for which another man has been trained and educated. But the work of every man must begin at the heart, not resting in a theory of the truth. The work of him who surrenders the soul to God and cooperates with divine agencies will reveal an able, wise workman, who discerns how to adapt himself to the situation. The root must be holy, or there will be no holy fruit. All are to be workers together with God. Self must not become prominent. The Lord has entrusted talents and capabilities to every individual, and those who are most highly favored with opportunities and privileges to hear the Spirit's voice are under the heaviest responsibility to God.
YRP	211	3	Those who are represented as having but one talent have also their work to do. By trading, not with pounds, but with pence, they are diligently to employ their ability, determined not to fail nor be discouraged. They are to ask in faith, and depend upon the Holy Spirit to work upon unbelieving hearts. If they depend upon their own capabilities, they will fail. Those who faithfully trade upon the one talent will hear the gracious commendations spoken to them with as much heartiness as to those who have been gifted with many talents, and who have wisely improved them, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things" (Matthew 25:21).
YRP	211	4	It is the spirit of humility in which the work is done which God regards. He who had but one talent had an influence to exert, and his work was needed. In perfecting his own character, in learning in the school of Christ, he was exerting an influence that helped to perfect the character of those who had larger responsibilities, who were in danger of building themselves up, and of neglecting some important little things, which that faithful man with his one talent was regarding with diligent care.--Notebook Leaflets, vol. 1, 129, 130.
------------------------Youth Gifted to Be a Living Channel, July 22
YRP	212	1	Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. 1 Timothy 4:12-14.
YRP	212	2	Every youth should consider himself of value with God, because he has been entrusted with the richest gift that can be given. It is his privilege to be a living channel, through which God can communicate the treasures of His grace, the unsearchable riches of Christ.
YRP	212	3	Our sins may be as mountains before us, but if we humble our hearts in confession of them, trusting in the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour, we shall be forgiven, and shall be cleansed from all unrighteousness. The depth of a Saviour's love is revealed in our salvation. If we will accept this salvation, our testimony will be, "We have redemption through his blood" (Ephesians 1:7). The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us, and gave Himself for us.
YRP	212	4	It is here, right here in the world, that our talents are to be used. We are to lead souls to "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). It is our work, and should be our pleasure, to present in our lives the unsearchable riches of Christ. We may make daily progress in the path of holiness, and still find greater heights to be reached; but every stretch of the spiritual muscles, every tax on heart and brain, will bring to light the abundance of the supply of grace essential for us as we advance. The more we contemplate eternal things, the more we shall reveal the merits of a Saviour's sacrifice, the protection of His righteousness, the fullness of His wisdom, and His power to present us before the Father without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.--The Youth's Instructor, November 30, 1899.
------------------------Women Gifted to Benefit Humanity, July 23
YRP	213	1	And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. John 4:39-42.
YRP	213	2	Women may accomplish a good work for God, if they will first learn the precious, all-important lesson of meekness in the school of Christ. They will be able to benefit humanity by presenting to them the all-sufficiency of Jesus. When each member of the church realizes his own individual responsibility, when he humbly takes up the work which presents itself before him, the work will go on to success. God has given to every man his work according to his several ability.
YRP	213	3	It will not be an easy task to work for the Master in this age. But how much perplexity might be saved, if workers continually relied upon God, and duly considered the directions that God has given. He says, "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness" (Romans 12:6-8).
YRP	213	4	This is a subject that demands close, critical study. Many mistakes are made because men do not heed this instruction. Many who are entrusted with some humble line of work to do for the Master soon become dissatisfied, and think that they should be teachers and leaders. They want to leave their humble ministering, which is just as important in its place as the larger responsibilities. Those who are set to do visiting, soon come to think that anyone can do that work, that anyone can speak words of sympathy and encouragement, and lead men in a humble, quiet way to a correct understanding of the Scriptures. But it is a work that demands much grace, much patience, and an ever-increasing stock of wisdom.--Manuscript Releases 11:278, 279.
------------------------Mothers Gifted to Nurture Their Children, July 24
YRP	214	1	When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. 2 Timothy 1:5.
YRP	214	2	The mother's work is given her of God, to bring up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The love and fear of God should ever be kept before their tender minds. When corrected, they should be taught to feel that they are admonished of God, that He is displeased with deception, untruthfulness, and wrongdoing. Thus the minds of little ones may be so connected with God that all they do and say will be in reference to His glory; and in afteryears they will not be like the reed in the wind, continually wavering between inclination and duty.
YRP	214	3	If in their tender years, the minds of children are filled with pleasant images of truth, of purity and goodness, a taste will be formed for that which is pure and elevated, and their imagination will not become easily corrupted or defiled. While if the opposite course is pursued, if the minds of the parents are continually dwelling upon low scenes; if their conversation lingers over objectionable features of character; if they form a habit of speaking complainingly of the course others have pursued, the little ones will take lessons from the words and expressions of contempt, and will follow the pernicious example. The evil impress, like the taint of the leprosy, will cleave to them in afterlife.
YRP	214	4	The seeds sown in infancy by the careful, God-fearing mother will become trees of righteousness, which will blossom and bear fruit; and the lessons given by a God-fearing father by precept and example will, as in the case of Joseph, yield an abundant harvest by and by.
YRP	214	5	Will parents review their work in the educating and training of their children, and consider whether they have done their whole duty in hope and faith that these children may be a crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus? Have they so labored for the welfare of their children that Jesus can look down from heaven and by the gift of His Spirit sanctify their efforts? Parents, it may be yours to prepare your children for the highest usefulness in this life, and to share at last the glory of that which is to come.--Good Health, January 1, 1880.
------------------------Students Gifted to Be Witnesses, July 25
YRP	215	1	Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.
YRP	215	2	Let teachers and students watch for opportunities to confess Christ in their conversation. Such witness will be more effective than many sermons....
YRP	215	3	Students, make your school life as perfect as possible. You will pass over the way but once, and precious are the opportunities granted you. You are not only to learn but to practice the lessons of Christ. While obtaining your education, you have the opportunity to tell of the wonderful truths of God's Word. Improve every such opportunity. God will bless every minute spent in this way. Maintain your simplicity and your love for souls, and the Lord will lead you in safe paths. The rich experience you gain will be of more value to you than gold or silver or precious stones.
YRP	215	4	You know not to what position you may be called in the future. God may use you as He used Daniel, to take the knowledge of the truth to the mighty of the earth. It rests with you to say whether you will have skill and knowledge to do this work. God can give you skill in all your learning. He can help you to adapt yourself to the line of study you take up. Make it your first interest to gather up right, noble, uplifting principles. God desires you to witness for Him. He does not want you to stand still; He wants you to run in the way of His commandments.
YRP	215	5	Christ desires to use every student as His agent. You are to cooperate with the One who gave His life for you. What rich blessings would come to our schools if teachers and students would consecrate themselves, heart, mind, soul, and strength, to God's service as His helping hand! His helping hand--that is what you may be if you will yield yourselves to His keeping. He will lead you safely, and enable you to make straight paths for yourselves and for others. He will give you knowledge and wisdom, and a fitness for fuller service.--Counsels to Parents and Teachers, 554, 555.
------------------------The Canvasser Gifted to Testify, July 26
YRP	216	1	Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house. Acts 20:19, 20.
YRP	216	2	From the light which God has given me, there is much responsibility resting upon the canvassers. They should go to their work prepared to explain the Scriptures, and nothing should be said or done to bind their hands. If they put their trust in the Lord as they travel from place to place, the angels of God will be round about them, giving them words to speak which will bring light and hope and courage to many souls. Were it not for the work of the canvassers, many would never hear the truth.
YRP	216	3	Of all the gifts which God has given to man, none is more noble or a greater blessing than the gift of speech, if it is sanctified by the Holy Spirit. It is with the tongue we convince and persuade; with it we offer prayer and praise to God, and with it we convey rich thoughts of the Redeemer's love. By this work the canvasser can scatter the seeds of truth, causing the light from the Word of God to shine into many minds.
YRP	216	4	I sincerely hope that no mind will receive the impression that it belittles a minister of the gospel to canvass. Hear the apostle Paul's testimony: "Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:18-21). The eloquent Paul, to whom God manifested Himself in a remarkable manner, went from house to house, with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations.--The Home Missionary, November 1, 1896.
------------------------Pastors and Teachers to Pursue Unity, July 27
YRP	217	1	And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13.
YRP	217	2	The Lord has given to those who should be His human agents talents of means, capacity, and influence, according to their ability to employ these gifts in a wise manner for His service. He has given to every man his work. "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers."
YRP	217	3	Why were these various workers appointed? "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:12-15).
YRP	217	4	We can see from this scripture that the Lord has His appointed workers, and that the work committed unto them has in view a definite object. Prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, teachers, are all to work for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Is not this object worthy of careful attention? Can we not discern that there has been neglect in some special work for the church, in that the saints have not attained the perfection that God would have them attain? Had the work of the ministry been done, the church would have been edified, and educated for the great work that devolves upon them. The truth would have been presented in such a way that the Spirit of the Lord would have moved upon hearts, and sinners would have been convicted and converted, and would have taken their position as followers of Christ.--The Review and Herald, March 7, 1893.
------------------------Every Man, Woman, and Child Is Responsible, July 28
YRP	218	1	And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:20, 21.
YRP	218	2	The parable of the talents should be a matter of the most careful and prayerful study; for it has a personal and individual application to every man, woman, and child possessed of the powers of reason. Your obligation and responsibility are in proportion to the talents God has bestowed upon you. There is not a follower of Christ but has some peculiar gift for the use of which he is accountable to God.
YRP	218	3	Many have excused themselves from rendering their gift to the service of Christ, because others were possessed of superior endowments and advantages. The opinion has prevailed that only those who are especially talented are required to sanctify their abilities to the service of God. It has come to be understood that talents are given only to a certain favored class, to the exclusion of others who, of course, are not called upon to share in the toils or rewards. But it is not so represented in the parable. When the master of the house called his servants, he gave to every man his work.
YRP	218	4	The whole family of God are included in the responsibility of using their Lord's goods. Every individual, from the lowliest and most obscure to the greatest and most exalted, is a moral agent endowed with abilities for which he is accountable to God. To a greater or less degree, all are placed in charge of the talents of their Lord. The spiritual, mental, and physical ability, the influence, station, possessions, affections, sympathies, all are precious talents to be used in the cause of the Master for the salvation of souls for whom Christ died. How few appreciate these blessings! How few seek to improve their talent, and increase their usefulness in the world! The Master has given to every man his work. He has given to every man according to his ability, and his trust is in proportion to his capacity. God requires everyone to be a worker in His vineyard. You are to take up the work that has been placed in your charge, and to do it faithfully.--The Review and Herald, May 1, 1888.
------------------------Asking for the Gifts, July 29
YRP	219	1	If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. James 1:5.
YRP	219	2	Those who ask because they wish to impart to others will not be disappointed. God will reward those who come to Him in earnest faith. He assures us that the thought of His majesty and sovereignty should not keep us in fear. He will do much more graciously than we suppose if we will come to the footstool of His mercy. He urges His sovereignty as a reason for His great and merciful bountifulness in supplying the demands upon Him. He pledges Himself to hear our prayers, declaring that He will hear them. He condescends to appeal from the instinct of parental tenderness to the infinite benevolence of Him whose we are by creation and by redemption. He says, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him" (Luke 11:13). The needy and soul-hungry never plead with God in vain....
YRP	219	3	In view of this, tell me who should wear countenances more bright and cheerful, more full of sunshine, than those who live by faith in the Son of God. In Him the needy and hungry find all their wants supplied. But let us not forget that those whom God has blessed with the good things of this life are to be His helping hand, to supply the necessities of His needy ones. They are to be laborers together with Him. They are His stewards in trust, and are to use their goods for the advancement of His work, that His name may be glorified.
YRP	219	4	The Lord desires to employ the church as a channel through which to communicate His bounties. If His people would keep the channel open, receiving the spiritual and temporal gifts of His grace, and imparting them to the needy, there would be no sick ones neglected, no orphans crying for food. The hearts of the widow and the fatherless would sing for joy.
YRP	219	5	God has given man the richest of His gifts. This He has done that man may dispense His bounties.--The Bible Echo, August 12, 1901.
------------------------Guidance Promised to Find Your Gift, July 30
YRP	220	1	But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. 1 Corinthians 12:11.
YRP	220	2	We are to be guided and controlled by the same Spirit, but in order for this to be, it is not necessary that we all have the same gifts. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all" (1 Corinthians 12:4-6), to bring these different operations into perfect harmony. God hath "set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased Him" (verse 18). He has placed every man at his post of duty, assigning to him a given work. If you have any question as to your post of duty, pray to God for guidance, and your work will be assigned. God has told us expressly that He has placed every man at his post.
YRP	220	3	"To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:8-11).
YRP	220	4	"But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.... When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.... He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:7-13). Here the members of the church of God are shown acting their different parts, all under the supervision of the great Master Worker, who knows just what each one in His service should do to meet the necessities that arise.--Bible Training School, April 1, 1903.
------------------------Feeling the Need for the Spiritual Gifts, July 31
YRP	221	1	And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 1:12-14.
YRP	221	2	Those who would be successful in winning souls to Christ must carry with them the divine influence of the Holy Spirit. But how little is known concerning the operation of the Spirit of God. How little has been said of the importance of being endowed by the Holy Spirit, and yet it is through the agency of the Holy Spirit that men are to be drawn to Christ, and through His power alone can the soul be made pure. The Saviour said: "And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8).
YRP	221	3	Christ has promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to His church, but how little is this promise appreciated. How seldom is [the Spirit's] power felt in the church; how little is His power spoken of before the people. The Saviour has said: "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me" (Acts 1:8). With the reception of this gift, all other gifts would be ours; for we are to have this gift according to the plentitude of the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive. Then let us not be satisfied with only a little of this blessing, only that amount which will keep us from the slumber of death, but let us diligently seek for the abundance of the grace of God.
YRP	221	4	God grant that His converting power may be felt throughout this large assembly. Oh, that the power of God may rest upon the people. What we need is daily piety. We need to search the Scriptures daily, to pray earnestly that by the power of the Holy Spirit God may fit every one of us up to work in our place in His vineyard. No one is prepared to educate and strengthen the church unless he has received the gift of the Holy Spirit.--The Review and Herald, March 29, 1892.
------------------------Given by Inspiration of God, August 1
YRP	222	1	All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16.
YRP	222	2	The Bible points to God as its author; yet it was written by human hands; and in the varied style of its different books it presents the characteristics of the several writers. The truths revealed are all "given by inspiration of God"; yet they are expressed in the words of men. The Infinite One by His Holy Spirit has shed light into the minds and hearts of His servants. He has given dreams and visions, symbols and figures; and those to whom the truth was thus revealed have themselves embodied the thought in human language.
YRP	222	3	The Ten Commandments were spoken by God Himself, and were written by His own hand. They are of divine and not of human composition. But the Bible, with its God-given truths expressed in the language of men, presents a union of the divine and the human. Such a union existed in the nature of Christ, who was the Son of God and the Son of man. Thus it is true of the Bible, as it was of Christ, that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).
YRP	222	4	Written in different ages, by men who differed widely in rank and occupation, and in mental and spiritual endowments, the books of the Bible present a wide contrast in style, as well as a diversity in the nature of the subjects unfolded. Different forms of expression are employed by different writers; often the same truth is more strikingly presented by one than by another. And as several writers present a subject under varied aspects and relations, there may appear, to the superficial, careless, or prejudiced reader, to be discrepancy or contradiction, where the thoughtful, reverent student, with clearer insight, discerns the underlying harmony.--The Great Controversy, v, vi.
------------------------Variety in Styles, August 2
YRP	223	1	We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts. 2 Peter 1:19.
YRP	223	2	The writers of the Bible had to express their ideas in human language. It was written by human men. These men were inspired of the Holy Spirit. Because of the imperfections of human understanding of language, or the perversity of the human mind, ingenious in evading truth, many read and understand the Bible to please themselves. It is not that the difficulty is in the Bible. Opposing politicians argue points of law in the statute book, and take opposite views in their application and in these laws.
YRP	223	3	The Scriptures were given to men, not in a continuous chain of unbroken utterances, but piece by piece through successive generations, as God in His providence saw a fitting opportunity to impress man at sundry times and divers places. Men wrote as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. There is "first the bud, then the blossom, and next the fruit," "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear" (Mark 4:28). This is exactly what the Bible utterances are to us.
YRP	223	4	There is not always perfect order or apparent unity in the Scriptures. The miracles of Christ are not given in exact order, but are given just as the circumstances occurred, which called for this divine revealing of the power of Christ. The truths of the Bible are as pearls hidden. They must be searched, dug out by painstaking effort. Those who take only a surface view of the Scriptures will, with their superficial knowledge, which they think is very deep, talk of the contradictions of the Bible, and question the authority of the Scriptures. But those whose hearts are in harmony with truth and duty will search the Scriptures with a heart prepared to receive divine impressions.--Selected Messages 1:19, 20.
------------------------Writers Impressed by Different Aspects, August 3
YRP	224	1	For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21.
YRP	224	2	As presented through different individuals [in the Bible], the truth is brought out in its varied aspects. One writer is more strongly impressed with one phase of the subject; he grasps those points that harmonize with his experience or with his power of perception and appreciation; another seizes upon a different phase; and each, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, presents what is most forcibly impressed upon his own mind--a different aspect of the truth in each, but a perfect harmony through all. And the truths thus revealed unite to form a perfect whole, adapted to meet the wants of men in all the circumstances and experiences of life.
YRP	224	3	God has been pleased to communicate His truth to the world by human agencies, and He Himself, by His Holy Spirit, qualified men and enabled them to do this work. He guided the mind in the selection of what to speak and what to write. The treasure was entrusted to earthen vessels, yet it is, nonetheless, from heaven. The testimony is conveyed through the imperfect expression of human language, yet it is the testimony of God; and the obedient, believing child of God beholds in it the glory of a divine power, full of grace and truth.
YRP	224	4	In His Word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the revealer of doctrines, and the test of experience. "Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16, 17, RV.).--The Great Controversy, vi, vii.
------------------------Divine Message in Human Language, August 4
YRP	225	1	God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Hebrews 1:1, 2.
YRP	225	2	The Bible is not given to us in grand superhuman language. Jesus, in order to reach man where he is, took humanity. The Bible must be given in the language of men. Everything that is human is imperfect. Different meanings are expressed by the same word; there is not one word for each distinct idea. The Bible was given for practical purposes.
YRP	225	3	The stamps of minds are different. All do not understand expressions and statements alike. Some understand the statements of the Scriptures to suit their own particular minds and cases. Prepossessions, prejudices, and passions have a strong influence to darken the understanding and confuse the mind even in reading the words of Holy Writ....
YRP	225	4	The Bible is written by inspired men, but it is not God's mode of thought and expression. It is that of humanity. God, as a writer, is not represented. Men will often say such an expression is not like God. But God has not put Himself in words, in logic, in rhetoric, on trial in the Bible. The writers of the Bible were God's penmen, not His pen. Look at the different writers.
YRP	225	5	It is not the words of the Bible that are inspired, but the men that were inspired. Inspiration acts not on the man's words or his expressions but on the man himself, who, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, is imbued with thoughts. But the words and thoughts receive the impress of the individual mind. The divine mind is diffused. The divine mind and will is combined with the human mind and will; thus the utterances of the man are the Word of God.--Selected Messages 1:20, 21.
------------------------Theophanies: Divine Presence With Humans, August 5
YRP	226	1	And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Exodus 3:2.
YRP	226	2	Friday, March 20 [1896], I arose early, about half past three o'clock in the morning. While [I was] writing upon the fifteenth chapter of John suddenly a wonderful peace came upon me. The whole room seemed to be filled with the atmosphere of heaven. A holy, sacred Presence seemed to be in my room. I laid down my pen and was in a waiting attitude to see what the Spirit would say unto me. I saw no person. I heard no audible voice, but a heavenly Watcher seemed close beside me; I felt that I was in the presence of Jesus.
YRP	226	3	The sweet peace and light which seemed to be in my room it is impossible for me to explain or describe. A sacred, holy atmosphere surrounded me, and there were presented to my mind and understanding matters of intense interest and importance. A line of action was laid out before me as if the unseen Presence was speaking with me. The matter I had been writing upon seemed to be lost to my mind and another matter distinctly opened before me. A great awe seemed to be upon me as matters were imprinted upon my mind.--Selected Messages 3:35, 36.
YRP	226	4	I arose early Thursday morning, about two o'clock, and was writing busily upon [the subject of] the True Vine, when I felt a Presence in my room, as I have many times before, and I lost all recollection of what I was about. I seemed to be in the presence of Jesus. He was communicating to me that in which I was to be instructed. Everything was so plain that I could not misunderstand.--Selected Messages 3:36.
------------------------Diverse Ways of Inspiration: The Visionary, August 6
YRP	227	1	It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 2 Corinthians 12:1, 2.
YRP	227	2	As inquiries are frequently made as to my state in vision, and after I come out, I would say that when the Lord sees fit to give a vision, I am taken into the presence of Jesus and angels, and am entirely lost to earthly things. I can see no farther than the angel directs me. My attention is often directed to scenes transpiring upon earth.
YRP	227	3	At times I am carried far ahead into the future and shown what is to take place. Then again I am shown things as they have occurred in the past. After I come out of vision I do not at once remember all that I have seen, and the matter is not so clear before me until I write, then the scene rises before me as was presented in vision, and I can write with freedom.
YRP	227	4	Sometimes the things which I have seen are hid from me after I come out of vision, and I cannot call them to mind until I am brought before a company where that vision applies, then the things which I have seen come to my mind with force. I am just as dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord in relating or writing a vision, as in having the vision. It is impossible for me to call up things which have been shown me unless the Lord brings them before me at the time that He is pleased to have me relate or write them.--Selected Messages 1:36, 37.
YRP	227	5	Although I am as dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord in writing my views as I am in receiving them, yet the words I employ in describing what I have seen are my own, unless they be those spoken to me by an angel, which I always enclose in marks of quotation.--Selected Messages 1:37.
------------------------The Historian: Using Secular Sources, August 7
YRP	228	1	Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus. Luke 1:1-3.
YRP	228	2	As the Spirit of God has opened to my mind the great truths of His Word, and the scenes of the past and the future, I have been bidden to make known to others that which has thus been revealed--to trace the history of the controversy in past ages, and especially so to present it as to shed a light on the fast-approaching struggle of the future. In pursuance of this purpose, I have endeavored to select and group together events in the history of the church in such a manner as to trace the unfolding of the great testing truths that at different periods have been given to the world, that have excited the wrath of Satan, and the enmity of a world-loving church, and that have been maintained by the witness of those who "loved not their lives unto the death" (Revelation 12:11)....
YRP	228	3	The great events which have marked the progress of reform in past ages are matters of history, well known and universally acknowledged by the Protestant world; they are facts which none can gainsay. This history I have presented briefly, in accordance with the scope of the book, and the brevity which must necessarily be observed, the facts having been condensed into as little space as seemed consistent with a proper understanding of their application.
YRP	228	4	In some cases where a historian has so grouped together events as to afford, in brief, a comprehensive view of the subject, or has summarized details in a convenient manner, his words have been quoted; but in some instances no specific credit has been given, since the quotations are not given for the purpose of citing that writer as authority, but because his statement affords a ready and forcible presentation of the subject.
YRP	228	5	In narrating the experience and views of those carrying forward the work of reform in our time, similar use has been made of their published works.--The Great Controversy, xi, xii.
------------------------The Eyewitness: Inspired to Give Testimony, August 8
YRP	229	1	That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3.
YRP	229	2	The work begun in feebleness and obscurity has continued to increase and strengthen. Publishing houses and missions in many lands attest its growth. In place of the edition of our first paper carried to the post office in a carpetbag, many hundreds of thousands of copies of our various periodicals are now sent out monthly from the offices of publication. The hand of God has been with His work to prosper and build it up.
YRP	229	3	The later history of my life would involve the history of many of the enterprises which have arisen among us, and with which my lifework has been closely intermingled. For the upbuilding of these institutions, my husband and [I] labored with pen and voice. To notice, even briefly, the experiences of these active and busy years would far exceed the limits of this sketch. Satan's efforts to hinder the work and to destroy the workmen have not ceased; but God has had a care for His servants and for His work.
YRP	229	4	In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of advance to our present standing, I can say, Praise God! As I see what the Lord has wrought, I am filled with astonishment, and with confidence in Christ as leader. We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.
YRP	229	5	We are debtors to God to use every advantage He has entrusted to us to beautify the truth by holiness of character, and to send the messages of warning, and of comfort, of hope and love, to those who are in the darkness of error and sin.--Life Sketches, 195, 196.
------------------------The Counselor: Giving Inspired Advice, August 9
YRP	230	1	For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. 2 Corinthians 2:4.
YRP	230	2	When I went to Colorado I was so burdened for you that, in my weakness, I wrote many pages to be read at your camp meeting. Weak and trembling, I arose at three o'clock in the morning to write to you. God was speaking through clay. You might say that this communication was only a letter. Yes, it was a letter, but prompted by the Spirit of God, to bring before your minds things that had been shown me. In these letters which I write, in the testimonies I bear, I am presenting to you that which the Lord has presented to me. I do not write one article in the paper, expressing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision--the precious rays of light shining from the throne....
YRP	230	3	What voice will you acknowledge as the voice of God? What power has the Lord in reserve to correct your errors and show you your course as it is? What power to work in the church? If you refuse to believe until every shadow of uncertainty and every possibility of doubt is removed, you will never believe. The doubt that demands perfect knowledge will never yield to faith. Faith rests upon evidence, not demonstration. The Lord requires us to obey the voice of duty, when there are other voices all around us urging us to pursue an opposite course. It requires earnest attention from us to distinguish the voice which speaks from God. We must resist and conquer inclination, and obey the voice of conscience without parleying or compromise, lest its promptings cease, and will and impulse control.
YRP	230	4	The word of the Lord comes to us all who have not resisted His Spirit by determining not to hear and obey. This voice is heard in warnings, in counsels, in reproof. It is the Lord's message of light to His people. If we wait for louder calls or better opportunities, the light may be withdrawn, and we left in darkness.--Selected Messages 1:27, 28.
------------------------The Leader: Calling for Commitment, August 10
YRP	231	1	And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15.
YRP	231	2	I feel a special interest in the movements and decisions that shall be made at this conference [the 1901 General Conference session] regarding the things that should have been done years ago, and especially ten years ago, when we were assembled in conference, and the Spirit and power of God came into our meeting, testifying that God was ready to work for this people if they would come into working order....
YRP	231	3	The light then given me was that this people should stand higher than any other people on the face of the whole earth, that they should be a loyal people, a people who would rightly represent truth. The sanctifying power of the truth, revealed in their lives, was to distinguish them from the world. They were to stand in moral dignity, having such a close connection with heaven that the Lord God of Israel could give them a place in the earth.
YRP	231	4	Year after year the same acknowledgment was made, but the principles which exalt a people were not woven into the work. God gave them clear light as to what they should do, and what they should not do, but they departed from that light, and it is a marvel to me that we stand in as much prosperity as we do today. It is because of the great mercy of our God, not because of our righteousness, but that His name should not be dishonored in the world....
YRP	231	5	The Word of God is to be our guide. Have you given heed to the Word? The Testimonies are not by any means to take the place of the Word. They are to bring you to that neglected Word, that you may eat the words of Christ, that you may feed upon them, that by living faith you may be built up from that upon which you feed. If you live in obedience to Christ and His Word, you are eating the leaves of the tree of life, which are for the healing of the nations.--The General Conference Bulletin, April 3, 1901.
------------------------The Writer: Publishing by God's Orders, August 11
YRP	232	1	And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. Revelation 21:5.
YRP	232	2	Sister White is not the originator of these books. They contain the instruction that during her lifework God has been giving her. They contain the precious, comforting light that God has graciously given His servant to be given to the world. From their pages this light is to shine into the hearts of men and women, leading them to the Saviour. The Lord has declared that these books are to be scattered throughout the world. There is in them truth which to the receiver is a savor of life unto life. They are silent witnesses for God.
YRP	232	3	In the past they have been the means in His hands of convicting and converting many souls. Many have read them with eager expectation, and, by reading them, have been led to see the efficacy of Christ's atonement, and to trust in its power. They have been led to commit the keeping of their souls to their Creator, waiting and hoping for the coming of the Saviour to take His loved ones to their eternal home. In the future, these books are to make the gospel plain to many others, revealing to them the way of salvation.
YRP	232	4	The Lord has sent His people much instruction, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little. Little heed is given to the Bible, and the Lord has given a lesser light to lead men and women to the greater light. Oh, how much good would be accomplished if the books containing this light were read with a determination to carry out the principles they contain! There would be a thousandfold greater vigilance, a thousandfold more self-denial and resolute effort. And many more would now be rejoicing in the light of present truth.
YRP	232	5	My brethren and sisters, work earnestly to circulate these books. Put your hearts into this work, and the blessing of God will be with you. Go forth in faith, praying that God will prepare hearts to receive the light. Be pleasant and courteous. Show by a consistent course that you are true Christians. Walk and work in the light of heaven, and your path will be as the path of the just, shining more and more unto the perfect day.--The Review and Herald, January 20, 1903.
------------------------Reasons for the Gift: To Define Truth, August 12
YRP	233	1	At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Daniel 9:23.
YRP	233	2	After the passing of the time in 1844 we searched for the truth as for hidden treasure. I met with the brethren, and we studied and prayed earnestly. Often we remained together until late at night, and sometimes through the entire night, praying for light and studying the Word. Again and again these brethren came together to study the Bible, in order that they might know its meaning, and be prepared to teach it with power. When they came to the point in their study where they said, "We can do nothing more," the Spirit of the Lord would come upon me. I would be taken off in vision, and a clear explanation of the passages we had been studying would be given me, with instruction as to how we were to labor and teach effectively. Thus light was given that helped us to understand the scriptures in regard to Christ, His mission, and His priesthood. A line of truth extending from that time to the time when we shall enter the city of God was made plain to me, and I gave to others the instruction that the Lord had given me.
YRP	233	3	During this whole time I could not understand the reasoning of the brethren. My mind was locked, as it were, and I could not comprehend the meaning of the scriptures we were studying. This was one of the greatest sorrows of my life. I was in this condition of mind until all the principal points of our faith were made clear to our minds, in harmony with the Word of God. The brethren knew that, when not in vision, I could not understand these matters, and they accepted, as light directly from heaven, the revelations given.
YRP	233	4	Many errors arose, and though I was then little more than a child, I was sent by the Lord from place to place to rebuke those who were holding these false doctrines. There were those who were in danger of going into fanaticism, and I was bidden in the name of the Lord to give them a warning from heaven.--The Review and Herald, May 25, 1905.
------------------------To Establish Bible Truth, August 13
YRP	234	1	That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Ephesians 1:17.
YRP	234	2	The truths that have been unfolding in their order, as we have advanced along the line of prophecy revealed in the Word of God, are truth, sacred, eternal truth today. Those who passed over the ground step by step in the past history of our experience, seeing the chain of truth in the prophecies, were prepared to accept and obey every ray of light. They were praying, fasting, searching, digging for the truth as for hidden treasures, and the Holy Spirit, we know, was teaching and guiding us.
YRP	234	3	Many theories were advanced, bearing a semblance of truth, but so mingled with misinterpreted and misapplied scriptures that they led to dangerous errors. Very well do we know how every point of truth was established, and the seal set upon it by the Holy Spirit of God. And all the time voices were heard, "Here is the truth," "I have the truth; follow me." But the warnings came, "Go not ye after them. I have not sent them, but they ran" (see Jeremiah 23:21.)
YRP	234	4	The leadings of the Lord were marked, and most wonderful were His revelations of what is truth. Point after point was established by the Lord God of heaven. That which was truth then is truth today. But the voices do not cease to be heard--"This is truth. I have new light." But these new lights in prophetic lines are manifest in misapplying the Word and setting the people of God adrift without an anchor to hold them. If the student of the Word would take the truths which God has revealed in the leadings of His people, and appropriate these truths, digest them, and bring them into their practical life, they would then be living channels of light. But those who have set themselves to study out new theories have a mixture of truth and error combined, and, after trying to make these things prominent, have demonstrated that they have not kindled their taper from the divine altar, and it has gone out in darkness.--Manuscript Releases 17:4, 5.
------------------------To Build Upon the Foundation, August 14
YRP	235	1	And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. Ephesians 2:20.
YRP	235	2	Let not any man enter upon the work of tearing down the foundations of the truth that have made us what we are. God has led His people forward step by step though there were pitfalls of error on every side. Under the wonderful guidance of a plain, "Thus saith the Lord," a truth has been established that has stood the test of trial. When men arise and attempt to draw away disciples after them, meet them with the truths that have been tried as by fire.
YRP	235	3	"And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write: These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee" (Revelation 3:1-3).
YRP	235	4	Those who seek to remove the old landmarks are not holding fast; they are not remembering how they have received and heard. Those who try to bring in theories that would remove the pillars of our faith concerning the sanctuary or concerning the personality of God or of Christ are working as blind men. They are seeking to bring in uncertainties and to set the people of God adrift without an anchor.
YRP	235	5	Those who claim to be identified with the message that God has given us should have keen, clear spiritual perceptions, that they may distinguish truth from error. The word spoken by the messenger of God is "Wake up the watchmen." If men will discern the spirit of the messages given and strive to find out from what source they come, the Lord God of Israel will guard them from being led astray.--Manuscript Release 760:9, 10.
------------------------To Meet Fanaticism, August 15
YRP	236	1	For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 2 Peter 1:16.
YRP	236	2	Again and again in past years I have been bidden to speak in protest against the fanciful and forbidden schemes that have been presented by one and another. My message has ever been, Preach the Word in simplicity and all humility; present clear, unadulterated truth to the people. Open no door to fanatical movements, for the influence of these is to bring confusion of mind and discouragement and lack of faith to God's people....
YRP	236	3	Whenever I have been called to meet fanaticism in its varied forms, I have received clear, positive, and definite instruction to lift my voice against its influence. With some the evil has revealed itself in the form of man-made tests for ascertaining a knowledge of the will of God; and I was shown that this was a delusion which became an infatuation, and that it is contrary to the will of the Lord. If we follow such methods, we shall be found aiding the enemy's plans. In times past certain among the believers had great faith in the setting of signs by which to decide their duty. Some had such confidence in these signs that men went so far as to exchange wives, thus bringing adultery into the church.
YRP	236	4	I have been shown that deceptions like those we were called to meet in the early experiences of the message would be repeated, and that we shall have to meet them again in the closing days of the work. At this time we are required to bring all our powers under the control of God, exercising our faculties in accordance with the light He has given. Read the fourth and fifth chapters of Matthew. Study Matthew 4:8-10; also chapter 5:13. Meditate upon the sacred work that was carried forward by Christ. It is thus that the principles of the Word of God are to be brought into our labors.--Selected Messages 2:28, 29.
------------------------To Prevent Fanaticism, August 16
YRP	237	1	Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Acts 20:28-30.
YRP	237	2	Fanaticism will appear in the very midst of us. Deceptions will come, and of such a character that if it were possible they would mislead the very elect. If marked inconsistencies and untruthful utterances were apparent in these manifestations, the words from the lips of the great Teacher would not be needed. It is because of the many and varied dangers that would arise, that this warning is given.
YRP	237	3	The reason why I hang out the danger signal is that through the enlightenment of the Spirit of God I can see that which my brethren do not discern. It may not be a positive necessity for me to point out all these peculiar phases of deception that they will need to guard against. It is enough for me to tell you, Be on your guard; and as faithful sentinels keep the flock of God from accepting indiscriminately all that professes to be communicated to them from the Lord. If we work to create an excitement of feeling, we shall have all we want, and more than we can possibly know how to manage. Calmly and clearly "Preach the Word." We must not regard it as our work to create an excitement.
YRP	237	4	The Holy Spirit of God alone can create a healthy enthusiasm. Let God work, and let the human agent walk softly before Him, watching, waiting, praying, looking unto Jesus every moment, led and controlled by the precious Spirit, which is light and life.--Selected Messages 2:16, 17.
------------------------To Avoid Doctrinal Errors, August 17
YRP	238	1	And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. 2 Peter 3:15, 16.
YRP	238	2	The Lord will certainly do great things for us if we will hunger and thirst after righteousness. We are the purchased property of Jesus Christ. We must not lose our devotion, our consecration. We are in conflict with the errors and delusions that have to be swept away from the minds of those who have not acted upon the light they already have. Bible truth is our only safety.
YRP	238	3	I know and understand that we are to be established in the faith, in the light of the truth given us in our early experience. At that time one error after another pressed in upon us, and ministers and doctors brought in new doctrines. We would search the Scriptures with much prayer and the Holy Spirit would bring the truth to our minds. Sometimes whole nights would be devoted to searching the Scriptures and earnestly asking God for guidance. Companies of earnest, devoted men and women assembled for this purpose. The power of God would come upon me and I was enabled clearly to define what is truth and what is error.
YRP	238	4	As the points of our faith were thus established, our feet were placed upon a solid foundation. We accepted the truth point by point under the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. I would be taken off in vision and explanations would be given me. I was given illustrations of heavenly things and of the sanctuary, so that we were placed where light was shining on us in clear, distinct rays.
YRP	238	5	All these truths are immortalized in my writings. The Lord never denies His Word. Men may get up scheme after scheme, and the enemy will seek to seduce souls from the truth, but all who believe that the Lord has spoken through Sister White, and has given her a message, will be safe from the many delusions that will come in these last days.--Manuscript Release 760:22, 23.
------------------------To Warn About Future Deceptions, August 18
YRP	239	1	But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 Peter 2:1.
YRP	239	2	In the future, deception of every kind is to arise, and we want solid ground for our feet. We want solid pillars for the building. Not one pin is to be removed from that which the Lord has established. The enemy will bring in false theories, such as the doctrine that there is no sanctuary. This is one of the points on which there will be a departing from the faith. Where shall we find safety unless it be in the truths that the Lord has been giving for the last fifty years?
YRP	239	3	I want to tell you that Christ lives. He makes intercession for us, and He will save everyone who will come to Him in faith and obey His directions. But remember that He does not want you to give your energies to criticism of your brethren. Attend to the salvation of your own soul. Do the work God has given you. You will find so much to do that you will have no inclination to criticize someone else. Use the talent of speech to help and bless. If you do the work God has given you, you will have a message to bear, and you will understand what is meant by the sanctification of the Spirit.
YRP	239	4	Do not think that Satan is not doing anything. Do not think that his army is passive. He and his agencies are on the ground today. We are to put on the whole armor of God. Having done all, we are to stand, meeting principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. And if we have on the heavenly armor, we shall find that the assaults of the enemy will not have power over us. Angels of God will be round about us to protect us. I have the assurance of God that thus it will be.
YRP	239	5	In the name of the Lord God of Israel I ask you to come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. If you do this, you will have on your side a strong Helper, a personal Saviour. You will be covered with the shield of providence. God will make a way for you, so that you will never be overtaken by the enemy.--The Review and Herald, May 25, 1905.
------------------------God's Plans for the Work of the Church: Educational Work, August 19
YRP	240	1	The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10.
YRP	240	2	The true object of education is to fit men and women for service by developing and bringing into active exercise all their faculties. The work at our colleges and training schools should be strengthened year by year, for in them our youth are to be prepared to go forth to serve the Lord as efficient laborers. The Lord calls upon the youth to enter our schools and quickly fit themselves for active work. Time is short. Workers for Christ are needed everywhere. Urgent inducements should be held out to those who ought now to be engaged in earnest effort for the Master.
YRP	240	3	Our schools have been established by the Lord; and if they are conducted in harmony with His purpose, the youth sent to them will be quickly prepared to engage in various branches of missionary work. Some will be trained to enter the field as missionary nurses, some as canvassers, some as evangelists, and some as gospel ministers. Some are to be prepared to take charge of church schools, in which the children shall be taught the first principles of education. This is a very important work, demanding high ability and careful study.
YRP	240	4	Satan is trying to lead men and women away from right principles. The enemy of all good, he desires to see human beings so trained that they will exert their influence on the side of error, instead of using their talents to bless their fellow men. And multitudes who profess to belong to God's true church are falling under his deceptions. They are being led to turn away from their allegiance to the King of heaven....
YRP	240	5	It is to fortify the youth against the temptations of the enemy that we have established schools where they may be qualified for usefulness in this life and for the service of God throughout eternity. Those who have an eye single to God's glory will earnestly desire to fit themselves for special service; for the love of Christ will have a controlling influence upon them. This love imparts more than finite energy, and qualifies human beings for divine achievement.--Counsels to Parents and Teachers, 493-495.
------------------------The Medical Ministry, August 20
YRP	241	1	How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. Acts 10:38.
YRP	241	2	Our work is clearly defined. As the Father sent His only-begotten Son into our world, even so Christ sends us, His disciples, as His medical missionary workers. In fulfilling this high and holy mission, we are to do the will of God. No one man's mind or judgment is to be our criterion of what constitutes genuine medical missionary work....
YRP	241	3	True medical missionary work is of heavenly origin. It was not originated by any person who lives. But in connection with this work we see so much which dishonors God that I am instructed to say, The medical missionary work is of divine origin, and has a most glorious mission to fulfill. In all its bearings it is to be in conformity with Christ's work. Those who are workers together with God will just as surely represent the character of Christ as Christ represented the character of His Father while in this world.
YRP	241	4	I am instructed to say that God will have the medical missionary work cleansed from the tarnish of earthliness, and elevated to stand in its true position before the world. When schemes that imperil souls are brought into connection with this work, its influence is destroyed. This is why there have arisen in the carrying forward of medical missionary work many perplexities that demand our careful consideration....
YRP	241	5	Nothing will help us more at this stage of our work than to understand and to fulfill the mission of the greatest Medical Missionary that ever trod the earth; nothing will help us more than to realize how sacred is this kind of work and how perfectly it corresponds with the lifework of the Great Missionary. The object of our mission is the same as the object of Christ's mission. Why did God send His Son to the fallen world? To make known and to demonstrate to mankind His love for them. Christ came as a Redeemer. Throughout His ministry He was to keep prominent His mission to save sinners.--Medical Ministry, 24.
------------------------The Publishing Work, August 21
YRP	242	1	And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. Revelation 10:11.
YRP	242	2	Our publishing work was established by the direction of God and under His special supervision. It was designed to accomplish a specific purpose. Seventh-day Adventists have been chosen by God as a peculiar people, separate from the world. By the great cleaver of truth He has cut them out from the quarry of the world and brought them into connection with Himself. He has made them His representatives and has called them to be ambassadors for Him in the last work of salvation. The greatest wealth of truth ever entrusted to mortals, the most solemn and fearful warnings ever sent by God to man, have been committed to them to be given to the world; and in the accomplishment of this work our publishing houses are among the most effective agencies.
YRP	242	3	These institutions are to stand as witnesses for God, teachers of righteousness to the people. From them truth is to go forth as a lamp that burneth. Like a great light in a lighthouse on a dangerous coast, they are constantly to send forth beams of light into the darkness of the world, to warn men of the dangers that threaten them with destruction.
YRP	242	4	The publications sent forth from our printing houses are to prepare a people to meet God. Throughout the world they are to do the same work that was done by John the Baptist for the Jewish nation. By startling messages of warning, God's prophet awakened men from worldly dreaming. Through him God called backsliding Israel to repentance. By his presentation of truth he exposed popular delusions. In contrast with the false theories of his time, truth in his teaching stood forth as an eternal certainty. "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," was John's message (Matthew 3:2). This same message, through the publications from our printing houses, is to be given to the world today.--Testimonies for the Church 7:138, 139.
------------------------Welfare Ministry, August 22
YRP	243	1	And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Matthew 9:35, 36.
YRP	243	2	The Lord continually performed deeds of loving ministry, and this every minister of the gospel should do. He has appointed us to be His ambassadors, to carry forward His work in the world. To every true, self-sacrificing worker is given the commission "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).
YRP	243	3	Read carefully the instruction given in the New Testament. The work that the great Teacher did in connection with His disciples is the example we are to follow in our medical missionary work. But have we followed this example? The glad tidings of salvation are to be proclaimed in every village, town, and city. But where are the missionaries? In the name of God I ask, Where are the laborers together with God?
YRP	243	4	It is only by an unselfish interest in those in need of help that we can give a practical demonstration of the truths of the gospel. "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone" (James 2:15-17). "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity" (1 Corinthians 13:13).
YRP	243	5	Much more than mere sermonizing is included in preaching the gospel. The ignorant are to be enlightened; the discouraged are to be uplifted; the sick are to be healed. The human voice is to act its part in God's work. Words of tenderness, sympathy, and love are to witness to the truth. Earnest, heartfelt prayers are to bring the angels near.
YRP	243	6	The evangelization of the world is the work that God has given to those who go forth in His name. They are to be colaborers with Christ, revealing to those ready to perish His tender, pitying love.--The Review and Herald, March 4, 1902.
------------------------The Health Food Ministry, August 23
YRP	244	1	And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. Matthew 14:15, 16.
YRP	244	2	I have earnest words to speak to those who shall engage in the health food business. There is to be an entirely different feature brought into the work of our food stores, restaurants, and into every line in which our food productions are handled. This work must be carried forward as a means of gospel enlightenment to those who have not given themselves to the Lord. Those who handle these foods need daily the counsel of the One who created food for the five thousand hungry men. The work of our food stores and restaurants must be carried on in such a way that there will be no loss financially. We must not forget that this line of work needs to live. But all corrupting influences must be weeded out from it.
YRP	244	3	Keep on the gaining side we must. But what is the use of carrying on this work if we have to sacrifice principles of justice, mercy, and the love of God? What is the use of carrying it on if through its influence, no souls are enlightened and prepared to lay hold upon the Word that is their spiritual food? Upon those connected with this work there should be urged the necessity of calling the attention of the people with whom they are brought into contact to the truths of heavenly origin.
YRP	244	4	There should be appointed to the health food work men who are well qualified to speak words in season, and out of season, and who can enlighten the minds of men and women in regard to the truth. Special wisdom is needed in order to understand when to speak, and when to keep silent. Let each worker pray much for spiritual understanding.--The Health Food Ministry, 89.
------------------------The Support of Missions, August 24
YRP	245	1	That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. 1 Timothy 6:18, 19.
YRP	245	2	The mission of the church of Christ is to save perishing sinners. It is to make known the love of God to men, and to win them to Christ by the efficacy of that love. The truth for this time must be carried into the dark corners of the earth, and this work may begin at home.
YRP	245	3	The followers of Christ should not live selfish lives; but, imbued with the Spirit of Christ, they should work in harmony with Him.
YRP	245	4	He has given His people a plan for raising sums sufficient to make the enterprise self-sustaining. God's plan in the tithing system is beautiful in its simplicity and equality. All may take hold of it in faith and courage, for it is of divine origin. In it are combined simplicity and utility, and it does not require depth of learning to understand and execute it.
YRP	245	5	All may feel that they can act a part in carrying forward the precious work of salvation. Every man, woman, and youth may become a treasurer for God; and there would be no want of means with which to carry forward the great work of sounding the last message of warning to the [world].
YRP	245	6	The treasury will be full if all adopt this system, and the contributors will be left none the poorer. Through every investment made they will become more wedded to the cause of present truth. They will be "laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life" (1 Timothy 6:19).
YRP	245	7	If the plan of systematic benevolence was adopted by every individual and fully carried out, there would be a constant supply in the treasury. The income would flow in like a steady stream constantly supplied by overflowing springs of benevolence.--East Michigan Banner, January 18, 1905.
------------------------Advice for the Leaders, August 25
YRP	246	1	Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 1 Peter 5:2, 3.
YRP	246	2	I am instructed to say to our ministering brethren, Let the messages that come from your lips be charged with the power of the Spirit of God. If ever there was a time when we needed the special guidance of the Holy Spirit, it is now. We need a thorough consecration. It is fully time that we gave to the world a demonstration of the power of God in our own lives and in our ministry.
YRP	246	3	The Lord desires to see the work of proclaiming the third angel's message carried forward with increasing efficiency. As He has worked in all ages to give victories to His people, so in this age He longs to carry to a triumphant fulfillment His purposes for His church. He bids His believing saints to advance unitedly, going from strength to greater strength, from faith to increased assurance and confidence in the truth and righteousness of His cause.
YRP	246	4	We are to stand firm as a rock to the principles of the Word of God, remembering that God is with us to give us strength to meet each new experience. Let us ever maintain in our lives the principles of righteousness, that we may go forward from strength to strength in the name of the Lord. We are to hold as very sacred the faith that has been substantiated by the instruction and approval of the Spirit of God from our earliest experience until the present time. We are to cherish as very precious the work that the Lord has been carrying forward through His command-keeping people, and which, through the power of His grace, will grow stronger and more efficient as time advances.
YRP	246	5	The enemy is seeking to becloud the discernment of God's people, and to weaken their efficiency, but if they will labor as the Spirit of God shall direct, He will open doors of opportunity before them for the work of building up the old waste places. Their experience will be one of constant growth, until the Lord shall descend from heaven with power and great glory to set His seal of final triumph upon His faithful ones.--The Review and Herald, June 12, 1913.
------------------------Divine Counsel for Parents, August 26
YRP	247	1	I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. 1 John 2:14.
YRP	247	2	Parents may understand that as they follow God's directions in the training of their children, they will receive help from on high. They receive much benefit; for as they teach, they learn. Their children will achieve victories through the knowledge that they have acquired in keeping the way of the Lord. They are enabled to overcome natural and hereditary tendencies to evil. By setting an example of kindness and patience, by molding the characters of their children after the divine Pattern, fathers and mothers become qualified to help the youth outside of their homes.
YRP	247	3	Parents, it is your work to develop in your children patience, constancy, and genuine love. In dealing aright with the children God has given you, you are helping them lay the foundation for pure, well-balanced characters. You are instilling into their minds principles which they will one day follow in their own families. The effect of your well-directed efforts will be seen as they conduct their households in the way of the Lord.
YRP	247	4	Blessed is the family where father and mother have surrendered themselves to God to do His will! One well-ordered, well-disciplined family tells more in behalf of Christianity than all the sermons that can be preached. Such a family gives evidence that the parents have been successful in following God's directions, and that their children will serve Him in the church. Their influence grows; for as they impart, they receive to impart again. The father and mother find helpers in their children, who give to others the instruction received in the home. The neighborhood in which they live is helped, for in it they have become enriched for time and for eternity. The whole family is engaged in the service of the Master; and by their godly example, others are inspired to be faithful and true to God in dealing with His flock, His beautiful flock.--The Review and Herald, June 6, 1899.
------------------------Encouragement for the Erring, August 27
YRP	248	1	This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1 John 1:5-7.
YRP	248	2	For half a century I have been the Lord's messenger, and as long as my life shall last I shall continue to bear the messages that God gives me for His people. I take no glory to myself; in my youth the Lord made me His messenger, to communicate to His people testimonies of encouragement, warning, and reproof. For sixty years I have been in communication with heavenly messengers, and I have been constantly learning in reference to divine things, and in reference to the way in which God is constantly working to bring souls from the error of their ways to the light in God's light.
YRP	248	3	Many souls have been helped because they have believed that the messages given me were sent in mercy to the erring. When I have seen those who needed a different phase of Christian experience, I have told them so, for their present and eternal good. And so long as the Lord spares my life, I will do my work faithfully, whether or not men and women shall hear and receive and obey. My work is clearly given me to do, and I shall receive grace in being obedient.
YRP	248	4	I love God. I love Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and I feel an intense interest in every soul who claims to be a child of God. I am determined to be a faithful steward so long as the Lord shall spare my life. I will not fail nor be discouraged....
YRP	248	5	I love the Lord; I love my Saviour, and my life is wholly in the hands of God. As long as He sustains me, I shall bear a decided testimony.--Manuscript Releases 5:152, 153.
------------------------Directions for the Youth, August 28
YRP	249	1	In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:6.
YRP	249	2	There are great things expected from the sons and daughters of God. I look upon the youth of today, and my heart yearns over them. What possibilities are open before them! If they sincerely seek to learn of Christ, He will give them wisdom, as He gave wisdom to Daniel. They may obtain directions from Him who is mighty in counsel. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10). Says the psalmist, "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple" (Psalm 119:130). And the wise man writes, "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
YRP	249	3	Let the youth try to appreciate the privilege that may be theirs, to be directed by the unerring wisdom of God. Let them take the Word of truth as the man of their counsel, and become skillful in the use of "the sword of the Spirit." Satan is a wise general; but the humble, devoted soldier of Jesus Christ may overcome him. It is written of the victors, that "they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony" (Revelation 12:11).
YRP	249	4	We must not trust in self. Our finite strength is only weakness. Says Jesus, "Without me ye can do nothing"; but He promises, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:5, 7).
YRP	249	5	It is thought a great honor to be invited into the presence of a king of this earth. But let us consider the amazing privilege that is proffered to us. If we obey the requirements of God, we may become the sons and daughters of the King of the universe. Through a crucified and risen Saviour, we may be filled with the fruits of righteousness, and be fitted to shine in the courts of the King of kings through unending ages.... Our work is to seek the closest union with the Son of God, to learn in His school, to become meek and lowly of heart, to work the works of Christ, advancing His kingdom and hastening His coming.--The Review and Herald, February 28, 1888.
------------------------Closing Message Addressed to Youth, August 29
YRP	250	1	For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:6-8.
YRP	250	2	I do not expect to live long. My work is nearly done. Tell our young people that I want my words to encourage them in that manner of life that will be most attractive to the heavenly intelligences, and that their influence upon others may be most ennobling.
YRP	250	3	In the night season I was selecting and laying aside books that are of no advantage to the young. We should select for them books that will encourage them to sincerity of life, and lead them to the opening of the Word. This has been presented to me in the past, and I thought I would get it before you and make it secure. We cannot afford to give to young people valueless reading. Books that are a blessing to mind and soul are needed. These things are too lightly regarded; therefore our people should become acquainted with what I am saying.
YRP	250	4	I do not think I shall have more testimonies for our people. Our men of solid minds know what is good for the uplifting and upbuilding of the work. But with the love of God in their hearts, they need to go deeper and deeper into the study of the things of God. I am very anxious that our young people shall have the proper class of reading; then the old people will get it also. We must keep our eyes on the religious attraction of the truth. We are to keep mind and brain open to the truths of God's Word. Satan comes when men are unaware. We are not to be satisfied because the message of warning has been once presented. We must present it again and again.--The Review and Herald, April 15, 1915.
------------------------Light Lasting Until the End, August 30
YRP	251	1	And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. Revelation 14:13.
YRP	251	2	Abundant light has been given to our people in these last days. Whether or not my life is spared, my writings will constantly speak, and their work will go forward as long as time shall last. My writings are kept on file in the office, and even though I should not live, these words that have been given to me by the Lord will still have life and will speak to the people. But my strength is yet spared, and I hope to continue to do much useful work. I may live until the coming of the Lord; but if I should not, I trust it may be said of me, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." ...
YRP	251	3	I thank God for the assurance of His love, and that I have daily His leading and guidance. I am very busy with my writing. Early and late, I am writing out the matters that the Lord opens before me. The burden of my work is to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord. The promise of Christ is sure. The time is not long. We must work and watch and wait for the Lord Jesus. We are called upon to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. All our hopes have their foundation in Christ.
YRP	251	4	Are our people reviewing the past and the present and the future, as it is unfolding before the world? Are they heeding the messages of warning given them? Is it our greatest concern today that our lives shall be refined and purified, and that we shall reflect the similitude of the divine? This must be the experience of all who join that company who are washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. They must be arrayed in the righteousness of Christ. His name must be written in their foreheads.--Selected Messages 1:55, 56.
------------------------The Proper Attitude, August 31
YRP	252	1	Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. 2 John 1:8, 9.
YRP	252	2	Soon every possible effort will be made to discount and pervert the truth of the testimonies of God's Spirit. We must have in readiness the clear, straight messages that since 1846 have been coming to God's people.
YRP	252	3	There will be those once united with us in the faith who will search for new, strange doctrines, for something odd and sensational to present to the people. They will bring in all conceivable fallacies, and will present them as coming from Mrs. White, that they may beguile souls....
YRP	252	4	Those who have treated the light that the Lord has given as a common thing will not be benefited by the instruction presented.
YRP	252	5	There are those who will misinterpret the messages that God has given, in accordance with their spiritual blindness.
YRP	252	6	Some will yield their faith, and will deny the truth of the messages, pointing to them as falsehoods.
YRP	252	7	Some will hold them up to ridicule, working against the light that God has been giving for years, and some who are weak in the faith will thus be led astray.
YRP	252	8	But others will be greatly helped by the messages. Though not personally addressed, they will be corrected, and will be led to shun the evils specified.... The Spirit of the Lord will be in the instruction, and doubts existing in many minds will be swept away. The testimonies themselves will be the key that will explain the messages given, as scripture is explained by scripture. Many will read with eagerness the messages reproving wrong, that they may learn what they may do to be saved.... These messages are to find their place in hearts, and transformations will take place.--Selected Messages 1:41, 42.
------------------------Enoch, September 1
YRP	253	1	By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Hebrews 11:5.
YRP	253	2	Enoch was a public teacher of the truth in the age in which he lived. He taught the truth; he lived the truth; and the character of the teacher who walked with God was in every way harmonious with the greatness and sacredness of his mission. Enoch was a prophet who spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. He was a light amid the moral darkness, a pattern man, a man who walked with God, being obedient to God's law--that law which Satan had refused to obey, which Adam had transgressed, which Abel obeyed, and because of his obedience was murdered.
YRP	253	3	And now God would demonstrate to the universe the falsity of Satan's charge that man cannot keep God's law. He would demonstrate that though man had sinned, he could so relate himself to God that he would have the mind and Spirit of God and would be a representative symbol of Christ. This holy man was selected of God to denounce the wickedness of the world, and to evidence to the world that it is possible for men to keep all the law of God....
YRP	253	4	Enoch not only meditated and prayed, and put on the armor of watchfulness, but he came forth from his pleadings with God to plead with his fellow men. He did not mask the truth to find favor with unbelievers, thus neglecting their souls. This close connection with God gave him courage to work the works of God. Enoch walked with God and "had this testimony that his ways pleased God" (Hebrews 11:5).
YRP	253	5	This is the privilege of every believer today. It is man dwelling with God, and God taking up His abode with man. "I in them, and thou in me" (John 17:23), says Jesus. To walk with God and have the witness that their ways please Him is an experience not to be confined to Enoch, to Elijah, to patriarchs, to prophets, to apostles, and to martyrs. It is not only the privilege but the duty of every follower of Christ to have Jesus enshrined in the heart, to carry Him with them in their lives; and they will indeed be fruit-bearing trees.--The Upward Look, 228.
------------------------Noah, September 2
YRP	254	1	And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Genesis 7:1.
YRP	254	2	In the days of Noah, the wickedness of the world became so great that God could no longer bear with it; and He said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth" (Genesis 6:7). But He pitied the race, and in His love provided a refuge for all who would accept it. He gave the message to Noah to be given to the people: "My spirit shall not always strive with man" (verse 3).
YRP	254	3	Noah was directed to build an ark, and at the same time to preach that God would bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy the wicked. Those who would believe the message, and would prepare for that event by repentance and reformation, should find pardon and be saved; but a continued resistance of the entreaties and warnings from God through His servant Noah would separate them from God, and as a result infinite mercy and love would cease its pleadings.
YRP	254	4	The Spirit of God continued to strive with rebellious man until the time specified had nearly expired, when Noah and his family entered the ark, and the hand of God closed its door. Mercy had stepped from the golden throne, no longer to intercede for the guilty sinner.
YRP	254	5	All the men of that generation were not in the fullest sense of the term heathen idolaters. Many had a knowledge of God and His law; but they not only rejected the message of the faithful preacher of righteousness themselves, but used all their influence to prevent others from being obedient to God. To everyone comes a day of trial and of trust. That generation had their day of opportunity and privilege while Noah was sounding the note of warning of the coming destruction; but they yielded their minds to the control of Satan rather than of God, and he deceived them, as he did our first parents. He set before them darkness and falsehood in the place of light and truth; and they accepted his sophistry and lies, because they were acceptable to them, and in harmony with their corrupt lives, while truth that would have saved them was rejected as a delusion.--The Signs of the Times, April 1, 1886.
------------------------Abraham, September 3
YRP	255	1	After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.... And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness. Genesis 15:1-6.
YRP	255	2	God designed that Abraham should be a channel of light and blessing, that he should have a gathering influence, and that God should have a people on the earth. Abraham was to be in the world, reflecting in his life the character of Jesus. When he received the divine call, Abraham was not a man of renown, neither a lawgiver, nor a conqueror. He was a simple herdsman, dwelling in tents, but employing a large number of workmen to carry on his humble employment. And the honor which he received was because of his faithfulness to God, his strict integrity and just dealing.
YRP	255	3	The Lord said of him: "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him" (Genesis 18:17-19).
YRP	255	4	Abraham's unselfish life made him indeed a "spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men" (1 Corinthians 4:9). And the Lord declared He would bless those who blessed Abraham, and that He would punish those who misused or injured him. Through Abraham's experience in his religious life a correct knowledge of Jehovah has been communicated to thousands; and his light will shed its beams all along the path of those who practice the piety, the faith, the devotion, and the obedience of Abraham.
YRP	255	5	Abraham had a knowledge of Christ; for the Lord had enlightened him in regard to the world's Redeemer. And he made known to his household and his children that the sacrificial offerings prefigured Christ, the Lamb of God, who was to be slain for the sins of the world. Thus he gathered converts to believe in the only true and living God.--The Youth's Instructor, March 4, 1897.
------------------------Joseph, September 4
YRP	256	1	And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Genesis 45:7, 8.
YRP	256	2	It was God's design that through Joseph, Bible religion should be introduced among the Egyptians. This faithful witness was to represent Christ in the court of kings. Through dreams, God communicated with Joseph in his youth, giving him an intimation of the high position he would be called to fill. The brothers of Joseph, to prevent the fulfillment of his dreams, sold him as a slave, but their cruel act resulted in bringing about the very thing the dreams had foretold.
YRP	256	3	Those who seek to turn aside the purpose of God, and oppose His will, may appear for a time to prosper; but God is at work to fulfill His own purposes, and He will make manifest who is the ruler of the heavens and the earth.
YRP	256	4	Joseph regarded his being sold into Egypt as the greatest calamity that could have befallen him; but he saw the necessity of trusting in God as he had never done when protected by his father's love. Joseph brought God with him into Egypt, and the fact was made apparent by his cheerful demeanor amid his sorrow. As the ark of God brought rest and prosperity to Israel, so did this God-loving, God-fearing youth bring a blessing to Egypt. This was manifested in so marked a manner that Potiphar, in whose house he served, attributed all his blessings to his purchased slave, and made him a son rather than a servant. It is God's purpose that those who love and honor His name shall be honored also themselves, and that the glory given to God through them shall be reflected upon themselves.
YRP	256	5	Joseph's character did not change when he was exalted to a position of trust. He was brought where his virtue would shine in distinct light in good works. The blessing of God rested upon him in the house and in the field. All the responsibilities of Potiphar's house were placed upon him. And in all this he manifested steadfast integrity; for he loved and feared God.--The Youth's Instructor, March 11, 1897.
------------------------Moses, September 5
YRP	257	1	And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. Exodus 3:11, 12.
YRP	257	2	Devotion and humility have ever characterized the men with whom God has entrusted important responsibilities in His work. The divine call to Moses in the desert found him distrustful of self. He realized his unfitness for the position to which God had called him; but having accepted the trust, he became a polished instrument in the hand of God to accomplish the greatest work ever committed to mortals.
YRP	257	3	Had Moses trusted to his own strength and wisdom, and eagerly accepted the great charge, he would have evinced his entire unfitness for such a work. The fact that a man feels his own weakness is at least some evidence that he realizes the magnitude of the work appointed him, and this gives room for hope that he will make God his counselor and his strength. Such a person will move no farther nor faster than he knows God is leading him.
YRP	257	4	A man will gain power and efficiency as he accepts the responsibilities which God places upon him, and with his whole soul seeks to qualify himself to bear them aright. However humble his position or limited his ability, that individual will attain true greatness who cheerfully responds to the call of duty, and, trusting to the divine strength, seeks to perform his work with fidelity. He will feel that he has a sacred commission to battle against wrong, to strengthen the right, to elevate, comfort, and bless his fellow men. Indolence, selfishness, and love of worldly approbation must yield to this high and holy calling.
YRP	257	5	Engaged in such a work, the weak man will become strong; the timid, brave; the irresolute, firm and decided. Each sees the importance of his position and his course, inasmuch as heaven has chosen him to do a special work for the King of kings. Such men will leave the world better for their having lived in it. Their influence is exerted to elevate, to purify, and to ennoble all with whom they come in contact, and thus they help to prepare their fellow men for the heavenly courts.--The Signs of the Times, August 11, 1881.
------------------------Joshua, September 6
YRP	258	1	There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Joshua 1:5.
YRP	258	2	After the death of Moses, Joshua was appointed the leader of Israel to conduct them to the Promised Land. He was well qualified for this important office. He had been prime minister to Moses during the greater part of the time the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness. He had seen the wonderful works of God wrought by Moses and well understood the disposition of the people. He was one of the twelve spies who were sent out to search the Promised Land, and one of the two who gave a faithful account of its richness, and who encouraged the people to go up and possess it in the strength of God.
YRP	258	3	The Lord promised Joshua that He would be with him as He had been with Moses, and He would make Canaan an easy conquest to him, provided he would be faithful to observe all His commandments. Joshua had been anxious concerning the execution of his commission to lead the people into the land of Canaan; but this assurance removed his fears. He commanded the children of Israel to make ready for a three days' journey and all the men of war to prepare for a battle.
YRP	258	4	"And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go. According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee: only the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death: only be strong and of a good courage" (Joshua 1:16-18).
YRP	258	5	God willed that the passage of the Israelites over Jordan should be miraculous. Joshua commanded the people to sanctify themselves, for upon the morrow the Lord would do wonders among them. At the appointed time, he directed the priests to take up the ark containing the law of God and bear it before the people. "And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee" (Joshua 3:7).--Testimonies for the Church 4:156, 157.
------------------------Deborah and Barak, September 7
YRP	259	1	Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying, Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves. Judges 5:1, 2.
YRP	259	2	The Israelites, having again separated themselves from God by idolatry, were grievously oppressed by these enemies. The property and even the lives of the people were in constant danger. Hence the villages and lonely dwellings were deserted, and the people congregated in the walled cities. The high roads were unoccupied, and the people went from place to place by unfrequented byways. At the places for drawing water, many were robbed and even murdered, and to add to their distress, the Israelites were unarmed. Among forty thousand men, not a sword or a spear could be found.
YRP	259	3	For twenty years, the Israelites groaned under the yoke of the oppressor; then they turned from their idolatry, and with humiliation and repentance cried unto the Lord for deliverance. They did not cry in vain. There was dwelling in Israel a woman illustrious for her piety, and through her the Lord chose to deliver His people. Her name was Deborah. She was known as a prophetess, and in the absence of the usual magistrates, the people had sought to her for counsel and justice.
YRP	259	4	The Lord communicated to Deborah His purpose to destroy the enemies of Israel, and bade her send for a man named Barak, of the tribe of Naphtali, and make known to him the instructions which she had received. She accordingly sent for Barak, and directed him to assemble ten thousand men of the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, and make war upon the armies of King Jabin....
YRP	259	5	Deborah celebrated the triumph of Israel in a most sublime and impassioned song. She ascribed to God all the glory of their deliverance, and bade the people praise Him for His wonderful works.--The Signs of the Times, June 16, 1881.
------------------------Gideon, September 8
YRP	260	1	And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. Judges 6:14-16.
YRP	260	2	All the wonders which God has wrought for His people have been performed by the most simple means. When the people of God are wholly consecrated to Him, then He will employ them to carry forward His work on the earth. But we should remember that whatever success may attend us, the glory and honor belongs to God; for every faculty and every power is a gift from Him.
YRP	260	3	God will test, to the utmost, the faith and courage of those to whom He has entrusted responsibilities in His work. Appearances will often be forbidding. Although God has given repeated assurance of His help, yet faith will almost stagger. "Thus saith the Lord," must be our firm reliance, independent of human reasonings, or apparent impossibilities.
YRP	260	4	The experience of Gideon and his army, was designed to teach a lesson of simplicity and faith. The leader whom God had chosen occupied no prominent position in Israel. He was not a ruler, a Levite, or a priest. He thought himself the least in his father's house. Human wisdom would not have selected him; but God saw in Gideon a man of integrity and moral courage. He was distrustful of self, and willing to listen to the teachings of God, and carry out His purposes.
YRP	260	5	The Lord is not dependent upon men of high position, of great intellect, or extensive knowledge. Such men are frequently proud and self-sufficient. They feel themselves competent to devise and execute plans without counsel from God. They separate themselves from the True Vine, and hence become dry and fruitless, as withered branches.
YRP	260	6	The Lord would put to shame the vaunting of men. He will give success to the feeblest efforts, the most unpromising methods, when divinely appointed, and entered upon with humility and trust.--The Signs of the Times, June 30, 1881.
------------------------Samuel, September 9
YRP	261	1	And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. 1 Samuel 3:19, 20.
YRP	261	2	During the years since the Lord first manifested Himself to the son of Hannah, Samuel's call to the prophetic office had come to be acknowledged by the whole nation. By faithfully delivering the divine warning to the house of Eli, painful and trying as the duty had been, Samuel had given proof of his fidelity as Jehovah's messenger; "and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord."
YRP	261	3	The Israelites as a nation still continued in a state of irreligion and idolatry, and as a punishment they remained in subjection to the Philistines. During this time Samuel visited the cities and villages throughout the land, seeking to turn the hearts of the people to the God of their fathers; and his efforts were not without good results. After suffering the oppression of their enemies for twenty years, the Israelites "mourned after the Lord." Samuel counseled them, "If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only" (1 Samuel 7:3).
YRP	261	4	Here we see that practical piety, heart religion, was taught in the days of Samuel as taught by Christ when He was upon the earth. Without the grace of Christ the outward forms of religion were valueless to ancient Israel. They are the same to modern Israel.
YRP	261	5	There is need today of such a revival of true heart religion as was experienced by ancient Israel. Repentance is the first step that must be taken by all who would return to God. No one can do this work for another. We must individually humble our souls before God and put away our idols. When we have done all that we can do, the Lord will manifest to us His salvation.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 589, 590.
------------------------David, September 10
YRP	262	1	Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, The spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. 2 Samuel 23:1, 2.
YRP	262	2	Who can measure the results of those years of toil and wandering among the lonely hills? The communion with nature and with God, the care of his flocks, the perils and deliverances, the griefs and joys, of his lowly lot, were not only to mold the character of David and to influence his future life, but through the psalms of Israel's sweet singer they were in all coming ages to kindle love and faith in the hearts of God's people, bringing them nearer to the ever-loving heart of Him in whom all His creatures live.
YRP	262	3	David, in the beauty and vigor of his young manhood, was preparing to take a high position with the noblest of the earth. His talents, as precious gifts from God, were employed to extol the glory of the divine Giver. His opportunities of contemplation and meditation served to enrich him with that wisdom and piety that made him beloved of God and angels. As he contemplated the perfections of his Creator, clearer conceptions of God opened before his soul. Obscure themes were illuminated, difficulties were made plain, perplexities were harmonized, and each ray of new light called forth fresh bursts of rapture, and sweeter anthems of devotion, to the glory of God and the Redeemer.
YRP	262	4	The love that moved him, the sorrows that beset him, the triumphs that attended him, were all themes for his active thought; and as he beheld the love of God in all the providences of his life, his heart throbbed with more fervent adoration and gratitude, his voice rang out in a richer melody, his harp was swept with more exultant joy; and the shepherd boy proceeded from strength to strength, from knowledge to knowledge; for the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 642.
------------------------Solomon, September 11
YRP	263	1	And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? 1 Kings 3:7-9.
YRP	263	2	The name of Jehovah was greatly honored during the first part of Solomon's reign. The wisdom and righteousness revealed by the king bore witness to all nations of the excellency of the attributes of the God whom he served. For a time Israel was as the light of the world, showing forth the greatness of Jehovah. Not in the surpassing wisdom, the fabulous riches, the far-reaching power and fame that were his, lay the real glory of Solomon's early reign; but in the honor that he brought to the name of the God of Israel through a wise use of the gifts of heaven.
YRP	263	3	As the years went by and Solomon's fame increased, he sought to honor God by adding to his mental and spiritual strength, and by continuing to impart to others the blessings he received. None understood better than he that it was through the favor of Jehovah that he had come into possession of power and wisdom and understanding, and that these gifts were bestowed that he might give to the world a knowledge of the King of kings.
YRP	263	4	Solomon took an especial interest in natural history, but his researches were not confined to any one branch of learning. Through a diligent study of all created things, both animate and inanimate, he gained a clear conception of the Creator. In the forces of nature, in the mineral and the animal world, and in every tree and shrub and flower, he saw a revelation of God's wisdom; and as he sought to learn more and more, his knowledge of God and his love for Him constantly increased.--Prophets and Kings, 32, 33.
------------------------Elijah, September 12
YRP	264	1	And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. 1 Kings 18:21.
YRP	264	2	Among the mountains of Gilead, east of the Jordan, there dwelt in the days of Ahab a man of faith and prayer whose fearless ministry was destined to check the rapid spread of apostasy in Israel. Far removed from any city of renown, and occupying no high station in life, Elijah the Tishbite nevertheless entered upon his mission confident in God's purpose to prepare the way before him and to give him abundant success. The word of faith and power was upon his lips, and his whole life was devoted to the work of reform. His was the voice of one crying in the wilderness to rebuke sin and press back the tide of evil. And while he came to the people as a reprover of sin, his message offered the balm of Gilead to the sin-sick souls of all who desired to be healed.
YRP	264	3	As Elijah saw Israel going deeper and deeper into idolatry, his soul was distressed and his indignation aroused. God had done great things for His people. He had delivered them from bondage and given them "the lands of the heathen: ... that they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws" (Psalm 105:44, 45). But the beneficent designs of Jehovah were now well-nigh forgotten. Unbelief was fast separating the chosen nation from the Source of their strength.
YRP	264	4	Viewing this apostasy from his mountain retreat, Elijah was overwhelmed with sorrow. In anguish of soul he besought God to arrest the once-favored people in their wicked course, to visit them with judgments, if need be, that they might be led to see in its true light their departure from Heaven. He longed to see them brought to repentance before they should go to such lengths in evil-doing as to provoke the Lord to destroy them utterly.--Prophets and Kings, 119, 120.
------------------------Elisha, September 13
YRP	265	1	And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. 2 Kings 2:9.
YRP	265	2	We may learn valuable lessons from the experience of the prophet Elisha. Elisha was chosen by the Lord as Elijah's helper, and through test and trial he proved himself true to his trust. He was willing to be and do anything the Lord directed. He did not seek to shun the humblest service, but was as faithful in the performance of smaller duties as of larger responsibilities. He was always willing to serve in any position to which the Lord pointed him, however disagreeable it might be to his natural inclinations. And at every step he learned lessons of humility and service....
YRP	265	3	"And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me." He did not ask for worldly honor, for a high place among the great men of the earth. That for which he craved was a double portion of the Spirit given to the one God was about to honor with translation. He knew that nothing but a double portion of the Spirit that had rested on Elijah could fit him to fill the place Elijah had filled, because Elijah had the experience and wisdom of age, which cannot by any method be imparted to the young....
YRP	265	4	When the Lord in His providence sees fit to remove from His work those to whom He has given wisdom, He helps and strengthens their successors, if they will look to Him for aid and will walk in His ways. They may be even wiser than their predecessors; for they may profit by their experience and learn wisdom from their mistakes.
YRP	265	5	The Lord has a special care for His church. Those who will seek wisdom from Him will be lights in the world, shining brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.--Manuscript 114, 1901.
------------------------Isaiah, September 14
YRP	266	1	And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Isaiah 6:9, 10.
YRP	266	2	The prophet's duty was plain; he was to lift his voice in protest against the prevailing evils. But he dreaded to undertake the work without some assurance of hope. "Lord, how long?" (Isaiah 6:11) he inquired. Are none of Thy chosen people ever to understand, and repent, and be healed?
YRP	266	3	His burden of soul in behalf of erring Judah was not to be borne in vain. His mission was not to be wholly fruitless. Yet the evils that had been multiplying for many generations could not be removed in his day. Throughout his lifetime he must be a patient, courageous teacher--a prophet of hope as well as of doom. The divine purpose finally accomplished, the full fruitage of his efforts, and of the labors of all God's faithful messengers, would appear. A remnant should be saved. That this might be brought about, the messages of warning and entreaty were to be delivered to the rebellious, the Lord declared, "until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land" (verses 11, 12).
YRP	266	4	The heavy judgments that were to befall the impenitent--war, exile, oppression, the loss of power and prestige among the nations--all these were to come in order that those who would recognize in them the hand of an offended God might be led to repent. The ten tribes of the northern kingdom were soon to be scattered among the nations, and their cities left desolate; the destroying armies of hostile nations were to sweep over their land again and again; even Jerusalem was finally to fall, and Judah was to be carried away captive; yet the Promised Land was not to remain wholly forsaken forever.--The Review and Herald, March 11, 1915.
------------------------Jeremiah, September 15
YRP	267	1	Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Jeremiah 1:4, 5.
YRP	267	2	The Lord gave Jeremiah a message of reproof to bear to His people, charging them with the continual rejection of God's counsel; saying, "I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto me. I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers" (Jeremiah 35:14, 15).
YRP	267	3	God pleaded with them not to provoke Him to anger with the work of their hands and hearts; but they "hearkened not." Jeremiah then predicted the captivity of the Jews, as their punishment for not heeding the word of the Lord. The Chaldeans were to be used as the instrument by which God would chastise His disobedient people. Their punishment was to be in proportion to their intelligence, and the warnings they had despised. God had long delayed His judgments, because of His unwillingness to humiliate His chosen people; but now He would visit His displeasure upon them, as a last effort to check them in their evil course.
YRP	267	4	In these days He has instituted no new plan to preserve the purity of His people. He entreats the erring ones who profess His name to repent and turn from their evil ways, in the same manner that He did of old. He predicts the dangers before them by the mouth of His chosen servants now as then. He sounds His note of warning, and reproves sin just as faithfully as in the days of Jeremiah. But the Israel of our time have the same temptations to scorn reproof and hate counsel as did ancient Israel. They too often turn a deaf ear to the words that God has given His servants for the benefit of those who profess the truth.--The Signs of the Times, February 12, 1880.
------------------------Josiah and Huldah, September 16
YRP	268	1	Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us. 2 Kings 22:13.
YRP	268	2	Josiah, from his earliest manhood, had endeavored to take advantage of his position as king to exalt the principles of God's holy law. And now, while Shaphan the scribe was reading to him out of the book of the law, the king discerned in this volume a treasure of knowledge, a powerful ally, in the work of reform he so much desired to see wrought in the land. He resolved to walk in the light of its counsels, and also to do all in his power to acquaint his people with its teachings, and to lead them, if possible, to cultivate reverence and love for the law of heaven.
YRP	268	3	But was it possible to bring about the needed reform? From all that he could learn from the reading of the volume before him, Israel had almost reached the limit of divine forbearance; soon God would arise to punish those who had brought dishonor upon His name. Already the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people. Overwhelmed with sorrow and dismay, Josiah rent his garments, and bowed before God in agony of spirit, seeking pardon for the sins of an impenitent nation.
YRP	268	4	At that time the prophetess Huldah was living in Jerusalem, near the Temple. The mind of the king, filled with anxious foreboding, reverted to her; and he determined to inquire of the Lord through this chosen messenger, to learn, if possible, whether by any means within his power he might save erring Judah, now on the verge of ruin.
YRP	268	5	The gravity of the situation, and the respect in which he held the prophetess, led him to choose as his messengers to her the first men of the kingdom. "Go ye," he bade them, "inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us."--The Review and Herald, July 22, 1915.
------------------------Daniel, September 17
YRP	269	1	Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel 2:48.
YRP	269	2	A confession of Christ means something more than bearing testimony in social meeting. Daniel is an example to believers as to what it means to confess Christ. He held the responsible position of prime minister in the kingdom of Babylon, and there were those who were envious of Daniel among the great men of the court, and they wanted to find something against him that they might bring an accusation against him to the king. But he was a faithful statesman, and they could find no flaw in his character or life.
YRP	269	3	"Then said these men, we shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God" (Daniel 6:5). So they agreed together to ask the king to make a decree that no one should ask any petition of any God or man for thirty days save of the king, and if any disobeyed this decree, he was to be cast into the den of lions.
YRP	269	4	But did Daniel cease to pray because this decree was to go into force? No, that was just the time when he needed to pray. "When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime" Daniel did not seek to hide his loyalty to God. He did not pray in his heart, but with his voice, aloud, with his window open toward Jerusalem, he offered up his petition to heaven....
YRP	269	5	We may know that if our life is hid with Christ in God, when we are brought into trial because of our faith, Jesus will be with us. When we are brought before rulers and dignitaries to answer for our faith, the Spirit of the Lord will illuminate our understanding, and we shall be able to bear a testimony to the glory of God. And if we are called to suffer for Christ's sake, we shall be able to go to prison trusting in Him as a little child trusts in its parents. Now is the time to cultivate faith in God.--The Review and Herald, May 3, 1892.
------------------------Esther, September 18
YRP	270	1	Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther 4:13, 14.
YRP	270	2	In ancient times the Lord worked in a wonderful way through consecrated women who united in His work with men whom He had chosen to stand as His representatives. He used women to gain great and decisive victories. More than once, in times of emergency, He brought them to the front and worked through them for the salvation of many lives. Through Esther the queen, the Lord accomplished a mighty deliverance for His people. At a time when it seemed that no power could save them, Esther and the women associated with her, by fasting and prayer and prompt action, met the issue, and brought salvation to their people.
YRP	270	3	A study of women's work in connection with the cause of God in Old Testament times will teach us lessons that will enable us to meet emergencies in the work today. We may not be brought into such a critical and prominent place as were the people of God in the time of Esther; but often converted women can act an important part in more humble positions. This many have been doing, and are still ready to do. It is a woman's duty to unite with her husband in the disciplining and training of her sons and daughters, that they may be converted, and their powers consecrated to the service of God. There are many who have ability to stand with their husbands in sanitarium work, to give treatments to the sick and to speak words of counsel and encouragement to others. There are those who should seek an education that will fit them to act the part of physicians.--Special Testimonies, Series B 15:1, 2.
------------------------Ezra and Nehemiah, September 19
YRP	271	1	So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. Nehemiah 8:8, 9.
YRP	271	2	Nehemiah and Ezra are men of opportunity. The Lord had a special work for them to do. They were to call upon the people to consider their ways, and to see where they had made their mistake; for the Lord had not suffered His people to become powerless and confused and to be taken into captivity without a cause. The Lord especially blessed these men for standing up for the right. Nehemiah was not set apart as a priest or a prophet, but the Lord used him to do a special work. He was chosen as a leader of the people. But his fidelity to God did not depend upon his position.
YRP	271	3	The Lord will not allow His work to be hindered, even though the workmen may prove unworthy. God has men in reserve, prepared to meet the demand, that His work may be preserved from all contaminating influences. God will be honored and glorified. When the divine Spirit impresses the mind of the man appointed by God as fit for the work, he responds, saying, "Here am I; send me."
YRP	271	4	God demonstrated to the people for whom He had done so much that He would not serve with their sins. He wrought, not through those who refused to serve Him with singleness of purpose, who had corrupted their ways before Him, but through Nehemiah; for he was registered in the books of heaven as a man. God has said, "Them that honour me I will honour" (1 Samuel 2:30). Nehemiah showed himself to be a man whom God could use to put down false principles and to restore heaven-born principles; and God honored him. The Lord will use in His work men who are as true as steel to principle, who will not be swayed by the sophistries of those who have lost their spiritual eyesight.--The Review and Herald, May 2, 1899.
------------------------Zerubbabel and Zechariah, September 20
YRP	272	1	Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them. Ezra 5:1, 2.
YRP	272	2	In rebuilding the house of the Lord, Zerubbabel had been encompassed with manifold difficulties. In former years, adversaries had "weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building," "and made them to cease by force and power" (Ezra 4:4, 23). But the Lord interposed in behalf of the faithful builders, and now He speaks through His prophet, Zechariah, to Zerubbabel, saying, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it" (Zechariah 4:6, 7).
YRP	272	3	Throughout the history of God's people, great mountains of difficulty, apparently insurmountable, have loomed up before those who were advancing in the opening providences of God. Such obstacles to progress are permitted by the Lord as a test of faith. When [we are] hedged about on every side, this is the time above all others to trust in God and in the power of His Holy Spirit. We are not to walk in our own strength, but in the strength of the Lord God of Israel. It is folly to trust in man or to make flesh our arm. We must trust in Jehovah; for in Him is everlasting strength. The One who, in response to words and deeds of faith, made the way plain before His servant Zerubbabel, is able to clear away every obstacle devised by Satan to hinder the progress of His cause. Through the exercise of persevering faith, every mountain of difficulty may be removed.
YRP	272	4	Sometimes God trains His workers by bringing to them disappointment and apparent failure. It is His purpose that they shall learn to master difficulty. He seeks to inspire them with a determination to make every apparent failure prove a success.--The Review and Herald, January 16, 1908.
------------------------John the Baptist, September 21
YRP	273	1	Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. John 1:22, 23.
YRP	273	2	"Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:11). In the announcement to Zacharias before the birth of John, the angel had declared, "He shall be great in the sight of the Lord" (Luke 1:15). In the estimation of Heaven, what is it that constitutes greatness? Not that which the world accounts greatness; not wealth, or rank, or noble descent, or intellectual gifts, in themselves considered. If intellectual greatness, apart from any higher consideration, is worthy of honor, then our homage is due to Satan, whose intellectual power no man has ever equaled. But when perverted to self-serving, the greater the gift, the greater curse it becomes.
YRP	273	3	It is moral worth that God values. Love and purity are the attributes He prizes most. John was great in the sight of the Lord, when, before the messengers from the Sanhedrin, before the people, and before his own disciples, he refrained from seeking honor for himself, but pointed all to Jesus as the Promised One. His unselfish joy in the ministry of Christ presents the highest type of nobility ever revealed in man.
YRP	273	4	The witness borne of him after his death, by those who had heard his testimony to Jesus, was "John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true" (John 10:41). It was not given to John to call down fire from heaven, or to raise the dead, as Elijah did, nor to wield Moses' rod of power in the name of God. He was sent to herald the Saviour's advent, and to call upon the people to prepare for His coming. So faithfully did he fulfill his mission, that as the people recalled what he had taught them of Jesus, they could say, "All things that John spake of this man were true." Such witness to Christ every disciple of the Master is called upon to bear.--The Desire of Ages, 219, 220.
------------------------Jesus Our Lord, September 22
YRP	274	1	The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18, 19.
YRP	274	2	Christ spoke no words revealing His importance, or showing His superiority; He did not ignore His fellow beings. He made no assumption of authority because of His relation to God, but His words and actions showed Him to be possessed of a knowledge of His mission and character. He spoke of heavenly things as one to whom everything heavenly was familiar. He spoke of His intimacy and oneness with the Father as a child would speak of its connection with its parents. He spoke as one who had come to enlighten the world with His glory. He never patronized the schools of the rabbis; for He was the teacher sent by God to instruct mankind. As one in whom all restorative power is found, Christ spoke of drawing all men unto Him, and of giving the life everlasting. In Him there is power to heal every physical and every spiritual disease.
YRP	274	3	Christ came to our world with a consciousness of more than human greatness, to accomplish a work that was to be infinite in its results. Where do you find Him when doing this work? In the house of Peter the fisherman. Resting by Jacob's well, telling the Samaritan woman of the living water. He generally taught in the open air, but sometimes in the Temple, for He attended the gatherings of the Jewish people. But oftenest He taught when sitting on a mountainside, or in a fisherman's boat. He entered into the lives of these humble fishermen. His sympathy was enlisted in behalf of the needy, the suffering, the despised; and many were attracted to Him.
YRP	274	4	When the plan of redemption was laid, it was decided that Christ should not appear in accordance with His divine character; for He could not then associate with the distressed and the suffering. He must come as a poor man. He could have appeared in accordance with His exalted station in the heavenly courts; but no, He must reach to the very lowest depths of human suffering and poverty, that His voice might be heard by the burdened and disappointed.--The Signs of the Times, June 24, 1897.
------------------------The Disciples, September 23
YRP	275	1	And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Acts 4:33.
YRP	275	2	After the crucifixion of Christ, the disciples were a helpless, discouraged company--as sheep without a shepherd. Their Master had been rejected, condemned, and nailed to the ignominious cross. Scornfully the Jewish priests and rulers had declared: "He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him" (Matthew 27:42).
YRP	275	3	But the cross, that instrument of shame and torture, brought hope and salvation to the world. The disciples rallied; their hopelessness and helplessness left them. They were transformed in character, and united in bonds of Christian love. They were but humble men, without wealth, and with no weapon but the Word and Spirit of God, counted by the Jews as mere fishermen. Yet in Christ's strength they went forth to witness for the truth, and to triumph over all opposition. Clothed with the divine panoply, they went forth to tell the wonderful story of the manger and the cross. Without earthly honor or recognition, they were heroes of faith. From their lips came words of divine eloquence that shook the world.
YRP	275	4	Those who had rejected and crucified the Saviour expected to find the disciples discouraged and crestfallen, ready to disown their Lord. They heard with amazement the clear, bold testimony of the apostles, given under the power of the Holy Spirit. The disciples worked and spoke as their Master had worked and spoken, and all who heard them said, "They have been with Jesus, and learned of Him."
YRP	275	5	As the apostles went forth, preaching Jesus everywhere, they did many things that the Jewish rulers did not approve. The people brought their sick, and those vexed with unclean spirits, into the streets; crowds collected round them, and those who had been healed shouted the praises of God, and glorified the name of Him whom the Jews had condemned, crowned with thorns, and caused to be scourged and crucified.--The Signs of the Times, September 20, 1899.
------------------------Stephen, September 24
YRP	276	1	And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Acts 6:8.
YRP	276	2	Stephen was very active in the cause of God, and declared his faith boldly. "Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake" (Acts 6:9, 10). These students of the great rabbis had felt confident that in a public discussion they could obtain a complete victory over Stephen, because of his supposed ignorance. But he not only spoke with the power of the Holy Ghost, but it was plain to all the vast assembly that he was also a student of the prophecies, and learned in all matters of the law. He ably defended the truths he advocated, and utterly defeated his opponents.
YRP	276	3	The priests and rulers who witnessed the wonderful manifestation of the power that attended the ministration of Stephen were filled with bitter hatred. Instead of yielding to the weight of evidence he presented, they determined to silence his voice by putting him to death. They had on several occasions bribed the Roman authorities to pass over without comment instances where the Jews had taken the law into their own hands, and tried, condemned, and executed prisoners according to their national custom. The enemies of Stephen did not doubt they could pursue such a course without danger to themselves. They determined to risk the consequences at all events, and they therefore seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin council for trial....
YRP	276	4	As Stephen stood face to face with his judges, to answer to the crime of blasphemy, a holy radiance shone upon his countenance. "And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel" (verse 15). Those who exalted Moses might have seen in the face of the prisoner the same holy light which radiated the face of that ancient prophet. The Shekinah was a spectacle which they would never again witness in the Temple whose glory had departed forever. Many who beheld the lighted countenance of Stephen trembled and veiled their faces; but stubborn unbelief and prejudice never faltered.--The Spirit of Prophecy 3:294-296.
------------------------Philip the Deacon, September 25
YRP	277	1	Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? Acts 8:29, 30.
YRP	277	2	God is looking down from His throne, and is sending His angels to this earth to cooperate with those who are teaching the truth. Read the record of the experience of Philip and the eunuch. "The angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet" (Acts 8:26-28)....
YRP	277	3	This incident shows the care that the Lord has over every mind that is susceptible to the truth. We see how closely the ministration of heavenly angels is connected with the work of the Lord's servants on this earth.
YRP	277	4	A burden was placed upon Philip to enter new places, to break up fresh ground. Direction was given him by an angel who was watching for every opportunity to bring men into connection with their fellow men. Philip was sent "toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert" (verse 26). This brought him into touch with a man of wide influence, who, when converted, would communicate to others the light of truth. By the Lord's working through Philip, the man was convinced of the truth, and was converted and baptized. He was a highway hearer, a man of good standing, who would exert a strong influence in favor of the truth.
YRP	277	5	Today, as then, angels of heaven are waiting to lead men to their fellow men. An angel showed Philip where to find this man, who was so ready to receive the truth, and today angels of God will guide and direct the footsteps of those workers who will allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify their tongues and refine and ennoble their hearts.--The Review and Herald, April 20, 1905.
------------------------Dorcas, September 26
YRP	278	1	Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. Acts 9:36.
YRP	278	2	At Joppa, which was near Lydda, there lived a woman named Dorcas, whose good deeds had made her greatly beloved.... Her life was filled with acts of kindness. Her skillful fingers were more active than her tongue. She knew who needed comfortable clothing and who needed sympathy, and she freely ministered to the poor and the sorrowful.
YRP	278	3	"And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died" (Acts 9:37). The church in Joppa realized their loss. And in view of the life of service that Dorcas had lived, it is little wonder that they mourned, or that warm teardrops fell upon the inanimate clay.
YRP	278	4	Hearing that Peter was at Lydda, the believers in Joppa sent messengers to him, "desiring him that he would not delay to come to them" (verse 38).
YRP	278	5	"Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them" (verse 39).
YRP	278	6	Peter directed that the weeping friends be sent from the room, and then kneeling down, he prayed fervently to God to restore Dorcas to life and health. Turning to the body, he said, "Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up" (verse 40).
YRP	278	7	Dorcas was of great service to the church, and God saw fit to bring her back from the land of the enemy, that her skill and energy might still be a blessing to others, and that by this manifestation of His power, the cause of Christ might be strengthened.--The Review and Herald, April 6, 1911.
------------------------Paul, September 27
YRP	279	1	But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee. Acts 26:16.
YRP	279	2	The solemn charge that had been given Paul on the occasion of his interview with Ananias rested with increasing weight upon his heart. When, in response to the invitation "Brother Saul, receive thy sight," Paul had for the first time looked upon the face of this devout man, Ananias under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said to him: "The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:13-16).
YRP	279	3	These words were in harmony with the words of Jesus Himself, who, when He arrested Saul on the journey to Damascus, declared: "I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I now send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me" (Acts 26:16-18).
YRP	279	4	As he pondered these things in his heart, Paul understood more and more the meaning of his call to be "an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God" (Ephesians 1:1). His call had come "not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father" (Galatians 1:1). The greatness of the work before him led him to give much study to the Holy Scriptures, in order that he might preach the gospel "not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect" (1 Corinthians 1:17), "but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power," that the faith of all who heard "should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" (1 Corinthians 2:4, 5).--The Review and Herald, March 30, 1911.
------------------------Timothy, September 28
YRP	280	1	I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 2 Timothy 4:1, 2.
YRP	280	2	This solemn charge to one so zealous and faithful as was Timothy is a strong testimony to the importance and responsibility of the work of the gospel minister. Summoning Timothy before the bar of God, Paul bids him preach the Word, not the sayings and customs of men; to be ready to witness for God whenever opportunity should present itself--before large congregations and private circles, by the way and at the fireside, to friends and to enemies, whether in safety or exposed to hardship and peril, reproach and loss.
YRP	280	3	Fearing that Timothy's mild, yielding disposition might lead him to shun an essential part of his work, Paul exhorted him to be faithful in reproving sin and even to rebuke with sharpness those who are guilty of gross evils. Yet he was to do this "with all longsuffering and doctrine." He was to reveal the patience and love of Christ, explaining and enforcing his reproofs by the truths of the Word.
YRP	280	4	To hate and reprove sin, and at the same time to show pity and tenderness for the sinner, is a difficult attainment. The more earnest our own efforts to attain to holiness of heart and life, the more acute will be our perception of sin and the more decided our disapproval of any deviation from the right. We must guard against undue severity toward the wrongdoer, but we must also be careful not to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. There is need of showing Christlike patience and love for the erring one, but there is also danger of showing so great toleration for his error that he will look upon himself as undeserving of reproof, and will reject it as uncalled for and unjust.--The Acts of the Apostles, 503, 504.
------------------------Aquila and Priscilla: Self-supporting Missionaries, September 29
YRP	281	1	Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Romans 16:3, 4.
YRP	281	2	Paul set an example against the sentiment, then gaining influence in the church, that the gospel could be proclaimed successfully only by those who were wholly freed from the necessity of physical toil. He illustrated in a practical way what might be done by consecrated laymen in many places where the people were unacquainted with the truths of the gospel. His course inspired many humble toilers with a desire to do what they could do to advance the cause of God, while at the same time they supported themselves in daily labor.
YRP	281	3	Aquila and Priscilla were not called to give their whole time to the ministry of the gospel, yet these humble laborers were used by God to show Apollos the way of truth more perfectly. The Lord employs various instrumentalities for the accomplishment of His purpose, and while some with special talents are chosen to devote all their energies to the work of teaching and preaching the gospel, many others, upon whom human hands have never been laid in ordination, are called to act an important part in soulsaving.
YRP	281	4	There is a large field open before the self-supporting gospel worker. Many may gain valuable experiences in ministry while toiling a portion of the time at some form of manual labor, and by this method strong workers may be developed for important service in needy fields.
YRP	281	5	The self-sacrificing servant of God who labors untiringly in word and doctrine carries on his heart a heavy burden. He does not measure his work by hours. His wages do not influence him in his labor, nor is he turned from his duty because of unfavorable conditions. From heaven he received his commission, and to heaven he looks for his recompense when the work entrusted to him is done.--The Acts of the Apostles, 355, 356.
------------------------John the Revelator, September 30
YRP	282	1	I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 1:9.
YRP	282	2	To outward appearances the enemies of truth were triumphing; but God's hand was moving unseen in the darkness. The Lord permitted His servant to be placed where Christ could give him a more wonderful revelation of Himself than he had ever yet received; where he could receive most precious enlightenment for the churches. He permitted him to be placed in solitude, that his ear and heart might be more fully prepared to hear and receive the revelations that he was to be given. The man who exiled John was not released from responsibility in the matter, but he became an instrument in the hands of God to carry out His eternal purpose; and the very effort to extinguish light placed the truth in bold relief.
YRP	282	3	John was deprived of the companionship of his brethren, but no man could deprive him of the companionship of Christ. A great light was to shine from Christ to His servant. The Lord watched over His banished disciple, and gave him a wonderful revelation of Himself. Richly favored was this beloved disciple. With the other disciples he had walked and talked with Jesus, learning of Him and feasting on His words. His head had often rested on his Saviour's bosom. But he must see Him also in Patmos.
YRP	282	4	God and Christ and the heavenly host were John's companions on the lonely island, and from them he received instruction of infinite importance. There he wrote out the visions and revelations he received of God, telling of the things that would take place in the closing scenes of this earth's history. When his voice could no longer witness to the truth, the messages given him in Patmos were to go forth as a lamp that burneth. From them men and women were to learn the purposes of God, not concerning the Jewish nation merely, but concerning every nation upon the earth.--The Signs of the Times, March 22, 1905.
------------------------The Greatest Need, October 1
YRP	283	1	Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:7.
YRP	283	2	A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs. To seek this should be our first work. There must be earnest effort to obtain the blessing of the Lord, not because God is not willing to bestow His blessing upon us, but because we are unprepared to receive it. Our heavenly Father is more willing to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him than are earthly parents to give good gifts to their children. But it is our work, by confession, humiliation, repentance, and earnest prayer, to fulfill the conditions upon which God has promised to grant us His blessing.
YRP	283	3	A revival need be expected only in answer to prayer. While the people are so destitute of God's Holy Spirit, they cannot appreciate the preaching of the Word; but when the Spirit's power touches their hearts, then the discourses given will not be without effect. Guided by the teachings of God's Word, with the manifestation of His Spirit, in the exercise of sound discretion, those who attend our meetings will gain a precious experience, and returning home will be prepared to exert a healthful influence.
YRP	283	4	The old standard-bearers knew what it was to wrestle with God in prayer, and to enjoy the outpouring of His Spirit. But these are passing off from the stage of action; and who are coming up to fill their places? How is it with the rising generation? Are they converted to God? Are we awake to the work that is going on in the heavenly sanctuary, or are we waiting for some compelling power to come upon the church before we shall arouse? Are we hoping to see the whole church revived? That time will never come.
YRP	283	5	There are persons in the church who are not converted, and who will not unite in earnest, prevailing prayer. We must enter upon the work individually. We must pray more, and talk less.--The Review and Herald, March 22, 1887.
------------------------The Greatest Gift, October 2
YRP	284	1	Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. 2 Corinthians 1:21, 22.
YRP	284	2	In giving the Holy Spirit, it was impossible for God to give more. To this gift nothing could be added. By it all needs are supplied. The Holy Spirit is the vital presence of God, and if appreciated will call forth praise and thanksgiving, and will ever be springing up unto everlasting life. The restoration of the Spirit is the covenant of grace. Yet how few appreciate this great gift, so costly, yet so free to all who will accept it? When faith takes hold of the blessing, there comes rich spiritual good. But too often the blessing is not appreciated. We need an enlarged conception in order to comprehend its value....
YRP	284	3	Oh, what amazing love and condescension! The Lord Jesus encourages His believing ones to ask for the Holy Spirit. By presenting the parental tenderness of God, He seeks to encourage faith in the reception of the gift. The heavenly Parent is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their children.
YRP	284	4	What greater thing could be promised? What more is necessary to awaken a response in every soul, to inspire us with a longing for the great gift? Shall not our halfhearted supplications be turned into petitions of intense desire for this great blessing?
YRP	284	5	We do not ask for enough of the good things God has promised. If we would reach up higher and expect more, our petitions would reveal the quickening influence that comes to every soul who asks with the full expectation of being heard and answered. The Lord is not glorified by the tame supplications which show that nothing is expected. He desires everyone who believes to approach the throne of grace with earnestness and assurance.--The Signs of the Times, August 7, 1901.
------------------------A Thorough Reformation, October 3
YRP	285	1	Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Philippians 2:2.
YRP	285	2	The time has come for a thorough reformation to take place. When this reformation begins, the spirit of prayer will actuate every believer and will banish from the church the spirit of discord and strife. Those who have not been living in Christian fellowship will draw close to one another. One member working in right lines will lead other members to unite with him in making intercession for the revelation of the Holy Spirit. There will be no confusion, because all will be in harmony with the mind of the Spirit. The barriers separating believer from believer will be broken down, and God's servants will speak the same things. The Lord will cooperate with His servants. All will pray understandingly the prayer that Christ taught His servants: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
YRP	285	3	As I hear of the terrible calamities that from week to week are taking place, I ask myself: What do these things mean? The most awful disasters are following one another in quick succession. How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property! Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of seemingly disorganized, unregulated forces, but in them God's purpose may be read. They are one of the means by which He seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger.
YRP	285	4	The coming of Christ is nearer than when we first believed. The great controversy is nearing its end. The judgments of God are in the land. They speak in solemn warning, saying: "Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 24:44).--Testimonies for the Church 8:251, 252.
------------------------Heart Searching and Self-examination, October 4
YRP	286	1	Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23, 24.
YRP	286	2	After Christ's ascension, the disciples were gathered together in one place to make humble supplication to God. And after ten days of heart searching and self-examination, the way was prepared for the Holy Spirit to enter the cleansed, consecrated soul temples. Every heart was filled with the Spirit, as though God desired to show His people that it was His prerogative to bless them with the choicest of heaven's blessings.
YRP	286	3	What was the result?--Thousands were converted in a day. The sword of the Spirit flashed right and left. Newly edged with power, it pierced even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow. The idolatry that had been mingled with the worship of the people was overthrown. New territory was added to the kingdom of God. Places that had been barren and desolate sounded forth His praises. Believers, reconverted, born again, were a living power for God. A new song was put in their mouths, even praise to the Most High.
YRP	286	4	Controlled by the Spirit, they saw Christ in their brethren. One interest prevailed. One subject of emulation swallowed up all others--to be like Christ, to do the works of Christ. The earnest zeal felt was expressed by loving helpfulness, by kindly words and unselfish deeds. All strove to see who could do the most for the enlargement of Christ's kingdom. "The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul" (Acts 4:32).
YRP	286	5	In the twelve disciples the leaven of truth was hidden by the Great Teacher. These disciples were to be the instruments in God's hands for revealing truth to the world. Divine power was given them; for a risen Saviour breathed on them, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Imbued with this Spirit, they went forth to witness for the truth. And so God desires His servants to go forth today with the message He has given them. But till they receive the Holy Spirit, they cannot bear this message with power. Till they receive the Spirit, they cannot realize what God can do through them.--The Review and Herald, June 10, 1902.
------------------------With One Accord, October 5
YRP	287	1	And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Acts 2:1.
YRP	287	2	To us today, as verily as to the first disciples, the promise of the Spirit belongs. God will today endow men and women with power from above, as He endowed those who on the day of Pentecost heard the word of salvation. At this very hour His Spirit and His grace are for all who need them and will take Him at His word.
YRP	287	3	Notice that it was after the disciples had come into perfect unity, when they were no longer striving for the highest place, that the Spirit was poured out. They were of one accord. All differences had been put away. And the testimony borne of them after the Spirit had been given is the same. Mark the word: "The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul" (Acts 4:32). The Spirit of Him who died that sinners might live animated the entire congregation of believers.
YRP	287	4	The disciples did not ask for a blessing for themselves. They were weighted with the burden of souls. The gospel was to be carried to the ends of the earth, and they claimed the endowment of power that Christ had promised. Then it was that the Holy Spirit was poured out, and thousands were converted in a day.
YRP	287	5	So it may be now. Let Christians put away all dissension and give themselves to God for the saving of the lost. Let them ask in faith for the promised blessing, and it will come. The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was "the former rain," and glorious was the result. But the latter rain will be more abundant. What is the promise to those living in these last days? "Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee" (Zechariah 9:12) "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field" (Zechariah 10:1).--Testimonies for the Church 8:20, 21.
------------------------Seeking Harmony, October 6
YRP	288	1	Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Philippians 2:3.
YRP	288	2	God's servants are to labor in perfect harmony. Contention brings alienation and strife and discord. I am instructed that our churches have no need to spend their time in strife. When a spirit of contention struggles for the supremacy, call a halt, and make things right, else Christ will come quickly, and will remove your candlestick out of its place. Let an earnest work of repentance be done. Let the Spirit of God search through mind and heart, and cleanse away all that hinders the needed reformation. Until this is done, God cannot bestow on us His power and grace. And while we are without His power and grace, men will stumble and fall, and will not know at what they stumble.
YRP	288	3	The love of Christ is the bond that is to unite believers heart to heart and mind to mind.
YRP	288	4	The blood of Christ has been shed for the whole human family. None need be lost. Those who are lost will perish because they chose to forfeit an eternity of bliss for the satisfaction of having their own way. This was Satan's choice, and today his work and his kingdom testify to the character of his choice. The crime and misery that fill our world, the horrible murders that are of daily occurrence, are the fruit of man's submission to Satan's principles.
YRP	288	5	My brethren, read the book of Revelation from beginning to end, and ask yourselves whether you might not better spend less time in strife and contention, and begin to think of how fast we are approaching the last great crisis. Those who seek to make it appear that there is no special meaning attached to the judgments that the Lord is now sending upon the earth will soon be forced to understand that which now they do not choose to understand.--The Review and Herald, August 20, 1903.
------------------------Feeling Our Spiritual Need, October 7
YRP	289	1	And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. Luke 18:13.
YRP	289	2	We should be often in prayer. The outpouring of the Spirit of God came in answer to earnest prayer. But mark this fact concerning the disciples. The record says, "They were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:1-4).
YRP	289	3	They were not assembled to relate tidbits of scandal. They were not seeking to expose every stain they could find on a brother's character. They felt their spiritual need, and cried to the Lord for the holy unction to help them in overcoming their own infirmities, and to fit them for the work of saving others. They prayed with intense earnestness that the love of Christ might be shed abroad in their hearts.
YRP	289	4	This is our great need today in every church in our land. For "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). That which was objectionable in the character is purified from the soul by the love of Jesus. All selfishness is expelled, all envy, all evil-speaking, is rooted out, and a radical transformation is wrought in the heart. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22, 23). "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace" (James 3:18).
YRP	289	5	Paul says that "as touching the law"--as far as outward acts were concerned--he was "blameless," but when the spiritual character of the law was discerned, when he looked into the holy mirror, he saw himself a sinner. Judged by a human standard, he had abstained from sin, but when he looked into the depths of God's law, and saw himself as God saw him, he bowed in humiliation, and confessed his guilt.--The Review and Herald, July 22, 1890.
------------------------Placing Self Aside, October 8
YRP	290	1	But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Philippians 3:7.
YRP	290	2	It is through the church that the self-sacrificing love of Jesus is to be made manifest to the world; but by the present example of the church the character of Christ is misrepresented, and a false conception of Him is given to the world. Self-love excludes the love of Jesus from the soul, and this is why there is not in the church greater zeal and more fervent love for Him who first loved us. Self is supreme in so many hearts. Their thoughts, their time, their money, are given to self-gratification, while souls for whom Christ died are perishing.
YRP	290	3	This is why the Lord cannot impart to His church the fullness of His blessing. To honor them in a distinguished manner before the world would be to put His seal upon their works, confirming their false representation of His character. When the church shall come out from the world, and be separate from its maxims, habits, and practices, the Lord Jesus will work with His people; He will pour a large measure of His Spirit upon them, and the world will know that the Father loves them. Will the people of God continue to be so stupefied with selfishness? His blessing hangs over them, but it cannot be bestowed in its fullness because they are so corrupted with the spirit and practices of the world. There is spiritual pride among them; and should the Lord work as His heart longs to do, it would but confirm them in their self-esteem and self-exaltation.
YRP	290	4	Shall Christ continue to be misrepresented by our people? Shall the grace of God, the divine enlightenment, be shut away from His church, because of their lukewarmness? It will be, unless there is most thorough seeking of God, renunciation of the world, and humbling of the soul before God. The converting power of God must pass through our churches.--The Home Missionary, November 1, 1890.
------------------------Opening the Heart, October 9
YRP	291	1	I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5.
YRP	291	2	The Lord desires to make man the repository of divine influence, and the only thing that hinders the accomplishment of God's designs is that men close their hearts to the Light of life. Apostasy caused the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit from man, but through the plan of redemption this blessing of heaven is to be restored to those who sincerely desire it. The Lord has promised to give all good things to those who ask Him, and all good things are defined as given with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
YRP	291	3	The more we discover our real need, our real poverty, the more will we desire the gift of the Holy Spirit; our souls will be turned, not into the channel of ambition and presumption, but into the channel of earnest supplication for the enlightenment of heaven. It is because we do not see our need, do not realize our poverty, that we do not pour forth earnest entreaties, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, for the bestowal of the blessing....
YRP	291	4	Jesus has said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7). It is in proportion to our appreciation of the necessity and value of spiritual things that we seek for their attainment. "Without me ye can do nothing," says Jesus, and yet many think that man can do very much in his own finite strength and wisdom. Satan is ready to offer his counsel that he may win souls in the game of life.
YRP	291	5	When men do not feel the need of counseling with their brethren, something is wrong; they trust to their wisdom. It is essential that brethren should counsel together. This I have been compelled to urge for the last forty-five years. Again and again the instruction has been repeated that those who are engaged in important work in the cause of God should not walk in their own ideas, but counsel together.--Manuscript Releases 2:333.
------------------------Emptying the Vessel, October 10
YRP	292	1	That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15.
YRP	292	2	Transformation of character is to be the testimony to the world of the indwelling love of Christ. The Lord expects His people to show that the redeeming power of grace can work upon the faulty character and cause it to develop in symmetry and abundant fruitfulness.
YRP	292	3	But in order for us to fulfill God's purpose, there is a preparatory work to be done. The Lord bids us empty our hearts of the selfishness which is the root of alienation. He longs to pour upon us His Holy Spirit in rich measure, and He bids us clear the way by self-renunciation. When self is surrendered to God, our eyes will be opened to see the stumbling stones which our un-Christlikeness has placed in the way of others. All these God bids us remove. He says: "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed" (James 5:16). Then we may have the assurance that David had when, after confession of his sin, he prayed: "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee" (Psalm 51:12, 13).
YRP	292	4	When the grace of God reigns within, the soul will be surrounded with an atmosphere of faith and courage and Christlike love, an atmosphere invigorating to the spiritual life of all who inhale it.... Everyone who is a partaker of Christ's pardoning love, everyone who has been enlightened by the Spirit of God and converted to the truth, will feel that for these precious blessings he owes a debt to every soul with whom he comes in contact. Those who are humble in heart the Lord will use to reach souls whom the ordained ministers cannot approach. They will be moved to speak words which reveal the saving grace of Christ.--Testimonies for the Church 6:43.
------------------------Windows Wide Open, October 11
YRP	293	1	That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:10.
YRP	293	2	There are some who talk in a regretful way concerning the restraints that the religion of the Bible imposes upon those who would follow its teachings. They seem to think that restraint is a great disadvantage, but we have reason to thank God with all our heart that He has raised a heavenly barrier between us and the ground of the enemy. There are certain tendencies of the natural heart that many think must be followed in order that the best development of the individual may result, but that which man thinks essential God sees would not be the blessing to humanity which men imagine, for the development of these very traits of character would unfit them for the mansions above.
YRP	293	3	The Lord places men under test and trial that the dross may be separated from the gold, but He forces none. He does not bind with fetters and cords and barriers, for they increase disaffection rather than decrease it. The remedy for evil is found in Christ as an indwelling Saviour. But in order that Christ may be in the soul, it must first be emptied of self, then there is a vacuum created that may be supplied by the Holy Spirit.
YRP	293	4	The Lord purifies the heart very much as we air a room. We do not close the doors and windows and throw in some purifying substance; but we open the doors and throw wide the windows, and let heaven's purifying atmosphere flow in. The Lord says, "He that doeth truth cometh to the light" (John 3:21). The windows of impulse, of feeling, must be opened up toward heaven, and the dust of selfishness and earthliness must be expelled. The grace of God must sweep through the chambers of the mind, the imagination must have heavenly themes for contemplation, and every element of the nature must be purified and vitalized by the Spirit of God.--Manuscript Releases 2:338.
------------------------The Sun of Righteousness Purifies the Soul, October 12
YRP	294	1	Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Colossians 1:12, 13.
YRP	294	2	It is the privilege of every earnest seeker for truth and righteousness to rely upon the sure promises of God. The Lord Jesus makes manifest the fact that the treasures of divine grace are placed entirely at our disposal, in order that we may become channels of light. We cannot receive the riches of the grace of Christ without desiring to impart them to others. When we have the love of Christ in our hearts, we shall feel that it is our duty and privilege to communicate it. The sun shining in the heavens, pours its bright beams into all the highways and byways of life. It has sufficient light for thousands of worlds like ours. And so it is with the Sun of righteousness; His bright beams of healing and gladness are amply sufficient to save our little world, and are efficacious in establishing security in every world that has been created....
YRP	294	3	Those who realize their need of repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, will have contrition of soul, will repent for their resistance of the Spirit of the Lord. They will confess their sin in refusing the light that heaven has so graciously sent them, and they will forsake the sin that grieved and insulted the Spirit of the Lord. They will humble self, and accept the power and grace of Christ, acknowledging the messages of warning, reproof, and encouragement. Then their faith in the work of God will be made manifest, and they will rely upon the atoning sacrifice. They will make a personal appropriation of Christ's abundant grace and righteousness, and He will become to them a present Saviour; for they will realize their need of Him, and with complete trust will rest in Him. They will drink of the water of life from the divine, inexhaustible Fountain. In a new and blessed experience, they will cast themselves upon Christ, and become partakers of the divine nature.--The Review and Herald, August 26, 1890.
------------------------Eyes Looking Heavenward, October 13
YRP	295	1	For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20.
YRP	295	2	Shall we not break off our sins by righteousness, and have our conversation in heaven, whence we look for our Saviour? Shall we not talk of our Saviour until it becomes natural for us to do so? If we do not order our conversation aright, we shall not see the salvation of God. Satan will take possession of the heart, and we shall become low and sensual. Let us elevate the thoughts, and take hold upon things that are of real value, gaining an education here that will be of value in the world to come. Shall we not seek the Lord with earnestness, repent of our backslidings, mourn that we have neglected His Word, that we do not know the truth better, and turn to Him with all the heart, that He may heal us, and love us freely? Today let us take a step toward heaven....
YRP	295	3	The latter rain is to fall upon the people of God. A mighty angel is to come down from heaven, and the whole earth is to be lighted with His glory. Are we ready to take part in the glorious work of the third angel? Are our vessels ready to receive the heavenly dew? Have we defilement and sin in the heart? If so, let us cleanse the soul temple, and prepare for the showers of the latter rain. The refreshing from the presence of the Lord will never come to hearts filled with impurity. May God help us to die to self, that Christ, the hope of glory, may be formed within!
YRP	295	4	I must have the Spirit of God in my heart. I can never go forward to do the great work of God, unless the Holy Spirit rests upon my soul. "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God" (Psalm 42:1). The day of judgment is upon us. Oh, that we may wash our robes of character, and make them white in the blood of the Lamb!--The Review and Herald, April 21, 1891.
------------------------From Scarlet to White, October 14
YRP	296	1	Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isaiah 1:18.
YRP	296	2	When you remember that Christ has paid the price of His own blood for your redemption and for the redemption of others, you will be moved to catch the bright rays of His righteousness, that you may shed them upon the pathway of those around you. You are not to look to the future, thinking that at some distant day you are to be made holy; it is now that you are to be sanctified through the truth. The prophet exhorts: "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:6, 7). And Jesus said, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me ... unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
YRP	296	3	We are to receive the Holy Ghost. We have had an idea that this gift of God was not for such as we are, that the gift of the Holy Spirit was too sacred, too holy for us; but the Holy Spirit is the Comforter that Christ promised to His disciples to bring all things to their remembrance, whatsoever He had said unto them. Then let us cease to look to ourselves, but look to Him from whom all virtue comes. No one can make himself better, but we are to come to Jesus as we are, earnestly desiring to be cleansed from every spot and stain of sin, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are not to doubt His mercy, and say, "I do not know whether I shall be saved or not." By living faith we must lay hold of His promise, for He has said, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
YRP	296	4	We are to be witnesses for Christ, reflecting upon others the light which the Lord permits to shine upon us. We are to be as faithful soldiers marching under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel.--The Signs of the Times, April 4, 1892.
------------------------Garment Changed, October 15
YRP	297	1	And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Matthew 22:11, 12.
YRP	297	2	Discard your citizen's dress, and put on the wedding garment which Christ has prepared. Then you can sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. God welcomes all who come to Him just as they are, not building themselves up in self-righteousness, not seeking to justify self, not claiming merits for what they call good actions, not priding themselves on their supposed knowledge. While you have been walking and working in meekness and lowliness of heart, a work has been done for you--a work that only God could do. It is God who works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. That good pleasure is to see you abiding in Christ, resting in His love.
YRP	297	3	Let not anything rob your soul of peace, of restfulness, of the assurance that you are accepted just now. Claim every promise; all are yours if you will comply with the prescribed terms. Entire self-surrender, an acceptance of Christ's ways, is the secret of perfect rest in His love.
YRP	297	4	The abiding rest--who has it? That rest is found when all self-justification, all reasoning from a selfish standpoint, is put away. Entire self-surrender, an acceptance of His ways, is the secret of perfect rest in His love. We must learn His meekness and lowliness before we experience the fulfillment of the promise "Ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29). It is by learning the habits of Christ that self becomes transformed--by taking His yoke, and then submitting to learn.
YRP	297	5	Giving up the life to Christ means much more than many suppose. God calls for an entire surrender. We cannot receive the Holy Spirit until we break every yoke that binds us to our objectionable traits of character. These are the great hindrances to wearing Christ's yoke and learning of Him. There is no one who has not much to learn. All must be trained by Christ.--The Review and Herald, April 25, 1899.
------------------------The Will Surrendered, October 16
YRP	298	1	For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13.
YRP	298	2	Christ has promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to His church, and the promise belongs to us as much as to the first disciples. But like every other promise, it is given on conditions. There are many who believe and profess to claim the Lord's promise; they talk about Christ and the Holy Spirit, yet receive no benefit. They do not surrender the soul to be guided and controlled by divine agencies. We cannot use the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit God works in His people "to will and to do of his good pleasure." But many will not submit to this. They want to manage themselves. This is why they do not receive the heavenly gift.
YRP	298	3	Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. The power of God awaits their demand and reception. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive.
YRP	298	4	When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the joy of heaven. No one sees the hand that lifts the burden, or beholds the light descend from the courts above. The blessing comes when by faith the soul surrenders itself to God. Then that power which no human eye can see creates a new being in the image of God.
YRP	298	5	The Holy Spirit is the breath of spiritual life in the soul. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. [The Spirit] imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ.--The Review and Herald, November 19, 1908.
------------------------Self Subdued, October 17
YRP	299	1	I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Revelation 3:18.
YRP	299	2	There is to be in the churches a wonderful manifestation of the power of God, but it will not move upon those who have not humbled themselves before the Lord, and opened the door of the heart by confession and repentance. In the manifestation of that power which lightens the earth with the glory of God, they will see only something which in their blindness they think dangerous, something which will arouse their fears, and they will brace themselves to resist it. Because the Lord does not work according to their ideas and expectations, they will oppose the work. "Why," they say, "should not we know the Spirit of God, when we have been in the work so many years?" Because they did not respond to the warnings, the entreaties of the messages of God, but persistently said, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing" (Revelation 3:17).
YRP	299	3	Talent, long experience, will not make men channels of light, unless they place themselves under the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness, and are called, and chosen, and prepared by the endowment of the Holy Spirit. When men who handle sacred things will humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, the Lord will lift them up. He will make them men of understanding--men rich in the grace of His Spirit. Their strong, selfish traits of character, their stubbornness, will be seen in the light shining from the Light of the world. "I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent" (Revelation 2:5). If you seek the Lord with all your heart, He will be found of you.
YRP	299	4	The end is near! We have not a moment to lose! Light is to shine forth from God's people in clear, distinct rays, bringing Jesus before the churches and before the world.--The Review and Herald, December 23, 1890.
------------------------A Mind Submissive, October 18
YRP	300	1	That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Ephesians 3:16.
YRP	300	2	The gospel of Christ makes progress in every human agent that is consecrated to the Lord's service. The Holy Spirit takes possession of everyone who has a willing mind, not that that person may work the Holy Spirit, but that the Holy Spirit may work its miracle through the grace that is poured upon the human agency. The goodness of God becomes a working power through a consistent life, through fervent love for Jesus, and through heaven-inspired zeal. Those who are in association with Jesus will partake of His melting love, and manifest His overflowing sympathy for souls who are yielding to Satan's specious temptations. They will plan and study and exercise tact, in order that they may make a success of so presenting the unselfish love of Christ that sinful and impenitent hearts may be won to loyalty to Jesus, who gave His life for them....
YRP	300	3	Lose no time; confess Christ without delay. It is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth that testifies of Christ. Jesus said, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
YRP	300	4	To grieve the Holy Spirit which would make you a witness of Christ is a terrible thing. You know not when you may grieve the Spirit for the last time. The Holy Spirit does not work upon the human heart to compel you to give yourself to Christ, to force you to yield your conscience: but [the Spirit] shines into the chambers of the mind in a way to convict of sin, and to entice you unto righteousness. If you do not confess Christ now, the time will come when, overwhelmed with a sense of the great things that you have lost, you will make confession. But why not confess Christ now while mercy's voice invites you?--The Youth's Instructor, August 1, 1895.
------------------------Removing Every Hindrance, October 19
YRP	301	1	Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 1 Corinthians 1:10.
YRP	301	2	For the outpouring of the Spirit every lover of the cause of truth should pray. And as far as lies in our power, we are to remove every hindrance to His working. The Spirit can never be poured out while variance and bitterness toward one another are cherished by the members of the church. Envy, jealousy, evil surmising, and evil-speaking are of Satan, and they effectually bar the way against the Holy Spirit's working.
YRP	301	3	Nothing else in this world is so dear to God as His church. Nothing is guarded by Him with such jealous care. Nothing so offends God as an act that injures the influence of those who are doing His service. He will call to account all who aid Satan in his work of criticizing and discouraging.
YRP	301	4	Those who are destitute of sympathy, tenderness, and love cannot do Christ's work. Before the prophecy can be fulfilled, The weak shall be "as David," and the house of David "as the angel of the Lord" (Zechariah 12:8), the children of God must put away every thought of suspicion in regard to their brethren. Heart must beat in unison with heart. Christian benevolence and brotherly love must be far more abundantly shown. The words are ringing in my ears: "Draw together, draw together." The solemn, sacred truth for this time is to unify the people of God. The desire for preeminence must die. One subject of emulation must swallow up all others--who will most nearly resemble Christ in character? Who will most entirely hide self in Jesus?
YRP	301	5	"Herein is my Father glorified," Christ says, "that ye bear much fruit" (John 15:8). If there was ever a place where the believers should bear much fruit, it is at our camp meetings. At these meetings our acts, our words, our spirit, are marked, and our influence is as far-reaching as eternity.--Testimonies for the Church 6:42.
------------------------Accepting the Spirit's Influence, October 20
YRP	302	1	Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1.
YRP	302	2	The Lord sends us warning, counsel, and reproof, that we may have opportunity to correct our errors before they become second nature. But if we refuse to be corrected, God does not interfere to counteract the tendencies of our own course of action. He works no miracle that the seed sown may not spring up and bear fruit. That man who manifests an infidel hardihood or a stolid indifference to divine truth is but reaping the harvest which he has himself sown. Such has been the experience of many. They listen with stoical indifference to the truths which once stirred their very souls. They sowed neglect, indifference, and resistance to the truth; and such is the harvest which they reap.
YRP	302	3	The coldness of ice, the hardness of iron, the impenetrable, unimpressible nature of rock--all these find a counterpart in the character of many a professed Christian. It was thus that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. God spoke to the Egyptian king by the mouth of Moses, giving him the most striking evidences of divine power; but the monarch stubbornly refused the light which would have brought him to repentance. God did not send a supernatural power to harden the heart of the rebellious king, but as Pharaoh resisted the truth, the Holy Spirit was withdrawn, and he was left to the darkness and unbelief which he had chosen.
YRP	302	4	By persistent rejection of the Spirit's influence, men cut themselves off from God. He has in reserve no more potent agency to enlighten their minds. No revelation of His will can reach them in their unbelief.
YRP	302	5	Would that I could lead every professed follower of Christ to see this matter as it is. We are all sowing either to the flesh or to the Spirit, and we reap the harvest from the seed we sow. In choosing our pleasures or employments, we should seek only those things that are excellent. The trifling, the worldly, the debasing, should have no power to control the affections or the will.--The Review and Herald, June 20, 1882.
------------------------Expecting Great Things, October 21
YRP	303	1	Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 1 Corinthians 2:12.
YRP	303	2	It is not because of any restriction on God's part that the riches of His grace do not flow to men. His gift is godlike. He gave with a liberality that men do not appreciate because they do not love to receive. If all were willing to receive, all would be filled with the Spirit. By resting content with small blessings, we disqualify ourselves for receiving the Spirit in ... unlimited fullness. We are too easily satisfied with a ripple on the surface, when it is our privilege to expect the deep moving of the Spirit of God. Expecting little, we receive little.
YRP	303	3	The necessity of the Holy Spirit's working should be realized by all. Unless this Spirit is accepted and cherished as the representative of Christ, whose work it is to renew and sanctify the entire being, the momentous truths that have been entrusted to human beings will lose their power on the mind. It is not enough for us to have a knowledge of the truth. We are to walk and work in love, conforming our will to the will of God. Of those who do this the Lord declares, "I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts" (Hebrews 8:10). God is the mighty, all-powerful agency in this work of transformation. By His Holy Spirit He writes His law in the heart.
YRP	303	4	Thus divine relationship is renewed between God and man. "I will be to them a God," He says, "and they shall be to Me a people" (see Exodus 6:7; Jeremiah 31:33). "There is no attribute of My nature that I will not freely give in order than man may reveal My image." When we allow God to work His will in us, we shall harbor no sin. In the refining furnace all dross will be consumed.
YRP	303	5	When the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost, it was like a rushing, mighty wind. [The Spirit] was given in no stinted measure; for He filled all the place where the disciples were sitting. So will it be given to us when our hearts are prepared to receive Him.--The Review and Herald, June 10, 1902.
------------------------Asking for His Blessing, October 22
YRP	304	1	And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? Luke 18:7.
YRP	304	2	We may have long followed the narrow path, but it is not safe to take this as proof that we shall follow it to the end. If we have walked with God in fellowship of the Spirit, it is because we have sought Him daily by faith. From the two olive trees, the golden oil flowing through the golden pipes has been communicated to us. But those who do not cultivate the spirit and habit of prayer cannot expect to receive the golden oil of goodness, patience, long-suffering, gentleness, love.
YRP	304	3	Everyone is to keep himself separate from the world, which is full of iniquity. We are not to walk with God for a time, and then part from His company, and walk in the sparks of our own kindling. There must be a firm continuance, a perseverance in acts of faith. We are to praise God, to show forth His glory in a righteous character. No one of us will gain the victory without persevering, untiring effort, proportionate to the value of the object which we seek, even eternal life.
YRP	304	4	The dispensation in which we are now living is to be, to those that ask, the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. Ask for His blessing. It is time we were more intense in our devotion. To us is committed the arduous, but happy, glorious work of revealing Christ to those who are in darkness. We are called to proclaim the special truths for this time. For all this the outpouring of the Spirit is essential. We should pray for [the Spirit]. The Lord expects us to ask Him. We have not been wholehearted in this work.
YRP	304	5	What can I say to my brethren in the name of the Lord? What proportion of our efforts has been made in accordance with the light the Lord has been pleased to give? We cannot depend upon form or external machinery. What we need is the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit of God. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, said the Lord of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6). Pray without ceasing, and watch by working in accordance with your prayers. As you pray, believe, trust in God. It is the time of the latter rain, when the Lord will give largely of His Spirit. Be fervent in prayer, and watch in the Spirit.--The Review and Herald, March 2, 1897.
------------------------Trusting His Promise, October 23
YRP	305	1	Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16.
YRP	305	2	The Lord will not leave His afflicted, tried children to be the sport of Satan's temptations. It is our privilege to trust in Jesus. The heavens are full of rich blessings, and it is our privilege to have the joy of Christ in us that our joy may be full. We have not because we ask not, or because we do not pray in faith, believing that we shall be blessed with the special influence of the Holy Spirit. To the true seeker through the mediation of Christ the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit are imparted in order that the receiver may impart a knowledge of saving truth.
YRP	305	3	Why do we not believe the plain "Thus saith the Lord"? Do not cease to pray under any circumstances. The Spirit may be willing but the flesh may be weak, but Jesus knows all about that. In your weakness you are not to be anxious; for anxiety means doubt and distrust. You are simply to believe that Christ is able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for us.
YRP	305	4	What does intercession comprehend? It is the golden chain which binds finite man to the throne of the infinite God. The human agent whom Christ has died to save importunes the throne of God, and his petition is taken up by Jesus, who has purchased him with His own blood. Our great High Priest places His righteousness on the side of the sincere suppliant, and the prayer of Christ blends with that of the human petitioner.
YRP	305	5	Christ has urged that His people pray without ceasing. This does not mean that we should always be upon our knees, but that prayer is to be as the breath of the soul. Our silent requests, wherever we may be, are to be ascending unto God, and Jesus, our advocate, pleads in our behalf, bearing up with the incense of His righteousness our requests to the Father.
YRP	305	6	The Lord Jesus loves His people, and when they put their trust in Him, depending wholly upon Him, He strengthens them. He will live through them, giving them the inspiration of His sanctifying Spirit, imparting to the soul a vital transfusion of Himself.--Sabbath School Worker, February 1, 1896.
------------------------A Permanent Connection, October 24
YRP	306	1	And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint. Luke 18:1.
YRP	306	2	At no point in our experience can we dispense with the assistance of that which enables us to make the first start. The blessings received under the former rain are needful to us to the end. Yet these alone will not suffice. While we cherish the blessing of the early rain, we must not, on the other hand, lose sight of the fact that without the latter rain, to fill out the ears and ripen the grain, the harvest will not be ready for the sickle, and the labor of the sower will have been in vain. Divine grace is needed at the beginning, divine grace at every step of advance, and divine grace alone can complete the work.
YRP	306	3	There is no place for us to rest in a careless attitude. We must never forget the warnings of Christ, "Watch unto prayer," "Watch ... and pray always" (Luke 21:36). A connection with the divine agency every moment is essential to our progress. We may have had a measure of the Spirit of God, but by prayer and faith we are continually to seek more of the Spirit. It will never do to cease our efforts. If we do not progress, if we do not place ourselves in an attitude to receive both the former and the latter rain, we shall lose our souls, and the responsibility will lie at our own door.
YRP	306	4	"Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain" (Zechariah 10:1). Do not rest satisfied that in the ordinary course of the season, rain will fall. Ask for it. The growth and perfection of the seed rests not with the husbandman. God alone can ripen the harvest. But man's cooperation is required. God's work for us demands the action of our mind, the exercise of our faith. We must seek His favors with the whole heart if the showers of grace are to come to us.
YRP	306	5	We should improve every opportunity of placing ourselves in the channel of blessing. Christ has said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst" (Matthew 18:20). The convocations of the church, as in camp meetings, the assemblies of the home church, and all occasions where there is personal labor for souls, are God's appointed opportunities for giving the early and the latter rain.--The Review and Herald, March 2, 1897.
------------------------Real Appreciation, October 25
YRP	307	1	And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:31.
YRP	307	2	The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was the "former rain"; and glorious was the result. But the "latter rain" will be still more abundant. What is the promise to those living in these last days? "Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee" (Zechariah 9:12). "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field" (Zechariah 10:1).
YRP	307	3	Christ declares that the divine influence of the Spirit was to be with His followers unto the end. But by some this promise is not appreciated as it should be; its fulfillment is not realized as it might be. Learning, talents, eloquence, every natural or acquired endowment, may be possessed; but without the presence of the Spirit of God, no heart will be touched, no sinner won to Christ. When His disciples are connected with Christ, when the gifts of the Spirit are theirs, even the poorest and most ignorant of them will have a power that will tell upon hearts. God makes them the channel for the outworking of the highest influence in the universe.
YRP	307	4	As the divine endowment--the power of the Holy Spirit--was given to the disciples, so it will today be given to all who seek aright. This power alone is able to make us wise unto salvation, and to fit us for the courts above. Christ wants to give us a blessing that will make us holy. "These things have I spoken unto you," He says, "that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (John 15:11). Joy in the Holy Spirit is health-giving, life-giving. In giving us His Spirit, God gives us Himself--a fountain of divine influences, to give health and life to the world.--The Signs of the Times, March 15, 1910.
------------------------More Preaching, October 26
YRP	308	1	Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 1 Corinthians 2:13.
YRP	308	2	Just prior to His leaving His disciples for the heavenly courts, Jesus encouraged them with the promise of the Holy Spirit. This promise belongs as much to us as it did to them, and yet how rarely it is presented before the people, and its reception spoken of in the church.
YRP	308	3	In consequence of this silence upon this most important theme, what promise do we know less about by its practical fulfillment than this rich promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, whereby efficiency is to be given to all our spiritual labor? The promise of the Holy Spirit is casually brought into our discourses, is incidentally touched upon, and that is all. Prophecies have been dwelt upon, doctrines have been expounded; but that which is essential to the church in order that they may grow in spiritual strength and efficiency, in order that the preaching may carry conviction with it, and souls be converted to God, has been largely left out of ministerial effort.
YRP	308	4	This subject has been set aside, as if some time in the future would be given to its consideration. Other blessings and privileges have been presented before the people until a desire has been awakened in the church for the attainment of the blessing promised of God; but the impression concerning the Holy Spirit has been that this gift is not for the church now, but that at some time in the future it would be necessary for the church to receive it.
YRP	308	5	This promised blessing, if claimed by faith, would bring all other blessings in its train, and it is to be given liberally to the people of God. Through the cunning devices of the enemy the minds of God's people seem to be incapable of comprehending and appropriating the promises of God.... A harvest of joy will be reaped by those who sow the holy seeds of truth. "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him" (Psalm 126:6).--Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 174, 175.
------------------------More Commitment, October 27
YRP	309	1	Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 1 Corinthians 3:13.
YRP	309	2	The end of all things is at hand. God is moving upon every mind that is open to receive the impressions of His Holy Spirit. He is sending out messengers that they may give the warning in every locality. God is testing the devotion of His churches and their willingness to render obedience to the Spirit's guidance. Knowledge is to be increased. The messengers of heaven are to be seen running to and fro, seeking in every possible way to warn the people of the coming judgments, and presenting the glad tidings of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. The standard of righteousness is to be exalted.
YRP	309	3	The Spirit of God is moving upon men's hearts, and those who respond to His influence will become lights in the world. Everywhere they are seen going forth to communicate to others the light they have received as they did after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And as they let their light shine, they receive more and more of the Spirit's power. The earth is lighted with the glory of God.
YRP	309	4	But, oh, sad picture! Those who do not submit to the influence of the Holy Spirit soon lose the blessings received when they acknowledged the truth as from heaven. They fall into a cold, spiritless formality; they lose their interest in perishing souls: they have "left their first love." And Christ says unto them, "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent" (Revelation 2:5). He will take His Holy Spirit from the church, and give [the Spirit] to others who will appreciate Him.
YRP	309	5	There is no greater evidence that those who have received great light do not appreciate that light, than is given by their refusal to let their light shine upon those who are in darkness, and devoting their time and energies in celebrating forms and ceremonies.--The Review and Herald, July 16, 1895.
------------------------More Consecrated Members, October 28
YRP	310	1	And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Acts 2:46, 47.
YRP	310	2	Every truly converted soul will be intensely desirous to bring others from the darkness of error into the marvelous light of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The great outpouring of the Spirit of God, which lightens the whole earth with His glory, will not come until we have an enlightened people, that know by experience what it means to be laborers together with God. When we have entire, whole-hearted consecration to the service of Christ, God will recognize the fact by an outpouring of His Spirit without measure; but this will not be while the largest portion of the church are not laborers together with God. God cannot pour out His Spirit when selfishness and self-indulgence are so manifest; when a spirit prevails that, if put into words, would express that answer of Cain--"Am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9).
YRP	310	3	If the truth for this time, if the signs that are thickening on every hand, that testify that the end of all things is at hand, are not sufficient to arouse the sleeping energy of those who profess to know the truth, then darkness proportionate to the light which has been shining will overtake these souls. There is not the semblance of an excuse for their indifference that they will be able to present to God in the great day of final reckoning. There will be no reason to offer as to why they did not live and walk and work in the light of the sacred truth of the Word of God, and thus reveal to a sin-darkened world, through their conduct, their sympathy, and their zeal, that the power and reality of the gospel could not be controverted.
YRP	310	4	It is not the ministers alone, but the laymen, who are not contributing all that they can to persuade men, by precept and example, to accept the saving grace of Christ. With skill and tact, with wisdom received from above, they should persuade men to behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.--The Review and Herald, July 21, 1896.
------------------------More Charity, October 29
YRP	311	1	Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity: and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday. Isaiah 58:9, 10.
YRP	311	2	Let all who claim to keep the commandments of God, look well to this matter, and see if there are not reasons why they do not have more of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. How many have lifted up their souls unto vanity! They think themselves exalted in the favor of God, but they neglect the needy, they turn a deaf ear to the calls of the oppressed, and speak sharp, cutting words to those who need altogether different treatment. Thus they offend God daily by their hardness of heart. These afflicted ones have claims upon the sympathies and the interest of their fellow men. They have a right to expect help, comfort, and Christlike love. But this is not what they receive.
YRP	311	3	Every neglect of God's suffering ones is written in the books of heaven as if shown to Christ Himself. Let every member of the church closely examine his heart, and investigate his course of action, to see if these are in harmony with the Spirit and work of Jesus; for if not, what can he say when he stands before the Judge of all the earth? Can the Lord say to him, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world"? (Matthew 25:34)?
YRP	311	4	Christ has identified His interest with that of suffering humanity; and while He is neglected in the person of His afflicted ones, all our assemblies, all our appointed meetings, all the machinery that is set in operation to advance the cause of God, will be of little avail. "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone" (Luke 11:42). "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting" (Daniel 5:27).
YRP	311	5	All who are to be saints in heaven will first be saints upon the earth. They will not follow the sparks of their own kindling, they will not work for praise, nor speak words of vanity, nor put forth the finger in condemnation and oppression; but they will follow the Light of life, diffuse light, comfort, hope, and courage to the very ones who need help, and not censure and reproach.--The Review and Herald, August 4, 1891.
------------------------More Earnest Praying, October 30
YRP	312	1	We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us. Jeremiah 14:20, 21.
YRP	312	2	Let our prayers ascend to God for His converting, transforming grace. Meetings should be held in every church for solemn prayer and earnest searching of the Word to know what is truth. Take the promises of God, and ask God in living faith for the outpouring of His Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is shed upon us, marrow and fatness will be drawn from the Word of God....
YRP	312	3	When the churches become living, working churches, the Holy Spirit will be given in answer to their sincere request. Then the truth of God's Word will be regarded with new interest, and will be explored as if it were a revelation just from the courts above. Every declaration of inspiration concerning Christ will take hold of the inmost soul of those who love Him. Envy, jealousy, evil surmising, will cease. The Bible will be regarded as a charter from heaven. Its study will absorb the mind, and its truths will feast the soul. The promises of God now repeated as if the soul had never tasted of His love, will then glow upon the altar of the heart, and fall in burning words from the lips of the messengers of God. They will then plead with souls with an earnestness that cannot be repulsed. Then the windows of heaven will be open for the showers of the latter rain. The followers of Christ will be united in love.
YRP	312	4	The only way the truth can be presented to the world, in its pure and holy character, is for those who claim to believe it to be exponents of its power. The Bible requires the sons and daughters of God to stand on an elevated platform; for God calls upon them to represent Christ to the world. As they represent Christ, they represent the Father. Unity of believers testifies of their oneness with Christ, and this unity is required by the accumulated light which now shines upon the pathway of the children of God.--The Review and Herald, February 25, 1890.
------------------------A Prayer in Behalf of God's People, October 31
YRP	313	1	O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. Daniel 9:19.
YRP	313	2	Heavenly Father, Thou hast said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7) . Heavenly Father, we need Thy Holy Spirit. We do not want to work ourselves, only as we work in unity with God. We want to be in a position where the Holy Spirit of God shall be upon us with its reviving, sanctifying power. Wilt Thou manifest Thyself unto us this very morning! Wilt Thou sweep away every mist and every cloud of darkness!
YRP	313	3	We come to Thee, our compassionate Redeemer; and we ask Thee, for Christ's sake--for Thine own Son's sake, my Father, that Thou wilt manifest Thy power unto Thy people here. We want wisdom; we want righteousness; we want truth; we want the Holy Spirit to be with us.
YRP	313	4	Thou hast presented before us a great work that must be carried forward in behalf of those that are in the truth, and in behalf of those that are in ignorance of our faith; and oh, Lord, as Thou hast given to every man his work, we beseech of Thee that the Holy Spirit may impress the human mind in regard to the burden of work that shall rest upon every individual soul, according to Thine appointment. We want to be proved; we want to be sanctified through and through; we want to be fitted up for the work; and here, right here in this session of the conference, we want to see a revelation of the Holy Spirit of God. We want light, Lord--Thou art the Light. We want truth, Lord--Thou art the Truth. We want the right way--Thou art the Way.
YRP	313	5	Lord, I beseech of Thee that we may all be wise enough to discern that we must individually open the heart to Jesus Christ, that through the Holy Spirit He may come in to mold and fashion us anew, in accordance with the divine Image. Oh, my Father, my Father! melt and subdue our hearts.--The General Conference Bulletin, April 2, 1903.
------------------------Revival at Pentecost, November 1
YRP	314	1	And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. Acts 5:12.
YRP	314	2	Christ has made provision that His church shall be a transformed body, illumined with the light of heaven, possessing the glory of Immanuel. It is His purpose that every Christian shall be surrounded with a spiritual atmosphere of light and peace. There is no limit to the usefulness of the one who, putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, and lives a life wholly consecrated to God.
YRP	314	3	What was the result of the outpouring of the Spirit upon the day of Pentecost? The glad tidings of a risen Saviour were carried to the utmost bounds of the inhabited world. The hearts of the disciples were surcharged with the benevolence so full, so deep, so far-reaching, that it impelled them to go to the ends of the earth, testifying, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14). As they proclaimed the truth as it is in Jesus, hearts yielded to the power of the message. The church beheld converts flocking to her from all directions. Backsliders were reconverted. Sinners united with Christians in seeking the Pearl of great price.
YRP	314	4	Those who had been the bitterest opponents of the gospel became its champions. The prophecy was fulfilled, that the weak shall be "as David," and the house of David "as the angel of the Lord." Every Christian saw in his brother the divine similitude of love and benevolence. One interest prevailed. One subject of emulation swallowed up all others. The only ambition of the believers was to reveal the likeness of Christ's character and to labor for the enlargement of His kingdom.
YRP	314	5	Notice that it was after the disciples had come into perfect unity, when they were no longer striving for the highest place, that the Spirit was poured out. They were of one accord. All differences had been put away. And the testimony borne of them after the Spirit had been given was the same.--The Review and Herald, April 30, 1908.
------------------------Unlimited Supplies of Missionary Spirit, November 2
YRP	315	1	And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women. Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. Acts 5:14, 15.
YRP	315	2	The last words of Christ [to His disciples] were, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). And spreading His hands above them in benediction, He ascended to heaven, surrounded by hosts of heavenly angels who had come to escort Him on His way to the portals of God. His last commission to His disciples made them the agents whereby His gospel of glad tidings was to go to the nations. This was Christ's last will and testament to His followers who walked with Him during the years of His earthly ministry, and to those who should believe on Him through their word. His first work in heaven was in harmony with His last commission on earth; for He sent the promise of the Father upon them. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the praying disciples, and they testified as to its source to all, wherever they went.
YRP	315	3	The missionary spirit was poured out in unlimited supplies, and the disciples testified of a crucified and risen Saviour, and convinced the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come. They did just as their risen Lord had directed them to do, and began at Jerusalem to publish the gospel, in the very place where the deepest prejudice existed, and where the most confused ideas prevailed in regard to Him who had been crucified as a malefactor. Three thousand received the message, and were converted. They were not intimidated through persecution, imprisonment, and death; but they continued to speak with all boldness the words of truth, setting before the Jews the work and mission and ministry of Christ, His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension; and believers were added daily to the Lord, both of men and women.--The Review and Herald, November 6, 1894.
------------------------A New Pentecost, November 3
YRP	316	1	And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. Acts 6:7.
YRP	316	2	As the disciples, filled with the power of the Spirit, went forth to proclaim the gospel, so God's servants are to go forth today. Filled with an unselfish desire to give the message of mercy to those who are in the darkness of error and unbelief, we are to take up the Lord's work. He gives us our part to do in cooperation with Him, and He will also move on the hearts of unbelievers to carry forward His work in the regions beyond. Already many are receiving the Holy Spirit, and no longer will the way be blocked by listless indifference.
YRP	316	3	Why has the history of the work of the disciples, as they labored with holy zeal, animated and vitalized by the Holy Spirit, been recorded, if it is not that from this record the Lord's people today are to gain an inspiration to work earnestly for Him? What the Lord did for His people in that time, it is just as essential, and more so, that He do for His people today. All that the apostles did, every church member today is to do. And we are to work with as much more fervor, to be accompanied by the Holy Spirit in as much greater measure, as the increase of wickedness demands a more decided call to repentance.
YRP	316	4	Everyone on whom is shining the light of present truth is to be stirred with compassion for those who are in darkness. From all believers light is to be reflected in clear, distinct rays. A work similar to that which the Lord did through His delegated messengers after the day of Pentecost He is waiting to do today. At this time, when the end of all things is at hand, should not the zeal of the church exceed even that of the early church? Zeal for the glory of God moved the disciples to bear witness to the truth with mighty power. Should not this zeal fire our hearts with a longing to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ and Him crucified? Should not the power of God be even more mightily revealed today than in the time of the apostles?--The Review and Herald, January 13, 1903.
------------------------A Special Bestowal of Spiritual Grace, November 4
YRP	317	1	Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Acts 2:41, 42.
YRP	317	2	It is true that in the time of the end, when God's work in the earth is closing, the earnest efforts put forth by consecrated believers under the guidance of the Holy Spirit are to be accompanied by special tokens of divine favor. Under the figure of the early and the latter rain, that falls in Eastern lands at seedtime and harvest, the Hebrew prophets foretold the bestowal of spiritual grace in extraordinary measure upon God's church. The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was the beginning of the early, or former, rain, and glorious was the result. To the end of time the presence of the Spirit is to abide with the true church.
YRP	317	3	But near the close of earth's harvest, a special bestowal of spiritual grace is promised to prepare the church for the coming of the Son of man. This outpouring of the Spirit is likened to the falling of the latter rain; and it is for this added power that Christians are to send their petitions to the Lord of the harvest "in the time of the latter rain." In response, "the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain" (Zechariah 10:1). "He will cause to come down ... the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain" (Joel 2:23).
YRP	317	4	But unless the members of God's church today have a living connection with the Source of all spiritual growth, they will not be ready for the time of reaping. Unless they keep their lamps trimmed and burning, they will fail of receiving added grace in times of special need.--The Acts of the Apostles, 54, 55.
------------------------Full Impartation of the Spirit, November 5
YRP	318	1	And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. Acts 2:2.
YRP	318	2	When the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost, it was like a rushing, mighty wind. [The Spirit] was given in no stinted measure; for it filled all the place where the disciples were sitting. So will it be given to us when our hearts are prepared to receive it.
YRP	318	3	Let every church member kneel before God, and pray earnestly for the impartation of the Spirit. Cry, "Lord, increase my faith. Make me to understand Thy word; for the entrance of Thy word giveth light. Refresh me by Thy presence. Fill my heart with Thy Spirit that I may love my brethren as Christ loves me."
YRP	318	4	God will bless those who thus prepare themselves for His service. They will understand what it means to have the assurance of the Spirit, because they have received Christ by faith. The religion of Christ means more than the forgiveness of sin; it means that sin is taken away, and that the vacuum is filled with the Spirit. It means that the mind is divinely illumined, that the heart is emptied of self, and filled with the presence of Christ. When this work is done for church members, the church will be a living, working church.
YRP	318	5	We are to seek most earnestly to be of one mind, of one purpose. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, and nothing less, can bring us to this place. Let us by self-renunciation prepare our hearts to receive the Holy Spirit that a great work may be done for us, so that we can say, not "See what I am doing," but "Behold the goodness and love of God!" ...
YRP	318	6	We may talk of the blessings of the Holy Spirit, but unless we prepare ourselves for its reception, of what avail are our works? Are we striving with all our power to attain to the stature of men and women in Christ? Are we seeking for His fullness, ever pressing toward the mark set before us--the perfection of His character?--The Review and Herald, June 10, 1902.
------------------------No Specific Time, November 6
YRP	319	1	Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. Mark 13:33.
YRP	319	2	God grant that His converting power may be felt throughout this large assembly. Oh, that the power of God may rest upon the people. What we need is daily piety. We need to search the Scriptures daily, to pray earnestly that by the power of the Holy Spirit God may fit every one of us up to work in our place in His vineyard. No one is prepared to educate and strengthen the church unless he has received the gift of the Holy Spirit. No minister is prepared to labor intelligently for the salvation of souls, unless he is endowed by the Holy Spirit, unless he is feeding on Christ, and has an intense hatred of sin....
YRP	319	3	I have no specific time of which to speak when the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will take place--when the mighty angel will come down from heaven, and unite with the third angel in closing up the work for this world; my message is that our only safety is in being ready for the heavenly refreshing, having our lamps trimmed and burning. Christ has told us to watch; "for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 24:44). "Watch and pray" is the charge that is given us by our Redeemer. Day by day we are to seek the enlightenment of the Spirit of God, that it may do its office work upon the soul and character. Oh, how much time has been wasted through giving attention to trifling things. Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.
YRP	319	4	We now call upon you to give yourselves to the service of God. Too long have you given your powers to the service of Satan, and have been slaves to his will. God calls upon you to behold the glory of His character, that by beholding, you may become changed into His image.... Jesus came to reveal to the world the love and goodness of God.--The Review and Herald, March 29, 1892.
------------------------Without Excitement, November 7
YRP	320	1	When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. Acts 1:6, 7.
YRP	320	2	The disciples were anxious to know the exact time for the revelation of the kingdom of God; but Jesus tells them that they may not know the times and the seasons; for the Father has not revealed them. To understand when the kingdom of God should be restored was not the thing of most importance for them to know. They were to be found following the Master, praying, waiting, watching, and working. They were to be representatives to the world of the character of Christ.
YRP	320	3	That which was essential for a successful Christian experience in the days of the disciples is essential in our day. "And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." And after the Holy Ghost was come upon them, what were they to do? "And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:7, 8).
YRP	320	4	This is the work in which we also are to be engaged. Instead of living in expectation of some special season of excitement, we are wisely to improve present opportunities, doing that which must be done in order that souls may be saved. Instead of exhausting the powers of our mind in speculations in regard to the times and seasons which the Lord has placed in His own power, and withheld from men, we are to yield ourselves to the control of the Holy Spirit, to do present duties, to give the bread of life, unadulterated with human opinions, to souls who are perishing for the truth.
YRP	320	5	Satan is ever ready to fill the mind with theories and calculations that will divert men from the present truth, and disqualify them for the giving of the third angel's message to the world.--The Review and Herald, March 22, 1892.
------------------------In Unexpected Ways, November 8
YRP	321	1	And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Acts 2:12.
YRP	321	2	We are to pray for the impartation of the Spirit as the remedy for sin-sick souls. The church needs to be converted, and why should we not prostrate ourselves at the throne of grace, as representatives of the church, and from a broken heart and contrite spirit make earnest supplication that the Holy Spirit shall be poured out upon us from on high? Let us pray that when it shall be graciously bestowed, our cold hearts may be revived, and we may have discernment to understand that it is from God, and receive it with joy.
YRP	321	3	Some have treated the Spirit as an unwelcome guest, refusing to receive the rich gift, refusing to acknowledge it, turning from it, and condemning it as fanaticism. When the Holy Spirit works the human agent, it does not ask us in what way it shall operate. Often it moves in unexpected ways. Christ did not come as the Jews expected. He did not come in a manner to glorify them as a nation. His forerunner came to prepare the way for Him by calling upon the people to repent of their sins and be converted, and be baptized. Christ's message was "The kingdom of heaven is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15).
YRP	321	4	The Jews refused to receive Christ, because He did not come in accordance with their expectations. The ideas of finite men were held as infallible, because hoary with age. This is the danger to which the church is now exposed--that the inventions of finite men shall mark out the precise way for the Holy Spirit to come. Though they would not care to acknowledge it, some have already done this. And because the Spirit is to come, not to praise men or to build up their erroneous theories, but to reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, many turn away from Him.... The Holy Spirit flatters no man, neither does it work according to the devising of any man.
YRP	321	5	Finite, sinful men are not to work the Holy Spirit. When it shall come as a reprover, through any human agent whom God shall choose, it is man's place to hear and obey its voice.--The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 1540, 1541.
------------------------To Unexpected People, November 9
YRP	322	1	But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: for these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. Acts 2:14-16.
YRP	322	2	The baptism of the Holy Ghost as on the day of Pentecost will lead to a revival of true religion and to the performance of many wonderful works. Heavenly intelligences will come among us, and men will speak as they are moved upon by the Holy Spirit of God. But should the Lord work upon men as He did on and after the day of Pentecost, many who now claim to believe the truth would know so very little of the operation of the Holy Spirit that they would cry, "Beware of fanaticism." They would say of those who were filled with the Spirit, "These men are full of new wine" (Acts 2:13).
YRP	322	3	The time is not far off now when men will want a much closer relation to Christ, a much closer union with His Holy Spirit than ever they have had, or will have, unless they give up their will and their way, and submit to God's will and God's way. The great sin of those who profess to be Christians is that they do not open the heart to receive the Holy Spirit. When souls long after Christ, and seek to become one with Him, then those who are content with the form of godliness exclaim, "Be careful, do not go to extremes." When the angels of heaven come among us, and work through human agents, there will be solid, substantial conversions, after the order of the conversions after the day of Pentecost.
YRP	322	4	Now brethren, be careful and do not go into or try to create human excitement. But while we should be careful not to go into human excitement, we should not be among those who will raise inquiries and cherish doubts in reference to the work of the Spirit of God; for there will be those who will question and criticize when the Spirit of God takes possession of men and women, because their own hearts are not moved, but are cold and unimpressible.--Selected Messages 2:57.
------------------------As God Pleases, November 10
YRP	323	1	Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? John 3:9-12.
YRP	323	2	At infinite cost provision has been made for men to reach perfection of Christian character. Those who have been impressed by the Holy Scriptures as the voice of God, and desire to follow its teachings, are to be daily learning, daily receiving spiritual fervor and power, which have been provided for every true believer in the gift of the Holy Spirit.
YRP	323	3	The Holy Spirit is a free, working, independent agency. The God of heaven uses His Spirit as it pleases Him: and human minds, human judgment, and human methods can no more set boundaries to its working, or prescribe the channel through which it shall operate, than they can say to the wind, "I bid you to blow in a certain direction, and to conduct yourself in such and such a manner." As the wind moves in its force, bending and breaking the lofty trees in its path, so the Holy Spirit influences human hearts, and no finite man can circumscribe its work....
YRP	323	4	Nicodemus was not willing to admit the truth, because he could not understand all that was connected with the operation of the power of God; and yet he accepted the facts of nature, although he could not explain or even comprehend them. Like other men of all ages, he was looking to forms and precise ceremonies as more essential to religion than the deep movings of the Spirit of God....
YRP	323	5	The fountain of the heart must be purified before the streams can become pure. There is no safety for one who has merely a legal religion, a form of godliness. The Christian's life is not a modification or improvement of the old life, but a transformation of the nature. There is a death to sin and self, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit.--The Signs of the Times, March 8, 1910.
------------------------At Times, Human Machinery Set Aside, November 11
YRP	324	1	Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13.
YRP	324	2	If we will open the door to Jesus, He will come in and abide with us. Our strength will always be reinforced by His actual representative, the Holy Spirit.
YRP	324	3	The truth is a living principle made to shine in precious clearness to the understanding, and then, oh, then, it is time to speak words from the living Christ. "We are labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9).
YRP	324	4	Under the showers of the latter rain, the inventions of man, the human machinery, will at times be swept away, the boundary of man's authority will be as broken reeds, and the Holy Spirit will speak through the living, human agent with convincing power. No one will then watch to see if the sentences are well rounded off, if the grammar is faultless. The living water will flow in God's own channels.... I am sure that there is a heaven full of the richest, enduring treasures to be freely given to all who will appropriate them to themselves, and becoming enriched, thereby, will impart freely to others. I know this to be the truth.
YRP	324	5	We need to obtain a rich, daily experience in prayer; we should be like the importunate widow, who, in her conscious need, overcame the unjust judge by the bare force of her determined pleadings. God will be inquired of to do these things for us; for this is giving depth and solidity to our experience. The soul that seeks God will need to be in earnest. He is a rewarder of all those that seek him diligently....
YRP	324	6	We want the truth spoken to human hearts by men that have been baptized with holy love for Christ, and for the purchase of His blood, men who are themselves thoroughly impressed with the truth they are presenting to others; and who are practicing the same in their own life.--The General Conference Bulletin, February 15, 1895.
------------------------Often Rejected, November 12
YRP	325	1	And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Acts 4:18-20.
YRP	325	2	The promise of the Holy Spirit was the brightest hope and the strongest consolation that Christ could leave His disciples when He ascended to heaven. The truths of God's Word had been buried beneath the rubbish of misinterpretation; the maxims of men, the sayings of finite beings, had been exalted above the Word of the living God. Under the enlightening power of the Holy Spirit, the apostles separated truth from false theories, and gave to the people the word of life.
YRP	325	3	The Holy Spirit is often rejected because it comes in unexpected ways. Evidence upon evidence that the apostles were speaking and acting under divine inspiration had been given to the Jewish priests and rulers, but still they firmly resisted the message of truth. Christ had not come in the way they expected, and though at times they were convinced that He was the Son of God, yet they stifled conviction, and thus became blinder and more hardened than before. They crucified Christ, yet Christ in His mercy gave them additional evidence in the works wrought by the disciples. He sent His servants to tell them what they had done, and even in the terrible charge that they had killed the Prince of life, He gave them another call to repentance. But, feeling secure in their own righteousness, the Jewish teachers were not prepared to admit that the men who had reproved them for crucifying Christ were speaking by the direction of the Holy Spirit....
YRP	325	4	The wrath of God is not declared against men merely because of the sin they have committed, but because they choose to continue in a state of resistance, because they repeat the sins of the past in spite of the light and evidence given them. If the Jewish leaders had submitted, they would have been pardoned; but they were determined not to yield. In the same way, the sinner, by continued resistance, places himself where he knows nothing but resistance.--The Signs of the Times, September 27, 1899.
------------------------Beware of Resisting, November 13
YRP	326	1	And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Acts 5:40, 41.
YRP	326	2	When God moves upon the hearts of men to draw them to Christ, it seems that a compelling power comes over them, and they believe, and give themselves up to the influence of the Spirit of God. But if they do not maintain the precious victory that God has given; if they permit old practices and habits to revive, and indulge in amusement or worldly luxury; if they neglect prayer, and cease resisting evil, then Satan's temptations are accepted, and they are led to doubt the verity of their former experience. They find that they are weak in moral power, and Satan declares to them that it is of no use for them to try the experiment of living a Christian life. He says, "The experience you thought was of God was only the result of undue emotion and impulse."
YRP	326	3	As soon as the human agent entertains these suggestions of the evil one, they begin to appear plausible, and then those who ought to know better, who have had a longer experience in the work of God, second the suggestions of Satan, and the Holy Spirit is grieved from the soul. There are those who almost imperceptibly come to take this position, who will immediately recover themselves when they realize what they are doing; but there are others who will continue to resist the Holy Spirit, until resistance appears to them as a virtue.
YRP	326	4	It is a dangerous thing to doubt the manifestations of the Holy Spirit; for if this agency is doubted, there is no reserve power left by which to operate on the human heart. Those who attribute the work of the Holy Spirit to human agencies, saying that an undue influence was brought to bear upon them, are cutting their souls off from the fountain of blessing.--The Review and Herald, February 13, 1894.
------------------------Not an Emotion or Rapture, November 14
YRP	327	1	Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 2 Corinthians 4:1, 2.
YRP	327	2	My brother, there is danger of those in our ranks making a mistake in regard to receiving the Holy Ghost. Many suppose an emotion or a rapture of feeling to be an evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit. There is danger that right sentiments will not be understood, and that Christ's words "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20) will lose their significance. There is danger that original devisings and superstitious imaginings will take the place of the Scriptures. Tell our people, Be not anxious to bring in something not revealed in the Word. Keep close to Christ. Remember His words: "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (verse 20).
YRP	327	3	He is with us as we teach the words He spoke in the Old Testament as well as in the New. He who gave commandment in the New Testament is the One also who gave the instruction contained in the Old Testament. The Old and New Testaments are both sacred; for they both contain the words of Christ. All communication from heaven to earth since Adam's fall has come through Christ. He who believes the instruction contained in the New Testament and in the Old, doing those things which Christ has commanded therein, has the Saviour always with him.--The Kress Collection, 126.
YRP	327	4	The apostles and prophets and holy men of old did not perfect their characters by miracles, by some wonderful and unusual demonstration; but they used the ability given them by God, trusting alone in the righteousness of Christ. And all who will use the same means may secure the same result.--The General Conference Bulletin, July 1, 1900.
YRP	327	5	Satan is willing that every transgressor of God's law shall claim to be holy. This is what he himself is doing. He is satisfied when men rest their faith on spurious doctrines and religious enthusiasm; for he can use such persons to good purpose in deceiving souls.--Evangelism, 597.
------------------------Neither Excitement Nor Sensationalism, November 15
YRP	328	1	In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Titus 2:7, 8.
YRP	328	2	The Lord has a work for you to do, and if you listen to His voice, you will not be left in darkness. The Saviour says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27). "And a stranger will they not follow, ... for they know not the voice of strangers" (verse 5). I am sure that the Lord is revealing to you the perfection and fullness of the atoning work, that your whole heart may be filled with love and thanksgiving, and that you may reveal to others that which the Lord is revealing to you. The image of Christ engraved upon the heart is reflected in character, in practical life, day by day, because we represent a personal Saviour.
YRP	328	3	The Holy Spirit is promised to all who will ask for it. When you search the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit is by your side, personating Jesus Christ. The truth is a living principle made to shine in precious clearness to the understanding, and then, oh, then, it is time to speak words from the living Christ. "We are labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9). Christ said to the woman of Samaria, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.... A well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:10-14).
YRP	328	4	Those who have the outpouring of the gospel of Christ which comes from the heart imbued by His Holy Spirit will give light and comfort and hope to hearts that are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. It is not excitement we wish to create, but deep, earnest consideration, that those who hear shall do solid work, real, sound, genuine work that will be enduring as eternity. We hunger not for excitement, for the sensational; the less we have of this, the better. The calm, earnest reasoning from the Scriptures is precious and fruitful. Here is the secret of success, in preaching a living, personal Saviour in so simple and earnest a manner that the people may be able to lay hold by faith of the power of the Word of Life.--The Paulson Collection, 101, 102.
------------------------Not Looking for Originality, November 16
YRP	329	1	But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. Titus 2:1.
YRP	329	2	We are in continual danger of getting above the simplicity of the gospel. There is an intense desire on the part of many to startle the world with something original, that shall lift the people into a state of spiritual ecstasy, and change the present order of experience. There is certainly great need of a change in the present order of experience; for the sacredness of present truth is not realized as it should be, but the change we need is a change of heart, and can only be obtained by seeking God individually for His blessing, by pleading with Him for His power, by fervently praying that His grace may come upon us, and that our characters may be transformed. This is the change we need today, and for the attainment of this experience we should exercise persevering energy and manifest heartfelt earnestness. We should ask with true sincerity, "What shall I do to be saved?" We should know just what steps we are taking heavenward.
YRP	329	3	Christ gave to His disciples truths whose breadth and depth and value they little appreciated, or even comprehended, and the same condition exists among the people of God today. We too have failed to take in the greatness, to perceive the beauty of the truth which God has entrusted to us today. Should we advance in spiritual knowledge, we would see the truth developing and expanding in lines of which we have little dreamed, but it will never develop in any line that will lead us to imagine that we may know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power.
YRP	329	4	Again and again have I been warned in regard to time-setting. There will never again be a message for the people of God that will be based on time. We are not to know the definite time either for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit or for the coming of Christ.--The Review and Herald, March 22, 1892.
------------------------No disorder or Fanaticism, November 17
YRP	330	1	Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. Titus 1:9.
YRP	330	2	There is constant danger of allowing something to come into our midst that we may regard as the workings of the Holy Spirit, but that in reality is the fruit of a spirit of fanaticism. So long as we allow the enemy of truth to lead us into a wrong way, we cannot hope to reach the honest in heart with the third angel's message. We are to be sanctified through obedience to the truth. I am afraid of anything that would have a tendency to turn the mind away from the solid evidences of the truth as revealed in God's Word. I am afraid of it; I am afraid of it.
YRP	330	3	We must bring our minds within the bounds of reason, lest the enemy so come in as to set everything in a disorderly way. There are persons of an excitable temperament who are easily led into fanaticism; and should we allow anything to come into our churches that would lead such persons into error, we would soon see these errors carried to extreme lengths, and then because of the course of these disorderly elements, a stigma would rest upon the whole body of Seventh-day Adventists.
YRP	330	4	I have been studying how to get some of these early experiences into print again, so that more of our people may be informed, for I have long known that fanaticism will be manifest again, in different ways. We are to strengthen our position by dwelling on the Word, and by avoiding all oddities and strange exercisings that some would be very quick to catch up and practice. If we were to allow confusion to come into our ranks, we could not bind off our work as we should....
YRP	330	5	How afraid I am to have anything of a fanatical nature brought in among our people. There are many, many who must be sanctified, but they are to be sanctified through obedience to the message of truth.--Selected Messages 2:43, 44.
------------------------God's Work Characterized by Calmness, November 18
YRP	331	1	Let all things be done decently and in order. 1 Corinthians 14:40.
YRP	331	2	I ... met a man and his wife who claim to follow the Word of God and to believe the Testimonies. They have had an unusual experience during the past two or three years. They seemed to be honesthearted people....
YRP	331	3	I told this brother and his wife that the experience through which I passed in my youth, shortly after the passing of the time in 1844, had led me to be very, very cautious about accepting anything similar to that which we then met and rebuked in the name of the Lord.
YRP	331	4	No greater harm could be done to the work of God at this time than for us to allow a spirit of fanaticism to come into our churches, accompanied by strange workings which are incorrectly supposed to be operations of the Spirit of God.
YRP	331	5	As this brother and his wife outlined their experiences, which they claim have come to them as the result of receiving the Holy Ghost with apostolic power, it seemed to be a facsimile of that which we were called to meet and correct in our early experience.
YRP	331	6	Toward the close of our interview Brother L proposed that we unite in prayer, with the thought that possibly while in prayer his wife would be exercised as they had described to me, and that then I might be able to discern whether this was of the Lord or not. To this I could not consent, because I have been instructed that when one offers to exhibit these peculiar manifestations, this is a decided evidence that it is not the work of God.
YRP	331	7	We must not permit these experiences to lead us to feel discouraged. Such experiences will come to us from time to time. Let us give no place to strange exercisings, which really take the mind away from the deep movings of the Holy Spirit. God's work is ever characterized by calmness and dignity. We cannot afford to sanction anything that would bring in confusion and weaken our zeal in regard to the great work that God has given us to do in the world to prepare for the second coming of Christ.--Selected Messages 2:41, 42.
------------------------A Spiritual Revolution, November 19
YRP	332	1	Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. Philippians 3:8.
YRP	332	2	Through Christ, moral power is brought to man that will change the entire affections, and enable man to work with a will for the cause of God. Where all the power of mind and body was before concentrated to work the works of evil, by the Spirit of God a revolution is brought about. The Holy Spirit enlightens, renews, and sanctifies the soul. Angels behold with inexpressible rapture the results of the working of the Holy Spirit in man.
YRP	332	3	By the revelation of the attractive loveliness of Christ, by the knowledge of His love expressed to us while we were yet sinners, the stubborn heart is melted and subdued, and the sinner is transformed and becomes a child of God. Love is the agency which God uses to expel sin from the human soul. By it He changes pride into humility, enmity and unbelief into love and faith. He does not employ compulsory measures; Jesus is revealed to the soul, and if man will look in faith to the Lamb of God, he will live....
YRP	332	4	Christ is presented to men that they may catch His temper, His perfection; and as the model is complete and perfect in every part, so, as man is conformed to the image of Christ, he is made complete in Him; for aside from Christ there never can be righteousness in the human heart.
YRP	332	5	When the Spirit was poured out from on high, the church was flooded with light, but Christ was that Light; the church was filled with joy, but Christ was the subject of that joy. When the Spirit is poured upon His people in this day, Christ's name will be upon every tongue, His love will fill every soul; and when the heart embraces Jesus, it will embrace God; for all the fullness of God dwells in Christ. When the beams of Christ's righteousness shine upon the soul, joy, adoration, and glory will be woven with the experience.--The Signs of the Times, June 9, 1890.
------------------------The Spirit Brings Peace and Joy, November 20
YRP	333	1	Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Romans 15:13.
YRP	333	2	Much is being said regarding the impartation of the Holy Spirit, and by some this is being so interpreted that it is an injury to the churches. Eternal life is the receiving of the living elements in the Scriptures and doing the will of God. This is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. To those who do this, life and immortality are brought to light through the gospel, for God's Word is verity and truth, spirit and life. It is the privilege of all who believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour to feed on the Word of God. The Holy Spirit's influence renders that Word, the Bible, an immortal truth, which to the prayerful searcher gives spiritual sinew and muscle.
YRP	333	3	"Search the Scriptures," Christ declared, "for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39). Those who dig beneath the surface discover the hidden gems of truth. The Holy Spirit is present with the earnest searcher. Its illumination shines upon the Word, stamping the truth upon the mind with a new, fresh importance. The searcher is filled with a sense of peace and joy never before felt. The preciousness of truth is realized as never before. A new, heavenly light shines upon the Word, illuminating it as though every letter were tinged with gold. God Himself has spoken to the mind and heart, making the Word spirit and life.
YRP	333	4	Every true searcher of the Word lifts his heart to God, imploring the aid of the Spirit. And he soon discovers that which carries him above all the fictitious statements of the would-be teacher, whose weak, tottering theories are not sustained by the Word of the living God.--Manuscript Releases 21:131, 132.
------------------------It Calls for a Joyful Praise, November 21
YRP	334	1	Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4.
YRP	334	2	Pray, pray earnestly and without ceasing, but do not forget to praise. It becomes every child of God to vindicate His character. You can magnify the Lord; you can show the power of sustaining grace. There are multitudes who do not appreciate the great love of God nor the divine compassion of Jesus. Thousands even regard with disdain the matchless grace shown in the plan of redemption. All who are partakers of this great salvation are not clear in this matter. They do not cultivate grateful hearts. But the theme of redemption is one that the angels desire to look into; it will be the science and the song of the ransomed throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. Is it not worthy of careful thought and study now? Should we not praise God with heart and soul and voice "for His wonderful works to the children of men" (Psalm 107:8)?
YRP	334	3	Praise the Lord in the congregation of His people. When the word of the Lord was spoken to the Hebrews anciently, the command was: "And let all the people say, Amen" (Psalm 106:48). When the ark of the covenant was brought into the city of David, and a psalm of joy and triumph was chanted, "all the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord" (1 Chronicles 16:36). This fervent response was an evidence that they understood the word spoken and joined in the worship of God.
YRP	334	4	There is too much formality in our religious services. The Lord would have His ministers who preach the Word energized by His Holy Spirit; and the people who hear should not sit in drowsy indifference, or stare vacantly about, making no responses to what is said. The impression that is thus given to the unbeliever is anything but favorable for the religion of Christ. These dull, careless professed Christians are not destitute of ambition and zeal when engaged in worldly business; but things of eternal importance do not move them deeply. The voice of God through His messengers may be a pleasant song; but its sacred warnings, reproofs, and encouragements are all unheeded. The Spirit of the world has paralyzed them. The truths of God's Word are spoken to leaden ears and hard, unimpressible hearts. There should be wide-awake, active churches to encourage and uphold the ministers of Christ and to aid them in the work of saving souls. Where the church is walking in the light, there will ever be cheerful, hearty responses and words of joyful praise.--Testimonies for the Church 5:317, 318.
------------------------Fraternal Love Expressed, November 22
YRP	335	1	And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. Acts 4:32.
YRP	335	2	The record declares, "Neither was there any among them that lacked," and it tells how the need was filled. Those among the believers who had money and possessions cheerfully sacrificed them to meet the emergency. Selling their houses or their lands, they brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet, "and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need" (Acts 4:34, 35).
YRP	335	3	This liberality on the part of the believers was the result of the outpouring of the Spirit. The converts to the gospel were "of one heart and of one soul." One common interest controlled them--the success of the mission entrusted to them; and covetousness had no place in their lives. Their love for their brethren and the cause they had espoused was greater than their love of money and possessions. Their works testified that they accounted the souls of men of higher value than earthly wealth.
YRP	335	4	Thus it will ever be when the Spirit of God takes possession of the life. Those whose hearts are filled with the love of Christ will follow the example of Him who for our sake became poor, that through His poverty we might be made rich. Money, time, influence--all the gifts they have received from God's hand, they will value only as a means of advancing the work of the gospel. Thus it was in the early church; and when in the church of today it is seen that by the power of the Spirit the members have taken their affections from the things of the world, and that they are willing to make sacrifices in order that their fellow men may hear the gospel, the truths proclaimed will have a powerful influence upon the hearers.--The Acts of the Apostles, 70, 71.
------------------------Liberality and Benevolence Shown, November 23
YRP	336	1	For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves; praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. 2 Corinthians 8:3, 4.
YRP	336	2	The gospel, extending and widening, required greater provisions to sustain the warfare since the death of Christ, and this made the law of almsgiving a more urgent necessity than under the Hebrew government. Now God requires, not less gifts, but greater than at any other period of the world. The principle laid down by Christ is that the gifts and offerings should be in proportion to the light and blessings enjoyed. He has said, "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required" (Luke 12:48).
YRP	336	3	The blessings of the Christian age were responded to by the first disciples in works of charity and benevolence. The outpouring of the Spirit of God, after Christ left His disciples and ascended to heaven, led to self-denial, and self-sacrifice for the salvation of others. When the poor saints at Jerusalem were in distress, Paul writes to the Gentile Christians in regard to works of benevolence, and says, "Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also" (2 Corinthians 8:7). Here benevolence is placed by the side of faith, love, and Christian diligence.
YRP	336	4	Those who think that they can be good Christians, and close their ears and hearts to the calls of God for their liberalities, are in a fearful deception. There are those who abound in a profession of great love for the truth, and as far as words are concerned, have an interest to see the truth advance, but do nothing for its advancement. The faith of such is dead, not being made perfect by works. The Lord never made such a mistake as to convert a soul, and leave [that soul] under the power of covetousness.--The Review and Herald, August 25, 1874.
------------------------Prejudice and Racism Destroyed, November 24
YRP	337	1	For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:27, 28.
YRP	337	2	No distinction on account of nationality, race, or caste, is recognized by God. He is the Maker of all mankind. All men are of one family by creation, and all are one through redemption. Christ came to demolish every wall of partition, to throw open every compartment of the temple, that every soul may have free access to God.--Christ's Object Lessons, 386.
YRP	337	3	The religion of the Bible recognizes no caste or color. It ignores rank, wealth, worldly honor. God estimates men as men. With Him, character decides their worth. And we are to recognize the Spirit of Christ in whomsoever He is revealed.--Testimonies for the Church 9:223.
YRP	337	4	Thus Christ sought to teach the disciples the truth that in God's kingdom there are no territorial lines, no caste, no aristocracy; that they must go to all nations, bearing to them the message of a Saviour's love.--The Acts of the Apostles, 20.
YRP	337	5	The walls of sectarianism and caste and race will fall down when the true missionary spirit enters the hearts of men. Prejudice is melted away by the love of God.--The Review and Herald, January 21, 1896.
YRP	337	6	Walls of separation have been built up between the whites and the blacks. These walls of prejudice will tumble down of themselves as did the walls of Jericho, when Christians obey the Word of God, which enjoins on them supreme love to their Maker and impartial love to their neighbors--The Review and Herald, December 17, 1895.
YRP	337	7	When the Holy Spirit is poured out, there will be a triumph of humanity over prejudice in seeking the salvation of the souls of human beings. God will control minds. Human hearts will love as Christ loved. And the color line will be regarded by many very differently from the way in which it is now regarded. To love as Christ loves lifts the mind into a pure, heavenly, unselfish atmosphere.--Testimonies for the Church 9:209.
------------------------Selfishness and Dishonesty Swept Away, November 25
YRP	338	1	And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. Acts 2:43-45.
YRP	338	2	It is not because of niggardliness on the part of God that there is a dearth of the Holy Spirit in our churches. This dearth, the churches alone can change. God says to His people, "Arouse and create an interest in holy things. "Where is our faith? Wherein do we sustain a proper relation to Jesus Christ? Do we follow Him in self-denial and stability? Do we talk the truth with the understanding? When God pours out His Spirit upon the churches, they will bear fruit to His glory. The sword of the Spirit, newly edged with power, will cut both ways.
YRP	338	3	In God's vineyard there is earnest work to be done. The third angel's message is to be proclaimed with a loud voice over the land. Every vestige of business that breeds dishonesty, every thread of selfishness, is to be swept away by the latter rain. All idolatry is to be consumed. Let every altar be thrown down, save the one that sanctifies the gift and the giver--the cross of Calvary.
YRP	338	4	New territory is to be added to God's kingdom. New tracts of moral vineyard are to be cultivated as the garden of the Lord. The honor of the law of God is to be vindicated before the unfallen worlds, before the heavenly universe, and before the fallen world. The bitterest persecution will come, but when Zion arises, and puts on her beautiful garments, she will shine forth in the beauty of holiness. God designs us to have more life and more power, because the glory of God has risen upon the church. If the truth is received, unsightly barrenness will not continue to exist. Christ's Word is eternal life to the receiver.--Bible Training School, December 1, 1903.
------------------------Fear of Witnessing Gone, November 26
YRP	339	1	Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. Acts 5:28, 29.
YRP	339	2	I heard those clothed with the armor speak forth the truth in great power. It had effect. I saw those who had been bound; some wives had been bound by their husbands, and some children had been bound by their parents. The honest who had been held or prevented from hearing the truth now eagerly laid hold of the truth spoken. All fear of their relatives was gone. The truth alone was exalted to them. It was dearer and more precious than life. They had been hungering and thirsting for truth. I asked what had made this great change. An angel answered, "It is the latter rain. The refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The loud cry of the third angel."
YRP	339	3	Great power was with these chosen ones. Said the angel, "Look ye!" My attention was turned to the wicked, or unbelievers. They were all astir. The zeal and power with the people of God had aroused and enraged them. Confusion, confusion was on every side. I saw measures taken against this company, who were having the power and light of God. Darkness thickened around them, yet there they stood, approved of God, and trusting in Him. I saw them perplexed.
YRP	339	4	Next I heard them crying unto God earnestly. Through the day and night their cry ceased not. I heard these words, "Thy will, O God, be done! If it can glorify Thy name, make a way of escape for Thy people! Deliver us from the heathen round about us! They have appointed us unto death; but Thine arm can bring salvation." These are all the words I can bring to mind. They seemed to have a deep sense of their unworthiness, and manifested entire submission to the will of God. Yet everyone, without an exception, was earnestly pleading, and wrestling like Jacob for deliverance.--The Review and Herald, December 31, 1857.
------------------------Satan's Wrath Awakened, November 27
YRP	340	1	Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:7, 8.
YRP	340	2	If the world is to be convinced of sin as transgressors of God's law, the agency must be the Holy Spirit working through human instrumentalities. The church needs now to shake off her deathlike slumber; for the Lord is waiting to bless His people who will recognize the blessing when it comes, and diffuse it in clear, strong rays of light. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.... And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes" (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
YRP	340	3	If the wilderness of the church is to become as a fruitful field, and the fruitful field to be as a forest, it is through the Holy Spirit of God poured out upon His people. The heavenly agencies have long been waiting for the human agents, the members of the church, to cooperate with them in the great work to be done. They are waiting for you. So vast is the field, so comprehensive the design, that every sanctified heart will be pressed into service as an agent of divine power.
YRP	340	4	At the same time there will be a power stirring everything from beneath. The working of evil angels will be manifest in deceptions, delusions, in calamities, and in casualties and crimes of no ordinary character. While God employs the angels of mercy to work through His human agents, Satan sets his agencies in operation, laying under tribute all the powers that submit to his control. There will be lords many and gods many. The cry will be heard, "Lo, here is Christ" and "Lo, He is there." The deep plotting of Satan will reveal its workings everywhere, for the purpose of distracting attention from present duty. The appearance of a false Christ will awaken delusive hopes in the minds of those who will allow themselves to be deceived. The church members that are awake will arise to the emergency, and manifestations of satanic power are to be presented in their true light before the people.--General Conference Daily Bulletin, February 28, 1893.
------------------------True and Counterfeit Revivals, November 28
YRP	341	1	And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Revelation 18:4.
YRP	341	2	Notwithstanding the widespread declension of faith and piety, there are true followers of Christ in these churches. Before the final visitation of God's judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. At that time many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and His Word. Many, both of ministers and people, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at this time to prepare a people for the Lord's second coming.
YRP	341	3	The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power he will make it appear that God's special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world.
YRP	341	4	In many of the revivals which have occurred during the last half century, the same influences have been at work, to a greater or less degree, that will be manifest in the more extensive movements of the future. There is an emotional excitement, a mingling of the true with the false, that is well adapted to mislead. Yet none need be deceived. In the light of God's Word it is not difficult to determine the nature of these movements.--The Great Controversy, 464.
------------------------Strength for the Time of Trouble, November 29
YRP	342	1	And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. Daniel 12:1.
YRP	342	2	As the members of the body of Christ approach the period of their last conflict, "the time of Jacob's trouble," they will grow up into Christ, and will partake largely of His spirit. As the third message swells to a loud cry, and as great power and glory attend the closing work, the faithful people of God will partake of that glory. It is the latter rain which revives and strengthens them to pass through the time of trouble. Their faces will shine with the glory of that light which attends the third angel.
YRP	342	3	I saw that God will in a wonderful manner preserve His people through the time of trouble. As Jesus poured out His soul in agony in the garden, they will earnestly cry and agonize day and night for deliverance. The decree will go forth that they must disregard the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and honor the first day, or lose their lives; but they will not yield, and trample under their feet the Sabbath of the Lord, and honor an institution of papacy. Satan's host and wicked men will surround them, and exult over them, because there will seem to be no way of escape for them. But in the midst of their revelry and triumph, there is heard peal upon peal of the loudest thunder. The heavens have gathered blackness, and are only illuminated by the blazing light and terrible glory from heaven, as God utters His voice from His holy habitation.
YRP	342	4	The foundations of the earth shake; buildings totter and fall with a terrible crash. The sea boils like a pot, and the whole earth is in terrible commotion. The captivity of the righteous is turned, and with sweet and solemn whisperings they say to each other, "We are delivered. It is the voice of God." With solemn awe they listen to the words of the voice.--Testimonies for the Church 1:353, 354.
------------------------Now Is the Time for Preparation, November 30
YRP	343	1	Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Luke 21:36.
YRP	343	2	Those professed believers who come up to the time of trouble unprepared, will, in their despair, confess their sins before the world in words of burning anguish, while the wicked exult over their distress. The case of all such is hopeless. When Christ stands up, and leaves the most holy place, the time of trouble commences, the case of every soul is decided, and there will be no atoning blood to cleanse from sin and pollution. As Jesus leaves the most holy, He speaks in tones of decision and kingly authority: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Revelation 22:11, 12).
YRP	343	3	Those who have delayed a preparation for the day of God cannot obtain it in the time of trouble, or at any future period. The righteous will not cease their earnest, agonizing cries for deliverance. They cannot bring to mind any particular sins; but in their whole life they can see little good. Their sins have gone beforehand to judgment, and pardon has been written. Their sins have been borne away into the land of forgetfulness, and they cannot bring them to remembrance. Certain destruction threatens them, and, like Jacob, they will not suffer their faith to grow weak because their prayers are not immediately answered. Though suffering the pangs of hunger, they will not cease their intercessions. They lay hold of the strength of God, as Jacob laid hold of the angel; and the language of their soul is "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me" (Genesis 32:26).
YRP	343	4	That season of distress and anguish will require an effort of earnestness and determined faith that can endure delay and hunger, and will not fail under weakness, though severely tried. The period of probation is the time granted to all to prepare for the day of God.--The Signs of the Times, November 27, 1879.
------------------------A Spiritual Fight, December 1
YRP	344	1	For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12.
YRP	344	2	The Christian life is a warfare. But "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." In this conflict of righteousness against unrighteousness we can be successful only by divine aid. Our finite will must be brought into submission to the will of the Infinite; the human will must be blended with the divine. This will bring the Holy Spirit to our aid; and every conquest will tend to the recovery of God's purchased possession, to the restoration of His image in the soul.
YRP	344	3	The Lord Jesus acts through the Holy Spirit; for it is His representative. Through it He infuses spiritual life into the soul, quickening its energies for good, cleansing it from moral defilement, and giving it a fitness for His kingdom. Jesus has large blessings to bestow, rich gifts to distribute among men. He is the wonderful Counselor, infinite in wisdom and strength; and if we will acknowledge the power of His Spirit, and submit to be molded by it, we shall stand complete in Him. What a thought is this! In Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him" (Colossians 2:9, 10).
YRP	344	4	Never will the human heart know happiness until it is submitted to be molded by the Spirit of God. The Spirit conforms the renewed soul to the model, Jesus Christ. Through the influence of the Spirit, enmity against God is changed into faith and love, and pride into humility. The soul perceives the beauty of truth, and Christ is honored in excellence and perfection of character. As these changes are effected, angels break out in rapturous song, and God and Christ rejoice over souls fashioned after the divine similitude.--The Review and Herald, February 10, 1903.
------------------------Soldiers for Christ, December 2
YRP	345	1	Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:13-17.
YRP	345	2	Soldiers engaged in battle have to meet difficulties and hardships. Coarse food is given them, and that often in limited quantities. They have long marches, day by day, over rough roads and under burning suns, camping out at night, sleeping on the bare ground, with only the canopy of heaven for a covering, exposed to drenching rains and chilling frosts, hungry, faint, exhausted, now standing as a target for the foe, now in deadly encounter. Thus they learn what hardship means. Those who enlist in Christ's army are also expected to do difficult work, and to bear painful trials patiently for Christ's sake. But those who suffer with Him shall also reign with Him.
YRP	345	3	Then who of us have entered the service to expect the conveniences of life, to be off duty when we please, laying aside the soldier's armor and putting on the civilian's dress, sleeping at the post of duty, and so exposing the cause of God to reproach? The ease-loving ones will not practice self-denial and patient endurance; and when men are wanted to make mighty strokes for God, these are not ready to answer, "Here am I; send me." Hard and trying work has to be done, but blessed are those who are ready to do it when their names are called. God will not reward men and women in the next world for seeking to be comfortable in this.
YRP	345	4	We are now on the battlefield. There is no time for resting, no time for ease, no time for selfish indulgence. After gaining one advantage, you must do battle again; you must go on conquering and to conquer, gathering fresh strength for fresh struggles. Every victory gained gives an increase of courage, faith, and determination. Through divine strength you will prove more than a match for your enemies.--The Signs of the Times, September 7, 1891.
------------------------Happiness in Serving Our Captain, December 3
YRP	346	1	Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12.
YRP	346	2	In earnest, determined exercise as faithful soldiers, obeying the orders of the Captain of our salvation, there is genuine enjoyment such as can be obtained in no other employment. The peace of Christ will be in the heart of the faithful soldier. There is rest for the soul in wearing Christ's yoke, in lifting Christ's burdens. It seems a contradiction to say that there is no rest for the soul except that which is found in continuous and devoted service. But this is true. Happiness comes in willing, obedient service, where all the powers of our being are moving in happy, healthy, harmonious action in obeying our Captain's orders. The more responsible the task assigned to Christ's soldiers, the more the soul exults in the Saviour's love and approval. The soul realizes a freedom in the performance of the weightiest and most taxing duties.
YRP	346	3	But this doing the duty of a soldier means work. It is not always just such work as we would choose. Outward inconveniences, difficulties, and trials have to be borne by the soldiers of Jesus. There is a constant warfare to be maintained against the evils and inclinations of our own natural hearts. We must not pick and choose the work most agreeable to us; for we are Christ's soldiers, under His discipline, and we are not to study our own pleasure. We must fight the battles of the Lord manfully. We have enemies to conquer that would gain the control of all our powers.
YRP	346	4	Self-will in us must die; Christ's will alone must be obeyed. The soldier in Christ's army must learn to endure hardness, deny self, take up the cross, and follow where his Captain leads the way. There are many things to do which are trying to human nature, and painful to flesh and blood. This work of self-subduing requires determined, continuous effort. In fighting the good fight of faith, obtaining precious victories, we are laying hold of eternal life.--The Youth's Instructor, December 22, 1886.
------------------------Trials and Opposition Bring Benefit, December 4
YRP	347	1	Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:12, 13.
YRP	347	2	The opposition we meet may prove a benefit to us in many ways. If it is well borne, it will develop virtues which would never have appeared if the Christian had nothing to endure. And faith, patience, forbearance, heavenly mindedness, trust in Providence, and genuine sympathy with the erring, are the results of trial well borne. These are the graces of the Spirit, which bud, blossom, and bear fruit amid trials and adversity. Meekness, humility, and love always grow on the Christian tree. If the word is received into good and honest hearts, the obdurate soul will be subdued, and faith, grasping the promises, and relying upon Jesus, will prove triumphant. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4).
YRP	347	3	He who opens the Scriptures, and feeds upon the heavenly manna, becomes a partaker of the divine nature. He has no life or experience apart from Christ. He hears the voice of God speaking from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). That voice is assurance to him that he is accepted in the Beloved. And he knows that in character he must be like Him with whom God is well pleased. God has fully accepted Christ as our substitute, our surety; then let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from all iniquity, and be one with Christ in character, that Jesus may not be ashamed to call us brethren.
YRP	347	4	He in whom we trust has proved Himself a present help in every time of need; and as we dwell with Him, we grow more and more into His image. "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory [which means from character to character] even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).--The Review and Herald, June 28, 1892.
------------------------The Enemy Does Not Give Up Easily, December 5
YRP	348	1	Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. Revelation 12:12.
YRP	348	2	Those who consecrate their all to God will not be left unmolested by the enemy of souls. Satan will come to them with his specious temptations, designing to allure them from their loyalty to God. He will present to them his bribe, as he did to Christ in the wilderness of temptation, saying, "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me" (Matthew 4:9).
YRP	348	3	But what should be the answer of the Christian to all the temptations of the evil one? He should say, "I will not lend my influence in any way to the advancement of anything save the cause of Christ. I am not my own; I have been bought with a price. I am not to live to please myself; for I have been purchased, ransomed by the blood of Christ. It is not possible for me to give to Christ more than that which belongs to Him; for every moment of my life belongs to Him. I am His possession, a servant employed to do the will of my Master."
YRP	348	4	This is the only position that is safe for us to occupy; and if the individual members of the church felt in this way, what a power would the church exert to draw and win souls to Christ. It is this halfhearted work, the effort to serve God and the devil at the same time, that leaves the church so destitute of the Spirit of God.
YRP	348	5	Were the members of the church consecrated to God, were they in the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace, were they organized for the purpose of imparting to others an influence of good, the church would be indeed the light of the world. Should the individual members seek to represent Christ to the world in character and life, thousands would be attracted to the Saviour, who now have reason to criticize the words and works of those who profess the name of Christ.
YRP	348	6	"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (2 Corinthians 4:6, 7).--Home Missionary, October 1, 1892, par. 3.
------------------------Uncovering the Enemy's Devices, December 6
YRP	349	1	Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Ephesians 6:10.
YRP	349	2	As a people, we are looking for the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven; and how carefully should we examine our hearts that we may know whether or not we are in the faith. There seems to be a mist before the eyes of many, for they fail to discern spiritual things, and do not recognize the workings of Satan to entrap their souls. Christians are not to be the slaves of passion; they are to be controlled by the Spirit of God. But many become the sport of the enemy, because when temptation come, they do not rest in Jesus, but worry themselves out of His arms, and in perplexity lose all their faith and courage. They do not remember that Jesus has helped them out of difficulties in the past, that His grace is sufficient for the daily trials, and that He can help in the present trouble.
YRP	349	3	We make failures in our little, daily difficulties, and allow them to irritate and vex us; we fall under them, and so make stumbling blocks for ourselves and others. But blessings of the greatest importance are to result from the patient endurance of these daily vexations; for we are to gain strength to bear greater difficulties. Satan will press upon us the most severe temptations, and we must learn to come to God in any and every emergency....
YRP	349	4	We profess to be Bible Christians, and we are not left in the dark to take step after step in uncertainty. We are to know where we are going. We cannot be in darkness if we are following Christ as our leader; for He says, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). When the way seems beset with difficulty, and clouded with darkness, we must believe that there is light ahead, and not turn to the right or left, but press forward, notwithstanding all our trials and temptations.--The Review and Herald, May 19, 1891.
------------------------Not in "My Own Way," December 7, December 7
YRP	350	1	For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8:15.
YRP	350	2	The work of sanctification begins in the heart, and we must come into such a relation with God, that Jesus can put His divine mold upon us. We must be emptied of self in order to give room to Jesus, but how many have their hearts so filled with idols that they have no room for the Redeemer of the world. The world holds the hearts of men in captivity. They center their thoughts and affections upon their business, their position, their family. They hold to their opinions and ways, and cherish them as idols in the soul; but we cannot afford to yield ourselves to the service of self, holding to our own ways and ideas, and excluding the truth of God.
YRP	350	3	We must be emptied of self. But this is not all that is required; for when we have renounced our idols, the vacuum must be supplied. If the heart is left desolate, and the vacuum not supplied, it will be in the condition of him whose house was "empty, swept, and garnished" (Matthew 12:44), but without a guest to occupy it. The evil spirit took unto himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they entered in and dwelt there; and the last state of that man was worse than the first....
YRP	350	4	You may feel that you cannot meet the approval of heaven. You may say, "I was born with a natural tendency toward this evil, and I cannot overcome." But every provision has been made by our heavenly Father whereby you may be able to overcome every unholy tendency. You are to overcome even as Christ overcame in your behalf. He says, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Revelation 3:21). It was sin that imperiled the human family; and before man was created the provision was made that if man failed to bear the test, Jesus would become his sacrifice and surety, that through faith in Him, man might be reconciled to God, for Christ was the Lamb "slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). Christ died on Calvary that man might have power to overcome his natural tendencies to sin.
YRP	350	5	But one says, "Can I not have my own way, and act myself?" No, you cannot have your way, and enter the kingdom of heaven. No "my way" will be there. No human ways will find place in the kingdom of heaven. Our ways must be lost in God's ways.--The Review and Herald, February 23, 1892.
------------------------Prayer Brings Strength, December 8
YRP	351	1	For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John 5:4.
YRP	351	2	While Jesus, our Intercessor, pleads for us in heaven, the Holy Spirit works in us, to will and to do of His good pleasure. All heaven is interested in the salvation of the soul. Then what reason have we to doubt that the Lord will and does help us? We who teach the people must ourselves have a vital connection with God. In Spirit and Word we should be to the people as a wellspring, because Christ is in us a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. Sorrow and pain may test our patience and our faith; but the brightness of the presence of the Unseen is with us, and we must hide self behind Jesus.
YRP	351	3	Talk courage to the church; lift them up to God in prayer. Tell them that when they feel that they have sinned, and cannot pray, it is then the time to pray. Many feel humiliated at their failures, that they have been overcome by the enemy in the place of overcoming. Worldliness, selfishness, and carnality have weakened them, and they think it is no use to approach unto God; but this thought is one of the enemy's suggestions. Ashamed they may be, and deeply humbled; but they must pray and believe. As they confess their sins, He who is faithful and just will forgive them their sins, and cleanse them from all unrighteousness (see 1 John 1:9). Though the mind may wander in prayer, be not discouraged, bring it back to the throne, and do not leave the mercy seat until you have the victory.
YRP	351	4	Are you to think your victory will be testified by strong emotion? No; "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4). The Lord knows your desire; by faith keep close to Him, and expect to receive the Holy Spirit.
YRP	351	5	The office of the Holy Spirit is to control all our spiritual exercises. The Father has given His Son for us that through the Son the Holy Spirit might come to us, and lead us unto the Father. Through divine agency, we have the spirit of intercession, whereby we may plead with God, as a man pleadeth with his friend.--The Signs of the Times, October 3, 1892.
------------------------There Is Always an Open Door, December 9
YRP	352	1	I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Revelation 3:8.
YRP	352	2	Those who shall be overcomers are to be highly exalted before God and before His angels. Christ has promised that He will confess their names before His Father and before the holy angels of heaven. He has given us abundant promises to encourage us to be overcomers. The True Witness has given us the assurance that He has set before us an open door, which no man can shut.
YRP	352	3	Those who are seeking to be faithful to God may be denied many of the privileges of the world; their way may be hedged up and their work hindered by the enemies of truth; but there is no power that can close the door of communication between God and their souls. The Christian himself may close this door by indulgence in sin, or by rejection of heaven's light. He may turn away his ears from hearing the message of truth, and in this way sever the connection between God and his soul.
YRP	352	4	You may have ears, and not hear. You may have eyes, and not see the light, nor receive the illumination that God has provided for you. You may close the door to light as effectually as the Pharisees closed the door to Christ when He taught among them. They would not receive the light and knowledge He brought, because it did not come in the way they had expected it to come. Christ was the Light of the world, and if they had received the light He graciously brought to them, it would have resulted in their salvation, but they rejected the Holy One of Israel.
YRP	352	5	Christ said of them that they "loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved" (John 3:19, 20). He said, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life" (John 5:40). The way was open; but by their own course of action they closed the door, and severed their connection with Christ. We may do the same by rejecting light and truth.--The Review and Herald, March 26, 1889.
------------------------Looking for a Daily Victory, December 10
YRP	353	1	Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 1 Corinthians 9:24, 25.
YRP	353	2	How many years have we been in the Lord's garden? And what profit have we brought to the Master? How are we meeting the inspecting eye of God? Are we increasing in reverence, love, humility, confidence in God? Do we cherish gratitude for all His mercies? Are we seeking to bless those around us? Do we manifest the spirit of Jesus in our families? Are we teaching His Word to our children, and making known to them the wonderful works of God? The Christian must represent Jesus by both being good and doing good. Then there will be a fragrance about the life, a loveliness of character, which will reveal the fact that he is a child of God, an heir of heaven.
YRP	353	3	Brethren, be no longer slothful servants. Every soul must battle against inclination. Christ came not to save men in their sins, but from their sins. He has made it possible for us to possess a holy character; do not, then, be content with defects and deformities. But while we are to seek earnestly for perfection of character, we must remember that sanctification is not the work of a moment, but of a lifetime. Said Paul, "I die daily" (1 Corinthians 15:31). Day by day the work of overcoming must go forward. Every day we are to resist temptation, and gain the victory over selfishness in all its forms.
YRP	353	4	Day by day we should cherish love and humility, and cultivate in ourselves all those excellencies of character which will please God and fit us for the blessed society of heaven. To all who are seeking to accomplish this work, the promise is very precious, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels" (Revelation 3:5).--Historical Sketches, 181.
------------------------Each Victory Makes the Following Easier, December 11
YRP	354	1	Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Romans 8:37.
YRP	354	2	The work is before you to improve the remnant of your life in reforming and elevating the character. A new life begins in the renewed soul. Christ is the indwelling Saviour. That which may be regarded as hard to give up must be yielded. The overbearing, dictatorial word must be left unspoken; then a precious victory will be gained.
YRP	354	3	True happiness will be the result of every self-denial, every crucifixion of self. One victory won, the next is more easily gained. Had Moses neglected the opportunities and privileges granted him of God, he would have neglected the light from heaven and would have been a disappointed, miserable man. Sin is from beneath; and when it is indulged, Satan is enshrined in the soul, there to kindle the very fires of hell. God has not given His law to prevent the salvation of souls, but He wants all to be saved. Man has light and opportunities, and if he will improve them he may overcome. You may show by your life the power of the grace of God in overcoming.
YRP	354	4	Satan is trying to set up his throne in the soul-temple. When he reigns he makes himself heard and felt in angry passions, in words of bitterness that grieve and wound; but as light has no communion with darkness, and Christ no union with Belial, the man must be wholly for one or the other. In yielding to self-indulgence, avarice, deception, fraud, or sin of any kind, he encourages the principles of Satan in his soul and closes the door of heaven to himself. Because of sin, Satan was thrust out of heaven; and no man indulging and fostering sin can go to heaven, for then Satan would again have a foothold there.
YRP	354	5	When a man is earnestly engaged day by day in overcoming the defects in his character, he is cherishing Christ in his soul-temple; the light of Christ is in him. Under the bright beams of the light of Christ's countenance his entire being becomes elevated and ennobled.--Testimonies for the Church 4:345, 346.
------------------------Supernatural Strength Promised, December 12
YRP	355	1	There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1.
YRP	355	2	The Holy Spirit was promised to be with those who were wrestling for victory, demonstrating the power of might by endowing the human agent with supernatural strength, and instructing the ignorant in the mysteries of the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit is to be our helper. Of what avail would it have been to us that the only-begotten Son of God had humbled Himself, endured the temptations of the wily foe, and wrestled with him during His entire life on earth, and died, the just for the unjust, that humanity might not perish, if the Spirit had not been given as a constant working, regenerating agent to make effectual in our cases what had been wrought by the world's Redeemer?
YRP	355	3	The Holy Spirit implanted in the disciples enabled them to stand firmly against idolatry, and to exalt the Lord alone.
YRP	355	4	The Holy Spirit guided the pens of the sacred historians that the record of the precious words and works of Christ might be presented to the world. The Holy Spirit is constantly at work seeking to draw the attention of men to the great sacrifice made upon the cross of Calvary, to unfold to the world the love of God to man, and to open to the convicted soul the precious promises in the Scriptures.
YRP	355	5	It is the Holy Spirit that brings to the darkened minds the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness. It is the Holy Spirit that makes men's hearts burn within them with an awakened intelligence of the truths of eternity. It is the Holy Spirit that presents before the mind the moral standard of righteousness and convinces of sin. It is the Holy Spirit that produces godly sorrow which worketh repentance that needeth not to be repented of, and inspires faith in Him who alone can save from all sin. It is the Holy Spirit that works to transform character by withdrawing the affections of men from those things which are temporal and perishable, and fixing them upon the immortal inheritance, the eternal substance which is imperishable. The Holy Spirit re-creates, refines, and sanctifies the human agents, that they may become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King.--The Signs of the Times, April 17, 1893.
------------------------Closer to Jesus, December 13
YRP	356	1	Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. James 4:7, 8.
YRP	356	2	When temptation comes upon us, we need spiritual discernment, that we may detect Satan's agency, and draw close to Jesus. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Every moment it is necessary to fight the good fight of faith; for doubt must be resisted, and faith must be encouraged. In temptation, inclination must be overruled by reason. Self will clamor for indulgence, but inclination must be resisted, and temptation overcome.
YRP	356	3	The Lord has given warnings, He has presented principles that it is necessary for every Christian to heed, and bring into his practical life. Those who pass on in indifference to the light and warning which God has been pleased to give will grow more and more egotistical and self-sufficient. Those who do not place their dependence upon God will certainly be overthrown by the enemy. Satan is working by every conceivable device to keep in his own ranks those who claim to be on the Lord's side. He can blind their eyes until they will call light darkness, and darkness light....
YRP	356	4	Though the light of God is shining in more distinct rays than ever before, and will shine more and more clearly as we near the close of earth's history, those who will be able to discern truth from error will be men who are often upon their knees, seeking wisdom from God. The bright beams of the Sun of righteousness can alone reveal the numerous and varied plottings of the enemy. The wicked one is at work with all deceivableness of unrighteousness; and while we are not to keep our eyes upon the powers of darkness, we cannot be ignorant of their devices.
YRP	356	5	But our faith must center in Jesus Christ. Looking unto Him, clinging to His strength as sufficient for every emergency, our heart joins His heart, our life is knit by hidden links to His life, and because He lives, we shall live also. This is practical religion; for we are to be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. No one of us can be safe save as we join the Lord in a perpetual covenant, that shall not be forgotten by us.--The Review and Herald, March 14, 1893.
------------------------Victory Brings Joy to Heaven, December 14
YRP	357	1	I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Luke 15:7.
YRP	357	2	Satanic agencies are always warring for the mastery over the human mind, but the angels of God are constantly at work, strengthening the weak hands and confirming the feeble knees of all who call upon God for help. The promise to every child of God is, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened" (Matthew 7:8)....
YRP	357	3	The Lord has had true-hearted men and women, those who have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice. They have not swerved from their integrity. They have kept themselves unspotted from the world, and they have been led by the Light of life to defeat the purposes of the wily foe. Will human beings now act their part in resisting the devil? If they will do this, he will surely flee from them. Angels, who will do for you what you cannot do for yourselves, are waiting for your cooperation. They are waiting for you to respond to the drawing of Christ. Draw nigh to God and to one another. By desire, by silent prayer, by resistance of satanic agencies, put your will on the side of God's will. While you have one desire to resist the devil, and sincerely pray, Deliver me from temptation, you will have strength for your day.
YRP	357	4	It is the work of the heavenly angels to come close to the tried, the tempted, the suffering ones. They labor long and untiringly to save the souls for whom Christ has died. And when souls appreciate their advantages, appreciate the heavenly assistance sent them, respond to the Holy Spirit's working on their behalf; when they put their will on the side of Christ's will, angels bear the tidings heavenward. Returning to the heavenly courts, they report their success with the souls for whom they have ministered, and there is rejoicing among the heavenly host.--The Review and Herald, July 4, 1899.
------------------------Nothing More Invincible, December 15
YRP	358	1	But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57.
YRP	358	2	The Christian life is a life of constant conflict. It is a battle and a march. Every act of obedience, every deed of self-denial, every trial bravely endured, every temptation resisted, every victory gained, is a step forward in the march to eternal triumph.
YRP	358	3	There is hope for man. Christ says, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Revelation 3:21). But let us never forget that the efforts we make in our own strength are utterly worthless. Our strength is weakness; our judgment foolishness. Only in the name and strength of our Conqueror can we conquer. When we are pressed with temptation, when un-christlike desires clamor for the mastery, let us offer fervent, importunate prayer to the heavenly Father, in the name of Christ. This will bring divine aid. In the Redeemer's name we may gain the victory.
YRP	358	4	As, seeing the sinfulness of sin, we fall helpless before the cross, asking forgiveness and strength, our prayer is heard and answered. Those who present their petitions to God in Christ's name will never be turned away. The Lord says, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). "He will regard the prayer of the destitute" (Psalm 102:17). Our help comes from Him who holds all things in His hands. The peace that He sends is the assurance of His love to us.
YRP	358	5	Nothing can be more helpless and yet more invincible than the soul that feel its nothingness, and relies wholly upon the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour. God would send every angel in heaven to the aid of the one who places his whole dependence on Christ, rather than allow him to be overcome.
YRP	358	6	If we accept Christ as our Guide, He will lead us safely along the narrow way. The road may be rough and thorny, and the ascent steep and dangerous; there may be pitfalls on the right hand and on the left. When weary and longing for rest, we may have to toil on; when faint, we may have to fight; but with Christ as our guide, we shall not fail of reaching heaven.--The Signs of the Times, October 29, 1902.
------------------------A Brand Plucked Out of the Fire, December 16
YRP	359	1	And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Zechariah 3:2.
YRP	359	2	Jesus speaks of His people as a brand plucked out of the fire, and Satan understands what this means. The infinite sufferings of the Son of God in Gethsemane and on Calvary were endured that He might rescue His people from the power of the evil one. The work of Jesus for the salvation of perishing souls is as if He thrust His hand into the fire to save them. Joshua, who represents God's people, is clothed in filthy garments, and stands before the angel; but as the people repent before God for the transgression of His law, and reach up by the hand of faith to lay hold on the righteousness of Christ, Jesus says, "Take away the filthy garments from them, and clothe them with change of raiment" (see Zechariah 3:4).
YRP	359	3	It is through Christ's righteousness alone that we are enabled to keep the law. Those who worship God in sincerity and truth, and afflict their souls before Him as in the great day of atonement, will wash their robes of character and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. Satan seeks to bind about the human mind with deception, so that men will not repent and believe, that they may have their filthy garments removed. Why will you cling to your miserable defects of character, and by so doing bar the way, that Jesus may not work in your behalf?
YRP	359	4	During the time of trouble, the position of God's people will be similar to the position of Joshua. They will not be ignorant of the work going on in heaven in their behalf. They will realize that sin is recorded against their names, but they will also know that the sins of all who repent and lay hold of the merits of Christ will be canceled.... Those who have manifested true repentance for sin, and by living faith in Christ are obedient to God's commandments, will have their names retained in the book of life, and they will be confessed before the Father and before the holy angels. Jesus will say, "They are mine; I have purchased them with my own blood."--The Signs of the Times, June 2, 1890.
------------------------Victory on the Battlefield, December 17
YRP	360	1	I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. John 17:14, 15.
YRP	360	2	The Christian has duties to do in the world, and God holds him responsible for their faithful performance. He is not to confine himself in monastic walls, nor to avoid all association with worldlings. It is true that his principles will be put to the severest test, and he will be pained by what his eyes see and his ears hear. But he must not, by becoming familiar with these sights and sounds, learn to love them. By association with the world, we incline to catch the spirit of the world, and to adopt their customs, tastes, and preferences. But we are commanded, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters" (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18).
YRP	360	3	Never let the world say that worldlings and Christ's followers are alike in their tastes and pursuits; for God has drawn a line between His people and the world. This line of demarcation is broad and deep and clear; it is not so blended with the world that it is not discernible. "The Lord knoweth them that are his" (2 Timothy 2:19). "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20).
YRP	360	4	It is only by watching unto prayer, and the exercise of living faith, that the Christian can preserve his integrity in the midst of the temptations that Satan brings to bear upon him. But "whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4). Talk to your heart constantly the language of faith:"Jesus said He would receive me, and I believe His word. I will praise Him; I will glorify His name." Satan will be close by your side to suggest that you do not feel any joy. Answer him, "'This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.' I have everything to be glad of; for I am a child of God. I am trusting in Jesus. The law of God is in my heart; none of my steps shall slide."--The Signs of the Times, May 15, 1884.
------------------------Eating of the Tree of Life, December 18
YRP	361	1	He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7.
YRP	361	2	This message concerns all our churches. You can never employ your faculty of hearing better than in hearkening to hear what the voice of God speaks to you in His Word. There is a rich and abundant promise to those who overcome. It is not enough to enter upon this warfare, we must pursue it to the end. We must know nothing of yielding. We must fight the good fight of faith to the very end. To the overcomer is promised the triumphal victory. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Whatever was lost in the fall of Adam is more than restored in redemption. He that sitteth on the throne saith, "Behold, I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5).
YRP	361	3	Let us look closely and critically to ourselves. Are not the vows we entered into at our baptism violated? Are we dead to the world and alive unto Christ? Are we seeking those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God? Is the cable cut which anchored us to the eternal Rock? Are we drifting with the current to perdition? Shall we make no effort to press and urge our passage upstream? Let us not hesitate longer, but vigorously apply the oars; and let us do our first works ere we make hopeless shipwreck.
YRP	361	4	It is our work to know our special failings and sins, which cause darkness and spiritual feebleness, and quenched our first love. Is it worldliness? Is it selfishness? Is it the love of self-esteem? Is it striving to be first? Is it the sin of sensuality that is intensely active? Is it the sin of the Nicolaitans, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness? Is it the misuse and abuse of great light and opportunities and privileges, making boasted claims to wisdom and religious knowledge, while the life and character are inconsistent and immoral? Whatever it is that has been petted and cultivated until it has become strong and overmastering, make determined efforts to overcome, else you will be lost.--The Review and Herald, June 7, 1887.
------------------------Wearing the Victor's Crown, December 19
YRP	362	1	He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. Revelation 2:11.
YRP	362	2	The words, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches" are repeated after these promises, weighty with importance to the children of God. It is for our eternal interest to know and understand what the Spirit saith unto the churches, and we should search carefully for light and knowledge that we may not be in ignorance of what God has commanded and promised in His precious Word. We have souls to be saved or lost, and with the greatest earnestness we should inquire, "What shall I do in order to obtain eternal life?" At the best, life is but short, and it is necessary that we should live this short life in harmony with the law of God, which is the law of the universe. We must have ears to hear, and hearts to understand, what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
YRP	362	3	The angels of God attain unto no higher knowledge than to know the will of God; and it is their greatest delight to accomplish the perfect will of the heavenly Father. Fallen man has the privilege of becoming intelligent in regard to the will of God. While probationary time is granted us, we should put our faculties to the very highest use, that we may make of ourselves all that it is possible; and while we endeavor to reach a high standard of intelligence, we should feel our dependence upon God, for without His grace, our efforts cannot bring lasting benefit. It is through the grace of Christ that we are to be overcomers; through the merits of His blood we are to be of that number whose names will not be blotted out of the book of life.
YRP	362	4	Those who are final overcomers will have the life that runs parallel with the life of God, and wear the crown of the victor. When such great and eternal reward awaits us, we should run the race with patience, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.--The Signs of the Times, June 15, 1891.
------------------------Walking With Him in White, December 20
YRP	363	1	Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. Revelation 3:4.
YRP	363	2	Thank God, He can keep His people in a place where they shall not defile their garments. If we submit to Christ, we shall be kept unspotted from the world. "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning" (Hosea 6:3). We are to follow on. We are not to rest content with the capabilities and the knowledge of today. All the inhabitants of the universe are watching, as in these last days God is preparing a people to stand in the judgment. Let us ask God to clothe us with the robe of Christ's righteousness, that we may be prepared for the coming of the Son of man.
YRP	363	3	Of those who have not defiled their garments, Christ says, "They shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy." Through infinite sacrifice made in our behalf, we may have an abundance of grace. God has a whole heaven full for us. All He asks is that by living faith we receive His promises, saying: "I do believe. I do accept the blessings which Thou hast for those who love Thee."
YRP	363	4	"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not"--oh, how precious is that "not"!--"I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels" (Revelation 3:5). When the gates of the city of God swing back on their glittering hinges, and the nations who have kept the truth shall enter in, Christ will be there to welcome us, to call us the blessed of the Father, because we have overcome. He will welcome us before the Father, and before His angels. As we enter the kingdom of God, there to spend eternity, the trials and the difficulties and the perplexities that we have had here will sink into insignificance. Our life will measure with the life of God.--The General Conference Bulletin, April 6, 1903.
------------------------Having Our Names in the Book of Life, December 21
YRP	364	1	He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Revelation 3:5.
YRP	364	2	The expression "he that overcometh" indicates that there is something for every one of us to overcome. The overcomer is to be clothed in the white raiment of Christ's righteousness, and of Him it is written: "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." Oh, what a privilege it is to be an overcomer, and to have our names presented before the Father by the Saviour Himself! And when, as overcomers, we shall be "clothed in white raiment," the Lord will acknowledge our faithfulness as verily as in the days of the early Christian church. He acknowledged the "few names even in Sardis" who had "not defiled their garments" (Revelation 3:4); and we shall walk with Him in white, for through His atoning sacrifice we shall be accounted worthy.
YRP	364	3	My dear friends, in view of these encouraging promises, how earnestly should we strive to perfect a character that will enable us to stand before the Son of God! Only those who are clothed in the garments of His righteousness will be able to endure the glory of His presence when He shall appear with "power and great glory."
YRP	364	4	It means much to be an overcomer. The besetments of the enemy and all his evil agencies must be firmly resisted. Every moment we must be on guard. Not for one instant are we to lose sight of Christ, and of His power to save in the hour of trial. Our hand must be placed in His, that we may be upheld by the power of His might....
YRP	364	5	The True Witness declares: "Behold, I have set before thee an open door" (verse 8). Let us thank God with heart and soul and voice; and let us learn to approach unto Him as through an open door, believing that we may come freely with our petitions, and that He will hear and answer. It is by a living faith in His power to help, that we shall receive strength to fight the battles of the Lord with the confident assurance of victory.--The Review and Herald, July 9, 1908.
------------------------Kept Safe in the Hour of Temptation, December 22
YRP	365	1	Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Revelation 3:10.
YRP	365	2	A battle is continually going on between the forces for good and the forces for evil, between the angels of God and the fallen angels. We are beset before and behind, on the right hand and on the left. The conflict that we are passing through is the last we shall have in this world. We are now in the midst of it. Two parties are striving for the supremacy. In this conflict we cannot be neutral. We must stand either on one side or on the other. If we take our position on the side of Christ, if we acknowledge Him before the world in word and work, we are bearing a living testimony as to whom we have chosen to serve and honor. In this important period of earth's history, we cannot afford to leave anyone in uncertainty as to whose side we are on....
YRP	365	3	"Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." In this scripture is brought to view the hour of temptation that is to try them that dwell upon the earth. We are now living in this trying hour. There is no escape for any from this conflict. If in your life there are defective traits of character that you are not striving to overcome, you may be assured that the enemy will endeavor to take advantage of them; for he is watching vigilantly, seeking to spoil the faith of everyone.
YRP	365	4	In order to gain the victory over every besetment of the enemy, we must lay hold on a power that is out of and beyond ourselves. We must maintain a constant, living connection with Christ, who has power to give victory to every soul that will maintain an attitude of faith and humility. If we are self-sufficient, and think that we may go on just as we please, and yet hope to come out on the right side finally, we shall find that we have made a terrible mistake. As those who hope to receive the overcomer's reward, we must press forward in the Christian warfare, though at every advance we meet with opposition.--The Review and Herald, July 9, 1908.
------------------------A Pillar in God's Temple, December 23
YRP	366	1	Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. Revelation 3:12.
YRP	366	2	It may seem wonderful to us that Christ should reveal Himself to John as He is, strange that He should thus address Himself to the churches. But we should remember that the church, enfeebled and defective though it is, is the object of Christ's supreme regard. Constantly He watches over it with tender solicitude, and strengthens it by His Holy Spirit. Will we, as members of His church, allow Him to impress our minds and to work through us to His glory? Will we heed the messages He addresses to the church? Let us determine to be among the number who shall meet Him with joy at His coming, and not among those who "shall wail because of him" (Revelation 1:7). Let us make certain our redemption by obeying the messages that He gives to His church.
YRP	366	3	Christ bears to the church the words of consolation: "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name" (Revelation 3:10-12).
YRP	366	4	Let us strive to obtain an abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord. Let us diligently study the gospel that Christ came in person to present to John on the Isle of Patmos--the gospel that is termed "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass" (Revelation 1:1). Let us remember always that "blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand" (verse 3).--Signs of the Times, February 4, 1903.
------------------------A Seat Upon His Throne, December 24
YRP	367	1	To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Revelation 3:21.
YRP	367	2	We can overcome. Yes; fully, entirely. Jesus died to make a way of escape for us, that we might overcome every fault, resist every temptation, and sit down at last with Him in His throne.
YRP	367	3	It is our privilege to have faith and salvation. The power of God has not decreased. It would be just as freely bestowed now as formerly; but the church have lost their faith to claim, their energy to wrestle, as did Jacob, crying, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me" (Genesis 32:26). Enduring faith has been dying away. It must be revived in the hearts of God's people. They must claim the blessing. Faith, living faith, always leads upward to God and glory; unbelief, downward to darkness and death.
YRP	367	4	Many are so absorbed in their worldly cares and perplexities that they have little time to pray, and feel but little interest in prayer. They may observe the form of worship, but the spirit of true supplication is lacking. Such have departed widely from the Pattern. Jesus our example was much in prayer; and oh, how earnest, how fervent were His petitions! If He, the beloved Son of God, was moved to such earnestness, such agony, in our behalf, how much more need that we, who are dependent upon Heaven for all our strength, have our whole souls stirred to wrestle with God.
YRP	367	5	We should not be satisfied until every known sin is confessed, then it is our privilege and duty to believe that God accepts us. We must not wait for others to press through the darkness and obtain the victory for us to enjoy. Such enjoyment will not be lasting. God must be served from principle instead of from feeling. Morning and evening we should obtain the victory for ourselves, in our own families. Our daily labor should not keep us from this. We must take time to pray, and as we pray, believe that God hears us. We may not at all times feel the immediate answer, but then it is that faith is tried. We are proved to see whether we will trust in God, whether we have living, abiding faith.--The Review and Herald, September 4, 1883.
------------------------Victory Through Christ, December 25
YRP	368	1	Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Hebrews 2:14, 15.
YRP	368	2	The fall of man filled all heaven with sorrow, and the heart of Jesus was moved with infinite compassion for the lost world, the ruined race. He beheld man plunged in sin and misery, and knew that he had not moral power to overcome in his own behalf the power of his unsleeping enemy. In divine love and pity He came to earth to fight our battles for us; for He alone could conquer the adversary. He came to unite man with God, to impart divine strength to the repenting soul, and from the manger to Calvary to pass over the path which man would travel, at every step giving man a perfect example of what he should do, presenting in His character what humanity might become when united with divinity.
YRP	368	3	But many say that Jesus was not like us, that He was not as we are in the world, that He was divine, and therefore we cannot overcome as He overcame. But this is not true; "for verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.... For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted" (Hebrews 2:16-18). Christ knows the sinner's trials; He knows his temptations. He took upon Himself our nature; He was tempted in all points like as we are. He has wept, He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.
YRP	368	4	As a man He lived upon earth. As a man He ascended to heaven. As a man He is the substitute of humanity. As a man He liveth to make intercession for us. As a man He will come again with kingly power and glory to receive those who love Him, and for whom He is now preparing a place. We should rejoice and give thanks that God "hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained" (Acts 17:31).--Bible Echo, November 1, 1892, par. 6.
------------------------By the Blood of the Lamb, December 26
YRP	369	1	And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Revelation 12:11.
YRP	369	2	Let us consider the life and suffering of our precious Saviour in our behalf, and remember that if we are not willing to endure trial, toil, and conflict, if we are not willing to be partakers with Christ of His sufferings, we shall be found unworthy of a seat upon His throne.
YRP	369	3	We have everything to gain in the conflict with our mighty foe, and we dare not for a moment yield to his temptations. We know that in our own strength it is not possible for us to succeed; but as Christ humbled Himself, and took upon Himself our nature, He is acquainted with our necessities, and has Himself borne the heaviest temptations that man will have to bear, has conquered the enemy in resisting his suggestions, in order that man may learn how to be conqueror. He was clothed with a body like ours, and in every respect suffered what man will suffer, and very much more. We shall never be called upon to suffer as Christ suffered; for the sins not of one, but the sins of the whole world were laid upon Christ. He endured humiliation, reproach, suffering, and death, that we by following His example might inherit all things.
YRP	369	4	Christ is our pattern, the perfect and holy example that has been given us to follow. We can never equal the pattern; but we may imitate and resemble it according to our ability. When we fall, all helpless, suffering in consequence of our realization of the sinfulness of sin; when we humble ourselves before God, afflicting our souls by true repentance and contrition; when we offer our fervent prayers to God in the name of Christ, we shall as surely be received by the Father, as we sincerely make a complete surrender of our all to God. We should realize in our inmost soul that all our efforts in and of ourselves will be utterly worthless; for it is only in the name and strength of the Conqueror that we shall be overcomers.--The Review and Herald, February 5, 1895.
------------------------Following the Pattern, December 27
YRP	370	1	For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 1 Peter 2:21-24.
YRP	370	2	In all our afflictions Jesus was afflicted, and the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering. In this life we shall be proved to see whether or not we shall be able to bear the test of God. Satan's temptations will come upon us, and we shall be tried, but the question of most importance to us is Shall we be overcome? or shall we be overcomers? ... Like our great Example, we may be able to meet Satan with the weapon of God's Word, saying to him as he tempts us to do evil, "It is written" (Matthew 4:4).
YRP	370	3	Satan knows better than many professed Christians what is written, for he is a diligent student of the Bible, and he works to pervert the truth, and lead men into the paths of disobedience. He leads men to neglect the searching of the Word of God; for he knows that it testifies against him, that his works are evil. It describes him as the apostate angel who fell from heaven, and drew many of the hosts of heaven after him in a course of rebellion against their Creator.
YRP	370	4	Satan is seeking continually to draw away the minds of men from God and His Word. He knows that if he can cause men to neglect the Word of God, he can soon cause them to depart from its precepts, and finally to forget their Maker. They will then take the suggestions and instructions of the adversary of God and man, and evil men and evil angels will form a confederacy against the God of heaven.
YRP	370	5	Those who would be loyal to God will be subject to trials and temptations; but if they are truly alive unto God, and have their life hid with Christ in God, they will also know what it is to have the blessings which God bestows upon the faithful and obedient.--The Signs of the Times, August 28, 1893.
------------------------Victory Assured, December 28
YRP	371	1	These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33.
YRP	371	2	While on earth there will be no escape from conflicts and temptations; but in every storm we have a sure refuge. Jesus has told us, "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." The forces of Satan are marshaled against us, and we have to meet a diligent foe; but if we take heed to the admonition of Christ, we shall be safe. "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation" (Matthew 26:41). There are foes to be resisted and overcome, but Jesus is by our side, ready to strengthen us for every attack. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4).
YRP	371	3	Faith sees Jesus standing as our mediator at the right hand of God. Faith beholds the mansions that Jesus has gone to prepare for those who love Him. Faith sees the robe and the crown all prepared for the overcomer. Faith hears the song of the redeemed, and brings eternal glories near. We must come close to Jesus in loving obedience if we would see the King in His beauty.
YRP	371	4	There is peace in believing, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Believe! Believe! My soul cries, Believe! Rest in God. He is able to keep that which you have committed to Him, and will bring you off more than conqueror through Him that has loved you.
YRP	371	5	But remember that everyone who shall be found with the wedding garment on will have come out of great tribulation. The mighty surges of temptation will beat upon all. But the long night of watching, of toil, of hardship, is nearly past. Christ is soon to come. Get ready! The angels of God are seeking to attract you from yourself and from earthly things. Let them not labor in vain. Faith, living faith, is what you need; the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Remember Calvary and the awful, the infinite sacrifice there made for man. Jesus now invites you to come to Him, just as you are, and make Him your strength and your everlasting friend.--The Review and Herald, April 17, 1894.
------------------------The Church Triumphant, December 29
YRP	372	1	Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Revelation 1:7, 8.
YRP	372	2	God's way is to make the day of small things the beginning of the triumph of truth and righteousness. For this reason none need be elated by a prosperous beginning, nor cast down by apparent feebleness. God is to His people riches, fullness, and power. His purposes for His chosen people are, like the eternal hills, firm and immovable.
YRP	372	3	Remember that human might did not establish the church of God, neither can human might destroy it. From age to age the Holy Spirit is an overflowing fountain of life.... There is victory for all who strive lawfully, in perfect harmony with the law of God. They will triumph over all opposition. As they carry forward God's work in the face of all foes, they will be given the guardianship of holy angels.
YRP	372	4	Christ has pledged Himself to help all who join His army, to cooperate with Him in fighting against visible and invisible foes. He has promised that they shall be joint heirs with Him to an immortal inheritance, that they shall reign as kings and priests before God. Those who are willing to share in this life the humiliation of the Saviour will share with Him in His glory. Those who choose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season will be given a place with Christ on His throne.
YRP	372	5	Hold fast the Word of life. The tempest of opposition will spend itself by its own fury. The clamor will die away. Carry forward the Master's work bravely and cheerfully. The Father above, who watches over His chosen ones with the tenderest solicitude, will bless the efforts made in His name. His work will never cease until its completion amid the triumphant shout, "Grace, grace unto it."--The Signs of the Times, November 14, 1900.
------------------------Heirs of the King, December 30
YRP	373	1	He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Revelation 21:7.
YRP	373	2	Be not discouraged; be not fainthearted. Although you may have temptations; although you may be beset by the wily foe; yet, if you have the fear of God before you, angels that excel in strength will be sent to your help, and you can be more than a match for the powers of darkness. Jesus lives. He has died to make a way of escape for the fallen race; and He lives today to make intercession for us, that we may be exalted to His own right hand. Have hope in God. The world is traveling the broad way; and as you travel in the narrow way, and have principalities and powers to contend with, and the opposition of foes to meet, remember that there is provision made for you. Help has been laid upon One that is mighty; and through Him you can conquer.
YRP	373	3	Come out from among them and be separate, says God, and I will receive you, and ye shall be sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. What a promise is this! It is a pledge to you that you shall become members of the royal family, heirs of the heavenly kingdom. If a person is honored by, or becomes connected with, any of the monarchs of earth, how it goes the rounds of the periodicals of the day, and excites the envy of those who do not think themselves so fortunate. But here is One who is king over all, the monarch of the universe, the originator of every good thing; and He says to us, I will make you My sons and daughters; I will unite you to Myself; you shall become members of the royal family, and children of the heavenly King.
YRP	373	4	And then says Paul, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1). Why should we not do this, when we have such an inducement, the privilege of becoming children of the Most High God, the privilege of calling the God of heaven our Father?--The Review and Herald, May 31, 1870.
------------------------Victorious at Last, December 31
YRP	374	1	For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Hebrews 10:37, 38.
YRP	374	2	Fellow pilgrim, we are still amid the shadows and turmoil of earthly activities; but soon our Saviour is to appear to bring deliverance and rest. Let us by faith behold the blessed hereafter, as pictured by the hand of God. He who died for the sins of the world, is opening wide the gates of Paradise to all who believe on Him. Soon the battle will have been fought, the victory won. Soon we shall see Him in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. And in His presence the trials and sufferings of this life will seem as nothingness. The former things "shall not be remembered, nor come into mind" (Isaiah 65:17). "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry" (Hebrews 10:35-37)....
YRP	374	3	Look up, look up, and let your faith continually increase. Let this faith guide you along the narrow path that leads through the gates of the city into the great beyond, the wide, unbounded future of glory that is for the redeemed. "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh" (James 5:7, 8).
YRP	374	4	The nations of the saved will know no other law than the law of heaven. All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite in proclaiming, There shall be no more sin, neither shall there be any more death.--The Review and Herald, July 1, 1915.